Had to leave the apple buds to do their thing while I was at Stitches West in the Santa Clara Convention Center. Oh dear. I did more damage to my budget this year than I did last year and the year before - combined. Two-and-a-half of the purchases were intended (I'll explain the 'half' later), the rest just jumped into my arms.
Off the top of my head, here's what followed me home:
- 3 skeins Blue Moon Fiber Arts Woobu, in "In the Navy." (Intended.)
- 6 skeins madelinetosh DK, in "Tart." (Intended.)
- 2 skeins Brooks Farm Riata, in a red. (Oops.) (But this one is almost excusable, since I've been coveting this yarn since my first Stitches in 2005.)
- 10 skeins Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, in a copper/beige color. (Oops.)
- 10 skeins Elsebeth Lavold Silk Flamme, in a deep chocolate color. (Oops.)
- 1 skein Dream in Color Experimental Stardust, in "Western Sunset." (Oops.)
- 2 square needle circulars from Kollage. (Intended.)
- 2 glass needles from Michael and Sheila Ernst. (Oops - sort of.)
The glass needles were the 'half.' I had wanted to try the newest Signature Needle Arts circulars and get a pair of those, but SNA wasn't at Stitches this year. So I happened upon Sheila's booth and promptly started to drool over a set of U.S. #7 designer needles. Well, I don't do 7s very often, so I asked about some U.S. #8s with a 16" cord. It turns out, they don't bring very many needles with 16" cords to shows, and she didn't think she had any. Lo and behold, when she looked through her stock, she found a pair, so I got them. It must have been fate.
Later, as I was remembering the yarns I had purchased, I realized that I sure as hell DID knit with size 7 needles, and went back on Sunday to get those. They have a gold-tone spiral down the center of the needle; incredibly beautiful. Yes, I'll post pictures, but it may take a while, and I'm not sure how well that spiral will come out.
There were a few odds and ends - some mini-Stitch Dots, a shawl pin, other small things - but I think that's it for the big yarn purchases. I'll take and post pictures through the week.
The classes were great, too. If my classwork photograph well, I'll post those, too.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Proof!
Here's a teeny bit of documentation to prove that we haven't killed the apple tree (yet).
It's a bit fuzzy, but this is a picture of - gasp! - a bud on one of the branches!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
I'm Supposed to be Working...
...but I'm obviously not.
This year's trees have been planted, and the vineyard has been caned. After digging 6 new holes, DH's poor back can rest a bit.
KW digging the last of the 6 holes (the deepest and widest of the 6, too).
While we don't have acres and acres, we do have a bit more space than a lot of our neighbors do. At first, we thought that was a good thing, and had all sorts of plans for hot tubs and lush landscaping and patios and lounge chairs...
And then we lived here for a year. Fuggedaboutit...
If the blistering summers don't get you, the afternoon sirocco will. 'way too windy to do any relaxing outside. Forget about reading or knitting. In order to truly wind-proof the backyard enough to make it even vaguely comfortable, we'd probably have to sink $10,000 to $15,000 into it. Wind-breaks, arbors, sturdy-enough trellises, mostly-grown trees... you name it.
So, we did what we tend to do - we ignored it for the first 3 or 4 years.
Then last year, we got a wild hare up our butts (and a few extra dollars in our bank account) and decided to put some landscaping in along the right-hand side of our fence. That looks really nice, and so far, we haven't killed any of the plants or trees. We were going to have the same lady do some other landscaping, but DH and I couldn't quite decide on what we wanted, and the next thing you knew, we were into all the busy travel of late last year, and landscaping ideas were (mostly) forgotten.
But now, a new year came (along with some trees that I totally forgot I had ordered back in May or June of last year), and the growing thing started up again. DM was able to get us some heirloom variety trees (2 Coral Champagne cherries, 1 Black Tartarian cherry, 1 Baby Crawford peach), so when we were plotting out those, we thought "Hm... maybe an orange tree, too?" Suddenly, we found ourselves at Westside Nursery in Gilroy with a Valencia orange tree in our cart! As we were heading to check out, we passed a bunch of apple trees that had been espaliered. When I looked closer, I saw that each limb was a different apple - I had to have that! Then we started talking about getting some wisteria or bougainvillea to bring in the bees for pollination.
At the end of today, DH dug 6 holes (3 cherries, 1 orange, 1 peach, 1 apple), and got all of the trees planted, the grapes have been caned (hopefully we didn't kill them), and his wheelbarrow tire has been replaced. (We opted to wait on the bee-bringing bushes.) It all looks pretty scrawny right now (I mean, come on, the 'cherry trees' are just sticks!), but I'm going to try to remember to take progress photos as the weather starts to warm up. Hopefully it will be documentation of trees taking root, not of the slow destruction of some lovely heirloom trees.
