What I did on my holidays (loads of pictures)

Ferretworld just returned from it's vacation and blogging break. We spent nearly a month in the UK:







While we didn't go to the UK for the good weather...we did have terrible weather while we were there...



but there were many sunny moments!

The boys got to spend a lot of time with their cousins:

In fact they saw all their cousins this trip - but we didnt get a good photo of the scottish cousins!

We took a side trip to France with Eileen, spending a few days in the seaside town of Wimereux.

We also passed a rainy day in Boulogne exploring the walled medival town and chateau.

We did manage some eating and drinking, but the highlight for the boys was meeting a couple in this restaurant with a ferret on a leash! (No photo of the ferret).

I fitted in some culture: spending a day with Ingrid in London, culminating with a performance of Timon of Athens at the Globe.

I spent a happy day with Christina, hanging out in John Lewis, knitting, and learning to spin, but sadly failed to take any photos.

We did some sightseeing and made a trip to Legoland in Windsor and were able to compare this...

with the real thing!

We also absorbed some of the history - We took the boys to Winchester to see King Arthurs Round table,

which they could compare with the knights at Legoland,

We visited Hollycomb Steam Fair where we got to ride on a variety of steam-powered fairground rides

and followed this up with a trip to The Science Museum in London where we saw Stephenson's Rocket among other things.

The boys had a great time at the hands-on exhibits while Nigel and I went to see George III's collection of scientific instruments.

Despite all this activity we still had some time for hanging around...

...a lovely holiday.

Socks for Penny

Apparently Penny had complained that she was the only family member not to have hand-knitteed socks, so for her birthday, I redressed that.


Short socks knitted from Tofutsies using the 'Foot the Bill' pattern which came with the yarn from Green Planet yarns.



Wool socks knitted from Opal yarn, using my usual recipe.

On the needles: Lizard Ridge

The Lizard Ridge blanket was supposed to be a background task...for when I dont have anything else to knit. And although I've got this:

waiting patiently to be turned into a Klaralund sweater I seemed to have knit a load of squares!

So far I'm knitting number 9 - this is the first 6 drying after a soak. I've nearly finished all my bargain Kureyon wool and have to buy some more. I love how the colours are coming out - I'm just leaving the colours random, although I did pull out a black-on-black section I managed to create.

I was planning to knit 24 squares (6 x 4) for a throw, but Nigel is asking whether I can knit a cover for our queen bed...I'm going to see how I feel after 24 squares as to whether I want to go on to 30 or 36!

Last day of pre-school

Friday was Finlay's last day at his Jr K program. They ended the term with a play; "The Three Little Pigs". Finlay was in the choir.

The play was followed by a picnic in the playground. They had a face painter and a balloon maker...the balloon guy said he had never been asked to make a balloon weasel before!

Lambtown USA

Yesterday we went to Dixon, CA to attend Lambtown 2008. It's a small-town agricultural show in a rural area. Its a 2-hour drive from us, but made a nice day out.

We got to see some of the sheep entered in the competitions: Here Finlay and Adam quiz the owner of these lovely St Croix sheep. These dont need shearing as their fleece falls out in the summer - a side-effect of living in the caribbean I suppose.

Here Finlay poses with some tired Jacob's sheep.

We spent some time watching the sheepdog trials, and talked afterwards to the woman competing with this dog. Her dog was 10 and approaching retirement - the dog was enjoying a bucket of ice cubes while we chatted.

There was also an angora rabbit competition. This is a thistledown breed...I think you can see why. One of the other breeders let the boys pet some baby rabbits.

I had a little wander around the yarn/fiber shed and made a few small purchases, including some alpaca yarn from an alpaca called Fernando... I talked to the breeder...its nice to know exactly where your yarn comes from!

We had a great day out - managed to eat some lamb (the boys would not!) and headed home for a swim. The central valley was a mild 93 degrees when we left - usually I think the temperature is a good 10 degrees warmer this time of year so we were very lucky to meet such a mild day.

Sunny San Diego

I spent a few days last week in San Diego. The conference was small and less frenetic than some of the events I have been to recently. I loved the balmy weather and the views from my 12th floor room in the hotel:

I did manage to sneak a few moments sitting on the balcony with my knitting.

Liberty lawn

I made a dress a few weeks ago. The pattern is Simplicity 3831. I used some Liberty lawn that Christina gave me.






The dress is hard to see in this photo (which is what happens when you ask 7-year-olds to take your photo), it looks rather stiff. In reality it has quite a nice drape.



The style features an empire waist, slight under-bust gathers, a shaped skirt, split flutter sleeves, and a back zip. It is self-lined, but I didnt have enough fabric to line the skirt so I sewed the bodice facing down at the waist and left the skirt unlined. I changed the bodice; replacing gathers with darts and added a single pocket in the side seam.


