Heritage Crafts

Chicken (Tortilla) Soup for the Soul

2007-09-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

Fall is definitely in the air! I saw a couple of naked trees over the weekend which was a bit startling. Most trees are just starting to change color here, but in a few micro-climates, it's possible to find trees that have lost most or all of their leaves this early in the season. And shoot, it's not like we had an unusually hot summer either--in fact, we only had *19* clear days in Seattle for the summer of 2007. That's basically just 20-21% clear days for the summer.

This is the baby project I'm working on (below). The mommy-to-be is a stealth reader of the blog and while she knows of the project's existence and even the yarn, I figure there'sno sense in showing any details yet. The race is on right now since the due date is closer to the end of October and I sort of timed my original effort to within a week or two of that. But...it looks like the baby is going to make an earlier appearance (probably wants to see those trees with the leaves still on!) so I'm now setting aside all other projects and focusing on this one.

I hope to finish by the time this weekend is over since I start my first knitting "class" of the Fall on 10/6 and I have a project picked out for our Knitter's Choice sessions. Here it is--the Alligator Scarf kit from Morehouse Merino:

I know the evenings are getting cooler *upper 40s now) because I have more cat bodies snuggling in next to me at night. Generally, it's The Boys doing the cuddling. Smokie usually comes in early earning (4? or so?) and her first move is to try to sleep on my chest with her fanny pushed up under my chin or on my face. I generally wake up right away because I can't breathe. Last time she did it, I made Distress Noises which were completely ineffective in getting her to move. So...she runs away if a fish splashes in the aquarium (in the bedroom) and makes a Startling Noise, but apparently me making sounds like I'm-choking-and-please-get-off doesn't phase her in the least.

Perhaps she knows I'm faking it.

I'm rather inordinately pleased at my culinary skill over the weekend. I've long been a fan of Claim Jumper's Chicken tortilla Soup. Besides being quite tasty, it is also just spicy enough that I always have a tissue handy and I can count on it clearing out my allergy-plagued shinuses for at least an hour or two. After much searching on the 'net Saturday, I found a recipe that seemed promising. I made a couple adjustments: I used a pre-roasted chicken from the grocery store (duh! probably even cheaper too!) and I pureed the soup before adding the chicken. Otherwise, it's a very weird texture with lumps from the tomatoes and tortillas and weird green bits of cilantro drifting around. I also added the cut off kernels from 3 ears of corn when I added the chicken. If you like avocadoes, adding sliced or chopped avocado when you serve would be good too. Add some garlic or cheese bread (I had Texas Toast) and a salad and...

Ooooo, it's so good! (anybody else remember Mr. Food?)

This Little Piggy Went to the Fair

2007-09-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

I'm going to SEMI break my rule about work talk on the blog tonight. I help organize social activities at work and today we went to the Puyallup Fair for the afternoon. Lunch, rides, exhibits, the works. So....I thought I'd share a couple of favorite moments. Of course not ALL of them were caught on my camera, but there are enough pictures to post tonight I should make up in volume for the lack of quantity of posts lately.

We spent the most time here, with the piglets. Just watching. Way too cute. They kept climbing on each other and every once in a while one would check in with Mom--walk by her head, she would snuffle, then they would touch wet, pink noses and baby piglet felt comforted and went back to eating. As the piglets finished nursing they would walk over, stand in the straw and some fell asleep standing up, just gradually sinking down.

For the knitters, here's a picture of wool-on-the-hoof getting a bath.

This is Tony. Tony is a city boy. I was shocked (and will admit to an unseemly amount of laughter) when Tony stopped to look at a sheared ewe and managed to wonder out loud about whether it was a baby cow (I quote here) or a sheep.

We then showed Tony what a cow looks like. And told him baby cows are called calves. Tony is not going to be able to live this experience down.

Well, unless it's this. I roamed the fair with a group of 5 and Tony was the only guy with us. We were walking through an exhibit hall when the gals realized Tony had disappeared. We turned around and saw him lured in by the Steam Cleaner! Our advice? If you're buying that for the house, for goodness' sake don't save it as a "special" gift for your wife's birthday or Christmas.

My fair haul. I got a back support which I'm hoping might help with my posture sitting on the couch for hours knitting. I also got a bunch of dip mixes (so handy for the holidays), a caramel apple, and I won this little stuffed fish which is destined to be a cat toy.

And finally...a picture of the finished Opal Corn Snake socks.

Fall has arrived!

2007-09-16T19:28:00.000-07:00

This may be the last weekend of summer as far as the calendar is concerned, but here in the Seattle area, Fall weather has arrived. Today has featured rain, lots of clouds, trees changing and I've now got the first fire of the season going in the fireplace. BTW, it's not exactly that cold, but...I was just in the mood for a cozy atmosphere.

Work has been a bit crazy lately which has slowed the knitting down to a near crawl. I've also fully realized that with lace, it's not the lace knitting that bothers me, it's the blocking that is a total PITA. I'm trying to get some projects fully done though that have been sitting around. So...tonight the cashmere scarf in fall colors is now pinned out and will dry overnight. Cashmere really stretches out when wet. I prefer to thread it onto my blocking wires first and then spray wet and stretch and pin.

I may opt out of the CSA for winter (that's the community supported agriculture). My last box was supposed to come with a melon--farmer's choice. That's cool. I really wanted a cantaloup though and didn't care if I ended up with two, so I ordered one to be included (at $4.99). So, I got home, opened my box and there was only one melon. Now...not only did they forget my extra $4.99 cantaloupe, but the one that I got? Well...it was only slightly bigger than the grapefruit I got! I weighed it too--1 pound, 4 ounces. You know, that's a really small cantaloupe. And it's not like organic melons don't grow nice and big--I've been seeing some gorgeous melons at the farmer's market. The cantaloupe situation hasn't been an isolated one--some of the produce just really looks like the 2nd or 3rd tier in quality. I hate to be some kind of cynical CSA member, but either I've got someone packing my box who goes "oh yeah, it's Traaaaacy....lemme mess with her again" and they give me all the vegetables with the squishy, rotted out spots, or else it's us folks with the small boxes that get the small choices. I totally believe in the CSA principles, but the quality vs. price thing is starting to bug me. What do you think? Am I being unrealistic? (and I seriously would have been unhappy if I'd received a 1.25 pound cantaloupe for $4.99!).

Over the last week I've been going through all my knitting books and magazines and putting together an Excel file listing all the projects I'd be interested in doing at some point. I'm not really prioritizing them at this point, just getting a good feel for how many patterns I have. It'll make me think twice (or thrice) before I pick up any new knitting books.

Smilin' Smokie

2007-08-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

Smokie is enjoying what may be the last evening of the year with warm temperatures. She sort of looks like a little puddle of smoked cat. In the second picture, my camera was too slow to actually catch her in full meow, but this little tail end of it makes her look like she has a Cheshire grin going on.

Perfect Pancakes

2007-08-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

I seem to be fixated on pancakes lately. When my sister was here, we went out for breakfast her last morning and since we had to return the rental car, we did that first. We then found ourselves in an area where the restaurant choice was a major chain that we definitely felt ho-hum about or...an unknown. We gambled on the unknown.

I've loved pancakes as a weekend breakfast treat forever. I never, EVER want to taste eggs--they're ok for baking, but eggs on their own? Blech. That means omelets are never something I'm interested in and looking at a breakfast menu narrows down real fast for me since most combinations include eggs and french toast...well...most restaurants slather their french toast in eggy batter and I know someone must love that rind of chicken-ovum material around the edge, but not me. So...pancakes. Waffles. Hashbrowns. Biscuits. Fresh fruit. and...BACON (mmmm....bacon).

So I order pancakes at the Unknown place. And they are weirdly spongy (like...well...like a twinkie cake) and EXCESSIVELY eggy in taste. Like...Eggcakes. Couldn't even eat them. And that is a FIRST for me with pancakes. My sister and I got to talking about the perfect pancakes and we agree--you've just got to find a Pancake Breakfast event hosted by a service club like the Lions or Elks. Those big giant griddles. Happy pancake makers. And absolutely sizzling hot off the grill with lots of butter. It's now been over a week since I was thwarted in my quest for--if not perfect, at least decent pancakes--and I find myself craving them. I even made a couple myself last night for dinner. But I think this holiday weekend I'll be scanning the paper to see if a club somewhere is hosting a pancake breakfast so I can check them out.

Once upon a time, I quilted. A lot. I've been 99% knitter for the last 18 months, but I know someday my crafting pendulum will swing back and I'll find something closer to a 50/50 balance between quilting and knitting. So...tonight I'm sharing pictures of one of my favorite quilts "Life Can Be Crazy." 'Cause, you know, it can. The original pattern comes from a book of all folk/country patterns and I took a class with this and EVERYBODY else did their quilts in folk/country colorways so this was a bit of a shocker for many of them. This is one of a couple quilts where I really got into 30s fabrics. I really like to use a black fabric in 30s quilts to "pop" all those other colors that can sometimes get a little too "sweet" for me in a big quilt.

