The Church of Bluegrass Finale, and February Wrap-Up

Or,

It’s Still Raining, It Must Be March

The last day of Wintergrass was Sunday, and it was a good grand finale. After some fast-food Thai for brunch we staked out our territory for the last few concerts. My favorite of the afternoon was Laurie Lewis, though we didn’t get one good photo of her. The Blind Boys of Alabama wrapped up the weekend with some fine gospel music, though it most definitely was a stretch from bluegrass.

And the car packed to head home.

It really was difficult to pick a weekend favorite. There was a lot of good bluegrass, and a lot of very good eclectic music to hear. The Bellevue Hyatt gets my vote for best bluegrass festival venue ever. And no, I don’t have tickets yet for next year, though I certainly will do so soon.

Now for the February wrap-up. What were those goals again??

Finish that damn Big Pink Albatross.

Finish plying the blue stuff.

Finish spinning the lilac stuff.

Continue the blogging effort.

And how did I do?

Well, the Big Pink is done. I can’t show photos, since it will go out in the mail today, if it ever finishes drying. After all of my complaining, I really like how it turned out. Even John, who was quite skeptical about a shocking pink cotton-acrylic baby thing, in the end admitted it looks pretty cute. So next time there will be finished photos. Here is a teaser or two.

If you have to weave in a million ends, you might as well do it with a nice needle. Here’s another shot.

That’s a sterling silver needle from Celtic Swan. It is simply gorgeous, and my favorite sewing needle.

How about the rest of that list? I did finish plying the blue fiber. I didn’t finish spinning the lilac merino silk stuff, but I took the spindle with me to Wintergrass and made a huge dent in it in between shows. If you think the muggles stare at people knitting in public, you should see them when I haul out the spindle. I don’t have very much of it left to do, though I spindled so much over the weekend that my hand hurts a little.

How about the blogging? 8 posts in February, not as good as January, but still good by my standards. I also finished two books and half of a third. I finished the “Girl” series (you know the one, the hornet’s nest, etc), finishing the third in the series. I am glad I finished them, but they’re not my favorite books in the world. The second finished book was Gone With The Wind, which is well over 1000 pages, so that definitely counts as an accomplishment.

And what about goals for March?

I’m getting back to that True Blood Faery sweater. My goal is to get at least half of the cabled bodice done in March.

I am going to finish that lilac fiber, and ply it too. So there.

I now have two pairs of socks on the needles, so I need to finish one of them. The brown Sanguine Gryphon socks need to be done. I have one sock done and the cuff of the second done.

I have some fiber from Spunky Eclectic on the wheel that I’d like to finish, but that might be a bit ambitious since there’s a pound of it.

Read more, blog more, again.

There you go, you read it here first. I’m off for more coffee and to get some formal shots of Big Pink.

Oh, I almost forgot. I’ve gotten a couple of questions about the yarn for the Wintergrass socks I started. It’s Lisa Souza’s Sock! yarn, in Little Devil. It’s striping beautifully, though it’s in time out until I finish those brown socks.

The Church of Bluegrass, Part 2

Today is sadly the last day of Wintergrass. Of course, even I can get banjo-ed out after awhile, so it’s probably good that it ends eventually. Friday was a fun evening, and until I heard Sam Bush’s band, I would have said that Darrell Scott was my favorite artist of the evening. The lineup this year has been pretty spectacular, and the range of musical styles pretty broad, so it’s difficult to pick one “favorite”. Sam and his band would be my choice for Friday though. They played a two hour set at the end of the evening, and even though it was approaching 1 AM, they had the huge packed ballroom at the Hyatt on its feet.

Yesterday we had a few food experiences. It started with breakfast at the Hyatt, with menus printed especially for the occasion.

From there we went to a workshop in the afternoon. It was a combination of food show and Cajun band. The band, the Red Stick Ramblers, played in the background while their lead singer made a huge pot of gumbo. After it was done, we all got to eat. The band did a fabulous “real” set later in the evening as well, minus the gumbo show.

Because we’re sort of wimpy old farts, we took a short nap before the evening festivities. Here are a few shots of last night’s fun.

Michael Doucet has been one of my favorites for years. He’s an unbelievably talented Cajun fiddler; he usually heads up the band BeauSoleil, but was here last night on his own.

There was knitting, and wine drinking. There’s that sock.

More crazy fiddling. That’s Darol Anger, another gem.

Last but not least last night was Scythian. This is a Washington DC based band, they sort of play Celtic rock, but that’s an understatement. They also play insane gypsy Klezmer style rock, and I just wish someone could bottle their energy. Their show sported the only rap-hip-hop performance, and likely the only extended crazy drum solo. The accordion guy and the fiddle player are brothers, and yes, they are that cute. Click to see.

I’m a bit sleep deprived, so you’ll need to google all of those bands yourself. I need some serious coffee this morning to get up and going for today’s show. My favorite of yesterday is….impossible. I can’t choose, and I think that’s a good thing!

The End

Actually, that would be “ends”. I finished Big Pink today, at least the knitting part of it. By my count, I have about 36 ends to weave in.

I’m about a third of the way done with them, so I should finish this over the weekend. Angie, you might even get this by next week!

Here are just a few Wintergrass shots. Although the scheduled professional performers here are fabulous, some of the best music is heard just wandering around the hallways. Anybody who has an instrument brings it along for the weekend, and there are dozens of impromptu jam sessions set up all over the hotel. Here’s one from the afternoon.

I’m off to take a nap before the evening schedule. I had a long week at work this past week, and need to catch up on sleep before the fun begins tonight!

The Church of Bluegrass, Day 1

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!

Spindle Purse

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…

Finished!

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.

Closet Capers

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.

January Wrap-Up

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.

Ten on….

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.

Friday Funnies

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.

Home Again, Home Again

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!

Last Post…

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!

Still Here…

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!

Fun In The Sun!

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!

PV!

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!