Me turning 30

Today is my birthday and I am 30. I've been celebrating since Friday. Not that I'm particularly excited or unexcited about turning 30. But it's always fun to have an excuse to celebrate.

Since Cornell made it to the ECAC finals, I was on my way up to Albany, NY for the annual tournament. The annual tournament gets suckier and suckier every year. They used to have a whole festival outside with vendors and stuff. No more. Well, anyways, we'll start with the plane. I was knitting and napping and when the plane landed, my ball of yarn fell off my lap and rolled 2 seats up the aisle. Oops.


The shoe in the lower right hand corner is my foot, and look to see where the ball of yarn is. So yeah, oops.

Moving on. I had a plan to start drinking by 3pm that day. I also had a plan for drinking. It's March Madness time. For most people, it's basketball. For me, it's hockey. But for this guy, it's the Fermented Four. I don't drink beer and I don't drink much wine. However, I do like my cocktails and liquor so I thought I'd start with the cocktails bracket. And so I give you...on Friday:

Apple Martini vs the Long Island Iced Tea. This was a tough match. The apple martini is so tasty but the Long Island Iced Tea is such an efficient drink. In the end, I think I'd have to give it to the Long Island Iced Tea for its efficiency. I can drink 2 or 3 of those. As tasty as the Apple Martini is, it's very sweet and I get queasy from the sweetness after a couple of drinks.

Melon Margarita vs the Irish Car Bomb. The Melon Margarita was tasty but like the Apple Martini, I can only drink so much of it before the sweetness over takes everything else. And I love the Irish Car Bomb. The Irish Car Bomb wins.

And yes, there is some hockey thrown into all of this to.

Sometime during Friday's game, I realized that I had done something wrong with my stitch marker. But an hour after an apple martini, a long island iced tea, and a cranberry and vodka, I wasn't really ready to figure out what it was.

Our pep band hung a bulldog in effigy on Saturday as we were playing the Yale Bulldogs in the final. We lost pretty badly. I can't say I expected the loss but 5-0 hurts!

Back to the cocktails bracket. Saturday night, I continued drinking through the cocktails regional.

Pineapple Mojito vs Gin & Tonic. This was a blowout. I like mojitos. I took a sip of the gin and tonic and gave the rest to my friend Josh. People said I needed to finish the drink but you know, I'm just drinking my way through to decide which of the two I liked better and I DID NOT LIKE the gin & tonic. Pineapple Mojito wins, no contest.

White Russian vs Whiskey Sour. I'll give it to the Whiskey Sour. Both were quite tasty but the White Russian was a little too sweet. It starts to go the way of the Apple Martini and Margarita in that respects. Josh said the Whiskey Sour was well made because it was all so well balanced.

So, advancing to the next round, we have: Long Island Iced Tea vs the Irish Car Bomb and the Mojito vs. the Whisky Sour.

Cornell lost the final but they do keep playing for at least another week. They're going to Grand Rapids, MI for the regionals. So am I :)

Today, my coworkers brought in food and cake so I've been eating all day. Then, I went out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner with Amber, Amber, and Nina. I had a peach bellini here. It was in frozen form which surprised me:

It was a fun evening with friends. I will leave you with these two pictures from the evening...first a normal picture and then me looking crazed again:




A big thank you to everyone for all the birthday wishes!

Meet Suzie

I picked her up this morning at the post office. Finally, after a long day, I brought her home:


And I took her out of her box



After a bit:


and some fluff!


I do have to say a little something about the whole ordering experience. After reading some rave reviews on ravelry, I started speaking with Tracy at Woolly Designs. He and his wife run a farm out in Colorado. He is very knowledgeable about Majacraft spinning wheels and was able to answer the questions I had about the wheels. They were also reasonably priced.

In putting the wheel together, Tracy also provides supplemental materials which helped in the assembling of the wheel. If I had relied on only the instructions that came with the wheel, then I would still be sitting here wondering why the whorl felt loose and it wasn't working. They're farmers and can't spend that much time in front of the computer but they've put together a great set of instruction materials with good pictures. It's not an alternate set but it supplements what comes from majacraft.

Weekend...

So...I'm turning 30 on Monday. Ya. With that in mind and the fact that I will be in Albany for hockey, I've decided that I'm going to drink my way to 30. That is the theme of the weekend. The problem, however, is that I need to find some sort of a sock project to work on that is not a plane old stockinette sock in the round cuz those bore me to tears...but then, I plan on not being in my right mind so maybe they will work. Does anyone know of any SIMPLE sock patterns that might also work? I do have the L-Bee socks on the needles but that is a somewhat intense 8 row repeat sock pattern across 3 charts. And I am also testing knitting a sock that does involve just a cable periodically so that might work. And so far, it doesn't look like there are all that many mistakes in the pattern.

