Actual Knitting Content. With Pictures.

School is crazy busy right now, and despite the fact that Steve and I should be finishing up some house repairs, we took a weekend trip with Stephanie to visit some family in Maryland and New Jersey this weekend. It was great fun as always, plus I got another Honey Cowl knitted up!

Steve's brother, Steve, and Jan, a lifelong friend of Steve's mom.

The latest Honey Cowl, knit with MadTosh, in the Spectrum color way.

The Darkside Cowl, using Malabrigo Rios. This is the first sixteen row repeat, very easy to knit, but without being a boring knit. I worked on it on my day off yesterday, while watching back-to-back episodes of The Barefoot Contessa.

While I can't have Ina's sweet life, I can garnish an otherwise boring meal of pigeon peas and rice with a sprinkling of scallions and a wedge of lime. I need to watch her show more often!

By the way, we actually had a few snow flurries this evening! Very exciting for our area! It's stopped now, but the wind is super blustery. Hope it's a harbinger of a snowy winter!

 

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Tough Times

Gratuitous fall photo:

 

Stephen has been working on our house, or as he so elegantly puts it, "the f***ing money pit." We need to replace our front door and storm door, but before we do that, he is painting the porch. It's a distressed brown color, as in worn away brown over concrete, and we've planned on doing something to it since we moved in five years ago, but the time got away from us. So of course, he has to prep it and prime it and then the primer has to cure for seven days, and by then it'll probably be Thanksgiving, which was my "deadline" for the door install. I'm really hoping it'll all be done by Christmas, if you want to know the truth. Last week we cleaned all the overgrown weeds and brush between our garage and our next door neighbor's house, at the next door neighbor's not-so-polite request, and now all the debris is piled up in the yard. Our place is beginning to look like what I imagine the famed Duck Dynasty folks homestead must look like, but as I have never seen the show, I'm only guessing. I helped a lot with that project, and coincidentally, my back/neck is thrown out. I started feeling twinges during the first part of the week, and by Friday morning, I couldn't ignore it any longer. I have an appointment with my neck/pain doctor on Monday, and I spent most of Saturday self medicating and trying to relax. Knitting isn't really the best thing to do at this point, so I've been doing some reading and iPad browsing. I need to grade papers but have been procrastinating like a champ.

I swear I love autumn, but it seems like I have some kind of health issue every year about this time.

To lighten the grim tone, here's yet another picture of my sweet cat, Gracie:

To close, I hope you aren't offended by this bicycle I saw outside of the ODU bookstore yesterday, but I thought it was hilarious!

 

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Time to Begin

For some reason, I feel like it's time to start my holiday gift knitting. Maybe because I've eaten my fill of pumpkin pancakes and candy corn, although not at the same time. Or maybe to justify my Rhinebeck yarn purchases. Or it could be due to the fact that November begins this Friday, but regardless of the reason, these are a few of the patterns I've been thinking about:

• Darkside Cowl
• Isla Cloche
• Cladach
• Barley
• Drop Stitch Cowl

I'm still working on my Tidal cardigan, but I can see the finish line. It'll be done soon enough, and since our weather is usually warmer than I'd like for the fall season, I'm sure I'll get plenty of wear out of it.

What are you knitting these days?

 

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After Rhinebeck

I kept comparing waiting to see Meredith and going to Rhinebeck with her as my Christmas gift to myself, and now it feels like the day after Christmas. It all went by so fast. I loved my time with my daughters, the weather was fantastic, Rhinebeck was wonderful, and I even had time to see a friend who lives in Manhattan, but now that it's over, there is a bit of a let down feeling.

Oh well, luckily I have plenty of papers to grade. But first, let me share a few more photos from my trip.

 

 

 

 

Everything is grouped by three because I was shopping for two friends as well as myself. Have to say I love the Lisa Souza colors and the price was very reasonable! Hope I enjoy knitting with it, though I'm sure I will. I also bought some Cephalopod yarn which looked lovely, and some Melissa Jean buttons and stitch markers. I could have done some serious damage in her booth, as everything was so pretty!

I bought the goats milk soaps as I intended, and I also bought some Green Mountain Spinnery yarns, even though I haven't used the ones I already have in my stash; however, since Christmas knitting is beginning soon, I plan on rectifying that situation very soon. Oh, and I think I bought something from Hope Spinnery too. The one purchase I didn't make that I had planned on, was the Miss Babs yarn; I know it has great reviews, but I thought Lisa Souza's yarn was just as lovely and much cheaper. I passed on the Seacolors yarn again, but I am putting it first on my list for the next trip, because I have been tempted every year but for some reason have never bought any. They have the one of the prettiest booths, but I think I must hit their barn first and I'm afraid of buying too early. Or something.

That's it for my Rhinebeck report. Have a good week.

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Rhinebeck

My first Rhinebeck experience was in 2009 and this picture is the perfect visual to show just how excited I was to be there:

 

Meredith and I went again in 2010, only this time, Ryan came with us. These are the pictures I like best:

I was savvy enough to wear my first sweater, plus the scarf I made from the hand spun Rudee gifted me with, and a pair of hand mitts knitted by Meredith. I also had on hand knit socks.

 

This year, I got to attend with both my daughters! I didn't plan ahead enough to finish a Rhinebeck sweater, but I can live with it.

Yarn rock stars:

 

Ryan, Meredith, and Melissa:

Me:

My girls, looking at fiber:

Meredith and Melissa, sharing a laugh together. I love this.

And my favorite picture of the trip, me and the girls, surrounded by all that color.

More Rhinebeck photos soon!

 

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Love My Girls

I love my grown up girls; I sometimes wish for the days they were young, but I do love knowing them at this age.

 

 

Melissa, modeling a knit skirt that Meredith made for her. Oh, and Meredith knit the boots as well. Melissa loves them!

Meredith, grading a pattern for Melissa, who is starting to sew clothes.

After we ate breakfast yesterday, we saw this wonderful cheese shop. Love the autumnal colors in this picture.

And now, we are finally headed up to Rhinebeck! Can't wait!

 

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Traveling

I think one of the things I love best about traveling is deciding what to take and what to leave behind. I like the idea that I can carry all I need in one or two small bags and be content with so much less than I have on a day to day basis.

This trip is an especially sweet one because I'm traveling with my youngest daughter and we are headed to my oldest daughter's home. My girls are 24 and 29, and these days I rarely get to see them both at the same time. Truthfully, I don't get to see them nearly enough even one at a time. Meredith lives in Brooklyn, and is working and going to graduate school, and while Melissa may live in the same area I do, we both work a lot and have other obligations and I feel lucky if I see her once a week. So this trip is a gift.

The fact that we are all going to Rhinebeck together this weekend is the icing on the cake. Meredith and I are both knitters; she began knitting about a year after I started, and while Melissa doesn't knit, she is a crafter, and very creative. She is looking forward to the prospect of being around such a large community of crafters and she is particularly interested in seeing all the animals.

I plan on taking lots of photos, as usual, and rest assured, I will share them here. I just hope I can take enough pictures to make time slow down this weekend. Because I want to enjoy this gift of a trip as long as I can.

 

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