Sky, Spectrum, Winding Things Up

There is seldom any kind of sky action out here--usually, especially with the kind of heat wave we're having, the sky is that clear hard bright blue that looks fake. Today, even though we've got severe weather warnings for the heat, we've also got clouds.
See?


This view is looking south, over my neighbor's roof. From this angle, you can't see the holes that my poor late lamented oak tree punched in the roof. Holes that, 2 1/2 years later, are still covered with black trash bags held down with bricks and rocks. By the way, I'm not being snotty about the roof damage--I happen to know that their homeowners' insurance paid them plenty to repair it.



View looking west, with a corner of my roof and my crape myrtle and liquidambar trees.
Interesting cloud formation, isn't it??
My green rose seems to have acquired a tenant--can you see the spiderweb?
Yes, it's supposed to be a green rose. It turns yellow as it opens, but the petals get a touch of green as they age.


This is PURPLE for Project Spectrum. It's a Rose of Sharon that volunteered in my rose bed. Also known as Blue Hibiscus, it's a nice shade of magenta.

Agapanthus, aka Lily of the Nile. An extremely hardy plant with hummingbird-approved flowers. A very blue-purple!


Along with the morning glory, which is growing next to and amidst my combretum. I'll be out to take pictures of its blossoms as soon as they are ready, since they fit the orange part of this month's colorway.

Orange rose:

and orange rose hips!

Hmmm... didja think there would be no yarn in this post? Think again! What does a person do while waiting (for the fifth time, folks!) for a freezer to be picked up?
One gets wound up, of course! Here's my "collection" of Black Water Abbey yarns. The green is Moss and the blue is Bluestack.
Now, here's an interesting bit of trivia. The green was fine, but the blue smelled really funky. Not only that, but when I had finished winding it, there was a fine layer of blue-grey grit all over the coffee table.

What's that all about??

Oh looky, looky! New yarn! Gee, I wonder where that came from?

Well it says it's from See Jayne Knit. So I guess that's where it's from.
But how did it get here?

ET!! Phone home, and tell me what's going on here!
Mmmm. Rum Raisin--much darker in real life...
Fuzzy Peach, silky and wonderful.

Check out the adorable coffee bean stitch markers that came on the Cafe au Lait!
Ah well, they're all PS colors, aren't they?? And that alpaca is sooo soft... I can hardly wait to get it knit up into a nice cozy shawl. Then I'll need some cool weather to wear it...








One last look at the sky. Looking due south again. Sure wish there was some rain in those clouds, and not just humidity to make the heat more uncomfortable!

Ah well, at least it's a pretty interesting sky!

Oh, and the freezer? It's gone, gone gone!! Finally!!

Sunday "Sports"

What does one do when it's Sunday and hot out? How about visiting one's local stamp pusher...err, demonstrator, yeah, that's it!--even when she's not super-local. Maria was having an Open House, with some super-fast and quick projects to make. So over the river and through the freeways we went (yes we do have rivers out here, even though they are all encased in cement troughs and are bone dry this time of year!) and a good time was had by all. Can I just mention that it was 104 out in Rancho Cucamonga?


So I came home to a cooler project. When the knitting mojo has wilted from the heat--and trust me, driving almost 100 miles round trip in that heat will wilt anyone's mojo--there are still yarny things to do with the fan blowing.


Winding yarn!!

These are some "previously acquired" skeins: the two big ones are Fleece Artist BFL, one skein each of Blackberry and Autumn. The middle-sized on is Sea Wool in Autumn, and the two small ones are the skeins of Lori Lawson's handpaints from the trip to LPK on Saturday.

It can take a long time to wind this much yarn! The BFL is laceweight and has 1000 meters per skein. I think they will become shawls--I have some Fiber Trends patterns marinating in my stash that I think will work just beautifully!
And yes, MS3 is still in Time Out. I moved it around this morning but haven't made a final decision about it. We'll see how things go later today!
Meantime, there are two tubs of Black Water Abbey waiting for me to wind them. I was looking at pictures of Celtic Dreams and getting the urge to cable... Yeah, it's almost 100 here today and I'm thinking of heavy wool and cables. I think the heat has melted my brain. Either that, or the a/c is finally working!

