Secret of the Stole III

I'm probably in way over my head, but I have gone ahead and signed up for the Secret of the Stole III KAL by DK the Nautical Knitter. This project is a mystery so I'm not sure what the final design will look like until the final "clue" is released in about nine weeks. I'm sure I can find someone who will love it if it's not my style.

Here are just a few reasons why I'm crazy:

A) I've never knit lace before
B) I've never used laceweight yarn before
C) This is NOT a small project that will merely get my feet wet
D) I already have too many projects on the needles
E) I have at least two projects that I need to finish before Christmas that I haven't really started yet

Despite all these reasons, I've managed to complete the gauge swatch with only a little bit of trouble. I had to rip back once near the end because I forgot a yarn-over. I had thought I was doing so good and then I realized my count was off by one stitch!

I'm using Malabrigo Lace in pink frost. I don't see this color on their website so I'm not sure if it's still being made or if it's discontinued. I have three skeins of this yarn that I got at the Needlecraft Cottage in San Diego when I was on vacation two months ago. Being a fan of both needlework and knitting/crocheting, I have to say that it's one of the best shops I've ever been in because it has both :)


I took a close up of the swatch so that you can see the two different colors of beads that I've been trying to decide between, the light amethyst with rainbow finish or crystal silver lined. I actually think they both look pretty good with the yarn. The amethyst beads are a nice complementary color that give a subtle effect while the crystal beads give it a little more bling bling. I've opted for the amethyst since I'm not much of a bling bling girl. I think they'll give me all the sparkle I need.

The first "clue" for the mystery came out today and I think I'll cast-on tomorrow. My chances of making mistakes increase exponentially after 11PM. Goodnight everyone!

It's A Bird, It's a Plane, It's .......

Finally the second sleeve of my silk shrug! I have officially completed the body and sleeves. Now all I have left is to sew up the seams and knit the ruffle that goes around the edge. I've never knit anything this big before and I'm really excited to see how it turns out :)

To finish the shrug, I need to use two techniques that I've never done before, sewing up seams and picking up stitches. That's not unusual since I had to look up how to increase and decrease just to complete the sleeves of this sweater. The knittinghelp.com website is great at showing all these different techniques and has really helped me learn and improve my knitting. I'm sure they will be able to help me now.

I must admit that the body of this sweater seemed to go on and on. Sometimes it felt like I would never be finished knitting. From end to end, it's almost taller than I am! I tried to take a picture to show you how long it is, but I couldn't fit all of it into the frame of my camera. Even though it's a little dark, I think this picture does an o.k. job of giving you a sense of it's length.














I love the color and feel of this shrug. It's so soft and since it's alpaca, I'm sure it will be very warm. Even little Ginny loves it! I could hardly keep her away from it long enough to take pictures. The ends of the yarn that haven't been woven in yet are her favorite :)

Life's been pretty crazy around my house since I came home from San Diego. I told you guys that I had some news to share on my next blog post. I'm happy to announce that during our trip to San Diego my boyfriend and I got engaged! We don't have any specifics planned yet, other than that it will take place next year in 2009. He moved into my house a couple of weeks ago and we're making plans to start our life together.

This past weekend was another race weekend at Thunderhill Raceway. My boyfriend decided to race into two different classes this time, so he had two races on Sunday morning. He looked great on the track and had a lot fun. Even though I was pretty far away, I was able to get a picture of him exiting the "Eagle's Nest." In case you're interested in more information about the racing, his team is Rent Money Racing.



I'm going to try and get the shrug sewn up this week so that I can start on the ruffle. I have promised myself that I would finish some projects before I start any new ones!

Missing in Action

This is part of the reason why I haven't been posting very much lately. This picture was taken just down the street from the beach house my boyfriend and I rented in San Diego (Ocean Beach) at the end of June. The vacation was amazing! After driving down late Saturday night, we had the whole week to spend in San Diego. The weather was great the whole time and we even avoided the smoke that was plaguing the Bay Area.

We started the trip by visiting Sea World. It was so close to the house that we could ride our bikes there. They had all kinds of animals and even a few rides that took us by surprise, in particular one ride that guaranteed you would be drenched by the end. Of course, we had to see a Shamu show, which exceeded all of our expectations. All in all, I think we spent more than six hours wandering around and looking at everything. Here are some pictures of what we saw.










The day after Sea World, we ventured down to the beach and enjoyed the soft, warm sand and the sound of the ocean for most of the day. We stopped by a great pizza place in the afternoon and hung out there for a while too. That night we also decided to check out a Padres game. We were able to take the Trolley to the ballpark, which was very nice since we didn't have to deal with traffic or parking.

