Sweltering Sunday

The temperature has been over 100 every afternoon for about a week. I didn't get home until about 3:00 this afternoon, which means I was out in the worst of it. Even in an air-conditioned car, I got home feeling half baked. The fact that I slept for about an hour and a half is testimony to how much this kind of heat drains me.

I didn't post yesterday because I didn't really have anything new to say, except that the Baby M quilt continues to kick my butt. I took all the basting pins out, repressed the backing, relayered and repinned the whole thing. I found a box of basting pins I had forgotten about so was able to put in all the pins I wanted. But when I stitched the first line I still ended up with things shifting. So I stopped and picked out what I had just sewn, and put the project on hold until I can think more about the problem and what's causing it. I have some ideas, but I'll tackle it another day.

While I was in the studio I got out the box for the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt and pulled out a piece of the green pindot that frames all the blocks. I then hunted up the book that had the directions, and made a new template for cutting blocks. I pressed the fabric and left it on the ironing table. Again, I will come back to that another day.

By the end of the day yesterday my fingers were very sore. The combination of tatting, hand stitching, and pulling out machine stitches made the tips sore and the joints achy. So I was happy to come to the end of the day and sit with my knitting. I finished another hat yesterday, so decided to take pictures of the two I have for this month. These are part of an ongoing project for the patients at Arkansas Children's Hospital. These two were made from my alarmingly large stash of novelty yarn, and are just basic top-down beanies knitted until I get to the end of the skein.

Once I woke up this afternoon I decided to start by finishing the tatted cross I had started a day or so ago. This was a pretty simple pattern once I got into the rhythm of it, and I'm quite pleased with the finished result. The little snowflake next to it is one I finished a couple days ago. They look yellow in the photo because of the light, but are actually snow white. Eventually they will be stiffened and pinned out to give them more precise shape. But even unblocked they look pretty good. I think I have enough thread on the shuttle for one more snowflake, so I'll probably do one of those next.

Now I'm ready to relax with some knitting. I'm working on a hat that uses a new-to-me stitch, and the ribbing is now finished, so I'll start with that and see how complicated it is. Then I'll try to get a few rows of baby sweater done before I call it a day.