Hi there!

Hey, remember me? The one who kept saying she would be posting more? Riiiigggghhhht!
But I have an excuse! Really, I do, honest!

I've been busy ... KNITTING! Gasp! You don't believe me? Well, here's proof:

Pink Ruffles scarf
Pattern: Just enough ruffles
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted, color: Molly (about 1.2 skeins)
Needle: US size 9
Started: Dec. 29, 2008
Finished: Dec. 30, 2008 (which brings my total for 2008 to 20 finished objects)



Zig-zag scarf
Pattern: Malabrigo keyhole scarf (pdf file)
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, color: Happy Valley (about .85 skein)
Needle: US size 9
Started: Dec. 31, 2008
Finished: Jan. 1, 2009

Gretel hat
Pattern: Gretel by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Lion Brand Woolease
Needle: US size 7
Started: Jan. 5, 2009
Finished: Jan. 11, 2009

I was so cold, even inside my house, that I had to make myself a hat. Right. Now. So I pulled out some stash yarn (hooray for shopping within your stash) and immediately cast on. May I say, Ysolda's tubular cast-on technique is brilliant (even though I had to do it 3 times to get a reasonable looking piece). Of course, when I finished the hat a week later, the temperatures had shot up into the mid-70's during the day (in January...) - so much for being cold!

Here's a piece of charity knitting that made its recipient known to me, (ala Alison). I got the yarn (Lion Brand Watercolors - discontinued) at the latest yarn swap at Purlescence. It's super bulky and I cast on 15 stitches for a garter stitch, knit until all 3 balls are used type of scarf, figuring that there's always someone who needs a warm fuzzy scarf. Then I found out via Ravelry's Charity Knitting group about the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. The pancreatic cancer fundraising color is purple. A fellow Raveler is selling purple scarves to raise money to raise awareness and find a cure for this fast-moving disease. In honor of my sister-friend's mother, this scarf will be going towards this cause. And I think (wink, wink ;-) that I have just a little more purple yarn in the stash that can be used...


Oh yeah, there's another pair of vanilla toe-up socks on the needles in STR Peaseblossom. Yup, the one that I used for the failed Monkey socks back in June. See the difference? One needle size and fewer stitches totally changed the striping and I like it a lot better. The colors are truer in the left picture however.


Did I tell you about the Ju-san Luna shawl kit (Ravelry link)I won from Purlescence? No, I guess I didn't... In their end-of-year raffle, my Dork pulled my name out of the bowl to win this kit of Claudia mohair and ribbon yarns. It's so pretty and very warm! It is destined to be an auction item for a Winter Camp that The Hubby attends.




I got about 15 rows of the Ju-san Luna done while at a fencing tournament yesterday. The Dork was, once again, thiiiis close to earning an epee rating, but lost his direct elimination bout by only a couple points. He placed 10th/37 (top 8 earned ratings). This particular competition was excruciatingly long; we were there from 2:30 until 9 pm so I got lots of knitting time. Just because I could, I took my new Mino and took some video of him (he's on the left). I really like the overall quality of the Mino, and love the fact that it's purse-sized and ready to whip out at a moment's notice! I also figured out how to upload videos to YouTube and embed them here.

The Dork asked me to mention that when the fencers get too close to each other, sometimes the referee calls a halt to reposition them on the strip. They actually have to poke each other and depress the tip of their weapon (in this case, epee; the entire body is considered a target) in order to register a touch/point. Sometimes they hit the wall or floor, which doesn't count.

Off to knit some more!

Now you see it...

The first set of disappearances is that of a delicious brioche & blackberry bread pudding that my Dear Hubby made for dessert tonight. We had half of it, as you see in the picture (forgot to take a "before" picture).

now you don't!


In less than 5 minutes it disappeared, when I walked briefly outside to take some garden pictures.


Here's the culprit!

I thought about blaming The Dork because he was coveting it, and acting like it was going to disappear momentarily. However, we had just finished discussing the matter, and had agreed that he could have some for breakfast tomorrow.

I'll have to take some of the blame for leaving it out though.

The 2nd set of disappearances is that of about 3 boxes worth of junk that was in front of my crafting bookcase. The boxes were a convenient landing place for laundry that needed ironing or dry-cleaning, yarn that needed putting away. Okay, so I haven't ironed the clothes yet, but I did get the huge pile of magazines sorted, inventoried, and into magazine boxes.

