Phew!
What a busy, wonderful weekend. I can't believe how much we crammed into three days, and it was good.
Saturday morning we had some new friends over for brunch and had a great time. These new friends are vegan and we're not so I had some advance planning to do in order to figure out what to cook, but it turned out (mostly) pretty good.
Saturday afternoon I had a strong urge to go to Knitting Arts' going out of business sale (30% off everything). I bought a small quantity of yarn and a few books that I will blog about some other time. The store is a bit of a hike from us so I went looking for something we could do with the kids to rationalize/justify the trip and I came across Hakone Garden, a wonderful Japanese Garden in the Saratoga foothills with some beautiful landscaping. The kids had a lot of fun just walking on the paths, and I enjoyed experiencing nature first hand (instead of just out the window of the car).
I was so inspired by how much fun we had at the Hakone Garden that I decided that we would get more outdoor time. So Sunday we went to Rancho San Antonio and set out for a hike. We had a map of the County Park and the trails and I figured we would hike for 1-2 miles. We packed a lunch and set out at 11:30. Buddy was tired and hungry and very quickly decided he wanted to be carried by mama, and only mama. We went on for a while, then came to a fork in the trail. The Italian decided to take a trail that continued up the hill and off the map. We finally found a good spot for our lunch with an amazing view of the valley. After that the children had more energy and we tramped happily on until we came around a corner to find that the trail we were on appeared to continue up and over the hill and not in the direction we wanted to go. We had a bad couple of moments trying to decide if we had to backtrack (up the hill) or would we find a trail that led back in the direction we wanted to go. Fortunately another hiker came along and told us that there would be a trail back to the park entrance. Buddy only insisted on being carried a little more toward the end of our walk, and we were all pretty tired by the time we got back to the car. We grabbed a more extensive trail map on our way out, and my best guess is that we walked about four miles, mostly up and down hills, and I carried 35 lbs of boy for at least 45 minutes of that!
Monday saw us all sleep late, and I woke up stiff and sore in places that I hadn't paid much attention to in years! Some Tylenol and a hot shower helped a bunch, and after a morning of laundry/dishes/tidying/playing we headed into San Francisco to meet a friend and go to The Exploratorium. The Italian took the kids there last summer for my birthday but I hadn't been in 14 years, and we had a blast. Punkin got to hang with our friend and the Italian and I kept track of Buddy and took turns looking at exhibits. Our friend's husband met us for dinner afterwards and we had a great time.
No pictures of Punkin - she didn't stand still long enough!
Busy, busy weekend, but lots of fun. I've been fretting lately that we spend too much of our weekend time doing errands and not enough time outside, so I'm glad we shifted gears this weekend. I have high hopes for continuing this trend in coming weeks.
On the knitting front I have been busy.
I finished these socks for my mom:
She picked out the yarn (Socks that Rock) on a previous trip and I picked a stitch and let her rip. They were fun and easy and she loves them!
Here are some progress shots of Cassie (which has since been finished):
Punkin has worn it a couple of times but I need to wash and re-block it (the two fronts are different lengths). I made a bunch of stupid mistakes on this one, including this:
It's subtle but if you look closely you can see that the yarn on this sleeve is two different dye lots. Yes, I mixed dye lots by accident when I bought the yarn. I ended up doing the sleeves in one dye lot and the fronts and back in the other. Duh, I hate making rookie mistakes. Once I've re-blocked it I will take some shots on Punkin and do a more detailed post, if nothing else just to document my stupidity.
With Cassie finished I have picked up Serrano again, and remembered why I put it aside in the first place:
I got too clever when I did the waist decreases. I was trying to fit in the max patterning across the place where I was decreasing, and I ended up shifting the decreases significantly to the left. Duh, see earlier note about making stupid mistakes.
I have since ripped back 3-4" and am now almost up to the point where I separate for armhole shaping.
I've got another pair of socks on the needles but no photos yet. Nothing earth-shattering, just Cherry Tree Hill in a small stitch repeat, and this pair is for me!
