Its just so…so…OK, so its pretty and fiddly and my shawl is lovely (except for that tree) but it SO isnt a project for SnB evenings.  I have made myself the promise that I MUST knit one shell per night and since last night was SnB, I took it with me.  It was only taking me about 30 min per shell so I figured that it would be done and over with fast so then I could start back in on my Ribby Cardi sleeve.  About 2 hours later I had one, misshapen and very wrong shell.  I tink-ed back more times than I would like to remember and now, I’m going to slowly pick the whole icky shell back and watch the crazy man on the Today show who is base jumping with a flying squirrel suit on.

My Rogue…Done, blocked, sewn and smelling sweet!  It looks darn good too   One sleeve is a little short even though I did it all the same (followed my little change notes too) but gosh does it all look good and feel even better.  The fabric is perfect and I would SO buy more yarn from  Lisa Souza to do any other sweater in the world.  Its a beautiful dark purple with little varigations here and there and defines the cables very nicely.  It is such a great feeling to get a big project done and out of the way, I cant believe the satisfaction.  After all the headaches I have had with this sweater: The wrong size, the missing needles; the beautiful yarn and fantastic pattern more than made up for any stress that I ever was feeling while knitting it.

Any changes?  Yup, I would make the body longer by about 4-5″ and the sleeves longer by about 2″  I know the place that I would do both of those things in the pattern so the alteration would be pretty simple.  I would also use something with a little heavier gauge, a true worsted instead of a aran weight and get gauge with that one.

I am so happy that I finished this sweater that I picked up my Pacific Northwest Shawl and knit 3 scallop shells on it.  Tells you something about my joy, doesnt it!  Maybe that will be the next big thing to get finished

Not only the title of a movie I own but encompasses my feelings too! I cant wait for Monday evening to come and I am even holding my breath even more because the weather is supposed to get all gusty tomorrow! I know that she will make it into Juneau but wether the weather hold out for me is entirely a different matter. The good thing is that I have a lovely future SIL who lives in Juneau who is more than willing to hold onto her for me if the weather stops the flight. I have decided the name and the winner of the naming contest is…Janyne, my sister. I’m not telling her name just yet but considering that she is the only one who suggested names, she would be the clear winner The name will be a surprise until I take and post a picture of her here in my arms…keeping my fingers crossed for a picture moment tomorrow about 5pm!!!

Knitting: I have been working on both pairs of socks, my Mums “Walk in the Garden” and my sisters surprise socks and listening to podcasts. I just finished an episode of the She-knits podcast and Sharon makes me smile all the time. She isnt for everyone because of her talk of kids but as I was a nanny for 2 years and I love and want kids of my own, I love hearing her talk about her family and the amazing bags that she makes and writes patterns for.

CONTEST!!!! I want to know about your favourite pattern(s). I know that I would knit the same K all for 2 rounds, K2 P2 for 2 rounds pattern into a pair of socks for ages and I have already for 2 pairs! I would knit another Mariah again and even though I want to rip it apart now, would tackle the PNW shawl too! Free or costly, web or hard copy, I would just like to know what you would knit over and over again. Leave me a note in the comments section and the winner, drawn at random from the number generator, will earn 2 skeins of Online sock yarn plus some little “Pelican” surprises. This will run until 9/9 – 2 weeks

Other knitting knews: My yarn is on its way from Lisa Souza and I cant wait to get started on the Rogue sweater. This will be the very first thing that I swatch and get moving on just as soon as I get the yarn. I have been waiting so patiently for it (ordered on 8/6) and I have heard that Lisa is very worth the wait!!!

There are more pics up on the flickr…the whale pics that I promised

Yes, I still want to burn the PNW shawl but after 2 hours of rethreading in a lifeline and then lots n lots of winding and not a few tears, I am back to row 1 of the scallop edging. Yes, the offer still stands, mainly because I cant see myself doing it all again without any more mistakes and because I want the darn thing done and with more boat time and a new puppy on her way on Monday(!!!!!), I just cant see it happening. I know that persistance and stick-to-it-tive-ness is admirable but I dont want this beautiful thing to be like my sweater that my Mum was going to knit for me my freshman year of college. 8 years ago. I think that its still in swatch form but apparently, the yarn is there but the pattern was disliked (by her, I never saw a micron of fiber).

