Quiddity

Just Checking In

No pictures to show, no knitting completions to report, so let's have a list (they seem popular around Blogland lately.)

1. I had a very nice Thanksgiving (especially since past experience suggested that might not be the case.)  Jim, my MIL, Cory and I, went to our future in-laws for dinner.  That's right, I said in-laws.  A couple of weeks ago, Cory came over to tell us that he had asked Laura to marry him and she said YES!  They don't have any concrete plans yet, but it looks like they are considering December 2009 for the big day.  Of course, we are all very excited, to say the least!
2. There hasn't been much knitting at all for the past three days, although I did get a chance to work on the sock last night.  Usually, socks don't take me much time, but for some reason this one hasn't captured my interest enough to stick with it.  I do like the pattern and the yarn, but for some reason it's slow going. 
3. I won some yarn from the new shop in Decatur, Sheepish.  I would have taken a photo, but it's raining.  Three skeins of SWTC Twize, #328 Tweed, 100% bamboo.  I'm not much for knitting with plant fibers, but this might make a very nice baby blanket.  Now my friend's daughter just needs to have one of her twins to be a girl.
4. That's it.  I'm leaving now to get in a little knitting before lunch.

Have a great weekend!

 

Terrific Thursday

While we've been having a string of really cold days, and this morning was no exception, it warmed up a bit and has turned into a truly magnificent Fall afternoon.  I was up early this morning for my riding lesson.  Near freezing when it started, within twenty minutes I was warm enough to shed my jacket, and by the time the lesson was over, I was grateful for the cool breeze.  In the pasture, the horses are all wearing their coats, too, and their very own winter coats are starting to come in, long and soft.  The fog lays over the fields when I arrive, and the sun rises slowly to burn it off.  I'm not an morning person by any stretch of the imagination, but it's been more than worth it to make the effort.  And my couch potato muscles welcome the exercise, too.

Tuesday, the temperature never broke 50, and while that's balmy for some of you, it had me craving a fire.  So I pulled out a fire log and got one going.  The cats were amazed at the flames, forgetting that they sat before them last winter.  Here's a blurry photo of Socks, trying to figure out what is going on in there.

He sat there for quite a while before deciding it wasn't that interesting, and moving on to other business.

There are several knitting projects still on the needles - a lace shawl, a pair of socks, and a scarf all take their turns in the rotation.  But last week, I did manage to finish a pair of socks.

• Thuja Socks.  Modifications include: fingering instead of worsted weight yarn; more stitches; and the heel, which is a new one, brought from Germany by Claudia.  She's in the process of writing up a pattern featuring this very interesting (and easy) heel.  I'll be sure to post a link as soon as it's ready.  You are going to enjoy learning it!  
• The yarn was a birthday gift from blogless Melissa.  It's a new-to-me brand, Hand Painted Knitting Yarn.  The type is "Sock Donegal" which is a blend of 65% superwash wool/25% nylon/10% Donegal.  The Donegal is little bits of brightly colored fibers that appear randomly, sticking out of the main yarn strand.  It creates an interesting fabric, which is also very soft.  

American Thanksgiving is a week from today, and there are a few things around the house that need doing before my MIL arrives on Wednesday.  A little painting, a little cleaning, and a little grocery shopping top the list.  But I'm sure I'll still find time for knitting.  Maybe I'll even finish one of my current projects.  It could happen.  
  

Place Holder

Since I've been spending so much time learning my new MacBook, knitting has taken a back seat this week. I do have a finished pair of socks to show, but weather conditions have hindered my photography.  So, in the meantime, I'll show off the goods that came home with me from SAFF a few weeks ago.

First up, roving.

From Tina at Dry Creek Naturals, a fairly local vendor, 8 oz. of this gray BFL/Cotswold mix.  I also bought 8 oz. of a beautiful white silk/kid mohair/BFL/Corriedale mix, but the photo seems to have vanished somewhere.  Tina produces the loveliest roving I've ever used.  No predrafting necessary ever!  Contact Tina at mohair@bellsouth.net to get some for yourself. 

These four 2 oz bumps are a combination of Jacob and alpaca.  So soft!

It's difficult to see the pretty color of these rovings.  They are naturally dyed. Two are a chocolate brown and the other two are a very soft lavender.  I plan to use them together once they become yarn.

Always a favorite, Miss Babs sock yarns.  

Another crowd pleaser, Brooks Farms yarn - Riata.

I couldn't resist this pretty shawl kit, complete with off white alpaca yarn.  It seems a lace kick is in the making.

This pretty stuff is hand spun Shetland.  I was drawn into the booth by a displayed shawl.  

It is Charlotte's Web!  I love the change to the border.  I don't know if I have enough of the Shetland to copy this, but it will certainly become something similar.

A new to me sock yarn - Dream in Color Smooshy.

