I like to think of this as the longest, scariest bridge in the whole wide world.

This is the Astoria-Megler bridge. It carries Hwy 101 a little over 4 miles across the mouth of the Columbia River from Astoria, Oregon to Washington. Above is the main span which is 1,232 feet long and is the longest continuous three-span through-truss in the world. Or that’s what the guide-book says. I have no idea what that means. I just know it’s tall and long and scary.

On the Oregon side, the approach to the bridge is a 360-degree twist that rises from just above the river to the level of the main span some 200 feet above. At the end of the main span, the bridge drops to near river level again for most of the length. Click on the pic to see the biggie version. If you follow the bridge in the picture over towards the vanishing point at the Washington side, you will see a second smaller and lower span at that end. From the Washington side, Hwy 101 flows on just above the river and it doesn’t seem nearly as scary from that side. Until you get out in the middle of the river and see the main span rising ahead.

I drove the Astoria-Megler Bridge twice this weekend. My friend’s beach house is in Longbeach on the Washington side. Going through Astoria is my favorite way to get there. Other than the bridge, that is. The bridge is scary.

I had a wonderful time knitting. The house is about 3 blocks from the beach, on a quiet back street. There’s nothing behind it but dunes and scrub pines and a couple of buildings — one of which, I later found out, is a kite museum.

I arrived about 7:00 PM on Friday, and set right in to knitting. I knit until midnight. I woke up at 6:30 AM Saturday, made a pot of coffee, and decided I wanted a brisk walk to the beach while the coffee brewed. I set off along the path behind the house, and within the first block was swarmed by a hoard of mosquitoes, each intent on sucking me dry. I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and beat a hasty retreat back to the house. Coffee mug in hand, I went back to knitting. Other than a couple of short breaks for meals, I knit until nearly midnight.

In all that time, I knit on only one project: The dreaded green sweater that grows only in tiny, tiny increment. I mean… really. I’m a fairly speedy knitting. Not the fastest in the world, or anything, but not the slowest. I’m getting 4 rows to the inch on the darn thing. I swear it grows less than 1/32 of an inch each row. I swear.

I took other unfinished projects with me, but I never touched any of them. I knit only on the green sweater. I got most of the way to the shoulders. Not all the way — most of the way. In about 20 hours of knitting, more or less. (OK. there were a couple of meals in there, and maybe a nap.)

I woke up at 5:30 AM Sunday morning, made coffee, watched the Trojan cooling tower implosion on TV and read a book. I couldn’t face the green sweater again. I think I needed a knitting break, strange as it may seem.

I spent the morning picking up the house, doing a little laundry, finishing a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book I found, and just goofing around. I left about 11:00 and drove to the beach, thus thwarting the swarms of vampiric mosquitoes.

This picnic table and its surrounding platform was down on the beach with no explanation. Is it meant to be there? Did it, as it appears, float in on the high tide during a winter storm? It’s turned the wrong way for the short walls to offer any shelter from the prevailing wind (off the water). And I think it would be tough to keep a picnic on the table without it rolling off.

Anybody who knows anything about this, please comment because I really would love to know more about it. In lieu of real information, it’s fun to speculate. Perhaps we could raft it over to the Lost survivors, eh?

After leaving Longbeach, I drove down 101 and on to the bridge. I was at the tail end of a long line of slow-moving traffic. Three large SUVs came up behind me like bats out of hell, and then passed me on the bridge and cut back in in front of me. I have no idea why. It was a majorly stupid thing to do. Nobody was going any faster than the person at the head of the long line of traffic, and that was about 30 cars in front of me. Perhaps they just couldn’t stand to be last. But it was stupid.

They were very big SUVs. Very big. Driven by men. And my theory has always been that the size of the SUV is inversely proportionate to the size of the other equipment the driver might be packing. (yeah… inversely. That means… the bigger the truck, the smaller the dick.) They would have been real hot shots if they’d lost control and driven off the bridge, eh? I dropped back and gave them plenty of room.

Along Hwy 30, I passed Trojan before I realized it. It’s so strange not to see the cooling tower rising above the river. I’m glad to have it gone. But it’s strange.

Since arriving home, I knit 1/2 a row on the Tipsy Knitter socks and then just put the knitting away. My fingers hurt and I’m really tired. Sleep sounds better than knitting right now.

My favorite rose is blooming! This is Eyepaint. It will bloom fairly constantly until November. I love to look out in my yard and see its cheerful blossoms dancing in the breeze.

The other roses have buds, also, although they haven’t opened yet. I am reminded that it’s almost time for Rose Festival here in Portland.

Thank you to every one who commented about the rainbow socks. I guess I’ll keep them. (sorry Starr)

A friend of mine needed someone to take a few things down to his beach house this weekend and then be there while some guys install a wood stove. I jumped up and down yelling pick me! pick me! volunteered.

I’m taking all most of my unfinished objects and I’m going to spend the weekend knitting. I’m leaving right after work today. It’s supposed to rain all weekend, so I won’t have any distractions to keep me from finishing something. I’d really like to make some progress on the green sweater. And the tipsy knitter socks are only a couple of pattern repeats away from being done.

Shelly asks:

What’s you favorite reference for toe up contruction?

I have to admit that I don’t really have one. Most of my favorite sock books are for top-down construction. I love Nancy Bush’s books, for example, but they’re all top-down. Toe-up construction just isn’t addressed by most of my favorite designers.

I’ve found that many top-down sock patterns can be worked toe-up by reading and working the pattern backwards. It doesn’t always work, but in most cases it can be done with a little modification.

