take a chance...

cheryl over at a simple yarn is having a great contest.

write a caption for the pictures on her blog and you can win some beautiful kilcarra yarn and a felted coaster. this was the yarn used to make her wonderful tudora pattern. and though i have yet to blog about it, i can tell you this yarn is stunning, absolutely stunning and the pattern is a delight to knit.

so scoot on over and check it out. good luck!

i've just seen a...

my sweet friend and i seem to be have been bitten by a baking bug. not sure exactly how or why, but we are just going with it for the moment. she is baking cupcakes and cakes and i am baking...anything. and though i am not one to celebrate today, i felt a strong pull to bake these...

and these...
and even these...

which inevitably led to this...

it was a lot of fun though. had not baked like this in many years. next time i won't make a double batch. one batch is quite sufficient. and d & t, i do not know how you get along without your kitchen aid. seriously.

because of the baking bug, i have not had as much time to work on this...

the beginnings of the lace ribbon scarf out of malabrigo silk blend. the pattern has been in my ravelry queue for awhile so when the LYS announced it was doing a KAL of this pattern and suggested the silk blend as a yarn substitute, i was in. i have been lusting to use this yarn for something but did not know what, so here was the perfect excuse!

since using a weightier yarn then the pattern calls for, the suggestion was to use size 8 needles and drop a repeat. but i didn't have size 8 needles that were suitable, then couldn't find size 8's that were suitable. so after a bit of knashing, grumbling and finally swatching (!), i decided to use size 7 circulars with the number of stitches called for. the pattern came alive on them. and can i tell you how much i love this yarn. love this yarn. it is heaven to use and looks beautiful. since it is hand dyed, the variation of color is subtle but adds a bit of sparkle. i had never understood the fascination with manos until i used this yarn. and now i may just be hooked!

but i am not sure when i will get around to knitting on it again since tomorrow i am planning on making home made tortillas and pesole. that bug!

catch up take 2

i joined the swap on a budget group on ravelry. i love swaps. they are fun, i meet different people, i get to put together a package and i get a package. all in all, it is pretty fun.

the last swap was this past december and though my package was late, it was well worth the wait because in it was...

...a hank of mango moon tye dyed viscose, two home made knitting utensil bags, gobs of home made stitch markers in two sizes, a coffee cup holder, a dishcloth and a home made needle holder, which i really appreciated and put to immediate use. these wonderful treats were sent to me by absolute treasure from georgia.

the yarn is really pretty. both the cute husband and my sweet friend commented on how lovely it was, which says alot. not sure what i will make out of it though. it is 150 yards and i would like to make some thing that will reflect the beautiful colors. so i will have to do some sleuthing for the proper pattern.

thanks absolute treasure for a great soab package.

catching up...

so i have been sick the last couple of weeks. and though i do have some knitting to report on, i don't quite have the where withal to write, take pictures, download pictures, etc. so instead here are some things i have been meaning to share for awhile...

like this wonderful bag i won from worsted knitt who had a contest sometime this past summer.

not only does worsted knitt knit, design patterns, blog, moderate the ravelry dafur group but she also has this wonderful online shop, and this bag is one of the items available. it is quite sweet and big enough to hold a shawl. which is what i am using it for.

the shawl in question is the bird's nest shawl which i have been longing to make since i first started knitting. i have had the yarn for the past year, which is knit picks alpaca cloud in heathered moss. but i am being needle challenged. the pattern calls for a size 5 needle for the borders and size 6 needle for the body of the shawl. except when i swatch, i find those size needles a bit loopy/holey/loose for my taste. i find a size 4 needle more to my liking. but i debate whether to use a size 4 for the whole shawl or just for the borders and a size 5 for the body. decisions, decisions! even looking it up on ravelry didn't help since the needle sizes there were all over the map.

the next challenge with the size 4 needle is casting on. there are 346 stitches to cast on while holding the yarn double (it's knit sideways). i can do that with a size 5 or 6 needle but for some reason find it challenging on a size 4. sigh.

and so the yarn and pattern sit in this sweet little bag, patiently waiting for me to work through my various challenges. i look forward to carrying the shawl of my dreams in this sweet little bag and bragging about winning it and talking up worsted knitts shop. but, until then, stop by worsted knitts online shop and look around. your bag may not cause you so much drama!

