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Monday, February 28, 2005

the WIP that broke the camel's back

or really my wrists anyway...

I started this feather and fan stole on friday


The purplely variegated stuff is my own hand dyed handspun yarn *yay!!!* (I love working with my own yarn!), the pink is that bulky thick thin that I recycled from that tank a couple weeks ago. I really wanted to throw in a third color with some interesting texture. I thought white would go well and make a nice Spring stole, but as it turns out, white is not a very common color in my stash as it tends to get dyed. Since I've promised no yarn buying, I had to choose something else from my stash to add texture and colour. So I threw black in instead. I have two types 1)one strand of mohair-esque yarn and soft black acrylic held together to make it bulkier and 2) some black chenille I've had in my "stash" since before I started knitting.

Anyway this is what first started the pains in my wrists... yes, my wrists and lower arms actually hurt now :( no longer just a weird numbness. I was knitting this stole in the dark watching Donnie Darko, and you can see I miscounted (although there's no real pattern for my striping), and my right side of my work became my wrong side of my work. Of course by the time I noticed (at the end of the movie), I didn't feel like ripping back, so now I'll have to work it so that I flip the right and wrong side every so often so that it looks, um... intentional... because you know, of course I meant for that to happen. :)

So Saturday I was super sad at my inability to knit (I woke up and my hands were still tingly/burning) so I tried to keep myself distracted. I went thrift shopping at Savers in Redwood City. I really didn't like Savers. It was HUGE, but it smelled icky and the stuff there wasn't really that nice (I'm spoiled by St Vincent de Paul).

Near Savers was this new store that sold new vintage clothing. How can that be you ask? Well these are new clothes (never worn, tag still on) that had been kept in warehouses since the 50's 60's 70's 80's. It was actually fairly interesting and fun to wander around and look at all the old styles, esp because i'm on my whole vintage kick right now.

We also went looking for a kitten friend for Asha who's been acting out a bit lately and has seemed lonelier now that I'm home less during the day. Unfortunately, we were told it wasn't kitten season, and we should come back in April to look for a kitten.

I came home and got the mail, still down because I couldn't do any knitting, and low and behold Lynette had sent me a very special RAOK in the mail!!! You should have seen me jumping up and down waving Hello Kitty shoe charms in the air in front of ervy's face! I was so super excited, and it took my mind off of my hurt wristies for a while :)



Thanks so much Lynette!!!! Perfect timing!!!!

Vintage Knitting Pattern of the Day


So Fiber Friday's theme this week is "Vintage." I mean how PERFECT is that for me in the mood I'm in lately right? So I thought I'd dig out a knitting pattern for this week that I could whip up quickly. I decided on making Peppermint Twist shown above. Of course I decided yesterday that since I hadn't knit Saturday I should be okay knitting a teensy little bit on Sunday evening. So I cast on for the hat. I took breaks, I used circs, but my wrists and forearms started to really REALLY hurt after not too long. Sadness. I don't think I can knit something for this Friday. Heck, I dont' think I should knit for the rest of the week! I don't want this to be something permanent, so I guess I shouldn't stress my wrists out for a while.

I guess I'll concentrate on sewing and spinning for now.

Constantine
We saw Constantine on Saturday night. I didn't have high expectations for the movie given that Keanu is the star, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a nice fast paced movie that kept me interested the whole time. There were a couple of great lines as well that I found incredibly funny. There were some loose ends in the story that I felt didn't get resolved, but overall, it was quite an enjoyable film. The angel wings are really pretty too!

At the beginning of Constantine we also saw a preview of a movie that has a computer controlled fighter plane turn EVIL. *cough* um ridiculous and overdone much? puuuuleeeeeeeaaaaaaaazzzzzzzeeee... Apparently my friends and I were the only ones in the theater who founds this ridiculous as we were the only ones who burst out laughing... well actually, we were also the only ones who laughed during the Constantine movie. Come ON! there were some funny parts. Why were we the only ones laughing?

Saturday, February 26, 2005

WAH!

I think knitting is giving me carpal tunnel. I was knitting since early this afternoon. By the end of Donnie Darko at 1:30am ish, I realized that I had this really really weird sensation in my fingertips and hands. My fingertips are tingling even right now as I type. The hands have this sort of numb feeling. It doesn't hurt at all... It's just really weird. Evan said it sounded like carpal tunnel, and after a few web searches, it seems apparent that indeed this may be the case :(

WAAAH!! I found thishelpful article at knitty.com on how to help avoid stressing my joints while knitting. I LOVE marathon knitting though. I love knitting. I like having it as something to do all the time while I'm doing other things. I have to stop for a while I guess. When I do knit again, I guess I ought to take more breaks.

lameness. :'(

Thursday, February 24, 2005

friday




non knitty rant
I've been helping run some experiments over at the business school. The researcher is SO disorganized this time. She completely underestimated the time it would take participants to go through her study. So yesterday I got to run 50 participants who were getting grumpy because they had to be there 45-50 mins instead of 30 mins and still get paid the same.

