Friends & Family – Page 3 – The Knitting Doctor

Trains, Planes, and Knitting

We’re back from the Great California Train trip of 2007, and boy, do I have pictures. The trip was a blast, and I’d definitely do Amtrak again. We took the Coast Starlight from Tacoma to Los Angeles, then drove to Newport Beach, where we had a condo a little ways from the water. We flew home yesterday, and I finally sort of have my act together to post a few photos. We booked a “roomette” for the trip, which is two seats facing each other in a compartment that has a big window and a sliding door to the train corridor. At night, the two seats fold down for a single bed, and a bunk folds down from above for the second bed. We slept in this type of room the last time we were on Amtrak several years ago, and it is cramped but better than sleeping sitting up in a chair. The bathroom and shower are down the hall, and shared.

After we got on the train, we asked about upgrading to a larger compartment. Just as a tip, if you do this, you are definitely risking that there won’t be a larger room available, especially during the busier travel seasons, but they quite frequently will upgrade you for much less than you would pay by booking it directly. Fortunately, they had one “luxury” compartment available all the way to LA, and we were first to ask. These rooms still have bunk beds, but the compartment is about twice the size, and has a bathroom/shower combo that is just barely big enough to stand up in and turn around to rinse off. It works, though. Here’s the train pulling in to the Tacoma station:

The Coast Starlight route goes by the water through Tacoma, then cuts inland for awhile until you get into California. Much of the route through CA goes right by the water. Here’s a view of both the new and old Tacoma Narrows Bridges. The one on the left is the new one, in the process of being built.

Here I am, settling in to the compartment for the long trip.

Of course, Sweetpea got to go along. That’s John in the mirror of our compartment.

I did a little knitting in the observation car, along the coast.

The “first class” compartments (the cars with the sleepers) normally have a separate parlor car, which is supposedly pretty fancy, but they are all offline for renovation. We’ll just have to plan another trip, I guess. They do have wine tasting on this route, every afternoon, for the “sleeper people”. Here we are enjoying a glass.

All your meals are included when you book a sleeper. You get to share the table with another couple while you are eating, so we met some interesting people on the route. The Coast Starlight is notorious for being late, but it seems to be getting better. We were only about 90 minutes late getting into LA, but as this was strictly a pleasure jaunt, the time issue didn’t bother us.

Here’s a photo of the first sunset from the balcony of our condo.

Our first lunch was at the Crab Cooker, which is sort of an institution in Newport. Fortunately, it wasn’t very busy when we were there.

We met up with friends from Germany that just happened to be in Newport on family business. It was purely coincidence, and we only found out that they were going to be there a week before we left home. Strange, indeed. They spent one night at our condo, and we had a couple of lunches together as well. We played a killer game of Mexican Train the night they stayed with us. Here’s me concentrating.

I still lost. And don’t let that water bottle worry you. The bourbon glass just didn’t make it into the photo.

Guess where we ate?

Mmmmm. Two double-doubles, with cheese, and chocolate shakes. Worth the whole train trip, right there.

We walked on the beach:

We took a boat tour of the Newport Harbor:

…With our friends from Germany:

We saw more sunsets, this one on Laguna Beach:

I’ll post the rest of the pictures later this week when I get them sorted out. There might also be a knitting update photo or two! How exciting!

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In even more exciting news, my friend Kris, the Knitting Wannabe, and her husband Dana have opened up an online yarn shop, Sonny and Shear.

Go, shop! I am on this crazy yarn fast, and can’t shop again until the 15th, but I’ve got my credit card number memorized and I’m ready. Buy enough yarn to keep her in business. I am overjoyed to no end to have a friend who owns a real yarn shop. I need to get a sign that says “will work for yarn”.

Blog Update, Finally

We’re back from Arizona, just in time for more rain, snow, and ice. Ick. I am just ready for some nice weather. I’d even take some not-so-nice weather, as long as the ice was gone from my driveway.

The trip was lovely. It was warm and sunny in Phoenix, and we celebrated all the missed holidays in style. The first photo sort of sums up the week: wine, dominos, and knitting.

There was some serious Mexican Train competition that went on all week. We paused long enough to have a baby shower for my niece, Angie, who is due to give birth in April.

Note that there was bourbon involved. Now that’s my kind of baby shower. She is having a girl, and is naming her, and I’m not kidding about this, Riley. They swear that they’re not naming her after my dog. No matter, Riley the dog is quite excited about it.

Don’t let that photo fool you. She really is pretty excited.

To sum up the week since we got back: I worked all week, didn’t knit much. We got iced and snowed in (it doesn’t take much around here), and John drove to Kansas to help a friend move there. They drove a van there with all her belongings, then he flew back, getting sidetracked by weather and not arriving until 1:20 AM. After working a 15 hour day on Monday, I drove to the airport at midnight to get him. Tuesday I woke up with a cold. I hate being sick. That about covers it.

