New England's Narrow Road

A Nomads Life, Places I Have Lived

Reminiscing about all my moves while in New Hampshire

One of the reasons I have kept this blog even though I no longer live in New England is that I have shared some of my favorite photos here. Now I use this blog to share my knitting adventures and dream that one day I will be able to write again from a New Hampshire location.

All photography on this page is my own and is copyright protected.

When I moved from Florida to New Hampshire I had a nice house where I expected to stay for a very long time – maybe forever. I have to laugh at that. Silly me.

It didn’t turn out that way. I moved, and moved, and moved some more. I rented at four different places and lived in one house of my own before high expenses and lack of income forced me to head back to Florida.

frozen lake ice skating — Life by the lake, my son skating in the cold

My first, third and fourth homes in New Hampshire were near Gregg Lake in Antrim. I loved this area. The lake is small enough that it never gets crowded and it’s very quiet when the summer people have gone. New Hampshire doesn’t change very quickly, and I love that. After living in Florida where there are really no small towns, being part of one was a welcome change.

winter sunrise — Light at the end of the tunnel?

My first rental house was in Hopkinton and I snapped this photo of the sun rising just at the top of the hill. I lived here for a year but rent was too expensive so I moved (almost) into a condo.

The condo flooded before I could get in, so I temporarily lived in a little “camp” near Gregg Lake. It was August and we were right on the water which was nice for the kids, but it was only temporary. The condo was taking a long time to renovate and I was desperate to find a permanent rental that was decent. I lucked out when I found the duplex (photo below), where I stayed for three years.

This area is so beautiful. The only thing that would have made it better was if I had really belonged by having my own place. But walking was beautiful and I enjoyed the views of woods, hills and the lake. My landlady had a black lab and I would take her for walks with me.

I’ve always loved taking photos and I used my digital camera for all of these. I never had a nice cell phone until just before I left the state. With the change of seasons, there is always something amazing to photograph in this area. Fall and winter were favorite times to get photos. I loved to go out after a snowstorm and get photos before the wind ruined things.

Trees covered with snow after a storm — Winter Trees

Because I was feeling more like a normal person – having a home helps – my kids talked me into getting two cats. Richie and Fontana loved to sit in the front window and watch the birds.

Richie was killed by a fisher cat after I moved into my own home, but Fontana is still with me. She is about 14 years old now.

my cats Richie and Fontana — Richie and Fontana

Yay, My Own Place

The house I bought (below) needed a lot of renovating. You can read about that here. I was having siding, windows and new shutters put on when we got a freak October snowstorm which brought the work to a halt for days.

October snowfall snowstorm — October Snowfall 2011

Now I am back in Florida where I deal with heat, humidity, crowds, tourists, and hurricanes. I no longer walk in the woods and take photos of the change of seasons. I blog about seashell identification and our boating trips where we attempt to catch fish large enough to eat. I write about Florida landscaping and gardening and life in general on my Hydrangeas Blue blog.

I miss New Hampshire, but I am a nomad, and my goal is to move again… back to the Northeast.

Woolfolk Tynd Yarn Stranded Motifs Cowl

Knitting a small cowl using Woolfolk Tynd yarn in colorwork motifs

This small wool cowl was a spur of the moment knitting project decision. I do not have a pattern to share as I made it up as I went along.

The idea bloomed when I came across the Glacier Park Cowl pattern by Caitlin Hunter at Ravelry and saw that she had used Woolfolk yarn in two colors to create it. I knew I had stashed away two skeins of that same yarn. My cowl is not in her pattern, but I did use up (nearly) my Woolfolk Tynd yarn!

stranded colorwork cowl — I used Woolfolk Tynd yarn in brown and tan to make this knit cowl

My two skeins of the super-soft Tynd are dark and light brown colors, and I’m not sure of the numbers (Tynd colors are numbered, not named). Probably this was on sale somewhere at some point and I bought it not knowing what I’d use it for. The yarn is so very soft that a cowl is the perfect project.

A recent purchase of the book 150 Scandinavian Motifs gave me the incentive to do some math and find designs that would fit my cast on numbers. Then I screwed up and forgot my cast on, or counted the first row incorrectly, and messed up some of the rows.

