Blocking a shawl

This is the Lala Shawl, and I didn't knit it!

My friend Lynn knit this beautiful Lala for her cousin Karen. I merely offered to block it for her.

Before starting the blocking, which I did this morning, I went to Pinterest and searched "blocking a shawl." I've blocked shawls before, but I figured I can always learn something new with any undertaking.

One of the sites the Pinterest site pulled up for me was Stephanie Pearl McPhee's. I knew I'd struck gold. She's one of the best-known knitters out there. Her blog and her books provide endless entertainment and inspiration.

Stephanie mentioned that she starts the blocking process, after giving the shawl a good wet soak, by threading a yarn across the entire top edge of the shawl. This will allow you to pull the top edge straight by pining the two ends of the threaded yarn tightly once the shawl is on the blocking boards. Some people have blocking wires for this step. Stephanie doesn't, and neither do I.

I used a strong crochet cotton thread rather than yarn for the threading. It took only a few minutes to "sew" the crochet cotton through the top-edge stitches.

It was time for the blocking to begin.

This step can take a little while, but it's a process I enjoy.

I found that the edge stitches of the "V" of the shawl were a bit tight. This was somewhat of the problem, because it didn't allow me to pull those edges as straight as I would have liked. I suspect Lynn did not slip the first stitch of each row purl-wise before knitting the rest of each row.

I was briefly interrupted during the blocking by the need to add another leaf to my dining room table. This is a large shawl!


Overall, though, the blocking went well. The shawl is still a bit damp from its soak in Eucalan, but it'll be dry, I predict, by morning.

You might have noticed my blocking mats are actually children's interlocking floor mats. They work great for this purpose I asked Santa for two sets of these mats for Christmas last year, and, as usual, he came through for me. I use them for all of my post-knitting blocking.

A day trip to Eustis

A week ago my older sister, Shirley, her daughter, Cheryl, and Cheryl's daughter, Ashton, went with me on a long drive to Eustis, Maine.

Eustis is located in far western Maine, near the Canadian border.

It was a beautiful day for a long trip, and we had a definite mission: to see the grave of my and Shirley's oldest  brother, Winston.

Winston died in late 2012, but we had never been to his grave. We had attended his funeral service that December, which was held in our home town, but we hadn't made it to the committal service the following summer.

As you can see from these photos, the Eustis area is quite beautiful. It's near the Sugarloaf Ski area, which is a very popular destination for skiers each winter.

Here are Cheryl, Shirley, and Ashton at Win's grave.

And here I am with Shirley. Shirley and I agreed that Win had always been a wonderful brother. Our trip to his grave was a "thank-you."

After leaving the cemetery, we drove farther on to Chain of Ponds. I remember reading of the Chain of Ponds in Kenneth Roberts' Arundel, the story of Benedict Arnold's march to Quebec during the Revolutionary War.

My favorite photo of the day: a selfie, achieved by Ashton. She definitely knows how to snap a selfie painlessly.

So for me and my sister, it's sad my brother isn't buried in the town where he was born, grew up, and spent his entire life, but at least he's resting in a beautiful area of the state.






P.S. Here is a photo of Shirley and me with Winston in 2010.

Forty-two years?!

I drove up to Bridgton this morning to Art in the Park, an annual summer event, and more specifically to see one of the artists there: Cheryl Johnson.

Cheryl was one of my students in the early '70's.

We hadn't seen each other in over 40 years.

Wow!

I remembered Cheryl's creativity as a high school student: she could write, she could draw. She was full of boundless energy and optimism.

She's still the same today, 42 years later.

Cheryl now writes and illustrates children's books.

Her Mish /Sidley series are available on Amazon.

I came home with one of her children's books and one of her paintings: a lovely Maine barn scene.

Cheryl is dressed in her Mish costume here.

It was fun to pick up where we'd left off so many years ago.

I also did some Christmas shopping from various vendors. So many very talented artists live in Maine, or summer in Maine, so there are always plenty of art/crafts fairs to take in.