The post office has my Suzie!!!!!! Ya, I think I will be up a good portion of the night tomorrow putting her together and spinning. Happy Birthday to me! All I need now is for Cornell to kick some ass both in the bball tourney and in the hockey tourny.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

No green beer for me. Not even an Irish car bomb but I'm hoping to remedy the Irish car bomb part this weekend.

I need...

to bead myself a wrist strap for the new crackberry. A couple of weeks ago, I read this post and watched the embedded video about why one might need a wrist strap. A couple of days later, I was watching the Caps at Verizon Center and someone on the other team committed a penalty. I think it was tripping. Anyways, up went my hand and immediately the thought of "If I had let go of the phone...omg I need a wrist strap!"

I'm off to Albany this weekend where I could see this happening again. I have the beads I need to make this with. I'd best get started so I can be done by Friday.

No I did not stop beading!

Class is Saturday! (It's the sunflower)

March goals

Wow, setting some goals for myself, amazing! Well, first, I want to finish my sunflower. I've got class scheduled for 2 weeks from now so I need to take pictures and write out the instructions. Corresponding to the weekend of class, I need to submit one of my applications and one of their essays is unique. They ask you to describe yourself and you can submit the "essay" in any media format, as long as it's non-perishable and isn't some sort of CD, DVD, etc. So, When I put this sunflower together, I'm sending it in.

I also want to finish making Dianne Fitzgerald's "A Time for Teapots. Those mini teapots are so cute. I need to make myself a whole tea service.

On the knitting front, I'm going to keep working on the Hydrangea scarf. But for larger needle, mindless knitting, I'm thinking of the Yoke Pullover from Vogue Knitting Winter 2005/2006 with some grey Berrocco Peruvia.

Decreasing the yarn stash

I finished Buttony!

It seems like everytime I'm taking a picture, I'm in those pajama pants!

The yarn: Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky.
Well...it's superwash which is why it didn't feel quite like wool and I couldn't spit splice. Definitely a bulky knit and it went fast. Not sure if I would use this yarn again, I didn't feel anything positive or negative about it and it definitely didn't turn me on.
I originally had 15 balls of yarn but used 3 of them to make Esme. I bought those 15 balls for about $24 at MD S&W one year. I ended up having to buy another 3 balls of yarn for another $24 to finish this sweater, otherwise it would've been sleeveless. I have a slight dyelot issue here. It's noticeable if you know what to look for and where. If anyone asks, I will just tell you that it's the lighting and a trick of your eyes.

The pattern: Buttony
Not the best written pattern. It's more like an outline of what she did. After hearing the general background of how she doesn't really want to be a designer from Amber, it makes some sense. There was definitely a gauge swatch involved and I did have to start over after a couple of rows because the initial neckline that I cast on was too small. I added some waist shaping here and made it much more form fitting than what may have been originally intended. The instructions also say to knit to 12 buttonholes. I only made 11 buttonholes since 12 would have been way too long.

National Pancake Day at IHOP!

http://www.ihoppancakeday.com/

Free shortstack from 7am to 10pm. Of course, they would like you to donate the cost of the shortstack to Children's Miracle Network.

Buttony progress

The lighting was dark, but whatever. I just wanted to try it on, and take a picture and see how it looked. And now you all can see how it looks as well. I'm now working off of two different dye lots of the yarn.

Spinning a garden

I borrowed Lorenzo (a Majacraft Suzie) from Helena to reacquaint myself with the wheel. This is going to be a purchase with my tax refund. The wheel spins like a dream. The fiber I'm using is some Blue Faced Leicester from Frabjous Fibers that I bought at Rhinebeck from Susan's Fiber Shop. The colorway is called Cottage Garden.



I've been very much inspired by javajem's spinning adventures. It's really amazing to see what the fiber looks like in roving form and what it looks like after it's been spun and plied.

Around the time of Rhinebeck, I had also seen some scarf patterns, My So Called Scarf being an example, that really made use of varigated yarns with very different colors. At Rhinebeck, I was on a budget and a quest. I wanted to find a roving painted in different enough colors that the end result may not necessarily be what I expect it to be. And then, it would be knit up into something like My So Called Scarf. I came home with this.

