the new moon in Cancer

Amy Herring writes, "The second solar eclipse of the summer takes place this Friday [today] in the 10th degree of Cancer. The Sabian symbol for this eclipse is a large diamond in the first stages of the cutting process, suggesting something that has taken a long time to build, form, and develop, and now it's ready to be cut and polished. This eclipse speaks to recognizing how to bring out the inherent beauty, and also the potential for fear to cripple you if you are afraid to take the steps to make this beauty (you? your project? your life?) really shine."

The process of matching up a pattern to yarn is like that, isn't it? You have to consider the inherent qualities of the yarn to find a pattern where it really shines. With Zauberball Lace, two things struck me when selecting the Westerwaldwaves pattern:
• these long colour repeats would really shine in this wide horizontal pattern
• these simple fan motifs wouldn't be lost in all this really dynamic colour variegation

It's also fitting on this Canada Day that I'm getting organized to begin Come-Blog-Along. The book I've chosen is Knitting on the Road and the first pattern is aptly named "Canada". Nancy Bush's introduction to the pattern is a perfect commentary to celebrate Canada's 144th birthday:

The inspiration for these colorful socks comes from wonderful memories of my many visits to Canada and the delightful friendships I've formed with the people who live there. The yarn is Canadian, from Shelridge Farms in Ontario, and the colors reflect a Canadian autumn. The technique for the "Latvian twist" was taught to me by Lucy Neatby, a very skilled British knitter, designer and teacher who lives in Nova Scotia, and the main pattern is an Estonian design called "Maple Leaf". So many people have found refuge in the country, I like to think these socks reflect some of the diversity of cultures that are at home in Canada.