Siena in Tuscany

When we left Rome we took the train to Chuisi and then a bus to Siena which gave us a lot of opportunity to see the beautiful countryside. It is an agricultural area filled with rolling hills, cyprus trees, grapes, sunflowers and artists. Before 1348, Siena was a major city with a strong financial and trade center. After the bubonic plague swept through Europe, the city lost a significant portion of its population and the city never recovered to the status they had been before - comparable with Florence, Venice and Paris. The medieval city sits atop a hill with the large main square of Il Campo as the central point. The city tower and city hall dominate this area. The nearby main promenade has a variety of restaurants and shops but I found the shops in alleyways to be the most fascinating. The Duomo cathedral was extremely ornate on the outside. The inside had wide expanses of flooring that was inlaid and carved stone of biblical scenes. We are staying at Palazzo Bruchi B&B which is a 17th century villa overlooking the countryside but close to the city center. It has a tranquil interior courtyard, ample breakfast each morning and pleasant surroundings. There is a kitchenette down the hall from our room that we have been preparing sandwiches, soup and salads with produce we get from the local mini grocery and fruit stands. Needless to say, I am still throughly enjoying the gelato!

And Yet More Rome

Rob and I reserved early morning tickets for a guided tour of the Galleria Borghese and the adjacent secret gardens. The entire area is surrounded by a pleasant tree filled park in which we saw runners, dog walkers and musicians. The museum was originally built for social gatherings and to house a spectacular collection of paintings and ancient sculptures owned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V. The villa was constructed in the beginning of the 17th century and substantially restored at the end of the 18th century. The gallery represents works by the most renown Italian and foreign artists of the 16th and 17th centuries. Baroque sculptures, including Bernini's David and his statue of Apollo chasing Daphne are magnificent. Most of the archaeological collection was sold by Camillo Borghese, husband of Paolina Bonaparte to Napoleon in 1807 and transferred to the Louve in Paris.
Later in the day we took the train to Ostia Antica. This is a 2000 year old town that was a thriving port city until the Tiber river was relocated after a flood. We saw the remains of docks, housing, shopping arcades, baths and business districts. A small museum houses some of the excavated finds. We also spoke to several students doing archeological excavation work on behalf of a 3 year program coordinated by Kent in the UK and UCLA in California. It looked like painstaking, precise work under grueling conditions!

More Rome

Spanish Steps, Pantheon, St Peter-In-Chains church, Dolce Vita stroll, Piazza Del Popolo, Capital Hill Square, Victor Emmanual Monument, Grand Staircase, Palantine Hill. Pineapple gelato helped to cool me down in the afternoon. It was sooo good. I want more!

Rome

We have had a fantastic 3 days in Rome thus far. The weather has been scorching hot and very humid. Anyone who knows me knows that I do not like hot weather one bit but I am holding up pretty well. We are staying at the Hotel Oceania which is conveniently located near the Termini train station and Metro stop. We have been taking Metro when possible but have literally walked miles and miles every day taking in all of the historic sites.
I'll add more narrative to this post later for the specific places we have been:

Trevi Fountain - was one of my favorite sights. It is a beautiful sight that is not directly approachable by any streets. We were walking down a small alley way and there it was. The structure by Nicola Salvi was completed in 1762 after being commissioned by a pope to celebrate the reopening of the aquaduct.

Colosseum - 2000 year old engineering feat through the use of concrete and the rounded arch. Doric, Ionic and Corinthian are all examples of Greek columns that were used in the construction of this huge amphitheater. I shudder to think of the cruel, barbaric and death resultant activities that took place there. Ugh - all in the name of entertainment.

The Arch of Constantine - Marking the turning point in history for Christianity, the arch is covered with recycled carvings and ornamentation.

The Vatican Museum - We bought tour tickets in advance and avoided a 3 hour line to get in. and they were worth every penny! Immense museum with unforgettable works that are mind numbing in their beauty and scale. Sculpture, Tapestry, Fresco's, Paintings, Contemporary... the list goes on and on.

