Live and Let Learn!

duh.

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:09:00 +0000

While pondering what to do with the Madli's shawl that needed to go bye-bye, I kept wishing I could find a travel project that was as perfect as the Estonian Garden Wrap that I knit while we were in Hawaii a couple of years ago.

Suddenly, a forehead-smacking moment! Since that Estonian Garden Wrap was given as a gift last Christmas, why don't I just knit that pattern again, in this yarn? Yeah, that's the ticket!

:::rip rip rip::: went Madli, saving the iridescent beads which will probably be substituted for the nupps on the Estonian Garden Wrap.

I'm not sure if there's enough time to start the new project before we leave, but it feels good to have a plan for that lovely Woolen Rabbit yarn. Meanwhile, I started a Just Enough Ruffles scarf in burgundy angora. Should be a fun little project with a nicely wearable result.

scrap

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:53:00 +0000

:::sigh::: I thought Madli's shawl would be perfect vacation knitting, but I can't do anything other than concentrate on it for the knit rows and, even then, I make mistakes, so that's not going to work. Despite what the above pic might suggest, it's a beautiful pattern, but alternating twig patterns do not make for happy knitting in my world.

I'm not sure if I'll tear this out and start something entirely different (Bobbie gloves, maybe?), set it aside to work on in quiet times, or keep the edge section and just substitute a different lace motif for the main body. I'm loving the Woolen Rabbit yarn, though, and definitely want to use it. Hmmm.

take a walk on the wild side

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:16:00 +0000

I've been watching and waiting for the Young at Heart chorus to do a show that fits with our calendar and yesterday was finally the day!

It was a sold out show, as is the case with most of their performances, I think. Lots of people knew they were in for a treat!

We laughed so hard that we cried. We sang along with some rockin' tunes. We clapped wildly and whooped up a storm. If you ever have a chance to see this group of octagenarians sing Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Ramones, and songs by many other well-known bands, do yourself a favor and go. So. Much. Fun!

flying the freak flag!

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:56:00 +0000

Three cheers for a day that celebrates creativity, fantasy, and full-on silliness. We had four events lined up for our Halloween day and they were all made of awesome, but the highlight was the wedding of an old friend, an artist and all 'round good egg. Wedding festivities were way out in the boonies, at a beautiful wooded camp beside a lake. Not yer usual wedding, masks were encouraged and, boy, such a parade of fantastical costumes.

Scott wore the pirate piggy mask that Leah crocheted for him, I was a colorful character, and Jesse was Mythbusters' Jamie Hyneman, complete with finger 'stache!

Leah proudly wore the gown she made from two scavenged dresses, including much hand sewing and embroidery embellishments, and jewelry that she made from our crystal bead stash. Many, many people complimented her costume and were then blown away then she said, "Thank you. I made it myself."

Our long-time friend Tina, one of the brides in this ceremony, has been a mask-maker forever, having even had an art gallery exhibit of her work. She and Phoebe, her partner, went all out for this special day -- feathers and mirrors and swirls, rich textural fabrics, dried flowers and foliage. Symbolically standing apart at the beginning of the ceremony, you can bet the space between them disappeared by the end. With a backdrop of autumn woodlands and blustery winds causing ribbons in the trees to twirl and dance, we heard poetry, song, instrumental music, and the vows of our friends.

Given that my neon green hair was a little unruly, I did a double take and had to blink a few times, but sure enough, one of the wedding guests was winding a ball of yarn! We had a good chat and I'm hoping to join in on the fiber night events she's setting up for the coming winter.

contains natural and artificial colors

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:50:00 +0000

Snapshot from the start of last night's pizza party.

One hour and 33 pizzas later, many full bellies and a funny little dog sniffing the ground for tasty drops.

BTW, shrimp scampi pizza w/ marinated artichoke hearts? :::Swoon!:::

Leah's newest project, stranded socks.
The pumpkin cheesecakes are in the oven and we are otherwise all ready for today's festivities. As if a ukulele band isn't goofy enough, how about a uke band with all members wearing Halloween costumes?

rolling rolling rolling

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:16:00 +0000

Most recent in the wood-fired oven playtime was seven-grain bread, including some loaves with dried cranberries -- my favorite bread ever. I'd say Scott's getting pretty good with this thing.

