Rabbit's World

Ravelry is Forever? Or Maybe Not...

2012-02-11T10:37:00.000-08:00

I noticed one of my Ravelry friends was missing this morning. It's not that I regularly check on these things. I am not much of a forum poster or thread follower; in the almost 4 years I have been a Raveler, I have made posts to the forums 35 times.

Still, this knitter was busy. She was a fairisle MACHINE, cranking out numerous complicated fairisles a year, with some fancy cabled sweaters for added spice. She wasn't a good knitter, she was a GREAT knitter. I was a big fan of her work. Then she had a sudden and quite unexpected medical issue and she could no longer knit. I can't imagine that. It would be awful.

She bought herself a circular sock machine, and started using that. She condensed and archived a lot of her fairisle projects on her Rav page, and started downsizing her stash. Yikes. Still, when she posted, she sounded positive, and she had her previous projects as a body of work. It sounded like a hopeful new chapter.

I hadn't been by her page in months, so I randomly thought I would cruise by her page this morning to see what she was doing. Gone. Nothing. There is what looks to be a new Raveler with her username. Her forum posts (and she had lots) are all deleted. She has been erased from Ravelry. Given her circumstances, I can understand, I think (assuming she erased herself). It might have been hard being an Olympic level knitter and then not be able to continue with the craft she obviously loved. Still, she removed what I thought was an impressive legacy of knitwork. I can't imagine how much psychological pain she might be in that would prompt her to remove her projects, which were impressive and well worth the bragging rights. What scares me for her, is maybe she wasn't recovering. Or was getting worse.

I never really knew her or even met her, but her online voice was fun. I enjoyed periodically seeing what she was up to. Now she has been neatly excised, although there are holes left in the forum threads where people use her username like they were addressing her in her now deleted posts, or refer to her. That username is now a stranger's name. I find myself made sad and a little disturbed by her disappearance. I hope she is OK. I send this thought to the Universe: I wish her well, and hope things work out for my unseen online friend.

Getting Things Done

2012-01-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

Jiada is about to be blocked.

The body is, anyway. Of the 7 knitted pieces that make up the pattern, 4 are knit up. The remaining 3 are the sleeves and collar; the sleeves are on my needles even as I type this, but I have to cop to feeling some stockinette aversion last night as I knit a few rows. Some people truly enjoy this kind of knitting, rows and rows of plain stockinette. These people find it meditative and soothing. Me, I need more engagement. It's the knitting version or road hypnosis for me, my brain becoming detached and drowsy. It bores me. Sad but true.

Then again, maybe it is just this project; I don't know. Still, I am committed to finishing, and I want to block the body and sew it together before I finish the sleeves to make sure they don't end up too damned long, as so many drop shouldered sweater projects I knit up do. I like my cuffs to hit just below the wrists. Any longer and the sleeves need to be tight enough to push up, which is not the case with this pattern.

Like so many of my UFO's this project has become a monkey on my back. I shuffle through my stash boxes and the bag with the yarn and half-done knitted pieces surfaces again and again, like some floating dead body. OK, that analogy was a little too Norman Bates, but it speaks to the point: some craft projects you are committed to, once you start, but the process is sometimes really really NOT fun, for some reason. Jiada is one of these for me.

Still, I have surmounted my knitter's block--such is the power of 18 hours of driving to and from Phoenix with me not behind the wheel: a right front and both sleeves knit to the elbow. (I am a slow knitter, I admit it.) In the interests of proper fit, I am planning to take advantage of a free Saturday to block the body now, also good since I don't have the blocking boards or floor space to block the whole sweater at once.

There is another reason to finish this: I have been thinking about steeks. As I wrote in my last post, I took a steeking class at TNNA and the wheels are turning. I have three projects that I am planning to steek, now that I know how. I have one fairisle, Peony, that required sewing machine steeks. I can now forego these, add in twisted stitches before I join the shoulders and put in crochet hook steeks.

Another project is a cropped Noro sweater I knit several years ago. I like the yarn and the color, but the sweater is cropped. On me, not good. I have long thought to take off the sleeves, use the yarn to make it longer and convert it into a vest. Now I know how.

Lastly, is the infamous Zarah, that has haunted me for years--I have old posts on it, adding in bust darts, carefully checking gauge and trying to make it fit I was at a point where the bodice would need to redone to remove bulk at the shoulder to keep the sleeves from looking saggy. Now I can add steeks, instead. I plan to get all three items out in the near future and bring them back from the Sargasso Sea of unfinished fiber business. Wish me luck!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig!

2012-01-25T23:33:00.000-08:00

I am back from TNNA, and I hardly know where to begin.

Let's start with the mundane details and go from there. I got a chunk done on Jiada, while driving, although, as usual, I underestimated my knitting speed. As it stands, the body--back and two fronts are now done, and the cuff part of the sleeves and the right color band. That leaves the blue part of the sleeves and the collar. It may not seem like it, but I got a lot done.

On to juicier subjects, like, say...TNNA. Man. I am still gobsmacked over it all. I saw yarns not yet in stores, such as the lucious Noro Shiraito and a wonderful yarn from Dream in Color called "It's Nature Silver"--a hand dyed laceweight with a thin sliver thread running throughout that I can't even find link for on the net. Take my word for it--it is a GREAT looking yarn and I would love to get my hands on some.

And the ORANGE! The Pantone color of the year "Tangerine Tango" was abundant in yarn form, which made me giddy just seeing it. Picture me darting from booth to both petting the lovely yarn, like so many sunny orange tribbles. I saw orange and it was good!

There were also lots of lovely patterns and a few celebrity sightings. My group ran into Cat Bordhi several times and I have to say what a fun person she is! I also saw Kristin Omdahl and Ysolda Teague, but frankly thought just barging in on them to gush like a fangirl was a bit too forward. I did, however, chat with Anne Kuo Lukito, who was very gracious and had all her wonderful hats on display, plus several other models of her designs, including a really lovely jacket with a brioche stitch collar.

Another fave for me was the Alchemy booth. The colors they achieve with their yarns are INTENSE and gorgeous. I didn't think to pull my camera out--too touristy--but I loved what I saw. More orange and all good including "Monk's Orange", a true intense orange and "Blood Orange", orange with bright hints of poppy red. They also had a new shibori design called "Meadowlark"--watch for it--it's a stunner.

Another yowza yarn was Berroco's "Ricrac", with the rosabella and poppy colorways being my favorites.

There was a fashion show as well, and I saw some great designs including 3 from the Stitch Red project to raise awareness for heart disease. Another red design was one called "Johnny's Sock" on display at the Skacel area in Admiral red yarn. Another fab item I can find no info about online as of yet, but will keep my eyes peeled for it.

I had three great classes and a tutorial as well. "Norwegian Purl", by Beth Brown-Reinsel, "Steeks to the Rescue" with Chris Bylsma, and "Broomstick Lace Basics" with Mary Beth Temple. As if that technique feast were not enough, Skacel sponsored Brigitte Elliot in a free, one hour swing knitting tutorial. I was a busy knitter, let me tell you!

It was a fiber fest. What I have mentioned above is what I remember without referring to my notes, meaning those are the things that really stood out for me. The was more--lots and lots more, including needlework, buttons, ribbons and beads, but those items will have to wait for another blog opportunity, as will the framework exploits of me and my colleagues when not actually AT the show.

Now, I must go practice my new mad skillz...

TNNA

2012-01-16T19:43:00.001-08:00

Jiada is going on a road trip. Yep, the boring stockinette is going to be my traveling project, with me locked in a van knitting away, Maybe then I can get that bad girl DONE. I am going to TNNA and am excited as all get out about it, but I something easy on my needles. That would be Jiada.

Speaking of done, the green thing is FINISHED, as are two small scarf projects that have sat for months. Three things off the UFO list and it is only January 16th. Pretty good, I'd say.

Now to finish that packing...

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T12:21:00.001-08:00

I recently scanned back over my old blog posts a couple days ago as part of my ongoing self assessment prior to End-2011. Every year brings on a new me and 2012 will be a new Rabbit, a version 49.0, as it were.

I got used to change in the 2000 decade--changing first jobs, then careers, then locations--a new relationship, new friends, new experiences. Then things settled down. In some ways the more static life I was experiencing was a welcome relief, but in other ways, things got, well, BORING. Time advanced quickly in the face of less stress. There were a few sticky moments here and there, but mostly things were calm and good.

Then came 2011. I lost my long time birdie companion Gabriel the cockatiel after 26-1/2 years in February. My mom diagnosed with, struggled through treatment for and ultimately died in August of cancer, ending years of poor health. The stress from my mom's illness and death has taxed my hubby and I considerably and we will both be glad when things settle. My job has been stressful as well, with our facility undergoing various inspections and accreditation visits. These check are typical, I know and will increase with the changes in healthcare policy, but like cleaning out a garage after ages of using it, the first reorganization can be overwhelming. The rest of the year has been various little stresses that seem magnified by time proximity to bigger issues.

My relief has been my knitting, I will admit, which has really take off this year. I took a series of workshops in May with Cat Bordhi (squeeee!) which were eye opening and wonderful. Even after years of knitting, I learned a LOT. I have mostly knit smaller projects this year, but I have also learned or revisited techniques, played with new yarns and learned to stretch myself.

Most importantly for me, Laura and Harry of Northcoast Knittery have really turned themselves into the knitting Dynamic Duo. There is ALWAYS something going on at the shop and the events there have become a big hub for my social life. I have a group of friends, many of whom I also now connect with via Facebook when not at the store. I have always had friends, but after several years here behind the Redwood Curtain, I really feel like I belong. 2012 promises to be more of the same--lots to do, fiberwise.

So enough waxing maudlin and time to get pragmatic. In looking over my blog, I found an old 2008 post of those projects I was ABSOLUTELY going to get done that year. Frankly, I finished none of them. I won't even list them in this post. Not worth it. I know what they are. They still need to get done, but what I really want is to reconnect with the JOY of my knitting craft.

I started a shawl a few weeks ago. It was a new pattern I got from NCK, done by their resident designer. I have knitted on of her projects before, and her designs are very interesting. I am not sure yet if anyone else has knit it, so there are no errata yet. I was dutifully trying to muddle through as it was a somewhat challenging knit and just yesterday had an epiphany. 36 rows in, I ripped it all out. Frogged. Rip it, rip it, rip it. Why? Because I was NOT HAVING FUN.

Sometimes things do get tedious, such as my green cocoon, started way back in June and mentioned a couple times in this blog. Like a class paper with a due date, I have plugged along and now, I am almost done. Yes, really. I can smell the end and it will be done in time to submit to the shop. I am quite relieved, actually. I will finish something on time that I promised I would do.

The rest of my knitting is in constant flux. I recently posted on Facebook that "I have more UFO's than Area 51". It's sadly true. Some require playdates like the three bags I have the knitting done for, but need to add linings and embellishments. Some require reworking like the miserable Zarah. I now have a homemade body form of me to use. I have even looked at Zarah on it and know that I have to rip and extensively reknit the upper torso. This endeavor will also require a playdate (or more). I have another sweater that I want to redesign the sleeves and I need to finish the torso on the bodyform before I can start those sleeves--playdate. I need to do gauge swatches for new projects. finish others. I need to set up a queue of smaller things for my knitting bag; I currently have not lunchtime projects set up. In my defense in this arena, I have done all that I had set up--at least six scarves, 2 shawlettes, 2 cowls and a pair of gloves as portable projects that are all done. I am even wearing most of them. I also did a quick lace shawl at home this year. Other items I have worked on but they are part of the UFO's or have turned into "ugh" projects. Or I am just stuck. Or worse, bored with them. (can you say "Jiada"? I did actually work on that this year as well.)

So some things are good, others, stalled. I do hope to keep my focus and hit some UFO's. I really want to and I have my Ravelry project list to remind me. The are, however, other things in my queue that also clamor to be knit up. So it goes. None of this even covers my dyeing (lots to do there, too.) or the brand new spinning wheel I got recently. (Just look at the basket of roving--how cool would that look spun up??) What I really hope for is some creative satisfaction next year, projects I like and wear, that others like and wear , that I am proud of, and most of all, that I enjoyed making.

Blessings to all for prosperity in 2012 Happy New Year!!

The End of the Year

2011-12-17T14:40:00.000-08:00

The end of a year tends to trigger lots of emotion. It causes us to ponder what happened in the preceding 12 months. Often, we come smack up against occurrences that were fraught with anxiety. Sometime we even take stock of past glories. Many people tend to look forward as is the coming year means a giant do-over, a karmic get-out-of-jail free card, a fresh start.

I have tended to be this sort of person, and the new year has usually meant more to me than the inconvenience of remembering to put the proper date on bills and correspondence. I also admit that the onset of middle age has triggered the tendency to feel like time is rocketing by faster and faster. This year has been no exception.

As you grow older, you tend to accumulate things. Sometimes these things are material items, sometimes they are experiences, memories and wisdom. Sometimes these things are scars. The milestones change as one ages. As a child, years are marked by education, advancing through school grades, getting taller and/or bigger, growing more independent and capable. This trend continues through young adulthood: old enough to drive, old enough to vote, old enough to have sex, old enough to drink. The milestones are big, too. Graduating from school, starting to work, leaving home, getting married, having babies, getting divorced, changing careers. The material goods and memories expand: buying a car, a house, a pricey vacation, raising a family.

I have experienced a chunk of the things above. Not all, but a goodly chunk. I am not fond of some of the changes I am going through as I experience middle age: new aches and pains, less stamina and the feeling that windows in my life are starting to close as age negates opportunities. Still, I take stock of what I HAVE done both in the previous 12 months and in my life in general and I have done OK. I have a career, friends and have, in my smallish and local way, seen some nifty chunks of the world. I have seen things. I do watch out for fun, new experiences. I am not a wealthy person, but I have made decent use of my time.

One of my sadnesses of this year was the death of my mother. This is a milestone we don't tend to talk about above the tone of a whisper in this society. It's a big loss for me, although it was not unexpected. Still, Mom hadsome near misses mortality-wise and I did hope she might dodge the 2011 bullet. No such luck. I miss you Mom. I really do.

This has finally really lit a fire of "this can and will be me at some point" in my psyche. My Little Blog that Nobody Reads has chronicled mostly my knitting journey, but also has included some of my local adventures. I haven't posted so much of late for various reasons, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy.

I have finally reverse engineered a sweater I knit in the mid '90's and startedwriting up the pattern. I am very proud of this project in that it has been something I have MEANT to do for ages and never seemed to get around to doing. I have other knitting designs on the slate, but this was a colossal UFO, in that I made the sweater and never wrote it it. I can take the "incomplete" off my karmic transcript.

My project page on Ravelry has been the same way. I have more UFO's than Area 51 and it has become rather embarrassing. I am also finding that the process of digging through partly done knitwear is tedious. So too is the guilt of not finishing a handful of items promised to friends and family. The completion of my Green Thing referred to in the previous paragraph will be a huge relief. There are things I want to knit, but the pleasure is sapped by the anxiety of things I HAVE to do superseding things I WANT to do.

I have decided this year not to make a list of resolutions. Too much guilt when and if they go undone. I want to try and not feel over committed, but to take things a layer at a time, and FINISH things. I want to simplify and to reconnect with the pleasure of the process. For so many activities, if the process is not fun, then the finished project loses luster and becomes a burden--sometimes an incomplete burden--that contributes to clutter, frustration and irritation.

I watched my ailing mother struggle with being bored and overwhelmed at the end of her life. She did have some pleasure with a few friends at the end, but mostly she was ill and lonely. I know my end will come in time, but I want to face the second half of my life with aplomb and even enthusiasm. My knitting is my passion. I have learned a lot in the last few years about knitting, adding to my knowledge base in leaps and bounds. It feels good that I will soon add "designer" to my fiber resume. I can do this and I will do it. Happy New Year to all and sundry and onward 2012!

Tying Up Loose Ends

2011-11-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

I have a couple of decorative urn baskets that sit next to my usual place on the couch. They contain yarn I want to keep on the surface of my stash and projects that are mostly done. I have had a tendency of late to ignore the contents.

I had a spare moment this morning before darling P woke up so I sat with my coffee and my crochet hook and wove in the ends of my orange Citron shawl I finished casting off the night before. I have received a lot of ribbing lately from my knitmates of the weekly sip and knit I attend.

"You never seem to FINISH anything. We see you working on stuff but we never see you WEAR it."

That is rather a fair cop, although this Summer was rather too warm for even scarves this year. Still, Sweater Weather is now truly here and all those scarves and cowls and shawls I made this year have simply languished with ends unwoven and unblocked. I therefore spent the last hour and a half weaving in the ends of no less that 6 projects. Yikes! Some of them I can throw on now, but most I would still like to wash and block them. At least now I CAN.

I am, by nature, a procrastinator. This trait is demonstrated by the Green Thing, as it has come to be know. This is a project for the upcoming Northcoast Knittery book that the shop has put it's regulars to working on. I have gone to an every-other-week meeting to discuss, advise and get inspired for months now. My design has pootled along at a dribbly pace, and again, I have taken some gentle knitmate razzing. "What is this you are doing? Why aren't you working on the Green Thing?" OK. I need to make progress. I have, but my progress comes in chunks and then I set it all down and work on other stuff.

Admittedly, I do need to have little things in my knit bag that goes to work with me--things I don't have to think about, just knit on. That is a legitimate reason to have other things on the needles. Still, I have not spent much time knitting at home these recent evenings and I need to. Less Facebook, more knitting.

Still, the more I looked at my Ravelry project list with the items stacking up at 95% complete the more I was feeling bogged down. Hence this morning's Flurry of Finishing. It's raining now, so I really need a break of dry weather to block, but there should be a window tomorrow and I can block things a few at a time until they are done. Then I can wear them!

On that note, I need to work on the Green Thing.

2011-10-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

vs.

equals

I have a metaphorical coronary.

Cappuccino is totally unhurt and unfazed.

Guerilla Harvest

2011-10-08T12:29:00.001-07:00

Autumn is here. The rain has already started for the season, early enough that long-time Northcoasters are saying: "Rain sure is EARLY this year."

I have two apple trees in my backyard. They are old trees, and I have no idea what varieties they are--some Gravenstein-y looking types. The tend to ripen sequentially (which is good when processing fruit tree produce, believe me!). The first is ripe. Not a huge harvest because my pole pruner broke last Winter halfway through Winter tree topping. The places I pruned produced some nice sized fruit. The upper unpruned areas have small apples, but they are way too high for me to get. I might catch some droppage. Note to self--GET A NEW POLE PRUNER...

I have just gone out and scooped up the reachable apples before the next rain comes. The way the clouds rolled in this morning, that will be soon. Ugh. Guess I need to make some pies for freezing tonight and tomorrow...

I really had incentive this year to get the fruit off the tree. We had a party in our backyard recently. Not one we arranged and not one we wanted. I am talking a Procyon lotor party. That would be "common raccoon" to us normal folks. And that gathering wasn't just some casual get-together; it was a full-on frat party. My neighbor next door said they had him up all all night while the stomped around on his roof. I heard nothing, myself, but I noticed the next morning that the cat food was gone, the water was all full of mushy kibble and that the open back had been gotten into. "Strange", I thought. "The girls don't eat like that! And that was a new bag. Why is so much gone?" Well, a check in the back corner of the yard showed me. I found a pile of poop. It looked like dog poop at first and I thought "How the HELL did a dog get into our yard?!" The I noticed what looked like blackberries in the poop. The I found another pile. And another. and another. And another. I stopped counting at nine piles of feces, went inside and googled "racoon scat". I got a barrage of images that looked suspiciously like the piles in my backyard.

Groovy.

My cats are getting up there--15 years old and are quite cream-puffy to begin with. No tough tabbies here! I also didn't want my expensive designer cat food becoming the neighborhood smorgasbord. (I use Wysong feline vitality, primarily because it is well rated, the girls like it and even more important, Cappuccino doesn't barf when she eats it. Nothing like groggily stepping barefoot in a pile of cold cat puke early in the morning!)

Jekyll and Hyde: That cute face is not so cute when challenged!

The best way, I think to roll up the welcome mat in my yard is to remove the food sources. I do have a compost bin along the back fence, and I need to dump some grass on top of the contents--a task I will do in a bit. I don't want to trap the animals at this point. A lot of county animal control agencies will take the beasties and euthanize them. I also don't want to handle them myself. Adult racoons can be BIG and are quite adept at defending themselves.
For now, we will try that, along with pruning out the foliage so they have less cover. Nothing like pest control incentive!

UPDATE: I just chatted with my neighbor and his duck Guiseppe had a near miss. My neighbor went mano a mano with Rocky Raccoon, armed with a beer bottle. The duck is OK, but the raccoon was not only unfazed, but unafraid. The pack later lined up on his fence and peered at him through his bedroom window. This is getting a little too Stephen King, here!

Merrily We Knit-a Long...

2011-10-02T14:40:00.001-07:00

After a long blog dry spell, at last a post. I have not posted much due to a dead camera. I never much care for all text blog posts. Still, this can be done with swiped images.

I have a couple of firsts-- two-fer, in fact. I am FINALLY doing my first Knit-a-Long and Mystery shawl. The shawl is Koi Rama by Kitman Figueroa. Kitman Figeroa is a knitting designer, primarily of shawls, and I have admired her work for quite while now. I have meant to make one of her designs for at least a year and a half, but have been distracted. My Ravelry queue has several of her designs and I even have yarn in my stash.
The picture from the Ravelry design page is this of a carp and a butterfly and is supposed to represent the spirit of the piece. There are no other indicators of what the finished shawl will look like. She gave no clues or swatches, but I have little doubt, based on her other work, that the end result will be pleasing. Kitman also has asked participants to use this image and not post progress pics until the shawl is finished. This project is, indeed, to be a mystery shawl. She announced her KAL a couple weeks ago, and the price to join was discounted for early birds, and being and eternal bargain-hunter, I bit. I am a sucker for a sale and honestly I have wanted to participate in a KAL. Ihave had several false starts, but I have already prepped everything and will cast on after I post this on my blog.

I was fairly certain that I had to have something in my stash that I could use for this and I was right. I bought a skein of Sanguine Gryphon Sappho I laceweight in a colorway called "All Can Be Endured". It was an impulse purchase and I am pleased that I found something I can use it for. I have had a naughty tendency to buy yarn in appealing hand-dyed yarns without having a project lately; this tendency is a really bad habit to fall into, given the current indie dyer choices out there. The skein has 850 yards, so I have a generous amount based on the yarn requirements, although the pattern does suggest that extra yardage might be needed for loose gauge knitters. That would be me.
The colors are all greens and teals with a hint of gold. The knitted swatch is more representative of what my skein looks like. I was wooed by the skein image when I bought the yarn, think the goldy-orange would be more prominent. I must cop to being a tad disappointed when the yarn arrived because my skein had no real orange. It was more gold than orange and the gold was very subtle. For this project, though, I think the colors will work well. It looks like a pond under trees with flashes of gold sunlight and golden koi carp moving in the shadows.

