Yarn Crawl

G'day all!

I am sure you are all familiar with the idea of a pub crawl, but they are not my scene.  Nope, I am much happier with a yarn crawl, or a fibre crawl or even a fabric crawl.

Skagit River, Mt Vernon

And today I went on a yarn crawl.  A bunch of the "local" shops put on what is called shop hop.  One of the shops was very easy to get to - I just cross four roads in total and I am there.  It is quicker for me to walk than drive and try to find parking.  Also, who drives about 400 yards to get somewhere unless there really is no way to walk there?  I wandered in there on Friday.

I popped by another local shop and scavenged some of their $1 patterns yesterday.

But today I took off for pastures new.  I stopped in at my LYS for Wednesday night knitting (Bad Woman Yarn), then started the fun of navigating.

Whoever laid out the north east quadrant of Seattle was on crack at the time.  I understand that roads cannot go over the edge of a cliff or escarpment, but really dudes, some of the road decisions are crazy.  Apparently the end of Ravenna Boulevard, a road that goes on the diagonal through a grid, has been redesigned recently - hey, great!  Let's have one through road that doesn't stop with three other roads trying to join in, and of course lazy local drivers know where they are going so who needs to indicate?  In Oz, this corner would've been turned into a roundabout, but now that I am familiar with how Seattleites deal with roundabouts, it could be extra exciting.  Someone wants to turn left?  They just go the wrong way around the roundabout!  Noone's coming that way.  Someone is on your right as you drive around the roundabout?  You stop for them and let them on!  Cos you have to give way to the right, right?

Anyway, I eventually found my way to my next destination (and I may have bought some yarn, pics one day maybe!), then managed to get back to I5 and hoon up to Mill Creek (with a little deviation along the way when I misread a direction), then off to Snohomish (ever so proud of myself for remembering the directions, though I think maps had told me the wrong way to go but I still made it to my destination....).

It turns out that Snohomish was playing guest to pretty much every Harley type bike in Washington state (and I suspect maybe other states and provinces as well...). So alas, yarn shop, I did not see you because I got quite pissed off by not being able to find a car park and having roads blocked.  Then my phone wouldn't tell me how to get out of the place again - the local 3G/E connections were swamped by 10,000 bikies all trying to figure out how to leave again I guess or looking for a good pub.  Or maybe a yarn shop.

This meant that to get my eight stamps in my passport (not really my passport passport, just the shop hop passport) to go into the draw for some sort of prize,  I had to drive all the way to Mt Vernon.  Quite a pleasant little shop.  I also liked the Skagit River meandering, no, make that hooning past - the river seems to not have much of a gradient as it wanders towards the sea but it really was in quite a hurry.

Then in Stanwood, a little town off the beaten track, I found a jewel.  A complete jewel with a heap of Norwegian yarns.  It was completely unexpected and very welcome.  I may have bought yarn there too.

Still Skagit River, Mt Vernon

Finally, my last stamp in Everett, at a shop with an amazing range of yarns and a lot of blingy and upmarket stuff.  I admit to being intrigued by mink yarn, though I fear the minks may meet a nasty end to supply the yarn.  In contrast, I am happy to use possum yarn (usually blended with merino) because possums (imported and naturalised Australian brushtail possums, not American opossums) are pests in New Zealand, and the sooner they are wiped out in NZ the better.

Six yarn shops in 5.5 hours, over 140 miles or about 250km later... hmm, well it may not have been a wise use of the Earth's resources but it was sorta interesting.  I got to see some places I wouldn't've otherwise seen, I got to cuss at stupid road design and at stupid me and at my stupid phone because it decided it didn't want to tell me how to get the hell out of the place I was in...I probably should've had some lunch along the way but Snohomish was full and by the time I reached Mt Vernon, it was too late for lunch, plus not many places were open.  I also know which yarn shops I will return to.

Surprise!  Skagit River, Mt Vernon.

anon!

Eek, steeks

G'day all!

A monster has been eating pretty much all my crafting time over the last month.  I've had very little time off from it, knitting it on the ferry to the island, taking it to knit night, working late on it...

But at last it is done!  And it was done in time for Syttende Mai, Norwegian Constitution Day, or their national day.

I wore it to the big parade in Ballard, the parade that passes along the "end" of my street.

Not a very good shot and you can't even see
the Norwegian flag but behind me is a
Setesdal pullover and some folk costumes.

This was the most complicated thing I've knitted I reckon.

