Hit the Ground Knitting?

As soon as we got home yesterday, I unpacked my yarn and roving that had accumulated in my trunk some how while visiting the coast and driving back to the desert. 

In that pile you can see some Lorna's Laces, Mohair Laceweight, and new sock yarns. yum. Also pictured in the back is a 1 (or 2, it's too late to be climbing stairs and searching tags) oz baggie of hand died curly locks... again with the label searching. Not pictured is several ounces of mystery wool that has been died a beautiful shade of purple. Lily brought it back from her family adventure. I tried to comb it as soon as I could. My combs are broken. We're not talking about that.

What we are talking about is the new size 11 DPNs I got to finish the Misunderstood Hat.

The only thing standing in the way of this stupid hat being done was that set of needles. I'm simply not magic-loop awesome and really could not do the decreases on a large circular so the hat waited. I took it to mendo with me to visit the Mendocino Yarn Shop and procure said needles for much less than previously found here in Vegas. Our trip was so whirl wind, we were busy...

Looking at Lily's pony eat his lunch...

Picking alllll of Grandma's flowers...

oh, um... yarn... that's some of my very own homespun from months ago getting measured so I can find an appropriate pattern

Ridding the mountain board down the big hill will Uncle Brian.

And of coarse...

The beach with friends.

So now, armed with the size 11 DPNs, I have finished the Misunderstood hat. And very anticlimactically, do not have a picture. It's too dark for crappy phone pics of nice knitting. tomorrow.

ps- i have some great crappy phone pics of our trip to share son too, but for now I have to go do the dishes left in the sink by Huz and Nephew before they left. nothing says welcome home from your solo trip with the kids like a sink full of dirty dishes.

Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens

The Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens are, in a word, Awesome. They are beautiful and fun and now, they even have a kid trail. Nice. These are just a few pics from our last trip there before we left. I love this place, one of my best friends parents were married there, then years later a different BFF was married there. So beautiful. You go from beautiful, manicured heather, succulent, and dahlia gardens, thru a mini-wetland, wild and hybrid rhododendrons, into a totally native (maybe, i don't know enough about plants... ) pine (again...?) forest, then out onto the headland... You can look out at the ocean and see prehistoric pelicans, the whales on their migrations... There is a nursery and vegetable garden and a kid trail. Paved trails for strollers and wheel chairs with wide, smooth bridges and enough side trails and rickety stream crossing for the mild adventurer. I could go on and on... go to their website, then go. Go to the Gardens, you wont regret it.

3 Proposals for Occupy Mendocino

1) write some sort of pledge to encourage politicians not to accept large corporate donations. like "I (insert name here) pledge to stand with the people of the USA against corporate greed and privileges by vowing not to accept more than (insert appropriate dollar amount here) from any major, non-local corporation." or something like that.

2) boycott corporations present in our community (safeway cvs starbucks) till we see the employees get a raise that is proportionate to the net profits of said corporation.

3) create a supply line of local vendors, craftsmen, farmers, truckers and the like to keep other major occupations well supplied and supported. let's not distract local media from this global issue by hogging our own little spotlight. let everything we do highlight the importance of this global movement. also, if possible lets raise money for local film, photog, journalist to travel to some of the other occupations and get GA facilitator training and info for our small, revolutionary community.