Zeneedle...needleart as life

Reasons To Finish a Pair of Socks

1. It was the right thing to do. 

2. It's the process...there are no excuses, no WIPs. Practice what you preach, so to speak. (See #1)

3. I had a few days off.  Which doesn't mean there was more time to knit, as I was doing other fun stuff,but it just felt right. (See #1 & #2)

4. Encouragement from blog friends was helpful and made it necessary not to disappoint. (See #2) Thank you, friends.

5. There was the most excellent opportunity for a photo shoot, as I had a few days off. (See #3)

6. It took constant vigilance to knit the foot and, thank goodness, the toe was short. I finished it and wove in the ends while Smith drove up the canyon. (See #3)

A weekday is the only day (which means taking a vacation day) Silver Fork can make a GF meal.   Happy am I to be able to dine at one of my favorite places once again! 

As usual, after our breakfast at the Fork, we took a stroll around Silver Lake. Most of the aspen leaves had fallen, but the last stand provided an excellent backdrop.

Prymania was totally fun, entertaining, a total blast to knit, and Pandora Sock (from The Woolen Rabbit, of course), made it all the better. The yarn feels so good on my feet and it will be durable. (Raveled here)

How about one more shot of Silver Lake? 

The mountain snow left by the last storm has not melted away, which is surely a sign our fabulous fall will soon be over.  My vacation days coincided perfectly with the last few days of sun.

Last Gasp Garden

Smith is still working his garden and the fall bounty has been quite amazing. In July he decided to try small second batches of green beans, lettuce, beets, radishes and potatoes.  The green beans did fairly well, as we had about three meals worth. The radishes have been amazing (huge!), the beets small but tasty.

The potatoes were a major success! This potato is 2.4 lbs! Several more are just slightly smaller.  The variety was Cadillac Red and you can bet Smith will plant them again.

The last of the broccoli has been harvested, although there could be a few smaller heads later this fall. Eating fresh broccoli has been an very tasty treat.

We didn't plant sunflowers, but several other gardeners did and they planted the very tall variety packed with seeds.  I'll bet they'd be easy to roast.

Never Give Up

According to my Ravelry account this pair of socks was started on January 3rd, which is quiet sad and lame for someone who claims to be a sock knitter.  This makes me wonder, if I only one sock a year, does that take away my sock knitter status?

 

I am unsure of the answer to that question, as my knitting, any knitting, seems to be in a slump. But sock knitting, in particular, has been difficult. The sock is lovely, the pattern is interesting and fun to do, the yarn is fabulous. I'm even carrying the sock in a lovely new bag, sewn by Suzy, and still I'm in a sock knitting slump. Oh, Socktober, you've passed me by!

The bag may be the only thing I post for this months Project Spectrum, which is sad as turquoise is in the range of my favorite blues.  I love aqua, love cyan, and love turquoise (but not when they are taken it into that tealy, greeny-blue color). Turquoise and aqua must be true to blue.

Oh dear, I've allowed PS to distract me (there's the rub!). Wasn't I talking about socks?  Anyway, the goal is to finish this sock by the end of October Socktober, but if that doesn't happen (and I'm not holding my breath), I'll be happy just to finish in 2011.

A year for a pair of socks, at least for this knitter, is pathetic and sad. Will there be another sock in my future? Will my sock knitting keep up with attrition? Even one pair per year is better than none, no?

Possibilities

During the summer months I find less time for knitting, which isn't a surprise as the garden, the outdoors, and business in general, is part of life for many of us.  However, starting with the Alta Retreat, I have had a little more leisure time and I have put it to good use. 

For retreat knitting I thought a new project should be uncomplicated and light in color.  We were unsure if the lighting would be adequate in some of the meet up rooms and I certainly wanted to see my knitting. Lighting proved to be fine, but I was satisfied my project was easy, and very happy it had time to grow.

The first photo is of the shawl, a week ago and the second is the shawl a couple of days ago. The yarn has been an unknown in my stash for quite some time, but since it is one of my favorite blends, merino/silk, it had a way of speaking to me from time to time. The intent, when I bought it (a stash sale), was to dye it. That's still my intent but, I'm knitting first, then will dye, or have the shawl dyed, afterwards. 

Vicki's inspiration was another piece of the framework that helped make my decision to use this undyed yarn. She has created many beautiful yarns during her Project Spectrum journey and I was the lucky recipient of the pink she shows in this post, a yarn she named for her Grandmother Viginia. In the picture it's paired with a Shaffer Anne, another long time stash yarn, and I'm trying to decide between Katriel or Different Lines.

During Retreat (which was weeks ago!) I watched as Vicki's Different Lines grew more fabulous with every row and, seeing her pleasure when it was finished, was a treat. I'd been sitting on the fence, but now I know, as soon as the last stitch of Holden (oh yes, that's the shawl I've been knitting and I almost forgot to tell you) I'll start on a Different course.

As you can see, I DO knit and because I deleted a draft post, this one is 1900 AGAIN!   1900 posts and 62,181 comments. Apparently blogging lives.

Garden Harvest Fair

As luck would have it, the weather was perfect, beautiful beyond our hopes, as Saturday was the Harvest Fair in our community garden.

Beth Ellen organized a fun fair in our community garden for children of all ages., to picnic, listen to stories, meet Mother Earth and to play.

