Toes in the sand
I try to keep this blog about the knitting, but sometimes the rest of life intrudes, in good ways and in not so good ways, and often in the two bound up inextricably. You see, Mr. G. is starting his own company, and has been pouring his soul and sanity and most of his waking hours and even many of his sleeping hours into the project since January. It’s a worthy business, designed to help people manage diabetes, because Mr. G has a lot of personal experience with the toll this disease can take and because he is the kind of person who always does what he can to make life better for others. The site won’t launch for another six weeks or so and he’s toiling away even as I type, but we needed a break. There was a lull in my schedule, so we packed up and went to the beach for a few days.
We took books and knitting and Mingus the cat. Now that we’ve turned the last page of Harry Potter, we needed something else to read together, and I proposed Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, which Mr. G has never read. We made it all the way through The Golden Compass at the beach, tucking the paperback into a coat pocket (it’s always cold at the beach in Oregon) or my knitting bag to read in the coffee shop, while waiting for tables at restaurants, and during breathers on a beautiful hike. Mr. G is hooked and can often be heard to mutter threats at Mrs. Coulter even when we’re not reading.
I also cozied up with Elizabeth Zimmermann’s The Opinionated Knitter and particularly savored her journal entries about camping with the Old Man and KLINE the cat. KLINE, it turns out, was a much better traveler than Mingus. Poor Gus was spectacularly carsick coming and going, and if I’d taken any pictures of his miserable little face, ears at half mast, eyes pleading, drooling gobbets of slime by the pint as he clung to the bars of his traveling cage, I’d have PETA leaving bags of flaming poo on my doorstep. He loved galloping from one end of the beach house to the other and teetering along the ceiling beams, he thoroughly approved of the beds, and he was very content to be in our company, but I’m not sure the journey was worth it.
The car time aside, it was a perfect vacation. We saw a whole raft of harbor seals basking on the beach, elk tracks in the forest, rare butterflies, raptors, gulls galore, and all kinds of resplendent nature. Our six-mile hike along Cascade Head, down through the Nature Conservancy land and back up again, was gorgeous (see links for pictures) — beautiful views of the dramatic coastline and back inland over the estuary to the misty hills. We watched movies — The Bourne Ultimatum on the big screen (sadly lacking in tasty villains… must rewatch Bourne the Second to salivate over Karl Urban) and the BBC miniseries Wives & Daughters, which I recommend to fans of Austen, The Forsyte Saga, et al., on the laptop DVD. I worked on an EZ February baby sweater for a little girl who’s supposed to arrive tomorrow, and finished the second sleeve of the Frost Flowers pullover.
Now it’s back to work, proofreading a manuscript, and then the family arrives on Friday. We’re having a party to celebrate my little brother’s engagement and his 25th birthday. Yep, I’m getting a new sister next May 24! And I couldn’t have picked a better one myself. She’s a knitter, too, and she’s already asked me to knit her a stole to wear on the big day, so we’ll be talking yarns and patterns this weekend. The wedding colors are lavender and green, so I’m hoping I can knit the stole in one of those rather than in white (how many white wedding stoles should a person really knit in one lifetime? At least two, I guess, if that’s what she wants…). If you’ve got suggestions for patterns, leave ’em in the comments. I want to hear your wedding handknits experiences and cautionary tales.
Posted: August 8th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
I absolutely love the first two books of the His Dark Materials trilogy (I shall not mention the third) and apart from poor sick Mingus, your vacation sounds idyllic. I’ll have to look out Wives and Daughters.
Congratulations to your brother! Lavender and green are such pretty colors. Perhaps a pale lavender stole edged in a mild leaf color? Eleanor’s coming home outfit was in shades of lavender and green and it gave me an appetite for the combination. I’ve seen a lot of Print O’ the Wave stoles used for weddings, and they’ve all looked lovely and classic.
Posted: August 8th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
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Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 3:33 am
sounds like a nice vacation! and congrats to your brother! you must be thrilled 🙂
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 3:36 am
I’ve been in love with the Circular Cape from Jane Sowerby’s Victorian Lace Today for a while. I think it would make a lovely wedding shawl,and it’s shape will make it less fussy to keep on. My Christmas knitting is looming over my head or I would have started knitting one myself. I’ve got a few balls of Crystal Palace Kid Merino in a nice charcoal just marinading in my stash for it.
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 4:00 am
What a lovely mini-vacation! Sounds perfect. As for wedding shawls, my experience with giving “Birch” to my sister was wonderful and I’d do it again in a minute. I have no lace suggestions though… but you may be receiving a little gifty from your Spiders to give you a little inspiration in that area. Keep an eye on the mail!
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 4:20 am
sounds wonderful. i read the “His Dark Materials” series and each book was just as good as the first. That evil Mrs. Coulter!!!
i love knitspot.com (Anne)’s bee shawl – it is so pretty and different!
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 5:32 am
Poor Gus! At least he had a good time while there, I guess. It sounds like YOU had fun. I can’t wait to hear more about Mr. G’s company! My mom is diabetic and the more I can help her, the better.
