Thursday, April 30, 2009

Knitting makes the world a better place.

We are going to be knitting on Sunday at Papa San at 1.      Hope you all can stop by for a rice bowl and some logical chat about swine flu, the economy, people who don't knit, and the events of this past week.  
Here is my hand dyed yarn from Sock Camp.  I am going to cast on a Taming of the Ewe scarf with the one on the right.  Like I  need another thing that is newly cast-on.  I have 2 pair of socks in progress, a scarf, a shawl, and a baby blanket.  I want to see something that works the way it is supposed to, that stacks up to be something aesthetically pleasing  and more functional that it was before you started it.  If you have ever knitted one of these, or if one of your friends has knitted one, you know that it doesn't always go the way you planned, and there are small little adjustments you can make to get it to work the way you want it to.  You have to constantly read your knitting, making those accomodations as needed and before you know it, you aren't even thinking about it, you do them and things work out.  And you want to do the same thing over and over and over again because each colorway has its own particular charm and is different from all the rest, because it is one of a kind.
     Things don't always go the way we planned, but if we at least have directions showing us how to get there,  needles, and yarn, we have a better than average chance of success.  If you have everything except the yarn, can you complete this project?  The answer is no.  They are all dependent on each other.  You can't finish the job or even begin without one of them.  How could you even consider starting?  Where would you start?  You can make something, but it certainly won't come close to resembling what it is supposed to be.  It may not even be able to do its job, which is to keep you warm   The parts all have to work in harmony with each other.
         If this is the first time you have read this blog, you probably looked it up to see my rant in the last two postings. Or maybe you read them and you are tuning in to see what else I have to say.   I took them down today because they have done exactly what I wanted them to do, which is to open the conversations that need to be taking place.  If the dialog that was supposed to take place between district admin and the employee groups who would be affected took place as promised, we would not be in the mess we are in.  In the case of the 3 LPNs, they share at least 36 years of experience and loyalty to their employer between them all.  They weren't even given  options.  There are positions they could fill on their own campuses.  But no one even thought to ask them if they would be interested.    If you had ben working there this long,, do you think that you would deserve at least an option to stay in a different  position that was lower pay?  

   We were told early this semester that there would be changes, and the big questions were:  1. do you keep everyone and lower their pay across the board, or  2.  do you lay off employees so that those who remain would keep the same pay.  Apparently you layoff people who have been there for 18 years and you don't ask those affected for their input.  You just erase their name from the list and give them an envelope with the contact information for the EAP in case they feel so depressed they might hurt themselves, and the number to call the people at YPIC so they can help them update their resume.  And while I am at it, how about the dvd we all had to watch at the last Monday gathering?  The one with the photographer showing us how if you just wait 15 minutes, the picture of the Golden Gate Bridge goes from being just a photo of the bridge to be something marvelous.  The hidden message seems to be that even though you have been riffed, if you wait long enough and look hard enough, good things will come of your job being snatched out from under you by people who have no clue what it is that you do.  Oh, and "Go Cardinals".  Where is my knitting?  I need it now

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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Better than it sounds!

Tastes better than it sounds!  Ground beef and pickle tacos.  Ground beef cooked with taco seasoning mix ( 2lbs. meat and 2 pkgs taco seasoning mix), served in white corn tortillas and white corn/nopales tortillas!  Add dill pickles and cheese and......Ta Dah!  Ground beef and pickle tacos, kind of like those at http://www.malorestaurant.com/

Theirs are still better, but these are good!

Shirley brought me the tortillas from a grocer in Imperial Valley, they are waaaaaaaaay good and fresh.  Thank you Shirley!

Monday, April 13, 2009

More of Camp KnittyhaHA


Tina "smooshing" color as only Tina can do.  Beautiful in an instant.  Magical where the colors meet.












Ever seen a crab who knows how to knit?  This is one does , and he wasn't the only crab there who knew how, there were at least 5 or 6 other crabs with projects in various stages of completion.















And this is Cat Bordhi  (Socks Soar on Two Circs, New Pathways for Knitting Socks and many more wonderful books)on the left and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (The Yarn Harlot) on the right with their "Chicken of the Sea".  A late entry into the homework presentation.  Some art just lives on forever and ever and ever and ever................
















This is the view out of the huge atrium-garden dining room.  Beautiful .  Just to the left of this was a giant totem pole that was a favorite perch of 3 bald eagles.  

It was soooo 
 fun!  These photos don't even start to do it justice.  The most fun you can have as a knitter.  Imagine 60 other, wait---make that 58 other women and one man, all like minded knitters who love knitting socks.  From all walks of life.   Nurses, teachers, surgeons, college professors, airline pilots, housewives, yarn store owners,  lawyers, professional dog competitors, and on and on.  All with one goal in mind for 5, almost 6 days.  Socks and fun.  You don't have to be an expert knitter.  In fact, you don't even have to knit socks.  Both years I met at least one person who had never knitted a sock, and one didn't plan on learning.  

I want to go back right now!

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Camp KnittyhaHA




Well, finally, I am home.  I am tired.  It sounds crazy, but the last two days I really didn't get much knitting done.  What with the scavenger hunt, Fish Tycoon, yada yada yada, plus our big homework assignment not being due until Friday afternoon (which I procrastinated up until Thursday night), I used any spare moment to knit away on my socks.  
Here is Ringo, the Drunken Party Monkey in his Yellow Submarine.  He is in a kelp bed surrounded by sea creatures and little anemones.  there were all kinds of sea creatures.  As soon as we get the Flickr page up, all of our Camp photos will be available to view.  Until then.............happy knitting!

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Life at Camp KnittyhaHA

 If you are going to learn to dye yarn, why not learn from the best?   Here is Tina Newton from Blue Moon showing us how......................














  
     
And here are my 3 hand dyed skeins of STR Mediumwt!









And here is Ozzie's Monkey to be!