We Made It!

We left at 7:45am and arrived Michigan at... you ready?

3:30AM

Yes, you read that right! And here is why...

We started off from CT and got to Utica to see David's grandma around 11:30ish. From there, we were greeted with assorted cookies made by grandma Nancy. There were butter cookies, ginger cut outs, ginger snaps, peanut butter chocolate fudge, chocolate chips cookies, and much much more!

By then, I already finished three more ornaments, one for Mom, which is gold and hanging in the van already, one is for Terry, Page and Colin, and one for a friend.

Inspired by Costumechick, my next project was Vine. I bought a Jaeger Alpaca when I went to Farmhouse Yarn the last time and they had it for ONE DOLLAR! It is an older ball with old label, but it's 100% alpaca none the less. And while we are driving to Michigan, I made some progress... A lot of progress actually:

I should be able to finish this today between wrapping presents, putting up the tree and cooking.

If you are observant, you can see that I'm wearing my new wedding bands - no we didn't get married yet, but it didn't come with a box or anything, and knowing me, I'll probably lose it, so the safest thing to do is to wear it until we get home.

We picked up the rings after seeing grandma. So far, I'm really happy with the way it turns out. :) We continued with Rt. 90 and hit Buffalo, and we detour up to Niagara Falls - why not? We were practically there! Plus I've never been!!!

It is absolutely breath taking!

The dogs think so too:

We left Mick and Vanilla home since they are too active for Colin right now.

Well, off me go to get things going...

Parents Are In Town

They are here and they are well.

I will probably post minimum post this week. Don't be alarmed.

Oh, and my dad likes the vests I made him.

Night.

Labor Day Weekend

My labor weekend was lazy and busy at the same time. How? you asked. Well, I guess I felt like I was lazy and didn't do anything, but when in fact, we did a lot.

David and I went to the mall Friday after work. We haven't gone for so long and a lot had changed. I actually picked up this book while I was there. Yup! I want to at least learn what's in my garden and how I can plant some of my favorite flowers.

Saturday morning I went to Primerica training and when I got home, David and I drove to Mom's to have a BBQ, and met up with our friend Tanya. I of course, forgot my camera and didn't take any pictures while we were there! We got home around 10pm and I stayed up and finished reading "The Sisterhood of Dropped Stitches" (I got the book via PaperBackSwap, see sidebar). It was a very easy read and it was only slightly knitting related, and there were no patterns of any kind in the book, but it reminds me the Stitch n Bitch group I go to. I remember the first Wednesday meeting - I was a newbe at knitting and I didn't understand anything people were talking about! Slowly, people clued me in on the yarn, the pattern, the names, the techniques... I think without my "sisters", I wouldn't have grown so fond of knitting, and be able plunged into any pattern I want, and of course, have my large yarn stash. I can feel free to express what was in my thoughts when I go there and I can always count on a good laugh. Recently, one of the ladies that attend had some personal trouble, so we moved the meeting to her house. Even though I wasn't as close to her as the others were (we have a big group), I can feel that she appreciated us being there, and that it was good that we were there. Although I can't ease her pain, but I know I will be there when she needs me.

Sunday was a late start at 10am. David and I went to the Mark Twain Library book sale first. I went last year on a Saturday, and this year, I went to the half price day. On the way there, we stopped at a nursery that had mums for "5 for $12.95". I picked up these:

Aren't they beautiful? They are not full bloom yet and from my handy dandy new book, it says that I shouldn't plant them now until the Spring, so now they are just sitting in the front lawn waiting for the good weather to be gone and be moved inside.

We headed to the sale after the brief stop and we must spent over 3 hours there. Here is the haul:

All that for grand total of... you ready?... $22.25!!!!!!! You can't beat the price! Among the books, I came home with these:

Needless to say, we left happy. A lot of the books are replacing my paperbacks and the paperback will be listed on the swap for other books that I want and didn't find at the book sale.

After the book sale, we stopped at Costco and Trader Joe's to get some much needed shopping done, and got home with a car full of flowers, books, and food.

And while we were doing all these driving, I had finished Petrol -

Pattern - Petrol by Carol Sulcoski on Knitty.com
Yarn Called For - 5 Skeins Manos del Uruguay in #27 and 1 Skein Manos del Uruguay in #64
Yarn Used - 6 Balls Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK in #26011
Needles - Denise size 7 and 8
Gauge - 4.5 sts per inch
Knit - August 18, 2007 to September 02, 2007
Modifications - added 2x2 ribs for two inches at the waist, use only single color

This was a very quick knit - instead of the purling rib, it has garter rib. It was different enough to keep me awake but not too complicated so I can knit it during a movie. This is one of the vests I am making for my dad. So now, one down, one more to go. The next one will probably be in a regular plain vest since the yarn is heather and dark and wouldn't show too much of stitch definition.