Of course to the participants, it looks like I'm at fault, as most would assume I am the researcher/planner of this experiment since I'm actually running the studies. I hate that. I hate that I look unprepared or what not, because that's not who I am. When I help plan experiments or conferences or whatever, I like everything to be in its place, and I always plan for the unexpected just in case. Now I know the study's disorganization has little to do with me as I was just brought on to run it the day before the study started, but it still stresses me out.

I also don't want to step over the toes of the researcher, but I feel like I keep wanting to tell her that it would be better if she had integrated such and such part of the study with another part since she made it more complicated than it needed to be.

blarny stones. *sigh* and lucky me, I get to run the study again today for another 4 1/2 hours without break/food/bathroom breaks. Goody goody gumdrops.

no clap over here

Am I weird for being about the only knitter out there who isn't knitting/preparing to knit/has already knit Clapotis? I feel odd. I have liked some of the ones I've seen, but in terms of shawls, I'm still waiting on doing the flower basket shawl from IK once I get through some of my current projects. I also really really like the AbFab Colinette Scallop shawl, but I don't have the funds for that, so I may just do a feather and fan shawl with my own yarn. Does anyone have a good scalloped shawl pattern they know of?

Today's vintage pattern:


Today I was searching everywhere for my 10 1/2 size circulars so I could start on a shawl. I was going insane. Then I realized that those circs currently have my cowl-to-be-in-a-bajillion-years. I thought about making a special trip to a LYS to get some Addi's, but I just didn't have time today :(

I stopped by Target to try to find these Hello Kitty Shoe Charms for stitch markers that PurlGurl picked up recently in the shoe section. Sadness! I couldn't find them ANYWHERE! I looked in the shoe section, the toy section, the birthday party section, the kid's clothes section, the jewelry section... alas, no Hello Kitty stitch markers for me :( S'ok. I'll live :-P

random

I went to Heidi's Pies last night with ervy, Nate, and NickChan. Mmmm... pie. Nothing beats 24 hour pie. I had banana cream. Ervy brought home a whole key-lime pie. Apparently I was supposed to ask nate if he was dating anyone since I ask him every time I see him. He expected me to ask, and I didn't even think about it. oops! He was quite excited to tell me that he could finally say, "yes, I have a girlfriend"

Hey does anyone know if I have to go to the post office to send a letter Airmail to Canada? Do I need a special Airmail stamp or can I just write the address on and put on the correct amt of postage?

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Poker Placemats

Knitting

Today's Vintage Pattern is for the card player in your life :) Poker card placemats and napkins to knit! (speaking of poker, has anyone caught the series Tilt on ESPN? I really like what we've tivo'd so far).



I purchased the new Interweave Knits (mainly because one of my blog friends is in it on the article on recycling yarns/sweaters). I normally really like their patterns, but this time, I have a hard time seeing what I might knit out of it. I suppose I should have glanced through before buying it, but I'm kinda silly like that.

Look what I found at the GoodWill. I think it's handknit and crocheted since I couldn't find a tag anywhere. the sleeves and flowery things on the front are crocheted. I love the color and the size, but I'm not crazy about the neck. I'll leave it for now, but I'm semi tempted to rip the neck out and re knit a smaller one for it (the turtleneck just doesn't suit me). Sorry for the poor angle on the photo. I'm such a lazy butt that I couldn't be bothered to walk to the side of the room with the tripod. So it's taken with the camera sitting on the table.



RAOK!
I got home and found a cute M&M postcard from Illanna. She had lots of wonderful things to say about my yarn... and who wouldn't love that type of postcard!! :-P

Thanks Illana!! You definitely helped perk up my day!

meme

why? because I was just darn curious to sit down and list out which I've been to!

bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Wee Willie Winkie?

Another one from the Vintage knitting pattern scans I've done.

Someone should have thought better about the naming on this one. Really.



I forgot to mention that I used my new Addi turbos for the first time over the weekend on my fingerless gloves. I LOVE them. I think I'll be adding more to my needle collection eventually! They're much faster to work with!

Yesterday was nice. I had the day off, but ervy didn't. So I went out to menlo park to browse a couple used book stores. I was really searching for vintage knitting books, but no such luck was had. I did pick up a couple books with copyright free art nouveau frames and borders and designs, a book on celtic knots and lettering, and a design book on color.

