a threaded needle

I am still knitting around and around on my warm stripy sock, getting close to that first toe even. Will I keep knitting and make them long enough for my friend.....or will I stop when they fit my foot?

In the meantime, I promised myself not to neglect my poor sampler for the whole summer so I pulled it out and put a few more stitches in. I hadn't touched it since late April (eek!) when it was pleasant enough to sit outside. This is an enjoyable project IF I only had more time in natural light.

More Time. Don't we all wish?!

Since there is no FO here to enjoy, why not pop over to Mary's and see the fabulous baby blanket she recently finished and gifted?

And Dianne has finished a nice blanket, too, but no pictures over there. You can see it, however, on her Ravelry projects page.

Audio/Visual

Whew! Supposed to be 95 here today. I finished my walk early while it was only 80. I have to tell you that 80 - with the 82% humidity - is no cake walk. It's more like a cake bake.

To get me through yet another slog around the cul-de-sac, I listened to a podcast. This time not a knitting podcast, but a past episode of The Bob Edwards Show.

I love his interviews. I think he has the Best Job in the world. But I've probably never been more jealous than I was hearing of his July 4 visit and interview with Ashley Springgate who runs the family's snowball business, started by her grandmother in 1939 New Orleans. The above picture is from The Sno-Bliz Online Exhibit and you can read the history of how the business began and how her grandfather, a master machinist, designed and made the ice shaver, and see lots of pictures from the past decades.

Just listening about ICE helped cool off a humid, miserable walk.

I love that this brief visit and interview was a happy bit of spontaneity. Bob was actually at her home to interview her husband about health care in New Orleans and only incidentally learned about the snowball stand which was closed for the 4th of July. Of course, she opened for Bob and made snowballs for him and his assistants.

As I walked around I could almost block out the heat and humidity as I focused on the audio, hearing the sounds of the big block of ICE being loaded and the grinding of the shaver and even the appreciative ummmms from Bob as he sampled his snowball. What I loved was then coming inside and watching the video of the very same interview. Getting to SEE as well as HEAR Ashley (doesn't she have a great smile!) and see Bob's enthusiasm and enjoyment.

Got to love technology! Now.......where can I get me some shaved ice??

Warm colors

and HOT weather.

Whew!

I am beyond tired of the day after day after day HIGH temperatures. Perhaps it is really getting to me. Why else would I knit wool socks now?

I bought this ball of yarn (Meilenweit* Multiringel - color 5030) at my LYS; my soon-to-close LYS.

The owner has two family members with significant health issues and felt closing to be the best decision. I don't know her personally, but she was great as a shop owner and clearly loved to knit, enjoyed people, had a real talent for teaching, and seemed to derive much pleasure from her shop so I am saddened for her. I will miss having a real yarn shop close enough for easy visiting.

Back in late April at Stitches South market, I bought a bag pattern. Hum, well, actually I bought two bag patterns. One was this clever little pattern which called for sock yarn and this was what I chose at the only time I've been able to get by my LYS during her liquidation sale.

Here, three months later, away from the Stitches market floor and all the yarn fumes, I still like the bag pattern, but wasn't sure I wanted to knit it right now or in this yarn.

This yarn seemed to really WANT to be socks. So I started a pair with the intention of making gift socks only now I'm in love. I love the warm colors. I love the simple striping. I love the fact that I can just knit around and around and not even think. My mind is baked. I need knitting that does not require thought.

This is German yarn and, according to the online free translator, Meilenweit translates to "of many miles" so no wonder it wanted to be socks.

Podcast with a Celtic Flair

I've mentioned before, but I really enjoy podcasts,
[photo from McCallum Bagpipes]
particularly ones about knitting. I usually listen to them during my walk and it really (really) helps to pass the time and take some (not all!) of the drudgery out of this exercise.

For some reason I can focus better on the content of a podcast than on music. When I listen just to music, my mind wanders more and I find myself thinking about how many songs I've heard and calculating how many more I'll need to listen to before I'm DONE with the walk. Constantly fixating on the duration just makes it seem even longer. Ugh.

