Lovely Yarn Escapes

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Re-post Of The First Friday Fantasy Knits

I'm off on vacation for two weeks and I decide to re-post some good previous posts that were not read a lot. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did making them. My "Friday Fantasy Knits" have ended up being inspiration for knitting projects for me. Really fun and pretty!

What do you imagine knitting? Are you like me and a virtual hoarder? Queuing up endless images of knitting projects you'd like to do, but only in a dream world could you possibly achieve all those patterns & designs. And yet you continue to pin ideas and add to your favorite site on Ravelry?

Dreaming to me is important. Sometimes the most seemingly impossible dreams can come true. Like for instance I had pinned the Fearless Cardigan on Pinterest and "Favorited" it on Ravelry; but I knew I would never ask my husband for such an expensive yarn. Lovely- but come on- food and bills come first. But one night when I couldn't sleep I felt The Lord ask my heart is there one thing I'd love to get with the tax return that is just fun? That would make you happy? I thought and the first thing that popped into my head was that Crazy Sexy Wool and the pattern for The Fearless Cardigan by Wool & The Gang. Lovelyyarnescapes-The Sumptuous Sexy Fearless Cardigan I fell asleep peacefully dreaming of the cardigan. Now if you knew my life you would know the difficulties we've faced the last year. The new fear and difficulties we face with our teen daughter this winter (prayer is always welcome- thanks). So God whispering to my heart- "Is there something that would make you especially happy- something frivolous?" Would not seem so odd. So I woke up and realized it was OK to ask. And I did and here I am dragging a 1 or 2 day project out for weeks- I've never had such lovely yarn and expensive! I didn't use the word "Sumptuous" lightly!

So while I ask you to dream and tell us what are some of your fantasy knits that you have queued up, I also know someday some of them will come to be. Like mine.

If you want to join (I'm new at this and don't have any fancy buttons to push on my site- yet) just pick 1 - 3 fantasy or projected knits that you'd like to do. They can be knits you know you'll never do- but wish you could or were able; or knits you actually want to accomplish one day or start tomorrow. Include the appropriate links to either the pattern or a way to get it or the Ravelry page. Enjoy the journey and Happy Dreaming- surely dreams can come true and when they don't the act of dreaming inspires and pleases the soul anyway. Post any dreams in the "Comment" section either directly or through your Blog so we can enjoy it!

My Fantasy Knits-

Lucidity

Hedgehogfibres- Lucidity Pattern

Winter Thaw

Hedgehogfibres-Winterthaw.pdf

Knittingdaily-Squall Line Shawl

Happy Dreaming- you never know where your dreams might lead...

Tuesday Teaser

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books And A Beat.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Wild Stories: The Best of Men's Journal- 2003

Here's an excerpt from The "Wild Stories" but as I read it I immediately recognized it as one of the most poignant moments in "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer. One of the men who died up on Everest that fateful climb was it's leader Rob Hall, who stayed with a client when he could of left him. He talks to his wife before he dies. His body remains are still on Everest.

"The Death Zone" by Peter Wilkinson, p. 396

"He was patched through by radio with his wife, Jan Arnold, in New Zealand, at 6 P.M., before he died. (A rescue mission earlier that day had been forced back by more bad weather a mere two hundred yards from his location.)

"Don't worry about me too much," Hall said to his wife. "If only someone can get up to me and give me a couple Thermoses of tea."

(I did cheat a bit with that extra sentence, but I wanted to include his last words).

Tuesday's Eclectic Thoughts

I'm going very early tomorrow morning to the Denver airport for a morning flight to Upstate New York. My family will be driving up from New Jersey and meet me and then we'll drive the rest of the way up. I'll be passing through old territory. I remember being in the back of the station wagon with my brother (before seat belt laws) passing along the route going Upstate, passing through the bridge beyond Albany. That area became my home for several decades after I went to Skidmore, my husband and I settled in the Old Saratoga area where the battle took place. The snows were deep, the Fall's very brilliant with red Maples and yellow and orange Oaks and the summers I enjoyed a quick escape to The Adirondacks often. We gave that up going to Colorado and while I love Colorado and the West, I miss The Adirondacks.

I'm packed with my fashion consultant's help (my daughter) and I have plenty of knitting and reading material with me. This time I'm bringing a real book- the tablet, while nice, is not the same as a book in my hand for vacation. I got my dulcimer case last week and that'll be strapped to my back for singing at my Mom's Memorial. I'm all set.

My yarn for the Hat KAL by WEBS- Choose Your Own Adventure - Hat KAL

There are two houses- a cottage where I'll stay with my dad and the converted carriage house of my Great-Grandfather's called the "Bunkhouse" back in the woods above us. My brother's family stays up there, plus my youngest daughter (with all the kids) and my oldest daughter who lives with them and watches the kids and cooks for them. She must have a double dose of patience.

I could hear the screams from below every morning when I was there last month. Imagine- I have my tea and lovely homemade Whole Wheat Sourdough bread with walnuts and raisins that I made and brought (recipe will follow at some point in my Sweet-to-be blog). I sit quietly at a small dining table in a nook in the sunshine with classical music streaming from my tablet. My Dad says- they made you blueberry muffins above, they're waiting. OK, blueberry muffins good draw, I still can hear the screams and.....boy am I happy and content just being where I am. Yes, life should be so difficult, I'll figure it out, I just love moments of peace and quiet. And my youngest daughter just informed me she'd like me to deliver her tea up to the Bunkhouse every morning in her pink and green ceramic travel mug so she can wake up early with her cousins, so la-de-da for her- room service? My Maggie is cute, she actually gets away with stuff like that.

