Capri Shawl

Here is my Capri Shawl knitted in laceweight from Moorehouse Farms. The pattern also came from them. I bought this at the 2006 NYS Sheep & Wool Festival. I started it and then kept putting it done. I should correct myself. I must have started this about 5 times before I was able to finally get the right count. Ben's bar mitzvah made knitting this impossible because I couldn't concentrate but afterwards, it went along fine. Actually, I should give Ben some credit here. He told me that I should enter it in the Grange Fair which is held in early September and that would motivate me to finish it. The kid can be pretty brilliant sometimes. (He's actually very bright, I have to listen more!) Even though lace can be somewhat annoying and difficult, the blocking process makes it all worth it. This shawl opened up beautifully.

I must be honest that when I started knitting it I did not love the colorway. I immmediately thought about giving it away. Now, I can see wearing it. The colors remind me of this area in the fall. We have to cross a reservoir when going to temple and the water is similar to the blue, the trees are the browns and grays and finally the leaves are the orange. See? Hudson Valley Autumn! I must add that our guest bathroom was influenced by this yarn. The walls are a beautiful antique blue which is a complement to the mandarin red granite countertop. We had a very hard time getting colors to coordinate until I whipped out the colorwheel and realized that the yarn had the same colors. Don't tell my husband that the yarn influenced the colors in there!

This picture is just a close up of the center triangle. That was my favorite part to do! Enjoy!

What Goes Around...

Okay, this is not about knitting. I may be knitting (happily) afterward but this is not about knitting. My father likes to search for old friends over the internet. He just told me the other day that he contacted a woman we knew from the bungalow colony we use to go to. Her sons were and still are the smartest people I have ever known plus they were into Pink Floyd. They were so ahead of their time. I think they are physics and mathematics professors. Sorry, I digressed. I decided to look up someone I was friends with during high school and halfway through college.

We lived in the same building. Growing up in an apartment building meant that you always had someone to play with. Halloween was great. You just went to each floor and got tons of candy. We were a building of 20 stories! This girl, named Joan, became a close friend of mine in high school, even though we went to different schools. Our dads worked in the same industry so that's how we were introduced to each other. She is 6 months older than me but I skipped 3rd grade and was in the same grade as her. She was the one who introduced me to my very first boyfriend. I hung out with her friends from her high school. This was in the 2nd half of my senior year. It was a great time. We ended up going to the same college together but agreed that we shouldn't be roommates. It was the smartest decision we could have made.

Things got rocky. I was still involved with my boyfriend. The relationship she was having with her boyfriend wasn't doing too well. It wasn't until I came home for Christmas break that I found out that she was saying very mean things about me to my boyfriend. She told me that she couldn't understand why he stays with me since I don't "put out" for him. (Remember, it was the '70's. Most girls were virgins). She would say similar things to him! I told her she should know that that doesn't work since she "did it" with her boyfriend and he wasn't really into her. We returned to school not the best of friends. We really went our separate ways. She was into partying, I wasn't. She would have our friend at home send her money from a small inheritance her grandmother left her and buy drugs and stuff. Later, I found out that she moved in with a dope dealer. Her mother use to blame me for all this stuff. I had to stop being friends with her completely. We never spoke again.

Fast forward to 2007...I looked her name up and there it was. I remembered her husband's name and looked him up and lo and behold, what did I discover? Her husband was indicted in 2005 while working for a big securities company for taking over a half million dollars in bribes! Then he set up a corporation and she was his only employee who collected a paycheck every 2 weeks. They were both charged! He is now serving a jail sentence. I read that they had to sell their 1.3 million dollar home in New Jersey to pay restitution. She's now in Brooklyn with her 3 daughters. Her charges were dropped as part of a plea bargain.

Am I happy? Not really. It's sad to find out that someone had been so greedy that they had to break the law. It's sad that the children won't see their father for a few years. However, I am glad that I stopped being her friend a long time ago for reasons much less than what she was charged with. I guess my intuition was right! What goes around, comes around.

YORKTOWN KNIT OUT IS A SUCCESS!

Tonight, a beautiful event happened in beautiful Yorktown Heights. We had a knit out at Panera. The restaurant was looking for groups to come in during their evening hours (I guess to look busy) and after thinking about it for a while, I approached the manager a few weeks ago and cleared Thursday, July 12th. I remember him asking me how many people do I expect. I told him that I was hoping 5 would show up. He told me that he would provide the coffee.

