Category: Goofy Stuff

Baseball & Blocking

We did get to the Rainiers game on Friday. The morning started out cool and drizzly, but by afternoon it was sunny and warm. The home team lost, the game was sort of a snore, but it was still a great way to spend a nice summer evening. Why is it that hot dogs taste so good at a ballpark, when you would probably never eat them at home? We splurged and bought tickets for box seats, almost right behind home plate. At a minor league game, this means we spent all of 12 bucks. What a deal. Here are the photos:

The pre-game conference at home plate.

Me knitting my sock:

Here’s the sock enjoying the action in a later inning:

And that same inning without the sock:

And best of all, the fireworks after the game:

I finished the second of the squares for the Blanket Project. Here they are after a wash, on my new blocking board (well, one square from my new blocking board). As soon as they dry, they’ll be off in the mail to Annie.

And the sock, trying to get in on the action:

I’ve gotten a lot of comments on the foam mats. So far they are working great. The pins will leave tiny holes, so if that bugs you, don’t buy these. I bought them just for blocking, so the holes are OK to me. There is a link in my previous post as to where I found these online, but you can find them at a lot of carpet/flooring dealers as well. They are primarily used as flooring in kids’ play areas, so are durable and just wipe clean.

I’m off to work on some lace. It’s still too hot around here to work on Rogue; sitting with a pile of Aran weight wool in my lap is not my idea of fun when it’s in the 80’s (high 20’s-low 30’s for those of you in the rest of the world). I start my 7-day work slog tomorrow, so I plan on thoroughly enjoying today!

And The Winner Is…

Lorna’s Laces Watercolor, in a landslide. The Opal Orange was second, thanks to Claudia stuffing the ballot box. The other two were tied for the finish. There may have been a few convicted felons voting as well, so the vote may be thrown out months from now. But for now the LL will be my next pair of socks, though I think I will keep that orange stuff close by for inspiration. I’ve become a bit partial to it myself.

John’s Striped Socks are now done. I finished them up this morning as my sweetie cooked me bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns for breakfast. And he did the dishes, so he certainly deserves a new pair of socks.

He put them on as soon as he got out of the shower. Conveniently, the temperature has dropped 30 degrees since yesterday, so he will actually be able to wear them. What was that rumor about the arrival of summer??

You might notice that these socks are identical twins. It took a bit of fiddling, but those stripes match nearly perfectly. This was my first foray into toe-up-short-row-heel socks. I still like doing them the other way, but this method has the definite advantage of allowing you to use every bit of yarn if you want longer socks. I know that a lot of sock knitters don’t like top down socks because they despise grafting toes, but I actually enjoy that step. It’s nice to know more than one way how to do something, though.

Here’s the morning cat picture:

Yes, that’s a pile of wood in my kitchen where the table used to be. We are in the middle of some home renovation. All the ratty cat-puke stained carpet on the main level will be replaced by wood flooring, and it got delivered Friday morning. At 6:15 AM. There’s more going on, including a few projects that involved cutting holes into walls that didn’t have holes, and plastering up a window that we just hated. It’s been a mess around here. The floor is due to be installed in a couple of weeks, but the wood was here, so there it is. We actually aren’t going to replace the kitchen table. We figure everybody always ends up in the kitchen hanging out at parties, instead of using the other rooms of the house, so we’re going to put a sofa and coffee table here instead once the renovation is done.

We’re off on a road trip on Tuesday for a couple of weeks. We’re headed to Napa for some wine tasting (out of plastic safety glasses, of course). We’re going to head down the coast of Oregon and California, then drive back up through the Mt. Shasta area. On the trip home we’re taking in a Shakespeare play in Ashland, Oregon, then spending a day with friends in Portland. I’m taking my laptop along, but posting will depend on wi-fi access along the way. I heard a rumor that Oregon and northern California have some swell yarn shops. Then when we get home, reality will set in, and I will have to get to go back to work, after three months off.

I’ve updated my Finished Projects page as well with all the details.