After we got home, we sat around and be bums for a few hours, until the heat has gone down a little, and we went to our old house and cleaned out the garage, so we can put one of rare car that David is collecting into the garage. So now, we actually have ONE car in one of our garages!!! Well, the race car is also in the garage too. I think I'm just too happy to actually cleaned out the garage from our move - we ONLY moved about 6 months ago... yeah...

When we got home, we grabbed some quick dinner, and I was going through my blog subscription via Google reader (I love that thing! I don't have to sign up separate account at bloglines or anything! And it integrates into my google homepage, which I can read the posts via google homepage) and saw Brooklyntweed's post about his Hemlock Ring Blanket and that there is a KAL started for it. Okay, yes, I joined it. Go ahead, say I am crazy, nuts, or whatever have you. But to my defense, I already had the yarn in mind and printed out the pattern when he first post about it! I would have started the KAL if I didn't already host the Autumn Rose!

Monday morning I got up early (well, 8am IS early when I don't have to go to work!) and went to meet up with the Team Lead of CLCC (Collegiate Leadership Coaching Committee) for SWE business. I am part of the team and we had to get the budget set up and figure out what we are doing for the fiscal year. It was a lot of fun meeting up with her, especially we haven't seen each other for 6 months.

When I got home, I decided that I should continue to be a bum for the rest of the weekend - lots of people relaxed and did nothing during 3 day weekends! So that's what I did - I watched CSI marathon on SPIKE and knitted MS3 - yes, I am finally going back to it. But with the whole afternoon and evening, besides the one and a half hours of making pizza, I only knitted 36 rows!!!! Well, I think I spent about half an hour just trying to figure what went wrong - missing stitches! Luckily I figured it out after only tinking back one full row (missed a YO and also dropped a stitch - good thing I use merino so it didn't ladder down). So I am almost finished with chart E - maybe by Wednesday I will have chart E completed.

So now, it is time for this bum to go to bed - even though work has tomorrow off (floating holiday), I decided to work tomorrow so I can take another day off when we go up to 1000 Islands in a few weeks.

What did YOU do for your holiday weekend?

Cabled Pullover - Finished!!!

Cabled Pullover

Pattern - Cabled Pullover by Kathy Zimmerman in Luxe of Classic Elite Yarns
Yarn Called For - 13 Balls Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo in #1681 Celery
Yarn Used - 14 1/2 Balls Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL in #004 Desert Night
Needles - Addi Turbo size 3 circular
Gauge - 20 sts and 32 rows = 4" in St st
Knit - January 07, 2007 to May 08, 2007

The Back

I took today off since I was going to drop off my parents at the airport in the middle of the day, so there would be no sense of going to work. I still got up early because David still had to go to work, so I used the early morning quiet time and finished sewing the pieces together! I am SO HAPPY it is done! This is the first time I sewed anything with sleeves and I am not sure if I am very happy with the results, but I suppose you really can't tell what was wrong with it. I'll need a lot more practice, that's for sure.

So the parents are gone, back to Cali, then to Taiwan. I'll be seeing them in 6 months though. And don't worry, they left me plenty of knitting projects to keep me busy!

And Then There Is More...

YARN!

My parents are visiting from Taiwan so I didn't get to go to Maryland Wool and Sheep Festival, where many of my fellow SnB friends are at. But the good thing is, I get to see my parents.

My mom had recently pick up knitting, so needless to say, many hours had been spent talking about yarn and knitting and patterns. Then my parents asked: Is there a place that sells yarn around here? Of course, after that question, I had to take them to WEBS! I mean, you CAN NOT compare to WEBS and I think my parents would agree that there is no other place to buy yarn but WEBS. Lets review our newly added stash:

Top: Dolly maxi by Laines Du Nord in Pink(10 Balls), Odyssey by Reynolds in Purple (15 Balls) and Black (20 Balls)
Bottom: alpaca silk dk by Debbie Bliss in Light Green (20 Balls) , Baby Merino by Jaeger in Red (8 Balls) and Baby Alpaca Brush by Plymouth Yarn in Magenta (10 Balls)

Regia Color, Regia Stretch Color, Interweave Knits Spring 2005 issue, Louisa Harding Winters Muse Classics Pattern Book and Knit Klips

So did you notice how many balls of yarn we bought? YEAH... A LOT! The top pictures are for my parents and grandma, and the bottom pictures are for me. I thought I did well myself. Not too much yarn but some new patterns to use up my yarn :) Well, now I have a lot of projects in my plate - 3 vests for my dad, a shirt for my mom. Notice the Regia I bought? I joined the Summer of Socks 2007 by Zarzuela! So that means I actually have to knit socks this summer since I wanted to compete for the traveling socks contest :) Now the question is, do the socks have to be completed when they travel or they can be WIP??? Hmmm... Zarzuela!?!?

