July Travels Part 1

I've been gone. Didja miss me?

Well, actually, I was gone, and then I was home, and then I lost a battle with a hornet and have been in a Benadryl/antibiotic haze for 4 or 5 days. But I'm waking up now, and ready to show you all some great pics. We traveled far and wide.

We spent the first week of our vacation visiting friends and family in my home town of Snohomish, Washington. It was a sleepy little town when I moved away in 1970. It's not so sleepy now, and there isn't much to remind me of where I grew up, though we found a few bits and pieces of the old town.

The store is now an antique boutique, but I love this old tile entry way.

Okay, so not all of the changes were bad. I had the most amazing crab melt at a new seafood place downtown.

And Snohomish has its own distillery, Skip Rock- this raspberry liqueur was amazing. The Blackberry was also wonderful.

This will not be news to many, but it was hot in the PNW. Way hotter than they're used to, and a lot hotter than we like in the land of no air conditioning. So one afternoon, we ventured down to the Pilchuck River, which is where I swam as a teenager (though *swim* is a relative term- in the summer the water was ice cold snow-melt, and rarely more than 3' deep at our swimming hole- we got wet and then we slathered ourselves with baby oil and tanned. Ah, the good old days).

Given that the mountains had very little snow to melt, the river is even more shallow than usual, and not nearly as cold. But it's still beautiful.

I also did a little bit of shopping. Do you love these shoes? If you're a lady-type person, odds are that you do. If you're a man-style human, your reaction will probably be: seriously?  Those are the reactions of nearly 100% of the people who commented (and ladies would stop me on the street to ask where I got them) (Answer: Kohls, though Sketchers has a version too, sold almost everywhere). They're very comfortable, and I love them.

And no trip to Snohomish is complete without driving down to where I used to live. I spent many hours riding my bike down this bridge. It was thrilling and scary, and there was always a contest to see how far we could get before we had to pedal again. I lived at the very end of this road.

Which is very different from when I lived there. Maybe 8 or 9 years after I left, the whole area was razed for a highway, There used to be a very tall hill back there, and my house was about where those tall trees are standing now. Progress is progress (and frankly, that new highway needs more lanes now- it's very congested), but still... sniffle...

Next post: Deception Pass (maybe tomorrow, maybe next week- it depends on whether or not I wrestle with another hornet)

Saturday and Sunday

The Little Tips andTricks class at Great Yarns yesterday was wonderful- as always, I was blessed with Genius Students.

Even more fun, Fontelle shared wine and fruit afterwards. I bought a couple of balls of lovely yarn (I get to do that at appearances), but it's already boxed up to mail home. I'll take a pic there.

Kristy, who is on the left, drove over for the class. I've known Kristy since at least the 5th grade (or maybe even earlier. She looks almost exactly the same as she did back then (dratted woman).

See? Here we are in the 5th grade, still standing next to each other. I have changed a bit more than Kristy has...

On the right is Kris, my best friend since the 7th grade. Kris does not knit, but she loves and wears everything that I knit for her, which is almost as good.

I have not taken many scenery pictures since I've been in Washington, mainly because it has rained every single day. Every day. Rain. Every day. Sometimes it's just a drizzle, sometimes the sun almost comes out, but within 15 minutes, it rains again. I grew up here, and I remember this stuff, but it's been a long time since I was in it. I am not so sorry to go back to the snow, lemee tellya. But the moss on the trees is cool.

And despite the rain, and lack of sunshine, spring is coming to the Pacific Northwest. Observe the first rhododendron bloom

Staying inside hasn't been horrible. We had mimosas for breakfast, and Jane (another BFF from long long ago) made chocolate Guinness cupcakes using this very limited edition beer from Deschutes Brewery. The cupcakes had cream cheese and Bailey's Irish Cream frosting, which is even better than it sounds.

And we've been playing with needlefelting. Lots of half-moon Santas...

And a new addition to the needlefelting cast of characters: Eskimo Gramma. I think she's pretty cute.

I head home tomorrow- all day on airplanes and in airports. It's been a wonderful, wonderful visit, but I'm ready to get home and get back to work. See all y'all on the flip.

Before the Class

I'm  teaching the Little Tips and Tricks class at Great Yarns in Everett, WA today (there are still a couple of slots open, if you're in the area and tempted to join us). Fontelle is hosting a wine and cheese reception following the class, which is a first for me. I'll take lots of pics.

In the meantime, I've had a lovely, low-key visit in Snohomish. It has rained every day (though my friend Kris says that these are *showers* or *drizzle*, not actual rain, in the local vernacular. That's okay, their *strong winds* are barely a breeze back where I live...)

