The girls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=8rpvSse1X0s

Carnival Tee

I finished this top a couple of weeks ago.  It is Carnival Tee, designed by Helene Rush and knit with Knit One Crochet Too's Ty Dy Cotton.  

I knit the skirt once and it was huge. It would have been too big for my husband. So I frogged and took a nice, three month break from it. After knitting it again, I did not try it on after finishing the shoulder straps. I remember as I set it down to work on the sleeves, a neon traffic sign the size of a billboard flashed across my brain, "That looks too short". The same image burned across my eyeballs when I forged ahead and knit the shoulder straps together, finished the neckline and attached the sleeves. Long story short, it is too short and only fits when wet. More than happy to bequeath it to a friend but I really should have known better! I'm happily knitting dishcloths now.

Walking Stick

Saw a walking stick today on the wall at work.  It's been a while since I've seen one!

Something

There is something in the woods tonight.  My girl has picked up a scent and has been yelling since we started out.  The cicadas are so loud, I can't hear if anything is there when she pauses to smell.  It makes Phoenix very nervous and stops often looking for me.  He used to lead the way.

Its getting dark so early now.

Red Salamander

We saw a red salamander today in the woods.  Its spots looked golden in the light.

Spent the weekend trying to lose myself, but wherever I went, there I was.

Angel's Rest

Finished these socks for Mom last week and loved knitting them.  Its a quick pattern (Peak Experience from Fiber Trends) and so pretty to me.  The colors of the yarn (Opal) remind me of baseball.  I love Opal.  It doesn't have as much softness as others, but I know these will last for years. 

Three pairs down, three to go for her.  I have a self imposed goal of sorts to finish by October.  It took me 19 days to finish Angel's Rest.  October is quite a while away, but I haven't started a few other projects yet - a hat for a co-worker, Tom's socks of the year, Fall shawl, Aunt Fran's birthday shawl.... and so it goes. 

Doing a sugar roll to check for mites with the bees later!   They seem to be doing really well.  We moved too fast by putting honey supers up and so removed them a couple weeks ago.   Solaris (hive #1) had 60% of the second brood chamber filled out.  We will be able to see how Helious is doing this afternoon.   We got them so late in the season, they are still building their colonies. They've been foraging in the clover and I hate to, but I have to mow the lawn.  

Soft and Drowsy

Soft and drowsy hours are creeping,
Hill and dale in slumber sleeping,
Love alone his watch is keeping -
All through the night.

~Old Welsh Air

Baby, its HOT outside!

We were alarmed at dusk this evening to see so many honeybees outside their hives.  Turns out, they seem to be "bearding" - clustering outside to help drop the temperature inside.  Once things get a little cooler, they'll go back inside.

Both hives now have an extra super and two short supers.  I am not sure, but think there is a honeyflow going on.  There are bees zooming absolutely everywhere - in the garden, the trees, and the birdbaths have upwards of 30 bees at a time.   Its like an amusement park in the yard. 

Happy Independence Day!

Stuck in traffic

On our way to see Further, stuck in traffic and working on this cool sock.

Finished Socks

A few pairs of socks I finally finished.

Modified Rib Fantastic Socks from Knitting Socks With Handpainted Yarn, Colinette Jitterbug, color Lagoon:




Elegant Socks from Knitting Traditions, Winter, 2010, Opal.



Rough Weather, from Think Outside the Sox, Cherry Tree Hill Yarn Supersock, color River Run. My first toe-ups that came out right. Beautiful pattern.

Happy Canada Day to our fine neighbors up north!

Honeybee update

We checked the frames last night. The queens are doing beautifully and its thrilling. Hive 1 has 80% of its frames full of brood and/or honey so we put another super on top so they will have more room. Hive 2 has about 60% so we will wait another week before adding a super. From what I understand, the queen will continue to lay eggs going up and won't go back down so you want to have the bottom super almost full before adding another. Brood and honey are in patches around the frames. In the winter, the "cluster" of honeybees will move around the hive and have access to the honey in different places.

This is Hive 1 after lifting the inner cover. We used a little smoke so that the bees would go down into the frames enabling us to gently scrape away this patch of honey cells.





Regrettably, this picture is blurry but we were trying to move quickly through the frames so as not to disturb them so much. The darker colored cells are brood and the pale white cells at the top are honey.



They were so beautiful and as before, it was humbling to work with them. I can only hope that even in light of our ignorance of their work, we'll do right by them.

BP Oil Spill Insider at the Gulf Emergency Summit

Just in case you hadn't heard.