BH&G

No, it’s not the acronym for a mystery sheep and wool festival that I get to go to. BH&G stands for Better Homes & Gardens, the magazine. If you are out and about, stop by a magazine stand and pick up the June 2005 issue. On page 276 there is a short piece titled “Knit Your Way to Wellness”, by Eric Metcalf. Mr. Metcalf contacted me several months ago regarding the medical benefits of knitting, and then interviewed me for the article by telephone. It was fun doing a bit of research for the interview, and it is most definitely a hoot to see my name in print in a major publication. Now if I could only get the New England Journal of Medicine to answer my calls.

I will be out of the blog-o-sphere until early next week. Though I will try to get one more post in before I leave on Thursday, with some actual knitting content, I am heading to North Dakota for the annual pilgrimage to the homeland. My sisters are both going to be there, and another cousin is meeting us for a long weekend of gossip and partying. I was a little nervous about travelling by myself, as John for some reason doesn’t consider ND to be a valid tourist destination, but I’m relatively independent at this point. They also threatened to talk about me if I stayed home, so there you have it. I can shower by myself and mostly eat independently, so there really wasn’t any excuse not to go. The rest of this week in hand therapy will be spent practicing signing my name so I can handle the credit card issue by myself. At the very least I can probably punch in numbers to the ATM.

My sister that lives in Fargo mentioned that there is a place in Moorhead (just across the river) called the Knitty Gritty Cafe, “apparently a place to knit, buy stuff for knitting, and they have lunch time sandwiches. We can go there while you’re here.” She doesn’t have to ask me twice. Anybody heard of it or been there? Any other great yarn stores in either Fargo or Moorhead? I’ll make sure I remember to pack the camera. I’m off to practice my best credit card signature.

I’m Not Bitter, Part 2

If any of you were to have the chance to go to any of our local farmers’ markets, you would immediately sell your belongings and move to western Washington. My favorite is in Olympia, a lovely little town that is also the state capital. Pike Place Market in Seattle is bigger, flashier, and more famous, but the Olympia market has the advantage in that the actual real-life farmer is usually the one selling the stuff. They are passionate about their produce, and can tell you exactly how it was grown and where. They will tell you when the lettuce was picked, and when and where the fish was caught.  It is also a true seasonal market, with almost all locally grown/raised stuff. You have to wait for corn and strawberries until they are really ready here. You get chanterelle and morel mushrooms in season, usually handed to you along with the farmer’s instructions on how to cook them. Every time we go to the Oyster Man’s stand, we get a different idea on how to serve them this week. The ‘Mater Guy will cut you a slice of his heirloom tomatoes, tell you where the seeds came from, and tuck a sprig of basil in the bag. You can get rabbit meat at the Meat Lady’s store on occasion. There is a Dairy Lady and a Bread Guy, and a Lady that occasionally is there selling knitted items. There is also a local cheesemaker, often manned by their young son, the Cheese Boy. Every weekend, all summer, here is where we forage for supplies for the next week.

Here we are arriving at the market.

First stop is this stand. right now they have apples and pears, and this week they had the first of the spring onions.

There are also many plant stands here. There is a place that sells mostly lavender plants, several flower places, and a lot of tomato seedlings and herb plants.

The apple stand also has nice asparagus this week. We usually plan our meals on the fly here. “Oh you know, they had “x” back there, that would go well with this. What if we cooked this with that??”

Another sample of the bounty:

The fish stand is one of our regular stops. Again, what they have varies, but it is always impeccably fresh. Sometimes it’s  clams, sometimes mussels, and right now they have the prettiest halibut on earth. This will be dinner tonight. When the Fish Lady saw us taking a picture, she made us wait until she polished the glass on the case.

Then there is the Egg Lady. She is not particularly talkative, but carefully puts your eggs in a cardboard container and tapes it shut for you. And yes, you can get duck eggs here.

Then there is my favorite, the Oyster Man. He even comes here in the winter when the market is closed. People who know anything know that the Oyster Man is in the market square on Saturdays all winter, selling oysters that he collects himself. He can tell you exactly where he got them, and when he got them. And tips on how to open them, as well as how to cook them, if you are one of those who likes them cooked.

