missouristar

Has it really been two weeks since I blogged?  Recently someone told me that retirement is like digging a hole in the ocean.  As fast as you dig it, stuff flows in and fills it up!  Of course, I do have to remind myself that I'm doing the things I want to do.  I just want to do so much!!

Where to start?  Well, last weekend we had our 4th Annual Spring Tea.  This is an event that two friends and I have been hosting for – well, four years.  It's nothing fancy, but just a fun time to get together with friends and be a little girly.  I made scones, lemon poppyseed muffins, Devonshire cream and lemon curd.  Yummy.  My friend made finger sandwichs and the tea (she's British so we bow to her expertise).  The third friend contributes the invitations and made some beautiful fabric corsages. 

Of course, two little girls needed new dresses and Nana was glad to oblige:

Isobel has decided she doesn't like being "girly", so I was a little worried, but she was pleased that her dress was blue and didn't complain at all.  Maggie got into the spirit of the occasion with her own corsage:

There were hats:

And, of course – tea:

The weekend before the tea we had the girls for the weekend to give Abby a little break.  During their stay Isobel became infatuated with my spinning wheel and wanted to make yarn.  She pedaled and I drafted:

I asked her if she would like to learn to knit and she said, "I'd love to learn to knit."  Definitely an improvement over last time when she informed me that only old grannies knit.  So, I guess I'd better start thinking about it.  Anyone out there ever teach a child to knit?  Any suggestions?

I'm still a trifle obsessed with making little zippered bags.  I've sold some as wedding sets and I think they'd be great for shower gifts.  I especially like this set that I just did:

The smallest case is a tissue holder.  Here's the inside:

Pretty, huh?

I have been knitting in the evenings and finished In Dreams.  No picture yet because it's not blocked and looks like a pile of beaded dental floss.  Once I finished that, most of my knitting was rather plain and boring, so in a fit of I'm-not-sure-what, I started a new sweater.  I've been wanting to do a Dale of Norway for me and chose Nagano.  I'm up to the plain part of the body:

Now that I 've started a winter weight wool sweater, warm weather is sure to come – maybe?  We actually hit 70 today and it was glorious!!  Now we just need to string two of those together in a row and we can officially call it spring.

I'm hoping we've finally turned the corner on springtime – do two good days count?  Sunday was absolutely glorious, followed by two days of cold and rain, followed by another glorious day today.  Mid 60's and sunshine!  However, considering the weather in the rest of the country, we have no right to complain about our record-setting cold spring so far.

On Sunday we headed down to Snohomish to celebrate Isobel's and hubby's birthdays.  Isobel was a little annoyed that we were not celebrating on her actual birthday, which was yesterday.  So she called the party her "pretend birthday party".  The party was held in the local park and it was picture perfect weather!

Hubby is also annoyed that he is now of Social Security age, but is comforted in the fact that I will join him later this year. Isboel gave him a coffee cup that she decorated herself – "Happy Brthday, Love, Isobel".  Priceless!

Our present to Isobel was a science kit.  As soon as she got home she put on her lab coat and started experimenting:

Her greatest desire in life is to be a scientist.  Ivy's is to be a princess (gotta work on that girl!).

Isobel's Auntie Ling bought her a bicycle, which required some adjustments from Grandpa:

On the way home we drove through the tulip fields.  We didn't stop, but I managed to get some pretty pictures from the car:

Once again I am reminded of what a beautiful place we live in.  In fact, as I write this I'm watching out the window as two bald eagles circle over our yard.

My etsy shop has been quite busy!  In fact, I had to get busy and restock since I had sold so many items.  I am having so much fun making these little bags.  I just restocked yesterday:

One of my customers requested a custom bag for her daughter's wedding.  That got me to thinking how pretty monogrammed bags would be and I came up with these:

 
They can be customized with any color or initial.  I'll be putting up a section for special ordering these, but if anyone's interested before then, just email me.  This set is going to be a shower gift for a friend from church.  I also discovered that the smaller bag can be made from a fat quarter.  So I dived into my fabric stash and found some fat quarters that had been languishing because I couldn't figure out what to do with them.  These bags will be coming soon!

Lest you think I've abandoned knitting, I can assure you that I've actually got quite a bit done in the last two weeks.  However, none of it is particularly photo-worthy.  I finished one of the fronts on hubby's Cambridge Cardigan and am busily working away on the last clue of the In Dreams Shawl.  There is no way I'm going to try to spread it out on the needle to try and get a picture.  It's pretty crammed on there!  This particular clue has 1600 beads!! 

