Back-Blogging: Camp Socks

It occurs to me that I have been neglecting the blog yet again. I have several projects to share, and even a few photos to accompany them. So here goes.

 A cross-country plane trip is a good time to get some knitting finished. No trouble with the sock needles. These are the Sara Elin Socks by Vicki Bird that I started during the Lots of Socks KAL back in February. I finished the first sock, but not during the challenge time; then the second sock sat for a long time. It's a lace sock on size 0 needles, that's why.

 But they are quite pretty, even with the occasional hiccup in the lace. Glad they are done though. Finished them at the hotel after arrival in Virginia, before leaving for camp. Tertia and I had a wonderful time on Friday before leaving for camp, touring D.C. Here are some pictures from that:

 At the Metro station learning a different kind of public transit than she is used to. She thinks the name "Foggy Bottom" for a Metro station is hilarious!

 We went to the National Archives, where no photography is allowed inside, but we admired the patriotic flower beds outside! Seeing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was exciting for her. I loved the Magna Carta and would have stayed longer, but we wanted to check out the National Portrait Gallery (and American Art Museum).

 Crossing Constitution was the only real shot we had of the Capitol, so I took this while crossing. We looked at all the presidents' portraits in order, and she read the dates and is working on memorizing a few details on each one. Maybe we can convince her that memorizing facts about the presidents is better than Harry Potter trivia?

 This is in honor of Eisenhower Elementary School.

 This is in honor of Thomas Jefferson Middle School.

This one is just because she shares two names with the subject, and read it as we passed by. Her feet were getting tired by then, and when her feet get tired, we need to quit and go back to the hotel.

 This is The Puritan by Augustus St. Gaudens. I've been doing enough genealogy lately to have come across a lot of Puritan Great Migration ancestors, so why not? It's cool.

So, after that interlude of art and history...

These are the socks I started after the Sara Elin socks were finished. Thankfully on size 1 needles, and a simple pattern so the knitting went faster. It's Patons Kroy sock yarn, the first time I've tried it, and the pattern is Non-Euclidian by Sarah Jordan, another pattern I bought during the KAL in February. This is the second pair I've made from that pattern. I'm calling them Camp Socks because I worked on them over the two camps I attended this summer. They will probably be a Christmas gift...shh! I may want to buy more Patons Kroy sock yarn, because I liked this. It's a little heavier gauge than most sock yarns, and unfortunately lower yardage per skein, but a better price point. So that's the news on the sock knitting front. Next time: quilting.

Randomday, Playing Catch-Up

It's silly, the things that keep you from blogging. Most recently it was trying to figure out how to access my icloud from my laptop, so I could use photos from my phone. Then earlier this week it was worrying about Grandma in the hospital. (She is home and comfortable again now). Going backward, we have had a number of momentous family events in the past 3 or 4 weeks: both Tertia and Quarta became communicant members of our church, there were appointments and social events and concerts and plays and sleepovers, and of course, Steve and I flew out to Virginia to see Daniel graduate from his Capital Fellows program and sightsee a bit as well. Basically, every time I was at home and physically able to get on my computer, I tended to be too tired to want to blog. So think of this as a kind of photo-dump without much more narration, to catch you up with our hectic lives.

Tertia got the biggest laugh of the evening in her walk-on in "Check Please."

 Sightseeing in Annapolis, at the Naval Academy and the Maryland capitol.

 It's impressive to see a painting that has been in the same place for centuries.

An impressive group of young people. We heard great things about Daniel.

 Daniel's host family, also old friends from our days at McLean. David played organ at our wedding, and I sang in the choir with Lena. There were lots of these, not coincidences, but maybe God's calling cards, that convinced us this was the perfect program for Daniel.

They have this re-enactment of a colonial farm in McLean, complete with turkeys to eat the tobacco worms.

Monday we took a day-trip to Monticello. Daniel ran into a friend from college in line to buy tickets. Yet another fascinating not-coincidence. I love the architecture of Monticello, and the fact that Jefferson taught himself. And I try to take pictures of all the flowers that grow as weeds in our yard, but are featured prominently at this grand home! Here, foxgloves.

 Rose campion.

More likely to be California poppies in our yard.

 It was right after graduation at UVA, just like it had been at the Naval Academy.

Tuesday before our flight home Steve and I took in the Postal museum and the Renwick Gallery, neither of which we had seen before. I decided to take pictures of the fiber arts exhibits at the Renwick. This one shows creative use of those old doilies and potholders some of us have by the bagful.

