JAY CAPERS staff photographer
Ann and Doug Kreckel of Webster walk along a trail in Ontario County Park in South Bristol. The park offers 12 miles of trails for biking and hiking including an overlook of the Bristol Valley. (Democrat and Chronicle staff photo by Jay Capers)
This appeared in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on 10/25/09
… but it looks like Summer has finally come to Upstate New York! It’s actually warm today, though soggy from all the rain. Maybe August will be better.
My flowers, however, like the cool and damp weather. These are my deck plants.
This will probably only be of interest to members of my family, but anyone can visit!
We haven’t been to OCP for a while, so yesterday we decided to take a picnic and maybe get in a hike. Mother Nature didn’t agree, however, as it started to rain just as we finished our lunch. Luckily my DH had brought our raincoats!
When we stopped at the entrance booth I had asked about the current camping rates. This was the first place we ever camped, back in the “dark ages”, and it’s been a long time since we’ve camped here. The guy at the booth asked if we knew about the new cabins. Cabins?! So, he gave us a new map of the park and sent us on our way. After lunch we walked to the cabin area. This is in an area that had been heavily wooded at one time, west of the main camping area. These are really cool. One cabin has two rooms – pull out couch, table and chairs in one and bunks in the second. The other has just one room with a pull out couch, table and two chairs. Each has a porch, picnic table, grill and fire pit. I think we’ve decided to try one in October!!!
There’s a path from the cabins to the old trail that circled from the campground to Jump Off. We walked the old trail back to the campground in the woods where we had camped those many years ago. What a change. They actually have a road so that you can drive back in! WOW! No more carrying everything. There’s no camp site where #3 used to be. DH is standing in what used to be a heavily wooded area.
The next picture shows an area that used to be a path through a dense stand of pines. Then came the ice storm of 1991. Now it’s cleared and the tent sites sit in a meadow. I liked it better before!
This is the view from where site #3 used to be looking off through the woods to the north. It’s strange to see a road here. And the drinking fountain has replaced the water spigot that used to sit about twenty feet to the right at the top of the hill.
The one tent site that we could really like! It’s private, in the woods, and would be great for us. Maybe next year.
Before the ice storm of 1991 this was an area of tall pines like the previous picture. This shows what 18 years has accomplished. Lots of growth yet to come.
The old trail through the woods. It’s still the same at this point. We last skied it three or four years ago.
And it doesn’t look much different here, either!
By the time we got back to the car it was thundering and threatening BIG rain, so we drove to Jump Off. The wind was blowing and our raincoats were nice! This is that we saw looking toward the north. That’s right – nothing! It was raining so hard to the north that it was a solid wall. We drove home right behind it.
When I found this pattern I knew that I had to knit it. It’s called Japanese Waves.
(http://123knit.com/opskrifter/NGH_japanesewaves.pdf)
The only question was what out of my stash would I use. Last year when we were in Old Forge, NY I picked up a skein of yarn at the Old Forge Hardware (yeah, they have yarn there!) This was expensive for my budget at $14.50 a skein so I only bought one. The yarn was “Dune” by Trendsetter Yarns. It spoke to me and convinced me to at least see how far I could get on this project.
I scaled the pattern and only used three repeats but I was running out, and it was quickly apparent that I would need two more skeins. Suddenly we have an expensive fuzzy scarf, but it was beautiful!
On-line I found a retailer with inventory in the color number I wanted. Slightly more expensive than I had paid, but … When the yarn arrived I had an “Oh shit” moment. It wasn’t the same! Even though it was the same name, same company, same color number it was different. What I had purchased in Old Forge was apparently ancient inventory. This new yarn was thicker and much more fuzzy. Here’s a table to give you an indication of the fiber differences:
Trendsetter Yarns Dune Color 76 |
|
|
| Old Forge Yarn | New Yarn |
County of mfg | France | Italy |
Fiber Content | 41% Mohair 30% Acrylic 12% Viscose 11% Nylon 6% Metal | 45% Mohair 25% Acrylic 20% Viscose 6% New Wool 4% Polyester |
Wt and yardage | 50g = 90 yds | 50g = 87 yds |
Gauge | 3.5 st = 1” | 4 st = 1” |
So, seeing that the two new skeins were different I frogged the original knitted piece and decided to use it at the center of the scarf.
Knitting was easy. This is a beautiful pattern! And I’ll make it again for sure. When I finished the first skein of new yarn and began using the original the difference was immediately apparent. The new yarn was much fuzzier, and the fuzz obscured a lot of the pattern and the metallic aspects of the yarn. The original yarn was much less fuzzy, which made it more black and white and less gray, and the metal glinted more.
The scarf is now finished, washed and blocked. And another difference between the yarns jumped out at me. The color “blocking” is different!
The picture is totally in focus. The fuzz makes it appear “fuzzy” (out of focus). Duh! But, look at the original yarn in the center of the scarf. WOW! I’m sure glad I frogged and restarted. Just a couple more views showing close-ups of the two sections.
The one on the left is the new yarn; the one on the right is the original.
