Broken Arrow Campout October, '05
Ross, also known as 5Ross, is a very nice man we know from a Goldwing board where I spend a lot of time, GoldWing Riders. We met him in person at the WOTS rally in North Carolina. He posted a note to the board inviting anyone who was interested to come camping at Broken Arrow Campground in Winamac, Indiana, this past weekend. Ross, Rich and I, and Ross's son and daughter-in-law were the only ones from the board to show up, but several of Ross's GWTA friends came.
We invited my sister, Cherryl to come along, and she followed the BYB and camper in her Jeep with camping gear we provided and our dog, Claudia. It was cold! I rode the bike as far as I could stand it, then abandoned Rich to the elements and rode in the car the rest of the way (wuss). It was Cherryl's first time camping, and she got her trial by ice. It got down to the thirties on Saturday night, but with the help of a little electric heater and a warm dog to sleep with, she had a great time, and is now talking about buying her own gear and starting to camp out more in the future!

the intrepid (I think that's a fancy word for 'really cold') campers around the campfire. From left: Bill, Rich, Mikey, Jeff, Ross and Dan.

We had four tents and three pop-up campers (see ours in previous posts). Saturday morning we went into town for breakfast, then most of the campers bundled up and went for a ride on the bikes. Cherryl rode with Rich, while I stayed behind to start supper and have a lovely conversation about books and history with Bill, who is retired from the National Parks system.

Cleaning up after Saturday night's supper: Becky, Ross, Tami...well, Ross said he was helping with the dishes, but it looks like coffee-time to me! Ross's wife, daugher, son-in-law and grandson came out to join us for supper, but did not stay the night.

All packed up and ready to go home: Ross, Dan, Bill, Jeff, Tami, and Cherryl

We came to the consensus that keeping a petting zoo at a campground is not the best idea, especially if you throw in a few free-range chickens (hi, Michelle, lol). The roosters were, ummm, 'insistent' that 4:00 a.m. is truly the most optimal time to get up. As I left our camper at daybreak on Sunday morning, I heard several loud shots in the not-so-distant distance, and thought, "Yeah! No more roosters!", but, alas, it was not to be.

Note to folks who plan to share a campground with others: if your taste in music runs to compositions featuring lots of drums, base, and, apparently, tribal chants, and played very, very loudly, it's polite to turn the music off some time before 2:30 a.m.

(that's 3:30 a.m., Michigan time!)

I'm just saying...

Sorry there aren't more pictures: we were just having too much fun to take any!

Knitting: Cherryl and I both took our socks-in-progress along, but she got a lot more knitting done than I did. I did get three-quarters of the way through my new Yarn Harlot book

(see note above regarding very loud music which made sleeping difficult).

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This is funny:

40 Things That Only Happen In Movies
Or, as I often say while watching a movie, "NOOOO, young soldier, please DON'T show us a picture of your sweetheart back home!"
It comes from this library newsletter:

NeatNew and Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other
Information Junkies
Sign up for the newsletter to have informative stuff delivered to your mailbox each week. There's something interesting in every issue.

There's a Contest at Quiddity. It's called, "Show Me Your Socks." Here they are, at least the ones I haven't given away.

It's Fall, otherwise known as "The season we're given so that we can be numbed by its beauty, thus lulling us into complacency about The Season That Comes Next." Here's a sign. When we left for North Carolina this was the view from the sidewalk in front of our house :

When we came home, this was what we saw :


It's hard to tell the difference without enlarging the shots, but in the first photo there's corn in the field. In the second, there's none. They picked it while we were away. Next the leaves will be changing, then falling, then there will be snow. Sigh. We are one day closer to spring.

An Ode to Opal Yarn
The Opal Chatters Yahoo! group has "Topic Tuesday" each week. The moderators pick a topic for everyone to discuss during the coming week. This week's topic was to write a poem about Opal. Here's mine.