I also have a candidate for Customer Service Award for 2007. Sometime last year (I think it was in the early summer) I bought a knitting bag from Jordana Paige. It’s a lovely little thing, and I used it for a couple of months, until the metal ball clasp broke off the top of the bag. It sat around in my pantry for the past three or four months, and I finally got tired of tripping over it. I wasn’t sure that she would be able to do much about it, as I’d had it for awhile, but I emailed her and told her my sob story. She replied promptly (within hours!), telling me to pack it up and send it back. The UPS man brought me a new one today, at no charge. Lovely! It’s a beautiful bag, and very functional. Go check out her website, and get one of your very own. It comes in lots of lovely colors and styles. Here’s mine:

I’m off to get a bourbon and water. For medicinal purposes, of course, for my cough.

Firsts

I was tagged by Denise to post a list of “firsts”. Here goes.

What is the first thing you did in the new year?

Cleaned up the kitchen from the NY Eve party. There were no wine bottles on the lawn this time, thankfully.

What is the first thing you ate in the new year?

I don’t remember. I think I had a banana and peanut butter for breakfast. The first “real” meal was those BEPs from the last post.

What is the first thing you knit in the new year?

See below.

What is your first ‘blessing’ of the new year?

Waking up next to my sweetiepie, the lovely man I’m married to.

What is the first thing you will do to make the world a better place in the new year?

Not tag anyone for this meme.*

Just kidding, I’m not really anti-meme. I just liked the whiskey part.

Post the first photo you took in the new year!

Those peas turned out just lovely, by the way. A little overdone, but I had an excuse. Kris came over yesterday afternoon to knit, and before we knew it, the peas were done and it was time to eat. So I shared our good-luck peas with her, and she took the leftovers home for her family. And yes, BEPs do bring good luck; I got to knit half the afternoon with a friend!

Here’s what I worked on. This is the Jo Sharp sweater that’s been in the timeout pile for a long while. I have the front finished, and started on the back yesterday.

The pattern directed me to bind off the shoulder stitches, then later sew the shoulders together. As these have no shaping, but are just straight across, that made no sense to me. Ever one to look for shortcuts, the shoulders are on string holders, to bind off together later.

Last but not least, my New Year’s Resolutions. They’re simple. Knit more, read more. And knit more from the stash, read more from the stacks. I have enough books and yarn around here to last more than one lifetime. I’m not outlawing purchases of either books or yarn, just resolving to at least look at the current stash before I buy more. There you go.

I’m off to Arizona to visit my sisters. One of them lives in Phoenix, the other is going there on a holiday. I’ve mentioned our rule previously, if any two of us get together, the third one has to show up, too. Otherwise the other two might talk about her. So we’re going for a few days, will get caught up on a lot of celebrations we’ve missed, and party a bit. Diane does have internet access, so if there’s a moment when we’re not either shopping or partying (or getting tattooed-remember the last trip?), I might get a post in.

Enough of this! Now let’s go have some whiskey!

*If you want to be tagged for this one, have at it. Leave me a comment so I can go gawk at your answers.

Winter Solstice, 2006 Version

Or,

How We Survived The Winter Storm

A mighty wind blew through here last Thursday night, knocking out trees and power lines in its path. A million people lost power in western Washington, and we were two of them. Our lights went out Thursday early evening, and didn’t come back on until Saturday night. We had flashlights and candles at the ready, though, and we have a gas cooktop, so we figured we’d be OK for a little while at least. And we had running water, though by Friday it dawned on us that our septic pump, which pumps the bad stuff up to the street level, runs on electricity, and we better quit running water down the drain. (You’d think a smart girl who grew up on a farm would figure this one out faster, wouldn’t you?)

The fun part of all this is that we had our annual Solstice party planned for Friday night, complete with a huge standing rib roast and ten people around the table. We waffled a bit, then said, what the heck. And cooked a huge dinner with the benefit of only a gas cooktop and gas grill. I’m happy to report that you can indeed cook 15 pounds of prime rib on a grill with no problem. Ours has a temperature gauge, and it kept the interior temperature fairly constant during the cooking.

It occurred to all of us that this year’s party was symbolic of the whole Solstice thing, with the house lit only by dozens of candles (and a few flashlights at times). We were hoping the lights would come on at midnight, in a truly symbolic gesture, but no luck. We were still in the dark Saturday, and with the house getting colder, and temperatures due to drop further, we bailed out. We packed the cooler with everything from the freezer that would fit, and salvaged what we could from the refrigerator, and headed out to stay with electrically blessed friends. Our lights finally came back on late Saturday night, and we’re now home, and the kitchen is cleaned up. (We left all the dishes from the party out on the deck when we left!)

