last night we had dinner at our house for Elena, Toine and Valerie.  The Wookie dog, Ian also came and appointed himself the guardian of our domain... including sitting on the wall watching for signs of intruders.

life in Vamos, Crete

the village square at night.  this is where we had supper at a cafenion (souvlaki and greek salad) and  where  our friend, Velat, was driving by, saw us and stopped for a beer.  delightful to see him again as he has moved from Vamos and is living and working in Hania, and we don't see him a lot any more!  He is Kurdish and has been living in Greece for several years.

Jim and Velat

part of our yard.  there are several clumps of calla lilies  which someone weed-eatered half to death.  they grow very easily here and are coming back to life after their experience with the weed=eater.  geraniums, also, are everywhere.  i put a few clippings here and there in bare spots and they seem to be doing well.

and this is our friend, Toine from The Netherlands, holding his large and fluffy dog (I can't remember his Greek name, so i call him Wookie).  Sadly, i didn't get the best shot... when Wookie was giving Toine a kiss.

we have decided to rent this house long term, so have been doing some nesting.  I will get more

photos which shows the new arrangement of the furniture.  we also went shopping in Hania with our friend, Xanthippi, who showed us several places which have very good prices, and we found a piece with shelves which we'll go back and buy for the kitchen.  considering that the value of the dollar is crap compared to the euro, we won't be doing much buying!!

our time is getting short here and our schedule pretty full for the remaining days... tomorrow we will go to Marina's for dinner at 1pm,  Wed. to Hania with Xanthippi for more shopping (and buying of that bookcase/shelf unit thing) and go to the passport office to clarify some questions we have about how long we can stay here on a passport, and the possibility of getting a visa so we can make more frequent trips here.  and Wed. evening we'll have guests for dinner

(Elena, Toine, Berent (from Holland) and his Greek wife, Ghina)  it will be an interesting adventure cooking dinner for 6 with our limited supplies... 2 dutch ovens, one medium size frying pan, a very small refrig.  but, hey... we have wine and ouzo!! and glasses galore.  and then

on thursday we are planning to go to Rethymnon to spend the afternoon with Nikos, dear friend who used to be a waiter here.  Friday to Almyrda to see Georgios's new restaurant that he is setting up.  Sat.?? can't remember.  Sunday is Easter here and is a huge event.  we've been

invited to Xanthippi and Artemie's home for a lamb barbeque (the whole lamb on a spit!!).  and

monday, there is a small village nearby which celebrates their saint day (St. George) the day after easter... and it's a sheep festival with shearing, offerings of sheep milk cheese, lamb kabobs, etc.  and i'd love to go to that, and it's an event i'd prefer to go to with a Greek, so am hoping we can work that out.   and then on tuesday, we leave Vamos at 5a.m. to start that long journey home!

more later... maybe... probably

Vamos, Crete

this is the entrance to our house

what we see from the table on our porch, as we sit under the grape arbor.  the orange tree (not shown here) is in bloom and the aroma is absolutely intoxicating!  sigh..  We have harvested some of the lemons on the tree to the left of the porch.  That tree is multi-tasking... ripe lemons and new blossoms!  the flowers on the rose bushes are beginning to open up... gorgeous!!  the typical bright blue sky has not been visible due to dust from a dust storm in Africa having been blown in over us by strong winds from the south!!  there is a breeze from the north today which may remedy that.  the sun is out tho, temp is in 60's.  We have seen many of our friends and been welcomed warmly with hugs and kisses!  lovely!

We will probably take a 2 year lease on this house.  It is 80 to 100 years old and charming, tho kind of ... um.. rustic and plain in a lot of ways.  I've taken photos throughout the house and will post some of them soon.

We are here and all is absolutely wonderful!  we have free wireless connections at the taverna!  so here we sit at Bloumosifi Taverna with a cold Mythos beer and internet!!  Life is good!!

yarn/color/knitting... wheee

with yarn that i bought when Linda and i went up to the Madrona Fiber event, i started a scarf so i'd have some small and easy "take-along" knitting.  it began its life as entrelac and changed midstream to mitered squares because i just didn't like how it was looking.  and i love this yarn with one I bought from 3 Waters Farm in NC used in a random alternating fashion for the squares!!  it just seemed like i needed to put some fiber on the blog as it had been missing for awhile.  the project is mindless enough, while still being interesting, to work on during the upcoming trip.  that long flight is very wearing on my mind, body and attitude.  i don't do real well going without sleep for 20 or so hours, while also dealing with a variety of other humans who i'd prefer to avoid.  oh, well... it's all worth it to spend time in a small village in Crete!!

life

very strange weather we've been having here.  one day there's sun and spring, next day snow and close to freezing at night.  at least the snow is minimal and melts away quickly... unlike what they have had in Duvall, where Kate measured it at 6 inches and took pics of the kids and dog frolicking in it!  and in between the sun and the snow, there has been rain showers and hail.  oh, well, it hasn't interfered with my life in the slightest.

