Life With Laura Rose

Penultimate Installment

2010-08-22T18:52:00.000-07:00

Summer break is over here in Eugene, and I am still writing about summer break starting in Chile in January! The drive back to Valparaíso was uneventful. The high point of the drive was when we took some photos of a giant copper smelting plant which took about 5 minutes to drive through. Copper is used for all kinds of stuff from medicine to space shuttles according to the billboards along the road, and is one of the most lucrative industries in Chile.

Getting close to Valp'o, the traffic became pretty thick. When we had left there was almost none, but summer vacation was gearing up into full swing for the New Year! Charles and Reida showed up at Kate and John's, and we started a new segment of the trip together. First we explored the Casablanca Valley wine region for a day since we still had the car. Kate and John had to work so we were on our own for navigation, but there is only one big road out of Valp'o east towards Santiago, and that's the Casablanca Valley, so we did OK. We ate lunch at a vineyard calledIndomita . The architecture of the building was too much in my opinion, but the food, wine, service and setting were fabulous.

After lunch we had a bit of trouble getting across the highway to our other vineyard, Emiliana, and missed our tour reservation, but they still did a wonderful tasting for us. It was very civilized--sitting at a table with a bi-lingual hostess who poured us hearty tastes of their delicious bio-dynamic wines and told us about the discovery of the Carmenere varietal which had been thought extinct (and was in Europe), but which some visiting European vintner found among the Merlot vines in Chile. It's a delicious varietal; try it if you ever find it. It has more oomph than Merlot, but is easier to take than a big Cabernet or Pinot Noir. This was a lovely vineyard with guinea hens and chickens running about and flowers everywhere; I quite liked their building as well!

Another day while Kate and John were busy dealing with their real lives, Charles, Reida, Seth and I went traipsing about Valparaíso. The city is made of steep watersheds running down to the sea, which create a succession of hills. Each hill is a neighborhood with it's own particular flavor. The famous Chileno poet Pablo Neruda had one of his several houses/wives/mistresses in Valp'o, at the very top of the road system on one of these hills and it is now a museum. It is called La Sebastiana, and you can only take pictures through the windows to the outside (the views are quite lovely), but you really should patiently check out this website: http://www.fundacionneruda.org/imagenes_sebastiana.htm as he was one goofy quirky collector of a man. His houses and belongings were all partially destroyed/stolen by the Pinochet regime (they didn't like people speaking for the common man, and that was what he did) but this foundation retrieved/restored several of his houses around the country.

One day, as Reida and Kate are both very horse-y types (and Charles holds his own) we went on a little trail ride through the hills East of Valp'o at a place called Caballo Puro. They had some awesomely expensive horses there (not the ones people like us got to ride) and one of the hands told us (Kate) about them and all the security they have to have as horse theft is crazy-common. It was a pretty nice place with a nice restaurant and all, but they were a little disorganized, and maybe trying to rip us off the tiniest bit (that's just how things work some places), so Kate had to pull out her "Crazy (yet entirely fluent in Castellano) Gringa personality" to get things straightened out. It was awesome to sit back and watch her "negotiate." I had the nicest horse in the world (Mariposa --means butterfly, and also a kind of Lily), but I could barely move afterwards--oh my achin' knees! I did it though, and we did get a nice view of the landscape. Somehow John managed to slip out of this one. Hmmm.

Each day brought a new mini adventure it seems. On yet another day we headed down for a day trip to the quaint little fishing village of Quintay (notice it has all the letter of quaint right in its name!) which used to have a whaling station but since that is not so legal anymore, one of the universities in Santiago has turned it into a marine science research facility. That is where Kate was about to have her special summer course, which Charles was down there to teach part of, which led to this whole trip we all took to Chile in the first place. Being guests of Kate we got a nice long tour. Their main focus it seems is to help create methods of raising nursery stock of commercially important fish which can be released into their real habitats, thus helping maintain fisheries without the problems that come with many fish farming operations. They had pretty much figured out the conger eel (which is delicious and hearty and a favorite there, and which is not really an eel) and are now working on sea urchins! We saw tiny baby ones which I could barely even photograph they were so small (but they looked just the same!).

We just spent the afternoon in Quintay, but Charles and Reida went back after we left for the course of course and reported that the little restaurant on the beach was most excellent!

Then we headed back to Valp'o for New Year's weekend, when things really get going down there!

Old News

2010-07-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone is still interested in our Chilean trip, but I have narrowed down the second half of it to a mere 47 photos. Frankly, I guess I don't really care if you're interested or not, as I have discovered Blog2Print, which is a service which will print out my blog posts as a nifty little book. I will then have a completed scrapbook like item in my hot little hands at the end of each year for what I think is a reasonable price. Hence, I choose to plow ahead. If you care to read (or skim) on, please feel free:

After returning to Valparaíso, Seth and I quickly rented a car, which was not quite as easy as it sounds. It helps to have a "contact" when doing this in Chile. John had "tamed one," as Kate put it, and went with Seth to pick the car up from the VW dealer from whence we rented it. Anyhow, we got it and Seth drove us out of Valp'o. That was a little hairy. They like to make extra lanes of traffic where there really aren't any and just cut you off left and right all with a good dose of honking to really keep things interesting. After getting out of there though, the driving was super easy. Hardly anyone travels until after Christmas (remember that's at the very start of their summer vacation), and once you get out of the city, there are hardly any people around anyhow, and quite a few of them cannot afford cars. So on Dec. 23, we drove north up the coast past the touristy beach towns to Zapallar, which would be a touristy beach town if it had any hotels, but it pretty much only has enormously large, enormously expensive, enormously impressive houses. If you had connections...ooh, la, la. There is one hotel: Hotel Isla Seca. It is also pretty expensive, but it sure had a great view, fancy avocado and prosciutto salad, and, of course, Pisco Sours.

The 24th we got up and drove back south about 15 minutes to another small town called Cachagua. At the north end of their bay is this amazing island just covered with PELICANS AND PENGUINS. I was SO mad that I didn't have my binoculars (again, I still didn't know they had been stolen), but we could see them pretty well because it was so close. Still, it was far enough that you couldn't get to it, so they were totally unmolested. It was awesome.

After bird watching, we drove north some more. On John's suggestion, we stopped for a drink at El Pirata Suizo in Los Molles (which looked very small and mellow), and he sold us mango sours. He pretty much decides what you're going to have as far as I can tell. I really could take an entire blog posting to tell you about El Pirata Suizo, so I think you should just go read his website. He was totally crocheting one of those ponchos while we were there, and I showed him my knitting, too. I particularly liked the Water table, which was appropriate because he went on at length about the world's precious, and preciously small, fresh water supply. He even gave us a Christmas present of a little vial of water with a golden bead to represent the fresh water.

After that brief stop we continued to LaSerena, which is on the coast, but we never even found the beach! It was crazy busy with last minute shoppers everywhere. We found a decent enough hotel with a little fridge and since we figured not much would be open on Christmas, we went to the grocery store. It was the absolute most crowded store I have ever been in. It was most of a block big, but you could hardly move. Then when we got up to the checkout, there was, of course, some problem with checking out our melon. We finally got out and back to our hotel at about 6:30. We went back out to look for dinner, but at 7 p.m. everything closed up tight as a drum and the hordes of people just evaporated. It was eerie! We ate our snacks in the room and watched the Simpsons in Spanish on the telly. I got all gloomy because it was all so un-festive and I missed everyone. Even hard salami and knitting hardly improved my spirits.

On Christmas morning we woke up and there was still not a soul in sight. I mean we literally saw: the 2 grumpy people working at the hotel, about 10 cars driving past, two (!!) other people and 1 dog on the streets. This is not a small town. We decided to blow on out of there even though we were unsure of what accommodations might be in store for us; we figured we'd figure something out.

We drove west about an hour to a small town called Vicuña (sorry fiber fans, not a one in sight) and, Lo! life abounds. People were strolling with their kids in the plaza. We had a Christmas dinner of cabrita asada (grilled kid [goat!]) y cervezas. It was dry and chewy--kind of like jerky--but quite tasty. We signed up for a late night astronomical observatory trip and then we drove up the Rio Claro valley to a little town called Pisco Elqui. This was such stunning scenery. It was not the prettiest place I have seen, though it was certainly lovely; nor was it the most awe inspiring, though it was that also to a degree. It was, however, the most surprising. For one thing the hills turned into mountains pretty much immediately and they were steep and dry and covered with almost nothing but pink and brown gritty soil and these cacti. In the valley itself was dark dark green lush foliage of mostly grapes for the pisco, and other foods just for subsistence. There was a distinct line between the two. It was such a shocking contrast. The air was so clear there that the mountains looked as if they were made of paper cutouts. Later we learned that this meant our distance-depth perception was way off and things which appeared very close, or close together, were actually quite distant. Funky.

We wound our way up this skinny, crazy valley to Pisco Elqui. {The Chileans claim to be the home of Pisco, but I think you would get a pretty big fight from the Peruvians if you were to ask.} The first place we tried for accommodation was closed, but a place next door, which I think was called Las Datiles, was open and the woman stood up from her Christmas dinner with her family to show us a little cabin. It wasn't the cleanest cleanest pace in the world, but it was really cute it had a little kitchen, the gardens were colorful and shady, and it was Christmas, so we snapped it up for 2 nights. We simply spent the afternoon lounging by the only slightly green pool (I swam anyway--it was so hot and dry there I figured any green that stuck to me would dry up and die instantaneously once I got out of the pool). A humongous humming bird flew by for a few minutes. It was almost as cool as seeing penguins!

