Beautiful Things

The world is full of beautiful things
Butterfly wings, fairy tale kings
And each new day undoubtedly brings
Still more beautiful things.

The world abounds with many delights
Magical sights, fanciful flights
And those who dream on beautiful nights
Dream of beautiful things.

Our lives tick by like pendulum swings
Delicate things, butterfly wings
Life is full of beautiful things
Beautiful people, too …
Beautiful people like you.

-Bobby Darin

I am trying to stay on task, and finish tweaking the final design for Delphinium.

Here is a sneak peek at the ruffled border:

Periwinkle Sea Silk and Matte Cobalt AB delicas

But it is so hard.

My brain just won't settle down to the task at hand. It keeps wanting more...

Yesterday I went to the grocery. The produce aisles were swimming in local goodness from our Midwest farmers; I came home with ripe nectarines, blushing with the promise of juicy delight.

• And raspberries: light and delicate on the tongue like jewels.
• And blueberries: humbly to grace my morning cereal.
• And the last of the season's strawberries: plump and delectable.

They were all so beautiful, I just couldn't decide...

I sit in front of my television and work while I watch:

• MSNBC, which prompts me to read the newspaper and finally mail in that long-anticipated subscription to Time or Newsweek
• The History Channel, which makes me want to rush out to Borders and snap up all the books I can find on Tudor England and the Reformation.
• The Food Channel, where I watch the Barefoot Contessa cook Goat Cheese Pie, which makes me want to buy more groceries and turn my kitchen into a French bistro. Or Giada Di Laurentis, who makes me want to dial up my travel agent and check fares to Italy.
• HGTV, which reminds me of how much I used to love gardening, back in the days when the kids were young and I spent all my time out in the yard, instead of the studio.

I go on line to check out the lyrics of Hoagy Carmichael (a fellow Hoosier) for my August Newsletter and instead find myself contemplating the words to Skylark and Stardust, and wondering what a shawl version might look like.

Next thing I know, I am looking at skylark images...


Charting skylark patterns...


And auditioning potential skylark yarns...

Isager Wool 1 Lacewieght

All before I've finished my morning coffee.

I have another project languishing patiently awaiting its time in Isager's Alpaca 2. Lovely stuff.

Wisp is a triangular shawl design with beading on the bottom edges only. I just did enough to vet the pattern and determine yardage before reluctantly putting her aside in favor of finishing other projects that y'all are screaming for like a bunch of bleeding banshees patiently awaiting.

Like Delphinium and Chromatic Shift and Knitting Basket and A Little Night Music and Sugar Snap and Durum and the entire Cathedral Collection...

Need I go on?

I didn't think so...

And then there is all that lovely stuff I am unpacking every Saturday, as I divest myself of the guilty trappings of past knitting lives...


This is Mountain Colors Mountain Goat in Sweet Pea. It seduced me.

Honest.

The world is full of beautiful things...

sigh...