Home, Home, We Are Home

Yeah, after a long drive of 10 hours yesterday, we are home! I slept like a log last night and woke up exhausted today!! And it's COLD here, with rain and hail and I've heard there's snow, but haven't seen it locally.

I tried blogging from hotels and they don't like uploading stuff for me, so I waited until I got home.

My January Dragon Dance socks saw a mine near Edwards AFB, and were finished just in time to sit by a cozy fire while in the San Jose area.








There are rarely pictures of me on our vacations, or they are horrible pictures. Kim got two of me that aren't too bad. We were at the top of the peak in JTNP (you could actually see the Salton Sea, it wasn't too smoggy) on Monday.




Ok, so last year I blogged here about the trip. And there are pictures of the smoggy valley. This year the pictures are much better!!

Towards Riverside and LA.


I think that is Palm Springs down there. We've never been down there, so I am just guessing.



Right above those peaks you can see the Salton Sea.





These were most of the flowers that we saw at Joshua Tree NP. In fact, this was at just one spot along the road, all of these flowers were within probably 100 feet.








This one I thought was eggs at first, but upon closer inspection, there is a gourd plant there.

Blogging from the desert

Thank you for the well-wishes. I am so glad everything is fine!!

The desert is wonderful. So far we are being very lazy and staying at the house. Tomorrow we are going to visit Joshua Tree and do one of the guided hikes to an old ranch. It is in the low 70's with a breeze that needs a sweater. The sun is wonderful. I think I need to retire to the desert. I am sure Robert would love that. :(

Sweater Day. I first read about it on Lime n Violet's Daily Chum. The city of Pittsburgh was doing a Won't You Be My Neighbor celebration including the birthday of Mr. Rogers. I loved watching Mr. Rogers when I was a kid, and I was saddened by his death.

Sweater Day

Kim and me at Rogue River State Park Rest Area this morning wearing our favorite sweaters for Mr. Roger's Sweater Day. :)

Woohoo!!

Good news, no problems with the suspected lump on the left breast, just a cyst. I'm good 'til next year!

We are on our drive to the desert and I can finally get on line. Dinner tonight was at Andersen's Pea Soup in Santa Nella. Yummy!!! We saw Mt Shasta this morning with almost no clouds and lots of sunshine. So far the warmest I have seen is 71 F. It feels so good!


Jelly Belly Factory.


Full moon over the Central Valley.

Play it again, Sam

I got a letter from the Breast Center to come in for my routine mammogram. Did that early Tuesday morning and still made it to work pretty much on time. Today a call from them saying they want to take more images of the left breast. Didn't I just do this last year?!? Oh, that was the right one. I'm a little bit disgusted with my breasts, though I shouldn't complain, I'm sure it will be just the same as last year, mammograms every 6 months. Hmm, I wonder what it will be next year?

What do you do............

October 2005

With a newly turned 14 year old? (and I don't mean in the spoiled milk category) Take her shopping of course! Kim turned 14 today so we went on a shopping spree. She has become more slender over the last year and her jeans haven't fit for quite a while. We found two pairs that are really cute on her, lots of new shirts and even a summery dress. It's a little short and she thinks it will look better paired with some jeans. I realized as I was looking for some photo's to upload, that I haven't taken any of Kim since I finished her sweater!

February 2008

We had a fun time but now I'm tired and have a ton of knitting I want to do. I haven't finished anything, but just keep starting new projects. I need to get at least one of my projects done before Spring Break, as we leave in less than 2 weeks for a trip to the S. Cal desert. It's a 1/2 birthday swap project and is due while we are gone. Then I come home and have two more projects due by the 10th af April, go to sock camp on the 13th, and have another project due for camp. There's also a baby coming very soon in our family and it's a girl, so I want to make the BSJ for her. It's not supposed to be due until April 20, but my cousin has gone into labor twice now, and is on bed rest until at least April 1. That baby has got to keep growing!(on the inside)

Robert and I also celebrated 19 years of marriage this week. Yeah us! I am always flabbergasted by how long we have been married. So many around us have gone through divorce.

