Twisted Stitches

Don't Call It A Comeback... Really posted on 8/24/11

2011-06-09T18:21:00.000-07:00

I have been both missing and dreading blogging if that makes any sense to whoever is still intrigued with my blog. Many things have happened, many decisions made since I dropped off the Blogger world. The idea of documenting parts of my life and talking about knitting really excites me, however the time dedicated to keeping the blog up is a bit overwhelming too. So I think I will just make a weekly entry with highlights and updates. Now which day to pick?? That will have to be thought out carefully.

In the meantime I have yet to tell you all about the wedding/honeymoon/vacation! The good, the bad and the absolute funny.

The bottom left picture is of Honolulu and Waikiki beach. The bottom right picture is of the Leeward (West Coast) of Oahu where we stayed. There are four lagoons, we stayed on the northern most lagoon.

Richard and I arrived to SFO for our flight to Honolulu on Friday October 8th packed carefully and ready to go, wedding clothes (dress included) in a garment bag. The flight is fully booked and it is very crowded but I make my way up to the desk at the gate and ask the attendant if it is possible that I could have my wedding dress taken on to the plane before we board and hung in a closet because I wanted to give it the best chance possible traveling to still look ok when we arrive. The Hawaiian Airline attendant informed me that this plane does not have any closets for hanging clothes....I thought I was going to pass out right there. Ladies surrounding me, could see the panic on my face. I suck it up and move on, we board the plane and the over head compartments are filling very quickly and leaving not much room for anything much less my wedding dress and his wedding clothes. I didn't want to look, I sat down in my seat, head in my hands and could see out of the corner of my eye Richard shoving the garment bag into the compartment. The very sweet lady across the isle "supervising" was trying to ease my mind and telling me that he was doing fine and that the dress will be fine with a sweet smile on her face.......the dress was not fine....the rhinestone piece on the waistband was broken when I opened the bag at the hotel. It ended up fine in the long run, the hotel cleaners/alterations mended it enough to make it through the day, the REALLY long day!

We stayed at the JW Marriott in Ko Olina and it was really beautiful. The resort is situated on the most northern man made lagoon on the Leeward Coast of Oahu and is about 45 minutes from Honolulu. The day of the wedding started at 4:15am...yes, you read that right, 4:15am. I had a hair and make-up lady come to the hotel at 5am and we had to be ready and set at 7:30am for our 8am wedding. If you are reading this and know me well enough, you know that we were not ready at 7:30am and the wedding started a bit late, just a bit. The flowers and lei's were delivered, Richard greeted each of our special guest with a fresh orchid lei and they proceeded to the wedding site, the natural cove.

Once I was given word that everyone was in place I headed down to the cove with my new sister-in-laws. It was time, we were a bit, but the sun was shining brightly with a very soft cool breeze and it was 8:15am. As I step down onto the sandy cove and I see everyone gathered, Richard has his back turned to me and chatting with the minister. He had only one request for our wedding day, he didn't want to see me all dressed and made up until the ceremony started, mission accomplished. The minister smiled, gestured towards me and Richard turned and smiled like I had never seen him smile before. The ceremony was a mixture of Christian and Hawaiian traditions which included prayers spoken in English and Hawaiian. And at 8:45am on Sunday October 10, 2010 we were officially married 6 years and 364 days after our first date!

Now, on to the funny! After the wedding ceremony we had our family gather in our room for mimosas and fruit while we took our wedding photos. After the photos were taken we all went the Champagne Brunch right there at the hotel. We are all having a great time, we are hungry and I have had my fair share of champagne. Have I told you that I love champagne? Well since we were not having a large wedding and the brunch would have all sorts of desserts I passed on purchasing a wedding cake. I scoped out the desserts and there was a white cake with some sort of fruit filling and took a slice and went back to the table declaring this our "wedding cake." So we politely took our forks, cut off some cake and fed each other a bite...proper and civil like. Then his "brother from another mother" Troy with my camera in his hand started winking at my husband and saying, "No, No, No you have the feed it to each other" wink wink grin grin. I was oblivious to the cues that Troy was giving; some people would call it tipsy, whatever! The next thing I know is I see cake coming at my face and my husband is trying to pull me towards him all the while he is leaning back in fear of my retaliation that he leans too far back and well you see what happened below...

He broke the chair and fell on his ass!!! Yes, that is me, his wife laughing so hard that I didn't even get up to help him. I can still hear Aunt Gwen laughing and telling Richard, "God don't like ugly!"

After brunch, we all went our seperate ways and we gathered later that night for the luau. We had such a beautiful morning full of laughter and happy tears. We were in a beautiful setting for such an imporant moment in our lives with family and friends and we would have not done it any different!

Aloha!
Ko Olina, Oahu
October 10, 2010

Next blog post, the luau...

Hair and make-up by Face Art Beauty

Wedding Photography by Steve Young

Aloha...

2010-07-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

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??

2010-07-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-02-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

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??

2010-01-08T13:39:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

Hello! Long time no hear, from me that is. I would love to say that I have been SO busy, and while I have been, I have not been too busy to blog. I have gotten really lazy when it has come to blogging and the sad thing is there has been blog worthy content.

There has been knitting, there has been stash enhancements, there has been library additions too. What has not happened is all my laundry completed and put away, every dish cleaned and put away and the spare room still needs much attention. There is still no baby on the way and we will be picking up our efforts at the fertility clinic the beginning of next year.

I promise to post some finished knitting, update on progress of current projects and pictures of it all. Also I will be having my annual birthday blog contest, the prize you ask? It will be a fabulous book, trust me, it is a gem (just ask Meg Swansen.) So stay tuned, check back and I will keep you posted.

Until then, enjoy a picture of my furry little guy.

Sock Summit the Out-Takes

2009-08-18T09:43:00.001-07:00

Ok, this is THE last Sock Summit post that I am going to do, I swear! I wanted to get this out a while ago, but I am still trying to get things back in order post SS09. This post is about random things that happened at SS09 that were very memorable but did not make it into my other SS09 posts. Here goes...

There are a group of 10 of us that know what the meaning of Whoop! Whoop!

You can trade a Voodoo Doughnut for a pair of Mini Socks. This very lovely lady Lynne, sat down at the table I was sitting and really wanted a doughnut so she offered a pair of mini socks that she made for the doughnut, I told her that she could have one, the trade was not necessary and she insisted. So now I have a cute little pair of mini socks!
Cat Borhdi thinks I look like Robin Williams. Well at least the hair part.

Before SS09 I had not known how much my mother and Tina Newton look alike.
They could be sisters (a girl can only dream.) Sorry, the photo of mom is a bit blurry, but you get the idea.

Nancy Bush and Ann Budd were walking out of the convention center on their way to dinner. Jasmin sees them and runs up to them looks at Ann Budd and says, "I loved your daughter in the production of Romeo and Juliet." Ann Budd replies, "That was Pam Allen."

This was taken before the faux pas.

I was interviewed on the local CBS station KOIN 6 about the Sock Summit. This is the only video available online, but there were other segments that ran at different times with more of the interview.

Mittens can be used to cover other parts of your body (and that is all I am going to say about that to protect the innocent.)

Knitters after having several drinks are good negotiators, they could even talk a person out of their clothes (and that is all I am going to say about that to protect the innocent.)

The next time Cookie gives me advice on what classes to take at a knitting event, I will listen. (Regret not taking a class from Anna Zilboorg.)

Some stash enhancement. I really didn't buy much yarn, I bought more tools and project bags than yarn.

Bryson sock blockers with my sock project I was knitting at SS09, Miss Babs sock yarn in My Kelley colorway, Skull and knitting needles project bag in chocolate brown and mint green, Misti Alpaca lace (the entire bag-5 hanks) in a beautiful red at a steal of a price I might add, Thank you WEBS Yarns, Ebony tool named Wanda, Triangular project bag made by Knit, Purl, Sew What?

What do I think if Sock Summit? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt :)

Portland Sock Summit Day 5

2009-08-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

This was a big day. What I did not tell you about the night before is that I sold my Sunday class Textured Colorwork with Chrissy Gardiner for a prawn & scallop dinner to a nice young man Ben. Why would I do that? Cause my class started at 9am and well, I was going to Barbara Walker's hotel room at 10am! The Knitmore Girls scored an interview with BGW and there was not going to be anything that could have stopped me from being there.

So I packed my two BGW books that I brought with me to get signed and off we went. We arrived at the hotel and when I say we, I mean Jasmin & Gigi (The Knitmore Girls) and Chloe, Maribel and I. Now remember yesterday when I saw her in my class with Meg Swansen and took a picture, I cried? Well she opens the door and saw all five of us and sees me, she says, "Oh my there are a lot of you" I reply quickly with, "I promise I won't cry today," cause I am real witty! We all file in to the room, Barbara gets comfortable while Jasmin sets up the equipment and we were all just waiting for BGW to start speaking and impart all her wisdom upon us and she did.

Once Jasmin asked her pre-determined questions she asked us if there was anything we wanted to ask her and my mind went blank. The only thing I could think of was "Chloe has a great question!" And it was a great question, you have to listen to the interview when it comes out because she answers a question that is asked on Ravelry every day.

Now that the question and answer portion of the visit was over I had pulled out my books for her to sign and she did graciously.

Then Jasmin leans in and says, "Isn't there something else that you would like her to sign?" Jasmin put me on the spot and BGW looked at me for the "something else" to sign. So let me go back a few days and explain. Since we took off from San Jose, we have been chatting about this interview, what was going to be asked, speculating where the interview was going to take place, what we would say to her when we met her, so on and so forth. I had a silly idea that I was going to have BGW sign a part of my body, possibly my ankle or foot and have that permanently tattooed on me. This idea started as a joke, but I started to seriously consider it for a few days. I thought what would Sensei say when I came home and my ankle says Barbara Walker? The idea was great fun to imagine how she would react and what she would think and then reason got the better of me (the same reason that stopped me from running up to Meg Swansen and hugging her when I first saw her) and I decided that the tattoo was not a good idea. Besides, how would I feel if she said NO!?!? I would have been shattered. So I quickly explained the idea to Barbara and she just giggled a bit and smiled but still had the pen in her hand. I think she would have done it, I really do.

Barbara G. Walker is one of the most interesting people that I have ever met. I learned so much from her and I did ask her a question that I am not sure we were still taping, but I asked how nice it was that Meg and her were at SS09 and I asked if they keep in touch much. To my surprise BGW said that was about the 2nd or 3rd time they had been in each others presence.
The five of us gathered up our things and BGW hugged each of us, we said our goodbye's and walked on air for the rest of the day.

The last SS09 event was the Luminary Panel. The Panel was moderated by Stephanie Pearl McPhee (The Yarn Harlot) and Tina Newton of Blue Moon Fiber Arts and the consisted of Lucy Neatby, Cat Borhdi, Deborah Robson, Anna Zilboorg, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Meg Swansen, Babara Walker, Judith Mackenzie-McCuin and Nancy Bush...WOW.

This was the second best thing about SS09 for me. Lots of laughs, lots of wisdom and a bit if regret on my part for not listening to a certain friend who told me to take a class from Anna Zilboorg (I love this woman!) Also, since I am not a spinner I have not had much knowledge of Judith MacKenzie-McCuin, but she is a very lovely woman, very classy. One of the many memorable comments from the panel came from Judith. When asked about how large your stash is and how to deal with the possible guilt that comes with a large stash her reply was, Julia Child says that every chef needs a well stocked pantry when inspiration hits so do not be ashmed of your large stash, you need inventory for when inspiration strikes. The good thing is, I believe it was professionally recorded the event from the looks of the camera man in the back and I am sure that the DVD will be available for purchase eventually.

The Luminary Panel marked the end of Sock Summit 2009 and it coincided with what would have been Elizabeth Zimmermann's 99th birthday. A cake was presented, we all sang Happy Birthday and Meg cut the cake and served.

For the full set of my Sock Summit photos you can find them here.
The next post will be full of out takes (they will be fun), stuff I bought and stuff I didn't buy.

Portland Sock Summit Day 4 (long day, long post)

2009-08-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

Ok, where did we leave off? Oh that is right, it is now Saturday of the Sock Summit and today is the day that I am to meet Meg Swansen. There were two major reasons I came to Sock Summit, first and foremost-Barbara Walker and second-Meg Swansen. I had a feeling that this was going to be my one and only opportunity to see these ladies and nothing was going to get in my away. I was fortunate to get a spot in one of Meg Swansen's class, however I did not get a spot in Barbara Walkers class or lecture.

So Maribel and I took the Elizabeth Zimmermann's Wearable Art Stockings and when we arrived to the class only the seats in the last two rows were open. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get there to sit in the front but oh well. Class is about to start and the back door opens, I turn to look to see who is coming in and it is Barbara G. Walker. BGW takes a seat behind me quietly and pulls out her knitting and class starts. I have to say, Amy Detjen (Meg's assistant) IS the funniest woman in knitting.

Meg is witty, charming and knowledgeable; Amy is hysterical, but BGW is sitting behind me and it took everything I had to not just pick up my stuff and sit next to her and see what she was knitting (it was re purposed pinkish mauve yarn and she was knitting socks) , how was her lunch, what did you eat? Ya know, chat like girlfriends. It would have been rather rude to Meg if I did that, so I refrained, until there was a break....

I had this whole well thought out statement of gratitude that I was rehearsing in my head for like an hour and a half. I grab my camera, grab Maribel's arm demanding she come with me and I lean over and with a shaky smile and say,

"Would you mind terribly to pose for a photograph with me?"
She replies, "No, I would not mind."

I could not sit down fast enough, I really thought my legs were going to come out from under me. I put on my stupidest smile and Maribel snaps the photo. Then here is where I am going to regret telling you the whole story. I then slide off the chair, remain squatting in front of BGW and proceed to say,

"I have to tell you, you are THE number one reason I came to the Sock Summit." Queue the very shaky voice and tears (I mean real tears.) BGW give me a Ahh and reached over and touched my arm. I then had more brilliant words to say,

"I am going to go now, I am starting to cry."

Well I was pretty much crying already and I am pretty sure that I bolted out of the room to really get emotional.

I was over the moon! So i had to collect myself and get back to class, break was going to be over and Meg waits on no one. During class, we were witness to Meg Swansen clarifying her understanding of who invented SSK. Meg asked BGW, "did you invent SSK?" and BGW replied, "well, I suppose, I knew of no one else doing that before." And then Amy Detjen cried and the room clapped and cheered.

1. SockSummitPortland2009 073, 2. SockSummitPortland2009 074, 3. SockSummitPortland2009 072, 4. SockSummitPortland2009 071, 5. SockSummitPortland2009 070, 6. SockSummitPortland2009 069, 7. SockSummitPortland2009 068, 8. SockSummitPortland2009 067, 9. SockSummitPortland2009 066, 10. SockSummitPortland2009 064, 11. SockSummitPortland2009 063, 12. SockSummitPortland2009 067, 13. SockSummitPortland2009 064

After class we sat with Judy Becker and had an impromptu lesson on how to hand wind your yarn, I love this woman, she is great! Then we were off to dinner with the ladies of Abstract Fibers. Once we realized what time it was, we hurried off to grab the MAX to get to the Ravelry party. Once we got there albeit late, we still had some fun.

Cristi (turtlegirl71) and Stacey came with us back to our hotel for the After After Party. Well, we had a blast! There was lots of wine then more drinks just started appearing. There are pictures and video, however, I have nothing that is appropriate to share here on this blog. Believe me, knitters DO have fun! I think the video just might find its way to YouTube and become viral!

