Itch ‘n pitch

So Stitch ‘n Pitch Cleveland was a ball…very well organized and we got these wonderful giftbags (sorry for the crap photo):

Complete with size 19 needles and some yarn! And I heart the book – “the Travel Guide 2006” It’s full of maps of every state with little stars were all the yarn stores are, and a directory so that you can call them. I’m totally going to just leave it in my car – like you would do with an atlas – so that wherever I am I can always find yarn. It would have come in very handy that one time I spent an hour driving around in circles looking for Knitters Mercantile....

The organizers even made signs that said Stitch n Pitch for us to hold up between innings all sports-fans like:

But we were hot. Real hot in the sun and in the crowd and without the wind… and really, knitting with wool – even if it’s sock weight – in that hot is un-fun. So we moved further up into the shade and breeze and space to put our feet up…


which meant that we dropped the ball a little bit on the sign holding up… It now read “ITCH N PITCH”

Whoops.

It was a totally fun evening, though!

From L to R: Knitting a dishcloth, frogging a blanket, my mom knitting socks, me knitting a baby hat so that my best friend’s sister would finally get to not be pregnant anymore (have you heard the superstition that babies won’t come unless you knit for them? This kid has a hat now. He’s still being very stubborn. According to his mom once he’s born he’s going straight into time-out for being this late.), and Michelle knitting a sock.

In other news… .have you seen this website? It creates knitting charts all automatic-like without having to draw it in AutoCad (I don’t care if it’s geeky – drafting programs are perfect for figuring out knitting patterns)! Very, very cool.

Regatta #1

So Saturday was our first regatta of the season:

And it was a nice day for a little butt-kicking:

Our first time was a 2:36 which is much faster than we ever did last year. Then our second time was a 2:35.03. Our boat definitely went so fast!



Plus it was just a beautiful day to be outside on the river:



In other news I’ll be at Stitch ‘n Pitch tonight – hope to see you there! I’m wearing my Tempting II so if you see me say hello. And can I just say that I am completely stoked about the gift bags?

Dream Big.

Ok so I know the “big thing in August” suspense has been killing you… and I’m really kindof thrilled that you guys think I’m capable of running a marathon or doing a triathlon…but that’s not it…

And I’m not planning on having any kids then either…

Instead I’m doing this:

On August 31 Matt and I are leaving for a 17 day backpacking trip to Peru.

I don’t know how to explain how big this thing is for us. To put it in perspective: Since we’ve known each other we’ve lived in Copenhagen and back packed through Europe, we’ve lived in San Francisco and driven across the country twice, we’ve been to the Caribbean and Skiing in Colorado, and we’ve traveled all over the country visiting friends.

But none of that was Peru. Not even close.

Peru is somewhere we independently dreamed of going before we even knew each other. We both did reports on Peru when we were little and thought to ourselves – “someday I’m going to go there.” And way back when (1998 was along time ago) – before we were dating when we were just starting to become friends – we found this out. I mean how many people out there both really want to go to the same random South American country? So we said half-jokingly that someday we would go together.

Someday is 10 weeks from today.

We’re using every drop of vacation time that we have, plus the Labor Day holiday to be able to do this. And we’ve been saving for it for over 2 years. This is our dream trip. It’s huge and exciting and more than a little terrifying.

And have you ever noticed how many yarns are made in Peru?

Yellow is the new Pink

So I think my new fav color is yellow.

It’s so pretty:

Random flowers

More random flowers


Even more random yellow flowers

Daylilys

Snapdragons

Yellow is also very tasty:

Bush Cucumbers

Zucchini (I’m hoping I don’t kill them this year like I did last year)


Tomato (I can almost taste the deliciousness)

Although I still do love pink….

Daylilys

Snapdragons


Pink Roses

Also in garden news… I left this onion in from last year b/c it was doing so good that I couldn’t bear to rip it out…

Brings new meaning to the phrase “blooming onion” Totally didn’t even know they did that.

Yeah for it finally raining! And an even bigger Yeah for it clearing up and being so beautiful out for rowing tonight!

Tomorrow I promise either good knitting content or to tell you what it is I’m doing in August. Thanks for being so patient with my lack of blog reading and nearly content-less blogging lately… at least the fluff posts are pretty, right?

Instant gratification. In sock form.

So San Antonio may have colorful umbrellas next to a drainage ditch but we have colorful sunrises over a real body of water:



I think despite the NBA finals Cleveland still wins.

Anyways on to my sock:

I cranked that sock out in lightning speed. I only owned the yarn for 5 days and it was already a sock. I think that’s some kindof record (well not really b/c of these but they were worsted so it hardly counts). The yarn is Cider Moon Glacier in Asbury Park… I bought it (in a fit of rage) when I was a few repeats away from finishing the Spring Socks-that-never-end partially as motivation to finish partially as a “Screw this. The next socks I knit are going to be sport weight!"

Socks fly off the needles when they are on size 3 needles... but only if you actually work on them. The second sock is sadly going much, much slower:


I knit that from the ribbing down to the heel, turned the heel, and started the gusset while I was in the emergency room with Matt. Since then I’ve knit a few rows here and there during lunch… and that’s it. Hopefully I can get my fast-sock mojo back and finish these up soon…

Speaking of finishing, I did actually finish the alpaca scarf:

Love me some long fringe.

Hope you’re having a fantabulous Monday!

San Antonio Sucks.

