Labor Day

KnitPicks Essential Tweed in a color called Lumberjack. I'm working it doubled on a size 2 KnitPicks circular needle, going for the feel of a hiking sock. The pattern is Whitby from Nancy Bush's book, Knitting on the Road.

Below, the same sock shot in Vivid Color. I just discovered that my inexpensive Nikon Coolpix L3 has many options that I've not explored. Below, the same sock in Vivid Color: The blob. AKA the Hemlock Ring Blanket. Please to observe stitch markers separating pattern repeats as well as the use of lifelines. (If you're not a knitter, but you are lurking anyhow, lifelines are a thread run through all the stitches of, usually, a lace piece, so that when you need to rip back to correct an error, you can pick the stitches up from the line instead of picking each apart and hoping that you haven't lost one. Kind of a clothes line for the stitches.)
I learned the hard way that blithely hoping that the spare stitches that appear at the end of the circular row, or the ones that are missing when they should be there, will not heal themselves, no matter how many times that I reached the end of the row and did a decrease or an increase.

I also learned that a gazillion people can post this project in Ravelry, and no one mentions that the original pattern, from the Brooklyn Tweed blog, has been updated and improved on the Rainey Sisters' blog. The PDF version from the sisters includes stitch counts, which allows you to check for errors after every increase row in the Feather and Fan section. A lifesaver. Thank you.

And I love this yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool. It has a faint sheepy fragrance to it, knits up beautifully on a size 9 or 10 needle, and is very affordable. You probably know this: but almost 500 yards for $15.75 at my LYS. That's 3.51 cents per yard. I could see this yarn knit up as a great sweater for a guy, something comfy and warm and sufficiently manly. And some test pictures for my yoga brochure. A tall stack of my favorite yoga books.
A page from my Sutra book, with notes. One of my favorite sutras: abhyasavairagyabhyam tannirodah. Practice, then let go of what the outcome will be. The result is that the mind will become less agitated, some clarity will result.
And honest physical labor. I painted the front steps. Still need to paint the risers, but today was coat #2 on the steps and porch. Another test picture for the brochure: I'm looking for an image of the sun shining onto a surface.