Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day

We had a lovely afternoon. Unfortunately, my little ones were away living life large, but we did the best we could. There were pretty flowers from my garden, steaks, mashed new potatoes, asparagus, beans and broccoli with shallots and a salad made with lettuce also from the garden.

The grande finale was this yummy glazed chocolate tart with graham cracker crust. I also made homemade strawberry ice cream which was a wonderful side dish to the very chocolatey tart. No pictures of the ice cream as it disappeared before documentation.

Missed you girls!!!!

A Few of My Favorite Things

I just returned from a two day getaway with a friend to the Virginia Historic Garden Week.  If you love gardens and can get away the third week in April you should make the time. The whole state opens their gardens and homes to welcome one and all. It is put on by the Virginia Garden Club as the largest fundraiser of the year. They in turn use the funds to restore historic gardens around Virginia. I have been going since 2001 and it is one if my favorite rites of Spring. So one with the tour...

The house pictured above was near Middleburg,VA. Jackie O was known to jump a fence or two in this part of the world. (OK, that didn't come out the way I intended. It is horse country and she lived here for a time.)

This is the back of the same house, crazy dormer, anyone?

and this is the porch.

I loved these espaliered pear trees in one of my favorite gardens. Must copy this at home, although I wonder if our snow loads would destroy a free standing espalier.

 

A magnificent Japanese Maple in the same garden.

Beautiful container gardens...and the floral displays inside were gorgeous. The women of the various garden clubs create the floral arrangements and they are stunning, but no one is allowed to photograph the interiors.

Wouldn't you just love to spend an afternoon under this pergola?

A glorious tree peony near Charlottesville.

And because there has been knitting...my new Print of the Wave shawl. Eunny Jang's pattern made out of Jade Sapphire Cashmere Silk and yes, it is that soft!!! (although the color is a little off here. It is called Wasabi and that's exactly the color.)

Creativity

 

Thus is especially cluttered because I was in the midst of moving when I decided to photograph it! 

Apparently I will do anything to avoid sketching. Knitting swatches for design submissions I am all over that, the sketches to accompany the swatches, not so much. So this is what I am pondering this morning. In our old house I always had this bulletin board above my work space. I considered it an inspiration board. I would cover it with postcards from museums, photos of gardens, tear pages from magazines, as well as the swatches I was contemplating.

When we moved into our new house, 10 years ago, I thought the inspiration board was too messy and hung it over my sewing table. I hung a favorite Jamie Wyeth print of the coast of Maine over my desk. Now here is the rub. My back is to that inspiration board 90 % of the time I am in my office. I love the Wyeth print with a deep abiding passion, the ocean, the colors, the solitude, they all speak to me.

But without my inspiration board I don't think I feel the push to create at the same level. My swatches are OK. The ideas are being published. But I think I need to stir things up a bit. So rather than get to the sketching I spent thirty minutes changing up the board and print. We will see if this changes the quality of my work. Can't hurt.

Now I feel a little overwhelmed with all the visual clutter in my line of sight. Maybe this wasn't the best idea.

The other ideas I have to increase creativity around here involve moving my office up two flights of stairs and avoiding Facebook. The move needs to happen. I am going quite squirrelly in my basement office without windows. Facebook will have to happen, I just have to wean myself.

As proof of the sock knitting I talked about earlier I am on my second pair of simple socks. They are pretty boring but oh so warm and cuddily.

And I have been working on a new design for a stole for the DD#2 to replace a very pretty shawl I knit for her a few years ago which was unceremoniously stolen in college. It is a delight to knit. The yarn is from Creatively Dyed Yarn, her cashmere and merino, yummy. If it turns out well I will publish the pattern. I am very happy with the design and the yarn so can't wait to finish.

Stay tuned...

2010 Ravelympics

I finished my own personal Ravelympics project on Sunday night while watching the hockey game. I love to knit the Norwegian Ski Team's Olympic sweaters for the games or as close to the games as I can. I am not being unpatriotic. I would knit the American Ski teams sweater and probably will now that I have seen a glimpse. It is just that the Norwegian Ski Team sweater is usually a real knitting challenge.

See, I did Nagano...

I also did Lillehammer, but gave it away to the American Red Cross for a fund raiser that year. So I don't have a picture.

