Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Knitting Bummerness

As some of you may remember, I'm making the Flamethrower socks for DH. I've got both socks done to above the heel (from the toe-up) and I'm on row 8-ish of one of the socks, 8 (I think) rows of the stranded flame colorwork.

After 2 rows of color work, I could still get them over my ankle.

After 4 rows of color work, I could still get them over my ankle.

Cautiously optimistic, I was very careful to strand loooooosely.

Alas, not loose enough. After 8 rows.... Nuh-uh. Won't go over my ankle. And DH's ankles aren't any smaller than mine, so into the frog pond they shall go. I'll have to figure out if I add stitches or go up a needle size (or two) to keep them loose enough to fit.

Bummer.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Hawaiian Travelogue

Yeah, it took a while to get the pictures transferred from DH's camera to a thumb drive to my computer, but here we are!

To recap, DH's childhood friend Steve and Steve's wife, Evelyn, belong to a home exchange program. They swapped their Tahoe home with someone from Hawaii (because the Hawaii family wanted to go skiing and Steve and Evelyn had had quite enough of winter!), and then invited us to come over and join them. We have the greatest friends.

Thursday, travel day, 8:30 AM flight. It's nice going to Hawaii because you gain back time... so we landed at 11:30 AM! Picked up a rental car, then plugged in our destination's address to Maggie (my portable GPS - it's a Magellan...), and off we went. The house was on the southwest corner of Oahu, overlooking Diamondhead, and on a road that would match Lombard Street for the "Crookedest Street." Luckily, we had advance warning and found the road that simply cuts straight up the hill so we could avoid all the switchbacks. When we arrived, we found Evelyn home... with her foot about two times its normal size. She had been hiking a day or two earlier and had fallen and sprained her ankle. Steve and Evelyn's daughter Erica came back from their hiking day, so we visited all together for a while then head off for Honolulu's Chinatown. We finished up with drinks at the Hawaii Prince lounge and dinner at Benihana's.
One of the grocery areas of Chinatown. There are lots of bananas in all the markets!

Friday, first full day, was our big sight-seeing day. We went to the USS Arizona/USS Missouri center, only to find that all of the ferry boat tickets (to get to the Arizona) had already been sold out. So we opted for a package that got us in to the Missouri, the Bowfin submarine, and their new Pacific Aviation Museum. Going through the Bowfin is awesome. It's a restored WWII sub, and I don't know how that many men could live together for that long under those conditions. The Missouri is even more awesome. It's so big and the tour takes you all over the place; it's easy to get lost. They have a marker showing where the Japanese signed the surrender pact, and replicas of the surrender documents. After those tours, Evelyn, Erica, and I opted to skip the aviation museum (Evelyn's foot was getting sore), so the boys did that. While we were waiting for them, Erica's cousins came by to take her out to party the night away. The four "adults" (heh) then went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for dinner. Mahvelous.

"The gang" (minus Kelly, the photographer) at the entrance to the USS Missouri

The USS Bowfin, a restored WWII submarine. Too cool.

The USS Missouri (left) and the Arizona memorial (right) as seen from the Bowfin.

Saturday, the women-folk headed out to find two of the five yarn shops on Oahu. The first one (Yarn and Friends) was weird - it was in a medical center building - complete with half-glass door with metal wires through it! - and couldn't have been much bigger than 20' x 20'. They had a lot of fun fur, some Noro, some Crystal Palace, and not a whole lot of anything else. The lady who worked there was really nice, but the cupboards were bare. We were looking for sock yarn (Erica wanted to learn how to knit socks!) so we thanked her and went to our second shop... which was even weirder. This one (Isle Knits) was on the 14th floor of a 25+ story office building in downtown Honolulu, and was even smaller than the first one. But boy, oh boy, was it crammed FULL of beautiful yarns! She carried lots of beautiful stuff - Debbie Bliss, Noro, Arucania, Cascade, Trekking, Claudia's, Lorna's Laces, and more, I can't even remember - and it went floor to ceiling and wall to wall. Plus a leeetle tiny table if anyone wanted to sit and knit (if they could fit!). It was wonderful. It's where I probably would spend most of my yarn money if I lived there. We found two yarns for Erica, and I managed to find a yarn for me and a yarn for CelticKnittingGal's birthday. We went home, and found DH and Steve engrossed in a board game from their childhood. Something about World War II, lots of little pieces of cardboard. It took them about 3 hours to make 2 moves. I don't get it. Evelyn cooked yummy chicken stir-fry for dinner and I got Erica started on her first sock.