rhythm of the night

i like the new house. it has a lot of pluses. more pluses then negatives. but one of its negatives is a pretty big negative. for some reason the internet is down more than it is up. and, for me, that is a big negative. mainly because i am an internet junkie. i use it for everything: paying bills, making appointments, coordinating meetings, recipes, reference, reading, learning, connecting and of course, shopping. and so, since i am an internet junkie, i really don’t like that our internet is down most of the time.

though there is an upside. i am getting to sleep at a reasonable hour. i stay up late so i can be on the computer uninterrupted. but since the internet is down, i have no reason to dawdle, so i read a book and go sleep. which isn’t a bad thing.

but the most important thing i have re-discovered without internet is my knitting rhythm. after a frantic fall, on new years evening my knitting rhythm finally clicked into place...make supper, clean the kitchen, do a general pick-up and knit while watching a dvd with my sweet friend. it was a pretty perfect evening. she is finishing up a scarf, i need to knit on my sfs sock 30 min a day and then i knit on my other projects. not a bad rhythm. it suits me just fine. except now i am staying up way to late...knitting!

project info: socks for soldiers out of knit picks essential in buckskin;

knit grrl stripey scarf out of a trendsetter tonalita in raspberry shortcake.

oh tannenbaum, take 2

the continuing saga of the twice as tall as me christmas tree. with the purchase of a new ladder, it became this...

and it was lovely on christmas morning.

let's get physical

for some reason i am suffering from a case of the grumps. things were fine before christmas; had a delightful christmas day; had fun with the fam; christmas dinner turned out great (food theme was moroccan) but have had some pretty grumpy moments since then.

so when i woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, decided what i needed was a walk. so i crossed the street to open land and just walked. and walked and walked, until i came to a t in the path which overlooked this...

and i realized i am a pretty lucky girl. next time i get the grumps, i will take a brisk walk in the fresh air. hope your holidays are happy!

...i walk the line

i am beginning to find my rhythm in the new house. though there are still boxes to be unpacked and there is the daily question of "...have you seen", "...did you check the box in the ...", i am to the point where i can unpack a bit and leave time for knitting, or walking or sewing, or baking.

so when i felt the call to walk on saturday morning, i decided to explore the path across the street that leads to the open space on the hill. and from the hill i could see this...














so i kept walking and walked through these,





walked down this,

looped about and saw this from the another hill. and for you east bay-er's, yes that is mt. diablo in the distance.

not a bad walk for the new neighborhood.

on the knitting front, i have finished one of two socks for soldiers. i am 1.5 inches into 13 inches of 2x2 rib for sock two. i am totally cheating on the xmas knitting. the plan is to finish up my sweet friends ruffle scarf (translation, i have to pick up a total of 594 stitches! yuck!) and to finish up the big guy's second sock. hopefully the plan will work and both of these will be under the tree on christmas morning.

and then there is the new year's resolution to learn to knit 2 socks at a time on a circular needle so it doesn't take me so bloody long to knit socks for soldiers!#! already have the book on the christmas list.

oh tannenbaum

the last couple of weekends have been filled with this...

the madrigal dinner theatre the choir classes at my sweet friends h.s. put on every december. if i wasn't at a performance, helping at a performance or cooking for a performance, i was sewing costumes for the performance.

and from the weekends of this...

came this...

which was one of 10 that were part of the madrigal decorations. the music booster board decided to off set the cost of the trees (which have been donated in the past) by having families "sponsor" the trees. the new house has cathedral ceilings so we decided to sponsor a tree. so here it is. the catch is, our 6ft ladder seems to be MIA. both the cute husband and i were sure we saw it at the new house but now cannot locate it.

i will keep you posted on how decorating the tree goes!

here comes the sun

though the move is over, the actually settling in is taking some time. and though lots of purging was done before the move, it wasn't quite enough. all items that were on the fence before moving, are now in the give away, recycling or trash pile.

but my knitting books are unpacked and in their bookcase. and after much searching and various unsuccessful starts, i finally found a baby hat pattern in said knitting books that i actually want to knit. trick is, it is for a co-worker leaving for maternity leave this week. oi! i better get started!

