Off to Portland!

I want to post an update of my progress on Ruth's cardigan with the Kauni yarn as well a show off my super cute stitch markers before I leave for Portland in the morning! I've been a busy girl this week and have not had much time with the needles.

Work was a complete bear today. That is a nice, calm, diplomatic way to describe the situation.

What is a girl to do when the dba on her project does not put the Oracle database on a supported version after asking her to verify supported versions before creating the thing? First she has a REALLY bad day and then her good friend and co-project slave, Jamie tells her to, "go to your happy yarn place".

Ok. Good thing I'm going to Portland for the weekend via the train with my friend Sandy for a yarn crawl and weekend of relaxation starting tomorrow morning!

Deep Breath. Everything will be ok!

Here are some photo updates:

Ruth's Kauni Cardigan - past the beginning of the armhole steeks. More interesting color combinations. See this post of Melinda's which she calculates the various color combos with this yarn. Isn't Melinda smart?

I, too, have found that the thickness of the yarn can vary. Right now the purple has become pretty thin compared to the yello/orange it is paired with.

Isn't this fun?

Next is my smorgasbord of super fun and adorable stitch markers made by the good to be girl, Amy. Don't you just love these? I first started out with the donuts with sprinkles and then expanded my collection. I mostly began with food related ones then thought I should become a more well-rounded individual. That is when I decided on the other ones. :)


One more photo of my most adorable Giant Yorkie(12 pounder) Chase. I was worried about him because his last battery of blood work/urine tests indicated some of his kidney/liver markers were elevated. I freaked out. I'm always telling him that nothing can happen to him. Seems reasonable that he'll listen to me and live forever.

Then he had an infected tooth removed and I had his labs re-done. They came out in the normal range! YES! I'm so relieved! He will be 13 years old this year!

One last item to mention. I just got confirmation that I am enrolled in the Nihon Vogue Certificate program with Jean Wong. Madrona Fiber Arts is sponsoring this unique opportunity. It is the first year of the "Standard Course" and it will require 100 hours of instructional time in the coming year. It will begin in early June. In the next year I will create 8 garments of differing sweater types. I will learn "specific technical details and methodology in the Japanese way and using standards set forth by the Nihon Amimono Culture Association."

Unfortunately I am going to miss the very first session! I will be in Bonaire on vacation! Thankfully Melinda and Karen have offered to help me get up to speed! Thanks guys! I really, really appreciate it!

I have a very strong premonition that I will not have much time for projects other than the ones I'll be doing for the course in the coming year. I'll also be working many hours at work. I think I'll only have time for work and knitting.

That sounds ok. As long as I can watch Mariner baseball when I knit! Let's hope for a successful year this season!

On the Seattle Mariner front, Felix, you did an awesome pitching job against Boston tonight!

Have a great weekend everyone. I'll post if I can from Portland. I am looking forward to the stitch and sip tomorrow night at Knit Purl! What a great idea!

Fiber-ous Affair

My husband said to me recently...."If I didn't know you better, I would think you were having an affair!". I told him I was having a "fiber-ous affair"!

I've been going to classes, going to knitting gatherings and they all take time away from the homestead!

We share a very together type life, but we are both very independant as well. Basically it is the perfect relationship! We just celebrated on April 1st, the 7th anniversary of the day we met. Yes we met on April Fools day. We became fools in love and that continues, ever more deeply every year.

Now on to the "good stuff". My fiber-ous affair!

Kauni , Abalone, Domino and Spinning Updates:

Kauni Effekt yarn is really HOT. Here is my progress on Ruth's Kauni Cardigan:

Like Melinda, in this post, I am getting the orange and light blue combination. I like it. When you see it in-person it just adds a different dimension to the sweater.

This is a fast knit. I am almost up to doing the armhole steeks. This is a very easy patten to memorize. For knitters new to fair isle, this is a great first project to attempt.

Now a note on getting the yarn. I just ordered last week from garnbutik.dk.

Lisette is working on getting things translated to English and they do ship to the USA. I gathered an order together for 5 people for Ruth's kit. With five people paying for shipping, it is very reasonable. Small note which probably won't make a difference on whether you order or not...you have to pay the 3.5% paypal fee. Not a big deal but just so you know. Lisette will ship DHL. She sent out our order on Monday this week and I'll keep you updated on when it arrives.

Abalone: I hate picking up stitches. Rebecca showed me another way to pick up stitches. I really like it. I picked up for the first sleeve. It feels good to make some progress on this.

Last Saturday I took a Domino Scarf class with Susanna at Main Street Yarns in Mill Creek. I had never been to this shop before. The shop has some wonderful yarns. The shop is very bright with natural light.

The class was fun and informative. I've taken classes with Susanna before. I would love to take her bohus class. A couple years ago I did knit a bohus hat. A sweater would be so cozy!