Luther Burbank's Small World

2007-08-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

And picking up somewhere near where I left off....

OK, see if you can follow this. I had one of those "gee, it's a small world" moments this last week. Our company has a Volunteer Day every year and we go out and do some community activity in groups. We had several choices this year, some in August, some in October. Since I like to be outside, August is (generally speaking) a better bet in Seattle so I picked a day at a local park billed as "trail clean-up." Now...I walk a lot at this particular park. It's beautiful; on the beach and with a lot of dirt trails on the bluff above. We arrived and...oops...not quite trail maintenance. Instead, the park "ranger" rather gleefully showed us (well, we hiked a mile to the site) this big chunk of hillside full of downed trees, brush and covered in....blackberries. Our job? (oh, you're fast, I'll bet you figured this out just THAT fast!) Remove the blackberries. Did I say it was a STEEP hillside? Oh yeah, and after removal, he had two big piles of mulch we could spread which would help the native plants settle in and slow the re-growth of the blackberries.

This could be a really long story, so let me just say almost all of us grabbed loppers and shovels and dug in. While it was hard work, we actually had a lot of fun (and untold jokes everytime someone's cell phone rang and we got to yell out "Is that your BlackBerry ringing?"--we're a really quick group like that). I also used a LOT of Bactine, aspirin, and tylenol when I got home.

I'm getting to the small world part...I knew that these blackberries were a non-native invasive plant and we had been trying to recollect when it arrived. I thought the 1870s. After doing a little internet searching (I'll bet those door-to-door salesmen don't sell many encyclopedias in this electronic age), it turns out that what we were removing was the Himalyan Blackberry. And, it was brought to North America in 1885 by Luther Burbank. Burbank was an incredible botanist/horticulturalist who developed a lot of stuff. I was fascinated that his Wikipedia bio lists all these accomplishments, but managed to gloss over the invasive species he also introduced. The Himalayan Blackberry is destroying a lot of native species in both Canada and the US.

Anyway. Luther Burbank was ultimately responsible for the liberal amount of Bactine I had to douse my legs and arms with Wednesday. Burbank turned up in my life earlier though. He was very active in California, including the San Jose area where there is a portion of the city named after him (the Burbank district). From 1935-1941 there was also a velodrome (a bicycle racing track) named for him (the Burbank Velodrome, aka the Garden City Velodrome). I just happened to do my master's thesis on the Burbank Velodrome. I remember when I realized where the name came from because there are/were a lot of places in San Jose and surrounding areas with "Burbank" in the name.

It's not exactly one of those "six degrees of Luther Burbank" kind of stories, and probably not especially interesting, but what the hell, I'm blogging again, ok?

In knitting news....I'm within a few days of finishing another cashmere scarf. This one is variegated in fall colors. I probably should have used a stockinette stitch pattern instead of garter stitch (it's lace), but I started liking it partway in and I've done enough frogging of other projects. The frogging? That would be MS3 (mystery stole 3). The whole wing thing--not me. And...I'd sort of been nervous about the width (or lack of width) so rather than do another matching half, it's in the frog pond waiting for a day to pull it all apart. Also almost done are the Opal Rainforest Corn Snake socks. Yet another project with orange in it so I think I'm about ready for Fall.

Weird picture of the cashmere scarf, but you can see the color movement at least:

I've cast on my monster pullover in Cascade Sierra and will have that as an active project for September along with a baby blanket (in a lace pattern; I must be outta my mind).

Yarn stores in the area are now coming out with their Fall class lists which is great. Classes are few and far between here in the summer so it's nice to have some stuff to look forward to. I'm registered for a Knitter's Choice class in October (not sure yet what my project will be) and an Aran class in November.

$2.18

2007-08-08T18:35:00.000-07:00

That's how much I spent to amuse myself with tonight's post: $2.18.

So...a very quick background. If you've been hiding in a hole somewhere and haven't caught this item on the news, some clever researchers have recently discovered that children are highly susceptible to brand advertisements, specifically, McDonald's. When presented with the exact same item in a Mickey D wrapper versus a plain wrapper, more children selected the item in a McDonald's wrapper and said it tasted better. So...hamburgers? McDonald's. Apple juice? McDonald's. CARROTS? McDonald's. I have to admit, I kept waiting for them to say "and yes, that's right, children actually liked brussels sprouts and peas when presented in a McDonald's wrapper."

So...that brings me to this. And heck, I don't know if anyone else will find this funny, but I do, and it's my blog. I decided to conduct some testing of my own.

Our test knitter preferred yarn packaged in...

The residual aura of french fries probably affected this particular choice:

Cats are not so easily fooled and really don't give a damn what kind of wrapper their treats are served in.

An exhausted test marketer.

Finally, I'm Baaaaack

2007-08-06T18:42:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I've been missing in action. So...to recap, the vacation ended and I went back to work and a large black hole swallowed me. Something like that.

Before the vacation ended, I went on a train excursion which was kinda cool. And I FORGOT my camera which I found set out with my extra clothes on the sofa when I returned home. My memory is clearly not what it used to be. But I get a chance to redeem myself because I'll be taking another train trip with the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad next week with my sister.

Oh, yeah, did I mention I have the July vacation and then two weeks later, the AUGUST vacation? So...I don't really have to return to reality until the August vacation is over. That starts this Friday if I'm lucky and can add an extra day; otherwise it starts Saturday.

So...some knitting has been finished and I figured I'd feature that today since I'm sure we all figured I'd get some knitting done while on vacation. The big push was for the Kimono Shawl (from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls book). This was a long knit for me because...well...because I'm kinda slow. But this is a pattern I would definitely recommend as a first lace project because it's very straightforward, you can use markers for the pattern repeats and it's just a nice clean pattern. I worked this in Koigu KPPM (fingering weight) yarn, 7 skeins, on Knitpicks Options needles, US 5 needles. The Koigu blocked out BEAUTIFULLY. I had worried about the length because I did several repeats fewer (but I used heavier yarn). This shawl absolutely screams FALL! to me. I adore the colors, it's a nice weight for all those transition days. I plan to get a Romi shawl pin--one of the copper ones because that will look so beautiful with this yarn and any other warm colors. Let's see...I blocked to 24 x 91" with 19 repeats in case someone is looking to repeat. And...had I been in a more aggressive mood, it would definitely have been easy to get another 6 inches in length but I maxed out the foam mats I had assembled so this was perfect (I had been praying for at least 80" so was thrilled).

After much crawling on my knees, all pinned out:

Drying:

The finished shawl!

A final close-up:

Also completed (the knitting) during vacation is my Victorian Ruby Scarf. I finished this a day after I had put all of my blocking stuff back away and didn't have the heart for another session of threading blocking wires through wet yarn so it's waiting to be blocked. This was completed with Kid Extra Mohair (a baby mohair/nylon blend, 80/20). I had two balls of 268 yards each and did 51 repeats of the center pattern and used...oh...one ball and maybe three-fifths of the second. I use Knitpicks Options, size 5 for this scarf. It's going to be quite wide blocked (and it really needs the blocking to finish it off), but even unblocked it has a cool floaty look. I need some really cold days to wear mohair though but I can already imagine how neat this will look against a black coat. This is actually a quick knit, but the second border was a bit tricky for me initially to set up. My ONLY suggestion for improvement of the VLT book is that there should have been some photographs in the "how to" section showing more of the border stuff. I know people who do knitted on borders don't even have to think about it, but for me (and from the postings on some forums, many others) the concept of knitting on borders is sort of like knitting a sock the first time--you have to just pray a bit, have a little faith, and then cross your fingers. And videos or good photos go a long way in helping. Anyway, here's the Victorian Ruby (Lime) Scarf unblocked.

The cat baths have NOT happened yet because we haven't even hit 80 in the last 2 weeks. Pod has such thick fur and on a mid-80s day can take pretty much 12 hours to completely dry so I really have to wait for a hot (by Northwest standards) day before I get the cats all wet.

Vacation, Part 3

2007-07-26T20:16:00.001-07:00

No museum for me earlier today. I knitted like crazy and cast off the kimono shawl right before I had to jump in the car to drive over to get my CSA box. BTW, nice box this week. There are some golden beets that I need to contemplate--roast them perhaps? (the weather is cool enough for that). Also some peppers that, um, I think are not sweet peppers. Krystal, my blue abby who died a couple years ago, would have loved them. She adored all peppers EXCEPT the sweet ones. Ate 'em raw. My job was to hold the pepper and she would gnaw them from the side. Pretty amazing.

