Author: Lorette

My name is Lorette. I learned to knit in 1999, and took up spinning in 2009. I'm a physician specializing in internal medicine, and live in the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy my blog!

Weird Things

Ok. I should be in bed, since I have to be at work in some semblance of sanity eight hours from now. But I had to check the blog search stats before I headed off to sleep.

“My yarn is a knotted mess”

That one I can understand. My sympathies. I’ve been there, honey, I can’t fix it for you. There isn’t enough whiskey in the cabinet for that.

“how many stitches are in a 1000 meter spindle”

If you can spin with a 1000 meter spindle, I really want to see the video.

“carolina blue sock yarn”

My husband would be very, very happy if you found this for him (he’s a Tarheel).

“squashed frog spinal cord”

I’m sure that made sense to someone. I think I need more whiskey to figure that out, and decipher why it got you to my blog.

“geoduck knitting pattern”

Now really, people. Have you ever seen a geoduck? Why would you want to knit one, never mind eat one??

I am really off to bed. I should know better to check these things at near-midnight.

Lookie Here!

It’s Knitting! On a knitting blog, no less. First up is the True Blood Faery Ring sweater. After the cable set-up dust-up, I’ve managed to get a few inches of that cable section done finally.

Sorry for the crappy photos. It would appear that we’ve entered the grey and gloomy season around here. Try clicking on them, but the lighting is just so lousy that it might not help. Notice that pesky seed stitch out there under the armpits, where it belongs.

The Major has more or less shamed me into hauling this out and working on it in earnest. She suggested that we ought to get our butts in gear and finish these, and I think she outranks me, so here we go. She has the body and part of both sleeves done, and if she keeps it up will be done with hers by Thanksgiving, if not sooner. I also pulled out the buttons to show someone this past week, and that got me all excited about this project again. Here they are, in case you forgot.

Yes, they really do have little fairies on them. I think I spent more on the buttons than I did on the yarn.

Here’s the sock in progress.

That’s the first of the pair, the yarn is Sanguine Gryphon Little Traveller yarn, the color name is Penny Pot, NJ.

I also forgot to show you a shopping acquisition from this month. This was my birthday present to myself. During the birthday trip to Seattle, we took the ferry across to Bainbridge Island for a day, and had lunch and did a little window shopping. There is a nice little yarn store there, Churchmouse Yarns, and they happen to be one of the handful of shops that is carrying Jared Flood’s Shelter yarn. I’ve been drooling over photos of it since it appeared in stores, but wasn’t about to plunk down a lot of cash for it until I could see it, since it’s fairly spendy. Well, I saw, I squooshed, then I plunked.

Oh yeah. It really is that pretty. I bought four skeins of this in Button Jar (isn’t that a great name?), and the pattern for Terra. Now I just need to finish the other two shawls in the UFO pile before I can cast on for this.

I’m off to take care of some business. I’m back to work tomorrow for a seven day stretch, so who knows how much knitting or blogging might happen. We’ll see!

Fun On The Left Coast

Well, actually the North Coast. People tend to forget that our country does have a northern coastline, and it’s out here in western Washington. John’s sister Ena and her friend Sherry were visiting this past week from Georgia, and we took a short trip out to the Olympics for a few days. We stayed in a cabin on Lake Crescent and just had a fabulous time. Here’s where we stayed, and here’s a photo of Lake Crescent.

Here are a few more photos.

That’s from Hurricane Ridge, in Olympic National Park.

That was taken yesterday morning, from the deck of our cabin. We had a whole week of gloriously sunny weather while they were here. The fog on the lake was gone by mid morning, and though it was in the 50’s, it was gorgeous outside.

Yesterday we took a drive out to Cape Flattery, which is the northwestern-most point of the continental US. That photo is part of the coastline along the way.

That’s you-know-who, ready for a hike.

That’s part of the boardwalk out to the point.

Sock on vacation. Proof that knitting still happens around here.

My traveling companions.

And last but not least, a fish in hiking shoes. Don’t ask.

I did get a little knitting done, though the inside activities mostly seemed to involve cooking, eating, and drinking. Maybe next time I’ll have some knitting photos to show!

Swear Words, Again

Or,

When Your Closet Shelves Fall Off The Wall, It’s Probably A Sign That You Have Too Much Stuff…

Early this week, at the very beginning of a long, (atypical for my new job) 7 day work stretch, I had a little closet disaster. I had gotten dressed and was at the computer checking email and heard a crash from the other side of the house. John and I rushed to investigate, and found this.