Back to the domino class....here are some photos from the class:

I am using Alice's design for what she calls the 'DNA scarf' (see below). It is actually this design that got me inspired to take this class. I'd had Vivian's book Domino Knitting for some time but I learn better in a classroom setting than doing it on my own. Plus I like the connection between other knitters and learning from other students' questions.

Here is the beginning of my DNA scarf:

What else have I been up to? A bit of spinning. Here is some silk/merino fiber spun up.

At the last Ferals meeting I was talking to TMK and Janine as they were spinning away on their Schacht Matchless wheels. They are absolutely gorgeous(I meant the wheels but so are TMK and Janine). I know. I just started spinning a few months ago(I'm a quick study).

They both offered to let me try out their wheels. I was like "NO!". I had such a strong, immediate reaction because I didn't want to be tempted to get a new wheel already. The only thing about my Louet Victoria is that with this fiber, I need the wheel to spin faster because of the short fibers and because I want to go faster! So...."Little Vicki" starts making more noise. I need to dedicate more time with "Little Vicki" and get more acquainted with her.

Today is luscious. It is supposed to be 75 degrees in Seattle today. I can take "Little Vicki" out on the deck and get to know her better!

I guess I am having an affair of sorts!

Happy Friday!

Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl

This is the Forest Canopy shawl by Susan Pierce Lawrence. I used some hand spun 70% sw merino/30% alpaca blend done by my friend Terry(the evil one that got me spinning!)

If you haven't done lace before, this is a good pattern to start with. I started it last Sunday afternoon(after going to the bobbin winding party) and finished it this afternoon. It isn't like I spent a whole lot of time on it. I would work on it here and there and now I'm done!

It is a good feeling to get something finished. Any of you that follow my blog will know I'm a fickle knitter!

Here are just a couple more photos showing the detail- sorry for the bad photography.


Its a quick and fun knit that I would definitely do again.

Update on Kauni cardi: I also completely!!! fogged the Ruth's Kauni cardigan. I just didn't like the cast on. It kept bothering me. I think I am going to go with what Melinda suggested and begin with the tubular cast-on. I may also double up the yarn for the cast-on. I'll try both and see how I like it. I'll post pictures soon(no promises it'll happen over the weekend as I need to work on my taxes!).

Necessity is the Father of Invention!

In my last post I mentioned a group of knitters that adore knitting fair isle had banded together to acquire samples of all the Jamieson and Jamieson and Smith colors.

Now that we have the yarn, we have to distribute all 320 colors amonsgt 25 people.

Leah, organizer supreme, did all the "stuff" that we needed to do to get this party started.

Then...her extraordinary husband, Lance, figured out a way to make this job easier. I didn't say to make this job easy. I just said to make the job easiER.

You HAVE GOT TO GO TO LEAH'S BLOG TO SEE WHAT LANCE INVENTED! There is video of Lance with his invention. I'm sure he could appreciate the number of hours it was going to take us to wind these bobbins(8000 of these puppies). What a guy! Thanks, man!

Go check it out!

Weekend of Knitting-ness!!

This past weekend was a frenzy of knitting-ness!

Friday night I went over to Victoria's house for a S&B. Victoria is one of the owners of Village Yarn and Tea.

I got to meet some very nice people, including Amy. I've been dying to meet Amy- Amy of Good to Be Girl fame! She has THE BEST stitch markers! They are so adorable. Of course my favorites are usually food related. She's a really nice person as well. I hope I'll get an opportunity to knit more with her in the future.

There were about 10 of us there and so there were a lot of people wearing hand-knit socks, of course. I just had to take pictures of our socks. (Terry - you would be proud of this kind of picture!).


Mine are the ones with the big toe being separated from the rest of the family. I love the tabi socks. These are knit from some handspun by my friend Terry and the pattern is from Not Just More Socks by Sandi Rosner. I think I'm going to knit most of my socks this way. I don't feel the difference in shoes but it gives me great flexibility - I can wear them with my flip flops.

I had a great time at Victoria's. I discovered she has two Yorkie girls. I was smitten with them. I've been wanting a little female Yorkie. I've already got Chase(yorkie male) and Beanie(maltese male) and also Greg (homo sapien male). I'd like a little more female energy in this household! I keep looking around but with as much as Greg and I like to travel...a third dog is out of the picture for now.

I got a bit side-tracked. Back to my weekend filled with Knitting-ness.

Saturday I had my monthly knitting buddies over. Yes, it was St. Patricks Day and we just sat and knit and spun. I was torn because Janine was hosting a knit-in for Dulaan on Saturday as well but I had booked my monthly knitting day back in February. I couldn't change the date. So I didn't get to attend that fun event. I heard from Linda K. today they accomplished quite a bit! Good job everyone!

Knitting day at Naomi's was nice and relaxing. We knit, chatted a lot (I think that is why I have to frog on my Kauni project) and didn't eat as much as I expected! I guess we were too busy with our hands. Next month I hope to have more time to make some really yummy appetizers to tempt folks to eat more! Uh Oh. I sound like my mom! No! Not THAT!

