Greatness

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear Grandma,

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

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

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

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

#4

Dear Grandma,

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

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

Margit - Fiber Fiend

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

Love,

Lisa

#3 Lots of photos

Hi Grandma,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Lisa

#2 (Photo and video heavy)

Grandma Davis,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Lisa

(Sharks newest fan, go #25!!)

#1

Dear Grandma Davis:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lisa


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

New Year, New Format

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

Old and New

First the old. Christmas day I stopped by my friends house to visit before returning to San Jose and realized that I never got a picture of the scarf that I knit her last Christmas. So she went and got it out for me and I got a photo finally. I really like this pattern, in fact I liked it so much that I made two last Christmas.

Irish Hiking Scarf, 2 hanks of Malabrigo in Dusty.

And for the new, Sensei got a new car. On my birthday. Wait, how does that happen? Oh right, his blew up! We got it in time for our trip to Disneyland. Sensei is really pleased with his new car, the windows roll up and down on this one!

Highlights...Lowlights

After 17 years, I finally got to return to Disneyland and I got sick! Yes, I have either a severe cold or the flu. Halfway down on our drive to Anaheim I started to feel, well, shitty. Took some medicine got some throat drops and started heavily medicating. I am still very weak and tired. I will have a better report of the day, I am just too tired and well, SICK!

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas, stay healthy and safe!

Contest Answers

Sorry, I forgot to include the answers to the contest questions this morning.

1. I have 2 brothers, what are their professions?
Older brother Todd is a Sergeant Detective and younger brother Kelly is a minister.

2. What is my favorite football team?
Notre Dame Fighting Irish, that is right, losing season and all, I am still a proud fan!

3. What is my favorite color?
Red, a true blue red. No orangey reds for me!

4. Where did my fellow knitters and I go after the Stitch n' Pitch?
Jeni, Becky, Hannah, Cindy, Cookie and I all wandered out of the park looking for a bar to sit and watch the end of the game because it was so cold there. We ended up at a tequila bar Tres Agaves! And if you click on the link above, there is a picture of Lori, the winner of the yarn in that blog post!

And if you wanted to know what happened to me last year on my birthday click here. So far today I have not repeated history!