Great big fun

I had a little out of town trip over the weekend. My great-niece Elise graduated from high school in Sacramento, and I flew down to join the festivities. Fun was had by all. Here are a few photos.

There weren’t a lot of masks in evidence, either on the airplanes, or in Sacramento. I’ve only been home for two days, but so far I’m testing negative for Covid. We have a big trip coming up in late June, so from here on out John and I will be trying to isolate as much as possible. This is my retirement trip that got postponed from last summer due to Covid, so I’m going to be really pissed off if it gets canceled again. More on that in a future post.

I have all the pieces for my newest sweater finished and blocked. I started seaming things together last night. I have one sleeve in, and am sewing up the side seam. Once it’s put together, there is a wide band that goes up and around the fronts, I suppose that will take forever, but I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the sweater tunnel. I might even have this finished to take on our trip. here’s a photo.

Those clip things to hold pieces together for seaming are one of the great knitting-world inventions. I tossed the packaging long ago, so have no idea of the brand or where I got them, but they really do make lining things up much easier.

I’m off to do more sewing! I do have a great big finished project to show you, but it is a surprise, so it needs to be gifted first.

Knit, knit, knit

I’m at THAT point in the sock. You know, the one where you try it on, it’s about an inch short of where you need to start the toe. You knit, knit, knit, try it on. It’s still an inch short of where I need to start the toe.

I am thoroughly enjoying my week off, staying at home. Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel, but hanging out with John, enjoying all the spaces and comforts we have at home has been great. It’s giving me a little taste of what retirement will be like.

Flat Ena is still visiting us. I don’t really remember when she is supposed to go home, but it’s not like we have to actually take her to the airport or anything. She has been the best visitor, quiet, doesn’t eat much, certainly doesn’t leave junk hanging around all over the house.

Today she got to go to the dentist with me.

This was a routine cleaning for me, which I scheduled six months ago. I thought about canceling it, but I have a history of bad teeth and dental problems, so keeping up is important. The dental practice that I go to is very on top of things, have adapted their clinic flow for the Covid-19 issues quite well. I’m glad I didn’t cancel, I felt very comfortable about being there. I have only been out of the house a couple of times (other than work) since March, so even going to the dentist was sort of an adventure.

Last but not least, a hint of things to come. I may have finished something.

Stay tuned!

Baycation!

I’m home on vacation this week. John’s sister Ena is supposed to be here this week, but the pandemic had other plans. I’ve had the vacation time blocked out for quite a while, and can’t turn it back in, so drat, I have to stay home. John and I find ourselves saying about every other day that this isn’t a bad place to be quarantined.

So that’s my plan up there. Reading, knitting, maybe a little spinning, and definitely some deck time. We’ve had a really cool and windy summer so far, but this week is supposed to be in the 80’s, so that works for me. If Ena was here she’d likely freeze to death. She lives in Georgia, and it has been getting down into the low 50’s here in the evening.

John’s son (who is a graphic designer) made a “flat Ena” so she could enjoy the vacation virtually. Here are a couple of photos.

She’s already had loads of fun!

That’s the sock in progress. I’m hoping to get more done on that today.

Last but not least, a friend gifted us with a big bowl of Gravenstein apples, so I am making this.

It is still in the oven, but it is starting to smell awfully good. We might just have that for supper tonight! And there will be plenty, since Ena doesn’t eat much!

Sick Day

I woke up this morning with a stomach bug and just decided to stay home instead of going to work and giving it to everybody else. I’m already feeling better, so it may have been food poisoning instead of a virus (can you say “food truck”?).

I didn’t get much of anything done today except laze around, but I did finish the body of that Big Green Sweater.

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Yup. It’s a big green square. There is actually a stitch pattern in there, and I keep saying the yarn is prettier than my photography skills can demonstrate, but basically, a big green square.

Now all I have to do is knit sleeves.