There are optional beads and I chose #8 seed beads in golden topaz to match the color of the yarn. The beads are transparent so the greenish yarn shows through. The beads are strung on, rather than slipped on while knitting via crochet hook while knitting. The shawl doesn't call for a lot of beads. The first clue came Friday and only calls for 204 beads, so they will give a quiet flash rather than drive the piece.

Well, I am excited to start and this shawl will not knit itself. Hopefully, I will have a camera by the time I am done and I will post finished pics. Knit on, baby!

Startitis

2011-06-19T12:28:00.001-07:00

I thought this would be an easy project, a no-brainer, a piece of cake. I was wrong.

I am working on reverse engineering a sweater I made in the early to mid '90's out of a mohair muff of Patons Knit n' Save. Knit n' Save was literally a giant single skein of yarn about the size of a watermelon of the uiquitous late '80's-early '90's fluffy mohair that was prevalent in most design books. I found it at a yarn store in Calistoga, CA. Each ball purported to have enough yardage to make a whole sweater, and it was cheap--good since I was fairly poor in those days. No Rowan yarn for me, then! I bought two big muffs of the stuff, each in an ombred colors, one in blues and greens, the other in reds and fushia pinks.

I used the blue green yarn to make a the ball-band pattern that claimed to take one skein and the result was a huge floppy, fluffy mock neck pullover with a giant center cable. I still have it, but it is prohibitively warm and scratchy, so that sweater languishes even still, destined to be frogged and repurposed.

The second skein I wanted to do something more special. I loved the colors and how they faded into one another immensely. I wanted to make a sweater, but the more I looked, the more I didn't want to cut the yarn. In those days there was no Ravelry. In fact, for my purposes, there was even no internet. I had already gotten a decent pattern library by this time, but there was nothing in my books that suited my purpose, so I did something bold: I made my own design.

I had the idea that I would use the whole ball of yarn. I didn't like the looser weave of the first sweater I had made--done on large needles, perhaps a size 9 or 10. I wanted a denser fabric. So I boldly cast on, deciding to knit cuff to cuff and seamless and off I went. I fit the sweater to myself as I went and tweaked the shaping as the knitting progressed. I remember frogging and reknitting parts, but mostly it went smoothly. The result was a cuff to cuff sweater somewhere between a bolero and a shrug. I had some bblack mohair yarn in my stash, so I co-opted an 8-row welt stitch I had used in another same-era sweater and put a binding around the neck/fronts/waist opening and also around each cuff. I was out of the original red yarn, but I had some other red mohair from the same sweater as the black, so I added some rows of red and another welt. I also added the same red/black welt along the neck back and sides. Lastly, I put two sewn in black snaps at the waist to close, double breasted style. The result was this:

I was quite pleased with how this turned out. The fabric is nice and dense. It is a warm sweater, but not heavy or oversized. It is easy to wear and I have worn it over dresses and jeans. And it was MY design. I foolishly didn't make ANY notes of what I did or how I did it. I had always meant to and meant also to draft it into a pattern that I could redo. As the years progressed and I saw other designers drawing up their patterns the desire to write mine up grew, even as my memory of what I did dimmed.

I have never liked to write much, even though I have done a lot of writing due to the Literature half of my college major. (Biology being the other half.) I have been told that I write well by people who read my stuff, though don't hold your breath for the Great American Novel. It'll never happen. I have though about writing knitting patterns or even pattern books for years. I have had design ideas that lack of time or laziness has caused me to not follow through on. In the long run, I have really found it easier to just truck along using someone else's designs ,even if I do tend to tweak those patterns to suit my own tastes in one form or another.

Still, there was always this sweater--my cocoon sweater--that was a completed project, that I really liked and that I had made up on my own. Now I have a motivation. My favorite shop here in town--Northcoast Knittery-- has set its regulars a challenge: they want us to submit designs for a self-published book. My jaw hit the floor when they made the announcement and I was BEYOND excited. I could do this! I--little old me--could become a published knitwear designer! Wow! It was obvious to me where to start--my cocoon. The only sticking point was I needed to choose a yarn that the store sells and that was still available for purchase--nothing discontinued. I picked my yarn, proposed my design which the others in our every-other-Tuesday designer group meetings said looked great and...nothing. I simply have not been able to get started. Yeesh.

Just as it was in college, I am dawdling. I cannot begin to tell you all how many papers I sat on and wrote, with great anxiety, at the last minute. It was AWFUL. I was always stressed. In going back to school a few years back, I tried harder not to procrastinate like I used to and I was moderately successful. Still, I find with no deadlines, I just can't self motivate to work. And here I am: procrastinating, this time by blogging. Or maybe not.

I ran a marathon in 1998. When I started training, I told EVERYONE I knew I was doing that. In the end, that served as a motivator of sorts because I was CONSTANTLY asked how my training was going and I was damned well not going to give up and admit that I couldn't do the race. I am on the hook the same way now--and I have homework. I have yarn and it has been wound up into center pull cakes. My old sweater is by my side and my laptop ready for notes. I can do this...watch me go!

NMITS

2011-03-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

Textile people, like all technically minded folk, tend to use a lot of jargon. Each discipline has its associated terminology that tends to make auslanders scratch their heads in bewilderment or cringe with the idea that they are excluded. The words are a foreign language to these non-doers.I remember early on in my previous life working as a lab biologist feeling rather lost and ill at ease with each new research project until I learned the "code". Knitting is the same, as is crochet, dyeing, weaving, and spinning. People use mysterious words like "blocking" and "gauge", "mordant" and "oxidation", "shed" and "heddle", "carding" and "staple". These terms all mean something to the crafters who pursue these activities.

Charts for knitting are no exception. For some types of knitting, such as lace, there are weird hieroglyphics, each pertaining to a particular stitch. Written instructions for charts such as these are not much better. The stitches are abbreviated into acronyms such as SSK. K2tog, PSSO, M1, YO, etc.The internet has caused the phenomenon of acronyms to blossom, even outside of crafts and other activities: LOL, ROFL, BRB, TTFN, etc, all have made the process of communication via a keyboard more efficient.On various craft boards, people talk about having SABLE (Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy), or LYS (Local Yarn Shop) or KAL (Knit Along). You can google "knitting acronyms" and come up with many sites that will cheerfully help define these shortcut terms.

As the handful of you who have read my blog know, I talk frequently about my yarn stash, which is very much and entity of it's own--rather more an archeological dig than mere hobby supplies. To that and I have coined what I think is a new acronym: NMITS. This stands for "Never Made It To Stash". Now, I have to say that what makes a yarn qualify for NMITS status is somewhat nebulous.

The yarn I made my sapphire capelet out of definitely qualifies, as I cast on a mere four days after I bought it, worked solidly on the project until it was finshed, and blocked it right away. The only yarn from this project that became stash is any that was leftover. Leftover yarn is a beast unto itself and I won't go into that here as I think of leftovers as a different kind of stash. Others may disagree, but will let it lie for now.

I am currently working on a quickie project called the After Hours Shawl. The shawl uses a single skein of sock yarn. I bought it last September, with every intention of doing a Knit Along with it, but didn't get around to it. Well, as of last weekend, I am. Still, six months have gone by since my purchase. Then again, I had it out, not bagged up, the skein wound into a ball, along with the accompanying beads and pattern in a project bag, ready to go at a moment's notice. In fact, it was mainly impulse that prompted me to take it up last weekend. I have also brought along on several trips as part of a "mini-queue" to start if the previous project wound up in time. So does this qualify as stash? I would say not. Then again, neither was it really a UFO (Unfinished Object), since I have not cast it on. I am choosing to label this NMITS. My true stash of recent purchase is bagged up in project bags and stored in bins. Most of it is pretty easy to get to, but not as easy as this was.

I will say that some of the yarn I have that is currently NMITS may be bagged and binned in the near future and some things I have out currently have come OUT of stash bins, but this shawl project never went to the true stash, nor did some other things in the pair of project bags I am currently working out of. Still, I am proud of myself to going to the NMITS pile recently and actually DOING a project. About 80% of the After Hours knitting is done, plus blocking. Then, of course, it will be bagged and stored until weather and occasion permit wearing the shawl, but that is another story.

Tactile

2011-03-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

I have a routine when I first walk into a yarn shop--especially one I have never visited before. I tend to immediately fixate on a color and wander over to it, pick up the skein of yarn attached to it and then proceed to wander around the store gently kneading the skein in my hands. If another color catches my eye, I may put the first skein back and continue around the store with the new yarn. I aim for a perfect mix of a yummy color and a cuddly texture. I might not even look at the skein in my hands but I feel it there. It's like holding a tribble in that it calms me and helps me focus on the racks and bins of yarn that would normally send me into sensory overload.

I do the same thing when I pursue one of my other favorite activities: beachcombing. My preferred targets are agates, but I also search for jasper, whole shells, sea glass, weird pretty rocks and once when I was very lucky, a whole glass fishing float. I will wander down the beach, head down and peering at the rocks at my feet. If one catches my eye, I will pick it up and continues my slow wandering sliding the rock through my fingers as I go.

I had a chance to experience this tactile trolling in a LYS Over President's Day weekend. The store in question is Fiber-Frolics in Benicia, CA. (note: as of this post and due to a technical difficulty, the website is currently just a bare bones site. I hope it comes back soon!) This shop is one of the most tucked away I have had to hunt out in recent memory, squirreled away as it was in the Arsenal Building on the riverfront and within sight of the Benicia-Martinez bridge. Believe me, it is WELL worth hunting out. I went in with my yarn-sistah, Q. The owner was there and greeted us warmly. The shop is not large, but they have some choice stuff.

The first thing that caught my eye was some Malabrigo Lace in color 102 "Sealing Wax". This is a color that is right up my street--a warm paprika red-orange. This pic is more saturated looking and the real skeins have more variations, but it is a close approximation. I immediately picked it up...and felt how SOFT is it. Not "soft" but "SOFT". All caps. Soft as in "I want to roll around in this in the buff" soft. Light, squishy and lofty with slight halo. If memory serves, my eyes rolled up in my head a bit. I may even drooled. I wandered around the shop groping the skein in complete yarn-lust.

Enough of the lace did follow me home for a project. This yarn is so soft, though that it really rates something more than a mere shawl. Shawls are worn OVER clothes. Nuh-uh. Not for this stuff. I have queued up this project: the Scarpetta Swea ter by Kristin Johnstone (apologies to you non-Ravelers who can't access the link. Note: Ravelry.com IS free...but you have to join to browse). I did cop this pic from the pattern page. Isn't this DREAMY? Very simple and wearable and NOT a shawl. I am not sure when I will get to this, but in anticipation, I have wound my skeins into center pull balls. I really want to do this soon.

But I digress. The rest of the shop Had some nice treasures as well. I knew I would buy, but it did become hard to choose. I opted, along with the Malabrigo lace, to get some Malabrigo sock yarn, which is often hard to find. There was also a nice selection of Koigu yarns (also something I don't see often in real life. The shop owner had some NICE triangular shawls knit up with the Koigu and displayed throughout the shop. If I had not already settled on the Malabrigo, I might have gotten some Koigu for a shawl. Lastly, I was tempted by some hand painted sock yarn that was done up by the shop folks themselves for a class. I wanted but I passed. I had to draw the line somewhere.

So I wandered in my yarn groping, tactile way, fluffing the Malabrigo and trying not to miss anything. It's a very nice shop and I hope to go back sometime, although it is not on our homing-pigeon route to the part of the SF Bay Area where my folks live.

As a side note, we also had a REALLY nice lunch at a bistro called The First Street Cafe in the very cute downtown area of Benicia. There was a wait for lunch, but once we got our food, it was apparent why.I had the chicken salad sandwich which was yummy. Walnuts, grapes, balsamic mayo and big chunks of chicken on really good artisan bread. I added a raspberry Italian soda with cream: VERY pink, but tasty. The place was full, thoughout our meal, so if you plan to eat there, be patient.

My childhood memory of Benicia is that it was very blue-collar with a navy yard a working shipping port, oil refineries nearby and really not much more than a small town. The city planners have definitely upscaled it. and the downtown is all shops and boutiques. I didn't spend much time peeking in shops, as there was no time, but between the downtown and the yarn store, I would go back.

Now back to that Malabrigo lace...

Listening and Comfort Food

2011-02-13T18:41:00.000-08:00

I had a conversation with my mom today. She is seriously ill. She has been diagnosed with cancer, and the staging process has been complicated by her other health issues. We are awaiting one more test, but the wait is agony. She has had several false starts, but cannot have a PET scan until her blood sugar is under control. This is not just a problem, it is an big issue.

Mom + Insulin Pen = Epic Fail.

So, my bro and I from a long way away, equidistant north and south are trying to do things from a distance. Mom has a good friend, local to her who has been taking her to appointments and watching out for her. (The woman is a saint in my book!) Still, as the medical contact, I am getting calls from Home Health, County Adult Protective Services and various social workers. They all are telling me what NEEDS to be done. Frankly, I want to tear my hair out. Mom is a mess and she can't take care of herself, but has refused most of the services offered to her. She gets pissy defensive and stubborn when confronted. One social worker said I should threaten her with a nursing home in order to convince her to accept help. Ha. As if.

They are all making broad hints that mom should be declared incompetent and put into conservatorship. Yikes. Well, frankly, she is not nuts or incompetent, she just "prefers not to" deal with it in a most Bartleby the Scrivener fashion. As much as this irks me (understatement), it is her choice. I grit my teeth and think "What can I DO??!". Well, today, Mom told me. I phoned her just to check in and she said, in the course of the conversation "your calling means a lot to me and it makes me feel supported".

Well, there it is. She has finally expressed something she wants--to be called. I provide health care to cancer patients and I promised myself, when she was diagnosed, I would not be one of those annoying family members, who browbeat Mom with what I thought she needed which really was what I wanted her to have done. It's about her, not me. I knew all these things from a distance, but it is damned hard to live this concept when someone you love is ill. She has been reticent to express her desires as far as her treatment has gone, but has gone docilely to her appointments. While I am not very hopeful of the outcome, we have slim hope. And while I wish she were more aggressive in fighting this and active in the decision making process, I need to respect her space. Still and finally, I have a starting point. I can do this. I can call her and be calm and loving over the phone, and let her chart her own course, even if it is one of withdrawal. The question is, can I keep my sanity while this is going on? I will still field phone calls from various social services and health people telling me what NEEDS to happen, but I need to learn to detach from them emotionally, while staying emotionally connected to my mom.

In the meantime, I am going bonkers over all this. In the interest of calming down, today, I made stew, despite the gorgeous weather. It is supposed to rain tomorrow and there will be leftovers to enjoy all cozy while the storm rages outside.

I got this recipe from my dad who clipped it out of the newspaper several years ago. It was originally supposed to be served in a baked, whole pumpkin, but that is a hassle, so I added chunks of pumpkin to the stew. I also added carrots and potatoes because, to me, stew seems lacking without them.

Pumpkin Beef Stew

3 pounds boneless chuck trimmed of fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 cups chopped onion
2 cups chopped green pepper
1 cup diced celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons light olive oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon ground thyme
1/2 cup dry red wine (optional)
2 cups beef broth, preferably homemade
2 cups 1-inch cubed, peeled pumpkin
2 cups cooked fresh green beans
2 cups canned diced, fire roasted tomatoes
2 cups 1 inch cubed carrots
2 cups 1 inch cubed potatoes

In a heavy, 10- to l2-inch skillet, brown the beef, onion, green pepper, celery and garlic in the oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Pour off excess oil. Stir in tomato paste, salt, pepper, bay leaf, thyme, optional red wine and the beef broth. (I add the wine)

Place stew in a covered casserole or kettle and bake in a preheated 325-degree oven 1 1/2 hours. After 1 hour, add tomatoes. 30 minutes later, add the squash, green beans, pumpkin, carrots and potatoes. Return to oven for 20 to 30 minutes or until beef is tender and squash is cooked.

This makes for a stew with a lot of sauce. You can thicken it at the end, by removing 1/2 cup and making a roux with 1/4 cup flour and returning to cook for the last 15 minutes. Serve with bread.

I prefer Brio bread, baked locally. I am totally addicted to the stuff--all varieties, but especially the rustic italian and the kalamata olive bread. YUM!

Goodbye Gabriel

2011-02-02T19:39:00.000-08:00

Gabriel: April 15, 1984-Feb 2 2011

Gabriel was a cockatiel. He died today, sometime during the day. I went to check him just before supper this evening and he was lying on the bottom of his cage, gone, cold and stiff, so he must have died quite sometime before. My husband checked him this morning and he was OK, but mostly quiet. He was acting quite frail the last few days, so this was not unexpected, but he didn't seem acutely ill. He was old but, still, it hurts.

In 1984, I got it into my head that I wanted a bird. I was still in college and I thought a bird would work as a dorm/apartment pet. I got Gabriel from one of my father's junior high students who raised cockatiels. I had thought I wanted a conure, but since Dad had a bird connection I ended up with a male cockatiel. He was grey--not a fancy bird at all. I got him sight unseen and he was about 3 months old when I got him. The receipt said he hatched in April (I arbitrarily assigned Tax Day as his birthday.), clutched by Long John, a male with one leg, out of Clinger.

I was taking Summer School Organic Chemistry when I got my new pal and was also housesitting for a professor and his family who were away. They had a large house and a menagerie of animals, so Gabe (or "Reeb" as I came to call him) fit right in. He was standoffish when I got him, but I spent a lot of time with him including studying with his cage by me every afternoon, so we bonded. He wanted me and only me, most of his life. It is flattering to have a critter show such preference. It really is--especially one so wonderful as Gabriel.

He never really "spoke" in the true sense. More rather, he sang words and phrases. He said his name (Gabriel), c'mere! (come here), a noise that sounded like "coyleap!", meowed like a cat made a sneeze noise when I sneezed, copied the sound when I snapped my fingers, made a high pitched chicken like "buck buck ba-KAWK" noise, a couple of odd trills, a little whispered noise like "geeba geeba geeba geeba!", a purr noise, a cardinal bird whistle, some tooth sucking noises that copied me, a hunter's call and a BAD rambling version of "Pop Goes the Weasel" that was recognizable, but only barely. There were other random noises he made and he liked to talk.

He hated most men except one male roommate in 1986 and my husband, whom he took to right away. He could be crabby and bratty and loved, as a young bird, to walk around and bite holes in my textbooks like a conductor punching a ticket. I kept his wings unclipped and he like to fly around the room and to wherever I was, greet me and then stroll around biting books and papers. He was small for a cockatiel and quite skinny all of his life. I tried feeding him well, but he chose to subsist on vitamin fortified seed--the Big Mac of the bird world.

He was a healthy little critter until he was 23 when he began to have eye infections that seemed to clear up once I started adding extra vitamins to his water. Really I tried to push a better diet on him early on, but he rejected most fresh food. I worried about this, but he lived to be almost 27 years old, so I guess I did alright by him. When he went to the vet (for the first time ever at 23) and I told her how old he was she blinked and said she had never treated a cockatiel over 12 years old.

I will miss the way he would shift his eyes from the side to the front-- his "I am an eagle" look. I will miss how his beak made him always look like he was smiling. I will miss how he talked to himself. I will miss how he would talk when I covered his cage as if he were saying: "just one more minute, Mom!" I will miss his relentless curiosity. I will miss how he would bite my glasses, try to pick at my teeth or unhook my earrings--anything shiny was fun! I will miss how he begged to have his head and jaw rubbed. I will miss how he would whistle along with the T.V. when someone would sing or whistle. I will miss watching him play in the shower and how he loved to be sprayed with water and blown dry after ( on the cool setting, of course!). I will miss that he loved to talk to my feet as if they were his peers--they were more his size. And I will miss most that he really showed that he loved me, and wanted nothing more than to hang out with me.

He was a great little companion and I loved him dearly. His passing will leave a HUGE hole in my life, since I had him for the bulk of my adult life. I had almost convinced myself that he would last forever considering how long he lived. I am not planning on getting another bird. I can't imagine a better winged critter than Gabriel. He was a really cute, affectionate and clever creature with an enormous personality. Goodbye my little friend. I will miss you!!

End of the Season

2010-11-21T17:59:00.000-08:00

I have been a bad blogger of late. I have had lots to post about, but haven't taken the time to do so.
I have, in the last few weeks, done the following:

1) successfully hunted for chanterelle mushrooms
2) gone to see Benjamin Bagby's "Beowulf"
3) made a duct tape bodyform of my own torso
4) inventoried a large chunk of my knitting projects

...and much more!

I finally decided I needed to share something, so I am sharing this:

Meet Henny Penny. She is a Shakefork Farm free range chicken, all dressed and ready for roasting. I am smelling her roast even as I compose this post. Henny is lying on a bed of purple sunchokes that were first tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper. She is stuffed with chestnut dressing--my variation on the dressing from the 1975 edition of "The Joy of Cooking".

Chestnut Dressing:

1 lb chestnuts, peeled and chopped
1 cup dry bread cubes
2/3 cup chopped celery
1 small yellow onion, chopped
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup whole milk yogurt
chopped giblets
chicken stock
salt pepper
butter
olive oil

Saute giblets, celery and onion in olive oil until onion is translucent. Add chestnuts and bread cubes, and toss to coat. Add poultry seasoning, white wine and stock to moisten. Add yogurt and parsley and mix well. Add a lump of butter (about 2 tbsp) and mix well. This will make the dressing taste richer. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stuff your birdie!

Henny is all golden and tasty and resting prior to carvage. Free range goodness! YUM!!

And for dessert: late season watermelon with lime and a sprinkling of paprika. Refreshing!

Rainy Day Blues

2010-09-18T14:12:00.001-07:00

It's drippy today. The rains have come early to HumCo this year and that has left me a little grumpy, especially since the weather was wet through June this year. The upshot? We had no Summer on the North Coast.

Add a migraine onto today and I am in the dumps a bit, bored with Facebook, but too fractured to do something useful like housework or knitting or dyeing. I am in the mood to blog though, since it has been 6 weeks since my last post. I don't have much useful to say at the moment, but I have a queue of things coming up.

The first is the upcoming Franklin Habit workshop at Northcoast Knittery. Franklin will be the first bona fide knitterati I have ever met. I have known some fine knitters in my time, but mostly they were "just regular folks" in that they didn't publish, blog or otherwise exist within radar range. I am taking a photography workshop from Mr. Habit with the hope that I can beef up my skills in photographing my own projects for display. Like most famous knitters, Franklin's fame comes in the rarefied small world atmosphere of the knitting world and therefore he has a "day job", so to speak. I am very excited about the workshop, let me tell you! It is going to be a good time. I even bought one of Franklin's books so I can get a signature. I usually confine my autograph seeking to Chris Isaak (I have his signature on 4 CD's, a t-shirt and a ticket stub), but I figure this is a fun opportunity.

