Christmas trip and more!

Our trip to Point Reyes was most excellent. Lots of fresh air, kite flying, and snuggling by the fire. We chased naughty sea gulls who tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to fly off with our picnic (he flew off with the bread bag, but the bread dumped out of it). We made the hike to the lighthouse, including the "30 story climb" to get back. (Note to self: working out more in 2008 is a good idea).

Then the cold set in. Not the outside air, although that was chilly too, but the cold Ken had the previous week. Fortunately it waited until the last night at the Inn, but what a miserable night. I couldn't remember when I last had such a wretched sore throat. I thought it might be strep, but, hey, Ken got over it just fine.

We came home, I ran a fever. I never run a fever. I sweated my way through most of my night clothes Christmas Eve night. Christmas was misery. I worked part days from home when I felt like I could concentrate. Then Thursday comes along. Ken's got a sore throat again and has finally looked at strep pictures. Realizes, "Uh Oh!" and goes in for a throat swab.

Sure enough! Strep! Yay!

I finally got anti-biotics on Friday and am feeling mostly myself now, although I was advised that I'm still contagious so it's another work-at-home day. It's also New Year's Eve, and I have several friends in from out of town that I won't get to see tonight. So bummed!

One nice result of my convalescence - I started and finished Mr. Greenjeans :) He's blocking on the extra bed right now!

On the Road Again

Although this shot is from our last vacation, the sentiment will be exactly the same, come 3pm when I pick up Ken from Davis. We're heading to Inverness for some solitary Christmas celebrating. Work today is all about making sure nothing breaks, so I'm pretty much sufing and chatting. A nice break!

Looks like the weather will be nice on the coast this weekend. Nice as in partly sunny and maybe rain on Sunday. Looks like hiking tomorrow and lounging on Sunday! Perfect!!! God, I love the coast.

Presents

To assuage any guilt I might be feeling over the grinchiness, I decided I needed to list out the presents I've made for Christmas this year. Since August, I've knitted as gifts:

2 adult sweaters
3 pairs socks
1 lace scarf (still needs blocking)
3 hats
4 felted bowls
French market bag (and lined in brocade - with pockets!)

Not too shabby! :)

(Also since August, I've also started a pair of socks for myself, like 3 different times, and made a pair of knucks for myself)

I have one hat on the needles, then a few pair gloves to do, 2 adult, 1 child. I won't see the recipients until well into January, so I'm not feeling a whole lot of pressure there.

This coming weekend Ken and I are staying at the Inverness Valley Inn for a few days as our gift to each other. The only family in town has their inlaws to spend Christmas with, so we're gratefully on our own! I have Mr. Greenjeans (for me! in a delicious Malabrigo!) to start over the weekend, so I'm kinda hoping for some rain in between hikes and lighthouse touring.

Holiday Season

I'll admit it; I'm a bit of a Grinch.

As a child, I adored the Christmas season. There were concerts and dressing up and pretty trees and taking turns opening the Advent Calendar. I always participated in at least two performances, one for school and one for Church. When I got into high school, I was allowed to sing in the adult choir, so there were multiple concerts to sing which I adored so much more than the Christmas plays. Parties with friends made us almost seem grown-up.

College continued the good times, though minus church activities (we had a falling out, and I rarely look back). Then, at the end of college I floated into a really fun retail job. Fun, that is, except for the Christmas times.

You have to be extremely steadfast in your love of Christmas to have any cheer left after 8-10 hour days working in a busy mall, no matter how rad your store is. Christmas music screams continually. Shoppers are about 1/2 frazzled yet nice and 1/2 utterly selfish bastards. There's the tension that goes along with store owners worshiping the Dollar, and making sure the numbers are always better than the year/week/day before.

I did this for 3 years. (8 years ago)

It utterly killed any desire I've ever had for seasonally decorating. Killed dead. Last year I thought that maybe this year I'd maybe put up a tree, but when the time got here, I said "meh" and didn't bother. And Christmas music? Let's just say that this time of year I seek out and patronize shops that aren't playing any. Thank you Espresso Metro!!!

Instead of being a good consumer, I've been busy having fun making all my Christmas gifts! Everyone on my admittedly small list gets either something handmade this year, or gifts of food. I love giving gifts, ones that have meaning even if they are inexpensive, ones that I give from my heart. Getting gifts is fun too, I won't lie, but what really does it for me is watching moments of joy that others have seeing what they've gotten.

My Hands are Cold

Well, it's gotten to be that chilly time of year when the temperature has been low enough, long enough that the warehouse never warms up. Then it sends its tentacles of coldness down the hall into the air-well that is my cubicle. Combine that with also being the air-well of the employee entrance, and you have a Cold Betsy. Yesterday I wore a hat (a new one out of pink malabrigo :) fingerless gloves and scarf to try to ward off the chill. Today I broke down and turned on the space-heater. Stupid cold.


I love my new Knucks, tho. I can comfortably wear these while typing! They are made from Louisa Harding Grace Silk Wool, which is exquisitly soft. Pilly as all hell, but the softness mitigates much frustration over that. I cast on Thanksgiving morning, knit throughout the day while visiting with family, then finished 'em up the following morning. Easy peasy. Now I have a couple more in the queue for gifts.

