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.