Sweater Update II

Max looking beautiful by the pool this morning. This is his very favorite place to be in the morning. He always shuts his eyes when I have the camera near by. He is a bit shy.

I bought these beautiful sun flowers yesterday. Next to gardenias they are my favorite. Makes it look a bit like fall even though it was 92 degrees outside before the rain.

This is what has been happening in Florida a lot lately. I love it when I am inside and I can be cozy inside, its just that usually I am outside getting drenched running from one place to the next.

I am sure you are wondering about the knitting update. I thought I would fool you by posting other pictures. No knitting has been accomplished. None. At least I am honest. I am going to try and finish the fronts today and start the arms of the Noro car coat. Pretty ambitious for someone who has to drive her kids everywhere today.

Have a great Saturday.

Sweater Update I

I am making wonderful progress on my sweater jacket. The back is finished and I am up to the arm holes on the fronts. This is a lovely knit, very quick until you reach the seed stitch which is always a bit slow.

The seed stitch adds such a wonderful texture that it is well worth the time it takes to do it. The colors are just as beautiful the second time around.

I am still a bit in unknown territory. Will the coat lie correctly due to the initial washing that made the yarn expand at a scary rate? When I took it apart and had to mist all the yarn did it loose part of the stiffness that would make it more like a coat than a sweater? Did the yarn shrink and will I have enough to complete this project?

I guess I will find out as I go along.

Today is the third day of school for my children. It is quiet in my house right now, just Max and myself. How lovely silence is. No one is screaming my name for help with something. No one is fighting just for the joy of annoying their brother. When I left the house to drop off for car pool I returned with it looking exactly the same. There were not dirty dishes out, and milk out of the fridge. I didn't have to close the cupboards or flush the toilet, or wipe up crumbs.

Silence is a beautiful thing.

A Sad Knitter's Tale

Every fall my sister Claudia and I visit Rhinebeck for the New York Sheep and Wool festival. This will be our third year and I can't wait.

I fly up to New York for several days of rest and relaxation. The highlight (besides my sister, brother-in-law, and their two furry babies) is of course the Festival.

Claudia and I walk around the festival in complete awe. The colors of fall in the background of this lovely old state fair grounds sets the stage for a beautiful trip.

Claudia , although not as obsessed about yarn and knitting as I am is the perfect companion for the trip. We "ohh", and "ahh", about each booth we see. We love to visit the alpacas, sheep and llama's. We marvel at how cool everyone looks in their knitting finery.

This sets the stage for the next part of the story. I wanted to look like a "cool", knitter also. I am always knitting but not always wearing what I knit.

I decided to make this amazing car coat with beautiful Noro yarn that cost me an arm and a leg. Buying really expensive yarn is not something I normally do for myself. I do it for others but not for me. I decided to make this coat and bring it with me to Rhinebeck.

I purchased all the yarn I needed based on what my LYS owner told me to get. I went home and actually made a gauge swatch just to make sure I was getting gauge. That is something I admit I am not always careful about. I began knitting and I knit with a frenzy. I knit every second I had. I knit at swim practice and late into the evening. I knit at traffic lights and in the school pick up line. I was obsessed to get this sweater completed.

This is a fairly fast knit until you get to the seed stitch, which always takes a bit more time. I completed the back, two fronts and almost both sleeves before I realized I was running out of yarn. I made a quick trip to the LYS and miracle of all miracles she had one skein left! It was even in my dye lot!!! I went home and picked up stitches for the hood.

I knit the hood while in Orlando for my son's high school state swim meet. He was a freshman swimming at the state meet, I was a wreck. Thank goodness for my car coat to keep me calm. That is until I realized I was running out of yarn again before the hood was complete. Okay, Meredith don't panic. What can I do? I decided to rip out the hood and go back and knit it with stockinette stitch, not seed stitch to conserve yarn. I did a seed stitch border and it turned out great. I sewed it all together. Amazing, I was on time. It was a bit big, but it is supposed to be a car coat. So it was perfect.

I went home and well, this is the part that is so crazy I still can't believe I did this. I put the sweater in a wool rinse. Now, I did not come up with this idea on my own. My LYS owner told me to do it. (Actually she told me to do this twice and I have a witness.) She told me the rinse to buy and that it would make the coat wonderfully soft and amazing. She was making the same coat and several other people from the shop had completed theirs already.

So I did.

