Summer Knitting Goals

There's a contest over at Skeins Her Way. You need to state your summer knitting goals in order to enter to win one of three great prize packages. Go check it out, she's a mom of seven and knitting designer.

Here are my goals for the summer:

1. Design and knit a bunch of Scandinavian themed items to sell at our Daughters of Norway "Christmas in August" sale
2. Swatch and wash some Black Water Abbey in preparation for my Aran vest
3. Knit at least one pattern repeat on my Garden Gates a week
4. Secret item for a family member
   

Knitting Update

Here are all the f.o.'s I have neglected to post. Most of you knitters on are Ravelry and have seen them anyway, I know, sorry.

The easy Branching Out scarf that had me pulling my hair out. I was doing it on metal needles, and finally gave in and bought bamboo, then things got better. Before and after blocking.

Next we have the really fun "Fleeced Earflap Hat" by Cocoknits. We had quite the photo session. It is knit in Lamb's Pride Bulky and the thrums of wool are knit in as you go.









These are the Vespergyle Mittens. Another challenge. The pattern just didn't speak to me, I had to keep my eye on the chart constantly.

This is Foliage, found in Knitty.

I had a lot of yarn left over and made up a pair mitts with the same lace pattern.


And finally here is a cupcake (pattern). I knit one for a friend, and one for K. I can totally see myself making more knitted toys. Fast and fun.

About Last Month

May zoomed by, it was really busy. I'll post knitting photos another day, there are a few f.o.'s that need photos.

First was Norway Day where I dressed up as a boy and slayed trolls.

With the aid of an elixir.

In the end I saved the princess.

It all made my kid laugh. "Mommy boy".


I did some spinning with the guild and met Wonder Mike. There was also good eating, drinking, and shopping at the festival.

The next day I took an all day spinning class with Ossian Kidholm, who had come over from Norway to demonstrate at Norway Day. (I rented a wheel). Very informative and a good time to get to know some of the guild members better. Wonder Mike has a bunch of photos on Flickr from Norway Day, including Mr. & Mrs. Kidholm, and me in my everyday bunad.

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Next up was demonstrating at the Zoo's sheep shearing day. We had a lot of fun, didn't let the rain deter us. This is Mocha, I brought home a little bit of her fleece:


And a little of the alpacas' as well.

I already blogged about our trip to Idaho. Never got pics of the fiber I bought, but it was some local alpaca, more colors of Norwegian and Icelandic, and some Pygora.

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I forget when Mother's Day was, but I got a cup of coffee in bed, and a really cute card slammed in my face. I was impressed, it had a baby in a knit fruit hat on the front (I made several of them in the past). Is it horrible I can't remember what my gift was? Oh yeah, I got flowers, too. It was Daughters of Norway Day, and I was a hostess. I know something crappy happened, too, but I don't remember what.

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Next we went to Las Vegas. Wow, first time for all of us. It was hot and tacky. That sums up my feelings about the town. On the other hand, I got to meet Mr. TVP's old friend from grade school and his family. That was fun, especially since our trip east got canceled for this year.

The kid is still asking to go back to Circus Circus. He won a lot of crappy toys, which I ditched here and there. Who thinks a pillow with the word "Hottie" on it is appropriate for little kids? I let him keep the dog I won him by spraying water at a target so well that my Viking Ship won a race.

The biggest challenge was finding anything healthy for him to eat, without going to a sit-down restaurant. We resorted to apple "fries" from MacDonald's and room service. He got that hang of that really fast! Note many residents of the Island of Sodor on the bed.

We spent one day as a family and then took turns with the kid so the other adult could do more, well, adult things. Kid things included the monorail. Yay!!

And goldola ride at the Venetian (Boo!)

Got back and the next weekend was my cousin-in-law's kid's 21st birthday. Here is the least incriminating photo of the over-nighter:


The next day was our wedding anniversary. We had a low-key dinner with my parents. K. got ahold of the camera at our favorite pizza place.

I swear I don't know why that kid is such a ham.