On the good side of knitting, there is a picture of J’s new boot socks (New socks)on my flickr and a shot that took me more shutter clicks than I would like to admit to get but in the end I am more than happy with it! Thats why I love digital cameras. I never have to buy film and I am never scared that I dont have the shot because I figure with so many taken, the odds are more in my favour! The only downside, which really isnt a downside to me with the editing and printing, is that the files are quite large and wordpress doesnt give me that much space to store pics. If you read regularly you know that I dont post many pictures because they take up so much of my space that I would have to buy more and I really dont want to do that now because I am cheap

I am also 2 repeats into my Garden Path socks, a personal design with leaf lace that will be for my Mum and complete her trio of “flower” socks. The first were the Daffodil socks in LL daffodil, the second were the Rose Trellis in CTH Old Rose and these third are in CTH Shade Garden and I am loving how they are coming out. Mum, you will LOVE them.

Still in the socks are the one that I will tease my sister with. I wish that I could show you the really neat trick I did when I had to rip out the short-row heel. I used a pattern for the SRH from a toe-up pattern and couldnt figure out why there would be 1″ of plain knitting before the instep because, duh, the entire bottom of the foot is plain knitting and then I realised that I needed to put the 1″ BEFORE the heel turn, not after like it said because I am going top down. So I grabbed on of my 000’s by Susan Bates and picked up one of the legs of each stitch back where I wanted to rip to and once I had all 30, went pulling and winding away. Perfectly done and I was so thrilled. J was less thrilled but understood that this was someting very cool.

I am off to check mail soon here…there should be a plane in any moment and not only should there be yarn waiting for me (more Kureyon) but a card from home! I’m still in search of names for the fur-baby-to-be, though I LOVE some of yours Jinny!

I have learned that weather is not a factor in fishing. Most of the time, you go regardless of wind and rain/snow because fish are just that pricey. You know how with a regular job, when you consider taking a sick day or a day off for vacation you think, “Ok, if I dont go in, thats a days pay of roughly $120 that I dont earn”? If we miss a day of fishing, thats easily $1500. No, there was no typo there. In the last 2 days of this king salmon opener we earned more than 2 months of my old salary and that is after expenses like fuel and food. We got lucky with a great morning bite and some huge fish in addition to a price raise and we all won this round. Lucky for us, the weather has been perfect all the way up until 4pm today and by that time we had already made up our minds to sell what we had at that moment and run into town. A great trip as J got to nap and I got to knit on a pair of socks that I am knitting for my sister Jinny for both her Birthday and Christmas present. I am tempted to give her one for her b-day (Sept 29) and save the 2nd for Christmas but I think that that would be too cruel considering that she gave some awesome names for the soon arriving fur-baby.

Speaking of knitting, please help with this decision! I have been working on my Pacific Northwest Shawl for way too long now and as I cant take it on the boat with me (too fine and I have to be able to drop it and keep it down the front of my raingear for those dull moments that need a knitting fix), it goes even slower right now. So I was sitting on the boat in harbor before we left and I was all excited that I was finishing with the 15th scallop shell on the 1st side meaning that I was half way done with the edging and almost done! And then I looked at the pattern again and realised that not only was I supposed to have 14 shells, I was supposed to have 5 stitches left before the middle and be ending on row 11, not finish and entire shell. And I wasnt supposed to have one shell all wonky and one way too small because I only worked the first 4 and last 4 instructions on the pattern. And instead of being able to rip back with abandon, I might have to ‘tink’ the entire 180 connecting stitches because those shells are connected to the body with a k2tog at the end of every other row. And I think that I want to burn the darn thing before I knit on it again and would if I wasnt so happy with the way the rest of it looks and how pretty it is going to be and how warm and all the other good things about it.