I made scones this morning, from this recipe- variations: raisins instead of dried cranberries, orange zest in the dough; and the glaze made with freshly squeezed orange juice. They're even better than they look.

Oh, and take a peek at the lower right of the page, at the hit counter. WOW! Thanks everyone!

No songs about not raining in the PNW

Because, of course, it ALWAYS rains in Northwest Washington. But... at least it's not snow, and these days, any vista with more green than white looks pretty darn beautiful to me.

And this vista is pretty beautiful to me too- my sister Jacque, and my niece Tiffany. I've had a wonderful time, just relaxing and playing with them. We've been making bracelets (which I forgot to photograph- I'll do that today), and they've chauffeured me all over the place, which is handy. I'm a competent driver within my own territory, but the roads here... they have curves... and hills... and a lot of other cars... It's good to let someone else do the driving.

Here we are, getting ready to go into Snohomish, for my evening with the Snohomish Knitter's Guild. Of course, I wore the Dragonride Shawl. It does tend to be an attention-grabber (unlike me... heh).

We wandered up and down the streets of Snohomish's downtown for a bit before it was time to meet The SKG Board people for supper at The Cabbage Patch restaurant. That middle building used to be the movie theater. I spent a  major number of the Saturday afternoons of my youth in that theater. It's an antique/novelty store now. It happened to be open yesterday, so I stepped in, hoping to get a sense of the old theater, but nope- every trace is gone. That made me a little sad (not that the current store isn't perfectly nice- it is. It's just not anything like a dark and shabby theater-I was especially hoping to go down the spiral staircase to the girls' bathroom and see if it still smelled like stolen cigarettes, but that doorway was blocked off with an iron gate. sigh).

It may be raining and chilly, but Spring is a lot closer to Washington than it is to South Dakota. This tree is blooming- I don't know what it is, but it seems to be some sort of azalea/rhododendron relative. Whatever it is, it's beautiful.

The knitting guild met at the Waltz Building, a great historical edifice in town. As always, the knitting ladies were absolutely wonderful (is it the needles and yarn that makes them all so welcoming? Or is it that marvelous people are drawn to needlework? Chicken and egg, I guess). I had stage fright before my talk, as always, and (as always), once I started talking, I had a hard time stopping. The audience was lovely- they ignored my ums and aahs, and they laughed right when I hoped they would. It was a fantastic evening, and I hope I'm in Snohomish again when they meet, just so I can drop in and join the fun.

And Tina, here, is the reason I connected with the Guild in the first place. She's a regular blog reader, and when she realized that I was from Snohomish, she wrote and told me about the guild meetings. The rest is history.  Oh, and see that yarn she's holding? That's her own beautiful handspun BFL- about 200 yds of worsted weight. Guess who owns that yarn now????

I'll have to find exactly the right pattern to be worthy of such a fantastic gift. Thank you Tina, and the Snohomish Knitter's Guild for making me feel right back at home!

In the Evergreen State

Yesterday was a good, but very long day. We were on the road by 4:00am, and it's a good thing that we gave ourselves plenty of driving time(Watertown's airport is so small that people straggle in 15 minutes before boarding time, and still get on the plane- I'm far too anxiety-ridden to cut it that short- but I don't feel the need to be there 2 hours early, either). We'd gotten a little snow overnight, which wasn't such a big deal, but the wind blew from the south, which was.

The highway was icy for the entire 75 miles, and the snow that our usual North winds had piled on the south side of the roads, all blew back, much of it staying on the road itself. It's a good thing that The Hub decided that he needed to visit the Menard's in Watertown, because I would never have made it if I had been driving (those drifts came up suddenly, and they were the kind that if you slowed down or hesitated at all, you'd stall, or worse yet, end up in the ditch). He just plowed right through them. It was a white-knuckle drive, fer shure. And luckily, traffic is low at that time of the morning, and the deer were asleep.

After that, the day was a breeze. We left Watertown on time, and for a change, I didn't have to sprint through the Minneapolis airport to my connecting flight. I also didn't have to buy a scone (my usual airport treat). My homemade ones are better, and I baked some on Sunday and brought a couple along. Like all larger flights these days, the plane from MSP to SeaTac was full, so full that those of us who boarded in Zone 4 (which is my fate) had no room in the overhead bins for our carry-ons, so we had to check them. I wasn't thrilled to do that (skipping baggage claim is one of the reasons I don't check), but it wasn't the end of the world, as the lady behind me, who bitched constantly for the entire flight about it, thought. Good grief- we enter a metal tube in Minneapolis, and 3 hours later, exit in Seattle. Checking a bag is barely an inconvenience when you consider the magic.

The flight was late taking off by about 30 minutes (takes time to wrest carry-ons from complaining passengers), but otherwise smooth. I couldn't see much beyond snow and clouds, but at least when we landed in Seattle, it wasn't raining. Nor was it snowing.

