There's no place like home?

Ok, I am getting burned out with travel. We are now in Astoria. Back in Oregon. I couldn't blog in Victoria but it was beautiful. Sooke Harbor House (thanks Gail!) was the most incredible place. We couldn't resist so we hired a guide and went salmon fishing. We caught two fish each (well, we had to throw 2 of em back because they weren't in season). The reason we didn't catch much is that the killer whales were swimming around. We got to see them and they were awesome. Anyhow, we brought the fish to the hotel to have the chef cook them for dinner for us. He was an amazing chef and did amazing things with the fish.

So, we are now on the downside of the trip. Astoria is cute (well it is sorta cute) and we ate at a restaurant across from the hotel we are staying in (hotel is great, it is called Hotel Elliot) and we met really nice people that heard our fish story and were sad that we really didn't catch much. The man kept telling me that this Wen I would see lots of fish that he was sending me at home. We will see.

Today we are off to Coos Bay. We are staying at a Casino. It is cheesy and great. Wish me luck. I may come home a millionaire (ok, so I have a 40 dollar limit when it comes to gambling, but ya never know).

Flickr is down and I can't show pictures but I will post them later after I make a million at the black jack table.

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Wait, flickr is back. Here are the pictures


Picture out our window at Sooke Harbor House


Picure of flower from Bouchard Gardens




Me on boat from Victoria to Washington. (Hey, I hated my hair so I went to a cool place in Seattle and had em fix it. It is even shorter now and I still hate it)

Vancouver

We left Seattle but before we did we stopped at Tricoter. Beautiful shop. We also stopped at Acorn Street Yarn and it was my favorite of all the shops in Seattle. Here is a shot that I took in Seattle that I love




Ok, so I am knitting a little bit. This is how much I got done on the 4 panel coat



And here we are in Vancouver. This is the view out the window



We are meeting with Rabbitch today. We are going out to lunch and to the aquarium. I will take pictures!

Onward

We are leaving Seattle today and heading for Vancouver. We had a great time here and I was intrigued with the fish. We also went to a couple yarn stores (you knew I would). Went to "Churchmouse" in Bainbridge and went to a cute shop here in Seattle called "So Much Yarn". Here are some pictures. Click on em to see them better.

Seattle!

We are now in Seattle. It is beautiful weather. We went to Pikes Place but we will go back today so I can get pictures of the guys throwing fish at each other. I think we will ship fish home. We are also going to Bainbridge Island. Also, we took Gails advice and ate at "The Brooklyn". One of the best meals I have had in a long time. Can't get the pictures to load. Will try again later.

Alpine Adventure

So, this trip has had a theme. Leave it to Nik and Lee. It has been the Alpine Adventure. We drove through Shasta to get here. We then went to Mt. Hood yesterday and had lunch. Today was Mount St. Helens. It has been a blast. Tomorrow we leave "Casa Nik and Lee" and head on off for Seattle. I don't have the pictures of Shasta or Mount St Helens up yet but it isn't easy doing this on the road. What you get is what you get. (Hi Annie, mommy loves you, don't be mean to me in the comment section)


Mt Hood


Chez Nik and Lee

Do ya miss me yet?

Well, Mr. Yarn and I are in Portland. It is great hanging out with my old pals. I sure have missed them. So, we are going to go do some fun stuff today and I will take pictures and post them later.

I did knit in the car and I will show ya that later too.

VACATION DAY!!!!

Did I think it would never get here? You bet, but it is here. We are packed and ready. Mr. Yarn had to go into the lab and finish some stuff and we will be off by 12:00.



We got it all packed. Uh, we still have to do something with my little "shoe problem"



So, I will be blogging on the road if and when I can. I will have a laptop with me (you knew that I would).
I will leave you with a picture of my finished cat puke scarf.