And guess what happened? My lovely, beautiful car coat the was slightly big grew so that it would not have fit me even if I was 6'5" and weighed 350 lbs. I am a tall girl, just under 5"10" and the coat was down to my knees when it was dry. I was beside myself upset about my coat but knew I had no one to blame but myself.

After swearing and slamming a few things I took the coat apart immediately. I knew if I didn't do it right away that coat would still be in a heap in the bottom of my closet. I ended up having to mist all the yarn and hope that it would regain some of the wonderfulness it had when I started.

My LYS owner heard about my problem from my, "witness" friend. She told my friend she couldn't believe I would ever think about putting this yarn in a wool wash. Actually she said to me when saw her, "Meredith, what would ever posses you to put that car coat in a wool wash?" I kid you not!

So here I go again. I have made plans for my third Rhinebeck visit and I am once again trying to get this coat done for my visit. I hadn't even been able to look at this yarn until the plans had been made for my trip. Keep your fingers crossed that it works out this time.

Paris

We had a whirlwind tour of Paris. Notre Dam was the most beautiful church. It took over 200 years to build and you can see why. The rose windows are fantastic. Everything inside was so beautiful.

We had a lovely dinner in the Eiffel Tower and then a lovely evening boat ride all around Paris. The Eiffel Tower lights up in the evening and then on the hour thousands and thousands of lights sparkle all over, it was breathtaking.

The Louve is fantastic, the architecture alone was worth the trip. It used to be the main palace for the royalty in Paris until Louis the XIV moved out to Versailles. We did do a quick trip into the Louve to see The Mona Lisa and Venus d' Milo.

Versailles was unbelievable. Such opulence you can understand why the french people got a little upset about how the royalty were living when they were all starving.

We saw the French Statue of Liberty and the beautiful flame sculpture for Princess Diana very close to the tunnel where the horrible car accident occurred that took her life. Our guide informed us that, "The French fully believe she was murdered!" I think I believe that , too.

We went to the Musee d' Orsay where all the french impressionists are. To stand in front of Monet's, Renoir's and, Vincent Van Gogh's sunflower pictures and of course my favorite Edgar Degas was something I can't even explain. Edgar Degas' sculpture of a ballerina brought actual tears to my eyes. My children think I am crazy for getting so emotional, so I sent them to another room so I could enjoy the moment alone.

My children did their best to make me crazy on this trip. I know museums and architecture are not that impressive to young boys, but I think sometime in their future they will look back on this trip and remember what amazing things they saw. How many people have stood in front of the actual Mona Lisa? Or a Vincent Van Gogh?

The French people were very friendly. I had always heard they were rude to American's but I didn't not see that at all.

The boys liked the food the most. We spent a lot of time eating bread and croissants. It think I miss that the most. Croissants here in America just don't taste the same.

It was an amazing trip.

We Are Home

We are home from our very fast trip to Amsterdam and Paris. We had a great time, well at least most of us did. My kids didn't choose this trip as I was reminded frequently especially when in a museum.

We went to Amsterdam to visit my lovely niece Elizabeth and her family. Liz is in Amsterdam for two years. Her husband is working there, what a fantastic experience for her and her family. She has three children, all of whom are amazing. Liz is a fantastic Mother. I marvel at how patient she is with her children. Can you imagine picking up and moving across the world with three kids, the youngest was two at the time?

I don't like to publish pictures without others consent so just imagine three beautiful children with beautiful young parents and you have an idea of what they look like. My oldest great-niece is almost 13. She loves it in Holland. What a fantastic experience for her to go to school in a foreign country and meet people from all over the world.

We went to a community where they had actual working windmills. Very beautiful. These make fine chalk that is turned into paint. We went to a really old castle that had an actual moat. My kids really liked this.

We went on a canal ride. The canals in Amsterdam are highways throughout the city. You can see so much of the different architecture from the water. Amusingly enough it was Gay Pride Parade Day on the canals so we got to see a lot more than architecture.

The church pictured here is the New Church built in the 1600's as opposed to the Old Church which was built in the 1400's. It was breathtakingly beautiful inside.

The Van Gogh museum was amazing. My children didn' t really "get" the museums but it was good for them to do. My husband and I to another museum where the Masters had their paintings.

The most sobering and insightful visit was to the Anne Frank Museum. Words can not say how sad and fascinating her journey was.

The best part of our trip was being with family we love.

More on Paris later.

Sorry the formatting is scrunching everything together. You know how blogging challenged I am, I can't seem to fix it.