A couple boxes into the recycling bin, a couple bags for Goodwill, a large stack of stuff to take to the used bookstore...(anyone want any cross-stitch magazines from the early 90's?). It's not quite the way I want it yet, so no After picture. However, you can see (and get to) all the books and one of the two shelves of magazines which had been completely hidden.

Part of the problem has been that my knitting mojo has deserted me temporarily. Once I finished the Grumpy socks, I've been trying to find something that keeps me interested. I've tried and ripped out a sock in Koigu 4 times now because nothing that I try looks right. I have to rip a few rows out on the Susie cardigan that I'm making for our housemate because I have an undiscoverable mistake in it and haven't had any brain power to figure it out. I can't muster up the energy to get excited about finally finishing my Twist, or my Ribby Cardi, which I really, really should do.

But I need something small and portable to work on, because I've been spending some of my time at the Fencing Summer National Tournament, which is taking place at the San Jose Convention Center (through Thursday). There are over 3000 fencers in town for this major tourney! If you're interested in watching some of what my Dork boy does for fun, go over sometime during the day. They start fencing around 8:30 AM, and stagger the start times for different events.

He is NOT fencing, though! He didn't qualify in his division. But it's fun to watch and cheer on the fencers we know, and he's been coaching some of the younger kids.

Oh, and Happy Belated 4th of July! Dork and I went to Nationals for a while, then out to the San Jose America festival a block away. The fencing club had been asked by the local NBC TV station to put on a demonstration, as part of the festival. It was tied into the Olympic coverage that they're starting to heavily promote. Some of the kids were filmed sparring behind the Weather Guy, while a few of us parents tried to prevent oblivious people from walking into their strike zone. Gotta love those Lookie-loos who are so busy watching the cameras that they fail to watch where they're walking. NOT!

Happy Mother's Day

to all you moms, and to all your moms too!

We were setting up for the Book Fair at school, and I was supervising several volunteer moms. I mentioned that as soon as The Dork showed up, I was going to put him to work, regardless of the amount of homework he had. However, when he walked in, he put his bags down and asked, unprompted, "what can I do to help?" When I recovered from my heart attack at his words, and everyone stopped laughing, he provided a lot of assistance.

So, my wish for your Mother's Day is that your children offer to help out unexpectedly, and then follow through!

I was lucky enough to spend a little time with my mom this weekend, as we're down in Pasadena at a fencing tournament (Pacific Coast section championships). My parents came to see The Dork fence for a while, as they had no idea what the sport really is about. Then they left to do some other errands in the area. The best part was that Mom had no idea that Dad had set up a surprise birthday dinner for her (her 70th is next week), with the immediate family this evening. She certainly didn't expect to see us again, as she thought we were going to be with the other fencers from our club this evening. A good time was had by all!

Now, if the Dork does better tomorrow then he did today, I'll be a Happy Mom!

Recovering from Spring Break

You know how you always dream of taking an extra day off at one end of a vacation...well, this was not the way to do it.

I'm spending some time recovering, not only from a busy Spring Break, but from this ugly upper respiratory thing that I came down with a few days ago. I hate rediscovering muscles in my mid-section that are really sore from coughing. It really hit on Saturday when I drove up to Chico with the Dork for a fencing competition. Not easy to drive while you are sneezing and coughing!

Dork did well in the Foil competition, coming in tied for 3rd place out of 11. In Epee, he was seeded at 11th out of 28 and lost in the second direct elimination round to a crafty older guy who happens to own a fencing club in the East Bay! But it meant leaving the house at 5:45 AM and arriving back home at 9:30 PM. The short kid in the picture is The Dork, fencing against a guy who has to be at least 6'8", more than a foot taller than he is! He lost this bout - his opponent is a top-rated fencer.

Knitting content: I finished the foot on Hubby's Midsummer sock #2 during this competition. Almost no knitting, however, while I vegetated at home yesterday. Hubby took Dork up to the other competition in San Rafael.