Ellen spun and man...is she fast!! She is amazing! My jaw kept dropping as I watched her!

I continued spinning on some merino/silk. That is a bit more frustrating than the BFL. I'm trying to spin finer...so....it's all about learning and practice!

Melinda(go see her finished Starmore Roscalie-it is so gorgeous in person!), Sandy and I were the die hards. I jumped up to look at the time as it was just beginning to get darker outside. I was exclaiming "It's 7:20!". I thought it might be about 6pm, but 7:30? Where did the day go? I suppose that meant we were having a good time. I'm looking foward to next month's knitting already.

I made some progress on my Ruth's Kauni Cardi (which I absolutely adore!). I realized I made a boo boo and will have to frog a long way back. Can you see my error?

It is about half-way down. The weird thing...well there are two weird things about having to frog this.

One - having to frog half of what I've done is NOT bothering me. I just so love knitting this that its not painful. I absolutely love this yarn. I'm not kidding you that the thought of ripping this halfway down is not bothering me - I like this yarn that much! Ruth, if you are reading this... Thank you again - for both the design and getting me the yarn.

The weird thing number two? Sandy told me about something that Vivian Hoxbro had said regarding the need to finish things quickly. She basically said why hurry to finish a project? You are never really "finished" knitting because once you are done with one thing, you are on to another so you never really are "finished" knitting. Somehow I liked that. It resonated with me. I'm such an achievement oriented person. It helped me relax around the personal pressure I put on myself on my finish my projects.

Today(Sunday) I spent about 4 hours with about 9 other women winding bobbin samples of all the Jamieson and Jamieson&Smith shetland colors. There is a fair isle google group of people that wanted samples of all the colors to help us design our own fair isle colors/patterns. Since it is hard to use color cards and financially prohibitive to buy all 320 skeins of yarn, this group decided to buy all the yarns and then split up the skeins on embroidery floss bobbins. Mind you there are like 320 colors/skeins and 25 people in the group. Imagine the logistics nighmare of trying to split up each skein for 25 people....well we worked on it today at the Greenwood Library and boy....this is a labor intensive undertaking!!!

I took 18 skeins home that I have to wind. 18 skeins times 25 people per skein is 450 bobbins. Yes, you read that right...450 bobbins. I was amazed that Gail had already done 24 skeins herself. Gail, I appreciate your hard work and organization. I really hope those remaining 3-4 people pay you!!!

Also thanks to Leah for your hard work and organization on this as well!!!! She has a great post describing our day, with great photos.

Well I best be off to get ready for the week ahead. Looking back on the past few days.....I had a wonderful weekend spending time with and meeting wonderful people. This was exactly what I needed to take the edge off work stress.

Steek Cutting!

I cut the armhole steeks on the design from Alice Starmore's Pacific Coast Highway-Abalone which is on the cover.

That sure was fun! It always amazes me that you actually CUT through your knitting but with shetland, it does work great!

For those of you that have not followed my blog, this project has been going on since last October. I have gotten re-energized to work on this. Sometimes you have to just put a project down for awhile and when you pick it back up its like a brand new project!

Here is the shoulder join. I joined the shoulder with kitchener in the lighter yarn color and I will duplicate stitch the green - the pattern will be match perfectly front and back.

I modified the pattern to make it shorter by taking out one full repeat of the pattern(29 rows). I wasn't sure how that would line up at the shoulders but I think it looks good.

Now for the fun part! Get the sharp scissors out and let's start cutting!

Isn't that cool? I always put a magazine or something underneath the fabric to be cut. It would be an absolute nightmare if I cut another part of the sweater, wouldn't it?

One last thing. Joanne at my Thursday night knitting class finished her felted pillow. Joanne loves both felting and needle felting. She teaches needle felting at Village Yarn and Tea. You can see she has a knack for felting!

It's all about Blue Moon

Here is my second endeavor into spinning. This is 8.75 oz of Blue Faced Leicester dyed by Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The colorway is Purple Rain.

Overall I'm pleased with it. I'm learning a lot with each spinning project.

Bobbins before plying:

The spun fiber:

When I was spinning I thought the end result would be a finer yarn. This is where the learning comes in. Next fiber I spin, I need to spin it more finely. It is very interesting. For me, as a beginner, I never know what I'm gonna get. I definitely need more classes but I'm content right now to just do what I'm doing.

I got my Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock Club installment on Friday. Do not read further if you haven't received yours yet and don't want your surprise ruined.

Of course I had to start right away. Here is what I've done that I've decided to completely frog.
The pattern is to create a very firm fabric, a very supportive sock. I have to do it on size 00 needles since I'm a loose knitter. It is taking FOREVER to make progress. I don't like how the toe is. So...frog time. Take a deep breath because its all coming undone!

Talk about coming undone. I came undone today. I had a melt down, break down, whatever you want to call it. As I write I have a migraine underway as well. I took some meds and then I'm going to go lie down. I gotta make sure this bad boy retreats!

I'm going back to the basics.