This weekend we'll be having the girls with us.  Abby's sister and two kids fly back to Japan on Friday, so we'll be giving her a bit of a break.  If the weather's nice we'll probably spend a great deal of it outside.  One can only dream!

Oh, and I almost forgot.  My random number generator (aka hubby) picked out a number and the lucky winner of my blog contest was JoLynn.  JoLynn is almost local – she lives over on the mainland and we occasionally run into each other.  She was in our class with Cookie A.  Congratulations JoLynn!  She has already picked out her prize and it is winging its way to her.

Me!  Can you believe it?  I enter two blog contests in a month and I win both of them.  Maybe I'd better buy a lottery ticket too.  Vera had a contest to celebrate her blogiversary and I was one of the winners.  My package arrived yesterday:

A copy of the book Home Ec 101 and a lovely pineapple potholder.  I'm really looking forward to sitting down with the book and honing my home ec skills.  And sorry, Vera, but I think the potholder is way too pretty to use and will probably end up decorating my kitchen.  Thank you very much!!

And speaking of blogiversaries – I have one coming up this week too!  Can you believe it's been seven years since I started this blog?  So much has happened in that time.  During those first few posts I reported on my son's visit with his lovely girfriend – her first visit ever to the United States.  At the end of the visit they announced their engagement.  One wedding and two granddaughters later I can't even imagine life without her!

So, I guess to celebrate, I should have a contest too.  Send me a comment to this post by April 30th and I'll enter you in the contest.  On May 1st (or thereabouts) all comments will be numbered and my random number selector (aka hubby) will pick a number.  The winner will be able to go to my etsy shop and pick out any one item (sets count as one item, so think big!). 

My last few posts have been a little lean on knitting photos, even though lots of knitting has been done.  I finished the back on hubby's Cambridge jacket:

I'm about halway up the first front.  I also finished my sister's Christmas socks (no, I'm not late – for Christmas I promised her a pair of socks every other month during the year and I'm right on time!):

The yarn is a Berroco, but I can't seem to find the ball band.  Plain Jane socks knitted on size 0's.

In a semi-spate of finishing, I did finish the knitting on Ylva:

Front and back done and joined at shoulders.  All that's left is to sew the side seams and a few rows of garter stitch around neck and armholes.  Anyone want to take a guess at how long I'll procrastinate on this one?

We finally seem to have turned a corner toward springtime here in the Pacific Northwest.  Today is supposed to be in the upper 50's and tomorrow we may even break 60 – with sunshine no less.  Then rain for Easter, but that's pretty normal around here.  I hope all of you have a blessed Easter!

Christ is risen – he is risen indeed!

Our trip to Spokane was a big success and resulted in a very happy ending for Angel.  We were prepared to bring her back if we felt that this home was not appropriate.  But it was immediately obvious that Angel had hit the doggie jackpot!  Chae was an incredibly sweet young woman and absolutely delighted to finally have a Corgi:

There was a big, fenced in backyard and lots of love evident all around.  As sad as it was to say goodbye, we knew Angel was where she was meant to be.  We've been in contact with Chae all weekend and Angel is adapting well and is already a member of the family.  I think some people thought we were a little crazy to drive all that way for one little dog, but we just knew this was the right thing to do for little Angel.  We came home to a very relaxed and happy Maggie, as well!

Today was a wonderful, hectic, crazy day as we welcomed Abby's sister, two children and her mom for a family get together.  Thank goodness for sunshine and dry weather as the four kids and Maggie had a wonderful time chasing each other around the yard.  Both of Abby's sister's children really took to Maggie.  Ryo, the little boy liked kicking Maggie's ball so she could chase it and Nana, the little girl just liked to sit and pat her.  By the end of the day we had four exhausted kids and one tired puppy!

This has been the first time in about 11 years that Abby and her sister and mom have been together.  It was great to see so many happy faces:

It was hilarious trying to get four wiggly kids still enough for a decent photo, but I think we managed.   And it was great sharing the grandma duties with Abby's mother:

The long road trip provided lots of time for knitting.  I finished a pair of socks and the back of hubby's Cambridge jacket.  I promise photos next time.  For now – I'm just going to sit back and relax!

