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!