stripe study: complete

I actually *have* been knitting, just not blogging much. Major props to the creative folks who do both on a regular basis.

The stripe study was my Alaska/Seattle travel project, and it shows. There are some minor bobbles here and there where you can tell I was knitting while toasting the bubbly, or trying to knit on a bumpy flight. Ultimately, I'd rather spend my time knitting and not un-knitting, so I left it as-is.

My only other complaint is that I ran out of red yarn and couldn't include the last stripe. That's partially my fault...while I had more than enough yardage, I did go up a needle size since I'm a tight knitter. So I bought 440 yards of the gray and 440 yards of the red - ran out of red, had a whole extra skein (220) of gray. Snap. I'll definitely knit it again, with different colors next time. I'm thinking gray and a bold raspberry or maybe gray and a deep purple. Or maybe I'll go outside of my color comfort zone and do something really different (riiiiight...we'll see!).

More FOs and UFOs to come...

yarn love - Alaska edition

I loved Alaska. I could have been blogging every day since my return about how incredibly incredible the trip was, but to be honest, a picture's worth a thousand words, so check out my trip pics on Flickr.

One part you won't find in the photos is my visit to a local yarn shop in Juneau - Seaside Yarns. Incredible spot (a 3 minute walk from the dock), with a fantastic yarn selection and an even more fantastic shop owner. By the way, she has her own ETSY shop, because she hand dyes some really gorgeous stuff. The shop is empty now because it's high tourist season, so go and fav it now and revisit it in the Fall/Winter. Or email her with requests and she'll help you out.

The green on the far left is a sock weight, hand-dyed wool blend. The middle skein is also a hand-dyed sock weight, but it also includes flecks of sterling silver. I HAD to buy it because the colorway is "Whale Watching", which is what we were going to be doing that day...and also because it was the most beautiful yarn ever. And as it happens, it was the most amazing whale watching trip ever. The yarn on the far right is a qiviut (muskox wool) blend. SO soft, so amazing.

Can't wait to get started with the knitting...and then probably order more. I love supporting someone so passionate about their work and their product! Seriously, check her out.

what's the deal with bucket lists anyway?

I've been working on a bucket list. Does anyone really have a list? Like a real one - on paper, or in a journal, or on a blog? When there's something that I've always wanted to do or really, really WANT to do now, I'll claim it's a bucket list item, but is it? And is there a limit to how many bucket list items you can have? What are the rules to this whole thing? I mean, please tell me.

In the meantime, I think one of my bucket list items is to visit every state. I spent most of my life wishing to go to Europe, the Caribbean, any place but the U.S. Then my very wise friend Margaret said "sweet pea, you should see America first, it's really a very beautiful country". I didn't see her truth then, but I do now. Thus far, my travels are petty:



A secondary goal is to buy local yarn/visit a LYS in every state. Since I haven't been a knitter my whole life, I've only done this in a handful of states:


If things go as planned, I'll add three more states to both maps this year - Seattle, Alaska, and California. Game on, y'all.

meet Boss

I snapped a bunch of pics of my brother's best friend...his Bulldog, Boss. He's a super cute dog, so it was hard to narrow down the ones to post. Don't you want to just pinch his face?

When Boss is super tired, or when he gets really irritated, he plops down on the tile hearth. It cools and soothes him. He has a tough life, with a big backyard, treats, and constant attention. He spends a lot of time on the hearth.

Here Boss is shown conquering the boy child. With his superior strength and agility, it wasn't really a fair fight.

The girl child likes to wrap Boss in soft blankets. This is part of his rough life as well.

What a buddy...

swimming in the ocean

I had a quick "girls' weekend" beach trip in October. As it turned out, the weather was pretty perfect. Not too hot, nice breeze. Fun stuff. I got a little bit of a sunburn, but I swam in the ocean for the first time. I use the term "swam" loosely. But it qualified. It probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but for me it is. And it was good. So good. I can't wait to swim in the ocean again...preferably in the Carribean. Preferably with turtles and tropical fish and snorkeling gear.

