Winston's Mom

Annemore #7 - & Other Stuff

2011-03-10T08:09:00.004-09:00

So, over 2 months late, but they are done! The gloves for my dad - I'm going to give them to him today. I hope that he likes them, I'm a little nervous. They are lined, I'll explain below.
Pattern: Annemore #7 from Selbuvotter
Needles: US 3 - both circular & dpns
Yarn: Nature Spun in Ash & Storm
Started: Left hand begun on October 5th, 2010 and finished on January 25th, 2011. Right hand begun on January 26th, 2011 and finished on February 21st, 2011 - then I had to block them and sew in the liners which led me to today.
Here's the back of both gloves as they are blocking. I thought my dad would like the moose motif. And his favorite color is brown.Here are both the palms as they are blocking.This is what they were blocking on. I traced my dad's hands on to a piece of cardboard. Then after I cut them out I covered them in packing tape so that they would hold up shape with the wet gloves on them. They worked pretty good.These are the liners that I bought at REI. I don't remember the brand, they were just basic glove liners.
So, then I hand stitched in the liners with embroidery floss. After knitting the fingers, this was the hardest thing for me to convince myself to do. It wasn't the hardest thing to do, just hard for me to convince myself to do. Knitting the fingers was worse.

So, I'm really proud of the gloves - it was quite a project. I don't think that I will be making another of pairs of gloves anytime soon. Mittens, sure, no problem. Gloves involve all those pesky finger parts and that is the stuff I just don't like. Not doing gloves again anytime soon.

Meanwhile, finishing the gloves means that I get to work on knitting something new. So, this is what I have on my needles now:It is another overdue Christmas project. A Danish Earflap Cap for my cousin's son. I borrowed an idea from my good friend and added the feature below:It's his name. I think he will like it. I'm very excited to be working on something, anything, other than those gloves! I don't do well with putting myself on project restriction!

Half Way There

2011-01-22T10:58:00.004-09:00

Ta-da!!!! I present to you, a finished left hand glove!!

The back of the hand with the moose, the little plant, and the star.

The palm side which has kind of lattice pattern to it, along with the back side of the thumb gusset and the thumb. So, I'm half way there on this project!

I also have to present, a hat:
This is a Turkish Cap from the book Hats On. The yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash, which is important because it is for a little person who probably doesn't need the bother of having to worry about how to appropriately hand wash wool hats, or at least her mother doesn't.
I love this pattern! I particularly love the crown pattern that it makes - like a flower!

So, status report. One month out from Christmas and here is where I'm at with the unfinished Christmas knitting gifts:

1 glove down, 1 more glove to go (my father, it turns out has both and left and a right hand)
1 hat down, 4 more to go (this sounds like a lot, but hats are a lot faster than gloves, so it's nothing compared to the 1 glove!)
1 neck cowl to go (this will also be wicked fast)

Really, it all comes down to the glove. And not even the whole glove, because I'll really enjoy knitting the cuff and the palm of the glove and I'll do it on one long needle, so it will go by quickly. It comes down to the fingers. I am telling myself that I may not start another project until the gloves are done. I have all the materials needed for the next hat in a bag ready to go, but I can't pick it up until I'm done with the glove. I. must. finish. the. glove. It's a mantra I'm chanting. Discipline, particularly in the form of fidelity to one knitting project alone at one time, is not my strong suit. Gotta have a mantra to chant. I can do this.

Today is the 38th Anniversary of the passage of the Roe v. Wade court decision! It is a day to celebrate freedom and choices! I'm all about freedom and choices. The way I look at it is this - who the hell am I to tell anyone else what is the right thing for them to do with their own body? I don't want that responsibility - they should get to make that decision. I've got my own life and my own body to worry about. I also don't want to tell anyone else what they should believe and I don't want anyone trying to tell me what I should believe. I'd like to figure that stuff out for myself also. I know, I know, this is a knitting blog and now I'm flittering into the world of politics. But you know what, it's my blog, I can write about politics if I want to.

I'm celebrating choices and freedom today!

Do Over! - Happy New Year 2011!

2010-12-31T10:13:00.007-09:00

Happy New Year! New Year always feels like a bit of a "do over" to me. Not in the creepy Groundhog's Day sort of stuck in the same again and again, but in the Tabula Rasa (Clean Slate) sort of way. You take stock of the year that has finished, celebrate the successes, learn from the mistakes, evaluate your personal growth, and look forward with hope & optimism to the year ahead where it all both continues and starts over at the same time! The way I see it, we are all just works in progress until we die, but that may just be how I see it. I'm always excited about the opportunity for progress, even when the progress is a little more challenging and painful, because it usually results in learning, growth, change, and joy too.

The holidays were a bit of a mixed bag for me this year. I was more unprepared for the holidays this year than I've ever been. I'm trying to give myself a break, remind myself that not everything can be perfect every year, and figure out how I'll do things differently the next time around. There was some really wonderful stuff this holiday season though too!

These beautiful people are my parents. In 2010 they both turned 75, dad in April and mom on December 24th. Also, December 19, 2010 was their 40th Wedding Anniversary. So, we had a little party for their Ruby Jubilee (how often in life do you get to use the term Ruby Jubilee? I couldn't pass this opportunity up!)! This photo was taken at the Ruby Jubilee party. We had 28 of us all together and we had a lot of fun!

I've shown this quilt top before - it is the quilt I made for Kieran for Christmas. This was after it was quilted though...

Here's the back. I didn't do the quilting, I had someone else, more experienced, help me with that part. But I did the binding, which I need some instruction on. It works, but it certainly isn't the prettiest binding you'll ever see!

I've shown this quilt top before too, it's the quilt I made for Alastar for Christmas. This is after it was quilted though too...

Here's the back. I did the not so pretty binding on this one too. I really like how both of them, in spite of the binding, turned out. They are really nice! I did not have these ready for the boys on Christmas Day, despite my best efforts. That bothered me a bit. They received them on December 27th.

Here they are with the quilts. They don't seem to mind that it's December 27th after all...

My other big Christmas regret is that I didn't get my father's gloves done. I'm still working on these. This one bothers me the most because my dad hasn't and doesn't ask for much from me. He did ask for some gloves though and I've really been struggling with them. I got the wrist and palm part done in no time. It's the fingers! I really don't enjoy knitting them, they are awkward, and so I procrastinate on them. I'm working on it though and will hopefully have them done soon!

This is going to be the next quilt I will make. I'm taking a class that my BKFF took last spring, Easiest Strip Quilt Ever class. I'm not taking this class until April though. The other quilting class I'm taking in April is on how to do binding correctly. I need that! I'm finishing one mending project and then I'm putting my machine away for a couple of months. I want to focus more on knitting. I'm a little sewed out right now.

But, I really like the colors in this Jelly Roll and I thought it would make a bright, fun, and easy quilt, so I figured why not? By April I'll be ready again. Maybe I'll finish the Kuspuk I started for myself...

This is one of 5 hats I'm knitting for belated Christmas gifts for small heads...

This is a cowl for a good friend...for Christmas...obviously...

This is another cowl for a family member...for Christmas...again, obviously...

This cute little yarn roll that reminds me of sushi is going to be a hat for a friend who is having a baby in February.

Upon reflection, I did get some major projects accomplished in 2010. I finished 2 sweaters, both from stash, and both turned out lovely. I got some more charity hats knit, all from stash. I made my first kuspuk and I sewed 3 quilts on my new sewing machine. I also knit a hat for myself, unusual, published my first knitting pattern, and knit a piece of lace that turned out so nice that the person who wrote the pattern asked me about it. That's pretty amazing! All in all a pretty accomplished year on the project front, even if I didn't get all done that I wanted to.

Looking ahead, I need to finish up the stuff that was intended for 2010. Once I get the fingers on the gloves done I think the rest will go quickly! My main goal for 2011 - is to recapture my sock mojo. I've lost it for some time now, I tried to regain it in the summer, but that didn't work out. I'm thinking that I want to make 2011 the year of socks! And if I start right away at the beginning-ish of the year, it could be socks for one and socks for all next holiday! I'll just hang on to all the socks and then I'll have my gifts all done...this could work....it's certainly worth a try! Right now though, I think I'll do a little of this:
Here's my sweet boy all tuckered out and snoozing on mom's side of the bed! He's really good a napping, that's a lesson I could learn from Winston! Happy New Year everyone! Tonight's the night when the world begins again! My Sweet Baboo and I will be ringing in 2011 with the Indigo Girls at the Bear Tooth, I hope you and yours will be doing something equally as fun!

Good Bye Old Friend! RIP!

2010-12-30T12:08:00.003-09:00

I have literally been meaning to write this post for 6 months. And now that the end of 2010 is upon us, I wanted to note the end of an era for me and my life, the final closing and then demolition of the Fireweed Theatre. This movie house was in walking distance from my parent's home. I spent countless hours of my childhood in this movie house! Literally! My mother is a movie fanatic and she passed this love of cinema on to my sister and I. From a young age we were going to the movies with mom all the time. When mom wanted to have friends over, she sent us to the movies with dad. I saw so many Disney movies there I can't even count. In the summers when I was a kid if it was raining we could go to the movies and Laura and I walked there with our money in our pockets hand in hand. Mom always gave us enough money for the movie, a small popcorn, and a small drink. Occasionally we could get candy too. The screen at the Fireweed was HUGE, so many wonderful things came to life on that screen, I will certainly miss it! I don't even know where to begin, but I will say two words: Star Wars.
The Fireweed also had the first arcade I ever went to as a kid. I spent so much of my money that I earned from doing chores there on things like Centipede, Ms. Pac Man, Galaga, and Pole Position! It was a big part of my life. Now, when you drive past the corner of Fireweed Lane and the Seward Highway the signs are still there thanking Anchorage for the memories, but it's just a level asphalt slab. I will miss you old friend, and remember you fondly.

Photo Friday

2010-12-10T22:02:00.006-09:00

Okay, I know I haven't posted in 3 months. I don't really have an excuse, I definitely have been busy. I also just haven't felt like writing. But, there has still been knitting and there has also been more quilting. On this snowy Friday night there is much I could write, and the post would be really long. Instead I decided to just put in a bunch of photos with captions. Enjoy!
My sweet baboo and I went to see Marc Cohn in concert in November.
He played in Portland at the Aladdin Theater. It was an amazing show! The song we danced to at our wedding is a Marc Cohn song.
After the show I got to meet hi and he signed a bunch of stuff for me!

I finished the Babies an Bears for Grown-Ups sweater. It turned out really good!
Here's the back.

Here's my second quilt top ever - it is for my nephew Kieran.

Here's quilt #3 - it is for my nephew Alastar.

Here's a Turkish cap from Hats On! that I knit for a charity function.Here's the front view. It sold at the fundraiser.

Here's another hat I made for the same fundraiser. It is a modification from the Lace Rib Watch Cap pattern from Hats On. We are raising funds for AWAIC - Abused Women Aid In Crisis. It helps women and children who are victims of domestic violence. This sold too.Here's the third hat I made. It's a modification of a baby hat pattern I saw in a LYS that I can't remember the name of. It sold too. We raised $5900 for AWAIC, but certainly not all from my hats!

This is the start of a glove I'm knitting for my dad for Christmas. He needs gloves for when he skis. They are fun!I took my first introduction to machine quilting class. Here's an example of my first free motion quilting attempt. I even got my initials in there! Not really of the quality needed for finishing a nice quilt there, but I'll get better with some practice.

So, that's my fall! I'm now immersed in holiday knitting! I hope you are all having a wonderful start to your holiday season!

Smitten!!!

2010-09-05T15:33:00.003-08:00

This is my first ever quilt top! Last Christmas I received my first ever sewing machine as a present and my good friend recommended that I take a quilting class to learn how to use it. The class was in February / March and by the end of it I had all the blocks done, but hadn't finished the sashing or borders. I finished these in the span of a couple of weeks. I am quite in LOVE with it! So much so, that although I had originally planned to learn how to quilt it myself by taking another class I have decided to pay someone to quilt it for me. I am going to make another quilt top that I will use to learn how to quilt. My plan is to make quilts for my nephews for Christmas and I'll learn how to do the quilting part on one of these quilts because, honestly, 8 year old boys are not going to notice the quality, or lack there of, of the quilting. Whereas, I'd hate my novice quilting skills to ruin this quilt top that I'm so in love with!

This is my favorite block - it's called Margaret's Choice. So, it's mine!

This block is Black Spruce. I made it for my Sweet Baboo because he loves trees. It is sideways on purpose. He told me that having it sideways was more "po-mo". Apparently he has strong post-modern tendencies and so this was important. It's my second favorite because it's his!

Totally unrelated, here is a picture of Winston doing something he doesn't usually do - sitting in the recliner. Now, Winston generally has the run of our house, he sits on the couch, he sleeps on the bed, say what you like it's the way it is. Generally he doesn't sit in the recliner because he doesn't like it very much. On this particular day he decided he couldn't be apart from me so he climbed up into my lap. It was pretty funny!

On another totally unrelated topic, yesterday I was wearing my Sock Summit 2009 sweatshirt to one of our local businesses and the man working behind the counter said to me, "Hey - I missed that, was it fun? Was it some kind of rock concert?" I looked at him and said, "Noooooo, it was a sock knitting conference. But, it was fun! It was in Portland, Oregon. There's going to be another one next year, you should check it out." The whole thing just made me laugh and my Sweet Baboo thought it was really hilarious!!

I have been knitting - I'm working on the second half of the B&B sweater. I understand why the name of the pattern is what it is, but at the same time I find it to be kind of a goofy name, so I'm trying to figure out another way to refer to it. My apologies to the designer. Again, as I said, I do understand why the name is the way it is.

Happy 90th Anniversary!!

2010-08-26T17:52:00.003-08:00

It was 90 years ago today that women in our country were finally recognized as true citizens and given the right to vote. The 19th Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution. When I used to teach Government I would joke with the kids and tell them that the 19th Amendment was the most important amendment to the Constitution. They didn't always agree. It is hard to name just one as the most important, but I know that the 19th is of particular importance to me.

As a student and then teacher of American History and Government, my heart swells when I think of all that the suffragists went through to get this basic right for all women. They endured imprisonment, torture, and some of them even gave their lives. It makes me so proud to be a woman! When I think of people taking this essential right for granted and not exercising it I get really frustrated and angry. They sacrificed so much so that I could have a better life in this great country! I hope that everyone will take a moment today to reflect on that and to say a little thanks.

New Stuff to Share!

2010-08-11T09:30:00.003-08:00

Ta-Da!!! I present a non-knitting F.O. - this is a Kuspuk. It is a traditional Alaskan Native garment. It is a lot like a hooded sweatshirt, but involves brightly colored fabrics. Usually it is made of cotton and it another layer for summer or for indoors in the winter. This is my first sewn garment with my new sewing machine. I have started a second one for myself, but this one is a gift for Sandy. It is a late birthday gift, so I have to get it mailed off to her now that I finally have it finished. Like everything else I do, I did not sew this quickly, so that's why it is so late.

Now, in knitting news:

I finished this hat. It is the Basket Lattice Cap. I picked up this pattern when I was in Portland and I visited Twisted. I also picked up the yarn at that time. I liked the pattern, it spoke to me. I also really like the yarn. I did modify that pattern a little bit to accommodate my extremely large head. I have decided to keep this one for myself, highly irregular, but I really like this little hat!
In the pattern it is knit in two parts, first the hat band is knit back and forth until it is long enough to go around the intended wearer's head. Then pick up stitches along one edge and knit in the round doing decreases to make the top. When I had finished all of this the hat was beautiful, b a little short for covering my ears. So, I picked up stitches along the other edge of the hat band and added some rows to get some extra length and voila! It fits very nicely! I would take a picture of myself wearing it, but Lola really wanted to model it. Here's the details:

Pattern: Basket Lattice Cap by Cathy Campbell with O Wool and Tunney Wool Company
Yarn: Mochi Plus by Crystal Palace Yarns
Color: Violets Rainbow
Needles: US #8 - 16" circular and dpns
Started: July 15th
Finished: August 11th

I like the yarn a lot too! It is a super wash yarn that is very soft to the touch. I also love the colors - greens and purples are my favorites! I think this is a fun little hat that I will enjoy! I may have to knit another of these!

In other news: in mid-July we traveled to Portland again for a week. I returned to work a week after that to get ready for the start of the school year. Then Winston got an injury to his shoulder, that has gotten a lot better. In getting his injury checked out it was discovered that he had a cancerous tumor that he had removed right away. He's in the process of a full recovery and the good news is that all the cancer cells were removed. We just have to keep an eye out for any new lumps. So, we've been busy! But, still productive! Here's to the start of a new school year!

Sole Available Today!

2010-07-22T08:44:00.003-08:00

Here's the pattern for Sole! Since this is my first time trying to submit a pattern to Ravelry, I'm learning that first it has to be a pdf format, and that it has to be loaded onto a blog or some other site to link. I'll get the hang of this eventually I'm sure!

Here's the pdf:

Sole

Sole (Soh-lay)

2010-07-08T07:04:00.004-08:00

A little while ago I showed you the photo above. It is a baby hat I made for a work colleague. It is my first attempt at what I consider to be my own pattern creation. I'm sure there are other baby hats out there with similar designs, but I haven't found anything exactly like this in my search through ravelry. I decided to name it after the little guy it was made for, but I had to wait for him to be born to know what this name would be. I now introduce: Sole (Soh-lay). He's Italian, and he came into the world on June 21st. Yay!
The first knitting of Sole used a multi-color yarn, and while the yarn was very pretty, it kind of hid the cables of the design. So, lucky for me my friend Shane presented me with the opportunity to knit it again in a solid color. On June 22nd Shane and his wife Missy welcomed twin boys into their lives! So, I knit two more Sole hats for these new arrivals! One in terra cotta.
And one in celery. These show the pattern a lot better than the multi-colored yarn did. This yarn is Blue Moon Sock Candy. It is cotton yarn that is very soft. It is leftovers from a Baby Surprise Jacket kit that I bought a couple of years ago. I knit one BSJ with the yarn, the kit makes a very very newborn sized BSJ, in fact, the newborn I made it for was such a big guy he never wore it and it is stylishly highlighted by a teddy bear he has. I ended up making a larger size for the big guy. I plan to put the pattern for Sole on ravelry for free for folks. I'm still working on that piece.

