Archive for the 'Travel' Category
I administered a writing placement test and a portfolio evaluation for several hundred students this past weekend, tomorrow is my last teaching day for winter quarter, and Friday morning I leave on a family trip to Washington, D.C., after which I will return to determine grades and write narrative evaluations. So, why am I still at the office at 7 p.m. when I should be home packing? Because I suddenly felt compelled to arrange all the items in my Ravelry queue by project type.
After much clicking and shifting back and forth among pages, the cardigans are all together, the shawls are all together, the socks are all together, the baby clothes are all together. I did manage to stop with an initial sorting rather than going on to fine-tuning (swing jackets with swing jackets, curve-hemmed cardigans with curve-hemmed cardigans, etc.), but you know that’s coming.
I’m hoping to manage one small post tomorrow morning with my latest FO, then I’m leaving Melissa in charge of things until my return. She’s got a few tricks up her sleeve—so stay tuned.
*****
P.S. Please join me in fervently hoping that the whole Beatrice/Penny situation won’t go all Lord of the Flies in my absence. I would like to find three cats with four legs and two ears each upon my return.
March 12 2008 | Beatrice and Cats and Penny and Ravelry and Teaching and Travel | No Comments »
[Today's guest blogger is Melissa.]
Last year I walked across Spain on the Camino de Santiago. Along the way I took lots of photos of churches, cathedrals, glorious windswept plains, and fellow pilgrims. But of course, being a certified crazy cat lady, I also took photos of some of the cats I met along the way. Since today is the one-year anniversary of my arrival in Santiago, I thought it fitting to present my gallery of gatos espanoles:
Cat door in Ziriegui:
No cat here, but I love the fact that many of the churches and other old buildings along the way had built-in cat doors. No wonder I like Spain!
Kitten in Ciraqui:
This little guy greeted me as I entered this hilltop village, which I described in my journal thusly: “Ciraqui is a charming village with many cats.”
Logrono cat:
This lovely lady was taking in the early morning sun as I walked into the city of Logrono.
Cat on a wall:
A farm cat just past Hospital de Orbigo popped up to see who was walking by.
Gato Peregrino:
Oh, I so fell in love with Gato Peregrino.
A tiny little kitty with a voice like a trumpet and the heart of a lion. He snuggled with me all afternoon in the village of Riego de Ambros as I sat soaking in the afternoon sun after a particularly cold, windy, rainy walk. And the next morning he followed me for 4 miles along the Camino, until we reached a point where we could see the next village. What could I do but carry him back to his home? If I could have figured out a way to take him all the way to Santiago and on to California, I would have.
Laguna:
My first Galician cat.
O Cebreiro:
O Cebreiro had particularly handsome cats in residence.
Cat in barn:
His canine companion protested loudly, but I took his picture anyway.
Black cat outside of Santiago:
This cat reminded me of my cat Archy, who, thanks to the useless catsitter, had managed to run away and get lost, and had been missing for almost 3 weeks at this point. I asked this cat to send a message to Archy via the international cat telekinesis hotline, to let him know I’d be home soon. It worked. Archy returned home the day before I did.
Cats in Love:
These two cats in Santiago LURVED each other. They rubbed, and purred, and rubbed, and purred.
October 16 2007 | Cats and Travel and Tuesday Mewsday | 4 Comments »
When Melissa and I drove home from Oregon, we began by traveling west to Canon Beach on the coast. From there, we took a quick run out of our way, heading north to Seaside. The reason? Carousel cats!
Look at this handsome creature:
He’s been using his fierce claws to catch a fish.
And his companion has had good luck fishing as well.
No cats will be going hungry on their watch.
Not only did this carousel feature cats. It also offered bunnies and pigs…
… and a very sincere young bear.
Of course we went for a ride, with me perched side-saddle on the black cat and Melissa astride the white.
Closer to home, my favorite carousel is at the San Francisco Zoo. I generally need to take several rides so I can visit with all my favorite animals.
P.S. This may not seem like a knitting-related post, but trust me—I have plans for these beasties.
