the beginning of summer

We have retreated to Maine. It really does feel like we have abandoned New York and everything that was going on (or not going on) down there. We arrived very late on Saturday night, with a 2 door compact car stuffed with our gear for 3 weeks, Eamon and the cat, who was remarkably cheery considering the long car ride. Being a Saturday and a time when summer travel hasn't really begun, there was no traffic either: a huge bonus.

The month stretches ahead, with possibilities of things to accomplish: a baby blanket in progress for a friend, novels I'd like to read, plus games and activities to do with Eamon. So far I did a bit of knitting in the car, and Eamon has played with the hose and some plastic pails, which was pretty exciting for him.

We are still getting into a groove... Let's hope the days are full and productive!

true vacation

We went to Maine again. That's how long it's been! We went to Maine and had a lovely week doing just about nothing. I took naps. Christopher did some writing. I read a little. Christopher wrote some more. We made pasta from scratch. I started a blanket. It wasn't enough time. I feel terrible saying that, since this was the fifth week I've taken off this summer, but it was the first of those weeks that I really felt able to relax. Italy was good until my eye fell apart. And my trip to Haystack was overshadowed by bad weather and my cold. Next summer we are thinking that a month might in Maine be nice. Maybe we can sublet our apartment, and not worry about the lack of income, and we can settle in and just be.

an early return

As you might have gathered, I speak a little Italian. It's become rusty over the past 13 years, so being in Italy meant stumbling around a bit, trying to find the right words and verb tenses. I managed to add a few things to my vocabulary, however:

pronto soccorso: emergency room
oculista: ophthalmologist
gocce: eye drops
dilatare: to dilate
miopia: near sightedness
distacco post vitreo: vitreous detatchment
degenerazione maculare senile: age-related macular degeneration

Nothing is ever simple for the Brown-Walls, and within a few days of arriving in Italy, we found ourselves rushing to the ocular emergency room in Florence, accompanied by an Italian friend, Moreno.
The main issue was, and still is, that I have a spot of distorted vision near the center of my left eye. It is stuck there, making it difficult for me to read and do anything that requires me to focus close up, such as reading. Writing and proofreading this blog post is rather frustrating. (Interestingly, knitting seems to be no problem.)

The doctor there, a very matter of fact woman working in a dark and sparse room reminiscent of a third world country, made me throw away my contact lens (which was in fact disposable, but was supposed to last me another month), dilated my eyes and told me that I had a vitreous detachment. Which I know that I have. I'm used to little things floating around in my vision. This spot seemed different, but since she told me that it was no big deal (even though I was now wandering around with just one contact lens) we continued with our vacation.

Luckily, I brought my glassses. On Sunday, we went to the Accademia, where the David is housed. My doubts about the original diagnosis, along with the fact that looking at the David required a lot of effort, made me think that we should get another opinion. Sunday night we went to our friends' beach house on the Tuscan coast, and on Monday morning Carlotta's husband Francesco took me to their local emergency room.

This time the doctor asked me more questions, and had me look at a graph. After dilating my eye and examining it, he told me that I had macular degeneration and that I needed more tests and probable immediate surgery. He advised that we cut our trip short and deal with this back in New York.

Which is what we've done. It's highly unusual for someone my age to develop macular degeneration, though I do seem to have the symptoms. I'll see a specialist in a few hours, and hopefully have some better (and more positive) answers.

We are so sad to have missed the last leg of our trip, which would have included several days in Venice and short trips to small towns in northern Italy to see architecture and art. I can only hope that we can return sometime soon, to pick up where we left off...

it's that time again

My parents are renting their house in Maine by the week in the summer. It's cheap. It's simple. It's a great base for exploring, and a nice spot for just hanging out.Check out the site.

in between

Our apartment is renewed, the floors were a success! Christopher has decided to sand and paint our baseboards before we settle back in, so we're still living amongst boxes and our bedroom is still stuffed with living room furniture. It seems that I left my camera cable in Maine, and my backup one is in some box somewhere, so until we unpack and locate it there will be no New York photos.

One nice thing about this situation (not the camera situation, the living out of a box situation) is that everything seems intentional. We can make some improvements and throw some things out as we unpack, upgrade a little. A trip to Ikea is scheduled for next week.

Maine was wonderful, a combination of visiting with friends and family and relaxing and being alone. I feel like I savored just about every moment, really making the most of that rare chance to be alone and of the silence. I do feel like I could have used another week (or month) but now that we're back I'm knee deep in design work. It's kind of annoying how these things don't seem able to coexist.

