I wish you could feel the excitement here today. Tomorrow is a special day. The first home football game of the season and guess who has tickets?! We are SO excited we can’t stand it. Best news… we live less than a mile from the stadium so we can walk and not suffer all the traffic. We went today and bought all the fun stuff for the game. Evidently football is HUGE here. Dan even had to bring home one of the office cars with the sirens and lights so that he can get through traffic if he has a duty call.
Dan laughed and said we have a pretty good chance at being at a game when Army wins because they’re playing Rhode Island tomorrow (please, if you’re a Rhode Island fan… yell at Dan. He said it, not me). Next one that we have tickets to is against Rutgers. He suspects we’ll lose big time. Still fun to go though.
Kim blogged today about the little things I brought her last weekend and I felt like a schmo for not sharing what she gave me. I’m sure you all know she’s been working hard to get ready for the fair but she let me dig into her bag of goodies and pick a skein. This colorway is called Boysenberry. Purdy, ain’t it. As soon as I finish up the other socks I started on the trip to NH, I’ll cast Kim’s luscious yarn on.
I turned the heel on the sock I started last weekend. This yarn is fun. I’m carrying the ribbing just down the top of the foot.
I also did a little more canning. A bunch of Gramp’s tomatoes were nice and ripe and I didn’t want to lose them so I made some marinara sauce with them. No recipe. Just winged it which is usually what I do when I’m cooking. I had a bunch of fresh parsley and basil to use up to so it all worked out great. I only got three quarts but that red color is spot on. I’ll save one jar to take back to Gramps on the next trip. He’ll like that I think.
The boys and I had a great Thanksgiving in Garmisch. Three years ago we hiked half way up Kramer Mountain with our long-time friends to find snow and have hot chocolate at the St. Martin Hutte half way up:
We did it again this year:
I’d say the kids have grown a little, wouldn’t you? Good thing because Joe was not riding on my shoulders most of the way like he did on Dan’s three years ago. These pictures were taken in the exact same spot. It was almost 60 degrees when the boys and I left Garmisch yesterday. Not good for the skiing tourism.
Here’s a view from St. Martin Hutte where we had a nice cold beer (soda for the kids) and pretzels fresh out of the oven:
Meanwhile, Dan was having a fantastic Thanksgiving of his own. Country Music star, Aaron Tippin, surprised them at Bagram with a concert.
We have about ten Saturdays until he comes home! I can do that standing on my head.
Last Tuesday night the Spouse’s Club had a “Make it, Bake it & Take it night to raise funds for the club. Everyone baked or made something (most brought gift baskets of some sort) to be auctioned off. Here’s the large tote bag that was my contribution:
Both fabrics came from a German thrift store. I’m positive the yellow is quite old. Love it. I found the flower tutorial at Wisecraft. The pattern for the bag is from this book:
We may have only run the 10K but the whole trip was a Marathon in itself. Pam and I got on the plane Saturday morning in Munich. We landed at Athens Airport outside the city to the East at 3:00 Athens time. We took a 45-min bus ride to get to the other side of the city where we had to pick up our bib numbers and race packet. Then it was a 45-min tram to our hotel. Too bad we were only there one night. We got there just in time to drop our bags and go find dinner. A woman on the plane told us about a restaurant near the Plaka. We found it but opted for a more lively one across from it instead. We figured you couldn’t get bad Souflaki in Athens. We were right. Our table was full of all our favorite Greek dishes and we PIGGED OUT! We obviously aren’t athletes worried about our time in the run (good thing). We walked through the Plaka on the way back to the hotel to find a jacket for me to run in. We weren’t expecting how cold it was there. Weather.com was WAY wrong.
The next morning we arrived at the Stadium and got ready for the run. Since we signed up for the run we were worried about the course description, “the first part of the run is rather uphill.”
Rather?! What the heck is rather? I’ll tell you what it is… it’s 300meters in 3 miles. That’s what it is. Every time we hit a hill in the first half, we thought, “Okay. This is it. Last one.” We were dying to say, “It’s all downhill from here.” The last hill was a whopper, but we could see the 10K turn around point at the top. We ran the first half in 40 minutes and the 2nd half in 30 minutes. Not bad for two middle-aged moms that hadn’t been training like they should. But we did it and it was SUCH a good feeling to cross that finish line in the first Olympic Stadium to the sound of Queen singing We Are The Champions! I’m so ready to do the Berlin Half Marathon in April now!
