November 4, 2008

Vote. Vote now!

re: Pumpkin altar

The pumpkin altar worked its magic yesterday!

There is a lot of crown moulding and trim that needs to be painted in our house. I had primed the bedroom trim on Saturday. Everything was going relatively white yesterday morning until I finished a coat of white paint on the kitchen/dining area trim and realized that the Master Sander had not sanded the doorway to the bedroom where I needed to go next with my white paint brush. So I started looking for the rosey brown paint I bought a couple of years ago for my kitchen counter/table top. It was nowhere to be found. The Master Sander must have thrown it out during one of his purges of what he thinks are too many cans of paint. (Thanks dear.)

I looked through my paint swatch file for the original rosey brown color but was overcome with the impulse to paint it Benjamin Moore's Jack-o-Lantern orange! The table top in it's new cheeto-cheese puff-cheezit- glowing orange incarnation last night.



Explain that! Pretty sure it was the pumpkin altar that caused this!

Pumpkin Altar

Fall is the best season in my book.

Having grown up on the West Coast where the change of seasons is barely noticeable in some locations, I'm always amazed (and delighted) as each Fall unfolds and the trees put on their colorful show up and down the East Coast.

Here on Long Island it's all falling leaves now and hordes of people filling our rural roads in search of the perfect pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins in or buy dried cornstalks or hay bales.

I set up my own little pumpkin altar near my work table hoping that it will continue to inspire my future projects colorwise until the Christmas thing takes over.



Pumpkin season doesn't come to an end Friday on Halloween...there's still pumpkin pie season and well, it can last into December, though the leaves will be long gone. It might just be to much to ask of my pumpkin altar.

Home from Rhinebeck

It was a chilly, crowded, woolly weekend in Dutchess County, NY at the Sheep and Wool Show! Knitware was not only appropriate this year but necessary. From my vantage point it's a parade of glorious wool that's been knitted, crocheted, woven, felted etc.

Thanks to all that dropped by A29---to sniff the lavender-emitting kits and sachets, hear the lavender wand explanation and view my embroidered wool button display. And a big shout out to my longtime friends Sue and Jamie for giving me a home away from home for the weekend!



Though I missed the ravelry action outside, I did find two authors whose books inspired my needles in the last year. In building 26 I found Linda Repasky aka Woolen Whimsies in her well-appointed stall displaying framed samples of her punchneedle work, wool threads, kits to make colorful "standing wool" mats, punch needle tools (the best ones!) and her wonderfully done vinegar grained frames (which I hope I can find when I unpack!). Her book, is an inspirational and helpful guide for your punchneedle ideas. On another break I passed by the book signing area as things were winding down to find Lynne Barr and thank her for her book, Knitting New Scarves, full of interesting knit constructions inspired by modern architecture!

The road home...leaves have peaked, I couldn't find my camera, but I did have my phone, so while driving the Taconic...





Ahhh, I miss the leaves already!

Fiber Tribe

6 more days! Countdown mode to next weekend's show, October 18-19, at the Sheep and Wool festival in Rhinebeck, NY. It's a fabulous fiber event amidst the rolling hill and dale of Dutchess County awash in Fall color where breeders of sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, bunnies...) show their animals, their fleece and spun yarns, where spinners, dyers, mills and creators show their stuff and ply their services and yarns etc. I want to mention my talented boothmates--- The Paisley Studio and Thimble folk---here's my Thimblefolk sheep pincushion treasure from last year overseeing my work table. I'm hoping to snag a few hooked pumpkins from the Paisley Studio this year.



Working diligently to amass more lavender wands with the velvet



ribbon I dyed this summer and assembling lavender accessory kits, writing patterns, tagging and pricing. Still have lots more buttons to embroider with the wool I've been over-dyeing. The list goes on, the work continues up to the last moment!

Hope to see you there!

Flock and Fiber

So I was in Oregon on the weekend of the 28th for a family wedding (Yay! Jamie and Seth!).

I spent part of Saturday at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby, south of Portland. I arrived as it opened and took one picture of the quiet green---



it looks like no one was there...but it quickly filled as I spent my time inside the two halls wandering around the booths. I got my first skeins of Blue Moon Fiber's Socks that Rock early, as I was afraid if I waited it would look like the Fold's booth down the aisle from me at Rhinebeck---deluged with people and no way to see anything. I was so just thrilled to be a civilian and get to shop with interesting entrepeneurs and vendors. I did to get spend time in the Dicentra Hand Dyes booth admiring her great color sense and dyeing skill---only could decide on one lovely skein of Fall-y colored yarn and realized she's on etsy, so I can visit anytime! I quickly ran out of time to spend there and didn't get to try any spinning wheels out...another time and place.




It was a great day weatherwise --- really enjoyed the variety of regional vendors and talking to the sheep and mingling with the fiberholics. Hope I can go back next year and spend more time...we'll see.

knitting The Shawl

More of the August report---

Months ago my mother and I were talking about about the variety of knitting and yarn today! She was once a knitting instructor when there the world of knitting was much smaller and there was no internet. I said the last thing I could imagine was lace knitting. And she said it would be nice to have a lace shawl, not to be contrary, of course. Hmmm...perfect idea for her upcoming birthday. How hard would it be? She sent me a pattern clipped from a vintage Vogue knitting magazine--- written instructions for a leaf-patterned stole...except there was a error in the pattern.

You don't really want to read the details of my indecision and false starts, so let's just say four yarn selections later and a change of patterns I have finished The Shawl. I probably would have abandoned this project without my knitting pals, Jean and Karen who on a weekly basis solved problems and cajoled me to finish it, or Ravelry where I found many lace-knitting questions answered or without Shannon's scrumptious hand-dyed yarns, first in Teal then in Raspberry Jam. Countless mornings and evenings of knitting and unknitting ended last weekend when I blocked it on my bedroom floor. (I think I love blocking! It's such a revelation!)


Here's a peek at The Shawl, Mom's belated birthday present...don't worry she's already gotten a preview.