Violet Knits

The Big Day (very long post)

Sorry that it has been so longsince the last post.  Still recovering from the wedding.....and it wasn't even mine!!  Seriously, since I had taken time off of work and had left the family at home to fend for themselves, I had a tremendous amount of work and housework to do.  So here was the week in San Francisco for Madeline and me, leading up to the wedding.

We left early Tuesday morning for the city.  Sam was kind enough to drive us as Madeline and he had a meeting with the rabbi in Berkley.  Since Madeline and I were going to spend a majority of our time preparing for the wedding (at least that is what we told everyone!), she packed the car with everything that we would need: wedding programs, out-of -town guest gift baskets, favor making supplies, the ketubah, and much more.  I was lucky enough to be able to bring my suitcase and some knitting!  Fortunately, I am used to being packed in the car with little room for long trips, so I was able to make myself comfortable.  We made it to Berkley in good time and Sam dropped me off at Pete's so I could knit and drink coffee while waiting for them to have their meeting with the rabbi.  I got to work on my cropped cardigan while waiting.  So nice to knit without interruptions!

Our original plan was to have Sam drop us off in San Francisco at my timeshare so that he could go to work (in his Oakland office).   Madeline and I knew that we wouldn't need a car while in the city, so that seemed to be the best option.  Once we realized the amount of items that we would need to schleep around until we could check in, we knew that this would not work.  So, Madeline and I dropped off Sam at the office and proceeded to drive to SF and the timeshare with no map and no GPS to guide us.  Since Sam was driving, I just assumed he would know how to get to where we were going or would have directions, (I did email the link to the timeshare, complete with address and directions) but there were no directions printed out and he only had an idea of how to get there.  But, he did give us directions to the freeway and told me which ones to take.  Once Madeline and I got on the road, we were able to muddle through.  Fortunately, we have driven around there enough to figure out what we were doing.

After finding the timeshare and finding a place to park (there is a garage across the street), we went to the timeshare to see if we could at least unload the car.  It was only 10:30am so I doubted that we could check in.  To my great surprise, they made some changes so that we could check in.  We were so happy....and it only took two trips up to the room to unload all of the packages (with the help of the bell hop of course!).  We spent our time after that finding a place to eat and exploring the city. 

Since we were in the city and Madeline and I are both yarn addicts, we spend part of one day visiting some yarn shops.  This type of shopping is a necessity as the bride is under much stress and it was my job as the Matron of Honor to keep the bride happy (nice reasoning, huh?).  Also, since I had never been to Artfibers before, and they are closing their location, it was very important for us to make this stop.  Of course, you go to a shop that sells unique yarns by the cone (or you can wind off what you need) and they are on sale, well, any self-respecting yarn addict is going to pick up a little something, or maybe a cone or two!   Not that I need any more yarn as I had a shop and have a stash, but I just couldn't resist.  I am sure that I will find something to make with these.  I would highly recommend stopping by this shop before it closes.  The sales person that was working that day was extremely nice and very helpful.  So sad to see the retail store close.

We also ventured into Berkley to visit Lacis.  We took BART, got on the wrong train, but eventually made it.  Lacis is right across the street from the BART station so we didn't have far to walk.  Now this trip was a necessity.  Madeline wanted me to crochet Sam's Kippah, and I needed the crochet cotton and hooks to make this.  We had ask the salesperson at Artfibers where we should go, and she suggested Lacis.  Well darn!  Guess we had to go!  The store is beautiful.  I did find some things other than crochet cotton.  I was very excited to see cones of Zephyr, so I had to get one of those.  I also picked up some DMC Cebelia.  More lace in my future!  Madeline picked up a lace hanky for her big day (definitely will need that!).  There is much to see at this shop, but I was disappointed in the sales staff.  There were four people "working" that day, but only one greeted us.  (Madeline and I were the only customers in the store.)The others were mostly chatting amongst themselves.    We were also asked to leave early as one of the staff had to leave and they were closing up early.   I would definitely visit this shop again as the displays of vintage lace are extraordinary.  But, I know that since the owner of the shop has passed on,  I will have to go in knowing what I am looking for an expect little to no assistance.