See the old man running next to us? He crossed the finish line ahead of us. *My* story is that he was only running the 5K. There was also a homeless man who joined in the last little bit and crossed the finish line. He was throwing a fit because they wouldn’t put a medal around his neck. If I wasn’t in such a fog and didn’t realize what was going on, I would have given him mine.
We walked the 10 min. through the National Park back to our room, showered and were on the train back to the airport within an hour and a half of finishing. We were walking like two old women but we had HUGE smiles on our faces. It was like we had a big secret. People were looking at us like we were morons. lol.
We got to the airport early enough that we sat down for a leisurely lunch. When we pulled out our boarding passes the first time I noticed there wasn’t a ticket on Pam’s like mine. We figured it was just because we were traveling together. As we’re in the LONG line for the security checks we realize our boarding call was ten min. early than we thought! Four minutes ago! Uh-oh. And everything had gone so smoothly up until then. So we get to the gate in the nick of time and they stop Pam because there’s no ticket on her boarding pass! They made me get on the bus to the plane and they told Pam to go look for it. We told them we never had it but they didn’t believe us. It was obvious she’d checked in and had it an hour before. Smart girl that she is she wouldn’t leave the desk. They finally had to let her go. The flight took off fifteen minutes late because of it. Whew. We were wiping sweat off our brows as we looked at Athens disappearing below us.
I learned something though. It may have only been 6.2 miles… but those hills nearly did me in. I kept going because I had my friend by my side. We may not have finished first but we didn’t finish last either. There were at least a hundred people behind us but they stopped the time at an hour and a half so we made it and I’m so proud of us.
How is it that it’s already January 2006? For our family it means we’re just a few weeks from Dan’s deployment. Counting the time he’ll be away for training, we have about three weeks left. I’m trying to stay positive but I gotta admit… it ain’t easy. I’ve had a couple of breakdowns. Usually when I wake up in the middle of the night and have nothing else to think about. This too shall pass. We’ve been through it before, we’ll get through it this time. It’s just not an easy thing and I’m looking forward to it about as much as someone looks forward to a root canal. In fact, I’d rather have a root canal. 😉 Pfft. I jinxed myself.
Like I said, we’re trying to remain positive and make the best of the time we have. How do we do that? By cramming 2 1/2 years worth of travel into a few weeks. We came home a few days after Christmas. Look what was waiting in the mail for me from my friend, Jessica!
Isn’t it beautiful? I wish you could feel how soft it is. Thank you so much, Jess! There was also a Texas A&M fleece blanket from my Elann pal, Bets. Thank you, Bets!! I’ve met some wonderful friends via the net.
Speaking of A&M… I haven’t shown you a picture of Aggie lately. Here she is at 15 weeks. Tell me how anyone could not love that face? I think you can tell a lot about a person, dog lover or not, who doesn’t at least smile at that. Seriously.
Please say a little prayer for Bailey. She isn’t doing very well. She’s going to the vet today. She’s been really out of it and throwing up for the past two days and today doesn’t seem to be any better. Hopefully it’s nothing a little antibiotics won’t take care of and she’ll be rolling around the floor with Aggie again soon.
Okay… I know you’re dying to hear about our trips. I’ll start with Ireland. Dublin was fun, but it was very busy with the Christmas shoppers and all. I was feeling guilty about not bringing the boys at first, but we would have lost them for sure in all the crowds. They had much more fun staying with our long-time friends than they would have had being dragged around Dublin anyway.
The hotel, The Westbury, was FANTASTIC! We felt very pampered. Everyone should treat themselves to this kind of hotel once in a while. Evening turn-down service complete with complimentary slippers, robes and Godiva chocolates… Aveda (my personal fave) products in the bathroom, beautiful warm decor and a fantastic full Irish breakfast on china and silver with waiters in uniform ready to whisk away your empty plates so you can have room for more. Pure luxury. If you get on-line you can get some great deals. We paid about the same price for this as we are going to pay to stay at a budget hotel in London! Yes… I said London. I’ll get to that later….
