CarmelKnits, etc.

I have a finished object to share with you but I can't, because it's a gift and it won't be gifted till next Saturday. It's the most adorable thing. It's simple. It's soft. It's so cute I can't stand it! Here's a tease... Spring is in full swing here in Seattle and May is already chock-a-block full of activity. This week we have three birthday's in the family. My father, our niece who is turning I believe 24, and D has a birthday! We are celebrating Friday with a family style BBQ, Saturday I have a work conference that goes all. day. long. There's a baby shower. There is this girls birthday (me) followed by oral surgery #1. Not the best birthday gift but it's not the first time I've sailed thru my birthday on pain killers. I believe my 30th birthday fell the same week I had surgery on my sinuses... The week AFTER THAT my best friend from the MN is coming for a visit with her son Z and we will have a whirlwind tour of ...

  I love this picture so much I just wanted to share it with everyone.   There are for mom Color Affection. Cream is the Main Color Terra Cotta is Contrast Color 1

Your first 200 game in bowling that is! Final game of the season and I did it, I rolled my first 200 game. I'm pretty excited. I also took first place in sweepers and won $30.00 in cold hard bowling cash. I haven't stopped smiling since I looked up and saw my score. My first game was a 153. Second was a 189. It's possible I beat D all three games. The D in the middle is our teammate Duane and he wasn't here tonight. I'm going to finish the night off knitting on moms Color Affection! Happy Friday!!! 200!

I can't think of one to express how this photo makes me feel. It feels soothing and peaceful. Especially after the horrors of yesterday! These colors are so much my mom. Which makes sense since she bought them to knit something for herself then changed her mind about it... As you can see I've just barely started the second section of the shawl. I can't wait to add the third color, the color I refer to as 'ninja' because its the same color as my favorite yard squirrel who showed up all stealthy like last fall. Who names a squirrel ninja? Me. He acts very ninja-like. I'll try and grab a pic of him doing something ninja-ie. he got pretty plump over the winter, someone must have put out her Christmas nuts him... Wow. That's a road I didn't intend to go down... Anyway, Happy Wednesday! p.s. I'm wearing my Multnomah today and its lovely!

 this picture was taken two weeks ago. they were watching me eat lunch.  meh.  an hour ago if you had asked me how my morning was I would've answered: 'tuesday can go and jump off a f&*^%ing cliff' - My travel coffee mug some how got Wool-ite in the lid and I can't seem to get it out so I left that at home. (things that happen when you block knit items in your kitchen) - The delicious fruit, soy protein, uber healthy breakfast smoothie I made for myself is still sitting at home. - My beautiful Multnomah shawl that I was going to wear today is still draped on the back of the chair waiting for me to grab it and wear today. - a coworker and i scared the crap out of each other at 5:45 a.m. he thought it was so funny he did it again... I didn't think the second time was nearly as funny as he did. the bright side (because I can always find one after the haze of annoyance clears) - The smoothie will be my afternoon snack instead of breakf...

And it's perfection!

Color Affection. This one is for mom. If it was for me, in these colors, she'd rip it off me so fast the friction would probably singe my hair. Besides, she did send this yarn home with me from Arizona... Cream will be the main color. Terra cotta will be contrast color one Squirrel will be contrast color three as well as the final border. Hey Ma! Happy Mothers Day!

Designer: Kate Ray of Helloknitty.com Yarn: Noro Taiyo sock yarn color #9 (discontinued) Border Yarn: knit picks palette in Pennyroyal. It's not dry yet. I keep touching it to check every three minutes. Maybe when I get home it will be....