Here are the oysters. This week we bought a dozen of the European flats, and a half dozen of the Kumamotos.

And the Oyster Lady giving us a close up of the Flats.

The Oyster Man also has geoducks, which is pronounced goo-ee-ducks, for some reason that escapes me. I’ve never tried these, and really have no intention of doing so, at least not sober.

On weekends there is always a different band. Here they are:

There are also several food stands and picnic tables, and this is just the greatest place to have lunch on a warm spring day.

Next stop is the ‘Mater Guy. Right now he has greenhouse tomatoes, and he always makes you taste one before you buy.

Note the caption on his sign: A tomato a day keeps the doctor away…

This is one of our favorite produce stands. Right now they have several kinds of kale, green garlic in bunches, and fresh sorrel, which I adore. Make yourself a classic potato-leek soup, toss in a couple of bunches of chopped sorrel, puree it in the processor, add cream, and you have sorrel soup from heaven. I have been known to eat it leftover for breakfast.

Last but not least is the Worm Tea Guy.

Here is their website: Wiser Worm Farm. (They are really going to wonder why they are getting traffic from knitting blogs!) They sell Red Wiggler Worms, and Worm Tea for your garden.

All of that foraging tired us out, so we had a big lunch when we got home with the goods. We always buy several bags of mixed lettuces, and we made a salad with that, and fresh radishes, green garlic, avocados (those were from Trader Joe’s), and leftover roast beef from a couple of nights ago.

Yum. It’s time for a nap!

Update:
Here’s the website for the Olympia Farmers Market! You can even find out what band is playing, and what’s for lunch.

I’m Not in Maryland,

Or, Not Bitter, Part 1

Julia of Moth Heaven has put out a call for all of us stay-at-home bloggers to post today. I’m not really bitter about MS&W, as I have many other lovely things to do today. It hasn’t actually been Saturday around this house long enough for much exciting to happen, so I’m going to start by showing you what we did yesterday. Today is starting out gray and rainy in the Pacific Northwest, but yesterday was glorious.

We had lunch on the patio for the first time this year. John had leftover barbecue (Georgia style, if you’re curious. He ate it so fast that I didn’t get a picture.) I had a mozzarella, basil and tomato panini. I don’t have a panini machine, so we improvised with a griddle and a cast iron pan to weigh it down. Yes, that wine glass is real glass. I believe in getting back on that horse as soon as possible.

I spent part of the afternoon knitting on the patio while John made the herb garden ship-shape. I’m working on Birch, and have one more repeat done since the last time I showed it. At this rate, I will be done with this shawl in time for Christmas, but who’s keeping track? It’s the process, as Margene would say.

John replanted parts of our patio herb garden while I played. We now have parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, as well as cilantro, mint, bay, marjoram, basil, chives, and a few patio tomatoes for good measure.

The pets also had fun. Riley and Will basked in the warm outdoor temperature.

Lucy was too much of a chicken to come out. She did run out once, nibbled on the chives for a second, then ran back in. She prefers the great outdoors from the safety of inside the patio door.

After everything was planted and watered down, Riley got to play her favorite summer game, “hose”. We shoot the hose water off towards her, and she runs and jumps to bite at the water. She gets soaked, and will play this game as long as water keeps coming out of the hose.

Today we are going to the farmers’ market in Olympia to pick up essentials for the week. After that we have a few errands to run, then have plans to meet friends this evening for martinis and dinner. Who needs sheep and wool?

It’s Spring!

Well, technically, I guess it’s actually been spring for a while by the calendar. I date it from the first appearance of baby ducks on our lake. We have a great weedy patch by the dock that serves as duck habitat (that’s my current excuse for not cleaning it up, anyway!). I looked out this afternoon to see this little family.

The papa is very protective, and took his little brood and mom away as soon as I sneaked close enough for a picture. Earlier I saw him giving another male Mallard hell and driving him away from the family homestead. They are so funny when they are learning to swim. Once they start getting a little more independent, they race back and forth, but they don’t have very good directional or speed control for the first few weeks, so they go off in all sorts of comical directions.

