our off-shore meeting “room”

The gallery with the pictures should be working now. I’m guessing that those of you who couldn’t open it are using IE? For some reason Firefox wasn’t affected by my spelling error. Oops.

Anyway, here’s the tale of what I did last week, jaunting around the San Juan Islands with a bunch of crazy knitters.

I picked up my roommate, Tricia, along the way to Friday Harbor. Miracle of miracles — I was only about 10 minutes later than we had arranged, although I couldn’t seem to actually get on the road when I had planned. Traffic was light on Sunday. We planned to catch the 2:40 ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor, and we made it in plenty of time. At the ferry terminal, we ate sandwiches and chatted with a few other knitters while we waited. On board the ferry, we met other knitters. Hmmmm… there seemed to be quite a few of us all heading in the same general direction!

At the hotel, we were met by Cat and Lucy. Cat had little goody bags for us with Treking XXL, Frog Tree Alpaca sportweight (mine is blue), two colors of Claudia Handpainted, a sample of Crystal Palace Maizy, notecards, and a cool little folding ruler that folds in 1-inch increments; and an envelope with our itinerary; and a sign-up sheet for the ferry shuttles in the morning. I signed up for the early shuttle every morning because that would be easy to remember. But Cat insisted that as soon as I got to my room I should also write it on my itinerary to make sure that I didn’t forget, because time, tide and the inter-island ferry waits for no knitter. She was really insistent. So insistent, that I actually did write it on the itinerary when I got to our room — which was a pleasant suite with two bedrooms, two baths, a small living room with a faux wood stove (gas) and a kitchen.

Tricia and I ate at the hotel. The restaurant was pricey, but the food was very good. We both had salmon with a hazelnut pesto and mixed veggies that were excellent. The waiter was nice eye candy, but inattentive.

The hotel also offered free breakfast. By the time we left I had finally sort of figured out the waffle maker. Sort of. We shared the breakfast room with a bevy of construction workers who were working on one or the other of various projects that are springing up all over the area. And knitters, of course. There were knitters everywhere.

You will be pleased to know that I made the ferry shuttle every single day except the last. The last day nobody made the ferry shuttle because the shuttle broke down. A person had to be flown in from the mainland with the parts. But if the shuttle had been running, I would have been there on time. Everybody made it on the ferry on time all three days — I’m sure due to the sheer power of Cat’s willing us on board. 😉

Island Wools

The first day started a little later, to give us all time to recover from our journey the day before. The inter-island ferry is an absolutely charming mode of transport. It’s a smallish ferry, and obviously well loved. Many of the tables hold half-worked jigsaw puzzles brought on board by commuters who work them during their regular journey. We took over one end of the ferry, which included a large area with seats on the sides that was perfect for a class, with tables available for overflow. You can see one of the puzzles in the first picture on the table to the far left. The table on the right was usually laden with goodies, lest we become faint from hunger and no longer able to wield needles and yarn. The first day, lunch was catered and included one of the best chicken salads I’ve ever had. And Cat brought home-made cookies that were just awesome and I think helped more than one knitter make it through the throes of unfamiliar knitting techniques.

Lucy taught on day 1. Lucy is nutty and fun and I learned a ton from her about double knitting and other techniques. As I said before, I’m planning on a pair of socks with little pockets. I love the pocket for a Nano idea. Of course I still need to get a Nano. But I see one in my future.

Pocket for a camera card is another good idea, though. In all of the vacations I’ve taken my camera on, I don’t think I’ve ever either recharged it or had to swap batteries, although I always carry one. And I can snap a lot of pictures before I need to swap cards. I don’t think I’ve every had to do that, either. I really do like my camera.

We floated around and double-knit until the ferry made its rounds a couple of times and arrived back at Friday Harbor in time for dinner. We ate in town at a fish-n-chips place that I would not recommend. It was the only food in the whole trip that I could truly say was fairly horrible.

