w-w-what's happening to me?

There's sumpin' fishy going on. Lately, I'm drooling over all sorts of crocheted projects.

I crocheted through much of my childhood, making clowns and blankets galore, but I've barely picked up a hook in the past 15 years, except to teach Leah how to crochet.

Then, suddenly, there's this infinity wrap and this star flower mandala (scroll down to the 5th set of pics) and this stained glass window afghan and these magnificent rugs made of reclaimed yarn from old sweaters!

Then and now, if I did pick up a hook, I'd love it to be my favorite one, the Susan Bates H hook that fits my hand just right and was the tool I used for every single clown and blanket I've ever made. The thumb rest is a scootch further up or down on this old hook than on the newer hooks and it makes all the difference in the comfort for my hands. Even my kids know that one is special and they should keep their cotton pickin' hands off of it. If the H size won't cut it for whatever crochet project I do finally settle on, I'll probably try the Clover soft touch crochet hooks for comfort.

Gotta love the multicraftual buzz.

upward

Sunday's farmers' market theme was Blues and Brews. The weather was stellar, the blues band excellent, the free beer samples from local breweries and a homebrew club oh so tasty.

The beer garden field was like a party within a party. I ran into someone I haven't seen since I was about 20 and enjoyed much of the day with knitter friends and other friendly folks. By the end, Scott was nearly sold out of baked goods, so he swapped a bit for some of those homebrews to take home and then sold the remaining items to one of his bakery accounts who didn't order enough for the weekend and left a message on our answering machine saying she'd take anything he could make to help her restock NOW. Sold out day = Yay!

We had Saturday fireworks and Sunday rocket launching, so much looking skyward this weekend. Outdoor cooking, outdoor eating, and plenty of soaking up the sunshine that has been absent for weeks.

My secret project is moving along nicely. I expect a couple more days with a mail delivery like this as part of the process.

I'd show some knitting pics, but nothing is pictureworthy right now. Oh, speaking of pictures, I can haz them! New camera purchased when I braved mall hell zone on Fri. I am so not a shopper. Anyway, back to the knitting, there's been progress on Scott's gansey, the green leafy wrap, a pair of socks (with a big boo-boo that may or may not end in a restart of one), and Leah's swallowtail shawl.

Rec'd word that Glastonbury Glassworks has been accepted as a vendor at Spa Knit and Spin in Maine this Feb. Looking forward to that.

Otherwise, there's another big project in the works, the research and discussion of which is taking up the remainder of our spare time. We're thiiis close to taking the plunge on it and then it'll get fun. Will talk about it here when we make the leap.

We've also been enjoying a house guest for the past few days. He's a spunky little imp whose morning energy results in an entertaining game between him and our big ol' Kodi girl.



Me in flannel jams. Shexay!

third try's a charm!

Leah's Swallowtail Shawl,
finally underway and going smoothly!
(I'm getting pretty good with the lunatic camera, eh?)

ka-boom!

You see that subject line? That's the sound of my head exploding. It hasn't actually happened yet, but I think it will soon from the pressure build-up of all the ideas swirling around in there. This is all very exciting, but it's making it awfully difficult to get any work-for-pay done, which is unfortunate because there's a whopping lot of it around here lately.

So anyway, because I didn't buy a new camera yet and spaced on taking my auto pilot camera to last night's outdoor concert -- knitters, live tunes, yummy chow, Magic Hat #9!!!! -- I have no pics but a different kind of treat for you today. This video was forwarded to me by one of my favorite Most Excellent Blog Commenters, Christina, it made my whole family exclaim with delight when I played it for them, and then the song popped up again at last night's concert and I can't get it out of my head (see? there's another thing squishing around up there!), so here you go. Enjoy!

on auto pilot

So, it ends up that my camera isn't dead; it's just in charge. It'll still take a single decent pic when I turn it on, but no more than one and I have no control over any of its settings or timing, so for the past few days, I've been aiming in the general direction of something I'd like a picture of, turning the camera on, and hoping for the best. No control over flash, zoom, focus, etc. Eh, whatever. ;-) The auto pilot pics are what will be on the blog until I make the time to get a new camera.