Feet Dream of Opal

My feet tread, blessed in socks of Opal,
past the stash in dreams of hope: al-
though steel needles all are filled
with socks for Jen and Nick and Bill,
my lovesick arches long to feel
sweet stitches warm of Crocodil
or Lollipop, Handpaint, Brasil.

So, ever yearning, near they pause, it
seems, to tarry near dark closet
where, in deep, deep slumber rest
the plump, soft skeins, the very best
of Soxie's gleanings. Line my nest
with Opal: there I'll end my quest.

writ by me this 4th day of October, 2005

Disclaimer: I'm not actually knitting socks for anyone named Bill (or Jen or Nick either, sorry guys!), but it rhymes... Oh, I found 2 more skeins of Opal after taking this picture, and I know there's another one around here somewhere. SABLE.

More North Carolina pictures

This is what we saw Sunday on the Blue Ridge Parkway...;~D Pea-soup fog for miles, and miles, and miles...When we finally got out of the fog we met a nice couple on a BMW and chatted for a while with them, then rode on through the back roads of western North Carolina. We stopped for lunch in Loafer's Glory, North Carolina, and I had a wonderful barbecue sandwich the southern way -- with slaw on it. No pictures of the rest of our ride, though. The camera battery died. It was beautiful, and I'm sorry you missed it!

We spent this past weekend in Hubbard, Ohio, with our friends. Wonderful time, as always! Pictures in the next post.

BBQ at HDL
Here's the group from GL1800Riders.com at the barbecue Hal threw for us in Hendersonville. It was great to meet some of the folks I've been talking to online and put names and faces together.

The BYB takes a break along the BRP.

This is at Looking Glass Falls, along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Just a little while before this, a young man though he could climb the rocks and jump into the waterfall pool without a thought for the depth of the water, I guess. He broke his leg badly. We decided not to try it this trip. Maybe next time!

It just doesn't get any prettier than this...more pictures tomorrow.

We're back!
We got home from North Carolina yesterday after a beautiful trip. The knitting had a good time, too. Wednesday we spent eight hours on the bike getting to Portsmouth, Ohio, where we were to meet friends for the rest of our trip to the Wings Over the Smokies Goldwing motorcycle rally.


Portsmouth Ohio, the Seawall Murals

Portsmouth is a town on the Ohio River. There are 2000 feet of hand-painted murals on the inside of the seawall, depicting Portsmouth, its history, industry, and residents. Here I'm knitting in front of one of the panels. Yeah, I know it's shoelaces, but it was the closest thing they had to anything textile-related! I love this picture beyond all reason -- look how thin I appear to be! Who could ever have suspected that my tiny knitting bag could possibly hide my huge, rounded, umm, posterior! I look fifty pounds thinner, which is probably about what the aforementioned posterior weighs! This is how I look in my mind's eye -- and then my physical eye catches a glimpse of the truth in a mirror. sigh.

Rich and the BYB in front of a mural of the Portsmouth Motorcycle Club. The photo at the top of today's entry is a detail of this panel. You can see it in the picture to the left, just behind Rich and the bike.



This panel honors our armed forces.






Here is the knitting, touring the Great Smoky Mountains. This is a hat for the kids at the South Bend domestic assault shelter. Rich gets poked a lot with the needles, but he doesn't complain...much! I use circular needles and they're not as poky as regular ones would be.

That's David (Bash) and Julie ahead of us on their bike. We met them through the bike forum I read, and they set up the ride from southern Ohio to North Carolina. Great people, and terrific travelling companions!

More pictures tomorrow, if there's time.

