Well, more like sickness. The kids both have what must be the slooooooowest moving bug I can remember encountering. The symptoms took nearly a week to move to the "real" sick stage, including fever. I'm still in the "I don't feel quite right, but I don't really feel sick" stage. I have no idea if I will get worse, or better. Down side, eldest has spent her 11th bday feverish. Up side, we had the party last week when everyone was healthy (though the symptoms were starting to show).
Himself stayed healthy long enough to toddle off to Long Beach to give a presentation at a Writers conference. He gets temps in the 70s and sunshine, we have temps in the 50s and a steady rain. Fair trade, I guess, since no one here is healthy enough to enjoy good weather anyway.
I'm busy knitting along on a test knit. A pair of mittens for the upcoming Princess Bride Sock Club (for which the RNG did not see fit to select me!). I'm loving the mitts, though the yarn I had on hand to use isn't the best choice for the pattern. The yarn is beeeyootiful, but too busy for bits of the pattern. I still like them. A lot.
Sadly, my brain is over-eager to cast on many other projects now. I really should not do that, though. I've counted my WIPs recently. I'm scared! 7. I have 7 WIPs sitting around, some of them kind of big. So, adding more would be a bad idea. Right? Yeah. I think so too. Which is why my crazed brain is determined to find new things for me to cast on. In all my spare time. lol
Yeah.
I love my brain.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
I don't hate blogs
Really. I don't.
I have found, however, that they do not blend all that well with my former schedule. Yeah. I said former. Himself has declared this year to be the Year of the Schedule (or should that be year of THE schedule?). After a mere two weeks of one new schedule (just plotting out the general hourly flow of things Mon - Sun) he has decided we need much more daily detail.
Very nice for him. He only has to schedule himself. I have to plan/schedule for 3. Color me displeased and quietly (and gleefully) hoping the new(est) plan dies a miserable death soon. The first schedule idea was working pretty darned well. I was exercising again (after 6 months off), school was starting earlier and, better yet, ending earlier, the kids were back to guitar lessons. Ah, it was nice.
The newest schedule thing, however, is tedious, time-consuming and makes my head go 'splodey. My rebellion has been noted, and frowned upon. Perhaps that's why I couldn't stop giggling when Himself got stuck in the bathroom after putting too much lotion on his hands with new doorknobs that are very slippery. Tears-streaming-down-my-face laughing. Ah, such a bad wife, I am. lol I did get up to help him. Eventually. But by then he had it all sorted out. I didn't realize he'd missed the girls doing this, too. So far, I'm the only one in the family who's managed this predicament without an audience. Yay, me!
At any rate, I'm hopeful that now that we have a Shiny New Schedule, I might work in time for the blog more frequently.
Since I picked on himself so thoroughly there, I'll share the lovely hat and scarf I did for him. Just to prove that I can be a good wife when I want to be. lol
This pair was knit up in Dream in Color Classy Worsted, November Muse colorway. I used the Palindrome Hat & Scarf pattern, which was lovely and very simple to memorize. I was knitting some socks for myself in this color (in fingering weight) and he darned near drooled all over the yarn. That almost never happens, so I figured I should do something for the poor man who supports my fiber habit.
Oh. Did I mention that the scarf measures 10 feet in length? I'm concerned Himself might resemble a mummy once wrapped in it, but as long as he's warm... And, he did request the length, or at least "knit until all the yarn is gone", so that's what he got.
I'm currently in a Stash-Down Mode. I'm working harder on WIPs and trying to work from stash. Hopefully, this will help me feel like I'm making progress on something around here. lol I'm also trying very hard not to buy any new yarn, but I'll likely put myself in some lotteries to win places in some new yarn clubs coming up on Ravelry.
I have had a very busy time since I posted last. Most of the house repair/remodels are done now. Thank goodness. I'm pleased as punch with the results, but my photos are not all that great. We made our October vacation back to Texas, to visit my family in Dallas and in Odessa/Midland. We had a lovely time visiting with family, and I was able to have lunch with friends from high school, and even a few I've known since 1st grade.
Sadly, we repeated the trip in November, just a few days after Thanksgiving, when my grandmother passed away. My mother's mother helped raise me after my parents divorced when I was 6, and we lived with her from the time I was about 10 until I got married. I was named for her, and we were very, very close. I don't think I've properly dealt with her death, or grieved. I was much too busy getting my mom through it all and successfully pushed it all away. When it catches up with me, I will be a complete mess. Until then, I carry on. My grandmother was a crocheter, and loved to see my handspun yarns and finished projects. I had just purchased a nice red yarn to make her some fingerless mitts a couple of weeks prior to her death. Not sure what I'll do with it now.
The holidays were not entirely good this year. I was sick for Christmas and New Years (with different viruses) so I was actually quite ready to move into the New Year and hope for something better going forward. Then, Himself was out of town for my birthday (in Vegas! for work), so that was bit of a let down, as well.
Sorry for the whining, but, well, now that it is out there I can just move on. Hopefully, the (first) new schedule will help us get off on the right foot for the year. You know, if Himself will stop pressing the other new schedule, that is. lol
I have found, however, that they do not blend all that well with my former schedule. Yeah. I said former. Himself has declared this year to be the Year of the Schedule (or should that be year of THE schedule?). After a mere two weeks of one new schedule (just plotting out the general hourly flow of things Mon - Sun) he has decided we need much more daily detail.
Very nice for him. He only has to schedule himself. I have to plan/schedule for 3. Color me displeased and quietly (and gleefully) hoping the new(est) plan dies a miserable death soon. The first schedule idea was working pretty darned well. I was exercising again (after 6 months off), school was starting earlier and, better yet, ending earlier, the kids were back to guitar lessons. Ah, it was nice.
The newest schedule thing, however, is tedious, time-consuming and makes my head go 'splodey. My rebellion has been noted, and frowned upon. Perhaps that's why I couldn't stop giggling when Himself got stuck in the bathroom after putting too much lotion on his hands with new doorknobs that are very slippery. Tears-streaming-down-my-face laughing. Ah, such a bad wife, I am. lol I did get up to help him. Eventually. But by then he had it all sorted out. I didn't realize he'd missed the girls doing this, too. So far, I'm the only one in the family who's managed this predicament without an audience. Yay, me!
At any rate, I'm hopeful that now that we have a Shiny New Schedule, I might work in time for the blog more frequently.
Since I picked on himself so thoroughly there, I'll share the lovely hat and scarf I did for him. Just to prove that I can be a good wife when I want to be. lol
This pair was knit up in Dream in Color Classy Worsted, November Muse colorway. I used the Palindrome Hat & Scarf pattern, which was lovely and very simple to memorize. I was knitting some socks for myself in this color (in fingering weight) and he darned near drooled all over the yarn. That almost never happens, so I figured I should do something for the poor man who supports my fiber habit.
Oh. Did I mention that the scarf measures 10 feet in length? I'm concerned Himself might resemble a mummy once wrapped in it, but as long as he's warm... And, he did request the length, or at least "knit until all the yarn is gone", so that's what he got.
I'm currently in a Stash-Down Mode. I'm working harder on WIPs and trying to work from stash. Hopefully, this will help me feel like I'm making progress on something around here. lol I'm also trying very hard not to buy any new yarn, but I'll likely put myself in some lotteries to win places in some new yarn clubs coming up on Ravelry.
I have had a very busy time since I posted last. Most of the house repair/remodels are done now. Thank goodness. I'm pleased as punch with the results, but my photos are not all that great. We made our October vacation back to Texas, to visit my family in Dallas and in Odessa/Midland. We had a lovely time visiting with family, and I was able to have lunch with friends from high school, and even a few I've known since 1st grade.
Sadly, we repeated the trip in November, just a few days after Thanksgiving, when my grandmother passed away. My mother's mother helped raise me after my parents divorced when I was 6, and we lived with her from the time I was about 10 until I got married. I was named for her, and we were very, very close. I don't think I've properly dealt with her death, or grieved. I was much too busy getting my mom through it all and successfully pushed it all away. When it catches up with me, I will be a complete mess. Until then, I carry on. My grandmother was a crocheter, and loved to see my handspun yarns and finished projects. I had just purchased a nice red yarn to make her some fingerless mitts a couple of weeks prior to her death. Not sure what I'll do with it now.
The holidays were not entirely good this year. I was sick for Christmas and New Years (with different viruses) so I was actually quite ready to move into the New Year and hope for something better going forward. Then, Himself was out of town for my birthday (in Vegas! for work), so that was bit of a let down, as well.
Sorry for the whining, but, well, now that it is out there I can just move on. Hopefully, the (first) new schedule will help us get off on the right foot for the year. You know, if Himself will stop pressing the other new schedule, that is. lol
Monday, August 30, 2010
Owls
One of the fiber clubs I joined this summer was a Percy Jackson club. The colorways were inspired by characters from the books, and ancient myths (of course). I only did the first run, as I was stretched a bit thin between fiber clubs by the time the second Percy round came along. I can still pick up the colorways, though, which is good. There's Some yummy colors there.
The girls and I have been (slowly) reading the books together, so I allowed them to select their colors and I promised to knit the yarn up for them. They both selected the Athena colorway, there were some very tough choices, and then we spent a good deal of time selecting just the right project.
The girls and I have been (slowly) reading the books together, so I allowed them to select their colors and I promised to knit the yarn up for them. They both selected the Athena colorway, there were some very tough choices, and then we spent a good deal of time selecting just the right project.
After discussing Athena for a while, and browsing patterns (they wanted hats), we hit upon a pattern for an owl cable. Perfectly fitting for Athena, if not for the color patterns in the yarn. Eh. So I fussed and fussed with the pattern, which called for worsted when all I had was fingering. At some point, my brain cells started functioning properly and I doubled the yarn. Doh! (Why is easy stuff so hard?!) The hats then languished as I fiddled around with shawls and such.
The guilt finally caught up to me, though, and a desire to get something done, and I finally got to knitting on the hats. They weren't as fast as the baby bonnet, but they just flew by! Get it? Flew? Owls? Oh. I just kill me sometimes! Of course, no matter how much they wanted the same hat, they wanted them different. So, one owl hat has silver beaded eyes, and the other has lilac eyes. The show best when actually worn, but here's the photos anyway.
