Pretty Pictures

And now, for my non-Ravelry friends (hi, Judie!) - and even for those on Ravelry - here are some pretty pictures! This is my Sock Summit 2011 haul... Everything's so purty!


Dream in Color "Stardust," one of their experimentals. Color - Redwood. (My purchase.)


Dream in Color "Stardust," one of their experimentals. Color - Open Flame. (Purchased as gift for someone.)

Pico Accuardi Dyeworks "Francino." Color - Nude. (Gift from Lynn; thank you!) The color was dyed just for SS11.

Out of Step Dyeworks "MCN Self-Striping Sock." Color - Screaming Ultraviolet Brain. (My purchase.) Yeah, I couldn't resist and cast on. Pretty awesome striping, huh?

Ms. Gusset "Sock Yarn." No colorway. (My purchase.) I got this one because Clara Parkes said it was the only yarn that was completely from Australia; it's not sent out to China for any processing.

Miss Babs "Yummy." Color - My Kelley. (My purchase.) Come on, people; I had to! The last Miss Babs color I succumbed to was called Pookie and was in shades of greeny-brown camouflage. It screamed Kelly, so this one actually being called Kelly (even with the different spelling), well, I simply couldn't -not- get it.

Indigodragonfly "Merino Sock." Color - I've Been Slimed! (Another gift from Lynn; thank you again!) These guys have the greatest names for their yarns. "You Got Peanut Butter on my Trout!" "2 Minutes for Sarcasm." "Don't Wear This on Star Trek." Truly great names.

Hazel Knits "Piquant Lite." Color - Carnelian. (Gift from Roberta; thank you!)

Hazel Knits "Artisan Sock." Color - Sanguine Peach. (Another gift from Roberta; thank you again!)

Fiber Optic Yarns "Foot Notes." Color - Gypsy. (Gift from Dorien; thank you!) The colors these guys get in their yarns is amazing. Everything was super-saturated and drenched in color. Gorgeous.

Crown Mountain Farms "Sock Hop." Color - Happy Together. (My purchase.)

Sanguine Gryphon "Bugga!" Color - Red-White Leaf Beetle. (My purchase - my first Bugga!)

Becoming Art "Eos Fingering." Color - Sunlit Amber. (My purchase.) Yarn from the Oak Grove fingerless glove pattern that I got at Stitches this year. My mistake when getting the pattern was thinking that I had a yarn that would be right for the pattern. After months of looking for something appropriate, I figured out that it really needed the yarn that the pattern was knit from. Yeah, sometimes I'm slow, but I'm cute!

And last but not least, another pair of glass needles from Sheila and Michael Ernst. Size US#6 with a 29" cord. (My purchase.)

Random Sock Summit 2011 Thoughts

Traveling by train is a different sort of temporal shift than traveling by plane. If you've taken a long-distance flight, you're usually dealing with time zones and gain or lose days/hours, which is odd, true. But traveling 19 hours by train and arriving the next day without having to adjust your watch is almost freaky. Freaky, but fun. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

When all was said and done, I came home with 13 new yarns. To be fair to me, though, because everyone knows I don't need more yarn, I only purchased 8 of them - five were lovely gifts from my posse to thank me for getting our hotel room from loyalty points. So that would be only 2 yarns a day. I think that's reasonable. :-)

I can't say enough about how awesome it is to be in the midst of so many knitting rock stars. To be able to take a class from Chrissy Gardiner, or to have Lucy Neatby or Janel Laidman comment on how cool our hats were, or to seek out Cat Bordhi and ask a specific question about her Sweet Tomato short-row heel technique... well, that's just priceless.

All my classes were great, even those where I didn't think I learned a whole lot. For the Bosnian toes class, I learned that it's just a garter-stitch toe; nothing more, nothing less. But the instructor showed us different ways it could be customized and enhanced that I hadn't thought about before. Swing By Your Heels was a cool technique I had read about, but never was able to put to practical use, nor was I able to imagine the variations it would allow. Even Clara Parkes class (Tips and Tricks for Stretch and Strength) was basically the same class I took at SS09, but I picked up a few more tips this time.

I'm sure there are more SS11 musings, but those were the ones that came to mind right now.

Weird Things I Did on Vacation

Watched a sock form from what was once a sheep: http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2011/07/portland_sock_summit_race_from.html
Wore a silly hat:

Bought (and was given) some luscious yarn:

Learned a bunch of new things (1 new toe-up cast on, 2 new heels, and a bunch of little tips to make my knitting easier/faster/funner). (Sorry; hard to photograph ejumacation.)

Sat on a train for 38 hours (19 hours each way, SJC to PDX and back): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI8Jp5kPxWs

Hung with my buds, who were also wearing silly hats:

Danced in public with about 600 other people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOUL_S6tVr8

Late-July Update

Just got back (Sunday) from a week visiting dad. He went into the hospital on July 9; tests showed that he had had another heart attack. They did a catheterization on Wednesday or Thursday, and found two blockages, which they fixed with two stents. After monitoring his blood pressure (he had dipped down to 70-something while he was in the hospital), he was sent home on Friday afternoon, July 15. (Well, actually when he was released, he went home with Ann, his girlfriend.)