I just realized that I haven’t posted in a bit. My oldest niece and her family came for a long Memorial Day weekend and we had a total blast. She and her husband have two delightful daughters, aged 11 and 9, and we hadn’t seen them in quite a while. We ate a lot and played tourist. We had a Seattle day, where we visited Pike’s Place market, and rode the Duck. And had Serious pizza at Serious Pie. We took a day trip up to Mount St. Helens, and found 8 inches of new snow. We had my famous fried chicken, and John’s famous baby back ribs. And we tried to see if there is anything Brianna (11) will not eat. Apparently not.

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Raw oysters! And let’s see, she ate clams, calamari, those ribs, artichokes, beets, and Dungeness crab. And liked it all, as best I could tell. That’s Brian, being a bit incredulous in the background.

Here are a few other random photos from the weekend.

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Elise and Brianna, just hanging out.

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Tired duck after the Duck Tour.

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Captain Clem Chowder. I sincerely do hope that’s not his real name.

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Look more closely at that bear’s hand.

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Who knew bears knit?

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Donna and I in the middle of a very competitive game of Mexican Train.

It was a great weekend! That’s all for now.

Summer Visitors

I promised one last post before we hit the road. Our special visitors last week were none other than Francesca of Slow Knits (formerly Fluffbuff), and her sweetie, Ben. They were doing a tour up the Pacific coast and stayed here for a couple of nights. We ate, drank, and showed them the local sights. Here are a few photos:

We took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island, for lunch and a little foray to Churchmouse Yarns. Yes, it’s summer here. In their defense, it was only in the 60’s, and windy on the ferry deck.

That’s Francesca and I knitting on the ferry crossing.

We went to the World Spice Market in Seattle. We almost had to drag Francesca out of this place.

The required photo by one of the Market pigs.

We foraged for dinner at Pike’s Market.

Ahhh. Relaxing after dinner! It was way too short of a visit, but they had more stuff to see on the way back down the coast. It’s always fun to meet someone in real life that I’ve “known” for years through the blog!

We’re off tomorrow for Scotland. We mostly have the itinerary nailed down, just a few details to plan as we go along. We’re flying in to visit friends in Manchester, England for a few days, then take the train to Edinburgh. We’re taking Ernie (the Mac Air) along with us, and we should have wi-fi here and there along the way, so expect updates. I’ve already scouted out places where I might find wool along the way!

Sometimes The Spammers Are Right

I sometimes glance through the comments that get tossed in the “spam” folder, just to see what the latest is. The current batch was largely in Russian, so who knows. Here was one that got my attention:

Well made blog :) great at expressing yourself.. Now all you gotta do is update update update!

Well, no kidding. I guess I better do just that.

Let’s hit the weather first and get that over with. We had about 2 days of summer this past week, and it’s in the high 60’s today, though it looks suspiciously like it’s trying to rain. Crap crap crappity crap. So far the pattern is that if I’m working, the weather is great, if I’m off, it generally sucks. I have a boatload of relatives coming this next weekend, so hopefully we’ll impress them with some nice weather. My sisters and their spouses are coming Saturday and staying a week, so there will lots of laughs, shopping, drinking and eating going on. And perhaps a rousing Mexican train tournament if it rains and we have to stay inside.

Next up, spinning. Let’s just say I haven’t done much this week. I do have some photos of a couple of things, one done, one in progress. Here’s the done stuff.

The spun yarn will be knit into something for John. He laid claim to this when he saw it spun up. It’s one of the monthly fiber shipments from Spunky Eclectic, and it’s Targhee wool, the color is named Flannel. It is nice and squishy soft, and not scratchy at all. I haven’t gotten around to weighing this and figuring out the yardage, but it’s probably a heavy worsted weight. I’m thinking mittens and a hat, there might be enough left for mittens for me as well, there was 8 ounces of the fiber to start with.

Here’s what is on Seamus, the wheel.

