Some recent knitting

A sweater for my friend Claire's new baby, from Itty Bitty Nursery.

SuperCraftyDancerGirl finished this sweater tank!

A quote or two for today

Today's quote comes to us from Anthony Trollope, fabulous Victorian novelist, born on this day in 1815.

He said:
"That I can read and be happy while I am reading, is a great blessing. Could I have remembered, as some men do, what I read, I should have been able to call myself an educated man."

And this from Phineas Finn:
"Remember, I do not recommend motion at all. Repose is my idea of life; repose and grapes."

If you've never read any Anthony Trollope, I highly recommend him. He wrote 47 novels, so there's plenty to choose from. Miss Mackenzie might be a good one to start with, though I'm sure other Trollope devotees would have their own recommendations...

Asheville

It was a beautiful weekend to be in Asheville. The mountains were at their mountainous best after a bit of rain. "Bad Fork"??? It looks good to me!
Truly gorgeous!

The Grove Arcade was a lovely combination of great architecture and cool shops.




And then there's the "souvenir" yarn---some from the Arcade's Asheville Homecrafts, and some from the aptly named Yarn Paradise. Thanks to Heather for blogging about Asheville Homecrafts---otherwise we'd have missed it and the Arcade.

Thanks to DaHubby for schlepping to not one but two yarn shops on our weekend getaway! There are more socks in your future :)

Earth day thoughts...

With Earth Day on the horizon, I just thought I'd mention something the kids and I saw today. Shopping at our local mega-mart we were bombarded by the "go green" campaign, the current marketing fad in our country: green cleaning supplies, t-shirts with green slogans, energy saving light bulbs, even a display of earth-conscious dvd's. Outside, however, we had a front row seat to reality. The small field between the parking lot and the street was rapidly and industriously being transformed from wooded lot to barren wasteland.

Maybe I'm just a bit cynical, but am I really the only one who sees the disparity between something that is actually green and something that is only labeled as such? Maybe in our generation, it'll only be style over substance. However, since SuperCraftyDancerGirl was the first one to comment on what we were seeing today, there is hope for the future. She gets it.

Abstract Mitered Baby Blanket

What you see here is the result of a group effort. SuperCraftyDancerGirl designed the layout after I said I wanted to make this a mitered production, and JrBravesFanatic and I knitted it.

Oh, and Tulip the cat gave it the occasional bathing, too. (Eww!)

The decision about whether to put on a backing or not has not been firmly made at this time...

added 4/15/08:
Ok, I've woven in all the millions of ends, and the back is no longer offensive to me. So I think I'll just leave it. SuperCraftyDancerGirl says it looks good, and since she's my official style consultant, it must be ok!