Once again it’s the height of summer, that time when we crank up the A/C and spend much of every day inside, watching “Le Tour.”   It’s one of the highlights of my year, and for the second time I’m also taking part in Ravelry’s Tour de France Knit-along.  In 2008, I was assigned to Team Columbia-High Road; for 2009 it’s Team Liquigas.

Okay, so the Italian Liquigas team has no big GC men, no Lance Armstrong or Cadel Evans.  Their most familiar name, Ivan Basso, was forced to sit out the race for health reasons.  That’s okay — since they are not perceived as a threat to the podium contenders, we’re very likely to see our boys in the daily breakaways, riding far ahead of the peloton for many kilometers at a time.

And Czech rider Roman Kreuziger put in a courageous performance in the Stage 1 time trial in Monaco, coming in with the seventh best time, just behind Californian Levi Leipheimer, and earning the White Jersey as the Best Young Rider!  Not bad at all.

The “Let’s Go Shopping” Bag — knit in 100% cotton.  No more paper or plastic!

As for me, I’m aiming at a Green Jersey this year in the KAL.  I’m working on a number of projects including some cotton shopping bags for my trips to the supermarket and a few hats — specifically berets.  I’ve also got two pairs of socks in progress which I actually started in June.  I’d like to be able to wear them when I ride my own bike.

Work in progress:  A beret made of a cotton/acrylic blend from Romania

I haven’t done all that well at riding regularly.  In fact, I finally got back on the bike in early June after almost a year of neglecting it.  Since then I’ve tried to ride at least once a week (although I skipped the last week of June when we had temps in the 100-degree range), and on my second outing I surprised myself by riding to Beals Point and back  — nearly 12 miles, with the first half of the ride mostly uphill.  On that ride I finally got a look at the brand spanking new Folsom Crossing bridge.   And it never ceases to amaze me that I can climb into the bike saddle in my driveway and ride to Folsom Lake.  Even on a somewhat warm day, sitting at a picnic table in the shade and watching kids playing in the water at Beals Point feels awesome.  Especially when you know that you got there completely on your own power.

On the Fourth of July the Big Guy dragged our tandem out of the garage and we went for a 9-mile spin.  It got me thinking about the upcoming Ride For A Reason in August and hoping we can take part again this year.  The tandem is fun, and I enjoy being the Stoker on the back.  I get a workout for my legs, but I don’t have to work quite as hard as when I ride alone.

And for me there’s just something about getting out there alone on my bike; I’m free to go wherever I want at the pace I choose.  No compromising, and I’m in complete control.  The tandem is all about cooperation, but sometimes independence feels great.

Now, on a completely different “note”:

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head and go nuts trying to figure out what it is and where it came from?   It happens to me a lot; in fact, this morning I woke up with an old song in my head.  I could swear I’d seen it in some classic movie −− and I’ve been watching a lot of them in the past month −− but of course I couldn’t remember which one.  Thank goodness for the internet!!

One of my favorite web sites is the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).  It’s an incredible source of info for TV shows as well as feature films.  I used this site along with Google and began searching for a song called “To Know You Is To Love You.”  Well, I found a couple, but they weren’t the song I had in my mind.   Hmm — where did I hear this darned song?

Let’s see, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) had a Hitchcock marathon during June as part of their salute to great directors, and one of the films was Rear Window (which I’ve watched about 50 times now).  I don’t know, maybe the song was in that movie although I don’t really think so, I just might as well try it, nothing to lose.

Yep, that’s the song!

It’s hard for me to believe that the month of May is nearly over!

I’ve had a pretty busy holiday weekend, and I’m hoping that things will settle down a little bit once I get back into my regular work “schedule.”  (I used quotes there because my workdays never follow a set routine, and a lot of it depends on my mood or what seems most pressing at the moment.)

At any rate, I was at my mom’s house the other day and photographed some of the gorgeous flowers she has in her yard.   Not being much of a flower person, I can’t identify them for you — except for the roses — but no matter what you call them, they’re beautiful.  Enjoy!