So how about it lace knitters? Will you fix and finish my PNW shawl for me and accept a pair of socks in return? I swear I dont really know what else to do with this and the genius that I am pulled out my last lifeline because I thought that I couldnt possibly need it any more. Thats what I get I suppose.

But I am serious about that trade offer.

This is hella long post but its the journal that I have kept over the past 2 months of everything. Enjoy and I will get back to regular posting after this:

4/26
It has been an interesting and quite busy few weeks here in KnittingFisher land. Both in the knitting department and the fishing/boat world. On Saturday evening, J came “home” to Sitka and helped me pack while watching episodes of “Earth 2”. I used to watch that show after “seaQuest DSV” and even though I wasn’t truly devoted to it like I was to seaQuest, I liked the Sci-Fi adventure aspect. J liked it too and we got thru the entire series (only 1 season was ever made). Thank goodness for public libraries DVD rental ☺

Anyway, we packed and moved my load o’stuff on Sunday and were ocean bound and headed to Pelican on Sunday around 4pm. I brought with me a backpack of clothes for the next 6 weeks and a tote with my camera, pillows, coats, shoes and, of course, my knitting. I kept it to only 3 projects and with one of them almost done and it only being the 3rd full day here, I am hoping that I will have enough to keep my hands and mind busy. The library here is small but a knitter runs it so there is no lack of new knitting reads and she even has the newest Yarn Harlot…Yay! I am limiting myself to the pages that I read so that I can make it last longer ☺ we have been hard at work on the boat and managed to scrape the bulwarks and paint them in a span of 3 days. Well, J did the scraping because “Its my boat” and he was feeling responsible for it. It’s a once in a lifetime of our ownership task so I didn’t feel too bad about him doing it. I offered and he refused me every time. I did give him a really good hand, wrist and arm massage these past 3 nights though. As of today, the boat is ‘Sandalwood Tan’, black, red rails and a almost white-grey wheelhouse. Too many colours for a boat and the tan looks almost flesh colored…not the nicest thing and J really wants to go back to dark grey…my suggestion in the first place.

4/27
Two days into it and the tan has grown on us. So much so that J, after taking one good look at the paint when it was dried that he wanted it ALL that color and started scraping the perfectly good black paint off the hull. That, despite best intentions and working hard on it all day long, took the better part of two days. I just finished painting the entire thing tan and it is looking pretty sharp. I don’t think that I would have chosen that colour if giving my druthers but now that its on and done (3/4 at least), I know that I DO like how original that it looks. I have to put on another coat still but we are fishing tomorrow and one coat is better than none. A friend has the boat next to us and after seeing me lay in the sun yesterday, he pulled out and offered his hammock for my lazing. I jumped at the chance and although it was much cooler today than it was yesterday due to the westerly wind, it was fun to lounge in a hammock. I didn’t do too much lounging though because I FINISHED MY MARIAH!! It looks so beautiful and I would only make one or two changes to it…namely in the hood area. Why put hoods onto a sweater if you cant wear the hood? I pulled it up and J said that I looked like Juggernaut from X-men. There is no shoulder shaping around that area so it just slopes down into one solid piece. Aside from that, I love, love, love it. It fits like a dream and looks so good on. I am going to measure and order a zipper ASAP. I am thinking that I want a black one to contrast with the red instead of a red one to match. A double zipper too so that I can have that cool 2 way thing ☺ I wish that I had it now so that I could wear it out tonight and everyday after this. There is a “girls night” tonight at a friend’s house and though I can’t stay as long as I would normally or drink excessively (like that is fun anyhow!), I am really looking forward to going out. Last night, J had a “boys night” here at the house and there were 8 guys over here playing Halo until midnight! It’s got to be a boy thing. I sat and knit on the Mariah hood from Hades because it was taking so flippin’ long to knit those last 14 inches. I swear, it took me longer to do that hood than any other part of the sweater, including the yoke.

