Happy Holidays From The Whidbey Wagners

Happy Holidays To All Our Family and Friends.

Here we are again! The Wagner newsletter with everything we’ve done condensed into one tiny page. Are you ready? Here goes! We were home most of January; went to an Elderhostel on the Oregon coast in February; March we watched our new flagstone patio and rock garden go in; April and Meghan was here for Spring break and Easter; Jim was in the Round Whidbey Race in May; June we hosted friends Debbie Miller and her boys, Nick and Joe, as well as my niece, Bridget, and her husband, Walter; July we hosted our annual 4th picnic with Liebman family and friends; Missy and Scott and Libby were here; we worked as breakfast co-chairs for Whidbey Island Race Week, serving breakfast to all racers during the week of sailboat racing, and we took a weekend overnight to go to church at St John’s Cathedral in Spokane where the altar flowers were in memory of Karen; in August we sailed on our boat off and on, and Debbie and husband, Ray Parise and Joe and Nick stopped for an overnight on the way to their summer stay on Orcas Island; September was a trip to visit the Muckleteo Light with friends Janet Schlaifer and Mark Casteel and again to Pt Townsend to the Wooden Boat Festival; as the month ended we became proud owners of the Karen Marie Too, a Hunter 30, and the Karen Marie I had been sold ; in October we spent a week in Washington DC with Libby (WOW! What a visit!); November we hosted Libby, Missy and Scott, and Jim’s nephew and wife, Brett and Kathryn for Thanksgiving(they got out just in time before our first snow of the year-see picture above); in December we went to Southern California, making two stops along the way to visit friends. That’s all we did! Other activities include a membership in the local Oak Harbor Yacht Club where we go for hamburgers on Friday nights and talk about boating and boating and boating. We also belong to the Deception Pass Sail and Power Squadron where we have taken classes to become better boaters and joined in their meetings and other activities like picnics and cruises. (In the middle of all this, we got new hardwood floors and started a remodel on the kitchen!)

We are getting good at hosting people on the island, and we hope many more will come. We keep reminding ourselves we are a “Destination Place.” Not us, but Whidbey Island. It is truly a great place to visit and live. The saying is, “Everybody on the island has a view!” It’s true since everywhere on the island is some wonderful natural spot. Of course, Puget Sound is the best part. We also love to see Mt Baker jump out on beautiful days. Our view even includes the distant Olympics, and on really clear days, we see Mt Rainier. Can things get any better?

We hope to know Seattle better next year. Libby bought a townhouse in West Seattle this fall, and we can jump right into town from there. Also, we have discovered the train that runs from Vancouver, BC to Portland, with stops in between. Virginia took it to Portland in September for a quick overnight visit with Debbie Miller and family and then to Ashland and Shakespeare. The train is also a first choice for going to see Libby without a car!

Missy is still teaching; Scott is still working as an engineer; Meghan is in the 6th grade and plays the flute; Libby is her own business woman and doing well; Grandma Wagner is 96 and still going strong. That’s it for us. We wish you many blessings, joys to share with family, good food, good days and nights, and fair winds at your backs. Cheers!
Wishing you all the Best for the New Year
The Whidbey Wagners

How Time Gets Away From You

Hello Friends and Family! Our fall flew by before we even knew it. Of course, much time was taken with our new sailboat. There was lots of moving in activities and finding just the right place for all things boaty. Imanaged a trip to Ashland with friend Debbie Miller on Sept 16-17. It was a fun beginning for me since I took the train to Portland and then we drove from there. I splurged while we were in Ashland and became a sustaining member so we get early tickets. Debbie and I are already making plans for next year.

Oct 8-15.October raced towards us and our week of sightseeing in Washington DC was soon with us. On Oct 8 we flew out of SeaTac into Baltimore. Libby went off to her seminar on Wednesday and we continued our visit to everything we could fit into one week. We saw wonderful monuments(Washington, Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean, WWII), even better museums (Natural History, Air and Space, Art), and of course, the Washington Cathedral, the Episcopal Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul. We were there in the choir stalls for an Evensong with the men and boys choir singing-WOW! That was a highlight of the trip. The weather was perfect, and although we had expected cooler weather with changing leaves,it was warm and clear.