this afternoon we went to the matinee of "Our Town" at the community theater in Hillsboro.  the only reason i went was because my dad (age 93) had a small role in it and he would have been hurt if i hadn't been there to see him on stage again.  and for the hundredth time (it seems like) he asked if i remembered when he and my mom were in that play together.  i always say "yes" even tho i was probably 8 years old and it was one of many i saw them act in, and i'm not really sure i remember that event, or if the memory is based on pictures i've seen of them and the stories i've heard.  "Our Town" is my least favorite play in the whole wide world, and i wouldn't have gone if it were not for Pop.  he did quite well, tho i hadn't thought i'd see him on stage again.  so... hurray and bravo for him.   it was especially sweet for him because my brother was also in the play, so the 2 of them were on stage together again!   i'm betting he is exhausted after 3 performances every weekend for 4 weeks, and i don't know how many weeks of rehersals!! 

thoughts

And i had an interesting thought... it came while i was thinking about cleaning the house (operative words: "thinking about").  There is a definite advantage to downsizing from approx. 3500-4000 sq. ft. house (impossible to measure a dome house precisely and accurately) to somewhere around 1600-1800 sq.ft. house.  and that is that there will be a far smaller space to feel guilty about not cleaning!  that makes me happy.

a Cretan dinner

tonight Jim prepared a delightful dinner straight from a cookbook "Foods of Crete - Cooking Recipes" written by a woman we met during our last visit to Vamos, Crete.  Her name is Koula Varydakis, and i'm looking forward to seeing her again when we are there in April.   The dishes he prepared were all delicious... mushrooms dusted with flour and fried, potatoes with garlic, lemon juice and olive oil and baked, a shrimp dish with onions, green pepper and garlic, lamb with garlic and onions, Greek salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet onion dressed with olive oil and white balsamic vinegar) (which i can never get enough of), green salad from the greenhouse (rocket and romaine mostly) dressed with olive oil and lemon juice and white balsamic vinegar, and to top it off, raki (Greek fire water) (which was a definite hit with the guests... well, some of them).  I ate so much (and so well) that i damn near hurt myself!  and i have no regrets.  A dinner with the liberal use of olive oil and garlic rates high with me!!

And the guests... (from left, Amy, married to Jules, his dad, Bob, Jim-the-chef, Sarah, and Betsy.

amazing!

I'm not a crocheter by any stretch, but i think this looks really amazing!!  i'm impressed!

Crete

I just checked the weather in Crete... 62F to 64F and mostly sunny for the next 5 days, with 50sF at night!  sigh....  and 4 weeks from today, that's where i'll be.  This year we'll be in a different house and it has a garden and porch and trees, and this thought makes me very happy!  bravo!!

spring in the greenhouse

more Justify Your Stash

The Justify Your Stash mobius wrap (Lynne's pattern) is done except for dealing with the yarn ends.  Rachael was here today so i talked her into modeling it for me.  I really love the edging of pointy things and it was fun to knit them!!

Audacity Yarn

This is handdyed BFL sock yarn from Black Bunny Fibers.  I joined "Knitters for Obama" group on Ravelry where Carol Sulcoski is dyeing and selling this yarn and donating $15 of each sale to the campaign of Barack Obama!  What a great way to support a cause I believe in -AND- get some yummy yarn in the process.  it's a win-win for me and i think it's a really cool thing that Carol is doing!!  Bravo!!

a dyeing day

this is some merino/bamboo yarn i dyed.  it really does give me a spring feeling!  hoping it will look good with the entrelac and mitered squares project.... everwhat that becomes.

update on Justify Your Stash

The 47" cable for my Options needles came, and the edging has about 12 rows done!  No more photos til it's finished.  the edging on both sides is all on one circ.  It's one of those bits of magic where you gotta just follow the directions and it will all work out.  it's mobius, after all, and that's magic in itself!

fiber from Madrona

one of my most favorite color combinations!  no surprise it was tempting and that i gave in to it.  it is merino and seacell, which i've never spun so it should be a real treat.

this lovely little bundle is merino/silk, dyed by Fleece Artist in NovaScotia and purchased from Village Yarn and Tea Shop, Shoreline, WA.  It is SO soft and shiny!  

photos of latest purchases (shown w/stash)

When i bought the yarns at the Madrona market, i wasn't sure any of it would go with anything in my stash, just bought it cause i loved it!  So.. as i went pawing through my stash yesterday, i came up with some marvelous go-togethers!  these 2 on the left look like they were made for each other.  in the foreground is the new one i bought at Lamb's Ear Yarn Shop in Tacoma, ("Jewel", Collinette, 4ply merino, 110gms) with this lovely skein i bought at SAFF from Mary Ann at 3 Waters Farm in NC!  The 3 Waters skein is SW Merino, called "Underwater", 400 yds.  They are so very gorgeous together!!

and this lovely from Chasing Rainbows (called Pansies), is55% Mohair, 45% Merino, 4oz, 300 yds.  It is beautiful with a skein that Lynne bought for me in NH. which i've already used part of  in the entrelac piece.

and i love this one so much it makes my knees weak, so here's another photo of it!