In my glass that is! Happy Friday! Post bowling I talked D into going to the Irishmen for dinner. As the name of the pub indicates it is run by an Irish man... serving traditional Irish fare with traditional Irish hops on tap. I typically favor a half&half (half Harp half Guinness) but lately I've been going full Harp. We typically hit the Irishmen before a hockey game with our friends. Well since Silvertips hockey has been over for a couple weeks now I've been missing our weekly, sometimes bi-weekly, dinners there... not to mention the pepper gravy... Seriously, if you come to Everett Washington, you need to go to the Irishmen and get an order of crispy fries with a side of pepper gravy... life changing. tonight was particularly good. Prior to the too much Irish in my glass I made a decision this afternoon. I'm on the final repeat of the lace pattern on the Multnomah. One row of lace pattern One row of plain knitting One row of binding off except for one ...

my old lap top is getting sad in it's old weary ways. it's heavy and clunky and it doesn't have a ten-key on it... which it turns out for my job when I work away from the office is a big deal. the four gallons of mai tai's it consumed at Christmas didn't help matters either... it still worked though. although she doesn't relay sound as well as she used to. so tonight off we went in search of a new one. i'm typing to you on it now. i have no pictures on it yet. no music. nothing. but it's beautiful. it has a webcam. it's quiet. and it fits in most of my purses... i'm super excited for the webcam because that means i can Skype with the nephews and niece back home! I've never done that before. anyhoo, i'm pretty excited about this, not excited about a new operating system but it's not that bad. just have to learn something new. good night everyone... talk to you over the weekend! where we'll be attending the horse races,...

I don't know how many stitches I have on the needles at this point. I'm sure I could do some simple math and get a general idea, but math is rarely simple for me so we'll scratch that notion. I could just settle in and count by two's. That gets tiring after 246 where I start forgetting how two's multiply - that whole math thing... I can tell you this. On our drive last night it took me a half hour or so to knit across one row in the feather and fan pattern. normally i would be itching and bitching to be done at this point but I'm so charmed by the border that I just keep knitting and increasing happily knitting each row a half hour at a time. I also keep forcing photos of the border on everyone. I've started limiting it to one a day but I could easily show you all 45.8 million I've taken. Don't worry, I won't. Instead I'll just keep knitting and admiring my clever choice and once a day sharing one delicious fiber photo...

disclaimer: this conversation means no offense to any group. in fact, it's possible i'd fit in quite well with the mentioned group, nor am i classifying people who made the choice that i am choosing not to make. The Convo between me and my adoring spouse: me: so I called the oral surgeon and made my consult appt. I also got an estimate for the surgery, anesthesia and the implant. all in all about $3400.00 adoring spouse: well that's what I said it would cost... *i made a not so nice comment that i'm leaving out here. chalk it up to artistic license and assuming * adoring spouse: what would happen if you just didn't replace the tooth? me : that's not going to happen. adoring spouse : but what would be the ramifications if you didn't replace it... me : none, but it's a non-issue since i'm having the implant me : i'm not a hillbilly! adoring spouse : just because you have all your teeth doesn't mean you aren't a hillbilly....

Click the photo to make it bigger and easier to read... But know deep down in my heart this conversation delights me still...

Still chugging along with my Multnomah! Instead of going with the predictable fuchsia pink for the border I chose Pennyroyal from left over from my Color Affection. I'm fairly smitten with it.

It's probably not one that many in my family remembers. I think I remember it most clearly because it was such a pivotal moment in my early teenage life. It was April 11, 1989. I was about to turn 15 years old. To say I was the dream daughter is a stretch. If anyone tested her parents and probably scared the hell out of them, it was me. I made really bad decisions, the group I spent time with was bad news, and I was headed down a path that would have most likely not ended well for me. I had already been kicked out of two high schools and it was only my freshman year. I remember the morning. I had an appointment at the orthodontist. They took my braces off. Mom dropped me off and I said I would just walk to school afterwards. She said no, she would pick me up. I wasn't happy about that either since my plan was really to cut school and hit the 7-Eleven that would sell underage kids cigarettes. Mom picked me up and it wasn't until she pulled onto the freeway that she tur...