We're off...
Well, some would say I'm a bit off all the time, but you know what I mean. Rich & I will be out on the BigYellowBike for a few days.
So I sat down to pack up my knitting for the trip. I'm trying very hard not to Pack More Than I Can Possibly Knit. Very hard, especially as luggage space on a motorcycle is, umm, "limited" so I have to decide what to leave behind.
What do you think -- do we really need an atlas?
I think one change of underwear might last me a week, right?
Hmmm. Maybe if I wear all of my clothes instead of packing some?....
Hey Cherryl, thanks for spending the weekend with the cats. Would you mind terribly doing the nasty litter-box thing some time Sunday? Oh, and Friday, too, if the kids have forgotten to do it. I'll make it up to you, I promise. You are a pearl beyond price. If I get any small packages while I'm gone, you're welcome to open them. Feel free to be envious! ;~D

Here are the BYB and Mini-Me, my little Honda Rebel. Mini-Me is not accompanying us on this trip. This picture makes me laugh -- I always forget how HUGE the BigYellowBike is!

I just learned at the Yarn Harlot's blog that it's "Talk Like a Pirate Day." In honor of this festive event, here be a little storrrry...arrrgh!

A pirate with a steering wheel protruding from his fly walked into a bar and ordered a tot of rum. The bartender tried to ignore the steering wheel and served the pirate's drink...but curiosity got the better of him.
"Excuse me," said the bartender, "but I can't help but notice that there's a steering wheel in your fly...?"
"Ayyyyy," said the pirate, "it drives me nuts!"

Well, I didn't say it was funny, now did I? Arrrgh! At least I didn't say 'arse'. oops.

Donations for The Restash Network (click for more information)
My knitting guild, Stranded in Michiana buried me with donations for the Restash Network yesterday! My car was so full it took Rich and me five trips to bring it all into the house. Here are a few pictures of the loot they sent home with me:
I hope you can get some idea of how much yarn there is here. I have a large kitchen table, and it was completely covered with every imaginable color of acrylic worsted-weight yarn.
A lot of this will go to Paulette in Texas, who is teaching kids in shelters how to knit.

Here are books, needles, hooks, and notions. and one of the members went to Target and bought everything to make up several kits. Most of the needles will go to Paulette for her kids, too.

There is wonderful stuff in this pile -- sorry about the crazy angle!
There's Misti Alpaca laceweight, two big hanks of rayon chenille, a HUGE hank of fine cotton in charcoal gray, some vintage Bear Brand wool, two full cones and several balls of kitchen cotton, a ziploc bag full of tiny balls of mohair.
The pale green yarn in the background is some kind of wool from France that looks like there might be some mohair in it. There must be a dozen balls of that.

One of the guild members gave me a check for $25.00 to help cover postage -- thanks, Elizabeth, and thank you everyone for your generosity! I still have two boxes and three large shopping bags full of yarn to be sorted and shipped.

Try, try again... The closed-camper picture tells me it is very sorry for causing trouble, so it's getting another chance.
This side would be the back of the camper when it's set up. The racky-thingy on the top rests on the ground when the camper is opened, and allows for storage of our chairs and other stuff when closed. You undo some latchy-thingies on the left and the top just flips over, pulling the canvas tent and support poles with it. If we were unlucky enough to be setting up in the rain, we could, literally, be inside and dry in seconds...SECONDS, I tell you! Well, ok, maybe minutes. Slick.

Another shot of the loverly Aussie yarn, here tamed and wound into balls. Mmmmmmm...yarrrrrnnnn. TWO pairs of socks-worth, or maybe one lovely shawl...socks or shawl...socks or shawl...socks or shawl....

A Gift from Down Under!

So, I got this wonderful yarn from Kathryn in Australia today. It took only 6 days to go all that way...it often takes 8 days for a letter to go 11 miles from our bank to our house!
230 grams of fingering-weight 100% merino wool. Hand-dyed. Did you notice it came from Australia? Kathryn dyed it herself, using powdered food color, apparently the counterpart of the Wilton paste food colors we use here.
It's beautiful. It makes me wish I were more poetic. It looks like a bowl of fresh summer berries. It was in a horrible tangle when it arrived, and took 6 1/2 hours to unsnarl and wind into two wonderful, plump, center-pull balls. Worth. Every. Minute.
Now...socks or shawl? socks or shawl? socks or shawl?