After spending 3 and half hours at WEBS, it was well passed our lunch time, so we ask my GPS for a little help and it led us to Sylveste's Restaurant - It serves breakfast and lunch. We were super hungry and checked out the menu real quick and went in and sat down. I ordered a Hot Chocolate named Candy Cane and Chowder and Salad, mom had Corned Beef Hash with Sunny Side Up and Dad had Huevos Rancheros, which is "Two eggs served atop black beans with melted cheddar along with grilled homemade corn bread, our homemade salsa and sour cream". They were mmm mmm good!

Candy Cane!!!!


My Soup and Salad with a GIANT homemade whole grain roll


Mom's Corned Beef Hash with Sunny Side ups and Corn Bread


Dad's Huevos Rancheros with Corn Bread

Did I tell you how inexpensive this place is? With all that food, it was less than 30 dollars!!! We went away full and happy, and with a small doggy bag.

Although I didn't get to go to Maryland this year, I am still having a good time and certainly added more yarn to my yarn wall. All I can say is, I can't wait for the WEBS tent sale in two weeks!

Thanksgiving WEEK!

So if you thought you had a Thanksgiving weekend and it was quite exhausting, try Thanksgiving Week! OK, it really didn't last a week, but I guess it felt like it. We had an extention on Thanksgiving this year, so we didn't have the dinner till Saturday and we didn't have quite as much of a time to digest as many of you out there.

The reason that we had the late Thanksgiving was so David's family can join us. Sher and Dad flue to Albany and drove to Utica to pick up Grandma Nancy, then drove to us on Friday. Mom came down on Friday as well.

So my week went like this:

Tuesday night, I picked up my parents from JFK and arrived home late. Good thing we went shopping Sunday prior to get all the groceries we need, of course, we still didn't get all the stuff and we probably ran back out five more times for things like sugar, eggs, etc.

Wednesday, we went to work and left around 3:30pm. We went to the store (2nd time) for some sweet potatoes and stuff, went home and we prep the house for Thanksgiving.

Thursday, we did nothing in the morning. I started making Esther's sauce and meatball for dinner and yes, it was excellent! After the sauce was on simmer, i started making a sugarless, wheat free apple pie. I found the pie crust recipe online and it was VERY GOOD. I wouldn't buy the gluten free mixes again as they were very expensive. I then made 6 mini pumpkin pies in the muffin tins with the wheat free pie crust. I modified my pumpkin pie to make them with honey instead of processed sugar - they were yummy! I also made two regular size pumpkin pies using the same recipe. We had a lot of pies.

Friday, we did the Black Friday at the Clinton outlet. My parents got some good deals at the Coach store - I got a pair of coach leather gloves lined with cashmere :) I was excited. I didn't get anything else though. We had a good time and it really is a ritual that I do with my parents every year. David's Dad, Sher, Grandma Nancy arrived about half an hour after we got home from shopping. David's mom followed not too far behind. Sher made this wonderful soup that calls for wild rice, ham, carrots, onions, celery, almonds, butter, half and half and chicken stocks. I just finished the last bowl today :) I think I had it for breakfast everyday since she made it! I made David and David's dad gluten free lasagna and a regular one for everyone else. David went to the store (3rd time) for some more cheese for the lasagna.

Saturday, I had an appointment with The White Dress By The Shore for Anne Barge's Trunk show. I tried on quite a few dresses and I ended up deciding to buy a dress for the wedding, instead of making one now. It's Anne's newest collection that's not on the web yet. I had a good time trying the dresses on. I thought it was a lot of fun and I didn't want it to end!

This is the gown I went to the bridal salon for but didn't get.

After a two hour appointment there, we came home to make all the dinner fixings. My brother already had the bird done by the time we got home! Luckily, all the fixings are easy and I had them done by the time the bird was all rest up. By this time, David had gone to the store (4th time) to get gravy. Yes, we didn't make our own gravy - but we smoke the Turkey on the grill, therefore there was no drippings to make them from. We did use the giblets with the gravey to doctor it up a bit though.

All the food!

