A Fistful of Stitches

wow house

Last weekend Lisa and I spent a ladyweekend up in the woods.

With J-La working seven tens right now (that's seven days a week, ten hours a day. true story), the possibility of a vacation for our family this summer is looking slim, so I'm taking every opportunity I can get to make my own vacation, as it were. This seems to be coming in the form of housesitting, which works out quite nicely for my budget as well. In May I got to housesit for our friends Doug and Theo, who conveniently live about four minutes away from us. I was able to spend as much time as I needed at home with our sweet pets but also had the pleasure of staying in their amazing home, sleeping in their comfortable guest room, and cooking in their Big, Awesome Kitchen (the biggest lure for me).

So when my friend Bernie offered his place in the woods of Sonoma County to me, I jumped at the chance. Two-and-a-half days out of town can seem like a long time. Lisa and I have been talking for a while now about finding a week (or even weekend) getaway house to escape to and do some cooking, reading, relaxing. Perfect. The day of our departure it was 100° in Oakland, I kid you not. If you live in the Bay Area you know that if it's that hot here, it will be even hotter in Sonoma County, but we kept our fingers crossed. It was indeed hot, and the house had been closed up, but it wasn't long before we got it to a manageable temperature. Plus, we stopped at the market for groceries and wine (and beer) on the way, so we were set. We weren't far along in our first glasses of wine when Scott and Ene, the owners of the property and Bernie's friends, came home. They offered to take us on a tour of the property and while doing so told us a bit about their past and vision of the future of the land where we were staying.

I certainly can't do it justice, and when I start thinking about it I get so excited I really don't know where to begin, but suffice it to say I was fully inspired. Since I'm not sure how much they want a guest blogging about the ins-and-outs of their property, I'm not going to go into too much detail here. But I will say that I was blown away by what they've done and what they're planning on doing. The projects that they've worked on in the past are really cool, here are their web sites: http://www.thewowhaus.com/ and http://www.deepcraft.org

Favorite moments of the weekend:
    - fresh eggs brought to us by Ene on Saturday morning (see picture, above)
    - Copperfields Bookstore in Sebastopol, where I got this book. I am obsessed with it, btw.
    - arriving at the Sebastopol Farmer's Market and seeing belly dancers and lots of locals "dancing along"
    - cooking dinner
    - adding some of Bernie's fresh thyme to my pluot conserves
    - Chester, the cat, who freaked Lisa out with the "gift" of a dead lizard
    - Luna, Scott and Ene's dog who we cared for one day of our stay. So sweet!
    - Lisa's ongoing observations of the hat-wearing Sebastopol community
    - reading for hours on end

ah.

the only one i know

am I the only person in the world who's not currently knitting/queue-ing this?

group bamboo

Yarn Tasting at Article Pract* last Sunday
theme: Bamboo

photo courtesy of Wonder Mike. Thank you my dear!

[warning: shameless self-promotion] *Speaking of which, if you've been to the shop and liked it (or if you're just a super good friend of mine and love to support me in any way possible), it's the time of the year when our local paper trolls for votes for "Best of the East Bay". This year there is no category for Best Yarn Store (or Craft Store or Knitting/Crochet Store). Last year we won the write in vote and thus got a write-up (! - this still blows my mind - !). So if you feel like helping me stuff ballot boxes, go here (paste this: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/poll?poll=oid%3A726988 if the link doesn't work) and do some voting. At the end of the poll there's an opportunity to do a "write in". Thanks friends!

flippin flappin finally

I am knitting again. I officially gave up my yarn tasting blanket to another* and am MOVING ON. Call me a quitter, call me a knitter, I just needed to get my needles back in action and that blanket was seriously cramping my style. I have settled on finishing this project.

Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veroník Avery
Classic Elite Alpaca Sox
Addi Lace needles size - ? - they look like US4 or 5 to me (these needles make my hands smell like I've been holding pennies, by the way. I am not a fan of that. Love the tips, though, so it's a trade-off).
This project was inspired my by girl Brainy, btw. She's been cranking out some sweet lace and I am jealous.

*SJA will be taking over. Pictures forthcoming...

dinosaur park

Did any of y'all grow up in the LA area, close to San Gabriel?

I woke up this morning thinking about Dinosaur Park (aka Monster Park, apparently, although we always called it Dinosaur Park). My memories of this place are amazing. For a kid, so fully rad. Huge plaster monsters, animals and dinosaurs to play on, in lieu of jungle gyms and the like. Imagine, as a slide, the tentacle of a starfish. In recent years I've asked around and tried to find it again, albeit without the help of my handy dandy computer. I went old school and asked folks, getting back merely blank stares.

So I was going to post asking if anyone remembered it and if it was still there, but before I did, I did a Google search. Presto! Easy. So ... now I know that as of a few months ago, it was still there, even if it's set to be demolished. My next question is whether anyone knows the status; did the petition work?

If you happen to live in the Los Angeles area, close enough to Pasadena as not to balk at driving when gas is $4.75 a gallon (okay, that's up here in the Bay Area, which means it's a tad cheaper in LA), check out this park. If it's still there, will you let me know?