Rough Day - Beautiful Evening

Yesterday was one. LD and his dog drove off, heading west for 4 months. The sudden silence in the house was palpable and all the goodbyes I've had to say this summer washed across me in cold grey waves. As I stood at the upstairs window watching him load up his car I could see the rectangle of new grass that covers Priss' grave. I can also see the sentinel pine tree the Darlings cut down a few weeks ago. It stood guard over the yurt all the years we lived in it. Even my bald eagles have flown away - abandoning their old nest as they are wont to do - to live across Jacob's Gut in a brand new high rise condo they built last spring.

Humph. I better stop this because I am making myself sad all over again. Besides, as the day wore on it got better. For one thing, I only worked half a day. The Northumberland library, across the river, was hosting Walter D Myers at 1 o'clock and I was there. He's a prolific author of children's books and the audience was about 65% kids. He gave them lots of time to ask questions and was extremely honest about his answers. It was a great afternoon.

And when I went to the store to get crab meat, though they were all out of the special - well, they were all out of all the picked crab - there were Soft Shells! Yes. We had soft shell crabs for dinner - the first this summer. Oh la, I'd forgotten how much I love those things. Yeah. It looks like a plate full of giant fried spiders - but mmm mmm. What a taste adventure. Crisp. Soft. Sweet. Salty. Every good thing about the sea. That's what soft shell crabs taste like.

And the weather. Oooo the lovely weather - just dry enough to take the oppressive out of a hot summer day - with 2 hours of thunder'n'lightening during dinner and an hour of good hard rain at bedtime. So the day ended on a sweet note and that first ache of loneliness that always comes when loved ones drive away was tempered. I miss all my dear ones but I'm ready to get going again.

And this is what I'm going on. Green Lace. This is the 5th shipment of Spirit Trail Fiberworks club yarn. The stitch pattern is from Victorian Lace Today and it is the hardest pattern to memorize. Not only that, I realized Saturday that I'd made a mistake in it way down near the bottom so I spent Sunday ripping and re-knitting. It is actually a very interesting pattern that forms circles. It's also a garter stitch lace, thank goodness, since there are Yarn Overs and Knit2Togethers on every row.

Here I've stretched the lace out a bit (hope blocking will hold when I'm done) to show the circle formation. I love how they zigzag up the cloth. There's a pretty and very lacy knitted-on border to edge it, with a wide border of fagoting and some diamonds.

And for your delectation here are pictures of the final club shipment. It's a merino/cashmere/silk blend in lace weight. I see something very delicate and web-like for wrapping around a winter coat or even wearing with a camel colored turtleneck.

Here is it all untwisted, a pile of rich color. Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it? Yum.

So. Let me begin the week again, on a better note, in a better mood. Ta.