4/31
I have gotten many compliments on the sweater, even without the zipper and I can’t wait to order one and put it in. The summer here is never that warm that I couldn’t be wearing a sweater if I really wanted to, especially out on the boat/on the ocean.

5/1
J has finally told me what he wants for a wedding and it IS a tie and white dress ideal for him. I was in the frame of mind that I could not have that but I understand that that is what is important to him. He really wants and needs that time to showoff to his family and friends. To me, simply because I am here, there isn’t that need in me. If I was home in MI, you can better believe that I would be having a huge to-do. Please note: If you have strong feeling about the special-ness of wedding gowns, please don’t judge me for what I am about to say* I hate the idea of buying a fancy-pants dress that I will only ever wear once. I don’t believe that nonsensical idea that “my daughter will wear it” because no one I know has worn their mothers dress because it was SO dated by the time it was ready to be worn again. No matter how “classic” a dress might be, about 25 years after it was at its height of fashion, it wont still be there. This also goes with the thought that there are no guarantees that you will even have a daughter, that she would get married herself or and she would have the same taste as you. No, for me, buying a new dress for this span of 2-3 hours borders on the absurd and foolish. That said, I would still love to wear one. I will look into renting a dress but there are no rental places in Sitka or Juneau so hopefully I can find a place that will not only rent but also ship it to me. I will dwell in hope. Everything else seems pretty easy to do in my mind. I am going to buy some pots and pot various green plants into them, 3 actually, and then use those with some little Christmas lights to decorate the stage. I want to have flowers in my hair, a small bouquet for me and a boutonnière for

I have been working on my shawl and now that the date has been moved back, I can take a bit more time with it and work on it in the loving caring manner that I wanted to, not feel rushed and stressed about it.

5/6
The body of the shawl is done and it looks fantastic! I am so happy with it and already getting into the ‘scalloped’ edging. Another person that I ‘know’ from her blog is also working on the shawl and left me a comment that the edging is taking just about as long as the body. I think that I must be doing something right because I am whippin’ right thru it ☺ I am already into the 3rd one of 14…on side #1…there are 14 on the other side too…so technically, I am 1/7th of the way done and I am very excited about that. It is looking pretty too and I have great visions of me in this. I will wear it with my dress, which you can see here (jcrew.com terrace strapless dress). Yes, I gave in and bought a dress but I am glowing because it is simple and pretty and cost me less than $150. I am going to borrow my sisters shoes and my old with be my Nana’s pearls. So I have all the Old, New, Borrowed, Blue bits taken care of and just have the massive headache of the rest of the wedding to deal with. Yes, I know that I said that “everything else seemed easy in my mind” but for heavens sake, I was way off. My Mum asked me so questions about things to do, other set-ups for the wedding and then my head felt like it was going to explode. This in addition to writing the ceremony because we are being very non-traditional and J’s sister R is doing the wedding. I think that we will borrow from other ceremonies but there is still the aspect of putting it all together and making it our own.

So tell me why it is that I am doing all the planning and organizing for something that I don’t even really want to have. Flat out, I am not really interested, nor do I want to have a wedding. I would rather skip the ceremony and have a big party with everyone there celebrating our union. I don’t know if I would regret this in the future/when I get old, but the headache that this is going to be in addition to starting a new job and training for a marathon, I just don’t know if this is going to be worth it all. I wanted to tell our family that we were going to Vegas or Fiji or Hawaii and go to a resort and have the hotel take care of everything for us, just bring the bride and groom. They could come to the wedding AND have a vacation all in one. I would love that. We could have the nice dress, pretty pictures, be original and have sun and surf all without the headaches of normal wedding planning. Yes, it would be a bit more expensive but it would be great to have a vacation like that. I need to tell J that I don’t want all this but he keeps saying, “That’s the girls job to plan all this. Don’t all girls love this wedding stuff and planning?” When I say No, I really don’t, he kinda laughs it off and pretends that I wasn’t serious.

