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Showing posts from 2008

Knitting Wrap-Up

This has been an adventurous year for me, knitting-wise. I've tried new techniques - knitting with beads, mitred squares, steeks, spinning on a drop spindle, to name a few. The report is positive - I learned new things and enjoyed the experiences. Some things took longer than others to learn, lots of them aren't perfected, but I'm very pleased with the experiences I had this past year. (Note: I'm only referring to knitting and spinning here, in many other areas this year is one best forgotten. I say this while hoping that my kids' college funds will magically regenerate themselves before they're out of college!) So I will share a few photos and wish everyone a happy, safe, healthy new year. Buddy sings when the Princess plays his favorite song. I need to get a video of this soon.... The kids all got jammie pants for Hanukkah. Aren't they cute? My last FOs of 2008: Sorry for the photo quality. Darkness and hurried photo-taking make for dark and impe

Winter Wonderland Part II

I like snow as a novelty, but if I wanted to walk around with snow up to my knees, I'd move to North Dakota. Hello, this is Seattle...... Today it's finally warming up to the mid 30s, so the heavy snow sitting in all the big fir trees is starting to melt and drop. Sometimes the limb drops with it. I'm going to stay inside the house. Here's the snow on the roof. It's tile and steep, so no one's going up to shovel it off. Collegeboy and the Princess agreed to pose. Buddy has to leap around like a rabbit. He likes it! It is pretty, I have to admit it. Time to shovel a little bit of the driveway! Buddy, did you catch that rat yet? The sun came out for awhile one day. But not for long.

Winter Wonderland

Here in Seattle, we normally have very moderate weather, but not right now. In keeping with much of the country, we are living with snow, ice, and cold temperatures. In fact, I'm looking at icicles hanging from the gutter outside my window. They're quite pretty. And right now, I'm looking out at snow; falling from the sky in small, gentle flakes, blanketing the trees, shrubs, and driveway. I like it. I don't have anywhere I have to go tonight. The Princess is gnashing her teeth since she'd like to be with her friends and unfortunately for her there's to be no more driving today. This is what I've been looking at the past few days: I love the powdered sugar look of the snow on these seeds, which are still hanging on the strawberry tree. I've been working on some knitted gifts. I finished the first a few days ago and presented it to its recipient. She seemed to like it. Aran Scarf from the booklet, Knitting Scarves Yarn used: Misti Cotton Needles:

Too Many WIPs, Not Enough FOs

Too many ideas, not enough time. Too many beginnings, not enough endings. You can see where I'm going with this. I've never really gotten frazzled by the idea of holiday knitting. There haven't been that many people who've requested hand-knit items and I sure don't want to go to all the trouble to have my hard work underappreciated. So, unlike the lovely and talented Yarn Harlot, I don't tend to get into a frenzy. Until now. I'm threatening to frenzy, just a bit. Here's the scorecard: I decided to make a few items for gifts. I won't be too specific, but I had planned a couple of weeks ago to make three things. They are in progress. Then the Princess "sort of" asked for a scarf in Seahawks colors, since she works at the football games and it's getting really cold. So I put other things aside and made her scarf. Then I got caught up in the Noro scarf craze, and found some Cash Island on closeout. It feels a lot softer than the

Success!

As I write this last post of NaBloPoMo, I am looking back on what I've written each day. I saw a question on one of the forums I read on Ravelry asking if people had written something meaningful each day, or just taken up Internet space. I think I've done some of both. My blog was begun for me to document my knitting, display photos, and commemorate family gatherings, events, and milestones. I think I've succeeded in doing that. I don't aim for insightful social commentary and I like to keep my entries light and short for the most part. I use the blog as a journal, diary, and scrapbook and a place to share with my family and friends. So in posting every day during the month of November, I've taxed my little brain a bit to come up with daily ideas and I've accomplished a couple of things. I learned how to spin (sort of), I finished a big project (my Kauni sweater) and I've documented the autumn changes in the garden and commemorated a couple of family e

Kauni Completed

At last! I started this sweater last January, put it down for the summer, and decided to complete it for NaKniSweMo. I finished a few days ago, but had to wait for someone to help me take photos. Pattern: Kauni Rainbow Cardigan by Ruth Sorensen Yarn: Kauni Effektgarn 8/2, Rainbow Needles: US 4 and 5, circular I had quite a bit of extra yarn, so I was able to pull off sections until I got the sleeves to match pretty well. I was also able to decide on the colors for the button band and search through until I got to a blue and a purple section. Here's a button: Photos are courtesy of The Princess. America's next top model? I don't think it will be me.

The Generosity of Friends

Today I received a package in the mail. That's not totally unusual, but this was something I didn't buy for myself. I had arranged to swap sock yarn scraps with my friend Goatlady (her Ravelry name) and she said she'd include some fiber, since she had a lot and I'm trying to learn to spin. This is what came: A box STUFFED with goodies! Lots of Cormo wool in a beautiful natural shade for me to use to perfect my technique. That will take awhile! Then there are beautiful braids of Interlacements fiber and a lovely, soft piece of cashmere to pet. I'd be afraid to try to spin it. Maybe someday. The plastic bag is full of little sock yarn balls for my blankie . (Scroll down and you'll see the beginnings of it.) I haven't counted them, but there are a lot! And many of them look big enough to make more than one square, so I can trade them later with other people. I can't say enough how much I appreciate all this fibery goodness. I also bought myself t

Happy Thanksgiving

A day full of family, friends, food, and fun. I am truly thankful.

