Progress!

The front of Orangina is now finished.

It really is true - first lace is magical. All those bunched up, twisted stitches turned into rows of little vines and eyelets with nothing more than water and pins. The blocking process also added just enough crispness to the fabric to give it a structured, classy drape.

I am just now about 5 repeats into the back. My progress was slowed by the scorching weather we had last week. Really, it's enough to muster the energy to breath when it's 98 degrees.

Fortunately though, the heat broke when we had our first summer thunderstorm. Around here storms are apt to rumble a bit and give forth only a few scattered drops of rain, but this one was the real thing. We had about 45 minutes of lightning and thunder accompanied by a good downpour. When it cleared up a bit for the sunset, I got this picture of our neighbor's rose.

I'm using Mr. M's camera while mine is in the shop, so I'm glad I got this shot. The Kodak Pro doesn't have a fully automatic setting and it is much more sensitive to camera shake, so nearly all of my photos from this session where useless. As you can see in the knitting photos, my depth of field is rather hit and miss.

But this rose, with its damp and poignant beauty, was my chance success...