Up and down and back and forth...

My sister Christina has pointed out that my last post was a full month ago. And where haven't I been these few weeks? I feel as though I've hardly sat down until today, when I decided that enough is enough and I put my feet up.

I started the month with a visit to the Federal Building in Buffalo to be fingerprinted for my new green card. I learned that your fingerprints can actually wear off. Some of mine are almost gone. The officer taking my prints paused and regarded me with great satisfaction. "That's from work," she said. It didn't occur to me in time to say that it was probably caused by knitting needles. Books don't rub off your finger prints, tho if they could...

From there, we went on to tour the Frank Lloyd Wright House at GrayCliff on Lake Erie. We cruised through Cattaragus county, stopping only for Tim Horton's. We flew past the Zoar Valley which I really want to visit one of these days to it's waterfalls and old growth trees. Finally we wended our way up though Wyoming County to visit the Dancing Goat in Warsaw, where I welcomed Mara back to Western New York and purchased a skein of that Ella Ray Merino Laceweight that Chronic Knitting used for her Swallowtail. Definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. Eight and a half hours in the car that day and we never left New York State or went east of Rochester.

The rest of the month has been similar. I've picked raspberries in historic Egypt, giant mushrooms by Hemlock Lake and tomatoes from my own backyard. I've wandered the slopes of Harriet Hollister park. I've gadded about at the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival and followed my favorite paths at Letchworth, where I must say there are too many people these days. I've knitted socks in the woods, at the car wash and on the road. I've showed off my summer knitting at the first Guild meeting. I finished the navy blue Swallowtail out of Mirasol Nuna - luscious Merino/Silk/Bamboo. Must mail it! At the Guild, I happened to glimpse 2 beautiful and perfect sweaters that Paula made over the summer out of Nuna. Very nice!

What have I not done? I have not finished the Swing Jacket or the Blue Mosaic bag. I've made a lot of progress on both but finished they are not.

The Swing jacket is almost done - just four more inches on the collar and then all I have to do is to sew the seams. I felted the blue bag. I had a disastrous adventure with a zipper which I sewed on and then had to carefully remove because it overstretched the edges. Sister Frances (not a nun) suggested the obvious - sew the zipper to a lining and then stitch the lining into the bag - brillant! Before I do that, however I must throw the bag back into the wash to calm the overstretched edges a bit. Pics below.



















Puffball mushroom:
















We picked this one, ate half and dried the other half in the oven for later:




















View from Harriet Hollister:















Fiber Fest:
















Nuna Swallowtail:






























Hemlock Lake boat launch:




















Letchworth trail:
















































Before:



















After:




















Close-up after:

















Comments

shandy said…
That blue bag is very nice, like lovely tweed fabric. I'd be interested in knowing how to do that.
October 8, 2010 at 2:12 PM
Mary Lou said…
I love how the mosaic bag turned out. I may try that. I haven't posted in a month either, but unlike your gadding about, mine has been mostly work. And knitting, of course. I forget how lovely upstate New York can be. (Not all of it, of course. I see you didn't go to Watertown.)
October 9, 2010 at 9:03 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In the Vortex: yes we can!

Image
It's almost a month since I wrote here last, that long dark month between November and December. I've been humming and hah-ing, writing and re-writing and finally conclude that if knitters near the Arctic Circle Lene and Harpa can present a good face during the short days, then so can I. Love is an old pair of black gloves; at least it has been for me this past week. I knit them a year or 2 ago for my husband and he only recently complained in his mild way that the fit on the baby finger wasn't right. Don't worry, I won't torture you with photos except for this one which shows the fingers after I cut them off. There's an article about gloves in the most recent issue of Cast On . It has now finally sunk into my brain that after you have knit the cuff and thumb and built up the hand, it's best to knit the baby finger first before building up the hand with a few more rounds and completing the other fingers. I don't like the way they tell you to close th...
Read more

More Thinking About Knitting than Than Actual Knitting

Image
Here is a picture of the recipient of the domino square He's the son of a colleague. The colours are so unbabyish that I still can't quite believe that he likes it, but apparently he can't put it down. Well, I guess if you're going to haul around a big knitted square, it may as well be one that you can sew into a cushion cover later on. What a sweetie! There's not much progress to show on the Mystery Einband. I've been knitting a surprise for someone, sort of. I'm not as far along with it as I'd like to be. Busy with work. After reading Fleegle's post about purl decreases , I got to thinking. If I knit the ssk's the way you're supposed to - ie. slip 2 stitches knitwise and knit them together through the back loop rather than simply knitting 2 stitches together through the back loop - will it result in a more pleasant knit on a lace pattern like the Small Trees? Turns out that it will! Remember how I said that the Small Trees pattern was dri...
Read more

Been and gone

Image
We have been and gone to Wakefield for our summer week off. It was quite hot and we swam every day often more than once, and as it turned out, right alongside a beaver. Once Nadia saw him pass by as she floated in the water, we switched to swimming at my sister's dock on the other side of the river. It was near the end of the week anyway. The latest pink shawl has been sent off to an elderly and housebound friend who has a hard time dressing stylishly and loves something pretty to throw over her shoulders. I also finished off this La-La made by holding the Noro lace yarn along with a strand of grey Karabella lace weight Mohair. Someone commented that he wood really brings out the grey in the scarf in this picture. That made me laugh. While in Wakefield, I made my annual appearance at my friends' knit night. It was held at potter Maureen's with my sister Tina, friends Julie and Kathryn, and a couple of others in attendance. I don't remember their names but they had d...
Read more