Wow….I was astonished at how little this shawl is when it came off the needles this morning.  Having never worked with Zephyr before, I am not sure what to expect when it is blocked.  Right now it is soaking, so I will have to wait until this afternoon to see if it will possibly block out anywhere close to where it needs to be.  Zephyr is a bit lighter in weight than Misti Alpaca, so I knew it would be a bit smaller, but not this small…….I am very nervous…………

Another Rainy Day Afternoon

My husband and my youngest daughter took a road trip this weekend to visit his family.  I stayed behind with another one of our daughters and the dogs.  There is something to be said for not having to stick to a schedule. (My DH, God bless him, is a schedule kind of guy).  As it is a gloomy day, andI am in a mindless state of mind… some Carrot soup will go on the stove and I will sit in my easy chair and work on some nice mindless knitting.  This sock is the Simple Rib Sock from Nancy Bush’s book, Knitting Vintage Socks, and I am using some of my sock yarn to see how it knits up.  I want to see how well it wears.

Moving on with my Winter of Lace theme, I think I will welcome the larger sized needles for this little scarf.  I first saw this scarf on Di in Rhinebeck and really loved how nice it went with everything she had on.  Very understated and elegant all at the same time.  It is lovely cashmere from Rabbit Tree Farm.

A number of years ago, I purchased some cashmere roving and a baby bonnet pattern from this farm and just loved it.  This time, I thought I would buy the yarn already spun.  Spinning Cashmere is a labor of love, but oh so slow and I want this little scarf for this winter :-).

Hopefully tomorrow I will have pictures of my blocked Swallowtail Shawl………keep your fingers crossed for me that it grows a little!

Rain………doesn’t look very promising, does it?

This morning as I was laying in bed, I knew it was raining.  Most mornings, the dogs let me know in their not so unsubtle way that the sun is up and it is time to start the day.  When it rains however, it is a very different story…..you see……..Cavaliers HATE the rain!  So, this morning, as I listened to the soothing sounds of rain hitting the metal roof over my bedroom and enjoying the unusual morning quiet, I had serious doubts about Walk With Me Wednesday.

Cleo was going to be my walking companion today as I want to get her leash trained and ready to show………that wasn’t looking promising either.  This little Texas miss, in addition to not really liking the rain, has not gotten used to the colder temps yet either.  She goes to great lengths to keep her little toes from getting cold.  This big rock in the dog yard is where you will usually find her…..and usually standing on 3 legs, alternating which foot she will put down…..haha!  Yep, a little princess for sure…LOL.  Wait until she meets snow….

So, resigned to the fact that a walk was not going to happen, I figured I would cross the street and take one picture of the rain hitting the pond.  It would only take a minute or two…..so I thought, but once I headed down the little path, with the eyes of a photographer, those seconds turned into mintues and then almost an hour!  You see, the rain has never bothered me, in fact, I actually enjoy rainy days.  Some of my favorite rainy days were spent walking on the beach, near where I grew up (but that’s for another day).

The rain just seemed to intensify the beauty of the drabness that is typical of November here………

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So even though, I hadn’t anticipated a walk today, I was pleasantly surprised.  It is amazing to me that by offering to join Judy on her weekly walks, how much I have enjoyed the solitude in the middle of my normally busy days and a new found appreciation for my surroundings.  Thanks Judy!

Hmmm…….last week as I was knitting this Swallowtail shawl, I was really pleased with how fast it was moving along.  Such an easy, pleasant little lace project, that I had fully planned on having finished this weekend……….until…………I hit the NUPPS.  Now I had read the grumbles and complaints about these nupps on various blogs, but having knit sample aran sweaters and their bobbles for many years in my earlier days, I didn’t think that they would be that much of a problem.  Boy, was I wrong!  I am sticking with them because I really think that they do add so much to the shawl, but they certainly slow one down.  I have found it a bit easier to slide the 5 stitches that need to be purled together onto a much smaller inox sock needle.  Thankfully I only have one more small chart with nupps and then the final chart should move along quickly again.  All in all though, even with the nupps, this is such a nicely designed pattern and one I think I would knit again.

