little ragg

 on the morning of my husbands birthday we met friends and one daughter for breakfast in summerland, a small town up the road from us. i brought my knitting hoping to finish a birthday present for one grandson, whose birthday was this day also. i was making a hat (with sock yarn) deciding to knit just the day before. this does seem to be the way things are going lately. last. minute. oh dear.
chuck's wearing his purple mountain's majesty' hat from last years birthday. big mistake and happy ending here and here. it was another last minute, and almost wasn't to be.
(i broke the rules on the nutrition diet and ate the cranberry orange scone featured above, my will power and resolve is wavering.)

later at the party...

(mesmerized by a new surfing dvd)

(travis's gift to granpa chuck, a rock painted with big waves)

i brought the hat, still on the needles, thinking i might finish it at my daughters. but you can imagine, it never left my basket. there were children to watch, babies to hold, presents to unwrap and candles to make wishes on. so when i kissed him 'happy birthday darling' and said goodnight, i told him i would have his hat ready when he got out of school the next day.

 it's a simple hat. a basic little hat. yet since i picked him up from school today, he hasn't taken it off. and guess what? he told me this friday is hat day at school. and he already knows which one he'll wear. i'm so glad to have it done and that travis is happy, now one more birthday and then i can think of christmas!

paton's basic beanie - version one (man size)
kroy socks ragg shades
rav notes (and travis, finally on ravelry) here.
joining with ginny and the yarnalong.

a day to celebrate

today is amanda's baby shower so graciously hosted by tracey! thank you tracey, you are such a lovely hostess, welcoming everyone, and the food is yum!  here is my gift to your new babe amanda, i intended to wrap it so you would be surprised, but this tiny bunny insisted on posing instead. he is knit from organic cotton from the book vintage knits for modern babies. ravelry notes soon.  :)

when the first baby laughed for the first time,

the laugh broke into a thousand pieces

and they all went skipping about,

and that was the beginning of fairies.

- j.m. barrie

congratulations amanda and welcome to your new

soon to arrive sweet bundle of joy!

~

today is an extra extra special day as it is my husbands birthday. and my grandsons. my lovely men are

forty eight and eleven today. here are some things i've made (am making)....

when i knit, i stitch with bliss

and with every stitch

there went a kiss.

i hope you have the most wonderful day my guys.

a photo of us that chuck loves, it's even in a frame (which hardly ever happens!) and a cowl knit with no pattern, only about nine inches of seed stitch in a very soft and cosy alpaca. i hope it keeps him warm. i'm going to make you a sweater honey, promise.

 and a kroy sock basic beanie for travis. it's knit on a size three and size five needle. i haven't gotten to the size five yet, but when i do (soon!) it should go alot faster and be off the needles in time for the birthday party tonight. he's getting a new deck pad for his surfboard too, something he really wants!

i'm late to the shower, and i want to take my husband out to breakfast, but when i get back i'll add the ravelry links.

have a wonderful day!
love, lori

last minute knit

(all photos from last year, except the partial raverly one right above)


dear friends, if only i had been as wise as you and began my holiday knitting weeks ago. the thing of it is, i wasn't planning on giving hand knits this year. until two things happened... my grandson came over for dinner the other night (it's a treat to have just the one, he had our undivided attention). travis asked to look at my computer which was sitting on the counter open already. while i was getting our dinner ready, he began to ask questions about the page i was on, " grammy, what is ravelry?"  i explained he was looking at my very own hand knits. he was interested and scrolled down. then he said " i see sadie! and brianna! their on your page!"   and then more to himself " i like this hat" and " i would sure like a hat like that". 

yes, i do feel like the world's worst grammy. how long had it been since i had knit for my boy grandchild? i couldn't remember. and how could i leave him off my page when his sisters were there with their newly made sweaters? so christmas hat project is on the needles (photo to come soon!).

next, my daughter was over one morning while i was getting ready for work. i had a pile of knitted goodness out, deciding which to wear. she began looking through, gently handling each piece. i can't say here which one she loved (so it'll be a surprise) and she said "how did i not know about this?" and "oh i wish i had one too" . so project number two is on the needles.

and the natural scarf, that is on the needles again too, another last minute knitted gift (which may not be finished in time).

projects shown (photos from last year):
his and her hats, purl bee pattern, rav notes here
branching out (scarf) pattern from knitty, rav notes here
and the photo with the pile of knitted goodness, is not entirely on ravelry yet, oh my goodness,
so much to do!  for reading, only pattern notes this week.
joining with ginny and all the yarnalongers, here.

like cake and cookies

~ this weekend

~ my husband was off to the desert adventuring, while i stayed here at home. a cold wind was blowing, keeping owen and i indoors. maybe it was the near hurricane winds that prompted the flurry of activity. we got so much done! (well, owen mostly offered support by watching me from his doggy bed with one sleepy, yet interested eye.)