Don't fight will I am gone and don't give grandma a hard time.
Bye puppies

What you see is not what you get

This is the yarn I saw online and thought it would be beautiful for Annie Modesitt's knit corset pattern. So imagine my surprise when after a couple weeks of eagerly waiting and ripping into the package, this is what I found:



I called. I asked if they sent me the wrong color. I was told that according to their monitor it looked exactly the same. Um, I am using a Mac at home and a PC at work. It doesn't look the same to me on either monitor. I am screwed. There is nothing I can do about it.




On the other hand, I came home and found my Pluckyfluff yarn. Mr Yarn rubbed his eyes and even said "Ewwww". I have never heard him do that before. Ok, we have only been married 5 years. I am learning new things about him daily, but still....ewww? I love it. It is made out of (I forgot) and Persian cat fur. I will knit it into something today because I have to see what happens. I wanna wear it in the car all the gazillion miles we will be driving just to see what Mr. Yarn will do. I don't know why he doesn't like it. It looks like his old cat that is no longer here (RIP squeek).



So, the project that I decided that I was going to work on during the trip would be the Jamieson 4 panel jacket. Monte gave me the yarn (because I don't have enough) he had in his stash to make it. It is a tweedy chunky Jamieson's yarn.

My house is your house

Perhaps I am sinking to an all time low in my blogging life. I am now starting with the minutiae of my daily life. It was bound to happen. I took a vote to see if I should blog when I didn't have knitting news. Ok, so the above is my ugly backyard. The ugly backyard is pretty big according to Northern California standards. According to "Mr Yarn" who hails from Texas, it is (in his words) "nothin". So, we have this big nothin in the back of our house and we took the plunge. In two weeks it will begin to be transformed into a thing of beauty. It will be the party place capitol of the world. We got to see the plans from the architect and boy oh boy it is going to be cool.

So, here is where it all happens



This is where "Mr Yarn" works the magic. Smokers and BBQ stuff and all things cooked outdoors. Soon he will have a built in BBQ and burners and everything a guy would need to cook big meat and stuff like that. Even a fire pit for smores!

You did vote that I keep talkin even when I don't have anything to say. See what happens?

Just another Tuesday

I am sitting in the blogging room with nothing to say. It is one of those days that I would give anything not to have to go to the shop. I need a vacation. 3 more days!

So, I will leave you with a picture of the twins my friend is babysitting. I could have had one but Mr Yarn wouldn't let me. I won't get into THAT again.

Fern

See? I am knitting. I got quite a bit of the front of Fern done (an Alice Starmore sweater out of the book Stillwater). It is a fun knit and I like working on it.

Other than that I am getting ready for our trip to Canada. We are leaving on Friday. Wooo Wooo. The only thing that I am worried about is that the only ID that I have is a birth certificate with my maiden name and a drivers license. My passport is expired and I didn't have time to renew. Oh well. If they don't let me back in the US I will learn to say things like "F&%KIN A" and "Aboot". Hey Annie, you can come visit. You always wanted to live in Canada!

A night in the city

Hey dude, we took you into the city last night. Welcome to San Francisco and the traffic on the Bay Bridge! We love sitting in traffic for 1.5 hours so that we can go to dinner and wait another 2 hours to get into the restaurant. Wasn't that fun?

Oh, here you are actually going OVER the Bay Bridge. Check out the summer we are having. Doesn't it look absolutely tropical?

An addiction and it isn't just yarn

This is hanging in my dining room. I bought it at an art fair. This guy had all these handmade iron slogans and words and I thought they were cute.

On the other hand, I always have to take everything one step too far.



What the hell was I thinking? What does it have to do with anything? Why would I buy it? Mr Yarn, if you say one word, I will really get you. I will tell about all the useless gadgets YOU buy. I swear I will.

So this brings me to the addiction. I don't know what the addiction has to do with the above but I guess in a weird way it does. Afterall, I think that it has to do with that "going one step too far" thing. It is my new addiction for Bubble Drinks.



I don't know how this happened. The first time I tasted one I was with my kids in North Beach in San Francisco. I remember clearly taking one sip and spitting the tapioca out on the sidewalk because the consistency reminded me of... you know, I don't have to say it. Soon to follow was Evan spitting his out. Annie was of course the "voice of reason" that didn't get one in the first place. Either did Mr. Yarn.