I recently found a new podcast that I am really enjoying. It is the Knitting Pipeline, the knitting podcast with the celtic flair, and you can listen to it at that link or in iTunes.

Podcaster Paula lives in Illinois and plays the Great Highland Pipes. She blogs at A Piper Knits, and on Ravelry she is PrairiePiper.

Lida Rose, My Prairie Rose

Pattern: Prairie Rose Lace Shawl

by HRH Evelyn A. Clark
from "The Knitter's Book of Wool" by Clara Parkes
51" across / 24" down center

Yarn: Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace
70% alpaca/30% silk - 460 yds/50 gr.
color 2432 - Garnet

Needles: Size 4 - KnitPicks Options

What can I say that I don't always say?
An Evelyn A. Clark pattern = Satisfaction all the way.

The only modification I made was to knit two extra repeats of the leaf border simply to extend the pleasure and to use as much of the yarn as possible. I'm not certain, but I may have had enough yarn to even do one more leaf repeat, but I was afraid it would upset the proportion of body to border. As it is, I quite like it with three rows of leaves.

It was another 95 degree day, but I took the shawl and the camera to work with me today and, much like a mad dog or an Englishman, went about in the midday sun to snap a few pictures. I cut the right side off in every shot and, in one, managed to arrange it wrong side facing. I blame the heat!

I waited until I got back to the office to take the closeup of the beads on the edge. Ah....I may love air conditioning as much as Evelyn.

(If you know why I call it Lida Rose, and why I'm humming, leave me a comment. If you don't, here's a clue.)

Odd and ends

First the ends:

Forgive the overexposure. The yarn is really a deeper, richer true garnet.

I am on the last row prior to bind off and, yes, I succumbed to beads. I remembered I still had a few from the wreath and I could not resist. I'm only adding one at each point. Such restraint!

It is going to be sad to say goodbye to the knitting of this lovely pattern. I'm missing Evelyn already.

And now for the odd:

Way back in April I started the Sweet Fern mitts with some leftover wool that I truly love. Unsure that I had an adequate amount, I stopped the first one and started the second from the other end of the ball.

I'm fairly sure that I have enough to do an extra repeat thus making the finger section a bit longer (and warmer). Yet every time I look over at this project languishing in the Ziploc bag, I have no desire to finish. None. See. Odd.

I have promised myself that I WILL return to these and finish them before I start anything NEW. I know it will feel Good to have them finished and put in the Christmas Gift basket.

L is for

Library!

I love my library and I especially love that I work so close by that I visit whenever I need a book or want to look through the new books on the browser. This building opened in 1989. Formerly the main branch had been in the old post office building. (You'll glimpse it next in 'M')

The windows you see on the ground floor are at the children's department and there is a wide play/reading area there complete with a number of Brumby rockers. I miss the children's department. I still check an Easy book out once in awhile. Often a Barbara Cooney book.* Fortunately there is no age limit.

Prior to the establishment of CCPLS, Cobb County Public Library system, libraries had been a city rather than a county responsibility.

Various groups initiated book loaning associations in Cobb County during the 1800s, but the first library was launched by a Sarah Freeman Clarke. Clarke was popular in intellectual circles that included writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson and 19th century feminist Margret Fuller. After extensive travel throughout Rome and Italy, Clarke returned to the United States. In 1879, Clarke set out for Marietta, Ga. to visit family. In 1882, she made her Marietta vacation spot a permanent home. After moving to Georgia, she established a small lending library behind her home. Financial support boomed for her library, and Clarke merged her resources with a men’s debating association. With the merge and the financial backing, the city’s first official library was born. Though one day it would be called the Cobb Library, the Clarke Library opened Oct. 26, 1893 and at one time occupied this hexagonal building (remember seeing it as a flower shop earlier?) .

As late as the 1950s, the county system consisted of little more than a couple of bookmobiles that traveled around to various sites. Gradually the county system expanded. LUCKY for us.

