ferretworld

RIP Fifty

2011-12-23T16:37:00.000-08:00

We came back from the cabin last weekend to find Fifty the fish lying on the bottom of his tank. Fin was determined that he should have all the funeral rites so took charge of the arrangements.

Fifty was buried under the path, with a short but moving ceremony. The eulogy was read by Fin.

A rose will blossom
a flower will fall
but this fish is better than them all
kittens will run
kites will fly
but 50 was good
rest in peace.

Strike up the band

2011-12-22T16:32:00.000-08:00

Both boys performed in music concerts at school last week - so we got the chance to hear Adam playing the trombone with the entire Brass ensemble. Adam is back row third from left.

He had previously told us that it sounded a lot better when all the brass instruments played together - and it was true - the effect was actually pretty good. Interesting demographic - out of the 30 or so 5th grade brass players, there were 3 girls.

We also got to see Fin lip-sync some songs with the 3rd grade. He had told us in advance that he was not going to sing - which is a shame as he sings all the time at home.

Fin is far left on the 2nd row, in grey and white striped top.

Eleven in eleven

2011-12-21T16:24:00.000-08:00

There are eleven days left in 2011...and we recently celebrated an 11th birthday! Adam requested being woken early to start the celebrations.

He was thrilled with all his presents and immediately set off to school on his present from us. Yet another scooter (apparently this is different from the scooter he already has - but looks pretty similar to me!)

Once they got back from school we had the obligatory cake. Eleven candles generates quite a blaze!

I did give Adam a free pass on his homework - but he decided that he would rather complete it - proud mother moment there! However it didn't take long and he was back outside on his scooter until dark.

Timber!

2011-12-13T17:00:00.000-08:00

Its that time of year again: We went to Castle Rock Christmas Tree Farm again, but this time they were only harvesting White Fir - so in addition to choosing a nice tree, we had to select only from the white firs (and also identify one!). This is the tree we chose, and Adam and Fin cut it down.

It appears that white firs are a more dense wood than Douglas Fir, and it was hard to cut, and also heavy. As the trunk was almost sawn through Fin said he would hold the tree while the final cut was made. This photo taken just as he was saying "I've got it!"...

This was the tree they had their eyes on..luckily it's not a White Fir - so we were not able to harvest it.

The eagle eyed will notice that Fin is wearing 2 different checked clothes items and a pink cashmere scarf...apparently it was colder than he expected...

Eclipse

2011-12-12T13:33:00.000-08:00

Fin, Nigel, and I got up at 5:45 on Saturday to watch the Lunar Eclipse. It was actually rather marvellous, we watched the moon disappear behind the earth's shadow and glow a large luminous, rusty, red.

I do think I need lessons with my new camera. This was the best photo I got:

The moon is there at the top of our street - as you can see we had an excellent view of the eclipse.
Most of the photos I took looked more like this:

Nine

2011-12-06T16:07:00.001-08:00

Fin celebrated his ninth birthday. It was a fun-filled day. It coincided with the town's annual Christmas Parade in which the scouts push each other on go-carts. They always enjoy it - and it was a lovely sunny day so the crowds were out!

We had lunch at our favourite restaurant - Nigel and I are drinking Margaritas purely for restorative purposes - all those cubs are tiring you know!

When we got home Fin tried out the Chemistry set he got for his birthday and created a physics experiment with the results!

Finally - there was cake. Banana cake this time.
Fin shown here modeling the chef's coat he got as a gift.

School spirit

2011-12-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

Adam thoroughly embraces the concept of 'school spirit'. The school had a crazy hair day last week and Adam is here modeling his creation: the 'po-hawk' (portmanteau word combining Pony tail and Mohawk*).

Fin appropriately enough chose 2 'horns' of hair!

*Interestingly (or maybe not) this hairstyle was always called a Mohican in my youth - or maybe just in the UK - but here it's called a Mohawk.

Tulips for Eloise

2011-07-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

Adam's tutor just had a baby: her second girl. I thought it was an ideal opportunity to knit the baby sweater that is popular on the internet right now. This is the Dream in Colour Baby Tulips Sweater which I bought as a kit from Yarndogs.

The pattern is pretty simple, but effective: the seed stitch transition between the colours is really pretty. However, the main appeal of the sweater is the lovely colours. DIC yarn is also machine washable which is good for babies.

I did wait to see if she had a girl or boy, as I would probably have substituted something for the lightest pink if the baby had been male - but the sweater is so pretty as designed.

While I was at it, I also knitted a 'soaker': a wool knitted cover for nappies. Crissy does cloth diapering and wool covers are supposedly very effective.

The soaker looks a bit odd as the waist is very heavily ribbed - but I think it will fit well over the bulk of cloth nappies.

A camel through the eye of a needle

2011-07-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

I did a little more spinning - this time some camel/silk fiber I bought at Stitches from A Verb for Keeping Warm. I recommend you look at the photo of the fiber here as it is lovely in it's natural colour.

The fiber was lovely and soft - but actually really hard for me to spin! The silk fibers are long, but the camel clearly has a short staple and I felt I was often spinning lumps of camel fiber onto the silk. I hoped that some of my inadequate spinning would be disguised when I plied - and maybe it is, but the resulting yarn has a very obvious thick-and-thin character.

However it was really fun trying to spin this evenly and a good learning experience for me. The yarn is pretty soft and I still love the colour. I have plans for this yarn for Gill!

Off the needles: Mystery Shawl

2011-07-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

I finished the Mystery Shawl pretty quickly. That's the nice thing about starting on the long edge and decreasing. However I realized that I had made an error in the set-up repeat of the shawl which is obvious now - but I'm clearly not going to go back and fix. I am going to work on the principle that if I move fast enough while wearing it, no one will notice.

The miracle of blocking...

It was really fun to knit a shawl in parts without knowing what the final item would look like, the pattern is pretty but not terribly exciting - but it was easy and quick. The best thing though is the marriage of yarn to pattern - the cashmere fingering weight Nimu yarn that Christina gave me is just lovely in this shawl - the simple pattern and the slight colour variegation work well together and this is a shawl I will certainly wear (but maybe not for a little while!).

He's on a roll

2011-06-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

Fin did more cooking last weekend: Another cheesecake and Sticky Date Muffins.

Good job I took this photograph quickly because they didn't last long.

Say Cheese

2011-06-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

More of Fin's Fablious Food. He decided he wanted to make a cheesecake after we ate a ready-made one. He has become quite snooty about making things from packets: "That's not cooking; cooking has ingredients" so I bought the ingredients for cheesecake from memory while shopping - then had to find a recipe that used ricotta and cream cheese since that is what I bought and not gelatin which many seem to be based on. We used this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/classic-cheesecake-recipe2/index.html, halved the quantities, and substituted ricotta for half the cream cheese.

Fin did all the mixing and measuring, and especially creating crumbs with the rolling pin. He was interested that we baked it in a bath of water.

He was very pleased with it - and especially enjoyed taking it out of the spring-form pan.

It was delicious! I was glad, however that we had made half the quantity - I think we will be eating it all week as it is.

Gold Dust or Bust

2011-06-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

I went to school today to see Adam's class perform "Gold Dust or Bust": a musical based around the 1849 California Gold Rush. It fits in with the California history they have studied this semester and I think they had a lot of fun doing it. My measure of this is how many of the boys were actually singing rather than just standing there.

They did a fine job and the performance was entertaining (and short!). I think the highlight for the boys though were the moustaches:

Spending their inheritance

2011-06-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

The boys recently inherited some money from my Grandfather - they decided that they would save most of it (for cars!) and spend about $100 each. This expenditure has been the subject of much discussion and finally this weekend they chose what they were going to buy.

Fin decided on an electric guitar. Adam has been playing the guitar for about 2 years now and Fin, having toyed with the idea of drums for a while, thankfully chose a guitar too.
We went to Guitar Showcase again. Adam advising on a choice of instrument:

Adam decided to replace his skateboard - he wants something smaller and lighter for better tricks. After extensive discussion with the chap in the NC Boardshop he chose one and spent the rest of the afternoon practicing his ollies on the drive.

A spot of spinning

2011-06-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

Despite evidence to the contrary, my wheel has not been sitting idle. I spun this fibre that I bought at Stitches 2011 from A Verb for Keeping Warm. The fibre is 60% Merino/30% Yak/30% Silk.
The colours are lovely subtle shades of blue and it was very easy to spin.

I was aiming for a DK weight to knit a hat for Nigel - but it looks a little thinner than that. I think I will knit a top-down pattern and knit as long as the yarn lasts. I only have 2oz of the fibre so I may mix it with another yarn once I settle on a pattern. However, since Nigel won't be needing a hat for a while it will probably sit in my yarn stash for a while.

On the needles: Mystery Shawl

2011-06-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

I decided to sign up for the Mystery Shawl knit-along at the library. We are all knitting the Wendy Knits Summer Shawlette pattern available from Wendy's website. The pattern is released in parts (or 'clues') over several weeks. I'm a bit behind the other knitters - but hopefully will catch up before too long.

I'm knitting it in the lovely Nimu Yarns Helvellyn yarn that Christina gave me for my birthday. This lovely red/orange yarn is a 65% cashmere/35% silk mix and is very soft to work with.