August 21 2007 | Cats and Travel and Tuesday Mewsday | 1 Comment »
When Melissa and I made our trek to Oregon, we took Interstate 5 North, then cut west to the coast highway for the drive home. We’d already been talking about retiring to western Oregon when the time comes, now we’re absolutely set on it. Here are a few of our favorite sights—photos by Melissa.
Once we hit the coast, we did a little jog north to Seaside.
Our first night driving home, we pitched our tent at Devil’s Lake campground.
The coastal bridges in Oregon are wonderful, solidly constructed of steel and concrete, but with crenellations and turrets that set each one apart and speak of a time when beauty wasn’t sacrificed to efficiency.
The dunes were breath-taking, but not where we’ll retire. Melissa took these two photos in a protected area. A few hundred yards to the south, the dunes were given over to all sorts of roaring, grinding all-terrain vehicles that had obliterated the beach grass and wildflowers.
The roadsides were thick with flowers, including a favorite of mine—thistles.
If we could pick any of the spots we stopped at for our future home, we would choose Port Orford. We stayed in a small motel, just across the road from this beach and managed to squeeze in a walk before the rain really started pounding.
Port Orford is the furthest point west in Oregon, so if it’s going to rain anywhere in the state, it will rain there.
When we got home, our tent was still drippy from the rain we had at Devil’s Lake, so Melissa set it up inside to dry out. Damian quickly nominated himself Chief Tent Inspector.
Lucky for us, he seemed to find everything in order.
August 11 2007 | Cats and Damian and Travel | 3 Comments »
Our “mystery” road signs have all been accounted for.
Mandie had the first correct answer, idetifying Troutdale as the home of Tad’s Chicken ‘n Dumplins.
Lin came next, placing the Egyptian Theatre in Coos Bay.
Nicole figured out that Bell Buoy Crabs is in Seaside.
And Lella solved our last mystery, tracking the penguin to his home in Cascade Locks.
Amazingly enough, none of our winners lives in Oregon—in fact, two of them live outside the U.S. Viva Google! Viva winners!
August 04 2007 | Contests and Travel | 2 Comments »
[Note: There is no knitting content in this post, so feel free to skip it—but be advised that if you do you'll be missing out on some of the coolest gigantic roadside art ever.]
Who in her right mind would drive past this sign without pulling over?
The mighty Tyrannosaurus beckons Siren-like and I am helpless, forking over my $7 admission without batting an eye.
(Check out the man-udder on this guy; Damian would be jealous.)
Prehistoric Gardens is just south of Port Orford on Oregon’s coast. While clearly an amateur effort, these dinosaurs have been sculpted with real love, passion even, and a commitment to scientific integrity. Sculptor E.V. Nelson consulted with academics and did research on his own, trying to assure that these dinosaurs are accurate in terms of size and proportions. He provides context with several large signs outlining the evolution of plant life (that made life on land, and hence dinosaurs, possible) and the geologic epochs in which these creatures lived.
We were lucky enough to visit the gardens on a drippy, misty day, so the setting was perfect for an encounter with these megafauna.
We saw Triceratops, both adult…
…and junvenile…
…Ankylosaurus…
…Elasmosaurus…
…the Pterodactyl…
… and Archelon.
We even escaped with a little dinosaur of our own.
Melissa found this baby Stegosaurus in the gift shop. I have named her Rowena.
If you, too, have been enchanted by this lost world, you may want to check out the following links:
• A photo collage of the dinosaurs
• Prehistoric Gardens map
• A history of Prehistoric Gardens and its (sadly no longer in operation) “sister” Thunderbeast Park
• A complete set of photos of all the dinosaurs (these photos predate a recent, and more subtle, repainting of the creatures)
[Tomorrow, some knitting. I promise.]
August 04 2007 | Travel | 3 Comments »
One of the joys of a road trip is stumbling across all sorts of interesting signs and other oddments along the way. Melissa and I have a particular weakness for old-school neon. Here are a few of our favorites.
The anonymous penguin drive-in.
Two views of the trés sophistiqué Egyptian Theatre.
I think I took a few years off Melissa’s life when I swerved to the side of the road to get these shots.
Henny-Penny’s worst nightmare.
What makes crabs crabby.