I wish I had understood the camera's new-found independence last Sunday, when nephew Zach wove a basket at a workshop offered by the Hale Homestead during the farmers' market. I was mostly with the knitters at The String Thing, but I'd pop over to see how Zach was doing every once in a while. I've never done basketweaving before, so it was all very interesting to me. Each workshop participant started off with the same supplies and basic instructions, and each basket turned out very different from the others, totally functional and attractive!

Meanwhile, Leah's participating in a swallowtail shawl knitalong with friends at our LYS. Knitting lace and following a chart are still fairly new to her, so it's been a challenging project. This was her first try to get it started:

She realized she was off kilter in a few places, so that attempt was torn out. Second try reached approximately the same point yesterday, when we noticed a few problems on that one too. She was frustrated at that point, so I helped her tear it back to the third repeat and I think we can get her back on track today. She's trying to learn to read her knitting better so she'll see boo-boos as they happen and can more easily correct them. It'll come with practice.

I put together three strands of fingering weight wool (two dark green, one army green) and the Woodland Shawl pattern for the start of a thick, warm winter wrap, which will look infinitely better after I block it, as is the case with all lace knitting, even the chunky kind.

The leaf motif is easily memorized, so this will be a good social knitting project until it gets too big to lug around with me or too hot to have it in my lap. Good thing, too, since there's a lot of social knitting on the calendar. Hooray for evenings at summer concerts and outdoor performances!

Thanks, everybody, for the well wishes for my Gram. She had a cardiac cath on Monday, where they found a kinked vessel and two mild areas of narrowing. They put in a stent right then and there for the kinked vessel and the narrowing will be treated with meds. She'll be back to her usual activities in just a few days.

steady as she goes

Some of the people, places, and things that have made up my past 24 hours:

1. A raging wind/hail/rain storm with sound amplified, as I was in my car at the time it passed through here.

2. Ukulele band festivities.

3. Hunt for and purchase of more than 90 Bic Mark-It pens in woodsy brown color, requiring mapping of all Staples stores within 20 miles of here and a team effort to reach our goal.

4. Unexpected visit with an old friend I haven't seen in years.

5. Learned tubular bind-off for the neck of Scott's sweater, only to find that the neck is still too small and will be torn out.

6. Rec'd happy message from my mom as she's romping through Italy and Switzerland w/ friends.

7. Multi-state back roads travel in pouring rain during Friday rush hour, culminating in a pleasant knit night.

8. Taunted my sister, who had a hangover. ;-)

9. Discovered that my camera seems to have bit the dust. Didja notice the uncharacteristic pictureless post?

10. Reaching a major milestone on the secret project that has taken on a life of its own over the past two weeks.

11. Learning that my Gram had a heart attack and is in the hospital. She's doing fine now, but has to wait until Monday for testing.

We had plans to head out for some excitement this evening, but the current plan is to clean the bathroom, take a walk, and knit a plain ol' sock. Mundane to the max. At this point, the less excitement, the better.

random in the rain

I'm not one to get worked up about the weather, but I woke up to the sound of rain yet again last night and remember thinking, "Sheesh, enough already."

The new Connecticut Science Center is cool. We're members and have visited a couple of times already. Much more still to explore. Leah took this pic of a corner of the roof wave using a $5 mini digital camera that we got at a tag sale. You can tell the picture was taken weeks ago because there's actual blue sky there.

We had spinach strawberry salad (with added feta cheese and way less sugar in the dressing) for dinner on Sunday and it was fantabulous. Even the kids raved about it and had second helpings. Must swap for more supplies at the farmers' market this weekend.

The crochet kid made wee granny squares of sock yarn to decorate her father's day card this year.

Scott was on a mission to watch a certain movie a couple of days ago and the library didn't have it, so he went to Blockbuster. Upon checkout, it was noted that his credit card info in their records showed an expiration date of 2001. That's how often we spend money on video rentals. Thank you, Connecticut library system.

Can anybody out there tell me anything about this spinning wheel? I've never seen one like it.

After a few disappointing unsuccessful attempts at donating plasma/whole blood (problem w/ machine one time, borderline low iron another time, phlebotomist missed the vein another time), yesterday I had an entirely uneventful blood donation experience. This included a good long wait because I was a walk-in w/o appointment -- yahoo! good knitting time and a friendly person next to me! Sent on my merry way with a packet of gummy fruit silly snacks, all I could think was how true it is: Donate blood. All you'll feel is good. Click here to find a blood drive in your area.

