Category Archives: travel

Jiggety-jig

Posted on July 9, 2009 | 12 comments

I’m back at home, after a whirlwind trip through Vietnam and Tokyo. I had a couple little “where in the world” contests while I was gone.

Adam (Knitguy) correctly identified this Buddha statue as being at Long Son Temple in Nha Trang, Vietnam. His prize? Some beautiful chopsticks and chopstick rests! I need to sweep the bamboo leaves in my backyard, but in the meantime, aren’t they a nice Asian backdrop for this picture?

The next picture was a little trickier to identify.

Kaminari-mon Gate (Thunder Gate) is the first gate going up to Senso-Ji Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo. Lots of people take pictures of it, which made it too easy! The second gate, closer to the temple, is Houzou-mon Gate. Courtney (Knitting Siamese) was the first person to correctly identify the photo. Her prize is this silk scarf. Blue, of course. I’ve always got blue on my mind!

I came home to find the blueberry bushes still laden with berries. Last night I picked a half gallon box, and this afternoon I picked two more. I’ll bake with some, give some to my Mom, and freeze the rest. And there are still more out there…

I was going to make Blueberry Boy Bait last night after seeing it on the Smitten Kitchen blog, but I didn’t have enough butter! Maybe tonight.

I’ll blog more about the trip, and knitting, after I work my way through 400 pictures. Don’t worry, I won’t post *all* of them!

12 Comments

Posted in Blogging, travel

Tagged buddha, houzoumon gate, nha trang

Moving along

Posted on July 7, 2009 | 16 comments

I’ve left Vietnam for this…

Here’s the back side:

Smell the incense!

A little prize for the first correct guess of what this structure is, and where it’s located.

Cheers!

16 Comments

Posted in travel

Toto, I have a feeling…

Posted on July 1, 2009 | 12 comments

we’re not in Kansas any more!

Can you tell where we are? Here’s what I saw yesterday. Sorry for the raw photo, but that’s what I have…

There’s a prize for the first correct guess of venue, city, and country. Good luck!

12 Comments

Posted in travel

Piano weekend

Posted on June 22, 2009 | 10 comments

Picture this: Sitting in your seat, knitting on an airplane. A pattern is on the tray table; Ishbel is in your hands. A ball of blue laceweight yarn is on your lap. You shift in your seat slightly, and the ball rolls off your lap, under the seat in front of you, and down the aisle…

No, it didn’t happen, but I was visualizing it as I was knitting. Just in case, next time the yarn should be in “cake” form!

The weekend was lovely. Five erstwhile pianists (I think only two of us are actively playing right now) who met at piano camp several years ago. Two more piano buddies came down on Saturday to play for us: Satie, Grieg, Mozart, Bach… D’s piano sounds fantastic in its new space. It sounds rich and round. The space is very open, with a cathedral ceiling. And the view from the piano is inspiring, looking across the Carmel Valley.

How could I not be inspired to play? I re-acquainted myself with the Granados Waltzes from Valses Poeticos. And the Adagio movement from Mozart’s K 332.

Friday afternoon’s sky was especially lovely.

Saturday’s walk took us down by the beach.

In other piano buddy news, fellow piano camper Katie Hafner’s book on Glenn Gould, A Romance on Three Legs, is now available in paperback. The book is a great read. Katie is one of the smartest, funniest, and most charming people I’ve ever met.

I did a lot of knitting on Ishbel while listening to my friends. But it’s not done yet. :sigh:

10 Comments

Posted in Knit, music, piano, travel

Tagged Knit, piano

Travel knitting

Posted on June 18, 2009 | 9 comments

I’m going away for a weekend with the Piano Babes. Too bad I haven’t played the piano very much this year. Oops. Knitting and blogging have taken up a lot of my leisure time! But I’ll try to resurrect the three Granados Waltzes from Valses Poeticos that I played this year. Wish me luck.

I’m trying to decide what knitting to take for the plane. I think my socks on dpns (poor languishing Kai-Mei) would be a bad choice because it’s so easy to drop a needle. Circular needles are great for plane knitting, because you can’t drop one! That means I should take the Ruffle Tank. Or my new Ishbel. Or both.