I only snapped a few photos, but as it turns out, there were some really good ones in the mix. Enjoy!

sweet pea art

Me and some of my favorite sweet peas :)

I really enjoyed everything about the New College reunion. I caught up with some of my former classmates, heard about the wonderful and fascinating things they're doing...I got to see the new NC space in Lloyd Hall...I got to meet some of the current students and recent graduates and feed off of their excitement...so much good stuff!

As my friend Corley said, New College taught us that you don't have to choose. The path you choose for your career doesn't have to dictate your interests and hobbies. Corley is an urban planner who lives on a farm and plays in a band. Pretty diverse, and pretty amazing. Once upon a time, I liked to paint. I was never any good at it, but New College taught me that I didn't have to be good at something to try it out. It was really nice to see that no matter how archaic/simplistic, some of my projects were still on display. Please, no laughing.

A welcome gift for Dr. Hall, circa 2002?


One weekend, Margaret let some of the sweet peas into Carmichael and we rolled out some canvas and had a paint-fest. My contribution? A masked snake:


The more artistic sweet peas painted this:


And I had nothing to do with this, but I do love it. We should all think about what goes into the footprint we leave on this earth:


See? I'm a librarian who likes to knit, occasionally paints, grows vegetables, and cares about the environment. You can be whoever you want to be. Thanks, New College.

Sam and Jake hit T-town

Last month I headed home for a quick visit with the fam and a rendezvous with old friends at the New College 40th anniversary weekend. I borrowed my niece and nephew on Saturday afternoon and took them to some of the celebrations. I built-in some time to play on the quad with them...I really can't get back there enough, and being there with the muffins was extra special.

They were very excited to be on the quad.

I was very excited to see and hear Denny Chimes.

The kids were fascinated with the walk of Captains.

This kid loves Greg McElroy...

Niece and nephew with baby Addie!

Kids coming back from playing frisbee on the quad. I told them to look both ways at the crosswalk and they totally did!

It was hot and muggy, and they still had a good time. Such muffins!

Best kids ever. They were very cute as babies, but they just keep getting better with age.

doggie souvenirs

I stopped into Doggie Style, a very cute shop in Philly with anything and everything your dog could want. I was at the peak of missing Berger and Puggie, so they racked up. What can I say? I'm soft.

In addition to actual bones stuffed with beefy, cheesy deliciousness, I got them an array of beautiful cookies...

I had to get the burger one for Berger. He liked it very much.

Berger has a Steelers jersey and seeing as how part of Puggie's name came from Troy Polamalu, it seemed only fair that she also get some game day gear. When I saw that the shop had a Steelers tee in her size, I seized the opportunity.

Was she very, very cute wearing it? Yes.

Did she hate every second of it? Yes.

The sleeves were not a good shape/fit for her and she let me know about it. So I got a few pics in and now the shirt will be going on eBay. Hey, she got delicious cookies and a bone out of the whole thing, so don't feel too bad for her.

Philly superstitions

While in Philly, one of my locally-based colleagues shared a bit of local lore about the Comcast Center - Philadelphia's tallest building. Philadelphia's City Hall is topped with a statue of William Penn with his hat held high in the air. For a long time, that statue made this building the tallest in Philly. In fact, legend has it that there was a gentleman's agreement not to build any structure in the city taller than Penn's hat (548 ft). Well, the Comcast building (974 ft) easily exceeded - and almost doubled - City Hall. Someone noticed that none of the local teams had won a championship since the Comcast building had been erected, so a small William Penn statue was placed at the top of the tower - lo and behold, the Phillies won the next World Series.

We stopped into the center for a bit before dinner and in addition to the photo above, I got a few more shots of the building's amazing features.

There are continuous digital shows on the wall behind reception...

And walker "statues" on the beams overhead. A little creepy, but also cool...

And very nice greenery outside. I do love an urban garden...

I know not if the story was true, and if it is, whether it was a coincidence or an actual broken curse. I do know that the building is intriguing and worth a look if you're in Philly.

gluten-free and out on the town!

I found out about my gluten allergy just days before leaving home for some time in Philadelphia. I was worried about finding gluten-free options, what those options would taste like, and whether my normal friends would be able to find something appetizing on the menu as well.