I put 2 of the new yarns (L edge and R edge) with the entrelac and the mitered square pieces to see how they would work together.  the L one will probably work well, the R one i'm not sure.  will need to wait and see how the whole thing works out.  

the last photo shows 2 bundles from the stash. Top one is a handdyed  Mohair (54%) with silk, wool and nylon, boucle from Mary Ann at 3 Waters Farm.   And it looks quite fine with the skein of a handdyed from Dicentra, SW wool and nylon.

wheeee!  i'm feeling overwhelmed with all this stash.  and i need to get over that and do something with these lovelies.  

hey! it worked

Sad to say, but usually when i neglect to do things that "should" be done, because i'm lazy or have a bad attitude or whatever, it does eventually bite me in the ass!  For once it did not, so i'm quite surprised and pleased!  I haven't done much fiber dyeing since before BSG last June then did a little bit before we left for Crete in Oct... and i left everything out on the counter in my studio.  jars of dye solution, cups of random-who knows-what dye combinations... everything.  Until tuesday i'd just let it sit there and tried to ignore it, til i finally got motivated (where'd that come from???) and decided to try some of the dyes to see if they would still work.  and lo and behold, i can hardly believe it... every color i poured on the wet fiber and steamed looks just as i expected it to look!  of course, i had to pour hot water into some of the cups to bring the gloppy dye back to pourable solution, but it worked!!!  so, that success brought the motivation to clean up my studio and do some dyeing.  and i found a whole bump of superwash corrie which i'd forgotten was there, plus smaller amounts of other fibers.  I guess i'll get started now doing some dyeing for BSG and for Northwest Wools.

Yesterday Linda and i took a took a trip to Tacoma to the Madrona Fiber retreat, just for the trade show.  had a great time and did a little bit of buying.... some yummy sock yarn and just one small bundle of fiber (merino-bamboo) which was just too tempting to leave there!  then made a visit to a fiber shop several blocks (actually MANY) from the hotel where the fiber retreat was... Fibers Etc.  It was worth the hike.  A small (very small) shop with more fiber crammed in there than i could imagine in a space that small!  The owner (Roberta) and the woman working in the shop (Kathy) were just delightful people.  The second shop was Lamb's

Ear Yarn Shop, also in Tacoma and was also worth the search to find!  Got home late, tired and hungry.... and so glad we went.  it was fun and fun is a good thing!  Also, saw TS Gail at the market... 

photos of new yarn stash!  later....

Justify

OK... i've justified a lot more stash, and have about 6 or 8 inches left before i graft the ends to each other!  onward....

for some reason the intensity of the colors in my photos is way decreased when i upload from my desktop.  that hasn't been the case when i transfer them from flickr.  wonder why??!!  anyway, the colors are a lot more intense and prettier in real life.

stash reduction???

Not much has happened in the reduction department, tho i did get some organization done.  OK, here's the story to which i am sticking... all that fiber to spin and yarn to knit is on those shelves because i like/love all of it and going through and looking at every bit of it just convinced me of that truthiness.  so what's a fiber slut to do?  i'm keeping it all and whenever we move up north it's going with me.  and fiber does compress well and fit into very small containers!  there is so much lovely fiber there waiting to be spun and making me want to get to it... which i will, one of these days.  actually, i try to rotate creative activity otherwise my hands or wrists or shoulders start aching, which is a good reason for jumping from one project to another, so it's not all the  "easily distracted" bit.

nothing new on the moving plans, but around here we are going thru stuff and getting stacks of stuff for goodwill, craig's list, give-away.. and it doesn't appear that there's been a dent made.  eeeeekk...

Kate and Chris (mostly Kate I suspect) have been looking for a suitable property and not found it yet, but i kind of think we'll get that first property we looked at... and i hope so!

new project

not that i'm easily distracted... actually probably always have been that way... but I started a new project last night.  as i was getting ready to begin (not beginning.. just getting ready to begin) going through my massive and messy stash in my spinning corner i discovered a bag of yarn i'd totally forgotten about, and had really intended to do "something" with.  So, all good intentions of stash organization and reduction were overtaken by the need to do something with that lovely yarn left from the dye exchange that Lynne and Pam and I did many months ago.  the perfect project is Lynne's "Justify" at Knitty.com !!  the yarn isn't quite "chunky", as called for, so i'm using US#8 needles (my much loved new beautiful wood needles, Options from KnitPicks), and cast on 10 sts more than called for.  And i also put some other yarns in the basket which were not part of the exchange, but will work well in this project!!  About 6 or 8 inches of this mobius wrap got knit while i watched Jon Stewart and then Stephen Colbert, followed by Boston Legal (three of the very few TV shows i watch regularly).  and so a new project is started while i got some good (and snarky) laughs for 3 hours!

And right now i really am going to get into the stash reduction.  really....

changes slowed!

