Lichened to None Other

The Lichen Beret in all its glory performed exactly as planned. The fuzz doing its best to create a cohesive color bond and the colors themselves play and sway with one another making it difficult to see any borders whatsoever. Perfect! A happy composition and am sure that this winter someone will be delighted, sporting this green loveliness.

Rain has continued but I didn't notice it much. Fact is, it became a comforting sound as it lightly pattered the roof, a backdrop. Some words can be very misleading. Sounding more like an Italian fashion term, the word "influenza" as it rolls off the tongue should bring to mind a bit of bare knee
beneath a flounce of a gown which taken as a whole could make a grown man cry as it influences fashion 'round the world. "In-flu-en-zaaaaa."
However, shortened to "flu" takes away any glamorous connotations and lands one smack into the center of reality-- a harsh reality in which any movement whatsoever sends one reeling and running for the loo. We shall spare you the details and suffice it to say that the last couple of days have been a challenge. Now that I've progressed to dry toast the world is vertical once again and I can appreciate the color around me. Perhaps it's the "aaaaaa" part that reminds you just how good you feel once the 'flu is gone.
Be well and savor the summer.

Sunshine and Green

Today was lovely. Really lovely after having so much rain.

You might think the very middle of July would be much too hot and sticky for wool but not so this year. We had our 90's in April and all our rain over the last six weeks. Highly unusual and the sunshine of yesterday and today seemed a dream. AND--- I've had an opportunity to knit and dye, and over-dye, and live to dye another day.

Inspired by the lichens covering the New England trees, I have knitted one of several hats planned in the misty lime to aqua over brown and gray colorways nature presents. I can never decide if I prefer the lichen on the trees or lichen on the rocks (sounds cool and refreshing!) as my favorite. They take on such beautiful shades with the rain and if trying to capture them and take them inside to savor, it seems they immediately lose their luminosity and go dull and lifeless. Studying their color outside and trying to duplicate that subtle glide across the blue-green scale is a trick indeed.

The Amy Beret will be snazzy and warm. This particular example will be fuzzy with the added mohair and subtle in changing color. The band on the edge is a golden glow, representing tree bark. I have used eight different colors for this project plus a single strand of mohair in one color throughout, which helps to marry all the colors. Is that legal? We shall see!

Knitting for a better world,

Lisa