Empty Nesting and Travelogue

Once again, it's been far too many months between posts, but I'll try keep up better this year. As of this fall, I am an empty nester. Our youngest son left for college in August, our middle daughter transferred to Wellesley College (at least we still have one within driving distance) and our oldest son graduated from college, moved across the country, and is gainfully employed out in California. The oldest left in June, to drive across the country visiting friends and relatives and generally enjoy his last days of freedom before entering the workforce. Youngest son left mid August for freshman orientation at University of Oklahoma, and we drove middle daughter up to Wellesley at the end of August for her transfer student orientation. This fall has been.......odd. It's just the two of us, and the cat.

Beatrice the Cat

You'd think it wouldn't be that big a difference, since we were down to only one kid last year, but it has become very quiet at home. I think it will take some time to get used to.

I should start with some knitting content. It hasn't been a great year for me and knitting. I've been suffering with lateral epicondylitis in my right arm since last spring. I finally went to physical therapy in September and have seen great improvement, but had to spend a large part of my fall NOT KNITTING! So I am particularly thrilled to be able to post a finished project!

Musica fingerless mitts

Musica is a pattern I found as a free download on Ravelry. You can click on it and get to the pattern if you're registered on Ravelry. I knitted them in Pura Bella Yarns 100% silk, worsted weight, on size 1 needles (size 0 for the ribbing). I tweaked the pattern in a few places to make it work for my purposes, and had to enlarge the charts on a copier so my old eyes could read them properly. This is not a great pattern for a beginner as it assumes that you know how to knit in the round, strand, increase, etc. but for an intermediate knitter it's great. If I were to knit them again, though, I would NOT use silk. Too slippery and splitty and no stretch to the yarn. For any of you familiar with the piano, please note that the left-hand mitt sports a bass clef and the right-hand mitt has a treble clef. How clef-er! These are for my daughter, who is singing in a acapella group in college. I really wanted to finish them before the weather started to get cold this fall, but, alas, travel and a bad arm got in the way. I did, at least, finish them up by Thanksgiving and was able to send them back to school with her (albeit still damp from blocking!) after her Thanksgiving break.

So, in order to take advantage of my newfound freedom, I have been traveling. My first trip was with my husband's Aunt Karen, AKA my aunt-in-law. We took a cruise together that started in New York and cruised up the New England coast and into Canada. We stopped in Newport, RI; Boston, MA; Portland, ME; Saint John, NB; Halifax, NS; Sydney, NS; Charlottetown, PEI; and ended in Quebec, QC.  

Sailing out of New York Harbor

Mansion in Newport, RI

Walking the Freedom Trail in Boston, MA

More Boston

Our ship in Portland, ME Harbor

Early morning in Portland, ME

The Bay of Fundy, Saint John, NB, waiting for the tide to turn

Statue of "The Emigrant" in Halifax, NS

The "Big Fiddle" in Sydney, NS, representing their Celtic Heritage

Montmorency Falls, outside Quebec, QC

The intrepid travelers, on the path to the waterfall

The bridge from Mainland Quebec to Ile d'Orleans

The band parading at La Citadelle in Quebec, QC

One of the gates in the fortified wall around the Old City in Quebec

 Well, time to put up this post, late as it is. I have more adventures from my empty-nested fall but they will have to wait for another post. I'll try to get them in in between the holidays, because there are some pictures I'd love to share, and another knitting FO!

I'll leave you with last night's candles:

Second night of Hanukkah

Note the Swedish Advent Star hanging in the window. It was my grandmother's and I so enjoy putting it up every year. I am tickled by the fact that it's a six-pointed star and seems to fit right in with the Hanukkah theme as well as the Christmas theme.

Happy Holidays, whatever you may celebrate!

Shelley in CT

How did we get to March already?

First off, I finally finished the carboy sweater for my youngest son. Ta-da!

And, he likes it and has been wearing it to school almost every day. Definitely the mark of a successful sweater. Makes the knitting worthwhile. I had some real slow-downs while knitting this sweater though. Over the summer I didn't get much knitting done just because this project is big and wool and our summers are hot and humid. Not really a good mix. Then, when I was close to finishing, I procrastinated A LOT over cutting the steek in the front. The pattern is actually written to be knitted back and forth, no cutting involved. I've made sweaters in the round with steeks before, and not had any problem with them, so I thought it would be much easier to avoid all that purling on the wrong-side rows and just knit it all in the round and cut down the front later. Now that it's done (and I'm very happy with the result), I'm not sure I'd do the same thing again. Sure, the knitting went great, but crocheting and cutting the steek (I used a crochet steek that I learned in a class at Stitches one year), tacking down the cut edge, and even determining the exact middle so I could cut in the right place, slowed me down as I worried over doing irreparable damage to the sweater by cutting in the wrong place. If I were to knit this pattern again, and I might, as it was a really straightforward knit, I think I'd stick to the instructions and knit back and forth.