More costumes

2011-05-31T16:15:00.000-07:00

I signed up to make some costumes for the 2nd grade play. The play is about lifecycles and has lots of characters. I agreed to source 2 zookeeper vests/jackets, and 2 lab coats. The plan is to keep these costumes at school for future productions of the play.

The zookeeper jackets I got from Goodwill. The longer jacket had puffed sleeves so I removed those, the shorter jacket I left the sleeves on as I thought they were quite suitable for either a boy or girls. Someone else is providing hats.

The lab coats I adapted from a couple of white shirts that another parent provided. I just modified the collars, shortened the sleeves, and added the pocket. Someone else is providing round spectacles.

Hopefully these will work out. Of course, Fin declined a speaking, costumed part, and is part of the chorus.

Gold Rush!

2011-05-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

Friday was the 4th Grade Gold Rush Day! It's a day of gold-rush themed activities such as panning for gold, playing with hoops and sticks, building clipper ships from tin foil, all intended to reinforce the history that the 4th grade have been studying.

Both the children and parent volunteers are encouraged to dress up, and you know that I never need asking twice to put on a costume. Actually I think since I was a girl I have always wanted a "Little House on the Prarie" outfit so it was the ideal opportunity to make one.

This is McCalls pattern #9423 and is intended to be a wrapper or prarie dress - the sort of dress you would wear to do your housework rather than go into town. I used some lightweight cotton print for the dress and some Kaffe Fasset shot cotton for the bonnet.

I found wearing the bonnet all day rather a strange experience as I had almost no peripheral vision and felt like the children were suddenly appearing out of nowhere. I chickened out of making the petticoats and bloomers for fear that it would be too hot.

I spent the morning talking to the children about clipper ships and their role in the development of California, the whole of 4th grade rotated through each station so it was fun to see all Adam's friends show up in turn.

Of course I also made Adam a costume:

This tunic is Butterick Historic pattern number #B4486, although I simplified the sleeves to a simple t-shape rather than a gathered sleeve. I used the leftover cotton/linen mix from the study curtains - which seemed sufficiently rustic for the purpose.

Maker Faire 2011

2011-05-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

We visited the Maker Faire again last weekend. This is our third year attending and we have yet to repeat any activity. There were the usual mechanical contraptions: this is a giraffe named Russell that 'talks' in response to touch.

There were lots of hands-on activities: this year the boys both had a go at turning wood on a lathe:

Fin also made himself a catapult at the Society for Creative Anacronism while Adam tried on armour.

We also got to design some metal pieces (although we didn't get to use the oxy-acetelene torch ourselves). We watched a whiskey barrel velodrome; and the Eepybird coke-and-mentos fountain.

There were both static and interactive sculpture:

I loved this dragon peeping out from a fence.

This sculpture played 'noises' based on either a kinetic hand-on component or when connected to this electric guitar -

Adam was playing "Smoke on the Water".

We had a super day - yet again I didn't visit any of the fiber arts, in fact we didn't go inside all day. We also didn't bump into any of the friends who also attended the same day. The boys are already looking forward to next year.

Collective cardigans

2011-05-21T20:38:00.000-07:00

Is there a collective noun for one-button short-sleeved cardigans? If so, I need it since that seems to be what I'm knitting currently!

First up: Shalom cardigan by Meghan McFarlane. This is a free pattern that is made available in one-size, so I am adjusting the stitch counts based on other projects on Ravelry.

I'm knitting it in Rowan Cocoon which was a birthday present from Eileen.

Newest project: Silverbell Cardigan from the Classic Elite booklet "Magnolia". I saw this knitted as a sample at Bobbin's Nest on the 'field trip' that I made with Kerstin last weekend. It's a lovely yarn store with lots of samples - which I always like to see. They also have fabric and I bought some to make a dress.

The yarn is the Madeline Tosh Laceweight in Kelp that I bought at Imagiknit when Christina was visiting. I had planned to knit a whisper cardigan - but didn't like the knitted fabric so I frogged that project. I'm using the yarn held double to get gauge, which I don't usually like to do - but the yarn seems to be quite sticky and I'm not losing stitches as much as I thought I would. I'm really liking the knitted fabric and the colours are lovely and saturated.

Popularity

2011-05-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

Due to the recent posting on Kate Davis' blog Needled about the story of the hat, my blog has received a hitherto unprecedented flurry of action!

This chart shows the hits on my blog for the last 2 weeks - it just made me laugh that a load of people would visit Ferretworld because of a lost hat!

Stitches Scabbard

2011-05-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

I finished my first project knitted from Stitches West 2011 yarn!

The pattern is Silken Scabbard from Stitch Diva, designed Jennifer Hansen. I knitted the summer neckline variation. The yarn is Kollage Yarns Riveting which is made from recycled blue jeans. I chose the colour Night Denim (7903). Surprisingly for a 100% cotton yarn it was pretty soft and flexible to work with and actually was a good choice for this pattern.

The design of the sweater is very nice - especially the details. Where the horseshoe cable morphs into a braided cable in the armpit - and where the braided/horseshoe cable creates some shaping in the side.

However, the actual pattern, while technically well written, is laid out in a rather confusing way. I think because it's a printed pattern, the layout tries to keep the pattern onto 2 A4 sides - but in my opinion, at the cost of clarity. I spent a lot of time flipping the pattern back and forth to follow the instructions, and some of the short-cuts in the explanation were not clear. I consider that I am an experienced knitter and pattern reader and some of the pattern sections took my multiple readings to understand. Which is a shame because this is a lovely pattern with enough clever detail to keep the knitting interesting, but quick enough that you get a sweater before too long.

Old skirt

2011-05-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

I knitted this skirt last summer, I tried it on as I knitted it to ensure a good fit, but it was very unflattering somehow so I put it away and didn't think about it.

I found it in my sweater drawer recently and tried it on again - I think the running is making a difference to my shape because I think it looks a lot better now. I wore it on Friday and got Adam to take a photo for me.

It's knitted in Elann Limited Edition Cottone-Lin yarn in colour 4, I think I used 8 balls. The pattern is 118-14 skirt with lace pattern from Drops Designs Book 118. Link is here. I modified the pattern to knit a casing for a 1" elastic instead of using a drawstring. I also knitted 3 repeats of the lace pattern because I thought an odd number of repeats looks better.

Mothers Day

2011-05-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

We spent Mothers day morning in Santa Cruz at the Marine Discovery Run. The run raises money for the Marine Discovery center and lab which we have visited with the boys in the past. It's an interesting place to visit, they rescue and study marine mammals, as well as a little museum/exhibition of other local marine life and issues.

The location of the run was lovely: around Natural Bridges State Park and along Westcliff Drive. The day was overcast with rain threatening - but most of all windy!

This photo was taken in front of the whale skeleton just before the start - we had left our sweatshirts and were waiting for the 5K to start. The boys were cold - but we soon warmed up. We all ran together - Adam encouraging us all - and finished the race in 37 minutes. My last 5K took me 39 minutes and so I was pleased it was faster - although not the 36 minutes I was aiming for! Fin sprinted the last 200 yards or so, so his time is slightly faster! Nigel, Adam, and I ran over the finish holding hands.

After the race there was fresh fruit, and an excellent goody bag, as well as flowers for the Mums running today.

It was a really well organized race, and pretty small - I think there were less than 100 doing the 5K. There was also a really cute kids 1K where everyone cheered the little ones along - some of them were really small!

We headed home - stopping for coffee and the doughnuts that Fin had been motivating himself with! Once we got home. I opened my lovely mothers day gifts: a home-made spoon rest, a pollock-inspired painting, and a home-made candle, then we repaired to the spa!

The hat: a story

2011-05-04T17:27:00.000-07:00

Those of you who are not knitters are probably blissfully unaware of the Ravelry website. Its a huge Web 3.0 application: part database, part project/knitting diary, part facebook-for-knitters. I document most of my knitting projects on the website, with a photo or two, and links to the pattern and yarn used.

A couple of weeks ago I got a message via Ravelry from fellow knitter "Strikkelise" in Bergen in Norway asking whether I had lost a knitted tam with dolls on. My first thought was 'of course not' but then I remembered that my parents were in Norway on holiday and maybe the found hat was the tam I knitted for my mother. I called Gill who confirmed that my parents had stopped in Bergen at the beginning of their vacation - maybe they were there also at the end.

There are 40 projects on Ravelry for the Dollheid pattern, but only one with bright blue dolls. After a few more messages to Norway, and a photo, we confirmed that this was indeed the blue tam I gave to Mammie for Christmas.

Gill and I were not sure whether M&F were still in Bergen, but we obtained the hotel address and the intrepid "Strikkelise" confirmed that they had been staying in the same hotel, but checked out that morning.

She kindly took the hat back to her home in Oslo, and posted it to Mammie where it safely arrived last week. By the time M&F arrived back home the arrangements had already been made for the return of the hat before Mammie had even realized that it was lost. Thank you so much "Strikkelise" for tracking us down and returning the hat. She has documented her side of the story here (in Norwegian and English).

Some might say that this proves that no-matter-what, you can't get rid of an unwanted handknit - so let that be a lesson to all my family members who regularly receive handknit gifts!

Spring racing

2011-05-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

We made a final trip to Bear Valley last weekend. Our ski trip coincided with the first Bear Valley Snowboard Cross competition. If you have not seen it snowboard cross is an elimination contest between 4 boarders on a winding course with jumps. The competition was open and there was an under 12 category so Adam entered.