After dinner, we all shopped at Island Wools, a charming little shop with tons of yarn – several of which I haven’t seen down here much. I showed admirable restraint by limiting myself to just a couple of skeins of Maizy (sock yarn from corn — whodda thunk it?) in Miami Nice (great name). Tricia and I went back on the afternoon of the third day, and I realized that there were a few other little things I needed, like one of the Lantern Moon black sheep measuring tapes.

Orcas Island and the Orcas Hotel

Day two was the long day. We caught the early ferry for a day of sock knitting with Cat. I started a pair of baby booties, and worked a little bit on the Coriolis socks. You can see the booties in the last picture. Cat is a fun teacher. She tells stories that really help one remember the techniques. I think I finally get why dividing the rpi into the number of stitches around the instep gives the length of the foot after the instep. I think. Just don’t ask me to explain it.

At Orcas Island we gathered up our belongings and disembarked for a wonderful lunch at the Orcas Hotel. We took over one whole dining room, and the Hotel served a wonderful sandwich and soup buffet.

I realize that this is starting to degenerated into a foodie description. But, really, this was what it was like: knit and eat and knit some more and have a little snack and knit and time for a meal and knit. Really.

I continued to work on the baby booties as we floated around Puget Sound on our little ferry. The ferry only made four stops: Friday Harbor, Orcas Island, Shaw Island and Lopez Island. We saw each multiple times, but never walked off at Shaw or Lopez. They look like nice islands, though. Perhaps another time I can visit them as well.

The baby booties are double-layered, but not double-knit. (hmmm… it occurs to me now that it might have been fun to try that!) I used Seasilk left over from LT’s moebius for the inner sock, and some Jaeger Trinity picked up at Island Wools for the outer sock. The Trinity has very little give in it and is very grabby. Knitting it on wooden needles was not as easy as I had hoped. My gauge was also a little wonky. But here’s hoping for a baby with rather large feet. 🙄

After some discussion about where to head for dinner, Tricia, myself and several others just ended up at the hotel. I had soup (very good) and salad (mostly cheese). We turned in early. Knitting is hard work.

blooming tea

The final day was a short knitting day. Cat explored moebius knitting with those who were interested. The rest of us kept knitting socks. Lunch was catered on board — chicken salad wraps. It was yummy. And there were Cat’s cookies to snack on, lest we become faint, etc.

We arrived back at Friday Harbor early in the afternoon. Tricia and I did a little shopping at Island Wools, where we were given directions to the best beach on the island.

Then we walked down the block to a gourmet kitchen shop — sorry but I don’t remember the name of it — where I did a bit of damage to my wallet. Oh, there was a lot of wonderful things there! I found a fig-hazelnut butter. And chalk licorice – a treat we had enjoyed on board – think Good & Plenty for adults. And they had some blooming tea, so I was able to procure some after having seen it on Bobbie’s blog and thinking I just had to have some. It’s so pretty. One of the knitters told a wonderful story about the beauty of blooming tea and some hard-bitten ranch hands that I will not attempt to repeat because I’m sure I would not be able to do it justice. I am enjoying mine a great deal. I’m so glad that I had a clear tea pot for it to bloom in. I’m not sure what the mermaid on my trivet thinks of having a very hot teapot balance on some tender portions of her anatomy. She looks a little surprised. But hopefully she is enjoying the beauty.

After buying out the gourmet shop, we drove all the way around San Juan island. Our first stop was at American Camp. As well as relating some of the history of the area and the best place to see, the ranger told us the scenic route to Roche Harbor — dirt roads, but good dirt roads. And it was a beautiful drive from there up to Lime Kiln Point. We visited the lighthouse there and stretched our legs.

Wescott Bay Sculture Park

From Lime Kiln Point, we drove up to Roche Harbor. We passed the alpaca farm, but since it was after 5:00 we didn’t stop, figuring that they were probably closed. I think we figured wrong, unfortunately, But we did enjoy looking at what’s left of the lime factory in Roche Harbor and at the old buildings. And the new condos and retail buildings that are springing up everywhere.