It's Spring!
Everything has decided to start growing like, well, wildflowers! Poppies, ceanothus, elderberry... (click for bigger)

By the way, we are on the list for the California Native Garden tour again this year, to be held on Sunday, April 20 for Santa Clara County. If you'd like to see how people have landscaped using plants native to this area, please sign up for the free Going Native Garden Tour. After you register, you will be provided all the addresses to the gardens and you can choose which ones you'd like to see.

Alternately, email me and you can drop by for a private tour and knitting!

Very Random Posting...

As Loopie Chick said "I'm not dead yet." And by the way, has anyone seen the month of March? I seem to have completely missed it this year!

Well, it's coming on the end of Spring Break, and I'm not ready for the end! There's way too much to do - especially knitting.

What has happened over the last month:

Made a few cards (and spent more money doing so - thanks Emy!) :









Went to Monterey Aquarium and got not very good pictures of lots of things - which I will not subject anyone to! The Dork took his really good DSLR camera with him and got very picky about framing his shots, with the result that not much was useful. But the day really was gorgeous!








Went to SoCal to visit family last weekend. Lots of stuff got sorted out - a good time was had by most people, most of the time. Got a couple pics of the cute nephews: Baby I is 9 months old and his big brother N just turned 3. (Sorry, these are pics from my cell phone.)










While down there, went to a book presentation (spur of the moment with my parents) by Jennifer 8 Lee (yes, her middle name is the number 8) about her book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. It's a fascinating look at how non-Chinese a lot of Chinese food really is. The link is to her blog - she took pictures of the audience just like the Yarn Harlot does (without the sock, though), and I had to laugh at that. [However, I did finish one Midsummer sock for Hubby and warded off SSS by starting the mate while enjoying her presentation]. I'd like to spend a little more time at Nixon Library and explore a little more of the history. When you're living it as a kid, you don't really understand much about what's happening! We just didn't have enough time that afternoon, as Mom and I rushed off to my aunt's house right after the talk was over. Dad, however, stayed to get several copies and have her sign them.

Then there were the old coins hidden in various places, including a hideous plastic lion bank from when we were kids, and the safety deposit box. The librarian in me kicked in and I decided that we needed to know what we have. So I started inventorying and photographing them! I have no knowledge of coin values and many were not in great shape, but I do know that we had some coins that from the 1800s and early 1900s (buffalo head nickels and Mercury dimes, and silver dollars when they were really had silver content).

In other knitting news - there's not a whole lot, really! I'm excited to finally be on the last part of the second sleeve to my Twist. I was cautiously optimistic that I could get it done this week, but that hasn't happened (doing "work" stuff on vacation time - 4th grade research begins on Monday). The Blue Jay Shawl is also more finished than a month ago, but not quite done yet. Sigh! Pictures later when a) I'm more coherent; and b) there is sunshine for me to take them.

Wish us luck this weekend - I'm taking the Dork up to Chico on Saturday AND to San Rafael on Sunday for two different fencing competitions.

Busy December

It's been a pretty crazy couple of weeks around the Purple Castle. Teaching children anything between Thanksgiving and Christmas is impossible. The Hubby is sick (sinus infection), which sets off his asthma and coughing. Dork Boy is ignoring huge hints to get off the computer and go to bed...what else is new!?

We made a last minute decision to take The Dork to a Junior Olympics qualifying event up in San Francisco last weekend. I guess it helps if you check your spam email folder once in a while, because I missed an email from his coach notifying anyone who was interested. Anyway, he didn't expect to qualify, but thought it would be nice if he did (and a trip to North Carolina for JOs in Feb.). He placed 8th out of 10 epee fencers, and had some very good bouts. He almost won his 2nd direct elimination bout, except that time ran out. That one was against the young man who was seeded 2nd after the pool rounds and who ended up with the silver medal (and IS going to NC). The kid with the orange shoes on the right is mine. Some parents I talked to were very complimentary about The Dork's fencing style. We were going to go back for the foil competition, but when he woke up, he said that he was very tired and that he wouldn't do very well. No problem - there's always next year.

On the knitting front, Nathania had a baby shower on last Thursday, and I really wanted to make Baby Boo something special. Let's just say that baby stuff and I weren't getting along. I cast on 3 different projects, and none of them cooperated with me. 2 baby hats, one with extremely unattractive pooling, and one was cute until I started the patterning on it. One baby sweater - wrong size, not even close! So, Baby Boo received lots of books from me instead!

