Here we are again, my favorite time of year.
We got here a little late tonight for the first night’s festivities, since I had to work all day and then get my butt home and finish packing. We’re here in lovely downtown Bellevue for the whole weekend.
I have my knitting and spinning ready, the wrist band is on, and the course through the schedule maze plotted. Let the banjo music begin!
This will be a quick one; John and I have symphony tickets in the big city tomorrow, and we decided to go up tonight and spend both nights. We’ll see the sights, eat some good food, relax and have a little mini-vacation to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I had to work on the “real” day, so this compensates.
I’ve been trying to find ways to safely carry a spindle around without wrecking it. While I was dredging out our pantry this week, I found this.
In case you’re wondering what that is, it’s a wine bottle carrying purse. It has little “feet” on the bottom so it stays put without rolling around, a carrying handle, a strap inside to hold the wine bottle, and it came with a corkscrew. My sister gave me this for Christmas a couple of years ago. Since I really don’t carry wine in my purse that much, I haven’t really used it. I was about to donate it to the Goodwill pile, when it dawned on me.
Absolutely perfect. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner.
And in knitting progress, here is a teaser photo of Big Pink.
I’m getting close! I’m now doing the endless i-cord bind off row, on about 650 stitches. It’s very tedious but actually goes fast, especially with a glass of wine by your side. I am about half done with the bind off, then I have to weave in a million ends, then it’s done done done. I can’t wait to get this mailed off so I can show pictures. Stealth knitting isn’t really much fun for blog readers.
I’m off to pack for the weekend, hope you all have something fun planned as well. I might have a tale of wool fumes to tell next time…
My second favorite “f” word! This time it’s spinning stuff. I’m still working on Big Pink, I’m getting closer, closer. There’s been another impending baby announced in the family (different parents, another grand-nephew on the way!), so I better get moving. I’d like to finish this project before the next baby arrives. I tell you, these kids better stop multiplying for a little bit and let me catch up.
OK, the spinning. The first is a spindle project, and one of my February finishing goals. Here’s the finished yarn:
Click to embiggen, but remember these pictures were taken in the house in February, at the end of a very grey rainy day. The fiber was a batt from Butterfly Girl, and is a merino/bamboo blend, color name Blue Morpho. I spun this on a tiny stone whorl spindle, also from Butterfly Girl, and plied it on my Bosworth Midi spindle. This is a 2 ply. Here are the stats:
357 yards
96.2 g
This comes out to about 1684 yards per pound, or ypp. Here’s a web page that describes this, according to this, my yarn should be about a sport weight. That looks about right. It’s heavenly soft. I think it would be a great cowl or scarf.
Next is fiber from Corgi Hill Farm. This was a merino/silk blend with a little firestar sparkle, also a batt. The color was Raven’s Wing, spun and plied on my Schacht wheel. Finished weight was 4.53 oz, yardage 468 yards. YPP is 1671, which puts it in the sport weight category. The fiber was just divine, as is all of her fiber.
These are really hard to get photos of in February in western Washington, when it’s been raining all day. I might have to actually drag out my cheap lightbox and give this another try at some point. It’s gotten buried somewhere around here.
Last but not least is a very long term spinning project.
This one, I’m very proud of. Click on that photo to get a better idea of what it looks like. This started out last summer as 3 pounds of corriedale fiber from Louet, purchased from Paradise Fibers. The color is Pagoda Red, and isn’t quite as lipstick red as in that photo. I really will have to drag this out the next time we get sun and try another photo. It is more of a rust red than a ruby or garnet red. I wasn’t all that excited with the color when I got it, but now that it’s spun up, it is perfect for my coloring.
This was spun and plied (2 ply) on my wheel. It’s generally a worsted spun, as much as anything I spin is generally anything. I spun it with the wheel in Scotch drive. The finished weight of the yarn is 1315.7 grams, or 46.4 oz. The yardage is 2138 yards, giving me a ypp number of 737.2. This is pretty much a heavy Aran weight yarn. It is a little uneven in sections, but is way more consistent than I thought it would be for 3 pounds of fiber spun over 6 months. I think this will make a terrific sweater, which was my goal. It might even be next up in the queue, if I ever finish that True Blood sweater thing.
