The Saturday Morning Knitting Shop Reality Check

It's funny how much novels can influence your perceptions of reality. Though I've been knitting for over two years now, I've never been to an LYS (local yarn shop, for you non-knitters) because I didn't even know there were any yarn stores on Oahu until recently. I finally made it to one last weeked and I have to say that I was rather disappointed. The teeny tiny windowless shop was stacked floor-to-ceiling with yarns of every shape and size and color with no organizational system apparent to me. (I do have to say the proprietor was very helpful, and when I told her vaguely that I wanted a soft gray worsted weight she knew exactly where to pull some skeins out of the piles for me to look at.)

(Source)

I had always envisioned yarn shops to be like the ones in "The Friday Night Knitting Club" or Debbie Macomber's Blossom Street series. I pictured an airy but welcoming boutique with wood floors and cozy area for knitters to sit and chat and sip lattes, with shelves of yarn organized by color along the walls, baskets of yarn fitting the season displayed in the middle of the floor and inspiring knitted samples scattered around. I imagined a warm atmosphere with holiday decorations and maybe some free homemade cookies for the customers. I thought my first trip to an LYS would be a sensory feast where I could walk around idly feeling the different textures and admiring the stunning array of colors.

 (Source)

I had this image built up in my mind because I've read about quaint, charming, idyllic little knitting shops and that's what I hoped for. Though I'm pretty sure there's no shop like that on Oahu I figure the stores in the books must have been inspired by knitting shops somewhere, and I hope someday soon to happen upon one of those gems.

Plumeria-Scented Monday & Literary ADD

Aloha and happy Monday! There are some gorgeous flowers in bloom in my neighborhood right now and I've had my eye on two vibrant pink plumeria trees for a week or two. I finally toted my camera along for my walk with Conan this morning and thought I'd share the pictures with you.

The past week I've been sufferring from an ailment I'd liked to call Literary ADD. No book I picked up was able to keep my interest. I started with "Olive Kitteridge," a novel with a positive review from "O: The Oprah Magazine" right on the front cover. Unfortunately, I found it to be dreary and abrupt and not at all what I was in the mood for, so I marked my place and set it aside for later reading after two chapters. Then I began a book I'd had on hold at the library, "Books Can Be Deceiving" by Jenn McKinlay, the first in a murder-mystery series involving a small-town library. Sounds exactly like something I'd enjoy, but (sorry Ms. McKinlay) I found it to be dull and slow and boooring and gave up (for good) a couple chapters in. After that I picked up the next book I need to read in Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series, thinking some fantasy might be what I as craving. No luck.

Finally I selected Julia Child's autobiography, "My Life In France," which I got for a steal at the Border's going-out-of-business sale. Instantly I was hooked. I'm only on page 42 but Julia's descriptions of France have already made me pine to go there. The sights, the sounds, the food, and the fascinating post-WWII lifestyle have me hooked.

Bye for now; I'm off to join Julia in Paris!

Furry Friday -- The First Day Of Fall

Today is the first day of fall, my favorite time of the year. When I was a kid I loved fall because it meant school was really getting into gear, my mom would take me shopping for new winter clothes, I could munch on popcorn balls and caramel apples, and I'd be anxiously awaiting my October birthday.

When I got older, fall became more of a feast for the senses -- the golden yellow of the Colorado aspen leaves and later the satisfying crunch of their dried remains underfoot, the briskness and crisp smell in the air, the softness of a new scarf warming my neck, the mouthwatering scent of apple dumplings or pumpkin bread coming to life in the oven, the anticipation of the first snow.

I love the holidays that fall during fall -- Halloween, Thanksgiving and the build-up to Christmas (which, in my opinion, is more exciting than Christmas itself). I've always enjoyed carving pumpkins and was thrilled when I learned last year that Oahu has a real live pumpkin patch where you can walk through rows upon rows of round orange pumpkins and pick your selection right off the vine.

I also like Halloween because I always end up laughing until tears come to my eyes when we dress poor Conan in some type of humiliating costume. The picture above is one of my all-time favorite shots of Conan. We were living in Del Rio, Texas, at the time and it was still probably 100 degrees out in October. The costume was too small. The eye goobers just add to the patheticness. I chuckle every time I see this picture and I hope it brings a smile to your face too. :)

Knitting: Newborn Elf Hat

My friend Melissa is expecting her second baby, a little girl, in the next couple weeks. She was a recipient of one of the newborn pumpkin hats I made, and she asked me last week if I could also knit an elf hat for her newborn pictures. And elf hat? Huh? Well, after looking online, it's apparent that these elongated elf hats are all the rage for newborn photo shoots -- which are also apparently all the rage. The elf hat looks a bit strange by itself, but I think it'll be really cute in the pictures. (Here's a good example on Etsy.)

The hat was pretty simple to make, although since I winged it my decreases are a bit wonky-looking. I used size 7 DPNs and cast on 64 stitches. I knitted for a couple inches and then began decreasing, but I spread the decreases out over a lot more rows to make a cone shape. Once my cone was the length I wanted, I did a few decrease rows to attain a tube shape, which I knitted for several inches until I thought the hat was long enough. I did two more decrease rows at the top to make it pointy-looking, wove in my gazillion ends from all the color changes and then added my giant pom-pom.

Attaching the pom-pom was the hardest part of this project for me. It was really tough to turn the hat inside out with the pom-pom on top to sew it in. I did the best I could (with my limited patience after weaving in 12 sets of yarn ends), and I was dismayed to see that the pom-pom didn't attach directly at the top like I'd planned. But then, after looking at it some more, I decided it looks really cute with the pom-pom hanging off the top of the hat a bit.

Kauai In Pictures

Jarrod and I had such a fantastic time on Kauai earlier this month, and can you believe that we took over 1,200 pictures?! I spent the weekend using the best ones to make a photo book from Shutterfly, and I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

Me + My New Pie Plate = LOVE

I've been pining after a pretty red scalloped pie plate for ages, but I kept putting off buying it because of the price. But then, on Friday night, I happened upon the clearance aisle at Wal-Mart and what did I see? A red scalloped pie plate even better than the one I'd been eyeing because it's Paula Deen brand and matches the rest of my cookware! Of course I snatched it up, and by Saturday morning it was just begging to be used.

Since it's almost time for apple and pumpkin and pecan pies, I decided to try a new recipe and go for a last-gasp-of-summer feel (even though it's perpetually summer in Hawaii) with Rachael Ray's rustic tri-berry pie, which includes blackberries, blueberries and strawberries (oh my!).

This pie was a lot of firsts for me -- my first time using tapioca in a pie, my first time using a homemade pie crust and my first time using blackberries in a pie. I guess I did something right (or the recipe is just fool-proof) because the pie is DIVINE. And (aside from the major leak the pie crust sprung) doesn't it just look so pretty in my new pie plate? :) 

Furry Friday

You have bunny ears -- haha!