Scarf Weather

It's scarf weather and I love it. It's that time of year when knitters feel like they can knit anything! We can make hats and mittens and scarves and sweaters - out the door we go to enjoy their warmth. Knitting in the summer is lovely, but a heap of wool on the lap in August is just not as sweet as a heap of wool in November or March.

I finished up this little two row scarf and just cast on for one in Noro Silk Garden - yarn I brought home from Rhinebeck. I'm really enjoying it. This scarf is simple, midless knitting and since I've been working myself out of knit-block, it was just what I needed. It's getting to be that time though when I start to challenge myself again. This weekend I went into my new local yarn shop and the people were so nice - I've got to get back there and support them. I'm wondering if they have a knit night - I'll have to call and ask.

The weekend was beautiful and we had a bunch of trick or treaters. It was so much fun! This is the first year for us having anyone come to the door, so we were pleased. Sadie wore her pumpkin outfit and ended up so tired at the end of the night:

The whole village of Tarrytown / Sleepy Hollow was decked out for the holiday. C. and I went down to main street for some lunch and roaming around. I love this little town that we're living in - the people are nice and there are lots of things going on all of the time. I hope we make some nice friends soon. Check out the spiders on the side of this house. I'm pretty sure they light up - very spooky!


For now, this is all the news that fit to knit.

Happy Halloween!

Rocking Rhinebeck and Other Things...

So....I went to Rhinebeck this year! It was a beautiful Saturday and C. agreed to a beautiful drive up north (it took us about 1.5 hours to get there from home). The fall colors were lovely and the yarn fantastic! Mr. Sheepie (pictured above) agrees!

One of my favorite finds was the large needle case above. I had bought the small case for dpns and circs at a small shop in Brooklyn a few years ago. I couldn't believe my luck when I found the matching case for straight needles. I snapped this one up without a second thought.

A noro scarf kit - love it!

The Spinningroom was offering these kits and here's a great little kit I picked for fingerless mitts and a neck warmer. I can't wait to get stitching!

And finally, finally! I am the owner of two socks that rock skeins and a str pattern. I've heard the hype and I can finally find out for myself if it's true! I'm looking forward to knitting these up for all of my holiday traveling. Can't wait!

Other Things...

We went to the Van Cortland Manor Great Jack o Lantern Blaze last night. 4,000 flaming pumpkins of all kinds. This thing was so amazing! I can't even tell you - a giant spider web made out of pumpkins? Spider pumpkins! A ship, Made out of PUMPKINS! DINOS MADE OUT OF PUMPKINS! One thing was better than the next. This is for sure a Halloween tradition for us for as long as we live in Tarrytown / Sleepy Hollow. What a great way to get ready for the holiday. My pictures in the dark look horrible, so no pictures for you - but trust me, it was fabulous.

For now, this is all the news that's fit to knit.

Welcome back to me and updates

We live in a townhouse-like community in that the upper units, like ours, have two floors where as the lower units are single floors and under those bottom units are two car garages. The garages are tandem (one car in front of the other instead of side by side). When we first got our apartment we inquired after the use of a garage and were told that they were very hard to come by. People seem to stay in this little community for a long time and all of the garages were taken. We were given a storage unit and a parking space not far from our apartment unit and we were pretty happy with that arrangement, though I did ask that we be put on the garage waiting list. I told the management office that I was only interested in a garage that was right near our apartment – that took us down to about six garage options – it didn’t look good for us getting a garage any time soon. But…then about three weeks ago a guy a few units up from ours pulls his U-haul up to his steps and starts schlepping all of his worldly goods down the steps and into the truck. Sadie and I were as nebby as possible without being too obvious on our walks, watching the family bring down the mattresses and the couches and box after box. The most amazing thing happened when one afternoon I looked out the window and saw that his Uhaul was in front of our place – and he was unloading the garage below my apartment. My heart leapt! He packed everything up and was gone.

