Imaginary Friends

On Saturday, DD and I took the ferry to the city, ran a bunch of errands and ended up on the ... ... train down the Peninsula. And, after a day on the move, we spent a few hilarious hours listening to ...
Stephanie, who exclaimed, "My imaginary friends!" when DD and I introduced ourselves. If you're a knitter seeking that sense of fitting in, of being normal, a confirmation that you are on the right path, then attend one of Stephanie's talks. There is something wonderful about sitting in a sea of 300 knitters, laughing together for a few hours, totally enjoying Stephanie's jokes.

We had supper with Lynette and Nathania and got flyers for N's new knitting store, Purlescence, which we're planning to visit as soon as it opens. She's near a train station and a Peet's, so we're set!

Teen knitting club was a joy this week. Only had a handful of kids, all mellow and industrious. One learned to knit last week and another, a shy 6th grader, knit his first row Wednesday. His little brother had gone to knitting club at the K-1-2 last year, but there wasn't a club at the 3-4-5, so this fellow was delighted to find out that he could FINALLY learn how to knit. The first stitch made him squint and mutter, "This is tricky..." By stitch number three he had a rhythm going, and he finished a row rapidly after that! We applauded and he blushed. Charming.

Summer roses

Here's a bouquet of late roses from the garden. The pink rose is lovely but has only a faint rose perfume scent. The gold rose has a rich, truly pleasant apple scent that fills our home without causing any allergic response. And sorry, but I have no idea what the cultivars are.

This snippet of lace is a triangular shawl with a garter edge, using some of the Yarnplace Graceful I blogged about last week. I'm fiddling with the center, playing with a few ideas, and will probably frog it, but it's easy on the eyes and a fun bit of knitting. DD has started something similar with the wool/cashmere aqua she bought. I warned her that it was awfully fine, and she scoffed, "It's thicker than my handspun!" Hers has a bit of grab and is infinitely easier to knit than mine, which is slippery and splitty. I'm using some old size 0 or 00 steel dpns. I hadn't pulled them out of the bin for a few years and they needed cleaning and a bit of PAM. Stirred memories of self-quilting double-knit Fair Isle gloves knit on the 0000's for the coooold Montana winters...

The late birthday present for a small friend. I'm plodding through the sleeves. The actual color of this Cascade 220 is a emerald teal heather and I am having fits trying to see the stitches. It's a color I cannot see well, thus the very visible deep purple marl lace goof-off to rest my eye. My vision has improved radically since the surgery in April (eye appointment went well, don't have to have more repairs until next year at the soonest, though will definitely know my laser guy well for the rest of my life -- oh, and he has a great sense of humor when things are going well -- he was a cold fish the last few appointments because he was so depressed about the condition of my orb), but I'm still adding colors. The combination of radiation damage and brain fatigue had me in gray scale for a long time. I've been playing a lot of Civilization II (the old version of Civ with simpler graphics) to help relearn color differentiation.

Apologies for no bird photos. Saw only a single giant pure charcoal pelican yesterday on the way to Teen Knitting and couldn't whip out the camera fast enough. Didn't have the camera out when I was waiting at the light by the junior high, knitting a sock, and a woman drove by, stuck her knitting out the window, and cheered, "Knitters! Woo-Hoo!!!" Didn't have the camera the other day when I saw that trio of fat pelicans sitting on the water, doing oil derrick fishing with a sea lion (he drives the fish up and the birds spread their wings and furl them so they end up rocking back and forth, scooping up fish on the down, swallowing them on the up). And didn't have the camera when I saw a gargantuan barrel-shaped seal basking on the rocks, or when there were two harbor seal pups fighting over the best rock perch, doing that U thing that must be the seal equivalent of flexing biceps, or the last few times I've seen rays.

I promise to take the camera this weekend when DD and I head down the Peninsula to see Stephanie!