Fiber Friday with a Balloon

There was a lot of bird chatter from an angry or worried Dark-eyed Junco in the backyard today.  I looked out on the deck and saw my two cats sitting patiently on the deck railing watching ... something ... very intently.  I am not sure if the Junco has a nest in our Redwood, or what, but he/she spent a lot of time scolding my two fluffy girls.

We had a late start for Fiber Friday, and I did not get to see the Tatting Guy.

But, we had a fuller table than usual.  Our Friday group is growing.

BlueBerryMary brought her finished baby dress.

She has to knit one more side to the border for the matching baby blanket.  Amazingly cute.

Winterpromise31 has finished her Welldigger hat, and brought it for Show and Tell.

This is such a neat pattern.  I love the texture that the slipped stitches give the fabric.

She started a new hat, the Learn to Knit Baby Hat, with some rainbow colored yarn.  Winterpromise31 is
knitting up her stash with these really cute hat projects.

At the center of Crossroads is a large skylight.  When kids lose their helium balloons, they float to the top of this central skylight.  While we were knitting, a balloon suddenly descended, and joined us at the table.

It didn't bother Colleen, who is now on the last colored row of the Spiderman blanket.

CathieC was both working on her latest Potato Chip Scarf, and starting a pair of Yeti Slippers from the latest Knit Picks yarn catalog.

Skeinherder is way ahead of me on the Stage 3 Socks for Le Tour-de-Sock, the Lebowski, by Star Athena.

Bethanyr, one of the two new members from Wednesday night, joined us.  She brought her Racing Raindrops scarf by Churchmouse Yarn & Teas.  Many of the Eastside Stitchers bought the yarn and beads to go with this free pattern during the 2013 North Puget Sound LYS Tour.  We all need to wear them on the same night.

I worked on a few unmentionable items, then began MY Stage 3 Lebowski socks.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a rogue balloon, and a Junco.

small things

Why do cats hate being dressed up?

1. My son, Himes, has two jobs this summer.  One is life guarding.  The other is in the deli counter at a local grocery store.  He had orientation and training for the grocery job this week. He dressed in a white dress shirt and black slacks.  I asked what shoes he was going to wear, as I know he only owns tennis shoes/sneakers.  He said he has to wear black shoes, but since he doesn't own any, he was going to borrow Pookie's prom shoes. Pookie bought them at the Discount Shoe store the day of prom, as he usually wears tennis shoes/sneakers, too.  Himes was searching all over the house, but could only find one of Pookie's shoes.  My kids always do this.  They wait until the last minute, then can't find important things.  Himes asked me, what time does the shoe store open?  Well, as he had to be at work by 9 am, I told him on Saturday, not before 10 am , usually.  What was he going to do?  He had to wear his dad's black shoes.  The Doc wears a men's size 9. Himes wears a men's size 12.

Pookie's shoe L, Doc's shoe R

He hobbled off to work, a very sad (and pained) boy.  Hopefully, he learned a lesson.

2. Pookie graduated from high school on Tuesday.  They held the graduation ceremony at University of Washington basketball arena, I forget the name.  We decided to stop at Dick's for hamburgers before the ceremony.  Pookie told his siblings that Dick's was giving free cheeseburgers to all graduating seniors who came to the restaurant wearing their cap and gown.  Himes and Moogie found their old caps and gowns and spent the afternoon pretending to be graduating high school students.

In the end, only Pookie wore the cap and gown.

3. When I was first married, I loved the job of washing clothes.  Silly and romantic, but I loved thinking of our clothes twirling together in the washer and then in the dryer.  My older sister, who was in a bad spot with her husband that year, told me to make the Doc do his own laundry, that he was a grown man, and I shouldn't have to wash his clothes.  Of course this was true.  But it is in these small things, these little services we do cheerfully for each other, that we show  our love.  When I was at my brother's earlier this month, I had to do many small things:  put his glasses on, turn up/down the TV sound, bring him a glass of water, put his breathing mask on.  He kept apologizing for having to ask for help for every little thing.  There is nothing I can do to cure him.  He continues to deteriorate day by day.  But, I can do small things to make his life bearable.  The small things are my gift.

My brother with his daughter at her school awards ceremony.  She won the Science Award.

4. Today I watched four eagles flying over our house.  I couldn't get all four in one photo. But I have a photo of three, and another of an angry crow trying to chase the eagles away from its nest.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with eagles.

Eastside Stitchers Win Even More Prizes!

Does it count as an Eastside Stitcher win, if the people won the prizes before joining our group?  I say it does!

We had two new members stitching at Crossroads tonight, bethanyr and Adventuretwin.  Both of them won prizes in the 2013 North Puget Sound Yarn Tour.  Woot!  Eastside Stitchers are winners, again.

We know it's all about the knitting prizes.

But really, we had a big group tonight even though we were missing quite a few people.  Our group is getting big enough, that even if people are on vacation (say... in England), busy watching movies with their sons, or just MIA, we still can need 2 tables. 

Our new members brought some beautiful knitting to work on.

bethanyr was wearing a beautiful sweater.  I am not 100% sure, because I didn't think to ask, but I think she was wearing an Edie by Michele Wang.  She was starting a new pair of socks, using a vanilla sock pattern from Churchmouse Yarn & Teas. 

The yarn is by Fleece Artist, and was just beautiful.

Adventuretwin had two projects.  She was working on a Scalene by Carina Spencer in Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in three colors: Venetia, Flashdance, and Fathom.

 She also brought a Candide Herringbone Raglan Pullover by Candide Yarns in Fleece Artist Blue Faced Leicester in Natural/Undyed.  For undyed yarn, this has such beautiful colors.

Wireknitter brought a  finished pair of Welted Fingerless Gloves by Churchmouse in Manos de Uruguay Silk Blend.

She has made good progress on her TGV (High Speed Knitting) by Susan Ashcroft in Austermann Murano Lace.

Wajio brought her first pair of toe up socks.  She dyed the yarn herself in a class last fall, started the socks, made some progress ... then lost them.  She found them last week, and brought them tonight.

Tara1682 brought the never ending Linen Stitch Scarf.  I think this is another gift knit, and I really want to get on her list.

VanesaPolo brought baby sweaters.  A finished Flared Baby Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. And a hat she designed herself to go with the sweater.

She also brought a Surplice Baby Jacket by EZ

Fincharm was back to stitch with us.  She brought a Potato Chip Scarf for a good social knitting project.

Hrvdmnky brought her gazillion doilies.  Weaving in ends is so much easier, when you are with friends.  What will Hrvdmnky make with these?  I have no idea.

Skeinherder and I brought the Stage 3 pattern for Tour-de-Sock.  This pattern calls for 3 different colors, as it is done in stripes and colorwork.  Skeinherder is trying really hard to knit from her stash so she brought a few choices to get feedback from the group.

We both wore our finished Stage 2 socks.

It is so much fun to wear matching socks.

Peace.
f1bercat
shaping the planet with 3 new Eastside Stitchers.

Stage 2 Sock Update

Hello:

Happy Fathers Day!

I woke up at 6 am, and the sun was already quite high.  As we are almost at the solstice, our days are very long right now.  I love it.  I got right to work on my socks for Stage 2 of Tour de Sock, the Chicane Socks by Debbie O'Neill.

I had finished the legs of one sock and needed one more repeat on the second sock.  I started these socks 2-at-a-time, but since they have a cable that crosses back and forth along the side, it was awkward to knit them that way.  I separated them after the color work and have been working on them separately. 

Here is what they look with the legs finished:

The cables continue down the heel flaps.  Here is what the outside of the flaps looks like:

And here is the inside:

I have finished both heel turns, and picked up all of the gusset stitches.  Now the socks are back on one needle.  I have to pick up Moogie down in Portland tomorrow morning.  She has finished school, and will be home for the summer.  It is about a three and a half hour drive to her school, so most of my day will be spent in the car.  I am going to bring something to work on, probably not the socks, and try to talk Moogie into helping with the driving back.  She might just want to sleep. 

For Fathers Day, we went to the movies to see Now You See Me.  I mostly liked it.  We almost always go to see movies on special days.  We only lived near any family for 4 years of our life as a family, so we have always celebrated by ourselves.  And we love movies.

Himes grilled steaks for the family. Mine was perfect.  And I made vanilla ice cream which we served with fresh strawberries as the Doc loves strawberry icecream.

