First Thursday    http://freemuseumday.org/sea.html

 Many museums around the Puget Sound region offer monthly free days.  The ‘First Thursday’ is what it is most often referred to.   I keep it on our calendar as a recurring event each month but often our schedules conflict and we miss a golden opportunity,  but not this month.   March 3, was the First Thursday and it was a perfect day for an outing.  Bill and I decided to go to MOHAI – The Museum of History and Industry.  There are several exhibits that are permanent including; Maritime Seattle,  Bezos Center for Innovation and True Northwest the Seattle Journey.  Each one was very interesting and pointed out more reasons I love the Northwest.

Stitches West Update:  Between February 18 and February 21 over 11,000 knitters came from all over the world gathered in Santa Clara California for one of the largest knitting conventions in the world.   I flew into San Jose on the 17, picked up my rental car a few groceries and got situated in my “extended stay hotel”.   I was at the Convention Center before 9:30 the next morning for the Opening Day Address.   In Short, it was about designing knitted garments.  It was interesting and exciting to see what the 4 designers came up with.  Then it was on to the Teachers a la Carte Luncheon where we got to meet about 10 of the class teachers and they explained their classes.  I had signed up for two classes all ready and I enjoyed one of them  so much that I signed up for another class by the same teacher.  After lunch I headed right to my first class: Scallops: They’re Not Just for Dinner.  This was the class I enjoyed so much that I signed up for another. 

I have been knitting shawls this year.   I love the different designs and shapes and that you can use one or two beautiful skeins of yarn.  They make wonderful gifts and they don’t have to fit.   The class choices I made had to do with shawl shaping and short rows.  In the Scallops class we made beautiful curved shapes, the next class called Plug it in, Plug it in addressed design even more along with math and shaping.  The third class I took was not until Saturday afternoon and it was also about short rows with a different teacher.    I could have taken these classes two or three years ago and not been ready to learn or remember much of the material but this year my brain was all over learning some new tricks.   I can’t wait to make the stockinette bib I have made so many of before and see how they turn out with my new bag of tricks to try.   My class on Thursday was over at 5pm and the most exciting event was yet to come but before that all the attendees were gathering in the lobby of the convention center, there was a designated area for “Swappers” to meet.   Swappers is a group on Ravelry that Peggy Baxter (pbaxter on Ravelry) either organized or had a whole lot to do with and it was so much fun.   The last time I was at Stitches I noticed the ‘swappers’ and ask a few questions so when I made plans to go this year I looked for the thread on the Stitches Ravelry pages and there it was.  

Raincoats & Umbrellas 

To prepare for swapping they suggest you make between 75 and 100 stitch markers and I made 150.  They were so cute I was hoping to gift a few sets later.  I had a lot of fun making the stitch markers even though the work is much more hand intensive than knitting.  I learned not to work for three hours at a stretch.  After all the swapping was done I had a bracelet full of new, unique and beautiful stitch markers and a few special progress keepers also.

Many people have asked me if I sell stuff; my art, my knitting, my yarn, and the answer is yes but I do not take orders.  If I have something that interest you let me know.   I am going to have more stitch markers than I can use and I will be selling some of them.  Eventually I will have a show, of sorts, on this blog of other things for sale and I have sold a lot of yarn through Ravelry where it is listed for knitters to find.  If it is not listed for sale, just ask me,  I might sell it anyway.

My Goodies 

Back to Stitches:  The Student Market Preview was on Thursday evening.  The whole market of vendors was open only to Students.  There are literally hundreds of vendors of everything knitterly.  I went in with very good intentions and I came out with my arms full.  I was so excited to see some cute little hat kits for children that were of holiday inspiration.  I had not seen them before and I grabbed up a few.  I was wearing my new turquoise cowboy boots my Mom got me for Christmas and I seemed to gravitate towards turquoise everywhere I went.   In the end I came home with some very nice treasures.

The Rest of the Trip:  I will say this was the lowest amount of knitting I have accomplished in ages because I was taking classes, doing class assignments and all the driving.  I have some things to block and will talk about them when they are really finished. 

After Stitches I drove north to San Francisco to have lunch with a dear friend.  We are in pretty regular contact by telephone and email but I had not seen SB for almost 10 years.  We had both gotten older which in my book is a good thing.  SB sent me very detailed driving instructions for how to get to where we were going to meet up.  It was the scenic route.  I felt like he was in the car with me telling me about all the sights;  including a tour through the Palo Alto VA hospital where he had worked then a pastoral area and just where he said to look for wildlife the traffic was stopped while several deer grazed on the edge of the road.  

I saw the Stanford Radio Telescope and Robert’s Market along the way,  it was a beautiful drive and I ended up near Golden Gate Park where we spent some time walking around before we went on to where he works now.  SB gave me a tour of the entire VA Medical Center – San Francisco.  It was heartwarming to see how well respected the vets were on that campus.  I heard “thank you for your service” so much it almost made me tear up.  One of SB’s friends even said to me personally, “thank you for supporting a vet” when we were introduced.  I never even thought of that, he is just my friend.  I actually walked so much that day it was the first time I had reached my step goal since getting over bronchitis.   SB also gave me three pages of maps for getting out of town,  taking me by cute schools and beautiful parks and interesting businesses up the hill to his apartment where I stopped to take a photo of his view and then onto the freeway south through Gilroy (the Garlic Capitol) and from there south and west over towards the coast.

I had been to Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea before but not further south.  SB says everyone should see Big Sur and so I did.    I drove south on this long and winding road, isn’t there a song for that?  When I saw the sign for Big Sur State Park I started wondering what Big Sur was; rocks in the ocean like in Oregon?  A geyser? A Cave?  So I turned the car around at the next lookout and went back, turned into the state park and drove all through it.  I figured out Big Sur is like the road to Hanna, which I have only heard about.  It is a beautiful drive with very winding roads.  You drive at 15 to 30 miles per hour on the edge of a mountain cliff that plunges into the ocean and you continue on this drive for about 6 hours. I really want to go back and stay at the Treebones Resort; http://www.treebonesresort.com/  for a few days to take time to hike and enjoy the view.   Big Sur made me long for the days I was riding motorcycles, it was a perfect road for cruising on a bike.

After Big Sur and before Monika I also had very nice visits with my Uncle Ray, my Aunt Jeanne and cousins Jan and Mark and his family.  I had an excellent adventure. 

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