Also waiting to be implemented, I finally got a decent bagful of wolf lichen to dye some yarn with. My recent moth problems forced me to organize my stash, and now I know where my dyeable yarn is. The sample from this lichen I saw at last Winter's local Mushroom Fair were a cool lime green, even with varying mordants. I saw thee samples and recognized the lichen right away. It is rampant growing in the Sierra Nevada and California Cascade mountains, usually at higher altitudes. A recent trip to Lassen National Park allowed me to gather a good amount (not IN the park, mind you. I don't think that's legal) near the house I was staying at and at a convenient rest area. I have subsequently learned, however, that wolf lichen is poisonous in quantity, so I will definitely use gloves and caution. I gathered it with bare hands, but if I do so again, I will bring gloves.

I have a lot of other things to dye with as well, when I finally get my act together: re alder bark, dock root an avocado skins. Our buddleia bloomed early and weirdly, so I missed that this year. It is a medium purple and should yield yellows and/or greens. Next year I'll be ready.

My knitting is going forward slowly. I have more UFO's than I can count and they keep piling up. I knit to a stuck point and move on to something easier without finishing the preceding project. Bad me, but it's a hard habit to break. Still, I need to finish something an on that not, I'll close out this post. Ciao!

Dirty Laundry

2010-06-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

This post is particularly painful to make, in light of my recent posts about stashcavation. It's scary and a bit embarrassing; this admission is the fiberista equivalent of admitting you have head lice. I found moths in my closet Friday. Yep. Moths. I am not sure how long they have been there, and it started a frantic decloseting Saturday. (the delay caused by unbreakable plans that kept me busy until about 3 PM.) In between times I was frantically reading about clothes moths and figuring out what I needed to do. The bottom line? They are easy to deal with and yet persistent which will make for hawk-like vigilance from here on out. I have had more than 20 blithe moth-free years, but no more. Things need to be cleaned, properly stored and also taken out and aired regularly. Ugh.

Then again, maybe this is a GOOD thing. I need to get back in touch with what I own--I am a hoarder. Not just yarn, but vintage cashmere sweaters, vintage coats and nice clothes. It's time to address those beloved items that might not fit anymore or that I don't love so much as I thought I did. Time to go bye-bye!

In the mean time, I have yanked all my woolens out of the closet and am trying to find creative ways to clean, remove any possible eggs, prep and store. What I have found so far:

1) Moth larvae prefer soiled garments, so clean items are less vulnerable.
2) 120 degrees for 30 minutes will kill larvae and eggs.
3) Freezing items for 72 hours or more and then slowly thawing will kill larvae and eggs.
4) larvae and eggs are relative easy to dislodge by brushing or shaking the garment.
5) Moths don't like light.
6) Egg laden female moths crawl onto garments, rather than flying.
7) Larvae can live for quite a while, to you have to be patient and vigilant.
8) Just cleaning the garments is not enough. You also need to clean the storage area--wash the wood, vacuum, get all dust up and discard the vacuum cleaner bag. My mom had a trick when I was a kid using a vacuum on pests; she would spray Raid into the vacuum so it was sucked up in the bag. This kills the critters without putting pesticide on every surface. I plan to do this, since I am also rather nervous about overuse of bug spray.
9) dry cleaning will kill larvae and eggs. Obviously, dry cleaning yarn is out of the question. In fact, I ruled dry cleaning out because A) I have enough stuff to deal with that it would be PROHIBITIVELY expensive, and B) I am more an more iffy about the chemicals used for dry cleaning, so I use the process sparingly. I tend to clean my garments by had unless they need strain treatment. So not really an option for me except for maybe suits or coats.

I only have a tiny freezer in my garage and the one above my fridge, so freezer space is limited, so that is not such a useful option. We need to buy a freezer, but don't currently have garage space, so I will need to make some room. I will put some yarn there, since balls and skeins are tuckable.

Sweaters can be washed, so I have shaken out and inspected one batch, let it sit in our greenhouse porch in the sun for a day (at 95-100 degrees) and the first batch of 6-7 sweaters in soaking in Eucalan in the washing machine right now. I plan an hour soak.

I looked into dryer temperatures and found out that the average household dryer on high blows out air at about 175^oC or 347^oF. It's not that the dryer is AT that temp, but the ambient temperature would be well above 120^oF. This is great for washing collateral, washables, but iffy for woolens.

Still, I did try an experiment. I had some yarn stash in this closet as well, and it was my more precious yarn. (Silly me, thinking it would be safer in the closet!). The yarn in question was some balls of Noro Kureyon. I slipped off the ball bands and put them dry in a garment bag and tumbled them for an hour. Not for the faint of heart, let me tell you! The yarn fared way better than I thought. maybe a teeny bit felty, but there was almost no lint in the trap. In the first batch, several balls unwound quite a bit, and it took HOURS to untangle them, but I secured the second batch better and it came out fine. I am now quite confident that I can pack the yarn away critter free. The balls are currently in ziplocks and I taped the ball bands with color and lot number on the outside, in case those weren't totally clean, although I looked them over. It's a scary option, but doable.

If only I had warmer or a cabinet that was at 120^oF, I could avoid all this...WAIT! Perhaps I do! It is Summer, and although I am on the foggy coast, the last 2 days have been sunny. The Summertime warning for pets and children in closed cars are everywhere, so why not cook my yarn and woolens! last I checked, the car temp was 105^oF, and I have two bins of woolies baking in the back seat. It's easy and worth a try, I say. Cook you nasty moths!! I definitely suggest this as an option to those in warm climes with the same problems.

Nevertheless, this is going to be a big job. Wish me luck!

Stashcavation

2010-05-29T13:47:00.001-07:00

My yarn stash is a common blog topic for me. I boast about, rant about, wonder at and despair over my stash at regular intervals. The "my stash is so big I have too more yarn than I can knit before I die" lament is a subject many fiber fiends talk about. We discuss it amongst ourselves at gatherings on a regular basis; if you were a non-knitting fly on the wall at any knitting group, you would hear this for yourself. Now, I use the word "lament" earlier with a very large grain of salt. I (and most knitters) may lament about stash, but we are also proud of our cache of fiber. If you have been stashing long enough, there are yarn gems in there that make other knitters drool. I have several.

When eBay was more a big garage sale than a retail outlet, I went through a Noro phase and acquired several bags of various gorgeous Noro yarns that are now unavailable. I also have the original Alice Starmore yarns to knit up several older designs that would make Starmore aficionados swoon. I have a stash of Berroco Europa colors that I scoped for for cheap prices, a mound of Annabel Fox cotton chenille, loads of angora yarn (mostly ACA supreme and Anny Blatt) and various other goodies too numerous to mention. I glaze over at the thought...

...then I trip over another falling bag of yarn leaping out of a closet and curse a blue streak.

Thus I have coined a new fiber word: "STASHCAVATION", aka stash-excavation. It means what it sounds like; you peel away layers of your stash as they surface. There are things in my stash I KNOW I want to knit and soon, but I can't find them. I have the pattern, but can't knid the yarn or needles. I have all but a couple balls of yarn, but no budget at the moment to buy more. I have yarn and needles, but no pattern. On and on--you get my drift. I have turned my attention with some real seriousness to the various UFO's and those projects that I have all the parts for. I have made to-do lists in the past, which I now consider useless because I can't find parts to go forward with the various projects on them.

I have finished a shawl that now needs blocking (and I can't find my blocking boards). Another shawl is almost done. I have started a purse, because I have all the parts. I Actually finished the back for the Jiada sweater I have posted about here in the past. Even with that, I now think I need another couple of balls of main color yarn, that I need to mail order. Still, I am making forward progress. Finished pieces that need to be blocked sewn or felted are going on another pile separate from virgin stash.

Then again, my dyed stash is growing, too...

UFO's and a Long Awaited Post

2010-04-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not such a long awaited post. My tiny handful of followers has likely given up on me. I have spent a goodly chunk of blogging time on Facebook, of late, rather than collecting myself to post here, which takes more thought and more work. Lazy lazy lazy.

I have not been idle, either. Last weekend, P and I accompanied a colleague to the newly dubbed "secret spot" to hunt for abalone. Actually J dove and P and I tidepooled, beach combed and shouted encouragement. J got a big'un--9.75 inches and split it with us. We also gathered mussels and that Sunday, ate a feast of mussel chowder and lightly cooked abalone, which was simply pounded, sliced thin and cooked in puro olive oil for about 30 seconds a side. It was perfect!

I have also been dyeing: saffron, mustard flowers, camellia blossoms, walnut husks and pieris flowers, all to interesting effect. I have full intentions of posting pictures, but I fall so far behind that catching up becomes too cumbersome to contemplate. I have accumulated dyestuffs, but have lost some things as well because I didn't get to them in time. I am mordanting yarn as I type this to make ready for the onions skins, dock root, red alder bark, avocado skins and eucalyptus leaves that are waiting. There are more things, as well, but they have slipped my mind.

Then there is the knitting: I have been excavating my stash and trying to finish projects since work has been slow to utter tedium. (make hay, etc. We can get busy in a heartbeat there.) This year so far, I have finished 2 pairs of socks (my first), done most of a scarf and most of a shawl. I have also started pulling out UFO's, with despair. Many require presence of mind to get going and large uninterrupted chunks of time have been few lately. I have things I WANT to work on, but I can't find some major component or other, so I am doing what I can with what I have. It's a bit of an unsatisfying way to craft, but I keep hoping I will find things as I go along and catch up.

This is a sad little post, in a way--rather as fragmented as my activities right now--fitting things here and there--but it's whaat I can handle as I peel away the layers, so to speak.

Alum water is boiling...off to mordant!

It's About Time!!

2010-01-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

OK. I have not posted since October. Shame on me!! It's not like I haven't had things to post about--September trip to Washington and Oregon, yet more dyeing, knitting, Christmas, growing my first mushroom kit, another trip to Oregon (can we all say "Voodoo Doughnut"?)--the list goes on.

Why the silence? Sheepishly, I have to admit the main culprit (since I am feeling like passing the buck) is Facebook. Yep, I am hooked. Farmville, Mafia Wars and best of all reconnecting with friends and family. Still, it has taken much time away from other things, such as this sad, lonely little blog.

I hope to post some more in the near future. I should have some indoor time since outdoors, things are supposed to look like this for the next two weeks:

We are already making up for rainfall, weather wise, and are above seasonal normal. This should keep me more house bound and therefore in a line for posting. Also, Mafia Wars is finally starting to get a bit boring...

Some dye pics to post soon include lichen, marigolds, eucalyptus leaves, and YUMMY chocolate brown from walnut hulls, so stay tuned!

Raspberries!

2009-10-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I have come to the end of this round of dyeing with one last fling. A fruit fling, no less. I decided that my Big Bin o' Natural Dye Yarn needed some pink, so after poking through my books, I decided to try raspberries.

Now, I know that there are other tried-and-true methods of getting pink: cochineal and brazilwood. I worked with cochineal this Summer and it does give pink, but what I got was a more mauve-y/lavender-y pink. Brazilwood apparently gives a truer pink, but it has become very hard to get. As much as I'd like to try it, I am a bit nervous at the thought of using it and contributing to the loss of trees. I don't know if it has been overharvested or if it has become collateral damage from rainforest deforestation, but without more research into ecological correctness the matter, I am hanging back. Dharma Trading Company has none for sale and I count that as a dubious sign.

One of my dyeing books, however, has an easy recipe for dyeing with blackberries. That got me thinking about using other berries, such as raspberries. I had one skein of Lamb's Pride left from last weekend that was ready to dye (I mordanted it with alum), so I figured why not try raspberries?

I bought two packages of frozen berries from Safeway. I got the organic kind mostly because the berries were frozen without sugar or any other additives. I dumped both packages in warm water and mushed them up with my hands as they thawed out to crush them. I then simmered for a hour or so, and steeped for an additional hour. I strained and crushed the remains. I added the yarn and simmered for about an hour and a half. I then let it sit another hour. When I checked, it seemed the right shade, so I took it out--no overnight this time. This is what resulted:

Raspberry yarn:

This skein was rinsed until the water was clear. I added a little soap in the first rinse to make sure it was really clear. PINK!

The raspberries were a bit spendy, so I got a skein of Cascade Eco Wool and with exhaust dye it this weekend and try and really get my money's worth from the dyepot. I also like that pink color, so that last rationalization is my story and I am sticking to it!

This experiment has got me thinking about next season. My mom has two plum trees--a Satsuma and a Santa Rosa--and both give very red juice. She usually has more plums than she knows what to do with, so I will likely try plums as a dyestuff, if I can time a trip right.

This will likely be my last dye batch for a couple weeks at least. I am starting to think up projects for this yarn and I need to get my dyebook started to keep track of what I've done before I forget any more than I already have. The weather is turning here, and now the season for cozy fires, good books, fun movies and handwork projects is almost here. Time to knit what was dyed!

Looks Like Lavender, Smells Like Cabbage

2009-10-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

Dye-jinks, part Infinity. I am plowing through the yarn I bought last Saturday. I alum mordanted all the skeins at once and have them wetted and ready to dye. Last night, I decided to try red cabbage.

I used two heads of red cabbage, that I grated in my cusinart. I added water to cover and boiled an hour or so.Then I steeped off heat, strained and proceeded to dye both skeins. The skeins were cooked at a simmer about 1.5 hours and then left overnight to cool and steep. The dye pot was BRIGHT purple and I was hoping the color might stay. Rinsing the first skein, though mean most of the bright color came out. Still, the resulting yarn is a lovely, dusty lavender--not an unexpected this time, but still I am very pleased. The second skein got rinsed a bit and then a quick bath with a glug of clear ammonia, then rinsed thoroughly. It turned a nifty dusty teal green, again not so unexpected. All in all, a pretty good outcome!

Ammonia created teal on the left, untreated on the right:

Double Double, Toil and Trouble

2009-10-26T18:47:00.000-07:00

Well, really, no trouble, but certainly a boiling cauldron!

Our story so far:

Rabbit has a problem; she can't quit dyeing yarn. She clips backyard plants and boils them up and steeps yarn and weird things happen...

As I posted earlier, my latest dyeing experiment was made using Abutilon blossoms. That's 'flowering maple' to those out there who don't live and breathe by their 'Sunset Western Garden Book' or some similar plant geek reference guide. As the child of an extended family of truly certifiable plant geeks, we tend to bandy Latin genus and species names with reckless abandon. But I digress.

My flowering maple shrubs (there are two) are pale orange and very pretty. Fortunately for me, they are still blooming profusely in this late October--pretty much the only flowering plant with any oomph left this year. (Even the white clematis has mostly pooped out, unlike last year)Abutilon blooms are very graceful, frilly bell-like blossoms:

Flowering maple blossoms:

Much as I like seeing a shrub full of blooms, the potential for a dyeing experiment is too tempting, so I took all the open blooms. There are also quite a few buds, so there should be a new crop of blossoms in a few days. My harvest yielded about 1/3 of a potful:

Pot of blossoms:

I filled the pot to about 2/3 full with tap water and brought to a boil. I then simmered the blooms about an hour and let them steep another full hour. The final blooms yielded a pale peachy colored tea and looked drained of pigment. As a note to others, they also became somewhat unpleasantly slimy, so I didn't really squeeze them out much.

Anemic abutilon post-steeping:

I was, frankly, expecting a pale tan-yellow, so imaging my surprise when I dropped my alum mordanted skein of yarn in and got this:

Purple? Yes, VERY purple. The yarn is good old Lamb's Pride--a full 4 oz. skein. I simmered and hour and kept checking. The yarn was taking color, but not purple...green. A bright, light artichoke green. I let the skein sit in the dyepot overnight and today, I rinsed it and got what you see in the picture. Well, much like the previous Mexican marigold dyepot, this didn't turn out as I expected, but I like it!

A very un-brown green!

As usual, you can't tell what you'll get from the dyepot until the fiber is done. Stayed tuned for more dye-jinks!!

Dyeing for Fiber

2009-10-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Saturday. I am resting post-cold, and woke up with a migraine today, no less. Lovely. Still, I am pilled and mostly pain free now, thankfully and almost have a speaking voice back. Really I should be resting, and maybe doing some much needed light housework. However, my naughty dyeing self is working up to a run to Fortuna and the much-loved Generations yarn store (and beauty shop--let's not forget that!) They carry TONS of meat-and-potatoes yarn, including my preferred Lamb's Pride.

The bulk of my dyeing has been done using Lamb's Pride by Brown Sheep Wool company. It is 85% wool/15% mohair lopi style single ply, and somehow it just seems to take the dye better than anything else I have worked with. I have a binful already, but I can't stop playing.

I do have a couple of solid knitting projects in mind, and have now got the yarn for both, but more colors is better in my mind and I want to get a bit more dyeing in before the weather turns crappy for real. I do have my covered breezeway and solarium to work in, but when it gets too cold, it will be uncomfortable and I anticipate the damp will make it difficult to dry the resulting yarn. Dyeing season is really coming to a close.

Still, I have things in the works. My friend Q in Corvallis has access to elderberries that she says she'll freeze for me, and lives on a large ot with access to madrona trees; the bark is supposed to work well. I plan also to tap my aunt and uncle for some walnut hulls, since they have an english walnut orchard and I am sure would be happy to save some for me.

In m own yard, there is the abutilon flowering I mentioned earlier--my first goal. There is also an apple tree covered with lichen. I have no plans to move, or anything, in the near future, but somehow, I feel a sense of urgency about seeing some of these things through. Nervous, I guess.

So, I am making hay, so to speak. Strike while the iron is hot!

Dyer's Addendum

2009-10-23T18:17:00.000-07:00

So I dyed my last skein of prepped yarn. It was a large skein: 7.4 oz of yarn. I almost split it in two because it was so big, but trying to reskein wet wool is a drag, so I ran with it.

As I said in my previous post, I planned to use Mexican marigold (Tagetes spp.) leaves. I showed a picture of yarn dyed with the flowers--2 skeins of buttery yellow, one slightly darker because it sat in the dyebath longer.

My previous experience with leaves includes horsetail and fennel. The horsetail yielded a soft buffy yellow, and the fennel, a greenish yellow--both colors subtle and gentle. I used both young and old leaves of the Tagetes, cutting off whole canes, since the plant needs serious pruning, and stripping off all the leaves from the stems until I had a decent potful. I covered them with water and simmered for a good while (at least an hour), until the leaves looked dull and the water was very green. As a test, I dunked a bit of white paper towel in to test. It came out green, so I thought, "OK. The yarn will likely be greeny yellow.". I was hesitant because I wasn't sure about a big skein of nondescript color, but decided to go with it. What the heck, right?

Well, wow. The yarn hit the dyebath and WHOOSH!! The water turned BRIGHT yellow and went from clear to opaque. I simmer for about an hour and a half and then let it sit covered overnight with the heat off. It wasn't green, it was YELLOW, yellow, bordering on orange. Would it stay that way after rinsing? Well...'

electric yellow orange--yeehaw!

P's comment when he saw it was, 'Wow. It looks like the color of Kraft macaroni and cheese.". And it does, really. The skein you see has been not only rinsed thoroughly, but washed with mild soap. It could do with a little more rinsing, but it was pretty much stay that color. What a knockout. After the subtle tans, peaches, greens and yellows I have gotten of late to get this INTENSE yellow-orange was a treat. I wouldn't have predicted this color outcome, but I love it!

2009 Headlong to the End

2009-10-22T17:04:00.001-07:00

I've been down with a cold this week. This has given me a lot of time to look at my surroundings and mentally take stock, at least. I also slipped in some easy yarn dyeing, since I had already mordanted and prepped my wool before the cold bug took me down.

I have been saving flower heads from my farm bouquets--mostly dahlias. I also have also had my eye on plants in my backyard. The most rampant growing is a Mexican marigold (Tagetes spp.). So, in my bored, cold-ridden state, I started in on the yarn.

Mexican marigold taken in my backyard:

Dahlias were first, and I boiled them and, whatever flowers we in the most recent bouquet, up into a nice tea. A quick 10 minute dunk gave a light sunny yellow. Longer gave a chartreuse green. I also overdyed some of my nettle and sumac dyed batches and got more greens.

My last farm bouquet, once lovely, became part of a dye bath when faded:

I then cooked up all the fresh Tagetes flowers I could lay hold of and this gave a WONDERFUL clear yellow. I overdyed some of the yarn from all the previous batches and got some cross yellows and yellow-greens. Good fun!!

Yellows and yellow greens from dyer's madness:

I have one more skein of yarn ready. I am boiling up some tea from the Mexican marigold leaves. I want to redunk some sumac and nettle yarns to test. If I like what I see, I'll throw in the last skein. Otherwise, I will make up a bath this weekend using some orange flowering maple. There are two bushes in full bloom in the yard right now.

Flowering maple (Abutilon spp.):

I figure I have to act fast. I heard my first skein of Aleutian geese a few minutes ago, which means Winter is not so very far away. They overwinter here in the thousands, and October is almost over. Furthermore, the Japanese maple in the yard is starting to show it's Fall color.

The first hint of the red to come:

Orangey hints of the more radioactive red the tree will soon show. Plants are rolling it up for the season and that also means the dyeing season is rolling up--at least for the fresh stuff. So, make dye while the sun shines!!

All Over the Place

2009-10-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

The title of this post says it all. I am, indeed, all over the place. I have managed to get something done on my frighteningly long craft to-do list. I dyed some yarn all by my little self! I am very proud of this. I actually DID something I set out to do; the autistic component of my personality won out over the ADD component for once.

On a recent visit to my dear M-I-L in upstate Washington, I, in my typical BIG IDEA fashion, culled some plant material from her yard. I got a grocery bag of stinging nettle and also a bag of bloom/berry candles from her sumac tree. I realize I could have gotten the nettles at home, but BIG IDEAS cannot be held back, so I went with it.

On the way up, hubby and I stopped in Crescent City because I needed a tiny crochet hook, and Sylvia's Attic was a) open, and b) had them cheap, and I needed it. Needless to say, I bought several in various sizes. I also found and bought a stockpot for $5, expressly to use for dyeing. So now, I had a pot. I had yarn that needed dyeing. Ready to go right? Well, sort of.

We ended up staying in Coupeville longer than planned due to car issues, but that was OK. Hanging with MIL is always a good time! It also gave me a chance to think about dyeing, which is possibly dangerous. I realized that I needed to just go for it and the plants were my excuse. I dutifully stuffed my bags into the overfull trunk of the car and hoped the plants wouldn't rot on the slow drive home. (Yes, I do know that fresher is better, but I embraced my novice ignorance and took the plunge.)

