Light Speed

Since getting home from Virginia, spring seems to being coming along at light speed!

Green grass and more buds on the maple tree:

Crocuses up and open:

Daffodils almost open:

One of the turtle family in the pond was out sunning himself:

He's over there on the right.

Then, yesterday, Paul saw this guy trekking across the yard:

The shell was about 8-10" in diameter and he was very muddy.  And its head is huge.  I think it might be a baby.  Anyone know what kind of turtle?  It took about two hours to go past the pond and into the woods.

And we hear all the peepers at night!  I love that.

Also, on our way to Virginia, I finished my LightSpeed shawl:

 

My Aunt K. wondered how the colorwork got into the shawl, so I took a picture of the back to explain:

It's actually a very simple pattern because for each row, you are only knitting with one color and slipping stitches for the other color.  For example, I would knit (or purl) two navy blue stitches, then slip the next two light blue stitches.  "Slip" meaning just passing them from the left needle to the right needle without knitting them.  You do have to be careful to then carry that navy blue yarn behind the light blue stitches fairly loosely so you don't get puckering.  That can take a little practice, but ultimately very simple!  Then the next row reverses the process and you knit (or purl) two of the light blue and slip the navy blue.  The yarn being carried behind the slipped stitches is what you see in the above picture.

I love it! I love the colors, especially the light blue. I have a lot of that left and may try to make a pair of short socks. 

Another Yarn-y Obsession

My mom and I had a nice visit on Friday and Saturday!  And it contributed to my next yarn-y obsession....

I've been reading the Attic 24 blog for some time after my cousin's wife told me about it.  Lucy, the Attic 24 blogger, is a crocheter and makes the most beautifully colorful things.  I'm a novice crocheter, and usually tend toward knitted patterns since I'm often confused by crochet patterns.  But Lucy's blog is so inspiring and has made me want to make what she makes.  So, I've become obsessed with making a ripple blanket:

This is Lucy's couch.  How wonderfully cozy and
colorful is that?????

My mom also reads the blog and loved these bunnies and owls that Lucy made:

My mom has known how to crochet for a long time and has recently been looking into some basic patterns to get her back into the swing of crocheting.  So, my visit to her was well-timed and we worked on some crocheting together!  I brought some of my scrap yarn to test out Lucy's Neat Ripple Pattern.  After a few beginning struggles with getting the first stitches into my foundation chain, I came up with a pretty good test swatch:

Then it was on to researching what kind of yarn to use and how much I might need.... and I got lost in cyberspace for a while.  More on the results of this another time.

And my mom got a great swatch for a scarf she wants to make:

That gray yarn in the upper left corner is the yarn she will use for the scarf!

Of course I also did a little knitting.  You've already seen my LightSpeed progress, but here it is when I was working on it at my mom's:

Yup. More yarn barf.  Since you are supposed to knit until half your yarn is left, I weighed it before I went to my mom's and then wound out a ball of yarn so I would know when to stop.  Then that turned into barf as I was working with it.  UGH.  More untangling.  But, as you saw in the last post, I got past it and moved right along into the next color.  It's coming along nicely but now I'm worried I didn't weigh it correctly and that I'll run out of my navy blue yarn.....

All that, along with yummy wood fired pizza and caesar salad from Da Capo and it made for a fun couple of days with my mom!

And, oh my gosh I'm watching the Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network and she is making these Salted Caramel Brownies.  Mmmmmmmm.  Those might have to be in my kitchen soon....

Ice Cream and Drag Racing (a natural combination)

It's that time of year....
Today was the spring meeting for the Northeast Chapter of the Buick Club.  Which means drag racing season is beginning! We drove down to Chappequa, NY - no, we didn't see Bill and Hillary - where the meeting was being held.   Lots of chatting and catching up about who did what with their cars over the winter, who is ready for racing and when will they be taking them out to the track.  I mostly just listened.  Then it was time to get down to the business of the meeting - re-electing officers and talking about club-sponsored drag racing events.  So we took our seats near the front and I got out my knitting.   A veiw of the room from my seat:

 This here is the group of officers for the club:

As Doug (the tall guy in the black shirt) called the meeting to order, the first thing he said was, "We have just one rule for this meeting and that is that there will be absolutely no knitting."  Ha!  If you look very carefully in the first picture, on the right hand side, you will see another woman knitting.  And, although you can't see them, and in case you were wondering, there were actually three other women there amongst the 65 men.

