Thursday, September 24, 2015

Summer's End

Same little boy, same big ocean, one year later...

And with this picture of my grandson, I'm bidding farewell to Owl's Feathers. Life has gotten very complicated and confusing lately for myself and others in my family. To those of you who know what's going on, I thank you for your good thoughts and prayers. To others who occasionally stop by here, thank you for your visits.

Happy reading and knitting to all. Be sure to take the time to enjoy the world outside your back door. Most importantly, never let a moment to hug those you love pass you by.


She believed, of course...because without something to believe in, life would be unbearable.
~Rosamund Pilcher

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Outside the Back Door

Several years ago, we were shopping at the Christmas Tree Shop and found for $1 on a plant clearance display one lily bulb. The picture of the flowering plant was pretty, so we bought it thinking we would give it a go. Now, some ten years later, that $1 bulb is still giving us so much pleasure every year as it blossoms and fills the air with its beautiful scent.




Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Knit One Purl Two...

Since taking up knitting again last year after a long hiatus, I've discovered that my knitting passion lies in projects that don't include sleeves, shaping, buttonholes, pattern repeats of more than 10 rows. So that makes me a flat knitter who, upon occasion, will experiment with a cable stitch or two.

One of my favorite pattern sources (other than Ravelry, of course. where my ID is Owlsfeathers) is Quincy & Co.  Their yarn is available in various weights and scrumptious colors. Their patterns are unique and oh so comfy looking. I was particularly taken by their Nebraska Throw available in their Home collection of patterns. While I didn't use Quince & Co. yarns for this project, I am beyond happy with the results.



This is an easy to follow pattern perfect for TV knitting. Although I must that while knitting and watching Scandal, I mistakenly repeated one of the pattern rows. I though about ripping back to the mistake, I decided to leave it to remember what I was doing when I worked on this project!

Project Details
Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice
Linen (9 skeins)
Dusty Purple (5 skeins)

Needles:
US7/32" circular
US6/32" circular



Sunday, May 24, 2015

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Outside the Back Door

First full day of Spring, and it's snowing! Winter just doesn't want to let go. But listen carefully, and you can hear the birds in the background.



Monday, February 23, 2015

Knit One Purl Two


This weekend I watched several episodes of the Inspector Lewis series on AcornTV while keeping my hands busy knitting this cowl for my daughter. 

The pattern is called Knit and Purl Cowl and gives instructions for knitting up the cowl in one of four patterns. I chose the Elongated Moss Stitch. The pattern was downloaded as part of an accessories collection e-book from WEBS. The yarn was Valley Yarns Amherst (100% merino wool) in the Wild Rose colorway. The finished cowl is so soft and perfect for these cold morning walks to the subway station. 

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Uncle!

Outside my front door...



Coming overnight, another 12-18" (I live in the orange)...


On the radio this morning, I heard a reporter interviewing a 91-year-old woman in Sandwich on Cape Cod. When asked what she was going to do about the impending blizzard, she replied, "I think I'll eat some chocolate." Sounds like a plan!

Monday, February 9, 2015

Sixty-eight and Counting...



I have been forgetting things for years, but now I forget in a new way. I used to believe I could eventually retrieve whatever was lost and commit it to memory. Now I know I can't possibly. Whatever's gone is hopelessly gone. And what's new doesn't stick.
~Nora Ephron, I Remember Nothing

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Oh, the Weather Outside...

For those of you following along at home, you may remember that we already have over three feet on the ground already...






Tuesday, February 3, 2015

First Chapter First Paragraph Intro

Joining up this week with Bibliophile By the Sea's weekly First Chapter First Paragraph Intro feature.


Love Story
For years before I moved to Mary's farm, I had loved this place, passing by on the road home, slowing to look. There was usually something going on: smoke coming out of the chimney; a tractor in the yard being worked on; Mary kneeling in her garden, tending the phlox. And, always, there was the mountain in one or another of its seasonal moods. To have moved here as I did was a little like falling in love with an old friend, someone you have known for years, someone you never thought of that way. But, all of a sudden, there you are: I never thought Mary's farm would become mine and to be here is like the best, most rewarding kind of love.

THE VIEW FROM MARY'S FARM by Edie Clark

THE VIEW FROM MARY'S FARM is a collection of Edie Clark's essays that originally appeared in Yankee Magazine. Do you think you would like to read more?


Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Knit One Purl Two

Some time ago, I downloaded from Quince and Co. a pattern named Camilla, a baby blanket featuring an echo of one of my favorite nature shapes - the scallop shell. Like most pattern downloads, it sat in my pattern file waiting for some attention. Then as the weather got colder and colder, I started thinking how nice it would be to have a bed runner across the bottom of our bed to keep old feet nice and warm. Then I saw a luscious color in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran called Mallard. The result of this downloading, thinking, and seeing was a Camilla bed runner. The width is the same as the baby blanket measurement, but I just kept knitting until it fit nicely across the end of our bed.





If you're into knitting, check out Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran on the next visit to your local yarn shop. It's soft, luxurious, and oh so nice to work with. You will soon be searching for the perfect pattern to knit up in this beautiful yarn.

And best of all? It has the Lucy seal of approval!


Sunday, January 25, 2015

The Joy of Reading...on My Kindle


As I began to buy more ebooks, I felt a sense of surprise and delight and wonder that I could carry around a library in my pocket. It is a library, arranged alphabetically or, if I like, in order of buying, and nothing shelved in the wrong place. The relationship with my library on a Kindle feels more intimate, like a shelled animal carrying its home on its back. Wherever I am, there is always something to read.
~Linda Grant, I Murdered My Library

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Joy of Reading...

Two quotes from a recently finished, hug-it-when-last-page-is-turned book...

A seasonal observation...
It was one of those perfect fall days when the air is cool enough to wake you up but the sun is also kissing your face.

Babies...
It's a good thing babies don't give you a lot of time to think. You fall in love with them and when you realize how much they love you back, life is very simple.


Sunday, January 11, 2015

Bookticipation

Releasing on Tuesday, February 10...


From indiebound.org

“It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon. . .” This is how Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she fell in love with Red that day in July 1959. The Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate togetherness: an indefinable, enviable kind of specialness. But they are also like all families, in that the stories they tell themselves reveal only part of the picture. Abby and Red and their four grown children have accumulated not only tender moments, laughter, and celebrations, but also jealousies, disappointments, and carefully guarded secrets. From Red’s father and mother, newly arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to Abby and Red’s grandchildren carrying the family legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century, here are four generations of Whitshanks, their lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn Baltimore house that has always been their anchor.

Brimming with all the insight, humor, and generosity of spirit that are the hallmarks of Anne Tyler’s work, A Spool of Blue Thread tells a poignant yet unsentimental story in praise of family in all its emotional complexity. It is a novel to cherish.


~~~

A thoughtful description of Tyler's appeal from Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune, shortly after the release of State of Wonder:
From the pleasant opera-loving terrorists in Bel Canto to the endlessly fertile Amazon women in her new novel State of Wonder, Ann Patchett creates magical stories. No wizards or vampires, no triumph over dysfunctional past, but rather an alternative universe where unlikely characters come together in a transformative way and make new, and surprising, lives for themselves.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Reading with Teddy...


Books about cars and trucks were found aplenty under the Christmas tree for Teddy. His favorites so far are Cars and Trucks and Things That Go and, the book he's reading in the picture above, Cars and Trucks from A to Z--both by Richard Scarry.

Reading with Mum on Christmas morning.