I stood there stunned for a minute, then burst into tears. Fortunately I was already dressed for work, since my underwear basket is at the very back of that mess. After we did a pet head-count to make sure nobody was lost under there, John sent me off to work with assurances that he would figure something out, and he did, of course, being the swell sweetheart that he is. I did figure it was time to dredge out the stuff I don’t ever wear or use. After working at it half-heartedly in bits and pieces, I waded into it in earnest yesterday and finished it up.

Here’s what’s going to the local domestic violence shelter:

Not Lewey, of course, he’s staying here. That’s probably about a hundred pounds of clothing, which is likely why the metal brackets on the shelves finally failed. Here’s what’s left.

The last photo shows the ingenious temporary “closet” that John rigged up, with the help of Randy, the guy that’s done all the remodeling work on this Halloween fun house that is the place we live in.

And yes, those are suitcases sitting there. Today is my birthday, and my sweetie has surprised me with two nights up north in the big city, here. We even have dinner reservations for a swanky French restaurant. And fortunately, I can get to my clothes so I have something to wear! Later, I’m off to pack!

Swear Words…

Or,

It Was Bound To Happen

A basic rule of knitting is this: When you put something in writing on your blog such as “I have actually been very slowly making progress on that True Blood Faery albatross”, the knitting gods will bite you very hard in the butt.

I’m sure you all remember what I’m knitting. In case you don’t, it’s the Faery Ring sweater, by Mary Scott Huff. Here’s the best set of photos of the one she knit for her mom. Look closely at the front cabled section. Get the arrangement of those front cables in your heads so when you look at mine you will know why I invented several new ways to combine all the swear words I know into complete sentences.

When I started the cabled section, I spent several hours with knitters’ graph paper and pencil, plotting out the cable arrangement so it would be easier to knit. This past week I finally picked it up again after a couple of months sitting in time-out. I got to about row 10 of the cabled section and stopped. I had made a few minor errors when I was doing the charting part, and every time I would get to those bits, I’d convert it to the correct stitch in my head, but sooner or later I was bound to forget to do so. I figured I’d get out the paper and re-do the chart correctly, to make it more idiot-proof. Here’s a photo of the geeky nerdiness that is me. Click on it to see.

As I was finishing the second, revised, version of my chart, I realized the true error of my ways. This is not a little error. The whole damned jacket is knit in one piece up to the armholes, so each row is 308 stitches. 10 rows of that is 3080 stitches. After smacking my head on the table a few times, I got the sweater and looked hard at it in every direction, hoping that maybe, just maybe I hadn’t followed my own damned chart, but instead, somehow, had magically done it correctly.

Nope. Look again at Mary’s front center section, then mine. There are supposed to be a bunch of cables running beautifully on either side of that front center line. The 21 stitch section of seed stitch in my photo is supposed to be along the sides, under the armholes, not front and center. When I did my chart, I just made up my own arrangement of the cable sections. I have beautiful little cables under my armpits, and lovely seed stitch in front, where it doesn’t belong. I knew there was a reason I hate seed stitch.

Damn, damn, double f-ing damn. And then some. Out it came. There is one good thing. Having gone through this whole exercise, I realize that I really don’t need my honking 5-page chart. There are only 4 different cables, and they are all different stitch counts. There’s a 2-stitch cable, a 4 stitch cable, a 6 stitch cable, and a large 20 stitch cable. Once you get markers placed on the first row, you just do the cable that fits into the number of stitches you have in front of you. And then try to remember to do reverse stockinette stitch on the other stitches. I’m not promising anything at this point.

FO!

This was absolutely the easiest FO in the world! All I had to do was let Dorothy and her husband stay here one night earlier this summer. As a “hostess” gift, she brought this. I’ve been quite remiss in posting about it!

Isn’t that gorgeous? The photo does not do justice to Dorothy’s perfect stitches. Click on it to get a better look. Of course the color is all off. It’s really more of a wine-colored red, not as orangey red as that looks on my monitor. The shawl pattern is Hidcote Garden Shawl, by Miriam Felton, the yarn is an unknown lace from Dorothy’s stash. Whatever it is, I adore it. Thanks, Dorothy! I like the pattern enough that I could see knitting one myself. Though maybe my plan should be to pack up all the lace yarn, send it to Dorothy, and then just invite her down for weekend visits.