Interestingly I found the pattern extremely confusing. It was written in both Spanish and English and I felt that the quality of the explanation was poor. Each step in the process was also not illustrated, and it took me some time to understand which way to insert the sleeves for example. I think if I had been a beginner dressmaker it would have been a very difficult pattern to follow, which is a pity because the pattern achieves a nice style with little effort or time.

Lizard Ridge

I've started a new project, and rather unexpectedly, it's a blanket.

I always insisted that I would not knit a blanket (called Afghan by Americans...no idea why) and could never imagine that I would have the patience to knit something that large and boring.

Then Rachel knitted her Lizard Ridge and began to see the appeal of it. The pattern is built like a patchwork of blocks, I'm knitting mine as shown in the pattern in multiple colours of Kureyon. The idea is to buy the yarn when I see it on sale, and knit the blocks as they come. Here is the first one:

Noro Kureyon in colour 102. The eagle eyed will notice that its knitted with too few repeats - what is especially galling is that I knitted the 4 repeats (as specified in the pattern) then ripped out the 4th due to an incorrect reading of the pattern. I have since printed a version of the pattern in a large print so I dont have to keep putting on my glasses to read it while knitting.

I think this is a good solution to my desire to knit the beautiful colours of the Noro yarn, without really having a need for any more handknit sweaters ever!

Off the needles: silk shrug

I finished my silk shrug, I'm pleased with it - apologies for the fuzzy photo (especially to Madoka...but you can see it in person).


The pattern is from Erica Knights "Classic Knits" and it's knitted in 5 skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk in the Celery colour.

The pattern, however, is really poorly written. Somewhat disappointing as I bought the book ‘Classic Knits’ for this pattern. If the other patterns are as badly written its unlikely im going to knit more. The pattern was not incorrect - but had a written structure that I had to rewrite to make it understandable: the increase pattern on the front was not complicated, but the pattern described the increase row, the subsequent rows were written like this:

Row 1 knit
Row 2 purl
Row 3 increase pattern
Rows 4-6 repeat rows 1-3
Rows 7-10 repeat rows 1 and 2 twice

Confusing - and unnecessary since the real instructions could have read something like "continue for 28 rows increasing on front edge every 4th row, and at side edge every 10th row"... I find patterns like this very frustrating as it's really just lazyness. The guernsey pattern was also like this - but it was an older pattern book - Classic Knits is a new book and I guess I expect better.

The shrug also used 5 skeins, yet according to the yardage estimates (for a different yarn of the same fibre and guage) indicated that 6 would not be enough.

Despite all this, I really like the cardigan; its drapey and lightweight and likely to be very wearable (although not with the dress I’m wearing in the photo!)

4th July

We spent the 4th July holiday at Portola State Park. I'm so glad that this park, which was under threat of closure due to state funding cuts, has managed to remain open. It's my absolutely favourite place to camp; the sites are not too crowded, and the park is not crowded. It's so peaceful to sit out under the redwoods, especially when the bay area is hot, the redwoods are cool, even cold at night.


There is a creek running through the park which provides plenty of opportunity for exploration. I have never seen Pescadero Creek so low - we saw only tiny fish - presumably the larger ones can't get up stream this far.

We did, however, observe the ancient American tradition of barbequeing...

...nice bottle of red, couple of steaks, and sausages for those who prefer them, followed, of course, by smores!

Gaithersburg socks

I was in Gaithersburg last week for a class. As usual I knitted during the class (after checking with the teacher). I find that the automatic manual action of knitting focusses my mind on the topic; I suffer less from drifting attention when I'm knitting. I needed the focus as the class was quite hard work at time.

Anyway - the results:


The socks are for Nigel. Knitted to the usual recipe in a 3x1 rib. The wool is Regia in the Kaffe Fassett colour range. Colour is 4257. Its great sock wool: 75% superwash wool/25% nylon - machine washable and durable - but still soft, especially after washing. I'm also very taken with the colours which are lively without being lurid....that Kaffe knows his colours!



These socks are for Izhar who was responsible for much of the class. Again, the usual recipe, but this time in a simple stockinette so as not to overwhelm the pattern. The yarn is Schoeller & Stahl Fortissima colori in shade 4006. Its a 6-ply so a little thicker than the usual, but not so thick that you could not wear shoes or boots with them. Again a machine-washable wool and polyamid blend.

So, not only a worthwhile class, but a week of productive knitting too. However, I took River Rock with me planning to knit on that in the evenings, but with email and dinner I did not a single stitch on it all week.