Well, Jim spent literally hours on the internet and phone checking out the zoning and the past building permits on that property in Duvall, and things were lookin' good... with a few questions for the seller.  we got down to fast and furious on the phone calls between the 2 realtors and the seller and C&K and us ... and things were still lookin' good.... up until the question of a bid with a contingency was brought up, and everything lurched to a stop.  Seller was not interested in that.

but we are hoping that with the slow market, (and one might assume that a 9 acre parcel with 2 houses on it would not be what many people are looking for), that the seller might come around to changing his mind.  however, since we have made the decision to make the move, we'll go on with getting ready for that... and that will keep us busy for awhile.  

and, meanwhile, we're making the plans to go to Crete for 3 weeks in April.  Pam and Larry are going at the same time and we'll share a house!!  damn, i hope it's warm there in April... i'm so tired of being cold!  We're having freezing and rain = a frozen mess out there.  expecting some snow sunday night and monday.  and i'm wishing for a warm chinook wind tonight to blow out the cold so twisted sisters can get here tomorrow for a spin-in.   and there's about a snowball's chance in hell that will happen.  i wonder whatever i will do with all those dolmades and hummus (with 4 toppings!) for the grazing table that i got at costco.  luckily, both are low-fat,

so Jim will eat them.

maybe some pics tomorrow of the sweater i've been working on lately.  it's one i pulled out of the UFO stack.  the bodice is done and i love it.  however, what i had planned for the bottom part is dreadful and just won't work.  have been working on the sleeves while meditating on what to do to make it all work.

something finished

finally.... something finished!  and my firm belief in maintaining a goodly stash has been reinforced.  i hauled out some of the fabric stash (including some wonderful donations from SIL, Judy!!) and made myself a new dpn case/holder/roll-up-thing to replace the quite pathetic old one i have.   and i'm really pleased with it (and myself!).  I used one of the buttons i bought at SAFF from Diane Edwards at Annie's Sweet Handspun.  I got a bit carried away while shopping at her booth (something i really never hardly ever do..uh huh), but it's really wonderful to have an array of beautiful buttons in the stash when one is needed!  I love this one because it reminds me of a petroglyph found in the Columbia River Gorge, called "She Who Watches".

and i don't know what that damn stupid ? is there for and i can't make it go away!  oh well....

more about changes

it is looking more and more certain that we will move to Duvall in the near future!   While i was up there visiting last week more options came to the table.  Chris and I were out driving around in his jeep and saw a "for sale" sign and took one of the info flyers, went home and looked at it, then called the realtor and made an appt. to see the property the next day (last sunday).  This looks like a much better option than buying the 10 acre lot next to them and building a house there... which involves clearing a building site, putting in a driveway and connecting to a VERY unimproved road, drilling a well, putting in septic, etc.  Anyway, the property we looked at has a big house (really big!!) and a little house (very little!!) on 9+ acres about a mile from their current house.  C&K hadn't been considering a move... but this set-up looks pretty good.  the little house will need lots of work, but Jim has already drawn up a floor plan which looks workable.  the lot is about half wooded, with pastures and small out-buildings including a kind of hokey greenhouse.  the one photo i took there is of the resident sheep and 1 of the 2 goats... don't know if any of them will remain.  there are also a bunch of chickens which are reputed to supply 10 eggs/day... and Kate and Alex want to keep them.   it would be nice to have fresh organic eggs and to have a sheep around, but i have absolutely totally no interest in being responsible for any critters other than our 2 dogs.  So, we are in the process of figuring out the financing.  

When thinking about moving from here, i feel panic, dread, tachycardia, some sadness... and excitement with anticipation of a new adventure.  hmmm, i wonder how many twisted sisters would be willing to make the 4 hour journey to Duvall for a spin-in... it could be a combo slumber party/spin-in.  The day after i got back home, Jim took amtrak north to take a look at the property, and he is quite positive about it.

and while there i got a couple of pics of Alex and Zylie - on the left, playing some zoo game, and on the right absorbed in xbox viva pinata

powerless X2

due to wicked fierce winds and sideways rain today, our home, neighborhood, and town 

were without power twice today.. happy to say, one outage was for only about 1 1/2 hours and the other (after dinner!) about 2 hours.   it looked and sounded like the keeper of our planet was mighty pissed off and trying to take us out with force far beyond our puny selves!  the winds are calm now, but expected to pick up again during the night, and as usual the Oregon coast has suffered the most with high winds and rough ocean.  i don't think they are flooded again though.  During the dark i was able to entertain my spoiled self with my fully charged macbook and the internet!  so that's a good thing.  it kept this twisted queen mom from freaking out!

On the knitting scene, i've got a piece of entrelac about 8" X 12" and have started making some small mitered squares, eight of them attached together by picking up stitches along a finished side.... no sewing together for me if i can help it.  photo tomorrow if there's enough light.

and on the family scene, we talked to Soren, my Danish semi-son, last night!  He had all kinds of news... in my opinion the most exciting is that he and Pia are expecting a baby boy in May.   So i will be a semi-gramma for the 2nd time!!  I haven't even seen their first child, Laura, yet! but we hope to remedy that next fall!!  He says that 2 X semi-gramma makes me a legit gramma.  the background info is:  Soren was an exchange student and lived with us for several months, and we've stayed in contact since then (that was 1988 or so)  While Soren was here his parents came for a visit and we had a marvelous time with them!  Then the next year we went to Denmark for his high-school graduation, and had another great time with his family.  And we went back for another visit when Soren and Pia got married (about 2002???)  Another wonderful visit... his family and extended family are lovely folks and were so very hospitable and fun to be with!  During all those years between high school and marriage, Soren came back for visits here several times.   So that's what's behind the "semi-son" stuff.... he's not a son in the strictest sense, but kinda sorta like a son = semi-son.   And it warms my heart that this sweet person calls me his semi-mom and friend!

