A Knitter's Day Off

A Knitter's Day Off

(this is a rather lengthy post)

Every knitter needs a day off for something fun and different. So I had my day on WWKIP Day. I went to my favorite smelling place other than a bakery. DH and I packed up some important items as well as my current project and headed for the outer banks of North Carolina. We make this trek once a year and I always look forward to the postcard notifying us it's time for the trip. Here is where I do look forward to going. Yup, it's the Harbinger Lavender Farm in Harbinger, North Carolina. For the last three years the second Saturday in June they open up the fields with anyone who wants to cut their own fresh lavender. Since we have gone before we know that you should bring a pair of nice sharp scissors and a hand full of rubber bands. If I remember correctly there are around 2, 000 plants in the field that covers about 2 acres. It's so colorful and you just can't get a good enough picture! It's pretty and fragrant at the same time. When you look at the field you can actually see it shaking. The shaking is caused from all the different kinds of bees there to collect pollen. No, they don't bother you while cut the lavender. I would say though, if you are allergic, you probably should purchase the pre-cut lavender they have for sale. The bundles cost $8 each and they are well worth the money whether you pick it or buy the pre-done bundles.

Can you see the bees in flight. I tried a million times to catch one still but it's nearly impossible because they are so busy collecting pollen.

Here is my favorite picker with the start of a bundle in his hands. He is very patient about cutting just the right stem of lavender.

Once you pick the lavender you can do lots with it. You can dry it...
This was taken on the inside of the Lavender store at the farm. Or you can do this with it...
Here is the beginning of a lavender wand. You can find the instructions on the Internet. The main thing is you have to use an odd number of stems and it needs to be very bendable. Once the lavender dries on the stem, it's pretty much over to make a wand. When it's done it should look like this...
This is a completed wand. DH made this. He is far better at this than I am! I made one and he has done two. My stems have dried too much to make me one but there will always be next year.

Not only was there lavender related shopping items, they had a few vendors and then there was the shopping shack with tons of lavender related items. I did make a purchase that I thought was a must if I was going to have lavender in my yard...

If you have a chance to visit a place like Harbingers near you, take the time to stop and smell the lavender! It's fabulous.

Three Sachets

Three Sachets

I belong to the neatest group of knitters. It's called Yarn for Breakfast or YfB. They are listed on the Meetup.com site. I think I have belonged a few months shy of a year. The wonderful thing about the group is they have meet ups all over the Hampton Roads area. We all belong to the group but some of us will never meet. Each of us elects which group email meet up places we wish to be notified about. I only belong to two groups. There is the YfB group that meets one Saturday a month in Portsmouth and there is another group under that same umbrella called Yarn for Supper. Those groups meet in the evenings some place. I belong to a group that meets at a Panera one Tuesday a month. I get to see some of the same people at each group every month and then there are members who float in and out according to their husband's ship schedule, having babies, work, vacations, and just life in general. If you have a chance to join a group like this you will meet so many different knitters and crocheters! Now they are trying to do spinning group once a month. Maybe once my job is done I can go to a meeting or two.

Once in a while the group will either spend money or get donations to give to the group. When cash is short donations work perfectly. My friend Ro and I decided that we could donate something for the group. I was lucky that I was befriended by a lovely lady at a lavender farm in NC. One year at a local festival, the woman gave me a huge box of scrap lavender. I have saved it for at least two years now I finally have a use for it. We decided to make sachets to give to the members of our YfB. So we bought some lavender (some very purplely) yarns and have been knitting them in our spare time.

The sachets come from the Vogue Knitting Quick Gifts that I got the horse pattern from. I bought the one for one pattern and one only then found the sachets and decided that the money I spent on the book paid off more than once. Good investment in quickie gifts!

Here are the three sachets. I sewed up some tulle that I found in the bargain bin at Hancocks and cut it to size. I hand sewed them because it would have taken longer to drag out the machine and set up and then have to put it away. Besides no one will see how crappy I sew because the bags are sown up too. I got two sets of sachets out of each half skein. Ro has the other skeins and is making sets of her own. There is only one last thing that we need to do; get a ribbon to tie the sachets in a stack together. Then it 's off to YfBf for nifty gifties at our next meeting.

This bag's stitch is called Andalusian stitch. Everyone of the stitches is extremely easy. This is a great project for a beginner. The nice thing is you can even make an afghan out of each of these three blocks. Great gift idea!
This one is the Seed Stitch or Moss stitch. Way easy and very quick. If you hate purling, this wouldn't be one you would want to do any larger than this.
...and the last one is the Basketweave Stitch. It's easy but it's also easy to forget how many rows you have done. I got carried away on some rows, but they all are done and that's that. Here's the whole gang!

The End

Fields of Purple
Last weekend I was so lucky to have gotten an invitation to the first Open House at the coolest place. I met these nice ladies two years ago at a festival in Chesapeake. I have bought their lovely items twice now and have never been disappointed! Wonder where I was? I was in a very small little town in North Carolina called Harbinger. It took us over an hour to get there, but the scenery was so pleasant, I would move from here to there in a skinny minute!
Harbinger, NC has the privilege of being the home of The Harbinger Lavender Farm. The farm is family owned. The current owners inherited the farm from their parents and I am sure that if their parents were around, they would be so proud how the farm has evolved. This past Saturday the family had an open house and from what I could see, it was a wonderful success.

Check out all this color…
This table was set up so we could learn how to make a lavender wand. I was not so good at it but I got better the longer I sat there. The farm has about 2 acres of land with nothing but these beauties just grown' away. There is sand surrounding the whole field so each plant look like a purple spiked oasis. It's just something for the eye to behold.
Here is a better view of the field. It's just breath taking! And smells like heaven when the wind wafts by.
The older the mound gets the more spikes of flowers they throw. The taller spikes are great for the wands but all of them are wonderful for something.
I know that I couldn't resist the purple spikes, but here is someone else who loved them too.

The hubby and I cut together and we collected three bundles that cost us $8 each. They were selling the pre-made wands for $3 each, so $8 a bundle was a good price.
Here is the view from the back of the field looking out towards the house and the Lavender shed. Behind the house there is an old barn. One of the children told me that the little barn was cluttered and filthy a while back. The sisters who own the property now, went out one day and cleaned it out to have a place to dry the Lavender and create projects to promote the sell of their Lavender. The inside was wonderful, but I didn't get a shot of it. I was too busy looking around at the Lavender soap, baked goods, recipes, painted rocks, etc.
What has any of this Lavender picking day got to do with knitting? Well I figured that my hand spun and hand knitted items were worthy of some fresh picked North Carolina Provence Lavender to shoo away any wool eatin' critters! We had a fun drive there and back. I got to pick some fresh Lavender, make some new friends, buy some fresh produce and homemade fudge from a roadside farmers market and I got to eat some rib stickin' North Carolina pull pork BBQ. It was a perfect day and it smelled good too!