Another sweater done!

I finished the hoodie for Annie. The picture isnt the best and either is the true color, but oh well. It was a fun and fast sweater to make. I am knitting on the Forest Path shawl now and it is taking forever. I can't wait to be done with it. I am finding that staying at home and not working doesn't make for a lot of knitting time. Seems that when you stay home the day just sweeps by. I can't tell you what I have been doing but I have been keeping really busy. I am still trying to tie up loose ends for the shop (harder to quit a business than to start one). I love being at home though. I am sure that sooner than later I will start getting bored.

Argh

So, everything has to be out of the shop by tomorrow and I am still stuck with all the shelves that people "wanted". Here are some bookshelves that are now on freecycle. If anyone local wants them let me know. Free!

I am still stressing on getting everything out by tomorrow.

Knitting is going on at Chez Yarn! I am blocking Annie's sweater today and pictures will be up within a couple of days.

Ok back to blogging!

So I am back. Really, I am. Here is a photo of Lily all dressed up for Thanksgiving. Oh and then a Pilgrim (my sister always is the life of the party and I wish she didn't have to go home) came to visit



I am also knitting and will post the new sweater that I finished for Annie as soon as I block it. Still working on closing up the shop and getting rid of everything. All the yarn has been donated and now it is just fixtures and stuff to get rid of.

Count down

It is the last three days until closing of Yarn! It has been a wild ride this month. I really haven't had time to do anything but feel numb and to knit and knit and knit. I promise that I will resume blogging again after next week. I am working on a sweater for Annie out of Donegal Tweed (Tahki/Stacy Charles) from Knitscene magazine. This is it:



I am almost done with it. Finishing up the second sleeve.

You were born on a Thursday

Happy birthday, Evan!!! I love you.

Stuff

Tammy and I our showing off our tattoos. Ok, so mine bag out at the wrist and are pretend. Tammys are real but I only paid 1.75 for MINE. Ok, she wins.



I finished the "Boom Bag" from KnitScene. It came out cute. This is the before picture and...

this is the after picture



I just have to sew on the handle. So, I am getting some knitting done and actually finishing it. Feels good.

Happy Halloween!!!

Another project done

I sent this to my mother as a gift and so now I can show you. I finished it last week. I never remember the names of anything but if you want to know I will look it up. Just ask. I loved doing this and it isn't that hard. I am now working on the entralac lace shawl in an old Interweave magazine. If Annie likes it she can have it for her wedding. If not I will use it. I am now offically addicted to knitting lace.

The shop is emptying out and it is a weird feeling. The offical last day will be November 18th.

I finished something

This is the sweater out of the Rowan magazine (don't know which number). It is out of cotton glace. It is for Annie. I love how it came out.

Dark side of the moon

I know I haven't been around but I promise that I will be back to blogging soon. Just way too tired. We went to go see Roger Waters last night. It was "The Dark Side of the Moon" concert. I feel old. The others in the audience were old. The first act was a bit off but the second part of the act were good. I am tired.

This is great

My friend Ann shared this with me. It is well worth the few minutes to watch it. Any true knitter will understand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM

I have been a bad blogger

I am so sorry that I have ignored this blog for a few weeks. I have been buried in Yarn! The sale is going great and I really am getting sad to say goodbye to all my customers and also to my yarn. I keep stashing it in the closet to take home but there is only so much that you can stash before it is another yarn shop in the basement.

I swear to you that I have been knitting. I finished Annie's sweater and I will take a picture of it after I block it. I also have been working on a beautiful lace piece that is from "Gathering of Lace". Can't really show you until it is done.

Until later....

So this is the scoop

This is the letter that I put out to my mail list and in case you aren't on it and want to know:

"A Good Yarn" by Janis Tester

Once upon a time there were three bears... No, wait. That's the
wrong yarn. Once upon a time there was a girl who loved knitting.
She had long dreamed of opening a yarn store where she would be
surrounded by the most beautiful yarns, the most interesting knitting
books and the good company of fellow knitters. And so, one day she
did. And she called her store YARN! And it was good. :-)

Dear Friends,

In the three years since opening YARN! I've had the privilege of
realizing a long held dream: that of having a place to conceal my
enormous stash and knit with my friends under the guise of running a
business. This has truly been a wonderful time in my life, in large
part thanks to all of you.

