Randomness.... with pictures

This is what my life has been lately. Between work, church, Bible Study, random trips, random time with friends, random adventures, a lot of coffee, aaaaand just a little bit of random down times where I can knit, I have a few pictures to show for it all.

At the beginning of last month, November - yes, it has been that long, o my gosh - I went on a short little trip to the Oregon Coast. Went with a couple girlfriends and we had a blast fellowshipping, drinking coffee, frolicking on the beach, and even did a little yarnshopping! We went to this little shop in Cannon Beach, Coastal yarns where I bought some yarn and so did one of my friends. Then I taught her how to knit with it over coffee. Very fun time!!
So in case you were wondering, I bought some gorgeously red hand-dyed merino yarn - Madelinetosh Tosh Merino in "tart". It's pretty awesome. My friend bought three skeins of some kind of silk/alpaca yarn in very Autumnal colors - yellow, orange and white to make a striped scarf. Sorry, don't have have the exact deets on the yarn. But it's all very pretty and I got pictures!

Did I mention we had fun at the beach?? :)

I also had a birthday where my mom got me cubbies for my yarn! They are set up, but no organization has taken place yet...

Other than that, I have been wishing for snow and going on adventures looking for snow with varying success. 

Cataldo Mission in North Idaho

Lake Cocolalla in North Idaho, covered in snow and ice

I do have a few knitting projects in progress ~ one is a very cute dishcloth that I do not have a picture of. The other two, I'm a little too lazy right now to get out my real camera to take a picture, but I have an I-pod picture to share! I'm knitting a striped garter stitch scarf with the yarn I got in New York and some lace fingerless hand warmers with some alpaca I bought at Alpaca Direct in Hayden, ID - the pattern is Monkey Fingerless Mitts, a free pattern on Ravelry.

One more random thing - I'm going on a mountain adventure for Christmas!! My family has left for New York and will be gone this whole week, so I thought I'd take my three day weekend and go do something fun. I will be going to explore the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho and Bitterroot Valley in Montana and hoping I do not freeze to death!! I fully believe that knitting and the body heat of my little dog will keep this from happening!

I'm Back!

From my trip to the Northeast, that is... Well, I've been back, for a little over a week. Thought it be about time that I write about my trip! This was my first time traveling to New York without my parents and little brother, so I was a little nervous about it - but I'm glad I got a chance to venture out into the city on my own!!

I arrived in New York City Wednesday morning, about 9:00am EDT, after an overnight flight in. I took a little bit of a nap when I got to my grandparent's apartment, then spent the afternoon and evening catching up with them and just relaxing! The next day, I decided to explore a little bit of Manhattan. I walked up to the Starbucks on 78th and Lexington, got my SF vanilla latte and headed over a few blocks to Central Park. This was most fantastic! I got to sip my latte and knit and just enjoy the amazing-ness that is Central Park! I wandered through the park taking pictures, stopped to listen to some street musicians, had some Swedes ask me about the settings of their camera that was the same model as mine... except it was in their language, so, uh, I really couldn't help them... then meandered up 5th Ave to Rockefeller Center.

 

From there, I decided it was time to check out a yarn shop! So I hopped on the subway, made my way down to SoHo and visited a lovely little yarn shop called Purl SoHo. Very bright and trendy shop - they seemed to have a lot of merino wool and alpaca, some exotics, and some of the artsy novelty yarns. Very fun place. I purchased two skeins of 100% baby alpaca by Blue Sky Alpacas - sport weight in "Petal"' and "Cappuccino". I've already started knitting a lattice lace scarf with them :) I walked out of the shop without them wound, then got halfway down the block and decided to go back and have them wind up the skeins for me. When I was waiting for my yarn, I spotted a project I've seen on the Purl Bee: Whits Knits Colorblock Wand Warmers. I adore these hand warmers and would love to make them some time. Although, I would probably go for some kind of self-striping yarn in this same color combo, because buying all four colors of yarn would be a little spendy for me. Alas, I was so blessed to see those there at Purl SoHo. Upon leaving the shop, I realized I had a voice-mail from my grandmother asking where I was, so I made my way back up to their apartment on 73rd and Lexington, and spent the remainder of the afternoon/evening finishing up and blocking the scarf I knitted for my cousin! Got it finished just in time!

