#5

Dear Grandma,

As promised, here is the photo of the cowl that I made mom. I had no choice but to use this photography trick because Sensei was not around to take the photo. Sorry for the blurriness, I obviously needed to pull out the tripod.

Mom's cowl is knit with two strands of gray Lavish Alpaca and one strand of black Kidsilk Aurora, knit on size US 11. I just made the pattern up as I went. If I was to do this over again, I know exactly what I would change. I think it is a little big in circumference. So we are going to see what mom thinks and I will make changes of needed.

And I totally forgot to share with you these photos from Christmas at Todd's house.

You can see that Grandma, your daughter, has not forgotten how to play the piano. Cody pulled out some sheet music and she played some Christmas carols for all of us. Did you notice the black and white photo of her on the piano just to the right? Yep, it is the same piano that you bought back in 1930 from KMJ AM580 that they used during their radio broadcasts. Well as you know the piano left the family when Grandma sold the house. Well after 30+ years Aunt Wilma spotted a piano in an antique store that she thought was the same one that you had owned. She called Mom and Grandma and said, "Jalaine, I think I found your piano!" So they went to the antique store and immediately they knew it was the same piano, but found that someone had placed a deposit. Mom was determined to get the piano and after chatting with the perspective buyers and opening her check book, the piano was safely returned to Grandma's house again. Fast forward several years, Grandma gave the piano to Todd and Michelle because my nephew Cody we discovered had a real musical talent and started playing.

#4

Dear Grandma,

I made someone smile, well to be specific, I made Jessica smile. She reads my blog and listed it as one of 10 blogs that make her smile, nice huh? So now I have to pay-it-forward and award another 10 people. So I am supposed to award 10 blogs that make me smile which is hard because I follow a lot of blogs, but here goes in random order...

Janet - Twisted Knitter
Cindy - Snidknits
Janice - Knitflix
Nathania - Purls Beyond Price
Cookie/Kristi - Knitters Anonymous
Carrie - We do not have a knitting problem
Alison - Spindyeknit
Delia - Wine and Needles
Mary - Spinnity

Margit - Fiber Fiend

Sorry Grandma, I know you don't read anybodys blog but mine, I love your dedication to your granddaughter; but I give you permission to explore other blogs.

Love,

Lisa

#3 Lots of photos

Hi Grandma,

Sorry I have not written in a while. My friends Rita and Robin mentioned that it was about time to send you another post. They stay on top of me and keep me in line, you would be proud. Anyway, just wanted to update you on what I am knitting, have knitted and where I traveled since I last wrote.

A couple of weeks ago I took a fair isle knitting class at Purlescence Yarns. I have always been interested in fair isle, but truth be told, it scared the hell out of me. What do you mean that I have to hold more than one strand of yarn and use both hands to do it??? But I persevered and truth be told, I LOVE fair isle. I want to knit nothing but fair isle from now on. Well, I might be getting a little too excited, but still. So I knit this hat for my boss' mother who is going through chemotherapy. She is a huge San Francisco Giants fan and wanted a hat to represent her team. I went looking for a color chart pattern that I could use in a hat and ran across Fiona Ellis book Inspired Fair Isle Knits. In her book she has this color work on the hem of a short sleeve top but I thought that it would work great for a hat. See??

I am so proud of that hat I can't even tell ya, but I will show you my floats in the inside, pretty huh?

Ravelry details here. I do think that I am going to be knitting more of the same pattern, just in other "team colors" for friends and family because I really enjoyed making this one.

Continuing with my love of fair isle, I am knitting currently Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang. I have one completed now...

And the second one will be done shortly, (Ravelry details here.) I stopped working on the second one because mom had a request for a cowl to keep her neck warm. Well, she did give birth to me, so I stopped everything and whipped one up for her. I just made the pattern up as I went along. I will show you pictures and explain what I did in my next post, I still have to send it to mom and I don't want to spoil her surprise.

Sensei and I took a little trip to San Diego this past weekend. We were a little afraid that we were not going to get there using Interstate 5 but the weather cleared up just long enough for Cal Trans to open the Grapevine back up after being closed for two days. This is what we saw as drove through...

I know that it has snowed on the Grapevine before, I just have never drove through the area when it has snowed. But we made it to San Diego in one piece. Had a nice dinner with some friends Friday night. Got up Saturday morning, went to Qualcomm Stadium to catch a shuttle bus to go and watch this guy...

We watched Tiger Woods play at the Buick Open on Saturday. The weather was beautiful, Tiger was phenomenal. Grandma, he really is something to watch. I like golf, I play golf, I don't like to watch golf, but I would have followed him all day. The only problem with following Tiger over a 18 hole golf course is that you have to jockey a position to see him with the other 200 people following. Now, there are strict rules of 1.) NO CAMERAS 2.) NO CELL PHONES. I follow the rules most of the time, I do, really. But I checked my cell phone messages in the bathrooms near the 7th hole, I was not the only one and I managed to snap these photos on the 18th hole while sitting in the bleachers, come on, I had to its Tiger Freakin Woods!

