Knitting Nights and Sales

The Markers enjoy Knit Night at The Knitting Corner



And the August Guild meeting.




I received Sue's email about the ginormous sale at The Knitting Corner. She wasn't kidding


Even the Sale sign is ginormous!

This is what I left with


Two skeins of pale pink lace wt from Skacel. A skein of Araucania sock wt to go with the skein I purchased a few weeks ago. Probably be a shawl. And the latest Harmony Guide. I felt the other Guides were repeats of Barbara Walker and others, this is giving me new ideas. The only thing missing is charts.

a Book meme

This is going around the blogasphere. How many "classics", as defined by the BBC, have I read? (in blue)


Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien (part)
Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter series JK Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
The Bible (at least most of it to count)
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell
His Dark Materials Philip Pullman
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Little Women Louisa M Alcott
Tess of the D’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
Catch 22 Joseph Heller
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier
The Hobbit JRR Tolkien (part)
Birdsong Sebastian Faulks
Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger
The Time Traveller’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger
Middlemarch George Eliot
Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald
Bleak House Charles Dickens
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
David Copperfield Charles Dickens
Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis
Emma Jane Austen
Persuasion Jane Austen
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe CS Lewis
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Louis De Bernieres
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
Winnie the Pooh AA Milne
Animal Farm George Orwell
The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving
The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery
Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies William Golding
Atonement Ian McEwan
Life of Pi Yann Martel
Dune Frank Herbert
Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons
Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens
Brave New World Aldous Huxley
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon
Love In The Time Of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
The Secret History Donna Tartt
The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
On The Road Jack Kerouac
Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
Bridget Jones’s Diary Helen Fielding
Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick Herman Melville
Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
Dracula Bram Stoker
The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett
Notes From A Small Island Bill Bryson
Ulysses James Joyce
The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome
Germinal Emile Zola
Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray
Possession AS Byatt
A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
Cloud Atlas David Mitchell
The Color Purple Alice Walker
The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry
Charlotte’s Web EB White
The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Alborn
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Faraway Tree Collection Enid Blyton
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
The Little Prince Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Wasp Factory Iain Banks
Watership Down Richard Adams
A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute
The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas
Hamlet William Shakespeare
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Les Miserables Victor Hugo

44 out of 100...not to bad. I don't understand why some of these the BBC considered "classics" though. BJD?

I didn't highlight the complete works of Shakespear but I have read more than Hamlet...Romeo & Juliet, Merchant of Venice, Taming of the Shrew, his sonents (do they count?)

I did begin each of the Tolkien's, but I just couldn't get through them.

Where's the rest of Jane Austen? The Bronte's? And Louisa certainly had better than LW (that was good but her dark writing is much better) And Willa Cather?

Not a hit of Nora Roberts?

Here a bit of what I'd add if I made a top 100 list of books:

Out of Africa
A Year in Provence
How to Make an American Quilt
Mutant Message Down Under
These is My Words
The Knitters Book of Yarn

Rain rain....

It rained Monday night so puppy class was cancelled.

Instead Markers enjoyed a cup of coffee and knitting with Tidewater Markers at B&N




That pretty blue is ArtsyFish's swatch for a shawl she wants to knit with her handspun. Now that's how to knit a swatch!

And yes, I will let you know when the Today show airs the segment on Guilding Eyes.

Last night...

... I met a woman who is blind. She came into The Knitting Corner for help with her knitting. A lace project. With her was Copper, her guide dog. He is her 5th dog. He's her independence. While Sue fixed her knitting we chatted about what makes a good guide dog. She shared that while "sit", "stay" and "let's go" were important, more important was "come". Copper is having trouble with that right now.

And from USAtoday this story "Blinded by Nazis; guided by a dog". Tobin was raised by a local family.

And allow me one more...Thursday on NBC's Today show will feature a story on the Yost Family who foster two of Guiding Eyes studs. Alex & Alfie. Should air between 8:30 -9:00. UPDATE: just learned that this has been postponed.

Alfie is Tobin's father.

I finally love computers!

I complain alot about computers. I don't understand how to fix it when it breaks...ie, gives me weird error messages that do not make sense. And all the connections you need to have just to get to the internet....

But I've finlly found a reason to put up with it.....take a look at what VogueKnitting has done

VogueKnitting 360

No more trying to quess what the sweater looks like in the back. No more wondering how the sleeve fits. No more wondering .....

I love you VK!

Stitch Markers meet the Frances Land House

Meeting the at least 250 year old Sycamore. This beautiful tree was around long before the house was built between 1805 and 1810.



A few steps to the right a glimsp of the house itself. A little history: the porch and portico were added in 1955 when the house was purchased and used for "Rose Hall" an exclusive dress/bridal shop.



After a tour of the house (no photo's allowed, it's a museum) a short break on one of the many benches on the grounds. The door leads into the dining room. The kitchen, as in many plantations, would have been outside.



This is new to me....



Not sure what is planted to grow. The Master Gardners of Va Beach take care of the plantings/gardens for the House and didn't leave info. Perhaps grape vines?

After this picture the camera battery died. But Markers will have the opportunity to see more of the FLH soon!

Tonight....puppy training!

Stories of the Traveling Stitch Markers

Please let me introduce you to 5 beautiful stitch markers.

*****

They are traveling the state of Virginia living in differnet knitting projects while they tour one of the 13 original states.

They began their journey 4 months ago in Appomattox where they enjoyed time with handspun and dyed yarn from a sheep named Liza and were photographed on a cannon.


Easter Sunday they attended church service while their tour guide played the organ in Greenwood.

Then it was off to the Shenandoah Valley where they had many adventures including a trip to the dentist and a 4th of July Celebration!

What's next for them to experience? Stay tuned.

Check out "Stories of the Traveling Stitch Markers" Group on Ravelry to read the adventures of other Stitch markers traveling in other states.


**** sigh...this was the best of about 10 pictures. they are beautiful! delicate!