The next day, Friday, I rode the MegaBus up to Providence, Rhode Island to see my cousin who is a PhD student in the econ program at Brown University. She was organizing a folk concert featuring her good friend, Anthony da Costa and his friend, Anna Vogelzang. We had Thai food and spent the evening enjoying wonderful music. When we got back to her apartment for the night I presented her with her newly knitted scarf and she loved it and wore it the whole weekend! We spent our Saturday doing pilates, having gluten free pancakes & bacon (YUM!), walking around the Brown campus, shopping, and hanging out with her economist friends! What a delightful time! :) The next day, we tried to hit up brunch at this place in the hipster part of Providence known for their giant mimosas and awesome hashes. After waiting too long though, we decided to instead have brunch at an Italian deli. I then rode the bus back the NYC just in time to enjoy a scrumptious dinner with my grandparents, my aunt and another cousin of mine and her boyfriend.

Monday, I took the subway down to Brooklyn and spent the day with her on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, taking pictures of downtown Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. We had lunch at a pub then did a little shopping, making it back to Manhattan just in time for dinner. The next morning was my last in New York and I spent it wandering around my grandparent's neighborhood. I went to a yarn shop called String that was just a few blocks south of their apartment between Park and Madison Ave. Very upscale, indeed :) They feature quite a lot of cashmere and cashmere blends. The staff was very helpful and it was fun to browse their fibers and their finished knitted projects. They offered free patterns with yarn purchase. I bought a small skein of merino/cashmere/nylon blend in "Shadow" - I think I will call them and order another skein or two, should be really fun yarn to work with! Once I got back to the apartment, it was time for me to make sure I had all my stuff together and flag a cab to LGA to catch my plane home.

This just occured to me...

So. I've been planning this fabulous trip to New York City and Providence, RI to see family. I'm pretty excited. I leave the night of the 18th .. I think ... whatever next Tuesday is, arriving at LaGuardia at 9am on Wednesday, staying with my grandparents in Manhattan, traveling up to Providence to stay with my cousin for the weekend, then coming back to stay in New York until I fly back to Spokane on Tuesday the 25th. Whew! Yes, I'm pretty excited. I've let family know I will be around their neck of the country, but have no solid plans yet. I am actually hoping to enjoy a quiet, relaxing trip. If that's possible in NYC, I am determined to find out!!
Oh! And about my sudden occurance, I'm thinking that Manhattan *should* have some pretty fantastic yarn shops :) While I am accustomed to the down-home feel of the yarn shops in my neck of the woods, I am curious to see what an uppity SoHo shop is like. Does it have an extra measure of sophistication? Do they have more greyish colors? How much more expensive could they possibly get in the world of specialty yarns? Are there coffee shops near by? Are they extra artsy? I had more questions pop into my head earlier, but I've forgotten.

Another thought for now... Starbucks bags work well for carrying some of your small knitting projects around. Gave me an excuse to go buy some really expensive coffee :)

It's Thursday & I have a few things to say..

* It's almost Friday .. Payday Friday (yarn shopping perhaps?? but I already have lots of pretty yarn ... *sigh*)
* It's almost the weekend which means spending knitting time with my dearest mommy ... Who has lots more pretty yarn than I do ... *sigh*
* I actually do have to go to the yarn store tonight ... For legit reasons ... I'm 150% sure I don't have enough yarn for a certain project that is taking forever to finish ... Praying that they have the same dye lot!! and I resist the urge to buy more pretty yarn ... *sigh*
* Tonight I will be shelling out half the cash needed to go on a Spring fling adventure to White Fish, MT with a local knitting group where we will buy pretty yarn ... *sigh*
* I am equally torn between starting my Imagination cowl (which is on my list) and using some lusciously yellow malibrigo that has been in my yarn bag since my friend just GAVE it to me .. Uh a few weeks ago .. to knit a hat ... it's really pretty yarn
* I'm wondering .. Do people out there buy yarn/knit to match their clothes? Or do they buy clothes to match their knitting? Just curious..

