Kitty's Summer

Every year, when we go on vacation, we take our dogs to stay with some good friends, who dote on them for two weeks; but we leave out kitty at home. One of the kids' friends come over to feed her and water the lawn. I always feel a little guilty because she's used to having a lot people around. I made her Wendy's a Pi Kitty Bed with some Brown Sheep wool I ordered from the The Sheep Shed a long time ago, just before we left. This is how she looked on Tuesday morning as we walked out the door, and she'll probably be in the same position when we get home in a couple of weeks!

Plums

This has nothing to do with knitting, but I want to remember how perfect our plums were this year. It may have had something to do with Russ fertilizing our fruit trees this year and with me watering them a lot. I'm not too big on plums for cooking, but we all enjoyed them right off the tree, eating tons of them ourselves and sharing bags and bags of them with neighbors for several weeks.

I remember reading this William Carlos Williams poem in college, which I thought was kind of stupid. Now, I've decided I like it. I'm thinking that if he was talking to his wife, she should have been really torqued because there's nothing like a nice, fresh juicy plum...except for a fresh, juicy peach, but that will have to wait until next month!

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Beachy Break

I can't say that I've been in need of a break since I've been on vacation for two weeks, but I have been working a lot around the house. So, when one of my friends invited me and another friend to spend a couple of days with her at her family's beach house, I was very excited. We've really enjoyed each other's company this year, occasionally going on "extreme knitting" excursions to Bakersfield or relaxing at each other's home with a knitting project and a glass or wine or sometimes cappacino or coffee. We had a wonderful time on Thursday and Friday, complete with a fun evening at the San Luis Obispo Farmer's Market, a great bike ride, several memorable meals, and a trip to Yarns at the Adobe. My friend, Janet, had been there before and raved about it, and she was right in thinking that my other friend, Denise, and I would too. It's right across from the San Luis Obispo Mission in an old adobe building that was built in the early 1800s. It's not only a cute looking shop, the owner is friendly and helpful, but not a "hover-er." We're already thinking of going back to possibly take one of their " beer and knitting" classes, not a combination that I'd usually think of, but we really should take the "Unibroue/Allagash and Scrap Yarn Project" class on November, especially since Janet is from Maine and Allagash is brewed in Maine! I only had my camera phone to take a picture of Denise and Janet in front of the shop, but I think it came out cute. As I've said a million times, I don't need any more yarn, but I bought some silky, soft Panda Silk, which is a blend of bamboo, silk, and merino. I'm knitting a table runner with it, using a pattern from the Spring/Summer edition of Debbie Bliss Knitting MagazineM. I love how soft it is, and it doesn't split like Panda Cotton does. I also bought a skein of Manos de Uruguay silk bland yarn.I felt ever so slightly guilty leaving my family behind, but they seemed to have inexplicably survived just fine without me...my little basil plant seedlings that were just coming up in my garden and which I forgot to tell anyone to water didn't, but I'd say that's a small price to pay to have such a great time with friends.

Yosemite Summer Kick-Off

For the past four years, we've our begun summer vacation with a trip to Yosemite. We go with a large group of friends and share meal responsibilities. Most years it's been very warm during the days, and we've loved hiking up to some of the falls so that we could cool off in the mist. This year, it snowed part of the time on the way up, and drizzled much of the time that we were there, but it didn't matter because it was Yosemite, and Yosemite is the most beautiful place in the world!
The view from our campsite was incredible. I had visions of sitting by the Merced River, knitting away, but that didn't happen this year.We did go for a little walk up to the Ahwanhee Hotel. The cheapest room in the Ahwanhee is over $450, so we can only enjoy pretending to be guests. Russ and I did stay there once before the kids were born. My school paid for a two-day stay for me, and Russ happily tagged along. There was a big English conference at the Yosemite Lodge that year, but the rooms there were sold out, so my generous school approved the Ahwanhee stay. I still remember that the room was $315 per night, and that was back in the early 90s. It was such a memorable experience. The rooms are actually quite rustic with few amenities, but that's not what you're paying for. We also walked to the Visitor's Center and watched a movie since Kai had a cough that kept getting progressively worse.Throughout the day, Kai kept coughing and coughing. We finally decided to admit that we weren't going to have our typical Yosemite experience with loads of hiking, and headed home a day early. Kai was in good enough spirits to play with the water pump at Wawona, but he was pretty sick by the time we got home.


