Truckee Weekend

I had a wonderful time last weekend in Truckee. Friends, food, relaxing, knitting, and shopping for yarn. What could be more perfect? Big thanks to Carol for her hospitality. It really was the perfect weekend.

It started on Friday when Vera, Fae, Julie, and Lorna arrived at my house. I showed them around the remodeled rooms in my house and then we went to lunch. We ate at Paul Martins' in Roseville.  A wonderful way to start the weekend.

Then we went to Got Your Goat, one of the nicest yarn stores in my area.

I got this GREAT project bag. It was made my a local artist. They also carry Lorna's fabulous bags there.

Two doors from Got Your Goat is "The Bead Shoppe".  I love this shop; lots of selection and the people are very helpful. I picked up a couple tubes of beads to repair a blouse were the beads are coming off.

Next we went to Filati Fine Yarns in Rocklin.

Fae was knitting a "Drunken Path" scarf (Fae is ALWAYS knitting the most interesting projects!) and Filati's had kits for this scarf. Vera bought a kit but I didn't really like any of the colorways so decided to remember to look for another yarn that would work. I bought a Vogue Knitting Fall 2011 magazine for this shawl pattern designed by Candace Eisner Strick. There's also a caplet in the magazine that I'd like to make.

And I fell in love with a skein of Prism Yarns - Delicato yarn in the colorway called Fog. But I put it down because I didn't know what I would make with it and we were going to Jimmy Beans on Saturday.

After Filati's, Lorna and Fae went their separate ways and Vera, Juile and I drove to Carol's home in Truckee. What an amazing beautiful home. 

When we arrived, Carol said, you each get a bedroom downstairs! Wow. Our own bedrooms!  Mine was so cute!

That night we made dinner and had a wonderful evening of knitting and talking about going to Jimmy Beans Wool. In case you don't know, Jimmy Beans Wool is an online yarn/fabric store. Their warehouse is in Reno, about 30 minutes from Carol’s house! They have a small storefront in the very large warehouse. And they will let you go into the warehouse so you can see all the yarns. 

Carol was taking about the Jimmy Beans web site and asked us, do you guys use "The Wool Watcher". Neither Julie, Vera, nor I knew anything about this. 

 

DANGER AHEAD - This can be addicting - you have been warned! 

The Wool Watcher is a link at the top of the Jimmy Beans web page, which navigates you to a yarn that is on sale. It's one specific yarn and the sale goes for about 2 hours and then a new yarn appears. It’s great fun and all night long we were checking what yarn was being offered. As I write this, Rowan Colurspun - Winterburn is on sale for 45% off.

When we got up Saturday, it was 27 degrees. brrrrrrrrrrrrrr We had breakfast and Carol and Vera went for a walk. The sane people, Julie and I, stayed in our PJs and knitted until they came back. Then we were off to Reno! We stopped for lunch at The Nugget to prepare for Jimmy Beans.

For a knitter, Jimmy Beans is heaven. The people are really really nice. They completely understand that it might take an hour to select 6 colors for a project and did all kinds of little things, like print out some free patterns, which made the experience a delight. And it was NO big deal when after finally deciding on the yarns, we needed to go back into the warehouse and change some of our selections. We were in and out of that warehouse like mice after dark.  LOL

One of the yarns several of us were interested in was the Madelinetosh onesies, which are 15% off the regular price. These are Madelinetosh seconds, usually because the colorway wasn't perfect. But there is nothing wrong with the yarn. The thing about the onesies is you REALLY must see the color. For example, both of these are "Betty Draper Blue". Really!

I went to Jimmy Beans looking for yarn for the Catkin pattern, the Drunken Path scarf, and a onesies for a tam pattern Jocelyn is writing. I was also hoping to find a new pattern, something I hadn’t seen and buy the yarn for that. A little surprise for myself.

Here is the yarn I found for the Catkin

Here is the yarn for the Drunken Path scarf

Here is the yarn for the tam.

 (OK I just couldn't decide, but one of these will be a tam) LOL.

And I saw the Knot Sleeve blouse. Jimmy Beans didn't have the pattern, so I decided to order the pattern when I got home.

Saturday night we went to a wonderful restaurant at the golf club and then went back to Carol's to oooooh and ahhh over the yarns everyone got, knit and watch a movie.

Sunday we went to breakfast at Squeeze and then checked out the shops in downtown Truckee. I got this!!!  Isn't it the cutest coat! On sale for 50%.

Then it was time head home. All weekend I was thinking about the Prism yarn I didn't get. So I ask Julie, who was driving, if she'd mind a quick stop at Filati's on our way back. That was a very silly question. Of course she didn't mind. I used my cell phone to check when the shop was open and HORRORS they are closed Sun. and Mon.

