Rabbit! Rabbit! We are home after such a wonderful Thanksgiving that I didn’t even take one photograph! Not one. Babies, toddlers, my nephews and their parents, friends and family and I just enjoyed being together. We feel so lucky to have family members who we like and enjoy just riding along to the airport and a walk around Logan’s 9/11 memorial or lunch after they visited my s-i-l’s cousin in the hospital. We enjoy each other’s company and love our time together.
We had a traditional Thanksgiving meal this year at my middle nephew’s request and it was delicious! I was very happy with the pumpkin dinner rolls that I brought, they had just enough pumpkin spice to be yummy and not overpowering. The apple pie (no photo of that either) was really yummy as was the cheesecake. I also brought two quiches with hash brown potato crust and they were really yummy, too. I’ll be repeating the quiches at Christmas time. Maybe the pumpkin rolls, too. We will be cooking a turkey breast at our house on Friday because I didn’t have a turkey sandwich yet. I’ll be needing to make cranberry sauce and stuffing for that event. Yum. Why don’t we all make a turkey more than once a year?
While I was away, I believe I’ve finished the fifty inches of stockinette stitch for the Easy Folded Poncho. If so, I’ll be finishing it up tomorrow. I also finished my Alpine Bloom Hat and I absolutely love it. I don’t love it ON me but I love the hat. I also have enough of the yarn left to make something else. I wish there were Alpine Bloom Mittens/Fingerless Mitts. I’m going to have to look because there may be. I cast on the fingerless mitts kit that I bought when “the girls” I work with went to visit a new to Maine yarn shop in Gorham – Olde School Fiber and Craft. Not sure how I feel about this yarn and fabric. Thank goodness they’re mitts and not a sweater. I just think it should have a softer hand than it does. They’ll be fine but not a favorite.
Oops! Just realized I have a committee meeting and the chair didn’t send out an email with an agenda … and the chair is me!
It’s cloudy today but the sun is still shining on the south side of the house. Enough so that it’s warm enough to venture outside for a late morning photograph. The loons are still on the lake in their winter feathers but soon enough they’ll be gone again to their winter home on the coast.
This weekend is all about getting ready for the Thanksgiving holiday coming up next week. We have plans with our Massachusetts family for the day and we are looking forward to being together after what seems like “forever”. I am tasked with making a couple of desserts chosen by my nephew who will be with us after several years away at veterinary school – cheesecake and an apple pie are the requests. I have also found a recipe for pumpkin dinner rolls that I think I’ll try. I just have to get a grocery order together so I can pick it all up tomorrow or Monday. That’ll be next on my list.
This morning I’ve been catching up and trying to finish some of my crafty projects so that I can wash my favorite hand knit vest to wear around the holiday. I’ve worn it a lot and yesterday I dripped on it at lunchtime. Oops. So, today before I could block it out, I had to finish this unicorn hair clip hanger for my granddaughter. Her mother saw one on Pinterest or somewhere and made the request so Sylvie’s hair clips and headbands can be corralled and she can see them, too. I am pretty pleased with the end result. I hope they will be, too.
And I’ve been knitting a lot trying to get Christmas knitting done. I don’t have a lot left to do but I always make my hubby a pair of socks and this year I’ve decided to go with a second pair using a pattern that I’ve used before. I have some balls of Raggi yarn left that I bought when we were losing the distributor in the US at the shop and I loved knitting the first pair (despite a pattern reading mistake). I’ll knit them the right way this time. LOL. I first saw the pattern for the Thompson River Socks in Interweave Knits back in 2016 and it’s available to purchase on their website but I saved my pattern so I started knitting last week. I have to be careful to knit them when he won’t catch me so they’ll be a surprise. I hope I’ll have them both done for him in time.
Thompson River Socks
I’ve finished the knitting part of the Jamberry Cardigan for Sylvie’s Christmas gift and I have begun the duplicate stitch yoke decorations. Why, I wonder, didn’t I just knit the yoke in colorwork? It would have had some long floats but the duplicate stitch floats are equally long and the process isn’t nearly as enjoyable. Regardless, I made the decision to follow the pattern and I’m duplicate stitching. It’s really a cute sweater and I hope she loves it. It does look huge! I made the 4-year size so she can grow into it and she can always roll up the sleeves if it’s too big now. I’m excited for her to see it.
Jamberry Cardigan
I have finished the Wee Liam pullover sweater and the little Billie pants for our nugget, the grandson out in Colorado. My hubby picked the buttons and I am quite happy with these two little garments. Hopefully he hasn’t grown too much and will be able to wear them. (All the size details and yarn, etc. are on my Ravelry project page.) The buttons are solid wood and I like the way they pop off the sweater. And I love the color. It’s showing as more gray here in the photo, it’s really more of a dark sage green.
