Emma and I had a little photo shoot this morning, out at Ladd Marsh. My yard is pitifully unphotogenic, so we went someplace a little prettier.

First, my symmetrical Mystery Stole, made by knitting Rows 1-287 twice, then grafting. I like it, and if I ever go anyplace elegant (Ooo, there's a wedding in my family this month..... somewhere to actually dress up!), I will wear it and feel beautiful.



Finished dimensions are 18.5" x 76", it weighs practically nothing, and is just lovely. I'm glad I opted not to do the wing part, though I may purchase the pattern and knit a double-winged symmetrical stole as well, because the wing is very pretty too. The pearly beads help it drape beautifully, in addition to their very subtle texture and shimmer against the wool and silk in the yarn.



Next up is the Chevron Shawl. I dyed this on Monday, and I think the color is a vast, vast improvement over the flat gray that the yarn was before.



I used 2 parts "Purple" and 1 part "Sapphire" Jacquard dyes, and it came out just right. The Purple is a warm red-purple, and the Sapphire is a clear cool blue, and together they made a plummy cool blue-purple.



Final dimensions on this are 40" from the center neck to the point and 76" across the top. I already have the original shawl from this pattern, in my own handspun, so despite the fact that it goes perfectly with this dress, I think I'll be listing this for sale in my shop. If I can let it go.



All photos courtesy of Emma, age nearly-4.

Well, we're back in La Grande, and it's good to be home. We did not enjoy the trip, though. The plan was to take the 5:25am ferry to Orcas Island, where Shaun was going to do a triathlon, then afterward go straight to the mainland and tootle off to Oregon. We would have arrived in La Grande at about 10:00pm. Fine and dandy.

However, the last bit of cleaning (I wanted to really thoroughly clean the house so that nobody would suspect we had a cat at the lab- no telltale cat hair....) and packing took longer than I anticipated, and despite getting up at 4:00am there was no way we would have made the ferry to Orcas. So Shaun went off by himself to the triathlon, and Emma and I remained in Friday Harbor to empty the house and clean it. Shaun finished his race, caught the 12:30 ferry back to Friday Harbor (barely), and we had to wait around all afternoon to catch the 5:00 ferry to Anacortes. Arrived on the mainland at 6:30, got some dinner, and then off we went.

Driving and driving and driving. Shaun and I had been up since 4:00am, remember. So tired. I had a ~1 hour nap right before lunch and I slept in the car some, and Shaun slept in the car after I started driving, but still. He did a triathlon (swim, bike, run) and I did a triathon of cleaning (scrub, dust, vacuum). Anyway, we made it home at 3:30am. Shaun went straight to bed, Emma (who slept almost the whole way in the car) was up and ready to play, and I set up the fish tanks before staggering to bed. It felt so wonderful to sleep in our nice firm bed. The one at the Lab was way too soft, and made my back hurt.

Yesterday, we slept late, even Emma (yay!). We took the trailer to Shaun's office and unloaded all the boxes and the file cabinet, then scooted off to return the trailer before 11:00, so we wouldn't get charged for another day. Turns out that since it was Labor Day, nobody was there, so we needn't have worried, but oh well. Then back home to unpack and clean the house. The housesitters left it somewhat less than spotless. I only did the kitchen yesterday- I'll get to the bathrooms and the carpet today. There has been entirely too much cleaning in my life for the past three days.

One thing we definitely miss about Friday Harbor is the weather. When we left there, it was about 65F. When we finally got up at 9:30 yesterday morning, it was 85F. Hot, breezy, and sunny. By late afternoon, it was up to 97F, and inside the house was 95F. That's with the curtains closed and the windows open. I had on a tank top for the first time all summer. I miss Friday Harbor.

The only redeeming thing about weather like that is that it's great for doing laundry. I did two loads, and the first was dry on the line by the time the second came out of the washer half an hour later. I couldn't vacuum yesterday, because it was just too hot. I just couldn't face it after unpacking, laundry, and cleaning the kitchen. So what did I do instead?



Why yes, standing over a steaming dye vat sounds much better. Perfectly logical. By that point, the house was already at 95F, so it didn't really make a bit of difference.