We’re lucky. All of our big trees survived the storm, nobody we know died or was injured, and we had a great meal in the bargain, and got to spend the whole weekend with friends. From the looks of our little neighborhood as we drive around, the region won’t be back in full swing for the rest of the week. There may even be some people without lights back on for Christmas.

Here are some photos of the event.

The table, before the feast began.

Mashing potatoes by flashlight. Note my husband with his handy-dandy headlamp. I love a man who is prepared for anything.

The main course:

Carving by flashlight:

A few guests enjoying themselves:

The aftermath. Note the little temperature thingie on the table in front of me. At this point it was still plenty warm in the house. Must have been all the candles.

I did make my traditional trifle for dessert, but didn’t get pictures of it. It looked just like it did the last two years, though. Without electricity, we had to whip the cream for it by hand, which was probably the most challenging part of the dinner.

When we got up on Saturday and started to clean up what we could without running water, we did the traditional “count the wine bottles to see how hungover we should be” thing. Hmmmm. Only three wine bottles on the table, along with a couple others opened and not finished. That’s pretty lame for this crowd. Then I looked outside. Apparently some of my guests decided that tossing the empties on the lawn was a good idea. Click on this one if you can’t see them. Four more on the lawn, that’s more like it.

All in all, a good way to survive the storm. I’m off to cook the formerly-known-as-frozen food in my refrigerator.

One More Finished Project

But first, it’s that time of the year again. We all packed up and went to the Puyallup Fair yesterday. We didn’t lug the camera along, as we had enough to hang on to already, but did take a few photos with our camera phones. (Did you realize that it takes about six pairs of hands to manage two small children at a fair?)

We looked at more kinds of rabbits than I knew existed, rode rides (some of us), ate Elephant Ears (no, I didn’t even bother to calculate WW points for those), looked at the crafts, and watched the Mutton Busting contest. I didn’t get pictures of that one, but none of us could quite figure out why you would put a three-year old child on a terrified sheep, wearing flip-flops, no less. It was funny, but in a disturbing, watching a car wreck sort of way. Here are a few photos of the rest of the day.

For some reason, I didn’t take any pictures of the knitted items in the craft pavilion, but this crocheted doll caught my eye. I’ve blocked out the names of the winner to protect the innocent, but note that this thing won a blue ribbon. I don’t mean to offend anyone here, but WTF? I’m sure that there is some little girl somewhere who would like this on her nightstand, but this would just give me nightmares. Kris, you and I are so entering the fair next year. Surely we can beat this.

The kids rode the kiddie rides. Those of you who have been with me for awhile might remember this one from last year that George and I dared to ride.

We rode the one on the right, the Turbo Force. That was last year. We just chickened out this year. The only scarier ride is that slingshot thing on the left, and there is not enough yarn in the world that could induce me to strapping myself into that thing. Maybe next year.

Here’s Alicia and Penelope. I’m not sure either one of them realized what they were standing in front of, but John, being the guy that he is, couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a good photo.

Note that Penelope is having a very good time. So did Sam:

So did I. After enjoying the crowds, and the junk food, and the legions of screaming children, John and I needed a respite, and found the wine garden:

The people at the wine tasting booth said that the Fair organizers couldn’t ignore the fact that wine is a big agricultural crop in Washington, so had to include it in the fun.

I conned George into holding the sock for a picture. I finally figured out how the Harlot gets away with this one. You stuff the sock into their hands, jump back and shoot before they know what hit them.

And Sam, at the end of the day.

Whew, that’s over with for another year.

Here are the socks, done:

I’ll post Project Specs next time. I’m off to cast on the next pair.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Actually, that should be, “can I hear you now?” More on the title as the post grows. First, I have had just the wildest week on earth.

I got to meet Dorothy again. She came and stayed at my house last Saturday and Sunday, so we could knit together and go to Seattle to hear the Harlot. Saturday we invited all our bleeding-heart-liberal-neighbor-friends over to meet Dorothy and impress her with their liberal jokes (I’m not sure it worked, but she was very gracious and put up with them nicely.) Actually the real reason that I invited them over was to prove to them that y’all aren’t really just my little imaginary friends. I’m not sure they believed previously.

Dorothy brought along several of her completed lace projects so I could drool on them. Now I truly have something to aspire to. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of them, but go to her blog and check back through her archives and photos. She does absolutely amazing stuff with needles and yarn.

