Today I squeezed in a little front porch knitting, which is pretty much the best type of knitting.

The pattern is Kirsten Kapur's Hamamelis, which has been on my to-knit list forever. Again, I'm using yarn from deep in the stash (hooray!) -- Dream in Color's Smooshy sock yarn in Nightwatch. The pattern's looking great, but the shawl seems small-ish considering that the second of four repeats of the main chart is almost done. I had a little trouble getting into the lace pattern, something that hasn't happened to me in a long time. There's something about garter stitch-based lace that just doesn't click naturally with my brain, esp. when there's patterning on both the right and wrong side rows. The yarn is springy and has kind of a tight twist -- it would probably make excellent socks.

Summer's finally here, and the university where I work is looking absolutely beautiful. Peonies on the main quads, plus look how quickly this spring's crop of ducklings is growing up!

Speaking of getting big so quickly, here's Erik reading a book. He inherited my love of Richard Scarry.