Afternoon Moon

Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-14T15:49:00.003-09:00

Celebrate your Love of Knitting by whipping up a mini-raglan. Took us 2 hours to create this little bundle of joy! Cheers! by Cheryl Naimath in some left over red worsted.

2011-02-05T12:20:00.002-09:00

SpillyJane is doing it to me again. Grabbing up every single unoccupied moment of my time and filling it with yarnie goodness. This is my stay-at-home project, but I have been know to allow it to travel to my Wednes night knit group to show it off. Purple yarn is Sundara in Lenten Rose and the multi-colored is Zitron Unisono. I am loving the Zitron; it contains aloe vera and jojoba and is so smooth. I look forward to knitting this in a sock by itself.

Paper Dolls

2011-02-03T14:08:00.002-09:00

This project brings me back more than thirty years to a time when I would sit staring at my papa, just waiting for him to finish the evening newspaper. It was only after it was read, word for word, front page to the last classified ad, that I was allowed to start my scissor infliction. I would make paper dolls for hours. Paper girls holding hands, elephants holding each others tails, Amish dolls, boys, bicycles, snowflakes... ...oh the things I could make in series. And now Kate Davies has given me more reason to start this obsession off again with her gorgeously designed Paper Dolls . I am making the classic girls holding hands (adding hair) while other knitters have added owls, hedgehogs, cowboys, families, chickies, snails, and so very much more. I am loving this project.

I'm BACK

2011-02-02T15:50:00.004-09:00

Well, long time... no talk... I guess the best place to start off is where I left off. I finished the Girasole by Jared Flood in the Cascade Eco Alpaca. We have moved into the new house. I no longer work in Fox in tourism. I bought a LYS, bought a Diner, closed a Diner, and am back in the knit shop. The knit shop is a great hobby and covers most of it's own bills, but it isn't quite a financially lucrative career. Rewarding career? Definitely! Pays the mortgage? uh... So, here I am, look for a professional position with a reputable company. It really is much, much harder that I have ever imagined. I was once unemployed ten years ago and found a stellar awesome job. Let's hope that happens again! Well, I am back blogging again. Look forward to doing so on a regular basis. I'll show more of the house, more of my knitting, and keep you posted on the job search. Wish me luck!

Other people's hobbies

2009-07-20T22:28:00.009-08:00

Really, who am I to comment on other people's hobbies. I knit. My neighbor: well, he builds nuclear power plants. Yes, you read that right. He is building his very own nuclear power plant. Thankfully I am moving in two weeks

I am knitting on the Girasole as a house warming present to myself. If I do something wrong. No one is going to die. My new neighbors should be grateful.

2009-06-28T09:43:00.004-08:00

So, I talk so much about the house, but do I post pictures? Here is the house. Exterior insulation is up. Oh, so pretty! The 2/6 trim is around the windows. Furring is going up now. Today I am installing the treated plywood for the rock work. (yes, I will post photos of that as well) Here is the furring on the back of the house. Parker or Isaac cuts, while the other runs the board to me. Do I feel nervous with 12 and 13 year old cutmen? Heck yeah. Hey kid, let me show you how to use a miter saw. Heck, they are learning angles and measurements better than any math lesson at school, right?

While I am was working last week, one of the contracting jobs was completed. Oh, so pretty facia and soffits. The almond color matches the windows. It is so odd picking out all of these color choices. I never knew how many decisions are necessary for home building. Everything is a compromise or a suggestions, or an opinion on how it should be. Mark and I have gotten very, very good at coming to agreements. (or just keeping our mouths shut if the other is firmly committed to something).

When the floor was the radiant floor tubing, it was SO hard to walk around. Especially at 20F when we were worried about the tubing cracking because of the cold and pressure stepping on it. I was wearing my bunny boots, so there was a softer cushion if I hit one with my big feet.

Finally, we were able to get a contractor in and pour the floor. It has been so much easier walking around!

This is a view from the garage entrance into the back of the kitchen. You can see the island in the middle of the picture. Just past that is the main house entry (not that we will be using that at all, I assume we will be coming through the garage 99% of the time). On the right is the stairs to the second level.

Again, with the stupid Blogger

2009-06-13T00:34:00.002-08:00

This damn program messes with every formatting option I choose with photos? Seriously? Would someone tell me how to make it work? It took two hours, and this was the best I could get from it? How the heck do they expect me to fix that? hello? *text, picture, line break, repeat from * ? AHHHH!

long time... no talk

2009-06-12T22:36:00.022-08:00

Wow! I have had some serious life events since March when I last posted. April happened and now June.

Long story, short: The company that I have worked for, for 15 years, since I was 19 years old, transferred their Alaskan assets to a newly created company run by what was then our competition, now supposedly our teammates. Some of my coworkers lost their jobs outright while the rest were fortunate enough to keep what mangled wrecks were left of their jobs by transferring into the new company. Unfortunately, I was excluded from both of those groups. After 15 years of loyal and dedicated employment, I was called at 10:30am on tax day, April 15th and told that the property that I was managing was sold to a local small family business and I would be offered employment with them. So long, good luck, may we have our cell phone back, please?

All I can say is that there was NO sensitivity training of management on how to properly handle a merger, or terminations, or release of work. Harsh. Harsh is the only word I can think of that wouldn't burn your eyes reading it. Harsh.

I have worked almost two months for my new employer only to come to the conclusion that the changes are too much "not in my favor". Since Fairbanks is too small a town to burn a bridge (and I sincerely do not wish to slander their reputation), I merely have chosen not to continue my employment. 'Nuf said.

But... with that cat out of the bag. That means come August 1st, I am: 1) homeless, 2) carless, and 3) jobless. Truly a painful trifecta of lifestyle carnage.

1) I will be homeless. Right now we live on company property and are building a house (see previous posts). Said house will not be livable come the end of July. Not a chance in hell. Maybe we can live in the garage. Maybe we can buy a camper. Maybe we can live in a wall tent. All these maybe's, but one definite: we will be homeless. Renting is pretty much out of the question with 5 boys, 2 adult, and 2 dogs. A short term lease would make it so we would have no cash for building supplies. One of the boys has pretty much moved out of the house already anyway. He will be 18 in 2 weeks and has graduated from school already. So that cuts down the responsibility by one. I am totally not worried about it. We still have over 6 weeks to figure it out. The thought of living in an RV scares the hell out of me. It isn't the RV that is the scary part. The scary part is the husband LOVES the idea. Love it like he loves food, and air, and... well, shelter. He loves it as much as I hate it. I hope we can get the garage finished. Oh please, Gods of the Drywall, hear my prayer.

May your trowels be smooth, may your mud dry fast, may your skill and professionalism be a testament to your craft!

2) I will be carless. I took the management position here in 2001 and it came with the unlimited use of a company truck. I sold my 2000 Subaru Impreza Outback in 2005 because I hadn't driven it in over 4 years, after paying it completely off . I sold the Subaru, paid off my student loans, paid off a couple credit cards, and paid for a 2 week Mediterranean vacation. Rome, Greece, and Egypt were worth it. Never hearing from my stupid student loan creditors again was worth it. At the end of the month when I am riding my bike handing out resumes? Worth it? Maybe not.

3) I will be jobless. Not a stresser. It feels so damned good to be doing something new, anything new. So very, very, very damned good.

We have been working on the house every single day since the weather turned workable (over 20F above). So every day since about the end of March, we have been busting tail and have ramped up some of the construction timeline to get the ball rolling faster. Boiler is almost in. Radiant floor heating is complete. Plumbing out is done. Electrical is all installed, mapped and ends finished. I am working on the outside of the house. Ground flashing, exterior insulation, furring for siding are on my list. Siding starts in two or three weeks. Interior insulation will be blown in after we install all the cable, CAT5, phone lines, low voltage items. And then drywall. The rest is finishing that we can do after we move in. Flooring, painting, cabinetry, etc can all be done when we are living in the house. We will have a real roof over our heads, doors, windows, running water (both coming in and going out) by the end of August.

But now we are packing. Packing everything we own. Eight years I have lived here. That is longer than I have lived anywhere in my entire life! I cannot believe how much I have accumulated in eight years here. 10 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, FULL. Crap! And the best part? I didn't truly realize how much stash I have accumulated. I had to pack all of that up first so my Darling Husband wouldn't use it as packing insulation. (cause it would have made great packing insulation had I not loved each so dearly.) Seven boxes stuffed with the best fibers possible. They are all sitting securely in locked, dry storage.

I did hold back the crème de la crème for my knitting pleasure over the next 4 months. It is like the Dream Team of yarn:

#1 BMFA RSC June'09 Pepe La Plume for Fraggle socks

#2 BMFA STR Citrine #3 malabrigo sock Lettuce

#4 Sundara sock Robin's Egg Blue

#5 Madelinetosh sock Shell from Monica "editorial goddess"

#6 Fireweed Studios Handpainted sock Gold Dust Woman for Buttercups

#7 Karabella Gossamer Brown w/Copper for Stardust, Knitty winter07

Fairbanks Fiberistas KAL Summer Sweater-a-thon

#8 Cascade Eco Alpaca Straw for FF KAL and a Loopy Ewe KAL

Girasole worsted weight blanket, my second Girasole

My orchid was lonely

2009-03-27T10:13:00.002-08:00

Welcoming in the morning with snow. I love March 'cause you never know what you are going to enjoy from Mother Nature. Today she blessed us with snow. My cup run'th over.

My orchid was lonely. I bought her a friend.

Grocery shopping at Safeway is dangerous for me. I fear that I will always come home with more flowers. The other grocery stores segregate their food and flowers, but not Safeway. You can't walk to the bakery without stopping to enjoy the floral department. Smart move, Safeway!

My orchids friend is more like a little sister. Small and sheltered under her bigger sister.

Starting to replant

2009-03-26T10:37:00.006-08:00

During the "Great Dredge Freeze-Up of 2009" all of my plants died. Frozen solid in their glorious state. Plants that I have had for years. All dead. The real kicker is I couldn't replace them in a snap. It isnt like I can just go to the store and pick up new houseplants. The devil is in the details. Store temp is 68F. House temp is 70F. The temperature between the store and the house is NOT. The air "shocks" most plants when you walk from the store, to your car, to your house. I have bought gorgeous plants in the winter, only to have all the leaves fall off when I get them home. This is why I was so happy when Mark walked in the other day with a gorgeous flowering Orchid. I love the mossy bottom. After it finishes its flowering, I will repot into the old orchids nest. I love the gorgeousness of the pink, the deepness of the red in the center, the blending of the orange to the yellow of the petals. I just love this color. Love it so much that they were my wedding flowers. It just grabs me. I walk into my changing room and just stare at them, and how the sun filters through the delicate petals. I'm lucky to have such a wonderful husband that takes hints so well. Hints like, "hi honey. I am calling from Safeway. Guess what they have in the floral section? Orchids! Orchids like the one's in my wedding bouquet." And yes, out of the many colors of Cymbidium orchids they had in stock, he brought the right ones home. I guess I will have to keep him. And since I am in a pinky-red mood, I finally jumped into my next Unoriginal Hat, mocked-up by the Yarn Harlot herself; Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Using the destashed, discontinued Blue Moon Fiber Arts Leticia in Brick, I knit this up in less than one day. (dont mind the bathrobe. I called in "under the weather" and refuse to get dressed today unless someone wants to meet me in town this afternoon for knitting.)

Unfortunately one skein was not enough, and with the discontinued yarn, I had the choice of frogging it to: 1) knit tighter, 2) skip two rows {row6 & row8 can be omitted in the second repeat without altering the design}, or be lazy and 3) continue on my path and pick it up with another yarn.

Welcome: My Unorginal Sunny Hat! I am just "beaming" with delight! And my Rockin' Sock Club January 2009 shipment of My Blue Heaven: Queen of Beads ...is complete. Bring on March's shipment!

Who knew?

2009-03-09T15:49:00.004-08:00

I got a great deal wink, wink on a new bottle of SOAK (thanks Gin), so I was able to wash all my dirty handknits and wash/block my little sister's birthday present. And get this {enter: Earth Shaking Information} Noro softens after it is washed! Who Knew? I am ~~f-kin floored~~ absolutely amazed. I was so giggling with glee that I ran and grabbed my Entrelac Scarf that I havent worn and Soak'd that as well. Wow, even the kureyon softens greatly. top: Entrelac Scarf by Allison LoCicero Noro Kureyon #92 and #170 bottom:Noro Striped Scarf: Inpiring photos by Jared Flood Noro Silk Garden #267 and #275 The Day the wind blew. Wow, we do not get wind here in Fairbanks and it was alarming. Fortunately the new windows worked perfectly and we didnt feel any temperature difference in the temperatures of the rooms. With the offensive old windows, the kids couldn't sleep in the north-facing rooms. New windows? Didn't even feel a breeze.

The view from my bedroom window. Let the wind blow.

And the wind blew in another eight inches of snow. My back hurts, but my rump needed the exercise.

As the sun goes, so shall I...

2009-02-26T12:55:00.002-09:00

I still have yet to spend my last remaining hours here on Waikiki. The plane leaves at 10pm, leaving me several more hours to soak in the sun's warmth, heartly enjoy a spicy chicken sandwich at the Cheesecake Factory, and longingly windowshop at Kate Spade's. There is so much to love about Waikiki. The next adventure cannot begin until this one is over.

Over to Oahu

2009-02-23T11:49:00.003-09:00

The vacation part of our jaunt is over. We have to say "goodbye" to Maui. I can't think of a better couple days to spend time together. We got "maui'd" in 2006 in Makena, Maui on the south part of the island so we drove down and had dinner this trip at our reception site, the Seawatch. For appetizers and dinner the day before, we headed to the Hula Girl to listen to Ernest Pua'a, our wedding singer. It was a beautiful couple days. Born to Beach, Forced to Work Luxury ends when Mark has to go to work, so we check into our business class hotel, the Aqua Palms. Not a bad hotel (if you dont mind cockroaches). Giving credit where credit is due, the room is standard business class. There is a small lanai, free internet, huge LCD tv, and a great location. Situated across from the Hilton where DH is working (yes, we should be over there instead), a very short walk to the Ala Moana mall and only a couple blocks from Waikiki. I was on my own yesterday, so why not treat myself to a generous slice of Cheesecake Factory Chocolate Rasberry Truffle cheesecake? Sounds like a congratulatory reward for me for sitting here all by my lonesome in gorgeous Oahu. Like I need more reward? And on my walk to the Factory? What would Waikiki be without all of its high-end shopping? some bling from Tiffany? a trenchcoat from Burberry?

Just a few new bags for Spring? and some perfume from Chanel?

Maybe some shoes from Prada? Flats or heels?

We went out for dinner the first night with some of Mark's co-workers, that live here, and they had no idea where our hotel was, or how to get here. They were also laughing about all the high end stores that according to them, no one that lives here can afford them. At $12 a gallon for organic milk, I fully agreed with her. $600K for an 800 sq.ft. house and there would be no $$s left for a Gucci messanger bag or Bvlgari china. And why would I want to live here anyway, no one wears handknit socks. Freaks!

Maui, baby!

2009-02-22T15:18:00.002-09:00

Yep, decided it was time to leave Alaska again. Hubby Mark has meetings in Oahu this week, so we decided to leave a little early and spend a couple days in Maui beforehand. We stayed at the Royal Lahaina just north of the main Kaanapali Beach. Gorgeous area. It is quite a walk to the strip of shops on the main beach, but well worth the brake in price. Good view from the lanai. And really, who could complain with a view like this? Yes, this is a rainbow ending on the top of the hotel. Pot of Gold at the Royal Lahaina? No. Good room, great price, decent location? Yes. We flew from Fairbanks to Anchorage, and then Anchorage to Honolulu (only 5 hours and 20 minutes) and then from Honolulu to Kahalui, Maui. A fair to decent amount of time to start on my Marigolds. I love the pattern because it was so simple to memorize the 9 row repeats. The only down side to the easy pattern was I used the paper it was printed on as a book marker on my newest book purchase, Knitting with Handpainted Sockyarn and left the damn book on the airplane to HNL. Dag-nammit! Fortunately I special ordered it from one LYS and bought it when I saw it at the other LYS, so I can pick it up from LYS#1 when I get home. I was hoping to start the Spot Check on the plane ride home, but I guess it will have to wait. I love the Casbah in the Hummingbird colorway. It is almost like a Muted Rainbow on Ocean. And because I lost my book and have a generous 325m of gorgeous HandMaiden I will be knitting these until I run out of yarn. Nice long Ocean socks for going back to the frozen tiaga. And again with the view. The lanai was a gorgeous place to sit and knit.

FO February: It's all about socks!

2009-02-17T12:26:00.002-09:00

Pattern: Bed Sock in Lemon Pattern Fancy Knit Stripe by Nancy Bush in Knitting Vintage Socks Yarn: Spunky Eclectic Super Sport in Walkabout lot# 508 and another one I can't find the ball band for right now Needle: US2 / 3.0mm 40" magic loop Started off beautifully: Gave me gorgeous detail: then ran out. I had enough to finish sock1, but sock2 was missing just the wee end of the toe. My LYS was helpful enough to order a custom dye job for one more skein so I waited. My MIL called and told DH how wonderful the sock that I was able to leave with her over Christmas was. Even that she wore it on the foot that was most cold. Oh, yeah. Pull at the heart-strings.

The new skein came in and I got right to work providing her with the other sock. We will use it as kind of a runny joke. Looks like the end of this sock got bleached! Just wasnt quite the right color. That is the joy of artistically hand-dyed yarn. Sometimes you just cant repeat perfection.

And speaking of repeating perfection, I cant remember which toe ending I used on sock one. I think I used a star toe, but I really cant remember. So not only is one toe color different from the other. There is a good possibility that the construction is different as well. Guess you really can't repeat perfection!

New upstairs windows

2009-02-15T21:16:00.002-09:00

In the midst of all the plumbing repair last month, the window installer called and said, "hey, I'll be out next week to install the new windows". Great. Not only do I get to learn the ins and outs of plumbing, I get to finish windows! How can one girl get so lucky? But in my heart-of-hearts, I knew this was a good thing. You see, the windows that were here in the bunkhouse were old. Not 1980's old, not 1970's old. But O.L.D. The glass was rippling, the screens were custom made and black-black-black. The screens were so bad that the one winter I took them all down they warped over the season and I had to hammer them back in for the spring. Lesson learned, don't take these out, ever. When the wind blew outside, the north side bedrooms would be 40F inside and the south side windows would be 90F. It would be the normal 68F in the hallway where the thermostat is located, but everyone else was uncomfortable. I requested all new windows on property, but because of the economic situation tourism will be in this coming summer, only half of the windows were slated for replacement. And since heat rises and the downstairs windows are boarded over, this left the upstairs windows available for upgrades. I had to keep the historical aspects the same. They needed to look the same, act the same but preform much better. The new house has all casement windows for insulative purposes (and we want tax credits for energy efficiency) but I need something historical to preserve our historical integrity. And I found six-light, sliding windows from Jeld-Wen. Aluminum exterior in historic green with a wood interior. An antique gold paint interior for the windows, with an antique walnut stain for the trim. Here are the old windows in one of the upstairs bathrooms First the trim was removed Then the new sexy windows were installed What I will miss the most is the ultra cool holding mechanisms for the old windows. The old pull pin with holes drilled into the sills so they would stay up. Not that they did, I would have to release the top portion of the window and let that one down, cause most of the pins stopped holding the bottom windows up. And since heat rises, it made sense to drop the top window. Bye-bye pins, hello sexy levers. These babies suit a dual purpose: not only to they allow me to wash the outside of the windows from get this.... the inside, they allow me to pull the whole window pane out. Fan-fuk-ing tastic! My only problem is, it is freezing outside and I need to take the panes out to paint them properly. This will have to wait until spring. I stained the windowsills these past two weeks. You can see their gorgeousness in the following blog posts. I chose an antique walnut that matches the wood walls beautifully. It took me almost 2 weeks to putty, sand, stain, and stain a second time. Twice as long as I thought it would take me. And exhaustive none the less. Most of the toilets are repaired and/or replaced. I still have three to work on. Two are only used in the summer and can wait until spring, and the last one is in the lower bunkhouse men's bathroom. Instead of being secured to the floor, it was gasketed to the waste pipe because unapparent to me, the floor had rotted and they laid vinyl over it to hid it. Lovely, just lovely.

