Hotter than Hades

Remember when we were complaining about the cold ?


(photo courtesy of Karen C.)

103F
39.44C

What a heat wave. Anything over 72F/22.2C I'm usually whining. This is way too much, it needs to cool down. There is nary a fan to be found in Western Washington. As soon as more arrive in the stores I'm stockpiling !

Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
Kin Hubbard (1868 - 1930)



Fiber related exercise !
At Karen's a few weekends ago to dye with Kool Aid.



Three Black Cherries and an Orange reminds me of Antique Rose.























Started a simple sock pattern with this KA multi-color skein. Looks pretty interesting for a first try at variegated. Thanks Karen !




My sweet little Betsy






I claim this fan !

How ladylike !

Karin's Folly

The east side of my new little home situated on three acres.

The mudroom
My parent's old Kitchen Queen with Luciano sitting atop.















I am the crazy person who's first priority is to fix up the barn ! Tim jacked up the north side and the roofers are working on it this week. I'm assuming it was built around 1914 when the house was.
I always wanted an old barn like the one on my great grandparent's homestead in Custer. I loved playing in the hay bales with my brothers, the heart shaped face of a barn owl peering down upon us from the rafters. Never in a million years did I think I would actually own one. Helluva way to get one.





My "Nightmare Before Christmas" tree which I think is an ex cherry. I've planted the climbing rose "Paul's Himalayan Musk", Golden Hops, and Clematis Montana at the base hoping they will cover it in a blanket of color in years to come.


The previous owner planted lovely flower beds. The red Monarda (Bee Balm) is very popular with the hummingbirds. Last Sunday I sat under the mountain ash for an hour watching them dive bomb each other and zoom from flower to flower.

"I feel the breath of the summer night,
Aromatic fire:
The trees, the vines, the flowers are astir
With tender desire."
-Elizabeth Stoddard
(1823-1902)
















Beautiful sunsets (which are hard to capture on an inexpensive digital camera !)



Mari and her kid Marc.












She's discovered that the new fountain/birdbath provides her with another means of refreshment during these hot days !









The barn has a henhouse so the next logical step was to get two bantie hens and twelve eggs for them to sit upon, which they did with fierce determination. Twenty one days later these cute little Silkie chicks made their appearance.



I love living here.

Happy Graduation Day !

My youngest has graduated ! Congratulations Marky Marc ! Luv u !

Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself.
John Dewey


Marcus and Anna.
















Marcus and his best friend since kindergarten, Stevan

O the joy of youth !












Ryan and Marc decided a few years ago that they wouldn't have to go to each other's graduation ceremony due to extreme boredom. Going to Anna's was excruciating enough hence no pictures of Ry !




Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.
Plautus















Thank you C.R. for the link to Celtic Memory Yarns and it's beautiful pictures of Iceland. This would be my dream vacation !


Thank you Karen for the lovely gloves you brought back from Norway. I will be very stylin' next winter !
Thanks also for getting me into a future Cookie A. workshop and the Sock Summit. You're the best !

Farewell

It's been a stressful few months. It was too hard to stay in a home with so many memories with bad, overtaking the good. I decided to start a new chapter in my life by selling my home of 24 years. They say your home looks the way you've always wanted it when you've finished it to sell. No kidding.




My little red house which I always hoped looked a little bit Swedish !




The cottage style green house built from old windows









































Ryan did a wonderful job refinishing the pine floors. Many thanks to Anna,Ryan, Marc, family,friends/hired hands Cindy and Tim for everything they did to whip this place into shape. The transformation was astounding.







A very excited young couple is buying it for their first home.

A new adventure starts with the purchase of a small 1914 farmhouse and barn on three acres. In the mad rush towards the end of packing, my camera was put in an unknown box in the very full garage, so no pictures of this place yet :(
More later............

Nordic Knitting Conference Part Two

First of all many thanks to Tuulia for this gorgeous Laminaria shawl which she dyed, spun, and knit for me. Tusen Tack ! I LOVE it. She is a very talented designer of knitwear. Check out her Ravelry page !
(Photo courtesy of Knitlob's Lair)


More Conference news
Saturday night was the banquet where Katarina was the guest speaker. I knew she designed for IKEA, Linum, Rörstrand, Svensk Slöjd, etc., but I had no idea the breadth of her work which has also included working with fashion designers from Europe and Japan, plus much more. Most of the textiles I've bought from IKEA are designed by her. I would love to get my hands on some of her porcelain pieces ! The power point presentation was amazing ! I so hope she can be brought back to teach some of her Swedish traditional classes and it would be fabulous if the museum could have an exhibit of just her work. I wish I had a picture of the wedding dress that she and her design partner created for the DoRedo project out of 24 white sweaters from the Salvation Army. Wow ! (Photo courtesy of Svensk Slöjd)
Many thanks to the Nordic Heritage Museum, especially Charlotte (my fiber workshop enabler !), for bringing this all together. It's been a truly amazing experience.

Sunday was Modern Icelandic Lace with Evelyn Clark. Thank goodness Karen and Alex were flanking me to help fix all my mistakes and get me back on track. Evelyn had a turn at my sampler also ! She is a fantastic teacher. She brought all the Icelandic samples she has knit plus one shawl she bought off of Ebay for less than $20 I believe. Fleece and handspun examples, Icelandic knitting books, plus a DVD were also displayed. She took us on a little field trip to see the Icelandic lace pieces in the museum. Jätte kul !
Here she is wearing her Deciduous shawl. I love this one and want to try it for my first big lace project.





















Karen showing off her sampler. You have been so kind to me and your infectious personality makes me forget my sorrows for just awhile.


Thank you Donna for this lovely little heart. It's so sweet.

Off to pack some more ................

Of any stopping place in life, it is good to ask whether it will be a good place from which to go on as well as a good place to remain.

Mary Catherine Bateson

Nordic Knitting Conference Part One

I was so excited the first day of the Conference I was pinging off the walls !
My first days class was Marianne Isager's Entrelac. What a charming and delightful woman. I heard her speak a few evenings earlier at the Seattle Knitters Guild. She has lead a very interesting life traveling the world and drawing her inspirations from such diverse sources as South America, Africa, Japan, and beyond. Our class project was a mitten using Domino, Domino/Shadow, a Chevron stripe, and Entrelac. Very clever ! Look at her fab slip stitch vest. Churchmouse Yarn and Tea and Knit Purl now carry some of her yarns. Three of her books are coming out in English thru Interweave this Spring.

Saturday was Katarina Brieditis with DoRedo. She is so cute and fun to be around and has to be one of the most all around creative people I've ever met. For this class she showed many great examples from her project and talked about using every last scrap of felted sweaters one possbily could. I wish I had taken a picture of the necklace she was wearing using black brand sweater labels. I certainly pointed it out to a number of people. "Hi, this is Katarina Brieiditis - enough with the introductions - LOOK at her very clever necklace !" Tokig Americaner






























The mitten is from an angora sweater.


Alex is a blast !


My SIL Karen helping out Anna, who loved this class. It was so cute when she called me that night all excited about DoRedo and then the next day from Pacific Fabrics where she was picking up supplies. She's made a handbag, a pair of mittens, and a decorative collar already. Karen really enjoyed it also creating a pair of mittens and a handbag. We hope to have a DoRedo party in the future.
















My project using a sweater I found at Value Village. It already had enough pattern to it so didn't do any beading or embroidery but Katarina helped me add the fringe using DoRedo yarn.

To be continued .........................