Of Rain and Rainbows

We just got back from a week's vacation. The morning we left it was raining, I went out early and took photos of this rainbow which spanned our neighborhood.

We rented a house in Guerneville and friends and family came from far and wide for Thanksgiving (and wine tasting). I worked on a super secret knitting project, finished it and a scarf. Despite the dire predictions of rain, and my being sick, I rode my bike all but one day.

No photos of the beautiful Armstrong redwoods but here's one of my bike camouflaging itself at the bike shop. This is only half of the pink-ness that is Stumptown Cycles.


Thanksgiving is not my holiday. Although I love pie, I don't like eating turkey, the glorification of overeating, or football. Not to mention the whole Indian/Pilgrim issue. Despite the day not being significant for me I found myself missing people who are gone. My father, who has been gone since 2001 and those we lost this year, my grandpa, and my aunt Etta.

I never could bring myself to write about her passing in September. She was my clean-living, non-smoking, favorite aunt and she died of lung cancer.


K and I took the train up to Albany where the memorial service was held. It was too soon after grandpa, and too soon to be losing my aunt. The next day we went to the cemetery where my grandma and grandpa are to add the date of his death. I had never been there before. It was raining and I debated bringing K. He had questions like "will we be dead if we go there?" and "will we dig them up?"


It was low-key and fine. We caught the train the next morning and K cried over leaving his cousins.

Back to Thanksgiving in Guerneville. A lot of the trip involved scenes like this:

My darling child had been home from school sick the whole previous week. He also woke up between 4:30 and 6:00 every day of vacation. We still love him.


One afternoon I rode out around the bend to see this rainbow over the vineyard. The next day we saw a double rainbow coming back from Sebastapol.

This post is all over the place but I have to mention that during the sick week, when I was wondering how I was going to make it, this fine fellow arrived.

He came bearing gifts of rainbow wool and more.


We came back to our apartment to settle back into the routine and culture shock of an old kitchen and small space. I found out that the pastor who confirmed me, Howard Kreiselmeyer, had passed away. He was also too young.

Rain and rainbows, that's how it goes.

Craftacular

I have been doing all kinds of crafty things the past couple months. I did my first yarn bombing, which you can read about on my knitting group's web site.

Next was a stop at Lambtown in Dixon on the way to Sacramento for the Princess Promenade. I only stayed for an hour, kind of checking things out for next year. I was missing Hardly Strictly Bluegrass here in S.F., so I was thrilled to see a band, "Matt and George and their Pleasant Valley Boys", perform. I grabbed a Miller Lite and sat a spell.

There were a ton of great vendors, both familiar and new. I would like to take a class next year.

I did not visit the alpacas.


Or participate in any eating contests.


I made some gnomes. One for a Ravelry gnome swap and the other for my knitting group's stash exchange extravaganza. We made non-knitted gifts for each other, but more about that on a later, knitting post. The delightful pattern is from Wee Wonderfuls. It is easy to do, but a little fiddly since you have to keep changing thread to match each piece.


I made mushroom drawstring gift bags and they have both gone to new homes. The boy was named Olaf.


Meanwhile we were working away on a Halloween costume for K. He wanted to be an exact replica of his robot, Lilliput. We starting saving parts in September and waited and waited for the right size cardboard box to show up. Some yellow gaffer's tape and a Sharpie's worth of ink later it was almost ready. K decided it needed red glitter glue, so it was.

He was thrilled with the costume.


Click on this to see the boy holding the toy. Please note I even replicated the typefaces.



I finally did some needlefelting. I made the sheep at the top of the post, Miss Merlot, out of Babydoll fleece and mohair.

And there has been knitting. That requires another post.

Biketacular

I rode the Princess Promenade last month in Sacramento with my sister J. It was 55 miles and she really pushed me to go faster than I would have. It was thankfully cool. One of the high points was seeing wild turkeys on the trail. One of the low points was driving around looking for Denney's and getting stuck in Old Town Sacramento. I should know better. I also discovered that all La Quintas are not created equal.

