I love yarn surprises...

I love discovering a yarn shop where I didn't think any existed. When we went to Wellesley Island last week, I was resigned to the fact that there wasn't anywhere to buy yarn. I took plenty of my own so I wouldn't lack for knitting projects. Well, we were shopping in Alexandria Bay and went into Good Dog Charlies to check out their Vera Bradley bags. Allie and I were happily looking at all the great Vera stuff when Sue called out from behind us. I turned and lo, and behold, yarn! Nice yarn. Cascade and Colinette yarn and lots of others. Apparently, the owner decided that the area needed a nice yarn shop and is planning on expanding her stock immensely. She said something about wanting to have the largest yarn shop in the North Country (or something to that effect). Unfortunately, we found the yarn shop on our way out of Alexandria Bay and had already spent quite a bit of time looking at the Vera bags so the guys were getting very antsy. So I only bought two skeins of Cascade 220 in a great grape color for a felting project. Next year, though, we'll plan on spending a lot of time in there.

I didn't get much knitting done on vacation. (I read 3 1/2 books instead.) I made a small dishcloth on the ride up to the St. Lawrence, worked on a baby sweater, and started my felting project using the Cascade I bought. I was a bit stumped as to how I was going to wind the yarn since I knew Scott wouldn't hold it for me. Then I spotted the kitchen stools that we have in the trailer and knew that they would make a great temporary swift. The picture is a little dark but you get the idea. (This yarn is some handspun I put on for demonstration purposes.)



On a shopping trip into Clayton, I bought the book "Knit Christmas Stockings!" which is edited by Gwen Steege. It's shaped like a Christmas stocking. Now that I can do color work, I'd like to tackle some of these stockings and ornaments.

Friday morning Sue, Allie and I took a basketweaving class at the Nature Center. I used to make and sell baskets and have made over 100 of them but I haven't done one in probably 6 or 7 years. So even though I know how to weave them, I forgot a lot of the steps. It was a nice refresher course. The instructor was about 23 but she did an excellent job.



Here's the blueberry basket I made. Sue and Allie had never made baskets and did a great job. I think I'm going to order some reed and start making them again. They made great gifts.

We had a nice vacation week and I was sorry to leave. Ariane, Alek and one of Ariane's friends came up Friday night and stayed until we left on Sunday morning. We played games and drank too much wine Saturday night and had a ball.

And now it's time to get ready to go back to work. And it's a month before we head out for our last camping trip of the season. Yuck!!

A camping we will go...

We're taking off again tomorrow for a week's camping trip to Wellesley Island, NY. Wellesley Island is a state campground in the Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence River between New York and Canada. It's the only state park that I know of that has full hook up sites. I'm sure there must be others but I don't know about them.

The closest town is Alexandria Bay which will be hopping with Pirate Days. I don't know how we manage to go during Pirate Days. Alek will be happy if he comes up because a friend of his usually plays in the pirate reenactments. The boys do like to do battle with swords. Men with Sticks using real weapons! Men with Sticks was a game that Alek and his friends would play at our house. It's basically Capture the Flag in the dark played using swords, axes, daggers, etc. made from sticks and such covered in pipe insulation and duct tape. Many a battle was waged in our yard. Good thing it's a large yard.

How did I get sidetracked onto Men with Sticks? Time for some yarn talk!





The lovely yarn in these pics was sent to me by Dan when I correctly answered his question in the Yarn Yoga group. It's 270 yards of DANspun lace weight merino/angora yarn and it's soooo soft.

I have to find the right lace scarf pattern for it. I'm half tempted to start another Branching Out Scarf using this yarn. Of course, I should finish the first one. If anyone has any other suggestions for a lace scarf, I'd love to hear them.

A friend asked me once if I was taking pictures of my projects in my sink when she saw the round cut-out in one of them. Nope. I use the glass topped table on my patio. The round hole is where you would put the umbrella. Just in case anyone else was wondering.

I mailed out three baby sweaters to For The Love of Babies charity group yesterday. Pictures of two of them can be found in my yahoo photos. I hope to upload a picture of the third one soon. I sent the one with just the booties and the deep blue one but not the hat.