Afterwards I walked over to the Knitter's Studio to check out different knitting mags and books. I thought I wanted the Rowan Ribbon Twist collection book, but after looking at the book for the umpteenth time, I decided that it wasn't the patterns I liked so much as the yarn. I ended up picking up Stitch n' Bitch Nation (I have to say I love the armwarmers with a trailing leaf pattern on them! I'd do it in solid colors). I'm actually excited about a few of the patterns in the book. I dislike a whole bunch of the patterns, but there are some ones that will make me happy I think.

random
Last night I tried the new Malaysian restaurant in San Mateo with paulie, minger, emi,adam, ervy, and fu.

all i can say is "eh" and "$$$$ eh" if I could remember the name of the restaurant, I'd tell you it so you'd know it wasn't worth going to. I think it was across from Little Sichuan.

Also a tad annoying at the restaurant was that we had two servers who apparently didn't communicate with each other. So one would come by and ask us for our drink order, we'd tell her we weren't ready, and the other one would come by a minute later asking us the same thing. After one took our drink order, the other came by and asked for our drink order. Same with ordering the appetizers, and the main courses, and dessert. You could say we had double the service, but that really wouldn't give you an accurate picture.

Monday, February 21, 2005

It's Vintage Baby!

So I've been on a major Vintage kick lately. When I go thrifting, I've been scouting out all the vintage pillowcases with pretty flower patterns, and I've been turning them into Needle Rolls. I may add some to my website eventually! But right now, they make wonderful gifts to my knitter friends!

I also bought a few vintage knitting patterns from ebay. I am so super happy with them! They're from the 50's and 60's, so their copyrights have a ways to go before they expire. Otherwise I'd post the patterns here. I will start posting some of the pictures of the vintage knitted items, and if someone REALLY wants the pattern, email me, and we'll see if we can work something out.

Here's a few vintage scans from my knitting books for today!

A Shawl with a pocket! from a Kentucky yarns book


A striped coat


and a Bib and Tucker


I think the images of the models themselves are priceless.

I also found a few places on the web that have some vintage patterns for download if you're interested:

glamarama has some super duper cute patterns for download in pdf form
someone on craftster posted a few of their vintage patterns

Two Sisters Vintage
has a few up already and are in the process of scanning more

knitting-crochet.com has some antique patterns as well.

In my own knitting this weekend, I started and finished the left glove of the Mikado Ribbon Fingerless Gloves which have been on my to do list for a while. I am stash busting for this project. I pulled out a bag of white and metallic thread yarn from Israel I found thrifting a while ago. I had to double it to get close to gauge. I still only got 20 sts in 4in when it calls for 22 sts in 4in, but I figured I wouldn't mind if they were a bit loose. Now I need to do the right glove.

The mikado gloves as a stash buster is important, because since stitches, I have sworn off from buying any new yarn for some indeterminant amt of time (until I get rid of most of my stash). Therefore, I cannot do the Vogue rose trellis bag unless I find appropriate yarn in my stash. I do have yarn that will felt, but they won't be the colors called for... I might do the bag in a weird eclectic color version as a stash buster.

Anyway you heard it here, no more yarn buying. I will however, let myself buy a cheap sweater to recycle now and then since it puts such little strain on my budget, and a really good sweater to unravel from a thrift is always a good find :)

Friday, February 18, 2005

a break from the rain

blegh it has been so rainy lately! Today is nicer, I can see some blue sky and sun. I was somehow shocked yesterday coming out of the psych dept to a cold rainy evening. (there are no windows in the office I work in, so I have no idea what it's like outside).

So yesterday evening, ervy and I took a trip up to my parent's house in the east bay to have dessert. Well, really it was because I was summoned for jury duty for a SECOND TIME this month!

I know you're asking "how could this be? Don't you only serve at most once a year?!" and yes, you're completely right! So how did this happen? Um... ahem... well *blush* it's my fault.

I may have er... ummm.. forgotten was too lazy to change my driver's license address from my parents house after college. So Contra Costa County summoned me to Jury Duty even though I live and was recently summoned to jury duty in Redwood City.

Snarfblat. So of course I have to mail back the jury summons affidavit with my excuse and a copy of my recent jury summons. But I have to mail it back IN THE ENVELOPE they provided with THE AFFIDAVIT they provided within 5 days. I already missed two days just having my parents receive, discover, and tell me about it. So I had to go up to visit them to grab the summons to mail with my old summons, and yada yada yada, I went kaput.

I'm all okay and better now that all the stuff is mailed off though! I've ben so busy this week I didn't get a chance to do anything for FiberFriday (theme: Wizard of Oz). I spun up a teeny tiny skein this mornign and it's drying now, so I'll post it later this evening..


oh



and



HAPPY MONTHAVERSARY ERVY-SCURVY-SCURVY-ERVY!!!

2yrs 7mos!

