Cool weekend. Warm company.

This past weekend, Rick and I had guests at the cottage. My sister Nancy and her husband Bill (who have rented their own cottage for the summer) and my dear friend Jennifer.

The weather was very un-July-ish - cool and cloudy until well into the afternoon, and not conducive to water sports, so the three women sat and knit in the afternoon overlooking the water. (We all brought knitting and hooking and magazines - cottage heaven.) I wish now that I had a picture of us sittin' and knittin' - it would have been a much better image for this post, but alas one was not taken.

Jennifer and I are both working on February Lady, a free sweater pattern that has been featured on Ravelry and the Purple Purl and is really lovely. (Actually Jenn posted about it on Friday on her blog too, so you should go and have a peek.) I spent more time "frogging" than knitting and eventually got so frustrated that Jenn offered to get my lace back on track while I went to make brownies - a fair exchange I figured.

Not only did she get me back on pattern, but I also realized by purling her knit row that I had been mistakenly doing a "YON - yarn over needle" stitch instead of a "YF - yarn forward" stitch, hence the odd looking twist in my pattern that didn't exist in hers.

Jenn's sweater is for winter, in a beautiful plummy/blue/brown/burgundy yarn which she overdyed herself. Mine is recycled cotton from a sweater than lost its shape and is now being reinvented as February Lady. Since the gauge is finer, the needles are larger and the lace pattern is much more open. I figure this will bide well for a summer sweater, but truth be told, I like hers much better, (as did my hubby...) so, I will probably do another one in merino which can actually be worn in February.

Nancy was making a hat in a great pattern for people with small heads and/or small hair. It is comfy and very flattering. Her only problem was that the beautiful black wool she was using was turning her fingers black where she held the yarn. I'm sure a little soak in vinegar should solve the problem.

The knitting projects came out several times over the course of the weekend, while we sat and chatted (and weren't eating). Nancy's hat got finished. Jennifer's sweater is in the home stretch. And mine - well, at least it's back on track and I figured out where I was going wrong.

Good food, good company, no-fuss entertaining and weather that suited knitting. I'd call it a pretty wonderful weekend. Even if the weather felt a bit more like sweaters than bathing suits.