Wee Liam
I am spending the later evenings when my eyes and brain are tired working on the endless stockinette stitch of the Easy Folded Poncho in orange (Zinnia colorway) Rowan Felted Tweed. I really like the color and it’s going to be fun to wear. I am around the 30-36″ mark, I think. I haven’t got the guts to really measure it because it seems to take forever to get any significant progress made on it. But I am making some progress.
East Folded Poncho
AND I have cast on two more projects. I couldn’t wait to cast on the Alpine Bloom Hat by Caitlin Hunter. I’ve had the Patagonia Organic Merino in charcoal and light gray in my stash for a while waiting to cast this one and I need a hat that I love. I don’t like myself in hats and I’m praying that I do like this one because it makes me so happy knitting it! I’m about half-way through the chart and I made the ribbing extra long so I can fold it over. This is what I WANT to work on but I “make” myself work on the things I need to get done first and knit this as a reward.
My sister-in-love asked me to make a blanket for her brother’s partner whose daughter is about to have the first grandchild. I have also cast this on hoping that I can get it finished before Thanksgiving and hand deliver it to her. I chose Berroco Vintage Chunky in a sage green colorway and am knitting the Three Cable Baby Blanket which is a free pattern we have in the store. I’m not sure where it came from but it’s my go-to pattern for baby gifts and I’ve made several of them. I am loving the green yarn. Green is my brother’s favorite color and this is a lovely soft yarn. I got almost one hank of yarn knitted yesterday afternoon … if I stick to it, I should be able to finish it by the end of the week. Crossing my fingers. I’ll have to resist knitting everything else.
Three Cable Baby Blanket
I have pulled out the beautiful green linen yarn that I bought to make the Broadgate Tabbard and I really want to start knitting that. I have a new white blouse that will be perfect under this “vest” and I can’t wait to see the color! Another new green project and I have very little that’s green. It’s never been a favorite color but when I saw it in a photograph on social media, I had to have that exact color. I think I will be able to wear the tabbard (it’s like a vest but not closed up on the sides) in the summer, too. Over a tank or a tee. We’ll see. But the color green that I bought is stunning. It will wait until I have finished my Christmas knitting.
And with that, I will sign off and get to knitting the baby blanket. If I can get it nearly to the half-way marker today, that would be a huge win … first, though, I have got to put a grocery order together. So until the next time … gone knitting!
It’s a glorious sunshiny day today and the house has been warmed by the sun to a nearly-too-warm 75 degrees at 9am. I can’t think of donning a sweater this morning, at least not downstairs. When we built this house, making it year-round-living-friendly, we had no idea how much passive solar heat we’d be getting but it’s incredible! The entire downstairs is warmed by the sun on days like this. Way past the temperature at which the heat is set.
I cast on a new project yesterday. I got a round and a half knitted before I had to run to work for a few hours and then got the balance of the ribbing done last night. As I was about to change the needles for the body of the hat, I decided that I’d like to knit a folded brim on this hat. I have a ton of yarn, way more than the pattern calls for, and I’d like to see how the fit and style change with a folded brim. SO … I have another couple of inches to knit in 1×1 ribbing before I head on to the chart. I am knitting the Alpine Bloom Hat in Juniper Moon Farms Patagonia Organic Merino. I’ve chosen two shades of grey – Anthracite, my main color, and Light Grey, as contrast color. I love to knit hats and have knit many for myself that end up being given away because I hate myself in hats. We’ll see how this one goes.
I have several other WIPs on the needles in various states of completion. I am about twenty inches of stockinette stitch into the Easy Folded Poncho that I’m knitting. This is a perfect project for those times when my brain is exhausted but my hands want to have yarn in them. It’s boring, frankly. But the color is wonderful and I hope I’ll love the poncho. I’m knitting this in Rowan Felted Tweed and I have to say that I do love this yarn. It’s particularly wonderful when paired with a silk mohair but this one is only the Felted Tweed and it’s lovely, too, on it’s own.
I have a Jamberry Cardigan on the needles for my granddaughter. I am now finished with the first sleeve and have started the second. It won’t take a lot of time to finish the sleeve but once I have knitted the button bands, there’s a bit of duplicate stitch before it’s complete. I love the way this sweater is knitting up and may use it as a basis for her 2026 Christmas sweater. But that’s a long way off. Let’s not go there.
