Worth it. Totally.

It took two hours, but I finally managed to get all the photos from today’s impromptu photoshoot onto flickr in a set: Photos at Picchetti Winery.  If you’re a flickr contact (friend or family), you can see the whole set, including photos for upcoming patterns.  If not, well, here’s a sneak peak at one of the patterns*:

DSC_0307

They just don’t come any cuter than TT.

Not that I’m biased or anything.

*Or you can add me as a contact, and I’ll totally friend you.  Completely depends on your level of curiosity and/or patience!

Time flies.

Mostly when you’re busy.  It’s funny.  That little vacation I’ve been talking about for a month now?  I think I might need a vacation to recover from my vacation.  Man.

Let’s see.  Where we left off last time I was lamenting my own laziness.  In my defense, keeping up with an almost-4yr-old is tough.  Especially when she’s super-duper excited to be visiting her relatives and doesn’t want to sleep or sit down for five minutes together.  Seriously.  I made a movie.  In 15 minutes she didn’t sit down once.  I wish I had that kind of energy.

Anyway.  Remember that Ishbel I knit for T?  Well, it fit her perfectly and looked stinking adorable, but could I get her to hold still and pose?

A & T Visit (August 2010)-45

Oh, heck, no.  She thought it was the funniest darn thing in the world to squirm or even hide the shawl…

A & T Visit (August 2010)-49

Whenever Alexa or I tried to take a picture of her in it.  Little squirt.  I’ll get a photo… eventually.

Luckily, T didn’t decide to make a game out of photographing the little bolero I made for her.  Which her Momma dutifully brought up and dressed T in the morning we saw them off:

Tegan's bolero (still)

It fit perfectly.  Actually, it was still a little big, which is ideal.  And it was utterly adorable.  I might have to make another one when she outgrows this ‘un.  In pink.  Hah.

Unfortunately, I had to leave Portland while T and Alexa were still in town (it was unavoidable).  Opus and I had reserved a room in Newport over a month ago, and weeks before Alexa let me know they were visiting.  But I only missed out on two hours of family time.  They had to fly out a couple of hours after I left.

Anyway.  Opus and I met up around midday, after trying to convince T that a bagel was just as yummy as chocolate milk (not too successful there).  We hit  the road and I had to take some shots from the highway.

Hwy 47

It was just gorgeous.  I believe this was from Highway 47.  I really want to go back and do some hiking.  There were some really tempting National and State Forests that looked lovely.

Eventually, though, we made it to Newport.  After a couple of stops along the way (one of which involved the extensive purchase of new weaving equipment, but that’s for another day).  I was really excited to see that our hotel of choice, the Elizabeth Street Inn, did, in fact, have a magnificent view:

The View

Clearly a beach walk was absolutely essential.  The sock certainly enjoyed it…

The Sock visits Newport

Though I’ll admit to being a lot less tough than Opus and having to wrap up with a scarf and sweater. I can’t believe she spent the whole trip in t-shirts.  It gives me chills just thinking about it.  Anyway.  Beach.  Walk.  Wind.

Windy beach
Lots of wind.  It was quite picturesque and, well, bracing.  Unfortunately, my camera’s battery decided to fail as soon as we got down to the sandy shore and I had to resort to using my Crackberry camera; which, frankly, sucks.

Eventually my hands and nose froze and we had to give in and go back to the hotel.  After that we somehow managed to get lost in scenic downtown Newport.  Yes.  Newport (the town with a population of under 10,000).  Fell free to mock, I did.  We did (finally!) find food and our way back.

Thus fueled, I holed up in the room and spent three and a half hours working on last Friday’s eCard – while Opus watched (get this) Monsters vs. Aliens and then four episodes of On The Road with Austin and Santino.  That was an odd night.

The next morning we made our way to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, where the sock got to see Swampland.  It really liked the anacondas.