It looks as if we'll be making another road trip, albeit a short one this time.  As hard as we have tried, Angel is not merging into our family as smoothly as we had hoped.  When Maggie is not in the picture she is the sweetest dog you can imagine.  She is affectionate, playful and relatively calm.  But the minute Maggie walks in she becomes agitated, fearful and protective.  She does not want Maggie anywhere near us.  Maggie is really willing to live and let live.  She tries her best to ignore Angel, but Angel will have none of that.  She is constantly confronting Maggie, blocking her way to her bed under the table and even this morning trying to keep her from going outside.  Here you can see Angel giving Maggie the evil eye while Maggie tries to ignore her:

We've had a couple of scary knock-down-drag-out fights.  Our biggest worry, other than the complete lack of peace in our house right now, is that when the girls visit they would be at risk of getting in the middle of a dog fight, and we can't have that.

Happily, Ravelry came to the resuce.  I'm in a Corgi group and someone there knew of a Raveler in Spokane who has been looking for a Corgi!  I contacted her and it is a perfect situation!  They are a young couple with no other dogs.  He used to be a dog trainer before going into the Air Force.  They have a big fenced in back yard and are just waiting for a Corgi to love.  Friday we will head on over.  It's 6 hours over and 6 hours back (with gas at almost $4.00 a gallon!), but it is well worth it to us to have Angel in a good home.  She has so much to offer the right family; she's just too insecure to fit in with another dog at this time. 

In between my refereeing duties I've been busy stocking my Etsy store.  My first sales were of single cases, so I put up some more singles:

I'm also experimenting with some Kindle Cases:

They haven't been flying off the shelves quite yet, but I have gotten a few special orders.  I have a feeling Christmas will be busy, as these will make great gifts.  But do send all your knitting friends to the shop.  I love how you can see through these cases so you know exactly what you have in them.

My evenings have been spent working on In Dreams. Unfortunately some of that time has been spent tinking!  Oddly enough, I don't seem to have any problem with the middle part, which is very complicated.  I keep making mistakes on the outer border, which is the same 8 rows over and over.  But when you've forgotten a bind off or a double yarn over and don't notice it until the next row, or even a few rows later, it is impossible to fix.  Everything, including the middle rows, have to come out.  You'd think I would learn to pay more attention on those borders, but you might just be wrong.

I have frogged the Monkey socks I was working on.  For one thing, I've decided that KAL's with deadlines are just not for me.  I don't like knitting under pressure.  I do have as my goal knitting all of the socks in Knit, Sock Love, but will do it at my own pace.  And I've also decided that I really do not love the Monkeys in such a variegated yarn.  Most of the Monkeys seem to be done that way, but I think in the future I'm going to save my patterned yarns for Plain Jane socks and stick to solids and semi-solids for Cookie's socks.

And lookie what came in the mail today:

I've decided to give spindle spinning another try.  I ordered this on the recommendation of Allison (see her picture in my last post).   She is a wonderful spindle spinner.  I had mentioned to her my frustration with spindle spinning – the cheaper spindles are very difficult to handle, but I didn't want to splurge on a more expensive one just to find I thoroughly hate it.  She suggested the student spindle from  The Bellwether.  It is very inexpensive, but a good quality.  I've been practicing a little and I think I'm getting a little better.  Although my yarn is still crap, at least I'm not dropping it as much!  I like to think that's because I'm improving and not just because my reflexes at catching it are getting better.

Spring is trying to fight its way into the Pacific Northwest.  This can be a frustrating time of year – we're ready for spring, but it's not quite ready for us.  However, when looking at weather in other parts of the country, I have absolutely no complaints!  The Northeast still has a foot of snow on the ground, the south and midwest have temps in the 80's and tornadoes.  The lake in my backyard is not looking too bad at this point.

Ok, it's official – my Etsy shop is open.  Look for me as IslandHeirlooms!

My mad social whirl continued this weekend with the annual Spin In here in town.  For a small, sleepy town, we draw a huge crowd for the two-day event.  And do you think I thought to take pictures?  Nope!  In my defense I was in charge of registration and things got pretty intense.  Over 200 participants registered – most of them all at once, I think!  The merchant mall was unbelievable.  Drat – I still can't believe I didn't take a single picture.  Some small fiber stash enhancement took place.  No picture there either, but I promise next post.  To do it now would entail getting out of my recliner and I'm still resting!

Our guest speaker was none other than Judith McKenzie!  She spoke on intentional spinning and wheel mechanics, both subjects of her books.  And the best part?  The next day I got to take an entire day workshop with her:

That's Allison pictured with us.  You might know her on Ravelry as SunnyDay.  She is a spindle spinner extrodinaire and she coaxed me into ordering a spindle.  I'm sure Lorette will be pleased at that!  The workshop was well, well worth it.  By the end of the day I was spinning 2 ply laceweight with ease.  I could also spin super bulky, although I doubt I'll ever want to do that.  We spun cashmere, several kinds of silk, corriedale and a rambouillet/kid mohair mix.  By the end of the day I was totally and utterly exhausted and my brain hurt, but I learned enough to keep me going for a long time.