Meanwhile, guess what handknit has become a favorite sweater? Warms a knitter's heart.

Last spring, when we committed to five solid months of farmers' markets (which meant Scott baking like a crazy man every Saturday and all of us at the market every Sunday, in addition to fitting in his usual wholesale accounts, my work, all of our social stuff, and then piling two more farmers' markets a week on top of it all), I actually had a moment of wondering if we'd be far enough out of touch at the other end that our weekend calendar would have ghost town tumbleweeds rolling by.

heh heh...I crack myself up.

The last of the summer markets was last Sunday. Plans for this weekend include:

Friday: uke band gig/halloween party, pizza b'day party, African children's music performance.

Saturday: uke band/community singalong, wedding of an old friend (costumes encouraged! more old friends there too! friend's kick ass band playing zydeco!), neighborhood Halloween silliness, costume party/potluck dinner.

Sunday: concert in MA that we're totally psyched about.

:::insert sarcastic tone and exaggerated eye-rolling here::: I sure do feel sorry for those poor unsocialized homeschooling kids of ours, sequestered away from society and living an isolated life. ;-)

experimentation

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:54:00 +0000

Leah has an astounding number of projects in motion right now, worked on in the quiet times in between all her other activities. Since Christmas is coming, many are secrets, but I know there's cross stitch, sewing, knitting, and embroidery among them. I find bits of other experiments scattered about occasionally -- leftover lace from a scavened dress she took apart to make into something else, a zipper for a leather boot she's sewing, a bit of knitting made from drop spindle-spun yarn. Among the projects that have emerged from her ~~studio~~ bedroom lately are:

A felted amulet pouch, made on commission. She knitted and felted the bag, needle felted the kanji for Strength onto it, and made a twisted cord from the yarn and roving she used. I suggested using one of Scott's glass buttons as a closure, but she rejected that idea, saying it would make the pouch too busy and that the flap is long enough for gravity to keep it closed.

A wee sweater, the design for which flowed straight from her head to the needles. The flared skirt is because she wanted it to be like a riding jacket. She knit it top down, morphing her understanding of thumb gussets into shoulder shaping. And then she threw it away because it was just an experiment.

An abandoned start to a Laminaria shawl. It, like all lace, would look a million times better after blocking, but she felt she was in over her head on this one. I think she was just using needles that were a little too small, but she was already moving on.

Now she's using the same yarn doubled up for a Forest Canopy shawl. Bigger needles, more satisfying rate of progress. Beautiful yarn received as a gift from Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer.

This morning, I saw the beginning of a colorwork sock, one solid colored yarn and one wildly variegated. As I looked at my friends' activity on Ravelry, I noticed that she favorited some incredible colorwork socks yesterday. I suppose this would explain why I saw her taking the entire sock yarn stash bag into her bedroom yesterday afternoon...

a boy and his toys

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:03:00 +0000

Lixie, who has been mentioned here before, asked Scott if he could do a likeness of a person in glass. He's a cartoonist from way back and has made some lampwork heads from his imagination in the past, so he was game for the challenge. Lixie forwarded a link to one of her blog posts that cracks me up every time, comparing how her husband, Pooch, resembles a baby hedgehog! (Go ahead and click over there for a giggle. I'll wait.)

It then took a couple of tries, but a disembodied glass Pooch-like stitch marker is currently winging its way to London.

Doesn't get much more custom (or silly) than that, does it? ;-)

When he's not playing with fire and glass, Scott's lately playing with fire and food. Since the oven was still hot yesterday morning, after the pizza party of the night before, he stoked up the fire again and made a big batch of bagels (about 6 dozen, flavors including cinnamon raisin, garlic, onion) yesterday morning.

And since the oven was still warm yesterday afternoon, he popped a ham in there before he and the kids headed to the indoor water park (free admission!) again for the rainy afternoon. There are no words to describe the delectable results. Holy moly, you guys -- smoky, slightly crispy edges, falling off the bone. The ham; not the kids.