Gentleman's Socks (BIG PICTURES)

2009-02-15T21:05:00.003-09:00

Just thought I would try out the big guns. I am not overly excited by the bigger pictures. Seems like overkil to me. What do you think? Pattern: Gentleman's Fancy Socks by Nancy Bush Yarn: Schaefer Yarns Anne in "evergreen" Needle: US 1 / 2.5mm 2-at-a-time on a 40" addiTurbo long-tail cast on: Dec 11 kitchener'd: Feb 14 "Happy Valentines, Isaac. Here is your Christmas present!" "Now NEVER EVER wear these without shoes or slippers. I can't image why I chose to use this very thin (thinnest I have ever used) yarn for a teenagers socks. He is very responsible, but still young enough to think it is great fun to play with the dog in your stocking feet. I have enough of this yarn left over from this 560 yard ball to knit another pair. This yarn was dark and hard to see in the Fairbanks winter even with all the lights on. Maybe a nice summer knit. Definately a better yarn for lace work than socks.

Leyburn Socks

2009-02-15T20:20:00.002-09:00

Pattern: Leyburn Socks by MintyFresh Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts; Socks that Rock; "Prove it all Night" in mediumweight Needle: US 2/ 2.75 40"magic loop Judy Becker's Magic cast on: Jan31 Sewn bind off: Feb 13 special ordered for Ravelry's Socks That Rawk LEYBURN KAL All my STR colorways in stash were already choosen and this gave me an excuse to order a color that I never would have thought I liked. Similar to the colorways sent in the RSC. Wouldn't have ordered them myself, but loved them once I started knitting (except GoodyGoody, never liked that one) Toe-up, so wonderful When I copy pictures from my computer, they are smaller in format than when I copy links from Flickr, so sorry about the descrepancies. {I don't think they will matter to anyone} the pair:

Priscilla Wild's no fuss/no mess - no holes, no wrap and turn heel. I loved it because of the ease. I still had to whip up a small hole that was peeking skin on one side of one heel because I think I missed a "create one" at the end.

It is hard to find enough light on an overcast winter day in Fairbanks. So right up to the window we were! I had my pick of sock models this day as we are entertaining friends of the boys. Five 12 year olds on this extended 4 day weekend. These are the days that I am NOT thankful I work at home.

Mad Color Weave

2009-02-15T19:09:00.002-09:00

Pattern: Mad Color Weave by Tina Lorin Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino Wool of the Woods Lottery Needle: size2/2.75 for toe, foot and upper leg size1 /2.5 for heel, ankle, and lower leg Cast on: November 25 Sewn Bind off: February 6 the pair the Eye of Patridge heel flap Oops, "inside the markers Riverbed Architecture Judy Becker's magic cast on

Holidazed - Rockin' Sock Club 2008 November shipment

2009-02-15T18:07:00.003-09:00

Pattern: Holidazed by Anne Hanson

Yarn: STR mediumweight in "Muddy Autumn Rainbow"

Needle: US 2/2.7mm on a 40" magic loop

Cast on: December 3, 2008 Kitchenered: January 8, 2009

A lovely little swirling rib. They fit like a glove. Or should I saying, "they fit like a well planned sock". This is the last installment of the Rockin' Sock Club of 2008. Fortunately I was again able to afford the Rockin' Sock Club of 2009. I even pimped it out to the girls of my local stitch club! Thanks girls. It is going to be so much fun knitting all these socks with you!

Weekend in Anchorage

2009-02-15T16:15:00.004-09:00

The plumbing contractors finished on Thursday, January 22 and that's when the real work for me started. They did an excellent job. I have water and I have heat. 'Nuf said. I was stressing over how much I had to do, since I couldn't work around them when they were working; I would have just been in the way. I did little things, like setting new toilet tanks, and setting the toilet bowls (the part you sit on) when necessary. Every tank cracked, but fortunately I only lost a couple bowls. I neglected to take pictures of those, since taking pictures of broken toilets isn't my cup of tea. DH was needed in Anchorage for a work dinner with the Society of American Military Engineers and I decide to invite myself along and invited him to drive. Usually he flies down for their functions and flies back up that evening, but I casually invited him to drive the normally six hours (five if we are driving our personal vehicle) so that I could go along. Now I say normally a six hour drive. This time there was ice on the road heading south, so it took us almost eight hours to get there.

When the sun was shining, it was hard to watch the road without burning your retinas.

Here is the view as we are about thirty minutes north of Healy coming up into Denali National Park(ing lot).

After the park (and I say parking lot because most visitors never really get into the park, they sleep in the hotels, shop in the tourists traps, and drop serious money in the eateries. It is just that they never really manage to get into the park. The best they can be exposed to is the BlueBird bus ride, which is such a shame such a gorgeous National Park isn't available for the public) Off my soapbox and back to the road.

Something that I have never seen with my own eyes before:

I caught a picture of this wolf who was hunting on the outskirts of the caribou herd that was south of Cantwell. I have driven the Parks Highway hundreds of times. Driving to Anchorage is a pasttime for most Fairbankans. In all of these drives, I have never seen a wolf. Hundreds of moose, caribou, arctic tern, porcupines, grouse, snowshoe hare, and even once a brown bear, but never wolf. Nice to see the population is growning. Hunters might not agree, but I dont really care if they don't like competition. Makes them stronger.

And what was my incentive to drive eight hours on a single sheet of ice?

My Matron-of-Honor is pregnant with her first baby, hopefully there are more coming later.

Her husband was kind enough to grow is own baby belly as a form of marital collusion. Yeah for babies! since I won't be having any more :(

Babies are great, it is just the additional 18 year maintenance agreement that they come with.

Hopefully she will let me babysit.

The drive home always seems to go faster, so we stopped off at Hurricane Gulch. I always have the images in my mind, but if we ever move away, I want actual pictures of these places.

It is much more stellar in the midday with full sunlight, but I didn't have that option.

the trouble with taking vacation is...

2009-01-10T20:16:00.008-09:00

So my last blog entry left me complaining that Seattle did not have the ability to deal with snow. Roads were closed, but most importantly (to me) the airport was shut down for the night leaving me and several other hundred seasonal travelers literally out in the cold. Fortunately, we were not part of these people, whom our favorite airlines hosed with deicer. Out in the cold, with no where to go (by plane) we hopped a cab to the Holiday Inn in Kent to bunker down for three days until the next flight became available. Now realize that we were supposedly flying on the 20th of December. A full 24-hour day before our cruise was scheduled to leave the port in San Diego. Unfortunately, the next plane that had seven tickets to San Diego wasnt until the evening of the 24th. This meant we would have to catch up with the cruise at a different port. At our own expense. Can you image how expensive seven last minute plane tickets are from San Diego to the next port, Acapulco? "So whatcha doin'? Nothin' chillin' at the Holiday Inn" - Christmas SnoopDogg style Mark called the Alaska Airlines MVP desk and had the replacement tickets scheduled to San Diego mere minutes after our original flight was cancelled. We heard rumors of travelers who where unable to fly for almost a week and some that we spoke to in person who cancelled their plans all together. The reason we had to pay for the additional tickets: #1 we chose not to purchase travel insurance (never again will we NOT have travel insurance during time-sensitive travel) and #2 the airlines do not cover for the cruelties Mother Nature gives them. Alaska Airlines (AkAir) was not able to cover our next plane tickets and but more importantly to us they were not able to relinquish our luggage. Mark, Austin, and Orren headed back to SeaTac the next day to try to collect our luggage. It was only after a three hour wait in line they learned AkAir was sending all the luggage onto the final destination to allow those airports to sort through the chaos because SeaTac was wholly-unable to handle the mess they created. Their baggage handlers had thrown all the luggage off of every flight and had stacked and piled them on the baggage room floor five and six bags deep, with no flight sorting, whatsoever. We were able to find only one bag. Mine. My bag. My evening gowns bag. Wow. What a relief. Those come in handy doing laundry at the hotel! In a ball gown. To my amazement, the boys kept an excellent spirit during the Holiday Inn Hiatus. With all that snow, they made a gargantuan snowball. Seattle snow is much better than Alaskan snow, I guess. Alaska snow is to too cold to stick to itself. It is powder fine and does not pack. Seattle snow on the other had has moisture, so it makes things like snowballs. Great big snowballs. No gloves, no jackets, no worries. Just hours and hours and hours of fun in the back lawn of the hotel. After three wonderful snowy days camping at the hotel, eating hotel waffles, ordering pizzas, and eating dinners at Denny's, we were finally able to leave Seattle and head to San Diego. There were no direct flights from San Diego so we had to book San Diego- Houston- Acapulco. Flight got in late evening San Diego so it was off to Jack-in-the-Box for dinner and a cozy night at the Ramada. Ah, I feel like a traveling salesmen staying at super cheap hotels. Comforting. Livable, cause we were flying out early the next afternoon for Houston (or so we thought). We get to the San Diego airport only to find out that our flight to Houston was delayed due to the plane being held in Newark. Five hours later, they secure another airplane and assure us with food vouchers that another plane has been found and will be landing in a few hours. By 10pm, I was starting to loose hope. Merry Christmas Eve. Thank God there was a bar at the end of the concourse that was willing to spike my Starbucks Eggnog Latte with Baileys. One of those down and I was actually grateful they got us on a flight to Houston after midnight. We landed in Houston around 3am and decided to skip the hotel we had reservations for in hopes of gaining an extra hour of sleep on the airport floor before our 9am flight to our ship in Mexico. My only question is: "why does Houston need to announce over their intercoms at CONCERT level reminders that I shouldnt carry someone elses property in my luggage?" The aiport is locked from 2am-5am. No one new is getting in until 5. Yet, they feel the need to remind us of very important airport safety. Thank you. Houston, it was a pleasure waking up on your airport floor on Christmas morning to be informed of these concerns. Thank you, very, very much! It didnt take long for everyone to fall back into routine once we were on the ship. The kids scattered in all directions with newfound excitement from realizing that this cruise has other kids their ages. We were the only family on a ship that holds over a thousand people last January. This being a Holiday cruise, there were what seemed to be hundreds of children. Hundreds of children that were overly excited to get up early to go on shore excursions. Puerto Chiapas offered up a small site of Mexican ruins. Nothing overly spectacular, but a nice area to walk and enjoy the fresh air and time off the ship.

Mark and I

A view of the room. The space was reasonable. We didnt feel crowded. A queen/king sized bed a small sitting area with couch and writing desk. Insuite bathroom with 3/4 sized tub; surprisingly a lot of people take baths on a cruise. I guess the fact of not wanting to fall in the shower since standing up while the ship is moving is actually quite dangerous (but I did it anyway since I dont take baths in hotel bathrooms {unless they are luxury rooms with overly large tubs}). The flatscreen tv has a dvd player and the library has thousands of movies to rent. There are two movie channels that play nothing but new releases all day. I admit: there were several days when I just stayed in bed, knit, and watched movies.

Most ports had entertainmet in the shopping areas to draw the excusion crowd to stay in the pavilion and bring the "I never go off the ship" crowd off the ship to see what is going on. Both crowds end up dropping at least a few dollars. I would say they ended up dropping a few pesos, but every time we tried to pay with pesos, we got eye rolls and elevated prices. Even their ATMs offer to payout with American dollars.

These dancers were athelets! They would dance for 15 minutes, swinging and swishing and running about, then would walk the crowd taking pictures, only to return to the active dancing without sweating themselves to death in the 90F+ heat. We were only 10miles north of the Guatemalan border and we were feeling the heat.

Yes, the hallways are this long. Even longer if you spend time up at the Crow's Nest

Ixtapa: Brett dug a hole that deep. Parker developed a bad sunburn but they both had fun playing in the water and on the beach. The rest of us sat in the shade, relaxed and enjoyed the sounds of the ocean.

Puerto Vallarta: funny, but I think my friend Kat's hotel was just around the corner from where we took this picture.

Oh, the joys of family pictures. Okay, everyone smile!

Mazatlan:

These cruise ship are like floating cities. There are several (like 9) bars, a casino, a live theater, a movie theatre, three restaurants, two more buffets serving pizza, tacos, hamburgers, laundrymats, a library, internet cafe, espresso stand, giftshops. It was amazing. There are two kids' hangout areas. Club HAL for kids 12 and under and The Loft for kids 13+. Two of our boys turn 13, one this spring and the other this summer, so they were mad-bummin' about their denied entry into the teen joint which has it's own pool, sunning area, karaoke, games, and so much more than they ever needed to keep entertained. Last cruise they had free rein over both areas (again with the only family on board schtick).

PV: Nature's waterslide

Loreto:

Leaving Cabo, our last port-of-call

We had a lot of fun on the cruise. I highly recommend cruise for those with families. There is always food available with the hardest part being keeping the kids from eating before dinner. Someone else cleans, someone else cooks, and if you chose to, someone else does all the laundry. You go to bed at night after going to the theatre to see singers, comedians, dance shows, jugglers or go see a new release movie on the big screen or just get snockered at one of the many, many drinking establishments and wake up in the morning in a new town. And dont get me started about the spa, and the pools, and the fitness center.

Just a calm, relaxing vacation. Or so I thought... Then the phone rang in the room... Work has been trying to get ahold of me... Call home... Oh CRAP!

The phone conversation goes something like this:

Me: "Hello, what's wrong"

them: "It was 60F below last night"

me: "and?"

them: "It was 60F below last night, in your house"

me: "what?"

them: "Pipes are froze. All the pipes are froze. Every one of the contractors you left a phone number for are too busy with everyone else's frozen pipes to come out."

me: "call someone else!"

them: "We did. They are too busy to call us back."

By this point, it has been over 48 hours without heat. Every pipe is busted. Every water pump is split. Every drain has cracked. The dishwasher exploded! The boiler and hot water heater were saved because electric heaters were brought up in time. Thank you!

I have had contractors here for over a week now. Yesterday we were full self-sufficient for heat. Today they start on the water. Over a week now without running water. Now I have incentive to go to the gym every day. They have showers.

I cant even begin to tell you the joys of the Sani-can at 40F below. We get back into Fairbanks to enjoy driving in Ice Fog. I love this natural phenomenon. It is the joy that only frigid cold air and humidity can bring. My only fear is driving on the highway when it is heavier than seen in the picture. There tends to be massive pileups on the highway caused by some idiot who doesn't stop to realize that if you can't see more than 20ft in front of you, then maybe you shouldn't be driving at 65mph. Drive only as fast as your stopping distance. If you can't see more than 100yards, don't drive over 40mph. But like the rest of the world, we have those that are overly cautious who decide to drive 15mph on the highway with someone else behind them driving 80 and pileups occur.

The sweet joy of -42F. I missed the 60below. Okay, to tell the truth, I didnt miss it, persay. I just was not in the state to experience this. Coldest I have ever had the joy to experience was 68F below. Being a very penny-poor college student and single mother, my car didnt have heat. That was a cold winter.

Here is the external heater that Slayden Plumbing brought out to heat the Dredge to a working temperature. It took three days to bring the house from freezing to livable. I can only guess how much diesel that baby burns with its $4000/wk price tag, I dont really care. Just turn my heat on so I dont have to pay for this anymore.

They styrofoamed my door with the hose coming through. So beautifully functional. That is why I love Alaska.

The cold blew up the Hobart dishwasher downstairs. I will now have to handwash all my dishes until this spring when budget allows me to have this repaired.

This is the part that hurt the most. This one of two frozen and fractured pumps means that I do not have running water. Slayden predicts starting on the water in/out system next week. This past week they have concentrated on fixing the boiler lines so that the Dredge heats itself.

I cannot tell you how much I love these guys. I have never in my working career here seen more diligent, dedicated, mild-mannered, clean mouthed, respectable contractors. Everyone from the service manager, to the journeyman plumber, right down to the runners has been just simply amazing, hard working, and reliable gentlemen.

Just a few of the many, many, many blown pipes.

Fortunately the glycol (thankfully I paid more for the environmentally-friendly, non-toxic antifreeze kind last time we had the system cleaned, checked and refilled) didnt enter the house. It looks like it all drained into the septic system.

We still have not found the explanation of why the entire system failed. The initial finding was a failed fan motor on the auxilary heater in the crawlspace that at 60F below allowed the pipes underneath the house to freeze, driving the boiler to increase internal pressure and causing all the glycol to dump into the septic system. After inspecting the boiler, that is the only conclusion they could come up with.

And then they drop me...

2008-12-21T21:46:00.002-09:00

... and everyone else. Flight into Seattle was a bit uneventful. Flight attendance tell us on board as we are landing that there have been some cancellations. Oh, that wasnt even the half of it. "Some" was a drastic understatement. Straight off the plane, we ran to the readerboard to find the location of our flight to San Diego. Of the three flights of the morning, two where cancelled. Fortunately, ours was the only flight remaining. We sat at the gate and stared the Alaska Airlines attendants down. We were no intimidation to them. It was not like there were feet of snow on the ground. It was not like the winds were howling at 80 miles an hour. It was not like there were sheets of falling ice rain. It was snow, lightly falling. Hard to believe a few flakes could cause this much disaster. I soon found out that the minds-that-be at Seattle Tacoma International Airport have an unhealthy avoidance of snow removal equipment purchases. I guess they are the thought-theory that if they dont buy anything to remove the snow, then the snow merely shouldn't fall. Are those in the Pacific Northwest that naive? I live in Fairbanks, Alaska. If for one year, I decide not to buy the boys winter jackets. Will the temperature not drop below zero? I do not believe I would have happy-campers waiting for the bus in the middle of December. Yet I digress. We arrive in Seattle at 6am this morning. We wait another eight hours for information pertaining to the de-icing of our plane and listen to countless flights being labeled "cancelled" and we sit in the airport like lemmings before the final run. The sitting becomes the standing; the standing become the pacing, and the pacing becomes frantic lunges for the counter. "Flight 840 to SanDiego has been cancelled. Please exit the terminal to the ticketing counters to reschedule your flight". Fortunately we have a phone number to the agents and start calling the moment that announcement was broadcasting. We are confirmed on a flight out of Seattle on Tuesday, December 23. Too bad the cruise took off earlier this evening from San Diego. Without us. Without several other people in Seattle waiting for the flight. Without other people in Vancouver. Without even more people in Portland. Is no one in the Pacific Northwest purchasing snow removal equipment? Another six hours of phone calls to various airlines and air resellers to come up with a solution. Alaska Airlines rescheduled us for San Diego, yes. But the cruise is no longer in San Diego. It is entertaining hundreds of fortunate OTHER passengers in the Pacific Ocean. We had to purchase (yes, added expense: plane tickets for 7) flights from San Diego, to Houston, to Acapulco to catch up to the cruise ship on Christmas afternoon. Oh, baby. Santa is going to visit somewhere 30K feet above Northcentral Mexico. I hope those reindeer aren't affected by altidude sickness.