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

ummm title

knitting

I had a lot of fun at the knit witters meeting today! I met some new people: Amber, Maggie, and Christine, and I had fun knitting and eating tacos leftover from a Chicano Studies Luncheon. Maggie showed us this CUTE pattern of a crocheted hedgehog! I <3 hedgehogs! I missed seeing Lourdes because she was giving lovely massages to knitters to raise money for the Stanford Relief Fund. We all had fun talking about stitches!

Look what I'm almost done with:


why yes, it's the fry up bag!!! The only thing left to do is sew in a zipper!

It even has lining. Searching my fabric stash for fabric that might match the bag, I found some yellow John Deere Fabric (I know, what the heck, why do I have this fabric?). So the lining of my bag says, "Nothing runs like a Deere"


And for size perspective:


i've also picked up one of my old WIPs (a k2p2 scarf that I put down months ago) to have something to knit today. I may put it down again. Although I really like the yarn and how it knits up (it's a blend I recycled from a sweater and then dyed with kool aid), the stitch pattern bores me to death. the repetition. the repetition. the...

crochet
that's right folks! I did it. I sat down and learned to crochet. Here's an ugly little granny square as proof. I have nothing against granny squares, but this one just doesn't do it for me. I think it is because I couldn't keep my stitches even, so it just looks plain messy!


recycling
I recycled another sweater that's been on the pile to recycle for a while. It was a Jones New York sweater tank 52% cotton, 42% nylon, 6% metallic.



I'm thinking about dyeing it. I know nylon takes dye quite well, and I just don't know that I would use this in its white state... So I'm thinking blue, or maybe space dyed in multiple colors. I can't seem to decide. It's okay though, I would most likely knit this back into a nice tank, so I have a bit of time before I start that.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

wet tuesday

man it's was pouring buckets out this morning! It was also stop and go traffic down el camino on my way to work at 9am. Some of the traffic lights were malfunctioning which was causing the slow down.

On the plus side, ervy has his antibiotics so he hopefully won't get infecto finger. Also, the doctor didn't make him fill out any paperwork on the animal bite which is WONDERFUL. I was worried about the hassle of quarantine and what not for asha. She's been such a cuddle bear lately. Fuson was over for Buffy thon this past weekend and she was loving sitting in his lap getting rubbed and scratched.

Looky what I found this weekend at the Indian grocery store:

I first saw these on Jacqueline's blog when she was comparing the difference between US smarties (those sugary/chalky rolls you get in grab bags at halloween) and Canadian Smarties (more like M&M's). I had to try them since I found them. They're larger than M&M's, more like the size of a US nickel. And the candy shell is very strongly fruit flavored. Not any specific fruit that I can tell, just fruit flavored. I find them very odd to eat.

Not too much knitting going on since yesterday (being Vday and what not). I started on the strap for my fry up purse. I'm doing a garter stitch band 6 stitches wide on size 8 needles.

spinning

This is the yarn I started spinning last week while my friends were over. It turned into a gorgeous brightly colored tropical yarn. looks like some sort of tropical flower or drink, no?

Monday, February 14, 2005

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ervy and I are going out to our favorite restaurant tonight for dinner. Yay!

Yesterday Asha had a little fall where she ended up ok, but ervy didn't. She slipped backwards off the sink and caught her leg on the towel bar, ervy was right there, so he tried to grab her to help her, and he got a deep cat bite into his thumb. Asha wandered off unhurt (she's still running around pouncing on things like normal which the nurse at Adobe Animal Hospital said was a good sign), but evan's thumb got very bleedy and hurty. We bandaged it up, and I didn't think about it again till last night. Then I remembered when I had gone to see about volunteering at the Homeless Cat Network, the lady there told us that cat bites were very dangerous to people due to the bacteria in their mouths. I did a couple google searches and insisted that ervy call a doctor today. He's got an appt this afternoon, and he'll probably get antibiotics. The Animal Hospital said that he'll probably have to fill out an animal bite form at his doctor's office, and that the Asha will have to be placed under quarantine for 10 days and then checked for any sort of problems (rabies whatever). She also hasn't been rabies vaccinated so they'll probably make her get vaccinated :( *unhappy face because I've been told certain rabies vaccinations can cause health problems in kitties*

blah. I'm sure it will all end up ok, but it's just a bit worrisome/hassling right now.

knitting
I worked on my Fry Up over the weekend. I ran out of yellow, so I did the back of the purse in a bullseye pattern.

I need to make one more egg, I have an itsybitsy bit of the yellow left, so I might be able to make a small one with a lot of egg white. I've already sewed on my bacon and 1 egg and stuffed the yolk. LOL. This bag amuses me to no end.

I did some knitting on my Musique Scarf, but not too much... and my cowl is languishing away on my yarn dresser.

