Oogyknitter

Hello on this spicy pork noodle bowl Sunday! I thought I'd take a short break from the slides today to issue errata. Specifically - what Neuro rightly pointed out in her comment on my last post - the link to The Naked Sheep store I posted is indeed to a place on Staten Island!  Which is alive and open these days.  So if you're in that neighborhood, you have at least one place to visit where you can get some yarn stuff! It looks like the store that used to be in Bennington, VT closed in 2009 or so - some time ago!   Neither I nor Neuro can remember visiting there, so it's likely we bailed on that and decided to spend that whole day knitting in Lenox instead! It's kind of like when had been planning (if you can call anything we did then planning) to visit Great Sand Dunes National Park on our way back to Boulder from Phoenix.  At some point we decided we'd had enough of the American Southwest, and just wanted a hot shower (not coin-operated), a flush toilet, and ...

Hello on this chicken fettuccini Saturday! The next slide in our deck takes us just over the border to a yarn store in VT:  Although I have absolutely no memory of being there, I'm somewhat relieved to see that The Naked Sheep is still open :) This might be a good time to begin the story of The Ruana.  I'd become obsessed with making this pattern from a new (at the time) book by Sally Melville, The Knit Stitch .  I thought our trip to several yarn stores was the perfect opportunity to find the perfect yarn for this pattern.  So, even though I did purchase some of the elusively lovely yet hateful to work with tinsel yarn, I was probably fairly focused on my search for Ruana Yarn.  So far, no major contenders.   What's interesting is that I can think of several possibilities right off the top of my head; this list includes what I eventually chose (more on that later), Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter , Fleece and Harmony's Selkirk Worsted , and perhaps even an...

Hello on this chicken tacos with homemade guacamole Friday!! The next page of our adventure has us wandering in and around Lenox on Day 2: We had indeed been to Colorful Stitches before, and they are still there today!!!  I don't recall if I bought anything there, though! We also tracked down and visited (all?  most?) of Sheeptacular .  This was when municipalities all over the place (it seemed) went crazy with a standard thing (sheep, horses, you name it), commissioned local artists to paint/decorate/disguise them, put them all over the place, and then in (some? all?) instances auctioned them off as a fundraiser.  Can you imagine having one of these in your garden?  That would be so awesome!! We had met up at Colorful Stitches prior to this trip - I think I was headed in one direction, and Neuro in the other (or something like that!).  At least one of those times we got lunch and sat in a park across the street(ish) from the shop and hung out there for a ...

Hello on this ginger pork and broccoli noodles Thursday! The next slide in our deck is a bit of a let-down, because we already know where we're staying and how it has changed over the years: As I recall, the breakfasts here were delicious and leisurely.  Our room was cozy but big enough so that we could put our jammies on early and knit all evening!  I don't recall there being a lot of other places to hang out in the main part of the house.  There was a porch but it had some cat odor issues (I wonder whose apartment that is today, LOL!!!!). I got a couple more rows done on Shawlography last night.  It feels like I've been working on this section forever, but at least it's turning out nicely! Stay safe and well!

Hello on this seafood curry Wednesday!  The next page in our slide deck anticipates our ultimate destination for Day 1: Lenox, MA is a lovely town in the midst of the Berkshires.  It's home to Tanglewood, the summer residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and an overall musical mecca.  I'm pretty sure it's one of those places that is a relatively small town but that swells exponentially in the summertime due to its many cultural and outdoor attractions. I didn't get very much knitting done yesterday, but I've managed to complete at least 6 rows of brioche on Shawlography without messing it up (too much!) again. Stay well and safe :)

Hello on this lemon asparagus orzo risotto Tuesday!  (You might be asking yourself - didn't we just have this recently?  Why, yes - probably 2-3 weeks ago now.  But I've finally found the Little Sweetie peppers that take this meal from delicious to amazing!). Next stop, still on Day 1: Um, wow!  I just googled this place and learned that not only has the yarn store closed, but the owner of the building was charged with arson after setting it on fire!  And there were some carbon monoxide poisonings in the building a couple of years ago.  So it's a wonder we survived!! When it was a yarn store, I'm pretty sure I purchased some fancy (read - expensive) yarn that was very fine but that also had random bits of tiny garland in it.  I thought it made an amazing shawl (there was a sample in the shop).  Of course it was an absolute pain to work with!! The Housatonic Riverwalk was lovely - an idyllic greenspace park right in the middle of town (and evident...

Hello on this chicken pesto pizza Monday!  We had some big rains last night and finally are experiencing some enjoyable summer weather - at least for today! The next page of our GNEYA has us headed northward, still Day One.  As I recall, this was a lovely and quiet drive. I have absolutely no recollection of this particular yarn store - but evidently it's still there!!!  I was speeding ahead on Shawlography when - eeek, a dropped stitch!!!  In brioche!!!  That took me a while to get back on track - I'm still becoming familiar with how all these yarnovers and slipped stitches formally interact in the fabric. I think one of the things I love the most about these MKALs is that they "force" me into doing something I might not choose to do otherwise (such as weird stitch patterns and/or crazy shaping!).  It's usually a fun challenge in the end, and sometimes I even do small victory laps when something horrifically complex turns out absolutely stunning. That may ...