I still know what it looks like. I've just been on the other side of it (more like the super busy side of work and most recently the other side of the US). I'll be home tomorrow with lots to show! Sit tight!

How do I catch you up with all my goings ons the past month and a half? Let's start with quick down and dirty photo montage cliff notes of the first vacation of the summer, STP aka "The Portland to Seattle to Portland to Seattle then back home again" trip.

Tuesday, July 10..
Leave San Francisco at 7pm and roll into Medford, Oregon past midnight. Note to any late night road trippers, not all fast food joints are open 24 hours. For the vegetarians out there, especially those that don't eat seafood, these make food options severely limited especially when Burger King isn't the joint that's open past midnight. My dinner, Filet'o'Fish with the tartar sauce scraped off. Finally headed to bed past 2am.

Wednesday, July 11..
Continued onto Portland. Spent WAY too much time at the outlets, leaving us no time to stop in Portland. Got our view via the bridges.

Rolled into Seattle past sunset.

Thursday, July 12..
Headed to Macrina Bakery in Belltown and had breakfast with two wonderful knitters. Headed to REI to pick up some necessities for the weekend's activity then met up with friends for a "practice."

Friday, July 13..
Sadly, I can't remember much about first part of the day, but in the evening, we went to my friend's gallery opening and purchased our first piece of art.

Saturday, July 14..
Headed back to Portland at 5am with 6 friends via two-wheeled man-powered vehicles.

Rolled into Portland by 10pm and crashed out at our super cool hotel.

Sunday, July 15..
Headed back to the finish line to cheer on the rest of the riders. Then made our way back to Seattle after lunch via 4-wheeled gas-powered vehicle.

Monday, July 16..
Grubbed on some of the best Indian food EVER (second to the food at my grad school roommate's wedding)!

Strolled down to the neighboring yarn shop and got some yarn for a hat for B. Then headed out to meet some friends for a refreshing frosty drink at the market.

Then off to Lake Union for a boat ride and some cool views of Seattle.

Tuesday, July 17..
Boo, time to go home. Of all the times I've been to Seattle during the summer, it has never rained, except for this day.

All in all it was a great trip. But MAN! That drive from SF to Seattle is long and BRUTAL! Feel free to look at more pictures from the trip here.

And because you never remember poor service and a poor sock yarn selection (The good stuff, including the crafty, to immediately follow the bad).

I remember what I sadly couldn't remember what I did on Friday, July 13. I went to Queen Anne to check out Nancy's Sewing Basket. I probably shouldn't refer to this as poor service, because it was more like no service. I walked into the store and they had really pretty fabric. Browsed and touched fabric for a good 20 minutes. I was really interested in some of their super soft jerseys and spent a lot of time there. And flipped through their selection of Burda magazines. There were at least 3 employees in the store, on in the back helping another customer with buttons and two at the cutting table discussing jewelry making. There were no more than 5 people in the store including myself and B. Not once did anyone even greet me. B always notices those kinds of things and it bothered me ESPECIALLY because I was hanging out in the knits for a good 10 minutes or so. Did I need help? Possibly. Did I have questions? Surely. Would asking me either of those questions result in a sale? Most likely. But I guess they didn't want my business, so out the door I went.

Lucky for us, we discovered Hilltop Yarn Shop right across the street. It was a beautiful, beautiful store! One of the prettiest yarn shops I've ever been in. It probably helps that the shop is in a huge house! I wouldn't be surprised if they carried the entire Rowan line. Every where I turned was Rowan. The one thing I was really disappointed in was their poor sock selection, two measly shelves. They had Shibui, Fleece Artist, Jitterbug, and maybe one more line, but only had at most 2-3 colorways for each line. Eh? I always try to make some kind of yarn purchase in every city I go to, but there was nothing there for me and I didn't want to buy something just for the sake of buying something, so away we went.

There were three stand-out good things that happened on this trip. First and foremost, we completed STP in one day, despite TWO flats (one for me and one for B) within 15 miles of reaching Portland.

