tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2007-08-30://4 2009-09-24T01:49:13Z Movable Type Pro 4.25 tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.691 2009-09-24T01:40:35Z 2009-09-24T01:49:13Z

I think the last time we took a picture with the three of us it was Christmas, and that was only because Grant's mom hired the photographer and coordinated it all. For some reason we're just not good at getting...

http://www.remarkablecow.com ]]> tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.690 2009-09-11T21:17:05Z 2009-09-11T21:43:59Z

It would seem I managed to miss an entire summer's worth of updates here on the blog. It was a very short and fast summer with lots going on; you'll have to forgive me. Let's hit the highlight reel. On...

http://www.remarkablecow.com It would seem I managed to miss an entire summer's worth of updates here on the blog. It was a very short and fast summer with lots going on; you'll have to forgive me. Let's hit the highlight reel. On the personal front the house hunt is at long last over. In March we got this crazy idea we should buy a house. The prices were low and so were the interest rates thanks to the economy tanking and the government was offering up an $8000 tax credit to first time buyers. Wow, I had no idea how slim the pickings would be in our price range in our desired neighborhood. After 5 months and 200+ houses visited we finally got one. We've passed price negotiation, inspection and appraisal. At this point it's wait for the end of the month to sign the papers and get the keys. Though it was an arduous process I'm glad we stuck it out. There were lots of options in our price range if we wanted to leave Ballard, live on a bus route or have bedrooms in the basement. But I just kept hoping for a little house, on a quiet street with a nice backyard for monkey to run around in Ballard with all the bedrooms above ground; and that's exactly what we're getting. It's only 1200 finished square feet (I've had bigger apartments), but I can live with that. There's lots of storage room in the basement and the backyard is very big, with an apple tree to boot! I'm so excited it's all I can do to keep myself from driving past it every time I'm out and about. We walked there on our way home from the farmers market just to see how much closer it is to downtown. I love it! On the mommy front I'm super happy too. Monkey started pre-school last week and loves it! He's at a pre-school that does part of the day in Spanish, which is awesome since I've been lax at teaching it to him. I've forgotten so many words at this point that it's hard for me. So yay for school! It gives me 8 hours a week of quiet time to myself, which is great. Along with school monkey is finishing up potty-training. I've finally decided to pull the plug on night time diapers. He asked very nicely to sleep in underpants instead of diapers the other night and I said yes. I figure if he's asking for it he's ready. The first night was perfect, no accidents all night! The last two, not so much, but it's a learning curve. I just feel so lucky to have such an independent little man! And lastly, on the work front, SCK is trucking along quite nicely. I accidentally designed yet another sock that was already out there, this one was featured in Knitty no less (thankfully I found this out before I published it), but other than that the summer of the sock went quite well. I added 4 sock designs to my existing line of patterns and did wonderfully at Sock Summit. I actually sold out of the design I debuted at Sock Summit (50 copies no less)! I recently added a new wholesale account, so you can find SCK patterns at Twisted in Portland, woo hoo! My portfolio is up to 8 for sale patterns and 5 free patterns. I've got one more sock almost finished and have plans for at least 3 more designs this fall. So as you can see it was a crazy busy summer here and I don't see it slowing down any time soon! tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.689 2009-06-26T07:51:48Z 2009-06-26T07:59:19Z

At last I finally have a sock pattern that is done, edited and available for purchase. Lucky Diamond, from Sock Madness 3, is up in the shop. I'm on the road to having a couple more ready too, just need...

http://www.remarkablecow.com shop. I'm on the road to having a couple more ready too, just need to pick up some yarn for new samples from Wendee. Speaking of Wendee, she's having a shop update herself later this morning. Go check out the lovely yarn at Hazel Knits. I've been working the majority of my fingering weight projects in her Artisan Sock yarn and have to say it's awesome. Not only does she have a great eye for color, but her base is really solid. Soft enough for me to use and wear (that says a lot), but sturdy enough to last (thanks to the bit of nylon in it). Just don't buy up all the Spanish Wine, I've got my eye on some.]]> tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.688 2009-06-16T21:46:06Z 2009-06-16T21:53:34Z

