Washed away

G'day all!

It's raining.  Surprise!  Welcome to Seattle in winter.

Actually, we've had a pretty mild and dry winter, comparatively.  I've been able to go and watch sunset around three or four times a week.  When we moved here three years ago, we had Snowmageddon and then I remember cold front after cold front after cold front blowing through.  It was a bit of a shock after an Australian summer and I didn't really have good wet weather clothing.  And I think I saw about two sunsets in the first month.

Sunset with actual sun on the actual horizon!

But I learned!  I learned to get insulated raincoats - normal raincoats just are not warm enough.  I learned that microfleece is really warm.  I learned to not use an umbrella and just wear raincoats.  I do have a brolly in the door of the car for those occasions when I get caught out but I tend not to use it much.  My mum would be shocked to see me tromping around in the rain with my raincoat and my snowboots (warm!) or my hiking boots (apparently only water resistant, not waterproof).

Float plane taking off from Lake Union.

Then again, I'm no longer a little kid with a predilection to picking up every cold that goes by and then developing bronchitis and asthma.

And you ask what about lovely lovely wool?  You say are you not a knitter and spinner?  Don't you wear the products of your own hands?

Wool is lovely and warm and it doesn't mind getting wet but I do mind getting it dry.  So my woollies have to be worn under the raincoat or when it isn't raining.  I have a lovely range of knitted (and other) hats but if it is raining I can't wear them.  My hood shoves them over my eyes.  I've had a few occasions this winter when I have been able to wear them outside the house and it is lovely.

A while ago I got some yarn that I had ordered as part of a rather expensive yarn club.  I had been treating myself and I thought the yarn would be delightful.

Waaay too much gray for me!

Uh, no.

So I've over-dyed it and now it is somewhat more like what I expected.  I've got ten skeins of it I think, enough to make a pullover out of.  What I'll make is anyone's guess.

Manky shot but much less gray, believe it or not!

So what else has been happening?

I announced the results of the contest and have heard from Rachael but not Pat.  Pat, if you are out there, please contact me.

I've been doing a bit of quilt top making

Hey, it's upside down!

Folding fabric takes forever!

I've been working on getting my fabric washed and organised,

Pretty shelves!

though if you look at the floor at the moment, you would not know it - I threw my big bin full of random good bits of fabric and scraps on the floor so I could sort them...

Turns out I have a LOT of fabric.  See those quilt tops above?  All from stash.  The backings will all be from stash too.

I've been working - mostly doing drawings this week.  Even doing tracings of things and then colouring them in takes forever.

Weird gray sunset.  No colour
effects used.

I've been trying to go for walks because I'm feeling a bit porky.  The scales at the doctors' told me I am a kilo heavier than I was in October, so apparently I'm not that porky.

This also is a colour shot, no effects used!

I got told that I don't have any known mutations that would cause cancer in me, but I do have a variant of unknown significance of a certain gene that causes certain familial cancers (that noone in my direct line has died of, and since one of the cancers is melanoma and we are one of the moliest families you'll ever see plus hello,  Australian!).

Inside the Moore Theatre, Seattle.

I found out that Dame Edna Everage is in Seattle at the moment (oddly enough, Barry Humphreys is as well!) and managed to snag us some tickets.  Of course since I found out so late, we had to sit up in the "paupers" area rather than in the expensive seats down the front.  We were rather glad of that because she is a very wicked lady and she likes to pick out people from the audience.  She says things that pretty much noone else could get away with.  Lord knows what she would've done when she saw DH wearing his tie dye tshirt and if she made him speak, she would've recognised his accent as not being from here but from somewhere somewhat closer to her humble beginnings before she became a gigastar.  Anyway I don't think I've smiled that much for that long since my wedding day cos my goodness my cheeks were sore!  And after the show, I hurried down to the expensive seats and found myself a gladdie to take home!  Yay!

You would almost think she was with us!

I've been eyeballing some yarn for my next project.  I have five balls of a lovely spotty yarn that I want to knit up.  Only problem is that only three of the five sorta go together, even though they technically are the same colourway.  This is the joy of hand-dyed yarn.  I can knit two rows of one ball and two rows of another ball but I will still have an area that has a lot more colour than one of the later areas.  I am thinking I might do a bit of a gradient - start with the darkest (or lightest) colour and work to the other end.

I won't be knitting the tulips

Our visiting cat is not allowed to visit inside any more.  It started off as amusement but we've let her take it too far and her owners are upset.  Instead she sits on our doorstep and cries.  I don't know why our place is so attractive to her - we give her scritches, obviously we give very good scritches but well surely a larger house with many comfortable places to sleep would be better but who knows what a cat thinks?  Anyway, it is sad making but she is not our cat and to be honest we do not want the responsibility of a cat.  A cat is a forever animal requiring a solemn commitment to the animal's wellbeing (she says, with her own cats not really any longer hers because we had to leave them in Oz) and we are not going to be here forever or even for the lifespan of the average cat.  We could have a hamster or something similar because they don't last long.  But a cat?  It was bad enough having to leave Nutmeg and Cheshire behind, knowing that they are being well looked after, but adopting and then abandoning a cat... argh!

And that, she said, is that.  I've been having deep and meaningful thoughts about things but when it comes time to sit and blog, they all flitter away.  Thoughts like butterflies....

Or pretty pretty tulips.

anon!