Shane's twin boys also have a big sister, Isadora, who is 14 months old. So, I didn't want big sister to get left out and I made her this:
It's just a little hat with some stripes and colorwork. It is using more of the yarn from the kit. It is lavender and toffee colored. So, I now have a little set of hats that are headed for Eugene, Oregon.
Pretty fun! They have served as a good distraction from this:
This is the left half of the Baby & Bears for Grown-Ups sweater, sans trim. I'm really happy with how this turned out thus far. I need to knit the right side now. I probably won't start the right side for a bit though. I have some sewing projects that I need to work on and I'm headed out of town this weekend. The sweater doesn't travel quite as well as a sock would. We will see though, I haven't figured out what I'm taking with me.

I have other stuff to post about. I spent part of the Fourth of July weekend in Forks, Washington - home of the Twilight series. I wasn't there for Twilight related reasons, it happens to be the town where my mom and aunt were born. My aunt passed away in February and wanted to have her remains buried in Forks. So, we gathered to say good-bye. Twilight stuff abounds in the town though! I'll post about it soon!

Progress

2010-06-24T17:13:00.004-08:00

Well, slow and steady wins the race and so I've been slowly making progress on my Babies & Bears for Grown-Ups sweater. I've been battling issues with my shoulder and so I've had to limit my knitting time, which is part of what has slowed me down. Also, summer is a time when I try to catch up on all kinds of things around the house that I just don't get to during the school year. I'm really pleased with how this is turning out thus far:

So, the pattern begins at the cuff and you knit in the round up the sleeve, you don't have to use two colors, I am because I have this yarn that I had intended to be put together in a sweater. Originally, I had a different idea in mind, but I got tired of that sweater idea before I had even cast on a stitch and then I found this pattern and I thought that there isn't a better use for this yarn! In any case, once you finish the sleeve you start to knit garter stitch, first still in the round and then you switch to back and forth knitting. This continues until half the sweater is done and then you put the stitches on holders and you start the process over again on the other side.
I'm almost done with the left side of the sweater. I had the stripes going four rounds of each color and it actually still is that way now that I'm doing garter stitch. But apparently the way the rounds worked out what is the correct outside face of the sweater turned out to be the incorrect side of the garter stitch. The inside of the sweater has the stripes continuing as they are in the sleeve:
I thought, oh well, I'm not ripping it all out to fix it that's for bloody sure! Also, I kind of like how the colors are actually blending together more on this "wrong" outside of the sweater. Those colors together is what got me started on the idea of a sweater for them in any case, so it make sense. Once I finish the other half I will Kitchner the two halves of the back together and then put a finishing band around the edges. Haven't decided if I'm going to do buttons or a clasp yet, I've still got time to figure it all out.

In other progress Winston and I are continuing with the C25K program. It is going pretty good, but I'm guessing my pace is slower than many others pace might be. Winston is sort of a reluctant jogger, he would much rather take his time and stroll, and sniff lots of stuff. He gives me dirty looks and huffs when we get to the place in our walk where I expect him to start jogging! It's funny! I try to placate him by letting him swim when we get to the lagoon.

C25K - Day 1

2010-06-14T11:20:00.004-08:00

Well, I'm looking for a change, in me. I don't know what has caused this desire, but here it is. It could be the change in the seasons, the time off of work, changes in me, cabin fever that I'm still trying to shake, who knows, there are a myriad of possibilities. Awhile ago a friend of mine told me about a program called C25K, Couch to 5K running program. It is a nine week running program for folks who don't run to get started in running and by the end of it you are able to run 5K. It involves a lot of intervals - for example - in the first week you do intervals of jogging for 60 seconds followed by walking for 90 seconds and you do this for 20 minutes. The program has you do this three times a week. I'm feeling like I'm getting older (oy vey!), I'm overweight, and I'm out of shape. Oddly enough, Winston is in the same place. So, I didn't really ask him if he wants to do this, but he's doing it with me! Winston is topping out at 101 pounds, I'm not revealing my weight! I think, due to our collective lack of conditioning, it may take us longer than 9 weeks to get to our 5K. This is a very odd space to be in for me; I've always been philosophically opposed to running, my joke is that I don't run unless I'm being chased. So, the fact that I'm exploring this also is strikingly odd. But, I'm looking for some way to jump start myself and I thought this sounded as good a try as anything else. We will see how this works, wish us luck!
On another note, today is my baby sister's birthday. She is two years younger than me, we are a fair amount alike, people have asked us more than once if we are twins. She is one of my best and dearest friends and I'm so glad she is in my life. The story goes that when she came home from the hospital I was so excited that I wanted to go around the neighborhood telling everyone, "I have a sister! I have a sister!" I think my dad took me to tell some of our neighbors. I'm still pretty excited to have her as my sister, she's the GREATEST!! This is an older photo of her, but it is one of my favorites, it is quintessential Lou to me!!

Quick Jaunt to Portland to see STING!!

2010-06-08T06:55:00.006-08:00

I've said it many times and I'm sure I'll say it again many times more, but I am a very, very lucky girl! I get to share my life with an amazing man who thinks he's lucky to share his life with me! It's great when things work out like that! This year we celebrated ten years of wedded bliss! On our actual anniversary we ended up having to work and not really getting to celebrate in the manner the occasion deserved. So, we celebrated correctly this past weekend by heading out of town to Portland to see STING in concert!!
We arrived very late on Friday night and the concert was on Saturday night. So, we had Saturday to wander. We went to Powell's, which I think is an obligation when visiting the city of Portland. We also were able to have lunch with SB's cousin Katie, and her new roommate Becca, a wonderful treat! In the course of our wandering we came across some floats, the one above is for the city of Molalla's Buckeroo, which is over Fourth of July weekend. If you'd like to go, we have two tickets and won't be able to attend ourselves, so let me know.
I'm not sure what this float was for, there were diamonds, but also rhododendrons. There were pretty girls, so of course SB took a picture! What the floats were for was the Starlight Parade. Portland is kicking off it's annual Rose Festival and the Starlight Parade is a part of this. Unfortunately, we missed the entire parade, it was during the show. So, this set up of floats was all we saw, and some of the clean up after the parade when we were returning to the hotel from the show.
The performance was at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, which is a wonderful, beautiful concert hall. SB and I were fortunate to see a show there a few years ago on New Year's with Sandy, Katie, and Paul of the band Pink Martini. No cameras are allowed in the concert hall so all our photos are taken with our iPhones. That is me above before the show started.
Here is SB before the show started. It was a fancy event, so we dressed in our fancy clothes! What fun!
So, this tour for Sting is called, Symphonicity, because he is playing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. And, he explained that the reason they are called the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is because he borrowed them from the Queen. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 musicians on stage, it was really GREAT!!
I got a signed program and a t-shirt! Yay! He played 26 songs, here is the set list:

If I Ever Lose My Faith in You, Englishman in New York, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Roxanne, Straight to My Heart, Russians, Fields of Gold, I Hung My Head, Shape of My Heart, Why Should I Cry for You, Whenever I Say Your Name, When We Dance, Next to You - then a 20 minute intermission

A Thousand Years, Tomorrow We'll See, Moon Over Bourbon Street, The End of the Game, You Will Be My Ain True Love, Mad About You, Ghost Story, King of Pain, Every Breath You Take, Desert Rose, She's Too Good For Me, Fragile, and I Was Brought to My Senses (a capella).
Included with this were two encores. He played for almost three hours. It was wonderful! Along with the songs, he did some fun introductions, like before Roxanne he said that part of the fun of playing with the orchestra is that he isn't always sure by their arrangements what the song is at first. Before singing Russians he talked about how that song came about and about growing up during the cold war. Before singing Moon Over Bourbon Street he said that he wasn't aware of ever meeting a vampire, but that there was a night in New Orleans where he had the distinct impression that he was being followed. It was just FUN!! SB isn't sure if this concert rivals the fun we had last year in Portland when we saw Carbon Leaf, which was also a great show and a lot of fun. I don't know, they are hard to compare, they were both really, really good!!
We had a lot of fun in Portland!! We had to leave on Sunday mid-day, so our stay was far, far too short. I saw this window for a pet boutique and it reminded me of Winston, so I took a picture!

Too Fun to Pass Up!

2010-06-01T08:45:00.003-08:00

This was too fun to pass up! It is a video I shot of the boys as the plane took off from Fairbanks for Anchorage. In their minds, this was the first time they were flying. They were really excited about take off and a little nervous too. I decided to make a little movie because I didn't know what they would say, but I thought it might be good. It is hilarious! Enjoy!

Fairbanks Adventure - Last Day!

2010-05-31T08:27:00.005-08:00

Our final day in Fairbanks had us heading to the El Dorado Gold Mine just ten miles north of town. There the tour starts with another train ride, this time on an open car, short gauge train.

Here's our train pulling into the station.

Our conductor was this nice man named Earl who serenaded us with Johnny Cash songs and songs he wrote himself, like, "I've Fished Everywhere Man". He was a lot of fun and he encouraged us to sing along, which is something I am usually willing to do!

Here are our prospective miners ready to head up to the mine!

Before we could start mining ourselves, we watched a sluice box demonstration followed by a mining demonstration.

Here the water is pouring down the sluice and Kieran is paying close attention!

They give everyone a bag of dirt to put in your pan and mine with. They guarantee that everyone will find gold! Alastar is excited to start panning to find his gold!
Laura and Kieran are hoping to strike it rich too!
Here the boys are with their gold! Alastar found $12 worth of gold and Kieran found $8 worth of gold! Laura and I found some gold too, so it was a strike it rich day for all four of us!
Kieran, myself, and Alastar sit outside the door to the mine. What nice boys to pose for a photo with auntie!
After the mine we were heading to Nicole, TJ, Cedar, and Coral's house for a Memorial Day BBQ. But, along the way we decided since it's right here, let's check out the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
Here is Kieran in a cross-section of the pipeline that has a "Hog" in it. Hogs are what are run up and down the pipeline to keep it clean from sediment buildup.
After a wonderful lunch we headed down to the playground at the nearby elementary school. There was this awesome see saw that had room enough for all of us! We have Coral, myself, and Alastar on one side..
And Cedar, Kieran, and Laura on the other side. It was a hot afternoon so Kieran decided that he needed to go sans shirt. Shortly after playing we had to bid farewell to our friends and hurry off to the airport to catch our flight home!
Here we are on the plane! Now, the boys flew before when they were babies, but they don't remember this and so this was their first flight in their minds. They were excited to be on a jet! Listening to them and watching them on the plane was some of the funniest stuff of the whole trip. All in all it was a fantastic trip! I had a lot of fun and I think the guys and Laura did too. But after all the adventures we had, the boys both told me the highlight of the trip was:
The hotel in Fairbanks had an indoor pool!

Fairbanks Adventure - Day 3

2010-05-30T07:29:00.002-08:00

Day 3 of our journey found us here:

We were at the Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska! After the train, they guys were particularly excited about this. When we got there the big guy wasn't on duty yet. We arrived just before 10am and he wasn't going to be at work until 11am. Doesn't sound long, but when you are 8, an hour is an eternity! We told the boys that the big man must be having a big breakfast to get ready for his busy day. We looked around the facilities at Santa's home.
First, we posed before this cool mural showing the elves at work.
Next, we took a seat in Santa's sleigh and talked about how uncomfortable it must be to sit in a sleigh like this all night long and how do all those gifts fit into this sleigh anyway? Where do the elves sit? Lots of questions, all with one answer, Santa is magical.

Third, we checked out the reindeer. There were only three of them out and about, and no sign of Rudolph anywhere. At this point we had gotten through about 30 minutes. We were running out of time and options. So, we decided to leave North Pole with plans to return after our afternoon events.

Before our afternoon adventure, we met up with my friends Nicole, TJ, Cedar, and Coral who all live in Fairbanks. We met at the Chena Pump House for brunch. They have quite the great brunch there at the Pump House! We sat outside in the sun and enjoyed good food and good friends. Then, we headed off to our afternoon adventure:
Here are Kieran and Alastar at the Riverboat Discovery III. We went on a 3 hour tour (I know, I know) along the Chena River. It is quite the tour, it is actually a tour that Laura and I went on when we were little girls and we came to Fairbanks with our mom and Aunt Frances. The boat stops at a lot of places along the river. This stop was the home of Susan Butcher. Susan Butcher was one of my all time favorite mushers. She won the Iditarod Sled Dog Race four times. I remember hearing about Susan Butcher for most of my life. She passed away from cancer in 2006. The person down in front of the house is her daughter Tekla. Tekla talked with us about their dog kennel and did a demonstration on how they train their sled dogs.
The trip goes to a recreation of an Athabascan fish camp. Here we saw a demonstration on how the salmon is dried and smoked so it can be used throughout the winter.
Here Kieran is sleeping on a traditional bed of a bear skin over a mattress of spruce tree branches. He said it was pretty comfortable, but that the hide was a little itchy. He thinks they should use a different kind of hide, one that is softer.
At the camp they had a chance to pet some of Susan Butcher's dogs. Here is Alastar, checking the dogs out.

After our 3 hour tour we headed back to North Pole for our second attempt at talking with the big guy. This time we were in luck!
Alastar visited with Santa and told him what he wanted for Christmas. He had gotten himself the elf hat earlier and Santa wanted to know why he wasn't at work!
Kieran also visited with Santa. The boys were so excited to meet the REAL Santa in his REAL home in North Pole. It is easy to tell when you are in North Pole - you know how? All the light posts are painted red and white like candy canes. I can't remember what the boys asked for from the man, toys I have never heard of. It was a really busy, really hot day! It was in the 80's in Fairbanks - this also caused questions - where was the snow in North Pole? Answer: it's summer.

Fairbanks Adventure - Day 2

2010-05-29T06:55:00.003-08:00

Day 2 found us in Denali National Park! Here we are at the park entrance getting ready to go and experience the wonder of nature and the amazing gift that is the national park system.

The first thing we did was to head off to the sled dog demonstration. At Denali National Park they breed and raise sled dogs that are used year round. The dogs are particularly important in the winter time when they are used to break trail and to check on conditions and activity throughout the park. The first part of the demonstration allowed us to go around and meet the dogs and the rangers who care for them. Here the boys are petting Pyro, who was a very friendly!
They had the dogs pull a ranger around a loop on a sled so that we could see the dogs at work!
Then they let folks climb on the sled for a photo op! Here is Kieran on the sled:
Here is Alastar on the sled:
After the demonstration and some lunch we headed for a hike in the park to the beautiful Horseshoe Lake. Here are the happy hikers, ready to head out on the trail!
When we got down to the lake we saw that we weren't alone, there was a moose taking a bath in the lake. At first when we got to the lake the moose was closer, but the young hikers got there first and they were not quiet, so the moose swam away.
Here is a fantastic photo of Alastar, Laura, and Kieran at the lake.
On our hike back out of the lake we came across this on our trail. A cow moose with a calf. Needless to say, we couldn't continue on our hiking trail. We had to get off the trail and go around. We gave momma and baby a lot of room and then we got back on the trail after we were sure we were out of her way.
After our hike we hopped back on the train. We were headed to our final destination, Fairbanks! This photo is of the train traveling underneath the Parks Highway.
Here is a photo of windblown Kieran:
And here is windblown Alastar (this was actually from our first day on the train):
All in all it was a great day filled with adventure! On to Fairbanks!

Fairbanks Adventure - Day 1

2010-05-28T16:23:00.006-08:00

I am the proud auntie of twin nephews. This year they turned 8 - it's hard to imagine that they are already this old, the day they were born seems like yesterday. This year for their birthday I decided that I didn't want to give them more "stuff". I have been thinking a lot about my sweet Aunt Frances, who passed away in February. When my sis and I were kids she was always really good about taking us places and doing things with us. Following in the precedent of Frances I decided that this year for their birthday we would go on an adventure!

Their birthday is in April, so they had to wait until Memorial Weekend to get their adventure gift. First, we headed down to the Train Depot to board the Alaska Railroad. Our destination: Denali National Park and then Fairbanks, Alaska. But, they boys were not so much about the destination at this point, they were about the journey - they were really excited to go on their first train ride!
Here we are, the Four Fearless Adventurers! In the back: myself and my sister Laura. In the front: Alastar and Kieran.
We rode in the Gold Star Car, which is the domed rail car. It afforded us some amazing views along the way, like this view of the Susitna River with Mt. McKinley in the background.The train journey from Anchorage to Denali is 8 hours. I was a little worried that it was going to be too long a time on the train and that the guys would get bored. That proved to not be the case at all. The train did have one stop where we could get out and stretch our legs for a couple of minutes, in Terrific Talkeetna! Talkeetna is the staging ground for all climbers of Mt. McKinley. It is also where most Mt. McKinley flight seeing trips depart from. It is close to the southern border of the park and closer to the mountain itself than the park entrance. You may recall I talked about Talkeetna when I went on a flight seeing trip a couple of years ago.
The train traveled over Hurricane Gulch. This is the deepest ravine that the train travels over and building the bridge for the train was quite the undertaking. The boys were excited to go over the gulch. Alastar kept saying, "it's like a big bowl, we're going into the big bowl!" Pretty cute!
I'm not exactly sure how many cars there were on our train. Somewhere between 8 and 16. We had access to the first four cars, those operated by the Alaska Railroad. There were also cars that were operated by the major tourist companies like Princess, Greyline, and others.
Kieran and Alastar really, really liked the train!
When we got to Denali we spent the night here. We were at the Denali Alaska Salmon Bake. It is the only operation outside Denali that is still owned by Alaskans and not by one of the big tourist outfitters. At the Salmon Bake they have cabins for rent. Some are more like tents and share restroom facilities. Others, like this one, are true structures with a private bath. It was a cozy space, two double beds, but it was only for one night and it did what we needed just fine!

