Planting, growing and knitting in the Northwest
Signs of spring here on the Pacific Northwest include the Rhodies blooming.��The first to bloom in my yard,
this beautiful white outside my bedroom� window.
There is hope for spring as indicated by the flowers growing in my yard.�
The cutie is my youngest modeling her flower girl dress for the oldest’s wedding in June.
Finally, the socks.� Pretty Opal Petticoat yarn to make spring socks.� Don’t you wish these were in your basket?
Yes, thanks to my soon to be Son In Law (yippee!) I’ve found a new blog site that appears to be just what I wanted.� So, we’re once again starting on a new voyage together.�
Today starts a very busy weekend for me.� I’m off this morning to a local elementary school to present at their Spring Arts Festival.� This day is dedicated to�allowing the children to experience many different art forms.�� I will be presenting with a spinner/weaver from our local guild…The Webfoot Weavers http://www.northwestweavers.org/guilds/or/webfoot2004.html��
�Everything is loaded up in the truck and I’m ready to go.� All I have to do is to make an outline for my talk and get the kids up and dressed.
Then tomorrow I’m off to set up for the Azalea Festival.� I’ll post pictures on Monday showing highlights of the�Fiber to Fabric part of this regional festival.� I look forward with excited anticipation to�introduce my products to the public and test the proverbal water with my socks.� Hopefully I’ll sell some socks, and make some connections that will carry me over to the Farmer’s Market where I plan to vend over the summer.�
Alot is on the line this weekend.� �I’ve invested a nice ‘chunk of change’ in this sock machine.� The equipment that it takes to make it work and, needless to say, 80 skeins of sock yarn most of which I paid retail for weren’t cheap.� I have an additional. 100 skeins of� yarn comming in the mail from Germany, just in case.� Am I thinking big?� Either that or everyone I know will be getting socks for Christmas.� LOL
I just want to break even with what I’ve invested to date which is….gasp….about $1,200.� I’ve done some custom socks for local customers so I’ve recaped about $250. That means I need to sell 50 pairs socks to break even.� A daunting task if I do say so myself.
Thanks to MaMaMoo13 for your nice comments.� I am going with the $20 per pair.� After I figure the cost of the yarn and $10 a pair for my time I’m even cutting myself short.� But $20 seems like a nice round figure.� The way I see it, you are paying for a piece of history.� The fact that these machines still are around and able to make socks is amazing.� I am just intrigued by the fact I am wearing something that was a common, every day part of a women’s life at the turn of the century.��
If you’ve never worn wool socks, you must try some.� N
ow don’t think wool socks as in military, OD green ones my Dh used to have to wear for the army.�
These are light weight.� I wear them all year round.� They don’t make your feet hot…really, they don’t.� Your feet don’t sweat, as a result, you feet don’t smell�and these socks are�are easy to wash and very unique.� If you knit your own, you get a feeling of satisfaction that cannot be explained.� It is an addicting form of knitting and there are many knitters who only knit socks.� If you’ve ever had someone hand knit you a pair of wool socks, realize�with the time, yarn and effort to hand knit them they would cost about $100.� So I think $20 for a pair of wool socks, taking the above argument into consideration, is about right.
Sorry to those of you who were looking for the ‘water’ pictures….they were deleted from the archives.�
We haven’t seen rain in�4 weeks.� This morning I got up early, took all my seed packets and planted the kitchen garden.� Green beans, Lettuce, garlic, onions, peas Edemome, basil, carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, cilantro, tomatoes, zucchini, cantelope, watermelons, broccoli, sweet peas, petunias, poppies…I think that is about it.� Now if we get a freak snow like we did 5 years on May 25th.� I’ll scream.
Went to Arrington Orchards yesterday and saw where the wedding will be.� It is beautiful, very intimate and I know everything will be just fine.�
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Here is a picture of Angela showing off the shawl I made for her to wear after the wedding.� This is the gazebo where they will take their vows.�
(Scott, don’t read the rest of this.)
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Wedding dress blues.� We had the wedding dress altered and I opted to not have a final fitting.� BIG mistake.� Even though I pinned the dress on her and delivered it to the seamstress with the pins still in it.� She did something where it now looks like this.
� The shoulder straps are too short and as you can see, we cannot zip it up.� So the straps will come off and I will perform some magic back application to sew her into this dress.� The other option is to have 2 ribs removed and a breast reduction but I don’t think she will be healed in 2 weeks.
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OK, now I don’t talk about TV on this blog but OH MY GOSH…. if you’re a fan of Grey’s Anatomy and didn’t watch it last night for the season finale…you’ve got to find a friend who TIVO’d it and watch.� I have it on my TIVO if anyone wants to stop by to watch.� All I can say is� HOT, SAD and it really touched my heart.� After watching I felt like I’d run a race with the emotions I felt in that two hours.� Patrick, you can park your shoes under my bed any day!� Lizzy, you should get an academy award for that performance….and, who was Denni?� He did a great job all year long.� It was nice to see some of those people we touched on during this season like the ‘Chief’s’ wife and George’s new love interest…that was pretty Hot too.�
They did a great job!
Now, on to responses.
Yes, zzjulia….I know how fast life goes.� It seems like only yesterday we were clapping as Angela was sitting up.� Now she is graduated and going to be married.� I try not to get really misty thinking about that.
