Knitting along

Beginning in May, I'll be hosting a knit-along at my favorite yarn shop, Friends & Fiberworks ( FFW). The pattern that I've chosen is Berroco's Seabrook, a simple drapey  vest - almost embarrassingly easy.  The pattern was written for Captiva, but I''ve chosen Lago instead.

I wanted a fabric and color that went with a lot of summer things, but wasn't beige. So it's kind of a denim blue.  The yarn is a linen-viscose blend with a matte finish and a bit of texture.

With a pattern name like Seabrook and a yarn called Lago (Spanish for lake), I need a name that suggests water, but reflects my landlocked status.  Mountain stream?  Nolichucky? French Broad?  Both of those are rivers in this area.  Let's keep it simple: Blue Water.

Bad phone picture of Mount Vernon

It's been travel knitting for short jaunt. As I am on the advisory board for my grant, we get together a couple times a year to help with decision making. As some 'interesting'  changes are coming up, our feedback was rather important.  The meeting was in Alexandria, so instead of going across the river to DC to do my usual museum tour, I spent my time in this interesting city, both historic and modern.  I had a good time even with drizzly weather. Our meetings were at Mount Vernon,  but we got only a tiny bit of free time. My colleagues and I got to the outbuildings,  but not the main house.  Overheard a dad to his kid: "All you have to do is find a rich widow with lots of land."  Sounds like good advice, by the upkeep is tough. All the way around.

The first KAL session was last evening with my Knitters-along and a few people who were just there to sit and knit.  Everyone's Seabrook was getting off to a fine start.  And we've all decided to stick with garter stitch rather than seed stitch.  Too many purls!

This weekend coming up?  The 3rd annual Asheville Yarn Crawl. I'll probably get to a few - mostly to make sure my fiber is nicely stocked - and maybe to check out Echoview Fiber Mill. Although kind of a schlep, I've been wanting to visit so perhaps now is the time. 

Riding the Rails

View from the Jackson Street Blue Line stop

I'm writing this short post aboard the CTA - from O'Hare airport to downtown Chicago.  Whenever I travel, I like to take public transportation if I can.  In DC, I take the metro.  In Minneapolis, it used to be the city bus from the airport to my sister's house, now it's light rail.

Today I am traveling to Chicago for a 2-day business meeting.  I'm on the blue line and writing this post on my phone.  Multiple new experiences at the same time!  Since I had better than an hour, the train @ $2.25 seemed like a good value as well as a cultural peak into big city life.

Earlier this month my friend Sally and I took Amtrak to DC, a long night train ride.  This is very different. We trainsters are moving along while the cars are crawling. People getting on the trains include people in suits and Tshirts, speaking English and Spanish.  They chat, read the paper, play with their phones, write, and just sit with eyes open or closed.  I started to knit, but then decided to write this post.

Requisite knitting content:  A short trip, I brought only the llama-cotton vest.  I guess I am making an assumption that all will go well, though I did bring an additional book and MP3 player.  The vest is kind of a slog.  It is knit top down, with yarn overs that make each row progressively longer.  It's the second one, destined to be a combo shop sample and class 'knit along' but the class didn't make.  So now I just want to get it done!

I'll try to post this with a picture, though the learning curve will likely take its toll.

OK, I posted the picture back in my office a day or two later. A fine trip, everything ran on time and I even snuck in a trip to the Chicago Art Institute.

Cousins Count

This busy summer continues to roll along.  Between my professional work, my creative work and a bit of down time, it is hard to believe that August is here already.  There has been a good bit of travel (NC, VA, OH) with more to come (DC & Chicago).  The picture here is the view from a lovely hike in the New River Gorge (WV).