I did get to finish a pair of Loksins on the way home. It wasn't quite the same as sitting and knitting by a river, but it was still knitting!

Hanging On!

Lately, I've taken to checking my blog to see if possibly it's just updated itself since I know there's no way that I've done it. I'm not that sympathetic to people who complain that they're soooo busy. I always feel like much of that is just a choice, and I include myself in that. However, the reason that I stay so busy during the school year is about to arrive! I teach extra college classes because I hate worrying about money during the summer. The two of us make more than enough not to have to worry about making it through the summer, BUT I want to splurge on travel, eating out, and shopping during the summer..so I work extra. My college classes are finished...except for the final grades and my high school classes will be over in two and a half weeks, and then summer will be here!
Maybe then I'll have more than a little, lace doily thing that I knit after discovering Vintage on Ravelry. Of course, now I can't find the exact pattern, but flacon is the one that I was first drawn to because it is an old Danish pattern. OMG! I've just bragged that I knit a doily. What's next? Toilet paper covers?!!!

Big Sur Marathon

My team: My friend, Kathy has run in the Boston Marathon, and ran the leg of our race that was pretty much seven miles of up-hill running. Thanks to her I had a lot of downhill.Most of my run was in-land, but I did get a couple of nice views of the ocean. My friends, Dave and Pete took this pic from the bus as they were being taken back to the finish line. They're usually pretty dignified, but they both hung out the window of the bus yelling at me.The mile before the finish line was great with crowds cheering and bands playing...and lots of people walking, ha, ha.Travis describing his hand-off to me.

So...this pretty much has nothing to do with knitting except that I knit in the car on the way to Monterey and back last weekend. Why? Because I ran in the Big Sur Marathon....four miles of it, that is. I was in a relay with some friends from work and an ex-student, who now lives in Monterey. It was great fun....really, except for the part where I got up at five and waited an hour for a school bus to take me up to the beginning of my leg, so I could wait another THREE hours for my part of the marathon, which was the last four miles of it. It really was a great weekend with a quick visit to the Monterey Aquarium and a walk down Cannary Row with Russ and Kai since Paige was at home at a swim meet. We placed 57th out of a 137 teams in the Mixed Relay, but that was because of Travis, my twenty-eight-year-old, ex-student who prevented us from running in the Master's relay. We would have been fifth if we had done that. I'm thinking we'll ditch Travis next year. I'm kidding. He was a great kid who has not surprisingly become a fun adult, complete with a beautiful wife who works as an oceanographer. It was a wonderful "outside the box" time.

Bunny, Number ???

I've had a nice Spring Break with lots of accomplishments; a garden bed dug, a living room cleaned, re-arranged and painted, a couple of books read, and, of course hours of knitting enjoyed. I finished the little bunny I plan to send to my sister for her new baby.I used the egg cozy pattern from Little Cotton Rabbits for his head and my old pattern altered from Fuzzy Mittenfor the rest of him. I stuffed him with some cotton stuffing this time, which is more malleable; but it's a little difficult to stick a darning needle through it when I sew the facial features. Maybe I'll try wool stuffing next.