 Steve loved this quilt-map of Washington D.C. The red spots are properties that have been foreclosed.

 This is a quilt portraying a time-lapse photo of the night sky. It's political significance is that it's the night sky above the American Embassy in Saigon, January 31, 1968. I guess if it's to count as art it has to have political significance? None of my quilts would count as art by this definition.

 I would not have thought to make a quilt out of celluloid film strips, sewn together with polyamide thread.

 I think a glass spinning wheel would be terribly impractical if you tend to drop bobbins when you change them, like I do. But it is a functional spinning wheel.

 Detail of a much larger landscape quilt with lots of fabric painting, applique and threadwork.

 All of this at the Renwick, just up the street from Blair House,

 the OEOB,

 and the White House.

And back home, a photo of the newest communicant members.

Randomday

The wanderers returned today.  Sounds like a great time in Washington, D.C.  Here is the slide show for some of you not on Facebook.  My son is always the blondest in any group.

He came back home and was shocked that the Value Motel, that Hazel Dell landmark, had changed its old sign.  It's now charging $39 a night and its sign looks halfway respectable.  I think it's a bit sad that my son associates that eyesore with being almost home!

Not as much has been done on the summer planning front as I would like.  I have the girls signed up for swim lessons and an opthalmologist appointment made for Tertia, but there's a lot more.  Funny how it seems like there will be enough time, but never is.

Notes from Spring Break

It's definitely over.  Lots of driving and neat things to see, but there's a certain finality about coming back to a dirty house, three half-wild cats, and mountains of laundry that says, "Yes, it's time to get back to your regularly scheduled life."  But really, did we need the littlest one to get a stomach bug, too?

Phoenix.  Did you know residents of Phoenix are called Phoenicians?  It somehow brings up images of the Punic Wars and Scipio vs. Hannibal.  They have a new museum, The Musical Instrument Museum or MIM, that is really cool.  You wear headphones that change soundtrack according to what exhibit you're standing in front of, and there are instruments from every country on earth.  There are at least four different names for the instrument my Dad brought back from Ethiopia (lamellaphone seems to be most common). I, personally, would like to learn to play the hammered dulcimer, or "struck zither."  At the end there is a room with all sorts of instruments you can play with your own hands, including a big ol' Chinese gong.

Las Vegas -- Ten reasons to pray for its soul, if it even has one.

• Spotted a sign: "Meet your future ex-wife"
• Another sign: "1-800-DIVORCE.  Affordable. Aggressive. ASAP"
• Multiple video signs that I can't describe on a family blog.  Let's just say I found myself wondering if it was legal to show women in that state of undress, and then reminded self that the people who enforce such things are probably getting kickbacks to ignore it. 
• What is "an early dinner" for a family of 6 is "happy hour" for everybody else.  And the older guy, drinking alone at P.F.Chang's, didn't look too happy but kept staring at my pre-teen daughters.  Ick.
• "Gentlemen's clubs."  Really?  For what gentlemen?
• Rampant materialism.  Shopping and overspending seems to be the only "wholesome" alternative to vice.
• The Blue Men.  Apparently they are a kind of surreal mime show, with blue facepaint instead of white.  I have to admit I'm curious, but not that curious.  After all: mimes.
• Donny and Marie are still doing a show together, apparently.
• The Strip is really a bit too much of an assault on the eyes.  We didn't drive the whole thing, no matter how cool the replica Eiffel Tower is.
• On the breakfast end, the lady at McDonald's seemed overjoyed to have actual children in the store... as if they didn't come there very often.

California.  Despite having made the homeward trip from Arizona at least 10 times in the past carrying citrus fruits with nothing more than a bored wave at the entry point into the most self-important state in the Union, our oranges and most of our yellow grapefruits were confiscated yesterday at the US 395 entrance northwest of Reno.  (Some of the yellow grapefruit had rolled out of the overstuffed bag: we didn't tell them about the pink grapefruit.  Barney Fife Jr. let us keep the lemons.  He probably was the kind who stole kids' lunch money when he was in school.)  We had even been in California the day before, driving through several snow squalls in the Sierra Nevada, and no one cared at that crossing.  They supposedly will test the confiscated fruit for some fungus before disposing of it -- never mind that we were a half-day's drive from the nearest California citrus tree and heading northward.  The only fungus they should test for is the one that infests the state government.  I'm just disgusted with a state that steals food from travelling families and then bellyaches about its own economic woes.  It would be nice if they would at least donate it to the local food bank.

I had half a yellow and half a pink grapefruit for breakfast this morning.  I felt like Robin Hood.