Apricots

We are harvesting our apricot crop! As usual with apricots they all come ripe at the same moment, so a glut of fruit ensues for a short time. Our neighbours have a huge apricot tree so we can't pass any on to them either.



Some of the branches are so weighed down with fruit they are bent quite to the ground.


The fruit is delicious and sweet. The boys love them and we are freezing any overripe ones for smoothies - they are great when there are no bananas to thicken a smoothie.

Ribby cardi completed

I finished the ribby cardi over the weekend. I'm pleased with the sweater: the pattern was really well written and easy to follow, with several styling options (collars, plain vs all-over rib). I didn't make any modifications apart from adding 2" length to the body.



The colours worked out well: the sleeves are knitted in ArtYarns Supermerino that I have had for a while (originally bought to knit a vest but underestimated yardage). The body is Cascade 22o in colour 2412 (Rose).


I used the zip insertion tutorial at the Chic Knits web site which worked well. I couldn't get a bi-directional zip, but the one I got from Hancocks Fabrics matches the colour well. Of course I will now pack this away until the weather cools, but I expect it will be a useful addition to my wardrobe.

Escaping the heat

We had a camping trip booked for this weekend, but triple-digit temperatures persuaded us that sleeping in a tent was not the best idea. Had we booked a site in the redwoods we would have been cool enough - but Uvas Canyon is an warmer site near Morgan Hill. So instead we loaded up the bikes and headed off to Wilder Ranch.

This was Finlay's first real ride on his bike and he did very well. We did the Old Landing Cove Trail, which is short although the trail is rough in places. It does have the most magnificent views along the cliff tops.

The trail ends at Old Landing Cove* where we hunted for sea glass and watched the waves break on the rocks. It was over 90 degrees when we drove through Santa Cruz, but there was a fresh sea breeze which kept temperatures very comfortable for riding the cliff-top trail.

Adam insists that Wilder Ranch is his favourite bike ride - and I tend to agree with him.

* The trail actually continues the other side of the cove for a short distance, but requires carrying the bikes down the cliff and back up on the other side of the beach. I have done this once, but I think that the effort is just not rewarded by the extended trail.

Lamar's socks

When I was in Rochester I finished a pair of socks for my colleague Lamar. Working, as we do, in a country-level role but with the team spread across North America, I do most of my work on the telephone. Lamar and I work most closely together as our technical specialities intersect, yet we have met only twice in the last 6 years. I'm going to a class in a couple of weeks and Lamar will also be there - so I wanted to mark the occasion with that perfect gift: socks!

Knitted in my favourite Austermann Step to my usual recipe.

World-Wide Knit in Public Day

Saturday was WWKIP day and I spent several enjoyable hours with the library group knitting in the library. We had cookies and prizes. However, I didnt take any photos...for those you will have to go to the Library Blog.

In the absence of action knitting photos I bring ongoing knitting pics:

I have finished the back of the Ribby Cardi. This rasberry colour is a replacement for the rather lurid purple that I previously cast on. The yarn is Cascade 220, and although not machine washable, is a better colour match.




I'm also knitting socks for Nigel out of the new Kaffe Fasset coloured Regia sock wool. I like the hard-wearing qualities of Regia and these colours are fab; bright without being garish.

I bought the Regia yarn at Kristens Knits when I was in Rochester. It's a terrific little store with a super yarn and pattern selection. I will certainly return there next time i'm in Rochester.

End of Term

It was a momentous week last week: Adam finished first grade, and Finlay finished Jr K. Both classes had parties to celebrate, but I have photos only of Finlay's party. They had a lunch under the redwoods in the playground.

Lunch was followed by a presentation ceremony: Finlay got the award for "Friendship". This rather dark photos shows him receiving the award from his teacher.

It was a really nice lunch, his classmates have all been delightful this year.

A busy weekend

This weekend Nigel and Adam went off on a back-country camping trip. They hiked 2 miles or so into Castle Rock State Park . More details on Adam's blog shortly.

Rather than join in with this I chose to stay home with Finlay. We did not, however, lounge around at home all weekend. Together with Alison and Henry we did the Monte Sereno Quail Run . This route took us all around our neighbourhood and Alison and I spend the entire time discussing the benefits of the various real estate on the route.

We finished up with a pancake breakfast at the school - Finlay certainly got his money's worth of food.

Of course the fire brigade and police came so we we got to climb into the vehicles and get a really good show-round of the fire engine, and an account of an exciting moment during the recent Summit Fire.

The final excitement for us came at lunch. Finlay and I treated ourselves to lunch at the California Cafe. While we were waiting for our food we were watching the kitchen which is open to the restaurant. The young hip executive chef came out and offered Finlay a tour of the back kitchen which was fascinating. Finlay was most impressed by a giant halibut in one of the two walk-in fridges.