This was B's tire. How would you like a gash like that staring you back in the face standing between you and a double century? Thank goodness for my tire boot! If you want more info about how a tire boot will save your life, shoot me an email.

Number two, seeing my talented friend start to make his mark as an artist. I was in awe of every single piece at his opening. It made it really hard to decide which piece to buy. Darv has always been a talented guy. I've seen most of his work in his graff art and sketches, but at his opening, my eyes totally opened to well rounded and versatile he is, from watercolors, oils, to wood burns, and I bet he can still work a can of krylon like no other.

And last but not least, I finally sewed a mother-bleepin' garment!!! Wouldja look at that? All I can say is that it's about time! I also have to be honest and say that this isn't the first garment I've sewn. I made two of the BBW peasant tops but they're nothing to write home about (one was in a basic natural colored linen and the other was a batik print with two unintentional placed flowers right where the girlies are -- remind me to be more careful about that next time.)

Pattern: New Look 6706, View E
Size: 16
Fabric: Black gauze purchased from Fashion Fabrics Club

Notes: This is a straightforward pattern to which I made no alterations aside from omitting the strap ruffles (why are they even necessary?). The directions for attaching the straps also didn't seem very secure as they only have you hand stitch the straps down the top of the elastic casing on the back. So I also machined sewed the straps down at the bottom of the elastic casing, matching up the stitching on the casing. What I would have done differently is use black interfacing. They make it for a reason, buy it. It's a good thing that it's not that noticeable.

Verdict: The perfect summer top! I love it!

There's been this running joke (with a hint of truth) between B and I about my sewing turnaround time. You may recall back in May of last year that B picked outfabric and a shirt pattern. It's been a really long and slow process for me to deliver him his shirt. So long and slow that when he's around when I offer to sew or fix something for someone or someone asks me to sew or fix something for them, his response is, "Sure she'll do it, but it will be a 2 year turnaround time." Har har, I can't deny that because as of May, a year later, he still hadn't received his shirt. So I finally said to him definitively, I will finish your shirt and you'll have it by August.

August 5th arrived and I had a shirt for him, just not a shirt he could wear yet. Why you ask? Because yaiAnn couldn't find her bottle of fray check to finish off the buttonholes. And it took yaiAnn one week to get her butt to the store to pick up a new bottle of fray check. And by August 15th, the shirt was done. And on August 16th, yaiAnn presented the shirt to B and he proudly wore it to dinner that night, thereby dispelling the 2 year turnaround time myth. As of then, the turnaround time is 1.25 years.

Pattern: Simplicity 4760, view B
Fabric: Green seersucker purchased from Michael Levine

Modifications: I omitted the front yokes per B's request (I also thought they looked very odd), and the top button loop, but followed the rest of the pattern as written. This was a very easy pattern that went very smoothly except for attaching the collar. I had a bit of trouble interpreting the pattern for that part but did something and it managed to work out. I definitely hope to improve my collar skills as my shirt making requests increase. I also should be a bit more precise when making the collar as well since one is slightly larger than the other. B even noticed it. Ooops.

All in all the pattern was simple and straight forward (except for the collar attachment). My only disappointment with the pattern is that it's for a basic collared shirt that didn't have any RTW details, such as the back yoke and a stand up collar. I would have liked for it to look more like a store bought shirt, but I don't think it looks homemade either. I'm really happy with the way it came out and actually can't wait to make more if he asks me to. He's pretty happy with the shirt too. As I sewed up the the shirt, I realized how simple of a pattern this was and shouldn't have let things such as figuring out how to straighten the grain on seersucker (I've been using the snip and rip technique instead of the snip and draw a thread out -- the snip and rip didn't work on seersucker as the fabric wouldn't rip up the width more than 3-4 inches).

What's the verdict? I hope B asks me to make him more shirts as I had fun making this one. In fact I already have one in mind and may just surprise him with it!