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Dear Ellen,

I’ve promised more on New Zealand, so here it is.  Let’s start out with a nice cold Steinlager Pure, shall we?  Feel free to sip while we tour through Wellington.  (Corry is taking a picture of her Steinlager as I’m taking a picture of my Steinlager.  Beer and photography seem to be common themes for us.)

First, let me say that  I was in New Zealand on business…and I was very productive!  We accomplished a lot of very important work that will move forward our interoperability with on New Zealand, Australian, Canadian and UK partners.  Days were full — really.  I just had to say that before I started to gush about how much fun we had. On our first day there (recovery from 24 hours in the air plus layover and transit time of another 4-5 hours) we took a walking tour of the city of Wellington with our new friend Kerry.  She was the volunteer guide from the city and congratulated us on being the only two to show for the tour — the weather was pretty cold and wet.  (We warmed up with coffee and hot chocolate though.) Kerry took us all over.  New Zealand is very much a maritime nation and there was much evidence of that…from the lighthouse lens in the wharf museum to the amazing restoration work being done on timbers from an old ship found beneath one of the downtown buildings during renovation.  The water is about 5 blocks from where we are standing in this picture with Kerry, but it used to come right up to that point.  The ship had been stranded ashore after an earthquake redefined the shoreline.  It was then used as the base for a building only to rediscovered these many, many years later.  We walked and talked for about two and a half hours.

Of course New Zealand is also known for Peter Jackson and his work with “The Lord of the Rings.”  It was a big deal for Wellington, and they have included a few exhibits referencing the experience in their very nice city museum (where I am showing my world-traveling Fibre Space bag — so I can enter the Fibre Space contest for best traveled bags later this summer!).

Wellington has a really nice botanical garden.  You can ride the cog railway up to the top of the city and then walk down through the gardens.  I was just blown away by the huge ferns.  I kept looking for the dinosaurs.  The winter roses were pretty neat too…as were the weird trees.

Our business sessions were held in a sky box at the Wellington Stadium — where the next World Cup will be played.  We wanted photos to show we were here so we could claim bragging rights when it comes round.  No one else seemed to want to knit.  We also held a session at a few vineyards on a “break day” — taken to allow our working groups to write up the decisions to be taken so that we could act on them before traveling to our home stations.  We did some work with their Joint Forces Headquarters in the morning and then headed out for more important business at Te Karainga and Tirohana Vineyards where we sampled wines and (at Tirohana) enjoyed a fabulous meal.  Amazingly some of their wines came home with me.

And what would a New Zealand post be without sheep?  When we went out to the countryside, there were sheep all over.  I wish I could have gotten some pictures of some of them — the biggest, puffiest things you could imagine.  Though mostly they grazed about, I saw some of them frisking about and even though the size of small lorries, they were bounding about with glee.  It was amusing to see them sproing about, especially given you could barely see any legs!  Corry and I saw this picture while out shopping…proof that merino really can make one hot keep one warm!

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Oh…and here’s a kiwi…and a kitty!!  (Watch out, kiwi!!!)

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Love, Jan

Dear Jan,

First, I must admit.  I am not a linguist.  I should not be playing with things I don’t know.

But it has to have a meaning, it is so potent. Since I couldn’t find one, I cobbled one together.

Halifax - like breathing, from halare (Greek, to breathe) and fax (short for facsimile). (How did they know about facsimiles when Halifax was founded?)

First, NYC in a New York minute.  After arriving at Jenny’s and scarfing down her very delicious vegan mac ‘n’ cheez, we set out for an afternoon of meandering the Natural History Museum and strolling along Central Park.   Jenny escaped the clutches of some very large disembodied (and terrible) hands, then we visited Bouchon Bakery where they treated us like queen and princess.     We followed that up with dinner with Dylan, Jenny’s buddy.  A great day.

On to Halifax, a delicious blend of nature and city, old and new.  The view from my room pulled me back into history.  But from the water, looking towards the hotel, a very modern vibe.

And, hidden behind those buildings, great fiber!  Some friends and I lightened the shelves at LK Yarns (oodles of Fleece Artist and Handmaiden - it’s smart to buy local, eh?).   But my favorite shop was The Loop Craft Cafe.  Their selection was smaller, but the shop was open and friendly and carried unique and local yarns.  And it was maybe 5 or 6 blocks from my hotel - I visited 3 times!

I brought home a sweater’s worth of a two ply, rich in lanolin, spun from local Cotswold sheep wool from Lange’s Rock Farm, milled at MacAusland’s in PEI.  Your hands soften just picking up the skein for a moment.

Resistance was futile when faced with a supply of vintage singles from Sweden.  I plan to ply it for use in Norwegian style knitting - think ski sweaters that like a nice hard wool.  I had to get at least one of each marvelous color - they aren’t making any more.

After fitting these purchases (and a few more, as Birthday Season* is approaching) into my suitcase, I headed back to Minneapolis where I got to enjoy an evening out with Erica and Marika.  We took in the current exhibit at the Textile Center, then over to Steven’s where  we had the place, and your and my favorite Glitter Knitter to ourselves.  Steven managed to convince Erica to model (she looked so sweet!) and then showed off the very male sweater he is knitting out of hardware store findings.  Yes, that is actual chain, not chain stitch, at the bottom.  (Because it is Steven, there is a little cashmere in there, too.) The big news is there is a big photo shoot tonight.  I’m not saying any more in public, but you might want to make a Habit of checking out knitting advertisements.