That night we drove back down to Vicuña for our observatory tour. El Observatorio del Pangue is run by a Chilean [PhD. in Astrophysics at the Toulouse University (France)]who simply wanted to share his knowledge with regular people. He chose this area for his little observatory becasue it has like 360 good viewing days a year (did I mention how dry it is here?). There is almost no moisture in the air so it is incredibly clear. There are quite a few big, professional observatories in the area, but you have to be a real astronomer and get on waiting lists and all that to use them. Eric, and his "amateur" assistants will show you all the wonders of the night sky for hours on end if you have the stamina. Eric is tri-lingual English/Spanish/French and his assistant, Christian spoke at least some English, so it was totally clear what we were looking at. They drove us about half an hour in a jeep up and up this gnarky twisty dusty dirt road with pretty steep drop offs much of the way at about 40 mph (it seemed really fast). We got to the site just in time for sunset. It was totally gorgeous. While we waited for it to get dark, they pointed out various stars, planets, other big shiny observatories and the like. It was the last day for tours that month because the moon gets so bright it obliterates everything else. It was just shy of a waxing quarter and we got to look at it through the telescope. It was so big in the eyepiece it was blinding (spots, spots, spots) and Christian took this photo through the telescope with my cheesy little digital camera! We saw gorgeous nebulas, a globular cluster, and towards the end they were showing us reallyreallyreallyreally distant fuzzy stuff. Their computer tracker was broken so they found it all by sight. Wow. It was totally one of the most amazing Christmas nights ever. They even showed us the Southern Cross, it takes a long time to rise all the way, and explained how you have to line up two of the stars to pint to the south pole--not so easy as the North Star. We were SO glad we had left LaSerena behind. I mean wow.

The next day we explored around the Elqui Valley. It attracts a lot of "alternative" people. ( I find that term a bit distressing because it sounds like "substitute" or somehow not as good, but I can't think what else to say). There is good energy there apparantly. It sure felt like it to me. I actually had to buy hand cream it was so dry, and I found some totally organic locally made stuff. It was great. It's a bit too moisturizer laden for me here in Eugene, but it was most welcome there! We drove here and there looking at murals (this is of Gabriela Mistral, a local woman who became one of Chile's most beloved and prestigious poets), tasting pisco and visiting a nifty artist/artisan market. I bought a little dream catcher and a long hanging decoration of seeds and sticks and pods and limes and whatnot, which seemed to be a common decoration around there. I didn't even think of it as "food or seeds" when we went through agricultural customs in Atlanta. Good thing or I would have given myself away. I just can't lie to customs (as certain people now know). We had a fresh corn and chicken casserole dish called pastel de choclo (choclo is corn in Chile. If it is crowded, it is "achoclonado"-- all packed together like corn kernals!) for lunch at the Mistral Pisco Distillery resaurant, and then we had Argentinian barbecue for dinner at a place called something like Sabor Calor that had the big old wood burning grill right in the bottom half of their building. It was run by a Chilean artist and her Argentinian cook husband, who live in the US half the time also. She had her art and other local artists work as well. A lovely dinner under the stars topped off a few days full of positive energy in the Elqui Valley.

Not The First Earthquake

2010-06-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

I am a surprisingly linear person for being so disorganized and forgetful. I know it has been 6 months since we went to Chile, and 3 months since I posted on this blog, but I cannot stand to just skip ahead to current events. So here is a post I started writing on March 17th. Maybe I can finish it with less detail and just get it the heck done, since my memory has largely fogged over already:

While we were in Chiloé, we took a "day-hike" to one of the most gorgeous places I have been. We drove to the western side of the island, then took a boat across a river (from the north bank to the south) down to nearly the mouth at the Pacific. The crazy thing about this river is that it didn't use to be quite so low and wide. The world's biggest ever recorded earthquake in 1960 sank the whole valley something like 6 meters (of course John claimed everything was 6 meters). We got out and told the boat driver we would be back by 6 pm and started walking. We walked past a farm and through a field with a cow (I hope it was a cow and not a bull)(where we also saw an amazing red-blooming tree of some kind) to avoid some of the worst mud of a very muddy trail.

After about a quarter mile we came out onto a bluff overlooking the longest empty beach ever. It was amazing. I thought, "We're there! That was easy." Yeah, no. Kate and John point at the far headland with an island cut off the end of it (can you see it in the distance?) and say "That's where we're going." It doesn't look so far. Yeah, no.

We start walking along the beach where we see amazingly large leathery kelp, enormous whale bones, beautiful huge sea urchin shells, a shipwreck and even a real life message in a bottle!

We walked up over the closer headland through a seemingly endless sea of these red and green fern-like things.

It turns out they were about the only vegetation that could stand up to the ...

...(wait for it) ...

... COWS! Remember, the only way to get to this area is to walk (or ride a horse) and there was a herd of cows (and a barn) happily munching away!

So we walk on and on after passing the cows. When we went through areas with trees that meant going through their DEEP mud. Luckily there was one gorgeous view after another. After about 1 1/2 hours John started to say "We're almost there!" Yeah, no.

Finally we top the final hill and there it is --yeah, yeah!--Parque Ahuenco. The tide was too high to get out to the island with the Humboldt Penguins, but I could see them through the binoculars! We also saw a pair of Steamer Ducks. They are so funny--big huge gray things that don't even fly.

Taking up the strand again in JUNE here:
We had a well deserved lunch with the caretaker of the property in her little cabin. Not much of a house, but amazing views! If you want to live in the middle of absolutely nowhere for awhile, let me know. They have a hard time keeping reliable caretakers for very long stretches of time at such a remote place. If you stay for more than an afternoon the caretakers come meet you with horses to carry your big packs. There's nowhere for the horses to run away to, so they just run on the beach looking like they should be in the movies. The caretakers listen to the radio at noon every day and if someone is coming it's announced on the radio. So many people live on little islands and things around southern Chile, without any TV or phones or much in the way of electricity or mail delivery, that's the only way they know what's going on. Even kids' high school exam scores are announced!

After lunch, guess what? We turned around and walked back. A little food and a swig or two of beer in my tummy made it more bearable, but we really had to hustle. Our feet and lower legs and some of our backsides which shall remain nameless were well coated in mud and ox poop by the time we got back to the boat landing. We didn't make it back to the boat until a bit after 7pm. The boat driver was starting to worry. I guess an hour late is starting to be significant even in Chile.

On the short drive back to John's sister's house we stopped at a little campsite/hostel/rental cabin place which is trying to run mostly on solar and wind power.

You can really see the sunken landscape from their view.

On the road agin then we saw a pudu, an adorable little deer like creature that only lives in southern Chile.

I was SO glad to get back to the comfort of Joan and Dan's summer house and Joan's delicious warm meals and pisco sours and ohuitas (after dinner warming digestive fresh herb teas; not sure of spelling though)! Ahh, comfort after "adversity."

We should all be so lucky as to have a gnarly day-hike be the hardest thing we have to face. Remember to donate to Doctors Without Borders (click on the Knitters Without Borders link to the right) or your favorite humanitarian relief charity regularly.

More on Chile

2010-03-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, our friends (and their cat, dog and duck) are OK. Valparaíso experienced several minutes of 7.0 shaking--which was apparently pretty darned terrifying, but Kate and John's house held together, as did their science labs. John's mom, who is 89 and lives in Santiago, was also OK. Many of the science labs in Santiago were wrecked however. The water in Valp'o has to keep getting turned off for repairs, and of course the cities you hear about on the news are in real trouble; the small towns that were swept out to sea by the tsunami are largely just gone.... There are still aftershocks happening as well. It's bad.

We are all so thankful that the people we know survived (again!), but it has been hard to think about glibly posting more photos of our excellent adventure in this situation. Maybe it's important to get the word out about Chile even more though, so I'll work on it.

In the meantime, please make a (another?) donation to Doctors Without Borders (linked trough that red and brown and white Knitter woman drawing in the right sidebar) or the Red Cross or another legitimate emergency relief organization. People need help everywhere these days it seems.

Tell people you love them.

Mission Impossible

2010-02-13T13:36:00.000-08:00

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: narrow down 535 photos to a manageable amount for your blog without putting the readers who aren't your mother to sleep:

Well, the Andes are too big to leave out, so I'll start there. This is as much as we saw them, but even from an airplane they were quite impressive. This was taken on a flight to Chiloé, which is the first big chunk that has gotten detached down where Chile starts to turn into an archipelago on the South-West coast. How did we ever choose where to spend our limited time in this diverse country, you ask? John and his sister Joan grew up in Chile, so Joan and her husband, Dan, decided to purchase a vacation home down there near a little town called Dalcahue (which means the place where dalca--traditional boats--are made), where one of the members of one of their oldest and closest "family friends family" lives with her Chilean husband and their family. It was nice to have such a fine reason to choose this attractive, yet mellow region, which may be easily overlooked by most tourists.

