"He said, 'Bill, I believe this is killing me,'
As the smile ran away from his face..."
from Piano Man by Billy Joel


These lines have been running through my head since I awoke from a short but sound sleep a little while ago. I don't know exactly why.  I am missing dear friends and lost loved ones very badly tonight, I think.  I wonder if they know that they lie so heavily on my heart?
Ah, well, it will all be ok... :-)


I have this, though, to make me smile, and it makes me smile so wonderfully!

"Snake"

On Facebook, I captioned this:
'This is my grandson, "Snake."  He's with the band...and he thinks your granddaughter is HOT!'


And so.  I am still upright and above ground. There has been some much-needed rain.  The grass that looked so brown in this picture just a few days ago will already be greening up and ready to mow again soon.  The Climbing Blaze roses at the bakery behind my little shop are glorious in their first blossoming of the season.  The earliest of my summer flowers are out, spiderwort and lovely yellow lilies and the orange and red and pink lilies will be blooming soon.  It is, here, the most beautiful part of the summer, early June with warm days and cool nights.  
Life is good.

Lonely Socks

I have put together all of my lonely single socks and the yarn (in most cases) that I need to complete them for Ravelympics, beginning at the end of July.  These are nearly all sample socks that I knit for patterns that I designed for publication: Do the Math, City Hearts, Country Hearts, Kansas Sunflower, Indiana Leta's and Susanna's Amish Quilt Socks, Big Yellow Taxi, Crocodile Rock, Alabama Gulf Shores, North Carolina Great Smokey Mountains, Haley's Roses are all my own patterns.  For all of the state socks, there are at least two different colorways to finish, as they had already been designed and knit before Crystal Palace Yarns picked up the 50 Socks for 50 States book for publication, and they wanted the samples all re-knit in their yarns.  The Indiana socks will be a real trial, as there are THREE different colorways, two different weights of yarn, and two sizes of single socks to finish...plus they have six colors of yarn in each sock so all those ends to work in when they're done!
With Laura Andersson there are Norwegian Lace, Heather and Mist, and Treebeard.  Those were all her designs that I test-knit. 
There is the Reindeer Stocking that I tested for Cathy Hannigan, and Selbu Star and a cabled 'Death by Socks' pattern, from a couple of old Yahoo sock knitting groups.
There's a miscellaneous 'plain vanilla' pair that were started to stave off boredom and never finished.
There is an unfinished shawl in lace weight yarn, too, from my sister's stash. She'd begun it before cancer took away her ability to read.
It will be good to get at least a few of these done. In most cases I still have all the yarn I need, and in some, the needles are still in the unfinished socks.  For others, I will have to find out what I did with some of the yarn...it was pulled out to finish other projects, I fear.  At least one pair will have to be entirely ripped out, as I made a very big mistake in reading the pattern.

This is my yarn for "Tour de Sock" another Ravelry group. I put it on the swift and wound the hank into two balls Wednesday evening, then rewound them tonight to loosen them up a bit so as not to stretch the yarn.  I've finished about 3/4 of an inch of the top ribbing.  This is my first Tour de Sock.  It's a charitable knitalong to help benefit Doctors Without Borders.  The deadline for the first stage is next Friday, I think...we knit along with the various stages of the Tour de France bicycle race.  My team of five busy women is called: 

"Team 'What Finish Line???'  We're not sure where we're going, but we're making good time!"

None of us plan to win, but just to challenge ourselves.


Happy June to you all!