Random Thoughts

This will be a short and random post today.  I didn't want to let another week go by without a post, not wanting to disappoint Andrea.  She told me she checks every day to see what I have written.

1.  I want to resign from my job of mother, but am not sure where to turn in my resignation.  Any ideas?  I have tried to do this several times over the last 12 or 13 years, but no one would take my resignation letter.  I will just say that being a single parent to an almost 18 year old young  man is not always easy, and I really don't want to do it any more.  However, I realize I have to and I'm sure we'll get through this battle of wills.

2.  On our way home from Saranac Lake a couple of weeks ago we saw this beautiful sunset.  When I stopped to take a picture, an Amish buggy turned around and started driving toward us.  We often see Amish buggies on our way to and from Saranac Lake, but never with quite such a beautiful backdrop.

3.  A new book was waiting for me when I arrived home today.  It is Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns by Carol J. Sulcoski.  I am trying to be more discerning in my knitting book purchases, but felt this was a book that would be quite useful, and has many patterns in it which I can't wait to try.  I am not allowing myself to cast on another pair of socks though, until I finish the two I now have on my needles.   

4.  Tomorrow I'm planning to have a dyeing day.  I am working on creating some shades of green-it will be interesting to see what comes out of the dye pot.  

5.  Seamus has arrived to tell me it's time to go to bed.  He has a habit of sitting on my arms, which makes typing a little difficult, so that's it for now.

Sorry I've Been Absent for So Long

This is a quick post to say sorry I haven't written for a few days.  

Here is picture of my grandcat Sterling Battleship Sylvia.  Travis named her (she's Caitlin's cat) Sterling Sylvia, and a friend decided she should have a grey middle name as well, so he suggested Battleship.  Isn't she a clever cat lying in a box? I bet you've never seen a cat in a box before. She is a very energetic kitten-it's amazing she sat still long enough to snap this photo.

Samples for the phat fiber box are still a work in progress-they  have to be in by next Friday. Gerard was quite helpful while I was making the sample skeins of sock yarn.  He kept trying to steal them.  Bad cat! Now I have to get the fiber samples ready.  I think I am going to send in a few bracelets also. Here is a little hint of what may be appearing in my fiber samples.

The February Phat Fiber box arrived last Friday, and it was so much fun to open.  I spied it on my front porch when I arrived home from work.  Lots of pink and brown yarn and fiber, as the theme for February was Romance and Chocolate.    I would anticipate there being a plethora of green in the March box, in keeping with the Celtic theme.

 

There was a field trip to Burlington yesterday with Suzanne.  We left at the incredibly early hour of 7:30 (at least it was incredibly early for me).  We went to KaleidoscopeYarn, Northeast Fibers, Ben Franklin and Barnes and Noble.  I was quite good, and only bought a skein of Cascade 220 and a skein of Lambs Pride for my collection.  I love the colors in both types of yard, so each time I go to a yarn store I tend to buy a color I don't have for my stash.  OK, I also bought someMalabrigo worsted weight yarn.  It is one of my favorite yarns-so soft.  But also extremely feltable.  I made Caitlin two pairs of socks from Malabrigo yarn, and she now has socks that would make lovely Christmas tree decorations  I want to make a hat and some mittens from what I bought. I figure those articles of clothing aren't quite as likely to make their way into the washer and dryer. 

I hadn't been to Barnes and Noble in a long time and realized how much I miss visiting all those books.  When we lived in New Jersey we went to B&N at least once a week.  I think it is a good thing that I live far away-both for my wallet and my stuffed bookshelves.  Lately I have been wanting to read a Miss Marple mystery, so  I bought Murder at the Vicarage, the first book in which she is the main character.  I prefer her to Hercule Poirot as a sleuth, maybe because she sometimes knits in her books.

