Bird's Nest Knits

To there and back again

So as an early birthday present, Mr Bird took me up to Napa Valley to a shi-shi resort for the weekend.  We even got to bring our darling dog-child, and a good time was had by all.  The drive up was brutal - getting caught in the morning traffic in LA AND afternoon traffic going past Vallejo added nearly 3 hours to the trip bringing it to a mind numbing 11 hours.   The package included a couple of massages and dinner at their restaurant (very good for a hotel restaurant btw) each night and a "Pampered Pet" package.  There were lots of stops on the way up to try to get the pooch to run around a bit and stretch her legs - she was a trooper the whole weekend.

We were unlucky enough to get stormed in a good portion of the weekend so there was quite a bit of knitting done.  I got to work on Primrose and got both the front pieces done (knit at the same time).  There is a mistake on one of the fronts but there is no way in Helllllll I'm going to frog that sucker and reknit it for one row.  Do you see all those ends?  No way.  I'd rather peel my eyeballs like grapes.

Now I'll seam the front and back, and then do the sleeves in the round I think.   Going down the final stretch wooo hoo!

Considering how complicated the chart was for the fair isle Primrose - I had to have an easy project for the cart.  Nothing fulfills that need like a stockinette sock in delicious Curious Creek's Serengeti in Plum Thunder.   I am so in love with this color.  I'm going to do a short row heel, stockinette foot and the cuff will have a small cable running up each side.  I haven't decided if these will be for me or if they will be a Christmas gift.

Napa was really beautiful - even if there was a lot of rain.  We didn't go to any wineries - probably because I already drink a lot of California wines.   We did have a rather weird experience at the groomer that was setup by the hotel.  It was down this dirt road and there were piles of junk and broken down cars all over the place, and Mr. Bird and I just looked at each other and said "Texas Chainsaw Massacre all over this."

The lady was nice but her place was rather unkept and I wouldn't have brought my dog there if I'd known it was like that. 

Most of the vineyards you could see from the roads have turned yellow and withered from the cold weather but I'm sure it must look amazing during the spring and summers.

Home Sweet Home

Don't get me wrong - I love to travel.  The excitement of landing and getting off the plane and knowing you have a few days to explore never fails to thrill me.  I've done a fair bit of traveling, and enjoy the wandering around with a map and a camera.

This time though the trip was not entirely my own.  Business trips lack the spontaneity of vacations, and my days were filled with lectures about the knitty gritty of windows internals.  If you ever wanted to know how to debug crash dumps (aka the blue screen of death) or know how applications run and processes are created and destroyed - this is the class for you.  It was a little intimidating - I was one of 4 women out of about 180 men - The power of the pussy represent!  The first event I've been to where there's no line for the ladies room.  That part rocked.

Everytime I go to San Francisco - I wish that San Diego had such a great public transportation system.  The combination of the BART and MUNI buses - we managed to go all over the place.  Even to the East Bay (San Ramon) for dinner with Mr. Bird's brother's family.  There were a lot of  homeless people which was sad.  I saw a few girls, that um.. weren't girls.  The food was fantastic - San Francisco has no shortage of amazing places to eat, and I can see how people stay in shape by doing so much walking.  We easily racked up over 20 miles over the week of walking.

More San Francisco photos

Nothing is quite like being able to nestle deep into your own bed though.

South Fork, Colorado

Now normally I'd say that I'm a city girl.  I enjoy going to the moviers, restaurants and the occasional spa trip or pedicure, all of which I chalk up to "civilization".  But deep down inside I think I harbor the hopes and dreams of a country sort of life.  Wide open spaces, lots of lakes and streams, and trees everywhere sit at the back of my mind as the perfect place to live.    Land expansive enough to raise alpaca, and to have as many roving bunnies as my heart may desire!  Space for my puppy to run, ears flopping in the wind, bounding through fields of grass and wild flowers.  A place where people still invite you in for some iced tea and lemon bars, and where smiling at a stranger and saying hello doesnt surprise you, or them.

(Please note that my dream country has no large bugs or mosquitoes)

This weekend I went up to Southwestern Colorado to visit my inlaws, and got a taste of this life.  They live in South Fork which is a tiny town with one stop light and lots of ranches all over at a dizzying elevation of about 8,000 feet.  We stayed at a lodge complete with the taxidermy's dream projects, several bucks, a buffalo head, and a full mountain lion's pelt mounted on the walls. 

Saturday was the rafting trip - which was much more calm than whitewater.  The area has been suffering a drought and the water level was pretty low so we spent a lot of the time paddling.  The occasional fly fisherman  and rogue bunny were the only wildlife out that day.

Slide show of the Colorado trip

On the knitting front, Orangina is about 60% done, and I just received the Knitpicks Options interchangeable needle set.  I've put Butterfly onto some size 8s and will have a review in the next post.