The rest of our day was restful...I installed the new PC and Finlay watched a movie...he missed his brother.

Limoncello

A favourite local restaurant makes and serves their own home-made limoncello. It's a far step from the typically sweet store bought version.

Last time we ate there my mother asked them for the recipe which they happily shared. We went home and harvested some meyer lemons from our tree and started a batch.

Last week I finished it (it requires 2 weeks of soaking lemon peel in alcohol to extract the lemon oil flavour).



It tastes pretty good, and has a nice, not-too-sweet lemon flavour. My version has a very slight bitterness which I think is due to including too much peel rather than zest - but it's hardly discernable and won't stop me drinking it. I'm just makeing a note for next time I make it!!

I took this photo without noticing how messy my kitchen looks!

Meat products in MN

I am blogging from lovely green Minnesota this week. I didnt bring my camera to show the lush landscape, the fields full of cows, the rushing rivers.... but I can show you this link: SPAM Museum

I actually went to search for the link after not only seeing a flyer for the SPAM museum in the lobby of my hotel, but also seeing several commercials on the local TV channel for SPAM.

Sadly, my week is too scheduled to allow a side trip...it sounds fabulous... "a towering wall of SPAM"!

On the needles in May

What am I working on now?

Mainly I'm knitting my silk shrug. The silk knits up beautifully.


I had been concerned that I would not have enough yarn - but I have used 2 skeins for the back so I think the 6 skeins that I have will suffice.

I have not been doing much on River Rock - here it is in much the same state as it was 2 weeks ago.

Finally i've of course got socks on the go...here are some socks for Lamar made of my favourite Austerman Step.

I'm travelling next week so will probably take the socks and the shrug so expect to see progress in the next thrilling installment.

Too much Famous Five

We have been reading a lot of The Famous Five lately.

"Come on Adam, let's play in the garden; it will be simply splendid"

While the boys are loving the stories and the idea that 4 children (and a dog) were allowed to go off on their own for adventures, I am struggling with the rampant sexism, racism, and snobbery. I'm becoming a past master of editing while reading aloud. The books are really very dated now (in the illustrations Julian is pictured wearing a tie!), but still enjoyable for their gentle adventures.

Holiday weekend

I have heard a lot of talk on the local news about the rising popularity of the staycation (a vacation when you stay at home). We have done this often in the past - but last weekend was not the best time to stay in the bay area:


This is the view down the main street - normally you can see the hills, and even the end of the road - what you can see is the smoke from the fire in the Santa Cruz mountains.

We spent the holiday weekend over the mountains here...

Capitola of course. We had a great few days by the sea.

As well as beachcombing (too cold to swim) we also took our bikes so Finlay got a lot of practise on his new mountain bike.

Growing up

We passed a couple of milestones this week:

Finlay has moved to a 'big boy's bike'. Now he is riding more often he needed to trade up from the Spiderman bike and is now the proud owner of a mountain bike.


He also brought home his first real original writing assignment.


It reads "I think the kid should...not squish the ant" (my translation. You can sort of read it with 'ant' on the line above).

Simply lovely lace socks

These are Karen Baumer's Simply lovely lace socks from the Spring 2006 Interweave Knits. The pattern worked really well and fits me perfectly.

Knitted in Seawool from Creatively Dyed that I bought at Stitches 2008. I used 2mm dpns. The yarn is a blend of 70% superwash merino and 30% seacell (a tencel-like fibre based on seaweed). The yarn was lovely to knit with and has a nice soft hand.

I had meant to do a star toe on these - but found myself decreasing for the toe while we were away so I stuck with my regular toe. I think the star would have looked prettier with this pattern.

Tiny socks

Finlay's former speech therapist is about to have a baby. She knows that it's a girl so pink socks were in order.





These socks both knitted from leftovers of superwash wool.

Cooling off

It's finally cooling down here in the Bay Area. We measured a high of 110 degrees in the back garden (in the shade).



Finlay found an excellent opportunity to cool off in the fountains in the town plaza after soccer!

Birds in paradise

I am back from an impromptu blog break. I spent last week in LA and didnt take the camera (or indeed have much to report).

In the meantime look at these:


We planted them 3 years ago and this is the first year they have bloomed.
They look wonderful: just as if some exotic bird has alighted at the side of the pool.

Stepping out

I finished a pair of socks for my father. This time I used the Austerman Step that Skacel sent me as a replacement for the duff ball. I dont know the name of this colour - but its jolly, and less lurid than I might have expected.



Usual pattern, 72 sts on us 0 needles. I do like this yarn!