February

If I were being a good blogger (which clearly I’m not since I really haven’t been posting for six months [but I do have my reasons]), I’d have told you about Madrona two weeks ago and San Jose last week, along with a report on Puyallup.  Heck, you’d even know what I was talking because I would have posted about my anticipation of three trips in three weeks.  That said – better late than never.

Madrona Fiberarts Winter Retreat (knitting and spinning…sort of)

Neighbor, Laurie Hossley, and I drove up to Tacoma on a Wednesday (Feb 11)  to attend classes on Thursday.  I had purposely only signed up for two classes because I didn’t want to get too “overloaded,” and all the classes that were really compelling seemed to be scheduled on Thursday, so I had to choose.  In truth, I’d taken a version of Sally Melville‘s class Making the Most of your Yarn Collection at a Stitches long ago and far away, but I love her teaching style and my “collection” is considerably more substantial than that time long ago, so I signed up again.  Sally started the class saying that she’d resumed teaching it because she had finally felt there was enough changed and I knew I’d made the right decision to take the class. Most of the class was based on information included in Sally Melville’s Styles (not her choice for the title, since it didn’t convey what she wanted to get across – how to use up your stash.) She also included information from The Knitting Experience Book 3: Color and her new book, Mother-Daughter Knits.

There were new takes on previously learned techniques, like the weavers or sheet bend knot.  And new (to me) stitches to use up smaller quantities of yarns to actually make something like a sweater that doesn’t look like something you threw together because you randomly combined yarns. I finally got Sally’s primer on color theory – especially as it pertains to garment creation – something that I didn’t  reading (okay skimming) her books.  The class opened up the possibilities of not being totally dependent on patterns as they are published.

The second class I took was Productive Spindling, taught by Amelia Garripoli, whose class I took at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival last September.  Conceptually, I got it last fall and I even practiced and was pretty pleased with my progress, but life happened and I put down the spindle and my fiberly pursuits went to the more familiar. (I didn’t blog about them, but I finally posted projects from the latter part of the 2008 and the start of 2009 on TheHudsons.) I had meant to practice, again, but didn’t before the class so I was not up to the skill level the class required, and I did leave early, a bit out of frustration.  But I did learn some things from Amelia, the kind spindler sitting next to me, and another spindler who was making sock yarn in the common area, so all was not lost.

In between the two classes, I drove up to Seattle to have lunch with my old Adobe pals, Marc Madenwald, Bill McCulloch, Carrie Cooper, Jud Richards and Fred Hale. It was a reunion of sorts since I hadn’t seen Carrie in close to three years and Bill for almost as long.  But it was short.  The good news is I was heading back to the Hotel to Tom, who rode up with Laurie’s husband, Dan.  We had dinner at Over the Moon, which I wrote about two years ago when we were in Tacoma.  It was a fabulous pre-Valentine’s Day dinner of halibut cheeks with pasta in a yummy sauce and duck in a port wine sauce.  If you find yourself in need of sustenance in downtown Tacoma, don’t hesitate!

San Jose (friends and food)

I say “San Jose,” but, in truth, we were in Santa Clara, Cupertino, Scotts Valley, Campbell and San Jose starting Feb. 19.

It’s our annual trip to see our accountant (ooh ick – taxes!) and an excuse to visit with friends. We started with lunch on Thursday with Maria Robinson, where we talked about Adobe days – past and present and relived funny stories. Dinner that night was with Bill Brown, a friend from Patty’s days in Product Management (or was it Marketing?) at Apple.  We can’t remember if it was 1988 or 1989 that Patty and Bill were talking comfort foods and Pineapple Upside Down Cake was brought up, so for Bill’s birthday that was his present.  It became an annual tradition that has continued even with our move up to Oregon.

Next day, lunch was with Chris Bryant, another friend from Apple. We really enjoyed seeing Chris and our meal at Bruno’s Barbeque in Scotts Valley, even though I didn’t actually have barbeque since my preference is east Carolina style.

Dinner with former neighbors, Joe and Connie Cronin included daugher, Anne, and her family.  It was a loud, busy evening, but a lot of fun because it’s always good to see old friends.

We didn’t schedule anything for Saturday lunch, so ate at a favorite place, Gilley’s Coffee Shoppe in Los Gatos.  It was a blast from the past as I had my favorite Joe’s Special – something that can’t be had in Oregon – at least not that I’ve found. Tom’s go-to meal is corned beef hash, which in this case was corned beef with the traditional hash browns being the potatoes.  Yum.

