Twistedspinster

Knit on, through all crises!

hmmm... my flickr posting and my blog postings are gonna be out of synch. This is the shot of me knitting, while the rescue crew is on the way.

posted by Ruth S. @ 11:09 PM 0 Comments

ideas. I get ideas...

So, in an idle moment, relaxing with a glass of chai tea latte (home made, thankyouverymuch), I look through the blog roll at Summer of Socks, and read Sabrina's blog. I like the embossed leaves, but I'm not familiar with the pattern. (too lazy to JFGI, too)

All of a sudden I'm thinking... (stop snickering!) about cables. What if, just what if, I do a random number cable on socks?

I wouldn't want to do thick bulky cables on thick bulky ankles, though. Maybe skinny 2x2 cables, every X number of stitches? hmmm!

Ruth

posted by Ruth S. @ 2:53 PM 0 Comments

What the HECK was I thinking?

In today's episode, we ask the question "What the heck was I thinking?"

To which, the answer is usually "uhhhhh...." Translation: I wasn't thinking.

Arrgh- what was I thinking, buying 32" circulars for socks?? These are way too long and unwieldly to use. I barely got the toes off the dpns and I've already picked up the wrong end of the wrong circ.

I think though (ok, maybe a bad choice of words) that these Skacels wouldn't suit me for socks, even with a more suitable length on the cable. The needle length is too long for the way I hold the knitting, since I'm a "flicker".

But I'm loving the yarn, and the colors. And the toes are going to completely contrast!! very cool. So, I'll continue doing one sock on two circs, and one sock on the dpns. Checking, of course, for gauge.

Do I hear snickering out there?

posted by Ruth S. @ 10:52 AM 0 Comments

Yarn as cure...

I see by the label that I bought the yarn at Ancient Pathways in Fresno, March of this year, when I made a side trip during ASCH, Association for Southern California Handweavers. I got the circs at Not Just Yarn in Burlington (?) Washington (quick google search to verify... yup!)

I'll cast on for the toes, and see what pattern inspires me. Stay tuned!

Labels: SummerOfSocks

posted by Ruth S. @ 9:49 PM 0 Comments

A Sally Field Moment...

You know, I have always liked Sally Field, and I know just where she was coming from with the "They like me!" astonishment.

I just got this email on the Roche Harbor pictures...

I was sent a link to your blog where you have some great pictures of Roche Harbor. I was wondering if I could use one or two on the Roche Harbor website – in particular the one of the new building next to the hotel? Wouldn’t want to put them on without your permission – but it really is a nice picture. The sunset one is nice also. Anyway if you could get back to me – then I can load onto site with a courtesy credit to you. Hope you enjoyed Roche Harbor?

Regards,

Chris W

I responded in the affirmative, of course, with all due compliments to the gardeners and to that mechanic who was so good, AND so fast!

The pictures are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/originaltwistedspinster/ , but I haven't gotten them all up yet. Stay tuned...

Ruth

posted by Ruth S. @ 11:33 AM 0 Comments

Summer of Socks - Week 1

OK, here's the first week's progress. The lower picture is my view from the recliner... I have an "air desk" that lets me use the laptop with ease...

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Socks, and I'm doing them toe-up. The toe is a bit more rounded than I usually like to knit, but I think it'll fit my short stubby toes better. The pattern is 2 rows stockinette, 2 rows of 2x2 rib. The needles are size 1.5 Crystal Palace bamboos, my faves.

R

posted by Ruth S. @ 10:21 PM 1 Comments

Glow Check!

After we left Granville Island, we found our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express in North Vancouver. The Roketman had booked us through Orbitz, and we've stayed at a few other HIs, so the very nice girl behind the counter looked at the computer screen, and chirped "Would you like to be upgraded? We can put you in one of our theme rooms. Would you like the Roman Room or the Arabian Nights room?" I got a fit of the giggles.

But it wasn't the Madonna Inn or mirrors-on-the-ceiling type of thing at all. More like a honeymoon suite. Very nice- and pretty inefficient. Like a big whirlpool tub, and no shower. A HUGE bed- and about 6 inches clearance between it and the heater. A plushy chaise lounge in front of the tv- with no coffee table. In other words, all style and no function. But I digress...

Plan A for Saturday was to take a ferry across to Cowichan Bay, so I could look for a Cowichan sweater, and so we could .... take a ferry. Unfortunately, all the reservations were taken! plus, it would cost about $80 for one leg of the trip, and the schedule was all wrong to do in one day. Bummer.

