Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Seattle made me a Lush

This past weekend was the No Doubt concert that mom bought me tickets to. B did an amazing job of making it a full (and I mean FULL) four day weekend trip to Seattle...

We got packed up and got on the road around 2pm Friday afternoon. The ride out there was more than uneventful as B and I spent most of it knitting.

The ride there On the road entertainment Logan's favortie pasttime

It's such a boring ugly drive until you get near the pass. We made good time and got into the city around 6pm. Checked into the hotel and got started on our shopping spree right away. After we freshened up a bit, we hit the local Trader Joe's with the intent of getting B some trail mix makings and then going out to dinner. It took us less than five minutes to decide that we wanted to have a hotel room buffet comprised of the prepared foods from the cold case instead. So we loaded up on wraps, salads and crackers...and a few bottles of wine.

Friday night dinner

The dinner was so good! We ended up chilling our wine in the plastic bucket filled with ice and drinking it from the plastic cups that the hotel leaves on the sink; we are high class all the way. With the long day and the wine, we went to sleep fairly early.

Saturday was Bainbridge Island day. We woke up somewhat early in order to catch the ferry to the island and get breakfast there. Once we made it into Seattle proper (our hotel was near the airport), we found that the parking garage we had planned to use was closed. Luckily, there was another pay lot very close. Or not so luckily, as we were soon to find out. Not only did we hit the lot at the same time as about 20 carfuls of soccer fans, but the pay machines were not working. We ended up standing around for nearly 45 minutes while the completely useless lot attendant did nothing to help anyone. We finally got paid and to the ferry terminal but had just missed the boat we had wanted to take. We hung out in the terminal until the next one came along and enjoyed a very pretty and refreshing ride over to the island.
Bainbridge Island

Once we got there, it was a short walk to the touristy area with all of the shops and restaurants. B had found a small cafe and after a bit of confusion and nearly missing it by half a block, we got ourselves sitting down and cooling off from the walking across town. Feeling the effects of being on vacation and away from home I decided to help my day along with a Screwdriver with my brunch. Ever the enabler, B had a Greyhound as well. The cafe was very cute and very upscale with delicious food. I had a Dungeness Crab Eggs Benedict that was to die for.

Cafe Nola Cafe Nola

After breakfast we began our tour of the small town. It really reminded me of Catalina. Again, B had scoped out the fun places which included the best ice cream shop ever, Mora Iced Creamery. They had the most fantastic and unusual flavors. I had to try the Lavender and Sabayon but ended up ordering Coconut and Mexican Chocolate. I'm pretty sure that B and Logan got some equally as wonderful flavors but I don't really remember much outside of the ice cream euphoria I was experiencing. By the time we left the small shop, there was a line out the door and around the corner. Just a few doors down was Churchmouse Yarn & Teas. Of course we spent a good deal of time there and I got a couple of skeins of yarn. Nothing too exciting but I did get a very cute little project bag. Logan was very happy to peruse the teas and got a couple of tins to take home. It was a very pretty shop, much bigger than we expected and everyone there was so nice and friendly. I'm determined to be cool and like tea! We spent an hour or two more on the island before catching the ferry (just barely) back to Seattle.

That night (after showers and naps), we went to Lush and Sephora and spent way too much money. Then, it was on to Blue C Sushi. I am still nearly speechless about our evening there. Not only is the novelty of kaiten dining so fun and over the top, but the sushi itself was amazing! Again, B and I embraced the vacation gods and she had a strong but very refreshing cucumber and lime martini while I had the sake sampler.

Blue C Sushi Blue C Sushi

I have discovered that I love plum sake. It was like dessert in a glass. We grabbed plates of sushi, salads and hot foods here and there. We really took our time in order to stuff in as much as we possibly could. Logan was very proud of himself for trying new things. We had some perfectly seared tuna, a to-die-for scallop nigiri and surprisingly yummy noodle and cucumber salads. B had to have her Mochi so we ordered four flavors. Mango and Red Bean for her' Vanilla and Chocolate for Logan and I to try. It's not bad, sorta weird, but not bad. Needless to say we were very tired and went straight back to the hotel and passed out.

Sunday was an unplanned day but we had decided on the ferry the day before that we would go to brunch at Ivar's, right down on the waterfront. We ate...and ate...and ate. Oh, and we drank. Well, B intended to drink but her Mimosa was a little too strong for her so I helped her out with it. Once again, amazing food. There was, of course, a ton of seafood and I'm pretty sure that I ate at least two pounds of crab alone. The dessert offering was unexpectedly diverse. They had everything from warm cinnamon rolls to creme brulee and mini-eclairs. I'm pretty sure that we all had two plates of dessert. B had four cups of mussels and clams. Now that I think about it, B and I ate more food than Logan at every meal. We must be starved for culinary adventure. Getting back to the car was not a pleasant endeavor and we pretty much just waddled all the way back.

