Here’s a more detailed account of our trip to Seattle.

We arrived in Seattle Friday afternoon, January 19. Not long after we checked into our hotel, we went to the convention center to complete our registration for the ALA Midwinter meeting. That evening, we went out to dinner and then met up with E, one of Bryan’s friends from grad school. I’d never met her and it’s always so wondeful to meet people that Bryan was friends with in grad school. She took us to University Hill and we had tea at the Grand Illusion which has a cute little coffee shop attached to it. We were both exhausted after a long day of traveling, but had to get a photo with E.

Saturday, we explored the exhibits at ALA in the morning. When I saw the Baker & Taylor cats, I had to get a photo with them. We also had our photo taken for our own Read poster. Going through all of the exhibits was a blast. So many free things that I would have liked to have taken but there just wasn’t the room in my suitcase. I did manage to take several young adult novels and a few graphic novels. I’ve already finished several of the items that I picked up. Saturday afternoon, we attended some committee meetings on a few topics. I was interested in a young adult discussion about books for reluctant readers. What I didn’t realize is that the committee was going to be discussing books to create a list of the top 10 books for reluctant young adult readers. I hadn’t read any of the books, so the discussion was interesting but probably would have been more interesting to me if I had read some of the books. That evening we went out with Shirin, a collage artist that Bryan has admired and corresponded with for a while, and her husband. They took us to Mama’s Mexican restaurant, which is a great local place. After dinner, we went to Shirin’s studio and Bryan was in complete awe. Someday he’ll have a studio too, I hope. Then we walked a bit around downtown Seattle and then went for tea. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our camera with us the night we went out with Shirin and her husband.

Sunday, we took our time getting around in morning. That afternoon, I attended the President’s Lecture where Deena Ebbert talked about the Pike Place Fish Company’s “Fish” Philosophy, while Bryan went to a discussion group. For dinner, E and N picked us up and took us to a Thai restaurant in the Fremont neighborhood (The Center of the Universe). After dinner they showed us around Fremont, where we saw the huge Lenin statue, the rocket and the Fremont Troll. The Troll is so interesting, it’s under a bridge and under his left hand is an old VW beetle that is a time capsule. Then they took us to the Capitol Hill neighborhood and we drove by the apartment building that was the setting for the movie Singles.
Monday was our day to just wander downtown Seattle. We went to the Seattle Public Library for most of the morning. We took a tour of the library and just wandered around. It’s a new library that has received a lot of press. While we were wandering around, we had mixed feelings about the place. There is a lot of open space but not really any nooks to curl up with a book and definitely no comfortable chairs to sit in. The chairs that they have reminded me of cheap chairs from IKEA that aren’t comfortable to sit in, after a year and a half of being open the chairs were starting to show a lot of wear. The spiral where they keep all of the non-fiction is a really interesting idea but when there is no other way to go down except by elevator, it’s a bit annoying. Of course, we looked at the library in a more critical way than most patrons would but I’m so glad we visited. I was really impressed with the fact that they have an area just for teenagers with computers for the teens. Being interested in young adult librarianship, I’m always interested in what space the libraries have for teens. If you’re in Seattle, the library is definitely worth stopping and seeing. (More library photos are on my flickr page here.)
After the library, we headed to Palba Indian Restaurant for some wonderful Indian food and then to the Pike Place Market. I mainly wanted to see the Pike Place Fish Company, even before I saw the ALA President’s Lecture guest. We’d hoped to see some flying fish but it was a slow day and were only treated to some mussels flying in a bag to the counter. We also wandered around the rest of the market and Bryan bought a wallet. What an amazing market with so many fruit and vegetable stands, we could definitely do all of our produce shopping there. It’s like our local farmer’s market times ten, it was amazing and so tempting to buy a lot of the colorful fruits and veggies.

Monday night we had a light dinner, since we’d stuffed ourselves silly at the Indian buffet for lunch and went back to the hotel to get ready to head home on Tuesday.

Tuesday was our long day of traveling, but we made it home safely.

Seattle was great.
Here’s a quick version of our trip, a more detailed version will follow in a few days.

All photos are on the flickr page (click on the troll photo above) until I get a more detailed account written.

We arrived in Seattle Friday afternoon, January 19. Not long after we checked into our hotel, we went to the convention center to complete our registration for the ALA Midwinter meeting.

Friday evening, we went out to dinner and then met up with E, one of Bryan’s friends from grad school. She took us to University Hill and we had tea.

Saturday was exploring the exhibits at ALA and attending a committee meeting. That evening we went out with Shirin, a collage artist that Bryan has admired and corresponded with for a while, and her husband.

Sunday, I attended the President’s Lecture while Bryan went to a discussion group. For dinner, E and N picked us up and took us to the Fremont neighborhood (The Center of the Universe). After dinner they showed us around Fremont, where we saw the huge Lenin statue, the rocket and the Fremont Troll.