New Ishbel? Yes! I was feeling sorry about not using that glorious blue Claudia Handpaint Silk Lace. It was a bit spendy, and I was feeling guilty. I bought some Addi Lace needles, and it has made all the difference. I also went down a needle size to a US 5. The silk glides along on the metal needles, and I’m a happy camper.

This doesn’t meant that I don’t love my Lantern Moon Ebony needles. They’re still my favorite. And they’re working great on the Ruffle Tank! I finished the back, and have cast on for the front. This is a great knit, just enough pattern to it that I’m engaged, but simple enough to knit while watching old episodes of Firefly. Mmmm, Firefly. I’m going to be sad when the 14 episodes are done!

Have a great weekend! What’s on your needles?

9 Comments

Posted in Knit, piano, travel

Tagged addi lace, ishbel, Knit, Ruffle Tank, yarn

Tourists at home

Posted on May 25, 2009 | 7 comments

The fun thing about having guests from out of town is that you can play tourist at home. My in-laws are here for the holiday weekend, and CollegeGuy is home for their visit. Fun!

Friday we had a late afternoon sail on the Columbia River. I bought this trip at the youth fundraiser auction in March, and what better time to use it than a gorgeous holiday weekend? The weather was perfect.

The Teen and CollegeGuy each had turns at the, uh, helm? What do I know from boats? It’s a 30 foot Catalina, and it was sweet. We had a leisurely trip east up the river past the Glenn Jackson Bridge, and then a more rambunctious trip back down the river, tacking with the wind. (Note the angle of the boat versus the horizon.)

It was an exhilarating afternoon. Thank you, Kirk, for a great time!

Saturday we headed up to Timberline Lodge. It’s a WPA project, completed in 1937. So grand!

At 6000 feet above sea level, there is skiing and snowboarding action, even in the summer. The kids (!) felt compelled to get into the snow, too. Check out The Teen’s rolling flip.

There’s a great view of Mt. Jefferson and the Three Sisters to the south. This is from the Raven’s Nest on the third floor.

I love the way the snow is higher than the windows…on the second floor.

Did you know that “The Shining” was filmed here? All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!

Not much knitting going on this weekend, but I’m through the first 8 rows of lace on Ishbel. I can see the pattern, and I like it.

7 Comments

Posted in travel

Tagged timberline lodge

Life is too short…

Posted on May 12, 2009 | 12 comments

to knit with yarn that you don’t like.

The last time I touched this Baby Bolero was when I took this photograph.

The thought of knitting more with this yarn just didn’t excite me. It was hard on my hands, and hard to control the gauge because the yarn doesn’t slip along itself. Look at the wonky stitches on the sleeve. So I bought new yarn.

I started this on the weekend, and it’s flying along. The yarn, Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton, is a joy to work with. It’s soft and “buttery.” I love it! I still have a slight issue with a column of loose stitches between dpns (hey, it’s cotton, and not resilient and forgiving like wool), but I’m dealing with that by moving the gaps every round. I just knit a couple stitches more or fewer on each needle. The stitch definition is great.

Here’s the same motif in the Mission Falls 1824 Cotton. You can see the structure of the yarn is different.

The 1824 is a cotton center with a thin thread wrapped around it. The Pure Cotton is two plies of equal size, twisted around each other. It’s a lot softer than the 1824. I think I’ll swatch for Angela Hahn’s Sorelle with the Pure Cotton; I’ve been wanting to knit that but haven’t found the right yarn for it. Do I need a blend? Angela used a cotton blend, and also recommended some wool/silk blends. What do you think?

In other news, I went to the other side of the mountains this weekend. Mount Hood looks backwards from over there!

I was at Kahneeta with a friend and her mom, hanging out for Mother’s Day. It’s warm and dry on the eastern side of the Cascades.

Lots of lizards hanging out there, too!

I arrived home at 3 on Sunday. The Teen made soba for Mother’s Day dinner, and it was delicious. I hope you had a great weekend, too.