For the afternoon, I sent B and Logan off to Ikea and I relaxed in the hotel room. Once they were back, we all went out to the Auburn Supermall and did some more shopping at the Rack. We had a very fast dinner at Red Robin and B and I hopped on the shuttle to the No Doubt show. We were getting really worried about getting there too late and missing some of No Doubt's set. The shuttle was supossed to take 10 minutes but was more like 30. That did not help our anxiety. We got lucky and got to our seats during Paramore's last song. And then we sat for an hour while they set up the stage for No Doubt. But the show was freaking AMAZING. I don't have any pictures because we assumed you couldn't bring cameras (we were wrong). I don't think I'll have any trouble remembering it though. I can't even describe it and and do it justice.

Monday was another trip to Trader Joe's on the way out of town...and more wine...

Boozers

We stopped at Snoqualmie Falls on the way out of Seattle but I decided to stay in the truck; I had done enough walking that weekend and my legs were not happy with me. One long, hot and hungry drive back across the state and we were home! Weary and grateful to be back but in the best way possible.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Death's Cold Grip

I got my second set of wow yarn from indiedyer this week. The colors are beautiful! Instant love for The Non-Living colorway.

The Non-Living

So much so that I wound it the next morning and spent part of the day busting out a Calorimetry with it.
DSCF0784

I really want to make a set of long, to the elbow, gloves with it but I just cannot find the right pattern. So many of the long gloves have cables and embellishments that I don't like to mix with such a variegated yarn but the plain stockinette ones seem too...plain. I really want to start the gloves but I've been through all of the Rav patterns three times and even looked at random ones online and still can't find one that I like. I don't want to settle for a pattern just because I am so eager to get started but I really want to knit with this yarn!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Double Knitting

I decided that I really liked the Uncle Argyle scarf pattern in Son of Stitch'n Bitch. When I went on my buying spree last week, I bought the silky wool in pink and white for that pattern. I don't know if I was in a yarn trance or what, but that yarn is waaaaay too light for the scarf. The argyle pattern wasn't showing up on such small stitches and I really have no desire to knit a full length scarf on size 5 needles; I'm just not that dedicated. I looked at the pattern again and it called for Cascade 220 (yay cheap but good yarn!). I realized that I actually liked one of the color combos that the pattern calls for (very unusual). I ordered my yarn (btw, ebay seller yarnbow FTW; I ordered my yarn Saturday evening and it was here on Monday!!) and got it all caked up while I was on my yarn cabinet re-organizing kick.

I usually let things like this sit around for a while but I was really curious about the double knitting that the pattern does. I've never tried it before and I rarely work with charts so it was going to be a challenge. I haven't had an enjoyable challenge in knitting in a while. I have to say that I really like it! It's interesting (you have to pay attention to what you're doing) but easy enough to not make me want to launch it across the room like lace does.

I've got my first chart repeat done and it's going faster than I expected. I'm not so sure how gung-ho I'll still be halfway through this thing, but I have at least 5 months before I start wearing scarves to get it done. ;)

Argyle Scarf

Argyle Scarf

Thursday, June 4, 2009

I did it!

I went to Harmony and I bought yarn for specific projects! Only one skein of yarn is purposeless for now. Go me!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

I'm giving Blaine the finger for his b-day

More like eight of them and two thumbs lol. I am making Beer Gloves for Blaine's b-day. It's my first try at "real" fingers even if they are just half fingers lol. I like the pattern overall except for the many many errors but that's just the way it is with SnB patterns. I have most of the first glove done and they go pretty quick. I am having a big problem with getting a jog at my joins because I am purling in the round. I am hoping that when Blaine wears them that they will stretch out those jogs and they'll blend into the fabric. I can't tell on my hand because they're a little big on me. I also did not follow the pattern for the end of the thumb (no ribbing and regular bind off); after doing the first finger as the pattern calls for, I will be going back to re-do that thumb the right way. I'll be posting all of my errata here once I am done but here's my progress so far (you can see one of the jogs off to the right of the cable).

Beer and smokes

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Obsessed with a hat that I don't like...

There are some patterns that make me really happy that I have other people to knit for. Reverie is one of those. B made one and I looked at the pattern and thought "Totally not for me." Then I thought that would make a very cute hat for Emily. So, I knit one up and I loved the pattern; it was uncomplicated but fun and fast. I have now knit two and I am halfway through my third....

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Not knitting related but...

...this is the easiest place to post this. I got laid off yesterday. Ok, so technically they are calling it "termination" but that's a load of bullshit. They got rid of 95 people and they really reached to find reasons to fire people as opposed to laying them off. That's not what this is about. This is about....
Timber!

That would be the wooden power pole that fell in our front yard this morning. I turned around and looked out the window just as it started to fall. It sparked and made a lot of noise and crashed to the ground, just feet away from Katie's car. Blaine and Katie had been woken up by the cables hitting the roof across the bedrooms. I told them what happened and I called 911. They had the fire department out there and they roped off the street and wouldn't let us come outside, which was fine considering that we had downed power cables right in front of the front door.
Timber!!!Timber!

Since Katie couldn't move her car and Blaine's car was at her place, I took the both over there to get it. Good thing I park out back! Since all of our power was out, I spent the morning at B's and they got everything back up and working around 2 this afternoon. There doesn't seem to be any permanent damage; the lawn might end up a little dead from the oil in the transformer. Katie's car had been hit by the cables when they snapped and it damaged the roof rack but Avista is paying for it. It could have been a lot worse.

Timber! Timber!