Highlights of the week:

Christopher made the most delicious blueberry cobbler for his birthday dinner, which was attended by his cousin and the cousin's family. It surprises me sometimes how someone with absolutely no interest in food is able to cook well when he tries, but really it comes down to him following a recipe, and he can do that.

My father installed a shower for us! Of course, it wasn't the most practical shower, but it was better than using the bathtub, which we've done for the past 10 or so years. Yeah, that's him installing the shower. See how it's not so practical? where would you put your clothes?

My friend Laura (the one who lives in Germany) visited us for 24 hours or so. She was visiting her parents down in the Casco Bay, and I convinced her to leave her husband and children and see me. We had a grand time, swimming in the cloudy cold and visiting Hope Spinnery, a wind powered wool spinnery in Hope, Maine. We got a tour of the facilities and I bought 2 skeins of his wool, which is from local sheep and dyed with natural dyes. This is dyed with indigo and cochineal, and I am planning to use it on the cuffs of the sweater I'm designing.

It is a pretty awesome place. (I went back later with my mom and got naturally dyed roving, too.) He'll be at Rhinebeck in October. You all have to check him out. It's really truly yarn with integrity.

I met Mary Jane! She lives about 10 minutes from my parents' place, which is just too funny. I had dinner with her and her husband at their amazing self-designed and built concrete chateau, and she showed me tons of fiber goodies and we talked about everything. It was like meeting an old friend, and she even gave me pickles that her daughter had made with ingredients grown by the daughter's boyfriend. How's that for awesome!?

We spent a day with Christopher's grandparents. It was actually kind of fun. We went with them for lunch at about 2, ate tons of food and dessert, and then at 4:30 his grandmother suggested that we go get dinner, so we did even though we weren't at all hungry. But dinner consisted of the most delicious lobster rolls ever, in a totally gorgeous (but suddenly foggy) spot, so it wasn't so bad. And then we got ice cream, in honor of Christopher's birthday.

And that's about it, other than dyeing wool with goldenrod, which I've already described.

Edited to add the photo of the indigo vat, and to say that I did overdye the earlier tinted wool with goldenrod, and it turned out well, but alas I have no photos...

we're here

and there's too much to write. It's all good. Words just don't do it justice.

Today I bought a pot for dyeing, along with a candy thermometer. It looks like my dye plants didn't grow so well, so I'll be starting with goldenrod.

Stay tuned...

packing

We're heading north tomorrow, to Maine. While we're gone, men will come and refinish our floors. Which means that the floors need to be clear when we leave for Maine.

They're not actually going to refinish all of our floors, just the ones in the living room and in the room where my computer and knitting are, our den. It's something we've wanted to do since we moved in, but it's so much of a hassle that we've been dissuaded up till now. This summer we bit the bullet.

So, while we pack for our week up north, we are also packing up these rooms and stowing their contents in the bedroom and office, and any closets that seem to have space. It's slow going. I'm hot. I'm feeling overwhelmed. I get distracted by my yarn, the knitting patterns I want to bring to Maine with me, the piles of receipts and phone numbers sitting next to my computer. It's good to sort through these things and do some purging. And I'm sure it will make our return (and unpacking) much easier. But it's hard to motivate.

It's also hard to pack for our trip. It is muggy and 85 degrees in Brooklyn today. There are thunderstorms and it's close to 60 in Maine. My mother keeps reminding me to bring a wool sweater along. The idea of wearing a wool sweater in the next few days is really inconceivable to me. I haven't worn pants in months. The only sweater I've pulled out recently has been cotton and good for an over-air conditioned theater. I find myself staring at my sweater drawer and thinking, "You're kidding me!" as sweat rolls down my back and I long for a shower.

Anyway, I'm really excited about going to Maine, packing not included. I'm really psyched to wear pants and a sweater (even if I can't wrap my head around it right now), and I am looking forward to seeing lots of people who will be there. My cousin and her daughter, Christopher's cousins and grandparents, my friend from Germany, who is summering with her family near Portland. I'm even going to meet Mary Jane, who lives very close to where I'll be. And of course, I am still entertaining my dyeing fantasies, even though I hear that the only seeds of mine that grew were the purple basil. And apparently my dad mowed down the wildflowers, so I might not be able to find black-eyed Susans, goldenrod or Queen Anne's Lace so easily as a back up. Mary Jane talks of dyeing with a certain lichen, so we'll see what happens!