more entrelac

OK, Lynnie... here's the progress on the entrelac whatever-it-will-be-maybe-a-sweater piece i've been working on.  Damn, i love doing this.. and it's a real sweet treat using my new KnitPicks needles!

change

so... if change is good, is big change better?  and how about enormous change... enormously good?  and if this change comes about, i'll have to eat a lot of words and attitude covering many many years.  The words have to do with swearing i would never ever build another house, and the only way i'd leave this house and my queendom would be feet first and cold.  And what might change all this is that Chris and Kate have been talking about a 10 acre lot next to them up there in Duvall, WA, with the suggestion that we buy it, build a house and move up there!  I'm still kind of blown away by the whole idea!   Many thoughts are swirling around in my brain and oh my dear goddess, the frightening thought of dealing with 28 years of accumulated STUFF around here gives my brain oh so much pain!!  Put 2 people together who are confirmed packrats, both seemingly trying to make up for those lean childhood and early adult days when we didn't have much... and you've an unimaginable amount of STUFF.  We both have a hard time throwing stuff away... you know, "we might need this some day!".  On the other hand, as we get older the amount of time and work required to keep up this house, garden, flower beds, 400 wine grape plants, etc. gets to be more of a stress and less desirable.  And besides, we like to travel and we've discovered that sweet village in Crete!!  Chris suggested we hire someone to build us a house, then leave for Crete and come back when it's ready to live in.  not a bad idea really... esp. when i think of the daily challenges of building dome central.  I think life would be sweet living close to C & K and the grandkids and being able to be with them more.  Duvall is a small town, but bigger than Banks, and has restaurants and shops... And a quilt store... uh oh.... And it's kind of the outskirts of Seattle.  So, at this point we've decided to "look into it" and think about it and see what we come up with.  But it will take me awhile to eat and digest those words.  

busy times!!

the xmas dinner with the tribe here (tho a few were missing...) was the usual delightful high energy event with lots of food, an over-abundance of gifts, the 4 kids enjoying every bit of it.

Maisy (age 5) was especially happy because there was enough snow on the ground to play in, and every time i saw her she was either putting her boots on again to go out, or coming back in to see if someone would please go out and play with her in the snow!!  there was actually only about 2" of it, but she made the most of it, and there wasn't enough on the roads that it caused anyone a problem getting here, tho Chris drove thru areas of blizzards coming south on I-5.  In the gift dept. my stashes were beautifully enhanced with lovely silk fabric (lots of it) for quilting (or??) that Chris brought back from India... and the wonderful Knitpicks Harmony knitting needles set, which i already love using...the wood is so pretty and feels so smooth and i love the pointy tips on them a lot!!  I won't get into listing the bounty that came my way... but there was abundance and music i wanted, too (including The Sweet Potato Queens' Big-Ass Box of Music.... love it!)

Since there were NO suggestions for what should become of the entrelac i'm knitting, i've about decided that it will become part of a sweater.  stay tuned...

knittin' entrelac

this is what i've been knitting on recently -

I'm using 3 different handdyed yarns of Lynne's

and one of mine ( current row and the ball of yarn here).  Wanting to knit some entrelac and unable to decide on a pattern, i just cast on some stitches on US 3 dpns, and started in.  it is about 10 - 10 1/2 inches wide, unblocked, and i have no idea what it will become.

any ideas out there?  anyone?  someone? bueller??

cookies

and last night this domestic goddess took on cookie baking (after making 2 big batches of that chex mix that my whole family adores).  it's been years since i retired cookie baking from my list of domestic activities.. so i approached it with high hopes for a good outcome.  and i know that most people don't think of this as difficult and many actually enjoy it.  i don't so much, but on a whim a few years ago when at a Pampered Chef party, i bought one of those cookie presses just because i think they are kind of cool and i'd always wanted one.  so i dug it out of the pantry last night and looked for directions for its use.  there weren't any.  it didn't look complicated, so after the standard pressed cookie dough was made up, i stuffed some into the barrel of the gizmo, put on what looked like a cute design disc, and tried to get the plunger to go down and press the dough.  gotta say, i was feeling quite inept and started thinking thru a list of who i might call at 10pm for advice on cookie making with a press gizmo..... and couldn't think of anyone who wouldn't roll their eyes, sigh and think i'm pretty lame for not figuring that one out.  humility lessons are good for me, i know.. but i wasn't ready to take the lesson that far.  and finally i pushed something on the barrel, the plunger went down, i pressed on it and out came.... nothing.  ok, set it against the cookie sheet and pressed and out came some dough, and it just hung there on the disc, so after another pressing there was a large amount of dough hanging there.  after a few tries (and returning of blobs of dough back into the barrel) success came with pushing the thing hard against the cookie sheet.  finally!  cute little dough shapes.... and they came out of the oven looking like cookies.  most of them did anyway, and the failures got eaten!  they looked awfully plain, and there was no decorative stuff to be found. if any had been found i'm sure it would have been years past the throw away date.  all that came to mind was granulated sugar with a bit of red food dye, dye that was left over from one very depressing winter when i cheered myself up by dyeing wet lambs with koolaid and food dye.  that did totally cheer me up, by the way.  to the point where the sheep all thought i'd gone around the bend as i stood in the barn laughing hysterically at them!  back to the red sugar, which got spooned onto some of the cookies (it wouldn't "sprinkle").  so the cookies look ok, but plain, and taste great.  today i bought frosting and colored sprinkles, applied them and admired the outcome... lookin' good!!  can't decide whether to make another batch or just retire again from cookie making.....

