Check out this link:
Loop Blog
Thanks to the nice folks at Loop for posting this! They are a fantastic LYS and a place I visit almost every time I go into Center City. It just makes me happy!
On Sunday I leave for my round the world trip - three countries in two weeks. I've been planning my knitting for this trip over the past month, and likely completely overestimating how much I can possibly accomplish on flights where I would best be served by sleeping. This is possibly more thought than I've put into the presentations I'll be giving, and all the other work stuff on the agenda. But I digress (because talking about work on my blog is not my style...)
So the proposed packing list included the Clapotis, which is coming along quite nicely, and a sparkly scarf in a really cool silk yarn that has sequins in it, as well as some yarn to start some socks, and a hat I was thinking about. But is probably a lot more than is really necessary and when suitcase & briefcase space is at a premium, prioritization and being realistic becomes an necessity. So, no socks and no hat. But I will bring The Omnivore's Dilemna, which has been on the to read list for over a year, in case I finish up the knitting.
So there will be few (if any) posts over the next few weeks, but there should be a few good pics when I'm back.
The February Baby Sweater is done! It looks pretty good - I picked up the buttons at Cloth and Bobbin, where I had intended to take the quilting class. Yes, that's right - intended. So that didn't exactly happen. A few days before the class was going to start, I learned that I was going to be out of town during two of the four classes. So it didn't make so much sense to take the class after all. Maybe I'll be able to take another beginner sewing class in January. But, really, I don't need another hobby.
Here is the FBS:
Look for this picture on the Loop blog!
I had a nice email chat with Tante Sophie - I saw the Mocha Scarf pattern on the Purl site, but wanted to order directly from the designer. Love the pattern which is quick and clever. The ruffles are picked up from the body of the scarf, creating a nice warm scarf. I'm working on the trim on the ends now - should be done soon. Isn't the brushed suri yummy? The color is called toasted marshmallow. Double yum.
The picture kind of looks like a worm...
And since I'm feeling a bit ADD today, I also started a clapotis made with Sheep Shop 3. My mom had a lot a trouble with this pattern, but so far it's going ok.
It will be a good travel project for my round the world trip, which starts on Sunday. Destinations now include Germany, the Netherlands and China. All work, for two weeks. But it should be interesting and productive. Its a long time to be away, but should be cool - I've never been to Shanghai.
The last time I knit from an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern, I failed miserably. I tried to make a Baby Surprise Jacket out of a really nice pink bamboo yarn, and it was a total mess. It was ripped out and restarted two or three times, and then I just gave up. The pattern didn't make sense, I kept counting wrong, and it was just a big jumble of disaster. A few months ago I was in Loop to pick up some needles, and because I have no self control, left with three skeins of Koigu Kersti and The Knitters Almanac, in addition to the needles. The February Sweater was so cute, I figured I'd give it a try, although I was a bit skeptical based on the Baby Surprise experience. I cast on for this on Thursday, and its already almost finished. 
Once I got the hang of the lace pattern and figured out exactly was going on with these funky sleeves, it has been rolling right along.
One reason I got a lot of knitting time in was because we went to Dallas this weekend for Susan's birthday. It was a nice visit - although very quick. Seems like we were barely there! We'll be back in a few months once our neice, Baby B, arrives. Maybe she'll be the recipient of the FBS, although not sure how often Dallas babies get to wear wool sweaters!
On Tuesday night, we made the perfect fall dinner. Braised short ribs, sauteed kale with apples, and polenta. Ok, the polenta was the cheating kind in the tube, but the rest of the dinner took work (most of which was done by Scott). 
And last week I finished this yummy blanket for our soon to be born niece. Its the Blue Sky Alpaca Eyelet Baby Blanket knit in the worsted hand dyes. Its so soft and warm, I'd keep it for myself if it were adult sized...
Would love to have gotten this up sooner, but life has been crazy. We had a great visit to Rhinebeck. We left very early in the morning from NYC:
The drive up was a bit foggy
But we got there just before 9am and the sun had come out and there was no line at the gate!
I went right to The Fold and picked up a bunch of Socks that Rock
and some roving
Wait, what is a knitter going to do with roving? Well, my mom and I headed over to The Wool Room where I received some great instruction on how to use a Lendrum. It was so natural, I bought the weel.
