Travels

I had a marvelous time visiting my oldest daughter, Meredith. This was the first time I was able to visit her new place, since she moved right after our Thanksgiving visit. They have a tiny but lovely apartment, on the fourth floor of a renovated brownstone in Brooklyn. I took the train up Saturday, and left today. We did the perfect blend of walking, sightseeing, eating, and just hanging out knitting. We watched the final episode of Downton Abbey, season three, which was less than satisfying. It felt very disjointed to me. We enjoyed the new Kevin Spacey/Robin Wright series, House of Cards, much better. I didn't get to see all of it, but heaven knows we tried. It was definitely a gripping story, and I think both actors are great. I finished a baby hat, using the Blue Sky Petites and the Empress pattern. I need to block it, but it looks pretty good.

 

 

I started a pair of boot socks for Meredith, using the old workhorse yarn, Cascade 220, in a grey that she picked out. She doesn't love sock knitting, and I never give her as many hand knits as she gives me, so I agreed. I'm using the Sweetheart Stocking pattern, but I'm only putting one pair of hearts at the top because I hate knit 4tog. And she will only wear them with boots anyway, so she didn't care either way.

I was lucky enough to get a tour of etsy, which is where Ryan works. It looks like an awesome place to work.

Oh, by the way, that is yarn covered duct work.

 

 

 

 

We also walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, despite a light rain, as etsy is located right at the foot of it, in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn.

 

 

I also made a visit to the World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial, which was even more moving than I had expected it to be. I have had mixed feelings about going ever since it opened, but I felt that I needed to, and although the sudden tears took me by surprise, I'm glad I did it.

 

 

 

As for yarn stores, we restrained ourselves to Brooklyn General and Purl Soho, both of which were every bit as nice as they always are. About the only other place we went, other than eating out, was Greenlight Books, which Steve had discovered on line. I'm glad we went, as it was quite nice.

 

Brooklyn General buttons.

A sweet knit your own squirrel kit.

 

 

 

The interior of Purl.

Gorgeous samples.

An array of amazing color.

Oh, and a photo op of my Zuzu's Petals shawl, in an Mexican restaurant rest room. (Although it is an odd place to take a photo, it was a beautiful bathroom.)

 

I'm on the train now, listening to a woman talking on her cell phone. Prior to that, she was snoring rather loudly, but I think I preferred the snoring, as her conversation is mainly a litany of complaints about the relatives she just visited. Don't you wonder about the way people choose to live?

I'm ready for a nap. Hope I don't snore too!

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They Say It's My Birthday....

I am 53 years old today and I am celebrating by taking Amtrak to New York to visit my daughter. I'm on the way right now and I have a bag of knitting projects sitting next to me that I will work on as soon as I finish this post.

 

I had birthday cake last night with my husband, youngest daughter, my niece, and a friend from work who is also my knitting buddy. And yesterday, my students showed me some birthday love with an oversized, handmade card.

 

 

Good news on the Gracie-cat: she has finally trusted us enough to hang out in the sunroom with us. Such a sweetie.

 

 

 

 

Our little girl is so brave now!

 

My lovely, thrifted candle holder, my Valentine's gift from Steve.

Now, I've got some knitting to do!

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A Lovely Sunday

Steve and I went to Richmond today in order to take Stephanie back and so I could see the Chihuly exhibit at the Virginia Fine Arts Museum, but alas, I had procrastinated until the last day of the exhibit and unfortunately for me, all the tickets were sold out. The only piece of his I was able to see was this stunning chandelier, which made me even more irritated with myself for missing the rest of the gorgeous glass pieces. But you can't tell that from this photo, because really, there's no use in letting it ruin one's day now, is there?

 

 

We walked about outside as it was a beautiful day, and I managed to console myself with a delicious lunch, some thrift store finds, and a visit to The Yarn Lounge.

This is a skein of Koigu KPPPM,

and a petite skein of Blue Sky Royal Alpaca; the pink is designated for a soon to be born baby girl.

I bought this pattern to make the hat, because I can't resist these tiny patterns!

I bought the Catherine Cowl one last month from FibreSpace. So cute!

Another photo of the completed Rathtrevor mitt from Jane Richmond's Island collection, which I wore today, along with the cowl I have on in the first photo. The yarn for the cowl is a luscious skein of Juniper Moon Farm Marlowe.

This is a skein of MadTosh in the color way Mansfield's Garden Party and I had started using it for the Zuzu's Petals cowl, despite a concern that the lace pattern would be lost in the variegation. When I ended up messing up the lace section, I took it as a sign and frogged it.

I immediately cast on again using another skein of MadTosh in a fiery shade that is worsted weight and will allow the lace pattern to be seen. I'm hoping to finish it this week so I can wear it to Brooklyn next weekend. I am treating myself to a train trip on my birthday to visit my daughter in her new home. Exciting! I'm hoping some of the fourteen inches of snow they received this weekend will still be around for me.

Either way, it'll be a great birthday present to me, including the train ride up and back, which will allow lots of knitting time! Lucky me!

Gracie is doing better, although this is still the closest we usually get to seeing her. She does allow some right before bedtime petting though, and she ventures to the kitchen to check on us every night around 9:00 p.m. or so. It seems like it's going to be a slow process, but that's okay with me. My sweet girl can take as long as she needs.

 

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Catching Up

Last week was a difficult one, but we made it. I took this photo of my girls the night before Meredith flew back to Brooklyn. It's a bit fuzzy, but I love it.

 

There has been knitting, although nothing earth shattering. This is the cuff of a sweetheart mitt I'm making for a KAL with a friend. And it's using stash yarn!

I finished a pair of hand mitts from the Jane Richmond book, Island. These are the Rathtrevor pattern, using some MadTosh in the Stephen Loves Tosh color way.

I can't remember if I posted about the Arbutus cowl, also from Jane's book. This was made using Dragonfly Fibers Traveller in the County Fair color way, which I think is very similar to the MadTosh I used for the mitts.

Another stash buster I may or may not have posted about was this cowl/neckwarmer made out of Quince & Co. Puffin. It's a tincanknits pattern called False Creek, and it was a very quick knit.

I went to two yarn shops yesterday for a Superbowl sale, and I started a Zuzu's Petals cowl using some brand new madelinetosh sport.

Gracie continues to hide most of the time, but she will let me pet her, as long as she is under the bed. Once in awhile we are so quiet that she ventures out, thinking we aren't around, only to stare at us for a minute or two before scampering back to one of her hiding places. Oh well, maybe one of these days she will feel safe enough to hang out with us.

My new semester is off to a good start; my new set of students seem to be a well behaved group of kids, which will be nice. I don't have my own classroom this time, instead, I'm going into three different class rooms, with all my stuff on a cart. It's a bit stressful but I think it'll keep me pretty organized, out of necessity. Oh well, it is what it is. Happy February!

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