The Sock at Swampland
After watching the sea otters eat raw fish (yum) and petting some sea cucumbers, we started the return trip home.  Mostly because  Opus had to go to NorthWest MogFest yesterday (family thing).  Fuuun.  In lieu of driving all over Sheridan, Oregon in an all-terrain vehicle (so boring, I know), I spent all of yesterday knitting away on a Shibui project that’s Top Secret.  Sooo… here’s some photos of Westmoreland Park, instead of my progress!

Sunsent at Westmoreland

Duckies!

Plus… duckies!

And that brings things up to date.  Think I’m gonna knit some more now.  Or go to bed.  How did it get to be 11pm?  Time flies, I guess.

Lazy blogger.

Actually, more like tired blogger. Keeping up with an almost-4yr-old is hard. Especially when we have a water park, ice cream, cows, horsies, picking fruits and vegetables, swimming at the beach, and heaven only can recount whatelse within the same 24 hours. So, in lieu of an actual post with a central theme and words that are strung together in a sensible fashion, I bring you 50 pictures.

A & T Visit (August 2010)-34

Going to the beach with Opus tomorrow. I’m very sad that I’m leaving before the girls, though, but it’s kind of unavoidable at this point. Oh, well. Mum and Dad can see them off in style. Check back for an update from the coast!

uh… free pattern, anyone?

Trying to distract you from the fact that I have been laying flat on my face for the past two weeks. Lame, I know. Imagine how boring it’s been for me.   I have the flu again.  Or maybe it never went away and the last fortnight has simply been an extended infection.  Who knows?

Anyway.  I have been managing to haul my sorry tuckus into work (most of the time) and one of my most recent Robitussin-inspired moments involved publishing another free Gratis Knits (yes, that was redundant) pattern.  You can get it here.

Also, somewhere in there (it’s all a little fuzzy right now), I finished T’s children’s bolero:

Tegan's bolero

Which I really want to see modeled on T.  But I’ve been waiting to, ah, sanitize it since I don’t want handknits to be associated with the creepy crud.  Just imagine the trauma.

Oh, well.  Things have been progressing here… slowly.  Mum’s cashmere lace scarf has a good 18″ on it, I finished a sock last night (my own pattern), and I’m working on a pattern booklet for ShibuiKnits.  But that’s hush, hush.  I’m also working on a new pattern series for the blog – both free and, well, not – that I hope to have started putting up by the New Year.  I really need to find a pattern editor…  maybe I could find someone who would work for yarn?

Hmm.  It looks like I have a lot set out for me.  And that doesn’t even include the laundry – which I am falling behind on.  And on that note, I should go empty the dryer.  I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Did I mention The Visit?

No, I don’t think I did.  A couple of weeks ago, while I was still on the Doxycycline, A & K came to visit – and they, of course, brought baby T.  Who is really toddler T, now.   They were participating in the Great Urban Race for Portland.  And, because I was on antibiotics and completely unfocused, I didn’t get any photos of them on Friday or during the race on Saturday.  Waaah!

I did manage, after a nap, to snap a couple of shots Saturday evening while we watched toddler T for the adults.  First when we took T up to Mt Tabor’s playground – which T didn’t seem very interested in.  She was more curious about the path leading up the mountain.  Mum decided it would be fun to teach T how to stomp on pine cones…

Crunching pinecones

I’m sure you can guess how much a toddler loves that. Oy. It wore her out, though, which might have been Mum’s ulterior motive.  Or not, Mum seemed to enjoy stomping on them, too.

Back at home, Emm seemed to be able to captivate her the most:

emmett-tegan

Especially his beard:

Tegan & Emm's beard

Which, I’ll admit, I find hilarious. K & A swear that she does this with her other uncles, too.

And, of course, I got a shot of Grandpa and T together – the two of them had a ball.

Grandpa & Tegan

Well, okay, we all did. I really wish I’d managed to snap a shot of T running around the house with the Powell’s t-shirt we’d got her on her head like a Pharaoh’s Nemes headcloth.  That was great.

All in all, it was a fantastic visit.  The girls did very well in the race – came in 10th!  I was very proud of myself for being helpful on 6 hours of sleep and a nasty dose of antibiotics.