I knit an entire sock yesterday. From cast-on to bind off in less than 24 hours, including a bit of monkey wrangling when Grant was working. Today it goes off to the photo shoot and my hands can take a...

http://www.remarkablecow.com I knit an entire sock yesterday. From cast-on to bind off in less than 24 hours, including a bit of monkey wrangling when Grant was working. Today it goes off to the photo shoot and my hands can take a break. I swear, after this summer, I think I'm done with socks for a while. I've got 6 socks in various states of the design/edit/photo/release process. Considering that in the first 12 months of my business (Jan 08 - Jan 09) I manged to get 4 designs out there, that's big for me. I know I'm only taking 10 designs in total to Sock Summit, which isn't much compared to some of the power house designers out there, but I'm pretty pleased none the less. Everyone starts somewhere. Now if you'll excuse me, another sock is calling my name. tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.687 2009-05-16T01:11:35Z 2009-05-16T01:27:27Z

Renee pointed out in a comment on a previous post that I should post some pictures, and it made me realize it has been a while since I've put some up. So for giggles here are a couple. I took...

http://www.remarkablecow.com A couple weeks ago Grant and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary. Thanks to some lucky timing we managed to roll our anniversary trip into a visit with some friends and a visit with the grandparents. We spent 2 weeks in TX and Mark got to have his first weekend alone with Big Grandpa and Baby Grandma. While they watched Mark we drove up to Dallas to see these guys. These three girls have been my friends since I was 7. We were actually all in the same 3rd grade class. We went to school together on and off through high school (the school district had some funny policies, so we were split up at various points). Family and life moved us all over the country from high school on, but we've stayed friends. Currently you can find us in Annapolis, Dallas, Huntington Beach and Seattle. Every so often we try to all get together in the same place. This time we even brought the husbands along. It was a fantastic weekend that went by all too quickly. So in case you wondered where I went, it's been TX and a whole lot of sock designing/knitting keeping me busy.]]> tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.686 2009-05-14T19:24:06Z 2009-05-14T19:35:40Z

I'm happy to announce that SCK is going to have a table at the Tacoma Rainiers Stitch n Pitch on July 22nd! If you're in the area and want to come to the game I've got tickets. Can't wait!...

http://www.remarkablecow.com I'm happy to announce that SCK is going to have a table at the Tacoma Rainiers Stitch n Pitch on July 22nd! If you're in the area and want to come to the game I've got tickets. Can't wait! tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.685 2009-05-12T07:22:55Z 2009-05-12T07:34:58Z

So Sock Summit is coming in August and for the first time ever Stick Chick Knits will have a booth! More precisely, my friend is getting a booth and sharing some space and cost with me. But hey, I'll be...

http://www.remarkablecow.com Stick Chick Knits will have a booth! More precisely, my friend is getting a booth and sharing some space and cost with me. But hey, I'll be out there on the floor selling my own patterns. In light of this the majority of my design time the last couple months has been spent on socks. Right now my pattern line up has things made from sock yarn, but only one pair of socks (and those are free). I've been fiendishly working on socks around the clock and have various patterns in various states of completion. My goal is to have at least 4 sock patterns for sale in time for the show. Imagine my surprise when wandering around Ravelry, poking around in my friend's activity section, I see a pair of my socks, completed. Only, they didn't have my title and they weren't mine. Yep, someone designed the exact same socks I did (same ribbing, same st count, same gauge, same st pattern, also a heel flap/gusset, though without the eye of partridge mine has). I know there is nothing new under the sun, but it's a bit eerie when you see something this identical pop up. If Rav didn't exist, I wouldn't have know these existed (they were published for free at an online UK site I'd never heard of). I would have published them (for pay funny enough) and gone about my way. But, thanks to the blessing/curse of Rav, I now know they exist and mine will be scrapped. Back to the drawing board for at least one sock. Ugh. As if trying to buy a house and wrangle a monkey don't keep me busy enough. Is it time for Tahoe yet?]]> tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.684 2009-04-01T23:40:33Z 2009-04-01T23:43:27Z

