Long time gone...

I actually can't remember the last time that I posted here.  I am such a bad blogger! 

Oh well.  Life seems to intervene in strange and time consuming ways.  The helmet liner project is still rolling along.  On President's Day, I hosted 4 lovely ladies who usually knit with us at the museum.  We spent a couple of hours opening packages and checking and tagging helmet liners. We also spent a good amount of time noshing on yummy food.  Kay brought the best Caramel Popcorn I have ever eaten!  We managed to get 457 liners tagged and bagged!!!  

After the tagging and bagging, we all sat down at the dining room table and I taught a workshop on Entrelac knitting.  There had been many requests for a class on this since it has gotten to be so popular lately.  It seems like every knitting magazine has featured an entrelac pattern in the past couple of months!  We had a ball and I think everyone learned something new.

I started knitting a giant aran sweater for myself right after Christmas.  This is a sweater that has been waiting a long time to get made.  The yarn for it was a gift from my dear friend Cindy when we left Oregon.  It is her homespun from her own sheep in a lovely natural brown color. The pattern, as I wimped out on designing something of my own, is Alice Starmore's Na Craga from Aran Knitting.  So far, the front is done and the back is started.  I might get it done in time for spring.  Maybe!  

I have also been working on finally writing the pattern for Henry's stocking.  It is almost ready to submit, but I haven't gotten done proofing it or taking pictures.  The final sample is still on the needles, in need of  a toe.  As soon as it is finished and blocked, it will have a photo shoot and then off it goes!  

Otherwise, life around here goes on.  The kiddo is doing great in school and continues to play the violin (almost 4 years now!)  He even practices almost every day without too many complaints.  I am so amazed by his focus and the effort that he will put into violin.  I know that it is hard work and I am constantly surprised by his willingness to keep on working.  He is a good soul!

This weekend we are off to the Army-Navy Basketball game at the Naval Academy with the in-laws.  It should be a treat.  I haven't been to a basketball game in probably 25 years!  I think the last one I went to was one I played in in high school!  Go Navy!

Back from Oregon

No posts for the past couple of weeks as we were on vacation in Oregon. We had a great time! The kiddo and I spent a week at the Oregon Suzuki Institute perfecting his violin playing and then my hubby arrived in time for the final concert at camp. It is a truly thrilling thing to see your little guy up on stage with about 200 other violinists all playing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in unison! A good time was had by all and we got to spend a week with some amazing teachers and catch up with friends from last year.

After camp we headed to McMinnville to see old friends and old haunts. Of course there was a joyous reunion with all the girls at Boersma's Knitting Basket, where I worked before the big move east. The kiddo and I even spent a day teaching the girls to dye yarn with food coloring...

The set up in the unused top floor of the Boersma's store in McMinnville.

The kiddo helping mix up a batch of food color dye.

One of the final products...

We made it through 10 skeins of yarn and a ton of Wilton's dye without staining the floor. Needless to say, we all had blue and pink hands, and the kiddo had a few blue freckles! I have no idea what those gals are going to do with all of that lovely stuff... 10 mis-matched hand dyed skeins of worsted weight wool... but I can't wait to see!

The visit to McMinnville also included visits with old friends and a reunion picnic in the old neighborhood, which featured meeting the new owners of our old house and finding that the kiddo's height marks were still on the door frame in the pantry. We transfered the height marks to some paper to bring home (we had done it once before, but alas, that was the only thing that got lost in the move...) It was great to see all the old neighbors and the house again.

After a few days we were ready for adventure so we packed up and headed to Mt. Hood. We spent the 4th of July playing in the snow above Timberline Lodge and stayed there for the night. Timberline is one of the very few places that you can ski year round so we were able to watch skiers and snowboarders while we hiked! The next day we went back down the mountain by way of Hood River, OR (famous as the spot that John Kerry took a day off of campaigning to wind surf). We stopped at one of the kiddo's favorite spots, Bonneville Dam and visited the dam, navigation lock and fish hatchery there. It is really neat to see since it is a HUGE dam and this was the first visit that we have made where there were fish in the fish ladder! Lots of Shad and a few Steelhead and Salmon too!

It is nice to be home but we all miss Oregon. It was hard to come back to the Virginia summer, but since we were met at the airport by adoring grandparents, we will all survive just fine...