Today's CSA Box

After tossing things into the frig (btw, aren't those some huge onions?), I changed clothes and headed out to Stitch-n-Pitch. And the sun was out! I found the parking spot I wanted. It's not the cheapest lot, but it's the one that guarantees I never get lost finding it or the stadium and it gives me fast egress headed toward home--all important items in my book. I got there a full 2 hours before game time so had lots of time to browse the yarn store displays. I bought....nothing! Amazed myself with that control. Great Yarns, a shop I really like up in Everett was giving out 20% off coupons for purchases made in the store by 8/16. Well, THAT'S a no brainer. They had the one thing I sort lusted after--Cashwool (a laceweight merino) in all the new, cool, colors. I'll save the coupon for my vacation mid-August and drive up and get some with the coupon discount; I'm planning to head up there then to meet up with a new friend, Beth, then anyway so we can have a little shopping fun.

Here are a few pictures of a couple of the yarn displays--Great Yarns and Churchmouse Yarn & Tea (on Bainbridge Island)--both are stores I highly recommend.

The Great Yarns folks

And the Churchmouse Yarn & Tea crew

I have to admit that I am NOT big on crowds and I bailed on the game pretty darn early. I figured if I'm not having a great time, then why hang out? Besides, I think I have enough time now to block out the kimono shawl before going to bed. It was probably that calling me home. And look what I found when I walked in the door:

Mm-hmm. That is Pod. He was sound asleep when I walked in. Happy as a clam. That is my unblocked kimono shawl he is so happily sleeping on. I have to tell you, that quilt under it? It's been there for weeks. Just for the cats to have a place to sleep next to me while I knit. Has Pod slept on the quilt? No sir. It probably took him 30 seconds after I walked out the door to the game to figure out I'd left the shawl there on the couch. Within Pod distance. Even as I type out this blog entry (and think my normal variety of cuss words at the whole picture upload and formatting headaches) Pod is....purring and sleeping over on the shawl. He never disturbs yarn in balls or skeins, but boy does he love knitted stuff. At least I know he has excellent taste :-)

Vacation, Part 2

2007-07-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

I spent most of today down at the Seattle Center--a former World's Fair location with a lot of stuff happenin'. I went to see Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix on the IMAX screen. I didn't realize it, but the last 25 minutes were in 3D--cool. I had trouble getting into this Potter movie though. It was a combination of things--I don't think I especially cared for the director's take on some things. It wasn't just leaving parts of the original story out which I expect to accommodate the length of a movie, but that some things were "rewritten." And...I felt the movie was darker than it needed to be--EVERYTHING looked dark and dank and dirty. Ultimately, I was also distracted having read book 7 recently by looking at people and thinking "this one lives," "this one dies in two years," etc. I have to admit, I almost liked the preview for a couple of 3D IMAX features--one on dinosaurs and one on sea critters. The dinosaur one had a t-rex with his head in the audience and the sea one had things swimming in the whole stadium. It was a more sophisticated 3D effect than in Potter since the 3D movies were specifically designed to be in 3D.

I had wanted to spend some time at the International Fountain too, but it was closed for maintenance. Bummer.

In addition to knitting like mad on the kimono shawl, I've also made some earrings this week. Nothing fancy--I really like a single dangling "whatever" look anyway and that is incredibly easy to do. I had picked up some sterling findings the week before vacation since I was out and I react to base metals. The simple approach works well for sterling too since I don't have to worry about messing up and wasting a precious metal.

A big annual event is on the horizon - cat baths. I usually do it once a year, on a nice warm day. I need it to get up to about 85 so the cats dry out faster and don't catch colds. Pod especially - his fur is so thick, it can take him a good 4-8 hours to dry out depending on the humidity. I'm not expecting to be very popular when this happens. I'll try to take pictures ;-)

Vacation, Part 1

2007-07-24T17:59:00.001-07:00

I'm on vacation right now which is lovely, but I seem to be having a hard time really letting go of work. I still have 5 more full days to go though and then I'm only back at work 2 weeks before I get another 10 days off so the really hard part will be returning from that second round of V time.

The US Post Office delivered Potter shortly after 11 a.m. on Saturday morning and I immediately ripped in. I did take occasional breaks to get up and move around and I finished that evening about a quarter past 9. No spoilers from me.

Sunday I sort of drifted--rehashing Potter in my head and exchanging emails with Cathi, a friend in Toronto (that Canadian Toronto that is a couple thousand miles away :-( )

Oh yes...and it rained and rained and rained...on Friday, on Saturday, on Sunday, and...despite the forecast, pretty much most of Monday.

Monday I went on a bit of a yarn crawl with my friend Nicole. I took my camera and took exactly...zero pictures. Obviously I have some work to do in that department. We ended up visiting 4 yarn stores on the Olympic peninsula. I didn't quite admit this to Nicole, but almost the best part of the day for me was having somebody else drive the whole time. I always feel intensely guilty when other people volunteer to drive just because I've reached the point where I loathe driving in traffic. At the first store, I scored with some hand-dyed cotton chenille destined to be washcloths for small Christmas gifts (maybe Christmas 2007, maybe some Christmas in the future). I had looked at the pattern just the night before and it called for one ball of Crystal Palace cotton chenille which is 98 yards and about $8. These mega hanks that I scored are about 450 yards each and were around $12. Do the math. Killer deal.

I didn't buy anything at the next two shops (I was mostly looking for lace yarn and neither had much in that area). I did get a big brown bakery box of assorted goodies from Sluy's Bakery in Poulsbo--mostly their date bars. I always stop there for date bars when I'm on the peninsula. Sort of amazing because I remember date bars as something my Mom likes, but they were never a favorite of mine. And...I have no idea what prompted me to actually buy a date bar the first time a couple years ago at Sluy's, but I did. And about every 6 months or so I figure out some reason I just need to make a day trip to the Olympic peninsula so I can zoom through historic Poulsbo and make a run on Sluy's to get date bars.

The last stop was on Bainbridge Island where we parked and almost ran to the yarn store for lunch recommendations. We ended up at a diner that Nicole had spotted on the drive up the street (and which the yarn store employee hadn't considered for lunch). It was great, but we were a tad disappointed they had run out of meatloaf for meatloaf sandwiches. We then headed back to Churchmouse Yarn & Tea--a really great yarn store. I ended up with some heathered blue Misti Alpaca lace yarn. After a good browse, we took a break sitting outside the store. The store is kitty corner from an ice cream shop that is exceptionally well-loved by locals. I guess you almost need a reservation to get in the door on weekends. We spent 10 minutes telling ourselves we were WAY too full to have ice cream; maybe on our next trip, because, you know, if we ate anything more we might throw up or something. ... Pause ....

Nicole: Well, you know. I could go for maybe a little ice cream.

Me: (resisting like crazy) Yeah, ok. Me too.

I had a scoop of chocolate hazelnut and it was heavenly.

Segue to today. I knitted a bit this morning--I'm working like crazy on the kimono shawl; determined to finish and block that puppy this week. I've never been to the Washington Arboretum; one of many places I'd reviewed online trying to put together some ideas for my sister's visit next month. I decided to head over there and visit the Japanese garden. BEAUTIFUL. I think it is actually much nicer than the Japanese Garden at Butchart Gardens in Victoria. The only downside is that it is near the edge of the (200+ acre) arboretum and near enough to a very busy street that you constantly hear cars. On the positive side, it doesn't cost ~$115 for a Victoria Clipper round trip to Victoria plus admission to Butchart Gardens. This garden is only $5 admission.

I got a real kick out of the "wildlife" there--all of which obviously felt very comfortable with people and happy in their environment. One picture below shows the lake with a white "shadow" in the water. That was a medium sized koi. They had koi that, I swear, looked like big orange submarines cruising that lake/pond. Also several turtles. Both the turtles and the koi swam over whenever people were hanging over a walkway near the water so they're obviously used to being fed at times and are ever hopeful of being fed even more often. As I crossed one of the little bridges, I realized there was a brood of adolescent ducklings all enjoying a warm afternoon nap. I snapped a first picture just as one was stretching (you might have to enlarge the pic for a good view). There were 5 of them; none too shy. They certainly couldn't fly yet, but were definitely waterproof. It was easy to tell how secure they all felt there because momma watched them all get in the water and swim over by people while she completed her personal grooming regimen and then only slowly got in the water herself to check on her brood.

Great photo of gardens and see white koi?

Ducklings napping under the tree

Ducklings going for a post-nap swim

A couple turtles taking in the sun

View of the garden

Tomorrow: Seattle Center for an Imax movie and hanging out by the International fountain. The fountain has choreographed water shows to music. The music changes every 20-30 minutes. The fountain itself is "interactive"--you can walk down there and play in the water if you want (and if it's warm, I might). The movie? The Order of the Phoenix is actually playing at the IMAX theater--talking about getting immersed in it!

I'm ready!

2007-07-20T20:52:00.001-07:00

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows arrives tomorrow! I've laid in my stores--enough snacks, microwaveable stuff--including lattes--to get me through the book. I'm not going out in public until I've finished--I don't want to overhear ANY conversations about the book until I've had a chance to read it! See you on the other side.