Sunday we got up early to get to church before we headed off to the city. My mom always claimed that it was more or less acceptable to party on Saturday night, as long as you got your butt out of bed and went to church the next morning. My first clue that something was amiss was that I could hear Dorothy singing in my left ear (lovely voice, by the way), but I couldn’t hear myself sing. I just figured it was the allergy season, didn’t think too much of it, and we went on home after church. We collected Kris for the trip to Seattle, then went on a little yarn-shopping expedition. Here are my partners in crime at Weaving Works:

Note Kris clutching that yarn like I was going to steal it from her. I couldn’t have, I had my own hands full. We also went to Acorn Street yarn shop, and did a bit more shopping. Here’s D & K perusing the sidewalk sale. Sad to say, it was mostly really sparkly bizarre novelty yarn. They did have very nice stuff inside, though.

Here’s the stuff I bought:

More lace yarn, like I need more lace yarn.

Mountain Colors Bearfoot, like I need more sock yarn.

This, I needed. I still am on a mission to do knee highs, and found the pattern that I just need to make. This yarn is just the softest stuff on earth. Here’s a picture of the pattern, not the greatest, but you get the idea. It’s from Socks, Socks, Socks.

I might decide that those are a little ambitious, but what the heck.

After we cleaned out the yarn stores, we headed to Bothell to hear Stephanie. She was a total hoot, as usual, though my right ear was driving me crazy and I was starting to get a terrible ringing noise, along with progressively worse hearing.

Here’s Stephanie at the book signing table:

She was very gracious, and took a picture of me with her sock. I am so honored, and if I died now, I would be a happy woman, let me tell you.

By the time we got home, the noise in my ear had turned into something very annoying. It sounded a little like I was sitting in the middle of the runways at Seatac. When I woke up Monday, the noise was gone, and so was everything else from my right ear. I couldn’t hear a thing. We got Dorothy off on her journey home, and decided to skip the Bumbershoot festival that we had planned to attend. Being as it was Labor Day, I couldn’t do much about the hearing thing, but did manage to do a little google search for “sudden hearing loss”. Nothing particularly comforting there, but I still wasn’t panicked. Probably the funniest comment that John has made in a long time, however, was to nicely suggest that I “call somebody” and get an appointment Tuesday to check it out. No, I just thought I’d wait until the other one went, too.

Tuesday, I started my wild work week, made additionally entertaining by the fact that I could only hear out of one ear. I did get an appointment with an ENT specialist late in the day, and after some testing, discovered that it unfortunately was not some simple ear infection, or even better, wax. And that I had rather profound hearing loss. He put me on high dose steroids and an antiviral drug, and sent me back to work, with an appointment on Thursday to retest.

The good news? My hearing is MUCH better. The repeat audiology exam Thursday shows that I have regained quite a bit of function. It’s not even close to back to normal, but I’m extremely encouraged.
The bad news? Steroid side effects. My particularly lovely manifestation has been that I am totally emotionally wrecked. I am normally not a crying woman, but I have been just crying at the drop of a hat. Nurses call me to ask if it’s ok to send somebody down to xray without a nurse? I cry. My boss is nice to me? I cry. You get the idea. Combine that with some very lovely drug-induced wild dreams, and a truly wildly busy work week, and it has just been a weird time. I go back Tuesday for another evaluation, and only have to take these damn drugs for a total of 11 days, so I suppose I’ll live.

Oh, and one thing that really made me cry today. I don’t normally talk about patient-related stuff here, for all sorts of reasons, but I got called for an all-fired emergency consult this morning up to the labor and delivery ward. Without giving up too much confidential info, a young woman was in the middle of labor, pushing, baby about to be born, had a medical issue rather acutely, and they called me upstairs. Everything turned out OK, medical issue got resolved, and mom and baby are perfect. (9 pounds 14 ounces perfect!) I got to see the little guy get born though. That was truly a gift, as I don’t normally have much to do with the OB ward, and haven’t seen a baby born in years. And I was even able to hear his first cry. With both ears.

The Blog Vacation…

…Is Now Over.

What can I say? I just forgot to blog. I checked out the date today, thinking I had just posted, oh, maybe a week ago, and it’s been three flipping weeks. And I don’t even have all that much knitting to show for it.

In categories:

Trips:

I promised the “going home” photos from the bluegrass festival a month ago. I’m only posting these because they have knitting content, and this is, in fact, a knitting blog.

Those two photos are from Cape Horn, along the Columbia River. This is of Lewis & Clark fame, for those of you a little rusty on your explorer history. If you haven’t read it, find Undaunted Courage, by Stephen Ambrose, and learn all about their journey. It’s one of my all-time favorite books. I keep buying it, then ~~forcing it on~~ giving it away to people to read.

Home Remodeling:

The stucco/wood rot/deck rebuilding project is officially done. John is sorting through the multitudes of photos that we took, and when he gets them organized, I’ll post a link to the Photo Show that he’s doing, rather than boring everyone to tears here with them. We hung the huge set of wind chimes back up this week, and that marked the official end of the project. Here are two photos for you:

The neighbors all came over to properly launch the new deck, complete with several bottles of champagne.