Alaska Airlines comes through

2008-12-21T00:24:00.003-09:00

So our flight out of Seattle was cancelled and we were rebooked on the next flight out to San Diego three hours later. We would have had a six hour layover instead of the intended three hour layover, but... When we arrived in Anchorage, we found that there were not flights in or out of Seattle, indefinately. Fortunately, "indefinately" was only an hour and half, but our flight hadn't even left SeaTac yet. That flight left. We know have three hours to wait for our flight. Only four hours late. The good side? We get out of Anchorage and we now only have four hours to wait in the Seattle airport. Now just wish me luck getting out of Seattle on time. Really, I never would have thought it would be this hard, but glad it has been this easy. At least they are not like Northwest Airlines that left DH and I in Narita, Japan for over three days without compensation. I try to remember that it can always be worse. Wish me luck!

CRAP!

2008-12-20T14:46:00.001-09:00

At 2:40pm my flight out of Seattle to San Diego was cancelled. On the phone with Alaska Airlines right now.

Christmas Knitting

2008-12-20T00:25:00.004-09:00

So this is my fast frenzy of Christmas knitting. These are Gentleman's Fancy Socks for Isaac. They will not be done by Christmas, so he will get them early January. These are Warmest Mittens for my sister in Michigan The Baby Surprise Jacket for niece Sarah in Juneau The Wonderful Wallaby for nephew Joseph

Aran Slippers from IK Holiday Gifts for sister-in-law in Juneau

Kate for Layla from knitty.com and "Kate"-inspired hat and scarf for her older sister Gwennie in Washington

Drop Stitch Scarf for Carter

And how am I spending my Christmas? That would be on a Holland America 14 day Mexican Riviera holiday cruise. We fly out tomorrow afternoon to Seattle (and great, they are having a HUGE storm and we were told to expect delays {of which we can't have a single one because there is ONE SEAT out of Fairbanks to the lower 48 from now to Christmas / if we miss any flight at all, then we miss the cruise} there was no alternative on the plane tickets at time of purchase because we used airline miles for all seven of us). Seattle is expecting a massively historic storm. When? Tomorrow! Lovely, just lovely.

If everything goes as planned, we will be spending Christmas in Acapulco and New Year Eve on board in Mazatlan. And with the price for the cruise, it is a very humbling Christmas.

But why would someone want to leave their home for the Holidays?

Because this was the photo I took while in town yesterday. It was just after sunrise at 11:28 as I was driving south on the Steese Hwy coming up to the 10th ave intersection. Thankfully tomorrow is Solstice (the longest night of the year) and I will miss it. Hopefully not to be spending my vacation in the Seattle airport.

But also on my drive to town, I am rewarded with this view at the top of Halgerbarger hill. A view of Fairbanks:

Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas

Australia: Costal (part 2 of 2)

2008-12-16T15:24:00.003-09:00

Australia continued... The first post covered the Outback as we made our way to the coast. We drove all day and just as night was falling, we started our ascent of the Great Dividing Range. Not taking more than two hours, which ironically included a dinner stop at The Hilltop Cafe (of which we have a restaurant of the same name in Fairbanks, also at the top of a hill), we descended at what felt like 90 degrees on switchbacks for 40kms. We made it into Cairns to spend the night at the Holiday Inn, which surpisingly is much much nicer than the Holiday Inns in the States. Woke up the next morning to head to Port Douglas. Just north of Cairns on the Bruce Highway, we first see the Great Barrier Reef: We find a place to stay in Port Douglas and decided upon taking a short drive through the Daintree National Forest. Well, the short drive turns into a daylong adventure and we figured it was quicker to continue the scenic path north to Cookstown to spend the night. A fabulous dinner on the wharf, a pleasant nights rest, and back to a faster highway south to Port Douglas. Side note: Port Douglas isn't pronounded: Doug (dug), like the American name. It is pronounced do-g, like go "do" this for me +g. I couldn't hold back the giggles whenever anyone would ask me where we were staying. The first night in Port "do"glas we boarded a sailboat and had a pleasant sunset sail around the inside of the reef. We saved the adventure for the next day when we boarded the Poseindon for an afternoon of feeding the fishes... through the mouthpiece... thirty feet below water level. Oh, sorry, that was just me. I get seasick very easily and was hoping diving would treat me with more respect than snorkling does. Obvious to all the other divers: I was wrong. If you ever wanted to know: yes, you can get seasick while diving. It isn't fun. It also isn't life threatening. We did rent an underwater camera and were able to take pictures; which unfortunately all turned out very blue. Are you curious about those sexy light blue suits we are wearing? I was curious until I had to wear one. Stinger suits. So whatever nasties (jellyfish) that live in the coastal northern waters don't sting us to death. Most flattering suits imaginable. Here is Mark equalizing his ears. Since we survived the Introductory dive, twice. We decided to continue our journey south to Arlie Beach and occupy our time drinking with all the foreign workers, avoiding teenagers on their summer vacations (how dare they take summer vacation during our winter?), and touring the Whitsunday Islands on the rainiest day of the entire trip. While we cannot plan the weather, we should have skipped the three island tour. Hanging out on a desert beach sounds super-sexy until you realize you are being lightly misted on while expected to don yet another sexy stinger suit just to go swimming. No one's fault. Just a matter of circumstance. These ladies didn't seem to be bothered by the weather. So what where we living in this whole time? Funny you should ask. I did take a couple pictures of the inside of our humble abode. This is walking in the from the only doorway near the back. To the close left you see the refridgerator, behind that were the cupboards. Above center is the fold out bed all tucked away and to the right is the seating and the air conditioner.

and looking down from the bed, you can see everything in reverse:

From Arlie Beach we continued southward to Fraser Island, which was a stellar trip. I would highly recommend this trip to everyone. The whole island is a forested sand with a Seventy Mile Beach.

First stop on our island tour was McKinsey Lake. Nice lake, we didnt swim, too many other places to see. I couldn't bare stopping and staying at the first nice place we stopped off.

and then I couldn't bare halting at the second place we stopped at. Although, of any of the activities that I wished I would have taken the time to enjoy, this lake was it. It looked to gorgeous and refreshing, but we were beach camping with no running water anywhere and the thought of swimming in stagnant hot water without being able to rinse off scared me. We have swimmers itch in the gravel pits. I have no idea what I would have gotten "down under", if you know what I mean!

After three or four hours of driving, we finally protruded upon the east side of Fraser Island to Seventy Mile Beach. The island is run by their EPA, which is much more lax than ours would ever think to be. If an island in the States were run by the EPA, do you think they would allow up to drive 4X4 diesel campers up and down the beach?

It was hard to put the camera down for just one minute for thought I might miss the perfect shot. Every curve of that beach was gorgeous!

A stop at the shipwrecked cruise liner left to decay gave me time to stretch my legs and enjoy the sun, the surf, and the sand. We were able to walk around the SS Maheno for quite a while. I think I probably have 20 or more pictures on my flickr account.

Our little 4x4 campervan went everywhere on the island, except to the Champagne Pools at Indians Head. Here the little campervan that could: couldn't. We tried and tried, but eventually gratiously accepted a push-out by two safari truckloads of foreign student workers that in the bests broken English they knew explained to us that there was much deeper sand ahead. Turn around and stop trying. I will never know what we missed. I can only assume it was as great at the Garden of Eden. Or maybe it was just more sand.

We set up camp on the beach and watched the sunset, only to be reminded by the bored dingo that our nightlife had much to be desire.

I enjoyed the relative peace. It would have been nice to run into someone our own age. Most travelers were local Australians with small childern, foreign workers primarily from Germany with a few Frenchies thrown in, or summer-breaking teenagers. Which judging from the local waterholes, these summer-breakers are allowed to drink at 16 without, what Americans consider, an adult. Wow, way to make me feel really old.

Our final destination while still in the campervan was the Australia Zoo. We tried to time it so that we would NOT be visiting the zoo on their busiest day. We failed. As time came around, we realized that we would be visiting the zoo on November 15th, which coincidentally was Steve Irwin Day. The zoo was packed with people in cars, campervans, shuttle buses, motorcoaches, city buses. I was looking for an airstrip with planes landing every 15 minutes, but couldn't find that. Once we were in the zoo, it surpisingly did not feel crowded at all. There were dozens of special activites and superb shows being held. Volunteers were everywhere to assist guests looking for special exhibits. I was surprised at how many special activities there were going on at once.

as I looked over pictures of Australia on Flickr before heading over, I kept seeing photos of wombats. Whoa, those are cool! The zoo offer pictures with the wombats, but not until 2:15 and we needed to return the van by 2, so I missed getting my picture with one of these freaky little mammals. Too bad, cause I was going to comb it and mix the fibers in with some merino for an exotic pair of socks!

Man, and I thought my job was easy.

an obligatory photo with the koala bear

after the zoo, we returned the campervan in Brisbane, rented a car and drove another hour to Surfer's Paradise. The beach was gorgeous, but I came for a little bit of city life/ shopping/ relaxation.

Finally after living in a campervan for more than two weeks, HOTEL-land. We stayed at the Marriott Surfers Paradise. This was an awesome hotel. Outdoor swimming lagoon, bar, two restaurants. It was so nice to end the vacation with a little bit of luxury.

Well, that is all for Australia. I thought I should get these posted before I start posting about all of my Christmas knitting that I have been frantically working on. I will throw in a couple of obligatory pics and then wont be posting again until my return from Mexico. We are taking the kids on the Ryndam for the Holiday Mexican Riviera 14 day cruise. I hope to blog more about it soon.

A little meme for you, from me...

2008-12-03T23:53:00.002-09:00

I leave you with a meme, poached shamelessly from Becca and weezalana

Things I've Done (In Bold)

1. Started my own blog (yep)

2. Slept under the stars (I was a Girl Scout)

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii (all the islands, was married {Maui'd} in Makena, Maui)

5. Watched a meteor shower (just saw one in Australia two weeks ago)

6. Given more than I can afford to charity (honestly, this wasn't as humanitarian as you would think. I was in Anchorage for work and gave my last $5bill to the bell ringer and went up to the 5th floor in the 5th Ave mall to the food court only to find out the hotel triple charged my debit card for the hotel room and used up all my space left on debit and I didnt have any food money. I didn't eat for two days. Nothing. Not a single thing. I now carry an emergency credit card for this reason alone.)

7. Been to Disneyland/world

8. Climbed a mountain (does Mount Healy Outlook count?)

9. Held a praying mantis (had a whole egg sack of praying mantis hatch for a Jackson cameleon to eat, only to find out that the praying mantis babies were smaller than the screen mesh on the tank. That was a learning experience)

10. Sung a solo (if I did, your ears would still be bleeding)

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched lightning at sea

14. Taught myself an art from scratch (knitting counts, right?)

15. Adopted a child (do step childern count? I legally have to feed them)

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown my own vegetables (I came up to Alaska because of the FFA)

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train (from Cairo to Luxor)

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitchhiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (but only to knit)

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping (several times, but most recently in Bora Bora)

27. Run a marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset ( and in Alaska, those are within a few hours of eachother)

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise (and will be on anther one in 17 days.... Mexican Riviera, I work for a cruiseline)

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught myself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (life in Alaska allows that quite easily)

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke (tested the ear bleeding of others)

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (unfortunately, while on a date with him)

44. Visited Africa (my uncle worked there)

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance (46.5 taught myself to snowboard, hence the ride)

47. Had my portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing (yum, halibut)

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud (Starvation Gulch, baby!)

54. Gone to a drive-in theater (don't ask me the movie playing... tee hee)

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class (yellow belt, would have made orange, but I was 7 months pregnant)

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (donate blood regularly, and sold plasma for food money to support my family during hard times. I still have track marks to prove it)

65. Gone sky diving (why jump out of a perfectly good airplane?)

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter (Kauaii)

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job (Wedgewood, but it wasn't my fault, really!)

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone (cheekbones)

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (115mph)

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car (21 miles on the odometer)

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had my picture in the newspaper (front page my first week in Fairbanks, student housing crisis)

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (by auto, but don't tell Fish and Game)

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life (sister from drowning)

90. Sat on a jury (fu*ker should have fried, but I was choosen as the alternate right before deliberation. And have jury duty this month as well!)

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby (and lost one as well)

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a lawsuit

98. Owned a cell phone (work owns it, I would NEVER own my own)

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Rode an elephant

I HATE BLOGGER!!!

2008-11-25T16:05:00.003-09:00

how about some editing so that everything left aligns? I am seriously thinking about trashing this whole damned mess. How hard could it possibly be to get everything to left align? isnt' that was the left align button is for? Blogger, get a clue: YOU SUCK!

Australia: Outback (post 1)

2008-11-25T11:06:00.007-09:00

Usually my blog is all about knitting, but that isn't the only thing I do in the wintertime here in Fairbanks. Sometimes I actually like to get out of this state, especially since we are now down to just a little over 5 hours of daylight and well below zero. All summer long, Mark and I (mostly Mark) have been planning a trip to Australia. Every fall, Mark (DH/ HighOhSilver) and I take a vacation away; away from the kids, away from work, away from Alaska, away from house construction, away from stress and committments and responsibility so that we can reconnect as a couple to strengthen our relationship and rid ourselves of any negativity that may interfer in a happy relationship. We take a vacation with the kids in the winter/Christmastime and then another short vacation just Mark and I in the spring as a jump-off from one of either of our work-travels. This year, we decided to go to Australia. May's calendar picture was the Great Barrier Reef and I causually mentioned wanting to see that sometime in my life and the vacation was born. Plan was 1) see the Outback, 2) See the Great Barrier Reef, and 3) take two weeks to do it. After months and months of planning, late October came and off we went. Since I have so many pictures, I will be breaking them up into several different posts. The first post is just a sample of our Outback pictures. We took over 700 pictures during our time in Australia, I wont bore you with all of them. Here are just a few starting in the Outback: We flew from Fairbanks, to Anchorage, to Seattle, to LA, to Sydney, to Alice Springs: the center of Australia, referred to as "the Outback".

We flew into Alice Springs, collected all of our luggage (thank you luggage-Gods, we received every piece we relinquished to you hours previous), rented the campervan, stopped at the grocery and LiquorLand to load up on supplies and immediately headed south to Ayers Rock, also known as Uluru.

{seriously, blogger is rough to work with, it wont let me place commentary where I want it, I apologize in advance for the lack of explanation on some of these pictures} above: the land was SO red in some places. I was so amazed at the redness that we pulled over just to take pictures. It is not called the red center for nothing below: we arrived at Uluru very late (dark) and set up camp for our first night in a plug-in site at Ayer's Rock Resort and woke up early 6am to see the rock at sunrise. Not realizing that 6am would be more than an hour after sunrise, we caught the rock mid-morning. Realize that 6am is not mid-morning for me.

Yes, Mark is catching a wave this morning. I like to call this picture: "Geologist Surf".

As they say, 'Geologists know what makes the bedrock", give a man his props!

So I dont exactly have that, "I'm ready for you to take the picture" smile on, but I still like this photo. It is difficult at best to approach someone with your camera and ask them to take a picture. Most people just act like you are invading their personal space just by walking by them. It was hard to find anyone friendly. I blame it on the lack of coffee available in the area. We found lots of Iced Coffee, which was just coffee flavored milk, but drip coffee is hard to find. Guess no oen likes hot coffee at 90F. Don't blame them much but I don't like coffee flavored milk much either. How about just plain iced coffee?

After Uluru, we headed back north heading to Kings Canyon. Needing to fuel, the next fuel stop had a bunch of kangaroos and camels. Hating camels because of a bad camel riding experience in Egypt, I seared clear of those vile creatures and stopped to feed the roos. This fella here decided he was hungry enough to care to nibble out of my bag of feed.

This guy only wanted to scratch himself...

After fuel and feed, we hopped back in the camper and made way to King's Canyon

There were three walks described: a casual walk at the base of the canyon 0.5kms, a stenuous hike around the upper lip of the canyon 6kms, or a full on all day 30kms trek. We discussed our options and decided on the 6 kilometer hike.

it started off with steps like.. yes, these are steps

a brief pause for photos

hello down there

this hike was one of my favorite activities of the entire trip. We were upset that for the first few days there were scattered sprinkles and it was only in the 80's. We wanted HOT! But after the first afternoon of hot, we realized how grateful we should have been that it was only in the 80's because it would have made this hike impossible to accomplish

after the hike we tried to drive into the West MacDonnell mountain range, but running into soft, lofty, red dirt on the road only making 50km/h, we realized we wouldn't make it to the next campsite on the path, so we sorrowly pulled back to the King's Canyon Resort campsite.

and we were so grateful that we did. Everyone before dinner headed to the viewing area and watched the sun set and the view of Kings Canyon to darken to a golden burgundy. A gorgeous view before dinner.

Day 3: drove through the MacDonnel's in the morning, hit Alice Springs by mid afternoon and continued North to Tennant Creek. Along the way we noticed this pullout. I figured it was picture worthy, since it isn't every day that I cross over the Tropic of Capricorn.

Once the heat of midday broke, we realized we would be hitting Devil's Marbles with perfect timing. An hour or so before sunset, we could run around and not be dying. {note: this Alaskan girl does not handle much above 90F. Day3 's mercury hit 35C, which is about 93F}

Here is Mark pushing this marble back into place...

Just a drive off the road

can you imagine how nervous I was that these two rocks might decided to meet?

Ah, making camp at Tennant Creek. And our first of many Red Rooster chicken sandwiches.

Day 4: Tennant Creek to Julia Creek. This was a refreshing repreive. I still miss all the Ginger Beers, our Ginger Ale is not the same. Australian's don't know how good they have it!

Our first sighting of a wild emu. They aren't exceptionally attractive birds, but they do make good sausage.

Day 5: Julia Creek to Cairns: Welcome to Queensland

When your husband says, "honey, I found a shortcut" act like you don't hear him. Seriously, listen up: ACT LIKE YOU DON'T HERE HIM

A word of advide: When an Australian map says Development Road. They mean: a road UNdeveloped. Our shortcuts lead us on these undevelopments.

First there was the Kennedy Undevelopment Road, which lead to great views, one blown tire, in places lofty sand almost a foot thick, no other automobiles, lots of cattle, and five hours of solitary driving.