Eek! Snake Alley

2007-07-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

It rained almost all day today and then the sun came out right before 5. As I was getting out of the car, I was thinking "hey, I better watch for that garter snake on the sidewalk because it's probably out catching the rays since it warmed up so fast." Nope, no snake on the sidewalk. But the gardeners trimmed the ivy back next to the walkway leaving a little dirt alley. Hey! There's a snake.

Take one step closer toward the door.

Holy crap! There's another snake.

At which point I pause really good and have a serious look because the first two snakes are too small to be the one I saw 2 weeks ago.

Holy snake-ola Batman, there are THREE freakin' snakes in that alley!

[unfortunately, there is no awesome 3-snake picture--wah :-( ]

What do I do? Run in for the camera. Quietly. Trying not to disturb my blog fodder. I get back out, and just as I focus, they start skittering back into the ivy. I got a half shot and a full shot. Went back inside and came back out thinking hey, maybe I should check by the neighbors' walkways 'cause, you know, maybe there's some reptile action over THERE. Well, no. But one of the snakes had come back out that fast and was posing in the sun for me.

So...poops and snakes (hey, maybe the snakes don't like the poop on the walkway either!). Lesson for all time: do NOT go tromping around in that ivy for ANYTHING. If there's three snakes out where I can see them, who knows how many more there are still in hiding!

Washington State

2007-07-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure that natives of this state pick up on it, but I find it somewhat amusing—and maybe a little sad—that poor old Washington must always qualify itself as a state. The news will have something like this: “Washington state legislators today….” Now, you never hear that in other states. It’s enough to say “California legislators today….” or “Tennessee legislators today…” That’s because none of the rest of the 50 states have to contend with Washington D.C. So this poor state stuck up here in the NW corner of the continental US is always having to qualify itself to set itself apart from the District of Columbia. Even when placing orders with a company on the phone, I’m always pushed into the corner to say Washington state just so they don’t send my beautiful yarn to some surprised recipient in the District of Columbia.

Wikipedia even acknowledges the potential confusion in their entry on “Washington, D.C.”: “The city is commonly referred to as The District or simply Washington. Historically, it was called the Federal City or Washington City. To avoid confusion with the state of Washington, located in the Pacific Northwest, the city is often called simply D.C..” Why can’t we just have a national understanding then that there is Washington—by which we mean the state—and DC, by which we mean the place full of people claiming to be working on behalf of us all and basically screwing a lot of things up? Or we could change the name of Washington, D.C. to Politician City? Or maybe, we should just change the name of Washington to Washingtonstate. Or how ‘bout George? Because the state is named after the first president, so why not have one place with his first name, and one with his last name? Seattle, George. Hmm.

These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night.

More Knitterly News

I picked up my ticket for Stitch-n-Pitch today at lunch. I'm in something like seat 9, row 11 of section Way Up In the Rafters (ok, it's section 340 if you have to know). The thing about Safeco Field is that the rafters is not a bad seat...once you huff your way up the stairs and try to look cool about your heavy breathing. Plus...I figure they have all the knitters safely out of the way up there so we don't attack any Oakland fans with our needles. Oh, and yeah...those sections open out into vending areas and wide walkways where more than over-priced hot dogs and cokes will be sold come next week; many yarn stores will have booths and demonstrations going on too.

Mystery Picture

Something is eating the berries off the bushes and pooping all over my walkway. This hasn't happened before, it's not happening to the neighbors on either side, so I think some bird or squirrel has it in for me. The picture doesn't do the big, gloppy poops justice. You'll notice I haven't taken any yarn photos out on the sidewalk lately.

Knitting as Soporific

2007-07-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

Soporific: causing or tending to cause sleep; tending to dull awareness or alertness (from Merriam Webster Online)

Here's the deal--I know knitting is supposed to help you relax, but is there anyone else out there who manages to practically hypnotize themselves to sleep at night with their knitting? Maybe it's some of the summer heat, but I have to schedule in little mini house-cleaning breaks while knitting just so I don't nod off! This is, unfortunately, quite a drawback when knitting lace!

I received a bit of stash enhancement today from The Loopy Ewe (talk about fast processing and delivery! I placed my order Friday and received the yarn today! From Missouri!). The burgundy fingering weight Cherry Tree Hill is slated for A Handsome Triangle--a shawl in Victorian Lace Today. CTH is wonderfully sproingy and I can't wait to try this yarn out in a shawl. The other yarn is for socks. I would normally consider this quite boring--white, gray, black. But lately, I've been trying to pick yarn for projects that actually results in something I can wear...and to work. There are only so many pairs of wildly colored socks that I can utilize with jeans on the weekend! Since I almost exclusively wear black slacks for work (hey, almost EVERYTHING goes with black! Limits the number of shoes I have to keep on tap too!), I've had my eyes out for any patterned or colored yarn that includes black so that I can feel like I've got some kind of coordination going between my all-black bottom half and whatever I throw on top.

My vacation now starts on FRIDAY. Adding that extra day means I can run errands and do all those regular little tedious chores on Friday and begin the RELAXATION on Saturday morning. Actually Saturday morning will be spent waiting to tackle the postman who delivers my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and then I'll be parked in a chair or lying across the bed with an iced drink at hand avidly reading until I finish all 784 pages.

Finally, A Knitting Update

2007-07-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

My July posts seems to be about the heat...and summer does continue. There's been quite a bit of napping going on around here this weekend, and that includes me (picture not included). Kleenex just lets go when he sleeps in the warmth and he started on the window seat cushion and then migrated outside. The freaky outside picture I had to sneak through the window so it looks like pixels because of the screen. His tail was just so floppy and limp hanging there. He woke up right after the picture because he heard me giggling.

Pod is smart enough to sleep on a pad well hidden under a chair on the balcony. I had to sort of poke the camera down there sideways to get a picture of him.

Smokie enjoys hanging out by the edge and keeping track of the birds. She got a pad of her own after this picture.

The Kimono shawl (out of Koigu) continues on its way. I'm definitely at the "slogging along" point, but am determined to finish this--including blocking it out--by the end of July. I have a week of vacation that starts on Friday or Saturday this next week (I'm hoping to tack Friday on because I don't have anything pressing at work and I'm starting to feel a bit cajun--just a wee bit desperate for time off and a little crispy around the edges).

I have tons of projects in various states, but ended up casting on a pair of socks Thursday night because I need something that doesn't come with a chart. The socks are relaxing to work on by the end of an evening--that dangerous time of day when I end up tinking as much as knitting if I continue to work on lace. These socks are out one of the Opal Rainforest patterns--Corn Snake. I hadn't realized that the yellow part is sort of mottled until I started knitting and that really does make it look snakelike. After starting these, I wondered if I picked the snake patterning yarn because I have Potter on the brain (Voldemort, snakes, you know, the whole evil guy scene).

My vacation begins--intentionally--as the final Potter book is released so I plan on going NOWHERE next weekend until I've finished the book. I absolutely don't want to hear anyone talking about until I've had a chance to read it. I should have time to run to Starbucks (drive-through!) for a big iced latte in the morning and the mailman will probably show up between 11 and 2 with the book. I ouldn't deal with the lines at the bookstores (or the thought of someone picking up a copy of the book, leafing to the final pages, and then hollering out "OMG, ______ died!"). I think I just about have the first 6 books memorized because they are my most-used entertainment while knitting or quilting--I have all the audiobooks for the series. I really recommend these if you enjoy stories while knitting. I think the first 6 books comprise about 89 hours of listening!

The Sound of Summer

2007-07-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hear that? The roar of multiple fans doin' their thing? That's the sound of summer. For some reason, I always forget about that. In the mornings--when I usually can turn the fans off for a bit-- it's always shocking to turn the tv on to the a.m. news. Why is Matt Lauer yelling at me? Oh, yeah. Had to turn the TV way up so I could hear over the fans last night. I'm surprised the pharmaceutical companies haven't named a syndrome for it and developed a variety of costly meds that my insurance company won't pay for.

I was getting a bit tired of rotating my only 2-3 good summer tops at work. You know the ones--you look just nice enough to have it pass as casual work attire (and trust me, my office can get CASUAL)...AND it's actually somewhat flattering. This time of year, I usually start with goosebumps from the chill in the morning because the A/C is outdoing itself to keep the other half of the building with the morning sun cool. By afternoon, I have that sheen of perspiration because the last bubble in my Galileo thermometer has dropped and it's official--my office is over 80 degrees. So....it's important to have the perfect tops for summer wear. I doubt I was the only one noticing that I kept wearing the same thing during the hot weather, so I trotted over to the mall after work today to pick up a couple more. Holy cow, the department store (whose initials start out "J.C." and whose last name begins with a "P") had no air conditioning. The wilted appearance of a clerk prompted me to ask how long it had been out. A long time. Like...over a week. Like...through the entire 98 degree record-setting Seattle heat wave. Today was only about 80 outside and 85 inside the store. You know I was desperate for clothes because I actually picked out some things and went into the dressing room. That had NO fan roaring. So yeah, I found a couple things (and on sale!) but it's a wonder I didn't buy 10 tank tops before leaving.