Enough sleep, eating right and exercise.

With my work stress I find I translate that into putting more pressure on myself in my knitting as well. I've got this internal task master.

I've got all these projects I *should* finish, need to finish. I put WAY too much pressure on myself to be productive, to finish things. This along with my work stress has put me into a state of overhwelm like no other. When this happens I'm not efficient in any area of my life.

So you won't be seeing much completed projects in the near future because I need to scale back.

I need to concentrate on the basics.

Ruth Sorensen, THANK YOU!!

I received my Kauni yarn from Ruth today. It took one week and one day to get to me.

The yarn is so much fun! The colors in the photos are a bit brighter than they are in person. I don't feel like editing them to get them true to color as I am a bit pressed for time.

I opened the box and was surpised to find some other goodies in the box. A nice hand written note from Ruth, a sample of the Evilla yarn and these ADORABLE wristwarmers!

I'm blown away. I don't know if I'm hormonal or just sentimental, but Ruth's kindness brought tears to my eyes. Happy tears, that is.

Here is more detail on the wristwarmers. They are so *Naomi*. Tonight it was snowing when I got home. Ruth, it IS cold enough for wristwarmers here!


This is a wonderful way to end a very hectic day at work. Before I could even entertain the thought of playing with the yarn tonight, I had to do my workout(which I did do).

I've been pretty good about doing my workouts before I allow myself any play-time. It was really hard not to wind this yarn up and start a guage swatch!! Anyone that knows me knows I love to START projects(finishing them is an entirely different matter!).

I'm still not allowing myself to play because......I have some resume's I need to go through tonight for interviews tomorrow morning! Hhhhmmmmmnnn. I start work at 6am, that gives me 2 hours before the first interview. Maybe I could review them in the morning so I can wind the skeins tonight. No. I better not. Winding the skeins would lead to guage swatching, guage swatching would lead to casting on and that would lead to...staying up way too late and not reading those $&#* resume's!

Ruth, thank you so very, very much. You have made a knitter in America very, very happy!!!

Rockin' Sock Club 2007 - Mind Boggling

Sock knitters around the world know about Blue Moon Fiber Arts . In 2006 they started a sock knitting club - a club where, as a participant, you received sock yarn and a pattern every other month. It was a tremendous hit, to say the least.

So...because of its popularity and exclusivity, they opened up the registration and lots of people signed up.

Fast forward a month or so after registration, it was time to pay. So when participants went to pay all seemed ok. Suddenly out of nowhere I received an email from Blue Moon saying that the bank refunded the participants money because they thought "how could this be legitimate?". Sock knitting club? No way.

Can you believe it? They took money OUT of Blue Moon's accounts and refunded the money BACK TO US! Excuse me? According to Blue Moon's Rockin Sock Club KAL, they have 2,000 participants. Count that. TWO THOUSAND!

I just love that. I love there are tons of passionate knitters in the world and I love that WE HAVE POWER IN COMMERCE!

In fact the Yarn Harlot has a whole post about "muggles". Go here.

I'm excited that the first installment will be in the mail this week. I have been anticipating this ever since I tried getting into the club last year but I was too late. This is going to be so much fun! (Jamie get ready for me to bring my sock knitting to all of our meetings!)

For once, being out on the left coast, I'm actually close to the source. With luck, I'll be getting my package before those folks out on the right coast!

You'll be the first to see my unveiling as soon as the package arrives!

Work, Work, Work

I've been assigned to a new project at work. I have mixed feelings about it. Why?

I love my life outside of work. I did not enjoy working for the person I worked for and now for the next year I won't have to. That is a real bonus.

The downside? Implemenations are fraught with stress, hard work and challenges.

I've ridden this horse before. I've been involved in many implementations and upgrades.

I know what it takes. I'm just not sure I want to work that hard. Honestly I have not had a break in 10 years from being on either an upgrade or implementation cycle.

I need some rest.

I'll be part of a team implementing a new budget system. It is a high profile project with a lot of eyes watching us. While ramping up on this project I also have another department implementing the AR and Billing system in early April, which I currently support. Basically I have a lot on my plate right now.

The flip side is I get to work side-by-side with my friend Jamie. This woman is incredible. She's smart, innovative and works extremely hard. There is always a lot of challenge implementing a new product and this system utilizes some technology which is new to our employer, and us.

What that means is less time for my creative pursuits.

Like this: Some newly spun Blue Moon Fiber Arts Blue Faced Leicester. I like spinning this fiber a lot. I can't wait to get two bobbins full to ply.

Isn't it pretty?

I also got a note from Jean Wong saying she gave her schedule to Suzanne at Madrona Fiber Arts. I hope they schedule some regular, ongoing classes with Jean. Somehow I'll just have to fit all the things I want to do, in.

Ruth, my Yarn Angel from Denmark!

Her name is Ruth Sorensen.

How do I get a yarn angel from Denmark?

Its a long story but read on as it is a lesson in kindness.

