Saturday Sky from 11/25/2006

Squishably Soft Instant Gratification Scarf

Is that how squishably is spelled? I don't know but you get the drift. I started the Shape It Scarf last night and I am soooo happy with my yarn choice! Have you tried Di.ve' Autunno yarn? It's one of Cascade's Italian yarns, very yummy and comes in great colors with very subtle verigation. I think I like it for other reasons too. The color reminds me of my hand dyed handspun I did last year called Cow Patty. And it's warm while knitting on a cold evening. It was 18 degrees out most of the night. Inside we were warmed up by the cats. We are supposed to get a sleet/snow storm this morning. Oh Oh maybe they'll send us home early so I can knit!

I've been wanting to knit the Sonnet sweater from Knitty.com. The Autunno just might be the yarn.

It drove me crazy

But I am there already...
Ever get a pattern you want to knit into your head and then can't remember where you saw it? And the pattern is so simple you don't really need it. But it bugs you till you actually find it? Sometime last week I got it into my head that I wanted to knit a certain scarf, with a small triangle and narrow scarfy part for my friend Ginny for Christmas. I could have sworn I saw it knitted up as a sample at Knot Another Hat or Coastal Yarns. So I went back to those two to search for it and show Graham. Nope not there. Well maybe it was at Sheeps Clothing.

Last night after I finished Elderberry sock 1 I wanted to see if I had stash yarn I could use for the mystery scarf. I went through about 20 pattern books before I found a picture of it in "The Knitting Experience: Book 2: The Purl Stitch". It said it was on page 46 of Book 1. Took me another 20 minutes to find Book 1. So here is a picture of someone else's "Sally Melville's Shape It Scarf".

IMPORTANT STUFF
Cabin Cove Dave has a job interview today. Please send every good vibe you can muster to Boston so Dave gets his dream job!!

Well crap, I missed it

On November 18th I posted my 300th KitKatKnit blog.

As usual, photos to follow

And a good excuse for no photos I think. I'd brought a CD of photos with me today so I could have prints made after work, plus load them here. But I had soup for lunch today at my friend Ginny's house and she wanted to see the pictures so I left the CD with her. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

Thanksgiving recap with more details
Hubby Dave and I left the house last Wednesday our usual time, getting into Hood River OR just in time for a latte and the doors to Knot Another Hat to open. We like the store and stop in there both both on our way to Portland and on return trips too. I'd been trying to run into Yvonne (a.k.a. Lavender Sheep) there because it seems every trip I buy another skein of her cool handspun hand dyed wool. And yes I did again! It's called Sea Turtle. 167 yds destined I believe for my first try at toe up socks. Somewhere past Hood River I cast on for the Mountain Colors toddler hat in Lady Slipper 3 ply.

We hit torrential rains as we went through the Oregon Cascades. The kind of rain where the windshield wipers can't really keep up with the downpour. By the time we got to Portland the rain had let up just a little. We decided to go to Habibi again for lunch. The owner now recognizes us since we've been in there quite a few times lately. Graham's train came in on time and we immediatly got on the road to the coast because we know the later it gets in PDX the worse the traffic gets on the evening before Thanksgiving.

We took a quick beach walk right after we checked into our rental in Cannon Beach. Then I checked to see if we could "borrow" any bandwidth from our rooms. I could get one tiny short bar but couldn't access the internet. Bummer. The rest of the time we'd use the internet at the bakery/gallery across the street or Bella Espresso downtown. Wednesday night I finished the hat and cast on for matching mittens. Came out cute!

Our main agenda when we are at Cannon Beach is to take long long long beach walks no matter what the tide, wind or weather. We dress prepared with GoreTex coats and pants. This trip was no exception. Each day we'd usually take a very long morning walk, well south of Tolovana Park to where you can't go around the point (except during low low tide) after our latte and muffin breakfast. Then another walk, either the same or the walk north to the river in the afternoon. A few trips back and forth to the north end of town on Hemlock are made each day too. We love watching dogs play on the beach. Friday I was attacked by a kamikazi fighting kite, slipped on a half hidden round rock and fell (ta-da!!) and was nearly plowed down by a Great Dane romping at 37 miles per hour down the beach!

Anyway by Thursday night I'd finished the little hat and the matching mittens. I'd also brought some socks with me that I needed to re-do the toe on. Those came out and went back into the bag a couple times. Friday night I turned the heel on my Elderberry sock 1. Saturday the gusset and Sunday knitted clear down to the toe decrease. Amazing what I can do on #2's when I put my mind to it.

