Checking in between road trips

We arrived home last night from our trek to Bellingham. B & I lived there for about 10 years and we share many fond memories of places and people there. The girls and I arrived at Marta and Dale's house shortly after lunch. She has remodeled her kitchen and their back yard is like a mini-paradise. They seem so very happy together and her grandson, Nicholas, is staying with them.


Marta accompanied us to The Wool Station in Fairhaven where I found just the right yarn to make a vest for my sister. It is machine washable 100% wool from Australia and it's very soft. She wanted something neutral and this fits the bill nicely. I'm winging the pattern. Just a basic seed stitch with simple cabling.




From there we stopped briefly by Karen's house before checking into the hotel. Dale came by to pick up Marta and he brought with him the sad news that her friend, Dude, had passed away. We are so sorry for Marta and everyone else who loved him.

The girls went swimming and then we ventured over to Karen's again where she fixed us all some yummy BBQ for dinner. She then presented me with a wonderful surprize. It's a birthday/Christmas present for several years' running... it's a stunningly beautiful quilt! She made this for me and I love it. I don't know what the pattern is, but there are flowers quilted throughout the plain muslin and she even signed the back. Thank you Karen!

The girls played with her 3 kids for awhile and then we left to do a bit of a drive-about. Our old house is for sale and it was interesting to see how skewed property prices are now in Bellingham. And from what I can gather, they've actually leveled out and even came down a few thousand over the past year or two. This same house was for sale about 3 years ago and they were asking about $300,000. The amount of development in Whatcom County is amazing too. It's just not the same quiet town I remember.

The next morning we visited again at Karen's then made some pb&j sandwiches and walked around the Western Washington University campus. B & I both graduated from there many years ago. The campus wasn't immune from development either. The rugby field, one of the football fields, the soccer field and the place where I took archery have all been replaced with buildings. A1 proclaimed she wants to go there someday too.



A3 became ill on the way home and wouldn't you know it, there were accidents and traffic was backed up. It took over 5 hours to drive back. I've cleaned most of the vomit out of the van, but I'm waiting for it to cool down before I shampoo the seats, etc. Once again, it's too hot for outside activities. We're supposed to leave tomorrow evening for my sister's house and then on from there to my mom and dad's.

Sunday

Lorinda is holding a yarn contest! In order to be entered into the drawing you must find 5 things about her on her blog and post them in her "comments" section. Go check it out, she has lots of material to work with as this is in celebration of her 400th post!

Yesterday I had a surprize visit from an old friend. Not to say that she is old, but rather that we met in 4th grade and wreaked havoc on our parents' insanity during our Junior High and High School years. Karma is kicking in too, while we were catching up over coffee my eldest wandered into the kitchen and proclaimed, "I'm entering puberty, I'm starting to get hair..." . Before she could finish the sentence I whisked her out of the room. Luckily the said friend has children (Yes, Trek, it would have been worse had she been naive to the antics of children). I enjoyed seeing her and her children, but she has been through a lot over the past few years and I'm sorry to hear about that. She's strong and smart though, many people in her situation would have broken.

I managed to finish a pair of socks yesterday. It's bloody hot here but we have a heat pump that keeps the house nice and cool. My point is, that many knitters world wide have a valid reason for avoiding fiber, I can't claim such hardships, I'm just lazy. I dyed the yarn for these with some Wilton food coloring. The pictures show the socks much lighter than the colors in person. There are lots of dark browns and even some hints of black and the orange isn't quite this bright. I call the color "Nutmeg" and the pattern is one of my old favorites.

Hopefully my Jaywalkers will be finished today. I finished the pieces for my Liv sweater, but I don't know if blocking will be accomplished today.

Tomorrow the girls and I are taking a trip up to Bellingham to visit friends there. Rumor has it that there are FOUR yarn stores and I hope to check out at least one of them.

Yesterday I received some dps that I purchased from an eBay seller. They were shipped promptly and the price was extremely low at 13 sets of 5 each for $25.00, including shipping. They are brand new and still in their packages. Unfortunately, the bamboo is unfinished. As a result, the yarn "sticks" to the wood and it feels like knitting with chalk. I'm going to talk with my brother about the best way to finish these. Hopefully they can be rendered usable without too much work.

I know what I want to make now for the apron along. I just need time. Because B is away for National Guard Annual Field Training the kidlets are keeping me busy 24x7 for several weeks.