Back

Sister's wedding was lovely. I did say a few words at the ceremony, taken mostly from "On Marriage" by Khalil Gibran.

Husband hadn't been to the Washington, DC area since a kid while I go every year for work or to see Sister, so I'm glad he was finally able to visit. We went to the Udvar-Hazy air and space exhibit which he'd wanted to for a while. It's a huge hanger full of planes, helicopters, even the space shuttle. It. was. huge.

It was great to see all the family, and my parents and Brother One came back to Atlanta with us. I took the week off from work to hang out with them and that was very nice.

Coming down with a cold, on the other hand, was not so nice. I've been at a conference in Atlanta all week this week. So I've been out of the office 2 and half weeks but been in Atlanta for most of that time. It's going to be hard to go back to the office next week.

But first, tonight, Husband and I will go out to dinner and celebrate our 11th anniversary.

Vacation knitting

In a few days, Husband and I will be off to Southern California for a vacation to mark our 10th wedding anniversary. There's a way for me to blog via iPhone, but I don't think I will. I prefer typing on a full size keyboard.

I had knit the Sunrise Circle Jacket to wear on this trip, but haven't finished seaming and hemming it. I'll take it on the plane with me and do the seaming and hemming on the plane. Then I'll be able to wear it while there. It won't have buttons, but I do have a shawl pin to use.

I've got several projects on the needles, including 2 scarves. I'll take one probably the triangular scarf because that's more mindless than the Noro multidirectional scarf. More than once I forgot to stop the short rows at the right place and had to unknit. The other WIP is a big blanket. Not portable.

I also have a hankering to start another top-down raglan cardigan, maybe another Hermia. Or a Fair Isle cardigan. Or Cosmicpluto's Easy Topdown Raglan Sweater. I have 3 skeins of a pink/grey/cream yarn I could use for the yoke and then use grey for the rest. And this time I'll put in pockets. Last week I went to a work event and realized that nothing I was wearing had pockets for my business cards. Hard to network that way.

I still want to make a shawl with the yarn I mentioned here. But not portable. Plus, I really should finish something before starting another.

I want to make a new shawl

As I mentioned, I went to a semi-formal event on Saturday, and it was chilly out. I don't have a dressy coat, and I thought "Dang. I wish I had a nice shawl."

I'm thinking of making the Earth Stripe Wrap from the Rowan Kidsilk Haze and Kidsilk Aura yarn shown above.

As far as I can tell from comments on Ravelry, the ESW is made by holding 2 yarns together for a heathered effect using similar and discordant colors, and following a particular sequence of stripes that repeated several times.

Well, I don't have the same colors nor exactly the same amount of yarns, so I'm going to do a top down, center out triangular shawl, making up my own sequence of stripes. Then knit until all the yarn's done.

Sister, Sister's Fiance and Brother Two are coming to visit for Thanksgiving, so that could be a nice mindless, sedentary time to work on the shawl. Depending on the size of the needle (I'm thinking size 8 or 9), it could be done in time for Husband and my 10th anniversary trip in late December.

Um, please disregard the randomly striping pink, black and grey rectangular mohair shawl that I've worked off and on, for years. Currently it is off and hiding under the couch.

I've made quite a bit of progress on the Furisode Log Cabin afghan, thanks to the hours and hours of TV watching and reading I've been doing. Plus, Furisode is bulky weight.

Tonight, during Heroes and Castle, I picked up the Sunrise Circle Jacket. Still slogging along. I'm motivated, though. I've been wearing Hermia cardigan almost everyday and I'd like something new and complete for the December trip. If I work on just the SCJ, I probably could make it.

Okay. That's the plan, then. I'll start the Kid Silk Haze/Aura shawl tomorrow and put the Furisode afghan on hold.

What kind of self-control do you think I have?

ETA: Just looked at my notes on the SCJ on Ravelry. Cast on on Sept 21 and today (Oct 27) I turned the hem for the left sleeve front. Just about 20 more rows, including WS purl rows, and I'm done with the left front. So it is a pretty fast knit, despite the fluctuating stitch counts on the front. And despite the fact that I put the left front in time out for about 10 days.

If the SCJ is my main TV knitting, I may be able to get this done in a few weeks. Plus, the sleeve part is perfect portable knitting.

See, I can start the Kid Silk Haze/Aura shawl guilt free, because I'll soon have a project off the needles.