Silver:
Lilac:
The girls love their hats. In fact, the eldest rarely takes hers off. She even tried to go to bed with it on the other night. I can live with that. As long as they take them off to shower, I guess we're all okay. It is rewarding to knit something so instantly, and thoroughly, loved. I've got plenty of yarn left for some mitts, I think. So I might be adding some fingerless mitts to the collection, though I'm undecided on continuing the owl motif. I have a pattern with the owls, though, so it does seem likely.
I've also cast on another Two-Fisted Tank from Pints & Purls. The first one was in an alpaca blend. It was so lovely and soft and squishy I was really loving it. But about 1/3 of the way through the top, I tried it on. Once I was done loving the squishy softness of it, I was sad. It is a ribbed tank, with negative ease, and that just doesn't work with the alpaca (70%) of the yarn. It didn't say "I'm snugly fitting the shape in me". It said, rather, "I am a soft, squishy formless glob, and don't even get me started on the body wearing me right now." Sadz.
So, I removed it from the needles, pet it for a while and set it aside. I need to re-skein the yarn, which will likely become a lovely snuggly scarf/hat, but I generally wait until I have lots of winding/skeining things to do before getting all that equipment out. I ordered some Knit Picks Shine Worsted in Hollyberry, and cast on a new version Saturday night. This is looking much more the thing, so they were right when they selected a cotton yarn. lol I should not have deviated so far from the intended directions. No. I'm sure it would have worked in something with more body/memory. There was just too much alpaca in the other yarn.
Gratuitous shot of my new sink modeling my yarn. :)
My problem with the project, really, is in the gauge. I cannot get gauge in a fabric I would want to wear. Why do pattern writers insisted upon gauge swatches done in 2X2 rib?! Really? Do you stretch that before measureing? Just a little? Hmmmm?
In order to get the gauge, I have to go up so far in needle size my fabric is too loose and see through (not the look I was going for). So, I'm staying with the fabric density I like and going up in size of pattern. Fingers crossed that it will all work out in the end. I don't fancy ripping this out again, but I am determined to knit up this little tank because it is cute and easy. You can tell it is easy, right? Because of all the work I'm putting into it up front. lol If it were way beyond my skill level, I'm sure it'd be going much better for me. That's just the way it works.
The summer school work is all done but the final draft of the final paper. We should have that done today! It is done now! W00T! There is a whole 9 days left to just play with no obligation to any kind of work! For her, anyway. I've got to get things organized and cleaned and tidied, etc. :p
The work on the last bathroom continues. He thought he'd be done yesterday (Sunday). I think I'll be happy if he is done by Friday. We'll see where we end up on that. He did get my deck ripped out, though. Which feels really good! There was lots of dry rot out there, so I was very relived to see it all in a pile in my yard. (pictures eventually)
Ah! I am looking forward to a Fall with new bathrooms and a new deck! And I've been watching football! And brewing beer! Man! Does it get any better?
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Winding Down
So I've spent pretty much the entire summer not doing what I thought I'd be doing. Anyone else do that, too? I can honestly say, however, that I don't feel like a failure. lol Stuff got done, just not most of the stuff I had planned.
The eldest and I have slogged along completing courses for summer school. We're still doing it, but we will finish this week. If she will write the papers necessary to complete the Composition portion of her work. I am most grateful that the math course finished up with topics that were much easier for her to grasp, generally speaking, than those we started with. I'm also grateful that it did take us this long to finish. She'll have a week or two off, and then get back to math again. She'd like a permanent break, but at least it won't be so long that she'll forget everything. Turns out that I really needed to set a rigorous schedule and hold to it no matter what. None of that, 'you can have today off if you do double the lessons tomorrow' business. That just doesn't work for us. Maybe I'll remember that next year.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahah!
Okay, I'm better now. In other news, the youngest will be joining us at home this year. I am certain this is the right thing for her in terms of learning, I have no idea if it is a good idea for her socially/emotionally. I'm hopeful that having them both on the same schedule will allow us more freedom to take day trips to the zoo, or whatever, to break up the sense of being stuck at home. Also, they are going to take a Musical Theatre class for homeschoolers, so in addition to the Hip Hop class, they'll be getting out and doing stuff with other kids (plus the play days with their daycare friends).
I plan to do more homebrewing, and perhaps that will help me cope with having both of them with me 24/7. We'll see.
We refinanced our house this spring and got a home equity loan to make some necessary repairs to our home. I've needed to get a little plumbing work done in one bathroom so that I could re-caulk the bathtub in the other bathroom. When asking around for plumber recommendations, I found out our daycare provider's son is a plumber (and general contractor). He is hoping to start his own business, and is looking for opportunities to do some extra work to satisfy union requirements. We are happy to help him with that goal. lol So, for the money I originally earmarked for potential costs on bathroom repair, I'm getting both bathrooms updated. I am so happy with the work he's doing I may end up moving into one of them when he's done. Seriously. The difference is amazing and I am really, really happy. Of course, I want to do the kitchen now, but that is NOT an option. I can just dream. For now.
We have a deck out back that is officially unsafe, really. I've been waiting on Himself to get it replaced (doing it himself with friends or hiring out) for 3 years. Turns out, our contractor can do the deck, too. So, that's next on the list and I'm taking care of it. I'm done waiting on Himself.
We also set aside $ to replace the carpet and paint the outside of the house. I'm not sure the budget is going to stretch that far by the time we're done (it was all based on estimates/guestimates anyway), but I've decided to go with the carpet if I only get to get one done. My reason? Well, the house paint is really bugging Himself, but I know that if I don't get the carpet done this time, it won't happen. The paint will happen next year, even if we have to wait, because it is really bothering him. Selfish? Yes. But I'm applying what I've learned from the deck experience. If it doesn't annoy him, it won't get fixed. The carpet doesn't bother him enough to get him to replace it. But seriously, white carpet with two kids (now 8 & 10)? It is nothing like white anymore, and doesn't really even resemble any exotic animals I can think of off hand, either.
I'll get photos of the updates done eventually, but so far, the ones I've taken haven't looked very good. I'm working on it. It is hard to take good pictures in a tiny space (bathrooms).
In knitting, I finished up a bunch of small things, cast on far too many new things and did a reasonable amount of spinning for Tour de Fleece. (Just a small sample of what I did. I never got around to photos of the other yarn I got spun up.) This yarn is from Dreams In Fiber for her The Dark Is Rising (by Susan Cooper) fiber club. This series was one of my favorites as a child, and I still enjoy them very much. This set jof fiber was for the Over Sea, Under Stone book. The shipments are alternating fiber/yarn, which is fun. I'm not yet drowning in fiber. Not that I'd complain, mind you.
Of course, after TdF, I bought more fiber. I should really pause the next time I decide to join a fiber club. You know, just long enough to consider what I'm actually doing. Maybe just space them out more, or something.
Small knitted things include a baby hat, knit on a whim for a friend at church. Very cute and FAST. I really should reconsider knitting for babies, I suppose. Here is the Perry the Platypus Inaction Figure (it doesn't do anything!) modeling the Marshmallow Bonnet.
A couple of Jayne Hats done, and an extra for a friend to give to her son for his upcoming b-day. One traditional (orange/yellow), and one in dream inspired colors. I love it when I dream about simple knitting. It is the complicated stuff that gets me. Now if only the rest of that dream would..., erm, nevermind.
The two shawls continue, slowly, but surely. I'm still enjoying them, but the time I have available to concentrate on them is limited, so progress is slow.
Ah well, brief update, now back to school.
The eldest and I have slogged along completing courses for summer school. We're still doing it, but we will finish this week. If she will write the papers necessary to complete the Composition portion of her work. I am most grateful that the math course finished up with topics that were much easier for her to grasp, generally speaking, than those we started with. I'm also grateful that it did take us this long to finish. She'll have a week or two off, and then get back to math again. She'd like a permanent break, but at least it won't be so long that she'll forget everything. Turns out that I really needed to set a rigorous schedule and hold to it no matter what. None of that, 'you can have today off if you do double the lessons tomorrow' business. That just doesn't work for us. Maybe I'll remember that next year.
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahah!
Okay, I'm better now. In other news, the youngest will be joining us at home this year. I am certain this is the right thing for her in terms of learning, I have no idea if it is a good idea for her socially/emotionally. I'm hopeful that having them both on the same schedule will allow us more freedom to take day trips to the zoo, or whatever, to break up the sense of being stuck at home. Also, they are going to take a Musical Theatre class for homeschoolers, so in addition to the Hip Hop class, they'll be getting out and doing stuff with other kids (plus the play days with their daycare friends).
I plan to do more homebrewing, and perhaps that will help me cope with having both of them with me 24/7. We'll see.
We refinanced our house this spring and got a home equity loan to make some necessary repairs to our home. I've needed to get a little plumbing work done in one bathroom so that I could re-caulk the bathtub in the other bathroom. When asking around for plumber recommendations, I found out our daycare provider's son is a plumber (and general contractor). He is hoping to start his own business, and is looking for opportunities to do some extra work to satisfy union requirements. We are happy to help him with that goal. lol So, for the money I originally earmarked for potential costs on bathroom repair, I'm getting both bathrooms updated. I am so happy with the work he's doing I may end up moving into one of them when he's done. Seriously. The difference is amazing and I am really, really happy. Of course, I want to do the kitchen now, but that is NOT an option. I can just dream. For now.
We have a deck out back that is officially unsafe, really. I've been waiting on Himself to get it replaced (doing it himself with friends or hiring out) for 3 years. Turns out, our contractor can do the deck, too. So, that's next on the list and I'm taking care of it. I'm done waiting on Himself.
We also set aside $ to replace the carpet and paint the outside of the house. I'm not sure the budget is going to stretch that far by the time we're done (it was all based on estimates/guestimates anyway), but I've decided to go with the carpet if I only get to get one done. My reason? Well, the house paint is really bugging Himself, but I know that if I don't get the carpet done this time, it won't happen. The paint will happen next year, even if we have to wait, because it is really bothering him. Selfish? Yes. But I'm applying what I've learned from the deck experience. If it doesn't annoy him, it won't get fixed. The carpet doesn't bother him enough to get him to replace it. But seriously, white carpet with two kids (now 8 & 10)? It is nothing like white anymore, and doesn't really even resemble any exotic animals I can think of off hand, either.