Next week we'll go into camp for a weekend with all the family. We'll be rowing in Adirondack Guide boats filled with supplies up the Ausable Lakes to ultimately get to a Turn-of-the-century lodge with no electricity. The kitchen is gas powered and there are nice showers and bathrooms. And lots of mosquitos! I've already done my research on soaps and scents that repel bugs. Apparently mint and lavender help. In Colorado we have no bugs that bite because it's so dry. The past two nights I've seen one mosquito a night and that's a lot! I'm sure I'll be wearing bug spray too! Thankfully they have netting for out in the lean-to where I want to be if my son comes.

mjwitherell

Jkhnelson

A story I found on someone's blog of their trip as a guest up the Lakes to stay- "Oh Jen Darling" - "Dominoes and Dinner Parties" A Blogger's recounting of their trip up the Ausable Lakes to camp!

I'm going to post a few blogs while I'm gone on automatic and some will be repeats of blogs I liked and were hardly read. Enjoy your summer and check out the KAL's I have posted at the top for some fun summer knits.

If you want to share your knits today check out-

Join "Keep Calm & Craft On" to post your projects on Tuesday or later in the week.

Nicole says: "The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link" on her blog, link above.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Musing Mondays

- I'm currently reading…

- Up next I think I’ll read…

- I bought the following book(s) in the past week…

- I'm super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…

- I'm really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…

- I can’t wait to get a copy of…

- I wish I could read ___, but…

- I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: What is/are your favorite book cover(s)?

PLEASE add your book comments at Books and a Beat, Thanks!

I'm still enjoying reading "Wild Stories: The Best of Men's Journal- 2003" and finding it hard to finish a story because I become attached to the story and the main character in whichever story I'm reading at the moment. Many of the stories I do a search afterwards to see where they are today. In the story called "A Mountain of Trouble" Jeff Lowe is a climber who is at the top of his game, the best. Because of bad business decisions he was going bankrupt, personally at the bottom going through a divorce and owing all his friends tons of money they invested into him. Suddenly, in the winter, he decides to pursue a very difficult ascent never done before- climb the North Face of Eiger in the Swiss Alps in winter. The story opens with him trapped for a few days in a cave he carved out in the North Face as avalanches and a snowstorm keep him penned in. He was poorly prepared with climbing gear because he had sold most of his stuff and he used supplies donated by climbing gear companies. Unused, untried equipment. He's cold, wet and running out of food supplies. In the morning after a few days he hears an unearthly vibrating music and to this day doesn't know if he heard it or imagined it. I won't give away the ending, but what made him a great climber is his total ability to deal with now. Today, what is right in front of him. Now 16 years later he has a mysterious illness like ALS and is in a wheelchair, but the way his companion girlfriend Connie Self talks of him and how he overcomes is amazing using the skills he learned as a great climber. Endurance to the end.

“His life as a climber has had a huge impact on how he deals with this,” Self says. “Climbing, you do the best you can with what you’ve got, from where you are, right now. You are focused in this moment on solving this next step, this next move. You’re not saying, ‘Argh, this shouldn’t have happened. Why is this crack ending here?’ If you’re doing that, all your creativity shuts down."

“When you stay open to possibilities, you stay in the present moment and you keep moving. You can make the best possible decisions when you keep your creativity open and you’re embracing reality. That’s what Jeff calls it, ’embracing reality’ instead of resisting reality.” Denver Post- Jeff Lowe, Legendary Mountain Climber, slowly dying of ALS-type disease

Here's a link to the film he has worked on about the climb, I haven't seen it yet, but I want to- Jeff Lowe's Metanoia .

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: What is/are your favorite book cover(s)?

I love Karen Marie Moning's cover's- Fever Series

Her books are also awesome!

Happy Reading this week- I'm off to the Adirondacks tomorrow and probably won't be able to post because I don't have internet! The quiet of the woods is good too!

Monday Moments

I'm off to the Adirondack Mountains this week for my Mom's Memorial and a vacation in my favorite spot, where I grew up in the summers. I feel like my Mom gave me a gift, my Dad paid for the flight and my brother paid my youngest daughter's ticket. So I get to be with the whole family this year.

While there I'll continue to work on my TGV shawls- TGV (High Speed Knitting) by Susan Ashcroft and for more details Tuesday's Eclectic Thoughts. I finally got to the halfway point on my multi-colored Noro TGV where you stop doing the garter stitch and you double all the stitches by KFB in each stitch. I'm just starting the flange which is a rib of 2 x 2 Knit and purl. It'll look so awesome when it's done! Can't wait to get a few inches done to see the result! But I'm kinda packing and doing so many assorted things to get ready. Like baking Whole Wheat Honey Sourdough with Walnuts and raisins in my bread machine. Like everyone does that right before they fly out? I'll take half the bread carefully wrapped and leave half frozen here. It's really healthy and I hate going without my bread.

I'm now planning to do a Hat KAL from WEBs called Choose Your Own Adventure - Hat KAL. It caught my eye because the picture saying "Choose your own Adventure" on Ravelry looked so much like The Adirondacks and it starts the day before my Mom's Memorial. And I thought what a good way to keep my spirits up and do something fun for me. I don't have internet so to make it even a more challenging adventure I need to find internet and a willing person to take me there. The library, the grocery store all the way in Lake Placid. Somehow I'll do it. Hum, I wonder if the Ausable Club has wifi, but it's in the middle of nowhere.

Choose Your Own Adventure - Hat KAL (Ravelry links to Free Pattern)

The KAL is described as giving different options at different stages for what you want in your hat. "Are you ready for an Adventure?" One option sounds like it might be colorwork or fair isle and I've never done that. So here's the Webs Store blog for updated posts.

My Patons from my yarn stash for my KAL Hat.

In Get Ready To Choose Your Own Adventure WEBS outlines what you need to get prepared for the Hat KAL. And I have the RSS feed and links to the right, at top of my blog for July.