Friday, September 28, 2007

Time for a new schema

Please stand by as my blog needs a tune-up. :D

Monday, September 24, 2007

I'm baaaaaaaaack! part 2

Wedding over we headed north to SLO to spend a couple days with the in-laws. It was much needed relaxation. We went to the beach...

I got a new dress, which I can't show you because I don't have a picture of, and we bought lots and lots of wine. And drank lots and lots of wine. PSA - if you're me and you drink too much wine with your father in law you will end up telling him all about knitting and how much fun it is and the differences between yarns and fibers and ... you get the idea.

We headed towards Monterey Bay and Carmel, and then east to Tahoe. We stayed in a town called Truckee - and I got to tell you - it's suprisingly like my home town. Even the smell. And the bear tracks... this dude knew exactly where he was going... straight to the rubbish bins. *sigh* They weren't locked or covered or anything. Maybe they emptied them earlier.

Anyway, it was snowing in Tahoe so we got out and did a little jig in the snow (we LOVE the snow) and then headed to Utah again... this time via the northern route. We stopped in Salt Lake City - I've been through their airport gazillions of times but never into the city proper - and I have to admit that I really like it there. It's not a big town, not nearly as big as I thought it was, and you can walk from one end of downtown to the other in about 15-20 minutes. The landscaping - there are flowers everywhere - it's freaking gorgeous... a riot of color everywhere you go. Everything centers around Temple Square... where the temple is and where Brigham Young's house (the Beehive House) was/is... we stopped in to see the place and ended up on a tour with a bunch of missionaries getting ready to head out... it was kind of a surreal experience. The house and its particulars are really well preserved... I drooled copiously over the music instruments, and there was a rack with yarn all ready to be made into yarn cakes. If you're ever in Salt Lake, I definitely recommend going by and taking the tour. The missionaries are for the most part very nice. They don't bite or anything! :D

Out of Salt Lake, through Wyoming, and on our way home, I started and finished the mother in law's Christmas socks...





And now we're back. And I'm never driving anywhere again. EVER.

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Hello my lovelies! Did you miss me? I have returned from California land and have come to tell you the harrowing tale of travel, weddings, and knitterly things. So sit back with a nice cup of hot cider (or whatever) and I will begin my tale!

On the 9th we departed the house. Dave drove, I knit. What did I knit? I shall show you!

Dave's Thuja's! This is the second sock, and I finished it up as we were crossing the state line into... dun dun dun.... UTAH.

Utah is an interesting state. I have not been there much, except for a 7th grade ski trip to Park City and a backpacking trip into Moab. Oh yeah, and I did some climbing there WAY back when before I broke my wrists.

Anyway, Utah is interesting. We spent the night in Green River, apparently famous for its melon growing capabilities. I thought that perhaps my lack of blessing in the melon department would make me stand out, but it turns out it wasn't the kind of melons I was thinking of. Apparently LA is the place to go for THAT kind of thing, as I later discovered.


As we made our way to Nevada, I started knitting up this little guy:

It's for my grandmother, who will absolutely love the colors. It's knit in Cascade Fixation in some colorway that I can't remember at the moment. Nice and stretchy though. You'll have to forgive my rather icky blue toenails - my 1 1/2 year old neice painted them (with a little help). I must say, knitting socks on size three needles goes a lot slower than knitting them on size fives. (insert unanimous "DUH" here).

Anyway, as I was knitting this guy up, we're driving up a boring hill with nothing much to see, and we decided to stop at this totally random "Scenic View" thing to stretch our legs. As we pulled up, we saw THIS:

Holy crap on a stick. I was SO not expecting this - the picture doesn't even do it justice. It was PHENOMENAL. You could see down into the canyons and holler echoes and... wow. Just wow. I love surprises like this.

After recovering for a few minutes we drove away down the road. We arrived in San Diego Tuesday and spent the rest of the week in wedding preparations. The wedding was gorgeous, the bride was beautiful, the flower girl was adorable, and we had inordinate amounts of pictures taken. Mission accomplished, the brother and sister in law got hitched and are currently lounging somewhere in Central America.

Are you hooked yet? Part two tomorrow...

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

A quick update...

The wedding was a success! In fact, it could hardly have gone any better, despite the stress &etc. And here is my new beautiful sister-in-law wearing her flower basket shawl...


I've not been able to knit nearly as much as I'd hoped.... but now we're on our way home knitting as we go... so I'll hopefully have a couple of FOs to show you when we get back on Saturday!

Cheers and I hope you all are well!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

On vacation...

Hello my lovelies!

I apologize for my lack of blogginess but I'm currently in San Diego getting ready for my brother in laws wedding. I promise I'll post soon with FOs and pictures and STUFF. :D

Luv,
Me

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Whoa.

Good morning. I woke up this morning, put on my running clothes, leashed up the dog, stepped out my door, and stopped dead in my tracks.

Here's why.

A quick and crappy panorama circa 7am this morning. The photos were taken from the windows in my loft. I'll futz with it later with some actual photo editing software, but you get the idea.

The flower basket shawl is done and blocking. Photos to come soon...

:D

Monday, September 3, 2007

un-tardedly lacey

Since the man of the house is out on the east coast being spacey (AAHAHAHAAA - get it? being spacey... being... nevermind)

Anyway, I have loads of time on my hands and so I actually sat down and figured out the FBS pattern. In fact, I geeked out and wrote it all out in excel with formulas to update the repeats and a macro to run them. And now! Ta DAAAAA:



I present you the untarded lace. Doesn't look like much but I stretched it all out a bit and you can actually see the flower baskets! How cool is that?

Having procrastinated this project I now have a week to finish it. Well, a little more than a week, although I'm hoping to get it all finished and washed and blocked before we leave. Ugh. Wish me luck...