Panel B

Yesterday I knit another square from the Sampler Afghan in Melissa Leapman's "Cables Untangled".

Panel B is written with a pattern repeat to make it longer.

As I wanted a square, I eliminated the repeat and did the chart as is from rows 1 to 44, adding a few rows of reverse stocking stitch before and after the charted pattern to balance the narrowness.

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The pattern starts with 38 stitches so I added one in the last row of the bottom 47-stitch garter stitch border to bring the total count up to 48 stitches which includes a 5 stitch garter stitch border on each side of the pattern.

Finger Lakes Holiday

For several years, at this time of year, Skip and I have travelled to NY state for a bit of a holiday. This year we decided to explore the lower area of central NY state, specifically Corning.

We really enjoy not having to drive through Toronto to get there. Instead we head eastward from where we live east of The Big City and cross into the US near the Ivy Lea parkway, Wellesley Island, and Alexandria Bay.

The last time I had visited Corning was about 20 years ago. It was as cute as I remembered. Skip and I enjoyed Mexican food, shopping, the museum, free shuttle bus, and lovely weather.

Here are some of the highlights of the museum:

This blown glass sculpture (2000) by Dale Chihuly is at the entrance where one obtains the tickets. I loved that it was my favourite colour.

Italian artist, Lino Tagliapietra created 18 gondola-like boats influenced by his Venetian roots.

Inspired by a sketchbook page by Albrecht Durer,

Maria Klonowska of Dusseldorf, Germany created this lynx.

Still Life with Two Plums was created in 2000 by American artists Flora C. Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick. The pieces are blown glass in a carved and painted alderwood bowl.

This photo gives you an idea of the size of it.

Photo Brandy Harold - Craft Council

This is entitled Continuous Mile (2006 - 2008) and was created by American artist, Liza Lou. It is a 'monumental sculpture' consisting of 4.5 million glossy, black glass beads woven onto a mile-long cotton rope that is coiled and stacked. The sculpture stands 3 feet high and nearly 5 feet in diamater. It took two years to make with a team of beadworkers from several townships in South Africa.

I liked this glass eggplant - or was is a plum?

A glass blower.

These are Italian glass pieces from the 19th Century.

This was a small pendant.

This is a micromosaic rendering of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice.

Photo Corning Museum of Glass website

These minute glass tiles create beautiful, textured pictures.

 The detail is impressive. Here, the winged lion, the symbol of the city of Venice, is easily seen.

The tiles are about the length of a short fingernail tip and about half the width.

This portrait is also a mosaic.

We had a nice, Mexican lunch downtown, having ridden the free shuttlebus from where we parked the car for free at the museum.

I explored the local yarn shop, Wooly Minded, but didn't find anything 'to die for' and left empty-handed.

The next day, after doing some shopping in the Elmira/Horseheads area, we made our way to Auburn, NY, through wine country between Seneca Lake and Cayuga lake and through Seneca Falls. We spent the next morning in Skaneateles, walking around the downtown and poking around the cute shops. In the Irish shop, I found a pendant of a St. Brigid's cross.

It is a 2 year late souvenir of our time spent on the Aran isle of Inisheer when we were on our Irish knitting tour in 2013. This is the St. Brigid's cross I made out of reed in our workshop lead by Mairéad Sharry.

While in Auburn, we did more shopping including the local yarn shop, All Tied Up Yarns, and I came away with a skein of Madelinetosh Merino Light in the Jade colourway.

I may use it to knit Susan Ashcroft's Hogwarts Express shawl.

The next day headed for home after breakfast. We celebrated Canada Day in the US and today are home for Independence Day. One of these years, we'll have to plan to be in the US on July 4 and find a town whose band plays an outdoor gazebo concert like we experienced about 10 years ago in Skaneateles.

Knitting on the Road

We arrived home from our excellent wedding anniversary trip to the Finger Lakes region of NY state yesterday. There was a lot of traffic at the bridge (Alexandria Bay) but the rest of the trip was pretty smooth and relatively traffic-free.

I worked on the third Melissa Leapman cable square with the goal of getting it done before arriving home. As Skip and I share the driving, I only get to knit half the time I'm in the car.

At 75km away from home, I had about 14 rows to complete.