I began with the lighter color as my main color and switched just before the butterfly row and made the dark color my main color. I did this to use up the yarn more equally. I can’t locate my leftover yarn, but I did use most of each skein to finish this cowl.

I do love the Glacier Park cowl pattern (click the link above to see that beauty), but not for these duller colors. So I made up my own design which was really good practice doing stranded colorwork. And I did make a lot of mistakes! No biggie… a cowl hides mistakes well.

In the image above you can see where my butterfly row did not line up exactly with the stitches I (thought) I had counted, so I had to add a little wavy section to carry the yarn.

Below I am showing my goof up on the row above the butterflies where somehow my counts were off. Most of these motifs came from the book, but I did make some up myself.

two color stranded knit cowl in Tynd yarn

Just thought I’d share the stranding that went on inside the cowl. I didn’t have many ends to weave in because all the yarn was carried up inside the cowl.

Fun Selfies Wearing the Cowl!

I have no one to ask to take photos of me, so I did the best I could getting pictures of the cowl around my neck. My messy gray-hair braid kept getting in the way!

Knitting this cowl was a little sidestep from knitting my Fine Sand sweater and finishing up my Quince Wrap. It was a quick knit and a brain challenge (although not too tough) to figure out which designs would fit around the cowl. Sometimes I need something different on the needles.

Miss Babs “Tea Party” Yummy 3-Ply Yarn

Quite a while ago I bought a skein of Tea Party yarn from Miss Babs. This one is sport weight and is one of the Yummy 3-Ply yarns offered at Miss Babs’ site. I bought it because it was pretty, and I don’t have definite plans for it yet.

Before I wound it up, I took some photos of the various colors that can be seen among the strands of yarn in this lovely color way. “Tea Party” must be popular because it is currently sold out / out of stock in many of the yarn weights offered by Miss Babs. I hope it comes back because I love it.

Below is a little swatch where I played around with some stitches and used “Tea Party” with “Deep Sea Jellyfish” which is also a Miss Babs yarn in Big Silk worsted weight.

Tea party and jellyfish yarn — Swatch with Tea Party and Deep Sea Jellyfish

I don’t know what I will knit with this yarn, but I’m considering a scarf with both the bright pinks and purples of Jellyfish and the more subtle speckled white of Tea Party.

Knitting the Quince Wrap Pattern

Ambah O’Brien’s Quince Wrap caught my eye because I liked the shape. I’m not big on those triangular wraps because I never know just how to wear them – if I could even wear them here in Florida!

But a long wrap is more like a scarf, and that is easier to deal with.

Aqua blue Emma's Yarn — Practically Perfect Sock yarn by Emma’s Yarn in two tropical blue colors

Choosing colors was very tough for me. The pattern designer used color sets from Miss Babs and knit the shawl in rows of color. I decided to save money and knit using some yarn I already had.

Yarn I Used

Because I am in Florida and that means I love tropical colors, so why not use them in the Quince wrap? I used my two aqua blue skeins of yarn from a local Florida yarn store called Four Purls. These skeins of Emma’s Yarn were purchased when the Four Purls Yarn Truck visited my area of the state.

I had purchased a big skein of Anzula light fingering in gray (Elephant) and had no idea what to do with it. The gray color became my border for the wrap. The other colors I used are listed here and can be found under Emma’s Yarn Beautifully Basic at Four Purls online.

Ice Ice Baby (aqua blue)
Zuni (aqua blue)
Juneau (mix of blue, gray and white) used for center rows

Gray Anzula yarn — Beginning the shawl with Anzula Cloud in “Elephant” gray.

All of this yarn was wonderful to work with, and I discovered the joy of Anzula which I had never knit with before. It’s definitely a favorite.

Beginning the Quince shawl pattern — Beginning the lace section of the Quince Shawl

Figuring Out My Color Placement

I was a bit afraid that I might run out of yarn so I ordered the Juneau color way which I used for the 10 center rows. It contained similar colors to what I was using!

Aqua blue Quince Shawl knitting — Rows of aqua in my Quince Wrap knitted shawl.

The pattern was fun to knit, but it did seem to take me a very long time to finish. I used stitch markers between the repeats on the lace rows and that was super helpful.

Click on the link to the Quince Wrap at the top of this page to see more like this at the Ravelry website.