He had a great time - there were only 5 under-12s entered to it seemed like Adam just enjoyed hanging out with the other competitors (under and over 12). The field was entirely male, and I would guess under 25.

The competitors got a couple of practice runs, before the actual race - here is Adam at the top of the course just after leaving the gate.

Looking down the rather daunting course as Adam does his practice run.

Unfortunately at this point my camera battery died so I didn't get any photos of the actual competition. It was very exciting to watch - especially when it's your child hurtling through the snow at speed.

Edited to add that the Bear Valley Photographer, Jason, took some photos and kindly sent them to me. So we got this great action shot. The guy in the green won the contest.

Adam was thrilled to discover that he came second in the contest and even more thrilled to discover that there was an awards ceremony and prizes. He won a night at an Arnold hotel, as well as some food gift certificates, and even better, a snowboard sweatshirt and fancy headphones! We were very proud of him - not for winning (although clearly we were pleased for him) but proud that he would go for it and enter a competition without knowing anyone else in the contest or ever having done snowboard cross before!

Gus's Sweater

2011-04-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Fin's current teacher returned from maternity leave as he first term teacher left to have her baby. Having knitted the baby surprise jacket I had a lot of the Drops Fabel yarn left over so decided to knit a sweater for the little lad.

He is now 6 months old, so I needed to knit something both age and season appropriate. The pattern is a free pattern from an Australian company called Carnival yarns. Link to the pattern is here.

I didn't make any changes to the pattern - just knitted it at a smaller gauge. I really like the pattern and may have to try to make one in worsted to get a larger garment. This used 2 balls of the Drops Fabel sock yarn. I used 2.5mm needles and got about 6 stitches to the inch.

Great race

2011-04-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

Flushed with success after my 5K race I decided to enter the Saratoga to Los Gatos Great Race. This is a 4 mile race from Saratoga down highway 9 to Los Gatos. It's a real family event and I was delighted that the boys and Nigel wanted to participate.

Here we are at the beginning - looking fresh and raring to go!

We went with Bill and Duncan, and all started off together. Duncan decided he would rather walk so we met up with them later at the finish line. I had rather expected that we would walk at least some of the way - I had no idea whether the boys could run 4 miles or not. In the end we all ran the entire distance - some slower than others!

En route we met more friends and ran in different groups for the rest of the race. It was a timed race and we all had chips - so were able to report our official times: Nigel and Adam finished first in about 47 minutes, I ran with Belis and we came in at 52 minutes, and Fin and Nikash crossed the line at about 58 minutes*.

Here we are at the finish - tired but happy. Not only are the boys looking forward to next years race but they also want me to find another race that we can all do together.

* Fin tells me he ran the whole race, and also that they found a broken radio and a flip-flop on the road....so I suspect they had some diversions along the route.

Spring skiing

2011-04-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

We spent 4 days over spring break at Bear Valley. The skiing was perfect spring skiing; sunshine, no crowds; in fact, no people at all. It was like having a private resort.

We met up with several friends over the days and the boys had the fun of skiing all over the mountain with their friends.

They also hit the terrain park - perfecting their board slides and jumps. (Below is Fin)

We took the video and to the thrill of the boys posted the video on YouTube - it's apparently the epitome of cool to have a video on the web. (Below Adam attempting a grab).

We rented a cabin in Arnold, and the boys made a little sledding slope to make the most of the fresh snow when we arrived, but the fresh snow had melted after all that sunshine.

We bought our season tickets for Bear for the 11/12 season so hope for more lovely ski trips next season.

Creek clean-up

2011-04-07T18:17:00.000-07:00

Our cub scout pack sponsors a section of the Creek Trail, and every year we go and pick up the trash that has accumulated along the trail.

This year our clean-up date turned out to be after the wettest few days of the year. We decided that it was not very scout-like to cancel our community service because of rain, so we went ahead with the event.

It was pretty exciting to be walking alongside the creek which was more full than I had ever seen it, sections of the trail downstream were closed due to flooding, but the town approved our section being open.

Only 5 cubs turned out but we still managed to collect 10 garbage bags full! Just as we finished the rain stopped!

Blast off!

2011-04-05T15:06:00.000-07:00

Fin and I went to the Library launch event on Sunday. This is to kick-off a fundraiser for new furniture and fixtures for the town's new library that will open in 2012. The theme for the event was Lauches and space so they invited Edward Lu to speak which was our main motivation for attending the event. He talked about his 3 space missions, in particular the last one which was a 6-month stay at the International Space Station with a Russian cosmonaut after travelling in a soyuz rocket.

He was an excellent speaker - entertaining to both the adults and many children in attendance. At the end of his speech he invited questions from the audience and Fin was the first one in line.

His question was "Does travelling in a rocket make you feel sick?". The answer was that it does not, but coming back to earth after 6 months of weightlessness does!

There were also some other space-related activities; here is Fin launching his stomp rocket.

Edited to link to the Weekly Times in which Fin has a quote: http://mytown.mercurynews.com/pdfs/losgatos.pdf Page 6.

Baby Surprise

2011-03-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

Fin's teacher is currently on maternity leave and I wanted to knit something for her newest little boy. I like the coat-like quality of the Baby Surprise Jacket which makes it so suitable for our California climate.

I bought the Drops Fabel sock yarn from Nordic Mart at Stitches 2011. The Baby Surprise is a good pattern for a self-striping yarn as it shows off the unusual construction of the garment. As I discussed last time I knitted this pattern, this is not apparently a baby jacket until the very last minute when you sew it up.

If you are not familiar with Drops yarn it's good quality, at great prices, and really excellent pattern support. This jacket used just over 100g of yarn, for which I paid about $4 - and it's lovely yarn. I bought some other Fabel sock yarn at Stitches which I am looking forward to knitting. I suspect my Dad is going to see some Fabel sock yarn up close before too long!

I'll have a slice

2011-03-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

I accompanied Fin's class on a field trip on Monday. It's was Adam's favourite field trip ever when he was in 2nd grade - and looks like it's now Fin's favourite.

The visit was to Pizza My Heart, a locally owned business. The children got to visit the kitchen, investigate the large fridge, and watch the pizza chefs in action. I didn't get a photo but these guys were throwing pizza dough into the air and catching huge wheels of it for their super-size pizzas.

However, the children didn't just get to watch the pizza-making; they got to make their own. Fin chose a combination of cheese, pepperoni, pineapple, and olives and voted it the best pizza he had ever eaten.

The teacher and parent chaperones also got to taste the pizza - and it was pretty good! The children each came away with a T-shirt which in their school becomes a sort of badge of honour: you have to be in 2nd grade to get one - so it's a big differentiator from the 1st graders!

Spinning and knitting and blocking

2011-03-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

For Christmas 2009 the boys gave me 4oz of this lovely merino/silk fibre from Curious Creek. The colours were so lovely that I felt it was above my spinning capability and just kept it to pet and admire for a while.

At the LG Library Knitting Retreat in January I spun half of it into a fine single, and spun the other half over the following few weeks. The colours in the singles were lovely, but I didn't really do anything other than just ply the 2 singles, rather than attempt any colour matching. Actually I didn't do a good job with plying; the plies were loose and I was concerned that I would not be able to knit with the resulting yarn. The colours also seemed rather muted - not like the vibrant colours of the fibre.

However, the knitting was not as bad as I feared and I knitted the yarn into a Travelling Woman shawl. The colours developed into lovely soft stripes and the loosely plied yarn resulted in a really soft knitted fabric.

The colours are actually more accurate in the photo below - it's a really rich golden orange colour with flecks of green and purple.

I used my new Knitpicks blocking wires which made it really easy to get a nice shape to the shawl and to get the scalloped edge. Travelling Woman is a good pattern for handspun, or any time when you don't have much yarn as the yardage requirements are pretty small.

3.1 miles

2011-03-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

Today I ran in the St Patricks day 'Go Green' 5k - my first 5K and the culmination of the Couch to 5K training that I have been doing. It was an early start as the race started at 8am in Vasona Park and of course the clocks went forward overnight. There were 1700 runners, the majority were doing the half marathon, or 10K course, but there were several hundred 5K runners. Here we are at the off... I'm in the pink shirt and black capris.

The cheering crew (Nigel and boys) cycled around the course and cheered me on at several points which was lovely - and very encouraging. I have a load of photos with me getting progressively redder in the face. This photo is taken about 2.5 miles - I'm still smiling!

Adam caught this photo of me going over the finish line. I don't have my chip time yet - but my iPod registered about 39 mins. (The Nike + also recorded the distance as 3.5 miles - so maybe it's not as well calibrated as I thought!).

Finished! The boys were delighted at the food that was available at the finish line! I was pleased that I ran the entire course, and kept a consistent pace for the whole time.

It was fun to do a race almost on the doorstep - we didn't have to worry about parking as we all cycled down to the park. It was a fun atmosphere - although the race organization was rather lacking - a load of 5K runners apparently headed down the 10K route as there was no one to direct. I didn't have a problem as I run in the park all the time so knew which way to head - but it was not well marked. We did get a cute finishers medal.

I'm most pleased with myself that I really did go from couch to 5K...! Having never run before it was a really easy progression to get to running 3 miles. I started really slowly, but once I got into the routine it was really rewarding to see the distance increase every week. Now I need to set another objective to keep up the training.