Take one tube, mostly knitted in the round, with two sleeves also knitted in the round.  Knitting in the round means no purling.  This makes it quicker.

Body and two sleeves

Stick the tube under the sewing machine and sew along the four stitches with no pattern down the front of the tube.

 

Sewing knitting.  How odd.

Note that there is no pattern down the centre four stitches.

This is what the wrong side looked like after sewing.
The orange yarn is to help me keep on track.

Then, take a deep breath and threaten your knitting with its natural enemy.  One of its many natural enemies.

Can you hear the knitting screaming?

OK, scissors are probably not a natural enemy of knitting, but they certainly are an unnatural enemy. 

Eeek!

And start cutting.  And keep cutting until

Ta-dum!

Your tube is a flat sheet. 

The wrong side

After all that excitement, you have to take a little break and admire the wrong side of the knitting. 

Interminable button bands

I thought I'd never finish the button bands.  They seemed to take forever.  Note that the left button band is attached and the placket is sewn down over the raw edges of the knitting.  Clever, eh?  These Norwegians know a thing or two about making sturdy items. 

The sleeve holes also have to be steeked.

The sleeves also have to have steeks cut for them so that you can add the sleeves.  If you don't have arms, I guess you wouldn't need to steek here but I do have arms so I added the sleeves. 

An inserted arm.

It occurs to me that I did not take pics of the inside of the cardigan.  The inside is a thing of beauty.  No raw seams - the tops of the sleeves have plackets to cover the steeked edges.  The neckband has a built in lining.  It all looks beautiful.

So how does it look on?

This is a traditional-style Fana sweater.  It is boxy.  I made mine smaller/closer fitting for my size than would normally be the case because I don't like massive garments.  The checkerboard neckband is somewhat wider than that I've seen in pics from the 1950s, but I just followed the pattern and the pattern said make it like this.

Details:
Norwegian Blue, Pining for the Fjords
Dalegarn 12618 Fana, knitted in Dalegarn Heilo, Norwegian Blue, and Lopez Island "mutt" wool (combining traditional with local)
Started 20 April 2013, finished 17 May 2013, just in time!
Mods - I sewed the shoulders incorrectly and umm misread the instructions for the buttons so it has seven buttons, not eight.  And my row gauge was way off.
Rav page

Next time, I'll probably just have pics of flowers.  LOL.  I may even rant and rave about things that have been happening, but recently, not that much has happened except for Spring!  Spring is a glorious thing :-)

And now, after a month of project monogamy, I can get back into doing other things, like knitting a silly hat and knitting socks and making another quilt and spinning yarn and sorting through my Stuff and working out what has to be rehomed.

anon!

Early summer

G'day all!

A rather early summer hit and I've been a little busy enjoying it, in between getting work done and frantically knitting my cardigan for Syttende Mai.  Last year I decided that there were not enough handknits at the parade, so I am adding one more.  Of course I've had a whole year to do it but you know me.  I gave myself a month instead and I've been pretty much loyal to this one project.  I am yet to do the tops of the sleeves, then do the steeks (yes, I have to cut my knitting!  Cut it!  Eeek, steeks!),  the neckband and the button bands.  The button bands will be interesting - I have to sew them on to the steeked front of the cardigan and use an extra knitted bit as a placket to cover the steeks.  The cardigan will be stunning if I do say so myself - it is Fana style in Norwegian Blue (Heilo, a Norwegian yarn) and natural coloured (from sheep on Lopez Island, an hour or so north of here) yarns.  But I have to get it done first, and I think the finishing will take me quite some time.  The remaining knitting will take tomorrow and part of Monday.


And yes, there is a joke in the Norwegian Blue.  If you get it, you get it, if you don't, you don't, but when I discovered a certain dull indigo is called Norwegian Blue, I had to have it...

Mt Baker in the distance

Lovely water, pretty point

Looking at Canada

Lime Kiln lighthouse - familiar, non?

George the cat, whose eyes were brown, not green

Last weekend we went up to San Juan Island.  The weather was superb.  It was sunny, the wind had died away so that apart from a couple of narrow passages the ferry was glorious.  We got sunburnt - I had put sunscreen on my arm and my face/neck but not on my legs and certainly not behind my knees.  How old am I now and I still don't remember to put sunscreen there?  Yes, I was wearing shorts.  That is how glorious the weather was.

Wildflowers
Redoubt, American Camp

Wild native Fritillarias!

