Friends, Food and Fun!

(always a recipe for enjoyment)

The last two weekends have been a whirlwind of activity!

The weekend before last, Holly, Miss O, and I went up to Canada to see Lara and Angela.

We had a lovely visit with good food and lots of laughing. And there was a wee bit of fiber acquisition – but more on that in another post.

And also watermelon martinis (there may have been other alcohol-based drinks but I have very conveniently forgotten what they were.).

Spike enjoys his person-tree and The Flame is feelin' the love

Speedy delivery - The Monkey rushes to feed the ravenous horde

A delicious dinner of Monkey-caught salmon. Yum!

Holly and Lara discuss the various possibilities for dealing with
the midnight woodcutting, whoopin' & hollerin' drunken neighbor situation

Holly expresses her intense appreciation for Blue Caracao

Miss O enjoys a moment

Even Loki had a good time!

Other than the Twist and Lace scarf that I managed to finish while awaiting Lara's arrival at the house, there was very little knitting accomplished. It's entirely possible that the watermelon martinis may have played a role here. (After all, friends don't let friends drink and knit)

I finally got to see Lara’s renowned and incredible stash closet (a separate building really!). Unfortunately I was so amazed that I neglected to take photos.

I also learned to love the metric system during my visit (or, rather, appreciate my completely American ignorance of same). Lara talked us all in to letting her get our measurements as part of her research for design and sizing. Now normally I might be a bit shy and embarrassed to have my measurements taken and recorded in front of a group of people. But, hey metric! Centimeters! What is that waist measurement in inches? Who knows! (and again, the watermelon martinis may have played a part here). No pictures of that process...

The next day Angela and The Flame treated us to delicious dim sum brunch (with jasmine chrysanthemum flower tea -yum!) in Richmond. I had never had dim sum before – it was delicious and I'm really looking forward to enjoying it again!

Then last weekend I was off to Portland for the Blue Moon Fiber Arts book launch event for Cat Bordhi’s new book “New Pathways for Sock Knitters.”

I was scheduled to meet up with Angela and The Flame again at the Scappoose Creek Inn. I was booked for a room called “The Wrong Room” after ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan, rather ironic given how my day developed.

Following my trusty (or so I thought) Mapquest directions, I set off for Scappoose. The Friday traffic was horrid and I didn’t make good time at all. Mapquest directed me to Highway 30 and I drove about 20 or so miles before I had the sinking feeling that something was wrong. No signs for Scappoose anywhere, yet Mapquest’s directions indicated I was only about 6 miles from the inn.

A quick cell phone call to the inn confirmed my suspicions. I was going in the exact opposite direction than intended – towards Astoria instead of towards Portland (yeah, I’m real good with the geography like that).

A mere 50 miles in the opposite direction later and I was checked in and enjoying a coffee and my new book on the Inn’s charming covered porch while waiting for Angela to arrive.

serendipitous book selection

My earlier impulse book purchase seemed very appropriate given that this was the view from the Inn's porch:

The welcoming committee

I’d had several calls from Angela as she and the Flame made their way south from Seattle, so I grew concerned when they still had not arrived at the inn by the time I’d expected to see them.

Some time later I got a call from Angela expressing concern that they might have taken a wrong turn. “We’re headed toward Astoria…”

It seems Google Maps was also a bit confused about the correct route to Scappoose.

So we were a bit late for the start of the event but we managed to catch the last bits of Cat’s talk and still had some time to chat with friends afterwards. We found out that we weren’t the only ones tripped up by the whole Mapquest/Google Maps error. In fact, we were in good company. It seems Cat herself was also a bit late to the event, having evidently enjoyed a lovely side trip to Astoria.

Cat Bordhi

Cat's giant demonstration needles and yarn

Cat's socks from the book


Joanne (BMFA wish fulfillment fairy)
makes post-event clean-up a fun task!

The next day we made the pilgrimage out to Blue Moon Fiber Arts shrine to visit Tina. It’s always fun to have a chance to visit with Tina and it was especially exciting to visit the fabulous dye barn!

(Tina generously gave me permission to post some of my photos here - ommitted are any shots that reveal the top secret Socks That Rock sock club yarn for this month. They were really great photos too, in case you were wondering...)

Angela shops for a bit of yarn...

A special BMFA yarn pixie assists Angela with her selections

Bob auditions for a role as Blue Moon's yarn spokesmodel

Janet gleefully considers her yarn selections

Jill and Janet (both sadly blogless) admire Tina's 'stash pod'

So much fun but back it’s back to work for now - all play and no work on the weekends does not get the housework and yard work done*. Or deadlines met. My nose must be firmly reattached to the grindstone for now.

*in fact, the rate of entropy in the household appears to increase rather exponentially when I’m away.

Blue Moon's barn greeter