29 March 2012

Popping in

...to say thank you so much for all your kind thoughts, warm hugs and well wishes. I can't tell you how much it has meant to me, even though I've been so silent. And I promise to tell you more than what follows in this post, but for now I thought a little update was in order!

Right now I'm back in the wine country with my family. Mr. Romi's shoulder surgery was longer than expected, but successful, and - as long as we are able to force him (and I do mean force him) to take it easy - he is in line for a 100% recovery. Woot! I didn't realize how stressed I was about it until I slept 13 hours the night he came home. Heh. And he's the one on pain killers! He wanted to leave today, but I convinced him to stay a bit longer and get past those first few days before the long drive back.

This is what we are driving back to.
Can you guess where it is?

And this is who we have with us while we're staying here.
That's Otto, the Miniature Schnauzer. He'll be coming back with us too. :)

Well, I'm sitting here at a cafe and I've got to run! Much to do. More later!

Thank you all again. Your comments have meant the world to me!

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25 March 2012

Monday's Musing, early edition

"Now there'll be a day you'll get there, baby
You'll hear the music play, you'll dance, baby
You'll leave bad times way behind
Nothing but good times on your mind
You can do it, roll with it, baby
Then you'll see life will be so nice
It's just a step up to paradise
You just roll with it, baby" - Steve Winwood

I'm sitting here at a Starbucks posting - with no internet at home. This past week has been a wild wild ride, and I truly hate to disappoint all of you who are hoping for design news, but...it's just personal news this time! This past week, my family, some packers and I boxed up nine years worth of household and business, and moved. It's a long story, and we're feeling pretty dislocated right now. It's all good in the end, full of great stories that I know we'll be telling for a long time, but right now we're all a little shell shocked!

I'll tell you the story when I can get online again. We're pretty far from where we started, and this week we have to go back so that Mr. Romi can have shoulder surgery. Craziness. Thank heavens for good friends. :)

Have a great week everyone!

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20 March 2012

Monday's Musing, Tuesday edition

"The only way out is through." - paraphrased from a Robert Frost poem (and so appropriate).

Have a great week everyone!!! I'll have news to share with you next week. Stand by....

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15 March 2012

Too many secrets

(Does anyone else remember the movie Sneakers?)

Six secret knitting projects. Two unavoidable life projects.

Almost four knitting projects done. Life projects in motion.

I know. I promise more later.

Meanwhile, behold the gold.
I am definitely in a gold mood lately. I've been fondling these and am balling them up to knit on between the secret projects. Then at least I can show you progress, right? The golden merino/silk on the left is from Ripples Crafts and it's going to be a muse shawl. The golden mink/cashmere is from Great Northern Yarns and it will be a muse, as well, but one of the extra fun little non-shawl projects in the eBook. Dreams of petting/knitting with these beauties are making me smile.

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12 March 2012

Monday's Musing

“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” - Audrey Hepburn

Have a lovely week!

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08 March 2012

A little play

I can't believe it's Thursday already! Happy birthday to my Bear, who is 9 today.
I think he enjoyed the day. :) (See those swimmer's dreads? He wants a haircut, or maybe I should say shearing, but I've been stalling cause he's so cute this way.)

It's been a whirlwind week, actually. One more secret project finished, another halfway done and another cast on. I have been a crazy knitting machine! On Monday, though, I got to take a little time off when Anne, Cookie and friends came up to visit wine country!
We had lunch in Healdsburg (which is near me in Sonoma County, btw - not all the wine is in Napa!) at Zin, owned by my dear friend Susan's husband Jeff. In addition to being the catering director, she's the gal who makes it all work. Plus, she's a knitter. Perfect, right?
She ordered us some deep fried green beans (in tempura batter), one of Zin'e specialties. YUM!
We all whipped out the cameras.
It was a great photo op!
Though for some reason Cookie decided to eat instead.
It was fabulous to see you, ladies, even for a short while!