Summer Time!

2010-05-25T08:15:00.005-08:00

It is now summer vacation! Summer always feels to me like a time to catch up on stuff. I generally have a HUGE list of things I hope to catch up on and I spend the summer trying to not: a) overwhelm myself, b) set myself up so that I never get things done. One thing that has been true since I moved from the classroom to the counseling office is that summer is shorter now then it was. As a counselor, I go back to work two weeks earlier than I did as a teacher, and while yes, of course I get compensated for this time the balance between time versus money is always a hard one for me. More money is nice, but often there is nothing that beats more time. Things I want to do this summer are varied and plentiful! I'd like to:

1. Finish my quilt top, and perhaps make some more.
2. Finish kuspuk and plan for some more for the holidays.
3. Finish some of my UFO's in the knitting world. Rather than start new projects, which is always a challenge since I see so many new patterns all the time that I'd love to knit!
4. Start a new exercise regimen. I'm looking a C25K as a possibility because it can be easily integrated into walks with Winston.
5. Pull out the carpet in my house and replace it with a different kind of flooring. To get to here involves some other projects first... This will also require assistance from Sweet Baboo, who is still working because he doesn't have one of these fancy education jobs!
6. Work with my union to prepare for campaign season in Alaska (we have a gubernatorial election this year in addition to some important ballot initiatives).
7. Volunteer with Planned Parenthood to help with a ballot initiative they are trying to keep from becoming law.

Okay, so that's 7 things. But they are 7 BIG THINGS!! They need to be broken down into smaller pieces. There is a strong possibility that I won't get this all done. I've started thinking that maybe I need to really break the list down into smaller pieces and then from there try to make a realistic list. So, I've looked for ideas on how to do this. I've talked with SB to see if he can help me pare the list down to something reasonable so that I don't get to the end of the summer and feel like a loser for not getting more done. He knows me better than anyone and knows not only what I'm capable of getting accomplished, but also what I'm likely to get done. Another person suggested that what she does is to have four items on her to do list at any time. Once she gets one done then she can add another. That seemed like a good plan. I'm open to other ideas though. If you have other ideas that you are willing to share I'm willing to listen!

F.O. - Cabled Baby Hat (Yet to be named, read below)

2010-05-22T08:41:00.007-08:00

Ta - Da!! Another F.O.!! I tell you what, I'm on FIRE! Okay, I'm exaggerating quite a bit here, but considering the very slow progress knitting had been making lately to have 3 F.O.'s in one month is proof that all my claims of, "I'm madly knitting!" are in fact, true!
This particular F.O. is particularly neat because it is the first honest to goodness Winston's Mom Original. Now, what I've learned in my few years of being obsessed with this yarn and sticks stuff is that a lot of patterns look alike, they will have different names, different designers, there may me a thing or two (maybe) that are actually different, but on the whole they are the same thing. So, if there is someone out there who has made a pattern just like this one, I apologize if you feel like I'm stealing your idea. I call this a Winston's Mom Original because there was no pattern sitting in front of me when I knit it. I thought it all up using my noodle. But, I'm happy to concede that the stuff in my noodle is just a reflection of a lot of beautiful knitting that I've seen, touched, read about, and tried to knit myself. Okay, enough with the disclaimer stuff, on to the feeling proud!

I made this hat for a friend at work, Kelly, who is having her first baby in about three weeks. She is having a baby boy. Now, I've known all along that she was having this baby, and that eventually we would have a shower for her, but somehow it still snuck up on me. So, last Friday when I was told about the shower happening on Wednesday, my thought was "Oh no - I want to make her a hat, that's not a lot of time!" Then I went to see my massage therapist. My shoulders have been giving me trouble and they were bad last Friday, I was told "NO KNITTING (until shoulders feel considerably better)". So, I cast on this baby on Saturday night. I did refer to a hat pattern I've had for forever, the Bailey Hat, to get a thought about how many stitches to cast on, but after that it was all thoughts in my head about how sweet some cables would look on a little guy.
It ended up being kind of long, longer probably than a new born needs unless that new born has a large head. But, I figure he can grow into it. It's stretchy, which I think is why it fits on Lola, but it she has a small head and it's snug on her - you can see her through the hat. I used stash yarn for this. I knew I had yarn in my stash that would work, and a baby hat doesn't take a lot of yarn. I know this yarn is a Mountain Colors sock yarn, but I don't know which colorway it is because I lost the tag. I was a little worried about the bright colors because Kelly had been telling me that all the baby clothes she had for her little guy have been in earth tones. But, fortunately, she loved it! Yay!
I don't have a name for this pattern yet, I'm naming it after the little guy and a name won't be officially decided for him until he arrives. Kelly has told me she will let me know the name as soon as she can and then my plan is to make the pattern available to others for free on ravelry. It will be my first time contributing anything since it is my first original design! I'm pretty excited about this.

My other exciting knitting news is that through ravelry I was contacted by the designer of the Nachaq Hood I knit for my BKFF. She asked to use one of my pictures of Lola wearing it on the ravely pattern page for that pattern! I was so surprised and honored! If you are on ravelry you can check out the pattern and see Lola there!

My final bit of exciting news is that it is SUMMER VACATION!! YAY!! My knitting goal for summer is to finish some UFO's that I have laying around here. But for now, it is a beautiful day outside so I need to get out there!

F.O. - Sweet Baboo Sweater!

2010-05-17T19:00:00.002-08:00

It is finished! Only 2 + years in the making! It is the V-neck Top Down Sweater, what I like to refer to as the Sweet Baboo Sweater because I made it for my Sweet Baboo!

My Sweet Baboo is shy about having his face in the photo, but agreed to do these neck down shots. I LOVE how this looks on him! It fits him so well! And after issues of gauge, issues of striping (which I didn't totally resolve), issues of arm decrease calculations, and issues of only working on this very slowly because if I wasn't around my BKFF I was working on her gift!

Here's the back view. His full head could be shown here, and his identity is still protected!
The best part of the whole thing is that it really FITS him!! His arms are long and thin, most of his shirts have sleeves that are a smidge short leaving his wrists hanging out in the breeze, but since this was custom made for him, the sleeves are PERFECT!!
The neckline is really simple and I have to admit, I was a wee bit skeptical if it would look nice. I was pleasantly surprised! So much so I had to take 2 pictures of it! Note the dog hair in the photo below, I still need to wash and block the sweater.
The yarn is Cascade 220 Paints - in Blue. I LOVE Cascade 220 - I'm convinced it is just one of the best yarns in the WORLD! It may not be the most luxurious, it isn't silk or qiviut, but it is soft, consistent, reliable, stretchy, comes in a variety of colors and styles, and is all-around great - just like my Sweet Baboo! Details, details:

Pattern: Top Down V-Neck Sweater, Knitting Pure & Simple
Needles: US 7, this is larger than what was on the pattern, to fit gauge
Yarn: Cascade 220 Paints, purchased in January 2008 in Portland, OR
Cast On: Sometime in May 2009
Cast Off: May 12, 2010

He's going to look FANTASTIC!!

F.O. - Nachaq Hood / Smoke Ring

2010-05-06T18:08:00.003-08:00

What?!?! A new post - it CAN'T be! But, it is!! I know I have not written a post in a very, very, very long time! Life has been busy at a level that I can not describe in words. It still is, but a break is in sight - yay! And, although I've been pretty quiet on the posting front, I still have been knitting. I have this to share:

Lola is modeling a Nachaq Hood. What, pray tell, is a Nachaq Hood? Well, it is also sometimes referred to as a Smoke Ring. It is a traditional Native Alaskan piece of knitting. As you can see, it can be worn as a neck gaiter or as a combination head and neck cover.
Nachaq Hoods are usually a lace knitting product. Traditionally they are made of Qiviut. For those who are unfamiliar, qiviut is the underhair of the Musk Ox. It is a fiber that is unbelievably light, warm, and soft! It is also not super easy to come by and is pretty pricey. This Nachaq Hood is not made of qiviut - I don't have that kind of salary!
This is made of 100% Pure New Zealand Merino Laceweight Wool. It is also very soft and very fine. Once I finished knitting it, it took a lot of blocking! Three days of blocking, to be exact. Here's some more of the design, the pattern is named Skeleton. The pattern comes from the book, Arctic Lace, which tells all about qiviut, and about the Native Co-op here in Anchorage, and about Musk Ox, and about the different patterns that are found in the different regions of Alaska. It is a great book that I LOVE!! This is the second pattern that I've knit from this book!

And here's even greater detail - not super easy to see since the yarn is green/teal/blue in color and I'm blocking it on my ironing board which has a denim blue cover! This was a very special gift for my very special friend, my BKFF Arctic Knitter! She gave me the book Arctic Lace a couple of years ago and I knew once I received the book that I wanted to show my thanks by making her something from the book. It took me a little while to figure it all out and then get it knitted. Here are the details:
Pattern: Skeleton Nachaq Hood - my BKFF teaches Anatomy so the pattern seemed fitting!
Book: Arctic Lace
Yarn: New Zealand 100% Pure Laceweight Merino Wool
Needles: US 2 16" circular - Knit Picks
Cast On: December 28th-ish
Cast Off: April 27th

Lace isn't fast, and I'm not a fast knitter, but I think that the results are so worth it! I am so glad my BKFF likes it, I'm very thankful to have her as my friend!

Update: January 18, 2010

2010-01-18T08:06:00.003-09:00

Here is an update on the progress of the Sweet Baboo top down sweater. My Sweet Baboo was feeling shy about having his face shown. But, the sweater is fitting him quite nicely and I'm ready to start the ribbing on the bottom of the body. Then it will be on to the sleeves, which should go relatively fast in comparison. The body has 232 stitches per round, the sleeves, to begin with will have 102 and they will just go down from there. He says he likes it, I hope he does, I think he'll look quite handsome in it when all is said and done.

I have begun some new things with the new year. First of all, I was quite inspired by the movie Julie & Julia as were many people. After watching it the first time I went on line and purchased Mastering the Art of French Cooking - volumes 1 & 2. My first attempt at French cooking was Boeuf A La Bourguignonne, which was featured a lot in the movie and just looked yummy. It was quite the cooking adventure! It took six hours to make and upon finishing it - well it was 10pm and we had already ordered and eaten pizza for dinner. But, we ate it the next night, just like Julia said we could, and that was FABULOUS! I am not known, by any measure, for cooking talent and my Sweet Husband upon taking his first bite exclaimed, "Oh my God that is so good!", which I had to admit made me feel quite proud! I learned a lot from the experience too and I think the next time I make it, yes I will make this dish again, it shouldn't take six hours. It will still take awhile, but not quite that much time. A couple of weeks later I tried Poulet au Porto, which was mentioned in the film, but not really shown. It is roast chicken stepped with Port Wine, cream, and mushrooms. It was also quite yummy. I altered this recipe a bit because Julia calls for you to roast a whole chicken first and there are only two of us having this meal in our house, an entire roast chicken would be a waste. Now, let me be clear, I have NO intention of trying to cook all the recipes in these books, and certainly would not be ambitious enough to try to cook a recipe (or more) a day like the woman in the movie did. But, I am enjoying branching out and trying this new thing. I've never really been one to enjoy cooking a whole lot, and I'm enjoying this. I promise right here and now - I WILL NOT be cooking ANY of the 10 Aspics in the book...YUCK! That's what I think of Aspics -- YUCK! I figure I'll keep trying out Julia's recipes until I stop enjoying it. A recipe every couple of weeks isn't that bad.

The other new thing I'm trying is related to this:
This is fabric for my first ever quilt. I received my first ever sewing machine for Christmas. I have never really been much of a sewer either, really the only things I have created are knit or crochet or occasionally tie-dyed. But, occasionally for knitting I need a sewing machine. And occasionally I have things that need mending. So, I asked for a machine, just a very basic, simple, machine. My Sweet Husband got what was for sale at Costco, which turns out to be the Brother XR-9000. It is a pretty fancy machine! And it came with a bonus quilting table and quilting foot. I really am a novice at using my machine at all so my BKFF Arctic Knitter suggested that taking a quilting class would help me learn my machine. That sounded very reasonable to me and the instructor of the class is a friend I've known for a few years because Winston and her dogs play together. I'm really excited about this class! The class is a beginning sampler class, so every block is different. I'll post pictures as it goes along, the class starts next month. In addition to that, Arctic Knitter is teaching me how to make a kuspuk that I'm sewing on my new sewing machine. I'll have to post pictures of that too.

Other new things on the homefront:
This was Sweet Husband's gift to himself for the New Year (Year of Sweet Husband according to SH). It is a 55" Samsung LED HDTV. It is crazy big! But, I'm surprised at how quickly I've become used to it and how I can't really recall what things looked like before. Weird how that happens isn't it?

Finally, I leave you with this:
Winston smiling with a chewey in his mouth. It is called a Himalayan Chew, it is made from yak's and cow's milk. He loves them! We refer to them as Yak Crack!

Good-bye 2009! Hello 2010!

2010-01-09T14:29:00.002-09:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! I also wish everyone a VERY happy New Year! I was just looking at what I wrote to start off 2009 and was thinking about how I did on that list of resolutions.

I did pretty good about not buying yarn until November 2009. I did end up buying some for Madrona, which ended up being silly because I haven't even looked at that project and I don't have a real interest in it. I went a little bananas buying yarn at Sock Summit - but I tried to buy types of yarn that I couldn't get in Alaska so I feel okay about it. And I know it will end up as something lovely. I did pretty good at stash reduction though. All the charity hats I knit - from stash. Any socks I knit - from stash. The first BSJ I knit - from stash. The second one I knit, not from stash, from yarn purchased at Sock Summit - so from *new* stash. I finished one of the two toddler blankets, and now there is yet another new Irish baby. I'm thinking that I'll need to figure something out quick! With chunky yarn and either big needles or a big hook! I haven't finished the sweater for DH - but it is moving along and is all from stash. I haven't finished the sweater in my head - which has actually been changed into a different sweater entirely, but it is kind of started and it's all from stash. I started Lou's knee highs - from stash. So, there is progress. I have lost my sock mojo for a bit. I'm sure it will come back.

So, in some ways it seems like 2009 was a year of things begun, but not yet finished. 2009 was a really hard year for me in many ways. It was a year that started out feeling stuck and then got moving and changing really fast! Ultimately, I believe that change is positive. I think it is good, that movement can be hard, but that it yields positive results in the long run. Sometimes the long run feels like it is a long ways away though. From what I can see right now, the changes are bound to continue, at the crazy speed they have been moving, and I'm just doing my best to keep up! My hopes for 2010 are to finish some of these undone things. And to try some new things. I received a sewing machine, my first one, for Christmas and that has already started me down some new roads. I want to finish the two sweaters. I want to finish the knee highs for Lou. I want to knit the Grinch socks that I bought as a kit for myself over a year ago. I'd love to have those for Christmas 2010! I want to knit my dad some gloves. I want to have fun with friends and family. I want to ski more with Winston. I want to take pleasure in the small beauties of life, like the sunlight, the snow, the therapy of a walk on the beach, laughing with my nephews, and spending time with my DH who amazes me and makes me laugh everyday. My hopes are high for 2010 to be a really, really good year!

Hats, Hats, & Other Fun Stuff!

2009-12-26T13:22:00.002-09:00

I have been knitting, I really, really have! I haven't lost my knitting mojo - I've lost my blogging mojo and my sock mojo, but not knitting mojo. After feeling really conflicted about the socks I still feel somewhat obligated to knit but at the same time I'm not sure I want to knit them, I decided to take a break from socks. My friend Val hosts a charitable Ladies Open House at her home every December and all proceeds go to our local shelter for abused women and their children. Val has asked me to knit for this event on numerous occasions and I've always felt that I had too much other knitting on my plate to commit. This year I decided in the end of October that I would commit and knit for her event. I knit some hats. I tried to get four to Val's event, but only ended up with three. I made a fourth hat that went to a different charitable event that I'll explain in a moment. First, some shots of the lovely Lola modeling hats!
First, the Fana Cap. All of the hats are knit from Cascade Dolce. It is a very lovely yarn to knit with and continues my love affair with Cascade yarns! This hat was fun and fast to knit! I made the size Large, but in the future I would add a couple more rows to make it a little longer. The size around was great, just a little short.

Next the Ullared Hat. This time I made the size Extra Large. I wasn't making these hats for anyone specific, which I have to admit was really, really freeing, so it didn't matter that this hat turned out HUGE! I love the pattern, but now I know - knit a smaller size!
I think the crown on this hat is pretty cool!
Next - the Lusekofte Cap with the optional X design. This one worked out perfect! It was the right size around, and it was long enough too. I didn't put the tassel on the top that the pattern calls for, I'm not a big tassel person myself. I thought the color combo on this was really pretty too!