"The boys" hard at work, strategizing World War II.
The view from the 2nd floor balcony of the house. Diamondhead crater is center. From the 3rd floor balcony, you can see Waikiki Beach, too.

Sunday was a slow morning, then DH dropped Steve and Erica at Diamondhead to do some hiking, then came back to get some work done. When he picked them up about an hour and a half later, he and I went off on a 'round-the-island adventure, stopping at Hanauma Bay Marine Preserve (to get a great hamburger, not to see the animals or anything... c'mon!), Turtle Bay resort (to have a wonderful mai-tai), and Ko'Olina (for another mai-tai and a light dinner). (BE CAREFUL! The Turtle Bay link plays music!) A lovely time, just noodling along the roads, including ignoring Maggie and winding up going the wrong way as we (thought we) were heading back.


Kelly at the Hanauma Bay overlook (after eating our wonderful hamburgers).

Me watching the surfers at Turtle Bay. In this picture, I am struck by how EXACTLY I look like my mom.

Almost sunset at Turtle Bay. The view from the bar. (Not shown: mai-tai in my other hand.)

Monday we decided to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center, and found out we could get discount tickets, thanks to Kelly being retired Army (nice to know his 20 years was worth it... discounts, free tickets to Disney... well worth it, I think!). So after breakfast at Boots and Kimo's in Kailua (which took a long time - it's crazy busy, even on a Monday), we went to Ft. Shafter to get the tickets and met up with Steve, Evelyn, and Erica at the PCC. It was a fascinating place, with shows scheduled highlighting some unique aspect of a particular Polynesian island. All of the presentations we saw were good and funny, especially the Fiji presenter, who was also the star of the evening show, where he played with fire.

At 2:30, there's a floating parade of dancers, one float for each island represented at the PCC.
Lifting the pig from the imu. Yummmmmmy.

The funny guy, the one who plays with fire in the evening show. ("Plays," as in he rests the flaming swords on his feet while he fixes his palm headdress.)

Tuesday was going-home day. We left early enough to run into traffic in downtown, but didn't encounter any, so we stopped at a building that may look familiar to viewers of "Dirty Jobs." It's the building where Mike was window-washing umpty-ump stories up, hanging in a basket. Lemme tell ya, it's even scarier when you see the building in person! Flight home was uneventful, we even had a good tail wind so got in almost 45 minutes early. We parked the car at the Doubletree, and decided to have dinner there at Spencer's before heading home.

Look familar, "Dirty Jobs" watchers? (Link loads the window-washing episode - with commercials, unfortunately!)
It was a lovely trip, we got to visit with great people, and I got a lot of knitting done. Even better, Erica is well on her way to being obsessed with socks - even got her on Ravelry!

Let's see, where's our next trip? Oh yeah, cross-country drive in May!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Packing

WIPs: Flamethrower socks (plane) and short-row socks (in the suitcase).
About-to-be-WIPs: Traveling Woman (plane) and Swallowtail (in the suitcase).
Two swimsuits.

That about covers it. Aloha!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

The Gathering of the Clan

So yesterday was knitting day at Meg's, an every-once-in-2-or-3-months-or-whenever-I-get-the-house-clean event. I love these days, because I am surrounded by my friends and yarn and food and drinking and friends and knitting and hugs and food and friends and yarn and drinking and knitting and yesterday, spinning, too. I think yesterday was the biggest turnout since I started these (2008? 2007?); we had 13 (14?) people here, knitting, Wii'ing, drinking, eating, spinning... and lots of laughing.



