Encinitas 09 - Trip #1

DH is out. BHE is in.

DH will now go by the moniker Best Husband Ever. Because he is.

We were in Encinitas this weekend because I had some work stuff to do in Anaheim. Went into the weekend with a bit of the ickies. Runny, stuffy nose, mild headache, sore throat, nasaly voice - A real nice how-do-you-do. Shake my hand and take your chances. Yep, meetings were great. Regardless, I performed. But that's enough about work.

Breakfast and coffee at Pannikin. I love that coffee. BHE bought some beans for home :) And then surprised me with matching Pannikin mugs. :) :) Awesome coffee and crossword puzzles make me look forward to our mornings.

While I was up in Anaheim ALL DAY on Saturday BHE and Jack motored around everywhere. Foot and stroller that is. The local weekend bazaar, Leucadia Pizzeria, a Hawaiian place he talks about, Encinitas Surfboards. They had a lot of fun. Next time I'll run around with them. But BHE surprised me again with some goodies - Flips (he calls them Slaps) from the Hawaiian store and then he outfitted our little family in Encinitas Surfboards attire :) He and Jack got T-shirts and he picked out a pale blue hoodie with pale purple logos for me. I love it! He knows Mom is always cold and Baby Bear is a hot little bugger.

Encinitas Surfboards logo on my awesome new hoodie.
Jack's excited to get out of the car seat. Well, probably excited just to be held by Mom.

Sushi at Tomiko's capped off my long Saturday. Amazing sushi. He knows where to go and what to order. I resisted the pressure to have "good" sushi in AZ for so long but I finally gave in. After having sushi in Encinitas this one time it will be never until I give in again. The restaurant is next to the Best Western and from searching, they might be kind of related now. That is truly the best Best Western if that's the case. BHE was there the first night Tomiko's opened. He would know.

Jack was great through dinner. But as good as he is he can only take so much of it. (That applies to all of us, doesn't it?) We cut dinner short before it was too late. I nursed and then collapsed into bed. I would have gotten 9 hours of sleep if it weren't for the darn time change.

Sunday morning after coffee we headed to the beach for some pictures. We happened upon a surf competition and it was truly awesome. Little Jack will be out on a surfboard as soon as he can swim.

The tents were for individual schools and teams.
New slaps too. Can you see the gold stickers on the toe? I didn't until I saw this picture. Nerd.

BHE knows how to get great shots of the surf.

Jack was a great little road tripper. The drive over was quiet then he fed and slept all night. The drive back was a bit longer and the sun was in his eyes so he was fussy. As soon as the sun went down he fell asleep and was fine the rest of the way. I'm ready for another trip to Encinitas.

Woo Hoo! It's windy! We stopped at a rest area just outside of LA - where it's still green and not boring brown. Jack loves his bug from Auntie FR.

AHHHH! Look at the size of the bug! Clean it off!
Okay, maybe we were (I was) getting delirious but I had a good laugh. :)

These Days

These Days by Nico is one of my favorites I forget that I love. From a movie that I loooove - The Royal Tenenbaums. (Intriguing bio there on Wikipedia.) The song itself is haunting or wistful or both, mesmerizing. Not exactly a representation of how I feel these days. I just love it :)

I drove by a new LYS today completely by accident! Knit Happens just HAPPENS to be near my salon and PRACTICALLY on the way home from work! It was a beautiful, sunny day today and I should have stopped in but I was running an errand for work and I just feel guilty doing that.

Click on the link to their blog real quick - they have a snapshot of the store and it looks just awesome. There is no way I could hop in real quick on lunch!

A new FO - The froggy bath mitt for my nephew. (Yep, still working on Christmas 08) Fun, easy, quick. I'd knit the hand a couple inches longer if I knit this one again. It's just not a comfortable fit; it feels short.

Notice the hole by the eye? Yeah, it bothers me and there's a few other tear ducts if you will. I just figured that's what happened when you picked up stitches and knit. Welllll maybe when you do it wrong. Didn't find out I was wrong until after I was done. My previous method had me knitting INTO the work so that the stitches on the work were pulled wonky on the needle. What I should have been doing was put the new yarn on the needle by pulling it THROUGH the work. I think this will fix some of my problems.

And here's a little Jack for you. He's 5 months now but these pics are about two weeks apart.



He loves his car, handed down from his cousin. He's walking pretty well, jumping which just looks weird and drooling on everything. He's worse than the dogs before they get fed in the morning.

It looks like they added some bumper stickers - Starbucks, Army - I have to go look for our RunGP stickers ....

This is a race weekend. I'd like to finish a second man cap this weekend maybe. We'll see.

Who Wants Some WEBS?

Check this out: There's a contest over at KnitPurlGurl. She's giving away WEBS swag! Right on! Sure to be a nice pick me up for the lucky winner.

I've seen some interesting blogs recently (the look but I'm always running across great content, too) I'm inspired to change the look of my blog...

