A Series of Extremes

It's impossible to sum up the last few weeks. A lot has happened in our lives since I last wrote in late December. In honor of a very special man who wanted his family to live their lives and find joy, I will focus on the things that give me joy, peace and fill me with gratitude. First there is my wonderful husband who makes my life an adventure. Through difficult times, I have the support of my amazing family and friends. I am also very grateful to work with the best team of people I have ever had the good fortune to be associated with. In the last few months they have really come through for me which has allowed me to come through for my family.

I've had several good times in the last few weeks too. New Year's Eve was spent in with friends and good food in front of our fire. A little before midnight we walked up the hill to Prospect Park to watch the fireworks. How lucky we are to live in such a wonderful place!

The next day we headed off to the winterwonderland that is Vermont in January.


I had never been to Vermont, and I loved it. It was all like a postcard. David, as always, patiently waited while I visited a couple of yarn shops. I really liked Black Sheep Yarns in Dorset. It was a lovely shop and I picked up some locally spun Silk / Wool blend. It was undyed, and I thought I'd use it to try my hand (finally) at natural dyeing.

Here are a few more glimpses of the snow covered town

Talk about an extreme shift . . . a couple of weeks later, we were in Barbados! The trip had been planned for a long time. It was a 50th birthday trip for my friend Tim. It came at a not entirely ideal time, but then again, David and I really did need the rest and relaxation.

We stayed at my friend's bosses house. It was really lovely.


Right inside the front door, there was a shelf full of beach treasures that guests had collected.


This little garden was just inside the front door. It had no ceiling, but instead a screen roof. This meant when it rained, it rained inside. Very cool.


The sitting area behind the dining area had no walls, just screen. It is so strange to have a house in such a temperate climate that a section of your house can have no walls!


Here's Tim and I in the living room.


The pool, just out back


David and I arrived late afternoon. We headed to the beach right away to take a dip while the sun went down. That's the birthday boy far right (Tim), and his friends Richard & Daryl (and me). This was the first of three spectacular sunsets.


The late afternoon light on the beach and the pink clouds were amazing.


The next morning we sat poolside for a bit. That's David's Tweed Boyfriend Sweater I'm working on. You don't think I'd go anywhere without a few projects, do you??


David spent most of that first day correcting homework by the pool, while we went into town. He was so behind from the week he took off of work, he had to take a ton of homework to paradise.
The rest of us took a short bus ride into town. It was an adorable little town, with some cute shops. There was a nice art gallery featuring all local artists. I picked up a rum cake for Tracey & Michelle back at work. I was missing both of their birthdays, and I wanted them to have a little bit of the island.



Later that afternoon we went back to the house and pried David away from his homework. We walked down the beach a bit to a lovely little beach bar. We had cocktails and watched spectacular sunset #2.

Sunday we made ourselves a fab lunch poolside


Sunday afternoon it was back to the beach for our last sunset.

Our traditional, take a picture of ourselves, picture. Even though any of the guys could have taken it, it would have broken with tradition.


There were these tiny little sand crabs that would come out of the little holes in the sand. They were adorable.
Our last, and perhaps, most spectacular sunset


For our last night, we made ourselves (mostly David) a wonderful meal and watched the Golden Globes. It was a magical place and very hard to leave.

This weekend I managed to finish a few things. I finally finished the cowl for the Fluffly Lace Camisole with Pull off Cowl.

I finished another two pairs of the Wool-Ease Thick and Quick socks. One for me (finally) and a pair for my pal Nell.


I also finished fixing the sleeves for David's Anniversary Sweater. It bothered him that the top of the sleeve and the bottom of the sleeve was so wide. I made this back in the day when I just chose a size and knitted, before I was changing patterns to fit people better. Luckily, it was an easy fix as the cast on edge was the top of the sleeve and then you decreased down to the cuff.

So, I took the sleeve off, and with a careful cut, I took about four inches off the top of the sleeve. This made the top of the sleeve much narrower, as the row that I now bound off was at a much narrower part of the sleeve.

Next I unbound off the bottom edge (the cuff) and knit the four inches I lost at the top, while continuing to decrease. This made the cuff narrower too!


Then, I sewed it all back together. The nice thing is my finishing is so much better then it was 2 1/2 years ago. When David gets home I'll take a new picture of him wearing it. I hope he likes it.