Pretty, isn’t it? The fiber is from Wolf Creek Wools, which sort of cracks me up. The shop, Sweetgrass Wool, is outside Helena, Montana, about 3 miles from the house I lived in there. Of course it wasn’t a fiber or yarn shop then. And I was neither a knitter or spinner then, so it wouldn’t probably have made any difference to me at the time. The fiber is 75% Blue Face Leicester and 25% tussah silk, color is Wild Berry. This is spinning up beautifully. I have about 4 ounces of it, so it will be a little scarf or neck warmer or something girly.

On the knitting front, no photos. You guessed it, still the Electric Blue Imaginary Baby Thing. Poor little Jace will be unwrapping this at his grade school graduation at the rate I’m going with it. Maybe it can be converted into a backpack or something. And I’m not knitting anything else much at all, so nothing to see here. Move along.

I almost forgot, we went to a Mariners baseball game on Friday. It was part of a late birthday present from last year for John & I from his kids. I did take the sock to knit, and impressed a kid that looked about 6 or 7, and got a “cool!” out of him when I showed him it would be a sock. Unfortunately John was in charge of taking the sock-at-the-ballpark photo, and for some reason that escapes me, deleted it from his camera. The home team lost dismally, but it was a glorious evening, and we had good seats in the front row down the third base line, and it was all good. John’s son and daughter put together a terrific picnic lunch that was far better than the usual ball park food. Here are a couple of photos.

It looks like a good time was had by all.

That’s all folks, I’m off to work on the Imaginary Electric Blue Baby Grade School Gift.

New Year Fiber Resolutions

I hope your NYE was swell and fabulous! Ours certainly was. We had a little pre-dinner cocktail party in the lobby of the Westin Seattle while we were all (10 of us) waiting for our rooms. While we were there, we tried to scope out the best possible party to crash after dinner. The hotel lobby was jam packed with people coming and going, many with cases of booze, platters of delicious looking things, and coolers full of who-knows-what. It seems that this place is a happening joint on NYE. We are probably 8 blocks or so south of the Space Needle, and we all had high-floor rooms facing the Needle, important for the fireworks that took place later.

After we got settled into our rooms, we went across the street to the Icon Grill restaurant for a lovely dinner. The place was bustling, and nicely decorated for the holidays, adding to the festive spirit. After dinner, being the old farts wild partiers that we all are, we went back to our respective rooms with plans for naps and to meet at about 11PM for the fireworks show. The latter was pretty spectacular. At exactly midnight, the Space Needle lit up like a Roman candle for eight minutes, accompanied by an enthusiastic musical show. We had little food nibbles that everybody brought, along with a variety of sparkling beverages. We all managed to stay up and talk for another hour, then gave it up and called it done for the old year.

This morning we’re having breakfast up the street, then back home to get those black eyed peas done for luck.

Here are some photos from the evening:

Now for those resolutions. I’m terrible at NY resolutions. They don’t usually last a month around here. So I’m not doing any craft resolutions, except one. I’m going to try to do a new set of fiber-yarn goals at the beginning of each month. I did sign up for the 11 mittens in 2011 challenge on Ravelry, but I have no real illusions that this will last. My goals for January? Here they are:

Finish at least two spindle spinning projects that are languishing, a blue/black merino/bamboo blend that just needs plying, and some merino silk that has been on the spindle since last summer.

Finish the Big Pink Baby Thing.

Finish the pair of socks on the needles, an embarrassingly aged project.

Work on the True Blood Faery sweater. I’d like to finish the bodice section by the end of the month.

Finish the mittens (dog mittens) that have been on the needles since last year, and start the first pair for 2011.

There you go. Have a great weekend!

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!

Perfect Day

There are a lot of wonderful benefits to blogging that I’ve discovered in the last almost six years. The most incredible, and unexpected bonus is all the lovely people I’ve gotten to know over the last few years. Some sadly remain only “imaginary friends”, as my husband calls all of you. I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of you in real life as well. Today was one of those days. I got to meet Jennifer, AKA the Major Knitter today. I don’t remember when I first discovered her blog, but we’ve become two of those imaginary friends over the years. She’s a great knitter, and a good writer. She and her husband were in town on business for a few days, so we arranged for a play date for the two of us today. The weather cooperated beautifully, and we had a stellar sunny, clear, and warm day together.