Care And Feeding of an ET*

*ET is my Evil Twin. She tends to shop for yarn "just because." Turns out, I'm not the only one who has one. She has a way of finding playmates, and this weekend turned out to be a banner one for several of them!
ETs love cupcakes. Well, they like anything sweet. They travel best on iced tea, with or without pomegranate juice added.

ETs can find really cute places to hang out. They are, as you may have noticed by the cupcake choice, particularly fond of the color pink.

Therefore, the Pink Porch is a prime hunting ground. Wait, what's on those PINK flyers in the windows??

Look closely... they say 50% off entire stock!
No the chandelier did not come home with me. Neither did the punchbowl. However, there were a couple of items that did.
Simon helped to wind them into balls. Well, not everything needed to be wound, so it didn't take the entire evening to get it all wound up.
He wants you to see how good he looks with Noro Transitions, Classic Elite Bravo, and red Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky. There might also have been some sharing of Debbie's Bliss too. However, this post is already too photo-heavy so I'll tease you with a promise to "bare all" soon.

But ET isn't happy with just a trip to the Valley on Friday. Oh no. She found a couple of other playmates on Saturday as well. Braving the horrors that await on I-5 South, this intrepid crew of three went into the deepest OC. All the way to Ladera Ranch, to La Petite Knitterie.

There were spinners there!

There was wonderful handpainted yarn by the incredible Lori Lawson. (I do believe that's her at the spinning wheel. The balloons are for a birthday. The cake was in the back room.)Madgik couldn't resist the siren song of the silk. Oh, did I mention?? They were having a sale. 40% off on many things, 10% off on the rest of the stock. Patty found some handpaints too, in wonderful glowing colors. I hope the two of them will be showing you more pictures on their blogs. Madge likes to take pictures of people who are taking pictures of her.

Then there was lunch. This is a Pacific Cobb Salad.

And a roast beef sandwich....

And this wondrous concoction of apples, cranberries, walnuts, greens etc... as well as the cupcake previously seen.

ETs need to eat. Part of the "care and feeding" means finding great places to eat. This one was called Pacific Whey.

My haul:

some handpaints--to go with my Can't Elope from a couple of weeks ago

some patterns--interesting cardigans

and a book of mother-and-baby designs, from Rowan, designs by Martin Storey. Plus a really cute pattern for baby (and teddy bear) sweaters, from the people who brought you the Wonderful Wallaby.

You cannot venture down I-5 without a stop at this iconic location:

Well, at least we couldn't. It's amazingly freeway-close and accessible, and it's HUGE. I mean, HUGE! They have an amazing selection of all kinds of yarns, from the most basic--more colors of Cascade 220 and Encore than I've seen on this coast--lots and lots of Colinette, Rowan, etc etc. And a world-beating collection of floofy, fun-furry, glittery, shiny, novelty yarns too.

But they weren't having a sale. And ET's been hideously spoiled, and besides the thing she liked best was the Colinette Cadenza and it came in three colors she couldn't decide among. When faced with a difficult choice, ET often will refuse to choose and just pick up her marbles and go home.

What a weekend. And it's only Saturday night! It's been rumored that there is an outing planned for tomorrow as well, but we'll just have to wait to see if it comes off first.

Goofin' Around

Found this little button today while blog surfing. For some reason, though, it doesn't want to play nice on my sidebar. But it's such a cute idea! More info on it here.

An alternate view:

The idea is briefly that instead of JOINING a Sock Yarn Club, you can go stash diving into your own collection and get all excited about the "new" yarn you've found.