Next - the Danish Earflap Cap. Now, this was the one that didn't get finished in time for Val's event. The first three were there all all but the giant hat sold, so two out of three ain't bad and the one that didn't sell can be there next year and if it doesn't sell then I'll just donate it to the shelter. This hat ended up being a donation to a different charity event my friend Cara hosts for the 4 A's - Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association. She has hosted this very nice event in her home for a number of years and she has a silent auction as part of it. So, this hat found a home that way.
This was a fun and very clever hat to knit! I will make another of these I think in the future. I didn't attach the cords for the end of the flaps - turns out I'm not a fan of tassels or cords.
The crown detail on this is also really cool! I made another hat before Christmas - an Aran Watch Cap for my sister's boyfriend. This was more of a hurried Christmas gift. I thought my Christmas knitting was done when I finished the Bella's Mittens for Katie, but it wasn't. I also ended up making a Bella-esque headband, with the same cable design as the mittens, for Katie for Christmas that very nicely used up the left over yarn from the mittens. Then I had this hat for my sister's boyfriend that I'm still waiting for her to send me a photo of. I'll put up the photo once I get it. And there is another knitted gift that I started that had no hope of being done in time for Christmas, or New Year's, that I thought was going to go really fast but I don't know what I was thinking! Oh well, best laid plans! All of the hat patterns are from the book Hats On! by Charlene Schurch. I love this book! It is fantastic! I want to knit more of the hats in it, and repeat some of the favorites.

I also did some other crafting - tie-dye to be specific. On the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend I tie-dyed 14 shirts for Christmas gifts for children in my family located on two continents.
They turned out pretty good - I was happier with some more than others, but the beauty of tie-dye is that you never really know what you're going to get!
I actually tried to do a very specific design on these two. They are for a pair of sisters who get very excited about matching shirts. My attempt at a flower pattern. Not perfect, but I think the flowers can be seen, and while they match, they are not identical - just like their recipients!

Halloween 2009

2009-12-12T13:16:00.005-09:00

Okay - so I LOVE Halloween! I know it has taken me forever to post the photos, but it is true that Halloween I think is just an awfully fun holiday! This year for Halloween, I dressed up as my favorite superhero, Wonder Woman. This first photo is me at school in my costume for the costume day - which was actually 28th of October. In case you are wondering - no the costume didn't come with the long johns, those were optional. I do work in a public high school and I do live in Alaska.

Here is Halloween proper. Winston was Superdog. He was amazing! I tried to get Dave to dress up as the "Man of Steel", but he wasn't going to have any part of that! He was having trouble embracing the fun of Halloween. But, at least he agreed to hand out candy while Winston, my sister, my nephews, and I went trick or treating.

Why Wonder Woman? Besides that she is just AWESOME and she has an invisible plane?! Well, as a child of the 70's I watched the TV Series Wonder Woman starring the great Lynda Carter. Turns out the Lynda Carter and I have the same birthday. So, my seven year old self thinks, "I have the same birthday as Wonder Woman!". As a child I was Wonder Woman for Halloween for like three years running. This costume may appear again in future Halloweens... only time will tell.

What a SuperDog!

Take Two!

2009-10-26T18:20:00.004-08:00

Okay, this is the NEW version of the Baby & Bears Sweater for Grown Ups! I'm now knitting a size Large instead of the XL. I also changed the color scheme up a bit, using the Baltic Sea for the cuff and then doing the striping as before. I actually like this one better, not sure why, I just do. I probably won't be doing much more knitting on it for a bit though. The holidays are less than 2 months away and I have some holiday knitting to do! Mainly, I have volunteered to do some knitting for a charity event my friend Val hosts at her house every year for AWAIC (Abused Women's Aide In Crisis) - the local shelter for women and their children who are trying to escape from domestic violence. What Val does is she has folks make things or donate things that she then sells at this open house at her home and all the proceeds go to the shelter. She's been trying to get me to donate stuff for a couple of years, and this year is it! I'm going to do some stash busting and hat knitting! I'm also still slowly working on the sweater for my Sweet Baboo, maybe I'll have that finished for the holidays too. I seem to have temporarily lost my sock mojo, I say temporarily because I'm sure it will return, but socks and I are taking a break for right now.

In other news, my Sweet Baboo and I went to go see a really good movie this weeked, It Might Get Loud. It is a documentary film about guitarists Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White. The filmmakers had these three musicians come together for one day in January 2009 to talk about music, and specifically, playing guitar. It was really interesting! If you like rock music at all you would probably take something away from this film. Also, something that was really cool is that here it opened at one of our second run theaters (although it never played in the first run houses..) so the price was only $3. Pretty sweet!

Finally, my work has really been rough these last few weeks. I am finally seeing a little light though, once I get through this week one big project will be done. I'm one of two coordinators for implementing the PLAN Test at our school. The PLAN Test is a precursor for the ACT, it is a pretty neat test and should give kids some really helpful information. Our district got stimulus funding to give this test to all 10th graders. There are over 600 sophomores at our school! That is a HUGE thing to organize!! I don't recommend taking on a project of this magnitude - I keep wondering why I spoke when I said, "I'll help with that". I wasn't thinking! Oh well, it is nearly done. Just a few more rough days to go...

Halloween is soon - we are going for the superhero approach in our house. What are you dressing up as?

And We're Off! Also - I'm a Moron!

2009-10-18T15:30:00.003-08:00

We started our B & B Sweater KAL on Thursday! You can still join us! It is totally open to anyone who cares to play along. I cast on and started my cuff of my first sleeve on Thursday. I didn't get any knitting done on Friday, but here is where I got to on Saturday:

It's looking pretty good! But then I slipped in on my arm and I discovered a problem. After all the work I did with knitting gauge swatches and getting the correct needles I wasn't careful about deciding what size to make. I just assumed that I'd make an XL and that would be perfect. On my arm I discovered, not so much:
This is a pretty baggy sleeve. I guess that is what happens when I assume things! So, I went and did real measurements on myself and on a sweater that I have that fits me nicely. I need to knit a Large.
I could hide all sorts of extra stuff in a sleeve like that!
I did learn something from this experience though. I learned how I want to use my two colors. I had originally thought that I would make the left sleeve all the blue/brown - Baltic Sea with a green cuff and then go to stripes in the body. I was going to make the right sleeve all green - Wasabi with a Baltic Sea cuff. What I discovered is something that I actually already knew:
I love the way these two colors play off each other. I don't know why, I just do. So, since I have to rip out what I've started and start over what I'm going to do is make both sleeves with Baltic Sea cuffs and then do the striping every four rows - makes it easy to keep track of increases. And then continue the striping on the body too and use Wasabi to make my edging all around the body and the neckband. I think that will turn out great!

F.O. - Quick & Easy Baby Hat

2009-10-14T18:41:00.003-08:00

This is the Quick & Easy Baby Hat. I made it for a co-worker, who as I type, is at the hospital having her first baby. I don't know if she is having a boy or a girl, so I tried to be gender neutral. My co-worker's favorite color is brown, and I thought this light green went well with the chocolate brown and wasn't too girlie or too boyie. The details:

Pattern: Quick & Easy Baby Hat, free from Ravelry
Needles: US 6
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly DK, a superwash that is really soft!
Method: Circular
Cast On: Saturday, October 10th
Bind Off: Tuesday, October 13th
A view from the top! This truly was quick and easy! It was a lot of fun to knit and I really liked the yarn. I hope the baby enjoys it! :0)

F.O. - Bella's Mittens

2009-10-10T16:09:00.002-08:00

I have a F.O. to share:
These are Bella's Mittens. They are a Christmas gift for my DH's cousin and our friend, Katie. She never reads this blog so I don't have to worry about her seeing them. She is a HUGE Twilight fan and so I know that she'll love these! And brown is her favorite color too. Here are the details:

Pattern: Bella's Mittens - free from Ravelry
Needles: US 8 Circular and DPN
Method: Magic Loop
Yarn: Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande - very, very soft!
Cast On: Mid September
Cast Off: October 9th - I would've finished sooner if I had not caught the flu!

We've been experiencing a beautiful fall here in Anchorage! This photo was actually taken a couple of weeks ago, but is shows some of the amazing fall colors around Westchester Lagoon:
Isn't that great! The mountains don't have that much snow anymore, we had a warm, southerly wind blow through. But, you can feel it in the air that snow is not far away at all!

My friends and I are starting a KAL this week for the Babies and Bears Sweater for Grown-Ups. We have a group on Ravelry. You should join us!

Flu!

2009-10-03T10:26:00.003-08:00

It has hit me. I caught the flu. I tried so hard to avoid it, if I didn't feel so bad I'd be really irritated. It came on very suddenly and it hit hard. The irony is that there was a shot clinic at work on Friday in which I totally intended to get my flu shot, but I missed it because I was home with the stupid flu! Oh well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. I've been feeling really run down with the hectic nature of the start of the school year that hasn't calmed down yet. And I do work in a public high school, a cesspool of disease. I just HATE feeling this way!! Ugh!!

I am doing a little better than I was at first. For the first couple of days all I could do was sleep, occasionally eat, and drink water. I now can do a little reading, a little typing, and a little knitting.

Holiday Knitting

2009-09-27T12:59:00.000-08:00

I have begun my holiday knitting. I don't have a super long list, but I just don't knit very fast and so if I don't start early it won't happen. I'm thinking of who all I should do holiday knitting for. I have a few ideas, but it is a short list. I'm trying to think of things that are fast, because frankly, although they don't seem big socks just aren't that fast. At least not for a slow knitter like me. I would love to do some charity knitting, I have a friend who I know would love for me to donate some knitted objects to a charity function she runs. I just always feel like there are not enough hours in the day. Maybe I'll focus on charity knitting instead...??? Hmmm...???

There is already snow on the mountains here. Winter is around the corner. It was snowing in Fairbanks this weekend. The start of the school year has been absolutely INSANE! I keep waiting for it to calm down so I can catch up! Haven't found that yet. Hopefully it isn't too far away because I really need to feel like I have a handle on what is going on with my 350 kiddos.

My friends and I have not yet set a date for the start of our KAL on the Baby and Bears for Grown-Ups Sweater yet. We will be together on Tuesday, so maybe we will get a decision then. I'll let you know. With holiday knitting having started and looming in my head it is hard to think about knitting something that is totally unrelated and just for me. But at the same time I haven't knit anything for me in awhile. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Rest of the summer - summed up!

2009-09-26T11:41:00.000-08:00

I've decided to take a page out of my friend at One More Project's book to sum up the rest of my summer. She does these Friday Photos entries where she just has images. I'm going to provide some words, but not many, and just a lot of pictures. First, a video:

This is what 10,000 teachers sound like when they get together! It was crazy! And for me, totally overwhelming!
This is the AEA President, Jim, standing next to the Alaska banner. He is modeling the Kuspuk that NEA-AK loaned to each of us to wear as an Alaskan delegate. They were really nice! They were embroidered on the back with the big dipper, so just like the Alaska Flag. I wish I could have kept mine.
We spent a lot of time at RA sitting. And eating, this is Jerry and Lisa doing both. And listening to folks from CA argue about stuff. And voting. It was COLD in the Convention Center! I had to go outside to get warm. I also went out to get food because the food they sold at the convention center wasn't that interesting and it was really overpriced!
On July 3rd, we went to a Padres game at PetCo Park. It was a lot of fun! They played the LA Dodgers and it was the return game of Manny Ramierez after his suspension. Pretty interesting! There was a GREAT fireworks show after the game! I video taped it but it is pretty long. It would have to be it's own stand alone post I think...
Here I am knitting at the game. I was able to get a lot of work done on Arctic Knitter's socks at RA! All that sitting = all that time for knitting. The only other distraction we had was the announcement that our Governor at the time, she who must not be named, was resigning her post. That led to a lot of texting, emailing, and calling folks at home to try to find out more news.
When I visited the USS Midway I got the boys sailor hats. Don't they look cute!
In mid-July my BIL Paul came to Alaska for the first time. He came to meet his girlfriend, Kerry's, parents. We had dinner at the Double Musky.
Also in mid-July I hosted a tie-dye clinic one Monday evening at the house. I had some friends who wanted to learn how, and although I'm certainly no expert I did say I could teach them. Here's a very pregnant Julie Bean and Heather working away.
Here's Heather, Jenn, and Dave letting those artistic juices flow! The pictures are not great because I took them with my phone and the lighting wasn't very good. Our dining room light sucks...my darling electrician husband keeps telling me how it needs to be changed...and that is as far as the conversation goes!
In late July my best friend Wendi came to visit me for my birthday!
We took a Segway tour of Anchorage! It was FUN!
Here we are being goofy taking pictures of one another taking pictures with our iPhones!
For my birthday my sister, Wendi, and I got pedicures! And my dad made my traditional Thanksgiving Birthday dinner! YUM!
Just after my birthday I was able to hob-knob with Senator Begich at the Dog Jog. Winston didn't have much to say to the Senator, there were too many dogs to speak to!
In the first weekend of August I attended the Sock Summit in Portland, OR. This is the clock in the Convention Center. I really liked the clock, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how one was supposed to tell time on the clock!
I was able to meet and take a class from Cookie A.! It was a great class! It brought me a lot of inspiration!
At Sock Summit Sandy, Sylvia, Arctic Knitter, and I along with a bunch of other knitters worked at breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest number of people simultaneously knitting. I think we did it! This picture was, of course, taken before the clock was actually started.
We went on our annual camping trip to Seward for Labor Day weekend. It was the same campground as the last couple of years, so I figured I'd show a picture that showed something different. Here's a smiling Winston in the field next to the Seward Elementary School with a hanging glacier behind him.
A self-portrait of my love and I.
Winston wants everyone to know that he is hungry!

Thank You!

2009-09-19T12:19:00.003-08:00

Thank you to all who provided input into my knitting dilemma. I think I have figured out what I'm going to do. I'm going to make the socks because I think I will enjoy the process, so long as I don't think about the circumstances with the recipient. And I think I need to get it done just so it isn't weighing on my soul any longer. I will definitely take many photos of the socks and make a production of the giving - even though the giving will not be in person and involve mailing. Finally, my good friend Subarctic Mama gave me a beautiful little bag that is perfect for a sock knitting project for my birthday. I think that if I carry it in this bag it will give me warm feelings and that will be good. Then it will be done and I can move on to other, less conflicted, projects.

Thank you also for the advice on gauge swatches. I had not thought of washing the swatch, because honestly, after I knit the swatch and measure it I pulled it out and then used that yarn in the sweater itself. I'm going to have to do another fitting on my beloved soon, hopefully things will be fine with the US7. I think we'll be okay. I really appreciate everyone's help and input on both situations! Thanks! It is also nice to know that folks are reading too!

F.O. Old & F.O. New

2009-09-18T18:31:00.004-08:00

Okay, I have two F.O.'s to share today! One is over a month old, the other I finally finished this week. First, a pair of socks:

These are socks for my BKFF Arctic Knitter. They are her birthday gift I got them to her only a month late! The yarn is Blue Moon STR lightweight in the colorway Lucky. It was one of the colorways from RSC of 2008. Arctic Knitter's favorite color is green, so this seemed perfect.
The pattern is Biological Clock from The Eclectic Sole. I liked the pattern, but I ended up knitting these socks three times. I seem to have some kind of issue that I don't understand with knitting toe-up socks with a gusset and heel flap style heel. I don't get it. I've made four or five pairs of toe-up socks where I used a short-row heels and those were fine, so, as I said, I don't get it. It is hard to correct it when you don't know what you are doing wrong. Anyway, the way I finally solved the problem (or how the third time became the charm) is that when I started the gusset I went up a needle size. Then I went back down again at the leg. That seemed to work.
Why this pattern for my BKFF? Well, that is easy. She's a Science teacher, more specifically, an Anatomy and Physiology teacher, so a pattern that features a DNA double helix seemed so perfect for her that I couldn't pass it up. I delivered them to her when we met up at the Sock Summit. It is hard to see the double helix from this photo right now, but if you click on it and make it bigger you'll be able to see it. Arctic Knitter seemed to be really pleased with them, I hope they keep her toes happy and warm this winter and for many winters to come! I'm very blessed to have her as my friend and I wanted to show her some of my appreciation for all the wonderful things she has brought to my life.

Now, the new F.O. - a Baby Surprise Jacket!
This is for Killian, my good friend Julie's new baby boy! This is actually the second BSJ I've made for Killian. I made his first one before he was born and before I knew he was a boy. That one was made with a kit I had bought from Blue Mood and used their Sock Candy yarn and a US2 needle. Killian was born weighing 9 lbs., 7 oz. - too big for the sweater I had made him! At birth! So, I bought new yarn to make a new sweater at Sock Summit. This is worsted weight yarn, it is Spuds & Chloe yarn. It is 55% Superwash Merino and 45% Organic Cotton, I've never used it before and it was really a pleasure to knit with. I chose these colors to represent the University of Notre Dame. Both of Killian's parents attended Notre Dame and continue to be big fans of Notre Dame football. Look at the buttons:
They are little footballs! I looked for shamrock buttons, for the Fighting Irish, but couldn't find any. I thought the little footballs would be perfect though. I actually got this knitted in record time - the knitting was done in two weeks - including the i-cord bind off, and this was my first time using this type of finishing. You can tell because I didn't space out the buttons very well, but it is good practice and I don't think that Killian will care. It then took me a week to get the buttons on...it's been a really rough week...but it is now done! I have washed it and it is blocking right now, I hope it will be ready to go on Sunday when I'm going to get to meet Killian for the first time!

A Knitting Dilemma

2009-09-11T21:33:00.002-08:00

I have a dilemma. Do you make a second pair of socks for a friend who denies, then can't remember ever receiving, and then thinks they may have gotten rid of the first pair of socks you knit for them? This is my struggle. I carry around the yarn, pattern, and needles - but I haven't cast on. I'm angry and I'm hurt. But, I also already told this person that I was making them a second pair of socks - that is how the dilemma started. What do you think I should do? I appreciate your thoughts.

