The end of the rainbow?

My grandfather used to say “If you don’t like the weather in Maine, wait a minute”. This fall has been a perfect example. The other day at work started out bright and sunny. By early afternoon a large dark front had moved in and the wind was howling in the square. It was fun to watch the leaves whipping and swirling around the buildings. Some of the seagulls and pigeons were braving the  turbulence, swooping over the rooftops. Others were gathered in meeting formation.

The sun peeked out again and it started to rain (?!) – lightly at first and then thrashing, smashing rain with thunder and lightning.  It was quitting time for me, so I put on my raincoat and scurried across the square to the parking garage. As I was climbing into my car (huffing and puffing after five flights of stairs) I looked up and saw this beautiful rainbow! If you look closely you can see a secong ghost rainbow to the right.

Fall is here and it has pumped up two parts of me: my appetite (bad thing) and my desire to knit (good thing). I am busily cranking out Christmas presents. So far two Noro Silk Garden scarves (one the Jared Flood stripes which is amazing, and one the Queen Anne’s lace). I am also working on socks in String Theory Caper Sock in the Mardi Gras colorway. String Theory Caper Sock is amazing. Very spongy and exquisitely soft (has cashmere in it).  The physical String Theory is located in Blue Hill Maine. It is owned and operated by two nurses. The shop sells all kinds of yarn – even their own hand dyes. Karen and Tanis have great “hands” for yarn and great “eyes” for color. I found them on Ravelry and bought my first String Theory yarn at the Maine Fiber Frolic this spring.  You can find their yarn in Blue Hill, on their web site   www.stringtheoryyarn.com or at the Loopy Ewe.

Last week I took a Fair Isle knitting class at Purl Diva . The class was taught by Mary Jane Mucklestone – who is very well known in the knitting world and is a fellow Mainer. I learned I am not very adventurous when it comes to color and that I knit very loosely. These are two good things to know. I also learned that Mary Jane is very funny and totally fearless when it comes to knitting. She designs as she is knitting! I, on the other hand, ruminate for days or weeks. I get out the colored pencils and graph paper (knitting graph paper of course) and carefully chart all the possibilities before I ever even start looking for the yarn. I am thinking that may inhibit the process and that I will try to be less calculating and more spontaneous (which will probably be bad for my budget but good for my stash and my local yarn stores   ).

As for the Facehugger – check out this cartoon my daughter found on Deviant Art: Epic Fail!

I can see the harbor, the hospitals and the square. The square is a lively place. I have seen jugglers, belly dancers, rock concerts and even people hula -hooping. There have been political demonstrations and parades. But my favorite is the brick canvas. It changes often. Two or three people will show up with a ladder and spray cans and change my view. It’s really amazing. I have started bringing my camera to work to chronicle their efforts.

I believe there is some urban warfare going on. The first canvas was a full wall image in violet, teal and burnt orange. It looked airbrushed and was really gorgeous but I had no camera. Bandits struck and the canvas became completely black and white with a Pepe LaPew looking skunk. Then the colored fruit appeared. These guys must not have had a ladder because they only painted the lower half. I can’t wait to see what comes next!

YARN

Can’t have a post without yarn! I took my daughter to look at a college last weekend. (Really makes me feel old). Since we were going to South Central Mass – we took a detour to Northampton and visited Webs. You may be familiar with the Webs catalogue and website (www.yarn.com). I shop from them regularly – so I couldn’t wait to visit the store. When we arrived – I was sort of disappointed. The store is tucked into a business park and really looks like a warehouse. PS – the awning is solid blue  – so don’t look for the striped awning!  There were cars from 7 states parked in the lot. I was thinking Webs must be pretty great on the inside if so many people would travel so far for yarn.

Well – it was pretty great. Almost every kind of yarn you can imagine. All weights, fibers and colors. In fact it was a bit overwhelming. Friends warned me to bring a list and leave my credit card at home. I poked around for about two hours and ended up buying some Berroco Geode to make a sweater. Wanna know what I learned? Halcyon Yarns, Purl Diva and The Knitting Experience Cafe have almost everything Webs does and the prices (before the famous Webs discount) are almost the same.

My daughter loved the college too…

YARN: Yesterday I went to the Destash Do Good event at Purl Diva. Knitters donate yarn from their stash, which is sold for half the usual retail price and the money goes to charity (this year MidCoast Hunger Prevention). Its a pretty good deal for all parties involved. The event ran from 11:00 til 4:00 and I got there around 1:30, so I figured all the good stuff would be gone. How wrong I was! In the first bin, a fabulous skein of Koigu KPM, in the second bin an even more fabulous skein of Koigu KPPPM. Next some lovely lime green Spunky Eclectic. Two skeins of Malabrigo Lace in Verde Que te Quiero Verde (green, green, green) and some gorgeous black Curious Creek Tussah Silk lace yarn.

CATS: I have two cats, Jewels and Dragonfly (aka Big Fat Kitty). Jewels is a fluffy yellow tiger (long hair) and extremely petite. I bet she weighs five pounds max. She is a strange little kitteh. She has taken to plucking the fur off her legs so she looks like a puff ball on stilts. We have no idea why this is happening. Do cats have stress? Is the naked leg look in for cats in 2009? Very bizarre. Jewels has a Facebook page where you can see her awesome leggy nakedness if you are interested.

The queen of her universe is Big Fat Kitty, a monstrous gray medium hair. Her motto – which she shares freely, is everyone sucks but me (wonder how you say that in Latin?). She is  fond of strutting by and announcing “You suck, AND the horse you rode in on”. Don’t try to convince me cats don’t talk – we all know they do. You know you’ve had conversations with your cats – admit it!

FACEHUGGERS: Science Fiction is a thing of beauty. Not the “suspend disbelief” variety and DEFINITELY not the Syfy variety. No – the hard science, thinking person’s, written by a rocket scientist kinda scifi is what I like. And there are a lot of rocket scientists who write (Aasimov, Clarke, Sagan). One of my favorite scifi short stories is Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven. I guess I have pretty good taste because it won a Hugo award in 1972. The story is about what happens when the moon rises and it is unusually bright. Only a few people in the world realize what it means (end of days) and struggle with how to spend their last hours. An amazing piece that still resonates 38 years after it was written. Find it and read it – you will be amazed….

Here’s a free pattern for you knitters:

Windows Pill Box Hat