Kate and John arranged for us all to fly down to Puerto Montt where we rented a car and drove to the ferry to Chiloé. John informed us that for years there has been a huge political debate about building a bridge across this channel. The Pan-American Highway goes across on the ferries (see the semi?), but the water is swift, shifty and very deep, so that's basically impossible and would wreck the marine environment/cost a ton to build, but they have to talk about it every few years. Political wrangling over boondoggles is alive and well everywhere I guess.
Anyhow, Seth and I love ferries and had a great time on our crossing. We saw PENGUINS swimming along nearby and humongous pelicans and some sea lions and it was sunny and it was our second full day in Chile and it was sunny and we were happy. Well, we were happy except that by now I had realized I didn't have my binoculars and I wanted to beat my head against hard stationary objects in self-chastisement every time I saw anything cool a bit far away. [When we made it home to Eugene after 3 weeks of this feeling, it turns out that we think maybe they were stolen from my bag while it was lost for a day on our way there. Still a bummer, but at least not my fault!]

One of the larger towns on the north side of the island is called Ancud. We had a great time exploring the market, buying cheese, and machas (clam-like deliciousness). Although it looked really cool, we did not buy any dried shellfish or dried kelp. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures at our first feria artesenal. It had the best knit wear and woven items of all the places we eventually visited there. When we got out of the car, I thought we were just looking for a cake for the niece's birthday. That taught me not to carry my camera everywhere! The yarn was all quickly spun singles of rough wool (very rainy down there, not good for fine fiber sheep), but the designs were quite creative. Here I am just now modeling some of my purchases.
That incredible hand-woven, bi-color shawl with elegant crocheted edging cost under $20!! The socks were $3!

In general we found the things that were only for tourists, such as hotels, to be a bit spendy for what you got, but all the things intended mostly for regular Chileans, such as socks and food, to be relatively affordable.

Dan and Joan's house is like summer camp, one big room with a kitchen, dining and sitting area at one end, than a bunch of twin beds separated by big window blinds in between. I was so excited because I never got to go to summer camp. Ok, so maybe their house is a little spiffier than most camp cabins. Still, I had fun living my little fantasy. This is a tidal channel and when the tide goes out dozens of birds swim or fly in to do their bird things on the mudflats. Nifty gulls, a big hawkish thing called a caracara, parrots, black neck swans, and many more. Mom would love sitting with her morning coffee and bird watching out the big front window. I know I did. People who know me well will laugh to hear I was always among the first 3 people up while I was down there! Didn't want to miss a second of summer camp.

One of our field trips was to go with the up the hill neighbor, Michael to the mussel farm that he helps manage. It was huge. We learned all about the life cycle of the mussel and the mechanics of farming them. Each of these rows of floats has TEN kilometers of line attached up and down in loops 10 meters deep.We saw all sorts of groovy gooey squirmy sea creatures/plants among the mussels. Quite a few folks sampled the mussels raw with lemon juice and declared them delicious. I'll have to take their words for it!Nothing like a bright orange P.F.D. to make one look one's best.

After we got off the little boat we wandered up the little hill in the little hamlet and looked at the little old church. The shingles all over Chiloé are amazing. There are several profiles, but this is the only place I took close up photos. The shingles are made of a type of wood that is from a slow growing tree (whose name I've forgotten..Kate?) which can live for 3,000 years. It is of course quite rare now, and it's use is supposed to be tightly regulated, but there are loopholes (surprise, surprise). The shingles really do last a long time. What a patina. The churches all have this beautifully simple yet graceful aspect to them.

The graveyard was the most amazing jumble of a place I'd ever been. One of my 5th graders described it this way: "It looks like they just did it themselves!" This was a pretty shocking idea to an American kid, and it describes it perfectly.

Other nifty things in Chiloé were the giant gunnera plants

and the seaweed that looked like plastic which people would collect to sell for agar production.

Such a rich environment. Too bad the ozone hole is right down there. Put on that sunscreen.
Oh, and don't forget the neighbors' sheep who wander about the adjoining property! Like I said, they aren't the finest wool, but they are apparently quite sturdy and yield plenty of wool for the ferias arteseñales (artisan craft markets) to be quite well stocked with woolen items.

They also use various local plants to make woven animals and trivets--which retain their lovely naturally grassy scent.

It was nice to see so many things that were clearly locally made. It always makes me sad when I travel and see that Chinese made trinkets have replaced local handcraft. There's some of that in Chile of course, but it seemed much less common than in Mexico. Also there are mostly just regular stores. There are big groceries and department stores, but they haven't taken over every community like the big red-T or the bigger W-mart chains have here.

Wake up! There's plenty more where this came from. Go make yourself a cup of nice strong fair-trade organic shade-grown coffee, and gird yourself for the next installment!

Knitters Without Borders--Chile on pause

2010-01-30T08:33:00.000-08:00

So, Seth has a 1st cousin once removed who is in his mid-twenties and who is married to a Haitian woman who was there visiting her family, who lives pretty much on the epicenter of the earthquake, when the Earthquake happened. After a few nail-biting days where he managed to get into Haiti via the Dom. Rep. and through some pretty twisty routes /sketchy means, he managed to find his wife and 5 month old baby and his in-laws who were all miraculously still alive. Of course, many friends and relatives did not survive this horrible event, but we are thankful that the people with whom we are most directly connected survived at least. Although some of them chose to move to some property in the country where they are trying to grow organic coffee, some decided to stay in town among the wreckage to salvage what they can of their former lives.

It certainly changes the face of a disaster to know someone who was directly involved. Why we as a species spend so much time and energy fighting with each other when we can't even deal with what nature throws at us, I will never understand.

Even if you aren't a knitter, you might enjoy clicking on that icon to the right over there and reading about one of the greatest-knit-bloggers-of-our-time's efforts to raise money for Doctor's Without Borders. If you are a knitter and somehow haven't heard of it, here you go. Of course everyone is encouraged to donate to Doctor's Without Borders. They were already in Haiti when the Earthquake hit, so I figure they're a good choice for donations because they already had relationships with the Haitians and supply networks, which, although severely compromised, are probably easier to rebuild than to build. I have always appreciated the bravery and religious/political neutrality of this organization when it comes to providing relief services all over the world.

fleece and love, LauraRose

Summer in Winter

2010-01-16T13:47:00.000-08:00

Seth and I just got back from 3 weeks in the southern hemisphere, in Chile. Although I knew intellectually before I went that it would be summer there, and managed to pack some sandals, I still took my long johns along! It turns out that Solstice in December means SUMMER Solstice with the really long days and nice weather and all. It really does. Wow. Now, I realize that many of you contend with real winter unlike those of us spoiled enough to live in the Pacific Northwest, but soggy, foggy, cloudy, soggy, foggy, cloudy, rainy weather is still not SUMMER. It was pretty darned cool to experience it for really truly.

I can't fit all 535 photos that I took on here, so I'll try to pare it down a bit! I may only be able to do a section of the trip at a time, or you will be completely overwhelmed. I can go onandonandonandonandon about it.

We stayed with a wonderful couple, Kate and John, who we know through Seth's dad Charles because they are scientists.

They are much more than just brilliant developmental scientists however. They are also incredibly fun, funny, generous, thoughtful, active and creative people with an excellent aesthetic sense (art pieces shown individually were created by Kate) whom I feel privileged to consider true friends now after spending so much time with them (it was that or arch enemies after that much time I guess).

They live in Valparaíso, a crazy steep, crazy colorful and generally a bit rough and tumble port city. It's Chile's largest port and was extremely important for trade ships in Pre-Panama Canal Days. It has astoundingly beautiful old homes, though many are in fairly poor condition.

Kate and John restored a 1910 (?) house which was built largely of Douglas Fir (they call it Pino Oregón there) which came down in empty ships from the Pacific Northwest as ballast!

You think it's hard to restore a house here, try doing anything quality construction wise in Chile.

To top it all off, Kate and John decided to put in this big solar heated water/ thermal mass system so they could have some heat stored up for winter (which theoretically does happen there also--similar weather to San Francisco). Kate learned how to do it and taught the maestros (carpenters). A woman in a plumbing store is pretty darned radical there. A woman teaching the maestros what to do is unheard of.

Chile, meet Kate.

Valparaíso would have gotten pretty short shrift from us if Kate and John hadn't been there to give us pointers and the calm oasis of their gorgeous home. "Valp'o has it charms, though they are rather hidden at times," as John put it. The view over the bay was certainly charming. you could watch the container ships being un/loaded from Kate and John's cupola room.

They have a dry dock ship that sinks down 12 meters for the ships needing fixing to float in or out. The ascensores (inclines) reminded me of Pittsburgh, but there are 15 instead of two or three. They are all about 100-120 years old, and several don't function anymore, but the ones that do are SO much fun.
You really need them too, because walking up the steep hills over and over just ain't gonna happen.

I could go onandonandonandonandon, and we have barely gotten started. If you want to see a few more photos, click on the flickr link to the right under "links I like."

Chao for now.

Lasagna--in his own words

2009-08-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

You all know Seth is one of the best guys in the world already. Here's proof if you were in doubt. He made me two lasagnas for the retreat at Siltcoos. My cabin-mate, begged for his recipe and here is his response:

Right, lasagna.

Ummm, I make it different every time. But the idea is pasta in sauce. I once had a white lasagna in Florence maybe that was to die for, but really was just a bowl of widish noodles in a nice white sauce.

So start with sauce. For that red sauce I just used canned organic tomato chunks, and/or sauce. Fresh are different and yummy too, but cook them down some. I saute' garlic in a hot pan, a little salt, a couple of teaspoons of pepper and some dry basil or oregano or both. Then add a quarter or half cup or the sauce to the pan with a few tablespoons of red wine (or port I think I had for that Lag you had) and stir, but let it damn well almost burn to the pan. That really kicks up the sauce flavor. Then add the rest of the sauce and simmer it to reduce it a bit if necessary. Your sauce shouldn't be too thick, though, 'cause the noodles suck it up.