I gave him the Braveheart Socks I designed and knit this year, and he seemed very happy.  He loves wearing hand knit socks.

I am off work next week, but I really need to get these socks finished.  I won't be able to knit much on them tomorrow, so I will really have to crank on Tuesday.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with half finished socks.

Fiber Friday

Hello:

 First of all, Skeinherder texted me at 6:30 am to ask if I was ready to head out to Crossroads to knit.  I am not kidding.  Then she texted me again at 7 am to say, "stop knitting and come knit!"  This is our way of greeting each other on knitting days. 

There is just about nothing better than waking up knowing you are getting together with your Stitch Buds. 

As I was heading out,  I saw our resident bald eagle flying quite close to the house, and he/she had something in her grip!  the thing was wiggling and I could see the motion, then it dropped and fell to the lake.  I ran for my camera, but just managed to get a fuzzy photo of the eagle.  So I got in the car to drive up to Crossroads, and as I crested one of the hills, I saw 3 eagles together above the lake.  In the later summer, we often see the eagle pair with a young eagle flying as a family.  It seemed a bit early for this.  I'm not sure if last year's baby had trouble finding a job so stayed in the nest an extra year, or if they had their baby early.

At Crossroads, since there were no preggos in attendance, we were able to at least talk about baby items, though Skeinherder and I mainly worked on our Tour de Sock, Stage 2 socks.  Well, Skeinherder knit hers, I mainly knit/ripped/knit/ripped/knit/ripped.  By the time I left, I had one row less than when I started.  I don't know what was causing the problem, but I kept ending up with a weird stitch count on the cable pattern.  Finally, when I got home, I separated the socks onto 2 circular needles, and am now knitting them individually.

Here is what mine looked like before I split them into 2:

Skeinherder is much farther on her Chicane Socks (Stage 2 for Tour de Sock):

My son, Pookie, came to Crossroads for lunch and after seeing our sock progress, or lack thereof, he told me that I am just drafting in Skeinherder's air stream.  I need to get going.

But, I was having a lot of fun chatting with the other knitters at the table. 
 CathieC wore her Frakenhat that she was weaving in ends two weeks ago.

Wireknitter wore her beautiful colorwork shawl, Flying Scotsman.

she was working on another beautiful shawl by Susan Ashcroft, TGV (High Speed Knitting).

Winterpromise31 has made huge progress on her hat, Welldigger, by Polly Hammond.

When I last saw Winterpromise31, two weeks ago, she was just casting on for this hat.  Today, she bought some double pointed needles to begin the crown decreases.

Shhhh!  Colleen was working on something secret.  She said I could show the yarn, but that is all.

CathieC and I were showing off our matching project bags that we won on the 2013 North Puget Sound LYS Tour.

I almost forgot to say that "Tatting Guy"  (obviously I don't know his name, but he is this guy who is often at Crossroads on Friday mornings who tats) was there.  He usually leaves about 9 am, so Skeinherder and I are usually the only ones who get to see his work.

Tomorrow, we are celebrating World Wide Knit in Public Day with a visit to Acorn Street Yarn, lunch out (with knitting!) and a stop at the Pacific Fabric's Warehouse in the Sodo Neighborhood. 

Yay, I get to wake up to another day spent with stitch buddies.

Peace,

f1bercat

shaping the planet with tatting photos

Naked

Hello:

No photos in this post.  I was going to put up a nice shot of my Stage 2 socks from Le Tour de Sock, Chicane Socks by Debbie O'Neill.  But I had a photo fail and didn't realize that the card wasn't in my camera this afternoon when I took the photo.  I have finished the colorwork section and am on to the cable pattern.  I will take and post a photo tomorrow.

But the bicycle part of Tour de Sock (you know... that OTHER Tour that is coming up in France), has made me think about biking in general.   My daughter, Moogie, participated in Portland's World Naked Bike Ride last weekend.

She got a bike for Christmas, and brought that bike to college in Portland.  Portland is much flatter than Bellevue (or Seattle), so is quite a bit easier to navigate on a bike.  Also, they have very strict rules supporting bikers (10 feet distance rule for cars, etc.).  Moogie has really enjoyed exploring the city on her bike.