It all started with post on Melinda's blog. She mentioned a fair isle design that looked complicated but wasn't. The beauty of this design is it utilizes self striping yarn. The results are stunning.

The designer is Ruth Sorensen, my yarn angel.

You have got to see this design. It is awesome!

Go here.

Isn't that awesome?

The pattern is free and is translated to English. Go here for the pdf for the pattern. She used Kauni Effekt color EQ.

I started doing much research on-line trying to find Kauni Effekt. The shipping costs from the website Melinda mentioned in her post, wollsucht.de, quoted me 17 euro ($22) for no tracking and insurance or 47 euro ($61) with tracking and insurance. The owner also told me it could take 6 days to 3 months for the yarn to arrive. (Note: I asked how much it would cost to send 1000g - I thought if I'm going to order I may as well order a lot to take advantage of shipping yarn only once).

I said...no thanks. The shipping was outrageous.

I contacted another overseas company to try to get the yarn. Their shipping cost were also outrageous - something like $40. I said "no thanks".

I just did not understand why shipping would be so costly because I have ordered/received yarn from the UK and the shipping usually ran around $10. Whether it was Virtual Yarns(Alice Starmore) or Posh Yarn the shipping was always reasonable with arrival usually was within a week. Actually both Virtual Yarns and Posh do free shipping over a certain dollar order amount. I've never actually paid for shipping from either vendor.

The saga continues.

I wrote to Ruth. Thankfully she knows English. I told her how much I love this design but the challenge was getting the yarn. The yarn is very affordable but the shipping costs were outrageous. I told her a friend of mine had a good friend from Germany who I was going to ask her to help me get my hands on the yarn. It wasn't so much that I couldn't afford to pay the shipping costs but I was unwilling to pay those costs when I knew it couldn't possibly cost that much. How could one european country cost THAT much more than another?

In our correspondance Ruth pointed me to some more of her designs being sold in a kit. Look at this design called Anne Evilla. Isn't that cute? She also designed Claudia Evilla. I contacted this company and the shipping is reasonable. It would be about $12-13 and up to $22 if you are ordering yarn with weight of 1 kilo plus. So for a kit it would be about $12-13. Vivian also gave me instructions on ordering so the VAT will be deducted. So if you want to order a kit just contact me and I will send you her instructions. I would definitely order from this company.

Ruth wrote to me and told me she went to the post office to find out how much shipping would be for a package weighing about 500g to the US. It was reasonable - about $10. She also asked how long it would take to get to the US. They said it would take about 2 days to get to the US and the rest of the time was all in the hands of the USPS. So I figure a week at most.

You know what she proceeded to do?

She purchased the yarn for me and offerred to send it to me.

She made the purchase before she knew how I would get her the money. She wasn't worried how I would get her the money. She said I could send her some yarn if the Paypal route didn't work.

My heart is full to know someone across the world wanted me to get this yarn with delivery at a reasonable price. She mentioned in one of her emails how she can get watermelons from South America, grapes from South Africa but how difficult could it be to get yarn from Denmark to the US?

I am a very sentimental person. I feel the kindness across the miles.

Isn't Ruth a kind, thoughtful person?

It is heart warming for me to know that someone half way across the world is willing to go out of her way to do something nice for someone in the United States that she doesn't even personally know.

I just started writing her about a week ago. I come back after the weekend away and I have mail from Ruth saying she already bought the yarn. I sent her money via Paypal today and tomorrow she will ship my package.

How do I thank her across the miles?

Not only is she a great person, she is an innovative designer.

Thank you Ruth. You are my Yarn Angel, and more!

Weekend at Bangrila

Every year we spend at least one weekend with Greg's best friends at Bangrila.

This year we went out to celebrate Greg and his friends birthdays. Bruce, Tom and Greg all turned the magic 55 within about a month of each other. Greg has known Bruce for 45 years and Tom for about 40. Amazing isn't it?

The time always goes so very quickly. It seems like we get there and then it is time to turn back and come home.

Here are a few photos from the weekend:

To get to Bangrila we go over the Tacoma Narrows bridge. I'm amazed at how technology progresses to build the new bridge. If you haven't seen the bridge being built, you really should see it. It is amazing to watch its progress.

Here is Bruce and Cynthia

and Tom and Lynn. The next couple of photos depicts a bit of how we celebrated the birthdays. We are getting too old for partying like this!

On a knitting note, I made progress on the Nicky Epstein Floral Felted Bag (Jacobean). I did some spinning of the blue faced leicester dyed by Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The fiber looks really cool. I can't wait to see how it is going to spin up!!

My first hand spun yarn!

The past two weeks has been a whirlwind. I have had two classes with Sam Robbins. She has taught me to spin and ply on my Louet Victoria (I call her Lil' Vicki).

How do I describe Sam? She was the perfect instructor for me. She is passionate. She is patient and endlessly supportive. She has a warm, lovely spirit. I connected with her immediately. Thank you so very much Sam!