I think this could easily be expanded to any type of yarn you might want. For instance, I have some yarns that have been kicking around since my last trip to Australia. In 1988. (Makes it sound as if I've been lots of times, doesn't it? Actually, twice. Both times in 1988. But that's a long story for another day. Ah, Sydney. North Richmond, Windsor, the Hawkesbury River, the Blue Mountains. Bowral. Stop me now before I go book a trip right now!) I have yarns that are older than that.

Moving on. Here's the latest on what I'm starting to think of as the Great Freezer Farce. Our local electrical utility has a refrigerator/freezer turn-in program which they advertise heavily. Of course, that's the PR arm of the company at work. The arm that's actually in charge of picking up the appliances? Not so good.

Consider this: I have an elderly upright freezer. It used to sit side by side in my garage with my old refrigerator, both being very handy when I had a horde of people needing to be fed three or more times a day. Go through 2 gallons of milk at a meal? Not a problem when there's a spare fridge! Need lots of ice cream to get through the summer? How about a place to store that turkey that was on sale? See, extra appliances are good when there is a need for them. Once the need dwindles, though, those appliances sit out there eating up perfectly good kilowatts, and don't get enough use to justify the expense.

So. I called. I made an appointment for a pickup. Monday, July 2. I will save you the litany but today was the 4th appointment I had made. Got a call this morning. Truck is broken down. No pickup. Rescheduled for next Tuesday. That's 6 weeks, folks, and the freezer is still there. We'll see if they make it the next time.

At this point, it's the principle of the thing. They say they want to pick it up, they tell me they will, so by golly I'm going to hold them to that. Even if I have to deliver the thing myself to their corporate headquarters. Hey, Electric Company, I know where you live!!

Sushi Socks!

Looking around for some purple and orange, and while it's a bit of a stretch, here's some: Nordy's apparently has a "thing" for orange, as you can see by their bags, with a little purple thrown in for good measure.
This is the Grandcarrot at 9 pm after a productive night's shopping. In the bags? His new jeans.

Some new clothes for Mom.

And for Memere? Sushi socks!
Shown posing with my new green Birkenstocks. I had to promise D3 (aka the Fashion Police) that I would not wear socks with my Birks.
But aren't they cute?
I was in Downtown Monrovia yesterday and my friend (whose birthday we were celebrating) wanted to go to the library.
Guess who hangs out at the Monrovia Library?
Gotta love small towns!

Brown, Orange, Purple

Time to say hello to the last group of Project Spectrum colors.
First up, my pretty peach rose from the front yard. I was trying to photograph these today with one foot in a hole and the other balanced on a slope, while the breeze blew the flowers around quite enthusiastically. I am amazed that this came out so well, because there was also enough glare that I couldn't see the image on the camera's little window.



I like that the orange daylily has some purple jacaranda blossoms on the sidewalk next to it. For some reason, the jacaranda blossoms are hanging on much later this year.

Purple yarn. Okay, pinky lavender yarn, but still. It's close.

Ditto.
This is orange, not brown, but it's close.
Now I have to admit that ET did some shopping last night, and lo and behold, what did she order?
Some brown yarn.
Some purpley-brown yarn.
Some peach yarn.
When it arrives, I'll show it to you. Promise. Gotta hold that ET accountable, after all!

By the way, if you haven't read Crazy Aunt Purl today, go do it. Hopefully that link will take you to the right post. I think she's been tuning in to my frustrations and aspirations. In any case, the post gave me a lot to think about.

So I'm off to think about them. And to dream, in color, about what to make with these yarns!!

Adios, July!

Do you want the commercial first, or the eye candy?
As if I need to ask!

Here's a little quilty goodness for inspiration. This is the new shop where my quilting class is currently meeting.

No, this is NOT the commercial. This is the eye candy!

I just love being surrounded by fabric, and quilt tops, and all sorts of fibery fun.

Makes me want to come home and make quilts.

This shop is in an industrial building so it's got that funky HVAC-in-the-ceiling thing going on. Lots of exposed pipes, that kind of thing.

