Day 2 - St. Patrick's Day

   Bit of trivia for you: I was due on St Patrick's Day, and that is why I am named Patti. The other name my parents were considering for a girl was Clair, so I am eternally grateful to St Patrick. (Say Clair Waters out loud, yeah that would never get old.)

   Our big adventure for the day was going to the California Academy of Sciences, which was way more awesome than it sounds. The main attraction there was this huge rainforest exhibit that was filled with plants and birds and butterflies all open and flying around you. We saw this guy:

  There were also lots of creatures on display in smaller terrariums (terraria? if you took latin you know thats right) like these guys:

We also went on a bit of a shopping expedition, and rode the old fashioned trolley on the way back. We were totally holding onto the sides for dear life as the trolley rocketed down the steep streets of San Francisco. It was fun, but a bit scary at times!

Day One

   If the success of a marriage was based on the number of people that offered their well wishes, congratulations, and general positive energy, Alex and I would be set. The number of people who have taken the time to send positive messages our way has been staggering. I know I am not the first to say this, but knitters are good people. I wish I could address some heartfelt thank you's to each and every message that has come my way, but I think my fingers would fall off from all the typing. Also, when would I have time to knit? So I hope that many of you will find my thank you here, and I will continue to regale you about our honeymoon.

   We arrived in San Francisco very late the day after our wedding. We checked in at the hotel, and collapsed. In the morning we got up bright and early, something we do not usually do but 3 hours of jet lag that makes what feels like 11am actually turn out to be 8am will do that to a person. We had decided that our first day here would be for exploration only. We would not commit to any particular plan or activity, allowing us a break to just relax and take it all in.

   We found a beach!

   A little history: I grew up in Massachusetts, and my father grew up on the island of Martha's Vineyard, long before it was a popular tourist destination. Shortly before I was born my parents bought a small plot of land in Edgartown and built a little house. They hired an electrician and a plumber, but the majority of the work they did themselves. All this is to say that I grew up spending every summer on Martha's Vineyard, but not in the tax bracket you might imagine would align with such a childhood. I love the ocean, and living in Toronto I miss it terribly. People make a big fuss about this lake we have, but its not the same. Nothing smells like the ocean. Even this ocean, which is not the ocean I grew up with, filled the little hole in my heart that gets bigger every time I hear the word beach used in reference to a lakeside sandbar. 

   So we found a beach, a real ocean beach. It smelled like the beach. I immediately removed my shoes and put my toes in the water. There is nothing on this earth that feels quite as right to me as sand between my toes and ocean waves lapping at my heels. Eventually Alex pried me away from the water, and we walked around some more. 

   In the afternoon we took a ferry tour of the bay, and we spent the evening wandering around the tourist trap of Fisherman's Wharf. All in all it was a great day, nothing too involved and a leisurely pace. Very relaxing. 

History

I was wondering where I should start, and it hit me, the beginning, duh. Just over five years ago I moved to Canada to get my MA in psychology. I was following my undergraduate thesis advisor, and didn't know anyone else in Canada when I moved. Of course I met people at school, but I knew I needed to find my tribe, the knitters. Shortly after arriving and getting more or less settled, I signed on to Ravelry and looked for local knitting groups. The closest one I found was in a coffee shop at the centre of town, so I showed up one night. I ended up meeting that night the man who would be my husband, the woman who would be my maid of honour and the man who would be my husband's best man. That night I realized I would be ok here in Canada, I had found the people who could make this place feel like home. Here they are:

Emily, with knitting, a coffee, and her cell phone. That's her. (Maid of honour)

 Joel, I think he's got a cat there. It might be my Steven. Apparently we never photographed Joel much, cause thats the only picture I could find. (Best man)

And this is my Alex. Yup he knit that sweater himself. Sorry, ladies, he is taken! (Pattern is from a Patons classic booklet, and yarn is Patons Canadiana)

And just to be fair, here is a picture of me from back then as well. (That's a Rogue Hoodie I am wearing out of Cascade Sierra.)

OMG

   Before leaving on my honeymoon I thought I would do a little something for Ravelry to celebrate. I thought I would make all of my patterns free to download, and then maybe a few people would notice and I would see a few more projects from my designs on Ravelry. I never would have predicted one tenth of the response this promotion got!

The first few days I would periodically look at my phone, and see another one or two download emails. Then this happened:

Thankfully I was on wifi at this moment. If we had purchased a travel pack of data, and I had used most of it up receiving these emails my new husband would not have been impressed. But our hotel had free wifi, so I wasn't worried. What was worrisome was that receiving this many emails made impossible for me to find any of my personal emails, and it was beginning to crash my poor little phone. I set up a new email for my patterns, and set it up so that all the download emails went there.

So glad I did that because by the end of this promotion several of my patterns had over 18,000 downloads! What was even better was that my inbox was still getting flooded, not with the automatically send emails but with messages from knitters saying thank you and with lovely wishes for my honeymoon ands marriage. From the volume of messages I received on Ravelry, in my email, and now they were coming to my new email as well I would estimate that 1 out of every 10 people who downloaded my patterns either wrote to me directly, commented on one of my patterns, or linked my profile in a discussion thread on Ravelry. One out of every ten!

   So I decided that when I got home I would start blogging. Over the next few days I will be answering some of the frequently asked questions in your messages and telling you a bit more about my honeymoon and myself. The first thing I want to say to you all is thank you. Thank you for downloading, thank you for messaging, thank you for your many wishes of happiness etc, and thank you for knitting!