After my first class I was so excited. I didn't want to go to bed! After my second class I came home with my first skein of hand spun YARN! Yes. I made YARN!!!

Friday Harbor and Tabi Socks, Done!

Greg and I just spent the weekend at Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands.

Originally we were going to take a Kenmore Air seaplane to Friday Harbor but decided to take a little road trip in Greg's new car via the ferry.

We were laughing Thursday night as we were watching Grey's Anatomy because the big disaster was a ferry mishap. We looked over at one another and laughed. Great. The next day we would be on a ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor!

We stayed at Friday Harbor House. We had the coveted room #36 (Thank you Renee'!) This room is a corner room on the 3rd floor looking out over the marina. It was fabulous! If you ever get to stay there, ask for room 36!


Here are my finished Tabi Socks enjoying our room with a view!

Friday afternoon we came back to the room, lit the fireplace, sat our butts down and just relaxed. Greg read and I knitted. I finished the Tabi Socks and made some good progress on my Swallowtail Shawl. We even took a nap! How about that? We had a nice romantic dinner that night and came back to our room to enjoy the view, watching the ferries.

Greg's brother Mike is married to my friend Renee'. Renee' introduced me to Greg. Mike and Renee' flew up on Saturday morning to join us forthis little getaway(officially birthday presents to the Bang boys).

A funny fact about the 4 Bang boys. All were born from the end of January to the beginning of March. Evie, the matriarch, did not want to be big and pregnant during the summer. So she planned, very accurately, each pregnancy. That is Evie. The planner and perfectionist!

Back to our weekend....We had a wonderful Saturday - visiting Roche Harbor and the Wescott Bay Sculpture Park. We were blessed with a sunny, beautiful day. We did a little hike from the Hotel de Haro to the McMillan mausoleum.

Of course I had to visit the yarn store, Island Wools, in Friday Harbor and ended up buying some yarn. I know. You are not surprised. Right now I'm too lazy to take photos and post them.

A side note: I've been busy spinning. I have homework for class on Wednesday and I am behind schedule! I have to have two full bobbins so that I can learn to ply them. I probably have a bobbin and a half. I'm pleased with how my yarn is developing.

I need to run off to bed. 4:45 am comes very quickly!

"If you don't have time to exercise, You don't have time to knit"

I've been a knittin' fool.

This past weekend was Greg's milestone 55th birthday! To celebrate on the actual birth date, we had brunch with his parents, Ron and Evie, at Palisade on Sunday.

Greg's parents are both turning 84/85? this year. They are in great physical and mental shape. In fact in 2007 they have 3 trips planned already. Arizona, a cruise from Singapore to Dubai, Colorado. They drive, they workout, they live a full life.

We got talking about working out. Ron has been working out everyday, lifting weights, feeling better than ever. Greg has been faithfully working out 5 days a week. Greg will ask if I want to join him at the gym. I say no. I'd rather knit!

Evie and I discussed how our hobbies are sedentary(knitting, scrapbooking, making christmas ornaments, soon to be spinning). She made a comment to me that really hit me.

It hit me in a very good way.

She said, "if you don't have time to exercise, you don't have time to knit!".

I thought about it. I continued to think about it.

Yes. I need to make exercise a priority before everything else. Without health, there is nothing else.

So my reward for working out? I get to knit.

What a concept. So far this week I'm two for two. I get to go knit now.

Gilt(y) Pleasures

In a prior post I showed some yarn I purchased to knit a Louisa Harding design called Gilt. Here is my progress. The back is done, the front is over half done.


I was hoping to have it done by next weekend for our trip to Friday Harbor. This will not happen unless I kill myself getting it done. I am not willing to sacrifice my body for the sake of getting this done by next Thursday!

I have neck pain and...that means I'm knitting too much. I started this last Sunday - just a week ago. Tomorrow is Greg's birthday. I doubt I'll get much knitting done on this tomorrow.

I like how it is turning out. I must admit that the stockinette knitting does get a bit boring!

Madrona Fiber Arts!

Wow. I had a great time at the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat.

It was so worth it to me to stay at the hotel because it allowed me to really enjoy my time there. My head/brain was swimming with information everyday. I didn't have to battle the traffic everyday and that was certainly a treat.

I attended three full days of classes. I spent all three days with Jean Wong.

I took Tailored Knitting the Japanese Way(two days) and Fine Finishing Techniques(one day). I learned so much. Jean is a patient teacher, always making sure everyone understands what she is trying to explain. She had to explain some concepts two, three different ways so we all could understand it. If you ever get a chance to take a class with her I highly recommend it!

Here are some photos taken during class. The first one is of an example of how we create a pattern for our particular body measurements and guage of yarn/needle size for a sweater we are designing.



Here we are working hard at using the concepts we have learned and applying them to our personal pattern.

Below is my work area...a complete mess! This is a very involved process but I love the idea of having this knowledge. It will liberate me from being dependant on patterns. Let the creating begin!

I have so much to share about the weekend.