Madeline and I did do other things beside shop for yarn.  We also just shopped!  Bloomingdales had its big sale for Charity.  Donate $$ to your favorite charity (they had a list) and it got you a ticket for 15-20% off throughout the store.  They also had different events going on throughout the store.  Madeline and I were very excited about one particular event (aside from the sale).  We got to meet Joshua Bell!  (That's him sandwiched between the two of us.  I am standing on my tip toes!)  We picked up his latest CD, Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, and he signed them!  He was very nice and quite cute and put up with us (that is saying a lot).  Then after meeting him, we went shopping.  No need to go into what we got, let's just say that we had a very good time!

Much of our days were spent exploring our surroundings and shopping.  Our evenings were spent making a Kippah, tying ribbons on the programs, and putting together gift baskets and favors.  By the time my family joined us, we had some things done, but much more to accomplish.  Tori was a great help.  She stayed up late and helped, even though she was very tired.  I am proud to say that she complained very little and helped out a great deal.  Not the same child she was six months ago!!

The wedding itself was beautiful.  Before the actual ceremony, Madeline and Sam signed their Ketubah.  This is very different from my Catholic wedding 20 years ago.  John didn't get to see me until I walked down the aisle.  In a Jewish wedding, the contracts are signed before the wedding ceremony.  Madeline looked so beautiful!  She was very much the blushing bride.  Of course, Lew's chuppah was used in the wedding ceremony.  Hopefully, I will figure out how to pull pictures off of our video camera and post them later.  The entire wedding celebration was held at the Sir Francis Drake in Union Square.  The Ketubah signing was in a conference room upstairs, while the wedding ceremony and cocktail reception were held on the mezzanine.  The dinner reception was in one of the ballrooms on the second floor.  The food was wonderful.  The hotel's restaurant, Scala's, catered the event.  I was very surprised that a catered meal for 140 people could taste sooooo good.  The people at the Drake were very good to work with.  Being the Matron of Honor meant that everyone had to report to me if there were any questions.  Of course, I would go to Madeline and ask her what she wanted, but this way she didn't have more people wanting her attention. 

Now Madeline and Sam are married and on their honeymoon.  Where are they going?  Well, they have to suffer through a Mediterranean Cruise.  I did volunteer to save Sam from all of that pampering, but for some reason he wanted to be there with his bride.  Imagine that!  I am very happy for Madeline.  Best wishes to the Bride and congratulations to the Groom!!

Wedding Preparations

No, not my wedding.  Madeline's wedding!  The big day is 9 days away.  I get to block her chuppah tonight so that we can give it to the florist on Tuesday.  Actually, the chuppah that I am blocking is the border, she is hand painting the silk center piece.  Lew knit the border for her.  Beautiful hand knit lace, pattern designed by Lew.  Tomorrow we pick up her wedding dress.  It has been fitted and is ready for next weekend!  On Tuesday, we leave for SF so that she can relax (maybe) and we can finish any last minute preparations.  The best part is that we will be there with no kids, furkids, and no husbands/husbands-to-be.  Her big day is coming!!

Yesterday, I took my furbabies to the vet.  It was their time to be spayed/neutered.  I was able to bring home Duma.  His recovery period is much shorter than Kima's.  She will be picked up later this morning.  I do feel sorry for him right now. It is obvious that he misses his sister, he keeps wandering around the house looking for her.  He also has an e-collar on.   The vet decided to put it on him as he keeps licking his stitches.  Of course, he looks so pathetic and Tink and Nigel are avoiding him as they are not quite sure what that thing is attached to his head.

Tori had a choir concert last night.  I am going to try and post pictures this weekend.  We have a video camera that John used to tape the performance.  It has a feature that allows you to take still photos from the video.  I am going to try and do that tonight.  Hopefully, I will be able to get some nice pictures of her.  They did a wonderful job with the performance.

I don't have any of my knitting photos to post.  Those will come later.  I did join a KAL on Ravelry.  I am knitting a lace shawl (shocker!).  The pattern comes from this site and is called Pangea.  It is a beautiful shawl and I am knitting it from stash!  The yarn is from Elann that I bought way before I had the store.  It is called Peruvian Baby Silk.  I have no idea why I bought it, but I am very glad that I did.  Not only is the price very nice, the yarn is quite beautiful- very soft and easy to knit with.  I am knitting this as a gift, but will still post photos .  I just won't say who it is for!

