Pumpkin Sunrise

I finished Anne's House of Dreams  which I thoroughly enjoyed.  This book flowed easily and the subplots were very interesting.  Anne loves to help people find their happiness.  There is also an event that shadows Anne's happiness.  She truly is a wonderful character who has an upbeat way of tackling the sadness of life and embracing wholeheartedly the goodness of life.  And so I begin number six in the series. For knitting, I am on the body of the mustard seed cardigan  and the body of my wren cardigan .  One is worsted weight and is going very quickly.  The other, sadly, is on size four needles and is pokey pokey slow going.  Oh well, I believe it is all my fault....right?  I know I will love both sweaters when they are complete.  I am certain that everyone should try a top down construction of a sweater-I guarantee you will convert from the sweaters that you have to sew the pieces together. I am thoroughly loving the cold mornings!  Seems to me that fall is arou

Over the weekend, I finished the shawl for my mother in law.  I am quite pleased with it.  I would definitely make the Holden Shawlette  pattern again.  It was very easy to follow and I was able to memorize most of the pattern, which means I could knit and talk at the same time.  Can't beat that! I did make some minor modifications.  I repeated the chart three times instead of two and a half.  I also decided not to do the picot edging.  I felt it would have been a little to busy visually with the yarn being multicolored and I was afraid I might not have enough yarn.  I did do the stretchy purl bind off.   This is the second time I have knit with Ella Rae Lace Merino  and I just love it.  It is very springy and the dyeing technique never leads to pooling of the colors.  The yarn also blocks beautifully!!

Yep, that is our son's stuff.  A bit too much stuff if you ask me.  Would you believe that we jammed the Accord to the brim and we still had room for our kid!  Anyways, the move in was quite painless.  The university had the process all streamlined which made my husband and I very grateful.  His roommate and family were already moved in and helped with all of our stuff.  So nice!! These are brandy new dorm suites and he is lucky enough to have a corner room so he has two windows instead of one. He shares a bathroom with his roommate, no walking down the hall to a shower or bathroom.  I hope the boys will occasionally clean their bathroom.....The views from his room are nice (except for a dumpster-so just don't look down, look across). Today he starts classes and over the weekend he attended lots of orientation meetings.  None of the meetings will take away the apprehension of your first days of school at university.   We said our goodbyes quickly and then we left.  It fe

Through the night hurricane Irene arrived in northeastern PA.  We live about 2 1/2 hours from NYC (with traffic being manageable).  When I went to bed, I really did not think much about how it would affect us.  So it was a big surprise to have 40 mph winds and lots and lots of rain.   My husband and I took a walk with Frodo after dinner (remember we are now empty nesters) and I brought my camera.   My weekend was filled with gratitude because: -we fit everything in the Accord when we moved our son (pictures to follow tomorrow!) -we had a really quiet laid back weekend.  With a revolving conversation of "what do you want to do?"  and the answer "I don't know, what do you want to do?" -I have received some texts from the kids with snippets of their lives.  Enough to know everything is okay but not enough to satiate my curiosity.   -I have so much time to knit like a demon possessed. -AND most of all I only had two loads of laundry this weekend instead of fou

Joining Amanda at Soulemama

I really enjoy being able to see my favorite yarns and books and that is why there is a knitting nook in my family room.  I do not have a craft room but I am totally fine with that.  In the family room is where I do my knitting.  This table (made by my husband years ago) holds everything I need.  It is also my inspiration.  I can look at the hanks of yarn that I have purchased and think about what I might make of them.  I have a jar of neutral buttons (another big tin can upstairs holds the rest of my button collection).  There is a big box on the bottom shelf that contains all of my knitting needles and markers that I do not use regularly.  This nook is where my favorite yarns have a home.  The huge wire basket holds all of my lace weight yarn.  It is supposed to hold a vegetables after picking them from the garden.  Harvesting hanks of fiber is much more fun for me.  The dog in the photo is Zoe.  She was a much loved pet who died in December 2009.  We loved her so much that we dec

I started a new book this week!   Anne's House of Dreams  which is book number five in the Anne of Green Gable series.  Anne is now finally married (took her long enough!) and she is living in a new town with of course more neighbors and friends to interact with.  I have been thoroughly enjoying re-reading this series and remembering the plots as they occur.  It is a wonderful trip down memory lane. For knitting I have been working on my tea leaves cardigan .  I am loving every stitch of the project!  The yarn ella rae classic  is perfect.  It has spring and bounce and just enough elasticity.  I have finished the increases for the yoke and now just need to complete the stockinette portion until I get to the armholes.  I will be dividing up the sleeves and body. The weather here has changed for the better.  There is a crisp feeling in the evening that was missing two weeks ago.  The sun is setting a little earlier each evening and it just feels different.  I know if we do get a h

Catch a wave of awesome lace knitting!  This pattern on the Holden Shawlette  reminds me of the feather and fan stitch that I love so much.  The pattern is wonderfully written and is quite easy to remember so you do not have to frantically read the chart every second.  I love that. I am planning on knitting as much lace until I think I need to end the shawl before I run out of yarn.  I like shawl patterns that let me do that.  Then I do not have left overs that linger about not having a purpose in the knitting realm. This project could very well be completed in a day or two.  But as you know, we will be taking our son to his campus on Friday and guess who is not packed????  Yup!  I focused so much on getting our daughter all organized that I slacked off on our son. Yesterday started the frantic "to do" list and the "oh my" thoughts (I did not write the "oh my" thoughts down I kept them to myself).   Deep down I really think packing him up will be eas

For Christmas last year, my dad and step-mom gave my husband a gift certificate to Spyglass Ridge Winery .  We waited and waited until now to go and visit the vineyard and their store.  The drive was wonderful (in air conditioning-luxury!) and the weather was perfect.  Sunny but not stifling hot.  This winery is about 45 minutes away from us.  So while my husband taste tested inside, I took photos outside! I think this was a fun gift to receive for Christmas.  It ended up being an activity with a personally selected gift to bring home.  It also gives the local business some.......business. I had an incredible urge to pick these and taste, but I did not want to disturb their crop... The above photo was taken by my son.   I am sure we will visit again and maybe take a tour.  If you have a local vineyard, definitely take the time to stop by and enjoy the "fruits" of their labor... (I couldn't resist, sorry!)

My weekend had one main event---moving our daughter's belongings to her apartment.  She has been living in a hotel for five nights and Saturday was the big move in day.  We arrived around 9 a.m. to stand in line for the check in procedure.  Only 45 minutes!!!  See-expecting the worst does have its benefits ;) She has a four bedroom two bath apartment that four girls share.  Wow!  I remember my first apartment during grad school and it did NOT look like this place.  I thought her apartment was beautiful.  And she has AC .....jeez! We hit a couple of snafus that day.  We found a full mattress set shoved into the kitchen area.  Maintenance came and removed it within 10 minutes.  Then the refrigerator was not working.  Maintenance once again came and flipped the circuit breaker and all was restored to working condition.     My only complaint (you knew there would be one coming) was that we traveled in our oldest vehicle, a 1997 Ford Explorer,and the AC does not work.  So I was ve

Joining Amanda at Soulemama