12 Comments

Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged dpns, Knit, yarn

Crafty Mom Weekend 6.0

Posted on February 10, 2009 | 8 comments

The 6th annual Crafty Mom Weekend on the Oregon Coast is now history. Twelve moms, big beach house, lots of fiber and paper crafting, food, and chocolate. Perfect!

We had 2 great sunsets, Friday, and Sunday.

And a gorgeous Saturday in-between.

And on Monday morning, it snowed!

That was magical. I’d never been at the beach for snow before. It made driving home a bit more exciting, but it was so beautiful.

I started three new projects, and worked on an ancient one. And had more that I didn’t get to! I don’t have a single finished object to show you, though. My first project was to knit up some bulky black wool to make a small bag as a background for needle felting. The bag isn’t sewn up, but here’s the needle felting.

This was really easy and fun! Carole gave me needle felting supplies for Christmas, and this was the first time I tried it. It was pretty quick, and I like the way it looks.

More on the other projects later in the week. I’m playing catch up with real life!

8 Comments

Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged beach snow, Knit, needle felting

I’m a winner!

Posted on December 1, 2008 | 6 comments

Liz had a contest to celebrate her blogoversary, and I’m a winner! The prize is two skeins of Mirasol Hacho, a dk weight yarn. I can’t wait to get this yarn in my hands; I’ve used it before and love the weight of it. Just right for sport/dk weight socks, which is what I like to knit. Thank you, Liz!

If I ever have to go on the lam, I don’t want Tami tracking me. She’s a super-sleuth! I asked if anyone could figure out where I was last weekend, based on this statue.

Here’s her comment:

“We were watching Anthony Bourdain’s ‘No Reservations’ and this episode is set in Colombia where there’s a whole plaza of Fernando Botero statues.

A little work to get his name again and then search for ‘man & horse’ tells me that you are visiting here:

“This statue is located in Clayton, Mo. at the intersection of Wydown and Hanley. The statue is constructed in bronze by Columbian artist Fernando Botero.”

The picture I found shows that there’s a Starbuck’s behind him too, so you don’t have to be deprived while you’re in the middle of the country. ;^)

Have fun!”

I did have my holiday kick-off peppermint mocha at Starbucks over the weekend, and I think Tami was watching. Such diligence requires a reward. While this wasn’t an actual contest, she gets an actual prize!

This is a tape measure from Lantern Moon. Seasonally cute! Tami, email me your snailmail addy, and I’ll send it to you.

6 Comments

Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged botero, Knit, lantern moon

Moving right along…

Posted on November 29, 2008 | 9 comments

Moving right along…

I finished the third purple afghan square, the Twirly Square. It does look better with fewer rounds of stockinette and reverse stockinette. More chances to alternate! I found out that Anne lives just a few blocks from me, so that will be an easy drop-off. It’s a small world.

I think I finished the left front for Hey, Teach. I don’t have the back with me to make sure they’re exactly the same number of rows, so nothing is bound off. That’s what stitch holders are for! I’m going to use a three needle bind off for the shoulders anyway, so I won’t bind off until assembling.

Where am I? Here’s a hint.

I love this statue; it’s all rounded and smooth and chunky, too. It went up several years ago and was a source of bemusement for the family, but I think it’s cool. Do you know where it lives?

He looks a bit chilly this morning. Maybe next time I’ll bring him a hand knit scarf. And fingerless gloves. And socks! I’d have to enlist some help getting him accessorized, though; the horse is pretty tall.

Other fun: I’ve joined the Everyone Welcome Community Choir for six weeks. This was an outgrowth of the harmony singing class I took in October and November; the teacher is the director of the choir. We’re singing at a benefit concert at/for Artichoke Music at 5 pm on Sunday, December 7. If you’re in PDX and looking for something cool to do, come on over! The music is interesting, lots of world music. My favorite songs so far have been from South Africa.

Enjoy your weekend!

9 Comments

Posted in Knit, music, travel

Tagged charity knit, hey teach, Knit