Budding Prosperity

Ah, vacation.... It was great, and there was too much to tell you about, so let's just leave it at two things: It was sunny most of the time (a miracle for the Northeast right now) and I went to two yarn shops. Two lovely, lovely yarn shops. I can't imagine how that happened.

On the knitting progress front:

First, I'm about one-quarter through Joanna's Prosperous Plum Tank. It's working up beautifully in Rowan's Calmer yarn,

although I'd say my ssks leave something to be desired, compared to my k2togs.
Ah, well, it'll make it look handmade, right?

Second, it's less than a month till the July 21st deadline for donations to Afghans for Afghans, so I'm going to whip out at least one child-size hat between now and then. This is the beginning of Sally Melville's Canadian-Winter Hat, from her book The Purl Stitch, in Phildar Superwash Lenox Bulky yarn. A quick-and-dirty, I hope.

And finally, one beautiful bud on my New Dawn rose.

If the mosquitos hadn't been biting my every extremity, I would have taken you a better photo, but I sacrificed enough blood in northern New Hampshire, so this is all you get.