Spring is in the air

Kim and I took a drive up to Tacoma on Friday. We spent a couple of hours at Madrona Fiber Arts Festival. It is small, but extremely friendly. We came home with yarn for two sweaters, several pairs of socks, some roving and some cute little quilted bags. I'd love to go for the whole weekend just to spend time with friends. Maybe next year.

Today the sun shone beautifully, it was almost 60 degrees out front and on the back porch close to 70.


I love our purple crocuses.


The slugs do too. :(

While I was taking these pictures, there was a bird just singing his heart out. I looked up for him and he was almost right above me in the tree, less than 10 feet away. He didn't even startle when I stood up. Oregon Junco.

I have been knitting, but the combination method is very slow going for me. I can't wait till the end of April when I take a class from Annie, maybe it will help make it easier for me to understand what I am actually doing. I did start reading her book the other night. It is very good!

Lenore

Thank you for all of the compliments. I have to agree with you, my model is beautiful and so is the sweater. :) You could say I am a bit biased. (What gets me though is that I was gangly and homely at that age and she isn't)

There was a peek of sun today so I took some posed pictures of my Lenore's. To bad I don't have any Poe laying around. When I started these socks, I was trying to make them way too hard! I did that top cuff, then did it again, thinking I had to. They were tight, so I went back to reread the directions, and I realized I didn't need to do those 24 rows twice. Sometimes I am a dunce! After frogging them, they fit much better. I tried the heel that she wrote for this pattern and found it didn't fit my foot either so did my regular short-row heel. I like it so much better. I soaked them last night in a bit of vinegar water to make sure the dye was set, then some Eucalan.

This is definitely a pattern I will use again, it was easy after the cuff. The pattern is Lenore by Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee. It was from the RSC October 2007 kit.

A Finished Sweater

Kim's finished Kilcar. This is my favorite photo of all we took that day. This is a really warm sweater. I tried it on even before Kim knew it was finished. Shhh. We haven't sewn on the buttons yet. We have two nice big wooden ones.










The next project already on the needles and it looks pretty. I don't have pictures yet of how much further along I am, it's not much though. The pink in the photo below is more of a purpley-pink. And the green isn't so vibrant.

It will be this, for me.


And another project, Lenore from RSC October's package. I have about 3-4 inches left to finish them. They probably won't get done until Wednesday though, as I worked today and will again tomorrow.


The sun has been shining, and the crocus are in bloom. Spring is just around the corner we hope.

You Make My Day

Thank you Deb for making my day. I never know who may see my blog and it feels good to know that I have touched someone. I met Deb during the MS3, we were able to get together a couple of times to knit on our stoles. So, in keeping with the spirit, I have listed below 10 blogs that inspire me. There are a lot of other blogs out there that I read and am inspired by, but these 10 are the ones I chose this time.

Local writer, knitter, Sanna's Bag
You should check out her books!

Local mom and knitwear designer, Chrissy at Knittin' Mom
Designs for the real woman.

Another Oregonian I met at Camp Cockamamie last year, homeschool mom, quilter and knitter Knit One Quilt Too
Her quilts for the Sister's Quilt Show are beautiful!

Local homeschool mom, knitter, and ESL teacher, Magpie Ima
Check out her Monday Mosaics.


A Camp Cockamamie friend who is coming back this year! FiberFish
She knits like the wind!

My cousin and her new family. The Development of Lucas
New baby on the way, and it's a girl!

Women writers that I enjoy. Girls Write Out
Christian fiction.

A food blog!Coconut & Lime

A local homeschooling mom(her kids are grown up now)My Journey with Leukemia

So Many Thoughts

I have so much to say, but just can't say it. I spent some time yesterday while we were waiting for our plane home, to write out my thoughts on how my dad is doing. It's not all good. BUT, I really want to tell you about the fun stuff that Kim and I did.