I'll get photos of the updates done eventually, but so far, the ones I've taken haven't looked very good. I'm working on it. It is hard to take good pictures in a tiny space (bathrooms).
Of course, after TdF, I bought more fiber. I should really pause the next time I decide to join a fiber club. You know, just long enough to consider what I'm actually doing. Maybe just space them out more, or something.
The two shawls continue, slowly, but surely. I'm still enjoying them, but the time I have available to concentrate on them is limited, so progress is slow.
Ah well, brief update, now back to school.
Monday, May 03, 2010
More lace
This one is different, though. This one is LOTR themed, which = cool and it appeals to my inner (and outer) geek. Evenstar. It is a KAL ( Knit-A-Long), so there are lots of other folks out there involved and there's a whole group of people to talk to about it as we go. The Sock Scarefest was a fun KAL, so I thought this one might be, too. It is a mystery shawl, so the designer sends out the next chart every two weeks. I'm all about mysteries.
As you can see, lots of motivation to give it a try. So, I signed up. This KAL actually spurred on the finish of the Pi. I wouldn't let myself start this shawl until the other one was done. So, that worked well for me. Then I decided to splurge on the recommended yarn from The Unique Sheep, Eos laceweight. Then I decided to not only try their gradience colors, but I ordered a custom colorway. That part worked out really well. I love the colors and Kelly (at TUS) liked it so much, she says they might add it as a permanent choice and call it Midnight Special. The colors may not show well, so it runs from a rather bright denim-ish blue (in back) to a very lovely purple (up front).
The part that didn't work well? Oh, that would be the backorder on the yarn because so many people ordered it. There are 1000 people in this KAL, though not all of them are probably KAL-ing along right now. Not all of them ordered the recommended yarn, either, but enough of them did so that they had to re-stock before the KAL kicked off. Even so, there were quite a number of us who were waiting on their yarn and didn't get to start with everyone else.
As a result of this incredibly well-planned approach to this shawl (comparing to the first Pi), this baby is soooooooooooooo easy. I mean, there are some stitches that are challenging for me, make no mistake, but the challenge now is fitting my needle in the stitch to do a kfb7 - k3tog without dropping 6 stitches as I make the last (7th) one, not in figuring out what the heck it is. I did have to rip everything out. Twice. That was totally me with some dropped stitches and I wanted another go at it from the beginning to try to avoid ladders. Then I ripped part of the 1st clue three times as I kept dropping blasted stitches in the same stinking row, and I'm pretty sure in the same stinking place.
I finally made it, however, and in the process decided to change needle size as well. I have to say, I LOVE this yarn! The pattern is beautiful, and I cannot wait to see how this turns out. My dear friends who are LOTR GEEKS are going to love it, too, but you'll have to settle for pictures. This puppy is mine! So, naturally, I signed up for her entire LOTR series of patterns. sigh Because my obsession is completing a series. I don't have to knit them all, but I do have to have the patterns in my collection.
My obsessive collecting is also leaking over into my video life. Again. I've tried to avoid it for a while now, but I finally splurged on some DVDs to complete one series collection I've been dragging on. It is tough to justify because the kids can't watch it with me, so I've fallen behind on watching it. But. I. Must. Have. It. So, since we got our tax money in, and Himself spent some on music for himself (heh, Himself/himself), I figured I could do the same, even if I don't get to watch them all as they come in. Of course, there are other series out there that I also "need", but so far, I'm feeling pretty good about just having the one done.
School is going well, but a bit slow. We are so far behind in math we will be doing it all summer. The up side of that is that I think if she had a summer off, she'd forget everything she managed to learn this year. So, perhaps the summer-long work on math will help her be/stay prepared for the next school year. We are signing up to do this again next year, and I am still undecided about the youngest joining us. She's all for it, but I'm not sure it will work with her. I'm taking the summer to decide. Other classes, though, are going well and are more or less on target for completion at the right date. You know, assuming she doesn't just totally drag her feet. One recent stroke of luck for us was the volcano in Iceland blowing right when we started in on plate techtonics and volcanoes. Thanks Iceland! I was happy, however, that we made it through the earthquake chapter without any personal demonstrations.
Ah well, now. Back to school!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Let's not dwell
Rather than dwell on how long it's been since I last posted, I think I'll just move along with a post. The dwelling has actually kept me from posting anything new for at least a month, already.
My big news is that I finally finished the blasted Pi Shawl! On March 19 at 10:10 pm, to be exact. It was quite a happy moment. The blocking was another interesting first for me, and went reasonably well, but I think I learned from that as well. So without further ado...
However. After blocking, I noticed some weird holes in places just slightly out of alignment with where they should have been. So. I decided to try to make adjustments to the stitches to close those up a bit. That took about 10 hours, or so. I think.
I'm still not sure if the weird holes are due to: A) misplaced stitches (yarn overs), B) the way I moved the stitches along the needles as I knit (putting too much tension in the stitches by letting them pile up, or get pulled along at an uneven pace), or C) failing to move my stitch counters at some critical point which cause the end of the pattern to be off by a few stitches (which is sort of like misplaced stitches, but different in how they got there).
I don't think I'll ever know for sure, but the amount of time spent on the attempted repairs has taught me to be much more cautious in the future! I'm pretty sure I've learned that, at least. I've taken close-up pictures of the before repairs, and after repairs, and I will take more after it has been soaked and blocked again. Then I'll post them. Hopefully sooner than four months from now. The nagging problem remaining is that my stitches no longer look even in the sections that were repaired. Before they were even, but there were big holes. Hmmm. Which will be more noticable? I just don't know. Maybe that will block out, at least a little. I will always see the errors, I guess.
Still, on the bright side, I've learned a lot from this whole project that will make my next project go much more smoothly. I'm not sorry I did it, just sorry I jumped in without all the information I needed to do a better job of it. Oh well. I've never been one to look for an "easy" first project. Oh looky, the deep end! Let's go there first! LOL That's me.
So. Where have I been? Well, homeschooling, too much time on Ravelry and on the Wii I got for Christmas. In my defense, I got the Wii Fit Plus. It. Rocks. I hate exercise. Do. Not. Like It. I've done classes, videos, tried just getting out and walking, etc. Nothing sticks. I don't enjoy it and the least little thing gets me to stop. The Wii? I'm loving it! The days I'm not on it are upsetting to me. Yes. I think it is still me looking back from the mirror saying "I love my Wii". It could be a clone, though I haven't seen any pods lying around. I'm up to a 30 minute jog and a 10 minute Super Hoola-Hoop session every day + some yoga and strength exercises. But then, I bought Walk It Out, and now I can't stop walking in my house. Seriously. I average 4.2-5.2 miles. Every. Day. Sadly, I don't do both the Fit Plus and the WIO every day, it is an either/or thing.
Have I lost weight? Heck no. In fact, I think I've gained. But I can tell that my legs (in particular) are firming up, so I am losing fat. At least in my legs. My blue jeans seem to be fitting a bit differently. I do feel miles better, have more energy (in general) and I get all twitchy and upset if I can't get on my Wii every day. It is insane. But, I am grateful for the insanity and I am embracing it in the hopes that it will turn into a habit that I can live with and maybe even build on. You know, actually get exercise outside? Where all the pollen and other allergens are? Crazy, huh? I did four hours of yard work last week and didn't even feel it the next day. I wouldn't believe it if I couldn't see all the cleared out berry bushes and short lawn out there. LOL I'm pretty sure the pixies didn't do it.
Additional benefit: my formerly broken leg is working/feeling better after a few months on the Wii than it has felt in the tw years since I broke it. The balance programs and exercises are building up those little muscles that have so far escaped strengthening. That alone is worth the price of the Wii.
Disclaimer: I do not work for Wii. I am merely a very satisfied (and somewhat giddy) customer.
Next time, I'll tell you about my new lace project. I will simply say: I am an idiot. :)
My big news is that I finally finished the blasted Pi Shawl! On March 19 at 10:10 pm, to be exact. It was quite a happy moment. The blocking was another interesting first for me, and went reasonably well, but I think I learned from that as well. So without further ado...
However. After blocking, I noticed some weird holes in places just slightly out of alignment with where they should have been. So. I decided to try to make adjustments to the stitches to close those up a bit. That took about 10 hours, or so. I think.
I'm still not sure if the weird holes are due to: A) misplaced stitches (yarn overs), B) the way I moved the stitches along the needles as I knit (putting too much tension in the stitches by letting them pile up, or get pulled along at an uneven pace), or C) failing to move my stitch counters at some critical point which cause the end of the pattern to be off by a few stitches (which is sort of like misplaced stitches, but different in how they got there).
I don't think I'll ever know for sure, but the amount of time spent on the attempted repairs has taught me to be much more cautious in the future! I'm pretty sure I've learned that, at least. I've taken close-up pictures of the before repairs, and after repairs, and I will take more after it has been soaked and blocked again. Then I'll post them. Hopefully sooner than four months from now. The nagging problem remaining is that my stitches no longer look even in the sections that were repaired. Before they were even, but there were big holes. Hmmm. Which will be more noticable? I just don't know. Maybe that will block out, at least a little. I will always see the errors, I guess.
Still, on the bright side, I've learned a lot from this whole project that will make my next project go much more smoothly. I'm not sorry I did it, just sorry I jumped in without all the information I needed to do a better job of it. Oh well. I've never been one to look for an "easy" first project. Oh looky, the deep end! Let's go there first! LOL That's me.
So. Where have I been? Well, homeschooling, too much time on Ravelry and on the Wii I got for Christmas. In my defense, I got the Wii Fit Plus. It. Rocks. I hate exercise. Do. Not. Like It. I've done classes, videos, tried just getting out and walking, etc. Nothing sticks. I don't enjoy it and the least little thing gets me to stop. The Wii? I'm loving it! The days I'm not on it are upsetting to me. Yes. I think it is still me looking back from the mirror saying "I love my Wii". It could be a clone, though I haven't seen any pods lying around. I'm up to a 30 minute jog and a 10 minute Super Hoola-Hoop session every day + some yoga and strength exercises. But then, I bought Walk It Out, and now I can't stop walking in my house. Seriously. I average 4.2-5.2 miles. Every. Day. Sadly, I don't do both the Fit Plus and the WIO every day, it is an either/or thing.
