Mossy Cottage Knits

Hello Again, Everyone!

(Warning: Image-heavy posting, Dear Readers!)

There’s nothing like a visit from family to bounce you straight out of a rut you didn’t even know you were in. Just when The Mysterious K and I were starting to think endless days of work, gardening, knitting, eating, and video games were the ultimate in excitement for two middle-aged ladies, whammo! I think I did more—and learned more about Seattle—during the three days my sister and her family were here than I have in the last 20 years of living here.

In today and Wednesday’s entries, I’ll share photos of some of our adventures. My apologies if this smacks slightly of Slides of our Summer Trip, but perhaps local Dear Readers will find them interesting and I know I can count on StalkerAngie to read every word (wink, wink, StalkerAngie, wink, wink).

Our Really Big Adventure was a trip to Tillicum Village on Blake Island where you can visit a huge, breathtaking Native American longhouse, eat wonderful Native American food cooked the traditional way, and watch a theatrical production about Native American crafts, stories and customs. On the boat trip over, I was wincing inwardly, fearing that the whole thing would measure high on the hokey-meter—a la luau and hula dancers with bodacious tatas—but it wasn’t. It was very tasteful and interesting. Local readers, if you haven’t done this yet, it gets my thumbs up.

The north side of Blake Island with the Olympic mountains as a backdrop:

The boat docked at Blake Island:

Two views of the longhouse. (Note the white path made from bleached clam shells. When you arrive on the island, you are served a bowl of steamed clams and are asked to throw the empty shells on the path, which is great fun and very liberating—sort of the Native American version of throwing your peanut shells on the barroom floor. Of course, Little Nephew wanted to keep his shells, complete with the little smelly bits of half-eaten clam that were stuck to the inside. His maw and paw did an admirable job of convincing him to trade the fresh shells for some of the clean, bleached shells from the path. Phew!)

The food—salmon, chicken, wild rice, veggies, potatoes, sweet black bread, and a piece of salmon-shaped chocolate—was wonderful, as was the thoughtful and beautiful dance production. Everything felt very legit and from the heart and was pleasurably educational. The one jarring note? This:

Native American espresso? Native American Sno Cones?! Um, I don’t think so…

Knitting Knews
Continuing the Native American theme, as I mentioned before, I finished the Vision Quest Socks in time to send them off to the recipient. Here is a photo of the finished socks, showing how they look cuff-up and cuff-down.

The recipient finished her quest a few days ago, and reports that the socks were crucial to the success of it since she had to remain outdoors continuously for four days and it was much colder than she thought it would be. It warms the cockles of me little heart to think that I was able to participate, on whatever level, in this important event in her life. All together now: Knitting rocks!

On a completely different subject, here is a photo of Sheila's bundle of fuzzy love, Sherlock, taken at the Soiree a week ago Sunday.

The Soiree, as always, was fun and very knitting-communal. I had the pleasure of teaching Rebecca how to knit the heel flap, heel turn, and gusset for her First Pair of Socks Ever. The poor dear had unknowingly chosen an online pattern that was unforgivably riddled with errors. Ryan and LindaK to the rescue! It was fun for us to watch her go through that moment that all sock knitters experience at one time or another when you realize, hey, it actually looks like a sock! In fact, I believe those were the exact words out of Rebecca's mouth.

Of course, the Soiree would have been a lot more fun if, halfway through the day, I hadn't broken a molar completely in half. Yup, first a burnt cleavage, now this. Oy. But my dentist, whom I adore, quickly got everything well in hand and soothed my jangled nerves. Life, as always, goes on!

For a more in-depth info about the Soiree, including a photo of me, pre-broken tooth, trying to rescue some delectable edible from Sherlock, and a photo of Rebecca and her First Sock Ever, see Sheila's June 14 entry.

Posted by Ryan at June 21, 2004 02:01 PM