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As the wuflu ramps up again, (remember flu season? Even if this is not a flu, these kind of diseases kick in when the weather gets cold). Grandma and me started up again, it was a delight to take Einav back here. One other girl, her exact age, also a red head came back as well. Scarlett was all over Einav, in some ways a little too much, but for us grandmas, it was great to see.

That is teacher Julie, telling the stories. I am so proud, before the lockdown, or maybe during the lockdown (the lockdown hasn’t ended here btw). We must have discussed embroidery – well Julie has started to embroider and she is hooked. I am so happy for her and so proud of my influence.

She is at the drunken sailor stage of walking, this will pass too quickly! The sweater is one I made for her brother, he wasn’t happy to see it one her. I don’t know that he wore it much, its’ perfect for her, for maybe another month.

Speaking of sweaters, I frogged what I had started, it all just felt too big, went down a size and started over.

There is a formula for this style of yoke. Basically, every 2.5″ there is a row of increases. As the yoke grows, there are less increases, so the shape remains. I needed to plan those increases in the solid rows between patterns. so the first one happened on the first white row at the top. Then after the blue plus signs, another row of increases.

Larger diamonds and more increases.

I have now put the sleeves on waste yarn and am working on the body of the sweater. One thing that will repeat often is the blue band with the white beads. Also, the center band is there for steeking, this will be a cardigan, not a pullover. A lot of planning going into this project.

Yay! I’m done with needing patterns to fit into 2.5″ increments, so now I can add in a large pattern. Yes, many mistakes are being made, some are corrected, some are ignored, but all in all I really love this project.

On the quilt, there are three bands of zigzags that are different from what I’ve done so far.

Only five left to go! I can’t wait, I just want to put this together already! Although I do have another Judy Niemeyer pattern, I think it’s going to be a while before I do it. Paper piecing is amazing, but I’m ready for something else. You will find out soon what that something else is. There are no idle hands here.

Leah

This has been a hard week for me. The elections were crazy. Yes, I voted for Trump, but what is bothering me much more is the cheating and fraud that is going on with elections in America. I live in CA, I’ve known for a while that things are rigged here. It really became obvious with the propositions. So many people voted down the most progressive propositions, but the needle never budged on the big ticket items on the ballot. We have had massive Trump rallies, but no, none of that even showed up in the results. Of course we weren’t going to change CA to red, but a little more purple? So yeah, regrouping. I have this blog with maybe 10 followers, (Bloglovin tells me I have over 230 but they are all porn bots) so I will speak my mind here. All social media, FB, Twitter, IG are censoring conservatives. I’m not turning this into a political blog, but when I feel the need I will speak my mind.

I am SO proud of my kids, They bought a house up in Big Bear and fixed it up so beautifully, the spent a lot of money and effort to create a beautiful retreat.

For rental info, check here: The Getaway at Big Bear.

Everything is new, clean and very very bright. Not your typical run down mountain cabin.

One thing they did was remove some walls and doorways, the feel is wide open now and the fireplace is delightful, it is gas, which is easy to use and is quite warm.

Large kitchen and after this was taken, they replaced the stove. People are already coming up for Thanksgiving, they need a good stove in which to roast their turkey. Did I mention how proud I am? My kids are not trying to cut corners, they are trying to run a very good quality business.

Lovely back yard. There is open space behind them which is nice and that mountain there is one of the ski slopes. Also, The house is one mile above Quilty Pleasures… for any quilters out there.

Same view as the snow started falling. We were the first guests this weekend. We had seen the place when they first bought it, so we really saw the transformation. Also, being up there, I was able to to use things and point out what needed to be fixed. Like the shower wasn’t hot enough, or a door stuck too much. All the little things that need attention.

It snowed heavily all weekend!

The boys got busy, although within a few hours everything was covered up.

Taking a picture of falling snow really doesn’t work.

I used the slo-mo function on video, yup it really snowed.

We ended up driving the back road down the hill through Victorville, luckily we had invested in chains, and my son drove down in his fourwheel drive with us. Not a lot of traffic, no problems. I’m not sure I’ll be going back in the winter, I’d never say never, but warmer weather is more my style.