Have I lost weight? Heck no. In fact, I think I've gained. But I can tell that my legs (in particular) are firming up, so I am losing fat. At least in my legs. My blue jeans seem to be fitting a bit differently. I do feel miles better, have more energy (in general) and I get all twitchy and upset if I can't get on my Wii every day. It is insane. But, I am grateful for the insanity and I am embracing it in the hopes that it will turn into a habit that I can live with and maybe even build on. You know, actually get exercise outside? Where all the pollen and other allergens are? Crazy, huh? I did four hours of yard work last week and didn't even feel it the next day. I wouldn't believe it if I couldn't see all the cleared out berry bushes and short lawn out there. LOL I'm pretty sure the pixies didn't do it.
Additional benefit: my formerly broken leg is working/feeling better after a few months on the Wii than it has felt in the tw years since I broke it. The balance programs and exercises are building up those little muscles that have so far escaped strengthening. That alone is worth the price of the Wii.
Disclaimer: I do not work for Wii. I am merely a very satisfied (and somewhat giddy) customer.
Next time, I'll tell you about my new lace project. I will simply say: I am an idiot. :)
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
My brain hurts
It could be the cold, but I don't think so.
Yeah. I don't know, so I thought I'd just make it "easy" on myself by using both yarns from the start. Mitts are usually a traveling sort of project. I can work on them anywhere. Perhaps not this time. I'll have to find something else to carry around.
I'm trying not to let myself work on much else until I get this thing finished. However, I have been doing lots of Pi Shawl work before bed (on the nights where there's time for that). I'm halfway through the last pattern repeat! I find it ironic that after struggling so long with this project, it is now the easiest thing I'm working on.
Oh, well. Nothing like uncertainty to keep you on your toes, right?
And now, after all that whining, some yummy, happy fiber! This is locally dyed BFL in the colorway Dawn In Paris by Auntie Karen & Co. I picked up 8 oz at the LYS and can't wait to get to it. The dyer does not seem to have her own website or anything, just a local who sells through the LYS. That's fine with me. I also picked up 4 oz of this nice bit of BFL in Black Forest Cake. Same artist, same store. Black Friday sales can be good. I wasn't expecting to be out shopping, but Himself had me helping with a project of his and we ended up right around the corner from the LYS, so there was no real reason not to go. I have no idea what I'll do with either of them, though I'm thinking a scarf for the Dawn in Paris. Maybe a hat for the Black Forest I want these colors very, very visible! Too yummy!
So, I had this fun idea of using up some leftover Fangasia yarn to make some fingerless mitts in a pattern that will echo the fang motif in the Love Bites scarf. I planned to alternate rows of the Fangasia colorway with rows of plain black silver sock yarn (if you can call "silver sock yarn" plain). This may be the worst idea ever! Not because the colors aren't working out. Nope. They look fine. Not even because I can only knit one at a time. I have gotten used to doing two things (socks & mitts, not sweaters or hats!) at the same time, but these should go quickly. Right? Little mitts?
Gah! I'm doing the mitts on two circs, as usual. But the pattern has all these YOs and K2tog right where the stitches start or stop on my needles. A yarn over at the end of one row, then switch yarns for the next row is very challenging in the round. At least, it is for me, and I'm worried that there will be a big, gaping hole in one spot of the glove. That would not be pretty. The K2togs keep happening when I have one stitch left on the end of the needle, so I keep moving them around every other row. Pfffffft. I'm not enjoying this at all.
Yes, I know. No one is making me do them. But I want the mitts in this colorway. This is the only way to get them. I suppose I could hurt my brain further by seriously moving stitches around to try to adjust where the starts and stops are, but, hey do you smell smoke? I don't know. It is just rare for me to get off to such a very bad start with a project (deliberately ignores the disasterous Pi Shawl start).
Perhaps starting the project while the girls were at dance class wasn't the best idea. I was seriously distracted by the number of kids going in and out of the room leaving the door open with the music blasting and the teacher counting! How was I supposed to count independently of her? That doesn't usually happen, though, and I have spent many, many hours knitting there without any problems at all. No. It is just this pattern/project. I actually started out thinking I could manage to do both mitts at the same time. That would be FOUR bits of yarn to track , keep in the correct order, etc. See? Flat. Out. Crazy.
As it is, I will undoubtedly rip out the four completed rows and give it another go at home in relative quiet. If it is still such a struggle, I'll reconsider the pattern, or my alternating yarn. I could just try to do one in the yarn I have left and see if it is enough. I know it will be very, very close, but which side of completion is the sticky bit. Will I have just enough, or barely not enough? Is it worth the effort and time to knit it with the one yarn and see how far I get? Will I rip it all and do it again with two yarns if it doesn't work?
Yeah. I don't know, so I thought I'd just make it "easy" on myself by using both yarns from the start. Mitts are usually a traveling sort of project. I can work on them anywhere. Perhaps not this time. I'll have to find something else to carry around.
I'm also working on a cross stitch quilt square. Still. I have never, EVER, had this much trouble with a simple cross stitch square in my life. E.V.E.R. I have had to re-work 3 out of 4 major motifs, not just once, but multiple times. Each. Then I get to the "easy" part (should be) and find that one of the motifs is short by a stitch, and I had to rip the whole thing (single motif) out and re-work it. Again. sigh Perhaps I'm just distracted, or something. I don't know. The due date for the square was last Sunday, but we had an unoffical extension to this Sunday. Good thing. It will take me that long to correct all the errors in this puppy. (And, yes, you could tell that there was an error in all instances.)
Oh, well. Nothing like uncertainty to keep you on your toes, right?
And now, after all that whining, some yummy, happy fiber! This is locally dyed BFL in the colorway Dawn In Paris by Auntie Karen & Co. I picked up 8 oz at the LYS and can't wait to get to it. The dyer does not seem to have her own website or anything, just a local who sells through the LYS. That's fine with me. I also picked up 4 oz of this nice bit of BFL in Black Forest Cake. Same artist, same store. Black Friday sales can be good. I wasn't expecting to be out shopping, but Himself had me helping with a project of his and we ended up right around the corner from the LYS, so there was no real reason not to go. I have no idea what I'll do with either of them, though I'm thinking a scarf for the Dawn in Paris. Maybe a hat for the Black Forest I want these colors very, very visible! Too yummy!
Friday, December 04, 2009
Caught Up On The Wrong Things
Well, not wrong-wrong, just not the stuff I should probably be spending my time on right now. Isn't that just the way some of us work, though? I just spent the past hour taking and uploading photos of projects and fiber, updating Ravelry, etc. pffft! I should have been doing something more useful, like going to the grocery store. Or, maybe working with eldest instead of letting her have an extra long lunch today. lol Like she's complaining.
Still, that means I have way too many pics to post now, so I'll try to break it a bit, posting the oldest things first, with the exception of my newly finished Love Bites scarf. This was knit up in Fresh From the Caudron's Silver Sock base in the Fangtasia colorway (Sept. shipment in the yarn club, didn't even get that one posted yet). The pattern was fun, simple to memorize and seem to take for-stinking-ever to finish. Of course, I could have stopped any time I wanted to, I just wanted a longer scarf. As it is, I think I went a bit too far, I don't have quite enough left for mitts. So I'm thinking I'll use some black silver sock from my stash and alternate rows with Fangtasia/Black and see if some work out. Anyway, you can see the two little holes in the wider knitted bands, like fang marks/bites. Love Bites? Ha Ha? I think it is cute, but probably won't explain it to very many people. They think I'm weird enough as it is.
On the idea of getting things done late, do you see that nice picture up there of the nice brew with the blue yarn? I took that baby two years ago, and I've been looking for it ever since. Seriously. I've searched on every thumb drive in the house, every computer (we have, ahem, more than two) and everywhere else I could think of (at 2 am, sometimes). WhenI finally embraced the fact that it was lost, gone forever and not-reproduceable (not exactly, anyway), after Himself updated all the software, etc. poof!, there it is.
Seriously. In His photo collection, which I thought was in the whole Picture folder (he didn't even know he had one of his own). Moral of the story? Never say die! Or dye, or something like that. lol
I can't wait to get started, but I'm also not sure if I'm ready for another big-ish project. I might do the fingerless mitts in the leftover fangtasia first. I just can't decide, but I'm freezing right now. I have not adjusted to our current temps outside. Pathetic. I know. I always need a couple of weeks to settle in, though, then I'm pretty good.
This guy is The Eccentric. He is named in honor of a character from a series who's author is very, very, happy to sue anything that even breathes the name of her characters. Once the dyer got wind of that, she modified the names and made the all exclusives to the club. Paranoid? Maybe, but better safe than sorry.
This yarn is an acquaintance to the character above. He is The Antiquated. Rich plums and browns make up this fellow's pallete, and are absolutely scruptious! Also BFL, very yummy. As was the character, IMO, but I'll stop. lolI'm a bit alarmed at how much fiber has found its way into my home over the past several months. I was doing an excellent job of not buying anything (other than what came in the clubs), and then BAM! I seem to have forgotten what it is to think calmly through all purchases, considering the likelihood that a yarn will be used. Soon. sigh.
Although, I suppose my most fevered stashing seems to be in fiber. Since I added that jumbo flyer, I seem to think I'll be doing all this spinning. lol I am trying to keep it in the loop, at least once a week at minimum. I'm about 3 oz into a 4 oz braid of the Frabjous Fiber in Atlantis I've already posted (bad) pics of. It is turning out very lovely, but it is a slow thing.
