Yarns: Beach Hairband KAL and "The Summer Wives"

     I started Beach Hair Don't Care hairband and I'm working on it sporadically around my other projects.  I'm determined to work on my Christmas sock, finish my shawl and a few other things.  But I want to work on this little lace hair band.  I shake my head as I force myself to focus on the other stuff while this little project is calling me.  Maybe today I'll be better to myself and let myself just knit on it.  But my The Age of Brass and Steam shawl is just a few rows away from finishing and I promised to work on the sock every day, just a bit.  See how it goes?

WeAreNomadicKnits' Beach Hair Don't Care

© Melissa Kemmerer

     If you want to participate in the KAL it runs from August 21st - September 16th and you can join us in Facebook - Nomadic Knits.  You need 80 yards of fingering yarn, size #4 circular needle and 2 #4 double pointed needles (I used #3 for my I-cord).  So far it's a fun and fairly easy knit.  I especially enjoyed doing the I-cord since I've never done it before. (Project notes on hairband - Beach Hairband)

     My new read "The Summer Wives" was a Book of the Month selection for July and it's a good summer read.  A murder mystery and love story are interwoven in the story of wealthy summer people and the locals on an island off Connecticut.  The time frame goes back and forth between the 30's, 50's and 60's.  You know who is killed but not why or how and you have hints the convicted murderer isn't the one responsible.  Who and why weave through a story evoking the past and recounting the beauty of the island and sea with the wind and the scents entwined in her words.

" 'The only girl...the only girl...' He took a breath like he was going to try again to finish that sentence, but while my ears strained hard for the next words, I never heard them. Only the whoosh of the breeze in my ears. We stood near the crest of the slope, where the road curved near the cliffs, and I thought that anybody could see us like this, in pungent silhouette sgainst the sky. The sun struck the side of Joseph's face, the wind whistled through his hair. He picked up my hand and looked at it. Turned it over and looked up at me. 'There's only one girl on my mind...' "

     The book especially drew me because of its depiction of the dichotomy between the wealthy summer people and the hard-working locals.  I've experienced that myself in our summer home when growing up.  My family summers in the High Peaks Region of the Adirondacks in Upstate New York.  They have since my great-grandfather before the turn of the last century.  They all belonged to an exclusive club, my father and brother still do.  The Ausable Club encompasses the lakes at the headwaters of the Ausable River and also many beautiful spots that I have visited as a child.  So thankfully, because of my brother's invitation to go with his family and all the cousins into the camp on the Upper Lake every year, I can still go in and enjoy the lakes and streams.

The Ausable Club

SASHA GOLDSTEIN The Ausable Club Is a High Peaks Haven

     The place seems frozen in time. The Ausable clubhouse built sometime in the late 1800's.  But this entire upper society comes into the Valley every summer and there's a certain separateness between locals and club members.  A certain disdain at times between the upper crust and those who are locals who they call Townies.   And from the locals, a faint subservience comes across in their actions and speech.  After all their survival depends on these wealthy summer people.  I've never liked that dynamic and I found it embarrassing to be lumped in with my father when shopping in the local store.  At least that's what I noticed when I was young, perhaps things have changed.  That dynamic is realistically recreated in this book.

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