Birthday goodies still arriving...WIP

Look what Mary brought over for my birthday. A lovely skein of Opal, the cutest decorated pail or do we call it a box? A beautiful birthday card she made. Mary is so into stamping now...from quilting to knitting to stamping, she's done it all. This is my knitting buddy that I go to knitting retreat with each year at Fort Worden. Thank you Mary...you rock!


Where have I been for the past eight days. Here, but each evening has seen me off to either a soccer or football game. Monday was the hardest for me with J gone. I went to work and broke down for a good cry. I'm MUCH better now. This is my therapy to get over the grief of my first child being away at college (and he's not missing home too much, either). He needs a nice little afghan for his bed. A mindless crochet that has left my knitting sitting on the sideline looking on. Just less than two weeks, the girls and I will be up to have dinner, do some shopping and visit J. Fingers crossed I have the afghan done to take with me. I should be over my sadness by then.

Francis Drake arrives on a Fall day in Graham, WA

I just love the box...what a great surprise that Francis Drake was waiting for me at the post office. Great timing!

Look at all the goodies that Marisol sent my way. There is nothing like hearing your 16 yo scream for the chocolate. It's really sad when at that age you still have to tell them "no, don't touch". LOL What do we see here? A box of Trader Joe's Chocolate Caramel Tartlet cookies, Villars Swiss Milk Chocolate bar, a cute Twinkle Candy (poof, I'm a sleek 120 pounds and no gray in the hair :), a lovely Mini Memo Pad & Pen (great size for the knitting bag to take notes on what everyone else is making at this years Knitting Retreat and follow suit, the adorable kitty sitting on the Benz (ooh my, what happened to the paint job, giggle), the most awesome tissue holder made out of fantastic fabric...I may have to sew some of these up as gifts for co-workers,a Fiber Trends Raindrop Lace Socks pattern by Evelyn A. Clark, whom I see every year at the Ft. Worden knitting retreat (maybe I should ask for her autograph) and last is the Claudia Hand Painted Yarn, fingering weight 100% merino wool in my favorite Fall colors, color name "Donna's Favorite", Lot #011. OMG, what an amazing package.

A close up of the yarn, though my new camera (present) from my DH is giving me fits or maybe I'm just having fits as it is not doing what I WANT.

Marisol, I send you my most heart felt "thank you" for such thought and a great box of goodies. You are a gem among knitters.

Tomorrow is Friday. Tomorrow I pack my son and all of his boxes off to college. I am sad, I am happy, I think I need a beer. I'll be back on Saturday, so I can get my Francis Drake box all tidy and ready to go on Monday to it's next recipent. Sailing away, matey!

A birthday that last for days...

These lovely socks knit up in "Socks that Rock" yarn by Blue Moon Fiber Arts, color: Alina were given to me by Heide for my birthday. She also included the Fall 06 Knit It! and a box of Red Vines...nummy. Thank you Heide. You will be missed for our chats at school on knitting, but I know that you are just a mouse click away when I have something to say. I will wear and treasure these socks...I hope to make a debut with them and my clear clogs, possibly Friday.

Who said "babies" don't come with four feet. One more month, Maxamo, and you will be the big "8".

Fruitful day

Four hours work for these lovely jars of canned plums, salsa and Autumn jam. Another neighbor had the girls come over to pickup a huge bag, about 10 pounds worth, of excellent plums. After grocery shopping this morning, 7 am mind you, I hurried home to pick the tomatoes and peppers that were ripe in the garden to also make the salsa. With some of the left over plums, it was a perfect opportunity to make the Autumn jam with apples from my small orchard and pears, with a hint of ginger and cinnamon thrown in. Nummy. Only two pints of the jam, I'll just use in between the other jams I have made this summer.

Calling all knitters of the world, help! Dig down deep and toss me some of your ideas for this Hand Painted Coleburg Yarn of 50/50 merino wool & kid mohair. It's a lovely varigated in lighter greens that I got as my gift from Knitting Retreat last year. It has approx. 153 yards of softness. We are suppose to create something with it and bring it to this years retreat.