While my FOs aren’t shown here at their finished state, you’ll just have to believe me. They’re finished. Off the needles. AND the little purple socks (they’re the second pair for Sylvie in this yarn and are quite a bit bigger than the first pair!) and the Musseburgh hat that I made as a sample for the store is also sent off to her. The hat wasn’t getting any attention at the shop and the yarn is no longer being sold wholesale so, off it goes to keep a little head warm! Yesterday I looked for alternative buttons for the little sweater that we’re sending to our grandson for Christmas. Hubby liked the ones I have at home better. Today I’ll sew them on and this gift will be finished and ready to wrap and send. Yay! I also finished the embroidered snowflakes on our granddaughter’s Christmas sweater and sent that off to New York City yesterday. That’s three FOs, ladies and gentlemen! Yay!
So, the remaining WIPs are the Jamberry cardi, Noah the horse, Easy Folded Poncho and now the Alpine Bloom hat. I’ve also had a request from my S-I-L for a baby blanket for her brother’s partner who is having her first grandchild in early December. I’ll buy yarn for that on Thursday when I’m at work and get it cast on. Now mind you, that’s my “active” WIP list. There are others in my atelier that I’m not going to mention here because it’s a little bit embarrassing. LOL.
I’ve been working to get another request from my eldest for the wee Sylvie – a yarny something to keep her hair clips and headbands on. She sent me a photo of a pinterest unicorn and that’s what I’m attempting to duplicate. I’ve got all the yarn cut and I’ve got a unicorn head template. I just have to cut the cardboard and put it together.
Hubby and I went for a drive to the local apple orchard and the garden center and I had to pick up some Paperwhite Narcissus bulbs and my annual Amaryllis bulb. I’ve gotten them all put into containers with pea gravel and water and now we wait to watch them grow. The Amaryllis is already sprouting leaves after 48 hours. I love watching bulbs grow and they add a nice pop of color to the winter in Maine.
I had a great mail day last weekend! I “had” to buy this one skein of self-striping sock yarn and add it to my stash. Must Stash Yarn does the most incredible self-striping colorways and I had a bit of trouble figuring out which ONE to buy. I ended up with this one and I’m so happy. I’ve also pre-ordered a couple of skeins from Lola Bean Yarn Company … I am looking forward to seeing that and playing with them both after the holidays are over.
Life is good here in the woods of Maine. We sure are feeling grateful for the place we live. With all the upsetting news lately, it’s good to be able to unplug and feel at peace at home.
We were welcomed home by a gorgeous lakeside sunset and so much quiet. After a couple of weeks of constant noice and activity in New York City, it’s at the same time a relief to our senses and a shock. I loved being in NY with my kids and granddaughter and I’m happy to be home and sleeping in my own bed. We both brought home a preschool crud so we are getting by on tea, Sudafed and cough syrup. All I have to do is get through Saturday and it’ll be ok.
We ended out trip to NYC by moving over to my son’s apartment that he shares with his partner. It was good to catch up with them both over the last couple of days. When everyone is home, there are a lot of beds needed as guests and babysitters are also in town. And Sylvie’s Nana and Papa from NY State were there as were my hubby and I. We all had dinner downtown between Kate’s shows on Sunday for Sylvie’s actual birthday dinner and then we had her party on Monday before Kate had to go to work. Several of Sylvie’s friends from the playground and preschool were there and the birthday girl was so happy to celebrate her day. I suspect her parents will be glad to have their lives back to normal and sleep in their own beds after all the travel and business of the last couple of weeks.
We drove home yesterday and arrived to the lovely site pictured above. We unpacked the car, put stuff away and showered and put on our winter PJs and retreated to have a cup of tea in my studio and catch up on a bit of news (none of it very good) before we went to bed early and slept late. It was bliss to be in our own bed, too. We both slept almost 11 hours which is unheard of. Guess we were tired.
Maine Sea Captain’s Hat in Briggs & Little Heritage 2-Ply
On the way home yesterday, I finished a blaze orange hat for my dear hubby. His old one is a polyester blend with a little wool and it’s starting to show some wear. The new one is knit from Briggs and Little Heritage wool, worsted weight and it’ll be a warm addition to the fall/winter hat collection. I used the Maine Sea Captain’s Hat pattern which was perfect for this yarn and a quick knit. I’ll block it today and it’ll be ready for the season.
I found I’d made a mistake on the Billie Pants for our grandson, Mac. I made a mistake as I decreased the first leg and didn’t notice until I was decreasing for the second leg. I’ve frogged back to fix the second leg and then I’ll go back and fix the first one. The pants will be finished and blocked and then I’ll be ordering a bit more yarn to make a pullover to match the pants. The yarn is a bit pill-y and I hope it will hold up to several washings. I’ll let you know when we get there. Meanwhile we’ve gotten photos from Mac’s mom of our little nugget smiling at his mom and dad on purpose. Gosh we wish we lived closer!
