We survived!

Since my last post, much has happened. Most of it has been total insanity. I am looking forward to a couple days of peace and quiet, although that is never likely around here!

In our last episode, I believe we were getting ready to leave beautiful Glendive, MT, to continue westward, ho! towards home. The next couple days were relatively uneventful with stops in Bozeman and Helena. We did take a lovely side-trip while in transit from B to H to Louis and Clark Caverns State Park. Here we decided to test the mettle of the kiddos and take the 2-mile, 2-hour cave tour. The next 2 hours were all about survival, let me tell you!

To get up to the cave, we had to climb a steep trail in the blazing sun with our two short-legged charges. Owen got carried most of the way, but Sydney did pretty darn well on her own. Did I mention that she was the only one without decent shoes? I was so impressed with her.

After we got to the cave entrance (red-faced, sweaty and looking forward to the 50-degree cave interior), we proceeded to descend down lots and lots of slippery stairs into the belly of the mountain while trying to keep the kids relatively quiet so everyone else could listen to the tour guide. Fortunately, after the first couple stops, Sydney was entranced and Owen was asleep on Bill's shoulders, so noise wasn't as much of a problem. Sydney even got tapped to hold one of the guide's spare flashlights to shine on various features along the path, which gave her something to do besides whine.

The cave was wicked cool, with tons and tons of amazing structures. It was definitely the wildest tour I've ever been on, with lots of stooping and ducking through low tunnels, climbing down crazy slippery steps and even, at one point, sitting on our butts and sliding down a smooth stone slope. The kids loved that one! I hadn't brought the recommended jacket along but it wasn't a problem - I was just starting to get a tiny little bit chilly at the very end of the tour. Three of us were exhausted by the end of the tour, and one was still ready to go (due to his mid-cave nap - Bill had quite the time trying to crawl through those tunnels while holding a sleeping 3-year-old).

Bill had an afternoon meeting near Great Falls on Wednesday afternoon, so we left for home around 3 pm. We arrived in Portland at around 2 am and crashed, knowing that we had very little time to prepare for our next adventure, the Portland to Coast (PtoC) relay walk, which we would be starting at 6:15 am on Friday. Thursday night, I'd stupidly scheduled myself to be the speaker at the Tigard Knitting Guild meeting. So Thursday was spent getting my submission packet for the Summer '09 Interweave Knits ready and sent off along with unpacking from the trip, sorting through 3 weeks worth of mail and trying to get my head around the fact that I'd be doing PtoC in less than 24 hours. I was not looking forward to it!

To make things even better, my father-in-law (who is half of our much-relied-upon babysitting team and was due to be on duty while Bill and I were busy with PtoC) tripped while trying to keep one of their chickens from being picked on and BROKE HIS LEG just above the ankle in two places. Fortunately my intrepid mother-in-law, who had been grandchild-deprived for three weeks, was still game to take care of the kids.

Thursday night, Bill headed off to cook dinner for his mom, the kids, and his gimpy dad while I drove to Tigard for the knitting guild meeting. One of my PtoC teammates had generously offered to hold a pre-race dinner so I was planning to give my talk and then rush over to grab dessert with the PtoC gang. I stumble into the guild meeting and am smacked with a strong gas smell permeating the Senior Center where the meetings are held. After a few minutes of consultation with the guild president and other members, we decide that we'd be sort of dumb to sit around in a building smelling strongly of gas. We head out to the parking lot while Donna calls the police, who come over to check it out, confirm that it smells like gas, and call the fire department. The fire trucks pull up, confirm that yep, it smells like gas, and call the gas company. At this point, we decide that it's probably time to cancel the meeting. I head over to my PtoC dinner about an hour early, increasingly delirious from lack of sleep.

