Hey Luuuucy! I'm hoooooome!

Ahhh. What a glorious two weeks of fun in paradise. We spent a week on the big island and a week on Oahu... I enjoyed the big island but WILL be going back to Oahu, again and again. Some highlights:

- trillions of goofy self portraits with amazing backdrops


- high speed catamaran ride from Waikiki at mid-day = wet and wild fun in the sun

- snorkeling for the first time ever and LOVING it so much that I did it 4-5 times

- seeing fabulous sunrises like this one looking out over Kailua Bay:


- night hiking down at Volcano National Park to see the lava spurting out into the ocean

- sunset dinner on a sailboat for our 5 year wedding anniversary

- finding out that boogie boarding is not only fantastically fun and exhilarating, but is also an awesome triceps workout

- basically hanging out in places like this every day:



Remember that Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock I bought to make socks with while travelling? Yeah. I knit about an inch of one sock on the way to Hawaii, and that's it. No kidding. I haven't done any knitting for TWO WEEKS! We were so busy the whole time. Which is good. I did read The Kite Runner (excellent), About a Boy (hilarious), and Talk Before Sleep (don't bother).

Today I got to visit with Fulay at Little Knits -- she was having a sale and I offered to help out a bit -- I got to meet Samantha (I hope to see her again soon!) and bought 10 skeins of Classic Elite Gatsby in this pretty robin's egg blue tweed... yummy... bought it to make the Diagonal Twist Princess Seam Jacket from Loop-D-Loop. Little Knits has the best price on it ANYWHERE (41% off!!) and Fulay prides herself on speedy delivery and spot-on shipping fees. Go check it out!


Now I feel the need to knit. Good to be home, even though I had 872 Bloglines posts to catch up on... You guys are chatty! :)

Pack Your Suitcase

Getting ready to leave for Hawaii. Aaaaahhhhh...

Leah asked what yarn I'm using for the Union Square Pullover. I did kind of tease and then drop the ball, didn't I? Well, I'm going to be using Misti Alpaca Sport in grape for the body and lime for the contrast. Sounds fun, eh? I'm getting it through Little Knits. They don't make sportweight in lime, so I'm going to experiment with double and triple strands of laceweight to get gauge. The contrasting color is so minimal that it shouldn't be too big a deal, right?

Misti Alpaca is like buttah. No kidding. And Sue has the color cards for all the different weights so you can see all of your options if you decide to use this yarn for Union Square or anything else, for that matter.

We leave on Wednesday morning and will be gone a couple of weeks. I'll leave you with a couple of travel photos from a different part of the world. Last summer I traveled all around eastern and southern Europe; part of my mission was to visit the small village of Komiza on the island Vis in what is now Croatia.

When my ancestors left there at the beginning of the 1900s, it was considered Austria. This is a picture of the family shortly after arriving in the United States. The little boy, who was named Mateo, would grow up to become my great grandfather John. So ridiculous how folks changed their names to sound more American.







His mother, also seen here in this photo where she's enjoying a visit to Vashon Island, was named Tomazina, and was probably Italian.

My mom met me in Budapest and traveled to Komiza with me -- it was her first time abroad. We stayed a week in the Dalmatian Islands, not just on Viz but also visiting the isles Hvar and Bisevo. Here's one of my favorite shots from our hotel room in Komiza.



And below is what the much of the town looks like... very small windy lanes with a little shade (it's HOT there in the summertime!) and little flowerboxes. It's a little bit like what I think Greece is like; the island is very arid and rocky with no real chance for agriculture except for vineyards. The economy depended upon wine and fishing, politics and wars affected this area quite strongly, so over the years, a good number of families left for better oppportunities. The population took a dramatic dip after World War II. The island was used as a military base until pretty recently and tourism has been nil until the last ten years or so. Which was nice because the water and beaches were still pristine. Gorgeous.



Enjoy and I'll post again in a couple of weeks!

Baccarat Player

Have you seen this?

Did it catch my eye because of the India connection? The shaping? The neckline?

