Congrats Mara & Mike!

This past Saturday, Mara and Mike got married! It was a beautiful ceremony at her grandparents home just outside Olympia. The house over looked the water and it was a very touching service because that was the same spot her parents were married at. The wedding started off on a fun note as the groom and his crew walked in to the theme of Star Wars!

Mara helped design her dress from a shop in Olympia. She wanted something simple and elegant. Once the dress was made the shop owners liked her dress so much they decided they were going to offer that dress in their collection. They are calling it the "Mara." (My pictures really don't do it justice!) She looked so radiant and happy!

Happy Left Handers Day!

Today is Left Handers Day! A day where all you righties need to appreciate us lefties! Sometimes it's hard living in your world. Everything is built for you guys - notebooks, school desks with the arm rest on the "right hand" side and let's not forget the scissors! As a kid, I had to learn to bat right handed because my softball coach didn't know how to teach a left handed kid. And I knit right handed (same reason). After a few years, I tried to teach myself to do it left handed but it didn't work out so well. I'm celebrating my right to be a lefty!

The summer of my green thumb!

I've never been really good at growing things. I try, the effort is there (sometimes), but it usually ends badly. This summer I decided it was time to try and cultivate something I could actually eat. My fabulous friend June helped me out with this by giving me a beautiful tomato plant with a bunch of herbs. She also gave me some lettuce starts and they have taken off like wildfire! The lettuce was quite yummy! I'm still waiting for the tomatoes to turn red but they are on their way!

Past Pictures

I finally got my camera cord back after it took a little road trip. Here are some pictures from my knitting adventures when I was home alone:

My knitting at Stich & Pitch with Mara. A lot of good knitting and chatting was accomplished, win from the Mariners - not so much.

The full moon over Safeco field didn't give any good luck to the Mariners.

Yarn for Henry's sweater (Cousin Mike, please note how it's not pink.) I'm going to knit him the Easy Baby Cardigan from Knitting Pure & Simple. I can't wait to meet him someday - and for that matter, I'm sure his mom is anxious to do the same! (Editor's note: I wrote this blog entery last night then cast on for the cardigan. Today I found out that Henry was born last night! 7lbs. 7 oz. baby and mamma doing great! Now I really need to knit fast!)

Field Trip

Jen, Lynn, Mara, Jessica and me on the ferry back to Seattle.

Saturday several Purly Girls set out to Bainbridge Island for the annual Churchmouse Yarn and Tea sale. By the time we got to the store - only a mere 24 minutes after it opened - it was packed and women were carrying baskets full of yarn! (Maybe I was jealous). I did find some great patterns for kid hats and sweaters for a dollar, plus some cute yarn for a baby hat (always good to have some on hand these days.) After the yarn store we strolled through the farms market, discovered we were really hungry and got some lunch.

Then we hit Esther's Fabrics and I think I may have a new hobby! All of the fabric was so pretty and fun. Nothing like I got to work on in Home Ec! I bought In Stitches by Amy Butler, plus a couple of fat quarters. Several of us are also thinking of taking the beginning sewing class over there too! My mom was so happy when I told her about the fabric I bought and the sewing book. I could just hear the joy in her voice!

Knitting conversations with drunk boys

A few weeks ago (I meant to post this then but got busy) I went to Mara's bachelorette party. We had a fabulous time drinking wine, laughing at the gifts and eating a great dinner. Then it was time to hit the bars! We went to a couple of bars, drinking more cocktails and wine through the evening. When we got to a particular bar, Diana and I were outside with our group chatting with this fine upstanding gentleman who was, shall we say, pretty freakin' drunk. He was polite enough and asked us how we knew each other. This is the conversation that followed:

Drunk guy: "How do you two know each other?"
Diana and I exchange a glance and big smiles.
"We're friends from knitting!" Diana exclaimed.
"Yes," I said, "We love to knit!" as we giggled a bit.
"And we knit in public!" Diana added.
"And we're proud of it!" I said as we both broke out in laughter.
I expected the typical glazed over look that usually comes when one mentions knitting to men. Instead our little inebriated friend said this:
"Cool. Do you girls shop at Tricoter?" (Note to my non-local readers, Tricoter just happens to be the most expensive and some what snobby yarn store in town.)
Now, it was our turn for the glazed over look. We exchanged quizzical glances at each other before I stammered out:
"How do you know about Tricoter?"
"My aunt knits. That's where she shops."
"Cool," we said, nodding our heads in approval.

