My Dogwood is blooming.

I planted my Dogwood tree over 10 years ago when I moved into my house. This is the first year it has ever bloomed and it is really beautiful. This morning I just stood outside and stared at it till I had to get into my car and drive to work. I really love it.

Oh, and rootbeer cupcakes with rootbeer frosting.
I squished the edges putting the lid on the cake tray!! Ooops - I hope noone cares.
And carrot cupcakes for Sean's birthday at work tomorrow.
I told ya I was a baking fool at the mo. Just can't help myself. I'm making everyone else happy but there is a lot of washing up to do!

I've been knitting, baking, and watching Lost.

I have been baking like a fool since I came back from Seattle. I've been baking cakes, pies, baked oatmeal, and cookies - chocolate chip mostly. And mostly I have been sharing with friends because otherwise well, I will eat it all myself! Not good.

My comfort food has always been home baked goodies and I guess I have been needing comfort food lately. I still seem to be so sad but my friends all tell me that is normal. Not sure that having an almost pathological need to bake is normal tho. Oh, well.
And I have been knitting and watching Lost every evening. I am up to the middle of the second season now. What the hell is going on? I'm loving it.

Marjanne is getting these socks because she is my heart friend and I love her.
I can't find the ball band - I think I bought this wool up in Sydney at Tapestry Craft and my even have blogged about it. I'll look later. It was nice to knit with and I made little cables down the sides. Simple and easy and good Lost-watching knitting.

I finished the Wildfoote socks too. They were almost done and the pattern was also easy - from My Favorite Socks - Mock Wave Cable by Ann Budd.
And I am teaching myself to knit on two circular needles. This is Knitpicks Kettle Dyed Yarn - Go With the Flow socks. So far I really like knitting with two circs and the Knitpicks yarn is really soft and lovely. I left a couple of balls with my mom and she has made some socks that she really likes too so when she is ready to order more I'll get in on the Knitpicks order. Lucky me!
I decided that 2009 (which I am kindof starting now) will be my year for trying new things - rather, not knitting anything that I have knit before. I need challenges and my knitting is going to be one of them.

OK - I'm off to the kitchen to put the cupcakes in the oven. And there is disc 4 of season 2 and some brown socks to knit on.

Mom and I sat and knit together almost every afternoon while I was in the states. I didn't realize how much I would miss that while I was there, but I do miss it a lot. I miss my son. I miss my mom and my brother. I really miss my Dad. Boy do I need a cupcake.

Seattle, Hood Canal, Roslyn

Weekend before last I spent the weekend with my girlfriends and my son at my friend's cabin at Hood Canal. I go here for a weekend everytime I come to Seattle. It is one of the most relaxing places on the earth and the best company. My friends are loving and generous and I love it here. But what ever you do, don't tell Tyson and Barkley that I hang out with their dogs too.


There were 6 more but there isn't time for all of them. Amelia the Basett and Moose the Ridgeback cross were the quietest and thus the easiest to take photos of. But this was one time where I really did want to spend more time with the humans than the dogs (for me, often, it's the other way around).

I had a great week after the cabin 5-day weekend I had dinner with friends, stayed a couple of days with my son (and made homemade chicken stock which ended up the base for lentil soup - best ever!) shopped with my mom for a new sofa, and went to the golf shop. Now, going to the golfing store for me is like my son going to the yarn shop. Man, there was only golf stuff and nothing, nothing that could even resemble anything knitted or knitable. Luckily for me, son has grown up enough to know he needs to pay for stunts like that so he took me for a vietnamese sandwich and to the book store for a browse. I bought him The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao and had a lovely lookround.

On Saturday after second nephew's soccer game, my brother and first nephew and I went up to the mountains to my brother's place for the weekend. Along the way we stopped to watch the Husky's (University of Washington's gridiron team) game at a sports bar with 30 TV's! Really! and 25 of them were tuned into the Husky's game. Wow - it was big.

So a burger and couple of beers later....

I kid you not - this IS the life. We slept, we read, we ate, we swam, we lounged, we did nothing. There is a spa there but my brother forbade me to go anywhere near it. This is a resort where he has built himself a holiday house - a resort with ALL the amenities you can imagine. Oh, and this place is right next door to Roslyn where they filmed Northern Exposure all those years ago.