but first a view of a sunrise i made tea to a few mornings ago. made my day!

somewhere over the rainbow

the move is done. and the rug fits perfectly in the master bath! yay!

look out...old macky is back

so, i am not a costume gal. at all. so when hints were dropped during a directors meeting that costumes needed to be worn on halloween, i nearly choked on my dentures and i don't even have dentures.

then i remembered a costume i made for the big guy when he was in 1st or 2nd grade. and everything went swimmingly from there.

happy halloween, all saint's day and dia de las muertas. may all the spirits you meet be peaceful.

breathe...just breathe

so this is what i have been doing for the last month or so:

first it was the costume sweatshop where nine, count them, nine ranger jackets were made in one afternoon, as well as modifying some of the female gowns. then it was makeup. i am head makeup putter on-er so, with the director, i figure out which characters need what kind of makeup; then i experiment on some of the cast, get the directors feedback and finalize the "look" and what it entails; then we have a training day with the cast, show them what their makeup will look like, explain what it entails and have them run through putting it on themselves; then there are the musical run throughs and dress rehearsals where the makeup gets tweaked because it looks different under the lights and filters; then there are two weekends of performances. all of this around a 40hr + job.

i am a bit beat.

but instead of being able to rest, we get to pack because we are moving. yes moving. in 12 days.

the last few years have been a financial challenge for us and not having all of the expenses of owning a house will hopefully help us regroup. and so we are renters once again. of a house that is 400+ square feet smaller than our current one. which doesn't sound like much but it is. except for the fact it allows us to pare down, simplify, or, in essence, purge ourselves of 15 years worth of "collecting".

the important thing is the new house meets our stringent criteria of being within walking distance of my sweet friend's high school and allowing us to have the bbfd (big black furry dog). all of which i am grateful for, it makes the transition easier.

and so we weed through our various collections and we pack.

but i long to knit. and so i do. something mindless like the socks for soldiers. which fits the criteria of being lots of mindless knitting. thank heavens.

i have finished a couple of things though. the sweet little puffin hat for rachel and ryan's baby boy. made out of crystal palace puffin which is a delight to knit with. and will be very soft for a baby.

and i finished the bath mat designed by vyvyan at fishbone designs. i really like the way it came out. the picture doesn't really do it justice. honest. one of my goals this year was to do some color work. and though this is not really color work, i am color inept so i was a bit concerned how the colors would work together since the majority of this yarn was in my sugar n' cream stash. but it works. and i can't wait to use it in the master bathroom of the new house. oh boy!

oh thank you! thank you!

so the very sweet and generous worsted knitt nominated me for an "i love your blog" award. wow! i am truly honored. thank you! it is really quite fun!

and the best part is i now get to nominate 4 of my favorite blogs for this award. ohboy! ohboy! once you have been nominated for this award you need to:

Post the award on your blog.
Add a link to the person who gave you the award.
Nominate at least 4 other bloggers and add their links.

cool huh? so my nominations are: a simple yarn; tea and cakes; wish i were baking and fishbone designs. thank you all for always being such an inspiration for me. it is a joy!

rtfm

i finished the big guy's first sock. it came out really well. love the pattern, easy to knit, nice to look at. the sock fits him and he thinks it is comfortable. couldn't ask for much more.

so i was pretty excited to finish it. i knitted down to the needed number of stitches to bind off; kitchenered them up with a book for guidance instead of the usual knitting help dot com video (finally getting the hang of kitchener) and excitedly looked at the finished object as it popped off the needles. that is when i noticed something was amiss. how could it be? the toe seam was vertical to the sock. what!?! took another look, and my first assessment was right, the seam is vertical to the sock instead of horizontal. OI!

now i knit my socks on two circulars. and thanks to cat bordhi's great instructions, i can adapt any dpn pattern to a two circular pattern, no problem. whenever i came to a place that stumped me, out came the book for reference. but i knew what to do for toes so did not consult the book before i finished. which is why the toe seam ended up as it did. this is because each circular needle holds half of the instep stitches and half of the sole stitches. but as cat brodhi instructs in the book, all of the instep stitches need to be put on one needle and all of the sole stitches need to be put on the other needle. that way, the toe seam ends up being horizontal and not vertical. which i would have known had i read all the instructions in the book .

