Walked a mile uphill both ways…
Saturday August 31st 2013, 10:44 pm
Filed under: Friends,Knitting a Gift,Life

…in the towering redwoods. Yes I did. Sunscreened, sunjacketed, big hat. Parked right near the mile-out stop on my way in but just missed the bus that had once been a San Francisco trolley car and given the wait and the late (3:40 and the place would shut down at 5:00) I simply hoofed it through the hills. Later got out of there after quitting time, when the trolleybusing was officially over, and got another stiff workout.

It was Kings Mountain Art Fair weekend. I’d been looking forward impatiently all year to seeing my potter friends Mel and Kris.

And so it was that the baby blankie got put aside for a day while I worked like mad to finish the edging on a shawl. I had been debating on it for some time whether to just cast it off or add more?

I looked at it last night and practicality begone, the answer was, more. I added seven long rows, finishing it at noon today. I emailed a few friends to ask for advice re the blocking that just wasn’t happening in that kind of time frame and then did the suddenly-obvious and thank you Chan and Bev: I held the steamer on the iron over that edging and around the shawl a bit. It was Malabrigo Silky Merino, a thick (for me), drapey yarn, and it was enough for now.

Their Stonechat colorway? The pale gray flecks interspersed with the burgundy reds look like the light filtered through the redwoods.

Kris was just thinking it was getting chilly but hadn’t said anything out loud yet when I opened my purse. She admired the shawl and was about to hand it back when I headed her off at the pass with, “But does it fit?”

Her eyes went huge. Stunned. Thrilled. Petting it, swooning over the softness, loving the colors, just dumbfounded. She loved it! I told her about the not-really-blocked, that the lacework would stretch out more once it’s rinsed and to lay it out in a circle to dry. Or just wear it as is; given the heft and hang of the fiber, it worked.

I told her and Mel that my brother had come to visit us with his three daughters and that I’d found I didn’t have enough of their medium sized mugs for everybody. I only had six. I had so been looking forward to picking out more.

And so I did, two, and a napkin holder and a berry bowl that is designed to let the rinsed berries continue draining into the plate below. Kris picked it up, and smiling at the memory, said, “Mel made this one.”

She picked up one of the mugs I’d chosen and pointed out the way the yellow and red played with and speckled through each other in an effect that she said only one firing had succeeded in doing since they’d moved their operations to their new home in Oregon–she really loved those.

Three of the four pieces I’d latched onto had that in them. I love it too. I’d had no idea it was a rare thing, and now I have all the more reason to treasure them.

“Hey wait,” I told Kris at some sudden point later in the conversation–“you forgot to write me up!”

She got an impish grin. “No I didn’t.”


6 Comments so far
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What a BEAUTIFUL berry bowl! I love the colors in that piece.

Comment by Channon 09.01.13 @ 5:32 am

Those pottery pieces are beautiful!

Comment by Jody 09.01.13 @ 6:04 am

And that’s how life goes around! 🙂

Beautiful oeuvres d’art!

Comment by Suzanne from Montreal 09.01.13 @ 7:02 pm

Kelli & I went into Woodside this evening, having forgotten about the fair (drat it!), and we both thought of you at the time. Glad to know you made it and had a good time!

Comment by Kathy in San Jose 09.02.13 @ 12:51 am

Ooh, pretty! Glad you survived our hike. I fond Seattle to be like that….wherever we went, it was uphill!

Comment by Ruth 09.02.13 @ 12:21 pm

Somehow those colors remind me a bit of the baby blanket – lots of conversation going on in that glaze!

Comment by twinsetellen 09.03.13 @ 7:46 pm



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