Odds and Ends

On the knitting scene, I am flitting from project to project. I guess I'm not the serial knitter I thought I was. I also have regret about my stash of sock yarn that is loved but has gone untouched. I envision starting a new project, perhaps toe-up with the kool aid dyed yarn and have wound it in to a ball. Of my other wips, February Lady seems to be taking forever to grow. At least I have measured my length and have the target set, and then the sleeves. Top Down Bolero seems to be the favored one, and after the collar, I'll be ready for the sleeves. Montego Seasilk scarf is hibernating and I even thought of frogging it for another project.

So on to more travelogue.

At the Anacortes Craft Festival, while I was dyeing my yarn, several of my party were getting their Fair T-shirts signed by the artist, Jack Gunther. We took up his invitation to visit his gallery. I think it's fair to say, he was an odd and interesting character. At first I thought he might be schizophrenic. His explanation of how civilization began around Mt. Vernon, complete with artifacts, such as a computer on pottery gave us all cause to smile. I especially liked his paintings with removable magnetic parts, like this one revealing the secret submarine base under Camano Island
He also has a book, A Pictorial History of the Pacific Northwest Including the Future, told from the viewpoint of a pig. We shared our lunch with him and blogless Kathy O. got some awesome homemade salsa from the small store next door. It was a fun outing of a different kind, and I can say we were all surprised but happy!

When I look at all the picture I took, one of the biggest folders is of the Seattle Gasworks Park. This is a 19 acre park across Lake Union from downtown Seattle and features great views of Seattle including the space needle and a rusting hulk, which was once a working Gaswork. It was built in 1906 to manufacture gas from coal - later converted to crude oil. Import of natural gas in the 1950's made the plant obsolete.
Somehow this hulking mass appeals to me...



It reminds me of Myst and Howl's Moving Castle.

Changing the subject abruptly...here is a picture of Lenin in Fremont. A Washingtonian rescued it from a scrapyard in Poprad, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) and had it shipped home and erected in Fremont (as a work of art, not a political statement). Accorded to Wikipedia it's for sale.


And last but not least a mosaic of the log cabin blogless Melody and her husband are building with the help of their son. Her husband took a two day course. He cleared the land and many of the logs went into making the house. We were there for chinking. In the mosaic are the shower, the bathroom, the kitchen and the well house where they are living until the main house gets closed up, as well as Melody's garden, Some of the objects of art from the garden came from a garage sale. She were following Melody on one of our daily adventures, and before we knew it we had followed her into a garage sale! It was one of those impromptu Melody moments that will stick in my mind as a very happy event.

The pond on the property has a beaver dam. Every once in a while her husband has to cut into it to drain the duckweed out of it and he says at 10 pm sharp, the beavers come out and fix the breach. Otherwise, they never see them.