Student Council

The newest representative on the Student Council* set off for his meeting this morning.



The Council meets at 7:45 and astonishingly Adam leapt our of bed with enthusiasm at 7am. Those of you who are familiar with Adam's usual morning routine will share our surprise.

*Student Council representative is an elected position. Each 3rd - 5th grade class provides 2 representatives to discuss the student perspective on the school and its activities.

Yosemite in the snow

Over the school winter break we went to Yosemite National Park for a few days. Our visit coincided with heavy snow.



Adam was thrilled that his friend Casey and family were also there and the boys had some good snowball fights.



We did make it to the Badger Pass ski area one day which was fun - but very very cold. I was delighted that my new handspun and handknit earflap hat was admired by the lift attendant.

Both boys are on boards these days. The snow was deep and fluffy which is just perfect for boarding (so I'm told!). Badger is so small and contained that we were able to let Adam and Casey go off together - Adam was just thrilled by the freedom!


Great view here of Fin mid-turn - he was probably trying to spray me with snow.

Stitches West 2011

To round out a lovely week off in Yosemite I got to go to Stitches West on Saturday with Kerstin.



We had a very successful and enjoyable day surrounded by 'our people'. Kerstin wore a new shawl she had knitted and was stopped multiple times by people asking her about it, and in one case taking a photo.


Here is my haul. Clockwise from the top:

Red baby camel/silk batt from Redfish dyeworks. Small secret bundle. Pattern and yarn for Silken Scabbard, yarn is Kollage Riveting which is made from recycled jeans. Next: green and purple sock yarn from Drops, and turquoise Drops sock yarn for a baby sweater from Nordic Mart. Then the rest of the fibre: Blue merino/yak/silk from A Verb for Keeping Warm (intended for a hat for Nigel), undyed camel/silk, and undyed yak/merino from Tactile.

I have already cast on the sweater, but I think the fibre will keep me busy for a little while, until Stitches West 2012 anyway.

Off the needles: Jess

There has been a dearth of knitting on the blog recently - partly because I knitted a secret project and forgot to take any photos of it - but partly because I knitted the back of a sweater and then had to frog it.

I cast on for Jess last year but the warm weather got the better of me and I put it aside until it was cool enough to knit a lapful of alpaca. I have been knitting the back and the yarn is just lovely, soft and warm. However, I am also terribly allergic to it - so I'm officially abandoning the project.



Christina did offer to knit it for me, but I suspect that the allergies would prevent me from wearing the cardi as well as knitting on it. So, she can take possession of a bag of red alpaca!

Fin's fablious food

Along with the crafting Fin has a new-found interest in cooking. He received a very nice children's cookery book for Christmas and is working his way through it. Last week he cooked chinese beef.







It was delicious. He now thinks he might be a chef and open a restaurant called "Fin's Fablious Food".

Needle felting (not mine)

Fin received a Woolpets needle felting kit for Christmas and last weekend while I was sewing, he got it out. I showed him the basics of needle felting (you jab at bits of wool fibre with a long sharp needle, making sure that you don't prick your finger, and preferably on some sort of padded surface. We used some foam left over from some packaging or other.)



This little fellow took him about an hour - and after the initial basic instruction was completed entirely without help. Fin was justifiably very pleased with his handiwork.

Pinewood 2011

It's that time of year again: time for the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.

The boys built their cars mostly over the Christmas vacation - they spent a lot of time refining the designs and cutting and sanding the blocks. They are both old enough now to wield the power tools (with some supervision) and did pretty well.


Adam wanted to go for speed and chose a real car to copy. This is his Porche 911.

Fin stuck to the more novelty category and made his car into a TechDeck. (for those without small boys techdecs are miniature skateboard toys).


Despite very careful engineering, and much weighing and adjusting neither car was very fast on the actual race day. Adam was rather disappointed as he had high hopes for his Porche - but we did have so much fun building and decorating them that it was hard for me to share this disappointment. He has one more year of cub scouts to try for a faster car!

Legs of Nigel*

I have been turning out socks rather consistently without any documentation. Here is my recent output for Nigel:

From the top:



Cream socks from some heavy german sock yarn I got in a swap. Shown is the second sock - having successfully completed one sock from one ball of wool, the second ball ran out during the toe decreases. I used the spare wool to finish the sock. Short ribbed fold-down sock specially requested to wear with his desert boots.

Nigel chose this hand-dyed yarn from Chameleon Colorworks while we were at Lambtown, I added the black toe and heel to tone down what I though was a rather lurid sock.

Another short ribbed boot sock knitted from Cascade Heritage yarn. I was so impressed with this yarn - it's really cheap and seems to wash and wear really well too. Quite a lot of colours and reasonably soft. I got this from Purlescence Yarns.

*For American readers not familiar with the triskellion symbol of the Isle of man details are here: Legs of Man

Rugger buggers

The boys were all psyched up for their first rugby game of the season - but the opposing team didn't field a team in their age groups.... Still, they looked pretty good in their game strip.


They didn't look quite so pristine after the practise. They are playing with the Santa Clara Youth Rugby Club.