Oh well maybe I'll go Tues. and get the yarn. I also wished that I had gotten two balls of the sock yarn for the Drunken Path scarf so I could make it longer.

On Monday, in my email was a coupon from Jimmy Beans for free shipping. Hmmmm so I was looking at the Prism yarn trying to decide if I really should get it, when I clicked the "Patterns for this yarn" link. And what do you think was the first pattern listed??? Yes the Knot Sleeve blouse. I had already purchased the pattern Sunday evening. The yarn and pattern are perfect together. I'm so glad they found each other   LOL.

I placed an order for the Prism yarn and one more ball of the sock yarn for the Drunken Path scarf. They shipped them that day and they arrived Wed.

This is the Prism yarn. The color of these skeins is more intense than the skein I saw at Filati. At first I was going to send them back but I've decided to do a swatch and then see if I like it.

I must say, that weekend was one of best weekends ever. Everything was relaxed and simple. I came home rested, refreshed, and excited to start my new projects. I also made huge progress on the Nicole Vest. I had stopped working on it about a month ago and needed time to figure out where I had stopped in the lace pattern and what I needed to do next. By the end of the weekend, I had finished the right side and had about 4 inches left on the left side strap.s

Measuring Your Knitting

Over the years I've found, one of the hardest things to do well is measure your knitted fabric. It wants to curl, it can be stretched, you have to hold the knitting down and somehow manipulate a measuring tape or ruler all while the knitting is still on the needles.

I used to measure all my knitting on the area rug in the living room. The rug helped hold it in place. Then I took a class and the teacher talked about an experience with one of her test knitters. She is a designer and gave the test knitter a pattern that of course specified the size in inches. When the test knitter gave the garment to her, she looked at it and said, this isn't the right size. The test knitter said sure it is and she put the knitting down on a rug and started smoothing it until the measurement was correct. At this point, I picture the designer as the cartoon character that turns to look out at you screen and has that "can you believe this" look. AND I realized I did the exact same thing. I put my knitting on a rug, smooth it and then measured it. This was a head slapping moment.

Hmmmm this explained many mysterious things. I have this UFO that I just can't face fixing it. I haven't frogged the whole thing because I'm so close to finished and I really like it. But it's been a UFO for over 6 years and I KNOW I won't finish it but I just can't frog it.

One front is 1 inch shorter that the other. I can't face frogging it because of all the shaping , all the cut yarn and trying to redo it all for an inch. I never could understand WHY oh WHY the pieces were not the same length!



Over the holidays one of the fabric stores had their Dritz cutting mats on sale. So I got one. And was planning on try to use the rotary cutter to cut out a skirt pattern. Last night I had stopped knitting on my Sojourner sweater because I needed to measure the back.

This morning a light bulb went on in my head. So I used my mat to measure my knitting. The mat is slick so it won't stretch the knitting and is gridded.

Look Mom, no hands!!!

The ruler at the top of the mat is the length I need. The ruler on the knitting is just there to keep the top from curling.

I can tell I have 1 inch to go. In the row on the needles, I'm going to put in a safety line and then all I have to do is measure 1 inch from the line.

Here is a pic of the entire sweater. Don't ya just love those cables!

The Cape Project

I had 4 days off for Thanksgiving and for the first time ever, I was not going to be with my children. Cliff has remarried and they invited the boys to dinner at their home. This meant we wouldn't be driving to San Jose that weekend and I would have 4 whole days to do whatever I wanted.

In May, Julie came to visit me and we went shopping in consignment stores. I found a beautiful gown to wear to the ball and have always wanted a velvet cape to wear over my gowns. Since a cape is not fitted and is mostly just long seams, I felt I could make one. So in June, I found a pattern and bought the material.

David and I were going to the No Snow Ball on Dec. 3rd. So having these days off made it the perfect time to make the cape. It would be done just in time for the dance.

It wasn't hard, but I made lots of mistakes. In the end, I bought enough velvet to made 1 and 3/4 capes and enough lining material to make 1 and 1/2 linings.

The first purchase of velvet was 12" too short for the pattern. This was NOT my mistake. So I went and bought more material. This was Friday after Thanksgiving. I NEVER go even near stores on that day, but here I was in a fabric store and guessing by the crowds they were giving away material. The place was packed.

