Another cake for history.

For the final presentation of the History SIG (Special Interest Group), I decided to make a pecan cake based upon this recipe:

The substitution is simple:  10oz of slightly toasted pecan pieces in place of the black walnuts.  I think that pecans must be lighter than black walnuts, because that is a LOT of nuts in the batter.  It resulted in two pretty cakes, plenty for whoever is at our closing session.

And once again, I didn't stop for photographs, although I took one of the circular cake after it cooled:

My mother and I went to Chicago for a week, spending time seeing relatives and old friends (including all three of my remaining godparents), and I was too busy enjoying people to photograph the food.  Except this, my dessert one night:

The "Amarena Cherry Panna Cotta" - 
vanilla panna cotta, amarena cherry gelee,
compressed cherry (a bit alcoholic), pistachio

Of course we ate plenty of Chicago specialties, such as deep dish pizza, Chicago-style hot dog (my mother and I split a footlong at a White Sox game, which they sadly and badly lost to the d@mn Yankees, but ended up splitting the series with them - then the Cubs began a series with a close loss and a solid win, before another close loss), Irish soda bread from the Hearts & Flour Bakery tent at the Daley Center Farmers Market, true bagels and lox at a family brunch, and lots of excellent meals at friends' favourite restaurants around the city.  We brought local chocolates to the neighbors and are still nibbling our way through the cookies a friend gave to my mother.

Her first opera.

Early this week, just a few days before I went to Texas, a friend posted about the Opera Arlington performances of "Carmen", for which he'd designed the lighting.  So we did a quick rearrangement of our plans so that I could see it, accompanied by a friend who had never seen opera before.  The production was updated to the 1920's and instead of bullfighters, they had soccer (futbol) stars, in part as a tribute to the upcoming FIFA World Cup events.  While the set was minimal and the costumes sometimes sketchy, the voices were amazing and I was very glad we had the opportunity to attend.

The next day we did a double header of "Laura" (with fun guessing the murderer among all the red herrings) and "Home, I'm Darling" which had a cute set and nice costumes but an unsatisfactory script and direction.  Well, it was a rare dud in our many weekends of seeing shows.

I got to see friends and do some catching-up with people.  I also finished a baby blanket, with just a very few feet of the pink yarn left, just barely winning at what is called "yarn chicken":

Back from Iceland.

It was a marvelous trip: geysers and waterfalls, storyteller and musical stories, yarn-buying, good food, knitting and knitting classes, and a float in the Blue Lagoon.  I definitely want to go back someday to see more of museums and have other experiences.

One of the last things I did was wear the cardigan (in the unfinished state you see) to the smaller shop of The Handknitting Association of Iceland for buttons:

Fine Times in Philly

I am on a quick turnaround at home between the ACC Annual Meeting and heading to Texas for our quarterly Legal Department All-Hands.  I had fun leading walks in the mornings, and meeting people, and seeing friends, and learning stuff.

Because I am in leadership roles I am invited to the Leadership Development Institute, where we had a team-building exercise to create the tallest possible structure using spaghetti, some masking tape, a piece of string, and a marshmallow.  The structures were measured from the surface to the marshmallow which had to be at the top.

My team had two engineers out of the four of us, and we won:

Design based upon oil derricks and the John Hancock
building in Chicago - and we didn't use the string!

I also, to my surprise, won this:

I did take time on Saturday, after arriving, to visit The Fabric Workshop and Museum and the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, which in addition to having some interesting exhibits was participating in the Philadelphia Open Studios Tour (POTS) so I met a number of artists and saw their ongoing works.  I picked up supper at the Reading Terminal Market and ate in my hotel room.

Sweet bologna on rye with mustard, and a pickle.

And I knit a bunch of hats:

Technically the pink one at the top was mostly finished when
I left for the conference, but the other five were knit there.
One of the blue ones was finished after I returned home.

Sitting out the nor'easter.

Bit of weather, but not too bad where I am: lots of rain, gusty wind.  A good day to stay inside with a plethora of fiber group online meetings (Center for Knit and Crochet's monthly member meeting, talking about Knitted Knockers; Franklin Habit; KnitStars; and KnitTalk) and organize the items I need for tomorrow's Triangle Fiber Guild meeting.

I keep plugging away with hats, and remembered before it was completely too late to take a photo of these with a bit of the yarn they share.  One hat has a blue carry-along and the other has a pale yellow one, with the result that they look very different.  I plan to use a bit of tonal deep blue when the multicolour yarn ends.  All of these are (near as I can tell) sock yarn leftovers a friend gives to me.

And here they are, finished:

The ones for our Hundred Hat Challenge (which I am pretty sure will come in well under, but it's good to have a generous goal plus it's alliterative) are finished and tagged.  I set a limit of ten per person as I know how many I can create and wanted it to be fair when we do the drawing for prizes based upon hats a person made and donated.

Yes, it's only seven - I have made many more, of course, but
for another collection.  Although I may add three if the
Guild collection looks very sparse.

I've also begun packing for next weekend's trip to the ACC Annual Meeting, figuring out what to do with my Saturday afternoon and evening, and when to get the token prizes for the program I am running on Wednesday, and routes for the morning walking group.........

And of course, yarn and needles to make more hats.

One of the boring ones.