Oct 20-22.We were home one week when I left to visit friends in Mendocino. I flew out on Kenmore Air out of Oak Harbor, getting a bird's eye view of the islands in Puget Sound and the shoreline of the Seattle area. The weather continued for my trip with perfect sunsets and great clear sun for the whole weekend in California.

Oct 27-28.We were home during the next week, and then we left for our Diocesan Conference at SeaTac. A first for us, it was an event both moving and enlightening. The music was wonderful; the speakers were riveting(especially the priest from St Paul's in New Orleans who shared about the devastation in his parish and neighborhood); the reports were humorous; the fellowship with new friends and old was heart warming. This past Saturday the new Presiding Bishop was installed at the National Cathedral and it was really cool to see the place we had just visited being used for something so significant.

In the middle of all this we had the kitchen counter people in to give us an estimate on new countertips, and we will have them on Wednesday, Nov 8. (Yipee!) And, Jim has covered the yucky wallpaper in the hallway with beadboard, making it look like an entirely new space. (With 8 doors, it needed remodeling!) We are continuting our remodel of the ktichen in small bits. Updates as we go along.

We are making plans for Thanksgiving and having the group here this year. Libby will be over from West Seattle, Missy and Scott fly in from Chino Hills, and Brett and Kathryn will come from Hawaii, too. We have invited Amanda and Toby from Illinois, but not confirmation on that yet. Jim and I are moving onto the boat for the weekend!

(I am knitting gifts for Christmas. I purchased yarn in Ashland and found another yarn shop on a visit to LaConner, only 25 minutes away. I started a scarf featured in Mason Dixon, but I am working hard on gifts right now and it is on hold. I've been on a yarn diet except for Ashland; so far so good.)

Hope this catches us all up with the Wagners and our activities. Rainy and windy today inthe Northwest, but Jim and a friend are off to the Seahawks game! We can only hope they do better than the last two weeks. Cheers to everyone! The Whidbey Wagners

Old News

Check out the old news from our other blog-now deceased. http://geocities.com/jawagners/blog.html?pg=1&cnt=5

Karen Marie II

Things happen that you never expect! We have a new boat, and we'll probably have her in our slip around Sept 20th. We did not buy a Catalina 30;we bought a Hunter 30. She is a much newer boat than we normally have, and much more modern. We'll have hot water and a shower on board! More later for the renaming celebration. The Whidbey Wagners.

Sailing the Northwest

FUN ACTIVITY NEWS!
Hello Friends and Neighbors! Our summer in the Northwest is coming to a close, although sailing is still good all through Sept and into Oct. We have always had to leave to go back to work, but this year we are here to enjoy the sunny days and cooler evenings. Our plans include a trip to visit friends at Kayak Point on a short cruise over Labor Day weekend. (They'll be on the mainland, and we'll be in our boat.) And, we hope to get over to Roche Harbor for a weekend. We are in the grasp of new boat fever! Not new, but different. Our Newport 30, the Karen Marie is a good boat, but not the last boat for us. She has limited space and needs a few niceties to make her really comfortable for cruising. A little like the difference in a tent and a 30' travel trailer with hot water and in door plumbing! We decided a few weeks ago to begin the hunt for another boat, a Catalina 30. We know we want that kind of boat, but they are scarce as hens teeth in the Northwest, and Jim has been a little reluctant to go to California to buy. We'll see if things look any better for finding a boat up here in September, and then maybe we'll look south for the perfect boat. We have decided to name our new boat the Karen Marie II;however, Melissa is holding out for the Karen Marie, Too. She says her sister would understand and think it was funny. The photo is the same kind of boat we will christen as the Karen Marie II.
KNITTING NEWS!
I am finally back to knitting socks. I have loads of warshrags and need to get started on some Christmas presents. I have enough yarn to knit three more felted bags, so I'll start those soon. They will all go as presents. I gave away the orange bag and kept a blue lopsided mistake, although someone told me I can cut it down and sew it up for use as a smaller bag. I think I'll keep the floppy old thing and store yarn in it. It's hanging on the back of my chair right now, doing a good job of that. Christmas means I have to start on my daughter's blanket. I hope I have enough done to give it to her. I have beautiful yarns to knit it in colors of olive, beige, white, burgundy and blue. I'm going to try the Log Cabin blanket pattern in Mason Dixon Knitting.
The day is speeding away, so I'll sign off. Fair winds and following seas! The Whidbey Wagners

