Blithering Knitiot

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, David and I planned a trip to Arizona to see his parents.  We hadn't seen them since September 2009 when we traveled there for his sister's wedding.  About three weeks before our trip, David received an e-mail from his Dad asking to bring David's Grand Daughter Rebecca (who is 3 and a half) as a surprise.  We pondered this, and having had Rebecca at our house when her little brother was born in December, we knew that Rebecca wasn't quite ready to be away from her Mom & Dad for an overnight trip without her Mom, Teresa.  Teresa suggested that she go (she hadn't seen her grandparents in a long time), and that way she could also bring her 4 month old, William.  David thought about it, and since Teresa could go along to take care of Rebecca and William, why not bring the other two grandchildren, Lex (6) and Calvin (2.5).  So, we talked with the Boy's parents, and they agreed, and the three of us adults took 4 young children on an airplane to visit with their Great Grandparents for a long weekend (Thursday to Monday).  We told David's Dad that we were only bringing Rebecca, so he got a great surprise as well when the HUGE van we rented pulled up at their house and all these people got out of it.  It kinda remended me of a clown car... (and since he couldn't keep a secret and he told his wife that we were bringing Rebecca, it was nice to still have a surprise for everyone). 

It was a warm weekend.  Temps were just over 100, and humidity was in the single digits.  I'm surprised that my contact lenses stayed in my eyes...

A blow up pool was purchased for the kids to play in, and between the hose and the toys, the kids had a great time! David's two sisters and their families also live in Arizona, so everyone had a great time with the babies.  I think Uncle Geoff and cousin DJ had just as much fun, if not more, with the kids and the pool.

There was only one real meltdown at the airport the morning we came home from Calvin, which we all lived through.  It had ended before we got on the plane, and the rest of the trip was pretty peaceful.

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day weekend!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

80 years young today!  And still likes a good beer from time to time...

Happy Easter!

Hello there!  I hope you all have an enjoyable Easter holiday, if you celebrate.  It's been a year since I posted anything, and all I can say is that I guess life kinda got all of my time and the blog got quite neglected. 

 

The past year was kinda busy, including:

A trip to the Oregon coast.

Two trips to New York City to see Opera and other events.

Rhinebeck.

Vancouver, B.C.

A visit from Mom.

Three jobs.  Yes, I said three.

A Men's Knitting retreat near Seattle.

House painting.  LOTS of house painting.  And we're still not finished...

Dealing with acid reflux.

OH!  And knitting.  Really.

And I'm sure other things I forgot to mention.  I'll try to get you filled in from time to time in the near future.  I do have pictures from most of these events and projects.  In the meantime, enjoy your day with family and friends, and we'll chat soon. 

A Gift

David's late wife, Marilyn, was a knitter and crocheter.  She had crocheted blankets for almost everyone in the family.  During her bout with cancer, she was working on a blanket for her sister, Susan, all in shades of blue.  Unfortunately, she passed before the blanket was finished (it was almost half done), so the yarn and the unfinished blanket was stored in a box for a couple of years.  David's daughter, Teresa, had the box, and in December she asked if I would be willing, or able to finish it.  I said I would look at it, and I decided that I would try to finish it for Susan. 

So, I figured out Marilyn's pattern - the edge decreases were a little different than I had done (I had made a ripple afghan before), but I really liked the look, and once I got that worked out, I started.  The other little problem was the gauge.  Marilyn was a very loose crocheter.  She was working with a size G hook.  I went with an I hook after some swatching.  It worked for a color stripe, then I decided that I needed to go bigger, so I just continued working on the blanket with the bigger hook (not a great idea...).  What this did was it created a little section in the blanket that was "skinnier" than the new section, so I ripped out everything that I had done, and started my section over.  While the J hook was closer to Marilyn's gauge, it was still a little more snug than her gauge, but when I did some swatching with a K hook, I really didn't like the look, and it didn't look like Marilyn's crocheting, so I stayed with the J hook (three sizes larger than Marilyn had used). 

I worked on it off and on through January, February and March.  And since I was doing it as a surprise for Susan, there were a couple of times when David and I had to run through the house to hide the blanket if Susan stopped by.   Once I simply threw my knitting bag on top of the box to hide it, which worked.  And she never suspected a thing.  She had even mentioned a couple of times about the blanket that Marilyn was making for her, but we said that we hadn't found it.  We gave it to Susan for her birthday last week.  She was so surprised, and we chuckled over all the times we had to hide it from her!  It made her SO happy!

So, here are a couple of pictures.  The brown blanket is one that Marilyn made for Teresa's husband, Mark, which I used for reference for the color scheme.  The yarn is Plymouth's Encore (75% acrylic, 25% wool).

And, since I got the crocheting mojo on, I made a small lap throw out of some Brooks Farm Four-Play (Wool/Silk) I had in my stash (I really need to start using up yarn - so I can get more, of course!).  The colors in the top picture are closer to the real thing.