The Camper
Tom is intrigued by our camper and wants to see more pictures. Here it is, with the awning and screen room removed.

End view of the dressing area.

From the front, sleeping area on right, dressing area on left.

There was a picture of the camper closed, too, but it was being obstinate so I've sent it to the corner to think about what it did. That'll teach it. Maybe I'll let it come out and play later.

A worthy cause...
A group of us have banded together to resupply knitters who lost their yarn, needles, books and patterns in Hurricane Katrina. Here is a link to our home page: The Restash Network
If you would like to make a contribution, please send donations to any of the coordinators listed. We will make sure everything gets to someone who needs it. This may not be an essential need, but will certainly go a long way toward helping people get their lives started again.
Please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard in your shipments, so that we can notify you of their arrival. Thank you!

Two More Finished Projects!
I finished two more pairs of socks this past week. I really need to get back to work!

Here, at last, are my finished Ducky Dew socks. The pattern is my original design for September '05 for the Sock of the Whenever Yahoo! group. Mine are 'fraternal' socks, because I decided I'd like black boots better after I finished the first sock with red ones.
The yarn is Lorna's Laces, and the colors are not as bright as they look in this picture.

These are also Whenever socks. This is Laney Yarn Fairy's pattern that I tested for her December kit. The pattern is called "Berry-licious". The yarn is Cascade 220 and is a worsted weight. These socks knit up so quickly I could hardly believe it. I finished each sock in one day!

Next on the needles: a little cardigan for our friends' baby, Hannah, and Frankie and Liz socks from the Sockie and Bob and Friends pattern I got in the bottle swap. I think I may put a Ducky Dew on the back of Hannah's sweater, and maybe I'll chart out an umbrella and a pair of boots for the fronts. I'm using Louet Merino Gems Opal yarn, but it's so fine I may rip it out and start over with a heavier yarn so it will get finished while Hannah can still wear it!

A Lovely Surprise Package! One of my Yahoo! groups has an exchange four times a year, called a "Bottle Swap." Anyone in the group can sign up, then the BottleSwapMom mixes up the names and assigns each person a partner. There are five databases in the group files for our personal information, likes, dislikes, and desires. When we receive our partners, we consult the databases and begin gathering goodies to send to them. We pack up the stuff in a bottle or box or plastic storage tote, label it, and ship it off to the lucky recipient.

This is the wonderful loot I got in the Labor Day Bottle Swap from my partner, Tina, in Raleigh, NC. This was Tina's first Swap, and she did a wonderful job! She sent me two sock patterns, including Sockie and Bob and Friends, which I've been coveting, two hand-knit facecloths, one with a dolphin and one with the state of Michigan knitted in (!), two skeins of Cascade Fixation yarn, a skein of KnitPicks Dye-Your-Own yarn, two stitch gauges, a set of dpns, a cute little felted cellphone cozy, some wonderful stuff for my dry, icky hands, and a handful of pens (and who can't use more pens?).

I feel very pampered! Thank you, Tina!

While They Were In...
As combined birthday and first-anniversary gifts to our son and his wife, we decided to re-do their bedroom. We'd first planned to send them away for the weekend and surprise them with it when they returned, but Nici had to stay and work, so we just barred them from the room while we worked. Our friends Tom, Michelle, and Michelle's daughters Amanda and Ashley, and my sister, Cherryl, came to help.
Nici loves The Lion King and has been wanting a sunset in the colors they used in the movie. I found a mural and some tropical/jungle doodads and gizmos, and we made their room a tropical paradise.
Tom prepared the wall for the mural. He is a retired painter/paper-hanger, and my very dearest friend.






The last panel going up. Tom had a terrible time with this wallpaper. The paper stretched and bubbled, and the colors were very delicate and had a tendency to rub off with the smoothing sponge. He was very frustrated by this time, but it turned out beautifully!

Amanda helped hang the new curtains and we all pitched in to put up the canopy. Ashley and Amanda were our 'gophers' for the project. They unloaded all the goodies from my car, and did a lot of fetching and carrying and cleaning.

