Lucky Number Seven

I came to the conclusion over the weekend that nearly every project I’ve got going (UFO and new starts) are on US7s. Why do I know? Because after digging through all my project bags and finding US7s on the following, I ran out and bought a couple more. And what’s in my never purchased KnitPicks shopping cart? US7s.
So I’ve got the “carrot cake” sweater on 7’s
A pair of mittens about 30% done on 7’s
A cowl cast on on 7’s
My 60% done Casual Cables Cardigan on 7’s
A new hat for Hattie Jane’s collection on 7’s
A Jared Flood Noro Striped Scarf at 45% on 7’s
My French Press Cozy on 7’s is done. So is Mom’s Noro One Skein Hat done in 7’s.
Good thing my 97% done Annie Stole is on 8’s.

Is 7 lucky? Don’t know. Probably about as lucky as carrying around a dead rabbit’s foot.

Smile Smile Smile

Things that made me smile today:
+ Graham called and we chit chatted for quite a while till he wandered too deep into the Boston REI store and we lost signal.
+ I made seared scallops with seared shallots for dinner. Yum Yum Yum. So yum that there are no pictures but if you want the recipe, click here.
+ Ruby and Rufus are soft cuddly kittens (even though they are 9 and 13 years old respectively)
+ It started sprinkling mid morning and is still sprinkling tonight. This makes me smile because I love the rain. Where we live, we’re lucky if we get 5-6 inches of precipitation annually. The news keeps telling us that in the Philippines, a month’s worth of rain in 12 hours. So here it would maybe if we were lucky be a half inch.
+ I’m finally catching up with blog reading, aside from the two I never miss (you know who you are!). So I’m smiling because Kathleen is back in the US, someone got something they were waiting for, Jessalu found the original door frame of their house and showed us the most beautiful photo of it, I just noticed “Sgeddes”’s new banner, Knitting Iris showed us more of the beauty of a Montana garden, Monika showed us more pictures of her new wonderful puppy, and Nancy flew to Quito to meet Chuck.
+ And I’ve been catching up on my spinning!

Off to OFFF and back again

Some how yet another week flew by. October is almost here but you wouldn’t know it by the weather. We had plenty of days in the 90’s again last week, Not a happy camper.

Jessica and I went to OFFF yesterday. The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby OR. My first trip to it, Jessica’s third. WOW. So very nice, lots of vendors and we saw people and vendors we knew. Hi Velma!! Washington state really doesn’t have many fiber festivals. Madrona in February and it’s traveling 3 passes each way in winter so its a no-go. Stich and Pitch with the Mariners during baseball season and that’s about it! I went to the inaugural one 2-3 years ago and it was boring. No camaraderie between the knitters, hardly any vendors. Hope that has improved.

We left at 0-dark:15 from Jessica’s house and pulled into the parking lot at the fairgrounds 4 hours later. And we were going the speed limit. Don’t know how we did that! And that included 2 McD’s stops for drinks on the way.

I wasn’t in the first vendor building more than 5 minutes before I decided I’ll be selling my current carder and purchasing a new one in the future. All of a sudden this year there are a lot of cool ones that have come out. Mind you my current one does a wonderful job but every once in a while I want to treat myself to a new toy. Same with spinning wheels. You know I’ve had ba-zillions of wheels, and as soon as one doesn’t make me smile it goes out the door. I always keep my Lendrum DT because it makes me smile 100% of the time. Now if I can only talk Knitting Hubby into letting me sell his Schatch Matchless I’d like to buy a Majacraft Suzie Pro Alpaca. I test spun one on Saturday and fell in love. It spun like a dream so smooth and quiet.

We took quite a while before we found Superior Fibers. We’d bought from them at Black Sheep Gathering. Jessica and I picked out our batts and Kim picked out her’s over the phone. Hope she likes it!

OFFF unlike Black Sheep Gathering has a nice selection of food vendors. We supported the local FFA.

The color of these mohair locks is pretty spot on. This vendor had dyed all their mohair in wild wild colors.

By now you’ve probably noticed that the pictures are from my cell phone. I packed light when walking around. Money in one pocket, phone in the other and that was it. So I missed taking pictures of the very cool Irish Wolfhounds walking around. They were having a play day at another field at the fairgrounds. Just in case you’re not sure what they look like, here is a photo from puppydogweb.com. They are on my top 5 list of “if I ever got a dog”.

By 3:30 we were worn out. Probably from knowing we had the same drive home. I suggested the 6th Street Bistro in Hood River OR for dinner about 1hr 45 minutes away. We both had great dinners. Jessica had the red curry dish, I had pad thai.

I was pretty much toast by the time I got home at 10.

Here’s some of the spinning I’ve been doing. The roving is by Wasatch Watercolors and is so much fun to spin it almost makes me giggle. Shown here are bobbin one and bobbin two.

