Youngest son made me a corsage for Mother's Day. It's surprisingly hard to photograph white roses - this one just looks like a blur. You'll have to trust me that he did an excellent job. 
The Gare's become a pro at making ribbon flowers; he showed Marie how to do it in about 10 seconds.
Look what Dick made me for Mother's Day. 
It's a hand-turned holder to display some of my antique crochet hooks. 
The center section is maple burl and he filled some of the wood's natural voids with turquoise. 
The top and pedestal are Madagascar ebony. 
The base is elephant ivory from the 1920's (pre-ban). 
He's been working on this for over a month. 
I knew he was turning something for me but I had no idea what the final product would be. My photos don't begin to do justice to this - it is stunningly gorgeous.
I love it! Happy Mother's Day y'all!
It was one year ago today that I wrote my first blog post. The lovely Lisa talked me (challenged me?) into starting my own little web diary when I complained about my inability to find crochet/fiber/knitting blogs. I wasn't sure I'd like blogging - wasn't sure I'd keep writing - wasn't sure I'd get any readers. But with a grandchild on the way, (yes, she has her own blog. Doesn't every 5 month old?)
multiple hobbies
and a herd of cats,
I figured I had enough fodder to at least give it a try.
One year and 241 posts later, I can safely say I like this blogging thing. I like the camaraderie of fiber bloggers, the sense of community, the exchange of ideas, the encouragement and feedback. I like sharing yarn p0rn. 
I like having a place to put all the flower photos I feel compelled to take 
but never do anything with. 
I like that I have friends I never would have met if not for our blogs.
So if you're reading this, thanks for a great year and happy blogiversary to you. And Lisa? Thank you very, very much.
The second and fourth Thursday of each month, I spend the afternoon at my favorite yarn shop, available to help customers with wayward crochet projects. It's a fairly new program and Thursday afternoons aren't very busy in the yarn business, so I have a lot of time to work on my own projects. Which is a very good thing since Addy's christening is only nine days away.
Today I started - and almost finished - her bonnet. It's made from the same Debbie Bliss Pure Silk as the dress and booties. 
I need to get some pearl cotton (or maybe silk embroidery floss?) for edging and some silk ribbons for the tie, and this one's done. 
The dress is about 2/3 done; it's a stay-at-home project now that I'm crocheting with the yarn still on the swift. I still need to start the booties but I think they will go pretty quickly.
Piece of cake, right? So what do I do? Come up with another project! Tonight I decided Addy needs a christening blanket to go with her dress. sigh. Want to bet I'm still working on that on the flight to Denver?
I like the concept behind Kiva.org - people with small amounts of money (usually $25) lending to people in developing countries to help them start or grow a business. I give to established charities, but I really like the one-on-one feeling you get when donating through Kiva. And I like the fact that the money will be paid back; it isn't a free ride but rather a helping hand.
I also like that I can pick the businesses and entrepreneurs I want to fund. So far, my choices have all been women; I look for those who share my interest in fiber arts (weaving, spinning, tailoring), or who raise food (my first loan was to buy cattle in Azerbaijan) or will fund education - going to school or paying for their kids' education. Who knows, maybe someday I'll find a crocheter or knitter looking for funds to buy sheep or alpaca so they can spin the fiber and weave items to pay for their kids education. The perfect opportunity.
Hey. It could happen.
Marie was afraid I wouldn't have anything to blog today, so look what she did, just for me. . . 
Kidding aside, she's not seriously hurt - just a golf ball-sized knot on her knee and a going-to-be-spectacular-tomorrow bruise from the seat belt.
She was the last car in what looked to be an eight to ten car pile-up on the 101 freeway. It looks like her front fender slid under the SUV in front of her. Their back bumper missed her bumper entirely and slammed into Marie's engine compartment, causing considerable damage. Her poor car had to be pushed out of traffic lanes by the CHP; it's definitely not driveable. 
Nobody was seriously injured - thank heavens - and Marie's car looked like it sustained the worst damage. Want to place bets on whether or not the car is totaled? 
I say yes, but Dick says maybe not. We'll see what the insurance adjuster has to say next week.
I started Addy's christening dress back in March but put it on hold when the ceremony was moved from April 14 to May 19. Unfortunately for me, the little stinker kept right on growing. This is Sweet-Sweet in April . . . .
and on May 1. 
So today I rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrripped the dress back to the armholes and redid it, adding two rows to the bodice before starting the skirt. Since the number of stitches increases in each row, this added width as well as length. After about six hours of steady work, I'm just a little further along than before my trip to the frog pond. 
