A Brief Beach Interlude

A few days after returning from Sock Summit, Jack and I drove to my in-laws' house in Delaware to pick up the kiddies. This after having a few days just the two us! Yay for time together! We were both still working and he was doing school work, but it was still nice.

And there, we had the best day ever. My father in law, John, took the kids and I to the beach in the morning, where we swam and chilled on the beach.

At first the girlie was very unmermaid-like and wouldn't go near the water, the the rest of us went swimming with out her. But then, she couldn't resist the amazing day and started a "periwinkle farm" on the boy's boogie board.

After a few perfect hours, we me the Lovely Jack and his mom for lunch in Bethany at our favorite joint, and then we all went on a kayak tour of the salt marshes.

The marsh was beautiful and we loved finding horse shoe crabs and hermit crabs and so many amazing birds. My arms were so sore from paddling the next day! Sorry, i didn't take my camera, for obvious reasons.

I took the kids to the pool while John and Dorothy rustled up dinner and Jack worked on a final paper due the next day. We were treated to the best the Maryland delaware shore has to offer: fresh corn, fresh tomatoes, and yummy blue crabs! And the most delicious peanut butter pie for dessert. Mmmm!

We rounded out the weekend by going surf fishing the next day. John has a truck with a license to drive on the beach, so we loaded up the poles and coolers and beach gear, and drove right to the water. With about 10 bazillion others. The place was like a parking lot. Very friendly, easy going crowd, but impossible to swim and fish at the same time. Just not enough real estate. That's the thing with the Delaware shore. So may people, so little space for them. Even the ocean becomes wall-to-wall people. But still two amazing days on the shore.

No fish were caught, but no kids were either!

Aquaboy was stung a few times by particularly nasty jellies, but he recovered with the help of our neighbors and their Windex and meat tenderizer. Before bed, when his stings were stinging him again, I followed their advice and put shaving cream on, over Windex. Who knew?

Thanks for a lovely weekend, John and Dorothy!

To Portland and back

Note: Edited to add lost pictures and a few more words.

With a tiny bit of swimming beforehand. The boy did his All-star swim on a cold, raining day. At points, I was sitting under a huge golf umbrella, with mer-boy on my lap. At times, unable to knit. It was a huge, dis-jointed, overwhelming meet. But, luckily, we had plenty of friends and coaches to show us the way.



The boy, like many that day, had a good swim but not the time he was hoping to get in order to beat his coach's record. He was disappointed but, I think, glad to have closure to the season. And, as he was reminded, he had got there!

So, Portland. A cool city, and a great time. My host, Nikki Kurosaki (Kurokids on Ravelry) was amazing, and took such good care of me that it was almost like having a vacation (except for the 10 hour market floor days). Her husband Kuro was also a great host and an excellent eater of sushi! I am a dork for not getting their picture, but you are used to that, yes? Too focused on the pretty yarny fibery goodies.

I also had the pleasure of flying from Chicago with Laura Garcia (Blueswirly) and spending time with her at the Sock Summit and in Portland. She is standing by to help me with graphics and branding, when i get ready for more exposure. I did do her the questionnable favor of introducing her to the joys of fiber and spinning. I asked Sarah to teach her; I just reeled her in! Sarah got a great picture of her in the act; see the Sanguine Gryphon blog.

Also on the plane, I began doing voodoo on the Shell Tank to make it a sweater i can actually wear! Still too short, despite added length in the shoulders. Here it is unblocked. Will it ever get blocked? Who knows?

Here we are during set up, arranging yarn colors according to the color wheel. mmm...pretty yarn... Lots of help with set up from Nikki and Lize (Menagerie on Rav and Gryphon's host for the week.) I have no "after pictures", but luckily Sarah took lots of excellent ones. Also, do check out the SG blog for some cool shots in the booth.

We had many amazing visitors, starting with Tina of Bloon Moon fiber Arts herself! I had a little speech planned fr when i met the Yarn Harlot, but she came through so fast during our "Bugga Rush" the first night, that I just stared with my mouth hanging open.

This was taken at the Opening Ceremony, which was a lovely and very funny speech by Stephanie and Tina. I'm glad I finally got to see the Harlot in action!

We had many other famous and not-so-well-known visitors, including this lady, who matched the roving she bought so nicely (recognize it, Elizabeth?) Often, we wouldn't recognize the knitting rockstar in our booth until we saw a credit card (Clara Parkes and Ann Budd) or someone else's post (Xena, the Knit Picks dog, and her mommy Kelly Petkun, Knit Picks owner). Lovely Gigi and Jasmin, the Knitmore Girls, and their friend and sherpa, ChloeSparkle came by and hung out for a bit. We gave them some Dragon Sock and Skinny Bugga to review. Great podcast, Grrls!

