It is a drowsy afternoon on my deck.

A few clouds in the sky and pleasant enough in the shade — tho how long my shade will last is questionable since the motorized awning is stuck halfway (something to do with electricity, I am pretty sure) and eventually the sun will start sizzling past the edge and I won’t be able to do anything about it.  But for now, I’m good.

I had told myself earlier that this would be a good afternoon for a walk, but since that would mean putting down my knitting and getting out of my chair, it ain’t happening, I’m afraid.  I did consider getting up to make myself a cup of tea, but since that would mean going inside where there is a “to do” list that has other thing son it besides knitting on the deck, I feel that would be a mistake.

Best to stay out here with my mildly melancholy Celtic music and my sleeping cat and my Dreambird knitting.  Maybe I can finish a feather.

The Dreambird is knit using short rows — which means you knit a number of stitches, but stop before the end of the row and turn the knitting around and work back the way you came.  In this case, I go part-way through a row and then turn and work part-way back and turn again.  It is a a particularly mesmerizing way to knit because you just sort of wander back and forth across the middle of your knitting and hardly ever come to the end of a row.  Of course there is some strict counting going on here in order to form the feathers, so I have not actually nodded off.  

Short rows are pretty useful (as useful as the awning hand-crank I found behind the fountain — I used it to buy myself some additional deck time).  They can be used for shaping garments and for motifs like these feathers.  A lot of designers are exploiting them in very cool ways.  But they are still mysterious to me — even though I know how they work!  I guess I just don’t think in short rows.

But, hey, that is okay — because we all need a little magic in our lives and I am ridiculously atonished each time I craft one of these enchanting feathers!