5/21
Yes, it has been a long time since I journaled / blogged. I have actually been busy and none of that time has been knitting. I had to sit down yesterday and give myself some knitting time and it felt so good to work on my sock. I thought that I didn’t have enough projects when I first came out here to Pelican. I only brought a pair of socks, 1st cuff 2 patterened rows before the heel, ¾ done Mariah and 2 more lace pattern rows for my Pacific Northwest Shawl to do the body. Here I am now, at the last 3 days of my “summer vacation” and I am done with the Mariah (minus the zipper), finished the body of the shawl (and managed to knit 13 scallop shells for the edging…ON THE WRONG FLIPPIN’ SIDE of the shawl. Now, I’ve done 5…on the correct side.), and started the gusset on the first sock. The socks really have taken backseat to my other knitting and when we went to Hoonah for this past week, a perfect time for me to knit on them, I didn’t take a single thing with me. I thought that I would be doing a lot more on the boat than I did, more for the sheer reason that the jobs were more technical that I knew, more physically demanding than I could do or, we only had one paint brush ☺ I did do a lot of reading and walking though and it was so good to spend the time with Jamie and work on the boat.

The ride there and back was good and I am finally breaking J of the annoying habit of leaving at 10 pm and then running all night to get wherever ‘there’ is. We get there and he is crabby and tired and then crashes at 6 pm and sleeps for 12 -14 hours. When I make him pull over and anchor up around 12, he gets some dinner, gets to bed around 1:30, gets up around 7 or 8 and then we get ‘there’ later in the afternoon. BUT, the difference is that he is functional until 10:30 pm and we can actually get some of the work that we are ‘there’ to do, done ☺

I cant wait to get back to Sitka and my regular life as it were. I know that I am not the kind of person that can sit around without a job and these past few weeks of not really being productive has been, quite frankly, driving me nuts. The days on the boat have been my life savers and I feel free and useful all at the same time. I cant wait to get back into the routine of a steady job and the satisfaction of a good days work. I am a bit nervous about starting something brand new but, like everything else in my life so far, I’m sure that it will go well and I will become a stronger better person and grow from it. I cant wait!

On the wedding front, after getting very nervous and having a really hard time thinking more and planning for the Sitka wedding, I had a serious heart to heart with J and realized that I truly didn’t want to have wedding in Sitka. I didn’t want to have to plan a wedding by myself or deal with all the stress that it would involve. J wouldn’t be back in Sitka until the beginning of October and I don’t think that everything could have been planned in that short of time. So I talked to him again about a wedding in Las Vegas being a better deal for all around. My biggest fear is that his mother is going to freak out over the idea that her eldest son is going to get married in “Sin City”. She has made disparaging comments about LV and really was pushing for a Sitka wedding. The good thing is that J thinks that it’s a great idea and his only hold up is that he wants ME to be happy with our wedding, wherever we have it. He doesn’t want me to be upset with not having a traditional wedding with all our friends. The positive side of this, including the fact that J was thinking about me and my feelings, is that I have very few friends in Sitka and my family, who really wants to be there and be involved, will really love the idea of going to Las Vegas for a long weekend instead of going to Sitka for a week in the rain.

6/26
On the road again…rather, on the water again ☺ We left Pelican last night, ran for about an hour and a half before anchoring up and having to fix an oil leak in the engine. The downside of the leak was where it was and how long the engine had been on. It had to cool off and that meant that it gave J time to sleep because he had been up since 3 am fishing. It was 8 pm. I couldn’t sleep however and played a bit with Garage Band on my Mac before climbing into bed about 10. It was the worst nights sleep of our life. J was up battling mosquitoes that I never heard, dreaming about crazy things like putting bottom paint on his feet so they wont itch, flipping on the LED light right next to my head and shoving his elbows into my face. Needless to say, I wasn’t really happy when he finally climbed out of bed and fixed the engine around 5 am. He was also confused as to why I was crabby about the light and elbows and wanted to stay in bed until 7. I did tell him and he did understand and cuddled with me when I got up to his calls of “Tasha, come look at the whales!” It was awesome seeing them, like always and it put me into a much better mood. I did go back to bed for a while though, mainly because I hate taking Dramamine and the ocean swell was something crazy. It was beautiful weather and there was no wind to speak of but the swell was about 7 feet and really close together meaning that we would rise and fall but also get hit with another wave mid fall and get pushed in another direction.

