Here are some freshly uploaded snaps of our various activities, adventures, and acquisitions on the trip. For example, the obligatory family-riding-on-the-cable-car shot from San Francisco:
Or perhaps you prefer the boy-in-the-bubble from the Aquarium of the Bay?
No? What about the (very tame) carousel ride at Fisherman's Wharf?
E was thrilled, KE, well, patient.
Much to my chagrin, I find that I took hardly any pictures at all from Eugene or Seattle. Very strange, that. I guess I felt like I already know what those towns and those people look like, but I still should have done it. Rest assured, everything we saw and everyone we hung out with looked great. As a small example, this lemon meringue pie baked by my mom will have to serve as a pars pro toto for our time with her:
She had to make two of them while we were there. Yay mom. Yum.
Did I knit while I was on vacation? Why yes, and I crocheted too. I made two more of the linen dishcloths and gave them all to the friend I stayed with in Seattle. Didn't get a picture (too busy talking), unfortunately, but they made a neat little stack after I washed and dried them. I also brought along a skein and a half of the Zitron Trekking sock yarn in dark blue that I bought from a Raveler in the fall of 2008 and made two pairs of winter socks for E. None of them are the same size. After puzzling over that for a while I finally figured out that the gauge of the first one is significantly looser than the following three, which appears to be what makes it so much bigger. There's still enough left on the skein for at least another pair in this size. This picture was taken before weaving in ends or washing, but you get the idea:
I was also thrilled to find the Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace yarn called for in Jared Flood's Bridgewater pattern. I got it at the Acorn Street Shop in Seattle (a nice little yarn store, and probably my new favorite in Seattle), and am so thrilled with it. It's slow going of course, but I'm making some progress on the center garter stitch square:
The other thing I made a special effort to do was shop for wool sweaters at the Eugene Goodwill. I was pleased to find three quite decent prospects for unraveling, especially given the season. I got all of them for about $10 total, and they are great colors and weights for making sweaters for E (since they're women's size M, there probably isn't enough to contemplate making anything for me). Here they are with labels showing:
They're all 100% wool, made by J.Crew, Old Navy, and the Gap. The dark blue and gray ones appear to be the same weight (probably worsted?), so I'm thinking a striped top-down raglan for E might be just the ticket. The other is lighter weight, maybe sport weight or even fingering? I'll obviously measure the gauges and do swatching before I start knitting on them. I also bought a beautiful floral Ralph Lauren skirt in 100% linen for $4. I've already taken out all the seams and plan to sew hand towels (from Akiko Mano Linen, Wool, Cotton) out of the fabric. Forgot to take a picture. More later...
Finally, I have to share a picture of our sleeping arrangement from my mom's house. It's kind of odd:
(Notice the fabulous quilt on the right, hand stitched and tied by my paternal grandmother). You see, I live in a family of highly active snorers. I readily admit to the fact that I snore too at times, though I insist that I don't do it as much as the rest of them. The head of the bed in the guest room adjoins the room where my mom was sleeping. It was a perfect storm of snoring. Add to that the facts that we're used to sleeping in a king sized bed and I'm totally neurotic about sleeping, and I had a big problem falling asleep. I tried withdrawing to the living room the first few nights, but that didn't really work either. Imagine my delight when I awoke from a restful, full night's sleep as a result of moving my head to the foot of the bed. D'oh! If I'd known about this trick earlier I could have spared myself ever so many nights of troubled (or isolated) sleep!
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