It would seem you missed the memo. Spring sprung several days ago. Snow is best reserved for the winter months. Sunshine and flowers are the to do items for spring. Please get on it. Thanks! On a happy side note,...

http://www.remarkablecow.com write-up in the NY Times. Congrats love!]]> tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.683 2009-03-04T22:01:23Z 2009-03-05T02:18:34Z

I'm back from Stitches and have recovered enough from a crazy weekend away to recap all the fun. Sadly my camera had no batteries, so there are no photos of the weekend to show off. Thursday was supposed to be...

http://www.remarkablecow.com Spinnity's house in time to get to the preview. We had a lovely time at the preview, I spent my Christmas gift cert to Webs on some lovely wool/silk from Plymouth and had a great dinner at Tomatina after with Spinnity, Bill, Jo and her mom Joyce and 'S'. Thoroughly worn out I crashed back at Spinnity's house. Friday was a day long design class with Edie Eckman. I wish I'd been able to take this class last year, when I had originally planned to, it would have helped me immensely. As it is, I still learned some new things and got the inside scoop on the publishing world. Friday night I was entertained by Bill's live music while enjoying Cajun food with more of my old friends; Bogie and Roger, Jeni and Becky and later in the evening Rebecca and Adam popped in. Saturday was more fun at the show, lunch with some friends from my previous day job and off to the Bobbin's Nest after party. I missed dinner and was late to the party because I thought I'd lost my jewelry bag. Who knew it was in my purse all along? I heard the gang at the Thai place had fun. I would have rather been there than frantically looking for my earrings. But once I got to the party I had a blast. It was awesome seeing Erin, the hostess with the mostest, and Wendee again. I'm also happy to say that the Stitches after party was the launch of my new pattern, Twist & Sprout! I've been busy doing the layout work on these and thanks to Spinnity some revisions on all my patterns. Now that these are finally launched I can take a breather before diving in to my fall designs. Sunday was a brief trip to the show followed by an uneventful trip home. I was lucky enough to be on the same flight back as Wendee. It's always nice to be able to chat while waiting for the plane. There's another design in the works for her fabulous sock yarn, but that's all I can say for now!]]> tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.682 2009-01-30T00:38:10Z 2009-01-30T00:44:17Z

This is unreal! Do I get to issue them an IOU due to my budget problems and cash shortage and keep them from taking new taxes out of my check? OK, to be fair, they no longer get a piece...

http://www.remarkablecow.com This is unreal! Do I get to issue them an IOU due to my budget problems and cash shortage and keep them from taking new taxes out of my check? OK, to be fair, they no longer get a piece of my check, but I know there are plenty of you out there that are still paying them. And, of course, I can't even get in before the 1st because I still don't have my W-2.]]> tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.681 2009-01-29T08:13:16Z 2009-01-29T08:41:18Z

Thanks to all for the advice on the thank you note situation, very interesting solutions to ponder. As you all know, I gave up my day job last June in order to pursue SCK full time. This has lead to...

http://www.remarkablecow.com SCK full time. This has lead to a tightening of the budget around here until I can increase my revenue streams. One of the first things we realized is that cooking at home is a huge savings, however, I hate cooking. In a world with infinite money, I would have a chef on staff that would cook all my meals for me. Alas, I'm not in that world. So, much as I hate to admit it, there have been a disproportionate number of frozen pizzas and hot dogs consumed of late. I can somehow manage to feed the monkey all sorts of nutritious food (don't get me started on the sheer number of bananas we go through in a week), but when it comes to Grant and I it just falls short. However, once in a while we'll be adventurous and try something new. Tonight was one of those nights. We made some of the best pasta ever from random ingredients in the fridge and it was super simple. So easy, even I can handle it. Though, to be fair, Grant handled the bacon end of things (I hate touching raw meat). I have to share it was so good. Boil up a pot of noodles. In a skillet fry up some pre-chopped bacon with butter, onions and fresh thyme. When the bacon is cooked, drain off a bit of the fat, and then dump the rest of the mixture over the noodles. Grate Mizithra cheese on top of it all, toss, and add a bit more Mizithra on top before serving. So freaking tasty!]]> tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.680 2009-01-18T00:44:54Z 2009-01-18T00:47:33Z

