Day: December 18, 2008

Birthday Quilt from Mom on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Birthday Quilt label on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Birthday Quilt from Mom on Flickr – Photo Sharing.
My mom made me an amazing quilt for my birthday! It will work as a topper on our duvet to help keep us warm through the winter months.
She used Jacobean print fabrics and a friendship braid pattern along the sides.
The center floral applique is her own design, specifically for me. She told me she just channeled the ’70’s (I love ’70’s prints) and came up with it.
I love it! Love, love, love it!! My mom rocks!

The bags are about 50% packed. I have a canvas cube stacked full of things by the front door that go in the car. I have laundry piled up on my bed to be sorted for packing/staying.

Today is cleanout the fridge, all trashcans, change sheets day. Tomorrow the cartop carrier goes on and all bags put in Thursday afternoon. We leave Friday morning at 4am, drive straight through with minor stops for gas, breakfast, gas, lunch, gas, dinner, gas. Lots of gas. That part I am not looking forward to. I hate getting gas, I hate paying for gas. Blech.

Notice I haven’t mentioned knitting. I don’t know what to take! I have so many options now all of a sudden! I am on the schedule at Knit & Pearl to teach some spring classes so I have fun little things to make for the shop.  A BSJ using Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted in Edgewater, a Mobius Cowl using Louisa Harding Cinnabar yarn in a turquoise/gold/tan colorway and a toe up magic loop sock using Alpaca sox (I haven’t started &I don’t have the yarn in front of me, brand & name are slipping my mind. OH, that’s what my stash in ravelry is for!! Hold please….) Classic Elite Alpaca Sox in Garden. Aha! I love ravelry.

Surprise, surprise!! Who just knocked on my door?? The FedEx man!! I love him too! Here’s what he brought me today.

Naughty Monkey Open Line sandals in Green, obviously!

Naughty Monkey The Bomb Pump. I like to think of them as my biker-babe heels. I love them too! Can you tell I am bingeing on shoes a little bit? Well Ross last night didn’t help.

Yummmmmmmmm…..Dollhouse

These 2 brands are the perfect fit for my feet. High arches, lots of cushion, narrow toe box. It’s all good. Too bad our trip is to freezing ice & snow country so I can’t wear any of them. Oh, did I say I couldn’t? Well, I am taking one pair for Easter service. I don’t care if I have to get rid of necessities to make them fit!

Okay, back to knitting.

I love the Laminaria shawl, here are the details on ravelry. I had a good amount of it done when I realized that I just didn’t like the way the star chart wasn’t symmetrical. So, I ripped it all out and started over making the right hand side using the k3tog 3-into-3 and the left hand side using a sssk 3-into-3. Granted , if you haven’t looked at the charts or read the pattern or are not making it you will have no idea of what I am speaking.  I decided at that same time to move up a needle size from 6’s to 7’s so that I would get a more open lacework.  It’s gorgeous! The minimaiden Handmaiden yarn is absolutely scrumptious and just glides off the needles.

I really should have taken a picture of the difference before I ripped it out and started using the sssk 3-into-3. Well just imagine that those horizontal lines of dec on the left side going straight up and down and the right side still being horizontal.  Not the most pleasing to the eye. Now, if I were using a true laceweight yarn and larger needles it wouldn’t be noticable once blocked out. Since I am using a slightly thicker yarn it’s a more dense fabric and won’t block out as much.

Oh & a Special Thanks to Tracy who forgot her knitting bag last night and worked on my shawl for me! ;o) She is also doing the Laminaria out of the same yarn just using the Smoke colourway.
It’s beautiful in that color!

my Woolgirl Club package for the month of December

Who doesn’t need a Christmas Tree measuring tape?!?!?
I had no idea I needed one until I got mine!

Man I love being a member of the Woolgirl Sock Club! It’s so been worth it! I do believe that once my STR Gingerbread Dude lightweight & silkie socks are both done I will be casting on for these babies!

George’s choice of commemorative mugs for this trip to Disneyland, I love ’em!

Done & Done!

Merry Christmas, Mom!

I know she’ll love them with her FatBaby Ariat’s~

Our Disneyland trip went smmooooooth. Other than one minor meltdown on my part because George was having a hard time not stressing about work while we were gone. (I forgive him, he runs his own construction company for heavens sake.) My birthday yesterday went PERFECTLY! No meltdowns, tons of rides, presents….I love presents!

Tracy MADE, as in actually used her sewing machine, me a fantabulous wool & flannel scarf. Once I get the camera on again I promise pictures. I should have had her take them when I opened it! Why didn’t we think of that Tracy?? Darn, good moment missed. Anyways, it’s perfect. Lightweight, gorgeous mix of greens (my fave color of course) and browns. So very pleasing & useful! I use my scarves and this one is now front & center.

George bought me all Disney stuff cuz I am a freak when it comes to that. Matching mugs (tradition for every single time we go, we have way more mugs than I have room for in the kitchen but I DO NOT CARE), cutest t-shirt, fantastic frame for a picture of our group. Wanna see the picture?? Wanna??

Notice the hats? They were the most perfect hats I could have come up with! The stripes made it so easy to find eachother & we needed that! Plus, it was cool enough during the day that we wore them all of the time. Notice Sadie is in her Santa Goofy hat. She wasn’t so easy to find but it’s alright if she needs to be different ;o) Like mother, like daughter!

