This week has been one of the busiest my working life has ever seen. Some folks are on vacation, others are ill– those who remain (like me!) shoulder their workload and life goes on. But I need to take a little break here in the middle of my day, and so I will write many tiny words on a neglected blog.

The beautiful summer has ended, and with it goes the obsessive gardening. Instead an urgent need for order and a place for everything has taken over. Each weekend sees me closer to my goal. Most of my yarn is now in accessible storage in my sewing room. I can look at it any time I want, and this of course leads to… knitting.

Recently completed except for a bit of fringe is a Faroese shawl from that shawl book that Schoolhouse Press sells along with a translation by… hmm… is it Marilyn Von Koeppel? Something like that. I used Deerfoot yarn in a blue heather for it, and it turned out quite nicely. This was after I had knit one using Faroese yarn. It turned out okay but much smaller than I had intended, and it needs a lining. I’m not in the mood for a lining.

Also finished is the back of the Starmore Marlin (?) aran that is in Pacific Coast Highway. I think that’s the name of it. I used Jaeger Shetland Aran in a nice brownish wine color. It was great knitting accompaniment while I listened to my husband read Bernard Cornwell’s first book in the Viking series. (I would often find the cable needle stuck behind my ear when we were eating out or going grocery shopping. My daughter threatened a knitting intervention.) After finishing the back I completed the Curve of Pursuit afghan– I do love Blackwater Abbey worsted, but it is not something that is easy to work in garter-stitch– while listening to another Cornwell book, Rebel, from the author’s civil war series about a young northerner-turned-rebel, Nathaniel Starbuck. Of course we all know that it was really the War of Northern Aggression, right?

[During the same time frame that we were respectively knitting and reading those books, I managed to read the new Gabaldon book, An Echo In The Bone, as well as the second book in the Dorothy Dunnett series, Queen's Play... both were quite satisfying.]

I then tried to start Beadwork using some gray Wendy 5-ply Guernsey, but I had two problems with it. First, the heatheriness of the yarn obscured the texture of the design too much to suit me. Second, knitting this design back and forth is too torturous. It begs to be knit in the round, because every row has crossed stitches that include at least one twisted stitch. It’s a lovely design (Jade Starmore) but not for after-a-long-hard-day knitting.

So, until I’m ready to knit the front of Marlin I’m temporarily knitting on Lochinvar (which I started a couple of years ago using navy Guernsey) while we go on to the second Nathaniel Starbuck book. Meanwhile, I’m waiting for the Jamieson & Smith yarn to arrive from Schoolhouse Press so that I can started on the Bressay jumper from Ann Feitelson’s book, and wondering whether I have all the ingredients for Stillwater from the book of the same name.

As far as other fiber arts go, I’ve managed to get both looms in the same area, along with all the weaving yarns and equipment, which is a huge win in the organization department. They are both calling for new projects, and I’m thinking of weaving ripsmatta carpet squares one of these days.

Quilting has been on hold for now, but the sewing project on deck is recovering sofa seat cushions, which is a duty rather than a pleasure, but will surely bring us all pleasure when it is done.

Perhaps I will augment this post with pictures in the next couple of days. Or maybe I’ll be too busy with other projects.