In progress

My husband the artist is enjoying himself in southern France. We live in a valley where the light is golden; in a village where the views take your breath away. He's inspired. He paints every single day, sometimes the same thing, at different hours. He's painted villages, chapels, rivers, even me. He's never painted a picture of me. And now he's painted three. I for one can't stop gushing about the countryside, the tranquility. Driving along winding roads, passing fields of poppies or grapevines or peach trees, I just can't believe that we actually live here. Pinch me. It's real.

I hemmed and hawed about the mesh stitch called for and decided, no. No to little nooks and crannies in my tops, please! Stockinette it is. I had to rip out my ribbing and calculate all the numbers per my stockinette gauge swatch, then cast on again. It's easy knitting, just unusual for me because I'm normally working one piece from the top down. This is all pieces: a front and a back, two sleeves, and, get this, a neckline and button band to be knit separately. Mm. Let me think about that a little further. And, there is a first for me with this garment: set-in sleeves. I've done raglan and drop-shoulder, but not this. My first ever set-in sleeves!

Now be honest: should I shudder in fear, or should I embrace backstitch seaming?

PS: A friend sent us a link to this horrific bike accident in L.A. Here's another article about it. The douchebag driver, a doctor no less, needs to do jail time. It's a pity that L.A. is not bike friendly, and that car drivers think that the road belongs only to them. (The comments in the L.A. times cover all angles of this topic.) For anyone to say they had it coming is appalling. The culture is different in Europe, where the road is shared, and bikes get right of way. Sure, there are asshole riders too, but would anyone go so far as to kill one? I hope that with rising gas prices people back home in the U.S. will start using their bikes more often. There has be change.