Leah

So here are local decorations in the day time:

carved too early, he is begging to rot

Someone found a skeleton from when giants roamed the earth

Scary door

scary window

nature sharing it’s halloween colors.

I’m rusty with my nighttime photos, at least you get a sense of the color.

Best photo of the evening, the dragons’ tongue waves as well.

He is in the same yard with the giant, as you can see, most of their decorations are inflatables.

This is a real jack-lantern, it’s plastic and the bright internal light is overwhelming the nose. Anyway, my hope is that more people go back to decorating for Christmas.

Leah

The good thing about teaching a friend to knit is that it forces me to try techniques I haven’t done in a while, or I haven’t done at all.

Case in point, Brioche knitting. Oh, great news, although by now the sale may be over. Craftsy is no longer part of NBC or whatever conglomerate bought them. No, they haven’t been able to film new classes, but they need to rebuild the base. So they offered Premium membership for $3 instead of $80 a year. You bet I signed up. I also gave myself a reminder for a year from now, in case I decide not to renew.

This is a wonderful baby alpaca I bought in Peru, left over from a sweater. Nice and soft and cozy and not easy to knit brioche with at all!!!

It does make a lovely warm hat. Sorry about the blurry image, I’m not great at selfies.

The hat wasn’t intended for me, I sent it to my friend who moved to Virginia and desperately need cold weather gear. As you can see, she is thrilled!

The hats didn’t end there. My grandson saw me knitting and asked when would I knit something for him. For him means for him and his big brother. So I pulled out the wonderful Merino I bought in New Zealand. I had already made Joel a hat, there was enough yarn left for two more. Now, this yarn is great for brioche. Now you can see how wonderful this stitch is.

First hat done! The yarn is thicker, the heads are a little smaller. So I got this one done in a day.

And the second one done early the next day before I drove down to see them. Yes, working that fast means a few mistakes, but they will never notice them. And at this point, neither will I.

They were outside playing with their neighbors, so although they are excited, it was momentary.

Then they got goofy, which is exactly what little boys should do. They will be in the mountains this weekend, which is why I was in such a rush to finish these hats.

There is a wonderful brioche shawl pattern. One by One shawl, go take a look. Anyway, I want to use these brioche patterns in a sweater. So I knit a sample, guage swatch. Here it is right off the needles.

Here it is blocked, much neater.

Using Ann Budds’ top down sweater book, I am attempting to create a sweater. I am creating a circular yoke and am speaking this, so it will be a cardigan.

I got this far, but, I frogged it all. The neck opening is too big, it’s just not right. So I’ve started over, smaller size. Another huge issue here is that every 2.5″ I need to do a row of massive increases. So that must happen in one of the garter rows between patterns, that means I need to be very judicious with the patterns. I can’t use the much larger patterns until I get to the body of the sweater. There is a reason why it is such a pleasure to buy a well designed sweater pattern. Although, there is something wonderful about designing on my own, even if it means a lot of frogging and changing as I go. Oh, and the designer is following me on IG, she wants a sweater too, not just a shawl.

Leah

I get to enjoy the beach every week, so you get to enjoy it on my blog. It is getting cooler, I didn’t want to tempt Westley with the water, so I suggested we go and walk on the pier.

Yes, the sky and the ocean were that blue. Yes, there is a certain haze on the horizon, is it from the fires (there is now a fire burning in Orange County.) Is it just part of normal pollution around here? I don’t know. I’ve never walked the full length of this pier, the boys always want to be on the sand.

I know, cameras foreshorten things a lot. The town looks smaller and much farther away, it is really very close and IRL, you can see a lot of the details on the beach. Which is why real life is always better.

There were quite a few fishermen out. And although I didn’t get pictures, they were successful, this guy right here pulled out 30 fish in about 15 minutes. They are very small, like sardines. He and all the others have five flies on the fishing wire, this guy caught five at a time, more than once. Others were standing very close and they were getting maybe one or two. I don’t know his secret.

Then there was the fisherman who held one rod and had two in reserve. I saw this setup a few times. Fisherman are smart. I asked this guy if he was fishing for dinner, he said dinner and lunch. Others were cleaning fish on the tables with faucets set up along the pier. Although the pier was probably for docking boats when it was built originally, today it is a fishing pier. Many people, like me, just love to walk the pier, or sit on the benches and watch the birds.