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring doesn't last too long in Central California. The wildflowers last a couple of weeks, and then the hills turn brown. In the meantime, the flowers start to bloom in our yards, and then "Pow!" it's hot, and we have to water all of the time to keep anything alive. I can feel the days getting warmer every day, but it's still very mild, and I'm enjoying working in the garden, pretending that I'll be able to keep my flowers beautiful for more than a few more weeks.I love ladybugs. I'm sure a lot of people do. My family used to be so tickled by my niece when she could barely talk because she'd look for ladybugs in our yard and exclaim, "lay lay bug" whenever she'd find one. When I was out looking at my garden this morning, there were tons of them.I'm not very conservative, but, especially having a job surrounded by teenagers, who turn everything into a sexual reference, I think sexual jokes are sophomoric; HOWEVER, I did laugh when I discovered these two busy ladybugs....Hey, I thought the spotted ones were the ladies and the plain ones were the guys...not that I'm judging.

.I have been busy, and busy knitting. I knit my new nephew a little
feather and fan blanket. I used some pale yellow Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece that I bought on sale last fall. I have special feelings for Brown Sheep yarn. It was some of the first wool yarn I ever used when I was learning to knit. I'm just not crazy about the cotton though. I like this blanket though, and I'm satisfied with the finished result. I also started a little bunny to put in the baby basket along with some Mrs. Meyer's Baby Products.I haven't decided what color to make his outfit. I ordered this Rowan 4-ply cotton yarn from Webster's, but I think I'll probably end up using yellow.

Special Julies

I have two special "Julies" in blogdom. The first "Julie's" blog is JewelTomes. I discovered her one time when I was just browsing, and she had this funny post about teenagers. I can't really remember the exact content, but I think it had a picture of a crushed bumper and a caveat to parents of girls that the drivers who are usually responsible for doing this to cars are teenage boys. We have an almost unbelieveable connection, beyond the knitting. We both love literature. Julie has a Master's degree in Humanities, just like I do. She's one of about five people, including the three professors on my review committee, who have read my thesis. We've both run long distances although I think that Julie may have run a marathon, and I've "only" run in half-marathons. We both spend a lot of time with our kids and are known to knit at our kids' swim meets. We're about the same age, so Julie is always making great musical and movie allusions from the 70s and 80s. She seems to be a little more even-tempered than I am, but we're both somewhat feisty but enjoy a good joke, even if it's on us. Oh,,, and we both have been married for a long time, and still like our husbands, but don't mention them in our blogs very often (LOL)

A couple of weeks ago, Julie sent me two books. I have to admit that I havent started them yet because I've been kind overwhelmed by school work and I had to finish my book club's book for our meeting next week. I'm planning to start Eggs in Purgatory this afternoon if I get all of my grading done though. It's not a knitting novel, but has another theme Julie knows I love--food.. Anyway, I enjoy Julie's friendship, and I hope we can meet in real life someday.

I don't know the other Julie other than what I read on her blog. She's incredibly creative and produces beautiful handknit toys.. She blogs at Little Cotton Rabbits, and I've practically been obsessed with her little knitted bunnies,shamelessly trying to copy them. I 've pretty much given on on ever purchasing one of her toys because they sell out in seconds when they come up for sale. I am not exaggerating. She's recently, however, made several of her patterns available. I bought her egg cozy pattern last night and had to give it a try right away. It was only $3.50, but I would have happily spend twice that to get my hands on this pattern. What did I discover when I finished? What I already knew...that she's an artist, and I'm not. It's a cute enough bunny, but it looks like the ones I already have been knitting on my own. There's just something that she does to hers that raises the cute factor. Oh well, I'll try again.

In other knitting news, I've knit a felted bowl. I used the pattern from Knit Noel. I'm planning to fill it with Mrs. Meyer's baby products and some handknit washclothes. You would think that I'd be doing this in anticipation of a baby coming, Actually, the anticipation is over. My sister had a baby last week. For some reason, I thought her due date was in April. I guess that's what happens when you don't talk to each other very often. Anyway, she had a little boy, and we're excited to get to cuddle a little baby this summer when we see them. For those of you who know my sister, yes, she is forty-two and that does make five, and yes, I do think five is a bit superfluous. (LOL) We're happy for them though...as long as the economy doesn't get so bad that her husband loses his job and they all have to move in with us. Just kidding, they'd be welcome.

