Ave Trivia Imperatrix!

Fabulous Mr. Fox

2010-04-20T18:10:00.003-05:00

A visitor at the dome! It must be denning nearby, I've seen it several times.

Ice Storm

2010-02-22T10:01:00.000-06:00

A winter storm yesterday has left everything coated with a scrim of shimmering ice. It makes the trees look pretty, but they are singing & creaking this morning in a very ominous way. We'll lose a few big branches out of this one, I'm sure.

The dome, I have found, grows icicles like crazy. They don't form on the rounded part, of course; but when the sun hits the concrete, the melt flows down the dome slope & out along the dormer overhangs, which grow a rather impressive icicle crop. I've also learned that once the melting process gets a little further along, ice & snow sliding off of a concrete structure makes a loud & distinctive noise inside that structure. Scared the cats half to death the first time we heard it!

Winter Storm

2009-12-09T19:42:00.003-06:00

Well, the first storm of the season arrived with much fanfare, but not very much snow here... just a light dusting in this part of the world. So my out-of-state readers can rest easy that we are all safe & warm, despite what the national news says.

If you haven't checked out the dome blog lately, you should really keep an eye on it over the next few weeks. It is finally finished! (or, at least, finished enough to occupy. I have no illusions that there won't be a zillion things still to do once we get into it.) Moving day is this Saturday and there should be lots of pictures. So stay tuned!

Autumn Auburn

2009-11-09T07:15:00.002-06:00

I'm tired of the way my hair goes dark & dull in the winter... so I got some natural henna to play with the color a bit. The results were a nice rich chestnut, just a few shades off of my natural color. It's not very noticeable in artificial light, but shows quite red in the sun. Plus the gray has all magically turned to red highlights. :-)

Henna is a major hassle, but the payoff is the next day, when your hair doesn't smell like chemicals. Instead, my hair has a slightly grassy smell, sort of like new-cut hay. I love the color.

Into the Woods

2009-10-17T11:22:00.005-05:00

Last night the UCM Theater department staged Into the Woods, one of my favorite Sondheim musicals, just for my birthday! (OK, maybe it wasn't just for me, but I like to think so...) Really fun, well done production. The interesting twist: All the costumes & sets were done with a steampunk sensibility... all pseudo-Victoriana and whimsical brass pressure dials sprouting from the trees. A really enjoyable evening!

Company Picnic

2009-09-16T18:50:00.006-05:00

At our annual company picnic, there's always a few things that are a given: way too much food brought to the potluck, a corny speech given by the president, and a fun time hanging out without worrying about the phones ringing for a few hours. We can't always count on nice sunny weather, but we got it this year.

This year's Social Committee (which includes your humble author) chose the usual variety of outdoor team games. The main event, of course, was the tug-of-war. Peter, our president, tapped me for his team, mainly on the strength of my football background, I think. Here the team confers on our crucial fifth pick.

From left: Todd (IT programmer), Shawn (sales), Kirk (marketing director), me (Response Lab programmer), and Peter (president/captain.) Ready to rock & roll!

How did we do?

CHAMPIONS! Bragging rights are secure for the year.

Mmmmm.... Bacon!

2009-09-10T12:37:00.001-05:00

The Bacon Brothers is a blues-rock band fronted by well-known guitarist/composer Michael Bacon and his kid brother Kevin. Yes, that Kevin Bacon. They were the season opener for UCM's Performing Art Series last night, and let me tell you, they rocked the place. They did a lot of original music, mixed in with a little Beatles & Stones type stuff, some of it a little rough -- it was obvious that they were touring some new material that hadn't quite acquired its final polish. Fine with me! I like the shows that aren't overly slick. I bought the tickets expecting something of a novelty act, but these guys are the real deal... not a movie-star vanity band, but hard-rocking, gritty-sounding, authentic bluesmen with a great live show. Don't miss them.

Kevin Bacon is better known, of course, for his movie work, and for the parlor game that his oeuvre has spawned. I'm willing to bet that my Bacon score of three was one of the lowest in the audience last night. Here's how I get there:
1. I appeared (uncredited) in the girls-football-themed "Fighting Fridas" episode of American Family, starring Edward James Olmos.
2. Edward James Olmos was in the silly baseball movie Talent for the Game, which also featured Terry Kinney.
3. Terry Kinney co-starred in Sleepers with Kevin Bacon. Voila.

Will It Ever End?

2009-08-29T10:13:00.001-05:00

The tomatoes just won't stop. I may end up with more sauce & salsa than I can use in three years. AND THEY ARE STILL SETTING FRUIT. I may still be picking by the time the first frost comes around. Plus, we got one pumpkin off the vine before the borer beetles got to work... August may be a little early for pie, but it seems that we have no choice!

Tomato Garden

2009-08-24T20:22:00.004-05:00

It is well known that, if one plants six or eight tomatoes in the early spring, and then lovingly tends them, stakes them, weeds them and feeds them, by late August they will supply more tomatoes than the household can reasonably eat, and one will be canning & freezing & drying & generally trying to think of creative ways to use tomatoes.

However, I have discovered that if one plants six or eight tomatoes in the early spring, and then undergoes a difficult time wherein one's husband has a mid-life crisis and takes up with a twenty-something slut bimbo and eventually abandons the family, or some such nonsense, and one ignores the garden in favor of trying to salvage the marriage or dealing with the kids after he leaves or perhaps simply pulling the covers over one's head for a little while, and then one looks out one's kitchen window on a day in late August and thinks "Gosh, I really ought to get out in the garden and see if there's anything alive out there," the garden will supply more tomatoes than the household can reasonably eat, regardless of the astounding degree of neglect to which it has been subjected. The only difference seems to be that the tomatoes, having not been staked, will have sent out runners and will be growing in a big tangled mat that makes it difficult to avoid stepping on a few of the better-looking fruits. And quite a few will have been lost to rot or bugs, but it won't really be noticed in the abundance of the harvest. And there might be a few ignored zucchini that are as big as a well-grown Labrador, but I am calling them compost at this point.

So now I am canning & freezing & drying & generally trying to think of creative ways to use tomatoes.

Snowy Saturday

2009-02-28T11:43:00.001-06:00

After the mildest MO winter anyone can remember in a long time, we're getting a bit of a late-winter snow storm coming through. Usually we're sick of snow by this point in the season, but this year it's actually kind of fun to get a February storm. It helps that it's hitting on a Saturday when we don't really have anyplace to go, so we can play in the snow & then come in and lounge around with some hot chocolate afterward, without the driving-to-work worries or any of that.

The forecasters said yesterday that we would get 2-4 inches, but we're already at 5" and it's still coming down. So much for accurate weather predictions.

Entrelac

2009-02-15T19:56:00.004-06:00

When I picked up a couple of skeins of Noro Taiyo at the knitting retreat a couple of weekends ago, I mentioned to a couple of other knitters that this would be the perfect time to teach myself entrelac, a technique I've been meaning to try but just haven't gotten around to casting on. I was informed that entrelac is pretty complicated and I should probably sign up for a class -- I might not be able to teach myself.

Well.

If you are reading this blog, you probably know me well enough to realize that no one tells me that I can't do something. So this weekend, I printed off a basic pattern & started futzing with it. Behold the results of the self-teaching.

The Elms Retreat

2009-02-01T18:30:00.003-06:00

I am freshly returned from a lovely weekend of knitting, knitting, and more knitting! I went to The Studio's annual Winter Retreat at the Elms in Excelsior Springs. The Studio's staff really put on a wonderful weekend... there were lots of interesting classes -- I took a really neat one featuring Vivian Høxbro's mitered squares technique -- as well as great food, a fabulous trunk show from Interweave Knits, some really awesome door prizes, and lots of cool new people to meet, all at a lovely old grand hotel that just oozes ambiance. The best part of the weekend, however, was just hanging out with friends old & new in the beautiful lobby to knit & chat. Here, Laura & I wasted no time getting down to business on Friday night.

One of the best things about the retreat is the market, where the Studio debuts some cool new things for the next season. One of their new vendors is... you guessed it... Dome Hill Yarns! I had many kind compliments about my yarn from quite a few of the attendees.

One of the regular features is a student fashion show on Saturday night... I determinedly finished the languishing Angelina, the lovely bedjacket from White Lies Designs, in time to wear it for the show. It was a hit! It is really very fun to wear with the dramatic collar and deep cuffs.

Adventures with the Drum Carder

2008-12-14T18:39:00.001-06:00

In an effort to avoid the cocooning that we tend to do all too much of in the winter here, we had a very lovely dinner with Chelle and her family last night; it's always nice to get out of the house & spend some relaxing fun time with friends. After dinner, while the guys chatted, we (Chelle & I) couldn't resist some serious goofing around with fiber. She had a fabulous new drum carder from Fancy Kitty, but was still a bit tentative about using it. Now, I'm no expert on drum carders, but I used them a bit back at Yarn School, and the main lesson I came away with from that experience is this: Throw whatever you like into the carder, it's almost impossible to make a mistake. So, we started cranking away on the thing and made a couple of batts.

The first batt was mostly brown wool with a little grey & green thrown in, and some bits of blue/green silk hankies just for fun. We didn't separate the silk nearly enough, which made it a bit difficult & clumpy to spin. I think next time I'll pull the silk into much thinner & shorter bits before feeding it into the carder. We just kept feeding this thing until it was quite fat and lofty; it weighed about half an ounce.

The second batt we tried was burgundy and brown wools, and some burgundy silk bits that were smaller (but still a little too big.) This one was lovely, and a little smaller at 3/8 oz. We could have made it bigger but it was getting late.

Chelle kindly gave me both batts to spin up, which I did... spinning from the batt is a bit different from spinning from a roving strip, but not significantly so. I had a couple of fat spots where it got away from me, but for the most part it came out to a nice worsted yarn when I plied the two singles together. The two colors, so different, worked together in a rather unexpected way! There's not a lot of it, but maybe enough to trim a collar or something. I like it.

Spinning buddies

2008-12-06T18:18:00.000-06:00

Chelle and I went to a spinning class over at the Yarn Barn this weekend. We had a ton of fun! We got to test spin several wildly different fibers, some of which I loved (Chelle & I both liked spinning silk so much, we each bought a bag of silk hankies to take home) and some not so much (I'd be happy if I never had to touch cotton again.) Best of all, we got to hone some old techniques and practice some new ones. And we got to hang out with some very cool fiber artists for the afternoon. A great way to spend a Saturday!