We got home and a meeting with my local Spinning/Weaving guild put me in touch with my dyeing instructor, who told me where to get alum. I bought some plastic bins and buckets from the local hardware store and went for it. It took two weekends due to a lack of pots--soak overnight Friday, mordant Saturday, then dye Sunday. The nettles were old--one small rotted bit--but still OK to use. I got a camel tan not yellow, but it was pretty so it's OK.

Nettle dyed yarns. 30 and 90 minutes. I steeped some overnight, but they only got a little darker and duller.

Today, I am finishing up the sumac. I broke it up, removed the stems, simmered about an hour, and steeped it overnight before using. The skein here was dyed for 45 minutes and has an alum mordant. I have two more skeins soaking, but I doubt they will get much darker. I also bought some ferrous sulfate to treat the yarn with, but I won't do that today.

Sumac dyed yarn

I am mostly feeling perky because I actually DID something I had set out to do. My projects are currently very scattered and disorganized. I can't find pieces to finish at least three knitting projects that I want to work on and that is truly frustrating. The fact that I cleared the craft slate of something is especially rewarding because of the other roadblocks I have run into.

Our trip through Oregon and Washington was also a lot of fun and a much needed vacation. I will post more about it in the next few days, especially since P has done his pictures. Good times!!

Invisible Blogger

2009-10-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

Holy cow. Almost two months since my last post? Bad Facebook! No biscuit!

Chaos Theory

2009-08-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

Well, actually the blog title is a misnomer. There is nothing theoretical about the chaos that currently abounds in our snug little house. I am surrounded in my nest area with project flotsam: things waiting to be mended, things waiting to be finished, yarn ready to start. Nothing is at hand that I can just pick up and knit except the Dragon Shawl. Everywhere I look there is stuff that is complicated. (Let's not count the dishes and the laundry right now, OK?)

Ah, the Dragon Shawl! This is the shawl that I signed on to make for the Shawl Contest at Northcoast Knittery. Well, I truly bit off a choke-worthy bite there! I finally got it going, and so far I am pleased, but it is so utterly complicated that there is no way I can finish it in time. I could try to knit something else, but that would mean unpicking what I have done and finding another suitable project. I am too distracted to do the latter and I will walk off the North Jetty before I do the former. It took me too long to start. This means I am out of the race for the Shawl Contest. Oh well. Better get out my check book--got some yarn to pay for.

In the mean time, I had good news about my contest scarf I made last Spring. I entered it into the Humboldt County Fair and the scarf got a blue ribbon for it's category! Yay! I admit I was not expecting ANY prize so this was a treat and a surprise. I can only liken it to the time I picked up a Microbiology midterm in college--the one I thought I hadn't done well on--only to find that I got 100%. The TA asked me if there was anything wrong when he saw the look on my face and I could only stammer, "Uh, no, I guess not!" Am I unhappy about my ribbon? Uh, no, I guess not! Here is the lovely scarfie in situ:

The fair was fun--hubby and I looking at the art and the beasties. There was one really odd phenomenon. Some of the sheared sheep were dressed in spandex unitards--sheepitards, really. I am sure there is a reason and the more knowledgeable folks out there know why, but they looked like sheep aerobics instructors, or in this case like a Lucha Libre (Lucha Sheepre??) wrestler:

Maybe when I finally do some spinning and learn more about fleeces, sheep costumes will make more sense. Until then, it is a curiosity. Yet another thing to look into in Humboldt County!

In Case of Emergency...Cast On!!

2009-08-15T14:35:00.000-07:00

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Inside my knitting bag, I have an emergency project. This particular project functions much like an earthquake preparedness kit or a car emergency kit. I have needles, pattern, yarn and notions for a project that is not too taxing to start or work on. Why do I have this? Well, my knitting bag goes with me practically everywhere. This means that there is a likelihood it will be with me if I ever get stuck somewhere--trapped in an elevator, stranded on a side road in a car on a side road waiting for a tow truck, idling in an airport waiting for someone.

I broke into my project this week. I am at my wit's end, knittingwise. I have a bad case of knitpotence right now; I have a contest shawl to knit and I am having a hard time with it. I kept bringing to knitting group and was repeatedly asked "Is that all you've done, yet?" Well, yes and no. (we're talking a cast-on row and that's all). What doesn't show is that I have cast the stupid thing 5 TIMES. I get it going and find an egregious mistake, so I rip it out and start again. and again, and again...

I needed to reboot my brain something awful, so I broke out the Emergency Project--another lace smoke ring. I have made three and I practically don't need to look at the chart anymore. I can recharge my needle confidence at work with the smaller, easier project. I am feeling both low and militant and even a wee bit dire right now. I have a complicated shawl to knit and have lost half the contest time just trying to get it started. I know I can do it, but do I have the time? I am not so sure anymore.

Still, Hubby is out of town as of this morning. This means I am on my own for a few days. Despite the nice weather I am staying in with the DVD player and KNITTING. I am blogging this to "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" on DVD while I eat Hawaiian BBQ. This is my lunch break. I started the shawl with the first LOTR movie, took a break and then will continue through "Return of the King" today and then a new long series tomorrow. I have laid in food and treats. My plan is to get some inroads on the shawl and maybe the project will start to take off as these things often do.

Time will tell if this weekend will be productive or an ice-cream-filled Lost Weekend ending in knitting despair. Wish me luck!!

Cats + Knitting = ARRRRGH!

2009-07-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

Cappuccino decided my felted bag made a nice bed. My guy took this pic of her with her typical "yeah--what." expression.

Farmtown is Evil--Just Add Hallucinogens!

2009-07-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

I must own up to a recent addiction. There is a game on Facebook called Farmtown and I can't quit playing it. It is much like SimCity in tone. You start with a plot of land and a self-decorated avatar that represents you as the farmer. You plant and harvest crops, which gains you money. You cultivate neighbors within your coterie of Facebook friends, and send each other gifts that you use to decorate your farm. You can also meet other Facebook folks who are also Farmtownees and add them as work buddies.

I have been working on my ever increasing plot assiduously and carefully building on it. I now have a house, a barn, a corral for my beasts (cows, horses, goats, pigs, etc.), a poultry pen, a windmill, and a few other goodies. I am saving up for a big pond and a greenhouse. I arrange everything to my liking, trying to maximize space and arrange things both practically and aesthetically.

Over the last few weeks, I have had this creeping feeling of deja vu regarding Farmtown. This feeling began when a long time buddy of mine observed once while we were playing, "Wow! Look at this--those avatars are US!". Well, I have finally realized what the cold grue was for me: I am living the novel "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" by Philip K. Dick. Minus the Can-D and Chew-Z, fortunately.

I read this novel when I was a freshman in college and it has been one of those books that has stuck with me all these years. It is chock full of twisted PKD weirdness--odd, surreal images and a picture of future civilization as a very disturbing place. In this case, 21st Century life focuses on living recreational life through dolls Perky Pat and her boyfriend Walt--and-ins for Barbie and Ken), and spending money on "layouts"--elaborate dollhouses with detailed accessories. Through hallucinogenic drugs, you become Pat or Walt and live the beautiful life, which is a diversion from the fact the the world (or in this case worlds, since there are various plantary colonies)is a wretched, messed up place.

OK, maybe I am overstating this whole concept a bit, but I see my avatar that represents me in her little purple overalls, my tidy farm, and plan for sowings and harvests, I start to wonder. Am I living through the hallucinogenic experience of the internet, nurturing this fake farm, interacting with other farmers across the globe? I once harvested the fields of a person claiming to be a Filipina living in Dubai. It was a surreal moment--me at 6 PM home from work on Farmtown and her at 5 AM before work on Farmtown 8000 miles away from where I was. It was weird, but I played on anyway.

And really, what can I say? I LIKE Farmtown and I'll likely play on--that is, until I start seeing characters with robotic hands and steel teeth. Gotta go--my onions are ready to harvest!!

Fit to be Dyed

2009-07-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

My! It's been a month since my last post. I have not been idle during that time and I have plenty to post about. Since I have procrastinated about posting through most of June (read this as "I wasted a lot of time goofing off on Facebook"), I realize the the logical way to approach the pile of material I want to blog about is to work backwards and see how far I get.

Last Saturday, July 11th, I attended my first hand-dyeing workshop. This was VERY exciting for me for a number of reasons. I had never done hand dyeing before and I have wanted to try my hand at this for literally for 18-19 years--almost as long as I have been knitting. I got a book in the early '90's called "A Passion for Color" by Sarah Burnett which really is the seed of my desire to learn dyecraft. In this particular book, Ms. Burnett shows some basics about dyeing yarns with natural materials, and follows this with some of her own designs. The yarns she works with are GORGEOUS. (As a sidebar, however, some of the designs and photo styling for this book are hilariously '80's of the "You Knit WHAT?!" variety. Check them out for a eye-rolling belly laugh sometime.) I was thoroughly intrigued by the dyeing information. When I unearthed the book a while back from the box it had been packed away in during my various moves over the last few years, I found it still had the bookstore receipt. My excitement over the whole dyeing concept is illustrated on this receipt that shows that I actually paid FULL PRICE for the book. Those who know my bargain hunting ways will see that my enthusiasm won over my cheapskatedness.

I have been picking up old books on fabric and yarn dyeing here and there over the years at used bookstores, squirrelling away information, reading, learning. Always, though I have been intimidated about giving this process a try. The equipment, the materials, the techniques--there is an outlay of time and money to get set up and I was hesitant about spending money only to find I was in over my head. I mean, given my background--16 years of biochemistry laboratory experience , a seriously plant-mad family, and fearless cooking skills--I had the raw tools to do this. What can I say? I also had stage fright.

I know I wax rhapsodic in these posts about Northcoast Knittery, and yet again, I feel so blessed to have this resource so close by. It was through the Knittery that I signed up for the class I took. The teacher was a wonderful woman named Linda Hartshorn, who has some mad-fine dyeing skills, let me tell you! The class took place on a grey but temperate Saturday. We were set to dye 6 different colors with natural dyes of logwood (purple), magenta (cochineal), red (mungeet/cochineal), orange (madder), yellow (marigold) and green (fennel/iron).

So, less text, more pictures:

Here are some of the dyeing materials in raw form. soaked woodchips or roots, dried marigold heads, powdered alum, and others:

Some raw yarn that was skeined for the dyepots and very necessary rubber gloves. Next time I will read the glove package better and get a size that FITS. (I got size small. Rats.)

The pots were cooked/steeped on an outdoor propane camp stove and strained to yield the dye.

Prepping fennel for the dyepot. Who knew such a common roadside plant could be so craftable!

Fennel tea for 100? No...DYE!

Marigolds. Pretty flowers here steeping to yield pretty fiber.

Cooked and strained logwood chips.

Some of our efforts on the dry rack. It was interesting to see how a little bit more or less time in the dyepots yielded different results.

The greens are very striking! I left my skein in the fennel pot and iron bath a good long while and got a robust olive green, second from the left.

My final 6 skeins, alternately described by some Facebooks friends as my handyed Pride yarn or George Clinton's hair (I am cool with that! Bow wow wow yippee yo yippee yay!)

So the result? I got some rockin' cool yarn, had a blast, learned many new things, am now very much wanting to explore more about hand dyeing yarn. In fact, there is another class at the beginning of August in town at Ink People, so if you are looking for me that weekend, I am booked, baby!

Carbodehydrated

2009-06-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today is the two week mark for P and me and our South Beach Diet. We made it through Phase 1! What's more, I LOST FOUR POUNDS. Not epic, but frankly, a slower loss rate bodes well for keeping it off.

Still, today was throw-down day. Festival. The Red Hour. Get outta the way Landru, I needs me some CARBS. Tomorrow is back to it. We are back to Phase 1, but fresh fruit in moderation is back on the menu. Fruit has been my weakness, my lustful focus. OK, I have whined incessantly about the baked goods that have paraded through Radiation Oncology the last two weeks. I admit it freely. And it has been trying: Ramone's pastries, eclairs, coffee cake, cookies, cookies, cookies, cookies (all on different days), home made blackberry and cherry pies. Yes, really. And I have tasted NONE of it.

But MAN. Walk me though any grocery produce section and I had apple envy. Banana yen. Cherry lust. My one instance (OK, TWO instances) of cheating came when we got a bag of fresh strawberries from our CSA Redwood Roots--I had 3 berries two weeks ago and four a week ago. I dutifully topped and froze the rest. P got the Laser Eyes of Death when he quietly suggested that I actually NOT TAKE the strawbs (like that would ever happen).

So now those red frozen hunks of sweet berry goodness are being churned into home made ice cream. P and I had a pre-agreement that today, the two week mark day, we could have treats. This was good because one of the docs brought in lunch of Chinese food today, and I could actually EAT CHINESE FOOD. I was good--a little of each in moderation, TINY portion of rice, no carrots, no seconds.

Still tonight was the Big Feed. We had Star Burger and fries and onions rings. I had a cider, P a beer. Home made ice cream to follow. Tasty!!! Still, my taste buds have changed. I globbed out a dollop of Heinz Ketchup and it was AWFUL! It tasted like tomato syrup. I, who NEVER waste food, allowed the remainder to be pitched. If I can find some good ketchup that doesn't taste like corn syrup, I'll buy it. Otherwise, me and Ketchup are DONE until I make my own.

So now the part of this post I was leading up to: STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM.

Here is a pictorial process:

Berries macerating in sugar:

Berries, cream,eggs, sugar, etc:

Churning...:

The finished product. Verdict? YUMMY!:

The pictures say it best. I ate the bowl. It was yummy. I am a happy camper! Tomorrow, I am a Phase 1 girl all the way!

Now Where Am I, Again?

2009-06-08T18:46:00.000-07:00

The Humboldt Bay Area is well-known--no, FAMOUS for it's fog. Sunshiny days right on the bay are infrequent enough that EVERYBODY comments on the weather. The early part of last week was very grey and drizzly, so when Saturday dawned calm and clear, it was an easy decision to go OUT and DO something. P had his camera with and he got some great snaps, which I am borrowing for this blog.

I had a college buddy over, so she, me and P all piled into the car and went for a sojourn. We headed out to Ferndale and browsed in the shops for a good while--nice antiques, great buttons at Foggy Bottoms Yarn, The Blacksmith's Shop (always a fun place to browse), and Golden Gait Mercantile. Good times!

We then headed out to Centerville Beach, where the waves were uncharacteristically flat. T-shirt weather at a north coast beach! Wow! And tiny waves? we don't baby surf like this very often.

Surf's NOT up!:

After Centerville Beach, we popped into Loleta Cheese and tormented ourselves looking at goodies that are not South Beach approved. Still, we got an eyeful of what was there and we will be able to add back some richer cheeses in the not too distant future.

After leaving Loleta, we took the backroads out to the South Jetty. I admit, I have never seen it so calm! Even the North Jetty was almost like glass; usually it gets the brunt of the waves coming into the mouth of the bay. Saturday, there was nothing. Often a walk to the very end of the Jetty is intimidating because the waves can actually break over the walkway. Not Saturday--a stroll out seemed like a must.

South Jetty, no waves:

'rie and me, strolling along:

It was calm enough to get right down to the edge:

There were a lot of critters right down at the edge on the bay side of the jetty: starfish of all colors were everywhere--purple, red and orange. There were dozens of starfish and they were scattered all over the rocks, and tended to cluster around clumps of mussels, that abounded. Some were above the waterlinne, some below. The tide was pretty low, so we really got an eyeful!

Starfish herds:

There were other critters, as well. The water was shallow enough that we could see down to the kelp leaves, which reflected a bluish iridescence. There are several forms of seaweed, some eelgrass, and the really find-- agumboot chiton! I have seen them on the beach, all dried out, so this was my first live one. It was a quite bright red--almost startling.

A bright red gumboot chiton. Weird, eh?:

A glance over to the other side of the jetty wall--the seaward side--showed a bit more wave action (but not much) and clumps of sea palms. The palms looked like a strange Dr. Seussian forest of trees with draggly wet hair.

Sea palms:

Anyone see the Lorax?:

The end of the Jetty is all concrete riprap. The riprap is verey cool; it looks alternately like giant jacks tossed together or like some immense concrete crystal structure. P got some really great shots:

Giant jacks?:

Or space alien crystals? You decide!:

At one point, 'rie and I had a harbor seal pop her head up and give us a lazy eye. She lingered a bit and the dove and disappeared. What a time to not have my camera! Still, the biggest thrill was the jellyfish. There were a couple dozen all along the edge. They were coasting and flexing through the current, falsing grey, light blue and lavender as they moved. Some would get caught in an eddy and were pushed into little calm pockets of water, affording really good, close views. I really like the 'shamrock' in the center that would flash and then disappear. It was neat to see them move--they can get around when they want to! They looked to be ranging for 6 inches to a foot in diameter. So cool!

Pink jelly with P's shadow:

Lucky shamrock jelly?:

It was a lovely outing! The whole weekend was great weather. I'll do another post soon about the hike we took Sunday...

Who Says There's No Free Lunch?

2009-05-27T19:04:00.000-07:00

P and I are on Day 2 of the South Beach Diet. I have 12 more days to look forward to of the so-called "Phase I". It is going to be Hell, I can already tell, but I made a pinkie promise with P, and a deal's a deal, so I must soldier on.

I am getting my resolve tested at work. Yesterday, one of my coworkers generously brought pastries from Ramone's, a local bakery. I resisted. Then we went to our farm for the first veggie box of the season, which came with strawberries. I caved and ate three. Bad me. No strawbs until Phase I is over.

Today, one of my other coworkers came back from chart rounds bearing chocolate covered eclairs. So cruel! I hovered, watching eclairs I can't eat right now. I am in a tough business to endure for dieters. There is food EVERYWHERE.

In a move to get some exercise along with the diet, P and I headed out to east of Arcata after I got home from work to go for a walk in the Azalea Reserve, which should be in full bloom right now. We forgot our county map, however, and tried to find it from memory and failed. Still, we found a nice road called West End Road, which we decided to follow because it was pretty.

Our little mosey led us to The Mad River Fish Hatchery, which turns out to be open to the public during daylight hours. We parked and started poking around the place. The hatchery grows steelhead, apparently (aka ocean-going rainbow trout). Most of the fish runs were empty, but a few were packed. P had his little cybershot and took some pics.

Whole lotta big fish:

The area above the runs was strung with wire to keep predatory birds out and we soon saw this was for a good reason. There was a large osprey perched on one of the light poles looking down at the fish. I thought to myself "Poor bird. Those fish are like the eclairs I was pining for this afternoon: right there and out of reach."

The osprey is on the light pole, reading the menu:

The smorgasbord is OPEN:

What chance to the fishies have in such close quarters?:

What are YOU lookin' at, eh?:

Wires?:

What wires? Clever Osprey with a finny snack in the center of the frame:

Silly me. Who ever decided that "bird brain" meant "stupid" obviously didn't spend much time around birds. I should have known better. We walked close and got a right sharp bitching out from the osprey and then he flew and started circling. Finally, when we were at the head of the full adult run, he flew around, swooped UNDER the wires, snagged a fish and flew off.

A few minutes later, he was back, but our presence made him hold off. We finally walked to the other end of the run and he recommenced his routine, finally nabbing another trout. Obviously, this bird has has his hunting routine wired. I hope he doesn't get himself in trouble. Still, with that packed run, I don't think I could resist either, if I were an osprey.

Regal and well fed:

Back for more:

"These look nice! I'll have one of these!":

Gotcha! Yum! :

On the way back, we saw another osprey scoping the Mad river for fish the old fashioned way. No easy prey for him! So it goes with the prime nest site. Either the other birds haven't caught on to the hatchery or the one bird chases them off. Perhaps he is setting himself up for a heap of hurt for stealing fish. I hope not. He was a very pretty (and clever) bird!

Saturday On Call

2009-05-23T11:46:00.001-07:00

A nifty cartoon from 'Garfield Minus Garfield', which I really enjoy:

I know when to go out
And when to stay in
Get things done
--David Bowie, 'Modern Love'

Ah. Saturday morning, chilling with Gabriel and a cup of java. What could be better? Gabriel is happy--he's singing and tapping me on the cheek with his beak. I am marshaling myself to get up and do some more housework. It's a three day weekend, and since I am on-call this weekend, I have to stay within an hour radius of the hospital. This makes an ideal time to cocoon.

P went out for walkies. Me? I am getting my ducks in a row. We have a new washer, so I can do some laundry. We have potential company coming, so the house needs to be tidy (We're mostly there). I have knitting projects at hand, so I need to choose where to focus. We have a shopping list, so P and I can go shopping for groceries.

We have committed to starting the South Beach Diet on Monday. As P says, "I cringe to hear myself say it.", but we both feel like we have reached critical mass (emphasis on the 'mass' part). We have friends in Oregon who tried it and it worked for them. Mostly P and I eat well anyway, what with the farm and our grain CSA, but poundage is a problem, so it's time to focus. An at-home weekend makes for a good time to do some pre-prep for lunches, shopping for appropriate snacks and the like. Wish us luck!

On the knitting front, I am feverishly working to get things done before the next Northcoast Knittery contest. My scarf turned out nicely, but I am facing some very stiff competition

Here is my entry:

My competition all crafted up very different scarves. Mine is the only felted piece. There is one lovely lace scarf, a really well done mosaic knit piece, two crocheted scarves, including one made by a 91-year-old gal, that is amazing and really showcases the yarn, and one plain knit mohair with a copper metallic edge that is very pretty. The public will choose and I guess there are a lot of votes already in. My thought is that the lace will win. Still, my scarf hangs proudly with the others, and I am pleased with it. They will announce the winner in the next week or so.

There will be a shawl contest this summer and I am feeling ambitious about the pattern. I think I want to do it despite the things I have to do in my knitting basket. I am using this down time to try and get things done or ready to go, so the bulk of my time can be used for the shawl if I do the contest.

Still, it's slow going. I have mostly picky or boring things to do, and it's difficult to stay focused. Most of the things I am working on are items I have blogged about before, so this list is yet another rehash.

I thought I was done with Belinda, but, despite following the pattern, the width wasn't right so I had to unpick and need to add 22 more rows. This isn't trivial. It IS very annoying however. Fortunately had some scrap kidsilk haze yarn of the same color, so I don't actually have to BUY more yarn. I was not 100% happy with Clapotis, and I didn't want repeat that sentiment. I want to finish something I am totally happy with, so that means more knitting.

I am plodding along on the back of Jiada, and am almost done, but it is godawful tedious plain stockinette. I am resorting to taking it to work for my lunch hour project so that I have no choice but to work on it. Jiada or nothing, so I can at least get the back done. I might then back-burner it for a bit.

Zarah is being sewn up slowly, but it has been difficult getting a nice seam on it. Still, once the sleeves are done, I can try and fix the collar, which is the last challenge.