Little Airplane Knits

Yesterday, I went to visit my friend Sue at Little Knits. I'm looking at two great yarns for a couple of projects I want to make, including the Union Square Market Pullover from the most recent Interweave Knits. If her rep can get the two colors I want, I'll show and tell... if not, that just means I get to go back over and play with yarn some more!

In the meantime, I joined the Union Square KAL, because clearly I need more projects.

While I was at Little Knits, I picked up a couple of skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport. I love this colorway, called Georgetown. It has blues, greens, aquas, purples, all blending together.





I think it will make a great pair of Conwy socks from Knitting on the Road. So this just might be my airplane knitting for our trip to Hawaii that's coming up quick.

I just noticed that my little blog has 50 subscribers already. Wow! Hi everybody! I hope you don't all think I'm obsessed with my boobs. I was chuckling to myself that I should've called my blog Bustline or something. But I've lost a good amount of weight over the past year or two, and I'm still getting used to what I look like and what sizes I wear. Too bad my brain takes longer to get used to it all than my actual body does. Body image and all.

And try applying that to choosing the right sizes for handknit sweaters...? That's where the obsession lies, if there is one. Especially after yesterday when I found out that my bra size has changed again. My band size has finally gone down to 34. But guess what? You can add another D to my Bustline.blogger.com (ha ha). I've changed alphabetically to an F! Gah! The woman who was helping me was really great, but when she offered me a G, I said, "NOOOO!". Thank goodness I tried it anyway and it was way too big. So now 50+ perfectly nice knitty strangers know all about my boobs. Isn't that swell. :P

In other news, tonight we go to an Independence Day party on a house boat on Lake Union. It's the perfect place in Seattle to see the fireworks. Have you seen Sleepless in Seattle? That's the house boat! No kidding!

The Kindness of People

I won a Rebecca magazine from a German seller and I assumed I could use PayPal, since I've used it tons of times with UK sellers. This seller had never heard of PayPal.

After some digging around, I found that sending money via Western Union ($20 fee), doing a wire transfer from my own bank ($45!), etc. would be too expensive relative to the purchase. So I asked her to either sign up for PayPal or allow me to send actual currency in the mail. Risky... Or, if it's too much of a headache, to cancel the auction. :(

She said, oh don't worry, send the US currency, and I know you're a sincere person, so I'll send the magazine today, trusting that the money will arrive.

How cool is that?

Mostly, it points to my feeling that people in the US are not very trusting in general. I can't imagine an American eBay seller doing the same.

H R Shrugs N Stuf*

Thanks to everyone who weighed in with their opinions about itty bitty shrugs and not so itty bitty bustlines. I think, for the most part, they don't work together very well. But then I got an email from Tracy, in which she told me about her own One Skein Wonder. Tracy knit a OSW in combination with a sleeveless shell that she designed. The set, in my opinion, makes the most of both worlds and is very flattering on her!

So if I ever decide to make a shrug, I'll make it in combination with a shell so they look continuous together.

The rest of you cute little things should definitely make more shrugs if you wanna, 'cause they look fabulous on you!

In other knitting news, I finished Aprikot Jacke's back and cast on for a front piece. So I'm about halfway done with the knitting part. I guess I should update my sadly neglected sidebar, eh? I also found a bunch of black, white and mint Cotton Ease almost by accident yesterday. Definitely colors I'll use. The Pistachio I might use for someone's baby gift. Trellis, maybe?

Happy Canada Day!

*Remember H R Pufnstuf? Man, we had some seriously psychedelic kids' shows back in the day....

Quiz Time

Go help out a grad student with his Ph.D. work; take this quiz at MIT.

Packages!

Before I get to the good stuff, I need advice. I won an auction on eBay.de (Germany) and the seller doesn't know anything about PayPal. Do any of you know of easy, speedy alternatives? I checked out Western Union and it would cost about $20 to send 9.50 Euros. HUH? Help! Worst case, I'll mail her a money order, and I'll receive my package around December. Ha!

Look what was on my porch when I got home today! Yay! Books!