I sent a box of mail, household treats for Graham and Rachel and a toy for Teddy. A well researched toy or at least I thought. I know he can’t do stuffed animal dog toys because he eviscerates them as soon as he gets them. So I got him a toy that I thought was a little sturdier. Graham was home from the post office with it late afternoon and by morning it was in pieces. Still playable so far. Teddy looks so much happier in the recent pictures!! I think he’s settled into his life in Cambridge.

Time for me to finish watching Iron Chef America so I’ll sign off. Ruby sends kitty kisses to everyone!

Cartwheels (not me) Headstands (not me)

I hope you don’t mind that all my blogging lately is at least a week behind! Like I am so busy. First thing to catch up on was our trip the weekend of September 11-13. Do you remember the trip I took with Nancy two years ago to go whale watching and yarn crawling? Knitting Hubby couldn’t go on that trip because he was working that year in NY. Here’s the link to that trip.

Knitting Hubby was really jealous last time so as soon as the trip was offered again this year (sponsored through our recreation club at work), we made the reservations. The weather was going to be perfect and we really really couldn’t wait! We had a hotel for two nights in Anacortes WA so we had time to poke around and drink to much coffee. The tour was through Island Adventure Whale Watching. And yes I’m giving them a plug because their tours are great!

(Oh and Dave, oops sorry we forgot to kidnap you for the trip.)

So Friday Knitting Hubby and I slept in and took our time getting to Anacortes. We of course stopped at Hope Espresso in Desert Aire WA. Stopped at Hilltop East to fondle yarn and chat with Annelie who we only get to see if we stop by on a Friday. Had a leisurely lunch and hit the road again. By the time we got to Anacortes we were tired from driving and the town pretty much closes up (except for bars and restaurants) so we just hung around and knitted.

The next morning we went down for breakfast and as I turned to find the coffee, I literally nearly ran into Helene, I work with her husband. I had walked right past Dan and somehow didn’t see him. We got a good laugh out of it since we’d worked with each other all that week, knew we were both taking a 3 day weekend out of town and never put 2+2 together to figure out that we’d all be on the same trip. So that made it nice for all of us. Knitting Hubby had never met Dan and Helene and it was fun to hang out a bit with them.

Our boat left the dock right at noon. We traveled about 2 hours north and west heading into Canadian waters. About 1.5 hours out we saw our first Orca, just a small portion of J-Pod.

They were headed NW. Captains Carl and Shane figured out (via radio and sonar) that if we followed that partial pod, they’d meet up with the rest of their pod plus L and K. Sure enough the closer to Point Roberts we got the more Orca we spotted. Then they stopped the boat dead in the water. Another tour boat joined us. Our Captain had planted us right in the middle of a greeting ceremony! And I mean right in the middle. We were surrounded by Orca. They were showing off to each other, headstands, breaching, spy hopping, cartwheeling and tail slapping.

Then they started diving under our boats. We were just feet away from them.

We even got to see Ruffles (age 57) and his mother Grannie (age 98) swimming together! I have a picture of them, just need to figure out which one it was.

Needless to say, I took zillions of pictures. Well not actually zillions but about twice as many as I took of just the beluga whale during our Alaska trip in ’07. Plus some shots of Dan and Helene because they mentioned that they never get pictures of them together when they travel. Know how that goes! Here they are.

My knitting project for the trip was a French Press Cozy for my new 32 oz Bodum. It works nice.

The week before I’d knitted a winter hat for Hattie one evening.

My newest quick knit is one of the (Jared Flood) Noro Striped Scarves. Of course the original one was done a couple years ago so I couldn’t get the same deeply rich colors that Jared Flood used. Photo to follow when I get passed the half way point. I think I’m about at the 16 inch mark.

Bag of Cormo? Check. Tetanus shot? Check.

What better to do on a windy end of summer afternoon than have a picking and carding party! Thus the tetanus shot. A week ago Saturday Kim, Jessica and I set up shop in a small conference room at the Kennewick Library (no use messing up our houses). For some dang reason no matter what I do this picture of the picker comes out sideways. Pat Green pickers come with more than one warning label. Working with hundreds of swinging picker teeth is something to be very cautious of. But the result is well worth it. Just check out the warnings on the Pat Green website!!

Here’s my pillow fabric still on the loom. I have couple more yards of warp to go, just not sure what else to use as weft.

Last week I finished spinning (finally!!) my 2 oz of merino tussuh blend. Now I just need to ply. I have a boat load of roving that I want to start spinning, so why am I not plying??

#104

Knit, spin, etc. I got to thinking. #104. Way back when, I could pretty much whoop any one’s ass in a game of jacks. I think maybe I still could. (and knitting hubby still can’t believe it when I told him I used to jump double dutch). In the later years we used to play jacks with SuperBalls. Nice bounce.

A little bit going on

The return of the mojo is increasing in strength. Of course still no photo mojo. I’ve continued my work on the Alice stole, knitted about 3 inches into sock number two from my last Piece of Vermont sock yarn and started and finished a Hattie Jane hat. I started the hat per gauge, for the correct size Hattie Jane needs. But it looked way too big so I changed the picot brim to a ruffly brim by doing two of my decreases there instead of at the crown. Hat looks fantastic but I’m afraid it might now be small. doh. It only takes an hour or two to knit it so if I doesn’t fit I can whip up another right away. But all this has kept me away from the wheel and the loom.