I have no excuses for failing to blog. I have plenty of stuff to write about as well as some photos to share, I just never got around to posting. I’ll admit right now that I’m hoping to take part in this year’s Tour de France KAL, so in that case I’d better start getting back into the habit of blogging. So with that, I’m just going to pretend the past two months of nothing don’t exist and carry on where I left off.

Calavaras Big Trees Trip, Part II

Let’s see, we were hiking through the snow and craning our necks to see the redwoods. It may not sound very exciting, but standing among these giants and knowing how many hundreds of years they’ve been living and growing (and supporting the lives of countless insects, birds, and other creatures) is just amazing.

And there are the trees that are no longer standing. How’s this for a sense of scale?

Another fallen tree that caught our attention was hollow, with steps leading down into the interior. We weren’t able to explore it on this particular day because it had become a pool of ice-cold water. Here’s a view of the inside (taken with my Kodak).

And a view of the outside; it doesn’t seem to have changed too much since the picture on the sign.

Not all the trees look quite so majestic; there is some sad commentary on human nature here as well. In 1854 promoters decided the best way to show off these beautiful trees was to completely strip the bark from one of them and reassemble the pieces for public display. The crowds may have been duly impressed, but John Muir described it as a “ghastly, disfigured ruin.”

On a little brighter note, haven’t we all wished at one time that we could drive a car right through the trunk of a living tree?

Well, these guys did, anyway!

As we neared the end of the trail, we saw a grove of trees surrounded by a wooden viewing platform.

At this point, as much as we’d enjoyed our hike, the only thing we really wanted to view was the parking lot and our nice warm car. Especially when we noticed that the Warming Hut was all locked up and deserted. Darn!

Okay, now how about a little knitting content?

In February I wrote about the Magenta Buttony sweater (Ravelry link) — it’s now finished, complete with some cool buttons I found at Hancock’s Fabrics.

Remember ponchos?  They were very popular about four years ago, just before I got back into knitting (after a brief hiatus of about 30 years).  Back in 2006 I thought I might knit a poncho for myself, but even though I made a few starts at it, I never got very far . . . which is probably just as well since I was knitting with some stuff called Chunky USA.

Well, I’ve finally managed to jump on the poncho bandwagon.  Back in February/March when the weather was still pretty chilly (relatively speaking, of course) I decided that a poncho knit with Malabrigo Merino Worsted was just what I needed for lounging around the house.  I based my poncho on the Yarn Harlot’s A Very Harlot Poncho, but I left off the fringe and used a M1 increase instead of yarnovers.

And there’s more!  I’ve also completed two hats, a rectangular wrap, and a felted tote bag — pretty amazing, considering what a slow knitter I am.   Of course, I’ve still got a big pile of UFOs (unfinished objects) sitting around wondering when I’m going to stop casting on new stuff and finish the projects I started six months ago . . .

I’ll post more photos and info about my other recent projects next time.  But in the meantime, if you know anything about Ravelry, you’re aware that, although it’s primarily a fiber-oriented site, there are also groups for just about anything you might be interested in.  I belong to several, but there’s one called Malabrigo Junkies that I haven’t yet signed up for.  I probably should, though — considering that I recently bought this from a fellow Raveler:

The colorway is called Bobby Blue, and there is a total of 840 yards.  And let’s just say that it’s not my first Malabrigo purchase . . .

Well, that’s it for today.  I do plan to post again soon, as I still have plenty to write about.  The last couple months have been pretty busy; besides the yarn buying andn the knitting there’s also been several trips back and forth to our vet after one of our three dogs was diagnosed with diabetes.  Oh, and I got to spent a little bit of time in the Delta with The Big Guy’s family.

I’ll end with a glimpse or two of one of my rather shy neighbors.  We bumped into each other in my front yard the other day, and he happened to be in the right mood to pose for a few photos.  He isn’t very talkative, but he clearly had been up to some adventures, from which he was still recuperating.  After a few clicks of my Nikon, he went on his way.

And that’s the end of this week’s tail . . .