I’m still working along on my daughter’s colorwork mitts, too. Slow going while we were in NY but it should pick up now that we’re home. I’m planning to finish the little Sorento Cardigan today and get it shipped off to Louisiana and its new owner. It’s been blocked and all I have to do is add the buttons, trim the yarn ends that are woven in, and add a label. It’ll be good to have it off my list for sure.
The Sorento Cardigan for my client is hereby finished. I sewed the buttons on. I had several buttons to choose from and decided finally to use the shell buttons that I use a lot. They’re a natural material and they brighten up the sweater. Plus they’re light and don’t weigh down the fine yarn. I hope my customer will be pleased. Off to Louisiana it goes tomorrow.
I’ve got so many projects in my queue and am heading into a three-day work weekend but I hope the following week will be quiet and I can get some work done. The holidays are coming and I know I need to knit a pair of socks for the hubby and a sweater for the granddaughter but I think that may be all for this year. We aren’t sure where we’re going for the holiday but likely NYC unless they come here which is unlikely this year, I think. Time will tell.
This photo is from yesterday. We had an excellent adventure (again!) We took the little one to school in the morning and when we picked her up in the afternoon we jumped onto the subway downtown to head to The Shed (at Hudson Yards.) My younger daughter, the middle child, works there and she played with Sylvie while my hubby and I saw the show there through the middle of November. The Show is called, Viola’s Room and it’s an immersive theater experience. Six people in a small group enter a dark space, take off their shoes and socks and phones, etc. in a basket (they’re fully supervised) and with headset on, walk through the maze-like show, following the light. It was an experience like I’d never seen before and I was enthralled. The story is narrated by Helena Bonham Carter and you listen as you walk through for about 45 minutes. Highly recommend!
While the granddaughter was in school yesterday, I cleaned up the house a bit and baked an apple pie because her mommy only got one piece of the first pie I made. The Vessel is also at Hudson Yards where we were and it’s a sad thing. Now only open on the first two floors, it has been the site of several suicides. Not what the city or architects expected and now a rather “useless” space.
Over the weekend we visited the Bronx Zoo and I went to see my daughter’s show, Heathers, at New World Stages. Heathers was a big deal in the 90s apparently and even without knowing anything about it, I thoroughly enjoyed the performances. It’s a young cast with many very talented performers and my daughter is one of them. Sylvie rode the carousel at the Zoo three times! I’m guessing that was her favorite thing on that day. LOL
Obviously, wrangling an almost-3-year-old doesn’t allow me to do as much knitting as I normally do. AND I’m ok with that. I’m here to play and care for the kiddo while her parents are working. So we’ve spent a lot of time at the playground, doing craft projects, coloring and watching halloween movies.
I’ve frogged and reknit the mitts for my daughter. It seems that whenever I “know” what I’m doing, I make mistakes. But, I am making progress on the colorwork and have made it up to the second pattern of the mitts so I’m feeling pretty good about these actually getting finished before the winter really arrives in NYC. My daughter chose the black and blue colorway and I think the colors are magnificent. Perfect for NYC wear. The pattern is not intuitive, though, and I struggle to keep the count straight. Especially with the bottom “wave” pattern that I just finished. But I am making progress … slowly.
I have also worked on the Billie pants for my grandson. I have just begun the ribbing on the first leg and will (soon enough) get to the second leg. My plan is to have them done with a sweater to match for Christmas time. Or sooner. We don’t really believe in filling our grandchildren’s lives with stuff so we find books and little things throughout the year and we will invest in 529 educational savings accounts for them both. Being together and not having a relationship based on “what did you buy me?” is more important to us. Of course, if the kids need anything for the grandchildren, we will happily oblige. I’d rather buy ice cream or rainbow bagels on the way to the playground than give a toy that may or may not be played with and just adds to the landfill.
Today we’re picking up from school at 3pm and will head to the playground for an hour since the sun is out and it’s a pretty day. A stop at the pharmacy and grocery store will be on the way home. Everything is on foot here. We are walking so much more than at home and it’s so good for us! Yesterday we did more than 11,000 steps before dinnertime.