Stay tuned, there will be more to come tomorrow.

Portland Sock Summit Day 3

2009-08-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, there is so much to say, but lets face it, you just want to see the pictures! So I will keep the talking to a minimum. First up, a Portland must...

And what does come in this pink box....

From this Portland landmark...

Jasmin with her Voodoo Doughnut

And Amanda from Lorna's Laces and Nathania Apple enjoying their Voodoo Doughnuts.

Who did I meet today? Most all of you toe up sock knitters have this lady to thank, Judy Becker of Judy's Magical Cast-on!

She was so lovely and so smart and just a great person to hang and knit with. And other people I met? How about Nancy Bush, she likes Merlot, just in case you wanted to know...

This was taken after a long day and a couple of glasses of wine. She then was heading out to dinner with Ann Budd.

Then we met up with Sandi Wiseheart, wow, she is fun to hang out with!

She and I had the same thing to eat for dinner, Lamb wants a bite too as you can see. I had dug into mine already and decided that I wanted a picture so this is really Sandi's food. It was the best Mac n' Cheese that I had ever eaten!

Besides the Mac n' Cheese, several drinks and laughs (many many laughs, whoop! whoop!) were exchanged.

My market place finds? I found this guy at Skacel knitting all these socks on one really long circular needle.

I bought yarn from Webs, yes, it is lace weight and I am at a sock knitting event, but this was an UNBELIEVABLE price and could not be turned down, seriously

Besides the lace weight yarn, I found this too.

And lets not forget some beautiful tools, these are ebony and I am in love. Now I just have to drop a stitch so I can use one, I am sure that it will happen naturally soon.

I have much more to show you. I am a day behind, sorry I am just having to much fun to keep it timely. But seriously, stay tunned, I got emotional today (Saturday) and you will find out why. It was the whole reason I came to SS09, can't wait to show you.

Portland Sock Summit Day 2

2009-08-07T00:24:00.000-07:00

After such a long day yesterday, I slept in. The hotel that we are staying at is WONDERFUL!! We are at the Courtyard Portland City Center. If you are ever in Portland, you can't go wrong staying here. Today we went to a great cafe on the other side of the Lloyd Center called Costello's Travel Caffe, great food and drinks. After that we ran some errands and then went to the convention center and knitted, waiting for the market preview to open. Lots of new people to meet.

While we were waiting for the market to open, Meg Swansen and Amy Detjen came walking by and I wanted to just run up to Meg and proclaim my admiration of her, but my senses got the better of me, I will just wait until Saturday when I take her class....joking (maybe.)

Not much picture taking today, tomorrow will be better I am sure. But I did manage to take a picture of the hanging art/time piece at the convention center, it was intriguing.

I did buy some stuff today. I will take pictures tomorrow and put proper links to things and people tomorrow. It is late, I am full of pizza and wine and need to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be another big day!

Portland Sock Summit Day 1

2009-08-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, got up at the ass crack of dawn (4am to be exact) after going to bed at 1:30am. I must have been really anxious for this trip. So I was very tired. I got to the airport with Maribel (my knitting travel buddy for this trip) we meet Jasmin and Gigi (The Knitmore Girls) there and while we are in the security line I look over and see this man that looks like Steve Young. So I whisper to the girls, "hey I think that is Steve Young." They looked at me like, ok, who is that? No big sports fans, so I told them who he was. We continue on, get to our gate and I see him again, this time I was for sure that it was him and he was on our flight. So I snapped a couple of pics of him, yes, I kinneared Steve Young. The photos are not quality but it was the best I could do for 5:30am.

We did not approach him for a photo or bother him for an autograph, it was pointed out ot me that 5:30am is not the best time to be bothered with something like that. I sadly agreed and boarded the plane. When we landed, we headed to the bathrooms and Steve was in front of us and as we went through a crowd of people, this guy stopped turned and looked at Steve with a perplexed expression. I looked at the man and said, "Yes, it is him" His reply, "Ok, I thought so."

So Portland is really nice, I am loving it so far. We went to breakfast here...

And then walked around a bit and headed to Powell Bookstore (wow that place is big!) and on our travels there we ran across this...

It is full of water! Promotional thing with Mountain Dew.

Ok, I will check back in for Day 2 tomorrow!!

Socks, Socks and Socks...It is all about the socks!

2009-07-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

As you may already know, I will be heading to Portland, OR for the the 2009 Sock Summit that runs from August 6-9th. I am super excited. I will be Tweeting from the Summit, not sure how much Facebook updating I will be doing but I will have access to email as well. If you are not following me on Twitter, I am Twistedstitches (original, I know!)

I am only taking two classes at the Sock Summit. One class is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Wearable Art Stockings taught by her daughter Meg Swansen. This class among several others has homework! I am a little behind on my homework, but that should be no surprise to many in my circle who know me well. Our homework instructed us to use two colors and any small 6 stitch repeat. They offered a couple of 6 stitch charts but I was not thrilled with them, so I pulled out several books in search of something that I liked better and would fit. This is what I came up with...

It is a bit argylish (if that is even a word!) I chose the baby blue and chocolate brown, I just love that color combination. I have no idea if I am going to make a complete pair or if I will just do one. If I make the pair, I have to find someone that will fit these knee high socks cause they won't go over my huge calves. I am using a superwash worsted weight wool, so they are not going to be socks that you can wear with shoes, they will be just too thick. Oh and the other class that I will be taking is Textured Colorwork Socks with Chrissy Gardiner.

And just in time for Sock Summit, I will have a new sock project to work on. Delia from Wine and Needles and I are having a mini-KAL. Through email and blog postings we discovered that we both had the same sock yarn, Shibui Sock, in the same colorway. This colorway was so hard to capture, it is really a beautiful blue green and I believe the colorway is called Peacock. So I asked her what she was going to knit with it and one thing lead to another and we are both going to knit the Snicket Socks by Sabine Riefler.

If you would like to join us, please do! The official start is tomorrow, August 1st, but by all means, start when ever you want and use what ever sock yarn you want. Since I have rather large feet, much larger than Delia's, I will probably stay up until midnight and cast on, I am gonna need a head start. That is fair, it would be August 1st! Now I know this is not a race, but I would like to have it started so I have some plane knitting on my way to the Sock Summit. Can't wait to see my friends in Portland and meeting new friends too.

Birthday Gift Realized....Finally

2009-07-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

My sweet niece turned 7 back in February, yeah, that was a while ago. I started a cute navy blue cardigan for her but my finishing skills are something I need to seriously work on. The hems looked OK, but they just didn't look quality. My vision was not coming to fruition, so I abandoned that project and started something new for her. Since we were fast approaching summer and she lives in a very hot climate, I decided that A Good Striped Dress was the perfect project.

I did some modifications to the pattern. The first obvious one is that I made this a two color project instead of a 3 color project as the pattern was written. This decision was due to not wanting to purchase more yarn and just use what I had in my stash. The modification was that I did not do as many increases as directed and it ended up not as long either; I was a bit afraid of running out of yarn.

Little brother Josiah had to get into the action of the photo shoot. Let me say, my niece and nephew are NOT camera shy. As you can see, they love each other very much.

See, NOT camera shy. He loves making silly pictures.

And if you don't already know, I am going to be going to Sock Summit!!! Yay for me! I am excited for several reasons.

I will be knitting, duh
I am taking a class from Meg Swansen. (Elizabeth Zimmerman's Wearable Art Stockings)
I am pretty confident that I will be getting a picture of Barbara Walker, even if I have to stalk her or call in the help of some of my knitting buddies (Cookie A, yes I mean you.)
I have never been to Portland, OR and have heard such great things.
Lots of yarn, friends, and well there will be a bit of drinking I am sure.

I will be staying at the Courtyard by Marriott Portland City Center and joining me are my knitting buddies Maribel and The Knitmore Girls (Jasmin and Gigi). Party at the Courtyard!

The Sock Summit is holding a contest called Dye for Glory. Vote for your favorite hand dyed yarns in several different categories if you are a member of Ravelry. For more information, log onto Ravelry and the homepage gives you all the details and to vote, go here.

Are you going to Sock Summit? Am I going to be seeing you there?

Hello, are you still there?

2009-07-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been a long time since I blogged. Several reasons, none of which I can go into length about, but suffice it to say that I have been on a huge emotional roller coaster and I am hoping the ride is about over. I am tired of being poked and prodded. I assure you that I am not terminally ill, but this will all make sense to you sooner or later. Positive thoughts and prayers are welcome. Now on to the fun stuff!

I have been knitting, not as much as I thought I would, but I have been. One project that I am working on is a sample knit for Curious Creek Fibers, that has been going slower than I am comfortable with because well, when I tell you I am going to get it done, I do it. But I have been attacked by the knitting gnomes with this project, I have had to rip it out several times. It is on a small time out for the moment.

Another knitting sample that I have recently completed is a pair of socks for my designer friend Kristi Geraci, Knitters Anonymous.

"Bailiwick was originally created as the pattern for theknitter.com’s September 2008 installment of the sock of the month club. The Bailiwick socks use cable and diamond patterns, which are commonly used in Guernsey (Gansey) sweaters. A bailiwick is an area that is overseen by a bailiff – Guernsey is one of two bailiwicks in the Channel Islands. These socks would be suitable for either a man or a woman, and knit up quickly. The socks are designed to be asymmetric, with the pattern down the leg mirrored from the right sock to the left."

Kristi wanted to show off the pattern in a solid also and I think that a traditional grey looks quite nice! If you want to knit your very own Bailiwick Socks you can purchase the pattern on Ravelry or at Knitters Anonymous.

Remember Stitches West? I do. And my good friends at Purlescence Yarns remembered me too. This past Stitches West I helped them out with the booth set up and a couple of market days. As a thank you, they had a get together for all the helpers and as a thank you I was gifted this beautiful handspun yarn by Sandi (one of the owners) a hand made stitch markers.

Yes, that is my name on those beautiful stitch markers! I am so happy to get some handspun, I have never been given handspun before and I can't wait to see what I can make with it. It is not my first handspun in my stash, but it is the first "knitable" handspun I have. My first handspun, well, you can read about here, the end is the best part. Enjoy.

Secret Lives of Seahorses

2009-05-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

Sensei and I had an unusual day off together since it was Memorial Day and we decided it would be fun to drive to Monterey and go to the aquarium. Ok it was my idea, he agreed. However the "Behind the Scenes Tour" made the rest of the aquarium very interesting for the both of us.

Here are some of the highlights...

The Jellies

Secret Lives of Seahorses
(a new exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium)

I knew there was a reason that I liked seahorses, read this and you'll know why.

Cannery Row

Click here to view the complete set of photos, there are many many more!

Best Boy

2009-05-20T00:03:00.000-07:00

Today is my best boy's birthday, Mugsy turns 8 years old today. I realized that I have never told the story as to how Mugsy came in my life so now is as good as any.

Almost 8 years ago I got a call from my sister-in-law (the one that is married to the cop brother) and she said that she "rescued" two puppies and did I want one? Well, I had been wanting a dog badly, didn't really care what kind of dog, how old, I just wanted one. The only information that I did get was that she had two boy puppies, they thought they were Pekingese and that their neighbor down the street was going to take one and who ever got there first got first pick. I was working in Emeryville at the time and they live in Reedley, CA (south east of Fresno), that is a 4 hour trip easy. So I left the office a bit early on Friday and got on the road. I arrived at the house and there he was, he was not picked by the neighbor. Even though I am his mommy, I think I got the better dog, I saw his brother 3 years later and I really did get the better dog. I got him wrapped up in a little blanket, placed him on my lap and back I drove, this time to home, Vallejo (from Reedley, 5 hours easy!) First thing Saturday morning, I called a vet and took him to get checked out. From the exam the vet said that if he was 8 weeks old, he was barely 8 weeks old.

This was taken July 21, 2001 the day after I picked him up.

A few years later while on a walk with him in Mill Valley, a lady commented what a cute Tibetan Spaniel I had. I corrected her and told her that he was a Pekingese, she insisted that I was wrong. I had never heard of that breed, so when I got home I looked it up and what do you know he was a Tibetan Spaniel. All this time I was waiting for all the hair to grow on him like a Pekingese has, like a fur ball, but nope it never came. There were pictures of other Tibbies on a web site that looked just like him. So I talked to a breeder and found out that Pekingese and Tibetan Spaniels look the same as puppies and develop their minor differences as they grow. The only "Pekingese" feature he has is his face and the breeder says that sometimes Tibbies come out that way. Otherwise he is all Tibetan Spaniel. I am so happy that 8 years ago I just said yes blindly and drove 10 hours to bring him into my life.

Now, knitting. There has been knitting. I have worked on the blanket for my boss. I have knit a hat for my mom and then had it ripped out completely because it was too big. I am working on sock and mittens for sample work. Nothing to show now, but I have knit.

I have been a bit silent on the blog, not on purpose, just happened. My absence is due to some personal reasons, all to which I hopefully can elaborate on more later. Don't freak out, I am not dying or have some terminal illness, just going through some stuff that is fairly draining.

30,800 in 35 hours

2009-04-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

Back several months ago, I undertook a rather large project. I knew it was big, but I was willing to take on the challenge. After 35 hours of work knitting 30,800 stitches, this is what she looks like so far...

Now, how do I know those statistics? I did the math. Yes, I know, I HATE math, but I did it (ok, I had some help)

First I timed myself on how long it took me to do one triangle from the picking up of stitches to the last decreasing join, result-15 minutes. My speed was not crazy fast Miriam Tegels speed but fairly quick. So, there are 20 rectangles per tier to give me 300 minutes, there are 7 tiers completed, that is 35 hours (give or take a few minutes.) Then to obtain my stitch count was easy. My rectangles are 10 stitches wide by 22 rows, 220 stitches per rectangle, 20 rectangles per tier comes to 4,400 stitches per tier and with 7 tiers completed that comes to a whopping 30,800 stitches! Whew, I am tired aren't you?

So, how much more do I have to knit? She wants it like 6 feet long. Unblocked here in the pictures, I have knit 1 foot, I have 5 more feet to go! Hmmm, I am tired of math, so if anyone else wants to figure out how much more time (estimated of course) and stitches I have to knit, that would be fun! Leave me a comment and show off your math skills by May 20th and I will pick someone at random to give a prize. And if you wanted to get real detailed, you can tell me how many rectangles I would need to complete each day from now until October 14, my bosses birthday to be done with the blanket!

Now before you leave me comments like "are you insane? I would never do that!" or "wow, I hope you are getting a raise for that!" or my favorite "Oh hell no! You kidding me, I would say good morning to my boss if I was not obligated!" let me tell you that my boss is a great lady. She gives me tickets (good tickets to boot) to see the Giants play often during the baseball season and is just a caring and fair woman. Besides, she bought all the yarn (and she bought more than what was needed) and said that I can keep the rest.

Ok, I am looking forward to all the comments!

Hellooooo???

2009-04-01T14:40:00.000-07:00

Breaking the blog silence...

I have had no real good knitting to share, no other life altering news to share and so I have been a little silent. I am hoping to cure that very soon with some great knitting. I can tell you what has gone wrong with my knitting lately. The cardigan that I was knitting for my niece, well, my finishing skills are NOT good. I had no clue as to why I thought that knitting a child's cardigan in pieces with set in sleeves was a good idea and that I could do it no problem (right!) The individual pieces were not an issue, unless maybe I didn't think out the way I would do the edges the best way for seaming. Suffice it to say, I seamed it all together less the buttons bands and I am not sure even a good steaming is going to help. I did have her try it on, in the unfinished state and it fit pretty well, sleeve length was perfect, body length was great, the seams - FUGLY! So, she being a very smart 7 year old understood that Aunt Lisa was not perfect and I had to take the sweater back to attempt to finish it. What needs to be done? The entire thing has to be taken apart and re-seamed and I really don't have it in me to do it. I am not even sure if she will ever see that sweater again! But what did make me feel good, she ran out of the room to go and put her socks on that I knit her, brought out Sophie that I made her and told me that she loved them! She knows how to pat an ego...

