Crafting intermission: Melting

For almost two weeks, we had very hot summer weather.  In the 90s.  Now, I know that out there in the blogosphere, many of you are laughing.  But.  Kindly consider.  In addition to not being used to hot weather, picture 90+ degrees. 80%+ humidity, and no air-conditioning.   None at home.  And the AC at work does a fine job of reducing the temperature about ten degrees.   How hot was it?  My neurons fried.  I draped myself across chairs in front of a fan when I couldn't be in the pool.  The cats have been shedding fluff at an amazing rate, even for heavyweight shedders like Biscuit.   Heck, you want to see hot?   Here's a hot cat.  

Except for occasionally going and lying belly down on the tile floor in the kitchen, he pretty much stayed in this position. 

Setting anything on my lap, let alone a hot laptop was pretty much out of the question.  And the brain cells to operate a computer had dripped out of my ears and were in a puddle somewhere on the floor.  Monday it finally cooled down, and a few of them found their way back.  I feel sure there are more around somewhere, but it may take until fall to find them.  

In an attempt to reconstruct the last couple of weeks I poked around and noted that however hot it was, I did manage to knit.   It helped that I was given a large bag of cotton yarn just before the heat wave set in.    So.  In no particular order, I knit washcloths. 

And more washcloths:

I'm keeping a couple myself, and the rest are going to a coworker who is rebuilding after losing everything in a fire. 

There was also crocheting, also made from gift cotton:

I was quite pleased with how this came out, as it was a complete improvisation from start to finish.  I especially liked the handle attachment.   I didn't want the handles to be supported only by the top edge of the bag, so I ran  each row of stitches down the inside and did a crochet slip stitch to reinforce an area below it. 

The yarn was carried down the outside, and made a very neat overstitching- not obtrusive at all.

A great little stash-busting project.  I'm making a second one in shades of blue.  That will get the cotton stash down to a more reasonable level-- spending 18 days in England knitting on one pair of socks meant that I was falling way behind the rate of new yarn that people were de-stashing in my direction.  I'm not by any means caught up, of course, but getting a few quick projects done has started to put a dent in it. 

And speaking of the socks,  I braved the heat and went down to the New Bedford Folk Festival on Saturday, where I met up with a knitting pal I see far too rarely, heard some terrific music, and knit more.   I finished the South Coast Socks (so called because they were mostly knit on the south coast of England, and the blues capture some of the shades of the water).

I did have to stop in the middle of the socks and make myself a quick crochet sweatband, though.  Because the sweat was rolling into my eyes and stinging so I couldn't see.   (I wish I were exaggerating but no.)   And so, the headband:

For a quick improve, I was quite pleased with it.  Functional and not unattractive.   I may do a couple more to wear when doing yard work in the summer. 

I'm actually a bit surprised I did so much knitting when it was so hot...but then, how many things are simple enough to do when your brain is melting?   Knitting and crochet clearly don't require much thought.   However, it's long past time to get back to my travelogue, before I forget what happened!