Hailey (Summerlin) Top

I made this cute little top for Scott's niece, Hailey. I saw it on KathrynIvy.com and knew I had to make some of these. Next on the list is one of these for Gabby, my friend Kim's daughter. You can find the pattern here.

Eye Candy Friday

A beach on the Road to Hana in Maui, Hawaii

Refusing to Let Go of Hawaii

I'm holding onto that Hawaiian Aloha feeling with a firm fist. I really enjoyed being relaxed and completely without stress. Reality is trying her best to get to me but I'm off in my mind floating around Hawaii. I won't let her get me right now!

I'm still uploading images to my Flickr page which is helping me stay mentally in Hawaii.

Home Again, Home Again!

Maui was simply amazing. I had one of the most awesome weeks of my life. I got to spend 24/7 with Scott in the most beautiful place. We snorkled, swam, relaxed, drove like banshees and basically ate everything in sight. My parents were fun to hang out with (we crashed at their timeshare) and I took so many photos. So many photos. I'm still uploading them but you can find them here on Flickr.

Aloha! Off to Hawaii!

Whidbey Island Beach, Not Hawaii but still beautiful

It's that time. It's time for me to head to the beach, the Hawaiian beach. I'll be back shortly after Memorial Day with plenty of beach, ocean and lava tales.

Until then, Kato will be watching over the blog.

Goats! Goats! More Goats!

So Jessica hired some goats to help clear her back yard and mentioned at knitting on Monday that anyone who was interested could come over for a look.



I quickly announced that I wanted to take my Daily Self Portrait there and asked if I could take a few pictures of the goats.

Now Jessica lives in the city, like seriously in the city so the goats greatly amuse me. I parked my car on the street and headed up to her front door. No one was home (which I was told to expect) so I headed around back. The goats were very excited to see someone! They greeted me with a few bleats.



I started snapping photos and the goats posed along with me. Such good goats and they've done such a good job of clearing Jessica's yard! I love this concept.

Namaste

I've been lusting after GirlReaction and Carrieoke's Namaste bags. LUSTING!

I stopped at Fiber Gallery before meeting a friend for a drink at Oliver's Twist and some how I fell and grabbed this bag and some yarn to break the fall.

I've decided this is my treat for the Vancouver Half Marathon because you see that justifies the pretty pretty pink bag.

TKGA Master Knitting Level I

1. TKGA Swatch 1, 2. TKGA Swatch 2, 3. TKGA Swatch 3, 4. TKGA Swatch 4, 5. TKGA Swatch 5, 6. TKGA Swatch 6, 7. TKGA Swatch 7, 8. TKGA Swatch 13, 9. TKGA Swatch 14, 10. TKGA Swatch 15, 11. TKGA Level 1 Hat, 12. Rejected TKGA Swatch 12, 13. Rejected TKGA Swatch 14

I've been hard at work on my TKGA Master Knitting Level I swatches and writing. I've had to re-do a some swatches since I've taken over two years to work on this project and some of the requirements have changed. I heard that you can write in and request to submit your older, previously finished swatches but I decided to redo swatches 4-12 (the ones with the changes) since I know it will help me grow as a knitter. And I think that is the entire reason for doing this program.

I still need to complete the written report and swatches 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 16. My goal is to knit a swatch a night this week so I have them done. Then I'll go to Hawaii, get some sun and come back to review the swatches and re-do any that I deem are necessary to re-do while completing the written report.

The entire swatch set can be seen on Flickr or Ravelry

Being Judgemental

This morning I woke up and did my usual morning thing. I showered, I drank coffee, I watched the Today show.

Along the way they aired a segment about the Duggar family and their 17 children. This family really riles me up. I personally find it incredibly irresponsible to have so many children and guess what, now they are expecting their 18th child!

I sat there and stewed a bit before thinking of all the reasons this family gets me so mad. First of all, I feel so bad for each of these children. They have to schedule ALONE time with their parents. I so treasure the relationship that I have with each of my parents and I know that if I had to share their time with 17 other kids, it wouldn't be as good or as close. Secondly, think of the impact these additional people have on the Earth! I can only hope that these 18 children do not have 18 children of their own or there won't be any room or resources for the few children I would like to have. Thirdly why? would you want so many children? WHY? I love children and I think teaching would be awesome since you'd get to hang out with 15-18 kids during the day but guess what? I would LOVE it when they went home to hang out with their families.

So I'm sitting here today feel quite judgemental and actually not feeling to bad about that judgement. I just can not understand how these parents think at all.

City Walking in Vancouver, BC

I used to go up to Vancouver a lot but then the dollar fell and now I only go up once in awhile.



I love Vancouver though and really enjoy walking around the city. On Saturday before the race (and after a parking fiasco), Scott and I spent some time roaming around the city. We started at the city library which is one of my favorite buildings in Vancouver.