sigh. glad i discovered this now before more socks were needlessly maimed. and double glad that the big guy is a bit quirky so has no problem with the toe seam of his sock going vertical instead of horizontal. it hurts me to even think of it. sigh.

going around in circles

i did not get bit by the spring cleaning bug this past spring. usually i do the annual airing out the house after winter, but not this year. i am making up for it now though. i can not walk into a room in our house without cleaning, weeding out and rearranging things. my family, who does not understand my obsession with a clean house, is nervous. they never know what will greet them when they open a cupboard. oh well.

i also have been reading. granted i am re-reading the hp series, but i am mid-way into book six and cannot put it down. i know what happens. i mean, seriously. but i am gripped none the less and find myself reading a few pages in between chores.

and my sweet friend's fall musical is weeks away from opening. since i am head of makeup, there are workshops to conduct and rehearsals to attend; not to mention the costume sewing.

all of these things i truly enjoy doing. the downside is i have little time for knitting. coupled with the fact i am knitting mostly socks. i love knitting socks but not when it is the only thing i am knitting. so when i came across this rug designed by vyvyan at fishbone designs i went through my sugar 'n cream stash and cast on. but i long for a new shawl but don't want to cast on until i have finished a project, but there are so many other things going on and not enough time to knit and holiday knitting to start. and on and on and on...

if i were a dog trying to lay down, this going around in circles would be fine, but as a knitter it is not fun. sigh. at lease socks are portable!

cue madam dufarge

there is a young man at work, who, at the age of 23 will be starting his second tour of duty in afghanistan at the beginning of the year. this past spring, one of my nephews decided to enlist in the air force after graduating from high school instead of going to college. a former co-worker just informed me her 20 year old son just finished boot camp for the air force. and though i know all of these young men have consciously chosen this path, during wartime it gives me pause for concern.

how can i respect their choice when my view of what their options are is so very different? i knit socks of course. and knit into them all of my good wishes for their continued safety and good health.

while exploring “groups” in ravelry, i came across the group “socks for soldiers”. and though this is a ravelry support group of a much larger yahoo group, it inspired me to look into what it took to knit socks for soldiers. i discovered there is a regulation sock pattern to be knit out of regulation sock yarn out of various regulation sock yarn colors depending on what branch of the military is being knitted for. and you have to join the yahoo group in order to have access to these regulation items. so i joined the group and downloaded all of the various regulation items needed. thankfully knit picks is a big supporter of “socks for soldiers" so provides regulation sock yarn in the various regulation sock yarn colors. yay!

and though i am not really patriotic nor a supporter of the u.s. military machine, i felt the need to support these young men who are putting their lives on the line. and so i sit and knit socks. including them and their counterparts on my sock knitting list is the least i can do.

addendum 1:

the legion of honor sits on a section of lands end, which is a spit of land that overlooks the west side of the golden gate bridge and the pacific ocean. the views from lands end are truly glorious. after visiting the museum, i took a stroll along the eucalyptus lined parking lot just to see what the view would be at the end. little did i know, though d & t may have known, that one can walk from the legion of honor to the cliff house. the cliff house is at the end of geary street, perched on a rocky bluff, overlooking the pacific with waves crashing thunderously on the rocks below. it is really rather beautiful. and the views during this easy stroll were truly spectacular.

between the cliff house and the legion of honor is the uss san francisco memorial. this battleship survived pearl harbor, guadalcanal and some of the fiercest pacific sea battles of world war II. the memorial itself is actual sections of the bombed out bridge after the battle at guadalcanal. it sits on a bluff overlooking the pacific ocean toward the pacific rim it once fought in, surrounded by whispering trees. i sat in this injured bridge and knitted quite a few rows on the sock for the young man from work, hoping that the surviving spirit of this battleship would include itself in this sock and help this young man survive any challenge he may encounter.