Sistine Chapel - Michelangelo's work is astounding and even more breathtaking in person than I imagined. The story behind it truly fascinating.

St. Peter's Basilica - Enormous doesn't begin to describe the church. I was in awe. Michelangelo's Pieta, Bernini's bronze canopy, entombed pope's of the past, statues of saints, the magnificent dome...

Roman Forum - The walk took a few hours but we were rewarded with history and sights of the Arch of Titus, Basilica of Constantine, Temple of Julius Caesar, Caligula's Palace, House of the Vestal Virgins, the Curia, Arch of Septimius Severus and the list goes on and on and on.

Off to Italy!

We decided to go take public transportation to the airport. Marilyn dropped us off at the park and ride, we caught an express bus downtown, switched to light rail to Tukwila and then caught a shuttle to the airport. So easy! I had forgotten my Alaska Airlines Gold card at home and was annoyed I had to stand in the long line at airport security versus the short line. I'm going to have to get used to it soon because my airline preference status has gone way down since I don't travel as frequently as in the past. I posted these pictures from the Alaska board room at Seatac airport before we left but didn't have time to add any narrative then as Rob was telling me to hurry, hurry, hurry. I did, but our flight from Seattle was delayed 45 minutes. We were fortunate to get an exit row which was comfy but we froze the latter half of the flight. Note - that was the very last time we were cold as Rome is hot and humid right now! Rob was so cold (very unusual for him) on the plane, that he used some plastic cellophane that the airline blanket had come in to wrap around his feet. We originally had a two hour layover in Newark before heading to Rome but that vanished after being put into a hold pattern and circling for more than an hour. We raced from one gate to the other and were the last passengers to board the flight moments before the door was pulled shut.
I had been in an absolute dither over what to bring as a knitting project on the plane. I had already planned on some socks, but since I only had two backpacks to carry, my space was limited. I decided on using some Silk Maiden handpainted yarn and the Evelyn Clark's Swallowtail shawl because it didn't take up much room and it would be challenging enough to keep my interest. Everyone else in the world seems to have knit that shawl and now it is time for me to knit one as well. I felt a bit guilty over not taking any Nihon Vogue projects. Hopefully I won't regret my decision.

Nihon Vogue - Aran Sweater complete!