Of course I took my projects to the fencing competition, and was >thiiiis close< to binding off the back of Twist when I realized that my pattern was missing because I had left it at Purlescence. Oops. Got it back, but still haven't worked on it since then because I decided that the fencing club is so cold that the coaches and office manager need fingerless gloves (by Friday) and that my hair stylist needed a scarf. So much for "not knitting anything for Christmas!

I'm partway through turning the heel on the 1st Midsummer Night sock for The Hubby. Purlescence received the Raven collection from Blue Moon, and The Dork is getting socks from the Korppi colorway.

I decided that I needed to clean off the couch of accumulated yarn, which led to stash reorganization and major purging. There are 4 large bags of yarn that are heading out to Goodwill in the morning. I'm not offering it up to any of you, because most of it is cheap acrylic that was my preferred yarn for baby blankets several years ago. However, I've found different sources for wonderful baby blanket yarn - trust me, you don't want this old stuff. 4 miles worth of old yarn -- gone! Feels good to reclaim some space in my yarn bins for stuff that I still want to use, instead of having it all over the couch.

What's next this vacation? Cleaning the bathroom so the plumber that's coming tomorrow to fix a shower leak won't think I'm a horrible housekeeper. Okay, never mind the rest of the house he has to go through to get there...

Now, where was I?

My intention was to be updating this more often than every couple weeks (okay Mari?) but life seems to have gotten in the way.

So, what has happened...
Dryer is fixed - laundry is going right now, and no squealing! [Of course, now the dishwasher is acting up...]

Foster Dog has gone to another foster home; hopefully one in which she doesn't have to bark and discipline upstart territorial dogs. Good luck Lena!

Got my Ribby Shell finished in time to wear to Purlescence's birthday party. Great pictures taken by Tony!

Had loads of fun & laughter at a Build-a-bear party with the Purl Girls. See the recap here. This is Booker T. Bear and he is going to live at school for the kids.



Jury duty (on call) is finally over. Apparently, US District Court is now asking for a 2 week commitment, not just the one week that I normally get called for. Life was made even more interesting, as my clerk at school also got called for THE SAME DATE! Actually, we got a little lucky, as neither one of us even had to go in, but I had already postponed mine. Frankly, I was a little disappointed, because I could have used the knitting time! I called the courthouse and was told "of course" to bring in my knitting. In fact, the guy who answered the phone sounded a little surprised that I would even ask.


That time could have been used on this project: started and almost finished a stockinette shrug to wear for our anniversary (17th) dinner last night at Sent Sovi (love you, sweetheart). As of 3:30 yesterday afternoon, I had just joined for the 2nd sleeve, but there was no way to finish it by a 5PM dinner date. Dream in Color's Classy yarn in the color "Good luck jade".


Spent all afternoon at a fencing tournament (foil) today at which The Dork got put in a round robin pool with some really strong fencers. He's not one of them! He and his coach have now decided that foil fencing is not his strength and he'll do better at epee fencing.

Pink dot socks are moving along. I've already turned the heel and am headed up the cuff now. I'm trying to decide if I want to go further up than my usual 3" or so. If I do, I'll have to figure out how to work increases into the waffle stitch pattern.






Started a new crocheted baby blanket for a "Grandma shower" in a couple weeks. The funny part is that the yarn originally came from the new Grandma a couple years ago in a secret pal swap at work!



Oh - and I'm getting a new car (finally)! A Mazda3 sedan should be heading my way within the next 2 weeks...can't wait! My current car has 306,000 miles and is 21 years old. It's been so long since I bought a car and there was lots of research, Internet surfing, test driving & second guessing myself. With any luck, I'll even get it in my preferred color - you guessed it: purple! A great plummy purple called "Phantom Purple Mica". For a while I was going to settle for a Toyota Corolla, which felt a little staid and boring inside, but it had the better gas mileage and trunk space. But my ideal Corolla LE doesn't exist - manual transmission, ABS brakes and side curtain airbags -- at least not in California. The Mazda3 feels more updated and I know I can get the safety features that I want in it. After all, The Dork is almost driving age...be very, very afraid - I've seen how he steers a cart in the supermarket!