That's it for now.  Time to start new projects!

Hats

Since moving, I've realized that I had an awful lot of yarn, and not many projects on the horizon.  So, in order to use up some of the stash, I decided this past fall to knit up some hats - simple, basic hats.  A couple of hats were given away as presents, and these are what's left.  I thought about selling them on etsy, but then I thought I might have to make more, and what if I really didn't want to?  I don't think I'm quite ready or motivated for an online store just yet.  So, these are my stash hats:

Beethoven is wearing a hat made out of Noro's Kochoron (wool, silk and angora) , then clockwise, a hat to match my Rhinebeck scarf out of Nashua Wooly Stripes Tweed.  At the front is a hat made out of Schoeller & Stahl's Zermatt (50% virgin wool, 40% Polyacryl and 10% Viscose).  The next hat on the left is Malabrigo (Solymar, I think...), and another out of Noro Kochoron (a different colorway, with teal and pinks).

 

The hat in the front right in this picture is made out of Noro's Silk Garden:

So, that's a little of my fall/winter knitting.  I have another project I'm working on for David's sister-in-law, and I'll leave that for next time.  Have a great day!

Last Fall

It seems with job hunting and knitting and getting used to life in Oregon, I have forgotten I had a blog.  Hmmm...  I think it may be time to get caught up a little.

Last November David and I went to New York to see some operas at the Met.  The weekend included Il Trittico and Turandot by Puccini, and The House of the Dead by Janacek.  All three operas were just amazing, each in it's own way.  And since meeting David and his love of opera, I've learned a lot about some of the current performers, so it was cool to see artists we've seen before or have heard on the Saturday morning broadcasts. 

One of the fun things you also see at the Met is the audience: furs, diamonds, expensive suits or tuxedos, and the make-up and hair that goes with them.  Sometimes they are SO tasteful and classic, and then... sometimes not.  You see all ranges of ages from teenager to octagenarian, and their taste in style is very different.  On one of our first trips (which was the Opening Gala with Renee Fleming), we saw an amazing shawl made out of fabric yo-yo's - those little circles of fabric that quilts are made out of.  They were all in a copper color, and in many different sizes, so the shawl actually looked more like a rag than an article of clothing (which I'm sure was very expensive...).

At any rate, in the last trip, we saw this group of younger opera goers - maybe in their late 20's or early 30's.  One of the men was very handsome, with a shaved head, which added to his appeal.  As they passed, I noticed that he had a vertical strip of hair on the back of his head that was quite full and bushy.  then was they got farther passed us, I noticed that it wasn't just a strip, but the letter "L"...  He went out onto the balcony at the front of the lobby, so David and I decided to go out and get a closer look.  David thought it would be fun to get a picture to share:

Yeah, you never know what you're going to see in public, even at the Metropolitan Opera.  We still haven't figured out what the "L" could stand for - maybe you have some ideas.

Next time, some knitting from the fall and winter.  Stay tuned!

Saturday Sky

Hi there!  Since I haven't done one of these in forever, this was the sky Tuesday morning here in Oregon.  Enjoy.

Good Morning

Just a quick post before the weekend.  The trip to Oregon was just terrific.  Once we got into Canada, we made a stop to visit one of our favorite knitters, Ted.  Ted made us a lovely dinner and brought it to our hotel, where we ate on the balcony and got caught up with everything that's been going on.  The next morning we took the ferry across one of the lakes, drove north around the remaining lakes, across the flat lands of central Canada and then through the Canadian Rockies (which are absolutely stunning to see!).  Since my camera was packed away, David got some beautiful pictures, which I hope to get soon to show you.

I'm in my apartment, the truck got here on Tuesday, and David's family came out in force to help unload the truck.  They were absolutely amazing - it was like worker ants attacking prey.  The truck was unloaded in two hours and the apartment is full, and now the next round of cleaning out begins as I start to unpack (beacuse lots of things came to Oregon that were't intended to come to Oregon.  About 35 people arrived at the old apartment in NY to help me move, and to be quite honest, I really don't remember too much about that day - it was constant questions and rooms full of people packing the things I hadn't packed yet, and it really was insane!  And they're wonderful people, and I will miss them.)

More to come when I get pictures to share.  And today David and I are off to another men's knitting retreat, so the unpacking will need to wait for a couple of days.  See ya!

Moving...

Because my good friend Ted has been insisting that I tell this story, and since I just got another reminder about it from him on ravelry, here goes:

Yes, you read that right.  I'm moving.  For many reasons, the most important one being that I met the love of my life and I need to be near him.  Secondly, I'm VERY tired of teaching.  Burned out.  And have been for the past couple of years.  So, it's time for a change.  I won't get into the work related stuff, it's not important.  I can say that I'm leaving while I still have a little self respect in what I've done with the kids.  I've seen many teachers just hang on till retirement - not happy, not excited about what they're doing, not enjoying the kids, not enjoying their colleagues, and pretty much miserable over all.  And instead of becoming one of them (which is probably my biggest fear), I decided to let teaching go.  Try other things with my life.  Be with someone who just loves me and all my faults.  And start over.