The highlight of the trip for Dan was the Guinness Brewery tour and the bus trip to the Wicklow Mountains. Dan’s been a long time fan of Guinness so it was great for him, but I have to admit, I enjoyed the tour also. Very interesting. My favorite part of the trip was the visit to Avoca Handweavers:
You can’t see it in the shot above, but the weaver’s sweater is beautiful. Of course I knew you’d all like to see it so I took a close up.
It’s Ireland so we saw a lot of sheep. I managed to get a few good shots. Even had some made into pretty note cards by Shutterfly. On the last day I got to meet up with my friends, Janet and Ian, from the Spinning Retreat in Scotland a couple of years ago. I wish we could have spent more time together but I’m glad we got to at least meet over coffee at Bewley’s Cafe.
If you’re ever in Dublin and want the best scones ever… just around the corner from the main tourist info in the old church… go to the Keogh’s Cafe on Trinity St (almost on the corner of Dame St). It’s right across the street from the Banker’s Pub. We went back a few times and even grabbed a couple to take on the plane ride back to Germany.
Okay… before I bore you all to death, that’s enough for today. In the next post I’ll tell you about our awesome Christmas surprise in Rome and our upcoming trip to London.
UPDATE: Dan just called from the vet. It’s Bailey’s liver. They took some blood tests but they won’t be back for about a week. They think it’s either cancer or hepititis. My poor girl. Please say a little prayer for her.
France: The only disappointment of the whole trip is that I didn’t get to see Mont St. Michel. Well, okay… I got to see the the silhouette of it from the auto route for about 30 seconds. I yelled, “Look boys! There it is!” By the time they looked it was gone behind the bushes and we didn’t get another glimpse. It would have cost us about another hour and a half to go see it and it was already about 6pm. We still had another couple of hours until we got to Nilda’s (Waltzing Natilda) in Brittany.
We had an interesting arrival. I’d been trying to call Nilda for about an hour or so before we arrived. Yea. Helps if you write the number down correctly. Funny what trouble being off just one little number can cause. Luckily, I knew what the place looked like where we were staying. The town takes about five min. to walk from one end to the other. Needless to say we saw our “hotel” (really, two rooms in a cottage) within a minute of our arrival in town. We were starving. Where do we choose to eat? At the Armenian drug guy’s pizza place that Nilda has talked about on her blog! lol. It was two boys and the Pizza sign that made us do it. That and it was right next to our room and had a table for us. We didn’t realize it was because no one else in town would eat there. No wonder the guy was so damn happy to see us. I have mentioned that my husband is a federal law enforcement agent, haven’t I? You’d think he’d have a nose for that stuff. Thanks, Dan. We could have been killed in the crossfire. 😉 Nilda and I had a great guffaw over it the next day.
So we knew Nilda had a dinner to attend that night. The owner of the room we were staying in gave me the correct phone number. We left a message with the babysitter that we had arrived and were in our room. After a while the long day had caught up with us so we went to bed. I’m just about off in dreamland and I think I hear, “Jean! Jean!” I open my eyes and Daniel’s face is about two inches from mine, “Mom, I think someone is calling you outside”. lol. I look out the big window and down into the road and I see a flashlight. “Nilda?” Yep. Nilda. All dolled up for her dinner engagement. She looks up and loudly whispers, “I have a key and a walkie-talkie for you!” lol. I go let her in. She comes up and meets Dan while I throw some jeans on. Daniel and I go with her up through the gate to the Chateau grounds. We get to meet her girls and make arrangements to turn the walkie talkies on at 9am to get the party started.
This is our cottage where we stayed on the top floor:
That’s Daniel looking down from one of the ramparts. Ours was the one with the green shutters. The window in the roof right above them is the one Nilda was calling through. That road used to be the moat for the Chateau. Wild, huh?
Right on the other side of the street from our door is the gate Nilda gave us the key to.
We arrived Saturday night and Sunday just happened to be the day the town had their procession of a statue of Mary. We processed through the town to a chapel at the beginning of a small wood. The one thing that never ceases to amaze me is that no matter where you go on this planet, Catholic Mass is always the same. Except for understanding the homily, you can follow right along. The setting was absolutely beautiful.