My day!

Today is my birthday! It was a fun day filled with all the people I love around me (of course, they all weren't there), doing stuff I love to do! I'm very lucky! It was a really great year and I'm thinking this next one is going to be pretty fabulous too!

(I just signed in on my MSN page and in a very big brother way, there was a graphic that said Happy Birthday Megan! Fun to see, but man, these computers do know everything...)

A bad day for pets

With a title like that, you know this isn't a cheery knitting entry.

First, I'm sorry to hear about the passing of Miss Destiny. But she lived a long life, happy life with Rebecca. She was well loved and will be missed.

Here's Hailey last year modeling a baby hat I made.

Second, there was a little bit of trauma for Hailey and my mom this morning. Hailey, my parents miniature Schnauzer, got out of the house this morning. And Hailey, being the wild puppy at heart took off for the neighbors backyard. My mother followed her, calling her name, but Hailey simply ignored her, off in her own little adventure. However, despite her young spirit, Hailey is getting up there in years and her eye sight isn't what it used to be. She just didn't see the pool and walked straight off the patio into the deep end. My mother just stopped, waiting to see if Hailey knew how to swim like our other dog. She didn't. She just continued to sink deeper and deeper. My mother took off her shoes and glasses and jumped into the deep in after her. She fished her out of the bottom of the pool and put her on the patio. My mom then swam to the shallow end and climbed up the stairs and out of the pool.

While standing there, dripping wet and a little shaken, my mom (and probably Hailey too) realized her neighbor was sitting in her kitchen (in full view of the pool), drinking coffee and watching t.v. She knocked on the door and needless to say, the idiot neighbor was a bit startled to see my mom standing there dripping wet. When she opened to door to see if everything was alright, my mom informed her that no, everything was not alright. She needed to be a responsible pool owner and keep her gate shut - heaven forbid another dog or worse - a child - wanders back there and falls into the pool.

Back at the homestead, they (mom and the dog) were both upset over the ordeal. My mother lost her cell phone in the process as it was in her pocket during the rescue mission. Later in the day, Hailey was so grateful of my moms heroic actions, that she bought my mom a nice Italian coffee drip machine.

Moral of the story: if you own a pool, don't be a fu#$ing moron. Be responsible and keep the gate latched!

An annoying discovery...

Just as I was getting ready to download the pictures I took of yarn for Cousin Henry's baby sweater (don't worry Cousin Mike, I wouldn't put him in "that pink thing") I realized that the new hubby took the cord that connects my camera to the computer with him on his trip (he uses it to charge his phone through the computer). Very annoying.
So that means no pictures of:

• Henry's yarn
• Stitch and Pitch tomorrow night with Mara
• the new project I was starting to take with me to the game

I guess there will be a big ol' picture entry next week!

So close....

Thank you Rebecca for the photo.

I thought I was almost finished with my wrap. I was on the last skein and finally decided to get out the measuring tape to check my progress. And that's when I discovered it -I was still 11 inches from the end! I could have sworn I pulled out all the yarn for the wrap and put in my bag. Hoping my gauge wasn't horribly off, I went back into the craft closet hoping there was another skein of project yarn hiding somewhere. Luckily there was! Unfortunately, that means I'm not as close to the end as I thought I was, but at least I have enough yarn to finish! On the bright side, while I was rummaging through the craft closet, I discovered several skeins of fabulous yarn I forgot I had! Now I need to find a project for them!

P.S. Happy birthday Sarah!

Confession

I have a confession on this Harry Potter final book day:

I've never read any of the Harry Potter books. Seen the movies, never read the books.

I also ran into a UPS delivery lady today and she said they are ONLY delivering Harry Potter books today. I thought that was a little extreme.

What I read on my summer vacation

While I was on vacation I read a great book: Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen. She is a fabulous author who is also a journalist (I have a thing for journalists who write books). This book is about two sisters who live in NYC. One is a social worker in the Bronx, the other is a t.v. journalist for a national t.v. show. Quindlen also writes about the city so well, it's practically the third main character. It makes me want to go back to NYC and stroll along the sidewalks. I highly recommend this book. It's a fun, entertaining read that also tugs at the heartstrings. It also went well with the many, many pina colada's I drank pool/beach side while reading.