So Plan B was to check out one of the Native American trading posts, that advertised handknit sweaters. Good store- but the largest sweater they had was a size 46. Not "ample" enough for these hips.

We checked out the coastal highway north of Vancouver, and the Atkinson lighthouse in West Vancouver, and generally had a pleasant driving tour of the greater Vancouver area (I'm ignoring the downtown traffic here). We got to Customs at the border at about 5.

The wait wasn't nearly as long coming south on Saturday afternoon as it was going north on Friday at 3ish (go figure!) We had a discussion on all the electro-optical and other devices, trying to figure out what the functions were. Such is life with a rocket scientist.

When we got up to the kiosk and gave the officer our passports, we got the usual "Why did you go to Canada?" type questions -- and then the double-take at the computer monitor. Uh oh. He asked "have you had any medical procedures in the last few days??" No, we've been on vacation. "How about in the past month?" Well, RM had had a cardio exam the day before we left, with the thallium injections and treadmill routines... He pulled us out of line, and directed us inside the building. Another Uh oh.

We stand in line for 10 minutes (I'm so glad there wasn't a longer line at the border!!), and the man behind the counter asks us all those questions again.

And then he pulls out a Geiger counter.

Holy uranium, Batman, I've been sleeping with a radioactive man. Worse yet, he's tripped the Homeland Security dirty bomb sensor!

I am truly astounded (and rather impressed, actually) that they could detect the thallium through the car, with closed windows. Thank god the sensors were precise enough to also tell it was medical-grade thallium, centered on RM and not anything we were carrying in the car.

And that, thank everything that's Holy, was the last adventure we had.

Whew! Now it's time to do battle with the cat hair that's been 10 days accumulating. After getting that back down into the realm of being annoying, instead of obnoxious, I'll start loading pictures to Flickr. Stay tuned!

posted by Ruth S. @ 1:45 PM 0 Comments

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

Ah, so good to be home again!

But that's like skipping to the last pages of the book, isn't it?

Since my last entry, we had a couple more notable adventures, including a run-in with Homeland Security! But first, I'm gonna be a brat and tell you about Thursday morning.

And how the boat didn't start. Again. Ayyy-yii-yii... We were all ready to start back to Anacortes, everything stored, battened down, and I pushed the starter button, and get a thunk. Uh-oh.

RM comes in, presses the button again, and not even a thunk. Big sigh... and a call to Anacortes Yacht Charter again. RM handled the call, but I could swear I heard a big sigh from that end too.

They called the marina repair service, who sent out a college-age woman who was very competent and who quickly diagnosed a starter button problem. She just wired up a bypass, and the engine fired right up. It was replaced within 15 minutes, and we were off! We navigated through Lopez Pass, across the channel, and right on in to the mooring with no problem whatsoever. (whew... this time the big sigh was relief!)

I gotta confess- a big highlight for me was going into Anacortes for supper, and being able to shop at Ana-Crosstitch right before closing. I got some sock yarn, of course. Tofutsies seemed like a really suitable choice, what with the chiton! Randall had remarked (over on FiberUniverse) "who has visions of Ruth knitting waterproof thermal "cozies"for their life jackets as smoke belched from the stern, the lightsflickered, and her yacht prepared for its final plunge"... I can't think of anything more waterproof that I'd want to knit. I'll think on it, and let you know if I come up with anything.

I also got a couple of pattern books... I oughta do a Knitter's Review on Ana-Crosstitch-- it's a great store!

We spent one last night on board, in the mooring, before checking in the boat the next morning (Friday). We got a credit on next year's cruise for all our problems... do I hear you laugh? Ah, it is truly worth all the problems we had.

Friday after lunch we headed up to Vancouver. I had requested the opportunity to go see Maiwa Handprints since we were so close... I spent way too much money, but got to see all three of their stores! Maiwa East is mainly furniture and fabrics they've imported from India. I got a really nice quilt that's dyed with indigo, in a shibori technique.

We scooted on to the other store, which ended up being on Granville Island! Verrry cool neighborhood, and I wish I had the time to go through all the shops. I didn't, though, because it was after 5 by then and RM was getting tired. Maiwa had two separate stores there in the same arcade. There's a store with all sorts of garments and neat stuff imported from India, and a separate store with all the dyes. Oh, be still my heart... oh. Just oh. I got some DVDs, some dyes, a really good respirator, and a cone for doing some paint resist like John Marshall does. Heaven. If you get to Vancouver, go there. Just GO.

I'm gonna publish this post now, and work on the Homeland Security post. I'm such a tease, I know. (big grin here)

posted by Ruth S. @ 12:09 PM 0 Comments