Culture Shock

I know I haven't posted in a long time, there was shearing day at the zoo, Mother's day, and knitting. But right now I am recovering from a five day trip to Northern Idaho. We went there because of this, my sister graduating from UI:


First, highlights of the trip to rural/small town Idaho and Washington, without photos:

• Driving up and down the Lewiston Grade, whoo-hoo
  
• Attending a three-hour graduation ceremony with a 2-year-old
• Driving over the Snake River on a blue bridge, twice
  
• Almost missing a flight due to airport signs continually changing location of the gate
• Beverage service canceled due to turbulence, after having to dump out the sippy cup at security
  
• Getting sprayed with beer at the recycling center on the way to the airport
• Driving around the Palouse. It is truly beautiful country. Endless rolling hills of wheat fields
  

And photo highlights:

Climbing in a rusty old engine:



Various signs of Spring:



Dairy Queen:


Walking one block to the local co-op for groceries:


Lunch at the cafe in Cabella's, with three vegetarians. My son ate ostrich meat. There is an enormous stuffed dead animal display among other things.


The giant rocking chair:

And last, but definitely not least, visiting the wonderful Paradise Fibers warehouse store. Bonus for being on Thor Street and next to an adult bookstore. I got stuff!! (At Paradise Fibers, to be clear)


What to do for an encore? Go to Las Vegas with a toddler.

Lamb Cakes Past and Present

The lamb cake was a big hit:


Here's a picture of a lamb cake my grandma made for me when I was a kid:

Happy Easter!

We've already stuffed ourselves with candy, and now we're off to church.

Later tonight we are going to celebrate my mother's birthday with a surprise lamb cake:

Winner

As chosen by the random number generator at Random.org, Kristen of audioknits is the winner of "Ethnic Knitting Exploration".

Thank you all for entering the contest.

Now I'm off the crank out a knitted birthday present. 27 reps of a 10 row pattern, I'm on #5, and need to get it blocking by Monday night.

Up In Your Grill

I shot this yesterday on the way to the dump.

There's a whole lot going on here. Click to see it bigger. The grand opening sign says April 2005. You can trade your gold with them. For what? Hint, those are not tiaras, but diamond, well I don't know what to call them. You can get gold teeth, but only Monday-Saturday. You cannot add bling to your grill on Sunday. Sorry.

I have come back and added this photo. First, as proof that I really do go to the dump. Second, because it is so weird.


There are a lot of seagulls at the dump as you can imagine. But they were really swarming yesterday. This guy had something on a fishing line that he was swooping around in the sky. As I drove by I was kind of scared to look because the item looked suspiciously like a dead bird. But I'm glad I looked because if I hadn't I would have missed the hunting dog in the back of the pick-up.

I don't know if this is a dump employee having fun, they all wear day-glo, too. Or was he hired to terrorize the seagulls? Or is he a random guy who thought it would be fun to stir things up?

One of the stranger things I have seen there. Also please note the statuary on the hill. It is only a fraction of the vast collection of religious and decorative items.

The Spinning News

Don't forget there's a contest going on through Friday. Check out the info post. I'm enjoying reading the comments.

A couple weeks ago I did a marathon spinning and knitting project. I spun up a Jacob/Alpaca blend to make a hat for the Zoo to use in a contest for the people who work behind the scenes at the barnyard. I'm organizing a group of spinners to go the shearing day on May 5th to teach kids about wool and let them try their hands at the drop-spindle.


I was overzealous in spinning. I only needed a little more than half the yarn. I couldn't find a cabled hat pattern I liked in the gauge the yarn knit up, so I just made it up. I did redo the last 20 rows. Two people I showed it to have asked for one, so with just a bit more spinning time, one person will be made happy.

I've joined a new Ravelry group whose goal is to spin a bit every day this month. Of course I've jumped so far into it that I haven't been knitting much this week. It's been neat documenting the spinning progress, and challenging to get daily creative photos.

I think this Falkland will become the contrast color for a pair of stranded mittens. The color is California Redwood from Girl on the Rocks. I'm trying to keep the green and the salmon separate so the mitten pattern will progress from one to the other.




I did take a break yesterday and knit up this submission for the The Milkweed Project, an art installation project. I spun the yarn a couple weeks ago from a Finn/Mohair blend.

