Solveng - Santa Barbara

Last weekend Kajsa had her first college audition. She and I left home early on Saturday morning and drove to Santa Barbara to be prepared for her Sunday morning auditon and open house at UC Santa Barbara. Kajsa was very happy with how her auditon went and she liked what she saw and heard at the open house

On the way down we stopped in Solveng and I bought some fun roving at the Village Spinning and Weaving . What a wonderful store! Walking around in Solveng makes you fell like you have entered a fairy  tale and both Kajsa and I enjoyed our little stop-over. We picked up some danish pastries that we shared with Margie and Lauren (relatives, who live in Santa Barbara) when we visited them later on Saturday afternoon.

We also had time to visit the beach. Beautiful! Even though the temperature was in the low 50's we saw lots of students on campus wearing shorts and flip-flops! Kajsa thinks she can get used to living in Santa Barbara. We will have to wait and see!

What's On My Needles

Well, I finally got tired of trying to use up the Pound of Love I had leftover from Lars' Afghan and cast on something else.  Last week on Tuesday night at knitting group Madoka was giving away some stash and I ended up with nine balls of Naturally Tussock (a 10 ply aran wool and polyester blend). Thank you Madoka and Diane (who had previously de-stashed this yarn to Madoka)! I think I have found a use for it. I have a vision of a sweater in my mind and I am making up the pattern as I go, We'll see how it turns out. Maybe I'll end up frogging it and starting all over, but for now I enjoy working with this yarn.

As I was trying to link to Lars' Afghan I realized, I have yet to post a picture of the finished blanket. Well here it is:

Rain again off-again

Just in time for the rain the other day we an got an automatic gate-opener installed. We are still trying to work out a few bugs, but it sure is nice not to have to get out of the car on a stormy night to open and close the gate.
It rained off and on all day yesterday but the sun kept coming out in between (and sometimes during) showers - Beautiful!

One lone and, I assume, very confused Banana Slug spent the night on our family room window. This morning he/she had had enough, turned around and headed back down.

Hats and More Hats!

How many hats are too many hats? So far this year I have knitted four hats (the earflap hat and three World War II hats) ! I am trying to use up the Pound of Love that I have leftover from Lars' Afghan, but I still have quite a bit left after one Manitou Passage Scarf (finished before New Year) and two hats. What else can I make from this blue yarn?

Shopping Fun!

My friend Alison had "a few" items to return to IKEA last Friday and since I am always up for a trip to "mini Sweden" I tagged along. Thank you Alison for a fun day! We strolled through the display rooms, filled our bellies with Gravlax and our shopping carts with "must have deals". I stocked up on X-mas wrapping paper and added to Conrad's ornament collection. Believe it or not, but at age eight he has already wondered about how he is going to decorate his first Christmas tree. This year he is starting his own ornament collection (the one I got him and a few he begged from Grandma).

"Almost Pattern" for Earflap Hat

This is the first time I am making a pattern of my own design available to others!
I call it "Almost Pattern" for Earflap Hat, because you can use almost any yarn in any gauge and you knit it to fit instead of blindly following the pattern. It is available as a pdf download on Ravelry or you can just click here.
Happy Knitting!

Happy Birthday!

Today my baby girl is turning 18!
No longer a baby, child or girl but a beautiful young woman!

She is spending her big day with her friends, getting her belly button pierced. Then tonight she will attend to more serious matters, she will record a CD for her UCLA college application.
In the picture her friend is wearing a hat that I designed and knitted for her (she has asked me to knit her something for quite some time now). This hat is my first project of the new year. I even wrote up the pattern and it will be available on Ravelry as a free PDF soon.