New toy and some sewing

2011-03-06T10:17:00.000-08:00

I got a new toy last week:

I was able to go to the library to try out a number of different eReaders and without much difficulty decided on the Kindle. The only disadvantage to it is the lack of library support - I can't borrow eBooks from the library in Kindle form. The size, weight, and page clarity of the Kindle compensated for being tied into Amazon and the agency pricing scheme of the publishers. I don't plan to give up print books, and still expect to use the library extensively, but for traveling the convenience of being able to take along multiple books is terrific.

I was traveling to LA last week and decided that I needed a case for the Kindle to give it some protection. I wanted an envelope case rather than a book-like case so got out my sewing machine and my box of fabric (fabrrrrrik).

I quilted a piece of fleece onto a wool tweed remnant (office skirt circa 1996), and lined the whole with some cotton batik (summer skirt circa 1999). This was really a prototype and the flap is not cut exactly and does not really lie flat. I plan to put some velcro as a fastener.

So, not the neatest but it serves the purpose and I think I will make another one more neatly next time I get a moment. The quilting gives some protection, but the case is still pretty flat and slipped neatly into my laptop bag. I read 2 books on the Kindle while I was in LA - and already really appreciating the large amount of reading matter in a small package.

So far I have managed to get the internet interface working, but not yet experimented with putting pdfs onto the Kindle. Lots of scope for messing about with it!

Off the needles: on the hands

2011-03-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

When I saw Spilly Jane's beer mitten pattern I knew I had a willing recipient for some mitts. Nigel actually requested fingerless mitts, and we agreed on a guinness-only design.

These are knitted in Knitpicks Palette yarn in grey, dark brown, and cream. They were a really quick knit, and pretty easy as there is little shaping in the mitt, so the only thing requiring concentration is manipulating 2 colours at a time.

On the needles: Silken Scabbard

2011-03-04T17:25:00.000-08:00

Whilst at Stitches I saw a sample sweater hanging in a booth that caught my eye. I bought the pattern for Silken Scabbard and set about looking for yarn. I wanted a smooth finish yarn to show off the cables, and something summery as I planned to knit the short-sleeved version.

I selected Kollage Yarn's Riveting which is made from recycled blue jeans. It's a light worsted/fingering weight and lovely and soft.

After casting on and knitting the raised collar twice, and ripping it out, I started on the summer neckline variation. I dispute the comment on the pattern that "it almost knits itself"!!

Student Council

2011-02-24T09:51:00.000-08:00

The newest representative on the Student Council* set off for his meeting this morning.

The Council meets at 7:45 and astonishingly Adam leapt our of bed with enthusiasm at 7am. Those of you who are familiar with Adam's usual morning routine will share our surprise.

*Student Council representative is an elected position. Each 3rd - 5th grade class provides 2 representatives to discuss the student perspective on the school and its activities.

Yosemite in the snow

2011-02-23T19:17:00.000-08:00

Over the school winter break we went to Yosemite National Park for a few days. Our visit coincided with heavy snow.

Adam was thrilled that his friend Casey and family were also there and the boys had some good snowball fights.

We did make it to the Badger Pass ski area one day which was fun - but very very cold. I was delighted that my new handspun and handknit earflap hat was admired by the lift attendant.

Both boys are on boards these days. The snow was deep and fluffy which is just perfect for boarding (so I'm told!). Badger is so small and contained that we were able to let Adam and Casey go off together - Adam was just thrilled by the freedom!

Great view here of Fin mid-turn - he was probably trying to spray me with snow.

Stitches West 2011

2011-02-20T14:04:00.000-08:00

To round out a lovely week off in Yosemite I got to go to Stitches West on Saturday with Kerstin.

We had a very successful and enjoyable day surrounded by 'our people'. Kerstin wore a new shawl she had knitted and was stopped multiple times by people asking her about it, and in one case taking a photo.

Here is my haul. Clockwise from the top:

Red baby camel/silk batt from Redfish dyeworks. Small secret bundle. Pattern and yarn for Silken Scabbard, yarn is Kollage Riveting which is made from recycled jeans. Next: green and purple sock yarn from Drops, and turquoise Drops sock yarn for a baby sweater from Nordic Mart. Then the rest of the fibre: Blue merino/yak/silk from A Verb for Keeping Warm (intended for a hat for Nigel), undyed camel/silk, and undyed yak/merino from Tactile.

I have already cast on the sweater, but I think the fibre will keep me busy for a little while, until Stitches West 2012 anyway.

Off the needles: Jess

2011-02-18T16:18:00.000-08:00

There has been a dearth of knitting on the blog recently - partly because I knitted a secret project and forgot to take any photos of it - but partly because I knitted the back of a sweater and then had to frog it.

I cast on for Jess last year but the warm weather got the better of me and I put it aside until it was cool enough to knit a lapful of alpaca. I have been knitting the back and the yarn is just lovely, soft and warm. However, I am also terribly allergic to it - so I'm officially abandoning the project.

Christina did offer to knit it for me, but I suspect that the allergies would prevent me from wearing the cardi as well as knitting on it. So, she can take possession of a bag of red alpaca!

Fin's fablious food

2011-02-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

Along with the crafting Fin has a new-found interest in cooking. He received a very nice children's cookery book for Christmas and is working his way through it. Last week he cooked chinese beef.

It was delicious. He now thinks he might be a chef and open a restaurant called "Fin's Fablious Food".

Needle felting (not mine)

2011-02-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

Fin received a Woolpets needle felting kit for Christmas and last weekend while I was sewing, he got it out. I showed him the basics of needle felting (you jab at bits of wool fibre with a long sharp needle, making sure that you don't prick your finger, and preferably on some sort of padded surface. We used some foam left over from some packaging or other.)

This little fellow took him about an hour - and after the initial basic instruction was completed entirely without help. Fin was justifiably very pleased with his handiwork.

Pinewood 2011

2011-02-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again: time for the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.

The boys built their cars mostly over the Christmas vacation - they spent a lot of time refining the designs and cutting and sanding the blocks. They are both old enough now to wield the power tools (with some supervision) and did pretty well.

Adam wanted to go for speed and chose a real car to copy. This is his Porche 911.

Fin stuck to the more novelty category and made his car into a TechDeck. (for those without small boys techdecs are miniature skateboard toys).

Despite very careful engineering, and much weighing and adjusting neither car was very fast on the actual race day. Adam was rather disappointed as he had high hopes for his Porche - but we did have so much fun building and decorating them that it was hard for me to share this disappointment. He has one more year of cub scouts to try for a faster car!

Legs of Nigel*

2011-02-02T15:51:00.000-08:00

I have been turning out socks rather consistently without any documentation. Here is my recent output for Nigel:

From the top:

Cream socks from some heavy german sock yarn I got in a swap. Shown is the second sock - having successfully completed one sock from one ball of wool, the second ball ran out during the toe decreases. I used the spare wool to finish the sock. Short ribbed fold-down sock specially requested to wear with his desert boots.

Nigel chose this hand-dyed yarn from Chameleon Colorworks while we were at Lambtown, I added the black toe and heel to tone down what I though was a rather lurid sock.

Another short ribbed boot sock knitted from Cascade Heritage yarn. I was so impressed with this yarn - it's really cheap and seems to wash and wear really well too. Quite a lot of colours and reasonably soft. I got this from Purlescence Yarns.

*For American readers not familiar with the triskellion symbol of the Isle of man details are here: Legs of Man

Rugger buggers

2011-01-31T15:48:00.001-08:00

The boys were all psyched up for their first rugby game of the season - but the opposing team didn't field a team in their age groups.... Still, they looked pretty good in their game strip.

They didn't look quite so pristine after the practise. They are playing with the Santa Clara Youth Rugby Club.

More dolls

2011-01-22T11:45:00.000-08:00

I have had my eye on the PaperDolls sweater from Needled designer Kate Davis for a while but thought I would warm up by knitting my two Dollheid tams as I was not sure I would have the patience for a sweaters worth of dolls. However the tams were so much fun to knit that I started the sweater. On 2.75mm needles it was rather time consuming, but actually I had more trouble with the black stockinette than I did with the colourwork.

I didn't knit the corrugated rib around the bottom of the sweater as I didn't feel I needed a horizontal band around my hips. I would have knitted the i-cord cast-on, but I was afraid I would run short of wool so knitted a plain 1 x 1 rib. I had thoughts of an applied i-cord hem, but this has not materialized and the sweater does not seem the worse for it.

It's knitted in Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift which has the authentic scratchiness of real shetland wool. I used Black, Grey, and Chartreuse colours. I got the black from a Ravelry sale, and ordered the other colours from Schoolhouse Press.

Part of my desire to knit a yoked shetland sweater was based on the sweaters my Nana knitted for us when we were children. I particularly remember one with maple leaves around the yoke - so this was partly a sentimental project.

I knitted it for the pleasure of knitting rather than in expectation that it would suit me, however I actually love it and have already worn it twice. I had no plans for more dolls, but after being afraid of running out of wool, I actually have 3 balls of black, 1.5 grey and 1 green left - so maybe an other doll tam is in my future. I could knit those little dolls in my sleep now!

Home made hockey

2011-01-21T19:44:00.000-08:00

Adam has roller blades, when Fin wants to skate he wears my old blades (which have been in a cupboard for at least 10 years). On Saturday they decided to play street hockey - we have a single street hockey stick from somewhere or other. Lack of ingenuity is not a problem in this house... Fin found a piece of redwood and asked Nigel for help with sawing and screwing... and made his own hockey stick.

