Bainbridge Island and Churchmouse

On the first day of our Seattle weekend getaway, my friend S (our gracious hostess for the weekend), husband and I took a ferry over to Bainbridge Island to visit Churchmouse Yarns & Teas and do some sightseeing.

Just look at this view as we pull away from the pier!

I LOVED Churchmouse. Look at the inviting exterior!

If I owned a yarn shop, Churchmouse would be my prototype. The decor is absolutely charming - it is clean, bright and well-organized. If you look closely, you can spot S in one of the below pictures - isn't she adorable? She is probably having a small heart attack at some yarn prices.

Buttons!

Tea!

The staff was friendly, and if you buy yarn, there are free shop patterns available. I bought some Koigu KPPPM (I just love this stuff) for a ruffle scarf, and some Jo Sharp Summer SoHo cotton for a scarf for my friend. My friend also picked up a lovely skein of Misti International Alpaca in a variegated bright kelly green so that she could learn to knit! I got her a pair of Clover circulars to spreading the knitting love...but more on this later.

On Bainbridge, we also visited Blackbird Bakery, which is right around the corner from Churchmouse.

S and I shared a ridulous pastry that had hardened caramel around the bottom. Um, no picture of this because it was gone too quickly. Husband had a cookie which he bought solely because of the decoration on it.

"Help me, I am missing an eye!"

After our treats, we wandered over to a local artist bazaar. S and I each purchased a pair of earrings from Woven Chains Jewelry. We bought the same pair (large love knots) - whatver, we both know what is good. Husband found someone selling reusable cloth maxi pads. Sorry, not me for, thanks.

Then we wandered down to the water's edge and sat outside for a while.

Hello, random ferret. What are you doing here by the water's edge?

Then, we went back to the docks to get on the ferry back to Seattle.

Funny Memory

A few days ago, I received a birthday gift in the mail from one of my best friends R, a vegan. She got me the knitting book, "No Sheep for You" (ok, I prompted this idea), which has tons of information about, and nice patterns for, non-animal fiber knitting. Remember, R is a vegan. Whenever I make her anything, I use non-animal fiber, preferably organic, yarn. I typically don't knit too much with non-animal fiber yarn because I find that it is hard on my hands and doesn't easily forgive any tension blunders, but for her, I will do it!

She ordered this book for me a while ago, but for some reason it took forever to arrive. I emailed to let her know that I had finally received it, and she promptly replied, "That is great news because delivering packages to you (especially birthdays) seems to be cursed, starting with that mail bomb back in '95 or whenever that was."

I had totally forgotten about that mail bomb incident. Years ago, R had tried to send me a package for my birthday. She diligently put the gifts (two t-shirts) in a padded envelope and dropped it into the corner mailbox in her sleepy hometown. Weeks later, I still hadn't received this supposed birthday surprise and I doubted very much that she had gotten me anything at all. Then, all of a sudden a package showed up. Inside the envelope was another very battered looking envelope that smelled smoky, and a letter. The letter from the US Postal Service explained that my poor package had fallen victim to a mail bomb that some "vandal" (their word, not mine) dropped into the very mailbox that R tried to use. The mailbox was damaged, along with all the mail inside. So random! R sent me the letter as proof that you just can't make this stuff up. I had to wash the t-shirts a couple of times to get out the smoky smell, but I wore those things for years. I know somewhere in all the clutter, I still have that letter. I should try to find it.

A New Korean Blog for Me and More Knitting Sales

One of my favorite blogs, Stuff Korean Moms Like, went silent because the blogger was in the midst of grad school applications. That blog is just freakin' hilarious because so much of what she writes about is so damn true. Growing up, I knew about fan death, the "joys" of extra homework and straight A's, and so on. So, I needed to find another crazy website about Koreans, because that is just how I roll. I found this one. I will be a Kimchi Mama soon, so better start reading up now.

Also, Knit Picks is having a yarn sale, but only for this week. Damn these sales...and why is it that I always seems to manage to buy the yarn right BEFORE the sale occurs?!? That is a total "booooo!"

By the way, I took the plunge and invested in my own ball winder and swift. Now I know I have gone over to the deep end with knitting.

Chronicles of the Baby Bump

Baby Bump lands in Seattle.

Picture taken outside of Seatac airport. I don't know how it happened, but the bump is featured in high relief because the background turned all white in the photo. At this point, baby, husband and I had been up since 3:30 AM, running on about 2 1/2 hours of sleep. So many things to take care of before leaving on a trip!

Baby Bump enjoys a delicious pastry from Bainbridge Island's Blackbird Bakery.

Baby Bump takes advatange of a photo op. It was windy!

Baby Bump visits the Public Market.

At the Public Market, we walked around, ate more food and generally had a leisurely day.

Baby Bump goes to Olympic Sculpture Park (where incidentally, Jessica of Rose-Kim Knits happened to be attending a wedding reception - we walked right by the reception).

We then ate dinner at Waterfront Grill. Delicious.

Baby Bump lands safely back in San Francisco.

Our Last Travel Fling (at least for a while)

This past weekend, husband and I travelled to Seattle to visit one of my old friends from college days and her husband. This wasn't our first time in Seattle, but it was the first time that we got to travel together to Seattle and to stay with our friends. We had a great time, and the trip involved:

1. Knitting stores - Ok, I subjected my non-knitting friend, her husband and my husband to this. They were all incredibly patient. Witness this great example of "patience":

That's husband asleep in a chair at Churchmouse Yarns & Teas on Bainbridge Island.

2. Great food.

3. Seeing the sights. Baby bump got see some exciting things.

More details/pictures to come.

Knitting Tattoos

Check these out. Hilarious. I would get one that said something like "Knit Free or Die" with a ball of yarn on fire with two knitting needles coming out of it. Yeah...

I do have a random tattoo leftover from my silly youth. It is on my tummy, and is supposed to be a snake (my Chinese astrological symbol), but really, it just looks like a sad piece of string. I got this when I was in Estonia (can you say random?!). Basically, I let one of my friends I was travelling with convince me into getting one. She got one, too, but it ended up being a lot nicer than mine. She got one of those ubiquitous lower back tattoos, and I think it was of a lizard or something. My husband also has some tattoos, one on each arm of his last name in the traditional Japanese and Chinese characters. Those are rather large, and pretty nice. Not like mine at all.

I remember being ridiculously frightened, and that the tattoo artist shared a couple of shots of vodka with me before we started. Uh, that is a total no-no for reputable tattoo artists. Many in the States will not allow anyone who is drunk to get a tattoo. But, no worries, at that time, my alcohol tolerance was way high, and a few of shots of vodka was nothing, to me, and to the tattoo guy. I also remember another one of my friends saying at the time, "Dude, if you ever get pregnant, you are going to have, like, an anaconda across your belly."

Well, here I am, years later, actually pregnant. I examined my tattoo this morning. So far, no anaconda, just a sad little piece of string.

Noe Knit Closing

Sad news. Noe Knit is closing on June 9. The store is holding a sale from June 2 to June 9. I always appreciated the helpful staff and that the store stayed open until 8 PM on weekdays, which meant that working people could actually make it to the store. I hate to see small local businesses close, but during these tough times, it is understandable.