That’s it for the finished stuff. Oh yeah, I also finished sorting through all my yarns and fibers. After we got the closets done, I realized that I had a lot of empty space left over, so I dragged out all the yarn boxes and sorted through them. They desperately needed a little weeding out and reorganizing. I have one big box of yarn that is going on the for sale block at some point, I just haven’t decided how I want to do that. I’m not sure I have enough readers here to put it up on the blog, but if there’s enough interest I might be convinced to sell it off here first and then put the leftovers on Ebay or something. It’s all pretty good stuff, I just needed to get a little realistic about what I might actually knit up in the next few years. After I sorted it all out, it ALL fits in my closet, which makes me happy. If it’s out where I can see it, I’m hoping I’ll be more likely to shop the stash instead of those internet yarn stores that seem to be open 24/7/365.
Oh, OK, here’s a photo or two.
Yeah, I know that’s a boat load of yarn. John mentioned a business concept known as “just in time inventory“. I clearly need to take this under advisement, since I actually only finish knitting about three things a year.
Dorothy, now all the yarn is out of the guest bedroom, so you won’t be tempted any more when you come to visit!
And last but very not least, I now have room in my closet to do the sock laundry. Here’s proof.
That’s it. We’re off to the theater for the evening, then a late dinner afterwards.
I promised an update on the closet re-do. Here’s what it looked like in October, when the shelves pulled loose from the wall. We finally got it finished this past week, and we’re close to having stuff back in the closets. Here’s what it all looked like.
John doing the prep work.
The temporary closet.
Painting done!
My closet done!
John’s closet done!
And here’s what they look like mostly reloaded. We did a little more decluttering while we were emptying boxes back into the closet.
It’s amazing how much more usable space we have. I even have some empty shelf space. I was able to get some knitting related stuff off the floor of my office and in baskets on the shelves, which in turn makes my office much more usable. It’s a win!
On the knitting front, no photos, but I made a stupid mistake on the Big Pink thing last night while knitting in front of the television. I screwed up a plain knit row of all things, inserting part of a patterned row right at the beginning of what was supposed to be a plain row. Of course I didn’t discover it till I got all the way around to that section again. In trying to fix it, I screwed it up even more, and now I’m tinking back about 600 stitches to get to that section so I can fix it. I think this is my own fault for saying something in the last post like “I only have about 6 rows left”. Please send whiskey, before I stab myself in the heart with a knitting needle out of desperation.
Let’s see how I did with my January goals.
The first was to blog more. How did I do? Twelve posts! In one month! In December of 2010 I did four posts, in all of 2010 I did fifty-four posts. I consider that a success.
How about knitting? Ahem. Remember this post? Here were the knitting goals from January 1st.
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.
Nada. Zero. I didn’t accomplish any of that. Though I “only” have about 6 rows of Big Pink left, then an interminable I-cord bind off on 60 billion stitches. And I made a bit of progress on the brown socks on the needles.
Brown socks on black needles make for difficult television knitting. As much of my sock knitting is done while wasting time watching television, this isn’t getting very far. And is there any way to photoshop in a decent pedicure? Sorry if that big toe grosses you out. I intended to get a pedicure while we were in Mexico, but I opted for the hour-long massage instead.
Spinning? Equally a flop.
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.
Again, not a thing finished. I did work on plying the blue stuff, but that’s about it. Not finished.
So, in summary, January 31, Lorette 0. In my defense I worked a lot, had a great vacation, drank a lot of margaritas, and read a few good books*.
Here are the goals for February:
Finish that damn Big Pink Albatross.
Finish plying the blue stuff.
Finish spinning the lilac stuff.
Continue the blogging effort.
That’s a little less ambitious. We’ll see how it goes.
Here are photos of the spinning projects.
That’s a merino/bamboo/sparkle blend, and it’s been on the spindle so long I have no recollection of where it came from. Oops, here’s where the blog comes in handy. The fiber is from Butterfly Girl on Etsy. The bigger spindle is from Bosworth, and I’m doing the plying on that one. After I got my plying ball all wound up, I found another little wad of the fiber and spun it on the other spindle, also from Butterfly Girl.
This is my Cascade Mt. Helens spindle, named Helen, of course. The fiber is merino/silk from Louet. Who the hell knows when I started this. I think I bought this fiber right after I started spinning, so this is another of those embarrassingly ancient projects.
Tomorrow: Remember this? An update later this week on how it’s going!
*By the way, if you’re a reader and on Goodreads, come be my friend. Here’s my profile.
What? I missed it again. Oh well. It will be Ten on Saturday, since I’m hopeless about keeping up with these things. This one is my top ten favorite health and beauty products. I’m not actually sure I have ten, since I’m pretty simple when it comes to these things. Let’s see.
1. Cetaphil liquid soap. If I use anything else on my face (like soap) for more than a few days, my skin starts to fall off. I hate it when it does that.