They played hockey on the 'pavement rink' - a small car-park at the bottom of the road. A sporty neighbour offered Fin a real stick - but Fin declined preferring the stick made to his own design. They played for hours all weekend.

Kerstin hat

2011-01-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

When Kerstin looked after my spinning wheel last year (before she bought her own - haha) she gave me a bump of hand-dyed fiber.

I spun it into an aran weight 2 ply. I just split the bump into 2 equal lengths and didn't make any effort to match the colours.

I decided to use Kerstin's Almost Pattern for an Earflap hat . I did a little ripping back: first time the crown came out too large so I frogged an inch or so, and I also added a couple of purl bands to highlight the yellow section that randomly came out as I finished the crown. I didn't use the stitch pattern on the ear flaps as I decided the hat was lively enough. I finished it with a couple of pom poms.

Adam agreed to model the hat as the photo taken of me in it was so terrible! He now wants one similar - but without pom poms. He does, however, want the i-cord dangly things.

Winter sunshine

2011-01-18T19:41:00.001-08:00

Monday was a school holiday here for Martin Luther King day. The sun was shining and so the boys and I headed out for the beach. We went, as usual, to Rio Del Mar beach in Aptos. I didn't take my wetsuit but I wished that I had. It was mid-60s on the beach, with a lovely clear blue sky.

The boys boogie-boarded and skim boarded for about 4 hours!

December round-up: knitting

2011-01-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

I didn't do a lot of Christmas knitting this year - and apparently didn't take photographs of all that I did knit.

I made my mother a Dollheid tam like mine. I chose the colours online and they are not quite a subtle as I expected - but I think the blue will look nice with my mum's colouring.

Maybe I can persuade my father to take a photo of her in the hat? Perhaps I could get him to photograph the other hat and scarf I made for her (poor woman was the recipient of most of this year's hand-made gifts!)?

My sister was in receipt of a flat hen - she admired my hen doorstop so I sent her a doorstop kit rather than send Nigel back to the UK with 2lb of sand in his luggage (tempting though that was).

This is the same pattern and chart as my chicken but knitted in Cascade 220 which worked better as it created a tighter and slightly felty fabric that I think is better for a doorstop. I made a hole in the base for stuffing rather than the usual construction. I decided that kitchenering live stitches was too much to ask a non-knitter. Right Gill?

December round-up: Christmas

2011-01-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2010 was full of some of our now traditional activities:

The LG Christmas Parade with the scouts in the go-carts kicked-off the season. Fin and Carter:

Adam and Jacob:

The only sad part of the parade is that we no longer get to watch the other entries - but the boys apparently get so much fun out of being in the parade their mother has to make that sacrifice!

We also went up to Castle Rock Tree Farm to cut our Christmas tree. This year the boys did the cutting themselves.

We all decorated the tree - which is why all the fragile glass ornaments are at the top and the lego and playmobil ones around the bottom.

Here is the tree on Christmas Eve. Christmas day we had our usual dinner - I notice here that our nice reindeer Christmas china is hardly noticeable, yet the pyrex jug is front and center. Don't ask me about the pudding...

I just want to clarify that although Adam looks like he is brandishing a beer bottle, it is, root beer. After dinner the boys played with their presents.

Boxing Day is not observed here in the USA, but Nigel marked the day with the tradition of a Boxing Day swim!

Finally, for Gill, our outside decorations. I think much more restrained than in past years, I might even say tasteful!

December round-up: Skiing

2011-01-05T16:36:00.000-08:00

School broke up on the Friday and we immediately headed up to NorthStar. We made it up just at the beginning of a large storm system moving through so our first two days were very snowy. The payoff came when the sky cleared and we were rewarded by feet of fresh snow.

We used to ski at NorthStar a lot (before we had to work around school holidays) and it was really nice to be back in the village, although it has changed a lot since we first came here 13 years ago. This is the view from the apartment - when we stayed here in 1998 this same block of apartments had a view of the ski slopes!

The resort has an excellent ski school and we enrolled both boys for a couple of full days lessons. Fin decided to make the switch to snowboarding and got off to a good start. After 2 days instruction he was able to go with Adam into 'The Stash': a snowboard terrain park in the trees.

This is Fin leading the way down one of the easy slopes. They were so keen that we even made it onto the slopes before the lifts had opened on the last day!

December round-up: birthdays

2011-01-04T16:29:00.000-08:00

So it's 2011 and I have not blogged for a month... I guess I need a catch-up post or several.

December is a busy month for us, as well as Christmas, we have 2 birthdays and our wedding anniversary. Add to that the LG Christmas Parade and various end-of-term things at school - well, blogging took a back seat!

December saw the boys turn 8 and 10 - Adam now in double digits (which he is inordinately proud of).

Fin had a birthday at school which he seemed to like - they sung to him and all signed a big card. For his birthday he requested a lava lamp!

Followed by cake at home.

Adam celebrated his birthday in NorthStar where we went for a few days skiing. He spend the day snowboarding, followed by cake of course!

Stir-up Sunday

2010-12-04T17:38:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was Stir-up Sunday, traditionally the day to make your Christmas pudding. I followed tradition and made my pudding on Sunday, having made my Christmas cake on Saturday.

I used Nigella Lawson's recipe published in How to be a domestic goddess. Alison made our pudding for us last year as we were without a kitchen until Christmas Eve, she used this recipe and it was delicious. I hope mine tastes as good.

We all had a stir for luck. I added some cleaned dimes so please hope that we remember that they are in there and no one chokes at the Christmas dinner table. I feel rather industrious with the puddings made and the cake marinating in brandy.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-12-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year in our now-traditional manner: with a trip to Disneyland. We were really lucky with the weather as rain was forecast, and although it was cold, it did stay dry.

Here we are on the Columbia sailing ship - a perennial favourite. The park was busier this year than it has been in the past, maybe because we were there the day before Thanksgiving rather than on the day itself. Either way, we still go to go on a selection of rides - bearing in mind that only 2 of us (Adam and me, and Adam to a much greater extent than me) likes rides!

We stayed in the park to watch the fireworks for the first time and it was lovely. The boys were particularly impressed with the fake snow in Main St at the end of the display.

The following day we headed out to Long Beach to stay on the Queen Mary. It turned out to be a fabulous trip for us. We stayed in the Eisenhower Suite - previously occupied by the President, as well as Bob Hope. It was lovely in it's faded grandeur.

There are a lot of exhibits on the ship's history and the boys were really interested in it's wartime service as a hospital ship. It also carried GI brides to the USA after the war ended which I found interesting - overwhelmingly the comments from the British brides were on how good the food was on board - I guess after many years of strict rationing it was amazing.

I loved the Art Deco details of the ships public and private rooms and it was particularly nice to go on deck at night and look at the ship and the port of Long Beach lit up. The Queen Mary has had a chequered history and I hope that money remains to preserve this lovely ship. If you are in the area I encourage you to visit - and, even better, stay on board.

Quarter Century

2010-12-01T17:14:00.000-08:00

On October 6th 1985 I walked through the doors of IBM Richmond to start my career with IBM. At the time I was really excited to land what everyone told me was a great first job - never for a moment did I imagine that 25 years later I would still be there. What's more is that I am essentially doing a very similar job to the Systems Engineer job I started in.

IBM likes to mark this anniversary as a significant milestone, although I suspect that there are fewer of us achieving this longevity of service these days. You get to choose a nice gift (in my case a watch - liked the 25 years on the railways idea of a watch). You also get taken out for a lunch by your manager, fortunately I really like my manager so lunch with her is a pleasure.

I invited the members of my team, and former team, who are local, some of whom I have known since I came to the USA in 1997 and have been long-time colleagues. My guest of honour was Christina who came over from the UK to join in the revels (and also have a holiday).

Lunch was at the Californa Cafe and I had a lovely time. I ate at the California Cafe the first time I visited San Jose in 1992 and loved Los Gatos then. For a long time I hoped, but never expected, that I would come here to live.

Its been an interesting 25 years. I have stayed in a technical role which was something that IBM always promised; career progression on a technical track. I've been on assignment - once to Rochdale, Lancashire with Woolworths, and now to the USA (much better option), as well as travelled around the world with work. I've met a lot of interesting people and made some long-lasting friends (24 years with Christina for example!). While I'm rather shocked to realize that I'm old enough to have been working for 25 years, I've really enjoyed marking this milestone and reflecting on what has already been an interesting career - and it's not over yet!

Thundercloud scarf

2010-11-14T11:01:00.000-08:00

Kerstin and I both bought some fibre at Stitches 2010 from Redfish Dyeworks. If you ever saw her stand at Stitches you would certainly remember it for it's profusion of intense colours.

I chose this 50/50 mix of tussah silk and baby camel in a colour that reminded me of thunderclouds - although the dyer thought it was more like the inside of an abalone shell. Either way I loved the subtle mix of dark and vivid fibres.

I eventually spun it into a fingering weight 2-ply yarn. I warped my loom with a Habu yarn 20/3 bamboo in a deep purple. (Colour 3) and used my handspun as the weft. I am really pleased with how the colours are preserved both in the yarn and the woven fabric.