One day during the trip, we took a long bike ride over to Mission Beach. I was able to visit a great store called the Needlecraft Cottage. I have to admit that it's one of the best shops I've even been to. They seem to have everything there, lots of yarn, cross stitch patterns and supplies, needlepoint projects, and so many other wonderful things. I walked away with three skeins of Malabrigo lace weight in pink frost and a Mill Hill kit called "Seaside Sampler" to commemorate the trip. I haven't figured out what I'm going to make with the yarn yet, but I'm anxious to start the Mill Hill kit because it looks like it will be a quick stitch and lots of fun.

We did see a very strange visitor to the beach while we there. He was wandering around like he owned the place. Even though he was very friendly, his exploration of some beach blankets did scare some beach-goers. His owner would also throw him into the ocean, where he would ride the waves back to shore and climb up onto the sand again. It was so funny! Probably one of the most interesting things I've seen at the beach in while :)


Now that we're on the subject of animals again, my boyfriend and I also visited the Wild Animal Kingdom. It was so interesting to see the wide expanse of land with all these African animals living together, minus the carnivores of course. It kind of made you feel like you were on a real safari. One of the best sights was the the lion exhibit. They had seven lion cubs that were almost one-year old. They seemed to follow their big lion daddy all around the pen, even when he went to sleep on the top of an old car!


I've been back home now for a couple of weeks, but it's taken a while to get into the swing of things again. There are some major changes going on around here, which I will announce in my next post. I promise there will be more knitting/crafting talk in the next one too because even though I haven't been home, I have been getting some knitting done.

Here is one last picture of the snowman I entered into the local county fair. I was surprised and delighted to learn that I'd received first place!

And The Sun Will Come Out .... Tomorrow?

Or will it? The sun finally came out this afternoon so I snapped some pictures of the campus I'm staying on. The big question is whether or not the nice weather we had today will last until Friday. According to all the weather reports I've seen, the odds aren't in our favor.

We were given the afternoon off from our classes since Thursday's schedule is super busy. I took advantage of the nice weather and decided to take a walk into the downtown area. It's a very cute town with quaint houses and green lawns everywhere. It looks much different from the houses on the West Coast, brick building everywhere and almost no back yard fences. I love the open look of all the backyards merging into one another. I opted to eat at a local German restaurant instead of the cafeteria food they've been giving us and had a wonderful lunch.

Of course, I had also done my research and learned that there were not only one, but two yarn stores within walking distance. I figured I would go and enjoy myself since I had the free time and who knows when I'll be in Maine again. First, I visited The Knitting Experience Cafe. It's a small shop that also has a little cafe with coffee, cookies, and other snacks. I was too full from lunch for any more food, but I did pick up a couple of skeins of Araucania Yarns Ranco Multi in color 310. It is a beautiful mix of reds, purples, blues, and greens.

After the first store, I went to check out Purl Diva. This store was fairly large and had a nice selection of yarns. The owner was very friendly and helpful. I was talking to her about all the different store samples she had hanging up, most of which she knit herself. I had to have a souvenir from this shop, so I purchased two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport Multi in the Gold Hill colorway. I like to think that the browns, oranges, and greens will resemble the trees in Maine during Autumn when all the leaves change color.


Tomorrow night is the last night of the class and they've planned a big lobster dinner for everyone. I hope it's good :)

Next stop, home sweet home!!

It's Raining In Maine

Sorry about the lack of post last week folks. I was just too busy preparing for my trip to Maine this week. It took an unusually long time to arrive in Maine, but I am finally here and sitting in the dorm room that is my home until I fly back to SFO on Friday. Look at how gray the sky is here! The trip was quite eventful, but I'll get to that story later.

First, let's talk about what I was up to last week. I had gotten some free tickets to the A's vs. Yankees game on Wednesday from my boss at work. Normally, I'm a Giant's fans, but these were pretty good seats and came with a VIP parking pass, so my boyfriend and I were excited to go check it out. It was even $1 hot dog night :) I didn't realize how good the seats were until we got there, right behind home plate about thirty rows up. Our view was awesome! The game turned out to be a blowout for the A's. When we left after the seventh-inning stretch, it was 8-1 A's.


I also submitted my "Let it Snow" cross-stitch piece to the Marin County Fair. It will be on display at the fair over the Fourth of July weekend. I've entered it into the Holiday category; I just love having snowmen around during Christmas. I'm not quite sure how it will do compared to the other pieces that are entered, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. I will let you all know how I do.


That bring us to my trip to Maine. I'm here, with two colleagues, to attend a Flow Cytometry course for work. I left my house at 4:45 AM Saturday morning to catch my flight (which had a connection in Washington D.C.) with the intention of arriving in time to register for the course and attend the welcome reception. Well, things didn't exactly go as planned. Our flight was originally going to arrive about a half hour early, but when we tried to land in Washington D.C. the airport closed due to some thunderstorms. We were starting to run low on fuel so the airline decided to have us stop in Richmond, Virginia to refuel while the bad weather passed.

