Miracles Do Happen

Where to begin? So much to tell. I have pictures from about the second Wednesday of January until now to post. Crap. Okay. Here goes....

I was supposed to make a pink hat for myself to wear to the Red Hat Ladies Meeting the second Wednesday of this month. As mentioned in the previous entry I tried 3 different hat patterns, one of them twice, and frogged them all. Then I started this cabled headband from Chic Knits. It is tough to see the cable in this picture but trust me, it is pretty, and it's simple. As you can see it isn't a pink hat. Oh well.

Here you can see the pink hat I did wear. It was one that happened long before I learned how to knit. I did start crocheting like the day after I bought the hat and scarf and was having a tough time finding the wisdom in learning the craft. At least from an economic standpoint. The hat and scarf combo was from an inexpensive retail giant (no, not Wally World) and cost about $22. The materials that I bought for a scarf (yarn and crochet hook) cost only about $14, but that doesn't take into account the time it took me to make that one scarf. Not only that, but I think the person I gave it to doesn't even wear it. It was a pretty double crocheted black scarf with fringe out of the soft TLC yarn (cheap, I know, but I was new). One more thing about the Red Hat Lady day. If you look closely at the picture of J and I, I am wearing my "Coming Home" Poncho that I have failed to post a picture of on this blog. It was my first ever knitting project way back last June.

Now for the fun stuff. This past Thursday J and I took off from escaped from Humboldt County and began to make our way towards San Diego for the National NeedleArts Association's Winter Trade Show. Thursday we stayed the night in Sacramento. The next day began with a very nice conversation with a very happy Grandma (I love you Grammie). Coffee stop was next, gas, then of course Wally World. Here are J and I in the optical department trying on some Oscar de la Rente sunglasses. Eventually we stopped for coffee. You can see here that I'm double fisting the caffeine drinks. We had good Thai food at Thai Silk in Huntington Beach. We finally landed at the hotel around 11:30 pm where we met J's mom (aka The Owner of MLYS).

Saturday morning we were at the Convention center at about 7:45 am. They had Starbuck's so I was mostly okay except the whole, low blood sugar = cranky me thing. So, we went and asked a nice lady by the name of Alma, who was sweeping the sidewalk outside of the Hilton, if she knew of any good and inexpensive places to eat. She directed us to a place around the corner that was a liquor store that smelled like breakfast. I had a breakfast sandwich on a croissant that had the most perfect bacon ever. Crispy. Thanks Alma!

Back at the convention center we checked out the wall of yarn and the tables of products that the vendors had brought. It was all their new crap. Nothing really jumped out at me but then, I am forever in search of a single-ply, bulky, acrylic yarn. Anyways, finally at around 10 am the doors opened for the show. I was so excited when I saw book signings happening! I cannot even tell you. I had my pic taken with Fiona Ellis the author of the new, really cool book Inspired Cable Knits. I love the cabled hoodie. All the patterns are just gorgeous. Click on the book link to find out more!

Right after that, the most amazing thing happened. It was like a sign from g-d (if you believe in that sort of thing), I was looking at the publisher's table with all of the books on it and right there in front of me was a copy of the Big Girl Knits book that is supposed to be coming out April 19th. J said she'd give me like a million rock star points if I snatched it. But then, just as I was really beginning to consider starting a life of crime, I saw a schedule for the day of authors that would be signing and giving away books. Wouldn't you know that the book I absolutely, positively cannot live without was one of them. Not only that, but I didn't have to wait long. Jillian Moreno and Amy Singer were going to begin signing books in 15 minutes. OMG, I was so excited I thought I might pee my pants (kidding, but still, very excited). And thus, I got my uncorrected copy of Big Girl Knits. Then I got to meet Cat Bordhi, author of A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting. She is super gracious and I am really loving her book.

J, her Mom, and I found a number of really great new patterns, projects, and yarns for the shop. I think the coming months should be great fun.

Upon arriving back home in Humboldt, I was greeted by Q and these lovely flowers. He can be such a love sometimes. I suppose that's it for now. I'm moving out to a new place this weekend, school is on and today, I am still trying to recover from San Diego.

Ciao

Getting Away From Me

Life is getting away from me. I have been to S & B this month, midnight madness, started teaching classes, sang a Whitesnake song at karaoke and so much more. Why haven't I written about it you might find yourself asking. Ugh. Too much time spent doing it all. That and I tried to get up the whole story yesterday but my computer is, I believe, overheating. It will suddenly turn off. I think it is a protection mechanism or something. That or it's crap. Both.

