FO Tuesday

Hello!

Knitting

I finished my Capricious Cowl.  Yay!  The pattern and yarn were from the 2012 Puget Sound LYS Tour, and this makes the 4th project I have finished with yarn bought during that wonderful weekend.  See!  I was INVESTING, not just spending.  This whole project came from Churchmouse Yarn and Teas on Bainbridge Island.  That was our last stop on the Tour.  We took a ferry from Seattle, ate lunch there, and celebrated our successfully visiting all 24 stops with a glass of champagne offered by the wonderful people at Churchmouse.  The 2 projects they featured were both cowls, one for knit and one for crochet.  I was tempted to buy yarn for both! but made myself just get the beautiful Rowan Kidsilk Haze for the knitted cowl.

It was a super simple knit.  The only tricky parts were the beginning and the ending.  It starts with a Provisional Cast on.

At the end, you take off the locking stitchmarker, and "unzip" the crocheted chain, picking up stitches as you go.

Once I had unzipped the whole string (I only had to cut twice), and picked up all of the live stitches, the fun began.  KITCHENER!

You start by purling the front stitch and knitting the back stitch, but leaving both on the needles.

Then you start the pattern:

Front needle, Knit slip off, Purl stay on, pull yarn through:

Back needle, Purl slip off, Knit stay on, pull yarn through:

So it is Knit Slip off Purl, Purl Slip off Knit.
Knit Slip off Purl, Purl Slip off Knit.
Knit Slip off Purl, Purl Slip off Knit.
175 times.
EEEK!

But when you finish, it is a lovely seam, pretty much invisible.

Life

All is pretty quiet this week at my brother's house.  The exciting news for us is happening in New York State at Cooperstown.  My nephew, Nino's, baseball team is there this week for a 12 year old tournament.  It is both a happy and sad experience to watch my brother through all of this.

Four years ago, Mark was in Cooperstown at the tournament as the coach of his oldest son, Mo's, team.  Since he had also been Nino's coach all of these years, he was fully expecting to join Nino when Nino was old enough for this once in a lifetime experience.  Well, the ALS has put an end to Mark's attending the tournament in person, but through many texts, and phone calls from the other coaches, and of course Nino, and live streaming of one of Nino's games, we are doing our best to be with the team in New York.

Nino has hit 2 homeruns so far, and his team is 5-0 with one more game to play in the Round Robin Tournament, before the big tournament begins.  Go Nino!

Stay safe and well.
Yours,
f1bercat
Shaping the planet with a reversible cowl.

Cerritos Heritage Park and Walt Disney Studios

Hello!

Life

Continuing my California Diaries...

On Tuesday, August 14, after we had visited my Godchildren in Santa Monica, we headed over the Hollywood Hills to Burbank to meet my nephew's new bride, S, who works for ABC and Disney Studios.  She took us on a fun tour of the facility.

The old Walt Disney Studios is a beautiful lot full of original office buildings and sound stages.

Of course, there are some new additions to the studios.

One thing that doesn't change, is Walt Disney's Corner Office.

It was a wonderful tour.  Thank you, S!

For a completely different day, yesterday, my sister, S, and I took her grandson and my brother's daughter to meet with some friends at Heritage Park in the city of Cerritos, California.

The park has a pond with an island in the center.  On the island are play houses and climbing structures built to look like Boston during the American Revolution.

There is a covered bridge to cross the water which forms sort of a moat around the town.

 On the island are the buildings, just like Old Boston.

They are labeled so kids can get a sense of what types of businesses and shops were in a typical colonial village.

One thing that is NOT typical to a real colonial village is the slide out of the houses!

There were ducks to be fed,

Turtles sunning near the moat,

And, of course, ice cream!

Knitting


I brought my Capricious Cowl to the park because we sat on the grass and chatted while the kids played on the structures, and I didn't want to have to pay attention to a pattern.

I have made huge progress on this cowl because I keep going places where I cannot concentrate, so I can't work on the other WIP's I have going which include my Thistle Hat by Liz Marino, and the Echo Flower Shawl I am making for my mom.