August Cruising

August is here and the weather continues to delight us all as the temperature hovers around 75, the breezes are light and the sun sparkles on the water. Jim and I got out on the Karen Marie for a short cruise, but it was not without some lessons learned. His printout from the computer of currents and tides at Deception Pass Bridge was incorrect, and we tried going against the tide. That did not work! We were down to moving at 1/2 knot when we finally turned around and shot out from the shadow of the bridge at 9 knots! Wow, that was a big lesson. Coronet Bay provided a great stop over as we waited for slack water the next day. We did go under the bridge the next morning right at slack tide, proving the point that the correct information is critical for safe travel. We slipped into Bowman Bay right outside the bridge, but the wind and swell made that a very uncomfortable anchorage. In the afternoon we gave up and went back inside the bridge to Hope Island. The mooring buoy we hooked was twisted by the current and wind, making a bumpy anchorage in the evening with lots of banging on the buoy itself. I wondered if we would get any sleep. Finally, Jim tied the buoy up as tight as he could. The next morning we gave it up and went back to Oak Harbor to plan another trip with a better start. We hope to get out again on the 14th, this time under the bridge and across to Lopez and then to San Juan Island. I can't go a whole summer without going to Roche Harbor, my favorite place in the islands, and we want to check out Garrison Bay, too. Maybe we'll even get to Reid Island along the way. Debbie, Ray and boys arrive on Friday for two days, and then we are off again. Everywhere I go I knit washrags. They are the ultimate take along knitting. Happy Days! The Whidbey Wagners.

Cruising

The news from Whidbey Island is good! We had a great visit to Spokane last weekend to visit the cathedral and remember our Karen. It was 99 degrees, hot, hot, but we loved driving around to favorite places. We returned the next day to Libby's in Olympia, and it was hot there, too. We did get our chores done as she prepares to sell her house and move to West Seattle. Our visit to see her new townhouse and lunch at Alki was great! Tomorrow we are finally getting away for a cruise on the Karen Marie, our Newport 30 sailboat. We have been so busy either with guests or activities we haven't been out except one short weekend in June. We hope to try out a few new spots, and it will be our first trip through Deception Pass with our own boat. This trip will be short, home for two days and then right back out for another week. I'm planning meals; Jim is getting gas in the engine, and we are going shopping this afternoon for needed supplies. I will take along my knitting. I have one sock finished from a pair, and I may take that as a small project. Last week I visited Michaels and bought more cotton yarn, at $1 a ball. I can knit those warshrags in my sleep and everybody is getting them. My friend, Jill, has had more than anyone because she keeps giving them away to family! I'm down to the bright orange and lime green colors now, so I think I'll get to keep those. As soon as it cools off, I will start on Libby's log cabin blanket. I bought lots of beautiful wool to knit her a blanket for her living room sofa. It'll be nice on cool northwest days. Happy summer days to everyone! Jim and Virginia on Whidbey.

Whidbey Island Race Week

We are in the midst of Race Week now-Jul 16-July 22. Jim and I are co-chairs with another couple to do breakfast every day. Up at 5:30 and then off to the Yacht Club to watch the racers straggle in after a day of sailing and then a party each night. The sponsors set up booths and party apparatus (with live music) each evening in an enclosed area just for sailors. They are having a good time!!!This year we are still unsure of the number of boats registered. Some say 85 and some say 96, (with as many as 5-10 crew on board) but there are also some 40 tenders, or helper boats with places for crew to sleep, eat and make plans for the next day's race. The first two days they've raced in Penn Cove. What a sight to see them all together out there. We hope the weather holds and they get wind each day. Breakfasts are going well, but we have long naps every afternoon since we are up and out before 5:30. I'm going a little late this morning so I can get some more sausage gravy ready to feed the hungry hordes. At night I knit a little more on either washrags or a hand towel. Summer on the island-what fun!!

