Notes from North Carolina

May 28-31, 2010

Greetings from our latest road trip. We are staying in Cornelius very near Lake Norman and just outside of Charlotte. It's funny what unexpected paths our journeys take us. 2 days ago I had never heard of Cornelius or Lake Norman. What lovely and unexpected beauty!

Today we took walks in 2 parks along Lake Norman: saw beautiful flowers, the lovely shoreline of the lake with several folks taking their dogs for romps in the grass and the water. Also spotted one man seated in a lawn chair at the edge of the water with five ( ! ) fishing poles stuck in the ground. What a relaxing and fun way to spend a warm spring Saturday: sitting by the edge of a sparkling lake fishing and daydreaming. The only thing I'd add to make it perfect would be a lapful of knitting!

And, speaking of fun and knitting, I went to 2 yarn shops nearby. The first one, The Needlecraft Center is in a charming old house in Davidsonville, North Carolina (website: http://www.needlecraftcenter.com ). There is a wonderful front porch with some rocking chairs and a BIG basket of yarn.

There were 2 rooms of wonderful yarns. I took 2 videos inside the shop. Sooooo.....since a "picture" is worth more than a thousand words, I thought I'd share them with you:

While in the shop I spotted and bought 3 kits:


This scarf is called Kusha Kusha Scarf. The kit comes with 1 skein of merino wool and another skein of silk stainless steel yarn. After you make it, you felt it lightly. You can see some other examples of it on Ravelry.com .

The other 2 kits I bought were for this adorable doll called Flora and some clothes to make for her.

The other fun yarn shop that I went to was "Knit One, Stitch Too" in Huntersville, NC. Here's their website: http://www.knitonestitchtoo.com They had lots of beautiful yarn...and very reasonably priced with some even on sale! I bought a bunch of yarns for 2 projects that I bought patterns for. Both are going to be gifts I'm going to be making for Christmas (hey, knitters, NOW is the time to start planning your Christmas gift knitting so you don't have to stay up all night on Christmas Eve!). I didn't take any pictures there, so students ask me to show you what I got when you come to your next class.

And so, dear knitters, friends and family, remember to look for and savor the unexpected beauty you find on your travels even if it’s just a walk around the block!

Mary

Slip Stitch Colors Workshop in Progress and Kaleidoscope

Colors, Wonderful Colors!

The SlipStitch Colors Workshop has started and oh, boy, what a color “feast” for the eyes!! Everyone has picked such wonderful color combinations! I took pictures during the first class of both the morning and evening workshops to show you, my dear blog readers, some of the colors students chose.

And, the stories of whom each student is knitting the Slip Stitch Colors Scarf for are such fun to hear. One student is knitting it for her son who has just had his special 50^th birthday (how do our kids get to be that old when we remain so young??). Another student is making it to keep on her sofa so chose colors to go with that…and she’ll have it handy whenever she feels a bit chilly!

I am using the stitches to “keep up” with my Workshop students to make a sweater for our newest little grandbaby, “Baby Boy Moser” (they are still deciding on names!), who will arrive by “stork delivery” in August. Here’s a preview:

I have finished the front up to the underarm.

And I’m all the way up to the shoulder and am ready to bind off on the sweater back.

I even took a picture with my I phone in it to enter a contest to win an Ebook reader. You have to take a picture to describe how you read ebooks so of course, I had to do it with some knitting!

And, speaking of Iphones, I discovered a neat app: Kaleidoscope. It turns any photo into a kaleidoscope! I took a picture of this sweater (sweater also made with Slip Stitch Colors Pattern):

And made 2 kaleidoscopes:

Pretty neat and “knitterly”!! So, off to do more knitting and “kaleidoscope-ing”….

Mary