Wasn't it fabulous today when the temperature was above 40 degrees?...... I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of spring.  Delusional, I know, to think that it will be here anytime soon, but I can pretend.  Actually, it must be spring, we have a fly in the house.  Seamus is industriously trying to catch it, and making some strange noises in the process.  

Time for bed.  I will try to be a more regular blogger in the future, and my apologies to those who have been missing my posts.

I'll leave you with a picture of Gerard sleeping, and my feet adorned with a pair of my hand knit socks.  

Another Phat Fiber Sample Box

Do you like this colorway?  I just put it in my etsy shop.  I asked Conor for help in naming it, requesting a song title, because that is where I get most of my names for my colorways.  I told him the colors were blueberry, pumpkin and green and he suggested blueberry pie.  When asked what green and pumpkin colors had to do with blueberry pie, he said the pumpkin was the crust and it was in a green pie plate.  Instead, I decided on Blueberry Hill, since that is a song title.  I always think of Richie Cunningham singing Blueberry Hill on Happy Days when I think of that song.

I've been working to get things together to send samples in for the March Phat Fiber box.  The boxes sold out in something like two minutes this month.  It's awesome for independent dyers and fiber artists to be able to get samples of their work into the hands of people all over the world. Boxes went to Japan, Canada, Scotland, England and Norway this month.  I am truly appreciative that Jessie (the creator of Phat Fiber) invited me back in October to be a part of this group of fiber artists.  I was a contributor to last month's inaugural box and will be contributing next month too.  I took a month off to regroup and figure out exactly what samples I wanted to send in. However, I couldn't go a month without my Phat Fiber fix, so I purchased a box.  I can't wait to see what's in it.  I am hoping it will be here when I get home from work tomorrow, and I will share pictures of the fibery goodness contained within.  

Every month there is a theme.  Next month it is Celtic.  With the last name of O'Brien I had to participate.  I think I am going to send some bracelets in this month, along with some nice, fluffy batts of fiber.  I am having a wonderful time with my drum carder, creating the batts.  It's another fun way to play with color.  And thanks to the Yarn Harlot, I know that it is OK to put fiber in sideways, and it really does work better than putting the fiber in with the ends first. Who knew?

Tuesday night Trina and I went to Potsdam to Fields Coffee House to meet two other knitters for what is hoped will be a new knitting group.  We met Jody and Stacy and had a nice yarn filled time.  Jody was making her first sock, and Stacy is crocheting a baby blanket with Noah's Ark on it-very cute.  We discovered that the Coffee House has an open mic night on Tuesday, so we were treated to some music along with out knitting-quite a change from the library where we knit on Wednesday night.  Next week we thought we would try meeting at The Blackbird Cafe in Canton.  Any place with coffee and yarn and interesting people sounds good to me.

Here are a few more pictures from the parade on Saturday.  Only in the Adirondacks would there be a float with a deer head on the prow of a pirate ship, with a mountain coming out of the middle of the ship.  It was a little shady when this picture was taken, but I think you can see the concept of the float.

Look, there was fiber at the parade, in the form of some very large dredlocks.  I thought Travis' were long, but they can't compete with these.

And not only did the pirate have dreds, but so did the car that was following him.

This is a very tired puppy at the end of the parade.  She belongs to Travis and Caitlin's friend Jess.  Isn't she adorable?

Here is a rather blurry shot of the ice castle at night.  Pretty.

Time for bed.  Work again tomorrow.  I'm wearing a wool sweater-twas very cold today.  

A Walk to Moose Pond

On Sunday Caitlin, Conor and I decided to take a little drive.  I wanted to take some mountain pictures so I could replace the Christmas picture on the blog.  We had a limited amount of time because Caitlin had clothes in the dryer at the laundromat.  I headed toward Bloomingdale, when Caitlin suggested going to Moose Pond.  Upon driving toward the pond, we found that it is only possible to drive partway down the road during the winter, but Caitlin assured me it was only a short walk from where we were parked to the pond.   Silly me, I believed her.  You must understand that I do not do a lot of walking, it's just not a part of my daily routine. Although I keep making resolutions to walk,  I'm not very good at keeping those resolutions.  