Meanwhile make filling junk.

Cook some onions in a bit of oil on med high heat 'till they are soft and sweet. Add white wine and a lid for a few minutes after a few minutes and they get softer and sweeter faster.

Also mushrooms if you wish. I use another pan so flavors don't get too muddled. White wine works good on them too.

Make maybe 3 cups of grated cheeze per lasagna,

Mix 1 pint ricotta with and egg in a bowl.

Wash fresh spinach or basil.

olives.

Snausage?

And some where in there get a gallon and a half of water boiling in three gallon pot. When it boils, add a few table spoons of salt. Then cook a box of noodles. Put 'em in individually so they don't all stick together ( they will any way), and for maybe 5 minutes. They should still be a bit tough, 'cause they will cook more . Tong them out into a bowl of cold water so you can handle them. Cook another 1/2 box the same way. That should be enough for one. Proly. (You can also used uncooked fresh noodles, or even dry if you add tons of water or sauce to the pan for them to cook in.)

Preheat oven to 360 degrees.

In a baking pan put sauce, then noodles, then whatever, layering in noodles and adding sauce as you go. Just spread stuff evenly. Top with noodles, sauce and cheese.

You should see liquid up the side of the dish, so the noodles are kinda floating. Add pasta water around the corners and edges.

Cook for around 45 min. The whole mess should be boiling. Cover for the last 10 or so. Best left over.

Cheers, Seth

P.S. from Laura: well, that was about the easiest post ever for me at least.

P.P.S. You cook it hotter than you might think--like 450 to start then 425 when you put it in. Oh, and never heat up anything with tomato sauce touching aluminum foil--the hot acids dissolve the foil into your food. you can guess how I learned that.

P.P.P.S. Enjoy!

Fiber Dreamland--Picture Heavy Post!

2009-08-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

Another highlight of my summer was our local spinning group's (The Ewes) annual summer retreat with the incredible Judith MacKenzie McCuin. We hire her to come be our teacher for a very small retreat of her and 11 students. We spent 4 nights at the idyllic Siltcoos Station, which is owned by Lane Community College and which you can rent for educational purposes.
Siltcoos is a big lake (complete with a Lake Monster named Silly--though some think it's Nessie come halfway around the world through secretive means)

We each cooked only a meal or two which left plenty of time for fiber exploration.
Our theme this year was "Yarn Design." Judith helped each of us with individual questions, and in her amazing way taught us so much without it ever feeling like a "class."

We learned about different plying techniques, techniques for spinning different types of fiber, matching commercial or previously spun yarns, sampling to get the yarn you want instead of the one you make by default, and a lot about dying with Judith's pretty much non-toxic Mother MacKenzie's Miracle Dyes.
She was so much fun to work with! She sprinkles in all kinds of stories, tales and historical/anthropological information as she teaches. Nothing seems to phase her. I can do things with her nearby that seem impossible on my own (though I know theoretically that they're not since I DID manage them at least once). "Be calm," she says if things go awry, because she always can find a way out of the trouble. This was my first time being able to attend (note the 11 person limit) and I now see why so many Ewes plan their summers around this event!

One of the neatest things we did was learn about the renaissance of sericulture (silk production) in Kenya. One of the Ewes, Gwen (that's not her), has been making long visits to Kenya for many years now, and she brought back pictures of the sericulture revival as well as a whole bunch of "seconds" cocoons.

We cut the silk worms (who were done in through non-toxic baking in big clay ovens) out of cocoons and de-gummed them (the cocoons that is--I took the crunchy worms to my friends' chickens later that week) in a bath of hot water and baking soda. At first the smell was a bit nasty, but after awhile it kind of grew on me. A few we spread out as an experimental silk hankie.

The rest we dyed with Judith's dyes

and learned how to spin straight from the cocoons on our wheels.

It makes thread-like "yarn," and I doubt I will ever have the patience to spin enough to actually make a useful item from them, but it certainly is beautiful.

I think mine (which I wrapped around a nostepinde and is only about an inch tall but must have at least 25 yards of "yarn")

looks like a hummingbird nest.

My other favorite activity was using the enormous electric carders which Judith's husband Nick makes.
They are about two feet wide and have motors

strong enough to run an outboard boat engine. I joked to one of the Ewes, Renee, whose husband loves to fish, that they could run their boat with her carder so they would both have something they loved to do out on the water!

As the carders are so sturdy and big, they are pretty durned expensive, but I got so much fleece carded that I don't think I'll need to card for quite awhile longer.

Hempsy-Woolsy and Rugby-Bear both accompanied me to the retreat and had a lovely time. We saw bear scat in the driveway, but luckily they were the only bears we met in "person." They're still napping a lot to recover from all the excitement.

So, if you want me to come visit you next summer, it had better not be in the second half of July, because I'll be planning my summers differently now myself!

Be calm.

Summer Time Flies

2009-08-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

No, we haven't been having a fly problem, just the usual problem of time flying by when you're having fun. We decided to stay home this summer and do Oregon things. One of them was supposed to be blogging (in my mind) but this is the first I've gotten to it as I've been having too much fun doing other things. I guess I'll just try to do one thing (or at least theme) at a time so it isn't too arduous to read. By the way, if you haven't seen Seth's website recently, you should check it out. He re-did parts of it, and it has very little reading, mostly pictures.

Of course a huge amount of my time has been devoted to fibery pursuits, so I'll start with

them. School let out on Wed. June 17th and the Black Sheep Gathering started Fri. 19th. I worked on my room Thursday, then left it in total disarray for the rest of the weekend as I took FIVE classes at BSG this year: Popular Wheel Mechanics (with the utterly amazing Judith MacKenzie-McCuin), making felted pendants (with sweet and talented Lori Flood), spinning greased lightning (mohair) (with the ebullient and exuberant Janis Thompson), spinning exotics (with Queen of the Fiber Bins Laurie Weinsoft), and Tips, Tricks and Techniques (knitting) (with the extremely knowledgeable and helpful Joan Schrouder). I was exhausted, but I learned a TON.

I had one afternoon to shop and I used it wisely: buying a Jenkins Turkish drop spindle, a set of new hand cards(I forget the maker--John Day area), some practice wool from Bellwether, a new drive band for my wheel, and a silly book.

I managed to get my rear end back to my classroom for one day on Monday and got things pretty well cleaned up, but I had the summer fiber bug pretty bad by then. I spent the next few days at my friend Dominique's house playing with some white fleeces and dyes.

We did about 9 batches altogether. Mine are intended to supplement my Hunting Jacket yarn supply because the Ewes (my local spinning group) convinced me that I didn't have enough fiber for a whole jacket. Doe's are basically just her going crazy because she loves to dye.

I also managed to finish a second Noro 2 row scarf and my handspun cardigan that I have been working on for about a year!

I was excited that the one set of buttons

I had in my button drawer went more than perfectly with it.

The yarn is a blend of 50% dyed silk and 50% Lorane (the long dead prize sheep's name from which my mother-in-law gave me her last pound of fleece). I carded it on my old gnarly hand cards and spun it rather unevenly I must admit. I chain plied it to keep the colors from mixing. The plied yarns ranged from a rather decent worsted weight sort of thing to pretty durned bulky. I had to alternate balls every other row to get a half consistent fabric! It was fun though, and I used big #11 needles. I designed it using Barbara Walker's Knitting From the Top. I love how it fits and feels warm, but not too heavy. Next to Elizabeth Zimmermann, Barbara Walker is among my next most cherished knitting authors. Someone told me she's a feminist writer as well! AND she's going to be on the Luminary Panel at the Sock Summit which I will be attending next week. Like I said, Summer Time Flies.

Spring Sprouts

2009-04-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

Spring is in full swing here in Eugene. The flowering currants and Oregon Grape are blooming on our curb. The Hellebore (Lenten Rose) has been looking great for weeks. Seth has put in a bunch of lettuces. Saturday Market has started up again with it's piles of early carrots, garlic greens and salad mix. Spring rain is coming down.

It rained on our Spring Creek Elementary Spring Art show, but it didn't dampen our enthusiasm.

I peeked in my knitting basket and discovered several small projects which have reached the cotyledon stage as well. With proper care they may develop into full fledged finished objects over time.

Noro 2 row 1x1 Rib scarf,

an attempt to make myself like sock yarn by doubling it up so I can knit on needles I can at least see (I love the effect of the different striping patterns together),

and the Fiber Trends hedgehog pattern. Everyone who has done it swears this is right so far and will infact eventually become a hedgehog! Gotta have faith.

Happy Spring, everyone. May it come to you soon if it hasn't yet!

False Finishes

2009-03-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

We hear about false starts all the time in life from running races to knitting projects (eg. "I had to cast on and restart 5 times before I got the pattern right!") but we don't hear as much about false finishes. Mountain climbers know what I'm talking about (eg. "ARgh, I thought we were there, but this is a false summit!"), but except in mountain climbing, which makes everything more exciting, false finishes are just a drag. False starts are made when your relationship to your project (to stick to knitting from here on) is still fresh and vibrant. You and your yarn are a young couple working through the early realizations that no relationship is perfect, but it's Almost Fun to Argue a Bit, Hash Things Out and know that the Making Up part is coming soon (and that's always something to look forward to). You're in Love, everything will be Just Fine. Gauge will come with patience and devotion.