A Good Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T18:39:00.004-06:00

Three signs of a really good Thanksgiving:

1. You have family & friends gathered around.

2. All of the dishes that you're cooking are finished when they are supposed to be, plus or minus ten minutes or so.

3. There is at least a little dancing in the kitchen. A lot of dancing is better.

Hope your Thanksgiving is as good as ours!

Get Phat!

2008-11-15T08:01:00.003-06:00

Do you like surprises? (Who doesn't?! When they're nice surprises, anyway.) Jessie from Phat Fiber had the brilliant idea of putting together mystery boxes of samples from lots of different indie fiber artisans from all over the place. Every box is different, and who knows what you'll get? You can get a yarn-only box or a spinner's box, which may have both yarn & roving samples. I've also heard rumors of stitch markers & patterns & all kinds of other goodies to be included. Each month's box will have a different theme... the first box in January will be "Winter". Sounds fun! It's a great way to learn about some new artists you haven't heard of yet & maybe get a sneak peek of the "next big thing".

The Husband Quiz

2008-10-25T09:27:00.001-05:00

Today we'll hear from Mike, the Imperator to my Imperatrix. Here's a fun little interview-style quiz -- I borrowed it from Laura.

Me: What is your favorite thing about my knitting?
Hubby: It's all useful stuff, as opposed to mine [he knits chain mail]

Me: What is your least favorite thing about my knitting?
Hubby: Never really thought of it.

Me: What is something I have knitted that you recall as good?
Hubby: Everything you knit is beautiful!

Me: Do you think knitters have an expensive hobby?
Hubby: No more so than any other hobby, all hobbies can be expensive if you really get into it.

Me: Do you have any hobbies?
Hubby: Yes, all kinds. I knit chain mail and collect knives.

Me: Do you have a stash of any kind?
Hubby: Yes, I have a stash of rings that I've been sitting on for years but I am using them now. [Approximately 18,000 rings for an armour shirt]

Me: Have I ever embarrassed you, knitting in public?
Hubby: No

Me: Do you know my favorite kind of yarn?
Hubby: No, I have no idea. There's only like eight million kinds of yarn out there.

Me: Can you name another knitting blog?
Hubby: Not for your kind of knitting, but I'm on a chain mail forum right now.

Me: Do you mind my wanting to stop at knit shops wherever we go?
Hubby: No, do you mind me wanting to stop at the knife shops?

Me: Do you understand the importance of a swatch?
Hubby: Yes, of course. I have to do it too. It's a proof to make sure it's going to look the way I want it to.

Me: Do you read Ave Trivia Imperatrix! (this blog)?
Hubby: Once in a while.

Me: Have you ever left a comment?
Hubby: No

Me: Do you think the house would be cleaner if I didn't knit?
Hubby: No, you keep everything pretty organized, so it's not like it's cluttered. [Note, it's not true, but he said it very sweetly]

Me: Anything you'd like to add?
Hubby: Yes, I really enjoy wearing your knitted stuff.

Obama comes to KC

2008-10-19T14:59:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I took the kids down to Liberty Memorial Park to see Senator Barack Obama speak at a campaign rally. We were three of the 75,000-plus who turned out to see him in Kansas City. It was amazing! I'll leave it to the political blogs to do the in-depth analysis on his various policy positions... I'll just say that the man is a flat-out inspiration.

We got there a little before two, and waited in line for a couple hours before they let us into the park. Then we waited for a couple more hours before the speeches started. Of course, I was representing Knitters for Obama. Got a solid four inches of ribbing done on Mike's Antifreeze hat, too.

Obama's stump speech is thoughtful and engaging. He hit all the high notes... healthcare, education, and especially taxes... but he also repeated the story about stopping in a little diner while campaigning in Ohio for a slice of sweet-potato pie. You gotta love a man whose face lights up when he talks about sweet-potato pie.

Missouri is by no means a done deal, and I'll be working my patootie off for the next sixteen days along with all of the rest of the Obama volunteers here in the effort to turn MO blue. But I've got a really, really good feeling here.

Yarn Harlot comes to KC

2008-10-14T09:44:00.003-05:00

A bunch of us went up to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot, last night -- she is on a tour promoting her new book. From left to right: Carolyn, Chelle, Laura, Dorothy, and me. Three out of five knitters also blog, apparently. Anyway, it was fun hanging out with a bunch of other knitters, chatting and having a good old time seeing all the beautiful hand knits! And I won the door prize at the end of the evening! Man, I ought to go buy a lottery ticket or something, my luck seems to be running very strong right now.

(The picture was blatantly lifted from Chelle, because I forgot my camera. Sorry, Chelle.)

Back to School

2008-09-28T08:38:00.004-05:00

Pattern: Back To School U-Neck vest (Fitted Knits by Stefanie Japel)
Yarn: Dome Hill Yarns Worsted in Jaded
Needles: 8

This was a fairly quick knit -- of course, I have done so many socks lately, anything in worsted flies along by comparison. The fitted design elements (ribbing through the midsection, bust increases above the empire waistline) really add to the polished look of the vest. Jaded is one of my favorite colorways, too, so I can see myself wearing this a lot this fall & winter. :-)

Searching for Bobby Fischer

2008-09-21T20:11:00.002-05:00

Hunter has joined the Chess Club at his school (it's a combined middle/high school club; he's one of the youngest members.) Yesterday was his first tournament ever, a statewide competition. I expected him to have a good learning experience but probably get his booty kicked. He proved me wrong by coming home with the third-place trophy for his age division!

He also bought a book of chess puzzles with his pocket money. All day long he has been setting up the problems on his magnetic chess board and then poring over them, muttering things like "Mate in two moves" and the like. I swear, this kid is absorbing chess knowledge like a sponge. He can already beat me pretty reliably, and is working on his dad.

Look who got her braces off!

2008-08-16T11:12:00.003-05:00

New Handspun!

2008-07-26T21:32:00.002-05:00

I've been getting a bit more even in my spinning, finally. I've got about half of this luscious aqua-turquoise-y corriedale spun up and it actually looks like something that will come out nicely once it's plied. Hurray for practice. Now that Chelle has been bitten by the spinning bug too, we are planning a possible spinning weekend sometime later this year... doesn't it sound like fun? (The idea blossomed when we both were lamenting that we couldn't afford to go to Yarn School this fall.)

Off to spin some more...

Camry

2008-07-25T17:41:00.002-05:00

So, the Jeep has been sold & we turned around and got a smaller, more fuel-efficient car for Ali. It's a '96 Camry. Isn't it adorable?

An update on the bird situation

2008-07-07T20:24:00.002-05:00

The mama bird mentioned a few posts back was safely reunited with her babies, apparently. We saw a good bit of activity with several birds around the wheelwell as the babies fledged and started to fly. Then, last couple of days, nothing. We checked the nest & discovered it had been abandoned -- they've grown up & flown away, it seems! At last we can drive the Jeep again. Just in time, too; Mike wants to sell it this summer. (Psst, wanna buy a gently used Jeep? No charge for an extra feather or two.)

Summer Fayre

2008-06-28T20:03:00.001-05:00

Summer is a cumin in, laudly sing cucu. Dome Hill Yarns did a spinning demo today at a local church renfaire, which was a lot of fun. I didn't sell much yarn -- basically just enough to cover my booth fee -- but who cares? How often, after all, do I get a chance to sit and spin all day?

From the "You're not gonna believe this" files

2008-06-11T20:27:00.001-05:00

We haven't been driving the Jeep much this spring... Mike drives his truck & I'm mostly in the Yaris... so imagine Mike's surprise when he popped the hood on the Jeep to look at the engine and found this.

Some enterprising contortionist of a mama bird must have come up through the wheel well to build a nice, secluded nest. There's two baby birds in there!

Unfortunately, Mike fired up the engine before he realized that the nest was there. It didn't seem to harm the babies at all (the nest is well away from the moving parts), but we're afraid that the noise & smell & all that may have scared away the mama bird. Hopefully she'll come back soon.

Vacation '08, day 8

2008-06-07T23:41:00.000-05:00

Heading home today... Mike's dad Norm will come with us to visit for a few weeks. We hook up with him bright and early, say our farewells to Ron, and head for the interstate. Hunter wants to ride with Grandpa, so I give him my cell phone so we'll have communication between the two cars. This turns out to be my best decision of the day, because Norm misses the turnoff for I-25 and gets hopelessly lost. We get clear of downtown and pull off I-70 near the airport to wait for them to catch up. However, after the third call from Hunter to say they are still lost, we turn around & head back to retrieve them. Norm is pretty frustrated by this point, since he's not familiar with the downtown tangle of Denver and has never really gotten familiar with his built-in navigation console doohickey. Once we find them, Mike takes the wheel of Norm's Jeep; I'm piloting the van. Norm seems to be happy to let someone else drive for a while, since he hardly ever sits in the passenger seat. We finally get out of Denver and begin the trek east on I-70. Unfortunately, it's well past 10:30 by this point which is going to make for a VERY long day.

Nothing eventful happens for the rest of the day, just drive, drive, stop at a rest stop, drive, drive, stop for gas & a meal, etc. It's tremendously windy across all of Kansas, which makes it just exhausting to fight the wheel, mile after mile. I'm overjoyed to hit the state line. Another hour or so puts us home and ready to fall into bed. This was a really good vacation, lots of memories and souvenirs, but we're all grateful to sleep in our own beds tonight.

Vacation '08, day 7

2008-06-06T20:12:00.002-05:00

No travelling today, just visiting with Ron and Norm in the morning. The kids get antsy in the afternoon, so I leave Mike to talk with the guys and take us back to the hotel to swim. This turns out to be a mistake because we get seriously sunburned... I've forgotten that the air is a bit thinner in the Mile-High City. (sigh)

Vacation '08, day 6

2008-06-05T20:56:00.001-05:00

Today we'll head south all day to get to Denver. We have a lovely breakfast at Grant Village, then head towards the south entrance of the park (which might be better called the south exit in our case.) The critters are up and about too; we see a lot of elk around the west side of the lake. They are all starting to shed their winter coats, so they look a bit mangy, but are lovely animals nonetheless. They SMELL, though. I could smell this one as soon as I rolled down the window to take the picture. Uff da.

