July Ends

At Popham Beach

By Thorpe Moeckel

Haze of wave spume towards Small Point,

       Seguin Island Light like a whale's spout—

maybe life washes itself here, cools off.

       It never comes clean. See all the sails up

and full in the windy parade of skin

       and sand and brine. Soon the rocks will pluck

each wave's feathers. Soon the beach

       like the moon, waning, will be 1/8th its size.

Somewhere else—maybe Ireland—the tide

       will bottom out then. For now the sun

blesses the bodies at home in theirs,

       and those less so, to ruin and ruin's aftermath—

whatever that is—and the waves rolling in,

       little snowplows, nimbus in miniature; how

the beach fishhooks east, one child—

       is that mine, or some spirit I was one more

usher of?—face up, arms and legs

       scraping a temporary angel in the sand.

Still in Maine, though it is our last week here. Sigh. Difficult to leave, but I do love my little house in the Hartland hemlocks.

Spunky Eclectic "Little Fishes" Merino Top 2-ply

Still getting lots of spinning done, with a bit of knitting, too. The "Little Fishes" merino top, pictured below, came in at 554 yards. That might be the finest (as in thinnest) I've spun. Planning to use it for the Holden Shawlette.

Spunky Eclectic "Robin Red Breast" Gotland fiber

Also just finished thwacking 194 yards of worsted weight (methinks - I forgot my WPI tool at home) Gotland sheepswool. It's very hairy - coarse, even - but the color is pretty-Spunky Eclectic's "Robin Red Breast" - the April 2012 shipment.  Photo of the finished yarn is forthcoming...

Just began spinning, for a fingering weight, the May 2012 Spunky shipment - "Big Bang". Man, this is lovely BFL top. The colors are to die for. So lustrous, too. I'm catching up to you, Spunky Club!!! "Only" May, June, and July shipments to do. But then comes the August 2012 shipment...and then school begins and spinning time disappears...if I've got to have a problem, that's a pretty good problem to have.

Spunky's "Big Bang" Blue-Faced Leicester Top fiber - yum!

I'm actually using some of my handspun this summer - knitting up a quick, bulky garter stitch scarf using Frabjous Fibers' "Stained Glass" merino - spun during the winter of 2010. Size 11 needles. Easy pattern. Graceful Shawl.

"Graceful" Shawl using bulky handspun

Sock knitting continues with the second of Cookie A's "Elm" pattern from The Knitter's Book of Socks by Clara Parkes. Decided to make these for Zig, as the leg is very slender and thus will fit him well.

Cookie A's "Elm" Sock #1 for Zig

I did some SERIOUS stash enhancement over the last two weeks, visiting two local yarn shops - Eagle's Nest Yarns in Waldoboro and Purl Diva in Brunswick, as well as scoring some locally produced yarn and fiber at the Pemaquid Farmers' Market just up the road from us. So much for stash reduction/control.

Now it's off to the beach for some sun, reading, and knitting. More later...