I did get my little Lake Placid RAOK's sent out on Wednesday. I hope everyone receives them.

And with that last note, I think I'm done. I still have food and clothes to pack in the trailer and a little cleaning to do in there. I doubt I'll post before we leave tomorrow so everyone have a good week and I'll be back next Sunday.

Baby sweater est finis!

And that's about the extent of my French. But it means I finished the baby sweater I've been working on lately. It's my favorite Precious Layettes #1 pattern done in Red Heart Baby Sport Pompadour. I found it in the clearance section at WalMart for $2.50 for the skein. I have more than enough yarn left over to make the matching hat and booties and probably another hat and bootie set. I got the teddy bear buttons at WalMart, too.



Here is a picture of the toddler hat that I made from the Cabin Fever pattern with all the ends woven in. I love the pattern but there are a lot of ends. Still, I'm going to make more of these in different colors.



And last but not least, an update picture on the lifesaver blanket. I'm hoping to get more done on it when we go on vacation next week.



I didn't forget about the RAOK's from Lake Placid, either. I hope to get some little packages in the mail today.

And that's all the news that is the news!

Forgive me!

I can't believe I published that previous post without thanking everyone who commented on my Fair Isle hats! I thank you all for your kind comments.

I found Fair Isle isn't that intimidating. If you go to the Philosopher's Wool site mentioned previously, they have a great animated video on how to knit with both hands at once.

And I'm so glad that some of you like to come back to my blog. I don't know how interesting it is to anyone else but I have fun with it.

Thanks again for visiting my blog and leaving me such nice compliments!

Knitting nowhere

I feel like my knitting is going nowhere lately. I work on things but I'm not finishing anything. I have a Precious Layettes baby sweater almost done but not quite. I have been working on the lifesaver blanket but it's not even halfway done (and it's crocheted). I made a pair of booties while in Lake Placid but they aren't sewn up yet. I started a hat to go with the booties but I'm just past the cuff and have the rest of the hat to do. I need to finish some things! And I'm not posting pictures until they are finished because I don't want to jinx them.

I think I'm going to give the lifesaver blanket to our new minister's wife as a baby shower gift. The baby shower is next Sunday but we won't be here. So I'm not sure if I want to finish it before then or take my time and give it to her when we get back from Wellesley Island. I'd like to knit something for the baby, too. Maybe one of the little helmets like I made for Carol's grandson. And booties to match.

I printed out some Fair Isle patterns from the internet and I'd like to start on one of those. I found a sampler purse on the Philosopher's Wool site. I think I'd like to get the yarn to try it. Maybe Sue and I will hit a couple LYS today and I can get it. One LYS has Lopi Lite and the other has Dalegarn so I have a nice choice in wool.

Since I'm not going to post any pictures of unfinished knitting projects, I'll leave you with a shot of Lake Placid. This is a shot of the Adirondack Mountains taken from the base of the ski jumps. We had to take a ski lift up to the jumps. I waited at the base of the jumps while everyone else went up to the top of the 120 meter jump in an elevator. I don't do up although I can do the ski lift.

New technique for me!

I learned how to do Fair Isle colorwork while we were in Lake Placid last week. We went to Adirondack Yarns and she had some samples of Fair Isle hats made from baby alpaca. They were sooo soft and I loved the pattern. She had put up some kits with the baby alpaca and the pattern so I bought one. I also bought three colors of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky to practice on before I use the alpaca. So this picture is my first attempt. I was very, very happy with the way it turned out. I even knit with a strand of yarn in each hand. I don't know if the bulky yarn makes the tension more even but there's no puckering. I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the hat but it is nice and even, too.




After my success with the first hat, I went back to the yarn store and bought a Cabin Fever pattern for this hat and three more colors of Lamb's Pride. I finished the knitting on this hat on the way home from Lake Placid yesterday and haven't had a chance to weave in the ends yet. There are 4 i-cord tassels on top but only two show up in this picture. I think this one turned out well, too.

We had a great time in Lake Placid. There is so much to do there. I am going to save my comments on the trip for another post. It's getting late and I'm very tired. Until next time...