Blue Skies White Clouds

Still continuing with my knitted cloud studies. Both of these scarves were knitted with Patons' Pooch called--what else?--Big Sky. One scarf was knitted with a white thread of Sullivans Baby Soft Knitting Yarn and the other with a Sleepy Blue thread. It's pretty amazing the difference that a single, mohair-like polyamide thread makes.



I'm not a big fan of acrylic yarns, because they can feel a bit harsh, and the polyamide takes that edge off, so to speak. The scarves feel gentler to the skin. The skinny threads also altered the coloring ever so slightly. Unfortunately, it is not easily captured by my camera. The scarves were knitted in garter stitch. The bobbles made it a bit hard to handle, but it did rip out fairly well when I made a mistake ... er, changed my mind about the pattern.

A Talisman Against the Gray Squirrel

They have their champions and even the Gray Squirrel Rescue, but I'm not a fan. For one thing, they eat my green walnut pods in July so no one gets to enjoy any actual, buttery walnuts in the Fall. If that isn't enough, they also sample my lemons ... again and again. (Yes, Silly Beasts, the fruit is tart. It's supposed to be that way every time.) I don't enjoy looking out the window to see my deck strewn with discarded miniature lemons each one bitten a single time. Make lemonade? No, the gray monsters pick the lemons too soon, too. Now, they have discovered my apple tree and are raiding the baby apples. True, the fruit could benefit from being thinned, but the squirrels are grabbing the largest apples and only gnaw on part of each one before reaching for the next.

Still, they are cute when they're up in the trees and barking down (curses?) at me. None has thrown any apples at me yet!

As a talisman to ward off squirrels, I knit this little scarf. Found a lonely ball of gray and white Liberty Trends by Adriafil in the bargain bin of my new favorite yarn shop. It's a garter stitch knit on US 13 needles. The yarn is a blend of acrylic, wool, polyamid and cotton. (Did they leave anything out?) It looks and feels more like cotton, so it's comfortable to wear and looks very light and airy. Perhaps it resembles the tangle of tree branches more than a squirrel pelt. Well, may they see it and think of me as the great Squirrel Mother Goddess come to Earth and stay away from my sacred precinct.