Calendar Days

Deb mentioned last week that the month of November on many calenders usually is a bit dreary without a lot of color and asked to see if anyone in blogland had more colorful calendars.  While I can’t top Cheryl’s fantastic November, I thought I would share what I look at on my little office calender in November.  The color is actually much softer and more pastel in real life, but try as hard as I could, I could not capture the colors correctly with my camera

A good friend of mine, who shares my love of color gave me this Wolf Kahn calender for color inspiration 🙂

It is hard to believe how fast this week has flown by, in fact it is almost Walk With Me Wednesday again….yikes!  It is supposed to be rainy here tomorrow, so we will see if a walk happens…..or if it becomes a Weaving by the Woodstove Wednesday….LOL!

As I end, I will leave you some pictures of Cleo’s first week here.  She has fit in with the rest of the canine crew, very easily and is such a sweet little baby.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a walk in today as the work phone was non~stop.  The weather here the last few days has been glorious, but tomorrow we return to winter, so I made an extra effort to pull myself away from work.

Even though I live in the mountains, my house is in the Village area, so I don’t have easy access for a walk in the woods. It really does force me to get out of my seat, hop in my car and enjoy the beauty of the area that I live in, which is a good thing

Today’s walk was to be at Diana’s Bath, which is about a mile walk into the woods which leads you to these fabulous pools surrounded by rocks.  With my little traveling companion, my camera and my ipod we headed off into the woods.  I was strolling along listening to one of my favorite walking, skiing, etc..albums, The Soul of The Machine, when Kali stopped dead in her tracks with a very concerned look.  As I urged her on, she didn’t want to budge.  Hmmmm……..I pulled out my earphones and heard what she was hearing………..BOOM….Boom…….boom!!!

Holy Crap!  I completely forgot that it was hunting season!  Given that I didn’t have any orange on either myself or Kali, I had to rethink our walk.

We hopped back in the car and drove down the road about 1/2 mile to where the Saco river bends around the road.  In the summer, this is a popular swimming, tubing and canoing spot, but at this time of the year it is very peaceful and quiet. 

Kali was feeling a lot better about being here and led the way……..actually it was quiet enough for me to drop her leash and let her do a little exploring on her own.

One of the things we used to love to do when we first moved up here was to go out in our canoe, with the Sunday paper, a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers…drop an anchor and just enjoy the day.  This picture is a part of the river where the water swirls around due to the rocks and trees underneath.  I have been dumped more than once in my canoe in this spot, supplies and all…..LOL  Amazing how a walk can bring back old memories quickly 🙂

 

As the afternoon sun was starting to fade, we made our way back to the car, looking back at the trail we will attempt next week, when we have our Hunter Orange vests on……… 

I hope you enjoyed our walk!

I have a name!

Cleo

Thanks for all your help!!

Meet the newest member of our family!   This little girl was the reason for my trip to Texas.    She is 5 months old and from some very nice champion lines in this country as well as in the UK.  I am very
excited to have her here with us!  I am going to need a little of your help, however  Her registered name is Benchmark Wish Upon A Star, but she needs her everyday name.  I have thought about Cricket (of the Jiminy variety), but I’m not quite sure that it suits her yet, so I am open to suggestions 🙂  Is she not cute??

Of course, she and Maggie are only a month apart in age and Maggie’s not completely sure she shouldn’t be the resident lap dog yet….LOL!

And A Little Knitting

Even though most of the weekend was very busy as we attended a fun match just outside of Dallas, I did manage to squeeze in a little knitting.  Most of it was on the plane ride to and from Texas.  Looks a bit different than when I left, eh? 

As I was working on the other colorway, I realized it was very similar to another lace shawl that I had made last year, so I pulled it all out and restarted with something else.  Can you tell I like this color…haha? 