Tonight I cast on for Garden Gate socks. We are doing a mini-KAL. The toe-up cast on really slowed us down.

On another note, have you ever seen an albino pea hen? This one lives at the zoo. Pretty weird.

A Contest - No Fooling

I just realized a big thing I missed yesterday: the contest.

I have an autographed copy of "Ethnic Knitting Exploration" by Donna Druchunas to give away. If you aren't familiar, Ms. Druchunas is the author of several books including "Artic Lace" as well as articles in Piecework and other publications.

I enjoyed the first book in the series, "Ethnic Knitting Discovery", which talked about Norwegian, Andean, Danish, and Dutch knitting so much that I pre-ordered her new book, "Ethnic Knitting Exploration". The approach is less about copying patterns, and more about learning and understanding the techniques so you can design your own sweater. Each category starts with a small project like a head band or gloves. It uses drawings rather than photos, to further stimulate creativity.

The new book explores Lithuanian, Icelandic, and Irish knitting traditions. I'm interested in all three. Although I know about Icelandic and Aran sweaters, Lithuanian knitting is totally new to me. Check out the author's blog, she is posting tips and there is a blog tour.

The author is of Lithuanian descent and has studied the language as well as knitting. You know how much I'm into my Norwegian heritage, so I decided on an ethnic theme for the contest. I want to hear something about your ethnic heritage. A story, song, saying. Maybe your favorite food, Lutefisk, perhaps? If you could link to a photo, that would be fun. You don't have to have a blog to enter, but if you do, why not comment with a link to it? I have found so many blogs reading comments on other people's blogs.

The Rules:

• Anyone can enter. I will mail the book anywhere.
• Contest ends Friday, April 10th at midnight Pacific Time.
• To enter leave a comment on this post telling me something about your ethnic heritage (see more ideas above). You must leave a comment in a manner that provides me with an email address so I can contact you if you win.
  
• Each commenter will be assigned a number, and the winner will be picked via a random number generator.
  

Three Dot Blog Post

It has been so long since I have blogged that I don't know where I left off. I have been super busy, and have been fighting a sinus infection and tree alergies. I will just share some high- and low-lights of the past few weeks.

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40th Birthday part four involved a lovely lunch at a French restaurant with a dear friend followed by a trip to Imagiknit. It has finally sunk in. I am forty years old.

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I had the honor of being an escort at the institution of the new Daughters of Norway lodge, Elise Waerenskjold. There was a lot of marching, that's me in the stripes.

A friend drove, so I got a lot of knitting in. To my horror I discovered I left my laptop at the church. In a panic and feeling like an idiot I phoned my friend, the president of the lodge, who went back out and retrieved it. I had to drive all the way to Roseville with my poor kid the next day, an hour and three-quarters away. I was sick as dog, all feverish and trying to stay awake. Things turned out fine though, we had a nice visit and lunch, then K. and I went to the State Train Museum in Sacramento.

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Last Monday I took K. to the Conservatory of Flowers to see the train exhibit. He told daddy we went to the "plant museum". Little brains are amazing.

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A couple weeks ago I was so sick I told K. that I just needed to lie down on the sofa. He said mommy was "brokedown" and proceeded to comfort me with his trains, a book, a half-eaten frozen waffle he found on the floor, and a can of beer (unopened) . He said he was "mommy K" and I was "baby mommy". Just the sweetest thing ever.

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Speaking of sweet, K. still gets to see his little friend every week. He loves her so much.

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I knit the pink glovelets with my birthday cashmere. The pattern is "Sweetheart Glovelets" by The Rainey Sisters.

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Did I mention I was giving a talk to my lodge about spinning? It went well, and we had fun with a spinning lesson on CD drop spindles.

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The other morning I was playing trains with K. after having fixed the engine "James" who had taken a bath, rendering his electronics non-functional. K. informed me that "mommy useful". For those of you without a little boy, Sir Topham Hatt, the director of the railway on the Island of Sodor, where Thomas the Tank Engine lives, often tells the engines they are "Really Useful". It is always the engines' goal to be really useful. I'm glad I succeeded. I often fantasize about living on the Island of Sodor. Although their safety record is not very good.