SNOW DAY!!!

It's been a long time since I've had a day quiet enough to blog. This time of year in retail is pretty crazy, and then there's friends and family visits, social stuff, blah, blah, blah. But today felt like the calm after the storm. That's the snow storm I mean.

Yesterday the snow started and David and I stayed home by the fire until it was time to bundle ourselves up and brave the storm. We were meeting friends at the movies, and it was so pretty in NY.

Today was another day spent knitting by the fire. I've made some pretty good progress on David's cable sweater:



In the late afternoon we decided to take our cameras (video and still) out to the Park to see the snow fun. Here's a few shots











We love the first snow in Park Slope. It always makes everyone so friendly. It feels like a small town whenever it snows.

Halloween & a FINALLY finished sweater!

I don't have much writing in my this evening, so I'll let the pictures do the talking . . .

First, the fabulous Park Slope Halloween parade. Halloween is when our little neighborhood feels the most like a small town.

On the way to the parade, David enjoyed some of the local jack o lanterns:




As always, the parade was a fantastic mix of kids & dogs (all though it was light on the dogs this year)






Last week I finally finished the Flame Stitch Cardi. I had set it aside for most of the early part of the fall while I worked on other things. Here it is blocking, pre finishing



I gave myself less finishing to do by picking up stitches for the collar instead of what the pattern called for (knitting it separate and then sewing it on . . . bah humbug).

Here she is:

Harvest of Eggplant, Peppers and Yarn

Fall is harvest time at the Lyons / Frutkoff rooftop garden.


The eggplants and peppers did well, but the brussell sprouts are still kind of pathetic.



Fall is the world's greatest season. Hot cider, pumpkins, the changing leaves, and the yarn. The last few weeks have been an insanely busy time at work, but David and I managed to escape to Connecticut a few weeks ago. We stayed in a really great old inn called the Wake Robin Inn.



It's in that great area near the Conn/Mass/New York border. We stopped at Stockbridge on the way, and they were having an outdoor sculpture exhibit. This art piece had a sign that said "Please sit", who am I to say no.

It also had my favorite door


I've been doing a lot of socks lately (they are great on road trips), but I also took my Mohair top along, so I could finish it off. I still have to add the white crochet trim, but at least I got one thing off my needles. Here it is blocking:

The next weekend was RHINEBECK!!!! Will and Michelle had never been, so I had my fingers crossed for decent weather. They were predicting snow and rain for Saturday, but when I woke up the sun was shinning, and although it did get overcast later, it was a pretty nice day.

We started out at the sock machine demo. SOOO cool. If someone made these machines for under $300 I would so get one. Check out Will's face, he's in love




After a brief wander, it was time for a snack. We decided to line up early for the famous Rhinebeck, Chicken Pot Pie. So delish. Since we were waiting online, we might as well pull out our knitting. Here's Michelle working a gift for her mom (shush, don't tell) in the LB Collection Organic Wool, and Will and I are rocking out some socks in our Sock-Ease.


Next we went to visit the stars of Rhinebeck, the animals. Look at the gorgeous color of this little darling.


This guy was David's favorite of the whole fair. David said it was the portrait of pure contentment. His eyes were closed and he was chewing away on something that made him very happy!


Fab pumpkin carvings


Michelle had just finished her Owl Sweater in Alpine Wool, and she was TOTALLY the star of Rhinebeck. Every 10 minutes, someone was stopping her to tell her "great sweater". I spotted someone wearing the same sweater and thought it would make a cute picture. I didn't notice until after I took the pic that it was fab designer, Ysolda. How cute are they?
Speaking of cute . . .



Will said I suffered from "Bunny Turrets". We would be walking around having a normal conversation, and I would burst out "BUNNY" everytime I spotted these guys

David and I made a weekend of it, and had dinner at the fabulous CIA and Terrapin (that has always been booked up in previous years)


Here's our utterly bizarre little room.


And the view out our window


I didn't buy much this year. I just picked up one little skein of Briar Rose Sock yarn, that somehow jumped in my bag when I wasn't looking!



