Pictures. Lots of ’em. I’m on vacation again (I like to split my three weeks up, one every few months….), and I don’t like spending so much time on the computer when I’m on break.
Lala’s party! (If you weren’t invited and we love you, don’t worry, we still do, but we had space restrictions, and I limited invites to Lala’s friends Pre-Rachael (and my sisters, of course). Otherwise it would have turned into a knitting party, and you know what THAT’S code for. General debauchery. Can’t have that, no.
There would never be debauchery at any of OUR parties.
Certainly not.
No debauchery here, either. (Debauchery is just such a good word to say, innit?)
Oh, we GOT her. She was all tired and stuff, and I was all whiney after we went to dinner with her brother and sister-in-law, "But I wannnnt to see Spirited Away at their house…. Please? I know it’s your birthday and you’re exhausted from your day, but please….." So she was a champ and said okay, and we went up the stairs into the living room and SURPRISE! Oooh, she was a little peeved at first. Heh.
She is the violent Buddhist sort, you know, so I got shot:
But then she realized, hey! These people don’t suck! I like these people! And then she had a great time.
And she got a sweater! (In June. I am Smart That Way.)
In fact, her head started to melt, she was so happy.
One of the best parts of the party was that we totally geeked out. La’s brother Richard has a bunch of Rubik’s Cubes. 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, and dude, the 5×5. He can solve them one-handed. I swear he peels the labels off faster than the eye can see and sticks them back on. So we were all kinda playing with those. And then someone dragged out my wheel (which I had brought, all ruse-fully), and everyone had a go on it. Man, I had some drunk tangles on there.
Behold, the Party Wheel:
Joni was a natural.
I think a good time was had by all:
And not only that (there’s more! fabulous prizes!), we went on a little surprise trip. She’d never been to Yosemite, so we had to go in the ‘vertible (only way to go) and look at the sights.
I brought my knitting, of course:
Oh, and the Party Wheel:
Lala brought her banjo:
We so know how to party, yo.
(There was one fabulous moment when Lala looked up from the banjo, at me spinning, and said, "Oh, my GOD!" I thought a bear must be behind me or something. Then she said, "I just realized. We’re HIPPIES!" She was completely horrified.)
(And no, we’re not, honey. We’re geeks, but not hippies. I wear lipstick and you wear leather.)
(Also, although I am usually terrific about keeping the camp clean (stayed in a Curry Village tent cabin) and scent free due to rampaging alcoholic bears, I have to say it’s unnerving to wake up and realize that I left the trash bag with beer bottles and candy bar wrappers on the chair, and that the M&Ms I had hidden in the unused sleeping bag were on the floor, because it had become very cold in the middle of the night and I’d taken the sleeping bag out and spread it over us, and THEN, when we went to the car in the morning (I’d left the top down so that even if the bears smelled something (like the garlic-basil gouda we’d eaten on the road), they wouldn’t rip open the top), we found we’d left an open HONEY STICK on the floor of the front seat. Yeah. Go to Yosemite and leave HONEY in your car for the bears. Sheesh. Kind of amazing.)
I am paranthesed-out. So just a few more, and then I’m on vacation, blog and email-wise, until next Tuesday.
The Pink Handspun Sweater:
It’s Blue-faced Leicester, spun in soft singles, dyed with Black Cherry Kool-Aid (in a low-temp microwave, skein by skein, not left to cool) knit up on size 5US. Pattern is my own — just kind of knit until I liked it. Raglan, done in pieces, since I really wanted to get different shadings in different areas. I had one mistake ball of white/pink speckles, so I used that for one sleeve edge and the zipper bands. Zipper from Zipperstop, totally fast. I had the zipper by the time I was half-way done.
Can I just tell you I *love* this sweater? I’ve worn it pretty much since I finished it, nonstop. (In the heavy mist of Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite, I smelled a rising cherry fragrance…..)
I modeled it on those baby sweaters that you take off the needles and think, "Oh, I wish I had one of these for me, but big."
Adah likes it, too:
Okay. Have a good week, y’all! I’m off in the rain (weird) down the coast to celebrate Mom’s birthday.
MWAH!
What a wonderful celebration! Happy Birthday!
The sweater is terrific. I can smell it from here.
Have a great break.
Yay for vacation. I hope you totally enjoy it. Love the sweater, and love, love, love all the pictures!
Yay for vacation. I hope you totally enjoy it. Love the sweater, and love, love, love all the pictures!
You guys look like you had loads of fun. And Lala’s new sweater looks amazing (and so does yours)!
Looks like a great party. And Yosemite … wow.. just gorgeous. Glad the bears stayed away from both the honey and the Kool-aid sweater 🙂
Have a fun vacation. Thanks for all the pictures and updates.
OK. Historical point of fact, Rachael: I was an authentic braless long-haired macrame’n hippie in the olden days and hippies so wore leather. Lipstick no, leather yes. And we dyed our wool with roots and berries – not KoolAid. KoolAid was rejected as too Establishment.
Happy birthday to Mom. June is just the best month for birthdays.
The sweater is fantastic. The debauchery – I love the party wheel just as a concept. Happy birthday to Lala!
yay for new sweaters and parties! love the cherry sweater. mmmm.
my mom is a june baby too (june 12) and i’m heading home to see her as well. yay for moms!
