Knitwith Homespun

Before going to San Diego, I checked for some yarn shops around the area and I found one I liked. One thing they had that I hadn’t had any experience with Namaste bags. In fact, I hadn’t even seen one. God knows I don’t need any yarn (or do I?) so I did some research on these bags to see if it was something I would be interested in. It is. However, with the bags made of manmade material, I was a little worried that I wouldn’t like the feel or look of them. I love how they looked on the Namaste web site, however, so I was very excited to see them.

After getting the blister from hell on Sunday night, the cold shower on Monday morning, the painful walking around the deck of the USS Midway on Monday night, I was ready for something really good. On the way out of town, we attempted to get a geocache and drop off a travel bug that I have been carrying around since December 31. We looked for THIRTY MINUTES and couldn’t find the stinkin thing. My mood was twindling. You aren’t supposed to carry travel bugs around but for a few days and I have been trying to get rid of this one for weeks. No luck again. So we hop in the truck and ask Margot-Rhonda (our GPS) where The Grove was and headed on our way. We found it and went in.

Such a nice store! Oh it was beautiful. The emphasis at this store was knitting and crochet. I saw the bag I was looking for right away and went right to it. I was very surprised at how soft and leathery the material felt. Not to mention the color! I was hoping to see the Jetsetter but they were sold out. As a matter of fact, she said she had a lot of trouble keeping any of them in stock. They had a Malibu, Laguna, Everyday, and something else I think in a couple of colors, but that was it. She said she had to reorder several times already and they were only out for a short time. Well I was in love with the Laguna at first sight. The idea behind these bags is to have a combination bag for purse and knitting. GENIUS! So I bought my beautiful Laguna in lime and checked out. I didn’t dare look at yarn! So we were chatting (me and the lovely lady who worked there). She said I should look at the clutch! “OMG, David give me your card again please!” He did and I have both. David told the lady that “You can only be as happy as the least happy person in the car.” Given our experiences over the few days in San Diego, he opted to buy me the bags. Isn’t he awesome!

The Clutch opens wide and holds needle individually in the inside section. The sides are held together with strong magnets. Both sides of the Clutch open with snaps that you can see at the top and have pockets for storing trinkets and knick knacks that you need for your project. Lucky for me, the Clutch fits right inside the Laguna. I am sooooooo happy!

Without any further ado, here are the photos:

I do knit, believe it or not. I have been getting quite a bit done too trying to get stuff finished and away. Over the weekend, I finished my summer camp scarf and I got to wear it. I am not going to take another picture of it because it didn’t turn out to be very pretty but it’s functional. The gauge of the pattern and my gauge were so completely different and mine ended up too open. That made the scarf too long. I like it; I’ll keep it; I’ll use it; it’s not a gem.

Next, I finished my Charm hat. I named it that because the third time is the charm for this pattern. I got the sizes worked out and I believe this one is just perfect for Victoria and for the pattern. I used a different yarn this time and I think this one looks the best when felted. After I finished the pink/purplish one for Victoria for Christmas, she asked for a black one with a brown stripe. I had already started my green one (which I made too tall and makes me look like Goofy) so I told her I would get it done as soon as I could. It took me just 2-3 days to knock out the green one and started immediately on the black one here. I finished most of it and it sat on my stack of crap for about a month just waiting for me to bind off (if you can believe that). I felted it yesterday and here it is. If you have never felted, this pattern is really easy. If you have done a toe up sock, you can do this without any trouble.

Unfortunately, this story carries a frog along with it. I wanted to finish these things so I could work on some socks. I have three sock clubs that I belong to and I haven’t knitted a sock since Sock Wars II. That was October. I got stuck on my Rainbow Socks and I decided to frog them. I had asked around and e-mailed the author and couldn’t quite figure it out. I need some more experience under my belt but I will put those back into my queue because I just love them. So I started a pair of socks with a slipped stitch rib from SWTC that came with one of my sock club yarns. I am using my Noro and I can’t wait to get them done.