Patio Flowers

Our patio is new this year, and all the flowers are blooming for the first time. It is a joy to see them every morning. We sit outside and have coffee, enjoying the great view and the birds flying overhead.

More Warshrags!

I am knitting away, and the latest warshrags are shown here. That MasonDixon book has created a monster knitter. I have projects lined up for months!

July 4th picture of Jim.

Jim, the Karen Marie and his crew took first place in their class for the Thursday night racing series. Good work for Four Old Guys in a Boat! We get to keep the trophy at our house.

Happy 4th and July to All!!

Our 4th started early this year. We had the annual picnic on Sunday the 2nd with our own kids, Libby, up from Olympia, and Scott and Missy, flying in from SoCal. We were joined by the Liebman clan, (Kendra and kids, Kyle and kids and new girlfriend (with her daughter), and Bruce and Jill. ), and new boating friends Janet Schlaifer and Mark Casteel. Great food! Good fun! Beautiful day! Our patio was the star of the show with everything blooming and lots of room for sitting in and out of the sun. We added a few games this year. Giant pickup sticks, lawn checkers and badminton.
Libby stayed an extra few days, and Missy and Scott didn't leave till Thursday. Miss and I got a trip to Ana-Cross Stitch yarn shop where I added to my stash! Oh, no...here I go again. She got wool for socks. I bought wool on sale for Libby's wool blanket. I continue to knit washcloths. I saw white ones for sale in a really neat gift shop, especially for exfoliating your face!! Libby got three to take home with her, white, pink and white, and cream colored. I have completed two more for a gift. After this run, I'll think about finishing my socks, and then on to something else. No more yarn! I'll have to go on a yarn diet now.
Jim and I are busy preparing for Whidbey Island Race Week, the week for sailboat races hosted by the Oak Harbor Yacht Club. We are the co-chairs for the breakfasts served every morning for the entire week. We have been attending meetings getting ready, hoping we get lots of sailors in for big breakfasts before their races.

Additions to Knitting News

Hello Everybody! This blog is much easier to use, so it will now contain info about family friends and my knitting! The Northwest is wonderful. We just finished a great visit with good friend Debbie Miller and her boys, Nick and Joe. We made visits to Fort Casey, Admiralty Head Lighthouse and Oak Harbor. We also got a great sail in on Tuesday afternoon. It was a wonderful day for all. It was the first time for Debbie to see our new house and the great patio. The flowers are blooming now, making it a perfect place to sit and have an afternoon wine cooler. The boys loved our huge back yard with room for baseball and soccer. Jim continues to participate in the Thursday evening sailboat races with a crew of friends. The Karen Marie does really well in light air, and last week they came in 3rd with the two before her the really fast lightweight racing sleds! Jim is having such a good time, he'll probably race in the next series. Missy and Scott and Libby will be here for the weekend of July 1 through the 4th. We'll have a picnic with friends and family on Sunday, Jul 2. We are really looking forward to that. Wish all of you could see how beautiful it is up here; everything is blooming in the sunshine and perfect temperatures. This is really God's country. I'm still knitting warshrags. Every time I knit one, somebody wants it! You may notice the Yoga Lodge now has a place on the links on our webpage. I am going to yoga twice a week with friend Janet Schlaifer. It does her a world of good while she is going through her chemo, and I am stretching parts of my body that forgot they stretched! Try it; you'll like it! Signing off, Va from Whidbey.

A Knitter's Survey

The picture is of wonderful Admiralty Head Lighthouse on the southwest of Whidbey Island. For my birthday Jim bought me a lighthouse license plate so I can support the preservation of lighthouses in Washington. *************************************
Cheryl in Pittsburg had this survey posted on her blog. It's kinda cool. I enjoyed her Irish Hiking Scarf photos so much I found the pattern online. That's next on my list!

Knitting Survey #1

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you? I am not a yarn snob! I know people who only buy imported wools so they can drop names. If it knits, I knit it. Once I bought 6 green garbage bags of yarn at a garage sale!!

2. Do you spin? Crochet? I can crochet a simple afghan and edges around things. Never mastered the granny square.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.) Most of those off and on.

