busty seattle: one car, two girls, ten yarn stores

i recently joined carrie on a trip up north. we drove all day on tuesday and stopped in ashland, oregon just long enough to stop in at Web-sters yarns. a good yarn store with a great book selection. then we drove on up past portland to kelso and found a place to sleep. the drive was great. we took turns driving. the passenger got to knit and we listened to brenda dayne of cast on for many hours, with breaks to talk about boys (nothing to report). it was great and a totally acceptable way to spend 12 hours in a car. good company, a good podcast and knitting.

i made the above sign and was holding it when carrie picked me up, just in case she missed me with all my bags, standing on the sidewalk with a big smile on my face.
we put the sign in the back on the window of the car and i guess it should have said 'kelso or bust'. but who knows anything about kelso?
we do now. we got coffee at the starbuck's that is inside the brand new and huge safeway there.
we made it to seattle and then got in line for the ferry to bainsbridge. carrie had a appointment at churchmouse yarns and tea, which is a very sweet store. we then drove to poulsbo to our hotel.
this is the marina in poulsbo, which is a very cute touristy town. it has a two or three block long main street that has two yarn stores on it! and the below senior center. ain't it cute? oh i forgot to mention that the town has a norweigan flavor to it.
all the guide books said that we had to try the bakery. and try we did.
that is called a 'viking donut' i guess due to its size. it was big alright. we took the ferry back to seattle and spent the next two days going to many more stores, some touristy spots, and doing a bit of knitting in the hotel.

this is the original starbuck's location, across the street from pike's market.
the necklace i am wearing in the first picture was a birthday present from firegirlpj and love it. she got it in columbus at knitter's connection. you can get one from dream weaver's.
if you are going to seattle and only have time for one yarn store, i would make it weaving works. they have tons of yarn for knitting, but also spinning supplies and weaving supplies. and enough books to open their own little fiber related book store. we sat there for awhile just looking at books. it was relaxing. i bought more than enough yarn to make some yet to be determined sweater. it is locally grown and naturally dyed worsted weight wool. i will take some pictures and post about it. and i am calling on my EZ muse to come to me in my sleep and help me dream up something good to knit with it! carrie found something good from sweaters from camp.
so we ended up hitting 10 yarn stores. it was great. check out little knits too. its an online store- but you can visit it. its out of a house in west seattle, run by a nice woman who employs friendly and helpful people.
on the plane ride home, i started a little cardigan out of debbie bliss cashmerino superchunky, a pattern i got for 75% off at hilltop yarns in seattle. they had a fire recently and had to get rid off everything! i finished the sweater over the 4th of july weekend and will post pictures in my next update.

WWKIP day

as you can see- many many many knitters showed up to knit in public! it was great. warmed my heart about the knitting community. this first picture is wondermike of YKnit interviewing each and every person who showed up at the knit one one studio to knit. you can hear all about it on the most recent episode of YKnit. its funny. and if you listen carefully, you will hear me! it was rad to have so many public knitters, i mean most of us are not ashamed, or all of us are not ashamed to be knitters, and knit in public all the time without thinking about it. it was wonderful to be part of such a public display of unashamedness. for most i don't think it is poltical, but when you get a group together (there were about 60 of us there), it becomes political. si se puede!!!
here we all are. if you look hard you can see sam.
oh there he is again. making his political statment about public knitting by wearing his cowl that i made for him! he has a really long neck and i worry that it gets cold. so i knit a stockinette tube with some left over lamb's pride worsted color oregano, the best color tied with fucshia.
somehow during all the knitting, the tree in front of the studio was tagged, knitta please style! none of us saw it happen and we don't know anything.
oh and right after i published that last post, one of my coworkers at the er found my knitting!! it worked!

MIA

so i knit this cute skull and cross bones for the magical mystery kniting party: colorwork on 6/13 at knit one one. and then i lost it. damn. here is proof that it existed. i did my homework. and then it walked out of my life. last time i saw it was at ucsf when i showed it to my coworker.
well the class went well and everyone's came out great and 6 new people now have done colorwork! look at the finished projects here. aren't they cute? thanks to helloyarn.com for lending us the pattern. you can try it yourself and do the felted bag!
also check out all the people who showed up for wwkip day. it was great. knitters really know how to show up when they want to make a statement.

