Knit for Brains

Big news, little time.

Well, first the little time.  David has acquired a new gig that requires constant use of the computer whenever I am capable of putting a couple of coherent words together.  So that is part of the reason I have not been here as often as I want.  Another reason is that our computer has s-l-o-o-o-o-w-e-d down to the point of utter frustration.  I have just enough patience to check my email and that's about it.

And now the big news.  I am going to open a knitting store!  Yes indeedy, a knitting store here in New Paltz.  I am hoping to sign a lease tomorrow and start calling suppliers.  I am so excited I can't even say.  Buying yarn for a living and being surrounded by knitters and converting newbies!  Every time I mentioned my idea to somebody, it was met with enthusiasm and an "it's about time!"  So I have been a little preoccupied.  I don't even have a name.  I have a business mentor, though, who will supposedly help me with the name.  I hope she is a clever knitter!  But seriously, anyone have any good ideas?  Nothing twee, nothing silly.  I am going to make it a place where people can come and hang out for however long they want and knit.  The place I am hoping to get is right across from a bakery that is busy pretty much every day, all year round, and down the block from Starbucks and about a block and a half from another coffee place, so we're set for caffeine and pastry.  I do plan to bring some munchies in ala Knit Cafe, and have late night Pot Luck book clubs, Hike and Knits, just lots of stuff.  Lots of ideas, just no name.

So, my time with the computer is at an end.  Pictures and knitting news as soon as I can get on the computer when it's moving faster than a snail on crutches.

Welcome!

I would like to say "Welcome!" to Addi-Anna who was born this morning at 10:56am to our dear friends John and Denise.  As we didn't know until she made her appearance whether she was a girl or boy we have been calling her Peanut.  Now Peanut is our dear little Addi-Anna.  I am not sure how they are spelling Addi, but I see no reason, if I am misspelling it, why I shouldn't spell it the knitting way.  Her mom is a knitter, too, so she will forgive the alternate spelling.  It's time to dust off the knitting patterns for babies!

Where to start?

It has been such a long time since I actually posted anything I really don't know where to start.  I have started a few posts but never actually finished them.  For the past few weeks the only time I have had to write is late at night when the brain just wouldn't blog.  Mind you, while changing guinea pig cages, driving kids around town and doing other activities that aren't conducive to writing blog entries.  So tonight I kicked David off the computer before the brain got all gooey and I am writing!  Ha ha!

So, first is Robin Hood.  In a moment of uncharacteristically enthusiastic tidiness I closed up the Netflix envelope and sent the RH disc back to its home.  I hadn't had a chance to take a picture of the hat I liked before I channeled Bree Hodge so I had to put that disc back on our Netflix queue.  It arrived and I spent a few minutes finding just the right frames for photographing the hat.  It is actually even more interesting than I had thought with some cables.  And then there was another hat that I got a glimpse of, and when I say glimpse I am not kidding.  There is a baby in one of the Robin Hood episodes and that baby has a sweet little hat that was so cute.  It is just a hint of a glimpse so when I tried to get just the right split second of a view of the baby hat it was a bit of a chore.  I became quite familiar with the slow motion button on the DVD player remote.  Now, I can get down to the making of.

I finally started, again, the poncho I started for the Knitting Olympics oh so long ago.  It's the Alpaca Hooded Poncho from The Yarn Girls Guide to Beyond the Basics.  I am using two shades of grey Blue Sky Alpaca, Alpaca.  It is so lovely and soft and is knitting up pretty quickly.  I haven't really had long periods in which to knit, just the odd moment now and then so I am really pleased with the progress.  No pictures yet.

Here are some pictures, though, from our trip to Martha's Vineyard.  It was a great trip, despite weather that would keep most people away from the beach, but not us!  We were the intrepid ones on the beach in the rain!  We got great parking which was worth the trip to the beach in itself.

This is one of several pictures of a very interesting occurrence this year on Lucy Vincent Beach.  Due to a whole mess of erosion, there were tons of rocks all over the beaches we went to.  When faced with an abundance supplies and time to be creative, someone decided to do cool things with the rocks.  Instead of sand castles, this year it was cool rock creations.  A very patient person balanced rocks in amazing ways.  There were also towers of rocks balanced along the beach.  Very cool.

We went kayaking for the first time on MV and had a really great time.  There was a boys' boat, above, and a girls' boat:

Maeve was a very good paddler and Fiona was happy for the rest.  We ended up getting stuck on the sand a couple of times and run into by another kayak in which the dad and the kid couldn't decided who should be steering.

And then there was the Alpaca farm!  This and the kayaking were my favorites of the trip, maybe because we had never done before.  The farm was Island Alpacas and the woman who owns it is great.  I gotta tell you, we almost bought an alpaca home with us in the back of our Odyssey.  They really are the cutest animals.  Even if they weren't fiber bearing I'd want one!

And here are the girls, you can just see Emmett's arm in there, petting Malcolm who was described as being a little off.  He loved coming up to people, so long as they remained fairly quiet, to get pet.  Apparently this is very unusual, but we weren't complaining.  Look how cute!

Oh, baby!

Here's Emmett at his birthday dinner proudly sporting his rainbow alpaca hat.  He wore that hat all the time, for days!  That's my boy.  He would not be separated from his alpaca knitted item.

Here are the kids in front of very cute looking candy store, The Good Ship Lollipop.  I'll just say that it didn't live up to its name and we should have just taken the picture and walked away.  Over priced, not a very good selection and cramped.  When in The Vinyahd, skip the Ship and head to Murdick's Fudge.

More knitting and links coming soon.