But the red walls don't look industrial at all.
Okay, here's the commercial. You have to save me from myself--there are too many adorable kittens out there needing homes. I CANNOT have another cat. I may WANT one, but I just can't.
Why? Well, I have 3. The limit in this town is 3. More to the point, however, one of my 3 is FIV positive. Yeah, he's also known as Expensive Cat. I think, since he's already 14 or 15 years old, it's not going to shorten his life span appreciably, but he's still high maintenance.

Oh, these are some of Gail's quilt squares. Aren't they pretty? This is going to be one stunning quilt when it's done. King size. Oh my. Hopefully I will be able to get more pictures of it as it heads toward completion.

Anyway, back to the kitten situation. Anne found a home for her little black foundling, happily. Patty is still looking for a home for Charlie Brown. She has the most, I mean MOST adorable pictures of the little guy posted--go check out her Flickr badge! Then today I heard from Lyssa, who currently has 6 little ones up for adoption. Check them out on her kitten blog! (Yes, she has two.)
Please help! Save me from the kitten lust!

One more quilt picture for you. In spite of my blurry photography (I must learn to use the camera properly. I must learn to use the camera properly.) this is quite a lovely piece. I am especially fond of the amalgam of snowflakes and cubes. I want to make one like this, but I don't think I will be able to duplicate this one--nor would I want to. I'm thinking, white snowflakes, blue skies... maybe the cubes in greens and beiges and greys.

Motivation to clean out my sewing room and make it work for me! I would post pictures of the disaster area, but I'm afraid I would lose my PG-14 rating. My father used to refer to the room as a g**d**n warehouse. But then, he was also known to refer to the entire household as a g**d**n cathouse. Anyway, once it's in better shape, I will share some snaps... if I can learn to use the blankety camera, already!

Last Hurrah for Black/Red/Metallic

Last night was the Full Buck Moon. I didn't get out to take its picture. You'll just have to imagine a big bright full moon, okay?
So, I haven't been very faithful to Project Spectrum the last two months. Not quite sure why, except that maybe I found the combo of red/black/metallic sorta uninspiring. However, I'm willing to give it one last try.
Herewith, some red and black yarn. This is Cherry Tree Hill possum, superwash merino/possum. It's been discontinued and I got some on a super clearance. It is soooo soft and lush, will make something nice and cozy. Whether it will be a sweater or a shawl, hasn't been determined yet. I am sorta leaning toward a shawl, since I seem to be in a sweater funk (see previous posts re: CPH) and shawls are easy and still provide warmth and cuddle-factor. In this climate (read: blast furnace most of the year) warmth is a given, but I do have family and friends in colder places.

Just so you can see how far I had to stretch to find something red, here's my phone.
Well, it's red and metallic, right?

How about a nice red rose?

More red roses?

Okay, that's it. I almost got out some pictures from July 4th, because I have some shots of my grandcarrot, his mom and dad, all wearing red shirts.
That would be a stretch.

Enough ramblings from the melted remnants of my brain--I am quite ready to bid adieu to the month of July.

Oh, except for one thing: wishing a happy birthday to the newest teenager in the family, Brian. Hope it's a good one!

What's Happenin'?

Well, Sunday was a party day. I know, I know, you thought that two parties on Saturday should be enough for one weekend. Well, obviously not. Sunday was a birthday party for our favorite LA restaurant critic/blog queen/crochet maven/vintage-estate sale-thrift shop-lover. As part of the entertainment, she provided us with yummy food, TWO birthday cakes, and this amazing stack o' yarn. If you check on her post today, you can see the amazing Tower o' Squares that resulted. Although there were cries of surprise at Yours Truly holding a crochet hook, and actually CROCHETING a square, I have to say that I have done many many MANY miles of crochet in my crafty career. I was even able to do a granny square from memory. (OK, don't look too closely at that center--but hey, it's done!) Mmm, those chocolates didn't last very long, either. They were the reason I needed to go for a loooooonnnnggg walk last night!
I didn't take very good pictures of the gift opening--had my camera on the wrong setting, and everything came out blurred--so I am just going to share this one with you:

A gorgeous crocheted vintage tablecloth/shawl. Absolutely mind-boggling!