I got Loop-D-Loop, which is the one I'm most excited about, plus Knitted Toys (good to have around for gifts and such), Simple Socks, Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns, Ann Budd's Book of Sweater Patterns and Yarn Requirements. That ought to keep me busy for a while. I've definitely hit a point where I have more books and magazines than I'll ever use, but that's kind of fun.


There was also a weird, very plasticy (you know that smell) little tote stuck in the bottom of the box, plus a sample. Calcium samples? Hm.

Cotton Ease and Shizzle

So. Remember when I said, "Yay!" because school was out for summer and I'd be doing 24/7 knitting? Yeah. That hasn't happened yet. I have made a little progress on Aprikot Jacke, but not enough to tell you about.

Here's what has happened:

- Toddler birthday parties are crazy. Crazy.

- Mothers in law get very excited when their daughter in law suggests a day together at the new outlet mall.

- GAP and Ann Taylor have cute stuff.

- Mr. Goodkarma shopped for clothes (!) by himself (!) and didn't only buy the usual uniform of black tshirt and olive shorts!! I was so proud of him I almost had a heart attack.

- Fremont Outdoor Cinema double date is a good idea. Them playing Napoleon Dynamite to a crowd of folks who've obviously seen it before and are laughing/quoting the whole time is hilarious!

- Fledgling stitch n bitch got together at a local coffee shop. Fulay (from Little Knits -- go shop there, she is the coolest business owner/fun friend!) vented about being a tired mom to a toddler and a new baby. When I told her I'm trying to get pregnant she offered to hit me over the head. Then we laughed a lot and I snorted, which is normal for me. :)

- I went to Tuesday Morning for the first time in search of Cotton Ease. Bought 6 skeins of pistachio and 6 skeins of blue popsical. Not sure I'll even use them (I already have 6 skeins of blue popsical!). Would rather trade for other colors, especially Licorice or Vanilla (of course), or a darker teal green that I've seen in the past at a shop but isn't on the website (was I on crack that day?), or Candy Blue or Blueberry. Anyone wanna trade? This picture of blue popsical seems a bit light/bright to me. It's deeper and turquoisier.



- Oh, and the owl pellet I disected yesterday at my week long science class (see, I wasn't just complaining that my summer hasn't really started yet) was kind of gross.

Huh? Ooooh...

So the Aprikot Jacket is absolutely gorgeous to knit and I'm all in love with the pattern. However, the details are a bit fuzzy and I had to break out the graph paper last night when I was done with the ribbing and it was time to start the diagonal pattern.

After that, it all made sense. You just have to start the graph on what would normally be the wrong side of the garment (the side that has P2 on the edges rather than K2). At least, that's what finally worked out for me.

Here she is, peeking at you in her halfway done back glory. I've figured out that optimal color photographing time/place is out on the back deck after dinnertime. Ain't she pretty?

Didya notice the new Interweave Knits there in the background? I love fall. So much. There are a few things I'll consider from this issue.

Big Geek Beth and I have been talking. I didn't want her to think I was stalking her, but we have a lot in common. Without spelling it out for the whole world, we've both been noticing how many of you are making One Skein Wonders, and we've both been shaking our heads. You see, Beth and I are well endowed chicks and we just don't know how OSW could possibly do anything else but highlight our bustlines in disgusting ways. We also suspect Orangina, another of Stephanie Japel's fantastic designs, might look equally disgusting on us. So, if there are any of you out there who read this and have knit either OSW or Orangina, and have bOObs, would you let me know? I'm talking thirtysixdoubledee for me. Not sure about Beth's size, 'cause I haven't really been stalking her. :) hee hee

Oooo! And it's blue!

what flavor pocky are you?

[c] sugardew

Schooool's Out For Summer!

Yay! School's out, so in between summer science courses, doctor appointments, home organization projects, planning for our vacation, etc., I'm ready to catch up on knitting. I promise to have knitting news in the next couple of days.