We stop to admire the lovely falls at Lewis Lake. The water is still icy cold, of course; I can feel chill radiating off of the surface of the river when I look out over the bridge railing.

Leaving Yellowstone to the south, of course, means entering the Grand Teton National Park just a few miles later.

We have another forty-fifty miles of stunning views to endure. Mike and I marvel that such sights still exist in our crowded world. The kids, of course, pretend that they couldn't care less, but every once in a while I'll catch them saying, "Wow look at that" to each other. We keep our eyes peeled for a moose (the one large mammal we haven't spotted on this trip) but no such luck.

After we come down from the mountains, we start making our way southeast more or less diagonally across the state of Wyoming. This is open range, lots of cattle and horse ranches. We come up on a bridge where traffic is stopped -- we get stuck behind a big RV. On the other side of the bridge, there's half a dozen cowboys riding herd on around forty head of cattle, which are all milling about with obvious reluctance to have anything to do with the bridge.

Eventually the cowboys get the herd organized and they begin to cross.

It dawns on Mike & me at the exact same moment that they are headed STRAIGHT FOR US.

In moments, we are surounded by the noisy, mooing things, who jostle the van in their relief to get off the bridge. I am grateful we aren't in the Yaris; some of these animals are bigger than that car is. Half of the cattle head to the right shoulder; half break to the left. It takes the cowboys another ten minutes or so to get the whole herd on the same side of the highway. Quite the adventure!

A long day's driving gets us to Denver in the late evening... we'll hook up with Mike's uncle Ron tomorrow for a visit. Good night!

Vacation '08, day 5

2008-06-04T17:28:00.000-05:00

Up and about today! We are staying, as I mentioned earlier, in one of the little cabins behind the Lake hotel. There's a few dozen of them, all identical, and they are quite tiny... just a room that hold two double beds and a sliver of a bathroom in the back. No teevee, no phones. The kids find it difficult to believe that people used to live like this, but Mike & I are loving the quiet.

The hotel, painted the same shade of yellow, is a early-1900's beauty that has been restored to its former elegance. I can imagine carriages pulling up to the porte-cochère and discharging vacationers in Edwardian dress, or perhaps some interbellum swells conversing in the sunroom.

We get in the car and zip down to Fishing Bridge, the nearest store & gas station. The morning has been cold and gloomy, but now, actual SNOW begins to fall. Let me repeat: there is SNOW falling during our SUMMER VACATION. Fortunately, there's not much of it, and it's a wet, heavy snow that melts almost immediately. It's not sticking to the roads, so driving isn't affected much.

Today we'll explore the Canyon area of the park. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, north of the lake, is a river gorge carved by the Yellowstone River through some of the softer volcanic material in this region. We've signed up for one of the bus tours... they are conducted in vintage 1930's-era buses with rolltop canvas roofs that have been rebuilt and put back into service just in the past year or so. Our driver is J.D., a fellow who personifies the tour-guide requirements of being friendly, gregarious, and full of interesting stories. Since the distinctive buses are frequently the subject of photos, J.D. instructs us to smile & wave whenever we see someone snapping a picture. ("You'll end up in some other folk's vacation pictures that way!")

We tour some of the thermal features in the Canyon. This is a cave-like geyser called the Dragon's Mouth. When it erupts, the hollow cave roars, and steam comes pouring out of the opening.

Phew! This mud volcano stinks of sulfur.

The snow has stopped, but it's still misty and drizzly. Regardless, the view of the Lower Falls is absolutely stunning. This is the famous falls painted by Thomas Moran, which (indirectly) led to the creation of the first National Park at Yellowstone. J.D. springs a pop quiz on Hunter: True or false, the Lower Falls is taller than the Statue of Liberty? (True. The falls are 308 feet high; Liberty on her pedestal stands 305 feet.)

Just to prove we are actually there, and I didn't just get the previous image off a postcard rack, here's another shot of the falls with Ali in the foreground.

Mike, of course, thinks the antique bus is the coolest. He talks J.D. into letting him sit in the driver's seat for a quick photo.

Critter count for today: The biggest traffic jam we see for the whole vacation is caused by a bear, of course. This is a mama grizzly and her cub. It's not a great photo -- they are about a quarter mile off, down in the valley, foraging for food, I guess. Swarms of people stop on the road to watch the creatures.

This little guy is a yellow-bellied marmot, who is sitting on the rocks just above the Upper Falls lookout. He looks quite nonchalant about the score of people taking his picture.

Driving back towards the lake, I happen to look up one of the dozens of little creeks that flow into the river and see a bald eagle, flying along the waterway, headed straight for us. "Honey! Stop the car!" The eagle flies right over us, then turns to parallel the road for a little ways before perching in a riverside pine. What a majestic animal.

Across from the hotel lies another breath-taking view of the lake. We walk around there a bit in the evening and have dinner at the lakeside grill. Another beautiful day; we'll be sad to leave Yellowstone tomorrow.

Vacation '08, day 4

2008-06-03T22:25:00.003-05:00

We get up kind of late (a noisy thunderstorm last night kept us awake) with the intention of exploring the Geyser Basin today. This means a drive from the east side of the mountains (where we are staying next to the lake) over to the west side of the park. We actually cross the Continental Divide twice as the spine of the continent meanders back and forth in a not-very-straight line. As you can see, there's still quite a bit of snow on the ground at this elevation. (A ranger told us yesterday that a late-spring snowstorm dumped almost six feet on the park only a couple of weeks ago.)

On the west side of the pass, there's a pretty cascade with a perfect photo deck. It's called Kepler Cascades. The massive fires of 1988 are still evident almost everywhere one looks in Yellowstone, but the new trees are growing quite happily and everything looks green and pretty.

We get down to the Geyser Basin with about thirty minutes before Old Faithful is due to erupt. The rangers post the "next show time" on a big white board on the door of the visitor's center. We start browsing around the visitor's center for a couple of minutes, but just then, Beehive Geyser (a large but less-predictable geyser) starts to erupt. The ranger announces the eruption to the room, which empties. Beehive typically erupts for only five minutes or so, so we didn't have time to get any closer than this, but we admire the impressive "jet" caused by the nozzle of built-up mineral residue.

We settle down to finish reading the visitor's handout and wait for Old Faithful to do its thing. It's the geyser nearest to the visitor's center, with a big viewing deck with benches in a big semi-circle around it. It goes off right on the dot -- no plus-or-minus ten minutes for us. It's an awe-inspiring sight, the hot steam and water shooting a hundred feet into the air. (Another one of those things that just isn't the same when you see it on teevee.) It's mid-morning, ten-fifty-something, but there's not very many people here yet... the benches are two-thirds empty.

Of course, everyone has seen pictures and film of Old Faithful, but one thing I had never realized is quite how many thermal features surround it. The hill just behind O.F. is lousy with geysers and hot springs. We take the boardwalk (which makes a little half-mile or so loop) across the river, up and around. Standing on top of Geyser Hill, looking around, you're pretty much going to see something steaming or erupting or doing something interesting. In addition to the big geysers, there's a bunch of smaller geysers that only erupt to a height of about six feet, but they obligingly do so every ten or fifteen minutes. The smell of sulphur is everywhere.

Castle Geyser, one of the big ones, has been erupting for twenty or so minutes (upstaging Old Faithful) but we take our time with the walk. We see smaller geysers Anemone and Sawmill do their thing. All the geysers have names, some quite fanciful.

Sawmill, in particular, erupts with a pulsing jet that makes a "BRR-brr" noise which sounds to me like a crosscut saw. I wonder if that's the origin of the name, or if I am the one being fanciful.

We could keep on the trail for another half-mile or so on the long loop, but we choose to cross back over the river (which is aptly named Firehole) because we're starting to get hungry. Castle Geyser, on the hill behind us, has finished erupting and is now in the noisy-steam phase, which the guidebook tells us will last thirty minutes or so. We have lunch (some really good cheeseburgers) at the soda fountain and buy some sweatshirts at the gift shop. Then, after lunch, we must walk back to the parking lot by the visitor's center, which takes us right by Old Faithful's viewing area again. This time the benches are PACKED, and tour buses are pulling up and discharging passengers in a hurry. It must be about to erupt again. Sure enough, as we get about halfway round, Old Faithful begins to erupt, and we stop to admire the awesome sight for the second time. We have great timing!
We spend the afternoon exploring some of the other geyser basins. Biscuit Basin has a pretty little boardwalk that takes us around several very active features... Jewel Geyser erupts three times while we are there. There's an absolutely stunning hot spring called Sapphire Pool, which is an incredible shade of blue. The clear blue pools are the hottest; this one must be just a hair off of boiling. (Other pools have interesting greens and oranges and yellows, which is caused by minerals reacting with microorganisms and stuff like that, but the microorganisms tend to get killed off in the hotter pools.) The picture won't do it justice, I am sure, but I snap away anyhow. The area's funny name comes from the flat, round rock formations that used to be seen around this pool... sadly, they collapsed in an earthquake in 1959, so there's no longer any biscuits in Biscuit Basin.

Critter count for the day: We saw a big herd of bison grazing right smack by the road near the geysers. I rolled down the window to take this one... it was closer than I would have been willing to get on foot.

Mike and I are both in awe of the size of the ravens here. They are bold as brass, too, and quite talkative.

This chipmunk was quite willing to ignore us as long as we stayed on the path.

After all that walking, we are happy to come back to the cabin for a quiet evening.

Ali thinks it is funny that her parents still get huggy-kissy sometimes... I haven't the foggiest idea why ;-)

Vacation '08, day 3

2008-06-02T21:21:00.001-05:00

Leaving Hill City in the morning, we face a route choice: take the southern loop by the Crazy Horse monument, or take the north loop by Devil's Tower. We choose the former, and get a really good view of the monument from the road (although we don't do the full tour due to time constraints.) Crazy Horse's face is complete, and the horse's head is being roughed out. We definitely want to come back & see it in a decade or so when it's more complete! We get a few brief glimpses of Devil's Tower on the horizon, but no more than that.

After that it's just a long drive across Wyoming.