Catching up

It's seems I've been pretty busy lately (well...actually lazy to be honest) and I haven't been into blogging. I'm taking a cue from Mara and just catching up on a few things.

1. My wrap is almost finished (and yet still no picture....)

2. Triathlon training has kicked into high gear and while I'm generally pretty sore every other day, I'm loving it.

3. I'm happy it's birthday month!

4. I'm excited to for this week's SKG meeting where I'm on a panel about blogging (meaning I actually have to blog a little more!)

5. Today is our one month wedding anniversary. We went out to Moxie's to celebrate (cheesy I know, but it was fun!)

Cameron's Sweater

Cameron is finally big enough to wear the sweater I made for her! It's from One Skein and judging from the look on her face, I think she likes it! Or she's getting ready to cry... I'm not sure. I'm thinking she's happy because she is just a sweet, adorable, happy baby! Next up, a sweater for Henry who is scheduled to make his debut into the world on my birthday! Time for more baby knitting!

P.S. I finally posted some of my favorite pics of the wedding on my wedding web site! Check it out!

Back to the real world

I wish I could say that in all the time that's passed since my last blog, I was on my honeymoon in the Bahamas, but sadly, that only lasted a week. Since then, I've been working on re-entry into the real world. While the blogging (and sadly the knitting too) hasn't been a top priority lately (honestly, I've been lazy), it's time to get back to business as usual - only that I'm married now! So while I dig back into the knitting bag, here are just a few pics from the trip!


A view of the Atlantis Resort with an afternoon storm brewing in the background.

One of many, many tropical, fruity drinks I consumed beach side, poolside, casino side, bar side...

Me playing with the dolphins at Dolphin Encounters -a fun, fabulous place!

A very, very large and ugly fish in the aquariums at the resort. I just couldn't resist the photo opp.

Dinner at The Fathoms at the resort. It was like a dinner show sitting in front of the huge window on the aquarium.

We did it!

Matt and I trying to figure out the whole cake cutting thing.
It was a fabulous, beautiful wedding if I do say myself! It was great to see all of our family and friends who came from far away to be with us on our wedding day! Here are just a few pics from my camera! There will be more pictures later!

My sister and MOH (she was majorly handy too...she fixed my closet and unplugged my bathroom sink while she was in town!)

My dear friends Jen and Sara traveled far to be with me on my wedding day! It was so great to see them! I also got to meet Jen's baby daughter Isha!

Matt and I take a quick self portrait while out on the dance floor! We're off for the honeymoon now!

One day to go!

This is our engagement picture! Thanks Rebecca for taking the pic!

Tomorrow is the big day! After nearly a year long engagement and over four years of being together, Matt and I are getting married! Wedding week festivities are going well - no major issues (which is hopefully the trend!). Now, if only this rain will go away.....I'm willing the sunshine to come out and join us for the weekend so if you'd like to help, I'd appreciate it!

This is the picture from my birthday last year when we got engaged!

It's wedding week!

It's wedding week here at the Knitting Knot! Count down to the big day has been on for a while now, but now it's kicked into full gear. The other day I was going through one of my mental lists of things I needed, and I realized I didn't have a purse to go with my new pretty dress. That's probably a surprise to many of you since I have a felted purse addiction and non-felted purse addiction. Then I realized I had this fabulous little pretty knitted clutch that I've never used! I don't even think I've posted it on blog! It matches the bridesmaid dresses, plus it's cute and I'll use it again, unlike any of those white satin purses they try and sell you at the store. It's the perfect size for my lipstick and camera!

Plastic bags: bad for the environment or good for crafting?

The other day I was helping a coworker find graphics for a story about Seattle looking into banning plastic grocery bags. We were on Google and Yahoo images and found the same thing: if you type in plastic grocery bags into the search engine you get a few pictures of plastic grocery bags, but several pages worth of craft ideas for reusing those pesky bags.

Now that's the kind of recycling I can really love - recycling and crafting!

In other environmental news, does anyone know what I can do with boxes and boxes of Styrofoam packing peanuts?

A little knitting time...

Free time is pretty rare these days as the countdown to the wedding is on! But since I was wide awake tonight, I found myself with something special - nothing to do (or I choose to ignore it). So I'm sitting and knitting and catching up on my blog reading. It's fabulous! The wrap is progressing and I'll try and post a picture soon but no promises.

We're next!