I have a secret project underway and it's going better than I could have imagined. Ravelers can see preliminary info in the project with "secret" in the title here. (Details in Ravelry keeps it a secret to the extent necessary.) Exciting!

if you build it...

If you build an awesome farmers' market, they will come.

It rained hard all night. Areas of the field were ankle deep mud. Vendors with heavy trucks were encouraged to take the day off, for fear that they'd get into the field, but not out again, so there were about half as many vendors as usual.

But the rain stopped for a few well-timed hours. The cow bell rang to signal the start of the market and, sure enough, the customers came!

The band began playing one good song after another. The organic gardening demos got underway and the wood-fired pizzas were being baked to order. History came alive again at the Nathan Hale Homestead.

There were happy dogs taking their owners out for an adventure, dads celebrating Father's Day in a beautiful place, adults in silly rain boots, and a cute baby in a hat crocheted by her mama.

For a very short time, there was just the slightest hint of rain, not enough for the many umbrellas to be put to use or for people to even seek shelter. Then, for a while, the clouds parted and the big ball of fire in the sky proved to waterlogged Connecticut that it's still up there.

And the market cheered!

saddle up!

Please note: Random crappy pics with poor lighting all 'round, courtesy of something like 30 days of rain out of the past 40 days. I give up on waiting for good natural light.

Sheepy zipper pulls, by customer request. Methinks there will be monster zipper pulls in my own future.

Drag race at Jesse's rocket club yesterday. WooHoo!

After much forward-and-back fiddling, the saddle shoulders of Scott's gansey are underway! Shown on top of one of Scott's favorite sweaters, which I use to know sizing goals. I plan to finish this shoulder at the farmers' market today and expect the other shoulder to be easy because all the decisions have already been made. Darn good thing, too, since two other projects are calling my name, asking me to cast on for them RIGHT NOW.

'Nuf with the chit chat. Back in to the saddle again!

some of us

Some of us are playing with little glass critters on Etsy this week...





and some are playing with horses.

All happy!

beware: goofball at the torch

"You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm."
- Colette, 1961

SUNday

Early morning monsoon over, it was a fine day at the farmers' market. Leah, in her role as a volunteer at the Nathan Hale Homestead, was given responsibility for taking payment for the horse-drawn carriage and pony cart rides offered in the upper field for the day. She decided that her snood (not the cap, not the bonnet) was the perfect head covering for such a task and bought a new bodice from one of the volunteers at Hale.

She put to use the hand-stitched pocket that she has been working on for a few days. She dug out some canvas from our fabric stash, drew her design, stitched it with hand-dyed embroidery threads leftover from our needlework obsession, and rummaged around for some ribbon trim (a variety of which was given to her by two of our friendly neighbors and has been put to use in many ways) to tie it around her waist.

After I helped Scott get the booth set up, I was off to the String Thing, a small but growing group of market-goers who bring along their hobbies to work on after they visit the vendors. Ooh, some droolworthy projects in that mix and again the easy-flowing conversation that seems to always be a component of such gatherings!

Eventually, the market was over, the booths packed back into vendors' cars and trucks, and the Hale Homestead volunteers had a meeting. This included discussing their part in the season's many planned activities and events while chopping vegs and cooking veggie soup in the Hale kitchen's fireplace, then feasting together in the side yard and finishing off their party meeting with the leftovers from the Hale tea and cake sales of the day -- tea flavored with mint grown in the homestead's garden and sweets made from recipes from Nathan Hale's time.

Since only one of those volunteers is too young to drive, her chauffeur couldn't have been happier to wait in the sunshine, with the silence interrupted in the most pleasant of ways by an occasional passerby on horseback.

--

Rebecca Z, your bead idea turned out well, I think! Leave a comment that includes your email addy and/or Ravname so I can contact you directly. Pic to come soon!

EDC

I saw some discussion a while back about people's EveryDay Carry, their EDC, the things they have on/with them when they go out. For the fun of it, I snapped pics of Jesse and Leah's EDC yesterday.

His: Fave yo-yo in ratty ol' sling style holster, with bright pink Angel Hair string (for good visibility for string tricks) dangling below. iPod in cabled case knit by his sister as a xmas gift, all connected by a carabiner.