I felt really lucky because they had the exact velvet I had bought in June. I got the fabric and pulled a cutting table number. It was 57 and they were serving 21. I thought, well that's not too bad and THEN I found out that they were serving C-21 and my number was D-57. OMG really!!! There were women in there with 30 and 40 bolts of material in their baskets. I sat down on the floor and thought long and hard about how much I wanted a cape and is the wait worth it. I had been there about 50 minutes and they were at D-8 when right in front of me a manager went behind the cutting tables and said, I'll take any one with one item. I jumped up and said that's me!! I had to wait about 10 minutes to check out. But after the other wait, that seemed quick. LOL

The pattern showed cutting the pieces with the fabric folded. But the pattern was too long and full to fit on half the fabric, so each piece (2 fronts and 2 backs) had to be cut separately. I didn't know or have enough experience to even understand that when you do that, you MUST flip the pattern over when cutting the second piece. It's a DUH! to me now. But it just didn't even occur to me. So it was off to the store again to purchase velvet and lining material. This time the wait at the cutting table was only 15 minutes.

I felt very very lucky because the store had both my velvet and lining fabric in the store. And each time (3 in total) I had to buy the velvet, thanks to my Joanns App, I had a 50% off coupon.

I finally got the pieces cut correctly and felt pretty good about things. But my lessons were not over. I did all the long seams (8 total) for the velvet and the lining and then discovered I had assembled the panels incorrectly. I was so mad at myself. This was just a stupid mistake. I had to pick out ALL the seams. That took hours. Thank goodness for Audible books.

I finished the cape late afternoon on Sunday and didn't have the time, skill, or energy to hem it. So I took it to the cleaners to have it hemmed (wish I'd had a 50% off coupon for that LOL).

But it is really beautiful. And I did learned a great deal.

Take a look.









The gown was very nice too!


And then there's my partner. --Divine --

They're So Cute When They're Little

For Christmas I bought myself a serger. Two days before Christmas, Handcock Fabric had it marked down from $329.99 to $179.99 with a 60 day return policy and a coupon for $20 off my next purchase of $25.

Isn't it CUTE!!! Note the purple knobs. LOL


I watched some Youtube videos so I had a general idea how to thread a serger and how to use it.

Here is my first practice seam. I adjusted the tensions as I went along and by the time I got to the end, it looked pretty good.


My sewing lessons start Jan. 19th. These lessons are just with my regular sewing machine but I'm hoping the teacher can also help me learn to use my serger.

I'm very excited. So many times I've wanted to make a serged seam instead of zigzagging both edges and then seaming.

Bag of Bows

So what do you do with all your ribbon and bows for wrapping gifts?

Years ago I bought a wreath storage case. It has all my ribbon and bows and package decorations for every season. Here it is:


Well this year I learned that it is not only a bow bag, it's a prewrapped Christmas package.

We open our gifts on Christmas eve. So this year the boys had opened their gifts, I had opened my gifts from David and David had opened the gifts from me.

Then Ric walked out of room, came back in, dropped my bow bag in front of me and said "Here's your present." I looked at him and laughed. He said "Dig!" LOL

For Christmas, I had asked for some pressure feet for my sewing machine. After a bit of rooting around in the bag, I found these!



I thought this was very clever. And earlier that day I had been in that bag getting bows for Rob gift. These were in the bag but I didn't see them. LOL

Mt. Shasta / Ashland

UPDATE: I just logged in to my blog to write a new post and discovered I never published this one. Whoops!

My new job started Sep. 12 and the old job ended Sep. 2. That meant I had Labor Day weekend and the week after Labor Day off!!! Whoo Hoo.

So David and I decided to hang around home Labor Day weekend to avoid the traffic and then go to Mt. Shasta and Ashland, OR. It was a great trip. It was our first real vacation. We've gone on other trips but they were not just vacations. There were events to attend and family to see. But this trip was just free and easy. Do whatever we wanted when we wanted.

We left Fair Oaks Tues. and had lunch in Chico at Tres Hombres. It's downtown Chico and a great Mexican Restaurant. Then we drove to Mt. Shasta City. We stayed in a Best Western call The Tree House. It was really nice and their restaurant was very good. The next morning we got up, had breakfast at the hotel, which was included with our room, and headed for the mountain.

Here's a view from the parking lot.




I was surprised at all the flowers we saw.






We hiked up to the snow and made snowballs. The turned and saw this.



Then we went on to Ashland, OR. I had never been to Oregon. HEY did you know it's against the law in Oregon to pump your own gas!!! What a surprise.

Ashland is very nice. We walked around and checked out the shops. All of them had lovely things and there is a wonderful yarn store there.

We had the most amazing dinner at Chateaulin (a French restaurant) and then saw Julius Caesar (BTW in this production, Julius Caesar was a woman).

