I have completed my Dive Tee (a kit from We Are Knitters — they have such fun stuff! And I love the quality of their yarn).  A great “late Summer and into Fall” piece in a delicious sunny pumpkin color.  

And I am making progress on the rest of my knitted Summer wardrobe 🙂 It is good to remember that Summer lasts until late September!  I ended up with 2 surprise projects when I found some very deliberate sticky notes in my copy of Melissa Leapman’s Knitting Modular Shawls, Wraps, and Stoles.  The book guides the knitter through a nice little design process for creating custom designs and includes mix-and-matchable stitch patterns.  And I had evidently had a project in mind as the marked stitch patterns all went together nicely — and there were even gauge and needle numbers on one note.  And while it was all very familiar and I distinctly recalled actually knitting those stitch patterns (and how else would I have definite gauge and needle information, I ask you?!), I could not for the life of me visualize it!  No idea what the project was — no idea what kind of yarn, colors, nothing.  My mind was a complete blank.

Now, logic tells us that if I had begun knitting a piece, it must be somewhere (I have not yet knit something into oblivion…).  And since I have been going through my studio and re-organizing all of of it over the past few months, I would probably have come across this piece of knitting and its needles (US 6, according to my note) and ball(s?) of yarn.  But my mind was still blank.  And why oh why was the book with all the instructions not nestled away with the project?  All very mysterious!

Let me explain that while I have quite a few “in progress” projects stashed away somewhat “out of sight” they are all very much in my mind.  Any clue — a project title, a stitch pattern, a yarn name or color, the most cryptic description (like: that sweater that I got inspired to knit at the Starbucks drive-thru) — will bring the project to the front of my brain.  I can lay my hands upon it in minutes and probably start working on it after about 10 minutes of studying it — even if I have not touched it in 2 years!  So the fact that this project was so mysterious was, well, very mysterious.

Of course, I started ransacking my studio.  Nothing.  I opened bin after bin, methodically.  Nothing.  I called Sarah.  She had no idea and suggested I look through the studio again.  Well, 3rd time’s a charm, right?  And, lo and behold, when I opened a bin that I was pretty sure I had already looked through, I found it!  Not just some swatched bits, but half a shawl!  In lovely Concentric Cotton yarn in 2 of the 4 stitch patterns I had marked in the book (photo copies of the stitches from the book nestled with the project..of course).  Oh, yeah, now I remembered it….

And not only did I uncover half a shawl, but underneath was a nearly completed short-sleeved sweater in more Concentric Cotton!  Bonanza!  Last Summer’s knitting waltzing back into my life in late July.  Perfect!  So, I have been knitting on both pieces — the shawl is delightful lacework and the sweater is mostly plain knitting with some bands of slip stitch, so they complement each other as far as knitting experience pleasure.  And I truly love knitting this yarn — cool, sleek Pima cotton in 4 strands which gradually shift in color (one strand at a time).

The top shot shows the shawl as I found it.  The lower one shows progress (the yarn shifting to salt-and-pepper as it moves toward solid black and also the 3rd stitch pattern). 

This is the short-sleeved sweater.  (Edie designed by Isabell Kramer)

And my Mermaid Sweater needs only the ribbing at the neckline and the lower edge 🙂

So, Summer progresses and the Summer Knitting progresses. And, as I told Sarah, I am not crazy after all 🙂