In the meantime, I have some fun pics to share. A couple of weeks ago, we had a big birthday bash for my younger step-sister. She's 24 and drank way too much, so the only picture I have of her is very, very unflattering and not fit to share. :) But here I am sitting on my mom's deck in the back yard. She has an amazing flower garden. Here's my Mr. Goodkarma in the one picture where he doesn't look stoned. That's a special talent of his. I suspect this one looks okay because he's wearing his shades.... cause here's one where he's posing with my other stepsister, and what did I tell you? Stoner-looking husband.




On Father's Day, my brother and I took our dad to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (known to Seattleites as the Ballard Locks). Dad used to take us there all the time when we were kids. Any trip to Seattle would be complete with a visit... the locks themselves were engineered and built by the Army Corps of Engineers way back in 1917 as a way of allowing boats to travel between the Puget Sound (saltwater) and Lake Washington (fresh water). Now it's a fun place to watch the sailboats pass through. Also, there is a fish ladder to assist the salmon in returning to their origins to spawn, and you can see them rushing up the ladder, against the current, through big underground windows. The Locks also has gorgeous botanical gardens and lawns, isn't far at all from Golden Gardens and Shilshole, in case anyone wants some beach time. And across the street you get to eat fish and chips at the Totem House, making family recipes since 1948. Yum yum! We saw this newish outdoor sculpture there, photo from the Roddy Scheer website.






This week I was fortunate enough to receive a fat gift certificate to one of my favorite spas in town, Ummelina. A couple of parents got my whole class together to chip in and buy a gift certificate for me, isn't that thoughtful?! Wow, BIG surprise!! So I went on Monday night with a couple of girlfriends and had a fabulous facial. I still have money left to go toward a massage... their massages are The Best I've Ever Had. Probably because the whole place is lux and you get to go through several steps of relaxation, including a shower beforehand in a room with many showerheads, heated comfy massage tables, warm neck pillows afterward in the tranquility room, etc. Sigh...

And what should appear in my mailbox today from Overstock.com? Yay! I bought Last-Minute Knitted Gifts because of all the Hourglass Sweaters I've seen; I hadn't even looked at all the other patterns in the book. I'm impressed with the layout and design of the book and there are actually a few things I will make; looks like a good book to have on hand for gift ideas. And Knitting On the Road has been calling to me ever since I checked it out from the library a couple months ago.

Maybe tomorrow my Crafters Choice books will arrive. Yes, I signed up a week or so ago, mostly because they offered Loop-D-Loop, which I really, really want!

Tiny Taste of Seattle

So I got to spend the day at EMP with 80 second graders. In case you've never heard of EMP, aka Experience Music Project, it's a rock 'n roll museum that was begun as a way to celebrate Jimi Hendrix and his roots in Seattle. Mr. Goodkarma (guitar extraordinaire) and I are members, natch.

The kids were hilarious. Of course they loved the Sound Lab, where you can basically take mini guitar/drum/bass/keyboard lessons with instruments that are attached to computers that walk you through the chords, etc.

They didn't quite get why Jimi wore those crazy clothes, and "Why did he smash up his guitars??" (Little photo here is a remnant of one of his hand-painted guitars.) But they did have a rockin' good time. If you ever find yourself in my home town, you must visit EMP.

Another thing you must do if you ever find yourself in my home town (or anywhere in the Pacific Northwest for that matter) is go to one of my bro-in-law's gigs. He's becoming quite a rock star in our city and has recently signed a big record deal. All the drums you hear in those songs (I like Montreal best) are real, played by Kevin himself. He used to call himself The Human Drum Machine. He's fast, fast, fast.

Rebecca Sleeve #1

I love this design. I do. After knitting several rows of the diagonal chart, I would stop, look at it, shake my head and smile. It's the architectural feeling that gets me. Pay no attention to the fact that the person who designed it and the people who wrote/edited/translated/re-edited/published the pattern probably have never met nor spoken to one another.

I'm also in love with All Seasons Cotton. It feels really good on my hands, is airy and sproingy, and I can't wait to wear it. I already can't wait to make something else with it and I'm barely knee-deep in this project!

Every time I photograph the yarn, the light is different and it looks like a completely different color. I think the May 28th entry is truest so far.