All Day Cookies

When I first graduated from college almost twenty-five years ago, I thought I wanted to be a librarian. I was accepted into San Jose State's graduate program in "Information Science" shortly before Russ and I got married. We arrived in San Jose with no jobs and no idea where we were going to live. After having spent four years within the shelter of a small, liberal arts college in a town of around 15,000 people, the entire big university/big city experience was daunting. Russ soon found a job drywalling, but we still had no money to speak of. We had no furniture in our studio apartment and slept on a mattress from the inside of a discarded sleeper sofa we found near a trash can outside of our apartment. I hated it there, despite its close proximity to many beautiful areas. I lasted one semester and that was only because Russ kept encouraging me to at least finish up the semester, so it wouldn't be a total waste.

I do have some pleasant memories of our San Jose experience though. Most of them are memories of time spent with our friends, Bob and Colene. They were old friends of my parents from when we had lived in Fresno years before, but they quickly became our friends. We loved them. They pretty much adopted us for the six months we lived there, not that they had that much choice because we probably made nuisances of ourselves coming over so often. I remember sitting in their living room having pleasant conversations with Bob about anything under the sun, I remember sitting with Colene in their kitchen that smelled just like my grandma's, and I remember eating tons of Colene's "All Day Cookes." Colene gave me the recipe for them ages ago, but a year or so ago, I misplaced it. I emailed Colene to ask if she could send me the recipe, and true to form, she did more than that. About a week later, a box came in the mail...with a couple dozen All Day Cookies in it, along with the recipe. I asked special permission to share this recipe because I felt that it was practically sacred. Colene agreed that these cookies are close to being sacred in her family, but sharing is allowed. I feel special being trusted with it:)

All Day Cookies

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tps. vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/3 cups oatmeal
2 tsp. soda
12 oz. chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 1/2 cups peanuts

Mix and drop by teaspoons full of cookie sheet.
Bake at 300 degrees until done. Has to bake at
fairly low temperature or will burn. I baked at
325 degrees for about 12 minutes.

I also have to share what Colene wrote at the bottom of the recipe card, showing that even though we haven't seen each other in years that she still knows Russ: "Makes a ton--or one evenings worth for Russ!"

Paige Went Forth

So, here's a picture of the taconic sweater modeled by its recipient. I told Paige that she didn't have to keep it if she didn't like it, but she said that she did like it; she just didn't think it was very flattering. I know what she means. It's pretty yarn, but it and the sweater are a bit heavy. Why is Paige smiling so happily then. ..Because she's going camping at Pismo Beach tonight. The kids (not the teachers, boo hoo) have tomorrow off. iI's one of Paige's best friend's birthday, and one of her friend's mom's is taking (and staying with) a crew of six of them. They have the crazy idea that they'll be swimming, but unless it's a lot warmer over there than here, they'll barely feel like even having their suits on.

I have an English project that I assign every year to my juniors. I have them emulate Walt Whitman's poem A Child Went Forth. I'm not a huge "Uncle Walt" fan, but I do I love this poem. I have the kids replace his important language with their own, and they come up with their own unique and often beautiful poem. I've had some tearjerkers over the years because the kids often go all out for this project, and they're at that perfet age where they remember all of the kid stuff, but are teeterering on adulthood. They have to create webpages about their lives to go with the poem, and then we present them in the class. I've been meaning to share Paige's poem for quite a while mainly just to show off, and because any time I feel like she's an ungrateful, frustrating kid who hasn't appreciated her parents' near-obsession with making her life great, I read this, and I think that maybe we've done OK.