False finishes however, are more like old worn out arguments between you, and your now long time companion. You still like each other well enough, and you know you'll be fine in the end, but arguing is just tedious and repetitious. "How many times do I have to tell you that the cuff needs to be Longer? I said Longer!"

"This is silly; this is the second time you've had to work my button band. I told you you should have

counted as you picked up all those stitches!" "I still like your colors, but your ends are sticking out all over the place."

But, as Pa in the Little House series says, "All's well that ends well." Long-time relationships that weather these continuous aggravations with even more patience and devotion are the ones with which we want to be involved (what good is an almost done sweater stuffed in a bag in the bottom of your cedar chest?), and, though maybe not as sparkly are often more elegantly beautiful in their maturity.

Bacardi, I love you more than ever (just keep those ends in)!

That was a long day

2009-03-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

O.k., o.k.! (How on Earth should that be punctuated? I said it enough as a teenager; there's surely some way to write it. ANyhow...) I know it has been well more than a day since I said I would post pictures. This one is going to be heavy on the folks for all their friends since they (the folks) never use a computer themselves. (Is that "themselves" right, Kate?)

Jake and Susan came to visit us in early March and we had a swell time. I took a half day personal day on Friday and we all (including Charles and Reida) drove up to Salem (Oregon's small, and not terribly exciting capitol city) to go to the Mission Mill Museum. It's an old wool mill so of course Reida and I were in our glory. It operated until the late 1950's. Now Pendelton (you know their shirts and blankets) is the only remaining big commercial wool mill in Oregon. Here we all are in front of a huge automatic loom. Nothing was running today, but I did see the loom run once, and it moves so furiously they have to have a thick plexiglass wall to save you from death if the shuttle flies out of control.

We also saw the oldest frame house still standing in Oregon -- fires and "urban renewal" are forces to be contended with in the West even more so than in the East or Midwest-- which had very tiny rooms (four families lived here when it was built to house the movers and shakers of the Mill works (engineers. managers, etc) and super cool long skinny windows.

Charles and Reida went back home then, but the rest of us ate dinner at a little McMenamin's called Boon's Treasury, where Herbert Hoover played on the roof as a child (?!), then we went to (insert tootling trumpety sounds announcing big event) Michael Feldman's Whadyaknow live radio show. This might not sound overly exciting to many of you, but anyone who knows that I am a Public Radio addict may understand. I listen to A LOT of Public Radio and Whadyaknow is my absolute all time favorite show. Once I got over the disappointment of realizing that "mezzanine" means not-connected-to-the-floor-where-he-might-talk-to-you, I relaxed and had a most excellent time watching how the magic of radio happens in the magical Elsinore Theater (Salem does have a few bright points I guess).

So, we went home and went to bed, then we got up on Saturday and drove out past Charles and Reida's, grabbed them and the dogs, and headed south. We didn't make it more than about 15 miles when we stopped at King Estate Vineyards and (excellent) restaurant for a fancy brunch. We continued on down to Coos Bay then turned East though a teeny town (outpost?) called Allegany (yes, the first white settler was from Alleghany, PA, but he didn't know how to spell it!) up a creek called Glenn Creek, so we obviously HAD to take Dad there. We went on a few short rainy walks to Golden and Silver Falls Sate park. They are truly amazing--probably the most impressive I've seen in Oregon! Mostly though we hung out in the house eating, playing and knitting.

I thought I had finished my Bacardi Cardigan, but as you'll see in a future post it was not to be.

On the way home on Monday (another personal day) we went a bit farther south along the coast to a beach just near Charleston wher we saw a sea lion rescue attempt and the world's longest bull kelp, which Dad and Seth and I used as a jump rope! We also saw a huge jelly and not much else. It was beautifully clean and nearly deserted. The dogs had a great time racing up and down the beach. A few miles more southward is Shore Acres. The gardens were closed, but the rocks there are darned impressive. the waves were not a huge as we've seen them, but they were much less scary for that!

The rest of the week was a bit more sedate (except Mom might argue that being dragged to my classroom to help with a crazy silk painting art project, and then running the car battery down at the art store and having to call triple A was not a sedate day) involving more good food and general hanging out even though I did have to go back to work. It's always fun to have them visit. We are truly lucky to have such largely agreeable parents/in-laws. Life is hard enough without having to deal with bad relatives!

Glenn Creek Revisited

2009-03-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

1. My folks are in town visiting for an entire week and we decided to use up some of that time by taking my parents to the Glenn Creek house. Many of you know that my dad Jake's real name is Glenn, so that's pretty cool, donchyathink?

Pictures to come tomorrow after I recover.

February is for Finishing

2009-03-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I noticed that there is a Ravelry group by this name, and although I didn't join it (I didn't want that sort of pressure!) the idea struck me as a good one. I only finished two very small projects, but I'm pretty close on a sweater.
Last week I finished my Entrelac scarf, which I have worn almost constantly--even while I'm inside! It is SO soft (Noro Silk Garden; colorway 246). I decided to bind off when I hit (yet another) knot in the yarn that wasn't tied to the same section of color. I was a bit disappointed because I like really long scarves. It turns out though that entrelac stretches A LOT. When I washed and hung it to dry, it totally stretched out to over 6 feet long! Very Dr. Who.

I also completed my own beaded spiral bracelet. Now all the women and girls in my family have one--a twist (HA!, spiral...twist..get it?) on the friendship bracelet theme.

They aren't huge projects, but they're lovely (if I may say so myself), and I'll take whatever accomplishments I can claim.
Besides, there's always March (and April, and May, and ...).

sixth photo challenge

2009-02-23T19:24:00.000-08:00

Irie has a challenge on her blog to post the 6th photo of your 6th photo folder and write about it. When I saw that I thought it sounded cool, but I have two photo libraries, and I didn't know how to deal with that at first. I would have just used the "new" photo library, but my husband had been working with the "old" photos and it was the one that was open. So be it. It's more fun to look back a bit further anyhow. As the photo is not overwhelmingly good, I'll have to try to make up for it in the writing!

Photo 6,6:

Sun drenched succulents adorn the cliff faced rocks of the trail between Riomaggiore and Corniglia in the Cinque Terre region of Italy. Of the hundreds of amazing sea-scapes and oddly flattering family photos (we were all drunk with happiness to be in such a gorgeous place--we looked pretty good for us!) and cool close ups of this and that which I shot while I was there, I came across this one in the 6th photo challenge. It may not be the most beautiful, and I certainly never would have blogged about it if it were not for this challenge, but it does convey a sense of the place: semi-arid Mediterranean climate with dry warm winds sweeping up the steep hillsides. We saw mile after mile of this ancient landscape as we walked between the five towns. These paths are as old as the settlements along this stretch of coast in North-West Italy. There is very little access overland to these towns due to the steep terrain rising almost straight up from the sea. Methinks it used to be more fruitful, and intensively farmed--for you can see the terraces going largely unused except for a few olive groves--before the "age of convenience." Perhaps the downturn of the global economy will encourage the people of CInque Terre to bring the Earth to life again there. Of course, these plants show there really is life there already, as they cling contentedly to the edge of the Mediterranean and photosynthesize in relative peace.

Let me know in my comments if you take up the Sixth Photo challenge. I'm looking forward to seeing a few!

Crazy Crochet

2009-02-17T18:52:00.000-08:00

If you're related to me, you may remember the story of Uncle Rat swinging his toddler nephew Lloyd around in circles in his Cozy Coupe. It was all fun and games until Lloyd sort of slid/fell out the side "window." It all came flashing back to Uncle Rat when we attended the opening of our friend

Kira Burge's art show:

She crochets people's "Deflated Memories." Although Seth wasn't the impetus for this piece, it certainly seems appropriate.

The show runs at The Diva gallery in downtown Eugene through the end of February. It's quite original--check it out!

Sick Week

2009-01-30T14:21:00.000-08:00

I've been sick with a nasty cough all week. "Unfortunately" I've been too weak/out of it to correct any papers (and grades are due next Thursday), but I have managed to lie around and watch sci-fi movies and knit a bit! I'm writing this with a splitting headache while I drink my smoothie, but I wanted to show off my entrelac scarf. Entrelac is a way of knitting in little connected squares across your work instead of just back and forth in regular rows. The advantage that I can see is that with color changing yarns, (such as Noro's silk Garden #246) the colors clump together instead of making (cough, cough) skinny stripes. Knitting it is like a puzzle. It's really fun. Seth's mama gave me a class to learn how to do it as a Solstice present. I think having someone hold your hand through the process at first is almost required unless you're extra good at figuring out weird written directions.

I got a little spinning done on my Hunting Jacket singles as well. I'm all excited to finish the third single and start plying from my new tensioned lazy kate which Seth made me for Solstice. He made me one a few years ago, but my new WooleeWinder bobbins are too big for it! I know it looks like there are already 3 on there (and so there are) but two are the same because I got confused. The three singles are supposed to be #1) commercially dyed and white merino/bamboo #2) some commercial but mostly home dyed and white merino/bamboo #3) home dyed wool (mostly Shetland cross).

Speaking of cross, being sick sure makes me cross. We were going to go to Stumptown again for a really cool show at a really cool venue, but maybe I'll get some more knitting (or, cough,cough, some grading) done anyhow.