Denmark

I have mentioned being in Denmark last week, but I didn't say much about what it was like there.

First of all, I have a friend who lives in Hamburg. We've been good friends since we were at summer camp together when we were 14. Though we have never lived in the same city (or state) our families both spent parts of their summers in Maine, so we saw quite a bit of each other each year, even outside of camp. After college, my friend moved to Germany to be with her German boyfriend. A few years later they married, and now they have two little boys, aged 5 and 2.

That is why I am here, and for so long. We hadn't seen each other since they came to Philadelphia for Christopher's and my wedding in October 2006. We were both feeling the separation, so I got a fairly inexpensive ticket to see them. They had already planned to go to the western Danish coast for a week in March, so I followed them there. And now we're all back in Hamburg, where they live. Christopher joined me here last Friday.

It's really nice be here. I feel very much away from my life in New York now, maybe too distant, since I have been getting emails from friends and people I'm working with and I need to keep connected. (Unfortunately, the work stuff is important, and I can't just ignore it.) But no one has called me here, and my cell phone has been turned off for almost 2 weeks now. It's great.
Anyway, back to Denmark. My friend and her family rent a house in a town called Henne Strand every year. It's on the western coast of Denmark in a beach town, the type of place you'd find on the Jersey Shore, fairly new and overpriced, touristy. Stores are geared towards the vacationers and everyone speaks German, since most of the visitors are from Germany. Things to do include walking to (and along) the beach and relaxing your rented cottage. The little cottage they'd rented had a fireplace and cozy living room, which was perfect for reading and knitting in. This is the house we stayed in.

It is March, not exactly the time of year to lay out in the sun on the beach. In fact, it was rather rainy for much of the time we were there. And windy, but apparently that is very normal for Denmark. The coast might just be super windy all year round. Check out these stones. I think they might actually be like that because of the wind. The land was also interesting because for about 1km in from the coast there were terrific dunes. Tall, tall dunes. I wondered a little if some of them (like the ones betweeen the houses) weren't manmade, but others were clearly natural.
Here's a question: does beach vegetation look similar around the world? I couldn't help being reminded of New Jersey, but that is the sandy beach I'm most familiar with.

first felting

As you might imagine, I immediately cast on a project with my new Danish wool. Two of my purchases were skeins of something called Preyarn, or Unspun. I have been wanting a pair of felted slippers, and this stuff is made just for felting. It's not twisted at all, and it's pretty much a worsted or sport weight, which means that it breaks like crazy. The woman who sold it to me said that she'd used about 200 grams for a pair of slippers she had made, so I bought two skeins of it. The pattern I chose calls for a Turkish cast on and knitting the slipper up from the toe using Magic Loop. I don't think the pattern considered that I would be using very weak yarn, and there was a lot of strain on the toe, which caused breakage and general holes in the knitting.

I finished the first slipper that night, and decided to felt it before I knit another, since I'd never felted before and had no idea how it would work. The pattern gauge is 4 sts to 1" pre-felting, and I was getting something closer to 3 stitches to an inch. It was huge, and I thought it might be bigger than it was supposed to be. When we got back to Hamburg (and my friend's apartment) we made a night of felting my single slipper. I looked for how-to online and found a mixture of advice, mostly involving violent agitation, soap and hot water. I settled on a spaghetti pot and ladle as felting tools, and changed the water a few times to make sure it was hot. (It also smelled very sheepy.)A very helpful article on Knitty told me what to expect: my knitted object would actually seem to expand and stretch before suddenly felting. I'm glad I knew to expect this, as this is precisely what happened. After about 30 minutes of stirring my slipper, I pulled it out and it had started to shrink. I could see the fibers beginning to felt, to such an extent actually that it was felting to itself inside the slipper. I got some scissors and used the blade to cut the it apart.

And voila! Suddenly my slipper was about the right size. The last thing I did (before setting it out to dry) was soap it up and more or less massage it onto my foot, so it shrunk to my foot's shape and size. I then rinsed it in cold water and set it on a windowsill to dry. Perfect!Of course, I used just a smidgen of a skein for my one slipper, so I will be left with a ton of purple felting yarn. I am interested in using it, but I can only imagine so many purple felted things in my life... maybe I should make myself a bag.

Pattern: Keep Away Felted Slippers, from Knit Front and Back
Yarn: Preyarn from OldMill

the search for yarn

There is so much to write!