Death camas plus buttercups

Usual beach - a bit of sand, lots of logs

Leaving Friday Harbor

We went up there because there is a wildflower festival on, except umm someone forgot that the main thing was this weekend, not last, even though the festival runs for last weekend and this one.  Still, it was lovely and sunny and quite different to my visit in early April.  I'll remember driving around Friday Harbor with the scent of lilacs in my nose - actually pretty much anywhere where there were houses smelled of lilacs.

Ladybug!

Nice combination

The rhodos are amazing at the moment

It's been pretty nice during the week, at least after noon - we've had fog in the mornings.  It made it very hard to work some days - such lovely weather calling me.

It's ok, summer will go away for this week, though the forecast isn't too bad - instead of hitting 26C, it will only be hitting about 18C.  It will feel cold but will be pretty average for this time of year.  Plus it hasn't rained for almost two weeks and this is Seattle.  Funny thing is, two Mondays ago, before the nice weather set in, a foot of snow fell in the passes, and it rain/hailed on me and a friend.  This means the melt is extra quick and heavy, and the rivers are running hard and c-c-c-cold.

Poppies!  One of my favourites.

Clematis

More clematis

Horse chestnut leaves

Horse chestnut flowers

Because the weather has been so warm, various plants that would not be flowering until later this month are already in full bloom, and some are already done. It's a bit crazy, but we are enjoying it!

I went off to Bellevue for a quilt gathering today.  If I had known the weather was going to be nice all day (the forecast was for rain likely in the afternoon) I would've taken DH for a drive instead.  It might've staved off the half meltdown and the reaction to the burger he had for lunch.  Ah well, it is all purged now...  We did a little ride out to Golden Gardens, which was rather pretty and all leafy and green except for where the beavers have cut down a number of trees.  There were even adults swimming in Puget Sound, not just little kids.

Mad dogs and Englishmen... no, no, wrong thing...

Cloud increasing

I may have acquired a little more fabric, against my stash building rules.  We are trying to save a bit more money, whether for a place here or to put on our place back home I'm not quite sure at this point.  DH's insecurities have raised their ugly heads again and it makes it difficult to plan sometimes, and I am well aware of one of my responses.  When insecure, Buy More Stuff!  No excuses, not even that you've been eyeballing it for months and months and months, and now it is 50% off.  But I did anyway and it will be grand when I get to it.  But I have a cardigan to knit first!

I should get back to my knitting!  Have soooo much to do in the next few days - I can't get this close and not succeed.  At least Syttende Mai is on a Friday, so I'll have Friday morning to finish off the last bits....

anon!

A most marvellous May

G'day all!

It has been an incredible start to May.  The weather is glorious!

And I've been sitting on my butt inside, cleaning, working, knitting and generally being pretty slack, really.  Allergies are wiping me out, even though I'm taking antihistamines every day.  The pollen load is massive, and climbing as it gets warmer.  (The forecast is for 81F on Sunday.  That's 27C!  In May, in Seattle! Last week it was in the 50s, climbing around 15C if we were lucky.)

I did ride around to the beach a day or two ago.  I saw lots of pretty flowers along the bike path, though I am not sure all of them are natives or deliberately planted - I think some might be escapees.

So much for inserting photos - something reallllllly weird has been happening with my photos and the google cloud this week and if I try to insert pics from the cloud, it keeps taking more and more pictures!  Each time I open the pics dialogue, it takes another bunch of days away.  I can't even see any pics from later than April 17 now.  I've been having heaps of issues with gmail and g+ pics for days.  Dunno if it is one of the updates on my machine or one of their updates....

This dull shot of a kite surfer is your
bloomin' lot.

Someone seems to have planted aspens along the path.  They must be aspens - they have shimmering silver bark and their rounded/pointy leaves shimmy in the breeze.


And the dogwoods are in flower!  Not everywhere yet but the pink ones are in flower around Ballard and Wallingford and the big white ones along the bike path.


We did walk home from dinner in Fremont this evening, the first night we've walked home since some time in ?October? last year.

It is certainly Spring and it is roaring along at the moment.  I think we are getting some flowers a bit earlier than last year but last year was cold and wettish, and this year has been warmer and drier.

Last week I went for a walk with a friend to the beach.  The tide was a looooong way out - further than I've ever seen it - and we walked out almost to the water's edge.  I was too busy looking to see if I was about to stand in a puddle to see a fascinating, extremely slow motion tussle.


This last week or so I've also seen Northern Flickers (a bird a bit bigger than a blackbird and more streamlined - like a wattle bird size/shape for those Aussies in the know), a Western Scrub-Jay (an off white, brown and blue bird, again about the same size as a flicker), a bald eagle, a bunch of Red Crossbills (the males were bright orange and the females olivey yellow green) and a heap of mallard ducklings.