Dinner was great, the team was psyched (unlike myself - I was busy trying to figure out how to break MY ankle in two places so I could get out of walking the relay), and I tried to get myself excited while driving home to figure out what last-minute preparations needed to be made. It's really challenging getting a team ready for such a huge event when nobody on the team has ever done it before, particularly when you're the captain and trying to keep things from becoming a complete disaster. Fortunately my teammates were really on top of things and so everything managed to fall into place. I had no way of knowing this would happen on Thursday night, however, so even though I knew I needed to get a good night's sleep, I couldn't settle down and so got maybe five hours on Thursday night. Not a good start to two days of sleep deprivation!

The way the relay works is each team has two vans each with a team of six walkers. *Van 1's team walks their six legs, then drives to the next switch point to wait while Van 2's team walkes their six legs. Repeat once more from *. Each walker walks twice, and each van has approximately 8 hours of downtime between walking shifts. These 8 hours are supposedly for sleep, but it's hard to sleep out in the middle of a field in the blazing hot sun (Van 1's issue) or amongst a bunch of rowdy Hood to Coast runners who are more interested in partying than sleeping (Van 2's issue).

I walked the first leg, starting beneath the Hawthorne Bridge in downtown Portland. We walked along the river, across the Steel Bridge, and up through the industrial area for a total of about 4 miles. I got to the checkpoint totally psyched because I was able to do it without too much agony and kept myself almost at my goal of 15-minute miles (I was closer to 16, but since we weren't really pushing ourselves for time, it didn't make a difference to anyone but me). At each exchange, the next walker would meet the current walker and we'd record the leg time and cumulative walk time. The next walker would take the wristband that identified the active walker and head for the next exchange. Along the route, our van would stop at regular intervals to cheer our walker and make sure she had everything she needed (like snacks, water, moral support, etc). In Van 1, we were lucky enough to have Bill as our driver, meaning that he was focused totally on getting us to where we needed to go so we could focus on our walking. Van 2 shared the driving, and it sounds like it went just fine but I think we definitely had the better deal!

After we got our first six legs completed, we grabbed some lunch at Burgerville and headed into the countryside to wait at the spot where we'd be meeting Van 2 for our second walking shift. We spent the afternoon knitting, relaxing, trying to sleep and worrying about how we'd find the second van when the time came. We had rough estimates of when the van would arrive (and we were actually pretty spot-on), but for awhile it was total chaos with a gazillion vans and walkers. We were worried that we wouldn't find our other group if they were walking faster than we'd estimated. Then we started to worry when they didn't show up, even though they ended up arriving right on target. I started my second shift at around 9:30 pm in pitch black darkness, which both delighted and terrified me.

At this point, the walkers were pretty spread out and we were at the end of the pack since we were a relatively slow team. There was a faster walker ahead of me who I could see for awhile, and then I was all by myself, in the middle of nowhere, in pitch blackness. Sure I had a headlamp, and there were vans driving by pretty regularly (along with Sherrif patrols and the Rose City Motorcycle Club, who work the route during the relays), but I still had visions of being taken off the road by the Wolfman or Bigfoot, never to be seen again. I grew up in the country but I haven't lived there in a long, long time! I did get to see some incredible stars and heard an owl hooting in the woods. I eventually relaxed and enjoyed myself, particularly when my feet started to hurt enough to take my mind off the horror-movie scenarios!

The night shift was totally draining even when we were in the van because we tried to keep a close eye on the walker so she wouldn't get too freaked out in the dark. We'd stop every tenth to half mile and wait for the walker to pass and then fade out of sight in front of us. We spent the rest of the race laughing about one stop we made around 3:30 am - we were all pretty much delirious at that point except for our walker, who was chugging through the most difficult leg on the entire relay. I'm dozing away in the front seat, when suddenly we hear a voice from the back asking if our walker had passed by yet. I look at Bill, who is blinking sleepily back at me, and we both shrug. We had no idea where our walker was! We'd all fallen asleep as soon as we'd stopped. Fortunately we had walkie-talkies and we called her to see if she'd already passed us - she had and mentioned that she'd wondered if she should've tapped on the window on her way by! At the next few stops, she made sure to wave at us to make sure we were still alive.