Anyhoo, even though I had a very nice time this weekend and the weather was glorious, I am glad to be home.  The trip into Manchester, NH was incredibly scary last night……the plane was bouncing all over the place, like a bad sci~fi movie, and we were all amply frightened out of our wits by the time it landed….  It was good to put my feet on the ground again and sleep in my own bed 🙂

Wellspring of energy
Rises in the body’s core
Tap it and be sustained.
Channel it, and it will speak.
Deng Ming~Dao

Finally a finished object that is not fair related…yippee!!  This scarf was a fun, easy knit, so much so, that I am going to share the simple instructions with you , since I kinda made it up as I went along, with a little help from a friend on the ruffle 🙂

Yarn:  approx 400 yds sock weight yarn (I used my Red Maple Sock yarn) and 2 skeins of Doucuer et Soie Mohair or any fingering weight mohair yarn

Needles:  Size 7 40" circular needle

Pattern: 
Cast on 280 stitches.  Alternate 3 rows of knit and 3 rows of purl 8 times.  For the ruffle edging, pick up 33 stitches.  Next row, knit into the front and back of each stitch leaving you with a total of 66 stitches.  Knit 12 rows of stockinette and loosely cast off. That’s it……….easy, peasy and oh, so soft!

For this scarf, I used the circular needles from the Knitpics option line that I got for my birthday.  I have mixed feelings. Over all though, I really love them.  My review…………..

Pro:  Great pointy tips that slide through the stitches.  Love, love, love this!
Cons:  Pointy tips are sharp to push and the biggest con, is that the needle kept coming partially unscrewed and would catch on the yarn.  Hopefully it was only the one needle that had this problem and not all of them.

Moving on to the next project…………

It has been a long time since I have worked on a lace project, however, after looking at all of the fabulous shawls this weekend, I am thinking that this may become the Winter of Shawls for me!  Given that I haven’t knit any lace since Birch from last year, I thought that I had better start out small and work my way back up again, so I am starting off with the Swallowtail shawelette from Interweave Fall 2006 in my handpainted Zephyr and I hope to finish up with Ann’s incredibly stunning Casino Shawl

I am heading off for Texas early tomorrow morning.  One of the reasons I behaved myself so much last weekend in Rhinebeck was because I have been saving up for something else……….see you on Monday!

Not too long ago Judy invited us to walk with her on Wednesdays.  As I have gotten older, I realize more and more just how little exercise I get these days, so I have made a commitment to leave Wednesday afternoons open for a walk in the woods.

Today I left the house with Maggie, the English Setter, thinking how much she would enjoy this walk.  What I didn’t think about is that she really isn’t in complete control of her walking manners yet, so as we headed off for a walk behind the local high school, I thought I was going to lose my hand from all of the pulling.  You see, she is a hunting dog, and in her element with out much training, you can only imagine………sensory overload!

Sooooooooooo, I returned home, gave Maggie a treat, patted her on the head as I tucked her in her crate…….got on the phone with the local training guru and made an appointment for some obedience classes.

After that was completed, I put a collar and leash on another cutie and started out once again.  Kali was a delightful walking companion.  Where as Maggie would have been swept away in the river with her enthusiasm, Kali chose to stay close to me with a bit more cautious enthusiasm.

Today’s trek took us for a walk behind our local high school which is a just a few blocks away and home to the Swift river.  Fall is quickly fading away here in the mountains.  When I left for Rhinebeck the streets were lined with the golden colors of the Oak trees, but when I came home, those same trees were barren……..winter is bearing down on us.  The chill in the air was evident in the biting wind that blew down the rivers…..bbrrrr.

It was so nice to walk in the quiet once again, with only my thoughts and my little companion.  It has been such a long time since I have done this and I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed it.

I live in such a beautiful place………why haven’t I forced myself to enjoy it more?  Sometimes life gets so busy that we forget to take time for ourselves just to connect and to breathe.

Today was such a breath of fresh air!  Thank you Judy for suggesting this……….hopefully I continue to find the time every Wednesday to enjoy the day, walking in the woods! 

As I end this post, I will leave a few more pictures of Autumn leaving the valley….

I have enjoyed the posts popping up thru out blogland about Rhinebeck.  I think what many people brought home in addition to fiber is a sense community….a wonderful community!

Of course though……..there was the fiber too! 

This is the first year that I went with a mental list of what I really wanted to bring home.  I truly have more fiber than any one person really needs to have (I feel a stash sale brewing), so I tried to concentrate on other things.

One of my greatest fiber frustrations has been my inability to use a drop spindle comfortably.  My first introduction to a spindle came before my spinning wheel as is the case with many of you.  A good friend of mine sent me home with a bottom whorl spindle and some Romney and let me tell you how much I hated that experience!!
It became apparent to me very quickly why it was called a "drop spindle"!