Looking over the orange grove towards the vineyard and the cherry orchard. (The grapes are Cabernet, Merlot, zinfandel, and 2 seedless table grapes.)
The peach sticks.
The cherry sticks (2 Coral, 1 Black Tartarian).
The espaliered semi-dwarf apple (Braeburn, Gravenstein, Fuji, Red and Yellow Delicious, and Gala).
The mobile Christmas tree farm (we don't know where they'll go yet).
This year's trees have been planted, and the vineyard has been caned. After digging 6 new holes, DH's poor back can rest a bit.
KW digging the last of the 6 holes (the deepest and widest of the 6, too).
While we don't have acres and acres, we do have a bit more space than a lot of our neighbors do. At first, we thought that was a good thing, and had all sorts of plans for hot tubs and lush landscaping and patios and lounge chairs...
And then we lived here for a year. Fuggedaboutit...
If the blistering summers don't get you, the afternoon sirocco will. 'way too windy to do any relaxing outside. Forget about reading or knitting. In order to truly wind-proof the backyard enough to make it even vaguely comfortable, we'd probably have to sink $10,000 to $15,000 into it. Wind-breaks, arbors, sturdy-enough trellises, mostly-grown trees... you name it.
So, we did what we tend to do - we ignored it for the first 3 or 4 years.
Then last year, we got a wild hare up our butts (and a few extra dollars in our bank account) and decided to put some landscaping in along the right-hand side of our fence. That looks really nice, and so far, we haven't killed any of the plants or trees. We were going to have the same lady do some other landscaping, but DH and I couldn't quite decide on what we wanted, and the next thing you knew, we were into all the busy travel of late last year, and landscaping ideas were (mostly) forgotten.
But now, a new year came (along with some trees that I totally forgot I had ordered back in May or June of last year), and the growing thing started up again. DM was able to get us some heirloom variety trees (2 Coral Champagne cherries, 1 Black Tartarian cherry, 1 Baby Crawford peach), so when we were plotting out those, we thought "Hm... maybe an orange tree, too?" Suddenly, we found ourselves at Westside Nursery in Gilroy with a Valencia orange tree in our cart! As we were heading to check out, we passed a bunch of apple trees that had been espaliered. When I looked closer, I saw that each limb was a different apple - I had to have that! Then we started talking about getting some wisteria or bougainvillea to bring in the bees for pollination.
At the end of today, DH dug 6 holes (3 cherries, 1 orange, 1 peach, 1 apple), and got all of the trees planted, the grapes have been caned (hopefully we didn't kill them), and his wheelbarrow tire has been replaced. (We opted to wait on the bee-bringing bushes.) It all looks pretty scrawny right now (I mean, come on, the 'cherry trees' are just sticks!), but I'm going to try to remember to take progress photos as the weather starts to warm up. Hopefully it will be documentation of trees taking root, not of the slow destruction of some lovely heirloom trees.
Looking over the orange grove towards the vineyard and the cherry orchard. (The grapes are Cabernet, Merlot, zinfandel, and 2 seedless table grapes.)
The peach sticks.
The cherry sticks (2 Coral, 1 Black Tartarian).
The espaliered semi-dwarf apple (Braeburn, Gravenstein, Fuji, Red and Yellow Delicious, and Gala).
The mobile Christmas tree farm (we don't know where they'll go yet).
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
A Favorite Thing from My Childhood
Yes, it's a little baby girl, sleeping, with her butt hanging out of her onesie. Somewhere out in the universe, there's a matching one in blue, a baby boy and my brother's birth info. (I don't know if he still has his.)
I don't know if she was some sort of hospital parting gift or a gift from a friend of relative, but I have always treasured her and have carried her with me for all these years. Once I moved out of my parents' house (when I got married at 18), she's been with me. The only time I didn't have her was about 4 months in late 1981 / early 1982, after I moved to California and had to get myself settled. My mom held her for me until I had a place for her, and she had strict instructions to pack her properly so she would survive the journey.
When we packed up the condo in Sunnyvale to move here, she got put away for safe keeping until we had settled in here... and then I couldn't find her. And I was worried that the movers had lost her and other important stuff in one box.
Lo and behold, DH was doing his new year cleaning and pulled out a plastic bin. "It's got albums and pictures and stuff," he said rather casually, so I didn't rush to go through it. I finally did while I was in the thick of the last cold, and - oh joy! oh rapture! - there she was!
She's a little ragged around the edges (yes, I'm referring to me, too) with some chips and obvious places where either the original glue or replacement glue has discolored. But she's mine - actually, I tend to think of her as 'me.'
Weird, isn't it? You know when people ask questions like "if there was a fire, what would you grab as you ran out"? Besides grabbing DH and some yarn (okay, a lot of yarn), I'd take her. I mean, me.
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