And from the Knitting Notions booth, these beautiful handmade wooden tool.  The top one is made to hold your dpns with sock in progress.  Very clever.  The bottom is a darning egg.  I haven't had to darn any of my socks yet, but it was so pretty, I couldn't pass it up.

I think a lot of my friends succumbed to the lure of the button.  I was no exception.

That all happened on Friday and Saturday.  Sunday, I didn't have a lot of time, because Jim wanted to do a bit of sightseeing. But I wanted to stop by and pick up a Nantucket Bag.  That's another photo I managed to miss, but I bought this one.  It's quite clever and will be very useful for holding a lot of knitting gear.  Then, through no fault of my own (cough, Sandy, cough) I ended up in the wool sale room. I fell down and came up with these.

Alpaca

Corriedale

They are currently at the mill, being blended together and turned into pencil roving.  Estimated arrival in early January.  And really, Sandy was a huge help to me in making sure I bought something worth having.  The Corriedale is heavenly, and I almost had to fight off another would-be purchaser.  Next time lady, put it on hold before you go back to your car for your wallet.  I'm just sayin'. 

And that, as they say, is that.  A good time was had by all, and we are already looking forward to next year.  Maybe I'll get at least some of this made into something before then.  Right?

Lovely Weekend

It was a beautiful fall weekend.  The fairly warm weather and bluest skies ever spurred Jim and I to take a drive to the mountains of north Georgia, where we have a small piece of property.  The drive takes just a bit over an hour and a half, and usually we drive straight through.  But Jim was very hungry and wanted to stop for a snack, and so pulled into a tourist trap he usually speeds by - the amazingly colorful "Goats on the Roof."  Why, yes, there actually were goats on the roof.

Goat on a flying bridge.

The mechanism brings up a bucket full of food, purchased from little vending machines.  The goats definitely knew what the deal was, and had been hanging around waiting for a sucker to come along and feed them.  The idea is that the bucket come up and then continues back a way to dump the feed on the ground.  However, the bigger goat immediately stuck his nose in the bucket and followed it all the way to the end.  

The goats have it pretty good.  Plentiful grazing and a couple of playhouses.  What's not to like!

After goat watching for a bit and buying too many snacks, we moved on up the road.  Once at the property, while Jim hiked down to our waterfall (through woods thicker than I care to traverse,) I walked along the road and took some photos.

Just down the road and around the corner, is a lovely meadow.  I'm sure I've shown pictures of it before, but here's another.

It was an old homestead, and the two chimneys from the house are still standing.  There are also some very old, untended apple trees.  When we were there in the spring, the trees had begun to fruit, but it didn't look as though any of them would come to full promise.  I was, however, very wrong about that.  Despite the age of the trees, they had obviously been full of apples.  Not great apples, but lots of them.

One of the old trees.  I was surprised to see so many apples on the ground.  Surely there must be deer, but maybe not, because if there were, surely they would have had a banquet.

Yummy!  Well, ok, only some of them.  Most of the apples were misshapen or ridden with worm holes.  But some were nice.

Unfortunately, most of the nicer ones were above our reach.  The rest had either fallen off or been harvested by other visitors.  But I did find a few to keep, and can report that they were hard, sweet, and entirely delicious.  What a wonderful find!  I'm marking my calendar for next year so I can go earlier and hopefully reap a bigger harvest.

We decided to take a roundabout way home, and drove further up the road into Highlands, NC, and then took the road through the Cullasaja Gorge to Franklin, NC.  Our first stop was the turnout overlooking Blue Valley.

The gorge is beautiful, with the road traveling along the path of the river.  Jim remembered where the pretty waterfall was, so we made sure to pull off to look at that, too.

By this time, the sun was sinking below the mountain tops, but I managed to catch a final blast of color on the hillsides.

It was a wonderful day!

Today, Sunday, was spent at Knitch for the usual day long knitting group.  After the shop closed at 5, a small group of us remained for a mini-spin in.  Nell bought all kinds of natural rovings at SAFF, and kindly shared her riches.  We had a great time trying them all and giving our opinions.  My favorite was the Jacob roving.  And even though it was as pretty outside today as yesterday, I was just as happy spending the day with friends, knitting and spinning.  I hope you had a great weekend, too.

I Finally Took The Plunge

That's right, I'm now a Mac Girl!!  I'm composing this post on my shiny new MacBook Pro.  I LOVE it!  Setup was quick and easy, and even things I was told would be difficult, weren't.  The only problem I've having is getting used to the new photo software I bought.  I'm not sure I like it, and am in the process of downloading a trial version of the one I've been using.  Therefore, no photos right now, but check back soon to see what came home from SAFF with me (and even what didn't) as well as my latest finished project.  See you soon.

November 4, 2008

Change, indeed!  May the hope for a better day I saw in the faces of people all over the country last night come to pass. 

No Right, no Left, just Americans.