I'm taking a break from knitting tonight because I got a back massage at the mall too. I've got to figure out what the heck I'm doing to myself with the knitting because I have this muscle near my right shoulder blade that keeps spasming. I almost always go to bed lying on an ice pack for it. And it is definitely a knitting-induced situation. There's a local yarn shop that teaches a self-care class for knitters and spinners--stretches, good posture, etc. It was offered a few weeks ago, but the shop is up the freeway stream from me and the class was a week night during high commute traffic hours. No go. It's offered again in August, while I'm on vacation. I gotta go and get some self-help for myself.

Mystery Stole clue 3 is out so I'll start that tomorrow. And maybe also get off my duff and get some fresh pictures. In the meantime, here's my poncho that I finished in February. It's made from some nice heavy wool. I try not to touch it this time of year because I'll break out in hives :-)

P.S. I certainly did stick my feet (and calves) in the cold fountain water on Wednesday. It was a little deeper than I'd thought (maybe a foot) and wonderfully chilly.

Can I wade in the fountain now?

2007-07-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

There is a fabulous fountain and cement sort of pond (only about 10 inches deep) in the courtyard at our office complex. Every time I happened to walk by it today I was SO tempted to slip off my sandals and wade in it. There have been a couple times in the past when I sat on the ledge next to it and...yes...DID stick my feet in. I was too busy at work today to slow down for one of those little pleasures, but tomorrow....yessssss...tomorrow when we set a record high temp and it is almost 100 here in Seattle, I will throw caution to the winds and dip my toes in the closest body of water I can find!

"The Cave" is working out well--all is lovely and cool downstairs although I've been honking my way through a LOT of tissues tonight. Allergies. The evil grass pollens. I would think they'd all withered away after today's heat but apparently they're really excited about the temperature and multiplying like mad.

The computer is upstairs in the Heat Zone so pardon this entry with no exciting pictures because...well...I'm just too damn lazy right now. Hopefully this weekend there will be some action shots. Some of us in the household may actually be engaging in some action by the weekend. At this point it's pretty much one desultory knitter and 3 pancake cats living at this address :-)

Portable Comfort!

2007-07-06T20:47:00.000-07:00

See that? SIXTY-SIX. Sixty-six lonely little degrees. In MY bedroom. Granted, it's only 81 outside today, but I have high hopes now. I am ready for the Big Heat (90 and above) that is scheduled to hit us next week. Bring on the heat outside now. We all have a place to hide out now. Kleenex is already sleeping on the bed--big wussy; you'd think he was the one having hot flashes in this household!

Sweaty in Seattle

2007-07-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling it's going to get much hotter before the summer is over! We had a nearly record-breaking July 4th. The normal weather for the 4th is drizzle or outright rain. It is considered to be a very good day if it stays dry. A 4th of July that is actually SUMMER is practically unheard of; it was 84 here yesterday and that is 11 degrees above normal.

I'm not really in a position to whine much about the heat since one of my sisters is sweltering in the San Joaquin Valley in California where it was 107 today. Her house has been without A/C since early Monday. Relief is hopefully in sight tomorrow which should be just this side of a complete meltdown; the interior of the house has been in the mid-90s and they're unable to get it below 80 during the night. For those who don't know, the San Joaquin Valley--source of much of the produce for the U.S.--isn't really much more than an irrigated desert.

I have Clue 1 of the the Mystery Stole done. Today was quite a day over in MS3 land; sign-ups topped 5,000 early in the afternoon and have continued to pour in. The last minute membership drive (sign-ups end on Saturday) has been fueled by a Yarn Harlot post today. For my part, I'm enjoying the knitting but have wearied a bit of all the yakking. You'd think 5,000+ knitters from around the world WOULD generate a lot of email, but honestly, there are about 3 people who generate a good 20% of it themselves. If they could just breathe quietly for more than 10 minutes at a time before posting, I'll bet we'd hear a bit more from all the other people out there. Ah well, it's normal in ANY forum group to have a couple of chatterboxes, but I think I'll stick to the knitting part of the adventure myself.

I've finished the first clue in white. I was partway done, then frogged all the way back because I didn't feel the beads had enough sparkle so I changed beads. I had a second stole also going--in sage--and was less than 10 rows from finishing the first clue when I decided I couldn't live with the mistakes in it so frogged it all. I've restarted and am using contrasting beads this time which actually makes the re-start worth it. I like the change.

There have been a few cat adventures around here the last few days. Pod decided to be a flying cat Sunday night. I woke up shortly after midnight hearing a cat meowing outside. Outside in the IVY. Where there should be any cats with familiar voices. After some fearful crashing around on my part, I located my wayward cat who had exited the balcony about 10 feet above. I don't think it was accidental. A neighbor's cat occasionally wanders at night (despite rules restricting this) and Pod has been quite riled lately about protecting his territory. I think he went into action Sunday night. I'm glad Pod wasn't injured, but a part of me is also hopeful that he kicked a little neighbor cat butt. We haven't had any visits lately from that cat so I suspect he/she is hiding out hoping the flying 3-legged Bobtailed WonderCat next door doesn't land next to him/her. I've got the front door open tonight and Pod is checking out the territory out there. I have no screen door and so far, not a single cat has mastered the concept of jumping OVER the baby gate. I used to stack two of them to prevent escapes and finally realized I didn't need to. Oh! I had to do some additional cat proofing on the balcony; there will be not more flying cats allowed.

Here's a pic of the June snuggles (finally). Hot little suckers. I'm sure they'll be nice and cozy in 2 more months but right now they just feel....hot.

Kleenex picked a fight with one housemate too many. I returned from a 4th of July bike ride to find one sorry-looking white cat. He has a big rip across the top of one ear and a pretty big scratch under one eye. He's been mixing it up with Pod lately, but if I had to place any bets, I'd say he went after his sister Smokie when she wasn't in the mood for it, and she let him have it. My bet is that she lets the boys THINK they are the dominant cats, but there are times when she gives one of them a special Look and they IMMEDIATELY BACK AWAY looking rather fearful. There's a picture of her tonight too. It's good to catch her with her mouth open like this because if you hang around my place for long, you're definitely going to see and hear Smokie's mouth in action.

Hellishly Hot

2007-07-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

I moved to Washington about 7 years ago. I'm a native Californian--from the San Joaquin Valley where we can get WEEKS on end in the summer over 100 degrees. We know hot. Then I lived in East Tennessee for awhile. More heat AND humidity. When I moved to Seattle, one of my sisters came to visit the first month and we were doing a little touring. It was about 85 and we were sitting in a little cafe having lunch and snickering our amusement at all the people complaining about how "hellishly hot" it was. Hot? It wasn't hot--to us.

I realized quite clearly today when it was a whopping 75 inside that I felt HOT. Really hot. And this was temperature hot, not...you know...a hot flash or something fun like that. My blood has thickened to a sluggish Northwest pace and now 70 degrees is pretty darn warm, 80 is hot, and boy....85 definitely feels hellishly hot.

It's kinda embarrassing.

Luckily, I'm not the only one who has acclimated so I don't have to feel guilty by myself. My cats are all Tennessee natives and they really shouldn't be phased by a mid 70s day like today. Kleenex was lying in the shade and is clearly trying to release a little heat from his hot little tummy (I was quite pleased I was able to sneak up and get this picture!):

I have a much greater appreciation for photo stylists of knitting books after trying to get a nice picture of my blocked and finished scarf today. Basically, I suck at taking knitting photos. Perhaps I can blame it on the camera (it's rather low tech--I'm sure the high end models have an indicator that tells you "a little to the right," "no, farther left," "you should zoom in on that," or "geez, that stinks, try something else!"). Here are a couple pathetic attempts:

I did finish 3 snuggles for July, but was too lazy to retrieve them from the blanket chest downstairs to take a picture when I had enough light. Blog fodder for later this week. Probably not tomorrow because I'm picking up my bike on the way home and will probably want to go for a little ride. It has been languishing in my storage room for 2 summers now and I figured before my bottom gets any wider, maybe I should get some exercise.

You know how they say that people look like their dogs? Well...I saw a real stereotype buster yesterday when I went by PetsMart. I parked out in the lot and was walking up to the doors. There was some whiz-bang, decked out Harley to the left. I mean REALLY doodied up (I'm sure there's a more macho expression for this). This guy--also Harley'd out--was talking to what I assumed was his dog in a milk crate strapped to the Harley. OK, I expected....pit bull puppy. Or mastiff. Or um....rottweiler. Next thing you know...two tiny little miniature red dachsunds are prancing around on the ends of leashes. (For family, yes, the size of Vyolet.) I was dumbfounded. Had a little chat with the guy who was really nice and his dogs were well-behaved, but....Harleys and weinie dogs. Go figure.