6/15/08

this year i shared my 28th birthday with father's day. it happens every so often. the first time we shared was the year i was born. it seems fitting. if my dad wasn't a father, i wouldn't be alive. if i wasn't born, my dad would not be able to celebrate being a dad. so it works. although i was a tiny bit grumpy that my day didn't get to be totally and 100% my day. but he is not a bad person to share a day with, especially because the two reasons for having a day are totally entwined. we went to the temescal farmer's market in the morning for some blue bottle coffee. i finished the vest i was working on as a present for father's day.
i used ella rae classic in three colors. and i used the random stripe generator to "plan" the stripes out. the pattern is mine. it goes: get gauge, measure dad, cast on, knit til armholes in the round, begin to work back and forth for front and back with help from ann budd's handy book of pattern's for the decreasing and such, make v-neck front, three needle bind off shoulders, pick up for neck edge and armhole edges. i used size 7 needles for body, size 5 for the ribbing. and almost all of all four balls of yarn. thanks to EZ and her EPS for giving me the knowledge of how to just knit a vest. i like vests for two main reasons: they don't have sleeves, and they sure do make one look spiffy.
i call it his 'hip professor vest'. what do you think?
then we went rowing in the emeryville marina. something that both of us enjoyed doing and could do together. i did most of the rowing, and had blisters on both hands to prove it. he was just holding the oars so i could take some pictures. but doesn't he look happy?

knitting at the dog park

i was thinking about trying to steal his hotdog, but not after he gave me this look. the humans knit while we were at the dog park. the dogs did not and neither did the little humans. they ate hot dogs. it was super cold and windy and i was dressed in every knitted item i could find. then the sun came out and i got sunburned. sammie sniffed so many other dog butts and checked his 'peemail' as firegirlpj calls it. trumom showed us all the goodies she has for the raffle she is doing to raise money for the breast cancer 3 day walk she is doing. donate and you could win 10 skeins of malabrigo plus so much more!

eggs

eggs from a co-worker's chickens. aren't they beautiful and all different? my favorite is the tiny white one in the top row just to the left of the huge brown one. they helped make a yummy cake.
eating locally makes me happy. i want chickens one day. i would love to have chickens. i would try to knit them sweaters. turtleneck sweaters.
if you enjoy michael pollan and haven't read his essay "why bother?", i would.

congrats maggie

maggie, the closest thing i have to a sister, graduated with her masters in counseling from sf state, a few weeks ago. i was able to spend the day with her and her family (my second family, we met in preschool, about 24 years ago). we had lunch and went to the ceremony and then had ice cream. it was great to be in the middle of that family again, something that was a common occurrence during my childhood. i fit in there somewhere and that is a very comforting feeling. i am very happy for you maggie, and very proud as well. major props to franny and zoe (sandwiched between mags and me) and glenn, who took the picture. glenn goes down in history for making the best worst jokes ever. expect for my dad, of course.

california hornblower

i have been running yarn divas, a knitting night, at the women's cancer resource center for a couple of years now. every year they have an event to thank their volunteers. this year, margo decided it should something different than the usual. so we went on a dinner time cruise on the california hornblower. it was beautiful. we ate good food, knit and laughed as we watched the sun set on the bay. i also got to wear a name tag that said: kate, cultural and healing arts. i like that. the center does great work and has lots of services. its actually where sile of knit one one and i met. on that note, the june classes and events are up, so check them out. i have been listening to cast on, i am about 2 and a half years behind, but i have been listening to brenda about four or so times a week as i run and commute to work. i do not run to work, if you were concerned about that. i am up to 212 miles this year for runagogo!

when i am 64

my dad turned 64 a couple of weeks ago. for about three months, both my parents will be 64, until my mom's birthday in july. we woke up early and drove over to sf. we got coffee at blue bottle coffee on linden street for some of their amazing coffee and then made our way to the san francisco conservatory of flowers. we first had a picnic breakfast on the lawn in front. my mom made a frittata from alice water's new book. it went well with the coffee. although i would be hard pressed to think of something that didn't go well with coffee.
my parents are fantastic. we had a lot of fun walking around looking at flowers and butterflies. and taking funny pictures with our heads in flowers. i found myself singing 'when i'm 64' by the beattles. that song is filed in my brain under the heading of 'camp song'. maggie and i grew up going to hidden villa during the summer. its an amazing farm summer camp in the los altos hills. we had a song book that we would sing from around the camp fire every night. i remember singing that when i was 11 or 12 thinking that 64 was soooooo far away, not even in the realm of things possible. it still feels far away. but i also remember feeling a tiny bit of excitement deep in my stomach about the idea of finding someone to be 64 with, someone that would embody the song for me. i think my parents are good poster people for it.
my dad is wearing one of his birthday presents, a baseball hat which goes with the sailboat he bought himself recently. doesn't he look happy? i knit him a beret out of queensland kathmandu aran and i will post a picture of him wearing it later. it is quite dashing if i do say so myself.
pretty plant
pretty flutterby- well i bet its actually a moth. its little brown legs are super fuzzy, like it knit itself legwarmers out of brown fun fur.