I think Tiger just spotted my camera...oops!

Then on Sunday we went to a karate tournament that Sensei was officiating. After the tournament we went to dinner with friends from Cincinnati that were in town for the karate tournament also. Monday we got up and started home about noon and there was a little bad weather on the Grapevine going back but we made it home safe and sound.

Ok Grandma, I will be showing you the cowl I made mom and the new knitting technique that I learned at the knitting guild meeting last week next time.

Love,

Lisa

#2 (Photo and video heavy)

Grandma Davis,

Last night I got the good fortune to be offered these...

So I took my friend Robin. She is a knitter too. We even brought knitting with us to work on during the game but... we were having to much fun and it looked like we were going to see a fight... There was no fights at the game last night, but we did see this... (click on photo)

And then a really nice man wearing a suit coat in an odd shade of violet handed me this...

I was not using foul language, at least not at the hockey game, but I did get up from my seat during play. I wanted a beer and a pretzel, what can I say???

We saw some really good action. I can say that now I am quite a San Jose Sharks fan!

Grandma Davis, I am telling you, going to a hockey game is like going to a big party with a sporting event happening at the same time. I am going to have to be on my best behavior at work so I could have the good fortune of getting the company tickets again!

The Sharks beat the Vancouver Canucks. Robin and I had a VERY WELL DESERVED night out!

Oh and I have some new yarn to show you too, maybe tomorrow, I will have the pictures ready.

Love,

Lisa

(Sharks newest fan, go #25!!)

#1

Dear Grandma Davis:

I want to tell you about my weekend. Friday night Sensei** and I went to the movies, we saw I Am Legend. It was really suspenseful and a little heart tugging in a few spots. The special effects are fantastic too. Movies have come a long way since your time. Then on Saturday, I worked for a while, needed to get caught up on some stuff since I was gone so much during the holidays. After work on Saturday I went on a little shopping spree at the mall. Got some stuff at Target that I needed and then I got these. Sensei does not like them but he said if they were as comfortable as I said they were and I liked them, that was all that mattered. Grandma, I love these shoes! I want some in different colors now.

Sunday, my friend Colleen and I went up to San Francisco to take care of some business for mom and do some shopping. We went yarn shopping. Yarn stores are so different now than when you were buying yarn let me tell you. First we went to the world famous Artfibers. Grandma, they let you knit a swatch of any yarn to see if you are going to like it, how cool is that? So I knew I wanted to try one particular yarn that I have been admiring from afar. And sure enough, I bought all they had in stock, 583 yards, 265 grams. I will be getting more.

Sorry, the picture is not that good; I forgot my good camera and had to use my camera phone. Yes, grandma, phones have cameras in them now, but that is a whole other discussion! But for a better look at the yarn, here is it on their website. My colorway is #20.

Then we went to another yarn store to see what they were like, Noe Knits. The staff was very friendly, kept checking with us to see if we had questions etc. The store was sort of shabby chic, I liked that, but they didn’t have a lot of stock, seemed a bit empty to me. But the worst part about the store was the lighting. It was horrible. I could hardly see the colors of the yarn, the true color. I did however purchase two hanks of Peruvian Tweed. The yarn is 100% alpaca and has no dyes, the yarn is the color of the alpaca, and I loved that idea. I didn’t get a picture of those this time, but you can see the one I got here. I will have my Ravelry site updated this week with the new yarns.

After all the yarn shopping, we were hungry and thirsty, so I took her to the Haight and we we went to Cha Cha Cha. The food is yummy Caribbean food served like tapas and to wash it down, sangria. They are pretty proud of the sangria, it is very tasty. When I lived in the city, it was one of my favorite places to eat.

Ok, I have some WIP’s to show you next time and I promise more pictures in my next letter, for now, back to work for me!

Lisa


**New format, new name for the significant other formerly known as Richard. He is actually a Sensei, so that how I will refer to him, he likes some anonymity.

New Year, New Format

This is the first official post on my blog for the 2008. I wanted to try something new this year with my blog posts. It seems to me to be easier to write my posts like I am writing a letter to someone. My Great Grandmother Myrtle Davis was the first person I came to know in my life to work with yarn, she crocheted. So my posts will be addressed to her. Now, it has been many many years since she has passed, but I feel that if I was to talk about my knitting she would be the one that I would want to talk to because of all her years of experience. I know in my heart of hearts that she is looking down on me now and laughing with that great smile of hers and saying, "Well, out of all of them, Lisa is the last one I thought would knit!" Confession, I was a bit of a Tom-Boy when I was little, not much about wearing dresses etc. I grew into a fierce love of lipstick and shoes in my late teen years. But, Grandma Davis is right, I have shocked a few of my family members with my knitting projects. For 2008, my goal is to shock them even more! Starting with Eunny Jang's End Paper Mitts. I have the yarn, will be learning stranded knitting in the very near future. Then, on to Alice Starmore!!