Eventually we leave the plains and start climbing up into the hills. What a view we see from the turnouts!

Yellowstone, as everyone probably knows by now, is a caldera volcano that sits at about 8000 feet. (Thus, all the well-known thermal activity.) The drive approaching the east gate is incredibly beautiful... lodgepole pines crowding along rugged hills, picturesque creeks winding through the valleys.

One of the major thrills of Yellowstone is wildlife-spotting. Our big score today is a wolf, loping through a meadow near the lake. He causes a big old traffic tie-up, too, before he disappears into the timber. (Wolves and bears are good for the biggest traffic jams.)

We also see a young male elk just off Fishing Bridge, horns just starting to bud. (We saw a flock of bighorn sheep, too, and a couple of magnificent bison just outside the park, but didn't get pictures. I quickly learn that it's advisable for the shotgun passenger to ride with the camera in her lap, because you just don't know what you'll see around the next turn.)

It's dark by the time we get checked into the cabin; we don't have much energy for more than a cup-o-noodles dinner and we're ready to fall into bed. Tomorrow we'll explore.

Vacation '08, day 2

2008-06-01T20:45:00.004-05:00

We get up early to start across the state towards Hill City, our day's destination. It's a fairly short driving day, so we plan to spend lunchtime at Wall Drug, that shrine of the American Roadtrip. All morning long we see the signs along I-90 announcing the wonders of the Mecca of the Badlands: "See the T-Rex!" "5¢ Coffee!" "As seen on Good Morning America!" "Free Ice Water!" The signs have all the charm of the old Burma-Shave placards, and it becomes a game to be the first to spot them as we travel through an otherwise (mostly) featureless landscape. The kids shout from the back seat, "I see one!" with increasing frequency as we get closer and closer.

Wall Drug doesn't disappoint us, except for the mediocre dry-as-sawdust burgers in the cafe. Everything else about the store is larger than life and over the top. There's a huge fiberglass jackalope in the back courtyard (it appeared on Boo's blog when she went through Wall a few years back.) Hunter complains that it's too babyish, but poses anyway.

We wander around, shop and look at all the stuff that crams the aisles and hallways of the store, which has grown to encompass a whole city block.

Mike has a new girlfriend...

...so does Hunter!

We pose with Annie Oakley and get ice cream in the old soda fountain.

The T-Rex mentioned on the billboards is an animatronic creation that comes to roaring, flashing life every quarter-hour. It makes a lot of noise as it threatens to break out of its "enclosure" before it goes back to sleep for the next fourteen minutes.

After the weirdness of Wall, we keep heading west towards Mt. Rushmore. We stop at the Rushmore Borglum Museum, which has a whole lot of interesting exhibits and information about Rushmore's sculptor, Gutzon Borglum. The kids pose with a replica of Borglum's "Seated Lincoln" outside the museum.

Then, having visited the museum to get some context, we head up the mountain to see the momument itself.

It's one of those things that you've seen a million times in pictures or on TV or whatever, but it's a completely different experience to be there looking up at the carvings.

We take the obligatory photos of the faces on the mountain before heading off to check into our hotel for the night. Later, after dinner and a little goofing around in the pool, we drive back up the mountain to see the nightly lighting ceremony. The ranger makes a little speech about the National Anthem, then there's a short film about the four presidents on the mountain, and then they light the faces with massive floodlights while stirring patriotic music plays. Despite the slightly creepy jingoistic overtones, I get choked up.

So ends our second day. Tomorrow we've got a long drive... all the way to Yellowstone, where we'll stay put for a few days. Good night!

Summer Vacation 2008

2008-05-31T10:55:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day of our summer vacation. Nothing much blog-worthy today, we're just driving north to Sioux Falls, SD. Later in the week we'll visit Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park... lots of pictures later!

Now I'm "It"

2008-05-28T20:48:00.000-05:00

My friend Chelle tagged me (by name) with another blogosphere MEME!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Let's see, Hunter was just a baby then, so I was probably changing a diaper or something. Also, I was working as a programmer for a bill review software company in Newport Beach, CA.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today? Ship out two customer jobs (done); balance the checkbook (not done); knit on Angelina (done); get a photo of my finished Fitted Tee (not done); go to bed early because I stayed up too late watching the Lakers last night (soon).

3. Snacks I enjoy: Potato chips, probably too much so. Fruit-flavored yogurt. Peanuts. Cheez-its.

4. Places I’ve lived: Various communities in Los Angeles and Orange counties in CA; west-central MO. Yes, it was a bit of a change.

5. Things I’d do if I were a billionaire: Finish the dome. Quit my day job and do the yarn thing just for fun. Buy a pro sports team.

I won't tag you, you'll have to self-tag if you want to pick up the thread. Link your blog in comments so I can take a peek at your list. :-)

Talia vest finished

2008-05-26T18:27:00.004-05:00

Pattern: Talia
Yarn: Dome Hill Yarns Worsted in Caramel Latte
Needles: 9

I tried it on for the pictures and Ali said, "Mom, it's prettiful! You look skinny in that!" Music to my ears :-)

On the road again

2008-05-23T10:03:00.002-05:00

This will be a pic-less post, since I don't have the camera with me... I've been travelling, some business, some pleasure. For the first half of the week, I was at the National Postal Forum, which is only interesting if you happen to work in the direct mail industry, but I learned a ton of cool and important stuff about the changing regulations that the USPS keeps throwing at us. If you know what "intelligent mail barcode" means, then you know what I'm talking about. There were plenty of interesting events at the conference too -- the featured speaker for the Wednesday session was Chris Gardner, who was billed as an "motivational speaker," but it wouldn't have been too far off the mark to list him as a comedian. (The first thing he said after he was introduced was, "I gotta tell you guys straight up... Will Smith ain't comin'.") Then, at the closing reception, we got Big Bad Voodoo Daddy! Man, they rocked the joint too!

Now I'm hanging with Boo for a couple of days, not really doing much at all but having a nice relaxing visit. There's a yarn store not too far from her place that I'm planning to check out today... I didn't bring near enough yarn to work on for this trip & I'm at a standstill on both Talia & the Fitted Tee, quelle horreur! I'll have to see what I can do to remedy this terrible situation. :-)

Talia KAL

2008-05-10T10:08:00.003-05:00

My latest project is Talia in my very own Caramel Latte colorway. We're doing a knit-along in the Got Vests group. I'm about a quarter of the way through it -- it's knitting up fast!

Six Quirky Things About Me

2008-05-09T12:02:00.002-05:00

Yet another silly blog meme -- I was tagged by Chelle with this one.

1. When I am watching TV, the volume must be an even number. I have no idea why, but it makes me uncomfortable when the little slider doohickey at the bottom of the screen lands on an odd number -- never mind that it's going to disappear in a few seconds. My family thinks it is hilarious to "accidentally" leave it on an odd number & watch me fidget.

2. When I am walking or climbing stairs, I always count my steps in groups of eight. I think this is a leftover from my music days, when one had to precisely count the specified measures of rest and know exactly when to enter after the rest. Also, everything in marching band is done on a count of eight.

3. All the cats I have ever had, and will ever have, are girl kitties. I don't like boy kitties.

4. I find it kind of ironic that so much of my life has revolved around color -- I'm a former artist, and now apparently an up-and-coming indy dyer -- yet I am married to someone who is profoundly colorblind. It makes for some pretty funny conversations sometimes. "Honey, hand me that green book." "That's not green, it's red."

5. Foodwise, I will try anything once. My List Of Weird Things I Have Eaten is pretty long: shark, grubs, octopus, grasshoppers, rattlesnake...

6. I still try to avoid stepping on the cracks and/or lines on sidewalks. Maternal vertebral columns are always safe around me.

Swapping on a Budget

2008-05-07T20:34:00.004-05:00

Wow, I got a box today! What is it?

It's my package from my Swap on a Budget partner, Danielle... She is a spoiler extraordinaire! She outdid herself with figuring out just the kind of gifts would make me feel great.

* Not one, but two, beautiful knitted dishcloths, which I use all the time & never have enough of
* A colorful journal (perfect purse sized)
* A skein of Cotton Fleece in "Raging Purple" (I think it looks like Laker purple, LOL)
* Two skeins of Patons Classic merino in a gorgeous rich mahogany color
* Two spicy-scented candles in travel tins, which is something I love to take with me when I have to travel on business (makes hotel rooms much nicer)
* A couple of cable needles, because she must have read on my blog that I love cable projects
* A souvenir refrigerator magnet from her home town (Fort Wayne, IN) because I collect the things
* A pretty little tin full of goodies -- some beautiful beaded stitch markers, and a charm bracelet. The bracelet is where her blog-stalking skills really come to the fore. The charms are two kittys (for Friday & Pyewacket); an "I (heart) 2 Knit"; and "I (heart) Beads" {both of those dead on, natch}; a charm of the famous arch from her childhood home of St. Louis (since I live in central MO now); and a little enamelled football charm (for my football days' sake.) I love it.

Thank you, Danielle, I feel very spoiled!

Actually, upon reconsideration, I think the Cotton Fleece is Quake purple. :-)

Palindrome

2008-04-15T21:15:00.002-05:00

Pattern: Palindrome
Yarn: Dome Hill Yarns Worsted in Indigo Denim
Needles: 8

Just in time for spring, a nice warm scarf. Not! I actually started it specifically to have a sample piece in worsted weight at Knitting in the Heartland. Didn't quite get it done in time for that, but I was working on it at the booth & demo'd it to anyone who showed interest. "Showed interest" is here defined as "held still long enough for me to shove it under their nose". Well, maybe not quite. Predictably, Indigo Denim is one of the colorways that sold completely out... there's nothing like a demo garment to make a color fly off the shelves.

Of course, nothing is ever finished around here until it passes Feline Inspector #2.

Home from KITH

2008-04-06T18:45:00.001-05:00

Dome Hill Yarns was a success at Knitting in the Heartland 2008! We had pretty good sales and lots of praise for our yarn. We also got to meet the very talented Stefanie Japel, the featured artist for this year's conference, who was teaching some of the techniques from her book Fitted Knits. She picked up a skein of Dome Hill sock yarn in "Jaded", which is always such a good shade on the redheads...

