A Weekend Of Fun

What did you do this weekend?

Saturday morning, our new lawn guy came, and he did an AMAZING job cleaning up the yard.

Even the dogs didn't know what to do with it!

I went to my weekly farmer's market with Archiknist and we came back to the house waiting for a few others to show so we can go try on my wedding gown. Now, I was too excited to see my gown and didn't take ANY pictures!!!!! But no fear, my readers, I'm going back on Thursday to do my first fitting so I will make sure I take a picture then.

While I was there, I was tying out different veils. The one I liked was $195!!!! WTF??? So I looked online and found this - yup, only $63!! I'm pretty sure I'll be getting that. At first I didn't want to have a veil, but I saw a very similar one on a magazine and just loved it.

We came back to my house for some BBQ and crafting. It was too bad that the weather wasn't so great so we couldn't be out to enjoy my new swing:

We are going to use it for our "altar" area. We will take out the awning part, and the swing, and I'll decorate it with some fabric and ask my florist to get some hanging plants for the four corners. I really like the look of this when I first saw it during my research, so I'll do something similar, minus the crazy flower on the top.

Today I went with Beth and Ola to Lyman's Orchard for some strawberry picking. It was a lot of fun looking for those ripen red, juicy berries.

Afterwards we went to the Apple Barrel to see what's in season and what they got. There are lots of canning stuff for sale (mmm... jam...) and pies. But I came home with these:

YUM. Can't wait for mid-July for the other berries to be ready.

On other news, I worked on my invitations, and here is what I got:

Yeah, the outer pockets are finally done! I can finally move on into the inside of the invitations. Speaking of that, I got these in the mail:

I'm going to use these vintage postcards as the response card. I think it would make a cool scrapbook when it is all over. I just hope everyone will actually return the response card!

Oh, and it's 97 days till the big day! :)

As far as gardening, I've been kinda on hold since I couldn't move all the blocks needed to do the raise garden and David is away for work, all the seedlings have been just staying in their starter container and waiting. Hopefully it's not too late. So without further ado, here are some pictures of the herbs:

See how awesome those herbs look? And I use some for dinner tonight:

I had some Greek pasta salad at Ola's house not too long ago, so I decided to try my hands in it with some of my herbs.

jennsquared's Greek Pasta Salad

1 box of pasta of any kind
1 small can of chopped olives
1 and half cup of corn (I grilled some corn last night so I used that)
1 shallots, finely chopped
1 scallion, finely sliced
some parsley, finely chopped
some thyme, finely chopped
1 tsp dry basil (use fresh ones if you have any)
some garlic pepper seasoning
salt
olive oil
basil pesto grapeseed oil (just use more olive oil)
apple cider vinegar (use whatever light vinegar you have on hand)
crumbled feta cheese

1. Boil a pot of water and cook the pasta until al dente
2. While the pasta is cooking, chopped up all the herbs
3. When pasta is ready, drain well and let it cool a little bit before mixing everything together
4. Serve slightly warm

Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do. And feel free to leave a comment on your variation!

All the Good Stuff

Look at what I won from Knittymuggins????

I entered her 200 posts contest and I won! And I NEVER win anything from blog contests so this was very very cool! :) She sent me one skein of Farmhouse Yarn Silk Blend in Turkey Red, lots of Dove chocolates and two Soak! :) Thank you so much!

So I wanted to amend the meme I did few days ago. If I have a billion dollars, the FIRST THING I would so is to hire myself a chauffeur!!!! How could I forget!? That will give me more time to knit while going to places!!!! :)

And here are a couple of things I forgot to mentioned from our trip -

We stopped at Grandma Nancy's on the way to the 1000 Islands, and also on the way home, since she is literally on the way. And on our way home, I got some grandma's famous molasses cookies and she also gave us a little birdhouse wind chime to take home. What is so very special about this is grandma painted it herself!

Isn't it beautiful? I can't paint for anything and it's so awesome to have a piece of art hanging outside our house.

Another thing I forgot to post about is a good find I got from the antique store where I got my yarn winder.

I don't know exactly what it's called, but it holds the cone steady and let it spin while I knit from it! The yarn came with the gadget feels like cotton to me, but I don't really know for sure. I know that it will be perfect when I knit with my zephyr cones.

