Farewell to Oregon

Its been a long and interesting year here is Portland and I'm sad to leave. At the same time I'm happy to go home and seem my brothers and my friends again so its a bittersweet farewell to Oregon. Mom and I are leaving tomorrow morning and driving down the Pacific Coast Highway and my computer is with the movers so there will be no blog posts for a while (not that I post that often regularly anyway :P ) I will post photos of the trip once I am back up and running in AZ.

Finished Projects

I've finally finished Greg's wedding gift with 3 days to spare! Now I just have to find some time to ship it. I made 4 placemats and turned my original oops into a small table runner. Hopefully they like them but if not they will make very nice dishclothes.

I finially finished a cross stitch! I've been working on this one on and off for about 6 months but I kept getting distracted by knitting projects. I think this will look very nice in my kitchen once it is framed.

Bored out of my mind!

I made it through about half the day at work yesterday before going home sick and ended up staying home today. The gastric pyrotechnics are over but I now have a huge headache and feel pretty icky. The worst part of staying home is the boredom. If I was in AZ I could do stuff in the house or sit outside but here its intermittently sunny and rainy and I am in a 1 bedroom apartment. My 2 choices here are lay on the couch watching TV and knitting or laying in bed reading. Mom will be here on Wednesday and I am moving home to AZ next weekend so this is the worst possible time to be sick!

I'm allergic to Oregon

I think I'm allergic to Oregon! About 30 minutes after getting to work yesterday I got violently ill and had to leave the fab. Fortunately I made it to the bathroom before the pyrotechnics began but I've been feeling 'off' ever since. I stayed home from work today and laid on the couch watching TV and knitting. There is nothing good on daytime TV but I did get most of the next placemat done.

There's no place like home

I was home in AZ this past weekend where the weather was sunny and warm. This was my last home leave from Oregon since I am only here in Portland until the 28th. I spent most of the weekend cleaning up and reorganizing since stinky boys have been living in my house for the last year. I also spent a bunch of time doing yard work since my brothers don't seem to be able to do it and I'm getting tired of being fined $25 every month by the HOA. I did run into one of my neighbors who caught me up on the neighborhood gossip (across the street neighbor's house was repossessed, the pool was closed by the health department due to bacteria, etc.). My biggest accomplishment of the weekend was the resurrection of my gas grill. One of the stinky boys (not one of my brothers) decided that since my grill was out of propane he should use charcoal in it. Needless to say it was a huge mess but I was able to get it going and BBQ some chicken and burgers. They were very yummy!

On Saturday I got to spend some time with Jim, who I hadn't seen in a month, and got to see the great things he's done to his new house! He has set up all of the furniture and antiques (that I helped pick out here in Portland) and it now looks like a home rather than just a house. It was very nice to see some of the stuff I bought or made for him in the house!

Skunk Train

Mom and I are going to ride the Skunk Train on our trip down the Pacific Coast Highway in a couple of weeks. This train was listed in the guidebook and sounded too weird to be true but it is! The train doesn't take you to see skunks but rather to see the Redwoods. Apparently (according to the reservations guy) it got its name from the stinky fuel it used to burn 120 years ago when it first started running. The trip is in just over 2 weeks so I'll post pictures when I have them. At only $20 each I figure its worth checking out!

Another Placemat done

I finished the second placemat today. It definitely went alot faster than the first but that may be because the weather has been rainy so I've spent alot more time inside lately. Stephanie asked what the pattern looks like so a closeup is included (highlighted in purple).

Boy Who Cried Wolf

Who names a yarn color "Boy Who Cried Wolf"?

Last Saturday, Raquel and I went to Woodland Woolworks so I could buy some yarn to make my first sweater. The pattern calls for worsted weight wool but since I live in Arizona I decided to get cotton instead. What I found was an 85% pima cotton/15% silk blend in the beautiful color above. This yarn feels wonderful and should knit up into a nice, not too warm sweater!

I also bought some GOA at $3 per ball (who could resist that!) but now the question is what to do with this? Any suggestions? The colors don't show up very well but I have 5 balls of hunter green and 2 balls of very light grey.

Knitting Update

I made these quick potholders using 2 strands of Sugar'n Cream and patterns I modified from some dishcloth patterns I have. I sent these to Tiff today as a small thank you for letting me invade the family for a week. I hope I matched her kitchen color correctly!

This is the 1st of the set of 4 placemats that I am making for my friend Greg's wedding. This is actually the 2nd one I have made but the 1st one was too wide and too short of a placemat, so now they are getting a small table runner too! The pattern doesn't show up very well in this photo and it hasn't been blocked yet. It looks much better now that its blocked and the pattern is flat.