Part 1


Part 2

Today's walk by the lake

Honeybees

It's been a few weeks since the bees came. The first week and half, they seemed to be clustering on the left side of one hive and we fussed that something had happened to the queen. We were anxious to look and see but thankfully checked with a teacher first who cheerfully advised us "Leave them alone, leave them alone some more and when you are done with that, leave them alone again." We've lifted only the hive cover three times to feed them and each time they were extraordinarily gentle. Today though, they made it clear it wasn't a good day. It's overcast, cool and drizzling and they were quite bouncy. Even the smoke disturbed them, unlike prior checks. Working with them is all about being with them, watching and listening. They know way more than I do about making honey so I'm just there to learn and try and help as best I can.

These are not the greatest photos but latex gloves and touch screens are tricky.

The hive with a few frames removed:



Applying smoke:



Shaking the bees into the hive. This step blew my mind. You turn the box over and whump! 3,000 odd bees are free.



The queen cage. My hands were shaking. I was still getting over the fact that we unceremoniously dumped these bees and then realized what I was holding was their main focus. It felt like 40,000 eyes were staring at me.



Uncorked, this is where the queen cage sits. We waited four days before removing it.





Finished!

Contented

A walk in the woods, a shower in the rain at the end of a hot summer day - how did I get so lucky?

The girls are here!

What if

The oil spill catches fire? 

There is an oil volcano?

An oil hurricane?

Catch 'em while you can

They won't be here long.

Forgotten

Found a bit of nastiness today - a spring load trap, whose rusty chain turned the tree trunk black.  I buried it in a stone fence where hopefully it will be forgotten again.

I love Sundays

Funny day over here.  I just spent an hour shopping at Home Depot with my pants on backwards.  I thought folks were looking at me because of the sock I was working on in line.

Bee Socks

I finished my bee socks a couple of weeks ago.  They are loosely knit on size two needles because the two prior pairs I had made with Lornas Laces shrunk a bit.  My gauge with socks lately has kept me on my toes in that my old "go to" formula no longer works.   Where a size 2 or even 3 needle gave me a beautiful firm fabric, I am now having to knit with 1s, 0s and even bought 00s just in case. 
My mom was down a couple weeks ago and shyly mentioned darning her socks.  Living in Maine, she wears them pretty much 11 months out of the year.  I had no idea her sock stash was so low so brought her my sock wool.  She happily chose several skeins and I am excited to make her something she truly enjoys.  I love being a knitter.

Green Ball

Found this odd green ball today and have no idea what it is.  It has a thin shell and reminds me of those "smoke bomb" or "puff ball" mushrooms where if you step on them, clouds of brown spores float out.

Lotus Blossoms

Lotus Blossoms, finally finished after ignoring it for a year.  Great Adirondack Yarn Co., silk, color Hydrangea and mailed to my aunt this morning for her many kindnesses to me over the years.

I've about had it with triangular shawls for a while!  Casting on for an EZ pie shawl as soon as I get some downtime.

Turtles

Saw two huge snapping turtles mating today! They are in the center of
the picture. They rolled and rolled in the water. Their backs were
covered in moss and/or algae.

Found lots of princess pine!  Think its endangered.  When I was small, I used to imagine elves lived under princess pine.

Also found coyote scat, but think it odd to post a picture.

The Old Klausen House

We came upon the old Klausen site today. The only things left are parts of the foundation and quite a few pots, pans and broken dishware.

Found

In the woods: A stone chair someone made for themselves judging by how old the log is; the bloodroot is blooming; and what I think is a yellow violet.

Green

Things are growing quickly here and we're planning for the spring garden rush. We put in two additional raised beds and cleared out room for the bee hives. The bees are coming at the end of April. I'm a little nervous about getting stung a lot but I have read it is good for you to a degree.



I finished a shawl, Clothilde. It's a beautiful pattern but my choice of wool to knit with (Fiesta Ballet) makes the border hard to see.

Bee stripe sock

Working on socks made from Lornas Laces Shepard Wool - Bee Stripe colorway in honor of our new adventure in keeping bees.  I  love this "picot" edging as it is a welcome relief from ribbing.  They stay up beautifully.

The temperature hit about 80 degrees today!

Hothouse Flowers

Couldn't ask for a better way to bring in spring, then to see Hothouse Flowers at the Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock.  I got a bit tipsy and danced the night away to the band.  They were amazing.  How wonderful to let everything go and be swept away by the old country!  Am thinking about getting a tiny, diamond stud in my nose.

We just got our butts kicked by 4 feet of snow in 2 days!  Still haven't any power but coping nicely with a little help from friends.  We are lucky.  At least we didn't get stuck on 84 for 12 hours!  Very sad about the pear tree.  She is a good 65 years old and I hope losing that big limb won't be the end of her.  Anyway, I won't be getting any medals for knitting olympics this year.  Chop wood, carry water.