Knitting!

The one bad thing about Ravelry is that I update my projects on there but I forget about my blog. So here you go, I have updated pics of the Swan Lake (aka MS3) Stole. I didn't really work on it the month of July but have been trucking right along on it this past week. I am so very pleased with this project. I love the yarn, the pattern is very pretty, and beading is a breeze! If you aren't a member of the group, I would highly recommend purchasing this pattern for yourself.

Whoops!!

I could have sworn I posted about my Father's Day present to my dad this year but in searching my blog, apparently I didn't!

First let me tell you a story. Many years ago, my dad's grandma started a quilt. She took the cast off clothing of my dad and his siblings and crafted a Dresden Plate patterned quilt (I think that's what they are called). She passed away before she was able to finish the quilt and my mom, being pretty much the most crafty woman in our family, inherited all the pieces. I remember from when I was a little girl, my mom working on this quilt, embroidering around the edges, with bright orange yarn. After awhile, the quilt was relegated to the back of our linen closet where it sat until this past year. I took this quilt and had it quilted for my dad for Father's Day. There is a wonderful woman, MaryAnne Huggins, based out in Ojai that took on this task. My dad was mildly pleased with the present, his first comment being, "Wow! It sure is bright!" I wasn't expecting him to fall over gushing so I wasn't too disappointed. He did recognize though, that this is now an heirloom quilt for our family. This first photo is the quilt on my dad's bed. This second photo is a close up of one of the panels.

Breath of fresh air

It is kind of hard to convey the physical effects of the smoke in our air through a computer. But let me give you an idea: every day I wake up congested, my throat is scratchy and I am constantly clearing my throat. I lack energy and my thought processes are slowed down. But today, today I went down to the beach for a few hours. And I finally was able to clear my head of the smoke. There was a nice breeze coming off the ocean. So no smokey pictures today. I do have more to share, especially of yesterday's HUGE smoke plume. But let's pretend for just a few minutes that there is no fire going on. I spent yesterday at Golf N'Stuff in Ventura for Sadie's 10th birthday. I don't spend much time with kids let alone a gaggle of ten-year old girls but I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed my time. It's been a very long time since the last time I played miniature golf. I will let Chaun share the story of the day. I do want to share one photo with you though. It's a great example of what happens when you regularly shop with your best friend. :)

That's right, similar outfits. Very similar outfits. How funny that both of us thought of Preppy Cute as the theme of the day. And how funny that we were dressed appropriately for golfing!

And speaking of Chaun, I just love her. She always knows just the right thing to say or do when I am not feeling myself. It was a rough week and due to something that I chose (and had) to do, I have been feeling kinda lonely and slightly depressed. So, what could possibly make a girl feel better? Yarn of course! Ahhh, SeaSilk in Peridot. It's some of the most beautiful yarn I have ever seen. It's ideal for the Hanami. Thank you, thank you Chaun! I love you!

More ashy pictures.

What... you wanted knitting pictures?? Sorry, I only have ashy, smokey photos today. It was a bad one today. Not only did the smoke and ash come down like snow but we had the marine layer to contend with. It was quite the depressing day actually. The first photo is of my car window after a night outside. The second is outside Java Station at knitting last night.

Okay, fine. I will talk knitting! I have finally gotten back into knitting again. I had a bit of a social life there for a few months but I am finally learning how to balance the two. I am working the Mystery Stole again and will post pictures of that over the weekend. Maybe I will. If my wireless comes back up and I can do the uploads quickly. If not... we will see. I also have pulled out the Rusted Root and the Julia. Both are turning out beautifully. The Rusted Root is such a simple knit I really should be done with it. It's almost embarrassing that I've let it languish this long. Yeah. That's about it. I don't even have new yarn to brag about. :)

Picture 1446

Picture 1446, originally uploaded by tellen24.

Really, I am just playing around in Flickr instead of working. I just found out that I can post pics direct from Flickr to my blog. That's damn cool! This is the light box setup that I started out with so I could log in alllllll my stash into Ravelry.