Some of you may have already seen the announcement on my blog that I have decided to close the store and move on to a new business venture. And you know what *that* means! Yes. A Great Big Sale!

Please join us on Saturday, September 16th as we kick off our closing
sale with 25% off of every ball of yarn and every knitting book and
doo-dad in the house. Samples and fixtures will also be for sale.

See you then!

Yarn!
2311 Santa Clara
Alameda, CA 94501
510-522-9276

Tuesday-Saturday 10:00-5:30
Sunday 11:00-4:00
--------------------

My blog will continue. Afterall, do you think that I won't be knitting, cooking, and having more to say than anyone wants to really hear?

What I have been doing

This is how much knitting I got done over Labor day. The picture really doesn't do this piece justice. I love it. I did skip the 80's length that it is meant to be (can you say "to the knee"?) and I didn't put the bobbles. I think I am going to love this sweater.



I also went to Brentwood on Saturday to the u-pick to get tomatoes to can. No u-pick because of the crop this year. We did score boxes of canning tomatoes for a good price though. We got to pick a few of em. It took all day to can enough for 3 of us to take home.

On a sad note... I did find out this weekend that the shop will be closing its doors and not selling. I have mixed emotions on how I feel about this. On one side I am excited to be moving on to a new adventure. On the other hand I feeling like there is a death in the family. It is my decision and I know that I am doing the right thing for myself but I am very sad about an ending of another part of my life.

New Beginning

So, I started a new sweater. Shut up, I will finish this one. I swear that I will. So far I got about 12 rows done. This sweater is Bodega Bay out of Alice Starmore's "Pacific Coast" book. I paid enough for the book that I figure that I better do at least one sweater out of it. I am even making the small size so that I don't swim in it this time.

On another note...

I made pickled peppers yesterday. The peppers were overtaking the garden and what do you do with a pound of serrano's? I pickled them. The recipe was from the "Simply Recipes" blog.

Rambling Rose

I am halfway done with the last half of "Rambling Rose" from Rowan magazine. It is a fun knit. I bet you guys thought that I didn't knit anymore. I do. I will take pictures of the other stuff that I knit after I send it on to the person I knit it for (it is a gift). This sweater is really fun to knit and I just have half of one side and two short sleeves to do. It is for Annie. It is out of cotton glace and I thought I would hate knitting with it but I didn't.

On the other side of knitting news things are the same. I am waiting to see what happens to the shop. In the meantime, I have made goat cheese, dehydrated tomatoes, made 2 batches of sour dough (with my own starter that I started from scratch mind you) and generally keeping myself amused to keep my mind of of everything else.

Evan and stuff

We took Evan to Los Angeles with all his stuff and now we are home. We went wine tasting while Evan was here and we had a really good time. It has been a couple of busy weeks.

An Angel

A hummingbird got trapped in our house. Evan took a picture of it and it looks like an angel.



The bird did get out of the house unharmed.

Ho hum

Nothing new going on here. Evan is in town and we have been hanging out. It is great having a kid home again.

No Knit Night tonight at the shop. I will be closing at 5:30 to go spend some time with the kid.

Tomorrow is wine tasting!! I will report back.

Summer

I lied. I do like fruit and summer isn't so bad. Brigid wanted me to teach her how to can her mothers peach chutney. We spent an evening peeling peaches and making some.

Wine wine wine!

Annie and I were invited to bottle wine for our favorite winery. Eric Ross rocks! We went down there and bottled a late harvest cab and a port. We were rewarded with a bottle of each and lunch. We also were initiated as winos.



(This really doesn't show HOW purple my hands really are)

My summer vacation

I hate summer. I hate the heat. I even hate fruit. Really. I don't find anything redeeming about the summer. I would be just as happy to live in a year round winter. When I moved to Northern California I thought this was somewhat the case. No, another bait and switch.

Good thing I have my backyard because it is the only thing that has saved me.



Oh and here is the garden. I do have figs growing but all other stuff is vegetables.

No pictures

Have nothing to show you today but thought that I would post something. It has been so hot that there really isn't much moving going on. Not much to do to cool off around here. We did eat dinner outside last night and that seemed to help a little.