Ah, rationalization. It's true, decision making is more about emotion than logic.

Tenth Anniversary

Today, Husband and I celebrate 10 years of wedded bliss. The happiest day of my life was the day he proposed, in August 1998. It was a sign that he really wanted to be together forever. That meant more to me than anything else.

We met in May 1991, our junior year in college. He was 21, I had not yet turned 21. We were at a party and he caught my eye. Ever since that summer of 1991, we've been together.

I am so fortunate to have found someone who is funny, sweet, smart, good looking, ambitious, and successful, so early in life. He makes me so happy and I'm the luckiest woman in the world.

One Benefit of Having a Blog

Tonight Husband and I went to French American Bistro (FAB) for dinner. We ordered dessert, the little chocolate cake with the molten center, ice cream and strawberry. I said, hey, isn't this what we had for dessert for our 9th wedding anniversary? Husband said no.

I said yes and pulled out my iPhone and pulled up this blog and showed him this entry. He then conceded that yes, we did have this for dessert last year.

Tonight we were celebrating Husband winning a court case. But also, 18 years ago, about the first week in May, we had our first date. Thus we were also marking, kind of, our 18th anniversary.

9 years, but really 17

Today Husband and I will celebrate 9 years of marriage with dinner at French American Brasserie. It's located next to a condo in downtown Atlanta that we've considered moving to. This will give us a chance to see what the neighborhood is like at night.

In reality, we have been together 17.5 years, having met May 1991 and been an exclusive relationship since then. I certainly celebrate the May anniversary and in someways it means more to me. I count myself incredibly lucky to have found such a wonderful mate so early in life (I was 20 years old, almost 21. He was 21 already.) and to have such a great relationship together ever since.

So we have an anniversary to celebrate every 6 months!

ETA: When we ordered dessert at dinner, they wrote a little note for us on the rim. The dessert was good too, as you can see from the fact that we didn't notice the Happy Anniversary until after we finished off the chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. At least we did notice the lit candle in the ice cream.

Sotto Sotto

Tonight Husband and I went to Sotto Sotto restaurant to celebrate.

But first, we stopping at Knitch where I bought a skein of Malabrigo in Ocean and the book Knitted Toys: 25 Fresh & Fabulous Designs by Zoe Mellor. I had store credit just burning a whole in my pocket.

Sotto Sotto is in Inman Park, Atlanta's first suburb, at the outer limit of the trolley car line. Tells you how far back that was. It's full of grand old Victorian houses, some antebellem mansions, and just nice big houses. When we first moved to Atlanta 13 years ago, Inman Park had fallen into hard times but now in the past 5 years, it's coming back up. Sotto Sotto's in a part that has new restaurants and condos and is really been part of the intown revitalization. Now with the subprime mortgage bust, I don't know how the area will be affected but it was really nice to visit.

Husband and I have been talking about moving to a condo and maybe we'll consider Inman Park now too.

Anyway, dinner was great. We had a bottle of merlot, and started with an antipasto plate with hams, cheeses, olives, and marinated mushrooms, and a plate of tuna carpaccio. Yum. As Husband ate the olives, he arranged the pits into a smiley face on the bread plate. We talked about how 16 years ago, we went to McDonald's and somehow he got a hold of a Ronald McDonald's puppet and tore a hole in the puppet to make Ronald a bit more anatomically correct with his finger. And he also picked out 2 bits of the bun to make his burger a puppet too. Husband would make a great dad.

Anyway, for dinner, Husband got the pasta with balsamic vinegar and I got spagetti with seafood. Both were very good. For dessert we got Pan di Spagna, which was a little round of vanilla pound cake (smaller than a cupcake) with whipped cream and roasted plums. All in all, a great dinner.

We also reminisced about past anniversaries. Last year we went to Miami and Key West. The year before, to Sedona, Taos, Santa Fe. Maybe next year we'll go somewhere too, but this year, work has been stressful and hectic, plus we're saving for me to buy a new(er) car.

And now, the Malabrigo is calling me. So soft! I plan to make Argosy out of it. But when that will happen, I don't know.

8th Anniversary

Today marks 8 years of marriage to the most wonderful man in the world.

However, we have actually been together for 16. 5 years. We were juniors in college, met at a party, and have been together ever since.

He's the best part of my life.