Vintage Knitting

This find combines my two loves (besides the hubby and kids, of course). It's a knitting booklet, "The Lady's Book of Knitting and Crochet", and it was published in Boston in 1883. I bought it in an antique shop about a month ago, for only $10.

There are about 120 patterns, 108 pages, divided almost equally between knitting and crochet. I'd love to make some of them, but there are two problems - the terminology in the instructions is worded differently from our patterns today, and there are NO PICTURES!

Felted Heron

This is a felted great blue heron - I purchased him (her?) at the WinterWorks gift shop on Monhegan Island when we vacationed there last month. He only about 5 inches high, and sits on his nest of twigs. The woman (whose name I don't remember) had also done other birds - chickadees, bluejays, etc., but I fell in love with this guy. He's sitting on my mantel now.

Hitchhiker

At the last Guild meeting, I was inspired (again) by the shawls that Debbie knits, and she gave me the pattern for the one she had that evening. Well, that pattern seemed a little daunting for me, but I still liked the overall style, so I did some research on Ravelry, and found this one, called the Hitchhiker. I had some lovely wool yarn purchased at Webs last month that was perfect, so I cast on. I finished the scarf when we were on vacation on Monhegan Island - had a lot of time to knit that week. It's all garter stitch, but interesting as it keeps getting wider and adding the little points on the edge. I really love it, and it's a great way to use a skein of sock yarn.

Always the Unexpected

Well, I almost made it home last night after the Knitting Guild meeting. Unfortunately, a deer decided to commit suicide against my car when I was about 5 miles from home. I was able to drive home slowly with some squeaking and rubbing against the tire which didn't affect the speed or the control of the car.

This is what I saw in the daylight this morning - it doesn't look too bad in the photo but the headlight and grill and quarter-panel are all pushed in. Another view.

And here she goes to the body shop. You can see the damage to both doors now. Safeco Insurance has been great - highly recommended for making this as easy as possible. They set me up with a rental car too, unfortunately it's a HUGE Dodge Durango - as close to a tank as you can get. They will change me to a smaller car on Monday. The repair estimate is coming in very close to the amount for totaling the car - I hope they won't do that as I really don't want to go looking for a new car right now, and I love this Subaru.

So, as they say, life is what happens when you're making other plans.

Recipe for Beautiful Hair

I found this recipe for Hair Tonic is a scrapbook of crochet patterns found at an antique shop. It dates to the early 1900s. Who wants to try it? - sulpher, glycerine, alcohol, with a little sage - 10 minutes every evening for two months!

The Latest Little Thing

This cute little cowl was made from some amazing yarn I bought as a souvenir in Norway two summers ago. It formed a sort of traveling plaid as I knit along - it was fun to see the colors switch from side to side and mix in the middle. This will go perfectly with my blue down jacket next winter.

The Gypsy Life, Sort Of

Tomorrow morning, I'll be getting up at 4:00 AM in order to get to Brimfield for the 6:00 AM opening time. That's the giant Brimfield Flea Market that I'm talking about, held for a week three times a year with literally thousands of dealers in about a dozen fields. My show partner Janice and I have already arranged all our goodies in our rented tent in the Central Park field, and hope to sell out (an impossible dream).
This picture was taken a couple of years ago - multiply this scene by about a thousand and you'll get an idea of the size of the market.This was our tent area also a couple of years ago - we have a larger tent this year, which is great because rain is predicted so all our treasures will be under cover. So wish me luck - I'll be there for the next six days.

Cute Little Hoodie

I made this hoodie in just a few days. It's a special gift for the daughter and son-in-law of a very good friend, who just adopted a baby girl. The pattern is a free download from the Lion website and I plan to make more - I love the way it turned out, and with a minimal of finishing. (The front edges really do match - I need to block it a little more).
I did make a couple of changes - I made the shoulder decreases to lean right and left, instead of all left, and I did a three-needle bindoff at the top of the hood, instead of binding the whole thing off and sewing it together. I also changed my mind about the yarn after doing one and one-half sleeves, and switched to this peppermint candy pink color which is great - baby, but not too baby, if you know what I mean.

Great Rhode Yarn Crawl

Last weekend was the annual Great Rhody Yarn Crawl. A dozen or so yarn shops in Rhode Island participated with raffles and special sales. I visited five of the shops - my favorite was Eneri, not only for it's nice stock of yarn and other knitty stuff, but because they had cookies and coffee too.

On Sunday, the Yarn Crawl festivities ended at the historic Slater Mill in Pawtucket (photo below), with more raffles (tickets based on the number of shops visited), and sales booths. Unfortunately for me, the person supposed to be supplying coffee (and maybe goodies?) didn't show up (big mistake!). The busy scene inside the Mill. These were the raffle prizes. No, I didn't win anything (so sad).

Here's what I bought. I bought the silk "hankies" from this woman, who very sweetly showed me how to pull them apart and knit with them. Her business name is "Play at Life", which I love, and I love the soft colors which I chose. And I couldn't resist buying something (anything!) from a booth with this name! I got the purple sock yarn here.
I bought the funny little mirror from Stitchy McYarn Pants, who writes a very funny blog and cute books.

West Coast - South and North

My annual trip to see the folks on the West Coast took place a couple of weeks ago. Here's the California family - for once a really good picture of the three of them, plus Monica the toy poodle. Diane and I made an excursion to see the location of "Levitated Mass" on the grounds of LACMA. The huge boulder (now swathed in white plastic) will be moved over the channel on the left and people can walk under it (which I might do next year). http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/levitated-mass A short flight up the coast to Washington, and here is Son #1 standing in front of his newly completed (almost) house. He still has to finish the porch and do some landscaping. Tod hasn't wanted to post pictures himself until it was really finished, but he said I could post these for him.

The three-bedroom house is longer than it is wide (as is the lot), so the photo doesn't show the real size. A lot of trees have been taken down at the side and in back, so it feels open and light. Behind those garage doors is Tod's woodworking room. Here's the man himself, with sliders and the beginnings of a deck behind him. He picked up the vintage dining table at an antique shop in Tacoma. Only the island of the kitchen is visible in the picture. Over to the right is the living room area, another bright and sunny spot. Tod made the beautiful coffee table. Here's the upstairs hallway, leading to the guest bedroom. The new garage stands where the old mobile home was. That's Tod's Isuzu which probably will never die - it has over 400,000 miles on it now. A few more trees were cut down in the front of the house as well, so now there is a view of the lake from the upstairs windows.
From left to right, here's Judi, Laurel, Judi's daughter Sophie and her son Aaron (graduating from the Air Force Academy next month), Thomas and Tod.