We live in a brick oven
We’re on the second story of a brick house duplex. It is a long and skinny type apartment. The living room is in the front of the house which faces west. The living room has lots of windows. When it is 100+ degrees outside and you have sun shining on those windows all afternoon (regardless of the fact that the blinds are closed), the effect is quite simple. It is like living in a brick oven.
Plus, being on the second story of a brick house, it is impossible to get our apartment to cool down once it gets hot. The last few days I’ve had the thermostat set to 70 degrees and the coolest the apartment has gotten is about 82 degrees. You can feel the heat increase when you walk from the rest of the house into the living room so I’m guessing that with our AC blasting, it is still 85 degrees in our living room. Hence, we live in a brick oven.
I don’t do well with heat. I overheat very easily. I tend not to sweat nearly enough so my body just stores up the heat until I get sick in one way or another. This aggravates my Meniere’s Disease and makes me miserable in general. The last few days I’ve been hiding out in the bedroom which is in the back of the house and thus far away from the afternoon sun and, as a bonus, there is a ceiling fan. St. Louis summers almost always get this bad. The humidity is what makes it unbearable. You walk outside and I swear it’s hard to breathe. But I’m not used to being this miserable even when I’m inside. Last year at this time, I was still living in my parents’ basement. Believe me, I’m very happy to have moved on and to be here with my man but I now see the advantage of living in a room that is 2/3 underground with 2 very small windows.
Okay, enough whining, I know it’s hot everywhere and most of you feel my pain. So, on to the knitting!
The Kauni is hibernating until such a temperature as I can bear to deal with 100% scratchy wool. The second Embossed Leaves sock is nearly finished. I finished the Camo Raglan Sweater a while ago but I don’t have pictures for you yet because of the whole 100+ degrees not going well with 100% wool thing. I’ve been knitting on socks for Stephen for his birthday. These are also my socks for the Ravelry Sock Knitters Anonymous group’s monthly challenge. (Get yourself on Ravelry’s waiting list if you haven’t yet!)
The pattern is called Garter Bars Sock and is by Sockbug. The yarn is Tofutsies in a brown/black/white colorway (737 - Footsteps). Here is a closer look:
It’s a nice easy pattern to memorize and Stephen likes them and they fit well so far so that’s good. Tofutsies is so nice to work with and I’m nearly to the heel flaps so those are going well.
Two days ago I decided to dump my rule of no more than three projects at a time and cast on a very special project I’ve been saving. You see, the Kauni is in hibernation, the Embossed Leaves Socks are nearly done, and I was craving something cool and smooth and shiny to work with. That’s right, there was silk in my stash and it was calling my name. As a graduation gift to myself I bought some La Luz silk yarn made by Fiesta. It is Amethyst, it is shiny, it is luxurious and even a bit decadent. I bought four skeins of it with a specific pattern in mind. I present to you the beginning of my Clapotis:
I’m farther than that now, on to the straight rows and I’ve dropped my first stitch and was highly amused as I unraveled it. I’m working it on 95 stitches instead of 107 because I decided I want it a big longer and skinnier than the pattern calls for. The silk is wonderful to work with and the color is just gorgeous.
That’s in natural light so it’s pretty true to the actual color, at least on my monitor. I’ve never worked with silk before and it is a real treat.
So, that’s the knitting update. I’m off now to figure out some way to block the windows because the heat shows no sign of breaking and I can’t stand this. I’ve had black trash bags recommended by a co-worker and Stephen found some big pieces of cardboard so we’ll see what I come up with. It won’t be pretty but hopefully it’ll be cooler.
Try blocking your windows with tin-foil. It reflects the heat/light instead of absorbing it as black trash bags would. I feel your pain; I hate hate hate the heat. It exacerbates my health issues too. Luckily we’re having an unusually cool summer here in hot dry SD! Love your knitting photos!
Your Clapotis is beautiful!! I can’t wait to see it done in all its dropped-stitch-glory.
Ahh, I feel your pain about the hot apartment problem. I live on the third floor in a converted attic. We have very few windows, and no normal window that we can put an air conditioner into.
the heat. i am heat intolerant too and get ill very easily. there are things you can do, but they require a small sacrifice in the beauty of your living room.
this is to put darker shades/covers over the windows. the east window should be kept covered until at least 11 am, when sun shifts, and west window shadses should be closed after 2 pm. south covered mostly.
1. we bought the limo film that makes windows darker - reflects heat out and will prevent heat loss in winter also.
2. put up bamboo shades over the windows
3. in a pinch, put up a darker cover over window -mine are my dark green flannel winter sheets.
once you can get the house cooler it helps.
finally, floor fans. i have a stand up fan that i usually pointed towards a wall. my elec co said it was greener and more efficient to point to floor and i actually got a 2-5 degree drop. of course that helps b/c warm air rises.
oops one more finally. every night after dark we turn on bathroom and kitchen vent fans as they will pull out hot air all night. turn off about 8 am.
… i can barely tolerate 78 but am getting house in that zone.
blessings, :L, laura