Great Minds Thing Alike .... plus some finished object show & tell

Hi Mom,

Reading back through your earlier posts, I was struck by how in sync we sometimes are despite the geographic distances! Not only am I also flipping through my very own new copy of Victorian Lace Today (which I ordered, finally, from KnitPicks along with my very own new set of blocking wires, both in honor of the close of MS3), but I also just completed a sock heel just like the one you describe on a pair I'm working on for Nathan. I believe it's called Eye of the Partridge, but that could be wrong. I just like the way it looks.

Narrow heel on Nathan's new socks, plus a view of the cable pattern just because I knew you'd want to see:

The socks are the Boyfriend Sock (now the Husband Sock) pattern, knit up in some rich chocolate brown Koigu KPPM that I picked up at Imagiknits when I was there with Susan, Ellen & Meredith to celebrate the sale of our former Chicago home. I can't get these done fast enough for Nathan - he's so looking forward to his brand new homemade socks that I'm asked when they will be done several times a week!

By the way, don't forget to check out the errata page for Victorian Lace Today - apparently it's quite extensive.

As for thinking along a single train of though, how about this?

Kenneth Cole Reaction 'Magic Shuffle', L to R: brown '06, black '07, brown '07

Yes, that is the exact same pair of shoes, 3x over. At left are the originals, which I picked up last year and loved to death. Out shoe shopping last week, I was looking for another pair that were just as comfortable, only in black. Imagine how happy I was to see that the same shoe had come back for fall '07, this time with a small heel to perk things up a bit. After snatching up a pair in black, contemplating the sorry state of my old brown pair, then realizing there was only a single pair my size left in brown, I couldn't resist adding those to my bag too. So now I am the proud owner of 3 essentially identical pairs of shoes. Maybe I need to get out more.

Aside from shoe shopping I have also been busy getting things off the needles (and hook) as a round of summer knitting seems to be coming to a close. The big news was the end of MS3 and the blocking of my new blue Swan Lake Shawl (note the new fancy blocking wires! So nice to have, even if they are a bit clumsy to use).

Pattern: MS3 knit-a-long, aka Swan Lake from pinklemontwist
Yarn: Jaegger Zephyr in blueberry, knit on US3 addi lace needles

I really enjoyed participating in the knit-a-long and the whole mystery aspect. I don't think I would have picked this pattern out as one to knit on my own but I'm really happy with the result and to have this as an addition to my wardrobe. I was worried that it wouldn't be long enough, particularly in blocking when I realized it was only going to be about 17" wide x 72" long. Once on, though, it drapes really well and is even pretty warm for such a light knit. (I used just over 2oz of wool in the end).


Please ignore the strange expression, this was an early weekend morning photo shoot!

While I was showing off my new shawl, I also had to grab my new sweater which I finished up earlier this month, my crocheted Joy from the summer Rowan.

Pattern: Joy, Rowan Summer '07
Yarn: Rowan 4ply Cotton in Provence (just as photographed for the magazine),
worked with a US D 3.00 mm crochet hook.
As I could only get enough yarn by combining two different dyelots, the primary yarn is used for the main body and the second color for the sleeves & collar. Can you tell the difference?

This pattern reminded me, once again, how important it is to BASTE the pieces of a pattern together before I go ahead and sew in the many many ends, burying them so deeply that they can never be recovered. I was actually so worried that the body pieces were too small, that I ended up working in extra panels on the back section for width. In the end, of course, the back ended up too wide, pushing the sleeves down towards my elbows and bagging out all over the place. And of course I figured this out only once the whole sweater was sewn together, and I COULD NOT get the ends out to re-set the sleeves and try to address this mess. So in the end I had to CUT THEM OUT, reposition them, then secure them in by re-burying all the individual side pieces of yarn that I had cut. (They are still a little lumpy, but much more liveable.) What can I say, not the best of summer afternoons overall!

Even my long-patient, often set-aside Eveleen is off the needles, blocked and waiting to be assembled (after I finally finished sewing in all 200+ ends from the intarsia panel - there will be no close-up shots of this as it is far from my best work! It seems intarsia & I still have not reached a positive understanding between us...)



