am i demented?

am i the only knitter in the world who enjoys knitting corrugated ribbing? maybe it's because i don't mind purling. it takes a few minutes to retrain my hands to knit a regular purl stitch, and not a combined knitting purl stitch. didn't think i needed the combined knitting for this rib, plus regular purl is faster in the rib. corrugated ribbing gives you a preview of how the colors will flow together.

and i do loves me spit splicing, look ma, only 2 ends to darn in ;-0


have been thinking over the weekend about annie's question and internet friendships. without the internet, i would never have met most of my fiber friends. many of whom i now know in person, some still only over the net. since i don't have many friends in lake placid of the fibery persuasion, i cherish my online friendships :-)



miss madaket sunset enjoying the porch.

if at first you don't succeed...

frog, frog again! the body of this koigu sweater has been frogged 3 times ;-0 when last you saw her, she was frogged. and knit twice again since then, don't ask. but finally she is fini! and fits like a dream. what can you say about a yarn that can be reknit so many times and still look gorgaous? and can be shampooed, conditioned, then thown in the dryer? popped out of the dryer softer than ever.









details, 4 colors of koigu from four seasons knitting, thanks jo-anne! colors are 851 (4 skeins), 612 (3 skeins), 803 (2 skeins), and 621 (1 skein).


i did 4 rows knit, 4 rows of purl; repeated 6 times for sleeve cuffs and hem, 4 times for the collar. loosely based on a sweater from a vogue knits, i knit a raglan instead of a drop shoulder, as i wanted the sleeve colors to blend in with the sweater. ann budd's handy book of sweater patterns is a wonderful resource.

as soon as i started knitting the sweater, i thought, omg, these are sara lamb colors! how i would love to take a class from her one day :-)




anyone care to guess what's next?

eeny meeny miny mo

i picked the wrong way to go! when we left lake placid on sunday, it looked like wilma was headed more north. hah! but at least we have the hurricane shutters in fort lauderdale, and the house is very strong. i made a yahoo photo album of photos taken after wilma.


we were very lucky, only tree damage and some ridge tiles gone from the roof. my best friend in lauderdale sustained major damage in her 16th floor condo, at one point she was on her knees praying cause she didn't think they were going to make it.



downtown lauderdale looked like a bomb went off, there was glass all over the streets.

the poor little towns along highway 27 (the highway that goes up through the center of the state, and the road we take to lake placid) were dessimated. tuesday morning when we drove dd back as she has school, there were huge power lines down, we actually drove over them!





2 photos, one showing an intact power pole, the right, a power pole completely mangled. these things are massive!




there were no power trucks anywhere, which told us the problems in south florida were massive.
mobile homes actually flipped on their roofs, cars smashed sideways into utility poles, it is surreal.

before we left, i put all my baskets, photos, and paintings in the downstairs bathroom which has no windows, and stuffed a towel on the outside of the door. never hurts to be prepared ;-)

as of friday, there were only 16 gas stations open in all of broward county. we are very lucky, after katrina, tom bought a generator. i think we were the only house in the neighborhood that had power ;-) tuesday when we headed back to lake placid to drop of dd, we filled up tom's brother's gas dock and our gas cans, so we had plenty of fuel for the generator. but no phone. so no computer, torture i tell you, pure torture!

thanks to all my friends who worried about us, and btw, the screen porch came through with nary a tear. and the moomers are all fine, tom is down bush hogging right now.

i've missed all my internet buddies, big mwah! to you all!

enough already!

say a little prayer to the flying spagetti monster for my house and the cows :-)
we're going to lauderdale where the hurricane shutters are up.
vanessa

the fall haul 2005

really i was a pretty good girl ;-) tom kept telling me, “you promised not to buy any more yarn!” and i said, “no, i promised not to buy any more wheels,” (keeping fingers crossed behind my back ;-)


first things bought were the teeshirt and sweatshirt, when tom and i got there at 9:15, there was no line, and from ms$w experience, i snagged them fast.



next thing snapped up were the buttons, omg, they are really gorgeous, and not heavy at all! the buttons are from moving mud.

underneath the haul is a felted batt from friends-n-fibers, no website. i bought the batt and the mohair locks to make a shoulder bag. we saw a girl on saturday who had an adorable bag, she said she had made it from a batt bought last year. the flap had mohair locks needle-felted in a single line across, very simple and stunning. of course i didn't have my camera....