If I pre-draft the fiber, I spin it too thin, if I don't pre-draft, it is pretty uneven. I rather like the thick/thin (within reason), so don't mind too much, but it'll be nice when I get a better handle on this new flyer and thicker yarn. I don't want everything I spin to come out sport weight. I was hoping for something worsted-to-bulky in this yarn, but I knew it would be sort of random at this stage. I just wanted to keep spinning. Still, I'm hopeful that I can do a nice sweater or something out of this yarn. Though I'm not delusional enough to think that will happen in the next month or so. lol
Monday, November 16, 2009
Drips and Drabs
I've been waiting for inspiration and time to get together and shake hands before posting again. Apparently, that isn't going to happen any time soon. lol
I've made zero progress on the vacation photos, which is too bad. I need to get them in order for Christmas pressies. Ah well, nothing like waiting until the last moment, right? OTOH, at least I got mine on the computer. Himself can't even get that far (which is my excuse for not getting to work on photo packages for the family at Christmas).
I found that much of the progress the Eldest and I made regarding a homeschooling routine went right out the window in a week's time. We've spent the past three weeks trying to get back to the relatively smooth routine we had before the trip. I think we're there again. You know, in time for all the holiday breaks. Still, at least I remember what the routine is, instead of trying to create one, so for me, at least, it is easier. Unless you count the fun of dealing with Eldest on the whole thing.
I've done a bit of spinning on this fiber, which is lovely.
I've made zero progress on the vacation photos, which is too bad. I need to get them in order for Christmas pressies. Ah well, nothing like waiting until the last moment, right? OTOH, at least I got mine on the computer. Himself can't even get that far (which is my excuse for not getting to work on photo packages for the family at Christmas).
I found that much of the progress the Eldest and I made regarding a homeschooling routine went right out the window in a week's time. We've spent the past three weeks trying to get back to the relatively smooth routine we had before the trip. I think we're there again. You know, in time for all the holiday breaks. Still, at least I remember what the routine is, instead of trying to create one, so for me, at least, it is easier. Unless you count the fun of dealing with Eldest on the whole thing.
I've done a bit of spinning on this fiber, which is lovely.
It is a nice squooshy Merino and I just love the colors.
There's a bit more of the cream color than I would prefer (more green!), but it is really nice. I have quite a bit of it, 24 oz, so I'm hoping to be able to make something biggish and nice. Sweater of some sort? I just don't know. I'm using my new jumbo flyer, but I am having a hard time letting myself spin a bigger, fluffier ply. I practiced and thought I had it down, but it is a struggle. Still, I'm going to keep going with it anyway. There's a lot to spin, so I'm sure it will be a very "art" yarn when I'm done.
I played a bit with Navajo plying last weekend. That went better than I thought. Very much something to try rather than read about, I found. I don't want to do that with this yarn, however, because I want to maximize yardage to make something bigger. It is a tough choice, though, because I do want a thicker yarn in this colorway. I think.
Ah! To be a more experienced spinner!
Still, I can't save all the "best" fiber until I get to be an "experienced spinner" or else I'll never spin anything! Right? Right. Plenty of fiber in the, erm, sea. Or, something like that. Anyway, I'll try to get a pic up of the result asap. Obviously, you shouldn't hold your breath or anything.
I've made small progress on the Love Bites scarf. I still love it, but long scarf + fingering weight yarn + limited knitting time = long time to finish the project. I've been working more on the Pi Shawl. I'm happy to say I'm 5 rows shy of the last pattern repeat (repeating Pattern 1 for the last time, that is) then it will be on to the border pattern. Woo! Hoo!
I can't help but wonder if this thing will be as big as I need it to be once I'm done. I mean, it looks sort of small right now, even though there are so many stinking rows of knitting. That tiny, tiny laceweight yarn... I just don't see how it will be big enough, honestly. But, my grandmother is also a tiny thing, so I'm trying to reassure myself that it will be big enough.
I honestly don't know if I could ever knit lace again if I spend this much time on something that is too small. You hear that, lace? You've been warned!
Well, it is time to go read to dogs. Lately, I've just been getting lots of cuddles. Guess they've gotten used to us. lol
Monday, October 26, 2009
The family and I just returned from a fantastic vacation to Orlando. Himself's family is there, a few friends and relatives of mine are there, and, of course, The Mouse is there.We managed to squeeze in some of each, though I'm convinced vacations are either too short or too long. Has anyone had exactly the right amount of time for everything? No? Yes? Maybe it is just me.
More photos may come, but there's 600+ for me to sort through (just the ones I took), and, well, I'm just not up for that yet. Anyway, here's a few just to prove we were there.
I had hours and hours on the plane to knit, but it was hard to concentrate on it for long. I had no trouble getting my knitting needles through security (I used my bamboo needles) and I didn't even try to take scissors. I'm working on a scarf in sock yarn, though, so it is taking forever to reach the end. Sort of like one of those things where you knit and knit and never get closer to the end, I think. I did get a good deal of knitting on the plane, and a little at the in-law's house, but not as much as I thought I'd do.
Himself was inspired to book the trip because his high school had a band alum reunion (all years) for the school's 70th anniversary. The alums were able to sit next to the band at the homecoming game on Friday and play along. I think the band director may have gotten an ulcer over his lack of control over the alums. They played whenever, and whatever, the wanted fairly often. The current school band had to stick to a more rigid plan. I suspect his mantra was "alums give money" or something like that. LOL Still, I sometimes caught this look on his face...
We went to the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, and attended Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party later that night. You must buy special tickets for that, of course, but they close the park to non-ticket holders and there's trick-or-treating, fireworks and a parade. The kids brought their costumes and we took a break in the evening to head back to the hotel and change. It was so much fun! It was such an incredibly long day! 11 am - midnight. Exhausting! I don't think we waited more than 15-20 minutes for any ride, and for most of them, the wait was the length of time it took to walk from the entrance to the loading area. October is the month to go!
Wednesday we went to the Animal Kingdom. It was also pretty awesome with minimal wait times. I met up with a buddy from college (Austin College) and her mom for a few hours. They are living out that way now and so, when I do make it back to Texas, I never get to see her. The park is terrific, though much smaller and with fewer rides. We went to see several shows, including Nemo, The Musical, and rode several things twice. I made it on Expedition Everest, but only once. No one else would ride it with me and I felt bad making them all wait for me, even if the wait was short.
I will share one funny thing that happened at Animal Kingdom. While having lunch with everyone, I kept feeling this poking on my rear end. I thought it was my youngest child being obnoxious. It wasn't. It was a rather cheeky duck, pardon the pun. He was looking for a bit of my lunch and had the most remarkable expression on his face. Well, it looked that way from my point of view. Sadly, no one had a camera sitting out (safely tucked away from the food), so I can't share a photo of the fellow. He was rather bold, though. Just sitting there looking at me with an expression that said "Well?!"
Himself was inspired to book the trip because his high school had a band alum reunion (all years) for the school's 70th anniversary. The alums were able to sit next to the band at the homecoming game on Friday and play along. I think the band director may have gotten an ulcer over his lack of control over the alums. They played whenever, and whatever, the wanted fairly often. The current school band had to stick to a more rigid plan. I suspect his mantra was "alums give money" or something like that. LOL Still, I sometimes caught this look on his face...
We went to the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, and attended Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party later that night. You must buy special tickets for that, of course, but they close the park to non-ticket holders and there's trick-or-treating, fireworks and a parade. The kids brought their costumes and we took a break in the evening to head back to the hotel and change. It was so much fun! It was such an incredibly long day! 11 am - midnight. Exhausting! I don't think we waited more than 15-20 minutes for any ride, and for most of them, the wait was the length of time it took to walk from the entrance to the loading area. October is the month to go!
Wednesday we went to the Animal Kingdom. It was also pretty awesome with minimal wait times. I met up with a buddy from college (Austin College) and her mom for a few hours. They are living out that way now and so, when I do make it back to Texas, I never get to see her. The park is terrific, though much smaller and with fewer rides. We went to see several shows, including Nemo, The Musical, and rode several things twice. I made it on Expedition Everest, but only once. No one else would ride it with me and I felt bad making them all wait for me, even if the wait was short.I will share one funny thing that happened at Animal Kingdom. While having lunch with everyone, I kept feeling this poking on my rear end. I thought it was my youngest child being obnoxious. It wasn't. It was a rather cheeky duck, pardon the pun. He was looking for a bit of my lunch and had the most remarkable expression on his face. Well, it looked that way from my point of view. Sadly, no one had a camera sitting out (safely tucked away from the food), so I can't share a photo of the fellow. He was rather bold, though. Just sitting there looking at me with an expression that said "Well?!"
We spent lovely time with family, mine and his, but it was all too short. Well, most of it was. Some folks are best in teeny, tiny doses, but I'll not dwell on that bit. LOL October is the best month for Florida, I think. Not too hot, but plenty warm for the kids. Himself and I were glad to return to Washington and real Fall weather.
The last day or so of the trip, the youngest developed a bladder infection. Sleep-deprived mom didn't really notice, or more correctly, connect the dots on that one until the night before we left. Seriously, I could not adjust to the 3-hour time difference the whole trip! Who knew those three hours could make my brain FAIL so much all week? It didn't help that the youngest was in total denial of all symptoms, for some unkown reason. So, the first day back, we were at the clinic for antibiotics for her. On the second leg of the flight home, the eldest got a sore throat. So, today we were at the doctor's office for her. She's got strep throat, and so they are both an antibiotics now. I hope that at the least, the meds will help the youngest recover from one and avoid getting the other. The adults will have to take their chances, I guess. Oh well, no one was sick while there and so far, no nasty swine flu symptoms.
I still say this was the best vacation ever, and I do hope we can go again in a couple of years. I miss my family, but visiting them is never relaxing, really. Visiting the in-laws provides innumerable amusement parks to visit, plus the beaches, and NASA, and goodness knows what else! But it also allows me to actually just enjoy the trip in a way that I just can't when visiting my family. So, the next trip will certainly be to see my folks, but probably not for a while. Which is good. I have all these photos to work through first...
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
How are we doing?
Well, we've been at the homeschool thing for about 2.5 weeks and we're all still alive. Week 2 was better, this week has been up and down (and it is only Tuesday!). We are still trying new stuff, new schedules, etc. and I don't expect everything to go smoothly while we are fiddling around. I have signed up to add Latin I class to our schedule. I think it is an awesome foundation for understanding English, and many other languages as well. I had two years in high school and quite liked it.
