Beating the heat

With the blazing heat continuing outside, I have spent a bit of time knitting up some unfinished projects. I try not to have too many UFO's accumulate, but somehow they do. There is the occasional knitting project that "misbehaves" and needs a time out, mostly to allow me to become enthused about it again. As you fellow knitters know, there are any number of reasons yarn & needles get shoved into a bag in the back of the closet:  a wonky pattern, irascible yarn or simply enough, you lose interest. A little time in the dark and voila! I can face the knitting challenge again or at least, having become less invested in the project, just rip it out.

This cowl was a "lost interest" project, because the yarn was divine and the pattern was a simple four row repeat. I had bought the yarn, Classy with cashmere (70% superwash merino wool/ 20% cashmere/ 10% nylon) in the Bermuda teal color, during a moment of impulse attempting to ward off a funky mood post snowstorm this past Spring. The project started nicely, but then Spring really happened and I was outside playing in the yard all the time. Hence, about three inches of this lovely, one skein, Eyelet Lace Cowl languished in a bag in my closet for several months. (See my local yarn store at www.knitandcaboodle.com  from which I got the pattern). Well, now it's done and will be so cuddly and warm, perfect for the Fall chill. Which I so am looking forward to!

The dogs are so different in their responses to the heat. Wendy, the cocker spaniel, would just as soon stay inside and lounge in her dog bed. Emma Beagle, on the other hand, is out in the yard digging and hoping to chase a wayward cottontail rabbit. At this point, the backyard has enough significantly deep holes that we may need to do some extensive additional yard art to make it safe to walk across the lawn...

A couple of years ago we discovered Emma Beagle is very fond of digging for underground predators. Dogs generally have one of two digging styles in my experience, either large foxhole-like pits or trenching; long skinny holes. Emma is a trencher. She spent most of one day on this magnificent trench that extended about fifteen plus feet into the backyard. Rather than fill it with dirt, which probably would have been re-dug anyway, my son placed bricks in the hole. It turns out that Emma is quite an artistic trencher because we ended up with a lovely spiral in the back yard. We spray painted the bricks yellow and now possess our own "yellow brick road." Oddly enough, she has never dug another hole anywhere near these bricks, so the idea of continuing the yard art works in our favor.

Here's to keeping cool and enjoying the Summer!