It was great to get away for a night, and spend time with Miss J. Instead of patches they give out medals at the end. Kind of neat. I would do this ride again, but it is a long way to go. Hopefully it will coincide with Lambtown again.

By the way, they had a chocolate fountain.


The bike season is winding down, and I've started running. Not sure if I want to start doing 5Ks again. I need to see what's coming up.

It was good to do organized rides again. It really is challenging to find the time to train to do the long rides. The Cinderella is on April 2nd. If I could keep up with 30 mile rides now training for that wouldn't be so bad. We shall see.

23 Mosquito Bites...

...and one new hat.

That's what I got during our trip in Mendocino County. The main draw for me is the California Wool & Fiber Festival, but also Navarro Winery, the County Fair, and camping, too.

The hat says "Country Music Kicks Butt". The beautiful wool is from Colors of Nature in Davis.

We brought home an awful lot of dirt. I got 23 mosquito bites, the others got none, go figure. Our handknit sweaters came in handy since I forgot to bring pillows. Many s'mores were eaten. It rained this morning but we were prepared to haul out first thing anyway.

It was a great trip, we had a lot of fun. The weather was cool, but the rain held off until today. The partiers must have been scared off by the rain, we got good sleep this time. My son got a sparkly rose painted on his face:



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In other fiber news, I finished my Rainbow Swedish Fish Socks a week or so ago.

They were the July-Aug KAL of the San Francisco One-Sock-A-Month group. Here is a group shot. Yes, on mine each row of fish was a different yarn so I had over 30 ends per sock to weave.




The current KAL is Shur'tugal which translates to Dragonslayer. I'm doing them in Wollmeise WD Granatapfal, a fire-y color.

On October 1st I'm starting another Ravelry Knit and Read-A-Long, Frankensocks. The group is reading Frankenstein and making socks from our leftovers. Here are mine:


Last Sunday was a crazy day. I got on the road at 6:15 for a 30 mile training ride. Then I rushed to sock group. Finally I caught the streetcar out to our Daughters of Norway meeting. We got a needlefelting lesson. I really want to do more needlefelting. My sister gave me a coordinated kit, and I traded with someone for a box of colors. We made hedgehogs.


Have I mentioned that I'm very occasionally working at Urban Fauna Studio? I have keys to a fiber store, watch out!

My Favorite Things...

... are pink

When presented with the challenge of knitting my rejected sari silk yarn, my friend Erica knit a pouch, and then gave it to me. The hot pink bow makes is especially awesome. I hope her hands have recovered.


I love this cyclist!


Speaking of bikes, I've got a new addition to my pink one, a coconut drink holder. Perfect for a coffee cup, or, I suspect, a beer can.

(I just Googled this item, and was thrilled to find it described as "super tacky". Don't worry, I didn't pay $25 for it, it came from a clearance bin in of all places, Moscow, Idaho. Where you can ride on the sidewalks legally.)

The Past Six Months

I just posted a big knitting update. It was so long that I'm doing an update of my fabulous life here separately.

I just looked through the archives. Did I really not post about my birthday? In February? Not only did I attend Stitches West and take a Bohus class I got fabulous gifts.

First, Teekay knit me the fabulous viking helmet pictured above. Pink braids, can you believe it? Whenever I wear it people want to know where to buy one or if I will knit them one? (You can't and No).

I also got yarn, fiber, homemade goodies, and babysitting coupons. I know my husband got me something good, but I can't remember.



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K. went to camp at his school all summer, we had just a few weeks off. The school year started back up yesterday. Last week was a parent work week to get the school cleaned up. I volunteered to go to the dump. The guy who gave me masks in the past and sometimes helps me unload checked me in. He commented on all my pink stuff - shirt, mug, bottle, phone. Too bad I didn't have my hardhat on. Glad someone appreciates it.

We took a road trip to Newport, Oregon over 4th of July and I finally met my sister-in-law and two nephews who flew out from Kentucky. I tried to do Tour de Fleece but it just didn't happen this year. We only have basic cable, so I couldn't watch the race, which just made me sad. I did spin on the trip, though.