Well, I'm off to pick up Kima.  Duma will be very happy to see her sister.  Hopefully, there is no e-collar for her!

Family Additions (knitting content also!)

During the many months since I had last blogged,  we made a couple of additions to the household.  Now, those of you that had been to the store will remember Tink, the abandoned kitten that became the store cat.  When the store closed, she came home with me full time.  Now Tink is a very tempermental cat.  There are times when she is quite loving, but the majority of her time is spent in solitude (completely her choice).  Tori has tried time and time again to get Tink to let Tori hold her and pet her, but to no avail.  So, this year, Tori begged and pleaded with her dad to let her get another cat (I have no problem adding another pet to the household as cats, in my opinion, are much easier to handle than dogs).  We finally wore him down and Tori, Madeline, and I drove out to a breeder to look at Maine Coons.  I chose this breed to make my husband happy (they are big cats) and make my daughter happy (they have a reputation for being very loveable).  The breeder had many kittens, both  Maine Coons and Savannahs. I had never heard of a Savannahs before, and didn't know anything about the breed.  But the cats were beautiful and friendly and big!  We were all taken with them, but had gone there to look at the Maine Coons, so we looked at those kittens instead. 

Being a good wife, I informed my husband that he would need to go to the breeder with us on the next trip and see the cats.  I wanted to make sure that the kitten chosen would be acceptable to him, after all, he was going to be paying for it!  So off we went again, out the to breeder to visit her cats.  The breeder showed us the kittens and the parents and we couldn't help but look at the Savannahs.  My husband saw them and decided no Maine Coons for us in the future, were getting a Savannah!  Well, I did do some research on this breed and we were at the breeder, so we had question and answer time!  We found out that they are a newer breed that is still in development.  They are very active and very loving.  Usually not a lap cat, but loved to be petted and play games.  They have many "dog-like" qualities, they will come when called, play fetch, and walk on a leash to name a few.  They are not for everyone.  The activity level with the earlier generations is much higher than the average cat.  After learning that little tidbit, I decided the two would be easier than one, I just had to convince John of this! So, we put a deposit down on one kitten, but had made sure that the other would be available too, just in case.

Upon our arrival home, Tori and I got on the internet to find out all the information that we could.  Armed with the new found information, we took it to Daddy (he was buying his baby girl a birthday present!) and showed him why two kittens would be better than one.  After much cajoling, he finally agreed and I called the breeder that night.  Here are our two new additions to the family: Duma (Swahili for cheetah) on the left and Kima (Swahili for monkey) on the right.  They are much bigger now than in this photo, but I will be adding more current photos of them in the future.  They keep us on our toes, and Tink is not at all happy with the new arrivals. She is adjusting slowly but surely.  Since she believes that she is human, I am sure she feels we should have consulted her on this.

On to knitting.......I have made progress on my sweater.  I decided to make the cropped cardigan not so cropped.  When first reviewing the     measurements, I knew that I would make the sweater longer than the pattern instructions. Being in my forties, showing off my mid-driff is a bad idea!  With that in mind,  I have added two inches to the length of the sweater. So far, I have just completed the armhole decreases and used two balls of yarn.  I am staying on track to complete the back by the end of the week.

Madeline and I were comparing patterns and found out that we want to knit the same sweater.  We are going to start a little knit a long with the condition that I do not start the sweater until she returns from her honeymoon.  Something about me knitting too fast.  The pattern calls for Adrienne Vittadini's Natasha.  Reading its description on Knitter's Review, it sounds lovely to work with.  Since Adrienne Vittadini is discontinuing her yarn line, I decided to see if I could find some at a good discount.   I found Natasha on sale at CALYarn, a site that I have just discovered.  They seem very nice and I emailed them to place my order.  I hope to receive it today or tomorrow (will post pictures of what I get) .  We are also going to be knitting the sweater with Janice.  She started hers a while back, but will be picking it up again once she finishes her Christmas knitting. 

Wow! This is the second post this week.......maybe I will actually keep up my blog.  Hope somebody out there actually reads it!