Hooray!  I have just finished the body of my new Norwegian cardigan.  I will have to steek it in a while.  That will be very exciting.  I've only ever steeked a little practice vest before.  No pics yet - it is late and I've got to go to bed soon.

We did have some excitement earlier in the week.  It wasn't fun excitement either, after DH had his work review.  He is doing some pretty good stuff - various of his ideas are being implemented and turned into functional products but he isn't necessarily the person implementing them.  Their metrics don't measure this but as an indication of his value, he has two different groups fighting over who gets him.  I've noticed after these events, I withdraw into lala land to recuperate, and I develop strange longings for things that normally don't matter much to me.  I want to feel appreciated, amongst other things.   I had to run some errands yesterday evening, so I put on some glad rags and rushed out the door, and was complimented on "my sense of style" and my outfit.  LOL.  Lairy pants and a purple tie dye yoga top.   That was nice.

Anyway, since google isn't playing nicely with me I think I shall give up for tonight and bid you

anon!

Unsettled

G'day all!

It has been a very disturbing week.  Not only have I been coming off the high from last week, but things like the Boston marathon bombings, the explosion in West and then earthquake in China - normally I try not to let things in the news disturb me, but this week I've been a bit vulnerable and some of the news has been quite shocking.  I'm still feeling a bit off-balance.

I'm probably in pretty good company though, aren't I?

So when the going gets tough, the tough start knitting madly.  This week I've knitted two cowls and finished off another massive one (that I am likely to rip out and redo in another way, now that I've worked out what that way should be).

Do not adjust your eyes,
well maybe put sunglasses on

IRL the yarn is neon yellow and green.

I've been planning to knit a Norwegian sweater ever since Syttende Mai last year, when there were not enough handknitted Norwegian sweaters on display at the parade.  Well I finally got some yarn together and with less than a month to go, cast on.  Nothing like giving myself a challenge!

Since 5pm, I've managed to cast on 265 stitches, do five rows of ribbing and then three rounds (yep, it is joined and will be steeked!) of pattern.  It has taken me over five hours to do that much, but I did get heavily distracted for over an hour and then had to cook and eat dinner and watch Man Lab as well.  Once I am past the first fifteen rows of checkerboard knitting, only every fifth row needs two handed knitting (hooray!) until I get to the main pattern, which is only 15 rows long.   I only have something like 110 or so rows to go on the body (and they should speed up a little when I move to larger needles where the stitches won't be so tight with not as much patterning), and then the sleeves and then the steeking and the button bands and the neckband... so not much more to go!  Tally ho!

At the knitting retreat, people exclaimed over my knitting speed but I'm no speedster, just faster than them.  I would need to modify my technique further to make it really speedy.  Even so, wish me luck, I think I'll be knitting a vest.  LOL

I'm starting to think I should go and knit in the very local LYS more often.  I should get out more and meet more people.  I'm still pretty isolated here but I fill it with busy-ness, making things, adding to my stashes to the point where I'm starting to not want to buy stuff any more.  Yes, I have enough stuff (though when faced with prettiness in the yarn shop in Friday Harbor, well we did have an accident there... and I had to buy some local Lopez Island yarn from the stall Maxine from ?Lopez? brought across.  And of course I had to buy some more yarn for the Norwegian sweater because I needed the right blue, Norwegian blue.  There's a joke in that!).  Last week, hanging out with so many knitters, having so many people around was a wonderful thing.  I am an introvert, I do need me time but I also started growing up as part of a household of six people and there was always noise, always drama until I was 13, the last of the kids to be at home (I'm a bit younger than my siblings).  It was nice to have chatter, to be able to help people and see new things and see people expanding their horizons and taking on challenges that a week before would've terrified them.  I need to get out into that more.