Then we all shared three, mile-long subs.  More yammering talking intelligently about cars and car parts, like this intake thing that Paul's friend Rob made:

That's Rob in the yellow sweatshirt.

FYI, you don't need a carburetor with this one.  In case you were wondering.  Then looking at said cars in the parking lot.  Then watching some of the said cars be put on the lifts so we could look at the underside parts.  THEN, the best part.... leaving to go to Red Rooster for ice cream!!!!!

Wait.  That came out wrong.  I wasn't trying to say that the best part was leaving the meeting.  I was just really happy to have ice cream for the first time this season!  With sprinkles!  It was so yummy.

Made progress on my Light Speed shawl during the meeting and the drive:

Finally, here is the pond when we left our house:

And here it is when we got home:

Yay! No more ice!!!!!

Complete with our mallard couple who visit every spring:

Next post: My other exciting weekend activity - a visit to my mom!

Spring is Here! (even though it doesn't really seem like it)

Despite the still-frozen pond....

I can feel it.  Spring is in the air.   This week, the days were a little warmer and I got outside with the doodlebugs for some great walks.  Busses!  Cars!  More Cars!  Planes!  and, wait for it....Even. More. Cars!  The gasps of delight at everything that passed by was hilarious.  And who knew watching furniture guys unload a chair at some random house could be so riveting?  Even though we've still got snow on the ground up here on the hill, and we're still waiting to see buds on the trees, the warm air is encouraging and we just know more is coming.

And Spring also means Easter.  Today and tomorrow are bread-baking marathon days.  Some for the baked french toast I'll be making for Easter brunch, and some for giving away.  My sample loaf last week went over well with my taste testers, so I'm using the same recipe.  Stay tuned for an update on all this yummy goodness!

Spring, however, does not mean I stop knitting with wool!....

In Knitting News:
My Meadowlark is done!

Picture with me in it to come when I have a photographer...

I re-read the directions, which said that the i-cord down the front edges was optional (yay!) so, of course, I opted out.  I actually really didn't think the i-cord would look as good on the fronts since it is supposed to be drapey/wavey.  Like this:

The i-cord would make it sturdy and not-as-drapey.  But it's great to give the arm holes some shape:

Before i-cord

After i-cord.  See?  Neater.

Also, lots of progress on my Bloody Mary Cardigan... the back is done:

I'm excited, although I'm slighty concerned about my yarn amounts.  I should have 100 extra yards.  However, I've used almost a whole skein (of my three skeins) on the back.  I still have the two fronts, two sleeves, button bands and collar to do.  I think I'm worrying too early.

I also finished Square #10 from the Great American Afghan book:

This makes 5 sqaures completed, one in each color. This gives you an idea of my color scheme:

I'm a little not sure about it now.  I don't know why.  I'm trying to imagine it done, and I feel like it will be really busy.  I'm thinking that I will use the darker color for the border to reign in the other lighter colors.  Ha!  Can you see how I'm already thinking about the border when I still have 20 (twenty) more squares to knit and that could take ages?

I also became obsessed with the Lightspeed shawl/scarf-y thing:

Sample picture from Ravelry.com

So here are my colors:

(That's navy blue on the right.)

I'm starting it today when I run out of my Bloody Mary yarn -- I have to go to The Spinning Room yarn shop to wind the next skein on their ball winder since it is a jumbo skein!

In Book News:
The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve:  I suffered through this one. 
The Amazon description is:
"From the last time Linda and Thomas meet, at a charmless hotel in a distant city, to the moment, thirty-five years earlier, when a chance encounter on a rocky beach binds them fatefully together, this hypnotically compelling novel unfolds a tale of intense passion, drama, and suspense. "  My take on it:  It was non-hypnotic, depressing and blah.  I just didn't enjoy the story line. 

I have had mixed personal reviews of Anita Shreve's books.  Some I have liked, some I have not.  I loved Light on Snow (see my blog review here).

In Other News:
I am going to participate in the NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) in April, which means I will be posting every day for the whole month.  That's the goal anyway! The idea of this is to get writing and re-juvenate my ideas for the blog. The theme for April is "Fresh" since spring gives us a fresh start etc.  My posts may or may not have to do with the theme (they don't have to), and I'll just see where it takes me.  So, just warning you (or delightfully informing you, if that's the case) that there will be a lot of posting going on.  After that, I'll go back to my regular programming.  If you are not signed up to receive email notifications when there is a new post, you can do so by going to the sidebar on the right!