Now this is really a cautionally tale in weaving: I had some difficulty warping with the Habu yarn; it's very fine and slippery; but I did get the warp on and thought it was OK after some adjustments. When weaving I seemed to have difficulty maintaining an even tension across the warp. The truth became apparent when I cut off the finished item:

A lot of the bend in the scarf I was able to massage out before I tied off the fringe and blocked the scarf. It's certainly not noticeable that the scarf is not straight - but it's an excellent example of how poor warping can have a bad effect on your weaving!

Chick Chick Chick Chick Chicken

2010-11-11T18:07:00.000-08:00

I had been mulling over a knitted doorstop for our back door when I saw a sample of this pattern knitted up in Yarndogs. They were running a contest to raise money for The Race for the Cure so I bought the pattern and entered the contest.

The pattern is Susan Anderson's Knit Chickens. I used the colourwork chart created by Ravelry user ElleM which is fab. Knitted in Blue Sky Alpacas aran weight cotton in Mint Green and chocolate brown.

I didn't place in the contest but the competition was stiff - look here for some of the entries.

DollHeid

2010-11-09T21:51:00.000-08:00

I have been doing a lot of knitting - and little of it has made it to the blog lately. I am really pleased with this tam - but mostly for sentimental reasons. When I was little my Nana used to knit us sweaters - and I particularly remember shetland sweaters with a fair-isle yoke. This pattern really reminded me of those sweaters, and I knitted it in an authentic scratchy shetland wool!

The pattern is Needled's Doll Heid I knitted it in the same colours as her sample as I liked it so much. The yarn is Jamieson's Spindrift 4-ply in Mooskit, Peony, and Old Rose. The only modification I made was to add pigtails to the dolls.

I like this pattern so much, both the actual process of doing colourwork, and the finished item, that I have cast on a sweater with the same paper dolls pattern around the yoke. I have not knitted any fair-isle for about 20 years and now I have knitted this, I wonder why I left it so long.

Trick or Treat

2010-11-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

Halloween rolled around again. We re-used and recycled last year's costumes:

Adam was Ron Weasely again (note Scabbers the rat). Fin decided to be a vampire - he was thrilled that Nigel actually had a bow tie for him to wear - clearly his vampires are more Hammer House of Horror than sparkly Twilight ones. He was most insistent on the white/grey face make-up as he said "Vampires don't have freckles"!

We met up with some friends and toured our neighbourhood.

I even joined in the dressing up. I painted on some moles - Fin asked if I had grown them specially for Halloween - I guess my make-up skills are pretty good.

The boys could barely carry all the candy they collected. Fin sorted his out into "groups" as soon as he got home.

Halloween gets more fun each year as they get more involved with the preparations.

Wig Wam Bam

2010-11-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

(with apologies to The Sweet - YouTube link here)

Nigel trimmed the trees in the garden a few weeks ago. Rather predicably Fin was scavenging all the usable sticks and built this Tipi. He was very keen to point out that it's structured "in the old way" with the sticks tied together with vines. He wanted some bark or leather to cover it but had to make do with some fake suede I happened to have.

We both described it as a wig wam - but Fin correctly pointed out that it is, in fact, a Tipi. The cat really likes it and is often to be found lurking in it's shelter - but we only managed to get a blurry photo of her in it. Fin himself, just fits underneath.

Her ladyship

2010-10-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

Does this look like your seat? I thought not. No, there is no room for you.

Lambtown 2010

2010-10-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we visited Lambtown again. We last went 2 years ago to this sheep festival in Dixon, California. Now the event runs in October rather then August there is more incentive to head up there as it's not so stiflingly hot in October - although it was plenty warm enough. The show includes a variety of entertainment and wildlife.

Adam had fun snuggling with this Chincilla - he wanted one as a pet until we pointed out that Charlotte would think he had bought her a substantial snack!

This year Lambtown was combined with Calpaca - the California Alpaca show - and there were also alpacas to pet as well as sheep. We watched some of the alpaca show judging which was interesting. Some alpacas are more friendly than others (you really don't want an alpaca to spit on you!).

There were a number of other stands there - young farmers, 4H - here are the boys doing needle felting with the 4H.

Finally - we got to some sheep - here is some shearing. This chap is shearing the bottoms of the sheep before the shearing contest. This part is not something you do quickly. They also do this before lambing.

Again, we had a good day out at Lambtown; at lamb, saw sheep. Sadly no sheepdog trials this year (which was a highlight before), and the whole show seemed much smaller and less well attended than last time we went. Hopefully it will grow again next year.

Two boys

2010-10-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

Fin's friend Alex went on vacation to Washington State this summer and visited an alpaca farm. He insisted on bringing back some alpaca fibre and chose a lovely soft grey. I spun it into what I hoped was a worsted weight. It was lovely to spin, very soft and easy to manage.

I thought that I should knit something for both boys so I combined the grey alpaca with navy Cascade 220 for snazzy stripes.

The pattern is Jared Flood's Turn a Square. I like the effect on the crown.

Alex was really pleased that I had made something for him - the idea seemed not to have occurred to him that I would. Thanks to both Alex and Fin for modelling the hats in 90 degrees...alpaca is warm!

Riding along on the crest of a wave

2010-10-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

Well, not actually riding - more at anchor in San Francisco. This week the US Navy were in town for the annual Fleet Week. The boys and I went up on Monday as they had a day off school.

We did a tour of the USS Chief that was at Pier 37. The Chief is a minesweeper - and we learned loads about detecting, avoiding, and disarming mines. (The sailors told us that their favourite method is to shoot the mines out of the water!) We were shown around by Chief Petty Office Nissen who was both informative and entertaining. The boys were fascinated - especially when they had a go at 'firing' a browning machine gun. We pretended to shoot cars off the Golden Gate bridge!

I had a go too - and I could not even prime the gun (here Adam is being helped - I had to be helped too!). We had a great little adventure. We have not done this before and the boys made me promise that next year we could come back and tour a Destroyer.

How does your garden grow?

2010-10-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

We re-planted our garden after the remodel. Our front lawn was in a very sorry state and we were looking for a more water-efficient landscape. We used some blue-stone pavers as a basis for the front.

We planted several varieties of thyme as a ground cover, with some beds of lavender. We moved the olive trees from pots in the back to the new front space.

We also wanted to get some space for a vegetable bed so had a 6' by 8' raised bed built. We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, basil, and onions.

We have had a great crop this summer and are now wondering what to plant once the tomatoes are finally over.

As a reference this is what the front garden looked like before:

Ferretworld: Glad you were here

2010-10-05T16:14:00.000-07:00

We had some visitors here at Ferretworld over the summer. Long-time reader (and sister) Gill, with family: Andy, Nancy, and Ned. We managed to fit rather a lot into the time. We started off getting some much-needed R&R at the nail shop after a long flight.

We managed a camping trip to Sunset State beach. The Americans introduced the Brits to s'mores (not surprisingly they were a hit)

We took a pony ride up in the hills above Saratoga with Flossie and Julie.

We hit the boardwalk - some preferred to enjoy the refreshments and the sights....

... while others made the most of the rides! Adam loved having some roller-coaster-loving companions and actually went on several of the rides with Gill and Andy. He persuaded me to go on the log-flume ride. Is that a smile or a grimace??

Definitely smiles here...

We went to the Aquarium where we ran into Julie and Flossie.

and ended up eating fish at the wharf in Monterey while we watched seals, and sea otters eat their fish in the water below us.

It wouldn't be a California vacation without a trip to the beach. We went to Rio Del Mar beach. Some of us just looked the part...

while others really did try to hang-ten..

it was something of a cultural exchange (here Fin and Ned pictured in a rare harmonious moment!). There was a strong Star Wars content, but the cultural activities included a talent show and a disco.

Cocktails in the garden...
We had a lovely time.

Ferretworld: wish you were here

2010-10-04T15:49:00.000-07:00

We had a summer vacation in the USA this year and took the boys to Washington DC.

We had a fabulous time, even though our visit coincided with a heatwave - we did manage to cool off somehow. Here we are in front of the National Archive after we went to see the Declaration of Independence, among other things.

The boys assumed a very "them and us" attitude towards the former colonial power! We spent several days on the Mall hitting the museums. The Air and Space Museum was a favourite - here we are touching a moon rock!

We also took the time to visit the other monuments and memorials along the Mall. This was a favourite...

The Einstein memorial is hidden away to the side of the Mall and was deserted. One day we rented a car to get out of the city and visited Manassas - also known as Bull Run. It's the site of the first major battle of the civil war as well as a second battle on almost the same ground. It was a fascinating park with an excellent Junior Ranger program. Here the boys are brandishing their certificates from the program in front of the statue of Stonewall Jackson. Manassas was where he acquired his nickname: "There stands Jackson, like a stone wall" is inscribed on the plinth.

The same day we also visited the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum at Dulles which was excellent. Fin was thrilled to discover that they have a space shuttle.

We had a super time in the nation's capital. DC is very family-friendly with excellent public transport. We stayed at the Kimpton Topaz and the Marriot Wardman Park which both worked out well for us. I think we only hit a fraction of the things that there were to see and do - but that just leaves us an option to go back again!

We're back!

2010-10-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

So, I didn't make it back in September - but it's October and we have finally got into some sort of routine so I am going to try and to some catch-up blogging.

The boys went back to school - Adam is a 4th grader and Fin is now a 2nd grader. Both seem to like their teachers, and Adam is thrilled to find he is in a class where he is friends with almost all the boys. Fin is less thrilled to discover he is one of only 7 boys in his class!

