Swimming In The Rain

Last night I resigned from the worldwide community of knitters.  I had two baby bootees on needles.  I was excited because both were departures from the expected and from the very old patterns I was using. As I was completing the foot and starting up the cuff of the mossy-green-meadow variegated bootee, I kept ignoring the obvious and clinging to my hope that this is going to be beautiful. Then I stopped and really LOOKED at it.  It looked like a thick rectangular stiff light yellow-green  box that a tiny baby foot was supposed to go into.  The yarn was too thick, the needles too small and there was no way of saving it. Ok. I had the other one to turn to.  I had chosen medium gray as the yarn for the panels and white for the outlines to make bootees that would have the look of little gray panels all over, bordered with white around each one.  This time the yarn and needles were the size the pattern called for.  I knitted along, thinking, again, that it was looking kind of big.  After I finished the cuff, working top down, I did what "they" try to tell you to always do, BEFOREHAND. I checked the gauge.  Instead of 9 stitches per inch, I was getting 6 stitches per inch.  I threw it all in a box;  I quit knitting. I decided I needed to get back to exercising and being active.  I had sat with my needles too long and was becoming sloppy.  In the morning I would start the day with a swim.

I got up this morning and it was raining.  Now that's not a complaint.  Our garden has become so dry there's no saving some of it. The morning glories had drooped for several weeks, just surviving on the little water I gave them over the drought. For the first time in forever, their leaves are full and strong this morning.



The black-eyed susans are really pretty and I brought some in for the table.

Remember my plan was to start the day with swimming.  I looked at the rain coming down heavily into our pool.  There was no lightning.  I went swimming.  Water drops were coming down all around me with millions of air bubbles forming on the blue surface.  The air temperature was cooler than the water temperature and it was amazing. This picture was after the rain stopped but I just wanted to see the blue here.

My breakfast this morning is a banana smoothie.  I freeze sliced bananas, add skimmed milk and put them through the magic bullet.  It's healthy but thick as a milkshake from the frozen bananas.  This time I added just a little cold coffee and sprinkled the top with grated semisweet chocolate.  Ready to go.

I'll be rejoining the knitting world this afternoon with soft, light-blue, fingering-yarn bootees.