Sorry this summer has been slow on the blog stuff. Knitting has taken the background and I have just been trying to tie things up at the shop and get on with big new plans. Then again, there is the matter of being a nervous wreck over Mr. Yarn (soon to be "Mr Culinary") getting a job where I can just stay where I am. Lots going on...

Instead of knitting

So, the engagement party was a success. Everything went great. I was dead on my feet but it was well worth it. So at 4:00 in the morning we all got up with hangovers and went fishing. We had a great time. We all bonded.

I am still knitting but I can't show you because it is a gift for a special baby to be.

Mr Yarn is in India (or should be there any minute) and I am still cleaning the kitchen.

What is happening

So, I haven't had too much to say or show this last few weeks. I am getting back in the groove after having some bad news, being sick and getting back from vacation. I promise that knitting stuff will resume as soon as I find the camera and actually start knitting again. I am almost done with the Hanne Falkenberg "Ballerina".

Other than that I don't have much to report. I have 40 people coming to an engagement party on Saturday and I will be meeting Annie's in-laws to be.

So cool

Here is another picture from our trip. It was an Eagle's nest on San Juan Island. We even got to see the eagle but I didn't get a picture of it. I didn't get this picture either but Donna did. I don't know why I am so bad about taking pictures when I go away.

Sorta back to life

This is me kissing Mona the camel. Shutup...she was the cutest thing I ever saw. She lives on San Juan island and Gail and Michael took me to see her. Donna took the great picture. I wanted to take this camel home so that Lily could have a friend. No one would let me and Mr Yarn asked who would pick up the poop. Since Mr Yarn isn't that happy of a camper lately I didn't argue but the plan is to kidnap the adromidary (sorry Michael I KNOW it isn't a camel) next time we are on the island. It will be innocent enough.

So things have been busy here. Company for 3 weeks and a busy 4th. Hope everyone had a good 4th.

The saga continues...

I mean how can you get upset when the room you are staying in looks like this? Sooke Harbor is beautiful. We were there for 3 days and had an incredible time. Not only was the food amazing (all grown from their garden) but the place is just so damn beautiful. I got to meet some fascinating people that knew their food and how to grow it.

Mr Yarn! was informed that he will be staying at the comany until December. Gives us some time to think about what will happen next.

Honey, I'm home

So here is the very short version of what is happening. We had an incredible time on our vacation which I will have to post pictures and talk about later. While away Mr Yarn's company called and told him that they are closing his company and he is out of a job. Argh. Next I got the ugliest spider bite I ever saw and thought I was going to have to go the hospital. Came home and had the worse stomach flu (maybe food poisioning). Trying to get better now.

No knitting at the shop tonight.

Knock knock

I found it a little scary when I found these prints on the upstairs staircase wall. Um, I am thinking that it isn't from one of the animals that live here. Looks like a Raccoon to me. Where was Lily during all this?



I love this view from my kitchen. The climbing vine of roses makes me feel like I am living in a civilized way. Ha!

Mr Yarn! got a promotion at work yesterday!! Congrats Dr. Senior Scientiest II. You will always be Mr. Yarn! to me. Uh, wait, no you won't. You may morph into a new name soon.

So off to Seattle and Canada we go. Almost forgot to take my birth certificate out of the safety deposit box. That wouldn't have been good. I will be back June 27. Grandpa Yarn! will be here with Lily.

Just some ramblin...

I am at that spot where I just don't have anything to say that is new all that often. When I started this blog there was a ton of stuff in the fodder to share. Slowly that fodder dwindles and it is day to day life. So, once again, I will pimp another dog picture. Lily doesn't mind.



Annie gave me a plaster egg that you crack the top off and plant basil. I did this and thought after 2 weeks of watering it that there was no chance in hell that anything was happening. Lo and behold I looked at it this morning and a sprout was there. Must be a lucky day!

I have been knitting

I am all done with the baby set. I just have to block it. I love it.




I have also been working on Ballerina. It is hard to show in a picture but it is looking great.

Have a great weekend!!!!

Garden

The mint is kicking.



The basil and other herbs are doing great.



Other vegetables are growing well. We have blackeyed peas, green beans, leeks, squash, and lots of Bok Choy.

