home soon

Our 3 months of living in Crete is a week away from over and it's been a wonderful adventure! Will move back from the travel blog to this one after December 6. Leave me a message if you'd like to have the URL to the other blog and i'll email it to you.

more cuteness

last friday was zoo day for part of the tribe..... and here's the smallest members

Max (held by Jen), Alex, Zylie, Jordan and Maisy. it was rather a comedy watching 5 adults chasing in 5 different directions after energized kids. at least there were enough adults to divide up the responsibilities. i especially like the butterfly exhibit which will be here for a couple of more months. polar bears and sea lions were the biggest hits. it was really interesting to watch the sea lions playing and chasing underwater. a lot of their playing reminded me of the way Meika and Tasha play together.

countdown = 13 days

and i'm wishing we could just leave right now! well,no, i'm not packed yet... stuff is piling up in a heap on top of my duffel bag and i can really start getting organized after this weekend. maybe tomorrow i can spend some time with my new camera and figure out how to get the photos downloaded on the dell, then i can take a pic of the stole/wrap in its latest incarnation. also, need to spend more time with dell and hope i dont end up banging my head against it. i WILL conquer the alien windows!!

the garden is giving us an abundance of little tomatoes..... not cherry, it's the grape tomato, but they sure do look and taste like cherry. and there's been enough basil to freeze 2 batches of pesto!! ahhhh..

catching up

Have i said that i really like the new Prius?

actually, i love how it drives, how comfortable it is, how much room there is for all our "stuff" AND the fact that we got 51 mpg the last 2 tanks full of pricey gas. that mileage was with a combination of 70mph on the highway and stop and go city type driving. i had heard that the car sacrifices pep and power to the economy, but i havent found that to be true at all. have had no problem with getting plenty of power for passing etc!! love it! and it is kind of cute, too... not in the category of Mazda Miata, but cute nonetheless!

and then there is the current knitting project... the stole! once again my "casual" approach and lack of planning has risen up to bite me in the ass! you'd think i'd have learned by now to be sure i have enough fiber dyed for the project i want to do, even tho i dont have all the yarn spun.... but no! took a critical look at the accumulated yarn and decided i'd better do some figuring as to how much i'd used so far and how much the stole would require to make it 60 inches long. it would have been SO much easier to do this calculating while i was dyeing the fiber... but did i? no! of course, i now need at least 6 more ounces and i know damn well i cant dye fiber to match closely enough for it to work, and of course, all the original fiber is spun up, so i cant do the old trick of mixing first dyed and second dyed fiber as i spin it and work that into a "design element" (and i DO love "design elements"). so, plan B developed: use same Iris and Turquoise diluted, then alternate the more intense and the softer shades. Last night i ripped out the 14 or so inches i'd knitted, decided to eliminate the olive-y yarn completely. now just need to get this new batch spun up, which should go quickly as i love spinning the alpaca/merino/silk, and i'll have a bag full of yarn and a travel project. pictures later, maybe.

last month when i went to the beach, i visited my friend, Gail, who i hadnt seen in way too long. our kids went to school together in Banks, are now in their 30s and both of us are now grammas! Gail's grandson, Sam, is precious and sweet, and let me give him lots of hugs!


have been keeping busy with working thru the list of things to get done before we leave (in 18 days). got some audible books downloaded and on my iPod (John Irving's _Until I Find You_, Ann Cameron's _Colibri_, Sue Monk Kidd _The Mermaid Chair_, Mark Haddon _The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime_, Patricia Storace _Dinner with Persephone_) plus lots of music including Helen Reddy's Greatest Hits (1987) which hearing again has turned into a huge blast from the past experience... oh, my! it amazes me how much i've put on the iPod and barely dented its capacity. have been trying to get used to the dell laptop and windows. what an alien experience that is. am beginning to wish i'd been able to find the $500 or $600 more it would have cost to have a mac laptop. i did get a wireless mouse which eliminated the frustration of the damn touchpad. well, "they" say that by learning new things one can keep the brain cells and synapses firing and stave off the onset of oldtimers brain..... this dell challenge should fill that bill!

