Knitting Iris

Incongruity. Regret. Relief.

I used to feel regrets everytime that I left Seattle, mostly that I couldn't stay longer, but yes, also regrets that I no longer lived there.  I've become a tourist in my own home town.  But in the last several years, I tend more often to feel, as I drive up toward Snoqualmie Pass, relief.  Relief that I don't live there anymore, relief that I'm headed home.  I'm glad that it's only a long day's drive away.  I can go to the city, enjoy the best of it, and then leave it all behind.  My list of things I'd like to try and do is always longer than what I can pull off while I'm there, though.  Now, my regrets are mostly related to the things I didn't get to do while I was there.

Things I didn't get to do: I didn't get to see any old friends.  I'm pretty sure they've given up on me.  I didn't get to Uwajimaya's, for the experience of taking the boys there, but also to look at craft books at the bookstore and pick up a set of chopsticks to stuff into C's stocking.  I didn't make it to one the most lovely toy stores, Clover, out in Ballard (I can't find a link. I hope it's still there).  I didn't get to see most of my cousins or their children.  I didn't get to Molbak's to ogle at plants too tender for my planting zone.  I didn't get to take the ferry to Bainbridge Island to play on the beach at "Camp" where my grandfather built a cabin when he was young, and go to Churchmouse Yarns and Esther's Fabric, of course.  I didn't make it to the Arboretum to see if there were any leaves still on in the japanese maple grove.  I didn't make it to Hilltop Yarns or Acorn Street Yarns.  I didn't go to Schmancy to see so many people's work in person and get inspiration.  I didn't see a good movie in the U. District (Sense and Sensibility was playing).  I didn't go to an art museum or gallery.  We didn't go to the Seattle Aquarium.  We didn't get fish and chips.

Things that I did do:  C and I did have the best day together in the city, before leaving for Mexico: we went to a stained glass store, The Re-Store, Bedrock Industries, and then went out for great Thai food in Fremont.  We did see my brother, his wife, and played with their son, my 1 year old nephew.  We did see one of my cousins and his family.  We did see one aunt briefly and spent a good part of a day with another aunt and uncle.  I did spend over an hour at Weaving Works.  We did go to the Julefest at the Nordic Heritage Museum where my mom volunteers.    I did get to drive through downtown with the boys, past the beautiful new Seattle Library building.  We did drive slowly past some people doing a dragon dance outside a restaurant near Uwajimaya's.  I did see a program on PBS about Chihuly's installation at Kew.  We did watch old family movies with the boys from when we were little and my grandparents were still alive.  I did make the seemingly requisite trip to IKEA... twice, please don't ask why.  I did go to Anthropologie, just to browse and be inspired.  I did pick up an Oilily catalog, for inspiration, too.  The boys did get to go to two of my favorite childhood parks and the local library with my dad.  I did have a headache everyday that I was there, including one near-migraine.  I did drink a lot of corporate coffee and had one yummy molasses chew from Starbucks (do I really need to link to that?).   We did get to stop out at my parent's dad's sailboat at Shilshole.  We did have Copper River salmon one night for dinner to celebrate my dad's 74th birthday.  We did get to go to A Child's Dream Come True's newish retail store in Sandpoint, ID on the way home.

Five things I still regret about not living in Seattle: (1) not living close to my parents and other family.  Not being able to grow (2) a japanese maple, (3) a gingko tree, and (4) a wisteria vine in my yard. (5) A paved driveway like the one under the leaves above.  It sure would keep the floors cleaner. ;)

But like I said, it's good to be home.

Double Rainbow Socks

The Kool-Aid stash now contains packets from all three North American countries.  I stumbled across these while picking up fresh corn tortillas and gouda cheese one day (I thought gouda was Dutch(?) but we found it everywhere).  They are, left to right, Fresa intrépida (Intrepid strawberry), Naranja sensación (Orange sensation), Mora encantada (Bewitched blackberry), Piña maravilla (Pineapple marvel), and Uva lunática (Grape lunatic), all good Kool-Aid-ish names, I'd say.  The Fresqui-Bon and the Zuko aren't for dyeing yarn (they already contain sugar), but for drinking.   One is a hibiscus flower drink and the other a tamarind drink.  They just  happened to be in the same aisle, and since I love to eat fresh tamarinds and hibiscus flowers are the ones that the iguanas were so fond of (they also are used as a natural dye, btw), well, I just couldn't resist.  All were declared as "souvenirs" at customs.