I asked my friends, aka my ringers, and sent out an announcement through the Westchester Knitting Guild website. Then I mentioned it on KnitTalk. I got a few responses from KnitTalk and my good friend and neighbor, Chris, promised me that she would come. I offered to drive to guarantee that she would be there. Elijah, my 9 yo, also joined us because I didn't want to leave him home alone. The offer of a chocolate cookie and a lemonade sealed that deal. He brought some coloring, his Rubrik's Cube, a deck of cards and a book. Every time he saw someone with a bag other than a pocketbook, he would announce that a knitter was coming.

We had 7 knitters come! Aside from Chris and me, there was Toni, Christine, Sandy, Lori and Erika. Christine and Toni were the only two I didn't know. Sandy and Erika I know from my guild. I also know Sandy from my temple as well as Lori. They were so excited to be there. My friend Liz showed up without her knitting but with her 2 daughters and sat with us for a while. She promised to bring her knitting next time.

We chatted, had some coffee (decaf) and then showed our projects. We oohed and aahed each other's stuff. Toni was making a shawl from "A Gathering of Lace". Christine was making socks from a KAL called "6 Sock Project". Then she switched to a prayer shawl from a group called "Soulful Knitting Ministries". The shawl is made from all different types of yarn made into a skein. It is knitted and then sent to victims of domestic violence. We all want to do that! Chris was making a pumpkin hat because she knows another person expecting. Sandy was making a tie for her husband but showed us pictures of the Bob Dylan bag she made her son. That blew us away. Erika, a true artist and fiber artist, was knitting a scarf from some funky yarn. Lori was in between projects and started to knit a basket that will be felted. She carried her knitting in the beautifully felted entrelac bag she made. It was a gathering of colorful knitting. (See the picture!)

We are going to try to be a regular group meeting every Thursdays. I okayed it with the manager. I won't be there next week because we are going to visit my son at camp but it's nice to know that I can come back the following week. I thought Sandy was going to burst when she found out that this could be a regular gig.

A pleasant time was had by all. Thank you ladies for a great night! Thank you Elijah for being so sweet. I bet you were glad when Dad picked you up!

Happy July!

It's been quite a while since my last post. We had my son's bar mitzvah (which was fantastic!), finals for him and packing up for sleepaway camp. Now that it's July 3rd, things have finally settled down and all of my attention is on Elijah, the house and the slowly shrinking mountain of laundry in my bathroom!

On the knitting front: I have been working on the Caprice Shawl that I bought in October 2006 from Morehouse Farms. I am using their laceweight yarn which I thought looked a lot better on the skein than in the shawl. However, people have stopped me and told me how much they like it. I'll post a picture when it's bigger. I seem to have problems with this pattern. I knit about 10 lines perfectly and then I find a mistake. So I have to TINK to find it. I am enjoying it, though, and am looking very forward to finishing it.

I put myself on a yarn diet. I have too much in the house and I can definitely find projects for them. There's a handyman at our temple who is originally from Chile. His name is John. This is the nicest man in the world. He told me that when he sees me knitting it reminds him of his mother. I have a lot of gray wool-ease left over from a coat I made and I keep seeing myself making John a scarf with it. That's one project. Then I want to make this baby sweater I saw that uses up scraps and hopefully present it to the woman who sold my hats last year. I now have time to do it and if they knit up fast, well, I can give her a bunch of those.

Back to the diet: A local store is having a sidewalk sale on July 27th and 28th. I just spoke to my friend and I told her if she buys stuff for me and I pay her back, I can still stay on the diet. Right? OR I had the end of July as my deadline for the diet. July 27th is near the end of July, right?

I am organizing a knit out in Yorktown Heights at Panera's. I am hoping that I get a few knitters in. I posted it on my guild's website and am e-mailing knitters that I know personally. I just don't want to sit there by myself! Well, actually, that's not so bad in Panera's. No, I want to meet some more knitters. We're a great bunch of people!

One last note: Iris Schreier's new book came out. It's called Lacy Little Knits. This is the book I knitted for and I have my first acknowledgment! This was a rush for me. I was so excited. The book is gorgeous and I have to get it!

Alison Hyde came out with her book, Wrapped in Comfort. I need to buy this one, too, but I would love to meet Alison finally and I am hoping that she makes it to the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival so she can sign it!