It's hot. Brutally, stifling, hot and the 3 amigos are driving me nuts. I blame it on the AC. Here they are all cool and comfy, it's sunny and they're pacing and thinking "Why aren't we outside, why aren't we walkin' around, cashing chipmunks, sniffin' butts, all that good stuff? It's summer, why aren't we out there??" So I let them out them, in they're big furry coats and 4 minutes later, faces pressed on the patio door, making slimy nose prints, it's "CRAP it's HOT out here. Let us inside!" So I let them inside and 10 minutes later, cool as cucumbers, they've completely forgotten the previous expedition and they're giving me that look... Outside?

 

Awww... look how well trained you think. HA!
An illusion, it's the magic of weiners (held aloft in my right hand as I take this pic). Too bad this wasn't a video, I could make all their little heads go up and down like bobble dolls. Shelties are stomachs on legs so food is absolute control.

I've heard some people say, well it's too hot to knit. Too hot to knit! People are going out to play soccer and softball or sitting in the full sun at open air concerts. At home they are mowing lawns (some even without lawn tractors), pulling weeds, watering flowers, standing in front of scorching barbecues. They are dragging their children across vast areas of asphalt to get to zoos and amusement parks where they stand in lines to see, to eat, to ride and get sweaty. I think I can sit in a chair in the shade with my 5 thin DPNs and avoid breaking a sweat when I lift them to make some socks. I'm in great knitting shape by the way. My knitty muscles have wonderful definition. I'm not saying the rest of me couldn't use some work.

My fav knitting spot is the porch however it's even been too hot to sit there.

But really, I have no fear of soft wooly things in the summer because I have that great North American life saver call AIR CONDITIONING (trumpets blast). I've tried to live without it twice. The first time my computer died because of the heat. It just made this horrible whirring sound more appropriate to a Chevette with engine trouble, then with a puff of burnt dust it wound down and died. I work from home and my livelihood was in that machine so this was a bit of a catastrophe. I laugh now but then I remember hitting the floor in a sweat soaked mess and weeping. The second time I realized the constant heat was making me so grumpy I had started to rage at my clients, not just about them.

So over the weekend, with the AC blasting, when I should have been traveling the country looking for a place to live, I made some good progress on Silvester by Anna Dalvi and I just might finish it in time for Carol's Bday in August. I was a bit stuck because I couldn't remember where I left off and the pattern repeat of rows 84 to 136 gives you plenty of opportunity to guess incorrectly.

I finally put the nose and eyes on my White Willy, Peabey the Polar Bear by Snowden Becker. Simply a genius pattern, with almost no sewing-up AND it really looks like a polar bear. Check out the pattern on Ravelry, some intrepid soul has made a small herd of them. Too cute.

 
Also I've started sewing up Notre Dame De Grace by Veronik Avery. Sewing up is my least favourite part of knitting and I tend to put it off. I will often finish knitting a sweater in months but then take years to actually make it into a wearable (hopefully) garment. I don't like to rush into anything.

I was just finishing the collar (which is done but sewing each half towards the middle back) and realized the left side was not equal, or in any way similar, to the right side. The left had these lacy holes along the sewing stitches while the right was nice and tight to the edges. Well, being the perfectionist I am (I hear my clients chortling at this) and really wanting to wear this without embarrassment I decided to resew the collar, which I did, but now I was left with a little extra loopy bit, which I pulled. Silly, silly me.

A length of yarn appeared which could not be returned to any happy point plus I now had a hole and 2 extra loopy bits. I tried to adjust and made another tiny hole. No problem. I will just sew these bits up, this hole, this yarn, it is all fixable. Sooooo.... I carefully sew and wrap some ends and pull some more and sew some more and next thing I know I have a carbuncle on the shoulder seam. It looks great from the outside by the way, but on the inside it creates a great quasimodo lump which I know will show and will also be uncomfortable to wear. OOOOOkay,  I decided to start again but I had made such a dense closure that scissors were the only option. People you know what's coming don't you. And yes I did cut something important and I started yelling and yanking and the dogs hid. And I had to put it away where it will "rest" for a time before I can reknit the shoulder and the collar without frightening the animals. Time well spent.

NOTE: Sometime in September by the side of the road in rural Ottawa, you will see a homeless woman, with 3 dogs and a grocery cart full of beautiful yarn and unfinished knitting. That would be me. The quest for a home continues.