in a nutshell

helloo and oh dear. i hope all is well with you!  i've been very neglectful of this space. i'm dreaming of a week at home, no work, or travel...just quietly staying home and catching up on the big and little things. that is unlikely to happen before october (today is already the first day of fall!) a bit of life here lately then, in a nutshell (all photos taken with iphone)...

knitting for babies! i found this pattern for a soaker in a vintage book. i love making them!

'go to work with your husband day' every chance i get! the weather is perfect this time of year! we are at channel islands national park.

my best friend and i went to the california central coast yarn crawl. it was a two day event so we stayed in a hotel saturday night. her sweet husband packed us a picnic dinner. 

 in the hotel we ate delicious tapas, drank delicious wine and knit socks! (and took photos of them on the way home) ;)

the next day i flew to nyc with a friend

we met my girl at grand central station

jumped on a train to connecticut...

rented a car in new haven and drove north to...

portland maine! met friends carrie bostick hoge, maryjane mucklestone, gudrun johnston. carrie, gudrun and i also had our girls, immie and maya and hannah (taking the photo, darn!)

there was a photo shoot on the maine coast

 foxy was left in good hands, and we headed back south to nyc...

 where in a small square in tribeca a few things happened... saw my darling son and son in law at their work, and across the street, my girl and i had an appointment in a shop...

for her wedding dress. (this is not it if you are reading matt.)  :)   there was just enough time to see 'the dress' (tears. oh my.) before i had to catch a cab back to jfk.

back at home, souvenirs from maine. carrie's book is gold. taproot is too. found seaglass on a maine beach. the daisy a gift from my future son in law. :)

 then the phone call came. i won the grand prize from the central coast yarn crawl. EEP!!

oh. my. gosh. this basket, filled to the brim. THANK YOU central coast yarn crawl and all sponsors: lantern moon, addi, rowan, plymouth, berroco, classic elite, never not knitting, knitbot, misti alpaca, zealana, frog tree, jojoland, swans island, anzula, manos del uruguay, mountain colors, lothlorian made in new zealand gloves and leisure arts ~ encyclopedia of needlework. 

not taken with a cell phone...

engagement photos in the city. hannah rose + matt, love, mom

xxx lori

june gris

early summer. may grey never really happened, but instead we are enjoying june gloom (june grey, gris i say!). our heat wave was replaced with dense fog. fog that has ebbed and flowed, rolling in and out different times of the day, cooling down the sea and the shore. if i'm lucky i get out as early as i can, at first light. sometimes the fog is like a giant curtain, just like in narnia, you have to pass through it to get to where you want to go, either to home or to the beach. i love being enveloped in it where ever it is.

i've been working lately and making small preparations for my summer trip. (i am so sorry if i'm talking about this too much!) i have to share just one thing this post. while demonstrating to chuck how i would pack my carry on, he asked 'where will your knitting go?' aww so sweet! do not worry honey, there is room!

around the house, a project that's needed attention, are photos. i have one million photographs per child. and then there are the travel photos and knitting photos and pet photos and just because photos. many many photos. (this does not include digital files,these are all physical photographs i'm sorting right now). i think i've finally figured a way to organize them, and have been chipping away, seeing the end in sight. yay! following are photos that were sitting undeveloped in one of my vintage (thrift shop) cameras. finally got all the orphaned rolls done and sorted. except for the first one, that is an iphone photo (and oh i have a LOT of those too! more sorting...)   :)

these were taken with a (very old) canon ae-1 and a new to me vintage pentax. if you are on instagram you may have seen one or two already. yes i succumbed. but back to the cameras, oh how i love this pentax. i ordered film for it to bring on my trip, i hope it will help in capturing a tiny bit of shetland magic. i've finished my dress, the bressay. hopefully it will be photographed soon. thank you so much for the kind words for the hap shawl. oh my goodness that was a fun pattern to make, if you would like an easy lovely shawl ~ blanket i can't recommend the hansel enough. with a baby on the way in our family, i get to make another!

 my husband's commute

chuck came home after working a week out at the islands, i surprised him and met his boat. :) :) :) we went to yummy thai food and got all caught up on the weeks activities (i worked i knit i hiked. he worked he hiked, he did not knit, nor will he ever. darn!). here is an article he wrote on california's channel island national park for american forest magazine. if you look closely you might see me in there. hee hee :)

have a wonderful week friends!

dur comme un ane

hard as a donkey. hopefully the title of this post translates correctly?  :)  dear friends, my trip to the islands was sometimes dur comme un ane! we paddled for hours and hiked for miles (nine at one time!) many uphill and into the wind. oh but there are no words to describe the beauty. there is moisture on the island, unlike california, so there were wildflowers, and green. rolling green hills dotted with blossoms and the smaller island oak. birds sang well into the night and foxes scampered playfully (and sometimes annoyingly, one pooed on our cooler and another left muddy little paw prints on our tent, knock knock, let me in!) while on our hike we spread out a blanket near the top of montañon ridge and devoured our picnic lunch of salami and hard cheese, trail mix and tiny apples. we agreed there was no more prettier view, no place we'd rather be. sitting there together, with only the birds and the wind and the earth and sky. i'm reading robert louis stevenson right now, 'travels with a donkey' (hence the influence of today's post title) and wishing for just one moment i could put together words as r.l.s., to bring a moment to life... like these from 'travels with a donkey'... that truly describe our island time, "the view, back upon the northern gevaudan, extended with every step; scarce a tree, scarce a house, appeared upon the fields of wild hill that ran north, east, and west, all blue and gold in the haze and sunlight of the morning. a multitude of little birds kept sweeping and twittering about my path; they perched on the stone pillars, they pecked and strutted on the turf, and i saw them circle in volleys in the blue air, and show, from time to time, translucent flickering wings between the sun and me." sigh...
while chuck worked, guiding kayak tours, i read and knit and knit and read. the black shetland hap shawl, i'm hoping to make, destined for shetland islands this summer, now has it's beginnings on california's channel islands. if you'd like to know more about this national park (national treasure!) follow the links below.

 channel island national park

island packers (the boat to take you there)

channel islands outfitters (to kayak)

xoxo lori