Last weekend I made a little trip to northeast Ohio to visit family.  When I was growing up, there were at least 2 family reunions each summer - often 3.  But we are all grown and spread out now, so it's hard to get together.  I was one of the cousins who moved away early.  I have not lived in the town where I grew up  since I was 18, and I really lost track of most of my cousins.  Since Facebook has made it easier to keep track of each other, we have reconnected.  So about a year ago my sister Ronnie & cousin Tony decided that we should have a reunion.  Last weekend the Quinn Cousins came together.

My mother was one of 8 siblings in an Irish Catholic family and they were nothing if not prolific.  I grew up with 38 first cousins, plus a couple of long-term foster children who I never knew weren't real cousins.  Now there are only a few of my mother's siblings and in-laws still alive, so it's up to our generation to keep this slightly crazy and very fun family from becoming lost to one another.  I think I chatted with a few cousins for the first time.  When you are a child, a few years difference is huge. Now, not so much.  So it was lovely to gather in the parish hall and visit.  We shared a meal, talked, laughed and caught up with one another.  Three of my sisters and their husbands were there and we had fun catching up and shared a few important conversations.

I admit that I did not go to all the events -  I missed dinner on Friday night, touring the town were we grew up, the poker games and Sunday picnic.  I wish I could have stayed through Sunday, but a deadline required that I head on down the road.  I am so glad that I went.  My fiber-geek reputation is not unnoticed.  I brought home a bag of alpaca fiber!

I'm also glad that I stopped for a hike half way there.  Rather like family, you have to see the big and glorious picture (like the photo above), but remember to pay attention to the small, but remarkable details.  I looked down to see a couple stands of Indian Pipes.  A walk in the woods is a great way to break up a long drive.

Official Fiber Content:  I started a 2nd Equinox Raglan - this time in Noro Silk Garden.  I like the cotton/linen one so well (I'm wearing it now), that I know that I'll want to keep wearing it when it gets chilly.  I have a vest class on the schedule at Friends and Fiberworks, but I'm not sure it will make.  I'll make my own even if no one else joins me!
  

A Trip out West

I'm currently writing this from Davis, California.  I'm here for an Advisory Board meeting that rotates through the member cities.  I hosted the August Meeting in Asheville, so it's nice to travel to see other campuses and organizations.  UC Davis is a large campus with 33,000 students.  It started as the Agricultural college for Berkeley and continues its heritage with a vet school, equestrian center, actual cows and experimental and demonstration gardens and vineyards.  The picture to the left is the Arboretum walkway that follows the creek that runs down the east (I think) side of the campus.  The redbuds are in bloom, the stand of California Redwoods is remarkable and the whole trail is just lovely.  As we walked along we saw 2 sweet baby horsies (foals I believe they are called) nursing on their mamas.  The first day we were here was lovely, students cycling around (no cars on campus), spring in full bloom.  Then the storms moved in and the rains began, but it was still quite nice as long as you don't mind getting wet.  We even walked into town for dinner last night.  Wonderful food, both American and Thai.


Before I came here to the Valley, I spent a couple of days in Portland, visiting with family and had an opportunity to go snowshoeing on Mt. Hood.  More fun in wind and snow, walking through the woods with my sister and her Springer spaniel.

All this travel means knitting time in the hotel rooms and airports and on planes.  I started the Jujuba top using Seduce yarn, the yarn it was designed for.  I'm not sure I like it, but I'll continue on, as I think I might like the top once it is finished and washed. The yarn is a bit stiff and snags on any rough places, including the wood needle and my cuticles!  With about 6 hours of knitting time today, I should get a good bit done.  The top has a very interesting construction - from the cuffs up, sleeves are knit in the round, then the side 'seams' then in toward the center.  I took the approach I often use with socks:  first both sleeves, then the sides to the neck decreases, then both fronts, then both backs.  Eventually I'll join both halves with a 3 needle bind off, front and back.   I sure hope I like it!