So here’s the contest: the first person to leave a comment naming the correct location for each of these signs gets a hand-knit dishcloth with a surprise knitting goodie thrown in. That’s four signs, four dishcloths, four chances to win.
In addition to the above signs we also spotted Frankenlincoln in Ashland.
Yep, his head was stolen, then replaced.
Sadly, it was not Tuesday when we passed through Medford, Oregon.
I will still be haunted by the imagined pleasures of Ladies’ Day at Penzoil when I’m on my deathbed.
Still life with dishcloth and cone.
We left Portland early in the morning, drove west, and had breakfast at the Pig ‘n Pancake in Seaside. We were hungry by then, but we’d have stopped even if we weren’t.
We did not buy one of these plush pigs, but we did purchase a wooden pig (with pancakes) to hang on our Christmas tree next year.
Some of you may remember back in the day, when Sambo’s got with the program and reinvented itself as “A Taste of Baker’s Square.” Apparently there was a hold out.
We were relieved not to see any Sambo depictions, but we did find the tigers rather jaunty.
We’ve been careful not to show this picture to Damian or we’ll never hear the end of how he needs pants and why do we insist on denying him.
Sparky would be so chuffed if he had a parasol like this one.
And if you think some of these images are wild, just wait until you see what’s in store for tomorrow.
August 03 2007 | Cats and Contests and Damian and Spartacus and Travel | 13 Comments »
Oregon is a needleworker’s paradise. Yarn everywhere, quilting shops in every town with a population over 800 (I’m not kidding; it’s like they have a law about it or something), and more bead shops than I’ve ever seen in my life. Given this—and given that Melissa and I were foolishly engaging in non-knitting pursuits like visiting friends and trekking through nature’s majesty—I had no hope of completing anything but a haphazard survey of a handful of shops. So I humbly submit my report on Oregon’s LYSs, incomplete and quirky as it is.
Powell’s Books
1005 West Burnside, Portland
Okay, so Powell’s isn’t a LYS. Nonetheless, Powell’s does have the biggest collection of knitting books I’ve ever seen in one place. While Melissa wandered the art section and our friend Ellen browsed poetry and recent releases, I camped myself out on the floor in front of the knitting shelves and got to work. My first go-through I picked about a dozen must-have books, which I toted off to a quieter corner (the knitting section was hopping) to sort through. After much sighing and sifting, here’s what I chose.
No-Pattern Knits (Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer) struck me as one of those books that goes beyond offering a group of patterns to opening up a new world of possibilities. Each chapter focuses on a different modular shape and strategies for using it in multiples or combining it with other shapes. On the one hand, I’m dubious about modular knits because of all the joining, but the possibilities this technique offers are so endless that I know I’ll go there eventually, yarn needle in hand.
Like No-Pattern Knits, Debbie Bliss’s Knitting Workbook focuses more on opening up possibilities than on producing a specific set of garments. If you look at the table of contents you’ll see that the beginning chapters contain material that can be found any number of places, but the last few chapters struck me as unique in their approach to particular topics. I can’t wait to play with the information about “Embroidery on Knitting” and “Edgings on Knitting.”
The IK special issue on felting needs no explanation, I’m sure. And the remaining two books went to gratify another one of my passions: embroidery. The sampler book was on sale for six dollars and offers a concise, well-illustrated history of sampler-making. I’ve repeatedly checked out my local library’s copy of Elizabeth Bradley’s Needlework Animals, so when Powell’s had it at a significant discount (regular price thirty-five dollars), I figured some higher power was giving me a sign and that I’d better buy it. If you like needlepoint or counted thread embroidery, look for a copy of this—the colors are rich and the designs are detailed and striking.
I am pleased to report that Damian gave my purchases his paw of approval.
The Yarn Garden
1413 SE Hawthorn Blvd., Portland
Count the awnings in the picture. They’re all Yarn Garden. This store takes up the better part of the front half of a city block and offers a dizzying array of books, tools, and yarn, yarn, yarn. And, oh yes, a cafe (perfect for Melissa to sip tea and sketch in, while I drooled over yarn). The yarn is organized room-by-room by weight and within rooms by manufacturer.
