Unraveled Wednesday 10-25-17

Hello All,


Joining Kat and friends for another Unraveled Wednesday post.  No unraveling here, but not a whole lot of knitting either.  Here is where I am on the first Charade sock:

This is 20 rows of ribbing and (so far) 100 rows of the pattern.  It doesn't look all that long to me, and holding it up to my leg it's not close to knee-high length which I want, so I guess I will do another 30 rows (or more) of the pattern before starting the heel flap.  I am loving the tweed of this yarn.


I've fallen in love the Kym's and Vicki's Arrows and was FINALLY able to purchase and download the pattern this morning.  All week Ravelry was freezing up on me when I tried to get the pattern.  But, I would NOT give up - LOL.  I think this will be a lot of fun to plan (or not!) and to knit.  I have some other things I want/need to get done first, so I'm thinking it might be a good project to start on January 1st...maybe...if I can hold out.


On the reading front, I finished Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury - a fun read.  And within the last couple of days I've had 4 books come through on Overdrive:  First up "4.3.2.1." by Paul Auster.  I think this is the one I will start today.  The others are "The Housekeeper and the Professor" by Yoko Ogawa, "The Women in the Castle" by Jessica Shattuck and "Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore" by Robin Sloan.  All look good to me.  I also bought for my Kindle "Finn" by Jon Clinch which I have wanted to read for so long...but that one will have to wait as I wade through the borrowed books.


I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I fly down to Daytona for my Sisters' Weekend (my best friend of 52 years and her two sisters and I get together each year, rotating who hosts).  The weather looks perfect - 70's during the day and 50's at night.  We have spa appointments on Friday and I know we will go shopping.  We also love to cook together (and drink wine).  A good escape.  As of now I am not planning to take any knitting.  That's almost scandalous, I know, but my flights are pretty short (no direct flight to Daytona from Philadelphia) and my friend and I are connecting in Charlotte and flying in together - I know we'll be talking the entire way.  And, none of the girls I'm meeting up with knit.  I'll just take my Kindle which will cut down on what I'm lugging anyway.  I'll be back to tell you about it next week.


Hope you all have wonderful weekends with plenty of relaxing time.  Enjoy!!

Vacation Part II

Good Morning,

 

A beautiful Thursday morning with a little nip in the air (low 40’s) and a gorgeous pink sunrise.  Now back to vacation tales.

 

On Wednesday we left the Hocking Hills area of Ohio and headed North towards Canton.  We stayed at a KOA just SE of Canton.  Our first stop on Thursday was at Lehman's Store in Kedron.  Over the years we have ordered some things from this Amish store – mainly cast iron things (which now I find I can’t/don’t want to lift!).  The store is huge – ¼ mile long and a definite tourist place.  But, it was fun to walk around.  Fletch found a knife he wanted for splitting kindling and a book for a neighbor who has been a ton of help to us with electrical issues. 

 

After that we headed to the Warther Museum in Dover.  We had never heard of Ernest Warther, a Master Carver.  His carvings are AMAZING.  Such detail!  Such tiny carvings!  He definitely had a “thing” for pliars and carved so many of them:

 

 

He also carved steam engines (that worked!!) and Lincoln’s Funeral Train:

 

 

He started the Train on the 99^th anniversary of Lincoln’s death and finished it on the 100^th anniversary.  He used a lot of ivory and ebony in his carvings as well as wood.

 

Along with his wife Frieda and their children, they collected over 5,000 Indian artifacts – primarily arrowheads – which are on display in his workroom (and the men’s room – lol).  Fletch was in heaven – he started collecting arrowheads as a kid walking the fields of his grandparent’s farm in Virginia.  Frieda had a huge collection of buttons and there is a cottage on the property devoted to the designs she created with them:

 

 

 

The buttons in the display under Frieda’s tools are all prizes from Cracker Jack boxes!  There were more button displays in the ladies room – lol.

Frieda was also a gardener and there are paths throughout their property.  There wasn’t a lot to see garden-wise in October, just a few flowers blooming, but they were beautifully laid out and would be a joy to see come Spring and Summer.

If you are ever in the area, we highly recommend stopping by to visit this museum.

On Friday we headed back to New Staunton.  Unfortunately we had to get off the highway to gas up the car in Pittsburgh.  Oy!  I was driving, and towing a camper through downtown Pittsburgh was NOT fun.  When we finally made it to our campground I promptly popped open a beer…and it was our last one (someone didn’t plan very well).  But, Frank, an employee at the campground, came to our rescue.  He was going out on a beer run for some workers who were having a cookout that night and brought back an ice cold 12 pack for us.  So nice.

