Pattern: Lineate
Designer:  Elizabeth Doherty of Blue Bee Studio
Yarn:  Woolen Rabbit Egret
Colorways:  Birchbeer, Natural and Poppy
Needles:  US size 2 and 3

Gone are my days for having a lovely model at my daily disposal, so you are stuck with me..ha!  
I am going to try and have my beautiful granddaughter come over this weekend and take a few pictures of her with this hat so you will be able to see just how cute this hat is, especially when the edging isn't partially rolled up..

This was a super easy and quick knit with enough interest that keeps your attention.  It only took me 4 days to knit and that was just in my limited spare time.  I could see this hat in SO many different color combinations and Egret is so incredibly soft against my skin.  Normally I am super sensitive to any teeny amount of itch that might be in yarn, but I had zero reaction to this yarn base!

Isn't the top of this hat super cute?  I just love it!!
I will post more pictures after I have McKayla model a few.

Now to finish my sweater that is almost done and then concentrate on some "wee" baby things!

 

To celebrate the new year, Elizabeth Doherty of Blue Bee Studio and I are each giving away a sweater kit for her new design, Archer, knit in The Woolen Rabbit Airy.  I love, love, love this sweater!!  Very similar in design to Brickyard which is what I am knitting now, but without the texture on the top and in a lighter weight yarn.

YOU WILL NEED TO HOP ON OVER TO INSTAGRAM TO ENTER

Here's all you need to do to enter to win the Woolen Rabbit kit:
• Follow both @woolenrabbit and @bluebeestudio on Instagram
• Like this post
• Take a look at the colorways on the Woolen Rabbit website (link in my profile), then comment on this post, and tell me what color or color(s) of Airy you’d like to knit Archer in
• Tag a friend who might also like to win an Archer kit

Entry closes Wednesday, January 10, at 8 pm (PST). One winner will be chosen at random to receive a digital copy of the Archer pattern, and a sweater’s quantity of Airy yarn to knit it with! 
Winners will be announced on Thursday, January 11. Check out @bluebeestudio's post to find out how to win her kit.

The winner may choose a striped or single-color Archer kit from any of my custom colors.

 

     

For a number of years now I have chosen a word to embrace or to challenge me along the year's journey.  Some years such as my "Sparkle" year were fun and easy.  Last year my goal of being more organized using the word "Harmony" was not so easy, but I learned a lot about myself and picked up some good habits along the way. (I'm saving that journey for another post.)

This year I have chosen the word "Gratitude".
To be honest, I hadn't really thought too much about a word, but when I saw this video last month it really had me to thinking about things I wanted to focus on in the New Year.
Take the 10 minutes to watch it when you have time.  You won't be disappointed!

I think that it is human nature to get bogged down in the negatives instead of instinctively looking for the positives, so to help me this year, I created this little book of "Gratitudes".  As much as I would love to be a creative journal writer, I have learned that I am just not, so to keep it simple, at the end of the day, or even during the day, I will write 4 or 5 things that I am grateful for.  Things that have made me smile during the day or something that may have made a positive impact on my day.  Or…maybe something that I did to help another person have a positive moment.

I'm looking forward to embracing this year of Gratitude!
Do you have a word that is meaningful to you for the New Year?

This is the moment of embarking.
All auspicious signs are in place.
In the beginning, all things are hopeful.  We prepare ourselves to start anew.  Though we may be intent on the magnificent journey ahead, all things are contained in this first moment; our optimism, our faith, our resolution, our innocence.
 Deng Ming~Dao

I will be teaming up with Elizabeth Doherty of Blue Bee Designs for a fun knitalong that will end with some nice prizes including yarn, patterns, a hand stamped Bunny Bag and perhaps a signed book!  The KAL will run from September 11 hrough November 11.

Here’s how to participate:

• You can knit your item with any yarn you like, but you’ll get an extra entry into the prize drawing for using a pattern designed by Elizabeth.

• Post photos of your finished objects in the Fall Knitalong FO thread on Ravelry by November 11 for a chance to win prizes.  This thread will be used for pictures only and Fall Knitalong thread will be for chatting and sharing.  You can submit more than one finished object if you are a fast knitter, but it can't be something that was previously knitted before the start of this KAL.

• Elizabeth is offering to do a question and answer session at some point during the Knitalong…more information to come

Please tag your projects with woolenrabbitKAL on Ravelry, and use #woolenrabbitKAL on social media.

Now through Sept.8 if you are participating in the knitalong, get 10% off any of my any of my yarns when you enter the code woolenrabbitKAL on my website.

Imagination, song, the soaring spirit.
Separate them to know them as aspects of the whole,
Join them to know the mystery of totality.
The mind, if unfocused, can become the most powerful force we know. Yet for most of us, we are lost in the vastness of our own uncharged minds.
Deng Ming~Dao

Do you ever find yourself stuck?  Hit a roadblock that you just can't seem to get past?