Parting shot today...a picture of Smokie not looking crabby (unfortunately you can see my cheap-ass print rug but what the heck).

Whole Lotta Knittin'

2007-06-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

Since I was off work today, I slept in, then got up to check on the posting of the first clue for the mystery stole. Clue was up, easy to download, cool pattern. But holey moley--I don't know how some of those folks are getting any knitting done because my email box was bulging at the seams! Thank goodness all 3,000+ ladies (mostly) aren't posting that frequently; there are definitely a few who seem to sit and type out a comment every 20 minutes that make up for the rest of us laying low.

Like a crazy person, I've decided each clue is "manageable enough" and that I might try to make two stoles simultaneously. Ultimately one for me, and one for ? (me? a gift? who knows...need somebody Stole Worthy if I gift it). Here's a picture of my little start on the white one:

I'm getting better with the beads. It's a bit of a balancing act hanging on to the needles, the yarn, and then adding in a crochet hook and a bead.

I'm managing so far this year to get pictures and info on each 2007 knitting project into a knitting journal. January was a wash--absolutely nothing completed. Since then, I've been trying for 2-3 completed projects each month. Well, I really wanted 3 completed projects, but that was a bit over optimistic. I'm in a bit of rush at the moment actually trying to finish June items. I count a couple of Snuggles as a finished project each month and I'll have pictures this weekend of the June Snuggles (one to finish tomorrow). I've had a very light pink cashmere scarf completed with the knitting for a couple weeks now and the turn of the calendar has finally swatted me on the behind so that I'm blocking it now so I can call it complete tomorrow. Plus, if the weather cooperates better tomorrow, I can get a nice picture of it finished taken outside (it's raining right now--yeah, summer in Seattle).

This is Jade Sapphire cashmere & silk yarn, with a US 5 needle. For a blocking surface, I got some of those "puzzle piece" play mats (really cheap at Sam's Club). Boy are these handy! With the nice squishy foam surface, they hold the pins well. I've found myself wondering how many more of them I would need to lay out a basting surface for quilts--the foam surface is very easy on the knees when crawling around on the floor! (I don't know what/who that white blur is off to the right--probably Kleenex because he wants in on EVERYTHING going on around here :-)

There is actually a lot of progress happening with the Victorian Ruby Scarf from VLT. I'm almost done with the big, long, center section--hope to finish that this weekend. Here's a "sort of" picture.

What makes you happy in life? It was hard juggling a camera and a cat brush the other night, but these pictures tell what happiness is for Pod!

And a happy birthday to my youngest sister Wendy who is...um...well, she must be 21 since I'm only 29 myself!

Sssssssss....

2007-06-28T16:46:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post today. I stuck it out at work until 3:00 because I had a meeting I needed to attend then left to grab my CSA box and come home. I'm headed to bed shortly--definitely coming down with something. But...I had to share a couple things (knitty stuff coming tomorrow!).

CSA = Community Supported Agriculture. I joined the CSA run by Full Circle Farm in my area and it is fabulous. CSAs are ways to support local, family run farms. They usually provide organic produce that you purchase as a share of the farm's proceeds for the year. FCF is a little different because they have relationships with other farms in Oregon and California so they have a year round program. I get a small box every other week which is plenty for me and frankly satisfies all my fruit & veggie needs. I very occasionally buy something else at the grocery store, but not often. FCF is pay as you go which is a huge benefit (most CSAs ask you to pay for a season up front and that can be several hundred dollars). FCF also has an online interface and you get to see the contents of your upcoming box a few days ahead of time and you can substitute up to 5 items (which means I never have to find someone to give radishes or rhubarb to!). Now that we're into summer, the boxes are exceptionally generous! This week I have: russet potatoes, iceberg lettuce, red lettuce, grape tomatoes, pears, apricots, plums, mushrooms, baby bok choy, a cuke, green beans, zucchini, cherries, red spring onions, and...thumbelina carrots. The carrots are just too cute.

As I was coming up the walkway I met a new neighbor sunning on my sidewalk. He (or she) turned out to be a bit shy and skittered off into the bushes, but stuck around close enough I got a partial shot: with the camera. If you look close, you can see the telltale stripe of this garter snake (I'm weird; I kinda like garter snakes).

Embracing the Mystery

2007-06-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

Last night I was reading mail from a Victorian Lace Today online group. Somebody posted a poll to see who from the group was participating in the Mystery Stole 3 knitalong. Say what? I hadn't heard of it. So..before pressing the little button saying I had too many projects already in the works, I thought what the hell, I'll go take a peek. Well...20 minutes later I was signed up. Melanie from Pink Lemon Twist is the designer and organizer. This is the third mystery stole; she had 700 people for the first, about double that I think for the second, and right now there are over 3,000 people signed up for the third mystery stole knitalong which kicks off this Friday. Three. Thousand. And you know what's really amazing is how international the group is. I love it! People (yeah, mostly women) from ALL OVER the world. If you visit Melanie's blog, be sure to check out the other patterns. I love Leda, the stole that was the first mystery knitalong.

I'm not going out on any creativity limbs with this one--basic Zephyr yarn and I will get some basic beads to go with it and use some Addi Lace US4 needles. Pretty much Melanie's recommendation (she says the stole has a theme and black or white would be the recommended colors). I'm not knittin' with black lace yarn as a fun project for summer!

So....this:

My cats are never eager to pose for pictures so I had to lure one in (Kleenex) by moving the container of grass (grazing and recreational barfing are big cat sports here at Chez Tracy).

In (Other) Cat News

Pod is becoming a big Eye Communicator. I have found myself trying to avoid eye contact the last few evenings when I’ve been knitting because I can just SENSE that he is waiting for me to make eye contact so he can run over and plop in my lap. It’s hot out. I don’t want warm kitty in my lap. But…I am well trained and eventually I look and he runs over and I assume some horribly uncomfortable position so he can plop under my knitting for awhile. He purrs really hard too to ease any stress I might feel over the situation. As you can see below, he doesn't especially feel much stress himself.

This is Smokie hoping I will set the knitting aside and succumb to her psychic powers and whip out the cat brush:

Please Don't Nuke Me

2007-06-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

THAT is my new microwave. My old microwave was....uh...well...really old. I didn't really think about it's age until I mentioned to a friend I was thinking of getting a new one. She asked me how old my current one was. I told her. So...ok, it was about 3 times older than it should have been for replacing. Like...it should have been replaced well back in the 20th century. Hey! It was working though! This one is taking some getting used to. My old one was 600 watts which meant microwave popcorn really didn't happen (I could nurse it along and get maybe 1/3 of the kernels to pop prior to incineration of the remainder). This one is 900 watts. I was looking for SMALL and it's still bigger (footprint-wise on the counter) than the old one. But this one has.....a turntable. What a thought!

Dianne asked me about the needles I'm using for the Victorian Ruby scarf. Well...duh. That's pretty basic info! Where was my brain when I first talked about the scarf? I'm using Knitpicks Options needles--US7, 24" circ. My day will be made when Addi figures out that lace knitting doesn't stop with a US6 and they add at least 7 and 8 sizes to their lace needle line. Because....I love my Options needles, but I also love the Addi lace needles for lace. The Options are wonderfully pointy, but they are quite slick.

I feel like the new kid on the playground and I've already been chosen to play a game. Kozy Kitty tagged me for a birthday meme. Here are the rules: You go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (only the month and day). Then you write down 3 events, 2 births, 1 holiday, and then you tag 5 friends. So...I hate to be the spoilsport, or the person who brings down the wrath of all gods, but...I'm into doing the birthday thing and sharing events, but I don't much get into the chain mail thing of passing this along, so my apologies on that part.

My birth day is April 9th:

Events: (I went for some symmetry of dates here!)

1667 - The first public art exhibition was held...in Paris.

1867 - Squeaking through by 1 vote, the US Senate ratified a treaty to purchase Alaska from Russia.

1967 - the first Boeing 737 took flight

Births: (1932. A big year for nature.)

1932 - Cheeta, chimpanzee actor

1932 - Jim Fowler, American Zoologist

Holiday

Day of National Unity (in Georgia, the country).

The sun is making a startling appearance (it has been raining all morning) so here is Pod (a trifle overexposed) with a pot of cosmos and the latest finished cat snuggle. Snuggles are little blankets for cats (or dogs I suppose, but I'm a cat lady remember) in shelters. This one reminds me of Starburst candies with the colors.

I'm a Knitting Kitty!

2007-06-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

The Ring Checker from Knitting Kitty approved my blog today and now I'm part of the Knitting Blog World! Most excellent. I like that Knitting Kitty randomly shuffles so you aren't always in the same place in the blog line-up; it's nice too for checking out lots of new blogs for ME.

So...kinda short tonight. This week has been crazy with family and work stuff and I'm so glad the weekend is around the corner and I can catch up on sleep.