Trunk Show

2008-03-30T06:43:00.004-05:00

As a preview for Knitting in the Heartland next weekend, I did a little trunk show yesterday for the Lee's Summit SSK group... The new worsted went over like gangbusters! I love dyeing yarn, I started doing it just because I enjoy playing with the colors, so am always a little surprised and gratified when everyone reacts so strongly to it. In fact I had a bit of a Sally Field moment yesterday -- "You like it, you really like it!" It was a fun day and I can't wait to see all the wonderful things once they are knit up.

Friday Fun

2008-03-21T10:13:00.004-05:00

Chelle tagged us all with a list of knitting-related questions!

Do you knit using the English or Continental Method? English. I've tried to re-teach myself Continental but I am actually slower at it, and I'm not willing to practice it long enough to build up speed.

Loose, normal or tight knitter? Normal. I have never NOT hit ball-band gauge on a swatch. As a result, I am very lazy about knitting test swatches, but it always fits anyway.

How long ago did you learn to knit? Thirty-six years ago.

Who taught you how? My grandmother. She had a really funny throwing style. I got home from the visit to Grandma's and realized I had already forgotten how to knit a week later, so I went to our trusty family copy of the World Book encyclopedia & cobbled together a functioning knit & purl stitch between week-old memories and inch-high illustrations. The rest is history, as they say. (Hey, there was no www.KnittingHelp.com back in the seventies.)

What was your first FO? Besides the obligatory garter-stitch swatches? A yellow tank top in a cotton boucle, in high school. My mom wouldn't let me wear it because she thought it was too low-cut.

Favorite yarn? Worsted wool, hands down. So versatile!

Any yarn you don't like? Hemp. I just finished a hemp shopping bag project & boy, is that stuff hard on the hands. I loved the end product, though, enough that I might do another one after I take a little break.

Projects tend to be what color(s) if knitting for yourself? Greens, blues, browns.

If you knit socks, what is your preferred method (i.e. toe up/cuff down, double pointed needles, 2 circs, Magic Loop etc.) Two circs, cuff down.

Favorite pattern you've knit so far? Has to be Ragna.

Favorite pattern source? Ravelry.com. I love the pattern browser.

Favorite needles? Addi Turbos for wool, Brittanys for slippery stuff.

Favorite type of knitting? I am a nut for cables!

Are you on Ravelry? If so, favorite thing about it? Ravelry Screen Name: trivimp (what else?) I think I already said I love the pattern browser -- also I love stalking a project & seeing it done in different colors, sizes, etc. It's a big decision-making help!

Nicest thing you've ever knit: Again, Ragna.

Project you get the most compliments on: Ragna, not surprisingly, and Einstein.

Most hated project and why: Soleil and Cold-Weather Corset. I made both of them far too large and they just looked sloppy. I frogged them both.

Special Bonus Question:
If you could take only TWO books to a desert island with you 1) a technical reference; and 2) a book of patterns – which two would you bring? The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns and 365 Knitting Stitches a Year Perpetual Calendar. With the aid of these two books, I can pass as a designer when I wish. Shh, don't tell.

A nice reuseable shopping bag for the farmer's market

2008-03-20T09:05:00.004-05:00

I knit this up for a swap on Ravelry -- it went to Samantha in New York. It's made from 100% hemp in DK weight. I liked it so much I may just have to make another one for myself! Pattern is the very cool Everlasting Bagstopper.

For my out-of-state readers, let me hasten to assure you that we are fine. Flooding is pretty bad to the south of us, but the entire state of Missouri is not under water, despite what the evening news says.

Skeinwinder mark II

2008-03-19T09:57:00.003-05:00

That Guy has struck again. After watching me struggle with clamping the skeinwinder to a kitchen chair a few times (an operation that really required three hands), Mike modified it. Presenting... The New And Improved Skeinwinder! Still butt-ugly, but now even MORE utilitarian!

Basically he just mounted it on the baker's rack that stands in the corner of the living room and stores all of my yarn bins and stuff for the store. Yes, I should probably buy stock in Rubbermaid because I have so many of their totes, but anyway. The winder now swings down like one of those foldaway ironing boards. When I want to use it, I just have to swing it down and tighten one bolt, and I'm ready to go. When I'm not using it, it folds back up next to the rack and stays relatively out of the way. Ingenious.

Spring forward?

2008-03-15T09:06:00.002-05:00

Crap, it's snowing again. Spring is teasing us this year. Just when we think we've seen the last of the ice and snow, we get hit with another blast. At least it's been too warm for any of this to stick.

Skeinwinder

2008-03-01T17:50:00.002-06:00

Life as a small-potatoes indy dyer is nothing if not challenging. I'm preparing for my first stint as a vendor at a knitting show next month, and the rigors of reskeining were starting to get to me. I have been reskeining from a swift to a niddy-noddy (none other than the B.U.B.P.U. niddy that Mike made for me a couple years ago,) but this method was both time-consuming and hard on the shoulder. Wanting to avoid a) another whole month of sleep deprivation from staying up way too late skeining, and b) a repetitive-motion injury to my rotator cuff, I begged Mike for a skeinwinder. I showed him a couple fiber catalogs that were lying around, with $400 motorized skeinwinders, and told him I didn't need anything fancy, but could he pleeeeeze make something with a hand crank.

Then he went out in the garage & built one for me. Just like the niddy, it is butt-ugly but perfectly utilitarian -- it's PVC and wood, which clamps to a kitchen chair. It's got a, shall we say, trailer-trash vibe, but I can skein from the swift to the skeinwinder in about a quarter of the time that it was taking me on the niddy. Hurray for That Guy.

Dyeing, and some stitch markers

2008-02-22T19:54:00.000-06:00

Look for Dome Hill Yarns at Knitting in the Heartland in April! In preparation for the two-day knit fest, I'm dyeing some new colorways as well as all my old favorites. I should have plenty of sock yarn for the booth -- I also want to introduce my worsted line too. Same colorways, heavier weight :-)

So, lots of dyeing. Here's what my bathroom looks like these days. It's amazing how different they all look before they are reskeined, huh? Plus they are blotchy & tangly-looking and just generally a mess. I wasn't really happy with the blotches on the first two skeins; I didn't soak my yarn long enough and they weren't uniformly wet, which means they took up the dye unevenly. Skeins number four and five are having bad hair days -- sometimes the skein gets sort of flipped inside out in the pot, which makes it look exactly like when you decide you're going to switch the part in your hair to the other side of your head, but half of the hair stubbornly goes in the old direction and it ends up sticking every which way. You can't do a thing until it's dry, either, you just have to hang it up like that & wait, because you want to handle the wet yarn as little as possible. After it's dry you go back & work all the separate strands & get them lying in the same direction. Skein number six came out very purple because I forgot to turn on the crock pot after I put the yarn & dye in there. Cold dye doesn't set properly :-( It all gets smoothed out in the reskeining, but yarn right out of the dye pot is not a pretty thing.

Just to prove I am not smoking crack, here are skeins number one, two, and four after reskeining. See how much nicer they look now? And they all more or less match? I'm telling you, it's only a little short of a miracle.

I've also made up a bunch of stitch markers for sale at the booth. Everybody in the world makes stitch markers, but I haven't ever seen any quite like these. Usually, the rings are either split rings (snaggy & can chew wooden/bamboo needles) or else wrapped wire (double snaggy, look out!) but mine don't snag. I call them the No-Mar stitch markers, which isn't terribly original, but a good description. I gave a couple to my friend Laura a little while back -- she recently told me that I ought to make more because they are her favorite stitch markers. "I cherish them," she said. Who can resist a ringing endorsement like that? :-)

Fresh from the Dyepot

2008-02-09T18:34:00.000-06:00

I've been dyeing like a fiend today -- here's my first four skeins (with two more in the pot.) That's a big day for me, I don't do big production runs with dozens of skeins in one lot. In the background you can see the ingenious little macro studio that Mike built for me so I can take fab pix of the yarn... it's made of a cardboard box, some tissue paper, and a couple of clamp-on work lights. So cool! Check the Etsy shop to see these skeined up in the next day or so.

Holy smokes! I'm sold out!

2008-02-02T19:13:00.000-06:00

I stopped by the Lee's Summit SSnK this afternoon, and brought my hand-dyed sample skeins with me to show to the other knitters and get some feedback. Color me surprised (no pun intended) when my dyeing efforts caused a bit of a feeding frenzy -- they bought me almost completely out! I was gratified to get feedback on the colorways from other knitters, too. I have been dyeing combinations that I like, but I had no idea if anyone else would actually like it. (Mike is useless for feedback on yarn -- he's profoundly colorblind.) What a relief when other knitters actually understood and liked what I was trying to do with the multi-layered dye combinations. Guess I'll keep dyeing these colorways... maybe try a few more...

The only bummer about this is, my Etsy shop is nearly empty just as I placed a new ad, and my next shipment of undyed yarn is running a bit late... so it'll be a couple of days before I can add new inventory! Oh well. I'll muddle through somehow.

A new hat for Hunter

2008-01-31T11:37:00.000-06:00

Flame Hat
Yarn: My handspun
Needles: 8

Pardon the weird shadowy picture, it was snapped before going off to school this morning. We're supposed to get several inches of snow today, so I gave the hat to Hunter (despite it having been promised to Mike). I've got enough yarn left to make a seconds hat -- a matched set! The yarn is still pretty rustic, a bit more thick-and-thin than I would really like, but I just need to practice more. A lot more.

Setting up Shop

2008-01-17T13:27:00.000-06:00

Hey kids, guess what I did? I've opened up an Etsy shop to sell my hand-dyed yarns. Right now I am specializing in just sock yarns, but there will probably be worsteds in the future. If you have a favorite color combination that you'd like to see me try my hand at, drop me a line!

Toe Up Socks

2008-01-13T15:37:00.001-06:00

Starting a new pair of socks... these toe-up, I usually go the other direction. It's another one of Dream in Color's lovely colorways, called Gothic Rose.

Don't you hate it when the cats get into your stuff?

Seven Quarters

2008-01-13T08:36:00.001-06:00

A quickie hat, so named because it was keeping my hands busy for seven quarters of football yesterday while I watched the Packers romp over the Seahawks and then the Jaguars try to hang with the Patriots. It's an improvised pattern similar to the Mostly Knit Round hat , but knit with bulky yarn -- my own handspun, still a bit uneven, but my spinning skills are slowly improving.

