Knittinggarden

Since my whole post just disappeared, I'll try again!  My absence from the blog hasn't totally been out of laziness, but vacations!  In mid-October, DH and I flew to Florida, where we embarked on a week-long Caribbean cruise.  We left from Fort Lauderdale, stopped at Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, Grand Cayman, and Costa Maya.  Without writing a whole travelogue, I'll hit the highlights with some photos.  Hopefully they will stay put this time! The ship was big: Are we having fun yet? Knitting was done On Grand Cayman, we went snorkeling from a 78 foot catamaran.  It was fun; the water was crystal clear and there were lots of colorful fish to see.On the way back, we stopped at a beach where rum punch was served by crew members in inner tubes! It doesn't get much more convenient than that! We had a couple of formal nights.  No photo of the Malabrigo shawl being worn, but here's a shot of it on our balcony. ...

Once upon a time, there was a college boy who lived with us.  He went away to school, he traveled to Australia for a semester, then he returned to us for the summer.  The summer dragged on and on and his room got messier and messier. He finally found an apartment to move into, and moved from our house on September first.  Shortly thereafter, I claimed the room as my own.  It didn't start out much better than when he lived here. But the stuff I was moving in was much more exciting (at least to me) than the stuff that he'd moved out. After cleaning, carrying, storing, shopping, and arranging, my new yarn and fiber room was complete. I have a lot of my yarn displayed in these shoe organizers.  I know it's not the best way to keep the yarn clean and dust-free, but I love being able to look at it and touch it whenever I want to. Buddy likes to visit my room.  He has a blanket to sleep on in here now. I l...

for a quick commercial message. We own a condo in Palm Desert, CA, which is available for vacation rentals.  It was previously listed on a vacation rental website, but we decided to take it off of there this year.  So I have started another blog which details all of the amenities of our condo and gives contact information. We have lots of availability for rental this winter, so please check it out and contact me if you are interested in a trip to the sunshine sometime during the upcoming cold season.  It's a great place to visit. There's a link in the sidebar, or use this one: Palm Desert retreat . Thanks for reading!

Ever since we've lived in this house, we've gone to the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe, Washington most summers. When the kids were little, they'd go on the rides, we'd watch the pig races, look at animals, and of course eat lots of scones. As my interests evolved over the years, I've enjoyed looking at the displays of fresh produce, flavored vinegars, and flowers. I always love looking at the handmade quilts that are on display and the knitted items caught my eye the last couple of years. In reading blogs, I noticed that some people actually entered their knitting into the fair! Of course, people have to enter or there wouldn't be anything there to look at, but I always thought you had to be some kind of expert to enter. I was reading Yarn Pirate last year and she entered some handspun yarn and items knitted from her handspun into our own Evergreen State Fair (she lives an hour or so north of me.) Last year I was interested in seeing her work, so I made...

Yes, I'm way behind on posting again, but I'm trying to keep things in chronological order, so I must document the leaving of the Princess before moving on to other things. Way back in August, I went to the Sock Summit, I returned from the Sock Summit on Saturday, and we had a large graduation/going away party for the Princess on Sunday. Note: I wouldn't recommend organizing a big party when you're going to be out of town the days immediately before it is scheduled to occur. It is possible, but it isn't enjoyable. That being said, we had a wonderful time. The Princess has begun her college career at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, so we decided on a casino theme. We set up some card games and a little roulette wheel in the basement, but everyone stayed outside, since it was a nice day. Elvis came. We had balloons. Here's Ben filling them up with helium. We decorated and set up. A little kiss for Ma from a helper. We had food. The enchilada bar is w...

Sock Summit 09 is over and what can I say? I thanked my lucky stars every day I was there that I didn't give up when the server crashed on registration day and I got to go. Apart from the inauspicious beginning, it seemed (at least to an outside-observing-attendee) spectacularly well organized. From opening the registration desks on Wednesday to having one of the largest trade-show marketplaces that I've ever seen, to handing out the world-record-attempt tickets early in the morning, to having volunteers staffing every classroom, I saw very few long lines, no teachers lacking supplies or technology or chairs, and just no unpleasantness in general. It was great. I drove down from Seattle on Wednesday with my friend and when we walked over to the Convention Center from our hotel, this is what we saw. And then as we were taking photos, a couple of knitters who were leaving the building asked if they could take our picture together in front of the signs. What a way to feel welco...