No Rest for the Wicked

Busy, busy, busy!  Not only is it the "most wonderful time of the year", it is also the time of year when lots of yarn is arriving.  Yesterday we received 5 boxes.  Here are four of them:

       

Two boxes of Manos, one box of Nikki from Cascade, and two boxes of luscious Divine, Adiago, and Bambou Soft from Skacel.  Of course, anytime we receive more boxes of yarn, we have lots of customers in the store.  I am finally getting a much needed break, so I thought I would blog a bit. 

Onto my knitting:  I have finished Bristow!  Actually, I finished it two weeks ago.  I just haven't gotten around to taking a picture of it. I think that part of the reason that I haven't posted a pic is that I am not that satisfied with the results.  I don't want buttons, so I have frogs on the front instead.  I keep thinking that I should put more frogs on, but then the front will be too heavy.  I have also considered putting a zipper on, but then I would have to sew that.  That would mean that the sweater would never be done.  Decisions, decisions.  I think that I will just be leaving the frogs on and be done with it......That would mean I could work on other projects. 

Speaking of other projects, I am also almost done with the Provincial Waistcoat.  I have to seam the front, sew the buttons, and weave in my ends.  Whew!  I do have to say that I was a bit confused at first about seaming the front.  When looking at the vest in the picture, it looks like a regular vest with buttons.  However, because the vest is so fitted, the front is actually seamed to look as if it is buttoned.  I would have probably known about the seaming the front had I actually read the pattern first, but what fun would that be?  Part of the finishing work includes knitting the front bands with buttonholes.  The bands are then sewn to overlap as if the front has been buttoned, with the buttons sewn in after the seaming is complete.  This should be completed later this week.  Everything has been completed except for sewning the bands and buttons and weaving in the ends. 

I have also started this sweater. It is basically a giant doily with sleeves.  The pattern is very easy and free online.  I was lucky enough to see this made up (thanks JJ) and decided that it would be perfect for me.  There is very little finishing work involved, which I just love!  I will only need to block and weave in the ends when all the knitting is complete.  The yarn I chose for this project is Cascade's Venezia.  It beautiful merino/silk blend with a great hand.  Again, I promise to post pictures later this week.

One last thing:  I do have to brag about my baby boy.  Johnny had his banquet for OHS varsity football last Thursday.  He was voted the MVP of the defensive line!  I am very proud.  He was also voted 2nd team all league for the second time and was second in the league in sacks!   It was sooo worth freezing Friday nights watching him play.  Great Job baby boy!

Slow to Post

I have been wanting to post for the past week, but haven't had the time.  Well, I did have some time last Wednesday.....I actually closed the store and took time off, but I was busy sitting around in my pjs knitting for most of the day.  Yes, I took a day off and I actually knitted....something for myself/the shop.  This is what I am working on now.  It is the Provincial Waistcoat from Interweave Knits Winter 2006.  Since I usually am too hot to wear actual sweaters, I thought that this would be nice to have to wear in the store with my long sleeved tees and turtlenecks.  So far, the pattern has kept me interested and Iam making decent progress.  This is how far I got last week.  I am now past the waist and am working on the bust increases.  I wouldn't recommend the pattern for a beginner, it is geared more towards the advanced beginner/intermediate knitter.  So far, I have only run into a few spots were more information would have been nice, but other than that, the pattern is working out fine.  Here is the detail of the cable and twisted stitches.  I decided to make the vest out of Tibet from Ornaghi Filati.  This is a tweedy wool blend that is nice to work with and has a nice stitch definition. 

I also worked on my Bristow sweater.  The sleeves are complete and I blocked the pieces.  You can see how I blocked them by clicking here.  I show how to steam block in this photo album.  I chose steam blocking because it is quick, however I feel that it is not as effective as wet blocking. The sweater is actually completed, but I am not sure that I like the frogs that I chose as its closure.  I am contemplating adding a zipper instead, but since I really don't want to sew one of those on, the frogs may stay.  I will post pictures of the sweater later this week.   

Hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I will leave you with this lovely picture of my daughter's first loaf of bread.  She baked and cooked all day long with me for Thanksgiving and learned to make pie crusts and home made bread.