A couple more Birthday Season** purchases came home with me from our outing, but the best treat of all was a hand painted merino roving, dyed by Erica herself.  I was floored that she brought me such a treat.  There are  spots in it where the dye eluted into its constituent colors, reminding me of the bond of science Erica and I share.  Even Wilson said it was really pretty - wow, that is high praise!

I inhaled all the adventures of the last week or so, but there is yet more fun in the offing.  Carol (Wilson’s cousin, my dear friend) emailed to say she had something for us - family treasures that last about 15 years and come in pairs.  We are going to visit them tomorrow.  If we click, they will come home to live with us in about 5 weeks.  How will I ever get to sleep tonight???

Love,

Ellen

*officially runs from June 18 to July 19, encompassing Karen, Jenny, then my (our, but you knew that) birthdays.  I made purchases for the other celebrants, not myself.

** ditto

Hey, Jan,

It sure was fun spending a bit of time with you on Friday.  The Stitch ‘n’ Pitch was a fun way to meet your friends and the water taxi sure was the right way to get to the stadium to see the Nationals play Baltimore.

It was too bad the game ended with a loss for the Nats, but it was fun that the evening ended with fireworks!

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Swishing the camera as it recorded the picture made some interesting shots.

While in D.C. for business, before seeing you, I did finish off my second helmet liner for the year.  We’re finishing up our liner drive at work this week - they’ll be packaged with a bunch of other goodies and shipped by our veterans club to soldiers (and sailors?) wherever they are needed.

Having done about ten of these over the years, I keep trying to make them interesting.  First I rewrote the pattern to add a gussett to the face opening so it would lie flatter, now I’m tweaking the size of the opening, narrowing it a bit.  And this time I got crazy on the decreases, alternating a few ssk’s with k2tog’s to get a lightning effect.

I will weave in the ends today and get this off to our Helmet Liner Commander in Chief, then on to the next week of work.  Most of it will be in Nova Scotia, where I’ll be attending a scientific meeting.  No Stitch ‘n’ Pitch, but there is a great knitting shop, The Loop,  just around the corner from the hotel.  Jump on over to that link for some cute free patterns.

I hope your week is the bomb.

Love,

Ellen

Dear Ellen,

I have been seduced by the “It Takes a Tree” contest at Brooklyn General Store.  Instead of finishing Like Buttah, I spent the last two days making a new friend.  (He has pipe cleaners in his arms and tail for posing!)  My original plan was to make a baby front carrier, baby squirrel, baby squirrel toy, shawl, etc. to fit my creation out as a momma, but I keep getting a vibe off this squirrel that he’s a he and not a she.  I’ve put him up as a project as Squirrel About Town and think he’s going to end up with a top hat and tails instead of the baby paraphenelia.  I’ll let him rest for a few days.  As long as I have him in the mail by next week, he should make the deadline.  (Stay tuned for sex change operations as I figure out his/her actual identity.)

Like Buttah did get some great knitting while I was on travel to California.  I intend to finish it up this week.  It really has been a fast and easy knit.  Very good for long plane flights on which I was struggling with fatigue.  I was able to score dinner with Jeanne and Frank while I was out there.  It was really nice to have a chance to see them — had been way too long!

Yesterday we drove to Pennsylvania to set stakes marking the edges of the house and garage so we could get a better feel for how it will sit on our property.  It is really making it all feel very real…so exciting!  We’re tracking towards a late summer ground breaking…fingers crossed!  And when we got back, I had to get out my finest hat so we could go to friends’ 136th Kentucky Derby party.  Neither of us got to see our chosen horses make it into the winner’s circle, but we did enjoy some great barbecue and time with friends.

Short post tonight…spent too much time with my new friend today!

Love, Jan

P.S. I have to adjust the resolution on the new header before I can put it up…will try to get that nailed down this week as well.   Stayed up just a bit later…and got it right on the first try.  Facelift complete…for now.  (I guess it was really just a lid lift.)  Dear Readers, be sure to “Refresh” several times till you get the new look on your screen!

Dear Ellen,

This morning I dragged myself out of bed at 3:30 AM so as to make it to Reagan International in time for a series of flights that would take me to Monterey, CA.  I’m speaking in one of the classes at the Navy Postgraduate School Information Professional Center of Excellence in the morning and then heading to San Diego.  Tuesday morning I speak at a Joint Tactical Radio System S&T conference and then get on the red eye to head back to DC, arriving at 8:30 AM Wednesday and then hustling into the Pentagon in time to give a briefing on future netcentric investment strategies at 10:00 PM.

All this and what I’d really like to do is get home and finish my little mitered bag.  I enrolled in Annie Modesitt’s on line course and it’s quite fun!  When I should have been packing, I was mitering.  I didn’t have enough time to spare to finish it, but I did get a good bit of progress on my class bag.  As I was rushing, it’s a bit wonky, but I’m putting a lot of faith into the felting of it to erase my sins.  I didn’t bring it with me — too many balls of yarn and a desire to finish the samples and pattern for the Hugs and Kisses socks.  I think I may be able to have both complete by the end of the trip.  Then I can finish off that little bag! (Then I’ll probably do it again, with more precision and in other colors!)

Love, Jan