Ignoramuses

So I was watching the news last night and they had some fire people on there to answer questions from the public. I changed the channel after I heard these two questions:

"Is Hope Ranch in danger?" They had JUST gotten done explaining how the fire burns, timelines, who was in NOT in danger, etc. And can the woman who called NOT see that she is on the other side of the freeway?? Meaning she is about as far as she can get from the fire??

"How toxic is the fire retardant they are using?" Who cares?? Put out the fire!!

I can't say that we've known the entire time what was happening with the fire but much of the time (in July) it wasn't a threat. As soon as it started to head towards Santa Barbara/Montecito, we were inundated with information. I can't believe how selfish and ignorant people can be in these situations.

That's all. :)

Beautiful ending to an otherwise crappy day

I guess fire is good for one thing...beautiful sunsets.
How about another one for good measure. :)

Smoke

I took these photos down at the end of my road today at 6p. I had Photoshop do it's own photomerge, hence the slightly odd looking triangular areas. :) This is what we see every day, all day. This smoke cloud is actually darker and brown as you get more into town, towards Goleta.

Bats Outta Hell!!

I received this email earlier today and I received permission from the writer (my cousin Kalah) to post it on my blog. Please feel free to laugh your ass off. :)

See, I don't like winged bitey critters. That normally is about bees and wasps, but it also includes bats. Bats are bigger and fly erratically and AT NIGHT when you can't SEE THEM. When bats are flying at night and I'm outside? That is my clue that it's time to move myself inside. When bats fly overhead, I cringe and duck. I hate bats. They totally give me the heebie-jeebies.

This evening, when I was walking from the kitchen heading back downstairs, I see this dark spot on the wall of the Dining Room (overhead, right before walking down into the Living Room). There weren't any lights on, so I reach over the dining room table to turn on the light (hitting my toe on the chair and swearing in the process). I start wondering to myself, "How did a frog get way in here?! Stupid thing, he's going to dry out up there."

I turn the light on and freeze. Hellooooo! That's a BAT! In the HOUSE. THERE'S A BAT IN THE HOUSE! How do I get it out? How am I supposedtocatchaBAT!? Enter Panic Mode.

I call my folks in AZ. No answer. I call my wonderful brother and tell him what the deal is. (He laughs.)

Alan: "Do you have thick leather gloves you can use?"

Me: "Yes?"

Alan: "Use those, maybe a glass jar...."

Me: "Ok, do you understand how much bats freak me out?!"
Alan: ~laughs~

Me: ~trying to breathe~

Alan: "Okay, how about a fishing net? You can net him."

Me, thinking to myself, 'That only gets me about 12" from the bat...'
Me: "That only gets me a foot away!"

Alan: "Ah, you REALLY don't like them... You can open up some sliders and get the bat flying around; his radar is probably freaking out and he just wants to get outside."

Me: "Um. Open the sliders? There are more bats out there!"

(I think this is the point where my dear brother realizes he's talking to a GIRL.)

But he does give me an idea. Tape a fishing net onto a pole. Bloody brilliant!

So that's what I head out to do when my Dad calls. They wanted to know if everything was okay (I unblocked the number when I called them, and I never remember to do that.) Dad also does the "Get a jar and put it over him, maybe use a piece of cardboard or paper to trap him in, an-"

"DAD! Bats! Freak! Me! Out! I am NOT getting that close to it!"

By this point, I locked Stella in my hall by closing the hall door. Just what I need, have the bat fall, Stella grab it, and end up with the bat having rabies. (We've had to have a bat tested before. German Shep and I were in quarantine until we found out the results.)

Dad: "Well, you know your side of the house is okay, so just leave him there."

Me: "I can't do that." (as my heart beats faster. A bat? In the house? Where it may move somewhere and I won't know WHERE IT IS?)

Dad: "You can always call Tom (neighbour), he'll come help you."

Me: "I think I have a plan, but I'll keep him for back-up."