I'm ready for a nap, how about you? Though I won't take one, it'll throw me off for my normal night time sleep if I do.

To fall for a voice, it's all in the sound...

The one voice in this world that takes me away to another time and place belongs to...John Corbett.

I almost, but not quite, gave up on watching Sex in the City. The 12th episode was a heartbreaker and had me crying. Damn, reality check! I couldn't even knit on my sweater and we are in the "round" here, folks.

Reality, well, the hard cider and the Alaskan Amber didn't help the situation. I'm suppose to be another year wiser on Monday, not feeling it after blubbering over a t.v. show. I am going to assume that I will never out grow being a romantic at heart, but I am going to tell myself, no more alcohol with any show other than the news. The news is a good place to put on those rose colored glasses, right?

So...whatever you do, don't ask me how far I got on my sweater tonight...bottoms up!

TGIF, why of course...

Have you wondered if I was really knitting? Here's the proof. Everyday I have knit on this since I started it on Sunday, Sept. 3. I am just moments away from working the front and back separately. A cuff has been started for one sleeve (during "V for Vendeta" as that just wasn't a movie for Fair Isle attention).

Purchase at the "Friends of the Graham Library" booksale today. Copyright 1971. I also found a "mint" condition 1963, "Woman's Day" magazine. Yeah for great finds.

Off to knit...dum de dum....

Mathmatics + Knitting

Problem: Subtract a "deposit" from you checkbook register, do not add the deposit into the balance prior to said transaction, just subtract it. What do you get?

Answer: Double your money.

I was sitting good in MY checking account, but as I was balancing the register to my online account balance, it was off by, oh, just $300.00, to the black I might add.

So, after subracting the $150.00 deposit, then putting it back in and then actually registering the correct deposit amount, I found $300.00 for, oh, maybe a bit more yarn, knitting retreat registration, you know, knitting goodness. My birthday is on Monday, so what a treat!

Where oh where did my fair isle picture go...

Alas, I cannot find the picture I took of my full Fair Isle sweater I made a few years ago. I'm not talking just a few stripes of color, I'm talking every flippin' row. Based on the Philosopher's Wool technique and book, with a twist of yoke along with sewing, cutting and banding from a pullover to a cardigan. Still a favorite sweater to this date. I take it with me each year to knitting retreat, it's in colors of "fall". A bit heavy to wear during the day at work...but a good outdoor sweater.

So...I will have to take another picture to show the world I have already stood my ground against the fair isle foe and if I have to "tink" one more time on my Fair Isle 101, I will scream. I have two rows, yes, only two, left of fair isle in this sweater, then I will be complaining about all the st st I have to do in the oxford grey. My biggest reason for the "tink" is being caught up in Project Runway Season 2 and Sex in the City while knitting on this project...somethings just don't go together.

TTFN...

Fair Isle 101 Pullover

This is the sweater in the IK Winter 2005 issue that I am working on at the moment. Started it on Sunday, hope to have a picture to post tomorrow of how far I have actually knit on it. All of the yarn for this project was specifically ordered from elann.com with exactly this pattern in mind. The colors are similar but not exact. I had to change a light gray for a butter and the hues are a bit different, but I am liking how the fair isle is knitting up with the oxford grey as the background. I confess, it's the same "oxford grey" as in my Veste Everest that I made this year. It's a good basic color to go with my working wardrobe of black and grey skirts/slacks. I must wear my handknits to work because we all know that my chickens aren't gonna give me the time of day to say how lovely my sweaters are. LOL

Good night...knitting dreams to you all...

Asian Pearsauce

As I type, I am cooking up the asian pears that my lovely ex gave to us. The kids are not eating them fast enough, so after a solid hour of garden work this evening, I came in the house to get some pearsauce made.

Tomorrow I will deal with all the tomatoes and apples I picked today, then move on to the cukes my wonderful Russian neighbor gave to me also. Hey, it was really great to say "thank you" in the Russian language. I had not tried it before with Resa, I was so glad she understood what I was saying. :)

I have been knitting, since my post this past Sunday. Hence the reason for no blogging, I was knitting...we have all found we can't do both, right?