This past weekend we went down to Cannon Beach for our friends J.J. & Shelly's wedding! It was a beautiful ceremony and great fun to see all of our old friends!


The happy couple walk down the aisle after it's official - they're married now!


We stayed the weekend with Mike, Shannon and their adorable baby boy Kellan. Recognize the sweater? It's the one I made him when he was born! He wore it to the wedding and was quite the dashing, stylin' man! We also did some sight seeing along the beach! A cluster of starfish at Haystack Rock enjoy life on the underside.

And what is it about Haystack Rock that makes one compelled to take a dozen pictures of the thing? Here it is first thing Sunday morning! It was really beautiful!

Tourist for a day

Today, Matt and I took a move from Shawn and Sara's play book and we were tourists in our own city. We've had a book on Seattle walking tours since we moved here but have never really used it. Matt picked out the Capitol Hill walking tour. We started out in Volunteer Park on a relatively nice Seattle morning. While the walk said nothing about the Conservatory, we started out in there first.

I love the cacti room (it reminds me of my time in southern Arizona), but the pretty and unique blossoms around the place are also very beautiful. Once we got started on the actual walk, we strolled through the park and out into in the neighborhood. We checked out some beautiful historic houses that have been around since Seattle's booming days. Now of course, they are inhabited by folks who are probably doctors, lawyers or independently wealthy. We strolled past Cornish College buildings, the D.A.R. and on to Broadway. However, our book is now a little outdated thanks to all the redevelopment on the main drag. Towards the end of the walk, we turned onto Millionaire's Row. And the street lived up to it's name. (Note: no pics of the big beautiful houses, I didn't want to be that touristy, plus some folks were home.).

As we entered the park again, we started the climb up the water towers for the view. With 100 steps to the top, it was a hike.

As we entered the park again, we started the climb up the water towers for the view. With 100 steps to the top, it was a hike.

But the view was worth it! All in all, a great walking tour and we've already picked out our next on: the Washington Arboretum.

Back in the knitting game

Here's proof as too how long I was out of the knitting game: today I finally redeemed my gift certificate to Hilltop Yarn that I got over three months ago. Sad I know. But I enjoyed it.

I bought some beautiful teal Lambs Pride to make the Pippa Bag from Rowan. The best part was, the Lambs Pride was on sale so I needed another purchase to fully use up the g.c. With the yarn shopping pressure mounting, I just couldn't find anything else I needed. So I ended up picking up a little something soft and pretty for my mom's birthday! I'll be the favorite daughter now!

Hello old friend, I've missed you

The past few weeks (OK, maybe it's been a few months now) I've pushed aside this project of mine to work on a few gifts. OK, so maybe I've had some serious help from Speed Picker, but I did one of the gifts. Anyway, it's done now and I'm finally able to return to this fabulous wrap. I love the color, the feel of the tweedy cotton and I love the cables and lace pattern. It keeps my craft A.D.D. mind satisfied. I haven't gotten the measuring tape out yet, I want to enjoy this pattern and project.

I also think the time apart has helped me. I've grown as a knitter - I'm now able to work on this project at Purly Girls and chat at the same time. Some of you may remember when I first "started" this project at Purly Girls. I was 10 rows into it before I realized I was working on the other project on the brochure. Now I can laugh about that. On the eve of this three-day holiday weekend, I hope to log in - and make up for -some serious knitting time!

LYS Tour & Why I no longer will watch the CW Network

This weekend is the May LYS tour (that’s local yarn shop tour for all of my non-knitting readers). I can’t make it due to the fact that I have non-knitting company staying with me this weekend! Although, if we’re out and about, and just “happen” to be in the neighborhood, then they are just out of luck. But the may be on to me if we just “happen” to be in the neighborhood of several yarn shops in a row.

In other news, its official, the CW has no taste. They are dead to me.

Just what I need...another obsession

Rebecca sent me the link to purlsoho today. It's amazing I got any work done today. Maybe the apple doesn't fall far from tree.... (I'll have to get my mom to send me a picture of her fabric room and the fabric annex for those of you who haven't been to the fabric section of our house really appreciate this post.)
P.S. For those of you who asked at knitting tonight, I posted the info about the pictures below.

Checked off the list!

Here's the quilt my mom made for me! It is so beautiful! I love it!