I've just begun spinning but upon beginning, I realized that the color segments were long enough that I could spin up a large section of each color and navajo ply for long stretches of color. Of course, there will be some mixing since I haven't quite got down how to separate each color in the plying but it should be interesting.

The fiber itself is easy enough to spin. It's soft and quite yummy.

Ivel sleeves

Worsted weight cashmere on size 4 needles. I have to stop every couple of rows to rest my hands but the fabric this creates is stiff and firm. I'm enjoying knitting this so far, and it's not just because this is cashmere. The finished product is going to look amazing.

I bought the first iteration of this pattern and am waiting impatiently for the errata. She should be releasing a second version with the various corrections by the end of the month. The pattern begins with the sleeves and there's a length to be knit on the sleeves before I hit the increase/decrease section so I figure that I'm good until I receive the next iteration of the pattern.

Hat and Scarf Set

Before I took this picture, I had to apologize to the bear. See, he's a he. And I'm putting a girly hat and scarf on his head. But he's my best model!

The hat is Gretal and the scarf is My So Called Scarf.

The yarn for both is Madeline Tosh Worsted in the Ox Blood colorway. I absolutely LOVE (LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!) the yarn. When I picked it up, I was unable to put it back down. It was soft and squishy. It is definitely something I would knit with again.

I'm doing...

- A sunflower. It's part of my summer wreath series. I have an autumn berry wreath that I hang on my door in the autumn. I'd really like to have a wreath for each season. I'm starting with a summer wreath with lavender and sunflowers. The sunflower will be there soon.
- Ivel - I cast on for the sleeves but it is on hold. Apparently, I have version 1 of the pattern and there are MANY mistakes in it. I'll be receiving a copy of version 2 when she has it ready. It's supposed to be soon...like this week or next.
- Buttony - knitting, knitting along! 55 yards per ball, it is definitely possible to knit a ball a day.
- Hydrangea - I need to get back to it.

Buttony - the beginning

I started on Buttony. It's a good exercise in making your own top down raglan. There is no gauge in the pattern and the directions are really general. So, um, yeah...there's some improvisation going on here. I'm also not sure if I have enough yarn. I'm hoping I have enough to make 3/4 length sleeves. I did find someone on ravelry who has the color I'm using but a slightly different dye lot.

THANK YOU, CAPITALS! *clap*clap*clapclapclap*

Those of us in ravelry's Washington Capitals group have been talking about doing a Sticks n' Stitches event for a couple of years now. The difficult part has been getting any sort of feedback from either the sales office or TNNA to make it an official event like Stitch n' Pitch has been. Others in other cities have been more successful. So I took it upon myself to just get a group together and get tickets. So, this past Sunday afternoon, we met up, we watched a game, we cheered and some knitting was done. I think others may have gotten more knitting done than me. I forgot my camera but lolly did take some pictures. I'm unsure of what my plans are the second half of the year but I think it would be fun to organize a more wide reaching hockey/knitting event early next season. With the Capitals so hot, it's so damn hard to get a large set of group tickets at the end of the season! Good think I already have tickets to the last regular season game!

Why the subject line "THANK YOU, CAPTIALS! *clap*clap*clapclapclap*"? Well, on Sunday, Papa John's began a new promotion with the Caps. It's similar to the Redskins promo. Applying only to Sunday games, on Monday, you can buy a large pizza for $9.99 and for every goal the Caps score, you get one free topping. Double if they win. Well, the final score of the day was 7-4 Caps.

tomato x 2
grilled chicken x 2
banana peppers x 2
mushrooms x 2
onions x 2
sausage x 2
green peppers x 2

Esme

Esme
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

I've completed the hattrick with 2 days to spare. 3 skeins of Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky. I have enough left over of the last skein to begin swatching for Buttony.

Watch a little hockey, knit a little more

It's NHL All Star weekend and I finally remember it ahead of time! This means that I've been parked in front of my tv enjoying the festivities :)

Along the way, I've made some progress on the Hydrangea Scarf. Susan Pandorf is brilliant. There were parts of the instructions that were a little confusing but the result is amazing. I'm using Just Our Yarns Myne. It's cashmere laceweight. It's really on the thin side of lace weight but I think that and the color adds in to create the effect I'm trying to achieve.


The white line is my life line. This is a lace every row type of pattern so there is NO room for mistakes. This is a challenge that I've thrown out to some of the Sweet Life Knitters and the knitters at Bead Obsessions and I'm really glad that people of all knitting levels took me up on it.