Visiting Relatives:

We joke around here that there are two seasons in western Washington; the rainy one, and visiting relatives. John’s sister Ena and her daughter Molly were here for a week earlier this month. We actually enjoy having family and friends visit, as it gives us a chance to be tourists as well. We have lived here for six years, and had not visited the Mount St. Helens area previously. We spent the week eating and drinking, hanging out by the lake, and did a little foray down the road to see the volcano.

First, here’s “dogs on the deck”.

I don’t remember if I posted Rae’s picture before. She’s our neighbors’ Corgi, a little over a year old. She clearly thinks that’s her toy lamb. Riley just as clearly thinks it’s hers.

That gives you an idea of the weather here that week. It didn’t stop Ena from checking out the hammock.

Eating and drinking:

Waiting for the ferry (day trip to Vashon Island). Doesn’t everybody knit while in line for the ferry?

Volcano visiting:

That’s Ena and Molly.

It did occur to me that we might qualify for the Darwin Awards by standing within shouting distance of an active volcano. Hey, we’d have gotten great pictures of the blast.

In the category of Packing My Lunch:

I got a new bento box to carry my lunch to work in. It’s from Laptop Lunches, and is the cutest lunchbox I’ve ever seen:

In the Knitting Projects category, there are no photos. My projects look pretty much like they did a post or so back, plus a few rows. I’m working on it, OK?

In the Uh-Oh category, a co-worker pointed this out the other day. This is Birch, which I evidently caught on something sharp.

I caught the wayward loops with a safety pin, and will sit down to fix this once I’ve stopped howling.

Here’s another category for you. Showing You Yarn Finds That You Might Have Missed Otherwise:

Smiley’s has Cotton Ease on sale, and there might be some left, though clearly I tried to eliminate that possibility.

Last but not least, in the Weight Watchers category:

That little car isn’t moving very fast, but it’s at least headed in the right direction!

11 Days

11 days since my last post, that is. That has to be some kind of record. Let me explain. (No, there is too much. Let me sum up.*)

I’ve been on vacation in lovely North Dakota, visiting my sister. This year was her 40th high school reunion, and I came along for moral support. We’ve had so much fun here that I just haven’t had time to even think about blogging. Actually, her computer is a bit slow, so I haven’t had the patience to download pictures and do the whole blog post thing until this morning. I have been knitting this week, however.

I brought two projects with me, the orange Pippa cardigan, and Langsjal Johonnu. Most of the week we spent in Fargo, where she lives, and I alternated between the two projects. I can work on the stole when I have relative peace and quiet and can pay attention, and the cardigan is for the rest of the time. I packed both for the road trip to Edgeley, the little town that we grew up in. Of course I managed to sit on the bag that the cardigan was in, and snapped one of my ebony (sob) circular needles within about ten minutes of getting there. Let me just say that Edgeley doesn’t have a good yarn shop so I could replace it. Then I got stuck while knitting the stole, at the section where you change from knitting the border to knitting the middle part. For some reason I couldn’t make the numbers work out. The lace pattern is charted, and the horizontal repeat isn’t marked on the chart, so I had to figure out which stitches were the borders, and which stitches repeated nine hundred times across the width of the shawl. I finally figured this out yesterday morning (in a sober moment) and I’m off to the races. It looks like a mess of wadded up lace at the moment, so no pictures of the progress for now. That will have to wait until I’m home and can pin it out on the blocking mat for a proper photo.

Here is one photo however. This one was taken before I figured out the numbers on the chart.

Perhaps the bourbon had something to do with my counting difficulties. I’m not willing to concede that just yet.

In case you think that North Dakota has no cultural activities, check out this link. Make sure you look through the gallery of photos.

* Inigo Montoya, Princess Bride

Home Again

And I know what you all REALLY want to know about is the yarn shops in New York City! Never mind all the lovely tourist things to do, and the lovely restaurants, and the excitement of the city. You wanna see YARN!

Cara escorted me on the yarn-shop-crawl to beat all yarn-shop-crawls on Tuesday. It was a total blast to meet her, after reading her blog for so long. If you go to NYC, you have to talk her into showing you around. I used Tuesday as my “free” yarn buying day*, after nearly a month of abstinence. I was pretty good, though, and only bought a few things. No doubt the house project expenses figured into that. I did also get online that morning and buy some yarn for a sweater from Elann. This stuff, if you’re curious.

But, the shopping. Back to the shopping. We went to School Products, Habu, Purl, The Point, and Seaport. I think. Am I missing any, Cara? They are all fabulous. School Products is upstairs in an office building, and has more Karabella yarn than I’ve ever seen in one place, Purl is a beautiful sight to behold, Habu has some of the most creative yarns I’ve ever seen, and the Point has a cafe and yarn in baskets on the walls. Seaport is an office, not just in an office building. It’s a working marketing firm with yarn stuffed in every corner. You’ll be looking at a rack of yarn and some guy is at a computer at a desk behind you, working. It’s probably the most unique yarn shop I’ve ever been in.

