It’s a controversial opinion, but I think long hot summer days are the best. When you’ve spent 99% of your life shivering into your knitwear, it’s a marvellous luxury to be able to go outdoors – or even indoors – in short sleeves. And then there’s the joy of pulling off your cardigan to reveal the wanton nakedness of only a single layer of stocking-stitched merino beneath.
The problem – in my case – is that it’s too tempting to spend every spare minute outdoors; messing about with the twinnage, going running, grazing on the ripening peas and beans in the garden, watching dragonflies battle for airspace over the pond, trying (unsuccessfully) to befriend Robyn’s fledgling children, and failing to get anything useful done. None of this involves achieving stuff with yarn.
(If you fancy a few more pictures like this, I do post quite often @thetwistedyarn on Instagram. All follows received with heartfelt appreciation, because online validation is clearly more important than any tangible achievements in life. Thank you. 🙂 )
I may as well confess my shameful secret for all to see: knitting and crochet motivation has been a teeny bit lacking around here, lately. I’ve been working on a new stranded colourwork design that’s gone through so many iterations that it’s tempting to shove the whole thing in a basket in the corner, because obviously that will teach it not to be so needy. Here’s one of its many incarnations-in-progress. (Yarn = Stylecraft Special DK.) At last, however, my knit-mojo is returning. Phew!
Of course, there’s nothing like drafting a blog post about sunshine to make a stonking great cloud turn up and start raining all over absolutely everything, so this post is brought to you from the comfort of the sofa:-
But even when I haven’t been knitting/crocheting, I’ve been thinking about yarnery. The other day, @andreatimmerabc on Instagram tagged me in a post. She’s been crocheting small ornamental bird-boxes, one of which was inspired, she says, by my housey hooking. (Not sure whether it’s based on my crazy chair or my bonkers bag.) But LOOK at her beautiful work!
Isn’t it perfect? (Also, it’s a lot neater than my own efforts.) I love it!
Photos pinched from @andreatimmerabc with very kind permission.
Meanwhile, as the giant cloud sits above my house and cries rainy tears of laughter on this post, I can at least wander out to look at some of the more damp-loving inhabitants of the garden. If you move slowly through the long grasses beside the pond, you’re almost certain to meet a member of our pest-control team, on the lookout for tasty slugs and aphids:-
How tiny and perfect?! Maybe the rain isn’t so bad after all.
Love the cowls on the giraffe.. and knitting in the garden with bare feet. Enjoy Summer and your lovely pond.
Thank you. Giraffes do make excellent cowl-storage facilities. Enjoy your summer, too.
Well, I also like your posts when you’re not writing about knitting. So no problem for me here 😉
Phew! (Also, thank you.)
Sometimes you just need a break (even from knitting!!).
Once upon a time I would have gasped at such words, but actually, you’re right.
40.7 ° celsius here so no crafting. Everything is sticky and gets sweaty. The garden is my solance in this heat. Especialy the ponds. Tempting to get my feet in. So I do understand your drive to throw knitting into the corner. Way to hot to design. And love your garden stories, the twinnage are of, having schooolholiday. Do enjoy them.
Wow, that’s properly hot! Um, please try not to melt beside your ponds.
I love the stylish bird houses…you can’t say that these are “just for the birds.”
Yes they’re wonderful, aren’t they?
Hello Phil, how very nice of you to mention my quirky birdhouses! I enjoyed making them very much. I am definately not a neater crocheter than you are, though! Thanks again for your inspiring work and your kind words.
Andrea
Hi Andrea, and thank you for giving me permission to show your beautiful work. Happy hooking! ????
Whatever you want to write about is more than wonderful to me – I’m a devoted fan and simply love, love, love whatever you do, say, knit or crochet! Just keep going and write about it – thanks for all.
You’re ALWAYS kinder than I deserve but thank you so very much.
I love your tiger. I’m afraid if I had one it would be fair game for the dog xx
Ah, that could end messily. (The tiger IS very cuddly and cute.)
Will happily send you the 90+ temps and unbreathable humidity we are experiencing here in New England!! ????
Hmm, I’d struggle with the humidity. Dry heat is much easier. Hope you’re managing not to melt…
I love the hot days as well, but like you I don’t get much work done. The weather’s turned now, but I’m still waiting to get my writing mojo back!
Come back, writing mojo! Hope it returns soon.
Well, I’m glad that you enjoy these days, because I definitely do not – so I’m glad there is a fan or two somewhere.
Oh those bird houses are lovely! I have tried crochet so often, and it just won’t “take” – oh well, maybe someday.
Yes, I wrote those words realizing that some people would NOT agree. Hope you’re surviving. (And one day, you’ll probably find that crochet just ‘clicks’ for you.)
Please keep on writing Phil, anything you write is so interesting to me, and I so look forward to your posts, you are so witty my and make me smile, I too loathe the heat always have.
Thank you for such generous words. ❤️ (But I hope that you’re surviving the heat. You can come back and laugh at me when I’m grumbling about the cold.)
I love summer days, and don’t seem to have a problem either sleeping or crafting! Your dragonfly pic is great, I tried to get some butterflies on camera the other day but they were not at all obliging when it came to posing. Perhaps more patience on my part required. Alas, this I’m lacking in.
It’s SO difficult trying to photograph insects on the move, isn’t it? I see amazing pictures that people have taken of butterflies / bees / birds / dragonflies on the move and I just think, HOW?!
Lol I enjoy being warm for a change too! Still have to wear a sweater most places though because of the AC
Yay, a fellow heat-seeker! And yeah, don’t even get me started on people whacking up the air-con.
Oh it drives me crazy!
I love the giraffe with the cowls!
Giraffes make EXCELLENT storage facilities for cowls (and running medals).
I think that sometimes we get so caught up in the need to be ‘doing’ that we forget to just ‘be’. We are human beings, after all is said and done, and not human doings! Make time to smell the roses, make time to observe the wildlife in and around the pond, make time to enjoy the company of the twinnage, make time to just breathe. ????????
Wise words. You’re absolutely right of course.
Do make the most of your time with the twinage. The years with one’s children are so short really! Knitting will still be there on winter schooldays.