Yes. I'm a geek. lol
I'm still waiting for all the pass codes to get into that one, but it looks like a nice online class. I'm hoping the youngest can be part of the class so that she can benefit from it too.
On the knitting/fiber side of life, I finished my Jason Stackhouse Cat's Face Lace socks.
These were a fun knit, and went pretty quickly, for me. They got interrupted for another cross stitch quilt square, which slowed me down, but no biggie. The pattern is from Ravelry but is heavily, heavily modified. The modifications were to suit my artistic muse, not because the pattern is in need of modification.
The original pattern is alternating rows of cat paws and cat faces. I decided I only wanted the faces. Then I decided I wanted to readjust the spacing on them, again, my muse was feeling uppity. These are toe-up socks, so the faces on the feet are in slightly different alignment than the ones on the leg, but I'm not even sure I could tell now. I did have some trouble at the top. Since I had a very generous amount of yarn, I repeated the pattern more than called for in the original (you may be wondering if anything is like the original pattern, right?). I thought the sock was a bit loose, so I went down a needle size for the ribbing, did the bind off and started weaving ends. Then I tried on the sock and it was too tight. I pondered my options for a silly hour or so, then I ripped out the weaving, the cast off and the ribbing on both socks, went, back up to the original needle size and did it all again. And now they fit. The stripes are interesting as they mirror one another, but the back of one sock matches the front of the other. I think it is cool.
I then cast on the Love Bites scarf (Ravelry, again) with the Fangtasia yarn in the same vamp club. The colors are really nice and I love they way they blend. The pattern is easy to memorize and goes pretty quickly. BUT, this will take forever to knit up the 400+ yds! At the end of the scarf, you drop three stitches and let 'em rip all the way down. This will be my first project like this, so we'll see how I do.
I bought a jumbo flyer for my wheel. I spent the week before school staining the thing and getting it all put together. I've managed to squeeze in a little time during school to spin a little practice fiber to get used to it. I really seem to NEED to spin thin yarn. I would really like to loosen up a bit. lol I bought a bunch of lovely stuff, but I won't touch it until I can make it do what I want.
I'm not sure how the colors will show up, but there some lovely shades of green, medium blue, white and a medium brown. The colorway is Atlantis, and the artist is frabjous fibers in Vermont. It is Merino Top and I picked it up from the LYS in Snohomish.
I've joined the Super Sock Scarefest again this year, and I nearly missed it! I've just been so busy I wasn't checking the group. I missed the first pattern release, and decided I'd wait for the next one. Since I have so much spare time on my hands, ahem, I'm thinking maybe I'll go with #3 pattern. We'll see how it works out.
I've got other fiber photos, but I think I'll save them. Maybe I can use them to motivate myself to post more often.
Yes. I'm a geek. lol
I'm still waiting for all the pass codes to get into that one, but it looks like a nice online class. I'm hoping the youngest can be part of the class so that she can benefit from it too.
On the knitting/fiber side of life, I finished my Jason Stackhouse Cat's Face Lace socks.
These were a fun knit, and went pretty quickly, for me. They got interrupted for another cross stitch quilt square, which slowed me down, but no biggie. The pattern is from Ravelry but is heavily, heavily modified. The modifications were to suit my artistic muse, not because the pattern is in need of modification.
The original pattern is alternating rows of cat paws and cat faces. I decided I only wanted the faces. Then I decided I wanted to readjust the spacing on them, again, my muse was feeling uppity. These are toe-up socks, so the faces on the feet are in slightly different alignment than the ones on the leg, but I'm not even sure I could tell now. I did have some trouble at the top. Since I had a very generous amount of yarn, I repeated the pattern more than called for in the original (you may be wondering if anything is like the original pattern, right?). I thought the sock was a bit loose, so I went down a needle size for the ribbing, did the bind off and started weaving ends. Then I tried on the sock and it was too tight. I pondered my options for a silly hour or so, then I ripped out the weaving, the cast off and the ribbing on both socks, went, back up to the original needle size and did it all again. And now they fit. The stripes are interesting as they mirror one another, but the back of one sock matches the front of the other. I think it is cool.
I then cast on the Love Bites scarf (Ravelry, again) with the Fangtasia yarn in the same vamp club. The colors are really nice and I love they way they blend. The pattern is easy to memorize and goes pretty quickly. BUT, this will take forever to knit up the 400+ yds! At the end of the scarf, you drop three stitches and let 'em rip all the way down. This will be my first project like this, so we'll see how I do.
I bought a jumbo flyer for my wheel. I spent the week before school staining the thing and getting it all put together. I've managed to squeeze in a little time during school to spin a little practice fiber to get used to it. I really seem to NEED to spin thin yarn. I would really like to loosen up a bit. lol I bought a bunch of lovely stuff, but I won't touch it until I can make it do what I want.
I'm not sure how the colors will show up, but there some lovely shades of green, medium blue, white and a medium brown. The colorway is Atlantis, and the artist is frabjous fibers in Vermont. It is Merino Top and I picked it up from the LYS in Snohomish.
I've joined the Super Sock Scarefest again this year, and I nearly missed it! I've just been so busy I wasn't checking the group. I missed the first pattern release, and decided I'd wait for the next one. Since I have so much spare time on my hands, ahem, I'm thinking maybe I'll go with #3 pattern. We'll see how it works out.
I've got other fiber photos, but I think I'll save them. Maybe I can use them to motivate myself to post more often.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Homeschool
Sort of. This is what has been taking up my time. My eldest has been agitating for homeschool for about two years. I promised her we'd talk about it this summer and make a decision. So, we did. I was trying to help a friend with zero homeschool contacts find some info about programs / curriculum that people liked. In the process, I stumbled upon WAVA (Washington Virtual Academy) and it sounded like a really good way to get started. If you know it and it isn't, don't tell me now.
This program is technically NOT homeschool because it is part of the public school system and I do not pay anything additional (to my regular taxes) for the materials. What it is is a home-based education program and I work with a state certified teacher on a regular basis, to make sure we are meeting our goals & requirements (state requirements). The teacher will also help me work out strategies for more successful work with my child. The lesson plans are already built, but I can mix them up a bit if I want (I can't drop any subjects, but I can add things if I want).
We're into day 3 today, and I want out! I expected to feel this way, so I'm not panicked. I also will not be quitting today, so don't worry. As with many new things in life, this is more time-consuming and much, much more tiring than I thought it would be. I have never worked so hard in my life, I don't think. Oh, sure, maybe shoveling snow or painting a room or rearranging furniture is harder in the short term, but this won't end until June 16, 2010.
My self-pep talk today was all about staying adaptable every day, learning new strategies from one day to the next, and just hanging in there! It sort of worked. I'm hoping we will see some real progress in our attitudes/habits after a month. That will really go a long way towards giving me some much needed energy.
I think.
Right now, we spend more than double the time expected on Math alone (today, nearly 3 hours!). Not because we like it. No. Because the child has to change seating arrangements 50 times, get more ice (she's addicted to ice, but at least it is fluids) and make drum sounds. sigh I've already learned that I cannot, CANNOT, do any other thing while she is working on math. That includes knitting. That may change, but not any time soon, I'm sure. I can almost read email, but usually only one or two. If the reply is more than five sentences long, I'd better not try it. After completing (successfully) 19 problems, the 20th problem will warrant a long questions, stony silence and borderline tears even though it is exactly like the other 19 (successfully) completed problems. She can read directions, but if they are for math, it is like she is reading a foreign language phonetically. It has no meaning to her at all. Mind you, she is breezing through all the language and reading materials at light speed, so she does comprehend words. Just not words in a Math Book.
Well, to put a positive spin on the situation, I am learning a lot about my eldest child. She is probably learning a lot about me. Maybe we can both improve over the next year.
The youngest, you say? Ah. She would rather eat worms than be home with me for school. At least, that's where she is this year. We'll see how she (and I) feel about it next year. This is a trial program, Eldest and I both have the option to say No More! for next year. The youngest has the option to join if she wants, but I will not force the issue unless some unforeseen event moves me to change my mind.
Himself is very excited we are doing this. He is (currently) very supportive of this change. We'll see how he feels a month from now. lol When all those things I've been doing regularly start piling up again.
This program is technically NOT homeschool because it is part of the public school system and I do not pay anything additional (to my regular taxes) for the materials. What it is is a home-based education program and I work with a state certified teacher on a regular basis, to make sure we are meeting our goals & requirements (state requirements). The teacher will also help me work out strategies for more successful work with my child. The lesson plans are already built, but I can mix them up a bit if I want (I can't drop any subjects, but I can add things if I want).
We're into day 3 today, and I want out! I expected to feel this way, so I'm not panicked. I also will not be quitting today, so don't worry. As with many new things in life, this is more time-consuming and much, much more tiring than I thought it would be. I have never worked so hard in my life, I don't think. Oh, sure, maybe shoveling snow or painting a room or rearranging furniture is harder in the short term, but this won't end until June 16, 2010.
My self-pep talk today was all about staying adaptable every day, learning new strategies from one day to the next, and just hanging in there! It sort of worked. I'm hoping we will see some real progress in our attitudes/habits after a month. That will really go a long way towards giving me some much needed energy.
I think.
Right now, we spend more than double the time expected on Math alone (today, nearly 3 hours!). Not because we like it. No. Because the child has to change seating arrangements 50 times, get more ice (she's addicted to ice, but at least it is fluids) and make drum sounds. sigh I've already learned that I cannot, CANNOT, do any other thing while she is working on math. That includes knitting. That may change, but not any time soon, I'm sure. I can almost read email, but usually only one or two. If the reply is more than five sentences long, I'd better not try it. After completing (successfully) 19 problems, the 20th problem will warrant a long questions, stony silence and borderline tears even though it is exactly like the other 19 (successfully) completed problems. She can read directions, but if they are for math, it is like she is reading a foreign language phonetically. It has no meaning to her at all. Mind you, she is breezing through all the language and reading materials at light speed, so she does comprehend words. Just not words in a Math Book.