Secondly we hit the Gregory Undevelopment Road, which unlike the first was paved. But only one center lane was paved. There were Road Trains, which if you don't know what those are, let me fill you in. Road Trains are semi-trucks with not one trailer, not two trailers, sometimes not even three trailers, but as many as four trailers, going 110km/hr (70mph) coming at you as you are diving on the same one lane at 110km/h. It was fun. I wasn't brave enough to take a picture when we saw them coming. We just pulled off the road, as gently as one can do at that speed and let them pass. Fortuneately, Australians are smart enough to stay off those roads and stick to the more developed motorways.

as to make this posting manageable, I will post on the rest of the vacation in another post.

Australia Zoo

2008-11-25T10:45:00.001-09:00

Australia Zoo
Originally uploaded by ak2outside

We went on 15 Nov, which coincidentally happened to be Steve Irwin Day, with a ton of festivities and activities, and shows, and t-shirts, and all that kinda stuff. I enjoyed it tremendously.

Working on blogging through flickr, as I recommended to a friend of mine. Anyone have suggestions on posting multiple photos through flickr? I might have to go back the old blogger entries. Thought I would try this one out. Let's see how it works...

From Dream to Experience

2008-10-14T14:55:00.002-08:00

To expand on the title of this post, in August I was dreaming of an October Afternoon and now I am experiencing an October Afternoon. And soon to be experiencing an "outside in the cold of our October Afternoon." I have been so busy that I have not even had enough time to even think of posting. September was a blur. We closed the Dredge for the season, maintenance petered on me and I now have a couple weeks of unaccomplished tasks on my plate. The house is sucking up every available second of my time. We now have a 180 foot well in development. Today they are installing the water line to the house. We have to bring the line inside to the boiler/water heater/ reverse osmosis futuristic machine/ etc and then insulate the whole damned thing, then bury it. Tonight I get to start installing the baffles so we can start in on insulation. The lines for the radiant floor heating have started to be installed (outside contractor) that we have to clean up around. The island was installed, the electric was installed, the windows were installed, the doors were installed, the fuel tank was installed. Some of the work was contracted out, most of it was not. We still need plumbing thoughout the house, gypsum poured, insulation installed and then we can start the drywalling, painting, floor installation. I was under the gross-misunderstading that as soon as winter came, there would be hiatus in the work and winter would just settle and we would be done with the house until early spring. This is not the case. We will be working every day until we move in, with the exception of vacations. Every day, until an average of 9/10 pm, and all day on the weekends. We are going to Australia at the end of this month, and Mexico for Christmas (not yet confirmed through corporate travel) and then Hawaii in the spring. My only saving grace has been the lovely Fairbanks Fiberistas knitting group when I get a chance to get away from this frickin' house to have a couple hours to myself to knit and socialize. I don't know which I like more: the knitting or the socializing. Dredge is lonely being here all by myself. Well before the "all work and no play, makes my sanity go away" here is a glimpse at the projects I have completed since my Dreaming of an October Afternoon: Pattern: Shifting Sands Yarn: Malabrigo "Oscuro Marron" cast on: July21 bind off: Aug24 As you can tell from the background, this was knit quite a while ago. Now we have snow. I love this scarf, it is so soft and thick and wide and WARM! The yarn is a dream and I wear it as often as I possibly can.

Pattern: Halema'uma'u Socks designed by Debbie O'Neill for The Loopy Ewe

Yarn: Handmaiden Casbah (80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10%nylon) in the "Loopified" colorway

These went home with Mom. I am not a lover of the red/black combo, but the Loopy Ewe was having a 2nd Anniversary kit with my true love: Casbah, a mug, a pin, great pattern, a couple wet-on tatoos and best of all a Loopy Ewe coffee mug. Just as I finished weaving in the ends, I rose to make some hot chocolate with Kahlua and damned if I didnt drop the mug and scream as the ceramics shattered on the wood floor of the office.

A whole pair of socks and I got nothin'. I made Parker wear one of the tatoos (to his extreme horror when I told him "Yes it is removable, it comes off in a couple weeks" {ha ha, comes off with alcohol}), the pins are not my thing, the socks went to Mom, the pattern still exists, but the mug was going to be my prize for being so giving with the Casbah. Oops!

Pattern: k2, p2 rib with purl row, knit row, purl row break for the cuff.

Yarn: Earthly Hues "Brick Road"

Christmas socks for Parker. He loves orange, so these were some simple no-brainers. Not a whole lot to talk about with these babies. Sweet and simple.

Pattern: Felted Moebius

Yarn: Brown Sheep Bulky

Since I cannot get the little bottles off the kitchen table, at least I can make a nice looking basket to house them in. Now, I tried to do this all by my big-girl self, but had to bow to the Moebius Goddess to assist with the cast on. This last weekend I bought some Manos and by damn, I will do these baskets without assistance. We will see.

Dreaming of an October Afternoon

2008-08-29T16:17:00.006-08:00

Pattern: Terradance Socks by Lori Law of Ocean Wind Knits

Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in "October Afternoon"

Needle: addiTurbo size 2 then 1 40"circ; magic loop

Cast on: July22 Bind off: Aug28

Really, these socks are merely plain vanilla socks. k2p2 rib, stockinette stitch leg, heel, turn, decrease, foot, toe, done. I paid for the pattern because of the heel. The picture on the pattern was this awesome looking linen stitch and I am a sucker for my desire to learn something new. The kicker for me was the linen stitch didn't work for me. I emailed the designer to see if I was doing something wrong; she replied promptly to inform me my stitches were correct. Maybe my colors might have been too varigated for the stitch, or my tension too tight, or a million different reasons; all giving me the result I did not intend. Oh, well. The colorway is fabulous so I will have to live with that.

The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug. I bought it on the Loopy Ewe merely because of the name, "October Afternoon". October is by far one of my favorite months for several reasons: 1) I got married on the 4th (ten-four good buddy), 2) tourist season has officially ended and I can relax/vacation/de-stress/clean my house, and 3) cooler knit-friendly weather.

I started with a size2 and decreased to size1 for the foot. The change is visible. The leg is size2 with deep pooling, while the foot is more of a swirling stripe. Cool none-the-less.

And speaking of cool: I now have windows! It amazes me the transformation that occurs when the windows are installed. My plywood box is starting to resemble a house! Doors come in later next week with the garage doors coming by the end of September. Electricity was brought down from the pole Wednesday. Today is/was Saturday and we installed all the electric boxes on the 2nd floor and in the laundry room, guest bathroom and guest bedroom. Tomorrow the rest of the house is scheduled for electric boxes and the start of the plumbing. We still need to schedule the well and get the radiant floor hoses installed, gypsum poured. Then we can insulate and seal her up until Spring. Whoo hoo! Home building is a lot of work, just as I expected. The thing that surprises me the most: HiOhSilver and I haven't fought like I have heard rumors that spouses do during home builds. I am so relieved. I would hate to have to bury him in the back yard or throw him into the Tanana. He is useful. Damned useful. And fun. And charming. And caring. Hon? are you reading this? I know my birthday is coming up. I love you! Know what else I love? Macro lens. and yarnie gift certificates. and Coach purses. and french bulldogs. and more yarn certificates. Inua is right down from your office. Hon? Hon? Oh well, guess he left. He is great though.

Sock Club Slacker

2008-08-16T20:09:00.006-08:00

Pattern: Cleopatra's Stockings by Yarnissima for Blue Moon Fiber Art's Socks that Rock May shipment. Yarn: str "The Incredible Shrinking Violet" in lightweight Needle: size1 addi Turbos cast on: July17 bind off: July30 Yes, it was MAY's shipment. I have been so preoccupied with my own knitting, that I have let the Rockin' Sock Club shipment rock the stash bag(s). I hear that the next shipment is starting to ship internationally, so that gives me one week plus standard US shipping until a whole new package come. There is some pressure to cast on! This sock took some patience, some time to think the direction over, and a lot of deep breathing. I am not the type of knitter to get upset when every step of the pattern is not given to me spoonful by spoonful, but I did feel like there were "a couple planks missing on this girls dock". I made the smallest size for my size 8 1/2 foot because the Leafling (March's shipment) was overly generous on the size. After I tried the sock on before the heel increase (interrupt: these are made toe up) I came to the brilliant awareness that each sock pattern comes from a different designer so one design's generous proportions are another's snug-lovin'. I added two sts on each side for the heel increase and moved to a size2 circ for the leg. My socks were almost a full repeat shorter than the design. I followed the directions, but should have used my intuition instead and did an additional repeat. Overall, I give this pattern a solid A. Genuine construction, original thought on pattern, a challenge for me and a gorgeous rewarding sock for sticking it out and finishing the task. I read a lot gave up and made Monkeys. I am greatful I had the fortitude to stick it out. Ravelry helped! Oh, and I learned how to conceal wrapped stitches. If you dont know, check it out: Cat Bordhi rocks! And the house is going well. We have a certified septic system that my DH installed himself! Hubbie rules! There is now a roof. Both decks are installed. The windows arrived at the supplier last week and as soon as the framer gets back from vacation, we will have those installed as well. Doors are ordered. Garage door still needs to be ordered. Dirt work is done. We still need to install the well and put up the insulation sheet on the outside. Then it is considered "dried in" for winter. We hope to run plumbing and electric ourselves and install the piping for the radiant floor and have the contractor come and pour the gypsum. Siding goes up this spring and the lawn will not be installed until mid-next-summer. Whew, we have been working like dogs!

The Quick Sock

2008-07-20T22:30:00.004-08:00

Pattern: "H" Sock Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Deep Seaflower Needles: KnitPicks size4 40"circ Cast on: July 10 Bind off: July 16 These socks were so quick that the author decided to give it only one letter! Yes, these socks only took me six days, and I wasn't knitting from morning to night. I hold a demanding job, a full family and I managed to knit these socks in the evenings and one weekend away from the construction on the house. I have made many things from Dream in Color and I have yet to be disappointed. I LOVE this yarn. The pattern is a series of knits and purls, easy memorization, and just a plain "quick knit". The pattern is in the book 2-at-a-time SOCKS which I bought for the patterns and not for the technique.

Socks are for Moms birthday later this month. She loves the color because it is so close to the colorings of the Northern Lights. As soon as Inua has more, I will buy a few more skeins. Both in the Deep Seaflower and Happy Forest.

What is a "Kaibashira"?

2008-07-18T22:00:00.003-08:00

Pattern: Kaibashira Yarn: Spunky Eclectic Needle: Size2 40"circ cast on: June 24 cast off: July 9 So, what IS a "Kaibashira"? As Chrissy Gardiner, the creator of the Kaibashira says, "Named after the sushi term for the eye of the scallop (i.e. the yummy part), this sock was conceived on a recent trip to Tokyo after I scored a pair of Japanese stitch dictionaries from the yarn section in the large department store Matsuyo. Made from a single ball of SWTC Tofutsies sock yarn, which contains antibacterial chitin (made from ground-up bits of shell from various sea creatures), this is the perfect summer sock - airy, lightweight and guaranteed not to make you sweat.” Okay, well now we know what a Kaibashira is, lets here more about the sock. Designed by Chrissy Gardiner, who is... uhm is... well... is incredibly frickin' amazing and has been published in More Big Girl Knits, Knitscene, Interweave, BMFA, Woolgirl, numberous other sock clubs all while hosting her own pattern store: Gardiner Yarn Works. True to the description given above, the sock is airy, lightweight, but "guaranteed not to make you sweat"? Not in the wool I choose: soft, subtle 5ply Merino/Nylon Sport is heaven for your feet, just not at the height of July! I selected this pattern when looking for a suitable usage for my Spunky Eclectic Super Nova in Chocolate Covered Cherries from my favorite LYS Inua Wool. The pattern was posted by another member of the Sock-A-Month knitalong blog (I haven't contacted the poster, so I won't mention her name without permission). Within five minutes of viewing her sock, I had the pattern printed and was set to cast on. The scallops at the top had me hooked at first glance! The knit-poster called them the Best Socks in the World and after knitting them, I whole-heartedly agree. The technique was a joy to learn and the pattern is gorgeous. Actual casting of the sock was a SHOCK. I had never in my life casted on 187 sts for a sock! Yep, read that right... 187 stitches to cast on. After the scallops, the stitch count went down to a much more reasonable 66 sts on the round. The leg pattern has a lovely fan & feather motif and is flawless in its authoring. I found no problems with knitting these babies up. They are soft and gorgeous. Unfortunately, they are not quite my style. I will use the scalloping technique again on baby items, but these puppies are going in the gift basket (since it is now empty from all of the birthdays that came this summer). Overall, this sock is amazing. I recommend it highly to sock knitter with a lust for ruffles and a couple socks under their belt. I plan to make this pattern again with the only alteration being a three purl curled cuff, similar to the edge of my Chevron scarf. Hopefully in a blueberry or sage colorway. I just might have some yarn in my stash. I'm off to look...

Quick photo updates

2008-07-07T14:31:00.003-08:00

I have walls! Whoo hoo! And stairs... and closets... and a second floor... and bathroom layouts... and windows... but no roof. The trusses are going in as I type. The framer is progressing at a massive speed. I cannot fathom how much work he has been able to achieve in such a short amount of time. I wish I could be that effective. It is so nice to drive up the road and see the house sitting there. So many details HiOhSilver and I have worked out, argued on, discussed including, discussed excluding, walls moved, walls moved again, and wall moved yet again; and now we can finally see the proof of all of our planning. In six working days, we went from foundation to 2nd floor. Tired from working on the house every weekend and after work every workday, HiOh and I decided to take the kids camping. And did we take just the kids? No, we took the kids and four of their friends. Where in my blind eye did the thought of taking nine teenagers camping strike me as a "good idea"? Whereever that cell in my brain is located, my the vodka tonight kill it. Kill it, dead! I love my kids, but never again will I take them camping with their friends. Pack mentality took over. If my son ever acts that stupid, I will take him out into the woods and shoot him myself. Now, dont turn me into the cops just yet, it was just a figure of speech, but damn. Teenagers DO NOT have a grip on reality. Yet I totally ran off topic. Sorry the knit on the sock is a bit tight. I was stressed. I started the Kaibashira sock in the Spunky Eclectic's Chocolate Covered Cherries colorway for Mom's birthday, only to decide that the pattern isn't quite for her. I will soon have a very frilly pair of lace red socks. Hum, anyone requesting ruffly red socks for Christmas?

Happy Solstice

2008-06-23T14:23:00.006-08:00

So Happy Solstice! Or at least I was thinking of blogging on the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. I missed posting on the 21st as I was working 14 hour days on the house. I was able to take pictures of these finished socks. Pictures taken at 11:30pm to midnight. I love the Midnight Sun!

Pattern: Snicket Socks by Sabine Riefler. Originally posted in MagKnits, but now a free pattern on Ravelry.

Yarn: Spunky Eclectic Super Sport in of all names for a colorway - MonkeyFarts.

Needles: addiTurbo size 2, 40" circ

Cast on: June 3rd Bind off: June 17

These socks are for Parker's 12th Birthday, which is actually tomorrow. I had him model for these socks and he ohh'd and ahh'd the whole time.
Each one of my 12 year olds modeled for the sock photoshoot. It seems to be a great honor to have your picture posted on the internet. I guess you have to be 12 to enjoy that.

I did a couple modifications of the pattern. I didnt like the sockinette stitch for the foot with a garter stitch and single line cable for the instep, so I maintained the stockinette on the foot. I p2tog for the decreases on both sides of the heel; finishing the toe with a purled star toe.

Yeah, I couldn't resist the MonkeyFart jokes. I had to grab some Legos and have fun. This is all after bribing one of three 12 year olds to dig through three huge Rubbermaid bins of these damned things to find the monkey two brown arms, cause the poor little monkey had two people arms (that are not brown) and it looked sadistic. Our farting monkey luckily had all brown limbs for the photoshoot. We had a lot of fun taking pictures and running around out of the deck at Midnight. Solstice is such a great time. The only unforunate side-effect of celebrating Solstice is now the days are getting progressively shorter. So sad to see the sunlight leave us; at a rate of 7 minutes a day less direct light.

With all this light, the house is progressing swiftly. The foundation is poured, the decking is finished. The foundation is half buried and the garage is compacted. The bituthene is wrapped around the entire foundation walls and the first floor walls are going in as I blog. Fortunately for me, our framing contractor completed all the decking and is erecting the walls. Mark, the boys, and I did all the dirt work this weekend. No downtown Midnight Sun Festival for me. No Midnight Sun Run (10K). No elephant ears, no funnel cake, no frozen bananas, no gyros. No nothing. Just work. Man, who knew sweat equity involved so much sweat!

foundation pads are in

2008-06-14T22:47:00.007-08:00

The house is starting to look like the beginnings of a house. Here is the foundation pad. Ah, the joys of rebar.

One day later, we have forms for the foundation walls. Man, these guys worked!

More work on my Monkeyfart Snickets. I needed to post two pictures: the first for the pattern and the second for the color. I modified the foot of the pattern switching to purls from stst to emphasize the single row cabling on top. I am really starting to have fun. Just as they are about to end. My wish is to have these done before the 24th for Parker's birthday. Tomorrow I won't have much time to knit on these as it is Father's Day is tomorrow and we are grilling up burgers and steaks at Chena Lakes. His choice. I was thinking peaceful morning with lattes and scones. Silly me. It is beer, burgers, and babes (me).

Come look into my dirty hole

2008-06-10T12:41:00.004-08:00

So yes, I do need to apologize for the dirty (tee hee) heading. but I'm not going to... I come back to the Dredge every night with dirt in my hair, coated in bug dope, muscles aching and belly aching (for pie). Because of the long-lighted days, I come home to jump directly in the shower to sit down to knit only to realize that it is 10:30pm. With it being full sunlight, it is so hard to guage {no knitting pun intended, or maybe intended unintensionally) how long I have been working in the evenings. It is not until I sit to work on my needles that I realize I only have a couple minutes until bed. Uh!

And since it is so painfully obvious that my birthday boy is not going to be receiving his Mitered Square Blanket for his very special day this 24th, I decided that my sock-loving son will instead become the proud new owner of Monkey Farts. Oh yes, you read that right. The sock yarn from Spunky Eclectic is so aptly named, "Monkey Farts". Perfect for a boy turning 12, who loves handknit socks. I never would have thunked it! He is my sock model extraordinaire and begs not to take them off after the pictures have been taken.

As if I wasn't busy knitting...

2008-06-02T00:34:00.004-08:00

In the same span of time it takes one to sign their name, I went from 100% debt-free to 0% debt-free.

With that signature, our family welcomes in a new addition... We are now the proud parents of a bountiful construction loan. And being proud new parents to such a wonderful creature, nesting took effect and we made room for our new addition.

I was thinking that I had too much time to knit (okay, I was NOT thinking that, but maybe my husband was..) 'cause we went out Memorial Day weekend and cut down all these beautiful trees. Four days later, our 2 acre plot was cleared and the dirt work began.

We now have a foundation pad (read: BIG HOLE) and the contractor comes tomorrow morning to start laying the foundation blocks. Whoo hoo!