Gratuitous kitty picture courtesy of Mr. Highland who obligingly posed on the diner quilt.

Mondays are for knitting in Montrose, twice a month. Today was the dreaded Unraveling of the CPH sleeves--the caps had somehow gotten rather misshapen. Sigh. So I persuaded the Knit Devil to haul hers along and we had an Encouragement Day. While she attempted to pick up almost 400 stitches onto a 24" needle, I did some math. Recounted and did more math. Ripped. Recounted. Ripped some more. With a lot more encouragement from KD and Coffee Patty, I finally got the count right. Sleeves now have armpit bindoffs, and are ready to start the cap decreases. Hopefully this time they won't look like arrow points! Oh, and those picked up stitches? With a couple of extra Options cords, KD managed to get them picked up. Many thanks to MJ for helping us, too. Also to the staff of Coffee Bean for providing the arctic blasts necessary to work on this much wool in July! (Yeah, I'm one to complain; mine is in the Durango Yarns Colorado and considerably lighter in poundage than KD's Black Water Abbey. Hey, mine is 1/4 dryer lint, hers is all wool!)

Progress photo of the Rose Garden Shawl, which now contains one entire skein of Silk Rhapsody:

And another gratuitous kitty photo. Yes, I think my "baby" is gorgeous. When I woke up this morning, he was sleeping curled up around my copy of HP7 with one paw draped fetchingly over the book. Since I don't keep the camera in the bedroom, there was no way to get a picture for you, so you'll just have to imagine the fluffy cuteness, ok?

Party!

Sometimes, life decides to pile on the events. July 21 was one of those days. Not only was it the release date for Harry Potter 7 (yes, I'm a fan), it was also the date set for a couple of other events.
Garden party! Not like the ones HRH Queen Elizabeth throws, where hats and flowered dresses are the order of the day; this one was a housewarming party for Anne. You can read her take on her big move on her blog; and you can see more pictures from the party by clicking on my Flickr badge over there on the right. They're in a set called Anne's Party.
The setting was right out of one of those glossy home magazines--a lovely garden behind a charming Craftsman house.

Roses and all manner of flowering plants, a big tree with enormous puffs of yellow flowers, and lots of good company. And good food.
Anne got lots of neat things to help her start fresh in her new place.

Of course I had to include this pic of her talking to my Grandcarrot, his mom and auntie.

Yes, the color theme for the party was orange, purple, and lime green. With all the green grass and greenery, it looked festive and summery.

I followed that party up with another gathering, of folks who used to work together at That Internet Company. When we were all laid off, we started a Yahoo group for the "orphans" and have used that to keep in touch over the years. Saturday night we met at a Local Watering Hole not too far from our former employer, and got caught up and reminisced a bit. As George put it in his email to the group today: So many times people hug on the last day of work and say, "Let's keep in touch, let's get together" and then they never do. Not the case here, which is a testament to why E*** was such a great place to work at: a sense of family (not E*** the entity, but E*** the family -- each of us.)

I'm looking forward to more Orphans gatherings! And the next time I will bring my camera.

Then I went home and read the first three chapters of HP7. No comments here--except to say that it starts off in the middle of the action and gets better every page.

Today there's another party, this one a knitty kind of gathering, which I'm totally up for. I need me some fibery calm and good talk! Besides, knitting sessions tend to make good blog fodder.
Speaking of which, has anyone besides me noticed that blog posts have dropped drastically since people are spending so much time on Ravelry? It's given me a whole new incentive to photograph my yarn and projects and then upload them to Flickr and to Ravelry. Now, if I were actually to use the site to catalogue all my yarn, I'd probably crash it. No, I'd certainly crash it. Sigh. Guess that means I'll be thinning the stash as I go, which is a good thing. I haven't forgotten that this is The Year of Organization. (I haven't forgotten, I've just gotten lazy or heat-stroked...)