Soho Summer

Lookie, lookie! The Jo Sharp Soho Summer arrived from WEBS!

I ordered 12 balls of the color Sailboat, which turned out to be more of a greeny-grey than a blue color, which is fine by me. I think it'll make a swell Rebecca jacket.

There are only 11 school days left. I canNOT wait to have more free time to work on projects, add plants to my yard, sleep, read, etc. etc!

Back and Undefeated!

First off, thanks to everyone who sent a supportive comment about the miserably unattractive Ribby. After a day or two of supreme funk, I understood that the sweater could either be fixed, donated, or saved for future maternity wear (ha!), and to hell with it, I'm going to keep working on Lucky.

So that's what I've been doing this week, knitting Lucky and becoming chemically dependent on Jack Bauer and 24 on DVD. (Also, Mr. and I went to see Hitch at the cheap theater the other night. It was a cute, funny, romantic date movie. Kinda predictable, but the actors kept it fresh.)

My luck is changing, though, which makes me feel all cosmically good. I'm buying a great car from a friend who's leaving with her husband and 3 year old to teach in Tanzania. I'm moving to 4th grade next year with an awesome new teammate. I'm looking forward so much to going to Hawaii with my husband next month, where we'll also be celebrating our 5 year anniversary.

Now back to the mundaneness of home ownership: scrubbing the kitchen floor while hubby blasts Mars Volta from the basement as he stains the new wood cabinets he built in our laundry room. I don't know if I'll drop first from the fumes, the noise, or the shock that I'm scrubbing my kitchen floor. :)

What Would Bonne Marie Do?

Warning: Knitting Rant Ahead.

Last night I sat down and installed the zipper into my Ribby Cardi. I tried it on and it looks terrible. The main problem, I think, is that the damn thing turned out too big. It looks boxy and horrible, which is sad, because others have knit cute, form fitted Ribbies that show that they really do have waists. It looks so bad, I don't even want to bother taking a picture.

I know some of the problems...

a) I knit the damn thing too loosely. I had gauge, I really did. I swatched. But since then, I've used the same Peruvian Highland Wool for Mariah, on smaller needles, and the fabric is much nicer/denser/etc. that way. Damn.

b) I must make sure that I have waist shaping in all pattern choices. This one has side ribbing, which I thought would be enough to bring it in in the right places, but no.

c) Perhaps I should do what Grumperina does and knit 36" sweaters for a 39" bust. Okay, so I actually have a 40" bust, but I also have a 32" waist and a short torso, so I need to pay more attention to schematics and such, so I'm not swimming around in a sweater that matches my bust measurement. I knit Ribby at the 38/39" size.

There might be a way to "boss my knitting around" but I'm just plain irritated with it. And I was so disappointed in the thing that I started to doubt my whole obsession/committment to the world of knitting. So far, the things I've finished for myself haven't been too successful. (See problem b above.) I don't want to spend more time knitting -- and more money on yarn -- if I'm not going to be happy with the results. That, or stick to knitting for all of my friends' babies and kiddos.

Now that I've had some time to think about it, I might try altering the sides to cut out excess bulk. But not today.

Grumble over.

Next I'll install the zipper on Mariah, which I know will fit better. See, I solved problems a and b when I was planning and starting Mariah. Wish me luck.

Rippit! Rippit!

We went to a little barbeque at our friends' house today, which involved driving about 45 minutes each way. Jacke was happy to accompany me. Here's the progress I've made so far on sleeve #1... nearly a skein's worth. So quick to knit, such a lovely yarn! Sadly, I'm going to rip all of this out and start again. You can't tell from this picture (dang flash), but the center ribbing is not symmetrical. I want to start the cuff ribbing one stitch over so that the center column of ribbing between the diagonal stitches will be even. Right now it's P1, k2, p2, k2, p2, k1. Which is fine, but to blend in properly with the sides, it should be p2, k2, p2, k2, p2. Get it? And it's probably a very small thing, but the gauge is huge enough to be obvious to me. And so, I'll start again.