Here are a few pictures that I took of my niece and nephew while visiting them recently.

Yes, they are cute, yes, they have the same parents (I get asked that all the time.) My brother (their father) and I were just like that when we were little. But here is the most recent picture of my brother and I together taken January 2009...

Left to right, niece Caitlin, Sensei, Me, Mimi (grandmother) Kelly (brother) Crystal (sister-in-law) and Josiah (nephew)

I will have to dig up a picture of the two of us when we were little as a comparison soon.

Intervention?

2009-03-09T12:48:00.000-07:00

I think I just might be a good candidate for the show Intervention on A&E. You know the one that the person with the issue thinks they are part of some documentary on either gambling, drug use, eating disorders, yarn additions, etc etc etc.
Sometime last week I got an email blast from my LYS that they had just received a shipment of Handmaiden Casbah at the store and to come early and soon to get the best selection. Well, I work and live not really close enough to just skip over at lunch to feed my now out of control yarn habit, but a friend of mine works real close and I knew that she was going on her lunch break. So of course I sent her a message asking her to just check things out and see if there were any colors that I would like (she knows what I will and will not knit/wear.) Later that day I got a nice little message telling me that there were 2 hanks on hold for me. Yay!! Take a look at what I added to my stash...

Then this weekend I took a long hard look at my stash, which only maybe 1/3 of it is listed on Ravelry and thought to myself, this is getting out of control! Now by no means do I have the largest stash ever known to man, I actually think that belongs to a woman in Boulder, CO ( you know who you are!) but it is pretty large for me and my standards. In order to contain and keep all my yarn clean and safe until it comes time to be used, I will need to go buy some more storage containers. I need to go on a yarn diet, not buy new storage! I hear of knitting monogamy, I wonder if I can be faithful to one project. In the past I have never been successful at knitting only one project at a time, however, I know that I would have many more finished projects had I tried.

This Casbah is my last stash enhancement for some time. I probably should have passed but I love the Casbah Sock yarn and here is why...

1. Casbah has not felted at all. I have other socks that have felted in the bottom of the foot from wash/wear and feel like lead boots when I wear them. I have wash/worn my Casbah socks just as often, actually more and they have held up like a champ!

2. Casbah has not faded (well not that much.) Other sock yarn that come in fabulous colors have faded significantly with in 1-2 washes. Yes, I am machine washing them in the gentle cycle with cold water and I lay them flat to dry and it still happens.

3. Casbah has a little amount of cashmere and who does not love cashmere on their feet?!?! I sure do. There is 9% cashmere, but that 9% makes a huge difference.

The only downside to the Casbah? The yardage is a little light for a girl with feet my size. I am a 10 (shoe size) I am not ashamed, but I am frustrated by short yardage on sock yarns. So I try to stay away from yarns that do not give me at least 400 yards. I make the exception for Casbah because it is a little bit heavier fingering weight and I can squeak out a pair of either stockinette or ribbed socks for myself with one hank.

Here are a couple of hanks that were already in my stash.

So I am going to put this out in the world as a sort of incentive to keep me on my new path.

I have decided to only knit one project at a time until it is done. I will not be casting on for a new project until all my unfinished projects are completed or totally frogged. The only caveat to this goal is socks; I need a travel project and socks fit that bill.

So wish me luck!!

Oh and in August, I am going to Portland, OR. More about that later!

Stitches West 2009 Day 4 (Final Day)

2009-03-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

Sunday Day 4 of Stitches West 2009:

So this is a sad and happy day. Sad because it is the last day, but happy that you had a chance to see friends from out of town and make new ones too!

Some last minute shopping was done. I got some buttons for my February Lady Sweater and my niece's cardigan. I am not overly excited about them, but I think they will work. At one point lunch was being discussed and a few of us decided to not leave and try to obtain as many of the Grand Prize entry tickets as we could. The Grand Prize is cash, lots of it too, but you have to be present to win. There are also 2nd and 3rd place cash prizes, so it is worth being there. I knew that if I left for lunch and missed the drawing my name was going to be called, right? Well, we stayed and no winners but progress was made on knitting socks.

It was getting later in the day and it was time to say good-bye to Kristi, she had a plane to catch. We hugged and she was off. I was getting hungry but I was not ready to go home for the day and the Stitches Market was winding down and almost closed. So my friend Karol and I decided that we would go and get a bite to eat and knit somewhere. We text message Jasmin of the Knitmore Girls to see what she was doing and if she wanted to join us. Come to find out, she had an interview to do for the podcast with Galina Alexandrovna Khmeleva and asked if we wanted to sit in and then go to the bar, have drinks and wait for her next scheduled interviews. Knitting, drinking and meeting knitting rock stars? Um, hell yeah!

I won't go into details of any of the interviews, you really should listen to the Knitmore Girls podcast for that. But I will say that I learned so much and have such a great respect for Galina. Hugs were exchanged and off to the bar we went. We sort of horned in on a couple of knitters with extra seats and got our drinks, then in walks Maggie Jackson of MaggiKnits. Jasmin knows her from an intern stint at XRX. Maggie and her business partner Julie joined us and we had such a great time talking about knitting, yarn, and other random subjects over drinks. Maggie and Julie were fun, very fun. So as to not spoil who the others joined us for drinks, knitting and chat, you will have to listen to the podcast. I had the best time Sunday night and I went home having met some really fantastic people, thank you Jasmin and Gigi for inviting me to tag along.

Now, finally I have been saying that I would show you what I bought at Stitches. There was not a lot but I am happy with my decisions.

This yarn was bought to make one of my brothers a cabled sweater, it was a fantastic buy for 20 balls of heatherd charcoal fabulousness.

After many glowing recommendations from friends, I decided to get some of Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm 100% Merino sock yarn. The only time I will ever get to see the yarn in person is Stitches. So I hope to have this knit and worn in time for next Stitches so I will know if I want to buy much much more next time.

This is the Malabrigo Sock yarn. The color way says that it is Eggplant, but I only see a hint of purple cast. This is much more of a silvery grey in person. Again, I bought only one to see if I will be in love or not.

And finally the most luxurious yarn that I bought was this Cashmere/Silk 45/55 yarn from RedFish Dyeworks. I got a bit of crap from my friends about my color choice. If you have ever seen the RedFish Dyeworks booth at any fiber festival you probably would have too. The booth is literally a rainbow of color and every hue is represented; I am not kidding, see here. So what do I pick? A silvery grey, it sort of looks un-dyed even. But in my defense, by the time I got around to their booth there were no other colors in this particular yarn that really spoke to me. I am not a bright colored sort of girl, yes I like red and green, but when I do pick a color, the tend to be muted or rich - vibrant.

This is listed as a sport weight, but it feels like fingering to me, but I have 800 yards of it and I am excited to see what it will grow up to be.

So that is the end of Stitches. Believe it or not I am most happy about the old friends that I was able to hang out with and the new friends that I met the yarn was just a happy addition.

PS... I <3 my new camera.

Stitches West 2009 Day 3

2009-03-05T08:23:00.000-08:00

Saturday Day 3 of Stitches West 2009:

Saturday started off slow for me, I was a bit tired with helping in the booth, but Stitches has a way of energizing you when you get there. I met up with the usual suspects and we strolled the market for any other wayward yarn that would like to go home with us and of course we did, duh!
Wandering the market can make a knitter hungry, so Jill, Tina, Kristi, Jeni, Bex and myself went to a little sushi place a couple of blocks from the convention center for lunch. We had a great time with fun conversation and I may have had an Asahi but I was not alone!

At 2pm my assignment was to be at the Purlescence booth to help out because my friends the Knitmore Girls aka Jasmin and Gigi were doing a meet and great with goodie bags, really nice goodie bags (I know this cause I helped stuff them a few nights prior.) Jasmin and Gigi do a podcast and I think it is one of the better of the knitting podcasts myself and I am just not saying that because I know them, I don't roll that way. And of course there were lots of people and the booth was swamped.

The best part of Stitches is gathering with friends and Boba Knit had two of its own come back home to CA for this event Jeni Chase and Kristi Geraci. So it was decided to gather and have dinner Saturday night at Jasmine, a Thai restaurant in Santa Clara. For the full set of pics with captions click here.

After dinner we headed over to Bobbin's Nest for their after Stitches party where Jeni (one of our very own Boba Knitters) was a guest of honor. She has two new patterns that were debuted that night with Hazels Knits yarn, Cowl de Printemps and Berét de Printemps

For the full set of pictures, click here.

Unfortunately we were missing some of the Boba Knitter's when this was taken, but click on the picture for the names.

After Bobbin's Nest I headed over to Purlescence Yarns who was also having an "After Stitches" gathering. I walked in the door and greeted a ton of my friends and my cell phone rang. Sensei was calling me and the old Mercedes that we own broke down on him and he was stranded and needed me to come get him. I wasn't there 3 minutes, didn't even set my bag down and I had to leave. So I was super bummed that I could not hang with every one there and got to see what fantastic stash enhancements came from Stitches. Such is life.

Tomorrow? The last day of Stitches West which includes pictures of what I brought home with me and some new people I met (they all are published and VERY interesting!)

Stitches West 2009 Day 2

2009-03-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

Friday Day 2 of Stitches West 2009:

Woke up late (as usual) and I rushed off to meet Tina, Jill, Linda, Angie, Jean, Maribel and Teenuh for Pre-Stitches breakfast at IHOP.

Tina was not in the mood for photos that early in the morning!

Food was consumed and we were off to the Market. One of the first stops was Ellen’s ½ Pint Farm for some sock yarn. I have heard rave reviews of this sock yarn and well, I trust my knitter friends when the strongly suggest a yarn. I got a rather nice shade of blue, like faded blue jeans. I was reserved; I did only purchase one hank. The reason for this is because since I did not ever knit with this yarn I wanted to make sure that I was going to truly like it once knit, washed, worn and washed again. I have been disappointed by other highly popular superwash sock yarns once knit, washed, worn and washed again. They felted and faded with in just a few washings in cold water and air dried. But I digress, so I will be knitting with it soon to make sure that it passes my standards. So far, it has passed the first requirement of my mine pre-knitting, it has a large yardage, 500!! I have large feet, I am not ashamed, so does Paris Hilton, mine just happen to be wide too. But enough about my big feet…

We all wondered around the market and my next stop that I wanted to make was WEBS. I knew that they had the Malabrigo sock yarn and I wanted to say hello to Kathy Elkins. Kathy was very kind to me and I wanted to put a face to that huge purchase for her. While shopping at the WEBS booth, I picked out one hank of the Malabrigo in a really pretty silvery grey color that they call eggplant; I guess it might have a hint of a purple cast. Again, I only bought one, I want to test it out before I commit to a large stash of sock yarn that I may not be in love with after washed.

Oh and I failed to mention that Thursday night at the Market preview, I did get a chance to see Cookie A’s book Sock Innovation that will be released April 2009. Shelridge Farms had it on display, not for sale, however they said they could have gotten a pretty penny for it! What I didn’t notice the first time I thumbed through the book was this.

Linda saw it and pointed it out to me, I was pleasantly surprised. And the lucky one to get the book? Our friend Kristi!

Then it was time to report for duty at the Purlescence Yarns booth for the rest of the day. Which kept more money in my wallet and I was happy to help. It is fun to interact with knitters and enable, I mean, assist them in their yarn endeavors.

After the market closed, I headed over to a friends house to hang out and play Settlers of Catan (don’t judge me, play the game and then talk to me. It is like Risk and Monopoly on steroids)

I still have to wait to take pictures of the SW09 haul when the weather clears up and I have good natural light.

And tomorrow, Saturday at Stitches, many many pics, and fun stuff!

Stitches West 2009 Day 1

2009-03-03T11:15:00.000-08:00

Thursday Day 1 of Stitches West 2009:

This year I took time off work for Stitches, well, let me be exact, I found that I had 3 days of PTO (paid time off) that I had to use by the end of March or I would just lose it, so I decided that Stitches would be a perfect time. I woke up leisurely and knitted a bit on a project and watched some morning TV that I never get to see unless I call in sick. It was really nice to be home on a weekday, NOT sick, knitting and watching The View.

My plan for SW09 (Stitches West 2009) was a good plan I thought. It started off with helping my good friends Sandi and Nathania of Purlescence Yarns with their booth. By doing that, I thought, I would not have enough time to spend money on more yarn that I really don’t have room for in my house. And part two of the plan was to be realistic about not buying anything and having a list. How did that work you ask? Keep reading!

I arrived at the convention center in Santa Clara with coffee and helped set up the booth with the girls. We worked hard and got it done just in the nick of time for the Market Preview. Prior to the preview opening, Elizabeth (CJ’s beautiful 12 week old baby girl) and I took a stroll around the market looking for anything I might want. We ran into Lucy Neatby, Elizabeth was asleep, she didn’t care much, but Lucy is an interesting person to chat with and if you ever get a chance to take a class of hers, you really should.

My shopping list for SW09 was short and precise (trying to stick to the plan):

1. DK weight manly colored yarn in a heather or tweed. There is a Jamieson pattern* that I ran across that I would like to make for one of my brothers.
2. Buttons for my February Lady Sweater
3. Buttons for my niece’s I am 7 Cardigan
4. Any cool new tool that I don’t have (my loop hole)

And before the night was over, I came across a bag of 20 balls of charcoal heather yarn for a fantastic price and it is living in my trunk hiding from Sensei. He thought I had no list for SW09…oops.

Market is over and I went home to go to sleep because it was not going to be a leisurely Friday morning, I had an 8:30am appointment with some pancakes and knitters!
Pictures of the SW09 purchases to come…

*I am looking for a Jamieson pattern that is out of print, it is in the Jamieson's Shetland Knitting Book 3. Please let me know if you have that book, I would like to purchase.

Lets finish, shall we??

2009-02-25T10:25:00.000-08:00

My niece turned 7 yesterday, I called her to wish her a Happy Birthday. She and her family were on the way to dinner, and I asked her where she was going.

Me: Where are you going to eat for your Birthday?
Niece: CPK
Me: CPK???
Niece: (insert an annoyed and disbelief voice) California Pizza Kitchen Aunt Lisa!
Me: Oh yeah, CPK.

Who knew my 7 year old niece was so hip to us acronyms?? Hopefully she will look hip when I get this sweater all sewn up. I need to get on it because I think the hemmed neck and button bands that I am planning are going to take some concentration to look good.

I hope she will like the hidden pink on the hem facing and besides the pink, I added a little surprise in the hem to show you later.

And speaking of finishing, I need to get further along on this very colorful project. Remember the Webs purchase? Well this is where that purchase resides in my living room, a nice DEEP lined basket. I have 5 tiers of the blanket done, but I was hoping to have it complete by Stitches West so that I could show Kathy what became of all the yarn she shipped to me.

Pictures are going to have to do for now. I am going to be setting a deadline for myself on this project, if not, then this will linger for years I am afraid. Plus, who wants to knit a blanket in a California summer?