Two weekends ago the Big Guy and I decided to take a drive to go see some California Redwoods. We both love seeing these trees and it had been a long while since we’d taken the time for such a trip. So we got a rental car, checked our atlas, and hit the road to Calaveras County.

Our rental car

Since it’s barely March, we expected that we might find some snow when we got to the Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Luckily, we had a break in the winter weather and the roads were clear — at least as far as we were going.

We visited the park on a Friday, so I’m not sure what the place looks like on the weekends, but (besides ourselves) we encountered a mere handful of hearty folks prepared to wade through the snow. Naturally, the carefully marked trails were mostly buried, but we managed to find enough footprints to guide us along the trail without even using a map. I was ready for the snow — I had my comfy handknit wool socks, wool cap, and wool sweater to keep me cozy.

We followed the North Grove Trail. As I said, we were without a map and so just followed the tracks in the snow and watched for the numbered signs which indicated specific points of interest. The quiet solitude of the snow-filled forest, where we stood surrounded by some of the largest (and oldest) trees in the world, could only be described as awe inspiring. The grey clouds would periodically part, letting the sun shine on the snow-laden trees. As we stopped to examine the roots of this fallen tree, we had snow falling down upon us not from the sky, but from the tree branches above our heads.

We spent so much time gazing up at the tops of the giant redwoods that our necks were soon hurting. But it was impossible not to look — and once my eyes found the treetops, I could barely manage to tear them away.

Next time I’ll share more photos from this outing — and there’s lots more to share! I’ll leave you for now with a sign we spotted just up the road from the state park that seems to send a completely unintended message:

Well, it was windy and rainy and cold — but there was nowhere else I would have rather been yesterday but at the top of Howell Mountain watching the Tour of California go by.

Two days before the race, Friday, the Big Guy and I drove from Sacramento to Napa to scope everything out and pick a good place to watch. We drove past the first King of the Mountains checkpoint, near the Monticello Dam at Lake Berryessa.

After accidentally taking the wrong road, we passed through Angwin and came over Howell Mountain in the opposite direction of the race route, then down into Pope Valley.

We didn’t follow the route along the western shore of Berryessa, but we did see some pretty sites on our way back to Route 128. On Sunday, we knew exactly where we wanted to go. And despite the crazy weather we bundled up and made the trip back over to Napa.

Narrow bridge near Pope Valley

Somerston Vineyards

Not part of the peloton!

Actually, on race day the wind didn’t play much of a role for us among all the trees. It was a beautiful spot, and a popular one, too. We weren’t surprised to see an eager crowd show up to cheer on the riders. Not even a steady (and sometimes heavy) rain could dampen our spirits.

We parked on a side road near the KOM sign and then walked back down the slope to find ourselves a good viewing spot. Some volunteers handed out yellow chalk, and spectators were eager to mark up the road. The rain washed away a lot of the writing, but the sentiments remained.

I managed to shoot some great video of the riders as they crawled up Howell Mountain and passed within a foot of us, standing by/on the roadside. I was clever enough this year to let my video camera do the work while I did my best to search out faces, and I did pick out a few familiar ones (George Hincapie, Fast Freddie Rodriguez, possibly Davide Frattini). The trouble is, even fighting up a Category 2 climb, the riders flash by so that if I manage to identify them as they go by, at the end of the day I’m struggling to recall them all.

I chose to stick to video when the riders came through and stills for the rest of the time. I’m happy with the video, but I do miss having still shots of some of the pros. Last year I used my Nikon for stills, but I foolishly used the wrong setting and ended up with tiny images with not enough resolution — better than nothing at all, but I wasn’t satisfied. In the early days of this race I complained that my Kodak was no good for video because it couldn’t zoom, as my analog camcorder can. But for the last two years I’ve found that zoom isn’t always necessary and it’s sometimes best to put down the video camera and focus it on one spot. Last year I did this using a tripod; but this year I didn’t want to lug the heavy tripod with me. Just as well, since there simply wasn’t room for it where we were standing.

