The Year's Half Over

Last week, Skip and I ventured to the Finger Lakes region of NY state for a short holiday. We did some of our favourite things and some new things. One of our favourite things was to visit the Skaneateles Public Library where they have iPads sitting out for patrons' use and a jigsaw puzzle for anyone to work on it. I found a great book of fat quarter projects. One of the new things we did was eat at two interesting restaurants - Prison City Pub and Brewery where I had delicious shrimp and cheese grits; and Hunter's Dinerant which is an old train dining car with average food and kitchy atmosphere.

We made sure to get home before the traffic got too bad before the long weekend.

One of the things I purchased in the US was a device to convert the cassette tapes from my videocamera to digital files. As they transfer in real time, it is rather time consuming so I simply start recording and then do some stitching.

My sampler is coming along. I found a stitchery shop in Fayetteville outside of Syracuse, A Stitcher's Garden, that carried the green floss I was running out of.

It had many lovely samples stitched up. Including a trunk show by Elizabeth's Needlework designs.

Gentle Lamb Sampler

Antique Animal Sampler

This one from the Boo Club Double Flip series was stitched over 1 thread!!

This simple pattern repetition of Coverlet Houses from The Scarlet House was very effective and was also stitched over 1 thread.

These pieces were quite small. At first I thought they were punch needle pieces but they are actually comprised of French knots.

I've also been working on the brioche cowl. Last night I had to tink several rows to fix several errors. It took all night to do the tinking and get it knit just past the point I had stopped.

It is definitely not error-free but good enough for me.

I'm not sure how big I'll make it. I have lots of both yarns. Perhaps I'll stop the next time orange appears.

We didn't do anything for Canada Day other than putter around the house and garden. I was just enjoying being home.

The year is half over! Yet we have a few adventures still in store for us. 

Life is good.