Horseshoe Lace Socks

2008-01-08T20:04:00.001-06:00

Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in November Muse (purchased from The Loopy Ewe)
Needles: 2
Pattern: Improvised

I think they turned out nice! I did a picot hem at the tops, and did a sort of hybrid three-needle bindoff at the toes (since I hate hate hate kitchener stitch.)

The nifty sock blockers were purchased from The Loopy Ewe as well!

Great Balls o' Fire

2008-01-03T07:02:00.001-06:00

Two batches of flame-colored roving, each dyed a little differently:

1. Half yellow, half red, rainbow dyed in the crockpot.
2. I mixed the red & yellow & dyed in the crock... it came out a very intense orangey red, but I apparently didn't have enough water in there because all the dye pooled at the bottom. made an interesting mottled effect.

Mike wants a hat of this stuff when it gets spun up.

Frostbite

2007-12-25T11:47:00.000-06:00

Pattern: Frostbite
Yarn: Elegance in Ash (beads are silver-lined crystal 6/0 beads from eebeads.com
Needles: 6

This was a fun little shrug to knit up. The neck is a little wider than I normally like, but it's a fun piece to wear. Since the yarn is mostly alpaca, I thought it would be amusing to close it at the neck with a little enamelled llama pin that I got years ago from the Met store!

Tidal Wave!

2007-12-24T14:05:00.000-06:00

It may now be revealed that the Mystery Socks, a Yule gift for Boo, are none other than a pair of Tidal Wave socks made from Cherry Tree Hill's Sockittome yarn! The colorway is Moody Blues, because she specifically said that she likes denim-y blues that don't argue with the jeans. This yarn is soft and delightfully squishy -- it really knit up beautifully. This is the first time I've used CTH; I've got some more in my stash that I am looking forward to putting on my own feet.

Boo was quite pleased with them and made a few comments along the "how the heck do you make something so cool" lines. Aw shucks. Of course, I was a big old dummy and included the photo in my Flickr photostream, which is displayed on the right hand column of this very blog, so she may have just been humoring me about not knowing what they would look like. Oops :-/

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-18T06:34:00.001-06:00

On ice

2007-12-13T12:50:00.000-06:00

For my out-of-state readers, let me assure you that we are all fine... we're not nearly as bad off as they were making out on the national news. It's a bit icy here, but the roads are clear and we haven't lost power. The kids are bored out of their minds after a couple of snow days (the Playstation is getting a pretty good workout) and I ended up working from home one day, but other than that nothing much is out of the ordinary. Life goes on :-)

A quick hat

2007-11-28T19:53:00.001-06:00

My daughter the rocket scientist decided to wash her old hat in the washing machine, which turned it into a felted mess. "Mom, I need a new hat!" This just as we're supposed to get another cold front moving down from Canada in the next couple of days. So I knit up a super-quick Mostly Knit-Round Hat -- the third one I've made. So cute! The pattern is from the first Knitting Experience book, the yarn is Dream In Color Classy in the luscious Blue Lagoon colorway. I actually knit the garter brim in the round as well, so there's no "mostly" in the mostly knit-round -- but it's still a fabulously easy hat.

Dishcloth Swap

2007-11-27T19:39:00.000-06:00

Just for fun, Cowgirl & I put together a little dishcloth swap on the Missouri group in Ravelry. Here's my two dishcloths that I received from my lovely swapmates! Cotton dishcloths are fabulously useful -- I already have half a dozen or so in my towel drawer that I use all the time. And after I use 'em I just toss 'em in the washing machine. I'm always looking for ways to reduce what I'm putting into landfills, part of my green ethos. Reuse, recycle, renew.

A quick recap of yesterday's MU game:

2007-11-25T11:10:00.000-06:00

Frostbite shrug

2007-11-22T05:28:00.000-06:00

In addition to the aforementioned mystery socks, I've started working on another project, a dressy little beaded shrug from This Kitten Knits. I'm using KnitPicks' Elegance, a DK-weight alpaca/silk blend. The beading is really a pain in the derrière -- I have to pre-string hundreds of beads on each skein -- but it really makes the piece. The crystal beads flicker and wink against the subtle gray sheen of the yarn, demonstrating why it is named Frostbite.

First Snow of '07

2007-11-21T20:29:00.001-06:00

The temperature's been dropping steadily all day with a cold front moving in from the north. Around three o'clock in the afternoon, I was futzing around in the kitchen (making pie crusts for tomorrow's feast, actually) and glanced out the window to see big fat flakes drifting down. When the weatherman said there were snow flurries in the forecast, I thought he meant a few little flakes mixed with the rain -- not this! It won't stay long, but it's enough to dust rooftops & cars with a nice white coat. Winter is here.

World's Best Sit n Sip n Bitch n Stitch n Knit

2007-11-18T07:20:00.000-06:00

I chose the right weekend to drop by the Lee's Summit Sit & Knit... almost everybody was there yesterday! I only make it out there about once a month or less, what with the need to take out a second mortgage to fill one's gas tank these days, and the kids' sports schedules, and the nine zillion other things that take up the weekends. But it was so cool to see faces & projects that I haven't seen for a while. I got to show off some of my (still rather rough) handspun, which was oohed and aahed over in a most gratifying way. Carol was working on a monstrous gift sock... poor thing, her brother apparently wears size 14s. Jen had new stash, a skein of hand-dyed Claudia silk, which is the most incredible stuff -- I've never seen it in person before, and I instantly fell in love. We passed the skein around & petted it & tried not to drool too much. (Jen's going to make a Juno Regina stole with it, and it will look goddess-like, I am sure.) Laura had plenty of Lucky stories, and her finished Hemlock Ring, unblocked and therefore not yet in its full glory, but still an amazingly beautiful throw. Blogless Mary had a pretty baby blanket that she apparently didn't like much (don't know why) and Lorenia had a huge poncho out of Lion Brand T&Q that probably would have kept a whole family of sherpas warm. We even had a newcomer to our little group, Tracy -- she was working on an Irish Hiking scarf in a tweedy brown -- hope she wasn't scared off by our silliness. And just as I was thinking I ought to get on the road home, Chelle dropped by for the last 20 minutes or so! She was making a little ruffled cuff to match her beautiful Ruffled Roses scarf. (I resisted the bandwagon on that scarf when everyone was knitting it last year, but now that I've seen it, I just might have to succumb.) Cool women, hot chai latte, gorgeous yarn, conversation & laughter: this is the very reason for stitch n bitch groups.

Mystery socks

2007-11-13T19:51:00.001-06:00

My sister announced out of the blue the other day that she loved the socks that I made for her a couple years back & she would be pleased to get another pair from me any time I cared to make her some. Well, a knitter doesn't need much more prodding than that. She now knows that she is getting a new pair for Yule, since I quizzed her thoroughly on color preferences and whatnot. The following can be revealed:
1. They will be in a colorway that she has said that she likes.
2. They will be a little larger than I usually make for myself, since she wears about a size and a half larger shoe than I do.
3. As she specifically requested, they will not be "bumply" (which rules out a lot of lace).

I'm not going to say any more than that here, since she reads my blog and I want to have at least some surprise attached to the gift. Ravelry users can learn more if they wish (hint, hint.)

To make up for the lack of yarny pictures in this blog, I present a gratuitous kitty shot. I bought one of those multi-tiered flat drying racks, since I always have plenty of hand-knits to wash & dry. It's great for socks. I stuck it on top of the dryer where it doesn't get in the way... Friday thinks it makes a fine hammock.

Psst... wanna see the world's most boring pair of socks?

2007-11-11T20:23:00.000-06:00

It's a sort of riff on the Almost Argyle pattern, but I foolishly chose a dark color, so the pattern is barely visible. Oh well, at least they are finished.

Ready for Quidditch

2007-10-29T19:40:00.001-05:00

Hunter's costume is finally done... there are greaves under that robe, but they are quite hidden. The whole thing is seriously warm, a consideration in this part of the world. You don't send your kids out trick-or-treating in lightweight costumes when there's frost on the ground that morning.

It's here! It's here!

2007-10-24T18:38:00.001-05:00

My birthday present, a new Fricke spinning wheel! Friday doesn't quite know what to make of it, but I love it.

Beginner Bear

2007-10-20T19:47:00.001-05:00

It seems to be a sort of tradition (ok, one other person did it) that one knits a small teddy bear out of one's first skein of handspun as a sort of mascot. Here's my fairly lame-o but slightly endearing effort. Since the yarn was so rustic, and knit up so wonky, I decided to keep my finishing efforts to a minimum, shall we say. Nonetheless, he will grace my spinning wheel when it arrives.

2007-10-16T08:06:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Boo!

I got my invite!

2007-10-09T18:23:00.001-05:00

I'm finally on Ravelry! Hooray!

I can't find any of the other Sit Sip & Knit ladies, though. Drop me a comment with your user name & I'll add you to my Friends list. Or you can just add me, yay!

Yarn School '07

2007-10-02T13:07:00.001-05:00

Yarn School was a blast! It is held annually at the Harveyville Project, a sort of residential art co-op occupying an old school campus smack in the middle of rural Kansas. The classrooms have been converted to guest rooms, sparsely furnished but very roomy. Mostly we gathered in the auditorium for classes & just to generally hang out. It was a big crowd this year, about 30 spinners of varying experience levels. This is my roommate, Marsha, who has been spinning for a year or so -- she showed me the ropes on the first evening & got me spinning on one of the school wheels.

This is Cathy, another brand-new spinner like me. She was quite frustrated on Thursday night, just felt like she would never get the hang of it. (In fact, her cell phone rang about an hour after she started spinning with Marsha. It was her husband, asking her how it was going. Marsha & I both burst out laughing when she said in tones of maximum exasperation, "Honey, I suck!") Needless to say, by Sunday morning, it had all clicked for her & she was spinning like a pro.

My first skein! A natural brown wool. It's tragically overspun, so don't look too close. By Sunday I had learned that you don't have to treadle like hell to make yarn, so the overspinning problem cleared up.

The old chem lab had been converted to the Dye Lab, where we had lots of fun with acid dyes and microwaves and crock pots.

