Ten on Tuesday

This week's prompt is to list 10 Places I Hang Out.  I'm afraid this is going to be a very boring list because I am a home body and I live in a small town that doesn't have coffee shops, or theaters.  In fact I live in a town that literally does not even have a stop light.  But my favorite place to hang out is right here.....

1. On my waterfront.  Bow Lake is one of the best kept secrets in NH and I can't believe how lucky I am that I get to live here :-)
2. On my deck, overlooking this same view, but in comfier deck furniture.
3. In my living room. Call me Sheldon, but I have my spot and nobody else ever considers sitting there. Except my dad when he's visiting and he's the only one who gets to enjoy it besides me.
4.  In the boat, cruising the lake or watching my family have fun behind it.
5. On the back of our Harley because that means Tom and I are off on an adventure together.
6. On Ravelry plotting my next project.
7.  On Facebook catching up with friends or playing Candy Crush.
8.  At Cooper Hill, our local pub/pizza parlor.
9.  In the kitchen because it really is the heart of my home and I love to cook.
10.  My Laundry Room because nobody really bothers me in there! :-)

Do you have a favorite place to hang out?  I'd love to hear about it!

Weekending

As I was enjoying a cup of tea this morning, I started thinking about what I would write about today and realized that I completely forgot to post yesterday. Sometimes I think I am just a dingbat! Oh well, that can only mean that I was too busy having fun :-)

Saturday was a day of College Football. I love college ball and as I may have mentioned a few times, my boys have gone to spectacular football schools. This weekend's dilemma was that Alabama and Clemson were playing at the same time. Bama boy is living at home and wanted to watch the game live, so we did that and recorded the Clemson game to enjoy afterward. What the heck was going on with football this weekend?!? Mississippi State gave Bama a real run for the money, but in the end Alabama won the game. The score did not reflect how well MSU played.

I decided to start a new project to work on during the game. I cast on this cowl and 3:15pm and wove in the ends at 6pm!

This is the White Cloud Cowl and I used Malabrigo Rasta in Stitch Red.  It used the entire skein with literally inches left over.  It's a perfect quick knit and I'm going to keep this in my back pocket for when I need a quick gift idea!

The Clemson game was even more crazy than the Alabama game!  There was a lot of back and forth and lots of scoring on both sides.  I made a lot of progress on my Wenceslas sweater during that game but I haven't taken any pictures of my progress recently.

Sunday I got together with the Boston Custom Fit Knitters group.  They are a fun group of ladies and I really enjoy their company.  I sat next to Rachel who is a speedy knitter.  There was some teasing that we couldn't believe she wasn't ready to bind that sweater off yet.  After all, she had already separated the sleeves before she got there.  And then the comment was made, the one that will have me giggling for days.

"You could bind that off now.  Everybody need a worsted weight tube top."  That just struck me as so funny.  Can't you picture it?  Maybe it's time for tube tops to make a comeback! :-)

Then I finished off the weekend with dinner at my in-laws watching the Patriots game.  What an exciting ending to that game!  I admit that even though I am happy the Pats won, I felt a little bad for Eli Manning.  He truly played a great game.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go do errands, and stop by Dunkin Donuts for my free coffee.  Thank you Patriots!

Prayers for France

I know I'm not alone in feeling heart-broken and helpless for the people of France today.  I have been contemplating whether I would, or should, write a post about my feelings, including anger, today, and have just not been sure.  Then I turned on my computer and signed onto Facebook and saw a link to this article.

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/14/paris-attacks-pianist-plays-imagine-outside-bataclan

I think this says it all without uttering a single word.  Imagine.



Imagine.

FO Friday

Christmas is coming and I have already started my Christmas knitting! I've never started this early before so I'm hoping that I will get everything knit that I hope to for gifts this year. The Mall must be avoided at all costs!

This is a hat for my son.  I'm pretty confident that I'm safe sharing it here because I really don't think he reads my blog.  And if he does...... Well, he knows I bought this very special yarn and that it hasn't yet appeared as something wearable for him, so I think he'll be happy.  Worst case scenario is that he gets it early :-)

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Bulky and the color is Crimson Pride.  The yarn is special because this is a color that Lorna's Laces dyes exclusively for Serendipity Needleworks in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Tuscaloosa is the home of The University of Alabama and my son is a proud graduate and former member of the Crimson Tide Waterski Team.  I bought this yarn while in Tuscaloosa for his graduation in May 2014.  I was just waiting to stumble upon the right pattern for it.  This pattern is Man Hat.  It was an easy knit.  The hardest part was finding time to work on it while he was at work :-)

Confessions of a Yarn-a-holic

Hello, my name is Dianne and I'm a yarn-a-holic. It's been 50 hours since I last purchased yarn and today I was considering buying more.  I may need help.  Or more hours in the day in which to knit.

Seriously, I have had a substantial influx of yarn over the last 6 weeks.  I was somewhat prepared for it and even planning for a reasonable part of it.

For example, I'm in two sock clubs, so I was expecting my club shipments from the Rockin Sock Club for September

and the Cookie A Sock Club for October.

They're both beautiful and will make stunning socks.