And I found a blooming lavender plant on the way back up from the lake, where I really don’t remember anybody planting it. I guess it’s a volunteer*. You can see that nobody on this particular “farm” has been out weeding yet.

Here is a close up picture of those purply flowers from yesterday. Anybody from the Pacific Northwest know what these are? They grow wild, a lot of people think they are weeds, but they have a lovely fragrance, and most importantly, I don’t have to plant them. They just come up; more volunteers. One friend called them bluebells; anybody know for sure?**

*John confessed to moving this from someplace else; so it’s not a volunteer after all. I’m apparently just clueless about what goes on in our yard.

**They are hyacinthoides, as per Laurie from Etherknitter, not only a doctor and a knitter, but a gardening whiz.

I Dyed!

Or, Kool-Aid is Fun!

Yesterday was the big Kool-Aid dyeing project, courtesy of Kristen. Check out this post for a rundown of what she sent me a couple of weeks ago. I finally got around to making a mess in my kitchen yesterday with this.

Knitty has the instructions here for doing this. Check that out for details; what I’ve written here is just a brief rundown. If you do a Google search for “kool-aid dyeing” you will get other resources as well. John helped me with the photo shoot.

 

First I washed the yarn in mild soap and water, then rinsed and left it to soak in water while I was getting everything else ready. Kristen was nice enough to put the yarn in two separate skeins and tie them for me. I decided to do one color rather than a handpainted look.  After a little experimenting on bits of yarn, I chose Strawberry.

 

I actually added a bit of red food coloring, as I had a very vibrant strawberry in mind. You can use the dyes that are made for cake decorating as well, and these come in a wider variety of colors.

 

After you get the yarn in the Kool-Aid, you either put it in the microwave or on the stove and heat not quite to the boiling point, stirring a couple of times to make sure all the yarn is under the water.

 

Take it out of the microwave and let it cool, again stirring a few times. Wash again in mild soapy water, rinse, and dry. Be careful not to manhandle the yarn too much, or to shock it with different temperatures of water, or you will have a big felted wet strawberry.

 

Here is the finished yarn, ready to knit when my fingers start to cooperate.

 

You might notice something missing in this photo. Yes, the splint is gone, as of yesterday. I got a good report card from both my OT and my surgeon, and am now starting to work on range of motion and strengthening in earnest.

I also received some lovely gifts in the mail from my sister Diane today. You can tell that a warped sense of humor obviously runs in our family. The glasses are plastic, of course, to prevent further injury the next time we head off over the hills to the neighbors’ house to share wine.

 

And a closeup of the authentic crown:

 

Yes, that’s Riley licking her butt in the background. I didn’t notice it until it was up here, and I’m not doing it over. At least I have a puppy picture, so I won’t get kicked out of the Purling Puppy Webring.

What’s On Your Ipod?

As Laurie from Etherknitter pointed out in her post today, health complaints tend to have a short half-life. While my tendon saga is no doubt endlessly fascinating to some of you, even I am getting sick of hearing about it. But I can’t knit, so what to write about? (And John has this insane idea that I shouldn’t buy yet more yarn that I am unable to knit. He has a point.)

And yes, I have tried to knit. Amy the OT, if by some chance you’ve found my blog, this would be the time to take a break and get a cup of coffee. You don’t want to know, trust me. I very carefully picked up my needles and gave it a try. I guess I needed to prove to myself that I could do it. And I couldn’t, of course. My muscles are way too weak, the tendons feel a little iffy when I try it, and I don’t have the fine motor control. Hell, I don’t even have gross motor control. Yet.

I’ve made very good use of my Ipod during this time. Which brings me to the subject of this post. Our local paper ran an article over the weekend about our president and what’s on his Ipod. (Originally published in the New York Times). I was rather impressed at his techological savvy until I got to the part that said he only has 250 songs on his 40 gigabyte player, and he has an aide that loads it up for him. And one of his songs is “My Sharona”. When I got to that part, any lingering respect I might have had for the man was shot down. I don’t necessarily think that his George Jones is a bad choice; I’m a traditional country music fan myself, though my taste runs more towards Hank Williams, Hank Snow, and Lefty Frizzell. Conway Twitty singing “It’s Only Make Believe”.  Floyd Cramer playing “Last Date”. And Vern Gosdin, the greatest country singer of all time. Makes me want to break out the bourbon just thinking about it.

