I'm happiest when...

I'm happiest (knittingwise at least) when I'm designing lace. Anything out of lace, but especially a shawl. I've just started one in the new Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. I ADORE the colorways!! This is going to be a top down, triangle shawl in the Old Shale pattern. I'm hoping the Noro will make an interesting striped "V". We'll see...


Then, on a sad note....
Our beloved Bailey passed away two weeks ago. Just before we went camping actually, but I couldn't talk about it then. I can't even really now, but I did want to post a picture and give her a moment of rememberance in the World Wide Web. She was a sweet thing...

And then,






to end on with something more positive...



We spent a lovely evening at Beach 6 last night - Presque Isle was beautiful, the water was clear, it was breezy and cool, and the children had a blast playing in the sand after a picnic dinner with their cousins from New York. Hard to believe it's the end of summer and that school starts next week.

I love having the kids home, and it's always a bit too quite come the last week of August. But I have to admit, the promise of cooler weather gets me back in the mood for working in wool!
I know a lot of people tend to be cool weather knitters and while I do knit year-round, I nearly always aim for projects done in cotton, silk, or linen in the summer months. Of course there's always a sock or two going - woolly or not, their too tiny to throw much heat! But with school around the corner, the brisk Autumn days aren't far behind and I'm getting ready to pull out some merino!! Why don't you join me!

Yours in yarn,
Claire

Out of woods...

Well, we've packed up and left the campground- in the POURing rain no less. (We had one sunny day.)

All in all in was fun. Let's see, what highlights did I miss telling you about. Oh, my husband falling into the river was noteworthy. Completely submerged-hat glasses, New England Patriots swetshirt, wallet...all drenched....we did have access to a laundry at the campground, so he threw the sweatshirt into the dryer. (I don't have the heart to tell him it smells like riverwater in the car now-water from a "dead" river to boot.)

So, I am Not done with the shawl but the end is in sight. I resisted the urge to undo a whole row after someone worked on it. Everyone thinks it best to leave it as is-it's the thought that counts more than the expertise of craft.

I will mention though, if you do use the Noro sock yarn, whether for this prayer shawl, a pair of socks, or any other project, I recommend pullin from the outside of the skein. The inside pull is easy enough to find, however the character of the yarn causes it to knot and tangle too easily. I think I've spent as much time untangling knots as I have knitting the shawl!

Yours in beautiful striped Noro,
Claire
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Sent with my Treo 700p smartphone & Chattermail

wool and moths

Every knitter's nightmare...finding moths in the stash...one of the reasons camping and knitting really don't mesh too well.

I've always been afraid of moths...something about them getting stuck in my hair. Anyway, so far they've been fluttering around the camper lights and the fire but they've stayed away from my knitting.

In general I love nature. For instance, it's been really pleasant feeding hotdog buns to the family of ducks that swim around the river running by our campsite. I find it interesting that the mother duck hangs back, letting her children have their fill before she takes any.

So I would say definitely feeding the ducks has been one of the highlights this week, except for the part where my daughter's cell phone slipped out of her sweatshirt pocket and fell PLOP into the river. It's now drying out in a bag of rice. (Campers are such a resourceful bunch-a solution for just about every kind of crisis)

I can't really say I was loving nature last night when I discovered some kind of creature rustling around in our bag of snacks. (i don't know what sort of creature it was because I tossed the bag far far far away out into the night.)

But...the ducks make it all quite charming and nice. And the prayer shawl is 2/3rds done. I highly recommend the combination of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino & Noro sock yarn.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

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Sent with my Treo 700p smartphone & Chattermail

A nice slipped edge

I am making some headway on the prayer shawl. This picture is meant to showcase the slipped selvedge edge I decided to use. It makes a very neat and tidy, flat edge.

All you have to do is slip the first stitch as if to purl WITH THE YARN IN FRONT. By this I mean, before slipping the stitch, pull the yarn toward you so it is in the purl position. After slipping the stitch purlwise, move the yarn BETWEEN THE TWO NEEDLES to the back of the work. Continue knitting normally.

I am about halfway through the shawl. It has not rained today - a 1st since we got here. Something else wonderful happened today - I was able to take a HOT shower. My other showers were cold - as in ICE. Really. The first time, I thought 'how awful can a cold shower be?' I do swim in pools afterall. Well it turned out to be so awful I cried. The second time I was at least prepared for the horror of the icy cold water pelting out of the strange sprayer contraption one finds in a rental camper shower, but it was still pretty awful. So, as you might imagine, my hot shower today felt like heaven.

The monster spider has, we think, decided to relocate because it got tired of dodging the heat of my father's blowtorch. Either that or it drowned under the pails of dirty dish water my mother poured over its bush. (My mother doesn't like plum-sized spiders any more than I do-particularly ones living five feet from her camper.)

Well, there's still a bit of daylight left before the bats come out-so I'm going to do a few more rows.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

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Sent with my Treo 700p smartphone & Chattermail

the morning fire

happens to be the ONLY part of camping I enjoy. And this might be the only one we have this week as the forecast is for rain showers, rain, rain, rain, and thunderstorms. We are camping about 10 feet from the Dead River. I don't really like to think about why it's called "Dead" - the ducks seem to like it well enough though. I am taking the Flash Flood warnings in stride though. I'm only marginally concerned that I will wake up in the night floating down the river in our rental camper. My husband is not at all concerned so I am taking strength from him at this point.

The prayer shawl is coming along nicely. The mix of baby cashmerino and Noro sock yarn is subtle and soothing and surpringly soft. Okay that alliteration is in reference to last night's campfire conversation about snakes in Maine that like to nest under rental campers. I don't really mind snakes. But the spiders...OHMYGOD...there is a big black spider with a body as big as a plum ( I am not even exagerating a tiny bit here) living in the bush at my parents' sight. My father, the great outdoorsman that he is, keeps trying to blowtorch it to death but it continues to elude him.

But I was talking about that shawl...everyone (all non-knitters) is very interested in the concept and is eager to do a few stitches. The only trouble I am having with it is fighting the urge to undo their work because it's so mindbogglingly tight - I am, as many of you know, the loosest knitter on the planet...

But back to it...
Yours in soggy, rained on wool,
Claire

Into the Woods...

We are on our way to our annual pilgrimage into the deep woods of Maine...just passed Little Falls NY, its claim to fame being the town with the hotel closest to noisy (beyond belief) train tracks - but that's a whole different story...

Here you see my prayer shawl on my lap. I also packed my new triangle shawl design AND my daughter's sock to finish. Feeling VERY ambitious!!

Yours in yarn,
Claire

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Sent with my Treo 700p smartphone & Chattermail