Here’s another FO, this time my own. No, it’s not knitting. I’m still working on all the same stuff. Though I have actually been very slowly making progress on that True Blood Faery albatross. I can actually almost see little cables starting to appear, it just doesn’t look like it in a photo. No, this FO is of the spinning variety.

The fiber is from Spunky Eclectic, a merino-tencel blend. The official color name was “Walking on the Sun”. Every time I would spin, all I could think about was that goofy 80’s song “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina & the Waves. I couldn’t get it out of my head, so I decided to change it. I think it looks like a Tequila Sunrise, and I like that song much better, so there you have it. You have to put up with some crappy ads to get to that song by the way, but it’s worth it to watch Glenn Frey sing for a few minutes. Ahem. Yes, well, back to the fiber. It’s spindle-spun, on my Bosworth midi spindle. It’s not washed yet, but I figured I better get a photo up while I was thinking about it.

I ran across this rather grisly news story when bouncing around the internet this week. This is enough to get me to make plans to do a major dredging in the house. We did just that a few years back, hauling carloads of stuff to Goodwill and the local garbage dump. Somehow it always finds its way back in, though. We’re getting to that age where the reality is that someday in the not-too distant future we’ll need and want to downsize to a smaller place. I’m thinking it would be less painful to get rid of stuff in small increments rather than all at once when we are ready  to move. Don’t worry, I’m not starting with the fiber and yarn stash just yet, though. I’m not that crazy.

Next time, I promise a photo or two of my own knitting!

Where Have I Been??

Oh dear. Here I am again, apologizing for an unintended blog vacation. Wait, I have an excuse! The last bit of summer got a bit busy around here. We did a week’s vacation with John’s kids and the grandkids and all the dogs, to the Washington coast (that would be the Left Coast for any of you from the Atlantic-side Washington). It was a grand time. I actually took the week as an “education” week, meaning that I had to spend part of each day reading medical stuff, but that worked OK, surprisingly. We’d rented a huge house just up the sand from the beach, and each of the 3 families had their own floor for bedroom space. The little ones are getting old enough that they aren’t up at the crack of dawn, and they tended to spend the whole day outside, so I did actually get some reading done. Here’s the link to all the photos, if you really want to see all the “good big fun” that we had.

Part 2 of the excuse is a bit of a slog at work. We’ve had several docs out off and on during the summer for a variety of reasons, so it’s gotten a bit busy and hectic at work. That plus the belated arrival of summer around here meant that I haven’t spent much time knitting or playing around on the computer. We get such a seemingly short summer here that we tend to spend most of it outside.

To start off the fall season, John and I took a couple days this week and went up to Mt. Rainier National Park. We’ve been up there to drive around and to hike a bit in the past, but I’ve never stayed overnight in the lodge at Paradise before. Tuesday I got off work, got home and finished packing, and we made the drive up the mountain to the lodge. We had a beautiful day for hiking yesterday. It rained most of the day today, but it was still beautiful for the drive back home, and I get to go to work tomorrow. I’m sure John will get a photoshow done at some point, but here are a few:

That’s Paradise Inn. It’s one of the original National Park lodges, built in 1916 and renovated completely a few years ago. The main lodge accommodations have rooms with shared bathrooms and showers down the hall, which is funky but adds to the historic feel. The great lobby of the lodge is spectacular, including an ancient piano which has been restored. They have a pianist who plays during the dinner hour, adding to the charm of the place.

Here’s John as we set out on our hike up the mountain yesterday. We live in the shadow of Mt. Rainier, and it’s one of those landscape features that sometimes you take for granted. I had to be reminded on this trip that “the mountain” is actually in the same county I live in. Cool!

We saw a surprising number of wildflowers still in bloom. There were lupine, paintbrush, and an awful lot of something that I thought was valerian, but another hiker told me was lovage.

We saw this little fellow early on in the hike. He (or she, I didn’t get close enough to look!) meandered along the path, but after a bit, gave a huff at us and lumbered away. That’s a black bear, by the way, and if you keep your distance and don’t get between them and their children, or corner them, they mostly leave people alone. There are no grizzly bears in the park.

More flowers.

More fauna. These are marmots, or whistle pigs. These are all over the park, and are completely unafraid of humans. They will whistle loudly if alarmed, thereby getting the nickname. This one was clearly a girl with hot flashes. After we took a few photos, she got up and ambled over to a nearby snow patch.