6/28
Yesterday started the move in to what will hopefully be my permanent new place. I called my new boss yesterday afternoon and asked for a key and he said though he would love to give me one, he was leaving town and the person who cuts the keys was out of town until tomorrow (yesterday). Luckily, one of my new underlings was around and she phoned me yesterday at 4 and said, “I have your new key!” I rushed over and got it and it looks, to all intents and purposes that I will be living in family housing, not the main (only) dorm. This is fantastic news! They haven’t had a director living out here so it might be a change for the residents but considering that most of them are staff, I shouldn’t think that there will be many problems. I will find out on Sunday or Monday if this is going to be mine forever but I truly hope and pray that it is. It would be so nice to have a separation from my work, even if I do live there. Another plus of this place? I can have pets here and I have been thinking and talking with J about getting a dog or a cat and we both agree that we want one of either…maybe one of each ☺ Keep your fingers crossed for me and in the mean time, check out my Fliker for some pictures of my summer! I’m going to be moving boxes like mad today but unpacking only a few just in case. I have fully unpacked and set up only to have to move again in 2 weeks and I wont be doing that again.

Cheers!!

I am normally a person who has a lot of self control. I exercise this control over my emotions, habits (with the possible exception of random acts of S.E.X.) and especially over my wallet. I know what its like to be poor and to generally go without and I dont want that for myself as I get older. I make sure that a large chunk of my paycheck goes into savings for that proverbial rainy day and for future travels.

After 5 YEARS of lusting, it rained, no it poured, on Thursday. I have wanted this item for, honestly and with no exaggeration, 5 years. What could possibly have my attention and my deepest feelings of want for all this time? A pair of Dansko shoes. Yes, its true. I have wanted a pair of shoes for 5 years. I know it seems a bit ridiculous but really, I just either didnt have the money (they run between $100 and $160 a pair), they didnt have my size is the pair I wanted (a BEAUTIFUL pair in mahogany cabrio leather that was too big), the leather was wrong (No WAY was I buying a pair of SUEDE leather shoes in a place that gets as much rain as Seattle!) or the red, cause I have this ‘thing’ for red shoes, was way too much (patent leather red doesnt quite say the right type of ‘professional’ to me). And then, I found them.

I walked into Brenners on Thursday to buy a new dress shirt for my amazing interview and there they were. A pair of “Lime” professional clogs by Dansko. I wouldnt call them lime though. They have streaks of new spring green with some lime and cream and sky blue in them. The effect is that of woodgrain and they look like spring. They are patent leather and just seeing them makes me smile and am SO glad that I waited for this rainy day. Yes, it was actually raining that day too Lo and behold, they not only had my size but the fit is perfect and I have had so many compliments that it only reinforces my happiness in them! I jokingly called them my “Lucky shoes” when I got them (they being green and all that back story) and thought of them as my 1 big treat for myself. I havent bought anything special for myself in a while (since the last batch of yarn ) and I was thinking that, hopefully, they would bring me luck.

THEY DID!!!