Anyway, we set off on the path and started walking, only to discover that Caitlin was wrong about the length of the walk to the pond.  As we were walking my mind was going a mile a minute thinking we should turn back, Caitlin has laundry in the dryer, I left my purse on the front seat of the car, this is farther than I thought it would be, we need to get back to meet Travis, and so on and so on.  This is a problem that I have-not living in the moment.  I don't think I am alone with this problem.  So I told the rolodex in my brain to stop spinning, and began to  relax and appreciate all that I was surrounded by, not just the woods, but my lovely children as well.   After all, how often do I get to go for a walk in the mountains with two of my children on a beautiful sunny day? Here are Caitlin and Conor, blazing the trail. 

Look at that pretty blue sky.

We made it to the lake.  It was at least a mile walk, which I realize is not really that far, but I was proud of me for doing it, especially when there was a mile walk back to the car.  This is Conor, fulfilling one of his lifelong ambitions, to walk on a frozen lake.

I was sure that he was going to fall through the ice, but he didn't. and he was very happy to go out to the middle and take the picture of the mountain I had wanted.  I kept wondering if the handknit scarf I was wearing would be strong enough to help pull him out if he fell through the ice.

Conor left proof for the next intrepid hiker that he had been on the lake.

This is as far as I ventured from shore.

Caitlin  did some snow art also.  This is a drawing of her cat Sterling, and a drawing of Conor saying I am soooo right.  I think there might be a little sibling stuff going on here.  

Here I am,  with proof that I was, indeed, at Moose Pond on a snowy day in February.

We saw this lichen covered log on the walk back to the car.  I think this would make a pretty colorway if it is possible to produce a dye the color of the silvery grey lichen.

When we arrived back at the car my purse was still there, Caitlin's laundry was still in the dryer at the laundromat, and we made it back to Saranac Lake in plenty of time to meet Travis for dinner, so all my worries were for nought.  I have to keep practicing the not worrying. Life is too short, and I really do know that worrying does not change anything.  I am happy that I was able to relax and enjoy a beautiful day in the Adirondacks with two of my darling children.

Home Again

We're back from Saranac Lake and I am exhausted.  It's hard work going to Winter Carnival and being awakened several times during the night by some very vociferous carnival goers.   I will post more tomorrow, but will share a couple of pictures now.

The theme for the Winter Carnival this year was Pirates and here is the Grand Marshall of the Parade.  The parade was one of the best I've been to in a long time.  A lot of creativity and time went into the floats and costumes.  

This float represented the store where Caitlin works, cooking and baking yummy vegetarian and vegan food.

 

There are many more parade pictures, which I will share another day,  but I need to get myself to bed, since I have to work tomorrow.  I can't go until I share some pictures of my new grandpuppy.  She is absolutely adorable, and a very good girl, but also very, very large.  We walked down to the ice castle and she was such a good girl on the walk.  Isn't she cute?

Caitlin's cat Sterling, was not quite as happy to meet Begonia as we were.  I have never seen a cat quite so fluffy, she even had a mohawk on top of her head.

There were also some sounds coming out of Sterling which I have never really heard from a cat before.  All Begonia wanted to do was play-poor Begonia, misunderstood by Sterling the puffed up cat.

If It's Friday, There Must Have Been Knitting

Today we had a very small knitting group-that would be Trina and me.  We were both working on our February projects, but Trina wasn't happy with the yarn she was using, so I took her shopping in one of my closets.  She left with 4 or 5 skeins of yarn and my grateful thanks for removing items from my house.  And I was left with a little money to spend on pizza for dinner.  We tried a different pizzeria and it was pretty bad, so we will go back to the usual place next time, even if there is an hour wait for delivery.  Pizza is one of the many things we miss from our years in New Jersey.  It's just not quite the same up here.

