A Bag and a Dream

My goal this weekend was to finish the knitting part of my FFBE bag. I came sooo close but last night I was too tired to finish the last pocket. I was somewhat disappointed that I didn't finish but only 25 stockinette rows with 15 stitches per row wasn't going to take me long. (I've already finished this morning.)

Apparently in my mind it was a much bigger deal because I had a dream that I failed my first swap. Missed the deadlines, didn't get the right stuff into the package, didn't HAVE a package. I was pretty sad in my dream but now it's funny. I think that was my first knitting dream! LOL

FFBE Contest #2

1. Post on your blog, and give us SOME kind of secret "Bag in Progress" photo. You could share your yarn before you started, or a close up of your knitting, or the patterns you pondered when you began, or what you're still pondering!

Posted pics here a while back.

2. Post a link to the blog of one other swapper that you 'met' and have continued to read through the 3-2-1 contact post!

Just one? I regularly “catch up” with a number of them but here’s one!

3. Post a link here telling me you entered! Done!

4. Do this no later than September 23rd! Done!

End of Summer Vacation

Here are some pics from the weekend. We stayed in Encinitas, northern coast of San Diego and Gianni's hometown.

First thing in the morning we'd get coffee/Apricot tea (I'm off caffeine per the NMD, dairy too) at a quirky little cafe that used to be a train station. Then we'd head off for the early morning tradition of checking the surf. With the marine layer overhead, hot tea in hand and the sun skimming the eastern horizon to warm our backs it was just perfect. After the surf was duly assessed it was time for breakfast. Machaca burrito from the original Filiberto's (*) - yummy, filling and an excellent precursor to a nap. Filiberto's is franchised into AZ, but now I've tasted the difference and there IS a difference. (* yarn reference below)


Roused from a nap by the mid-day sun, it was beach time! We played in the waves, well at least I did. Gianni was legitimately body surfing. I could admit I was trying but eh. We laid in the sun to dry off. Perfect weather - not too hot, warm enough breeze, enough sun for a burn-now-turned-tan. On Saturday at Del Mar beach we avoided a parking ticket when Eagle Eyes spotted the park ranger writing tickets. Scooping up our minimalist beach gear in mere seconds and walking rapidly to the wagon felt kinda punk! Take that, Ticket Lady! With all that expended energy it was lunch/dinner time.

Dinner and drinks were always nice. That might sound like an understatement but ALL of the food ALL weekend was just really good. The bars were mostly empty so we didn't run into too many of his friends. Apparently there was some surfing or skating event down the coast a bit so everyone was out of town. We didn't do sushi for dinner this time (pricey) but we picked up a sushi-grade tuna steak at the market before we left town. Sunday night we had sushi before dinner and sushi-style seared tuna for dinner. Wow - now that was good home cooking!


In between the tea and beach and naps and food, we managed to see a few surf shops. Boards are expensive $1000! Even the used ones are $500. I'm excited to learn how despite my lack of balance. Hopefully next year we'll have time (and cash) to take some surf trips.

(*) Hungry for breakfast, we quickly parked down the street from Filiberto's and hurried inside. (Heather knows exactly where this is headed :) Gianni was eating and I was gazing out the front window. Two ladies and a man walked by. They didn't catch my eye really, but the bag she was holding did. Semi-transparent tote .... looks like paper in there .... that's not that unusual but .... what's that? Is that YARN??? Oh yeah. We had actually parked directly in front of Common Threads. Great little yarn shop that wasn't all that little! Nice corner of Manos. Most of the yarn looked to be sorted by color. So pleasing to the eye. Ahhhh. Over the weekend we repeatedly drove by another yarn shop, Black Sheep, but I didn't want to press my luck. We'll be back in Encinitas soon enough.

So, sooo relaxing. Definitely what I needed and I'm feeling much better. I'm sticking to my temporary schedule for the next few weeks, maybe a month. Four hours a day and Fridays off. I'd actually like to get another San Diego trip in before the sun and surf get too chilly. The moderate temps on the coast are more conducive to healing the kidneys and I've been told adrenal exhaustion is your body saying you need to have fun. San Diego fits the bill. Don't know why I'm still in the desert.