I have to say that I am pretty chuffed at the reactions to the photos I took on the islands.  I haven't put all of them up on my Flickr page as I don't have permission to share all of the people pics.  Some people really like them, they say they are really good, that I'm a good photographer.  I'm not used to being praised for anything - being so much younger than my siblings meant I was always playing catch up footy as we term it.  Yay me, I can walk at nine months but I have to learn to run because I can't keep up with my siblings if I don't.  Yay me, I can talk in complete sentences at whatever age but noone can hear me anyway because my next up sister won't shut up.  Yay me I'm reading the newspaper before I go to school.   I was always aware that even though I was good for my age in certain things, I was terrible in others and totally hopeless compared to siblings 5, 11 and almost 13 years older than me.  So praise makes me blush because I'm not that good - if I was, I'd be out taking award winning pics and making megabucks or I'd be curing cancer or making a difference to the world around me some way.  Then again, I admit that whilst I'm not that good, I still share pics and stuff with you.  I can't help but seek praise, try to master something, try to demonstrate my worth and my value through material prowess.  I want to be noticed (younger sibling syndrome much?).  At the same time, I don't study some of these things on my own and try to perfect the craft.  I'm leery of such things - perfectionism has caused me major amounts of grief in the past and I've had to learn to let such things go.  It's finding the middle road that is hard.

Speaking of family, my brother recently had a major birthday.  A Big One.  Of course I couldn't be there but I sent him a quilt.  LOL - I paid through the nose for fast shipping but because of Easter (which is a four day public holiday in Oz), it didn't get there until after his birthday.  You may be able to guess that he likes a certain cartoon character.

Fancy machine sewn binding

The back?  The front?

Or is this the back?  Or the front?

Yep, I made him a double sided Snoopy/Peanuts (tm!) quilt.  My goodness this thing ate so much fabric!  I thought it would be simple and quick but then suddenly I needed more and more and more fabric, and I started using fabric that was for other projects and had to go back and get more fabric twice!  Then again, it pretty much covers a double bed - one more row and it would've.  Building the log cabin style blocks I thought would be quick but nope, lots of ironing (oops, pressing) and sewing happened, and I thought I'd never finish cutting fabric into strips and then joining the strips together and sewing them onto the block....  I think I had to wind three bobbins of cotton for all of the piecing.  After all of that, I was exhausted when it came to quilting so I kept it simple and just did "straight" lines in one direction.

He emailed me and said he liked it and it was sitting on his armchair, waiting for cold weather to come along.

Is it surprising that I gave my brother a "childish" thing?  I tend to see being an adult is full of enough crap as it is (eg I have to go have a colonoscopy soon, when I arrange it.  I won't be full of crap then!  I have to see a dermatologist about my moles and I seem to be developing rosacea in response to cold weather/wind burn).  So why not mix it up, make it a bit more fun, do something silly or childish (as long as it doesn't hurt other people)?  Wear brightly coloured socks, wear something that gives you a thrill or makes you feel special, do something fun, brighten someone else's day with a quick witty quip or a kind act.

Anyway, time to bid you toodle pip, what ho and take me off to bed.

anon!

Describing the indescribable

G'day all!

I was told that I would not have words to describe this last week, and well, whoever told me that, they were right!

I arrived in the evening at Lakedale Resort, along with three other later arrivals, after catching the 4:30 ferry and having dinner.  All bar one of the other attendees were sitting around chatting in the gathering space.  Cat (Bordhi, the organiser and leader and teacher of the retreat) asked each of us to introduce ourselves and relate how we learned to knit, and the stories began to unfold.

Hmm, hope this size doesn't overrun the edge of the blog.  Lakedale Lodge.

And over the next four days something magical happened.  We became a group.  We chatted, we laughed, we ate together, we learned about each other to a greater or lesser extent, we learned... some of us didn't get enough sleep for either staying up and knitting and chatting or reading uninterrupted by family or other pressures.  We ate magnificently, thanks to our caterer, Deb Nolan, who cooked us wonderful lunches and dinners.

We heard stories that inspired us, saw the knitters around us growing and developing skills they never thought they could.

We introduced a couple, Mags and Jim, to the wonders of knitting.  They run a non-profit yarn company (Frog Tree), amongst other things, and clearly had decided it was time to learn more about their yarn.  They told their story, and enriched the group immensely.  And after some tutoring could cast on and knit.

It is much easier to describe the afternoons.  These were free - we could do whatever we liked, whether it was sitting in a paddle boat and making our way around the lake, wandering in the forest with its early spring leaves sprouting, contemplating the lake, napping, or getting away from the resort and exploring the island.

I am sure you can guess what I did.  I left the paddle boat this time around, though it was very tempting.

San Juan Island is the most westerly of the San Juan islands.   If you stand on the west coast, you can wave to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada just across the strait.  I have a cousin who lives in Victoria on Vancouver Island, though I don't think she saw me waving ;-)

Also, if you are on the west coast, your phone thinks you are in Canada and wakes itself up (out of flight mode!) and gives you a cheery welcome to Canada, please pay through the nose for all data communications.