After some more wandering around, I saw this lovely pumpkin
Guess this guy had some of the fried pickles. There was some damn good chicken pot pie, much less disturbing than lamb chops. And speaking of food, this was good year for some organic purchases, such as some locally made cheese and Organic Flour and Cornmeal
How about these cool glass pins from Moving Mud?
There were a lot of other goodies, but best of all is seeing the goats
and the sheep!
Hi, Frances the cat here. Just wanted to tell everyone that I'm feeling much better these days. Things were rough for while, but my parents took good care of me, and I keep hearing them grumble about their savings account. I'm not really sure what that is, but it sounds like theirs is smaller than it was and it has somthing to do the nice people at the vet. My feeding tube came out last week, and my mom and dad have been shoving pills into my mouth twice a day. This is really annoying, and I'm going to have to get sneakier if I want them to stop. But its better than when they were shoving food into that tube thing. Well, must go eat more now (and then hide - I think they are going to give me another pill soon).
Only a day until Rhinebeck and I can hardly wait for the fiber frenzy to begin. My mom and I are leaving NYC first thing Saturday morning, with all intentions of arriving by 9 or 9:30am. Since neither of us are particularly good in the early morning, hopefully we'll get there by noon. Our prep has included the following:
Continuing in the trend of the past few weeks, travel is ever present in my life. Over the past week, I've been to West Virginia, Cleveland and Boston (not Quebec) which means much knitting time. The latest project on the needles in a pair of socks, Embossed Leaves, knit in Socks that Rock from Interweave's 25 Favorite Socks.
While I was knitting on a flight from Philly to Charlotte, I sat across from a woman who told me that when she was first married, she knit one pair of argyle socks per week for her husband. The evolution of knitting from a necessity to provide clothing, to a leisure hobby is a fascinating one to me. What people once did to save money and clothe themselves, has become, for me at least, a way to make really expensive socks and sweaters. I bet the nice woman on the plane would not spend $20 on yarn for a pair of socks!
This pattern is great, although notice the nice little hole at the top of the gusset.
One sock down, another to go.
For all the knitters who read my blog, I'm sure you know (or have heard) what a great thing ravelry is. For those who are not knitters, its basically a site that you can use to organize all of your yarns, log your projects, and share ideas with other knitters about projects, etc. Its a great tool, but I do feel like a bit of a loser having spent 2 hours on a Saturday night loading photos of yarn and baby sweaters onto Flickr and Ravelry. I mean, as great as this tool is, it does take a lot of time to get yourself organized on there. Maybe it is faster once you've gotten all of your stuff loaded.
I'm thinking about going to Rhinebeck again this year, which will be on another weekend when I'll be a photographer-widow. Maybe I'll play Rhinebeck bingo.
A new hobby is not really something I need right now. Knitting and my dallying in spinning takes up a lot of time (not to mention an entire closet-full of yarn, fiber and other stuff), and I really could benefit from other ways to spend my time, like continuing to put together our house, and getting my *ss to the gym. But I couldn't really resist signing up for an intro to quilting class at the new fabric store in Narberth. This will lead to the purchase of a sewing machine, I'm sure, and I just stocked up on all sorts of supplies like fabric scissors and a rotary cutter. Class starts at the end of October, so stay tuned for updates on Caroline's adventures in quilting...
A lot of travel leads to fewer posts, but more knitting. In the past month I've been to North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Tennessee and Connecticut for work and for fun, which means hours of plane and car rides for knitting. Oh, and also it means spotting John Waters in the Knoxville airport and on my flight back to Philly. Frankly, I was kind of wondering what I was doing Knoxville, but I really wonder why John Waters was there. A southern version of Hairspray?
The Baby Burlbaw collection continues to grow:
The pink kimono is knit in a cotton/merino blend that I picked up at the String moving sale back in February. There is probably enough left for a hat and booties, which may or may not get made. The multi-colored kimono is made with Peaches and Cream and the hat in Be Sweet Magic Ball. An eyelet baby blanket is almost done too, and then I'll get to work on another blanket and a hat and mitten set.
The Hat and Booties I knit a few months ago now have a good home with the newborn son of a co-worker:
And Scott's Camo Socks are also finally finished, much to his surprise....
These are knit in Lorna's Laces shepherd sock camouflage (yes, somewhat obvious based on how they knit up...) and the pattern is from Knitting Vintage Socks.
So that is some of the recently completed stuff - maybe I'll get some of it up on Ravelry one of these days.