The last Van 1 walker finished her shift at dawn (complete with rooster fanfare somewhere in the distance) and we headed to the beach to try to find a place to crash. Bill was barely able to keep his eyes open for the drive, but we managed to find the middle school in town where we parked and spread our sleeping bags out on the grass. The school was open and offering showers, and McDonald's was right around the corner. I crashed out and slept the hardest two hours I've ever slept in my life. I finally got up when the sun was beating down on me and I got way too hot to stay in my sleeping bag any longer. An iced coffee from McDonalds along with a new skirt and underwear from Rite Aid set me up great, and we hung out the rest of the morning knitting, enjoying our first cell phone coverage in 24 hours, and waiting for the other team to come into contact range (much of the middle of the course is literally in the middle of nowhere and way out of any cell phone coverage zone).

Van 2 arrived right on schedule, and we all walked down to the finish line on the beach to meet our last walker. It's set up so that the team members all cross the finish line together. We then get our finisher medals and have team pictures taken. It was so fun to celebrate our accomplishment - we walked a total of 32 hours and 4 minutes, covering 127 miles. A big shout-out to my fabulous teammates Jean, Sara, Leslie, Mary Ann, Lucy Anne, Melody, Melissa, Amanda, Kathleen, Lise and Chrispy! I can't wait until next year!!!

I slept about 11 hours last night, and I finally feel human again. Apart from a huge blister on my right heel, I feel pretty darn good! I'm hoping it will motivate me to get out there and walk again (I'm ashamed to admit I barely trained for this relay at all, and hence walked a couple of the easiest legs), and I still have my eye on walking the Portland Marathon next year. Yes, I am continually unaware of how much free time I actually have as compared to how much I wish I had!

Homeward Bound

Here we go, back across the wild west. We had a wonderful week-and-a-half in Duluth and now we're in Glendive, MT, in the process of slowly making our way home. I barely remember what home is like! It seems like we haven't been there in years. Duluth in the summer is so wonderful, I was almost ready to move in with Mom. Bill and Mark (my stepdad) would've had a few issues with that, however! We have to console ourselves with a too-short week each summer and an occasional winter holiday trip to remind ourselves why we don't live in MN anymore!

I know I said I didn't have any pictures, but my mom, the official family photographer, came through big-time. Here are the top 10 highlights:

1 - me knitting my little swatch on the boat



2 - getting ready to head under the bridge



3 - the little captain



4 - four generations celebrating three August birthdays



5 - playing in the water at Gooseberry Falls



6 - Shetland Sheep in the children's barn at the Carlton County Fair!



7 - on the carousel




8 - riding the ponies



9 - playing in the backyard with a friend who followed us home from the fair



10 - throwing rocks and cooling heels in Lake Superior



What a great trip!!!

Grandma's house

Well, we appear to have survived our cross-country (okay, cross-half-the-country) trip with all limbs intact. I didn't manage to bring my camera and Bill's battery is dead (and guess what - we didn't remember to bring the charger), so this trip will be seriously devoid of pictures. I'll try to put plenty of links in instead (lame, I know, but it's the best I can do right now).

We're currently ensconced at my mom's house in beautiful Duluth. She and my stepdad live in a house on the hill with an incredible view of the harbor and Lake Superior. The front of their house is a wall of glass windows, which is wonderful to sit and look out of, but it also heats the house like a greenhouse and is almost unbearable in the summer. It's very nice in the middle of winter, though.

We've spent the past few days enjoying the lake and all its benefits. Mom & Mark have a new boat and we took it on its first sail around Park Point. The kids alternated between loving it and climbing all over the boat, and whining about how bored they were and how they wanted to go back to the marina. I was quite happy to sit on the nice padded seat and work on some submission swatches while enjoying the feel of the wind in my hair and the occasional cold spray of water from the lake.