And I suppose I should really post some knitting progress:

The Woodland shawl is coming along, although not as fast as I would have liked. I am itching for this one to be done so I can start something else, with fat needles and fat yarn that can be finished in a few days! We'll see when that can happen!

With that said, I should really get some knitting in before the day ends. I got quite a few things done in the garden and also I went to the farmer's market, but that means no knitting has been done!!!! Not good! Me Go, NOW!

Happy Birthdays!!

This week is birthday week for Sunflowerfairy and Archiknist. We had cakes for both of them. One of the cakes is an ice cream cake from Ashley's and one is vanilla cake with chocolate icing from Julia's. YUM. And as one of the birthday giveaways, Sunflowerfairy had a little drawing at SnB for her "Shut p and Knit" mug and I won! :)

And I started another shawl to keep p with 2klace as I am pretty behind on this whole knit lace 51% of the time thing.

This is beginning of the Woodland Shawl. I actually had quite a few repeats done earlier, but after consult with Archiknist, we both decided that the 89 stitches the pattern called for is too small for a shawl, it was more like a scarf. So I frogged it tonight and re-cast on for extra 4 repeats for total of 137 stitches. we'll see how this one goes. I'm using Schaefer Andrea again for this project as I have quite a few left overs and I really enjoy with the yarn. Plus the color is just gorgeous!

So David and I are going up to 1000 Islands this weekend to take care some wedding stuff, plus to see a house for potential vacation home. What are you doing for memorial long weekend???

MDS&W & Sock Pentathlon Sock #2

In case you are wondering, that's "Maryland Sheep and Wool". I wasn't able to go last year, but this year, I was SOOOOO there.

I took a half day on Friday and took the train down to Baltimore. I've never taken Amtrak before and I have to say I had quite a pleasant experience. And I met a couple of nice people too! Once I got there, I took a taxi and went to MamaE's Party! Sadly, I didn't take ANY picture! I was too excited to meet E and SweetSheep!!! But I did get a photo with them the next day!

Sneaksleep came and meet me up at the party, and after the party, I went back with her to her house for a nap cap and got up for the big day.

And see who we saw!!! :)

Zarzuela!!! She had move to Jersey a couple of years back and I haven't seen her since then! It was so great to see her there!

There were lots of sheep, llamas, alpacas, angora bunnies, and of course, there were food, yarn, and people spinning.

And while I was eating lunch, I noticed quite a bit of buttercup:

After the first day, Sneaksleep and I went to the Ravelry party - it was fun, and a lot less people than I expected. We stayed for a little while before we went and met up with the rest of the New Haven gang for some fondue at Melting Pot.

That was the first time I've been to a Melting Pot and it was so much fun! Although a little on the pricey side, but it was totally worth it, especially the chocolate fondue!

Yum. (that was the s'mores fondue, you should try it if you go!)

Sunday was a lot less intense, even the traffic was a lot less. Sneaksleep and I say goodbye after an hour in the fairground, and I left with Sami, Karen, Brenda and Beth around noon. While I was in the car, I was busy working on the Sock Pentathlon Sock #2 - Berlin Muster. I finished first sock while in the car on the way home, but the sewing needles were in the trunk with my overnight bag, so I couldn't finish the grafting, so what is a girl to do?

Use the buttons I got from the festival and parties! (and you call me crazy, collecting pins and all!) And since I couldn't knit while I'm at work, slowly, I finally finished the pair this morning, although, not without a hitch - again, that stupid little sewing needle. So the engineer in me took over, and fond something to use:

Twisty-tie!!! Yes, you read that right! And a few minutes after, I have these:

Pattern - Berlin Muster by Kristin Benecken
Yarn Used - 0.56 skein of Valley Yarn Franklin
Needles - Harmony size 1
Gauge - 8 sts per inch
Knit - May 01, 08 to May 07, 2008
Modification - I reduced the purl stitch so it's only 56 stitches, although I probably could still go down a bit since the lace is quite stretchy.