Recycling
I found a gorgeous knitted tank top at St Vincent the other day for $4. The yarn is a wonderful thick and thin handspun rose colored wool from Uruguay. I briefly thought about keeping it as is, but I found that the bulky yarn really isn't flattering on me in a top as it adds inches I certainly do not need!

Here it is at the beginning of last night


Here it is now. I should have taken a pic of it next to a tiny quarter or something since the size perspective is hard to get, but these are nice BIG skeins/balls. The left skein is the back, the middle ball is the front, and the small ball is the collar.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Gizoogle - Sizearch For Shiznit

Ok This is HI-LARIOUS! Fuson, you'll like this!

My blog is the shizzle

Stitches Haul... oh booty!

Stitches West was amazing! So much fiber... so many pretty things. I just walked around in absolute awe, petting yarns and fibers! I saw Sheetal when she was in line at the store with the knitted corset (so cool btw). I didn't take any pics at stitches because I forgot my camera (ervy said I'm a bad blogger.. in jest of course... we all know I'm the best ;-P )

I was on the lookout mainly for roving to spin since this is one of my only times to be able to see them in person... Although the places I bought the most roving from are located in SF (Carolina Homespun) and North of Berkeley in Kensington (Deep Color Studio). So I actually CAN go to these places and check them out sometime!!! Morgaine of Carolina Homespun was very encouraging for me to come out to one of their spin ins or take a class there...

I really really liked the vibe at Deep Color Studio. The colors were great, the people were really awesome too! And the prices were very reasonable. They're having a free spinning and Felting party on Saturday March 5th 11am-4pm.. .I'm thinking of going :)

The Haul

Top two are Handpainted Tussah Silk Sliver from Crosspatch Creations
Middle Left: dyed mohair curls from Carolina Homespun
Right Middle and Bottom: Handpainted Silk Caps from Crosspatch Creations


top: handpainted Wildfoote Sock Yarn
middle: 4oz Blended Wool/Nylon from Blue Moon Spinnery
Bottom: My absolute favorite roving of the day - Merino Wool and Tencel roving from Blue Moon Spinnery


Top: Merino and Silk roving from Angora Cottage (the woman there tried to teach me the long draw...)
Bottom: A Sweater Stone to from Carolina Homespun to take pills off of my sweaters and knit items


Top: Wool roving from Angora Cottage
Bottom: Felting needle set from FeltCrafts


Top: Baby Alpaca (black is its natural color! No dye!!!) from Deep Color Studio
Middle and Bottom: Dyed Merino Top from Deep Color Studio


My huge ball of sherbert wool roving from Deep Color Studio. It's only 4 oz, but it's so light that I ended up with a ton of roving. They said it was from a pullworth (sp?) sheep. I need to look up the breed.


This is what put me over my budget... I went by a stall with a bunch of Manos skeins on a rug on the floor... They were on sale, so I bought 4 skeins, putting me $47 over budget :(



RAOK'd
Friday I came home from work to find a lovely Valentine's Day Card from Diane
It's so cute. I love the little bear on top! She also sent me some Tazo Lotus tea which I am consuming as I type :)

Friday, February 11, 2005

stitches west on the radio!

thanks minger for pointing this out to me!

It got me even more excited for tomorrow. Listen to the segment here. scroll down to Friday afternoon edition under the title "knitting becomes an industry." Evan and I were particularly impressed with the knitting stats they gave on how many knitters there were in the US and how much money there was in the knitting business!

Thursday, February 10, 2005

ooh stitches west anticipation!

knitting
umm.. I've knit one row of the neverending cowl in the past 3 days. It will never ever finish.

While I haven't done much knitting, Purlingswine has made a wonderful picture slideshow of how to do an i-cord bindoff!! See it here

Knitters Review came out with their review of the new Knit Picks line of yarn! Very helpful, I think I'll order some if I'm able to hold back my expenses at stitches west (wishful thinking i'm sure)... It's just so damn tempting with the amazing prices for wonderful fibers!!!

spinning
I got to show my friends how I spin when they were over for Chinese New Year dinner. It was embarrasing though when I started the wool on the leader and didn't let enough twist roll in before I let the wool go too far... so the leader broke away from the wool :( After my first stint and performance anxiety, I fell into rhythm and started spinning up a lovely red and yellow yarn. I finished it tonight, but you won't get to see it till later this weekend or Monday.

You do get to see the yarn I made for the theme of fiber friday.

The theme was "Good Morning". So I sat around and thought about what my ideal good morning was. Well I LOVE those mornings ervy and I had our last year of college, when we'd arrive on campus, get some yummy Torrefazione coffee from the Cubberly Cafe, and read the days newspaper...

Thus inspired my yarn "coffee break"
Here's my coffee with a bit of nonfat milk. I spun in some newspaper printed cloth strips too!


whole skein:


once more with feeling (buffy musical reference here!)