I'm glad I started with a sleeve; it gave me a good chance to get used to the charting, the yarn, etc.

New Project

Since Mariah is practically finished, I need a new project to alternate with Lucky. Lucky is great, but I'm knitting it on size #2 needles, so progress is slooow. I need something that's worked at a larger gauge. Enter Jacke in Aprikot. I know, everyone and their mother has either knit this or fantasized about knitting it, but I love it so and have had it in my queue for months and months. I've also had this gorgeous bag of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in my stash specifically for this cardi, and it was exciting to liberate the first skein today in order to make a swatch. What you see here is what I was able to knit while watching my husband grill turkeyburgers for dinner: a few inches of the first sleeve. I am adoring this yarn. Adoring. This beet red color I'm using is called Kiss. The yarn has a great sproing that reminds me a little of knitting with Karabella Aurora 8. I *will* be using ASC again, lemme tell you.

Guess what? I got a package in the mail today! What fun! This one was a little surprise pack from my new friend, Atouria, at Yarn Yoga. Such a good pal! We've been finding all kinds of things in common with one another. She sent a little wooden massager, which I went right out and used on Mr. Goodkarma, who had just finished mowing the lawn in the hot sun. He definitely approved, and said it made him all tingly, which is kind of creepy of him since I only used it on his back. :) Anyway, pally also sent me this pretty bar of soap, which will look so great in my bathroom. Here's a picture of one of the walls in our main bathroom. Can you dig the mango walls? And mediterranean accents? I love me some citrus and "water" colors. Mmm hmm. I brought the glass dish home from Venice and it has a little mini friend that we use as a soap dish. So the soap, which is cruelty free because Atouria is vegan and loves finding fabulous animal friendly products, fits in perfectly and has a nice fresh scent that I love. Thank you!!

Finally, everyone must see this little animated movie that's making its way around the web: Store Wars. "Cuke, I'm your father..." Very funny.

I just re-read this post and realized that it made Mr. Goodkarma out to be quite hard-working while all I do is check the mail for goodies, knit, and blog. Lemme tell ya, we both earned our supper tonight. Whew. Lots of work to be done at the casa, and it was another warm day. Around 80 degrees. Better than the last two days, which were hovering close to 90 degrees! In May! In Seattle! I really do worry about global warming. This is not normal!

Thanks A Lot, Guys!

Thanks to everyone for voicing their opinions about colors for the Rebecca cardi. The votes were really evenly spread, which didn't made my decision any easier. I showed the magazine to Mr. Goodkarma, and all he noticed were all the super cropped sweaters on all the super skinny German models ("She's not that skinny," he said, and the conversation ENDED before we even got to the color options.) I just went ahead and ordered the Soho Summer in Sailboat. I was undecided until just then, when I went back to WEBS to look at the colors and realized that today was the last day of the sale. There is another, more bluey blue (sailboat is a bit greeny grey blue), called cloudless, which I seem to pick out a lot, so at least sailboat will be a bit different, spring/summery, and neutral enough to wear a whole lot.

Lolly mentioned that a friend of hers tried to knit this cardi and had to put it down. I admit that the directions are more vague than I'm used to (let's face it, Rebecca ain't no Bonne Marie), but I think I want to give it a shot.

In super happy news, look at what came in the mail today:



Go Zipperstop! Go Zipperstop! It's your birthday! Get busy! Sorry, that's annoying. It took only 3 days from the time I placed my order (including a custom length zipper) to the time my zippers arrived, cross-country, in my mailbox. Yippee! My only beef: I paid about $4 for the zippers and about another $4 for shipping, and the package cost $0.60 to mail. I hate being overcharged for shipping. But anyway, if it weren't 88 degrees out today (seriously!), I'd be putting these zippers in right now! But the cardis are wool and I'm already sweaty. We'll see how the weather shakes out this long holiday weekend.

Lastly, Bonnie noticed my bikes in Amsterdam photo this week and thought she'd start a little revolution: International Bike Pics on Blogs. Go see hers. It was taken in Costa Rica, and she's getting ready to move there! So, check out your photo files and post your own!