I was going to write a long post about the circle of life. Instead, just a quick snippet about the surreal nature of yesterday. I was in Chapel Hill, NC for a college friend's memorial service, which was absolutely tragic. In the afternoon I visited Neely and Richard in Raleigh and met Sylvie (who is two, and it is really abysmal that I hadn't met her until yesterday) and Lucy, who is three days old today.
So needless to say, the past few days have been very pensive... i could write volumes about everything from keeping in better touch with friends to the unjustness of untimely deaths not only for the deceased but their families to the beauty of new life. But not today.
Things continue to come together here in Narberth. Life on the Main Line is great - everything is so convenient, we know our neighbors, there is stuff to do, and I love our house. Quite a change from Cranbury where there was nothing convenient except for pizza and chinese food, we didn't know our neighbors, and there was nothing to do.
Its amazing how much work there is when you buy a house, even if its turn key like our little bungalow. Today we had the visit from the electrician who installed the new vent hood for the stove. I never really thought much about vent hoods until we didn't have one, but they are pretty essential if you cook a lot like we do.
We also had our new pendant lamp installed in the dining room.
This was a great find from MacKenzie Childs, and I love how it works with the terracotta stucco, (which incidentally, I've decided to live with, because it would be such a p.i.a. to remove). On Friday, I'm off to a super secret warehouse sale where hopefully I will find new dining room chairs. And hopefully will have good knitting time because its 1.5 hours away.
On the Frances front, she is back in the hospital, where she had a biopsy and aspiration today. Things were getting better, but then took a little downward turn, which is how we ended up back in the hospital. We'll confirm the diagnosis tomorrow, but the news from the vet was encouraging. All the vets, nurses and staff have been so great, and the receptionists all know us now. Apparently Frances is the most popular cat there, probably because she is so damn cute and such a sweet kitty!
In the meantime, Max is enjoying life as an only cat. That will end when his sister comes back home tomorrow!
Frances got some snazzy new bandages today at her vet checkup. How about those polka dots? She's not eating on her own yet, but that may not happen for a month or so (hence the tube). She's on a four times daily feeding schedule, which doesn't give her much opportunity to get hungry though.
I've decided to knit the Baby Surprise Jacket with the Be Sweet Bamboo that didn't work so well for the Mason Dixon baby kimono. I've ordered my first EZ book, and signed up for Zimmermania . I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival in the mail so I can get started. I'm not so motived these days on the knitting front - maybe because the cat care and feeding takes a lot of time and effort...
Must go - its time for Top Chef!
Frances is doing a lot better. Her animal hospital's radiologist is out, so we had to take her for an ultrasound and then back to the animal hospital today. The iv fluids she has been on seemed to put some spunk back into her. She remembered that she doesn't like being the cage or the car and whined the whole way there and back. The ultrasound confirmed the original diagnosis and didn't show anything else, although she is very anemic.
When we left her today, they were about to put in a feeding tube so she can get some nutrition, which will hopefully address the anemia, and if all goes according to plan, she'll be home on Saturday or Sunday. Max is a bit confused and lonely with his sister's absence, so we'll all be happy when she's back.
Moving twice in six weeks has taken a toll on us, but it has really taken a toll on our little kitty Frances. Frances doesn't get much air time on the ole blog because she isn't quite the attention getter that her brother Max is. While Max likes to be in the middle of everything, Frances likes chilling out, and enjoys a good cuddle. She can get a little spazzy, but is just generally a friendly little kitty.
Frances hasn't take well to Narberth. While I'm sure she loves the house (who wouldn't?!), she has been spending a lot of time hiding in the guest room between boxes, and seems generally disinterested, but not in an aloof cat kind of way. Last night it was clear she wasn't herself, so it was off to the vet. From the vet, she went to the 24 hr animal hospital, where she was diagnosed with Hepatic Liver Disease. Turns out that not eating or drinking will do that to a cat... It will also lead them to loose 5 pounds, which is a huge percentage of body weight.
She is now receiving a kitty iv with fluids, and they are trying to stimulate her appetite. Tomorrow she goes somewhere else for an ultrasound, and then we'll know the whole story. Fortunately, its treatable, and she can be 100% back to normal in about a month, assuming the ultrasound doesn't reveal anything else. So we are hoping for the best, and I'll get to see her tomorrow when we go for the ultrasound. But the house seems a bit empty without the little black cat...
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