It was wonderful spending time with Graham for 4 days. He'll be home on Christmas break in a few weeks. He plans to knit his beautiful girlfriend a Noro scarf as one of her Christmas presents.

Bella

After another trip to the Cannon Beach LYS, we've parked our knitting, laptops and behinds at Bella Espresso. We're very lucky to get a seat! We lucked out and got a window seat with a tiny table. Hubby Dave is knitting, G and I blogging. There are currently 22 people in line for coffee and all the other tables are now filled. Pretty sure because a nasty cold front has hit and everyone else had the same idea. We have an internet cafe bakery across from our rental but it closed at 4pm.

Tonight we are making clam chowder for our final dinner here. This morning we had our traditional breakfast at Duggers. We can't come to Cannon Beach without eating a breakfast of Razors and Eggs. YUM!Anyway, about the yarn shop. Coastal Yarns. They are between Hemlock and Larch on 2nd. They carry the usual Noros, Rowans etc. Not a skein of 220 in sight! (or was there and I was wowed by other things??) One whole section is dedicated to Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarns.

We tried to get tickets to the Coaster Theater tonight, but it's sold out. Figures, itis one of my favorites - Fiddler on the Roof.

All the downtown businesses have been busily decorating for Christmas. The lights and boughs look festive. It almost puts me in the mood

Post Turkey Report

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours. We are in Cannon Beach OR, a 6 hour drive from our house. Bech walks, rain and we found a little yarn store - open on Thanksgiving!! I'm heading back there today.

Knitted a hat and 1 of the two mittens for the set for my collegue's daughter for Christmas. #2 mitten should get done tonight. I may be able to load pics tomorrow. We don't have internet where we are staying, but a coffee shop,gallery across the street does.

Well it is getting to loud in here for my tastes so I am headed out for another beach walk! More tomorrow.

Saturday Sky for November 18

Ok so I am a little late in downloading. This was taken from a hilltop park in Richland looking ENE.When Graham was little he used to call these Mornings on Venus. I wonder if he still loves foggy mornings? I'll have to ask him!You know how little things tend to pile up in your car? Knitting project bags, your iPod, your camera, work files. Well I've got nothing on this guy. His junk goes up above his windows. I spied him when I snuck over to one of the LYS's at lunch today.

Top Secret Project

Only one person knows about my top secret project, code name "Wasabi". The Wasabi project is about 50% complete. When complete Wasabi will be shipped in a brown paper wrapper, to an undisclosed location where it will be traded for another yet to be disclosed project. Plans were discussed this morning. Now I have possibly reveled too much. Please dispose of this blog by your favorite means.

One

Sure I should be clearing up the dinner dishes after making a giant pot of chili. Watching the last minute of the Apple Cup game. U of Dub better win. That's all I am saying.

But no, I am doing The One Word Meme. Here are the rules: You.Can.Only.Type.One.Word. No. Explanations. Steal. It.

1. Yourself: creative
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): cuddley
3. Your hair: 60's
4. Your mother: tiny
5. Your Father: handy
6. Your Favorite Item: scooter
7. Your dream last night: short
8. Your Favorite drink: icetea
9. Your Dream Car: Alfa
10. The room you are in: kitchen
11. Your Ex: none
12. Your fear: illness
13. What you want to be in 10 years? comfortable
14. Who you hung out with last night? hubby
15. What You’re Not? competitive
16. Muffins: banana
17. One of Your Wish List Items: WoolieWinder
18. Time: short
19. The Last Thing You Did: cooked
20. What You Are Wearing: jammies
21. Your Favorite Weather: cool
22. Your Favorite Book: bunches
23. The Last Thing You Ate: chili
24. Your Life: changing
25. Your Mood: middle
26. Your best friend: Betsy
27. What are you thinking about right now? dishes
28. Your car: silver
29. What are you doing at the moment? imbibing
30. Your summer: hot
31. Your relationship status: married
32. What is on your TV? football
33. What is the weather like? windy
34. When is the last time you laughed? dunno

Oh no

Excuse the shakey terrible picture but I just had to show you. This went up last week a few neighborhoods over. Our recent windstorms knocked a lot of it out over the weekend and the owner spent tons of time putting it back together. The whole right side still isn't re-lit. Anyone else spotted any early birds?