Speaking of Stitches West, I will be there Thursday through Sunday. I am looking forward to seeing people that I have not seen for awhile (Kristi and Jeni especially) and I hope to meet new knitters and create new friendships. So if you see me, I don't see you, make sure you say hello!

Black Pearl

2009-02-20T16:19:00.001-08:00

I was inspired by my friend Nathania's new fingerless mitts and decided that I wanted to knit a quick useful project for me. And so I purchased a hank of Dream in Color's Smooshy in the Black Pearl colorway and started right away. Cast on 44 stitches and did a 2x2 rib pattern until they were as long as I wanted them before starting the thumb gusset.

Pattern: Improvised from about 3 other patterns

Materials: Dream In Color Smooshy

Colorway: Black Pearl

Needles: US 6/4.0mm

Start Date: February 15, 2009

Finish Date: February 20, 2009

I took these pictures with my new camera and I am really impressed with the noticeable difference in the quality of my photos with the Canon as opposed to my other digital camera. Don't get me wrong, my other camera did a good job and will continue to be used for quick snap shots, but I just have to say that I love love love my new camera. I think I will have to give it a name....any suggestions? And maybe it is not a her, maybe it is a him? Let me know what you think, I will give yarn to the best suggestion so leave me a comment.

And I will leave you with this picture of Sensei and Mugsy while you are thinking of a name for my camera. This is Mugsy's favorite place to lay down, he is a cuddlier. Mugsy sure loves his daddy!

New equipment = LOVE

2009-02-17T11:27:00.001-08:00

This just arrived today for me. I have been shopping for a DSLR for a little while, asking experienced photographers like Bill Walker for advice and this is what I decided on...

Another piece of technology that I recently obtained is my new iPod Nano. Sensei actually bought me this for my birthday back in December and I just have not blogged about it. Under the iPod is the half of a pair of fingerless mitts that I am currently knitting for myself. I am using Dream In Color-Black Pearl doing a 2x2 ribbing.

And these are the first pictures that I took with my new camera...

My African violet that sits on my desk, I happen to really love African violets. I actually love plants that flower. You can see the fuzzy detail on the leaves so clearly, the new camera is sooo easy to use, I love it.

My favorite flowering plant? Orchids! This is the orchid that sits on the cabinet behind me in my cubical. This was given to me by one of my co-workers a few days ago. Her mom grows them and it was time to split them and re-pot so she had an abundance and shared with all of us.

As a side note, none of the photos that I took with the new camera were retouched.

I am desperately trying to finish up a couple of things that are so close to show you new finished projects. I need to hurry, Stitches West is coming and nothing will get done during that time.

25 Random Things

2009-02-05T02:36:00.000-08:00

This meme has been going around Facebook and I was tagged there, so I thought I would post it here too. Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. When I entered High School, there were 3 things I wanted to complete, I did 2 out of the three, I was a cheerleader all four years and I was the yearbook editor 2 years in a row.

2. I miss seeing my brothers and their families, I wish we all lived closer.

3. I wanted to be married and have 4 kids after high school, I am unmarried and I have no kids.

4. I was named after a soap opera character from As The World Turns, if I as a boy, I would have been named Dirk (a character in a book my mom was reading when she was pregnant with me.)

5. I have been trying to get pregnant for 2 years now, frustrating!

6. I have never lived out side the state of California

7. I moved 13 times in 10 years. My best friends started writing my address and phone number in pencil after the 4th move.

8. Red is my favorite color and green is a very close second. I hate the color orange, I wore a bit to much of it between 1987 - 1990.

9. I installed my own ceiling fan and I installed my grandmothers garbage disposal.

10. I have been pulled over for speeding, no seat belt and or running a red light about 10 time total, I have only gotten 2 tickets thanks to my brother Todd being a police officer, his business card is magic!

11. I have always thought my hair was my strength.

12. I miss my father, I miss him very much.

13. I almost hooked up with a guy after lots of drinking in a bar only to find out after chatting a while that we were cousins....that was strange!

14. I taught myself how to knit while recovering from a surgery.

15. Out of all my jobs I have ever had, waiting tables was actually my favorite thing. Weird, I know.

16. Ok, this is odd, but it is random....Denise Terry and I both lived in a house on Hillcrest Dr in Selma (not at the same time) and we both dated the same guy from Kingsburg (not at the same time either, well at least I don't think so, hahahaha)

17. I love to bake and I think I am pretty good at it too.

18. I have had 4 surgeries in my lifetime.

19. I have been close to death more than once.

20. I regret not going to my Senior Prom. I went to a frat party at Fresno State with my friend from Reedley.

21. There is only one person in my life, that if she needed me to help her bury a body I would, she knows who she is :)

22. I play golf and I like it. I started to golf because of a man, not a great reason, but I liked it and kept playing long after he was gone!

23. Gina (Alves) Luberto and I were skiing in Sierra Summit and ran into Tim Dodd and Daniel Nulick, we started to ski down a run and there was an accident and I split Tim Dodds forehead open. I hear he still has a scar from that day. The entire story is quite good, ask me sometime.

24. I am rekindling my love of photography.

25. I sure there are much more random things about me, but it is late and I am tired, so just ask me what ever you want, I will probably tell you.

I have been tagged several times, if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

The recant...

2009-01-29T23:06:00.000-08:00

I have in the past said some not so nice things about how, lets say, "challenging" Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns seem to be. What I have come to realize about EZ patterns is, they are not really for a beginner knitter. After completing 64 projects (according to Ravelry) I can better understand what EZ is saying when she is talking you through her pattern. Which leads me to my latest completed project, A Very Warm Hat.

Pattern: A Very Warm Hat
Source: The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmerman
Materials: Cascade 220 Heathers
Colorway: Grey and Blue 2424
Needles: US 7/4.5mm and US 9/5.5mm
Start Date: January 10, 2009
Finish Date: January 14, 2009

As you can see it is a hat, a double thick hat. Now this is not really a hard thing to figure out and I think it is one of the easier EZ patterns. You cast on for a hat, knit the entire hat as normal and then pick up stitches on the cast on edge and knit the second hat . Easy peasy!

The pattern can be knit plain, with no stranded color work or she offers you a chart to add a little design. I did not care for the chart and wanted to make it more personal for my brother. So I searched my knitting books and came up with the braid or chain looking pattern that is kind of Celtic looking on the grey side of the hat and the Waves on the blue side of the hat. Both these motif's have meaning to my brother.

And I think it fits my handsome brother very well... HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY!!

This will come in handy for his youth groups winter camp coming up in a few weeks because it is A Very Warm Hat! So I am taking back my previous unkind words about her patterns, I am a more mature knitter and have come to appreciate her genius.

As I mentioned in my last post, my niece and nephew got the socks that I knit them back in September of 2007 finally 16 months later. Several people have been amazed, I assure you not as much as I was and the number one question was...What did the post office say?

They didn't say anything, they dropped the box at the door and this is what it looked like...

In case you can't see what they hand wrote on the note it says, "Sorry! was in parcel locker!" What was in the box you ask? I packed the socks in these mini lunch pails that I found at Target, so when they opened the box they got these mini pails and the surprise socks were inside.

Unfortunately my nephew's socks don't fit him now but my niece's sock do thankfully.

Soon I should be able to share with you the socks that I am knitting for the Socks That Rock Leyburn KAL I joined, my niece's, I am 7 Cardigan, and another A Very Warm Hat for Senesi (he almost stole my brothers.) I am going to do Sensei's in fingering weight this time, wish me luck.

Bronze Monkey, you funky monkey

2009-01-23T18:19:00.000-08:00

Can you hear the Beastie Boys song in your head? Well these socks are not Brass Monkey's cause this colorway of Casbah is Bronze and I love love love this yarn. This is the second time that I have knit the Monkey pattern and I still love the pattern.

Pattern: Monkey

Source: Knitty, Winter 2006 by CookieA

Materials: Handmaiden Casbah Sock

Colorway: Bronze

Needles: US 1-1/2 / 2.5mm

Start Date: January 2, 2009

Finish Date: January 23, 2009

To be honest, these pictures look a little washed out. The color is better than this, it was just an overcast day and I could not get any good natural light. But this won't be a problem when I get my new camera in a couple of weeks.

Also, if you noticed it took me almost an entire month to knit these. Well, that is because work has been, CRAZY. You don't come here to read how crazy work has been for me so I will spare you the gory details. Things are better now and my knitting projects are getting back in line very quickly. I have some exciting things in my "To Knit" list coming up. I have about 3 projects that are sooo close to being done and one project ready to blog once the person has received his birthday gift. A hint about the birthday gift completed project ready to blog....I have give Elizabeth Zimmerman another chance and I might have to recant some of my prior statements I have made towards her.

In other exciting news, I am happy about our new President. I wish him godspeed in getting this country back into the glory it once displayed. And if you have followed my blog for a while you might remember when I knit my niece and nephew socks. And if you do not recall what happened to them here click here and here to refresh your memory. Those events took place September 2007. This is January 2009, doing the math, that is 16 MONTHS later, my brother called me to say he was sending a picture via text message of the kids. They were wearing the socks!! He said they came home and there was a box at the door with a note on it saying they were sorry but they found the box in a lock box (whatever that means?!?!) 16 MONTHS!!! My nephew has already grown out if the socks that I knit him, he was 3 when they were made but for photo purposes, they squeezed them on, my niece can still wear hers thankfully. Unfortunately the quality of the camera phone picture was not good enough to post, maybe we will get some action shots of the reunited socks.

Scruchable Gift

2009-01-14T10:33:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Scrunchable Cowl
Source: Scrunchable Cowl by Rosi Garmendia
Size: Small (modified)
Materials: Malabrigo Natural
Needles: US 7 / 4.5mm
Start Date: December 20, 2008
Finish Date: December 21, 2008

I saw this pattern on Ravelry, actually I sought it out after seeing Cristi's version of the Scrunchable Cowl on her blog. Cowls have been the hot new accessory to knit this year it seems, I have done several myself in plain stockinette stitch. So I wanted to mix things up a bit and love and hate this patter all at the same time. Let me explain, see those deep waves of knitting twisting and turning?

That is the part that I hated, the 16 stitch cables. They were, well, a bitch to do, but worth it in the long run. I think if I had used a wool that had more spring/stretch it would have been easier, however Malabrigo was in my stash and I want to try to knit from my stash when ever possible.

I am pleased with the over all look of the cowl and I think that the color (or lack there of color) winter white looks stunning with this pattern and compliments my sister-in-law. The only modification made to the cowl is an extra cable repeat to make it a bit longer. This was her 2008 Christmas present. Since I mailed her present, I had to get the modeled shots a few weeks later. My niece wanted to test out the cowl too.

Presenting Miss Sophie...

2009-01-02T10:53:00.001-08:00

Pattern: Sophie

Source: Ysolda Teague

Size: One Size

Materials: Cascade Cash Vero Aran in Rose #11 and Socks That Rock in Carbon

Amount: 196 yrds (2 balls) Cash Vero and 32 yrds Socks That Rock

Needles: US 5 / 3.75 mm and US 7 / 4.5 mm

Start Date: December 15, 2008

Finish Date: January 1, 2009

Don't let the antique colored pink fool you, Sophie is a modern girl, she came to work with me today. She was not much of a worker though, she just wanted to hang out and look cute.

Sophie challenged me a bit, which I like to have when I do a new project. I had to learn how to make a French Knot. I found this great video tutorial that helped me out a lot. The nose is not as nice looking as I would have hoped, I seriously need to work on my embroidery skills. Oh but the best part, she is knit seamless!

Modifications: Ysolda's pattern is written beautifully, you have little left to your interpretation which is nice. The pattern called for a sport weight yarn, however I wanted to have a larger bunny so I picked an aran weight yarn instead. Also, I wanted to make the bunny have some weight to her that would help her sit better, so I inserted a small bag of white rice in her behind. The only problem with that is, it makes a little bit of noise. Next time I will have to come up with a better plan instead of winging it last minute.

And the last modification is the ears. I had one ear completed and ran out of yarn. So I ripped out the first ear and then picked up stitches with a needle 2 sizes larger (US7) and adjusted the ear to be not as wide and not as long. With those adjustments I had enough to finish her. I tried using a second color in the interior of the ear but that made for a really dense fabric on the ear and was not looking good.

Accessories: It is the winter time, Sophie needed a scarf. I took left over sock yarn from my Carbon Copy Monkey's and knit a quick scarf. I casted on 10 stitches, knit in the round and added fringe because it is winter and Miss Sophie will be cold without it! Oh and she seems to have a fond attraction to margarita's just like her creator, I guess the apple does not fall from the tree!

Sophie will be given to my 6 year old niece tomorrow January 3rd, sans tequila, and hopefully be loved and cared for. Pictures of them to come later. Sophie, the first FO of 2009!!

My 2008 knits in review

2008-12-31T10:58:00.000-08:00

When I created this mosaic of my finished projects, I couldn't help thinking that I had knitted more this year. I was not wrong, I have knit more, I just had not FINISHED everything! We are not going to talk about what is STILL on the needles. What are my New Years Resolutions you ask?

Examine what is on my needles unfinished, frog what I do not like anymore and finish what I think will work.
Get pregnant
Knit more socks for me
Get pregnant
Clean out all the clutter in the house
Get pregnant (Time is a wastin!)

And the first project to be finished in 2009??

This is going to make a certain 6 year old girl really happy, when I finish her. Deadline? January 3rd, 2009.

I wish you a happy and safe 2009 with much success!

Foggy Day Schedule???

2008-12-30T11:32:00.000-08:00

Growing up in the Central Valley of California there is a love hate relationship with fog. Parents hate the fog and kids love it because that meant Foggy Day Schedules at school. There were many winter mornings while living in the Central Valley, that I would wake up, turn on the TV to the local Public Television station and watch and wait for my school name scroll along the bottom of the screen telling me that I could go back to bed for another hour and a half! If memory serves me, school would start around 10am on Foggy Days. Now that I am a grown up (sort of) there are no more Foggy Day Schedule for me, so today, I made one up!

This is a picture of San Jose fog…

Now here is REAL fog, the stuff from home (Central Valley of California) that we call Tule Fog...

And honestly, that is good visibility right there, I have driven in much much worse fog.

I will be posting about knitting later this week, Happy Knitting!

Won't you help little Sophie??

2008-12-29T10:14:00.000-08:00

This is Sophie, she is a soft sweet thing that is missing an ear cause well, I ran out of yarn! That little bit you see is not enough to get half way down the last ear. So if anyone out there has a little bit of Cash Vero Aran weight in what I believe is the light pink they call Rose #11 please help little Sophie to get an ear so she can make a little 6 year old girl happy.

PS... I have attempted to buy another ball of this yarn at my LYS, but they are out of stock. Besides, I only need a small amount.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T09:33:00.000-08:00

I am happy to report that all my Christmas knitting is DONE and wrapped. I only knitted 7 gifts this year which is lower than the previous years, so that helped. And this is my new Christmas tree, it is a fake for several reasons. We do not have a lot of space in the living room for a real tree that is wide at the bottom for one. This tree is 6' tall from base to tip top and is pre-lit with white lights and has a decorative urn base. So when I found this narrow tree I knew I had to have it, it fits perfect in the living room.

I wish you a safe and happy holiday season!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

2008-12-20T11:03:00.000-08:00

Well, not really a chicken dinner, but I thought it was funny. Not sure where I have heard that before, but it sure stuck in my head. The lucky person to win my Birthday Blog Contest is.....

JANET

Janet is a knit blogger from Texas and has a beautiful and inspirational blog Twisted Knitter.

And for the answers.

