Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Equilibrium

Well, if I finished a shawl and a sock, obviously it wouldn't do to not have one of each on the needles, right? The sock is no surprise: I always have those on the needles, and here's the latest:

Garter rib sock.JPG

I'm following the "garter rib" stitch from Sensational Knitted Socks. With this sock, I've officially started my holiday knitting - yay! I should have one item done at least! The yarn is a variation on the theme of Trekking XXL, in color 41. I first attempted these on size 1 needles, but alas, they were too huge and floppy, so back to the toothpick-sized 0s I went.

Just to keep the balance of finished and unfinished objects right, I've also been working on another feather-and-fan shawl (this one's a few weeks old, actually). Mindless, goes well with beautiful handpainted yarn, and looks great, too! I'm using the Ingrid's Blues colorway from Claudia Handpainted yarn.

Blue feather and fan.JPG

This past weekend, Coffeeboy and I continued exploring our new area. This time, our travels took us up, up, up, five-thousand feet up, to the Blue Ridge Parkway, where all was fog, mist, and thunder.

Foggy Blue Ridge Parkway view.JPG

We stopped to pick wild blueberries from the bushes growing along the side of the road - a popular activity, judging by the number of people crawling all over the hillsides and by the lack of actual blueberries on many of the bushes. We didn't, however, get to go on a hike, because when we got to the trailhead, the rain started to come down more and more, a wet answer to the thunder we'd heard as we drove along.

Rainy Blue Ridge Parkway view.JPG

12 comments:

Greta_Jane said...

I like the socks. Is the pattern hard?

sgeddes said...

The socks and the shawl look great!

CC said...

What a beautiful shawl! Where did you find the yarn?

Zarzuela said...

Nice looking shawl and socks! Your pictures are making me all nostalgic for bassoon camp...

Jessica

schrodinger said...

Great socks! Love the pics of the blue ridge mountains, reminds me of our honeymoon (Mr. B and I drove down to Blue Ridge, GA - it was Beautiful)

Anonymous said...

I'm still loving the feather and fan pattern and you have a knack for choosing some great yarn.

Hey if you ever wander up to the Raleigh/Durham area during one of your drives let me know so we can grab coffee and knit a bit!

Anonymous said...

The shawl is kind of messing with my eyes! It has that Op Art swoopy quality.

As for the Blue Ridge Parkway, I thought it was gorgeous but driving it (esp. in the mist) gave me raging acrophobia. Low guard rails! Badly banked roads! I don't know what I'd ever do in the Rockies.

mathomhouse said...

What a gorgeous view!

Sheepish Annie said...

::sigh:: I've hit such a knitting wall...nothing I'm doing is thrilling me all that much. Perhaps I need a more cool colors and projects like yours? Maybe I need to change my view a bit...those pictures look so wonderful!!!

Anonymous said...

Oh yikes- so gorgeous. Once the leaves begin to change you have to put up some more pictures. Love the shawl- it makes your eyes spin a bit when you look at it, but I love it. Right now I am rotating between 3 projects--I really have to get some socks going...

Ragged Around the Edges said...

I recently visited the Blue Ridge Parkway and was in awe. What a beautiful area, stopped along the way to pick blueberries as well.

Teri S. said...

Beautiful photos of the Blue Ridge! Hopefully you'll get some good fall hiking in. I really like the color of your socks. And size 0s do seem to work the best for the Trekking XXL yarn.