On the way back we stopped at the Wescott Bay Sculpture Park. It’s several acres of sculptures — over 100, I think. They are just scattered around in the field, in amongst waist-high grass and weeds. There are paths mowed through the field, though, so it’s possible to walk around and look at the art. I was particularly struck by the object in the picture above. I believe it’s called Feathered Phoenix, but I could be mistaken. All of those gears and arms and such move in the wind so that it’s constantly in motion and revolving and changing. I took a little movie of it also, because the thing was just fascinating. There were many other lovely sculptures, too. We didn’t get around the whole field because it started to rain, so we packed it in.

On the way back to town, we saw Mona the camel.

Dinner was at a very nice restaurant right next to the ferry terminal, where we all met as a group. We were joined by Cat’s daughter, Jenny, and grandson, Charlie. Cat was very much the proud mother and doting grandma — as she should be because Jenny is a lovely young woman and Charlie is a cute as a button.

The next morning Tricia and I were up extra early and got in line for the ferry back to Anacortes just in time to make it on. We stopped at Wild Fibers in Mt. Vernon on the way home, and I scored some very nice sock yarn that I will tell you about at another time.

And now you are up to date. Since arriving home, as well as fighting technology I have finished the baby booties I started on the ferry. I’m fairly pleased with the results. Hopefully the intended recipient will be as well.

Rowan Margaret’s Silken Slippers

The Particulars:

• Yarn:
  • Inner slippers: Sea Silk (70% silk, 30% Sea Cell / 100g, 400m per skein) in colorway Rose Garden a tiny bit of a skein left over from another project.
  • Outer slippers: Jaeger Trinity (40% silk, 35% cotton, 25% polyamide / 50g, 200m per skein) in colorway 431 (Sage)
• Needles: one pair 24″ Addi Lace, US#2 (inner); one pair 16″ Clover Bamboo, US#3 (outer)
• Pattern: Rowan Margaret’s Silken Slippers from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One by Cat Bordhi
• Modification to pattern: None. I actually followed the pattern as written. My gauge is a little different than Cat’s, though, and my slippers turned out bigger.

So… Is Mercury retrograde or something? I tell you, gentle reader, I have not had a happy couple of weeks in the techie arena.

fun-house hallway

The hotel that most of the Floating Knitting Retreat participants stayed at promised free internet access with computers available and everything. The picture shows the hallway at the hotel. Looks like a fun house or house of mirrors, doesn’t it? One could actually walk down the hallway in a straight line, but it took a bit of mental effort because turning left and right and left and right just seemed natural. I didn’t dare have a couple of drinks and then brave the hallway. I can’t imagine what that would be like.

But I digress.

Computers were available. The interweb, alas, rarely was. Twice during my 5-day/4-night stay I was actually able to see that I had email, and who the email was from. I was never allowed to actually read my email, or respond to it. The rest of the time, IE refused to respond, leaving the hotel guests frustrated. Rebooting didn’t help. Talking to the computer didn’t help. Yelling at the computer didn’t help. I had a serious email jones going by the time I arrived home on Thursday afternoon. I nearly ran to my (lovely, new, working) computer and booted up. All was fine until I tried to read my email. No internet connection.

This can’t be happening, I thought. I tried everything I could think of. No internet. But wait! I have another working computer! Swiftly I booted up #1 Son’s computer. No internet. 😥

I decided that I just might, maybe, require a tiny bit of geeky assistance. So I called my DSL provider and talked to a very nice woman in India who, fortunately, spoke excellent English and was able, over the span of a 30 minutes or so, to test my line, verifying that the modem that has served me well for many years was, actually, as dead as Marley’s doornail. These things happen. They would be able to send me a new one in a week or so, she told me. ACK! 😯 There followed a philosophical discussion in which we covered the meaning of the terms will not support and will not work when applied to modems, and how those terms really don’t mean the same thing. Because I was not going to wait for another week for internet access. You don’t understand, I told her. I can’t read my email. Nice people think I’m ignoring them. I can’t write about anything. My readership will be down to people who come here via mistaken searches for strange terms unrelated to knitting. A week is not acceptable. She replied, in perfect British-accented English, words to the effect of You’re on your own. Have a nice day.

