It's been a week since I posted. I'm not sure where the week went. It certainly hasn't been an extraordinarily busy week but somehow the days just slipped through my fingers without me knowing.

This is Labor Day weekend here in the US. A long weekend that I made longer by taking off Thursday and Friday. Five days in a row. Bliss. Thursday afternoon, I dropped Pk off in the woods with his pack. He hiked a few miles to his favorite wilderness campsite (no running water and therefore no "facilities". I know, ewww) and set up camp for the night. He hiked into Batsto and Elanor and I went and picked him up Friday afternoon. He was tired but in fairly good shape. Now, after sitting for a while, he's getting stiff and somewhat sore. Old muscles protest a little more than young ones.

I carded some of the alpaca that we got at the Alpaca Fest in May. I haven't been able to find any information on this particular carder online so I'm winging it. So far, so good. The fluff is a deep caramel color and very soft. My low tech carder made it light and fluffy and now it feels like a cloud. I spun it into a single and then plied it with two plies of this blue merino called "denim" because it has the gold/brown color of the thread used for sewing jeans running through it. I thought it would look good with some of the brown alpaca and an alpaca/merino blend would be soft. I was right.

It turned into this yarn. The colors are good together and it's got a soft halo. Once it's washed and wacked it'll be a soft pleasure to knit with. I've enjoyed the slow peacefulness of spinning these materials. And I like the results.

My bayerische socks are coming along slowly. Very slowly. I had one and a half repeats done and then noticed a stitch dropped way back. How did I not notice? It had to be ripped back because with all of the cables and twisted stitches, there was no possible way to pick it up. I have been doing the cabling without a cable needle (a new skill learned) and I am now through two repeats of the 8 row charts and one of the 16 row one. I love them. They are killing my fingers because I knit very tightly and these are knit on size 2's but I am determined to keep at it. If knitting is something I do for relaxation then this is not the pattern for it. I notice that my jaw is clenched as I work the stitches and I have to make an effort to loosen it or I get a headache. They remind me of the knee socks I used to wear to school when I was a young girl. Back in the day when girls weren't allowed to wear pants to school.

And just a few inches and El's fls will be done. This afternoon. I promised myself.

Tomorrow we're planning a picnic for dinner. Em asked if she and Jim could come down for dinner so I decided fried chicken, potato salad and some cupcakes would be good. We'll go to our favorite place by the Delaware River where it is always cool no matter the weather. We'll listen to the barges on the river and smell the peculiar river smells (probably pollution but shhh, let's not spoil the mood) and enjoy each other's company. The weather is cooperating and it will be warm but not humid. A lovely last hurrah for summer.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and if you are celebrating, Happy Labor Day!