And on Saturday I came home to this lovely surprise in the mail:

Lorette had a contest on her blog and I won all this lovely Phildar Aviso – 60% cotton, 40% acrylic.  It looks a little hot pink in the picture, but is really a bright, rich red.  What?  You say I should wait and take a picture in daylight?  Fat chance.  We're building an ark even as we speak.  Anyway, I'm not sure yet what I will do with it.  For some reason the thought of a lovely hooded scarf appeals to me.  Something to wear while walking the dog.

And speaking of dogs, it does not seem likely that we will be keeping Angel.  Maggie seems to tolerate her well enough, but Angel is extremely jealous of Maggie.  She does not want her anywhere near us, and is constantly confronting her and provoking a reaction.  Maggie will try to go somewhere else, but eventually comes out fighting.  We've had a couple of scary knock down drag out fights.  Things do seem to be getting better, and if we never had kids over I might be prone to tough it out.  But I don't know that I could ever trust the two of them around the girls.  If the excitement level got high (as it does with the girls around), I'm afraid they might get between the two dogs.  We're looking at options now, including a Raveler in Spokane who may be interested.  I'm saddened that it didn't work out, but at this point neither dog is happy.  Angel is so sweet and loving, she deserves a home where she can relax and soak up the affection.

In between refereeing fights, I've become obsessed with making these cute little cloth and vinyl bags. 

The largest is 9×5, the middle 6×4 and smallest 3 1/2 x 3/12.  They have a clear vinyl front and would be great for so many uses – make up bags, knitting and sewing notions, spinning accessories, you name it.  The small one comes on a key chain and can hold a small items for your purse – hand sanitizer, medications, change.  You can even put in a few dog cookies in the front and a couple of plastic bags in the pocket on the back for your daily walk with your doggies.  In fact, I like making them so much that I am going to open my own Etsy shop to sell them.  I'm hoping to get the shop up as soon as I get some good daylight to take decent pictures.  You can look for my shop under "Island Heirlooms".  I'll be selling them in sets (which would make great gifts) or as singles.

I think I've finally come to the end of all my exciting trips.  In all honesty, I am more than ready to stay home and putter for a while!

 

. . . . and guess who's holding it!

Yep – that's Cookie A. herself holding my Monkey sock in progress.  I took two classes from her today and had a great time.  She's so charming in person and just blows you away with her knitting skill.  We got to see most of the Cookie A. socks and they are more gorgeous in person than in the photographs.

The first half of the class was on advanced cables.  We cabled ribbing, garter stitch over seed stitch, plain over lace and the grand finale – cables over cables.  I had seen other ways of cabling without a needle, but her method was much more "secure" and I think I will be using it.  The second half was on bias knitting.  I don't think I will be doing much designing with bias, but it was interesting to see the technique and geometry behind it.  It was also a nice chance to get together with some knitting friends that I only see on occasions such as this.

Now off to finish this pair of Monkeys!

Meet Angel, the newest member of our family. 

Technically we have a week to decide whether or not to keep her, but I think the decision has been made!  She has already managed to worm her way into our hearts.

As I mentioned before, she has such a sweet temperament.  Pretty laid back and calm.  Maggie can be pretty dominant and pushy, but Angel is not really intimidated.  They have an uneasy truce going right now, but I don't think it will be long before they'll be playing together.  Yesterday we set up a crate in the dining room for her and Maggie managed to open the door, crawl in and go to sleep!  She's more annoyed than anything else.  But there's been a surprisingly low level of aggression.  In fact, this afternoon Maggie patiently watched while Angel chewed on a bone.  As soon as Angel got up and walked away, Maggie took the opportunity to sneak over and carry the bone away!  But at least she did wait until Angel was done.

I weighed Angel and she is 27 lbs.  Maggie is larger than she is and is only 22 lbs.  I think Angel should only weigh about 20 lbs., so she is carrying about 1/3 more weight than she should.  We've started the diet and exercise program.  Maggie can go 2 miles or more without getting winded, but poor Angel was beat after only 1/2 mile!  But we'll get there and it will be great seeing her get healthy.

It's been two weeks since I posted – where has the time gone?  Once again I'm reminded that life can get very, very busy in retirement. 

The main event during my absence from the blog has been my trip to San Francisco.  To recap, my sister had a conference to go to and asked if I'd like to go along.  Although this was pushing the boundaries of my comfort level I jumped at the chance.  I'm not generally a fan of big cities and I knew that most of the time I would be wandering around on my own.  In the end, there was nothing at all to worry about and we had a great time!