Stop me before I buy again

Yup a few happy moments at Etsy, and checking with one of my favorite Hood River spinners and I done spent money again.

I got my yarn inspiration from SockPron - go halfway down the pageShe'd knitted knucks in her own handspun hand dyed dark gold to brown wool. Finished edging in hand spun black.

First I bought from a regional spinner whose work I love. I have a few skeins of Yvonne's (in stash) that I just love! So from her collection I bought the two skeins shown here on the far right. Search at lavendersheep.etsy.com for the rest of her inventory. Then I searched for handspun or hand dyed at Etsy and found this by RobinDodge.And this one by ThePaintedTiger.

Worthless Bug Ninjas

You know you give those cats one job single dedicated job, which should be easy for them and they balk at it. They earn their allowance by acting as bug dispatchers. We don't care how as long as they get rid of bugs, insects, spiders, flying things etc. Usually they all do a good job. OK sometimes we have to point out the opportunity, but the job is done.

Well they failed me this morning. It felt like a blue jeans day at work and a freshly washed/dried pair was hanging outside on the line so I grabbed them before I hopped in the shower. Afterwards I put them on and as I was walking to the family room I thought my cell phone was doing its pre-ring vibrate buzz. I got to the phone charger about the same time as I realized the buzz was coming from the jeans! You wouldn't believe how fast I got those off and threw them on the floor. That brought the cats out of hiding. I told them bug, get the bug. Each one would walk up to the jeans, give it a few kat karate chops and run for cover. They wanted nothing to do with it.

I then took the jeans back outside, shook them as hard as I could and put them back on the line.

Mark Your Calendars!

The 2007 Packwood Fiber Weekend is tentatively scheduled for Friday May 4 through Sunday May 6. I have first dibs for that weekend at the cabin we rented last year. (not 100% verified yet but I am on the list). It again is the same weekend as the Packwood Mountain Festival.

The cabin can comfortably sleep 12 inside, a couple more in the full but unfinished basement. Parking for 4-5 cars if we really crowd them in. We cook a couple meals and go out a couple meals. Last year we had enough wine to float a cruise ship in. (no, we didn't drink that much wine, we had that many bottles available!). Jessica provided EXTREMELY YUMMY baked goods and we never ever went hungry.

For some pictures from 2006 click here and scroll down towards the bottom of the pagel.

A Fetching Effort

I was ready to jump on the Fetching band wagon big time after Blogless Kim came to Friday Night Knit Night with 1.65 pairs of Fetching. Last night I took my unfinished rib and cable mitts out of their bag for their monthly airing, put them on, put them back in the bag and sat in front of my yarn stash. Pulled out everything that was somewhat in the weight range of Cashmerino Aran (50 gms/98 yds), tossed back anything that was too fuzzy, too verigated, too many oz (not wanting to break up a large stash that could be used for something important), too etc. Grabbed 65 gms of grey Cascade and did about a 2 inch swatch. Decided the grey was too boring to go on. Made a cat toy out of the progress and decided...

I love Knucks so ever much more!

Sunrise 11/13/2006

Mark your calendars. This is the first day of fall that I drive to work in the dark and drive home home in the dark. And have an inside office. So unless I walk over to the other part of campus, I don't see the sun till the weekends! Anyday now I should be getting the shell for my truck!! This isn't an actual picture of my truck, mine is a 2000, same color, better wheels. We'd been talking about getting one for years and decided with our upcoming Thanksgiving in Cannon Beach OR, that this was the time to do it. For those of you unfamiliar with Cannon Beach below is a picture. I've been going to Cannon Beach since I was a baby, so has Graham. My Dad started going there when he was in his teens. I'll be packing plenty of knitting and probably my wheel.

Sunday Snapshots

Ok so I am borrowing the Sunday title used by Cabin Cove Dave. I somehow caught a cold and I'm feeling a bit icky tonight and uncreative. I think I caught it over the phone from a collegue in Seattle. She's the only person I know with a cold right now!
I went out to work to check on the weekend status of a project and cut through town to get there. As soon as I turned north on Wright/McMurray there were crows, hundreds of crows. I parked the truck, grabbed my camera and started trying to take pictures. By the time I'd get close enough for a good picture they'd fly off. I think they'd found someone's walnut trees.A few blocks further I noticed that some old tagging had a few new colors added. You don't see to much of this in this zip code.