A Lesson On Gauge

2009-09-10T18:45:00.007-08:00

Okay, so the post I'm sharing now I've been thinking about and meaning to write since August 23rd. Life has just been so hectic that I haven't had a chance to sit down and write it. So here it goes:
This is the top-down v-neck sweater I've been working on for my beloved. It was going along great! Then I had a thought, "Hmmmm...." I wondered, "what gauge am I getting on these US6 needles that the pattern calls for?" So, I pulled out my handy-dandy measuring tape and started counting - 5-3/4 stitches to the inch! The problem with this is that gauge for this sweater is 5 stitches to the inch. Shoot! I didn't do a gauge swatch, I hate doing gauge swatches, I figure I'll just magically knit to gauge, and that is... a lot of wishful thinking. So, I grab my US7 needles and knit a gauge swatch and that comes out to 5-1/4 stitches to the inch. Still not gauge, but I didn't think I wanted to jump up to US8, that just seemed crazy and US7 seemed close enough.

You see the yellow line? I put the sweater on my beloved, measured to where it still fit good (just under the arms), marked it, and started threading a life line. Then began the RRRIIIIIIPPPPPPP-ing!
Here it is after I ripped back to the life line. Sigh. That's a lot of work lost that I have begun to start again on my US7 needles. My beloved said to me, "you don't have to rip it out, it will fit somebody". At which point I said, "No! I specifically chose this yarn for you and I specifically chose this pattern for you - it is NOT going to just fit SOMEBODY!" I'm determined to make this work, because it is something special I've been wanting to make for my sweet husband for a long time now.

Also on the needles...
This is the wrong side of a sock cuff - it is a fold-over cuff. We're looking at 5-1/2 inches of cuff. Of course, this is the start of the Rhiannon stockings that I started a bit ago for my sister. I haven't progressed beyond this for a couple of reasons. First, I got stuck and I was awaiting guidance from the fabulous Cookie A. She did respond quickly to my cry for help, thank you Cookie A.! Second, I got distracted by other projects.
Here, I'm attempting to show the right side of the cuff. It is all pretty cables. I'll definitely show more once I have more to show.
This is the project of the Sock Innovation class I took with Cookie A. at Sock Summit. (I know, I'm still behind and haven't even blogged about Sock Summit yet - shame on me!) I am reluctant to call this an original design. What happened is that Cookie A. brought a lot of different stitch dictionaries to the class and had us find something that spoke to us. This was a lace and cable combination that I found in a Japanese stitch dictionary. Then, Cookie A. helped me to modify it so that it would work well for socks. Then, I spent a fair amount of time charting out the pattern and then I finally got to start knitting it. I think it looks great thus far, I need to do some more planning with it to figure out what type of heel design to use, and if I should consider having the pattern continue onto the top of my foot or to modify it in some way. Too be continued...
Here's the yarn I'm using. It was yarn that I had in my stash that I had forgotten about. It is blue faced leister, in the colorway sugar snap. I really like it! I wish I could recall where I got it or from whom.

A couple of my knitting pals, including Arctic Knitter, and I are thinking of doing our own KAL of this:
The Babies and bears Sweater for Grown Ups from Cottage Creek. It is very similar to the Baby Surprise Jacket, but it is a little different in the way it is knit and it is an adult pattern. If is knit in two halves - from the cuff, up the arm in stockinette in the round, then switching to garter stitch knit back and forth. You do this until you get to the half way point. Then you do the other half and kitchner the back stitches together to create a finished sweater. Pretty cool!
I'm going to make mine using these yarns. I got the idea of combining these yarns from this:
This is a swatch I have from a color class I took the first time I attended Madrona. These two colorways look really neat together. At first I bought the yarn with a different idea for a sweater in mind, but the more I think about it the less I like that sweater idea. But, I thought this yarn would still be great for the Babies and Bears for Grown-Ups pattern. So, I'm excited! We haven't set a date yet, but I'll let you know when we do and you can join if you'd like to. It will be fun!
Finally, I have a picture of the swag I picked up at Sock Summit. Not a ton, but enough. I got some really nice yarns. I tried to find yarns I had not heard of before and that wouldn't be easy for me to get elsewhere. And I got a lot of stitch markers, which was fun. The yellow and blue yarns on the right are for a Baby Surprise Jacket for my friend Julie's baby, Killian. I had knit a BSJ for Killian before he was born, but it was with a smaller gauge yarn and then he was born weighing 9 pounds, 7 ounces! He was born too big for it! So, this is worsted weight yarn and since both of his parents went to Notre Dame University it seemed appropriate. I'm actually finishing the new BSJ now, but I don't have a photo to share. Soon.

That is my lesson in gauge. I learned it the hard and painful way. Don't be like me.

San Diego & the USS Midway!

2009-08-14T09:54:00.005-08:00

After being home for a total of 51 hours I hopped on a plane to San Diego, California. I was headed there for the National Education Association's Representative Assembly (RA). I've been becoming more and more involved in our union in Anchorage and this was my first time attending the national gathering. I've been San Diego before, but it is a lovely city and before the real business got going I had a chance to visit the USS Midway, the aircraft carrier that is on display in San Diego Harbor. San Diego is home to a HUGE naval base, so this was no surprise. After watching the PBS show "Carrier" I had a real interest in seeing one up close and personal.
This was the view of the harbor from my hotel room. My room was on the 25th floor, which was really high up, I actually got a little vertigo the first time I looked down!
This was the view towards town from my room. My room was midway through an elliptical shaped building, so I got a view in each direction. What a great city!
Here's part of the Midway. It is a HUGE ship! So there was no way to capture the entire ship in one photo.
Just next to the Midway is this great statue of "The Kiss", that famous picture of the sailor and nurse kissing in Times Square at the end of WWII. There was also a tribute statue to Bob Hope, but I didn't get a photo of that.
Here I am in the brig! The USS Midway has this self-guided audio tour that you go to all the stops and then listen to what is said about that part of the ship.
Here is the laundry room. The USS Midway when it was running did something in the neighborhood of 6,400 pounds of laundry a day! That is more laundry than I want to do! And all of those clothes had to be pressed too...yuck!
There are four different dining rooms on the USS Midway. There is the general seamen's dining hall, the airmen's dining hall, the petty officer's dining hall, and the officer's dining hall. In the petty officer's dining hall they also had this. It is a table for one with a red rose in honor of the POW's and MIA's. Apparently, all carriers have one of these tables. I thought that was nice.
Here on the main deck you could sit in the seat of an F-15. It is an eject-able seat. At this point in the tour they had a little video of Top Gun stuff and played "Highway to the Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins.
Part of the main deck also had a glass floor to show you the depth of the carrier. My friend Pam, who went on the tour with me was afraid to step on the glass floor.
This is the view from one end of the flight deck looking back at the city. As I stated before, the USS Midway is HUGE! It was a great tour and I'm really glad I went!

Silver Falls State Park

2009-08-14T09:37:00.003-08:00

One other thing we did while visiting on the farm in Oregon was we went to Silver Falls State Park. Uncle Dave took us there, it is near the little town of Silverton, Oregon home of the nation's first transsexual mayor. The town is charming and we had a great lunch there! Then on to the park, which is beautiful! We only got to see a small portion of it. Apparently there are seven different waterfalls and there is a trail you can take through the park to see all of them. We only had time to see the main falls, which was fantastic! Here are some pictures:
Here's the main falls. The trail actually winds around behind the falls, which is really cool! I had not ever gotten to go behind a waterfall before, so I was excited about that!
Here's a picture from behind the waterfall. This certainly wasn't the most powerful falls we'd ever seen, particularly after going to Niagra Falls in '07, but we couldn't go behind those falls. Every place offers it's own something special, it's own beauty -- at least that's what I've found.
Here we are on the other side of the falls. Uncle Dave was kind enough to take a photo of the two of us together, which we really appreciate!
One of the things we love about the Pacific Northwest is the tall, tall trees! Trees can get really tall in some parts of Alaska, but it is just not the same as those tall cedar trees in Washington and Oregon. As you can see, we had a great day - it was sunny and warm!

Okay, So I'm going to try to catch up...

2009-08-14T08:53:00.004-08:00

There is still a lot from the summer to write about, and I haven't done it. The summer is now over, in teacher speak, and heck, I'm wondering where it went. But then I look at the photos and remember that I've been crazy busy! So, we left off in Tacoma at the end of June. After that we went to the farm in Molalla. I've written about this location many times and how much we love it there. I only have a few photos to share this time.
First, sunset on the farm. I never tire of how beautiful it is there!
Next, skeet shooting! Having 5 acres allows for things like skeet shooting. Here is Dave in the foreground and Tucker further back. They look like pros with the shotguns!
Then there's me... In my defense this was only the second time in my existence discharging a firearm of any kind. My stand isn't correct and I guess I may be lucky that I didn't hurt my back! I did hit my first 3 out of 5 clay pigeons though! Not bad for a girl who has no idea what she's doing! I did develop a nice bruise from the shooting though...oh well.
Here is my "Sarah Palin has nothin' on me!" picture. It was a lot of fun! As I said before, we always have such a good time down on the farm!

Family Reunion in Tacoma

2009-07-23T07:26:00.004-08:00

After a couple of days in Portland, we headed north to Tacoma for Father's Day and to connect with the bulk of Dave's family. The fabulous Sandy was our hostess, she's so awesome! On Father's Day is when we had the biggest group together for a BBQ dinner. Then everyone gathered in the living room for family photos.

This photo has the entire group except Sandy and myself. Someone had to hold the camera. Dave's parents had come up from Yuma, Arizona and everyone else was from Washington except Katie from Portland and of course us from Alaska. We haven't had this group all together since 2006, I think. It was great to see everyone all together again. We hadn't seen Dave's parents in a year and a half, so it was particularly great to see them!
Dave's family is mostly male, so after the group photo, they decided that they wanted a picture of "just the ladies". This time they got me, Dave took the photo. Somehow Sandy still managed to avoid getting photographed, she's an elusive one that Sandy!
We were in Tacoma until Wednesday. On Monday I drove out to Gig Harbor where I had lunch with my Aunt Frances. This is Frances with her truck. Her Chevy truck is a 1983 model, I think, and still running great! It was nice to see Frances, she's a lovely lady. And she's one of only two aunts I have - she's my mom's only sibling and my dad only has one sister.
On Tuesday, we went to dinner at Harbor Lights in Tacoma. It wasn't the whole group, but there were still eight of us, so a decent sized group. It was a very nice dinner! And it was our last night together before we headed down to the next phase of our adventure. Family time is such a gift, we are so glad we got to visit.

Portland & Carbon Leaf!

2009-07-23T07:05:00.003-08:00

We started our trip to the Pacific Northwest in Portland, spending a couple of days with Dave's cousin Katie. Katie was able to get a couple of days off of work, which was fantastic, and we spent one day touring around downtown Portland.

Here is Katie at Portland State University, the school that she had just graduated from the week before. Yeah Katie! Finishing that college degree is a BIG step! She showed us around the main part of the campus where there was a farmer's market taking place, it was pretty neat.
One of the things I love about Portland, or visiting most places for that matter, is the houses. Anchorage is such a young city that you don't see houses from the beginning of the 20th century. And the few (I can think of one actually) that exist are not grand, big, houses. This house is just an example of one of the houses in NW Portland that I snapped a picture of. Beautiful!
Here are Katie and Dave awaiting the start of our evening entertainment. On June 20th we went to see one of our favorite bands, Carbon Leaf!! Katie was new to Carbon Leaf, so she didn't know what to expect. The concert was in SE Portland at the Aladdin Theater. Carbon Leaf is a band from Virginia, and they don't make it to the west coast often. They have a new album that came out in May, Nothing Rhymes With Woman, and so they are on tour promoting this new album. We checked the tour dates and were excited to see that they were going to be in Portland while we were in the area, Dave and I knew it was a sign and that we needed to go!
Here's the band performing. I actually filmed a little of the show, but don't feel right about posting a bootleg video, so just a still photo. It was an AWESOME show! It was one of the best shows I've seen! They played all the songs I love and they played more and more. It was just the best!! Great music!!
After the show all the band members came out to meet the crowd. Here I am with the lead singer Barry! All the band members signed my poster! I tried to convince all of them that they need to come to Anchorage and they were interested. A few of the band members like fishing, I think I've found my hook - excuse the bad pun! They are a really nice group of guys, I'm really impressed that they stayed to talk to the crowd and were willing to get photos and sign stuff. I'm going to work on encouraging them to come to Alaska because I'd LOVE to see them in concert again!! This was the best start to our vacation!!

F.O. - Cleopatra's Stockings

2009-07-23T06:53:00.003-08:00

Okay, I promised some pictures of knitting. Here is the F.O. I had for June, it is Cleopatra's Stockings. These were knit as a thank you gift for a work colleague who helped me out in a big way last school year. I was trying to get them finished in May before we ended the year, but that just didn't happen. This was finished on June 17th, before I left for vacation, which was my goal. I found that the pattern is pretty, but it was fiddel-ly and not a pleasure to knit. I got really tired of it really fast! The yarn is gorgeous though! I love the purples in this yarn! This was a Rockin Sock Club kit - from May 2008. I have now completed 2 of the 6 kits from being in the RSC last year...I guess I'm not the best at knitting on a deadline.

So, the details:
Pattern: Cleopatra's Stockings
Yarn: Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight - love this yarn!
Colorway: Incredibly Shrinking Violet - great color
Needle: Knit Picks size 1 - 40" - 2 at a time magic loop - toe up
Modifications: I knit the size large and I added the extra rows for the higher arch. I also modified the cuff a bit when it came to having the bands continue into the cuff. By that point I was so ready to be done with the pattern by this point!

I hope that my friend likes these socks and that they fit her well!

Have You Ever Had This Problem?

2009-07-15T19:53:00.002-08:00

So, I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything. And I have two weeks worth of photos of all kinds of stuff that I saw and did both on vacation and while attending Representative Assembly of the National Education Association. But all of this will have to get written about later.

Tonight, we were cooking dinner, homemade pizza, it was in the oven. The timer went off and I was at a critical place in the knitting I was working on -- I was in the middle of a cable for goodness sake! Dave looks at me and says, "Are you going to get that out of the oven?" and I, of course, reply, "Just let me finish this...". I didn't get to finish this line because my Darling Husband jumps in with, "just let me finish pushing the plunger of the needle in my arm"! He's equating knitting to IV drug use! Earlier in the evening he said that there not only needs to be a recovery group for knitters, but one for the family and friends of knitters. So, not only a Knitters Anonymous, but a Knit-Anon. Now, I'm willing to admit that I have a passion for knitting, that at times some of my self-imposed knitting deadlines interfere with other daily living obligations, that my yarn purchases can inhibit closet space (and other storage space) in our home, and that I have a knitting queue of projects that I may not complete before I die and that I keep adding on to. But, does all of this equate to a true addiction? Am I in need of an intervention? Is there a support group I should be looking for? Inquiring minds need to know...

Social Justice in Anchorage

2009-06-10T08:20:00.003-08:00

Okay - so I know that I originally set out to write a blog about knitting and my sweet doggie. And I know that there have been more than one occasion, particularly in the past year, where I've used the blog to express my personal beliefs about political issues. So, I edited the header of Winston's Mom to include "social justice" and "political activism". I'm not going to apologize for my views or not write about them when I'm inspired politically, if this means I lose one of my four readers, that is unfortunate.

Last night social justice came to the forefront in Anchorage. The Assembly is considering adding two new groups to the city's Anti-Discrimination Ordinance, so basically including two new categories of protected status: veteran's status and sexual orientation. It is no surprise really that no one had an issue with veteran's status, although there was one man who spoke about it. What drew the crowds and started the circus was sexual orientation. I went to support the addition of both of these groups to the ordinance. My friend Julie and I carpooled there, we wore matching shirts, and didn't realize until we arrived that many folks were going to assume that we were a couple, oh well! The side in support of adding the two groups wore blue, the color of peace. I don't know for sure, but I think this was misinterpreted by the folks who were against the change as a political party affiliation or something else, they chose to wear red.
Outside the Assembly chambers in the Loussac Library the two groups stood across the drive from each other chanting things back and forth. It was pretty wild! Inside the Assembly Chambers were packed and so was the theater next door. Julie, our friends, and I were in the theater watching the proceedings on closed circuit TV. Over 300 folks signed up to testify!
Last night they heard testimony from almost 100 citizens. Some of them for the change, some of them against the change. We heard some heatbreaking stories of discrimination, mainly from transgender citizens, but also from citizens in the homosexual community.
Probably the most surprising part of the evening - for me - was that I testified! I had not planned on testifying, I generally don't like public speaking, it makes me nervous. But, it was one of those getting "caught up in the moment" things. It would have been better if I had prepared some remarks, but I did the best I could to jot down some points as I waited in line to speak after the called my name from the list.
What did I speak about? I spoke about the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law for all citizens. I spoke about the Golden Rule, that we should treat others as we would like to be treated. I told the Assembly that I'm a big believer in both of these principles. I said that sadly, there have been some groups that have needed to have their protection under the law specifically spelled out. I said that it was time that the GLBT community get that same protection under the law that all the rest of us enjoy.
It was quite the experience all around! When we walked into the library both sides of the entrance at that point were flanked with people all in red waving signs. I have never felt so visibly different! It was probably a really good experience for me! Listening to the testimony was sometimes hard, I was trying to really hear all the points of view, but some of the language was so hateful and so hurtful. Part of my testimony was a response to what many others before me had said. They were arguing that since there is no documented record of discrimination against LGBT citizens in Anchorage that means that there must not be a problem with this type of discrimination in our community. My response was that if you belong to a group whom it is not illegal to discriminate against you have no legal recourse when someone denies you employment, or housing, or education and therefore there will be no record of it. That doesn't mean that it doesn't happen.

There are still 200 folks that can testify. They are holding a special meeting next Tuesday, June 16th, to hear the rest of the testimony. Julie has yet to go, so I'll be there to support my friend in her testimony and to support protection of all of my fellow citizens of Anchorage!