It was low tide. As we entered the pier we passed the life guard station. They have a board with the days information, weather, tide times and the temperature of the water. So 2 pm was low tide and there we were. All these little shellfish are exposed at low tide, millions of them. They are mostly buried in the sand, walking on them simply pushes them in further. This must be part of their cycle, since twice a day and night they are exposed like this.

I need to improve my video skill. My purpose here is to capture these tiny birds and they run faster than a roadrunner. I captured much more, you can see how low the tide is, the people enjoying the water (64 degrees) and the other birds swooping around.

Back on the Strand, I’m always looking for interesting things. Right now, Halloween is in full gear. I’m pretty sure this has been here for a while, but how could I not share tile graffiti with smurfs!

Leah

The boys spend a lot of time here, while their parents are renovating a vacation rental home in Big Bear. We started out prepping the garden for winter veggies, like carrots, onions, beans and radishes

These are for the beans and peas. We prepped the soil somewhat and added some mulch, then it’s time to water.

They also helped pump up our neighbors water. The lawn is looking ok, not great, there is something called fertilizer that would also help.

Playgrounds are open!!! Went to the park near Aytan and Shira, they played on the equipment and rode their scooters all around. Shira is quite the ring leader.

Saba jumped into the picture, funny placement of his hat. It looks like a growth on Shira’s arm.

Resting after a lot of running around.

Four generations.

Then they all got on the see-saw, we need video for this one.

In the afternoon the little ones came over, it took Einav a while to warm up to her cousins, Westley loves her!

Meanwhile, these two were throwing balls around the back yard.

Cam likes people to push him on the swing, I’ve started teaching him to pump himself, it’s working!!

A wonderful, very tiring weekend, ending with a stiff drink!! #blessed.

Leah

Its been a while since I’ve been to the beach. Sure, I go every week to see the grandkids. The younger one is back in daycare. The older one who is supposed to be in kindergarten spends about 90 minutes online. So since mom and dad work, I have fun with him.

This is his teachers’ front yard. I do appreciate wholesome Halloween. Its’ the gruesome body parts I hate. I’m not even bothered by the skeletons or ghosts. Anyway, He made a card for her and wanted to deliver it. My son said: put it in the mailbox. Nope, Westley marched up and knocked on the door. She was THRILLED! I am so sad that he isn’t in the classroom with her! The perfect kintergarten teacher. So that was a great success.

Then we went down to the beach. Not many people, initially West was good and only got his feet wet.

A sailboat!!!

Then it was time to drag in huge heavy pieces or complete kelp plants. I didn’t get a picture, but kelp is otherworldly, and HEAVY! By then West was all wet, so on the walk back, I let him run in the water.

He ran, he fell face down, he was soaking wet head to toe. Luckily both the water and the air weren’t too cold.

Although dictator Newsom is killing businesses right and left, like Disney. Slowly other things are making a comeback, like the swings at the beach! Here he is soaking wet, loving the swing, he did jump off into the sand and become one big sand ball. The outdoor hose and bathtub were used as soon as we got home.

I love it when a homeowner uses the local references in the home design.

I picked Cam up from daycare and we stopped at the playground. There are a ton of kids there, it is so nice!!! Back at home, the two boys now play almost every day with the two girl neighbors. There is a silver lining to everything. They might not have met if not for the lockdown.

When I left Westley gave me the biggest, bestest, hugest hug. It really means the world to him to have me spend time with him. I know Cam likes it as well, but he is busy during the day with friends.

And finally, the cutest little redhead around. Pay no attention to the bruise on her forehead, she is in the very first stages of walking and gravity has a way of winning out. I bought the fabric for her sheet, Dad sewed it up. So perfect for a little girls crib! Now she and I have a similar quilt as well. This is one of the few times when I repeated a pattern.

Leah

I couldn’t stay away from quilting for too long!

I had bought this pattern on Ebay last year. It is a Judy Niemeyer, but it is out of print. Lucky for me, someone bought the pattern and never used it. These patterns are one use only, since it’s paper piecing, printed on newsprint. Which is fine, once will be enough.

