February 23, 2005
Mother Nature's in a Mood
Our weather here in the Northwest has come completely unglued. In the morning, you trudge outside all bundled up in a sweater, heavy socks, goose-down coat, scarf, mittens, and chullo hat, breath misting heavily in the air, eyes blinking and squinting against the cold, to scrape stubborn, rock-hard rime from the car windows. By early afternoon, you’re out in the yard in a t-shirt, weeding, a hot sun warming your back, thoughts of a tall, cold glass of ice tea just starting to percolate in your brain. The next day, ditto. And the next. This has been going on for weeks! 
The city is positively infected with grumpy and unpleasant wanna-be skiers bemoaning the lack of snow in the mountains, and gardeners who are equally crotchety since the cherry trees around the city are already in bloom, the daffodils and tulips are blooming equally prematurely—which does not bode well for the Tulip Festival—and the gardeners know they are in for a horrendous summer drought. I can hear them now, waving their arms around in gestures of overly melodramatic surrender, saying petulant things like, “Oh, I should just plant cactus and be done with it. Gardening is overrated anyway. Whatever.” My only consolation is knowing that the gods have seen fit to send our normally ultra-rainy weather down to annoy my sister in San Diego. Kid sisters rule!
On the bright side, this weekend the unusually warm and sunny weather did send us out on a long, dog-walking amble and, as a bonus, we discovered a jewel of a local park, St. Edward State Park. Two days later, we are still scratching our heads and asking ourselves, how did we not know that this park existed ten frickin’-frackin’ minutes away from where we live? Look, just look at the building in the photos at the top of this site! That gorgeous hunk a’ masonry, which used to be a seminary, sits smack in the middle of the park and is—in the true, not the Valley Girl, sense of the word—awesome. Awe. Some. I still have a slight crick in my neck from staring up, up, up and more up. The park also has miles of hiking trails. True, some of them could lead to your abrupt and untimely death when you are mowed down by a speeding mountain biker, but some are verboten to the bikers. And there is even a grotto or two. A really lovely park. If you haven’t been, go. Take the kiddies! It has a huge new jungle-jim-playground kind of thingy that would entertain them for hours.
So, in short, the weekend was spent freezing, sweating, scraping, gardening, walking and, yes, knitting which, as always, leads us to:
First, Dear Readers, and, specifically, the slightly freaky members of the Cuzzin Tom Fan Club (you know who you are), I am pleased to announce that CT has started his Mongolia blog, Dreaming of Danzan Ravjaa. Go. Visit. Have some coffee. Leave a comment. Let him know we’ll be thinking about him as he travels to Mon-frickin’-golia.
As I mentioned last time, I have been receiving some Dulaan items on a onesy-twosy basis from some local Guilders and Feralites and I wanted to share them with you. Need I say the weather cooperated this weekend?
Here, da' loot in its entirety, er, minus the five (!) scarves someone at work gave me today:
A mess o' hats:
Socks and a pair of Kool-Aid dyed mittens:
An adorable purple-and-multi ruffled set which, unfortunately, came out very blue in the photo:
And lastly, a photo sent to me by Marianne of a completely separate box of Dulaan goodies. Don't miss the beautiful red Coronet on top.
Off to add yet more names to the Brigade list!
Posted by Ryan at February 23, 2005 10:32 AMMaybe I haven't been knitting long enoungh, or maybe the Flylady helped me de-clutter (un-clutter?) enough that I don't have a huge, dying- to-be-knitted-into-warm-things-for-Mongolia stash. I had (notice past tense) enough yarn leavings to knit one small (very cute) hat (with tassels!). Don't tell any one it was left over from some less than succesful attempts at dog sweater knitting. This hat almost didn't get finished because George (the dog) got tangled in the yarn and stabbed himself with a size 5 needle and bent the needle 90 degrees! George is fine, limped all day yesterday though. I will just have to force myself to go out and b u y more yarn so that I will have a stash to knit cute hats from. Thanks for keeping us posted on the projects progress. Laura
Posted by: laura on February 23, 2005 11:07 AMWe made fleece things last night, a blanket and working on hats. Some hats will be for infants, as the fleece bits were a bit small, but then again, I have no idea how big Mongolian children are compared to our well-fed North American children.
I can't help but notice that Cuzzin Tom started his journal today - on my birthday. I'm sure it's some sort of secret message . . .