Every now and then it happens to me and even though it makes me crazy, it will take me forever to just get past it.  It's different than procrastinating…which I am also good at, it really is a mental block.

This summer I have had 2 things looming over me and making my brain tired.
The first has been this beautiful sweater that I know I am going to LOVE!  I have thoroughly enjoyed knitting it, but I have a complete mental block when it comes to picking up stitches to knit a sleeve.  I know, right?  It really doesn't sound like a big thing, but every time I looked at it my brain just groaned a little and then I put it back down.
I finally picked up and knit one sleeve in the car ride to the Cape and as soon as I finish this post, I am going to pick up those last darn stitches on the last sleeve.
"Determination"

The second thing that bogged me down this summer was a simple little book, "The Year of Living Danishly". The sad part is that I enjoyed a lot of this book, so much so that I wanted to know how it ended, but the endless amounts of statistics that you have to wade through made it difficult, yawn.

Now I know that people will say that there is no law that you have to finish a book (and I admit I do struggle with not finishing a book), but the truth was that I really did want to finish it.
Because this was a library loan and I had gone long over my 2 weeks, I couldn't download another book knowing that this one would disappear when I went online, so my reading stalled all.summer.long.

Seriously?  Who does this?  Me.
I made a deal with myself however, I allowed myself to just not read any of the stats and only read the interesting story line and finally finished it after 2 months..w00t!

I then downloaded the book, "Watching Edie", which I really enjoyed except for the ending and finished in 4 days..go figure.

When I am feeling stuck, I find that I just have to suck it up and make deals with myself it appears…LOL
My sweater will be finished this weekend…there, I put it in print. 😉

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend and check back here on Monday for some information on a 
Fall Knit Along that I will be hosting!

Because we rent our Beach House from Saturday to Saturday it gives us one day to unpack and unwind before jumping back into the work week.  It also gave me some time to harvest the gardens.  

As you may have noticed, I have said very little about my gardens.  Nope, not hardly at all because they have been such a HUGE disappointment!

 This year I added a bigger veggie trug and purchased some Miracle Grow raised bed soil from Lowe's, thinking it would be great.  First mistake…from the moment I opened the first bag, I was concerned because there were so many big chunks of wood in it and I know wood can rob the soil of nitrogen, but being the trusting person that I am, I figured that they had balanced it somehow.

Holy Moly, I have never seen a garden fail like this bed has.  I swear that the soil is toxic!
Needless to say I did not get anything worth mentioning from this bed. 😦

So this year it was just herbs, lettuce and grape tomatoes that thrived.  All of these were planted in the other 2 smaller beds that I have.  Unfortunately I topped them off a bit with the Miracle grow as well, so they have not thrived as much as they usually do, but then again the lack of warm weather and sun at the beginning of summer might have something to do with this as well.

This weekend, I will be empting the big bed and getting rid of all of the soil.  Trust me don't EVER buy this soil!!  I looked online to see if others have had problems with it and oh my, the stories I read.  Needless to say I will buying some good composted local soil to fill this bed along with with some peat and vermiculite.

So while I harvested the garden and tidied up the house and shop, Ken spent a good part of the day mowing the lawn and trimming.
When it was all finished, he wanted to sit outside and pretend that we were on vacation for just one more day, so pretend we did on this warm summer night.

I thought I would take a little time to talk about our yearly vacation to Cape Cod.  (beware…it's picture heavy)
 I am super good about posting pictures on FaceBook or Instagram, but not so great about keeping up with it all here.
 It's amazing to me what a society of "quick and instant" we are slowly becoming.  Some of it is good because it is easier to stay in touch with friends and family and some of it is not so good…the loss of taking the time to write and the lack of attention it sometimes takes to read more than a short paragraph. 

So….I am going to take the time to write and hope that you will want to take the time to read, because it's definitely more than a paragraph. 😉
For the last 6 years Ken and I have spent the 3rd week of August on Cape Cod.  In previous years we stayed in a very quaint cottage, but this year we decided to try a different house that included a/c in the bedrooms and boy were we ever happy to have it on the super humid days during the middle of the week!

While we had seen pictures of this home online, we were so very happy to see it in person.  It was the perfect little (and it was little) house for us!  We spent so much time on this screened in porch both with our morning coffee and evenings playing games, sipping wine/beer and just talking about our day.

My kids will laugh to know that I actually "enjoy" playing games now.  When they were little, it was always Ken who played games with them because they knew that Mom really didn't enjoy it that much.  I would give in however and play on "family game night" on New Years Eve every year.
I credit Carole and Dale for getting me hooked on the games that we love to play.  In fact they taught us a new one this year…Mexican Train and I love it!