We also threw rocks into the lake from the beach, watched a couple of big ships come into the harbor, took a scenic train ride up the St. Louis River, pedaled the Lakewalk in a 4-person Surrey and, of course, visited the local yarn shops. My mom is celebrating her 60th birthday on Wednesday and I'm going to be knitting her a pair of socks. I took her to Yarn Harbor to pick out a few skeins of Wildfoote. The pattern will be submitted to Knitty (hopefully, if I can swing it by September, otherwise it will be relegated to the book).

I've had a very busy week, knitting-wise. In addition to a bunch of submission swatches (even though Bill keep shaking his head at me and reminding me that I can't do everything and I should stop submitting until after I finish the book), I am on the verge of finishing the pair of socks I'm designing for the Knit-Purl sock club. I'm not sure how much secrecy I'm sworn to, but I will say that I absolutely adore the yarn they gave me to work with. I've never worked with it before, but it is now on my list of winners. I also love the colorway it's coming in and I'm very happy with the pattern I came up with.

I'm also knitting up a few Owls from Katie Park's pattern - I'm teaching a class on these little gems at Twisted this fall sometime. It is such a fun, quick little pattern! Mom and I went to Michael's today to find some felt, and we ended up getting a bunch of crafty stuff for the kids. We got them beads, pipe cleaners, pompoms and a potholder weaving kit (the kind with those stretchy polyester loops). I keep hoping my kids will turn out crafty and they've got the projects to prove it! I haven't been to Michael's in ages, and even though their yarn section is seriously lacking they've got tons of really cool craft stuff. If I had the time...boy could I go nuts in there. For now, I'll have to live vicariously through my kids. Sydney was really excited about the potholders and managed to warp her loom but only got about three weft loops woven before she moved on to bigger and better things (her V-Smile portable video game). I tried!

Tomorrow I think we are going to head up the North Shore to check out some waterfalls. I'm going to try to stop at Playing With Yarn (if the family will let me) and of course we'll have to stop and feed the deer at Tom's Logging Camp. We were originally planning to spend a few days in the Twin Cities, but it's so nice up here in Duluth that we're going to just stay here instead. It's hard on the kids to keep dragging them around, and I think they'll be much happier here. We're going to be back in the Cities in October and can see all our friends then.

I've also meant to tell you about a couple new designs I've had come out lately - first is the Knotty or Nice Socks in the Fall issue of Interweave Knits. These are my first published toe-up socks (other than the ones in my pattern line) and I was also delighted to be able to include a little tutorial on Judy's Magic Cast-On. Interweave also released a preview of the new Color Style book and I have a pair of socks in there as well. And, in yet another Interweave book, I've got some socks in Carol Sulcoski's upcoming book Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn. Go to the preview and you can see my design pictured on the right-hand side of the back cover.

The book is coming along nicely - I've got my section on toes almost done, and heels are up next! I found a wonderful photographer, a friend of Emily & Shannon from Twisted, who shows off her glorious goods at her blog, We Heart Yarn. I'm getting my team slowly lined up, and I can't wait to see what happens!

On the road again...

Here we are, back in Montana. Yesterday was a fun-filled tour of the southwestern part of the state, complete with a stop at the Mountain Colors dye studio. If you're ever passing through Corvallis, MT, be sure to stop by! Although I'm not sure why you'd be passing through Corvallis - it's south of Missoula and not really on the way to anything else (other than lots and lots of gorgeous wilderness). The dye studio is great, though. I got to meet one of the owners, Leslie, but I could barely put together a complete sentence while talking to her because I was so distracted by all the GORGEOUS YARN!

The front room of the office area is filled with little cubicles stuffed with different yarns dyed up in all their colorways. They also had a lovely display rack with hanks of Mountain Goat showing off all their different colors. I've never really paid much attention to the Mountain Goat, but seeing it displayed like that, shimmering in the sun, it was breathtaking. I snagged a couple skeins for the sock book, including a skein of Bearfoot in their Marigold colorway, which is a fabulous orange. I just can't stay away from that orange!

