Long Overdue

This post is way overdue, I know. But two-a-days are finally over, and once again, I have survived, and no athletes were maimed or murdered. I can't guarantee that the coaches will survive the season though. It was a tough week at work, I called the ambulance twice. And am dealing with an issue with the football coach (which may be the reason that he doesn't survive the season - and that I may need bail money).

But enough of the work junk. Let's talk about some knitting. I mean, this is supposed to be a knitting blog after all. And it's been like a month since I posted anything about my knitting. First up, some stuff I think I've shown in the past. I recently finished the Shaelyn Shawl:
Didn't have much to do to finish it, but vacation got in the way of it being done last month. It's very pretty, I love Smooshy, as I may have mentioned a few times before. I think the fact that I've knit so many little shawls so far this year is making me a bit blase about them. I love them, they're just not breaking news any more. Won't stop making them though.

While on vacation, I attempted to start some socks, but packed the wrong size needles, so I focused mainly on that little Spring Garden Tee I started in June.
And got all of the knitting done. The knots in the yarn towards the end really irritated me, and I haven't gone back to sew in the ends yet. So, soon I'll get to them. I hope. And then I need to pick up the neck to finish and then the sleeves. There's probably only a couple of hours worth of work to do to have it completely done, so I really should just sit and do it. And as you can see, it needs a good soak and blocking to get out the wrinkles.

So after the Tee was mostly done, it was Thursday of vacation I think, I started the Presto Cardigan, designed by Kate Jackson of my very beloved KNOTS. Such a classic cute little cardi, and amazingly, I'm loving the yarn. It's Berocco Remix, which is a blend of cotton, acrylic, linen, silk and nylon. But it's tweedy and wonderful, and will match a huge chunk of my wardrobe.
It's going to end up being the perfect "in-between" sweater, for those days in the spring and fall that are cool but not cold. Right now, I'm into the final decreases of the sleeves (so close to being done) but I haven't spent a lot of time on it this week due to the afore mentioned work stress.
And it probably would have been finished by now, except that there was a slight hitch with the fronts. Maybe you can see the problem?
Yeah, the medium size was a bit off between the fronts and the back, so Kate helped me work the math and everything is good now. So I'm going to finish the sleeves after I post this, and then I'll sew the fronts to the back and pick up the stitches for the ribbed edging. Hopefully, I can get the ribbing done tonight. and then it all gets blocked and then sewn together and it's done. Yay!

So last weekend was a bit of a milestone, the end of an era. Yep, I turned 30. So Sunday night, Mom, Ellie and me went to see "The Phantom of the Opera" (my birthday present from the Jersey Fam - thank you again!), and it was wonderful. I also started a new spinning project - as a little treat to myself. This roving:
Is spinning up to look like this:
Very nice. It's the first time I've used my Very Fast Flyer on the wheel. Loving it. I'm planning on doing this as a navajo-ply to keep the colors together.

This week I also picked back up my Miralda's shawl, in an attempt to get it done by month's end.
It's going well, but I'm still afraid that I'm going to run out of yarn. And seeing as I just got a box from KnitPicks, I don't really want to place another order just for a ball of yarn. Silly me should have remembered to toss that lone ball into the cart.

What came in that KP box? A whole lot of crazy, that's what. For some strange unexplained reason, I decided that it would be fun to make a Corrie Fair Isle Vest as the 3 month project for the HPKCHC starting in September.
It will be gorgeous, and I'm sure that I start off enjoying knitting it. But then some time in October I think it will hit me... 300+ stitches on size 3 needles using 9 different colors of fingering weight yarn! That have to be steeked!!!
I'm trying really hard to not think about the steeks - because they really freak me out. Taking scissors to a knitted garment - scary! Think about the pretty, think about the pretty!

Since I had been having a serious case of listlessness and apathy about all of my current knitting projects for the past couple days, I let myself cast on something new last night. A Daybreak shawl (I know, again with the shawls).
But lots of easy peasy stockinette with self striping yarn? That's a good time. And so I worked to that point last night (while watching the Steelers game and beyond), and so today I have to focus on the cardigan and will reward myself with the shawl if I get it finished.

Or maybe I'll work on my Poconos socks:
Pretty socks that I couldn't start until I got home and could get the right sized needles. Gypsy Girl Creations yarn in "Cattails" which really reminds me of the woods with the rivers and creeks flowing through. The first sock was knit almost entirely (except for the cuff and a few rounds beyond) during the football meetings I sat through during the first week of practices. Seriously, that's how much time I spent in meetings, enough time to knit a sock. Crazy. The other one, as you can see, has stalled out with the lack of down time at work. But it'll get there. Gotta finish it so I can start my Steelers socks with the start of the season. Alright, I think that's enough for now, and I've run out of projects to talk about any way.

