New York Arrival

After a smooth flight, Jamie and I met up with Becky to start our trip. Becky flew in the night before than Jamie and I did since it takes a lot longer to fly from Utah to NY than it does to fly from Minnesota to NY. We got our rental car and our first taste of east coast customer service from the unnecessarily cranky car rental employee. After driving north out of the city for about 2 hours, our first stop was at an incredibly shiny diner to have some lunch/dinner.

This diner has an astonishingly huge menu ranging from panini's to club sandwiches to gyros and much, much more. With food in our bellies we headed a bit further down the road to the Walkway over the Hudson park. It was a dark and gloomy day, so this is the best picture I could get:

The bridge is 1.25 miles long, which makes it the longest pedestrian bridge in the world.

The views were beautiful with plenty of fall colors and shoreline to take in.

After spending the morning/afternoon sitting in planes and cars, we were happy to walk the full length across the bridge and back. The rangers were not as happy with us as we didn't realize the park had closed at dusk. We ended up getting a park ranger escort as we walked the last half of the return trip in the dark with the ranger trailing behind us in his car.

We then got back into our car to drive the rest of the way to our hotel, check-in, stop at the store and then head to the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm party. The farm recently underwent a lot of changes, including a move to new property and a name change (now known as Juniper Moon Farm). A big bunch of shareholders had rented a beautiful house for the weekend and opened it up for a potluck gathering with plenty of knitting, spinning, drinking and talking. We stayed for as long as we could keep ourselves awake. Then, to bed we went. We needed to rest up for the first day of the festival!

Project 365 Catch-Up Post

Traveling Friends
October 16, 2009

South Minneapolis in Rhinebeck
October 17, 2009


October Goods
October 18, 2009


NYC at Night
October 19, 2009


Jamie's Birthday
October 20, 2009


Mellow and Home
October 21, 2009

Home Again!

I'm back from an awesome trip to New York for the Rhinebeck (NY Sheep and Wool) Festival and other added goodness. I'll catch up on posts soon, but for right now, check out the flight path our plane took on the way home last night. We followed the green route. The circles represent the 30+ minutes we spent doing loop-d-loops over Eau Claire, Wisconsin waiting for the runway in Minneapolis to become available for us to land on.

(Thanks to Adam for capturing the screenshot of our flight.)

Happy Birthday, Jamie!

Today is Jamie's birthday! We are in NYC together celebrating. I am writing this in advance, so I can't tell you exactly what we are up to today, but I am pretty sure it will be a fun mix of birthday celebrating and touristy NYC sightseeing. I plan to let her open her birthday presents right away in the morning. I knit her this Springtime Bandit shawl out of Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm kid mohair yarn in the Sage colorway. I bought this yarn when my mom and I visited way back in June of 2008.

When I bought the yarn and wrote about it, I wasn't sure what I would be able to knit with it that would be special enough. Well I think a neckerchief/scarf/shawl for my most longstanding friend and fellow knitter Jamie is a good use of this yarn.

Since I have never seen Jamie wear a shawl, I am not sure of her shawl wearing style. I thought that she might also like to have a shawl pin to use with this, so I picked her up one of the shawl pins that I already have and love from Bella Lana.

Happy Birthday, Jamie!

Grandma's Quilt

This photo didn't make the cut for Project 365 on a recent visit to my dad's house because the blackberries overshadowed it.

This is the quilt I sleep under when I stay at my dad's house. My Grandma Shirley (my dad's mom) made it. I remember it being around for as far back as my memory goes so I am guessing it is older than I am. It is made from a colorful mix of 1960s and 1970s fabrics including lots of corduroy and tons of synthetics. The pattern is a simple arrangement of fabric squares with a huge variety of textures. It isn't a quilted quilt, but rather, it is a tied quilt. This is the type of quilt that, when you put it over you, it has real weight to it.

My Grandma Shirley is an accomplished quilter. She makes elaborate applique quilts, ornate quilting stitch patterns and has made many, many challenging quilt patterns. When I visited her, I showed her my photo of the quilt and told her how much I liked it. She remarked that she doesn't make that kind of quilt anymore because it is too boring. She also mentioned that she has promised my sister Jessy a quilt and that Jessy said she wants a quilt like the one in the picture. Grandma said Jessy isn't going to get one like that because it is too boring for her to make.

It struck me how much her reaction to that quilt resembles my reaction to my earlier knitting projects. My skills have advanced to the point where a simple stockinette stitch hat with a rolled brim is boring. I can do much more exciting things! I can make cabled sweaters! I can make lacy socks! Heck, I can even improvise my own pattern when the mood strikes me. So, when I see those garter stitch scarves I used to be so proud of, they seem so simple.

But, somehow I don't go to the same place my grandma does with this "boring" stuff. I am still willing to knit it because sometimes I want something I know I am not likely to mess up. Sometimes I know it is just what the intended recipient wants. Sometimes I want to knit something simple. And, sometimes I want to knit something that will challenge me. Even though we don't totally agree about what to do with the "boring" stuff, it is nice to be interacting with my Grandma on common ground.