Hers: Lace-edged fan (a gift from the Great Grandma and gets way more use than anybody would have expected), stitching project-in-progress, tin cup she made at Old Sturbridge Village, apple, bonnet, two small knitting projects on DPNs, all carried in a woven basket. Now, it is true that this EDC is modified somewhat from her usual because she was on her way to being a costumed interpreter at a living history museum, but her usual EDC is achieved by swapping out the basket for a backpack, the bonnet for some hair elastics, and the fan for an iPod.

Mine? No pic, but it's a blue crocheted bag w/ strap that's long enough to wear diagonally over my body ($3 at a flea market and I love it enough that I will use it as a model to make myself another when it disintegrates eventually), wallet sewn for me by Leah, and a small knitting project (currently the lace ribbon scarf).

We're off to the farmers' market in a couple of hours. There's a monsoon in progress right now and I haven't looked at the forecast, so I don't know if it's expected to clear up, but it doesn't look likely at this point. Somehow (probably influenced by our experience the last time we were there on a rainy day), I'm still looking forward to it.

wherever it may lead

Kids and I headed out this morning with lots of possibilities for how the day could go, all in agreement that we'd just see what felt right at the time and roll with it. We knew that Leah was volunteering for the Nathan Hale Homestead's contribution to Connecticut Open House Day. We knew they would be celebrating Nathan Hale's birthday and she should bring her spinning wheel because there was going to be a focus on wool/textiles of the time period. We also knew there was a fiddle fest going on nearby, so Jesse and I thought we might check that out after we explored the Nathan Hale Homestead offerings.

What we didn't expect was that one of the sheep would break out of its pen and go racing off into the 1,400-acre state forest, and that Jesse and a handful of other young volunteers would spend hours in the woods, tracking the sheep for miles. We didn't expect that this would leave the event short-handed and that the remaining spinner would have problems with the wheel she was using, and when I was trying to help her by comparing with Leah's wheel, visitors would be interested in this thing you call spinning. I didn't expect to show bunches of people how to spin, even with my humble beginnerly skills, or to chat for hours with the soapmaker or the dyer or the chair caner.

I didn't expect this boy to be so interested in what I was doing that he came back twice, the second time intending to spin "enough yarn for a BALL." I never expected to meet the delightful Louisa, who learned to drop spindle last week and was so thoroughly psyched to use a wheel, or the woman who was making wool felt for the first time and was amazed by this miraculous transformation.

Meanwhile, the sheep-trackers followed that rogue sheep all the way out the other side of the state forest, through muck, around pricker bushes, over hills, and, into a different town. Just before the owner arrived with her truck and some rope, a dog spooked the sheep and off it ran at full speed, out of sight of the young adults who had followed it so carefully. They got a lift back to the house and their efforts were rewarded with lemonade, ice water, and unlimited cake.

We started off not knowing how the day would take shape and ended with shaking our heads and laughing in disbelief. We could never have planned it, but wouldn't have missed it for the world.

gonna wash that sweater right out of my hair

The workload of the past couple of weeks has left me with tired arms and tingly fingers come evening, so there has been no knitting whatsoever. Still, I was watching South Pacific with Leah last night (hey! leisure time at home! I remember that!) and had to do something, so out came this old sweater.

It's the Bella cardigan that I blogged about in 2006, which has just never been right -- too drapey, too short, neck too wide, sleeve shape uncomfortable. The color is more accurate in the photo below.

Now it looks like this and by the end of today, the remaining knit portion will be returned to its former status as a ball of yarn. I had a new project in mind for this yarn, but now I don't think it's right for that one either. Hm. The knitting is clearly in a holding pattern, but that's okay because absolutely nothing else is. This too shall pass.

the spice of life

Topics of my work in the past week have included:
1. the petroleum industry
2. gastroenterology
3. interview with an incoming university president
4. documentary on the sport of cricket

Recent entertainment:
1. a chorale performance of songs by American composers
2. the brand spanking new Connecticut Science Center
3. nephew's lacrosse game (they won!)
4. tag saling (awesome scores and ran into an old friend)
5. ukulele band practice, always with singalong :-)
6. new Star Trek movie
7. farmers' market
8. driving a silly PT Cruiser while my fender bender is being repaired

Custom requests for Scott on the torch:
1. purple foil heart pendant
2. turn that chicken bead into a pendant -- with egg tassel!
3. mushrooms and hedgehog (the hedgehog didn't work out, but the mushrooms are fun)
4. heart pendant, red

You will notice no mention of knitting. See first list above. I don't know who flipped the switch, but every single one of my accounts has inundated me with work in the past week. This is good for the pay-off-the-mortgage mission, not so much for the finish-the-gansey-before-it-gets-too-hot-out mission.

p.s. For J, who asked about the pattern for the flag vest but didn't sign in at Blogger so I can't reply directly, it's from Not Just Plain Jane Knits. Follow the link to her new site, then click on the cardigans and vests section.