In a fit (small fit) of organization yesterday I put up a second wire mesh organization unit and put more yarn and roving stash in there. What’s still not fitting of course are all abandoned, I mean hibernating projects and my carder. (and all the other crap that doesn’t fit in the closet that needs working on too)

Thursday night Knitting Hubby and I went to see the band America in concert. We saw them last in concert maybe 10-12 years and they still put on a great show. If you like the rock standards, go see them in concert. Yes, I said rock standards. It’s no longer called classic rock!! (rock of the 60’s and very early 70’s) WARNING really bad cell phone photo. And I wasn’t the only one taking pictures that way.

Rufus says the best way to regain mojo is deep meditation.

103 Things About Me

Guess it is about time. Click the link above.

The sisterhood of who ever fits em pants

(or is that whom ever???)

What’s not to like about them? Royal Robbins, • 100% cotton, UPF 40+ protection, contemporary rise (that means it even fits us more mature folks), velcro secure back patch pockets and pre-washed. Both Kim and I stumbled on to Royal Robbins capri (I call them clam diggers though) last year when REI had them in a bit different RR style. Total yum comfortable pants, we both bought everything we could whenever they were on sale.

So Friday I decided to cruise the clearance racks at the local REI. I grabbed a pair of creme colored RR capri’s and noticed they were a size small for me (ok maybe more, I’ve been losing weight but…). As I sighed and put them back on the rack I noticed the price. .03 as in 3 cents!! WHOA. i didn’t even try them on. I figured if REI would honor the price, and they did, I’d find one of my friends that would fit them. Of course I thought of Kim. So she took them home last night. Hasn’t tried them one yet though I think they’ll fit her. And if not? We get to pass the pants on to another fiber person. Heide? What’s your butt size? You can answer off line of course.

I finished Mom’s birthday hat in two days. It’s not like it was difficult. Duh. Maybe I’ll add a matching scarf or cowl. Cowl. That would be easier while mojo is returning.

I’ve not been a slacker, I’ve also been working on my stole out of Queensland Collection Kathmandu DK. The one that was lost for over a year when it was stuffed into the back of the hold cabinet at the LYS. Kim found it for me! I am at the decision point in a few rows. Do I finish it out now like prescribed in the pattern or do I go on with the additional 3 balls of wool/silk/cashmere and add another 21″ of double moss stitch? Here’s a picture of it, not the real one I’m working on, but the picture from the pattern book. I’m making it 22″ wide before blocking and making it a stole instead.

Oh and Knitting hubby news? Stubbed and broke a toe, big time. OW OW OW

Behold – Mojo (little bit)

I was able to get 2 2/3 pillow top panels out of my handspun weft! And I have a lot of warp left, just deciding what to use on the remainder. Pictures? Yes I took them but the camera is in the truck and it is so far away…

My fellow spinners didn’t comment on Sunday when we spun under our favorite tree down on the river, but I was spinning on my Lendrum DT. The Hitchhiker now lives in Chicago. Why? Because as portable as it was, whenever I was spinning on the Hitchhiker, I wasn’t spinning on my Lendrum and I love my Lendrum.

Mom’s birthday is less than a month away but I haven’t regained enough mojo to sock knit. Instead I’m a couple inches into a Noro Silk Garden one skein hat. I had an incident with my Silk Garden and I’ll just say shame on you Noro (jerks). I can usually pull from the center of the skein and knit from there. I pulled what I thought was an end and 3 major yarn barfs erupted. When I untangled I found not only were the pieces not knotted together like I’d usually find in a Noro product. Instead there was the main skein and 3 separate pieces each with it’s own barf. AND, there was not progression between one color and the next. So it will be interesting to see what the completed hat looks like. I plan to “maybe” knit some matching mittens.

Graham and Rachel are all moved in. Their apartment ended up being a two bedroom. Well at least one room with a closet but kind of dark and another room that has no closet but plenty of natural lighting. Graham spent Saturday putting together Ikea funiture. It think today was the first day they’ve had a little free time and were going to explore the neighborhood coffee shops.

I got interested in how old their apartment building is. Graham says the floors have an odd tilt to them. The best I can figure is 1877 and the little house behind them 1854. From the shape of their building I think it was once a family home but over the years house type details were removed and it was resided and turned into apartments. (The same thing was done to the interior of my Grandparents in Bellingham WA house. It is/was a nice old Victorian with a parlor and linoleum in the main room as you walked in the door that was printed to look like a turkish carpet.) In a series of Atlases and Insurance directories I could see that their building was a home owned by the Farina family at the beginning of the 20th century and by the Doyles during the depression era. Maybe it was turned into a boarding house?? And now apartments. Below is a detail from the 1877 atlas and an magnified inset of their building.

And the boy? Officially MIT.