A new chapter begins..

So, as some of you may or may not know.. I have left my beautiful home of Portland and ventured off to the east coast again.  The most amazing man I have ever met swept me off my feet (again) and welcomed me into his life.  So my kitties and I are now part of a military family in NC.

We packed up a truck and drove across the country, and me being the amazing yarn bomber that I am, decided to put crocheted flowers on the welcoming state signs along the way.

Here we goooo!

Idaho

We missed Montana because we were going through some treacherous mountain pass.

Wyoming (it was windy as shit btw)

South Dakota!!!

We missed Iowa I think because of construction, so here’s Missouri.

Also missed Illinois because of a stupid bridge, so here’s Indiana.

Kentucky, its hard to see, but it’s there!

Tennessee.

And lastly, North Carolina.

• Our totals:
• 12 states covered
• 8 dead skunks smelled
• a little over 3400 miles covered
• 6 days of driving
• saw 3 herds of antelope, 3 mule deer, and 1 pheasant

Oh and the cats actually did wonderful.  After the first couple days the screaming stopped and they mellowed out.  Stoli found her favorite spot on the dash.

And Akasha found her favorite spot in the drivers lap.

The trip was pretty good. We got to see our families, a lot of the country, shared a bunch of new things with each other, laughed, talked, and played the nintendo DS.  As much as I miss Portland, I’m glad to be here.  I’m finally truly happy and feel like Doug is as well.

K2tog..

So, in the past almost two months, I’ve been a knitting machine.  Its ridiculous really.  In Feb. I finished my February Lady Sweater, in March I finished Aeolian Shawl (which I call areola shawl :P) and it’s now on display in the store!

 

After tackling that monstrosity of a shawl, I got some of the Mirosol Nuna to knit with.  It’s an awesome blend of wool, bamboo, and silk. I knit up gwen slouch hat with it and it turned out amazing, and it’s also on display in the store.

Then I made the Ripley from Whimsical Little Knits 2.  I made it for a woman who was recently diagnosed with cancer, and another woman I work with made Caroline for the same woman.  We hope that these gifts brighten up her days!  After finishing that hat I finally decided I needed to finish that damn Multnomah. I don't know why, but this shawl drove me insane.  It was a really simple pattern, and I know 4 or so other knitters that had issues with it as well.  I’m so glad it’s finally done and I don't have to work on it anymore.  I really like the end product though, but here is a photo when it was being blocked.

Elsa then asked me to make her another Gwen Slouch, but out of the Sugar Rush instead of the Nuna.  It turned out cute as hell, and she loves it!And in return she made me an awesome purse that I adore!  I also finally made my coffee cozy that I’ve been wanting to do for a couple years.  It’s amazing what being hungover and wanting a mindless knit will do to you.  

And now on my needles I have my very first pair of socks!!  Clandestine in Malabrigo sock of course.  I loooove the way they’re turning out and the lace is awesome.  I’ve learned a few new knitting tricks with this pattern, but I think that since this is my first sock attempt that I cant get myself to move forward and get to the heel.  Must.. find… motivation!

 

I’m also working on Coachella but I’m using a mercerized cotton and went down a couple needle sizes to make it a little more fitted.

Front:   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this should be done with in a week.. its just stockinette till I think its long enough then it’s done too!

 

Back to clickin!!

 

<3<3

Where oh where

shall I begin….

 

So, since I’m so far behind, I figured the best way (for me anyhow) to get you all caught back up is to go thru my photos that I’ve taken the past few weeks.

 

So!

 

Here is a shot looking down Hawthorne at dusk:

I took this while walking up Hawthorne to somewhere I don’t remember :P

 

And here is a pic of Laurelhurst Theatre:

 

And I dragged my friend Alex down to cartopia for Whiffies one afternoon!  It was delicious as always!

 

My pie w/Alex noming his in the background.  Seriously if you haven’t made it over to Whiffies yet, you need to get your ass down there.  And then get some poutine from  Potato Champion…. mmmmm poutine… ty Canada!!!

 

Later that night I walked home and took some amaaaazing photos of a magnolia tree that I stumbled across.

 

The last one seems to be everyones favorite, and mine too.  I printed that one out for my boss and framed it, then gave it to her for a birthday present!  She looooved it, and I’m glad she did. :)  I also submitted that final photo for a little contest that Rainy Daisy was having.  She got some beautiful photos to choose from! And congratulations to the winner, you got some lovely yarn!

 

As far as knitting goes.. I made an AWESOME lacey beret out of the Mirosol Nuna that we got in.

 

 

 

It was suuuper easy to make and the lace pattern was only a 4 row repeat so i memorized it and just went to town. It didnt take more than 3 days to make and the bamboo, silk, and merino wool blend is delicious to work with.  My friend Elsa loved the hat so much that she asked me to make her one out of the Queensland Sugar Rush (which is made out of sugar cane viscose!).

 

Ok! more updates soon!

Ohh my beautiful…

Busy busy busy!!!

 

Ok so! Last Tuesday my oh so fabulous knit group threw me a little welcome back party!! They were prepared with giant cupcakes, soda, wine, and gifts!!

 

And Elsa got me the most amazing book ever written!!!

I cannot wait to start cookin out of this thing!! I was reading thru some of the recipes and drooling.  It will be magnificent!!

  

 

Over the weekend I started work, which was aweeeesome btw.  And starting a new job during a reaaaaaaaally busy weekend is quite the feat.  The Portland Yarn Crawl was this weekend and since my favorite knitters and I had Friday open, we hit up the LYS’s before the masses did over the weekend.  We made it to Close Knit, Gossamer, Knit/Purl, Dublin Bay, Twisted, and of course back to Happy Knits.

The day was fun! Evan got some undyed yarn from Gossamer so he could dye it himself (which turned out pretty damn awesome), Anne got some gifts for a friend and something for herself, and we all got some free patterns from Twisted since we were a few of the first in the shop!

 

On Saturday, Anne and I had a podcast interview with Knithappensshow.com.  It was super fun and we got to talk about our yarn bombing, and hopefully got some people in the Portland area who listen to the show to come join us!  You can listen to it here.

 

Annnd then I think it was Monday, Anne and I decided to go to the Portland Building to add some crochet chains to an art exhibit.  Its called the Mother Tree Project and you can get more info here.  Anne brought her friend Annie, who learned to crochet on the spot for the project!  We used nettles as one fiber, and that was an experience lemme tell you. 

Here’s a couple pics:

 

 

Ok now that you’re all up to date, its time for more packing then bed!

 

<3<3