Of course, so many projects off the needles mean a new host of projects to cast on. Not only I am working socks for Nathan but I also have a pair for myself in the works, a child's sweater for the next (and possibly last, at least for this year) campaign for afghans for Afghans, and of course Hanami (whose knit-a-long starts on Friday - hopefully I'll be ready for it.) I've even found a use for all those balls of palette that I bought for Eveleen's intarsia panel, which required only a few yards of each leaving me with almost-complete balls: I've been inspired by the Mason & Dixon mitered square obsession to use the extra yarn to make square after square after square. I even bought more yarn (of course!) so that I could have a wider variety of colors to play with. What they will be, I still don't know, but they're fun to make for now.


What with that whole list, plus of host of things on my knitting wish list, I can't imagine having the time to knit to sell too. How good it must feel to have your work up in the shops! And congratulations on your first sale! Hopefully there will be many more to follow. I think you'll do okay with your new 'job' too - sounds like more fun than work overall!

I'm glad to hear that you had such a great adventure on your kayak trip and are now enjoying the late summer weather. Our warm days seem to be coming now - the sun is actually out today. So far, though, the most active I have been is playing mini-golf with Matt & Nathan on a Saturday afternoon and even that was followed up with a trip to a local wine bar. Hopefully with the fall and some warmer days (finally!) we'll be out there adventuring too.

Here's to enjoying the last days of August,

Megan

Beautiful Summer

Hi Megs,

I laughed out loud - and so did your father - when I read about the wrong Rushka. When I looked at the picture before I scrolled down (and you told the story very well!) it looked like Rushka had gained weight but then.... It was good that you could both laugh about it and not cry. It reminded me of the time when I was around 8 that my mother was stressed working on some sewing project and needed more pins. She drove me down town and I was to run into the TG&Y to buy the pins and she would drive around the block and pick me up. I did go in and buy the pins and back outside - no mother! I waited and waited - no mother. She got distracted somewhere going around the block and drove home - forgetting me completely! She only remember, she confessed later, when she got back and thought about needing the pins again. You come by distraction naturally.

Our kayak trip was amazing! What a Wonderful group of women! Most had never been in a kayak before but we all paddled our hearts out. We went from Weymouth Mills, base for Hinterland, down the Sisiboo River into the ocean at St. Mary's Bay. We kayaked around the Bay, sleeping out in tents for 4 nights and in 5 days made it to Sandy Cove on Digby Neck. We kayaked over 60 km in the ocean with winds, white caps, against and with the tides. It was just amazing. The nicest thing was both being with this group of women and being by myself in my own little kayak in the ocean. A real experience and one, at 64 11/12th, I am very proud of doing. (I am front, second from the left in our group picture - blue jacket, dumb green hat).

























































As to kitting and hooking - I have also been busy. I have to think about that Mystery Shawl 3 - don't think I really like the wing. I am not getting it but maybe I just am too traditional and like things a little more symmetrical. I do like the patten up until it goes off into a wing. I also really like the colour. I think I will also try the Hanami. Why not - what is another project along with all the things I am working on now!

I have been working on the Place Rug and other small knitting projects. I did finish a little small "coaster" mat. I had this for a long time kicking around so I finished it. I have also now officially "in business" with Tin Pot Textiles. I have moved on two fronts. First, my knitting and hooking are now being marketed by At The Sign of the Whale Gallery. I took my Lady Eleanor, the Maidenhair shawl, some hooking pieces, including "Three Old Fisherman Watch the Boats Come In" over to Francis and Michael's. And - even before they put them out I sold the "One Black Sheep" pillow! I have now officially made money on this venture.


I am also bought into the Hands on Crafts Cooperative. I will have smaller pieces there, the little purses, some shawls and some hooking things, and also am selling some of my large collection of vintage knitting needles. I have to work there two days a week but have a partner who will do one day for me so I have only one day. It is an interesting place so don't think I will mind - although Stan says "working" doesn't fit my new life style. I agree - that is working with a schedule. You might want to join me and place some of your work at either location. I found that I had a lot of things that I made for the joy of it and would be pleased to sell.