The selection is so overwhelming that I wound up buying very little—I was afraid of what might happen if I really let my acquisitiveness get going. I left with materials for two small intarsia projects (I seem to have had colorwork on the brain during much of this trip, perhaps because the cool weather got me thinking about winter and caps and gloves and the like): two skeins of Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted and two of Ella Rae (a new brand for me) Classic.
If you’re coming in from out of town and are starved for variety in your knitting, this shop would make an excellent stop.
Mabel’s Café and Knittery
3041 SE Division, Portland
If I lived in Portland and had to choose a “home” yarn shop, Mabel’s would be it. The inventory isn’t huge, but it’s much more than adequate, with a wonderful selection of affordable, natural-fiber yarns. The staff here is welcoming, and the shop supports an active community, not only of knitters, but of readers, as well. Mabel’s even has a Book Club that allows knitters to gather, needles in hand, to discuss non-knitting reading. Mabel’s also offers several free weekly classes. With lots of open space, you can spread out to knit, read, and eat.
I dug a bit more deeply into my pocketbook at Mabel’s. They have the full line of Cascade Yarns, and I picked two skeins of 220 Heathers (more colorwork). Also finding their way into my basket: some Bartlett Yarns‘ wool (again with the colorwork and another new brand for me), Drops‘ Alpaca in a great yellow-green heather, and Crystal Palace’s Kid Merino in Kiwis-Mangos and Escorial. (If I hadn’t already started Mystery Stole 3 in Brilliant, the Escorial would be a great choice.) My final purchase at Mabel’s: twenty-five cedar balls for only five dollars. Santa Cruz moths, beware!
Knittn’ Kitten
7530 NE Glisan, Portland
The Knittn’ Kitten is really a thrift shop, not a yarn store, though it does carry yarn.
If you’re looking for new, top-quality yarns, you’ll probably want to skip this store, but if you like digging through bins of acrylic to find that rare vintage wool or enjoy sifting through piles of old embroidery transfers and boxes of jumbled buttons and beads, this shop will delight you. If you’re the patient type, you can leaf through rack after rack of 1950-1980 needlework magazines. A back room features vintage linens.
Coastal Yarns
131 West 2nd, Cannon Beach
Melissa and I just took a quick stroll through Coastal Yarns, and I managed to leave without any new purchases, but if you’re driving down the coast and need a yarn fix, a stop here could do the trick. Our favorite feature was the armchair in the back room with a rack full of guy-type magazines to distract vacationing husbands while their wives shop for yarn.
Latimer Quilt Museum and Textile Center
2105 Wilson River Loop Road, Tillamook
The Latimer Quilt Museum and Textile Center focuses on quilts, but features other needle arts as well, including knitting, weaving, and spinning, and is well worth a stop—so when you see the signs for it on Highway 101, prepare for a small detour. One room holds a collection of looms (there are weekly demonstrations on these), another displays vintage quilts, while a third offers contemporary quilt exhibits. The exhibit we saw featured the work of Kathy McNeil, whose mix of piecing and appliqué results in striking nature quilts.
This is where I picked up the hand-crafted yarn that’s up for grabs in the Guess-Our-Mileage Contest.
Happy Kamper Yarn Barn
8854 Highway 101, Florence
I should have known by the sign on the door that this shop would be my Knitting Shangri-La.
Sadly, they do not have a web site, but trust me. If you pass through Florence, You Must Stop Here. I would seriously consider retiring to Florence, just so this could be my LYS.
The Happy Kamper Yarn barn offered a wonderful (and thorough) mix of both familiar and new yarns. Look to your left as you enter and you’ll see shelf after shelf of sock yarns. I fell for Universal Yarn’s (yet another new brand for me) Ditto in a self-striping, black-red-grey colorway. Wander through the several rooms this shop fills, and you’ll be unable to keep your fingers to yourself. This shop has every color of both Patons‘ Classic Wool and Plymouth’s worsted-weight Encore—so much nicer than looking at the one-inch square swatches in a mail-order catalogue. Patterns are displayed alongside the yarns they feature, rather than being shelved separately, a very helpful arrangement.
