February is for Finishing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!