I am also doing a bag to be felted on big needles. It is a new project--the Tinkknit 5-Alarm bag-- that should be a reasonably quick knit. I also got the specific hardware last weekend during a trip to Oregon Leather in Eugene, Oregon. That place is a crafter's paradise; they have metal findings, hides, dyes, etc.

P and I both liked Eugene. There are several really good bookstores, two very nice yarn stores (OK, P wasn't fired up by those), a good kitchen store, and a nice downtown. It's a typical college town, with all the fun and funky goods a place like that has. We will definitely drop by there again for a visit.

I know, another very knitting-oriented post, but that be my thing these days. Now it's off to do some laundry. Have a great Memorial Day, everyone!

Watching the Clothes

2009-05-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

Watching the Clothes

Oh, Saturday night
Mmm, everyone's having fun
I'm down at the laundromat
Trying to get my washing done
Like I done before
Time and time again
Watching the clothes go 'round
Another week sees it's end

Watching the clothes go 'round
Watching the clothes go 'round
Watching the clothes go 'round
Watching the clothes go 'round

Oh, I've been working hard
Mmm, trying to make some money
Would you like sour cream
On your potato, honey?
I been kissing ass
Trying to keep it clean
Serving the middle class
Yeah, it's a clean routine

Watching the clothes go 'round
Watching the clothes go 'round
Watching the clothes go 'round
Watching the clothes go 'round

There go the whites
Mmm, getting whiter
There go the colors
Getting brighter
There go the delicates
Through the final rinse
There goes my Saturday night
I go without a fight

Watching the clothes go 'round
Watching the clothes go 'round
Watching the clothes go 'round
Watching the clothes go 'round

--Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders

Hwaet! Last weekend the water heater died. Yesterday the washing machine died. If bad things happen in threes, one more appliance is circling the drain. ARGH! My brother just threw in that the next thing to die will be the dishwasher. At least the washer died AFTER I felted my scarf for the local scarf contest.

With a weekend trip in the offing and clothes to be washed, I did what any other desperate person would do: I scrounged all over the house, in pockets, in decorative dishes, on my dresser for every quarter I could find.

Fortunately for me, one of the linacs at work ,went down today and I cheerfully volunteered to take one for the team and go home. I had an ulterior motive; daylight hours at a public laundromat might be slightly less scary than after dark. (I also have knitting group this weekend and idn't want to miss it! Not tonight when I turn in my scarf!!)

P asked rather insistently if I wanted him to go with--he was in protective mode. Frankly, I said yes. I had a TON of laundry (well maybe 40-50 pounds, about 4 very large loads), and he could help me carry it. So he got me settled, ran some errands and came and got me. Since the laundrette was also in the same complex as my current fave Mexican restaurant (Luzmilla's--tasty beans, really good salsa!), we got lunch and some Mexican Cokes to go. Not too bad for an afternoon.

I learned some things about modern laundromats today:

1) This one no longer use quarters. You can use any form of money you like to buy value on a card. I find this thoroughly civilized. You bring in cash and buy a card. Any money left, they'll cash out for you. Neat!
2) Front-loading machines use A LOT LESS detergent than their top-loading cousins. I found this out the hard way. I couple of tablespoonfuls will do. This begs another question: am I oversoaping my wash at home? I bet I am.
3) Watching clothes in a front loading washer is almost as soothing as watching a fishtank.
4) My local laundromat has free wi-fi, so if I go again I can bring my laptop and surf.
5) The local laundry place also has ultra large capacity machines--double, triple or quadruple load sizes, so now I know where I can go to wash my king-sized comforter.

All useful information, I think!

I am drying my duds at home as I blog this. I only spent an hour washing all my stuff. One load had to be run twice at the laundrette, since I got medieval with the soap, and I re-ran it to rinse it more. The kind people there let me do it for free--can't beat that with a stick for service!!

Well, there goes the dryer--another load bites the dust...

Spring in My Backyard

2009-05-13T18:42:00.000-07:00

I love my backyard.

It's not just the generic, featureless space you would expect from a rental house. It's fairly small, but packed with botanical goodies.As I showed before in a Fall post from last year, neat things grow here. It's Spring, and in HumCo, that means rhododendrons. The rhododendrons in my backyard are going nuts. In fact, they are going nuts all over town. even the wild rhodies are starting their bloom cycle; the wild variety are usually a few weeks later blooming than the hybrids. Yards all over town have them here. So does landscaping in front of businesses. In this country, rhododendrons seem to be not just a staple, but a requirement.

The rhodies here are both pink, but different. One is a clear, cotton candy pink that fades to a light baby pink as the bracts age. The other is a warmer color-- almost more a light red than a pink along the edges to fading in the center to a pinkish white. The stand in each corner of the backyard; the red edge is on the left and the pink on the right, with an apple tree in between. The rhodies are tall shrub for--each is 10-15 feet tall and in full bloom they make an impressive sight.

The white clematis that I posted pictures of last Novemberr has also exploded, and is mingling with a light pink small flowered climbing rose that almost looks like 'Cecile Bruner', but can't be since it blooms almost constantly. The yard currently has a rather wild, untended cottage garden look to it, and I need to get out and do some weeding and grooming, but still is a sweet, secret place to be. Little things just crop up all over the yard and it makes me happy!!

White clematis and roses on the right side fence:

The red-edged rhodie in the left-hand corner:

Closeups of bracts of the red-edged rhodie:

The pink rhodie in the right-hand corner and some closeups:

I really love the Springtime!!

Fun with Citrus

2009-05-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

What do you get when you mix orange peel, a sharpie and a cute goofball?

You get THIS:

I've got a guy with a sense of humor--lucky, lucky me!!!

I call this picture "Humboldt County Dental Hygiene". Actually there are some excellent dentists here--mine is one. I get my new crown next Monday. Novocaine shots--my favorite (not!).

A Grand Day Out in Crescent City

2009-05-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

It's a lovely late Sunday morning, and here I am blogging. The blogging is good, because it is distracting me from hearing "Arthur's Theme" by Christopher Cross inexplicably running through my head. Why THAT song? I hate that kind of soft '80's pop crap with a passion. Why not a GOOD '80's song, like some Devo or B52's? Oh well, at least it's not Elton John and Kiki Dee singing "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart", which I view as the musical equivalent of the ebola virus.

After the prodigious quantities of rain we had a week or so ago, Nature decided we needed a break. Fortuitously, the break fell on a Saturday, so P and I decided to head north. Our previous day-out foray a couple weeks back had been south to the beach outside Petrolia that also serves as the northern trailhead for the Lost Coast Trail. Logically, it seemed to me, that we should head north. The goal: Tolowa Dunes State Park. We had driven past many times, and usually one of us would remark, "We really need to go there sometime.".

So, with the promise of a good weather day, off we went after a tasty Los Bagels bagel breakfast in Eureka Oldtown. The weather was really good--some lingering coastal fog that was burning off fast. The countryside is still very green and the native rhododendrons in Del Norte Redwoods State Park were just starting to bloom.

We drove straight to Crescent City from Eureka with no stops. it's 80 miles, and some of the road is very narrow and winding. It takes 1.5 hours to get there and there is no getting around that time with the roads the way they are.

Crescent City is an odd little town. It's the seat of Del Norte County and contains the bulk of the county population at 8805 people. It is not the northernmost city on the California coast (the northernmost city, I believe, is Smith River.), but the geography north of town really starts to seem more Oregonian than Californian. If you know the landscape at all, you can recognize that you are in a transition zone. There are still redwood trees, but everything else screams 'Oregon Coast!!"

Unlike a lot of the towns in this neck of the woods, Crescent City doesn't have a really well defined main drag. Like Eureka, Highway 101 has been turned into two one way streets, running north or south, lined with businesses. Unlike Eureka, in Crescent City, a lot of those buildings are fairly new. There also is not an equivalent of the Eureka Oldtown, which has that old-timey Main Street feel. I think this lack is due to the '64 tsunami which trashed a chunk of the city and took out a lot of the buildings there at the time. It's an old harbor--the lighthouse there has existed since 1856--and it FEELS like there should be more older buildings, but there aren't.

Still, P and I have driven grids in the city streets in the past to see what's there, so we have a decent idea of what local businesses are available. In any case, I know there is a local yarn store! It's called A Perfect Yarn, and I had to stop . I spent a very happy 10 minutes browsing; it's a neat little place! Another reason to like Crescent City.

We ate a nice lunch at The Good Harvest Cafe and then headed for Tolowa Dunes north of town. It was bright and clear, but a bit breezy. We navigated the map and found the central entrance that has beach access. It was a tiny trial driving there. The road was flooded in one spot with standing water that turned out to be a bit deeper than we thought. Still, we got through it. The beach was nice, but EXTREMELY windy. Too windy, even for kites. We picked about for 10 minutes and bailed looking for a more sheltered area.

We checked out the north, but it is a hike to the beach from there. The same was true for the south, but there are some nifty wetland trails and it would be worth going back with with some binocs and a bird book.

A meadow by the South trailhead of Tolowa Dunes. Look at the great color mix; the red is grass seed heads:

We then drove back to town and decided to check out a couple of antique stores. Our first choice was closed, but the second, Sylvia's Attic, was not. What a great place! The shop was very well organized and had everything from the pricey to the affordable. The vintage kitchenware was fun to poke through and there was a lot if it. P and I went a bit bonkers, but we kept finding things we had been looking for. We found (and purchased) a set of stainless steel Turkish kebab skewers, a pyrex double boiler (the find of the day!!), a silver water pitcher, a free standing strainer with legs and a wooden masher, a spice rack, a complete set of tiny steel crochet hooks (guesses who those are for), a book on local culture and some yellow seed beads. The owner, Sylvia, is a friendly lady, transplanted from L.A--Beverly Hills, more specifically. She had quite a few stories and I now have the distinction of knowing someone who has taken her kids trick-or-treating with William Shatner. Her daughter was buds in high school with Miguel Ferrer and Billy Mumy (of 'Lost in Space' fame)--she showed as a picture of how they look today in a group shot. Quite a slice of fun! Also, a store to go back to. She had Corningware lids and I think she has one of a size I need...

We then headed for Battery Point lighthouse. Since the tide was out, we were able to walk out to Battery Point Lighthouse and we took a quite nice little guided tour. The lighthouse is still functioning and manned, as well. You can only get to it at low tide, though. The interior is very cool, with vintage furnishings. It straddles the line between working facility and museum. Another place worth seeing.

We tried to go to the Rumiano Cheese shop, but it was already closed, so we toodled off to the north end of Pebble Beach for some agate hunting. The agates there are small, but there are LOTS. We found a total of 257 agate pebbles in all different colors. Check out our haul:

At this time of year, it stays light very late, so it was already 7pm and we were hungry. P had read of a place called Bistro Gardens on Yelp.com that was well reviewed so we went. It was casual, but the prices were quite steep. I had the special--Salmon with scallops in a champagne cream sauce. P had shrimp and andouille sausage that also came in a cream sauce. We had an appetizer of polenta with marinara. Well, I was underwhelmed, considering the prices. All the sauces were too heavy and salty. My fish was extremely well cooked--not too done or underdone, but tasted fishy, smacking of a low end supplier. For $24.95, I expected more. The presentation was pretty with smashed spuds and julienned veggies, but pretty doesn't save bad sauce. obvious The chef DOES know something about cooking, but I was quite disappointed. A gal at the table next to ours had the special ,too, and she said it was almost a " religious experience" which was what convinced me to try it. I guess I am not ready to get religion yet. I'd be tempted to go back for a second chance if it wasn't so spendy. All ageism aside, the salty sauces hinted that the food was geared to an older crowd used to eating fairly well. I remember my grandparents late in life salting their food to DEATH because that was what they could taste. There was even a 4:30-6:00 early bird menu, although they menu refrained of specifically calling it that. Well, so much for Bistro Gardens. Still, I had a nice meal with my sweetie and the view was good.

All in all, Crescent City is a cute, friendly little burg and it's worth spending the day there--there is a lot to see. P took some great shots--more than me. Click the link to see them at his Flickr site.

Sunset over Freshwater Lagoon on the way home from our Grand Day Out:

Rainfall Record

2009-05-06T18:00:00.000-07:00

That weather bomb I showed a pic of on Monday the 4th yielded a rainfall record for the city of Eureka: 1.74 inches in 24 hours. The previous record was 0.83 inches in 1889. That's a whole lotta rain!

April Showers...and Mo

2009-05-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

April showers bring May flowers... Wait... it IS May! So what is up with THIS...??

It is really coming down out there right now. Here I am all snug in the house--early shift at work has me out of there by 3:30. The 6 AM alarm ain't so great, but the early departure is really nice.

Today, May 4th, is the 31st anniversary of the birth of my darling cat Mo (short for Mohandas K. Gandhi--I was a young, impressionable teen when I got Mo, and thought Gandhi was a Numero Uno Dude, so I named my cat after him. Rather misnamed, since Mo was all swaggery machismo with very little pacific about his personality. I still think MKG is a great man, though.) Mo was born in 1978, out of a white cat named Chaos, one of four kittens. I saw him and felt a bond immediately. I can't explain it; I just had a good feeling and begged both my parents and Chaos' person to let me have him. Sometimes it's like that with animals.

Mo had a big hiccup at age 2--he was running laps on the flat part of the roof at my folks' house, slipped and fell about 15 feet. He blew out his left knee and tore his diaphragm muscle about 75% loose from his chest wall. My parents, bless them, paid for expensive surgery and his vet Dr. Silver did a great job--Mo lived another 16 years after his accident, dying of kidney failure in 1996 at the age of 18. If you look closely at the picture, you can just barely see the midline scar of his surgery. He is about 10 years old here, in his characteristic roadkill pose that either says "It's too ****ing hot!" or "Here's my belly, notice me!!!"

Mo had one of those spirits that I truly hope I run into again in this lifetime. He was one of the mellowest, quirkiest cats I have ever known and he and I loved each other as only a cat and a cat lover can. I was definitely his person and I still feel priveleged. He was totally unfazed by other people, though and would work a house party of 20-30 people like a seasoned master.

"Hi. Welcome to my house."
"Thanks for sitting--I was looking for some lap."
"Tasty appetizers, yes? Don't mind if I do."

The January before he died, one of my roommates had a Superbowl party and Mo did his typical working of the room. Mo died on June 30th, 1996. The following January, another Superbowl party was in the works and one of my roommate's friends, who had attended the year before, asked "if that cat Mo was going to be there?", and when he was told that Mo had died he replied, "No point in having a party, then.". Mo was that cool of a cat.

So, Happy Birthday, Mo, wherever you are!!

Knitting Update

2009-05-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

I know, I know--I just posted a bunch of knitting stuff in my last post. I can't help it. Knitting is really what I do these days. I was not able to knit much while I was in school and I am making up for lost time, I guess. It helps, too, to have my new knitting circle at NCK. I have learned more cute tricks in the last few weeks of going regularly on Thursdays than in the last 5 years--really useful stuff. These people are as passionate as myself about the craft and that is empowering to me. I don't feel like and obsessed weirdo; I am obsessed, yes, but not weird in that crowd.

I just spent an hour thrashing around in my garage, trying to organize my stuff. OK, today it is 'stuff'; some days it is 'junk, but not today. I got a fair way into putting my knitting mags into plastic bins, and in chronological order. This is how they used to be and I want them that way again so I can FIND things. I will be happier overall when I can finish those things I have the gear for, but that lie fallow because needed components are buried in a box in the garage or some random closet cranny.

Still, I am drowning in projects and it is time for an update to help keep me focused.
I wrote this current project update almost two months ago on March 8th:

1) Zarah is reknit and ready to block and sew except for the collar. I really needed a break, but I will pick it up to work on soon.
2) Jiada is still fallow.
3) I have started a small first quarter project and it is proceeding apace as my lunchtime/weekly knitting circle project.
4) Grant Avenue is still in a box--can't deal with it right now.
5) Hisdal Peony is untouched.
6) Da Vinci is untouched as well
7) New Shell was shunted aside in favor of other lace weight mohair silk projects:
8) the Belinda wrap which is at the halfway point
9) Clapotis, which is 60-70% done and a STASH yarn project to boot. Yay me!

So, here is how today compares to two months ago:
1) Zarah is blocked except for the collar. I am slowly sewing it together. The shoulders are done, and about 2/3 of the side seams, but a it is slow going to get a tidy seam.
2) The right front of Jiada is done and now part of the back, but went on the back burner.
3) My lunchtime smoke ring is done.
4) Grant Avenue is still moldering in a box.
5) The Hisdal Peony is started, but was set aside for the scarf contest project, due May 15th.
6) Da Vinci is still untouched
7) New Shell? Hah. What New Shell--shelved in favor of other things until firther notice and I am dropping it from this list.
8) The Belinda wrap is about 80-85% done, but it is a SLOG at this point and I only work on it at lunch at work.
9) Clapotis is DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I have finished 2 of 9 projects, and shelved one until further notice. I have also made real progress on four more. The speed of progress will pick up again on all of these, once my scarf is finished and turned in.

The scarf contest is a Northcoast Knittery deal and I HAD to do it--they made me an offere I couldn't refuse. The deal is I got to choose any yarn in the shop up to $100 and could knit any scarf I wanted with it. They get to keep the finished scarf, but I can enter it in the County Fair if I'd like to. How could I say no? All I put in is time. Plus, the winner of the contest gets a $50 gift certificate, so I had to take a crack. I have seen two of the other entries and they are pretty slick, so I have stiff competion. There is one other knitter ( four of us, total), so I am not sure how likely it is that I'll win, but it still means I get to make a pattern I was itching to do. Besides, I am not hurting for scarves right now, so I get to knit it for free and then not have it cluttering things up. I am doing Nicky Epstein's 2-in-1 floral scarf from 'Knitting Never Felt Better'--it's the cover project. I am doing it in ruby red rather than the salmon color shown, and plan to lightly embellish it with some embroidery and maybe some beads, as well.

On that note, I am going to knnit a few more flowers and start putting the scarf together for felting. The sooner it is done, the sooner I can finish the other things I want to do.

W.I.P. it good!!

2009-05-01T17:13:00.000-07:00

OK, the post-title is a shameless DEVO paraphrase, but it fits the theme. Also, my dear husband checked out a Devo DVD from the library for me, knowing my admiration for the Beautiful Mutants. What a guy! That got me thinking in a Devo kind of way.

But I digress. The actual meaning of W.I.P. is "Work in Progress". This refers to things planned and on one's needles. For those of you who don't/can't see my Ravelry pages, I currently have 6 WIP's. Actually 8, but I was so embarrassed seeing all that unfinished, nagging STUFF that I sent two projects in to hibernation. Sheesh. (And just so she knows: K, your smoke ring is actually done, blocked and ready to mail. I have had such a short attention span, I haven't gotten my act together to package and mail it. {Yeah, yeah, Rabbit. Whatever, Dude.})

Aaaanyway, I keep starting things and not finishing other things. What can I say? I have been distracted. March was busy--I was panic-knitting to keep calm during Mom's health scare. Things there are at least temporarily under control. She comes home from the Nursing Home soon. This will make her happy, but then again, how well will she be able to look after herself? Time will tell.

Earlier this week, I had a Bad Tuesday in that I woke with an intractable migraine, stayed home from work and tried to sleep it off. That evening, I was snacking on a date and, lo!, one of my tooth veneers split in two and came off. I heard the 'crack!' and KNEW it was not good. Well, I love my dentist, Dr. Singleton. He got me in the next morning at 9 AM, so I only went around in public looking like an extra from 'Deliverance' for an hour. The temporary looks quite good and I was pleasantly surprised that the lab that makes the porcelain crowns was literally across the parking lot. They gave my teeth the once-over and Kim, the manufacturer assured me that he was more than happy to redo the crown gratis if I was not happy with it and even bring me in to check it before cementing. Not bad service for a small geographic area. This made me happy most of all because I miss the awesome Dr. John Shaffer in Hayward who did my teeth before. He did a really great job, but I feel like I am in good hands here, too. Big relief.

So, the flush knitting period of March has tapered. I have been going outside more often, although it is raining at the moment and supposed to all weekend. Not good weather for Spring hiking, but a good time to get some things done at home. I entered a scarf contest at Northcoast Knittery that must be done by May 16th, and since I am going out of town the 15th, I need it earlier than that. It's about 60-70% done. I really need to get some things off the slate, but I am putting the time-constrained scarf first. I have finally done some serious organization in the garage, but it is slow going. Mostly non-yarn-stash items so I can actually get to my stash in the first place. Slow going.

Still, I have promised Hubby to go out and mingle with real people this weekend, so I plan to make good. In fact, I think I'll go out now and get some sushi for dinner...

Trillium Spring

2009-04-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

It's a two post day--I've stored up, and I want to get these things up on the blog, so...

Last Monday, April 20th, was a gorgeous day. Days like that are uncommon in HumCo--at least this close to the coast. We get a lot of rain and grey in the Fall, Winter and early Spring and Summer is all fog and grey. It's all that wet that makes the redwoods big and the wildflowers bloom. Monday was and exception. Yes, yes--it was also 4-20, which is significant to some in the Emerald Triangle. Not to me: my thing this time of year is trilliums. the Western trillium (Trillium ovatum), which is also sometimes called the 'wake robin', is a lovely flower and it is peaking at this time of year. One place to see them blooming is Sequoia Park here in town; the park is not ten minutes from my house by car. When it rains, the trails are all mud. On dry days, though it is a lovely spot. Monday was bright, sunny and a clear 66 degrees F. My hubby and I took about and hour walk the park and this is what we saw...

We started out at the entrance--a nifty concrete pool and waterfall that incorporates an old redwood stump:

The light caught this orb weaver spider web perfectly:

My guy taking pictures of me taking pictures of him under the trees:

A largish patch of trilliums under the trees:

Another dense patch of blooms:

Trilliums start out white and then gradually pinken and finally turn purple before they fade. Here are some closeups:

We also made a stop to the turtle pond--a bit of algaw growth, but the turtles were taking a sunbath:

Nifty leaf filtered light on the water:

Looking straight up at the crowns of the redwoods--150 to 200 feet up, at least:

Thimbleberry flowers:

A waterfall in a grotto next to the path:

The sun filters through the trunks as we come to the end of our walk:

It's definitely days like this, experiences like this that make me happy I am here!

Mangelwurzel

2009-04-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

Mangelwurzel. What a weird word. I had never seen it before meeting this odd veggie. I bought this great big log of a beet on April 14th at the Arcata co-op for $2.49. The description on the card had this picture and said this:

"Mangel Beets

From Wild Rose Farm, Blue Lake CA
These huge beets run between15 and 25lb, and at
$2.49/each, they provide about the most sustenance
for your dollar you’ll find anywhere! Mangel beets
(or more properly Mangelwurzel) come from Germany,
and were developed to feed livestock during the long
winters. They make great eating and are delicious in any
of your favorite beet recipes. They are also used in England
for sport – Mangelwurzel hurling competitions are an
annual occurrence in some small towns!"