The town square. Beautiful, right? Right out of Beauty and the Beast.
And finally a little fiber-related news. Remember I told you about my little treasure? Nilda took me to one of the local Antique dealers. What did I buy?
Obviously, this tin isn’t antique but it’s pretty dang cute, ain’t it? It also makes a great container for my little treasure. Okay… okay… here it is:
Isn’t it beautiful?! The dealer says it’s about 100 years old and from that area of Brittany. I swear I did a little happy dance when he brought it out to us. Nilda had seen him at the reception after the church procession and let him know we’d be coming by. He had a beautiful old wheel also. If I could have figured out how it worked, I probably would have bought it too. Of course, it would have had to ride on top of our Jeep all the way back to Germany.
I’m perfectly content with my little spindle. She’s a tiny little thing. Only about 8 1/2″ from tip to tip. Good thing Nilda was there or I wouldn’t have been able to figure out how to anchor a leader onto it. You make a half-hitch on the bottom and then on the top and spin away.
I love holding it in my hand and thinking of the women that must have used it in all the years since it was lovingly hand carved. Thank you, Nilda. I would never have gotten it without you.
And so, our journey was a quick one but we had SO much fun. I totally plan on returning next year. Hopefully Dan will be home on his R&R from Afghanistan by then so he can join us. The boys loved it there. They got along great with Nilda’s girls. We knew they would. The girls are an absolute delight and Nilda, I was only half kidding about the pre-arranged marriage idea. Think of how well dressed our grandchildren would be!! 😉 We left a couple of days early because we felt totally guilty with them trying to pack up to leave for the States. We said our farewells and headed back to Germany where we spent a couple of nights with old friends to break up the trip.
Thank you, Nilda and family (even the girls for the readings and dancing!). We had a FABulous time. Note the sweater Nilda is wearing… she designed it. Trust me. It’s stunning in person.
Still trying to update the photo album. Here’s what I added today:
This is Daniel’s guernsey that I knit from Debbie Bliss’s Classic Knits For Kids. I knit it around 1997 in hand-spun Falkland wool.
I knit one for Joseph using store bought yarn a few years later.
This is the first Elizabeth Zimmermann sweater I did. It was knit in 1995 using her percentage system which you can find in just about any of E.Z.’s books. It’s knit with Jamieson & Smith’s jumper-weight wool. I love looking at this sweater and remembering how much I love knitting after I discovered the knitting list and Elizabeth Zimmermann.
Ahhh… the Tomten Jacket. Again… Elizabeth Zimmermann. Catching a theme here? This one was knit for Daniel and he wore it for about three years and Joseph wore it for a couple of winters. I can’t remember the wool I used. I think I knit it in 2000 also. This pattern can be found in The Opinionated Knitter or Knitting Workshop.
I met the woman with a ponytail at a spinning meeting I went to a year ago at my friend, Elke’s, house. Elke and I met through Spin Off magazine when we were up in Kitzingen last tour. She and I used to only live 20 minutes apart. She has a great little farm. They are renovating her home and the upstairs is her studio. It’s gorgeous. She even has a dyeing kitchen up there. Now we live about an hour away and it’s been hard to get up there to see her. I need to make a point of contacting her soon.
It’s so odd. I’d just been “chatting” (as well as you can via the internet) with Vicki at Knitorious about our love of Christmas ornaments and how every year it’s like saying hello to an old friend when they come out of the box to be put on the tree.
I have two new friends this year. Peace and Joy. As usual, the camera does not do justice. These precious gifts will be cherished by my family for years to come. They were a gift from Jamie, a fellow Elanner. I’d just organized a swap so that a bunch of us could have a color card for my favorite yarn, Elann’s Highland Wool. This amazing gift was her thank you. I explained to my son, Daniel, about the work that went into them and showed him a picture of an inkle loom on the web so that he could appreciate the value of these wonderful pieces of handwork. He was amazed. Thank you, Jamie, from the bottom of my heart.