Tomorrow I will blog about my beautiful new bag I got in San Diego.

Is this shoe:

Worth this?

Opinion Polls & Market Research

We went to San Diego on Sunday and returned yesterday evening. Bella spent her first couple of days with her grandparents and really enjoyed herself. This was David’s first trip as General Manager of the shop and my first trip as well. BMW selected the San Diego Marriott and Marina for the event. We had several events scheduled and it was very nice. We went to a club on Sunday night and saw a fashion show and some acrobats doing tricks on some curtains hanging from the center of the runway. It was very unique and interesting to watch. This picture is the view from our hotel room window. BMW had checked us all in by the time we arrived and I think they made sure we all had ocean view rooms.

Monday was a day that David had meetings and workshops all day long and wasn’t free until 6 or so. So I decided to go the Cabrillo National Park and Monument to get some exercise and take some pictures. Well those plans changed slightly because I had worn new shoes the night before and had a bad blister (more on that later). So I walked a bit and took a couple of nice shots from the park. Here are those shots:

So Monday night all was well and we had dinner on the deck of the USS Midway. We were all given tours and the guides were so animated and enthusiastic. They are all volunteers so it’s very touching to see how well they do their jobs and how much they care.The purpose for the trip was the 2008 BMW dealer meeting. They do new bike intros, reviews, and awards at this meeting annually. This next picture is a picture of David with one of his heroes, Scott Summers. He is a racer that is now associated with the BMW factory racing team. He was at the meeting all weekend and he was on the tour of the Midway with our small group of about 8. After the tours and some time spent in the gift shop, we were escorted upstairs and we had dinner on the top deck of the aircraft carrier. That’s a pretty cool opportunity. After dinner, we were directed to a special area where there was a stunt show with a guy riding a BMW. He did wheely’s on the front wheel and back wheel and all kinds of other stunts. It was very impressive, to say the least. This shot is my favorite from that show even though it doesn’t show any particular stunt. I like how the light is on the wheel and on the rider. I really got to test out the highspeed capabilities of my 40D on this show. It was awesome! On the knitting front, I finished my circular hooded scarf on this trip and wore it on the deck of the Midway for the chilly show. It turned out to be too long I think and with the design twist, it worked very well to be wrapped around my neck and also used as a hood. I think I will make another one and keep it to the proper gauge and yarn weight.

If you geocache at all, you know what I am talking about. If you don’t you can go to to Geocaching.com to see what I am talking about. It’s a heck of a lot of fun for families. You go to this web site and download coordinates for an object close to you. You take your GPS and then you go find the place that matches the coordinates and you hunt for treasure! We hid our first treasure today and it had so many goodies in it. Mostly, you include garage sale stuff and the kids really love it. The motto for geocaching is cache in (on the hunt) trash out (take all trash you find out). Geocaching was originally started to show people places that you might not ordinarily see. Our cache is one of those caches. The group was David, me, Bella, Chris, Sandi, Christine, Carly, and Tori. This shot on the right is a partial view for the location I selected. Sandi and I did a trial hike up there to see if it would be a good spot on Friday and all was so clear there. We could see the snow capped mountains and Catalina Island from this spot. Catalina is 26 miles out into the Pacific Ocean. We are very lucky to live here. This hillside shows the fire damage from the Windy Ridge fire in March of last year. I even rented a wide angle lense to get the beautiful view in all it’s glory but as you can see, the haze was too much for the sun to burn off.

This other shot shows how the recent rain has really helped this area to regrow. The green and wildflowers coming up the hill were just gorgeous. I am hoping to get up to this spot again in the next couple of weeks from the other sideto make sure my cache is accessible from many directions. I have also placed a one time use camera in here so people can take pictures if the view is particularly memorable. I like caches that have something special like that in them.

This shot is Chris and Sandi. Sandi walks with me a few times a week and we have added tennis and bowling to our week. Tuesday is tennis club (but we aren’t allowed to talk about it). Thursday is lunchtime bowling. We have been having a lot of fun with all of our activities.

