The Gathering at Sage Creek Farm and a couple of finished objects

Last weekend was The Gathering at Sage Creek Farm. Sharon and Ian hold a yearly gathering of their large circle of family and friends. Some folks come for a day while others camp out in tents or trailers.

I took my little 1953 travel trailer up on Friday and stayed until Monday. I only checked my email a couple of times. OK, once per day.

The weekend started hot, then shifted to windy and cool as a cold front swept in. There was lots of visiting, knitting, eating, and just general hanging out.

I took about 550 photos with my new camera and zoom lens. If you are incredibly dedicated you can look at 368 of them here.


Getting away for the holiday weekend gave me the chance to make some knitting progress. I finished my current carry-along project - a scarf made from a skein Raven Frog superwash wool that Eileen brought me from Alaska. The colorway is listed as "Kelp Bed". By a little experimentation I came up with a simple reversible lace pattern that is as follows: (over a multiple of 5ss plus 1) K3, YO, bring yarn to front between needles, P2TOG, repeat. That's it. It makes a lovely stretchy fabric that naturally accordion pleats around the neck. I worked on this for a few months while walking between buildings to meetings and finished it off at the Gathering. Note about Raven Frog Wool: It is superwash, so I washed it, and it went a bit limp. It is very soft, but no longer springs back into accordion pleats. I suggest handwashing if you want to keep the stitch definition and springyness.

Knowing the end was near on the Kelp Bed scarf, I resurrected a stalled project that I found stuffed between shelves in my living room. The project had been sitting stagnant since 2006, when I spun and dyed rather hairy suri alpaca and cast on for fingerless mitts. I had made it as far as the cuffs before burying the project. Making up the pattern as I knitted, I put chunky purl rings around the palms. The finished mitts are a bit funky looking, but they are comfy and warm and the Michelin-Man-like purl rings give great padding for carrying around my new heavier camera.
Now I can start another carry-along project. Maybe a scarf could be knit from the leftover log cabin afghan yarn. It is mostly blue yarn left, but I could over-dye. Blue plus red makes purple....