1.What happened when Sensei and I went to Disneyland?
I got sick, I mean really sick. We ended up staying at the hotel 2 extra days so I could get rest and meds before traveling home.

2.What color do I dislike?
ORANGE. I wore orange in high school almost everyday because I was a cheerleader and that was our school colors. It is not a flattering color on me.

3.Where did we go and what did we do for Sensei’s birthday?
We went to the Superbike races at Laguna Seca and rode in the Official Pace car. It was the most exhilarating experience that I have had, that track is really something.

4.What song did Juanita sing at the karaoke contest?
She sang Lady Marmalade and was FANTASTIC! If you have not seen it yet, click here.

5.Where did I take my niece and nephew when they stayed with me?
Looking back on it, too many places for such a short trip as it turned out. But we had a great time at the Oakland Zoo, Chuckie Cheese, Drive-in Movie to see Wall-E and a couple of parks to play. I can't wait to get them next summer.

Everyone, have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Friday, another FO!

2008-12-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

It started out looking like this...

and then a few days later....

Pattern: Changeling Cowl

Source: Modified from Pashmina Cowl in Last Minute Knitted Gifts

Size: 13" long
Materials: Manos del Uruguay Manos Silk Blend

Colorway: 3105

Amount: 2 skeins -300 yards ( 1/4 of the 2nd skein left)
Needles: US 7 / 4.5 mm
Start Date: November 23, 2008
Finish Date: December 6, 2008

I am really happy about the way that the colors DID NOT POOL. I am not a fan of pooling at all, so this yarn made me happy and it was a pleasure to knit with, even in the dark! This is going to be a Christmas gift, so hopefully I will get modeled shots later, that is if I can find my charger to my digital camera...oops.

Ok, last chance to win some yarn! Contest ends tonight at Midnight. I will draw the name in the morning and post the winner. Need a last minute Christmas gift? Enter, you could win.

I am IT now...

2008-12-16T23:40:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by Jasmin on this meme. What I’m supposed to do is find the 4th picture folder on my computer. I’m to put the 4th picture from that folder on my blog and tell 4 facts about the photo. Then tag 4 other people and comment on their blog letting them know they are IT!

1.This was taken the day after Thanksgiving 2008

2. Pictured is Sensei and his 4 year old niece Tia.

3. Tia LOVES to take pictures, I mean LOVES it!!

4.On that day at Sensei's dad's house, there must have been 25 people in the kitchen and living room all at the same time. Four of the five brothers in Sensei's family were there with their family's and I learned how to make "real" macaroni and cheese.

Ok, Carrie, Janet, Kristi, and Janice...You are all IT!

Oh yeah, you all still have time left to enter the contest!

Baby its cold out side...

2008-12-16T22:16:00.000-08:00

This week so far feels to me like the coldest it has been since I have lived in San Jose (4 years.) It has been in the low 4o's and that is really cold for the Silicon Valley. With all these cold days I am sure these will come in handy!

Pattern: Toasty

Source: A Friend to knit with

Size: Adult

Materials: Plymouth Yarn Royal Cashmere

Amount: 125.0 yards

Needles: US 7 / 4.5 mm

Start Date: December 5, 2008

Finish Date: December 9, 2008

Christmas gift for my best friend. She has skinnier hands than me, so they will look much better on her. This yarn was nice, but I would not run out and seek to buy it again, well unless there was some really wicked good sale, maybe.

Only three days left to enter the Birthday Blog Contest. All the answers can be found in my past blog entries. The person who answers the most correctly wins, in the event of a tie, names will go into a hat and a winner will be drawn. What am I giving away? Yarn of course. What yarn, well, it will be a choice of Socks That Rock, Malabrigo or Rowan Kid Silk Haze (NOT my new Sundara yarn-sorry.) Contest will be closed December 19th at midnight. Winner will be announced on My Birthday, December 20th. Email your answers to: twistedstitches71 AT gmail DOT com

1.What happened when Sensei and I went to Disneyland?
2.What color do I dislike?
3.Where did we go and what did we do for Sensei’s birthday?
4.What song did Juanita sing at the karaoke contest?
5.Where did I take my niece and nephew when they stayed with me?

Turn A Square

2008-12-16T10:41:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I Turned A Square.

It was so nice, I did it twice!

Pattern: Turn A Square
Source: Brooklyn Tweed (Jared Flood)
Size: Adult
Materials: Cascade 220 and Noro Silk Garden
Amount: 40g Cascade and 25g Noro Silk Garden
Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm and US 7 / 4.5 mm
Start Date: December 14, 2008
Finish Date: December 14, 2008
Quantity: 2 Hats

This hat is super simple and super quick, I did 2 in one day (Yes, that means I did NOTHING else but knit, jealous??) The first one, I had some technique issues and by the time I did the second one, that was all worked out. The second one however does not change color enough in the stripe sections to be noticeable even though they really did change color. Over all I am happy with them and I hope my brothers will be too!

And don't forget my Birthday Blog Contest. Who doesn't like to win yummy yarn? And Christmas is so close, you can win and give it as a gift too (I won't tell) Contest ends midnight December 19 and the winner will be announced on December 20th.

Happy Monday...I got yarn!

2008-12-13T19:11:00.000-08:00

Look what I found on my desk when I came into work this morning???

And this is what I found inside...

The Life Aquatic

Sundara Winter Seasons Yarn Club shipment

50% silk - 50% merino wool

500 yards, 150 grams

Now, what to knit with it??? Any suggestions, please comment, help a sista out!

Yes, it is that time again, my birthday blog contest. I like the scavenger hunt type of contest, it is my blog and my birthday, so that is the format again this year.

So this is how the contest goes, below are the questions, email your answers to: twistedstitches71 AT gmail DOT com

All the answers can be found in my past blog entries. The person who answers the most correctly wins, in the event of a tie, names will go into a hat and a winner will be drawn. What am I giving away? Yarn of course. What yarn, well, it will be a choice of Socks That Rock, Malabrigo or Rowan Kid Silk Haze (NOT my new Sundara yarn-sorry.) Contest will be closed December 19th at midnight. Winner will be announced on My Birthday, December 20th

What happened when Sensei and I went to Disneyland?

What color do I dislike?

Where did we go and what did we do for Sensei’s birthday?

What song did Juanita sing at the karaoke contest?

Where did I take my niece and nephew when they stayed with me?

Good luck!

One hot mess...

2008-12-05T23:24:00.000-08:00

My birthday and Christmas is fast approaching. If anyone out there has me on their gift list or would like to add me to their list of people to buy for this year, I have a suggestion for you...

That is 100% cashmere in a wicked tangled mess! What does that mean? I need a ball winder and swift. Could I wait just a day or so to go to my LYS to wind this hank of cashmere? Nooooo, I had to hand wind it my self so I could cast on a Christmas gift. But instead of casting on, I am trying to untangle! %#$@ OK, stop laughing!

Like I Need A Hole In My Head...

2008-11-25T09:36:00.000-08:00

I wanted to go to a movie, a chick flick to be more accurate. Sensei, although very willing to accept my movie choices for the most part was not thrilled about seeing the Changeling.

So I called my friend Karol and set a plan. But that is like 2 hours with sitting and no knitting, not something I can do easily. The only projects that I have working currently are not dark movie theater friendly, cables and lace, I think not. Unfortunately I was no where near home where my rather large and out of control stash is currently spilling over into other rooms of the house and pick out some yarn and start a dark movie theater knitting project. What is a Dark Movie Theater Knitting project you may ask? To me that is this seasons hottest accessory, a cowl, plain stockinette in the round. Currently I have two others working but they are not Dark Movie Theater Knitting, has cables and the other is double knit. Fortunately I was at my LYS when I made the movie plans and I strolled over and picked out some yarn to start ANOTHER project (the 7th now on the needles, but who is counting?!?) I purchased 2 hanks of Manos del Uruguay Manos Silk Blend and I was already carrying with me a 16" cable US 7 needle (doesn't everyone?) so I was good to go with the Dark Movie Theater Knitting. Now, here is a tip about Dark Movie Theater Knitting so you may be more successful, sit in the back row of the theater. Why do you ask? So when you drop a stitch you can use the light from your cell phone to see when picking the stitch back up with out drawing attention to yourself. Oh and it is most helpful if you have someone to hold the phone open while you are picking up your dropped stitch otherwise you may have to resort to the Daniel Day Lewis-My Left Foot move.

The movie was good, a true story that spanned the late 1920's to the early 1930's about a woman who's child had been kidnapped and her fight against the LAPD to find her son. I really thought that I was going to break down and cry several times, I usually do, however I did not in this movie. Trust me, it is a moving/touching story, but to bring me to tears, not this time.

The cowl, I was going to call it LINAHIMH (Like I Need A Hole In My Head) Cowl, but after writing this blog post, I have decided to rename it Dark Movie Theater Cowl.

Oh and I need to mention, Angelina is wearing some fierce red lipstick in the movie. I have been in search of the best red lipstick and by god I think that was it on screen. Some please tell me what brand she was using in the movie!

This will be my last blog post until after Thanksgiving, I will be with out Internet for a few days. And my birthday is next month, time for another contest-giveaway. I like the "scavenger hunt" type of contest, answer questions from my blog to win a prize. So keep an eye out for that. Have a safe and and Happy Thanksgiving!!

Au Revoir and Danke

2008-11-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

Sunday I attended a going away party for a fellow knitter friend of mine, Jeni. She is moving to Omaha, NE to be closer with her family. Jeni is a great knitter, designer and friend. She was one of the first few knitters that welcomed me when I started knitting and I will always be grateful to her for her kindness towards me, I will miss seeing her weekly at the Boba Knitting. Wow, this is starting to sound like an obituary...she is very much a live, you can see here and here (forgot my camera so I have to direct you to other blogs) and she will be back for visits and for STITCHES!! Jeni, don't forget to knit our Hazel Knits sock yarn in time for Stitches. So that was the Au Revoir part, now to the Danke part...

I fully support my favorite LYS's, Purlescence Yarns and Bobbin's Nest, and you too should support your favorite LYS, it is good karma. But there is no reason that our favorite online stores can't get some love too. Remember this purchase by my boss? Well Kathy Elkins of WEBS was alerted to my blog post and commented. To my surprise she enjoyed the story and wanted to thank me for "creating" a huge sale, a few days later I received this...
A very nice "thank you" gift no? In the package is seven balls of Valley Yarns Hadley, a 50% wool and 50% silk blend in the Elderberry colorway (the picture is showing it a little darker than it really is) also included is a Lantern Moon silk project bag a pattern for a shawl and scarf that I can use the Hadley with and a nice handwritten note card. It was all unexpected and very gracious, thank you Kathy, see you at Stitches West?!?

Now, my latest project that I have cast on for...

Yes, it is red, my favorite color and I realized that I have not knit anything for myself in red. So I am now. The yarn is Plymouth Suri Merino that I bought at Purlescence Yarns almost two years ago. It was my surprise birthday present from Sensei that year. I went into the shop and and they said, "Oh Lisa, there is an envelope for you here" and when I opened it I found a gift certificate for $100 from Sensei. I know, all together now, AAHHHHHH. At first I was going to knit the Refined Raglan from Interweave Knits Winter 2006 but after reading some of the Ravelry posts about the yarn being REALLY warm, I thought that a pullover would not be the best option. I am hoping to have this done and ready to wear for Thanksgiving. Here is to best laid plans.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T10:39:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This is me many many many years ago when I was waiting tables. I had fun seeing the reactions of my customers when they looked up from their menus!

It's all Eleanor's fault

2008-10-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

When I came into work late this morning from my weekly DMV appointment I found this on my chair. What’s that you say? that box can’t be full of Noro Silk Garden, there has to be packing materials in there to fill space? Ummm, NO.

It all started a little over a week ago when I wore my Lady Eleanor Stole to work. Here comes my boss walking down the isle by my cubical and she sees her.

She grabs it hold it up and declares it the best thing EVAR and asked how many balls of yarn it took and how much did it cost. She paid me compliments and stated that a chair or couch throw 3 times wider than my stole would be fabulous to have. When I broke the news to her how much I used for my stole and the cost, she admired it a little more then laid it down and quietly walked away. Then as a stroke of fate or whatever you want to call it I get an email notification from Webs like 3 minutes after my boss walks away that Noro has discontinued 4 Silk Garden colorways and were selling them for $5.79 per ball. Are you F’ing kidding me?!?! So I called her back to my desk and showed her the email. I explained to her that you rarely see this yarn this cheap and if she wanted to buy the yarn then I would knit her the throw (more like an afghan.) I emailed her the link where she could buy the yarn and said I could not promise a delivery date but if she wanted me to knit this, here was her prime opportunity and not to wait to long to make the decision, the yarn will go fast. Little did I know when I made that statement how true that was.**

A few hours later, she walks by my desk and says, “I ordered the yarn,” with a big smile on her face. She proceeded to tell me what she ordered:

Boss: So this (Lady Eleanor) took you 15 balls right?
Me: Yes
Boss: And I would like it this long but three times wider.
Me: OK (doing math in my head)
Boss: So that would be 45 balls.
Me: Yes…
Boss: I ordered 60, 15 of each color, use what you need and keep the rest.
Me: WOW, ok (then I was speechless, I know that is hard to believe, but I was)

That box is FULL of Noro Silk Garden for the project that I will be calling Koo Koo Eleanor! Berroco has a blanket/throw pattern that is called Koo Koo and I am blending that pattern with the Lady Eleanor Stole.

**Webs sold over 4000 balls for the discontinued Noro Silk Garden in 4 days. Did any of you take advantage of that sale!

Orange ya glad??

2008-10-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

It is amazing to me with my major dislike of the color orange, that I am STILL knitting with orange! But I ran across the Kürbis pattern and could not resist, it is too cute to not knit.

Pattern: Kürbis Baby Hat
Source: Sonnentaler

Size: fit a head of about 39 cm circumference

Materials: Cascade Cash Vero and Knit Picks Telemark

Amount: 0.75 skeins = 73.5 yards of Cash Vero in Rust (Orange) and

0.05 skeins = 5.2 yards of Telemark Cilantro Heather (Green)

Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm and US 7 / 4.5 mm

Start Date: October 22, 2008

Finish Date: October 27, 2008
Quantity: 2 Hats

This is a very easy and quick pattern to knit. The directions are clear and easy to follow which is important. I chose Cash Vero for a couple of reasons, one, it had a great pumpkin color and two, it is sooooo soft. The blend of merino, microfiber and cashmere makes it nice to wear next to your skin.

The top of the hat is knit with Knit Picks Telemark which is a sport weight so I held the yarn double to get the proper thickness. The recipients of the hats? Co-workers. No one in my immediate family have babies or toddlers, so one co-workers baby, Allicyn got the first one, she is 8 months old.

And the second hat went to my boss' niece, Genevieve, she is 2 years old.

She wants to be like her Aunt Patty, typing on the key board and making important phone calls!

I think the girls are way cute with the pumpkin hats no? Ok, I promise, this is the last orange I am going to knit with for a very long long time!

Go Giants...Go Bears

2008-10-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Basic Sock
Size: US Woman's 8-1/2

Materials: Panda Silk
Amount: 1.25 skein Orange 0.5 skein Black

Needles: 2.0mm US 0 Hiya Hiya Circular 40” Magic Loop Method

Start Date: September 20, 2008 (approx.)