Stumptown Daze

2009-01-26T19:45:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Seth and I went up to Portland (fondly known as Stumptown --an old revitalized nickname) for the Portland Old-Time Gathering. Three days of a rollicking good old time at the Norse Hall (I'm glad they have a link as I neglected to take any photos of it--very old-school cool) in North-East Portland--just north of Burnside on 11th. Seth and the other members of Molasses got down with some other folks in the ladies powder room! There were jams everywhere! I went to a clogging workshop, and the blowout square dance on Saturday had well over 200 people spinning in circles (and squares!).

It was extra pleasant because we got to stay in our friends' cool old-school apartment building up in North-West.* I have a lower tolerance for jamming than Seth so I visited Washington Park with Chris and Heather. It is the largest urban park in the United States, and it's only a few blocks from their place. Of course, since it's the largest park, it's close to many people!

We saw Mt. Hood on lovely display, but there was a big ugly building in the way, and though it was quite majestic in real life, it looks pretty weenie in the photo (it's coming out of Chris's left ear).

While Chris sketched the lampost, Heather and I crossed a cool bridge from 1925 into a hidden neighborhood saw this old gate leading up to a big house on a hill:

The big synagogue in their neighborhood was also built in the 1920's and looks very classy (wood shakes on the roof and everything--very rare in modern urban settings, or anywhere much anymore).

Portland is still a young city compared to Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, etc. but it has a sense of history, and they haven't willy-nilly torn most of it down like they have in Eugene (sniffle).

*Portland Geography Primer: Portland is split North-South by the Willamette River which gives it and East side and a West Side. The roads that run north-south number out from the river congruently. I.E. there is a 1st Ave East and a 1st Ave West;a 2nd Ave East and a 2nd Ave. West, etc (well, more or less unless they've been re-named or dead end, but you get the idea). It is split North and South by a big road that runs East-West called Burnside. If I'm wrong about Burnside being the splitter street, please let me know. There are various semi-predictable, semi-alphabetic street names for the East-West roads, but they don't hold up under much scrutiny. Anyhow, so that makes Portland divided roughly into 4 quadrants which are known by their directional names. Clear as mud? No, Mudtown is the old name for Eugene...so, clear as a clearcut in Stumptown?

P.S. I swear I tried to indent my paragraphs, but this blog program just erases my spaces!

Below The Falls Lodge

2009-01-21T18:00:00.000-08:00

My sister, Jennifer, asked about the tree in the stairs at the cool New Year's Eve house. It is a big juniper trunk and is one of the central visual features of the living room. This house has so many cool visual features-- both central and supporting--that you're constantly noticing more!

The hobbit door main entrance is really cute:

The sliding glass doors to the deck overlook Glenn Creek rushing by, and create a relaxing spot for freshly finished stripey bears (Seth is just too cool, isn't he?) to chill out:

The kitchen is gourmet and the open floor plan great for hanging out:

We're not sure we should have let the neighbor cat in, but she was so sweet and the weather was so wet... (we named her Myrtle for all the myrtle wood in the house and trees growing outside):

The swinging beds were very lulling (if that's a word), though they could be a bit much for the extremely motion sensitive:
The tree as support theme is echoed by the counter supports:

The whole place was built by the owner mostly of wood which was felled and milled from the house site. He brought the junipers over from eastern Oregon. If you want to know more, check out the web-site. It's O.K. to share this with you now because I've booked my next weekend already! The only drawback was the dirt road was really muddy due to the fact we were there during a huge storm system. Oh, yeah, and some roof tiles blew off onto our friends' car.....

Procrastinator's Curse

2009-01-18T20:40:00.000-08:00

I wish I hadn't gone so long between blog posts, because now I don't have time to tell you about:

getting the sleeves onto my bottom up now-one-piece Bacardi cardi;

making felted beads with my class at school and then with friends at a friend's house;

playing with my in-laws' new puppy Willow (she likes to email);

getting a new futon that came in a box;

traveling to Pittsburgh , PA, from a snowstorm in Portland which lead to us staying overnight at an Embassy Suites with a waterfall/koi pond in Fort Worth (yes, Texas);

shopping in the Strip District (not what you think--it's a strip of warehouses/fun food stores);

spending winter break at my folks' house celebrating solstice, my mom's birthday, Christmas, Channukah, and the folks' 50th wedding anniversary all at once (including sleeping in the attic playroom);

the hats I crocheted for the boys, or the beaded bracelets I knitted for the girls;

the "fun and easy" rat, Liar, my niece created for Seth (Uncle Rat) or the cool Rat-Sack bag from my Uncle Ed's newest business project;

or going to a really cool house on Glenn Creek, just below Golden and Silver Falls state Park, in Coos Bay, Oregon, where we spent New Year's Eve;

To tell you all that would take a whole blog entry for each event, but if you want to know more about any of them, let me know and I'll write some more!

Fabulous Fall

2008-11-11T17:24:00.000-08:00

It has been a fabulous fall in Eugene, for me at least. Despite being a bit sick with your basic crud, we had a lovely Halloween party where both my costume and my mother-in-law's costume involved fiber related themes:
Our very good friend came to visit and we all went on a walk along Fall Creek. The Big Leaf Maples (which are very appropriately named) had just dumped all their leaves like ginormous snowflakes in the previous night's rainstorm, but they hadn't gotten all soggy and slippery yet.

The Maidenhair ferns loved the increase in fall moisture and were showing off their frills to great effect.

There isn't really all that much fall color in Oregon compared to many parts of the U.S. because we have many more conifers than deciduous trees, but those we have are putting on a nice show this year.

We don't go hiking nearly as much as we should. It's so easy to become complacent about the natural beauty of the world, but we really should take note:

Over the course of the next few days I worked on finished the applied i-cord border to the heirloom pullover (hand-spun knitted by Reida for Seth in his high-school days, but really too hot for him to ever have worn much) which I had STEEKED (cut open with scissors!) a few days earlier at my friend's house (after having watched her do a few of her prized hand-spun sweaters herself). Then I just sewed on some buttons (vintage plastic from one of Reida's mother's old coats), and...

Viola!-- I was ready to vote

in our historic election in style!

Stormwater Rises (#14)

2008-10-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

I did it! I finished my first lace project: The Stormwater Scarf made of Handmaiden Seasilk. The yarn shop in Seattle where I actually bought the yarn did not have the pattern, but the kind people at Handmaiden emailed it to me when I told them of my predicament as they only sell it as a kit, but I already had the yarn.

The blocking was completely magical. Even with the half sized skein you can see it came out quite large after blocking. I simply had to cast off before I lost my mind with fear of a huge mistake. I could have done at least 3 more repeats with the amount left . I had seen blocking work on other people's blogs, but still, I was quite surprised that it took my lovely, but rumply piece and turned it into an amazingly open, flat item in which one can see all the stitches!

Don't look too closely though, there are some definite pattern mistakes.

Still, I lovelovelove it! Don't worry; I'm still going to give it to my friend. I'm not THat selfish.

One down, still 16 to go

2008-10-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't know where it is, so I can't take it's picture, but I recalled last night that I have an unfinished hooked yarn teddy bear floating around somewhere so that's one more U.F.O, so even though I finished the Stormwater Scarf, I'm STILL at 16. Crikey!

Remember I said Real fiber addicts have way more? A woman in my knitting group hurt her hand and isn't allowed to knit for several weeks, so she's spending her time ripping out old projects she has decided she'd never finish. She called it "a massive yarn reclamation project." Several weeks worth of ripping out?! I sit in awe of her knitting fanaticism. P.S. Get well soon, you know who you are!

+1-1=16

2008-10-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

So, I started and finished a new project all in one day! I went to a great workshop about making felted flowers at a great little local craft/book/high quality natural toys and art called Creative Hands Mercantile. I made this gorgeous flower garland in 3 hours!

In fact I think I might go embellish it a bit with a few beads.....

I didn't used to believe in U.F.O.'s!

2008-09-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

It's true. I used to have one or two (maybe three!) fiber projects going at a time. I thought you had to finish them before you could start a new one (I used to think the same thing about books!). Was it a question of duty, or did it simply seem too decadent to indulge more? Whatever it was, it's gone now! Much to my tidy husband's chagrin I'm sure, I started hanging out with a much wider collection of Knitters and Spinners (not to mention reading the Yarn Harlot) during my sabbatical year. One of the many epiphanies I had (O-kay, one of the few, but still, a few epihanies is a heckuvalot better than none!) is that I realized that fiber love, much like familial love, can expand to encompass as many people, I mean projects, as you could ever meet! Now there are U.F.O.'s* flying all over my house.

I think I managed to corral most all of them here. Time to count!

1. Alpaca/Merino/Silk blend. Spun as close to laceweight as I could (first effort ever) using a worsted draw. It's really more like fingering weight. It is intended to become world's largest Elizabeth Zimmermann PI Shawl (which will be my 2nd ever lace project to knit).

2. Supplies for beaded ornaments. I made a bunch last year and hope to make more this year. I should have looked at the pattern company's name, but you can buy a little kit and then reuse the pattern. They're like little socks you slip over a glass ornament. It sounds a bit tacky, but they're really lovely! Really!

3. Homespun+FunFur+FiberTrends=irresistable cuteness

4. Random bulky wooly ends for pot holders.

5. Felt pieces for cloak idea

6. Kumihimo cord braiding is great to stuff in your purse. You can do really complicated stuff, but I'm totally satisfied with the basic one which is pretty mindless. I got the kits from Carolina Homespun at the Northwest Regional Spinner's Association (NWRSA) conference last spring.