There are so many little details to talk about on this trip. 4 days tends to do that. Sunday morning Tracy and I went to Sephora for a 2 hour makeup marathon! We were there before opening, just us and 2 other gals, were taught all about face care (didn’t need much education there but the other gals did), then we had our makeup done by Sephora makeup artists (read: arteeessts). Rosy was my girl. She rocked! We decided we needed to go fun. We were on vacation man! Here I am

That was after a couple of hours, and she used way more foundation primer than I do so it felt like I had more of a mask on than normal, hence, the big wrinkles in the next picture

Sorry that was a super cheesy smile ;o)

Tracy also had fantasticly bright and fun makeup! I should leave it for her to show you but I just can’t!

We were beautiful & had so much fun looking like showgirls with all our clothes on!

There are many, many photos of fun magical things we did but for now that is all I have time for.

I LOVE DISNEYLAND!

I totally posted twice in the last week and even received comments on one of them and now they are “POOF” gone.

Here’s the gist of what I had to say…

I have finished nothing. I have knit the back of one sweater 3 times, the third time was the charm. Now I am past the 2 fronts and 1 sleeve, working on the 2nd sleeve.

I still have about 8 beanies to do before Christmas, no biggy. I plan on working on them as soon as Thanksgiving is over.

I had a stupid root canal (totally not planned, out of the blue, emergency type) on Wednesday, the night I was supposed to be teaching the Zig Zag Scarf Modular Class at Knit & Pearl. Lame! It’s rescheduled for after Thanksgiving and I really, really hope that works for everyone!

Let’s see, what else? It’s been super busy at school with the kids. All 3 had parent teacher conferences and minimum days this entire last week. That means not a whole lot got done. More trips to the library, zoo, park and one trip to the city college to do the stairs with Tracy. That’s what it was! A whole post on how bad ass Tracy & I are for tackling the stairs!!! Damn! That was a rad post too. What the h#$l?? Now I am even more upset that it’s gone. That was fun with pics & everything.
Okay, I guess I will have to redo it here & now.

Last Monday, Veteran’s Day, all the kids were home from school but I had my plans already set to go exercise with Tracy. Sadie brought along her camera, here’s the sitch.

Here are the steps at the Santa Barbara City College football field.

That’s Trevor down at the bottom and Sadie partway up.

That is one long haul people. We go up one, pushups and stretch, down one, situps, up one, pushups and stretch, down one, situps, up one, pushups and stretch, down one, situps, up one, pushups and stretch, down one, situps. Sometimes we do 2 at a time up, sometimes we run them single, sometimes we walk, sometimes we do side steps front and back up. Most of the time we jog down.
We are shooting for Monday, Wednesday & Friday. So far we are doing alright but not hitting our mark every week. Emergency root canals & the like.

Here is Tracy feeling rather accomplished!

Here is the view of the Pacific & Channel Islands from the top. The view makes it all worthwhile!

Tyler was with us too but the reason he’s not in any pictures is because when we were on set 3, he had just finished set 5 and was done. He went down to the football field to play and cool down a bit. The kid was determined to get those stairs done and done well! Good for him!
The one picture we did get was his version of stretching beforehand.

I love my kids.

No progress pics on the White Mimosa for Mom. It’s just white. And until the lace is done there’s not much to look at.

But there has been some stash enhancement around these parts. First, I got my first shipment from the Woolgirl Sock Club!!! It was such a fun package!

(Sorry the pictures are crap, my dslr is not functioning so point & shoot it is)

Included in the first package was some beautiful yarn from Missbabs, sportweight in a special colorway for club members only called ‘Waterfall’ with a pattern also called ‘Waterfall’ also by Babs. There was an adorable stitch marker, a fantastic notebook with pen for all sock club pattern/yarn notes and a little tin of chocolate mint lip balm. So yummy! All of it is just wonderful!

I also received a package from The Loopy Ewe. They had a sneakup last week and I went a little haywire ;o) I had money in my paypal account & it was calling my name.

I got 3 hanks of Fiesta’s Baby Boom sock weight merino yarn. It’s luscious and just to die for!

I also purchased 2 hanks of Shibuiknits sock; one in teal and one in brown. I plan on making their Transition Gloves with this yarn.

And of course, I can never pass up Louet Gems Sport for kids socks. Tyler’s brown bear socks were a failure out of the cotton fleece (although Trevor wears them all the time) so he gets some Bark socks.

Friday when I stopped in at Cardigan’s, our new local knit shop, I also purchased a couple items. First Colinette Jitterbug in Bright Charcoal

And 2 balls of Regia’s Kaffe Fassett Landscape yarn

(Man these pictures are terrible)

Saturday was Knit & Pearl Boutique’s First Year Anniversary party and I couldn’t leave without buying something. Of course, the cotton fleece once again screamed for me to take it home. The Wild Orange will make a perfect fall Rusted Root I think (long sleeved of course).

It’s not quite so bright in person, I don’t want to be a pumpkin after all.

Let’s see, what else has come my way that I haven’t divulged…plenty but I don’t want to list any more ;o)

I am going to work on a brioche scarf next up, once the white vest is done. Then right back to the Trapeze Jacket. I would also like to get the Joy Cardigan sewn up. If I let myself I would choose that over finishing the white monstrosity right now. I will show self control, be a good girl like I promised my mom and then spoil myself rotten knitting whatever I want, whenever I want.