The driveway and pad took five days. We still need to lay the pitrun tomorrow so the rain slated for Wednesday does not wash out the driveway. It is so hard to believe the picture above is the same as the picture below. That was so much friggin work. I haven't physically exerted that much muscle power since I worked for a landscaping crew in high school. My thighs and biceps still ache from all that lifting. Those logs were excruciating! But all that firewood will keep our home warm for a full winter.

Those of you that read my blog, Beware! I will continue to knit and post all my knitting, but I have to shift some of my focus to building my home. And I get to decorate from the ground up. I wonder if I can knit siding? A nice felted merino?

I took these photos at 11:30pm

2008-06-02T00:13:00.006-08:00

Pattern: Toe-Up Socks by Amy Swenson in Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Sock Book
Yarn: A Swell Shop's *MIDDY* handpainted superwash merino in Cinnamon Dulce
Needle: Size2 40"circular addiTurbo
Cast on: May 19 Bind off: May 31

This pattern is so easy. I like vanilla rib for a strongly dyed yarn and A Swell Shop does some of the best dyeing around. I have never seen a colorway I havent fallen in love with of theirs.

And YES, the finished sock pictures were taken at 11:30pm. As I am posting now, midnight-thirty, it is still light out and the boys are still playing outside. Sunday night, won't be getting any sleep until 1:30a and back up at 6:30a. There is truly no real need for hours upon hours of sleep when we are getting so much daylight. My body just tells me "time to party!" I love summer in Fairbanks. It rocks!

Mr Greenjeans

2008-05-30T12:28:00.004-08:00

Pattern: MrGreenjeans from knitty.com, size small

Yarn: Dream in Color - Classy "Chinatown Apple"

Needles: Size8 knitpicks circulars (did not decrease to the size7s for the cabling

Cast on: March 30 Bind off: May 22

Okay, since cast off, I have not taken this sweater off! I love it! It is so amazingly comfortable, and soft, and gorgeous. This is the most perfect cardigan EVER! The yarn is amazingly soft. And yes it grows. The sweater grew even more than my gauge swatch did. Before blocking, I tried it on and it was overly snug, but blocking completely turned this around.

The pattern is very easy to follow. I did not find a single error. A few modifications: 1) I lengthened the sleeves. I believe (from other's pictures) that the shorter sleeves make it look like the sweater was knit too small. I lengthened the sleeves far to long, as seen in the second picture here. I might have to go back and frog a repeat or two.

Mod#2) I did not decrease needle size to make the cabling tighter; my hips are big enough, I don't need the cables to pull back anymore accentuating this. Mod#3) I added two rows on both sides of the buttonhole to make the buttonband a bit wider. I was thinking that I wanted the cardigan to close a bit and I really like the result. My only complaint is the glass button that I chose is too heavy. It pulls on the front and makes the buttonhole gape. I plan on leaving it on because it is stunning, but I might not be using them on my Central Park Hoodie, which I get to start next. I bought enough Dream in Color - Classy in November Muse during the LoopyEwe's Knit Along discounting on DiC.

Check out my Raverly notes here on this sweater if you would like further info.

The Cabo Wabo hit my Jaywalkers...

2008-05-19T22:05:00.007-08:00

Pattern: Toe-Up Jaywalkers by Natalia Marek from Raverly. An adaptation of Jaywalkers on knitty.com edited for toe-up.

Yarn: Cameleon Colorworks Dyeworks & Fiber Studio Footsie in "Taos" made of 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon. 400yds, 3.5oz

Needle: Addi Turbos, size1, 40" circ, two socks on the one circular

Cast on: April 8th Bind off: May 17th

I got the yarn from MorseCode as a super nice "thank you" donation for sending her my unloved s(p)in club yarn. She was kind enough to send this wonderfully dyed yarn. I love the color, it is so "up" my alley! The texture is questionable, but getting better after consecutive washings. Most suprising of all was the pattern. That was a beast all of its own. I did not realize until I was ON THE PLANE that the toe-up version was not complete. Natalia refers several times to "follow the original directions" in which I did not print off before boarding. Who has time to pack, clean the house, make certain the kids will be fed, the dog will get let out, AND the pattern you just printed off has all the directions? Now don't get me wrong, I do not mean to b!tch so much for I LOVE traveling with a new sock pattern, or even a new technique. I love it because if I get frustrated, I can't just throw it into the UFO basket on the office floor and walk downstairs to get a beer. I am forced to sit in that ultra-swank, super-roomy excuse for a seat the airlines are go generous to seat us in and fester until my brains liquify. Once I calm enough to re-attempt to continue the knit, I figure it out and work on. Well, there was not a lot of calming, soothing feelings I had when I realized that I was 30K feet above any form of internet and the airlines no longer host $5/minute phones in the back of seats. At this moment of "brick wall knitting" my husband surely wouldn't care how much a phone call eats into our travel budget. "For the love of all things holy, Krista, calm yourself. You will find the rest of the pattern when we land." As if that would calm any knitter down! The only saving grace was Brenda Dayne and Cast-On on the Zune soothing the savage knitter within and guiding me safely and sanely into Seattle.

We did land in Seattle, home of all things Starbuck and wi-fi so that I could find the original pattern. I read the whole toe-up version several times over just to make 100% certain that I wouldn't run into any more of these special moments in Mexico. The next flight to Cabo San Lucas was a much smoother flight, for my knitting, as well as for my husband.
If you click on the photo to the left, it should bring you to flickr where you can see my lovely, smart-assed comments on the mistakes that I made in the jaywalking. I left them in (even after the first rip back) because the tequila made me do it. I love Baja California: dry air, high heat, perfect weather, with nothing to do but relax, drink tequila and knit on the balcony of the hotel. I only achieved mid-foot on the Baja. We were busy swimming in the pool, playing on the beach and recovering from the nights.

Mostly, I was just relaxing before the hectic tourist season started. This was the last time I can leave the town of Fairbanks without permission until October. Tourism keeps me busy.

Currently: Dredge property is open for business; start-up has come and gone. (I live on company property, so when you hear people say, "I live at work," well I really do. I live at work. I eat Dredge, I sleep Dredge. I wake up to tours going on outside my window on the weekends and I go to sleep listening to the frogs croak in the Dredge pond, the trumpet swans flying over, and the seagulls establishing their nesting territory.) Needless to say, I have been working 16 hour days, sleeping 4 hours a night with barely enough time to take a shower every other day or so. Both blogging and knitting have been neglected. This is the starting of the second week of Tourist Season. I was luck enought to get five hours to myself and finished off my Cabos. I miss Mexico, but more than Mexico, I miss "Winter Krista". The girl who is perpetually relaxed, continually knitting, and planning my next vacation. I now have "Summer Krista" who is ready to party as hard as she works. And let me tell you, "This Krista really knows how to work." wink, wink

another winner....

2008-05-06T09:26:00.003-08:00

Muddy Paws is the second blogger chosen. Darcie - please send me your mailing address and have fun with your new goodies!

and the winner is...

2008-05-01T17:32:00.006-08:00

Kate/massachusetts: Congratulations!

Hope you need some Options Needles and other goodies!

Hey, Kate: You have until Monday, May 5th to email me your mailing address, cause I only got a blog name to a KAL blog that last posted in December! If I havent heard from ya by then, I will randomize again Tuesday morning.

Oh, yeah... and another winner is ME! I win because this is my blog so that makes me a winner! ha ha

but I didnt win anything cool, like Kate/massachusetts did!

WOYN Wednesday

2008-04-30T09:17:00.006-08:00

So, What is On Your Needles today? I have my 2nd sleeve for my MrChinatownApplePants. I had to drop into Inua Wool to pick up some size9 dpns, cause the size7dpns didn't cut it on the 1st sleeve (which still needs to be frogged). Pattern calls for a size8, I only had dpns in size7 and thought they would work. Well, low and behold, my dpn guage is much tighter than my circular guage, so off to the frog pond for sleeve#1.

And can I tell you how evil Inua is? I go in their for a simple set of dpns and end up walking out with a new sock in my queue! I have been drooling over the Annetrelac Sock and the Six-Stitch Tessellated Faux Entrelac from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. I plan to combine the patterns by using the Komi Star and the Pinstriping on the foot from the Faux Entrelac then using the entrelac from the Annetrelac. I am excited to start on this soon. It is not on the needles yet, but I believe I will be doing this one next. I am just curious how the Noro will mix with the Koigu, and would love someone to comment on how you feel they will wash up together.

And still on my needles are my CaboWabo toe-up Jaywalkers. As you can tell from my balls of yarn there was some frogging on these this weekend. I got to the finishing of the first heel and tried them on to find that they were about an inch and a half too long. Too narrow to gift to someone with larger feet, I decided to frog back and inch and a half past the increases for the heel (which left me with three inches of the sock left) and start again. Working all week, I am finally four rows away from re-starting that first heel.

I can't knit as much anymore as work has started here at the Dredge. I would wax poetically about how excited I am that Tourist Season has finally come and my focus is shifting to getting the property ready for 46,000 guest, but IT SNOWED AGAIN LAST NIGHT!!!! Can you believe it? Is this April 30th or April Fool's Day?

Oh, and tomorrow is the drawing for the Blogiversary giveaway. Tonight is the last chance to enter for the Options needle set. Good luck!

So much for a weekend bike ride.

2008-04-26T15:05:00.003-08:00

DH and I were heading down to summer storage and were just about ready to go on our first bike ride of the season, when we looked out the window yesterday morning and saw this. More snow. Almost all of our snow was gone. The summer bikepaths were cleared off all the gravel, the weather was reaching into the high 50's, when BHAM! SNOW, SNOW, and more SNOW! Well, at the very least, I have more time this weekend to knit. Oh, and rip. But I will save the frog pond for Sunday.

My hair is GONE!

2008-04-24T21:35:00.005-08:00

Okay, I went in today for what felt like a dramatic change in my life. I went from waist length hair to shoulder length. I haven't had hair this short in well over six years. And seriously, it needed to go!

I would be driving the work truck and go to turn my head to look for oncoming traffic and my hair would be trapped between my body and the seat. I would wake up at night with my DH sleeping on my hair. And I don't want to talk about the nasty rats that I pull from every orifice in the house: shower drains, vacuum cleaner, lint trap, uh. And my knitting. How often did I knit a pair of socks only to find a woven hair trailing a couple rows. Far too often!

Well, not any more. I told my stylist to cut it. Chop it off. Do it quick before I change my mind.

Here I am in Bonaire on the cruise with my hair down.

And here I am today, all short. All that friz, gone. All that weight pulling on my head, gone. All the split ends, all the stringy hair, all of it... ...gone.

And what goes great with an awesome haircut? Yeah, an awesome tube of lipstick. The salon is an Aveda retailer and they use the best Aveda shampoos and styling products. My hair smells as amazing as it looks, and I could not pass on the new Aveda shades. I love this one.

I can say that DH is not happy with my decision. He hasn't said a single thing about it, which means he is smart enough to keep his opinion to himself. I was really starting to hate my hair, so it was time for it to GO!

I just try not to think about the cost and how much yarn I could have bought.

Blogiversary give-away

2008-04-21T20:41:00.006-08:00

And good things for YOU...

May 1st is my 1st Blogiversary and I've got some really special things to give to one lucky knitter!

1) Knit Picks Options Interchangeable Circular Knitting needles binder case

2) Knit Picks Options Interchangeable Nickel Plated Circular Knitting Needle Set

3) one hank KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in TidePool

4) 2 skeins Panda Cotton: 55% bamboo, 24% cotton, & 21% elastic nylon in Rosewater

Just place a comment in this posting with your name/blog address and I will random number generate a WINNER!!!!

Lucky Leaflings

2008-04-21T17:19:00.004-08:00

Pattern: BMFA STR RSC
ha, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks that Rock, Rockin' Sock Club pattern for March: Leafling

Yarn: STR mediumweight Lucky
Needles: 40"circ size 2
Cast on: March24 Bind off: April 7
The pattern was completely new for me. I have never completed a "gusset and flap" heel and would have fallen in love with the extra squish and cushion had the socks not been far to large. I made the adult medium and the gusset is way, way too loose. I will have to make these gift socks for someone with very thick ankles. I was between Juneau and Seattle on a plane when I was knitting the gussets, and didnt try them on until I was way into the foot. Already too late for me. Some knitters will rip out anything if they dont like them. I just gift to someone else.

Here is more heel detail. The cushioning at the bottom of the heel is so nice! I also added some finishing detail because I didnt like how the design just hit a dead-end at the toe, so I tapered the design out to the toe a bit more. It isn't as shape on the detail as I would have liked, but I am happy still.

WOYN Wednes

2008-04-02T17:11:00.006-08:00

Whats On Your Needles Wednesday?

Here are my Mitered Squares so far, some are under the purse, all nice and pressed and in the front is a pile of completed miters without washing or blocking. All in all, 15 miters done.

Here is where I do all my work at night: downstairs at the bar. DH likes to go down and have a puff on his pipe and we talk over our day and I get some knitting time in.

Most of my knitting gets done upstairs in my office. I figured since Ravelry is killing my blog, I will use actual true to life photos instead of the nice staged photos I like to see on Ravelry. This is my blog and I will do it any way I feel like.
And since the mood struck me as well: here is a shot for my MrGreenjeans sweater from the Dream in Color Classy in my favorite of their colorways Chinatown Apple. This sweater is a dream to work on. The yarn is heaven and the pattern is so easy.

"Loopy" or "Soprano", it's all up to Sheri

2008-03-24T22:56:00.007-08:00

WoolPet's Sheep needle felting kit from the Madrona Fiber Retreat that I got to jump into during HighOhSilver's work trip. I finally completed him today. He doesn't have a name yet. If I get the Dream in Color Classy in Chinatown Apple during the restock at the Loopy Ewe, I will knit him some lovely red&white sockies and name him "Loopy".

If I do not get what I want during the re-stock, I will string him up by his fuzzy little testicles and name him "Soprano". {sheri, you hear that? You dont want this poor little sheepie hangin by his berries, do you?} There was so much extra wool, that if I can find an extra bell this weekend, I will knit him up a galfriend (and change out his lovely pink ribbon for a nice merino scarf). This project was so much fun! Unfortunately, I just kept putting it down because the legs were frustrating me. If I would have realized that after a couple trials I would have realized how easy he actually was and I would have been on on my way to completion long before today. Needless: I love him.

And speaking fondly of the Loopy Ewe, I got my Gypsyknits Sock it! in Appalacia in today's mail that I ordered on Thursday. This whole Groupie Sneak-Ups is financially painful. There is so much that I love, that I never got to see before because all those other leaches picking the best stuff up f a s t. I love this privilege of being made aware of the new yarn before everyone else. And I love this yarn. So did many others, it was only stocked for a couple hours. And honestly, I hate to admit it, but I bought it out of retail therapy as I was greatly upsetted over the frogging of my Deadly S(p)ins socks. I mailed them to someone who might actually appreciate them and then went to try to peek at the March shipment of the Rockin'Sock Club's March shipment. Only to find out there that the hint was "Lucky Charms" with all the colors of the rainbow and a picture of all the pastel marshmallows. I freaked! More pastels? AHHHHH! So I ran to Loopy and begged for something I would love: Appalachia. Yes, Appalachia is pastel green, but it is only one pastel. All by itself, and it sang to me. That, and the Mexican Sunflower was sold out. Leaches.

But if you want some greatness for yourself, Cinnamongirl93 is giving away some...

...Malabrigo on her blog. Yes, GIVING AWAY MALABRIGO. I'm not one to take advantage of a total looney, but this chickie is giving away paradise in hank format. Drop your name over there, mention me AfternoonMoon and I get another chance. And speaking of other chances... Here is my favorite flower given to me by HighOhSilver a couple weeks ago, just because I love, love, love the smell of the Stargazer Lily. They smell so amazing and the smell fragrances the whole house. The roses were a special treat, because DH's favorite flower is the rose.

Oh, and by the way, I got my RSC shipment and I am so LUCKY it wasn't pastels!

I think someone is pulling up the driveway...

2008-03-21T08:55:00.009-08:00

Pattern: the ever infamous Monkey Socks by Cookie A from knitty.com

Yarn: Zen Strings Serendipity in Hopi.

Needles: Addi Turbos 40"circ in size2

Cast on: Feb 28 Bind off: March 16

I so love these socks. My only regret is that I do not {yet} own a 40" size1 addi turbo circ. I use the STR mediumweight on the size2's, but for this Serendipity lightweight, the size1's would have been perfect. Plus, now that I am getting more experience, I find that my knitting is getting looser. I guess my fingers realized that I do not have to death clutch the knitting; it is not going to fall off on its own. As you can see from the color choice I made, I love bright colors. Muted colors bore me. I have been trying to force myself to work on the Seven Deadly S(p)ins socks. I just finished the ribbing and am moving into the actual pattern, and it is starting to get interesting. The socks seems exceptionally loose.

So as the title of the blog post states, "I think someone is pulling up the driveway..." But they are not. It is 9 degrees F below zero. The equinox is today, we are now on the teetering edge of spring. There is always a hope for warmer weather here in the Interior. It was light enough to see everything around you at 9:15 last night. Dark by 9:30p. The gaining light is heaven-sent. Civil twilight begins at 6:56 AM, ends at 9:01 PM Nautical twilight begins at 5:56 AM, ends at 10:03 PM Astronomical twilight begins at 4:45 AM, ends at 11:15 PM. Basically, Civil twilight: "Suns gone". Nautical twilight: "It's dark". Astronomical twilight: "Wow, star. The Northern Lights are gorgeous tonight." But getting back to the blog title, at this temperature, I can hear, clear-as-day 1/2 mile away. I can hear the neighbor down the road, across the street telling his wife that he is picking up a pack of smokes while getting into his car. I hear the trucks turning onto Goldsteam road and keep thinking that someone is pulling up into property. Not so annoying for me, but because of this, the dogs are driving me crazy! Barking at every turning car, alerting me to trespassers and in their minds: potential attackers needing to be warned that this is their dog territory. Not needing to be said, but being said anyway, "The damned dogs are driving me crazy!" I have been jumping up and down every five minutes to verify there is no one come up and knocking on the door, or just trespassing on private property. I have at least one trespasser every day this week. Living at a Historic Place is difficult at times. Always people ignoring the signs and coming out anyway. Ahhh!

Pattern: Log Cabin Socks by Anne Woodbury from handknit Holiday

Yarn: Lamb's Pride worsted in khaki

Needles: Brittany size5 dpn.

Cast on: March5 Bind off: March9

These were a "oh shit, Trisha's birthday is next week" and I could spend some of my sock yarn money, or.... I could knit some socks. Guess which won? Needless to say, I grabbed one of the discarded skeins of the Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted that didn't make the cut for color choice for the Central Park Hoodie I have been dreaming about jumping into. The color is very muted and the socks will be very warm. The size5's ultimately were too small. The Lamb's Pride is slightly thicker than the Dream in Color Classy I first knit up the Log Cabin pattern with. That, and the Lamb's Pride tighten in the wash instead of loosened up. Feeling guilty (come on, how do you feel guilty for giving handknit socks? whatever...) about giving 100% worsted weight wool to someone in March, I also threw in my Jan/Feb STR Rockin Sock Club Serendipities in Dragon Dance, so that my dearest sister can have a pair of summer socks as well as some winter one's. Oh, those and a check for $50. I had to seal the bag before I started throwing in more. It is all guilt driven for living so far away from all of my family. Michigan is so far away from Alaska. So painfully, painfully far away and I miss them all dearly. But socks help mask the pain. And I had to call to see if she would say anything. She loved them. I feel relief.