I threw my coat on. I was sure that the local computers-r-us-type store was still open. They were. And, lo and behold, there was a big display of modem/router combo boxes with my DSL provider’s branding. I snatched one up and ran home and plugged everything in and set up the security. When I tried to browse to any site, I was redirected to a page that told me to reactivate my account. Although I could actually (miracles never cease) remember my password, it would not reactivate. I got #1 Son’s computer connecting wirelessly to the router. It would not activate either.

Cat & Lucy on the inter-island ferry.
How cool is that?

Figuring that it was their brand and so they couldn’t just leave me hanging, I called tech support again. This time I spoke to a very nice young man in India who spoke perfect, British accented English, who told me his name was Harry, which I am sure it was not. Never fear, Ms Becker, Harry said. I can help you with that. And he did! It was click here and check this box and a little reboot. And I have email! And I have the internet! And I can write and read and browse and catch up! And my connection is fast! Fast and stable! And, no, I don’t think these are too many exclamation marks! ❗ ❗ ❗ I will mark your problem solved now, Ms Becker. Sorry you had to call us twice.

Ahh……. [vast relief]

But you did not come here to read about my techie woes. (Is Mercury going the right direction again?)

The last few days were full of Cat Bordhi and her amazing sockitecture, Lucy Neatby and double knitting coolness, beautiful scenery, wonderful knitters, and the neatest little ferry you’ve ever seen.

Look! In the picture! That is Cat introducing Lucy, who taught us wonderful things about double knitting, like how to double-knit a completely invisible pocket. And a cool new way of doing a standard bind-off in one motion. Lucy is nutty and wonderful and I’m sure has forgotten more about knitting than I will ever know. I plan to eventually order every single one of her DVD’s. In Lucy’s hands, even simple things like, well, binding off, become new territory to explore. And double knitting is magical and exciting. And all of Lucy’s stitches are happy ones.

we got used to this kind of scenery

I’m already planning a pair of socks with little double-knit pockets. I don’t know what I will do with them, but won’t they be cool?

Cat carried around a little iPod Nano with chapters from Lucy’s DVDs loaded, and she let me play with it a little bit. Now that is a use for an iPod that I can really understand! I think I’m going to have to get one. A green one. And I can watch knitting videos on it.

But I’m telling you things all sort of out of order, aren’t I? And already this is a long post.

Tomorrow I will post a blow-by-blow of the whole retreat sans techie side trips. For now, I do have some of my pictures sorted and in a gallery. The people-pictures (as Mama used to call them) are in the front, and the scenery pictures are towards the back.

I had a wonderful time and met many wonderful people and enjoyed myself enormously. And I’m glad to be home. And have everything working.

Seasilk Lattice Moebius

I am back, gentle reader, and what a journey I have had. I now have a working computer — and boy howdy is it fast compared to the old one. There were a few parts that just aren’t going to work, it appears. XP will not recognize my internal Zip drive, although the bios insists it’s there. It’s very old, however, and may have come to the end of its useful life. Or may have been harmed when the floppy bit the dust. Poor thing. Let us shed a tear. 😥 The floppy drive was fried — quite literally. There’s an amazing amount of smoke that comes pouring out when a floppy drive melts.

Note to self: This is not something that should be repeated with any frequency. In fact, never would be good.

I pretty much have software back in working order, etc. I managed to recover my mail, so nothing was lost there. Whew. Thank you to all of you who commiserated with me. I was tempted a few times to call Bobby’s hunky techie contact. But then I would have to explain what had happened. I’ve had enough embarrassment over this one, I think.

It’s all running again not a moment too soon, because in just a few short hours, I will be heading north for a Floating Knitting Retreat with Cat Bordhi, Lucy Neatby, and other wonderful knitters. Riding around on the ferries through the San Juans and knitting — what’s not to like? I think it’s going to be a blast! I will report back next week.

The first picture is what up to now has been called secret project. It can now be revealed as a lattice-stitch moebius in Sea Silk. (Note that this one is actually the right size!) This was a birthday present for my friend LT, who likes to wear pink. Although she tells me that she is branching out and trying other colors, so I will have to expand my LT palette.

ladybug, ladybug

This is a close up showing how the little ladybug stitch marker from J L Yarnworks’ Etsy shop. Isn’t that just the cutest little thing? I had a ton of fun watching it fly around the moebius while I knit, and every time it came to the front, I just had to smile.