We went shopping! We went to Mervyn's and she found cute PJ's with Cap'n Jack on them, and I found a really cute little sweater for summer. We also went to The Great Mall. Holy cow, that place is huge! It is an outlet mall, though not all the stores in it are of the outlet type. There was
Hot Topic, Papaya, two stores that Kim really likes and I know we have them here, so I wasn't willing to pay sales tax at those two places. We did find some other cool stores for t-shirts, underclothing, etc.

Thursday evening we hit Purlescence Yarns for their Knit Night! Oh what fun that was.



We met lots



and lots




of other bloggers,



saw Nathania and even held little Elinor. It was wonderful, warm and funny. Thank you guys for the wonderful welcome. We will definitely stop back in when we are in town.


Kim and baby.


Mom and baby.



Me and baby.


I had to share the stupidest thing I did on Monday. We were headed to the airport, and I was knitting furiously to finish my pair of Fetching. Well, I cast off with just seconds left before we were to get out of the van. I told everyone I was going to leave the yarn in the van since I didn't need it and didn't want to transport it to California with me. So, later we are sitting in the gate area and I pull out my Fetching to finish it up. I realize that I hadn't done something and there was no way I could finish them to wear on this trip.


Can you tell what's missing? THUMBS. I was not happy, but at the same time, I couldn't help but laugh.

Knitting and Travel

Wow, 2 weeks is a long time between posts. I thought I would do just a little update. I finished another pair of Fetching, this time for Kim. When I had cut the last string I proclaimed that the next pair was for ME!

I really didn't mind working with this color so much. It kind of grew on me. The color is a bright green, almost neon. It is Knitpick's Swish Superwash in the colorway Aloe. I think I used US 3's. Modifications to make them a little bit longer.

I finished the sleeves to Kim's sweater and started on the fronts. I think I am about 1/3 of the way with them.

And here's a picture of the Chevron scarf I started. I think it will make a good airplane project. More on that in a second.


So, Monday, Kim and I fly out to California to spend the week with my dad. My mom is headed to an organist conference in Tuscon, AZ and dad really needs someone around to help him out if he needs it. Kim calls this trip "babysitting grandpa". I do hope we will get to one of the lys's called Purlescence Yarns.

The weather is being weird again. Mostly just cold. There may be some snow/ice coming in the next day or so. I am really hoping it doesn't interfere with our travel plans or Kim's dance on Sunday night. Please keep your fingers crossed for us.

We'll see you again next week, since I don't know what the internet connections will be like while we are down there.

Have I Mentioned GAUGE lately?

First I'm going to woo you with a Finished Object of great beauty!! The sweater called Lisa.
It is a Debbie Bliss pattern out of her book 7. The yarn is also Debbie Bliss, Cashmerino Aran. I used US 4's to get gauge and it is a little bit snug, but I think it will work.


I will be taking a picture of it on a real live body, probably Monday. I am so happy to have it done, but when I post the other photo's of it, I'll go into a bit of the nightmare aspects of this knit.

Now onto my gauge issues AGAIN. After casting off of Lisa and weaving all of the ends in, I started on Kim's Kilcar. I had swatched it, and was going down something like 5 needle sizes!! to try to get gauge. I figured I could start on the sleeves and make my gauge work that way. I started and did the first two repeat sections on US size 5. The pattern is 10 rows long, so it's not too bad. After doing the two repeats, I had Kim try it around her upper arm. The pattern doesn't decrease or increase going up the arm at all, so I knew it would be the same measurement at the top. It was fairly snug, so instead of ripping out, I switched to US 7's and it looks like it might actually work out. The sweater is baggy as it is, it's like a sweater-coat. I've been told that the pattern is similar to the Monkey socks by Cookie A. And, I think I am getting gauge in the pattern on the size 7's. THANK YOU GAIL for the idea.

Happy New Year

2008

A good year, look to the future, and not to the past.

To all my friends and family. Happy New Year. May this year bring you numerous blessings.