Next?  Time to leave for OFF&F in a few.  Need to grab breakfast.  I’m bring the camera, honest, and plan on getting tons of photos – and fiber and yarn :)

I have the cutest neice in the entire world*.

No. Seriously.

Top this:

P6270009

Or this:

P6270016

Ha. You so can’t.

If you haven’t guessed (and why would you when I haven’t given you any clues…) my sister A and her too-adorable daughter, T, are visiting us this weekend. The thought of this very weekend has sustained me many a horrible day (too little sleep, too little food, crazy people everywhere, etc) for many a week now.

This morning, because I am the only actual adult in a family of adults, I dragged everyone’s sorry arses out of bed to sanitize the house for their visit. Literally 15 minutes before we had to leave for the airport – we were done. It’s a good thing I didn’t sleep in.

After eating lunch and catching up, some of us took naps (mostly mothers and daughters). Then I took the girls up Mt Tabor (see above). They loved it. Mt Tabor is one of my favorite places to take visitors, since you can see both Mt Hood and downtown Portland from the “summit” of the mountain. Really cool.

T wasn’t too impressed with the view, but she did like their children’s park:

a-t-sock

Yes, A is holding one of my traveling socks. I love my family.

After that was dinner, book time, a disastrous bath (just don’t ask), and bedtime. (Oh, and Penny? Those ducky finger-puppers went over a treat this evening when T was getting ready for bed. Thank you!)

At some point today I managed to take some IP shots of various WIPs. I was going to put them up, but now I’m feeling lazy. They’re on my ravelry notebook now and my flickr account. Up and amongst them are two projects I’m proud of: 1) a muffin cap that I wrote up the pattern for, and 2) my attempt at a SKIF sweater for Knit Purl’s Summer SKIF KAL.

Terrisa and I have been plotting this for months. Now, admittedly, I did CO a bit early. But I wanted to, ah, test-run the pattern. Right. That’s why. Not because the yarn was tempting me cruelly with it’s creamy softness. Or the pattern’s funkiness. Nah. I’m just being a responsible employee.

Totally.

But that’s everything I can think of right now. A bit tired from all the cleaning and running around and knitting stuff. Well, maybe not from the knitting.

*And I’m saying this as a completely impartial, uninvolved, judge. Really.

how do parents do it?

I am so unbelievably exhausted and I only helped watch baby T for 3 days. I really don’t know how people survive parenting 24/7. Of course, having a toddler around quickly killed the rising urge I’ve had to settle and breed (I mean that in a good way). I think I’ll really enjoy being young and single and completely selfish for a little while longer, thanks :)

But, I got the cutest pix of the ‘rents with their granddaughter:

seven

five

twelve


thirteen


They were so funny to watch with her.  And, look, I finally managed to get a decent shot of T in her new sweater!  Fiberly update?  Well…

  • 1/2 of the yarn for the Fall Handspun Swap is DONE (whoop!)
  • I’m about 1″ away from the next set of cables for the ShiBuiKnits men’s sweater
  • 1/2 the pattern is written for the above-stated sweater
  • I only have the heel section to recheck for the final version of the spocks pattern
  • AND I’m making progress on other (undeadlined) works.

Back to the salt mines…

Jetting about town

We took A and baby T about SE Portland today, sticking mostly to Hawthorne and Belmont. Twas quite a bit of fun. I got two modeled shots of baby T in her new sweater:

family-shot

 

…and, close-up:
babyT

I had all sorts of trouble getting a good shot of her, so I finally gave in and took some moderate ones :) Squirmy baby fun.

Baby T and I took a nap afterwards (I didn’t get much sleep last night and neither did she), so when we woke up ( she started screaming in her crib next to my bed…)  half the family is off getting food and movies. Yay. I gotta go and entertain my niece, Grandma’s alone on the front.

