Stitch n Pitch

OK, on to happier knitting topics

Thursday July 26th was the Seattle Stitch n Pitch!

Thanks to Sabbath and her handy dandy picture phone (because not one of us brought a camera) we have this fun picture of us at Stitch n Pitch!

From front to back, Joanne, Liberty, Sabbath and me...just a small bundle of our Wednesday night knitting group!

I had a blast! Even though, in the last inning when a ball hit the foul pole and the A's got 3 runs to win the game, the day was great! The weather was perfect, the roof was off the stadium, the yarn booths were fun to browse and the smell of garlic fries was more that a test of will power!

We wrangled up this row of empty seats so we could all sit together, but the knitting section was packed! It was so great to see! As a matter of fact, as I was working on my Mariner's Duet Socks, someone else was working on their Duet Socks and asked if I had taking the class with that yarn at the local yarn shop. Me being easily embarrassed and shy, I turned bright red and said I hadn't taken the class, I actually created the yarn! It was pretty cool...if only I hadn't turned so bright red! :)

For those of you with your Stitch n Pitch still on the way...I hope it is a total blast!!!!!

Thank you for your wishes!

With today's trip to the vet's, an x-ray and blood test later we learned she had kidney failure.

Even though I asked 5 different times if there was anything else we could do,

it seems that kittens can't recover from this no matter what you do.

It was so wonderful to have Dango for the time that we did.

I am very thankful that we were to ones who adopted her and got the oppurtunity to spoil the heck out of her during the short time she had.

A heart wrenching week!

I know I haven't posted any new colors of yarn this week. I will try to get that loaded today....

This week has been a very heart breaking one!

Dango is not doing well. By Sunday we noticed that she more mellow than her brother. By Monday Ken and I were trying to figure out if that was simply her personality. By Tuesday she just seemed lethargic-Maquiri was tackling her and she would not respond and barely interested in food. By Tuesday afternoon, I didn't care if this was her personality, if she was just mellow or any other explaination, I wanted a Vet to tell me she was OK.

She was not OK. They pumped her with fluids and sent me with antibiotics for the week, I began nursing her trying to get her to eat ANYTHING and drink SOME water. The vet did not know what was wrong.

Wednesday, she couldn't make it to the water dish without falling. Back to the Vet's! More fluids and some force feeding and sent home with syringes to do the same. Still, no idea what is wrong.

Today is Thursday. Still no improvement. I see another trip to the Vet's in my very near future. Surrounded with heating pads to raise her below normal body temperature she simply lays there lethargic.

I am doing everything I can to get her to eat, drink and stay warm and poor Maquiri just wants to play with his sister.

We are hoping for the very best for this sweet little thing!!!!

Meet Dango & Maquiri

As of Friday afternoon our critter family just got a little bigger!

Introducing Dango (right) & Maquiri (left)

A stop by the Humane Society Shelter 'just to look' brought these little kitties to us!

Their names come from a great day on the beach in Cabo San Lucas on our honeymoon....

After a few delicious Mango Daquiris, the miss spoken drink order of another Dango Maquiri is now a fun name for our new pair! (If you are ever in Cabo I highly recommend trying the Mango Daquiri at the Mango Deck! Very Yummy)

Had to be done...

This is my knitting blog, so I try to keep the bulk of what I post here about knitting and not so much about our day to day normal life stuff. Ken and I also have a blog together that our families read and there I keep that pretty much to the day to day stuff and try to leave out the knitting stuff as much as possible (there are no other hard core knitters in our families, so I take their reading pleasure into consideration).

Well, there are always exceptions to every rule...and this post is that exception. You see, I have the best husband in the entire world. One of the day to day normal life things is that every Thursday, during farmer's market season, he goes and picks out an enormous bouquet of flowers for me :) Every single day, he steps over boxes and boxes of yarn, yarn winders, and yarn clippings without a word of complaint. He builds me machines and gizmos that help me produce more yarn just for you. He not only puts up with 5 angora rabbits, he also gives them snuggles on occasion, and helps with their daily exercise rotation. He throws a ball just for Guppy (my little dog) while he is playing fetch with Chaos and Kharma (his big ole labs). And those are just a few of the reasons I have the best husband in the whole world.

I had to make the exception for this post, because today, with the arrival of another gorgeous bouquet of flowers, I realized that you may not have known how lucky I am!!!

There are more than 10 knitters out there

So the other day I had the TV on in the background and a show came on called 'Evening Magazine' which is a program in our area that highlights events, unique things, and stuff you probably didn't know about our area. Well, on this day they were showing 'Dancing with Dogs'. This was a dance competition where owners and their dogs had chorographed a dance together. This event had about 10 participants and 3 judges, so not real huge by any means, but news worthy for a local evening program.