the 2 bags of wool in the background are a pound each of a WASHED crimpy moorit fleece from cafe l'agneau. specifically purchased in the quest of spinning carded lofty long draw yarn ;-) again, no website.

the gold roving is 4 oz. of merino, cannot for the life of me remember the vendor's name, but i know they were building 22, upstairs section, left hand side.



the earrings in front of the gold roving are from skaska designs, handcrafted in russia, they are some blond wood, and light as a feather, they look like ivory and are lovely on dd.

the neclace and earring sets in the middle are from the gem and mineral show, rocko minerals and jewelry. the yellow turquoise set is for dd, and the turquoise and coral set for ddil. i had never seen yellow turquoise before!

and my fave, a flame maple norm hall niddy noddy, much less painful than buying a wheel ;-)





then i found a little bit more...
2 kissing fish mitten kits from morehouse merino, for my basket teacher's 2 grand-daughters christmas presents.

a pack of felting needles, and some maple sugar and tiny maple candies, from maple land farms.

fooled you all! thought i'd buy a wheel, didn'tcha?

actually, since i'd frantically gone shopping before we left for an outfit i could fit into to wear to a "fancy" restaurant, and we didn't dine in any fancy restaurants, i returned the outfit when we got back to lauderdale, so i broke about even.
how's that for blonde logic?

i LOVE rhinebeck!

is it possible to be in love with a town? rhinebeck far exceeded all my expectations! the town is charming, and not crowded or commercial.

it did rain, and rain. wednesday on my way down to fort lauderdale tom and i were on the phone trying to decide whether or not to go, the weather channel was showing flooding in the rhinebeck area. called the chamber of commerce, the festival was not cancelled. called hope in new jersey, she said come, so we did ;-)



got into new york late thursday afternoon, our hotel, the delamater inn, is part of the beekman arms, the oldest continually operated inn in the united states, 1766. if you click on the delamater link, our room is the first photo.

friday, we went sightseeing in the rain. first stop, the vanderbilt mansion, spectacular grounds. then on to fdr's home and library in hyde park. south to the cia, it is huge!
back to rhinebeck and a late lunch at the coach house tavern, yum.

saturday morning, off to the fair! first stop, the tee-shirt booth. 2005's featured breed is the tunis. met up with hope and kevin, thank god tom and kevin hit it off right away. the neta (new england textile artists) meetup was at 10, i was kind of surprised there weren't more members there. got to meet sherry (also a ft member) and chris of woolybuns. sherry is on my right, chris on my left, i'm in the middle with the yellow rain slicker.


at 11, kevin decided to split, and tom also took the opportunity. he had a great time at the aerodrome, even though the weather stunk.

hope and i bummed around, and were having such a good time we forgot about the 1 o'clock blogger meetup. i am blaming it on the artichokes, which were well worth the long line ;-) met up with nilda, nathania, steph and jaya.


drooled over norm hall's wheels, did snag a tiger maple niddy noddy. hope fell in love with dave paul's hitchhiker wheel. i had a nice long chat with gil of robin wheels. his wee robin is adorable.









i got to hug linda diak of grafton fibers in person! she is fun and crazy, and a spinning wheel enabler extraordinaire :-)

tasted some excellent wine and cheese, hope bought some yummy maple cotton candy. we met up with adrienne and caryn, 2 of hope's friends from boston.

5 o'clock met back up with tom at the double O, had drinks and dinner with a huge bunch in the bar. the double O is right across from the entrance to the fairgrounds. amy of knitty.com joined us. the food was fabulous, but it was so loud, i could hardly hear anything. nilda's girls were angels :-)

sunday morning back to the fair! tom just dumped me off (yeah), he went back to the aerodrome, on to an antique car show in staatsburg, then to the mills mansion.
i bummed around by myself all morning, then met up with nathania and theresa of knitting the blues. .
had a yummy sausage with peppers and onions for lunch.




theresa made me eat one of her tastebudds chocolate truffles, omg, i had to go buy 2 dozen. i am now hiding them from dd....
ran into a bunch of bloggers at robin's wheels, kim of the woolen rabbit was giving spinning lessons.

the sheepies and cashmere goats were too cute, especially the twin lambs :-)







later on in the afternoon, i ran into a good basket/knitting friend, barbara, from miami of all things!