I think this was one if the first patterns ever saved to my Ravelry library when I first joined back in 2008. This is the first one I've made. It kind of reminds me of the Christmas ornaments that old ladies crocheted years ago... But at the same time I really like it. So much do I started another one last night for D. I had a plethora of left over buttons from Bump's cardigan so it just seems appropriate that he should be on M's key ring. He really is a handsome pony dog! Pattern is by Frankie Brown from Frankie's Knitted Stuff It's free on Ravelry and a great way to; 1. Finish a project in one night (instant gratification followed by adoration for yourself and how clever you are) 2. Use up those scraps that are balled up rolling all around you knit stash. 3. Finally a use for those random extra buttons that you love but don't have enough of to accomplish a cardigan! On a completely different note but also a FO... I made the best BE...

I don't get a cleaning bug often. I truly dislike it. I would rather knit than scrub a toilet or polish something... But it happens that I get the urge to purge (too much listening to the Top Gun soundtrack this weekend) and when the momentum is high and lasts three days I won't fight it... I can't. Plus I probably saved at least $250.00 by not going to a knitting expo! Have you ever done a big ruthless purge on your stuff? You can learn a lot about who you are or who you have been... 1. I apparently have an affection for lined notebooks and notepads considering I've counted 17 in my living room alone. 2. I easily have 50+ knitting books on my shelf and have only knit one pattern from one of them. 3. 2011 I was a grumpy snot at Christmas. So grumpy I didn't even open any Christmas cards. I didn't thrown them out either apparently... I'll open them later today. 4. My sister-in-law M gives me some pretty awesome gifts. Funny notebooks (o...

VK Live is in Seattle/Bellevue this weekend. In fact it's beginning right now! I will be attending Sunday. I will most like be attending alone, unless of course my friend L (non-knitter but receiver and connoisseur of knit things) ends up being free and coming with me... Should I attend alone a number of things could occur. 1. I'll be nervous and arrive at the convention center 4 hours before the doors open. 2. I won't know which of my knit hats/scarves/shawls/sweaters/mittens/socks I should wear and will end up walking out of the house covered head to toe in everything I've ever knit. Most likely with a huge smile on my face. 3. I'll get to the marketplace and be so overwhelmed I'll spend my whole time in the time out lounge... 4. I'll meet a designer or blogger or other knitter I admire/stalk online and embarrass myself with open gushing and over sharing about how I've felt we are kindred spirits and are best friends and will you s...

 I got em' I got em' something fierce I really love to watch live hockey Love. It. Maybe it stems from living in Northern Minnesota for a time or just living in Minnesota in general, but there is something about it that I love. The Final Salute to the fans after Playoff Game Six which ended the season for the Silvertips. I won't lie, it's possible I cried a little...  I love watching the players jump in the air to bring a puck back down to the ice and land on their skates. How do they do that? Or that they sometimes literally run on ice with blades. again, how do they do that? I can barely stand on ice let alone, run jump and skate on it... For Christmas 2011 I bought D a last minute groupon type gift that was two tickets and a hat to our local WHL Hockey Team, the Everett Silvertips. We went to the game. D loved it. I loved it. I love the skewers of dark chocolate covered strawberries lovingly called Dingleberries! Next thing I know...

I started this on March 23 On Saturday March 30th, I blew past the point in the pattern where you begin the feather and fan border. My excuse, we were all at Shorty's Beef n' Brew watching the Everett Silvertips vs the Portland Winterhawks... It was 60 minutes of very intense hockey. Sadly hockey season came to an end for the Silvertips Monday. I've been in a state of hockey blues since... I'm not really prepared to talk about it so... The reason I blew past my pattern change was because I was super focused on the hockey. I had two choices at that point; 1. Rip it back ten rows *shudder* 2. Do some simple math and figure out that I need to knit 18 * 21 more rows before switching to the feather and fan... and pray that I don't run out of yarn... Turns out that Taiyo Sock has discontinued color #9 and bless my heart I only bought one ball... 19 rows to go to the switch. *after reading thru this later and bragging about my simple math I realized...