We’re here. All the way to Cordova. Finally. After a month of moving, house sitting, traveling, seeing relatives, and spending time with gracious friends who hosted us in Maryland and Seattle.  We can’t wait until Wednesday morning when James returns with the ship.

We found Interweave Crochet on the newsstand in the Anchorage airport today during an extended layover. I took that as a good sign–Alaska seems to be a crafty place. Here in Cordova, we’ve arrived on a Sunday evening, just in time to get to bed, but on the way to the hotel we saw to fabric stores and the yarn shop.

Honey.

My friend Lisa hosted our cat Honey for a couple of weeks while we were travelling, and while we were in Seattle, she made all the complicated arrangements to send her out to us. Honey came via air cargo to Seattle, boarded at her old Seattle vet for a few days and today flew coach with us to Cordova. Tonight she’s sleeping in our new house, while we are crammed in to a tiny “staff” room in Cordova’s only real hotel due to an overbooking fiasco.  Honey’s 14, and she’s over all the moving, having done it about 5 times. Our other kitty, Inca is still staying with my friend Hillary in MD, and we’ll be arranging her incredible journey soon.

Fleeced.

On Thursday we went to Portland to visit my Aunt Barbara. It was great fun to see her and stay at her house. She took us to a Portland Goodwill where we bought some warm clothes. It was a good thing because it’s in the 50s here in Cordova (not a-typical for summer). Selma and I are lying on the bed in the hotel now (waiting for Jay to fall asleep so we can turn on the TV) wearing our new (old) fleeces because we’ve opened the window to get some air.

Tomorrow we’ll explore the town. I’ll bring the camera.

On Friday, Selma, Jay and I went to Cable, Wisconsin–a town about 30 miles north of our cottage. The yarn store there, Pine Needles had advertised a Navajo Weaving demonstration that Selma and I wanted to attend. We arrived early in Cable, a small northwoods town with an artsy feel. We took a peek at the Cable Natural History museum which is being renovated and is only exhibiting a small piece of their collection. Then we had lunch at a small café in town before heading over to the yarn store.

Pine Needles is a spacious shop with great light, and lots of room for classes and gatherings. When we arrived, the weaver, Laura Berlage had set up her looms and was beginning to talk about her work. She will be teaching classes at the shop in the fall, and the demonstration was a way to attract students as well as show her work.

Laura is 23 and has been weaving since she was 13. She prefers to weave Navajo-style, but also has some European-style looms like the one she made this tapestry on:

Selma asked why she prefers the Navajo style of weaving, and Laura explained that Navajo weaving is done linearly–a whole row at a time, whereas the European style is more like intarsia–you work blocks of color and go fill in other parts later, and at the end, you have slits where the color changes occur that need sewing up.

I asked her what kind of wool is best for rugs that will be walked on and she says, once she finishes a rug, she never wants to step on it, she hangs them on the wall intstead. Laura works with Navajo churro wool, and also with Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride. She designs her own patterns.

Laura is not only a weaver–she’s also a singer and has recorded an album, She owns and runs an organic farm with a 40 member CSA, farmer’s market stand and restaurant clients, she keeps bees and sheep, and she has a degree in creative writing.

I’m still en route to Alaska. We’ve stopped in Wisconsin to visit family and we’re spending a week at our family’s cottage in northern Wisconsin. We’ve had a wonderful convergence of family members–my brother and his family, and his wife Sara’s parents, my parents, my Aunt Carole, Uncle Jack and cousin Johanna.

If you’ve read the blog for a long time, you’ll remember Johanna. She was my intern in 2006 when she was completing her degree in textile design. Since then, she has been working in costume design and haberdashery primarily for the Kansas City opera, but has also had stints with the Rockettes and she recently co-designed a line of swimwear that debuted in a Kansas City fashion show.

Aunt Carole is an artist and former elementary art teacher. She also contributed an essay on color theory to my book The Color Book of Felted Crochet.

Yesterday afternoon, while much of our crowd was having cocktails on the screened in porch, Carole and Johanna decided to take advantage of the great light and do some painting. They invited Selma and me to join them, and while Selma worked on some watercolors, I wasn’t feeling like painting so I gave my new Goldings spindle a spin and tried out the Buffalo Gold fiber I picked up at TNNA. The fiber has a very short staple, so it was a little tricky to spin, it’s so soft, it’s worth the trouble. The spindle is one I ordered after a phone conversation with Mr. Golding himself where he answered lots of newbie spindle questions for me. It worked like a dream.