We arrived in town early on Thursday morning.  This was the view from our hotel room – Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower.  

Since my sister's activities didn't start until later that evening, we decided to go to Alcatraz. 

What a great piece of American history.  Life was certainly harsh there, but most of the convicts had earned their spot.  My favorite regulation – "You are entitled to food, clothing,  shelter and medical attention.  Anything else you get is a privelege."  I needed that when my kids were growing up.  Another favorite that I bought as a magnet for Abby & Ben's refrigerator – "If you make groundless complaints for the purpose of greating dissatisfaction and/or stirring up trouble, you will be subject to disciplinary action."  Another oldie, but goodie!

On Friday, while my sister was in conference, I took the Hop On, Hop Off tour bus around the city.  Since the bus didn't go really near Lombard street, I hopped off and walked several blocks to the bottom of the street. 

In a fit of what I can only describe as lunacy, I decided to walk UP Lombard street!  I really think I should have gotten a medal.  I ran into a lot of people walking DOWN, but I was the only hardy soul trudging up.  The view at the top of the hill was breathtaking.

From there I walked over to Ghiardelli Square and then had to hike another mile (also uphill – how can everything in one city be uphill – where does the downhill come in?) to catch the bus.

Next stop – Golden Gate Bridge. 

This is every bit as impressive as it looks on the postcards.  Later in the day after I was there a high school student on a field trip actually jumped off the bridge and survived with only minor injuries! Later I went back to the bridge with my sister and walked out on the span, but my acrophobia kicked in and I had to come back to solid ground.

I next spent a few lovely hours in the California Academy of Sciences.  It was there I really wished I had the girls with me, especially Isobel.  She would have loved it.  Especially the albino 'gator – yes he's real, and alive!

By then I was exhausted and just rode the bus around looking at the sights.  Of course, we got to see Haight Ashubry and the famous Painted Ladies:

On Saturday I walked down to the main shopping district.  There was probably nothing there that I could afford, but I did find the mecca of all fabric stores – Britex fabrics.  Unfortunately, they did not allow photography in the store.  When I walked in I thought I was going to hyperventilate!  Four floors of wall to ceiling fabrics.  On the second floor was one whole wall about the size of the length of my hallway with nothing but buttons!  I bought a yard of quilting cotton and two small pieces of Chinese brocade.  Some day I'll make something for the girls with them.

I also found Art Fibers – a wonderful little "hole in the wall" yarn store.  Instead of skeins, everything is on cones in bins with little samples on the display above the bins.  Inside the bins are "sample" cones and you can take them over to the table and knit up a sample. 

I bought some alpaca/silk – enough for a scarf.

When I returned to the hotel, my sister's conference had ended early, so we had time to ride the Hop On Hop Off bus again so she could see a few of the sights.  That evening we had a wonderful meal with her co-workers in Little Italy.  And can you say pastries??

We frequented this shop several times.  On Sunday before our flight left, we walked through Chinatown.  Our hotel was actually right on the edge, so it was a short walk.  I really wished I had Abby with me because some of the signs were a little short on English.

 

Our flight home was uneventful and I spent the next week recovering before another round of fun this weekend.  As my birthday present back in December, my sister gave me tickets to Cirque du Soleil Quidam.  What an experience!  The night before we went to the symphony and out to dinner with a friend, so it was a mad social whirl of a weekend!

On the way home, I stopped by and saw Ben, Abby and the girls.  They have their own mad whirl going on.  Abby's sister, who lives in Tokyo, has come to visit with her two small children.  She had been planning a visit and now seemed to be a good time to be away from Japan.  Unfortunately, her husband had to stay behind and work.  Despite many, many hours of travel and a huge time change, the kids are just so sweet and adorable!  The little girl has latched on to Ben as her new best friend.

As you can imagine, little to no knitting or sewing has been done.  I may catch up this week and have something to show by next week.

In breaking news – we may be getting a new little dog.  One of our younger son's friends was told by animal control that she has to get rid of her numerous animals (yes, a hoarder).    Very compassionate and sweet, but just a little misguided.  One of the animals is a purebred, AKC registered Corgi.  Angel came and visited today and things went very well.  My son's friend broke down and cried at the thought of Angel having such a nice "forever" home where she could come visit her whenever she wanted.  Poor Angel is terribly overfed and out of shape.  She needs diet and exercise and vet care, but has a sweet, sweet temperament and has not been mistreated.  I'll keep you posted.