So many, we had to set up a second table between the dining room and living room!


Spin control: Champer teaching NicBeast, Knitterliness teaching LMKnits.

I'm still laughing at the attempt by four of the posse to walk out carrying a good half of my stash on their person. I think of them as Lumpy 1, Lumpy 2, Lumpy 3, and Violet Beauregard. What a hoot.

Lumpy 1, Lumpy 2, and Violet Beauregard examining their new-found lumps. Notice their attempts at looking sort of innocent.

Lumpy 1 (whom I suspect to be the ringleader) looking lovely and lumpy. Not shown: The two skeins of Mountain Colors Bearfoot stuck in her jean pockets.

Good shot of Violet Beauregard. No, I have no idea what Lumpy 2 is doing to her.

Lumpy 3, with all the orange yarn I own about to plop out of the bottom of her (gorgeous) (hand-knit) sweater.

Champer and Knitterliness brought their spinning wheels, and ChickenKnittle (aka Lumpy 1) brought her charka. They all let those of us who wanted to give it a spin (groan) try them out. I tried learning on Knitterliness' wheel... that didn't go so well. I kept letting the fiber twist back too far. Good thing, too; I really don't need another craft. Although Champer's antique wheel, dubbed "Big Bird" was rather cool.

"Big Bird," over 200 years old. Still works. Sort of.


Knitterliness guiding LMKnits (aka Violet Beauregard, before the lumps grew) in the fine art of spinning.

And now, the countdown is on for Hawaii. Aloha!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Parade of FOs

Okay, so maybe you've seen these before, but these are some of the more recent things I've finished.


Landscape scarf. Yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Mediumweight, colorway "Lucky."


My own lacy short-row pattern. Yarn is also Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock, in Lightweight. No stated colorway. This was actually a Mill End purchased at Sock Summit last year, although I can't figure out why. The base yarn itself was fine (no knots or bad twisties); the color appears to be "Flower Power" and looks just like the other "Flower Powers" I saw online. (PS - Thanks to Tammy for confirming it's "Flower Power"! I must have just hit it lucky with a Mill End that wasn't too mill-endy!)


Noro and Koigu striped socks for DH. Black yarn is Koigu PPPM, brown/gray/black yarn is Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn. DH actually wore these before they had been washed - he NEVER does that. Just shows how much he likes them.

That is all. :-)

Friday, March 5, 2010

The Take

Okay, here was the Stitches take:
1 skein Miss Babs "Yummy" sock yarn, in gray, for DH.
1 skein Louet Gems sock yarn, in red, for the heels and toes of DH's Miss Babs socks.
1 skein Femme Fatale "Buffy" sock yarn, in "Let Them Eat Cake" color way. The color just gob-smacked me; I kept picking it up and putting it down and picking it up and putting it down. I finally just picked it up and paid for the damn thing. Thing I'll cast on this weekend...
2 skeins Blue Moon's Woobu in Mustang Sally. Mmmm.... Woooooobuuuuu...
Pattern Keepers.
Sassafras Designs necklace and bangle bracelet (to match the others that I have).
Um... some teeny stitch markers... some square circular needles (size US#8, 16")... oh yeah... and some qiviut and silk blend. Mmm.... qiviut....

And yeah, I also won a door prize! I was so excited! Until I heard who it was from. Ultimate irony? Yeah; the store closest to home! (And the store that I usually avoid at all costs. Would rather drive up to San Jose, Santa Clara, Campbell, Sunnyvale, Santa Rosa, than to shop there.) And the prize was a kit of 2 balls of some pastelly rainbowy ribbon yarn with a pattern to make... a clutch. A clutch? From ribbon yarn? Yeah, right. Donate!

Gotta go - heading to wine country this weekend for barrel tasting. Yep, I'll be the designated driver!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Stitches West Tease


My Stitches West 2010 haul. Explanations of the goodies later. (Oh, and I recalculated how much I spent last year and how much I spent this year... This year's take was far less than 2009!)