I did make some major progress on the stalled Flame Stitch Cardigan. I finished all the pieces and now it's just time for the shawl collar. The pattern calls for it to be knit separately and sewn on later, but I hate sewing slightly more then picking up stitches . . . so I just decided to pick up stitches and go for it.


In other knitting chores, I've decided to make Wool-Ease Thick and Quick slipper socks for the entire Studio staff. All ELEVEN of us. Yikes. I want to get them all finished by the holidays. Think I'll make it?

My Favorite Time of Year

I have a three day weekend, fall is in the air, there are still some veggie's hanging on in our garden. Life is pretty good.

David and I said goodbye to summer in the perfect way . . . a Labor Day Weekend Trip to the fabulous Cape May, NJ. It's a sleepy little Victorian town on the Jersey Shore. We sat on the beach,



we walked around the town and looked at all the wonderfully ornate houses (or horribly purple houses)






We went to the State Park and walked on the cute little nature trails


We even found a big band playing in a local park gazebo in the evening. Couldn't be cuter!


I had plenty of knitting time, sitting on the porch, sipping wine in the afternoon. I finally finished the tank top that would not die. It's my own fault, why I felt the need to reknit something from 2006 is beyond me. It does look better now.

(Not the greatest shot, but David wasn't home, so I did the best I could!)

In more knitting do overs, I decided to redo my little tank top w/matching cowl from Melanie Falick's Weekend Knitting. I had made it years ago out of some kind of junky acrylic "mohair", so now that there is the soft, lofty and beautiful LB Collection Silk Mohair . . . do over!!

Speaking of LB Collection yarns, my mother in law did this great afghan out of the LB Collection Superwash Merino. Isn't it pretty?



There is a crispness in the air that knitter's love. It means fall, sweaters, hot cider, fireplaces, coziness. The fall veggie crop is hanging on. The squash is a no go. We can't seem to grow squash and not have it be completely overtaken by powdery mildew. Ah well. However we do have . . .

Eggplants

Brussel Spouts

Peppers

The return of fall has also meant the return of the Flame Stitch Cardigan. It went into hibernation for the summer, while I tried to get my summer tops done.

A Crazy Month

So it's been nearly a month since we got back from Ireland, and I keep meaning to blog about it, but the entire month as been gobbled up by the work / life monster. We have had a bit of fun along the way. Thursday night we FINALLY visited the fantastic High Line park, and yesterday we had our first beach day of the whole summer (now that summer's almost over)

Back to Ireland . . . After we said goodbye to Dublin it was time to head into the West. We headed out on our wrong side of the road adventure, driving to Galway. David did a great job driving on the left. Here's a snap out our window.


After dumping our bags at the B & B we decided to head off to Leenane to the Sheep and Wool Museum. It wasn't long before we had our first, sheep in the middle of the road sighting. Sheep graze everywhere, so they are spray painted (my first clue that these animals are not being raised for fleece!)


At the museum we met the woman doing the spinning demos, who is a local sheep farmer. She told us that they only get 90 euros a fleece and it's not even worth the expense of sheering. They raise sheep for meat and the great Irish tradition of spinning, dyeing and knitting is all but dead. When I asked her why she explained that in the mind of the Irish people, spinning and knitting reminds folks of hard times. It would not be something people do for pleasure.



Here's a great little homemade contraption from reused bicycle parts, made for putting yarn on bobbins




In addition to all the wheels, they also had some great looms


Here I am with the little sheepys


Later that evening, we headed into Galway for a night time parade. It was the Arts Festival, and they have an annual parade to usher in Pan. It was really fun.

Days were really long, so this is what it looks like at 9:45 pm


It didn't really get dark until after 10:00 pm




We loved Galway. It's a great little town full of winding streets, great shops and adorable pubs


and, of course, great pub music. We went out three or four times in the evening to listen to music, but the night in galway was our favorite. It wasn't a stage, just some musicians sitting at tables drinking beer and playing music.

The next day we drove to the Spiddal Craft Center. It was pretty small, but it had a nice little weaving store.

Although it rained a bit everyday, our first day of pouring rain came the day we went to the Aran Islands. We took a ferry to Inishmore and it was a rainy, dark day, but we drank hot chocolate and looked at some sweater shops.

By the time we arrived by bus, to the fort, the sun had come out and it was a beautiful day. Here I am standing on the huge cliff at the fort. . . no railings, just common sense stands between you and death!