The dyed roving was hung up to dry in the breezeway between the grade school and high school buildings -- doesn't it look pretty?

There were alpacas! (This was our field trip on Friday.)

There were goats! These are Pygora goats, a pygmy-angora cross.

There were bunnies! Epically puffy Angoras.

And just for an added bonus, we found on Saturday that the town fair was going on! There was a parade in the morning, some cheeseball rides on the main drag, and... ribbons to be awarded in various craft categories. Naturally, with a school full of fiber artists, we all rifled through our bags to look for an item to enter in the Knit or Crochet categories. I dug up my Blueberry Waffle socks and entered them in the Small Knitted category. Imagine my surprise when I won first place!

Heigh ho

2007-09-27T10:46:00.000-05:00

It's off to Yarn School I go! Lots of pictures to follow, I'm sure.

The last of the gallbladder episode

2007-09-15T10:39:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone who asked after Mike. The ultrasound showed he had stones, so the gallbladder ended up coming out with no further ado... it was done laproscopically & he came home the same day. His recovery has been completely uneventful and he is feeling fine, eating normally & was back to work within a couple of days. All is well again.

Rosebud

2007-09-07T10:32:00.000-05:00

Yarn: Elann.com's Peruvian Uros Aran (50% wool, 50% llama)
Needles: size 8
Stitch pattern: Rosebuds from 356 Knitting Stitches a Year

My second lace shawl, this one made as a gift for my dear friend Miriam, who loves all things rosy.

Lace, of course, is all about the blocking. Before blocking, the shawl resembles nothing so much as a crumpled, wadded mess.

I soaked it in the sink for a few minutes, then squeezed it out in a beach towel. Now it's ready to block.

For this project, I invested in a set of blocking wires from KnitPicks, which made the whole job much easier. I heartily recommend blocking wires to anyone who wants to knit lace.

The lace pattern opened up beautifully, and the shawl grew by several inches.

I actually finished this shawl a couple of months ago, but have been holding off on posting until I could present Miriam with her gift. Happy Birthday, dear one!

Griffindor Quidditch Robe

2007-09-03T08:56:00.000-05:00

The second major piece of Hunter's Harry Potter costume -- the robe -- is done! (The sweater, you may recall, was finished a few months ago.) The last bit that I need to make are the (faux) leather greaves & vambraces. Then we'll come up with some white pants, a broom, and some round-framed glasses. Voilà, a perfect little Harry Potter.

ER Booga

2007-09-02T09:11:00.000-05:00

The ER Booga is finished & felted. It's tiny! I put it in the washing machine with the intention of checking on it every ten minutes, and then promptly forgot about it. The result: it felted down to a tight, dense little purse that's half the original knitted size. It stands about 7" tall and the base is a 5" square. The spiral stripes turned out nice too.

ER and another Booga

2007-08-27T20:16:00.000-05:00

I'd just as soon not have another weekend like the one just past, thanks. Mike, who has been having a few recurring episodes of stomach pain (he saw the doctor about it last week; she diagnosed a possible ulcer & put him on Pepcid AC pending further tests), had the worst episode to date -- he was having such severe pain that we wound up going to the emergency room at 2 AM. They admitted him for a couple of days while they ran tests to figure out what the heck was wrong. Turns out it was his gallbladder, which will no doubt be coming out very soon after he meets with the specialist. In the meantime, the poor guy is home & back to normal, but he's afraid to eat more than a couple of bites for fear of triggering another attack. This, not surprisingly, has turned him into El Grumpo.

All I can say is, thank the gods for the knitting bag by the door. I had the presence of mind to grab it on the way out, which kept me sane during the hours of cooling my heels in the ER waiting room, not to mention the hours of bedside visits once they moved him to a room. I had just cast on for a new Booga-ish bag when this all happened... this one is a little different, though, it has thin stripes from four leftover skeins (two browns, a grey, and a yellow), with a square bottom cribbed from the French Market bag. Much more subtle colors than my California Booga. Also, I just learned a really, really cool way to do single-row stripes in the round like this without carrying up the side! It's in the current issue of Cast On, the magazine of TKGA. Here's how you do it:

1. Divide your total # of stitches by the number of colors you want. Call it n. (Round up to a whole number if you have to, it doesn't have to be perfectly even.) Place a stitch marker every n stitches.

2. Knit your cuffs, or base, or whatever. I knit the bag base in a solid color and then started striping when I reached the sides.

3. On round 1 of stripes, knit to the first marker with color 1, change colors, knit to the second marker with color 2, change colors, and so forth until you knit to the last marker with color last.

4. To start round 2, you will begin knitting with the color you have in hand, which is color last. Knit to the next marker. When you reach it, drop the current yarn and pick up the one that was left hanging, and begin knitting with that color.

5. Continue in this way until you reach the desired length -- every time you reach a marker that has a hanging color, switch colors. The only marker that won't have a hanger is your end-of-round marker. Watch your tension on the color changes! It can sometimes get a little wonky. But there's no carried yarn & no ends to weave. Just stripey goodness.

Anyway, here's my striped pseudo-Booga about three quarters of the way through. The leftovers, in case you are curious, are from Mike's vest (dark brown), a Ravenclaw (grey), and a pre-blog Dr. Who (camel & yellow). Should look nice & subtle once it's felted.

A setback on Angelina

2007-08-20T05:49:00.000-05:00

Sadly, I frogged it. About three skeins in, it was so huge that I realized that I had overestimated once more (why do I always do that?!?) and was on the way to making a ridiculously sloppy-large sweater. And Angelina is all about the fit, so that wouldn't do.

So, I've started it over, several sizes smaller. The one good thing -- I was starting to wonder if I had enough yarn in stash, or if I'd have to buy a few more skeins and hope it was close enough to do that crazy two-rows-from-each-dye-lot trick to blend it in on the cuffs. Now, with a lot fewer stitches, I don't think I'll be anywhere near running short. :-)

A recipe for sunflower seeds

2007-08-19T18:38:00.000-05:00

1. Plant a bunch of sunflower seeds in a sunny spot (south-facing is good.) Water them when it gets really dry, but otherwise ignore them through the growing season. Yes, they are that easy to grow.

2. When the heads get droopy, lose their petals, and turn yellow on the back, cut them off about 10" or so below the flower and hang them up to dry. An screened porch is perfect for this, so the birds don't get at them.

3. When they're mostly dry, remove the seeds from the heads -- rubbing your thumbs around the edges works well.

4. Brine the seeds by putting them in a big pot with water (to cover, although they will float like crazy) and salt (1/2 cup per gallon or so). Bring to a near-boil, then lower the flame and simmer for two hours. Stir the seeds frequently to get the floaters down into the brine.

5. Drain, but don't rinse the seeds, and spread them out shallowly on cookie sheets. Roast in a slow (250°F) over for a couple of hours, or until they are lightly browned. Keep an eye on them, they could burn!

Enjoy!

Heard It Through the Grapevine

2007-08-17T19:40:00.000-05:00

I love me some Amazon.com, even though I am trying to consume less these days & not buy every book that catches my fancy when there is a perfectly good library right here in town and all that. I also like to write (and read) consumer reviews -- they help me a lot when I'm shopping, and I feel like it's only fair to return the favor -- although lately I've been writing my reviews on All Consuming instead of Amazon, I don't know why. It could be because I am lazy and it's easy to just click the link in the right-hand column of this very blog rather than perform actual web navigation.

Anyway, Amazon's latest brainstorm is a program called Amazon Vine -- a group of reviewers (by invitation only, thankyouverymuch) who are eligible to receive advance copies of products (mostly books, but also some CDs & DVDs & whatever else they want to throw out there), and who will hopefully review them and generate some buzz for the publishers. Like a grapevine, get it? And who would have figured that I would get an invitation? I had no idea I was a top reviewer. I just like to treat everyone to my wisdom. ;-)

Booga complete

2007-08-12T20:01:00.000-05:00

Done & felted! Isn't it cute? It's a bit wildly colored for a forty-something mom, but perfect for a teenager... so Ali glommed on to it. That makes two out of the last two projects that she liked way better than I did. No way she's getting my Angelina, though.

What's on the needles - July 07 edition

2007-07-28T09:26:00.000-05:00

Been a while since I showcased my work in process -- as usual, I have a couple of different things between which I'm bouncing, to keep from getting too bored. My quickie project at the moment is the Booga Bag from the Noro that I picked up in California -- as I hoped, the colorway is knitting up like a beach extravaganza.

My long-term project is an Angelina jacket, knit in a long-languishing stash of Elann's Quechua, a sport-weight alpaca/tencel blend, in a yummy eggplant color. I've cast on the back (with a provisional edge; I'll come back later & knit the lace downward) and am moving up towards the shoulders. It's slow going, what with the small needles & hundreds of stitches.

My knitting bag, by the way, is a Tom Bihn Utility Tote, which I love. I bought it back in 2003 because of a political joke on the care label, and was surprised and pleased to find that the bag itself is a marvel of durability (even thought the joke got re-elected.)

Here's a closer shot of Angelina, which does a little better justice to the luxe yarn. It's a little bit haloed (the alpaca) and incredibly soft (the tencel). Folks who see me working on it tend to want to pet the yarn. Can't say I blame them! :-)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007-07-22T16:38:00.001-05:00

No spoilers here, I'm just going to say that it was great... a densely plotted, dark and satisfying denoument to the series. I read it at a gallop, of course, finishing it in about nine hours yesterday. Now I'm going to start it again tonight and read slowly.

Spring Sox

2007-07-08T21:39:00.000-05:00

Yarn: Knitpick's Dancing
Needles: 2
Pattern: none, I make this stuff up

Dancing is a wool/cotton/elastic sock blend which has sadly been discontinued (only a few clearance colors left)... it knits up into a springy bouncy fabric that is a joy to wear. I made a basic short-row heel sock with a waffle stitch pattern on the ankle & instep. There's a funny S-shaped pooling on the front, who knows why?

I asked Ali to model them here, and she liked them so much that she refused to give them back!