Getting Ready

The pies are baking and the guys are busy putting up the extra table. We are thankful to have such good helpers!

Thanskgiving Prep

Since we moved into the "big" house about 12 years ago, we have hosted most of the big family dinners. After all, that's why we picked the big dining room, wasn't it? I enjoy the preparation and having the family here and, after the first time, have managed to make pretty good food. This morning I was making my shopping list and the page quickly filled with all of the ingredients I would need to make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, complete with three or four desserts (the most important part, in my opinion). After I made my list, I came in to my computer and made donations to two of our local food banks, Northwest Harvest and Food Lifeline. I try to do this several times a year, but today I was thinking again about the troubling times we live in and how many more people are in need this year than usual. We are lucky enough to still be able to pay our bills, provide clothing, shelter, food, and college tuition for our kids, and spend a little money here and the

Sunday's Garden

My question this week is this: When so many trees look like this after a couple of rainy and windy days, why does the Wisteria vine still look like this? No doubt the fact that it is located outside the two entrances to our house and provides weeks' worth of falling leaves blowing in the doors has something to do with it. It's very fall-like to walk through crackling dry leaves, but not such a treat when they're in your kitchen!

Obsessed again, naturally

Thank heavens I didn't start on a wheel. I've spent much of the last few days practicing on my spindle, buying more inexpensive roving to try to improve my spinning, and reading about spinning on Ravelry. Of course, reading about spinning technique leads to reading about the best fiber to use, which leads to reading about the best spindles to get. Which leads to looking up all the spindle makers and drooling, if not ordering. So reading and shopping has replaced practice spinning. I've purchased another spindle and some more roving and I fear that I'm not through yet. One sensible thing I did was turn down the offer to buy a spinning wheel from a friend of mine. I don't want to have that much invested and a bigger item to move when we get around to downsizing the house in the next few years. It also gives me more money for spindles and fiber because look at all I saved on the wheel I didn't buy! You can talk yourself into anything. Yesterday while sitting

Hemlock Ring

Would be a lot bigger by now if the darn ............(insert name of one of multiple projects otn) didn't keep getting in the way. Sheri talks about KADD. I have it big time.

Buttons!

Buttons have been selected but they refuse to sit for a successful photo on this gloomy day. I will meet with my Kauni "mentor" tonight for last minute advice and will get this sweater finished by the weekend. I'm a year late to be wearing it with everyone else who made it, but I still like the design and really enjoyed the process of knitting it all in the round. Even the steeks were a breeze. Of course, this yarn is extremely sticky and I didn't even stitch beside them before cutting. I suppose with smoother yarn the stitching would be a necessity and I'd have to determine if the old sewing machine indeed still works. A problem for another day.

Mother Nature's holiday decorations

I love the look of the small, colorful fruit that is so abundant on these trees, but I just noticed the little, white flowers. It looks like someone has decorated these Arbutus unedo (strawberry trees). Definitely the easiest decorating is that which is done for you! And then there are the rosebuds, struggling to believe that it's still summer.

It's True

Backbends give you energy. This morning in my yoga class (Iyengar), we did backbends. We worked in partners a lot, thank heavens, since my back doesn't bend very much. I don't dislike some of these poses as much as I once did, but I'm resigned to the fact that I'll never look like the person in the photo. Oh, well. I still have energy!

I know I'm way too picky

but discrepancies in pronunciation, spelling, or grammar drive me crazy! When I read, I notice every time the wrong form of a word is used (too instead of two or to, loose instead of lose, the various spellings of there, their and of course they're, and on and on). Misplaced hyphens are also noticed; it's vs. its is a particular annoyance and also your vs. you're. All the spell checking in the world doesn't make up for having a basic understanding of the English language. Today I noticed another thing that bothers me (what a surprise!) I was listening to an audio book while I worked in the garden. I have developed a great fondness for this method of "reading" as it allows total multitasking. Anyway, I usually get a list of books from the bookstore or newspaper, then request CDs from the library. I usually download them onto my computer so I can put them into my ipod. So, by the time it comes to listen to the book, I can't remember where I heard ab

Before and After

November is half over and my first NaBloPoMo is going well. I've posted every day so far and am quite enjoying the task of thinking of something to say each day. Not that I've said anything terribly important, but just sitting down and grouping photos or writing a few sentences has been enjoyable. We are having mild weather so far, after being treated to spectacular fall colors. I've documented some of them here. Last week was rain and wind, which put an end to most of the display, in addition to flooding many unfortunate residents of the state of Washington who happen to live close to riverbanks. I thought it would be interesting to revisit a few of my favorite photos and show how the subjects look now. Remember the "burning" tree? All the flames are out, with no damage to the firs. This colorful scene at the end of my driveway appears fairly bare and drab now. The pink dogwoods have lost all of their red leaves. I planted my garlic today. After it spends