Meanwhile, we're all still raving about the egg sandwiches from the other morning. Fresh sourdough bread, toasted. Fresh local eggs rec'd as a gift from our firewood delivery guy, who sure does like Scott's cookies. Homemade honey mustard. Locally grown lettuce, crisp and cold and green. Tomatoes from one of the farmers at last week's markets. :::drool:::

I just refilled my coffee mug and noticed he's out there with a roaring fire again this morning. I wonder what he's mixing up in the bakery...

Fibery post to follow. There's just too much fun going on around here to fit it all in one post.

victorious

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:12:00 +0000

(I took these pics a couple of wks ago, but somehow forgot to put them on the blog until today.)

Learning to knit lace can be a pretty big challenge, but apparently not too big a challenge for an 11-year-old knitter on a mission.

Leah's Swallowtail shawl was off to a rough start in July. Torn out and started over.

Another attempt and fairly smooth sailing for a while.

Confidence growing, she moved into the Lily of the Valley section within a couple of weeks, replacing the nupps with beads.

Knitted like crazy, trying to finish it in time to wear to her Great Grandma's 90th birthday celebration, only to step back and realize she had made some big boo-boos in understanding the chart. There were tears and the shawl went into a major time-out, from early August until mid September.

It re-emerged for the Franklin County Fiber Twist almost two months later and was finally cast off, blocked, and debuted at our favorite lys by mid October.

Somehow, none of that matters anymore. I think wearing this lace is all the more sweet for her because of the difficulties overcome along the way. Oh, the compliments! Oh, the proud smile! Oh, the buzz of making something so beautiful from two sticks and a ball of string!

past few days and more Stitches thoughts

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

Sunday couldn't have been more perfect for the last outdoor farmers' market of the season. Great Pumpkin Festival theme. Lots of great costumes and a steady stream of friends and customers at the booth. The bakery was completely sold out by the end of the day and Scott had baked a LOT.

While waiting in a pretty cemetery in between activities, Leah spotted a little fox trotting across the grass.

Free admission to the indoor water park! I climbed 24 flights of stairs to slide down those crazy tubes six times. I can't even imagine how many times the kids went down them. Yahoo!

Had another successful pizza party with the new oven yesterday. These are just for practice (and fun!), not for pay. Tweaking our set-up and process, getting to know the oven, and making some mighty yummy pizzas along the way.

Leah and I were talking about our day at Stitches. Decided that, for us, Stitches compares to sheep and wool festivals like grocery shopping at Sam's Club compares to buying veggies at the farmers' market. In other words, there's still good quality and good deals to be found, but it left us feeling a little empty, not refreshed and excited, like we are after a sheep and wool festival.

Also, we like our fiber festivals to be FESTIVE and, in our opinion, Stitches wasn't. I don't know if it was the convention center atmosphere or the rainy day or the ban on taking pictures (except of the Big Sock) or the people Stitches attracts, but the sense of it being a big happy celebration of wooly goodness was absent. Glad Stitches was so close to home this time so we could easily check it out, but we made the decision that the smaller festivals are a better fit for us.

just up the road

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:38:00 +0000

Wasn't it nice of the people who run Stitches events to schedule Stitches East about 10 minutes from my house? Leah and I didn't sign up for any classes, but we figured we'd go and check out the marketplace, at least. My mom joined in for the day too, keeping an eye out for a new project for herself.

We attended a demo and fashion show, ran into many folks we know, got a kick out of seeing Scott's stitch markers for sale in the Dye Dreams booth, and did some knitting on the very silly big sock that may eventually make its way into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Leah received about a zillion compliments on her Swallowtail shawl. She bought a few Zippy pins and a skein of yarn for another lace shawl. She was in search of an especially beautiful drop spindle, but didn't find one, so she'll browse on Etsy.

My mom loved this Dream In Color experimental yarn with the finest silver thread spun into it, so she bought enough to make a good-sized shawl and some beads to add a little weight and sparkle.

As for me? Well, before we went, I browsed the stash and rediscovered so much good yarn just bursting with possibility. I also emptied my knitting bag of the five current works-in-progress. And then I didn't buy a thing. Not a single thing! Plenty of temptations at Stitches, but really, an abundance of great options already at home and I am content with that.