RAOK!!
My new friend Lourdes from the Stanford Knit Wit group surprised me today with a gifty! She gave me an amazing lavender filled satchel to make my yarn projects smell DIVINE! She also thoughtfully gave me a wonderful hello kitty keychain wallet to match my needle holder! It really made my day! I had started the day off with a migraine and sore back, but this was such a lovely pick me up! Thanks again Lourdes!

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

in light of the lunar new year

a recipe from my aunt for Nian Gao ("sticky dough"). It is a sweet dessert that is often had around this time of year in celebration.

1 package sweet rice flour (1 lb)
< 1/4 cup margarine
2-3 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk/water (2 cups milk 1/2 cup water)
1 3/4 cups brown sugar (maybe a little less)
1 tsp baking soda
red bean paste (optional)

beat it all together, pour it into a rectangular pan
bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, slice and serve

my internal clock has a wicked sense of humor

even though I didn't have to wake up early for jury duty, I still woke up naturally at 7 AM. Why? I never get up at 7. sheesh.

knitting
Have you guys seen the knitted 1950's room? It's very cool. Seen at Blogdogblog.

I worked a wee bit on one side of the Fry Up bag. But nothing to really show. Over the weekend I organized all my yarnlet leftovers (from finished projects). I wound them into tiny balls and stuck them in a basket on my wine rack. It makes me very happy! The tiniest one is a little gray one 1" in diameter!


oh yeah, that's my cowl... how did THAT get into the picture? :P It's now a whopping 4 inches tall.

spinning
I'm finally home when I can take pics of some finished yarn in the light. So here it comes!!

This is that dip dyed yarn I showed y'all on the bobbin before. It's so pretty. It's about 170 yds of sport weight to worsted weight singles. I'm not plying this one.


This is around 23 yds of white merino plyed with a blue thread. It looks like striped hotel linens to me. So I call it 4 Star Hotel. This is one of the yarns that will be heading toward The Threadbear Project via the pointman from the Spinning Fiber community.


My new feathered yarn, Midnight Warbler, is done too.

Here's a yarn that I never took a pic of. It doesn't photograph very well. It has a bunch of pretty star shaped sequins running through it, but the camera didn't pick them up very well.



I'm so excited! I joined the Fiber Friday community. Every week there is a new topic. You make something fiber related (knitting, spinning, whatever) that relates to that topic, and everyone posts their results on Friday.

This week's topic is "Good Morning!" I already know what I'm doing. I can't tell you... It's a surprise!

Monday, February 07, 2005

tired happy celebratory post plus relief thrown in

what an idiotic title for this blog post. I apologize. This post is verbatim what's going on in my head right now.

*happy snoopy dance*

And if the last five digits of your juror # is within the range of:

06015 up to and including 18763 your appearance is not required. Please note that you are now excused and will be eligible to serve again in 12 months.


That's what the Superior Court of California San Mateo webpage said! That means no jury duty for me! No waking up at the crack of dawn to show up at the courts! This is very good since this week is going to be ultra hectic for me at work. Everything was up in the air until about 10mins ago. I didn't know if I could help on a major project at the Business School or how much further I could get on my psych stuff this week or whether I could follow up on the KnitWits having a table on the Springe Faire or not.

Totally other random thing that happened when I got home


I've been parking on the street for the past week while our dining table has been in the garage getting painted and varnished. So I like taking this tiny spot next to our driveway. I pull in a little past the curb of our side of the driveway so that I don't block the apartment complex driveway next to our house.

As I finished parking, our mysterious 3rd neighbor (who doesn't know ervy or me by sight) runs out from their house and accosts me. He asked me not to block their driveway. He was very agitated and aggressive. I apologized, and explained that I was his neighbor, and I didn't realize I was blocking them. Once he found out I was his neighbor, he apologized profusely. Apparently, they've been worried about us being able to get out of the driveway on our side so they've been calling the cops on people who park a little bit into our side of the driveway. Thank GOD he didn't call the cops to ticket or tow my car. I normally HATE confrontation, but this one had good results.

Early blogpost

So I'm worried I won't have time to blog later today, so I'm doing a posty now, before I go to sleep. Which means, indeed, there is no pic of my lace cowl today *gasp. I know, I promised. Well tough schnikes*. I didn't get to do four rows today, so either I'll be a day behind on my schedule for this, or I'll have to do 8 rows one of these days. I do want to finish this quickly though, I have multiple projects now in the wings!

Right now I'm knitting:
1. lace cowl in kidsilk haze from Weekend Knitting
2. striped socks (not real name of pattern, but that's what they are) from Weekend Knitting in Carons or something blue and stripey
3. the bag for the base of my Fry Along foods.
4. my instant gratification Musique scarf (not so instant gratification when I leave it languishing half done for a month!)