Posted by: Patti on February 23, 2005 11:20 AMWow. Just looking at all the donated items is inspiration! I'm working on my second hat. (Told you I'm slow.) I think we'll be able to grind that 500-item gauntlet into the dust!
Posted by: Kristen on February 23, 2005 11:23 AMLaura, I feel so bad for doggie George! As a project, Dulaan was designed to be relatively injury-free. Now I'm going to have to start posting one of those signs that they use in factories saying "_______ days without an accident."
Patti, yep, you would be one of those slightly freaky Cuzzin Tom fans. :-) And, of course, a big Happy Happy to you!
Posted by: Ryan on February 23, 2005 11:26 AMI'm telling ya--2,000 items is going to be a snap!!! Can we officially change the quota, huh? Can we? Can we??? Mary B
Posted by: Mary B on February 23, 2005 12:02 PMI think we can easily break the goal of 500 items! I have a personal goal of 20 items to send in my shipment, which I hope to send off in May. Then I will start stashing more stuff away out of odds and ends for next year!
Posted by: Sheri on February 23, 2005 01:35 PMWorking on a scarf in blue Gjestal Naturgarn. Can't wait to see what people will be working on for the Knit In at Janine's. Mary B, if we make 2000 we all need to have a great big party!
Posted by: Nathania on February 23, 2005 03:57 PMI have no objection to a party--or several parties--we can have parties all over the country! We can have parties while we knit, and we can have parties after we're done! I love parties!
What do you all who read this blog think about the "2,000-items-or-bust" idea??? Can we do it? Are we brave enough to tackle 2,000 items? Or are we wimp knitters? I say we're iron-knitters and we can do it!!!!!
Mary B
Posted by: Mary B on February 23, 2005 04:06 PMI am not a wimp knitter! 2000 items? I need (get) to buy alot more yarn!!
You know, I sat with Mary on Sunday, and she seemed her usual rooted, competent, and humorous self--I did not sense at all this steely undercurrent, this urge to challenge accepted wisdom... OK, I've got four items in my Dulaan basket and the tomten jacket should be done tonight. Then on to thrummed mittens. 97 (or so depending on how you count them) more days until postmark!
Posted by: Janine on February 23, 2005 07:13 PMWow! Overlooking a 316 acre park that close is simply amazing. Good thing the karma from the Dulaan project kicked and pointed you in the right direction.
Way to go Dulaan-ers!
We can totally knock off 2000+ items. I have been having a hat-athon here this week. Am already onto my fourth one. Scarf week next week. I am to send at least (min) 30 items all the way from down under. Have even got my next door neighbour Dulaaning now :D
Posted by: shell on February 24, 2005 02:12 AMGrass?? You have grass?? *looks out window at 60cm of snow on ground* Not that I'm complaining, because I haven't gotten to snowboard yet this year, so I'm glad the weather is holding. And it will, we don't get spring until well into April anyway.
I might try to make a pair of mitts to send in for the Dulaan project, but with my health being the way it is, mittens might get cancelled (never mind snowboarding).
Posted by: Karlie on February 24, 2005 06:28 AMRyan: The website for Interweave Knits has a page listing various community knitting groups with a short description and a webaddress, etc. for anyone interested in sending a donation. Here is the link to it:
http://www.interweave.com/knit/charities.asp
Maybe something on the Dulaan Project would be seen by knitters there? Also, the Seattle Guild has a charity/community knitting page. (I prefer to call knitting for others "community knitting" rather than "charity knitting." Using the word "community" makes me feel I'm equally a part of the whole, while "charity" connotes an unbalanced relationship--but maybe I'm splitting hairs.....)
We need more knitters if we're going to reach 2,000 items!
Hugs, Mary B
Posted by: Mary B on February 24, 2005 07:01 AMWow, what a nice park. My kids would go insane over that playground.
I've made a hat, gaiter and a pair of mittens so far and I'm working on two sweaters. (To add towards that 2000 mark Mary B. is pushing for. You go, girl!)
Posted by: Susie on February 24, 2005 09:20 AMI love St. Edwards. It's actually just a few minutes from my house and they have a lovely swimming pool, lovely swimming pool! It's a wonderful park!
Posted by: Rebecca on February 24, 2005 09:44 AMI've finished 3 hats and I'm donating a pair of mittens I knit last year that I never wore.
Posted by: jillz on February 24, 2005 02:24 PMI accept Mary B.'s challenge. And we are NOT wimp knitters! 2,000 will be no problem. Watch out, stash.
Posted by: Barbara on February 25, 2005 08:34 AM