2. Olive oil skin moisturizer. My skin is so dry it’s ridiculous. In the summer I wear a sunscreen over this.
3. Sweet Libertine eye shadows. Seriously, I have about a million different shades. Go get some, they’re fun.
4. Whatever shampoo is on sale at Costco. Really, I think it all comes out of the same vat at some factory in Oklahoma. I also use whatever conditioner is on sale. I actually only wash my hair about twice a week (my hair is as dry as the rest of my skin) so it takes a long time for me to use up a bottle. I tend to collect the little bottles of conditioner at hotels and use them in the shower.
5. Everything Balm. This stuff is awesome for hands and anything else that’s dry. I even buy their wood balm for my spinning wheel and spindles.
6. Rosebud Salve. I always have a tin of this with me.
7. Water. Drink plenty of it, it’s the best skin care product ever.
8. Sunscreen. I don’t worry about it for work days, since I’m inside all day, but any other time I have it on. When I’m out in the sun for more than 15 minutes, I wear the strongest SPF I can find in the closet.
9. Lots of fruits and veggies (in my tummy, not on my face!). This along with all the water does more good than all that other stuff. I can’t ever remember to take vitamins, so eating them is a must.
10. Red lipstick. It’s about the only color I wear. One of my favorite memories of my mom was watching her put on red lipstick. It was the only color she ever wore as well. My latest favorite is Chanel Coco in Gabrielle. It’s expensive, it’s red, it stays on.
There. Next time I’ll try to hit it on a Tuesday, but don’t hold your breath.
Today’s Friday Funnies are brought to you by my webstats thingie. These aren’t necessarily the most common search strings that get people here, but they are the funniest I’ve found recently. Here they are, in no particular order.
1. Knitting istake on mitten ( I’m assuming that was supposed to be “mistake”)
2. Betty Crocker knitting (I was once the B.C Family Leader of Tomorrow, after all)
3. Handsome soldier (Huh? Oh yeah, here’s mine)
4. Family Leader of Tomorrow Betty Crocker (again!?)
5. Sauerkraut spindle. (This one just baffles me. I’m not really sure at all what they were looking for.)
6. Drooling dog tricks cookie. (Right. I have no clue either.)
7. Knitting While Drunk. (I’m not sure whether to be embarrassed or proud.)
8. Shawl of commiseration. (I couldn’t find this pattern on Ravelry, but there really should be one.)
9. How many stitches are in a 1000 meter spindle. (That’s one very long spindle, honey.)
10. Knit a human nose.
11. Bizarra knit blog.
12. I’ve disappeared. (I can’t even imagine what they were really looking for.)
13. Reading a tape measure for a dumbass.
14. Pee blog knit. (Some days I don’t even get that much done.)
15. Knitting mistake forgot some rows. (Yup, I’ve been there.)
And last but certainly not least:
16. Insane asylum knitting.
I hope I’m never committed to an asylum, but if so, I’m definitely taking the knitting with me.
And here’s what it looks like in western Washington this morning.
A little different than the last several photos, eh?
It’s actually good to be home. At least I have today off and don’t have to go back to work until tomorrow. That gives me time to get all the sand out of my clothes and get back on a normal sleep schedule. We got home late last night and really didn’t do much except greet the pets and collapse into bed.
Lewey had a little accident while we were gone. We have a house sitter that lives here while we’re gone. She emailed us that Lewey had gone off on a mad dash to chase Willie one day, catching his toenail in the process and ripping it mostly off. He bled all over the place, and she rushed him to our vet, where he proceeded to bleed all over their office as well. He also bit Nancy, our house sitter, in the process of the rescue and scooping up to the vet, though that wasn’t too serious. He ended up with a general anesthetic and surgery to remove what was left of the nail, and is now in a bandage and a fancy plastic protective splint. He’s limping around, and not his usual perky self. He’s on antibiotics and pain meds, and needs to be carried up and down the stairs and out to do his “business”.
He gets the bandage off tomorrow. He also has a “cone of shame” to wear when we’re not around to keep an eye on him. Willie of course is swishing around like the King of Siam, pretty pleased with himself.
I’m off to empty the suitcases, not my favorite part of a vacation!
From Vallarta, that is. We head back home on a flight this evening, so this morning we have the sad duty of packing up to leave. We’ll be back though. John ran into a guy from the US at the pool that’s been coming here every year for 20 years. I can definitely see why. Though Mexican tourism has gotten hit really hard by all the bad press surrounding gangs and violence, Vallarta seems protected from that. The only downside we found here were the guys selling timeshares. They’re pretty easy to spot, and they generally leave you alone if you say “no, gracias” and keep walking. I’d give the vacation 5 stars.