Look, summer.  I thought it would be nice to be reminded of what will be here in a few short months.  This is a picture of Cranberry Lake, and a corner of the front porch.  I can't wait to go there and spend some knitting time on the porch, feeling the mountain breeze and listening to the gentle sound of the water as it touches the shoreline.  I don't know how to adequately describe the feel of the mountain air on one's skin, but it is something I can't wait to be feeling again.  It will be here in no time, since time is flying so quickly these days.

And since I'm showing summer pictures, I thought a foot picture would be nice, especially since the feet are standing on grass, not snow.  Suzanne has offered to make me a scrapbook of my foot pictures so I can present it to my children, who think I am odd for taking these pictures. This picture was taken at the wedding of my brother Tim and his wife Lisa.  They were married in their back yard on a lovely July afternoon.

And now a return to present day.  We had two warm days, but the cold has returned and I am glad, because I wasn't  mentally prepared for mud season yet.  And I was also concerned that Saranac Lake have cool weather for winter carnival.  I didn't want the ice castle to melt before I had a chance to see it.  I'm excited about going to the parade tomorrow, and happy to be heading to the mountains.  It has been a while since I've visited.   I'm hoping to be able to take some nice pictures.  Perhaps it's time for the Christmas tree at the top of the blog to go, although I will miss the blues in that just past sunset sky.  It seems to me that I may have dyed a yarn with some of the colors in that sky.  I'll go check my photos.  BRB.

Yup, I was right.  This is Walk at Midnight, which I named before taking the picture.  Maybe I need to change it's name to Mirror Lake at Dusk.   I do love blues, there are so many different gorgeous shades to choose from when dyeing, and it is so much fun to come up with new variations.

I'm excited about going to Saranac Lake, not just because I will see the mountains, but because I get to see Travis and Caitlin as well.  Caitlin will be off tomorrow because Nori's is closed, however, Travis has to work.  Travis is the Executive Chef at Lake Placid Pub and Brewery, the home of Ubu Ale, and some yummy food too.  Because this is such a busy tourist time in Lake Placid,  he also has to work Sunday , so I guess we'll just have to hang around until Monday to see him.  I won't tell Conor until we are there that we are staying for two nights.  I better start packing my knitting bag now.  Although a wonderful thing has happened.  Mountain Gift & Powder has added yarn to their inventory and is located right across from Caitlin's apartment, so if I run short of supplies, or forget a needle, I can just go across the street.  How awesome is that?

Time for a bath.  I am running out of bath salts and have concluded that perhaps I should start to make my own.  That way I will have control over what ingredients are being used, and also because I need to add another thing to my list of things to do.  I wouldn't want to get bored. Something to think about.  

It's Snowing Again

I was told last night at spinning by Suzanne that my blog and the Yarn Harlot's blog are the two she looks at every day, and she is disappointed when there isn't a new post, so now I am feeling pressure to write every day.  

I haven't shown you a cat picture in a few days, and I know that is a sad thing, so here is Gerard inspecting my new drum carder.  I'm thinking if I can just train him to turn the crank, we'll be in business.

And here is Seamus marking the drum carder as his very own.  I read all kinds of scary stories about how sharp the teeth would be and how it is necessary to be very careful not to prick one's fingers on the teeth, and I explained this all to Seamus, but he must have thought I was being overcautious.

The problem with writing today is that I can't really think of much to say, hence the brilliant title that it is snowing again.  It was kind of hard seeing on my way home from  work.  I'm glad I left when I did, because it was prime temperature and conditions for black ice.  Having once experienced spinning around in a car with absolutely no control, or hope of gaining control, and miraculously missing several road signs and trees, I have a slight (OK, maybe a little more than slight) fear of black ice.  I try to avoid driving at times when black ice is most likely to occur. Times like tonight.  But obviously I made it home safely, happy to pull into the garage and come inside my warm (warm being a relative term, for those who know me and the temperature at which I keep my house-although you have to admit, it is warmer inside than outside) house. 