here's........

the charlie

partially decorated.

kinda sweet actually

and here's charlie with more decorations.   no lights tho

as i was afraid the weight of them would cause tippage

life ramblings

just a week til winter solstice!  ah, the light will return.... tho ever too slowly.  remember the year that there was a full moon on solstice?  we went to a wedding in portland that night and got home late to find the night incredibly bright and breathtakingly beautiful here in my queendom.  there was such a temptation to dance naked in the glory of that moonlight.... but it was so damn cold that the frost was all sparkly on the grass.  much too cold for nekkidness, but i danced anyway, knowing it's good for the soul to dance in the moonlight.. esp. on a solstice night.

and i am loving using my new MacBook.  2 1/2 years with the dell laptop was enough to convince me i'd had enough of that.  i'm trying to resist calling it my adventure on the dark side, tho i'm pretty sure Chris doesn't read my blog... i know he would not find that the least bit amusing, beings as he works for MS.  but when the dell crashed, it just seemed like a good time to get another mac.  my first computer was a mac... and every one since then, except for the dell... and i still do have a mac desktop.  and i even found a group on ravelry for mac users.  there's a bundle of information there on software for knitters that runs well on mac.

last year we didn't have a tree for the holidays.. just minimal decorations, and that was ok.  but i decided i wanted a living tree this year.. a little one.  so Jim took a shovel and went down to the lot in front of the next-door vineyard, dug a tree for me and we planted it in a pot.  it's a really cute little tree, kind of.. um.. lean, taller than i was thinking of, but it needs the height to make up for the rather sparsity of branches.  i'm thinking i'll call it charlie because it does make me think of a charlie brown tree.  and it is very cute.

finished up my gift shopping last night online.  what a treat it is to shop that way!!  saves gas, wear and tear on the car, and helps me maintain a grip on sanity and good humor!  it's enough that i'll have to go grocery shopping next week to get ready for the tribe coming for dinner... probably around 20 to 25 of 'em.   wheeee.

just a little over 3 months til we go back to Crete.... bravo!

another finished project!

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well, it's finished ... except for sewing that last seam!  for me the good and bad of crazy quilting is that i could actually never be finished.. there is always something more that could be done!  So i reached a point where i said "ok, now, it's finished".

finished projects .. and ravelry

i'm having trouble navigating in ravelry to put finished projects up.... so, here's a couple for my blog instead!

I finished these mitts (sis-ternal, since they are "girly", rather than fraternal), my usual non-identical mode for pairs of socks and mitts.  not sure if they are for me... or who.

and the denim vest/jacket is finally finished for Robin, i'm happy to say.  she wanted one like mine... a vest with handknitted sleeves sewn in, making it a warm and fun jacket to wear!  hope she likes it.

so, whew, 2 projects finished!!

Northwest weather

There has been a lot of info in the media about the awful wind/rain storms in the pacific northwest this week, and indeed some areas have suffered huge damage.  i'm grateful to say that we are fortunate to live on a hill at about 500 feet elevation, so the only results of the flooding for us was that the major road out of here to Banks was closed for a day due to flooding of low-lying fields.  we didn't even have wind damage!  50 miles west of here at the Oregon coast is an entirely different story... lots of severe flooding and devastating wind damage!!  so... for anyone wondering how life is in my queendom... it's good!

now, i just need to get my stuff worked out so i can send mail from my email program... i know there is something really simple i'm missing...  WTF is it?

hoping for blogging again

Yesterday I brought home a new macbook, with high hopes i'll be able to interact with ravelry and to post to my blog!  i've been wanting this sweet laptop for a long time, so after the dell died and i recovered (emotionally.... but NOT all that stuff on my harddrive), i decided to do it!  so, i happily danced myself and new computer out of the macstore yesterday and hurried home with visions of opening it and connecting to the internet.  that was not to be...  My bubble completely burst when the message showed up that there IS NO internal modem, though it is capable of wireless, DSL and what-have-you.  no internal modem????  sweet goddess! the last several computers i've bought had internal modems.  what's up  with that?  seems the newest cater to the newest of connections... and living in the country outside of that zone dooms me to dial-up.  so, i did a little research and went back to the macstore today to purchase an external modem, which is a tiny device... not the big clunky box of years ago.  I did hope that they'd give me a price break due to my extreme sadness over this setback, whiny bitching and moaning about disappointment and inconvenience of having to drive BACK into Beaverton today, but no, only condolences and a pat on the head.  and the good news is, YAY and bravo... i am connected to the internet