After a bit of spinning, I did a little drawing which made me feel like I need a bit of a refresher art course. Maybe I’ll find one in Alaska!

On Tuesday Jay, Selma and I left Takoma Park after a whirlwind of activity–mailing boxes of things that wouldn’t fit in our suitcases, lots of wonderful goodbyes and all of the stuff involved in getting out of a house. I’ve been so brain-dead, I haven’t been able to post, but I’ll try and recap now.

Tuesday July 1st was my birthday. The kids woke me with singing and kisses and I had a nice quiet day in the house we were house-sitting in, sitting on their screened-in porch and working on my computer. Miraculously, the seasonally humid Maryland weather had cleared and it was breezy and in the seventies.

Tuesday evening was my final visit to SSK–I had been looking forward to it for a week. I planned on taking lots of pictures and saying some fond goodbyes. When I got there, I was serenaded on entering with Happy Birthday started by Abraham and his parents Hannah and David:

and the party just continued. That’s Debbie in the foreground of the picture, above. She really does knit that fast!

Cici and Shelette–two knitting, blogging sisters that are not regulars at SSK, (but we love hanging out at events at my local yarn store, A Tangled Skein) made a special appearance to say goodbye (They promise they didn’t coordinate their outfits).

and they brought a wonderful birthday gift:

This cool box is made from recycled magazines and it’s filled with knitting goodies.

Jennifer had a great card and an address book that she got everyone to sign throughout the night.

At about 7:30, Heidi and Emily arrived with a great, big, bag…

Somehow, without me finding out, Emily had spent the last couple of months coordinating a secret project: The SSK knitters had been making squares for an amazing afghan and Emily gathered them and assembled them (not to mention making a few of her own squares). The blanket is so beautiful, and such a wonderful way to remember all the amazing people I’ve come to know and love in the group. (Later that night, the blanket covered me while I slept, and felt the wonderful energy of everyone’s hands and hearts). Everyone put their own stamp on their squares–from Martha’s yellow square with a stranded Bicycle to Lisa’s Thrummed square to Carol’s crocheted grannies, to Teresa’s stripes and Debbie’s intarsia rainbows and cake (!!), and Barbara’s celtic designs, Heidi’s signature laces stitch (Abraham even learned to purl for his square!), and more.

I think Emily was happy with the result:

Other not-so-frequent visitors to SSK came by too, Lisa Anderson, Junko, Elizabeth–it was great so see everyone.

By the way, I taught Junko to knit when I first arrived in Takoma Park three years ago, look what she just finished:

(We WON’T talk about how this is the second time Junko knit this shawl because the first time, she left it, half-bound-off, on the DC metro. She’s still waiting for someone to turn it in to lost and found…)

Rebecca, who is waiting on pins and needles for the word that she can fly to Vietnam and finalize the adoption of her little boy spent the day spinning then knitting this neck warmer for me so I won’t get too cold in Alaska:

Barbara and I love to trade books, and she brought in Knit One, Kill Two that she had just finished. (Barbara, I gave Rebecca Back on Blossom Street to give to you next time she sees you!)

Martha flew back from LA then rushed up to Adega with her husband Bruce in order to be there for my last time. Martha started SSK, and I started going as soon as I arrived in MD–it was originally held in a Starbucks by the Silver Spring metro. Martha has nurtured the group, and it has grown and thrived, she’s an amazing group leader and a great friend–thanks Martha, I’ll miss you!

Heidi knitted me a birthday card!

As evidence of the breadth of knitting that goes on at SSK, Lorraine, was working on (or just finished?) a uterus she knitted for a friend:

Emily didn’t stop with her afghan project. Emily is a recently graduated social worker. When things calmed down a bit after she unveiled the afghan, she began explaining that in school she was taught that patients sometimes need “transitional objects” to help with a big change, and so, for the rest of the group, she made:

Yeah. It’s an amigurumi, of me! (Or an AMY-gurumi?). We were all pretty floored. The glasses and the hair flying out of the bun are awesome details. I gave her a crochet hook. Some ladies gave her some wine:

We don’t think it will be long before we start knitting for her. Emily, you rock–you’re so creative and funny and smart and fun!

It was such a fun party–and at the same time it was typical of how great SSK is in general–warm and welcoming to the unsuspecting new arrival who came for the first time that night. I have loved being part of this group so much over the last three years, and it’s hard to imagine not being with this amazing group of friends every Tuesday night.

I’m sorry the site hadn’t been working for you over the last few posts. It seems the Twitter widget I installed in my sidebar made the blog crash in Internet Explorer. I’ve removed it. Stay tuned. I’ve got great pictures and stories from last night at SSK. I’ll leave you with a tiny sneak peek:

The stuff is gone.