Mother Earth was decked out in her finest, as her job was to lead the children through the garden.

Luminaires lit the grounds and jack-o-lanterns scared off hobgoblins. However, ghosts were said to be running the pathways.

Farmer George gave all the kids a ride on a trailer pulled by his fancy tractor.

George also told the stories and the children, bedecked in costumes, paid rapt attention.

Mother Earth then led the children in a parade through the garden and at the end they received seeds of their own to plant.

Beth Ellen made sure the Festival was fun for all, especially the kids.  The Harvest Festival was a wonderful way to share the beauty of our garden and celebrate the bounty of the earth. 

If...

If I write this post it will be #1900. However, that's with two saved posts, which may or may not be published.  If I delete one I can post #1900 again.  Is that cheating?

If I join Cheryl and Vicki in the Sky Project Scarf I'll be knitting with the color blue...various and numerous blues. The picture above is Sunday morning, a rather hazy day, but as you can see below, the air cleared and warmed (a little).

If I remember to take my camera when I leave the house on a work morning, I may have the good fortune of capturing a great sunrise shot.  

If the weather stays clear (we've had several cold and cloudy days), I'll have some knitting to share. You were being to wonder if I knit. Right?

Eye Candy Shoes

Keen's are my number one choice when it comes to shoes. Every year and add one more pair to my collection, but this year I added two. Vicki brought along a new pair of Keen walking shoes and when I saw them I knew they were what my feet needed.  After dropping Vicki off at the airport (so sad to see her go!)  I stopped by my neighborhood "Walk Shop" and found just what I was looking for (they're a little different than yours, Vicki). 

BUT, I also found my hearts desire.

When my boss caught sight of them he said "We're all just little kids at heart." And to that I say Amen and thank goodness!! TGIF! Make your weekend FUN.

Is it Spring Yet?

The day Vicki and I went on our outing (to Silver Lake and beyond) we came home to find Smith building a very large wooden box. He was smiling from ear to ear, like the Cheshire cat. He was a man with a plan.  A couple of years ago he'd started our whole garden experience with a smaller box (about 2x3), but now, here he was building one that's 3x8!

Yes, I said eight feet! It fits perfectly at the edge of our carport and has displaced the smaller box, along with several barrel size pots. Everything was full of herbs, flowers, lettuces and whatever else Smith thought would grow, and everything has, for the most part, survived well.  His goal with the bigger box is to try square foot gardening.

A few days ago he carefully measured out the squares and marked them off with string.  He's planted several cool weather crops in the hopes we'd have a nice mix of fresh greens over the next month. 

And maybe it will happen, but it's too bad the beautiful weather didn't last. Yesterday's sunrise was the precursor to a cold front.

Today there will be mountain snow.

dammit

A Study in Stripes

Vicki posted pictures of her beautiful Different Lines yesterday. Did you see how it draped so beautifully around her neck?

My shawl, Stripe Study, has been around my shoulders from the minute it was finished. Kim's glorious yarn makes it soft, drapy, warm, and lovely to wear. Lucky for me, Vicki took a couple FO shots when we visited Silver Lake. (Can it really be over a week ago? she wailed.)

Last night I was able to take a few close up photos in my garden.

 

At first glance the stripe pattern seems quite simple, but the shawl is knit with short rows which create an asymmetrical pattern. One end has thinner stripes and the other end has wider stripes.  I used a chocolate brown (Godiva) and a soft pinkish tan (Woodrose), in Woolen Rabbit Lark.

Usually, garter stitch stripes looks odd on the back side, but the garter effect created an interesting pattern, and almost third color. No need to worry if you have this shawl on "wrong", as both sides look beautiful.

I may be following Vicki's lead to make more than one of this Striped Study, but I'll definitely be trying Different Lines, too. The creative use of stripes is rather addicting, interesting to watch as the shawl grows, and very fun knitting.

Retreating

The whole weekend, the long and lovely weekend, of Vicki's visit felt like a retreat, not just the two days we spent at Alta. We both feel as if we could have, should have, taken more pictures, but the intent was to knit, to retreat, and that's exactly what we did. 

Here you see Suzy, Cheryl and Vicki (the empty chair is mine) intently knitting and not much changed throughout the day, except the angle of the sun. Here it is the last weekend of September and we're sitting on the deck as if it were the height of summer.  We had 2 days of fantastic weather, great food, lots of chatter and tons of knitting!

At the very last minute of retreat, just as we were saying our good-byes, I thought to snap a picture of Lisa, the very best retreat organizer (and festival organizer) ever!      

 

Vicki and I continued to retreat, even after the Alta Retreat was over, as we were able to spend another excellent day together. We started out at Silver Fork, where I remembered to snap a couple of pictures of Vicki. (During the week, when it's not so busy, SF is able to make a GF meal.)

From there we went to Silver Lake and walked around the boardwalk. We saw the moose, which was a treat, and then we took pictures of our recent FOs.  It's very likely we will both be more forthcoming with FO information as soon as we can get our wits about us. They're both worth waiting for...promise!

We drove over the mountains and into a forest of red were the oaks were showing off what they could do, as the aspens were a little behind in their changing of the colors. I took pictures of Vicki capturing red or stood beside her to capture the show.

Blue skies shown on us throughout Vicki's stay. September was amazing.

My favorite picture of Vicki's stay is this one, taken by Suzy, her only picture of the weekend.