Jen from Two Purls, and her charming little son Xavier, joined us, as did Kay from Mason-Dixon Knitting. Kay even autographed my new copy of their book, which I bought for the occasion.

Two stinking yarn shop photos are below. Unfortunately, I’m much better at my day job than I am at photography, and most of the shopping pictures either didn’t turn out or were unflattering. It’s written in the Knitbloggers Code Of Honor that you will not post unflattering pictures of other knitbloggers, especially when they are lovely ladies like the ones I was shopping with. And I completely forgot to whip out the camera at most of the shops. Here’s Cara at Habu:

And here’s Seaport:

Trust me, Jen and Kay were there, I wasn’t imagining it, and we went to all of those places, I didn’t imagine that either. I apparently was drooling too much over the yarn to take pictures.

And here’s what I bought:

From right to left: first is a cone of cotton lace weight tape, from Habu. The color may not show very well in that photo, but it is a pale mint-sea green. I think that will be a shawl. In the middle is a cotton-viscose blend from Garnstudio Yarns, purchased at Seaport. It will be perfect for a scarf, maybe the Branching Out scarf from Knitty. Last but not least is Euroflax linen, for a handtowel, inspired by Kay and Ann’s book. Never mind that I already have a bunch of this in the stash, I didn’t have any in this color, and apparently the mood of the day was green.

Oh, and I bought this, because I couldn’t resist it, and because you can never have too many tape measures.

All in all, a great day! Thanks girls–I couldn’t have imagined doing this any other way!

Next post will be knitting project photos, house project photos, and maybe a few scattered NYC pics. I leave you with a picture of someone who was very glad to see us come home:

*Remember, the Yarn Focus doesn’t prohibit yarn buying; you can buy yarn on one day a month, on a day of your own choosing. The ticker doesn’t need to be reset for that day, only if you succumb and buy yarn on a second day in any month.

At The Zoo

Someone told me
It’s all happening at the zoo
I do believe it
I do believe it’s true…*

Monday we had two of John’s grandkids here for a visit (well, their parents, too), and we took a little trip to our local zoo. The weather wasn’t great, but if you live around here, you know better than to wait around for a sunny day in order to do something fun. We had a lovely time anyway, and it really is all happening at the zoo.

The walrus was showing off:

And here are a series of beluga whale photos. They have an underwater viewing room, and these shots were taken indoors without a flash, through the glass. There is no touching-up involved with these, and some are a bit blurry from the animals’ movement, or with reflection off the glass. There were a couple of busloads of schoolkids at the zoo, and I think they were all the the whale room when I took these.

Just so you don’t think it was all about the whales, here’s a fine fellow napping on a rock, waiting for the sun to come out.

Then the peacock and penguins and owls:

Then there was this guy, who is sadly in need of a trip to the spa.

He’s a muskox, in case you were wondering. The way he was scratching, I’m pretty sure he missed his Frontline treatment this month.

Here’s my favorite picture of the day. These two were a little reluctant to sit here at first, until they were reassured about the glass between them and the tiger.

Tomorrow, some knitting progress, I hope.

*Apologies to Simon & Garfunkel!

Eggplant Sweater, v.3.0

Here it is again, in all its resized glory:

And a closeup of the center cable section:

It’s actually prettier than that last picture would indicate. This color is hard to photograph well. Either it’s so dark that you can’t tell it’s a cabled sweater, or it’s washed out from the flash.

I think the size/gauge is going to be correct this time out. And the number of stitches on the needles is correct this version, unlike the first time, before I found out that the pattern was incorrect. I’m sure that there will be some other glitch that I will discover, but only after I’ve knit another eight inches or so.

I got quite a bit done on this the past week, due to a trip to Phoenix to visit my sisters. I have two sisters, one lives there, the other one still lives in North Dakota. We all met in Phoenix for a week of sister activities. The long-standing joke is that if any two of the three of us gets together, the third one has to show up too, or the other two will talk about her. Because of this, we actually see each other rather often. I worked a bit on the two pairs of socks I have in progress, but mostly on the sweater. And I didn’t do any yarn shopping while I was there. There are a couple of yarn shops in the Phoenix area, but my sisters have a low tolerance for hanging out in yarn stores, and I really don’t need any more yarn anyway.

Ack. I can’t believe I just said that. I did buy some yarn online before I left, and it was delivered while I was gone. Here’s a picture, but it just does not do it justice.