These are the girls that we know and love that came up with us. The hike is only about 1.3 miles up to this spot from the park entrance. You could probably do 10-20 miles within the park and the surrounding trail network. The hike up to this spot is very very steep in a few spots. Very rocky and you need to use your hands a little bit and a stick really helps coming down.

So that’s all I have for now. We had a busy racing weekend and David crashed but he is fine. I’ll post those pictures here and at Flickr before you know it.

I have been very busy but I keep seeing these things. I am posting this one because I think it’s pretty good and a lot of fun.

You’re Anne of Green Gables!
by L.M. Montgomery
Bright, chipper, vivid, but with the emotional fortitude of cottage
cheese, you make quite an impression on everyone you meet. You’re impulsive, rash,
honest, and probably don’t have a great relationship with your parents. People hurt
your feelings constantly, but your brazen honestly doesn’t exactly treat others with
kid gloves. Ultimately, though, you win the hearts and minds of everyone that matters.
You spell your name with an E and you want everyone to know about it.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Mohair.You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with others, doing your share without being too weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely refuse to change your position once it is set, but that’s okay since you are good at covering up your mistakes. Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Yes, apparently I am.  I have been setting up my husband’s laptop for work.  If any of you have ever done this, you know it takes for stinkin ever.  So while I was at it, I backed up my machine and did a bunch of maintenance on it as well to avoid any ugliness that was imminent.  So I thought the 2-3 readers I have left might wonder, so here you go!  I have also had a migraine for 2 days.  I hope it’s gone but they usually last 3 days for me so keep your fingers crossed.  As soon as I feel 100% I’ll get some crafty things done.

In fairness, I went back to the forums at Living Cookbook and found that my messages were on a second page in the forums and they have responded to them.  They have said their internet has been out for a month.  I don’t believe it, but there you go.

I have been making a huge effort to get healthy this year. This year being the past month. In doing so, I have been hiking and bowling and changing my buying habits as well as my eating habits. There are a couple of things I want to share with you about all this:

1. My ticker is wrong.

2. I have two software packages I am using.

3. I was eating crap before.

Details:

1. My ticker was started at the beginning of the year. At that time, I had a generic kind of scale with tick marks and a circular kind of deally that spins when you stand on it. I couldn’t see it! The little tick marks at 5 pound increments were too small for me to see. I got a new scale. The scale I got is lit up and digital. It also reads 7 pounds heavier (for me and my husband) than the previous scale. I have lost 5 more pounds since the ticker has changed but it still is 2-3 pounds higher than the ticker. The total weight loss for the month is 9 pounds. Woo hoo!

2-3. Software is a wonder. I am very techy and love my computer. I also love to cook very much. This kind of helps my weight loss because I can add flavor without adding calories (if I want). So I bought Calorie King which is completely awesome and tracks nutrition as well as calories. I am counting everything. Using this software has helped me to realize that I was eating much much much more fat and calories than I thought. I wasn’t eating a lot of fast food and I wasn’t adding a lot of cheese and butter and cream and stuff but the little tablespoons of canola oil and olive oil add so many calories to your dishes. So in order to accurately add my calories into my Calorie King, I need to do the nutritional analysis of my own recipes since I cook and prepare most of the food that is eaten in this house. Unless you have the package your dinner came out of, it’s tough to do this. I found an amazing program called Living Cookbook from Radium Technologies. It is truly an amazing program.