We hit a couple of yarn stores, went to the Seattle Art Museum for a couple of hours, had lunch, and gossiped. And compared knitting projects:

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If you’ll all remember, we’re both doing the Faery Ring sweater. The Major is a bit ahead of me. We noodled a bit over the sleeve issue. The pattern is written in two size ranges, and the one we’re using isn’t finished, so we have to make up the sleeve instructions. After a little inspection of the pattern photos, I think we have a plan. Hopefully this won’t involve too much ripping and swearing.

Here’s another photo. We saw this funny tree outside a house on the way to lunch.

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The birdhouses were just a hoot. You can tell what a beautiful day it was here! Thanks for a great day, Jennifer!

Spinning With Friends

I had a wonderful time last weekend, though I’m just getting around to posting about it. Dorothy (Missouri Star) and her husband Bill came to visit us over the weekend. They live just a few hours from here, though we rarely get to see one another, for one reason or another. Now that she’s retired, and I have a more sane work schedule, I hope that situation changes!

Dorothy and I both used to say that we would never take up spinning. Ha! I fell hard last summer, and it was only a few months later that she was asking questions about spindles and wheels. When she joined the Beginning Spinners group on Ravelry, I knew that it was all over. She bought a spindle, then got a wheel last month. She brought her wheel with her, a nice Ashford Traveller, and some pretty hostess gift Romney fiber from a neighbor’s sheep, named Rainbow! We did a little spinning, a lot of chatting, eating, and generally having fun. John & Bill hit it off, and managed to find things to do that didn’t involve spinning or talking about spinning. They brought their Corgi, Maggie, along with them, and after a bit of jousting amongst the dogs to figure out who the biggest alpha bitch was, everybody got along just fine.

Dorothy is a natural as a spinner. Go look at what she’s been spinning on her blog (but come back!). After just a few weeks, she’s spinning nearly laceweight, very evenly.

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I managed to finish spinning a whole pile of Cormo (that insulation yellow stuff from several posts back, though it hasn’t been washed up yet, so it’s not ready for a photo op). I did start a new spinning project while Dorothy was here.

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The fiber is from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks, in the color Forest. I bought 2 ounces of this color in a merino-bombyx silk blend, and another 2 ounces in the same color in merino-tencel. I have the silk blend all spun, and I’m about half way through the tencel, then plan to ply them together. We’ll see how that works out. I did do a little couple yard sample, and I think I’ll like it. Here’s where I bought the fiber. The colors really are that rich.

Last but not least, here’s one of my spinning helpers. Lewey tends to sit right under my feet while I’m spinning, and Will is just pretty sure this is where he belongs.

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And this is probably why he’s so friendly lately. When the weather’s better, he’s outside a lot, but he’s not a big fan of rain.

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Come to think of it, I’m getting a bit tired of that rain myself!

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If you haven’t done so already, go here and read Stephanie’s post about Haiti. She’s said it much better than I can. If Doctors Without Borders isn’t your favorite charity, pick another one, but dig deep and give. If we can all afford to have computers and yarn and fiber toys, we can certainly sacrifice a bit of cash to those affected by this horrifying disaster.

Playing With Photos

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One of the WordPress features that I’ve discovered is that you can upload a thumbnail of a photo, but when you click on it, it opens a bigger photo in a new browser tab. Go ahead, click on that and see what happens.

Do you recognize that man? That’s my sweet husband, many many years ago when he was in Vietnam. He found an old box of slides from that era, and I convinced him to get them transferred to digital format. I have to say, he took some great photos while he was there. I’m trying to convince him to start a blog of his own, so I won’t post them all here, but here’s one more of my handsome soldier boy.

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