Back from SLO…

Matt and I had a great weekend in San Luis Obispo. Tons of pictures to show off. In case you’re wondering, the belly is in full force. The song, “she’s a brick… house”, goes off in my head every time I look at these pictures so be kind:)

We drove up on Thursday and stayed at the Cliffs in Shell Beach which is south of San Luis Obispo. Nice little beach town but tons of fog these past 4 days. I don’t think the fog burned off at all on Friday but most days by mid-afternoon, the sun came out to play. Every room had a balcony and we had a view of Avila Beach from ours. Our room rate included a full hot breakfast and wine/cheese hour in the afternoons. Unfortunately we didn’t partake of the wine except for one day. Don’t worry, I had small tastes of wine. Just enough to wet my tongue.

I purposely picked Thursday so that Matt and I would arrive in time for the world famous San Luis Obispo Farmer’s Market. For those who have never experienced the farmer’s market in SLO, it is unlike any other farmer’s market you may have gone to. For one thing, it’s huge! It takes over Higuera Street which is in Downtown. Of course, farmers come to sell their vegetables and fruit but other vendors come to sell stuff like food and skin products, clothes, photography services. People also perform at the farmer’s market. We saw a choir from the Philippines who were participating in a singing competition, a belly dancing troupe, and a rock climbing wall. Matt had never seen anything like it.

Me buying some extremely sweet organic peaches that I promptly gobbled up.

Matt eating an extremely large shish kabob.
San Luis Obispo is also home to “Bubble Gum Alley”. An extremely unsanitary sight that will delight children of all ages. I don’t know when this started but my gum from 15 years ago is up on that wall somewhere. Just don’t ask me where.

The next day, Matt and I wanted to take some belly photos so we headed to the most logical place. Wineries. LOL… We stopped off at Eberle and Peachy Canyon wineries in Paso Robles but we got the best pictures on the side of the road next to a clearing with trees planted to look like hearts. We did pick up some wine in case you were wondering. Great wineries, both of them.

Baby Double’s debut at Eberle winery.


This one was taken at Pismo Beach after all the winery business. We waited for sunset.

One of the few pictures with both Matt and I.

So of course, I couldn’t leave SLO without checking out the LYS.

It’s called Yarns at the Adobe and it’s the cutest little shop ever. Right across the street from the Mission Church. I couldn’t believe it, there were at least 5 LYS’s in SLO county. They weren’t there when I lived there. Of course.

Here’s what I walked away with. Two skeins of Panda Soy. I’ll make socks with them. I’ve decided to buy sock yarn on vacation trips so I can remember the trip.
You can tell it’s a college town by looking at it’s list of classes. LOL

One last fun thing that Matt and I did was have dinner at the Madonna Inn. It is one wild pink trip. I will not give you my opinion but will let you make your own when you see the pictures.



This is the world famous waterfall urinal in the men’s restroom. The women’s restroom is not as entertaining.

This place is covered in rock. Color scheme was pink, pink, and more pink. With some cream and gold mixed in. A full band played big band music that night and people got up and did the tango,swing, and other ballroom dances. Matt and I resolved that for our 5th anniversary we were going to be able to come back and show them how it’s done.

Well, enough pictures. I was going to show you some knitting content but that can wait until next time. Way too many pictures for you to digest. Have a great week!

My first EPS sweater

Of course, it’s for my baby. I wanted to knit it in a small cute size first where it wouldn’t bother me to frog it if necessary. I knit on it for about six days and this is what I came up with.

Here’s the stats
Yarn: 1 skein of Berroco Comfort in green. Love this yarn. Especially for baby things.
Pattern: EPS which is found in a number of Elizabeth Zimmermann books. Kinda difficult to come up with numbers if you’re lazy (which I was) or math challenged. I finally sat down and made up a size for my baby. Hopefully, it fits. It’s about 15 inches in circumference. Arm length 5 inches. Yoke depth 3.5 inches. My gauge worked out to 5 stitches/inch.