So, what is on my Ipod? For starters, I have 5421 songs currently loaded. And 25 audio books. And the latest broadcast of Car Talk, one of the funniest shows on public radio. My musical taste would best be described as insanely eclectic. There is almost always music going on at our house. We have an extensive CD collection, though these days we mostly listen to Rhapsody; with our computer wired to the stereo we can listen to almost anything we want, anytime. And they have to put the CDs back in the cases, not me. We also listen to Folk Alley and KPIG.

About 1500 of those Ipod tunes are bluegrass or Appalachian style music, stretching over a wide range of bluegrass styles. About 600 are country or cowboy music (Wylie & The Wild West, Ian Tyson, Tom Russell). There are a couple hundred songs in the pop/rock/classic rock/oldies categories. There are 350 or so folk songs,about 180 blues tunes, a couple hundred jazz and swing tunes, another couple hundred or so songs by Texas artists…Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, Townes Van Zandt, Freddy Fender, Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale Gilmore. (Texas is about the only state that has its own music.) There is some Cajun and zydeco music, about 30 of my favorite classical pieces, and 5 or 6 opera albums. Though they’re not loaded yet, I have the complete Beethoven string quartets (7 CD’s worth) on deck to load next time I sync the thing. I have a few Hawaiian tunes (the other state with its own music), by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. No Ipod is complete without Sousa tunes, and I have 15 of them. Try it on the treadmill before you laugh. There are a dozen polka tunes (don’t ask, I grew up in North Dakota and was raised on Lawrence Welk and Myron Floren). I have 31 songs categorized as “surf”, by Dick Dale, the Hellecasters, and the Aqua Velvets. Listen to the Aqua Velvets’ “Smoking Panatelas on the Blue Mediterranean Sea”, from their “Nomad” album for a taste of what they’re like. And then there are a bunch of miscellaneous tracks that are hard to classify in any one genre.

Maybe George needs to borrow my Ipod for awhile. I think I like my song selection better than his. It might broaden his horizons considerably.

More Rogue

I’m back from the land of bluegrass. Wintergrass this year was wonderful, as usual. It was capped off by a truly marvelous performance by the Bluebirds as the closing act. The Bluebirds are Linda Ronstadt, Laurie Lewis, and Maria Muldaur, in their first and perhaps only performance. They packed the Pavilion at the Sheraton, and for good reason. I only hope that somebody thought to record it for a future CD.

The top name acts were wonderful as usual. There are always one or two bands that I haven’t heard of that turn out to be fantastic. This year it was the Grascals, and the Wilders. You can see the Wilders live over the internet…click on the “listen” link, and then the video link. They really do have that much energy in person. Both were dynamite groups, and I will look for them again. I’m already ready to get my tickets for next year!

The hours spent at the festival made for some good knitting time. I worked a little bit on John’s sock, but mostly on Rogue. Other than the cable bits, this made for good concert knitting. I finished the back last night, and am ready to work on the front.

Here is a photo of the cable detail up the side.

I’m a bit nervous about doing the front with the throat cabling extending into the hood, but will forge ahead. So far this pattern has had very explicit instructions, so I have no reason to believe that this won’t be the case for the next section.

In my blog travels this morning, I found two links that amused me. Of course it doesn’t take much to amuse me. They are both from Smatterings, a relatively new knitting blog. Check it out!

The first is the Numa Numa video. (Click on the “watch this movie” link on the right side of the screen.) I’m probably the last person in Internet-land to have seen this.

The second link is a medical one. Don’t try these things at home.

Wintergrass!