Now that Adam's in 4th grade they can go to school unaccompanied about which they are really excited.

Ferretworld is AWOL

2010-08-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

I apparently have not posted since 4th July - so I guess Ferretworld has gone AWOL.

I have been busy and have lots to post - but apparently not enough time to do it - and actually it's been quite nice to have a break so I am officially declaring that Ferretworld will continue it's unscheduled vacation until the boys go back to school.

I expect I'll be back in September and will try to catch up with the news - but in the meantime - we'll be at the beach!

Happy 4th July!

2010-07-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

In order to assist one of my Americans in celebrating the nation's birthday in style I produced these for Fin:

The yarn is Fortissima Socka Stars and Stripes. I saw a sample in Yarndogs and just knew I had a willing recipient for socks like this. The yarn was a little rough to knit - not really course, but compared to Step for example, not as nice to knit. After a wash it softened up nicely. The pattern is my usual recipe with a k2p2 cuff.

Maker Faire 2010

2010-06-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

After our first visit to the Maker Faire last year, it was a dead cert that we would be going this year. We spent all day there on the Saturday. Of course we saw the usual wacky inventions and the steampunk vehicles:

we all had a go on the handmade wooden bicycles (some easier to ride than others)

Adam and Fin built a solid fuel rocket:

...and went outside to launch it:

No photos of the flight - but it went 100s of feet into the air - very impressive!

The boys leaned to solder and made flashing light badges:

We visited to Society for Creative Anachronism and Adam tried on a suit of armour:

before we watched a couple beat seven bells out of each other! We talked to this couple as the suited up in their armour and they explained that even with the armour on, it was painful to get hit, and they were both sporting a variety of bruises.

We had a great day, and saw so much more than this. Yet again, I never made it to the fiber arts - but I figure that stuff I can do anyday!

Support your local artist

2010-06-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Los Gatos held an artists open studio event. I managed to completely ignore it until I called around at a friend's house to discover that she was participating. I knew Karen was an artist - but had not really seen much of her work up to now.

Anyway - to cut a long story short a painting came home with me and is installed in it's new home.

It looks fabulous! The artist is Karen Ehlers and she exhibits in San Jose on a fairly regular basis.

At the old ball park...

2010-06-22T20:01:00.000-07:00

The cubs did the flag parade at the San Jose Giants again this year - this time we had two cubs on the field (and a den leader). Before the ceremony the Giants' mascot Gigante came and shook hands.

It was a packed stadium, and a lovely clear evening. The game was sponsored by San Jose Water and the SJ Water singers performed the National Anthem while the cubs raised the flag.

Visitors

2010-06-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

We had visitors over the last few weeks: my parents came out at the beginning and end of thier fabulous Alaska Cruise. Their stay seemed brief, and because of school and cub events we didn't seem to do too much.

But not too much was sometimes rather nice: like my Dad playing cards with the boys after school:

We did manage a trip to the beach with a wonderful warm day at Rio Del Mar although we didn't get Farve onto the Boogie Board (without a wet suit you would not get me in the water either!)

and of course we went out to eat - here at Aldo's:

It was a lovely visit which passed far too quickly.

What will you be when you grow up?

2010-06-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

The boys' school held a 'career day' when the children could dress for their future careers.

Adam is a snowboarder, and Fin is an engineer. He just loved going to school in a shirt and tie, so you can imagine how much it amused Nigel and I who hated going to school in a shirt and tie!

Weekend on wheels

2010-06-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of May the town holds a criterium bike race The Cat's Hill. It's an all-day affair and pretty exciting as the riders get up some speed - especially on the downhill parts of the course!

The boys decided that although they were getting too old to enter the kids race, they could not walk to the race so we adopted a variety of wheeled transport (actually Nigel and I walked).

Fin practiced his tricks on his scooter:

Adam went on his new roller blades:

When I first moved to Los Gatos I bought some roller blades and took lessons, but never achieved the elegance (or confidence) that I hoped I would on them. The skates have been in the shed for the last 10 years when the boys found them. The practiced with my skates for a few weeks and Adam saved his money to get his own skates - rather predictably he is instantly confident, fast, and elegant on them.

End of term knitting

2010-06-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

I don't usually do much teacher-gift-knitting, but this year I did make something for both the boys' teachers:

Fin's teacher does not knit, but her mother does and she does wear hand-knit items. I decided that the Citron was a good colour for her so finished it off in time for the end of term. This is the Citron pattern from Knitty.com knitted in Knitwitches silk and mohair laceweight.

Adam's teacher has 2 girls, aged 5 years and 9 months, so having decided that his teacher was not so much a hand-knit person I made something for the girls.

Basic sock pattern in leftover Tofutsies, and Ysolda's tiny shoes in leftover cashmerino DK. Both teachers seemed pleased with the gifts and to appreciate the hand-made nature of them (by which I mean that hand-made is good!).

We break up, we break up

2010-06-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

Things have been busy here at Ferretworld, the combination of working more hours, and visitors, and school stuff has dropped the blog by the wayside. I do have some things to blog about and will be catching up over the next few days or so.

In the meantime school has already broken up for the summer and we have 11 weeks of summer vacation. Naturally you can't have children sitting around at home for 11 weeks even if you were not working, so there are plenty of camps and other activities for the boys. This week is tennis camp.

Before the end of term there were both celebrations and performances at school. Fin's class performed a musical play: "Rumble in the rainforest" with Fin playing the part of the Medicine Man.
Adam's class gave a musical performance of singing accompanied by recorders (Good job I didn't take the video!).

To celebrate the start of the school hols they each invited some friends over for a party - Adam's party was last week, Fin's is this week (I was not brave enough to combine) but the summer seems to have got off to a good start.

Cast on: Jess

2010-05-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

For my birthday Eileen sent me some Rowan Baby Alpaca. It's delightfully soft and I'm guessing it will be very warm. With some forward planning I cast on for a cardigan for next winter.

The pattern is Jess by Martin Storey. The colour is more of a true red than this photo looks to me - it looks less pink in reality.

On the needles: Citron

2010-05-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

Don't know what happened there...impromptu blogging break: things at work are busy and school is winding up for the end of term.

Christina sent me some yarn: Knitwitches mohair and silk laceweight in a citrus green colour. I decided it was perfect for a Citron Shawl

So far it's easy TV knitting - and the increase/decrease rows for the ruffling pattern are manageable at the moment.

Lizard cushions

2010-05-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

Now we are using our new living room the Lizard Ridge blanket lives in there. I thought our new sofa needed some cushions and when Kerstin and I went to IKEA last time we bought some valentine's themed cushions for $1.99 with a view to using the inserts.

I used the leftovers of Noro Kureyon, along with some additional balls to make these cushions.

I followed the Lizard Ridge pattern, with 5 'bubbles' and knitted until it seemed big enough! I sewed them onto a brown denim back with an envelope closure. The denim has been in my fabric box for an eternity - I think I bought it at John Lewis which would make it at least 13 years old.

Off the needles: Buttercup

2010-05-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

I finished the Buttercup top. This was knitted in Garnstudio Drops Silke Tweed yarn that I got from Duncan for Christmas.

I am not thrilled with the outcome this project: the neckline is very wide and I knitted several decrease rows across the back neck - it is still too wide to wear without a t-shirt underneath. And of course it's also too low-cut to wear without a t-shirt. The yarn grew in length quite considerably during blocking - and I may try to block it again to tighten the stitches. The yarn is lovely, quite nubbly, and knitted at this tension it's very drapey - possibly too drapey.

I think if I knitted this again I would knit an even smaller size to get a better width across the neck and shoulders, and would not pick up any stitches at the underarms. I already knit a size smaller than I would normally chose because of the width at the shoulders - but I think this is a perennial issue with top-down raglan construction. It would be better with narrower shoulders and short-row bust shaping on me.

So - on balance, a nice pattern, but in need of more customization for me. I will see how much I wear the tunic and maybe re-block. Otherwise the yarn might be destined to become something else!

Fibre to fabric

2010-04-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

The reason I bought the loom was to use some of my handspun. I bought some merino bamboo fiber (Meribo) from Purlescence yarns at Stitches, and some carbonized bamboo fiber from MC Mercantile on Etsy.

The merino blend is on the right - it came out with a lovely shiny finish and a nice marled effect. The carbonized bamboo was very soft but I didn't enjoy spinning it as much - it was rather sticky. It also made a very matte single.

I spun each of these as a fine single and plied them together.

I was pleased that the merino mix retained it's shine and the yarn was very soft.
I warped the loom with a Habu laceweight in 100% bamboo. It is colour 3 which is a very deep purple.

I made sure to use paper between the layers of the warp as the yarn was so fine. It was harder to warp than the sock yarn I had previously used and I did have to make some adjustments for tension.

I wove about 6.5' and cut off the warp. I tied the warps in groups of six to make tassels.

Nigel seems pretty pleased with his new scarf.

First yarn

2010-04-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

I did a lot of spinning over the weekend with much attention from Fin. He kept asking to "have a go" but as I was in the middle of a project I could not really let him and fobbed him off with "when I've finished spinning this yarn".

On his arrival home from school he immediately cornered me, demanded the status of my spinning project, and insisted it was his turn to use the wheel.

We sat down with some fiber and I started to teach him the rudiments of spinning. After a few minutes he announced "it is harder than it looks"! (As I discovered on my first attempt at spinning with Christina).