Today’s outdoor shot is from my eldest daughter’s family home in Washington Heights in New York City. We are here to provide grandparenting support to their little family while some are traveling for work and some are working in the city during the day and at night. My daughter is going into the off Broadway show, Heathers, tomorrow (or maybe today). Today is the first day that it really feels like fall and I am happily wearing a sweater and socks today with my jeans rather than a short-sleeved dress. The sun is shining and I’m trying to get a little bit of my work done while our granddaughter is in school. This afternoon we are planning our first subway ride to mid-town to visit a museum that my hubby wants to see and we’ll see how Sylvie does. She’s an experienced subway traveler and can probably teach us a thing or two. *wink
I’ve been doing just a tiny little bit of knitting since we’ve been here but this morning I frogged the work I had managed to do because I thought I knew what I was doing and started knitting the hand of the second mitt just like the first one … forgetting, of course, that there is a definite left and right. SO … I frogged it back and will start anew. Thankfully, I hadn’t made a ton of progress because there would have been more to frog.
These mitts are a lot of effort for a couple of reasons. They’re black and blue which is a really stunning color combination but hard on old eyes. I wish I’d brought my neck light so that I could really see the stitches. I need to sit in bright light when I work on these and do it in the morning when I’m rested. The first one is done but for the thumb so I have a bit of a ways to go. I’ve been having a bunch of volunteer meetings this week and some school stuff that needed my attention but, for the most part, my mornings during the week are going to be my own next week and I hope to make some good progress. I’d love to get them finished and delivered before the end of the month. Lofty goals.
I have two finished objects to report about. I finished my Murmuration Socks and I’ve worn them already. I really like the way these came out and I made the leg shorter than usual hoping they’ll be fun to wear with my Blundstones now that it’s cooler. I also finished the knitting on the Sorento Cardigan (the photo doesn’t represent that, obviously since it has no collar) that I’m making for a client. I have to decide on the buttons and put them on when we arrive back home. It’s blocked and ends are woven in and once it has buttons, it’ll get a Queen Bee Knits label and be sent off to Louisiana. It’s a lovely sweater and I hope my client will be as happy with it as I am.
AAAAnd, since I finished a couple of projects, I cast on a couple of projects, too. I have started a “hunting orange” hat for my hubby in a wooly wool, Briggs and LIttle Heritage 2-ply. It’ll be a workhorse hat for him in the fall and winter. I also cast on for a pair of Billie pants for our grandson in Denver. I’m using Cascade’s 220 Superwash Merino for this project and I love this yarn for baby garments. It’s incredibly soft for being against baby skin. I just wish I had bought a little bit more so I could make a matching sweater. I may need to reach out to the Denver yarn shop and see if I can get one more ball, even if I buy a second color and do a striped sweater. Regardless, it’s all good and the pants will be adorable on baby Mac.
We have been spending a lot of time at the playground after school and having fun with our littlest girl. We’ve even made apple pie together; she cut up a lot of apples! And our time isn’t nearly done. This weekend her daddy is home for a couple of days and mom has two-show days so we hope to get to the Botanical Gardens or the Zoo or even out to a sculpture garden outside of the city. This afternoon we are headed to an art museum at Columbus Circle and we’ll see how much she likes an adult museum. We may end up playing in Central Park instead. We are all learning about living in New York City as grandparents and grandchild. I’m so grateful to be able to have the chance and to be physically able to do the job. (I’m really tired by the time she’s asleep!)
We got home from Denver Sunday night and we were fried! We had no delays or challenges but it was a 16 hour travel day … and I don’t sleep well when I have to travel early in the morning. I really didn’t sleep well the whole time we were there but it was so worth the trip. We went out so I could meet our new grandson, Mac Thomas who is a month old. He is adorable, perfect in every way and his parents are doing a great job keeping it all together. We are really excited to have another grand baby and will be traveling to Denver more often so that Mac will know us.
I cast on in the Portland, ME airport for a hat that I just happened to find on social media. The Coby Baby Hat is adorable lace and bobbles in a tiny size and I just happened to have a hank of baby alpaca in a worsted weight which was exactly what was called for. I forgot to change to the US 8 needles after the ribbing but it wasn’t a big deal and the hat came out really well. I left it in Denver because it may be the first Yaya-made hat that fits the kiddo.
While in Denver we had an excellent adventure to see if we could find some Inciardi Mini Print machines. There are two in the Denver area. One was a bust and has very limited hours but the second was a total hit and a wonderful place with helpful, friendly staff! We visited Leven and found the machine where I bought six prints. (one was a duplicate but it was one of my favorites and is going to a special friend who told me about the prints.)
