current projects

Thought I should update what's on my needles, since this is sort of a craft blog.


Currently on reapeat 11/14 on my Leaf and Nupp Estonian lace shawl by Nancy Bush. All other projects are on hold until this is finished! Not because they aren't interesting it's just that this is way more fun and I see the progress faster. (edit - LOL, I just noticed that is a photo of the backside of the work. Well, I'm too tired to take another picture, so that will have to do for now)


Rivendell Sock by Janel Laidman. Finished first chart, working on second.


Finished Rivendell wristlet.


Sam Sock by Cookie A. I finished one whole repeat of the chart pattern and I have to get the book out and figure out what to do next. So this one is stalled because I'm lazy!

Finished the baby bamboo sweater, but I need to sew a button on it and block it.

California

We went down to So. Cal last weekend to have a mini family reunion, but also to clear out my grandparent's house. My grandfather died in January and my grandmother was moved into an adult foster home (because she has dimentia and no one in the family could give her the care she needs). They had sooooooooooo much stuff that was just junk that we got rid of. I'm sure they wouldn't have wanted us to deal with their stuff, but that's how life is. It made me realize that some day I will have 2 houses to do that to since my parents are no longer together. Also, Hazel will have to do this some day as well! Made me take a look at all the stuff we have in a different light. Just to let you know, however, there will be no yarn destashing any time soon! I ended up shipping home the items that I took (a set of Christmas china and a porcelain doll - pictures when they arrive :) )

We were there for 5 days, but it felt like 3 weeks. Each day was very long and very tiring. I did get to meet up with a few of my friends that live in the area and so that made the trip not as sad as it could have been. I held up really well considering all the crying that my mom and aunts were doing.

Hazel was such a good baby on both of her flights - I worried for nothing about her having a melt down. I am so proud of her :) I did do some research on traveling with babies so I got some good tips. The best one was taking along a "mini" diaper bag that had: two diapers, a disposable changing pad, a few wipes, purel and a onesie in case of an accident. It worked great on the plane so we did not have to get out of our seats to change a wet diaper during the flight :) Our airport has a special family security lane and I didn't have to worry about making the people behind us annoyed at us because we had so much stuff going through security and taking a little longer to get it on the x-ray belt. Oh, and we proved to ourselves that we can indeed travel with 2 carry on suitcases, a diaper bag, a stroller and a car seat. It did help that we had access to a washing machine, otherwise it would have been a little more difficult.

a few photos:

On the train headed to the airport. Hazel loved looking at the bridges over the Willamette!


The family line I was talking about


She got to meet her great grandmother. It was very sweet seeing them interact with each other!


Finally got that Italian Margarita from Olive Garden. The last time I was there I was still pregnant and couldn't have one!


Art-O-Mat. It's an art vending machine, it was also addicting, because I didn't know what I was getting.

Rahel's Ethiopian restaurant in L.A. Very tasty!!

Owen's balancing act with the hotel breakfast.

Swedish fish mobile

Saw this parked in a hotel parking lot by the airport. I made Owen turn around so I could get a photo of it!

Jimmy Jack Corn

And I don't care

Wings

She earned her wings! She did not fuss at all

2 months old

Today is her 2nd month birthday. She's smiling now and making the cutest coo noises when she is trying to fall asleep.

Tomorrow we are taking her on her first plane ride to California. Wish us luck!! I hope she is not one of "those" babies on a plane and that she sleeps the whole way.

Quack quack

Interesting bell pepper that I found at the grocery store. It was not very tastey.

80's mixed tape, on cd

Sock Summit: Day 4

Well, Sock Summit 2009 is officially over :( I don't know what to do with my time anymore, I've spent 5 days down at the convention center making so many memories with my friends! I guess I should get back to taking care of my baby (who turned 7 weeks old today!) who missed me terribly every day I was gone. I guess my wallet will be happy that ss09 is over and it's a good thing that the market closed early today! I sure hope the vendors did well and would attend this event if they have one in the future, because there were some awesome treasures to be had in that marketplace.

So, today my Sidekicks sock class with Janel Laidman was cancelled, and I chose to take Carson Demer's 3 hour Ergonomics class as a substitute. I had already taken the 1 hour class on Friday, but thought there would be a lot more info in the 3 hour class since it was 2 hours longer. However, this was not the case. The information he was teaching was basically the same for both classes except the with the 3 hour class it was drawn out to cover 3 hours. I am a little disappointed in this, but I'm going to chalk it up to Buyer Beware.

After the class Angela and I got in line for the Luminary Panel. We at our Pita Pit sandwiches while waiting and finished before the doors opened, so we must have been in line for over an hour!! I don't know what to say about the whole panel discussion, except that it was well worth my time to be there. It was very interesting to get to know the women on the panel and their viewpoints. I got a little misty eyed when Barbara Walker was said that feathers developed so that birds could fly and humans need to have their hands busy so we knit :) The whole discussion was very poignant.

I only took a few photos today and they are not that great, but I'll share them anyway!