She just flattened out on the snow and stayed there. I wonder if that would work for me?

There’s the famous mountain that we hiked toward. At the lower half of that photo is the Nisqually Glacier.

And there’s the Nisqually River, which of course starts from that glacier. The river ends up in Puget Sound, right in our back yard. If that mountain blows a la Helen, this is one of the major lahar paths, so we’d be in some serious trouble.

There was of course the requisite sock photo. This proves that I indeed still knit. In fact, I sat down at the Glacier Vista point and knit a round, to the amusement of all of the other hikers passing by.

We met two young women with 2 toddlers, climbing up the hill, while we were on our way back down the mountain. Part of this trail is paved at the lower end, but as you climb up, it gets gravelly, then rocky, then with a bunch of very steep rock steps on the upper third. They had ditched the baby carriage about a third of the way up the trail and just went on, lugging the toddlers by hand. About twenty minutes after we saw them, we ran across the carriage down the hill.

More flowers!

More whistle pigs! Click to embiggen!

That’s it. There are lots more photos, but that pretty much does it. Oh, John did get a photo of me spinning away on my spindle in the grand lobby of the Inn last night, but it’s on his camera. When I get my hands on it, I might remember to post it as well.

I’m still knitting the same damn things. Maybe now that the weather’s cooler, I’ll make some progress and show photos!

What Are Your Reading Habits?

I got this from Lisa’s blog. I don’t do these quizzes much, but this one somehow struck a chord.

1. Favorite childhood book?
A Wrinkle In Time, by Madeleine L’Engle. This is one of those terrific books that is just as good to read for adults as for children. Maybe better even.

2. What are you reading right now?
I’m partway through Drums of Autumn, by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander series), and just started a biography of Catherine de Medici by Leonie Frieda.

3. What books do you have on request at the library?
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I think I’m eleventy-billionth in line, so it’s a good thing I have lots of books at home.

4. Bad book habit?
None really, unless you count buying way more books than I can possibly read.

5. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
None. I just returned The Tudors, by G. J. Meyer. It was OK, but not as good as his A World Undone, a history of WWI. That was a great book.

6. Do you have an e-reader?
Nope. I’m a Luddite, I like the feel of a “real” book in my hands.

7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
I usually have at least one fiction and one non-fiction book going. Sometimes I get carried away and start a bunch of things, but I usually only am actively reading one or two.

8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
I don’t think so. I don’t read as much since I started knitting, though.

9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?)
Hmmm. I can’t really think of one.

10. Favorite book you’ve read this year?
Probably the last Outlander book before this one. They are just thoroughly enjoyable books.

11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Not all that often. I tend to get bored with stuff that I’m not comfortable with, and it sits on the nightstand till I get tired of looking at it.

12. What is your reading comfort zone?
I tend to read a lot of historical fiction recently. I got sucked into a bunch of Philippa Gregory novels earlier this year. Somewhat fluffy, but fun. I like reading the “classics” as well. There are a surprising-to-me number of them that I’ve never read, so I’m trying to correct that. I also tend to buy and read a bunch of books by the same author. I’ll read one, get sucked in, and go out and buy everything they ever wrote.

13. Can you read on the bus?
I don’t ride the bus, but I’d guess that my motion sickness issue would prevent that. I can’t read in the car, either.

14. Favorite place to read?
Big comfortable chair in my kitchen, big comfortable chair in my living room, bed, the deck, you name it.

15. What is your policy on book lending?
I don’t have a policy. If someone wants to read a book out of my collection, they’re welcome to it. I’ve been known to force copies of books on people. I’ve been trying to get rid of books once I’ve read them, so I either give them to someone I know to read, or take them to the library and leave them. I try not to get personally attached to them.

16. Do you ever dog-ear books?
On occasion. I have some Levenger Page Points that I generally use, but sometimes I dog ear if I don’t have one.

17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Not usually, but not because I’m opposed to it, I just don’t take the time to write notes, since I tend to get rid of books once I read them.

18.  Not even with text books?
I do sometimes highlight in text books.

19. What is your favorite language to read in?
The only one I read, which would be English.

20. What makes you love a book?
Great characters, first of all. A story that keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next helps, too. I also love writers who have a command of the English language and use just that perfect word that keeps you going back and re-reading the sentence just for the sheer pleasure of it. Wallace Stegner is an example. His Angle of Repose is one of my all-time favorite books.

21. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
See number 20. Probably the two books I’ve pushed on more people are 1) Soldier of the Great War, by Mark Helprin, and 2) Undaunted Courage  (the Lewis & Clark adventure), by Stephen Ambrose. I’ve bought several copies of both and given them away. I should start getting a commission.

22. Favorite genre?
Probably historical fiction, but general literary fiction is also on the top of the list.

23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)
Science fiction. I try to like it, but just don’t get into it much. I like sci-fi TV and movies, so I can’t explain that. I also wish I liked fantasy fiction more than I do. I love multi-book series, which is common in that genre, but I just can’t get into it much.

Favorite biography?
No Ordinary Time, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, about the Roosevelt years in the White House. It’s not technically a bio, but close enough. And Undaunted Courage (see number 21).

25. Have you ever read a self-help book?
Not if I can help it. Not unless you count knitting books. On the rare occasion that I’ve read them in the past, I usually end up hurling them across the room by page twenty. Silly faux-psychology drives me to drink. Oh wait, I already drink. Never mind.

26. Favorite cookbook?
Oh dear. My cookbook collection is even larger than my knitting book collection. If I had to pick just one it would be Julia Child’s The Way To Cook. Or maybe the Joy of Cooking. We tend to improvise recipes a lot around here, so a general technical cookbook with basic recipes I can use as a framework is quite helpful.

27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?
I don’t know if I have read anything this year that I’d call inspirational. I’ll get back to you on that one. Perhaps my Bible counts, though. Which reminds me of a funny text message from the website Texts From Last Night. This one really cracked me up.

“i got kicked out of Barns and Nobles cuz i put all the bibles in the fiction section”

28. Favorite reading snack?
I tend to not eat and read, but a glass of wine and some cheese wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.

29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience.
Can’t think of one at the moment.

30. How often do you agree with critics about a book?
Usually, though on occasion I think “they” might have a screw loose. John Grisham comes to mind. Why those books hit the best seller list is beyond me.

31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
Not a problem. If I hate a book, I’ll let you know.

32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?
French. One of those life goals I’ve had is to read Les Miserables in the original. I better get on that.

33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?
Oh Lord. Gravity’s Rainbow. It took me forever to wade through it, and I loved it, but it was a major challenge, as is everything Pynchon writes.

34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?
Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. It’s been sitting here forever, taunting me. I’m pretty sure I won’t understand any of it.

35. Favorite Poet?
I don’t actually read a lot of poetry. One that’s currently on my nightstand is Wendell Berry, I dip into it from time to time.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
Usually only one. I generally try to read either from the vast stash of books I already have, but if something comes out that I just have to read NOW, I try to get it from the library.

37. How often have you returned book to the library unread?
Not often.

38. Favorite fictional character?
Frances Crawford of Lymond, from the Dorothy Dunnett Lymond Chronicles. Best series of historical fiction books, ever. If you haven’t read them, do.

39. Favorite fictional villain?
Hmmm. I’ll have to get back to you on that one. Can’t think of one right now.

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?
Anything and everything. Usually fiction, though. I’m a sucker for big 800 page novels, which is really a pain for packing.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
Not long. A few days to weeks, maybe.

42. Name a book that you could/would not finish.
For some reason that escapes me, I tried to read the first book in the dismally written Left Behind series. I might have gotten 20-30 pages into it before I wanted to burn it in the backyard.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Noise. I like to have quiet when I read. It didn’t bother me much when I was younger, but it’s gotten worse as I’ve gotten older. I think my ability to multi-task isn’t as good.

44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
Lord of the Rings, easily. I loved the books, so was skeptical about the movies, but I’ve watched them all several times.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation?
Hmmm. Perhaps the Mists of Avalon. I loved that book so much. The movie wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t live up to the book.

46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?
I refuse to answer that on the grounds that it might incriminate me. Let’s just say that the book spending rivals the yarn spending around here.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it?
Not usually. I’ll glance at the first few paragraphs when I’m buying a book or checking it out at the library, but I generally read from beginning to end.

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
If I don’t like it, I don’t get to half way. Silly writing, boring characters, plot that doesn’t seem to go anywhere, all of those things will make me banish a book. I don’t give a book more than 40-50 pages if I don’t like it.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes. All the unread fiction books are alphabetized by author, the non-fiction section by general topic. Of course there’s that pile by the bedside that is totally disorganized, but I like to think of that as the on-deck circle.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
I used to save absolutely everything except the total rejects. Now I get rid of them as I read them. The “library” in my house is the loft over the living room, and it’s in danger of collapsing if I don’t purge now and then. I keep a box in my office, finished books go in it, and when it’s full it goes to the library.