Finish Date: October 19, 2008

As a Thank You/Birthday gift to my boss, I made her these GO GIANTS!! Socks. She has given me tickets to see the Giants play many many many times and for that I am thankful. She is very warm blooded, her office you could hang meat in, seriously. She has admired many of my socks that I have knit in the past, but always commented that they were too thick for her. So I set out to find a really lightweight yarn that when knit would not produce too dense of a fabric but still sturdy enough for a sock; Panda Silk fit that bill nicely.

I CO 76 sts, knit with black for 1” of 2x2 ribbing, 1 round of knit in black so that the color change would be smooth then start with orange. The total length of the cuff and leg is 4”. I did a slip stitch heel flap for 2” and turned the heel in black. Picked up stitches with orange and did the gusset decreases knitting until I reached 7.5 inches from heel to beginning of toe. Knit one round in black and began toe decreases. Kitchner when 20 sts remain. She put them on and they fit her perfectly and she loved them. I guess I get to keep my job for a little while longer! (joking)

As I have mentioned before, I am not fan of orange, but I like my job and my boss, so I sucked it up. My dislike for orange started sometime during my teenage years. I was a cheerleader for many years and all the teams that I cheered for were Orange and Black. On any given week during my high school years, I could be found in my uniform at least 3 days a week. So I am a little burned out on orange, besides, I look horrible in orange, I am a winter.

Senior year, Varsity Cheer, Selma High 1990

All hail to Selma High, Our sons and daughters sing.... (I can't remember the rest of the song!)Go Bears! Cheer Forever!

Happy Anniversary

2008-10-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary to my dearest Sensei. Though I can't stand when you leave wet towels on the bed after your shower, leave the kitchen cabinet door open after getting a glass and leave the TV on all day long, I love you for many many reasons. You make me laugh on a daily basis, especially when you do those little dances! This past year has been emotionally trying on the both of us, but it has brought us closer than ever. Besides, who couldn't love a guy who brings her a 3 Splenda wet cappuccino every morning?!?!?

Happy Anniversary!!

My weekend in photos

2008-09-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

SATURDAY
I went to San Francisco and met my mom, older brother the cop, sister-in-law and my nephew at Lefty O'douls in Union Square for lunch, drinks and college football games on TV. Giving a big shout out to Fresno State beating UCLA and an even bigger shout out to Notre Dame beating Purdue. Way to go Irish!!! Since the Irish won, that started the weekend off on a good note.

Then my family went to the Dodger vs Giants game and sat in my companies Club Level Seats while a co-worker and I sat in other seats at the park.

This is my family, right to left, mom, brother, nephew and sister-in-law.

In all the times that I have sat in those seats I have never gotten a chance to see a celebrity, but they did... Steve Perry.

So my sister-in-law snapped this from her seat about 10 seats away

Steve Perry (former lead singer of Journey) was very nice to my family and signed autographs and seemed happy to chat, he just didn't want to pose for a picture, something about he had a year left, yada yada yada. Not sure what that was all about. But my co-worker and I sitting in the lower box seats on the right side of the field did get to see Vida Blue, you have to be BIG baseball fans to know who he is, but this is him...

Yes, I Kinneared him. It was too late to get a picture and autograph with him, so this is the best that I could do.

SUNDAY

Sensei and I were guests of Mazda at the AMA Superbike races at Laguna Seca. Getting these passes was good timing, it was Sensei's birthday too!

This pass is what I like to call, "Ain't no where here you are gonna get denied access Pass," or as Sensei liked to call it, "I AM the shit Pass!"

The suite was located on Pit Row, stocked full of food and drinks gratis. There was indoor seating with 3 TV's showing parts of the track not visible from where we were and then outdoor seating looking onto the track. I met some Mazda factory people, good people to know, because I scored this for Sensei and I...

Yes, that is me in the Official Pace Car and the driver took me around the track going REALLY REALLY fast. It was the most awesome experience I have EVER had. Sensei loved it as you can see...

He said that this was the best birthday he ever had.

The bikes were going speeds of about 180 mph in the straight aways. This link will show all the pictures at Laguna Seca if you are interested in seeing more.

Just a Thursday night in San Francisco

2008-09-26T03:03:00.000-07:00

So last night my friend Juanita (fabulous singer) and I went to San Francisco because I called in and won tickets to the annual Alice 97.3 karaoke contest at Ruby Skye. I blogged about it here and to be honest, when I blogged about it, Juanita was the first person I thought of to go with. We headed north after work, found the place, parked the car and got something to eat a Max's and then proceeded to the event. After watching several people, some scared, some drunk, some tone deaf and think that they are the next best thing and then some, well all I can say is-bless their hearts they tried. Then this happened...

The embeding thing is not working, click here to see

The crowd went wild, no other person got that great of a reaction, the night was GREAT!! Yay Juanita!!!

So you think you can sing?

2008-09-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

I know that I can not sing, that is for sure. Just because I can't carry a tune to save my life does not mean that I don't still sing, just ask Sensei. However, I like to see others sing, those who sing well and those who are train wrecks. Yes, I am referring to karaoke. Never would I be able to drink enough to get up the nerve to participate, but I won tickets to a huge karaoke event at Ruby Skye in San Francisco hosted by Alice 97.3. The winner of the event receives $1000!!! The contest is Thursday, September 25th, so if you think you can bring out your inner Diva and have the attitude and the pipes to get on the Ruby Skye stage and want to compete, contact me and the second ticket is yours. I will be there to cheer you on! Besides, you can win a $1000, Stitches is coming soon, that can buy a whole lot of yarn!!!

2008-09-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Helena

Source: Knitty Summer 2008

Size: 2 yr old

Materials: Rowan Wool Cotton in Clear colorway

Amount: 4 balls (615 yrds)

Needles: 4.0mm/US 6

Start Date: August 31, 2008

Finish Date: September 12, 2008

A co-worker of mine has been trying for a baby for years only after learning that they were unable to conceive, they were graced with the opportunity to adopt a young unwed girl's baby. Alicyn Kate was born in February 2008. I knit an infant hat for my co-worker for the baby with a promise of something bigger later. Well, this is the "bigger later."

Helena from Knitty Summer 2008 will be my “go to” baby/toddler sweater pattern from now on, it is a great pattern. I opted to do buttons instead of ties. Rowan Wool Cotton is a GREAT baby yarn, it show great stitch definition, supper soft and it is machine washable (gentle in cold water.) Baby's mother only request was that it was an icy blue color to match her babies eyes. Hopefully when the weather turns colder, baby will have grown enough to wear the cardigan this winter. I will be sure to get action shots then.

Now to non-knitting news....

I cut my hair! Cutting my hair is sort of a big deal. I am not that disciplined in several areas of my life and keeping my hair styled and cut is one of them. So enjoy it while you can! I did not dye it, just cut, but it does look a bit darker than usual. I have had mixed reviews from friends, mostly in the "Love it " column.

These pictures are of the second day after the cut. It is much shorter in the back than the front and I chose to get some heavy bangs this time. It has been years since I had bangs, we are talking early 1990's.

Ok, later this week, more knitting... I am seeing lots of blue in my future!

Rock the Casbah

2008-09-11T17:01:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Basic Sock
Materials: Handmaiden Fine Yarn Casbah Sock in Ebony
Amount: 1 Hank (355 yards)
Needles: 2.5mm
Start Date: July 9, 2008 (I think)
Finish Date: August 9, 2008 (I think)

This yarn is WONDERFUL! If you have a chance, I would highly recommend picking up a hank and making yourself some socks. Who doesn’t want a little (or a lot) of cashmere on their feet? The colors are rich and beautiful in each hank of yarn made up of 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon.

The yardage is the only issue that I have with this yarn. It is a decent yardage, but since my feet are large (size 9 – 10 depending on the shoe) and I like about 6-7” from cuff to start of heel flap, I opted for a basic plain sock. If I had tried to make a sock with a stitch pattern, I would have had to severely shorten the cuff/leg. It made for nice mindless knitting. I thought about calling these my DMV socks. I process DMV paperwork for two different car dealerships and I have a standing Thursday appointment at the local DMV office where sometimes I am waiting for long periods of time for my turn. My appointments are an hour long also, so that gives me some good knitting time; not to mention stress relieving due to the nature of DMV.

For these socks, I cast on 68 sts, knit 2x2 ribbing for 1”. The 68 sts is because I have thick calves, I decreased 4 sts at the top of my ankle so that it would not be baggy. I opted for a slip stitch heel flap and when I got to the gusset decreases, I decreased down to 64 stitches on the foot, and fished with a standard toe.

I have knit several socks; these are the MOST comfortable socks that I have made hands down. There are a couple more hanks of this yarn in my stash (they are not listed on my stash page on Ravelry) and I am looking forward to knitting them up to add to my collection of socks.

And I must give a huge Congratulation to my friend Janice Kang (bogiebogie) for her new sock design Baroque in the Fall 2008 Knitty. Janice is a fantastic designer/knitter and I am glad that I get to hang out with her at social knitting and especially Stitches West every year because she finds all the great stuff! Right Janice?? Oh and rumor has it, she can sing backup vocals pretty good too! :)

Yarn, Giants, Tigers

2008-08-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

My boss offered me the companies Club Level seats to the Giants vs Padres game Saturday and of course I was happy to accept. I rounded up some friends, we set the time to leave and off we went. Karol, Erin, Betsy (Erin's mom) and I all took the Cal Train up to Millbrae, transferred on to the BART to go into San Francisco. I know you are asking, why would they transfer on to the BART if they are going to the Giants game...cause we went to Artfibers first silly!

I saw the most beautiful brownish/bronze color in the Satori yarn. It looked beautiful knitted up, but not sure it the color would really be flattering on me. So I took my little swatch with me to ponder the color choice.

Then we headed out to the game, got food and drinks (I had a margarita or maybe two.) Knitting, food, drinks, sunny day at the ballpark, it was great!

My uncle, aunt and mom were at the game too, they had seats only one section away and we met up with them after the game for a short visit.

Me, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Barbi

I started working on my Giants socks out of Panda Silk, they are really soft.

And I have finished the second and final project for the Ravelympics. These were originally called, We Call Them Giants, but since they are no longer going to be the socks that my boss gets for her to wear to the Giants games, I have renamed them.....

Sorry Roger, You Tiger Now!

And if you are not familiar with that tag line, here is where I got it from...

(The embedding is not working, so you will have to click on this link.)

Pattern: Hedera by Cookie A
Source: Knitty Spring 2006

Materials: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Lightweight Socks that Rock in Rocky Horror

Needles: 2.75mm Magic Loop Method

Ravelympics, Fiesta!

2008-08-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Fiesta Mittens by Lucy Neatby (Ravelry)

Source: Tradewind Knitwear Design

Materials: Curious Creek Fibers Wasonga in Moon Shine and Omo in Early Sunest.
Amount: Not sure the exact amount, it was a test knit and not full hanks were supplied.

Needles: 2.0mm cuff, 2.25mm hand and 2.75mm on thumb (right hand mitten) and 2.25mm cuff, 2.5mm hand and 2.75mm thumb (left hand mitten)

Start Date: July 26, 2008

Finish Date: August 17, 2008

Funny how things just happen; I came into contact with Kristine Brooks, artist/owner of Curious Creek Fibers through a friend of a friend. We exchanged emails and the next thing you know, I was knitting for her. Curious Creek Fibers is partnering with Lucy Neatby to create kits for Lucy’s patterns and trunk show. I was given several choices of patterns to pick from and the Fiesta Mittens were one of them, you all know my love of fair isle now.

Lucy Neatby used Koigu originally and Kristine wanted to see how the pattern would work with her beautiful hand dyed creations. I think they are very nice, don’t you? She had the idea of using two different yarns in her line. The main color yarn is Wasonga, her fingering merino yarn in Moon Shine. It is a really pretty eggplant color with touches of black and pale lavender throughout. The contrast color is Omo, her fingering 4 ply silk/merino. The use of the Omo just pops beautifully.

Fiesta Mittens in Curious Creek Fibers should be made available soon as a kit; a great pattern with beautiful hand dyed yarns! Since my deadline also corresponded with the Ravelympics, this project was entered in WIP Wrestling.

Decent Day: BAD ending

2008-08-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

Monday’s are sometimes the worst day of the week, agree? Well, yesterday was not a bad Monday until I got ready to leave work. If you don’t already know, I work at a car dealership. When you buy a car, I am the one that ensures you get registration and plates for your car, I process the DMV paperwork. It’s a job a job and pays decent. Along with that, sometimes our customers get tickets and the dealership is forced by the DMV to pay the ticket in order to complete a transfer of ownership on a vehicle, speaking strictly of a used car. So there was this customer who leased a car and when his lease was up he went ahead and bought the car out right. When I transferred the ownership of his car from the bank to him there was a parking ticket on his record and the DMV would not do the transfer unless the ticket was paid, so we paid it. I then sent the customer a letter stating that we paid the ticket and requested reimbursement from him like I have done many, many times before from other customers with the same situation. Let’s just say that he was adamant that the ticket was not his, even though he owned the car when the ticket was issued and he in not so nice words declined to pay the ticket and was getting quite worked up about it. I was very calm, believe it or not (I have a witness) and I realized that continuing this conversation was not going to be beneficial to either of us. Now, I am leaving a huge amount of dialogue out (see me for more detailed summary and facial expressions) but here is what turned a fairly decent Monday in to a crap day…

Customer: They made a mistake, I was not in _______ during the month of February and I am not going to pay the ticket.

Me: Ok, I will pass it along to my manager and you have a nice evening.

Customer: I don’t think you understand, I am not going to pay that.

Me: I do understand, have a nice evening. (still trying to end the conversation)

Customer: No, you are going to listen to me, you don’t know how to do good business, let me tell you how do to good business, you are going to listen to me or I am going to call ______ your General Manager and tell him what a horrible job you are doing, you scumbag.

Me: Excuse me! Did you just call me a scumbag?

Customer: Yes I did…

Me: (action) Slam phone receiver down and hang up on customer.

All of this over a $20 dollar parking ticket!

Hope your Monday was better than mine. Tomorrow, detail on my Ravelympic knitting event completed.

Beijing Opening Ceremonies

2008-08-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

I had a dilemma Friday at work. My boss came by my desk waiving Club Level tickets to the Giants vs Dodger game asking me if I wanted them. Well of course I do, the company tickets to a Dodger game is damn near impossible to get. "When is it ?" I ask like a silly girl, tonight she says...ouch. The dilemma is, I love the Olympics, my knitting friends and when drinking is involved that is a trifecta...but I love going to Giants games and its even better when I have Club Level seats and they are FREE. Then I uttered the word that shocked both me and my boss, "I can't, I have plans already."

Some of the Team BobaKnit knitters gathered at the Firehouse in Sunnyvale, CA to watch the opening ceremonies and WOW what a site they were. I knew that it would be spectacular, but it was more than I had expected, even if we could not hear what was happening or the commentary. BobaKnitters in attendance were, Jeni, Teenuh, Jill, Linda, Juls, Margit, Julia, and Sheetal. There was knitting, food and of course there were drinks!

The sad thing about my knitting is the cuff of that sock was already done when I got there, I only completed 4 rounds after that. I was loving the Cosmos just a little too much to knit. Our server was fun, he had a great sense of humor. I wanted some coffee with my desert and while trying to express to him that I like a lot of cream I said to him, "I like a little coffee with my cream." I guess you should be careful of what you ask for...

Oh and since I was having too much fun and forgot to get my camera out, I totally stole these pictures from Teenuh's Flickr stream. She has other great pictures from that night on her blog. Thanks Teenuh.

In hind site, I am super glad that I passed on the baseball tickets. A good time was had by all of us watching the Beijing Opening Ceremonies and the Giants lost that night anyway, Saturdays game was better :)

Ready, Set, Cast On!!

