november so far

Whee, creative post titles.  Heh.  Well, I’m still in Vermont, still looking for work, still spending most of the rest of my time on fiber stuff.

I have done a bit more travelling, including the not-so-fun (clearing out the apartment that had been my grandmother’s) and the fun (visiting yarnfriends).  I turned 30 two weeks ago and spent the following weekend back in the NYC metro area, going to museums and generally hanging out with friends (and knitting a lot).

I took a fair number of pictures in the newly-reopened Islamic art galleries at the Met, where we spent a good chunk of that Saturday.  These are a few of my favorites (objects more than photos):

And I mentioned knitting! It looks as though I haven’t posted earlier progress pics of this shawl, but I started a Desdemona just before I left for my trip to Europe. After a few months of feeling like I was close to finishing the center square, I finally did, and I picked up the 400+ stitches for the border. I also learned that picking up stitches is hard when there’s only one stitch between the edge and the first YO–I was a few stitches off count for the other three sides (-2, +5, -2), but I had such trouble figuring out where to pick up stitches for a scant two stitches per three rows that I had 15 stitches too many on that last side. Next time, I’ll make sure I have an extra selvedge stitch.

Here’s what it looks like now:

It’s scrunched up because it’s too small for the needle (I’m doing Magic Loop for now), but it should be plenty big by the time I’m done.

I’ve also started a really simple shawl with some spindle-spun singles. I’d tried this yarn in the Prairie Rose Lace Shawl last spring and thought it was too busy, so the new project is a stockinette shawl with probably a feather-and-fan border. (If not that, some other lace pattern that works well with stripes.) I am quite fond of the way the striping is working so far:

 

And I’m nearly done spinning my Spring Mix combo lot, so I’ll try to get a group photo of that by this time next week.

 

eye candy friday

How did it get to be Friday again already? I guess that means it’s time for at least a quick review of Rhinebeck.

Over the whole weekend, but especially on the drive up, I kept noticing how much I was surrounded by my favorite colors and beautiful scenery. The crowds at the festival aside, one of my favorite things about Rhinebeck is getting out of the city. (I love living in a city, but I need not-city at least a few times a year.)

About two miles before the turnoff for the park where I stayed (with friends), I stopped at the parking area/overlook. This view kinda reminds me of all the hedgerow-divided fields in England.

Saturday morning, we took a back route from the park to the festival. Lovely as the Taconic is, the back roads were perhaps even more scenic, and much closer to my favorite kind of driving. (I was passenging, though. My favorite roads for driving do not lend themselves to free hands for even aimless photography.)

It cleared up by the time we left the fairground on Saturday afternoon. This tree is just outside the 4H gate.

And this is the view from the big parking lot just before the road through the campground to the cabin. I really want to go back there, maybe even at some other off-peak time, just to hang out at the park. (And that was quite a nice cabin, as state park cabins go. The electricity even stayed on all weekend!)

As usual at these things, I had a fantastic time despite several things not going precisely as I’d imagined. I got to see a lot of awesome people at least briefly, got to spend longer with a few of them, and got to see scenery that is very, very different from South Philly. Except for the niggling feelings of guilt for not working, I would’ve liked the weekend to have lasted several days longer.

The work is important, though–I’ll probably continue to post infrequently for the next few months, since much of my recent work-stress was building up to my committee meeting last week, at which I received permission to write my dissertation. Unless things go terribly wrong, I’ll be defending in late January.

 

a weekend’s spinning

Okay, not quite a whole weekend’s spinning, but I started this batt when I was just over halfway to New York on Friday, and spun a bunch yesterday and more today while waiting for the bus to come home:

And, just for the heck of it, here’s an updated photo of my Revontuli, which grew by a few rows on today’s bus ride:

Oh, and while I’m posting, and it’s just after sunset and I’m sleepy, here’s a photo of last night’s sunset:

And now it’s time for more plying, and then some knitting, and then bed.

 

eye candy saturday

Just after sunrise this morning. Not quite as cozy as trees outside one’s window, but a pretty nice view to wake up to.

(I gave my mom her birthday scarf last night–it went over quite well. Which is good, because I already have plans for other woven things for my parents.)

 

eye candy friday

Sunset on Tuesday.

From Madison Square Park last Wednesday (the 25th)–this was intended for last Friday’s eye candy, but I didn’t have my computer with me and thus never quite managed to borrow enough computer time to post. I got a “look, someone’s taking a picture!” comment while I was stopped to take this. I was amused.

Also from my Thanksgiving trip to New York:

We went to see the Mapping the Hudson exhibit at the public library, and stopped first in the children’s room to see the original stuffed animals that were the basis of the Winnie the Pooh stories. They’re clearly well-loved… And Piglet is a lot smaller than I’d’ve guessed!

I haven’t done all that much fibery stuff lately, but I knit half a sock heel at the Paul and Storm/Jonathan Coulton show last night. They turned the (rest of the) lights off after the intermission, and I couldn’t see well enough to pick up the wraps as well as the stitches, so I’ll have to finish it either at lunch or this evening. (The concert was great, though.)