We landed in Virginia and were told that we would arrive at our original destination as soon as possible. After we landed, we learned that the airport was not equipped to handle an airplane as large as the 747 we were on. They couldn't let us off the plane and they didn't even have anyone equipped to refuel the plane. We had to sit in the crowded, stuffy plane without any food for over 4 hours! They were finally able to get us off the ground again and on our way to Washington D.C. On the bright side, I did get a lot, and I mean a lot, of work done on my Silk Shrug. I will probably be done with the body of the sweater soon :)

Of course, by the time we arrived, we had missed our connecting flight and had to line up with the other 370 passengers to get re-booked on the next flight. But, they didn't have any room on the last flight that night, or on the one the next morning, or the one during the day. The airline wasn't able to put us on another flight for over 24 hours! This meant we were going to miss the first day of our course, had nowhere to stay for the night, and had no baggage.

We finally settled into a nearby hotel and made the best of our bad situation. Since we had all day before our flight left, we explored our nation's capitol. I was able to see the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court building, the Capitol Building, the White House, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Pentagon. I'm sure there were a couple of other things too, but I can't remember them right now. We did so much walking around the city that I got a blister on my foot.


It feels good to have finally made it here, but I'm dreading the flight back home. There better not be any delays because next week I'm going on vacation to San Diego with my boyfriend. I can't wait, I'm sooooo excited!!

P.S. I think I found two yarn shops here in Maine that I can visit on our free afternoon. I may have a full suitcase on my way home :)

Fuzzy Shaved Kitty

Look at this little guy! Isn't he cute? This kitty lives by my boyfriend's house and seems to always be outside or hanging out on his third story balcony. His hair is always shaved, except for the head, feet, and tail. When he looks down at you from his balcony all you can see is this big head of fluff meowing at you. When I saw him the other day, he even climbed inside my car and explored for a little while before jumping out to see what else was going on in his neighborhood. I'm sure he's well taken care of, but doesn't he look like a cat in need of a nice warm snuggle during winter.

This week certainly has been a little crazy. Aside from my sunshine duties for the Marin Golden Threads, I've really only been working on my grocery bags. I have finished the front and back of one bag. They look slightly different from each other. One of them is rectangular in shape and the other one is sort of wavy. I must have made some mistakes when I was working through the pattern the first time and figured out the right way to do it on the second one. See, don't they look different?


I've started crocheting the gusset and base out of the Coconut Lily Sugar' n Cream Confectionary Colors yarn. I will also be making the handles with the same color of yarn as the gusset and base. After that, I'll just have to put the pieces together and then I'll have a completed bag! It may be a little funny looking on one side, but I don't think the groceries will mind :)

I'm Still Alive!

Well folks, I know it's been over a month since the last time I posted, but I'm back! I hope there's still someone out there reading.

The last post I made was before my trip to Singapore and Thailand. The trip was great! I saw so many new things and tried so many different kinds of foods. I have to admit that my stomach is not quite up to handling all the food they have over there. The hamburger I ate the night I returned to the US seemed like the best thing in the world :) I've been a little lazy since I've been back so I still have to go through all my pictures, but once I do, I promise to post some good ones.

During the trip I worked on the cabled scarf. I actually didn't work on it nearly as much as I thought, even on the airplane. I finished maybe 6-8 inches, but that's it. Ever since then it's been sitting on my couch staring at me. I don't know if cables are really my thing.

I was still dealing with my jet lag, i.e. falling asleep at 8:30 PM (which if you know me, I never ever do), when I got some food poisoning from a local restaurant. Actually, it was my first day back at work and we had decided to go out to lunch. Big mistake! I felt pretty crummy that whole week and part of the weekend. So crummy that I wasn't even knitting or crocheting or doing crafts of any kind.

But, that all changed last weekend when I went up to Willows and Paradise to watch my boyfriend in his second and third race of the season (race pictures are still in the pile to go through too). One day, we had a couple of hours in between qualifying and the actual race so I took out my Silk Shrug to work on. Bammm! I'd gotten my knitting mojo back! I don't know what it was, but suddenly I didn't want to put it down. I even marched up to the little grandstand on the hill with a ball of yarn in one pocket and the shrug in my arms to watch another race because I couldn't leave it alone. The shrug managed to grow over two inches Memorial Day weekend and has probably grown another inch since I got home.

That brings us to this week where I have finished my first Snuggle. It's a medium sized blanket. I have about five more skeins of the ultra-bright rainbow yarn which will be used to make many more snuggles. My Mom has also made some smaller ones and I will bring them all to the Marin Humane Society soon.

Of course, I have also started a new project. I was getting tired of storing all these plastic bags from the grocery store so I'm going green! No more plastic bags. I'm attempting to crochet my own set of grocery bags out of 100% cotton yarn. I'm using Lily Sugar' n Cream Confectionary Colors in cinnamon, granola, and coconut. I found a free pattern that I think looks pretty cute. I can't find a link to picture of it, but I'll keep looking and get back to you guys. I want to make at least 5-6 to start off with and see how they work. I know it doesn't look like much now, but this is only one night's work.