For a knitting blog, this one has been pretty pathetic with the content of late. I am knitting, I am. I just can’t show you much of the Shibui project, and the little boy sweater I’ve been cooking up needs a good stiff blocking before it will lie still for photography. In desperation, I offer you a scintillating glimpse of… stockinet and 2×2 ribbing!

This, friends, is the better part of a Frost Flowers sleeve. More mindless knitting can scarcely be conceived of, but it’s about what I’ve been good for this week under the dread thumb of the virus. I was afraid this Trendsetter Spiral (and I hereby swear it’s the last time you’ll see me knit with such unnatural fiber – I trusted Norah Gaughan, but now I think her patrons told her she had to do something with this yarn and she just gave the salute and did the best she could. If I hadn’t been so wet behind the ears as a knitter when I took this project on, I would have substituted a decent cotton at least.) was going to look like a pox victim knit up, but I’ve decided it’s more like the hide of some desert-dwelling feline. The African Plastic Sand Leopard, recently extinct and known to Western science only through the appearance of its skin in ceremonial robes among the native tribal elders.

But hey, check out those surprise flowers that suddenly popped up in my garden! I’ve been so tickled all year to see what my new yard is going to do next. I’ve added almost nothing to it because every month brings something unexpected sprouting up just where I’d thought about putting some new plant or other. Who knew I was the owner of a foxglove and a calla lily?

I’m also the owner of some fabulous discount Rowan Plaid in Soft Kelp:

I’m thinking Leaf Lace Pullover ala Teva Durham. I loved knitting with Rowan Plaid so much during the construction of Lightning and my very first sweater for my mom that I had to spring for some more at half price. And a skein of sock yarn, because who can resist discount sock yarn? I love you, Webs. In the interest of full disclosure, this is not my own stash enhancement of late. On the whole, I’ve been pretty good, considering that I work in a yarn store and they give me a wicked discount. Last night I caved and came home with a skein of Artyarns Supermerino 4 in colorway 139, the most enchanting mix of sky blues and grass greens. It was new in the store and I could tell that it wanted so badly to be a wee baby hat for our neighbors’ firstborn, due in September. I had to take pity on it and give it what it wanted. And then there was Habu bamboo laceweight. Oh, the happy knitter born into an era where technology makes such treasure possible. Get thee to Knit/Purl, on foot or online (it might not be up on the site until Monday or Tuesday), if you don’t have easy access to Habu itself. It’s new, it’s fabulous, you’ll wonder where it’s been all your lace-knitting life. I brought home a skein of shimmery, sleek charcoal, 515 yards for the absurdly reasonable price of $15 and a nickel. It’s so pretty I almost don’t trust myself to photograph it. I want to mail it off to Jared so it can have its portrait taken properly, but I know he’d never give it back. Victorian Lace Today, here I come!