So this is my last few days here. I have restrained myself from any shopping. No books, two magazines, one skien of yarn (socks that rock!), a small parcel from KnitPicks that has not arrived yet, and one new pair of shoes. I've made up for the lack of shopping by eating - I am going to have to do more than run around the block when I get home. Oh, well - who cares, right?

So just a couple of little things - there are still drive in hamburger joints in Seattle. Yes they deliver your buger, fries and Cokes to your car on trays that fit on your open window - just like in Happy Days.

And they give you coffee cup holders on the shopping trolleys - HA!

America - you gotta love it (except for the politics which is all anyone talks about and is very exciting, confusing but exciting)

Seattle too.

I went here....

to see this...

(Mariners vs The Twins at Safeco stadium - notice the exellent seats we had!!)

I went here....

to see this...
and this...
with my nephews and my mother - what a great day. We took a water taxi across Puget Sound to the Seattle Waterfront and had fish and chips on the pier.

I went here...
to see this....from here.... Another great day - I had a smoked salmon chowder that was really wonderful - good enough to match the view.

I went to the Triple Door to see her....

I have listened to Karla Bonoff all my adult life and she still sounds like she did in the 70's - honestly.

And I knit this....

What a pleasure it was. I spent almost as much time weaving in ends as I did knitting but I loved every minute. And thankfully, Harper's mom loved it too - along with the suri alpaca vest and socks knit earlier this year.

I will post photos of my weekend tomorrow - don't want to make you too jealous all at once!

Seattle

I'm back online finally - Mom's computer spat the dummy as soon as I got here so it's been until today before I could post anything.
Well, it's been a sweet and sad time but I've had some fun too. Been out and about lots in the past week and I will show you some photos in a later post of where I've been. The weather has not been that great - rained the whole second week of my visit - but, hey, this is Seattle. But it's been cold - down to 10ish over nights and not past 22 all week, a little warmer today. So much for my jealousy tan.
There has been knitting. Girlfriend's granddaughter needed a new cardigan. Lovely Bamboo/wool mix. Look at all the ends I have to weave in - whatever was I thinking? FO next post.

And of course the 'thank you' gifts knit on the spot. Hey, Sugar and Cream cotton at $1 a ball is fantastic. And the yarn shops - well, we have only been to three so far - I'm trying to limit myself and I just can't help but buy stuff when I go inside. I made a big order on Knitpicks this morning and there is at least one more shop I need/have to go to but then I might stop there - help, I dont' know when to stop!
And of course there has been food - really really good food.

Dungeoness Crab

The best Pizza slice I've ever had with really good coffee. (Bakery Noveau)
Followed by serious chocolate cake that I have been dreaming of (seriously) for the past year. Can you see the little chocolate square with the bakery's name on it?
Carl's ciopino. (Oh boy, this one was one to savour)
And Garlic Fries at the baseball game. Real potatos and lots of garlic.
OK - I think that will do for now (there has been more but I don't want to overload you too). I'm off for the long weekend with my girlfriends. I'll talk to you more when I get back.

Thank God for knitting!

I have had one of the saddest weekends of my life this weekend. I lost my wonderful father. I am on my way to the states to see my beautiful son and the rest of my family and go to my Dad's memorial. I already miss him terribly.

And through it all - I knit. What a comfort. I knit socks. The pattern is not difficult but just enough that I have to pay attention. And when I don't feel like doing anything else it is just the right amount. I can't imagine what I would be doing if I wasn't knitting. Thank God for knitting.

Project Completed!

Hiya
I've been working on these baby jumpers for so long - I feel a bit all at sea now that they are finished. They have been knit, sewn up, washed and are drying like good little jumpers. I can't wait to send them off to their new little owners - hopefully I will get a photo of them being worn to share with you. I really enjoyed knitting them.



Now I need to find something to start knitting that I will be happy to leave behind in a few days when I leave town. I'm not taking knitting with me - shock, horror. No, I will pick up some needles from my mom and head straight up to the LYS for some new and groovy sock wool. I will need something over there that will be easy to knit with no pattern, and mindless and meditative. Straight vanilla socks are it. Can't wait to get there - I am so looking forward to seeing my family.

Olivia was the only one to respond to my Pay it Forward offer - no other takers?