30km away from home I got it finished. The cord from the GPS holds the pattern against the dashboard. My sticky note has almost lost all its 'sticky' so it was touch and go getting to the end of the chart.

Here are the squares that I have completed that are acceptable for the afghan. I have knit several others that aren't quite the right size or that need some modification. My plan is to knit 30 squares - 5 x 6.

Some of them will be repeated. I'm also still looking through pattern books for any interesting ones to use.

Duplicate Square

Skip and I have been off on another adventure this week. This time to the Finger Lakes region of NY state. We have visited here before at this time of year and like the uncrowded roads, scenic vistas, and lush vegetation. My next post will be about our escapades.

I finished the Melissa Leapman square and decided I needed to add a couple of rows to the lower part. I unravelled one row, knit a couple of rows to the bottom part, then tried to graft it back together. Sadly I was out a couple of stitches so am waiting to give it another try.

Instead, I cast on another square of the same design and between knitting in the car and motel room knitting, I finished it last night.

I have cast on yet another one.

One of the cool things I found in a gift shop in Skaneateles this morning was a St. Brigid's cross pendant. Of course I had to buy it.

The first time I saw a St. Brigid's cross was when we travelled to the Aran isle of Inisheer and crafted one with one of the local artisans.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans...

Cable Medallion

I finished the 10th square this evening. I used the cable medallion pattern from Melissa Leapman's Tweed Hoodie from her "Continuous Cables" book.

The cable pattern had 37 sts so I didn't need to add any stitches to my 47 stitch cast-on as I continue to use 5 sts of garter stitch on each side of the square and 5 ridges at the top and bottom of the square.

The bottoms of the curved parts were interesting to execute but worked well. They were much easier than those in the previous square. It took me a couple of days of intermittent knitting to complete this one but I think I might do a second one with this pattern.

Skip and I have been busy entertaining our guests from Japan by way of Indiana. We've been enjoying all the different pavilions at Fiesta, the annual multi-cultural festival in Oshawa. Between Fiesta dinners and lunches while we've been out, we've eaten Ukrainian, German, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, and Chinese food this week.

Monday, we went to the one of the Ukrainian pavilions for dinner.

On Tuesday we went to the Pacific Mall at Steeles and Kennedy to check out the offerings. We went for lunch at our favourite dim sum restaurant, Grand Lake Chinese Cuisine. For dinner, we ate at the Greek pavilion.

Yesterday we did touristy things in The Big City. We went to the CN Tower

Skip, Geri, Todd, and Shingo

and took a 'hop on hop off' double decker tour bus.

We stopped at the Distillery District and had lunch at the Mill St. Brewery.

The service was poor but the food was good. I got the last cabbage roll at the Hungarian pavilion last night. The goulash was very tasty but was more like a soup than a stew.

Today, we went into the city and visited the Aga Khan Museum and the Japanese Cultural Centre. this evening we went to the German pavilion.

Our guests have to leave us tomorrow. We've had a wonderful visit, though, and look forward to the next time we can get together.

Entwined Cables Pillow Square

I finished another cabled square, from the 'Entwined Cables Pillow' pattern in Melissa Leapman's Cables Untangled.

There are a couple of other patterns from this book and another of her books, Continuous Cables, that I'm considering.

I am definitely considering any all-over pattern as the centre of the squares.

Recovering

We have an old IKEA Poang chair that had a stain on the seat. I removed the cover the other day and threw it in the wash. The stain faded somewhat but not completely. A replacement cover was only going to be $35 plus tax plus gas to get me to our closest IKEA store. Then I thought, "I could just make a slip cover".

So off to Fabricland I went on this, the last weekend of their big sale with almost everything 50% off.

I spent an inordinate amount of time looking at fabric. I needed almost 2 metres and was prepared to pay up to $20/m x 50%. Then I found the clearance bin and the perfect fabric for something like this. It was only $7.00/m with 20% off. Booyah!  There wasn't a zipper long enough so I bought two with the idea to sew the openings facing each other.

I could have simply made a tube to slide the old chair cover in but with the zipper in the centre back, it made it much easier to stuff the old cover into the new cover. On the original cover, the headrest has a little pocket that goes over the back of the chair. Instead, I just made a little slipcover.

I'm REALLY pleased with how it came out.

I love the fabric and have enough left over to make a couple of throw pillows.