I don't have any pictures from the retreat.  I usually forget to take pictures and almost all of the photos on this blog were taken by George.

I had registered for the Saturday evening banquet and an all-day class on Sunday.  The banquet could have been a little lonely, but while waiting outside to get into the banquet hall, I ran into Fred and Jen Hagan.  I worked with Fred at two different companies for several years and his wife is a knitwear designer who's becoming better known.  They run Fidgeadh Yarns together.  If you go to their site, Fred is modeling most of the men's sweaters that Jen designed.  We had a great time catching up before and during the banquet.

I also went to the Marketplace on Saturday afternoon where I bought way too much yarn.  It's gorgeous stuff and I plan to use it all.  I ran into Charisa and a few other people from the Portland Yarn Crawl in the Marketplace, and then sat with them while we all showed off what we had bought.  I then got into a conversation with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot, and a friend of hers.  I'm such a fangirl.

I drove back down to Tacoma on Sunday for an all-day class with Janine Bajus on selecting colours for fair isle knitting.  I've enjoyed reading Janine's blog Feral Knitter for several months and she was great in person.  Janine took us through a lot of colour theory and then had us knit a fast swatch using colours we selected from a photograph along with any other values of the colours that we could find on the table.  We had over 300 colours to choose from and I think I can say that the entire class had fun.  I have the swatch somewhere, but I can't find it right now.  When I do, I'll post a picture of it.

On Saturday morning, George and I had brunch at Julia's on Broadway with Delf, Muhsin and Janelle.  It was great to catch up with Delf as it's been months since we seen him.

I gave Janelle a hat I had knitted for fun in December and a pair of mittens I had knitted with Janelle in mind in January.  The mittens are adorable.  I bought the pattern book "Not Just Socks For Kids" because of the pattern and they were fun to knit.



Delf left early because he was heading down to the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival in Tacoma with a bunch of other people.  I was heading there myself as I had signed up for the banquet and wanted to check out the Marketplace.

Last week I knitted up a hat from Deb in bright red Brown Sheep Burly Spun.  The hat looked great and then I washed it.  The colour bled and the hat grew so that it was big enough for a giant.  I decided I had to frog it and start over.  Last night, after the hat was finally dry (Burly Spun is very bulky), I frogged the hat.  Don't I look just delighted in this photo?

I skeined it up and washed the yarn again today and it bled again.  It stopped bleeding after the third wash and I've hung it up to dry as I need to get the kinks out.  I decided to wash up some other yarn that also needed it.  George took this photo.



The skeins are hanging from the potrack over our kitchen sink and I put hangers on them to add some weight.  I'll get around to knitting Deb's hat again someday.

We went to Gay Bingo last night.  The theme was "rocking out" and Dick really went with the theme.  I love that wig he wore.

Jonathan won $33 - the only one at our table to win anything.



This Sister of Perpetual Indulgence had the greatest lipstick - red and yellow.

Jonathan gave me a back-rub at one point.  I was dressed as an aging one-hit-wonder rock star.  My hair was so stiff from product that I couldn't run my fingers thru it.


All eight of us had a great time.

George & I went to Barack Obama's rally at Seattle Center's Key Arena this morning.  We car-pooled with his coworkers Mira and Zane, and Mira's partner Mark.

Mark, me and Mira

We were too late to get inside the Arena.  One of Zane's friends called him from inside and told him that the line had been around Key Arena 3 and a half times by 10:30 with the doors opening at 11am.  It worked out okay for us as Obama came over to where we were to address the crowd before he went into the arena.  George took the photos by holding his digital camera at full-length above his head.



This guy was climbing the wall to get a better look when Obama told him "Get down from there, young man, before you hurt yourself."  The guy got down immediately.


While waiting, I worked on the booties I'm making for George's co-worker's coming baby.

I finally had to stop because my hands were freezing.

Overall it was a great experience.  The arena was completely filled and there were about 3000 of us standing outside in front and back of the arena.

We had Frank, Lyndol, Peter, Carol, Raven & Iain over for Christmas dinner this year.  George & I prepared a pork roast and the others brought various side dishes.  As usual, everything was delicious.  After everyone had a chance to digest a little, we brought out the Plum Pudding George's mother had prepared and given to us when we were in Dublin in August.  (Frank and Lyndol bring the holly sprig from their tree every year.)  George heated up the brandy and poured it over the pudding while everyone ooh'd and aah'd over the flames.

We served the plum pudding with brandy butter and whipped cream.

George finished the Christmas Fruit Cake today.  The cake is so huge that the only thing large enough to hold it is the pizza stone which George covered in aluminum foil.  I told him that we would be getting a 10" pan for next year's cake as his mother's cakes always fit on our cake plate.

George rolled out his home-made marzipan and laid it over the cake.

He then spread the cooked hard icing over the cake.



It needs to sit for awhile for the icing to harden.  We'll be serving it on Christmas Day at our dinner party.

In the past, when George's mother Ethna has sent us a Christmas Cake, we've gone out to buy marzipan which George would then roll out and lay over the cake before frosting it with a cooked hard icing.  George decided this year to make marzipan from scratch.

He had to blanche the almonds (I helped him remove the skins), then ground the almonds, then cooked up the sugar syrup and finally mixed the ground almonds with the sugar syrup.

When it was all done, George stated that he will NEVER do that again.  The marzipan needs to sit in the fridge for a few days before he can put it on the cake.  Meanwhile George has been regularly pouring whiskey (some inexpensive stuff I picked up at the liquor store) over the cake to keep it moist.

I'm finished with knitting Fake Isle hats for now.  I've knitted 9 of them since May.  I got these done just in time to give to Robin and Kal Kaufman at games night on Thursday.  We won't be having another games night until after the new year.

I love the colours of Kal's hat, especially the greens right at the rib brim.  Robin's worked out pretty good with chocolate brown as the motif colour.  I'm going to continue knitting hats, but do different styles.

We usually get a tradition Irish Christmas Cake from George's mother every year.  I have never cared for fruit cake until I had my mother-in-law's.  This year Ethna didn't make any cakes so George decided to use her recipe, which he's had for years, and make his own.  He had to make several substitutions for dried fruit the recipe calls for but that isn't available in the US.  Here's a quick photo essay of the cake.

George soaked the fruit in the good whiskey as we didn't have any inexpensive stuff in the house.  George let it sit for several days so all the whiskey was absorbed into the fruit.


George was convince that his mother used a huge pan for this cake so I ended up getting a 12" round pan at a restaurant supply house. Following directions over the phone from his mother in Capetown, SA, George lined it with lots of parchment paper.


Mixing up the batter in the Kitchenaid.  George called his mother in Capetown because the recipe just said "add eggs".  She had forgotten to write down how many eggs in the recipe she gave him over 12 years ago.


Blending the fruit and batter in the biggest bowl in the house.


Filling the pan.  The cake has a milk mixture poured over it.


The cake got very high while baking and then cooled to this.  George was very proud of himself.  We both thought the cake smelled delicious.