Shaw Girl Happenings

Our knitting club "The DKC", of which I am a founding member, convened on the shores of Lake Erie, this past week. We started by visiting a yarn shop near Chautauqua run by none other than Mrs. Neibank, who had no idea who I was. I could have reintroduced myself, but I just didn't want to bother. (I've been a bit crazed with this whole business of kicking my first born out of the nest. Seems like I just but him on the bus to Kindergarten!)



Here the club members gather at the shore of Lake Erie. That's me in the chair. We saw kayakers, and several large sailboats. It was very relaxing and the afternoon calmed my anxious spirit.








Here's my friend Patti showing off her new crocs as she gazes over the lake towards Canada. She is a founding member of DKC, too. She's working on socks to wear on Saturday mornings with jeans and a sweater; socks that say "yea, it's Saturday" as soon as you slip them on.









Here's a close up of Brian's sweater in full knitting action! How exciting!! 5 needles at once!!! This is the first sleeve. I've got the front and back done, and plan to have this finished for when we visit him in October for family weekend. It's an aran sweater made out of an olive cotton yarn. Brian picked out the pattern and yarn. Very heavily textured with cables and stuff.

Labels: knitting

Here's a few of the photos's that Brian put into our local fair. All his work was in black and white, and he did his own developing. He won an award for one of his photos in a student competition in Buffalo. At our fair it got squat. You never know how the judging will go... But that's what makes it fun. These pictures are photos that I took of his photos (make sense?) and then scanned, so they are a bit grainy. Oh, well...






This is the fence in our side yard.



This photo is from back at the creek. He entered this in the 'reflections' category.


I've got pictures of Katie's art work that she entered into the fair, but I'll save that for another time. Also in the works is a photo essay entitled "The Saga of Brian's Hair."

I'm just using dial-up for these postings. While the photos were uploading, I folded a couple loads of laundry.

~Sue

Labels: Brian, fair

Hannah - Thank-you for your donation to the 3 Day! The official card is in the mail.

OK - with everyone entering stuff for the fair, I figured I better think of something. So after going to our little fair, I have decided I could at least enter some photos. I get lucky once in a while and take a good pic. BUT, I will have to wait until next year.

It's great to see everyone has something up - except Carrie. She has a dial-up, so it may be a while. Hannah, please put up some photos! I would like to see what your family and house looks like these days. Here's some other stuff I would like to here about:

Sue - grad school
Hannah - everything
Carrie - everything
Molly - all your 5Ks.

The competitive sock group sounds like my kind of group!

Here's another photo of a place a friend of mine and I hiked into this summer.

Take care and send me good energy this week for the 3 Day Walk. I'm already tired and I haven't even started yet!

Love, Rebecca

I finally figured it out!
now if only i can remember how.
Good luck Molly in the co. fair
N&J won multiple medals at our fair, J got the judges choice for a lego creation, and N won judges choice for garlic! J won blue for " J's famous chocolate chip cheesecake"
We have just been 'slugs' this week while on vacation.
Good luck Rebecca on your upcomming walk.

Here's our new dog, Penny. K has wanted a dog forever, and a dog was all she wanted for her birthday, so after much searching, we found Penny at our local shelter. She was a stray, but seems content to stray no more. She seems to be a Fox Terrier mix. She saw a deer the other day in the neighbor's corn and started pointing. If you hold her ears straight up she looks like a dingo. She is well behaved, trained, and loves to play fetch.









We all like her, which is saying a lot, because except for K, the rest of us are cat lovers. Her one drawback is she goes ballistic whenever the Amish come down the road. Since the Amish often pass by at 4AM on their way to the lake to go fishing, this can be a problem. But, we are secure in the knowledge that if we are ever invaded by some renegade Amish, Penny will keep us safe.