Monday was our day to just wander downtown Seattle. We went to the library and the Pike Place Market.

Tuesday, we flew home.

It’s been an interesting and good year. For our holiday letter, we tried to keep our letter to 100 words or less. When I was writing it, I realized this was a year that wasn’t difficult to summarize in 100 words or less. Bryan was in school and I was working at the library. It wasn’t a significant year of life events, which I guess is good considering how 2004 was our wedding and 2005 was our big move. Two thousand seven is going be an exciting year for us. We’re heading to Seattle for the ALA Midwinter conference in two weeks. Bryan graduates with his MLS in May. I’m finishing up my library school application for the fall this week and if all goes well I’ll receive a letter in March telling me that I’ll be starting school in the fall.

Two thousand six was a year of mittens, socks, sweaters, library school disappointment and library job success, and of course, two kitties and a wonderful husband. I had planned to make a lot of socks this past year but it just didn’t happen. A new addition to the family kept me busy knitting a Log Cabin blanket most of the summer, we were happy to welcome a new nephew in August. I did manage to finish the Hobo sweater and have worn it proudly several times.

We went to Kansas for Christmas this year. It was the first time since 2003 that we’d been home and it was wonderful to be home. The drive to and from Kansas was a bit grueling for us, if we had planned to stay more than three days the 11-hour trip wouldn’t have felt so overwhelming. This year the entire family was together for Christmas and we were so thankful for that. We watched our share of movies, including the ever-wonderful A Christmas Story, cooked and baked. The generosity of our family was very apparent on Christmas morning. Bryan and I definitely weren’t expecting to get everything we received. My mom decided this year that the best way to give us checks were in large boxes, so the box would feel very light and we’d open it up and there would be a check, it was much more fun than opening an envelope. It was obvious that I was a knitter this year, I received a full set of Knit Picks Options needles, which will come in very handy, and a nice selection of knitting books that have been on my wish list for a while. A Gathering of Lace is inspiring me to make some really nice lace scarves from some of my handspun yarn. It’s definitley not light lace-weight but I think it will make nice lace scarves for myself.

We had a quiet New Year’s Eve, it was a lovely evening spent with friends, who cooked a wonderful meal for us. For the first time in years, we were both asleep before midnight. New Year’s Day, I spent a good part of the day sewing. A few weeks ago, we decided that to cut our expenses and to reduce waste, we’re going to start using cloth napkins instead of paper towels for our meals. Last week, we picked out fabric and Monday I cut the fabric and hemmed the edges. We’ve already used a few of them and they’re wonderful. We even have tomato napkins for our pizza nights. When I’m finished we’ll have about 11 pairs of napkins.

I wasn’t sure if it would happen but I finished Hobo two days before the personal deadline I’d set for myself. Friday night, I finished knitting it after knitting over 80 rows of the sleeve on the second piece. It wasn’t looking so good about a year ago for this sweater when it truly had me in tears, after ripping it out and restarting it I had hopes for it. Tonight, I’m working on sewing in the ends on one of the pieces and I’ll block it, then Tuesday I’ll block the second piece and put it together later. I would have loved to block both pieces together but I just don’t have the room. I’ll definitely be using the blockers that my mom gave me last year. When it’s all put together, I’ll definitely post photos.

October seems to be an auspicious month for my finishing major projects. Last year on October 7 I finished the Barbara shawl after three years. My next big project is the Cider House Rules vest for Bryan in Rowan’s Wool/Cotton “Ship Shape.” It’s a beautiful color and will be perfect for Bryan. He’s really excited that I’m finally starting this for him. We’ve been talking about it for over a year. Who knows I may be finishing next year in October. I’m sure Bryan would prefer it finished before then. If the Barbara shawl and the Hobo sweater have taught me anything it’s that I absolutely can’t have too many big projects going at once or I’ll just put them away and they’ll be neglected. That’s not to say that there won’t be project interruptions. Now if I could just get myself to work on the Crazy Green sweater, which has been truly neglected for more than a year, partly because it’s not that fun to work on, it’s just not working out the way that I thought it would and the idea of sewing in over 90 ends on just one piece doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest. It looks really cool but I know it’s going to be a bit too big on me. It may be another sweater that I rip out and restart.

With the weather getting cooler and my toes thankful for handknit socks, I’ve knit just over four inches of the Fleece Artist sock, which I’ve decided to call the Knitbrarian socks since she’s the one that sent me the yarn. It’s such lovely yarn to work with. Another inch or two and I’ll be working the heel!

This morning, we registered for the Midwinter ALA Conference out in Seattle. I’ve never been to Seattle and I’m excited to go. Any other knitters going to the conference or live in Seattle? I’d love to meet up with some of you.