Most kids just give it the title "A Child Went Forth," but Paige called hers

THERE was a child went forth every day; And the first object she look'd upon, that object she became; And that object became part of her for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years. The smell of the early coffee beans became part of this child, And cinnamon apples, and cilantro and shrimp pesto pasta, and black and white cats, and the classical songs to help her fall asleep, And the sixth-month Nebraska visits, and the yearly Humbolt County Fairs, and the trips to the coast and farmer's markets, and the Sundays in Bakersfield eating at Chipoltle's after church. And the noisy barks of Beagles from outside her door, the voices of joggers outside her window. And the fish from her friend who moved to Kansas suspending themselves to the top of their fish bowl after living for three years, And the See Canyon apples with their delicious sweet fruit became part of her. The hot weather of the fifth month and almost every month became part of her; camomile tea, and those of the candy corn bag every Halloween, and the pink or purple flowers of the garden, And the apricot, plum, and peach-trees cover'd with blossoms, and the fruit afterward, and oranges and Kumquats, and the prettiest poppies by the fence; And the Parkview kids skipping home from school, whence she had once attended, And the two and a half high school years that had already pass'd so quickly, And the volleyball seasons that pass'd-and the basketball and swimming seasons, And the straight hair, Hollister dressed girls-and the Ugg boots on every boy and girl, And all the changes of Taft and Bakersfeild and desert, wherever she went. Her own parents, He that had father'd her, and she that had conceiv'd her in her womb, and birth'd her, They gave this child more of themselves than that; They gave her afterward every day-they became part of her. The mother at school and home, helpful, observative, loving, short-tempered, beautiful; also becoming one of her best friends, sometimes verbal competitor, or at school the distinctive jingle of her keys when she walks down the hall; The mother with made-up words describing everything she likes by dropping the last few letters of the word but keeping the s(such as "Beags") or making up new laws to life, such as " shared candy bars do NOT count", a chuckle coming out of her person; The father, friendly, caring, annoying, joking, concerned; The blog, the quick run, the late night reading, the tan meals, The family traditions, the language, the vacations, the candles-the growing and appreciative heart, Affection that will not be faded-the sense of the future-the thought if, after all, it should prove amiss, The doubts of school-time and the doubts during athletics, the curious why and what, why it is how it is, or what is the answer, is it all memories and hopes? Men and women disappointed and pleased, what is their purpose? The mud pies, the friends moved away, the birthday dinner, the favorite non-matching outfit, the one stolen candy from the store, the books read aloud, the golden retriever long gone, playing trucks with her brother, visits from Black Bart, the forgotten fights between best friends, the SSL Volleyball Championship freshman year, the cell phones new, broken, then dropped in the pool, broken, lost, broken, dropped on the floor, broken, the parties Friday night at the Kopp household, the first lost grandparent, finding another best friend, the trip to the Getty and Medieval Times, the trip to Hearst Castle, the anticipation of getting the first im-perfect report card, first love, where to go to college, who will you meet, who will you loose, what will you look like, what will you accomplish, what will happen to your kids, when will you die?; These became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day.

It's so full of familial allusions that it may not be an interesting poem to non-family members (so that means I put it here for you to read, Ann, since you're my only faithful family reader) but I love it, so I shared it.

Hoping for a Long Spring

In keeping with my belief that it's important to buy knitting-related items if you're not actaully producing them, I bought a cup from Jenny the Potter this month. I'm using it to show off some Manos yarn, which I also bought recently, for right now, but it's a perfect cup for drinking coffee too. There's nothing like the feel of handthrown pottery. Russ used to "throw pots" when he was in high school and college. Before I went up to the studio with him to see him throw, I had this image of people throwing clay against the wall or something like that when I heard the term "throw pots." Anyway, I love pottery. Maybe I'll have to buy another one, so I can have one for show and one for function. Jenny also included two cute, little stitch markers, which I thought was the perfect touch. The only thing is that when I use stitch markers, it seems like I need several of them. Mmmmm, that's a thought to ponder.


I jokingly wrote last month that I thought I'd finish Paige's Taconic v-neck sweater around the time it hit 80 degrees outside. I just read on the weather channel that the forecast was for 79 degrees on Monday and Tuesday next week...and I finished sewing the seams of her sweater last night. (LOL) She tried it on but didn't seem overly excited about it, which wasn't unexpected. She doesn't want to look bulky, and it is kind of a bulky sweater. Kitty, on the other hand, thinks it's wonderful. I've shooed her off of it numerable times, but she just looks annoyed and hops back on it. It was a fun pattern to knit although I think I'd change a few things if I were to knit it again. It calls for you to hem the bottom and the sleeves, but I'd do a provincial cast-on. It's easier than hemming, and I think it looks nicer.