The weather was lovely in the afternoon on the first day, so I decided to drive around the island and stop at anything that looked picture-skew.  (Other people might say picturesque.)  All these pics, as is mostly the case on the blog, are from the phone and not retouched.  I'll get an album of the big camera pics up on Flickr soon.

Lime Kiln lighthouse was probably the highlight of that trip,

More picture-skewness.

Lime Kiln lighthouse. 
Vancouver Island is in the background.

though I did rather like this pretty little lake

I may like panoramas too much.

and Roche Harbor was very picture-skew and I suspect quite pricey as well.

Think I like flowers too?

There is no escape from flower pics on this blog.

Then next day it rained a bit and was not a great day for sight seeing.  That was ok, cos I wanted a comfy pillow (my version of comfy) and after only finding a twin pack of pillows in Friday Harbor, went to the craft shop and bought the makings of a small pillow - flannelette (flannel), which I washed and dried, needles, thread and stuffing.  And gosh it is a nice little pillow.

Me and my pillow.
That fabric had been waiting for me.

Wednesday afternoon was glorious, so I went to the south west corner of the island to take pics of Cattle Point lighthouse.  After all, I had taken pics of it from the whale watching boat last August.  Halfway down the coast I realised it was very very very windy.  I got out of the car at a lookout and nearly got blown away.  Despite how people apparently see me, I am not a featherweight and when the wind gusted, it was all I could do to stay on my feet.

And it was worse at Cattle Point, a mile down the road.

The grass is being blown flat, making a hoopy blurry effect in the pic

It wasn't so windy here.

Yes, yes, I know, not a panorama....

This isn't open water, it's a strait.

It was so much fun - exhilarating to be honest.  When the wind is so strong that you can barely hold on to the camera, barely stay on your feet let alone walk into it - I felt like I was running as fast as I could but I was really just trudging into the wind... I was laughing like a child.


The seas were tremendously rough and you would've had to be a very brave, more likely foolhardy, person to take on the waters between Cattle Point and ?Goat? Island.

Ok, that isn't between Cattle Point and Goat
Island but you get the idea.

Thursday afternoon, a group of us got on the interisland ferry and tootled around on that.  Pity that my big camera's battery had pretty much given up the ghost and the battery I had borrowed was soon on its last legs - it wasn't charged fully when I got it.  I had to resurrect the old point and shoot by giving it fresh batteries but better some pics than none.  And the phone was doing its best too.  We saw dolphins and a couple of seals on that trip, but the dolphins were the best.  No pics of the small pod of dolphins - the big camera was on its battery's last legs and the other cameras were too slow.

Pulling out of Shaw Island.

A cute little island

Pulling out of Orcas Island.
Note the concentration on that knitter's face.

The marina at Friday Harbor

By Thursday, I was rather dreading the next day, all of us breaking up and going our separate ways.  For days, I had had nothing better to do than sit around and knit and yack, or go sightseeing.  My food was prepared for me, the dishes done, the cleaning done for me... Lovely!

So Friday morning came, as is inevitable, and we started saying goodbyes, and it was all rather traumatic.  The weather agreed that things were very sad - it started raining and did not stop all day.  Even more traumatic was not having my passport with me and being on the international ferry (there's a ferry each day that goes from Anacortes, USA, to Sidney, Canada, via Friday Harbor, my embarkation point).  I should carry it all the time but well I wasn't because it is an important document and I'm afraid of having it stolen and I'd forgotten it is a legal requirement and I can be chucked out of the States if I don't have it with me.  And I thought the border control agent wouldn't let me back in.  I'd been told all I needed was picture ID.  I carry my driver's licence 99% of the time (not to the gym or the market) and for Americans, that is enough.  But I am not American and have to show that I am legally here.  It was one helluva kick in the teeth after the warm fuzzies of the week, a reminder that this is not my home and that I do not always understand how things work.  Admittedly at home I am a citizen, but unlike many countries, I don't need to carry around papers saying that.  I just carry my driver's licence if I'm going to be driving, or some cash/card if I'm just popping out to the shops on foot.  And I open my mouth and my accent says a lot.


DH survived by going out for dinner every night and leaving the washing up he promised to do.  He managed to get as far as opening the dishwasher door and leaving it open.

And now things are back to normal, and those nearly five days are just memories.  Amazing memories.

I signed up for the second Spring retreat next year :-)  I hope to see some of my new knitting buddies again.  And as one of them said, it's only eleven and three quarter months away!

anon!