Women's Wilderness Weekend

This weekend my friend Maryann and I went to Rhode Island for the winter version of Women's Wilderness Weekend.  The event is held three times per year.  I had attended once before in October of 2011 and loved it.  In the intervening time I have had a conflict each time it was held.  It was great to finally participate again.

The event is held at the W. Alton Jones Campus of The University of Rhode Island. It's situated on 2,300 acres of forest, lakes and fields.  The accommodations are in heated cabins with bunk beds and hot showers.  Each cabin sleeps about 24 persons but usually only the bottom bunks are used.  There is a large center for meetings with a dining room, sitting areas, fireplace and classrooms.  Meals, served buffet style are healthy and delicious.

Here I am standing in front of the meeting center, posing with the moose.

There were lots of organized activities including ecology hikes, dream workshops, tai chi, massages, yoga, tarot card reading. A knitting workshop was listed but ended up cancelled.  I chose to spend that scheduled time knitting by the fire which blazed all weekend.

It was very cold, never going above freezing but the cabins were cozy and the main building very comfortable, even hot with the fire going. I haven't experienced real winter in five years.  I'm pleased to report that my clothing and gear which had not been used for years was more than adequate to the occasion.

I participated in two hikes on the property.  We looked for animal prints, checked out the lake and the bubbling spring.  In the lake was a large beaver lodge.

Shortly after the hike leader told us beavers rarely come out during the winter, not actually hibernating, but slowing their heart rates down we came across this:

Since it had snowed over night, a beaver had clearly come out of the lodge to have a bit of breakfast.  The chips were fresh and on top of the snow.  This tree will soon be dead if the beavers continue snacking.

 

Bubbling Spring Pond was mostly frozen although we were able to spot some bubbles off to one side.  Everything was just slightly snow covered which made for beautiful scenery.

 

Animal tracking was really interesting.  We saw signs of foxes, coyotes, squirrels and mice.  Here is an example of fox prints on a snow covered log:

Saturday evening I had a tarot card reading.  It's not something that I have a lot of faith in but this was really interesting and the reader answered some questions and validated some thinking I've been having.

I can't say enough about this group of women, the weekend program and the setting.  The price is very reasonable and there is so much fun to be had.  The next weekend is May 3rd through 5th.  I can't wait to go back.  I'm planning to encourage friends to join me.  Hope to see you there too.

Skipping Sunny FL

As our time in sunny FL was coming to a close last April, DH and I decided we were not going to spend a fifth winter as snow birds.  The weather in Crystal River is pleasant and the company, at The Islands and at Nature Coast UU, is good.  We enjoyed being outdoors, biking and walking.  We liked the townhouse we rented as it is larger and better equipped than our place in NJ.  The washer and dryer in the unit were particularly appreciated.  I will never like walking my laundry two buildings over even though there is rarely a wait for a machine and the laundry room is kept spotless by our super, Romeo.

What we missed in Florida was culture, particularly our easy access to Manhattan.  Since coming north, we've visited numerous museums, seen countless independent films, enjoyed first class chamber music.  We also missed our families.  Being in NJ all year allows us to have the company of our NY/NJ children and grandchildren.  For the first time in many years we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas at our house.  It was wonderful.  It's also a treat to meet Jackie in Manhattan for a meal and a visit from time to time.

So far the winter has been extremely mild.  I heard on the radio the other day that December and January have averaged 5 degrees above normal.  We're expecting a cold snap in the next few days and the temperature is forecast to stay below freezing for an extended time. We'll have to see how we fare. Inside we are warmer than we ever were in Florida.  Our apartment is kept at a steady 72 to 74 degrees.  At night I have to open the window to bring the temperature down to one suitable for sleeping.  In Florida the unit was difficult to heat with uninsulated windows.  DH was almost always cold until April.  If we turned the heat up to the comfort range, the electric bill took our breath away.

I'm really appreciating my knitting friends as well.  There are scheduled knit group meetings three times a week at various venues and ad hoc get together opportunities at Lisa's yarn shop, All about Ewe.  I missed her grand opening last February and I've been busy making up for lost time.  Her shop has a comfortable seating area, a welcoming atmosphere and absolutely lovely yarn. 