addendum 1a:

that friday was a busy day. i went to the museum, did various shopping, then picked up my sweet friend and did various shopping with her. at the end of the day, while juggling various bags filled with various stuff, the bag containing the regulation sock and sock yarn disappeared. i did not notice it until saturday evening when i went to knit some on the sock. i searched all saturday night for it, sure that i had brought it in with the various other bags; i went through our garbage can with a flashlight, just to make sure it wasn't thrown out with one of the various other bags; on sunday, i retraced our steps, checking with the lost and founds of the various stores we had been to (you know you visit a store to much when the ladies at sephora know you and your knitting bags!). nothing. it seemed to be no where. late sunday afternoon, moments before i reached true despair, my cute husband found the knitting bag! it had been stuck under one of his heavy book bags he had placed on the love seat (which i had searched more than once) which had pushed the sock bag in between the cushion and the side. whew. my shining knight. and so the knitting continues.

may i introduce...

i took a couple of days off work this week. one day i just putzed about the house; on the second day, after dropping my sweet friend off at school, i drove into the city to catch the women impressionist exhibit at the palace of the legion of honor. a true delight!

the exhibit is of four painters, berthe morisot, marie bracquemond, eva gonzales and mary cassatt, which is the painter that drew me there. since i arrived as the exhibit opened, i was able to see all the pictures up close and personal. they were amazing. i have long been a fan of mary cassatt but i found myself equally drawn to the paintings of eva gonzales whose paintings were alive, vivid and quite passionate. truly stunning work. each artist had the ability to stop me in my tracks by at least two or three of their paintings.

on the way out, i stopped by the exhibit gift shop and purchased a pack of postcards that included copies of some of the exhibit paintings in hopes of framing a few. also picked up the last copy of one of my favorite mary cassatt prints. on the way home i made a quick stop at cheap pete's frame shop and was able to turn the favorite print into this. i show it here with a hank of sockpixie bambino sock yarn in the mary cassatt colorway. couldn't ask for much more.

feel the force, luke

i love knitting socks. this past spring i joined the ravelry socks of summer 08 group. and though i will never be able to finish socks as quickly as some can (how can knitters finish a pair in two days!?), i am having a great time knitting them and being inspired by socks others knit.

when i was taught to pick up stitches, the sock guru who taught me suggested not worrying about picking up the exact number of stitches suggested; she always said if more stitches were picked up then more gusset decreases would need to be done, no big deal; the main objective was not to have gaps along the heel or at the gusset. so when picking up stitches, i am always aware of how many stitches need to be picked up, but I am not locked into that number. i tend to pick up the stitches “by feel” of what is needed.

when I picked up the stitches for my cute husband’s second sock, I discovered I picked up more stitches on the first side then I did on the second. hmmm, interesting; did not think much of it, just kept knitting. after picking up stitches for the pair of sport socks I am knitting the big guy, i counted my stitches and realized I had picked up 10 more stitches on the right side then I did on the left. wow! sort of a big difference. though the second side did not look so bad, my scrupulous eye was able to spot maybe the smallest gap or two, but still nothing to frog over.

but it did make me aware that it would be a good idea to pay a wee bit more attention to the number of stitches i am picking up; that I may actually need to mix a little more logic to the “by feel” way of picking up stitches to make sure the sides were even.

sigh. where is yoda when you need him?

btw, discovered a couple of little gaps at the gusset where a stitch or two would have done wonders. rats.

and in case you are interested: pattern: lonnie's sport socks by rebecca mercier, found on ravelry; yarn: lorna's laces, shepherd striping sock, in caramel or harvest, not sure, from purl, nyc

what a delight

so i joined the ravelry "swap on a budget" group where the spending limit was $20. it is always such fun to put together a package to send some one, but it is real fun to get a package. on my doorstep on saturday was this box:

and inside this box was all of this...

who knew so much stuff could fit into a converse shoe box! there was a scarf; a hank of this great kraemer sterling silk and silver yarn that is screaming to become a stole or shawl; a citrus candle, a bottle of wool of the lamb wool shampoo; a cow figurine and udderly smooth hand lotion (yes i love cows!) and two packets of button chocolates, milk and dark! absolutely lovely! i was very excited and grateful. many, many thanks to my secret spoiler. you are the best!