M and I read up on some of the local gluten-free fare (Gluten Free Philly is a great site!) and we decided on an Asian-fusion place called Sampan. Their GF menu looked just as good to me (well, maybe if it had dumplings) as the regular menu did to M. It's a small plates style restaurant, so I had the kobe beef satay, veggie fried rice and pad thai. The portions were so plentiful that I had the leftovers for lunch the next day.




Not to be outdone, M took photos (which she refers to as 'food porn') of her own (non-GF) dishes: Korean bbq satay, soup dumplings, and pork buns. I think the photos live up to the name.



So, "what's the point?" you ask? The point is that we had super-crazy delicious food and you did not. BUT if you're in the Philly area or plan to be, Sampan is a must-try!

sockin' it to Jose...

As my husband has (anonymously) pointed out, this began as a knitting blog and I haven't blogged about knitting in quite some time. That's mostly because I'm working on super secret projects, including these socks that I just finished and presented him with.




Colinette Jitterbug - Velvet Leaf
bought at The Quarter Stitch in NoLa
Textured Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks

Sidenote: Bought this yarn because it reminded me of the color green in a lot of my grandmother's decor when I was growing up. Jose and I regularly joke about the secret ingredient of whatever dish we've cooked being 'love'. I thought of my grandmother every single time I worked on these socks, so a lot of love went into them for sure.

MiL Socks

Last month we took a trip with the in-laws to Charleston, SC. The first order of business (after dropping Berger off and grabbing lunch) was visiting the local yarn shop, Knit. My mother-in-law had requested that I make her a pair of socks...I was excited because I thought I could use up some of my stash...but she didn't want wool socks and wool and wool/nylon is all I've got. So we set out to find a good cotton blend. German-made Opal is what she picked:

I had a suspicion that this would be self-striping,
but the entire label is in German, so it was anybody's guess....
















the finished product...
















one of my guilty pleasures is gift wrapping...
just couldn't help myself...

Nemesis

I'd like you to meet my Nemesis, silk sari yarn.

I met silk sari back at The Quarter Stitch in New Orleans, where I paid much too much for something I hate. If you had explained to me then exactly how much this would hurt my hands...I probably would have still bought it. That's how much I love the look of it.

My plan from the get-go was to make a clutch. I found one similar to my vision in Ravelry to show you. I have ripped it out and started over with so many different needles (hoping that the needles were the problem) that it's literally unraveling. So. I know that when I begin this time, it has to be my last time, no matter what.

After reading commentary on Ravelry, I now know that it's not the needles, it's the yarn. So I'm going to suck it up and try to get it finished. Man, that'll be a great day.

Red Cent Cowl

In May, while shopping for my souvenir sock yarn in Philadelphia, I went a little crazy. Just a little. I visited two different shops and there were so many unique yarns that I just kept buying. I didn't stop at one skein of sock yarn, I bought four. At Loop I bought a hand-dyed yarn by small dyer, Black Bunny. The color is Red Cent and it's so fabulous that I had real misgivings about making socks that would just be on my feet. A co-worker was recently knitting a great cowl with a similar weight to my Black Bunny, so I cast on with it immediately.

One afternoon NCSLA workshop and a few conference calls later...

stitches up-close:















the full cowl:

Happy Hatsgiving!

So many reasons to be thankful...not just today, but everyday. I have a wonderful husband, fantastic family and family-in-law, fabulous friends and the most phenomenal brown dog that any girl could ask for.

Today I'm particularly thankful for our wonderful friends, Hadley and Diane, who are hosting us for Thanksgiving. Diane saw me making a Japanese Chulla out of Noro Iro yarn a few months ago and she loved it. This is a pattern I got for free at Rosie's Yarn Cellar in Philadelphia and I have absolutely fallen in love with it. Whenever I see Iro on sale somewhere, I buy some because I never get tired of making this hat. I had two more skeins left in my stash and they only take about four hours each, so I knocked those out this week.

I was trying to decide who to give the first one to and my husband asked if he could have it. Note: he has never asked me to make him anything and has never expressed an interest in anything knitted, so I was happy to give it to him. The second was specifically made for Diane. I know she's probably spending twice as much time cooking our feast as I spent on the hat, so it's just a small "thank you" for her hospitality and willingness to let Jose and I disrupt her family meal.

(l to r) jose, me, diane













me and jose :)