It is also the time of year when the frost heaves and potholes begin to appear.  I have learned to keep the cover on my coffee closed when driving over certain roads if I don't want to be sprayed with coffee as I drive, perhaps a little too quickly, over the frost heaves.  I do try to remember where they are on regularly traveled roads, but sometimes I get distracted.  You'd think the orange diamond signs the highway department puts up warning of the frost heaves would help, but on occasion they don't.

In knitting news, I was able to finish my February socks last night.  I didn't get a chance to take a picture of them today, so imagine this sock with no needles, and the toe nicely kitchner stitched and that would be one of the socks.  This is one of my hand dyed yarns called Late in the Evening and I am really pleased with the way it knit up, with no color pooling, and not too striped either, just little dots of color.  There is one green that was where two colors came together that I love and am going to try to replicate because it is an awesome shade of green.

That's about it for now.  I will leave you with an emo self-portrait of Conor.  The boy needs a job, he has too much time on his hands.

Good Night.

If It's Wednesday There Must Have Been Spinning

Our spinning group met today.  

I am spinning some alpaca and merino roving I bought from Angel, a member of our spinning group, who owns Angel Knoll Alpacas.I bought about 8 ounces the last time we had spinning at her house, and have discovered in subsequent forays into my spinning fiber that I am consistent in the fiber I am attracted to because I have at least another 8 ounces of the same fiber in my stash.  Because I had such forethought in purchasing the same fiber on at least two occasions, I am thinking that I may have enough yarn to make a vest when I am done spinning it.

The brown in the yarn is the alpaca fiber and the golden/rust color is the wool.  It is very soft when spun, and I think a vest will be a good project because the alpaca is so warm that a sweater might be too warm.  Although on the days when the temperature was 30 below, I would have appreciated an alpaca sweater.  I know I appreciated the socks all our spinning group members received as Christmas gifts from Angel.

Vernice shared her completed moebius shawl with us.  She made it from yarn she had spun from superwash roving purchased from me.  It is beautiful, and has made me think I want to make a moebius shawl, something that has never interested me in the past.  This is why I think it's so important to get together with other knitters and spinners, there is such inspiration to be found amongst other fiber lovers.

I should have taken a picture of this when Vernice was modeling it, but didn't think fast enough.  It looks much more attractive on someone than  sitting on top of a pile of Elizabeth Zimmerman books.  We spent a lot of time discussing these books today.  We have a couple of new spinners and knitters and we were sharing with them the awesomeness that is EZ.  Vernice has the whole collection of Wool Gatherings, something one could spend hours poring over. There was also discussion of each group member making a baby surprise jacket.  It would be fascinating to see how different they all would be.

That discussion reminded me that I have a baby surprise jacket all knit, but not seamed.  I think I need to finish that.  It would remove a UFO from the pile and it would be fun to see the sweater completed.

Wednesdays are very fiber filled days for me.  I have spinning during the day, and our knitting group meets on Wednesday nights at the library, so that is where I went this evening.  It was very foggy  on the way to the library.  And being the good blogger that I am becoming, I made sure to take a picture so you all could see how foggy it was. 

I imagine the fog has something to do with the fact that it was 45 degrees today and that means a lot of snow melted so there is an overabundance of moisture in the air which resulted in the fog.  It also means there is a lot of very unattractive sand covered snow along the side of the roads.  But at least the piles of snow at the end of my driveway are melting, so I can almost see when I back out.

The knitting group members are progressing quite nicely with our monthly projects, although I thought Suzanne was a bit of a show off with her February socks already knitted and on sock blockers.  (That sentence was typed with a smile on my face and love in my heart.)  I am almost done with my February socks, actually I'm sure I could finish them if I stopped writing this post and went and knit instead, so off I go.

Happy spinning and knitting to all, and to all a good  night.