Saturday Sky for November 11. And an unblocked FO

Here is a view of today's Saturday Sky. In the background is Rattlesnake Mountain. It rises up off the ancient riverbeds and is 3524 ft tall. Rattlesnake has the dubious distinction of being the tallest treeless mountain in the western hemisphere. (some sources say northern hemisphere, some say the lower 48 states). My office is about a 1.5 miles NE of this view, a block from the Columbia River. Here is another view, showing the farther SE ridge.Below is the neck gaiter I made for Dad for his birthday. (Dec 7). One more holiday project done! Unblocked view. 5 extra points for telling me whose blog is in the background.

Knit Night Report

Nice crowd last night! The stack of books and magazines we "reviewed" was even taller than usual. The one we liked the best was "Knitting With Balls: A Hands-On Guide to Knitting for the Modern Man" by Michael Del Vecchio. Filled with fun projects.I don't think any of us ended up buying it but it sure would make a nice present for a newbie knitter, guy or gal. Some how I left without buying the new Interweave Knits. I put it in the return to shelves pile that Jessica was collecting and forgot completely about it until I got home. Doh.

Hello to Jo-Beth/Beth-Jo. Hope you start joining us.

Only four of us showed up for the Long Underwear (scooter) Ride today. It was cold and windy for the West Richland Veteran's Day Parade. We met at Baracudda's in Richland and warmed up inside with latte's then scooted over to West Richland. The West Richland City Clerk had assured us that Van Giesen would be open to traffic till 9:30 am up to Grosscup. Of course not... So we rode past the West Richland Golfcourse instead and got a good view of the flooding. Rather than park at Tri-City Fence/May's Fresh Express we parked at Hot and Sweet.

Good news with the new location was it was warm inside, more hot coffee, great selection of breakfast items, plenty of parking and had restrooms!! Great vantage point for parade watching. Parade was great, fun watching the kids (including Karen, ok and I confess, me too) grabbing candy (Tootsie Rolls).

None of us froze to death, though it may take till Monday for Karen to thaw out!

Cables

I had almost a whole skein left of the green yarn I'd used for Dad's hat so I decided to knit the Cherry Garcia cabled neck tube from Helloyarn.com. It's been a fast knit. I'm on the second cable repeat.

We had blue skies today, a little windy. But kind of pretty out. The leaves are certainly changing. I have my work cut out for me this weekend raking leaves. I took a lunchtime walk today at Howard Amon Park.p.s. all of a sudden we are having a downpour, odd for around here. The Yakima River by my house was already flooding in spots this afternoon. Can't wait to see it in the morning! (I live on a hill so no worries)

Congratulations Mike, you've done it again!!

This my friend Mike Coffman. We've been friends since the 5th grade when United transferred my Dad to Denver (Aurora CO actually). Mike and his family lived on the same street and we went to grade school thru some of high school together. Mike, Betsy and I always hang together at every one of our high school reunions.Mike is an amazing guy. He dropped out of high school and joined the Army while the Viet Nam war was still going on. Then went back to school, owned some small businesses, went to college (University of Colorado (GO BUFFS - me too) and the Senior Executive Program for State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University) and some where in there in his spare time joined the Marine Corp. Mike was later elected to the Colorado State Legislature. During Operation Desert Storm, Mike took an unpaid leave of absence to return to active duty as an infantry officer during the conflict. The legislature put yellow ribbons at his seat while he was gone. In the 90's he ran for and became Colorado's State Treasurer (still is until January). He and I kid that he is the most famous dropout we know. Last year Mike again took unpaid leave from Treasury to serve as a Marine Corps civil affairs officer in Iraq, helping the Iraqi’s with two nation-wide elections.

You want to know what Mike did this time? He ran for Colorado Secretary of State - and won!!!!!

I forgot to mention

my only purchase in Seattle! This book.

And the winner is....

But first a word from our sponsor. I forgot to mention that I packed both knitting and spinning with me for our Seattle trip. Knitting never came out of the bags. I did however spin on my top whorl. Got a great hint from a friend, put a small notch on the whorl. I did before I left the house and now I have absolutely no problem spindling! But boy dies it take too long... Here is an hours worth from Friday night. Last night I added about the same or a little more. And now on with the show. I got lazy by 10 pm tonight. Instead of printing up 43 little slips of paper I went to the Research Randomizer at www.randomizer.org

I asked for 1 Set of 1 Unique Numbers Per Set 1 Set
Range: From 1 to 43 -- Unsorted

Job Status:
Set #1:

33
And that makes the winner Gwen at Shoes and Yarn! So Gwen if you are reading this please email me your mailing address!