We drove home along the Umpqua River. Here's a photo of us at an Elk viewing area. Yeah, I know. They are there, behind us, trust me.


In July I was lucky enough to be a delegate from my lodge to the Daughters of Norway Convention in Costa Mesa. What fun to meet so many Sisters (and see so many bunads). My sister was an alternate delegate from her lodge, so we roomed together. It was a full trip with a rosemaling class, business meetings, marching, and banquets. My kid did great with mom gone for three nights.

The day I got back K had his 4th birthday. We had a family dinner, a bowling party, and a "birthday circle" at school. Tons of fun, and he is enjoying going to others' parties, too.

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On the bike front I did the Tour de Peninsula a few weeks ago. This time a 31 miler with some good climbing. I've come a long way since last year. I haven't been riding a whole lot, but need to ramp up for the 55-mile Princess Promenade in Sacramento October 3rd. Look at the jersey, how could I not do it?

Of course lots of other stuff has gone on. I wish I would blog more often. But I keep breaking cameras so I think that has been holding me back.

Heat Wave

Our summer is finally here in San Francisco and I am sweltering. The perfect time to finish languishing mittens, no?


These are Snow Chains Mittens designed by my friend Jessica. I started them way back in January or February, I think.

Last week I finished this stole. The pattern is called Fairy Leaves, by the pooling genius, Gladys We. She has come up with quite a few projects that allow you force variegated yarn to pool into orderly stripes. It took two days of swatching for me to get the right stitch count to use this Shaeffer Anne yarn. And then it took forever to knit, including ripping out several inches in a moving vehicle with no lifeline.


This knit tulips were for K.'s teacher. She taught them a Japanese song about tulips, red, yellow, and white.


I see I have not posted any finished items since January, so here goes. Click to see photos a little bigger.

Here's the Lopi sweater I made for Ed. He was so impressed he keeps telling people it looks like it was bought in Iceland.


This is Prepared for Vancouver, which I knit for charity.

I made more Lopi felted bags.

And this felted handbag....


...and a Citron Shawl to wear to May's San Francisco Ravelry meet-up, which was organized by two of my friends.


This is a hand spun and hand knit hat, which went to my former mother-in-law.

These are my crazy clown socks, knit from some Koigu, Cherry Tree Hill, and rainbow Serenity Garden.

Finally, Bohus socks, which I adore to no end. The cuffs were the class project in Susanna Hanson's Stitches West class. The foot is Berroco Ultra Alpaca that I bought at the show with my Webs gift certificate. Toasty.


At the end of the class everyone laid out their wristlets.


The whole not buying yarn thing is going well. I haven't used up a ton of stash because I keep picking long projects. But it has not been a hardship, especially since I got several yarn gifts. I love shopping for yarn, but it is also fun to get creative with what I have.

Another challenge is to use up all the yarn I got from our knitting group's stash exchange. That's where I got the yarn for the pooling stole and blue handbag. I've got three more projects to go.

Greetings

The kid and I took a trip to visit my sister in Moscow, Idaho last week.

This photo sums up what traveling with a preschooler is like:


Full of comedy and tragedy:



We drove all over Northern Idaho and Washington. Saw a lot of wheat. Took a bunch of train photos:


This one did not turn out exactly as planned, but I know the photographer would protest if I did not include it:


The sweetest thing happened at Prospectors Days in Republic, Washington. My kid got to hold a five-day-old kid:


We got to do some fun stuff. It rained a bit, but at least it wasn't hot. It took two days to recover from the trip.

On the knitting front, I have some f.o.'s I haven't blogged about, and am working on a pooling stole.

I got back all excited about spinning for some reason. I think because the only reading I did was from the most recent Spin-Off. Yesterday I washed some Jacob fleece and finished up spinning my first Shetland which was also my first 3-ply.

Preschool summer camp starts tomorrow and I am looking forward to a summer with no school meetings conflicting with my knit night.