Dinner Saturday was with Jane and Thom Walker.  Tom worked with Thom (and one other Tom) in the sales training group at Apple.  We not only got to catch up with Jane and Thom but hang out with their dogs Nalla and Migo.

Our flight home was Sunday, so we planned one more get together – this time with Margie and Ted Easter.  If you remember eWorld (though with a few exceptions, there probably isn’t any reason you would), and you had cause to contact them, most likely I was the one who responded to your emails.  Margie was my boss, as I contracted back to Apple.

All this talk…where are the pictures? I’ll get them posted to TheHudsons soon…promise.

Sewing and Stichery Expo in Puyallup

On this, my second trip to Tacoma for the month,  Feb 24, I chauffeured my Mom to University Place to visit with a friend from her days living in Sun City West. Barbara had decided that the winter of 2007-08 was her last in SCW, as it turned out was my mom’s so it all worked out.

I stayed in Tacoma and “commuted” three out of four mornings to Puyallup. Wednesday it was “Serger Accessories: the Basics and Beyond” or “Can we sell you some new feet for your serger…or maybe even a new serger?” That said, it was a good class because we were taught probably 15 different techniques using different presser feet.  The keeper for me was serging on zippers and making piping with the cording foot.  So a good four hours spent.

After delivering the ASG Columbia River Sewing “Sew What’s Cooking” cookbooks to the Saf-T-Pockets booth, where Marsha McClintock generously offered to allow the chapter to sell the books, I headed back to my room to warm up (very cold rain that afternoon) before dinner with Mark Shelton.  I’ve blogged about Mark before because every time I’m north we get together.

Thursday, I started with a class on One Skirt Six Ways in which Jacque Goldsmith showed how to take one skirt and change out one or a combination of things  (waist, pocket, length, hem, lining, bottom opening) and make it a different skirt or 20,160 different skirts (according to a mathematician).

In the “small world” category, I recognized the face of the woman standing behind me in line to that first class, and after observing her clothes and hearing she was from the Bay Area, it turned out to be an acquaintance that I met through other cyber friends.  It’s been two years since we visited her in Palo Alto.  And we ended up in two more classes together.  I wonder what the math/odds for that would be?

My second class, Sew With Your Feet presented by Debra Justice was entertaining and enlightening. Debra had lots of tips on using presser feet in the ways they were intended and others.  My notetaking being what it is (or isn’t to be exact), I felt compelled to buy her book so I could retain the good information she imported.

Third for the day was a 2.5 hour class Swivel Our Seams, a method of adjusting sewing patterns to fit taught by Lorraine Henry.  The description said, “Have an ‘AH-HA’ hands-on experience…” and it was true. This method of pattern alteration made the most sense of any method I’ve learned in a class or seen in a book.  Ah-ha!  And it was good enough that I bought a text book on the subject, Fabulous Fit, 2nd Edition by Judith Rasband, as well as Lorrain’s Two Easy Tape Measure.

My fourth, and as it turned out, last for the day, class was Connie Crawford‘s Sew Like a Pro.  She was a highly energetic instructor, with great handouts and lots of interesting tips, but I didn’t buy her book.  I would, however, take another class from her.

I was exhausted, so I didn’t go to the last class I’d signed up for, instead opting for a quiet evening in the hotel.  Now I know what my limits are.

Friday was classless – originally I’d intended to go up to Seattle, but the 45 minute trek earlier in the month was enough, so I just laid low.  That evening I’d arranged to have dinner with a “shirt tail” cousin, Larry Glynn.  He’s second cousin to Tom’s cousin, so getting technical, the familial relationship is remote, but he was kind enough to take me around Tacoma – University of Puget Sound, his alma mater and a beautiful campus and the waterfront where we had a drink and dinner.

And we come to Saturday.  I helped Marsha McClintock carry her samples and class materials to room, since I happened to have signed up for Close it Up and got the pick of the seats.  She presented some interesting ideas on different garment closures, but the thing that “got me”  was her new pattern, “Sew Accessorized.”

Sandra Betzina commented that she is always learning and figuring out different ways to do things we’ve been doing for years.  Zippers, Zippers, Zippers covered new ways at inserting invisible zippers, zippers in knits and horizontal zippers.  Uncomfortable in the very hard metal folding chairs and anxious to head home, I decided that it was worth buying her new DVD on the subject, as well as a couple others because I know my retention was going to be pretty bad.

And home I headed. Four hours later that’s where I was. And February is history.