New camera

I got tired of fuzzy pictures, so we took our Costco rebate check and bought a new camera, a Sony Cyber-Shot. It has 8.1 megapixels, whatever that means, and I can certainly tell a huge difference in picture quality. This picture was taken in late afternoon on a cloudy day. At any rate, that's the new patio door. The floor looks weird because Lyn is putting in bamboo flooring. You can just make out Shane lying on some of the finished portions of the floor. He certainly seems to like it!

Here's our Cairn terrier Aidan in one of his favorite summer spots:



I have Wollmeise to show, but I have more that's coming so I'll wait and show it all after it arrives. I kind of made up for the fact I didn't get into the club, and believe it or not, I think I'm done getting it for awhile.

I'm "getting" toe-up socks. Carly gave me some good advice and I'll be researching the Charlene Schurch books as soon as this class is over. Her Easy Toe does sound a bit easier than the method I'm using.

Toe-up sock update

I've been browsing toe-up instructions today and thought I'd post the progress I've made from class on Saturday. I have to say that being in learner's mode in multiple areas of my life makes me a bit slow to pick things up and increases my frustration level exponentially. I have to say toe-up is a very different sock method and I came away from class thinking I might never do another toe-up sock after this class. I even had to rip out my progress, what little I made in class #1. My initial frustration came from crocheting a chain as a provisional cast on. I couldn't remember how to do this. Second, my sock yarn was gorgeous, but too dark, and third, I can't retain instructions and converse with other people at the same time. I came home, ripped out my work, set the sock aside, and last night picked it up again. This always happens to me - I go to class, am confused, and then go home and get it right in the peace and quiet of my craft room. So, I settled on Enchanted Knoll Farm's Little Fish for the yarn (great yarn, by the way, 435 yards, 90% merino, 10% nylon for added strength). This is the toe to the point where I've completed the short rows and now I begin doing a different kind of short row that incorporates knitting or purling 2 wraps and a stitch together. This is where I'm stuck and why I'm looking for instructions on the web.



I downloaded Wendy's Toe-up sock pattern where she describes the process better than the Knitty generic pattern we are using in class.

I was making a few things for a surprise, but I'm not sure the surprise is still going on. There was a glitch in surprise action this week. Regardless, here are 2 future gifts I knit in the past week. A lacy butterfly pattern I found on Ravelry



and a lacy bookmark that I think I found on the web.



Please excuse the blurriness of the pictures. I don't know what is wrong with my camera, but many of the pictures are blurry on the screen, though they aren't blurry when I preview the picture on the camera.

I should be doing 8 hours of overtime today, but I'm still trying to gain some distance from the 16 hours I did the week before. I still hate my job!

I had lunch with Kevin and we met in downtown Vancouver. It was a pleasure to have lunch with my son, who treated me, actually. We ate at The Tiger Garden and afterwards went to get gelato at a nearby gelato store. We both had the dark chocolate/orange gelato, and I have been craving more ever since. That was the best thing I ate all week!

Speaking of gelato, another nephew, Christopher, has a blog called Fire and Flavor Test Kitchen. Chris is a chef for Fire and Flavor grill rubs and planks, etc. and he makes up recipes for this company. The blog has lots of links to good recipes. The other nice thing about his blog is that, in addition to recipes and food talk, he chronicles my grand niece Caroline. I would never see pictures of Caroline without this blog.

I had hoped to post news that I won a place in the Wollmeise sock club lottery. Alas, I did not. This is probably a good thing, but I'm sorely disappointed. Even Lyn was disappointed for me, which surprised me. He said he thought I would have really enjoyed it. Bless him. He is so getting some Wollmeise socks!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Last week I sort of had a vacation - better than no vacation at all, I guess, but I had to go to 2 days of training and thus could not take a full week off. More about the training later, I want to talk about fun things. Training was.not.fun!

I learned new things. I took a punch-needle embroidery class with Nicholette at StitchCraft. I was the only one who signed up for the class, so I essentially got a private lesson. Nicholette calls punch-needle embroidery coloring with thread, and essentially that's what it is. I was enthusiastic enough about the craft to buy a few small kits and will certainly do more of this in the future. It's a nice hot summer day activity. The trickiest part is not to lose the threader and also splitting the embroidery flows into 3 strands. That took up a lot of time and I do believe I've never made so many knots in my life. I have failed to take a picture of the heart I made, but will take one and post it later. I found out that a toe-up sock class is going to be taught and I signed up for it. That class starts on Saturday and I'm excited!

I felted my first bag. I didn't knit this bag - it was a bag I won in a lottery around Christmas time. Betsy knit it but didn't felt it. For some reason I was too nervous to felt this bag but just up and did it during my vacation. My washing machine is set to rinse everything on cool, so I had to stand around and reset the washer several times so the water would stay hot. I don't think it's too bad for a first attempt. I just have to figure out how to put all the handles and pockets on the bag.



My nephew Robert and now wife Oksan got married in Northern Cyprus. My sister has been sending pictures of the ceremony and pictures of Girne where Oksan's family lives. I so regret that I couldn't attend. Henna ceremonies, dancing, gorgeous sunsets, beautiful Mediterranean Sea. The only consolation that I didn't get to go is that it was 106 degrees. Now that I've expressed my regret in not attending and my joy in this marriage, I must say that one of my main interests in my sister going off to Turkey and Cyprus was that I had high hopes she would find mastic candy for me. She did not. In fact, she said no one had ever heard of it. Apparently it is only in Greece and they didn't go to 1 Grecian island and didn't go to the Greek side of Cyprus (which apparently you can do now). Based on the abundant pictures of the swimming pool at the hotel Ann, Bob, and friends stayed in, I think there was far more time spent swimming than looking for mastic candy. Not that I'm bitter or anything. (I'm kidding, really).