Blueberry Cream Pie, Yummm!

In our spinning group the person who hosts the group is responsible for providing a dessert.  It can be store bought or homemade.  Carolyn usually serves frozen eclairs, definitely a favorite of the group.  We have checked the package to make sure we get our full serving each time.

When I hosted the group last Wednesday I spent a lot of time mulling over favorite recipes, deciding which would be the ultimate recipe.  I made my old standby One Bowl Brownies, but wanted something a little more special.  And, since I have a 17 year old, I wasn't worried about everything not getting eaten, or worse, me feeling the need to eat it all.  So I settled on Blueberry Cream Pie because I had heavy cream on hand and organic blueberries that I had frozen over the summer.  And it is a pretty simple recipe to make.   This is a very old recipe which was handed down to my friend Jean Conner from her mother, so it's an old New Jersey recipe.  I thought I would share the recipe.  I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the pie, but by the time I thought of it, it was half gone and would not have made a very attractive picture.  

Blueberry Cream Pie

1 Unbaked 9" Pie Shell

4 cups fresh blueberries ( I used frozen, but if you do, the pie will take longer to                                                              bake.)

2/3 cups (or less) white sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup heavy cream 

Fill the unbaked pie shell with blueberries.  Mix the remaining ingredients together and pour the mixture over the blueberries.  Bake 

at 400 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. 

Enjoy!

In knitting news, I have a few more squares done for the Starry Nite Scarf.  And I had a request for a new pair of socks from Conor, so I started a pair with some Ella Rae yarn I had in my stash, which was approved of because it looks a little like camouflage.  I offered to make him hot pink socks, which he would have loved in the past, but he said no.  Conor told me on our shopping trip on Saturday that he, to a degree,  is becoming a conformist in terms of clothes.  My little boy is growing up.  

Here is one of the new colorways I developed last weekend.  I am calling it Vanilla Sky.  I think it would make a beautiful shawl or scarf. It has many subltle shade variations of neutrals.

Here is another colorway, which has not yet been named, but contains shades of blueberry, pumpkin and green.

Here's a colorway called Golden Slumbers that I did on roving and can't wait to try on yarn the next time I dye.  It's a very rich colorway which reminds me of butterscotch and caramel, with a touch of chocolate.

Tim has arrived back in the country safely.  All my motherly concern allowed this safe arrival to occur, I am sure.  I can't wait to see his pictures and hear about his trip.  He was both at the ocean and in the jungle, so the pictures should be awesome.  He had a 4 hour layover in the Miami airport, which doesn't sound like much fun to me.  I won't think about how late he will be getting back to Brooklyn.  

Time for bed.

Random Sunday

It's Random Sunday. 

1.  We took our Christmas tree down today.   It was a little dry, so it was time for it to go.  I was hoping to keep it up until Valentine's Day, but then remembered we would be going to Saranac Lake next weekend for Winter Carnival, so this was the weekend to take it down.

2.  Andrea finished her first sock on Wednesday during spinning.  Isn't it a beautiful sock?  And doesn't she look happy?   I am very proud to say that she made it using some of my hand painted yarn.  

3.  I discovered this week that we have a new family member.  Travis and his girlfriend Alyssa have a new puppy- a purebred Newfoundland.  She is 6 months old, weighs 80 pounds and her name is Begonia.  They did not name her, she came with that name.  I will get to meet her next weekend.  I don't think I will be knitting her a doggie sweater.  And I can't imagine how Gerard and Seamus will react when she comes to visit. 

4.  It was 45 degrees outside yesterday-downright balmy.  A lot of the huge icicles on the house are now much smaller, which is a good thing.  We're back to cold weather again, but it was nice to have that short reprieve from the cold.  It gave me hope that spring isn't too far away, and if I still lived in New Jersey that would really be true.  

5.  I realized I have not posted a picture of my January socks, so here they are.  I am thinking that if I continue to knit lace socks I need to get myself some sock blockers.  