She Returns!

2009-06-06T08:11:00.003-08:00

For the past couple of years now we've had the pleasure of having the same moose cow come to our neighborhood to have her baby/ies. We know it is the same cow because she has some pretty distinctive scars, this girl has seen some action in her day! Last year she had twins and I made a movie that I posted of her and the twins in the backyard.

This year she has just one calf. They were eating dinner across the street and I stepped out into the yard to snap a few photos of them. It is neat to watch them eat - the way they strip all the leaves off a branch all at once! Last year when I filmed her she was feeding the twins and really didn't like me close by. This year she didn't seem to mind me at all. She occasionally glanced at me with curiosity, but then kept munching away. Winston generally goes crazy when moose are nearby and so he was locked inside the house where he couldn't disturb this sweet momma and her baby.

Wildlife outside your door, one of the great advantages of living in Alaska!

Fairbanksian Fun!

2009-06-04T10:04:00.003-08:00

We were very fortunate the past couple of days to get to visit with our good friends from Fairbanks! Nicole, TJ, Cedar, and Coral hopped in their VW van and headed down the Parks Highway to come to "the big city", sometimes also known in parts of Alaska as Los Anchorage. We were so happy to get to see them and to help the girls check off all the items on their "to do" list. First, the Imaginarium!
The girls both loved the cave with the slide. Cedar had a whole story that went along with playing in the cave, it involved polar bears who were afraid of cameras, hidden alcoves in the cave, and sliding into the water.
The bubble station provided a lot of good, clean fun! Cedar showed us her ballet skills while dancing with bubbles while Coral gave her foot a bath in the giant bubble machine!

Here Coral is demonstrating what she would look like if she was a bee. Coral told me there were, "many, many Margarets"!

Our second stop is a visit to 'Ol 556, a place I affectionately refer to as train park. It is an old coal powered steam engine from the Alaska Railroad that has been retired and has been in service as a park on the Delaney Park Strip for as long as I can remember.
Here Cedar has climed through one of the windows from the engine room and is walking along the side of the engine. I have many, many memories of doing this as a child, but when I looked at the windows this time I have to say I didn't remember them being so small. So, I just helped Cedar through instead of going myself!
Coral poses for a pretty picture beside 'Ol 556 - here she is showing us how BIG the wheels on the train are!

Stop three on the girls list was H2Oasis, Anchorage's indoor water park. I didn't go with them on this adventure, Winston had an appointment to get to. But, I heard from everyone later that a good time was had by all!

The final adventure was a visit to see Sleeping Lady, also known as Mt. Susitna. There is an Athabascan legend about Mt. Susitna that she is actually a giant who sleeps until the return of her true love. He will return when there is peace in the world.
Here Coral and Cedar take in the beauty of Mt. Susitna (in the distance) from the Coastal Trail by Elderberry Park.
Coral communes with nature after taking in the Sleeping Lady. :0)

It is always so great to get to visit with good friends! We will have to make a trip to Fairbanks soon!

So, what's on those Needles?

2009-06-03T11:53:00.004-08:00

I spoke a couple of posts ago about doing an update on what knitting I'm currently involved in. So, here's that update! First, Cleopatra's Stockings. I'm knitting these two at a time using the magic loop - I love socks that are toe up and I love doing them two at a time, so you would think this pattern was meant for me. It wasn't. While it is a pretty pattern and I have no complaints about the yarn, it is a fiddely pattern that, for me, doesn't flow. These are a gift for my friend and department chair from work. The school she is counselor for has purple as it's color, so it seems that these were destined for her.

As I said, they are pretty to look at, but they are fiddely and honestly I'll be happy to have them done and checked off my list. They were also the RSC installment from May 2008, it's time to move on and get them done! Says the woman who has only thus far finished one of the six RSC installments from 2008...

Next, is a scarf for my cousin Martina. For me, 90+% of my knitting is a gift for someone else or is destined to call home someplace other than my home. Usually a combination of patterns and yarn "speak" to me, I look at it and I think, "Hmmm, that looks like so and so", and so the knitting goes from there. This yarn combination said "Martina" to me! I don't know if it is because her birthday is in November and it has an autumnal feel to it or because she lives in a big city in a cosmopolitan sort of lifestyle which in my humble opinion scarves fit nicely into. It is a pattern I learned from Sandy two years ago - a Fleece Artist kit - don't actually know the pattern name.
One of the best things about this scarf is that it truly is a pattern that can go anywhere! I'm not making lightening fast progress on it simply because I tend to save it for travel when I need something that I can knit on anywhere - like meetings and things like this.

Next, is a sweater for my beloved. This picture doesn't look like much, but the not much in this photo is the top of a top-down sweater with a v-neck. I have a couple more rounds to go and then I set aside the stitches for the arms and start the body. It is in shades of blue, which is my sweetheart's favorite color.
This is another great, knit anywhere kind of project, albeit is a little more bulky than the scarf. I did take it with me to an Aces hockey game recently and it was perfect! The yarn is Cascade 220 Painted - great yarn! For those who are not already aware, Cascade 220 is some of my favorite yarn! If there was an election I would vote for it as the best all around yarn! :0)

There is a fourth project on the needles, but I can't show it here, it is a top secret endeavor only to be reveled to the light of day upon completion! So, to make up for it I thought I'd show you some of the things I have "on deck" for this summer:

First, I'm going to make my first attempt at knee-high stockings!
This is the Rhiannon Sock Pattern by Cookie A. If you aren't familiar with this pattern you should click on the photo so you can see how crazy this pattern is! I don't expect to have these done by the end of summer...if I tried that I may lose the fragile grip I have left on my mind entirely! I'm hoping by Christmas. They are a gift for my sister Lou, she loves stockings. Next to it is the intended yarn for this endeavor.
It is Korppi from Blue Moon's Raven line of yarn. It is fully saturated color, so it is mostly black but has hints of underlying colors in it too. You can kind of see that in the picture above. According to the pattern I may need 4-5 skeins of yarn to do the stockings...that gives an idea as to what kind of stockings these will be. I may need to buy a special needle to be dedicated to this project alone...that's an idea! I took a photo of one skein outside in the sun to try and get a better idea of the colors:
There are hints of green and purple in it which I thought was suitable since purple is Lou's favorite color and green is mine.

Next is a pair of socks for my BFF Wendi. A year and a half ago Wendi was looking through a small selection of the sock patterns I have and picked out the Acorn Lace Socks as a pair of socks she'd like to have. Then she went through a small selection of my sock yarn (we weren't at my house, I was at Madrona, so she only was looking through things I had bought) and picked Jewel of the Nile as her yarn of choice. I meant to have these for her birthday in March...clearly that did not happen. Ahh best intentions...
Finally, my family continues to multiply in number. When Lou had A-star & K-man I decided that making a baby blanket for family member's babies would be my "thing" that I do. After the boys were born there was a three year period in which eight babies were added to my family, including two more sets of twins. There has also been another born this past year. So, despite my best intentions, I am again down by two baby blankets. This is the yarn that I purchased awhile ago to make Amber's blanket:
I use acrylic yarn or some kind of acrylic blend on the baby blankets because I figure the last thing new moms need to contend with is fussy care instructions. Machine wash and dry are the way to go! The blankets are crocheted...no particular reason except that the patterns I have are crochet patterns. It is also good to mix things up a bit I think. So, I need to get started on this project this summer - Amber just turned two and her brother Caleb will be one in October.

That is my knitting update! Hope that everyone is enjoying summer, finding time to relax and play and knit!

Walking the Dog

2009-05-30T17:09:00.005-08:00

I've learned that there isn't anything better than going for a nice walk with Winston. Lots of folks, and I'll admit that I have been in this group too from time to time, think of walking the dog as this chore that has to be done. When it is -20 degrees or when there is horizontal rain and wind that can be easy to understand. But those days are rare, even at this northern latitude, and most of the time I find that a nice walk is one of the best things going. I have thought on many occasions that Winston is saving my life. I don't have any terminal illness, or even chronic condition, but Winston helps to keep me grounded and prevents me from getting lost in my own head. He depends on me and reminds me of the greater world.

I have a tendency at this time of year to fall into a slump, it feels more like a pit, and it can take an awful lot of effort on my part to crawl back out of it. I guess it is part of the change from being so busy and interacting with so many people on a daily basis to having a much shorter "to do" list and seeing only a handful of folks. All of a sudden I find that I have a lot of time on my hands where most of the people I know and love are at work and it is easy to walk right into that pit. Winston keeps me from falling too far and he helps me to get out quicker. He looks at me with those big, brown eyes and says, "Come on mom, let's go for a walk". Getting outside, out of my pj's, out of my house, out of the dialogue in my head saves me everyday. If I didn't have Winston I wouldn't have to go - or more correctly - I would have to go but I would be able to rationalize that it was not required.

So, although Winston needs me, I need him too. I've had people (people who don't have dogs) say that they can't believe that I walk him everyday. And to be honest, I don't walk him everyday; he goes to daycare two days a week, so I'm only walking him 4-5 days a week. Unless I want to go on a daycare day; Winston is always up for a walk with mom. But, what these folks don't get is I don't know what I would be like if I didn't walk him those 4-5 days a week. That's how he saves my life a little bit everyday. That, and walking with Winston helped me quit smoking.

There isn't anything better than going for a nice walk with Winston.

Happy Birthday Sandy!

2009-05-29T13:12:00.005-08:00

Happy Birthday Sandy! It's hard to believe that you've managed to pack so much life and love into such a short time on the planet! Today in particular we celebrate you and are thankful that you are a part of our lives. I wanted to look and see all the things we've been able to do together...

We have walked important paths of history...
We've communed with nature... Big birds...
And small birds...
And bears - oh my!!
We've bought yarn. Lots, and lots, and lots of yarn! ;0)
We've segwayed around the greater Anchorage area...so sexy in those helmets! Can you sing with me, "I like Ike, I like Ike..."??
We've cuddled with glaciers, so cold and hard, must be like cuddling with a Cullen!
We've rocked out to Rush! And Pink Martini - I just don't have a photo of that one!
You've let me Kinnear you from across the room. Wait - did you let me if you were Kinneared? Probably not, but I got away with it anyhow!
We've enjoyed a beautiful sunrise on the deck of your houseboat!
And to think - the thing that made all of this possible is our shared affection for these two! Who woulda thunk it?! Thanks for so many wonderful memories and fun times! I hope that on your special day you get everything that your heart desires! I look forward to many more memories with you!

We love you! - Dave, Mags, & Winston

SUMMERTIME!

2009-05-28T11:12:00.001-08:00

Okay, I've been totally remiss on regularly posting to my blog! My apologies! I could come up with a list of excuses, but what it basically boils down to is there are a limited number of hours in a day and other things win out for my attention. Here is some fun stuff I've been up to that has happened since my last post on March 31st (eeegads!):

The boys turned 7!

My wonderful, talented friend Nicole came to Anchorage where she did some of her amazing performance poetry for "The State of the Hood" poetry event celebrating Alaska's 50th birthday.

Julie Bean wore her new socks to school!

Winston turned 5, Dave turned 37, and Dave & I celebrated 9 years of wedded bliss!
This is us at Kincaid Park on our anniversary. We got married at Kincaid and so every year for our anniversary we go there and take a picture. Since it is generally just the two of us, sometimes Winston is with us, they are generally self-portraits like this. We haven't figured out how to get Winston to take the picture without drooling on the camera! ;0)

Jennie had her baby boy, Jared! (Jennie I can't believe I'm posting this before you...oh wait - I can - you have a new infant and I don't!)

Look at Ana - proud big sister!

Winston started getting acupuncture treatments for his allergies - these seem to be helping him. He generally doesn't mind the needles and he really likes his acupuncturist Dr. Palmatier.

Winston - Yes, there is a needle in the top of my head, and one behind each of my ears, and a bunch down my back!

All of these pictures were taken with my iPhone. I love my iPhone! I never knew that I could have such a strong attachment for a phone! In addition to my love, Winston freaks out at the sight of a camera, which is not a good idea when he's getting acupuncture, but with the camera on the phone he doesn't realize that I'm taking his picture (no flash).

I worked on some finishing of knitting and a lot of tie-dye for little people. Not as much knitting to show as there should be but there you go.

This is the finished Baby Surprise Jacket #1. It has sewn seams on the shoulders and the buttons have been put in. It is for Bump Barry. There are plans to make a BSJ #2 also for Bump Barry before Bump Barry arrives. I'm going to alternate the color combos - so where there is lavendar and toffee in this one there will be celery and terra cotta in #2 and so on. It was a very addictive knit, perhaps because it was so easy!

I also did some tie-dye for Bump Barry in the form of 4 onesies.
This is the front of my favorite one - it turned out so bold and colorful!
The back of the same onesie. Pretty cool! I'm fairly new to the world of tie-dye, but I have to admit that I think I'm getting better at it, these certainly turned out better than some of my earlier attempts. Some of these turned out better than others though.
This one I'm particularly proud of because it worked with what I was trying to do with the color. I need to learn more on how better to control what I want the color to do, but at the same time I love that with tie-dye anything can happen and you have to be open to all possibilities.
This one was my attempt at a homage to Notre Dame. Both Julie Bean and Ben attended Notre Dame and so I was trying to get some blue and gold for Bump Barry. Here the color didn't work as well for me, the dye didn't saturate quite as well as I wanted it to and that was largely due to me trying to keep the blue and gold from blending too much into green. It is still pretty cool though.
This one is a bit of a homage to SWS - where JB and I worked together and became friends. It again had the issue of the color not saturating all the way through. But, it's still pretty sweet.

I also did some tie-dyeing for my cousin Ben's babies. My cousin Ben and I share a deep love for Elvis. When I went to Ireland 3 years ago I gave him my 24-hour Church of Elvis t-shirt, a shirt that I had worn and loved for ten years (it was laundered and Ben understands what that kind of giving means - he still has not managed to get from me my first Run for Women tee and he's not going to!). Ben and his lovely partner Kiri have two children: Amber and Caleb. Ben also has a son Dubletach from a previous relationship, he's now fourteen. When Caleb was born this past October I was told my sources that will remain unnamed that his second name was Elvis. So, I set about trying to convince the woman who runs the 24-hour Church of Elvis to make some wee shirts for me. She gladly did and I got three made. One I left white, but I tie-dyed the other two:

This is the first one. With these I decided to do one in warm colors and the other in cool colors. I show both the front and the back on this one because with this particularl folding pattern the front and back turn out quite different.
Here's the cool colors one. I think they both turned out really well. I hope the wee people like them!

Finally, we had a surprise baby shower for Julie Bean, Ben, and Bump Barry!

She seemed really surprised and happy. It was a lot of fun! Ben was there too, but we didn't get a picture with him before the battery in the camera died. Sorry Ben!

I have now surpassed my own record in longest post ever! That's what happens when I go so long between posts! But, it's not that life wasn't continuing, it certainly was. I'll have more about knitting soon - I currently have four projects in the works that I need to get pictures of and get posting.

F.O. & Nearly F.O.

2009-03-31T18:41:00.003-08:00

I have been busy, busy, busy! But, I have been knitting! To prove it, let me present a F. O. and a nearly F. O.:

First, some socks - what a shocker! These are Leyburn socks. I knit them for my good friend Julie Bean. She claims that I never knit anything for her, so I made her these socks to prove her wrong. Actually, I bought this yarn with her in mind nearly two years ago. She loves fall colors and it was just a matter of finding the right pattern for the yarn and the time to knit. Here are the details:

Patter: Leyburn
Yarn: STR Lightweight
Color: Rocktober - those fall colors! Plus, I love the name! It says 80's to me.
Method: Magic Loop 2 at a time
Needle: US 2-1/2 (3mm) Addi Turbo - a little bigger than recommended
Stitch Count: I had the set 56 stitches on the foot from the pattern, at the leg I only went up to 66 stitches instead of the patterns 72 in an effort to accommodate my larger needle, at the cuff I went down to 60 stitches for some cinching

They fit good as I was trying them on as I was knitting them, but during blocking the legs looked a little slouchy. Hopefully they will stay up good on her legs. She was really surprised and told me she liked them when she opened them today!

On to the Nearly F. O.:A Baby Surprise Jacket! This is also for my good friend Julie Bean who is expecting her first baby. I've wanted to learn this pattern for over a year, bought a kit for it a year ago, tried to start it and got stuck and quit. I took it to my finishing class and my fabulous instructor Toni helped me overcome my brain freeze so that I could understand the pattern. Once I got the hang of it I was hooked! It was my first experience of knitting crack - couldn't put it down. I still need to sew the shoulder seams together, but I want Toni's advice on that before I plow ahead. Here are the details:

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman
Yarn: Blue Moon Sock Candy - This was a Blue Moon Kit, I think it was BSJ Kit #8
Colors: Lavender, Toffee, Celery, & Terra Cotta
Needle: US 2-1/2 (3mm)
Finishing: I crocheted a row of Toffee at the front and top of the shoulders which is supposed to make the seaming easier. And I still need to find and attach buttons.
Size: This is very small! It is a brand new person size! This kid will need to wear this all the time for the first week or two and then it will be too small. There is enough yarn to make another one that alters the color pairings. I enjoyed the knitting so much I'm thinking about it. We will see!

I think this will make Julie Bean smile. (Apparently my husband is about to kill me because it is time for me to go and eat my dinner - so gotta run!) :0)

Political Activism on Spring Break!