Travelling with 2 children, I didn't want any possibility of having to deal with questions about my aluminum dpn sock needles at security.  It's enough trying to get everyone's shoes and coats off and on without anything else.  Instead, I brought a plastic, circular Denise interchangeable in my carry-on and some cotton yarn for the so boring knitting of dishcloths.  Good thing I did this because we actually needed a one at the hotel for doing our dishes all week (used one not pictured above).  My mom was knitting squares for blankets for graduating high-school students from her church so when she ran out of yarn, she picked up my yarn and made one plain tan and one variegated one for me.

The rainbow sock knit-off is complete!  Socka Color #2419 on the right, Trekking #100 on the right. Both were reinforced in the heel and toe with KnitPicks Essential, Grass.  Both were knitted exactly the same on #2 dpns.  Both knit up at 8 stitches to the inch.   

Verdict:  The Trekking is softer to the touch, but also feels thinner and seems like it won't hold up as well.  The Socka Colori appears to be a sturdier yarn and I still prefer this one as the colors seem to blend together more smoothly, although I feel like I got reasonably matching pairs of socks from of both of these unpredictable colorways.  One pair will be gifted at Christmas, but I'm not yet sure which one.  There is plenty of yarn leftover to make bright rainbow socks for the boys, too.

The flight, by the way was magical.  Looking past the wing, the sunset just kept getting deeper and deeper colored, far more so than the picture above.  After flying up the coast of Baja and California, we landed into L.A. during rush hour, and the city looked lit up like a Christmas tree with strings of highway traffic for garlands.   The rest of the way that night up to Seattle was interesting and beautiful, too, recognizing the lights of San Francisco and Portland along the way and flying by snowy Mount Shasta by near-full-moon light.  There is something still magical to me about flying, something so out of time and place.  And flying up the coast was like a trip down memory lane.  I never realized until now that there's only a small bit of the coast (in Washington state) that I've not seen between about halfway down the Baja Peninsula and about half way or so up the inside of Vancouver Island.  I don't feel like someone who has travelled much, but apparently I have.

I just saw at the local grocery store that they're trying to whittle down their leftover summer stock of Kool-Aid and they're going for 20/$1.00!  Time to take inventory and restock!

Claustrophobia

Ultimately, we resigned ourselves to being a bit stuck within the "palace" walls and having to wear a numbered wristband the whole time (at least we had a small kitchen and so could prepare our own food-lots of corn tortillas and salsas- for most meals).  When the pool and beach became a bit redundant, I turned my focus to playing with the cameras, both ours and my mom's Canon Powershot which has a macro setting.  The immaculately landscaped grounds, complete with fake moat for kayaking and pontoon boat rides and a disney-like kiddie train served as subject enough.   Iguana watching proved fascinating, too.  This one climbed the palm tree right outside our room window and spent the rest of its time scarfing down red hibiscus flowers whole, leaving most of the bushes below our room bare of flowers.

Certainly something bright and pretty to look back on during dark winter days.

Sorry.  I think I'm done with the cynicism for now.

It was a joy seeing the boys get comfortable in the water, both the pool and the ocean.  They both had a couple of boogie board rides with C's help, and R did his first real swimming in the pool.

Probably the best part of the the trip for me was being immersed enough in another culture and language, at least when we were out and about so that, by the end of the trip, I was just getting confidant enough with speaking Spanish again to really use it regularly.  It was incredible to experience once again how quickly a language comes back to you when you hear it all around you and have the opportunity to use it for practical purposes (ordering good food).  It certainly helped to counteract my own feeling of being the careless, helpless American tourista.  Both R and E learned quite a bit and grew comfortable enough to say the basics including "hola", "gracias", and "por favor".  R learned to ask for a meal, usually "quesadillas" and "agua" in a restaurant with a bit of help.  They both learned to count to ten in Spanish while they jumped on the hotel beds.  Shh!  Don't tell!  And the whole way home on the airplane, they sang/chanted over and over and over again: "Vamanos a la playa! Vamanos a la playa!"

Now, we just have to keep up the learning at home.

Knitting content tomorrow... I promise.