51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?
The Twilight books. I bought the first one, and I’ve actually picked it up a few times to read, but never started. I’m pretty sure I will hate it, so I don’t know why I don’t just read 20 pages and make a decision.

52. Name a book that made you angry.
Can’t think of one. Oh yes, maybe that Left Behind crap I mentioned.

53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did?
I didn’t really think I’d like Don Quixote for some reason, but it’s a great book. Very funny in a lot of places, really.

54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t?
Can’t think of one of these either. I’m usually good at guessing what I’ll like or not. I might give it a try anyway, but my instinct is usually fairly good. Oh I do know one. Confederacy of Dunces. I really hated that, and expected to like it.

55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Historical fiction. I read a lot of non-fiction history, so it’s great fun to read a novel set in the same time period as a history book I’m reading.

Why Yes,

I am a bit of an obsessive-compulsive nerd. Why do you ask?? Click on those to get a better close-up idea of the nerdiness.

I’m at the point in the knitting of the True Blood Albatross Faery Ring sweater where I get to stop knitting mindless stockinette and start the cable charts for the bodice. There are four different cable charts, so I got out graph paper and pencil this morning and came up with this to help keep track of which cable goes where. Here’s the knitting so far.

The color’s really all wrong there. It’s not that pink, it’s more of a bloody red. I have two more rows of stockinette stitch, then I can set up the cables and go to town. This should be a lot more fun and less of an Albatross at this point.

I have one last photo from the Great Knitting Doctor Family Reunion & Train Trip of 2010. I mentioned that we found a yarn shop in Fergus Falls, MN. It was actually surprisingly well-stocked for a shop in a town that size.

I’m off to find the cable needle and my little box of stitch markers!

Knitting Doctor Vacation, The Lake Edition

We’re not quite home yet, but I’ve finally found a relatively clear tabletop surface to fire up the computer. The train trip east was a hoot, and if you happen to be either my friend on Facebook or my husband’s, you’ve followed the progress of the Family Party through the week. One of my sisters has a place on a lake, and most of the family made it to the party. We’re now back in town, and get on the plane  tomorrow to head home. Here are just a few highlights;

That would be Larry, my brother-in-law. It’s a family tradition to celebrate the emptying of a bottle by playing taps while everybody stands and salutes. Let’s just say that Larry got the chance to perform this many times over the past week.

As you can see, nearly everybody was wired in some fashion. That’s me in the foreground, being a Luddite and spindling.

That’s a sign in my sister’s kitchen.

The family!

A little expedition out on the lake.

Sock on the lake!

Sisters! And an honorary sister!

Sunset over the lake!

This is the primary mode of transportation at the lake. Because God knows, we wouldn’t want to have to walk 100 feet to the bar.

Lake food!

More lake food! And a bonfire!

I even found a yarn shop. The closest little town to the lake is only about 14,000 people, but by God, they have a yarn shop, and a nice one at that. The photographic proof is on my camera however, not John’s, and I quite inexplicably forgot to bring the camera cord.

That’s enough for today, since John is threatening to revoke my laptop privileges. We head home tomorrow!

Here We Go Again

The Tour is winding down, I’ve been spinning like a madwoman, but not much knitting going on. That pretty much sums up the days since my last post. Though I’ve enjoyed the challenge of trying to spin every day, it will be good to get needles back in my hands.

I also need to report back on the allergy thing. I haven’t taken the camel out of the bag since I decided that it was what was making me sneeze and wheeze. I’m not sure if this is good news or not, but my theory of camel allergy was blown all to hell. It’s not nearly anything that exotic, but just good old-fashioned seasonal grass allergies. It’s a bit surprising, since I haven’t had much trouble with it in years past, but I’d have to admit that this has been one of the wettest, weirdest summers we’ve had since moving here. The symptoms are now under control with prescription junk, but still there despite quarantining the camel. Good, in that I can still have my camel fiber, bad, in that I can’t quarantine the grasses nearly as easily. Oh well.

I tried a new spinning technique yesterday. Here’s a photo.