Well, to put a positive spin on the situation, I am learning a lot about my eldest child. She is probably learning a lot about me. Maybe we can both improve over the next year.
The youngest, you say? Ah. She would rather eat worms than be home with me for school. At least, that's where she is this year. We'll see how she (and I) feel about it next year. This is a trial program, Eldest and I both have the option to say No More! for next year. The youngest has the option to join if she wants, but I will not force the issue unless some unforeseen event moves me to change my mind.
Himself is very excited we are doing this. He is (currently) very supportive of this change. We'll see how he feels a month from now. lol When all those things I've been doing regularly start piling up again.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Photos
So, yesterday I thought I would take the kids to play with their friends and then I would be free to spend a little time on chores. After the chores, I was going to enjoy a long afternoon of knitting. You know, because it was too stinking hot to touch wool last week.
Well, as I pulled back into the garage, I looked at all the boxes sitting around in there. Himself and I have decided we are going to spend time working through those boxes and either re-pack the things we're keeping or, here's a novel idea, use the stuff, or give it to charity. So, yesterday, in a fit of strange energy, I decided to sort through a few boxes.
After browsing through some boxes full of spiders, spiders and books, I decided to sort through photos & old personal memorabilia instead. Hmmm. I have a lot of photos, old photos, and now I'm thinking those spiders look pretty nice. lol On the other hand, I managed to get the other stuff sorted out by era nicely labeled in sealable boxes, and some stuff sorted into the recycle bin, so it will be easier to go back and look at it all for fun when I want to. In some small way, mission accomplished.
I was surprised by some of the stuff I found in those boxes. I'm not talking about the spiders here. I found lots of old notes my friends and I wrote to each other back in school. You know the stuff all about that cute boy you followed around the halls, or what you were planning to do over the weekend, etc. The notes you write instead of the class work you should have been doing. I think I kept them by accident, really. My mom had a bad habit (still has, most likely if given the chance) of going through my room and sorting through all my stuff when I was out of the house, spending the night with friends, driving around, etc. Anything in the room was open for full inspection, or reading as the case may be, because (at the time) it was her house. Furniture was rearranged, things were thrown away, whatever struck her fancy when I was out of the house for the evening. Of course, she never had any interest in reading my school papers, but the notes from my friends were fair game in her mind. I took to keeping those notes in folders so that they looked like school work, not chatter with my friends. I think it worked out, but it took me until my senior year to figure that one out.
Well, as I pulled back into the garage, I looked at all the boxes sitting around in there. Himself and I have decided we are going to spend time working through those boxes and either re-pack the things we're keeping or, here's a novel idea, use the stuff, or give it to charity. So, yesterday, in a fit of strange energy, I decided to sort through a few boxes.
After browsing through some boxes full of spiders, spiders and books, I decided to sort through photos & old personal memorabilia instead. Hmmm. I have a lot of photos, old photos, and now I'm thinking those spiders look pretty nice. lol On the other hand, I managed to get the other stuff sorted out by era nicely labeled in sealable boxes, and some stuff sorted into the recycle bin, so it will be easier to go back and look at it all for fun when I want to. In some small way, mission accomplished.
I was surprised by some of the stuff I found in those boxes. I'm not talking about the spiders here. I found lots of old notes my friends and I wrote to each other back in school. You know the stuff all about that cute boy you followed around the halls, or what you were planning to do over the weekend, etc. The notes you write instead of the class work you should have been doing. I think I kept them by accident, really. My mom had a bad habit (still has, most likely if given the chance) of going through my room and sorting through all my stuff when I was out of the house, spending the night with friends, driving around, etc. Anything in the room was open for full inspection, or reading as the case may be, because (at the time) it was her house. Furniture was rearranged, things were thrown away, whatever struck her fancy when I was out of the house for the evening. Of course, she never had any interest in reading my school papers, but the notes from my friends were fair game in her mind. I took to keeping those notes in folders so that they looked like school work, not chatter with my friends. I think it worked out, but it took me until my senior year to figure that one out.
Of course, a few years later I worked out that my mom's behavior was an inappropriate invasion of my privacy. The reading of private papters is just the tip of the iceberg, but there's no need for going there now (or here). We all have our issues. It would have been entirely different if I'd been a troublesome teen up to no good, etc., but I wasn't. I was a model child. Until college, anyway. But, that's a whole different kettle of fish and one thing leads to another, and so on.
I also found some old love letters from beaux long gone. Is it kosher to keep those? I really hate the thought of tossing them. While they don't come from the man I married, they were very important at the time, and helped me become the person I am. I just don't know what to do with those.
So. Here I sit with hundreds of photos that I hope to scan, and some that will be thrown out due to really terrible picture taking skills, Polaroids that are almost entirely black (I have almost no idea what the subject was it is so dark), and dozens and dozens of landscape photos that simply have no meaning anymore. Look! A tree! Somewhere. Could be anywhere, really. Oh! And here's another tree. Again, I have no idea where. But it is green! Woo-Hoo! Yeah. I probably don't need a gazillion of those. Do I? I mean, I know I took the picture in 1976, or 1978, on one of my trips to Oregon to visit family. The above mentioned trees were photographed somewhere on the road between Texas and Oregon. Could be anywhere, really. The trees in question might not even be standing anymore. But, then, should I keep the picture in memory of a tree that may no longer be? Even if I can't know for sure? Um, no. I think photos lacking any identifiers (people or signs) may all be fair game for the trash bin. They are faded and, really, unremarkable.
The question is: Will I get to work on this right away? Or will I need to find another box...
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
August
I have no idea where July went. Perhaps the extreme heat in the last week of July burned the memory of July out of my head.
Whatever the reason, here it is, August. Half the summer break is gone and I haven't accomplished most of the things on my to-do list. I think that is the way it is supposed to go. Right? So, we're having a successful summer.
The kids are spending huge amounts of time playng with their friends from their former daycare. There is a shortage of older kids to play with the provider's grandkids. They've all grown up together and are very close, so my girls are visiting them and getting lots of play time. It is a nice break for everyone. Kids get tired of only playing with their siblings. Swimming at the beach, at the lake and at the public pool, ice skating, Slip 'N Slide and sleepovers. Oh, and spinning. I spent one day teaching the girls to spin. Sort of. They peddled, I managed the fiber. It worked out well and they were very happy with their yarn. We had planned to go pick out new fiber for them, but havent done it yet. Too many other things going on.
I was making some really nice progress on some socks with my Jason yarn. They are toe-up and a modified version of the Cat's Face Lace sock pattern (found on Ravelry). Werecat character inspired yarn, cat lace sock. Seems like a fun match to me. I like the way it is knitting up so far, I'm just a pattern repeat away from the heel. Or that's my best guess.
But I got distracted.
Yep. I picked up the Pi Shawl again, and I've been knitting with great enthusiasm. I've knit up about 40 rows, and I've done the last increase. I've got 576 sts on the needles and I'm on the last K row before starting the final lace pattern. I hope I can keep up some momentum, but I just don't know. I'd post pictures, but it is just a red blob. I refuse to take it off the needles because, even with lifelines, I know I will drop sts getting it back on. I mean, there are FIVE HUNDRED SEVENTY-SIX STITCHES IN TINY, TINY YARN. Not worth it. I'll take a picture of the blob before blocking, and that will have to do.
I also participated in the Tour de Fleece again this year. I had modest goals, and more or less met them. I am plying the last of the fiber now, so I didn't finish everything on time for the Tour, but I'm still finishing it all up. You know, so I can buy more fiber. lol Once this last bit is plied, I'll wash and set it all. Then I need to figure out how much I have and what I can do with it.
This bit on the left is DragonFibers' Bluebells & Buttercups. It is a Merino / Bamboo blend, and was a dream to spin. I just spent a crazy amount of time doing it. (As in, I got half of it done last year for the tour, and did the other half this year.) Pathetic.
This is also DragonFibers, but it is a Merino / Sea Cell blend in a pencil roving. This is the first time I've spun a pencil roving, and I have to say I love it. I normally pre-draft my fiber, and not doing saves a crazy amount of time! This colorway is Masquerade, and is a lovely mix of blue-ish grey and a purpley/burgundy sort of color. It is spinning up into a lovely yarn.
This lovely DragonFibers colorway is Mermaid's Jewelbox. This was Merino/Bamboo, and turned into a very lovely yarn. My theme for the Tour this year was DragonFibers, in case you couldn't tell. I'd picked up a number of braids, and really wanted to get them spun so I could move on to knitting them up.
Aaaaand, here are the singles for this one. Oddly, it looks dark/deep as singles. The yarn plied a bit lighter than I was expecting. But, since I have so little experience with this whole thing, really, I wasn't disappointed. Just surprised.
All the rest of my fiber stash is random bits of fiber I picked up to practice on. I have no real plan for using the random bits, and there really isn't much of any one thing to make into a project, really. I'll likely need to buy more random bits, or blend it with other stuff, or something else creative that I haven't thought of yet. Still, it is a nice collection for the kids to sample if they want to continue playing with the spinning.
Lastly, I realized that I never posted photos of my July installment of my yarn club. So now that I've got the shipping receipt for the August yarn, I'll get July up.
Here is Fangtasia, so named after the nightclub owned by Eric the Northman (vampire). This is on a silver sock base and is just yummy gorgeous yarn. It is posing on the vampire dress I made for the eldest last Halloween. I mean, I've got to get maximum use from the dress. It was really stunning, if I do say so myself, and will get very little wear.
This lovely yarn is Claudine, Sookie's Fairy Godmother. Claudine is also on a silver sock base, and the colors just really pop. Oddly enough, the youngest had these wings from her costume last Halloween when she was a flower fairy.
They match the green & purple colors perfectly.
A fellow yarn club member had to destash some of her yarn and I was able to score a second skein of Claudine, so now I've got about 880 yards to play with. I'm sorry that she had to let yarn go, but I'm very excited to have gotten a second skein now (instead of having to wait for January when the colors are available again). I'm thinking: shawl. But not a round one! I think this is why I got so inspired to finish the Pi. I'm NOT casting on another shawl until the Pi is done. I'm serious. Really.
