She Knits By The Seashore

Vive Le Tour!

On Friday, we celebrated our country's birth with a family picnic. But on Saturday, we quickly switched cultural gears to celebrate the Grand Depart of the Tour de France. Since France helped the USA in the American Revolution, it all ties in together!

As a co-hostess with Meg of the Tour de France KAL, and soigneur to Mr. Suitcase (back on the bike, but not ready to race again just yet), it was only fitting we start the month of the best bike racing in the world with a grand fete.

Kristen, Team Leader for Lampre, started a beautiful cable vest. Ann S, a member of Team Garmin-Chipotle, worked on her stripey socks. I started Breton Girl during the party, and promptly realized after everyone left that I began with the wrong color stripe! Thankfully there were only a couple of rows to rip out, so I caught back up with the peloton pretty quickly.

I had planned to knit this sweater in the round, but realizing that I'd have to convert the pattern for stripes, and have a million ends to weave in anyway (does it make the sweater lumpy, in a way that hiding ends in seams does not??) made me think that maybe this is not the best pattern to be the first where I convert from flat knitting to in the round. After all, I'm going for the green jersey, trying to finish it before the Tour ends at the end of July, not the polka dot jersey, the "new knitting challenge" jersey. As a compromise, since the front and back of the sweater are identical, I'm putting them both on the needles and knitting them at the same time, just like I do for sleeves. Photo to come, as soon as I get a few more rows on the needles.

On Sunday, Chris and I went to see Impressionist Giverny: American Painters in France, 1885-1915. The exhibit features paintings by American Impressionists who also studied in Giverny with Monet. The museum had a beautiful house and garden, with purple cone flower (echinops), rudebeckia, phlox, and roses in bloom throughout the grounds.

There were artists on the lawn capturing the scene, which included a beautiful river that Chris photographed, below.

We ended our weekend with a short bike ride by the ocean. I hope your weekend, and your knitting, was just as fun!

Dream in Color Shrug

Here she is!

Pattern: Dream in Color Shrug

Yarn: DIC Classy, Cool Fire color, 2 skeins

Needles: old aluminum circulars, size 9

Mods: none

This was a quick and fun project. The yarn was soft and the pattern interesting without being too complicated for car or TV knitting. My gauge swatch came out a little small, so I went up a needle size. I think the shrug is a little big in the back, but I'd rather have that than the other way around. Not blocked.

My gauge looks fine for Breton Girl. Project bag is assembled and ready for the Grand Depart of the Tour on July 5th!

Because I felt like I had been writing posts that were too long lately, I went the photos-only route for the previous post. Now I'm thinking captions would have been better, so you would understand what you were looking at. Mi Scusi!

The first photos were taken at the Feast of St. Andrew Italian festival. Some of you know that I am researching my family history, and what better reason to enjoy Italian food while learning a little about the culture. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Amalfi (just south of Naples, on the west coast of Italy). When some of the Amalfi citizens came to live in the US, they still celebrated the patron saint of their homeland. While my family isn't from the Amalfi area, they did come from villages outside of Naples. The date on the bottom of the banner in the third photo, 25 Giugno (June) 1544, refers to the date when St. Andrew is credited with creating a storm in the sea, and saving Amalfi from the pirate Barbarossa.

The next photos were of Prescott Farm, which we visited with Sarah and Jeff on Saturday. The windmill was amazing!

The last photos were of our friends' sailboat. They invited us for a ride, and since being on a sailboat to me is the next best thing to heaven (as long as the weather's nice!), I was not going to say no. Seeing those white sails against a blue sky, hearing the waves lap on the side of the boat, and being gently rocked back and forth as the coast goes by to me is just the most exquisite form of bliss. What's yours?

A happy and safe July 4th to American readers and friends, and a special thank you to the husbands of WovenNSpun,KnittyGrittyThoughts, and the other knitty spouses and loved ones serving our country. You are very much appreciated for all you do.

Happy Weekend!

Summer Skies and Sea