The pattern was fairly easy, although everyone had a hard time to get it started due to various reasons. The yarn was wonderful. I love it so much I want to get more of it! I have plenty of it left to do another pair of socks! You can read my full review here.

Well, now both of that are blogged and in the bag, it is time for me to rest my eyes. Good Night.

Rusted Root and Some More

First, I want to say "THANK YOU" to all who commented on my MoonDance. I really enjoy knitting it. And the more I look at it, the prettier it gets! And if you are on Ravelry, and you like my MoonDance, would you please "heart" it?

The reason I was asking is because recently, I got this message in my Ravelry message box:

Request to use your photo: DSC01862
We’d like to feature your photo on the page for Pink Frosting by Elissa Sugishita

So if you are on Ravelry, and you search for Pink Frosting, MY Pink Frosting is the picture you are looking at!!!!!!! And currently there is no other picture listed for MoonDance besides the designer's original picture! So if you like it, "heart" it!!!

Now, without further ado:

Pattern - Rusted Root by Sarah and Rachel from Zephyr Style
Yarn Called For - 3 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Sedona Red
Yarn Used - 4.5 balls of Kona Bay Cotton n Red
Needles - KnitPicks Harmony size 6 for body and size 4 for edging
Gauge - 5 sts per inch
Knit - March 31, 2008 to April 7, 2008
Modifications - I added increases towards the bottom of the tee to shape it even further.

This is a super fast knit, although the lace part is a little confusing because there is no chart, and it's not a even chart even when I made one. Though that should not discourage you to try to knit this tee. Another thing I would do different is to use a different cast on (I saw on Ravelry a lot of people did tubular cast on) so I don't have to pick up the edges later to finish it, although it really isn't hard. I wish there was more puff on the sleeves as you can tell it really isn't obvious.

Obviously I have to start something, and I decided to do another lace:

That's Kiri in Schaefer Andrea. So far, the yarn is to dye for! And the construction of the Kiri is really interesting. I'm thinking of doing a tutorial in case of people not understanding what the instruction meant.

So I joined 2klace in Ravelry awhile ago. It means that 50% of my work for 2008 has to be lace. And so far, Here is the list:

Irish Hiking Scarf
Honeycomb Socks
Cocoa Swap Piggy
Red Sox Socks
Square #1
Jacobean Socks
Undulating Waves Scarf Swatches (lace)
Wedding MoonDance (lace)
Rusted Root (lace)
Kiri - WIP (lace)
SotS WIP (lace)
Aspen Top Down Sweater

There are total of 12 items so far, and only 5 are lace and two are WIP!!!!! So I better go catch up! And you there, you should go heart my MoonDance ;)

Dumplings, Anyone? And More!

This past Saturday, CostumeChick, WifeMomKnitter and I went to Anphoe's for some knitting and chatting, and also for some dumplings!

Anphoe made the pork filling and I made the tofu one. They were YUMMY! After that, we knitted and played some Wii. Well, let me just put this out there first - I'm not big about playing video games, because 1) I'm not very good, 2) I'm not a good sport about losing. But this Wii thing... It's addicting! And so much fun! You can see pictures and video on Anphoe's blog.

So besides playing video games and eat, I did make some progress on the MoonDance:

Chart B is almost done!!! Which means this stole is almost done! :) You can't see the edging in the pictures, but I can assure you they are all there.

On the other news, I bought a scratch ticket and the result:

I won $25.00!!!!!!! The biggest one I've ever got!!! I think before that, the most money I won was ten bucks! Well, I'm one step towards winning big, right? ;) A lady I worked with won $200,000 on a scratch ticket not too long ago. Yeah, you read that right. Then shortly after, she won over $8,000 at Mohegan Sun... Only if I have her luck! But I think my risk taking level is too small to win that level. I guess that's why I'm an engineer.

So I bought couple of Alice Starmore books from amazon not too long ago and they finally arrived, along with Beyond Wool with a trade from Ravelry.

Only if I can find a copy of Aran Knitting, there are so many patterns I want to knit but I just can't afford the book! Too rare. ::sigh::

Speaking of books, I have a duplicate copy of this one:

I posted this on Destash book forum on Ravelry, but I figure I will offer this to my friends as well - I''m willing to part with it for $8.00 + actual shipping (if required).

