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...

Not many words today, but a few photos. My little boys are growing up! DS Nick's best friend for nearly 21 years (they met when they were 5 years old) married DDIL Nici's best friend Saturday, August 13th. The two couples are already planning their firstborns' marriage -- to one another!
Nick and Jay around 7 years old


In Branson, Missouri, nearly 13 years old.

Jay & Jamie

Counting up the Dollar Dance money

Nick & Nici run with the money...

Brevity is the soul of wit. Somebody smarter than I said that. I shall endeavor to be more brief. Fat chance...

Here's a pic of DH and I (knitting) on our BigYellowBike. Note the helmets on the sidewalk. This is your first clue that the picture is a fake. The helmets are ALWAYS on our heads when we ride the bike. I do, however, knit on the back...I sleep a lot back there, too.

I knit socks on the back of the bike. I learned the 2 socks/2 circs technique just so I can knit on the bike without worrying too much about dropping a needle! My yarn ball rides in a little KnitKnackSack hooked over DH's backrest.

Frustrating day. I headed out this morning, resume in hand to apply for a job at a local bookstore. The owner was not in.

Thought I would mow the lawn. The shed where the bikes and mowers are stored is like one of those sliding puzzles. Move this piece up and over, then the next piece over two and down, and so on. Pushed my bike (Mini-Me) as far forward as I could. Backed up the BYB as far as I could -- man that thing is heavy! Started up the big mower. It ran out of gas. Put gas in. Tried to start the old mower so I could move it out of the way. Out of gas. Tried the big mower again. Wouldn't start. Closed barn doors. Went in house. Sheesh!

OK, that was not so brief. Will try again next time.

Watching Harry Potter at the quidditch match Just a friend and I in December '05 on a trip my husband and I took to London, England, with another couple. This is in the stairwell of a huge toy store in London. Every landing was illustrated with a selection from Harry Potter. Cool, huh! I actually climbed stairs to view all the different levels...I think there were seven floors at least. I L-O-V-E Harry Potter, and hope that the Queen knights (or whatever) J. K. Rowling for what she's done to promote the love of reading, especially in BOYS!

By the way, if any of you object to Harry Potter on the grounds that it promotes wizardry in young children, please, I do not mean to offend you, but let me say this: When I was a little girl, I REALLY, REALLY wanted to be a ballerina. I borrowed ballerina books from the library and devoured them cover-to-cover. I put on my little tights and turtleneck and stood in front of the mirror practicing the six basic positions. I dreamed about being a ballerina. I begged my parents for ballerina lessons -- no dice! Oddly, I did NOT become a ballerina, and I doubt that your children or any others will become wizards from reading about Harry and his friends. Just my $.02. Oh, and have you read fairy tales to your children? Have you let them watch Disney movies or The Wizard of OZ? pssst! there's magic in those, too! just thought you should know...

So, anyway, why did I start knitting again? Fast-forward to the winter of 2002. My son and his girlfriend (now his wife) were at our house to watch the Superbowl. The Packers weren't playing, so who cared? Future DIL and I were bored and I asked her if she wanted to learn to knit. Why yes, she did. Out came the (obligatory) size-10 needles, but we did NOT start a scarf. Her mother was pregnant for her little brother, and Future DIL thought she'd like to knit a baby blanket. A blue one. We found some blue Red Heart and I showed her how to cast on and do the basic knit stitch.

Basic baby blanket, knit every row. Despite the Grip-O-Death on the needles and yarn, she did quite admirably, so I sent her home with her project, confident she would succeed. I, by the way, had discovered how much I missed knitting.

Fast-forward again, a couple of months this time. Bear in mind I haven't seen said blanket since Superbowl Sunday. Son and Future DIL show up at the house, and she says, " I think it's big enough. Can you show me how to finish it?" I began to bind off. She caught on right away, so I turned it over to her. It seemed that there were more stitches than I'd remembered...lots more...infinitely more. Many, many stitches later, I discovered that Future DIL had made a half-dishcloth-shawl, accidently making one increase in the first stitch of every row. It was square across the bottom (the original cast-on row), then flared perfectly to arms' width! Her mother loved it.

And then I discovered sock knitting...next time!

Nick and I about 1983. He's wearing my favorite creation of all time...The Elephant Sweater! The brown yarn was from Delaine Woolen Mills (I think). You bought single-ply cones in your choice of colors and, through the magic of the special shipping box, which had shelves with holes in them on which you stacked the cones, then pulled all of the plies together through a hole in the top of the box and Voila! (or, "Viola!" as I see it spelled so often online...who IS this Viola, and why is she always coming around?) two-ply yarn or three-ply or four-ply or...well, you get the picture!
I am wearing a store-bought sweater, probably a birthday or Christmas gift from my mom. I think I still have it somewhere. Ahh, that hair! Those glasses! That makeup! Ooh-la-la, it was indeed the eighties! Wish I was still that thin...

I feel like I'm talking to myself...oh, wait, I am...

So I guess I'll talk about knitting. I first learned when I was really, really young. Like, so small I can picture my little legs sticking straight out on the couch as I sat beside my sister, or maybe my mom, can't remember. Anyway, it was probably a scarf. The first project is always a scarf, isn't it? Destined to be tossed aside in a tangle after six misshapen rows, remaining uncompleted and unloved until, finally, someone needs the yarn for something else and unravels it, or maybe just pitches the whole snarled mess. The working yarn is clutched in the grip of death, wrapped around the tip of the needle...Tink!...Scrape!...Rats, I dropped it! And the gauge on those first scarves, nearing 10 stitches to the inch in cheap Red Heart acrylic worsted on the obligatory size ten needles, the yarn is pulled so tightly.

Years passed. Lots of years. It's 1979 and I'm pregnant for our son, Nick, although in these days before non-emergency ultrasounds, we didn't know he was Nick, or even that he was a boy. I think I knitted something for him. I know my mom did--two sweaters, one pink and one blue, just in case (remember, no ultrasound). As he grew, I knitted and crocheted for him: sweaters, hats, mittens, slippers, and yes, even a scarf! Lots of sweaters. One new sweater for each of his first few years in school, and I have the school pictures to prove it.

Then tragedy struck...well, ok, I'm being overly dramatic. It wasn't a tragedy so much as a new phase...Nick was now too cool to wear hand-knitted sweaters with elephants or duckies or yellow pencils or crayons on the front. Go figure! Plus, I went to work full time and had no spare moments for knitting any more. So no knitting for many years.

And that's where I'll leave it for today.