time to call tom, we drinks and dinner at the tap room of the beekman arms. met a bunch of local people at the bar, and exchanged #s with one couple, hopefully we'll see them next year!

monday morning, time to leave rhinebeck :-(


stopped by morehouse merino in milan, but they weren't open yet, we'll come back next year.
took the tour at west point, don't think it holds a candle to annapolis, but maybe that's the navy mom talking...




i'm making our reservation for 2006 soon! next installment, the haul ;-)

2 trips

first a trip to the frog pond ;-) am reknitting poor old koigu. i don't know what the hay happened, the sleeve gauge is perfect, but the body gauge was a scooch too big, the sweater looked like i had a giant bell around my hips when i tried it on. back to square one.
oh well, could be worse, at least i could salvage the sleeves...

tomorrow on to rhinebeck! looking at the forecast, it's going to be muddy muddy, so i bought a pair of boots with rubber bottoms. not an easy thing to find in fort lauderdale. heh heh, i also bought a pair of velour purple pants, and they
s t r e t c h.
will have to weed out which sweaters to bring, each one is saying bring me, bring me ;-p
vanessa

pleased as punch

all done with the corrie x roving, the colors sandy sitzman dyed are lovely! have about 8 oz, haven't figured out the yardage yet. dd wants a lacy poncho, blech where did this spawn of satan come from, not moi }:-< maybe i'll make some children's mittens for a christmas present. am woefully behind in the christmas knitting.




pleased as punch about finishing fern ;-) when you last saw her, she was stuffed unceremoniously in a tote. dragged her out yesterday, forced myself to do the sewing up, gave her a bath and conditioning, and now she's drying on the carpet. the color is much prettier in person. fern is virtual yarn's 3 ply hebredian in machair, a gorgeous heathered green with touches of red and flecks of blue.
fern did not knit up as bulletproof as other starmore designs. i cardiginized her ala junieann, as i thought i'd get more use from a cardi rather than a pullover.

heh heh, there was a good reason for the finishing push, tom and i are going to rhinebeck :-) i lured him with visions of west point, an antique aerodrome and yummy restaurants. we haven't been anywhere alone together for ages and i'm really looking forward to it!




thanks for all the kind words on the yarn and cupcake!

satan begone!

how on earth am i ever going to fit back into my pants with this temptation? dd whipped up a batch of cupcakes, 6 with cream cheese frosting (for her) and 6 with german chocolate frosting (all for me me me!)



bobbin full of 2ply corrie cross, i like the yarn much more than i thought i would. and i hope it's gets even better after it's washed.



on the niddy noddy, i love this noddy, it's birds eye maple from red barn farm, really lovely tools.

rainy day

rainy day here, love this weather.
no emerald biffle, there are 2 lbs of the biffle, and i don't have enough time right now to spin it all up. so this corriedale x roving from sandy sitzman got the fluff treatment.



have 2 bobbins spun on the reeves 24" saxony, have i mentioned how much i love rick reeves woodworking? he is the master. (but don't tell norm hall, i have 6 more years on the waiting list, heh heh).

















the reeves in silhouette.



oatmeal muffins are delish, found the recipe on a blog yesterday morning, but now can't figure out which blog ;-) i added craisins, dried blueberries and toasted pecans. used to bake a lot more than i do now. hmm, i was skinny then, go figure!

where's the baby bear?

the mama bear,





and the papa bear,



but no baby bear.




here's a photo of the biffle basket biffless. 14" oval, it sits on our dining room table. cherry base, rim and handle. the scrim in the middle is a basket with beach plums. scrim done by sandy beaulieu.

oatmeal muffins in the oven. if they are yummy i'll tell ya.
cloudy and rainy here in central florida. i love these days, since we don't get much of a change of seasons.

a touch of lace

every year my friend helen brewster's neta (new england textile artists) yahoo group knits an afghan for the ship's project. this year the squares have lace patterns. hope mine is lacy enough!

neta has a sewing up party, then the afghan gets raffled off at spa (the spinning retreat weekend in portland maine). i haven't had a chance to go to either shindig, but am happy to knit a square. this one is from knitter's magazine great american aran afghan series.




nothing says lovin' like a box from lisa souza. now should i be a good girl and knit tom a pair of socks with the denim yarn, or dive right in to the emerald biffle? stay tuned.