Thanks MamaMoo13 for the nice words of encouragement.� I know�I don’t blog for the feedback but it is really nice to hear from those who do read my blog.� The dying was so much fun.� It only took about 1 hour out of my day and if you’ve never dyed with koolaid…you have to try it.� The bonus is the yarn smells like whatever koolaid you used.� Kind of fun to give socks to an unsuspecting friend.� I gave some strawberry dyed socks to a friend’s college daughter.� She asked me a couple of months later if she was going crazy but her socks smelled like fruit!� LOL� What a hoot!
My computer will be down until Tuesday, I hope I don’t go through withdrawals.� I’ll have lots to post on Wednesday.� Have a great weekend!
We are done….as D.J. said last night at 11 p.m…”stick a fork in me I’m done!”
Can you guess what ride K.T. and I were on?
We got in out last rides, 
watched a great light show on the Rivers of America, took in the fireworks and finished up with a trip to Libby Lu for K.T. With her gift certificate she bought a make-up case and pink glitter tennies, help us all!� The S.Q.’s would be proud!
Today is packing up and driving to San Diego.� No, we have no idea where we’re going but maps are a good thing.� An even better thing is my husband actually encourages me to navigate.� And, gasp, believe it or not, he even listens to me when I give directions from the back seat.�
But you know I have to say that even though this is the 9th time I’ve been here to Disneyland in my lifetime there is always something new.� In the past I’ve found the little things here at the Magic Kingdom are the things I remember most. On December 7th (Pearl Harbor Day) when I was comming back from taking a rest and doing laundry (There is no such thing as vacation for a Mom), I stopped at the entrance.� It was about 6:00 p.m. and there was a 20 piece band playing patriotic songs around the flag pole.� Folks were watching and listening.� What caught me ears more than my eyes was the piped in men’s choir singing.� So I stopped and watched.� They were retiring the colors and boy was it moving.� Sure, I’m as patrotic as the next person, I get a bit misty with the National Anthem being played, but this was what appeared as a spontaneous show of support.�
As the band started playing the theme for the U.S. Army, several older guys stepped forward and stood around the flag pole.� You could tell by their age they were vetrans from WWII or Vietnam.� Then on to the Navy and more stepped out, Marines, more yet….Air Force, here came some younger guys with ‘high and tight’ hair cuts and finally the Coast Guard.� By the end of the playing there were about 35 men standing.� As they came to the growing circle, they shook hands and gave high fives.� When the color guard moved forward to retire the colors all these men�came to attention, they gave snappy salutes and boy did it move me.� I think it was the faces of the younger servicemen, the guys holding Disney Shopping bags, with kids in their wives arms.� This was probably a trip between deployments, a time for the family to forget about other obligations.� But the fact that they took the time to stop, participate and honor the flag was moving.
Being married to a Vietnam Vetran I know he has done the attention salute thing hundreds of times. It always feels weird for me to see him in his ‘military’ mode becuase that was before we were married.� I had the feeling that these vetrans were doing something they had done probably a hundred times in their active career but my guess is their families probably rarely saw it.� With each addition to the ever growing circle the applause swelled.� Sure this was a small thing, there probably were 10,000 people in the park that day and there might have been 200 watchers standing around the flag pole.� Just a drop in the people bucket but for me, this was the highlight of the trip.� I know everything at Disneyland is planned but I choose to think this moment has special meaning for those who participated especially due to the fact that is was December 7th.� While folding the flag they played the Star Spangled Banner and I’m sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.� They ended with This is My Country and you know it is our country and I have so much admiration for those guys having the guts to step forward and defend my right to freedom, not to mention stepping forward at Disneyland.� Thank You seems so inadequate a statement but Thank you never the less.
Today we’re taking the daylight hours off.� Tonight the park stays open until midnight.� So the kids are going to do homework and we’re all going to rest our feet until tonight. Then it’s off the get K.T’s nails done (she got a gift certificate for her birthday at a kid’s salon).� They we’re going to spend the last night in the park as long as we can stand.
We started yesterday with Breakfast with the Characters
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We went on to Autotopia and the kids got to drive.
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Here are the Johnson’s eating breakfast with the Characters too!� We go the whole length of California and see folks that live 5 miles away!
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Finally….this is the way the last 4 days have felt..a blur.
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Tomorrow on to San Diego and the zoo then HOME!
Five�Things I ‘ve learned thus far…
#1.� When riding any water ride at the Disney complex, do not sit next to the exit step.� I got drenched on this ride.�
I don’t mean splashed, I mean wet all the way through my jeans to the unmentionables.� I walked around for 2 hours with 5 extra pounds of jeans on and I couldn’t take it any more.� I had to go back to the room to change and warm up.� The kids went on it twice and only got a shower….what’s up with that?
#2.� When the NTSB asks questions like, “Do you have any firearms?”� they do not want your husband to say, “No, I left my guns at home today.”� Poor D.J. was almost stripped searched.� They had him in the search area for 10 minutes.� They even patted him down.� Does my 11 year old son look like an Terrorists?
#3.� The rivets on Land’s End jeans set off the metal dectector wand used by the NTSB.��See #2.
#4.� The NTSB wand fires on rivets on Land’s End jeans but not on knitting needles.� Which is more likely to be used as a wepon?� Rivets or 6″ long metal pointy things?� Yes, they let me on with the needles, didn’t even blink when they saw them in my carry on.�� They were too busy searching the 11 year old.�
#5.� No matter what or where you eat you will spend $50 for the meal for a family of 4.� I would make�a suggestion to Disney….serve smaller size burgers and charge less.� You will have much less waste and folks would be more likley to purchase a $5 burger and fries instead of eating only half, tossing the rest and paying $9.
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