Here are a last few photos. Yesterday we just hung out here. We went for a long walk on the beach, had lunch at the restaurant by the pool, then just goofed off by the pool all day. The day before yesterday, we went back into town. There’s a bus system here that goes more or less from one end of town to the other. As best I can tell, the buses have no detectable shock absorber system, but they only cost 6 pesos per person (about 50 cents). Here we are at the bus stop trying to find the right change.
Here’s the entrance to the restaurant where we had lunch, Barcelona Tapas. That row of windows at the very top is the restaurant.
And that’s the view from the restaurant.
Those are the three very nice guys who were responsible for our lunch.
Still having a bad vacation, as you can see.
Last but certainly not least, our last sunset last night. I’m off to pack!
On vacation, that is. We did a mid-week arrival and departure, so we don’t leave PV until Wednesday. So you’ll have to put up with more photos of crappy weather for a couple more days.
Saturday we did a whale watching cruise. We saw a lot of whales as well as some dolphins and manta rays. There are no photos of the rays, since they are under water. Here are the dolphins at play.
The whales were harder to photograph. We saw a bunch of them throughout the day, but by the time you see them and get the camera pointed in the right direction, this is mostly what you end up with.
Here’s a little better one.
They are really pretty magnificent animals. A couple times they surfaced right next to our little boat. We were on a small rubber Zodiac craft, which has its pros and cons. The pros are that it’s fast and maneuverable, so we got a lot farther out from shore than we would have in a bigger more comfortable boat. Being a tiny little rubber raft, those whales looked pretty gigantic. The cons are that there was no room to move, so we were stuck sitting on one seat for the whole nearly five hours. And no bathroom facilities. That was definitely a con. It was well worth it, though.
Here’s a photo of where we are staying:
There have been lots of opportunities to walk on the beach.
There has been some progress on the Big Pink Thing.
Now with White!
Last but not least, another in a long line of margaritas.
We’re off to visit the downtown again today. I’m looking forward to a little shopping and a little lunch. Maybe even another of those margaritas!
Today was just another crappy day in PV! Today we took the city bus downtown to browse around a bit. We walked along the oceanfront boardwalk, the Malecon, and then downtown a bit. I’m not posting all the photos that we took, since John will do a Picasa photo show at some point. Here were a few highlights.
Sand sculptures. This one tickled Sweet Pea to no end.
There are numerous bronze sculptures along the way. Some of them are also chairs.
I don’t know who these guys were supposed to be, but they seemed friendly.
Now this guy knows how to get a girl’s attention. That’s Neptune, trying to win over Nereid with sock yarn. Whatta guy!
And a yarn store, sort of.
More margaritas, this time with mango!
A loom in a shop! Really, the yarn and weaving were completely accidental!
Enough for now. It’s past time for sunset and a cocktail. Tomorrow we go whale watching!
I already don’t want to go home. We got here yesterday afternoon, and I’ve fallen in love with the place. I’m not so in love with all the hucksters selling time shares on every corner, but now that we know how to recognize them, we’re good. The trick is to not engage with them. Smile, say “ola” if you must, but don’t break your stride. Trust me, they can outtalk you. They can even outtalk John, which is saying something.
Now for the fun part, the photos.
Here’s taking off and landing.
First margaritas:
First sunset:
Full moon over the marina:
John’s first mojito:
Knitting beside the pool! Big Pink, now with White!
Feet in the Pacific:
Baby turtles! In season, they hatch these and release them into the ocean at sunset every day. We’re about at the end of turtle hatching season, but they let thirty of them go tonight. Only about 10% make it. We named this one Toto, and we’re pretty sure he’s enjoying a swim right now.
More turtle photos:
Run for it, Toto!
And another crappy sunset.
We’re off to dinner, then a walk on the beach with that full moon. Hasta manana!
Angie, move along. I’m just not posting any baby-knitting related photos. If you need something to do while you’re waiting for me to finish it, go here. My husband sent me this link, it’s a terrific time-waster. It also might be a little politically or socially incorrect at times, so I’m not going to take any responsibility for any of you who might be easily offended.
The Big Pink Thing that I can’t show photos of is coming along. It’s huge at this point. I have 512 stitches on the needles, and 20 rows left, then the bind off. Not only that, the rows increase in length from here on out. Terrific. Next time any one of you guys has a baby, you’re getting a gift card to Babies-R-Us.
Since I can’t show photos of what I’m knitting, you all get food. Here’s the sauerkraut in action. The second time around, we had it with pork chops and noodles. I soaked the kraut in water after rinsing well, and it was much less salty this time.