I Spy

What a fun little surprise to browse friends' activity on Ravelry and notice a certain somebody's glass stitch markers in action!

piggy on Lee's awesome sock

cupcake (can you find it?) on Karrie's excellent hat
There's lots of good stuff going on in the glass studio and behind the scenes here, but some of it I can't talk about yet and some will have to wait until I get a breather from this (happily) booming business of mine, so I can take pics and get some more things on Etsy.

let the fun begin!

Ready!

Scott and Jesse at our newly revamped bakery booth,
minutes before the opening bell
of the Coventry Regional Farmers' Market's 2009 season.

Set!

Leah volunteering at the Nathan Hale Homestead.

GO!

Entrance to the market moments after the opening bell.
Scott's booth is to the left of the entrance,in the shade of a big tree.
Yes, the day was every bit as beautiful as it looks here.

A small portion of the large group of people who gathered to see this beautiful Coopworth sheep relieved of his winter fleece. This cool demo happened just a few feet from where I was enjoying the entirely pleasant first String Thing gathering. Hung w/ crafty people I already knew, met some new folks today, and some others stopped by to say that they'll bring their project along to join in next week.

We all came home happy and tired, satisfied with the hard work of a job well done...that also just happened to be an amazingly good time.

worth a gamble

As of Friday morning, the forecast for Vermont was all sorts of doom and gloom. Family pow-wow made it clear that we all really wanted to go camping, though, so we packed up and headed out. Sunshine for the ride there, some clouds during the 20 min. it takes us to set up camp, and a pleasant evening! Raindrops started to fall at dusk, so kids headed for the tents to read by headlamp and I continued knitting by the dwindling fire, looking oh so stylish in my fabu rain poncho and headlamp!

We were dry and cozy in our tents as it rained overnight, but there was sunshine in the morning...

and the remainder of the weekend had only a little bit of rain here and there, certainly not enough to put a damper on anything, mostly with glorious blue skies and bright sunshine!

Since it's early in the season, we had the campground practically to ourselves, which was exceptionally peaceful and beautiful. There was much walking, biking, reading, fishing (above - Jesse in red, Scott on the shore) campfire cooking, drinking of local brews (Magic Hat #9 and Long Trail Belgian White -- omg, so good), and a good bit of knitting. I'm pretty close to starting the saddle shoulders on Scott's gansey.

We all agreed that this was a gamble worth taking!

neat

Tuesday morning, I was listening to the Knitmore Girls podcast and they mentioned using these zippered blanket bags to organize yarn and roving. Given that my dining room closet is our spinning/felting storage space

and it's a big family joke how every time someone opens that door, they must be prepared for the resulting avalance of slippery bags of fluff, I clicked right over and ordered TWO DOZEN bags. Total, with shipping? Less than $23.

Wednesday morning -- that's right, in just over 24 hours since I placed my order -- the UPS truck pulled up to my house. :::blink blink::: Seriously? 24 hours and less than $1 a bag?! Yeehaw!

Since I had a pretty hefty workday on my hands, I couldn't dive into the project right then and there, but by dinnertime Wednesday...

Ta da! Avalanche-free zone!
Besides being nicely squared off so they stack neatly, the clear plastic is not slippery, so they stay where you put them, unlike Ziplocs. The 9" bag height is just about perfect for 1-lb. bumps of roving. I fit about 6 lbs. in each bag. Could have easily stored more per bag if the fluff wasn't wound into balls, but it is and I didn't feel like unrolling it all.

Bonus: Found some forgotten treasures while stash diving! Ooh, ahhh...