This is a pattern from the Interweave Knits sock book, and the sock yarn is Fleece Artist.  It was a fun pattern to knit, and wasn't terribly complicated.

6.  I have started my February socks.  It's my favorite Double Eyelet Lace pattern from Mountain Colors,  and I am using some of my hand painted yarn.  This is a great pattern because three out of the four rows in the pattern are knit, and the one row of lace is pretty easy to memorize.  I'm almost done, so I imagine I will be making more than one pair this month.

7.  I started my February scarf.  It is the scarf I had planned to make, which is Lynne Vogel's Starry Nite Scarf.  I have three of the 19 blocks done.  After making three panels using these blocks, a pointed edging is knit and sewn onto the scarf.

8.  I'm leaving you with a poem which explains why I never go to bed at night, I am constantly toiling upward in the night, you see.

"The heights by great men reached and kept, 
Were not attained by sudden flight, 
But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upward in the night." 

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I Am The Empress, Who Are You?

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Let me know what Tarot Card you are.

Knit In at the Potsdam Museum

Where did the time go.  I can't believe that the last time I wrote was Thursday.  How time flies when you're having fun. 

 

On Saturday Trina and I went to a Knit In at the Potsdam Museum.  (That's the back of Trina's head, she wouldn't let me take a picture of her face.)

The museum has a knit in Saturday a few weekends a year.  It is nice to see what others are knitting.  We sat at a table with a woman who we discovered is lucky enough to have a Joe wheel. Joe is an old man who lives in Cornwall, Ontario and makes spinning wheels.  Several members of our spinning group have Joe wheels, and they are not only great wheels to spin on, but works of art as well.  There have been many discussions over the last year or so as to whether or not Joe is still making wheels.  The woman at the knit in had purchased her wheel about three years ago, so we still don't know the current condition of Joe.  

When I walked in Vernice, a member of our spinning group, told me I was already famous at the table.  When I asked why, she explained that people had been admiring the piece she was knitting, which was a moebius. Vernice is knitting it with some of her handspun yarn.  The reason I was famous is that I dyied the fiber from which Vernice spun the yarn.  The colorway's name is Dots of 1970's Appliances.  It was pretty late at night when I was naming it, but it is sometimes difficult to come up with creative names for colors. 

I spent Sunday dyeing in the basement.  I could not believe how cold it was down there.  It made me yearn for a studio space which could be heated.  One day a couple of summers ago I went with Lisa to buy Amish baskets near her house.  On the way home we drove past an Amish farm where they were building outbuildings, and we stopped to admire their handiwork.  A young man came out to talk with us about the building just as I was explaining to Lisa and Eloise what an awesome place it would be to dye.  From the expression on the boy's face, he heard die, not dye.  Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny.  Lisa quickly went into an explanation of the kind of dyeing I was talking about doing.  Here's a picture of the shed. 

I thought I could buy it, use it for dyeing and pay for it by selling shares to women and it could become a knitting retreat.  The only problem is that I would have to put it on top of the pool.  

Look at that blue sky and grass.  I'm feeling hope that we may see those things again.  Driving home from work today at 5:30 it wasn't totally dark,which means we are headed in the right direction.  

I am looking forward to Winter Carnival in Saranac Lake.  It's a 10 day long celebration of winter.  The fact that Caitlin's apartment is on Broadway, one of the main streets in Saranac Lake, and the parade goes right by her apartment, makes parade going sound enticing.   The theme this year is pirates, and Caitlin may be marching in the parade as a pirate wench handing out goodies from her place of employment, Nori's, a natural food store in Saranac Lake.

 

There are fireworks at the beginning and end of the festivities, which also sound like a lot of fun. And I can't wait to see the ice palace this year.  Here's a picture of it being built.

Time to go rotate yarn and fiber so they can dry faster.  I can't wait to show you what I dyed.