Thanksgiving travel

Well, Ken and I are heading for Oregon after work today. Presents are wrapped, the booze is secure and the car is packed. Whoooo! In our Oregon-travel tradition, we'll roll into Ashland around dinnertime, find a hotel and spend the evening in one of the pubs. Morning brings the next leg of the trip: Portland!

The DeZell's have a new house which we're anxious to see, but of course, we're really excited to play with Zira, and enjoy some convivial drinking with Sarah and Layton. What they don't know yet, is that we are bringing the growler of Dead Guy Ale which Eric picked up during his last beach trip with Mom. It feels like a good warrior's tribute to share his favorite beer with family. Damn, Eric had good taste in beer!

The cobblestone has been blocked and looks great on Ken - he loves that the sleeves are actually long enough for his arms! There was a sinking-feeling moment while it was drying and looking way too huge, but everything turned out perfectly! I'm definitely making one for Layton when I find the right yarn.



Thanks for watching the cat-kids, Claire!

Ken's socks are finished!

And I have photographic proof. Thanks to my lovely new digital scale, they are a perfect length, with only a foot or so of yarn left over! I'm so happy! (Ken loves them, too)

Butterfly on Geranium

butterfly_and_geranium
Originally uploaded by beetsy1

Two springs ago, there was a massive migration of Painted Lady butterflies. It was magnificent. Everywhere you went, these little beauties swooped and fluttered on their path to, well, wherever they migrated to. My garden was especially pretty, too, and is where this was shot. I then sent it through the Gimp to do some colorshifting.

Sadly, the lack of rain last winter resulted in almost no butterflies in my yard this year. I did spot a splendid one in the parking lot at work this past week; an lovely orange splotch weaving in amongst the falling leaves.

Cobblestone: on the final lap

Claire came over last night for dinner and knitting (and wine, but that's pretty much a given). I managed to finish up the knitting portion of Ken's sweater! Yay! I'm still in the "meh" portion of the completed project, maybe I'll be more pleased after the ends are woven in, and the armholes sewn. Heh, and the couple dropped stitches I discovered after Ken tried it on. I wondered where my count had erred!

Ken loves it, and can't wait for Oregon coolness to wear it. :)

Also I got Mom's french market bag lined. Cute!

On Ken's socks and Headshops

Well, good news! Looks like the 2 50g balls of Dusky Rose were not precicely equal. After I picked up yet another yarn to try blending (decided the alpaca wasn't going to be the best choice), I took a good hard look and realized that sock #2 was already longer than its brother, and I still had quite a bit of yarn left to go through. I decided that what I really needed to complete the socks was not more yarn, but a nice digital scale :)

I'd heard the best scales were the ones used for more, um, nefarious purposes, so Ken and I took a trip down to our favorite local headshop - Twisted. Should have seen the look on the saleslady's face when I broke out the socks to test-weight! Ken asked her if she got other yarnistas in looking at scales; she deadpanned "Sure, every other day!". LOL.

So I came home with a 120g digital scale. For yarn. Really!

Cobblestone pullover

Sadly, I have no pictures to share yet, but Ken's new sweater is quickly reaching completion. It's the cobblestone pullover from the fall issue of Interweave Knits. Many folks around these here Tubes have been knitting this sweater; it's a classy and simple men's sweater that is masculine in design and not froofy in any way. Ken said, "Hey, I like that one. I'd wear it if you made it for me", so like many partners of picky sweater-wearing men who despaired of ever finding a design our loved-ones would actually put on, I immediately ordered yarn for Cobblestone.

My version was cast-on during a late September rainy weekend spent drinking and knitting in Tahoe with Claire. We're taking off for Portland this coming Friday, so I have loads of motivation to actually get it finished. Of course I have a stack of Christmas presents in the finishing stage I'd like to wrap and deliver personally to the Oregon family, so the next few evenings are going to be busy!

"Early Spring" Socks

Here's another pair of socks made with YarnForest's gorgeous DK weight yarn.

I actually gasped when I opened up my package because the colors are so fantastic. This photo really shows off their vibrancy.

Will they be for me, or a Christmas gift? I haven't decided yet!

Socks for Ken

Here are the socks currently under construction for Ken.

I'm loving the yarn, it's from YarnForest, and is totally fabulous! It's a DK weight yarn, and I'm using my #2 rosewood needles for a dense and cushy fabric. One TINY problem: a 50 gram ball (I have 2) is just not enough to make bootsocks for Ken's honkin' feet. The orange alpaca in the photo was the first idea I had for extending the cuff, but I think I'll keep looking for something a little more washable.

Ken says "I can wear them as house socks!"

I say "no way you aren't showing off these suckers in public!" Heh.

Felted bowl trio

Felted Bowl Trio



For: Grandma's Christmas present

Pattern: inspired by the felted bowl in One Skein, but as I didn't have the book when I started the project (still don't!), I just made it up as I went along. Pretty much an inverted felted hat of varying lengths.

Yarn: Araucania Nature Wool

Notes: Additionally, I've added some recycled copper wire (got it from the computer room when it was cleaned) and turquoise beads from my bead stash.

A new space

Ken wants to get rid of our hosting fees, so I'm moving the show, as slim as it's been the past year, to blogger. Now that I have a ravelry account, and have been somewhat good about putting my projects up there, I hope to actually blog at least somewhat regularly. Hopefully :)