HPKCHC

One other thing I wanted to mention is that today is Sorting Day!  in the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup Group (HPKCHC) on Ravelry.   I hope to do some posts about the sorting process, and a bit on how the group/game is run next week.  I am both excited and nervous to be sorted.  Not about which house, though.  One thing I learned this "term" (4 month period) is that all of the houses are full of nice, supportive, fun stitchers.  I am just hoping that I will be a credit to my House!

Where in the World is f1bercat?

Still no real exercise.  I keep telling myself to walk around my brother's block.  He lives on a pretty steep hill, so it would be pretty good exercise.  But then, I don't.  I hope I can get back into the regular exercise thing when I go home in September.

Stay safe and well.
Yours,
f1bercat
Shaping the planet from Sunny Southern California

Blogging from Southern California

Hello!

Life
I am still blogging from Southern California (expect my blogs to begin with this phrase until September).  Still at my brother's house, though things are settling down a bit if you can call 11 kids and, 3 adults,  (my sister and her 2 kids from Texas, and the son of one of my brother's friends from high school, as well as my 3 youngest kids, and my brother's 3 kids, as well as my brother and me) settling down.

Every night still seems a party though, and with all of the kids every day is vacation for them.  There have been days at the 2 Disneyland theme parks, the beach, parks, and lots and lots of video games and swimming at the house.  Pretty chaotic, lots of towels to launder, and people to feed. A bit more knitting time for me lately though.

The feeding part is amazing.  My brother used to be a baseball coach before he got sick.  He was always great with kids, and loves sports, and was a pretty amazing coach.  I'll just say it straight:  People love him.  Some of his baseball parents have put together a foundation to help with his care.  The foundation raises money for a daily morning nurse, and organizes friends who want to help out by setting up what is called a "meal train" and a schedule of people who "put him to bed" for when his wife is working nights or is out of town with the Air Force.

The Meal Train is one of the coolest things.  It is a web site called Take Them A Meal.  As I understand it, you can set it up for just about anything.  Say a neighbor or friend has a new baby and people want to organize to help out the new mother for the first month with dinners, or someone broke their leg, or had an operation, or, like my brother has a progressively debilitating illness, you can set up a page for them where people can sign up for a meal.  It keeps it all organized.  There is also a mailing list of everyone who has signed up, so if the needs change, it is easy to contact the group.

People want to help, but so often they just don't know how.  Bringing dinner is a great way to really help my brother.  His friends stop by with amazing food (last night 2 families joined together to bring chicken, hamburgers, potato casserole, and a green salad for 20 people, though usually it is just dinner for 4), they spend 5 minutes to a half hour chatting, and go.  The visiting part is one of the best things.  When you are stuck in the house day after day, even with voice controlled internet, tv, and texting, and your own 3 kids running in and out, well, it gets lonely.

I am also getting to spend time with my parents and sister who live down here.  One night a handicapped accessible taxi came for my brother, and we all went out to dinner in Orange at  Ricardo's Mexican Cafe.

My sisters and I have snuck out for coffee a few mornings in Old Orange at Cafe Lucca.  (Those of you from Europe who read this blog, do NOT ask me how "old" Old Orange is, please.)

We stopped by Crystal's Hair Studio in the Orange Circle just to say, "hi."  I went to high school with Crystal.  But, we were too early, and she wasn't in.

Although the reason I am down here is not the greatest, it is wonderful to be able to spend so much time with my family.  I miss the Doc, but we try to talk on the phone every night.  O!  one funny story about him.  My daughter, Allifer, is still in Washington because she has work.  The Doc had her come home on Saturday and show him how to use the washer and dryer.  Really.  This is a true story.  It's not like he has never done laundry, but since we moved into that house (15 years ago) he has not.  Ha!  I do miss him.

Knitting

The Ravellenic Games are over, and I finished the 3 main projects I had hoped to finish.  I started 2 new ones, but was not able to finish either before the closing ceremonies last night (which were very very fun!).  More on them later, I promise, as I have a funny story about the cowl.

This is where I am on the Capricious Cowl:

When the variegated part reaches the same size as the solid part, I will "unzip" the provisional cast on, kitchener the two live rows together, and have a 2 sided cowl.  I will need a VERY quiet space for the Kitchenering.

Stay safe and well.

Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet from my brother's house