So all in all it is growing and thriving. I wish that I could say that *I* felt as perky but I don't. I think what I have is a serious case of burnout.

I have decided to sell the shop and it makes me really sad in lots of ways. I think that I have become stale there and I always promised myself that if I ever did and that if I ever started getting grumpy that I would hand it over. It is time. So, I just haven't been too me lately. I will be back.

More of the same

Ballerina is progressing. It isn't a fast knit. I did finish the baby sweater and will bring it home to take pictures.

Nothin much to talk about

Not too much going on here at chez Yarn! I did sew up the baby sweater and now I just have to do the beret and block all. I will start back with Annie's skirt. Oh how I am looking forward to that. Big butt sweater is still rolling along (not much to show) and I love working on it.

Other than that I don't have much to tell you.

Baby sweater

I am almost done with this baby sweater. I had to rip out the beret and I will have to start over but the sweater is almost done.

Back to work today. It was wonderful having 5 days off!

Do you know of anyone that wants a job in Alameda in a yarn store? No joke. I am looking for someone to work.

Cooking is the best!

A friend of mine bought me and Mr Yarn cooking lessons at Ramekins in Sonoma. She went with us. We did a New Orleans Jazz Brunch that consisted of:

Bourbon Street Sparkler (with wine and bourbon whoooo hoooo)
Beignets and Cafe au Lait
Eggs Sardou-poached eggs in artichoke bottoms nestled in creamed spinach, topped with Hollandaise sauce.
Shrimp Etouffee-served in a flaky vol-au-vent puff pastry shell
Andouille Sausage and Potato Hash
Bananas Foster
Creole Prailes

It was good. What can I say? After we did that we went to Mt Tam and sat around at the Inn up there drinking wine and eating cheese. A great day.

While in Sonoma we stopped at a nursery and I adopted this weird little plant. They guy called it a pregnant onion.

A little break

Hey guys,
Not much to say so I am going to take a nice lonnnng weekend and be back next week. Have a great memorial day!

There is no place like home

I just wanna stay home today. Wish I could. I think I am getting Agriphobia. Shutup...not really. It is just that I am finding that the little time I have to myself that I just want to stay home. As a matter of fact I want to stay home during the time I don't have to myself.

This weekend Mr Yarn and a friend of ours and of course ME are taking a New Orleans cooking class at Ramekins in Sonoma. Monday is a BBQ at a friends house. Should be fun!

All done and washed

I finished the Bohus sweater and washed it. Voila.

Garden

We planted our raised beds last night. We planted a bunch of herbs (mostly basil) and vegetables. We planted black-eyed peas, beans, leeks, Bok Choy, Pimento (to smoke in the smoker and make that smokey paparika) and I don't remember what else.

In these tubs are peppers that Mr Yarn wants to put in the smoker to make his own chipotles.



Lastly here is a picture of our planting table with odds and ends of stuff that needs to be planted. I am not even sure what is there.



Knitting? Yeah, but it is all the same stuff.

Knitting is good

I am rolling along on Ballerina. I love the construction of this sweater. It never gets boring to knit on. I forgot to bring home the baby sweater I am doing at the shop. It is coming out great and all I have left are the sleeves.

So, I am hunting down the original yarn that Starmore's Aberlady was done in. It is discontinued but I have to find some. I know I did this sweater already but I want to make another one.

To jog the memory this is the one that I already did.

Blog blahs

Don't have anything to say or to show you but you know damn well that I can't just say nothing. So, I am working on the baby sweater for a friend, and the Ballerina jacket (which is REALLY fun to knit) and I am just burnt out and tired. I don't even have a picture.

Steph: It is ok the kids didn't take the owl barf. YES, I am REALLY excited about Annie getting married!

Jennie: Yarn I showed back a few was from an online company called Frangipani Guernsey yarns.

Sorry I pooped out on this post but I will be back after the weekend.

I don't usually do this but...

I don't usually post two things in one day, but I saw this on Martin's blog and it really just blew me away.


While My Guitar Gently Weeps on Transbuddha

Owl barf-free zone!

Thanks to Lisa's nice friend who seemed to want the owl barf I now have a clean pathway and tree.

Ok back to knitting.