close to finished!!

the end is in sight for getting this quilt finished in time for my DS's birthday!  wheee... I'm almost positive he never reads my blog, so the surprise won't be spoiled.  There are no 2 squares alike, which made it fun to make.  The actual quilting stage began today, and i'm hoping to get it done this week.  It is a little less than single/twin size, so is intended as a nap blanket and is Portland Trailblazer colors (well, the red and black...).  surely do hope he likes it!!

the colors aren't exact... it is red, not pink and black, not gray!!

more fingerless mitts

I had some really soft yarn (alpaca, i think) that was perfect for mitts, so this was my take-along travel project.  I started with a free pattern I found through Ravelry and improvised a bit (as usual).  the photo looks a bit goofy as i couldn't model both mitts and take the photo, too.  oh well... 

I WON fibers in a drawing!!

just the fact of winning something is exciting, but i won lovely handdyed fibers and a tote bag from Black Bunny Fibers (Carol Sulcoski).  In a group on Ravelry called Knitters for Obama, in a drive to raise $$ for Barack Obama, you could make a donation to the Obama campaign and your name would be put in the drawing for prizes which had been donated by other members of the group.  I really had no expectations either of winning anything or of the prize being this cool.  The coral bundle is Wensleydale dyed with Brazilwood and Henna, the green is corrie and the blue is Border Leiscester/mohair.  And the tote bag is big and roomy... will be fiber filled!

more photos from Crete

some random choice photos from my flickr....

this is the house across the street from ours.

Elena brought me these beautiful roses from their yard!

another one of our kitchen.  the sink is solid marble, as are the counter tops and the table top.

there are snails EVERYWHERE around our house in Vamos!!!  (only one got inside that i know of)   This photo is especially for Elena since she thinks they are "cute"!

home again

we got home tuesday night... some 30 hours after haulin' ass out of bed at 4:30a.m. in Vamos.  we are now in that re-entry process toward what passes for normal here in my queendom.  Jim went and retrieved the dogs from a neighbor's boarding kennel early Wed. morning, and they've been sticking as close as shadows since then, maybe fearing we'll leave them again.  all is good here at dome central, with some bloomin' flowers and trees, the clematis on the gazebo about finished its spring show, the greens in the greenhouse lush and plentiful (what happened to those neighbors who said they'd come and get salad greens while we were gone???).. and the grass/weeds knee-high.

It was a bigger than life lovely 3 weeks in Vamos, and now we have a house to go back to and will do that early in Oct. for about 3 months!!  bravo!

and now it's time for a nap.

a few more Vamos, Crete photos

this is my most favorite rose in our yard.  it lasts a really long time as a cut flower!!

3 views of the kitchen/dining area of our little Cretan house

we will probably use the wood stove in winter for heat as there is no central heating.

Easter in Greece

we are going into Easter weekend here... the biggest celebration of the year.  Looks to be 3 days

and nights of religious rituals, including a bonfire to burn Judas in effigy, a candle-lit procession through the village, fireworks... and then on  Sunday is a lamb roast!

this is likely the last post til i'm back home at dome central next week.  i'll put up more photos and descriptions then.

kalispera from Vamos!

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.....