I'm currently working on two knitting projects.  One is a cable sweater for DH.  It's a challenging pattern and I've suffered a few set backs but I'm soldiering on.  I've finished the front and am most of the way through the sleeves.  It would be nice to finish it before the winter is over.  My other project is very long term, a shawl I started November 29, 2011.  It's the kind of project that requires intense concentration, precludes conversation and is knit in fingering weight yarn.  I enjoy it when I'm working on it, but don't often find the solitary time.  In the meantime, I've completed lots of small projects: fingerless mitts, cowls, sweaters for the OR grands, hats (one for Molly and one for me), a washcloth for Orion and four baby bears (three pictured below, fourth given to charity).  Photos of the other finished items are available on my ravelry page.

It's Been a Long Time

When last we heard from the intrepid travelers, they were heading home from sunny FL.

It was an uneventful trip until we arrived in Columbia, MD, for a long anticipated visit with our friends, John and Kathy.  We were enjoying a lovely dinner and the chance to catch up with each other when my phone rang.  It was Chuck calling to tell me he had just learned that Josh had been found dead in his apartment in Colorado.  It was a shock.  If we had to be away from home when learning such awful news, we couldn't have been in a better place than with John and Kathy.  We have been friends for more than 25 years and are familiar with each others children and their histories.  It was so helpful to be with supportive, understanding people as we started to process the information.

It's been difficult for me to blog since that time.  There were memorial service details to work out, an autopsy report to digest and lots of thoughts and feelings to process.  Fortunately our children and my DIL, Sara, swung into action and did the hard work of planning a lovely service that was attended by more than 200 people. We're progressing through a year without him, marking how we miss him at various holidays and his birthday.  He and I had been somewhat estranged and I didn't hear from him often.  I do find myself thinking about him now and wishing he were still here, out there in the west, far away but with the possibility of contact.

Shelter on the AT in Vermont

Aside from lots of knitting, the one accomplishment I'm very proud of is my backpacking adventure on the Appalachian Trail in Vermont.  There is a 21 mile section between Bennington, VT and Arlington/Wardsboro Road that has no road crossings.  It must be hiked as a backpack.  I've been thinking and scheming about it for years now.  Since I'm now approaching 70, I figured it's now or never.  I knew I could never do it with my old backpacking gear so I did some research and purchased new, ultralight equipment.  I did a trial run overnight in NJ and when that was a success I watched the weather report for a four day stretch of good weather in Vermont.  I drove up on my own, left the car at the trailhead near Bennington and set off into the woods.  I was out for four days and three nights.  There were times that I felt physically challenged but I soldiered on.  I never felt alone.  There were many southbound hikers to meet during the day and there were plenty of people at the various shelters each night.  At the end of the hike my sister picked me up at the northern trailhead and we spent the afternoon, evening and next morning in Manchester, VT.  I hope to make more trips like this in the spring.

I'm hoping to blog regularly again.  I have lots of knitting projects to show you and lots of things going on in my life.  Let's see how it goes.

Heading Home

The Road Scholar program was over around lunch time today. DH and I got in our cars and began to head north. Not too far from Sarasota we stopped at the Ellenton Outlets. Ellenton is a really big center with lots of good stores. I did a lot of browsing but just a little buying. I was delighted to get a new battery for my watch. The battery died on Saturday and we were just too booked up with the film festival to get to a jeweler. I had no idea how many times per day I look at my watch until it stopped working. Of course, I can check my iPhone but it's so much more obvious than glancing at one's wrist. What a pleasure to have a working watch again.

We're currently in Silver Springs, FL. We had intended to get into Georgia today but time just got away from us. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to drive the entire day. I am hoping we will be home by Wednesday evening or Thursday at the latest.

I'm listening to Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. It's a wonderful book and really helps to pass the time on these long drives.

Sarasota Film Festival, Part I

Wow! It's been over a month since I last posted. We've left Crystal River and are at the Sarasota Film Festival. We're doing the Road Scholar part of the festival, but this year we decided to come early to catch some extra films and enjoy Sarasota. It's so different from Crystal River and so much fun to be here.