No new knitting to report…

the baby has landed

I repeat: the baby has landed. (We’ll see how screwy the CIA finds that tomorrow…)

Dad and I got to pick up A and baby T at the airport today (which actually wasn’t all that awful – the airport, I mean). Ooh, look! – a baby, stroller, and horrible airport carpet:

PDX

We then headed to 82nd Ave (urh) to find some form of department store to get a porta-crib. Whoo. 3 stores later and we finally found one. Can you believe that two stores we sold out of collapsible cribs? I mean, really, what’re the odds? After that we got to put the new crib to use and T got a N-A-P she wasn’t too happy about.

Dinner was also an interesting (and fun, we’re a baby-friendly family) experience. Turned out to be the first time T tried tofu, beef and beef broth – all in one evening. I ended up sharing the largest portion of my meal (Pho Tai), just because T loved the broth so much. We eventually ended up putting some in her sippy cup, cuz I wasn’t getting my bowl (or spoon) back otherwise…

dinner

She had the wait-staff completely snookered, too. Shameless creature. After that came a dessert I really shouldn’t have eaten and the finishing of this:

t-offset-wraplan

Baby T’s offset wraplan, which I was determined to finish in time to see her wear it (she’s still wearing her other wraplan, it brings me joy to mention).

Project specs:

  • Start: September, 2007
  • Finish: November, 2007
  • Yarns: Rowan Soft Baby, “Meadow” (2 balls); Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed in some dark green colour (I’m horrible, I know).
  • Needles: US 4/3.5mm 24″ Addi Turbo circulars and set of 5 YS 4/3.5mm DPNs.
  • Pattern: Offset Wraplan

I finally got it finished. Shame I ran out of yarn (well, nearly). I didn’t quite have enough for the collar and buttonbands. Which is really my own fault since I swatched 3 times (no, I really wish I was I was lying here) because I kept losing my swatches. Sooo… yeah, stupid me. The women at Knit Purl were so sweet. They don’t carry Rowan Soft Baby anymore and were quite upset when they realised exactly why I needed it that night (Thursday), so they spent several minutes calling all the PDX yarn stores they could think of – to ask them if they carried the yarn and had any in stock. No and no, everywhere. In the end I bought something complimentary and ran with it. And, haha, even worse I didn’t swatch with it. After 3 swatches (which I couldn’t find to rip), I figured the knitting g-ds owed me this once.

Suicidal, I know.

Other stuff? We think His Imperial Majesty is nesting in our maple tree. When he’s not at the feeder or preening on our benches, he’s in the tree. Too funny. A and baby T were impressed when they saw him this afternoon before baby T’s N-A-P.

And, wow, this is embarrassing, but I AM an adult and should admit when I’ve made a mistake. In this case, I’ve made several that neither Emmos or I caught when we proofed my original Offset Wraplan pattern. My bad, I’m really sorry everyone (I know there have been a couple knitters who’ve been frustrated). Well, after finishing baby T’s offset wraplan (which I knit from the pattern, incidentally), I’ve fixed all the errors I spotted this time. Hopefully that’ll be the last of them. But, in any case, I’ve reedited the pattern:

Offset Wraplan (PDF)

Please do let me know if you find any more mistakes!

I think I just may have done it

This is what I have been looking at for the past 3 hours:

P1010012

(yes the spinning stash is still in a box that is overflowing)

Because this morning as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling I had an epiphany. Out of the black abyss came the knowledge to decrease the knee-high spocks without affecting the buttonband. I immediately jumped up, got around, and began sketching a schematic so I wouldn’t forget.

I think I have it all worked out now. I just have to slightly tweak the calf-high spocks to match the knee-high numbers. Which can be done in an hour at some other time when my head isn’t throbbing from too much math, too-loud music next-door, and squinting at a computer screen.

But that doesn’t matter because the knee-high spock patterns are done. All I have to do is knit a pair of child-sized spocks and turn everything in, which’ll take another item off of the sidebar To-Do list.

And to distract us all from a sad lack of knitting progress photos (there has been progress, I swear), I have 2 portraits of the cutest baby ever:

Tegan-bday(2)

Tegan-bday2(2)