Mostly because this is a placeholder - I am traveling, which means I cannot upload photos.  My watercolour seems to have stalled the middle of last week, because I was busy and felt overwhelmed and underinspired.  I do have ideas, but wasn't confident of creating them.  I'll get back to it - I brought the pad and some paints on the trip, but have had zero time to focus on them.

Whiling away the hours between when I arrived for my
originally-schedule departure flight, and the time of my
rescheduled departure, caused by some impressive weather
in other parts of the country, which I was now avoiding.

After some travel-fu (a very early connecting flight rescheduled to a very late one due to weather and other delays, and a very kind person at the check-in counter who moved me to an earlier pair that would avoid the kerfluffle although get me to ABQ a few hours later than planned), and a visit with an elderly relative that involved some very yummy Mexican food and a bit of sightseeing, I joined the tour group I'm with for the Santa Fe opera.  And some other adventures.

And a few of my own.  I'll report more about all of this next week, when I can add photos (such as the one above, added after my return).  I might slip one in here later, as an update; maybe the shawl I started on Saturday while waiting for the flights.

Four more.

 When I packed for last week's conference, I included three balls of Wool-Ease Thick & Quick, and appropriate needles.  I ended up, as planned/hoped, knitting one hat per day:

All three are the same basic pattern, with the pink one turned inside out just for difference.  I think the stitch pattern is reversible.  Basic pattern is CO 48 on US#10 or US#10.5 needles and K3P3 ribbing for about eight rows.  Then switch to US#11 needle, in a two-row pattern:  K 1 row, then K1P1 the next row.  Eventually decrease every other row by six stitches until you have six left.

After returning home, I made the fourth, using bits of leftover yarn given to me by a friend for such purposes.  Given the colourful yarns I did a plain knit hat, with the solid ribbing at the bottom.

My current charity item is a garter-stitch scarf of some very thick and bright yarn that is without label.

The conference was in New Orleans, and despite the weather I was able to lead walks both mornings that we were there.  I wanted time to visit museums but weather and schedule conspired against it.  We (the walkers and our mascot) did see a couple from the outside:

Also Harmony Circle, featuring sculpture celebrating Carnival and the first all-female krewe:

 

And some other bits of history in Lafayette Square:

Fun fact:  There are two statues in Lafayette Square, one of Henry Clay and one of Benjamin Franklin, but none of the Marquis de Lafayette, the American Revolutionary War hero for whom it is named.

We also saw the Piazza d'Italia:

And a few other things:

I attended many sessions, made contacts, caught up with some people, led a roundtable and presented a program, ate some good food, and have plans to return on a weekend when I can visit the museums.

Yesterday being Father's Day, we gathered at my parents' house for barbeque and to help them clean out their attic.  It was hot and dusty, and many things are awaiting shredding or were picked up in this morning's recycling pickup.

Love you, Dad!

RadioVizion!

A good friend who isn't able to tread the boards (as theater people say) as much as he would like is in a play, so of course I had to go, even though I've just returned home from overseas.  So on Friday I flew to Dallas, worked a bit, then joined my host friends at their usual Friday night supper location.  They walk in and aren't given menus; I was but pretty much know my preferences: Mediterranean salad and a side of gyro.  They give me enough that half comes home (with our fourth flatbread) for a future meal.

Saturday started out usual for me:  yoga class and Torah study, both online.  Then a quick check-in before my friend and I started refreshing our browsers until the "REGISTER HERE" button appeared on the DFW Fiber Fest website.  It went smoothly for me this year and I have a good slate of classes.  Plus nine persons registered for the class I am teaching on Sunday!  And likely there will be more before September.

After that it was brunch at another of our usual locations, then stopped at a local resale shop to see whether I could get some crockpots for my class (no, but I did find two very large colanders) before going to see my friend's play at the matinee.  The Bath House Cultural Center always has art exhibits:

The play is done in the style of a radio show, with the audience in the role of - audience!

It was a lot of fun and very funny and I am very glad I went to see it.  Afterwards a quick stop back at the resale shop because I'd forgotten to look for towels (I found three), and the Red Truck Café for the weekly prime rib special:

Afterwards, my friend and I went to a Joann's to see what we could stock up on before it closes.  Since a storm that had been brewing finally arrived, we joked about needing to take shelter on the way home in the store.    Then it was a quiet evening, and an early flight home.

These are the masks from my trip:

Family Times.

 It was a busy weekend.  First, my eldest niece graduated from her masters degree program, with honors.  Tickets were limited but I received one, so of course took the time off work on a Friday afternoon.

Then her sister and I flew to DC, where the younger niece lives, and on Saturday went to Maryland Sheep & Wool.  We left midafternoon so I could get to Dulles in time for a flight - more on the trip next week.

I did some stash enhancement.  At left, one of the
vendor's show colourways.  At right, natural-dyed.

My contribution to the lunch.  And bananas.

I joked that I found this too late to be useful.

This is one of the two music performance areas.

There was a great display of knitted and sewn items in the annual Make It With Wool contest.

  

   

We both enjoyed looking at and speaking to the living history group.  I took a few photos but none are particularly good.

[Edited to add the above photos.]

Since I am now on my work computer and it won't let me upload photos.  I only have the ones I preloaded, of a dragonfruit that I finished before leaving.  They are really pretty, but this is the second time I've had one and it has no taste.  Maybe it's me?  Or the ones I've purchased?  All I get is texture.

But they are pretty:

 

From the top, left to right:  Whole fruit, a bit sliced off, better look at the inside, and peeled.