The next day we got up and pick hand fulls of blackberries that were growing next to our hotel. We had breakfast at Morning Glory. A very small but fabulous restaurant. It's worth the wait!

Then we went to Eagle Point, OR and visited Butte Creek Mill. It is the last water-powered (bunt not powered by a paddle wheel) grist mill, still commercially operating, this side of the Mississippi. It began operating in 1872 and is still grinding flour. It was fascinating to learn how the grind stones got from France to Oregon in the 1800 and how the grains are grown. Because it was the off season, the miller had time to talk to us and show us how everything worked.

That evening we saw Love's Labor's Lost.

Friday we drove to San Jose. We had dinner in my backyard and watched the lighting. That was really amazing. No thunder, just a lighting show.

Sat. we met Julie and went to the Mountain View craft fair. One of my favorite craft fairs. And danced in Palo Alto that night. Sun. David and I had breakfast at Los Gatos Grill and then he took the train back to Sacramento. I watch Robbie play hockey that evening and then took my boys out for dinner. That ended my vacation.

Monday, Sep. 12th, 2012 was my first day at PayPal working for the X.commerce division.

My Room!!

I have a room of my very own now. David and I worked for several weeks to remodel one of the rooms into a room for me.

For many months I've felt homeless. It seemed foolish (I own a house in SJ and am living in a lovely home here in Fair Oaks), but that's how I felt. All my clothes and personal items were here in Fair Oaks. But all my "toys" (yarn, beads, craft stuff, spinning wheel, etc.) were in San Jose.

Then the day we unloaded all my toys here in Fair Oaks, everything changed. After the last box was lugged into the temporary area, all those feelings vanished. I had no idea how very important it was for me to have all my stuff here. I finally feel like I am living here in Fair Oaks, not just staying here.

Here are a few pictures of the room before the change. Notice the orange, brown and gold indoor/outdoor carpet. Could there be colors more NOT me than that!

My sewing machine.



My desk. Notice the swift and ball winder.



The printers and to the left of them David's desk.



These are pictures of my toys being organized before I moved them into My Room. I got rid of about 30% of my yarn and about 80% of my knitting books.




Now I'll show you MY Room!

This is looking from the hall into the room.



My printer and a storage unit to the right (not in the picture).


My desk from my home in San Jose. It's much nicer than the one I was using.



My work table.


My sewing machine.



The Closet


Tada!! My yarn and everything else. The books are in the book shelves in David's office.


I just love it!! This room has wonderful light and everything is organized.

I need to get some shelves, hang some pictures, and purchase a set of drawers. But even now, this room is PERFECT for me.

I really feel I'm home at last.

I tried something new!

One of the dance weekends David and I go to is Balance the Bay in San Francisco. This year's theme is polka-dots. It was easy for me to find something to wear, but I looked and looked for something for David and couldn't even find a vest at Goodwill that I could decorate.

So (WHAT WAS I THINKING) decided to sew a vest. I've knitting many so understand the construction. However, I haven't sewn anything in 20+ years. But since it was going to be a costume and an accessory item, I figured as long as it didn't fall apart while he was dancing, anything I did would be OK.At first I thought, I won't line it. Just sew seams and run a decorative stitch around the raw edges and call it good.

He was really pleased that I was going to do this. So we went and bought the material. It's been sitting here for over a month. I realized that I was not working on this because I was afraid to cut the fabric. But it's only 4 weeks until the dance and 3 of those weekends, I'm totally booked.

So I took today off, was all alone in the house and did nothing but work on the vest.

Here are all the pieces. Notice there is lining for the entire vest PLUS interfacing!!! I did decide not to do the welts or belt.




Here are the fronts WITH darts and interfacing applied!!



The backs!




OK this was the weirdest thing. This is the vest with the shoulders sewn together and with the right sides together. One layer is the vest the other layer is the lining.

You are to sew the whole thing together leaving the sides open. REALLY!! Just like when I learned to knit, when I wasn't sure really what was going on, I just blindly followed the instructions.

Ready to Sew



Then I reached my hand in through the side, through the shoulder and pulled the front OUT! I was shocked. It actually looked good.

Turned Right Side Out


Then I had to muddle around and figure out how you were suppose to close the sides. All I'll say is well they're closed. It doesn't look terrible. But I'm glad it's a costume. LOL

All Done


I'm really proud of myself. See old dogs can learn new tricks. Special Thanks to Amy, who made me the most amazing Victorian Gown, and who I consulted. She told me several things that really help. And just knowing I could call her if I needed to helped me feel assured enough to tackle this.


Oh here is the gown in case you haven't seen it.