Progress has been made this week on the Victorian Ruby Scarf! My pictures don't do it justice because the mohair is so incredibly "floaty." This Baby Kid Extra mohair feels SO soft in the ball, but I'm noticing that my hands definitely get that "itchy" feeling when I've been knitting with it for more than an hour or so (or when it's a bit warmer). As much as I adore the look of mohair knitted up in lace, if I actually want to WEAR these items, I'm going to have to switch to something else (Zephyr, or merino, or alpaca).

I think the ball of yarn above the scarf looks like a Granny Smith :-)

While I've known that today is the first day of summer, it hit me driving home that yes indeed, this is the longest day of the year (as far as daylight). It always seems strange to me that just when summer starts, daylight hours begin to shorten again. I suppose that helps me a lot here in the Seattle area when we start getting hot days and I want to cool the house down at night without staying up until 2 a.m. to leave the doors open to blow more hot air out and cool air in. I've never lived any place before without central air or heat (Dear Condo Construction Wizard: baseboard heaters suck, especially now that electricity costs an arm and a leg, even in the Northwest. AND...ceiling fans are lovely additions to any home, especially when you have a 13 foot ceiling enjoying all that costly warmth). I know that this part of the country used to be so mild in the summer that people just dealt with the occasional day over 80. But...not quite the same anymore (pssst....the climate really is changing).

Well, welcome if you've landed here from Knitting Kitty and put up with my drivel this long. I'm going to re-energize and try to have something more interesting--and more pictures--this weekend!

Pink Socks & Disappearing Cars

2007-06-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

I figure for my knitty bit of my post today, I would share a picture of some socks I made last month for an auction to raise money for breast cancer research. These are the Waving Lace socks from Favorite socks, made per instructions and using Lorna's Laces yarn. These are just beautiful socks and I know more of this pattern are in my future. The first pic is the socks only and the second is the "Tickle Your Feet Pink" basket I put together featuring the socks. Believe it or not, but this basket was purchased at the auction by a knitter--I sort of think that's a cool compliment on the socks.

Missouri Mullings
Today was the first leg for the Missouri emigration for my sister and family. Not the most stellar of starts from what I've gathered. Apparently at some point the car containing the two family members in possession of Y chromosomes lost track of the car with my sister in it. Now...what gives with that? Is a car just too small an object to keep track of? Makes you wonder how the original emigrants handled that sort of situation, doesn't it? I mean, I haven't read any stories of the Western Migration where wagon trains just sort of lost a wagon or two because somebody couldn't look out the back of the wagon and see where their traveling companions got off to. BTW, if you've never read a good book on the Western Migration, then check out Francis Parkman's The Oregon Trail. My third grade teacher Mrs. Hunt read this out loud to us a chapter at a time every day after lunch and I positively hung on her every word.

Naked Heads, Victorian Scarves & Missouri Mules

2007-06-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

I have spent part of this weekend wanting to just kick my heels on the floor and holler "I don't wanna!" Yesterday I was trying to mail some things out and it started feeling like those nightmares I would get before a first day of school in the Fall. Have you had that one? Where you arrive somewhere, but forgot something. Return home and retrieve that thing, go back to school (or your new job, or whatever the focus of the dream is) only to find you forgot something else? And so on. Argh. Finally managed to mail one of two items and I get to repeat the whole exercise next week.

Today I forced myself to get a haircut that has been overdue for WEEKS. I suppose if I had Truvi's salon to go to (remember Steel Magnolias?), maybe I could get into planning a nice chatty visit that had some hair cutting involved. Instead I wait until it's so overgrown there is absolutely no style left, and then in frustration I have it cut so short that upon arriving back home I just want to cry. There's nothing like a nearly naked head on a big woman--I look like I'm either recovering from chemo or just don't give a crap about my hair. Apparently the latter. I never received a "fussy hair" gene at birth--I've NEVER been good at curling, moussing, blow drying, and all the other esoteric skills associated with hair care. Ultimately, I want to blow it dry in 5 seconds...but have it look fabulous. Hm.

Something Knitty
In knitting news, I've been making great progress with the Victorian Ruby Scarf from VLT (Victorian Lace Today). I will finish the first border sometime today and move on to the long body of it. The mohair is odd to work with. I'm definitely fearful of any major errors because it does NOT like to be tinked (let along frogged). It feels so ethereal though--everytime I pull another couple feet lose from the ball it just kind of floats in the air for a minute before settling down ever so slowly. Reminds me of the cottonwood fluff that has been drifting in the air on the sunny afternoons.

A weekend success story: I got one of those pole thingies. Descriptive, eh? It's for replacing lightbulbs in hard-to-reach places. Like the one about 10 feet above my head over the fireplace that is key to creating enough light so I can see when I knit in the evening. Now there is light! Yeah.

BTW, this is NOT a sunny afternoon. In fact, it's only 57 outside and I'm debating lighting up a log in the fireplace. Perhaps it's my naked head making me feel so cold.

Missouri Ho!
Most of my family lives in California clustered within a relatively few miles from each other. I've historically been the odd duck, living first in San Jose which was a whole 2 hours away from them. Then I moved to Tennessee for several years, and now I'm in Washington. Around 2 am tomorrow morning (less than 12 hours from now as I write this), another sister is leaving the enclave and will be moving with her husband and son to Missouri. I've been spared the emotional upheaval of the move because visiting her is a long distance exercise for me anyway. Instead, I spent a little time on the 'net searching out factoids about Missouri. One of the things I love about moving new places is playing "tourist" and learning everything I can. In fact, I'm starting to feel a little antsy where I am currently because I've pretty well exhausted my tourist options and things have become a little routine.

So...Missouri facts:

In 1821 Missouri became the 21st state in the Union. In 1861 Missouri had two state governments--one claiming alliance with the Union, and one with the Confederacy.
The capital of Missouri is Jefferson City (you know, THAT Jefferson).
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote all of the Little House books (starting in 1932 at the age of 66) at Rocky Ridge Farm (now a museum).
St. Louis is a city with tons of history--the departure point for the Lewis & Clark Expedition and later, the gathering and jumping off point as the Great Migration west ensued (my sister, of course, is emigrating in reverse, but I always suspected she might have a strange view of history).
The outlaw Jesse James is a native Missourian and was killed in St. Joseph.
The state animal is the mule.
The state dance is the square dance.
The state instrument is the fiddle (noticing a theme here?)
The state flower is the hawthorne. Huh? The hawthorne? Maybe mules like to eat it.
And...the state fish is the Channel Catfish.
Missouri is also known as the Cave State--sporting at least 6,200 caves.

Sweet Friday

2007-06-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

Finally, it's Friday. LOVE Fridays (starting about, oh, 5pm!). This usually means a couple of later evenings spent playing with one of these:

(Really fuzzy pic of some baby mohair for a lace scarf--love that kiwi color!)

Kleenex freshening his fur on HIS cushion on the balcony

Yes. That choice would be “yarn” or “cat.” Of course, they often become entangled. Too much yarn all in one place, or too many cats vying for limited lap space. And obviously, there is also the challenge of balancing BOTH yarn and cat(s) in the same lap. This is a problem that generally eases as the weather warms and cats have other warm places to hang out and feel a burning need to explore, oh, bird song. Or just birds in general. They even occasionally get really lucky and some unlucky bird wanders into my cat-proofed balcony and can’t figure out how to fly out (that would be to fly UP and over, not THROUGH the netting). I’m usually alerted to this situation by the sight of Kleenex repeatedly throwing himself about 5 feet into the air as he leaps and tries to catch the bird. So far, I’ve been able to rescue the birds when I’m home and see the Flying White Cat out of the corner of my eye. On very rare occasions however, I have returned home to a trail of feathers down the staircase and some cats sporting Cheshire grins. No beaks or feet have ever been discovered, but no doubt when I move out someday, I’ll figure out where they went.

When it’s cold enough in the winter, I can usually set up a diversion and the cats will leave my lap free for uninterrupted knitting. This particular tactic has worked well:

Pod & Smokie enjoying a detente in front of the fireplace

The Mysteries of Olive Sizing

2007-06-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

In the category of "Does it really make a difference?" I found myself at lunch today musing the power of a name. Or a size. (This all started with some renaming of positions at work that while leaving some people sounding perhaps more important, doesn't really change what they do.) As anyone's thoughts might, mine turned to olives. Yes, olives. Haven't you ever wondered which was really bigger? Jumbo? Mammoth? Giant? Colossal? Or just good old-fashioned sounding Extra-large?

Well, it turns out that there really is a system. American olive sizes, from smallest to biggest: small, medium, large, extra-large, jumbo, colossal, super-colossal. Somewhere along the line I must have run into some cans of European olives, because their sizing system includes giant and mammoth. If, like me, olive sizing is now a burning question you absolutely must answer, you can get the full skinny here.

So yes, size does matter. At least if you're an olive grower.

