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Hey, Jan,

This is kind of picture heavy, sorry about that, but I just had too tough a time choosing from the over 400 pictures amassed by the many photographers on our recent WV vacation to make it shorter. Call us the papparazi of the natural world.

It was a great vacation. West Virginia is a gorgeous state. It has stunning flora and fauna, and interesting microclimates (shown are the Dolly Sods, an alpine plateau, and the Blackwater Falls).

It also has a nice yarn shop in Elkins. Yarn and Company was bustling with customers, despite being out of town on a windy road. Of course, the real reason we go is to reconnect with family. Here is a shot of the owner, Sandra, with one of her sheepy friends. You should be receiving a little surprise from there soon.

Of course, the most important reason for vacation is family. You can spot Paula in the Dolly Sods picture, and you saw Neil in the last post. Here are the 3 siblings together and one of Wilson and Helen.The siblings shot was taken on a mountain biking expedition (my first - it was fairly tame, hence fun. My worst injury was while walking the bike through the woods - those pedals are really sharp if you run them into your calf.) Here are Jon and Merry on the same trip.

We took an old train for a ride through the mountains. It was fun to pretend we were gamblers in the parlor car. And fun to horse around on the tracks.

We ended up in Virginia. My buddy from when Wilson was in grad school, Ellen, lives there with her husband.  Her kids all happened to be in town the night we were there. Carolyn, who is right between Karen and Jenny in age, showed how she could transform string into useful objects and herself into a sophisticated young woman. It was fun to see the brotherly banter of Roland (a bit older than K) and Russell (a couple years younger). And Ellen and I agreed that none of us looked any older than 20 years ago.

No knitting to show, but the next post is overloaded with it.  Brace yourself!

Love,

Ellen

Dear Ellen,

I decided to find a means to do a brief post while on this trip — otherwise I will keep waiting for enough time for a proper post and will never get one up at all. So here are a few photos and some minimalist comments to accompany.

Max hates squirrels. They have no place in our yard. Here he is diligently on guard for the squirrel who has had the audacity to make a nest in the tree growing next to our fence. Technically the nest is outside of our yard, but as the branches do emanate from our tree, he feels it is a violation of policy. When the squirrel comes out of the nest, Max barks ferociously and chases the squirrel along the fence till he/she (I have no idea which) leaves the area. If he/she does not leave the area, and instead chooses to chatter at Max from the fence corner post, Max will charge said corner post and nearly scale the upright to try to make it clear to the squirrel that this is totally unacceptable. As a result, Max will sprain his ankle and be required to wear fashionable leg wear in the form of sock and bandage to help provide support and compression. He also got to have ice compresses…and seemed to enjoy all the babying. This was just over a week ago and he is trotting around just fine now. Ruby pretty much slept through it all.

I have continued to enjoy knitting with the “Spinners with Altitude” group. Here’s a shot from the meeting two weeks ago at “Table Rock Llamas.” The lovely space in which we are seen knitting (okay, I’m not seen — I’m taking the picture) is the back room where there is some extra storage and where classes are held for dyeing, knitting and especially spinning. The problem with this group is that they are trying to tempt me into yet another craft by offering the claim that spinning is really just a “companion craft” to knitting — not to be considered a detriment to knitting time. I don’t know, but I must admit it truly is starting to tempt me. Flash (Anne’s new baby) is not tempted by spinning, but he does enjoy a comfortable sweater (Anne’s Enchanted Forest sweater). I have a feeling that Flash could be spun into a delightfully soft yarn and all that would be left would be a cute little bark.

We are all moved in now — my office is making progress. This photo is about a week old and there has been much improvement to include the stashing of the stash in “cube” shelving that I put into the closet. When I finish I will post photos of the completed effort to prove that my office/craft room was very neat and organized at least one moment in time.

The day before our birthday I had a surprise party and cake at work, the day of our birthday I was serenaded with “Happy Birthday” by both NPR (coincidentally they sang “Happy Birthday” to their listeners to embellish a story about wacky copyright issues) and the Colorado Navy community at the annual picnic. There were two huge cakes at the picnic, one chocolate and one vanilla, and I was told I was expected to have a piece of each. (NPR did not provide birthday cake.) That evening Dale had a few friends over and we had red velvet cake that he baked himself. (He is truly mastering high altitude directions!) So, that made it a 4 cake birthday…guess there’s some good in turning 50 after all! I hope you had a wonderful day too!

Love, Jan

Hi, Jan,

I’m sitting here on a conference call, waiting for the moderator. Perfect time to multi-task and do some knitting updates.

Not a lot to report, actually. We are enjoying being with family and a stormy day yesterday kept us in, allowing me ample time to knit on DITF, frog on DITF, and knit again on DITF. The shot shown is after 10 hours of productive knitting. This doesn’t count the 1.5 hours of frogging and resetting the pattern.