In other knitting news, I've been in a bit of a funk. I think it's because I'm knitting Hydrangea but I need some socks and something worsted on the needles. I haven't found a new sock to knit so it's been a week or so since I haven't had a sock on the needles. As for worsted...I'm still in a bit of a funk but I think I'm slowly finding my way. I'm going more towards bulky than worsted though. I'm swatching for Ivel and I'm considering a quick knit in Buttony. When I realized that Buttony wouldn't use as much yarn as I anticipated, I realized that I could use to bulky to make another hat as part of the Puck This! January Hattrick knit along. I had seen a lot of hat patterns but they're mostly using bulky and now I have bulky! So here's the start of the hat. I make the brim first and then pick up stitches to make the actual hat part.

Ponder

Ponder ponder ponder ponder. and reading more from the book of yarn.

The stitch is essentially a play on stockinette stitch. I'm knitting with cashmere. Cashmere is inelastic but will eventually stretch out. Raglan construction. Hmmm...will this combination work? I was really hoping for a seam to help hold its shape.

Ponder ponder ponder. Ponder ponder ponder. Ponder ponder ponder.
ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder ponder

Hmmmmm....

The never ending cashmere

I'm not sure how I feel about the Juno cardigan. I'm not a big fan of a ribbed body which is what Juno is. However, I've been toying around with the idea of making a jacket. This jacket

This is Ivel

Inauguration Day 2009

Some might call it the "Barack Obama Day". I'm sitting comfortably on my couch with heat, indoor plumbing, donuts, and tv in HD in my pajamas. Working from home and nursing my cold. Excellent

New Year, New Glasses, Finished Things

Well, happy new year! It's a little late but hey, I'm also delayed. The holidays are usually a little chaotic and when you throw in a visit from your cousin immediately following the chaos...it leaves you tired with a cold.

I got new glasses:

It definitely changes up the look.

I also finished a couple of things:

As part of the ravelry Puck This group's January Hat Trick knitalong, everyone is attempting to knit 3 hats in January! This one is most likely getting donated to the troops since that style is not quite my style.

I also finished:

Another pair of socks. A little too Christmasy.

They've had a good run

After 5-6 years of residing on my face, my glasses finally broke.

Stashalong 2009

The object of the game is to have a net loss of yarn. My starting point (from ravelry):
67642.2 yards of stuff
121 items in my stash
4 items to trade/sell
10 items in handspun

The idea is that by 1/1/2010, I need to have less yardage and fewer items in stash than this. Handspun is a little iffy because it's a 2 step process, first spin the fiber and then knit up the yarn. With the handspun, I'll be making slower process since I want to sell my Ashford Traveller and buy a Majacraft so...we'll see.

Urg. The cashmere

I've been told that cashmere can be QUITE warm. Well, I wanted to knit Juno but it turns out that it's using a DK weight yarn DOUBLED! Well, my cashmere is about DK weight and I'm going t ohave to double it? It's doing to be damn warm! I think I need to find another pattern that doesn't necessarily require that I double the yarn since I don't want it that warm. Anyone have any suggestions?

2009 already?

The year flew by. Can't say I had all that many good memories of it. Well, whatever, it will be a new year soon and hopefully there will be some changes to come.

I decided that I'm going to spend New Year's Eve counting my yarn. Yup...I kinda see myself as Scrooge McDuck, except I'm not trying to hoard all the yarn in the world, I'm just there counting and counting and counting. I joined a "Stashalong" for 2009 in the hopes of having a net loss of yarn in the house next year and a better wardrobe. Any old projects that I have no interest in is getting ripped. This includes the Great American (Cashmere) Afghan. So, in order to do this, I need to know exactly how much yarn and fibery things I have in my house. It does make me a little nervous to think of it all. I bought another large rubber container tonight in the hopes of gathering it all together.

First project to start off for the year is going to be using the cashmere. I'm thinking of knitting the Juno cardigan from Rowan 40.

Very lucky indeed

Well, no damage to the car. There was just a lot of snow and ice packed under the car that was throwing things off balance when the speed got higher.

As for all the Christmas knitting, Lynn got her pair of mittens and Tina got 1 mitten. I should be finishing up the second mitten today and then I can relax with the knitting! Maybe I will start swatching up something using the piles and piles of cashmere I have from the Hunt Valley Cashmere club.

Two knitting related things I had gotten were the books "Sensational Knitted Socks" and "The Knitter's Book of Yarn". I was excited :)

A time to give thanks

Yeah, normally that's Thanksgiving but I do have something to give thanks for today.