from Vamos, Crete

life is good! we are renting "our" same little house in Vamos and it really did feel like coming home! have stayed busy seeing friends, meeting people, going to a couple of parties, eating good food, drinking raki and homemade wine, marveling that the weather is so excellent. changes here continue as the Brits continue to buy land and houses here. there's a whole conclave of 'em. much construction and renovation going on. i marvel, too, that there is no evidence of crashes on the roads as these HUGE trucks carrying cement, tiles, building materials share the narrow, winding roads with cars and buses. this is a highway system of true hairpin turns... and they all seem to navigate it ok. me? i prefer the bus or taxi for my transportation. riding with friends, i just hum to myself and watch the landscape racing by. oh yeah.... speed is a big part of this equation. went to Hania yesterday with our friend Marina, shopped for a couple of hours, wandered down to the harbor and sat there just enjoying being there. our friend, Alex (Marina's husband) died Sept. 23 of a heart attack and we miss him dearly. he was a huge presence in our times here, and it's just not the same without him. Alex was a larger than life 74 year old man with 2 teenaged kids, a farm where he grew all kinds of lovely veggies, chickens, rabbits, kiwis. He also had several groves of olive trees, grapes growing in several locations.. and we've been the happy recipients of wine, raki and olive oil... all from the big barrels in his basement, and dined well on what he produced. i'll post some photos when i'm back home again. We miss Alex so much!!

today we are in Kalives, a nearby village, to visit the internet cafe, buy some Moscato (a lovely sweet wine) and walk on the beach.

just 4 more days here.... sigh..

on the road

We're at the Outer Banks of NC in the midst of pretty brisk winds... it's warmish and no rain, so not bad at all. Since we've been here, we've been to the Wright Bros museum in Kitty Hawk and drove down to the Cape Hattaras lighthouse... and eaten lots of fresh seafood. When ya get south of the strip malls and t-shirt shops, the landscape is lovely, wild and natural with lots of sand dunes. will be here til sunday, then drive back to Richmond and fly away on monday to Athens then Vamos, Crete for 2 weeks. my stepbrother, Jim, and his wife, Carla, live in Richmond and are down here with us and we are enjoying relaxin', eatin' and Carla and i will enjoy some retail therapy today. saw a quilt shop and a bead shop, both of which deserve some of our time and prob. some $$$.

before Outer Banks, i was in Asheville for SAFF and had a great time fondling fibers and seeing some dear twisted friends! my sister, Robin, drove down from Knoxville and she and Lynne and i shared a room and we had a chance to get caught up with each other. SAFF has grown a lot since i was there several years ago. will try to remember to get photos of the fantastic buttons and yarn i bought.... but "memory" is not my stong suit these days!

there have not been any entries here lately on account of my dell crashed and died and the mac needs updating of safari and OS and won't let me post to my blog.... or blogspot won't communicate with mac. whatever it is won't get fixed til i'm back home again 11/20. we didn't bring a computer with us (borrowing bro.Jims), so tata til then.

a Party! for Alina!!

wheeee - there was a party tonight to celebrate a dear twisted sister on the occasion of her natal day (tomorrow) and her up-coming marriage (soon... but date not decided upon as yet). the party was at Sue's and was wonderful and the food fit for the goddesses..... and gods, too. Sue grilled salmon to perfection, and fixed turkey breast, too... and the table was loaded with a grand assortment of salads, breads, etc. And the cake was elegant AND chocolate... and i sure wish i'd gotten a photo of it, but maybe Gail did and i can "borrow" it. My cut-down-on-the-fats resolution went all to hell tonight, but oh well. any chance my cholesterol will be at a decent level when i have it checked on monday? maybe if i eat nothing but oatmeal and grains and beans tomorrow? i didn't think so........

And here's Alina and Michael

he seems very sweet and charming, and they seem perfect together!!

i will miss Alina dearly!!

fingerless mitts

the pair i was knitting on evolved with just a small alteration to... ta da.... leg warmers for an almost 5 year old girl. i hadn't quite reached the thumb bind-off place on the 2nd mitt, so just kept on knitting til it was a little bit longer than the first one... maybe 7 inches long, doing an inch or so of 2-2 rib before bind off. then ripped the first mitt back to the thumb place, picked up and re-knitted it to look like the other... well, as much "alike" as i ever do things. to my way of doing things, pairs of things need not look alike, be symetrical, match each other, etc. So, Zylie tried 'em on and loved them! these will make great take-along knitting projects... and the next ones will have more ribbing top and bottom (maybe all ribbed), be a little bigger around and longer. I had cast on 40 sts. for the mitts, and will try 44 or 48 next time for the leg warmers, depending on the yarn.

OFFF (Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival)

it was a glorious day for a fiber show!! sunny and warm (about 70F). I met Rachael there and we spent several hours fondling fiber and chatting with friends... and looking at the animals:
Rachael and a llama with a fringe. he had been sheared except for a long and fluffy fringe of wool around the top 12" or so of his neck.


and there in the animal barn with the sheep, goats, alpacas, llamas, bunnies and 3 bison... there was a 2-humped camel!


and a baby alpaca who knew that the feed in the next stall must be way better than what he had in his stall


photos of purchases will come later.