Each of the prints is a little work of art by an artist named Ana Inciardi who is from Brooklyn, NY but based in Portland, ME! Her prints are all over the country and my friend Carol has been collecting them in Maine. After finding the machine at Leven, I think we’re on the band wagon! They’re so much fun!!! Leven was also a boon for baked goods we bought some cheese and a baguette for our supper and some drinks and they kindly gave us a couple of cookies and a brownie … the brownie (we got a print of a brownie there) was phenomenal. A fun visit all around … and I spoke with two of their customers who asked about the machine and bought some prints, too. The prints are $1 each (four quarters go into the vending machine) so they’re accessible for everyone. I won’t be buying six from every machine I find! Ha! Ha!
We also went to this food hall in Denver where we found a yarn shop. I enjoyed visiting the shop and found some fun gifts for my co-workers and some Cascade merino (that we don’t carry at my LYS) that we picked out to make a pair of pants and a sweater for baby Mac. The store was well-organized, clean with plenty of space to maneuver around. They had some lovely books and just a little bit of local yarn. A big wooden table at the center front of the store looked like a wonderful place to gather for a little knitting time or a class. I hope they’re very successful. The food hall idea seems brilliant to me. Lots of little restaurants, like food court sized shops in a mall, with all sorts of different international and regional foods. We stopped at the bar for a daytime beverage so the new parents could feel like real people, too. Fun!
I got all of the knitting done for the Sorento Cardigan that I’m making for a client. I knitted both sleeves at once so that they’d be the same and finished them on the plane on the way back home. I’ve pressed the pieces gently and tomorrow I’ll sew them together in the morning when my mind, eyes and body are feeling fresh. I’ll only have the neck to finish and then add buttons and fully block before sending it off to its new home. The color is so cheerful and I hope she’s tickled with the sweater.
The pieces will go together much better since they’re lightly pressed. I can hardly wait to get this to Louisiana and see what my client thinks! It’s exciting when a garment comes out well.
Last project I took along with me is the September socks for my SISC (self-imposed sock club). The SISC hasn’t been a big success at work but it’s kicked my butt into gear … and this is the 3rd pair of socks that I will have made OUT OF MY STASH! I have a ton of sock yarn and often only one skein of any color … I used to buy one skein when I went somewhere, no more. A project quantity or nothing at all. Anyway, the Murmuration Socks are a lace pattern and I’ve reall enjoyed them. The second sock’s heel is turned and the gusset is decreased. I’m going to try to finish the foot tonight … not sure I can get it done but it’ll be done tomorrow for sure. I love this yarn so much for knitting socks (or anything, honestly!)
Murmuration Socks by Summer Lee in CoopKnits Sock Yeah!
We are off again on Sunday for a couple of weeks babysitting for our granddaughter. Her mom is in rehearsal for a play off Broadway that she goes into on October 10 for a month. Heathers is the name of the show, I hear it’s a “darker” Mean Girls and was very popular in the younger generation of the 90s. She’s excited to have some fun work and we’re excited to be able to help and at the end of it we’ll attend her 3rd birthday party! How quickly time flies.
Next on the needles, I have to finish my daughter’s fingerless mitts. I finally remembered to have her try them on at the beach. I have one mitt (mostly) finished and just one more to go. I’ll also be casting on the Poet pullover by Sari Nordlund in Julie Asselin Nurtured Fine that I bought a Knit City Montreal a couple of years ago. I hope this sweater pattern works for me in this yarn. I have to finish Noah the horse by Christmastime. Other than that, I’m not sure I’ll be knitting for Christmas other than the grandkiddos. Duh.
My husband took this shot before I dragged my sorry butt out of bed this morning. I was so comfortable and cozy. Anywhoooo … he’s the better photographer in the family and caught the sunrise just as the sun was peeking up over the horizon across the lake. Our hummingbirds are gone, we haven’t seen any since the day we got home from the beach. Our mornings are a little bit less fun without them. But we still have our baby loon. It was fishing this morning with a parent and it was so quiet that we could hear them “talking” to each other. We are so lucky to be able to witness these things and realize that not everyone else does.
I’ve been working on two sweaters this week and am trying to finish them both before we leave for Colorado next week. I’ve got one that’s a commission for a client, you’ve seen it before, it’s a salmon-y peach fingering weight superwash wool from Urban Girl Yarns. The colorway has the same name as my client’s granddaughter for which the sweater is being made. The yarn is gorgeous. I’m using the pattern, Sorento Cardigan, and the pattern is well-written and clear. A classic cardigan. I’ve finished the body of the sweater and have started the sleeves. I’m knitting two at a time so they’re the same and they’re both done at the same time.
The finished bodytwo sleeves at onceknitting tipwhich button?
