Books

It's all Tom's fault. When we got married he had a large library (mostly Sci Fi and humor) and I had just a few. Now, after 25+ years of marriage, my knitting, sewing and craft library (even pared down pre-move) is quite substantial. Ironically, though, as I write this from my office, the books 6'x10' of books behind me are still Tom's.


My books are in the sewing room. The newest addition is Men Who Knit & The Dogs Who Love Them: 30 Great-Looking Designs for Man & His Best Friend by Annie Modesitt. I just figure that I might find the perfect yarn to knit Tom a sweater and I want to be prepared...plus there are cute dog pictures. The book starts with a lot of good tips and techniques. There's always more we can learn.






Though the pictures shown in the KnitPicks book "view inside" were intriguing, I resisting buying Romantic Style: Knit and Crochet to Wear or Display because it was hard to tell what was knit and what was crochet. But I saw the book in Barnes & Noble and I had to have it. When my mom was here for Christmas, she liked the Dressing Gown and Crochet Collar. I've ordered KnitPicks Shine Sport to make the Dressing Gown—maybe for Mom's day—or maybe Christmas.






It occurs to me as I decide what to do about the shrug from VK, that I probably liked the pattern so much because I liked Norah Gaughan's book Knitting Nature .









I've mentioned Victorian Lace Today, which seems to have become my bible for lace knitting, though I've yet to actually start a project from it (so many projects...so little time). About the same time, I also received Arctic Lace. There are some lovely and interesting projects, but just as interesting are the stories and the history around the knitting of the Alaskan natives.







Helen Hamann's designs are among the most intriguing I've seen. I ordered the yarn to get her twinset and circular cardigan patterns which are exclusive to Elann.com. Then I ordered her book Andean Inspired Knits. Not only are the shapes interesting, but the colors are wonderful.

Knitting Acronyms

UFOs
Never mind how many UFOs (Unfinished Objects, for the uninitiated) there are in the stash closet. However, soon there will be one less—thanks to Dianne and Suzie and the power of suggestion. When Dianne took Suzie to see my stash, little did I know
that they would go through the bins and bags of UFOs. Dianne came back downstairs and mentioned two in particular—the Tivoli t-shirt I must have started during the summer last year (2005, that is) and the Wavy scarf I started before Stitches West 2006. I remembered the top, but had to go back to figure out what scarf she was referring to.


WIPs
Now the Wavy scarf is a WIP (Work In Progress). I pulled it out Thursday and have knit about two more full repeats of the pattern.







I haven't given up on the Helen Hamann Twinset, but 200+ stitches of stockinette can get pretty boring.








And then there's the Seasilk scarf that I have been carrying around for almost six months. It only really gets worked on when I'm waiting or on our Saturday visits to Coffee Rush in Oregon City (today will be our first coffee Saturday in a month—how the holidays can change our routines.)


My mom's birthday is in two weeks. I have to admit I really didn't enjoy knitting Tootsie's last dress and when I took a break I found the Party Dress in Dogs in Knit to knit her, which I'll send to my mom for her birthday (along with a few other gifties—none handmade, I'm afraid.) It's knit in KnitPicks Suri Alpaca, a yarn I received in a box of free yarn samples in Fall 2005. Of course one ball wouldn't do it (just...) so another is on order.

SABLE

My Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy was added to yesterday with the receipt of more dog fabrics for shirts and yarn for the lace projects from Victorian Lace (I LOVE this book!) that are on my to make list. The yarn is Shaefer Yarn "Anne" in colorway "Lousisa May Alcott," ordered from a favorite online yarn shop, Little Knits.

Cruise report

My original intent was to provide one review of the trip, but I seem to be too verbose and it would end up being pages (or screens) long, so in the interest of time, I've decided to break it in to segments. Here's the first installment.

Travel Day
We arrived in San Diego, where we had reservations at the Residence Inn. I picked the hotel because 1) it was "inexpensive" (It's all relative…), 2) they offered a free shuttle from the airport (except we had to wait about 40 minutes) and 3) on the map, it looked within walking distance of the pier. Technically it is, but the map doesn't show the traffic on Harbor Blvd. Nice room, friendly staff. The only issue was proximity to the train tracks (with trains) and a room in the back.

We walked to Horton Plaza. It's just like any other mall in the US, with the exception of the layout which is so confusing that we couldn't even read the directory – not someplace we'll flock back to. On the way back we stopped at Caparell's Itallia and brought back a pizza for dinner (and breakfast because we ordered a medium and they gave us a large instead). Along the way, we wandered into Little Italy, which looked interesting, but we were just too tired to explore. Maybe next visit.


Knitting
I started the tank for the Helen Hamann twinset – at least three times. There was the obligatory, twisting the stitches; then I knit up six inches even and wondered when the shaping began; and then counted incorrectly. But I finally did make some progress. Since I wasn't clever enough to document my progress, here's where I am right now.





Cruise Day 0
It was quite a traffic fiasco getting to the pier, but the hotel shuttle driver maneuvered it well and we headed in. There were a lot of people sitting around (waiting for the late arriving Carnival Spirit), but we were ushered through without a hitch. Apparently our affinity to arriving early paid off because the check-in process went remarkably well. Everyone we talked to who arrived later had different stories.

When I finally retrieved the camera from the baggage I'd "checked" we took a few pictures.

Dining
The sought after dining is early seating, and we were among over 100 other people who were waitlisted. But we lucked out and were assigned the second-early-seating. And we found out the reason was that two of a group of eight travelers had to cancel at the last minute. Here again we lucked out because our tablemates were three couples from Lake Oswego, who turned out to be a lot of fun – Jim and Dianne Sather, Russ and Jean Pearce, and Warren and Sharon Howard.

As it turned out, the dining room, though good, wasn't quite up to expectations. There were some good flavors, but nothing exceptional and the dining staff were solicitous, but very hurried and not entirely attentive.

Entertainment
The first show of the cruise was a revue with performances by all the ship's entertainers. With the exception of the Harmony Strings, a violin, bass and piano trio from the Ukraine, none stood out.

Cabin
We booked a verandah suite, which turned out to be a very nice cabin with a large deck on the port side of the ship. When we arrived back in our room Hariyanto, our cabin steward extraordinaire, had turned down the sheets and left chocolates on a towel frog.

Thus we ended day "zero" of the cruise.

Temptations

Michelle and I went to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival on Saturday. For both of us, it was our first visit and we were quite impressed. It's just a good thing neither of us spin (yet?) because the fibers were just lovely and it would have been hard not to come away with bags full. As it was, we both exercised some restraint. Although tempted by some lovely yarns, three skeins merino/mohair, hand dyed by Nancy Finn of Chasing Rainbows where the only thing that traveled home with me.

While I was looking for something else (I can't remember what, now), I saw an Elann.com ad for this twinset designed by Helen Hamann and was taken. I resisted for about 5 minutes before I ordered the yarn and with it get the pattern. The good news here was that when I got to my cart I had $60 worth of credits (having made too many prior purchases...)


AND then, I saw Helen Hamann's new book Andean Inspired Knits.