All in all, I’m satisfied with my choices for this year. But the other issue −− wishing to be able to see ourselves on the Tour coverage −− is something else. Usually we pick a spot without regard to TV cameras; we’re much more interested in having a great view of the race itself. We tend to move away from the more congested areas where people gather such as tight corners and KOM markers, but this year I decided to get as close to the KOM as possible while still finding a spot where the road was steep enough to slow the guys down a little bit. We were still close enough to the summit that I felt positive the TV coverage would include us.

But I didn’t reckon on two things −− the fact that we were in the middle of a rainforest (trees do a real number on picture transmission) and, well, the fact that it was raining (more bad news for transmitting video). So when we sat down to watch the race highlights we discovered that no one had received any video of Mancebo until he reached the lower western slopes of the coastal range; he was something like 10 miles outside of Santa Rosa before commentators could even get a look at him. So much for an exciting KOM moment.

Wet but happy at the Tour

If I’m truly serious about getting on TV I’m going to have to remember to stay away from heavy trees and pray for dry weather, then look for a spot at least one-third of the way to the finish line.

I was going to call this The Neverending Cardigan. I was going to write about how at the end of December 2008 I started knitting the Buttony Sweater using Cashmere Luxury Chunky in a beautiful Magenta shade. I had 10 balls (700 yds) and I had done some quick calculations and figured I had just enough yarn. And then, as work progressed, it became ever more clear that I actually didn’t have enough yarn, I was going to run out somewhere in the middle of a sleeve.

The true color is much darker than in this photo!

But now this story has a happy ending (well, almost an ending), and it’s all because of Ravelry and some of the wonderful people there. When I realized that my yarn of choice was nearly impossible to buy anywhere, I decided to peek into the stashes of some of my fellow Ravelers. I found a couple who had some in the Magenta colorway — but they werren’t offering it for sale or trade.

I contacted them anyway, explaining my predicament and asking that they might take mercy on me and allow me to buy any extra scraps they might have available. At this point I wasn’t even worried about details like dye lot; I just wanted to finish my sweater, even if it ended up looking oddly striped.

Well, I found an angel who calls herself Nearlywrong! She had just finished knitting the Little Blue Sweater (Ravelry link) from the Fall 2008 Interweave Knits, and she promised to send me her leftover yarn. Four days after she put it in the mail, I had two full balls plus a few shorter pieces of the yarn — in the same exact dye lot I had been using! AND my benefactor refused my offer to buy the yarn or even to pay the postage!

This is more like it!

Now work is once again proceeding on my Button sweater. I’ve finished the sleeves, and since I still have plenty of yarn leftover I decided to lengthen the body a little bit.

I’ve definitely learned to check and double check my yardage requirements before starting a project. And as far as Nearlywrong’s act of generosity, I’m looking for ways to “pay it forward” and make someone else’s life a little bit brighter.

Another wonderful benefit of Ravelry and the fact that people share info about their stash: I’ve now got a clue about the yardage of both my Colourmart DK angora/lambswool AND my Unger stash!

I’m really tickled about the Unger; I think I recall not too long ago writing in my journal something about how proud I am about having more Unger Cruise than anyone else on Ravelry (although I’m still not sure that’s something to brag about). But despite each and every ball of this yarn having an identical and very clear label, thanks to my atrocious math skills I could never figure out 1) how much yardage each ball contained and 2) what exactly 1.4/10 oz meant.

Well, because there are now three or four other people who own Unger Cruise and someone was clever enough to figure out the yardage of a single ball (210 yards), I now can add up my total yardage and record in my notebook.

And it’s a pretty mindblowing sum, I must say. I’ve got four different colors: pink, apricot, white, and mint. Here’s how it stacks up −− the mint green (6 skeins) = 1260 yds; the apricot (8 skeins) = 1680; the pink (11 skeins) = 2310; and the white (20 skeins) = 4200.

This means that I have a total of 9,240 yards of Unger Cruise yarn. I guess that’s a good reason to stop buying the stuff — especially since I still have no clue what to knit with it.