So I get the fish net, pole (that the spiderweb getter is on), and duct tape, and start taping. I go upstairs. I really really wanted to put on a thick jacket with hood and my ski goggles to cover the only part of my face showing, and I had an image of fishing waders, and of course thick gloves, BUT I was brave, I snuck up on Bat (if being 10' away is sneaking up), I had to scrape him (with the metal part of the net) to get him into the net, then I took him through the living room out to the deck. (Me and one end of the pole on the inside of the slider, bat and fishing net side of the pole out the outside of the slider.) Shook him out, he hugged the deck, and there he sits.

I hate bats. This is the second time I've had a bat in the house (first time he was flying in circles in my room. I promptly shut the door and told Dad to go gettem! This was many, many years ago.). (I had an owl in the house at a place I was housesitting... when does something become a pattern?)

I think my hands have stopped shaking enough for me to paint my toes. Whew!

Bloody bats.

hehe, fire fire!

Okay, I am just a bit old to be quoting Beavis and Butthead but that's all I can think about these days is the fire. I am referencing the Zaca wildfire which is sorta, kinda just a little bit threatening Santa Barbara and Goleta. I really do mean that it's just a little bit of a threat. If our Sundowner winds (similar to Santa Anas but they come in when the sun goes down) start up, which apparently could happen, then the fire becomes a real threat. But here is a photo of what I can see at my house:

Jason and I went on a motorcycle ride yesterday up 33 past Ojai. We actually ended up running into a wall of smoke and had to turn back around so I didn't get any really cool, upclose photos of the fire. But I will show you one of the pictures I did take.

Saturday's Shower

I have never seen so many knitted items at a baby shower! I was expecting a little sweater or two, a hat, a crocheted blanket by the new grandma, you know, the usual. Let's just say I am SO glad mine was the second gift they opened. The blanket went over very well and I got my oohs and aahs. I had forgotten though that the sister of one of the mom's is a crocheter/knitter as is their best friend. AND they received some hand me down items that were over 40 years old and had never been used. I think they ended up with 5 blankets, 2 hats, 1 pair of socks, 2 booties, 2 diaper covers, 6 sweaters, and a few pairs of pants.

And now, as my boyfriend put it, "Now that the blanket is done, you can go back to the mystery stole!" So understanding, that man. :) He is right, I will be picking up the mystery stole on which I am very far behind. I have discussed this with Chaun and both of us know that if we put it down, we probably won't go back to it. I am also going to work on the Silk Garden sweater for awhile and then pick up Julia. I have been spending a fair amount of time over on Ravelry. I am very impressed with what those two have created. One of my favorite things to do is to find a pattern I want to knit and then go search to see who else has knit it with what type of yarn. It's very time consuming, updating everything on there but it's well worth it I think.

In other news, the ash of yesterday has turned into mush today from the misty fog. It's lovely. Oh, and I did get some really cool pictures of cloud formations and the sun yesterday on my drive home.

Gift knitting and some ash

I wish I could do it. I wish I could selflessly give to my friends and family my lovely, hard worked, knitted items. But I can't. I love them too much! See, I have a baby shower to attend in Long Beach today. And I decided to make a baby blanket. I chose the Tiramisu pattern by Alicia Paulson done in LionBrand CottonEase. And I bitched. I moaned. I groaned. For two weeks. Until last night. Last night it all came together. The creamy color for the body combined with the dark burnt orange of the edging topped off with a beautiful grosgrain ribbon. "It's beautiful!" I exclaimed. "All that hard work was worth it!" But why did I do it really? Oh. :) I did it solely for the Ooh's and Aah's at the shower. :) I am just so bad. I am sure the parents will love the blanket as I do. I am now considering a larger sized one for myself.

And for those of you outside of Santa Barbara, a picture of our ash. :) Due to a long burning wildfire northwest of us, we were covered in ash yesterday (well, some parts of
SB have been ashed for over a month now). It was literally snowing ash.

Looking for some HP closure?

J.K Rowling did an interview recently where she discussed the lives of the people in the epilogue. I was happy with the end of the book but I do feel a little bit better after reading the article. :)