Seattlelicious Weekend

I haven't been out of town since late August, meanly due to my inability to walk. Truth-be-known, I haven't really gotten downtown Vancouver that much either. That all changed this weekend when I took a half-day off on Friday and we drove to Seattle. As many of you know, I live with a retired guy who has lots of excess planning power to use. So you'll note this weekend moved from item to item to item.

We started by eating at Ponti Seafood Grill; it has one of my favorite seafood happy hours in Seattle. We arrived just about 4:30 pm and left by about 5:45 pm full of dishes like Grilled Marinated Calamari, made with olives, watercress and gremolata, and Sriracha-Lime White Prawns.

Then we headed off to a Jung lecture about synchronicity. I love these lectures because they give me something to think about for days, but they are dense (or is it just me?). It was the type of event I could knit at so I did and perhaps that helped the evening move along so very quickly. Finally we ended up at Jazz Alley to watch Lee Ritenour, a jazz-pop-rock guitarist and Mike Stern, another pop-rock guitarist along with Melvin Lee Davis on bass guitar and Sonny Emory on drums. And all of this was done on Friday night!!!

Saturday started with a visit to the Bellevue Art Museum. Paul knew an exhibition with the title of High Fiber Diet would be something I would enjoy and he was more than right. We spent a total of 3 hours looking at the items in this exhibit and we had to vote for just one favorite Luckily for me here I can show you photos of my favorites and give you a bit of background about each.

Lesley Richmond is a textile artist from Vancouver, BC. Her work of trees was a favorite for both Paul and me. Somehow she uses chemicals, paints and other things to create this three dimensional work. It was quite impressive.

Sorry, the iPhone didn't do this piece justice.

Barbara Lee Smith was another favorite for both of us. She appears to use a fusible iron-on sewing product to produce some very lovely artwork.

An ocean that covered an entire wall

My personal favorite is the teapot torso created by Jan Hopkins. There are two interesting components to this piece I really like. First it is created with ginkgo leaves, cantaloupe and orange skins, hydrangea flowers as well as cedar bark. Second it contains an Eleanor Roosevelt quote: A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it's in hot water. This is written across the torso but very hard to read in my photo. Do look at the photos of everything this talented artist has done in the link above. Her work is unique, very feminine and entertaining as well.

For better photos of many of these works I suggest clicking on the Belleveu Art Museum link or looking at the individual's website link each above. Or better yet, go see them for yourself, the exhibition runs until February 24, 2013.

This gets us to Saturday about 2 pm. There were plenty of other activities including a walking tour of Capital Hill, good food at a Middle Eastern restaurant, another museum and a bit of shopping. But no need to bore you with those details. I needed a couple of days at work to recuperate!

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned ou...

Knitting-Related Guinness World Records

I had to share some of the Guinness World Records connected with knitting. It is amazing to me the type of skill, stamina and unique characteristics these record holders have in common. How about trying to knit with these SPNs?? Ingrid Wagner and her large needles and knitted swatch The largest knitting needles measured 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in) long and had a diameter of 8 cm (3.15 in). Ingrid Wagner, a rug and art creation artist, from the UK used the needles to knit a tension square of ten stitches by ten rows at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on March, 10 2008. (And I complained about getting certain SPNs stuck in my clothes.) See how this swatch was done with merely 5 people managing the needles. And what about the yarn? It is truly ex-bulky. It looks like they're knitting in a warehouse, but with a wingspan of almost 24 feet or 7 m, you'd need all that space. Or h...

Flagel Knitting Files

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