It's been snowing all week and the roads in RI are a bit icy. I was trying to switch lanes and when my car started moving over, I realized I was going too fast and that there was ice on the ground and lost control of the car. The car managed to not hit the car in front of me, turned 270 degrees on 95 and was stopped by the snow packed along the center median. When I let go, it was an interesting moment because there was some sense peace and I had said "Let go and whatever will happen will happen." The car stopped. The cars on the highway behind me were far enough behind and going slow enough that I saw them slow down because they all saw what had happened. I was able to start the car and pull out and keep going. I was about 40 minutes away from Providence and managed to make it here okay. I couldn't see any damage to the body of the car but I know something did hit because the car now shakes when it goes above 50mph. So, very very lucky and much to give thanks for today. I do think that my mom was watching over me because it really could've been a lot worse than it actually was.

The question now is...how am I going to make it back to Virginia. Will the car be fixed in time?

Mmm...jersey....

It was sitting on my door step when I got home tonight. I'm so excited.


My very first game worn Cornell hockey jersey. And now, even though it is labelled Sawada, I need to verify that the name plate matches the actual era of the jersey.

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? - Part 2

And I was home for enough time to pack a new suitcase and I was off to Memphis.

Reshma and I had signed up for the Memphis St. Jude Marathon. I finished in 6 hours and 23 minutes. Not bad considering I hadn't run in about a month. Downtown was empty. It reminded me of St. Louis in how lacking in people it was but it was not as bad as St. Louis. We did go to Graceland. I love Elvis. I really loved Elvis when I was in high school but because of an unfinished school project, we never went. Well, now I get to go. Whee! Pictures are here. While I was there, I did have a peanut butter and banana sandwich - Elvis's favorite.

Scenes from Memphis:


OMG, I look crazed and starving. Reshma did a good job on the picture!

Gold Lame suit!

Chili cheese fries from Dyer's, as featured on "Deep Fried Paradise" on the travel channel. It was truly tasty.

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? - Part 1

Anyone remember that computer game that became a tv show?

Anyways, I've been busy. I went to Hawaii! The pictures are here. A week seemed like it would be a long time before I got there but it all went by so quickly. It's amazing to see the different climates on the various islands. We started on the big island and saw the volcanos, drove through the rain forest side of the island and drove up through the mountains where it was cold, a bone chilling cold. We stayed in Waikola Village at the Hilton. It's a beautiful resort.

After that we were in Maui for a night. The Hana Highway is a trip and you need a lot of energy and concentration to drive it. The beaches and the waves were amazing. We ended in Honolulu at Waikiki. We stayed at a hotel that overlooks the beach - ResortQuest Waikiki Beach. There was a cute bellhop and they did a breakfast by the pool every morning. Each room also got 2 insulated lunch bags so you can take breakfast with you. We caught a surfing competition on the North Shore. Those waves were HUGE! The last day was spent at Pearl Harbor looking at the Bowfin Submarine, the Arizona Memorial, and the USS Missouri. It really makes you appreciate the men and women who serve in our military and the conditions that they live in while on duty.

Leaving you with some scenes from Hawaii:


Saddle rd on the Big Island

Surfers in Maui

Waikiki Beach at night

Yarn Ottoman

Yarn Ottoman
Originally uploaded by jyiu7

Many have heard me talk about the yarn ottoman in my basement. It's a 2 seater ottoman with storage space inside. I had it open yesterday and the camera around. As you can see, it is very much filled up. This is in case you're wondering what it all looked like

Free Dr. Pepper

Well, Dr. Pepper is offering a free coupon for Dr. Pepper starting this Sunday. Why? They had promised to do so if Guns 'N Roses released their new album in 2008. Here's the yahoo news article.

Almost done

I'm going to Hawaii next week. I'M GOING TO HAWAII NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, I've got that out of my system. But because I'm going, I realized that if I could finish the Pinwheel Sweater, it would be weather appropriate for Hawaii. I already had the body done. I had the sleeves all knitted. I had done more than half the crochet work on one sleeve and it had gone really quickly so I figured, heck, I could have this done before the weekend and because it's cotton, I can throw it in the washing machine and the dryer! Well, okay, I'll do spin cycle and let it air dry so that I can block out the crochet lace edge.
But as I was browsing ravelry, I stumbled upon this version. It's not necessarily the sweater that I'm looking at but the button closure. I'm not sure how she put it on. If it were me, I wouldn't sew it on since this sweater can either be worn as a long sweater, or you can turn it upside down and wear it as a short sweater.
This puts and idea in my head. I can make a toggle bar with peyote stitch. I can then attach the toggle bar to either a button or some large crystal rivoli that I've captured. This would result in what is basically a cuff link that's a button closure for my sweater. The lace chains are small enough that I don't have to make a gigantic toggle. Hmmm...Well, I've got the weekend :)

"Making it" as a sock knitter

I kinda think I've made it as a sock knitter when I finally realized how warm they keep my feet when I'm wearing them. In addition to that, I'm preparing my socks for tomorrow because I want something hand knit on my feet to try to avoid another craptastic day at work. Hand knit socks on my feet will at least make me smile for the 5 seconds I look at them.

Twinkle, twinkle, peyote star

Twinkle twinkle peyote star
Oh how bright and shiny you are.
Up above my chest, so high
Blindingly sparkly crystals, oh my.


Class tomorrow. And now onto the instructions.

So much to do...

Instead, I'm napping on the couch. I'm at the toe decrease of my second Nutkin sock with maybe another 10 rows to go. I'm just about ready to start the decreases on the first Anemoi Mittens. I've got a beading project that's close to being finished and I REALLY REALLY need to write up the instructions for them before this Sunday. Instead, there are other things I need to do like sleep or clean my house. Sigh

Finished Shrug

This is Stephanie Japel's Carie Cropped Flare Sleeve Cardigan made with Cascade Magnum. I had to do a good deal of recalculation since my gauge was way off. Thankfully, it's just a basic top down raglan. The Magnum is bulky yarn. I saw it at Stitch DC Georgetown one day, thought of this shrug, and bought some. I was in need of a quick project since all of my knitting and beading projects were taking a long time. The button closure I picked up at Rhinebeck. Patricia had gone to a specific vendor to pick up buttons for Bead Obsessions and while she shopped, I shopped right along side her. They are hand made, ceramic buttons. Very cute.

Bead It! 3 - Autumn Wreath

Tonight was the Gallery Opening for the Bead It! 3 exhibit and my wreath won first place in the non wearable art exhibit! Eee! I'm so excited!




I had completed this a couple of years ago. It is Donna DeAngelis Dickt's Fall Berry Wreath pattern. Onto the wreath, I've added a couple of Donna's cosmos and some wheat stalks I had lying about. I bring it out in the fall and hang it on my door.
This is currently on display at the Del Ray Artisan's Gallery: 2704 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria, VA. The exhibit runs through November 30th. I'll be gallery sitting on the 15th. Come on down and say hi!

Election Night

I arrived at my polling center at 6:30. Knit a few rows on my sock. I left at 7:30. Not as bad as some of those 3-4 hour lines. I've done my part for Northern Virginia. I'm now settling in for a night of election results.

Bead It! 3

For those of you in the DC area, next Friday, November 7, 2008 is the gallery opening of "Bead It! 3", a show put on by The Del Ray Artisans. I have two pieces in the show. I have a wreath based on Donna Dickt's Fall Berry Wreath. I modified it slightly by adding a couple of stalks of wheat and some cosmo flowers. Sorry, no picture. My other entry is an orchid:



So, for anyone who has been wanted to see my flowers in person, here's your chance.

Details of Bead It! 3:
Opening Reception - November 7, 2008 7pm-9:30pm
Show runs from Nov 7 - Nov 30
Gallery Hours:
Thursday 12pm-6pm
Friday 12pm-8pm
Saturday 10am-4pm
Sunday 12pm-4pm

I also have a couple of necklaces in their marketplace.

* Cross posted to Judy Yiu Designs

Scenes from a Marathon (part 1)

Really, I'm just too lazy to look at, sort, and upload pictures I took this year during the Marine Corps Marathon. Quick summary:
- It took me 6 hours and 16 minutes. It's not bad for a last minute crammed in training schedule.
- My leg cramped up a couple of times
- More hilly on the new course
- Nice weather. Took me 5 miles to warm up but it was a good day for a marathon.

One down, one to go. Maybe for Memphis, I'll upload more pictures.

Okay, really, I just have one picture. It's Teddy Roosevelt. He passed me just after mile 17. I passed in around mile 24. My last Teddy Roosevelt sighting was at mile 25. Yeah, dude did the marathon in costume. That is just bloody well amazing. For more details on "Teddy Roosevelt", see the wiki post.