4. How long have you been knitting? Since I was 11 years old.

5. Do you have an Amazon, Knitpicks or other online wish list? Nope, but now that I know about Knitpicks, I’ll make one.

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.) Ocean, ginger, linen. 7. Do you have a sweet tooth? Not really, but I love good ice cream.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Scrapbooking, some sewing.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) Soft jazz, some country (Shania Twain), Michael Buble. I download books from my library to my MP3.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?- Mostly primary colors. Blues, purples and reds. Some pinks. I don’t do much with browns or olive greeny colors.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? Married to the same guy for 40 years. Two unfriendly cats.

12. What are your life dreams? I’m living it!

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? Right now I love knitting with cotton.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? Scratchy stuff.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s? Wash cloths and square things. Hats for chemo patients. Lap rugs for the same group. Dress ups for $5 bears from Walmart top give to needy or sick kids. Socks, and socks and socks.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? Same as above.

17. What are you knitting right now? Wash rags, chemo caps, socks.

18. What do you think about ponchos? Don’t need them in my life.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Circles are good, but sometimes for socks I prefer straight.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Love bamboo, but I also have every other kind and they work.

21. Are you a sock knitter? Yep!

22. How did you learn to knit? All the kids were learning in the 6th grade.

23. How old is your oldest UFO? Uh, I think it is at least 3 years.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird? Hummingbirds are cool. I like Tweetie bird or the chicken in Chicken Little.

25. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

26. Is there anything that you collect? Books.

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? Cooking Light, Chefs, Weight Watchers, Cruising World

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on? Lots of them.

29. Any patterns you have been coveting, but haven't bought for one reason or another??—Nope.

30.What's your favorite outdoor activity? Sailing or camping.

Another Northwest Morning

I get to do the same old thing today-wait for the floor guys to finish putting down the hardwood(remember, we are on island time!); worry about the mess and the house guests next weekend; wish I had a great place to store my stash(I already have one closet dedicated to yarns, etc.); and do laundry. If I get a chance, I'll knit some more on the scarf I started last night-the Squiggly thing in the Mason Dixon book. I want to graduate to lace, but right now I am limiting myself to easy, esay, easy because my brain won't deal with anymore complications. I did finish a Warshrag on Saturday night. Easy knitting, but I made a mistake--so I acted like the Yarn Harlot and worked it out. No one would ever know. It was an experiment anyway. Sunday afternoon I went on a great search for more cotton yarn, and I found some at JoAnn's, but it was not on sale. A lady at church said they have it at Walmart, but it is hidden below some other stuff. I'll check that out later. I do have enough now to make every person I know 14 washcloths!. I think my brain believes if I add to my stash I'll find the perfect project and then I won't feel so distracted, splintered, cuttered and yikes! I am going crazy with all this mess at home. I love those women who wrote the Mason Dixon book for saving my sanity with square knitting! My mantra is "Tomorrow is another day"~ala Scarlet~ I'll be better tomorrow because I go to yoga, my latest cool activity. The weather is OK today, but the clouds are coming in to cover the bright sunny morning. No breeze and the harbor is flat. It is summer in the northwest, a cool 60 degree morning, perfect for coffee on the patio. Have a good one! Va in Washington

Whidbey Knitter News

Welcome to my first blog on life, knitting, island living and other things that come up. This is a scattered time for us. We have hardwood floors going down and the kitchen is torn up, and my knitting is all over everywhere. I feel as scattered with my knitting projects as the house looks. My solution to that is to buy more yarn. Yesterday I made a trip to Burlington to buy cotton yarn to make Warshrags ala the MasonDixon knitting book. At the same time, I started the log cabin squares blanket with some left over cheap yarn, and I tried out the scarf pattern they have using thin and thick yarn, the "Scribbling" scarf. As soon as I can find the digital camera, I'll add a photo of a felted bag made last fall, using leftovers from others I gave away at Christmas, and my latest pair of socks. My stash now has enough yarn to knit 12 pairs of socks. I did give 10 chemo caps to the local Oncology Dept at the hospital, and found out they need lap robes for chemo patients. I've emailed my friend Sandy and we'll try to start a knitting circle for that project. Signing off for now. Va from Whidbey.