A couple of days before we left, I tripped in the bank parking lot and fell. As in, full-on, sprawling, shoulder-hitting-the-ground type falling. As in, people driving by rushing over to make sure I'm still alive falling. I was fine (other than the huge bruise on my pride), but I did end up skinning my knee and it has been bugging the heck out of me for the past few days. It's the kind of surface abrasion that burns and weeps pus - it's such a tiny little thing but it's driving me nuts. I can't bend my knee, I can't stand to have anything come close to touching it...I stupidly put a sport bandaid on it the first night without putting any ointment on it and ended up almost dying when I pulled the stuck-on pad off the next night. Okay, TMI, I'm sure, but I wanted to mention that my miracle cure has been lanolin. I still have a few tubes left over from my baby-nursing days and I decided to try it out on the knee. Overnight it made my scrape feel so much better, I can almost walk without limping! Yay me!

The troops are getting restless, so it's time to hit the road again. Wyoming, here we come! Or maybe Billings - we'll see where we end up!

Rock N' Roll!

Wow - two blog posts in one week! Can you believe it? I know it's unusual, but this has been an eventful week here at the Gardiner house. Apart from the usual madness, Bill was in Southern California for a business trip and had much excitement down there. First, he was in the big earthquake (well, not so big, but certainly the biggest they've had in quite awhile). He was eating at In-N-Out Burger at the time and suddenly his chair started shaking and the light fixtures swinging. Big fun!

(I'm actually really jealous, since I am totally obsessed with earthquakes and my secret fantasy is that I get to experience a huge shaker, out in the middle of a field somewhere where there's nothing to fall on me. I would not want to be at the top of First Bank Tower in downtown LA during "the big one". And of course there's all the pesky chance of injury, death and property damage. Setting aside all that, I just can't help myself - I dig earthquakes!)

His second adventure, after recovering from his violent shaking, was to head up to Santa Barbara and get this:



My mom is going to be so horrified. But isn't it amazing? It's incredibly vivid and perfect. He didn't go see Kat Von D (although we did watch her obsessively on Miami Ink for awhile) but instead went to see Pat Fish, who is a Celtic art specialist. He chose the Father Knot design, which "represents the way all family members point inward to the father". It's very, very cool.

We've been talking about getting tattoos for a long time. We originally came up with the idea that we'd go together for our Christmas gift to each other a couple winters ago. Then I discovered that you can't get tattooed while you're still nursing. After that, it was bandied about off and on, but I couldn't figure out what design I'd want to get (I've since found it, and Mom, if you're reading this, take a deep breath...it's really not the worst thing a person can do to themselves). Bill got sick of waiting, I guess, and now I'm totally jealous! If anyone has gotten inked in the Portland area and has an artist recommendation, please let me know! Now that Bill has done it, I'm feeling all left out.

I mentioned the fact that Bill was planning to get a tattoo to my friend Donna when we got together to talk about Gardiner Yarn Works stuff on Tuesday, and her first comment was "But he's so straight-laced!" That's what I thought when I first met him, but I've since learned that although my honey has the exterior of a banker, he's got the heart of a biker.



Speaking of bikers, to make up for the fact that we were missing out on all the excitement down south, the kids and I went to K-Mart (yeah, I know, but it's not as bad as Wal-Mart - at least, that's how I justify it to myself) and got some new bikes.



They've been fighting over the little bike we got for Sydney when she turned 2, so I decided it was time to get them each their own properly-sized bikes. They both started out in tears because those big bikes are a lot harder to get moving than the mini-bike (or their tricycles). Sydney and I had to have a long, tearful discussion about why she was going to have to practice, not give up, and develop those leg muscles so that she could push that much larger bike around. I promised her (when she sobbed "But I just want to go fast") that she'd be able to go faster on this bike than she ever could on her little tiny baby bike. That seemed to appease her for the moment.

And now it's REALLY time to stop procrastinating and get those patterns printed, those draft patterns sent to the test knitters, those submissions sent off, that yarn located... Every once in awhile it hits me like a ton of bricks that both kids are going to be in school in the fall, and I'm going to be by myself much of the day, five days a week! Woo-hoo! I'm not going to know what to do with myself!