I attended the Make Wear Love Retreat with Amy Herzog October 1-4th.  It's a sweater knitting retreat with vendors, so I expecting to purchase a couple sweater quantities of yarn, like this Eden Cottage Bowland DK.  I'm not sure yet what I'm going to make with this, but I loved the feel of it and the color.  My LYS doesn't carry this line so I knew that I may not have another opportunity to see this in person and pick a color that really spoke to me.  So I bought it.

One of the classes I took at the retreat was dyeing a sweater quantity of yarn with Kim of Indigodragonfly.  It was a phenomenal class and now I really want to go to her Dye Camp!  I chose her MCN fingering for this class and dyed this...

 

I named it Sebasco Harbor in homage to the beautiful seaside setting where I dyed it.  So that's 7 skeins of fingering yarn which is 2800 yds.  I'm not sure what I was thinking when I ordered that much yarn to dye.  Perhaps I was thinking of a shawl collar cardigan that is cabled over every square inch?  Or perhaps I just couldn't do simple math that day.  Fortunately I am in LOVE with this color  and will be happy to make a couple projects with it.

Amy also always releases 3 new designs at her retreats featuring yarns from the vendors at the retreat. My favorite design from this year is Parker Head featuring The Woolen Rabbit's Emma.  As always, The Woolen Rabbit booth was swamped and by the time I could get in it, Kim was sold out of the few colors that I really loved.  But I really wanted to make this sweater with this yarn, so as soon as I got home I placed an online order for some Emma in the color Through the Looking Glass.

It's even more beautiful in person and it absolutely glorious to knit with!

On the way to the retreat I met up with my friend, and fellow retreater Laura, at KnitWit in Portland.  It's become a tradition for us over the years to do this.  It's a really quaint store with some great yarns so I always enjoy stopping in there when I'm in Portland.

I fell in love with the Coastal Gradient Cowl that they had on display and bought this gradient kit and base color of Lillian by Dirty Water Dye Works to make my own.

They are also one of the few stores around that carries Quince and Co yarns.  I've heard so many great things about their yarns from my knitting friends around the  country that I had decided I wanted to get a sweater quantity of one of their yarns.  I chose Lark in this all-purpose silvery gray.  My thought is that I'm going to make a v-neck pullover with a cable on the front that I can split and continue up the sides of the neck opening, utilizing what I learned in Fiona Ellis' class.

No trip up the coast of Maine is complete without a stop at Halcyon Yarns in Bath.  I was very restrained there and only purchased this one skein of Peace Fleece that I have already used to make a hat for my father-in-law.

Since I've been home from the retreat I've made a couple of trips to Spinning Yarns, which is my LYS.  And I've come home with a couple skeins of Rasta in Stitch Red

and Ravelry Red, which I plan to use for gift knitting.

Two days ago I stopped in again, convinced that I needed some Ultra Alpaca in a nice cranberry red color for a pair of mittens for a holiday gift swap.  No luck on that front, but I did end up buying a skein of Home in Charcoal for a gift hat,

a skein of Tosh Vintage for a different pair of gift mittens,

and then this eco alpaca to line a pair of Northman mittens I plan to make for myself

with these two skeins of Ultra Alpaca

I was entering all of this on a spreadsheet that I keep of yarn in and yarn out (everybody does this, right?.... RIGHT?) and was a little stunned that my "yarn in" total so far for quarter 4 of this year is 10,914 yards.  That's 6.2 miles.  And that's more than I have knit for the entire year so far.

I might need a bigger storage bin if I don't start knitting faster!  Oh, and can somebody keep me busy tomorrow at noon so that I'm not tempted to peek at the Plucky Knitter ready-to-ship update?  Thanks :-)

Veteran's Day

Like so many people, I have family members who have served our country by being part of the military. I was hoping to find a picture of my dad to share today from when he was a handsome young man in the Navy. I didn't find a picture of my dad, but I did find one of my Pepere who served during World War 2. He passed away about 10 years ago, but I can still remember him telling us the stories of his early life.

When I was looking through the old pictures that I have I found a letter that my Memere kept from him that was still in the envelope.  It was dated 1944!  What a treasure to have found :-)

Thank you for your service Dad and Pepere!

Today is also my sister Jenn's birthday!  And it's a BIG one too.  Without giving the secret away I will just say that she's older than 30, but younger than 50 ;-)

Happy Birthday little sis!  I love you to the moon and back!

Ten on Tuesday

Today is Tuesday, as much as I keep thinking it's Wednesday, it is in fact Tuesday.  That means that it's time for Ten on Tuesday.  This week's prompt is 10 Things to Shout When You Hit the Jackpot!

I'm going to pretend that I'm in Las Vegas, or the Cruise Ship Casino, and have been feeding a slot machine, and it actually wins!  I would probably shout...

1. Shut the front door!
2. Holy Crap!
3. Woohoo!
4. Shazam! (yes, I know, I'm one of the very few people on earth who still says this :-))
5. I can't believe it!
6. No way!
7. Oh my god!
8. Son of a gun!
9. Where's the exit before I blow this?
10. Get my financial advisor on the phone :-)

If only we could all be so lucky at least once.  Wouldn't that be fun?  Since I know Carole was in Vegas with friends this weekend, I hope she enjoyed some luck!