More actual knitting content. And flowers.

Well, I'm still on the Oregon Coast. I really like it here, although it rains. A lot. I was joking with a friend that I'd counted approximately 15 different types of rain in five minutes on my second day here.

It wasn't an exaggeration. I haven't re-acclimated to the whole Oregonians-standing-out-in-the-rain-as-if-nothing-wet-were-falling-from-the-sky thing either. We went to visit Skip, who is a friend of my mom's (he's also a knitter. and a glass artist. he's AWESOME) and we all popped out to his garden to view the bonsais. In what seemed like a downpour. Nobody else seemed to mind.

It also hasn't cracked 50 degrees F (10 C) here, and I swear I'll freeze to death, between the humidity and the chill. Bruce says it's been in the 70s and 80s and sunny in NYC. He and Georgia went to the beach. In actual bathing suits. I went to the beach. In two polar fleece jackets, jeans, sneakers, smartwool socks, a hat and scarf. I was cold.

DESPITE the weather, I still like it here. The landscape is gorgeous. The mountains fall right into the sea, the cliff roads provide astounding views and there are lots of neat flowers and cool birds. We saw a bright orange grosbeak today. Very pretty.

Dewdrop in lichen:

Another crazy columbine. These things look like alien fairies. Or something:

I've knitted two scarves for my mother (on size 15 needles, so not too tough) out of one skein of Berroco Lumina each.

Lumina Scarf - Green

Lumina Scarf - Blue

We have also hit nearly every yarn store on the north Oregon Coast. Twice.

Yarn has been purchased. My mother underwrote most of the purchases (THANK YOU MA!).

Two skeins of Astral by the Alpaca Yarn Company in the Virgo colorway:

Two skeins of Plymouth Happy Feet in the colorway "24."

One skein of Socks that Rock in the Rooster Rock colorway:

One skein of Socks that Rock in the Tide Pooling colorway:

And one skein of Malabrigo Sock in the Ochre colorway, currently being knitted into a pair of Monkey socks for my mother. She has small feet, which is quite an attractive feature in a sock victim recipient.

Well, I'm in Oregon

About an hour after we got back to my mother's house, we discovered that the surgery that was scheduled for tomorrow was cancelled by the doctor. This was in addition to a bunch of other incredibly annoying crap that happened on both coasts.

On the very positive side of things, today at dinner I sat at a table in front of a huge picture window and watched elk cavort across an uninhabited island in the bay. Then we went at bought ice cream and I took the dog down to the beach for a run.

After that I took pictures of the flowers in my mother's front yard:

I have no idea what these flowers are. If anybody is desperate to know, just post a comment and I'll ask my mother.

Also, I got a TON of knitting done on the plane today.

Actual Knitting Content

Try to contain your amazement.

In a few days I'm traveling to the Oregon Coast to care for my mother after she has some surgery, and I don't know how much blogging I'm going to get done. Also, when I get back, we're going to be doing some serious apartment hunting and moving, as well as Ella's wedding on the 18th, and about 50 million other things we've got going on (Bruce's book proposal has been sent out to editors and we're waiting to hear back from a publisher who might want to buy it!)

Anyway, I finished the Embassy Scarf (my Rav link) and gave it to my sister-in-law, Jen, who fell in love with it as I was knitting it. It was a fun pattern, easy to knit, and will look great with just about any yarn.

I used about a skein and a half of malabrigo lace in the noviembre colorway.

Pix:

Today I started the Breezy Cardigan by Hannah Fettig. I'm pretty excited about the pattern, as it is really relaxed and lovely, and I started a KAL for it on the Hannah Fettig group I moderate (with Implausible Yarn) on Ravelry.

My Little Flower Girl

Still working on the knitting content, but it may come eventually. I'm almost done with the Embassy scarf. I was hoping to get it done before the rapture (wrapture? Heh), but alas. Oh, funny story about that: Georgia and I were on the bus yesterday and a bunch of church ladies were complaining that they couldn't get in for their regular Friday hair appointment because everybody was in the salon getting their hair did for the rapture. Yeah. Gotta love the Bronx.

Anyway, Ella and I just bought the flower girl dresses for Georgia and her cousin Emily (who is just three weeks older than Georgia, so they're the same height, look similar, but Emily has curly hair).

Here are some pictures of my kid and the cuteness:

Stoopid Blogger Problems

Today is the first day I have been allowed into my own Blogger account.

Also, I haven't even been allowed to comment on other people's blogs.

Sigh.

I'll actually stick some knitting related content on here soon.  Providing that blogger doesn't crap out on me again.

The Embassy

After knitting a full 42 of the flowers for Ella's wedding, I got completely exhausted by them and am officially giving up on a full effort (instead leaving it to whenever I need something brainless to knit on). I've only washed and blocked 20 or so of them, and because they have to be sewn up and then attached to buttons, and then attached to pin backs or stems, or something... yeah. It's tedious.

She wanted a Rock Island shawl by Jared Flood, which I started up, and realized that I had absolutely no freakin desire at all to spend that much time, energy and effort on another project for somebody else (sorry El), so I'm putting that one in hibernation for a while. It also took a bit too much mental energy, more than I'm capable of right now. I couldn't memorize the 8 line repeat for the edging, and it was taking a Herculean psychic effort to concentrate on the silly pattern. I'm not saying I'm not going to make it. I'm just saying that when I do make it, I will damn well not be giving it to somebody else.

I realized that the stupid flowers were sucking all of the knitting energy out of me and not really refilling the well, so I moved on to another project. I saw the Embassy Scarf  (rav link) in the Summer 2011 issue of Knitscene and realized that I had two skeins of Malabrigo Lace in Noviembre that I had no idea what to do with, as they were variegated and, well, we all know about my success rate with variegated yarns.

I decided to make the Embassy Scarf with it, as I figured the pattern would lend itself to the yarn. Or vice versa. Whatever. This scarf may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but I'm really enjoying the knit and finding it fairly fun. It looks cool, even if the yarn isn't the prettiest, and if I hate it when it is done, well, then I have plenty of Black Cherry Kool Aid from my Clapotis experiment.

ANYWAY, I started on it last night and I'm about 25% done. It's knitting up quickly (although that may be due to the fact that I've mostly sat around on my butt knitting all day today - my choice for mother's day).

Pictures:

I'm feeling more knitting energy right now and I'm pretty excited about new projects! Yay!