A Visit on the Fourth

2007-07-06T16:31:00.000-05:00

My sister, who doesn't update her blog nearly enough because she is generally out riding around instead, visited us over the Fourth of July... which seems a little silly since we just saw her when we were in California last month, but, hey, she was on a cross-country trip and she was going through the Midwest anyway, right? You'll have to check her blog if you want to see her pictures of Gettysburg and such, which she may get around to posting sometime before 2015. But she was in Missouri for three days, and I can post pictures of that.

She arrived on the Fourth, with the express intent of setting off an "insane" amount of incendiary entertainment. Fireworks of any variety, of course, are quite illegal in California -- even the safe-n-sane stuff will net you a stiff fine from the local constabulary, and with the very dry weather they've been having lately, you can bet the ban will be enforced more stringently than ever. Our rainy season, however, is being measured in feet, so not much in the way of fire danger here. (It rained hard for another three-quarters of an hour around dinnertime, just for good measure, but cleared up in time for the evening displays.)

It was definitely kid-in-a-candy-store time at the fireworks warehouse. We picked up a whole lot of mortars & fountains, as well as the usual bunch of firecrackers, bottle rockets, sparklers, Roman candles, etc. etc.

Early evening is when you set off the bottle rockets and noisy-but-not-pretty stuff, saving the big displays for full dark. I got a couple pics before it got too dusky.

We littered the driveway of the dome with smoke bombs and other debris, and a good time was had by all!

The next day was Big Driving Day. Boo had seen our part of the state before, but had never been down into the lake region, so we did a little touring. First, though, we had to stop at the Wheel Inn in nearby Sedalia for a Guber Burger. (Boo found the writeup on the Web last year, and specifically requested that we make a Wheel Inn run on this visit. The waitress didn't believe her when she said she had come all the way from California for a Guber Burger.)

From Sedalia, we headed south to the Lake of the Ozarks, an unbelievably beautiful area. Lots of it is developed for resort use, but there is still plenty of untouched forested shoreline. We headed down to Thunder Mountains State Park...

...and took the cave tour at Bridal Cave. We had been there before, but Boo hadn't; and it was worth a second look anyhow -- it really is a beautiful cave formation, and the tour is quite interesting. It lasts about an hour, which is long enough to not feel rushed but short enough that the kids don't get too bored. I recommend it to anyone in the area. Afterwards, we enjoyed a leisurely drive around the lake and headed towards home.

Just to round out Big Driving Day with another food-tourism stop, we ate dinner at LeMaire's, another Sedalia institution. They don't have a website, but they do have the best catfish you've ever had outside of New Orleans.

It wouldn't be a proper visit without getting a ride on Auntie Boo's new bike! It's not every kid who has a biker chick for an aunt...

Noro Booga

2007-06-17T08:05:00.000-05:00

Another California adventure story, this one involving yarn! Since my knit-from-your-stash rules allow for souvenir yarn shopping, I dragged Mike & the kids into the very cool Wildfiber on the way back from our visit to the Santa Monica Pier. Usually, souvenir yarn means a couple skeins of sock yarn, but the Noro Kureyon was irresistable. Color 154, in particular, is such a cheerful, beachy, tie-dye riot that it just screamed "Venice Beach" at me. I picked up three skeins for a Booga Bag.

California Dreamin'

2007-06-16T20:39:00.000-05:00

We're back from a visit to Los Angeles! We were there for a week, too much to tell everything, but here are a few highlights:

Hanging out with our old neighbor, who has recently gone through a difficult divorce...

... we had a good long gab and a promise to come visit us when the dome is finished. The kids played some backyard hoops...

...while Mike captained the grill.

Having dinner with my sister, and driving back up Angeles Crest a little ways to admire the view (and just for something to do!)

Can't go to the beach without a pedicure! Ali & I splurged.

A visit to the Santa Monica Pier, which has some carnival rides, bumper cars & roller coaster type stuff...

...and a great view from atop the Ferris wheel.

Only in California, part 1: The bumper cars ride, amusingly named Sig Alert, was closed because of a crew filming an episode of Monk.

The scene involved Monk riding around on the back of a bumper car for some reason -- we don't normally watch the show, but I think we'll have to start, just so we can spot this scene.

Only in California, part 2: Look at the port-a-potties that were trucked in for the film crew. Yes... they have AIR CONDITIONERS. Mike & I howled!

Pizza with one of Ali's friends!

Jeepsters

2007-06-03T20:21:00.000-05:00

Before

Today's project: Put a soft top on the Jeep. It's a '95 Wrangler that we have had for about a year -- it had belonged to Mike's dad, who trailered it down here when he got a new one. When we got it, it had an ill-fitting hardtop that leaked like a sieve and made it very cold to drive in the winter. Mike donated the lid to his Jeep club a few weeks ago in favor of this cool ragtop. Doesn't it look sharp? It took us about four hours to put the thing on. Now it is much quieter to drive, believe it or not, and not nearly so drafty. It also has a brand-new suspension (as of a couple weeks ago) which makes for a pretty good ride.

A funny story about the Jeep: The first time I drove it to work, I came home demanding, "Hey, is there a secret Jeep club that I don't know about?!?" Mike about fell off his chair laughing. "They were waving at you, huh?" I had no idea, but apparently it's one of those road customs -- Jeepsters wave to each other when they pass. Pass it on.

After

Quidditch, anyone?

2007-05-28T08:46:00.000-05:00

Gryffindor Quidditch sweater
Yarn: Elann's Highland Wool
Needles: 8
Pattern: Saddle shoulder crew from The Handy Book of Sweater Patterns

I thought I was making it a size too large, to allow for a little growth between now and October, but apparently I was making it two or three sizes too large. Oh well, cuff the sleeves and no one will know. He'll be able to wear it for a couple of years this way. I liked the saddle shoulder, a new-to-me technique; may use it again soon.

Play ball!

2007-05-16T21:10:00.000-05:00

Hunter's summer baseball team is just getting started! They played a much more experienced team, with pretty predictable results -- final score was 15-2 -- but the boys are having fun & learning the game. Hunter has a pretty good swing and actually walloped the ball pretty well on his first at bat, but grounded out to first.

He played at center & catcher -- coach is still trying out various players at different positions. We'll see where he settles.

Toyota Yaris

2007-05-12T16:08:00.000-05:00

With gas prices topping $3.00 a gallon even here in the heartland, and me with a seventy-mile daily commute, we crunched some numbers to figure out how much a new-car payment would be offset in fuel savings. Lo and behold, a new commuter car made way more sense than continuing to drive my old low-20-something-mpg van. We love our Toyotas -- we've owned four of them & have no intention of buying anywhere else -- so we zipped down to the local dealer today to look at the Yaris, Toyota's latest incarnation of the econo-box. Boy, is it cute! I haven't seen it advertised very heavily in this market, just a few TV spots last summer, but they are apparently selling like the proverbial hotcakes. According to our salesman, we bought the seventh one this week. At around 40 mpg, why wouldn't we? Add up the savings in gas & it'll break even in two years.

Disaster comic relief

2007-05-09T19:57:00.000-05:00

I was chatting with a co-worker today about the crazy weather of late. Here in Missouri, of course, we're having severe flooding from the same storm system that caused all that trouble in Kansas. We're staying dry, but lots of folks in the river bottoms are in bad shape. Then she asked if I had any family being affected by the Griffith Park fire. I explained to her a little bit about Los Angeles geography, the thrust of the Santa Monica mountains into the heart of the city, and why there's so much wilderness in an otherwise crowded urban area. She told me next that her daughter in Tallahassee had just sent her an email complaining about the smoke from the Florida fires.

She sighed and shook her head. "The whole country is like my tuna casserole," she said. "Crispy on the edges, mushy in the middle."

Grin & Bear It

2007-04-29T20:20:00.000-05:00

The local rib joint, which we hit for dinner tonight, has the usual assortment of junk on the walls: antique-looking bits of farm equipment, cheesy oil paintings of John Wayne & Clint Eastwood, antler trophies, that kind of stuff. They also have, rather inexplicably, a stuffed bear in the entrance area. Hunter always wants to pose with it... tonight I remembered the camera. What a goof.

Just in case you were still wondering, we came out of the tax audit owing nothing... what a relief. The only really disconcerting part was when the guy from H&R showed up to represent us, he looked an awful lot like Dick Cheney. No fooling.

The Tax Man Cometh

2007-04-13T07:42:00.001-05:00

Two words that strike fear into the heart of any American taxpayer: IRS AUDIT. Apparently our home sale & moving expenses deduction in 2005 was enough to throw up a red flag in some government computer. We have all our paperwork in order, so it's not a problem, but still -- what a hassle.

This year's taxes are done & filed; at least that's out of the way.

The one bit of good news in this annoyance-fest: While going through the file archives to pull out the tax paperwork, I stumbled across my long-lost copy of the pattern for the very lovely Angelina. I ordered it & the yarn, oh, at least three years ago. When the pattern went AWOL, I assumed it had been packed up with my craft-room stuff & I wouldn't see it again until we got the dome finished & all the boxes in the garage got unpacked. But here it was with some old bills! It's now next on the stash-buster project list.

My Life

2007-03-31T12:26:00.000-05:00

This photo, originally snapped just for the cuteness factor, is actually a pretty decent representation of what's going on in my life just now.

1. Red and gold yarn: The Quidditch sweater is coming along nicely. I've finished the front & back & have just started on the sleeves, which I am knitting both at once. Speaking of Harry Potter, there's a whole bunch of new photos just released -- stills from the new movie this summer. Can you believe that they've changed the house sweaters yet again?!? Now it's a charcoal-grey cardigan with fairly large black or dark grey buttons, with house colors trimming the waist and cuff, but not the neckline. The shirt has gone from crisp white to creamy ivory. Hosts of knitting fan-costumers stamp their feet in frustration. Hunter's Quidditch uniform is firmly placed in SS/COS, in case you're wondering; I'm not going to rework it at this point. (That's Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets for those of you who are not obsessive HP fans.)

2. Stark Bros catalog under yarn: The garden is getting ready to go, and there is much planting of sprouting trays (see previous post). We also put in two Stark apple trees out at the dome, a Lodi and a Braeburn. Hopefully they will thrive and become the start of our own little orchard.

3. Tax preparation software behind the yarn: Yes, I know I ought to get that done. It's almost finished, really.

4. And finally, nothing is ever finished in this house until it has picked up its share of cat hair.