Crazy Pie

I want to make this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And... this:

Like the title says I think I'm eating crazy pie because these all will take me forever and I don't know how to do half of it. Did I mention I want to make socks?

Christmas moved and no one told me.

So yesterday I was reading Yarn Harlot (aka Stephanie Pearl-McPhee). I am currently reading her archives because I always need something to do in the evenings and I alternate between games and reading people's blogs. I however, am also reading her current blog entries when she posts. Well yesterday I was  covering the front desk's lunch break like I always do (it's a small private company and it's totally okay that I do this) and I checked her blog to see if she'd posted. She had and this is what she had posted. I have been wanting to take classes and I had especially been wanting to take a class by Stephanie. So when she posted that she and Tina Newton (of Blue Moon Fiber Arts!!) were going to hold a weekend of teaching classes I was extremely excited. I was even more excited that it was being held a stone's throw from where I currently live. They were only offering 40 spots and I knew that if I wanted to take these classes that I would have to act quickly. I was lucky that I read Stephanie's post soon after she posted it but I knew that they would be inundated with requests to attend. I thought I would take a shot at it and see what would happen. The front desk computer is a dinosaur and yesterday it was EXTREMELY slow. I was practically crawling out of my skin (the thing took about 3 minutes for me to open my e-mail) when I was finally able to shoot off an e-mail. I was so nervous and excited at the chance that I completely forgot to give them my name, address and phone number, like they had asked. I remembered an hour later and sent another one with all the info in the e-mail. I waited on pins and needles all day yesterday checking my e-mail and phone but nothing. I didn't get anything and by this morning I didn't think that I was in because they had posted around noon yesterday and I was sure that they had e-mailed everyone yesterday. So this morning when I got an e-mail from TIna Newton(!) saying oh so nonchalantly that if I still wanted a spot it was mine. I was silently pleased (I started jumping up and down and squealing in my office, hey it was early and I was the only one there) and went on with my day. Tina obviously hadn't seen my second e-mail as she asked me to e-mail her back with the information I had (stupidly) forgotten the day before or I could call her. I could call Tina Newton!?!  So I called her on my break and gave her my info. By this point the stupidity of my first e-mail was funny. Tina thought so too and we laughed about it (total out of body experience).  I am still beside myself with happiness, when I got the reply e-mail first thing this morning (you  remember I acted calmly and rationally right?) I literally felt like it was Christmas morning and I was a little child again. It was fantastic.

Now on to the rational part. I know that it's expensive but I'm taking it as my Birthday/Christmas present. I realized that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's the first one they are doing and it hasn't been established that they will do more (I strongly suspect they will). I know all the types of stitching required I just need to brush up on my abbreviations and how to do them all (I do know some). I also get to learn how to dye yarn and I get to dye my own and take it home. Seriously. Christmas.

Evening Driving

So lately (well the past five weeks) I've had a lot of solo time. Now I'm all for having time to oneself, I really enjoy it actually but the past few weeks it's been a little much. Isaac has been working until 6pm at his teaching job and then having to go work on his honey business that he runs independently. He has an seperate space to do this in that isn't at our house. I am very proud of him and that he has been able to be so successful at it and that he has the dedication and perseverance to build it to where it is today. It however, also means that he isn't getting home until midnight. This is compounded by the fact that he sells honey at farmers markets on the weekends (both days). So while working out, knitting, watching tv and cooking/baking is a lot of fun, I'm going stir crazy. This means I travel on the weekends, whether it's day trips or visiting family and friends. But I've also taken to driving in the evening. We don't live very far from the countryside and it's really pretty during dusk. There's a loop (well triangle) that I drive a lot from Redmond to Carnation to Fall City and back to Redmond. I haven't driven out there much this year but it's a place I love to go and it takes up about an hour of my evening and makes me feel like I'm doing something. I do have a couple friends that I can hang out in the evenings with and I do but I still have plenty of evenings left over, so this has been my solution. Luckily Isaac only has one more week of working until 6 and then he's back to getting off at 1pm which means he's home when I get home from the gym. Below are some pictures of places I drive by in the evenings. Enjoy.