OK. These things are the size of Presto logs, are pig and cow food and people fling them for fun. Plus, they are only $2.49. Not per pound, mind you--for the whole beet! How could I resist?? I chose the smallest of the three available--still huge, mind you--and paid for it. I got my beet log home and commenced to look up recipes on the internet. (where I found the facsimile of the store card--neato!). Well, there aren't a lot of recipes for mangelwurzel--just seed ads and livestock information. I guess bossy the cow food that gets flung about doesn't sound so appealing to most other people. Someone suggested boiling them, but I prefer my normal beets roasted, so I ran with that thought. I trussed my Beetlog up in foil and tossed it into the oven:

I wrapped it in foil and roasted it at 400 degrees F. for 4 hours. This is a picture of what it looked like post-roasting, plus a cross section.

The next day I peeled it and cut it into chunks, which I used to make a salad as follows:

Mangel Beet Salad

Mangel beet cut into 1.5 inch chunks, about 2 cups
2 dozen oil cured black olives, pitted and chopped
1/2 an orange, peel and pith cut away, cut into sections
2 cups mixed spring greens
4 green onions chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 small bunch of chives chopped
cheese for garnish (grated parmesan or some other good quality firm cheese)

for the dressing, I used my avocado orange vinaigrette (i.e., I actually made this recipe up--yay, me!). This uses an avocado that is super ripe, but not dead--very very soft. Cut out any brown spots. Good for that forgotten avocado you don't want to waste.

Avocado dressing:
1/2 really ripe, super soft avocado
juice of 1/2 an orange
1 generous tsp. dijon mustard
1/4-1/3 cup really good virgin extra olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

mix salt with orange juice to dissolve. Add mustard and mix well. Scoop out avocado and mash then mix into juice. I use a latte whisk and mix the bejeezus out everything. Add olive oil and pepper and use the whisk to emulsify a bit. You could do this in a mini cuisinart, if you were so inclined.

Pour dressing over salad, toss, serve topped with grated cheese.

Pretty colors!
It was tasty stuff. The mangels tasted good--sweet, and rather like a cross between a beet and a yam. Would I cook with them again? Yes. This is good, because I have half of one left in the fridge.

For more info on mangelwurzel, wikipedia has the goods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangelwurzel

I leave you now with an extreme closeup of Gabriel, who has made it to age 25 (He hatched in April 1984, and I randomly designated 4/15--tax day--as his birthday. What a tough old bird, he is!!

Stupid Taxes and a Hippie Lawn

2009-04-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted, but I need to do something to calm down after doing my taxes. If anyone out there can explain to me how declaring student loan interest paid can cause my
California state taxes to actually go from a refund to money owed, I'd sure be grateful. More specifically, before declaring the money I paid in student loan interest, Turbotax said I was owed a refund of $67. After entering the interest, I OWED $203. WTF?? I owed the Feds, too, but less with the student loan stuff. It's all so arcane. Stupid taxes.

In another world, we have had enough nice weather that I have had a chance to assess the yard. I had my first run in with the overgrown lawn on March 31st. What do you get in Humboldt County winters? An out of control lawn, that's what. When it rains, the grass grows, and it rains a LOT here. Lately it seemed like it always rained on weekends which, of course, is when I had time to mow. We only have a push mower--very green, but not so useful for an out of control lawn. On a recent trip south I copped my mom's weed whacker, knowing she wouldn't need it while out of commision. I was making progress, but then I ran out of string. Crap. I, therefore, resorted to the push mower. I did OK, but ran out of metaphorical gas on the lawn corners. The result? A faux-hawk lawn. Or maybe more of a tonsured lawn.

Before half-assed but difficult mowing and after:

Still, one of the trilliums I got at the Arcata Farmer's Market last summer is blooming. Pretty!

If you saw the lawn two weeks later, we are back to square one, and me out of weed whacker string. Still, Happy Spring, everyone! Everyone, that is, except the tax people...

Happy Post Pi Day!

2009-03-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

Pi Day? What's that? Why it's 3-14!! I didn't make pies, though; I made cakes. Yarn cakes. I hauled out my umbrella swift and waded through the boxes in the garage and excavated my ball winder. Call it a keeping-up-with-the-joneses move. Now that I am going to a weekly knitting group at the rather posh LYS, I don't want to be showing up with ghetto hand wound balls of yarn. Also, it's a HECK of a lot faster to wind a skein of yarn that way and you have access to both ends of the skein.

Knitter's tools: an umbrella swift on the left and a ball winder on the right

A skein before winding and a center pull yarn cake after the swift and wider have been put to use.

I have been doing a fair bit of panic knitting, to try and keep stress at bay. My mom is in implode mode, and I need an emotional go-to to keep from spinning out. Obvious--KNITTING! (An aside--MAJOR kudos to my brother, husband and two dear friends down in the Southlands who have run interference with Mom. I am beyond deeply grateful. K, the scotch is on me!! Single malt, of course.)

So yesterday was a Flop Day--no obligations. I puttered with yarn. I prepped five projects-- the Five Alarm Bag, , most of the remaining of the skeins for Jiada, the skeins for the Peony Sweater, the Triad scarf, and The Be Sweet Slubby Shawl. It took maybe 45 minutes to make cakes where it would have taken ours to hand wind. They are so tidy looking!

A nice Saturday bounty.

Another great stash action--this time with beads--was made, too. I recently unearthed my random stash of seed beads, much of which I have had since I was a kid. (always the pack rat, me) I am using a pre-beaded yarn for the Be Sweet shawl and I decided to bead up one of the other yarns, so I randomly seeded all my turquoise colored beads on it--some matte, some clear, but I think it will look quite fun, and it gets a lot of beads out of tubes and tupperwares and into actual USE. (a novel concept!)

I also got my marmalade kidsilk haze in the mail and pick up the stitches for Belinda, which is now in go-mode. Last week, I finished the front of Jiada and started the back--BORING stockinette, but I can pick it up when I am at loose ends and need some yarn freecell to keep be occupied.

So, I have been busy. I have also knitted a lot. Clapotis is done and now needs blocking and tassels made. I am going to block and sew Zarah before I decided how to do the collar. The smoke ring is about 1/3 done, and has been going with me to work and knitting group. Belinda is also ready to go. So is Jiada. This may sound mundane, but productivity helps in the face of situational difficulty--meaning my mother. I have always said that a hobby is a comfort and I stand by that statement. Mine sure has comforted me!

So have another piece of pi(e) and a yarn cake on the side!!

New Year's Resolution Update

2009-03-08T12:29:00.000-07:00

Well. It's March--two months since the New Year. Tomorrow is my birthday, which serves as a convenient reminder that we are two months into the New Year. This day seems as good as any, therefore to briefly revisit my New Year's resolutions.

On a personal front, I have lost the nasty five pounds that had crept up, which is good, but I still need to throw down with more exercise. I have gone running and walking recently, which is a good start. I won't dwell any more on it here.

As to my fiber habits, I need to re-resolve here and now to go back on the wagon, vis a vis: not buying any more yarn. I have been a bad bad girl. On the plus side, my needles have been busily a-clickin'.

My original resolutions, knitting-wise were:
1) Zarah
2) Jiada
3) Small first quarter projects (3--maybe 4)
4) Grant Avenue
5) Hisdal Peony
6) Da Vinci
7)New Shell? or some other project?

Here is where I currently am:
1) Zarah is reknit and ready to block and sew except for the collar. I really needed a break, but I will pick it up to work on soon.
2) Jiada is still fallow.
3) I have started a small first quarter project and it is proceeding apace as my lunchtime/weekly knitting circle project.
4) Grant Avenue is still in a box--can't deal with it right now.
5) Hisdal Peony is untouched.
6) Da Vinci is untouched as well
7) New Shell was shunted aside in favor of other lace weight mohair silk projects:
8) the Belinda wrap which is at the halfway point
9) Clapotis, which is 60-70% done and a STASH yarn project to boot. Yay me!
So, I have managed to work on two of my resolutions. I think of the above list the Peony sweater will be next. Once it is started it will be more autopilot. Now that I am in a weekly knitting group at North Coast Knittery (a lovely store when you are in the Humboldt Bay Area--check it out!!), I have motivation to have something ready to go at all times. I also have a project picked out for another bag of stash yarn--some Noro Cotton Kureyon, so I should be plenty busy for now.

On a sad note--R.I.P. to my IBM Thinkpad. The hard drive had sudden, complete cardiac arrest early last week. This post is being composed on my husband's ancient desktop (Windows '98, no less!). The Thinkpad was refurbished, and did me well for four years. It had been hiccuping, so out of a sense of impending doom, I actually backed up my 'My Documents' folder, so the loss was not total. I lost some game programs, and a few other pieces of software that will be irritating to replace, but nothing that CAN'T be replaced like pictures, notes, patterns and recipes. Let this be a lesson to all of you out there. Get yourself a big flash drive and back your systems up!! My husband warned me and fortunately, for once, I listened to him. I have a new refurbished Dell coming (yay, EBay.), which should do me for at least another four years, I hope.

It's a cold-ish day out (in the '40's) with the threat of showers--not bad, but not unreasonable to dig in with a fiber project. Have a great Sunday, everyone!

ARGH!

2009-03-03T17:15:00.000-08:00

Make it STOP!!

In Like a Lion

2009-03-02T18:30:00.001-08:00

Just in case anyone was wondering...

...this just passed overhead. Thank goodness it came today and not yesterday when we were driving.

I feel as unsettled as the weather and can't seem to focus on anything--no knitting not movies, not chores. Oh, for a clear head!!

Lurking Menace

2009-02-21T14:45:00.000-08:00

Here's the current radar shot from Wunderground. It's WARM outside and the clouds coming in are BLACK. The Severe Weather Alert has upped the widespread rainfall prediction from 2 to 3 inches. The King Range is due for 5--Hang on Mattole Valley!

Snacking: Bien Padre yellow corn and flax chips, Casa Linda Verde Especial salsa--hot, Fox barrel cider.

On the CD player: Missa Mexicana.

Pwill is reading, I am surfing and blogging and gazing ever more at Clapotis on the coffee table. It is starting to rain outside.

For Dinner: Steak salad. Local beef is marinating, two small London broils--one steak in Calhoun's BBQ sauce from Arcata and the other in my own concoction of red wine, black vinegar, worchestershire, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, a touch of honey and squeezed garlic. Broil these and serve sliced over salad tossed with dijon vinaigrette and some very lightly cooked asparagus. Red wine. Either dates and dark chocolate for dessert or maple bacon ice cream if I get motivated.

Nice trip to Hookton Slough this morning--tons of birds, especially aleutian geese. Maybe our last outside jaunt for a few days...

Storm Watch

2009-02-20T23:02:00.000-08:00

After my wild flurry of posts last week I just looked at my post list and realized I hadn't posted for a whole week--sacre bleu! I have been quite preoccupied. My mom had a 'bad spell' this week, so to speak which will induce pitied worry in some and knowing nods in others. That is a cryptic sentence, I know, but I am feeling cryptic so I will leave it at that.

My husband and I were planning to drive down to the Bay Area tonight. One of my coworkers casually asked my weekend plans at the end of today and I told her to which she replied "You know they have issued a severe weather alert for Humboldt County?". Of course, I didn't know. Major storm coming in Saturday late--at least 2 and as much as 5 inches of rain in the King Range--the coastal spine that runs parallel to Highway 101. Mud slides. A warm storm that will melt snow. Flooding. Rock slides. All this in the alert and likely to take place right as we are driving home. Neither of us want the aggravation along with everything else, so we are going south NEXT weekend.

This does give me some noodle time with my knitting needles (can't hike in bad weather, right?), although I may be dragged out from my warm nesty corner of the couch to go to the movies by my husband who has taken, in alternate turns, to lately describe himself as both a 'fiber widower' and a 'facebook widower', although my initial infatuation with FB has died down quite a bit. Not the Fiber Infatuation, however!

Zarah is on hold. The sleeves are done and seem right. I need to check and possibly redo the collar and then the slog of blocking and sewing up. I need a break, though. I was feeling disenchanted withZarah, Jiada, everything in front of me and wanted something new.

I have my Belinda from Mason Dixon--Knitting Outside the Lines wrap as my autopilot lunchtime project, pictured here, and it is proceeding apace. I am already on the second ball of aqua Madil Kid Seta. It's an easy repeat and no shapng so I can plug away at it without thinking too much. I knit on it at work during lunch and that is a nice change from websurfing. I have always been the type to hole up at a desk and I only have a 30 minute lunch break, so this is keeping me busy and happy. This is purely a work project, though, and, other than executing a russian join to start the new aqua ball, I don't work on it at home at all.

Everything else on the slate seems too picky (beaded fingerless gloves, the Ice Queen headscarf) or too repetitive (a smoke ring for Chica, a Machault cap for hubby. I will get too them soon, I promise, but I made them both recently enough that I am trying to avoid deja vu burnout.)

The answer was that last Monday I actually went to my stash. Yes, really. I am using yarn I bought in the '90's. Yay me! On the needles is Clapotis in Noro Cotton Iroha. What a great name--'Clapotis'. It sounds enough like the word 'clafouti' that I think of warm fruit dessert with vanilla ice cream every time I hear the the name. The actual definition if the word is: "bruit d'une légère agitation de l'eau" or the noise of a light agitation of water. Soft, lapping waves. How nice! So I am planning some happy clapotement, so to speak, this weekend. I need something that will both excite me and not fight me and Clapotis seems just the ticket.

Bring on the rain--I am READY!

Pop Goes the Weasel...sort of

2009-02-13T17:24:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, I have been taking movies of my cockatiel buddy Gabriel. A friend who saw my post asked "What about 'Pop Goes the Weasel'?". Let me explain: Gabriel has been trying to master this tune for over 20 years (literally) and has never really gotten it. He tries, though--tries VERY hard. What comes out is more sort of "Variations on a theme of 'Pop Goes the Weasel' "--like Bach or some riffing jazz master. Or maybe the wires in Gabriel's bird brain start cross-firing. In any case, it is very cute. So without further ado, take it away, Gabriel:

That's me whistling (poorly) in the middle, giving him a prompt. Maybe that's why he's so muddled...

Why We have Happy Trees

2009-02-12T17:05:00.000-08:00

Just in case you all wondered why the North Coast redwood trees are particularly large, I think the current weather radar maps say it all (courtesy of wunderground.com):

Here is the U.S. map as of 5ish PM, PST, with us in the far west in the path of that very focused blot of green:

Here is the regional closeup. The pokey-out bit of land is Cape Mendocino, which is actually in Humboldt County. That's Humboldt in the center with Del Norte Co. to the north and Mendocino Co. to the south. We're gonna get wet!

Commuted Sentence

2009-02-11T19:11:00.001-08:00

I am about to hit the 2 year mark living in HumCo and that is giving me some food for thought. One plus for working at the local hospital is that I work with patients who live all over the North Coast--Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity and even Northern Mendo counties.

A couple of things that come up regularly in conversation is that many of the more scattered folk look at Eureka as being "The Big City". I hear the phrase "You city folks..." an awful lot and the relative concept blows me away. See, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. SAN FRANCISCO, is a big city. OAKLAND is a big city. BERKELEY is a big city. San Jose WANTS to be a big city and not some wanna-be urban sprawl, but only sort-of makes it. The downtown is just not enough of a city center. In any case, the greater Bay Area is host to about 7 million people. Yipes!

I spent a good part of my life poking about these places--more than 40 years. So when people here refer to Eureka, with its population of 26,000 people as the big city, I have to chuckle. I don't mean to make fun of what I see as a bit of naivete, but compare it to my hometown of Fremont. The whole of Humboldt county has about 126,500 people. The city of Fremont, which is a true suburb wedged between Oakland and San Jose has a current population of 200,000. That's 7.5 times larger than Eureka and that with NO open space north, south or west. The hills to the east are still sort of undeveloped, but every time I visit, I see new buildings defying the so-called "no-growth" ban. Drive a very short space and you are out of Eureka in pasture, marsh, forest or farmland.

That leads me to the concept of commuting. If someone commutes from Crescent City to Eureka every day, that is hardcore: 80 tough miles over windy roads. Patients have come from as far afield at Zenia, Gasquet, Branscomb, Salyer and so on. Quite some big distances. Still, when I hear someone carrying on about how terribly FAR is is to come from Fortuna, which is 15 miles from Eureka, again I chuckle because it is all so relative.

During my 16 year career in biotech, my shortest car commute was 13 miles. None of my commutes were less than an hour each way due to traffic. I drove for 13 years from Fremont to Palo Alto over the Dumbarton Bridge, sitting in traffic and at the bridge tollgate, growling at other drivers, surfing my radio. Now I have a .85 mile commute. If I drive, I can't even get through a single song on the radio. I even walk when the weather is good. I love it!

I hear about the "traffic" in Eureka and I have to remind myself how good we have it here, relatively speaking. I suspect some long-timers would talk about how things "used to be". I feel that way, too, about the old Fremont that was all apricot orchards and gladioli fields--both long gone under housing tracts.

I find myself growling now at 5 car traffic jams and I pause and think--"Gee, it really could be worse!" My husband dubbed the Greater Bay Area "The Termite Mound" because of the dense traffic. So, what constitutes a crowd or bad traffic is relative. Life is good here in HumCo and we who are fortunate enough to live here should take a deep breath of clean air and thank our lucky stars.

Fit to be Tied, A Knitting Saga, Part V: Zarah Update

2009-02-10T15:21:00.000-08:00

We have a sleeve! Oh frabjous day! Callooh! callay! She chortled in her joy! For those knitters who have been following the Zarah slog, here is the current State of the Sweater.

After a false start, I finally have a sleeve that fits! I knit it up and ended on the first try attempting to blend in a skein of yarn from a different dyelot; this blending didn't work. The color change was subtle, but I could still see it in a plain patch of stockinette. I knew it would bug me to see it, so with a sigh, I ripped and restarted. The second dyelot yarn was used for the chevron bell and seed stitch portions and now the difference doesn't show. I also had to tweak the stitch number, and the changes worked. I pinned the sleeve and it fits! I am so happy!!

Now I get to do it again.

A Conversation with Gabriel

2009-02-09T16:42:00.000-08:00

"Who is Gabriel?", you ask. Gabriel is my ancient cockatiel. He's been my little feathered buddy since the Summer of 1984, when I decided I HAD to have a bird. He was about 8-10 weeks old when I got him and little did I know that 24 years later, he would still be with me, doing his birdie thing. Some of you have met him. For those who haven't, here is the Feathered Old One, himself in a video I took on Sunday, February 8th, 2009, telling a snippet of his own story:

As you can see, he is quite a big talker, although this is a tiny fraction of his 'vocabulary'. He especially likes chatting to feet (the waving pink thing in the beginning of this scene), but will talk to the occasional hand, as you can see. He's a trippy little guy!

Gabriel is getting rather long in the beak these days. His vet says she has never treated a cockatiel as old as he is. Since, he has had a few health problems over the last year and a half (after 23 years of illness-free existence, not too bad), I wanted to get some footage of him for posterity. Still, he may just keep on going--here's hoping!!

Computers and Other Friday Idiocy

2009-02-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

This will not be so much a blog or even a rant more like a creaky whine. That's because I have a bellyache. The reason I have a bellyache is See's candy. See's candy boxes appear regularly when you work in a West Coast radiation oncology facility, usually bestowed by grateful patients at the end of their treatment courses. I love See's candy. If I eat too much of it, however, I get a bellyache and a headache like I have now. It was definitely a weird day today and a testament to the stress level is that the department collectively pounded down about 80% of a 2 lb. box of See' s in about 3 hours.

Why the stress feeding? Because the bulk of the computers decided to arf today. The normal work flow slowed to a crawl, and things we do routinely with no thought became tedious and difficult. Dare I say it, it made me long for paper charts rather than the baneful and arcane computers we have come to rely on. It reached the point by 4 pm that my coworkers were not so much throwing in the towel for the week but flinging it from them and fleeing as if that towel was a metaphorical angry tarantula itching to bite.

So here I am all bellyachy in both the actual and the whiny sense. So my whine-posing-as-a-pseudo-rant comes from my irritation with technology. I know I would hate if if we had to use paper charts, as they are a pain. I also, however, am not so fond of technologies that don't talk to one another. Our computers have three different operating systems in the department. Some are associated with particular treatment software, and even the OS can be subject to FDA approval, so it's not like we can just change or update on a whim. The flip side is that Microsoft has notoriously and to my mind evilly chosen to poorly support its past OS's, with the mind of forcing users to upgrade. The greedy bastards.

Frankly, I am using an old laptop with Windows 2000. Outdated? You betcha! I cannot afford another laptop right now, however, and it irks me beyond measure that I should have to shell out many $$$ just to have a computer that runs decently. Grrrrrrrrr.

Anyway, it's time to step away from all computers and do something more low-tech like pick up my needles. It is Friday evening after all, my weekly time to say "Enough!" and admire the potential of an unfolding weekend--two whole days and time to choose what to do...

Equal Opportunity For Felines

2009-02-02T18:41:00.000-08:00

Has anyone guessed that I am a cat person?

The kitty face in the picture is my OTHER cat, Sophie, who tends to get left behind in the wake of her sister Cappuccino's monumental ego. Sophie tends to be camera shy, but I got some face shots to post. Cappuccino has appeared on this blog in several posts and Sophie is due for some airtime. The Soph-a-loaf is sweet, but rather a nutcase. The vet tech who saw her when I brought her in to be spayed said "Oh! How pretty she is! But pastel tortoiseshells are SO schizy!" She called it dead on--Sophie is one of the schiziest cats I have ever known. She is sweet and cuddly one minute, paranoid the next, and then pushy and aggressive. Once in a while she beats her sister up, but not often. She and Cappuccino are littermates, but they mostly hate each other. So much for having two to keep each other company. Sophie does have the greenest eyes I have ever seen on a cat, the thickest fur, very short legs and no jumping muscles. So here's to Sophie!

On the Zarah front, I am about two thirds the way through the sleeve. This is actually the second go-round. The sleeve was the right size, but I switched dyelots and while the difference was sublte, it showed, so redo redo redo (crap!). Still, the pre-redo incarnation was the right size along the armhole, so I am on the right track.

Another Goofy Cat Moment

2009-01-26T22:15:00.000-08:00

You gotta love cats.

There is never enough fresh water in the house for Cappuccino. You would think I was trying to kill her with thirst. This is why I can't use that spray on shower cleaner stuff. This happens every day after I shower. Silly little cutie.