Two shipments: One day {seven deadly spins SPOILER ALERT}

2008-03-13T12:42:00.008-08:00

I got all of my cardio walking back and forth to the mailbox. I am mailing out all my returning employees hiring packets and I noticed that I left of the postage, so I had to walk back to the office. Run them through the post meter and then back to the mailbox before the mailman got there. As I am walking back and forth, it gets me thinking. Well, I do have to mail out the Vintage Baby Cardigan since I got all the buttons on, and it is just sitting in the box; so back upstairs, throw it into a Priority bag and then back to the mailbox. Oh, hum, lots of walking since the mailbox is at the edge of property and about a football field or so away from the house and office. As I am almost to the office, I see the mailman come up, take out the motherlode of mail from the box, and replace it with DELIVERED BOXES!!! I'm thinking, "Oh baby, there are goodies in the mail for me!" Please let the fourth time to the box in 20 minutes be worth the walk. May I also add that it is 17F and I am only wearing a hoodie with light gloves. I'm cold. This better be goodies for me and not just a bunch of work crap. Low and behold, two of my orders. The first one I rip open is my lampworked Triple Passion & Ruby Glass Paperweight Button, which actually looks more like their Triple Passion & Cobalt Glass Paperweight Button to me. None-the-less, I love it and will heartedly be using it for my Mr Greenjeans sweater as soon as I get the Dream in Color from theLoopyEwe during the next re-stock.

The second package was the first shipment from EarthFaire's The Seven Deadly S(p)ins Yarn Club. This shipment is Gluttony and it came with a lovely sock pattern. But yet, I am still perplexed. I guess I should have researched their past products a bit better.

I was thinking, "Seven Deadly S(p)ins, kinda anti-craft, kinda anti-standard. Was looking forward to something dark and sinister; wicked almost. I saw the link on LimeNviolets Daily Chum about a new sign-ups for the club, and automatically assumed that it would be a little-tinsybit Goth-Girl. The shipment was more like: "ooh-la-la, spring has sprung, Easter egg hunting, frilly-girl dress wearing, pastel happy-happy-joy-joy." Uhm, wtf? What is so s(p)inister about pastel glee? Not to sound so bitchy, but I was thinking maybe blacks with sparkles of "happy, happy, joy, joy"? Really, I do LOVE the pattern, I do LOVE the colors, it just didn't match my expectations. The club did far exceed my expectations with all the extra stuff in the bag. There was a keychain sock blocker with extra yarn for a mini-sock, with a mini-sock pattern (I will use my own so they are all the same), a bag of assorted JellyBellys (which I happily ate in a gluttonous fashion), and some adorable needle point protectors in sock shape. I dont use point protectors, so I will most likely add them to my BlogAnniversary drawing. And hinting at Blogiversary drawing, I have a set of Knitpick Options in the cloth canvas, some knitpick cloud laceweight, some Panda bamboo sock yarn and a bunch of other stuff that I will be de-stashing for the giveaway. More as the blogiversary comes closer (May 1).

I'm officially a Groupie!

2008-03-10T16:57:00.014-08:00

I'm a Loopy Groupie! Whoo-hoo, woop, woop!
I am so friggin' excited. Seriously, friggin' excited. I F5'd my heart out all last week waiting for the Dream in Color Classy re-stock and up pops all new Smoochys. Being unable to resist (and being a continuous Second-Guesser), I had to pick up a skein of the Chinatown Apple just for trial sake. I have been drooling over the MrGreenJean's pattern {flickr / ravelry} I selected for the LoopyEwe.com Dream in Color KAL and craved for it in this colorway. There hasn't been a re-stock of the Classy yet and sighting the same colorway in Smoochy, I HAD TO BUY IT. If not for stash enhancement, then merely to possess something I have coveted for so long. And come on.... dork factor kicks in: "Who amoung us doesn't want a matching Sweater & Sock ensemble?" Oh, yeah baby, hurt mommy's wallet good. Make it burn. All the while the left brain/right brain fight that I was having was getting louder and louder and harder to ignore: "Pick a color on the internet, why don't cha'; spend $140 for a sweater; you've never spent that much money on a sweater; you don't even know if you like the colorway. Maybe your screen resolution is different. Go down to the office and look at it on the monitor down there, now check it on the admin's computer, check each of your five boys' computers in their rooms, check DH's laptop." Ho down! All those computer monitors told me the same thing: "You will love this colorway!". And damned if they weren't right. I love it; it sang to me. The golden copper works wonders with my freckles. And with the Smoochy for socks, it will work wonders with the freckles on my legs. Now for the re-stock of Chinatown in Classy. I don't get more fiber$$s until Friday, so here's to wishin the re-stock may be late....

But that wasn't the only awesome surprise. I ordered the Smoochy on Thursday morning, excited about getting some new fiber, and not more than 20 minutes after I ordered, I get the order confirmation and shipping information. Holy moley! Those girls are fast. I have fiber items from other dealers that I ordered more than 2 weeks ago and I received those, but in 20 minutes TheLoopyEwe has: 1) received the order, 2) processed the order, 3) shipped the order and 4) low and behold: added to the order. This Monday morning it is in my mailbox [and I am on a rural route] which means it got to the Fairbanks post office on Saturday. AND it was my sixth order so I am OFFICIALLY A LOOPY GROUPIE!

Look at that, not just some old stuff that doesn't sell because noone likes it. This is Claudia Hand Painted Yarns in Peppermint Mocha. It isn't just one skein so you have to order another skein to finish a full pair of socks. There was no "hope-and-pray" or "jump-on-one-foot-on-the-third-Tuesday-of-the-sixth-month-since-the-last-lunar-eclipse" to get the second skein. This is two matching skeins of gorgeous yarn! Oh, and chocolate. As if that alone wasn't enough, there was a loopyewe carabiner all wrapped in a clear zippered tote. Now HighOhSilver gets to see all my new purchases. Oops, maybe that is not so great...

Cardigan for Layla

2008-03-03T15:21:00.004-09:00

Pattern: Vintage Baby Cardigan by ShiBuiKnits Kristin Spurkland
Yarn: ShiBui Sock 100% Superwash Merino in "Dragonfly"
Needle: Addi Turbo size3 circ
Cast on: Feb20 Bind off: Feb28

This was a wonderfully fast little knit for Layla. It reminded me so much of the knitting experience I received by knitting dishclothes. Learn to knit, learn to purl, learn k2tog, learn ssk. Suffice to say, I learned most of my knitting techniques from my first dishclothes.

With this sweater, I learned the 3-needle bind off and seaming. I also learned alot about weaving ends in. I learned ALOT about weaving in ends. There were so many of them. And I am very tired of garter stitch. And I can't image knitting a whole sweater. Wow, this was really dipping my toes in the proverbial sweater waters. I have two more small orange buttons to sew on the front to compliment the main glass button. I bought the lampworked button from Sheila & Michael Ernest at the Madrona Winter Retreat. But you can buy them from http://www.glasspens.com. I went and bought another one from them for my MrGreenJeans sweater. I am excited to start my first Me-sized sweater, but I can see where there is going to be a vast amount of spacial knitting. My concentrations have been on socks: knit-knit-spin, knit-knit-spin. Soon, knit-knit-knit-knit-knit-cable-knit-knit-knit. Should be a great challenge.

Seven Random Things about Me

2008-02-28T21:13:00.003-09:00

1) Tomorrow I sign on property for my new house. The subdivision is so new that both Google and Yahoo Maps doesnt even have it on their maps. No internet directions to my house! 2) I found out today that Cherry Tree Hill has a new yarn called Lottery. It is so new that they dont even have it listed on their website, but they are selling it on Ebay. I also know that it is NOT a lottery. My LYS is NOT having a raffle of a basket of Wool in the Woods. The ladies behind the counter got so confused by my question today that they charged me an extra $2 for the skein that I bought. What I saw was an enormous basked to gorgeous skeins with a big sign that said, "Lottery $20". When I tried to buy a ticket for the "Lottery", all hell broke loose. 3) I'm taking off for Cabo san Lucas in four weeks, and I havent asked for time off from work yet. 4) I bought new house numbers for my mailbox that screw on because at 40F BELOW glue does not work and they all fell off. Stamps fall off envelops in the mailbox, self adhesive mailing labels line the inside. Let's see the cold take off my screwed on letters. Come and get me Mother Nature! 5) I lost 9lbs in the last two weeks on the South Beach diet. I am very tired of scrambled eggs and meat salads. I will kill any small child that might walk by me eating pancakes. Why a small child might walk by me with pancakes is another question. 6) I Zune, not I-Tune. But I would like to buy a MacBook. and... 7) Today is the 13th anniversary of the miscarriage of my first pregnancy. The wonderful man I married has a son who's birthday is today. I found my lost child through him. "Only through great loss can we truly appreciate the beauty of great joy."

YARN CRAWL Feb08

2008-02-22T14:48:00.017-09:00

Well, it has been almost a whole work week since I got back from HiOhSilver's work trip and subsequently my 1st ever Yarn Crawl. Flying into Seattle, I read about the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat. I so, so, so wish I would have known so that I could have attended those meeting. Walking down the halls to the open Marketplace , there were so many really great classes and wonderful women and knit goods, oh, and the Hello Cupcakes everyone was carrying around. Unfortunately, no classes for me, but there was lots of yarn. Here is the start of the ShiBui Vintage Baby Cardigan in sock yarn in a non-baby light slate colorway from the Knit-Purl's booth. The lampworked button is from Sheila & Michael Ernst's booth there.

Also at Madrona was Blue Moon Fiber Arts with all of their yarns. The Raven Series was there, their Leticia was there, all the weights were covered, and they even had the Sheep to Shoe kits. I must have walked around and around and around that booth. Oh, what can I make with this one? What can I make with that one?

I totally fell in love with the Turquoise colorway in the medium-weight. The colors remind me of the Lagoon in Bora Bora that I miss so much.

It must be the great weather that was going on while I was in the Pacific Northwest. They were having beautiful weather and I think I was a little bit jealous. I needed to take a little bit of color home. I will have to admit: I never pick colors so friggin' bright. Look at this colorway, Fire on the Mountain. I was looking at this for my Chevron scarf instead of the Farmhouse colorway. I am glad I choose the Farmhouse, but I couldn't pass up the Fire on the Mountain. I don't know if I will make socks out of these, or if I might make another Chevron scarf, maybe for someone else. Madrona Marketplace - A+ To add to my desire for brighter skeins, while I was down in Portland at Twisted on Broadway, I fell in love with a yarn I have never seen before. Zen String's Serendipity. This one is Hopi in a fingering weight. The colors are intense! The only pattern I could even figure that the colors would not overpower would be another pair of monkey socks. That pattern was really fun to work with, and who couldnt use another pair of Monkeys? I only have one now, and I am not a fan of the colorway, so maybe I will fall in love with this one? But don't let me put the cart in front of the horse. I visited Madrona on Valentine's Day, which this year fell on a Thursday. On Friday we drove back down to Oregon to stay with my MIL and on the way I planned to stop off at Twisted. The directions online were great, the traffic was not. Living in Alaska has many luxuries, and the lack of mass traffic is one of the foremost. Twisted is located in a quaint little area, surrounded by boutiquey shops. The women that were there (one being an owner) were completely down to Earth. Knew there customers, asked about me because they realized I had never been into the store by 1) the size of my eyes as they bulged out of my sockets, 2) the drooling from my mouth over all the delicious yarn, and 3) the speed of my fingers as I cluthed onto every skein in the store. I was feeling talkative as I had been sequestered in the car on the seven hour drive from Seattle (it is usually 2 1/2 hrs but it was a three day weekend, and all of Washington was making their exodus south on I-5). Both girls told me what I liked, found out I was down in a stash enhancement, told me about manufacturers, what drove them to order specific colors, the activities they were planning on for the store and generally made me feel very, very welcomed. As new customers came in, one of them would walk over and talk, but then wander back. As my talkative streak came to an end and all my brain power was computing how much I had left in the bank account and how I could maximize my purchases, they casually faded back into what they were working on before I made my introduction to their store. Excellent customer service, friendly atmosphere, stellar inventory. Twisted - A+

Also from Twisted,

here is Zen String's Serendipity in the November colorway. I love the color of this yarn. It is so soft, but I didnt notice the yardage. At only 241 yards, it might end up as a very short pair of socks. Most likely, I will have work them toe-up so that I use up every available inch of this yarn. It is gorgeous. I am thinking another pair of Roza's socks. I love the ones I already have in CTH. They are my favorite pattern/yarn combo.

Also at Twisted, I found yet another skein of Dream in Color, Classy. I used Happy Forest for Boy5's Log Cabin socks, I bought November Muse (brown) for a pair of Log Cabins for myself. But then I found this skein, Deep Seaflower. I fell in love instantly. The blues flow into the purples and back again. I can't wait to start on them. Boy5's socks are like dreams on my feet.

I used the flash to take this picture, so the skein is a bit lighter than the actual color. It is more of deep purple like the bottom right of the 2nd photo of the Dream in Color. I found a link to a Central Park Hoodie that is being made from this fiber and I plan to follow the creation of this sweater because I would love to make my CPH from this. It will be the most expensive sweater I will ever own (fingers crossed that I dont get futher demented and start buying even more expensive sweater yarn). But yes, I do really enjoy working with it.

Ah, I just couldnt pass picking one of these up from the Village Yarn and Tea Shop's booth at Madrona. I have been drooling over this from the Loopy Ewe, but they had so many of the WoolPets kits on the booth table that I just could not resist!

And as I was paying for my sheep, I ran across these stitch markers sitting so periously close to the cash register. They were just peeping, "take us home, we're the blue birds of happiness, and we make your knitting fun." Oh, sad little orphans without a home... How could I let you sit there lonely. Hop into my bag and I will take you home. And so they now grace my office desk. Never to be lonely again. I might be buying more and line a desk above the pictures in my office. They are just adorable. By Good to Be a Girl.

soak... oh yeah, dont forget the essentials! I guess with all the socks that I have now, and all the yarn I have to make socks, I will be needing to wash them. I love the samples that I have used, so it is about time I buy a full bottle and have it on hand. And there is NO WAY I am doing anything but handwashing a handknit sweater. Far too much work to see it ruined.

Okay, so not all my purchases were fiber related. I did stop at one other store during my crawl. It was Tricoter in Seattle. I drove down there by myself to take a look around and I was so disappointed with the service and lack of attention by the sales staff that I walked out of there without a single purchase. It killed me, they were having a AWESOME sale! I was "bumped" by two of their clerks, and neither even looked up. I was totally in the way. They knew the women that walked through their doors by name, knew their projects, do an awesome job with those they were willing to help, and yes, they had some gorgeous skirts (as their book covers). It was just disheartening to see that the reviews are true. They completely lack warmth to "traveling through" customers. They will stay in business with their established clientele, but they didn't get any of my money. Tricoter = D

Last minute purchase of stationary.

Photo shoot

2008-02-21T16:13:00.003-09:00

Yesterday was way to overcast again to take pictures of all my stash, and I have been so excited to add all of the masses to my Ravelry stash. Well, today I figured, If I can't get the sun to come in to take pictures, I will take the stash to the sun. While yes, it is unseasonably warm here in the Interior, it is still not warm enough to take pictures outside, so I needed to find a south facing window. The changing room has plants cover the window, the bedroom isn't great, the living room has heavy curtains and a couch in front of the window, and the kids wouldn't appreciate me taking picture of their rooms (let alone I dont want to go in there unless ABSOLUTELY necessary.) So, how about trekking all of my stash, and camera, and backdrop down to the office. Besides, I am supposed to be working down there anyway. Taking my lunch break, I grabbed everything and began to set the "shoot" up. I have this awesome Radiometer which is sealed in a glass ball and when exposed to radiant light-sunlight, the black coated sides of the solar wings absorb more light energy than the silver sides. Air pressure builds up on the black side so it causes the wings to spin within the semi-vacuum. The spinning intensifies when exposed to stronger sunlight, but wont spin at all under fluorescent light. That way I know if there is enough light to take pictures without using the dreaded flash. When I started taking pictures, the radiometer was spinning slowly, as the sun was being obscured by the bunkhouse adjacent to my red office. As I was taking pictures, the sun came to the west side of the building and I was actually getting direct light into the office. The radiometer starting spinning like mad and I ended up taking over 200 pictures. I will narrow them down, photoshop the light amount to greater represent the actual colors, and post them tomorrow (hopefully). Here is how the set up began:

Back from Seattle

2008-02-19T15:44:00.002-09:00

Yarn crawl from Seattle to Portland was great. I will blog the Stash Enhancement eXperience in another posting. Taking pictures now when it is so overcast does not work. No true color recognition is present with that cast from the artificial blast of light . Oh and speaking of stash enhancements: may I be the first to say, "These babies are gorgeous"? They are amazingly bright. I don't know what I was thinking, maybe it is the fact that winter is starting to wear me out. I needed some serious color. Flowers were in bloom in Seattle, my MIL's crocuses were flowering in the back yard and her tulips were just breaking out of their winter hibernation in the front yard. Jealousy took over and I had to buy everything in bright colors because I knew that I was coming home to the land of winter. Two more months, and spring will be here in Interior Alaska.

The whole trip was not all yarn, work, fiber goodness, work, drive, drive, drive. Almost 1,200 miles logged on the rental car going from Seattle to Woodburn to Seattle to Portland to Woodburn back to Seattle.

Here I am with my darlingMIL and MrAfternoonMoon. We got to drop into her "office" to see where she works and meet the kids in her classes. It was so cute when she introduced the Mr as her little baby, the youngest son to a passing fourth grader. He looked up at Mark and said, "Man, your big. You're no baby" It was so adorable.

My first stop was the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat. I didnt know anything about the retreat, but I read at Ravelry that there was something going on in Tacoma and then again on the Yarn Harlots page about laundry needing to be done or she would be forced to wear commercial socks. That would be embarrassing! Image being the Yarn Harlot and being caught in cheap Old Navy argyles! Needless to say, it was amazingly to walk through my first Fiber Marketplace. So many knitters, so many things to touch, squeeze, think about running away with. I will post pictures by the end of the week of all the goodness that I bought here. Shea and her two DD and her MIL came with us and we all had a blast. Gwennie got a stuffed black sheep and Layla got sweater yarn. And I walked away with several small bags.

Leaving again

2008-02-08T10:32:00.001-09:00

Guess what? I am leaving again. Off on a buying spree for the giftshop here at work, and then off to visit my InLaws, whom I love, then off to sit in a hotel room for a couple days in Seattle working ('Cause it is beginning to look like that time of year when we start getting busier with tasks). I will hang out with Shea in the evenings, and will be on Yarn Crawl from Seattle to Portland and back.

Another reason I am leaving is because it is COLD. Capital C, capital O, capital L, capital D. COLD, just downright fridgid. Man, I hate when it gets like this. Although it could be much, much worse. I have seen it in the -60F's before.