There are still more projects that need finishing after I'm done with Serrano...
Saturday morning we had some new friends over for brunch and had a great time. These new friends are vegan and we're not so I had some advance planning to do in order to figure out what to cook, but it turned out (mostly) pretty good.
Saturday afternoon I had a strong urge to go to Knitting Arts' going out of business sale (30% off everything). I bought a small quantity of yarn and a few books that I will blog about some other time. The store is a bit of a hike from us so I went looking for something we could do with the kids to rationalize/justify the trip and I came across Hakone Garden, a wonderful Japanese Garden in the Saratoga foothills with some beautiful landscaping. The kids had a lot of fun just walking on the paths, and I enjoyed experiencing nature first hand (instead of just out the window of the car).
I was so inspired by how much fun we had at the Hakone Garden that I decided that we would get more outdoor time. So Sunday we went to Rancho San Antonio and set out for a hike. We had a map of the County Park and the trails and I figured we would hike for 1-2 miles. We packed a lunch and set out at 11:30. Buddy was tired and hungry and very quickly decided he wanted to be carried by mama, and only mama. We went on for a while, then came to a fork in the trail. The Italian decided to take a trail that continued up the hill and off the map. We finally found a good spot for our lunch with an amazing view of the valley. After that the children had more energy and we tramped happily on until we came around a corner to find that the trail we were on appeared to continue up and over the hill and not in the direction we wanted to go. We had a bad couple of moments trying to decide if we had to backtrack (up the hill) or would we find a trail that led back in the direction we wanted to go. Fortunately another hiker came along and told us that there would be a trail back to the park entrance. Buddy only insisted on being carried a little more toward the end of our walk, and we were all pretty tired by the time we got back to the car. We grabbed a more extensive trail map on our way out, and my best guess is that we walked about four miles, mostly up and down hills, and I carried 35 lbs of boy for at least 45 minutes of that!
Monday saw us all sleep late, and I woke up stiff and sore in places that I hadn't paid much attention to in years! Some Tylenol and a hot shower helped a bunch, and after a morning of laundry/dishes/tidying/playing we headed into San Francisco to meet a friend and go to The Exploratorium. The Italian took the kids there last summer for my birthday but I hadn't been in 14 years, and we had a blast. Punkin got to hang with our friend and the Italian and I kept track of Buddy and took turns looking at exhibits. Our friend's husband met us for dinner afterwards and we had a great time.
No pictures of Punkin - she didn't stand still long enough!
Busy, busy weekend, but lots of fun. I've been fretting lately that we spend too much of our weekend time doing errands and not enough time outside, so I'm glad we shifted gears this weekend. I have high hopes for continuing this trend in coming weeks.
On the knitting front I have been busy.
I finished these socks for my mom:
She picked out the yarn (Socks that Rock) on a previous trip and I picked a stitch and let her rip. They were fun and easy and she loves them!
Here are some progress shots of Cassie (which has since been finished):
Punkin has worn it a couple of times but I need to wash and re-block it (the two fronts are different lengths). I made a bunch of stupid mistakes on this one, including this:
It's subtle but if you look closely you can see that the yarn on this sleeve is two different dye lots. Yes, I mixed dye lots by accident when I bought the yarn. I ended up doing the sleeves in one dye lot and the fronts and back in the other. Duh, I hate making rookie mistakes. Once I've re-blocked it I will take some shots on Punkin and do a more detailed post, if nothing else just to document my stupidity.
With Cassie finished I have picked up Serrano again, and remembered why I put it aside in the first place:
I got too clever when I did the waist decreases. I was trying to fit in the max patterning across the place where I was decreasing, and I ended up shifting the decreases significantly to the left. Duh, see earlier note about making stupid mistakes.
I have since ripped back 3-4" and am now almost up to the point where I separate for armhole shaping.
I've got another pair of socks on the needles but no photos yet. Nothing earth-shattering, just Cherry Tree Hill in a small stitch repeat, and this pair is for me!
There are still more projects that need finishing after I'm done with Serrano...
posted by Marie at 11:24 PM
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