A week or so ago I started knitting my Chris’s Blues wrap using three balls of a beautiful hand-dyed blue worsted wool I’d bought last August on eBay. I bought this yarn on impulse, just because the colors appealed to me (as well as the price). But it came with very little information. I bought a hank that weighed 150 g (no yardage listed), and when I began winding it on my swift I soon realized I had three separate balls of yarn. Which was a relief, because it explained why I had six different ends sticking out all over the place.

“>

But not knowing the exact yardage confused me; I wasn’t sure how to choose my project. My original idea was to knit up a sort of keffiyah with it; the mix of blue colors complements my skin tone perfectly, so I thought this was a brilliant idea. Except I didn’t know exactly what a keffiyah was supposed to look like, and of course there are no patterns for such on Ravelry.

Instead, I settled on the New England Stole (Ravelry link). It’s a very nice, simple pattern done in beautiful wool. Except that the wool used for the original is nothing like what I’m using. It’s bulky; I’m using worsted. Her gauge is 3 stitches per inch; mine is closer to 5 stitches per inch. The original yarn is put up at 100 g (138 yds) per skein, and the pattern calls for three skeins; my wool is 50 g per skein. So although I still don’t know what my actual yardage is, it’s a safe bet that I’ll have somewhat less than the amount of yarn the pattern calls for.

Typically for me, none of this really sank into my brain until I was already well into the project.

“>

It finally occurred to me today that I could probably go back to eBay, find the seller that provided the wool I’m using, and buy more — even though it was only a few days ago that I swore I was finished buying unlabeled yarns on eBay (or anywhere else), mainly because it makes filling in the stash details in my Ravelry notebook that much more dififcult. Since the yarn is hand-dyed, the two different batches most likely won’t match. But, since it’s all hand-dyed, it probably won’t matter a lot. I could even alternate them so it would matter even less.

With this in mind, I finally got on the internet and researched the keffiyah. Turns out it is square, not rectangular or even triangular (although they are often folded into triangles and then wrapped around the head). I found places that sell them, and they are sized about 40 x 40 inches. That’s a lot of worsted weight yarn.

I also discovered that at the moment the keffiyah is both very trendy and very controversial. So, even though I realize that a knitted square of my mixed blues wool would not a genuine keffiyah make, I decided maybe I should avoid the trend completely. I have two choices: 1) I can unravel everything I’ve done and find (or improvise) a pattern for a knitted square large enough to use in the same manner, or 2) I can keep going on what I’ve got until it’s long enough to wrap around myself.

I’m choosing the latter. For a few minutes I even entertained the idea of buying TWO hanks of this wool, i.e., a total of 300 g more, besides the 150 g I’ve already got. Then I thought about it and realized that’s WAY more than I need. The length I’ll have by the time I use up the rest of my initial purchase is probably a little more than half the length of my finished product. Besides which, I keep telling myself that I’ll be able to block it into a greater length. So I seriously doubt that I need 300 g more, and if I did buy that much I’d be right back where I started (What the heck am I going to do with this yarn??).

So, yes, I visited eBay, found Surprise518’s store, and bought another hank of the mixed blues −− something that just last week I said I was never going to do again. But it really doesn’t count, since I’m not buying anything NEW, I’m only buying more of what I’ve already got. For the moment I’m putting the project to the side, and I’ll finish it up whenever the rest of the yarn arrives.

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Which means I’ll most likely have this little wrap/scarf/keffiyah-like thing finished somewhere around June 2009.

Next time, I’ll share another installment in my Poor Planning Equals Sad Knitting series, this one titled The Neverending Cardigan.

Two years ago my sister invited me to offer something for sale at the annual holiday craft fair held where she works (in a state office building). I’d just gotten back into knitting after a very long hiatus and was brushing up on my skills — as well as learning a ton of new ones — by knitting scarves with craft store brand yarns. The yarns were mostly acrylic and some wool blends, with some ribbon and ladder yarns thrown in for good measure.

Most of these scarves I knit for pure pleasure. I’d finally been bitten by the knitting bug, and it gaveme great satisfaction to start a project and actually finish it. I chose the patterns completely at random; if something looked like fun, I’d knit it.