Back to knitting for me. :)

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05 March 2012

Monday's Musing

"I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry. And I know you do the same things too, so we're really not that different, me and you.” - Colin Raye

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04 March 2012

Stitches West: Part 2

Moving a little behind schedule here, but wait until you see what I got at Stitches West! You will immediately forgive me. I hope. This is what happens when they let me out! I did this in less than an hour. And I wasn't going to take any yarn home with me. Heh.

First up, Kristine and I were next to KCL Woods' booth, and I could not resist going over there to drool. This incredible spindle immediately caught my eye.
Isn't it stunning?
Made of Bird's Eye Maple and inlaid with shell fossil.
And look at the spalting!
I can't keep from admiring it and fondling it.
I know it spins beautifully, but it's such a lovely work of art!
I've been staring and staring. Ken and his wife are such nice people and he does such amazing work! It was a pleasure being next to them and their cheeriness.
A little closer to home, I picked up some yummy Verb for Keeping Warm yarns.
This great duo is Magic Bean and Jade, both in the Metamorphosis base, 70% merino and 30% silk. They go together perfectly, don't they? I love Kristine's greens. :)
I wish these two colors photographed well. It's actually a dusky green (Jade again!) on top and a greenish-tan (Tide Pools) on the bottom. Both in Kristine's Slick base. And they are super yummy. This one is a dk weight and I am looking forward to designing a heavier two color wrap!
Then there's my favorite Verb color (aside from Magic Bean, of course): Glenda. This one is in the Shimmering (100% tussah silk) base, and I can't wait until you see what I have planned for it!
Moving on, I have some delicious Anzula yarn. Sabrina's Squishy base in Mauve and Shitake. It's that great 80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon base that I love every moment of knitting up.
Then on to Zen Yarn Garden's Serenity Silk Single in Goth Pink. I love the name! 75% merino, 15% cashmere, 10% silk, and 490 yards of lovely lovely lovely!
I so wish that I could do this next one justice. It has lovely purplish undertones and is just the right shade of taupe. It will be another heavier wrap, as this is a worsted weight. I've never used Tess' Designer Yarns before, but I've always been struck by their booth at Stitches. I am thinking of putting together a collection of neutrals. Those who have met me in person know how much I love color and also how neutral my clothes are! I am a black and grey kinda gal. And taupe. Taupe is absolutely perfect with black.
Speaking of neutrality...this is the "Brindle" colorway from Little Red Bicycle. Didi dyed up some beauties! This one is in Tandem Sock and it is a gorgeous deep brindled brown.
And then there's Lisa Souza. She is a Master (Mistress?) of color. Every time I pull out one of her yarns, Mr. Romi says, "wow. She really knows what she's doing." And he is so right! This one is a cashmere/silk. 400 yards of heaven in the Cameroon colorway. It is stunning. Really just stunning.
And I am always drawn to Lisa's greens. This is marked Vert de Gris, but I don't see it on her site under the Polwarth/Silk blend, or anywhere! (Isn't it cool how there is more breed specific yarn happening these days?)
From the Royale Hare comes a yummy Toffee in Karen's new Carneros base (that delicious merino/cashmere/nylon blend I was talking about earlier.) Soooo pretty!
And "Forest Green" in the same base. It's really a lovely almost beach glass color. It makes me think of water rather than forests, but I love it just the same.
And then we're on to more neutrality. I have never used Creatively Dyed yarns but wowza, what have I been missing?! I love the two I picked out. First is a fabulous grey with undertones of steel blue and purple.
I love it deeply. It's called Ireland. I'm thinking because it's foggy there? It does look rather like a lovely deep foggy and thunder-stormy grey.
And this one is called Turf. I was so drawn to this particular color that I could not put it down. And then after that, I kept picking up similar yarns in other booths! LOVE.

So there you have it: tons and tons of inspiration!

And speaking of inspiration, head on over and take a look at Kristine's lovely booth pics from Stitches! She did such an amazing job on the booth!

I've been knitting away on some secret project craziness since I returned from Stitches. A lot of it, actually. But I'll try to do something that I can show you. ;) This continues to be an "interesting" year. I'm working on rolling with it!

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