Aloha...

Aloha!

As the sun rises on a new day
our love will grow in a special way

Lisa Jalaine Lowery

and

Richard Dean Barefield II

ask that you join us for an intimate ceremony

of the beginning of our new life

together as husband and wife

Sunday, the tenth of October

two thousand and ten

at eight in the morning

Ko Olina Beach

Kapolei - Oahu, Hawaii

Yep! We are getting married. And yes, you read that right, we are marrying at 8am. Since we picked such a popular date, 10/10/10 that was the only time that we could get the wedding photographer that I wanted. Needles to say "he" is not happy about the time. I pointed out that we have gotten up as early or even earlier for karate tournaments and tennis tournaments, he can do the same for his wedding. So the upshot to marrying that early on a Sunday morning is there will be less people out on the beach, the lighting will be amazing and there will be little to no wind. The pictures should be fantastic. We are going to a champagne brunch afterwards and then later that night we are going to get our luau on!

At the request of friends and family, here is a link to our wedding website:

http://barefield-lowery.ourwedding.com/

And here is our wedding (actually honeymoon) registry: https://www.marriottregistry.com/Lisa-Richard

Ok, I am off to do some more wedding planning. Contemplating veil or no veil?

Hello...(tap, tap) Is this thing on??

It has been FOREVER since I last blogged. So much, yet nothing much as been happening if you know what I mean. There has been some knitting, not as much as I would like though. I will very shortly have some BIG news, if I still have an audience! So stay tuned...

This is a hint!

Little Bundle of Jordan Joy...

When I learned the news of my younger brother and his wife expecting child number three I knew immediately that I must knit a baby blanket. They had decided not to find out the sex of the child prior to delivery so I had to decide on a neutral color and pattern for the newest Baby Lowery.

Yellow always seems to be the "neutral" color everyone uses, however I am not a big fan of yellow and decided that a pretty spring like green would do the trick. The pattern I chose was one that I had admired for a while now and was pretty simple to make.

Pattern: Eyelet Squares Blanket by Linda Cyr

Materials:Valley Yarns Valley Superwash DK
Colorway: Grass

Amount: 7 skeins = 959.0 yards (876.9m)

Needles: US 6/4mm

Start Date: September 2009

Finish Date: February 2010

For the record, this yarn is fabulous! It is a superwash merino and knit up, it is very soft and squishy, it is perfect for babies. This yarn has great stitch definition and I am seriously looking forward to knitting with this yarn again. I love this so much that I want to buy a bag of it in every color. I will caution you, swatch, swatch, swatch if you are going to knit a fitted garment, (you should be doing that already, right!) but this did grow once washed. That was not a problem for me, I was happy that it did being a blanket and all. The pattern was not difficult, I only took as long as I did to finish because I was knitting other projects with Christmas deadlines.

With the left over yarn that I had I knit a matching hat for her. Again, this yarn worked perfect for this newborn hat, so soft for her tender little head. May I present Jordan Joy...

Proud Big Sister and Big Brother

I still have some of the green Valley Yarns Superwash DK left over, I am thinking booties!!

Winter Olympics 2010

As the world gathers in Vancouver tonight for the opening ceremonies of the 21st Olympiad, I along with thousands of other knitters will be watching and knitting. Knitters like a challenge and we have adapted our own sort of Knitting Olympics. I have picked my event, WIP Dancing and I will be challenged for sure!

Do you remember this project that I agreed to knit?




There are a few more rows on there since this picture has been taken.

Well, my challenge will be to finish it by the time the put the flame out in Vancouver. Now as a recap, every row/tier takes 5 hours to complete and I have a whole hell of a lot of rows/tiers to complete to make this a full size blanket. I will be posting progress photos as I go along. Wish me luck, I really want to have this completed and presented to the future owner and release one more obligation in my life :)

Waves in the Square

This past Christmas I decided that I would knit my niece and nephew blankets because I have not yet, I was making their new baby sister or brother a blanket and lastly, why not?

Pattern: Waves in the Square Blanket

Modified Waves in the Square Shawl
Materials: KnitPicks Swish Worsted

Colorway: Indigo Heather
Needles: US 7/4.5mm
Start Date: November 2009
Finish Date: December18, 2009

So I began my search of a pretty blanket pattern to knit in the round from the center out. With much searching on Ravelry I did not find anything that I really liked. But I did remember that I had bought the Waves in the Square Shawl pattern by Sivia Harding and thought to myself, I can adapt this pattern! And so I did (with some feedback from some knitting friends.) I started the blanket with a circular cast on by Judy Becker, filled in the center of the blanket with seed stitch and did the written increases until I came to the correct amount of stitches to start the pattern as it was charted out. I am not totally pleased on my choice of center fill space because it sort of puckers, but all in all, I am pleased with the whole project. I am sure that it puckers because I did something dumb and not because of the cast-on.

The color was decided by my sister-in-law, I was not sure what my niece's favorite color was this week, so I emailed a color card to her and had her pick for me. It was a huge hit.

My brothers family came up just before Christmas to visit and gifted the blanket to her then. The best part is, my niece LOVES it! I asked her how she liked the blanket and she said that she uses it all the time, that makes an Auntie happy.

Next time....Another blanket and my new niece!

Happy New Year??

You betcha! 2010 WILL BE a good year, I am going to make it the best year of my life. So either you are on board with me or get out of my way.

2009 was not so nice to me on several levels, especially the second half of the year, hence the lack of blogging. But after reading some blogs that have recapped the year I thought that would be a great start to this year. I am going to "borrow" Delia's recap idea (her year was much nicer than mine.)

January: Went to my families annual post Christmas Griffin Family Gathering. Lots-O-Fun, we do the gift stealing, this year I came home with a nut chopper.


February: Got a new DSLR a Cannon Rebel XSi (450D). And I went to Stitches West, it is in my back yard practically how could I not? And if you want to see my daily posts click on the following links, Day1 Day2 Day3 Day4



March: Spent the day with my niece and nephew in Bakersfield and took them to the park.


April: Went to Sensei's family reunion in Fresno, lots and lots of family. Also, had dinner with high school friends, Denise and Gina. It was great to catch up!


May: Sensei and I went to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium for the day, was a great day.


June: Was a sad month, but I am sure I did something fun ?!?! Points for someone that can tell me something good about this month.

July: Was a sad month, but I am sure I did something fun ?!?! Points for someone that can tell me something good about this month.

August: I went to the Sock Summit in Portland, Oregon and met Barbara Walker and Meg Swansen. My daily posts about SS09 can be found here, Day1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Out-takes




September: Reconnected with a couple of high school friends, Debbie and Michelle. We had lunch in Fresno and played catch up of almost 19 years!


October: Went to Bakersfield and watched my nephew play fall baseball and Sensei play in a tennis tournament. That is my brother pitching to his son, cute...



November: My sister-in-law and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner at my Mimi's house and we wore our new cute aprons that my friend Jill hand sewn for us.


December: I had a birthday. My younger brother and his family came up from Bakersfield to see me in San Jose and my mom in San Francisco. While in San Francisco, the girls (Mom, Crystal, Caitlin and I) went and had tea at Crown and Crumpets in San Francisco, that was wonderful. And I have lived in San Jose now for 5 years and this is the first year that I have been to Christmas in the Park. The kids really loved it and it was fun for me too!