We went to the dog park with the mutts, and I took my spindle bag with me. I need a little more practice at spindling and walking, but it worked OK. John was a bit horrified, but I’m already considered certifiably weird by most people anyway, so what the hell. It worked OK, that is, until I stepped in dog poop because I wasn’t watching what was under foot. That is a little problem I’ll have to work on.

In other news, we’re off on an adventure again. We’re meeting my sisters and their families in Minnesota for a week for vacation. My older sister lives in North Dakota, and they have a summer place on one of the lakes nearby in MN. We’re all headed there for a little family reunion, complete with all the usual fun lake things: eating, swimming, drinking, Mexican Train competitions, etc. The other fun part is that we’re taking the train there. We get on the train early this afternoon here, and spend Saturday and Sunday riding the Empire Builder across Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. We get in early Monday morning. I think this should be a blast. We have a sleeper car, and John has the martini shaker and vodka packed, so I think I’m set. Of course I don’t have anything else packed, so I probably ought to wind this up. We will have internet access while there, so I’ll try to post while gone.

By the way, if you happen to be trolling the internets looking for an empty house to rob, go away now. We have someone who moves into our house when we go away. It works out well, since the dogs can stay here, and there’s someone to get the mail and water the plants. The pups are OK in a kennel, since we’ve found a good one, but they far prefer being here and getting to go to that dog park every day as usual. So if you’re thinking that the yarn and fiber stash are fair game while we’re gone, forget about it. It’s well guarded. I’m off to pack!

A Little Bit of Everything

First up, spinning!

Here are all the spindles in Spindle Jail. I finally came up with a way to store my spindles that keeps them safe from nosy cats. I actually had asked John to build me something to hang them, and he came home from Target with this.

It’s simply a wire mesh basket. I cut the price tag off, turned it upside down, and voilá, a Spindle Jail. Low tech, but it works. Smart man, that one. He came home with two of these, figuring I’d add to the collection at some point. Very smart man.

There’s been a lot of spinning going on for the Tour de Fleece.

And I’m still working on the never ending pile of Corriedale. In a moment of insanity, I bought 3 pounds of this stuff with the plan to make sweater yarn. I’m almost through the first pound. Since I plan to spin all the singles before I ply it, I needed to figure out some way to store the singles so I could reuse bobbins. I have a bunch of bobbins for my wheel, but not enough to keep spinning 3 pounds of wool. Bobbins are expensive, so I found these. Here they are in action.

Click on that last one to see how pretty my singles are!

Next up, knitting! Yes, I’m still knitting around here, though there’s been damn little of it since the Tour started. I actually finished something.

Project Details:

Started: Oh good grief. I’m pretty sure I didn’t record the date. I finished the last pair of socks in December of last year, for pete’s sake, so I probably started these right away. ETA: not true, apparently. According to Ravelry, I started these in September of 2009. Yup, here we are. I started a second pair, since the pair on the needles was on very sharp Signature dpns that I didn’t think would get through airport security. Incidentally, those were the only pair I knit on those needles. Unlike every other human being who has knit with the Signatures, I didn’t like them, and sold them to Major Knitter.

Finished: This past Thursday, the 15th.

Pattern: Same old pattern, same old plain socks.

Yarn: Wollmeise, purchased before the Wollmeise became really really famous. The color name is Löwenzahn, though John renamed this Squashed Frog. I like Squashed Frog better, since every time I type Löwenzahn, I have to do a Google search for how to do diacritical marks on a Mac.

Needles: 2.25mm Pony Pearl dpns

For: Me

What I Learned: Buy yarn when you see it. This stuff has gotten impossible to get. It is good sock yarn, but not worth stalking shop updates like a madwoman. I still have 3 skeins of this left, so I’m good for awhile. Maybe the furor will have died down by the time I’ve used all of it. It’s superwash wool, but has no nylon, so I added Wooly Nylon to the heels and toes for a little better wear.

For the record, that makes one more project done from the UFO pile. I was very transiently down to 4 projects. It’s back up to 5, since I have to have a sock going. Here’s the new one, started yesterday:

The yarn is from Sanguine Gryphon, her Little Traveller sock yarn. The color name is Penny Pot, NJ. This is really, really nice stuff. I (ahem) might have a few other skeins in the stash. The needles are new also. I caved and bought a set of the Blackthorn needles, size 2.oomm. So far I like them. They are wickedly sharp. That photo is a bit fuzzy, click on it to make it bigger (but just as fuzzy), or go to their website to look at them.

That’s enough for one day. I’m off to hang out with the spinning wheel.