I didn't join any of the official Ravlympic teams because I started my project before the Olympics began. My intention was to have this sweater finished in time to wear it while I cheered on the athletes, from my living room.

I took the Norwegian Ski Team sweater and did my own thing. I wanted a cardigan because I am a woman of a certain age and find cardigans more flexible for my lifestyle. I also changed the wool. Now before the big reveal I want to prove that I can knit with the yarn I chose and the garments have turned out lovely in the past.

For example

 

I knit this beauty for a good friend and she loves it. It looked exactly like I imagined it would and all was right with the world.

Here is another I knit for myself out of the same yarn. It is again a very nice sweater, extremely warm and cozy.

And here is one I wear at least twice a week in the winter and have for years and it is wearing quite well.

This is all to say I have never had a problem with this yarn, in fact I have always been  more than pleased with the outcome.

 This time, not so much. I think the problem is the incredible amount of plain stockinette stitch with no color work until the yoke area. All the plain, one color stockinette looks sloppy and every stitch shows in an unflattering light. I don't know if I had gone down another needle size if that would have made a significant difference. I just don't know what the issue is but I am not pleased.

I didn't use the Dale yarn that was called for and I am not regretting that decision but I am not happy with the fabric I created for this sweater.

That being said, I love how this fits me, so there is an up side. Oh, and the color looks good on me too.

So here is the big reveal...

and look at how well the fronts match, always important, so visible.

Kinda blah don't you think? I will wear it, because it fits so well, but I am disappointed.

EEEEwwwwww!!!!!!!!

This is what greeted me this morning when I went to feed the chickens...

 

Now I am not a squeamish girl, snakes, spiders, bugs, bring 'em on. I am a gardener, you can't gross me out. But, Rodents of Unusual Size, yeah, not so much. I have a thing about  rats,(don't even like to say their name) so their cousins are not my favorites either. I know some will think he is kinda cute and looks a little scared. Well, he scared the day lights out of me this morning and if he didn't want to have his normal sleep time interrupted he should have stayed out of my chicken coop. I think he was looking for a free egg breakfast so I have another reason not too be thrilled by his appearance. Those are my eggs, damn it.

I have dispatched the cabana boy, alias DH, to solve this little problem of country life. In our house this comes under the "boy" job description. I do stinky, athletic laundry, he does rodents. It works.

And don't even talk to me about using the fiber, ick!

The girls are fine, they didn't even seem to be aware of their house guest. Just like the uppity princesses they are, my chickens are terrible hostesses.

A new way of looking at socks...

This is a small portion of the vast mountain of sock yarn at Embraceable Ewe

I have a new philosophy on hand knit socks. Previously, I collected all manner of beautiful yarns and dreamed up gorgeous lace patterns to go with said beautiful yarns or found amazing patterns on the web. Thank you Cookie A, Ann Hanson, Nancy Bush and Charlene Schurch, to name a few.

But here's the thing...while all these patterns and yarns are amazing they are not being knit by me. And we have 3 feet of snow on the ground. So right now I just want socks, mindless, vanilla socks. You know the kind, you cast on 64 stitches, work a little rib, some stockinette, get a little thrill turning a heel, cruise on down to the toe and Wam, Bam, Thank you, you have a pair of socks.

I have too many deadlines and gotta have done knitting to indulge in beautiful sock production. My kids have drawers full of all my intricate lace work. Me, I just want to be warm the rest of the winter. So for the immediate future this is what my socks will look like...pretty yarn, boring pattern, but oh so warm.

That is all.

Where's it Gonna Go????

We already have this much snow on the ground...

 and they are calling for up to 24 more inches of the white stuff, tell me where is it going to go? We don't have any more room to push it in to piles, the deck looks like it will collapse at any moment, the dog doesn't have  a clue where to go. I hear they could use it in Vancouver though.

 

Just for scale I thought Duncan could give you an idea of what DH has to deal with. He hasn't even cleaned the driveway today and already there is about 4".

 

 School is going to June 14th according to the updated calendar we approved at a school board meeting last night. Poor kids, bet they never pray for snow again.

On an up note I have finished knitting the Vancouver sweater now there will be steek cutting and button bands, sewing and blocking before the final reveal.

Back to work...