Here's a few of the wonderful thatched roof cottages on the island.




David loved the yellow and red of this building



The next day we left Connomera to head into the strange, rocky beautiful Burren.


On our way we saw what looked like a white waterfall coming down the hill. As we got closer we saw it was a sheep dog herding a flock of sheep down the hill. I caught the tail end of the group on video.

Here's one of the many unmarked "broken bits" (as David and I called them) scattered all over Ireland.

Another roadside animal sighting.

I loved their little faces poking over the wall

The Burren looked like another planet. Somebody said, of the famous rocky land "enough rope to hang a man, but not enough ground to bury him in"

Here I am at the pretty impressive Cliffs of Moher

Next stop is the charming Villiage of Adare. Your first sight is Adare Castle, followed by a street full of adorable thatched roof cottages.

We had a wonderful dinner and a stroll down by the river, we woke up and headed down to the Dingle Penninsula. This area was one of our favorites on the whole trip.

A pub in Dingle Town (a name that kept making David chuckle)

The next few days in the Dingle Penninsula and the Ring of Kerry were filled with too many hundreds of beautiful pictures to post here. A few . . .

I only started to take pictures of the Guinness signs in the last few days of the trip. I wish I had started sooner. Ah well, here are just a few great ones

Here's the Kilo of yarn I got in the Aran Islands for 47 euro!!!! It's pretty scratchy, so I'll make an outer garment with it.

With all that driving / flying I did get a lot of knitting done. I made some decent progress on my do over tank top


and I almost finished Rachel's tank top

Here's a close up showing how unbelievably different my tension is when I pick v.s. throwing. For the strip I was throwing one color and picking (knitting continental) with the other. I then switched every row. You can see that the tension difference make this weird, curvy stripe.


Here it is all finished on my goofy niece who refuses to not make faces when you take her picture (so I cut off her head . . . so there!)


Our garden has not been doing that great, but we have had a few good garden meals. We didn't have much food in the fridge when we came home. Michelle (my friend who was house sitting), left some mozzarella in the fridge, so we picked some tiny carrots, some tomatoes, basil & zucchino and we had a nice garden dinner.



Now that the eggplants and peppers are coming in, we have some more to snack on, but it's not been a great food crop year.

Now that I've caught up on blogging what happened in July, maybe I'll get around to writing about Aug by October!

Knitting do overs and Ireland pt. 1

I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last blog post. I feel like this summer is being washed away. David and I did take a fab vacation (more on this later), but we’re really not doing any summer NY fun stuff at all. We still have yet to see an outdoor movie or go to a Cyclones Game

Our garden is hanging on, but the rain is killing a lot. We are growing baby carrots this year from seeds.


Here’s David and our carrot crop. . . small but adorable (and the carrot is nice too)


I had another fit of “do over” with the short and chic cardi. The bottom ribbing was just too stretched out, so I cut, ripped, put it back on the needle and reknit the ribbing on a US 9.


Since we were getting ready to head off to Ireland and they don’t allow metal needles. (I was in the middle of doing a pair of socks -on metal, and redoing the bottom of the short & chic cardi -also on metal), I had to cast on a couple of travel projects.

I cast on my other “do over” the xback tank. And the Cotton-Ease tank top I was doing for my niece Rachel.



I left the gang to hold down the fort at work, Michelle to take care of the garden & David and I took off to Ireland.

We started our trip in Dublin, a great town.


We traveled all around the city, listened to some great music, ate pub food, and (of course) drank Guinness. David’s favorite part of Dublin was the Guinness Tour.


He was chosen to start the brew, which was pretty cool.


On the river by the Custom House we saw the amazing Famine Monument & the cool new bridge.



Here are just a couple of the famous Dublin doors.


Also in Dublin began my (semi) fruitless search for yarn. Most of the “yarn stores” in Ireland are mixed stores with a small yarn section. This store had the most hilariously large balls of yarn I’d ever seen. Big, but OH so scratchy.


I did have a tiny bit of success in an out door market in Dublin. Here’s the little Merino Silk hand spun beauty I found.


Shockingly, in all of Dublin, I only one real yarn store, This is Knit.

More on our travels into the West on the next post. (There are a LOT of sheep out west!)