AMy friend Ellen, TikkunTree-leaf knitting machine, regularly attends a “hot yoga” class after work … she joins twenty other lunatics in a sauna-hot studio in our city to spend an hour trying to contort her body into a series of pretzel-like positions. She loves it. She claims the endeavor is clearing her body of the dust she inhaled re-plastering her ceiling. She’s nuts.
We’ve been trying to survive a mid-Atlantic heat wave – in the heart of the city – without air conditioning (which has been defunct since last summer). We’ve been running fans wherever we parked in the house, consuming cold cereal and salads and cold roast chicken, and iced lemon water by the bucket …. With all the blinds drawn, we’ve been hanging out in our skivvies (I knew my son-the-graduate had a sock monkey thing, but never knew he had a pair of sock monkey boxers … until last week), trying to move as little as possible. On a couple of weekend afternoons the extreme heat prompted us to visit the movie theaters, something we haven’t done (as a family) since the boys were much smaller (I have a low threshhold for the high volume sound and/or violence typical of most mainstream cinema these days).
In spite of it all, I managed to knit and crochet, many small and light things, while sitting in front of one of the Vornado fans. I also managed to plan many projects. And to think about other projects to plan or execute. All the while trying to keep the house and meals as cool as possible.
I’ve made slow but steady progress on my sister’s Stormwater shawl (photos to come), an easy project to carry to cooler venues on account of the gossamer-light rayon yarn. I feel cooler just handling the stuff. In spite of my best efforts, I haven’t been able to make much progress on my 198 Coins tote (a medium-sized Noni carpetbag) … though I managed to locate and organize the foreign coins I’ll be embroidering onto it, the heat makes this one project too hot to handle for long (though even if I do complete the embellishment, I can’t imagine when I’ll get to the lining; this one will join the rather large striped carpetbag I fulled last month).
The Color Orange project continues to inspire me, and I spent a few hours in front of the living room fan crocheting metallic threads into earrings, and started on the miniature skulls that will eventually adorn a curtain for my son’s new apartment (he says he really will be moving in, sometime soon, maybe even next week, so he says). In addition,
And then there’s the handful of felted kippot I’ve managed to complete. I’ve had in mind to make a few of these for my brother and a niece for some time now, and the heat wave seemed a perfect time to turn out a few of these simple projects (not to mention the advantage of a bit more waterplay in the sink, fulling them by hand). CozyColeman‘s (stranded or needle-felted) fulled kippah pattern works perfectly every time; I’m already dreaming of a few hours in the cool-er basement, trying out a few embellishment techniques on a few of these.
If you wind up short coins – let me know – I might have a few that you don’t have.
Also have a different kippah pattern that I have tried yet in feltable yarn – but if you want to try it – drop me an email.