2008-08-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

I love the Olympics, Summer or Winter, makes no difference. Our TV will be tuned to the station with the games everyday. The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics I was 12 years old, I stayed with my grandparents in the San Fernando Valley and they took me to see the torch go by on its route. I took pictures (that I can't find at the moment) and it was memorable to watch.

And now that I knit, I am participating in the Ravelympics this year. You must cast on a project during the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics (Aug. 8)- and finish before the Olympic flame goes out (Aug. 24). That’s 17 days. I have joined Team Bobaknit and entered two events, Sockput ( knit a pair of socks) and WIP Wrestling (finish a project that is already underway.)

Tonight our team is gathering at the Firehouse in Sunnyvale, CA to watch the Opening Ceremonies together and root each other on as we knit to the finish line!

What are you event are you knitting in and what is the project?

A moment of weakness

2008-08-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

I just have to put it out there, it is all Irishgirlieknits fault. I was reading her blog late last night thinking I am going to be reading all about her trip to Sea World and then at the bottom of the blog post she goes and mentions that Sundara opened up her Seasons Club. I have been wanting to purchase Sundara yarn for some time now, I just got paid, I was home alone, enough said. I chose the Winter season, it suits me best and I can't wait for my first shipment. Thanks Carrie!!

Things in which I did not knit...

2008-08-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I went to lunch as usual and when I came back I found a package on my desk, happy surprises!! When I opened it this is what I found…

My friend in Texas, Twisted Knitter, sent me this beautifully hand knit drawstring bag. I was so shocked and happy. And as if that was not enough of a gift, I found my second surprise…

She put a center pull wound ball of a beautiful red fingering weight yarn, she knows me well. Janet (Janet Ravelry Link) is a wonderful knitter and is truly inspirational. She is on a blog vacation at the moment, so it gives you time to browse her archives and see the beautiful things she makes.

And the gifts keep on coming. Saturday night I attended an anniversary party of one of the owners of Purlescence Yarns where I received my birthday gift, a pair of hand knit socks. December is my birthday month and when we were in the shop chatting I had mentioned that I have never had anyone knit me anything. So the Purl Girls decided that as my birthday gift they were going to knit me my Notre Dame socks (they know me well too.) Kaye (Kaye Ravelry Link) did the lion share of the knitting with a stunt knitter, Jasmin (Jasmin Ravelry Link) to complete the toes. While we were all around celebrating the anniversary Jasmin was finishing the toe on the last sock and I got to take them home. So I am all ready for the new football season with my beautiful birthday/Nortre Dame socks.

So may I suggest, knit another knitter friend something, anything, they will love you for it!

Oak-Town Adventure

2008-07-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday my knitting friend Karol and I took an adventure to Oakland. Our mission, go to Article Pract, shop yarn and meet Kristine Brooks of Curious Creek Fibers. We drove to Fremont and took the BART to the MacArthur Station in Oakland then walked a little over a half a mile to Article Pract. The was was amusing in itself. Lots to see and umm, comment on.

Article Pract has lots of lovely yarns in every fiber known to man. They have lots of beautifully knit samples for you to get inspiration. If you don't look carefully, you will miss some of their inventory, it is literally stacked floor to ceiling, baskets and cubbies, racks and rods. The only down side for me was there was not an area for you to sit and knit. For people that make a little trip, I would think it would be nice to be able to stay and knit also. To be honest, I would probably have bought more yarn if I was able to relax, knit and chat. But I did manage to bring these beauties home with me, ShibuiKnits sock yarn that to my knowledge, none of my LYS carry, so score for me!

After the yarn purchasing took place, I went into the back where they hold their classes to meet Kristine of Curious Creek Fibers. Kristine was in town from San Diego to teach a class and I am doing some sample/test knitting for her with her yarns. I got the package she sent me with the yarn and pattern on Saturday...

And on Sunday, I brought this to show her...

Fiesta Mittens by Lucy Neatby. (Ravelry link) She approved. It was nice for the both of us to put a name to a face.

After the yarn store, Karol and I went to a coffee shop a couple of doors down, got a beverage and a cookie, knit and people watched. The BART train back was, well, interesting! We encountered a man that was having a difficult time getting information on his phone and kept arguing with a recording as if it was a live person. If you see me, I will go into more detail, lets just say I had tears in my eyes, not from crying though.

Its all about the caramel corn...

2008-07-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday night, July 22, was the Stitch n Pitch night at the San Francisco Giants game. I had not originally intended to go this year, even though last year was a memorable night, see here. But the day before, my boss asked me if I wanted our companies season tickets on the club level of the stadium.....OF COURSE I DO. So I made contact with knitters that I knew didn't get tickets to the event, Karol (Rav link), Jill and Teenuh. Jill works in the city, so Teenuh, Karol and I took the train up and meet her there. Teenuh has a much better recap of the whole event.

But the best thing about the Giants game is the fresh hand tossed caramel corn that you can ONLY get on the club level. I have been fortunate in the past to get tickets to the games and made attempts to include my good friend Nathania but it never worked out. So she had to hear about this caramel corn from others. Well Tuesday night she got her caramel corn thanks to my club level seats. I bought the corn, took the elevator up to the 5th floor and meet her out in the concessions area of her section.

I went back to where she and the other knitters were sitting to wave hello and then took my happy ass back to my club seat!

The weather this year was much better than last year, the Giants beat the Nationals 6-3 and it was a great night with good friends.

Relayed out and the winner!

2008-07-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

I am almost recovered from the Relay for Life event over the past weekend. It was a great event, I was happy to see such a great turn out for support of the American Cancer Society. I am most appreciative of all the people that supported my efforts in knitting caps and monetary donations. I blew it and did not get any good pics to share with you of the entire site with the Luminaria's all lit up, trust me when I say, it was a beautiful site. I stayed out at the relay all night to the ending ceremonies on Sunday and there were lots of people walking in the wee hours of the morning. If you have never been to one of these events, I recommend going, you don't have to be apart of a team to participate. Check out their website to find an event close to you. Here are a couple of pics that I did manage to take of our little space.

And now what you all have been waiting for... The lucky name drawn is Kristin Leamy!! Congratulations Kristin, I will be contacting you to see which yarn you would like and thank you for your support!

A little knitting progress other than hats and such has occurred. I have breathed new life into my Carbon Copy Monkeys. I went up a needle size, changed the heel flap type and I believe this time I will be successful. I am about to turn the heel so we will see!

Last Chance Effort and Yarn Giveaway

2008-07-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

This is my last chance fundraising effort. I am participating this weekend in the Relay for Life in Campbell, CA. Relay For Life is a 24-hour event whose mission is to raise money which will be used towards research, education, and programs which support those undergoing cancer treatment. I have committed to raising $500 for the event, I am close but with your help, I can meet and or exceed this goal.

My father died of lung cancer in 1992 when I was 20 years old and my mother is a two time ovarian cancer survivor. I know first hand the struggles of those with cancer and those friends and family members that are there to care for them. This cause is close to my heart in many ways. Cancer is life altering and we all know someone who is or has been affected by this disease.

One way of supporting the event is the purchase of a Luminaria. As the light dims over campsites and team member’s complete laps, the night is brightened by the glow of lighted bags called luminaria, each of which has a special meaning. You can honor a cancer survivor by placing their name under "In Honor of," or you can remember someone who was lost to cancer by placing the name under "In Memory of." Each individual’s name will appear on a luminaria and each will be lit at the ceremony to shine as a beacon of hope for others. You also have the option to send an e-card to inform family members and friends of your special gift. To purchase the Luminaria or make a straight dontaion click on this link.

Anyone that comments to this post AND makes a donation, I will pick one random winner and give them a choice of a hank of either Blue Moon Fiber Arts or Malabrigo. Go ahead and make a donation, help the American Cancer Society and possibly get some yarn!!
EDIT: THIS WILL CLOSE ON SATURDAY JULY 12TH 2008 AT 8AM PST

Parade of Socks

2008-07-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

Long time, no post. I have been away a bit for 3 good reasons.

Reason 1:

Reason 2:

I kept my niece and nephew. We had a grand time! We went to the Oakland Zoo, Chuckie Cheese, the drive-in movie theater to see Wall-E and a couple of parks for play time. To see photos if you are interested, you can view them here.

Reason 3:

I have been working a TON of hours and I then took ill. Come to find out, I have/had a sinus infection and ear infection. But I am on the mend, got my antibiotics and all is getting right in my world.

Now, on with the important stuff - knitting content.

Here are some photos of socks that I have completed and never posted about. Sensei's House Socks knit with Dream in Color Classy in the Cocoa Kiss colorway. I knit them on a US5 using a 3x1 ribbing. Ravelry Details.

And these are my Torrey Pines/Buick Open Socks. I knit these while watching Tiger Woods play in the Buick Open at Torrey Pines on our trip to San Diego. They are knit with Socks that Rock in the Ravenscroft colorway. This is my plain basic sock pattern knit on 2.5mm needles. Unfortunately, I got lots of wear on these prior to taking proper blog pictures, please excuse the slight felting on the soles. Ravelry Details.

And finally, my Lucky Green Socks, well at least I hope they will be! I started them a long time ago and never finished them. While I was in bed sick all weekend I decided that it was time to finish them; besides, I only had half of the second one to complete. The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in the Happy Forest colorway (I think.) The pattern is Corded Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks. Ravelry Details.

On a totally sad note, I had to frog my latest sock, Carbon Copy Monkey, because it was too small. There is a funny unattractive photo of me frogging the sock that will not be shared here. Trust me, it is funny but much more unattractive. However, every time I call Teenuh it pops up on her iPhone, gives her a laugh. Cookie gave me a tip on fixing my too small issue, I will be casting back on soon!

2nd Knitiversary

2008-07-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

July 1st was my actual Knitiversary, but I was WAY to busy at work to post about it, so it is a day late (just like most things in my life.) In honor of my 2nd Knitiversary, I thought that I would do the following knitting meme to see all that I have accomplished in 2 years.

1) Bold things you’ve done
2) Green thing you are currently doing
3) Red out things you’ve abandoned or will never attempt
4) Italicize things you want to try

Afghan
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Baby items
Bobbles
Button holes
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Cardigan
Charity knitting
Continental knitting
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Darning
Designing knitted garments
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Drop stitch patterns
Dyeing with plant colors
Dyeing yarn
Entrelac
Fair Isle knitting
Freeform knitting
Fulling/felting
Gloves
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Hair accessories
Hat
Holiday related knitting
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
I-cord
Intarsia
Jewelry
Kitchener
BO
Knitting a gift
Knitting and purling backwards
Knitting for a living
Knitting for pets
Knitting for preemies
Knitting in public
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting socks
Knitting to make money
Lace patterns
Long Tail CO
Machine knitting
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Moebius band knitting
Norwegian knitting
Olympic knitting
Participating in a KAL
Pillows
Publishing a knitting book
Purses/bags
Rug
Scarf
Shawl
Short rows
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Slip stitch patterns
Slippers
Socks: toe-up
Socks: top-down
Steeks
Stockinette stitch
Stuffed toys
Swatching
Sweater
Teaching a child to knit
Teaching a male how to knit
Textured knitting
Thrummed knitting
Toy/doll clothing
Tubular CO
Twisted stitch patterns
Two end knitting
Writing a pattern

Our Dogs are better than yours!!

2008-06-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but I have to give props to my hometown boys, Fresno State Bulldogs. They just won the 2008 College World Series beating the Georgia Bulldogs 6-1. When I grew up in the Central Valley I had went to many baseball games and to see them now win the College World Series, their first national title, that is fantastic. I may now live in San Jose, but my home is Fresno.

Not a fan...

2008-06-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

Before anyone decides to post bad comments regarding this post, let me just say, to each is own and I respect peoples love for certain things in their lives. But I am putting it on record that I am not a fan of the color Orange. Never have, never will. I don't own anything orange, it is not a flattering color to me at all. Many people have knitted beautiful projects with different variations of orange colored yarn. One person in particular I can think of is my friend in Texas, Twisted Knitter. She did the Irish Hiking Scarf in an orange colored yarn, looks great, for her; me not so much. So a true test of friendship is when you ask me to knit orange colored yarn.

Granted it was just some finishing work, but still, it was ORANGE. Actually, it was Texas Longhorn Burnt Orange color and you will see it knit up in a book sometime next year. Only for YOU (you know who you are.)

But I have devised a list of 10 things in random order that are orange in color that I do like so you can see that I am only prejudice to the color...

Oranges (the fruit)
Gerber Daisy
Golden Gate Bridge (yes it is orange!)
Orange Bell Peppers
Pumpkins
Thai Tea
Chloe and Eddie's Honda Element
Koi
Sun Setting
Clown Fish (Nemo)

So tell me, what color do you not like to knit?

Relay for Life

2008-06-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

A knitter friend of mine put together a team called Cap Off Cancer to participate in the Relay for Life, an event supporting the American Cancer Society. I have two very personal reasons why I decided to participate, my parents.

Dad passed away from lung cancer in 1992 when I was 20 years old and my mother is a two time ovarian cancer survivor and is currently in remission.

Cancer is something that has altered my life significantly as it does to many many others. So I am doing my part in the fight against cancer by joining the Cap Off Caner team in the Relay for Life event July 12-13, 2008 in Campbell, CA. Here is my event page for more information if you would like to make a donation, purchase a Luminaria in memoriam or in honor of someone special or donate a chemo cap. Also, you can contact me with any questions.

National Bring Your Dog to Work Day

2008-06-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

Today is National Bring Your Dog to Work Day, so I brought Mugsy with me to work. I was watching the Today show this morning and they made the announcement so I grabbed my phone and text message my boss and asked permission, she said yes. She is the greatest boss EVAR!! I just wish that we could have our pooches at work more offen, makes for a fun place to work.

Mugsy at Mazda

Making good on a gift

2008-06-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

This post is to inform you all that I am still alive and there has been some knitting going on too. For about 3 weeks now, I have been working 10-12 hour days six days a week. Why all the hours? Well, I am sort of behind at work for one and two, the dealership group that I work for, they are consolidating all four accounting offices into one location. With that said, part of my work is going to be handed off to another person and I will be doing more of one specific part of my job. So in preparation for the move, I have been working long hours to make everything go as smooth as possible. July will be a much better month, I can feel it!

As for knitting content, I am making good on a long awaited present. Let me give you some background. The first Christmas that I knew how to knit (2 seasons ago) I was on a felting spree. I made a pair of Felted Clogs (Ravelry link or blog link) for my Grandmother. Well, I stupidly while making the first pair, said that I could make Sensei's dad a pair for Christmas too. What I didn't know when I opened my big mouth was that I would come to HATE that pattern. I mean they are great once they are done, but the whole knitting experience is horrible. I made only one of his dad's clog/slippers and never did the other one. In fact, I don't even know where the first knitted one is at the moment it has been that long. Needless to say, Sensei has pretty much never let me forget that I was knitting his dad something which never was completed, every chance he got. So with the up coming Father's Day, I decided to make good on a knitted gift, but NOT clog/slippers!!

So here is a basic knitted vest using Ann Budds The Knitter's Book of Handy Patterns.

Ravelry details here. I LOVE this book and Ann Budds The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. They have been so useful in my knitting projects, I highly recommend them.

Pattern: Basic Vest Pattern

Source: The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd

Size: 44" Chest Circumference

Materials: Cascade 220 Heathers 2427

Amount: 4 hanks heather brick red colorway 2427

Started: June 2008

Finished: June 2008

Ok Sensei, it is time to let it go now. No more felted slipper comments comments or I will be forced to post the picture of you wearing my fuzzy pink slippers!