The packing slip for the blanket bags is on my desk this morning and I just noticed the Cleaner's Supply slogan: "Great prices. Fast delivery." Heck yeah! Two thumbs up for them!

take me out to the knitting game

So, last night's entertainment included about 450 homeschoolers enjoying a Rock Cats baseball game. I phrase it in exactly that way because, for me, the primary entertainment was the homeschoolers, while the game provided a fun backdrop. The kids and Scott, of course, bebopped around with assorted pals, seat-hopping to chat with everyone and making food/drink runs together. (Oh, and BTW, Long Trail Belgian White? Yum.) I, meanwhile, enjoyed a steady stream of knitters and old friends passing by and stopping for visits.

I knew it was going to be a knitting sort of evening when we rec'd a phone call at home with an emergency request for a size 2 DPN, STAT, for a friend who left one of her needles at home.

This, coincidentally, is the same friend who was knitting next to me at a Rock Cats game in the fall of 2008, when I was ALSO knitting a lace ribbon scarf out of Jojoland yarn. The scarf in the 2008 pic was chosen from the gift knits box a couple of weeks ago and I enjoyed the pattern once I got it in my head, so I'm making another one for the gift knits box.

Then a friend stopped by to tell me about the cotton top she's knitting for her daughter.

Another one stuck out her leg to show off alpaca socks she recently received in the very silly Sock Wars.

A long-time acquaintance stopped to chat and mentioned that she's having trouble with tendinitis from her knitting, so she's switching to Continental style and that seems to help.

The two homeschoolers who sang the Star Spangled Banner were decked out in handknit stars and stripes vests, knit in a mad dash by the socknitter in the first pic above. She made two of these in a couple of weeks. Crazy! (hm? what's that you're whispering? Terror Fish? Oh, yeah. Forgot about that. See, I know crazy.)

I shared a passing greeting with another knitter who has her own sheep and is also a spinner and teacher of crochet.

The midwife who was present for Leah's homebirth hung out for a visit too. She's not a knitter, but she's cool enough that we'll forgive her for that one flaw. :-)

When Jesse and buddies weren't watching the game, Jesse was playing with string of a different kind, having just rec'd an order of new yo-yo strings that needed to be broken in. (Yes, the kind he uses need to be broken in. You wouldn't believe the options and finer points of yo-yo strings for the serious player. Debates about these rival those between circ lovers vs. dpn users.)

Leah worked on a small project while watching the game. See the tell-tale yarn leash spanning from her left hand (holding project) to knitting bag on the ground? At the end of the evening, a conversation with an Artist Trading Card enthusiast/homeschooling mom/friend lit a spark in Leah's mind that has since led to swatching, graphing, and her first intarsia project, which is in progress at this very moment. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

For the Rock Cats, last night was a sound thumping of a loss.

For my family, everything about it was a win. :-)

good ol' summertime

Memorial Day 2009 was spent with a couple of families of friends, enjoying the sunshine and time together, then back home for a shift of gears (let the dog out, pick up our picnic contribution) and out again in a different direction for a cookout. With the exception of the bird who shat upon my shoulder while I was sitting under a big ol' tree, it was a perfectly pleasant day. We were up early and out the door, home again in time to fall into bed. Whew -- all that romping and relaxation tires a person out. :-)

I have a recent FO to share!

Pattern: La Novia by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Celestial by Dye Dreams, bought at CT S&W
Modifications: Where the pattern called for a P2togTBL, instead slipped the two stitches knit-wise with the yarn in front and then purled them together, like a SSK, as suggested by Rebecca Z.

I like this scarf, but I didn't enjoy knitting it. This is no fault of the pattern, which is crystal clear, as are all of Anne's patterns. I was aiming for one of those patterns with a repeated small motif, where I could get the chart into my head and just zip along without too much counting, tracking, or referring to the chart. Since this is only a 6-row repeat, I thought it would fit the bill, but that wasn't the case at all. I had to look at the chart for every single row, keep track with a row counter, and count stitches all the way. Nothing difficult about it, just not the intuitive little lacy thing I wanted to work on. Maybe I'm just dense. I did like how it was turning out, though, and it moved along quickly with this worsted weight yarn, so I just stuck with it, mostly knitting it while on the porch at my grandma's in the early morning quiet hours before everyone else got up.