Excellent guacamole and appetizers to round out the day, then home for some work and a call to my Gram, who is coming to visit soon. Yippee!!

color play

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:15:00 +0000

Kathy Merrick and Creative Fibers teamed up last night for an evening of putting colors together for projects. Lots of crochet, lots of Koigu, lots of lively debate and discussion by a full house of fiber folks who clearly don't shy away from color.

Throughout, I was working on my first twined knitting project. A few weeks ago, I won some yarn through the New England Textile Arts group. While browsing Ravelry projects that use this yarn, I noticed that it looks good in twined knitting and that's a technique I haven't tried before, so I borrowed Twined Knitting from the library. Plenty of inspiration there, but when it came time to cast on and just do a simple project, there was a little too much information to sift through in the book. Luckily, Ravelry helped me find lots of twined knitting patterns, including one for basic twined mittens. Cast on Tues. evening and by yesterday evening...

Twined knitting is slower going than regular knitting, but I'm not in any hurry. It makes a thicker, warmer, squishier fabric and I'm loving it. I'm letting the variegated yarn do the patterning this time, but there are some very pretty textures and patterns to be made with solid yarn too. Maybe I'll try that next.

Like ripples in a pond, trying one new thing leads to another and another and another. Yahoo!

weirder and weirder

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:12:00 +0000

Such a lot of silliness going on around here.

First pizza party with the new oven was a success! You know the baker's always wanted to do this:

as a step toward making pizza pies like this:

Meanwhile, I dug out my 1970s era latch hook and put my mad latch hooking skillz to good use like this:

so my peach fuzzed boy could have a finger 'stache like this!

Goofy goodness all 'round!

holes

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:07:00 +0000

The first batch of sourdough bread in the new oven was a little bit overdone (still good, just some loaves too dark on top), but Scott had better luck with yesterday's batch. Jesse's learning how to work the oven right along with him and the two of them are just tickled pink with this whole thing -- good fun, good food!

Happy to see the holes for which sourdough is known, and to taste that distinctive flavor of sourdough, made from starter that's been alive since the days of the Oregon Trail and actively in use here for five years or so.

Another happy dance for making something full of holes when the last two Swallowtail shawl knitalong'ers, Lyn and Leah, showed off their newly blocked shawls at our favorite lys yesterday evening. Leah's pretty psyched to have finished this challenging project, having overcome some major difficulties with it along the way. Now that she gets it, she has fallen in love with knitting lace.

While the swallowtail was blocking, she was winding the lovely yarns she received as gifts from Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer. She printed out patterns for two more shawls yesterday afternoon and cast on for one of them last night, having already determined that one will be travel knitting for an upcoming vacation and the other will be for knitting otherwise. She likes the idea of knitting things that are challenging, beautiful, can be worn in multiple ways, and, importantly, won't be outgrown.

I made a hole too!

up for grabs

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:56:00 +0000

Leah has outgrown one sweater and one top that I knit for her. I'd rather they go to knitters (or knitters' daughters) than Goodwill, so here's what I have up for grabs:

First is the Hybrid sweater. Chest 34", length 21", sleeve 17". Knit w/ 2 strands of reclaimed cotton and 1 strand of variegated tencel (see the blog post linked above for better pics of the resulting fabric). The back is stockinette. Has had lots and lots of wear, but is holding up well except for the fact that there are cotton yarn ends that have worked free and are poking out here and there. Easily fixed w/ a tapestry needle and a little time re-tucking the ends. Worth the effort, IMO.

Next is the Josephine top, also knit with reclaimed cotton. Chest 36", length 19", distance from shoulder to tie row 8" (this is the main measurement that doesn't work for Leah anymore -- measure yourself/your intended recipient carefully to see where this horizontal tie will be), armscye 5-1/2" tall. No pokey-outey ends on this one.

Both could stand to be washed, but they're in otherwise good shape.

it's all about the shaping

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:55:00 +0000

Okay, so those odd bumpy red pieces in the knitigami post fold in half lengthwise and are intended to be felted and stuffed to make a 3D cardinal. Mine won't be felted or stuffed, but it's still perfect for what I want. I've never knit anything with such funky shaping and did not understand what I was doing as I went along, just made myself follow the pattern blindly. I had the wing and a good portion of the body done before I realized that the pieces would be folded along the center to achieve the intended shapes! There are some very minor errors in the freebie pattern, easily remedied with a little common sense (even WITHOUT a clue!), but it's still easy to follow. It blows my mind that someone could sit down with a 3D shape in their mind, deconstruct it into flat pieces and then knit all the curves and shaping right into it. I still need to make the tail feathers, but will do that in a different way than the pattern states because my cardinal will stay flat.