I've seen six films so far. Opening night we saw Robot and Frank starring Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon and a robot. It's a comedy about a second story man in the early stages of dementia. We really enjoyed it. Watch for it soon in theaters near you.

On Saturday we saw Polisse, a French film about the child protective unit of the Paris Police. It was fast moving, poignant and funny. I love films with subtitles. I don't miss any of the dialogue. DH was pleased about how much of the French he understood. This one may not make it to the burbs of NJ but I'm sure it will be available at some point in Manhattan.

Sunday DH and I chose separate films. I went to 17 Girls, another French language film about a rash of pregnancies among high school students in a small town. Purportedly the plot was based on an incident that took place in the US. I think it lost something in the translation. It wasn't fully believable. I wasn't happy with the director's filming style, too many long pauses. DH saw Teddy Bear which he thoroughly enjoyed.

DH joined me and we went to The Intouchables, another French language film (are you sensing a pattern here?). After a sky diving accident renders him a quadriplegic, a wealthy widower hires an assistant from an impoverished, dysfunctional family. The relationship that develops between the two and the changes that friendship makes in both their lives is touching. DH and I loved this film.

Tuesday I went to a documentary, Book Club, about some women in the DC area who have been members of a book club since the 1940's. It was a great film with wonderful interviews with women who have lived through so many phases of the women's movement.  DH then joined me for mussels at brasserie belge before we saw our Second English language film, The Perfect Wedding, a film that manages to cover adoption, alcoholism, dementia and homosexuality all in one family. Oh, and there were two weddings. It was like able, but a bit too contrived for my taste.

We've changed hotels now and are ready to join the Road Scholar portion of the film festival. I'll report again when we've seen a few more films.

Finished Projects

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I've been working to finish projects using stash.  This sweater, Rambling Rows by Cottage Creations is one of my favorites.  I love mitered squares and combining color combinations.  This project incorporates four colors of Cascade 220 Superwash.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out. 

This baby sweater in Berocco Love It purchased two years ago at Yarnworks in Gainesville, FL, is another of my favorite patterns, # 982 Babies Neck Down Cardigan by Diane Soucy.  I enjoy making top down sweaters; there's very little sewing and I think they are more comfortable to wear when they don't have seams attaching the arms to the body.  This is lovely yarn, mostly cotton with some stretch.

Here's another Rambling Rows sweater, my fifth.  It's knit in Berocco Geode, Cascade 220 and Germantown Worsted.  I think it's perfect for my granddaughter, Linny, who loves purple.  I'm a tight knitter so I used the stitch counts for the 7 to 9 size which came out to the measurements of a slightly large 4 to 6 size.  It should be perfect for her to wear at the end of the summer.  Now I have to come up with complementary sweaters for her brothers.  Fortunately my stash continues to overflow and I just need to rummage around a bit to find something suitable.

I'm working on another baby sweater project right now but it's not something that will lend itself to a work in progress photo.  Once it's done, I'll post it.

Great Balls of Yarn #1

It seemed like a great idea.  DH was longing to cruise; I was less enthusiastic.  He suggested I search out a knitting cruise.  I googled and stumbled upon Great Balls of Yarn, a week long cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale on the Westerdam.  We like Holland America Lines, in fact, sailed on the Westerdam once before.  The featured instructor was Barry Klein.  I wasn't familiar with him but what could go wrong?  It was knitting.  We booked.

I mentioned the cruise at my Monday night knitting group.  A friend looked dubious.  She mentioned that Barry Klein was associated with Trendsetter Yarns and specialized in novelty yarns.  This caused me some concern but I thought being with a bunch of knitters sailing the Caribbean can't go wrong.

On January 13 the Costa Concordia tragedy hit the news.  A large cruise ship hit a reef off the coast of Italy.  The evacuation of the ship was poorly handled.  Many people were injured and around 30 were dead or missing.  There were numerous photos of the ship lying in its side in shallow water.  At first I wondered if we should cancel our trip.  DH convinced me that cruise ships are statistically much safer than automobiles and I travel in one of those just about every day. So, we went ahead as planned.