Mussel Beach Party

2009-01-25T19:02:00.000-08:00

My fingers stink of crab.

I was attempting to clean a couple of whole dungeoness crabs that I took out to thaw a few hours ago. To my dismay, they were still frozen, but I tried to clean them anyway. I wanted to make crab cakes. I guess, I'll have mac and cheese instead washed down with a small glass of cheap chardonnay, with the DVD of 'Yojimbo' on the telly.

Still, I got my shellfish rocks off this weekend. Me, the hubster and a work buddy of mine all went and scored some yummy mussels at a nearby beach. The weather was dicey, but held. It was supposed to be a slight minus tide and we were there half an hour before peak low tide, but we still got rather wet. Not really a minus tide in reality. It was fun though! I was fishing license-less, so I left the gathering to the registered, watched their backs for waves and took pictures.

The intrepid mussel gatherers do their thing:

These look like larval critters--baby barnacles or baby mussels:

The sky was doing weird, wonderful things with light and color:

We took all our shellfish home and noshed on Spicy Thai Mussels, bread and lemon icebox pie all washed down with Newcastle beer. It was a tasty feed, I must say and we were assured of the freshness of the seafood! There were barnacles on the mussels and we all got brave and tasted a couple of the larger ones. They actually were quite good and tasted a lot like crab, but were only a tiny sliver of meat in each, so not really worth the effort.

Cappuccino flopped out in front of the fire after the feast. I felt about the same way. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday and nice to know we earned our tasty meal!

Earn More Sessions by Sleeving

2009-01-24T12:20:00.000-08:00

Charlie: Ten more seconds and I'm leaving!
Roxanne: What did you say?
Charlie: I said ten more seconds and I'm leaving.
Roxanne: Oh.
Charlie: What did you think I said?
Roxanne: I thought you said earn more sessions by sleeving.
Charlie: What does that mean?
Roxanne: I don't know. That's why I asked

--Roxanne, 1987 starring Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah

I think that is a reasonable line to describe my state at the moment. Earn more sessions by sleeving. That's what I am doing: sleeving. Actually I am procrastinating because I am blogging about sleeving rather than doing it. I am up to 72 stitches out of the needed 104, meaning I have 64 rows of slogging stockinette to go. Onward and upward...

I did have a work lunch hour interlude project--YAH ("Yet Another Hat"), this time for me rather than as a prezzie as the last few were. I felted it this morning and it turned out as cute as ever these hats do, all woolly and curly brimmed.

The has was knitted up using Cascade 220 and felted in three hot water cycles before rinsing in a top-loading washer.

Zarah is not currently going with me to work. She is a purely at-home project, although that may change if the 'gottas' set in. Right now the sleeve reknit is aversion therapy. The hat was an at-work project, but my knitting bag contains a couple other small portables that I can autopilot during my lunch hour. Even 30 minutes of knitting can dial back the white noise of a busy clinic, although the male portion of my cowrkers (which is most of them) look at me kind of funny. Well, they can keep their World of Warcraft. I got my fiber. Still, I like an autopilot project that I don't have to concentrate too hard on so with the red hat done, currently in the ondeck circle is the 'Belinda' wrap from Mason-Dixon Knitting: Knitting Outside the Lines which I am doing in Madil Kid Seta--Cascade's answer to Kidsilk Haze. We'll see how the Madil holds up to the beloved KSH, but it would be nice to have a yarn that works with it to expand the color choices.

Tonight is a minus tide just before sunset and the Hubster has a spanking new fishing license, so we are going mussel gathering. A first time for both of us. I am armed with a recipe for Spicy Thai Mussels that sounds yummy. Hopefully the weather will hold.

More Sleeve Madness

2009-01-22T18:59:00.000-08:00

For my fiber-bemused buddy:
(you know who you are--hee hee!)

"O mercy, God! what masquing stuff is here?
What's this? a sleeve? 'tis like a demi-cannon:
What, up and down, carved like an apple-tart?
Here's snip and nip and cut and slish and slash,
Like to a censer in a barber's shop:
Why, what, i' devil's name, tailor, call'st thou this?"

--Petruchio, Act 4, Scene 3
'The Taming of the Shrew' by William Shakespeare

I am in Stockinette Purgatory on the first redo of the Zarah sleeve. This quote comes to mind as I just watched a video of this play last week. Apropos, I think, so I thought a quick blog was in order. Blogging, even briefly gives me a break. Tonight it's plodding sleeve stockinette and some 1963-4 vintage Season 1 'Outer Limits' courtesy of Netflix. Hokey and excellent! Sleeve on, Macduff! (that is homage to the video of Macbeth that awaits...)

On a tangential sleeve note, here is a daily rant: why the heck is it that I have 3 sets of size 4 needles and 4 sets of size 6's, but no matching set of size 5's? I mean really, what's up with that?!

Another ranting note as to the quality of my day: my hands stink of bleach at the moment as I attempt to remove blue sharpie ink from a white lab coat. That's what I get for absentmindedly putting a sharpie with the cap on the wrong end back in my pocket: a nice, vivid stripe across my boob. As my boss observed this morning: "It's the right angle for a rightie to put it back into the pocket." Lovely. Well, yay Clorox!

Fit to be Tied, A Knitting Saga, Part IV: "The sleeve. The sleeve!"

2009-01-21T18:33:00.000-08:00

"The sleeve. The sleeve!" Frank Fry (Norman Lloyd) from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Saboteur'

Frank Fry is about to fall to a messy death from the torch of the Statue of Liberty after his sleeve, grasped by Roberts Cummings, comes loose from his jacket. Very suspenseful film making.

So why the shrieking, falling image of Frank Fry? I have got sleeves on the brain. Bad sleeves. I am having a case of Deja sleeve because I am finally reknitting the first sleeve from 'Zarah'. I ripped that puppy last night; fifteen minutes of tinking and rewinding. It's a heck of a lot faster to tink than to knit. Sigh.

I took measurement after trying the pinned up sweater/sleeve combo and made the appropriate notes for changes. The upshot is that the sleeve is (by my calculations) 18 stitches too narrow. How this happened, I don't know. The stitch count is correct for the large sized sleeve. Oh well. (grrr.)

I ripped one sleeve and left the other as a guide. I was able in a sad little way to tink to the 13th row, so that is a tiny start. The pic shows the embryonic new sleeve and the too narrow old sleeve. Since both sleeves were "complete", that means I will end up knitting them twice. I tend to knit both sleeves at once on sweaters. When I do this it usually means that the shaping ends up being uniform on both sleeves. Well, not this time. It's one sleeve, checking as I go. So I hope I won't end up a splat like Frank Fry. Wish me luck!

Fit To Be Tied: A Knitting Saga, Part III, Zarah Recap

2009-01-10T11:17:00.000-08:00

Well, it's 2009--a whole new year. The Christmas projects are mostly done. Only the the Kinetic scarf remains to be finished. I should have it done before my brother's birthday. (Yeesh!) I am on the last ball of yarn, but it has reached the interminable stage even though I have knit on nothing else since Christmas. I am really ready mentally to work on something, anything else.

Still, I am nearing the end and trying not to get sidetracked too badly from my NY Knitting Resolutions, although distraction is already starting to occur in the form of upcoming birthday projects and some small projects that I actually have stash for (specifically Noro Cotton Iroha for Clapotis and Tahki Donegal or Cum Matt Cowhair yarn for the Formal Boot Bag).

But I digress. This is supposed to be a post about Zarah. Zarah has lain untouched in my knitting basket since late Summer/ early Fall when I started the Modern Quilt Wrap. This is where Zarah stands: the fronts and the back are done and I am happy with them. The collar and sleeves are done and I am NOT happy with them. The sleeves are too narrow and the proportion seems off. The collar looks slightly too short.

This is the current recap of how much I have knit and reknit on this puppy:

1) the back was knit a total of 2.5 times before I was happy with it.
2) the fronts were knit 1.75 times each.
3) the collar has been knitted 2 times already and it is still not right.
4) the sleeves have been knit 1 time each and are not right.

Here is pic of the current state of the bodice. The black lines are scrap yarn placed over the bust darts so they will show up in the picture. In real life, they are quite unobtrusive.

So here is what is on the agenda: I need to check the sleeve size, recalculate and reknit them both. The pattern for the collar has it as onle long, straight piece, but really it needs to be knit in a slightly horseshoe fashion with some decreases to get it to lie correctly and not bunch up. So, I will try to make some sleeve calcs this week and start up by next weekend. I want to schedule a down day where all I do is knit. (my Eveready Bunny husband is not good with just 'sitting around', so I need to negotiate some me time with him.) The upshot is that I have to have Zarah done by the end of January. I also have some brithday projects to do, one easy hat due by early February maybe not so easy socks due by the end of March. Maybe a couple more, if I can squeeze them in. All these little things early in the year. Argh.

Goodbye woolworks.org

2009-01-03T14:35:00.000-08:00

Three posts in one week--I must be starved for posting. I guess I am making up for lost time since I had a one month blog hiatus between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I just had too much to do.

I was poking about on the internet last night and ended up visiting a website I hadn't been to in many months: www.woolworks.org. Woolworks has been around for 15 years. It was one of the first sites on the internet to try and create a comprehensive site for listing techniques, resources, books, etc. for knitters spinners, dyers and other fiber artists. The creator is a woman named Emily Way and she was the driving force for this site which I thought was a great idea from the get-go. I found woolworks myself in about 1995 or '96 and I used it time and again as a centralized resource for my knitcraft.

The internet has had usegroups, threads and discussion boards since the early days and I initially belonged to some of these online groups. I shortly found out, however, that following threads and discussion boards is really not my thing. I feel like I spend more time wading through posts than getting things done and I get bored. No disrespect intended to those who love the format, but there it is.

So then there was Woolworks.org. It had a comprehensive book list of titles and authors, lists of stores by location, updated by information sent from users, a gallery of pictures, and techniques, just to name a few of the available things. It even had a discussion boards and a page of OTHER discussion board URL's. My favorite page was the information on dyeing yarn with koolaid, down to a table of the colors you get based on the drink mix flavor. Excellent! All this cool fiber stuff and it was all free.

Recently, I noticed that there was not a lot of updated content for the site. It was mostly run by Ms. Way and a crew of other volunteers. It was not for profit and was supported entirely by donations. It must have been a hell of a lot of work to do. I have enough trouble keeping up with this tiny little blog. I can't imagine how much time a large website of that sort must have taken.

So why am I writing all this? There is a notice on the Woolworks homepage that as of November 25, 2008, Woolworks is shutting down. Man. I was very sad about this! I must say, I was only mildly surprised, however, given some of the other sites now on the web. Everyone these days seems to have a blog--even me. The internet seems like unlimited information for fiberhounds. And then there is Ravelry.

The current gold standard for fiber artists these days (in my humble opinion) is Ravelry.com. I am a dedicated Raveller. My Rabbitknitz logo is also my Ravetar. I log onto Ravelry daily, keep my projects updated, surf patterns and books. The format is easy to use and the user can post projects and pictures for others to see and to refer back to with minimal fuss. I love Ravelry! websites like Ravelry, however, really evolved out of earlier web iterations like Woolworks. There are even things that Ravelry doesn't (yet?) have like the comprehensive list of fiber stores that Woolwroks dis hove. Planning a trip? You could go to Woolworks beforehand and make a list of stores that might be on your route with very little fuss. That is a very cool thing! I am deeply deeply sorry to see Woolworks going away.

The data on the site is apparently being archived at places like the Internet Archive Wayback Machine so that the content will be preserved. Trust Emily to do the classy thing: no sudden shutdown, but an organized filing away of information.

The most distressing thing to me, however, is that I googled the site and the shutdown, there was nothing, NOTHING!, about it to be found. No chat, no postings, zip, I felt that I had to add my two cents worth to the end of Woolworks. Thanks, Emily and all your volunteers, all the users and crafters who added to and maintained the site for 15 great years. My hat is off in a respectful salaam to Emily Way for creating and maintaining this website for the use and edification of crafters world wide. Woolworks, you will be missed.

Happy Knit Year 2009

2009-01-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is; 2009 has arrived. I was expecting a quiet transition into 2009, but instead I had a harrowing entry into the New Year. The NYE anxiety centered on a samoyed I was babysitting named Heidi. Heidi's parents went on ski holiday over Christmas and I agreed (with Hubby in tow) to watch her. Now, Heidi is a very nice dog. She's friendly and playful and generally pretty easy to deal with. Still, as the week wore on it seemed like she was growing progressively more irritated with the fact that is was me or my husband showing up to feed her rather than her real mommy and daddy. So, on a backyard potty sojourn on New Year's Eve at dusk, I turned my back for two minutes and she decided split. Gone. White fluffy greased lightning. I was utterly beside myself. I called my husband. Then I called Heidi's owners. It was New Year's Eve with all the inherent celebrating and I thought "Crap. Midnight. Firecrackers. Freaked dog on the run." (Yes, I was thinking in sentence fragments by this time.) Hubby and I looked both on foot and by car for over an hour. Then we realized me needed bigger guns, so to speak and called the police and filed a lost dog report (which turned out to be a VERY good idea.) So no Heidi. We stayed at the dog place all night hoping she would show up. No soap. I was an utter mess.

Finally about 10:00 the next morning, the police called and put us in touch with someone who had her and called her in. So, all's well that ends well and Heidi went home safe and sound. She had been found about 3 blocks from home very soon after she ran off, and so spent the night at least safe from the bad weather and partyers with fireworks. Bless the folks who took her in for the night and bless the Eureka police department for taking our lost-dog report seriously.

One of my coworkers today said, "Your New Year's Eve should reflect how the rest of the year will be." Man, I hope he is dead wrong. I prefer to think that I have paid up a big debt of bad karma by having one seriously bad, anxious night.

I tell this story by way of explaining why the 'Happy New Year' blog I had planned to write is a bit late as are any list of resolutions I might make. Every year people talk about their New Year's Resolutions. I tend to be an exception these last few years because I don't want to set myself up for failure so early in the year. Still, I have a 'date' with my husband to make resolutions tomorrow night of the "lose weight, exercise more, be more organized" variety.

What I want to talk about here, however is some knitting resolutions.

The picture is of my Modern Quilt Wrap knit in Rowan Kidsilk Haze. The border is my addition to the pattern and I am very pleased with how this turned out. I finished it up in October of 2008.

I am at a bit of a crossroads via my knitting of what I feel I SHOULD do and what I WANT to do. I have spent the last few months (since mid October and the completion of my Modern Quilt Wrap) knitting Christmas presents for people. I did pretty well, finishing all but on gift on time. That unfinished gift --Kinetic by Norah Gauguin-- done as a scarf is at the halfway point.

My dilemma is this: I have several small projects I should do for some first quarter of 2009 birthdays. Then I have the several circling-the-airport projects such as my Zarah, my Grant Avenue vest and my Jiada sweater that I am tired of wading through in my knitting basket. I also have a shawl that is needing tweaking on the edging. Always with the unfinished or not-perfect projects! I want to start something NEW!!

I have a couple of things new in mind. I have a kit for Solveig Hisdal's Peony Sweater from "Poetry in Stitches" that I have had in my stash for about seven years. I am ready for it. I also broke down and bought the yarn for the Da Vinci sweater from Rowan #44 (most of the yarn, actually--Jannette's Rare Yarns was out of Rowan Chestnut Wool Cotton when I ordered.) These are two serious fairisle projects, but I want both done by the end of the year. I am determined (yes, we know how determined I tend to be--NOT!) I also have some hot Kidsilk Haze action that I have decided to use for the New Shell lace pullover from Madeline Weston's "Classic British Knits". There's more, LOTS more, but these represent new yarn, stash yarn, and leftover yarn all three. I will let myself start knitting when Zarah is done, I think. That being said, there will be more posts for the "Fit to Be Tied" saga, and, I HOPE, some resolution, too.

So, speaking of resolutions, here are my fiber resolutions:

1) Zarah
2) Jiada
3) Small first quarter projects (3--maybe 4. 'Nuff said there)
4) Grant Avenue
5) Hisdal Peony
6) Da Vinci
7)New Shell? or some other project?

This is an ambitious list, and will mean me laying off the Snood and Hoyle Yahtzee and KNITTING. We'll see how far I get. This likely means no Christmas prezzies this year, but I can only knit so fast.

So enough blogging and more knitting-- I still have the Kinetic Scarf to finish...!

Post Holiday Totals

2008-12-29T19:32:00.001-08:00

Merry Post Christmas, all you ether-readers!

Christmas is well and truly done at our house with the news that all those who visited have arrived back home safely. We had a full house--9 people-- and this was the first Christmas that my husband and I hosted together. The gathering was a meld of my and my husband's families.

Man, am I tired.

All I have managed to do tonight is to wash some laundry (don't mention either folding it or putting it away.) My brother was the last to leave this morning. My husband took him to the airport at 4:45 AM. I dragged myself out of bed and went to work. This next week will be one of enforced sobriety since I will be on call starting tomorrow, so I am having one last glass of red wine-- killing the last open bottle of the holidays.

Christmas Eve was a simple meal of cracked dungeoness crab, superfluous salad, bread and tons of butter. I guess this is a Humboldt county tradition. I got my crab at Murphy's Market in Bayside where someone told me they buy their crab fresh from a coworker's husband. Well, let me tell you, wherever it came from, it was DAMN fine crab.

Christmas day's menu was as follows:
1) Crisp Apple Scented Roast Turkey with Cider Calvados Gravy
I changed it up a bit in that I swapped sage for basil (I useda total of 3 Safeway plastic packs of fesh sage. Basil and turkey as a taste combo just doesn't work for me like sage and turkey. I was the cook, so it's my prerogative, baby!)
2) Stuffing: dried croutons, celery, onion, cremini mushrooms, poutry seasoning, chiken broth. My aunt's basic recipe. Mmmmmmmmmmmm!
3) Buttermilk mashed potatoes
4) Spiral sliced ham
5) Pea salad with sour cream, bacon, and cashews
6) Cranberry orange walnut relish-- this stuff was GREAT. I used white sugar (not substitute), 15 oz of cranberries, not 12, and put 1 tsp cinnamon in it. I also chopped the larger pieces up a bit after it was cooked. I made it the day before and it did get better with age. It had a very small hint of sour cherry flavor to it that was delish with both the turkey and the ham.
veggie sides from our farm based on what was available:
7) Shredded leek salad
8) Kale salad with spicy almonds, olives and roasted peppers
9) Roasted beets with orange vinaigrette
10) Cider glazed brussels sprouts
11) leek, onion and shallot gratin
It actually all turned out great. The onion gratin didn't make it to the table, so we dug into it it the next day. Dessert was apple pie I made using apples from our backyard trees and a yule log my mother-in-law brought. Everyone ate until they hurt and drank to the "I-love-ya-man!" stage. Or most of us anyway. That's me in the front end of the table and my sweetie and the far end--the Host and Hostess.

The Christmas knitting project count was 8 of nine projects finished. My brother came up with the short end of the stick: his scarf was only 8 inches long Christmas Day. Oh well. It's first on the queue. Here are some pics of the projects I knit up.

Over the River and Through the Woods

2008-11-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

Well, the Thanksgiving holiday is almost here. Hubby and I leave tomorrow for a trip north to Whidbey Island to hang with my fabulous (yes really--I am SOOOO lucky!) mother-in-law. We are taking the long way north with a couple stops along the way. We are meeting our pal Q in Newport, Oregon at a yarn store. Yep! That's right! She knits. Even though she came from my Other Half's side of the relationship, Q and I have bonded over our mutual love/addiction to fiber. Out of deference to my husband we have promised not to spend too much time in the yarn store. Uh huh.

So here I am actually packed and ready to go and there's even time for a blog and hot chocolate! This is good as work has been a zoo (deep understatement) and this feels more like a jail break than a vacation.

We have gotten a break in the weather in HumCo so PW and I took a hike last Sunday on the Coastal Trail out of Requa. Man. 75 degrees in mid-November. Wow! We did about 6 miles and it was GORGEOUS! Check out these pics! Here is the trail as it starts out from Requa. It was hard to tell which was bluer, the sea or the sky.

Here is Crescent City through the trees like a little fairytale town:

This was our turn around point/picnic spot and my favorite part of the trail, Hidden Beach:

It's pushing up daisies. It's gone to meet it's maker. It's joined the choir invisible. This is an ex crab!!

The light was just amazing, lighting up the green of the foliage in a last trailing gasp of warm Summer weather:

And here's the Santa Cruz mascot, out for a stroll:

This picture shows the outflow of the Klamath river. even at fairly low water, it flows out to sea with a fair amount of power, hence that arrowhead shaped current.

On the way home, we drove past Big Lagoon and the and a lovely gold setting sun, capping a perfect day.

Fall in a Big Way

2008-11-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Eureka! I have been going nuts taking pictures in the garden over the last week and a half as things transition. Elsewhere there are blizzards, but here a few vestiges of Summer are mixing with Fall. Here is Cappuccino looking suitably cat-grumpy on the damp back lawn during a weather break.

Well, the rainy season has arrived on the North Coast. The storm door doesn't open here; it gets blown off its hinges. We have had about a week of solid wet since the first of November and it is likely to stay that way through March. Eureka is the dry spot in HumCo at 37 inches of rain a year, but there is a reason the redwoods here are so steroidally huge: it is damned wet here. Foggy in Summer, rainy in Winter. You don't have to drive too far either North or South before the precipitation totals get into the 80-120 inches per year range. Yeouch.

Still, that wet is good for my little cottage garden out back. I swear every time I poke about out there, I find some new, funky, weird plant peeking out. We are Sunset Western Garden book zone 17, which is the same as my hometown of Fremont, but the things I can grow here tend to be more Pacific Northwest than Bay Area. Rhododendrons THRIVE here. We have two mondo pink rhodies that explode in Spring. The rhodies hint at a more acid soil than I am used to and this really is a transition zone between the Mediterranean climate of coastal California and the deep wet green climate of the Pacific Northwest.

There are a few things growing here that are more warm-weather based. Despite the foggy coastal climate, we have a thriving lemon tree and a producing grapevine (although we were essentially Summer-less this year and were consequently grape-less.) The centerpiece of the garden is a fairly large Japanese maple that is pretty generic looking when it is green, but it has gone ape this fall, having turned almost radioactively red. Check these pics out:

I took this picture just a couple of days ago using a flash. This is looking out the back door of the Solarium. The greenery on the far right is one of the big pink rhodies in the corner of the yard along the fence.
Here are a few isolated leaves that show how really red the leaves get. This was taken using ambient light, although I tweaked the light levels in Photoshop. The color is pretty true to the leaves.
Another spray backlit by an overcast setting sun. The leaves in that light seem to glow.

