Carole Knits

october zinnia
october zinnia
martinis with a view
martinis with a view
gettysburg fence for
gettysburg fence for
germinate shawl on rocks
germinate shawl on rocks
field of flags 2
field of flags 2
color affection with edge
color affection with edge
cedar leaf shawlette 2
cedar leaf shawlette 2
3_27_2014
3_27_2014
3_18_13
3_18_13
2_24_2014
2_24_2014
1_11_13
1_11_13
peony-bouquet-for-carole-knits
peony-bouquet-for-carole-knits
dale-and-jackie-for-carole-knits
dale-and-jackie-for-carole-knits
nightshift-progress-for-carole-knits
nightshift-progress-for-carole-knits

Eye Candy Friday

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The solstice is fast approaching and I’m loving these long days and also completely ignoring the fact that once summer actually arrives the days start getting shorter. Lalalala, I can’t hear you! We’ve have some wonderful evenings lately, enjoying cocktails on the deck and the fabulous atmosphere the Solo Stove provides.

Speaking of atmosphere . . . I’m on vacation next week and there’s no better atmosphere than that! I’ll be popping in with a post on Tuesday for our summer book club announcement but otherwise I’ll be absent from this space until Monday the 28th. Behave yourselves . . . but have some fun, too!

Three On Thursday

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Today, I have 3 housekeeping matters to clear up.

  1. A while back, when I asked you all to support my Kiwanis Club by purchasing a cash calendar, I said I would put all the names of donors into a hat and pull a winner for a prize from me. Well, I did that, and the winner is Mary! Look for something from me headed your way very soon, my friend. And to everyone who donated, thank you very much!
  2. I haven’t forgotten about the Ask Me Anything posts. I’ll be working on answering your questions over the summer and once I’m caught up on those I will once again ask you to ask me . . . anything.
  3. I have chosen the Lavender Fields Socks by Helen Stewart for Hannah’s wedding socks. I had a hard time deciding, honestly, and had narrowed it down to Winters Frost, Vintage Fairy Lights, Heart Socks, Mint Tea Socks, and I Smell Snow. I went with the Lavender Fields ones because once that lace panel is done it’s really just a plain ole sock and that feels very doable at this point. Thank you to everyone who made a suggestion, these were all new patterns for me and I may wind up knitting all of them at some point.

And that’s all I have for you this week. If you wrote a post for this week’s Three On Thursday please share your link below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter

Wednesdays Are For Knitting

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The wedding knitting is continuing and with less than 2 months until the big day, I’m definitely feeling the pressure.

This is the status of Aperture:

I am 1/3 of the way into the 1st section of the 3rd repeat. The pattern calls for 5 repeats all together. The 1st section is fairly simple while the 2nd section is a bit trickier as the lace patterning is on both sides. It’s for me and, while I should be able to finish it easily enough, it’s about to be set aside because . . .

This is the status of Hannah’s sweater:

The sweater that she’s wearing with her wedding gown before and after the ceremony. Yeah. I think, after knitting 3 swatches, I finally have gauge. On size 2 needles. The good news is my girlie is tiny and I’ve got a vacation coming up next week. We won’t talk about all the potential bad news.

And, if you’re keeping track, I haven’t started the socks yet. I’ll tell you which pattern I chose tomorrow, though, so c’mon back for that.

Read With Us: It’s A Wrap for Shuggie Bain

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Bonny and Kym and I had a big time last Tuesday when we hosted our Zoom Meet Up to discuss Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. I think it’s safe to say, at this point, that the things we post on our blogs and the comments you leave there are great, but it’s the virtual discussion time that is truly engaging.

There is so much to cover when talking about Shuggie Bain and Kym got us off to a great start by asking each of us to name which character we found most sympathic, aside from Shuggie and his mom, Agens. The question served as a great ice-breaker and it also illuminated how our different backgrounds and experiences influenced our choices. I’ll just say that several people sympathized greatly with Leek while I . . . did not.

From there we went on to talk about Agnes and her alcoholism. Our frustration with Big Shug and Eugene. Our incredible heartbreak for Shuggie. The complexities of Glasgow in the 1980s. Douglas Stuart’s own life and the influence that had on the writing of this book. And so much more. We considered the themes of love, abandonment, poverty, and hope. We discussed the beautiful literary quality of Stuart’s writing. And we all pretty much concluded that although it was a difficult book to read because of the heartbreaking subject matter, it was ultimately a story of love and hope. We basically gave Shuggie a bright future that Stuart just hadn’t gotten around to writing himself.

I think it’s been mentioned that this book was my choice and I just want to take a moment and thank everyone who read it with us. I related in a very personal way to some of the things Shuggie went through and I appreciate the opportunity to share some of that with all of you in what I know is a safe and supportive space.

Stay tuned for the announcement of our summer choice next Tuesday!

In the meantime, and I’m particularly thinking of anyone with a Bingo square for the Read With Us book choices, here’s what we’ve read so far in our awesome bloggy book group:

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Fever by Mary Beth Keane

I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur

The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart