Fiber Dreams

Watching the ponies

Our good friend Mikki is a member of Sons of Italy, and as such, invited us to join the group for an evening at the races at the Los Alamitos Race Course. For a reasonable fee, we got preferred parking, entrance into the Vessels Club, and a tasty dinner. In addition to Mikki, our sub-group included Audry and Susan, and Karen, her husband Fred, and her mother, making the evening even more fun. Everyone but Dave, me, and Mikki placed some low wagers on the races, so we got to root for individual horses without financial risk. I hadn’t been to the races in a million years. I used to go to Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley with my parents when I was a kid, and hadn’t been since. It was sure fun to be at a track again. Dave had never been (neither had Susan), so it was an extra special evening for him. I mostly didn’t bother with trying to take pictures, though got a few. I would have loved to get a good shot of a race, but figured it would be pointless to even try with this camera.

This first shot is of the bugler who announced, musically, when each race approached, and it was time to start placing bets.

Frankly, I don’t know why I took a picture of that brown horse. Clearly not racing. But the picture came out okay, so I’m including it. The other horses were clearly racing; they have their colors, numbers, jockeys, that stuff. I wish I had some clue which race this really was, and which horse, if any of these, won, but I don’t. I love how frisky horse five was. They’re all so gorgeous. I love watching them run. Gets the blood stirring.

A lot of the races on Saturday were quick, 500 yard races, run by the prettiest little two-year-olds. They made my heart go pitty-pat. Though short, the races were run hard, and the winning horses were always delighted that they’d won, prancing an excited, “Look at me! Did you see? Did you see me win that race? Did you see how fast I ran?” after the races were over. Anyone who doesn’t think that horses enjoy racing has never seen how hard they try, nor their joy in winning. They’re not so different from us. Not really.

Symphony in the cities

Then yesterday evening we drove up to Brea to see the Pacific Symphony Orchestra perform one in a summer series of Symphony in the Cities. The city of Brea had blocked off traffic to a block downtown, set up a stage, about 750 chairs (not enough), and invited everyone to come and listen to the music. They performed a lot of fun stuff, had three guest soloists—who were all quite accomplished children between the ages of ten and thirteen—and closed with some fire­works shot off the top of a nearby building. We hadn’t realized it, not getting up there much, but Brea’s done a lot of work on their downtown area, and the buildings, restaurants, and shops are all marvelous. I’m sure the pizza and ice cream stores didn’t mind staying open late in the slightest.

We got free tickets to see the PSO perform at the Irvine Meadows next weekend, a show called “Sultry Spanish Nights.” That ought to be fun. We haven’t been to the Meadows for a long time.

Currently knitting

Because of all the racing around all weekend, I didn’t get as much time knitting the mystery stole as I would have liked. I’m making good progress on clue five, anyway, and should be done with it in plenty of time for the release of clue 6—which in actuality I expect to be more of the same—on Friday. I believe I’m up to row 67 or something on chart H.

I finished knitting the body of the Sweatshirt Sweater on Friday (Saturday?), and cast off, but discovered almost as soon as I cut the yarn that I’d cast off too tightly, so out it came. When I did it again I did a crochet cast off, which is nice and stretchy, and disappears completely in the furry yarn. After doing all that, I started in on the first sleeve. Since I’m mostly using the Knit Picks Options needles for this, and I don’t otherwise have sixteen inch needles in this size, I’m improvising, and am using two double pointed needles for part of the sleeve knitting. Kind of weird, but it works.

Forget-Me-Not

Other people are beginning to find out about and knit my sock pattern! This is fun. I love how they’ve all turned out. Yvonne knit a pair with one skein of Lorna’s Laces sock yarn, Suna knit them in a variegated Panda Cotton, and Shut Up & Knit changed the toe and heel to ones she’s more comfortable with. They all look great.

If you’ve finished a pair of my Forget-Me-Not socks, please let me know, and I’ll give you a shout out. Yvonne was in need of a further explanation of the chart, which I’ll be adding to the pattern soon.

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