This sweater is teaching me a lot about knitter’s optimism. That last major frogging episode came after I heard a tiny voice in the back of my head telling me the color wasn’t quite right, and yet I ignored it for several rows. Now I hit a spot where you set up a new motif repeat and the first row is 2 green, 1 black, 3 green, 1 black, repeat. You’d think I’d double check that I knit that correctly, wouldn’t you? Nope, even though I know the eye is very clever at filling in patterns it thinks you want to see, and even though I actually thought about the fact that I know that, I blithely trusted my very quick review of the row. Again, two rows later, major frogging needed. I guess the only consolation is that knitting this sweater is like petting kittens the whole time.

I also started a simple scarf and finally got going on Rivendell. I’m hoping the scarf will block out smoothly, but as it is a quick exploration of this lovely Malabrigo yarn, I’m not too worked up about it. It is my “knit with family discussion going on” project. Rivendell is challenging enough that it is my “knit while watching movie with family” project. For the most part, the pattern is intuitive and doesn’t take THAT much attention, plus frogging a merino/tencel blend is much easier than a merino/angora blend, aka Bohus yarn.

On a walk at the Germantown, MD hotel, we saw these two mockingbirds in a very active interaction. Wilson thought it was a competitive thing, but I pointed out all the butt-wagging and gift-giving, hence my confidence that this is prelude to bird nuptials. Not so different from humans, eh? (Not intended to be directed at K&B - this is a general statement!)

I hope to have some WV mountain pictures for you next time.

Cheers!

Ellen

Hi, Jan,

I really should be going to bed. I have to finish packing my office tomorrow and start the intro meetings with my new team, plus we have a team meeting for which I really honestly planned to have a sharp discussion outlined ahead of time to impress everyone with their new manager’s critical thinking skills, but as I got out of the car Eryka said, “I bet you’re going to go home and update your blog, aren’t you?”

What else was I supposed to do? Especially after we had such a raucous and fun night knitting. Beer and wine were drunk, chocolate cake was eaten, and indeed, much laughter was laughed. It was one of our biggest turn outs ever.

I didn’t try to get pictures of all of the projects - it’s hard in a public place like that - but some of the highlights included Karen’s soon-to-be-felted colorwork bag, Lisa’s very beginning of a shawl (her first knitting in a long time!), and a dynamite tank in a gorgeous green knit up by Annie.

Instead of listing everyone else’s projects (and thereby sidestepping the need to point out that I came home with no progress on my Rivendell socks (for such a simple pattern, I sure managed to make a series of frogworthy mistakes)), I am going to just list everyone and their vocations - to list avocations would take too many kilobytes.

Annie A - nutritionist

Lisa G - pastry chef

Chris - food scientist

Kathy - lawyer and beegirl

Kim - marketer

Leslie - program executive for corporate mentoring group

Kari - pastry chef (yes, we’re that lucky to have two in the group!)

Peggy - school counselor/social worker

Lisa P - food scientist (sure, we’re lucky to have two of these, too)

Eryka - PR specialist (and blogger - check out Spare Room Knits(TM!))

Karen - civil engineer

Annie M - knitting designer and knitting heretic

Ellen - biochemical engineer

And the folks who didn’t make it tonight are pretty awesome, too.

This is an incredible group of women - when are you going to come knit with us?!

Love,

Ellen

Dear Ellen,

Today was a lovely day. I started out with our now routine dog walk (a record 18 bunnies were sighted this morning!), unpacked a few more boxes and then got to run out to the “Knitters with Altitude” knitting group. I had a good time with these ladies and they are not only people with whom it is easy to sit, knit and chat, but they meet Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. Those timings make it far more likely I’ll be able to become a regular. The big topic of excitement is that Kirsten is on the verge of having all the necessary arrangements to open her own yarn shop. She finds out if the loan is approved on Monday. Also, Christi (or Christy or Kristie or Kristy — no, I didn’t find out) is shifting from employment to avocation. She’s clearing enough on her own hand-dyed yarn, roving and spinning tools (Crazy Monkey Creations) on Etsy, that she quit her job and isn’t intending to go back. Oh, and I also got a few inches done on my sock. No camera at the group, so you’ll have to suffice with the sock photo. I’ve decided on a simple spiral rib for the pattern.

On return I worked away in the bathroom/bedroom and I’m confident I’ll finish tonight in there. While I was beavering away at unpacking, Dale figured out how to get our granite kitchen table into the house and then decided it was time to give the new gas grill its christening. He did a most lovely job on steaks, corn, roasted onions and peppers and baked potatoes. Yummy and I didn’t cook. Neither of us could finish our steaks, but the pups had a very good time with the bones. Max had to do major rolls afterwards and then hung out with Dale to show his appreciation. Ruby found the remainder of his bone while he was cavorting. This little dove kept us company all through dinner.

We really enjoy our backyard and the entire locale. We don’t have a lot of flowers, but we do have a few star asters and Rocky Mountain Columbine. I have a corner full of mint and a raised bed that is unplanted and just begging for a garden fork and some color. It will wait another weekend or two, but then I’ll plant whatever looks good at the garden center with thoughts about what should go in for next spring. On our morning walks we can see the mountains at the end of the path and there are plenty of local flowers and squirrels and bunnies to keep us entertained.

My postings of late are rather filled with the routine of life and settling in to a new home. Maybe not the most exciting, but I am so much appreciating the moment and with that am compelled to share it.

Love, Jan