Frank also stopped by our campsite Saturday morning to say goodbye.  Turns out he is a hunter (bow & arrow) and had just gotten a deer that morning (which he showed us…which I didn’t really need to see).  And, as we were closing up, one of the jacks at the back of the camper jammed.  Frank just came over and lifted the back end of the camper up to free the jack!  He wasn’t a huge guy, but man he was strong!  Thank goodness he was there.

Just a couple more pictures.  We ate very well on our trip (and I actually lost a few pounds!!) – salmon over the fire, steaks, and the best were nachos that we did over the fire:

 

 

They were so smoky and flavorful, that this may be the only way I prepare nachos from now on.  We had a bit of taco meat on them, onions, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli and cheese.  Yum.  (And, that little bag in the upper left hand corner is filled with pieces of chocolate covered banana Turkish taffy - OMG, so good.)

Finally, I did manage to knit a bit on my Charade sock (the 1^st of (hopefully) a pair.  I started these before Nutkin and then left them alone while knitting Nutkin. 

 

 The yarn makes it difficult to see the pattern (just a simple two row repeat – one row all knit, the second row is a slip stitch pattern) and even the ribbing, but I’m enjoying working on them.  The above picture is 20 rows of twisted ribbing and 70 rows of the pattern.  Last night I knit a little more on them.  I want to make them longer -  closer to knee sock length - so I’ve got a way to go yet.

OK, this is long enough – LOL.  I’ve got another crazy/busy day ahead of me at work, so I’d best get to it.

A Mess, A Start (2), and Falling Behind

Hello All,

 

How are you on this gloomy (in Eastern PA) Tuesday?  Somehow the weekend got away from me and work is continuing to be busier than usual.  Yesterday was a mess!  When I got home last night at 9 after yoga, I finally looked at some blogs on my phone.  Reading Dee's Blog blog, I realized I have done NOTHING for the I ♥ Fall KAL – NOTHING!!  Well, I did pick out my yarn, and I know I’m knitting Nutkin, but nothing else.  Like Dee, I will be pulling together a little give-away for those participating, but for now that will have to be a secret (even from me – lol).

 

Despite the weekend zooming by, I did manage to get a couple of items started.  First up the Close to You shawl:

 

 

But then last night (again after yoga when I was really too tired to see), I pulled it out and started knitting and this is what happened:

 

 

I had wound the yarn into a center pull ball and a HUGE knot came out.  So now I have to spend time trying to separate that mess and then I will re-wind the yarn into just a ball (no center pull).  I hope I can do this.  I am loving the yarn (so soft!  Gorgeous color!), and now that I’ve switched to my wooden circular needle, the shawl is much easier to knit.

 

Friday night I made a start on the other socks I will be knitting – Charade.

 

 

This is the Scottish wool my friend got at a yard sale and the color is Blue Tweed.  It is looking like a dark speckled yarn and I am loving it.  I have enough yarn that I will be making these socks much longer than normal, but the pattern is an easy one to memorize and quick to knit.  Hopefully they won’t take me all Fall to complete!

 

Our shish kabob dinner with Colin and Mailing on Saturday was great and the strawberry shortcake was yummy.  It was cool enough that we had another fire in the pit and I actually had a sweatshirt on!  It was chilly.  Sunday I made gazpacho with garden tomatoes, cukes, onions, peppers and garlic.  We added cold shrimp to it:

 

 

Sunday I snuck in another walk along the canal.  There were a ton of people out and about – both on the trail (running, biking, walking) and on both the river and canal (kayaking, canoeing, paddle boarding, rafting, fishing).  It was a crowded place!  I was having a terrible time on my way back to the car – nose running and eyes watering – there had to be something in the air.  I saw a lot of gold finches feeding on seeds from wild flowers and then came across this bird on the other side of the canal:

 

 

At first I thought it was a cormorant (which would have been weird in our area), but I’m not sure.  I wasn’t able to see his/her feet.  The picture isn’t the greatest – hard to do a distant shot with my phone.  But look at that beak!

 

So, that’s it for moi.  I’ve got a very busy week at work and am looking forward to a nice, long weekend with (hopefully) lots of knitting.  Colin and Mailing are going away, so Fletch and I will be on cat duty – going up to their place twice a day to feed and play with Marcel and Talbot.

 

What are you all up to?