More dolls

I have had my eye on the PaperDolls sweater from Needled designer Kate Davis for a while but thought I would warm up by knitting my two Dollheid tams as I was not sure I would have the patience for a sweaters worth of dolls. However the tams were so much fun to knit that I started the sweater. On 2.75mm needles it was rather time consuming, but actually I had more trouble with the black stockinette than I did with the colourwork.



I didn't knit the corrugated rib around the bottom of the sweater as I didn't feel I needed a horizontal band around my hips. I would have knitted the i-cord cast-on, but I was afraid I would run short of wool so knitted a plain 1 x 1 rib. I had thoughts of an applied i-cord hem, but this has not materialized and the sweater does not seem the worse for it.

It's knitted in Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift which has the authentic scratchiness of real shetland wool. I used Black, Grey, and Chartreuse colours. I got the black from a Ravelry sale, and ordered the other colours from Schoolhouse Press.

Part of my desire to knit a yoked shetland sweater was based on the sweaters my Nana knitted for us when we were children. I particularly remember one with maple leaves around the yoke - so this was partly a sentimental project.


I knitted it for the pleasure of knitting rather than in expectation that it would suit me, however I actually love it and have already worn it twice. I had no plans for more dolls, but after being afraid of running out of wool, I actually have 3 balls of black, 1.5 grey and 1 green left - so maybe an other doll tam is in my future. I could knit those little dolls in my sleep now!

Home made hockey

Adam has roller blades, when Fin wants to skate he wears my old blades (which have been in a cupboard for at least 10 years). On Saturday they decided to play street hockey - we have a single street hockey stick from somewhere or other. Lack of ingenuity is not a problem in this house... Fin found a piece of redwood and asked Nigel for help with sawing and screwing... and made his own hockey stick.



They played hockey on the 'pavement rink' - a small car-park at the bottom of the road. A sporty neighbour offered Fin a real stick - but Fin declined preferring the stick made to his own design. They played for hours all weekend.

Kerstin hat

When Kerstin looked after my spinning wheel last year (before she bought her own - haha) she gave me a bump of hand-dyed fiber.



I spun it into an aran weight 2 ply. I just split the bump into 2 equal lengths and didn't make any effort to match the colours.

I decided to use Kerstin's Almost Pattern for an Earflap hat . I did a little ripping back: first time the crown came out too large so I frogged an inch or so, and I also added a couple of purl bands to highlight the yellow section that randomly came out as I finished the crown. I didn't use the stitch pattern on the ear flaps as I decided the hat was lively enough. I finished it with a couple of pom poms.



Adam agreed to model the hat as the photo taken of me in it was so terrible! He now wants one similar - but without pom poms. He does, however, want the i-cord dangly things.

Winter sunshine

Monday was a school holiday here for Martin Luther King day. The sun was shining and so the boys and I headed out for the beach. We went, as usual, to Rio Del Mar beach in Aptos. I didn't take my wetsuit but I wished that I had. It was mid-60s on the beach, with a lovely clear blue sky.



The boys boogie-boarded and skim boarded for about 4 hours!

December round-up: knitting

I didn't do a lot of Christmas knitting this year - and apparently didn't take photographs of all that I did knit.

I made my mother a Dollheid tam like mine. I chose the colours online and they are not quite a subtle as I expected - but I think the blue will look nice with my mum's colouring.



Maybe I can persuade my father to take a photo of her in the hat? Perhaps I could get him to photograph the other hat and scarf I made for her (poor woman was the recipient of most of this year's hand-made gifts!)?

My sister was in receipt of a flat hen - she admired my hen doorstop so I sent her a doorstop kit rather than send Nigel back to the UK with 2lb of sand in his luggage (tempting though that was).



This is the same pattern and chart as my chicken but knitted in Cascade 220 which worked better as it created a tighter and slightly felty fabric that I think is better for a doorstop. I made a hole in the base for stuffing rather than the usual construction. I decided that kitchenering live stitches was too much to ask a non-knitter. Right Gill?

December round-up: Christmas

Christmas 2010 was full of some of our now traditional activities:

The LG Christmas Parade with the scouts in the go-carts kicked-off the season. Fin and Carter:


Adam and Jacob:

The only sad part of the parade is that we no longer get to watch the other entries - but the boys apparently get so much fun out of being in the parade their mother has to make that sacrifice!

We also went up to Castle Rock Tree Farm to cut our Christmas tree. This year the boys did the cutting themselves.



We all decorated the tree - which is why all the fragile glass ornaments are at the top and the lego and playmobil ones around the bottom.

Here is the tree on Christmas Eve. Christmas day we had our usual dinner - I notice here that our nice reindeer Christmas china is hardly noticeable, yet the pyrex jug is front and center. Don't ask me about the pudding...


I just want to clarify that although Adam looks like he is brandishing a beer bottle, it is, root beer. After dinner the boys played with their presents.

Boxing Day is not observed here in the USA, but Nigel marked the day with the tradition of a Boxing Day swim!