The other new project is a pair of Fanning the Flame mittens. I saw a pair of these while at a knit night at my favorite lys recently. I haven't ever done modular knitting, so thought they'd be a fun way to give it a try. I was a few fans into it when I realized it was turning out big. Decided that was no problem, maybe even a good thing, because I'd have enough room to line them with fleece for extra warmth. Thought it was curious that my gauge was so far off (no, I hadn't checked ahead of time), but kept knitting away on them, when suddenly it was as if my needles were made of glowing neon. I looked at them, really LOOKED at them, and thought, "Wait a minute, those aren't size 1 needles. They're size 3s!" Ohhhh, so the size 1s I stuffed in my bag to use on this project were not the same needles I actually pulled out of the bag when it was time to cast on. Cast-on and the first few fans happened while at the haunted corn maze Leah was volunteering at over the weekend, so with all the distractions of ghosts and ghoulies floating about, I didn't even think to check the needle size. I like 'em anyway. Ready to knit the fan with stitches for thumb placement.

Yesterday's experiment with the new oven was bagels. Scott got a kick out of shaping them and they turned out incredibly well. Here's the first batch, plain and sesame.

Some of the 2nd batch (garlic, poppy, everything), about to be baked in the heat of a wood fire. Oh so good.

beeep

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:05:00 +0000

We interrupt this knitterly blog to bring you news of a new toy at our house and the first of many yummy treats to follow...

After a full week of jumping through hoops, pulling out hair (well, you know, if he had any), and a 13+ hour round-trip drive, what we have here now is a mobile wood-fired oven and an extremely happy baker.

Pizza? Yum.
Next up? Bagels. Like they make in Montreal. OMG - YUM. Fingers crossed!

We will now return you to your regularly scheduled wool- and glass-filled program. Beeep!

knitigami

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:31:00 +0000

What a bunch of weirdness I'm knitting lately, like knitting origami (knitigami?) -- starts off like this, then you do this, and it turns into this. Odd little curvy, bulgy things. Not actually sure any of them will turn out as I had hoped, but it's fun trying.

Any guesses what they are? Leave a comment!

And now, if you'll excuse me, it's a gorgeous day for a farmers' market.

it bears repeating

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:49:00 +0000

(in case you can't see it on your reader, there's a video embedded here)

Even off the beaten path,or maybe especially off the beaten path,life is good.
Be real.

when pigs fly!

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:20:00 +0000

Scott's Thursday farmers' market is in Wethersfield, where the historic Main Street area encourages people to put up scarecrows each year. They're fun and funny and creative and quirky. Here's Frank Einstein in front of the inn adjacent to the farmers' market. Scott's bakery booth is to the left of the inn. The innkeeper fancies cinnamon sticks. :-)

Over the course of the season, we've made some friends at that market too. The local farmers honk and wave as we pass them on the bridge over the river, heading to Wethersfield to set up each week. One of them is even a knitter! (Hi, Jen!) She's knitting a scarf with this funkystuff that has a dark strip of loosely knitted fabric attached along this green fine knit fabric. She pokes her needles into the dark strip to knit, leaving the green stuff to gather into a ruffled fabric on the front. Weirdest knit I've ever seen, but the resulting stuff feels great and looks pretty cool.

This market is smaller than the Sunday market for Scott, but every bit as profitable and enjoyable, with the friendly vendors and customers, locally grown/made foods, fresh flowers, live music and, this month, the scarecrow walk up and down Main St.