~ i'm pleased that:
the tree was trimmed
house decorated
outdoor lights strung (once the wind died down)
outside cleaned and swept after wild wind
inside cleaned (laundry too!)
marketing was done
day thirty five of eating to wellness, so far i've had no caffeine, alcohol, sugar, bread, pasta,
baked goods, dairy, poultry, meat and anything else that falls in these categories for over a month.
i went to africa two years ago, came home with a mystery ailment, and am still searching for a
cure. even if the africa bug doesn't leave, the rest of me will be super healthy.
recieved two packages in the mail, one from emily and one from andrea, thank you so much.
made one pot of chicken soup for my sick girl who was at her home in bed. delivered soup, and animal crackers, for good measure, too  :)

~ i added one photo in this post twice, a thing was missing from the first i wanted to show. i see it's still
partially missing. i might have been lazy about one or two things this weekend (no photo do overs)
hee hee.

~ the ornaments on my table, the fox, hen, bluebird, toadstool and teacup are from
julie whitmore, potter, artist. she owns a brilliantly creative heart inside a kind and humble (super talented) body. julie's art can be found  here and  here.

~ a recipe for you...

almond bread (shown above with sesame butter)

1 lb. almonds, raw and organic
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup water, carbonated

preheat oven to 350 degrees. blend almonds (a small amount at a time) in food processor
or blender to fine texture. place in bowl and add remaining ingredients.
pour into olive-oiled bread pan and bake 1 hour. can stay fresh for over a week in an airtight
container in refrigerator.

the bread really is very yummy and makes up for no cake or cookies. almost.
:)

warm puppy

this is owen. he's my puppy. owen had a birthday, he's now two.
for his birthday he got two cookie bones from cafe luna (thanks kim for
turning him on to them), his favorite thing in the world almost ,except cheese.
and he got this new sweater. he really seems to love it, he jumped around for a
bit and did that rolling thing like he was trying to remove it. but then
i think he realized he wasn't cold anymore and he's been wearing it all morning.

i started with a pattern on ravelry, but quickly changed it up. if you have a
shivery puppy you'd like to warm, notes are here. next time i'm changing it even
more, knitting one long tube in the round with openings for his little puppy legs. please
forgive the wretched seaming here, that was the result of sleep knitting. i sleep knitted
my tea leaves too and ended up pulling out four inches, while sleepy also, which resulted
in a very large pile of tangly wool (using two balls at once.) i didn't have the heart
to take a photo of that. oh dear.
still reading and delighting in wildwood.

joining with ginny and all the yarnalongers here.

running mountains

here we go, up up and up, to the top of the santa ynez mountain ridge. my sister lindy and i drove up saturday morning. it took us an hour from my home which is waaay down below on the edge of the pacific ocean . i live about center and straight down next to the sea, on the other side of the middle  peak.

 we are driving up here to see chuck, my husband. he is in an ultra run. a fifty mile trail run. the run is on the back side of this ridge we're on. looking at this photo the ocean is on our right, the back country on the left. he is in the back country. along with seventy two others. running fifty miles.

 we are at one of the check points now. behind me is a makeshift tent with supplies for these endurance athletes. we waited (a bit anxiously) for chuck and cheered as each person came through. then, we saw him. he's that blue dot right above the words on this photo. notice the rugged back country from where he's come. there are a lot of hills.

 he was so happy to see his friend and fellow athlete.

now he has to replenish before heading back out. there are foods with potassium and salt. and if you think you see a bottle of maker's mark whiskey on the table, you'd be right. some of the runners might need it i suppose. (i'm quite sure i would).

 this is the check point we were at, i think there were at least five more throughout the course. i am always in awe of the people who volunteer their time to help. my husband appreciates it very much. everyone is so nice and supportive at these things (they must all be bloggers) ((bloggers are the nicest people on earth)).

he was with us for five minutes before heading back out. can you imagine finishing a marathon and beginning again? and on a trail too?

 see you tonight honey. have a safe trip. lindy and i watched him run off and then headed back down the
mountain. we had a day planned. which thankfully didn't include any running.

as we were driving down the narrow windy road, this red-tailed hawk suddenly burst out of the bushes to our right ( there was shrieking) (by us) flying almost into our car, swooping over the hood and then as if we were in the wildwood book, he soared only inches from the ground, right directly in front of us! and then, suddenly again, he made an immediate stop and an abrupt turn into the brush on our left, attacking (scaring the wits) out of a small bird. the bird flapped his wings madly and flew straight up and away and the hawk, seemingly satisfied with himself landed on the top of this small dead branch. and stayed. i was shaking whilst trying to raise my camera, i've never been this close to a red-tailed hawk ever. i counted to three as he looked at me, raised his tail to poop (which indicates flying is next) and then he was off.

 in glorious graceful flight.

 i wished for a moment wildwood were true. i would have asked him to keep an eye on my love.

chuck and i and my sweet sister lindy. photo courtsy of  kevin steele. for kevin's images of the run
go here. (chuck's photo is the first one, he's wearing his handknit hat, a purl bee pattern.)    :)

oh! lindy and i had a fabulous day, we went to a holiday fair, shopped, and played with owen (i only glanced up at the mountain once). chuck finished some time after eight p.m. and walked in the door at nine o five, after fourteen hours of (torture) running. and although he's tired now, i know he'll do it again. if your reading honey, i'm proud of you. and i forgot to ask, did you see a bold red-tailed hawk?