Knitting these days is slow :( I overdid it the other day knitting 4 inches of 2x2 rib for a hat while I was waiting for my husband to get back from Vegas. My wrists and thumbs hurt so I'm *trying* to take it easy. I'm also pretty sure eliminating gluten, corn and potato will help too. (It has in the past, that's not just a pipe dream.)

No-No-Noro

This is my 100th post!

And my first KAL!

And my first magic loop project!

And my first (major) experience trouble-shooting a pattern. It was a puzzle from the start and I do mean the very start - cast on 42 stitches so you have 24 stitches on each needle. Errrr. But I trudged on, frogging again and again. In the end the pattern was quite banal; the yarn makes it. Do use Noro or another awesome yarn if you knit this.

Noro's color striping is a bit unpredictable though I know this; I'm not a Noro virgin. Because this is going off to a sister that I suspect craves balance I didn't just knit straight through the ball. The first mitt ended with that really cool aqua and the second was going to turn to rust and yellow. With plenty of the aqua still in the ball I just switched over to the other end of the ball. Easy, I like the look. I think she will too....

Except I don't know which sis will be wearing these yet. I'd like to mail off all the knit gifts in one box, all together and let them figure it out. Meh. But I'm finished in time for the deadline. And that's a real accomplishment these days.

Etsy Goodies

Is it Tuesday because I think it might still be Monday. I am totally lost already this week.

Hurry and catch NH Knitting Mama's sale! It ends this Thursday 2/5. (It's February already?)

A friend of mine set up her shop: Hope Ink
Beautiful artwork. As described on her page: "...sharing the beauty and truth of the Scriptures in fresh and whimsical ways." She has an amazing hand that I've always admired.

A Note To Mom

Mom,

This is your Christmas present (2008). I know you've already read about it and that's my fault. I tell you to go see my blog yet I post details of all my Christmas knitting. Now that you're on Ravelry, too, I will post in code from here on out when knitting gifts. ...well, starting after this post.

Here is your Felted Oven Mitt! The card taped to the fridge is from the Surfrider Foundation. Big G donated and got a bunch of cool bumper stickers and this handy little card. Little G loves to stare at it.

Remember this yarn? I think you made a Lucy Bag for FR and this was the leftover. Beautiful Manos colorway. I doubled it with a dusty rose (I know you hate the color and the name of the color but it matched beautifully) from Creative Focus. Pricier wool than Lamb's Pride, but that's what Jessica Knits stocks. Next time you're here we'll catch them on a day when they're open. Cute little shop.

Look how close I was to running out of yarn. I was seriously sweating bullets. That ONE STRAND is all that's left of the Creative Focus. *wipes brow* Jeez.

And I'll go out on a limb here and vote this pic as your favorite. It's the pre-felted mitt in it's over-sized glory. No? Not your favorite? Why in the world, you ask, would I take a pic when it's huge and disproportionate? Well, two reasons: 1) This was its home for weeks. Probably the same time frame in which Peggy was knitting her Felted Oven Mitt and attempting to felt in her front-loading washer. (Peggy - this piece was the most difficult one I've ever felted. More than THREE full cycles!!!) 2) Take a close look at the colors. I started on the first ball and loved the bright colors. Moved to the second ball and was disappointed that the colors didn't pop like the other ball. Couldn't tell in the balls and still can't in the finished piece. Guess it works!

Here's a little treat for you. Just another Christmas gift (2008) I'm working on (for J, I think). I finished the Tudora (orininally for her) but I really wanted to start these Noro Mitts. I'm supposed to be part of a KAL (knit-a-long) but I am most likely waaay behind everyone. I have frogged this piece too many times. Once with just 4 rows remaining. I'll try to catch up - I have a trade show to go to in LA. Just an overnight trip but I'll have a lot more time there than I do at home. My goal is to at least finish this one and start on the next. The last bit of finishing news: I blocked one more piece of the Surface Woven Tote. I would have done the whole thing but I ran out of pins.

When I get back I will make an extra effort to get your mitt out in mail. Hopefully by then it will be dry. (That sucker is thick!) I'll probably call you sometime today to get you to come read this :)

Shh! Everyone's Sleeping!

Little Jack and the dogs gave me a nice respite this afternoon. DH left to have the van inspected by a Dodge tech. Yes, I said van. More on that later when I have pics.

I have two projects on my (belated) gift list that are felted: Oven Mitt and Argyle Pillow. Since I'm using stash yarn and I'm not up to date on logging it on Ravelry, I pulled them all out of my yarn closet and sorted them by color.

I have a lot more wool than I thought! A nice range of colors too but I think I need some more browns and blues. I might have to go pick up some brown, earthy colored Paton's for the backside of the pillow. I was thinking the multicolored Manos here in the front could work for the mitt but I don't think I have enough unless I double it with a solid. Hmm. I'll think about that. Then for the Pillow, the red Lamb's Pride on the left under the door with the taupe Araucania on top of the Knit Pick's natural. I hear that most whites and natural colors don't felt, how about Knit Pick's? That would work for the pillow or the mitt. HMMMM....

Uh oh, he's stirring. I better put this mess away.