Sketches before the Storm

I prepared for Hurricane Irene by going to Kripalu for the day on Saturday. After Danny Arguetty's excellent workshop on twists, followed by a session with Heidi Spears on "yoga breaks" (mostly breathing techniques, or pranayama, that you can do in spare moments throughout your day), I felt truly relaxed and ready for whatever Sunday might bring. As it turned out, at my condo we were fortunate--less than an inch of water in the basement and a few fallen branches. We never lost our power.

While I was at Kripalu, the rain held off until late afternoon, so I was able to walk the beautiful labyrinth and sketch both indoors and out. It felt like the perfect bookend to the summer, which began with sketching at Squam Lake in New Hampshire.






If you were Irene's path, how did you fare? I feel incredibly lucky, compared to others here in New England. Today's post by Kristin Nicholas at Getting Stitched on the Farm has links to videos of flooding in Shelburne Falls and Brattleboro. My heart goes out to everyone in these towns, which have long been two of my favorite day-trip destinations.

OK, let's move on to happier topics! Number one, I'll be releasing a new pattern very soon. Details forthcoming in the next few days; for now, here's a little teaser:



Number two, work continues on both the sample knitting and pattern writing for Pomegranate, and all's going well. I keep expecting something to not work out, but so far, there have been no surprises or rip-backs at all:



Last, a few odds and ends:

***Rebecca is offering free shipping until Labor Day on her embroidery samplers and other good stuff, including the exuberantly colorful Paisley.

***Kristin's slowly but surely knitting up a most gorgeous fingering-weight blanket. And not a baby blanket, but a full-scale blanket big enough to cover a queen-size bed. I think I'll be sad when she's done, because there won't be any more great posts from her about it, such as this, this, and this.

***Plenty of artists are inspired by shells and stones found at the beach (me included). Something else caught the eye of New Zealander Paul Hutchinson. The resulting painting is absolutely perfect.

***My Squash Blossom Bookmark pattern is in another Etsy treasury today. Check out Sylvana Vintage Designs for details. The treasury includes some squash-colored hand-dyed yarns.