For those of you who are Waldo fans, here are a few pics of him modeling the baby sweater. It barely fits him.

Here’s Matt holding me up so you can see the detail

Blurry pic cause I was moving

This is what I really think of this sweater.

As for my next projects, I’m still working on the Hanami stole. I am using the Malabrigo Laceweight in pink. (this stuff is crack for the lace knitter.) I’m so glad I have two more skeins in purple to make another shawl. I am also going to start some Baby Moc-a-socs. Aren’t they adorable? I also have the Itty Bitty Hat book by Susan B. Anderson. So many cute hats but I think I’m going to have to start out with the Marshmallow Bonnet. Do you think it will work for a boy? I have some leftover Cottonease in Almond that I think would look super cute. I guess if it’s too girly and I end up with a boy, I can give it to one of my co-workers who’s having a girl.

I went to the grocery store today and got some pregnant comments. One little girl who looked about two years old, pointed at my belly and proclaimed to all that were listening, “Baby in there!” She was so cute beaming ear to ear. One thing that I wish I did was take more belly pictures. I was taking them from about 15 weeks to 20 weeks. But unfortunately, I wasn’t really showing so I stopped. All of a sudden, I popped out at 24 weeks and now my waist measures 36″ at the belly button. And of course no pictures to record my transformation. A journal with waist measurement and pictures would have been a nice thing to show my baby. So… Now I’m looking for a professional photographer to take some tasteful pictures of my belly. I hope it’s something that my baby will appreciate later. Has anyone else done this before? If you have and you have a suggestion for a local San Diego photographer, please leave a comment.

Finished “August Baby”

I have  few pictures of my finished “August Baby” sweater.  I’m very pleased with this sweater.  It was basically seamless which is imperative for a sewafobe like me.  Just two seams right under the armpits.  The lace pattern was very easy to memorize and I have to say the sweater came out absolutely adorable.  If you don’t agree with the first few pics, check out the ones that feature Waldo.




I used a skein and 10 yards of Berroco Comfort that I had leftover from the Big Bad Baby Blanket that I made earlier in the year. Buttons were purchased from JoAnn’s. I love that place for buttons. Tons to choose from. I have been meaning to check out As Cute as a Button which is in Point Loma but they don’t have regular storefront hours and I never know when I’ll make it down there. Poor Waldo had this look in his eyes “Please, mom… take this sweater off me.” As soon as I took it off, he ran for the back door.

I got a set of steps for Waldo to use to get up on the couch. He’s been having trouble jumping on the couch lately and I don’t want his back to give out. It’s been a struggle getting him to use the steps but I think he’s finally getting the hint that he needs to use it.

I was at the grocery store this morning and a woman said to me “I bet you’re anxious to have that baby soon. I was so uncomfortable, that I wanted that baby out as soon as it could come out. You going to get induced?”

Ummmm… I replied, “I like being pregnant. And no, I am not going to get induced.” Thankfully, I was able to recover my wits and be courteous after that. I wonder why some women think all pregnant women are having a bad pregnancy and just want to be done. I actually like being pregnant. I can now feel my baby move and kick. That’s a trip. And since I look obviously pregnant now, people go out of their way to be nice to me. I am now working 24 hours a week at work. (Actually, this is a bad thing for my income but if I didn’t have to worry about money, this would be a plus.). My skin looks good. I haven’t gained all that much weight and I have no stretch marks. I am excited for my little one to come but I’m not going to hurry things along with unnecessary intervention. And I don’t have any “war” stories to trade with anyone else. The only pregnancy “complaints” that I have are that I get full very easily and am hardly ever hungry and that I could sleep all day if left to my own devices.

Well, I’m off to Knitters Anonymous at Yarning for You then my prenatal yoga class. For all you preggos out there, I highly recommend the class to help with any back pain you might have.