Labels: dog

Now that I have my grad work done and son#1's graduation hoopla completed, I've been doing a lot of knitting. the links under my name are for 2 knit alongs (KAL) that I'm presently in. For the Mystery Sock KAL, I had to choose a sock pattern that did not have an illustration (hence, the mystery.) I found, via the internet, a pattern called "socks knitted by and for a guy" from Arthur in Ireland. Since these socks will end up in one of the men-folk's Christmas stocking, this sounded like fun. I have until Thanksgiving to finish the socks.

Here's a picture of a pair of socks knitted by for son#2, that just came off the needles.


The other link is for Sock Wars, and yes, I am a warrior. I even have an alias. This group originates in Belfast. (I seem to have an Irish thing going here.) This is a competition where you are given a dossier with a pattern and your intended hit. You have to knit and send a pair of socks to your target before they send them to you, other wise you are dead and end up on the fallen comrades list. I am not making this up! I am beginning to come to the realization that sock knitters are a very odd group, and I seem to fit right in. Hmmmm.

Also on the needles: sweater for Brian for college-olive cotton yarn in an aran pattern, sweater started in 1962 by Aunt Maxine which I decided to finish-beige mohair in an all over bobble pattern (very retro) and top-secret knitted stuff for shawgirls for Christmas. (Molly-done, Rebecca-done, Carrie-ready for the needles.) Katie likes to knit, too. I soooo glad grad school is over!

Labels: knitting

Katie saw this white ball of fluff streak across our yard and run up a tree. An albino squirrel! I grabbed the camera, and my big lens (which Rick gave me for Christmas, which Brian calls the "thermal detonator") and snapped a few pictures. We quietly crept through the yard, camera at the ready. I got a few shots, and was ready for more, when Katie sneezed, and off scampered the squirrel.

Labels: nature

Hi all,

Well, after a couple of hick-ups - here we are!

I have had an extremely busy summer. Not only did I take on my longest triathlon distance yet (half Iron), I also committed to raise $2,200 for the Breast Cancer 3 day walk. The walk itself is next week and I will be walking 60 miles in 3 days.

For those of you who did not get a chance to donate, you will probably have another opportunity. I may try something similar next year for the Leukemia Society.

Mike and I got a cat from the Humane Society last April. He is a 5 year old Manx named Hunt. Molly is coming over to meet him in September.

I've attached photos of fun stuff I've been doing. The first is Hunt the badass kitty. The bike photo is from the Troika Half-iron triathlon in Spokane, Aug. 06 and the running one is from the Vancouver, BC marathon in May 06. I will post hiking photos when I get them back.

I still would love for us all to get together sometime.

Rebecca

Well, good-o!!
I plan to enter a decorated cake and a batch of cookies in the North Idaho Fair coming up in 2 weeks. Photos to come.

Molly

This summer at Camp Findley I saw something I had never seen before: Matthew with goo-goo eyes over a girl. Here's a picture. Too bad she lives in Kentucky. (Hmmm...maybe that's a good thing.)

Labels: Matthew, vacation

Here's a picture of my socks, displayed at the fair, compliments of my friend Patti. She knitted the striped socks on the right. Mine are knit from a hand dyed merino wool from Lorna's Laces, and they feel like pure luxury on my toes. Right now I have socks for Matthew on the needles. They are a funky green, blue, spotted yarn. I'll post 'em when I've got them done.

Labels: fair, knitting

We had a successful showing at the Chautauqua County Fair this year. Brian entered several black and white photos and earned ribbons and cash. (I'll post some of his pictures soon.) Katie, our young artist, won a blue in watercolor, tempera, and pencil. She also won judge's choice for her porcelain sculpture of a koi. I won Best of Show for my Chardonnay, and a blue ribbon for a pair of socks I knitted. Brian’s vest and bowtie, which I sewed for his prom, (pictures soon) also got a blue. We kept running into Hannah, Nicole, and Jacob at the fair. They were also big winners, but I’ll let Hannah tell you about that. She probably has lots of pictures, too.

Labels: fair

Hi all,

Let's try blogging as a way of communicating, and documenting, what's going on in our busy lives.