My kids have pretty much outgrown trick-or-treating, but they've segued directly into all the adult dress-up fun of costume parties and other Halloween events, which this year will include a uke band gig, Halloween wedding bash (seriously!), and post-trick-or-treating party, so yesterday was chosen as the day we'd work on costume parts. Goodwill was very helpful, as always, but Leah needed some cheap pink yarn for Scott's pirate piggy mask, much of which was already considered done when we found a black crocheted skull cap for $0.99. (We might clip off the sequins, might not. Scott could be a flambuoyant sequined pirate piggy, don'cha think?) No piggy pink in our stash, so we resorted to the unthinkable: Walmart for $1.50 skein of Red Heart.

Heh heh. You need the right tools for the job and this is PERFECT for a quickie costume prop.

a different kind of cobbler

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:18:00 +0000

We're having apple cobbler for dessert tonight, but Leah's been a different kind of cobbler lately, the shoemaking kind! With a book borrowed from our library and supplies we had around home, she recently produced her first pair of handmade shoes, stitched entirely by hand and holding up quite well after being worn multiple times.

There are fleece-lined leather boots in progress right now, the leather having been cut from a skirt we got from Goodwill. She modeled the first one yesterday and it looks great, complete with a zipper and plans to attach molded soles that she's taking from an unwanted pair of shoes.

In between her shoemaking endeavors, she knit up a pair of handwarmers on commission.

Just in time for the arrival of chilly weather and increased desire for mugs of warm tea!

Just in case anybody was wondering, I'd like to state here, again, how much I love the Internet. In the past two days, I have used it to:
1. make plane reservations and browse rental houses
2. download forms from the Secretary of State and Dept. of Motor Vehicles offices
3. figure out where we were on one of our recent walks in the woods
4. order underwear and toner cartridges (not from the same store ;-)
5. research knitting patterns (of course!)
6. discover an upcoming performance that I'm psyched to see
7. find a ukulele song that I thought might be sung by Pete Townsend (it was!)
8. find a delicious recipe to use up much of the garden harvest in our fridge
9. introduce my munchkins to the Twilight Zone
10. find a video we wanted to see, available in a nearby library
11. earn a living that I love.

Three cheers for having the whole world at our fingertips!

Indian summer

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:05:00 +0000

This, my friends, is why pumpkins are a perfectly reasonable stand-in for modeling baby hats. This sweet cutie patootie was not at all pleased to be modeling the Cisco hat I knit for a friend's daughter. It was too big on her, too warm in the sunshine, and there were places to go and people to see! Also, she was totally conked out within 10 minutes of browsing the market on her mom's back, so perhaps my timing wasn't the best.

Regardless, I learned that my I-cord ties are long enough to be tied, without being overly long, so mission accomplished. BTW, I knit this with Brooklyn Tweed's modifications. I don't think I've ever knit I-cord before and I've definitely never done applied I-cord, so that was fun to learn. Easy and spiffy.

Yesterday started out as rainy as the day before, but by the time the farmers' market started, it was a beautiful day. The farmers had lots of great stuff to offer and the live music was perfect. Banjo, mandolin, bright blue sky, warm sunshine, squash bisque, mums! We did plenty of bartering for yummy stuff -- salsa and guac, cabbage, lettuce, assorted squashes, fudge, veggie samosas, kettle corn. I love it when the other vendors come by to make a swap offering so they can get a dozen of their favorite cookies. :-)

As always, plenty of yarny goodness and knitters around, and even a friendly llama. A new knitter sat down next to me, having just recently learned how to knit with the help of telephone consults from her knitter-friend in Texas. Hopefully we'll see her again next weekend!

I finished a pair of socks for Leah. Mindless 2x2 rib, toe-up w/ Widdershins gusset. It's yer basic Opal yarn, except what's with the 2 ft. of GREEN dye found partway through the skein? Only on one strand and no other problems with the skein. I know Opal wears like iron, so I just broke off that scrap of misplaced color and kept knitting. And suddenly I'm back down to only one thing on the needles again. Heh.

dancing between the raindrops

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:13:00 +0000

The forecast for yesterday was absolutely dismal, but this was Atlatl Day, one of Jesse's favorite events of the entire year, as evidenced by the fact that this is the fourth year in a row that it's been featured on this blog (and we've been going for even longer than that). Leah's been out a lot lately, so she chose to stick around home and work on her own projects while Scott was baking for the day. Jesse and I packed up our wet weather gear and headed out. It was still raining when we left home, but the rain got lighter as we neared the shore and it actually stopped raining by the time we arrived!