had lunch with brother Curbhead on wednesday at Maggie's Buns in FG, which was fun and we agreed to do that again. what i had to eat was a wrap with eggplant, feta, tomato, hummus... and i plan to make that for supper one of these days. will add basil leaves and sliced kalamata olives plus a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. yum. Last weekend my dear friend Anne came out for dinner.... first time she's been out since she helped me choose the tile for my new kitchen and also, the first i've seen her since her dear Dave died in Jan. Anyway, she's planning a 3-month trip to SE Asia in december, and since Pam is moving there in october, they had lots to talk about and will get together when Anne is in Chung Mai. on sunday, Ryan and Sonia came out to help Jim with wine bottling and to get more pointers on grape harvest since they will be in charge of it this year while we are picking grapes and olives in Crete. Also, Marge (DSIL) and Loren came for dinner as we wanted to be sure we see them before we leave. Today Pop is coming out for dinner. Judy's bringing him. she and i had wanted to have dinner at a steak place before i leave, but that just prob. wont happen, so we'll have to settle for Jim bbq-ing some fish and we'll share a bottle of Retsina. tomorrow is a twisted sisters spinning get together here at dome central... havent seen anyone but Linda since BSG, so it'll be great to see them. hoping that Rachael will get back from her weekend up by Port Angeles in time to see everyone. ive been needing some chocolate in a big way, so will make some super-chocolate brownies for tomorrow and an orzo salad.

and next weekend, C&K and the kids and puppy will be here for a wedding on sat. night (Jim's niece Brittany is getting married). on friday night we'll have dinner with Pop - the monthly Candlelight Dinner at Avamere, which was quite good the last time we went. grandkids and wedding saturday. then Chris will leave early sunday to drive back to Duvall and fly out on another microsoft trip to London. Pop and (Curbhead) Bud have planned a family dinner at Bud's as a going away for us and BD for celebration for Bud. Then with 9 days til departure, i'll do my best to avoid any social getting together, going anywhere etc, and try to figure out what's essential to take with me for a 3 month stay... and get it packed. i keep reminding myself that there are stores and plenty of opportunities to buy anything essential that i forget. it doesnt totally sink in. but since i cant count on finding yarn and fiber and knitting books, i am definitely packing lots of those things. have gotten a big bunch of Falkland wool yarn dyed up in bright colors to make some kid things for xessmass as there wont be much time for that when we get back.

i dont know if anyone has read this far ... it's been pretty long and blabby, but this is the end for today!

cuteness

after time spent with the grandkids, there's always additions to the cuteness files.
Alex and Z looking at the video Jim just took of them


On monday we took the kids to Remlinger Farm which in addition to the farm store, has fun and rides for the kids, including some farm animals they can pet, a train ride, canoe ride, roller coaster plus plus plus....
Zylie riding the pony and very pleased about it


Alex loved the canoe ride!


there was an old school bus the kids could climb around in. while Alex was "driving", Z was enjoying the view... probably the closest either of them will get to a school bus...


the train ride gave them a chance to rest for a few minutes from the heat and activity of the day.



there's lots more photos, but that enough for now. Kate and i did some trading that seemed to make both of us happy. she is now the owner of the Louet spinning wheel which has been living at her house for awhile... and i am the new ower of a Canon digital camera which Kate wasn't using since she upgraded. I'm delighted and hope to learn more about its features this week, so my next photos will be better quality than these!! I'm afraid that half the weight in my luggage will be gadgets and the wires to connect them... and of course, the instruction manuals!

Less than a month now til we leave for Crete and i'm putting a moratorium on putting any more commitments on my calendar between now and then. We have something going on every weekend between now and sept. 7.

we had a great time with the grandkids and their parents, and their puppy, Tiki, too! there's nothing to warm a gramma's heart like a little girl running toward you, arms outstretched, big smile on her face, saying "it's grammmmaa"!!

The "usual" is going on in the fiber department.... a dye pot going with BFL top steaming away and lots of dyed and dried rovings/tops waiting to be bundled up and taken in to Northwest Wools. will take a photo of the progress on my shawl.

on the road again...

Tomorrow Jim and i are driving to Duvall for the weekend plus. today is Chris and Kate's 10th wedding anniversary.. and they will celebrate tomorrow with an adult's date night out and about in seattle... and we will stay with the grandies. then on monday night Chris and Jim have tickets to a baseball game (yawn...) and we'll come back tuesday a.m. I'm gathering up all my techie stuff to get their help on making dell work with my iPod, the spyeye webcam thing, dig.cam etc. also, taking some of my orchids to live with Kate while we are gone. the others, i'm hoping my neighbor will come in and care for them. did some shopping at AAA today. got my international driver's license and some plug converters so we can use our electical things there. i'm trying to train my hair to get along ok without a hair dryer and curling iron, and hope that works out. the less baggage like that that i have to take along, the happier i'll be. just need the basics, like: coffee pot, reading light, fiber, spinning wheel, yarn, knitting needles, fiber.....

Rachael

Pam and I picked Rachael up at the airport last night. it's so wonderful to see her again... it seems like more than the 2 years she has been gone. she looks wonderful and seems happy to be home. it will probably be something of a culture shock for her after spending all that time in a small village in the outbacks of Tanzania..... and i know she has lots of stories to tell!! i hope she'll make it to our twisted sister gathering in a couple of weeks. pictures soon.

going to be another day in the 90s, so no dyeing going on here. more fibers and yarn to go thru and de-stash... and that will be inside in the ac.

fiber content!!