Shopping in the time of Covid. The local quilt store is closed on Sunday and I was itching to start. So I went online and ordered some fabric. It’s been over a week, it might be a few more weeks on when it arrives. So during the week I went back to the store and bought fabric. This pattern calls for jelly rolls. I didn’t buy enough fabric, which is good, because at some point the fabric I ordered online will show up.

There were a lot of glitches with the first section. It takes a while to remember how to do the paper piecing. No, you can’t see the problems, even this one worked out fine.

This is what it looks like on the back side.

Sewing the pieces side by side.

Judy always works her patterns with batik. The one other of hers that I made, was anything but batik. This time I decided to go with it and I think it’s the perfect fabric.

There is a subtlety to batiks that make a pattern like this sing. Sure, I could have done it in solids or even tiny Civil War reproduction prints. But what can I say, I am very happy with this. And I’m having fun! That is the most important thing, to have fun creating something beautiful.

Leah

By now, you are probably bored with my Lake Tahoe trip, although it’s not like I have anything exciting to share from home. So here goes, the odds and ends.

We stopped in Truckee, I always like to take pictures of fraternal lodges. I don’t know it they are still in operation. I have heard that some are. These organizations have always done a lot of good for the community. Just having fellowship is a good thing.

A monument to Californians who fought in WWI, I wonder when this was installed? It is rare to see WWI memorials.

Notice the dates, America was only involved for a little over a year, but that was the decisive year that ended the war. Well, brought about an end to the fighting, until it all erupted again in 1939.

Didn’t get to the Donner museum or park, I bet the museum was closed. It seems so strange today, when it is so easy to get around that people were stuck up here, starving to death, so close to Sacramento. It is true, there still are years with really harsh snow storms. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we need to be prepared, The Gods of The Copybook headings are always coming back.

How about a beautiful planting of flowers in an old wagon on the street in Truckee?

We visited the railroad museum in Carson City. There is so much history to be learned when a museum concentrates on one topic.

At certain times, these trains will go out for a spin around the yard. Today, the steam engines are run on jet fuel, hey, jet fuel has a shelf life. But even somewhat degraded, it will move a train.

Another fascinating topic I could learn more about is geology. How did this one round rock get enclosed by this sandstone? I you haven’t noticed by now, I have a sharp eye for unusual things.

Finally, a barn quilt. Not sure the structure is a barn, but this is what we call a barn quilt block, looks like it is an intended selfie spot.

Here is the ‘selfie’, Joel took the picture. And look! I match the block!

I’m starting a new quilt. A good friend just bought a craftsman house. Isn’t this the perfect gift? More on this as I go along.

Leah

One place in Lake Tahoe that I absolutely have to visit is the Hellman-Ehrman house.

I have been fascinated by Issais Hellman since I learned about him when I was giving tours downtown. Boy do I miss giving tours. I have no idea if an when I’ll be giving tours again. By the late 19th c. Hellman moved from LA to San Fransisco, there he was one of the founders of the Banking side of Wells Fargo. Today, that is all we know of that name, but back in the day, transportation was their main business.

Early in the 20th century, Hellman bought a large plot of land and built this marvelous summer home. Today this is a state park, Sand Harbor. Hellmans’ daughter Ehrman actually enjoyed the house much longer than her father. By the mid-sixties, taxes were impossible (gee, we are back at the same point again) so the land was donated to the state and there are tours inside the house.

This is the front of the house that faces the lake. Looking at the website, I saw we were one day late to have the tour inside. I bumped into a maintenance worker, he laughed at me. I wasn’t a day late, I was a year late, they never opened the house this year.

Me in front of the house.

The house was named Pine Lodge.

Looking from the lake towards the home.

The gorgeous lake front.

Since there was so much space, the house was only for the family and guests, servant quarters as well as storage and landscaping equipment was in a separate area. As you can see, equally close to the lake.

This log cabin was onsite before Hellman bought the land. I don’t remember the name of the man who built this, it was the first permanent structure on the lake.

I’m loving every angle of this house.

One can rent the outdoor space for private events such as weddings. Once again, I don’t think this happened this year. What a lovely visit, what a beautiful serene location.

I love all the angles here, they way the shadows are cast all over. Who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll get a chance to visit the interior.

This looks right at home at Sand Harbor park, but no, this is in the town of Tahoe City and it is a bus stop! I love it!

Leah