And here’s my breakfast today. I know you all are sitting on the edge of your chairs wondering what I have for breakfast. When I’m working, it’s two hard boiled eggs and a thing of yogurt. I can pack it up and take it with me, eating it later when I actually get to work. I am not a morning person (there’s a news flash for those of you in my family), so I have trouble eating anything until I’ve been up awhile. I’m not really a fully-functional human until about 10 AM, and some would argue not even then. My husband, a confirmed morning person, learned a long time ago not to shake me awake at 7 AM asking “honey, honey, it’s a beautiful day, do you want to get up and go do something??” Honey, honey, shake me again, you might lose an arm.
Ahem. Right. Breakfast. Here’s what I had.
This was actually yesterday, but you get the idea. Tea, in one of my favorite teapots, and toast with Nutella spread. Where has this stuff been all my life? This is actually a fancy-schmancy gourmet version that we got at the Pike’s Place market, but it’s the same thing. Costco now has Nutella in huge jars, so I should be set for awhile.
We’re off on another adventure soon. We are going to Puerto Vallarta tomorrow for a week, and since our flight leaves at some ungodly hour of the morning (see note above about me not being a morning person), my sweetiepie got us a hotel room close to the airport for tonight. Of course I have all the knitting lined up, and I do know where my sunglasses* are, but other than that I haven’t even started packing. I better get a move on. We’re taking the Mac Air, of course, so I might get to post while I’m there. I plan on doing very little except hanging out by the pool and knitting Big Pink.
Adios for now!
*I find it amusing that sunglass sales in the Pacific Northwest are actually rather high, considering how rarely the sun shines here. My theory is that we lose them during the long rainy stretches, so we buy a lot more than say, Floridians.
No knitting today. I’m still doing pink pink pink. Angie, if you’re trolling around here thinking you’re going to see something, think again. I’m not showing nothin’ till it’s done.
So you get dog pictures. Lewey got a toy for Christmas from John’s sister Ena. I neglected to get a photo of it when it was in one piece, and now it’s too late. It had a very tough nylon canvas shell, hard as a rock. Indestructible, the tag said.
There, that’s done!
We’re off to do our least favorite part of the holiday season: putting the decorations away.
Bah, humbug, I say.
I hear by declare this the Year Of The Blog. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ravelry, but one of its major impacts has been a sharp decline in knit/fiber bloggers and blog posts. I can’t imagine the Internet without Ravelry, BUT. There are some big advantages of active, creative bloggers writing regularly. Having a relatively close group of blog friends is a little like having a small wine party or tea party in your living room, sharing knitting or spinning. Ravelry is more like a huge convention center full of knitters and spinners, all jumbled up and bumping into each other. I have also noted that forum threads tend to degenerate into nasty name-calling much more frequently than you’d ever see on a blog. Most of the Ravelers are very polite, friendly people, mind you, but even the most innocent sounding threads can take a nose-dive to drama in zero-to-sixty seconds flat. Sometimes I can see it coming, sometimes not. It’s a little like watching a car wreck.
Ahem. Anyway. I’m not about to give up Ravelry. But this is the year I’m going to try to blog more, and to try to comment more. There you have it. I don’t promise to blog every day, but I’m going to try to show up here more often.
A couple posts ago I promised you photos of knitting-related acquisitions, and a peek at what I got for Christmas. Here you go.
A Tom Bihn knitting bag! I’m so excited. I’ve wanted one of these forever. I actually bought this for myself with a little Christmas bonus I had. Note Big Pink peeking out. Here’s another look:
Big Pink removed so I don’t give anything away. This has lots of space, is sturdy, and you can customize it with a bunch of little bags that clip to the inside.
And why do you suppose I was shopping on the Tom Bihn website in the first place? Because this is what my sweetie pie got me for Christmas:
It’s a Mac Air! Oh my. I adore this. But I needed a case for it. Ergo Tom Bihn.
It’s perfect. It’s his Ristretto bag, and has a nice padded compartment for the laptop, and plenty of pockets and space for other stuff. I could even stuff a sock in progress in here for travel.
And just so I can show that I really do knit, here’s the dog mittens I mentioned in the prior post. In case you all forgot, I started these eons ago, dragged them out this fall, decided they were too small, and ripped half a mitten out. Here’s where I am.
I’m about half done with the first mitten (again). Just because I always get asked, the pattern is Dog Mittens, by Jorid Linvik. Here’s a Ravelry link, and here’s her pattern shop link.
So, there I go, making New Year’s Resolutions that I said I wasn’t going to do. What plans do you have for your blog this year?