I got the job that I was praying for and the one that I have been wanting and looking for for years. It is amazing to see how my pathways have led to this new one and I am so excited to get started. I will start my new job as Director of Residence Life and First Year Programs in July which leaves the entire month of June and half of May to fish with J! The salary is more than I hoped for, about 10k more than I make now and has full benefits, housing and a small meal plan. Its 12 months a year and I get to wear nicer clothing than jeans and a t or sweatshirt…I get to wear jeans and a button down! And my Lucky Shoes of course

I have been knitting these past few days to aliviate my nervousness about getting the post and managed to get thru not only the bubble lace on the PNW shawl but also 2 pattern rows into the “wave” lace.  On my Mariah, I finished the 2nd sleeve and am 5 rows into the stockinette of the back, past the ribbed/cables bit.  I have been watching the 1st season of Las Vegas obsessively and the plain K and P is perfect for being mindless.  For the lace I just turn on old episodes of Lime and Violet, to which I still laugh at.

Though I spent a lot of time knitting this weekend, nothing compares to being able to actually run and move. Yes, my fingers are in tip top shape and more conditioned than any other part of my body but because of my ankle/foot really hurting and needing ice and painkillers, this cancelled out my running altogether. And that sucks because I am so addicted to moving and I love running now. This is odd considering my body type but makes sense with the family history (my father ran in high school and college w scholarships) Its the only connection that I have with my father but I prefer to think of this as something that seperates me from my Mum and sister, both who hate running. But I love to run, especially on a treadmill or on the boardwalk in Pelican. Regular pavement is so much harder to run on! I tried running outside a week ago and that was the hardest thing that I have done running-wise so far. And I will try that again in a few weeks cause it was great to push myself

I love to read and do so voraciously. Its my nighttime relaxation thing and I just HAVE to read before I fall asleep and I have found that if I dont read, I dont sleep so well and it takes me longer to fall asleep. The Brian Jaques book is the most recent in the Redwall series to which I am addicted to as well I have been reading this series since 8th grade and have read and re-read the series as the new ones come out. Sadly, my copies are at my Mums house and as soon as I have a place to live on a more permanent basis, they will be mine again. I am ripping thru this one and it makes me smile. Girl meets God is an autobiography by Lauren Winner and is covers her faith life and she journeys from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity. Its a fantastic book and I have read it multiple time and have gotten other books because of this one. Yes, there are little flags in the book, they mark reference points and other books. At Knits End is a treat like fine chocolate that you can only eat one tiny piece of at a time. It is special to me and is like a little treat at the end of a day. Yarn Harlot makes me laugh and nod and that is a good feeling to go to bed with.

I Love my Mariah. The second sleeve is coming along so well and its much faster than the first one.

I made a pot of clam chowder yesterday, Manhattan style, and it is SO GOOD. Its nowhere near as good as restaurant made or if I had followed a recipie…but its almost gone so that says something! I cut lots of corners and used a tin of Veg-All, tin of stewed tomatoes, 1/2 tin of tomato paste, tin of baby clams and a bottle of clam juice. The point being I wanted Manhattan Clam Chowder and I didnt want my Mum to send me any because I wanted it NOW.

Update on my Cafepress/Runagogo adventure. I ordered and they shipped my zip-up hoodie on April 8th. It arrived in Seattle on the 11th. It hasnt arrived here yet and its the 23rd. So I called customer service and right away, just after I told the guy about my shipping concerns, he responds with, “Well, I will send you out a new one today via 2 day UPS and you should have that on Thursday. If the other one comes, you just keep that one too.” YAY for awesome service and I am so hopeing that I will have it by this weekend. The joy of living in Sitka is the joy of flying or barging in all the things that we have here. Everything. And this means that shipping times are subjected to the whims of Mother Nature and despite the best efforts of USPS and their “Code” of Neither wind nor Rain, they obviously didnt have Alaska in mind when they were established. Granted, this was before AK was a state and before quite a few other states were in exsistance either, but my point remains! Hope springs eternal though and I have my fingers and toes crossed to have my sweatshirt by Friday.

This post has lots of tags mainly because this has been a busy weekend for me. A good kind of busy too and that makes me feel immensely satisfied; isnt that how we all should feel at the beginning of the week?

