No Knitting Content

I'm too full to do anything, including Knit. D, his mom, and I went to McMinnville and the surrounding area today, and we feasted. We stopped by their old stomping grounds, a natural food store, and had lunch (many delicious salads, and we are supposed to recreate the curry chicken salad at home). Then, off to the Evergreen Aviation Museum to see the Spruce Goose and see 3-D Imax Sea Monsters. Back to McMinnville to catch up with a friend of theirs, while I resisted the Jojoland yarns (very pretty) and the large racks of sale yarns to walk away with only sock place markers. I'm so proud of myself!

The highlight, the reason we'd ventured to the area, was the Joel Palmer House. D worked there about 9 years ago, and the food is incredible. The whole experience is just worshipful of food. You start with a prelude - just a few nibbles of a mushroom risotto. For an appetizer I had brioche with a black oregon truffle cream sauce. I'd never seen these truffles in person before - they looked like large, black raisins that had been plumped up. They tasted salty and earthy. Dinner was the crabcakes - I couldn't resist. Marleen had the corn chowder, the lamb (very nice) and D had the true cod and a winter vegetable salad. Dessert - cheesecake (and a chocolate - fruit rich item for D). I love how this restaurant excudes "take your time" and "savor your food". It takes two hours from start to finish. It doesn't feel like it takes a long time. The staff doesn't rush you, they don't hover, they don't push. It is as far away from a cafeteria food as you can get. For me, it is the perfect special occasion restaurant.

I'm too full to upload photos. I'll leave you with the Chinese Gardens from yesterday's touring about.

Finish-itis!

Wow, it's been basically a month since I last posted. Well, much has happened, and it revolves around... finishing things!

Big Bad Baby Blanket from SnB.
This taught me, well, one important thing. When I switch from knit to purl, it's tight. When I go the other way around? It's very loose. I have to be Very Careful about that intersection, and actually knit continental a few stitches before and after a changeover. This probably explains why my ribbing tends to look a little funny.



This BBBB will get shipped off to my cousin & his wife, who are expecting in July. I should be thinking about the next baby present, since several are due. But I got distracted by the Mason-Dixon Felted Boxes. I had in my stash several skeins of Lopi - this single ply, humongous, itchy wool that actually makes my lungs hurt if I'm around it too much. Allergies, I suppose, and this is wool that is perhaps a little too close to the sheep. Achoo! One box down. Achoo! Second box, and I've used up probably 6-7 skeins. Whoo hoo! They just need to be felted now...

Other big news? The Yoga Hoodie I started over Xmas is done! The bulk of the knitting has actually been done a while, but I had to deal with the curling edges. I had to deal with the buttons.



Done (or at least done enough. I may yet add another round of crochet to the hood edging, and adjust the toggle buttons.). Done enough to wear. Just in time to wear once or twice before spring really hits. Sigh. Heavy wool sweaters and daffodils...



There was a fair amount of problem solving on this one - how to handle the not-wide-enough border. How to thread thick yarn through small buttonhoes (ans: tie a thread to the yarn, use a normal small needle to go through the buttonhole, pull the yarn through. Voila!). Having faith in blocking to deal with the garter stich bottom border curling (I would add more garter stitch next time, I think, or just go to ribbing. Safer.

Oh, yes, and the Christmas Socks are done!


Hard to believe, but the large volume of sock yarn that Lisa endowed on me for CHristmas has actually done wonders for slowing down my yarn purchases. I actually feel like I have, well, enough yarn for probably the next two years.

I've started the next round of socks - a Regia Silk yarn, brown black and white stripes, my basic sock pattern. I went for fewer stitches to snug up the sock a bit. I'm a little concerned that I should have used a smaller needle for this yarn. Only time will tell. Lovely soft yarn, though :-)

And now? I actually threw a bowl, am working on rescuing a pot from December, and have rolled out two inch-thick slabs to try out as outdoor tiles. 12 lbs of clay each!