We had a very nice 45th wedding anniversary dinner at Charlotte Lane Cafe in Shelburne. We had a nice drive down, beautiful evening, and a lovely dinner.

I am off this afternoon with the kayak women to go out and see the puffins and harbour seals on Green island on the Zodiac. It is a grand ride on a beautiful day - no paddling! I sat out on the deck this morning knitting (making a triangular scarf out of Noro Silk Garden, Colour 258) and watching the humming birds. Got this picture - you can see the hummingbird just to the right of the geranium (a gray blob). Yesterday I took this picture of a butterfly that, with sister (butterfly woman) Susan's help, we are trying to identify. It would make a beautiful mat.



























Love ya,

Mom

Summer Fun

Hi Mom,

It seems that you have been having a lot of fun this summer - hooking retreats, big successes at the county fair (congratulations! pretty soon people are going to start blacklisting you from entering and scooping all the prizes...), sharkfest and rafting too. Nothing like being retired and taking it easy, eh!

Here we have been not quite so adventurous, but even so the time has just flown. We've been down to Oceanside to visit with all the Smiths,then had the Smiths come here to visit with us. We've helped Matt get settled at Berkeley, where he's eager for his graduate studies to begin, and toured Rachael around San Francisco in the hopes she may be lured to the bay area too from Hong Kong at the end of her upcoming school year. We've even had lots of sun the past week (after a long string of foggy days) so things are really looking up!

Rushka had a great time on the drive down to southern California and meeting the extended Smith crew, even if it did wear her out. She spent so much time at first trying to keep track of all the cars on the highway and then everyone at the beach house that she hardly slept at all the first 36 hours - pretty grueling for a dog that normally sleeps 18 hours + a day! So I think she was happy in the end to come home and relax in the peace and quiet of San Francisco. Since dog's aren't allowed on the beach at all in San Diego county, we had to make up for her missed ocean time once we got home, so we took her to Ocean Beach to play in the waves here. Let's just say she ended up a big wet salty sandy mess after almost an hour of chasing the surf - I think she had fun even if she had to pay for it with a bath when she got home!

So our poor Rushka dog seems to be doing well, even if her health stats aren't all that great right now. I feel like part of the problem is that we are spending way too much time at the vet, which means way too many opportunities to find new things that are wrong with her. Case in point:


Yep, that's a big fat mole, found by accident right between her toes on her left front paw and which we now get to pay big $$ to have removed, you know, just in case it's cancer. Because we didn't have enough vet bills - or worries - with just the diabetes. I am almost beyond being worried about all of this since this is not a dog that acts sick, but still, I'm not so amused by all of this veterinary action.

And speaking of fun at the vet, do you notice anything wrong in these two pictures?


If you guessed that Rushka looks a bit different, you'd be right - because that isn't Rushka. That's right, when I went to pick her up just before leaving for Oceanside, THE VET GAVE ME THE WRONG DOG!!!

Say hello to Bailey! The rottweiller in boarding who got to take an hour + adventure with Nathan and I, driving all around the city of San Francisco and even getting to visit our home, before we pieced it all together, got ahold of the vet (through the after hours emergency vet service - by then the clinic was closed and the last staff member was on her way out to enjoy her Friday evening) to make the switch. Bailey was just so friendly and happy to be with me and ride in our car, while I was so distracted making sure we were ready to hit the road the next morning, that she was with me in the car for about 20 minutes before I started to clue in that something wasn't right. By the time I picked up Nathan I was going back and forth with myself as to whether I was crazy or whether the vet could have actually given me a dog that wasn't mine. Yet it still took us all the way until we got home and into our apartment before we could face the bizarre but true fact that this dog had NEVER been in our apartment before. Once we managed to get ahold of the vet's office and make sure we could actually get our dog back and quelch the panic of having Rushka be left alone while we had to take care of a strange dog for the evening, the absurdity of the situation hit and I was laughing so hard I was crying all the way back to the clinic to make the switch. Let's just say we're all glad to have Rushka back where she belongs, safe and sound:

what? there was another dog in the house? says who?

