Restless Knitter

San Francisco was nice. We did some touristy things, like seeing the redwoods

visiting the Cakebread winery

and driving on steep winding roads that scared the crap out of me.

There were also a couple of yarn shop visits. First stop was Marin Fiber Arts, where I bought Drops Alpaca for a Wrapped In Comfort shawl. The other shop was Imagiknit. There I bought some Misti Alpaca Lace, possibly for something from Victorian Lace Today. I liked both shops. They were both friendly without being overbearing, which is why I felt the need to purchase something. Both had nice ranges of yarn to choose from, though Imagiknit had a larger space so a larger selection.

I started a sock before I left (something about trying to make sure that first round isn’t twisted on an airplane doesn’t appeal to me) and ran into a bump. I emailed the designer for clarification but I wasn’t able to check email until after I got home. I did get about 2 inches into the sock after we got home but I’m going to frog it. The socks (Dream Twister Socks) are pretty, I’d really like to make them, but they’re too fiddly. It would be a miracle if I finished the first one, let alone get up the motivation to do the second one.

Bella found a new friend yesterday. You can click for bigger if you want a better look.

That is what is known as a Western Rattlesnake. Also known as OMG BELLA GET IN THE HOUSE WHERE IS THE SHOVEL I HOPE IT DOESN’T GET ME BEFORE I GET IT! The Man was visiting family over an hour away so I was on my own. This little guy was right outside the back door, against the house. The wood in the bottom right corner is the decking that he slithered out from under. I’m assuming he slithered, I didn’t see him come out. Bella was giving little barks at him where he is. Our lawn chair has a nylon canvas back and seat so I turned it on it’s side to make a barrier between me and the snake. I got the shovel but with the lawn chair and the snake being right up against the house, I was having a hard time getting the shovel pointed just right. I slowly started lowering the shovel to make sure I was going to hit him and not just rock, and he finally had enough. He retreated under the deck, rattling his little tail off. Fantastic, he still has his head! By the way, I didn’t get as close to him as it seems. Thank goodness there’s a zoom feature on cameras.

I’ll end with a more pleasant picture, taken by The Man

It’s really hard to sum up SAFF with one word. If I had to choose just one, it would be AWESOME! but that word doesn’t fully explain the joy of seeing missed friends, spending time with them, the laughter, the shopping, the animals, the beautiful scenery, and just plain relaxing.

If you want to see some pictures, they’re here. As much as I’ve tried to write up a proper post, it ends up being too long and I delete it. So in a nutshell:

• Left at 1am Thurs morning, arrived at hotel around 10:30 or 11:00am
• Started a sock in the airport, slept a bit on the plane
• Room wasn’t ready until 2:30 so knit in lobby
• Shopped on Friday, spent more than I should have
• Much fun at dinner
• Weaving class Saturday morning
• More shopping after class, someone stop me!
• Blogger/ravelry meetup (where I was too shy to talk to anyone, ugh)
• Early to bed Sat night, early to rise Sun morn (4:15, yuck)
• Delayed flight to Atl
• 20 min to run to flight from Atl to LA
• Home

Maybe I’ll write up a proper post in a day or two.  For now, check out posts made by ESC and Grace.

Saturday, the Ventura County Handweavers & Spinners Guild held their annual open house, sale and show. While hubby and his mom were doing some sightseeing, I did some sightseeing of my own. I swear, this just followed me home. All on it’s own accord, with it’s little rubber feet.

The lady was selling it because she isn’t interested in 8 harnesses, she does what she wants with 4. I bought it because I’m interested in 8 harnesses and this was a cheap way to find out if I really want that many. (And, there were two other people who appeared to be ready to slap down their money and I was afraid it was going to get away from me. Nothing like a little competition to make the heart grow fonder.) In one of the first Handwoven magazines I bought, there was a dog collar that was made with an 8 harness that I’ve wanted to make. I’ve already slapped a little test warp on this one to see if I like the mechanics of a table loom. Just from my little play session, I think I’ll like a floor loom better (you were right Janice) but this one will still provide some entertainment. If not, I’ll sell it and move on. The loom itself is a 10inch 8 harness maple loom by Montana Loom and I paid less for it than most of the 8 harnesses I’ve seen on EBay.

The Secret of Chrysopolis is no more. Amazing what one little dropped stitch can do. I attempted to fix it and found myself with one stitch where five had previously been. Instead of adding more frustration to my life, I said a nice goodbye, promising to come back to it again someday.

Today has brought us a new adventure in California weather. It’s windy. Hurricane force winds in some area. Winds up to 80 mph. Don’t even attempt to fix your hair wind. I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto. But with the wind comes something else

Dust, or dirt. I took this picture and came inside to upload it and start a post. In that half hour (I’m slow), it changed to look like this

Most of the sky looks like this behind our house. In front of the house, it’s still blue. Scratch that. It was blue, now it’s hidden behind a veil of dirt.

Edited to add: I know better than to listen to the “dirt” source. That isn’t dirt, it’s smoke. There are 7 fires surrounding us.  Don’t I feel stupid.

I believe another package has disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle. I have come up with a brilliant plan to find this Triangle. See, our mailbox isn’t at our house. It’s part of, what I would call, a community mailbox. There are 5 or 7 mailboxes all in one big metal box down the street. To get our mail, we take a key and open the slot that is for us. Anything bigger than a magazine needs to be brought to our door. Anyway. This morning, I found a box that is too big for the mailbox. I stuck a nasty note in it about opening mail that doesn’t belong to you. I addressed the box to myself and stuck neon green, yellow, orange, and pink stickers all over it. I mailed it to myself with delivery confirmation. Tomorrow, I will drive by all the houses and find out just where the mail lady thinks we live. I’ll also find out who the jackass is that ate my TimTams! Brilliant don’t ya think. Or maybe I’ve gone a little off the deep end.

Just as I finished writing that, I heard something at the door. The mail lady came and delivered

On the plus side, hooray for getting my toys! On the negative side, there went six bucks down the toilet, mailing myself an empty box.

Want to see what was inside those packages? Two of the packages were from Donna. In the box

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, these are the best cookies/biscuits EVER! And Addi Lace needles in sizes 5 and 6, woot!

And in the envelope

A yarn bouquet! Isn’t that just too cute? I love it! It’s so cute that I almost hate disassembling it. Almost. The yarn is from Zen Yarn Garden and is the perfect pink. Thank you Donna!

In the brown box was one of the books I ordered from YesAsia. The schematics seem to be a little different in this book so it’s going to take some studying to figure out. The challenge is good for the mind. Or at least what’s left of it.