Today

Ian is still in his vampire existence, avoiding heat and sun. I am thankful to Benita for all her help, support and suggestions. She too is married to a Scot who probably was mean to live on the moors. She said Scott's heat sensitivity has spoiled the meaning of "go soak your head" because when she says that, he replies - Good Idea - and dodges back into the house.

And so this morning I ended up making a run to town in Ian's 16-year-old truck with no air conditioning for a couple bales of hay to tide us over until ours is delivered next week. And while you're at it, he said, how about getting a lube and oil change? Sigh. He's terrible about these things so I had all the fluids changed for a huge price tag. The only fluid I forgot was gas - serious problem. I'll have to run up to Doyle in the morning and fill the tank - for .15 more a gallon that I could have paid in town. Sigh.

When I got home, I got onto my agenda, which today was making more pesto from the gorgeous basil I bought from the Hmongs on Tuesday. Our garlic cloves are pretty small and I was pretty generous with the cloves. I sampled and my eyes watered - just the way I like it!
I only got 16 cubes from my batch, and I figure one cube is a nice modest lunch proportion with linguine. I have some cubes already in the freezer from my own basil, but I think I need to go back and get more for at least one more batch. Basil is insanely expensive in the winter and is synonymous with pesto to me, so much that I find myself using the terms interchangeably.

My waiting room knitting has begun to look like a sock. Ian's kidney ultrasound took over an hour and I simply cannot concentrate on a book in a waiting room. I was so happy to have my knitting and avoided the bewildered stares - I knit pretty fast. I'm going to have a lot of yarn left over. I could make a third sock! Four ounces of wool makes a pair of socks. This is a silk blend so I'm getting more yardage. What a waste!
This is my yarn from the other roving I bought at Black Sheep. It too is 4 ounces and it will probably be just enough for a pair. I'm half of a mind to frog the semi-sock and look for a more suitable project for that gorgeous yarn. I know for a fact that this is socks. It told me so.
Ian helped me lay the rug tonight and I'm frustrated to see that it's only half as long as I'd like. The optimal length would be 10' and this is a 3'x5' rug. I'm not sure I can muscle a 10' rug so am wondering about making two 5' rugs on the same warp and just abutting them. After book group on Saturday I'm going to hit thrift stores and look for potential rag rug material.

For you rag rug weavers, I've been thinking about using orange in the warp on my next project with jeans. I see that Hilary's jean rugs use all-blue warp, but Levi Strauss has that orange thread running throughout and I have a tube of orange that came with Goldie. Has anyone incorporated orange in the warp? I'll probably do it anyway since I'm not sure I have enough blue. Just curious. I really do need to tell you about Goldie. Evelyn is right - there is a story.