Shortly before the cruise was scheduled to begin I received an email from the cruise organizers detailing the schedule.  We were to have classes on the three sea days.  In addition, there would be two cocktail parties.  DH and I were assigned to a dinner table for eight members of the knitting group.  It sounded like great fun.  There was a note from Barry as well stating we should just bring our needles; he would bring the yarn.  Naively I thought, how nice, he's bringing yarn samples for us to play with.

2012 is my year of the yarn diet.  A casual inventory of my stash revealed that I have over$1,000 of yarn waiting to be used.  I have lots of plans for projects and plenty of stock on hand to complete them.  Therefore, I pledged to myself that I would "knit from stash." I brought four projects with me on the ship.  Three of them are works in progress: a rambling rows child's jacket i'm making for Linny, my Catkin shawl still in the very beginning stages, Pastafarian, aka Sandrilene, a sweater for me, and enough yarn to start and finish another child size sweater, this one for Orion.

The first full day of cruising was scheduled for Half Moon Cay, HAL's private island.  DH and I have been there more than once.  It's lovely if you are a beach person.  I'm not.  I planned to have a peaceful day on the ship while everyone else went ashore for the sun and sand.  As I took my early morning walk around the promenade deck I noticed it was extremely windy.  As we arrived at Half Moon Cay the captain announced that the wind was so strong it would not be safe to use the tenders.  We would be skipping our stop there.

Soon I received a phone call and an invitation to a special bonus knitting session scheduled for later in the day.  After lunch I headed to the meeting room.  We were introduced to Barry who had displayed many samples around the room.  Most of them were made with novelty yarns.  They were beautifully made, but for the most part, not garments I would wear.  Barry showed us a lovely vest made in a complex miter pattern using many different yarns.  It looked like something I would enjoy making and wearing.  Great Balls of Yarn had set up a market in the back of the room where many unusual and attractive yarns were on display.  There were also pre made kits for the vest project.  I handled one that was a mix of blue yarns and one that was pink.  Both were lovely.  I decided on the blue one and went to pay for it.  At that moment the class convened and I was encouraged to complete the sale during the first break.  As Barry explained the construction I realized it was the same technique I had learned from Barbara Kerr at Stitches East in Hartford.  I really wanted to make this vest.  I turned to the woman on my left and noticed her sales slip resting on top of her kit.  The total was $239.00.  It took my breath away.  There is no way that I would invest that much money in a project even if I weren't on a yarn diet.  When the break came, I put the kit back in the market.

Barry took some time to describe the other projects he planned for the cruise.  One was a scarf, attractive in its way, but not something I would wear.  The other was a handbag done with fabric and Tunisian crochet.  This one involved buying fabric, yarn and the special, handmade crochet hook.  I don't think so. After some additional discussion, we played a really fun game called R L C that involves dice and passing dollar bills (or chips) back and forth among the players.  I won!

Our dinner companions are delightful, two couples from Toms River. I prefer assigned seating when we cruise and really look forward to catching up with our dinner companions each evening.

Tuesday morning we had our first regularly scheduled class.  It became apparent the day would be devoted to making the vest.  Most, but not all, of the participants had purchased the kit.  Those of us who did not were given printed instructions for the basic miter design.  If I had been aware this was the plan, I would have brought a selection from stash since doing the design requires mixing up lots of yarn in small amounts.  Since Barry said he was bringing the yarn, I didn't do so.  I worked on the miter pattern using yarn from the rambling rows jacket.  It's an interesting construction involving not just mitered squares but part squares that link together in intriguing ways. Here's what I have so far. 

Can't seem to upload photo from iPad. Will do so when I can use laptop.

The pattern calls for about ten different yarns with different textures and colors.  I only had three with me.  Unfortunately both the basic miter instructions and the vest pattern itself are riddled with errors.  Once I ran out of appropriate yarn (about the same time I became annoyed at the inaccurate stitch counts in the pattern) I resumed working on the Rambling Rows jacket.  It's really coming along.

So, I'm feeling a bit misled, chagrined that I did not investigate the details thoroughly and at the same time, enjoying the companionship of the other women.  As I said in my intro, it's a knitting cruise.  It has to be fun and so far it is.