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 6:18 am
Well I made the ‘I do’ shrug…as you may remember 🙂 http://saltwater_purls.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/08/and_she_said_i_.html#comments
which I think was worn for about 5 mins late in the night when about 5 people remained (pregnant and ill I was not there). Well the day wasn’t about my glory and many people made glorious contributions to that wedding…but I confess I hate knitting for other people…I’m just selfish in that way.
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Congratulations to Mr. G for starting his own business. So much hard work, but definitely a need out there for him to fill that will be very appreciated. (Has he done the Tour de Cure for diabetes?)
I love that you both read together out loud. Your vacation sounded heavenly even if poor Gus was sick. It sounds very relaxing with all that you have going on.
I don’t have any experience in wedding shawls, but I was thinking that if the bride wants a white shawl, maybe a little edging in lavender and green would make it special for her (or, if the pattern has a flower design, you could duplicate stitch one or two blossoms in the corner of the shawl with those colors). I think Interweave published a number of books on lace shawls, some with the old-fashioned patterns if your new SIL would like them. I have the names writtten down if you would like me to email them to you.
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 7:17 am
I loved the Dark Materials trilogy. It’s probably the last book I got to read out loud to my kids (the youngest 2, 22 and 25 now, and they were tolerant teens already when I was reading the Pullman). Time for a reread, actually, with the movie coming out.
I read to my husband when we’re driving and when he’s cooking although he doesn’t reciprocate the favour — says he just really thinks I’m a better reader and I have to admit I’m not a patient listener. We’ve never tried fiction though — David Sedaris’ books, travel memoirs, food lit have so far been more our speed.
As for a wedding shawl, have you made Birch yet? It’s a surprisingly fast knit (well, relatively speaking) and it’s satisfying as well — I’ve made two and would happily make another.
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 8:26 am
it makes me happy to hear you had a rest. especially after the herculean feat of brigette. i read the dark materials series on rec by my teen brother, loved it so. one of those that you cannot stand to turn the last page. i could read again as it has been almost a year. hmmm. your description of the coast makes me long for that cool oregon ocean air. did you dip toes? bbrrrrrr.
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 9:48 am
What a lovely vacation! Sounds just heavenly.
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Wow, lots of exciting things in this post. Congrats to Mr. G for starting a new company, and hooray for having a lovely vacation.
Congratulations to your brother! My little brother is getting married in the Spring of next year, too, and I’ve been asked to knit my soon-to-be sister-in-law (who I absolutely adore) a wrap for the wedding. She’s having me knit Sivia Harding’s “Shetland Garden Faroese Shawl”, but since it sounds like your future sister-in-law wants a stole, that’s probably not a good suggestion. I do remember really liking Ms. Harding’s “Hanging Garden” stole when I was looking at her site, but I don’t know what it’s like to knit.
Poor Mingus. My little guy doesn’t travel well, either. We have to medicate him, and one time he spit his meds out and wound up bashing his face into the side of the carrier the whole way from Chicago to Upstate NY. Poor baby was a bruised-up mess, I’m sure PETA would have had gone after me if they’d seen him!
My husband and I were just talking about reading Philip Pullman’s books together this morning, sounds like we should!
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
what a delightful post! sounds like you really needed a trip away … i’m excited to see the fruits of hubby’s labor soon. i’m also curious about what shawl you’ll choose.
Posted: August 9th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Your time away sounds fabulous and well deserved. I read The Golden Compass this past school year and really enjoyed it! I think I’ll read the second this fall. Congrats to Mr. Blue Garter; I hope his endeavor is just as he hopes it will be!
Posted: August 10th, 2007 at 7:11 am
I just wrote about the shawl I made this time last year for my wedding on my blog (the direct link is here: ). I used one of the patterns from the First Book of Modern Lace Knitting (meant as a small table topper, but I just kept going in the same pattern till it was shawl sized). It’s round, which turned out to have been a good thing since I needed the extra layer for warmth, but some of the rectangular patterns (meant as curtains) would also be adapted to be a stole.
Posted: August 10th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Yay for Mr. Garter reading His Dark Materials, especially with the movie coming out! I’m trying to get my guy to read them, too, since I know he’d love them.
Wives and Daughters is in our Netflix queue, we’re looking forward to watching it.
Posted: August 10th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Hi, Gus. I’m Marmalade and I am the owner of Tanya. I just want you to know that Bonita and I feel your pain! Tanya and our other person, J, like to take us out on the boat. While the time spent in the car to and from the boat and the time spent with the engine running are nearly more than we can take, we really do enjoy being on the boat. We especially like it once the anchor has dropped and twilight sets and we go exploring around the deck while our people have cocktails and dinner. Anyway, wipe the chin and know that you are not the only one out there turning green under the fur in order to enjoy quality time with your people.
Posted: August 12th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Your Baltic Sea Stole inspired me to choose the same pattern for my own wedding stole – so I know whatever you end up making will be divine.