souvenirs

Posted on Posted in designing, food and garden, lace/shawls, projects

boy that trip went fast; why is it that time just won’t slow down lately? i’m so glad we went; we had such a nice time in albany. it’s so lovely there in summer. i brought home this wonderfully large coleus and vinca vine pot; i’ll bring it indoors for the winter and take cuttings to plant next spring.

we also got a couple of really cute photos during our visit with my cousin lynn on wednesday, though her mom and aunt jumped into their car for a getaway, rather than be included (they think they’re safe, but we’ll get them next time).

i brought home one of those bushy little impatiens starts as well, so give some incentive to my own fledglings. it seems to be working; mine has visibly branched out since acquiring a competitor.

as you can see, we are finally getting some rain (it’s been weeks since the last storm). storms have been headed our way since yesterday and nothing until about an hour ago. even so, it’s not the sky-cracked-open kind of storm i thought had been building all day—so far, it’s coming down much more reluctantly than i expected.

not that i’m complaining—i’m grateful for any wetness at all on my poor, parched garden. maybe a gentle start is good—something to dampen the earth and make it more receptive for the big downpour to come?

let’s hope so.

it’s been dark all day though, with lots of cloud buildup. so the following knitting photos are kind of crappy—just a heads up.

i got lots of knitting done during our trip. i finished a secret project and i worked on my two public projects quite a bit as well

i’m actually quite tickled that i’ve gotten so far on wasp and rose—i am now about three-quarters through the last trellis chart (a little further than the purple tape indicates; i’m one of those knitters that sets the tape and then forgets to move it, mostly out of laziness).

i’ve been chipping away at the pattern, which is shaping up to be one of those very long ones. though the knitting is simple as pie, the sections are mostly not repeatable, so each one has its own big chart. and of course, every line is written out as well. lotsa pages, but don’t let that scare you.

i was thinking today that this shawl would be an excellent pattern for the treenway wild muga silk yarn we knit with in july for our barenaked club—don’t laugh, but i just might knit another one using that yarn. what am i saying?? like i don’t have enough other knitting to do? still, it would be nice to have one for photography . . .

i also got lots done on my new sweater project—the one i’m knitting in indigodragonfly polwarth/silk. i’ve got both sleeves finished now and am about to start on the body pieces.

so last time i showed it i had decided to go with a ribbed trim on all the seamlines and edgings, thus allowing the sweater to be knit in pieces, rather than in the round (it would be fairly easy to convert it though, should you choose to do so).

these pieces are completely unblocked at the moment so they don’t look so hot (and made worse by the horrible artificial light, sorry!). i was worried that going with the ribbed seamlines rather than cables would result in a lack of definition or dimension, but actually, that did not prove to be the case; they really pop, even without blocking.

once i put two seamlines together, they will have even more substance. ack, it’s hard to show you what i can see in my head, but the finished picture is looking good. it would be awesome with cables too, but it’s kinda nice for the texture to be a little less heavy as well. and this will be a very simple sweater to knit—all knit and purl, totally portable pieces; we love that!

there is still the matter of the name to be settled though and it turns out that kim’s husband ron was just waiting for us to ask. she sent me a whole schlep of names the other day, which i’ve trimmed just a bit so we could do a blog vote. ready?

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

i like several of these a lot, but i do have a favorite; can you guess which one? (and more importantly, can ron guess which is my favorite?)

(i just love how when i ask a rhetorical indigodragonfly question, kim always answers. so i think i’ll keep doing that instead of actually emailing her).

we’ll close the voting by monday night and after that, we’ll finally have a name for it. i’m a little anxious to settle it because this is one piece that has no good working title

our tomatoes are finally ripening, hallelujah.

the plants have been loaded with fruit since early july, but they sit and sit, turning red only in their own sweet time. i was worried about leaving pink ones on the vine when we went away last week, but they were just fine when we returned—not even fully ripe yet. fortunately, they are very tasty, or i’d have no patience at all with them.

susie and i made another trip to sunny slope orchard today after knitting this morning—i just had to get some more of those luscious peaches. i got another big basket of seconds to cut up for freezing and a smaller basket of red haven firsts for eating and baking a pie (i have such a hankering for peach pie, i can’t stand it).

i’ve arranged them all without touching so they ripen nicely; this worked really well with the first batch and i lost only one half of a first peach (plus the damaged parts of the seconds, of course). they probably won’t be ready to cut up tomorrow, but maybe by monday . . .

and now, it’s time to settle in to my study to knit and listen to the rain—music to my ears. monday is labor day and i think erica has plans to get you all caught up on baby knitspot.

but for those who have been leaving anxious comments, here’s a sneak peek

17 thoughts on “souvenirs

  1. It’s clear–you were saving the best for last. Baby Knitspot is sooooo adorable! love the shawl, love the sweater, and love the late summer lushness.

  2. Padraig looks so healthy and handsome and alert! Thanks so much, Anne, for including the picture.

  3. I voted too…I just love reading about your travels and/or days of knitting and tending to the garden!
    Lovely to see how Baby Knitspot is growing 🙂
    Thanks.

  4. Awww Baby Knitspot is soooooo cute. Looks so happy. I chose the name closest to the one I thought of “knitting squared”. Can’t wait to get the pattern.

  5. Baby Knitspot is indeed a handsome little fellow! Love all the photos you included in your blog and I can’t wait for the sweater pattern to come out. It already looks like it will be a comfy, cozy sweater…just perfect for a cold winter’s day!

  6. Hi Anne, glad you had a good time away.
    Just a quick comment on your plant starts. I noticed in the pics that yours were in clay pots (couldn’t see what your mom had hers in – they were so lush and beautiful). But, wondered if that might be a prob. With the hot/dry weather this summer I’ve had to really take care to give my plants extra water, even full grown ones. I love to see those pots, but they don’t keep water in. Read somewhere that painting the outside would help. Haven’t tried that yet. I can’t grow anything from cuttings, even outdoors.Hope this is a solution.

  7. That shawl is gorgeous & I am not surprised that you will knit another one. It’s spring here & wild flowers are blooming every where.

Comments are closed.