Last week I was in Denmark with my friend and her husband and children. There wasn't much of a plan while we were there except to relax and take walks on the (very windy) beach. I had told them before I came that I wanted to visit a yarn store or two, and through the marvelous wonders of the internet I'd received recommendations to stores in northern Germany and western Denmark.

Our first try was a failure. We drove north last Saturday and hoped to stop in a town near the Danish border called Flensburg. I had heard great things about a yarn store there, and some of the folks from Ravelry had actually wanted to meet me there. Unfortunately, we arrived right after it closed at 1pm. It was very sad. On Tuesday we decided to try a store in a town close to our rented house in Denmark. This store, though open, was pretty much a disappointment: mostly acrylics and very scratchy plain old yarn mixed in with nicknacks and children's toys. We thought we'd head down to a town called Ho the next day, but after checking the store's site we learned that it was closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. And so on Wednesday afternoon I drove with my friend to a town called Tarm.

When we neared the outskirts of the town, we saw a sign with the yarn store's name and an arrow. We turned onto a very narrow rural road and drove a little ways, past farms and cows. It turned out that the store was in one of these farms.The store was in the farm up there.

Next to the parking area was a pasture of cows, which we later heard were a breed from Scotland. When we went to get a closer look at them, they all ran over to the fence. Apparently they thought we were going to feed them. The woman who ran the yarn store told us that they are very friendly and not at all dangerous, that she can go in and lean on the bulls and they won't do anything. Anyway, we met a wonderful woman in the shop. Almost as soon as we arrived she asked how we'd heard of her shop. I told her that it had been recommended to me by Danish knitters group on Ravelry, to which she replied, "oh, it's you!" She is also a Raveler, and had been part of the discussion on what shops I should visit and yarns I should find in Denmark. We talked about Kauni yarn, and the wonderful sweater designs of Ruth Sørensen. She showed us the Danish yarns, which we oohed over. We also were very clumsy Americans and kept knocking over cones of yarn or displays, but our hostess seemed to take it all in stride.

In the end, I went home with this: It's really too much yarn, and thanks to my bad skills at translating kroners to dollars, I spent much more than I realized. I have decided not to feel too guilty about it though, as none of these yarns are easy to find in the US (and definitely not in New York) and I just need to keep my yarn purchases to a minimum in the coming months.

what we've been up to

It's been hard to blog. After two nights in a hotel-with-amenities in Vancouver, we've returned to Seattle, where we are staying with friends in their apartment. Our friends are very thoughtful, grounded people, and internet access is not a priority of theirs. Every few days we take Christopher's laptop to a cafe and check our email, but finding time to blog hasn't been so easy.

A recap of the past few days:

On Friday, our final day in Vancouver, the clouds at least made an effort to part. We enjoyed some intermittent sunshine and partial views of the mountains as we circled Stanley Park. Christopher still seemed to think I was missing out, but I thought it was pretty darn cool. We ate lunch at a cafe on the far end and the cut across the center of the park. I've never seen such mossy - or thick - trees! I was also amazed at the interesting color combinations, inspiration for future knitting projects, perhaps?

We took a late train back to Seattle on Friday night and on Saturday explored Pike Place Market.
On Sunday we met up with an old friend of mine and we went snowshoeing at a resort in the Cascade Mountains. For some reason the ski lift only runs on the hour, so since it was 10:15am, we walked up the mountain to the Nordic trails. Going up seemed a little psychotic, but once we got to the flatter trails we enjoyed ourselves. The top of the mountain was covered with clouds, which created a somewhat eerie effect as skiers emerged from the white. At the top was a little hut, warmed with a wood-burning stove, and we had lunch. My friend, who is French, brought salami and avocado sandwiches, an orange, stroopwafels and dark chocolate. It was the perfect thing to eat after climbing a snowy mountain.
Monday rained horribly and we laid low. Yesterday was one of our hosts' day off, and he joined us on the ferry to Bainbridge Island. The clouds cleared for the occasion and we were able to see the Olympic Mountains and the Cascade Mountains, though Mt Rainier remained hidden.
I'm liking this city, getting to know it by wandering up and down its hills. The food is certainly good, and the climate doesn't seem too harsh, especially since we've been told that this is the worst time of year to visit. It ain't too bad, except if we were to move here I'm not sure how we'd support ourselves as artists...

a second day in Vancouver

Christopher and I got a late start on yet another rainy day in the Pacific Northwest. After eating breakfast and buying transit tickets, we hopped on a bus to British Columbia University, where the Museum of Anthropology is. The museum is full of wonderful objects from this area, but we found it lacking in explanation of the culture that created them. We browsed the bookstore for a book that could put these objects into context, but came up empty handed. One thing we did learn: the story a totem pole tells is only known by the family it represents, so for an outsider you can only interpret what is on it, not its meaning. Aren't they wonderful? I just wish I knew how this bird-cart was used...

