…as of earlier this week.  Our mornings are dawning brilliantly clear.  The ocean temp’s gone up a few degrees just over the past week (I’ve been in twice, went body boarding Wednesday a.m. and splashing about (in the June gloom) last week).  The water’s now in the mid 60s — a little cold at first but refreshing and cooling.

Of course that means we’re not experiencing the unseasonally cooler air temps anymore.  I’ve turned into a weather wimp since moving back to California.  I wilt in heat (heat being anything mid 80s and up).  I know, pathetic, especially from the girl who grew up in Arizona (it’s a DRY heat) and has lived in New York state (very hot & steamy in the summer) and Austin and Bryan/College Station Texas (even hotter & steamier).

Zylphia‘s nearly done & Emily‘s been started.  I tweeted about my moment of happiness — the 344 lace stitches of the flounce successfully joined in the round without twisting.  Emily is going to have some rather interesting construction techniques;  I foresee a video tutorial.  I’m planning on having all the bottom portion of the skirt — all the fiddly lace & intarsia bits — done before heading to the Madrona Mittens workshop next week (but am planning on bringing the skirt to work on in the evenings).

I’m very excited to say I’m going to be attending the Mittens of Rovaniemi workshop at Suzanne’s gorgeous home in Preston, Washington.  Suzanne is one of  the organizers of the Madrona Fiber Arts conference and offers various summer workshops.  Last year I attended Janine Bajus’s Fair Isle workshop, which I adored. Three days of intensive knitterly study, like-minded people, lovely peaceful comfortable setting, and delicious food….

Suzanne says there’s still some spots open for the workshop — do sign up!

The Black Water Abbey Haw was waiting for me when we got back from our whirlwind trip.

Trip:  Breakfast at Joe’s in Santa Barbara, beachcombing/hiking excursion at Montana de Oro (found a cool bone, ocean bleached, probably a sea lion humerus, gave it back to the ocean),  visit to Ball & Skein in Cambria, lunch at Robins, wine tasting at Villa Creek & Tablas Creek, playing with the wine vending machine thingy at Paso Wine Center (fun!), pitching the tent in the orchard at  Windrose Farm, lovely dinner & discussion with Bill & Barbara of Windrose, pretty stars, lots of sheep & veggies & dogs (Sophie, Bella & Louie) & cats, hiking around the farm in the morning, wine tasting at Turley (they open at 9 a.m.! if they’re open, it’s not too early to taste, right?), brunch at Farmstand 46 (a GOPHER stuck its head out right next to my chair, so cute, glossy chestnut fur, utterly fearless little varmint (visions of Caddyshack — I’d never seen a real gopher before), wine tasting (& barrel tasting!  superfun!) at Four Vines, then a visit on the way home at Loop & Leaf in Santa Barbara.  (Take a breath!)

Anyway, I worked on the Pippin vest during the drive to & from, but Monday a.m. I attacked Haw.

(Unfortunately neither piece has a real name yet, which is why I’m referring to them by colorway.)

I’m still working on the lower section of Haw, in the midst of the waist shaping.  (I’m about the same point in Pippin, too.)

I tend to like something noise-wise on in the background while I knit.  Movies work well because they’re long enough I’m not constantly messing with the remote, but I do have to get up every couple hours to switch them out.

• Monday:  LOTR, all three movies, director’s cut.
• Tuesday:  Casino Royale (Daniel Craig), Quantum of Solace, Great Escape.

Not quite sure what I’ll watch tomorrow.

Gardening:  Monday I picked  a bunch of tomatoes from the Cherokee Purple plant, and a small handful of yellow & red cherry tomatoes from the various volunteers in the raised bed by the parking space.  Delicious!  the cherry tomatoes were on the tart side, the Cherokee Purple were sweet.  We also ate the last of the snow peas/peas yesterday (along with some FM asparagus).  Dinner yesterday:  bison cube steak, gravy, millet, tomatoes, peas, asparagus.  Dinner tonight:  tomato & mozarella salad, bread, FM broccoli.

Yesterday we (Dave, me, Rosemary & Curtis) did a day trip up to Santa Ynez and the surrounding area for winetasting, a picnic, and alpacas.

We tasted & picnicked at Zaca Mesa, then visited  Alpacas at West Ranch (Orsino!) and had a lovely visit. Hayley and Joan have an incredible set up with gorgeous animals.  Joan remembered me as the person who’d bought Orsino’s yarn last year.

After that we drove out to Lompoc to visit Mette at Ranch of the Oaks and had a wonderful time checking out their mini mill and fondling fiber and yarn (I bought some pretty gray llama yarn for a sweater).

We did a quick tasting at Palmina in Lompoc — very tasty Italian-inspired wines — but unfortunately didn’t have time to taste at any other of the tasting rooms.  I really want to go back to the Wine Ghetto — the group of tasting rooms in the industrial park in Lompoc  — it’s a new area to us.

The hiking trip was fun!  We hiked around Mountain Lake in Moran State Park.  We tasted rose hips (bland), wild grapes (sour) and gooseberries (delicious!) as wells as some greens.  We saw banana slugs.  Nat had baked some blackberry scones the night before for us that we ate at the end of the hike — very yummy.

After our hike Wednesday we visited Orcas Moon Alpacas and had a wonderful farm tour, meeting the alpacas (who snorted on me, not spat, just snorted), the chickens (I want chickens!) and Badger the Giant Flemish bunny.  I bought 2 skeins of some very pretty & soft alpaca (from Minnie)/merino/bamboo blend to use with the skeins I got at Warm Valley.

The kayaking trip around Sucia Island on Thursday was lovely, very easy paddling & so pretty.  We saw harbor seals, river otter(s), beautiful purple starfish, some orange starfish, a sunstar (?) (many arms), chitons, green anemones, a kingfisher….Jesse, our guide, was a total sweetheart, very patient & knowledgeable.  The sandstone formations reminded me of the formations you can see in Utah.

I’d definitely recommend both Natalie/Gnat’s Nature Hikes and Shearwater Kayaking.

We ate dinner Thursday night at Chimayo in East Sound — very tasty!  (Please note that the review is a bit old — they do have table service and they do serve alcohol — I had a glassy of sangria.  But it’s the best link I could find for the restaurant.)

I finished my Rivendell socks and cast on for my second Double Diamond sock (which I should finish this holiday weekend).

Friday morning we caught the ferry back to Anacortes then drove into Seattle.  We found parking downtown (expensive), walked around Pike Place Market, had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch at Beecher‘s, and then walked to Pioneer Square and back, stopping for coffee at Ancient Grounds and browsing the various bookstores.  (The Seattle Mystery Bookshop was my favorite — I bought Kat Richardson’s Underground, signed, there.)  We had dinner at Le Pichet — very tasty — we shared a butter lettuce green salad with hazelnuts, then I had pork sausage & cherries over greens, Dave had hazelnut crusted lingcod.

We definitely want to go back !