Aint gunna dew it...

2008-06-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

This coming July will be 2 years since I learned how to knit. And while I have learned to surround myself with talented knitters it seems that many of them are talented spinners too. All the while I have been watching knitters taking the plunge into spinning. I kept stating that spinning is not in my future, I needed to learn everything about knitting before I learned to spin. And honestly I thought that excuse would work. It started with, I have not complete a sweater, done-I have not learned cables, done-I have to learn to steek, done-I need to learn fair isle, done-need to learn sock, done-I need to learn lace knitting, in progress. Now I realize that is not "everything" about knitting, but you get what I mean.

So I finally made it to Mary's (mother to knitters starting spinning) monthly spin-in. I toodled in there with my plate of Snickerdoodles and my knitting bag with 2 current projects and found a comfy chair and started knitting. And then Mary said, "I am using my drop spindle, my wheel is free, LISA" nudge nudge. Well she didn't have to twist my arm that hard actually. Prior to this day, Sensei said to me that he would buy me a spinning wheel but that I had to learn to spin a bit before he bought the wheel. I found that to be a reasonable request since wheels are not cheap.

Into the fiber stash Mary and I went and we pulled out this fiber.

While Mary was untangling some singles that she was plying, Janice (another fabulous knitter/spinner) got me started. I learn some lingo, but the phrase I heard the most was, "DON"T LET GO" She was referring to my back hand while trying to draft and when I stopped treadling cause I had to much twist I would let go with my back hand. Anyway, all I can say is that it is a real learning process, one of which I am still willing to learn, Mary and Janice were great to help me get my feet wet.

So let me show you what I made, now you can't laugh, it was my first and I know I will get better when I learn to draft better.

Now the funniest thing that was said was this morning several hours after my foray in to spinning. Sensei and I were cuddling this morning talking about our up coming week and things we need to do and our future together and he says, " When we have our children and they bring home some drawing they did in pre-school and it looks like a mess, what are you going to say to them?" I of course replied that I would praise them and tell them how beautiful it was. Without skipping a beat he said, "Baby, your yarn you spun is really beautiful" We started to laugh so hard I almost peed my pants!

Too many projects

2008-05-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

Having issues with starting to many projects, I know that I am not the only one. If you are a knitter and reading this, then I would be what my dad would say, "Singing to the choir!"

I have several on the needles at the moment, then I remember that it is so and so's birthday coming and I should whip something up real quick for that (yeah right!) Or I promised this to that person a year ago! I have a lot of IOU's out there and I am excited to get them complete and hand them off. The real issue is me, stumbling across patterns like this...

This is Elijah (Ravelry link) by Ysolda Teague. Isn't he adorable? I could not resist him! And then I get to chatting with my friends about what they are knitting, I get so wrapped up in wanting to do a mini-KAL with them on their current project. I spent hours trying to research the right yarn for the project, chatting online bouncing ideas off friends about yarn choices, because no matter how big your stash is, you never have the right yarn, right? Or is that just me?

So this is a line up of what I have in my knitting bag at the moment, they are all gifts that I am trying to complete by the end of June. Now I have to just stay off Ravelry and not open another knitting magazine and I just might stay focused!

I am sort of proud of my stitch tension on this cotton and linen number. Cotton is hard for me to maintain good tension and not row out.

This is my Elijah and he will be going to my nephew, I can reveal that cause he is 4 and does not read my blog, I am pretty sure of it!

Oh and lets not forget this one, another gift project, so no real details to be handed out. I am further along on this project than what the picture is showing. It is steadily going, I just have not taken a recent photo.

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day Weekend. If you have a US Flag, please remember to fly it at half-staff to commemorate U.S. men and women who have died in military service to our country. Regardless of your feeling about the current war, we should honor those who have fallen to defend our rights during any war.

Happy 7th Birthday!!

2008-05-22T16:30:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to my little guy Mugsy. The one that I refer to as Punkin, Love of my Life, Mama's Boy, Mug-a-do and the newly established nickname...King Furry Butt.

Mugsy and his favorite stuffed toy.

Mugsy laying in his favorite spot, on Sensei!

2008-05-20T08:27:00.000-07:00

Actual knitting content Alert!!

Mom dropped me a subtle hint a couple of weeks before Mother's Day-an email link to an Etsy site that is selling hand knit fingerless gloves with a note saying, "I bet those would look fabulous in black!"

And black fingerless gloves she got!

Project details:

Pattern: Glen from Purlescence Yarns

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash (almost 1 ball)

Needles: Addi US6 (2) Circulars (the pattern was written to use two circulars)

Ravelry Link to Project

The pattern is really quick and easy, great for a quick small gift and is offered in three different sizes.

Mom lives in San Francisco and even in the summer it gets cold there. She makes jewelry and sells them in her Etsy Store so she needs use of her fingers and these are going to come in handy for her.

Hall of Fame

2008-05-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend my father was inducted into the Babe Ruth Baseball Hall of Fame. No, it is not Cooperstown where the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame is, but me and my family are very proud of this event. We even all gathered for it.

Left to right, my younger brother (the youth Minister) Kelly, my nephew Cody, Me, (in front of me) Josiah and Caitlin, my mom, older brother (the cop) Todd, G'ma (my maternal grandmother), Mimi (my paternal grandmother and Todd's wife Michelle. Crystal, Kelly's wife was unable to make it.

The ceremony was held where my dad started in Babe Ruth Baseball, Selma, CA on the field the city named after him. My father started as a coach in the Selma League and over time, his dedication and involvement led him to become State Commissioner for Central California. The state is divided into three sections due to the size and participation.

After the ceremony, we all went to Sal's Mexican Restaurant. If you live in the Central Valley of California, you know about Sal's! I have many memories of that restaurant, we used to sneak off campus to go and eat there when I was in high school. That story will have to wait, I will tell it, I promise.

On to knitting content. I started a project and I have given myself a deadline of June 30, let's see if I can make it. This is a sneak peak of the project.

This is the yarn that I am using.

I am still working on several different projects, Juno Regina, some children toys, the second Endpaper Mitts, ummm, there are others, but now I am a bit embarrased of how many works in progress I have, so I will stop there. And to end this post with some sugary sweetness, someone loves their Auntie very much!!

Greatness

2008-04-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I was in the presence of greatness. My knitting friend Sheetal and I went to see our other knitting friend Juanita in Ragtime at the Montgomery Theater in San Jose, CA.

If you did not go, then you missed out on a fantastic performance by the entire cast and Juanita was particularly great as Sarah's Friend and closed out the first act with her solo of 'Til We Reach That Day.

Juanita is a great performer and I am sure that we will be seeing more of her performances. Check her blog for more of her upcoming performances and of course the all important knitting content!!

Speaking of knitting content, the only thing I have to show you is another sock in progress and that is not very exciting but here it is anyway! My FakeIsle (my term, not the sock yarn or pattern) stockinette sock.

I don't remember the name of the yarn, I got the yarn at Stitches this year at the Webs booth, it has a German name, that is all I can remember. The ball band it at home, but if someone can tell me now what it is that would be FABO! Otherwise you will have to wait until I get home to read the ball band.

Adoption

2008-04-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

So you are probably thinking due to the title of this post that I have signed up with an adoption agency, right? Well you are partially correct. I did sign up with an adoption organization, but not for a baby, well at least not yet (still holding out hope that it will happen) I adopted a solider! Yes, a soldier. Co-worker of mine did it and I thought that it was a good idea so I did too. Regardless of what your feelings are of the war in the Middle East, the soldiers should have our support. Both my father and my brother were in the Navy and I respect a person that serves our country no matter what decisions our government makes. So I went to this established organizations site, Adopt A US Soldier and signed up to adopt a deployed US soldier. When you adopt a soldier your level of commitment is as little as writing letters or as involved as sending care packages. The organization sent me an email with the name, address and email address of my soldier and a message from him which lists items that would be helpful if I would like to send a care package. Many of the US Armed Forces do not have easy access to items that would make them more comfortable while in the Middle East. I know when my brother was in the Navy it meant a lot to get packages of stuff when he was in the Persian Gulf. My soldier is from Florida and he is chief warrant officer (not sure what that means but I am sure I am going to find out.) Adopting a solider has given me a great feeling to know that I will make someones day a little better when they are giving so much of their life.

I thought that I would share a couple of photos of my father and brother.

Above is my father's Naval Academy Officer Flight School yearbook photo. I was trying to locate his formal officers photo but couldn't put my hands on it in time for this blog post, I will share later. My dad was stationed in Pensacola, FL in the mid 1960's

This is my brothers official Navy photo sitting on top of my fathers Navy yearbook. He was in the Navy during the late 1980's and was stationed in San Diego, CA. This is the brother who's business card usually gets me out of getting any tickets!

Since this is a knitting blog mainly, I am so close to finishing Richard's golf socks (Ravelry link) and I am just starting chart 4 on the Juno Regina (Ravelry link.) Whooo hooo, I am knitting lace!!

Breaking Blog Silence

2008-04-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

I am breaking format that I attempted at the beginning of the year, writing letters to my great grandmother as my blog posts. Since my last blog posting was a while ago, I felt that I would just do an update of what has been happening.

First off, I am fine. Back in early March, the 11th actually, I found out that I was pregnant, the most blessed news that Sensei and I could have gotten. We have been trying for about 2 years and it was looking like we were going to require major medical help to have our family, so we were super excited when it happened naturally. However, only after a short 5 weeks of pregnancy, we lost the pregnancy. There are many details that have happened to lead up to the loss but the direct answer to what happened is I had an ectopic pregnancy. The ectopic was and is being treated with a chemotherapy called Methotrexate instead of surgery. So we are just awaiting more test and we will be trying again. There is nothing special about our situation, this happens to many people, but it just plain sucks. I have been quiet on the blog because I just didn't have anything good to say for a while. Well until now. I just want to let you know how much I love my knitting friends. They wanted to let me know that they were thinking of me when I was going through my loss, see what they sent...

And just when I thought the love couldn't get any better, in the mail yesterday I got this,

Yes, I took this picture at work. But look, I even got Hiya Hiya needles for each hank! The knitters really know me well to get me Hiya Hiya's cause my hands eat the nickel platting on the other needles.

So now I have to find just the right sock patterns for these, any suggestions? I am getting hungry for some cereal!!

Knitting projects, I started some "golf socks" for Sensei. We have been through a lot and I wanted to make him some socks. So I picked up some Panda Cotton in black and made some ankle socks for him to wear golfing. Knitting is my therapy, golf is his. And you know it is love when you knit black socks, the only up side about the whole project is that they are only ankle socks.

I am done the first one and I am on the gusset decreases on the second one. Ravelry details here.

I have more projects but I think I will save them for later so that I have more to post about. Looking forward to gettng back to blogging and knitting.

#8

2008-02-19T12:54:00.000-08:00

Dear Grandma,

So a lot has been going on lately with the knitting. I have been test knitting a sock for my friend Margit, she is also known as Fiber Fiend. She has a booth at Stitches West 2008 that starts next weekend, February 21-24, she is in booth 738. And this is the sock that I knit...

I have miss placed, not lost, just miss placed (keep repeating) my camera. Anyway, I had to "borrow" Margits photos to show the sock. This was a great pattern and the greens and browns are really something to see. The pattern is called Willamette and the yarn colorway is Fern. She will be selling both at Stitches then on her website. I have also posted this on my Ravelry page and you can see more photos that Margit took there also.

I have also started Caitlin's Birthday Bear, it is the Classic Teddy Bear from Interweave Knits, 2007 Holiday issue. I have only the legs left to knit now and all the parts will be complete. Just blocking, seaming and stuffing and it will be finished. I am using Rowan Felted Tweed in a light brown and it is turing out well, it gives it a little bit of a rustic look too. No pictures yet, it is just all parts. Her birthday is Feb. 23, Saturday, this must be finished. Wish me luck!

And I have seemed to collect many unfinished projects lately. So I am determined to get them done by the end of March. Ravelry is wonderful, but it also can seem to taunt you with the things that you have not completed.

Ceiling update, the opening has been closed off with sheet rock and patched. It is drying and awaiting texture and paint. But since it is raining now and not very warn, that process will more than likely be delayed until better weather.

Ok Grandma, back to work I go.

Love,

Lisa

#7

2008-02-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

Dear Grandma,

When the bathtub upstairs in your neighbor’s house has a leaky valve, then your ceiling will probably look something like this... Wednesday morning I woke up, walked out into the living room and noticed a thin bubbled line on the ceiling. Under the bubbled line was water, I knew this because when I pushed on it I got drops in my face. I called the people upstairs who own the place and they came down and the words I believe that came out her mouth was, "Holy Shit!" An hour later three construction worker guys were in my living room with drop clothes and buckets draining what ended up being 4 gallons of water from the ceiling. That is a lot of water, not taking in account what was already soaked into the sound board and sheet rock. So all the mushy ceiling has been cut out, the leaky valve has been capped and the owners have gotten an estimate on the ceiling repairs.

On to happier things like yarn! I made a small purchase of sale yarn this week. Yes, it was on sale, I am trying to be good since Stitches West is sooo close.

It Cascade Dolce, 55% Superfine Alpaca / 23% Silk/ 22% Wool and red of course, the good red. Each hank is 109 yards and I am thinking of a lacey scarf unless someone has another suggestion?!?!? However, I may have to go back to Purlescence and get another hank or two while it is still on sale, 30% off, incase I want to make something a little bigger. I have checked Ravelry, several people have made Fetching with this yarn, possibility, I love Ravelry!

Ok, I am off to work on a sock I am test knitting for the Fiber Fiend booth at Stitches, she has some really excellent yarns and fiber that she has dyed along with patterns for the yarns.

Love,

Lisa

#6

2008-02-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

Dear Grandma:

I was just "tagged" by Jasmin on her blog to answer the following survey questions, so here goes my answers in no particular order...

4 Jobs I've Held:
Grocery Bagger
DMV Administrator
Office Manager
Program Director

4 Movies I've Watched Over and Over Again:
Forest Gump
Joy Luck Club
The Notebook
Elizabeth

4 Places I've Been:
Butchart Gardens – Victoria, Canada
The Road to Hana - Hawaii
Yellowstone National Park & Grand Tetons – Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho
I’d rather not discuss any details - Las Vegas

4 Places I've Lived:
Lompoc, CA
San Francisco, CA
Selma, CA
Vallejo, CA

Part A: 4 TV Shows I Watch: (This was hard. I watch too much TV.)
Law & Order (all of them)
Project Runway
Oprah
American Idol (yes, and I OK with admitting it. I secretly wish I could carry a tune.)

Part B: 4 Radio Shows I Listen To: [I'm going to substitute Podcasts for "Radio Shows.]
I don’t listen to many radio shows or at least none that I will admit to!

4 Things I Look Forward To:
Sleeping in on Saturday mornings
Stitches West
Knitting with Friends
Dinners with Sensei

4 Favorite Foods:
Sushi
Pizza
Cheesecake
Red Velvet Cup Cakes
Of course they are all fatting!

4 Places I'd Rather Be:
In bed asleep
By a lake in the mountains, fishing (yes, I like to fish!)
Purlescence Yarns
Getting a pedicure

4 People I email regularly:
Colleen
Gina
Mom
Knitting Friends

4 People to Tag:
Jill
Mari
Jessica

Rachel

#5

2008-01-31T13:18:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-30T23:39:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-29T10:49:00.001-08:00

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