Tacoma has an annual bluegrass festival that I haven’t missed since moving here. Much to my spouse’s chagrin, I buy festival passes for every last day of it as soon as they go on sale. His musical taste, though somewhat eclectic, runs more to what I would call “music to drool by”. (Sorry dear, it’s true.) Wintergrass starts tonight, goes tomorrow night, Saturday from about noon to midnight or whenever, then Sunday all day. I get totally bluegrassed out, even for me. I have the pocket schedule printed out from their website, and have my game plan in place. I have my bluegrass knitting picked out. I have a sock in progress, but also that King Cole Mohair stole, which I’m doing in just plain garter stitch. The last time I tried knitting a sock at Wintergrass my gauge changed a bunch. Must have been the exciting music.

Here are my favorite artists from past Wintergrass festivals:

Country Current; the Navy Bluegrass Band. The Navy only hires the best, and these guys are no exception. I will travel long distances to see these guys. Keith Arneson is the best banjo player around.
Reeltime Travelers; back again this year.
Robin and Linda Williams; folk/bluegrass, great vocal harmonies.
Doyle Lawson and his band. Pretty much straight ahead bluegrass, but a lot of fun in person.
Rhonda Vincent; supposed to be back again this year, but cancelled due to illness.
Old & In the Way, minus Jerry, of course.
Blue Highway; their dobro player Rob Ickes is one of the best
Darol Anger, one of the world’s more innovative fiddlers.
Dry Branch Fire Squad; traditional Appalachain style bluegrass, the lead singer is a hoot.
Misty River, a local Portland based girl group. With an accordion, no less. Back this year.
Seldom Scene, back again this year.
Tim O’Brien; one of the best all around musicians I’ve seen.
Waybacks; play jamgrass that is definitely NOT traditional.

Besides the folks on that list that are  back this year, I’m looking forward to David Grisman, Tony Rice, and the Bluebirds (Linda Ronstadt, Maria Muldaur, and Laurie Lewis). But it frequently turns out to be the groups I’ve never heard of that I love the best. If you haven’t already got your tickets, you are out of luck. Weekend passes, and Saturday and Sunday are sold out. Come next year, and buy early!!

I’ll be back later, if I don’t run off with the banjo player.

91,955

That is just the most embarrassing number. I wrote a few posts back about my stash inventory system. This week I got the bright idea to add up all the yardage to see how much yarn I actually have. According to my database, I have 91,955 yards of yarn in my stash. That’s 84,094 meters for all of you from the rest of the world. Of course this doesn’t include the latest purchase.

This lovely pile of yarn is a Colinette AbFab Throw Kit, in Amethyst. I have just been coveting this (which commandment was that??) for a long time, but had not bought the kit. I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with “the look” that I get when yet another shipment of yarn arrives at the house.

My covetousness began in earnest when Kerstin posted this.  Then Crayonbrain had to go and suggest that they were taking these kits off the market. I took this as a sign and whipped out my credit card. I have no idea when I will ever get to this, but I just thank God that I didn’t miss the AbFab bandwagon.

Here are a couple of rare Willie sightings. (That doesn’t sound quite right does it??) I mean Willie the cat…get your minds out of the gutter, boys and girls. The boy cat howls like a maniac till we let him out in the morning, then about mid-morning he howls like a maniac to get back in, and occasionally climbs the patio door screen to let us know that he is serious. He likes his comfortable warm morning nap.

The rocking chair is one of my few prized possessions. Most of the furniture in our house is of the “I like it but wouldn’t be tormented forever if it disappeared one day” variety. My grandfather built this chair in the early 1900’s for the farmhouse in North Dakota where they lived. It is definitely not fashionable, though it is as solid a piece of furniture that you will ever find. One of the pieces of wood on the bottom of the chair looks like it was salvaged from a box used to ship farm equipment. I had it reupholstered a few years ago, and when I sit in it, I think of my grandfather sitting in the same chair after a long day’s work, playing his fiddle and perhaps sipping on a jug of whiskey if my grandmother wasn’t looking. I’ve mastered the whiskey sipping; someday I will learn to play the fiddle as well. Here’s a better picture of the chair.

Here are a couple of Rogue pictures. I haven’t done more than a few rows all week, due to work interference, but have made a bit of progress. I’ve attached the pocket to the body and am to the underarm section where the cables start to widen out again.

And a better shot of the pocket.