They suck big. I hate them right now. Don’t they realize how big a championship would be for our city? Don’t they know that it’s our turn? That it’s our time? That we all are witness?

I don’t think they got that memo.

Here’s lots of proof of their suckiness that I collected while at the AIA convention there back in early May:

San Antonio Botanical Gardens:




The Alamo:



The “River” walk. I put river in quotations because to a Cleveland girl this is not a river:

This is a drainage ditch with umbrellas around it. It’s literally 3-5’ deep, and the only “traffic” on it is tourist “barges” like this one:


No freighters, no rowing club, no pleasure cruisers, no fireboats, no tugs, no fishing boats, no dredging boat… and once a year they drain it and bulldoze the bottom. So not a river. It is pretty, though:

Wait no, I mean they suck. A lot. Hate them.

And their claim that each concrete room of this hotel was lifted into place complete with furniture:


And their Texas Ice Houses:


And their random fountains:

And the very pretty Mission San Jose:







Actually most of this isn’t even original to the mission – it was rebuilt as a WPA project back in the 1930’s – which even though they got a lot wrong when they rebuilt it and pretty much made stuff up as they went along which is like the biggest no-no in preservation. But it is now protected as much as a WPA site as it is a Mission. I think Preservation politics like that are very interesting…aaaanayways…

Speaking of politics check out the crowd that was lined up to hear Al Gore (the keynote speaker for the convention) speak:

I was at the front of the line so I scored 3rd row center seats! This is how close I was to the podium he stood at:

Can’t get anymore rockstar than that! I was too nervous to take pictures during his speech b/c they were strictly forbidden and I didn’t want to get kicked out. Luckily the guy sitting directly in front of me was a little more of a rebel. I gave him my card and he emailed me this:

Awesome!

So yeah. San Antionio Sucks…..But there’s always next year, right?

On again Off again…

Right so it seems like this blogging thing for me has been very on again off again… lots going on so I’ll just make a list…

1.) I’ve figured out that blogging and laundry are inversely proportional. The less I blog the bigger the laundry pile gets. Clearly the two things are only related to each other and not any other factors (how busy we are, how little time we’ve spent at home, pi). Under this theory I’m hoping that by posting something The Mountain will magically wash and fold itself.

2.) I am not allowed to go out on school nights anymore. I’m hoping that by posting that on the internets where millions (ok tens) of people will read it I will actually abide by this rule. I actually made this rule last week… well then Thursday clearly we had to go out and celebrate after Cleveland’s First Annual Design Competition, and watch Cleveland’s first Championship game in 10 years. And then obviously we had to drown our sorrows because we’re Cleveland fans and that’s how we cope with the constant crush of defeat. Right. So yeah... No more going out on school nights. Except for Wednesdays… Wed is rowing and we have to go out after rowing. And of course there’s another game tomorrow and it’s a home game and our city is going to be nuts – and it might (hopefully not) be the last championship game here for awhile… we so have to got be a part of that….

Do you see how slippery this slope is?

3.) The work crazy: My office is currently considering switching to a completely different drafting program which is a VERY BIG DEAL. I’m on the team of people who is learning/implementing/deciding if we even should implement this new program. So basically that means I’ve been in training last week and this week. It’s interesting… but exhausting.

Also? The training manual had a lesson in it where – and I shit you not – we had to change all of the text on our construction set into - wait for it - comic sans! None of my coworkers were nearly as amused by this as I was.

4.) I’m slightly obsessed with this website: Favorite Run It tracks how many miles you’ve walked thanks to the amazing that is google maps. I heart it. It’s perfect for all of the training I’ve been doing for the big thing that’s happening in August I’ve been too nervous to blog about yet. Curious?

5.) We are currently redoing our bathroom. So far this has meant one late-night house call from a plumber, an indoor waterfall, a future house call by an electrician, and one trip to the emergency room.

6.) I spent all day Sunday in the Emergency Room: First of all we’re both fine – we had to go because Matt cut his arm from wrist to elbow in spectacular fashion while sanding a wall. It’s impressive, I know. When the doctor finally came in to see him after about a million of waiting (luckily I had the forethought to run back into the house to grab my knitting while my husband bled in the car thinking this was a frantic situation. I don’t think he’s ever been to an emergency room before) we were both a little…punchy. So the Doc asked what was wrong and I jumped in with “Nothing a little superglue won’t fix!”

Now, I’m an architect. All architects have at one point in their studies either superglued or drafting taped an x-acto wound together. It’s just part of the deal. Seriously, next time you meet an architect ask them… it makes for some great horror stories. Anyways the Doc looks at me and says with all seriousness “Are you a nurse?”

I looked at him like he had just asked me if I was a cantaloupe. “Um… No?”

“Because that’s exactly what we’re going to do!”

No, really, they superglued Matt’s disgusting, gaping, fleshwound. Superglued! And this is a valid treatment. It seemed sortof like the medical equivalent to if you can’t duct it, fuck it to me but what do I know. Blood freaks me out.

7.) Knitting: has been rather.. nonexistiant around here (see previous list) but I did manage to finally get around to blocking my Shetland Triangle Shawl that’s been finished for over a month:

I looks awesome. I can’t wait to unpin it… many, many, many more photos to follow. Other than that all I can handle is a plain old sock.

So yeah. That’s what’s been going on with me lately. I’ll be back to the blogging world soon… oh and did everyone see the Soprano’s finale?