New Hampshire at its Best

Autumn is New England’s finest hour.  The season brings crisp mornings, apple pie, pumpkin spice everything, and the beautiful color of the leaves.  It is a time of preparation for the hard, cold winter to come and a farewell to the sun-drenched days of summer.  This year NH folks greeted fall with great relief as it was one of the hottest summers on record.  The season has not disappointed us with magnificent colors.

For knitters, it is our season.  We want to cast on all the things – especially cozy things to keep off the chill during the beautiful fall walks.  This was the inspiration for my first two original knitting patterns, the Falling Leaves Cowl and matching mitts.  

This past summer I was able to take a class with designer Thea Coleman.  Her class broke down the design process and made it seem approachable.  I was also inspired by my friend, Carol Ruhl.  She is an amazing knitter and her design sense is simple and lovely.

Happy Autumn!

2016! Off to a good start?!

Is your new year off to a good start?  Since retiring from teaching, this is the first year that really feels like it begins in January instead of September!

The new year started off with a bit of a delay in my knitting as I over did it in December and ended up with "knitter's tennis elbow."  I didn't know there was such a thing, but there is and ouch does it hurt!  After some rest and more well paced knitting sessions, I am healing and back to my usual knitting and spinning.

January has been the month of hats.  First was the Vermonter - which was actually the Laura Aylor Christmas KAL cowl that I frogged and turned into a more wearable item for me.  Then two quick baby hats for a charity KAL at Twill.

Itty bitty bear cub

The Vermonter

Cupcake Newborn Hat

A bigger project off the needles is the Akita by Norah Gaughan.  I knit her sample for the Fibre Company collection last year and really wanted one for myself.  Although the weather is warm this week, I am sure I will still get some wear out of it yet this winter.


That's it for now - some spinning coming soon!