It’s laceweight silk, from Hip Knits. I purchased it from a UK shop called Yarnsmith, which quite possibly has the best online service I’ve ever experienced. Good communication, fast shipping, lovely yarn, and a handwritten note in the package; what more could you ask?

And what might I be planning for that lovely pile of ivory silk, you might ask?

This:

This is the Frost Flowers & Leaves Shawl, from A Gathering of Lace. I have a few things to finish up before I start on this one, but I’ve been dying to make this ever since I saw it. When I saw the silk yarn, I knew that it was just what this one needed. I hope it swatches up ok, as I’m not sure exactly what else I’d do with 3600 meters of silk laceweight yarn.

When my sisters and I get together, usually there is a lot of fun and shopping involved. Often it involves wine and bourbon. (OK, it almost always involves wine and bourbon, but we’re getting more responsible as we get older.) One year we each got a second ear piercing done while we were together. This time it was a tattoo*.

Really. Well, only two of us got tattoos, my third sister decided that it just wasn’t “her”. Here’s mine, first, just getting started:

And finished:

Note that I’m smiling in that first picture. It wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as I had thought it might be. I have wanted to do this for a long time, and decided to put the first (!) one where it can be easily covered up, in case I didn’t like it. I love it! The next (!) one might have to be knitting related!

*And no, there were no alcoholic beverages involved in this escapade. Tattoo places insist that you be sober and not under the influence of anything when you sign up for body modification.

Madrona

Well the Madrona Fiber fest was a blast. I didn’t sign up for any classes, as in my typically clueless fashion I didn’t know about the festival until they were all booked. I went anyway, Friday night to listen to Stephanie talk, and then again on Saturday to add to the stash.

Friday night I met Kris and Marti for dinner and the Harlot’s talk. We strolled up the street to a nearby Thai restaurant for dinner after meeting in the lobby. They both were a delight to sit and visit with, and yet more proof that you all are not “imaginary friends”, as my husband refers to you. The biggest hoot, I have to tell you, was sitting in a Thai restaurant packed with knitters, all talking about knitting, some of them actually knitting. I can’t even imagine what the restaurant people thought.

Here’s a picture of Kris and I. It came out a bit blurry, but proves that without a doubt we exist. For some reason I didn’t get a picture of Marti. And none of my pictures of the Harlot’s talk came out. Honest, I had green tea with dinner, nothing else.

Saturday I went again, this time to the market to shop. There were several local shops represented, and a few not-local. My favorite was Blue Moon Fiber Arts, famous around the blogs for Socks That Rock yarn. I have a couple of skeins of this in the stash already, but that didn’t stop me from getting more, as they had a fine selection of colors at the market.

From left to right, Yosemite, Spinel, Prove It All Night, and Heavy Metal. Only the fact that I already have enough sock yarn to last the rest of my life kept me from buying more. One of these will just have to be the next pair of socks once I finish the two pair I already have cast on.

Which reminds me, my one and only NY resolution this year? To have enough hand knit socks by the end of the year that I don’t have to wear commercial socks unless I want to.

I also bought this, which was a totally unnecessary purchase:

It’s pink, very pink. And alpaca, and it has just a touch of a silvery glimmery yarn spun into it. This will be a pretty little scarf, perhaps all for me. This is where we need that “touch me” feature in Typepad; this stuff is heavenly soft in person, not so much in the picture.

After the shopping, I went out to the lobby of the Sheraton, which was full of people knitting. I joined a little impromptu knitting session with these bloggers:

That’s Meg, from Knitting Knot. Go to her blog and tell her how sorry you are that we made her unravel a whole sweater on the spot. What are friends for??

That’s Jessica, from Rose-Kim Knits. She’s working on her Knitting Olympics project, and I learned a few new swear words from her on Saturday.

And that’s Rebecca, from Supergirl’s Blog. She knits at Warp 10, really. I kept staring surreptitiously at her hands, wondering how the hell somebody could knit that fast.

I met with Kris again, who was getting a lesson in the lobby from a spinner, Blogless Betsy, on how to use a drop spindle. And met Kris’ family, including that adorable child of hers, Anna Grace. If I could have been guaranteed offspring that cute, I might have been convinced to reproduce at one point in my life. I didn’t get a picture of Betsy either.

Now it’s back to reality, though I got a real gift this morning at 7 AM. I had signed up for an extra day of work today, for some reason that totally escapes me. (My husband reminded me that it was no doubt to pay down the yarn debt, which is starting to rival the national deficit.) As I was getting my butt out of bed, grumbling to anybody who would listen, the phone rang. It was from one of my partners, to let me know that they weren’t busy enough to need me, go back to bed. Free knitting time!! Here’s where I am on the sock:

That two color heel was truly a pain in the ass to do, though it looks very cool now that it’s done. There’s no need to remind me that I need to do a second one.