2008-02-07T22:04:00.000-09:00

Oh Yeah, and I made the Green Sock Knit Along postings!

Whoo hoo!!!

Log Cabin socks for the Bunkhouse

2008-02-07T17:06:00.000-09:00

Patttern: Log Cabin Socks by Anne Woodbury from Handknit Holidays: Knitting Year-Round for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Winter Solstice

Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in "Happy Forest"

Needles: Brittany 7 1/2" US#5 dpns

Cast On: Feb2 Bind Off: Feb7

I loved making these socks. Yes, they were chewed on TWICE! Once from the skein and another while on the needles. I would spray bitter on them to get the labbie to stop chewing on them, but that would get in the way of my Pepperidge Farm Mint Brusssels enjoyment. What fun would sock knitting be if there were just a couple cookies involved?

I noticed that my snack of choice is mostly directly dependant on my sock of the moment. Knitting with the Duets made me hungry for Black Forest Cherry Cake and cinnamon hot chocolate. These made me crave mint Brussels. Fortunately, these only took six days, so I didn't go through a lot of cookies, just a couple.

This is the first time I have knit socks with wood needles. And hopefully one of the last. Yes, I know Brittany has a five year replacement guarantee, but that statement is not MrK proof. Dogs eating needles; I am most positively certain is not covered under that policy. Honestly, I did not even bother to check. I liked the feel of the knitting, the wood was rough enough to grib the yarn, and smooth enough to let it slide off when I wanted. No dropped stitches. I would have hated to use Inox with this fiber, it would have been like eating chalk. My beloved Susan Bates are not available anywhere in town under a size7, and I did not feel like ordering them online. First pair were from Memories and More, and the second pair were from Inua. I love going into Inua LYS because of Raveler sarahjean. So nice to have a friendly face and some to talk to. I wanted to go in next time she works and pick up some of the Cherry Tree Hill's Caribou Creek, which is so much prettier in person than it is online, but she works next on Saturday and I leave for work on Friday. Next time. Man, that Cherry Tree was gorgeous, and on sale. Since I am saving my pennies for a Yarn Crawl from Seattle to Portland and back, I only picked up some Lamb's Pride Worsted in Brown Heather for my next pair of Log Cabins.

And speaking of next pair of Log Cabins, I also bought some more Dream in Color Classy from theLoopyEwe.com in November Muse. The yardage on the label says 250yds and the pattern calls for 3 skeins of 120yd Rowan Cork, but I had 18gram left over from my boys size 7 (woman's size pattern). It is a sad day when you realize the youngest kid in the household now has bigger feet than you do. At least I am still a foot taller, for now.

Superbowl knitting and lab chewing

2008-02-04T09:35:00.000-09:00

I was so excited with these Log Cabin Socks that I started for my sock model, Boy5. Ordered the Dream in Color - Classy in "Happy Forest" because he loves green and orange (but thankfully not together). This sock knits up tremendously quick. I started the ribbing Saturday night and worked my way past the heel during the Superbowl. I am not too excited about the hand-wound ball. It doesn't stay in one place like the center-pull balls on the winder, but MrK decided to bite into my stash while I was away. I have to wrap all my fiber in plastic bags, or else he drags them all over the house. I must have left it out of the sack, cause when I got home, it was all out-of-hank, in a large soft pile on my desk. Great, wool is not so easy to wind up when it is all tangled up, coated in dog slobber, seeded with traction sand and ingrained with mutt-hair. Took me nearly an hour to detangle and clean. He must have used it as a dry mop, cause it looked like a Christmas tree with all that ornamentation.

So, ball in hand, hours watching a game, I knit a whirl of green cabled madness. Fingers like lightning, feet up and down for changing the loads of laundry, sock with thick sock yarn knitting up mega-speed. I was excited to see the sock features so swiftly come about.

Incidentally, neither DH or myself watch football, so I have to plop down once a year and fully commit myself to America's pasttime and absorb the all important Superbowl commercials. My favorite being the eTrade ads. Nothing maternal or anything, but that talking baby has my vote for originality. And not near as creepy as the clown in the background.

Adding to my list of tasks for the day (hate Mondays), I now have to add warming up the truck. Now much easier with the assistance of the new auto-start remote. My old remote's key pad went the way of the trash having had it's buttons pressed too hard for the past three years. Driving into town is such a pain at oh... -42F this morning. Lovely, the truck NEVER fully warms up, there is almost no fuel in the tank, so I have to go to the gas station first, yarn shop second, and since it is such an endeavour to get all the way to town (10 minutes) I will most likely have to stop in at the gym and get in at least the requisite half hour of cardio. Damn dog.

Chevron Scarf: from Caribbean to Cold

2008-02-01T15:15:00.001-09:00

Pattern: Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Art Socks that Rock medium-weight in "Farmhouse" and "Chickabiddy"
Needles: Lantern Moon size6

cast on: Jan10 cast off: Jan31

So I cast on here at home to make certain that the only thing I needed to do was the chevron pattern portion of the pattern. I love the color combo of these two. I kept wondering if I should have stuck with the golden-only colors of the 24Karat, but I really love the colors in the Chickabiddy. They match the red colors of both of my winter jackets.

I worked on this in the evenings when we had days-at-port and afternoons in the sun when we had days-at-sea. It was a great small project to carry around. Now that I am back in Alaska, it is well received for the weather that we are having. Left Tampa at 65F and back in Fairbanks at -45F. Thank goodness it was -10F yesterday, I was able to take pictures outside.

Here is the scarf in more detail. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the color combo. I didn't knit they whole 77", I stopped at a very reasonable 56" it wraps around the neck, both sides hang down. Works great.

side note: I really expected, since we sailed on a Holland America cruise, and the clientele is customarily the other end of the age range, that there would be more knitters on board. I saw that the Knitting at Sea cruise was Holland America (if I had time in March I would definately hop on that one) so I erroneously thought there would be knitting cohorts aboard. Nope, two crocheters, one tatter, but no knitters, no knitting friends. Just me, sitting on the aft deck at the aft bar knitting with the cigar smokers. It was still fun, kept me busy, and the pattern is so easy, the pina coladas didnt even mess it up!

I will miss you!

2008-01-10T11:03:00.000-09:00

We leave tomorrow for Tampa and sail out on Sunday. The flight will be a killer. We depart home at 6:30pm, fly to Anchorage, wait two hours, fly to Seattle, wait four hours, fly to Houston, wait three-and-a-half hours, then final flight to Tampa. Spend the night in Tampa and wake up the next morning, do some shopping, I found Knit 'n Knibble so I might try to hit a Tampa LYS for an hour or so. All seven of us are going. HiOhSilver, me and boy1, 2, 3, 4, & 5. They are so excited to go they barely slept last night. No school for two more weeks. They had two weeks off for Christmas vacation, back to school for one week and then off again for another two weeks. The teachers are not happy, but the life experience from traveling fullfills so much of a greater appreciation for foreign cultures, languages, geography, vitamin D processing. And we are three days out and they are already not sleeping. So what am I going to do tonight to verify they sleep well? Uh, how about some popcorn and Ghost Ship? It was either that or the Poseidon. or Titanic. We already watched Madagascar (at the expense of our teens, ha ha). That should really get them to bed! With all the flying, and waiting, and sailing (only two days at sea, the rest are days-at-port) I will have lot of time to start and work on my Chevron Scarf. I thought the miters need to stay at home. I thought about bringing along the Log Cabin Socks, but decided against it. I thought about knitting a bikini, but I won't shame the boys with that horror, so that is out the window too. A nice tight project that I can write the pattern on a notecard, in case either the jetlag or the Dramamine kick in. See you at the end of January, signing off and shipping out... Krista

truck unplugger

2008-01-09T08:44:00.001-09:00

Caught him sneaking around the back property, scoping out the truck. See if you try to unplug it again. The dogs saw him and his friend, so the barking kept them from coming up to the house. And since it is always dark, the picture was not the best. National Geographic is not calling me to take any wildlife pictures, yet.

Negative post ahead

2008-01-08T11:56:00.001-09:00

If you are only looking for happy knitting... stop reading here! Uh, Sock a Month 4 SUCKS! (edit, bitterness over, it was frustrating for the moment, emails get piled to the ceiling for volunteers, and some get missed) And I am/was just bitter! I completed a sock a month, which is fun, the KAL helped me both start and finish six pair of socks. but the girl that is recognizing the participants for my alphabet slot missed me three times. After gentle reminders, she caught two of them, but missed December. So no credit for my Grinchy Grouchy socks, no credit for a sock every month of the Sock a Month KAL, no entry in those prize drawings. Not that I am a sore loser, I do not "need" any more sock yarn, I could knit until 2009 and still have fiber left over. And I joined the Rockin' Sock Club, so more is coming my way anyway. It just kills some of the fun. I joined SAM5, but I might be changing my name to AfternoonMoon because there is already another Krista and it looks like she might have received my credit for January. Does that not completely blow? well, enough with the bitter, and back to Miter3!

Duets are done

2008-01-08T09:53:00.000-09:00

Pattern: Vogue Knitting Socks Universal Toe-Up socks pattern.
Yarn: A Swell Shop's *skinny* Duet Socks in "Chocolate Crunch 2"
Needle: addi turbo size 2 40"circular
Cast on: Dec30 Bind off: Jan5

This pattern, while "universal" needed a lot of help. A very customizable pattern, but I had to find tutorials for the cast on, short-row heel, and the bind off. I found the cast on on knitty.com. It is Judy Becker's Magic Cast-on for Toe-Up socks. I used Silver's Sock Class for the short row heel and the bind off. I customized by using the k4, p2 ribbing which gave the sock some structure. And can I say, "I love this yarn"! The color is gorgeous. It was so fun to work with. Although I was continually desiring Black Forest Cherry Cake, chocolate covered cherries, and cinnamon hot chocolate because of the colors. It was a delight to work with both in color and softness. Oh, and the first time using the Magic Loop method. Wonderfully easy and FAST!

Ah, and here is the first of many, many miters for my Mitered Square Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting. For the love of Ravelry! I was looking at some Raveler's Chevron Scarves for color inspiration and came across a Flickr account with some wonderful pictures of this blanket Man, addictive (both Ravelry and the miters). My first miter is an homage to my alma mater, Portage Northern H.S. Go Huskies! Yes, our school colors are Orange and Brown. Made school spirit days a little bland on colors.

And this showed up yesterday in the mail. It is not a great picture of the yarn, you can check that out in my stash. I was estatic over the stitch marker. I love the Loopy Ewe. Not only do they have every single skein of yarn that I want for my sock stash, they include gifts in the first five orders that you place. My order number Four included this wonderful LoopyEwe marker. Nice, would go and buy some of the other Zephyrstyle markers if I ever get money to burn. The Dream in Color Classy in "Happy Forest" is for my wonderful sock model's Log Cabin socks from Handknit Holidays that I HAD to pick up from Barnes and Noble after Christmas. Love the book, there are so many patterns that I love from that book. Mainly the Santa hat. Oh, love it!

S.E.X.y Wednesday

2008-01-03T08:43:00.000-09:00

Wow, Wednesday was a Stash Enhancement eXperience. I think the mailman was saving up all the shipments for me to deliver on one day.

And the day started out so poorly. I had a 9:30 am dentist appointment. I wake up at my usual 7:30am, still dark and will be for another two-and-a-half hours. Take a shower, brush my teeth extra special careful (cause the dentist will think that I always spend five whole minutes brushing instead of the requisite two?), get dressed, and grab the gargantuan key chain off the key-monkey and point the auto-start at the window.
{Blue Moon Fiber Arts; Socks that Rock - mediumweight; "Farmhouse"}

{BMFA; STR -med; "Chickabiddy}
No starting of the Dredge-truck. Press the key button again, no start. Okay, battery... check. Point, press, nothing. Oh, lovely. Going to be a wonderful morning. I walk out to the trucks and notice that both of the cords are unplugged. Since cars in Alaska at 25F below need to be plugged in so the battery blanket keeps the battery warm, the water circulator keeps the water/anti-freeze flowing, and the engine pad keeps the engine warm (relative term here), ours are frozen. HiOhSilver comes out and his truck starts right up. Mine? No go. So, how did the trucks get unplugged? Did the Karma gremlins know that I really, really didnt want to go to the dentist first thing in the morning? Did little wood sprites not want me using evil electricity? No, there are moose prints all around the tree that we dangle the cords from and they have tripped over the cords and unplugged both trucks. Yes, imagine my embarrasment when I have to call the dentist and tell the receptionist that I am unable to make it to the appointmet because a moose unplugged my truck. She laughed, "only in Alaska."

{BMFA; STR - lightweight; "Mustang Sally"}
So that brings me to my lovely Stash Enhancement Experience. With now a couple free hours on my hands, how about we take MrK and Linger-Pingers on a brisk 25F below walking trek to the mailbox to grab the couple pounds of junkmail that I receive on a daily basis? Living here on commercial property, I cannot legally (man, those postal workers have some complicated rules) receive mail and if I do, I cannot forward mail to a new moving address because mail-forwarding is only a residential option. So everyone who has ever lived here still receives all their junk mail, here. All of my foreign employees that order anything through the internet (and boy-'O-boy do those kids order some wack-arse stuff) all receive junk mail for years, here. With no end in sight! Mail time is almost like recycling time; but only if we just recycled here in Fairbanks. It would be great.

Three Whole Boxes of fiber! First package: my order for my Chevron Scarf, the BMFA mediumweights in Farmhouse and Chickabiddy.

Second package: And here is the kicker: I won the tiennie knits blog giveaway! Whoo-hoo! Here is the BMFA; STR-light; in "Mustang Sally". I was squee-ing something fierce when I opened the package and saw the loot! And everything was so well coordinated. Matching mailing label, congratulatory card, security sticker on the tissue paper. Excellent use of logo, Tiennie, thank you, I love it!

Third package: My order from Yarn Market. I highly recommend this online vendor. Their order form is easy, they carry a million different brands, the free shipping isn't free to Alaska, which it usually never is anyway. After some haggling, they were willing to drop the shipping charge of the backordered items and are shipping those for free. I ordered 34 different colors of Tahki*Stacey Charles Cotton Classic for Park's Mitered Blanket from the Mason-Dixon Knitting book. I am really excited to start this project. I will give it to him for his birthday in June. I know, I am probably setting myself up for failure. What 12 year old boy wants a blankie for his birthday? But of all my boys, Park is one to appreciate the hardwork that handmade gifts require. After modeling my socks for the blog, he decided a couple weeks ago that he loves the softness of the socks and would really like a pair for himself. So, quick as that request came out, I jumped to the Loopy Ewe, ordered the Dream in Color "forest" and added the Log Cabin sock to my Ravelry queue. Until then, looks like I have my hands full!

Shelf of hats and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2008-01-01T13:31:00.000-09:00

My lovely shelf of hats that HiOhSilver (DH) would like me to get into the mail so he can have his travel shelf back. I have the Children's Hats from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book for the Johnson girls, the Upside-Down Daisy hat for chef's niece, and my Unoriginal hat, which incidentally is too small. After wearing it for a couple days, it keeps coning, so it too will go to chef's niece. Lovely hat, but the Del Sur wasn't bulky enough and I didnt realize it until wearing it a couple times. I will attempt to make it, one more time for the final time until the next time, in the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Leticia in the 24Karat colorway. Oh, and QuarterPig loved trying on Layla's hat. It kept his cold ceramic ears nice and toasty! More pics on my Flickr account and also over in Ravelry as AfternoonMoon. And speaking of Ravelry, wow, what a time-drain! But a lovely one at that. Here is what I am working on currently, my first attempt at the Magic loop technique. I used Judy Becker's Magic cast-on for toe-up socks on knitty.com and from Vogue Knitting The Ultimate Sock Book Vogue Knitting Universal Toe-Up Sock Pattern. I did run into a slight issue with the cast on numbers (30) and the increases up to 60. Since 30 is not divisible by the 4 increases per round, I am working with a 58 st foot. So far, not so bad, a bit loose, but will give me just the right amount of stretch for the ankle. Anyone {Pat} have a suggestion on MagicLoop short-row heels? I was not impressed with the M1 increase of the suggested toe from the cast-on directions; it left a lot of little holes that I had to weave up from the tails.

Oh, and the yarn is FABULOUS! I am totally in love with both the fiber, A Swell Yarn Shop's *skinny* Duet Sock Yarn and the color, Chocolate Crunch 2. It is a pure treasure to work with. I don't know who's base yarn they use, but it is wonderful. I will be making these again, both in the same technique (new toe) and the same fiber, different colorways. And why? Cause I had a New Year's Eve party last night and everyone politely but poignantly expressed their disappointment in not receiving socks for Christmas. I just didn't think they would appreciate them, but I guess I was wrong. At least their birthdays are not all at the same time. I can start working on them later in the Spring.

Not another Upside-down daisy hat

2007-12-27T12:18:00.001-09:00

Pattern: Upside Down Daisy from KnitIt! Spring 2007

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Rialto in ivory and baby pink

Needles: Addi turbo and S.B. dpns size7

Cast on: Dec25 Cast off: Dec 26

Oh, man, I swear: "This is the last one I am making!" at least until next time...

Unoriginal Hat 2

2007-12-24T17:05:00.001-09:00

Pattern: An Unoriginal Hat by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Yarn: Aslan Trends Del Sur in a golden color

Needles: Size 7mm US10.75 Colonial Rosewood

Cast on: Dec 15 Cast off: Dec 23

Christmas knitting done

2007-12-24T16:29:00.000-09:00

too bad all my Christmas knitting was for myself!

Pattern: Grinchy Grouchy Sock kit from Blue Moon Fiber Arts

Yarn: Socks that Rock in "Grinchy" and "Pond Scum". Whisper in "Pond Scum"

Needles: Size 1 & 2 & 3 dpns

Cast on: December 1

Cast off: December 22

I modified the pattern (by situation, not by choice) so I did the normal toe that I always do, not the short row as in the pattern {that got left at home}. The sock on the left of the picture, is considerably larger than the sock on the right, by about 1/2 inch. My wonderful sock model, FB, has a man's size 6 (women's 4?) so it is viewed a bit loose for my size 8 1/2 foot. I inadvertantly added another row of whisper to the sock on the left, and purled those instead of knitting them. I will be wearing them with pants tomorrow (and every Christmas after) so I am not at all concerned with the differences.

As we were taking all of our pictures downstairs by the tree, my sock model mentioned that he would love to have a pair of my homemade socks, "cause they are really soft and comfortable". I think he just likes the one-on-one Mom time and posing (not that MrK isn't always trying to get in the way). So, it looks like I have a project to make for someone else. We'll have to go to Inua and have him pick out a yarn for himself. I assume it will be something green. FrogBoy likes everything froggy, and he loved the name Pond Scum from my Grinchy socks.

Shortest day of the year

2007-12-22T17:22:00.000-09:00

Happy Solstice! Party last night was good.

