Fiber Arts Friday and Maine

It's Fiber Arts Friday and I actually have some progress to show on my Irish Coffee sweater thanks in part to a book I have been listening to called The Burgess Boys:


                                                                                 

 This is the latest  from Elizabeth Strout who won the Pulitzer Prize for a previous book called Olive Kitteridge  and it was hard to put it down,  er, stop listening to, thus all the knitting progress on my sweater.   My trip included a few days in Maine and I thought it would be fun to listen to a book about a Maine family, the Burgess boys and their sister, and so I downloaded this from Audible.com.  The writing is well done, and accurately portrays life in a small town in Maine for the locals who are dealing with a declining economy and population and, at the same time,  adjusting to a new and growing population of Somali refugees.  The Burgess boys left Maine years ago and are New York attorneys who come back home to help their nephew through a crisis.  It's now on the NY Times Bestseller list.

Here's the progress on my Irish Coffee:

                                                                       

Lots more to tell about my trip to Maine and the yarn shops I stopped to visit, but more about that later.  I'll leave you with a picture of the historic Portland Head Lighthouse which is probably recognizable to just about everyone who has a lighthouse calendar or has seen the Edward Hopper painting of it :


                                                                                   

To see what others are up to on Fiber Arts Friday, head over to Andrea's blog.                                                                                                                                                                  

Edith Wharton and a trip to WEBS

Spending a few days in The Berkshires, that's Western Massachusetts for those who don't know the area. Enjoying the  warm weather and the charming and gracious small villages that give this area it's character.  In the early 20th century this area was the summer home for many famous writers including Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edith Wharton and her good friend Henry James.
One of Edith's first books, The House of Mirth,  was wildly successful when first published and was followed by other books that were also very popular, including The Age of Innocence for which she won the Pulitzer Prize and this was later made into a movie with Daniel Day Lewis:



                                                                               

                                                                             

Edith used some of the money that she made on her books to build a beautiful estate in The Berkshires
called The Mount and I was lucky to have an impromptu tour by a friend who volunteered there.


                                                                         

Here are a few more pictures of her home where she entertained her fellow writers.


                                                                                     

 

                                                                                 

I love the details in her dining room and bedroom:

                                                                         

The Mount is open for tours and other events in the summer and they also have a nice cafe on the large terrace which overlooks the gardens.  Since this is early Spring there wasn't much to see in the garden,  but I am sure this must be a fabulous spot in the summer and it's available for weddings.

I left this lovely place and headed on to Northampton to visit WEBS:

                                                                                     

                                                                     

They are in the middle of their 2 month sale and I checked out what they had available in their back room:

                                                                                     

I bought 8 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool which was on sale for a project to be named at a later date, possibly Hannah Fettig's Schoodic cardigan.

                                                                         

                                                                           

                                                                                 

       

On to Maine and more adventures!

                              

Traveling Along with My Irish Coffee

I have been traveling along the East Coast and so there hasn't been time for much knitting. The weather has been great and so I am out and about doing the tourist thing and visiting with friends and family.  Started out in New York City where I visited with Fae, a friend who does a lot of knitting and beadwork.  She just bought an incredible co-op in the West Village; look at this view from her rooftop:

                                                                             

                                                                           

    That's the new World Trade Center building and on the other side she has a view of the Empire State building  -  not too shabby!


                                                                               

Here are a few pictures of her beading projects:

                                                                              

Stopped by Knitty City on West  79th Street:

                                                                             

and saw this cute summer sweater called Isis from the Rowan All Seasons Chunky Collection:

                       

Here's my slow progress on my Irish Coffee:

                                                                         

On to the next part of my trip; I'm stopping in at WEBS just in time for their May sale!