Birthday Weekend!

It was a great birthday weekend filled with friends, cupcakes, yarn and the biggest thrill of all - I got engaged!

After nearly four years, we're now getting married! The big question now is....which state do we tie the knot in. Stay tuned.

The birthday/engagement fun continued on Sunday as several knitters and I took the ferry over the Churchmouse Yarn on Bainbridge Island for their big sale! (Ok, so it wasn't an engagement celebration, but I was still in engagement bliss!) Good time was had by all. I bought yet another knitting book (since it was on sale it was ok) and a few sale skeins of wool to make hats for gifts.
Here's Jessica and Kim with their knitting and purchases as we head home on the ferry.

And Mara and Rebecca...this was the third picture I took of them as they were not in a photographic mood. I'm a good friend and posted the good one...

A look back...

Tomorrow is my 31st birthday so I thought I'd take a few moments to look back over my 30 goals for my 3oth year! Check them out!

Stitch n' Pitch

I went to the second annual Stitch n' Pitch with Mara the other night to watch the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays! It wasn't until the 5th inning that I actually looked at the scoreboard to see that the Jays were seriously kickin' our ass. But it was all about the knittin' so it really didn't matter. The baby sleeve is back to the point where I had to rip it out and it looks so much better! (Thanks for the learning lesson Jessica!)


I also received an early birthday present from Rebecca who couldn't wait for my birthday to give it too me! Among the basket of fun kitchen goodies (for when it cools off in my condo and I return to the kitchen) was a magic yarn ball she made filled with fun treats! It's quite heavy for an average ball of yarn! I wanted to unwind it and find my treats but she said it would loose its magic if I did that! So alas, I must find a pretty shade of yarn to go with it and start knitting something pretty! Maybe the magic will be that I'll actually finish something!

Why I went to my knitting group tonight

1. The place we meet has air conditioning.
2. Once again, I forgot how to knit front to back and needed help.
3. It's air conditioned.
4. I haven't been in a while and missed the girls.
5. It's air conditioned.
6. I was hungry and wanted a good dinner that didn't involve me and a hot stove or oven.
7. It's air conditioned.

So I ate my yummy food while enjoying the good knitting chit-chat and getting help. However, Jessica noticed that I had made a mistake at the beginning of the sleeve and thought it would be a good "learning lesson" for me to rip it out and start over since it was just a baby sleeve and I wasn't that far into it. I, being the lazy knitter that I am countered, "It's just for a baby." But I didn't even buy that. So, I ripped it out. Now I have to start the sleeve over. Freakin' learning lesson. It's too damn hot for learning lessons.

How hot is it in my apartment?

It's so damn hot that the icing on my Luna bars - which I keep in my kitchen cupboard out of direct sunlight - has melted.

Why my mom always told me to wear a slip

As I was walking back to my office after lunch yesterday, I noticed the woman in front of me was wearing a nice white summer skirt. Then, you couldn't help but notice, she was not wearing a slip. You could see everything. Her white thong was completely visible. The design of the skirt didn't help the matter. Seams were all over the skirt like a design feature. There were two very wide seams that formed a little V right under her butt. And, she was not a petite woman. I tried not to look. But, it was like a car accident; you know you shouldn't look, but you do anyway. She was walking, talking and laughing with these men and I just wanted to pull her aside and say, "Listen, sister, we gotta look out for each other. So you need to hightail (no pun intended) it down to Macy's or Nordstroms and get a slip!" My mother would have been proud.

So it's not a baby sweater...

But it is for a baby! This strawberry hat is going to go to my best friends baby. And when said baby arrives just in the middle of the cold Idaho winter, it'll be very happy Auntie Meggie made him/her this adorable hat. I bought the pattern for this hat on what turned out to be our (mine and soon-to-be-mama Kelli's) last girls weekend to Cascade before I ended up moving to Seattle two summers ago (oddly enough, it was this coming up weekend to be exact -freaky). Anyway, we were in one of my favorite knitting shops in McCall when we saw the three sizes of these strawberry hats on display! We oohed and ahhed over their cuteness. And even though I was a beginning knitter who had never used DPN's, I bought the pattern. So I thought it was only fitting that the first baby gift I gave Kelli (and my future niece or nephew) was a strawberry hat.

Recharging my batteries

There is something about a summer day trip. You don't have the time to really get out of town, but yet, you need a break from town - your normal day-to-day life. I call it "recharging my batteries." On our continual quest to explore our new state (although, it's not that new anymore) we checked out Mount Rainier National Park yesterday. It was such a beautiful day. The view of Rainier is always impressive on a clear day from Seattle, but when you're right at the base - or on the base of a neighboring hillside - it's even more impressive. The clear, crisp air filled my lungs while the scent of the forest treated my nose to a smell I don't often get to experience anymore. Even though it was a quick day trip, it was good enough for me. (No knitting was accomplished on this quick road trip, I was strickly out to relax and enjoy the views. Although I wished I had the knitting on the way home as the towns of Spanaway and Tacoma are not that impressive. No offense.)

Another baby!

Well now I know what my friends were all up to this past spring - nudge, nudge, wink, wink! Yesterday I found out my best friend - my friend I've known literally all of my life (I was born in July, she was born the following March and our dads when to school together) is expecting her first baby! So being the great Auntie Meggie that I am (and come February 20th or so will be) I ran right out to the knitting store and bought some yarn for the One Skein baby bolero! All of these babies! I better get knitting! All knitting for me has officially become to a stand still until a stock pile of baby goods has been acquired! I wonder if anyone else will call me this month to share their joyous news! These things happen in threes you know!

You know you've trained hard when...

After a night of an open water swim clinic for the Danskin Sprint Tri, all you want to do is lay on the couch and knit. Yet that requires too much energy - energy you don't have. It's ok to train hard enough that you can't talk after a workout - but not being able to knit - that's just training way too hard!

Baby Fever! (For cute knitted things)

I have recently learned that a dear friend of mine is pregnant with her first baby! She lives in Virginia & with her crazy schedule and my crazy schedule (not to mention the time change) we play phone tag - a lot. In fact by the time we actually got on the phone with each other & she shared her great news, she was practically done with her first trimester! That's 3 months of good knitting time wasted! So I wasted no time heading off to the knitting shop to get yarn for her baby sweater! I'm making the Child's Placket Neck Pull Over from Last Minute Knitted Gifts! It's knitting up so quickly (or I'm just knitting fast with several other projects planned)! I've also finished the baby's hat (also from LMK) for another friend who's wife recently had their first baby! Plus I have the yarn for the Baby Bolero from One Skein! After seeing Rebecca's cute baby bolero I've moved that up the project to-do list for another expecting friend! So many cute baby projects!

Summer tunes

(Those two little specs on the stage are the Indigo Girls but we had a much better view then the picture portrays)

Last night Rebecca, Darcy and I saw the Indigo Girls at the Woodland Park Zoo summer concert series. It was a great concert, heard lots of great music, visited with friends and even got some knitting done! After the concert, we started chatting about the 3 cd's we'd bring if we were stranded on a desert island. Right away the first one popped into my mind. The second - surprisingly - took me a while. But I thought long and hard about my thrid choice - I had to make it count:
1. Mirrorball - Sarah McLachlan
2. Crossroads - Bon Jovi (their greatest hit album from the early '90's featuring all the '80's classics)
3. Disk B of U2's Greatest Hits 1990-2000 (it was a tough choice between disk A and B, but I feel confident in this choice)
All of these cd's are greatest hits. I figured if you're going to be stranded, you might as well get all the good tunes on one cd. Although, ideally, you wouldn't want to be stranded in the first place. What are your 3 picks?