Tag: gatlinburg

Knitting

Arsenic and Old Lace

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blue and cream lace shawl
close up of knitting stitches in blue and cream lace shawl

I enjoy my Agatha Christie as visual experiences rather than words on the page, whether it is the cinematic classic, Witness for the Persecution, (1957 with Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, and Charles Laughton) or the new streaming adaptations of Hercule Poirot starring and directed by Kenneth Brautigan.

While I know Marie Greene best as a knitting designer, instructor, and the author of six knitting books, she has a passion for mysteries. Currently she is expanding her repertoire while writing her first mystery.

Two of her fall mystery knit-alongs (MKAL) paid homage to her favorite author, Agatha Christie, with The Tuesday Night Wrap in 2023 and, most recently, last October, with Arsenic and Old Lace. As my attention was focused on unpacking and hanging art at Solstice Place, I cast on after the pattern was fully revealed. No mystery during my project.

Arsenic and Old Lace is a two-color shawl that begins by casting on five stitches and then, through a series of increases along the side edges and the center midline, grows into a lacy triangular shawl. This version artfully combines two skeins of fingering weight yarn. The pale blue is from my days as member of Sew Happy Jane’s Handdyed Yarn Club and the creamy variegated was a souvenir skein purchased during our great-niece’s destination wedding weekend in Tennessee.  It is always rewarding to stash dive and transform yards and yards of yarn into wearable art.

Happy Knitting!

Knitting · Travel

The Best Souvenirs

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four skeins of multi-colored varigated yarn
The four seasons of the Smoky Mountain Collection: spring, summer, autumn, winter

I received the first skeins of travel yarn in 2016 from a friend who attended a destination wedding in Iceland.  She gifted three skeins of Léttlopi in a deep dark blue that, in turn, became a travel gift for a Swiss cousin.  But, even though I had been knitting for years, I did not purchase any yarn on our 2017 retirement road trip – Minnesota to Spokane to Seattle to Vancouver and home again via the trans-Canadian highway.  I am sure there must have been yarn stores along the way but none made our travel itinerary.

I corrected this omission during our 2018 European adventure – Amsterdam to Spa-Francorpschamps in Stavelot, Belgium to Ingolstadt, Germany to Switzerland and Italy – with purchases our first day in Amsterdam and on our last day in Zurich.  Now I make a stop at a local yarn store as a planned part of our travels, whether I am in Arizona for Cubs spring training (2019) or just two weeks ago while in Tennessee for a mountain top wedding. 

These most recent acquisitions to my stash were handdyed exclusively for Smoky Mountain Spinnery in Gatlinburg and represent the four seasons in their Smoky Mountain Collection.  Each colorway is based on a photograph that captures the location’s natural beauty:  delicate spring flora, the vibrant colors of summer twilight, cascading water amidst fall’s changing leaves, or the bright blue winter canopy over frosty hillsides.  With two skeins of each, the possibilities for future knitting projects are endless.