For three weeks I have been stalking that garage – when I heard a car outside, I’d run to the window to see who might be pulling into the garage. As the weeks went by I was sure that someone ahead of us on the wait list had been given the garage. Chris and I talked about it and decided that too much time had gone by and that there was no way the unit was available. I settled back into my normal routine and then the phone rang! Did we want the garage? Oh yeah, baby! We wanted the garage. We spent the weekend moving everything out of our storage unit and into the garage.

It’s totally stupid to be excited about having a private garage, but if you’d been what I’ve been through with parking garages over the last ten years, well, you’d be stinking excited too.

When I moved to New York I first rented a sweet little attic apartment above this retired couple from Italy. They were lovely and the arrangement worked well for three years. Every winter I dug myself and my landlords and the retired widow next door out of the snow. I didn’t mind – they really looked after me and my landlord would change the oil in my car for free.

Then C. asked me to move to Brooklyn with him. My heart leapt and oozed out of my chest and I quickly packed up all of my own worldly possessions and headed down the BQE. I rented a parking spot in a garage in Park Slope for a measly $350 A MONTH! I didn’t always have the same spot, in fact, sometimes my car would be on a lift. They beat the ever loving crap out of both of the cars that I had in that garage, the guys that worked there yelled at me and I had to shell out close to $800 in tips every Christmas. It was a lot of money for a lot of pain and my car’s look terrible as a result of their abuse.

So imagine my excitement at having a private two car garage attached to my home! No more looking for a parking space, digging out of the snow or being yelled at in several different languages while I wait for my car to be brought down from a lift for me. Cost for this garage is so minimal, I won’t even tell you. It’s not even half of what I paid for the Brooklyn space.

I have garage glow. I can’t help it. My world is very small.



Other updates:

• I'm going to Rhinebeck! I'm working so hard to get rid of my knitblock right now, I'm doing to two row scarf with some stash yarn, but this weekend I'm writing out my projects and then C. and head up to Rhinebeck this month! I've never been - it is the knitter's mecca...people fly in from other countries to go to this fiber and wool festival. Can't. Wait. Seriously.
  


• Huge Halloween plans - I mean, I live in Sleepy Hallow now, it's gonna be a huge time of year. Oh, and Sadie has a costume. You'll die of the cuteness - I'm saving it for you.

Till next time, it's all the news that fit toknit!

Sadie says, wooooooffff, wooffff, woooofff.

Do you know that feeling you get when everything is lousy, but you’re trying really, really hard to keep your chin up? That one where you always kind of have a pit in your stomach and you still put a smile on your face? I’m there right now. Everything is lousy and I’m trying to make the best of it.

My father in law is very sick and it makes me so sad and scared and mad. Everything in the whole world feels less important than it did two months ago. He’s always on my mind and every moment that we spend away from home feels like a waste of time.

The dog is sick – at least, she isn’t eating and she looks really tired and I’ve got to tell you that a sick dog is not what C. and I need right now. We love her desperately and now her every sigh or itch has me snapping to attention. (Updated: we think Sadie is fine, she just going through some food issues).

Work is over the top busy – in a good way and though it keeps my mind off of the things that are always somewhere on my mind, I could use a little down time and a nap.

I think the only thing that I can do to make things better is get some stuff on the needles. I think I need a project, something to do with my freaking ineffectual hands. Why am I not a cancer curing doctor, veterinarian, CEO, millionaire? Let me tell you, it would make things a lot easier.

In preparation for our last trip to NC, C. and I hit Barnes and Noble to pick up some reading material. Neither of us does well without a book shoved into our backpacks. We usually split up as soon as we hit the bookstore and go to our various interest sections and then catch up with each other near the cook books.

I was on my way to the knitting section when my thrifty eye caught sight of the clearance table. Always on the look out for a bargain I swung by. Just as I got to last section of the table, I hit gold. Knitting Books! On clearance! Vogue Knitting: Socks Two On the Go! and Vogue Knitting Stitchionary 3, The Best of Vogue Knitting, Cover Up with Nicky Epstein and Knitting Never Felt Better by Nicky Epstein. I paid $1.80 for each book – a true bargain. I love a good bargain! I’m also looking forward to reading through them and knitting up some of the patterns. They go nicely in my knit book library.