I flew in on the 16th, my dear friend Chris picked me up at the airport and took us right to Ann's house. Dad was still tired and a little wobbly on his feet, but had a good pink color to his face. We chatted for a while, then Chris and I went out to dinner; afterwards, I checked into a nearby motel. (I was staying at a motel instead of at his place because I had work to do on Monday and he has no internet connection at his home!)

I picked him up at Ann's on Tuesday morning and then spent the week with him at his place. He was gradually making progress, and we'd take slightly longer and longer walks (and by "slightly longer" I mean going up and down three aisles at Publix instead of just one or two). His tummy is unsettled, probably from changing around all his meds again, but the good news is that the doctor cut his blood pressure medication in half, as well as his cholesterol medication. Maybe lowering the BP med will help with some of his tiredness.

It was hard to leave him on Sunday. Especially with his most recent heart incidents (four of them since the end of April), it's easy for me to wonder if each time I see him will be the last. But, his spirits are good, he's talking about where he and Ann will go on their next cruise, so I take my cue from him - keep moving on.

(As for the other things that happened while I was in Florida: His tires needed replacing, his car needed a coil replaced, his dishwasher doesn't clean the dishes very well anymore [it's from 1987!], his living room rug has gotten to the embarrassing point and needs to be replaced, and as we were walking out the door to go to the airport the washing machine was flooding the laundry room. "Don't worry about it, there's nothing we can do now anyway. Let's go," he said, so we did.)

(By the way, if you live anywhere near New Port Richey in Florida, take your car to the Goodyear shop on highway 19 across from Publix. Talk to Mary Ostrowski and tell her I sent you. These people are the BEST. They took care of Kelly and me when we brought in Aunt Irene's Corolla and they took care of me this past week when I had the car in and out (for the tires) and in and out again (for the coil). They even threw in an oil change, gratis.)

Today (Tuesday), I'm leaving to take a train to Portland (Oregon) to attend Sock Summit 2011. I attended Sock Summit 2009 and it was like Woodstock for sock knitters; we had a blast. This year's event promises to be just as much fun, maybe more, and now I need to go pack. The clothes are already laid out, the real question is what knitting to bring. That always stymies me on a trip. I better get to it!

Model Railroaders, Bad Golf, and Bad Hearts

Well, we had a lovely time at the model railroaders' convention last week. Kelly and I both sat in on some interesting classes, plus he took a few extra hands-on workshops, while I knitted my way around the convention center. We checked out of the Sacramento hotel Thursday morning and headed to the Jelly Belly factory, but it was crazy crowded, so we skipped that and checked in to the hotel at Travis Air Force Base.

We golfed at their course, Cypress Lakes, and had our butts totally whipped. Neither of us could hit a tee shot that cleared the girls' tees and we spent more time looking for our wayward balls than making decent shots (we each lost about 5 balls, too). My new clubs were like foreign objects in my hands; Kelly's tried-and-true clubs were acting like his enemies.

We checked out of Travis Friday morning and went back to the Jelly Belly factory. A little less crowded, so we did the tour and then came home. I came back with a sore throat but thought it was just from bouncing from 100-degree heat into the A/C. Turns out it's a lovely summer cold and now I feel like crap. Been chewing down Musinex since yesterday. It's the only thing that's keeping me from hacking up a lung.

Around midnight Friday, Ray calls to let me know dad's back in the hospital. (Luckily, Ray was there visiting.) So between the time he called and Saturday afternoon, they moved dad from the ER to the intensive care unit to the cardiac care unit. Turns out he had had another congestive heart failure episode. I had been planning to go see him in August, but will now be leaving next Saturday and stay for a week. We've cancelled the Las Vegas trip. We'll go another time; I'm sure it will be there for a little while longer. Then when I come back, I'm only home for a couple of days before heading up to Portland for Sock Summit.

Don't know what's going on with dad; this has been the 4th time since the end of April that he's wound up in the hospital. I'm pretty stressed out right now.

They're Heeeeere!

Pretty!

I'm Such A Very Bad Girl

*sigh* Not one week after finding a great deal ($50!!) at Big5 on a club set (Tour Craft Aeros, driver, 3-wood, 6-hybrid, and couple of irons and a new bag), I found a *real* nice set at Golfsmith. Full set of 14 clubs (Adams A70S), including a putter, and a cart bag. No, this set wasn't $50, but I did find a $100-off coupon and they were on sale besides. I had admired them last week and though I walked away from them then, they stayed on my mind. I went online and found the coupon, then put them in - took them out - put them in - took them out - of my shopping cart.

As we were playing the Seabee golf course over the weekend (at Port Hueneme in southern California), I was finally getting the hang of the oversized driver and the hybrid and was hitting them fairly well. When we got back home yesterday afternoon, though, the other set was again on my mind, so we trekked back up to San Jose so I could try out the Adams.

My first shot with the driver was a real klonk, but six or seven in a row after that I hit it really well and it felt good. The hybrid I grabbed, I hit dead center from the first shot. I also took a 7-iron, since the style was different than my current clubs, and again, I hit all the shots well.

They're due to ship Thursday... Who wants the old-new clubs? :-)