Last, but certainly not least, our clematis have continued to bloom, despite the growing cold. (although the recent rain has rather bashed about these blossoms.) We have another lavender clematis blooming as well, see here. The late season bumblebee was quite torpid and so posed for a long time for the picture. It's nice to get a last gasp of blooms before we get our wet green winter. We are rather spoiled here for flowers, but everything needs to rest. Still, we are going out with fireworks. Happy Autumn, everybody!!

Mental Blocking

2008-11-09T16:22:00.000-08:00

Have any of you out there in cyberspace started a project and noticed that as it goes along, you fall into a very comfortable rhythm? With such projects, I find that coming to the end, while yielding a pleasing finished product, I feel a sense of anticlimax. The more pleased I am with the item, the stronger my sense of anticlimax is. I have found that when I come to the end of a project, I tend to hesitate. I have several projects right now that are mostly done.

When the knitting is over, what remains is the blocking and sewing, neither of which are as enjoyable to me as the knitting portion. Part of this is that blocking at least is something that you can't start, pause and then finish later. The process of blocking a garment also requires space and equipment, neither of which are readily accessible to me at the moment. Even after a year and a half in my current house, I am still missing things (in this current instance, the bulk of my straight pins are not in my thread case. Huh. Now where the HECK have they gone?!) and my house is really quite small, so there is no space except the main room floor to spread out in and do my fiber-y thing.

A case in point: I just finished blocking a wrap this afternoon that I have been sitting on for at least a week. I have to say that I definitely think I would have been better off with a decent blocking board, which I don't have. NOt having a board, I tend to use towels or a thick blanket to absorb the moisture that comes with the way I block my sweaters. I also do double duty by washing the pieces in Eucalan woolwash as weeks of handling and even dragging the project around tends to leave it, shall we say, less than fresh. Most of my sweaters don't LOOK dirty, but the handwashing bucket tends to show the unseen dirt. Eucalan is easy to use because it is no-rinse and it freshens and mothproofs the wool as well as cleaning it. Then there comes the laying out, pinning, even steaming if needed (especially for cabled and fairisle all-wool sweaters--the fabric looks much more even if an iron is used to indirectly steam after washing and pinning the damp garment.)

So I made do this time around with a terry cloth bath sheet that was not quite long enough and what pins I had. I got it done, but it was awkward in execution. Having this project done leaves a little void, too. This wrap was my friend for more than a month and I really enjoyed watching it bloom and grow. Now it's done. What I have to face is what to do next.

I have several projects that are staring me in the face: Zarah that has been bugging me for months, the currently unearthed Grant Avenue vest which I plan to rehab, K's blue lace sweater that I have been stuck on literally for 3 years that keeps submerging in moves and distractions (stinking I-cord collar that I just cannot get right--do I try to make it work or rip it and make something else with it? Starting over is either a cop out or the best possible solution and I am hesitating because I am not ready for another disaster). I have two bags I have started (one knitted by me and the other a thrift store felt job) that are at the stage of dragging out my sewing machine to make up linings and add on all the fiddly findings which gets back to the concept of focused and labor-intensive work. Christmas projects that loom--I have done one, two are in progress and and at least 5 more are waiting. I think I must be nuts to have planned so many things, but I have never really made my family things before and it is well past time to do so.

The bottom line is I dawdled over the wrap because it was going well, and it kept me from having to face some knitting demons that are lurking on the periphery of my creative consciousness. It's that fine line between comfort and obligation with my crafting projects. Add to that a desire to get my hands on many things at once and it makes for a little A.D.D. induced catatonia. Still, having something in my hands sure beats the boredom! And lest you all think that all I have done today is block my wrap, I also made putanesca pasta sauce, borscht and green tomato pasta sauce in an attempt to beat some of the vegetables from our CSA farm into edible submission. Now if only the weekend were four days instead of two...

Fit To Be Tied: A knitting Saga; Part II, Grant Avenue Hell

2008-10-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

As promised, I am doing a recap of the two knitting project thorns in my side from 2008. One was taken almost to completion, and the other is in progress, circling the airport until I have time and stomach to finish it.

This blog is about Alice Starmore's "Grant Avenue" vest from her Pacific Coast Highway book. I have knit several Starmore projects over the years and I am a huge fan of her work. I think her designs have mostly tended to weather well in terms of fashion. When the partnership between AS and the Broad Bay Company went belly up several years ago and her yarns were no longer going to be made, I went into a frenzy of buying as much of her yarns as I could afford--enough of the proper types and colors for several projects. One of these projects was the aforementioned G.A. vest done in Scottish Campion.

Once I was finished with school and had started my new career, I finally had real time to tackle this project. I had swatched this in 2005 along with another AS project in Scottish Campion yarn that I completed successfully--the Rambling Rose pullover from Stillwater (the details of this project are posted on my Ravery site). 2006 had been a wild year for me, what with graduation moving out of state, marriage, a new job and yet another move BACK to California for the new job, and now it was 2007 and I was eager to get started a new project. I had a 3 weeks alone in Eureka before my new husband joined me, so what better than to do than some heavy knitting? I could get a lot done, since the swatching was already done. Famous last words..

I had my body measurements in hand and had several false starts before I had the gauge in hand and was on my way. My first attempt ended up being enormously larger that I wanted(I estimated that the sweater would have a 50 inch chest which was large even for me), so I restarted with a smaller vest size at the same gauge, but I realized a way along I had twist at in the circular knitting despite being careful, so I restarted yet again. This time things took. I motored along. measuring as I went. The pattern was beautiful and complicated at the bottom, so this took some serious attention to the colors and charts. The result was really stunning, If I may say so myself and I was super pleased with how the vest looked so far. Furthermore, I measured the circumference and it was what I hoped it would be--44 inches and so large enough to fit my bust measurement, so I felt confident that things were going to turn out as I hoped. The upper part of the picture shows the main pattern repeat and once that was established, things went into autopilot.
At some point I began the process of shaping the v-neck and armholes, which included decreases. I dutifully measured as I went along and check my stitch numbers to make sure I made no mistakes. This section was a bit of a slog as the pattern got very repetitive. Still I was confident because all my numbers matched. Silly, silly me. When I finally finished, I set the vest down for a while. I had to start cutting the steeks and that is very nerve wracking.

I did find some really great antique glass buttons on EBay. Aren't they cute? They are about 1 cm in size and I was thinking of 8-10 arranged closely together along the front button band. I was totally thrilled to find them-- the blue color with the brass fitting matched the style of the vest perfectly. It's not often that I find a project accessory notion that I was so happy with and this added to my anticipation of the finished product.

Well, I finally took a deep breath and started cutting my steeks My stitch numbers were correct and the measurements seemed OK. It took a while to pick up stitches for the borders, sew down the steek hems and get everything done. Finally I was done and I raced off to try my vest on. Quel horreur! Despite all my care, it didn't fit--badly didn't fit. The trouble was not just across the bust, but the neck was constructed to make the armholes lie wrong and it was ridiculously too small across the shoulders, which was the real crux of the fit problem. The safety pins represent to button placement points. Along with the shoulder width, the arm bands were made such that they didn't lie flat, even though I picked up the proper number of stitches.

The damned thing was literally pyramidal in shape. I mean, look at this thing. It's ridiculous looking, and I have no idea how this project got away from me. I was really devastated. I had worked on this project for months and I was so mad I literally contemplated chopping it up in a fit of pique. Still, 10 deep breaths did me some good and I instead wadded it up in a ball with the remaining project yarn and let it lie.

I was pretty discouraged by this. I fancy myself a better than average knitter and this was a serious blow to my ego. I decided I really needed to do a project that was easier and more likely to bring me out of my craft funk blues state. I had scored some Lavold Angora yarn on sale for a cardi project that I had a hankering to make and decided to make that my next project. So began my fateful tangle with "Zarah"...

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!

2008-10-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

OK. An interlude I just had to share on a grey Sunday evening:

Cappuccino enthroned on the red ottoman looking all fuzzy and trying for 'dignified' but kind of missing the mark due to the fuzz factor. Her light colors definitely show well on the bright red, though, Madam Stylie Kitty that she is.

Now, she has given up on dignity and gone straight for the cute. Everyone all together now:

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!"

Fit To Be Tied: A knitting Saga; Part I, The Prologue

2008-10-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

Something I have noticed in the last year or two in the world of hand knitting is that more and more knitters are addressing the issue of garment fit.

Now I love a comfy over-sized sweater as much as anyone. I have my favorite uber-large Eddie Bauer orange shetland, sized XXL that I utterly adore. It's floppy and shapeless and I can wear it about like a blanket with sleeves. It's way cozy and I can lounge at ease it, but is it flattering? No, not really. It's a garment I can get lost in.

This brings me to the subject of clothing fit. I got intimately aquainted with this topic during a two year stint working at Ann Taylor Loft in San Francisco a couple years ago. I loved the clothes there and used my employee discount as much as I could afford to. Let me tell you, though: working in a changing room with two big three way mirrors at either end for several hours a week, I got to know my body pretty well. A few inches here or there in garment length, the placement of darts or seam shaping, and overall proportion can change a garment from drab to wow very easily. If a garment is not a wow fit, then the wearer won't be shown off to full advantage. An epiphany came when I looked up and saw myself one day, while wearing an a-line skirt that hit my legs just below the bottom of my kneecaps. Damn, my legs looked good in that! My legs are fairly short proportionally for my body and I need to be careful what I wear. Cropped cuffed slacks that were big a couple years ago make my legs look like the reflection in a funhouse mirror. What I got from really seeing myself in that skirt was a sense that I want to make my clothes fit so that feeling that good, that hot, that put-together is not a fluke experience.

So what does all this have to do with handknitting, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. I have had two tough knitting experiences this year: one was a total growling tear inducing disaster, the other has been a drawn out fight filled with frustration. Over the next few posts I will expand on the two projects. The first was an Alice Starmore design, her "Grant Avenue Vest" from the book Pacific Coast Highway. The second was the Elsebeth Lavold cardigan "Zarah" from the Embraceable You collection. Both of these projects suffered from major lack of proper fit and some of fitting issues at least were inherent in how the sweaters were designed.

Don't get me wrong: I love the work of both designers. This was my first Lavold design, but not my first Starmore sweater. I have always had great results from A.S. patterns. My purpose here in these next few posts is to work through my own problems by clarifying my experiences and to share what I have learned with other knitters. (and possibly get some feedback!)

I am not a novice knitter. I knit my first sweater in 1987 and have never looked back. I know a lot of my short comings as a knitter (the loosest gauge that ever was) and an early bad (and now broken) habit of not doing a gauge swatch before starting a project. Still, I swatched here and even with my experience, I wasn't safe from fit disaster. So more to come on the Saga of my 2008 Knitting House of Horrors...

They Call It Mellow Yellow

2008-09-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

All bad references to Donovan aside, this post is about my second favorite color: yellow. My favorite color, for those who don't know me is red. Bright fire engine red. Hot tomato red. Red red red.

But then there is yellow. Sunshine yellow. Cheery happy bright yellow. Like daffodils, butter, sunflowers, great fields of mustard that bloom in the spring. Yellow stands out on cloudy days. It is warm and inviting. During a January 2002 trip to Finland, I noticed both in Northern Lapland and in Helsinki in the south, that yellow is a common color for buildings. In the dark, snowy and grey, cold days, the yellow color pops and is warm and inviting to look at.

I have long been intrigued by yellow as a color to knit with. Indeed, it was Kaffe Fassett's Yellow Star Jacket on the cover of 'Glorious Knits' that I saw in the mid '80's that stirred me to take up needles and knit. That jacket was the second project I ever made and I remember what a hassle it was to find yellow yarn at the time. Even now, it remains a rather hard color to find. You look at most shade cards and often all colors are there in some form or another EXCEPT yellow. I really want to know why that is.

Take Rowan's Kidsilk Haze, for example. This yarn has a fairly extensive color range, but there is a real paucity of yellow. In fact, the only yellow shade was the elusive #578 'swish', which Rowan inexplicably discontinued almost at the same time as Knitting Daily published for free the Modern Quilt Wrap by Mags Kandis. I started poking about looking at other yellow yarn options and they are mighty thin on the ground, let me tell you!

I wanted some yellow yarn because I saw a pair of beaded wristlets in the book 'Decorative Knitting ' by Luise Roberts and Kate Haxell. The original wristlets pictured were lavender, but in my mind, I saw them bright yellow with dark blue trim and blue beads. Kidsilk didn't come in that color, so I looked at other yarns. K1C2 douceur et soie had a pale butter yellow, but I wanted more punch. Habu textiles had some good yellows in a silk/mohair, but I had a hard time finding anyone who sold them. Madil has 'kid seta', but that looked more like a highlighter pen than anything else. Then today, I found at Jannette's Rare Yarns that Rowan made a yellow shade of Kidsilk Haze called 'daffodil' that it never released for general sale. All I can say is why not?? It is a perfect yellow--warm and inviting.

I am not a dyer, so maybe there is some difficulty with yellow pigment. I am seriously curious here. Is yellow just not popular? I mean I love it. I have a few yellow garments in my closet that I wear from time to time and they always garner positive comment. I have, however, noticed that yellow clothes are often hard to find, too. very weird.

Call this post an open call to yarn manufacturers and indeed also to clothing designers to bring out the yellow!! It looks good on many skin tones, and makes both wearer and viewer happy because it is warm and positive without being aggressive. So really--more mellow yellow please!

Post Something--ANYTHING! JUST POST!

2008-09-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am yelling in this post title. I have started a post in my head fifty times on fifty subjects in the last few weeks. I even went so far as to start a post draft on the Dale Chihuly show I went to see in June in San Francisco. Have I posted it? Hell, I haven't even finished it. I have several nice Chihuly pics. I also have pictures from the Monterey Bay Aquarium over Labor Day weekend, where I went to see the Mini Jaws White Sharklet they had on display (and have since released). Hubs and I took a couple of very nice recent hikes, too.

I have also started percolating in my mind a collection of recipes for the farm that Phil and I belong to and where we have been getting our veg for quite some time, now. The full veggie boxes have precipitated some creative use of edible plant material. See. Another posting idea.

Then there is my knitting, which at the moment consists of a wrap I am procrastinating with, a sweater that is fighting me tooth and nail (and royally pissing me off in the process), the sweater for a friend that is half done, but scares me and lastly, the Christmas gifts that I really should be working on like NOW in order to get them done on time...

I am like a squirrel in a nut factory and I don't know where to start and my ADD is kicking in. Or maybe it's hormones. Who knows? So call this post-cum-rant a laundry list for the things I SHOULD be posting about. I guess the best thing to do sometimes is to just kick the ball and post, so consider it kicked. Oh, and here is a picture of some anemones from the aquarium trip to tide things over until I get my head together to make a 'real' post.

In Praise of the Used Bookstore

2008-08-28T16:07:00.000-07:00

Used bookstores are one of my greatest pleasures, both at home and on vacation. I have spent more hours (and dollars) than I can remember at the Half Price Books I used to live near, with my buddy La Chica poring over the stacks, finding prizes and laughing over the general weirdness that has been published.

I use this topic for this post because used bookstores figured prominently during my recent trip to Washington State. Any trip up north along I5 means a stop in Portland Oregon to Powell's City of Books. This place is without question the most amazing bookstore I have ever been in. It's HUGE, taking up multiple buildings. My first move in any bookstore, new or used, is to make a beeline for the crafts section-- specifically the knitting book shelves. A place like Powells gives me a chance to get a real look at book content rather than searching the web for pictures and reviews that other people post. This trip was decent, but not as profitable as in the past. There were many things that were new, not so much used and not so much that was old-new, meaning books that have been out for a while. The cookbooks were good, though, but I got caught in a scam that I had never encountered before. I saw a cook book called 'The Spice Routes' by Carolyn and Chris Caldicott, and when I flipped through it, it had some really interesting recipes. It was also on sale, so I added it to my stack to buy. After Hubby and I head out north towards Seattle, I flipped through my new treasures while he drove. Closer perusal of my new cookbook made me realize that some rotten nimrod had done a switch and put a DIFFERENT cookbook in the Spice Routes dust jacket. Pooh! Still the cookbook I did have was pretty neat-- 'The Gourmet Prescription' by Deborah Friedson Chud. I called Powells and, bless them, their nice manager credited me the difference for the book I had, found my wanted book, and mailed it to me for free shipping and 20% off. Now, that's service! Yay Powells! I will, however, be checking the front page of books more carefully in the future. Anyone need a Spice Routes dust jacket? I have one to spare...

This trip didn't afford time to take a trip to Port Townsend, Washington and William James Bookseller, which is one of my very favorite used bookstores ever ever ever. Much disappointment until a trip to Bellingham and Henderson Books. Oh MAN, what a place! William James just got bumped to second best. Henderson Books has the single best selection of used knitting books I have ever seen, and I was a very very bad rabbit. People knit in Washington. They knit in California, too, but every tiny town in Washington seems to have some sort of fiber underground like nothing I have ever seen before and the net result is that used bookstores are often plump with goodies others have off-loaded.

So for all you yarnies out there, check out Henderson Books and add a side of Powells if you have the time. The fiber result of my recent vacation was a deep gouge into my Amazon wishlist due to finding some lovely knitting books. Got some great cookbooks, too, but that is for another post.

On our way to Washington..slowly

2008-08-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

The time has come for a real vacation. Hubby and I leave tomorrow ridiculously early for a trip north to Whidbey Island and all the delights it has to offer. We are driving, so that means a rest stop in Portland at Powell's Books. I have the take-along knitting picked out. and my (empty) suitcase is on the bed. And I have a migraine.

The joys of vacation! I look forward to trips well in advance and enjoy them when I am there. So why is the week leading up to the trip such an utter misery? I am seriously stressed right now. But why? Throw some junk into a suitcase and hit the road--how hard is that? The cats and bird are accounted for and reliable babysitters are lined up. The house is even reasonably clean to avoid wretched embarassment of outsiders seeing it. So what am I doing? Blogging, surfing and poring over my Ravelry site.

I am growing ever more addicted to Ravelry. I finally started a queue and have been madly jotting down ideas and transferring over my various wants. The whole process is too much fun and this vacation stuff is pulling me away from it. Who knows, though? The Coupeville Arts Center is this weekend and there are a lot of handspinners on Whidbey--better go get packed!

"I can quit anytime...!"

2008-08-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

My husband met me at work today and as we walked home together, we chatted. About half way home he casually said "You got a package of yarn in the mail today." Like a lead balloon those words thunked out. Yep. I bought more yarn. After promising Hubby to discuss purchases beforehand, I bought more yarn. After my recent post about stash organization, I bought more yarn. Even after the patient question from my pal La Chica about the blue lace creation I was supposed to be knitting her (for the last 5 years, actually), I bought more yarn. I can rationalize anything. I really can. As my husband said today, "Well, if it's for a project you are doing and you really NEED it, it's fine." Did I NEED this yarn? No. Do I 'need' it? Yes. Really I do. I don't have a stash habit. Honest.

It's for the Modern Quilt Wrap posted on Knitting Daily a few months back. I loved the wrap in the colorway just as it was in the picture from the moment I saw it. I downloaded the pattern right away. I have also been scoping Rowan Kidsilk haze online looking for bargains. I found out recently that one of the colors has been discontinued. Just like that. Supplies of the color 'Swish' #578 are dwindling at best. So I pounced. I found Swish and in a fit of panic found a decent price and bought the rest of the needed colors. I have my Quilt Wrap yarn in my hot little hand.

Here's the thing: there is always something cool out there. Moreover, patterns and yarns are ephemeral. That pattern you are dying to make will eventually go away. But here's the rub: if you don't have the yarn yet and don't make the item right away, will you still be dying for it when you have time to make it? Maybe the answer is yes, maybe it isn't. I have a hugely elusive pattern kitted up for a Jade Starmore sweater 'Medieval Tapestry' in the original yarns. I got it years ago when it was actually affordable. I wanted it bad at the time I bought it. Really bad. It has been bouncing around in my stash unknitted for eons. I was, however, committed enough to it that I did a swatch and have kept all the yarn faithfully together through three moves. When I got it out recently looking for a project to start, I realised that my tastes have changed quite a bit over the last few years and it is not so 'me' as it once was. It is still a stunning sweater, though, and it would be criminal in so many ways to repurpose the yarn for something else--like using a priceless ming vase to hold a bouquet of cheap supermarket flowers. I will hang onto the Starmore yarn for now, but it has given me pause. I guess I'd better start the Modern Quilt Wrap now. Or at least just after I finish La Chica's sweater!

Stash Organization

2008-07-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

Today is a big milestone: my stuff, including my yarn stash, is all in one place for the first time since 2002. That's six long years of being scattered. My life has been in flux and reflux(with all the heartburn the latter term implies) for the whole of these six years--moving, back in school, moving, marrying, moving, working and now (I hope!) stable.

So what about my stash? I have been doing stash triage since I first moved from my old house in 2002. A few projects at hand with the idea that the move was temporary. At the time I thought it was. Hah! Silly me! Temporary turned into six years. My stuff is packed, but it certainly isn't organized. Two subsequent moves have made things even worse. There is still stuff buried in well packed and repacked boxes that I haven't found. I find yarn, but not the pattern, the pattern, but not the yarn. Projects are scattered, tools in multiple locations. Ugh. It's tiring. I know I have stuff and it is irksome, but easier often to buy new needles or patterns or whatnot. I have things half done because the necessary finishing components are buried. My stash is huge. I mean really huge, so whipping it into shape it is a herculean task.

I have 'resorted' (OK, that partly a self-enabling excuse to get more yarn) to buying more yarn when I find myself 'projectless'. By that I mean nothing is readily at hand. I must admit that I have at least 31 projects in the queue, many of which haven't even made it onto my Ravelry site, and more I could organize if I could easily get to my stash. I started a project list from memory on my clie (which is also mislaid in the move), but of the 31 projects I have down, only 2 are where I can get at them. I have a few more, which are more recent purchases, but the time has come for drastic action.

My plan, such as it is, is to try and arrange project plus a photocopy of the pattern in one project bag, as much as I can. This is also advice I would give to knitters with big stash facing a move. Pack a pattern copy with the yarn. You may change your mind later, but at least your original option is there, too. When I stored my stuff initially, the locker it was in had a small leak. Luckily no stash was hurt, but I lost some books. None of the books were of note, but I could have been in a heap of hurt if one of my out of print knitting books was lost.

So, Me, my husband and all our stuff are in one place. Now the real fun begins. Wish us luck!!

I finally made good my threat...

2008-07-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

I have been threatening to start a blog for eons, and I have finally jumped in with both feet. I have no idea (or at least almost no idea) what I am doing, but I am doing it anyway. Yet another blog, I know, among millions on the web. live in a really great (but isolated place) and this is a way to connect with distant and scattered friends. Mainly, this is will be a knitting blog, but I also intend to post on my other loves: food and cooking. So, here goes...!