Happy Summer y'all! The weather in the city has been fantastic recently. If any of you have ever experienced summer in San Francisco, you know it stays pretty "dreary" until September and then that's when the heat and sunshine kicks in. But lately, it's been all sun almost all the time. It's been pretty amazing. Maybe that's one of the reasons I've been a little less than crafty the past month or so, especially on the knitting front. How many stitches have I knit in the past week? ZERO. I started two pairs of socks. One sock is done, the other one needs to be ripped and reincarnated into something better. That something better still needs to be determined, which I don't even want to think about right now.

Things on the sewing side are moving S...L...O...W...L...Y to say the least. My quilt is still waiting to be sandwiched and quilted. I just don't have a decent hour or two to dedicate to getting work done on it. I had set a goal of sewing a dress for each wedding I'm attending and that is rapidly slipping out of reach (the first wedding is on Sunday). Even if the dress doesn't get done, I'm aiming for yet another ambitious sewing goal, to make three summery tops in time for my summer road trip. When is that you ask... oh, we're leaving either Tuesday evening or first thing Wednesday morning. I know you're laughing, no need to hide it. If all works out well, I'll have at least ONE top to show for my efforts. One out of three isn't bad, right?

Anyways, looking for a little travel advice. B and I are heading up to the PacNorthwest for a week, mainly Seattle. We'll be passing through Portland and I'm interested in stopping to take a look around since I've never been. What's worth checking out besides Powell's? B's not so interested in looking at a ginormous bookstore. While, yes, fabric and yarn stores would be nice, I gotta keep the other half in mind. He doesn't seem too interested in stopping in Portland for longer than a gas and bathroom break. Ideas? Suggestions?

And just to prove I have been cooking/baking, here's my contribution to a 4th of July celebration.

Apologies for the blurry picture. Behold, the Easy Summer Berry Pie from Cooks Illustrated's special summer edition. Really yummy. My crust formation skills could use some work. My filling yield was low as well. See how much of the crust you can still see? I'm not sure what went wrong there. The recipe instructed you to buy by weight, but then cook by volume. I thought that was odd. Either way, still tasted yuuuuuuuuuuuummy, and it was easy as pie!

In about 8 and a half hours, B and I will be off on our first "vacation" of the year. I'm sure you can imagine how much it pains me to be at work right now, but I have so much stuff to do before the day is over (Why is it always the case that you have ALL this stuff to do before you leave to go have fun?). I'm hoping that I've packed most of what I need, but if not, that's what the outlets in Portland are for, right? The one thing I do have to remember is to bring knitting of some sort, probably socks. I still haven't knit a stitch since I blogged last. And the top is ... 99.9% done. I'll finish it in Seattle. I just need a helper for the last bit of it. So I'm off to finish what these people pay me to be here for. See you when I get back!

I'm back! I've actually been back for a little over a week. What can I say? Vacations are NEVER long enough. I'm finally caught up with all the blogs and I just wanted to drop in and say hi! Oh, and also that I'm knitting, but only socks. Hey, it's a start right? I also wanted to share a brief moment in my life where two of my favorite things, converged.. knitting and baseball

I went to the Giants game on Tuesday night and it just happened to be Stitch'n'Pitch! Who'd have thought? We just happened to be sitting in one of the Stitch'n'Pitch sections, too. That's a screen shot of the "knitting competition" they had in place, which team, boys against girls, could knit a catchers mitt the fastest (Do you see Lou Seal? Of course he HAD to be in the shot, too, right?). They had until the 8th inning and the boys won. I must admit, their mitt was cooler and more authentic. The embroidered the cursive "R" for Rawlings.

Don't stone me as I'm about to express my opinion on knitting at baseball games as this only applies to me. But I won't knit at a baseball game and most likely won't ever participate in Stitch'n'Pitch because knitting wrecks my enjoyment of the game. I'm a pretty active fan, so I will jump, yell, scream, clap and high-five. I can't do any of this with knitting in my hands. Baseball and eating also go hand and hand for me. It's hard enough for me to try to cheer while eating, especially nachos *yum* without getting half of it on me. So the thought of cheese on yarn, not pretty. So I don't even bother. I WILL, however, knit and watch baseball on tv. I have no problem with that whatsoever, with the main difference being, I've got all the space in the world to spread out!

More crafty talk to come including details of my trip! And for those who are wondering, yes I did finish sewing that top to wear during my vacation.