Saturday, I'll be teaching a dyeing class at Asheville's Friends and Fiberworks.  It should be lots of fun - join us if you can

Traveling

I just returned from a short business trip to DC.  The meetings and camaraderie were great.  The actual getting there and back less so.  I ask, how do non-knitters cope with air travel? OK, I see people with their Kindles and other book readers, and people diddling with their cell phones and I really get why people have smart phones and iPads.  I had a laptop with me and did actual work in the airport and in the hotel room.  But I must say I spent about the same amount of time in airports and airplanes as I did in meetings. Here is what I have to show for it.  90% of a pair of socks.  The yarn is Fortissima Socka Mexiko Color (0051).  They were lots of fun to knit.  My seatmate on the final flight to Asheville, suggested that I stay in the airport long enough to finish them, though I decided to go ahead and finish them later.  Maybe tonight, surely by week's end.  This may be a personal best in terms on sock completion.  Nothing fancy here, obviously.  Just a basic sock recipe that I like to use for self striping yarn. As it happens, this is my 5th pair of socks in 2011.  Even if I am not really in a self-imposed sock club, these seem to be my May socks.

My fiber is traveling without me to the Carolina Fiber Fest in Raleigh, NC with Judy and Marie, owners of Asheville HomeCrafts.  They are vendors at the event and decided to make their booth's focus Needle Felting.  So they'll have lots of notions and supplies, including plenty of hand dyed fiber from the studio of Smoky Mountain Fibers.  I spent a few weeks dyeing and prepping the fiber for sale and now it is on it's way    They are also taking hand spun yarns and my patterns.

Friends and Fiberworks will also be at the Fiber Fest, taking lots of great yarns and patterns, including the 2 new patterns that I developed for their store, including this new red version of the Trailside hat. So if you are in the neighborhood of the Carolina Fiber Fest, drop by either booth to visit my work in person.

Meanwhile, I'll be finishing this fine pair of purple socks!

Socks and Socks - It Continues

I kitchenered the toe of Easter Egg sock #2 last evening and immediately tossed them into the suitcase to come along to Nashville, TN.  It's a short trip - not fiber related.  Day job related, but that's okay.  It was a tough decision whether to fly or drive.  It's that funny distance, where flying and driving take about the same amount of time.  But flying was less expensive and you can't knit while you drive.  you can read and listen to music & the radio, but really it was the knitting that was the decision maker.

It's funny that I called these Easter Egg socks, when I could have called them natural, organic socks.  Oh?  in those funky pastels?  Compare the colors here with my friend Laura's organic orangey-beige and pale green eggs from her own chickens.  I particlularly like how she arranged them in the carton in the checkerboard fashion.  Spring, when the young chicken's fancy turns to making more chickens!

Even before these were completely finished, on Friday evening I cast on for another pair of socks.  This time they are a multicolored blue-green with a silver glitter thread that runs through it.  Berroco Sox Metallic in the Acai (1361) colorway, probably.  It had lost its label so I took it in barter at my local yarn shop.  I'm knitting the Blueberry Waffle Socks for maybe the 10th time.  Even on size 1 & 2, I'm blasting through it.  I am knitting the gusset on sock #1.  I am writing this post in the Charlotte airport as I wait for my next flight.  I could be knitting you know, but in the interest of possible delays, I thought I'd check my email and dash off a few words.  But not to be underyarned on this trip, I took this yarn and yarn for another pair of something a bit fancier.  Alter all, you never know what might happen and you need more yarn.

My Trip to Washington

Twice a year, I go to Washington to meet with members of the consortium with whom I work.  I usually go up a day early - why not?  It's not like I can fly in on an early Monday morning plane and get in on time.   This time I visited a couple of cool museums - and not just the National Gallery of Art.  I did go the NGA - my favorite exhibition was a group of small German drawings.  Some were sketches for larger works, but many were just sweet and lovely works that stand on their own merit.  Portraits, landscapes, nature drawings - some simple others with a considerable narrative like this 1765 Canaletto.  Really nice.