Here is a recipe that I created (after the fat) that this program generated:

Confetti Soup
	You can reduce the sodium by soaking and cooking your own beans. I am not sure the quantities you would use but it’s entirely possible to do this.   width="100%" border=0> 1   smoked turkey sausage   8 cups    chicken broth   1 can    white beans   1 can    kidney beans   1 can    garbanzo beans   1 can    black beans   1/2 medium    onion sliced thinnly   1/2 medium    onion diced   2 cloves    garlic, minced   2   jalapeño   2   carrots, peeled   6   scallions   1/4 cup    flour   2 tablespoons    garlic powder   2 tablespoons    salt   1 tablespoon    black pepper   2 tablespoon    canola oil     1 Heat oven to 500° and heat cookie sheet lined with foil and a very thin layer of canola oil. 2 Mix together flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper. 3 Place thinly sliced onions, and very thinly slice jalapeno peppers in a zip top bag and add flour mixture. Shake to coat. 4 Remove cookie sheet from preheated oven and spread out onions and jalapeno peppers on the cookie sheet into a single layer. Spray top with canola oil spray. 5 Bake for 8 minutes and then broil for 8 minutes to get them crispy and brown. 6 In a large stock pot, heat 1 tablespoon canola oil and saute diced onion and garlic. 7 Drain all beans and add to pot. 8 Add all broth. 9 Peel carrots and continue to peel into thin ribbons and add to soup. 10 While soup is heating, slice turkey sausage into thin coins, about 1/4 inch thick. Sear the outsides in a non-stick pan and add to soup when brown. 11 When soup is thoroughly heated, add thinly sliced scallions. 12 Garnish with crispy onions and jalapenos and serve.   Servings: 12 Yield: Servings Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes Ready in: 50 minutes    Nutrition Facts Serving size: 1 serving Percent daily values based on a 1700 calorie diet. Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients.           Amount Per Serving       Calories   163.11   Calories From Fat (11%)   17.24       % Daily Value Total Fat 2.04g   4%   Saturated Fat 0.20g   1%   Cholesterol 0.05mg   0%   Sodium 775.90mg   38%   Potassium 525.76mg   18%   Carbohydrates 28.79g   11%   Dietary Fiber 8.00g   38%   Sugar 1.48g       Sugar Alcohols 0.00g       Net Carbohydrates 20.79g       Protein 8.72g   21%      Recipe Type Main Dish    Cooking techniques used in this recipe Basic sauté How to handle beans Slicing Onions    Recipe Source Author: Karen Diaz   Recipe formatted and exported by Living Cookbook from Radium Technologies, Inc.

If I don’t upload the file like this, on my computer at home, it links to all the ingredient files and you can see where the fat or nutrients are coming from. It is well written and really amazing. It’s super easy to enter your recipes and link them to the proper nutrition. I highly recommend the program. Plus, everyone ate the soup up completely and had 2 bowls each. Then I had the rest the next day for lunch (2 more bowls) without feeling at all bad!

Here’s the kicker: The customer service of the company is absolute crap. I downloaded the trial version and started using it. I loved it right away and wanted to buy it. It is $30 which I thought was a bargain for such a well written powerful program. I paid on January 17th and the receipt said it could take up to 7 days to get your license information by e-mail. I thought that was excessive for an electronic purchase but I thought they were building in a cushion for themselves. No biggy. 5 days later I hadn’t heard back so I sent an e-mail to them asking for a status. Two days later, I had no e-mail response (other than the automated one). So I sent another e-mail that was a little less pleasant. That same day I posted a message on their user forums about how I was having trouble. Unfortunately, I saw a lot of similar messages about people buying but getting no license over a long period of time. I was encouraged though, because the administrators were reading the forums and posting responses so I thought I would get an answer in a couple days at the most. Nope. Nothing. I posted a nasty nasty message on their forum asking for a response of any kind. Nothing but at 12 days after my final order, I finally got my license without any apology or explanation or even an acknowledgment that it was overdue. I had done some research and was looking into a similar program from another company to do the same thing and posted that information on their forum page for those who were having my same problem. The very next day, my messages and any other messages complaining about their lack of customer service were missing from their forum. I have to save I love their program very much. However, the company really needs some help. I am posting this here in the hopes that if someone ends up searching for their company and proper reviews, they will find this. Perhaps if we are lucky, some other reputable company that cares about it’s customers will purchase this software and take over the customer service.

That’s my rant for now and I am sorry if you got bored with it.