Here comes the kraken!

I set down my needles last week to work on making a sun screen for my pergola. It’s been an interesting project since I’ve had to plan it from scratch, deciding how I’m going to fix panels of fabric up there in such a way as the wind won’t blow them down and yet I can run them out in the sun, and back under the eves in the rain. (Grommets work, but s-hooks are not a good choice to hold them to the runner cord. Book binder rings from the dollar store work great.) Everything has to be rated for outdoor use, which means outdoor fabric, polyester cord and thread which won’t sun rot, and of course none of the spans I’m covering have the exact same width. (Head hits desk. Shouldn’t something only two years old be within spec?) So I’ve been busy with the sewing machine my grandpa found at a flea market and fixed up for me when I was 12. Singer, baby! They last forever. Now that is a GOOD machine.

I’m working my way through the panels right now, pecking away at them after work and going slow but steady with first the iron, then the machine, and finally putting in grommets and hanging them, but it has meant my knitting (read therapy) has sort of taken a back seat.

I did, however, take pictures today of what I’d been up to this last month to get them up on Ravelry. (Kim at Ravelry). You can see a definite theme here. My goal is to use them in my bathroom, make sort of an underwater, beach theme, and seriously, doesn’t every home need a kraken? Now that I’ve got the basics–tentacles, arms, and shells–in a larger yarn, I’ll work on duplicating them in smaller. I’d love a bunch of starfish or colorful shells in yarn. Fish would be good too.

But for now, my therapy is either puttsing in the garden or working on the sunshade. My deck gets too hot, and it all flows into my kitchen.