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Archive for July 27th, 2005

Heliotrope and Warm Wool Socks

Wednesday, July 27th, 2005

Socks by LynnHSomeone left me an interesting phone message today. It says basically: “Heliotrope, Lynn… Heliotrope.” So THAT is the name of the beautiful flower!

Now, this is unfair! I am very very bad at recognizing voices on the phone, never mind that my digital phone recorder is not the best. I know SO many people, see so many folks every week. But I know it has to be one of you out there who reads my weblog (and also most likely is local and somehow can easily get my phone number). Thank you, whoever you are.

The good news is it’s a perennial. The bad news? The page I found to tell me about the flower, says it wants full sun and doesn’t like to dry out. That leaves my garden out. My full sun area does in fact dry out sometimes, especially in August when I get so busy I don’t get home till after dark… or I leave town for a few days here and there. I teach at Michigan Fiber Festival for several days, for example.

Boo Hoo. The flowers are exquisite!

Socks by LynnHSo what’s up in Lansing? Well, it is chilly after weeks of significantly hotter than usual weather. We usually get a few, maybe 4 or 5 hot days all summer. We’ve had weeks over 85F degrees. So right now as I type this, it is 60F. I have a sweatshirt, long pants, and thick (worsted weight) wool socks on, and a lap blanket as well. We do have the front door cracked open for fresh air but wowie, did the world turn upside down in 3-4 days. Literally three nights ago we put the air conditioner in the bedroom window for the first time all summer, because it was finally so hot we knew we would never be able to sleep well without some relief. And now this!

I am *NOT* in charge. This is my new mantra since just before I went to Africa. It works very well in relation to weather, not so well with work. (Although I can’t remember the last time, before tonight, where I went to the National Weather Service page for Lansing and didn’t see any thunderstorm predictions. I’ll take the good I can get.)

I guess I missed my wool socks, anyway.

Photos: The wool socks I’m wearing right now. My pair is shown in magenta, a design I call Pied Piper socks because the blue ones for Brian followed closely behind. Mine are pair 34, they are the next pair after those in my LynnH SockTour. Brian’s were pair 36, because I finished a pair for a swap between the two for us.

They look so clean and tidy in the photo… right now mine are darned using two different colors of pink yarns, but they are just as comfy and warm as ever. Both pair were knit using Dale Freestyle worsted-weight washable wool. I swear, this yarn never pills, even in washer and dryer! Amazing stuff.