Finally, for Gill, our outside decorations. I think much more restrained than in past years, I might even say tasteful!

December round-up: Skiing

School broke up on the Friday and we immediately headed up to NorthStar. We made it up just at the beginning of a large storm system moving through so our first two days were very snowy. The payoff came when the sky cleared and we were rewarded by feet of fresh snow.



We used to ski at NorthStar a lot (before we had to work around school holidays) and it was really nice to be back in the village, although it has changed a lot since we first came here 13 years ago. This is the view from the apartment - when we stayed here in 1998 this same block of apartments had a view of the ski slopes!


The resort has an excellent ski school and we enrolled both boys for a couple of full days lessons. Fin decided to make the switch to snowboarding and got off to a good start. After 2 days instruction he was able to go with Adam into 'The Stash': a snowboard terrain park in the trees.


This is Fin leading the way down one of the easy slopes. They were so keen that we even made it onto the slopes before the lifts had opened on the last day!

December round-up: birthdays

So it's 2011 and I have not blogged for a month... I guess I need a catch-up post or several.

December is a busy month for us, as well as Christmas, we have 2 birthdays and our wedding anniversary. Add to that the LG Christmas Parade and various end-of-term things at school - well, blogging took a back seat!

December saw the boys turn 8 and 10 - Adam now in double digits (which he is inordinately proud of).

Fin had a birthday at school which he seemed to like - they sung to him and all signed a big card. For his birthday he requested a lava lamp!


Followed by cake at home.

Adam celebrated his birthday in NorthStar where we went for a few days skiing. He spend the day snowboarding, followed by cake of course!

Stir-up Sunday

Last weekend was Stir-up Sunday, traditionally the day to make your Christmas pudding. I followed tradition and made my pudding on Sunday, having made my Christmas cake on Saturday.

I used Nigella Lawson's recipe published in How to be a domestic goddess. Alison made our pudding for us last year as we were without a kitchen until Christmas Eve, she used this recipe and it was delicious. I hope mine tastes as good.



We all had a stir for luck. I added some cleaned dimes so please hope that we remember that they are in there and no one chokes at the Christmas dinner table. I feel rather industrious with the puddings made and the cake marinating in brandy.

Happy Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year in our now-traditional manner: with a trip to Disneyland. We were really lucky with the weather as rain was forecast, and although it was cold, it did stay dry.



Here we are on the Columbia sailing ship - a perennial favourite. The park was busier this year than it has been in the past, maybe because we were there the day before Thanksgiving rather than on the day itself. Either way, we still go to go on a selection of rides - bearing in mind that only 2 of us (Adam and me, and Adam to a much greater extent than me) likes rides!

We stayed in the park to watch the fireworks for the first time and it was lovely. The boys were particularly impressed with the fake snow in Main St at the end of the display.

The following day we headed out to Long Beach to stay on the Queen Mary. It turned out to be a fabulous trip for us. We stayed in the Eisenhower Suite - previously occupied by the President, as well as Bob Hope. It was lovely in it's faded grandeur.



There are a lot of exhibits on the ship's history and the boys were really interested in it's wartime service as a hospital ship. It also carried GI brides to the USA after the war ended which I found interesting - overwhelmingly the comments from the British brides were on how good the food was on board - I guess after many years of strict rationing it was amazing.

I loved the Art Deco details of the ships public and private rooms and it was particularly nice to go on deck at night and look at the ship and the port of Long Beach lit up. The Queen Mary has had a chequered history and I hope that money remains to preserve this lovely ship. If you are in the area I encourage you to visit - and, even better, stay on board.

Quarter Century

On October 6th 1985 I walked through the doors of IBM Richmond to start my career with IBM. At the time I was really excited to land what everyone told me was a great first job - never for a moment did I imagine that 25 years later I would still be there. What's more is that I am essentially doing a very similar job to the Systems Engineer job I started in.

IBM likes to mark this anniversary as a significant milestone, although I suspect that there are fewer of us achieving this longevity of service these days. You get to choose a nice gift (in my case a watch - liked the 25 years on the railways idea of a watch). You also get taken out for a lunch by your manager, fortunately I really like my manager so lunch with her is a pleasure.



I invited the members of my team, and former team, who are local, some of whom I have known since I came to the USA in 1997 and have been long-time colleagues. My guest of honour was Christina who came over from the UK to join in the revels (and also have a holiday).

Lunch was at the Californa Cafe and I had a lovely time. I ate at the California Cafe the first time I visited San Jose in 1992 and loved Los Gatos then. For a long time I hoped, but never expected, that I would come here to live.

Its been an interesting 25 years. I have stayed in a technical role which was something that IBM always promised; career progression on a technical track. I've been on assignment - once to Rochdale, Lancashire with Woolworths, and now to the USA (much better option), as well as travelled around the world with work. I've met a lot of interesting people and made some long-lasting friends (24 years with Christina for example!). While I'm rather shocked to realize that I'm old enough to have been working for 25 years, I've really enjoyed marking this milestone and reflecting on what has already been an interesting career - and it's not over yet!