I was most pleased to notice that i was not tempted in the least to bring a bunny home, or at all sad that the sheep/llama/alpaca/bunny raising days are in the past, or that this is the 3rd year that i haven't been a vendor at OFFF. It was all good (well... most of the time!)... but life is so damn good now that i don't miss that other stuff at all.

life...or something like that...

just back last night from a few days in Duvall with C&K and the grandkids. Kate was driving to portland for the weekend, so i rode south with her.... thru unbelievable traffic jam around seattle/tacoma. what should have taken 3 1/2 hours took 6 hours. it was enjoyable riding and talking with Kate tho. but gotta say, by the time i got home that last nerve i had was kind of tattered. and i was tired!!

about those quilts.... the early 5th birthday gift was given to Zylie, and the early xmas one given to Alex. a bit of background information is that Kate had told the kids that gramma was bringing gifts to them, so the minute they layed eyes on me at the train station they wanted to know what the gifts were and when they could have them. i think they'd probably conjured up all kinds of thots of remote control toys and my little pony stuff. anyway, when we got to their house i handed over the wrapped up quilts. Alex seemed very happy with his even tho it wasn't legos or robots, etc. Zylie unwrapped hers and was very quiet... then said in a quiet and sweet voice... "gramma, i wanted unicorns and Pegasus". i just laughed... but she wasn't really interested in her quilt. it is ok and i can laugh about it... after all, i did score BIG with the sweater that's in the TS Knit Sweaters book. and truthfully, i'm delighted to be finished with those quilts (Zylie's has been in progress for close to 3 years) and now i'm looking thru my stash of fabric and planning the next quilt or 3.

Kate and i went to Molbak's Nursery while the kids were at outdoor school so i could spend the gift certificate they'd given me for mother's day... wheeeee. i'm really glad i waited cause they were having a huge sale and i got some great bargains! 2 very large ceramic pots (one orange and the other burgundy) to use outside on the patio. also, a lilac tree, a hibiscus syriacus which will grow in the NW, some kind of small cedar that i can't remember its name, and heavenly bamboo.... all of these were 50% off! and 3 coleus in 4" pots that i'll grow indoors thru the winter and have a head start next spring! a huge bonus in this shopping spree was the ride back with Kate, so i could buy anything that would fit in her car and not need to hold back to what i'd be able to carry with me on the train! oh, yeah, i did go over the amount of the gift card, but it wasn't terribly damaging to the debit card! maybe i'll remember to get a photo of the bounty tomorrow.

tomorrow i'll go to OFFF in Canby with Rachael and see what mischief i can get into. and deliver my motorized Duncan carder to its new owner. i'm so happy i sold it!! it's a wonderful piece of equipment, but i so rarely used it that it was dumb to keep it

p.s. - photos of the purchases at Molbak's Nursery


closer shot of the heavenly bamboo and hibiscus. isn't that orange pot gorgeous?? i love it!!

what i've been doing

finished the quilt for Alex. it's a gift for xmas, but i'll give it to him next week when i'm in Duvall.


and Zylie's quilt is finished. it's her birthday present... but we'll be gone when her bd comes in Nov. (in Crete again!!), so will give it to her next week!

other than that, i've been harvesting good stuff from the garden, making pesto ... and will probably be able to harvest at least one more batch... trying to keep my flowers alive and happy with our fickle weather extremes. In the past week i've about gone over the top of my tolerance for human contact. Last thursday we had a dinner party of mostly grape/wine related youngster (ages late 20s to late 30s) friends.... 10 adults with 5 little kids. Ryan and Sonia have been helping with tending our grape vines, harvesting, crushing etcetcetc.. to bottling and drinking the wine. Sadly, for us, they will leave in about 2 weeks for 2 1/2 years in Africa in the Peace Corp. and they are SO excited about this life-changing adventure!! Jason manages the vineyards at AnneAmie, and he brought Amy, to whom he recently became engaged... and she is lovely!! Jason and Chris were friends in high school, so that's the connection there. Travis manages vineyards for Elk Cove Wineries, who bought my folks' vineyard, and he and his wife, Nicole, and kids live in the house in the vineyard that my parents built. Also here was Jessica (Jason's sister) with her husband and 3 kids. We've known her since she was a kid, and i was her mentor for her senior class project in HS. She learned all about care of sheep, lambing, shearing, wool processing, dyeing and spinning.... my kind of project! it was a greatly enjoyable evening... with lots of wine consumed, of course!

and then there was Monday..... Dinah and her partner, Jonica, let me know a while back that they'd be coming down to see Pop on their camping trip down the OR and CA coast, so we planned a family dinner for last night (here at dome central). it was the usual chaotic event, minus my grandchildren and their parents who were on a camping trip. lots of contributions to the dinner table.. esp. from Judy who brought a turkey!! bravo! Pop made the dessert (2 pies), but this time he forgot to cook the crust... the peach filling was yummy, tho.

my new mantra: "is it nap time yet?" and yes, i believe it is.....