For the basic sock construction, I often just use my favorite techniques and go for it. Of course, I always start with Judy’s Magic Cast-On For Toe-Up Socks. And I have a favorite heel (flap-and-gusset type) that I usually work. I’ve found that a standard pointy toe fits my foot better (although I don’t seem to have worked many lately, looks like I’m stuck on rounder toes right now). I usually look through my stitch pattern books until I find one that I’d like to try. Sometimes I start with the stitch pattern and pick a yarn I think will go well with it, and sometimes I pick the yarn first and then look for a stitch pattern.

I do encourage everyone to try two-at-once sock knitting. It isn’t any faster than doing them one at a time, but it certainly alleviates the dreaded second sock syndrome. And it’s easy to do, especially if you are already familiar with knitting one sock using either two circulars or magic loop.

Just cast on one sock, then use a second ball of yarn to cast on the second sock. Knit from the first needle on both socks (remembering between the socks to drop the yarn for the first sock and pick up the yarn for the second sock), then turn the needles around and knit from the second needle on both socks. And go around and around and around until you have a foot. Then work the heel on the first sock while the second one just hangs there. Finish the heel of the first sock, then work the heel of the second sock while the first sock rests. Then go back to knitting around and around until you have a pair of socks. Cast off. Done.

I don’t know if that was helpful or not! I hope it was.

As promised, here’s a picture of the start of the Mermaid socks, which I am, of course, knitting toe-up.

This is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in colorway Rainbow.

Bright, isn’t it?

My question to all of you out there… is it too bright? Are these going to end up looking like clown socks? Do I care? Will these be the socks that I grab for on bleak, dark Northwest winter mornings? Or will I be blinded by the brightness and hide them in the back of the sock drawer?

I don’t want to keep knitting something that I’m not going to end up liking. It might be just this pattern. But I’m not sure that another pattern would look less bright.

The Mermaid pattern comes from Lucy Neatby’s Cool Socks Warm Feet, which appears to be out of print. If you can find a copy, get it! It has some great patterns in it. This is the second time I’ve knit Mermaid socks. The first pair I attempted were meant to be a gift, but I ended up frogging them out when the gauge turned out to be wrong. Dare I hope that I’ll finish this pair?

I know that it’s really summer (no matter what the calender says) when the lavender starts to bloom.

This is a Spanish lavender — I don’t remember the variety name. I grow several varieties of lavender, and this is the first to bloom.

Bumblebees love the lavender, as do honeybees. That’s a bumble in the top picture (they’re my favorites) and a honeybee in the bottom pic. I can often find our native bees visiting also. When the butterfly bush is also in bloom all of the bees really go to town!

I can also tell that it’s summer because the temperature was over 90 today. As far as I’m concerned, that just plain too hot. But I know it will ripen the cherries and bring a blush to the strawberries and give the grapes a little boost. So I’m not complaining.

Not much anyway.

But it’s way too hot to knit on a sweater. Way too hot. Right? So what would you do? That’s right, I cast on a second pair of socks. I started Mermaid sock toes, using Lorna’s Laces in a colorway called Rainbow. It’s really bright. I’m not far enough into them to decide if I like them or not. We’ll see.

Remembering the Mermaid socks I started last year and then ripped out because they were too huge, I did something I never do — I swatched. Hopefully I’ve got the gauge right this time. Pics in a day or two if I decide to keep them going.

#1 Son is in town but not around much. For some reason, after being gone for 3 weeks he thinks it’s more important that he hang with his friends than with his mom! Go figure! I don’t mind at all. I’m just glad to be able to call him on the phone and know he’s within 10 miles or so.

I had a very nice thank you card today from my Sockapaloooza recipient Lynne. You’re welcome, Lynne! I enjoyed the experience very much.

To Sockpal, if you are listening… I hope my socks survived their washing and have not gotten lost on the way here. Perhaps they are out gallivanting around with my little cow tape measure that disappeared? P.S. Also hope everything is OK with you?

I received the best Mothers’ Day present ever at 8:30 AM this morning when #1 Son walked in the door. I’m so glad to have him home!

After giving me a big hug, he said,

Hey, Mom, did you hear I’ve been in Alaska? I need to do laundry.

All is right with the world.

In techie news, I’ve upgraded to Wordpress 2.0.2. I decided to wait awhile until most of the bugs had been shaken out. I think there may still be a couple of issues… but we’ll see.

Please let me know if you see anything “broken” or weird looking.

I’ve been tagged by Kat for this 7×7 Meme. So, without further ado… this time it really is all about me:

7 Things to do before I die:
Go on safari
Sail up the Amazon
Learn to tat
Cruise the inside passage
Retire!
Learn to spin with a wheel
Grow my own dye plants and learn to use them

7 things I cannot do:
Any sport involving hitting a ball around
Climb a ladder
Bake a sponge cake
Resist sock yarn
Grow house plants, except in my office (outside I’m OK)
Spell
Have only one unfinished project

7 things at attract me to my husband:
hmmm… don’t have one so this will have to remain unanswered

7 books that I love:
Lord Of The Rings
How the Irish Saved Civilization
The Octopus & the Orangutan
My Family and Other Animals
Yarn Harlot
The Princess Bride
All of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries

7 things I say:
Why?
Dude!
I love you.
What’s happening with you?
What’s up with that?
Let’s do lunch!
Say what?

7 movies I have loved:
The African Queen
The Thirteenth Warrior
Master & Commander
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
A Christmas Story

7 Ladies to tag:
Anyone reading this who hasn’t been tagged already!