The sleeves are started at the cuff and knitted up to the shoulder and they’ll be sewn into the cardigan. The button band and placket are knitted on as you work up the body so there’s not a lot of finishing. I also put the photo of the buttons I’ve chosen up on my social media to see what people like. Your thoughts? I think the top and middle one are in the lead. The client would like them to be natural materials (these are not) and prefers mother of pearl. I’ll see what I can find.
I’m hoping to have it done and in the mail to Louisiana by the end of September or early October at the latest. Thus freeing me up to cast on more projects. I have a plan to clean up and organize my stash again. It’s gotten out of hand and I am losing track of the projects that I had planned to use with the yarns that I’ve stashed. AND now that we have two grand-babies, double the knitting pleasure! I certainly have some yarn to knit for the kiddos. I also have two grand-nephews to make hats and mittens for (at least).
I’ve also been working on my Vanilla Sweater with the kit that I purchased from the Wooly Thistle. I love the wooly wool yarn. It’s such a gorgeous color. I’m on sleeve island here, too. This sweater, however, is knitted in the round, top-down, and the sleeves are picked up and knitted down to the cuffs. I’ve gotten a few inches done today while I was teaching classes.
I wanted to leave you with a knitting teacher’s tip. I use locking stitch markers to mark my indreases and decreases. In this case, I’m increasing on the Sorento cardigan for my client. I mark the row that I increased in and then I can count the rows (purl bumps) until I reach the number of rows where I need to increase again. On my Vanilla sweater, I am decreasing one stitch on either side of the BOR. I mark the decrease round so I can count rounds more easily and keep track of the decreases, too. My size is asking for 9 decreases plus a couple more and I can easily count how many I have as I go.
We are in a severe drought here in Central Maine. Our lakes are low and the lake associations are asking people who have boat lifts to check their boats. Our lake is the last in a chain of seven lakes and ponds so they all flow into our lake and our lake is dammed at one end. There isn’t enough water to flow out of the other lakes or into ours. It’s pretty dire and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon. We need rain! Know any rain dances?
It was a gorgeous crisp morning on the lake this morning. Hubby was off to work early and I saw the baby loon and a parent (heard them, too) and saw a flock of Canada Geese heading south. It’s so much quieter in the morning now that the summer visitors have left and schools are in session. I spent most of the day yesterday in meetings representing the board of trustees at Maine Arts Academy. I’m so proud of the progress and growth the school has made.
On Sunday my hubby and I took a Sunday drive thinking the weather was going to be rainy. We were wrong about the weather but we had a lovely day on the coast. First stop was the Cashmere Goat in Camden, Maine. I hadn’t been there since before they moved to the new (now not-so-new) location and I was pleasantly surprised by the quantity of yarn they had in their space. I was pleasantly greeted, and happily offered use of the restroom. I did see a couple of samples that I have to make for the grands. A lobster sweater by Whitney Terrell, a Jamberry sweater for Sylive (I bought the Vintage DK yarn to make it) and there was an adorable colorwork hat made in Malabrigo Rios in Christmas colors …CUTE!
Next stop was Belfast and we tried a new-to-us restaurant, Must Be Nice Lobster. I had a lobster roll and the hubby had a crab cake. Both were pretty good. Because he’s a trained chef and I’m a pretty good eater, we are perhaps more demanding of quality than most. We sat outside in the shade with several other tables. The waitress never did bring ketchup for our fries but it was a serviceable lunch. AND then off to Heavenly Yarns and Fiddleheads. I bought an “In the Garden” skirt kit at Fiddlehead to make for the granddaughter and a couple of hanks of Ultra Alpaca Light from Heavenly Yarns for a Fishbones hat (Mary Jane Mucklestone’s pattern). Heavenly Yarns is under new ownership and it’s still a lovely store to browse. They have a yarn line called Helen which I assume to be the former owner’s work. A nice wooly wool and lots of lovely totes and baskets. I particularly love their logo tote and would have bought one if I needed one more tote. I do not.
I’ve been working almost monogamously on my Vanilla Sweater and have finished the body and am ready to pick up for the sleeves and head off onto sleeve island. I am eager to try it on, too. Maybe today. I am still loving the sticky wool which is already softening up as I work it. This is the perfect sweater to wear on cool mornings.
Yesterday I picked up the Sorento cardigan that I am making for a client and finished the back and the second front. I love the color of this little sweater, too. I will split the second hank of yarn today and knit both sleeves at once so they’re the same and both done at the same time. My goal is to send it off to my client by the end of October if not sooner. I have chosen a couple of different buttons and we’ll see what we think when the knitting is done.