Speaking of Carole and Dale, we were fortunate to spend a lot of time with both them and their family who we have come to know and love over the years.
On this day we took a drive over to Denis and had lunch at the Sesuit Harbor Cafe.  What a little gem of a place and the food…SO good!

On Thursday Carole and I took another trip over to Denis in her fun mustang convertible!  This time we went to Eden Hand Arts, which is one of my favorite places to go.  Tucked away in this teeny tiny shop are the handmade designs of John Carey, now made by his son in law.  
Each year I save money to make a purchase (or two).  I love the unique designs and of course the sparkle of shiny silver and gold.  Last year I bought one for my youngest daughter as a gift for watching my dogs and one for my granddaughter who came to the Cape with us…they both love their bracelets too!

A lot of our days were spent just enjoying the sunshine, sounds of the waves and the busy little sand pipers running in and out of the water.  
I don't think that anyplace else in the world makes me happier and more content than being at the ocean, although the lake is becoming a close second.  The waves are always so soothing, always coming in and then going out…every.single.day.  I miss it already!

When I posted this picture on FB one of my friends mentioned how beautiful a shawl would be designed around this picture and I can definitely envision it with the beautiful soft blue against a lacey white edging.  Now if I could only design..ha!  I'm betting though that I can find a pattern on Ravelry which might work well.

  

When we were not at the beach we took a few side trips to places that Ken has always wanted to visit.
We went over to Hyannis one afternoon to the JFK Museum.  As a girl who grew up just outside of Boston, it was so special to see all of these old photos.  Someday I hope to go to his library in Boston as well.

We also took a trip over to the Sandwich Glass Museum.  Such an amazing array of beautiful glass through out history and even more amazing is how much of these delicate pieces are still intact.

This year we went out to eat more than we usually do.  Not having children with us made it a bit more affordable and a few Christmas gift certificates that we tucked away made it even more so.  My daughter Ashley gave us a gift card to one of Ken's most favorite restaurants, Anejo and he enjoyed every single morsel!!  Thanks Ash!!

It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone just like that and there is already a taste of Fall in the air up here.
See you next year Cape Cod!!

 

So my goal this year was to bring a little more harmony and organization into the chaos that I call "my life".  A few weeks ago I read this post on my friend Amy "Spunky Eclectic's" blog and I thought that I could use something like this to move closer to staying on top of things now that my free time is a lot more limited.

I've tried writing a creative journal in the past but after a few weeks it sat by the wayside for weeks on end because I couldn't figure out where I wanted it to go, which kind of defeats the purpose..ha!  So……

 after seeing Amy's bullet style organizer and visiting the Filofax website, I bit the bullet and hit the order button.  I also ordered different types of prompt inserts that I think I will make it easier for me to stay on track and fun to use.  These cute ones are designed by Natalie Rebecca Designs.  She has all different styles and designs that fit the various organizers that exist.

This binder is full of pockets to tuck things away in…I love it!  I use the little clear pocket to tuck time sensitive coupons in so that I remember to use them before they expire, especially the 50.00 ones I sometimes get from Pottery Barn.  I hate when they have expired and I didn't use them…sheesh!  Free money should always be used right?

So, I will be bringing this little organizer with me to work and it will be on my desk open when I am home.  I'm hoping that if I keep it with me in plain sight I will reach for it when I have a thought or remember something I need to do until it eventually becomes habit for keeping me a bit more organized.  We'll see….as Ken said when he saw it…" You certainly do TRY to be organized"..ha!

 

Over the last few months I have been testing some new yarn bases from a few different mills and playing with some new dye colors.  I took some time this Summer to swatch and test the different bases and have found a a couple that I really love.

The yarn in the picture above is called Egret as you can see from the label.
 Even though I live in the mountains, my heart will always belong to the ocean, so when I received this beautiful snowy white yarn from the mill I instantly thought of the favorite snowy white Egrets we frequently see when we kayak on the Salt Marshes in Scarborough Maine.

Egret is a lightweight sport natural yarn that is a joy to knit with.  As much as I enjoyed the swatch that I knit, I am really looking forward to knitting a sweater with this yarn!

What are you knitting this fall?  I am looking for sweater ideas. :) 

 

I will have a bunch of this yarn with me this weekend when I am vending at the Fiber Revival this upcoming weekend.  Fiber revival is hosted by the Newburyport Spinners and Historic New England and is a super fun fiber get together, where you can spend the day with friends knitting and or spinning on the beautiful greens of the Spencer Peirce Little Farm.

In addition to fiber, friends and wonderful classes, you will also find delicious food, a beer truck from Ipswich Ale and a Vintage Baseball Game.  There truly is something for everyone!

This year Abby Franquemont, author of "Respect The Spindle" will be there again as a special guest teacher teaching, so if you are looking for something to do, head on over to this special little farm on the greens of Newbury, Ma.

Hope to see you there!!