LYS Tour

On Sunday Liz and I went on the Local Yarn Store Tour around the Seattle area. I think this was the second annual tour and about 25 stores around the area. This year, each store gave out a free one skein pattern and then 10% off the selected yarn. I think this is such a great idea. Not only is it great marketing for the stores, but it also lets us visit stores outside of our comfort zone.

We got off to a late start and it was pouring down rain, so we really only visited a few of the shops. Our stops included
1. Renaissance Yarns in Kent. Cute shop, Nice people, comfortable chairs. Their yarn was a duet sock yarn that is actually made by one of Liz's friends Angela. I've never made socks, but I can't wait to try some with this cool yarn.
2. The Knittery in Renton. Not a fan of the Knittery - who wants fingerless gloves with fun fur? That shop is dated, they need a make-over.
3. The Yarn Stash in Burien. Another nice shop. Neat pattern too. A Rice Log Cover. You know, one of those things that you put in the microwave and put it around your neck when you are sore. The suggested yard was a lavender scented yarn. Cool idea.
4. So Much Yarn in Belltown -Seattle. I like to call this my local yarn store. I love this place. She had 2 patterns out and the one we choose was a top down baby sweater using Dream in Color yarn in merino superwash. I don't know who I will make it for, but given the baby rage lately... I'll use it for someone.
5. Hilltop Yarn in Queen Anne -Seattle. This store is OK and they had 2 cute hat patterns.
6. The Weaving Works in U-district-Seattle. Tons and tons of spinning stuff and lots of yarn. This was a different store than I usually prefer. Their pattern was a pretty cool market bag.
7. Fiber Gallery in Greenwood-Seattle. I liked this place a lot. I wished that I was more into knitting when I lived up north, it was near our old apartment. Great yarn choices and nice people. The Pattern was a felted teddy bear. It was so cute!
8. Seattle Yarn in West Seattle. This was a really nice store. I can't believe I hadn't been there before. The pattern was a small Entraloc clutch, using Noro Tidiori.

my loot

Happy Mothers Day!

Mother's Day is in honor of the best Mother who ever lived ... the Mother of your heart.

This morning I received a nice card from my little guys, Stewie and Brian. Thank you!



I had a trip for work to New Orleans and finally got home on Friday night. The city is a tad shady, but I had some of the best food I've had in a while. It was a work function as well as a philanthric mission. We rebuilt a baseball field and held an auction. There were two notable restaurants that we went to while there:

NOLA - one of Emril's restaurants. The service was superb and the food followed the service. I had redfish, a local favorite, and it didnt let me down.

Mother's - This is one of those restaurants that everyone talks about as being the hole in the wall that you have to go to when in New Orleans. I had Jerry's Jambalaya and it was so good. However, everything looked so great on the menu, I know you couldn't go wrong with what you ordered.

Backyard Blues

The last few weekends we've been clearing out the back yard and making room to install a new fence. It's been so much more work than we thought. There was ivy everywhere and we can only dispose of our yard waste once every two weeks, so we have to hold on to all the waste before we can get rid of it. There were so many rocks and dead plants back there that at the very least, it just needed some TLC.

Then yesterday we stained all the fencing that we bought at Lowe's the week before. Bonus: Rob bought a paint sprayer on CraigsList, which made it so much easier.

Below are some pictures of the yard, fencing, etc.

The backyard as it was being cleaned out.

Fencing before it was stained

Fencing after it was stained

What’s been keeping me offline?

I started my new job this week. And although it’s the same company, just new responsibilities, I am now doing 2 jobs until I can safely transfer one over. So that’s keeping me busy.

What else? Last weekend my very best friend, Michele, came to town. Although it’s been a long time since I last saw her, it always feels as if she lives just down the street. Her aunt also lives nearby so her mom was here too. It was a fun weekend just hanging out and doing touristy things. Rob was also gone the same weekend, so it gave us even more girl time. I had a bunch of cute pictures that I accidently deleted, because I am a dummy!

All my spare time has been consumed by Mabel and Macie. No, not new cats. New projects!

I am just in the beginning stages of this.
The yarn overs and all the counting seems to be worse than I expected.
Will update with a real live picture soon.

I'm actually almost done with this one. It's much easier, even if I am not sure it will look good on me.

Oh And - If you want to see pictues from Italt... go here: