Thank you!

Thanks for all of your kind words about Ed's passing. And, if you are coming here from Amy's blog, thank you so much for your contributions towards my 3-day goal. Oh my goodness, I am so touched by this - especially when I see the dedications to loved ones who have passed on. Thank you so, so much. Amy had been so sweet to run a contest for me on her blog. Thanks so much Amy!

It's time to post some knitting. It definitely has been missing here, but I have been working on stuff. I finished my first pair of monkey socks.

These were so fun! I used Fleece Artist merino in an older colorway. It took me a bit to figure out the repetition of the pattern, but once I understood the pattern, it was smooth sailing. I did 5 repeats (short legs), heel, then 6 repeats for the foot. I've started another color with some failed hand-dyed that I had hanging around.What is failed hand-dyed you ask? Well, some friends and I had a dye day two summers ago and we didn't realize that the dye had to set for a bit before we rinsed it. Oops. So what should have been a purple, blue and a forgotten third color turned out to be a grayish purple, turquoise, hot pink monstrosity. Monkey socks are so cool though, that any color would look okay. We'll see....

I started this little number at Naomi's on July 28th. It's been ready to steek for a bit over a week now, but I'm dragging my feet. See, I've never steeked. I'm sure it will be fine, I know the decreases are right at the neck, but I'm waiting for a second opinion. I also need to measure it against another cardigan, I want to know that it will fit! (ETA: I just measured it against an Eddie Bauer size M cardigan I have. It's the same - yahoo!)

Oh - another quickie flew off my needles. I don't have a picture of it on my camera, but I did an Everyday Cardigan in Peace Fleece, colorway Grassroots. I started it in the car on the way to Pullman 8/15, and finished it this past Monday 8/27. I made the size 44" to be able to layer it. It's at work right now waiting for some cool buttons to finish it off. Hopefully in the next few days. I like Peace Fleece - it's not the softest wool, but I like it's rough, workhorse nature. Apparently we got our shipment in at work yesterday, I might get some of the pink to make an hourglass sweater from Last Minute Knits.

Edward Archie Gowey

My father-in-law, Ed or "Papa" as my kids called him passed away this morning at 6:59 am. I was closer to him than I am my own father, and really a great model of what a father should be.

He and his wife, Donnie, would have celebrated their 60th anniversary next week. Wow. It's so hard to believe that they are both gone.

Ed was king of the silly songs - "you are my favorite chunk of cheese" was one that kept running through my head this morning as family gathered to say our last goodbyes before they took him to the funeral home. He also worked at the same job for either 54 or 55 years, as an accountant for Fisher Flour Mills - those in Seattle would know this as the family that also owns KOMO tv and of the famous fair scones.

He died peacefully and without pain, his blood pressure just got lower and lower- his heart was just too weak. He had suffered from dementia for the past 2 1/2 years or so, there were times he would know us, and other times he wouldn't. But he also had 6 children, children-in-law and 14 grandchildren and some of them with spouses to try and keep straight. As our kids were growing up, he would often pull one of us to the side and say how proud he was of how we were raising our family and how he himself had such a wonderful family.

Ed, you were and are so very loved by your entire family. You will be sorely missed, but I'm so glad you are at peace now and are home with Donnie.

Edward Archie Gowey b. 1-24-1924 d. 8-29-2007

Chatter Creek

The first weekend of August, the majority of Doug's side of the family went camping at Chatter Creek campground, 16 miles outside of Leavenworth. The last time we did this was 14 years ago, Sara would have been 7, Patrick 4. It's hard to believe it was so long ago! We did this for about 3 or 4 summers (no one is sure exactly which) and the kids (nieces and nephews) wanted to reinstate this tradition. We were able to get a reservation for the group site, and plans were made.

All in all, there were 21 of us, 8 adults and 13 kids. These "kids" aren't really kids anymore -except for two of them -2 year old Amanda and almost 5 year old Kayla. The others ranged in age from 18 to 30 (her birthday is next week). Our nephew Robert (Rob) was even able to join us - he currently lives in Colorado.

It was just a short, 3 day trip, but fun nevertheless. It was fun playing games around the campfire and just hanging out and chatting. Two of my sister-in-laws and I went into Cashmere to check out an antique mall. On the way, we saw a mama deer and 3 (3!) babies. I'm not sure if she "adopted" one, or if it's possible to for deer to have triplets. Unfortunately, I was only able to get a picture of two of them crossing the road.

Whenever the Gowey boys get together, much silliness ensues. They are all adults, with adult jobs, but get the four of them together and they are silly boys. Christmas, they make the stuffed animals "talk" and throw candy across the room. Easter, the kids might find olives or carrots in their plastic easter eggs during the family easter egg hunt. There are 6 kids in their family, 2 girls, 4 boys. (girl, boy, boy, girl, boy, boy) The girls didn't come on this trip (oldest sister's 2 daughters came with their husbands)but all four of the boys were there with their families. There is always some type of a friendly competition going on, which included this time, among other activities, frisbee golf. But the end of our trip was the best. Doug(my husband, 5th child), Patrick and Mike (3rd child) made boats to float down the creek. Doug had the Bud boat (modified beer can), Mike had a juice bottle boat, and Patrick had a wood boat he had been carving part of the weekend. The passengers were some army guys some previous camper-child had left strewn around the campsite. Everyone got all packed up, and then it was time for the race. This is pure silliness, but I was able to get a portion of this excitement preserved as a video clip. (Hmmm... I just spent 5 hours trying to get it to download - it's taking much too long, I think I'll skip the video!)

Here are some more various pictures from the weekend (no glamour shots, we were camping, no makeup was involved....) I guess it looks like we just sat around all weekend!

We're going back next year!

Welcome Baby Noah!

Noah Jonathan (leaving out the last name for privacy!) was born on July 27th. His mom is Tava - a customer/student/friend. Ipreviously posted a very close up picture of a sweater I knit for him, but waited to post the final product until I knew for sure the sweater was in hand.

So here it is:


I'm terrible about pattern specs. I know it took me about 3 days to knit and put together.


Pattern: Kai Cable Sweater from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding.

Yarn: 2 skeins Blue Sky Alpaca, Cotton worsted

Size: 1 yr.

One really nifty thing about this pattern is that the neck was knit flat. There is a split in the cable to give a bit of extra room for getting over baby's head. Genius!

So cute. Love this book. I recommend this book all the time for people knitting for moms-to-be and babies. The most clever thing about this book is that it starts with maternity items, goes to cute, simple, practical baby clothing, and then goes on to nursing tops for mom.

Happy Birthday, Naomi!

Today is Naomi's birthday! She should have had the day off from work, but she's swamped, so she doesn't. Poor girl!

Hop on over to her blog and wish her Happy Birthday!

Naomi and I met at Village Yarn and Tea where she was taking a class. This would be Rebecca's Thursday night "Build Your Skills" class. This is always a fun group, and I like to see how everyone is doing and what they are working on. Naomi was always making something that either I had already made, or had plans to make. We are pretty funny that way, we are often drawn to the same colorways and/or the same patterns. It's sort of a funny joke/bond we have. She's just a very sweet person with a heart of gold.

Felted firepit cover

Remember this? It grew to this -

And finally this monstrosity, otherwise known as a firepit cover.

What is it you ask? It's the largest Noni adventure bag. Boy this thing is huge! Not too much to the construction of it - a basic bag, no shaping or anything. Add some little strap tabs, knit some more and then an 8-stitch I-cord/strap to be attached later. I'm hoping to felt it today. The pattern called for 9 skeins of Cascade 220, I only used 8. I was right on gauge, so I suspect that the designer possibly only used a small portion of the last skein. I ended up with about 15" of yarn at the end. That's the little squiglet you see on the bag here:I wanted to felt it last week as soon as I had cast off, so I asked the boys (husband and son) if they had any jeans that needed to be washed. They(wanting to know what ulterior motives I might have with their pant wear of choice) warily asked "Why...?" Turns out they really don't appreciate my taking their jeans and washing them in hot water for 20 minutes or so. It tends to shrink them especially lengthwise. So my plan is to buy two pairs of jeans at value village today and those will be my felting jeans.

Funny felting story. I don't felt with towels anymore after Christmas Eve, about two years ago. See, I had made this really cute purse for my niece Heather for Christmas, and the last step was felting. No jeans were to be had, so I went and grabbed a couple of towels and proceeded on my merry way. I had used Mountain Colors Mountain Goat, it felted beautifully and it was all good. Until. Yep, until I took it out and noticed a few little lint-y nubbins from the towel. Okay, I figured I'd just pick those out when it was all dry. Well, as the bag dried some more, many more towel nubbins became apparent. Like the body of the bag and the strap were absolutely covered. Do you have any idea how long it takes to pick all of those out with tweezers? Wow. No more towels for me. Now I know I should use a zippered pillow cover or lingerie bag, but I don't most of the time. Everytime I teach a felting class though, I do tell this story and recommend some sort of case or whatnot. So I'm a jeans girl.

I'll post a picture when it's done with the zipper sewn in and the straps attached.

Stitch and Pitch

and on we go with updating....

So the day of Stitch and Pitch was fun - we got to the field about 3:15 or 3:3o or so. The cool thing about this event is that we go through the VIP entrance where there are some offices, a receptionist and such. We go through these big service type elevators and then go to the set up area. We have had the same spot for the past three years. It's in an open area where we can actually see the field, the scoreboard and the fans. Some shops have been in the outer concourse area, where I think you just wouldn't feel as much a part of the game. Just my feeling.

I love working Stitch and Pitch. I love seeing our customers out in another venue, and they are all excited to see us, and introduce us to their best friend/mom/sister whatever. There is so much energy going on. Here's some pictures from the evening:

Deb munching on some dinner: (she'll love this one!) I spyed Libby (one of our customers),

is she working on her sock pal sock?

Look at all the knitters!
The view from our side of the table:

and here's what we had to sell:

I did buy some goodies too. The purple and black cones are for the Habu Stainless Steel scarf - I know it has a better name, but I don't remember it. The important thing is this - stainless steel yarn, and the japanese pattern. Cool interesting yarn, and a bit of a dabble into reading the japanese patterns. The pretty, pretty green yarn is Malabrigio laceweight.

Of course, I brought the goodies back to our table, showed them and V immediately asked why the Malabrigio. Well, I had absolutely no idea that we had ordered it for fall (and it arrived today! beautimous!)

The last fun thing about Seattle Stitch and Pitch is reading what the bloggers have to say the next day. My pattern was even being mentioned! Wow!

so where were we....

Okay, instead of one massive blog update, (because that's what tends to overwhelm me!) I'm going to try and do a few different snippets over the next few days to try and catch up.

I guess I never said anything about Stitch n' Pitch other than "bye, I'm off!" I can certainly do a bit better than that, albeit a month later. So, as you know I whipped up a new lace wrap pattern to try and have a bit of a way to raise funds for my 3-day walk. No pressure, no mind that I came up with this idea about a week and a half before the date. It did get done, and the finished project turned out great - both the knitted sample and most of all I think the pattern looks really cool. The hardest part for me, not being especially computer savvy was getting the chart to fit correctly on the page. Sara to the rescue, and it worked. I did a photo shoot the morning of SnP in my yard, trying to come up with a nice representation of the finished product. That is always fun, as I have quite a few "props" in my yard. Here were some of my options:

Wasabi got in the way in this one!

I ended up with this one.

Thanks to everyone who purchased this pattern. We did sell out of all 33 that I brought to the game, more are available at the shop. So far I have raised about $125 from this pattern! Also really fun has been the feedback from people on their blogs (and they aren't all my friends!)

Oooh - off to work. I'll post more tonight!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is Doug's and my 25th wedding anniversary. We've been together 27, but got married August 14th, 1982 - it also happened to be his mom's birthday. We are getting ready to take Patrick over to WSU first thing in the morning, so we are having a very simple evening. I bought some deli salads from the grocery store near my work (Ballinger Thriftway/ Village Thriftway has the best deli!) and a great bottle of champagne. We are planning a trip to North Carolina hopefully in October so I was just looking for something simple. I did buy a really cool fire bowl for Doug for a gift, so that's how dinner evolved into a picnic on the patio. My gift, to be selected when things aren't quite so busy, will be a simple anniversary band.

That's it for now - we have a bottle-ly shaped gift of some sort to open from the kids later this evening - after Sara gets home from work. There is definitely a cork in it......