Debauchery…the only way to go! You do it up right, grrl. And don’t worry you are about as far from hippies as you can get…don’t ask how I know;-)
Wait; let me see if I’ve got this right. You didn’t let the microwave-dyed yarn cool…which means you yanked it out of the microwave and started knitting with it when it was still dripping wet and steaming hot? 😉
Great photos, snookums. Thanks for sharing. We’ll miss ya’ till you get back!
The thought of you guys sitting in a tent in the wilderness of California with one of you spinning and the other playing a banjo is so funny to me. I disagree with Lala, I don’t think it’s hippie at all, it’s really like you’re kicking it 1875 style.
Looks like tons o’ birthday fun was had by all, especially the birthday girl and her honey (not the honey left for the bears — I’m talking about you). And I love the new sweaters for the both of you.
Have a marvelous vacation and happy birthday to the little mama!
Sweater looks tasty!
Hippies! HA!
The weather down here is gorgeous. Happy bday to mama!
You are just as yummy as a cherry pie. With debauchery.
Yos-e-mite!!! So beautiful…glad La has a great b-day [courtesy of her fab girl] and the sweater is very cute [doncha love kool-aid dying?].
Have a safe trip down the coast and we’ll be hangin’ out around the blog ’til you get back [I never get tired of brackets!!!]
Your first FAB from the fiber sweater, lovely! Ahh I love camping, can’t wait. You and Lala are just TOO happy together, I am so happy for you both 🙂
Love the cheery-cherry pink sweater. In fact, I just got some Black Cherry Kool-ade to use on some natural merino from the old stash box (we’re moving half-way across the country in 2 mths and I’m ‘spozed to be de-cluttering and have decided that it’s OK to take a little break to dye yarn, but spinning it first would take too much time. Work with me here) The speckled pink bands totally fooled me. When I first looked at the pics of the sweater on you, I thought you had used a large cabbage-rose toile fabric for the sleeve/front bands. (I’m not wearing my glasses. Go back and look kind of squinty at the photos. See? A cabbage rose on the right inside arm band.) La’s sweater is also great. One of these days I plan to do a similar one with a Roy Rogers-esque cowboy on the back. Have fun camping and no more honey in bear country!!
The handspun, hand-dyed sweater is GORGEOUS! Go you!
HIppie? Geek? Nah, a re-creation of domestic Appalachian highlands life…
Have a great week!
lipstick? leather? debauchery?
::swoons, fans self::
does anyone have any smelling salts I’m about to faint!
That party looks like a fun time, fer sure.
I’m still giggling at Lala and the HIPPIES exclamation…In college, I really wanted to be a hippie. I also went through a raver phase. Hee.
Pink sweater is gorgeous, and so are you! Have a great vacation!
P.S. Thanks for inspiring my sis to run her marathon – it was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had!
Loved the pics of you and Lala in your tent cabin…spinin’ and banjoin’! Lipstick and leather, a GREAT combination…just like you and your gal!
Eep! A cherry kool-aid sweater, spinning and banjo’ing around the campfire – nearly?! Pretty close to hippies, I’d say. 😉
golly gee WHIZ, girl…
I go to the amusement park for three days
and when I come back you’ve got TWO rockin’ new sweaters
and oh by the way one of them was handspun and hand dyed and you just made it UP…squeeeeeeeee!
Knitting is SEXY, indeed!
xoxoxox
You left HONEY in your CONVERTIBLE with the TOP DOWN?! I’m so glad you lived to tell the story, and to model your cherry-pink sweater. You’re both the bee’s knees. Not quite hippies, though — wait till you look up from your macrame to find Lala making preserves!
You’re so fun, reading about your parties is a party! Have a great vacation – I’ll miss you 🙂
Hippies? I was thinking 19th Century mountain folk.
I’m kinda jealous of you staying in a tent cabin– since sleeping on the ground is practically my family’s religion, I’d never be able to live down participating in such a luxury. I’d probably be disowned.
Pink sweater= wicked cute. But give us a Lala modeling shot of the Lala sweater, ok??
Oh wait… there’s the modeling shot… I never scroll down enough!
A while ago (probably on the way to the health food co-op to buy soy ice cream and bring it home in a reuseable bag) I realized that Rachel and I have become hippies. A friend recently pointed out that we care too much about our personal hygiene to be real hippies, so I guess we’re actually hippies in disguise.
I think you are a hippie on a sliding scale. Maybe 6 out of 10. Hmmm?
That “hippie” comment made me laugh out loud uncontrollably! You two are too funny. Good times.
I miss Yosemite so much! We had an anniversary there before we left CA. Yay Yosemite!
That last shot is such a rad one! Have the funnest time, and again I am stoked (you know why!) yay. thanks for the shout, and we’ll talk soon. you rule. xoox
New poster here, but I’ve been reading a while. I HAD to comment on the Hippie comment. I could just PICTURE you two in that tent (ok, the actual photos helped) and her face when she reality sunk in. Heehee…although I DO agree with the personal hygiene test: “Do you wear deoderant?” If “Yes”, than not-real hippie. If “No”…dude…you should. 😉
Wish I’d been there with my fiddle,
Dhi