Cat Bordhi, Cookie A, Janel Laidman (author of Eclectic Sole and Enchanted Sole), and the amazing Sheri of The Loopy Ewe were all great fun. The list is a great deal longer, as Gryphon and Sarah are both terrific at making friends. Our Rav buddies and customers were so great to meet and see again: MePls Jen, Up the Mud Creek Kari, Wenat Gladys, qiviutqueen Cecelia, Rivki Rebecca, LaPelirroja Jordana, Ellen, Deb and her mom Judy, Mary ellen, people who's names I've forgotten (lots of those). Too fun! Thanks so much for your support and encouragement!

Gryphon did some bugga face painting; first in the Color Me Crazy booth. Later, people came to the booth to join in the fun. If you go to the Sanguine Gryphon blog, you can see further evidence that Gryph really was a circus performer in a former life!

This is a picture of my heroes Barbara Walker from the back (she was spinning) with Anna Zilbourg across the table. See Barbara's red arm up there, with another grey-haired lady across the way? I did meet Walker; I had bought her Feminist Fairytales for mygirl and asked her to sign it. I passed on a message from her admirer and my friend Lauren as well. And I did get to pass on my speech to the Yarn Harlot while asking her if she knew where Zilbourg was (she didn't).

For Sock Summit knitting, I finished my Malabrigo socks. Mostly because I was cold and had bought some shiny new red Dansko MaryJanes and needed some socks to make the new shoes comfortable. Mostly, I knit on my February Lady with my own hand-dyed Traveller (colorway Riptide). Yes, I know it was SOCK Summit, but look at it! I had to keep knitting on it; I just really liked the way it was turning out. Traveller is technically a sock yarn, too.

Isn't it pretty?

I also, rather appropprately, bought my first Socks that Rock. This is Rooster Rock, a color I've been eyeing for several years. Sarah pronounced it one of my colors; don't you think? And besides, I really like chickens!
This bit of STR medium weight is Lucky, a beautiful blend of greens. So pretty I actually ordered the pattern that had ben written for it by J.C. Briar, another fab designer and teacher at SS. This sock is waiting patiently for its pattern to come in the mail from the very tired BMFA staff.

I also may have had a bit of a spindle binge. It all started with this gorgeous camel, silk, yak roving called Cream Puff from Knitifacts. Had to spin it. Right away.

So dashed off to my favorite spinning vendor, Carolina Homespun, and bought n Emily Spindle. Isn't she sweet?Spins a lovely laceweight, some thing i've been thinking about lately. The vendor across the hall had these spindles from Spindlicity. You know her work, right? Nice, light weight spindles, made of wood, with funky painted whorls. Mine's fish bones.

This last is a gift i don't deserve, simple for being involved with the Sanguine Gryphon. It's a Turkish Delight from Ed Jenkins himself. Gryph and Sarah hav been selling his beautiful handmade needles and spindles, so he came by with a spindle for each of us. Serious happy dance when he left the booth! Lovely, lovely man. An Oregonian, too.

Nice, eh?

Finally, a beautiful skein of Bugga! came back from a customer. Before anyone could claim it, I asked, "You were saving this for me, right?" Gracious as always, Gryphon and Sarah replied, "Of course." It's Hologram Moth. My first, believe it or not. A booth breakdown and a truck loading later, here we all are enjoying the last bit of Portland. At Starbucks, of course.

Where's Dragonfly?

Right here! At the pool. Where else?

Knitting, and watching, and playing, and swimming, even.

Summer swim season is a beautiful thing.

The friendships are some of the best we have, even if we only see each other a few months a year.

Everyone works hard.

Especially swim daddies.

We have a chance to face our fears.

We meet challenges head on.

And we do it all the Glenwood Way.

Certain swim mommies knit alot but need to take the big lens off the camera so we can show you. I can tell you that i finished the Shell Tank, and am not loving the fit. Will narrow the shoulders with my handy needle and thread. Hopefully, blocking will help too. Started a three-woman February Lady knit along, too. Also dyed and am spinning the yarn for my friend Shari's version.

The mer-boy was on fire. He competes tomorrow as the 14th seed in the county-wide All-Star meet. He's gunning for his coach's 8 and under breast stroke record. Wish him luck! The girlie is at the beach in Delaware with her grandparents, enjoying lots of attention and getting used to her new braces. I am tying up loose ends andgetting ready for Sock Summit. My yarn is on it's way in the yarn bus. See you there?