Whatever the reason, here it is, August. Half the summer break is gone and I haven't accomplished most of the things on my to-do list. I think that is the way it is supposed to go. Right? So, we're having a successful summer.
The kids are spending huge amounts of time playng with their friends from their former daycare. There is a shortage of older kids to play with the provider's grandkids. They've all grown up together and are very close, so my girls are visiting them and getting lots of play time. It is a nice break for everyone. Kids get tired of only playing with their siblings. Swimming at the beach, at the lake and at the public pool, ice skating, Slip 'N Slide and sleepovers. Oh, and spinning. I spent one day teaching the girls to spin. Sort of. They peddled, I managed the fiber. It worked out well and they were very happy with their yarn. We had planned to go pick out new fiber for them, but havent done it yet. Too many other things going on.
I was making some really nice progress on some socks with my Jason yarn. They are toe-up and a modified version of the Cat's Face Lace sock pattern (found on Ravelry). Werecat character inspired yarn, cat lace sock. Seems like a fun match to me. I like the way it is knitting up so far, I'm just a pattern repeat away from the heel. Or that's my best guess.
But I got distracted.
Yep. I picked up the Pi Shawl again, and I've been knitting with great enthusiasm. I've knit up about 40 rows, and I've done the last increase. I've got 576 sts on the needles and I'm on the last K row before starting the final lace pattern. I hope I can keep up some momentum, but I just don't know. I'd post pictures, but it is just a red blob. I refuse to take it off the needles because, even with lifelines, I know I will drop sts getting it back on. I mean, there are FIVE HUNDRED SEVENTY-SIX STITCHES IN TINY, TINY YARN. Not worth it. I'll take a picture of the blob before blocking, and that will have to do.
I also participated in the Tour de Fleece again this year. I had modest goals, and more or less met them. I am plying the last of the fiber now, so I didn't finish everything on time for the Tour, but I'm still finishing it all up. You know, so I can buy more fiber. lol Once this last bit is plied, I'll wash and set it all. Then I need to figure out how much I have and what I can do with it.
This bit on the left is DragonFibers' Bluebells & Buttercups. It is a Merino / Bamboo blend, and was a dream to spin. I just spent a crazy amount of time doing it. (As in, I got half of it done last year for the tour, and did the other half this year.) Pathetic.
This is also DragonFibers, but it is a Merino / Sea Cell blend in a pencil roving. This is the first time I've spun a pencil roving, and I have to say I love it. I normally pre-draft my fiber, and not doing saves a crazy amount of time! This colorway is Masquerade, and is a lovely mix of blue-ish grey and a purpley/burgundy sort of color. It is spinning up into a lovely yarn.
This lovely DragonFibers colorway is Mermaid's Jewelbox. This was Merino/Bamboo, and turned into a very lovely yarn. My theme for the Tour this year was DragonFibers, in case you couldn't tell. I'd picked up a number of braids, and really wanted to get them spun so I could move on to knitting them up.
Aaaaand, here are the singles for this one. Oddly, it looks dark/deep as singles. The yarn plied a bit lighter than I was expecting. But, since I have so little experience with this whole thing, really, I wasn't disappointed. Just surprised.All the rest of my fiber stash is random bits of fiber I picked up to practice on. I have no real plan for using the random bits, and there really isn't much of any one thing to make into a project, really. I'll likely need to buy more random bits, or blend it with other stuff, or something else creative that I haven't thought of yet. Still, it is a nice collection for the kids to sample if they want to continue playing with the spinning.
Lastly, I realized that I never posted photos of my July installment of my yarn club. So now that I've got the shipping receipt for the August yarn, I'll get July up.
Here is Fangtasia, so named after the nightclub owned by Eric the Northman (vampire). This is on a silver sock base and is just yummy gorgeous yarn. It is posing on the vampire dress I made for the eldest last Halloween. I mean, I've got to get maximum use from the dress. It was really stunning, if I do say so myself, and will get very little wear.
This lovely yarn is Claudine, Sookie's Fairy Godmother. Claudine is also on a silver sock base, and the colors just really pop. Oddly enough, the youngest had these wings from her costume last Halloween when she was a flower fairy.
They match the green & purple colors perfectly.A fellow yarn club member had to destash some of her yarn and I was able to score a second skein of Claudine, so now I've got about 880 yards to play with. I'm sorry that she had to let yarn go, but I'm very excited to have gotten a second skein now (instead of having to wait for January when the colors are available again). I'm thinking: shawl. But not a round one! I think this is why I got so inspired to finish the Pi. I'm NOT casting on another shawl until the Pi is done. I'm serious. Really.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Brews, Blues and BBQ
Well, we made it back! It was a fun, but exhausting trip. Maybe we are just wimps and need to travel more (I'm actually sure this is true), but man! I did most of the driving (habit, I guess), about 800 miles, but my poor DH got stuck with the last part of the return when we got stuck in crappy traffic. Yay I-5!The event was held in a pretty small town, on a small site with a not-so-small number of people. There were about 10-12 breweries, so rather small. I was slightly disappointed that there weren't more, but also that several of them were from the Seattle area, so not new to us. However, the rest were new and more local to the event. They made some nice beer, too. The BBQ side of things was also pretty small and not all local to the event, but still tasty!
I took some knitting, but in the end, I only worked on it in the hotel room. It was just too crowded at the Brew event. And hot. Somehow, I did not want to touch the wool yarn sitting in the bright sunshine. lol
We didn't fully plan the whole trip before leaving. I mean that I found some interesting things to do on the trip, but we had no idea what we would try to do, or what order we'd try to hit everything. So, the first stop turned out to be Ape Cave. Turns out DD2 does not like caves. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. In the end, we rented a lantern and went in for about 15-20 minutes, then left. I hope she was just being a squirrel and isn't really claustrophobic. The rest of us like caves and I'd like to visit more sometime. Still, an interesting little adventure. It was amazing the temperature difference between the topside and just going down the stairs, at least 20 degrees.We rolled into the hotel around 7 or so in the evening. We checked in, then headed out to a local brewery for dinner. Yummy pizza and a nice view of the Columbia river. The hotel (well, it is billed as a resort, but cost significantly less than most of the hotels I looked at) had no TV or phones, so we played some games and went to bed to rest up for the next day. Sadly, no one really slept much.
The next day we got up and drove East to Maryhill. Our intended destination was the Maryhill Stonehenge site, but we also went to the Maryhill Museum of Art. The museum was a delightful find. They had an exhibition from the Hudson River School, though they did not have my favorite (Frederic Church) in the lot. There's also a collection of sculpture and sketches from Aguste Rodin permanently on display here.The same fellow responsible for the museum, Sam Hill, also built the Stonehenge monument. My apologies to everyone who've seen the real Stonehenge (not me, sadly). This monument is a testament, in many ways, to why research (ahem, librarians!) is useful. You see, he built the monument to honor the young men in that area who lost their lives in WWI (13 of them, I think). He built it in the mistaken belief that Stonehenge was a sacrifical site, thus the sacrifice of the young lives in the war. He also failed to understand that there is a particular orientation of the stones in Stonehenge, so did not even factor that into his considerations when building this site. Lastly, it isn't to scale and nothing there indicates the difference.
Okay, that sounds horribly critical doesn't it? It was in a lovely location, a high bluff overlooking the Columbia River and some vineyards. (This area of WA state is big on wineries.) I think it is really cool that he was so moved by the loss of life and the war that he built such a lovely memorial for these young men. But, as I am increasingly sceptical that I'll ever get to England, I'm a bit bummed that it was so poorly researched before being built. That said, construction was started in the 1920s, so not sure what information was available at that time anyway.
At this point, please let me mention that it was hot. For my friend in TX, it was probably a lovely day at 86F, but for me, TOO HOT. There was little shade. So, after a long morning spent out driving in the sunny warm weather, we then headed off to the brew event itself. We stayed a few hours, the left to rest at the hotel. I "took the waters" and had a mineral bath & wrap. As I sat there in a tub full of rather warm water piped in from the hot mineral springs I did take some time to ponder the question of my sanity. Hot day in a hot tub. In water that smelled quite a bit of eggs. But, you know, it was all about the experience. Right? Later that afternoon, we went back the Brews event and had another round of tastes and BBQ. It was late enough that the temperature was cooling a bit and we sat and watched a bunch of folk kite boarding on the river. It looked like loads of fun.
The next day we were heading home, so we crossed the river at the Bridge of the Gods, because who can resist that name? Then we drove up the Oregon side of the river and visited numerous waterfalls along the way. This one is Multnomah Falls. Perhaps not my best picture, but I took so many I finally just had to grab one. We got out and walked around (or hiked) most of the falls we came to, so we spent quite a while on the trail. At Multnomah, there was some event going on, so the kids did some crafts and we browsed the tourist center stuff. While there I found this little gem.
Yes, folks, it looks like maybe El Chupacabra has migrated up to Oregon. Then again, it turns out that Skamania County (where the brews event was taking place) is officially a Bigfoot Refuge and it is illegal to hunt/kill Bigfoot in Skamania County. See, for all of my research into what to see on the trip, I failed to discover that this area is big on Bigfoot sightings, or that there are ordinances declaring the safety and heavy penalties for harming Bigfoot. Back to this little notice, though, I was curious if El Chupacabra could coexist with Bigfoot, or if, perhaps, the locals were misidentifying the creature. Maybe the Oregonians, who are essentially just across the river, mind you, want all the crazy critters they can collect. I mean, Bigfoot can probably swim or something, right?
Having had my little X-Phile moment of squeeing, and after enjoying the falls, we made our way back to WA state and headed up to the Johnson Observatory for a lovely view of Mt. St. Helens. I got behind every. single. slow. tourist. on the way up the mountian. DH had a clear shot down, but then got caught in the STOP and go traffic for 2.5 hours on the highway. The girls enjoyed the view, and we watched the (new to me) movie about the eruption and wandered around a bit. I haven't been there in about 15 years. It is astounding how much the plants/trees have grown up in that time! It is beautiful and amazing to see nature going about its business reparing all the damage.Finally, after over 12 hours in the car, we made it home, unpacked, and collapsed. A great trip, but it took two days at home to recover from the fun.
Now to prep for the Tour de Fleece!
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