Before I went, I heard about the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef - now on display in the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum.  It was wild and fanciful - exciting to look at and explore.  One young woman was pointing out pieces that she had made.  Really nice!  Read more about how this project brings together science, math, craft and community at crochetcoralreef.org.  No pictures, as I want to respect their copyright statement. It's on tour - maybe it will be coming to your town.

My last visit was to Julia Child's Kitchen at the Museum of American History.  It was delightful - and now I know what color to paint my kitchen - a mellow blue-green.  It won't make me able to cook quite as well, but it was quite a lovely space and will fit nicely in the era of my home.

One of the best parts of travel is the time for knitting - in this case about 6 hats.  Getting ready for SAFF - Set up is TOMORROW!  Yikes!

Break Time

I took a wee break from my day job.  At the end of the regular semester, before the summer workshop season kicks in, I usually need a bit of a break.  It's also my work anniversary, and I usually have vacation days to burn before they vanish into thin air.  I wanted a vacation that was relaxing - no big cities, no plane rides, no fancy clothes.  Reading, knitting, spinning, perhaps a bit of dancing - - essentially chilling out.  The obvious choice is the beach, but my skin isn't made for bright sunshine.

So it was off for a dutiful family visit to my boyfriend's family in Columbus, Ohio, which is a big city, but in a good way.  We drove up, mostly on 4 lane, non-interstate roads.  We ate, we talked, I knit, we took old people to the doctor and we visited a couple of museums.  The Columbus Museum of Art is under the cloud of renovation, so only the Chihuly Glass exhibit was open, but it was fabulous.  I've seen his work before, but the 'baskets' don't travel very often, so this was a real treat.   The Wexner Center for the Arts featured a show by LA artist Mark Bradford.  I won't try to decribe his remarkable work.  Check it out here instead.  Way cool.

When we started planning this trip, I suggested that perhaps there might be a Wright Brothers Museum over in Dayton. Maybe an old plane or 2. I like the Wright Brothers.  They were inventive, creative Ohio guys who changed the world!  Because they went to Kitty Hawk to play with their great big gliders, North Carolina stole them.  North Carolina likes to 'borrow' famous people and claim them - Carl Sandburg, for instance.  I recently heard that Steve Martin bought a house near Brevard.  Better banjo playing round these parts. 

Ummm, how about the Air Force Museum - with lots of planes, including some of Orville and Wilbur's fine work.  A bit heavy on war (after all, it is the US Air Force!), but it was fascinating.  Perhaps my favorite part was the collection of Presidential Planes.  You take a bus over to a hangar on Wright-Patterson AFB to see the cool experimental aircraft and you can go aboard a couple of  Air Force One.  The one that brought tears to my eyes was the one used by several presidents.  This was the plane that carried John F. Kennedy's body back from Texas.  The famous picture of  Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office, with Jackie Kennedy as a witness, hangs in the plane where the event took place. 

I knit like crazy too.  I knit about10 hats.  No socks, because I couldn't concentrate enough to follow a pattern and I needed a break from socks. I even ran out of yarn (well, sort of...) and had to go to a yarn shop.  But I'll save that for another day.  I may even take a picture or 2!

Random Tuesday

It's been a while since I posted.  The semester has been a long time ending, but we've put it to bed.  Good night!

The garden is mostly in - and looking great.  Peas are happy and climbing their fence.  The radishes are yummy and everything else is small but sturdy.  We are having a touch of 'Blackberry Winter right now - a cold and rainy spell that hits when the blackberries are in bloom.  A good day for chili.

I made chili for dinner.

Sockapalooza continues.  I finished the Happy Waffle Socks (all but the toes) and begun and nearly finished a pair of Slippin' Stiping' Socks [Rav Link] in a colorway I can only call Carrots and Broccoli - an orange variegated yarn striped with a forest green.  If you like the colors of 1970's appliances, you'll love these socks.  And since I'm knitting from stash yarns, I hae reversed the colorway a bit so that one sock has green toes & heel and the other orange.  It's a bit off-putting, so I think I need to keep them.  In my shoes, no one really expects things to be too normal.