He did persist and wanted me to wind his yarn off on the niddy-noddy (he liked that name) and make him a little skein.

Now he wants me to teach him to knit!

First weaving

2010-04-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

I finished my first woven item. This is a scarf for Lamar. I discovered that this sort of plain weaving is called "Tabby".

I used wildfoote sock yarn in black for the warp and Noro Kureyon sock in colour S95 for the weft. The warp and weft were pretty well balanced so the black colour is still quite visible. I warped about 7.5" wide before I ran out of yarn, the warp length is about 7' - the finished scarf about 5' after wastage. My weaving pulled the width in to about 7". I used about 75% of the Kureyon sock.

I did cut out the most lurid pink colours from the yarn because it's intended recipient is male. I also did a twisted fringe for a more masculine look.

I learned a lot about weaving with this project - the first thing is that it never occurred to me that as I wound the shuttle I would be reversing the colour transitions. In this scarf it's OK to have a more stripey look - but I had imagined preserving the Noro transitions in which case I would have to wind off sections of the yarn before winding onto the shuttle.

I also improved my weaving technique as the project progressed. I have Davenports "Hands On Rigid Heddle Weaving" book which has some useful tips which I tried to follow. The main area that could do with improvement is my selvedges which are not too neat - but, as I discovered, it's harder than it looks to keep the edges even!

Red letter day

2010-04-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

A very special letter arrived at the house today. They both read it together.

The letter was in response to a letter Fin wrote to President Obama with his views on the environment (please plant more trees).

He was thrilled - lets hope he takes the advice to work had at school to heart!

Weaving

2010-04-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

I have acquired a loom. Its a 16" Kromski Fiddle rigid heddle loom. My intention is to weave some of my handspun yarn. I am glad I chose the 16" - the weaving area is 15.5", but the loom itself is just over 20" wide. I would not have had space for a wider loom.

It came with a 10 dent heddle and so for practice I decided to start weaving with some sock yarn. I used a left-over partial ball of Wildfoote sock in black to warp.

I had read a book on weaving with a Rigid Heddle loom and was quite daunted by the explanation of warping with a warping board. The Fiddle is drilled for use as a warping board but I didn't have any suitable dowels to use as pegs so I did some searching on the Internet and discovered the concept of Direct Warping.

Since I'm unlikely to need to weave anything longer than 6-7' I think direct warping will fit my needs. I set up the warp from one end of my desk to the other - which created about a 6' warp.

The warping process took me about an hour or so and then I was off with the weaving! I used Noro Kureyon Sock as the weft yarn - cutting out the most lurid pink colour once I decided that I would weave this for a friend who was hospitalized last week.

I was impressed by how easy it was to get started - I completed the weaving in a week - photo of finished item to come.

Fight; Love; Live.

2010-04-06T22:22:00.000-07:00

I celebrated a birthday last week; 29 again of course. I had the day off work and messed about all day with no particular agenda - it was lovely! I spun the rest of the meriboo fiber and listened to the radio, read my book, and of course, ate cake!

On Friday I went with Fin's class to Filoli Mansion. The name is derived from the original owner's motto: "Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life."

The class had a nature hike, each small group with a docent.

Our docent, Dave, was great - and the children were really attentive and well-behaved for the whole 2 hours we were walking around the grounds. At the end of our nature hike we walked through the formal gardens which were a riot of colour:

Fortunately the rain held off until after our walk - then it chucked it down!

Charlotte

2010-04-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

Charlotte arrived in our home this weekend. She came from the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter. Adam and I went over there to meet with some cats and choose one - after 5 minutes Adam announced "she is my cat"... and she is.

Her name was Charlotte in the shelter, and Adam felt it suited her. He has naming rights for this cat so Charlotte it is. (Adam tells me that her middle name is Sydney!).

She is a delightful little cat - about 2 years old. She loves to play but she also really seems to like to sit quietly on your lap and purr really loudly.

We have not had a cat in the house for 4 years or so, since Tiddles, and it's really nice to have an animal about. She has already eaten, and used the litter box, and also started to explore the house. She also spends quite a lot of time watching out of the window - so I'm guessing she was once an outside cat. It's odd, again, to know nothing about our cat's past life - she had only been in the shelter 10 days or so, and they picked her up in Ben Lomond.

If you are looking for a pet I can strongly recommend the Santa Cruz shelter - the folks there were all really helpful and made adopting our new pet a pleasant experience. (Also no long list of references, statements of future care for your cat etc). They had several really nice cats too - but none as nice as Charlotte.

Albert Einstein

2010-03-31T19:31:00.000-07:00

"Mummy, when other boys were playing with their lego, Albert was reading a book."

Fin loves to do 'experiments'. Sometimes he uses his chemistry set which requires adult supervision, and sometimes he creates his own experiments in secret, often in the garden. You know about these when you find a plastic pot containing a foul smelling concoction and a small label instructing you not to touch.

One day: two belt loops

2010-03-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took the boys to a scout family day camp. We signed up for a morning of archery. The camp is located among the redwoods in the Santa Cruz mountains. Its was a lovely, if cold, spot.

The day started with a safety briefing and instruction on the parts of the bow and arrow, with a quiz to make sure everyone understood.

Finally the boys got their hands on the bows and were able to try archery. It was harder than they expected - they both found it difficult to pull back the bow string far enough.

However after some practice they both managed shots on target.

This qualifies them both for an Archery belt loop (cub scout badge). After lunch we stopped off for long-overdue haircuts - which accounts for the short hair in the next pictures!

Finlay has cooked dinner for us several times with some assistance and really seems to enjoy it. We decided he could have a go at his Nutrition belt loop which requires the cub to explain the components of a healthy meal, and then prepare one.

We reviewed the contents of the veg box and decided on pasta with garlic, tomatoes, and red chard. Fin did all the veg preparation and then the cooking. (I set the table as he pointed out that when I cook - he sets the table).

It was delicious!

Not what I expected: part one

2010-03-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

We always planned to have a 'feature wall' of wallpaper in our bedroom. So we didn't have the wall textured, although we painted it in the short-term.

Finally, on Friday I got around to putting up the paper. The paper is Linda Barker 'Adorable' in chocolate and metallic. It took me all day (it's been about 15 years since I last did any wallpapering) and I'm not sure about it...

I like the paper; the colour goes well with the walls and carpet; and it's exactly what I ordered. However I'm not sure I like the effect in the room: previously our room was calm and plain, and now it's rather busy.

Hmm, well I guess it's going to stay there a while now I went to the effort of putting it up, but I'm wondering whether a less bold paper, or a less dramatic colour would have worked better.

Cast on: Buttercup

2010-03-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

I have cast on a new project: Buttercup (Ravelry link)

I'm using yarn that my brother, Duncan, sent for Christmas: its Garnstudio Silke-Tweed in a lovely wine colour. Drops has good pattern support for this yarn - but this sweater jumped out at me and I thought it was a good combination with the yarn. Nothing too fancy so the tweedy effect of the yarn shows off best.

Champions!

2010-03-25T19:11:00.000-07:00

Adam's basketball team won the local district basketball tournament at the weekend. Adam actually scored a point in each of the 3 games during the head-to-head shots - he was delighted!

All aboard!

2010-03-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Nigel and Adam had an adventure with the cubs: they went to an overnight camp at the Balcutha, moored in the Maritime Museum in San Francisco Harbour.

They checked in at 7pm and were put to work raising sails, hauling water, swabbing decks and so on. (Nigel was pleased that only the cubs had to do all this work - the accompanying parents just had to look on).
Here are Adam, Jacob, and Logan raising the sail. In the background you can see the lights on Ghiradelli Square. The slept in sailor's bunks

In the morning they were roused at 6am to swab the decks with water they hauled from the bay:

They had a great time!
Fin and I joined them in San Francisco and spent the night at the Argonaut hotel which turned out to be an inspired move. Nigel and Adam joined us for breakfast (and a much-needed shower) when they left the boat at 8am.

Ski weekend

2010-03-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

We spent last weekend in Bear Valley. It poured all the way there on Friday - which was not fun to drive in - but meant we had about 1' of new snow on Saturday. It was surprisingly cold but clear and sunny.

Adam had a lesson in the terrain park and learned the do a 'grab' (when you make a jump and hold onto the edge of the board while airborne). Here it is in progress:

Adam was delighted that Nigel also brought out his board instead of skiing this time. While they were boarding Fin and I went off to ski together.

Fin decided that he had watched enough olympic skiing now to attempt moguls so we headed off to the backside slopes to try to find some. The moguls were not really too big - but enough to slow me down. I could not keep up with him:

He managed surprisingly well and insisted that when he gets to the winter olympics moguls might be his sport (!).

A great time was had by all.

New path

2010-03-12T11:57:00.000-08:00

Work is progressing outside as well as inside. We decided to save money by re-laying the pavers that formed our old back patio to make the new side path.

The pavers are set on sand, not concreted in, to give good drainage down the side. We previously had the patio on sand which worked out really well, and made it easier to re-use the pavers. I am seriously hoping that this is the last time that these pavers are laid...it's the third time they have been used so let's hope that the third time is lucky!

Nigel has been working on this with help from Fin.

If you look closely you can see that not only is he working in his bike helmet, but he also has a good application of camo face paint thanks to a Christmas present from his uncle!!