Christopher seems concerned that I hate Vancouver. I don't, but I have to confess that I'm not sure why I'm supposed to fall in love with it. The weather probably has something to do with it; it's been misty and wet since we got here and the incredible mountains that supposedly surround the city have not appeared. Tomorrow, our last day here, there is a chance that the sun will actually come out. I'm crossing my fingers.

we are away

In case you didn't know (and I don't think I mentioned it here), we're on vacation. We arrived in Seattle on Monday night, walked around and visited friends yesterday and then headed to Vancouver, BC this morning. We'll return to Seattle on Friday night and get a little more time there before going home.

I've been a photo fiend. A highlight from yesterday: touring Rem Koolhaas' Seattle Public Library. Those of you who knit will recognize it as inspiration for Jared Flood's Koolhaas hat pattern. The building is rather incredible, full of amazing little pockets and inspiring study spaces. Seattlites are very, very lucky. Today we wandered around a chilly and wet Vancouver, poking around and seeing a little of the local color.I had been told that this was a more temperate climate and so only brought my trench coat, beret, mittens and scarf to wear outside. Oh, for my warm and wooly shawl! Oh, for my winter coat!

More photos can be seen on my Flickr account.

house party

One of Christopher's friends invited us, along with a few other couples, up to her parents' second home in Connecticut this weekend. We took the train up after work on Friday and just got back. It was so lovely to be away, somewhere completely new, and no real responsibilities at all. Our hostess is very into games, and so we played Balderdash into the wee hours on Friday night. As one of the few non-writers there, I was a little nervous, but it was actually really fun coming up with fanciful movie synopses and word definitions.

Before going up I volunteered to help coordinate meals, and so on Saturday I created a menu and we all went grocery shopping together. And, can you believe it, everyone else helped cook the meal. That's five people plus me chopping and mixing and sauteeing. The kitchen was really beautiful, a chef's dream, except that it was lacking wooden spoons and a garlic press. Next time I know what to bring as a hostess present!

Anyway, I might say it's back to reality, but the holiday season isn't really over, plus we're going on vacation a week from now, so there's a lot to look forward to.

one more day

We are heading south tomorrow, first to my mother's art opening in Portland, Maine and then to Cambridge, Mass. We'll visit with my cousin and spend the night in Cambridge before Christopher heads off to his residency in northern Vermont and I return to Brooklyn.

I've been meaning to blog more about our vacation, but the DSL connection up here is very slow and the photos take ages to upload. Here's a rundown. Maybe I'll add some photos when I'm back in New York.

It's hot, but not as hot as New York.

Christopher is doing lots of reading and a little writing. I've been swimming nearly every day with my mom. One day a huge lab thought I was a stick and jumped in after me. I shoved it back to shore but then it shook itself off all over my clothing and towel. My father has installed a washing machine. He is currenly sitting in front of it in a chair watching it work and exclaiming over it. Just now he called my mother in to see what it's doing. (The machine has been moody, so it's not without reason that he would want to know whether it was working or not.)I have been doing a bit of knitting, both working on Christopher's sweater and finishing up some odds and ends of old projects.

One day I had to help my father shingle the side of the screen porch. It was really hot and I was dismissed as I kept wandering off. (I can't say it was all my fault; my father also kept wandering off and rather than hang around I left too.)We visited with a bunch of Christopher's family members who live nearby. I have no photos of it but it was fun and Christopher's cousin's 2-year old son is completely adorable and friendly.

Tonight we are going to celebrate Christopher's birthday, since it is next week and he'll be in Vermont. I am making a chocolate bundt cake, which I have made before. The last time I made it I wasn't so happy with how it turned out, so I'm hoping this time will be more successful. We are also having lobster and mojitos.Two people have contacted me in the past week about designing sets for them. One is still pending; the other is a very last minute design for a New York Fringe Festival play. Interestingly, the director from the Fringe Festival show was impressed with the set from the last show I designed, which looked great in the end but which was also quite a struggle to pull off. I guess all that pain it was worth it!

We are about to have a thunderstorm.