 

eye candy friday

The one real downside to this spinning-while-walking thing is that I’m a lot less likely to pull out my camera. So, today, I have two photos from April, from Fort Tryon Park:

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I went contra dancing last night for the first time in way too long. Maybe this’ll be the time when thinking “I should really do that more often” will translate into reality…

 

lace in the sun

I went up to New York this past weekend, to meet up with my parents. I also wanted to see the Fashioning Felt exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt. I was a little worried about convincing them that they’d want to go, as they’d seemed singularly uninterested when I suggested it in April, but I think their recent experience of making felt (cat-toy-like balls, at Shelburne Farms) may have changed their minds a bit. At any rate, we all really enjoyed the excursion, though I will admit to being a little disappointed by the sustainable design exhibit upstairs.  (It was okay, and there were a few particularly interesting bits, but it wasn’t as awe-inspiring as I’d hoped.)

Though most of the Felt show didn’t permit photography, I took a few pictures in the one room where it was allowed:

I’d be tempted to try to set up something like that, if I thought it’d survive for more than a few days without being a very elaborate cat tree…

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I haven’t done any felting recently, but I did add a couple more repeats to my Estonian lace scarf, and I’m getting fairly comfortable with the pattern.

(The second photo is more true to the colors.)  It’s a wee bit longer than that now, but the light on Sunday afternoon was lovely (and I’ve missed all the nice daylight since I got home).

 

eye candy friday

These are from the gardens at the Cloisters, taken last month.

 

eye candy friday

Adamas is off the blocking board!

I’ll need to reblock it, after redoing the second half of the bindoff, but I think it’s going to go to Maryland more or less as-is.

The Aubrey/Maturin novels are still taking over my leisure time (I’m on book 12 now!), but I took a break last weekend to hang out with my parents in New York, where I talked them into going to the Cloisters. Fort Tryon Park was absolutely beautiful, so we spent a while there on the way to the museum.

More later–I need to fit some lunch into my midday break.

 

weekend in the city

I went up to New York this past weekend, mostly so I could see the Calder exhibit at the Whitney. I would highly recommend it to anyone who can get there while the exhibit’s still on (the next month or so), and I also quite liked the William Eggleston photography show they had.

They don’t allow photography in the museum, though, so my weekend’s photographs are from my ramble through Central Park after leaving the Whitney.  The snow was sticking more in the park than on the streets, and it was simply lovely.  (By the time I got back to where I was staying, though, there was enough snow on the sidewalks that I regretted not changing out of my earth shoes–I got snowpacks in the heels.  Not fun.)

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Also, according to Chris, at least, today is Delurking Day.  Say hi!

 

Thanksgiving vacation, in pictures

As usual, I went up to New York for Thanksgiving with my parents and New York family. Whenever traffic and weather allow, I like to walk through Madison Square Park on my way from the train station, and I’m really glad I did so on Thursday–the current art installation is a bunch of small tree houses (“tree huts”).  (I also caught a bit of the Macy’s Day Parade outside Penn Station, but I figured Pikachu’s back wasn’t picture-worthy.)

I saw this as I was leaving the park, and thought it was appropriate signage for Thanksgiving:

I didn’t take pictures of the food or the people, but here’s a shot of the centerpiece (a cyclamen from the Greenmarket):

I continued to neglect my camera all day Friday, despite seeing the World Trade Center site for the first time since going to the tkts booth there ages ago, but I shot this from my bed on Friday night.  (Please pardon the angle; I was too tired to get up, and there wasn’t a real tripod handy.)  I know lighting like that has to be incredibly wasteful of energy, but I love the way it looks.

…And then, today, I came home to a snuggly cat.

The plastic bag in front of Mel is holding the yarn for my new lace project:

I’m using my corriedale/silk singles for Mim‘s Adamas Shawl.  I’m a little concerned about how well the yarn is going to stand up to blocking, but I’m really enjoying the process.  It’s a really nice pattern, and the yarn is incredibly soft.  (And it’s handspun!  And lace!  What more do I need?)

All in all, a very nice vacation.

 

eye candy friday

Friday snuck up on me this week! These pictures are all from last Saturday evening, as the illuminated buildings replaced the sunlight.

 

two things

1. Go read this. And this. And then e-mail or write to the HHS.

2. I went up to NYC this past weekend, to hang out with my parents. And I finally managed to get myself to the Yarn Tree. (This requires being in Brooklyn on a not-Friday with some extra time.) I have to say, that was perhaps the second-nicest yarn/fiber store I’ve been to so far (after Shuttles in Boulderish, though I may be shorting NEFA a bit because I didn’t really know what I was doing when I went there). So many kinds of fiber I hadn’t seen (or noticed, at least) yet! Lots of colors of basic wools! And, not least, a table and chairs in the middle of the fiber/spinning room, so my parents didn’t get impatient. They actually seemed interested in some of the things with odder names or appearances, like the silk cocoons and silk hankies, and they agreed with me that the Kundert spindles were very pretty.

I had planned to buy very little–maybe an ounce or two of some unusual fiber that I hadn’t tried before, but nothing much. Instead, I, um, bought a lot. Including a spindle.

I had been thinking I wanted a new spindle that was heavier than the two Bosworth Midis that I’ve had for three years. This isn’t that (it’s 1.2 oz, between the 1.0 and 1.3 of the Midis), but I love it.

The fiber that’s already on it is the targhee I bought.  (Also YUM.)  I haven’t yet tried the silver baby alpaca or the merino/yak or the masham, but I’m looking forward to them. And that beautiful merino/tencel on the left is from JulieSpins (jsandell on Ravelry); it just happened to show up on my desk yesterday.