Monthly Archives: October 2013

So Much Fun It’s Scary

Halloween has always been one of our favorite holidays.  All the beautiful leaves and weather, the fun and spooky decorations, dressing up, eating candy!

Luckily we have friends who enjoy it just as much as we do, and welcome us all to their home every year for an evening of spooky festivity!

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Conjoined twin cookies!

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Neve as Sally.

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Spicy taco dip skull.

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Maddie and Gabi.

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Our friend Keith as Jack Skellington.

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Neve with Jessie: our two Sallys.

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I went with a Dia de los Muertos theme.

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Book Club ladies.

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Creepy!

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Cute littles!

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Neve and Sarah.

 

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Emily went as Prince Zuko from Avatar, The Last Airbender.

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Elizabeth’s husband Kevin led us all in a rousing game of Mad Scientists vs. Villagers.  The villagers had to discover who the scientists were before they killed off the whole village!

As always we had a great time and the kids wore themselves out (always a good thing!).

It’s sad that October is flying by so quickly, but at least we still have more Halloween fun to come!


Tagged: food, Seasons

…still traveling

I'm away from the studio
traveling and visiting family.
I'll leave you with one of
my favorite autumn treats...

pumpkin ice-cream from Amy's Ice Creams

I'll be back soon!

October Roses …

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- by Joan -


A Lighthouse …

Gay Head Lighthouse

 Aquinnah – Martha’s Vineyard, MA

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To read more about the Gay Head Lighthouse and the efforts to save it from falling into the sea… please CLICK HERE

- by Joan -


The Gay Head Lighthouse …

My creation

The Gay Head Lighthouse has stood on the picturesque cliffs at the western most tip of Martha’s Vineyard since 1856.  It is now only 45 feet from the edge of the  eroding cliffs and is in danger of falling into the sea.

In 1799 a wooden lighthouse was built. In 1856 it was replaced with the current brick and sandstone lighthouse and fitted with Fresnel lenses.

My creation

The lenses were replaced by electrically generated lenses in 1952. The old lenses were given to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum in Edgartown.

My creation

This past weekend (Oct 13) I was on MV and decided to drive out to Aquinnah…  and when I got there I saw these signs…

My creation

I’d never been inside the Gay Head lighthouse and was excited to be able to do so, and also help in a small way support the campaign to help raise the money to Save The Gay Head Lighthouse.

Come and join me for my tour inside the lighthouse…

My creation

My creation

Reached the first level and stepped outside…

My creation

These are the stunningly beautiful breathtaking views …

My creation

Final set of stairs and the view from the top …

My creation

What an awesome experience…

My creation

***To learn more about how to donate to Save The Gay Head Lighthouse CLICK HERE

**To read the history of the Gay Head Lighthouse CLICK HERE


Halloween Socks!

Finally!

After casting these on a year ago, putting them down to finish other projects and waiting for substitute yarn to arrive, I finished them!

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The sock on the left was finished last October.  The one on the right……….

The pattern is Little Pumpkins, which was a joy to work.  The yarn is Socks That Rock, mostly in colorway “Rocky Horror”.  Mostly.  Until I’d gotten halfway through the foot on the right sock and realized all that cabling meant I wasn’t going to have enough yarn to finish.  After I died a little inside I checked the website to find that that colorway was on hiatus.  BUT there was another colorway, “Go Beavs” that was pretty similar.  Since it was only going to be the toe, really, I figured it would have to do, so I ordered it.

And proceeded to wait nearly a month for it to arrive.

They dye their yarn to order – which is lovely – except that I’ve seen Lauria and Susan and Tanya dye hundreds and hundreds of hanks of yarn and get them shipped out in less than 2 weeks.  And with the clock ticking down towards Halloween I was becoming annoyed that my Halloween socks would yet again not be ready in time.

Then, miracle of miracles, it finally arrived yesterday, and was almost an exact match for color!

I did have some pooling in the foot at the end, but you know what?  They’re done.  And honestly, you can see the pumpkin design much better in the areas where the color is pooled rather than striped.

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And did I mention they are DONE???

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Now I can focus all of my knitterly attention on my Shepherd sweater.

In other seasonal news, the persimmon tree is fruiting!!!

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Isn’t fall grand?


Tagged: Knitting, Seasons

Kate’s Sunset …

Martha’s Vineyard

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- by Joan -


Charlie KAL update

I posted about starting Charlie what seems like forever ago and then completely abandoned you. The good news is that I have been working on it, although sporadically and am using it as my 30 day sweater challenge. It seems a bit like cheating to use such a tiny sweater, but with my knitting time being so limited lately, and with the colorwork section stretching my skills, I’ve decided that it fits.

On my plane ride home from Virginia I finished the ribbing.

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Then I was onto knitting the body, which was extremely easy.

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Knitting around and around and around

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and around.

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I knit most of the body in one evening.

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On Monday I’ll be back with an update on the sleeves progress and a couple of tricks for attaching them to the body.

Is anyone knitting with me? Any progress being made? It’s not too late to catch up – this is a very simple pattern!

 

Autumn Barns …

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- by Joan -


The Digital Herriot Patterns are Here!

For months we’ve been getting emails from readers asking when we would be releasing our first collection of Herriot patterns digitally. Well today is your lucky day!

This collection contains some of the most popular JMF patterns we’ve ever published, including:

Maeby Pullover

The Maeby Stranded Pullover by Pam Wynne

BESSIE Pullover

The Bessie Striped Pullover by Caroline Fryar

Egbertine Cowl and Hat

The Egbertine Striped Cowl and Hat by Caroline Fryar

Edie

The Edie Trompe l’oeil Pullover by Pam Wynne

IDA-MAE

The Ida Mae Ombre Wrap by Pam Wynne 

You can see the whole collection right here, including three free patterns!