Saturday Fun with Friends

On Saturday, my friend K picked me up for knitting, about an hour earlier than I expected. My DH and I had just returned from a walk, so she was lucky that I was home, but this also meant that I was ready to go. We picked up another friend and headed off to Village Yarn and Tea. We had a lovely few hours knitting and talking and then realized we were all hungry, so we headed off to the Mongolian Grill, a restaurant near my house. There we had a plate of fresh, lightly stir fried vegetables and our choice of protein (beef, chicken, tofu, etc.) We sat there for almost an hour and a half and then I needed to get home so that I could leave again. I had been invited to another friend’s house for dinner. DH was playing in a softball tournament, so I went alone.
The evening was filled with good food and interesting conversation. Also invited were our church’s missionaries that have been living in Central Asia and are home to gather more support and then will be moving on to Austria to work with the same people groups, but these will be refugees. Listening to them talk about their experiences was fascinating. The couple comprises of an American man and his Austrian wife. With my love for accents, I particularly enjoyed listening to her talk. She also brought a little different viewpoint on each subject, being from Europe rather than the US. We talked of governments, learning new languages, and told many personal stories and the occasional joke.

Birthday Celebration Movie Night

After work and dinner, last night, I had the exciting opportunity to go out with several good friends from church. We had a wonderful ladies night out. First, we went to see “The Ultimate Gift,” which I cannot say enough about. It had a great storyline and I thought the acting was done very well. There was no language, sex, or senseless violence in it! Maybe this filmmaker is getting the right idea. It is a real tear-jerker, at times, and having the theatre pretty much to ourselves (remember, a group of women, right?) added to the teary-ness of it. Throughout the movie I kept hearing sniffles from those seated around me. Somehow, there’s less embarrassment at such a thing when no men are present. (Probably because they like to poke fun, huh?)

When the movie ended, we headed over to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream & to present birthday gifts to the guest of honor. (On Sunday, my dh brought home 7 hanks of yarn from said birthday girl, saying that she kindly asks if I could wind them into center-pull balls for her. I did this after work, last night.) My gift consisted of her wound yarn and 2 more skeins that I pulled from my stash. She loves browns and greens, and I just happened to have 2 skeins of brown 100% alpaca left from a project. They will make a great, soft scarf. I knew these 2 would be a hit, as baby alpaca is the yarn that she loves to pet when we go to yarn stores! Anyway, we stayed at the ice cream place until almost a ½ hour after they closed. We had such a great time.

A Day of Yarn Shopping

On Saturday my friend and I, along with her 6 year old daughter, took the day to go yarn store hopping. We visited a store in Tacoma, Fibers Etc. Wow, the owner had a ton of different yarns and was great help when asked about her stock. Unfortunately, we really didn't know what we wanted, so we left without any purchases, but the store sure was an adventure to shop in!

On our way back north (toward home) we stopped at Ikea for lunch, and then continued on to Main Street Yarns in Mill Creek. We liked this store, and wandered around for almost an hour, but still didn't find "just the right thing." I'm really not sure what we were looking for, but whatever it was sure didn't bite.

We finally ended up at Pacific Fabrics. Although their selection was much smaller than Fibers Etc., we each made a purchase. I decided to start knitting a spring sweater for my self from Big Girl Knits, Curvalicious Cardigan. I decided on these colors:

I found and loved the pink, Cascade 220. I tried looking for an espresso color that would work, but couldn't find anything I really liked, even with help! However, our time had slipped away. So, on Sunday, I went to the Village Yarn and Tea. They had Berroco's Ultra Alpaca in a dark brown. I loved it! I was so excited for a new project that I went home and finished the first inch before I went to bed, last night. I'm really loving the contrast in the colors and am excited to see it continue to take form.