turbulent flux

It's all happening so fast! What? Summer passing, age relentlessly impinging. I try to stay with it, but sometimes I grow weary and just want to stop the clock. Or spend an afternoon knitting. Preferably sitting under a palm tree with a sea breeze riffling my hair and yarn. Summer continues to march on temperature-wise. Intense heat during the day, cool at night, dry conditions. Yet this morning, walking, a sign of change:

I look forward to cooler days, but I know too clearly what follows a few weeks later and, frankly, I'm not sure I'm ready to face another winter in the mountains so soon. Or how to prepare mentally. Physical is easy. A new sweater perhaps? Rowan's Alpaca Cotton yarn has been on my mind since seeing it in early spring. I think it would work with an old favorite pattern I have for a big loose sweater. In fact the sweater is called Big Sweater (there's also a Medium version more my size). It's from Green Mountain Spinnery and is knitted from the bottom up in the round. No sewing! When its done, it's done. Plain with a touch of cable detailing.

I've made it many times in the past using a wool/mohair blend worsted. Friends and family wear them, but somehow I never kept one for myself.  I think the Rowan yarn would make a cosy lighter weight version.

creative visualization
I'm wearing it in San Francisco next month. I'm always cold there - no matter what time of year - but who cares! It's an excuse to wear handknits and to visit with my friend recovering well from her accident, getting out on her own again (we're going to the opera), wearing new silver running shoes! How cool is that? The problem is, with all the stuff I'm trying to do before I go, will knitting a sweater in five weeks turn me into a stressed out multitasking nut case?

keep it simple
I haven't felt like cooking lately. Heat. Laziness. Lack of interest. Things I'd rather do. However, we like to eat and due to my reading (again) Julia Child's My Life in France (I love that book!) and Ron turning on the Food Channel on some nights when I'm starting to prepare dinner, I get inspired and start rattling around the pots and pans. I'm no Julia and have no desire to tackle those recipes of hers (or those tattooed, cleavaged, white-aproned chefs on TV with their sharp knives) - I just want to keep it simple.

Caprese salad with dolmas instead of mozzarella (because I forgot to buy it). A glass of chilled white wine.

Maybe I'll take a little drive to Santa Fe tomorrow and check out the Rowan yarn at Tutto. And stop by the shoe store for silver shoes to wear when walking tilted streets.

"An aching heart needs an ice cream cone in a new location, a change 
of flavors, a choice of picture postcards.... The heart needs an oddity 
or two, something to make it smile.... The heart needs the cultivated 
flowers, the benches, the footpaths, it needs exactly what [that] 
spot has to offer."
                                 Eric Maisel (A Writer's San Francisco)