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!

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. :-)

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!

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!)

Randomly Tuesday

Raining. Hubby taking the California Bar Exam this week. Good knitting progress. Cool Olympics. Making arrangements to sell Florida condo. Making plans to drive cross-country. Looking forward to Stitches West. Wishing I lived closer to dad. Glad I live in California. Realizing how big this house is when I'm the only one in it. Miss KW; even the excitement of Stitches doesn't change that.

Wow, that sounds sadder than I actually am. I'm fine, really. Just don't like rain and don't like KW being so far away; makes me melancholish. Think I'll go watch some Olympics.

Travelin' Fools

After all the travel we did last year, I thought for sure we'd cut back quite a bit this year. Apparently, that's not going to be the case.

Last month, we went on the lovely cruise to the Western Caribbean on Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas. We're home this month (KW will be taking the California Bar exam Feb. 23, 24, and 25 so we didn't want to go too far afield), and will be up in Healdsburg the first weekend in March, then off to Honolulu around mid-month (friends booked a home-exchange deal and invited us to join - yes! yes!).

We'll be home again for April, then in May, we'll fly to Florida and drive my aunt's car back home. We'll be doing a 'fairly' direct shot... I say 'fairly' because we'll stop in Texas to visit KW's son, at the Grand Canyon (onnacounta I've never been), in Las Vegas for a night or two (an early anniversary trip), then in Oxnard to visit KW's parentals. We need to be back by May 22, though, because that weekend is another knitting retreat, this time in Discovery Bay.

Nothing on the books yet for June, July, August, or September (it's early yet - I'm sure we can find SOMEplace to go), then in October it's off to the Eastern Caribbean (Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Maarten) on Carnival's new Dream. We've also been talking about taking another holiday cruise for Christmas/New Year's; still a possibility.

A gazillion thanks to RP for making all this even remotely possible.

Proud to be Canadien

Oh wait, I'm not. Sure wish I were; that Opening Ceremony was so cool. And I totally nailed who the torch-lighter would be - who else but The Great One??

I opted to not participate in neither the Knitting Olympics nor the Ravelympics. Don't really know why... although I seem to be in a finishing mood and - gasp - didn't feel like casting on anything right now. Weird, I know. I'll go lie down and maybe the feeling will pass. (Yes, I know I could have picked a WIP to finish, but I didn't have anything that would fit well in the 17 days.) Next time.

In other news, probate on my aunt's estate closed last week. We had the final phone conversation with the lawyer this morning. My brother and I now own half of a Florida condo, and dad hasn't decided yet if he wants to move into it. Tick-tock, tick-tock; if he doesn't want to, we're going to have to get it on the real estate market tout de suite before all the Snowbirds take off for their northern climes.

DH and I are now plotting our cross-country drive, likely some time in May. Yay! I'll finally get to see the Grand Canyon!

Wow; it's later than I thought. Thanks, NBC, for making those of us on the Left Coast watch the Opening Ceremonies on tape delay. WTH? Was that really necessary??