I picked up Vogue Knitting Magazine this weekend from Michael's. I'm terribly anxious to do this bag:


I'd also love to do the big sweater on the cover by Twinkle. It looks so comfy cozy. But it calls for 6 skeins of Brown Sheep Burly Spun yarn which even buying by the 1 lb cone from this ebay seller, would cost me $72 to buy the yarn for the sweater (before shipping). snarfblat I say.

I also swung by Creative Hands today for their superbowl sale. It was way overcrowded for such a small space. I checked out a rowan mag (I think it was the ribbon twist one) I had eyed at Uncommon Threads, but it was $3 more than at Uncommon threads! I did pick up this pattern by Just One More Row. Creative Hands had it knit up in Noro Kureyon which was gorgeous. Unfortunately, the pattern doesn't call specifically for that yarn, and the shop help couldn't tell me how many skeins it might take to knit the bag up. I personally think it would take 3, maybe 4 so I could do an extra long ribbed handle so I could wear it around across my chest. I adore it though. Another bag on the must knit list!

I also picked up a learn to crochet magazine at Barnes and noble, because I found the diagrams incredibly helpful. So eventually, i will crochet (I feel like I keep saying this to myself... someday I will be handy with a hook as well).

random
ervy and I went over to adam and paulie's place for the superbowl (er, the first half of the superbowl). I sat and knitted pink and red roses for my mom and grandma for Valentine's Day. I have to admit, I was dissappointed in the half time show. Paul McCartney singing Beatles songs alone really didn't have kick.

We had to take off to go to a dinner with my family and my father's old Bain colleague. I was told the parents were trying to figure out how to help their son get into college, but I thought my father must have been mistaken. When I met the family and their 10 year old son, I relaxed... or I did until the mother started firing questions at me and evan as to how we got in to Stanford, what made us so special, what do you need besides good grades, what high schools did we go to, yada yada yada...

Dude. their son is 10. TEN! Beyond that, even when ervy and I explained what we had done in high school, she seemed unable to accept what we told her (as in, she didn't seem to think we had done anything special, which is fine, but stop grilling us then!). Honestly, we have no real idea what exactly got us into school. It's so hard to say. So you give the normal spiel... blah blah blah... you've got to show you have a passion for something... blah blah blah... the passion needs to shine through on your essay...

Friday, February 04, 2005

a blogbit for y'all

We moved our wine rack in from the garage yesterday. Looks pretty good for $20 plus some staining and varnishing on our part... Now we need more wines! It holds 44 wines! I went out and bought 4 more pinot noirs last night (I sold some stitch markers so I felt I could spend a wee bit... too bad I spent more than a wee bit), but we drank one with dinner...



knitting
so the only knitting I got done was four more rows on my cowl. I'm determined to do at least 4 rows a day so this project will finish and not languish away on my knitting dresser. Now I know you're thinking, she's not going to show a pic of this every time she blogs until it's done, right? Haha... silly people... of course I am! Here's a close up of the lace pattern in the cowl (now 2" long)



In spinning news, I spun up the rest of my dip dyed roving, I just haven't set the twist or balanced it yet. I haven't quite decided whether I want to ply it or use it as a single...

Thursday, February 03, 2005

one handed blog post

I'll keep this short since I've only got one hand. Asha has decided to take a nap across my left hand and a quarter of th keyboard. Sometimes when she shifts, she'll hit some combo of buttons that turn my typed letters into numbers. She has also figured out how to turn my delete key into a backspace key... something I've been trying to figure out for months. now i know it has something to do with the lower bottom left of the keyboard.

she somehow quit out of photoshop, otherwise y'all might have gotten a pic of the kitty. she's just too cute to move.

knitting
here's my cowl in progress. I did 4 more rows yesterday. 4 rows is about an inch of fabric for me. I have to get 12", so maybe in 12 days I'll have a cowl.


I made a couple lead stitch markers. On is a handmade glass frog I bought from a bead artist a couple years ago, the other is a faux stone flower made from polymer clay.


here's another set of green glass stitch markers. the beads have pretty whit crackles running through them which reminds me of wave crests.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Tagged by Vidardottir (RuneBlogKnitter)

I've been tagged.... so here we go...

1. Total amount of music files on your computer—
Less than 50 MB. All my music is on the pc in the office since that's what I hook my ipod onto. The music on my computer was all free from indie bands I was checking out at some point.

2. The CD you last bought is—
Beulah "Yoko." It's been a while since I bought a cd.

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
umm... something someone sang on American Idol.. (yes I like the show, come on, you know you like it too!). I can't remember what actual music song I last listened to. Probably James Brown "Poppas got a brand new bag" since it was playing on the Terri Gross interview on Fresh Air.

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you:

"Danny's Song" by Kenny Loggins. It's one of ervy and my songs. We belt it out whenever we hear it... Even though we ain't got money... I'm so in love with you honey...