Very shortly after that I had my first spin on a wheel and fortunately for me, I picked it up very quickly and never looked back at spindling.

Over the years, I have picked up some beautiful spindles, not because I wanted to really spin on them, but because they were beautiful pieces of art.  You see, I love nice wood as much if not more than a great fleece.  I would pick them up here and there hoping that somehow I would find the process more enjoyable, but each time, it was just a session in frustration.  So they continue to sit as lovely dust collectors in their lovely basket.

This year, I watched Margene conquer and do wonderful things with her drop spindle and I really sat up and took notice……and then I noticed more and more how wonderfully at ease people such as a fabulous fiber lady and friend, Joan Jeness, spindle as they walk.  I admit I grew a bit envious of their talent and wondered why I just couldn’t get "it".

So for this year at Rhinebeck, I was determined to find just the right spindle for me and to hopefully find someone who could help me figure out what I was doing wrong.  I picked Cassie’s brains as she was gracefully walking around spinning on her new spindle.  Then I picked the queen of spindling, Lee Ann for some more tips, but still, the process was escaping me yet again.

Margene mentioned that a Bosworth Spindle is a great spindle to try, so even though I had already purchased a Grafton Fibers spindle the day before, I stopped by The Journey Wheel booth just before I left for home.  While Jonathan was chatting to a customer, I stood quietly and test drove a few of their spindles.  Margene was right…..they spin forever, but I was still having a hard time with holding the extra fiber.  Being a right handed person that was originally a lefty as a child, I get all turned around at times.

Thankfully, Sheila Bosworth, who is a spindling marvel took a few minutes out of her day with me.  She immediately saw what I was struggling with and showed me a few new tricks.  Sheila taught me more in those 10 minutes than I have learned in all my years of trying to learn it on my own.  If you ever want to be impressed, watch Sheila for a few minutes……she is amazing and I can’t thank her enough, or Margene for pointing me in her direction!

The pictures interspersed within this post are the spindles (except for the hatchtown) that I purchased at the fair.  The 2 Bosworth Spindles are absolutely amazing spinners and my little Hatchtown was perfect for the Frelsi icelandic/angora blend that I couldn’t resist.  I came home and could not leave those spindles alone.  For the first time ever, I actually feel at ease with them and am enjoying the process!

I know I have said it here before, so I hope you don’t mind if I repeat myself a little……. this year was a difficult one for me in many ways. 

Never having been a person who really gets depressed and has a hard time even understanding how one can get lost in it, I think that I may have a small understanding of how people suffer with it now.  Perhaps it has been menopause knocking on my door, or the seclusion of working at home alone under a heavy workload, but I let so many things go by the wayside in my struggle, most importantly my friendships.

So, today’s post is about friendships and what they mean to me.

As a young teen, I was skinny, freckled, bespeckled, wore braces and was teased at times. (If they could only see "Flatsy Patsy" now) As an older teen when the braces were gone, the curves filing in and going to a new school, I enjoyed a new found confidence, from the sheer determination of never wanting to be a wall flower again… and that confidence has carried me thru life.  However, there is always that insecure part deep inside of me…….that child who remembers the loneliness of being the last one picked for the baseball team and watching the other kids being invited for sleep overs.

Thru a series of unfortunate events, I lost my room at the B&B that I had booked with my friends in my local Spinning community.  Now many of you would not think of me as a shy person, but I get nervous when I go outside of my comfort zone and the idea of being in a hotel with a big group of people who know each other pretty well, really moved me outside that comfort zone.  Knowing most of these people only thru blogs and not in person, I will admit I was a bit nervous.  Those old feelings of inadequacies snuck up, and I almost gave into them and stayed home.  However, with that old determination I found as a teen, I plopped myself in the car and got myself to the hotel (my eventful trip is a story for another day).

I can only say is I am so thankful I chose to go.  Fiber people are the best sort of people!  This was on one of the most enjoyable weekends I have had in a very, very long time.  It was so fun to put faces on the friends I have met thru blogging and really getting to know them.  And while I wish that I could have spent more time getting to know a few others better, I know that there will always be next year :-)!

So, while Rhinebeck is usually about the fiber, this year for me, it was about friendships, both old and new!

PS………Don’t you love the beautiful picture that came home with me?  Such a beautiful, peaceful picture….