I knit.

I remember the first time that my grandma introduced me to knitting. I'm pretty sure I was around 8 or so and I even remember the house they were living in. I don't remember if I asked her or she asked me if I wanted to learn or if I was just being obnoxious and she wanted some way to occupy me (probably the last one). She sat me down in her chair and gave me a piece that she was working on (I think it was a scarf) and showed me the knit stitch. I remember how amazing it was that I was able to take that ball of pastel pink yarn and transform it into something. The funniest part is that apparently I taught myself the purl stitch (there are only two stitches in knitting and purl is the other one) because when my grandma came back I still remember her exclamation of "Oh, I see you learned how to purl." At the time all these words didn't mean anything because I still didn't really know what I was doing, I just remember how amazing it made me feel. I however, did not pick it up right away again. I mean when you're eight years old it's kinda hard to have enough money for needles and yarn when no one else in your immediate family knits and your grandma lives about 1,500 miles away.
I picked up knitting again after college. I was living in Eugene and I worked next door to a yarn shop. I remember passing by and always being enchanted. I remembered the knit and purl stitches well enough but I didn't know how to cast on. So I went in one day, bought some yarn and needles and had one of them teach me. I remember meeting resistence because I was left handed. They were nice enough about helping me but it was like I was a foreign animal and being left handed was all it took to stump them. So then I made scarfs because I was basically shown I was unteachable due to being left handed. During this time I moved up to Seattle and I had many more yarn shops to choose from but I didn't really try to learn how to knit from anyone else. I was still gun shy from being treated like I was unable to be taught to knit. So I kept buying yarn and books and making scarfs. Okay, you can only take making so many scarfs until you just want to shoot yourself out of boredom. I still loved knitting so I tried to teach myself from the books I had bought. This was super frustrating because it didn't work. I didn't have enough know how and was nervous to ask, so I stopped. I stopped buying yarn and knitting needles. I stopped entirely.
Then through the magic that Facebook is Jilian found me. We became friends in high school and as life goes we lost touch. Jilian is a rather accomplished knitter (thank you partially to her mom Karen) who had been around knitting most of her life if not all of her life. Jilian made me feel like I could knit. That somehow being left handed didn't make me some sort of enigma and completely unteachable. She did it with such a grace and sweetness that I was immediately comfortable. She taught me other cast-ons, what a gauge swatch is and why it's SO important (even though it's a pain in the you know what), and she piled me with resources and patterns. It also helps that there are now so many tutorials online (one example) that show you what to do if you get stuck. But best of all she got me started again. Thank you Jili, your friendship and (knitting) guidance means so much to me. I'm very grateful that we became friends again.
I have recently learned how to knit in the round, use double pointed needles, ribbing and I am going to try cabling soon. I don't feel like there is anything I will not able to learn with knitting. I'm just going to do it my own left handed way. :) I also have to say that Isaac has been very sweet about it. He's always been so supportive and willing to do what he can (if anything) to help me (aka. go yarn shopping). He asks me about projects I'm working on and gets excited about the progress I'm making. Now if I could just get him into yarn shops, well actual knitting would help too.
Perhaps the funniest thing that Jilian has intruduced me to (well, knitting related) is the Yarn Harlot. She's so frickin' hilarious and an amazingly fast knitter. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go add to my stash.

Finally.

This explains how I work to all the people that think I "know" computers. I guess I do but I'm willing to work for the answer. I took this from Burton who took it from xkcd.

Bigamist

So apparently I got married this weekend. I know what you're thinking but I am the victim here. In fact this is still so shocking to me I can barely believe it. I woke up to the proof of it Sunday morning, pictured below.




