Golden Gate National Recreation Area

I was planning on hiking around Angel Island, but I got going late and did you know that the ferry stops running at 4:00 pm?  I didn't want to be thinking about not making the ferry back, since then I wouldn't be enjoying the experience, I'd just be thinking about missing the ferry. Yes, I am a basket case.

As usual, when it's hot weather in the East Bay, it's cold, windy and overcast on the coast. 

So, I ended up exploring the Marin Headlands and eventually made it over to Rodeo Beach. What I don't know is why I haven't been over to this area before because it was very scenic. I'll definitely be back.

I parked at the visitor's center and in the interests of getting at least a short hike took the trail from there down to Rodeo beach.

Along the way I saw some wild roses. They were growing in big bushes at various places along the trail. I love the smell of roses and these smelled amazing. The thorns were wicked though, I guess the pain of sticking myself was worth it.

The trail dipped down through a shaded glade and there were some of these tall purple flowers. I think they might be a variety of penstemon but I'm not sure.

Made it down to the beach and just sat for a while watching and listening to the ocean. It was nice and relaxing. I headed back when I started feeling really cold. The wind was blowing and it was overcast, although the sun did manage to break through here and there.







All in all it was a really great day.

Time flies...

...whenever you are not watching it closely. So, what am I doing this summer besides hanging out?

(1) Getting back into working out. Not exercising for 7 months and then working out - it's hard and very tiring. Who knew? Yes, I am out of shape but I'm working on it.
(2) Taking care of various things - car repair, dental repair, doctor's visit, DMV stuff - etc. etc. all that stuff that I never have time to take care of during school.
(3) Completing classes for Masters. I have two more.

Yep, just a tad busy. Anyway, not been working on any posted projects lately as quite some time ago I decided that making felted slippers for gifts would be a Good Idea. 4 pair had to be done by the end of July - so well, that's what I've been doing when not taking care of the above stuff.  These are DONE except for sewing up and then throwing in the washer for the magic shrinking process.

Yay! Now I can go back to other projects instead of working on one more pair of slippers.

And... here they are! All done and pretty.

Who works at the post office anyway?

So today I come home to this:

What is the problem here you may ask. A box? Cool. Someone sending me something? Even more cool.

The problem is that this is a box that I shipped out from the Post Office yesterday. Why is it on my doorstep? I really don't know. My only guess at this point is that the Postal Employee who looked at this did not know the meaning of the words From and To. So, off the post office tomorrow...

However, Clapotis is coming along. I've been knitting on it every day. Yes, it is boring but the drop stitches make it all worth it. There is a lot more than there was last time but the Giant Ball of Yarn has not appreciably diminished. Thank goodness for my kitchen scale which assures me that yes, this ball is 2 oz lighter than it used to be.

Knitting Project Gone Awry

So, last week as I was working on the lace pattern shrug I've been putting together I realized that somehow I had cast on 32 stitches for the left sleeve and only 24 for the right. The shrug is worked in one piece and the sleeves are cast on dolman style. Of course, I only found the error when I was actually finished with the sleeve section. I thought of many different things I could do, but really that's an unfixable error so... the shrug is currently back to balls of yarn and I'll have to start over. Seriously Disgusted. HOW did I MISS THAT?

To console myself I turned this giant hank of yarn:

Into a giant ball of yarn (which took a while). I think guesstimating that there's about 1600 yards in this hank. So... to ease my pain I cast on for Clapotis. Because, hey, everyone else has one so I should have one too. I like it so far, and there's no sleeves to make me crazy and I've got plenty of yarn.

Muir is Completed!

I am FINISHED with my friend's lace wedding shawl. I ended up with 11 pattern repeats instead of the 13 the pattern calls for. I really enjoyed this pattern, it was a very good introductory lace pattern. After the first repeat it also got fairly easy to determine where I was in the pattern and if things were lining up correctly. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I steam blocked it and it easily blocked to 70" long which should be perfect for a shoulder wrap. I might make this again for myself, but... longer. And well, NOT in off-white. I also wonder what it would look like in garter stitch.

High School Graduation!

Last day of school happened, I finished everything I needed to get done, which is amazing and now the summer. Ahhh...

My son's HS Graduation went well as shown by this awesome pic. My daughter is on the left. I'm cute but not as cute as she is. Of course, she's my kid so I have to say that.

Lace Knitting - Onward

Went to the KFOG KaBOOM this weekend which was, again, the best fireworks show EVER. The main artist this year was Melissa Etheridge so that was really awesome as she's one of my favorite singers. I, of course, took my son. Since he's graduating high school this year I don't know if he'll be able to come or not next year as he's going off to college. Tamara couldn't come since she's taking summer classes and stayed at college this year.

During the weekend, I asked him about his graduation (he lives with his dad) and it's a mystery to him. He doesn't know the date, the time or the location. I asked him if he was planning on being there, to which he answered "Yes!"  However, I guess he's just going to arrive magically. So, I'm thinking if I want to go to the ceremony, I'll have to figure it out for myself.

In current knitting news, after quite some time fighting with the laceweight yarn that I'm using for Muir it's being much nicer to me. I'm able to get some sort of tension and progress with the pattern. I did switch out SSK to SKP, as that seems a lot easier to complete for some reason. I've actually managed to complete 2 entire repeats and I'm in the middle of repeat 3 which I would have said was unlikely two weeks ago, but what a difference practice can make! Just gotta have a pic to document actual progress...

I find this quite cool since this is the first lace I've ever really attempted.