All in all a fun and productive weekend!

For Kris

This one is for Kris, who at this very moment is packing all her worldly belongings to move to the great rainy state of Washington. I received an email from her Monday in which she asked, somewhat plaintively,

When it rains each day, is there even a portion of the day where the sun peeks through…. even if it’s just for a few minutes?

Well, yes, indeed. We’ve had one of the rainiest winter seasons that I have seen in my five years living here. Our dock is nearly under water. We got a letter recently from the lake association reminding us that if our docks weren’t attached to the pillars, to get out there and secure them before they float away. We do get those “sun breaks” though, just often enough so we don’t all start shooting holes in the kitchen appliances due to cabin fever.

Here are photos from Monday to prove it.

Note the level of water under that dock. We are leaving the canoe out there for now. If that lake gets high enough to float the canoe off, I promise to show pictures.

Everyday…

It’s a gettin’ closer…

Here’s where the Not-Really-An-Everyday-Cardigan is at the moment:

One back, one front, and the second front started. This is a little bit closer to what the color really is (did I mention that I got a new camera?). I’m having loads of fun taking pictures, though so far I’ve deleted most of them as a little experimental.

We spent a couple of days playing in Seattle this past week. My sister is here visiting for a work meeting, and we went to the big city to see her, get a few really great meals, and play tourist. I didn’t even get to one yarn shop. She had never been to the Space Needle, so we took the ride to the top and managed to catch a wine tasting and some great views. Here’s us drinking wine:

And the view from the top:

If that one looks a little blurry, it’s because the wind was blowing about 80 miles an hour, and I was trying not to drop the camera over the side. Here’s a view of the Needle from below:

Though you’ll note that I’m holding a real wine glass in that first picture, I’ve been banned from any activities that involve wine and walking. We are scheduled to leave for that postponed Spain trip in eight days, and I am going even if I do major bodily damage to myself between now and then.

Here’s the other thing that I’m getting ready to do:

November is National Novel Writing Month! I did this last year, and finished. In case you’ve never heard of this, you commit to writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, starting on November 1st. Here’s the website, in case any of you want to sign up. I was waffling a bit as to whether I wanted to do this again this year, but finally just gave in and signed up. I figure if I don’t finish, that I’ll be in good company. The only thing that I was concerned about is that it means I have to take my laptop to Spain with us, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to haul it along.

We’re off to Seattle again today to have lunch with my sister. I’m hoping to get one more post in before we leave for our vacation!

Do The Puyallup!

Yes, we did it again this year. John’s kids and their kids have been visiting us this week, and no late summer vacation is complete without a trip to the State Fair. Our trip this year looked much like the trip last year, except that the little ones are a year older and enjoyed the rides and petting farm more. It was also warm and not raining this year, unlike our visit to the fair last summer. We ate lots of junk food, rode rides, looked at cows and chickens. I missed the sheep again this year, except for the few in the petting barn. I think they showed them earlier in the fair. I also didn’t make it to the craft pavilion this year to look at the knitted stuff. We all just wore out and couldn’t have looked at another thing.

I think the grandkids favorite thing was the drumming contraption:

That middle picture is Sam, and the last one is Griffin. Yes, John’s grandchildren really ARE that cute in real life.

Here’s Penelope practicing being a fireman:

She’s cute, too. They’re all cute, did I mention that?

George and I appear to have started a tradition of riding the scariest ride at the fair. Last year we did the Extreme Scream, more or less on a dare. That was pretty scary, I might point out. We decided to branch out this year. After looking them all over, we decided on the Turbo Force. Here we are getting ready to go:

Here is what it looked like:

That is pretty much the most terrifying thing I have ever done. After you get swung around in a big arc about a million times, it pauses at the very top for a few minutes while they change the passengers in the bottom seats. Then you get to do the whole thing again for another million times. And they are right, you don’t get sick. You are just plain too terrified to even think of nausea.

Here’s the sock:

This doesn’t really qualify as Extreme Knitting, because there was just no way in hell that you could have peeled my hands off those safety bars to pull out the sock at the top. Maybe next year.

Here’s the kitchen packed with kids after the fair:

And me and Huck in a quiet moment. He’s even cuter than he was when he was born.

There aren’t many quiet moments in a house with six adults trying to make themselves heard over four children under the age of four. Pandemonium just about describes it. I have gotten some knitting done, even amidst the chaos. The knitting part of Rogue is finished, and all the ends are sewn in. It’s washed and on the blocking mats. All that’s left is to seam the sleeves and put them in, and then to do the hems.

While I’m waiting for that to dry, I’m already plotting my next sweater project. This is a stashed project from a couple years ago, and here is the yarn:

That’s Peace Fleece, in Kamchatka Seamoss. I’ll tell you what it’s going to be in my next post!