Oh, the thrill of it!

After Havdala at the end of Pesach we wish each other a Gezunte Zimmer, Kayitz Bari, or in plain English, a Healthy Summer. For those of you still seeing droplets fall and feeling the cold winds interspersed with moments of clear, bright skies, I wish you all 3! After last night's sand storm we could use it. I had no intention of taking such a long break, funny how real life can encroach upon your designated blog time! I enjoyed my all too brief Pesach. Highlights included a meander through the Har Tzofim campus with S who was desperate for HiJinx and had an urge to hit the road and a fabulously relaxing few hours at the beach in Bat Yam with C who has my undying gratitude for not only coming up with the idea but supplying the transportation and most of the picnic basket! Until I moved to Jerusalem I lived most of life about 15 minutes away from the ocean, but with the hustle, bustle and stress of life I sometimes forget how much I miss it. Just a few hours absorbing those negative ions and I was a new woman! Here's a picture I took a few years ago while visiting my old haunting grounds in La Jolla, a place I used to go to at night and watch the waves roll in and find a fleeting moment of zen.


All this talk of fresh air and oceans makes me think of all things nature which reminds me that my Backyard Leaves scarf is completed! (How's that for a segue!) V. exciting news since it is still cold enough to use it. I am in love with the KnitPicks Andean Silk yarn I used; soft, warm and delicious! Can't wait to use it again. And hey, I really do love nature. Most of my favorite photographs are nature oriented. Here are a couple of my favorites: Man of War (at Monterey Aquarium) and Surfer at Sunset along 17 Mile Drive.

And all this leads me to my current WIP (work in progress): Nora Gaughan's Capecho. Featured on the cover of Vogue Winter 2006/2007, I absolutely fell in love with this cropped jacket/bolero which Nora calls a Capecho. This is my first big modular piece and I am really enjoying it. I am currently on my 5th pentagon. I just hope it looks as good on me as it does on the skinny minnie model! Specs as follows:

Gedifra AIRMIX in 7307, a soft dusty rose. 62% merino, 30% cotton, 8% polymide.
5.5 mm circular needles (lots of stitches!)
Gauge: 18 sts and 24 rows = 4"/10cm in stockinette
Adjustments: pattern only goes to 45" bust (closed) measurement. I altered the pattern by extending the base proportionally to the existing pattern. By adding 4 more rows I had to add another cable on the original row 1 to keep the design. Below you can see a completed pentagon:

and a close up of the join between 2 pentagons (on the right side) and starting a new pentagon (on the left side.)

As soon as I get State side I am dying to go through Nora's book Knitting Nature and see if I want to add it to my library. Oh, and worry not; I haven't broken my moratorium on new yarns. I simply exchanged some yarn in my stash from which I had had immediate buyer's remorse!