Three-legged Kitty Introduction

Now you get to meet Pod. Pod also started life feral, and hails from Big Orange country in Eastern Tennessee (Go Vols). Pod was born in the year of the Atlanta Olympics (that would be 1996 in case you can't remember) and I at first thought the little kitten running around in the bushes had a congenital defect. His mother forcibly weaned him very early and I managed to sneak up on him while sleeping one day and discovered half his hind leg was...chewed off? No idea what happened, but bone was exposed and it was a mess. To make a long story short, my kind vet did the necessary amputation pro bono (I was a grad student) with the agreement that I would adopt the kitten. His original name was Tripod, but after his eerie homing behavior when I brought him home, I kept thinking of the pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers (he just kept following me, no matter what!) so his name was shortened to Pod.

He was all the things I didn't want in a cat: male, bob-tailed, and well...maybe three-legged. And it took him about 30 seconds to worm his way permanently into my heart. He's also tremendously smart and when he thinks (which he does a lot), his bob of a tail twirls in a circle. Pod is actually the uncle of Smokie and Kleenex. Pod's favorite things include problem solving (any cat-proofing of the house I've done is because he's solved yet another problem), rearranging my quilt settings when I lay them out on the floor, and begging to be brushed. Or scratched. I do succumb to this begging quite a lot for his legless side because he can't scratch his ear or neck there. This is Pod doing a little exploration in the front of the condo during a supervised excursion.

Hayfever and Kleenex

2007-06-12T16:56:00.000-07:00

Ah, if you know me at all, you'll understand that the "Kleenex" in today's entry is not directly associated with the hayfever, but is the next cat introduction! Driving home from work, I was enjoying the sun which also means--pollen. The grasses seem to be finally making their mighty presence known and I should just give it up and glue a box of tissues to my face. I wonder if people who don't get hayfever appreciate just how lucky they are. It's never "just" hayfever, but it's like being sick and having to be brave about it. For days and weeks at a time. Blech. (Yes, I take meds for it, no they don't really help.)

Knitting News

The picture below is a shawl I'm currently working on out of Koigu. I bought the yarn over a year ago with the idea that I would make something for my sister Diane. However, on her visit that year she made her feelings about wool (ick, itchy, wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole, no way) quite clear so I never even showed her the yarn. Now instead of whispering "Diane" to me when I look at it, it says "Fall" and I'm making a shawl that I hope to have done by...oh..at least October. There is a reason this is not a straight knitting blog. If people had to look at pictures of my knitting in progress on a regular basis, the boredom factor would be astronomical (look! I finished 5 more rows last night! What a difference, right?). The pattern is "Kimono" from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls book. I will be blocking the crap out of this shawl (streeeeeeetch) since I am 1-2 balls short of what I ideally would like to have and can't find any more of this color anywhere.

Cat News

This is Kleenex. His introduction seemed appropriate today since I am reaching quite a lot for the box of tissues. Kleenex is Smokie's brother (they're littermates) so he also hails from Tennessee and began life as a feral. Kleenex was much! more! feral than his sister however. He sank his teeth into me on more than one occasion and it took awhile for him to adapt to life that didn't include running around the yard. I have to confess that I named neither Smokie nor Kleenex--they were names a neighbor had attached to the two as young kittens. Kleenex was a pure white scrap "fluttering" around the neighborhood yards, hence his name. I'm here to warn you though: do not name a cat after any kind of cleaning product. They might, perhaps, have an issue with pooping outside the litterbox that requires the use of...kleenex (or paper towels) to clean up after them. Kleenex's hobbies include batting his big baby blues and meowing a lot in the hopes that he will get some roasted chicken, pushing his way in whenever I appear that I might be paying attention to another cat, wrestling with his tiger tail toy (egads he loves that thing) and relocating toys from room to room while meowing for attention. Kleenex does appreciate quality yarn. I discovered that the day a soggy, severed end of yarn ended up between my fingers and I looked over just in time to see about a foot of pink yarn hanging out his mouth. I bolted from the couch which of course sent him running and I managed to catch up with him in the bedroom while a bare inch of yarn still extended from his determined lips (remember that spaghetti eating scene from Lady and the Tramp? Something like that.). There was just enough yarn for me to grab on and extricate about two feet of soggy wool from his throat. (Boy, that was a vet bill and experience I would NOT have wanted) Tasty wool treats are now stored out of his reach. This is Kleenex in his famous "turtle position"--he likes to lure me in for attention by exposing his tummy. I'm a sucker--go for it every time!

PB Cookies and Summer Yarn

2007-06-11T18:03:00.000-07:00

I was putting recipes back last night that had found their way to the top of the microwave (meaning they'd been used recently). Two weeks ago I made a batch of peanut butter cookies using my aunt's recipe. I've had this recipe over 30 years now (boy, that was a sobering number to come to grips with!) and....it shows. This is a well-loved recipe! Check it out:

I think I'm going to have to re-type that one pretty soon before it falls completely apart! BTW, this recipe makes a whopping 12-14 cookies if you make them the way my Aunt did--about 6 to a cookie sheet so you reach for a glass of milk and ONE monster cookie.

Jane's Peanut Butter Cookies
Cream together: 1/2 c brown sugar, 1/2 c white sugar, 1/2 c butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla (the real thing!)

Beat in: 1 egg, 1 c peanut butter (I like extra crunchy!), 1/2 tsp soda, 1/2 tsp salt.

Add: 1-1/2 c all purpose flour.

Roll into 12-14 balls, do the pb cookie smash with a flour covered fork, and bake in 375 oven for about 15 minutes.

Something Knitty
Last Saturday I went to a new (for me) yarn shop and joined their "Queen for a Day" event. It was 4 hours of knitting tips, talking and laughing with a bunch of great women, and a lot of pampering (and prizes) from the shop ladies. I discovered this shop during the LYS Tour and even though it's 40 miles from me, it's worth the drive once in a while. Great Yarns is packed with lots of unique yarns. What I realized though during the "class" on Saturday is how much a yarn store really guides all its patron knitters. Like...almost everyone at my "home" store knits socks. No big deal. And we generally avoid much in the way of "novelty" yarns, especially for sweaters. It's a style I think of as classic knitting. The women who hang out at Great Yarns were making things that almost felt "foreign"--rather avant garde with a lot of wild yarns and patterns that I don't normally see. Just as I was feeling like the boring knitter at the party, I pulled out my US1 dpns to cast on for a sock and they all recoiled in shock at the (to them) horrifyingly tiny needles. I kinda liked some of the things they were working on so I guess it means I maybe need to get out more and take classes and check out samples in different stores. I managed to find some Cascade Sierra for a tank top pattern that is on my list for summer knitting. I'm hoping this 80/20 cotton/wool blend isn't quite as unforgiving as 100% cotton to knit with--cotton can just kill my hands in short order. I also succumbed to a beaded scarf kit. I must have been in a pink and green mood on Saturday because those colors are in the yarns for both projects:

Something Kitty
Meet Smokie. She is really loud. I mean REALLY loud. Definitely not afraid to use her voice to demand attention. Especially when I am trying to type on the computer. Smokie is a Tennessee native (former feral) whose hobbies include midnight fights with any damn boy cat she wants (her brother or uncle), laying in my lap while knitting, and trying to lick all my lotion off after I've had a shower (she's quite persistent about this). Smokie is not, however, very interested in yarn. Thank goodness.

(She looks a wee bit crabby because Smokie's schedule apparently does not include posing for blog photos.)

Getting Started!

2007-06-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

Finally, I'm joining the blogger world! I meant to do this back in January of this year and got derailed (mostly overwhelmed by work!). Since I'm probably boring people do death in discussion groups with too-long posts, I figured I'd try to keep the long meanderings to my own blog.
OK, the real reason it has taken forever to get started is because I haven't been able to come up with a clever name! I'm settling on Heritage Crafts because the main crafts I occupy my time with are knitting and quilting--things that generations of (mostly) women have done before me. These days, I'm almost all knitter. I haven't finished a quilt in over a year. I think I just got burned out on quilting because I was teaching full day machine quilting workshops in addition to a job that was getting more demanding. Enter knitting. Well....sock knitting for the longest time. This summer I seem to be interested in a lot of lace.

I have an incredibly thrilling (not) life comprised of work, cats, crafts, reading, and occasionally even time with friends. I know! A social life. What an idea. Oh yeah, and once in a while I get the vacuum out and plug it in the wall just to see if it still works.

Now that this most tedious of entries--the holy crap, how do I start this thing? entry--is done, maybe things can get a bit more interesting.

But before I go today, some pictures because if I've learned anything reading other blogs, it's that a lot of writing without pictures is almost always going to be boooorrriiiinnng. Nope, this isn't out on a hiking trail. This is Lincoln Beach park in Seattle--one of the trails on the bluff. A favorite hangout for me on the weekend when the weather is decent. Which is why this picture was taken some other weekend!