I was met by my sister Jacque and my niece Tiffany, who whisked me to Red Robin for fish 'n chips and a Blue Moon, which were both wonderfully restorative.

From there, we went to Jac's house. We spent the afternoon playing with beads and wires (Tiff is amazingly creative, and she's going to teach me to solder this week), and I conked out at 7:30 (which would be 9:30 my time, and since I'd been up for 18 hours, it's not so surprising that I was pooped).

Today we're going to play, and tonight I speak to the Snohomish Knitter's Guild. I'll take lots of pics!

Touring the old haunts

We had some free time yesterday (before the all-important 2-hour afternoon nap), so we took a driving trip around many of my childhood haunts, to see which ones had changed and which ones stayed the same.

Answer? All of them. They're all radically different, and yet they're the same. Go figure.

The Pegasus is now an antique shop. It used to be the Snohomish Theater, and before that, it was Brown's Theater. I spent many a Saturday afternoon camped out there (in the balcony,  if we could sneak up without getting caught) for the matinees. We stood in a very long line to see The Parent Trap (the REAL one, with Hayley Mills) that snaked around that yellow building, which was our bank at the time. I remember the girls bathroom, which was downstairs at the end of a spiral staircase, where the older girls would sneak cigarettes. Of course, in those days, everyone smoked, everywhere, so it wasn't such a shocker.

The Avenue D bridge, over the Snohomish River (which has tides, just like The Amazon), looks the same.

This staircase and sign to my old high school looks the same, though most of the old buildings are gone, and the entire campus looks different once you get past the hedges.

This, however, is new. And not even those who still live here, could tell me what it means. It's a mystery.

That's Snohomish, a mystery wrapped in a riddle, next to a river with tides.

we apologize for the interruption in our regular service...

Yesterday was sort of a lost day... which began losing it the night before when this happened:

This picture was taken about 10 minutes before The Wind hit. See that green in the cloud? That's hail. See the white in that cloud? That's wind. See that gray fuzzy stuff under the cloud? That's rain. About 3" worth. We got a downburst/twister/wind shear that knocked 4 trees down, destroyed a couple of buildings in Redfield, and scared the bejabbers out of us. After it passed, we had a good 5 hours of non-stop lightning, which means I did not sleep much before we got up at 3:30am to get ready for our flights, which were a bit bumpier than usual, but otherwise uneventful. I bought the 40lb Stephen King paperback at the Minneapolis airport and immediately was hooked.

Mary was right however, I DID find some time to sew before all of the excitement. Process pics of the robot construction will be posted after I get home. I'm delighted with them (and with the Crayola fabric markers, which only bleed if you are silly enough to color right next to a wet area).

After landing at SeaTac, we wandered Pike Place market, and ate at a wonderful brewpub called The Pike. the market is an amazing spectacle (and the weather warm... maybe too warm...) and not to be missed.

I'm flying so I couldn't buy any of these peppers, but I sure wanted to.

The a capella gospel singers were wonderful, and they gathered a large audience.

And we saw the Space Needle on the drive out of town.

We're in Snohomish for now (my class reunion begins tomorrow night), and I promise I'll post more often, now that my body knows it's on Pacific Daylight Time.

It's in the bag

I recently found out that my home town of Snohomish, WA has a guild- the Snohomish Knitters Guild. And on August 5, they're attending a Stitch 'n Pitch night with the Seattle Mariners.

And in order to Represent, SKG had some knitting bags made.

One of which is now mine, all mine. It's a great bag- with pockets and snaps, and I love the adjustable shoulder strap. I envision using it for many things, not just knitting. I may... just maybe...if I am lucky, though I won't know for sure until probably the last minute... be able to drop in for a minute, on the next SKG meeting (July 13). And since Snohomish is a loooong way from South Dakota, that's a big hint about what's happening this week.

So things are a bit busy at my house, what with the cleaning and the packing and the list making (top of the list: do not miss the plane). But of course, I have taken time out to play some more with Adobe Illustrator.

Here are some vector knitting motifs, including 2 original art-brush borders that I designed (which ate up many hours, lemee tellya), that I plan to use for some yarny-type fabric that I want to design through Spoonflower. I see some knitting needle cases and bags in the future (though not the very near future because Spoonflower is quite popular, and growing moreso, and order delivery is a bit slower than expected... and because of that aforementioned flight thingy, which is coming up soon).

However, three of my earlier Spoonflower fabric orders should arrive tomorrow, which will be lovely. In fact, they'd be here today, if there was mail delivery (darn holiday anyway), so I can post pics (fingers crossed) before we leave very early on Wednesday.