The Poconos

So I'm late in posting this, but vacation has come and gone, and was replaced by an insane football schedule this week. So we spent a week in the Poconos - Albrightsville to be exact. And it was great - gorgeous mountains and forests and waterfalls and good times with family. We arrived on Saturday, and after having a hard time actually finding the house in the development, we settled in. Jersey fam was there for the weekend, and on Sunday we went to the beach. The kids played on the playground for a bit:
Sarah is dancing and beating the drum there - so cute. And then we trekked off for a ride on the paddle boats.
Tricky to steer, but a good workout. After dinner, the Jerseyans left for home and we went to the grocery store and... Rita's!!! So good, makes me so sad that the one here in Mentor closed. Monday Mom, Ellie and I were off for a hike at Bushkill Falls. It was so beautiful, and even though I've only got the photos from my camera to choose from - you'll get the general idea.
Ellie is an amazing rock climber we learned. Who knew?
Bushkill Falls, is known as the Niagara of Pennsylvania, and has 8 waterfalls. We took the 2 mile trek into and then out of the gorge to see all of them.
A long and hot trek, but so worth it.
And we stayed a bit silly with our photo ops through out.
And Mom was content to commune with nature for a bit longer than we were.
So we kept moving and made our way out. Ellie has some good pictures after the hike that I'm sure she'll post when she gets a chance.

We drove back to the house in time to meet the Perryites when they arrived. We took a walk to the playground that evening and kind of just took it easy. Tuesday morning we set out for the Delaware Water Gap and a trolley ride.
Not necessarily the best trolley tour ever - there was a lot of "if you look through those trees off to the left, you see the outline of...", but we did hear plenty about the various floodings of the deadly Delaware and the celebrities that use to spend time there back in the heyday (really, it would have been an excellent drinking game to take a drink every time that the driver said "back in the day"). Anyway, we stayed in PA but got some good looks at NJ.
Especially the natural profile of Chief Tammany (which is seriously cool, in my opinion).
And then got a good look at the river itself from the former site of a hotel (still can't figure out how the hotel fit in the spot that it did, but oh well), never mind the overgrowth of the greenery and the turnpike.

Wednesday came, and Ellie and I set out for a whitewater adventure on that deadly Delaware. Ha. I don't have any pictures, because I thought that it would be a "whitewater" adventure so we only had the underwater camera with us. In fact, it turned out to be a 6 mile paddling adventure. It was pretty, but a lot of work.

So Thursday, we set out for my old home - Jim Thorpe. And a ride on the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway.
Mom took most of the pictures on her camera (as I only had a small memory card), so I won't show you much of the "scenic" parts. Just the kids.
My personal favorite view of the Jim Thorpe. I miss seeing that every day - I've found that I'm definitely a mountain person, they're just so beautiful.

Friday morning, Ellie and I lazed at the house a bit while everyone else went to the beach (in hopes of wearing out the kids a bit before their drive home), and we met up with them after a while.
And played in the sand. Mason isn't as much of a fish as his siblings - until the duck came into the swimming area. And once again, Ellie has more photos on her camera that I'm sure you'll see.

After the kiddos left, we eventually made our way to Hickory Run State Park (which was basically just over the main street from us) for another hike to another waterfall.
That was just the appetizer waterfall (I had worried that that was it), and you had to kind of get low to get a good shot:
As Ellie demonstrates here. But we kept going, and found the real Hawk Falls.
Really pretty, and had a swimming hole at the bottom that some folks were enjoying. This is the view from the top of the falls, we managed to get really close (which others have better pictures of).
And then we managed to use the rock ledges for a group shot. Rhododendrons were everywhere!
Mom kept saying that it must be amazing when they're in bloom, and I have to agree. Just walking through this secluded path would be beautiful.
We saw a pretty bit of the river, or maybe it's a creek.
And then we found the bottom of the falls.The amazing thing about this vacation - we managed to get a whole bunch of pictures of Mom - we never get pictures of Mom!
The area had so many beautiful forests with amazing rock cliffs and formations, I kept wanting to take pictures of the cliffs with the ferns and lichen and rhododendrons, but managed to control the urge mostly.

After the falls, I talked Mom and Ellie into finding the Boulder Field which is in another part of the park.
They weren't real enthused at first, but once we got there, they both agreed it was pretty cool. It's hard to get a sense of the size of it all, until you're there hopping from rock to rock.
We didn't venture out too far, and I can't imagine going all the way across, but I'm sure people have.
Seriously, a lot of boulders, and it was really cool.

Afterwards, we went to dinner and then just chilled at the house. Saturday morning we packed up and cleaned out and headed off, Ellie and I to Ohio, and Mom to NJ. A very good vacation, that was very much needed. The depressing part? It's another year before I get another one.