A sad day for Boise knitters...

A fabulous knitting store in Boise is shutting down. After four years in business Drop A Stitch is closing its doors at the end of the year! It's such a cute little store right in the heart of downtown. I've spent many, many, many dollars there over the years - even when I would go to Boise for a quick visit, my mom and I would often stop in just to see what they had. I'd always walk out with something pretty and soft. There aren't many knitting stores in Boise - a sad, tragic fact indeed. I hope another one will come along and pick up where Drop A Stitch leaves off. In the mean time, it's a sale and they're looking to unload their stash! They even have an online store for those of us no longer in the Boise zip code!

Snapshots from Thanksgiving!

The trip to Boise was another fun one! This time it was filled with family, fun and food - and unfortunately, very little knitting. Although I did help my mom with two of her knitting projects so that counts for something! Here are a few of my favorite things!



The men enjoyed their turkey (we women were busy eating yummy pies while they "watched" the game.)





Kellan modeled his new favorite hat. We like his dad's hat too - Go Idaho!

Mom's first felting project - the Boga Bag.

And breakfast with Cameron - such a cheery happy girl!

Henry & his sweater!

I think he looks quite hip and stylin'! Not too mention super cute!

Look what I got at knitting!

A big thanks goes out to Jessica for letting me borrow her other sewing machine! I'm really excited to learn more about sewing! Now I can finish my pj pants from my sewing class and embark on yet another expensive fiber hobby that requires one to have lots of fun supplies on hand! And speaking of supplies, Erin showed up at knitting tonight with a garbage bag full of fabric she didn't want anymore! Of course, it's all going to several good homes as we all wasted no time helping her get rid of her stash while adding to ours!

And in other knitting news....today was registration day for the Madrona Retreat! It was a little iffy this morning as they experienced big technical difficulties, many classes were listed as full that weren't and they finally suspended all registration. It opened back up again later today, which was great! I wasn't able to get into any of my classes that I wanted on Saturday, but with the second go-round I got into the two classes I wanted! It's going to be great trip! Here's what I'm taking:

Basics of Lace Knitting from the fabulously talented Evelyn Clark on Sat. morning

(No class Sat afternoon, leaving me plenty of time to sit and knit with everyone)

Knitting in All Directions: Non-Traditional Construction Techniques from Margaret Radcliffe on Sunday morning

Knitting Weekend Update

As of Sunday night, with three days off behind me, and one more ahead of me, here's what I've accomplished so far:

Finished my vest!

It's the Tank Top from Classic Knits by Erica Knight using Rowan Big Wool in purple.

Started and finished a new baby hat from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms using DK Cashcotton Classic Yarns in vanilla and avocado (plus I have enough left over for maybe 2 more hats!)

Turned my first heel! How fun is that!

A Knitting Weekend

I have four days off (including Saturday and Sunday) and I'm not leaving town and no one is coming to visit - and I couldn't be happier! What will I be doing? Whatever I want! And what I want to do is some serious knitting! Here's my plan:

1) finish front side of vest
2) seam vest (maybe)
3) finish sock
4) rip out and start over for Kellan's hat (needs to be done for Thanksgiving trip)
5) start strawberry hat for coworkers baby (this will most likely be my Boise travel knitting project for Thanksgiving since I can't work on Matt's other sock while I'm traveling with him)
6) start Foliage hat
7) think/plan/possibly buy stuff for the two Christmas gifts (the ONLY knitted gifts this year)
8) figure out my classes for Madrona

Thank goodness I have four days off and the newly released season three of Veronica Mars on DVDs to help me accomplish all of this!

Class list is posted!

The Madrona class list is up! I can't wait for the retreat! There are a bunch of great classes to choose from so it'll be another fun weekend!

Sunday Drive

I took a quick trip out to Issaquah to visit Mara while she worked a Sunday shift at Cultured Purls (it's a really cute shop and if you're ever in the 'Quah, I highly recommend it!). I picked up this pretty Malabrigo for my Foliage hat. I'm hoping the yarn will look good with my new scarf my parents brought me from Ireland on their 35th wedding anniversary trip!

While I was there, I was also able to start working the heel of Matt's socks! I may, just maybe, be able to get these done for Christmas!

What I learned at work this week

This week, I had the opportunity to produce coverage on the U.S. Conference of Mayor Climate Protection Summit. I heard speeches from Former V.P. Al Gore (via satellite), Former Pres. Bill Clinton and NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Their messages were all very inspiring and very educational. They spoke of the importance of getting big businesses on board so they can make "being green" more affordable to everyone. It does all come one simple fact: we all can make a difference. Just by changing our light bulbs, it does help. I've been a skeptic before. But after hearing it from these three men, and at least a dozen others over the past two, busy, busy days. I'm ready to make the changes in my home.

* On a funny little note, my station was the station in charge of filming all the footage of the Clinton speech for all the other t.v. stations. After the speech, we loaded up our gear (and there was a lot of it) to carry it out the back way we came in. But the Secret Services said otherwise. Clinton was still in the building and we had to go out the front and walk around the building - gear and all. So we did. And as we exited the front of the building, I said, "Oh my God, it's Bill Clinton," and there he was. Just walking down the street (of course he was surrounded by at least a dozen of Seattle's finest). So we all crossed the street together. It was kind of funny because all of our camera gear was packed up and we just walked down the street with him. I was just happy I didn't swear in front of the former prez and say something like "Holy S***, it's Bill Clinton" because that's what I was really thinking.