The Beginning of a PROJECT. so, do you suppose that by documenting the beginning of it i will actually finish this? that's the plan right now. i've been wanting to do a lace something-or-other and had decided the fiber would be alpaca/merino/silk blend, of which i had 2 pounds in the stash. i dyed up about 1 1/2pounds of it in WF Turquoise, Lanaset purple and blue mainly, and with what i thought was a small amount of greens - olive, dilute olive, dilute gold with a dash of brown and a drop of green. then when i spun a sample, discovered there was too much green and it looked awful plyed with the turq/purples, so pulled the sections with the greens out of the roving and spun that separately. so, with the pattern i finally found that is a rectangular stole, not a triangular shawl with the long pointy back and could be done on #5 US needles (not the itty bitty #2 or #3), i actually did a swatch! it looked good, so i started on The Project. i think it will be a good travel project, and maybe i'll finish it while in Crete and it will be cool enough in november to wear it! here's the fiber, yarn and a couple of inches of stole with a pic from the book - _Naturally Noro_ by Jane Ellison, "Silver" chevron lace wrap.


and then a more "artsy" shot. just couldnt help myself!

hah! now i know...

the lovely flower is on a bush/small tree called Leycesteria Formosa. (photo friday, july 22) there are little black edible fruits (berries?) that form after the flower, which are sweet and some people make jelly from them. i cut a couple of small branches with the flower on the end and put them with other flowers in a vase. everything else in the vase faded away after 4 or 5 days, and this one is still alive and perky. gotta love it! i know i do.

and here's a photo of the fruits forming -

Hania, Crete harbor

a photo i took last October of the harbor at Hania, Crete, which is about 1/2 hour drive from where we will be staying in Vamos.

we leave in 6 weeks (and 2 days)

flower du jour

one of my favorites and i dont know its name...

a laugh

well, I needed a laugh this morning and received this in an email from a friend. read on if you, too, need a laugh:

The couple had been debating the purchase of a new auto for weeks.
He wanted a new truck.  She wanted a fast little sports-like car so she
could zip through traffic around town.

He would probably have settled on any beat up old truck, but everything she seemed to like was way out of their price range.

"Look !" she said. I want something that goes from 0 to 200 in 4 seconds or  less.   "And my birthday is coming up.  You could surprise me."

For her birthday, he bought her a brand new bathroom scale.

Services are pending.

dyeing

Twisted Pam asked what dyes i used on these rovings, so i'll do the best i can in describing them. Mostly, i use Lanaset dyes, and a few Pro WashFast. In the reds, pinks etc merino/tencel roving i layed the wet fiber out on plastic wrap, snaked back and forth in about a 2 1/2 foot length. starting with copper (L scarlet, brown and gold),
then L scarlet,
polar red,
scarlet with small amount of either polar red or L magenta,
L magenta with sml amt polar red,
then WF violet
*(L=lanaset and WF=Pro Washfast)
smoosh the dyes in to be sure they go all the way thru, add vinegar, wrap up the plastic wrap and steam (~45 min)

reds

same procedure... this time the dyes were:
olive (add tiniest amount of L brown to lime)
lime ( L yellow = small amt. L green)
L yellow and L gold mixed about 1/2 / 1/2
copper
L brown w/L gold
?L magenta +WF violet (not really sure what this is)
WF turquoise
magenta (same as above)
L yellow w/a few drops of brown
Lyellow + gold

I cant give you any exact formula as i dont keep records. i just add dyes to each other in a plastic cup or a jar and swirl it around ... when it looks right, i pour it on the fiber. let me know if you have any questions... maybe i can answer them :-]


turq, purple etc

Tuesday already

Pam and I went to Lincoln City Friday a.m. and stayed at her friend's house which is right across the street from the beach. it was a really nice home, with a front deck which was perfect for spinning and looking at the ocean. i spent a couple of hours in Depot Bay visiting a dear long-time friend and got to see her daughter and grandson (and if they send me any photos of Sam, i'll put them up here) He is 2 and is just darlin'... and was very generous with tickles, hugs and kisses!!

I think i want to knit a lace shawl! ok, i've taken the first steps in that direction... searched the internet and my books and pattern stash for something suitable, dyed up some alpaca, merino, tussah in purple, turquoise and some soft olive-y greens and have spun and swatched a bit. I really dont like the olives plied with the turq or purple, so have Navajo-plied enough to do a swatch and will do that tomorrow. actually, it's a stole that i'm thinking of as i dont like how a triangular shawl looks and feels on me. will prob. pick a lace pattern that's simple and maybe even in garter stitch, figure out a border and how wide i want the thing to be, get going on it. it should be a good travel project. just hope this is a more successful project than the cardigan of which i do not speak as it is now hidden in a corner to age and wait for me to figure out what the hell i'm going to do with it! quite of bit a store-bought yarn involved there, so i cant just permanently ditch it.....