Anne suggests a light blocking, but mine looked a little too chaotic, so I blocked the heck out of it. The alpaca, merino, and silk blend is heavenly. I adore the deep teal (I know it looks blue in the pic, but it's darker and more green). I'm very happy with the end result of this project and equally happy to be done with knitting it.

After endless stockinette slog, I have FINALLY reached the patterned portion of the body of Scott's gansey -- yahoo! Done with the fiddly mathiness of getting the pattern set up, I should be able to move along smoothly with it now. Best of all, this entire week appears to be a continuation of the weekend's festivities!

in our element

Yesterday was one of those days that just felt soooo right. We were all doing something we love, with people whose company we enjoy, in places that make us feel good. Scott and Jesse headed out for the rocket club's launch day, where there were cub scouts, rocket drag races, admirable creations, friends, and ideas flowing freely. They were there for the set-up and stayed to help with packing away the club's launch equipment. They came home tired and elated, with plans for the next rockets they'll build, and the next, and the next...

Meanwhile, Leah and I stopped at my mom's for a minute in the morning to retrieve our blocking wires, which mom recently put to good use in blocking her Bluebell sweater!

Turned out great, and such a pretty color. She had planned to use a glass button from a certain someone to finish it off, but decided she'd most often wear it open, jacket style, so buttonless it'll remain. Beautiful as is!

Close-up to show the cuff and edging detail.
Just enough detail to make it interesting,
while still remaining a fairly simple sweater to knit.
Leah and I headed to Old Sturbridge Village for their Wool Days. She was, of course, decked out 1840s style, so she could do her unofficial volunteer role. (We've tried to volunteer officially, but we get shot down because of her age, so she dresses up anyway, settles in somewhere, and if somebody happens to ask her a question, she answers it. My little subversive historical re-enactor. :-)

Additions to this season's ensemble include a hand crocheted lace doily, possibly made by her great grandma, worn around her neck and tucked into her bodice. While I was working one day this week, she drew the pattern for this bodice freehand from something she saw on a website, cut the pieces from the remnants of an old duvet cover in our fabric stash, and sewed the whole thing by hand, tiny stitch by tiny stitch. It is as primitive as you might imagine, but it fits and it works, so she wore it with great pride! Here, she's knitting a sock while raw wool is being scoured in the background, in prep for making some of their naturally dyed yarns.

The friends we planned to go with couldn't make it, but we ran into other friends while there and spent portions of the day with them, so there was a nice mix of chatting and quiet time. Leah also toodled off to do her own thing for chunks of time, so I settled in on a bench for some knitting on this picture perfect day. Just me, my rooster friend, and the occasional stagecoach rolling by.

on. a. roll.

During another uke band gig, I finished another scarf FO that used EXACTLY one skein.

This was also yet another period of time when I was knitting and listening to my iPod, expecting to spend the time in solitude (and not minding this idea one bit), only to end up in delightful conversations with knitting passersby and other friendly folks. Totally unexpected social times, 100% fun.

an unexpected treat

I finished yesterday's work for pay, took a walk, then launched into the unpaid work (including the semiannual basement storage space clean-out/tidy-up) while Scott mowed the lawn. We both felt pooped by dusk and proclaimed it a fend-for-yourself-dinner night. Jesse was chopping onions and heating a pan on the stove for whatever was his dinner plan. I grabbed an apple and settled in for some relaxing knitting. Suddenly, poof, the power went out. I knitted on in peace. After a few minutes, as the daylight dimmed further and the electricity still didn't come back on, I went outside so I could see my stitches better, only to find that Scott decided this was the perfect evening to make a campfire dinner.

So I settled in next to the fire, enjoyed the camping-at-home feeling, strapped on my trusty headlamp to continue knitting when it got too dark, and am thiiis close to finishing off the La Novia scarf (which I hope trust will transform with blocking). Kids folded laundry from the line, visited with neighbors on the street, did yo-yo tricks (Jesse) and hand sewing of a garment (Leah). Kodi was happy to have us in the yard with her. And the power came back on just in time for a late dinner inside. Ahhh...thank you, CL&P, for the temporary failure and resultant extra-pleasant evening!

Meanwhile, these library books have my head spinning with all the beautiful patterns they contain. Where to begin?!

Thanks, Karrie, for the One Lovely Blog award. I'm a big poopyhead about passing those things on, but thanks for thinking of me!