My fabulous free time weekend has proven to be very productive for me! Not only did I finally finish the flower wash cloth I've been working on for, um, well over a month now (I can finally hold my head high at PG!) but I got a lot of wedding stuff done too! And I finally downloaded the pictures of my wedding shower weekend a few weeks ago! Here are a few of my favorites!


Me and the fabulous bridesmaids (minus Amy in Tennesse) plus their adorable babies!

Girls night out!

Whew!

It's been a busy couple of weeks. There's been traveling and folks here to visit on the weekends. Now it's Friday night on the eve of a weekend where we have no travel plans and no one coming to visit! I'm really excited to just be home. Now I'm hoping to finally get some knitting done! I won't even bother posting a picture of my current project because I'm too ashamed of the fact that its pretty much in the same shape it's been in forever. I don't think I'll ever finish it. I've not only been a slacker knitter, but been a slacker at visiting everyone else's blogs. I feel very out of touch! I read several on-line newspapers, but without the knitting blogs, I'm just not fulling informed in the ways of the world!

Depths of despair

My fellow t.v. addict sent me this story to let me know that my favorite show was being cancelled. I was pretty sure this was the last season for Gilmore Girls, but even more distressing was the indication that my new addiction - Veronica Mars - was also going to get the boot. It's sad really. I've done a lot of knitting with these ladies over the years. They've seen the knitting progress from crappy dishrags, to long scarfs, more scarfs, then there was the felted purse phase, let's not discuss the Rosie incident, and the numerous, numerous projects started then put down when the plot lines got interesting. I only hope the CW will be kind and leave me Veronica Mars to knit with on Tuesday nights. But since I've just finished watching what could possibly be the new Grey's Anatomy spin off with Veronica Mars' new love interest as one of the resident hotties on the potentially new show, I'm not going to get my hopes up. It's almost like my Friends have left me all over again.

"It's safe to drink, but don't do laundry"

That's what the city of Seattle said about our water after this happened today. It's not near my place, but affects my water. It's particularly annoying this Wednesday night, because I'd planned on doing several loads of laundry while catching up on some DVR'ed Grey's and Ugly Betty's. I'm also a bit concerned because they said the water was OK to drink, but not to do laundry because bits of dirt could get in your clothes. Now I'm thinking, if the waters not good enough for my clothes, then it's not good enough to drink. But that's just me.

A general observation

As much as I enjoy planning my wedding, and I'm really excited about getting married, but the planning is beginning to seriously cut into my knitting time.

Earth-friendly knitting

Tonight's SKG meeting had a presentation on earth-friendly yarns! It was really interesting to hear about all of the new ways yarn makers are reaching out to do their part to help the environment (and us enviro-knitters!) Mary from Earth-Friendly Yarns and the Fiber Gallery gave the presentation. Did you know yarn is being made from the by products of Tofu? Or what about crab and lobster shells? It's just fascinating!

Tip-toe through the tulips!

On a beautiful sunny (somewhat rainy) Sunday, we headed up north to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival! It was so beautiful to see the fields and rows of brightly colored tulips! I snapped several pics and here are some of my favorites!

Kellan's sweet style (& smile!)

Isn't he just the cutest thing (I mean next to the sweater of course....)!

Political propoganda or just scary shit?

Last week the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) released two You Tube clips based on scenarios that could cause SR 520 to break apart and fall into Lake Washington.

The first scenario has the bridge closed due to high winds (something that happens every once in a while around here). The second scenario is what could happen if "the big one" strikes the Puget Sound area.

Many say the clips are just a new way in spreading the message to get a new bridge built, others are calling it political propaganda. What do you think?

In other news, the new Martha Stewart site was launched recently....must say, I do love Martha!

The Turkey trip!

My camera came back from Turkey this week and look at all of these fabulous sites it saw!

All of these pics are from Istanbul, though I'm not sure of what exactly. Then there is this picture which cracks me up!

I guess we all need our Grey's!

It's time to get serious

No more procrastinating. It starts this weekend.

Swing your partner

This morning I heard this story on NPR about how Square Dancing was the new hip thing to do in bars. They interviewed a bunch of people who have square dancing nights at a local Seattle bar. They've updated the music, have a younger crowd to do the calling and teach you the moves (in case you can't remember them from 5th grade P.E.). I'm intrigued and I think I may have to check this out.
In other news, Crosscut, a new online newspaper designed to cover local issues in the Pacific Northwest (including Idaho), premiered today.