"Well, it was rage honey"

I just found some photos I have been meaning to post and some stories I wanted to share.
Mae and Mary of Ruby' Garden, and their friend Mary and my mom and Faith threw me a surprise party the week I got into nursing school. The second Mary I listed is a RN at the General in SF and she supplied the props. I walked in a everyone was all dressed up. It was very sweet of them, and a great surprise. Ruby's Garden is a great shop and everyone should go check it out when they are at article pract because it is just across the street.
Here is Sam in his A's gear.
My mom just finished a quilt for me, and it was in the East Bay Heritage Quilter's Guild show a bit ago at the Oakland Convention Center. This is us in front of one side of the quilt. It is beautiful and keeps me warm and I feel very special to have had a quilt made for me.
My parents and I had a thrown together Passover. Notice the wholewheat torilla next to the orange, that was all my dad could find due to the Great Matzah Shortage of 2008. We had lots of fun.
Now something knitting related. Last week a customer came in to article pract and we got to talking. Her name was also Kate and we hit it off. She said a couple of things that have stuck with me that I thought I would share. She was in her seventies, I am guessing, and she refered to her knitting life as something of the distant past. She said she stopped knitting over thirty years ago when she had knit everything that she had wanted to knit. Wait! Stop the presses. She said that she had knit everything she had wanted to. I asked her if that time actually would come. She said it did for her. I can't imagine that day, the day when I have knit everything I could possibly want to. Can you? Knit through your stash, your raverly queue? I am still processing that thought. I am not knitting as fast as I am coming up with things to knit, so I can't run out, can I?
We were walking around the shop and she was pointing out things that she liked or pattern she had used on projects in her previous knitting life. We came to a cabled sample and she told me about a sweater she had knit long ago, for a man she was with at the time. They were traveling in England and she bought some yarn there to knit him a cabled sweater. After they split years later, she took the sweater back and she ripped it out! And then she balled the yarn back up and donated it to Goodwill. She said she hoped someone was out there wrapped up in that yarn.
"You frogged that whole cabled sweater?" I asked, shocked that she had it in her to do that.
"Well, it was rage honey" she replied.

P.S. I am now speedyneedle on ravelry.
P.P.S. Listen to Y Knit, they are amazing, great and local knitters with a funny podcast.

baby hoodie

baby hoodie- how cute right? top sweater is knit out of berroco comfort which i bought at article pract.

this one was knit out of some yarn from my stash- still super cute. this sweater is a knitting pure and simple pattern (#982) top down and in one piece. no seaming. you knit the body in one piece and then pick up for the sleeves, button band and hood. super cute and easy once you get a hand on the pattern. come take the class at knit one one. the next three saturdays! see you there.

some things knitted

i didn't make this collar, julie of cocoknits did. and sammie wears its proudly. yes it is shibori and felted and fantastic. and its FREE! so go check out her website - she has amazing patterns and she created the knitter's block, a new blocking system which is like so hot right now. i have one and i love it. sammie does too.

that little beard kills me.

something i knit. i had the SARS or the bird flu or something ridiculous two weeks ago. i am ok now. anyway i watched way too much Law & Order: SVU but i did knit envy and i love it. i used some burly spun that i had in my stash and size 13 needles which the pattern calls for. it knit up very quickly. and then i went to stonemoutain & daughter and bought this amazing buttons. they are so amazing that i think they are kind of distracting from the actual knitted object, but i couldn't pass them up. and only $1.20 each! it has cables running up the sides- which are hard to see in such a dark yarn, but it was in my stash. and yes that is seed stitch in the middle. yes i did seed stitch. if you have ever talked to me about seed stitch, then you know that i hate seed stitch. anyway maybe it was the SARS that had my brain fogged enough to do it, but i did. at least on a few stitches on size 13 needles for like 2 hours. anyway when we end global climate change and its normal weather again here, then i can wear it again. until then, and i am not holding my breath, i can at least wear it to work at ucsf where it is always about 30 degrees colder.

three good things

1. i just made the most beautiful lasagna ever. ok that i have ever made. if you turn your computer screen to the left- it will make more sense. i sort of followed the recipe on the side of trader joe's lasagna noodles- but i took out the alfredo sauce and i put in spinach and the lite mexican cheese mix from trader joe's. i haven't tried it yet, but it smelled amazing as it was baking.

2. my cholesterol levels are 'optimal'. i got some blood work done last week and i just got the results in the mail. my good and bad cholesterol levels are both perfect. this makes me so happy because i have borderline high blood pressure, and this makes me very nervous. hypertension is called 'the silent killer'. it totally messes you up slowly over years and years. your kidneys can't deal with the extra pressure on their tiny little parts and they get shot. then you have to go on dialysis. i won't even start on how much that sucks.