It's now held at Hammonasset State Park, so we walked over to the beach before heading a little further inland to our destination within the park. We were psyched to discover that the atlatl and flint-knapping event were combined with the Hammonasset Festival this year, with vendors, exhibitors, and a full day-long schedule of entertainment and events "celebrating Native American culture and spirit, honoring the environment and her ecology."

Jesse, of course, was most interested in the atlatl practice sessions and later competitions.

His spears are the ones with black fletching, shown here in the mastodon's foot and neck. I and many other passersby tried spear-throwing with atlatls and I can tell you that even coming near to the target is a feat, let alone sinking a spear in the area where you're aiming!

There was one period of raindrops that turned into a downpour as we reached the pavilion for shelter, but otherwise the day was dry. I loved the Native American music and dancing, the demonstrations by craftspeople and organizations, and especially the birds of prey demonstration. Jesse joined me here and there, but mostly he was launching those spears, including holding his own in a round with world-ranked atlatlists and continuing until closing time. Again. :-)

Home in time for a round of soapmaking ('tis the season!) and a spectacular thunder and lightning storm. So much happy chatter around the house, with all four of us having stories to share about our day.

autumn drive-by

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:01:00 +0000

Home from an afternoon out with my favorite son just in time to grab some dinner and head out again for a haunted corn maze, but I wanted to post these pics before another weekend rolls in. Last Sunday was the rainiest farmers' market we've ever attended, but with nine fabulous restaurants providing samples like this...

and little cuties having fun like this...

and finding myself in a conversation about dyeing and local yarns with none other than Suzanne Sankow of Beaver Brook Farm, even a rainy market can be a fabulous time.

Over the past few days, I've been working on a little baby hat for a friend's new daughter. I'll put this in the mail soon, but I didn't have a baby handy for modeling it, so I did what any knitter would do in October...

Happy Fall!
Edited to add: Leah proclaims the above picture "hideous." She says I need to find a cute baby to model this hat ASAP. Apparently the orange skin tone and big schnozz don't mesh with her idea of a cute baby pic.

fiber twist north

livnletlrn@gmail.com (livnletlrn) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:22:00 +0000

Last weekend, we were at the Fiber Twist at our favorite farmers' market. This Saturday, we rolled northward nice and early. Destination: Franklin County (Massachusetts) Fiber Twist. We shared a booth with our friend, Leslie Wind, whose beautiful metal shawl pins and cable needle necklaces were a nice complement to Scott's glass work.

Leah was tickled by the whole thing, of course, but especially by the opportunity to wear her Sylvi sweater/coat in Twist Collective's fashion show. She otherwise spent the day flitting among the knitters, participating in charity knitting sessions, gathering ideas, soaking up colors, and doing metalwork with Leslie. She was also working on her Swallowtail shawl again, as apparently it's been in a time-out long enough.

Beads made of beads. Must find tutorial.
In between selling Scott's glass stuff, I enjoyed a steady stream of knitting friends I know from other places, folks I had just met but felt like I could talk to for days, and loving all the incredible things they were wearing -- beaded, felted, knitted, crocheted, woven, and on and on.

No lack of inspiration or ideas after a day at an event like this!

Leah made a point of visiting Gail Callahan, the Kangaroo Dyer, to tell her she finally found what she thinks will be the perfect pattern for the gorgeous red and black hand-dyed yarn Gail gave to Leah last year. They had a good chat and the next thing Leah knows, Gail is handing her this awesome skein of yarn to go turn into something fabulous!

It looks like blue shades on my monitor, but it's purples, from hazy gray-purples to full-on grape, with itty bitty iridescent sequins spun into it. Incredibly beautiful, especially for a kiddo who is recently falling back in love with knitting lacy patterns. This might become a Shetland Triangle or a Forest Canopy Shawl. Gail has a book coming out this winter and it's bound to be a great resource with stunningly dyed examples.

Home again in time to scoop up Jesse and head out to Pipes in the Valley, a Celtic music festival in Hartford, so we could see performances by the Wicked Tinkers and Gaelic Storm. Then home to bed, with another big day to follow.