Gabriel Attends His First Knitting Event

We made it to Borders on Sunday for the weekly knitting event! We showed up late and didn't stay too long. I haven't actually made it to a weekly knitting event since before Gabriel was born, in fact, I haven't knit a stitch since he has been born. (Luckily we have lots of knitting friends and family so Gabriel has been blessed with several hand knits to wear.) I hope to get back to knitting on at least one project in the near future, now that my energy is returning and I am starting to figure out Gabriel's daily pattern. Michael, Gabriel and I found the knitting ladies in the Borders' cafe as usual on Sunday. Gabriel made the rounds and flirted with any woman who would hold him, and even flashed a few smiles. His first knitting event seemed to be a success. I have hope that maybe Gabriel will be able to accompany me to a few Sunday events in the near future. And maybe I can even knit when I go!




Don't forget to check out the gorgeous gray sweater Gabriel is wearing in the photos. It was hand knit by Aunt Tracy! And Aunt Denise finished the lederhosen that goes with the fair isle sweater she already made. Can't wait to do some holiday photos of Gabriel in that outfit. I will post photos of Denise's project separately, so stay tuned.

Gabriel's Coming Home Projects

I have now finished Gabriel's mittens, socks, and cabled hat in the Kona Superwash yarn to match his teal Debbie Bliss cardigan. I hand washed all of the pieces and am setting them out to dry and block tonight. I think in the end, all of the pieces are going to be of varying sizes. The socks may be too big for a newborn. His mittens may be too small quickly. And I sure hope the cabled hat is way too big for his head. The cardigan is big and boxy, but I can roll up the sleeves, so I think it will work. Now I just have to figure out what to put under all of these items for his Coming Home Outfit from the hospital. You can see a photo of the socks in my October 15th blog entry.

The Yarn & Fiber Company

Recently, The Yarn & Fiber Company moved the whole store from Windham to the Clearbrook Center in Derry. I had been to the Y&F Co. a few times at the old location. And I took a lovely sock dying workshop there in 2007 with the owner of Cherry Tree Hill yarn company.

The new location is marvelous! I walked around and around the shelves of yarn, enjoying all of the colors. There is much more room at the new location. And there are two different areas for gathering. One is a sit, knit and chat area with upholstered chairs and couches and then there is a separate class area with a table.

I went Friday night because the Y&F Co. hosts a Friday night knitting event. Fiber enthusiasts can gather, knit and chat together while working on projects. It's a good time and a lot of the ManchVegas knitting members go. I just don't get to see that group as much as I would like since the normal knitting night for ManchVegas is Wednesday and it's too late of an evening for me on a work night.

I bought some new yarn on my visit to Y&F Co. last night, of course. I got some luxury angora in a light green so I could knit up some baby booties. The angora is so soft and I wish that it wasn't so expensive so I could make myself an adult size pair of booties. Lucas seems to be a fan of the angora as well. He stops to snuffle it when he walks by it in my knitting basket. And because my Madeline Tosh sock yarn in the peony colorway has just lasted forever, I bought a new skein in the Baltic colorway. I also got some Soak detergent so I can wash some of my more delicate hand knits in a pretty smelling cleaner.

Fisher Cats v. Rock Cats

Michael, Shawn, Denise and I went to see the NH Fisher Cats play a game of baseball against the New Britain Rock Cats on Friday night. What's a Rock Cat? Michael received tickets for the game through his work. When we left the house, a thunder storm was just passing through Pittsfield. The sky brightened as we drove into Manchester. We parked down on North Commercial Street where Denise worked, and then walked to the merchants.com stadium. We enjoyed seats in the second row behind the home team dug out. We sat down once we had our appropriate ball park food dinners in hand. I had an Italian sausage and Mike and Denise had jumbo dogs. Mmmmm. Denise and I brought knitting, but I didn't actually net any knitting since my Swirly Baby Hat project seems to be a little too difficult to knit while I am also trying to talk and watch for foul balls. So I knit about a half inch and then unknit about a half inch to fix a mistake. Sometime after the half way point of the game, lightening could be seen off in the north distance. And then eventually full bolts of lightening could be seen. But the game did finish and we never got wet, so that was a happy ending. The Fisher Cats won 3 to 2 in the bottom of the 9th, and it was a close game the whole way through. Pittsfield was still soaking wet when we got home, so apparently the storms all stayed north of Manchester.

World Wide Knit in Public Day!

The Sunday knitting group (officially titled the Concord Knitting Meetup) that I belong to decided to join the World Wide Knit in Public Day. Our group hosted an event on Saturday at Merrill Park in East Concord. The weather worked out well, though it was best when the breeze was around. We invited knitters from all around by advertising on Ravelry and our Concord Meetup site, and as well posted the event on the Knit in Public website.

It was wonderful to meet even more knitters from the area. There were some members from the Granite State knitters' group and some people from the ravelry knitting community.

I saw a few new gadgets that I can't live without now. I must have a handmade sterling silver darning needle now that I have seen Suki's! (I apologize now for probably spelling her name wrong.)

We brought our chairs and the food was over abundant. Denise set up her Jet Boil chocolate fondue set and we dipped everything in the gooey chocolate goodness. I still have a huge dish of uneaten brownies though which will probably make their way to Borders today so I don't eat all of the brownies myself.












Poor Ellen is a member of Ravelry, but she didn't have any friends out there. So if you are a Ravelry member, please go out and friend renaissancebabe so she won't have to knit alone in NH anymore. As of this morning, she was up to 4 friends. So the intervention has worked!

I think the consensus was that we have to try knitting at Merrill Park again soon.