I know, I know... it's not Saturday yet. But today IS the Summer Solstice, an important day in my calendar and the longest one of the year, and this dawn summer sky is just the right photo for the occasion.
This special moment each year, when the sun pulls both us and our plants the most, allows us to expand into our potential and to live it through the summer months, learning from expansion. The task is to grow while remaining grounded, to expand knowing that contraction is also a part of the natural rhythm of things, and to avoid becoming too airy from soaring to the heights of the sky (an example is forgetting to put on sun protection and getting sunburned, coming too close to the sun).
It is also the start of the season of swimming, hiking, eating outside, creating an outdoor sitting and knitting room, gardening, savoring the late evening sky, and many other seasonal pursuits. Living in the mountains has allowed me to say "I love summer best", because growing up in the Sacramento Valley, that just wasn't the case. The summer heat is intense there, good for tomatoes, but wilting for people. Many times, it doesn't even cool down at night! High country nights, on the other hand, often require a jacket or a campfire.
One of the summer activities I am most looking forward to is the Spin In combining members of my Foothill Fibers Guild with the Carson Valley guild, and meeting on July 8th at Anna Harvey's ranch in the Sierra Valley, one of the largest high mountain valleys in the continental U.S. We all have Sharon to thank for organizing this day long event. I have quite a bit of material to work with, and doubt that I will run out over the course of the day, but would be able to get some of Anna's fine Coopworth roving if needed. I also have some lovely pale green puffs from Kary that will probably be spindle-spun. One is from "Eunice" a Finn cross sheep and the other is a handpainted Tussah silk with some Emerald Flash angelina (these I promise to photograph in good light this weekend in order to do them justice). Spindle spinning on the porch in summer is a favorite and relaxing activity.
I am setting up a spinning retreat for a few friends at our Forest City house in August... in the meantime though, I am not sure I will be able to fit much spinning in. I have been busy taking care of our rental business and working at the yarn shop, along with my regular job. Most of the time the rental business does not demand much, but we have been through a three week spate of shifts and changes, interviewing new people and getting places ready. I am grateful for the help these rentals give my mortgage payments, but still find these periods fraught with anxiety, as we hope to be making the right choices on limited information. Soon, though, this task will be settled for another little while and I can get back to my knitting.
I have three main projects going, none of which photograph well. I just finished the fourth Manos square, a diagonal lace.
This horrid photo doesn't do justice to the yarn or the stitch pattern, merely gives you a blurry and vague idea. The squares are coming along quickly, though this one took twice as long as the others, requiring a bit more concentration so that my diagonal line would continue smoothly in the correct direction. I have two lighter colors selected, and they will be used for the openwork patterns so that the lacy effects show up strongly. The brick red and forest green will both be more useful in showing off the rib variations; I started the fifth square, a checkerboard pattern, last night in brick.
My Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell continues to grow, often providing the mindless knitting needed when at a function out in public. It's just too bad that the low light of evening tonight was my only chance to snap a picture for you! Not that there is all that much to see, just a foot-long tube of stockinette at this point! The really pretty part will be the lacework at the shoulder top/cap sleeve thingie. I am looking forward both to the knitting of that part and the wearing soon... I really should stop working on those Manos squares and get this done and wear it while the summer blossoms forth! Oh, and it really is a much nicer, clearer citron than the dingy color in this photo! I will try and get a nice photo this weekend, even though it will still be boring.
My third project is more interesting to knit, but still not very photogenic. It is a lacy blob, the Spring Things shawl, that I am just loving and looking forward to wearing, perhaps in time to attend Shakespeare up at Lake Tahoe later this summer.
I am really not as dispirited about my knitting as this post sounds. I work on at least one or two out of the three every day. It is just that the coming of the sun has pulled me to start far more than I have finished, and none of these lovely projects look that good in print! Soon, dear readers, soon, there will be something more dramatic to share with you.
Summer's pull also keeps me outside and in the garden or with the animals, away from the computer. I miss my connections with many of you, though. It is hard to keep up with all of my cyberfriends, and if you don't hear from me, it is not that I have forgotten you. I will be outside somewhere, wishing you could be there sharing the beauty with me.
I did spend some time working on Ravelry last weekend, beginning to archive my projects over the past few years. It gave me a great sense of accomplishment; I made a wider range of projects than I realized before looking at them as a whole, and I also realized that I give away as much as I keep. Sometimes, it is good to take stock.
If you haven't received an invite yet, or don't know what the fuss is about or if Ravelry is for you, I want to encourage you... I am amazed at what three people working only a few hours a day, after their regular full-time jobs, have been able to build in a few months of hard effort. I think it was worth the two months' wait from when I asked to join until I received notice... there is a lot to appeal to me about what the team has created so far.
They are attempting to create a MySpace-type of networking center that is also a personal reference tool for fiberistas (us). I can see a lot of value in this, and probably could have been paying better attention and had my photos all neatly uploaded to my Flickr site and been ready to get more into my Ravelry notebook.
Why did I decide to participate? Well, I won't be giving up blogging, but I do see this as an opportunity to create an online scrapbook/work notebook out of all the random photos and notes I have been keeping in recent years. I am a random-abstract who needs help with organizing. I also like to learn new techie bits and pieces and to stretch my brain. The learning curve is there, but it's not that tough. Then there's the fact that it is easy to see someone elses' work 'at a glance', which is very cool. I have so many creative friends! Before you make up your mind, go and take a look.