Lyn and I took a day to go to Cannon Beach and we went down the road a bit to Manzanita. I managed to find 2 yarn stores and bought a few things for the caffeine swap that is going on now, and went to a bookstore and found a few books, all nonfiction. We ate lunch and had grilled salmon burgers and walked on the beach in Manzanita. It was a nice day. I felt a little nostalgic for all the family camping vacations we took. Those days are gone and I miss them!

I joined a book group on America On Line 15 years ago. The book group split up, but a group of women came to Portland to have a face-to-face and we've been friends ever since. We've changed a bit - not every one stayed in touch, and we've added 1 or 2 new people to the group, but we've been friends for a long time and we got together last weekend. There were 8 of us this time and we ate a wonderful dinner together on Friday evening at a restaurant called Wild Abandon. We ate outside on a gorgeous patio and had a light dinner. I barely remember the food, although it was delicious. I mostly remember conversation, which was lively as most conversations are when you haven't seen people in a few years. I enjoyed a Saturday morning in Vancouver with Sue and Pam visiting Unraveled and StitchCraft, the 2 downtown yarn stores here, and I also enjoyed the afternoon in Powells with the larger group. It's a ritual to go to Powells when we all get together. I did acquire a few books - not all these are from Powells - some were free from a search through give-aways at Francoise's house, and some are from the beach trip. Nevertheless, here is my book loot:



I had to leave the group on Saturday as my family had other plans, but was able to go to Francoise's house on Sunday to meet up with Francoise and June (who had arrived early Sunday morning from New York). We had a leisurely afternoon visiting, looking at gorgeous pictures of June's trip to Provence, eating dessert left over from a Sunday brunch earlier in the day, and catching up. It was a great way to end a vacation.

The down side of the vacation was the 1-1/2 days of training I had to endure. At work we're transitioning from medical transcription to medical editing on a program called eScription. It's a voice recognition system and since voice recognition does not produce a perfect report, every report will need to be edited. That is what I was learning to do. The marketing (or propaganda) says that most transcriptionists eventually love this system. I found it slow and tedious and felt bombarded with information that I couldn't retain. Marketing says most transcriptionists eventually love this system and promise million dollar savings in HIS departments. This may be the best thing since sliced bread, and indeed in 6 months I may love what I'm doing; right now, though, I'm convinced there is a ring in hell for the people who invented this system and for the managers who thought we should take this on.

A knitting friend sent this to me at the right time. I think it's the best office humor I've seen in a long time. Check it out: This is Your New Cubicle Be sure to read the policy notes after the pictures end.

Oh - I'm back working evenings again. Have I mentioned that I hate my job right now? I do!

On a brighter note, I scored 3 skeins of Wollmeise on the latest Wollmeise site Friday update. I got on right when the skeins appeared and was out in no time, ready to pay, and... Paypal was down for a full hour and a half! It all ended well. I'm expecting the skeins any day.

Ravelry Summer Caffeine Swap

It's been awhile, but first things first. I was participating in a Ravelry swap and received a fantastic package yesterday from Jen. Here is the package in its entirety:



The coffee is a Fair Trade medium roast organic coffee from Bongo Java Roasting Company in Nashville, Tennessee. It's excellent! I've had 2 cups already and it's replaced my usual favorite Sisters blend until it's gone. The tea is Republic of Tea's Pomegranate Green Tea. I don't know if I put this tea in my questionnaire under favorite teas or not, but I don't think I did. The thing is, is that I had this tea in the Minneapolis airport about a year ago and I thought it was one of the best teas I had ever had. I don't know how Jen knew this, but I'm glad she chose and sent this tea. I haven't been able to find it! It will come in handy this weekend when the temperatures soar into the high 90s. There is a box of Starbucks Espresso Truffles, and I have indulged already. 'Nuff said! I won't tell how many. I do have some left.



In place of coffee cups, the requirement of this swap was to send a small knitted project and stitch markers. Jen knit me a coffee sleeve and a coffee-cup dish cloth. The picture below is not that great - the sleeve is covering the coffee cup. I will have to replace this picture with one that shows better detail, or you can see a great picture at Jen's blog. Anyway, I love my sleeve and dish cloth! I'll be so happy not to have to use those cardboard sleeves!

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Finally, there is the yarn! Jen sent me Lorna's Laces sock yarn in the new colorway called Ashburn. I love the teal/purple/green colors together. I can't wait to knit a pair of socks with it! The stitch markers are gorgeous and they came in a cute little bag.



Jen was a great swapper! She was very communicative and sent me entertaining messages all through the swap. We found we had a few things in common, particularly in places where we've lived and the fact we both like coffee and knitting. Thanks for everything Jen. I loved my package!

I finished my knitted object and sent a package off to New York. I forgot to take a picture of the knitted object in my haste to get the everything off in time. The package is heading towards New York and the last I checked, the package left Philadelphia yesterday. It should arrive to its destination soon!