But that's not all. Someones blog was so sick, so magnificent, so Art History Major, that I had to pick it for a special recognition award. With a BFA in Studio and Graphic Arts I sat or slept through what must have been 9734 art slides. Obviously so did Kathy with her life, I mean Gallery devoted to David Krumhotz. You are just not going to believe it!!! You must go see her website. Not to mention the website of Neal linked on her website. Neal loves, well, you just have to go see for yourself. So Gwen, send me your mailing address too.

Guess it's time for me to fess up. All my TVFBs are a bit young for me since I am of the AARP demographic. But here is a start.

• Hugh Laurie from House. 6'2" - ok so I like tall, give me tall in my TVBFs. My ballpark for age. Kind of. Love the attitude dude but only with the US accent and not the Brit accent. Boy I am fussy but it's my fantasy.
• Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs. 6'1". A little young but I bet I could get him to clean toilets and kitty boxes!
• I don't watch much other TV so I may be missing out on a lot of something out there.
  
• Prefer Kevin Bacon over Keifer S.
  
• Like Jane, Illya Kuryakin was my very first TVBF (now I say ick, what was I thinking?)
• Since it is my contest I get to cheat and say my very favorite TVBF (since he has been on like 48 TV shows, per www.imdb.com) is Kevin Kline. He can leave cracker crumbs in any room!! Plus for once, someone older than me...and my favorite tallness.
  

Saturday Sky called on account of rain

Too rainy to get my camera out of the bag. We braved the weather, went to the Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Frey. Then went on a gallery crawl. By the time we got back to the room we were nearly soaked to the bone except for where we were covered with Goretex.

Seattle U has a new art installation. The now have a Chihuly in the Pigot Business Building.We found many a fine specimin of Amanita Muscaria on campus..

Knitting all packed and ready to go

We're leaving at daybreak for Parents Weekend at Seattle U. I will be nice to see Graham, first time since he left in mid-September. He won't be actually coming home till Christmas break this year. We'll be celebrating his birthday while we are there. Plan on trying out the Acorn Street Shop.

My Nikon is back from its vacation in El Segundo. The replaced the aperture part, cleaned, polished, upgraded all the firmware to the very latest version and about 6 other things. I am one happy camper to have it back for the Seattle trip! It had been so long since I'd used it to take pics of the cats, that they had forgotten about it. (Rosemary was asleep so I didn't bother her by taking a picture)

And the best news...the pink yarn has been spoken for!

The verdict is in

I hate pink.

I tore up the toddler sock/slipper thing and knitted up the pink yarns into the Peru hat from Knitty.com. It had so much potential when I saw it under the lights at my LYS. I hate it so much that I am about to throw it into the trash can. I think it's this pink yarn vomit has given me my migraine this week. So, when I get home tonight I'll post a picture of the yarn that anyone can have. I'll even pay the postage to get rid of it. (2 balls, one is slightly used)

KitKats on Halloween

Every year on Halloween I put on my cat ears and show Rosemary (our 14 yr old cat). And every year I get the same reaction from her. Her ears perk up, her whiskers move to the full front position and she starts talking in a funny little voice. She always says "Momma, I know you really are a cat and not a human. Why do you hide your ears and only show your true self once a year???". She really says that! Ruby and Rufus just give me a "duh what" look. Again no kids showed up at our door because they are too lazy to go up the little spur road that our house sits on.

No knitting content from last night. Too busy. Took Rufus back to the vet for an eye recheck. Still looks a little funky but she doesn't need to see him again. Then I had to catch up on some work. Then when I was going to pick up the needles I fell asleep on the couch instead.

Still no camera back. It's been sitting on the bench at Nikon since the 24th. I can torture my self by logging in daily and checking the status. So bummer, I won't have it for this weekend in Seattle.

Hubby Dave was wondering if I'd like a new fast laptop for Christmas. Well of course!! So I am printing up an example order for Santa, er I mean Dave so he can see I'd like to replace my old iBook with a new MacBook. Then I'd either sell the iBook or give it to my Dad to try out.