David and I met online (I know what you're thinking - match.com, but NO!!!) on a knitting site, menwhoknit.com.  Yep, he's an amazing knitter.  I had e-mailed him just to tell him how much I liked something he wrote in response to a very scathing post on "decorum".  He wrote back to thank me for writing to him.  Then the next day I got another e-mail from him:

"I was looking at your knitiot blog and see that you are a musician and like opera. Are you busy on Sept 22? It’s a Monday but can you maybe get away? I have 2 tickets to opening night of the Metropolitan Opera. Would you like to have dinner with me and go to opening night? I know you live a ways from NYC, but… opening night? Renee Fleming? Dinner with a tall, fair, and balding man?

Hope you can say yes, David"

I read this over and over for about 15 minutes, and decided, "What the hell, why not make a new friend and go to the opera?"  After I said yes, the e-mails and phone calls back and forth were rampant.  Several each day, and we pretty much laid the groundwork on what I thought would be a lovely friendship, if nothing else.  So, September 22 came, and we met, and there were sparks and fireworks and all that good stuff - even flowers at Penn Station where we met for the first time.  So, it was a great first date (well, it actually lasted three days...).  The opera was amazing, the places we ate were wonderful, and of course, the company was just easy and comfortable, and even better than I expected.  Besides the Opera, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Van Goghs, and various other sites of NY.  At the end of the trip, being a wise guy as I sometimes tend to be, I said "This was a great first date.  What do you have planned for the second?"  And with out a beat he says "Madama Butterfly".  I said "What, here in NY?"  He said, "I already have the tickets!"  Needless to say, I was speechless for about 15 minutes (yes, it can happen!!), and as we were walking down the street, he starting to pinch my arm and say over and over again "Do you believe it now?  Do you believe it now???"

So, we met again in New York before Thanksgiving, then again over the Christmas holidays, and once more later in the winter.  In all, we saw 10 production at the Met (and even if your not a big opera buff, you MUST go!  It's magical!), and visited many museums.  And keep in mind, he was flying in from Oregon!  So, it wasn't just the opera that kept him travelling!  Tee Hee!

At Easter, I flew out to see him and meet the family (and they're just a wonderful bunch of people!), and we spent a week in Hawaii, which was really just amazing!  Then in May he flew out to NY for the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat, and I flew out to see him in his first concert with the Portland Gay Men's Chorus in June.  He was awesome, and SO proud!  And I was so proud of him!  After the school year had ended, I decided that it was indeed time to make a change, so I got an apartment, and I'm off to the other side of the country. 

So, the summer has been filled with purging the apartment, throwing things out left and right, a very successful garage sale, and I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as far as packing is concerned.  

And I feel that it IS the right time for a new beginning.  Especially with David.

*There.  That should make Ted a happy boy...  LOL!*

So...

I really need to continue my story of my Easter vacation, even though it's been a while since the last post.  I've become such a bad blogger....

Anyway, the Easter weekend was spent meeting family and God Parents and children of God Parents and an incredible sister-in-law and friends from church.  It was a whirl wind of meeting people, and Easter dinner included about 35 people, family and extended family, and it was just awesome!  I was welcomed to the family by several people, and I did feel like family, and like I've known them forever.

Monday morning started very early with a short flight to Seattle, then a long flight to the Big Island of Hawaii.  In First Class!  How awesome was that!  Large, comfortable seats, Flight Attendants at our beck and call, a breakfast of Eggs Benedict with Salmon, and drinks in our hands at 8:30am.  It really IS the way to fly.  And we got a VERY good deal, which is why we did it. 

After a very nice flight, we picked up the rental car, and made out way to the Aloha Guest House, a lovely little B&B on the side of a mountain, and our room looked out over the west coast of the island:

The week was spent exploring the local attractions, kayaking and snorkelling, lots of eating (the breakfasts at the B&B were just incredible, as was the company of the other people staying there, and the local restaurants were superb!!!), and time in the hot tub.  (At one of the little shops we stopped at, we were told that we were "full of Aloha", because obviously we looked like the tourists that we were!  LOL!)  We also took a little trip to the Volcano National Park, which was fascinating!  It was actually a very relaxing vacation, and it was difficult coming back to work the following week.  but isn't that the way it always is after time away?

Because I still need to write a post about the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat that the BF and I went to, I'll keep this post short.  The pictures of our Hawaii trip actually gets into much more detail of where we went and what we saw, so you can go here!

And there has been a little knitting going on, mostly swatching for a sock pattern that was written especially for the Men's Knitting Retreat.  More on that later!  Have a great night!