3. marriage is legal for everyone in california! now let's keep it that way.

hug limits and wearing a jacket

so i am moving out of my wonderful housesitting-house and i moving back to a place i call home. some people already live there, i call them mom and dad. and then there is dog of course too. he is going to be so excited to have us all under the same roof, all of his toys in one place, and some many hands to pet him. he will have to learn that he can't climb the stairs to get up to my room though, and that whining at the bottom of them is not ok. my stairs are a ship's ladder - yes a ships ladder- aka steep. not stairs but a ladder, so not really schnoodle ready.
moving is never fun, it has consumed my busy life for the last month or so. but i keep reminding myself that the reason i am moving, and moving back home is because i got into nursing school! my life must go on! so i am going to save some money while staying at the folks house. then i am going to find some sort of living situation that will be quiet in which to study.
living back at home will be fun. some things will have to get worked out. like what kind of coffee is made in the coffee pot. my parents drink some sort of caf/decaf blend that doesn't have enough caf in it for me. shall i use my own pot? or is it all silly? yes silly. at least that is one of my only worries. ok not only worries. my dad likes to hug me. i like hugs just as much as the next gal, but its my dad. i guess the middle school ew-dad-grosses-me-out period is not over yet! sorry dad i am just being honest. so how about a hug limit? one a day seems ok right?
my mom likes to remind me to bring a jacket with me when i am leaving. i know i will always be her baby. but i learned about jackets along time ago. i can even knit them now if i need too! all those years that i have not lived at home, i have been able to keep myself warm, yet the minute i am living under the same roof, she thinks i have forgotten. i know i know, this is not really a big worry either. and yes mom, i had my coffee, my vitamins, and breakfast and i packed lunch and its in my bag. i was raised very well i have to say. and i am getting much better at flossing every day. so i have some more cleaning to do tonight and tomorrow. i will bring over my last load of stuff tomorrow (plants and food from the fridge). and then it will be me at home again. we have a great time together the four of us (that includes the dog). so i think this will be a fun summer. but i don't think i will be bringing home any dates!

more hats

beret done in malabrigo purple mystery with some scrap green yarn as stem.
cascade 220 : noe knit's baby bunnie hat
same hat as above, blue sky alpaca organic cotton, i added a ribbing on the bottom edge

b-day hat for my brother

my brother's 44 th birthday was last week. i made this hat for him. pattern here.
its called the marsan watchcap. fantastic pattern. and it comes out great. this one i did in sublime cashmere merino silk aran. it took two balls and i knit it on size 7 needles. it was great to knit with and sooooo soft. and it blocked out really well. i really would suggest both the pattern and the yarn. i made another one for my dad in cascade 220 and that was really nice as well.

I GOT IN!!!!!!!!

i was accepted to merritt's nursing program today!!!!!!!!!!!

cat scarves

ok this was the magical mystery party project from last friday- i called it the honeycomb java jacket- original i know. anyway christine said she was going to go home and put it on her cat. she did. she blogged about it. i borrowed the pix from her blog so that i could show them to you all- i did tell the class that if someone got the java jacket on their cat- that i would put the pix on my blog. so here you go:
what a handsome cat! oh and if you want to learn how to knit cables- i am teaching a class this saturday at knit one one called "cable mania". www.knitoneone.com check it out! cat scarves for everyone.

schnoodle in the hood

my dog is so fierce, i wouldn't want to run into him in a dark alley.

Ravelry @ Article Pract

from the minute we opened the store, we heard rumors that ravelry was coming to visit us at Article Pract. i got giddy and ran around the store, touching all the yarn to make sure it was in its proper place. mike wade was on the phone with carrie when casey and jess walked by and i am sure he could hear me giggle and sequel. they headed right to bakesale betty's because they had heard about the fried chicken sandwich over there. i highly recommend it. they then came in a hung around for a while and we all got to talk to them and discussed Stitches. they are very sweet and all the fame has not gone to their heads!! (i dont think that any of us on ravelry thought that) anyway, it was fun having them in our LYS. i am sorry that bob was not on this trip out west, i am sure him and sammie would have a great time sniffing each other for hours! and for those of you who have not joined yet, run don't walk, to www.ravelry.com

405: one down six to go!

so i got into a nurisng school. before you get too excited- let me explain. yes this is a good thing, a very good thing, i got accepted. its napa valley college, in napa. they don't do a lottery like the other community colleges, instead, if you meet their qualifications, they accept you and put you on their waiting list. so i met their qualifications and got put on the bottom of the waiting list. that is all great for sure. i am number 405. they go through 90-100 people twice a year. so about two years until i would come to the top. so if i don't get in anywhere else, i can move to napa and go there in two years. it is a great plan b for sure. it feels good to get accepted somewhere. will you all come visit me up there? so now its waiting time- april 15th is the first i will hear from the other ones, so i will keep you all updated. should we start a betting pool as to how many other schools i am going to get into? tammy or mike wade want to help me set it up? we might as well make this very unfun thing, more fun right?