First rule of Knit Club: Don't talk about Knit Club

I have three male roommates and WOW did they lay into me tonight. All in good fun...I was laughing so hard I was crying. It all started when I saw Heather's blog and read that she was going to a knit out in Balboa Park, just south of where we were staying. Jokingly to my bf, "Look what we could have done on Saturday!" Although it would have been great fun I would never bore him with that nor would I ask him to leave his sleepy little surf town. (Great time! I'll post pics later.)

Besides tonight's topic of knitting, my bf announced he is going to take his Volvo 850 Turbo wagon to the drag track on Friday. Sure, sounds fun! I'll sit up in the stands and watch a few passes. It'll be cool enough to be bearable, under 100 degrees. Beats sitting at home. I haven't mentioned this yet but bf has been into what I'll call extreme sports just about his entire life - dirt bikes, motorcycles, surfing, skating - anything where you can get good and hurt. (Yes, I've seen him crash and yes, I support his adrenaline addiction.) Drag racing fits right in. Just for fun!

Well it doesn't stop there. I also have a Volvo 850 Turbo and apparently it has two more pounds of boost than his (it's a little bit faster). Immediately after his announcement, his Volvo-phile friends "encouraged" him to get my car out there. Um, what? "So how are you with pressure like that?" He's been on the starting line at least 600 times, racing motorcycles and cars and whatnot. This doesn't look good. Oh boy, you have to have one foot on the gas and one on the brake?? Hmmm ... I once had a car that wouldn't idle. I'm in.

I Love the Beach!

Looking north from Powerhouse park in Del Mar

The sun was warming our backs as we watched the surf this morning. Drinking hot apricot tea with a carrot zucchini muffin from Pinnikin. Why do I live in the desert?

Destination Encinitas

Heading out on a road trip tomorrow. I'm so excited! I really need a vacation about now. My only trips this summer were work related so even though I went to Orlando it was in no way restful and not even close to qualifying as a vacation.

Ahhh an ocean breeze, cool ocean water, watching my sweetie surf. I'll definitely get in the water but with my health these days I won't be exerting myself. Yeah, the doctor doesn't really know what it is so I'm seeing a Naturopath. I seem to be making progress but I still can't work a full day. Resting is just not my style so this has been really hard on me. The company I work for ordered me to "go have fun" so that's what I'm doing. I'm truly thankful for their understanding nature.

If I've got this mobile blogging thing right, I'll post some pics. I'd best be getting to packing. We're leaving at 4am - early so we can have morning coffee overlooking the beach.

Wristers

Dream Wristers by Acorn Street
Yarn: Dream by Tahki Imports

My mom, her closest friend and I were running around yarn stores while I was up visiting for the holidays. At one of my mom's favorite LYS in Seattle, this pattern jumped out and screamed, "Jess!" one of my younger sisters and the only other knitter. Mom rarely knits on anything smaller than size 10 but really wanted to knit these up - on 4 DPN. And she tried. On my next visit she reluctantly handed them to me about 4 inches into the first cuff. I happily assumed the WIP. Starting with the flight home to Phoenix, these guys were my distraction on flights to Anaheim, Secaucus, and somewhere in Indiana - all for trade shows. This project seemed to draw inquiries more than any other. After one late night flight, a man across the aisle wistfully thanked me for bringing back memories of his mother. A touching moment.

The colors suit my sister to a T but to knit them for so long they got kind of boring. I, of course, would have picked for myself magenta and orange or another high-contrast, bold color combination, but there is really NO time of year when I could wear these so Jess is the lucky recipient. All in all it was a fun project, really pretty easy. My mom and I learned once and for all with this project that the loops on the needle really are another row. When she gave it to me there was one tan row and loops on the needle. We couldn't figure it out together soooo I knit another tan row. Lesson learned!