Ok, but then I went to Monte and Peter's house and Peter had made a big jar of the stuff. It was mango with the tapioca balls in it. I was stuck after the first glass. Now I am completely stuck on the stuff. I keep telling myself that it isn't fattening but I do know better. Not only that but I even went to 99 ranch and bought tapioca balls. I stopped by the new place in town that sells ONLY bubble drinks last night. Yum. I had mint tea milk with tapicoca balls. I think it may contain a narcotic. I swear.

Visitors

So, I guess I have given up on the idea of "Bella". I guess I am not getting another dog. Mr Yarn really meant it when he said no, and then it didn't help to have my traitor friends side with him. What were they thinkin? So I formed plan B. Lori told me that there were miniature cows. I am now in love with these and am trying to talk Mr. Yarn into one. It is about the same size as Lily. He said nothin about bovine being off limits.



Also, Crochet Dude came to visit in the mail yesterday. I got sick of seeing him being carted around L.A. and I decided that the "Dude" needed to see San Francisco.

Here we are meeting. I had to get a picture of two bloggers meeting for the first time:



Here Dude meets Lily


So, I will take him to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and China Town and the Castro and the Haight. I am even taking him on our trip with us and he will be going to Portland, Seattle, San Juan Islands, Victoria and Vancouver. He doesn't know it yet but he is even going to a spa for 3 days. What a lucky Dude. Stay posted for pictures!

To blog or not to blog

I finished ChinaTown and here it is:



I am just too lazy to put it together. I will.

I have a question. I stalk lots of blogs and I can't decide so I will ask ALL of your opinions. Is it better to not blog on days you don't have a damn thing to say, or is it better to blog about something that is pretty boring. Take the above for a prime example.

Eh... Back to work

So Fourth of July was great. Did all the fourth of July stuff. Went to a parade and went to two BBQ's. While at one BBQ there was a "Raw Viking Chicken Hat" sighting. Ron was the proud recipient of the hat



So, on to a little bit of knitting news. I finished the Chinatown jacket and just have to put it together. I got bored and didn't feel like doing that so I started Alice Starmore's "Fern".



I got the rib done. I am using Rowan's Harris Aran. The color is incredible but my picture stinks and you can't really see it.

Happy Fourth!

Have fun. More knitting news soon.

The Jury is out

As you can see Lily wasn't too perky about the new addition. Bella. That is my new dogs name. Bella. Mr Yarn really wasn't too up with the idea. You think I give up THAT easily? Hell no. There will be more badgering and when we get back from our trip (yeah, we are going away for 17 whole days!) and if Bella is still there we will see what happens.

I also had this idea that I got from x-Mr. Yarn. He and his wife have shihtzadoodles (cross between a shihtzu and a poodle. What if I try and find a Bernardadoodle? Not only would it one up him but it would cost less to feed.

Ok wait... I am plotting

I found this dog for adoption and I need to think of a ploy to talk "Mr Yarn" into adopting her. Ok so we would have 2 Saints. We can do it. I have to have her. Look here is another picture:



Shhh. Don't tell him before I get home. He won't see this blog until next Tuesday and not only that he doesn't read it unless he is mindlessly bored. So even though I already wrote an entry for today, I had to let you in on "Our little secret". Cross your fingers for me because Ethel and I hope we can pull this off on Ricky.

I'm a waffler

I need trim for the "Sundae" cami. I first started to knit it like it called for. I ripped that out. I then started over on smaller needles (1's to be exact) and ripped that out. Then on Wen night when everyone was there for the S&B I declared to everyone that I wasn't going to knit the thing because that was just crazy. To have to knit trim that goes around the whole thing and then have to SEW it on was nuts. I ripped out what I had. I crocheted some around the trim. I didn't like it. Back to knitting the trim.

On the home front:



It's Friday. Give me a break.