That's the gray Chevron Shawl in there, becoming a nice blue-purple. I'll be blocking it and the Mystery Stole today, after I vacuum. The weather shifted overnight, and it's only 75F now. Much more bearable. It actually looks as if it may rain later.

The MS3 knitting is finished. I grafted the center this morning, and my stole is ready to be washed and blocked.



I ended up just grafting the two halves together. I decided that I wanted the small center motifs to continue uninterrupted across the middle, and joining the halves with a perpendicularly-knit-on lace insertion would have disrupted that. The graft isn't totally invisible, because the pattern mirrors, but I like it. And it's symmetrical.

Tomorrow, we leave Friday Harbor. I can't believe it's September already- it seems like just yesterday we were in La Grande packing and cleaning and loading the car to come up here. And now we're headed back to Oregon. The car is packed (all but the fish and the cat), the little U-Haul trailer is stuffed with the remaining equipment and books from Shaun's lab, and we're departing on the 5:25am ferry tomorrow.

I'll be sad to leave Friday Harbor, but on the other hand, our dog will be very glad to see us, and my loom awaits!

You may have noticed that there has been a lack of posting about the Mystery Stole 3, lately. In fact, my stole came to a screeching halt after Clue 4, when the issue of symmetrical vs. non-symmetrical came into play. Turns out that the stole is highly non-symmetrical: the theme is "Swan Lake," and the second end of the stole is a "swan wing." There's a picture of the finished article here on Flickr. I really like the patterned end, and I really like the wing end, but I really don't like them together. To me, the transition between the two areas is just to abrupt, though it looks somewhat better when it's draped around a person.

So, what to do? I decided to make a symmetrical stole with just the patterned end, since I already had one done. On Saturday, I started knitting the second half of my stole. I knit Clue 1 on Saturday night, Clue 2 on Sunday night, and Clue 3 last night.



I figure Clue 4 will take two days since it's the long clue, and then a day to frog the first half back to the proper point and do the knitted-on central lace panel that will join the two halves together (or possibly just a graft; I'll have to make that decision when I get both halves done).



I may possibly have this finished before we leave Friday Harbor, ready to block when we get back to La Grande.

Not too much to report, fiber-wise, but I have been doing a bit of spinning. This is the start of the pound of Ashland Bay "Northern Lights" colonial top.



It's spinning up much bluer than I thought it was going to, though maybe not as blue as this picture makes it seem. Based on the unspun fiber, I thought it was going to be black with colored highlights. Ashland Bay multicolored top is always fun to spin, because the colors interact in unexpected ways.

I'm spinning this quite thick, aiming for a sweater-weight 3-ply. I think the dark blue will look lovely on Emma. It's quite a switch to be spinning on my largest whorl, after all that laceweight. I have to keep telling myself, "LESS TWIST! MORE FIBER!"

Still life: "Cat as Porkchop"

The Panda Cory Show is still going full force. I have now released three babies into the big tank, to make room for all the babies still in the fry tank. The oldest baby now in the big tank is 13 weeks old, and is rapidly approaching the adults in size. The next oldest is 10 weeks, and the smallest is about 8-9 weeks. I still have ~20 fry in the fry tank, growing like crazy. By the time we get back to La Grande, there should be two or three more at release size. However, I may not have to put them in the big tank. Yesterday I found this at the Thrift Store:



Have I mentioned how much I love the thrift store here on the island? It's a 2.5 gallon glass tank, for only $3. New, they run about $13-15, and this one is is in near-perfect condition (one 1/2" scratch). The fry look so much happier with all that room.

This is the tank size I was actually looking for when I went to get a fry tank, but no place in La Grande had one. The smallest I could find was 10 gallons, and that was way bigger than I wanted to go. The nano-filter I had on the smaller tank works just fine on the new tank, and so does the heater, so now I'm all set.

I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with all these panda cories as they grow up. The big tank is pretty much maxed out in terms of fish capacity. It's just so fun to watch the fry grow up.

Still not thinking about a bigger tank, no no no....