By December I had two big tote bags full of scarves, some thick and warm and others more fashion-oriented. Per my sister’s suggestions, we priced them between $10 and $30, depending on their size, intricacy, and potential popularity.

I sold a few of the scarves, but most of them came back home with me.

The second year I didn’t knit anything new for the sale; I stayed home and sent the remaining scarves to my sister. She kept the prices the same as the previous year, and she managed to sell a couple more. The rest came back to me again, where they sat in their tote bags. I couldn’t decide what to do with them, although I considered donating them to a homeless shelter or other charity.

It was my intention to completely ignore the craft sale this year. I didn’t believe anyone was interested in my scarf remnants, and I certainly wasn’t going to knit up anything new. But an idea was simmering in the back of my mind.

I decided to go a different route. I had tons of kitchen cotton, in all sorts of colors, that I’d collected over the past couple of years. I chose a very simple pattern and very quickly knit up about 30 simple dish cloths. I even figured a way to knit up to four of them at a time.

I made up a display board with photos (taken with my Nikon) showing all the different uses for my little 6×6 inch cloths — washing dishes, wiping up messes, holding cookies and milk. I honestly didn’t have high expectations of selling, but I had a blast churning them out and coming up with my “marketing” plan. I priced my new merchandise at $3.50 a piece.

When the craft fair was over, I had sold two dishcloths, and a few more of the scarves.

Am I disappointed? Sure I am — but not because I expected to make a fortune. For a minute there, I actually believed I might convince a few more people to go green and save some green. You know, to grab a dish cloth instead of a paper towel. To choose reusable over disposable.

Not to mention that my little foray into advertising clearly fell flat. Oops — I guess I didn’t learn as much from watching Mad Men as I thought I had.

But overall, I’m satisified. I’ve got a bit of extra money to spend on some delicious Malabrigo wool I’ve been eying — AND I’ve got myself a big stack of dish cloths that I’m definitely going to be using around the house.

As for craft fairs, I’m over them.

P.S. — I desperately need some lessons in formatting my posts and getting the images to stay where I want them to be. Seriously, an hour to post this one entry and the photos (and I’m still not satisfied with the way it looks)? That’s one big reason I don’t blog more often. Ugh.

Very BAD blogger that I am, I’ve neglected my blog for months. And now I come back here and find that I actually had started writing a post in October and never finished it (does anybody else do this?).

So, I belatedly present a post originally started on October 11, 2008 and finished today, 1/18/2009:

This Saturday — today — has been nothing special, but last Saturday is a different story.

Last Saturday Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot, was in Santa Rosa, California. Last Saturday I took a road trip with my mom and together we made the 2 and a half hour trip to Copperfield’s Books. It was a good day out, and of course I need to blog about it!

Last year — it was June 2007, to be exact — before I started blogging, there was a similar road trip with my mom, to see Stephanie. This one was to Petaluma, which is actually just down the road a bit from Santa Rosa and about 30 minutes closer to where we live. But that trip will live in infamy for a long time. That trip had a happy ending, but it very nearly ended in minor disaster and utter failure.

Petaluma, 2007

Last time we saw the Harlot we came running in half an hour late and couldn’t find anyplace to sit. But we enjoyed ourselves — even the part where we stood in line for half an hour or so for Stephanie to sign my book. I was too shy to ask to take a picture with her, and if I recall correctly, my mom did most of the talking.

This year we managed to get to the bookstore in plenty of time. I had reserved two seats for us and we had an awesome view. This time I came prepared with a California dish cloth I’d knitted. I was looking forward to giving it to Stephanie — but I had forgotten that she might take a photo of us for her blog.

I was wearing my favorite tee shirt (it says “Yarrrn”), and Stephanie smiled at me and said, “I like your shirt!” I wish I’d been quickwitted enough to repay the compliment, since she was wearing her Knitting Superhero tee. But as usual I was completely tongue tied and could only grin idiotically, thank her, and walk away trying not to giggle like a maniac.

Next time, I swear I’m going to manage to actually say something intelligent.