Here's a nice article from the Vogue Knitting archives, written by Meg Swansen, about steeking, with instructions for the crocheted steek.

Today we are finally getting some spring weather. I could use all the snow this winter as my excuse for not blogging all these months, but really it's more like plain old laziness. It did, at least, give me plenty of time to start and finish some small projects.

First new project was a cowl for my daughter. I had been looking for some nice yarn but couldn't decide on a colorway, and she and I were having a hard time determining colors that she like via iphone pictures long-distance. One weekend in January, I had driven up to see her at school and just happened to find a nice local yarn shop. So I brought my daughter in to pick out some yarn. She found some wonderful bulky yarn, and the shop owner just happened to have a free pattern with yarn purchase. With bulky yarn, the cowl knit up in no time and she has been happily wearing this cowl every since!

While I was on a roll, I decided that I needed a cowl for myself. I had some lovely bulky Malabrigo yarn that I had won as a door prize at Stitches East several years ago. I had found a hat pattern with reversible cable on the brim, and it knitted up beautifully, but I really didn't look good in it, and haven't found anyone to give it away to. So I frogged the hat and reknitted the yarn into a cowl. I used a free pattern that I found on Ravelry called Cobbled Cowl by Annie Riley, which is a linen stitch pattern. I modified it by adding  k2p2 ribbing at the top and bottom so it wouldn't roll.

Malabrigo yarn as a hat "BEFORE"

Malabrigo yarn as a cowl "AFTER"

I have already gotten some good wear out of the cowl, and it coordinates beautifully with my blue down coat

Next snowy-day project was a new clock for the kitchen. Our old clock, which had lasted us probably 15 years or more, had faded, cracked wood, and wasn't really fixable. I decided to hunt for a new clock. No luck at the local stores, but I found some interesting clocks on Amazon. I finally decided on this "steam punk" style clock, which was a good size and a neat look, but was made in cheap plastic in all one color.

I had read a lot of the customer review on Amazon when I was shopping, and many of them talked about enhancing the look of the clock with a little metallic paint. That sounded like fun to me, so I bought a few different metallic paint tubes and started my art project.

I had to mix the metallic paints with black paint to tone them down a bit and with each other to create different colors, but was very happy with the result.

On the Wall

Well, that's probably more than enough projects for one post. I've got another one in the works that's a suprise for the recipient, but by my next post it will hopefully by finished and gifted and ready to be photographed for the blog!

Shelley in CT

Happy 2014!

Well, it's been another busy year. I've sent another kid off to college and the third one has sent on his college applications and just has to wait for his acceptance. It's hard to believe that we'll be empty nesters in 9 months.

As usual, it has also been a year in which I had lots of plans and not as many accomplishments. I had planned to get more sewing and knitting projects finished up, and had planned to paint the entry hall and upstairs hall. I did get a few projects knitted and sewn, but for the rest, I'll just put them on this year's list. On the up side, I finished a MOOC (massive open online course) with distinction no less! I signed up for a beginning computer programming class that started in October and ran through the beginning of December. It took up a lot more time than I was expecting it to, but I was able to keep up with the work and the deadlines and do all the assignments without dropping any of my other house or professional work. This year I'm planning to use the coding I learned to write some interesting programs, like maybe one that will generate a sock knitting pattern. 

I hadn't been running as much as I'd have liked this past year. There were scheduling issues, travel, injuries, and difficulty motivating myself to make the time. I did manage to finish out the year with a good 7-mile run with my son. I must admit, I wouldn't have done it without him: he is training for the Houston marathon and wanted company for at least part of his long training run and prodded me a little bit. Turned out to be a good (albeit rather cold) New Year's Eve morning run though. I'm not even too terribly sore today.

Life is moving on but is generally good. Oldest son brought his girlfriend home for a week-long visit with us before they both travel down to her house for a week there, and from there back to school. They both have jobs waiting for them at the same company after they graduate and they will be looking for an apartment together. This is our first taste of "the next step" and so far it's looking pretty good. The girlfriend is fitting right in, with a great sense of humor and an ability to roll with all our eccentricities, and we are enjoying the visit very much. I certainly hope our other kids do this well finding someone to pair up with.

No big resolutions. I figure they will come along with the new year and best that I think them through rather than making big plans now that I can't realistically follow through with.

Wishing all of you a wonderful 2014! I hope we all continue to learn, move forward, and make and maintain good relationships this year.

Shelley in CT