She Knits By The Seashore

Hurricane Sandy and Autumn Updates

Though we live in a shoreline town, we were thankfully not in the evacuation zone for Hurricane Sandy, and our basement stayed dry. We did lose half of a V-shaped tree at the end of our driveway.

 

It was uncomfortable living without power, heat, and water (we have a well) for a week, but compared to the destruction in other places, we consider ourselves very fortunate. NY and NJ are still suffering from the damage.

I'm working on a secret knitting project, so unfortunately I can't share any photos of that. Instead, I'll show you what I hope to work on once the secret project is done.

 

I bought this yarn and pattern pre-blog when we were on vacation in Cape Cod one summer. It's a simple ribbed turtleneck, and dark green is supposed to be one of the popular colors this fall and winter, along with burgundy.  The pattern (I want to make the dark green sweater on the lower right) calls for a separate front and back, but I don't see any reason why I can't knit it in the round up to the armholes.

The Knitty surprises are out, and I love the crescent shawl Beithe. I have some special hand-dyed yarn that I'm hoping will work with the pattern. I also want to find a cowl pattern that will work for the sportweight hand-dyed yarn in the photo below. I don't know if it will pool, so a textured pattern might be best. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

What are your weekend plans? Will you be getting ready for Thanksgiving? What knitting projects are you working on?

SummerFlies Shawl Completed!

Yes, the leaves are nearly all down, and daylight savings time is over...which means...the SummerFlies shawl is done and ready to wear!

 

Pattern: SummerFlies Shawl (free on Ravelry)

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Prima, 4 skeins

Needles: Size 10

Mods: None

 

This is a fast knit, though those who prefer charts will not like the text-only directions. I only wish it were longer and covered more of my arms; it's a more decorative shawl, rather than providing any real coverage from the, er, air conditioning or summer evening chills. It is going to look great with my Lilly prints.

One of these days, I am going to finish my knitting projects in season, so I can actually wear them out when I'm done.

Happy summer Thanksgiving (if you are American), and may you enjoy good food, the company of family & friends, and (if you are in CT) central heating!

 P.S. Having caught up on all the seasons of Midsomer Murders, I am now completely obsessed with Murdoch Mysteries from Canada. If you've seen it, what do you think?

Autumn Brings a New Lousia Harding Project

I started to write the following post about two weeks ago, and since that time, we had a freak snowstorm last Saturday that left hundreds of thousands of people in CT without power again. Thankfully my tiny corner of CT escaped the storm with maybe an inch of snow and no outages, but our inland friends had a foot of snow, and many are still shivering at home. We're all wondering what's going on at the power companies...

 ********************

After our last taste of summer, autumn has arrived at the seashore. Because of Hurricane Irene, our leaves are not as colorful as those inland. Apparently all the salt spray in the high winds took the vibrancy out. If you've read my posts for any length of time, you know that I'm not a big fan of fall, so it doesn't much matter to me...if I can keep warm and keep my allergies somewhat under control, it's good.

Still, Chris is in high excitement for *his* favorite season, so we've been taking some road trips to cider mills, a book crawl with our friends Hobgoblin and Dorothy, and a rail trail ride this past weekend in the beautiful hilly farmlands of Hudson Valley in NY.

 

We also did a corn maze. They remind me so much of the English mazes I've read about, and the trivia questions to help guide you through the maze were a blast.

Rosie surveys the blocking process

Since we've been logging some serious car miles, I've finished the Summer Flies shawl, and it's blocking. I had a delicious few days deciding what project to start next.

Two years ago, I went on a Louisa Harding spree, finding many of the unique, colorful yarns her patterns require that aren't readily available. I have felt guilty that the yarn has been sitting in the bags, waiting to be knit. I've also received numerous pleading messages through Ravelry, from knitters desperate for the discontinued Thalia, a tape-style yarn that isn't easily substituted. Since both colors I have were chosen for specific projects, I turned their offers down, but decided it was time to start at least one of them, and so I chose the quicker knit, the Rose scarf.

 

It seems odd that there are so few knitters who knit her patterns, maybe because her yarns are not readily available? The Rose scarf page shows only fifteen projects on Ravelry. Only her free patterns, like the Juliet scarf, have many finished projects. It's such a shame, because her projects are so pretty.

A closeup of the yarn, which has four strands of wool connected by nearly invisible filaments.

The scarf is knitting up fast, but I then have 48 little roses to knit with button centers that are attached all over the scarf. Can I finish this before spring??

Summer Flies Shawl Update and Jamestown Race

Until I can get to the elastic waist part of my pink skirt, I've been working on my Summer Flies shawl.

 

It's nearly done; only 11 (long) rows of the ruffle section to go and then I can bind it off. It's a fast knit with simple patterns. I discovered that the metal needle I started with is too slippery for the bamboo yarn, so I switched to a longer, plastic vintage circular needle from my mom's old stash, and it holds the yarn so much better.

One thing that annoys me is that I knit cross-season. I'm finishing a skirt and shawl perfect for spring, but I won't wear them for quite a while. And for the last few years, I seem to finish my heavy wool sweaters in May, just as it turns 80F degrees! So as I contemplate starting a new project, I'm thinking about how to get myself on a better seasonal schedule, so I can actually wear things out when I finish them.

Our Columbus Day weather was incredibly warm and summery, and Chris and I spent the day in Jamestown, RI, at the Jamestown Classic Race. It's a mix of road and criterium races, as the riders do one or two 19-mile laps around Conanicut Island, on the main roads instead of an industrial park/parking lot type setting. It's a little harder to take photos because you get only one or two chances to catch the racers as they go by at 20-25 mph, instead of the 25-30 chances you have when they do one-mile laps in a criterium race, but I ended my season as race photographer with this beauty:

Chris is the fourth rider from the left, nearest the yellow line. Click to enlarge, and see that beautiful ocean view.

It was downright hot in the bright sun, and I loved every minute of it. While waiting for Chris to come by, I could stand and stare at my favorite bridge (don't ask me why I have a favorite bridge, but I do)

The Pell (Newport, RI) Bridge

and soak up the ocean views to get me through the six months of cold winter that is coming.

Chris came in 23rd of about 40 riders. He was doing well until he narrowly avoided a crash on the back stretch before the finish. Sometimes it's not about finishing in the top ten, but just finishing upright!

After the race, we had lunch at a wonderful outdoor restaurant. In 2007, when Chris first raced at Jamestown, it was a day just like Monday, all unseasonably summery and warm, and we had lunch at this very place. I didn't think it would happen like that again (two years ago it was windy and freezing cold, and I spent most of the race huddled inside the rec center at the start/finish).

 It is such a cool place; with all the plants, it looks a little like a tropical jungle.

After lunch, we rode in the car around the island, past Beavertail Lighthouse, and then slowly made our way home on our favorite coastal roads. It was a perfect day weather-wise, one I will live on for a long time.

How was your weekend?