I have four rows to go before the pattern settles into a two-row repeat, which continues until I reach the right length. I love the pattern and the detailing - 
and I love the look of the yarn (Debbie Bliss Pure Silk).
Working with this stuff is another story. It's so slippery, the neat little ball I made on my winder falls apart after just a few rows. I've spent almost as much time untangling this mess as I have crocheting. I think that, rather than wind the next skein into a ball, I'm going to work with it still on the swift. It's got to be faster than what I've been doing. (I hope.)
In today's knitting class, I learned to K2tog, SL 1, YO, YFRN, PSSO, and C4F. And it was EASY. And FUN. No photos though - I was too busy knitting to remember my camera. Now that I know more than just knit and purl, I feel like I'm really a knitter. Not yet a KNITTER, but I'm getting there.
I also taught one lady to crochet and showed two more how to start the sock-yarn shawl. 
And the top I made to wear to Breanne's graduation? It now lives in Wenona's closet. It looks fabulous on her, even if I do say so myself.
All in all, a very fun, fibery day.
The first real square for my knit block-a-month project is done. I give you . . . .
basketweave! (It'll look better after I block it, honest.)
And this weekend I figured out how to start my seed stitch block - 
without having to wait for Sally or Wenona to show me.
These two blocks will join my first (very sad) garter stitch block. This was the first knit thing I ever finished and it will have the place of honor in my afghan.
I think I'm finally getting the hang of this knitting thing. I made some errors on the seed stitch block and I was able to unknit it and fix them without having to rip it all out and start over. Tomorrow is another knitting lesson with Sally and I think our next square is lace. The desire to make lace shawls (this one!) is the reason I'm determined to master this knitting thing. Should be interesting. 
I've been known to find some pretty good airfares, but I outdid myself today. Round trip from Burbank (not LAX!) to Denver, flying out on a Friday morning and back on Sunday night, for only 
I knew getting onto the Pepperdine campus for graduation was going to be a hassle. Laura Bush was the guest speaker, so the Secret Service and CHP were involved with crowd management, traffic and parking. You know that old saying about too many cooks? Goes for police agencies too. Dick and I had already decided to just sit back, relax, enjoy the day, and take the inevitable delays in stride. It's a gorgeous campus, so enjoying the scenery wasn't a hardship.
Graduation was at 10:30; I wanted to be on campus by 9:45 but knew that was probably unrealistic given how difficult it is to get all of us up and moving in the morning. We actually made it by 10:00 . . . just in time to get a ringside seat for Mrs. Bush's arrival. We were second in line to make the turn onto campus when traffic in every direction was stopped and oncoming cars were blocking by a police unit. 
Dick and I were pretty sure we knew what was happening (he's been there, done that), so I had my camera ready. The entourage drove around us in opposing traffic lanes, 
and turned onto campus directly beside us. I missed the shot (eww) of the two Secret Service guys in the back of one of the escort cars, with the tailgate open and guns at the ready, facing Mrs. Bush's vehicle. 
In less than a minute, it was over and everything was back to normal. Or as normal as it can be when you're trying to get thousands of people into one place.
Pepperdine handled the crowds better than I expected. They had numerous shuttle buses running from the parking areas and had an overflow venue set up for those who couldn't get into the main graduation area. We didn't even try for the main area, just headed straight to the Smothers Theatre as 'overflow'. Great decision. We had comfortable seats, air conditioning (it was pretty hot out in the sun, especially for the grads), and watched the entire event on a big screen. Sweet. 
We caught up with Breanne after the ceremony. Can you tell how happy she is?
Not only to be done with studying and term papers and finals, but to finally have that degree in her hand. Congratulations, Breanne!! 
Breanne and cool Cousin Gary.
Remember when I was all excited about this? 
Almost a month ago, I found the yarn on sale (for $2!!) and promptly started the pattern from Doris Chan's book, Amazing Crochet Lace.
As usual, I got distracted by other projects. But I'd like to have the option of wearing this to Breanne's graduation tomorrow (congrats, Breanne!!) - so I worked on it all day yesterday. And at 11:30 last night, I was pinning it to the blocking board and patting myself on the back for having finished it by bedtime.
Yeah, right. The fourth block - which was my first block - was significantly bigger than the others. Seems I made just a tiny, little error, which resulted in 7 sections per side rather than the required 6. So, at 2 A.M. I finished pinning the newly recreated fourth, er, fifth motif to the board and called it a night. 