Check it out, Meg Swanson sitting next to Barbara Walker!!


Tina and Stephanie - they were a hoot up there. I sure hope they go to bed with a nice bottle of booze and sleep for the whole week, because they both need and deserve it!


Lucy Neatby and Cad Bordhi


After the panel discussion, we sang Happy Birthday to Elizabeth Zimmermann who would be 99 years old today, they even had a cake for her! They had yummy lemon bars and raspberry oatmeal bars for us! And then it was over!

Here is a great wrap-up article that sums up the whole summit!

Today's Purchases:

A skein of Silver Spoon and a shawl pattern from Kitchen Sink Dyeworks

Ravelry Meetup

This evening was the Ravelry meetup at the forestry center. All the cool people were there!

The first 350 people got this awesome schwag bag:


Inside was a skein of Berroco Vintage, a Namaste reusable bag, Lantern Moon post-it holder, and the Odenwald sock pattern by Stephanie fan der Linden


I found some people I knew to hang out with: Sara, Carissa, Tami, Bobbie,Camille and Lisa from Australia



Carissa didn't want to drag her knitting pattern along, so she wrote it out in sharpie on her wrist. I think she has something going here and wish I had thought of it myself


Check it out I got a picture with Jess of Ravelry and BOB!

I think I was a little too excited about holding Bob!


Turtle tat!!

There was a drawing for some awesome door prizes, alas, I did not win :(

Sock Summit: Day 3

Today is all about Hazel and who she met and who got to hold her!! So, I'll start off with purchases and goody bags :)

No classes for me today, it was shop til I dropped with my mom and my friend Jen. We spent over 5 hours in the marketplace and saw all of the booths, but did not go in them all. This is like the largest yarn shop and it's overwhelming with all the yarn/fiber/accessories.

Here is what I bought today:)


Project bag from Good to be Girl, Blue Moon Socks that Rock in Goody Goody, Gumdrop Socks pattern by JC Briar, Painted Skies hand dyed wool batts from Urban Fauna Studio, Hazel Knits Tulip baby sock kit, purple highlighter tape from purrfectly catchy designs.

This goody bag game from the Knitmore Girls Podcast meetup in the Abstract Fiber booth. Yeah, I know Jasmin and Gigi already, but it's fun to get the goody bags :) There are two sock patterns, a Verena magazine, Purlescense nail file, euclan sample, knitmore girls tape measure and button, and a sample skein of sock yarn from AF, but I gave that to my friend Jen.


At 1pm there was an organized chaos stitch marker trade! I ended up with 30 unique stitch markers from all over. Very cool!




I met the dude knitting 14 pairs of socks at once on one loooooooong circular needle!
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Hazel's first knitting event and first sock summit!

Hazel with Wendy (owner of Hazel Knits)


Hazel with Hazel (the baby of Emily from Twisted)


Hazel with the Knitmore Girls (Gigi and Jasmin)


Hazel with Sharon (Stitch Jones)


Hazel with Dianne (Creatively Dyed)


Hazel with my friend Gretchen


Hazel with my friend Jen


Hazel with my friend Judy Becker (!)


Hazel with the YARN HARLOT (!!!!!!!!)

Luckily I had brought along the Baby Mine sweater for her to wear when she met Stephanie!!

Sock Summit: Day 2

Sock Summit today was a lot less hectic and more downtime than yesterday!

This morning I had the KnitRx class with Carson Demers. I now want to take his 3 hour ergonomics class. He had so much info in just the 1 hour, totally worth the money! We learned how to get good posture, even in crappy convention center chairs. We learned stretches specifcally for knitting. Also learned about knitting bags and what to look for!

After class was the World Record attempt for most people knitting at one time. We had to knit for 15 minutes on two straight needles (no circs or dpns). There were easily 1,200 people there. My ticket number was 994, and they still had an hour to hand out tickets. The previous attempt was 256 knitters, set this past June, oops they didn't get it for very long did they?

Look at the sea of people!

Me and Angela

Kinneared Lucy Neatby (she's in the bottom right corner behind me)

Then off to wait in line for the book signing!

me and Charlene Schurch


Me and Cookie A. No, I didn't really go fangirl, but I really don't know what the heck I said to her. She is holding my "Sam" sock from that I am making her book. She liked the yarn I chose!


Me and Larissa Brown, and the pink square is the quilt block I donated for her Barn Raising Quilt


Me and Nancy Bush! For some reason she didn't want to look at the camera.

Cindy Abernethy signed one of her sock patterns for me and Angela!

Ran into the Sox Stix girl from Lantern Moon - check out her cute pants!

Spent the rest of the afternoon shopping!

Todays purchases:
one of a kind batt from Susan's Kitchen, Lisa Souza Zen Top in Mother of Pearl (Merino, Silk, & Bamboo), Addi's in size 2, Size 16 Steel crochet hook, Ladybug sock pattern (by Samantha Roshak), red yarn from Hazel Knits, 3 buttons

Tonight the Sock Hop, Tomorrow, more shopping with Hazel, my mom and friend Jen.