We had a 13.5 lb Turkey, butter loaded mash potatoes, half marshmellowed, half non sweeten sweet potatoes, stir fried green beans with almonds, cranberry relish (with 3/4 cup of brown sugar, instead of all the white sugar, and only one apple), cranberry sauce (with half of recipe), Salad, 2 honey pumpkin pies, 1 apple pie, 1 minced meat pie, 1 apricot tart, and chocolate chip cookies. We forgot to make the corn... oh well.

We ate and ate and ate, well into the night. We cleaned up and started making turkey soup from the left overs. Just a clear broth, which was very yummy.

Sunday, we got up pretty early and went to see the house in process around 10. Everyone liked the house, which is a good sign. We then came home to get directions to go cut a Christmas tree. This is when Sher, Dad, and Grandma Nancy departed to go back to Uitca. The rest of us went to Broken Arrow Nursery to cut a tree. It turned out that we didn't get the tree from this place last year, we went to the nursery next door!!! I promise I'll have picture for the tree soon.

Today, I took a day off from work and bummed around at the mall with my parents. My mom found some good deals at Dick's Sporting Goods. I got myself a external hard drive so I can store all the pictures I took so my laptop can resume to normal speed. NowI am, of course, still stuffed from dinner - leftover lasagna.

Tomorrow, my parents will be leaving for California then to Taiwan on Thursday. I will be returning to work on Wednesday. My Thanksgiving WEEK was great! How about yours?

Some Pictures and Some Knits!

So here are my two precious: Bruno and Mick. Bruno is around 13 years old and Mick is about a year and a half old. Bruno has been with David since he was in college and he is half chow chow and half black lab. He's got the chow chow snap but most of the time, he is as friendly as a lab. We rescued Mick from the Great Pyrenese Rescue from KY/TN area - he was found roaming the woods at the border of KY and needed a loving home. When he came to us, he was only 65 lbs, but now he weights 101 lbs! Still towards the smaller side for Great Pyrenese! He is very pushy - he wants to be petted ALL THE TIME! But he knows that Bruno is still the boss at home though :) Recently, we just rescued another Great Pyrenese from the same rescue - she came as Glory but we changed it to Vanilla, aka our baby girl. She is very shy and sensitive, but very sweet. She is very under weight right now but we are planning on fattening her up! I will have pictures of her soon!

Here is a picture of my parents having Maine lobsters for the first time! When they were visiting, we took them to Maine and Boston. The first night we stopped at Newicks. It is a very casual and inexpensive seafood restaurant but I have to say, it is the best seafood I had for a long long time! Even my parents agreed! And they live on an island! The second night, I took them to Legal Seafood, which is a chain around the Boston area, but it is also very good!

On the other note, I finally finished my first sweater:

Pattern: Cowl Neck Pullover
Designer: Wilma Peers
Yarn Called For: BUNNY by Tahki Yarns
Yarn Used: Berkshire Bulky by Vally Yarns
Needles: Size 9 Plastic
Knit: March 4 to June 12, 2006

No pictures yet (no one home to take one right now) but I will be posting the finished project ASAP.

Currently, I am working on Lauren's new pattern that's coming out for the fall for Alchemy:

Pattern: Ruby Cable Scarf
Designer: Lauren
Yarn Called For: Sanctuary by Alchemy Yarns of Transformation
Yarn Used: Wool-ALPACA by International Soft Feather
Needles: Size 5 Plastic
Knit: June 2, 2006 to present

So I've been thinking, I should probably pick up my Knitted Tile Throw again at some point...

Where did the time go?

I can't believe it's already June! Where did the time go? I guess time flies when you are having fun! I've been pretty busy building my business, although it's not as fast as I wished, but it's slowly getting there. I passed my Life Insurance test so now I'm waiting for my license to come in. I am currently licensed to do business only in Mortgages, but baby steps, right?

My parents came to visit over the Memorial Day weekend, well, they were here for the week. We took them to Maine and Boston since they never visited there before - it was so much fun! We did the tourist stuff such as the Freedom Trail, Boston Duck Tour, etc. My parents really enjoyed the city, although we only scratch the surface of Boston! They are leaving for Taiwan tomorrow, but I'll be seeing them again for Thanksgiving :)

My sweater is coming along - only one sleeve left to be knitted and then I would be done - for a little while. My mom really like the sweater so I'm going to make her one as well. I will definitely be posting the day I'm done with the sweater.

The weekend before my parents came, David and I took a trip to Atlanta. We went to the Georgia Aquarium - world's largest aquarium, Coke Museum, Fernbank Science Museum, and my friend's restaurant - Pacific Kitchen. The food is excellent and the atmosphere is great. If you are ever in Atlanta, you'll have to visit there for sure!

I suppose those are my trips for now... untill 4th of July :)