A couple of days in Washington, DC last month found me visiting the National Gallery of Art.  Great shows - I was particularly charmed by the paintings of Hendrick Avercamp.  The exhibition features paintings done in the 'Little Ice Age' of the late 18th and early 19th centuries when the rivers in Holland regularly froze - and life went on.  This delightful group of paintings forced me to spend a bit of time in the galleries that show the Netherland's school.  Quite a change from the contemporary work that usually draws me in. 

I've been dyeing and carding, but not spinning too much.  When I get around to it, I'll have plenty to spin. The local yarn shops have been selling my yarn, so I think it's time to spin again.  Enough with the socks already!  Get to spinning!

Post-Conference Wrap up

All in all, the AASLconference was a good one.  I didn't become a conference blogger, because I didn't want to carry my laptop the 4 blocks from the hotel to the Convention Center,  I went to a couple of session that I found engaging and enlightening.  I found some answers to my questions, about how to add elements of inquiry as I work with veteran teachers.  I also learned about some new resources for using images in my work.  Schmoozed the Washington crowd too.  Had yummy Thai food.

I also knitted 4 lovely hats, including a ribbed ski hat made from my newly hand spun yarn in a rich brown.  Still a bit of lanolin, it will get a nice bath before it goes to its future home, wherever that may be.  Perhaps it's time for an Etsy hat listing again.

This is the yarn that I spun at the Mars Hill Heritage Festival and it is much prettier than I expected.  The fleece has a good bit of grey, but it didn't really come through in the yarn.

Once home, I called a dance Saturday evening in Jonesborough, Tennessee with the Contra Cowboys.  About a year ago we worked together at their premiere gig, but we have not had the opportunity since.  They play fiddle tunes combined with a Texas swing style that some contra dancers don't like, but it certainly brings out my inner cowgirl.  I tried to pick dances that complemented their music.  Kind of fun!  I tried waltzing on my bum knee and I was not in pain later, and that's a good thing!

On Sunday I spent some quality time with my drum carder, making batts in sparkly blue grey and also sparkly hot pink.  I spun a good bit of the blue-grey, but haven't plied it yet.  I'll start spinning the pink this evening.

Remember that Great Things are About to Happen?  Tomorrow the solar hot water should go live!  Stay tuned...

Live from AASL!

This week I am attending the National Conference of the American Association of School Librarians.  On the record, I am not a school librarian, but I do provide professional development (PD) to teachers and school librarians.  My day job is to develop and implement PD using the digtal resources of the Library of Congress.  So today, I'll be attending sessions by the Library both in the exhibit halls and in their official session.  The booth is very nice: quite professional but not too slick.  Apparently the other one is a bit 'high and mighty' and scared people off!

I saw my Library colleagues last night as well as several librarians that I know from the Asheville area.  One of them was knitting in line!

 For the first session, I'm deciding between 'Developing Global Awareness in the 21st Century Learner' and Electronic NoteTaking.  Biggest issue is that I should take my laptop to the Note-Taking session and that will require carrying it about 4 blocks.

As it often happens the 2nd session has ALL the workshops I'd like to take!  But I will attend the LOC session.  At 2:15 I'll attend 'Get Graphic! Visuals for Deep Thinking, Inquiry and Learning' because of my interest inf visual literacy and would love some new strategies for implementation.  So I am off to the conference, laptop in hand! 

Official Fiber Content:  Having knit 1.9 hats last evening, my conference session knitting is a ribbed guy hat using my newly handspun brown yarn - very pretty!

Progress Check

In my last post, I made a list of what is/will/should be happening. All in all, it has been a very good week! Here is the update...

• The Roofing dude is about to fix the creaking rafters. Check.  We have raised high the roofbeams, carpenter.
  