Another piece of art made it’s way into our home today. A certain kindergartner named Joseph built his first Gingerbread house all alone today in school. I wrung my hands as he pounced off the bus wondering how close to the door he was going to get before it crashed to the ground.
Oh ye of little faith. It made it to the door unscathed. He wanted to eat it as soon as his dad got home. As always, when we have something planned, Dan gets a duty call (he’s a Criminal Investigations Special Agent for the Army). So we took a picture and emailed it to Dan at the office because Joe could not wait any longer.
This is my all-time favorite gift to knit for a baby girl:
Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Practically Seamless Baby Sweater from Knitter’s Almanac. I’ve knit this pattern so many times, my copy of this book automatically falls open to it. It’s a classic that’s easy to knit with great results. I have notes written all over the page. I’ve also replaced the Gull Pattern with a Little Shells pattern. For the Little Shells, you knit the 1st row, purl the 2nd and 4th rows and here’s Row 3: K2 * yo, p1, p3tog, p1, yo, k2 – repeat from * across.
I knit this one up for Elann friend, Libby, who’s baby girl was born just last week. You can see a photo of her on the Elann chat page (scroll down and look on the left side). Karolyn Ann is a beautiful for a beautiful girl!
It never ceases to amaze me how much joy I can get out of a little fleece, a drop spindle and a pair of knitting needles. Fellow Army wife and knitting blogger, Erica, could be in the hospital as I type having her baby boy. Happy Labor Day, Erica! Hopefully her hubster made it back from Iraq in time for the blessed event. I met her a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to make something special for her (it’s always nice knitting for another knitter). I had some scrumpdilicous Shetland fleece in my stash from Judy Colvin’s ranchin Montana. I spun it up and knit a little pair of oh-so-soft booties. Not a moment too soon because the wind is howling outside right now. They’ll go in the mail today.
My sock-knitting friend, Lynn, made a pair of these with her handspun when I was pregnant for Joseph six years ago. They were a gorgeous shade of hand-dyed deep maroon with jewel-tone fair isle knit into the leg. I remember how touched I was that she did that for me. I’ve been making them ever since. I must have left them in storage in the States because I searched and can’t find them. Lynn is known to many as “The Sock Lady”. You can check out some of her beautiful work here. I won’t forget you, Lynn, when I get to the Opal Factory!
Those booties and a baby quilt and sweater (also in storage) knit by my friend, Jessica (I met Jessica on the knitlist about seven or eight years ago), are my most prized items of Joe’s baby gifts. I thought of how kind Lynn was every time I put those booties on him when he was a baby and I think of Jessica every night when I tuck Joe in with his quilt that he still drags around as his comfort when he’s sick or wants to snuggle. One day his children will be kept warm with them all and that just give me the warm fuzzies.
You’ll find many renditions of this pattern as it’s been out there for eons. With Lynn’s permission, here is my version of her version of the bootie pattern (when you knit something this many times, the pattern is bound to change here and there). As EZ would say, these are “pithy” directions. If you are a beginner knitter or something doesn’t make sense, just holler:
You can use any yarn from fingering to worsted. Worsted makes a pretty big bootie. The handspun I used for Erica’s is about fingering weight and they should fit the baby till he’s about four months (I hope). I usually use DK weight.
Cast on ten sts. Garter for 18 ridges. Knit up 18 sts down next side, 10 across cast-on edge, 18 up other side. Knit in the round now. **Four rounds purl, four rounds knit (x2) and then knit four more rounds. Now you’re ready to do the top of the foot. In the booties Lynn did for Joe she did a 4×4 garter sts up the foot. I like that better, but I forgot about it and just did st st on these. You can do about anything you want to here. A small lace pattern would be cute. You’ll be knitting back and forth across the ten end sts. As you come to the last st of each row, knit it tog with one st from the 18 st side until you have 10 sts on each needle. Knitting in the round again, knit 3-5 rounds and then do an eyelet round for the ties (k2, yo, k2tog). Now you are at the leg and can do whatever you want. Add some lace or fair isle here. I just did a plain 2×2 ribbing. Garter st would be cute here too. For the ties you can do I-cord (I tried but it was too big for these booties), twisted cord (which is what I used for these) or crochet a chain. Have fun. They make great gifts.