I promised twisted Pam that i'd describe how i dyed a couple of those merino/tencel rovings that i put up on the woolgatheringsfibers blog.... however, i'm just too damn tired tonight and need to go to bed. it was a hot day again and i was out and about taking Pop for acupuncture to fix his neck and shoulder spasms, then out for lunch, followed by a stop at Good Will to find a gallon glass jar for making "bounce" with black cherries and vodka (mmmmmm). and while there i found the jacket i've been looking for to take to Crete..... and what a deal that one is!! it's a REI goretex, mauve-y pink, has a hood, looks totally brand new and cost $9 ohmy!! probably by mid-november the weather will be turning cooler and rainy, and i've been wanting a light-weight jacket with a hood... and yay, i found it! can cross that one off the list.

NEW HANDDYED FIBERS

check on www.woolgatheringsfibers.blogspot.com to see these new superwash Merino/Tencel fibers for sale:

family

here's the most recent edition of our sibling photo, taken july 3 at the gathering of the tribe -

Robin, Dinah, me, Bud (aka Curbhead)

drying fibers

here's photos of what i've been dyeing lately. they are still hanging on the drying rack, still a little bit damp
superwash merino/tencel 50/50 (i just love how all shimmery and shiny it looks!!)


and another one....

Ruby2

We got our new Prius on tuesday and hoo boy, it is a sweet thang..... Salsa red (metallic) & drives so smoothly! and has so many displays to look at, i need a co pilot just to watch all the displays. with buttons on the steering wheel, i can turn on the radio and search for stations i want and turn on/off the ac and adjust the temp. it does many cool things and i expect it to start a conversation with me any time now. we have about 200 miles on it and average mpg is 47 and that's some highway and some city driving. funny how attached i've become to driving a pickup truck tho. it was really hard to leave Ruby sitting alone on that lot and i do miss driving her. my brother, Curbhead, has already offered several times to take care of the car for us for the 3 months we're gone..... dunno about that.
here's Ruby: (photo of Ruby2 to come later)


we have been having perfect dyeing weather... cool and rainy.. and it should continue for another day or so. so i spent most of yesterday dyeing some superwash merino/tencel which i'll take photos of and post for sale on woolgatheringsfibers.blogspot.com in the next few days. one of 'em is especially inyourface with attitude!! also, dyeing some yarn for Linda for the shop. got about 25% of it done so far..... hope the coolness lasts a few more days! back to the studio i go.

4th of July

and i spent the day recovering from the family tribe gathering yesterday here at dome central. a lot of the day was spent looking for the title to my pick-up (Ruby) which i never found. tomorrow she gets traded in on our new red Prius and as much as i want this new car (the first brand new car we've bought in 27 years of being married), it's sad to give up Ruby. I've had pick-ups for the past 20 years. a new car!!! wow...

Saturday Night at the World...

hhmmm - i do remember when"Saturday night" used to mean something. that was a LONG time ago, and now it just means that it's Jim's one night of the week to cook (yippee!!) and i might be able to find a British comedy on tv or satellite that i havent seen already. rarely even stay up for SNL anymore. it's that age thang, i guess.

we're just about ready for the clan gathering tomorrow. Jim has been working like a madman getting caught up on all sorts of outside chores and Pam and I have been doing a bit in the flower beds, so it's looking pretty spiffy here in my queendom. Pam will make a trifle tomorrow by special request... mine! Jim has the chick and salmon ready to bbq and i have a salad still to make. Robin and kids are in town somewhere but i havent seen them yet. Dinah, Jonica, Anna and Tyler probably arrived today and are staying with Jen and Maggie. sad to say that Chris, Kate and kids arent able to be here... Chris is really swamped doing some last minute work stuff to get ready for his 10-day MS trip to London, the dog is in heat AND this is one crappy weekend to be on the highway... and that all added up to it being better for them not to make the trip! sigh. will miss them!!

got started on yarn dyeing for Linda, doing alpaca first and it takes the dye so beautifully it would be difficult to mess it up. the first one is blues with a bit of eggplant and turquoise and looks great. must remember to put that combination on some BFL roving... mmmmm...! some of the folks from the Shakerag workshop have emailed and it does seem that we did a right fine job of enabling and inspiring, for which i'm proud and happy! and i'm sure Lynne and Lori are, too.

seems like there is an over-abundance of spiders about this year... both inside and outside. got my first spider bite of the summer today while wading around in the weeds in my garden. i wonder if i got a spider tattoo would it act as a mojo against spiders, or just attract them to me?????? it's been 11 years since my feather tattoo, so it must be time to get another one and get the feather touched up a bit. and 11 years since my crone ritual.