Not much

So. Eventually there were four beautiful robin's eggs in the hanging petunia planter. I kept a safe distance from momma and her eggs, even to the point of neglecting the petunias planted there.

It was to no avail. I checked the nest a few days ago after noticing that momma had been unusually quiet lately. Lo and behold, all the eggs were gone.

I don't think they'd had time to hatch, nor that baby birds had had time to learn to fly, so I'm assuming the nest was raided. I read that blue jays will steal eggs, so they're probably the culprits. I'm disappointed.

Violet, our nine-year-old great niece, visited us last week. We always enjoy having Violet around.

One afternoon we attempted a hike on Sawyer Mountain in Limington.

Somehow we managed to choose the wrong trail, which resulted in our traipsing through dense vegetation and over fallen trees. Eventually we came to a "Do not trespass" sign, so we took the hint and headed back to the car.

Along the way Violet spotted a tiny toad. She loves creatures of any  kind, so this little one found its way into her hands before it knew it.

I enlisted Violet's help in getting the fairy house in my rock garden spiffed up. Last winter's snow had taken a toll on it.

Violet did some new landscaping and made the place look welcoming again for the garden fairies.




Violet attended a miniature horse camp for three days while she was with us. She loved her assigned horse, Peaches, and was sad when the three days ended.

I'm enjoying the various flowers on our back deck. Ken just finished the labor-intensive project of sanding and putting new preservative on the deck, which makes it look new again, so I felt it needed lots more flowers than usual this year.

I have mostly geraniums, but also moss rose, begonias, coleus, and also basil and one tomato plant.

Things are looking good there, I must say.

That's all from here!

Playing tourist

Ken and I decided to spend a recent Saturday exploring the Old Port area of Portland (Maine). Usually when we go into Portland, it's to eat at a restaurant and then go home. Walking around in the Old Port is something we seldom do.

First, though, we stopped for lunch at Gilbert's Chowder House.

Seafood doesn't get any fresher than what Gilbert's serves, because the fishing and lobstering boats bring in their catches daily.

I indulged in fish and chips. Healthy? No. Delicious? Yes. Ken had crab cakes, which he enjoyed as well.

This is the view from the outside deck at Gilbert's.

On a side street we came across this shop, "Just Kim." Most, if not all, of the items are made in Maine. Kim, herself, makes beautiful bags of all sizes. Her sewing machine and fabrics are set up behind the counter, and she sews all day.

I left Just Kim's with a shoulder bag for myself (a lobster print, naturally) and a pair of earrings for a friend.

I had to take this photo at Just Kim's and send it to my friend in England. When Margaret visited us last summer, she asked if it was true that Mainers use the word "wicked" to mean "very" or "exceedingly." Yup, we do. This started maybe 20 years ago, probably by a Downeaster, and it has become a part of our everyday speech. On a cold winter morning, I've been known to say it's "wicked cold out there."  Just the other day my sister said, in an email to me, that it was "wicked hot" in Idaho at the moment. Today here in Maine, by the way, it's a wicked beautiful day.

Of course we had to stop at an ice cream shop for an ice cream. I had Needhams ice cream, and it was delicious. It actually contained nice chunks of Needhams candy. What are Needhams? They're a Maine candy, the filling containing potato (yes!), coconut, confectioner's sugar, and butter; the outside being hand-dipped chocolate. I used to make Needhams every Christmas, but then I made the mistake of calculating the number of calories per bar. I haven't made them since. (Click on the first "Needhams" above to see the recipe and learn more about their origin.

I thought the Portland waterfront was especially pretty on this particular Saturday. It looked busy and calm at the same time. The photo above shows two yellow and white ferries. They take passengers to the islands in Casco Bay.

 

It was a good day to enjoy the Old Port. It was also good to have done it before our high tourist season begins,...which is this weekend.

If you'd like your own tour of the Old Port, just click on any of the red-highlighted words and you'll find yourself there in record time.