"Little Moments" by Brad Paisley. This is the other one of ervy and my songs. It just reminds us of us and all the little things/silly things we share and laugh at each other for. Plus it's country, and since ervy's from Texas, it's easy to picture the boy in the position of the singer.

Anything from the Rubber Soul album by the Beatles. I listened to all the Beatles albums growing up, but I played that album over and over and over. It's both nostalgic and just enjoyable for me.

The songs from Wilson Phillips first cd. It was the only tape I had for a while, so in my first car, it was the only thing I ever played.

Wilco and Billy Bragg "Way over Yonder in the Minor Key" I love love LOVE this song. Did I mention I love it. really. adore it.

5. Who are you going to pass this stick to? (3 persons) and why?

hmm..

I'll pass this to Kiohl, because she's a good friend and she likes doing these meme things anyway.

and Minger because he is also a friend who enjoys doing memes.

since I don't know anyone else who actively enjoys memes, I will wish this upon Delia because she is my knitting twin. She's pretty busy though, and under the weather (send her healthy thoughts), so I don't actually expect her to finish this if she doesn't have time :)

Aha! I found a cowl pattern! Good old Weekend Knitting!

I knew there was a lace cowl I was interested in trying from Weekend Knitting, but I didn't realize it actually CALLED for Rowan Kidsilk Haze. I think it's a sign... ha... well I took it as a sign and casted on for it last night. It's the pattern "Fluffy lace camisole and pull-off cowl" I'm just doing the cowl part. This will be my first big lace project. I can already tell I love the fabric that results from using kidsilk haze, but oh lordy! Somehow I feel knitting with this yarn is tedious. It's the smallest yarn I have ever knit with (my first laceweight i guess), and with all its lovely gorgeous fuzz, I sometimes find it hard to see my stitches. I worry that this weekend project is going to go on forever! But I think once I get the hang of knitting with this yarn, it will all go smoothly!

In other news, Yarn Harlot randomly drew a winner for the yarn I donated to Knitters without Borders! It's going to Beth E. and it was sent out in the mail today! I hope she enjoys it!

Abigail asked for more info about the Fry Along. It's a knit along hosted by Stacey (Sheep In the City). It just started so you can always join up if you're interested in the fun... awww... who wouldn't be interested in the FUN... I mean you gotta be some kind of fun HATER not to be interested in the FUN...

hmphf... y'all got away with a picture free post. I don't expect you'll be so lucky next time :)

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

FO for thought

knitting

I finished the ruffle-like scarf yesterday evening. I tried it on, and immediately decided I didn't like it. Today, I'm feeling more kindly to it. My problem with it is that I feel like Grace (from Will and Grace) when she wears those silly ruffled shirts that can make her look clownish. I think I need to be skinnier to pull off this scarf. I even tried the nice plain black shirt to go with it so my upper body wasn't too busy looking. Bah! I'll wear it anyways...


and dude! what's wrong with my expression in this picture? I didn't even know I could raise one corner of my mouth like that when I smile. Is part of my brain going dead and causing my muscles to relax on one side? sheesh. I blame the lipstick. It was new. I took it off immediately after the photo. Already I feel a million times better!

Today the Fry Along officially starts up even though I already made my bacon and egg so I cast on for one of the sides of the bag while I was on the bus to work! I contemplated doing a different sort of bag (more square) and putting the fried goods on that, but I didn't really feel like that was in the spirit of the KAL. Plus, it looks more omelety in it's round state.

Look what came in the mail from recent ebay purchases!
Now don't be jealous now. This is the first time I've had such luxury...
oh yeah it's my kidsilk haze

I'm thinking of doing a scarf or a loose cowl that can be pulled up over my head. Anyone have any good patterns they could recommend?

I also got a huge ball o' goodness... er roving. and some size 3 dpns (the smallest needles I own yet!!)



spinning
I happily got a chance to spin a wee bit while ervy ate dinner last night. I finished up the green on the bobbin, and swapped out to some roving I had dip dyed on the stove. So this roving:

became/is becoming this yarn:

it's all self stripey and exciting... or at least I think it's exciting. but I may be turning into a spinning geek. shh... don't tell anyone!

RAOK
Just as I started to type this out, I got an email telling me that Lisa Brown (The Slip Knot Pixie) RAOK'd me with a gift certificate from Adagio Teas! Thanks Lisa! I've been eyeing that ingenuitea device. nobody tell ervy. he barely reads my blog anymore so I don't worry too much he'll see this. I want it to be a surprise as I know he was interested in the Ingenuitea as well! Thanks Lisa!!

On a final note, Asha has been irritated with me for not posting enough pictures of her here. Umm... vain much? Look at that face... oh yeah she's plotting something