I have not had much other knitting time. The Coriolis socks progress slowly up the ankles. I like the beads. Next time I’ll show you a pic or two.

The Particulars:

• Yarn: Sea Silk (70% silk, 30% Sea Cell / 100g, 400m per skein) in colorway Rose Garden — Parts of two skeins with a goodly bit left over.
• Needle: 47″ Knit Picks Options circular, US#6.
• Pattern: Made up as I went along, with much inspiration from A Treasury Of Magical Knitting by Cat Bordhi
• Modification to pattern:
  • Not really a lot. I used a lattice-stitch pattern.
  • Cat suggests the I-cord bind-off, which I used.
  • I trusted Cat as to how many stitches I should cast on. 😀

we have heel

After a little knitting, a little frogging, a little more knitting, etc., I have a heel I’m happy with. The socks still look pretty strange off the needles, but you can see that this one, at least, fits my foot pretty well. I’m assuming that the other one will, too, since the socks are the same size and my feet are at least close. But one never knows, eh?

As soon as I get the heels finished, I’ll start adding in a few beads. I really didn’t want beads inside my shoes, as that didn’t sound too comfortable. So I decided to put beads only on the ankles. I tried a few bead placements yesterday. I think less is going to be more where these socks are concerned. Some socks I would bead all over the place. But these already have a lot going on. I think just a few beads worked into the lace band will be an ample sufficiency. I have some lovely square beads that will be perfect.

Thanks to those of you who commented on my Hat Theory. With our little totally unscientific study, the phenomenon seems widely enough known, even to our friends in the North, that it must be fairly common. Hopefully I will not have any Hats making me late today.

Today I will blame the rain.

Rain has returned in spades to the Pacific Northwest. And it’s cold. I’ve been wearing wool socks all week. Not that I mind doing that, you understand. But I’m not ready for winter. It seems like we barely had summer. My vines produced a bumper crop of grapes this year, but few of them have ripened. If it rains too hard, the remaining ones will just get knocked off. The local raccoons will appreciate that. But I will not.

Speaking of local wildlife, there were some stories on the local news last week about a family of coyotes not too far from my area. Apparently the reporters are surprised to learn that coyotes can be fairly urban animals. I wasn’t surprised, having had one run through my back yard last year when the fence was down, and having listened to their music for many years. I like sharing my world. The reporters tried to drum up some OMG our pets and children may be in danger!!!!! frenzy. But fortunately most of the people they interviewed seemed very live and let live and aware that the coyotes were not much danger to we civilized animals.

Lately I’ve been hearing an owl hoot at night. It’s a lonely but lovely sound in the wee hours.

I am not ready for winter.

as yet unnamed socks

Alas, the yarn fumes have dissipated, the stash enhancement has been… stashed… and it’s back to what passes for the real world around here.

This is the latest pair of socks. See… I have been knitting! I actually got quite a bit done on Saturday at OFFF, in between bouts of shopping and wandering and petting. The little magnetic acrobat dudes are happy to see how far I’ve progressed — almost to the heels.

I have no name for these, yet, and I am open to suggestions. They are based on the Coriolis pattern from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One. I’ve widened the Coriolis band so that it can contain a bit of lace and cable pattern from a Japanese stitch book. There may be beads involved later on the leg. We shall see. The yarn is Fleece Artist Sea Wool. I have no idea what the colorway is. It isn’t noted on the ball band. It might be Stone.

They look a bit wonky on the needles. But on my feet, they smooth out and look like regular socks. As always, Cat’s pattern both charms and mystifies. I’m planning on working my own heel on this pair, as I did on the Cable & Corrugations socks. I’m not sure yet if the math is going to work out right so that my heel can be worked over the stitch count I will have when I get there.

Stay tuned. Film, as they say, at 11 — or whenever I get around to taking some. We’re not quite so scheduled here at chez PI.