It took 10 people 3 days to pack the stuff and it took 12 people one day to load the stuff into crates on trucks to take it to a warehouse where it will be put in a container and sent somehow to me in Alaska.

With any luck it will get there right around the time we do. We never could have done it without my parents who came a week ago and stayed during the packing and the moving. They sorted and cleaned and minded the children and cooked and more. It was amazing. After the stuff was boxed we spent a lot of time eating standing up or sitting on the stairs. Making (and burning) toast in the broiler of my old oven, and generally camping. We bought five towels for $1.58 each at Target which were as thin as tissue paper and the size of large hand towels, but mom enjoyed the fact that we could wash them all in one load!

The movers finished in one day a job that they said would take two days, so on Thursday our friends Rick and Meg housed Jay, Selma and Me–they’re house was a wonderful refuge, and they are so warm, welcoming and friendly. My mom and dad stayed with our friends Ally and Jay who are like family–we’ll miss them so much. On Friday night we all stayed with Ally and Jay and got Indian take out, and had root beer floats and played Bananagrams after the kids were asleep. (Jay won all but one game, but they almost all came down to one tile–it’s a great word game, quicker and more portable than Scrabble).

James is in Cordova now. He arrived on Thursday and he’s getting his bearings. Today my parents left and we moved in across the street at our friends Anne Marie and Tom’s house. They are traveling and we’re house sitting. And we’ll get to sleep in the same place for a whole week. Then, we’re off on our trip across the country.

Oh, and here’s one more photo from the Stitch and Pitch courtesy of Jennifer. I got these needles in my goodie bag. We thought they went well with the DomiKNITrix t-shirt, don’t you?

What with the movers being here this week, I’ve fallen a bit behind, but I did want to mention that Selma and I had a great time at Stitch and Pitch on Friday night. We met Rebecca, Lisa, Heidi, Junko and her husband Will at the Takoma metro, and after scrounging for parking change we caught the train to the new National’s stadium. The new stadium is great–it’s much closer to the metro than the old one. Also it has green roofs with grass instead of non-permeable materials.

We were in the knitters section of the stadium. Everywhere we looked there were knitters.

and Will said at the end of the game, “That was the most civilized sporting event I’ve ever been to!” Maybe it was because were paying more attention to our knitting and each other than the game (I can tell you the nationals won.

Of course, there were crocheters too–Lisa (above in the green shirt) just learned to crochet and is currently enamored by granny squares. I’ve given her all my yarn odds and ends and she’s making a million of them.

Selma had a great time being the only kid. She loved getting so much attention for her knitting, and every time I turned my head someone was sharing their treats with her.

I got to see some folks I haven’t hung out with in a while:

Jody (JavaJem)

I got to see Karida and we reunited our new Lexie Barnes bags:

By the time we left we were all pretty sleepy, but we had had a great time!

I love the concept of this scarf that I found via Ravelry. The pattern is in Finnish, but we may be able to guess how it was done, or create our own version. The chains must give it great drape even though it’s worked in worsted weight yarn. Instead of changing colors every two rows, it might be fun to try using a yarn with long color repeats like K1C2 TyDy. It also might be fun to play with the lengths of the chains and the height of the stitches in the solid portions. Lots of great possibilities!

This beautiful version was stitched by Lilia (Ravelry).

Of a regular work schedule for me, then I’m in full moving mode. The packers come next Monday and my parents will be here this weekend helping me get ready. It’s time to live out of suitcases until August! So I’m furiously writing up patterns and tying up loose ends when I’d rather be doing more of this:

That’s the famed bfl I got from Rock Creek Yarn at Knit in Public day. It was the only colorway she had or I probably would have chosen something a little more subtle. On the niddy-noddy, there’s only about 45 yards of lace-weight singles. It will take me a long, long time to spin through all 4 ounces of this stuff, but that’s one of the cool things about spindle spinning–very efficient dollar-wise: you can get weeks of spinning in buying very little wool. Of course, you’re making very little yarn, too, but for me, that’s not the point.

This little collage was tucked away in a corner at A Tangled Skein. Each plant shown was used to dye a bit of the wool in the weaving in the center. There’s nothing to explain where it came from (I shall have to ask Cheryl, the owner of the shop), but there is what looks like transliterations into a Native American language under the English versions of the plant names. It’s fascinating to see that something green like lichen produces an orange colored dye. Someday, perhaps I’ll grow a dyers garden, but probably not in Alaska!