Thursday, August 27, 2026

A Traveling Rug

My brainstorm to repurpose the 10 year old Jill Draper yarn, as reported in my last post,  for a new sweater for NY Sheep & Wool  as part of the Rhinebeck Sweaters for Good came together fabulously when I emailed Jill and discovered only two options for a contrast color: dust (shown, when it arrived) or polar white. I went with Dust,  above. It's a  hard-to-pin-down neautral; slightly pink/lavendar/grey, sort of like lint.  Both the main color and the contrast color are now odd murky shades and I am loving them together!
The last couple of weeks have been full of travel and activity, and the yarn came along for the rides.  First it went with me  on my annual camping trip with Zoe. We started camping together when she was 8 and we found a small tent in the basement during the pandemic. No one else in the family was game for camping that year so just the two of us headed to the woods in Vermont.  And we kept returning there. Now it's an annual tradition. This year, though, we went to Lake Damariscotta in Maine. 

We upgraded the tent quite a bit this year. 

And I cast on by the campfire. No notes! 

A bougie lobster roll at a shack near Boothbay. No notes on this either! It's Shannon Unshelled , we've been there before and if you're in that area you won't regret eating there. 
 
 Some years we do mostly nature activities and lots of campfire cooking. Some years we head out and adventure around the area, eat out, explore towns and either way, we love it. This year we went to Popham Beach, another Maine fave of ours. When the tide is out you can walkwaaaay out to  sand bars.
The colors are weird, right? The main color reminds me of a copper penny with green patina. Except fuzzy. I am super happy with my Rug so far. 
A day or or two after I came back from Maine I went to Montana for a photo shoot. It needs it's own post--amazing adventures, sheep, yarn, everything and knitting progress too, as the yarn came along. A sweater on size 9 US needles isfun, I forgot how fast it goes!
  
And since this is Unraveled  (a day late) I'll share  my reading. I am halfway through Kin by Tayari Jones and recommend it. No notes again! This is quite the 10:10:10 post. 
 
The other book I read...not so enthusiastic about it!  On the camping trip drive I listened to the book  96 Miles by JL Esplin,. Zoe had been avoiding it as her assigned summer reading  for school:  it's YA survivalist vaguely dystopian suspense... meh. Neither of us loved it but it got the job done.  Survivalists and dystopian novels for any level reader are not my jam!  I guess I'd say it's Ok roadtrip listening. 





7 comments:

  1. Love that shot of the sand on the beach -- nature makes the best patterns! Casting on a sweater next to a campfire sounds amazing. And that lobster roll! I am drooling!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oooooo! That sweater is looking gorgeous. I love the way those colors play together. It sounds like a GREAT camping trip adventure -- and I love that you and Zoe have made this an annual tradition. (And count me in as an UGH when it comes to dystopian ANYTHING just made worse by survivalist drama . . . in my opinion.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. What fun... really! That beach shot... so inviting. I grew up on Lake Michigan but there are no tides so the ocean tides are fascinating to me! (and I am also adding my love for your color choices for Rug! Perfection!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I keep reading about Rug! Love the colors you have chosen. I grew up hiking/camping on the Long Trail in Vermont. Some days I miss those times...but not always. At almost 73 I think my camping days are over, but fireside knitting sounds wonderful. And the sand on the beach!! And the lobster roll!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We’ve camped on the Long Trail too!. I love camping as long as we have a roomy tent and a good air mattress !

      Delete
  5. I think LINT is my new favorite in every way! I know exactly what color that is!! I can't believe how tall Zoe is! xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  6. The sweater yarns look great together. The beach looks like a perfect place to be right now.

    ReplyDelete

Want me to reply? leave your email address!