beaufort 2010.

...finally. and no, those 4's aren't a reference to how many months have passed since our trip - they mark our 4th mother-daughter weekend in beaufort, sc. A tradition my sister and I started six years ago - we took trips to st augustine and fernandina beach before settling on beaufort as our permanent destination. after playing around with photoshop and all the fun designer digitals "stuff" last december, I knew I wanted to make this year's beaufort album digital. I just didn't know how long it would take! seriously, the learning curve was steep and long - but I think I'm in a pretty good place with it now. and I gave my mom her album this week, so sharing the images won't spoil any surprises!

the whole album is here. and really, it's only 12 pages, so all of them are "favorites". but these two pages pretty much sum up our weekend:

the place - beaufort in the spring is simply lovely,

the company and the food. 

tradition. week 4.

tradition. week 4.
Originally uploaded by mere2007

...still playing along with the creativity project - especially love this last week's word. I figured out on monday that I wanted to do something related to georgia tech, but didn't settle on exactly what until yesterday. this is a view of the "georgia tech" shelf in our bookcase (and I think having a "georgia tech shelf" says something about the tradition in our house - but my dad has a "georgia tech room" in his!)

zucchini bread.

...I just found the recipe - handwritten by my grandma - it calls for 2 cups of grated zucchini to make two loaves. I wonder how many loaves we'll get from this nearly-four pound zucchini? (watch sara's blog for updates!)

thanks to beth for letting us harvest from her garden

summer love.

...the heat has been brutal this summer, but it's definitely paying off in our yard - the crepe myrtles are putting on a real show!

my love affair with crepe myrtles began the summer my family visited williamsburg - I'm not sure the year, but I was probably about 14 - I remember that smooth trunk and the colors (that's also the trip where I first had virginia ham on beaten biscuits...another love...and another story) and something about it being a tree - or a shrub - for warmer, more southern climates than new jersey where we lived at the time. summertime hot and lovely crepe myrtles have been linked in my mind for years.

fast forward to the mid 1990's when marc and I are landscaping the front yard - we planted three magenta pink trees on center stage

added white and pink ones to our side yard a few years later

and finally a few purple ones in 2003 when we re-worked our driveway.

it's taken a while and I am so thankful we still live here to see it!  all these in bloom, it really makes me smile!

progress photos.

...yes, as promised, photos. showing progress on the two projects I've started since my last knitting* post.

I did start the koigu linen scarf. good choice! it's so much fun to see how the colors work up. maybe so much fun that I forget the rows are 450 stitches long. (maybe).

and today was the first day of orientation so I made pretty good progress on the socks. I think sara was a bit embarrassed I was knitting, but oh well. at least I didn't fall asleep during that super-interesting just-after-lunch presentation on campus safety.

*sara gave me a hard time about my "knitting blog" this week. really??!! this is my 15th blog post since June 1 - and only the 8th one about knitting - and that's generously including our last "at the kitchen table" post since I was knitting in the photo and alexandria sucked up three posts in less than a week, but that's understandable right? so... what do you think? is this a "knitting blog"? (personally, I think of this as a blog about my life - and knitting isn't really all of my life; it's a big part, for sure, but definitely not the whole thing, right??)

grown-up birthdays.

...gone are the days when we celebrate with balloons and games and party hats.

instead, we gather with a few close friends to share a lunch of homemade curried chicken salad, cheese and vegetables, a glass or two of wine, and a lovely view.

but we still get to make a wish and blow out candles! happy birthday, lynn - love you!!

(eta - sara baked the fabulous crostada - and posted about it here)

what to knit next.

...I've now finished the 2nd sock, and the latest KAL shawl and made a bit more progress on the red shawl. but after working in the shop five of the last seven days, I haven't started anything new. Instead, I've acquired more yarn and a few patterns and really enjoyed thinking about what to knit next.

I'm going to start the socks for sure. Karen's coming over Wednesday (yes, it's now a recurring weekly "date") and she started the same pattern last Wednesday when we met. And I think orientation will provide plenty of good sock knitting time. So that's settled.

But what else? The other three possibilities (assuming I limit myself to just these - which at least for now seems like the answer.... I'll wait to start another sweater til I finish the 3rd february lady) are all exciting me.

The blue shawl because I love the yarn (it's a blend of cotton and silk and the color, yeah, the color) and the pattern looks like fun.

The koigu scarf because I love the look of linen stitch (never knit it, but have wanted to - it turns out looking like woven fabric) and I'm really curious to see how the three colors I've picked work up. This project really surprised me - it wasn't anywhere on my radar until Saturday. I'd seen the pattern, but not given it any thought until a customer asked for help selecting yarn for hers. And oh my. We have about 60 colorways (maybe more!) of koigu in the shop - think of the possibilities! Of course I had to make one, too!

And the Shaelyn shawl because I love the yarn. It just arrived at the shop this past week and I've spent a good bit of time deciding what project will be best for it.

I took the photo above to show all the choices. and this one to hint at what I've decided.

Yep, I cast on 450 stitches and knit five really long rows! ...progress photos coming soon!

deja vu all over again.

...at least that's what I was thinking when I took, then cropped and uploaded this photo. certainly the expression on sara's face reflects a sort of boredom with the same ol' same ol'. (at least I was smiling)

but it's really not all the same.

• I finally figured out how to set my rebel to take these photos (all the previous ones were taken with my point & shoot).
• sara "borrows" my laptop constantly. and posts on her blog more frequently than I post on mine (she pointed that out to me, and then I reminded her that I have multiple blogs).
• I'm not knitting a sweater. nope, this time it's a shawl and now that I've added markers to keep up with the lace repeats, it's going much faster!

 ...except that it's still the two of us, together at the kitchen table doing whatever. and enjoying it. even if our expressions don't show it!

alexandria.

...finished. and photographed (thanks to beth and her lovely deck!).

I really love everything about this sweater. it was fun to knit - even though I had to rip back several inches of the body two separate times when I boo-boo'd the front edging (and as a result, it sat in time out for a total of about seven days - and I was still able to knit it in just under three weeks). I learned new techniques - i-cord edging and seamless, set-in sleeves shaped with short rows. the yarn - it's soft and drapey and shows the stitches beautifully. the design details - finished edges, slipped stitch side seam, dart shaping, pattern stitches. and it fits. perfectly.

I've shared the project details on ravelry (the page is public, so even non-ravelers should be able to access it).

hoping it's a fun class to teach, too!

knitting and other news.

...happy to report that I finished another sock. and a sweater (yes, alexandria is done! and I have a plan to get photos today to share later). it feels really really good to have all my class knitting done. to wrap up my teaching schedule for october and november, I'm going to re-run the six classes I've offered so far. which means no more preparation required on my part. and that means I have five whole months to knit whatever I want. just for fun. right now, I'm enjoying just thinking about the possibilities of what to start next while I wrap up two lace shawlettes and the mate to this sock.

and the other news.

first - sara has started her own blog. as excited as I am for her on this new venture, I admit to being just a teensy tiny bit sad about the second fille leaving me alone here. mere seule. mere et filles sounds so much better, doesn't it? 

enough whining from me! because the second piece of news is that katie and I are catching up on our ride. we should be back on track for weekly posts this weekend. (side note - I can't believe we are 26 weeks into 2010 - yikes, the year is half over!!)