Thursday night I met up with Sandy. We hadn't seen each other for over a year. We had scheduled to get together for dinner so we planned to meet up at the marketplace. She came up to my hotel room so I could drop off all the stuff I accumulated at the marketplace. She mentioned she wanted to do this sweater/shrug that was on the cover of Vogue knitting Fall 2005. I said "I know exactly what one you mean!" I went to the closet and pulled out the sweater I had done. She is going to knit this. Go to her blog and check out her progress. She is doing great! Thanks Sandy for your hospitality! We need to plan for one of those knitting cruises - preferably to foreign countries! :)

I met Tina and Kaci of Blue Moon Fiber Arts. What sweet women! By the time I left on Saturday they knew me by name. I went back so many times. Tina commented that she thought I bought all the pink/purple yarns she had. I bought sock yarn, roving, bamboo yarn and a wonderful fingering weight yarn made of kid mohair, silk and a little bit of nylon. This is going to make a wonderful shawl! I'll get pics posted soon. Their new colorway Backstabber(the one in the middle in the photo below)...absolutely *my colors*!!!

Sock yarns - how many skeins do I have in the stash?? Does it matter that I'm a member of the 2007 Rockin' Sock Club? NAW. After all, these are my colors!

This is a super soft Bamboo yarn. I will make a short-sleeve shirt. I bought the pattern that was displayed with the yarn. Maybe I'll use my "Tailored Knitting the Japanese Way" knowledge and create a Naomi original.

The reason why I kept going back to Blue Moon's booth was because I got to purchase things that you can't get on their website. It was SOOOO much fun! I won't show photos of the roving because I purchased some for my friend Terry who pushed me over the edge to start spinning. I don't want to ruin her surprise. She knows she's getting some, she just doesn't know what or what color(s).

Friday night I met up with Greg, my best friend Jamie, and her husband Chris. We had a nice dinner at the Pacific Grill. They have great atmosphere but I thought the food was overpriced. It was nice that it was just a couple blocks away. We could walk.

After Jamie and Chris dropped us off at the hotel, Greg and I went up to the bar on the 26th floor of the Sheraton to have a drink. We sat down at the windows, enjoying the view. Next thing I knew, Fiona Ellis and the Yarn Harlot Stephanie Pearl-McPhee sat at the table next to us. I was so thrilled. I had no camera with me. Greg could not understand why I was so excited about it. When we got up to go I had to go over to them to say hello. I stumbled badly. I told Stephanie I loved her. How stupid is that??? I do love her!! She said "I love you, too" (yeah right!). We introduced ourselves and she said everyone had been talking about my sweater that day (the Vogue one I spoke about earlier in this post). Wow. I was amazed that she even noticed!


The next morning at (what else) the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth, I ran into Fiona and she recognized me and we exhanged pleasantries. What a nice woman!

I met Melinda, a fellow Feral Knitter. Why didn't I already know her? I'm fairly new to "Ferals" and the only time I saw Melinda was in early January(?). She was across the table and I was not feeling well and wasn't very social that night.

What is a Feral Knitter? We are knitters that enjoy the art of Fair Isle knitting and we meet every other Monday in Lake Forest Park. I had never met Melinda in person but I had been a lurker of her blog. When I was in the registration line I looked behind me and I recognized her photo from her blog. I introduced myself and found she was also in the two day Jean Wong class. We sat next to each other in class and I had the honor of getting to know her better. Melinda is an amazing knitter! Her blog is full of great techniques and tips.


I have more stories and photos to share but I need to get going. Start planning on coming to Madrona next year! Save the dates - February 14-17, 2008.

Happy Birthday Nicole

Sunday night we celebrated my niece Nicole's 10th birthday! Her birthday is really today.

She is one in a million. I'll tell you why.

It is a miracle that she has lived to reach this milestone in her young life.

Six years ago, at the age of 4, she was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML.

She was on vacation at Whistler, BC and tried to get out of the pool and found she could not walk without exruciating pain. Within a couple days she was at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center with this "one in a million" chance diagnosis. This type of leukemia is extremely rare in children.

The Ooka and Howard families went into panic mode. How could this beautiful, perfect child have cancer?

The families along with friends and a much larger community gathered for bone marrow recruitment drives. Through connections Washington's Governor Gary Locke got involved. Other well-known people such as Jamie Moyer of the Seattle Mariner's and Moyer Foundation helped out. There was a lot of press about Nicole's situation which highlighted the need for more minorities and people of mixed race to get on the registry.

There hasn't been much press lately so I'm hoping with the power of the internet, we can get more folks registered.

The only cure for this type of leukemia is a bone marrow transplant.

At the beginning of the panic, Nicole's older brother was tested, he was not a match. We all got tested. No match. We scoured the NMDP, National Marrow Donor Program, world-wide registries and there was no match. What were we going to do? Our only option was to recruit, recruit, recruit.