On the knitting front: Mariah sleeves finally got more attention and I am almost thru the second repeat of the cable, this time I remembered to do the blasted increases! It is easy to knit and memorise, even if it is cables. I am still in love with this red yarn and I cant wait until its a sweater I’m going to finish this sleeve and then CO the back. I think that I might go faster with the stockinette stitches and not feel so slow. Most likely though I will do the second sleeve so I can have 2 matching.

The PNW Shawl got plenty of attention too and I just finished another 4 rows before blogging and got 8 done over Friday and Saturday. This is coming up beautifully in the Anne and I couldnt be happier with the color. Wether or not I ever attempt a lace project remains to be seen. I just dont know if it is worth it for daily wear. For my special day however, I will knit just about anything!!!

I CO a sock in Juneau (Glacier by Cider Moon) and yesterday I got my box with 2 skeins of their Habanero colourway and another of Juneau. Why so much Juneau? Because I want this pair to be knee socks. One of the Habanero is for P’s socks and the other is for J (who LOVES his European Waffles!) I swear that I am adding more to than I am knitting from my stash for the LnV marathon! I’m too scared to count what I have now (and what I will add from Scout in 2 weeks) and I think that I will hold off and not buy ANYTHING else until at least August. You are my witnesses. No more yarn until after the wedding! I am going to CO P’s socks today because I want to get those done by May 1st or so.

Springtime in Sitka really is beautiful. The trees have started to sprout again and though nothing has turned that beautiful “new green” colour yet, the moss ON the trees has and that looks pretty too. New grasses are coming up and the daffodils are getting ready to pop. It has been quite windy here the past 3 days and will be for the next 3 if the Marine forecast is anything to go on. Its funny to realise that once you start dating a fisherman you no longer trust the weatherman on the TV rather, your trusted source is the computerised voice that comes over the NOAA channel.

No special plans for Easter here because it is a regular workday for me but I did get up earlier than normal and get in a 2 mile run at the school gym and did arm weights, leg lifts and crunches.

Hope you have a Happy and Blessed Easter!

I was really happy to get back to excercising this week after my surgury and so far, I feel great about it. I had my post-op on Monday and I asked my dr/surgon about my weight and he said that, and I asked him to be brutally honest, though I was a bit flabby, my mid-section was remarkably fat-free and I had virtually no viceral fat…great news!

He had me jump on the scale and I about fell off when I read 175. I have lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks and I have noticed a difference in my eating habits post-op too. I have been concious about trying to eat smaller portions for a while now but post-op, I can only eat about half of my “normal” smaller meal. I asked the doc about this too and he looked at me strangely and said that most women dont complain about eating less and losing weight! but said that it was perfectly normal and as long as I was feeling OK, eating a variety of fruits and veggies and not feeling poorly because of lack of food/eating, I would be just fine and to come in if I noticed any physical change like drastic weight loss or changes to my excrement

On the excercise level, I gave myself a few more days to finish the Runagogo challenge since I was cheated by the surgury and I finished my 100th mile of running yesterday! I am going to join round 2 (April 1st-July 4th – 100 miles) and actually participate on the site. I bought myself a hoodie from Cafepress as a reward for round 1 and incentive for round 2. Check it out if you havent already! I chose to log the miles I ran only but I found that my other activities increased as my milage did. I am still doing weights EO day and crunches daily and can actually look down now, while standing straight up, and see my girly bits without a pooch getting in the way. Such an amazing thing to me, it makes me smile all day

So I figured out how to put in in THIS post but I would like to put it on the side. Not that its huge to add daily but I would like to not have to think about it each time. Talk about lazy, hmmm?

On the knitting front, I am making a renewed commitment to my PNW Shawl too. I want to do 4 pattern rows a day (8 rows total) Not a huge commitment in terms of words but it is in stitches! This next row is 177sts and I will end with 365sts before edging. Since I

must have this done by August 1st, I need to make this committment. There are 117 days until the August 1st and 95 rows to go (before edging and blocking). This challenge must be met too! Funnily enough, one commitment ties into the other. Running 100 miles will improve my hike up the mountian to wear this shawl to get married in. I love how life works