7. My sister sent me this cool, renewable, fair trade, etc., BANANA fiber yarn. It's pretty thick and stiff in a way, but really silky smoothy. I'm bound and determined to find a way to make it into a new back for a wonderful old tapestry cat pillow I inherited from our grandmother. Suggestions?

8. I bought this spindle, made by Janis Thompson and her family at Dyelots. Some of the fiber too. Some of it I dyed (chartreuse and cadet blue), some she did (green multi). It's my first spindle project, so it's a bit on the bulky side and the whole color repeat plied together definitely pushes the spindle to it's capacity limits! I think it will make some fun soft slippers.

9. Needlepoint bookmark kit I bought at the Tintagel Castle Ruins in Cornwall, England when I ran out of traveling projects. This was of course in the Spring of '05! I really only have about 2 hours left on this. Needlepoint's just not my favorite I guess.

10. My second spindling project. I took a "different ways to use colored roving / different plying techniques class" from Beki Reis-Montgomery at the NWRSA conference last spring. Too cool. This will make some crazy socks. Although I love Wearing hand-knit socks, I don't really love sock knitting, but I figure that spinning the wool on a spindle will take so long that I'll hardly ever have to knit them!

11. This is a gorgeous sweater that Seth's mom knit for him eons ago, but which he never wears because it's too warm, that I would love to steek and turn into a super sweater coat cardigan, if I can get my nerve up.....

12. My friend and NIA teacher and I got together and did some dying of purply wool. The bag of colorful Romney locks was a gift from Rolly Thompson of Fox Hollow Farm after she won it back after donating it in a raffle at NWRSA. I want to try that wrapped yarn technique that was in SpinOff a few issues back.

13. This is the wool for my hunting jacket concept (maybe E.Z.'s adult surprise jacket?) that I wrote that giant blog about a few weeks ago.

14. I had better finish this one quick before my dear friend reads this! We were in the Beehive Wool Shop in Victoria B.C., Canada when I was oohing and ahhing over a shawl made of a really expensive skein of Handmaiden SeaSilk, and my friend slyly said, "You could knit this for a very dear friend." I couldn't afford the full skein, but a few months later I found a half sized skein at a shop (I can't remember the name, but it was in a lovely historic home) near the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. Almost done. Even the half sized skein is like a million yards!

15. My wonderful mother in law gave me a gift certificate for one of our LYS's (Soft Horizons) for my birthday last year, because I discovered that though I love to spin wool, I really need cotton cardigans for work. The yarn is O-wool Balance (50% organically grown cotton, 50% organically grown merino wool); the pattern is the Bacardi sweater from No Sheep For You. This one I actually managed to put on my Ravelry site (Laurarose). Of course I can't leave a pattern alone now that I've read E.Z., and I'm trying to make a yoke top....

16. Homespun Navajo/chain plied wool and silk yarn (I even won a 3rd place ribbon for it at The Black Sheep Gathering (in June '07). I'm trying top down one piece construction as described in Barbar Walker's classic tome (all her books are tomes!) Knitting From The Top.

Stash storage all tidied up:

Some "Real" fiber addicts have many more U.F.O.'s than this, but I've seen enough of them to be a true believer. I guess I had better stop blogging and get back to stash busting!

*Un-Finished Objects

Eugene summer

2008-09-20T13:49:00.001-07:00

Many of you may have heard of the Eugene Saturday Market. It's a great combination craft fair and farmers' market. You may not realize there is also a smaller, Tuesday market in the same location.
It's more produce oriented, and a lot quieter. I managed to get down there for my last possible visit this year the day before school started to get some flowers to beautify my classroom. Take a guess how much those flower bouquets cost. Wrong! They were huge and they were only $10.00!

Another great place to see flowers in Eugene is the Rose Garden. I wish I could capture the scents. A wide angle lens would help, too. They are lovely individually and taken altogether.

The Rose Garden is located in East Skinner Butte Park just west of Skinner's Butte.

We are very lucky to live quite close to this park and the river.

We even have a great new playground there which is a playful re-creation of old-time Eugene and includes fun water features for the kiddos.

Do come visit sometime!

Shame

2008-09-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

A knock at the door. I look out and see Ed Alverson, who works for The Nature Conservancy in Eugene, and who is one of my biggest local heros. "I have a question about your planting strip," he says. "Oh, goody," I think, "He noticed all our native plants!" I go out and he points out this plant:
"Do you know what this is?" he queries politely (almost too politely).
"Uhhhh, it's a clematis...some one told me it's a native," I reply cautiously.
"Well, there is a native clematis that is very similar, but it has serrated leaves. This one is very invasive and we're trying to keep it from spreading around Lane County."
"Oh, no! I've been encouraging it!" I cry, much chagrined. I didn't tell him I had even given people seeds for it! Here are some seeds:

It's a lovely evergreen vine with delicate tiny white, delicately scented flowers and beautiful long slender feathery seeds. PULL IT OUT THIS WEEKEND! My apologies if I'm the one who told you to plant it in the first place!

While you're at it, dig up your privets:

Your cotoneasters (spelling?):

and anything else that isn't native, but which makes berries that birds could eat and spread.

While you're at it, if you suddenly have big lovely yellow irises, they're bad as well.

We filled up the whole trailer to overflowing with invasive plants to take to the big commercial composter here (Lane Forest Products) to be sure the seeds would be done in by their higher heat and grinder uppers.

All of our trellises are bare! Luckily the fall rains and planting season should be on the way soon. Does anyone know where we can get some of the NATIVE clematis?

Maude, oh, my!

2008-08-31T08:04:00.000-07:00

Maude is a 2 year old Shetland cross ewe living a happy life on a small farm in a beautiful little valley near Eugene, Oregon, with my mother-in-law, Reida, and this is her story. O.k. really it's just the story of 1/4 of her first adult fleece, but that didn't have much punch as a lead. I am so lucky to have a mother-in-law who raises nice, soft, fluffy sheep in a variety of lovely earth tones. However, earth tones just won't do for a hunting season jacket, so....

The fleece itself is a lovely, long staple with nice medium crimp. I have no idea how those books and magazines always get such nice crimp pictures, so you'll just have to believe me. Yes, it is a multiple coat fleece, but I have never combed a fleece before to separate the softer from the coarser and I'm not starting just now (maybe with the other 1/4 I still have of this...)

Step 1: WASH AND DRY. As long as you remember not to let it agitate, the easiest way to wash fleece is in a top loading washer. Fill it with very hot water and some Dawn (cuts the grease, y'know?), push the fleece in gently with a broom handle and let it soak. Be sure to leave the lid open and turn the dial immediately to spin, just in case. You can poke it gently with the broom handle once or twice to be sure the top is wet, but don't overpoke or it will felt! After a while, spin it out and repeat, but use gentler soap--shampoo is good. Maybe once with conditioner then. Finally do the same thing a few more times, but with clear water. This always takes about twice as long as I plan for, so I was glad to be hanging out with another fiber buddy while we did this! Spread the fleece out on a sheet somehow suspended in an airy place (I decided my glider made of wooden slats was perfect) to dry.

Step 2: SORT When you have time,and most of your family is out of the house, spread out all the fiber for your project[The giant ball of roving is a lucious meriono /bamboo blend which I purchased through Dyelots.] and sort and weigh it and divide it up into piles for dying. I use a spring-load kitchen scale and an old letter scale. Imagine trying to balance wool on a letter scale. I really need to get a digital one. If you're smart, you'll label all your piles with your plans now while you still have half a brain and aren't lugging around vats of boiling colored water!

Step 3 DYE: Do your dying according to the instructions. It is possible to put 2 colors in one pot, but you have to be careful not to let it boil (really I suppose you should be careful of that anyhow), which I was not. The yellow and purple bubble together to make a fairly hideous old dusty mauve. I was totally disappointed, so imagine my joy when I rinsed it and discovered that for some reason, very little of the purple even stuck and I ended up with this beautiful antique yellow! Dying is often quite surprising, but the results are almost always fun! Also, you can always over-dye something if you don't care for the initial results.

The flourescent hunter's orange was a complete sucess though!

Step 4: ADMIRE After letting your dyebaths cool, spread the fleece out to dry again. Seth coined a new word when he saw the results. He said, "Whoa! Those are Hyperdelic!"

Step x: OPTIONS I left some white, too and carded some of it with tangerine angelina (a shiny plastic-y "bling" fiber) and some with copper angelina.

I'm planning a 3-ply worsted to bulky yarn with this plus some pre-dyed merino/bamboo rovings I bought at the NWRSA conference. This is going to be one crazy sweater (in about 4 years)!

It FELT so good

2008-08-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

I was going to go out and work on my felt project today, but it's raining! Despite popular belief, it hardly ever rains in Oregon in the summer (unless you're in the rain forest in Olympic National Park), so I have a chance to blog about my felt project.

I've always wanted a bog cape. Ha! That was supposed to say big cape, but that's very descriptive, The kind of cape Catherine might have worn across the moors pining for Heathcliff. A renaissance type cape, maybe with a hood. Anyhow, first you need fabric. The British Isles type made me think of those intricately woven tartans, but that's beyond my felting skills, and not exactly my style anyhow, so I'm going for a less structured "plaid" design.

These photos are a combo of the two pieces I've made so far. I did it two ways, but this combination is how I plan to try the next one.