Okay, so, first off, S & B was the first Tuesday of the month. That would have been the third. I guess I'm not so far behind. Anyways, I was working on a hat for the Pink Hat Ladies dinner. I was trying to modify a pattern and it ended up being too small. I have tried making 4 different pink hat lady hats to no avail. What that means to me is that I probably shouldn't be a pink hat lady. The same night J said she needed some antacid. I told her not to grab the two colored Tums. She says, "Why?" Before I could tell her, she had popped one of them into her mouth and was walking around showing us all how disgusting the Tums tasted. Great. Linda is working on cards or pergomano or parmesan cheese or whatever it is that she does that doesn't involve yarn and needles. Becky was making the Voodoo wrist warmers from Knitty. Why they called them Voodoo is beyond me. I mean seriously, shouldn't there be like a Fair Isled pattern of a man cutting off a chicken's head on them or something in order be able to be dubbed "voodoo"? Maybe I'm too finicky. Fe.



As for karaoke news. I did, in fact, sing the Whitesnake song "Here I Go Again" this past Thursday at Blue Lake Casino. OMG. It was sooooo hilarious. All I could think of was that chick in the video who I thought was blonde but turns out was brown hair. Oh well, see how well my brain remembers things from my teen years. Just for trivia's sake, said brown haired lady from the video is Tawny Kitaen. I remember her writhing all over this car in the video. Here is the only picture I could find in case you had forgotten the video.

I still have pink/red hat stuff and class stuff to talk about. It'll have to be later. Oh, did I mention J, the owner of MLYS, and myself are all going to San Diego this weekend for the National NeedleArts Association Trade Show. Buahahaha. I hope they give us lots 'o free crap. Updates and pics soon!

Ta Daaaah! MITTENS

Et voila! Here is my very first mitten. I designed it as I went. Teaching a class on mitten making this month so I needed to get a pattern together. I don't think it should be too too tough for the folks at MLYS. I finished it with some short rows for the fingers then did the Kitchener stitch to finish it. Whee! The fingers are a little boxier than I wanted but it could be that I just don't like mittens (me thinks that is really what it is).

Check out Q being a peach and doing what all good boyfriends and significant others should do.

No Power: Washing My Meat With Dog Water

Imagine this: New Year's Eve and no power in your town or the next one over. That is what happened here night before last. There was a huge storm and the power got knocked out at around 11 am in Eureka, Arcata, and McKinleyville. For all I know the power was out for all of Humboldt County. Being the resilient person that I am, I decided that we (Q, J, and myself) were going to go out and have a great time anyways.

The evening started with a trip to Safeway. They were the only place open that had any food. No restaurants were open due to the whole, no power, no lights, burn safety hazard stuff...go figure. So, at Safeway the whole town was there. And, even though they had covered all the refrigerated goods with plastic (I'm assuming so we wouldn't make ourselves sick), almost all of the Lunchables were gone. We grabbed the snack size.

Out in the car we started eating. The little stack of meat slices from mine flew out of the package and onto my dog hair covered floor. Ick! Anyways, I asked J to pass me the water that was at her feet. It was Lupine's water or as I like to put it, "dog water". Dog water in hand I began to wash my meat and then proceeded to eat it.

The next stop was the Clam Beach Inn. Q's and my favorite bartender, Jan was working. Jan makes the best drinks. It is as though she is trying to kill you. We ordered Cape Cods or vodka and cranberry, whichever you are familiar with. They came, I am not kidding, about 90% vodka and 10% cranberry or, just enough to turn the drink pink. Wow. Jan was giving away ice cream treats again due to the whole no power melt down thing. Here are Q and I with the delectable ice cream treat "Choco Taco". My first one ever.

J called her sister ZeeBee(ZB) to pick us up and take us to scope out Arcata, and if that was no good, then to take us to Blue Lake Casino because they had power. ZB is the best human on the planet as far as I'm concerned. She showed up at Clam Beach and didn't have much gas in her car and none of the gas stations were open due, again to the whole no power no fuel pumping capabilities thingy. I offered up my car (technically my mom's car) and off we went. Arcata was looking Lame-O so we settled on Blue Lake Casino. Here is a pic of me, Q, and J. We had a great time. ZB picked us up around 4am after we had eaten the free breakfast offered at Blue Lake.

And finally, in knitting news...here is where I am with my knitting bag made from the itchy scratchy thick boucle wool that I bought with my birthday money on eBay.