So let's say you got married back in May of 2000. It's now January of 2009. You're going through some boxes and you come across some written, but not mailed, thank you cards from your wedding. What do you do?...

http://www.remarkablecow.com So let's say you got married back in May of 2000. It's now January of 2009. You're going through some boxes and you come across some written, but not mailed, thank you cards from your wedding. What do you do? This is all hypothetical of course, because I never forget things, or lose them, or have piles of old papers in boxes. Nope, that's not me at all. Just pondering a hypothetical. tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.679 2009-01-08T23:25:13Z 2009-01-08T23:27:20Z

This story is at the same time one of the funniest, sweetest and most frightening things I've read in a long time. And I thought Monkey's new ability to climb out of his crib was bad! Could you imagine being...

http://www.remarkablecow.com story is at the same time one of the funniest, sweetest and most frightening things I've read in a long time. And I thought Monkey's new ability to climb out of his crib was bad! Could you imagine being those parents?]]> tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2009://4.678 2009-01-02T05:36:45Z 2009-01-02T08:14:13Z

I've been missing from the blog world for the last few months. During this little time off I've been growing SCK (I added another physical store to my distribution network) and helping my monkey grow. One of my missions in...

http://www.remarkablecow.com I've been missing from the blog world for the last few months. During this little time off I've been growing SCK (I added another physical store to my distribution network) and helping my monkey grow. One of my missions in the later arena has been to teach monkey good manners. This has become a bit of a joke with our friend group, so much so that we received a lovely gift from some friends in that vein. I have been extremely proud that monkey has taken to using please and thank you largely unasked. At times he's even taking to thanking himself, it's pretty damn cute. Some how, though we haven't been prompting him, he's picked up excuse me too. Last night, we walked to the local Mexican place for dinner and margaritas to ring in the new year. Along a narrow stretch of sidewalk a large woman approached, monkey stepped to the side, smiled at her and said excuse me. My heart just about burst at that moment. I'm not kidding when I say that I got a little teary eyed. I can't wait to see what 2009 holds. Happy New Year to all of you, may 2009 bring you much joy! tag:www.remarkablecow.com,2008://4.676 2008-10-18T08:07:33Z 2008-10-18T08:27:18Z

When we first moved to Seattle we decided to get an annual pass to the zoo. After all, it's only a couple miles from the house and we thought it'd be a fun place to wander around. It has turned...

http://www.remarkablecow.com On Monday we played at the Zoomazium; it's a big room filled with fake rocks to climb on, two slides, puzzles and random nature bits for bigger kids to play with. They even bring in animals to pet from time to time. The shot above is Monkey playing in the sandbox out back. Below you see him after flinging the sand around for a bit. Here we go down the big slide, puzzle piece in hand! After that it was off to see Monkey's favorite animal, the tapir. He gets insanely excited to see these guys. He'll also run around the house saying 'tapir, tapir' in hopes of getting to go see them. Thursday, our camera free day, Monkey was all about the jaguar and the gorillas, which he calls the rillas. There is a 1 year old gorilla about the same size as Monkey, and the two of them had a lot of fun through the glass with each other. I really wish I hadn't forgotten the camera. Monkey has a new game. When I get the camera out and tell him to smile he makes crazy faces. I think my next entry may be a series of these faces, they're awesome. So today, at the zoo, it was back to the rillas. This time he was more enamored with the bronze ones than the real ones. Here's Monkey and his bronze friends. Along with all the animal fun we've been having he's been talking up a storm. I can't keep track of all his words, and we're on to basic 2 word sentences. A couple of today's new words were sleepy and excited. Then, during his bath, he looked at me and said 'I'm careful'. I about fell over in shock. I always tell him to be careful in the tub, because he wants to stand up and wander around, but it was so cool to hear him say it, it's like he was listening. Though we miss daddy terribly and can't wait to pick him up tomorrow night it was a pretty great week for the Monkey and I.]]>