Well, I'm off to go over the new books and complaint about no progress made on MoonDance to the dogs.

What Have I Been Up To?

Schaefer Swatches!

That's what I have been up to! I am almost done! Schaefer Susan is a very generous skein and it is really feeling like I have this yarn and project FOREVER. But Alas! The end is in sight! (No pictures because it is just the same as the other... Nothing more to see - Oh right, maybe when I am finally done with it and I'll take the picture of the pile.)

On the wedding invitation front - I found the perfect paper! But they are OUT OF STOCK! DOH! I have to call the store tomorrow to find out when they can get them in. My third floor is empty so it would be a perfect place to do my wedding invitations!

On the store news - I'm working on the business plan whenever I can. And I'm getting my taxes done so I can get some down payment!!! It's just feeling like it's taking forever!!! Blah. But I want to do it right, so I'll take my time with it.

Well, on that note, I should go and work on that swatches project. Until next time, go check out the new Knitty. My friend Michelle has a pattern published in this issue!!!

New Creations

So I played with the new beads that I acquired the other day -

I really don't know how to photograph these to make it show better. How do people take such great pictures on things so shiny? I tried it with no flash, but it just doesn't look good. Any suggestion would be welcomed.

There is a President's Sale on Artbeads.com so I ordered a bunch of beads to play more. I can't wait for them to get here!

And here is a very dark picture of a stitch pattern I've been practicing -

I really like this stitch pattern. It is the Diagonal Knot Stitch from my "365 Knitting Stitches A Year Perpetual Calendar" that I receive from Itchy 2 years ago for Christmas. This pattern gives quite a depth, and the back is pretty as well.

See! It's pretty :) I'm thinking of using this stitch pattern to make a scarf... Hmmm... Maybe it will be my Smidge along.

Well, I'm gonna go snuggle with my monkey blanket and drink some cocoa and watch some TV, and maybe even knit some... Oh, yeah, and let my nose and the tissues have a party... ::sigh::

What Have I Been Up To?

So I have dramatically slow down on blogging lately. I couldn't really justified blogging when I should be doing research. But tonight, I'm taking a little time off so I can update everyone on what I'm up to and the progress of some knitting.

Last weekend, Knelley, Acambras, Costumchick, JennM and I went over to Anphoe's house for some unofficial SnB get together. We had SO MUCH FUN! We all got there around 6pm and didn't leave till 2am!!! We all brought food as well and everything was delicious!

Even long after the get together, I would still think about all the conversation we had and laugh to myself.

On the knitting front, I started knitting Lola Curly the Pig for my Cocoa Swap swapee as her "Bust the Winter Blahs Buddy". I hope she'll like it. I used the yarn my friend who's family owns a yarn mill's yarn. She gave me the yarn when I was thinking of making my own wedding gown. Of course, I didn't end up doing it so now I have 30 balls of the yarn sitting around. It turned out to be a great yarn for this project!

Actually, I've made some more progress since this picture was taken - I have finished the body while at Suzy's last night and I made the four feet today during training.

And while we are on Schaefer, I got my Schaefer Yarn payment for the two projects I made for them:

4 skeins of Andrea - 2 in Julia Child and 2 in Margo Jones, and 1 skein of Lola in green.

Aren't the color gorgeous? I will be using them for shawls, but I haven't decided on patterns yet.

Along with the payment, I got the next model knitting project as well. And I have to say I am super excited for this project ever since I got the pattern from Laura.

It's the Undulating Waves Scarf by Laura Nelkin. It has beads in it and the whole thing is just beautiful. I can't wait to start this project.

And just to finish up this post, I have some random pictures to show you:

This is Andes Peppermint Crunch chocolate. This picture is for missburrows, all you Choconots and Frenemies out there! (it's okay if you don't know what these means... But if you do, mmm.. Chocolate!) I can't get enough of these chocolate patties :)

This picture is for Archiknist. My Peru llama/alpaca hangs out with me at work. He stands on top of my monitor and is one of the things that makes me smiles when I am stressed at work.

Stay tuned for my hot cocoa week #2 questions and some yarn from NYC!