Mason-Dixon Washcloths Pattern

img_2949_lowresSometimes mindless knitting is just what is seriously needed.  On long car or plane trips it helps pass the time.  Sitting in waiting rooms becomes more tolerable.  Washcloths and dishcloths are often easy patterns.  You can finish them quickly and end up with something useful.  I made these in pairs, to equally use both balls of kitchen cotton.  The pattern is from Kay Gardner and Ann Meadow Shayne’s first book:  Mason-Dixon Knitting: The Curious Knitters Guide.  Their Mason-Dixon blog is lively.  Kay lives in Manhattan.  Ann lives in Nashville.  They basically write long, usually fiber-related letters back and forth to one another.  But you also get to know these two as people, which is definitely the chemistry of this blog and their books.  Simple knitting.

Belly Button Island on a Foggy Morning

fogNo, the island isn’t widely known by the name Belly Button.  Only Steve and I know that’s its name (and Steve knew it first of all). This is Long Lake.  Latitude:  N45 degrees, 76.85′, longitude W83 degrees, 58.41′. If you are one of those rare humans who can actually still see the figures that the constellations are named after, you may be able to see that Long Lake is shaped like a fat man standing on one leg and the island in the bigger part of the lake is basically where the man’s belly button would  be.  On this particular paddle to Ghost Bay, just after sunrise, the fog was very thick when we set out.  Steve was following compass directions and I was following Steve.  Actually, my kayak and Steve’s were almost touching because I am very cautious and not brave (and I also don’t know how to use a compass correctly, despite trying to learn).  At first I protested that we should wait until the fog cleared.  That might have been a safer choice, but gosh what we would have missed. To see the lake in this light and under these conditions, from the vantage point of being on the water, was a rare pleasure.