2009-03-11T09:35:00.002-08:00

We are on Spring Break this week! Yippee! I am working hard on some knitting projects, none of which I have photos for. I have finally begun the Baby Surprise Jacket that I bought a kit for over a year ago. I actually had to take it with me to a knitting class to get help because I had a hard time getting the hang of Elizabeth Zimmerman's holistic instructions. I had tried starting the jacket last May only to rip it out. I'm now knitting it for an entirely different baby - one of my dearest friends is expecting a young one and I'm having so much fun knitting this! I'm now finding the pattern oddly addicting - I have reached the point that I need help from my knitting class to proceed. I probably could figure it out myself, but I'd rather get some advice first to get it to look as nice as possible. I also am LOVING the colors of the yarn, it is Sock Candy from a kit put together by Blue Moon. Gotta love Blue Moon!

I'm also still working away on the Leyburn socks for my friend. I have finished the feet and the heels, I'm doing two at once, and am now working my way up the legs. They are looking good.

I also started a scarf that I've had the pattern and yarn for since the summer of '07 when Sandy and Katie visited. It uses a 9mm needle and after so many sock projects it is weird to use such a BIG needle. But the scarf is looking pretty cool! A good meeting knit for sure.

I also have a mystery project in the works that I can't talk about until it is complete.

So, where in all of this is the Political Activism mentioned in the title of this post?? Well, on Monday I testified before the Alaska State House Judiciary Committee against a bill that they had before them. It was so exciting! It was my first time testifying and I'm convinced that I could have been more eloquent, but that it is something that comes with practice. The thing is that I can't wait to have an opportunity to testify again! I love feeling like I'm an active participant in democracy! My good friend was there with me and it was her first time testifying too, so it was nice to have a support person. The hearing actually started at 1pm and they took testimony from all over the state and we could hear everyone's testimony which was really interesting. We could also hear the questions that the legislators were asking, some of them were pretty tough, and the discussion among the legislators themselves. I was the last person to testify, at around 3:30pm. It was nerve wracking to go last, but I was so glad that I showed up to make my voice heard! I encourage everyone to get involved in your government!

First F.O. for a new Knitter!

2009-02-26T21:31:00.002-09:00

This is my good friend Subarctic Mama! She is holding her first ever F.O. - a hat for her little girl Cedar! Yea! Obviously, she is new to the world of knitting. She had to head down to Anchorage for the day and we got to hang out together and visit and knit. It is always so good to see my dear friend and to be able to help her with her first knitting project. I hope this will lead to more knitting goodness for her!

F.O. - Baby Hat for Jared

2009-02-22T09:25:00.002-09:00

This is Chaotic J Mama. She is holding in her hands my finished object from my President's Day weekend in Tacoma, a baby hat for the baby she's expecting in April. She is one of my former students who is now working towards becoming a teacher. Baby Jared will be her second child, I didn't knit anything for her daughter Ana because that was before I was a knitter. She seemed very pleased with the hat and I hope that it will help keep Baby Jared both warm and stylish!

Valentine's Dinner & the Scarf Presentation

2009-02-19T21:06:00.003-09:00

Here's the whole group, having our fabulous Valentine's Dinner at Maxwell's Speakeasy and Lounge in Tacoma. We were such a large party that we ended up scoring our own private dining room. Pretty sweet!
Here I am with my Aunt Frances. this was after she opened up her scarf. She really liked it and was pretty overwhelmed by it. But, she told me that she had just gotten a skirt that would match the scarf perfectly and that she had a blouse to compliment it too. So, she has her whole outfit ready to go now!
Finally, this is my brother-in-law Paul with his new girlfriend Kerry. It was great to get to meet Kerry, she's a fun and smart woman. What's also fun is that Kerry's mom works at the same high school where Arctic Knitter and I work! Small world indeed!

Madrona and the Magic of Lucy Neatby!

2009-02-18T20:15:00.005-09:00

This year at Madrona I only took three half -day classes, and two of them were taught by Lucy Neatby. She is by far one of my favorite teachers because I learn a lot of cool things in her classes that I think help me as a knitter. The two classes I took with Lucy this year were Double Knitting and Short-Row Wizardry. They were both fantastic! The other class I took was with Ruth Sorenson, on colorful mittens. It was also a great class and a lot of fun and I received some beautiful knitting patterns for mittens from it and some great ideas for how to use color. I only have photos from the Lucy Neatby classes though, so there you go.
Here are Arctic Knitter and I with a cheesy self-portrait. Don't we look like we're having fun?!
Here is Arctic Knitter hard at work in the Double Knitting class! This was a great class, I have wanted to learn how to do double knitting for some time now and I'm excited to get to try some more. Once I finish all the other projects I have going...Here is Sandy, knitting away and pretending she doesn't know me. She doesn't like it when I take her picture, so I tried to be stealth. This photo was actually from the Short Row Wizardry class, which was also fantastic!

Here Arctic Knitter does some Vanna work modeling a pocket that was created using double knitting. What a slick way to make a pocket! I just learn so much! I liked all my classes, but I was most taken with the double knitting class. Since my own little double knitted swatch I created in class isn't much to look at I will know show a collection of Lucy's creations, mostly using double knitting. There are a couple of things I love about double knitting - I love the thickness that it creates in items, great for hats, mittens, scarves, apparently it doesn't work for socks though - something about the heel turning messes it up. However, Lucy did say that you can double knit the sole of a sock and that sounds really great and cozy! I'll have to give that a try! The second thing I love about double knitting is how the process creates a negative image of the pattern. I don't know why I find it so intriguing, but I do.

Here is a scarf Lucy had on display using double knitting.

And another scarf - I am just mesmerized by the negative image thing! I'm a goof!

This scarf also is double knitting, but because one of the yarns is so fuzzy it is not as easy to see.
This is a scarf, the pattern is called Sea Lettuce. It does not use double knitting, it does however use a ton of short rows, the other class I took from Lucy. It is a really cool pattern because it is this long seaweed looking scarf with fronds when it is laid out and then you can roll it up like this and it looks like a sea anemone. I was so taken with this pattern that I bought a copy of it.
The sweater that seemed to be all the buzz at Madrona this year was this one - Venus Rising. It is a Lucy Neatby design and it uses the Kauni yarn. Now she described how she used the consistency of the color repeats to help her get these solid blocks and that she actually knit it with the yarn tripled and there was a slip knot involved, but I can't remember how it all worked out. It is a pretty sweater though.

I had a lot of fun at Madrona this year! Three classes was much easier on the brain overload! Of course we weren't there for all four days this year either. And I didn't have a sinus infection this time, so that helped. I don't know yet if I'll attend next year, I'll have to wait and see what the economy is like, who the teachers are, what the classes are, and just if it is doable. I will say though that I did resist! I didn't buy a single skein of yarn while I was there! I'm quite proud of that!

F.O. - Frances's Lace Scarf

2009-02-09T21:16:00.003-09:00

It's finally finished! Yeah! My aunt's lace scarf - and here it is:

Okay, that picture didn't look like much. Here is a better one that is closer up, but still before blocking.

Here it is after I washed it, I've always got Winston hair to remove from anything I knit, and I'm using my new blocking wires to block it.
Here's a close up on one end using the blocking wires. What is this wonderfulness? Well, it is the North Star Scarf pattern from the book Arctic Lace. The yarn is laceweight and it is 100% cashmere by Jojoland. It is so soft! It is fabulous, and all the while I've been working on it whenever others of have seen it the inevitably end up touching it and then rubbing it against their cheek, it's THAT soft! It took about 420 yards of yarn, so a little over one skein. I have around 370+ yards left to do some other wonderfulness with. After blocking it will be around 57 inches long and 9-1/2 inches wide. I'm giving it to my aunt Frances for Valentine's day. I think she'll be surprised.
It was neat to use the blocking wires and they definitely will help for more consistent blocking. But, threading the wires through the sides of the scarf was tedious! That part gave me a back ache. Oh well, the price one pays for beautiful knitting!

In other knitting news I've started these:

They are the popular Leyburn sock in STR lightweight in the colorway Rocktober. They are a gift for one of my good friends. I bought this yarn two years ago with her in mind and just haven't knit fast enough to get anything done. I was also waiting for a pattern that really went with this yarn and I have found it! This pattern is great with busy colorways and it highlights the colors really well. My friend loves fall colors, so I think she'll enjoy these socks.

I have another knitting project on the needles, but I can't talk about it yet. I'll post more when I can. Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. I've been dealing with some health issues that have slowed me down. I'm getting better, I'm doing a lot better than I was a week ago, but it is a slow, day to day kind of healing.

I'm headed to Madrona in 5 days! Woo hoo! Arctic Knitter and I are headed there again to meet up with Sandy and have a knitterly weekend filled with knitting goodness. It will be my first real test of not buying any yarn, but I think I'll do okay. I do want to pick up some sock blockers. I need another set for me, at least one, and I need a set in DH's size - buddy's got big feet - and you know what that means...giant socks! ;0)

Other Knitterly Goodness

2009-01-16T16:06:00.003-09:00

This is Lola. She is one of the belated Christmas gifts I received from my mom. I asked for a head form for blocking hats and mom bequeathed Lola to me. Lola has been with my mom for many, many years as the resting place of my mom's wig. When my mom started teaching in the early 1960's female teachers always had to wear dresses and always had to have their hair done "just so". Mom didn't always have time to do her hair so she invested in a wig and in Lola. Since she's not needed to worry about being "just so" for awhile and she's been retired for over ten years she decided that she could part with Lola since I promised she'd be well taken care of and put to good use. In addition to Lola, I also received this:

It is a wire blocking kit for lace. I'm very excited to have this because I think it will come in handy when I'm blocking the scarf I'm working on for my aunt. Also, because it is something that I will use for other projects in the future. Speaking of the scarf I'm working on, mom also gave me something that else that is handy for this project:

It's a magnetic chart board! I'm thrilled with this because it saves me a lot of trouble and eye strain. I photocopied the charts from the book and then I can use the magnet to see where I am in the chart. Here's a close up:

See! The chart for this scarf is on two pages in the book, which is a bit of a pain. And I was using a post it note to guide me which I kept having to shuffle around all the time. This way I could cut and paste so the whole chart is together on one thing where I can follow the whole line to the end. It is the best thing ever! It makes my life so much easier!

So, we've had three days of no school due to icy and hazardous conditions. Three days off in some ways sounds like a gift but in other ways it is a challenge. The weather is not nice so going outside isn't really an option. This third day we're going to have to make up, which is a bummer. For folks like my sister it presents a child care problem. The good side of this was I got an opportunity to spend some fun time with my nephews. This morning I was trying to convince them that when they grow up and have children that they should name them Margaret regardless of whether the baby is a girl or a boy and that all the children that both of them have should have this name. Oddly enough, they disagreed with this notion. They told me that I was silly. I also spent some time casting on a new sock:

Its a toe up from the book The Eclectic Sole. But, I don't like how the cast on has worked. It is a figure 8 cast on, and this was my first try at that. I found a video on-line that I'm going to follow and try again. So, this is getting frogged, I'm just waiting for DH to do it because he gets such pleasure out of frogging things for me. That's as much as I'm going to say about this project because it is for someone other than myself. The boys told me that I knit too much. I told them they play on their DSes (?) too much. They seemed to think these were not equal points. We agreed to disagree.

F.O. - Jocasta's Blanket

2009-01-14T14:54:00.003-09:00

Finally! It is done, I have finished it! This is a blanket for my cousin's daughter Jocasta. When my sister was pregnant with the boys I started this tradition of crocheting blankets for babies in the family. I made one for each of the boys. Then my cousin Fiona had a baby and I made him one. Then my brother-in-law and his wife had twins the same year that my cousin Niamh had a son. Then Fiona had twins. Then Niamh had Jocasta and my cousin Ben's partner had a baby girl. Now my cousin Ben's partner has had another baby, a boy. Jocasta turned two last weekend. So, I'm behind schedule, by two blankets. What happened? Well, when I started this tradition I didn't know how to knit. I have since learned to knit and really enjoy knitting and have many, many projects I am wanting to do all the time. So, things get set aside. I have been working on this blanket, in a very on and off fashion for about a year. Normally I'm very fast at crochet, but this project tripped me up a bit. The yarn I used is Lion Brand Homespun yarn. I like Homespun because it comes in vibrant colors, it is machine washable and dryable, it is very soft and cozy. The trouble is that its fuzzy and it splits easy and that slows things down tremendously.

There is only one thing left to do with the blanket before I mail it to Jocasta in Ireland. As soon as I put the blanket down to photograph it this happened:

Winston saw a fuzzy opportunity. At first it seemed like he would just wander across the blanket with his manta ray. But, then he decided to do this:

So, I need to remove Winston from the blanket and then wash it in a vain attempt to try to remove all of Winston's hair that is already on the blanket. He really liked the fuzziness of the yarn too, as I worked on it I found it very hard to keep him off!

Jocasta, I hope that the blanket becomes a treasured gift that you use and love for awhile, even if it is two years late!

What To Do When It's -10F

2009-01-08T18:34:00.003-09:00

DH likes to barbecue! What makes more sense than that?!?! We're trying our best to adapt to our third week of sub zero high temperatures. I still can't imagine how people live in Fairbanks, don't know if DH would be willing to BBQ at -40F.

In other fun, my friend Allison alerted me to this fun website:

Sarah Palin Name Generator

It is a site where you can go and put in your name and then find out what your name would be if you were being named by our famous governor, Sarah Palin. (For anyone who doesn't know, she chooses unusual names for her kids - Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig - her first grandchild is named Tripp so its somehow genetic to give your kids crazy names)

Signing Off -
Knife Pile Palin

Still REALLY, REALLY, REALLY Cold!

2009-01-07T18:56:00.003-09:00

I don't have new photos to illustrate this, but trust me it is COLD! It was -21 degrees outside when we got up today. I know there are places in Alaska that are MUCH COLDER - shout out to my friends in Fairbanks (I don't know how you live there!) - but still, this is really, uncomfortably cold. It also leads to a rash of house fires. People in an attempt to get warm do dangerous things that lead to fires and sometimes deaths. Very bad.

This morning on the news they were warning that if you don't have to go outside you really shouldn't because it isn't safe. This led me to the question, "than why is school in session today?", I thought about all those poor kids standing outside at bus stops in this crazy weather - YIKES! Add to that the car trouble that the cold brings, including school buses, so then the poor kids are standing out there even longer waiting for a bus that ain't coming or is coming really late. They won't be kids anymore, they'll be Popsicles! This is a matter of public safety, not just the rant of a woman who would rather stay warm under the covers of her bed with her cuddly puppy watching a movie and knitting something cozy - I promise!

Back at work I have the coldest office in the building. I can't complain because I also have more windows than anyone else. So I sit and work, with a space heater pointed at me, wearing long underwear that I got for Christmas (Bless you Santa!), drinking hot tea, and still freezing my toushie off! Okay, I'll quit whining and get back to knitting...

I TRIPLE DOG DARE YOU!

2009-01-04T19:54:00.003-09:00

If you don't know what a Triple Dog Dare is than you haven't seen A Christmas Story. It is the most extreme of the dares. And I wouldn't let a TDD trick me into putting my tongue on this lightpost! It continues to be COLD in Anchorage! Our high temperatures for the next few days are not expecting to reach above zero...BRRRR!!!

First F.O. of 2009!

2009-01-03T19:47:00.001-09:00

These were actually finished on New Year's Day. They are Jaywalker socks, they are my mom's birthday gift. Her birthday was Christmas Eve, but at that time I had one sock done and was finished with the leg of the other sock. So, I wrapped the finished one up so she could see it and told her there would be a completed pair soon. It was a fun and easy pattern to knit. I think the yarn worked particularly well with the pattern and mom was really pleased, that's the most important part. She asked me if I picked this yarn for her and I totally did; I bought the yarn a year ago, when I saw it the yarn was yelling "MOM" at me. Here are the details:

Pattern: Jaywalker Socks
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock lightweight
Color: Crazy Stripes
Needles: US 1 and US 2
Method: Magic Loop
Modifications: the pattern calls for US 1 needles, but I'd heard from a couple of folks that the pattern didn't have a lot of give to it and that it could be tight in places. So, the last 3/4 inch of the leg through the heel and gusset and a few rows beyond I used a US 2 needle and then switched back to US 1 to finish the foot and toe

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T15:12:00.003-09:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year! I hoped to have photos of finished socks to share, I'm on the toe of the second sock, but I needed a break so next time. We had a quiet New Year's at home, but we managed to stay up till midnight to watch the giant ball drop on TV. We've been in a deep freeze for almost a week now with subzero temperatures at night and highs of like 2 degrees. Bitter cold! That's been keeping us in layers and keeping us indoors! I have a few New Year's Resolutions for 2009:

1. Don't buy any yarn until November 30th (see earlier post).

2. STASH REDUCTION - not buying yarn should help with this, but finishing projects is also an integral part of it. Of course I have some specific items in mind for this, my knit-o-lutions if you will -
a. Dave's top down sweater
b. The sweater I first saw in my head at Madrona 2008
c. Knee high socks for Laura
d. 4 pairs of socks for 4 different good friends
e. a much belated birthday gift for a good buddy
f. socks for Irish babies
g. baby surprise jacket, because I need to figure out this crazy pattern!
h. the 2008 RSC socks that I have yet to finish
i. the freakin' baby blankets I bought yarn for over two years ago - they are now toddler blankets!
j. something to surprise me
These don't have to be in this order, that is probably not going to happen, I'm not that organized in my knitting. But, if I get even a fraction of this accomplished I'll be doing really good. And I'll have a lot less unused yarn sitting around.

3. Try not to get a sinus infection in 2009 - I'm not sure how I'm going to do this, but 2008 involved two really bad sinus infections that had symptoms that lasted well beyond the antibiotics to the point where I kind of feel like my whole year was a giant sinus problem, but I know this is hyperbole. I'm just tired of feeling less than well.

4. Take better care of myself and my family. This is kind of tied to #3, but it's bigger in scope. Not that I've been neglectful or harmful to myself or my family this past year, but I know I can do better. And lately I've been in a bit of a rut. I'm ready to get out of the rut. As I've learned from many things I've read and experienced personally in the past, if you want things to change you have to be willing to change too.