This got me thinking...'I wonder if they know about Stitch n' Pitch?' Turns out it all started here right here in Seattle 3 years ago at a Mariner's Game (Go Mariners!) and is now a national event. Hunderds of knitters turn out, some dudded up in feather boas and goofy hats, some in clusters with their local knitting groups (we have lots and lots and lots of Stitch n Bitches around here), some just there for the yarn shop booths, and some there for the chance to drink beer while watching a game and knit-all at the same time.

So, I dropped Evening Magazine an e-mail to their story tips e-mail. The response I got made me realize how few people actually know about knitting! Fellow knitters know how big it is, husbands/boyfriends/significant others know how big it is, family members know how big it is.....but the local news station was not a believer!!! Their response was..."the obvious question is why would you go to a game just to knit"...since this question didn't seem that obvious to me I responded, "it's not going to the game to knit, it's knitters going to the game!" I imagine he invisioned lots of little old grannies with their crochet hooks making afghans!

Right then I realized that a 'Dog Dancing Competition' with 10 participants is far more recognized than all us thousands (and thousands) of knitters, with all the events that we do (knit in public, stitch n pitch, charity knitting and so many more than I can list).

So to this, I say everyone who's Stitch n Pitch has not already come and gone-Do it up in style! Go crazy and really get us knitters recognized! People still haven't noticed that there are more than 10 of us knitters out there, they haven't noticed that we aren't all little old ladies knitting afghans for our grandchildren, they haven't noticed that we are a trendy, spunky, fun, happy bunch. They simply haven't noticed us at all....

So to that, I realize I need to go feather boa shopping!!!!!

Lucky Lurker Members!!!

Well, congratulations to all the Lucky Lurkers out there who were able to get a spot in the FIRST EVER Lucky Lurker Sock Yarn of the Month Club!

Within two very quick hours, all the spaces were filled! I was thrilled to see that so many of you were just as excited as me for this Sock Yarn of the Month Club!

Now that you are a member, keep an eye out next month for your welcome package and September, October and Novemeber for your EXCLUSIVE skein of one of my Duet Sock Yarns!!!!

Happy Knitting and congrats to allllllllll the Lucky Lurkers out there!!!!

Lucky Lurker Sock Club

Alright Lurkers...are you ready for the details of the Lucky Lurker Sock Club?!

Here it is....

Registration opens up on July 16th. There will be a limited number of memberships available so registration will close either when that number is met or July 31st-whichever comes first.

What the Lucky Lurker Sock Club will include....

A three month subscription (September, October and November) to recieve one of each these yarns Original Duet Sock Yarn, Skinny Duet Sock Yarn and XXL Duet Sock Yarn over the course of the three months, in a colorway that will not be available to anyone else-EVER!

You will also recieve a pattern specifically designed for that yarn and that colorway.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE

(I know that was cheesey...but I have never had a chance to use that line)

There will also be a welcome package sent out that will include a custom ordered item that is sure to be very useful for your knitting needs (and pretty too)!

The grand total value for all this is $140

The Lucky Lurker Sock Club will be available for $105 (and includes shipping!)

So there ya have it! Get your lurking caps on and be ready for July 16th!!!

Too Hot to Knit?!

It's getting toasty out there! Summer is definitely here!!!

Even when it's hot, I still want to knit...I don't know about you, but some yarns are just too hot to knit with when it's so darn hot out. I have noticed that the Skinny Duet Sock Yarns are just peachy to knit with in this weather! It's light weight, springy and soft...PERFECT! Not to mention, I just loaded a bunch of new colors on the website :)

Of course, I have more than one pair of socks going at one time, so in addition to my skinny duet socks, I am working on these...(this might be a total teaser because I don't know if Renaissance Yarns has released the Mariner's yarns yet) My Mariner's Stitch 'n Pitch socks! Go Mariners!!!!

If you are in the Seattle area, you know that Stitch 'n Pitch is just around the corner...I can't wait! Hopefully the weather holds until then and they keep the roof off for the game!

Alrighty, I am off to dye more yarn :) Happy knitting!

PS. Did someone say Sock of the Month Club?! :) Details are coming soon, goodies are on the way, pattern is getting worked up, oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh!!!

Would you be interested

OK, clearly I stand alone in my love of pink trucker hats-FINE, WHATEVER! :)

Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts! I am TOTALLY a hat person...ball caps, pithy hats, cowboy hats (but not as much as the rest since I don't know how to ride a horse or line dance and the hat sorta suggests that you do know how to do those things), and any other hat that suits my fancy. But now I know I stand alone....

Now, on to one more 'would you be interested'

OK, so not so much a 'would you be interested',

this is more of a 'so many of you have requested'........

a Sock of the Month Club is now in the works...Stay tuned, details are coming soon :)

I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!!!!