I can’t wait to wear it!!!
This is just a really cool vest that’s knitted side to side in garter stitch. Looks like a “no brainer” for my challenged concentration. I have yarn that’s been in my stash for so many years that I think it’s multiplied! It’s Reynold’s Fifth Avenue, a blend of silk and wool that has a cotton feel to it. Car knitting, maybe?
He knows how much I need flowers right now, but most store-bought blooms die quickly. So he bought me an orchid. This will last for many many months, and it’s so beautiful. He’s very special!
I said I wasn’t able to knit because of lack of concentration. The same thing applied to weaving and spinning. And my problems with my back are such that I’m going to sell my big AVL loom and get a smaller one that should be easier for me to handle.
When I decided to try to knit again it was to do something that was practical. I made myself another winter hat. A couple of years ago I made a hat for a skiing friend (http://shuttleandewestudio.blogspot.com/2007/03/its-been-while-since-i-posted.html). It was based on a baby hat that I had made for my great-nephew. Why not make one for myself, said I. It had all the good things – challenging cabling and fun knitting, as well as something great to wear at the end. But I didn’t want to make the same one. Off to Annie Maloney’s books for a cable pattern that would work. It took me a while to do this – much longer than I’m used to – but it’s finished and ready if we get more snow. Don’t laugh! This IS Upstate New York!
More details about this will be on Ravelry soon.
Also under construction is a lacy, fuzzy scarf. And someone asked me about my “Hearts and Flowers” sweater (http://shuttleandewestudio.blogspot.com/2008/04/hearts-and-flowers-aran.html). At the present time it’s hibernating. This was just ‘way beyond me for the past five months. I’m hoping that I can soon get back to it.
Have you ever seen a squirrel taking a nap in the sun? We were in the kitchen having lunch when we looked out and saw this. To make it even more fun there was another squirrel about ten feet further down the deck doing the same thing. The air temperature was cool, but the sun had apparently warmed the rails!
We have one patch of crocus bulbs that always bloom early. And we can enjoy them until the deer discover these nice tasty little bites!
Magnolia buds. Yes!
And the first mosquito. It was clinging to the window on the kitchen slider. Can Spring be far away?
It’s been so long since I’ve posted anything, but I haven’t been well. I wouldn’t be making all my problems public except for the fact that several people have asked about various things, and I figure there might be others out there who just haven’t asked. So …
When I last posted I said I was going to have back injections. Did that, and they didn’t help. As a matter of fact that pain was worse than it had been before. OK, won’t try that again! At about the same time my pain doctor wanted me off a medication I had taken for about thirty years (!) because he said it was a bad drug. I didn’t know that I had been taking something that was terribly addicting. It was a low dose, it helped the muscle spasms I had in my neck, and my doctor didn’t tell me there might be a problem. Well, I went through hell. It was a full-blown drug withdrawal for about 21 days. And after the worst, it still wasn’t over. I had no concentration, and no short term memory. Headaches, dizziness, depression – all of the above. Previous to this I had lost some weight because of the pain, but now the pounds seemed to melt off. By the time it was over I was twenty pounds lighter, and I’m very small to begin with! I also had an episode where it was thought I might be having a heart attach. That put me in the hospital for two days. I HATE hospitals!
As of now my pain is tolerable. We’re still trying different drugs, and some days are much better than others. My short term memory is still not great, but I can now concentrate on a knitting pattern. Yeah! (It really is the pits when you look at a chart and don’t have a clue as to what to do!!!) I didn’t drive or go anywhere by myself from mid-October until two weeks ago. My darling husband was an absolutely fantastic chauffeur! And we had to do a lot of shopping ‘cause my clothes were falling off of me.
I didn’t mention that Doug retired in December! Xerox had been wonderful about his needing time for me, but it’s great having him around all of the time!
Travels:
Over the holidays we flew to Florida for Christmas with daughter and her family. Since she works for Disney a day at the Park was mandatory, and it’s an entirely different perspective to see it from a wheel chair. We weren’t sure that I’d be able to walk the whole thing, and I wouldn’t have been, so the wheel chair was wonderful!
Two days after we got home we left to drive to Tennessee to spend New Year’s with other family members. That was a long trip (!), even though we took three days each way, and by the time we got home I was wiped. Won’t try that again for a while.
At the end of January we went to the Adirondacks for our annual X-C ski trip with friends. I managed to ski for a total of one hour. Bummer! But Doug skied lots with the others. And this year the snow was fantastic!
At the end of February we went to Lake Placid for two nights. Daughter had flown north to ski for a few days with her brother. And the day she was to fly home was her 40th birthday. Of course we had to be there to help her celebrate! I can’t believe that my baby is that old. I’m not old enough!!!
A week ago we spent a few days in Michigan with my in-laws. We hadn’t seen them since last Spring, and they’re both in their 90s, so it was mandatory. But it’s a ten hour drive each way!
And,finally (for now), we’re leaving in ten days to spend some time in Williamsburg, VA. I need sunshine, warm temperatures, and flowers! We’ll do it in short days, and it should be OK.
Posts