As you can see it's on my right hand. I just keep telling Isaac that his grandmother gave me a piece of her costume jewelry and laughing nervously. My new husband who I call Hank (apparently his full name is Hankadalberto) thought it would be respectful to Isaac (as if) if he put it on my right hand so he wouldn't have to take off my current wedding ring. His mother Linda (pictured below) I know is the culprit. Just look at her laughing it up knowing that her whole plan was coming together.



Susie (my first mother in law) told me later that she heard Linda mumbling to herself saying things like "my little Addy (yes that's apparently what she calls him) and Sari" and "a match made in heaven". Susie thought it was strange but not totally abnormal for Linda. I'm surprised I even made in on Linda's radar. After all I'm not Italian and their family is like 100% Italian. Also Linda's mother called me an imbecile, so I'm a little afraid to spend time with her. But apparently Italian mamas get what they want and Linda was hellbent on having me for her son. I'm expecting my full immersion course with Linda's mom (I jut hope her opinion improves of me) soon. I don't really know what I'll tell Isaac since I know I'll be locked away in a condo in Portland until I can at least fake being 100% Italian. So soon I'll be speaking like I'm from the mother country or the Bronx, I'm not sure yet. I will also (according to Linda) be able to make, gnocchi, ravioli, tortellini, and pasta sauce with my eyes closed. I just hope Linda's mom doesn't try to knead my belly.

I still don't know how I'm going to become accustomed to my new double life. I guess I'll be living the Italian life with Hank when I'm not living the American life with Isaac. The details are sketchy. The last I knew I was at Isaacs grandma's 75th birthday party and then next thing I knew I was waking up with that rock on my finger. I knew something was up when Linda kept handing me drink after drink swearing it was water. She's also making up this fantastical story of how I offered to be her daughter in law. Or really, to listen to her I was begging, in front of Isaac no less! I just know she had it in her head that somehow once I became her daughter in law we could have slumber parties where we iron our hair. I really have to introduce that girl to a straight iron. Hello, 21st century?

Not to mention I haven't even met Hank! I only know his first name, the last one is a little fuzzy. I mean how much can I really remember when Linda gave me enough sedative for a Kodiak? I've received one e-mail from him (apparently he's shy, I knew Linda was behind it) where he talked about how he really wished he would have been named Giacomo (I mean really, Hankadalberto?) but it's a little late now. That's how I found out that I'm going to be holed up in Lindas mom's condo. He said he was really sorry but he thought I was cute and that he thought that he would to quote him "grow on me". Hmmm, I don't know if that really sounds very promising.

So I'm in a pickle, but I know I'll find a way out some how. Just look at poor little Susie (pictured below with Linda) she didn't even know it was coming.

Good, good, good

So this past weekend I finally got to see Mary. One of my best friends, it just sucks that we normally live so far apart. However the upside to it is that's how I got to see Paris with Mary as my travel buddy. But I digress. She currently lives in Eugene because her husband Matt is in the Air Force and he is has been stationed in South Vietnam for the past year. He gets home on Sept. 1st Horray! Coincidentally that's Isaac's birthday. So when Matt gets home they are moving to their new base in Santa Barbara, CA. Leaving us both with the only way to see each other is by flying. So Mary drove up from Eugene and I drove down from Seattle and we met at Cannon Beach. That's 3 1/2 hrs one way for each of us. (Apparently we both really wanted to see each other) It was great to see her boys Taylor and Aidan and even though they didn't remember me they were very sweet and warmed up immediately. They held my hand walking, Aidan let me assist him to the bathroom so Mary could eat her lunch and they even asked me to chase them around on the beach squealing the whole time. It was amazing fun. Below are a few pics from that day. Mary was unlucky that she had to make the drive back that night, I was super lucky in that I was able to crash at Isaacs grandmas' which is only an hour and a half away from Cannon Beach. I'm so glad we both drove as we probably get to see each other about once every two years.