They wanted to update the library but couldn't afford a new building. Instead they "wrapped" a new building around the old one. It is beautiful and stunning!



I even found some lovely flowers on our city walk. It was delightful.



You can see all of my Vancouver pictures on Flickr.

Running the Vancouver Half Marathon

I ran the Vancouver Half Marathon today and it was great! I finished in 3 hours and 3 minutes. My goal was 3 hours but heck I'll take those extra 3 minutes and be proud of what I did today.



Scott got up at O'Dark Thirty with me and sent me off at the starting line. The sun was shining and the day was just beautiful.

Photo by Scott

Julie ran the entire way with me which you know really makes the race just that much better.

Photo by Scott

Julie and I stuck to our 5 minute runs and our 1 minute walks all the way until Stanley Park. The crowd was super supportive and cheered all of us on. They printed our first names on our bibs and I do admit to being confused when people I didn't know would yell my name and cheer me on. It took oh about 6 miles to figure out that my name was on my bib! Duh!

Photo by Scott

Stanley Park was beautiful and we walked up "the hill" where you gain 200 feet in elevation in just under one mile. We picked up our 5 and 1's once we were done with the hill and ran, ran, ran our way in. The last mile may have been the LONGEST mile known to man but I am so happy with my time and so happy to be done training for a bit!



OK, OK, I know I'll be back out there running again soon but I'm going to relax this week and not worry about training!

Eye Candy Friday

I went to a film meetup last weekend and used film! I rarely use it nowdays but you know what, it is good and it is fun!

Finished Bodacious Sweater

Last night while watching "The Oprhanage", I seamed up the Bodacious Baby Sweater from The Natural Knitter. I'm almost sad to be giving this sweater away since it came out so cute! I re-did part of the bunny face to make it look less psycho.

Bodacious!

I've been busy knitting the Bodacious Bunny Sweater from The Natural Knitter and I love this pattern. I however am not sure that I love the bunny I knit!



Jessica took one look at my bunny and asked if she could teach me how to do the duplicate stitch. Scott took a look and said he liked psycho looking toys. Meg just laughed.



I don't know. I like how crazy it looks but maybe that isn't something you give to a new baby. New babies should be welcomed into the world with softness and love. Maybe this bunny doesn't do that. *sigh* I may re-knit this in the same colors as the sweater. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

I took the bus to work today. Once I figured out that I can take a later bus, it didn't seem like an issue. I did overdress by wearing two coats but it was cold when I stepped out. Not so cold once I had walked the .8 miles to the bus stop. The ride was quick and along the way I saw angels on slits. Some sort of promotion.

I like the bus. It's an interesting feeling I get when I take the bus. I feel more free because I don't have to be near where my car is but then I also feel less free because I don't have a car to go when I want, where I want. But I say the more free wins overall.

Happy Earth Day

Over the years, I've been working to reduce my carbon footprint. While I'm in no way there yet, I do feel pretty good about my successes but I know I can do more.

Here are some things I've decided to start doing:

1) I already compost my food waste at home but now I'm going to take my food waste home from work and compost it there rather than throwing it in the garbage.

2) Take the bus to work at least two times a week.

3) Start using bio-degradable garbage bags.

4) Ride my bike or walk to errands whenever possible.

5) Become paperless in 2008 but reducing paper clutter, printing less and recycling more.

Not Knitting

It seems like the past month has included a lot of time of NOT KNITTING and I have to say I'm against that trend.

I've been busy moving, cleaning, tidying up and sorting but as of this coming weekend, that will be done. The move will be complete. I'm renting a small storage unit for those only occasionally used items (like Christmas trees and camping gear) and will be moving the rubbermaid bins into it this weekend.



I also hit a snag in the knitting last weekend when I discovered an error in my Clapotis. I've corrected it but it took a lot of my brain power to figure out what I had done wrong.

So this weekend, I plan to get back to knitting which makes me want to dance.

Knitalong Meetup!

Last night Larissa Brown came to Third Place Books to talk about her book, Knitalong (cleverly written with her husband, Martin John Brown).

I convinced Meg to come along and I think she had fun too! We got free bags which we love since we BYOB to the grocery store.

This book is pretty awesome! I already have so many patterns I want to make from this book and I can't wait to read all the chapters but the coolest thing about this book is that my name is in the liner notes as a contributor!

Knitalong with Larissa

Join the Knitalong at Third Place Books on Monday. THIS MONDAY! I'll be there and I hope you will be too! It will be cool to have Larissa a bit further up north for awhile.

Details (if you need them)

When: Monday, April 14th
Time: 7 p.m.
Where: Third Place Books (Lake Forest Park)

Knitting with the Harlot

After what feels like weeks of moving, culling and donating, I finally made some time to knit this weekend. Of course there is more putting away to do but it felt so good to get back to the knitting. And of course the knitting was all the more sweeter with a bit of the Yarn Harlot's newest book in my lap.