Happy Kamper Yarn Barn featured all sorts of brands I’d never encountered before: Wisdom Yarns (I bought Poems); Dark Horse Yarns (I picked some Magic Life, which has a cozy-spongy-bouncy texture); NuMei Yarns (I was smitten with Jubilee); and Lane Cervinia (my pick—Softer). Wisdom is owned by Universal; Lane Cervinia by Plymouth.
Brutus sits in an armchair just inside the front door and greets all arrivals.
The Wool Company
990 2nd St, SE, Bandon
We made our final Oregon knitting stop at the Wool Company. While this store carries a wide range of yarns, it specializes in—what else?—wool. I saw skein after skein of alpaca I wanted, but limited myself to a bit of Berrocco’s Ultra Alpaca. I also fell for some Shetland Spindrift by Jamieson’s (back to thinking about colorwork) and Queensland Collection’s Kathmandu Aran. The Kathmandu is a wool-silk-cashmere blend that is wonderfully soft and equally wonderfully affordable.
If you stop here, be absolutely sure to check out the hand-crafted, enameled buttons next to the register. They’re pricey, but the detail and craftsmanship will take your breath away. I limited myself to choosing three (no picture of these; we’ll have to remedy that), but could easily have racked up several years’ worth of debt, if Melissa hadn’t pulled me away just in time.
Having had all this fun in Oregon, I decided it would be a sound fiscal policy to grit my teeth and drive past any California yarn shops I spotted. Now that I’m home, I’m wishing I had all the arms of a Hindu deity, so I could begin half a dozen new projects at once.
Tomorrow: a break from road trip news to fill you in on the San Francisco Stitch ‘N Pitch.
July 25 2007 | Books and Cats and Damian and LYSs and Oregon and Travel | 4 Comments »
Just for fun, I’m launching What If Knit’s first contest. Here’s what you have to do: guess the mileage for our road trip. The prize: your choice of two of these five skeins of Oregon yarn, which I purchased at the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center in Tillamook, Oregon.
Just leave a comment on my blog between now and next Sunday at noon, Pacific Daylight Time, with your mileage estimate and yarn choices. The yarns are 100% wool in skeins of 50-75 yards each, so two should be enough to work up a hat or a pair of wrist warmers. (To identify your choices, just assume the skeins are numbered 1-5 from left to right.) The prize will go to the person who comes closet to guessing our actual mileage.
By the way, your submissions may not show up in the Comments section immediately. Do not worry! We do get them all; it just sometimes takes a little while.
Here’s a hint: We began our trip in Napa, California; from there our route went through Ashland, and east to Crater Lake, on to Portland via Roseburg; we next crossed northern Oregon to Cannon Beach, and finished by taking Highway 101 South back to Oakland. (We did a bit of tourist-y driving, as well, exploring the Columbia Gorge, driving around Portland, and making a quick jog up to Seaside.)
To inspire you as you work on your estimates, here are some of the sights we enjoyed during the first half of our trip (all photos courtesy of Melissa).
Castle Crags State Park, California
We’d like to make this park our destination for a camping trip sometime soon.
Outdoor Quilt Exhibit, near Ashland
Crater Lake, Oregon
Crater Lake’s chipmunks are completely unintimidated by the paparazzi.
Accustomed as we are to California’s summer weather, we marveled at the snowy patches that linger year-round at Crater Lake.
Umpqua River
Clearwater Falls was one of our first stops along the Umpqua. The falls aren’t high, but the dense green colors and wild spill of water charmed us.
At Toketee Falls we hiked a short, steep trail, leading to the falls. We could hear the falls during the entirety of our walk, but only caught sight of them as we rounded a final curve.
We spotted this ghostly plant on our walk back to the car at Toketee Falls.
Columbia Gorge
My knitting instincts led me straight to some locally spun yarn in the gift shop at the Columbia Gorge Vista House.
We took a short hike past a waterfall along the Columbia Gorge and continued on under this bridge into misty, silent, green woods.
We took another short hike up to the bridge at Multnomah Falls.
For the moment, I’m off to bury my face in the new Harry Potter—my first stop at home was Bookshop Santa Cruz—but I have lots more to share: scenery from the second half of our trip, roadside oddities and attractions, and yarn shop reports. Stay tuned.
July 22 2007 | Contests and Travel | 49 Comments »