And speaking of schedules…

Have you ever noticed that when you get behind someone who is wearing a hat while driving, that they drive really, really slowly and sort of incredibly cautiously — so cautiously that they become a hazard? Check it out! There may be exceptions, but in my experience this holds true more often than not.

Not that I have anything against cautious driving, you understand. I try to drive fairly defensively, although my nearest and dearest may have differing opinions as to how well I succeed. And certainly I have absolutely nothing against hats. There’s something just incredibly hot about a man in a hat — and I’m not talking a baseball cap, here, OK? I will forgive much when there’s a trilby involved, or an homburg, or even a panama. And wear a fedora and I’m yours, no questions asked. Fedoras are definitely best. Caps… meh.

But I digress.

People wearing hats just seem to drive slowly and cautiously enough to be a menace. Even one can block traffic. Now… pretend for a second that you are late for work, and traffic seems to be just incredibly slow – much slower than is the wont of morning rush-hour traffic – with no explanation for the turtle-ish and slug-like pace. There just aren’t that many cars around (because, as we have established, you are running a little late). And then you realize that up ahead are not one, not two, but four hats driving slowly down the street, two in one lane and two in the adjoining lane, effectively acting as a cork in the traffic bottle. And they pace each other for miles and miles at a steady 10 MPH below the speed limit while the drivers behind them wail and gnash their collective teeth. You would be forced to give up any hope of actually being to work on time. And because you were driving, you couldn’t even knit.

Sometimes, gentle reader, the fates conspire against me.

Cables And Corrugations socks

The Cables & Corrugations Socks are finished! Yea! Here they are, doing the toe dance on my favorite rocking chair, because it was a gloomy day with bad light, and I didn’t get home while there was still any light at all. So sorry for the flash pic. But the colors are fairly true.

There is a story about the fabric that’s on my chair. But we won’t go into it today, gentle reader, because it involves things like former spouses and such, and today is too good a day to be delving into that particular past. Maybe some gloomy, rainy January weekend. But not today when the grapes are nearing ripeness and the sun might actually make an appearance.

The tops of the socks look a little ruffly. You can especially see this in the one that’s on the left. That would be because, instead of using the suggested EZ sewn bind-off, I used a crochet bind-off. I didn’t really have a good reason for doing so. The crochet version is a bit stretchier than the sewn bind-off, but either would have worked. The ruffliness is not apparent when I have these on my feet.

close up

This is a close-up of the heel and the lovely braided cables up the side and back. My camera struggles with this red (although not as much as it struggles with purple). I’ve moved to the dining room table, where the light is a little better for close-ups. But the shine from the bamboo content doesn’t help. Hopefully you can see how pretty the braids turned out.

Note the gusset. It’s actually one big gusset instead of two smaller ones, and it starts smack dab in the middle of the bottom of the foot. Isn’t that cool?

There are reasons that Cat Bordhi is called the mad scientist of knitting. I tell you, gentle reader, the woman is a genius.

Someone else likes these socks, too. The last picture shows what happened about 10 seconds after I snapped the close-up. For a bit there I was not quite sure whether Moo Cow was going to give my socks back.

I can haz sox! kthxbai

The Particulars:

• Yarn: Pagewood Farm Hand Dyed Sock Yarn (70% merino, 20% bamboo, 10% nylon / 4oz, 450yd per skein) in colorway Really Red — one skein with a goodly bit left over. This would be plenty of yarn for larger feet in this pattern.
• Needles: two 24″ Addi Lace circulars, US#1 (2.5mm).
• Pattern: Cables & Corrugations from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One by Cat Bordhi
• Modification to pattern:
  • I used my own standard heel pattern, which is visually similar to Cat’s but narrower.
  • Crochet bind-off substituted for EZ sewn bind-off.
• I followed Cat’s instructions for the pontoon toe, which I switched to a moccasin toe because that was what is shown in the picture.
• Techniques used:
  • Knit toe-up, two at a time, on double circulars.
  • The pontoon toe turned out to be pretty fiddly, requiring the addition of 4 DPNs as well as the 2 circs to execute on two socks at once. I love the way it looks, but not my favorite toe to knit.