Catching up

After a lazy start to the month of August, the last ten days have been busy and we will stay busy until the month ends and school starts on September 4. It is going to take me several posts over the next few days to catch up on all that has been going on in our lives.

On Friday, August 16, we had a visit from North Carolina friends, Cynthia and Steve. Cynthia and I worked together many years ago and have stayed in touch since. When she told me months ago that they were coming up in August to attend a wedding in Aurora, I asked if they could come to our house for dinner during their stay. Since the wedding weekend was the same weekend that Aidan and I were leaving for a visit in Michigan, Friday evening was the only available time.

What a fun evening! We love having friends come to dinner, especially friends whom we have not seen for some time. The weather was perfect and we dined outside on the party patio:

Steve took that photo, and then James took this photo:

Don't ask me what Aidan was doing because I have no idea.

While I put together a blueberry cobbler for dessert, James and Aidan took them on a walk by the river and through the village. I was about to send out a search party when they returned, ready for cobbler and ice cream. We ended the evening with a fire in the chimnea to ward off the evening chill.

We do love living in New York but I miss our friends in North Carolina. It did my soul so much good to spend an evening with Steve and Cynthia, laughing and talking about anything and everything.

Esjan

I have KADD - Knitting Attention Deficit Disorder. I can be happily knitting on two, three, four projects when something catches my eye - "Oh, look, a chicken!" - and off I go to start another one. In my latest episode of KADD, a shawl named Esjan by Stephen West jumped up and grabbed my attention when my friend Laura in Massachusetts posted a photo of a gorgeous shawl that looked like it had a crocheted edge but was, in fact, completely knitted. I was immediately smitten.

I decided to use Valley Yarns Berkshire, which is a reasonably priced 85% wool, 15% alpaca blend. Cool artist friend Mary helped me choose the three colors and we settled on an oh-so-me combo of eggplant, turquoise and lime. It was a fun project to knit, albeit a bit monotonous at the garter stitch beginning; the fun began when I started the edging and the giant holey lace pattern emerged.

My knitting pace slowed as the heat rose - sitting with a lap full of wool doesn't work well in 90+ degree heat. I finally finished it by sitting at the dining room table, using the table to hold the weight and warmth of the shawl. As I started the bind off, I REALLY started to sweat when I realized that I was almost out of yarn. I was riding on fumes as I bound off that last stitch with less than 12 inches of yarn to spare. Whew!

I am so pleased with the result:

It is bold, it is bright and I will happily wrap myself in its warmth when the weather turns colder:

 I really like how the lace edging looks:

The pattern is very well written and worth the purchase price; maybe it will be another one of Stephen West's patterns that triggers my KADD the next time.