Hats and Other Things

I'm making good progress on my Peerie Flooers hat.  The knitting is going a bit faster and I seem to be getting into a little rhythm which makes me relax, which is nice!  I got to this point yesterday and decided to stop and get started on a hat my husband asked me to make for him (you read that right!).  I was on complete lock down for 4 years ~ 'no thanks' was always the polite refusal when I offered to make him something.  Then last year, I got a 'I would wear that if you made it for me' as he was looking over my shoulder one day while I was on Ravelry.  Shocker!  The hat he asked for was done immediately!  Fast forward to a year later and he's nicely asked me for 2 of the same hats, one for Seahawks game days so he can wear it to the stadium and one in 'work colors' so he can wear it everyday and not worry about it getting dirty.

So, while he was at the football game yesterday, I started on his next hat & hopefully I'll have it done by Sunday so he can wear it to the game at the end of the week.

It's a fun pattern that you can find on Ravelry for free ~ 'We Call Them Pirates'.  It's going much quicker since it's only 2 colors instead of 7 like Peerie Flooers.

On a side note ~ if you haven't checked out America's Knitting, you should.  It's a really neat website with maps and locations of fiber shops and festivals across the USA.  I've been on Mary's site before and was surprised and a little tickled that she sent me a note over the weekend to ask if she could feature my Vitamin D sweater that I recently finished on her Fall 2011 projects page on the site.  I love unexpected things like that ~ makes life more fun!  If you want to take a peek, here's the link.  Dozer even managed to make it on the page ~ that's his bushy black tail in the photo.

Have a good week, everyone!  I've got lots of knitting to do so better get to it!   ~ Melissa

Party Girls

Jo and Zoe's first play date!

Tuesday night was our knitting guild's 2nd birthday party and what better place for the girls to meet for the first time?!  It was a really fun meeting ~ everyone brought snacks, there were cakes from Snohomish Bakery, members shared their ribbons from the Evergreen State Fair a few weeks ago, there were prizes for UFO's ~ biggest, smallest and oldest! ~ and the new officers were sworn in for our upcoming membership year.

It was great to see our guest blogger Morgen, who surprised me with an unexpected, tremendously generous and oh, so loved already, birthday gift:

Zoe cuddling with my birthday yarn

Yes, that's my favorite yarn ~ madelinetosh ~ in a weight I haven't tried ~ sock ~ in the most beautiful variegated colorway I've ever seen ~ Magnolia Leaf.  There's a little over 1000yds which is plenty enough to make a gorgeous shawl.  I'm going to have so much fun planning for this yarn!!  Thanks again, Morgen ~ I'm still shocked ~ and thanks also for the loan of the book.  I can't wait to delve into this one!

There's been little knitting time lately as I've been spending every spare minute getting ready to start my position as 'Knit News' reporter for the guild.  I'll have the opportunity every month at our meetings to do a presentation on any topic that happens to strike my fancy.  I'm close to done with my first presentation ~ the topic is top secret until October ~ but I have to say, every person that I contacted on Ravelry in regards to project, photo, and pattern sharing has been so generous and encouraging that I think I'll be able to work through all my jitters about speaking in front of the group on a regular basis.  I'm excited to see if I'm 'interesting' or if I 'bomb' ~ as a fairly new knitter, what do you talk about that would interest a room full of lifelong amazing crafters.  It will certainly be a challenge!  I'll let you know how it goes after our next meeting.  Wish me luck!

I did manage to finish a project this week ~ just what the doctor ordered since nothing feels 'done' right now (home, knitting, guild, you name it) and I needed to complete something. 

This is Vitamin D by Heidi Kirrmaier in one of my top 5 favorite yarns ~ Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in Coffee Bean.  I'm thrilled with this knit and the drape of the yarn.  I'll get a ton of use out of this one this fall and winter.  This was a great knit with a little math and short rows, which kept all the stockinette from getting too boring.  I loved this pattern.

That's about all that's new for me ~ Kelli just finished a really pretty vest but if you want to see it you'll either have to check her out on Ravelry or razz her a little here to post more often (I'm all for option #2 ~ give her some grief, please!!).  Enjoy the last week of summer as we start hunkering down for some cooler weather and prime knitting time.  Happy weekend, all!      ~ Melissa

[Edited to add:  DANG ~ I was just rereading this after I posted and I HAVE finished something this summer ~ look at that awesome deck I'm standing on!!!  I stained that all by myself ~ 2 coats of stain and 38 man(or woman!)hours later ~ it took just about every single minute of sunny weather we had this summer that I wasn't at work!!!  So proud ~ and so pooped ~ but it is FINISHED!!!!  I get excited when it rains now since the water beads up which means I did a good job ~ yeah, for me!]

Down time ~

I'm doing nothing today, not even getting out of the pj's.  Seriously.  I was up at 5:00 yesterday morning getting salmon out of brine and into the smokers...the last piece finished up at about 10:30 last night:

Our freezer is full ~ 32 chunks of silver and 10 good size king pieces.  Thanks, again, JR ~ your cooler and some of this is headed your way soon!

I also processed 5lbs of Oregon blueberries.  I've got 4c dehydrated in the freezer now and 5 and a 1/2 jars of this left:

My first ever blueberry jam ~ I'm not a fan of blueberry pie (too sweet) but this jam is so good that I've already eaten 1/2 a jar since I finished making it yesterday.  Much less labor intensive than the cherry jam I made last week and I'll definitely make multiple batches of this next year.  I've enjoyed doing these experimental small batches while I'm learning to can, since I can test recipes as well as figure out all the ins and outs of food preservation.

And if the kitchen projects weren't enough, I finished (almost) my Goodale sweater that I had mostly completed by October of last year.  I actually did all the finish work once yesterday but thought I could tweak everything to make it even better so I ripped all my seaming out and did it a second time.  It's on the blocking boards right now, so no completely finished photos but you can get an idea:

And finally, while I sat up all night (I'm not exaggerating!) waiting for my husband to get home from a too long day of fly fishing and seeing Soundgarden at The Gorge in Eastern Washington, I cast on for Vitamin D:

My sleepless night was the result of a not so funny at the time comedy of errors ~ I waited up, he got too tired driving home so pulled over to sleep, I normally wouldn't have been up to know that he hadn't made it home on time but I was wide awake, he didn't call to tell me he had pulled off the highway since he thought I was sleeping.....so at 5:30 this morning he got a panicked phone call from me....WHERE ARE YOU!?!?!?!?!

He's fine, we're both tired, and all's well that ends well.  I'm spending the rest of today snuggling on the couch with the pup and knitting a little...

or napping a lot!  Hope everyone is having a great weekend!   ~ Melissa