I don't know how she got the idea to participate in the Naked Bike Ride, but she did.  When I was down in California last week, I got a text from her telling me that she was going to do the ride.  This caused much joking in the family, as we discussed the problems and benefits of riding a bike naked.

My advice was to use lots of sunscreen.

The ride begins at 10 pm, she told me.

Everyone worried about... chafing.

Also, did she wear a helmet?  I hope so.

She said that not everyone rode bikes, but some people participated on scooters, skateboards, on in-line skates, and even unicycles.

She saw a skater take a nasty fall in the street.  OUCH!  Was he wearing kneepads and wrist guards?

Pookie was very concerned about the chafing.  It just didn't seem like a good idea for a guy to ride a bike naked.  He thought it would be  very uncomfortable.  He told me that if he did the naked bike ride, he would probably wear boxers, to help with the chafing.  I said that for a guy, wearing underwear kind of defeated the whole NAKED thing.

My family down in So. Cal. seemed concerned about Moogie's boobs.  I am not kidding.  Both my Mom and my Sister said something like, "But her boobs are so big... Won't that be a problem on a bike?" 

Moogie said the experience was really fun.  She rode with 2 of her roomates.  They all wore scarves around their waists, and nothing else (except shoes and helmets).  After the 7 mile ride, the participants had an impromptu dance party... still naked.  The dancing was the best part, she said. 

I told her that the Annual Fremont Solstice Parade was going to be this  weekend, on June 22nd.  There is always a naked bikers part of the parade. I suggested we ride together.

Moogie was not amused.

Peace
f1bercat
shaping the world with my clothes on.

Eastside Stitchers Discuss Cake and Family Visitors

Hello:

I can't tell you how nice it was to get together tonight with the Eastside Stitchers at Crossroads Mall.  I was only gone for one week, but it somehow felt much longer.  We had a good size group, though we are missing a few who are on the Eastside of the Country this week. As usual, we spent a lot of time laughing.  For some reason we spent a lot of time discussing Math and Chemistry.  And, then cake baking.  We are nothing if not diverse in our discussions.

Colleen had to leave early, but I managed to get a photo of the Spiderman Blanket she is making. 

The blue in this blanket is more of a royal blue than the photograph shows.  After the last color section, she will go back with black and crochet in the spokes of the web.  A certain soon-to-be-big-brother is in for a fantastic surprise.

Hrvdmnky was just casting on a new baby sweater.  It is a Tiptoe, but modified with a garter yoke.

Wireknitter was back from Milwaulkee.  Last week she went to the International Gem and Jewelry Show.  She brought some truly beautiful pieces she made in various classes at the Show.  It was fun to listen to her describe the techniques and skills she had learned, not to mention passing around the bracelets.  I don't know how she found time to knit, what with all of the hammering and soldering going on, but she managed to finish 3 pieces.

East Coast Line by Susan Ashcroft:

Flying Scotsman by Susan Ashcroft:

 here is a close-up of the colorwork:

and the beautiful Aranami Shawl by Olga Buraya-Kefelian:

Skeinherder was hard at work on Stage 2 of Le Tour de Sock.

 I made it through 3/4 of the checkerboard pattern on my first sock, but decided to frog back to before the colorwork this morning.  I tried on my sock, and it barely fit over my heel.  So Skeinherder is ahead of me!  Since we are on the same team, Team Teanacioous, I can happily cheer her on to victory, since her victories help our overall team standing.

We were both wearing the Stage 1 socks,  The Secret Fan.

It is so much fun to knit the same sock as your friend, then wear them the same night.

VanesaPolo was working on a baby sweater from  one of Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns.

Tara1682 has made huge progress on her 3rd Churchmouse Yarn and Teas Linen stitch scarf.

And Cathie C is knitting a beautiful and sparkly potato chip scarf.  She bought the yarn at Great Yarns.

Chockelet came a bit later.  She brought the most... SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  it's a secret.  but it was super cute.  Ok, not saying anything more about it!

The Fiber Friday group is meeting as usual, and there are some very tentative plans to go to Acorn Yarns in the U districe for World Wide Knit in Public Day (This coming Saturday, June 15.

That's all for now.  I need to get back to my own sock knitting.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a very late sunset (photo taken at 9:15 pm)