[doesn't that top picture look like a postcard?! I walked across the street - in 95+ degree temps - on Friday and took it myself. Promise.]
*if you get a chance, read "The Ox-Cart Man"

"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!"
Jane Austen - "Pride and Prejudice" 1811

Evelyn Island

Back when I first found knitting blogs, I used to read a lot about Sleeve Island. It seemed to be this place where sweater knitters spent some time- time that didn't seem to pass that quickly.

My little lace triangle is coming right along. For some reason I began to think of it as Evelyn Island, a place where time slows down to a relaxed pace. It is a pleasant, happy place of halcyon days.

This picture was taken a couple of days ago. I am working on the last repeat of the body and my soft little ball of silky alpaca is now smaller but still neat enough to be admired every time I gently pull off another few yards.

So far this has been a perfect project.

Oh, Evelyn Island, you are a knitter's paradise.

Leaf Knot Bag

I forgot to even post the finished Leaf Knot Clutch - or bag as I prefer to call it. To me a clutch means no handle, but who am I to argue with Veronik?

I enjoyed making it even if I did have to do a bit of guesswork while continuing the leaf pattern up the shaped handles.

I haven't used it yet mainly because I've been too busy and/or lazy. [I'm so busy that I regret that I am unable to be lazier!]

I do like it. Don't get me wrong. And I am looking forward to trying another project from that same book. Who knows when?

Everybody's making lace

Seems the spiders and I both have lace on the brain.

Not a great picture. I was having to shoot into the sun -that hot, blazing orb that is baking us. This large silky spider web was built sometime during this hot summer day. Nature's fly paper?

I took the ball of garnet lace yarn and cast on over the holiday weekend for a soothing Evelyn A. Clark shawl.

I think I know one reason why I love her triangles so much. They are so SIMPLE to get started.

Cast on 2 stitches. TWO!

In no time at all you can have the set-up chart completed and be well on your way. Before you get very many stitches on the needles you sync with the rhythm of the pattern. (Gloria Estefan was right: The Rhythm IS Going to Get You!)

I'm going with Evelyn's Prairie Rose Lace Shawl from Clara Parkes' "The Knitter's Book of Wool".

Evelyn might just be the reason I couldn't resist this wonderful book.



Moonbeam steps down the silken ladder
Woven by Mrs. Spider
To ask her to spin him a net
To catch the stars.
Hilda Conkling

Cognitive Surplus

...Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age

from this article on boingboing.com:

"But there are architectures of participation that encourage the kind of sharing and generosity that enriches us all, and by experimenting with them, we can create media and social change that harnesses millions of people to help and amuse each other."

Doesn't that remind you of Ravelry? Ravelry seems to me the very definition of sharing and generosity and certainly helps and amuses me, usually on an every day basis.

Happy 4th of July!

My kind of recipe

Ingredients:

1 ball lace weight yarn
1 Evelyn A. Clark pattern
1 bag peanut M&Ms
1 new "Piecework"

Marinate over a long holiday weekend.

Serve with a cool beverage.

K is for

Kennesaw House
one of Marietta's oldest buildings

Originally built as a cotton warehouse, in ante-bellum days it was a hotel catering to planters visiting town. Later during the Civil War, it served as a hospital for wounded Confederates. Some people believe that today, some of those spirits still inhabit the house. Unexplained noises are said to be often heard in the house by visitors and employees alike. Museum curator Dan Cox, who doesn't believe in ghosts, has admitted unexplained phenomena occurs here.

Supposedly one of the most often sighted spirits is that of a surgeon, who walks the halls of the house, especially on the lower floor.

I wonder if this may be something perpetuated by the folks who conduct the Ghost Tours of Marietta.

Although not burned by Sherman's army, the 4th floor did catch fire from ashes of nearby burning buildings and was not rebuilt.

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, a U.S. National Park about 4.5 miles from the square, was the site of a two-week fiercely fought Civil War battle.

K is also for Kybele, a restaurant on the square serving Turkish cuisine. I've never eaten there so I can't really tell you anything about the menu.

I've also never been to their Hookah Lounge or gone on a Friday or Saturday evening for the belly dancing.

Belly dancing!

On the Square!