Here is how much daylight we actually see. There is a hill to the south (to my back as I am taking this picture) and this hill obstructs the sunlight to the property. The picture is true to the amount of daylight that I actually receive in the winter. We plan to build on a south facing slope soon, so I might actually be able to grow houseplants with natural light. The building in the picture is my summer office and maintenance shed. The cut-out on the far hill is a buried segment of the Alaska Gas Pipeline which runs both above ground and under ground along our property line. Man, I miss the sunshine! That's why we vacation so much. I need UV rays! I need to produce natural vitamin D! I need the sun!

Check out the new weather pixie...

2007-12-19T08:40:00.000-09:00

... she loves to inform me that right now it is -36F and there is only 3 hours and 44 minutes of daylight. Friday is Solstice and the rebirth of our sun. So in celebration we are having a get-together here. Initially I was thinking, cocktail party for the adults and a small bonfire and sledding on the little hill for the kids, but with the temperature being as it is, the bonfire will have to be cancelled. Unfortuneately. I know it saddens the kids; having five boys, each with a friend or two coming over, it could get a little hectic. Just a couple more cups of rum in the eggnog and no one will notice the sugar-hyped teenagers running around, right? And speaking of eggnog, this year will be a special treat. I hand picked vanilla beans when I was over in Tahiti in October, so the nog will have fresh Tahitian vanilla. Humm, so fattening, so delicious. So, if you are in the neighborhood, stop on in for some fresh Tahitian vanilla eggnog, homemade gingerbread cheesecake, grilled reindeer sausage (this is what Santa does with the slow ones, tee hee), and toast to the fertility of your family and friends with some spiced cider!

and on a knitting note: over the course of being shut out for two weeks, I finished an Unoriginal Hat and one of my Grinchy Grouchy socks.

Shut out of Blogspot!!!

2007-12-18T09:31:00.000-09:00

Wow, I was shut off of Blogspot for almost 2 weeks now. I received in my gmail account a notice accusing me of spamming and was informed that my blog would be shut down until they verified that I was not a spammer. {Note: The Knitty entry had several targets to the same site which usually indicates SPAM.} I was told in an email that I would be contacted from the Gmail Anti-spam tactical team and released within several days if the accusation was incorrect. No notice, no forewarning, no nothin'. Just kicked out onto the non-blog street. Thankfully my Ravelry invitation was received or I would be in a knitting-community coma. Looks like I'm back. I missed this...

More mini-socks

2007-12-06T14:28:00.000-09:00

Mini socks pattern here

Where my stitches at?

2007-12-06T14:21:00.000-09:00

Yeah, I'm on! Come to find out, my Ravelry invite was sitting in my SPAM folder. Oops! Glad I checked before cleaning it out! As if you couldn't guess, I am AfternoonMoon! And there are some great Alaskan groups out there! They are having a Qivuit sale up at the university tomorrow. I will post what I snuck in and bought, if they have anything left.

Winter Knitty is out!

2007-12-05T13:46:00.001-09:00

Too bad MrParker is too old for laughing carrots! It is so cute!!! I wish my friends were having boys instead of all girls. I will just have to make it in pink. Oh, so adorable. It is stardust, halycon and chevrolace for me. And maybe even Sally the Eco Fairy for Layla and Sarah. So many great patterns this season. Even more great patterns in Winter Knitty than Interweave Knits Winter 2007. Although, I do have to say that I am waiting for Sandi's knit-up of the Gathered Pullover. I am curious to see what the sweater looks like with women with curves.

Grinchy Grouchy Sock Kit arrived!

2007-12-05T12:48:00.001-09:00

My December socks arrived after an extended wait. And here they are: The Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Grinchy Grouchy Socks Kit". One skein STR Grinchy, One skein STR Pond Scum, and a mini-skein of Whisper in Pond Scum. The pattern is {very} similar to the Chevron scarf in my winter queue. I was thinking about not doing the whisper, but instead have decided to not only knit up the whisper, but to add it to the toes. How can one be Grinchy this Christmas if one does not have hairy toes?

Good news for the day, my chickadees came back! My squirrel guard on my birdfeeder (dont ask why the squirrel guard is even on, it came with the feeder, our ground squirrel hibernate) engaged while I was on vacation and the chickadees went elsewhere for their food. Today, 3 weeks after I came back and fixed it, they came back! Whoo hoo!

Within the hour

2007-12-03T16:21:00.001-09:00

Within an hour of the Uptown Boot Sock being completed, so was my mini-sock in the Cherry Tree Hill "Slate". I abhor scant piles of left over sock yarn, so I i-cord on size2 until I have enough to make a trivet. Superglue the i-cord to a ceramic tile (or in my case, a bar coaster from the latest bar with ugly coasters {side note: strange but true, my husband collects cool bar coasters; I take the ugly ones and superglue i-corded reminants of sock yarn to them}).

I received my Grinchy Grouchy Sock kit on Saturday, and today I received my Leticia. Both from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I will post on this tomorrow. I have to share, if you haven't seen already... "Here Hold My Sock". I found it while surfing for the Yarn Harlots Unoriginal Hat that I am knitting for my sister for Christmas. LOL!

Uptown Boot Socks

2007-12-02T14:51:00.001-09:00

Pattern: Uptown Boot Sock by Jennifer Appleby in Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave and the Winter 2003 issue of Interweave Knits

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill supersock, 100% merino in "Slate"

Needles: S.B. dpns size2

Cast on first sock: Nov9

Cast off second sock: Nov30

Wow, a cable all over sock. That was much more work than I thought it was going to be. The second sock took me three days to knit. I took a hiatis between socks to whip up half a dozen mini-socks. Surprisingly, I learned a lot from those mini-socks. I realized that I was doing the SSK wrong. Yes, fundamental error. I was being lazy and just "k2tog-through back loop". So the ssk is finally right, now comes the lesson of the "kitchener stitch". I was seriously overtightening the stitches AND on the purl-through stitch, I was purling through the back loop and not the front loop. After these two realizations, I now have a kitchener stitch that you can't see. Just look at the beautiful job in the photo below. So exciting! Whoo-hoo for me!

Today is such a beautiful day

2007-11-30T14:41:00.001-09:00

Today is such a great day, I decided to double post. Now that it is daylight (kinda), I thought I would get another picture of the orchid. This brings me immense satisfation to have been able to keep this humidity-loving tropical plant alive in our dry, harsh, arctic environment. It is such a contrast to the world on the other side of the glass.

Boss is out of town today, all my work is done for the week, and I am getting my "knit-on" like a bad, bad girl.

I just HAVE to share the great day. I even got an email back from Sheri from the Loopy Ewe, she does such a great job with her customer service/blog/ business practices, that I had to let her know. Here is a glimpse at her email...

Aww - you're so sweet! Thank you so much for your email and I'm sorry for troubles with other sites. Maybe they're having a bad day. :-( At any rate, we love having you here and promise to always take good care of you! Hugs, Sheri

On Nov 30, 2007, at 4:23 PM, Krista Wilkinson wrote:
thanks...
i think i love u!

I have been having such problems with "the other" online retail shop: horrible service, shipping delays, rude/accusing emails. I just wanted you to know how much your hand-written comments on the invoices are appreciated. Your attention to detail is flawless and you come so highly recommended. thank you!

It is so nice to have online websites/stores that actually bring a personal touch to their practices. Thank you Sheri and your Loopy Ewe co-workers (if there are any).

NKR: Sunrise was gorgeous this morning

2007-11-30T10:04:00.000-09:00

It was such a beautiful sunrise that I just could not resist. Not many mornings are this gorgeous. We keep loosing sunlight until Dec22, with today down to 4 hours and 48 minutes of daylight. Sunrise at 10:15am and sunset at 3:03pm. It is right now 0F/-18C. We don't have windchill, so this is the actual temperature.

On the knitting note, not doing much today, just trying to finish the foot on my second Uptown Boot sock. I will have a couple pictures to post soon.

Mini-sock weekend

2007-11-26T14:14:00.001-09:00

Well, the mini-sock trial took off. First there was three. Then I received my order of Duet Socks (love them) and Sheri included her version of the mini-sock with some awesome sock yarn and I made another one

Then the three turned to five socks....
from left to right: Koigu from Layla's blanket, Yarn Pirate from my Tahitian Monkey socks, CTH in Cabin Fever from Roza's Socks, Lorna's Laces in Lakeview from my Waving Lace socks and then The Loopy Ewe Red Socks kit (dont know the yarn, but it was fabulous)
Last night, while sitting at the bar downstairs (yes, I have a full bar in my house, I ROCK!) I knit up some of my J.Knits in San Jose from my Campanulas for a Cure. I dont think I will be making up any from my very first sock, cause it is a sport-weight ski-sock, and I only have yet to make my CTH in Slate from my Uptown Boot Sock, that I only have one knit up. I was waiting for the second sock until after my Grinchy Grouchy Socks arrived & knit. Shipping confirmation says they arrived on 21Nov, but my mailman sucks! I am giving up and casting on the second sock after this post. That will guarantee the kit comes tomorrow, right when I need the needles. I did get my addi Turbo 40" in for Magic Loop, maybe I will try the Grinchy Grouchy on that. Socks for December!

Mini Sock trials

2007-11-21T10:48:00.000-09:00

Okay, so I am not great at photo staging. But trying to learn, I got out the furniture polish, cleared off all the clutter from the winter office's desk, busted out the rags and got to work. I haven't seen some of the footage of this desk in months. It wasn't until after I transfered the pictures over to my laptop did I realize that there isn't enough detail in the socks. Now that there is detail in the socks, the clean desk is not showing. At least I have a clean desk.
I guess I should get back to work. Oh, and the stage props? Too sweet. I was over at CaptThor's house and being from NewZealand, she had a bunch of local Merino just sitting in her house not being knit up. And best of all, she donated it to me! Whoo hoo!!! Now I just need to figure out what to do with it.

I am waiting for my Socks that Rock "Grinchy Grouchy Kit" so I will not be starting any new projects (I am not a multi-tasker). I fight my family heritage: I throw things away that I no longer use, I drop off my clothes to Goodwill or the un-reuseable ones to the AK Rag Co., I do not save knick-knacks, and I DO NOT {intentionally} START MULTIPLE projects. All this runs in my family, nature vs. nurture, and I will NOT start now. I will purchase yarn for future projects, I have a long queue. So, in waiting for my kit, I am creating one mini-sock in each of the sock yarns I knit. That way I will have permenant reminders at Christmas of the socks that I knit thoughout the year. Here is just a beginning:

The littlest sock is Jennifer's Mini-Sock Recipe with a cast on of 16 sts. The larger sock is from Lime & Violet: The Daily Chum's August 30th entry titled Tiny Toes. You can see the full entry on Smoking Hot Needles: Avoiding SSS or 14 socks in 2 days!. Both socks are Cherry Tree Hill in "Cabin Fever". I combined the two pattern, since SHN's recipe stated heel of choice & toe of choice, which was frustrating to me. I am a knitting follower, I like to follow patterns.

My version as follows:

Using sock yarn, cast on 24 sts on needle size 0-2. Divide evenly over 3 dpns join for knitting on the round. Knit 6 rounds (K1, P1). Knit 18 rounds st st.

Heel: Place half your sts on needle#1, with 1st stitch in the center. Place 6 stitches on needle#2 and #3. Row1: knit to end, Row2: purl to end, repeat 3 times for 6 rows total.

Heel turn:

Row1: K6, ssk, K1 turn ; Row2: s1 purl-wise, p2, p2tog, p1, turn ; Row3: s1 p-wise, k3, ssk, K1, turn ; Row4: s1 p-wise, p4, p2tog, p1, turn ; Row5: s1 p-wise, k5, ssk, turn ; Row6: s1 p-wise, p4, p2tog. 6 sts remain

Gusset: Knit across the 6 heel stitches, then pick up 6 sts along left side of heel flap, knit all 12 sts of instep onto needle#2, with needle#3 pick up 6 sts on right side of heel flap. Rearrange sts so you have 9 sts on sides and 12 sts for instep. Knit one round.

Decrease: Round1: needle#1: k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 ; n#2: knit ; n#3: k1, ssk, knit to end. Round2: knit. Repeat until you have original stitch count (24).

Foot: Knit 12 rounds

Toe: Round1: needle#1: K3, k2tog, k1 ; n#2: k1, ssk, knit to 3sts of end, k2tog, k1 ; n#3: k1, ssk, k3. Round 2: knit. Round 3: K2, k2tog, k1 ; n#2: k1, ssk, knit to 3sts of end, k2tog, k1 ; n#3: k1, ssk, k2. Round 4: knit. Round 5: n#1: k1, k2tog, k1 ; n#2: k1, ssk, k2, k2tog, k1 ; n#3: k1, ssk, k1. Round 6: knit. Kitchener stitch close.

Weave in yarn at toe, i-cord yarn at cuff to create hanger.

To all knit-bloggers: STOP referencing to Ravelry!

2007-11-17T18:38:00.000-09:00

right this instant! S.T.O.P. halt, desist, cease, finish, let up, standstill, terminate... I haven't received my invite yet: patiently awaiting your invite? {no, do I look patient?} Found you! You signed up on November 13, 2007 You are #57073 on the list. 9033 people are ahead of you in line. 2011 people are behind you in line. 80% of the list has been invited. {except I am not in the 80% yet} :(

Monkey Socks finished

2007-11-16T22:12:00.001-09:00

Pattern: Monkey socks by CookieA

Yarn: Yarn Pirate in Brown Sugar

needles: size2 dpns

cast on: Oct 19 cast off: Nov 8

So much fun to knit. These are my first monkey socks, but definately not my last. Great socks to knit on the airplane because of the easy, easy pattern to memorize.

Hat for Bb

2007-11-16T15:10:00.000-09:00

Bb had requested a black hat with a green alien and I have never done stranded color, so sounds like a challenge. It went really well, I should have measured his head and creating a pattern instead of just increasing the dimensions of a baby cap. The top of the alien does not stretch enough, I should have {what? don't know enough about hats and stretch and two colors} The hat fits over his head, it is just a little tight 4/5th the way up. Couldn't find a chart on the alien face, so I just drew one up with graph paper.

On a side note: {NKR-not knitting related} I was on the Interweave Knits KAL site and saw some more of the awesome Snowflake Socks form Fall'07 and got inspired to immediately go Xcountry skiing. Heading out on my summer running path, I got the groove of packing the snow-trail and BAM there is a new warehouse right in the path that connects the empty field and the pipeline. Huge signs demanding "NO TRESPASSING" all over the place. Lovely, just lovely. Partially ignoring the signs, I decided to ski to the edge of property (which is actually owned by a friend, leased to these yahoos) and this nasty, burly Alaska-man in filthy carhartts steps out of the shop and stands in his driveway. I wave, MrK (brown lab) is along for the ski because within the next couple trips will be beginning skijor training, MrK starts to bark, the AKman stands portly in his driveway and we have to climb a gravel burm just to get to the remainder of the path. Lets see: "a word of advice, jacka$s, if you want privacy for your meth lab, try not placing it in the middle of an existing recreation path. There are 49 other acres on the parcel, just 'cause you need a backdoor excape path when the troopers come a knockin', doesn't mean you should block off everyone else's enjoyment." Oh, makes me sooooo friggin' mad! I had to take off my skiis to traverse this 12 foot incline burm just to stay away from this joker's rented property. I wouldn't be so mad, but this is a really great ski path cause snowmachiners can't drive over most of it, ruining the glide. Ahhhh.

I still need to buy yarn and cast on these awesome Snowflake sock. Who can ski without? And I did just order a 40" size2 addi turbo for magic loop. Just have to watch the video and scope out the links that the ever lovely Pat emailed. Thanks, Pat!!!

Sign up for new members!

2007-11-12T10:49:00.000-09:00

Hey, look what's up! My check has been sent! Whoo hoo!

and look into my queue for December socks for Sock A Month KAL, courtesy of Blue Moon Fiber Arts: The Grinchy Grouchy Kit

Monkeys in Bora Bora

2007-11-08T09:09:00.000-09:00

First sock completed. Kitchener stitched with knitting needles in Huahine and started the cuff on the plane to Bora Bora. In the late afternoons, I would sit on the deck overlooking the water, relax and catch a couple stitches between dips in the lagoon. Being so fair skinned, I tried to stay out of the sun in the afternoons. The leg was got halfway here on the upper deck, the heel was turned and the foot was started on the long, long flights back to Alaska.

Spoiled Monkey in Huahine

2007-11-08T08:59:00.000-09:00

Hinano and knitting: a great combination for a relaxing vacation.
I had finished the foot and toe and now need to figure out how to kitchner without a tapestry needle. First sock completed!

I'm back! with spoiled Monkey Socks

2007-11-07T23:28:00.000-09:00

This little monkey went to Tahiti

Cuff was started on the tarmac at Fairbanks International Airport here in Fairbanks. The leg was completed on the way to Seattle. Heel flap was started in Maui and finished on the plane to Tahiti. Heel was turned as I was waiting to leave Tahiti and as you can see, I was starting on the gusset and instep. Spoiled little Monkey socks.

Pattern: Monkey socks from Cookie A on knitty.com

Yarn: Yarn Pirate in their version of Brown Sugar

Needles: my trusty size 2 S.B. dpns

Cast on: October 18

Campanula for a Cure! Love them socks!

2007-10-17T17:01:00.001-08:00

Pattern: Campanula for a Cure

Yarn: J.Knits in San Jose

Needle: s.b. dpns size2

Cast on: forgot Cast off: uhm, sometime in the first week of October

First off, this was my first toe-up sock. I used Wendy's generic sock pattern, and lets just say, even the most detailed explanation didn't cut it! I bought three books to try to learn this. Uh, I frogged three times, finally got it. I only had to do two heels.

The pattern was not memorizable, so I was continually having to look at the chart. It made the knitting go very, very slow. Casting off worked well on one sock, and the second sock is horrid. Does not stretch AT ALL. Big enough to go over my heel, so I am not going to fix it.

J.Knits yarn is soft to begin with, but after working with it for a while, it starts to feel really scratchy.

I am so glad they are done. And so is Mr.K (chocolate lab puppy). He digs through the dirty clothes hamper to find them to carry them around with him. He doesnt destroy them, he just carries it over to his bed and sleeps with them. I have washed them twice, and was hoping that it would end. It hasnt.

Waving Lace Socks

2007-09-28T15:25:00.001-08:00

Pattern: Waving Lace from Favorite Socks
Yarn: Lorna's Laces in Lakeview
Needle: s.b. dpns size2
Cast on: August Cast off: Sept 28

I love these socks! They are super awesome. The color is gorgeous. These are my first lace socks, so I look forward to wearing them with my slippers inside or saving until next spring. Winter has come, termination dust has hit the hills. There was snow in the valley three days ago, but thankfully it didnt stick!

WIP- Campanulas for a Cure are both cast on and past both heels, working towards the cuff. I wound the J.Knits in two unequal balls, so the first sock to be finished will be the smallest ball and I will make the second sock that lenght. That is a serious advantage with the toe-up socks. Knit until the yarn is gone!

WIP- The shawl/wrap from the Fall kitty.com. Dont remember the pattern name. Yarn is Alpaca Cloud from Knitpicks and addi turbos from the LYS. Havent cast on, but hope to finish it on the plane either to French Polynesia, or from. I selected Lagoon for the color to commemorate the trip. Three weeks away, with a stupid work cruise to San Diego this next weekend.