I'll sew it up today and then see if I really want to wear it tomorrow. Cross your fingers that it doesn't look like total crap on me.
UPDATE:
Sewn up & ready to go. 
The front is one square, the back is another, and one each for the sleeves. I thought it was going to be tricky to put together, but it wasn't. It doesn't look anything like the photo above - the sleeves hit me about the elbow (not a bad thing) - but I think I'm going to like it.
Have you had your smile for the day? Addy ate her first cereal yesterday and dad caught the action on video. Cute!
Betty's Fabric in Santa Maria had some yarns I'd never seen before, including this super soft "Moods" from Universal Yarns. (197 yards of 50% wool and 50% acrylic). I love how the color changes from darkest black, to progressively lighter grays, to solid white before reversing the process back to black. 
Dick is a black and white kind of guy (hee) so I thought this would make a perfect scarf for him. I cast on 32 stitches on size 13 needles - the manufacturer recommended size 7-9 needles but I went bigger since I wanted this to be loose. I knit every row until I got to a solid white or solid black section of yarn, then I did six rows of stockinette before going back to garter stitch.
I'm pleased with how it turned out. If I had it to do over, I'd cast on fewer stitches - maybe 15 - so it wouldn't be as wide. 
But it's soft, has great drape, and it's FINISHED. In only two days. And I was able to watch TV while I knit; I didn't have to concentrate solely on what I was doing. Love it!
I'd like to get more of this yarn in other colors (they had a great turquoise and a purple that I liked) but I can't find it on-line anywhere. Anybody know where I can get more of this without having to go back to Santa Maria?
Dick had a hankering for some Santa Maria-style barbecue so what better place to get it than . . . . Santa Maria. We've often talked about taking a train trip and he decided to combine the two into a day jaunt. 
Our plan was to take the 9:15 Amtrak from Oxnard to Guadalupe, then return to Oxnard on the 5:01. 
Dick went to the station on Thursday to purchase our tickets; Amtrak's website is difficult to navigate (there's a surprise). The agent said that Coach was almost full - there might only be standing room - so Dick bought Business class tickets. Maybe the agent got a cut of ticket sales or maybe there were a lot of no-shows, but coach was definitely not full; more like echoingly empty. (We know this because the restrooms in our cabin were broken, as were the ones in the next two sections. Everyone had to use the toilets four cars back.)
Business class had definite advantages. Reclining leather seats, plenty of leg room, free snacks and drinks, and big windows to watch the world roll by. Very comfortable and relaxing. 
With one annoying disadvantage - cell phone usage was not banned, as it is on airlines. See the guy in the seat behind Dick's head? Very loud, very carrying voice. Lots of big important travel plans he had to arrange right. this. minute. We got to hear all about it until cell service suddenly cut out (awwww) just north of Santa Barbara.
Why, if we wanted Santa Maria, did we go to Guadalupe? For this - 
The Pacific Surfliner travels along the coast all the way from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, with a stop in Guadalupe but not in Santa Maria. To reach Santa Maria, we would have had to take a train to Santa Barbara, then a bus from Santa Barbara to Santa Maria. Not what we had in mind.
The highway and train track run right along the coast from Oxnard to Santa Barbara. At Gaviota, the highway turns inland but the train continues up the coast into areas with few roads. The scenery was breathtaking, with ocean vistas on one side 
and meadows, ranches, and mountains on the other. And the best part was that we got to sit back, relax, and leaving the 3+ hours of driving to Amtrak.
We had a few minutes to kill while waiting for the taxi in Guadalupe.
The depot is a three-sided, open air building with benches and entertainment - 
two birds scolded us - then serenaded us - for disturbing their nest building activities. But watching their antics also showed us these -
spider egg sacs. I really don't want to be around when those hatch . . . .
Guadalupe was a little further from Santa Maria than Dick thought (a $33 cab ride, each way. ouch. Public transportation in CA s***s.) The driver dropped us at a BBQ stand near an antique store (another reason we chose Santa Maria; they're supposed to have a lot of great antique stores) - which turned out to be beside a fabric store with a wonderful yarn shop. Can you say 'stash enhancement'?
I found this book, which I'd never seen before. 
Cables are my favorite thing to crochet; I can't wait to start on these patterns. The store also had some unusual yarns. I bought one skein to make Dick a scarf, along with (better sit down - this may be a shock) some knitting needles. And I knit while waiting for the train 
- and while on the train - 
and all day today. And tomorrow, I'll have an FO to show you. 
A knitted FO.
