Alison's Scarf

I bought a couple of new jackets last fall and, going all out, fashion-wise, gathered up some yarn and knit a lace scarf.  I have made this one before 5 years ago.  It is an easy pattern and would look nice with many kinds of yarn.  This one was made with Ella Rae Shibu, 90% silk, 10% viscose.  I used three skeins and something close to the needle size that was recommended on the ball band. The link to the Annie Modesitt pattern is here.

Gretel Hat

  Pattern:  Gretel. 

Yarn:  Targhee Handspun

Dianne Corso

Needle:  US 6

Anacortes

Dave's sister, Lauren, likes to look at real estate online.  She has a good eye for property and she finds it interesting to study areas and see what places are available.  She looked at Reno listings while we searching for a house there and would us send links on occasion. 

One day, she said, "We're looking at Anacortes.  There is good sailing right there on Puget Sound and it's a small town and looks like a great spot."

Dave, the research arm of the family, switched gears and started looking at Anacortes real estate websites.  And the condensed version of the story is -- we found a place, he came down to have a look and we bought it.  The plan to move to Reno evaporated.

We were helped along (enabled, one might say) by our friends, John Corso and Dianne Corso.  They had moved from Juneau to Anacortes in 2006.  We had a lot of help from them during every phase of the move.  Did John just need an excuse to go for a motorcycle ride and take pictures of houses with his new iPhone?  Perhaps, but having a report from a friend on the ground meant a lot.  We were 900 miles away.

Leaving Juneau - The Townhouse

Did I mention the weather? The isolation? The extremes of Juneau are part of the appeal.  It takes a bit of grit to tolerate months of darkness, nine feet of rain a year, and years of cool, cloudy summers. 

The townhouse eventually sold.  It was on the market for a year, with three different realtors.  It was kind of a grind, in many ways, but the timing was good in the end.  Ray had six more weeks of school and Dave continued to work at the airport.

May 2009

We stayed downtown at our friends' condo (thanks again, Dick and Carolyn). Our belongings were all packed up and were shipped to our new place down south. Selling the townhouse was key to setting the plan in motion.

Deciding to Leave Alaska

Katherine turned 18 and graduated from high school in May 2007. As she became an adult, the years of shared custody came to an end.  She was accepted to the University of Hawaii and took off across the Pacific in the fall.

May 2007

Dave was working as the Juneau Airport Manager and Ray was in school.  There was a lot going on with my mother in Reno and I was feeling so far away from my siblings.  We were finished with most of the major work at the cabin.  Travel times and airfares from Juneau to anywhere seemed horrible!  We were trying to honor the school year more as Ray got older but man, we felt squeezed and trapped by dates and connections and expenses.  Of course, the true travel hardy types in Juneau just planned ahead and bought tickets a year in advance and off they went to Mexico for Christmas vacation but somehow, I never figured that one out.  How do you know what you want to do in a year?

We had lived in the townhouse for 10 years.  We started to decide things bit by bit.  Let's sell this place and live in a building with more windows.  No matter where we live, we need more light.  A shop would be nice...

We thought about buying a different house in Juneau.  Maybe we could live in Haines where we could get in to the cabin more easily.  Maybe down south.  Somewhere in the West.  Somewhere different.  It would just be nice to be somewhere less isolated.  Somewhere with roads. 

We decided to move to Reno.  (We didn't, as it turned out.)

But we looked.  We put the Juneau townhouse and the float plane up for sale.  We starting looking online for a place in Reno with some land around it. We talked a lot about what each of us wanted.  Dave got so good at the internet shopping that he got a new name, Research.  Got a realtor.  Went down there and made a low ball offer on the place we liked best.  Rejected.  Came home with an Xbox for Ray.  Someone was happy. 

We really weren't disappointed.  The townhouse wasn't selling.  Summer started and we spent time at the lake.  We had Charlie's really nice airplane.  We built a table together.  Not a bad life all in all.  Something would work out.

July 2008

Brambles

Handspun Targhee

Four more hats!  The first was made from handspun Targhee wool, a gift from Dianne Corso.  It is soft and lovely but I probably should have made the hat a little longer.  The other three were made from Cascade Yarns 220 Heathers Superwash.  Blue, red and gold - pretty colors all.  I gave the hats to my neighbor friends.  The pattern is Brambles, on the Knitty website.

Quincy Hats

What a great pattern!  It is Quincy - by Jared Flood. The adult version was made with Cascade Yarns 128 Superwash on size 10 needles.  The baby hat used Cascade Yarns 220 Superwash Sport on size 5 needles.  Both hats knit up quickly and were easy to put together.  Fun projects!