Happy Birthday greetings to my dear friend Naomi today!
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Or perhaps thousands upon thousands of stitches? It has been difficult to muster up desire to knit recently because it has been so darn blistering hot. Our thickest, wooliest Nihon Vogue projects seemed to coincide with the warmest weather on record in the Pacific Northwest. The Gansey. The Aran. The Yoke. All of mine done up in wool or some "7 times warmer" blend of. I joined Rob and Whimsy at the lake last week one evening for a picnic and a chance to cool off. Whimsy "lives" for swimming to retrieve the water kong Rob throws for her. Boaters and swimmers surrounding us were enjoying refreshing activities in the water. Where was I? I was sitting in a lawn chair with a hot bundle of alpaca-wool in my lap! Diligently working on the short rows for the aran collar. The people around me must have thought I was as wacky as the elderly gentleman who was sitting in a lawn chair at waters edge catching nothing but sinewy weeds.
I made this Aran sweater as a gift for Marilyn, my mother in law. She is slender and frail and I wanted to make something that would keep her warm in the winter but didn't have too much weight or bulk to it. The yarn is luscious and one of my all time favorites to knit with. I just wish it was easier to find in local yarn stores - the color palette is remarkable and the yarn is so soft! It is a 50-50 blend of alpaca and wool called Lana D'Oro from Cascade Yarns. I chose the lattice like cable pattern because it reminded me of Marilyn's garden trellis. She is an amazing gardener! I modified the trellis cable pattern to add an additional 1/3 of the width for the back pattern. I then divided this in half to get each set that is on the front of the sweater. In order to ensure that each pattern alongside the button bands were reverse images of each other, I had to trace the backside of the pattern by putting it up against a window and then converting those symbols to cable stitches. This way the stitch patterns are not the "same" on the front but rather exact "mirror" images of each other. So far so good.
Arans are my favorite style of sweater to knit and this one was no exception. I did 2x2 ribbing with invisible cast on and bind off that had been taught in Nihon Vogue Year 1. New learnings for this sweater were the saddle shoulders in which the pattern design on the *almost* center of the sleeve continues up over the shoulder to the neck. Almost center because the pattern is shifted forward a bit so that it appears to be centered when the sweater is worn. I decided to take on the task of doing an optional collar because I wanted Jean's guidance on how to do it correctly and there isn't many projects left in Year 2 in which a collar can be incorporated. I have not liked knitting collars in the past - mostly because it would end up the same length all the way around. In order for it to be long enough in the back to form an appropriate sized collar stand, the front collar points are very long and resemble something out of the 1970's. The answer to this dilemma is short rows! I picked up stitches around the neck, went back to the shoulder, turned and knit to the opposite shoulder, turned and then did 7 stitch increments of short rows on each side, back and forth, for the remaining portion of the collar. Amazing how short rows can make a collar look so good! I then picked up along the collar and sweater body seam to knit a 1 cm long facing. I sewed that down using Jean's whip stitch method for securing. Arlene, Phyllis and I have all done collars and are so pleased with the end result using facing. It makes the sweater look finished and dare I say professional? No more naked collar seams for us! I sewed on 10 buttons & backing buttons and called it "DONE". I really like the sweater but in my self critical way, decided I would have made a minor change had it been possible. I was quite focused on the widths of the cables bordering the trellis cable pattern (they all were 4 row repeats). If I were forced to re-design this sweater I would make one of those 3 cables an 8 row repeat but same width. All in all, a fantastic Aran experience and one in which I learned techniques I plan to use again and again.

Boston

A few weeks ago I went on a business trip to Boston and attended a fantastic conference on 'Building Learning Communities". I almost felt guilty being in the comfort of an air conditioned hotel room and conference facilities while Rob and Whimsy dog were cooking in 104 degree temperatures at home... One free evening I spent some time walking around the city - Boston Commons, Faneuil Hall and Beacon Hill. I wandered into Newbury Yarns and Windsor Buttons. Newbury Yarns is owned by Aldrich, who was helpful, engaging and simply delightful. The shop was pleasant and located in a very energetic part of the city. If I lived in the Boston area I would be spending a lot of time and a lot of money in that wonderful shop! I bought some handpainted yarn for a shawl and some sock yarn. Windsor Buttons has been in business for going on 75 years which is amazing in and of itself. They had a whole wall of button boxes behind the counter. I couldn't see the buttons very well and I wasn't sure if leaping over the counter for closer inspection was an option or not. I did find some cute star shaped buttons in maize, seafoam green and aqua blue colors that I am going to put on a baby boy sweater to be designed for an expectant co-worker. I have 3 colors of yarn and need to find two more to complete the design. I wonder if I can turn it into a Nihon Vogue project? Hmm. Probably not. The button store also carried a nice assortment of yarn and sewing notions. They had a huge selection of knitting books and patterns. At Windsor Buttons, I bought a skein of Hand Maiden sea silk yarn which is gorgeous, however, I realized after getting home that I got ripped off by paying $6.00 more than typical retail price. Oh well. Reminds me of a very popular local yarn store that I no longer frequent because of the more than lavish uplift in their prices. I only make that mistake at each store once! :) I took the very crowded subway to Harvard University and walked around Harvard Yard, the campus, bookstore and nearby retail establishments. Harvard Square enticed me with a cupcake shop called Sweet. A case full of unusual combinations that looked nothing less than scrumptious. The cupcake was a special treat and the young woman helping me was sweet too.