The Knitting Retreat paperwork arrived in the mail this past week. Every year, Mary and I trek up to Ft. Worden and have a lovely time. No cooking, we can knit till the break of dawn and we both tend to get very little sleep, going home on Sunday tired and groggy...but enjoying every last drop of time we get.

Off to finish my pearsauce.

A Fetching Pair for A

I had these done last night, about 11pm, then I realized that I totally skipped a six row repeat with the cable....so I started another second glove this morning and had it done in just over two hours. Whew! Done, I can move on to my Fair Isle swatch now.

J informed me that he was offered a position at WWU on campus with the dining service. I hope this works out for him as he could use a little pocket money, though I have no idea what he could be in need of...I've covered the "food" area for him and will send goodie boxes. He probably will want to see a movie once in a while or go out for pizza with his buddies. J now leaves Sept. 22. I will be leaving work early as we will need to get to his dorm complex to get his paperwork and key before 7pm. Traffic on a Friday is "UGLY". I don't think "UGLY" is a strong enough word for me driving on I-405 and I-5 on this day of the week, let alone we will not even get out of Graham before 2:30 pm as I need to make sure the girls are home from school safe and sound.

Off to swatch...a bit of "shopping" with my boy tomorrow...sigh, am I REALLY read for him to fly the coop...we'll find out.

Seattle Trip

I had a quick stop over at Weaving Works before having lunch with Shelley. Here is the lovely yarn that I purchased. You are probably thinking to yourself, what's with the "orange and blue"? Well, A and soon, K, goes to GKHS, the Eagles are blue, orange and I think, white for their school colors. Doesn't a fun striped school colors scarf sound good for upcoming football and soccer games? One for me and maybe, one for A. If K wants one, I'll put it on the list. The sock yarn is an Online in a great "Fall" colorway. Yum. The clerk at Weaving Works that rung my purchase up said she grabbed that one up the first day it came to the store. Yah, Fall.

I had a lovely lunch with Shelley at the Ram. We had a nice table outside with an umbrella to shade some of that very, very hot sun and a nice breeze was about. Shelley is as I though she would be, a spunky, lively lady. The drive up was longer than usually, probably due to the UW game or? But the drive home was a breeze, just about an hour.

Neighborhood BBQ at our place tonight, thanks to the DH. He's in charge, so he can do it all...though I set the table up, put out the utensils, plates, cups and buns. I'm done...he can do the rest as I'm sure I will have to clean up after everyone is gone. He did tell everyone "potluck", so we are doing the hamburgers and trimmings for that, everyone else is bringing a dish. Yeah...

Tomorrow...garden, garden, garden. I need to get some more tulips and daffs to plant for the trees up by the house for next Spring.

Give me one Fetching

as one of the two for "A" is now done. I dropped down to a US size 4 to make these for her, she has those small, delicate hands...how one with a mouth that can spew such attitude can have such delicacy, I will never know. Picture was a bit blury, so I will post once I can get the pair done and one her hands to model for me.

Today I am heading up to Seattle to have a late lunch with Shelley, my secret pal from SP8. I will try to leave from home earlier so I can hit Weaving Works, as I only make it up there a couple times a year, might as well be today since I will meeting Shelley just a few blocks away.

Maybe at Weaving Works I will find some cool sock yarn for my Yarn Aboard buddy, some soft, lush cashmere for either the new "Inner Truth Cashmere Scarf" pattern that came out yesterday over at MagKnits or something tweedy for the Irish Hiking Scarf. Maybe some soft roving to get some spinning done this Fall/Winter.

College news: My baby boy is now leaving a day earlier for college. He has been accepted to work in the Viking Commons, which is the opposite end of the campus, as we thought he would have gotten one of the five choices of dorms he asked for...but the walk will do him good and I believe that they only give 10 - 12 hours a week for work, giving him plenty of time for class, study, sleep and eating. We will have to have him packed and everything by the front door on the 22nd, so I can rush home from work and pack the Tahoe, then drive, drive, drive in Friday rush hour traffic. Oh happy, happy, joy, joy.