Did you ever get that assignment in elementary school? I remember dreading starting the new school year, for fear of getting that assignment – because we rarely did more than ride our bikes to the local swimming pool and back home again during summer. “All” the other kids (well, you know, when you’re a youngster it seems like ALL of them!) had such interesting stories to tell of how they had spent the three months since school got out and now.
There was ONE summer that I ended up with a story to tell. It was the summer before second grade. My family had gone to one of the local lakes with friends of ours, and while the dads were out fishing in the boat, the kids and moms stayed on the shore to swim and take in the sun. My brother swam out to where it was deep water, and since I’d learned to swim that summer (sort of!), I decided to swim out to where he was. When I got there, I tried to stand up – and sunk. The next few minutes (seemed like an eternity) were spent panicking and drinking a lot of the lake while I nearly drowned. My auntie (my mom’s best friend who was like our auntie) and mother came to my rescue. It was a terrible experience. But! I could not wait until school started because NOW I had something to share if we got that assignment “What I did on my summer vacation” – I’d nearly drowned! Now that was worth reporting!
Well, sure enough, we got the assignment. In second grade, we wrote our stories, unlike first grade and Kindergarten when we were just TELLING them. The teacher then had some of us read our stories. I felt so special when she asked me to read mine. The kids were all very impressed, and I sat back in my seat feeling kind of like nobody could top THAT story! Then Gregory Martin (I think it was) got up and went to the front of the class, and started telling everybody that the SAME THING had happened to him. Now how likely was that, I thought? I didn’t believe him. I thought he was just making that all up because he thought it sounded like a neat thing that was a good story to tell. I felt the wind going out of my proverbial sails – and no longer was my story the most outstanding “what I did on my summer vacation.” Someone ELSE said they’d done the same thing. Heck.
After that, it was back to just riding the bikes to the pool and waiting for school to start – so when someone asked what I did on my summer vacation I said “nuthin’” and left it at that. Oh, I imagine if we got it as a writing assignment, I figured something out. It was after all an assignment. But everything else sort of paled compared to the story I’d had for second grade and that Gregory Martin had swiped from me.
So, what did I do during the summer of 2011? Nuthin’. I didn’t even ride my bike to the pool – well, I don’t even own a bike now, so that’s probably why, and as for public pools – ewe. Now that I’m “old” they don’t appeal. I guess I did do a few projects this summer, but very little in the way of knitting. Very little. It seems I might actually be one of those knitters who becomes less inspired in the hot months. Aside from a few dishcloths, and the ongoing stockinette stitch of Larch that I pick up occasionally, the summer of 2011 went by pretty much without anything accomplished knittingwise.
I did sew some. I made MP a yellow shirt he’s always wanted. Which didn’t fit. 
We’re both dieting now though, so I may have him try it on again and see if things have improved. It’s the same pattern I’ve used before, but he’d insisted was a bit too big, so I made it smaller. I didn’t really like this fabric though, so I just considered it a “[not so] wearable muslin” and set to making preparations for the next yellow shirt I was going to make for him. I actually dyed some fabric I had in my stash and it came out really nice. So far, that is as far as progress has gotten on that yellow shirt – it’s still a nice piece of yellow fabric.
Besides the dishcloths I always have going, I actually DID start on my sweet grandson’s lizard mittens. We went to visit the family this summer, and I had hoped to have all three kids mittens ready to give to them, but the four-year-old got a coloring project and a promise while the girls got mittens. We had great fun coloring together. I should have the first one completed soon – but it will be a “What I did this Fall” story because, as we know, summer is a thing of the past for 2011. 