When we were at the beach I had my daughter try on the fingerless mitts that I started for her last fall/winter and she liked the fit so I will finish those, too. I hope to deliver them when we are in New York to help with babysitting. One fingerless mitt shouldn’t take too long, right? The challenge with these is that she really wanted black and blue so my “old” eyes need some bright light to work on them – in the morning!
Today I’m off with “the girls” from work to Thomaston, Maine to visit Rachel Jones at On the Round. Rachel has moved her storefront to Thomaston and we decided we needed to head over to Carol’s part of the state for once. I’m looking forward to time with friends and another adventure.
I’m baaack! It was a chilly wake-up this morning but we spent at least a bit of time out on the porch with our coffee. Hubby wore a hat to bed last night and was still wearing it this morning. We’ve been on our annual family vacation to Weekapaug, Rhode Island and it was good.
When my kids were little my mom used to rent a cottage at Weekapaug for a month. When she passed away she left me a little bit of money and I wanted to do something as a family to remember her … and so, at the suggestion of my kids, we found a cottage to rent for a week at the end of the season (beginning of the low season) that can hold all of us. This was our fourth year back and it was just as good as all the rest of the years. Maybe better. Beach buttons, beach boxes, fabulous sunsets, lots of good beach time (even though the weather was a bit chillier than past years) and good time together. That’s what we love most.
Since Weekapaug is, for the most part, a summer community, most of the restaurants are closed and the what shops are still open, are open weekends. We visited Watch Hill a couple of times for ice cream at the Annex (peach was mom’s favorite and has become a favorite of all of us, too.) We watched the Watch Hill historic “flying horses” carousel, we visited the Fantastic Umbrella Factory with an umbrella in the rain, played games almost every night and just enjoyed being together and away from jobs, work and television.
I did precious little knitting but I did get a little bit done! I have been working down the body of my Vanilla Sweater by Corine Tomlinson at the Wooly Thistle. I bought this as a kit with enough Rauma Garn Finull (fingering weight wool) and the pattern for the sweater as part of the Wooly Thistle’s Sweater KAL 2025. I’ve separated the sleeves and am about 8 inches down the body … the pattern says 10 inches and I may have to go a bit further. It’s almost time to try it on. I completely fell in love with this color which is completely out of my comfort zone but I am really excited to wear it and it’s cool enough now, at least in the morning, to wear it.
I also brought along my Murmuration Socks by Summer Lee from the Sock Project book. I have the heel turned and the gusset decreased and I’m working my way down the foot of the first sock. I love this yarn, another color that’s out of my normal color zone. How adventurous I’m getting in my “old age”!
I also brought along some Plymouth Encore with which I made my granddaughter a couple of headbands because she said she’d like some purple sparkly mittens. I cast them on and got them finished just after we arrived home. I had knit the first mitten and it was about a half inch too short in the hand so I frogged back to before the decreases and knit to about 4 1/2 inches beyond the cuff before decreasing and these should fit better. I also made her the little string, a 3-stitch i-cord) so that she won’t lose her mittens at school. They’re pretty cute and we’ll bring them to NYC when we go to babysit in October.
I brought everything zucchini to the beach – zucchini bread, banana zucchini muffins, and chocolate zucchini muffins, and I still have shredded zucchini in the freezer. We also brought Maine peaches, blueberries and apples (and brought some back home, too.)
We saw a huge flock of migrating swifts one day at the beach. They were fascinating to watch. We had a couple of monarch caterpillars on some milkweed in the garden and the little one grew exponentially over the course of the week. I brought a craft project – paint and cut out egg containers to paint caterpillars. Next time I’ll make the caterpillars shorter, “our” collective attention spans weren’t into it. We saw a Bald Eagle at the pickle ball courts and a swan flying along the coast at the beach. The beautiful berries were abundant … I still don’t know what they are … and I want to see if I can find a yarn dyer to make a Weekapaug, RI colorway with the berries’ colors. They’re so pretty!
It was a wonderful week and I’m so grateful that all of my kids and their families: dogs, and significant others and the grandest granddaughter took the time out of their busy lives to spend a week at the beach with us. We love being able to provide a week in one of our favorite places and hope we’ll be invited to rent there again next year.
AND just like that we’re back home. Another place we love to be. Our calendar is full heading out of September and into October as we’re heading to Denver so that I can meet our new grandson and then to New York to babysit so my daughter, Kate, can rehearse to go into the off Broadway show, Heathers. We also hope to see the new interactive production at the Shed where my daughter, Libet, works. We’ll be there a good long time and the baby is in school weekdays so we can spend some time “playing” in the city and I can visit a yarn shop or two.
Queen Bee Knits 