• The Plumber has my leak on his schedule (as soon as he gets back from Europe!).  Still broken, minimizing the use of plumbing, which means that laundry is piling up and I skipped my shower this morning.  I did spin out some dyed fiber, but captured some the grey water to use in soaking mohair locks
  
• The Solar guys are about mid-way through their installation. And should finish up tomorrow!
• New entry.  The furnace dude comes tomorrow to give the old geezer of a furnace it's yearly tune up.
  

In the world headquarters of Smoky Mountain Fibers...

• I'll be working at the Locally Grown Gallery this weekend at the WNC Farmers Market. An excellent day, selling lots of yarn, patterns and hats.  I spun a good bit too! 
• New entry. I weighed, bagged, photographed and listed a few bags of hand dyed locks I have had hanging out in the studio for too darn long.  Send them to a new home!
  
• New entry. Keep on spinning - I'm dangerously low on dyed yarns in Locally Grown.

• The day job has been requiring excessive reporting to finish the federal fiscal year, but they are nearly complete.  Done!

• I will lead my first full program on English Country dancing on Sunday. Although not a groundbreaking success, everybody lived through it and my fans were quite pleased.  Lots of new dancers!
  

All Scrubbed Up

I spent last weekend with friends in North Georgia. There was a party involved with live music and contra dancing, wonderful food and great conversation. The much anticipated Monday event (after most of the guests went home) was the trip to the north Atlanta Korean Spa, JeJu. With wet and dry saunas, Korean bathing facilities and massage services, much of the facility in separated by gender. Americans can be a bit weird about nudity, but hanging out with a good friend and any number of naked strangers was actually quite relaxing and very much a part of the experience. I used the saunas & steam, the hot tub & cold tub; the wonderful massage services.

I had the exfoliating salt scrub followed by an aromatherapy massage and cucumber facial. The massage therapists spoke almost no English, just enough words to make you understand what to do: 'Face down,' 'Go shower; come back,' 'Cucumber.' My skin has not been this soft since I was a baby. I'm surprised I still have freckles!

After this, we met up with the fellows in the common areas for more sauna (this time in comfy pajama- like uniforms) and had a traditional Korean lunch in the cafe. They also have a pool and many other sauna rooms that we did not explore.

A trip to the nearby international supermarket completed what felt like a visit to another country. Not just Asian foods, the market had Mexican, Indian, Jamaican and many other ethnic foods. On the drive home, I could not stop stroking my arms and legs. My friends commented that I need to come up with a better opening line than 'Feel my thigh!" It was a truly delightful day.

I Skipped the ChooChoo

I went to Chattanooga last week and I can tell you what I did not do. I took a workshop that should make me a more effective teacher.

I did not ride, look at or sleep in the Chattanooga ChooChoo.

I did visit both Genuine Purl and R&M Yarns. Genuine Purl (located near the Bluff View Arts district) is a lovely yarn store with a great mark down bin and an excellent selection of lovely yarns. Did my part for the economy there & purchased several skeins of Needful Yarns Joy - a cool self striping yarn that makes interesting hats, as I know for a fact. R&M, located in nearby Cleveland, TN is mostly an online store for weavers, but they have a nice retail area, classroom area and another nice markdown bin. I was a bit more restrained there, but since I'm on their mailing list, I will take advantage of other opportunities!

I ate neither a Moon Pie nor a Krystal burger.

I ate dull Thai food in a downtown restaurant & excellent Chinese food in a neighborhood dive where I wouldn't have walked alone at night. The fact that I was the only 'round-eyes' in the place was a good giveaway.

I did not tour the Tennessee Aquarium nor take a riverboat cruise.

I did walk along the riverfront park, including the area that was a gathering place for the Native American people during the Trail of Tears.

I didn't even see Rock City.

I did see a very cool city with a rich and varied history that I would like to visit again when I am not focused on learning what I was there to learn. The natural beauty of the river and cliffs along it was interesting as well as the human history of the city. I promise I'll be back.