Knitting that pocket back on was just a barrel of fun. I took some pictures but they didn’t come out particularly well, so if you want to see what it looks like, you’ll have to knit it yourself. It is an ingenious pattern, and I could really see doing this again. (Have I mentioned that before??)

What Kind Of Girl Am I??

That really fits, is all I have to say. A fine Rhone wine, a stinky cheese, a fireplace, and a good 800 page book on the medieval history of Europe, and I’m happy. How the hell did I get this way after being born and raised by farm parents in North Dakota?
Thanks to ladybean for the link to this one!

Half Finished!

John’s green socks are half done. I finished the first of the pair the other night while watching television.

It actually fits him better than it looks in that photo. For some reason he left the toe all bunched up when he put it on.

I think he likes it.

I’ve also made a little progress on Rogue. I decided to do the pocket just for the fun of it.

Here’s what the “fabric” looks like up close.

——————————————————————————————-

I bought a new coffee cup and mouse pad, and the mailman brought them this morning, just in time for coffee.

Cute, eh?
These came from CafePress.com, and you can have them too. Or a t-shirt, or a tote bag, or even a bumper sticker. Though I think if you buy one of these items without donating to the Yarn Harlot’s cause something bad might happen to you.

My Stuff

OK, everybody else has done it, so I will too. This is courtesy of Nake-id Knits.

Grooming Products
• Shampoo: Kirkland brand (Costco) in the huge bottle. My theory is that all shampoo comes out of the same vat somewhere in Oklahoma. Occasionally I get suckered into buying the expensive stuff, and always go back to the cheap Costco no-name kind.
• Moisturizer: Nourishing Dew Moisturizer, from www.silkroadtea.com. My skin is so dry that it just soaks up this oil.
• Cologne: Number Six, from Caswell Massey (yeah, yeah, I know it’s a men’s cologne. It’s still my favorite.)
• Razor: Gillette Venus
• Toothpaste: Crest for sensitive teeth…or whatever is available in the big packages at Costco.

Electronics
• Cell phone: Motorola
• Computer: IBM Thinkpad laptop
• Television: RCA
• Stereo: Mish mash of Harmon Kardon and Denon components. The CD player hasn’t worked for months. We’ll probably get a new one eventually at WHERE ELSE?? COSTCO!

Home
• Sheets: Flannel or cotton sheets from Costco.
• Coffee maker: an ancient Bunn drip thing
• Car: 1999 VW Beetle, red. It usually looks like I’m living in it, with all the junk in the back.
• Stationery: who writes letters?? Email!

Beverages
• Bottled water: Crystal in 5 gallon jugs; we have it delivered.
• Coffee: Batdorf & Bronson, a roaster in Olympia WA. Costa Rica La Minita is the best. I drink it strong and black, so as not to dilute out the caffeine. Yes, I’ve tried the Costco whole-bean coffee. Not bad, but I’m very picky about my coffee.
• Vodka: Grey Goose, though Jewel of Russia is good if you’re drinking shots in the Russian style.
• Bourbon: this wasn’t on the original list, but I’m a bourbon girl. Wathen’s, Woodford Reserve, Old Rip Van Winkle. The small-batch bourbon style.
• Beer: La Conner Brewery, from La Conner WA. A good India Pale Ale or ESB from any good microbrewery.

Clothes
• Jeans: actually don’t wear them much, but Lands End.
• T-shirt: I have a huge collection, but the plain Lands End and Eddie Bauer ones get the most wear.
• Briefcase or Tote: I have an old beat up leather briefcase that I bought in a leather shop in Taos, and several Vera Bradley totes for knitting projects.
• Sneakers: Asics
• Watch: Swiss Army, from Costco

Favorite Places
• My kitchen looking out over the lake
• Out on the Washington Pacific coast on the Olympic peninsula
• Paris
• Mandolin Café in Tacoma…coffee, magazines, wi-fi hotspot, fireplace

Necessary Extravagances
• Yarn and knitting supplies
• Good coffee and tea
• Good wine

Yes, I’m a Costco girl! My husband is even worse. Now if they would only sell yarn….