We added all-new bed linens.












Nick & Nici in their new tropical getaway. The chest of drawers was an old one we had, with scratched-up finish and damaged veneers. I found some inexpensive tatami mats and Rich covered the drawers and case with the mats, then added split-bamboo poles as trim.

Finished Objects! Finished Objects!
I finished a couple of projects yesterday. Here is a pair of socks I knit for our friend, Kenny. They're in Special Blauband in a lovely sage green. The pattern is pretty basic: 1x1 rib, then 3x2 rib. I knit them on size 2 needles, holding two strands of yarn together. Kenny has pretty big feet, and I knew I'd never finish them otherwise!

Candy Corn socks,
adapted by me from a pattern on the old SockGuy's page. The yarn is Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool. Don't know how well this stuff will hold up as socks, but then, how often am I going to wear socks with candy corn on them anyway? The knitting was actually finished almost two years ago, but I just finally got around to working in all the ends.
This was one of my first FOs after many years of not knitting. It was knit for our DDIL Nici when she and DS were dating. She needed a wrap for her Senior Prom. The yarn was something inexpensive from WalMart, but it turned out very nicely, especially as it was my first attempt at lace-knitting. DO NOT look too closely at the pattern...ahem! I seem to have placed the very worst of the mistakes smack-dab in the middle of this photo.

Camping Trip 09/26-28/05
So, we had a great and relaxing time camping at VanBuren State Park, near South Haven, Michigan. This is our nifty little pop-up camper that we pull behind the BYB. It's an amazing piece of engineering. Under the cover are our folding chairs and a variety of other gear.

Inside, we have a double bed (air mattress on top of the foam pad that came with the camper), and a double-bed-sized dressing area. The zipped-on screen room more than doubles the size of the camper, and has privacy panels that can be Velcro-ed to the screen.

We had a little rain early Saturday morning, and beautiful weather the rest of the weekend. It cleared off early and the sun shone all day. We met our son and his wife up there. Nici's step-dad has a boat moored at South Haven, and he took us for a rather bouncy ride out on Lake Michigan Saturday afternoon. It was Nick's 26th birthday. The kids came out to the campground Saturday evening and had supper with us. Sunday we met them and had lunch and played miniature golf before heading home.

No pictures today.

We are preparing for an upcoming camping trip. Rich pulled out the camper we pull behind the bike and we scrubbed the crud off the cover. Can't believe we've not been camping once this year! I'll pop it open today and start airing it out and arranging the stuff inside.

Went for a wonderful ride yesterday, up through grape country and across to South Haven, Michigan. The weather was perfect for a ride on the BYB. We checked out a couple of campgrounds and saw Lake Michigan, then back to meet friends for supper and home again, home again, jiggety-jog. Beautiful day!

Later!

Good Morning!
I finished a pair of socks yesterday. They're the Old Shale Two Yarn Sock Pattern from the Stitches of Violet blog. I used size 0 needles with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in "Clay" for the cuffs, heels, and toes, and Kroy in a taupe-y color for the foot and leg. They're slightly different gauges, but it worked ok. The color is prettier than it shows here.

I went a little long on my heel flap, so have plenty of room in the instep! I actually have some pulled to the back of the blockers and pinned so it doesn't look so baggy.

Love, love, love my new Wooly the Ram sock blockers from Chappy!

On the needles: still working on my prototype Ducky Dew socks, waiting for updates on a pattern I'm testing for another designer for the Sock of the Whenever Yahoo! group, and cast on socks for my friend, Kenny, yesterday. He gets lovely, lovely Special Blauband in sage green. He has pretty big feet, so I'm holding two strands of the yarn together to make the socks knit up faster and working 2 socks/2 circs. Man, this is nice yarn!

So I took another look at Marguerite's pattern for this sock, and realized I forgot to do the ribbing down the instep! That would have taken care of all that fullness...