Step 1:
Gather previously dyed and carded batts.

Step 2:
Weave strips of dyed and naturally colored fleece together on top of a $8 bamboo window blind from which you have removed the hardware (it's like a giant sushi mat). It is not a good idea to do this on a windy day, but I managed.

Step 3:
When you get it all arranged, cover it with a layer of silk gauze (this gives support and strength while allowing the felt to be nice and thin), then arrange another layer of wool on top of that. I forgot to photograph that step, but I used wider diagonal stripes of only natural fleece ( I have a LOT more of that). This is called the laminated felt technique. It seems to me to be an especially good idea if you are unsure of the felting qualities of your fleeces because they were gifted to you and represent several different breeds of sheep!

Step 4:
Gently wet down the whole mess by pouring warm soapy water over your hands to disperse it gently. Before this step, look around and make sure you are outside! Don't tell the dental hygienist, but I held the camera in my teeth for this shot!

Step 5:
My teeth couldn't handle another "hands free shot" for this step. With soapy hands and adding more warm water as needed, super-gently-butterfly-pressure-only circulate your hands over the fibers so that they begin to suface felt and develop a slight skin type feel.

Step 6: Roll up the whole shebang around a length of plastic pipe and tie it tightly. Then roll it back and forth for awhile (about 25 complete rolls then check for bunching. Repeat this step until it's really felt. I alternate which end I from which begin the roll.

I was so excite when I realized I could stand up and use my feet for this--much more ergonomically forgiving.

Step 7: If your'e having trouble with the edges you might do a little more hand massaging (you can be vigorous this time) in between rolls.

Step 8:
Unlroll. Admire endlessly. Drag your husband over to show him. Drag your neighbors over. Take photos. Blog.

Step 9:
Repeat steps 1-8!

Catching Up

2008-08-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

Once again I am not getting nearly as much done over the summer as one (i.e. I) might hope. One of my goals for the summer was to not be upset with myself when I didn't get things done that I wanted to. So, I am learning Something as the years pass. Since one of the things I wanted to do was start a Blog, I guess I managed that, but it won't be much good if all I do is Start it, then never write anything. SO, where were we?

Ah, yes, Port Townsend. It was really cute. Do NOT eat at the Lighthouse Cafe. It was the worst service and, can you believe it, Horrible [if you know Helen, say it like her "It was Ho(a)rrible!] French toast. There are other good restaurants though such as the Fountain Cafe, as well as a brew pub with great calamari, an artisanal bakery (Pane D'Amore) and good coffee (Tyler St. Cafe). Be sure to go Uptown and see the only 19th century wooden fire bell tower known in the U.S. and the beautiful old houses. Of course I had to visit the two little yarn shops. At the Twisted Ewe I bought a Della Q silk project bag for 50% off and 50g of "jarbo garn" (did she say it's Swedish?) merino roving in bright reds and oranges for a "hunting season" sweater concept I have in mind. At Diva Yarn and Trim I bought some short lengths of blues and peaches for a kumihimo cord I want to make for a fancy lampshade. Why didn't I photograph these?

Believe it or not, the real reason we were there had nothing to do with fiber! South of PT there's a family run business called the Wood Well which sells wood for instruments. It's mostly for electric guitars (!?), but they had a few bass "billets" as they're called (there, you learned something). We loaded up the truck with enough for about 3 more basses. Thanks Matthew, Sarah, et al!

On July 30th we headed for Seattle. We made it about 2 miles before I made seth stop at a The Swiss Lavender farm. It was lovely. The little shop even had a green (i.e. living) roof.

We dawdled on down to Bainbridge Island and took the ferry to Seattle. This is one of our favorite ferries becasue my sister Jean used to live on Bainbridge, so it's familiar and nostalgic. There was some wierd navy battle ship/Coast Guard endeavor to waste gas as several big Navy ships and little CG boats went around in circles in the harbor. After some yummy fried clams at Ivar's Acres of Clams we drove to Hammond Ashley Violins in Issaquah, where they gave Seth really good reviews on his new bass and agreed to sell it on consignment!

After a fun night eating fancy Tex-Mex in Redmond (I can't remember the name of the restaurant) and watching Batman Begins on my brother-in-law Jason's new home theater style TV set-up, we headed south again.

We only drove to Portland, and we spent a quiet anniversary night in the Ace Hotel which used to be the Clyde Hotel. It's a lot more expensive now, but still fun with a photo booth in the lobby, painted murals in the rooms, and great crazy nouveau food and stellar cocktails in the restaurant (Clyde Commons). Although it's much spiffier (more spiffy?) now, the hotel retains all of its historic charm, including the Cuban mahogany paneling in the lobby. We went to Powell's Books (larger than a block, independently owned, new and used books) saw a fun Audrey Tatou movie at the Living Room Theaters (small theaters with big comfy couch-like seats and tables for your cocktails or coffee/tea) across the street, & took our photos in the booth.

These are the pictures on the wall of our room.

I'll give it a rest now.

I did finish the sweater for the wedding though! If you're a Raveler you can see it from the link to my prjects.

I Forgot the Fiber!

2008-07-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

I was so excited about blogging and traveling, I forgot this very important part! The museum in Victoria is super (get your ticket early in the day and keep going back--they're open until 10--and it includes an historic house and a repro longhouse, but we didn't know about the all day thing so we didn't save enough time. Next time!) There is a very well done display about First nations peoples which contrasts the coastal people to the inland people. Unfortunately I'm not sure who the spinning/weaving was about, but it is cool.

They use big bottom whorl spindles and spin on their legs, much like the Navajo. The B.C. people (there are SO many tribes and sub tribes I can't say exactly who did what where--sorry) seem to spin Chubby Singles! they have this cool roving holder (see the left side of the display). This one was carved as a bird. I love how they had/have such reverence for everything. They use the natural colors for designs. Their looms had a top and bottom branch which the warp wraps all around and is tied together onto a horizontal string which is then removed to get the piece off the loom.

In town I saw some lovely handspun/handknit sweaters for sale. Many of the tags were signed by the makers. The names seemed to be all women. The sweaters were selling from between only $150-$225 (C.D.). I think I should buy one next time. We were in a hurry for some reason (oh, right, we were going to meet Jim Ham--a master bass maker and show him Seth's newest bass and talk about the whole bass making business). Notice the chunky yarn. I really like the animal motifs-- I think these are orcas and eagles.

Most of the sweaters were zip front cardi's (with guaranteed zippers), but there was this one cool poncho tunic thing that I really liked. They also had big fat mittens, hats and ginormous socks, but I didn't get any photos of those.

Speaking of fiber, Port Townsend has 2 little knit shops, both of which even have a (very) little spinning fiber. Bought me a nice Della Q silk drawstring top baggie for 50% off at The Twisted Ewe and some threads for kumihimo at Diva Yarn & Trim. Now off for more shopping/sightseeing! It is really a lovely little old town!

Back to the U.S, back to the U.S, back to the U.S. (of A?)

2008-07-28T22:01:00.001-07:00

SO... we thought we would have two hours to explore Beacon Hill Park after parking our car in the ferry line at 12:30 for the 3 pm ferry, but oh no. No, because it involves the US customs/Homeland security system you need to be in line/back in your car 90 minutes (yes, that is an hour and a half) before departure so they can pre-inspect you. Yes, you basically get to go through US customs Twice. Before and after the ferry ride. Boy was I mad. We parked and basically ran up the hill to the top of the park. We looked at the view of the Olympic Mountains for literally One minute, then fast walked back to the ferry to wait in line to be inspected. Thank goodness for knitting! I finished the first sleeve of my turquoise cotton cardigan while we waited. MAYbe I can finish the whole thing in time for Rena and Lisa's wedding?! That's 4 days, much of which is riding in the car...or on ferries.

Didn't get much knitting time on the ferry between Victoria and Port Angeles though because we were too busy watching the Olympics--and I don't mean the ones in China! We didn't really get any lunch, unless you count Fritos and Doritos Cool Ranch chips, or maybe you would count the Twix bar..., but we made it to the Palace Hotel In Port Townsend without collapsing and had a nice dinner at the Silverwater restaurant. There is free wireless in this very cool old hotel so I've been messing about with the blog--the sweater will never get done at this rate!

Northward Ho!

2008-07-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

Seth and I are taking a week to drive North to Victoria, Port Townsend and Seattle on various bass business ventures and summer fun quests. On the 25th we drove up the Olympic peninsula along the Hood Canal, which is quite warm (see feet in water!) compared to the rest of Puget Sound. we spent longer in Port Angeles than intended due to summer being very busy for ferries. Luckily there was a little art show going on with sand castle building and Fresh Hats. You'll see my new orange hat soon!
We got to Victoria around 11 pm and checked into the Strathcona Hotel--great basic old hotel right downtown for a reasonable rate ($115 including parking and lame breakfast). Have had several great meals including lunch at Rebar (one of the best vegetarian mostly restaurants ever) with mint wheatgrass pineapple juice (Mom, can you believe I would drink something so green? It was delicious!) There are great old (nouveau riche old not old money old--there is no old money on the West coast)houses and gardens around too. I'm writig this from the Old Time deli/Classic coffe with the best lattes we've had here--they taste like Italy.
OK--time to get sightseeing some more! Seth just deserted me for a used bookstore.

First Post On My Own

2008-07-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

um, yeah, so it says I have my own Blog? Could be dangerous...