Although I'm still not sure that I can explain this:



On the knitting front, I have been plugging away on MS3 and am now on the Final Clue!! Although really I should now be calling it by it's proper name, revealed at Clue 5: Swan Lake (which explains the white or black & romantic but ending tragically - with my blue shawl, I'm just going to pretend I'm knitting the lake part of it all). The biggest news though was the fact that, in honor of the theme, this assymetrical stole is to end not with another point but with a wing.

Really. A short-row lace wing, knit on the bias onto the body of the stole. I was skeptical at first - there are options for a non-wing stole, and a two-wing stole is in the works, but a one-wing stole? what would that look like? - but I decided after all that since I was in for a penny anyways I might as well be in for a pound. Here is where I was a few weeks ago with the first 'wing' clue in progress (again with the mystery-ness of the chart preserved):



And where I am today, only 18 rows short of binding off the final row:

Looks pretty good - I'm so curious now to see what it's like once it's finally off the needles!

In honor of the whole project, I finally gave in and let myself order a set of blocking wires which are presently on their way from Knitpicks (with a copy of Victorian Lace Today, just to keep the whole them intact). Hopefully they will get here by Friday so that I can keep my pace of one week per clue and have it all done by the weekend. Then I'll get a short week off and it's on to Hanami - did you decide if you want to try that one as well? - not to mention all my other projects that need some attention....

Your Lady E, by the way, is beautiful - no wonder she won best in show. Now we just have to find the opportunity to get together again and show our two off in tandem! They'd be a hit for sure.

Megan

Very Busy

Hi Megs,

I know you and Nathan have been very busy and so have we - but trying to get your father to take it easy. I guess that is what summer is for - to be out there doing things. It has been beautiful weather here (with some fog in the morning - and some fog all day!) and also nice times when it rains and then have an excuse to stay in and muck about. I know you enjoyed being with Nathan's family at the beach. There also must now be a 4th part of the mystery stole3 that you are working on. I have been hooking for the most part.

We had a Rotary Garage sale in the fog. We made over $700 with all our "stuff". It was warm but the fog made it nice and enough people saw us at the side of the road. It was funny. At one point we couldn't see from one end of the long table to the other the fog was so thick. We had to laugh - that is Yarmouth!

My knitting did very well at the Western Nova Scotia Exhibition. The lace shawl, little purse, yellow sweater, and Lady Eleanor all won firsts and Lady Eleanor won "Best Knitted Article". I also won a first with my biscuits in the cooking. I helped Emmi Comeau, the Director of the Handcrafts, Flowers and Cooking sort things and prepare the exhibit. She made me "Associate Director". My gray wool socks came in second - Emmi beat me out - she had a really interesting way to do the heel. She does the slip-one on the reinforced heel but does it on the opposite stitch so it makes a honeycomb pattern instead of a rib. I made a special exhibit for Rug Hooking and encouraged members to enter - which they did - so we had a very nice display.






























I have started a shawl loosely based on "A wide triangle", a shawl I found in Victorian Knitting Today. The pattern reminded me about picots and showed how to add a bead to them. The yarn is different, I am making long (3 cast on) picots and putting 3 small beads on every other row instead of every third row. It is turning out very well. I like the way it hangs. The beads are dark red/gray with a green/gray sheen. They are hard to describe. The yarn is Lodband Einband by istex from Iceland. It is lace weight and really nice heather gray.




































Looking forward to an update on your mystery shawl and all that you have been doing. Your father is taking it easy as he should. I am going on an (don't laugh) ocean kayaking trip with some "mature" women next week. Looking forward to this - their company - but way out of my comfort zone! Don't think I am taking any knitting!

Hello Nathan - a hug for you. Give Rushka a pat for me.

Love ya,

Mom