5. Be more consistent with my blog. I have spurts and then dry spells. Need to work on that.

That's pretty much it. It's in some ways a short list, but I feel like its really a lot. Something to work on everyday, for all 365 of them. Did you make any resolutions for this year? What are they? I'm hoping that actually putting the buggers in writing will help me remember my own goals.

Tomorrow is Alaska's birthday - 50 years of statehood. There's a big gala downtown that I didn't want to pay $200 per person to attend, too cheap I guess. But, there is also a huge free public party on the 3rd which will involve the largest fireworks display ever seen in the state. DH and I have decided that we don't want to miss that! Our Times Square at midnight if you will! Happy 2009 everybody!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-30T06:55:00.005-09:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was great! Santa was very good to me this year, I must have been a very good girl!

We started off our morning opening our gifts at home for the three of us. Winston's newest acquisition that Santa left for him was a Manta Ray:
Isn't he a cutie posing with his new toy. What he really likes to do with it though is chew and make it squeak!

Look at him go!

Later we headed over to my folks house where we did gifts with my parents, my sister, and my twin nephews. Here's my dad opening one of his gifts:

It's a t-shirt that says "Democat" that I got for him at the Dogs 4 Democrats website. It was a plain white shirt so I tie-dyed it for him to make it more colorful. He seemed to dig it, he's a hip and groovy kind of guy.

Here's K-man opening one of his presents with enthusiasm!

One of A-star's favorite gifts was a Harry Potter wand with a lighted tip! You flick it while saying your incantation and the light turns on, flick it again and the light turns off. He walked around shouting "Abracadabra!", "Alohamora!" and "Expelliramus!" at us.

Here's A-star doing one of his mandatory poses for auntie. He's wearing his Tasseled Fez Sans Tassels that I knit for him and holding up his annual tie-dye shirt. I didn't tie-dye this shirt, I bought from some very talented dyers from Hope.

Here's K-man with his Tasseled Fez Sans Tassels that I knit for him and his annual tie-dye shirt. This shirt also dyed by the fabulous folks in Hope.

One of the other gifts that DH and I got the boys was a lighted globe. It is really cool because it is a political map but is also has the texture for the physical land formations and then it lights up and glows like a giant night light. A-star is giving me the cheezy smile to go with it.

Finally here are the boys again posing in one of the mandatory auntie pictures. They are wearing their hats and holding their big gift from DH and I, cross country skis. Since everyone on their mother's side of the family pretty much skis we thought it was time the boys join us.

I didn't get any pictures of my mom opening gifts or my sister opening gifts or DH and I opening gifts. Somehow all the photos are of Winston, my dad, and the boys. Oh well, we all had a really nice Christmas holiday and the best gift of all was getting to spend time with family. After opening gifts we had one of my dad's fabulous turkey dinners! And for dessert we had three types of pie! Hope you all had a great holiday!

The Pledge

2008-12-26T06:33:00.002-09:00

First, I hope that everyone had a great Christmas. Mine was wonderful! I'll post more on holiday bliss later.

My recent crazy sock yarn purchase has really gotten me thinking. I've looked around my house at the various locations I have yarn stored. And I've decided to make a pledge. I bought that huge sock yarn purchase on November 30, 2008 - I am pledging here and now that I will not purchase more yarn again until November 30, 2009. I have plenty of yarn for plenty of projects to keep me busy for a calendar year. I have yarn for two sweaters. I have yarn for a number of scarves. I have yarn for countless socks. In the yarn department I'm doing fine. I also have yarn to crochet a baby blanket, aside from the one I've already started and need to finish. I don't knit that fast, I'm sure I won't get through it all in a year anyway.

Now, how hard will it be to keep this pledge, I don't know. I see two major challenges on the horizon: 1. Madrona - I'm headed again to Madrona in February with my good friend Arctic Knitter. There is a fabulous yarn market there. But, my DH had a good point for me, I'm pledging to not buy yarn, that doesn't mean I can't purchase other knitting related things like needles, sock blockers, stitch markers, or patterns and books. And since Madrona is so close to the holidays, when I always suffer from shopping fatigue, I think I'll be okay. 2. Sock Summit in August - I have plans to try to attend the Sock Summit in Portland in August. This will be much further from the holidays and will be more of a challenge for me, I just know it. But, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!

So - here it is in writing - I, Winston's Mom, pledge to not buy any more yarn between now and November 30, 2009. Wish me luck!

P.S. - I'm still allowed to receive yarn as a gift, but my birthday isn't until July. ;0)

Sad Winston

2008-12-20T06:21:00.003-09:00

Winston had surgery on Wednesday, December 17th. As you can see it was on both of his front paws. This was taken after he got home that day, he was still really drugged up and not feeling well at all. What happened is that Winston has a lot of allergies. I call him my high maintenance puppy for a reason! Anyway, his allergies led to the growth of cysts between his toes on both front paws and we've spent the last eight months trying to get the cysts to go away using any method besides surgery. In November it became clear that we were going to have to use surgery because nothing else had worked. We scheduled it for the day closest to the holiday break that we could. His surgery was Wednesday, I stayed home with him on Thursday and Dave stayed home with him on Friday. The first 24 hours or so after surgery were really tough, involved a lot of pain and a lot of crying...for both Winston and me. The front paws are the weight bearing paws and so everything except laying down puts pressure on his wounds.

By Friday evening Winston was doing a lot better. He'd been to the vet for a bandage change and things were looking pretty good. He's got a little more of his spunk back. I'm just glad that I was able to plan it so that I could have all this time off with him as he recovers. There are some BIG advantages to working in education!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

2008-12-14T14:57:00.005-09:00

So, we've been having some really chilly weather in Anchorage. Not below zero chilly, which can certainly happen, and does happen, but still chilly. We've been getting stuck with these high pressure systems that push all the snow south, which is how the Pacific Northwest is getting snow. We've been having ice fog. Which has created a lot of beautiful frost on the trees, but it is chilly for walking a dog. But, Winston needs his exercise so we bundle up and go.

Here's Dave headed down our street. You can see the cold fog in the air. The temperatures are single digits, maybe as high as 10 F.

Here Dave has caught up with Winston and they both look back at me to smile pretty for the picture.

Here's some more of that frost on the trees. It sure is pretty and sparkles in both the sunlight and the moonlight.
This is the fence at the neighborhood school's playground.

And a close up. That's a lot of frost!
Here's another shot that shows the fog. Are you getting the sense yet that it's cold?!
Even a short walk through the neighborhood puts the frost on my hair and my hat! With that hair color I look like I'm sixty!
Winston got some frost on his face too, but that is partly because he likes to roll in the snow. He's wearing booties for two reasons: one because it's cold and two because he's going to have surgery this week and he's going to have to wear booties outside so we figured he should start getting used to it. He doesn't like the booties and spent most of the walk trying to get rid of them. The video below shows some of this, just ignore my silly commentary, it is totally meant to get Winston's attention while I film him.

I hope everyone is enjoying this winter weather! Despite the fact that it is cold out, we are making the most of it and having fun!

Happy Christmas!

2008-12-13T14:35:00.004-09:00

This is our Christmas tree! We got it today. It is the first Christmas tree that we've had in 5 years, I'm so excited to have a tree again! It is Winston's first real tree! The first two Christmases that Winston was with us he was a little guy and we were concerned about how he'd do with a real tree so we got a little artificial tree that we used. The past two Christmases we've been out of town so we didn't get a tree. This year we're staying home and so we decided to get the real deal and I'm so glad we did! This tree is a Noble Fir and it is from Mulino, Oregon. We know exactly where Mulino is because it is just down the road from Molalla, Oregon where Dave's uncle Dave, aunt Linda and family live. We've spent the past two New Year's with them. When we saw the tree was from Mulino we knew it was meant to be.
Getting a real tree for the first time in years meant that we pulled out ornaments for the first time in years. This proved to be more emotional than we expected. The ball ornament in the picture above was made for us by our niece Jasmine. We had forgotten all about this treasure. Jasmine passed away 2-1/2 years ago, so it has made this simple ornament even more precious to us. A few tears were shed while decorating the tree, but we also were reminded of many fond memories of past Christmases we've shared.
We even hung our stockings. We don't have a stocking for Winston yet, that can be one of his gifts this year.
Winston celebrated the tree by playing with his Michael Vick football. It cracks me up that he has a Michael Vick football, I don't know where we found it. But Winston loves to chew on it and jump on it and throw it around. When he does this we just encourage him by saying things like, "That's right Winston, you show that Michael Vick what it feels like!'. We're goofy, I know.
Our neighbor has a different kind of tree in his yard. I thought it was worthy of a picture.
Here's a picture of the tree all lit up at night. We got some of those new LED Christmas lights. It is hard to take a good photo of sparkling lights in the dark and I'm an impatient photographer. Dave's the real shutterbug in our house! Happy Holidays everyone!

I have a problem...

2008-12-12T14:13:00.003-09:00

Some people have problems with alcohol, some with cigarettes, some with other drugs, some with chocolate (I'm working on a pretty unhealthy relationship here too), mine is yarn. And not just any kind of yarn, particularly sock yarn. The above photo illustrates what happens when Blue Moon offers a 10% off coupon to someone like me. That there my friends is $45 of savings in yarn. And its all sock yarn. And its not like I don't already have an overflowing storage area filled with sock yarn, because I do. The only meager defense I have for myself, and this is pretty poor, is the two hanks of pink yarn on the top aren't mine. They are Arctic Knitter's, she forgot to include them when she used her 10% off coupon. And its not like Blue Moon doesn't offer other yarns besides sock yarns, because they do. They have many varieties of gorgeous wonderful yarns in amazing colors! What happened is this, I got overwhelmed. I spent days, literally, trying to figure out how and on what to use my 10% off coupon. I was down to the wire using this thing. I looked at all kinds of patterns, I have a couple ideas floating around in my head of sweaters I'd like to knit. But then I couldn't decide and I couldn't decide and then I started to panic because the expiration of the coupon was near. So, in a flurry on the last day I pulled out all my sock books, of which I have many, and looked to see how much yarn would be needed to knit particular pairs and then just went crazy with colorways and ended up with $45 dollars in savings on sock yarn and only sock yarn. I wonder if AA has a program for folks like me...

P.S. Dave took the "Which European City Do You Belong In" quiz and he belongs in Paris. He'll be able to hang out with our friend Wade who belongs there too. But, Dave likes Dublin and I like Paris so we've decided that if we aren't meant to live in the same city we can at least visit each other.

This is Too Funny!

2008-12-06T16:34:00.002-09:00

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions.

You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

Okay, this is frickin' hilarious because my dad is from Ireland. I have a bunch of family in Ireland, and I've been to Ireland four times. I LOVE Ireland! I would love to live there for a little while. I don't know if I'd want to live in Dublin particularly, but I would love to live in the country. I saw this on Arctic Knitter's blog and had to try it and out of all the cities in Europe I end up best suited for Dublin! HA!

Thankful

2008-11-27T17:17:00.000-09:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I don't have any pictures to go with this post, but I wanted to take a moment to say that I am thankful. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, a time to get together with family and friends and to share a good meal and good conversation and just pause and realize all the wonderful gifts life has given. I am always mindful of how lucky I have things, there are folks that have a much harder life than I do and I often think, "There but for the grace of God go I". I am thankful for my DH, he's a wonderful, wonderful man and my best friend. I love sharing my life with a person who makes me laugh everyday. I'm thankful for Winston, who gives me unconditional love and who is always happy to see me. He also makes me laugh everyday. I'm thankful for my parents and my sister who gave me the things I needed to get going in this crazy life and who are there for me still when I need support today. I'm thankful for my beautiful nephews, A-star and K-man who are also a lot of fun. I'm thankful for my extended family in its many different locations on the globe for being a part of my life. And I'm thankful for my friends. I've been so lucky to be blessed with a number of amazing, talented, generous, funny, and kind people. My life has been touched by many people who have taught me so many things. I'm just a lucky girl.

I hope this holiday gives you an opportunity to see all the gifts life has brought to you and the chance to pause a moment and say thanks.

What the Heck Have I Been Up To Part IV: Work

2008-11-26T09:39:00.001-09:00

The final big change that has come this fall is my work. I changed jobs in mid-September, I am now a high school counselor! I'm still at the same school, which is really nice because it made the mid-quarter transition easier. After ten years of teaching this is a BIG change! So far I'm really enjoying it, but still feel very much like I'm swamped and climbing a steep learning curve. My constant refrain is, "I'm not sure, let me check on that and get back to you." I say this many, many times a day. I still have barely unpacked my office. It was over a month before I got anything put up on the walls. It is also a transition from the large space of a classroom to the small space of an office. Not as much wall for posters so I had to be selective.
So, the first photo had me at my desk, courtesy of my colleague Josh. Here's another shot of the desk without me. This is what it looks like if you are standing in my office doorway facing my desk.
This is the view if you are standing in the doorway facing straight. I have one of only two counselor's offices that have windows and mine is the only office with two windows. My office mate (the closest office to mine), Rich, has one big window - but more space. So, there's the trade off I guess. The big windows are wonderful, but they make the office cold. I don't complain to any other counselors though because I'm the new kid and I got the windows.

Here's the view I pretty much have from my desk. I look out into the area of the building known as the Northwest Commons. It is a little hexagonal seating area. Sometimes the teachers use it as teaching space, which is fun to see. It is a corner where two hallways meet.

Behind my desk I inherited this crazy piece of furniture that I have managed to fill with all manner of things. There is little organization, rhyme, or reason to how things are in my office at this time and I don't know when that will change. It may not be until next year. But, I brought some of my favorite toys with me to my office, like my 8 ball collection. And most of my Elvis stuff.
My newest additions are the Wonder Woman stuff. I love Wonder Woman! She's my favorite superhero! When I was a little girl I watched the tv show and then I learned that Lynda Carter and I have the same birthday. So, I have the same birthday as Wonder Woman, that has to mean some of her powers rubbed off on me, right?! Anyway, Sandy learned of my love for WW and gave me the Collector's Edition Wonder Woman Barbie for my birthday. One of the best things is the comic book that is in the box with her is "Wonder Woman for President". Then, in celebration of my new job Sandy & Katie gave me the book, "What would Wonder Woman do?: An Amazon's Guide to the Workplace". Too funny!
When I'm sitting at my desk if I'm not looking out into the commons or out the windows I'm looking at this. I have the force with me, and I have my "Say Anything" poster (I love John Cusack!), and some of my other favorite things to look at. The best part of being a counselor is that almost everyday I feel like I really got to help a kid, or that I really tried. The biggest perk about being a counselor is no grading. A job without homework has taken some getting used to, but I'm managing. I miss parts of the classroom though, it is an adjustment and sometimes a lonely one. I guess it all just takes time.

This is the last of the "What the Heck Have I Been Up To" series, we're pretty much caught up now.

What the Heck Have I Been Up To Part III: Travel (Including the tale of Winston and the Sea Otter)

2008-11-25T08:43:00.000-09:00

There hasn't been a ton of travel this fall, just a couple of quick trips, but there are some fun pictures as a result, so here we go. For Labor Day weekend, Dave, Winston, and I decided to head back to our campground from last year, Ptarmigan Creek - just outside of Seward. We headed down on Saturday, which was a gorgeously sunny day. After setting up camp we headed into Seward to visit our friends, Chad and JuLee at their boat. Here are Winston and I on the docks. Now Winston had been on the docks before but for some reason this year the fact that the floor moved got to him and he was a wee bit nervous.

This is JuLee & Chad's boat, the Lean-To. It is a very nice boat! I had heard a lot about it and it was great to finally get to see it. I also got a tour from JuLee of the entire set up and I got to meet their new granddaughter, Mikayla. Little babies are so sweet! She was snoozing so I don't have any photos of her, but she's beautiful, take my word for it.
Here I am making a funny face and I'm engaged in conversation aboard the Lean-To. While JuLee and I visited, Dave and Winston headed further down the docks where Winston had a very exciting adventure!
There was a creature in the water! A Sea Otter - one of the more playful creatures of the sea!
Winston and the mysterious creature make eye contact. Winston asks, "What is that thing Daddy?!"
Then the mysterious creature comes right up close to Winston and had the audacity to splash in his face! Winston is beside himself, he's just not sure what to do!
The mysterious creature seems to have realized that Winston has no food for it, and so it turned and swam away. Winston asks, "Daddy where is it going?!" And then the creature was gone. Winston didn't know what to make of this encounter. Part of him wanted to jump in the water after the creature, because Winston does love to swim, and this would give him a closer look. But, Winston realized that this creature was a stronger swimmer than he, and decided to follow Daddy's advice and just stay on the crazy moving floor!
Back at a sunny and peaceful campsite
Winston poses with a curious look.
Saturday night was lovely, but by the time we awoke on Sunday morning clouds had moved in and the news on the radio was that a storm was headed toward Seward. We went back into town for a walk about, but it started to rain. By the time we got back to camp it was really raining and so we decided to pack up and head home where we would camp on our couch bed (aka The Pillow Palace). So, our trip was a little shorter than originally planned for.
The other trip we had this fall was in October, and it led us here. This is Sandy's new houseboat on the Multnomah Channel outside of Portland. Dave and I headed down the weekend before Halloween for a short visit.
The fall colors were all out and lovely in Oregon. Which was beautiful especially since there was snow at home.
The marina had this warning sign that we thought was pretty funny.
The sunrises on the channel were lovely. I love the mist on the water.There's our group for the weekend. Dave, Paul, Katie, Sandy, and Kate all soaking in the morning sun on the deck. It was a nice weekend trip, very fast, maybe too fast, but enjoyable all around. Sandy is a fabulous host!

And the house boat comes with its own gaggle of geese.