Knit wishlist :: two thousand & eleven

So, as I have been pouring over other knitting blogs, I find myself not feeling so bad that I currently have three projects that I'm lugging around in my knitting bag and probably quite a few more stashed away somewhere that I started and lost interest in (probably because I had way too many projects going at once!) One thing I hope to accomplish with this blog is to gain more intentionality with the way I pursue certain knitting projects. Learning to avoid the random weekend trips to the yarn shop where I buy a couple skeins of some beautifully whimsical yarn, not know what I'm going to do with it, but loving it so much that I just have to start knitting with it right away ... I'm sure many are familiar with the way that story ends :) Anyway, I have projects in my head that I really want to do, but may take a little more planning than I'm used to, so to help ... here's my list!

a Simple Sweater
Hard to believe, I've been knitting for almost 7 years and I have never successfully knit a sweater. I did attempt a couple in my early years of knitting, but probably due to immaturity/short attn span/whatever, I'd loose focus, get overwhelmed by schoolwork and they just got stashed (to be quite honest, I have no idea where they are now!!) In the last couple years, I've had the urge to try one again, but last year after I topped 200 pounds, I really had no desire to buy the enormous amount of yarn that it would take to knit an XL sweater, spend all that time to knit it and have it not fit in the end. After loosing 60 lbs this last year, knitting a medium sweater for myself seems to be the perfect reward! A PDF of this pattern is sitting on my desktop and I think it will be a great pattern to start out: http://www.mariegracedesigns.com/marie_grace/everyday-tweed-knitting-p.html .. I will resist the urge to place a cable down the side of it :) :)

Scarves & Cowls
* Autumnus Scarf : I love love love this scarf. My friend and fellow knitter in crime, Stephanie, shared this pattern with me and I can hardly wait to knit it!! I think I am going to use some chunky purple merino wool yarn I bought at Loopy's in Missoula paired with some purple kid seta mohair with beads placed randomly throughout
* Imagination Cowl : My mom is currently knitting this and I think it's amazing. "It's ruched!" has suddenly become my favorite phrase
* Infinity Scarf: Don't have a pattern for this, but I really want to knit some sort of really long loopy thing to wrap around myself. I have a size 8 40" circular and I would like to use leftover yarn in my stash in a moss stitch to create a woven look much like a scarf my mom knit for my dad last Fall.
* Entrelac Scarf or Cowl: I also don't have a pattern for this, but I taught myself how to entrelac knit last Fall. The yarn I was using just didn't showcase it well. If I come across some yarn this year that is worthy of entrelac-greatness, I will snatch it up!

Felted Projects
I love felted projects - especially bags. It kind of reminds me of when I did ceramics and after spending a lot of effort and time forming and glazing a pot/plate/mug/bowl/whatever, throwing it in the kiln and seeing what comes out! Since I recently purchased a fancy dancy camera, I really need a bag for it ... and why buy one when you can make one?! I don't have a pattern quite yet, but *hoping* that I might just find one on Ravelry!

Baby Hats
I've been working on baby hats for my friend's photography business, ShmilyFace Photography - http://shmilyfacephoto.wordpress.com/. It has been an amazingly uplifting project for me because not only has it inspired me to start this blog, but also the desire to knit baby hats for a local charity like a crisis pregnancy center. It will take some time away from my own "selfish knitting" and would probably involve the help of a few other fellow knitters, but it is definitely on my heart to pray about!