R's Mexico

A handful of pictures taken by R.  We spent one afternoon during E's nap out on the balcony of the downtown hotel.  He practiced zooming in on things and taking close-ups.  A five year old boy who takes pictures of yarn and works in progress?   I suspect somebody's been keeping tabs on me.

I can't tell you how nervous this balcony five stories above the street below up made us, with only a short railing that looked like the perfect climbing apparatus to a little 2 year old monkey boy, so getting to be out there came with close supervision and strict rules.  It made me woozy at first.  I can't remember the last time I was 5 floors up in a building.

Las días

These pictures are from shops in Puerto Vallarta with the exception with the 2nd one down which is a peek into a classroom in an open-to-the-air schoolroom in downtown, a few blocks from where we stayed.  We were there only a few days past La Día de Los Muertos and the room was still decorated.

Walking around with a camera felt conspicuous enough, so taking pictures of anyone other than family was out of the question for me.

El centro

Pictures taken during our last couple of nights staying at another place downtown.

(Top) Another calle Mina view.

(2nd row) The church by moonlight.  The house we stayed in 25 years ago.  I searched for it one day and found it!

(3rd row) The rainbow flag flying high over old town.  A corner full of abandoned white stuff near the pool.

(4th row) Views from the balcony at the hotel we stayed at downtown for the last few days.

(Bottom row) E's picture taken from the hotel lobby.  Our room was on the 5th floor.

En la calle

The IKEA car's got nothing on the Sabritas van.

Azul

Pelican, Pelican. It's beak hold's more than it's belly can

We rode past this statue of Neptune at the Puerto Vallarta marina several times and each time R and E pointed and shouted out, "There's King Neptune again!"  My family spent alot of time during the summers when we were young sailing along the coast of British Columbia.  One the stories our parents used to tell us around bedtime was that King Neptune would be coming soon to check and see if all the children were asleep yet.  If ever we heard the dinghy or a buoy (on the nights we were tied up to one) bumping against the the side of the boat, they would say "Oh, there he is now!  You'd better get to sleep!"  Now, anytime we stay near the ocean, our boys hear the same stories from us and my parents.

Mexico (City) Blues -Jack Kerouac

The range of things I felt on this trip is wide.   Having spent time in Mexico four times before this (only one being a day trip to Tijuana with friends in college) the culture shock didn't stem so much from being in another country, but from seeing how much the culture of our own country has infused into Mexico.  It was a bit frustrating and uncomfortable staying in a place too "foofy" (is that a real word?) and isolated for our own liking.  Why go to another country only to hole yourself up into a gated, security-protected resort where you hardly know you're in another country and it takes 3 busses just to get into town?  And then when you do go out into "the real world" you find yourself bombarded with places like Wal-Mart?  To get from the Nuevo Vallarta hotel area north of town, you had to change from north-end busses to the city busses at the Wal-Mart, conveniently located directly across the street from where the obscenely large cruise ships docked.  So who do you think is behind all this??????  I was so cynical the first couple of days that I considered ONLY taking pictures of places such as Mail Box Etc., Outback Steakhouse, Domino's Pizza, Subway, Hooters, and the likes.

Well, since the trip was a treat from my parents, we tried to hold our tongues as much as we could and make the most of it.  They did keep forewarning us before we went that it might be a fancier place than we're used to. (My mom did feel well enough to go at the last minute, by the way, but she wasn't 100% until the last few days there.) 

My favorite part?  Riding the bus.   It was like taking our own self guided tour for only 4 pesos.  The boys loved it, too.  You can see so much from up high in a bus, and the bumpy rides were about as good as any roller coaster.  (I'm such a sucker for public transportation; my favorite part of our Thanksgiving trip to D.C. last year was getting places on the Metro.)Other favorites? Using our own two feet, two ears, and two eyes.

That bottom left picture of E is in the back seat of one of the busses, late one humid evening after dinner downtown.  He's wearing the paper cone that our tortilla chips were served in before the meal.  The busses had names and phrases decorating the fronts of their windows: Dios Padre, Intrepido, Maquina Celestial, and many more... 

The picture of the street sign, Mina, is because that is my mother's name.   She doesn't know I've taken that picture and a few similar ones.  It'll be part of her birthday present in December.

O.K. So blogging is going much faster now, so bear with me while I bombard this blog with pictures from the trip over the next several days. Knitting will come soon.