We paired with the Mavin Foundation. They eventually created the Matchmaker program. This program is the only national program with the goal of recruiting mixed race donors on to the national bone marrow registry.

Nicole's challenge is she is of mixed race. If you look at our world today, how many people in the United States, and the world, are of mixed heritage? Many. Minorities and people of mixed race of the world have a real challenge if they need a bone marrow transplant. This challenge will only get more acute the more diverse our population becomes.

Through Nicole's struggle and the many, many bone marrow drives held on behalf of Nicole, many matches have been found for others in need. Nicole has affected many peoples lives and has moved politicians to create laws to help those in need of a bone marrow transplant. For example, then Washington Governor Gary Lock signed an executive order allowing state employees to donate and receive bone marrow transplants without having to take leave. See article here.

This is where faith comes in. I grew up Catholic. I believe in God. The year Nicole was diagnosed, a leukemia drug called Gleevec was approved by the FDA. No protocol had been established for children. Trish and Rob, Nicole's parents, did tons of research on Gleevec and even contacted the man who developed the drug. He lives in Oregon. They arranged to meet him, talk to him, get information from him. Then they came back to Children's Hospital to try to get the physicians here to prescribe this medicine for Nicole. The physicians gathered all the research Trish and Rob had done, along with their own research and Nicole was the first child at Children's to be put on Gleevec. We were blessed that this life saving drug was approved, just in time for Nicole.

Nicole is currently in remission. We have been blessed with 6 wonderful years with this child that we most certainly would not have had. Without a bone marrow transplant, or Gleevec, Nicole would have died many years ago.

The downside of Gleevec is it is not a guarantee and the only known "cure" is a bone marrow transplant. I want a guarantee. If I think about it too long I panic. There is still no match for Nicole on the registry, 6 years later. Think of all the people that have no drug to keep their cancer or diseases in remission. They die waiting for a bone marrow match.

We still need to get many, many more minorities and multi-racial folks signed up to be bone marrow donors. Sometimes people need to get educated on what being a bone marrow donor means. Get more information here.

The federal government has funded minorities to get registered with just a swab of the cheek. In the "old days" you would have to give a blood sample. This turned many people off. In the Seattle area you can go to this link to find local drives. If you know folks over the age of 18 that are a minority, please forward my post to them. We desperately need more minorities on the bone marrow registry.

You can give the gift of life to someone in need.

I could write on and on, and on, about this topic as it has affected me personally. Deeply.

Today on this very special day I reflect on Nicole, my precious niece who deserves a long life. She deserves a cure.

It only takes ONE special person with her tissue typing to save her life. The person that could save her life could be YOU.

If you believe in the power of prayer, please take a minute out of your day to pray that we WILL find a match for Nicole.

Help me celebrate Nicole's birthday by forwarding this post to others you know, especially minorities or mixed race folks.

Happy Birthday Nicole! I love you girl.

Inspired Knitting with Louisa Harding

Today I took a class today at So Much Yarn. The instructor was Louisa Harding.



If you haven't seen her designs, you should. They are timeless designs with a modern twist. I love knitting "the classics" but her designs and the yarns she uses have gotten me more excited than I have in quite some time. You can see some of her books here.

We had fun using Louisa Harding yarns to make a little purse. This is mine in progress.

She told us her story how she went to being a gopher at Rowan in the late '80's to having her own yarn label with complete design freedom. What an interesting journey she has taken!

If you've ever seen her books, you may have noticed the beautiful photography. She didn't want her books to *look* like knitting books. Her husband does all the photography for her books and he is an artist in his own right.

I caught up with a couple women I haven't seen in awhile. One is Sue. I know her from Acorn Street and she livess a few doors down from my sister Trish in the Bryant neighborhood of Seattle. Here she is showing off a beautiful shawl knit with Louisa's yarns. She lined it beautifully with silk fabric and added lovely Swarovski beading - only in the back so that the beads don't bother her arms in the front of the shawl. The photo just does not do it justice.

I also caught up with Beth that I had met taking a class at So Much Yarn a couple of years ago. She is a hoot! We exchanged information again and I hope we can get together for those once-a-month Saturday morning knitting sessions!

The great thing is Louisa brought samples of her designs. I tried some on and I love how they fit. So I bought some yarn to make the design "Gilt" from Winter's Muse Portraits. What this lady is doing with the picture frame I'm not sure. This design looked great on both me and Lauren(owner of So Much Yarn).

I won't do it in those colors. I'll do it in these:

In my prior post I commented that I wasn't sure what project to take to Jean Wong's Tailored Knitting class at Madrona next week. I'll take Gilt. (note - Gilt, not Guilt!) A catholic girl like me has plenty of Guilt - I don't need more! :)

I close this entry with a picture of me and Louisa. She is a very kind and interesting person. The reason I am no longer shy about taking a photo with someone *famous* is I saw the Yarn Harlot about a year and a half ago at Weaving Works and was too *shy* to ask to get my photo taken with her and have regretted ever since!

Thank you Louisa for an inspiring morning!