One of the reasons I haven't blogged in a month is that I've been teaching an offline college class, which means my students email me their assignments, and I've been preparing for a late-start online class, which means my students complete all of their work on the computer. Now, I'm teaching both classes. I enjoy it, but I'm a slow grader, so most of my evenings have been swallowed up by taking care of those classes. The other time-consumer is that swimming season has begun. The kids have had two swim meets so far, and we've been mildy chilly, bordering on miserable, sitting in the stands. We're heading off for another swim meet this morning, but I think we'll be happy. It's nice and sunny, and we know there's a Starbucks close by where we can go to warm up if needed. Paige and Kai are both swimming this year, so it's wonderful only having to go to one event instead of being torn between two. I love knitting at swim meets when it's still cool outside, which it is today. I'm just hoping that we can postpone the hot temps for a month or two!

Randomness

I could entitle half of my posts as "ramdomness," but I feel particularly random in my focus today. I had a lot of fun knitting my little Valentine hearts during the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day, but I did do some other knitting too. I worked on Paige's sweater quite a bit. Yes, it's the same Karabella Aurora 8 yarn that I bought back in October or November. I really think I have the right pattern this time. It's a pattern I downloaded off of Webs for $1.95 called the taconic V-neck pullover. It's a simple pattern with a pretty cable down the center.The back is just stockinettee stitch, so it was easy to complete. I should finish the entire sweater just about the time the weather starts hitting the eighties.

Some days my kids come home from swim practice starving. I'll be lying on the couch, and Kai will frantically ask, "What's for dinner??" I'll turn to Russ, who will then proceeded to make us a "tan" meal, which entails battered fish, the kind from the yellow box, mashed potatoes, the kind from another box, corn, and possibly sourdough bread. No one is particularly excited about consuming all of this starch, but it's fast and easy, and beggers can't be choosers. Tonight, my kids came through the door, and I had streaming bowls of Ina Gartner's italian Wedding Soup waiting for them. I saw her make it last week on "The Barefoot Contessa." It was easy and decidedly not starchy. Yay for me! Oh and to top it off, Paige came hom with a friend who loved the soup too and now thinks that my kids must have such a wonderful culinary existence with a working mother who doesn't let occupational exhaustion interfer with the preparation of tasty meals....Taco Bell tomorrow? Possibly.


These pictures have nothiing to do with knitting either, other than this is what our yard looked like a week ago. It was wonderful and very cozy to sit inside by the fire and knit for the two hours that it snowed. We had the day off from school, so it was the perfect addition to a great day. Kai went up to the hills behind our hourse with some friends to sled. He tried to leave in his shorts, but I stopped him. What a Californian!




Italian Wedding Soup

Ingredients
for meatball:
3/4 lb. ground chicken
1/2 chicken sausage, casings removed
2/3 fresh white bread crumbs
2 tsp. minced garlic
3 Tbsp. minced parsley
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
2 Tbsp. milk
1 large egg
salt/pepper

For the soup:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup minced yellow onion
1 cup diced carrots
1/2 chopped celery
10 cups chicken stock (Of, course, Ina used homemade)
1/ 2 cup dry white wine
1 cup small pasta
1/4 cup minced fresh dill (I didn't have this, so I used a Tbsp. dried)
12 oz. chopped fresh spinach

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine ground chicken, sausage, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Parmesan, milk, eggs, salt, and pepper. Form into meatballs and bake on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, heat olive oil in a large soup pot, and add onion, carrots, and celery. Saute until softened for about five minutes. Add chicken stock and wine, and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook for 6 to 8 minutes. Add dill and spinach and cook another minute or two. Add meatballs and serve with a little gratd Parmesan.