Summer is almost over (thank goodness). I’m looking forward to fall and cool weather and regular season football. Go Steelers (some small pleasures will endure forever).

For now, this is all the news that’s fit to knit.

Safes

Remember the old adage, "when it rains, it pours"? We've been experiencing a lot of rain in the Yarnal Knowledge family. We've run into a bit of sickness and now we're digging in for a fight. Keep us in your thoughts and please keep reading this blog - even if we have strayed from knitting content for a bit.

As far as knitting goes, thanks to my good friends over at Ravelry, I'm back on track with my February Lady sweater...if by back on track you mean starting over... I am going to start over, but plan on making 3/4 length sleeves to solve my missing skein of yarn problem. I love those guys and gals over at Rav so much!

Last week we were in NC visiting my in-laws. What's that old saying about the inlaws and the outlaws? Well, as far as as these folks go, I hit the jackpot when I picked C. out for my husband. They're terrific.

We've been trying to be helpful in cleaning out my Grandmother in law's house (GMIL) (we sadly lost her a little more than a year ago) when we're in town. Many generations of my husband's family have laid their heads to rest in the home and we've been going slowly as we sort through the history and the memories. Saying goodbye to a house can be sad - they become a part of the family. Anyway, my mother in law (MIL) asked if I would stop by GMIL's house with her while we were out doing an errand. We walked up the steps of the creaky porch, in much need of a new coat of paint and into the house that smells a little musty because we leave it closed up so much now. It still has GMIL's style written all over it. The beautiful furniture, the linens, the pictures. You can tell that there was love in the house.

Into the kitchen we went where my MIL asked me if we'd like to take GMIL's pie safe. It's a handmade beauty with the tin punch fronts and all. I said that we would of course be thrilled to have it in our home. C. was delighted when he found it snugged into the back of the wagon later that afternoon. In order to take the pie safe we had to unload it. GMIL had stocked it full of cook books in the time that she had the piece. Unloading the cookbooks was like a walk through her history. We found treasures like the Pillsbury's New 1953 Cook Book. In 1952 Mrs. P. Harlib of Chicago won $25K with her recepie for Turtle Cookies. What would it have been like to win $25K in 1952? That's a lot of money now! It must have been a fortune then.

Also shoved into the pie safe were copies of Heloise's Housekeeping Hints. I've been enjoying reading my way through these treasured books and encountering tips from Heloise that remain pertinant today like: "Never take anyone with you when shopping if you can possibly help it. You don't save anything by sharing a ride to the grocery store with a friend. She'll only remind you to buy all the specials you don't need and to try the wonderful bread she uses! Go shopping alone even if you have to go in a taxi." Good stuff. She also talks about Weevils and Olio.

So the knitting should return tonight - I've got a lot of work to do as C. and I have some upcoming travel ahead of us. For now, this is all the news that's fit to knit.

Mom came to visit and we had a great time

I don't get to see her enough and the time we had together this past weekend went too quickly. We squeezed in dinner at Pascal's, a visit to Union Church and the Rockefeller Mansion and we did some shopping and cooking. She even fell in love with our sweet pooch, Sadie.

Above: Sadie gets a bone - she's really happy about this.

Above: Sadie's paws are the cutest things evah!


Above: Washington Irving's Sunnyside home. Remember the Headless Horseman? Ichabod Crane? His author lived here and when Kyle and Allison were in town we decided to take them on a tour (Allison is a librarian - so this was right up her alley).




Above: At Sunnyside - this tree has been growing since before the American Revolution. Wouldn't you like to ask the tree what it's seen? Wild.


Above: The Rockefeller Mansion, Kykuit. It's a pretty darn nice house.




If you're looking for knitting pictures I fail you once again. Life's been busy and interesting and we've been exploring Tarrytown / Sleepyhollow with family and friends. I did start on a February Lady Sweater and I'll get some work done on it this week and post the info for you here. I'm also working on an idea for another knit blog, but more on that later. Till next time, this is all the news that's fit to knit.