lil bunny

lil b is experiencing some severe balance/nervous system issues and we're off to the doctor this AM. please keep us in your thoughts.

feliz navidad

there's nothing quite like christmas in vermont.

(thanks, mom, for the photos!)

you! me! dancing!

once upon a time...

...our heroine discovered that an xs snow white sweater was just not going to fit, because it was a 'true' xs and not an anne taylor xs. so she duly called up knit picks and lo and behold! they had more yarn in the right dye lot! so she put the sweater aside to work on holiday gifts and await the miraculous skein.

her wait was long and arduous, complicated by cables and twisted rib. finally, frustrated with the wait, she called again. the skein was lost. and no more of the same dye lot was to be found. now she sourly awaits an it might match well enough bit of yarn to arrive before she makes the decision whether or not to rip.*

my birthday gift from the folks was 870 yards of frog tree worsted alpaca, so this weekend i cast on for anna bell's jemima sweater.


and i quickly discovered that 1x1 ribbing in very drapey single-ply alpaca just isn't going to work, no matter how you tug and block. rip, rip, rip!


twisted rib. much better.

i spent most of friday evening going through all my knitting books and magazines looking for the perfect pattern for this yarn (it is so soft and squishy, oh man). and i noticed something:


umm, these are IK winter 2006 and IK winter 2007. slump much?

happy hanukkah!



*luckily, our heroine has enough stash yarn of another variety to knit up this lovely sweater some other day.

celebrate! holiday!

that's right! lil old me turned a whopping 28 today. i celebrated by going to a show last night (vampire weekend at the echo - good but definitely overhyped; i liked one of the opening bands, grand ole party much more), taking the day off today, and getting a massage. mmm...


i opened the box from my sister a couple of days early by mistake. i swear! i've been ordering like mad from amazon myself (holidays and all you know) and i assumed this box was a gift i'd bought for someone else! anyway, look at all the lovelies. i'm already planning projects inspired by the two books and enjoyed m. hulot the night it arrived!

i received lots of other wonderful gifts but as the light's fading, photos will have to wait until another day. let's just say that if i ever get stuck on the moon, i won't be hard-pressed for sugary desserts!

umm, so...


i also bought this gorgeous, soft hand-embroidered number for myself at a craft fair on saturday. amaranth said i deserve it! (she ended up going home with beautiful pajamas made by sweet p, who was actually at the fair!) i'm not usually so spendy (it wasn't cheap) but i got a little early b-day surprise on friday - a promotion at work. so happy birthday to me!

somethin's a cookin'

i needed to give secret project #2 a good soak and figured i might as well throw in my favorite scarf, which was getting a bit dingy. if you've never used this wool wash, well. it's pretty great. some of the scents are a bit much for me but i love aquae. nice and light - and no need to rinse!

it might finally be winter

it's a balmy 53 degrees here in southern california. my mom keeps sending me photos of the snow cover in vermont and i got to see a bit of it myself in ohio over the holiday break:


thanksgiving was wonderful; b's family is so nice and we spent quite a bit of time playing guitar hero and wii golf (b's grandma even got in on the action!). despite the overly melodramatic warnings of every news show on television and the radio, traveling was a cinch - no car or people traffic in sight! i'm none too pleased to be back at the grindstone but at least the holidays are coming up! (and yes, that's a new holiday secret project in the progress bar at right. if you're on ravelry you can see it here. i'm a glutton for punishment.)

in ohio we had a triple birthday celebration and i received some wonderful gifts from b's family:


rooster cookie jar and holiday mug


yay! a fabulous stitch pattern book!


yummy candle made in b's hometown
very little progress made on snow white during the long weekend due to tara the terror, b's parents' new golden doodle pup who loves to jump! jump! jump! on me! ah well. i think i'll have to put it aside until after the hols anyway.

it's foggy out there

also? my office is a mess.

as time goes by

we had plans for sunday. oh, did we have plans. which were all thrown out the window the moment we found out a local TRU had just gotten a new shipment of these:


at which point we completely forgot everything we were supposed to do on sunday, ran out the door, and snatched one up. the three people behind us in line got the last three systems. seriously close. happy birthday to us!

TRU was having a special on games too, so we got this, this, and this. all of which we tested out, along with the prepacked wii sports. so. much. fun.

i got in some knitting time while bryan played zelda, though. i'm just about to start the body shaping for ysolda's snow white:


the knitpicks shine is an absolute delight to work with: it's super soft and just flies along on the needles. sheds a little, but not too badly. oh, and wednesday night i finished up secret project #1. if you're on ravelry you can see photos here.

more to report but i'm out of time. 'later!

we've come a long, long way together

come one, come all! magnificent writers reading in a great, high-ceilinged bar that regularly plays a lot of the cure and the ramones - organized by b and our friend amaranth. always a good time!

what the cat dragged in

i guess maeve heard that there'd be a huge discount on cotton ease at the local michael's today. i've never used this yarn but so many indie designers swear by it, i'm glad she brought some home for me!

(seriously, though, i'm done buying yarn until i knit up at least two sweaters from my stash!)


i've also had a lovely package from my mom full of adorable patterned flannels! i'm to sew them up into closed-ended tubes and send them back to vermont, where my mom will fill them with dried corn. you put them in the microwave for 2-3 minutes and viola! heating pads!

we could use some here, because b and i have been kind of sick this weekend. actually, i've been kinda sick and b's been quite sick. so i thought this would be a good opportunity to throw all of our leftover veggies in a pot before our next organic delivery comes on monday.


veggie broth, tinned tomatoes, bow-tie pasta, and fresh garlic, string beans, cauliflower, celery, and parsley. oh, and a bit of dried basil (the store was out of fresh). i just winged this one and it turned out very yummy and soothing on our sore throats!

keep warm!

nearsighted

it's been a long week. a long, long, long week.


wednesday night work sent me to the hannah montana concert at the staples center. if you don't know who hannah montana is, you must not interface with ten year old girls, like, ever. the place was completely sold out and we got to sit near the likes of heather locklear, andy garcia, kobe bryant, and steven spielberg. no joke!

i escaped partway through the 'miley cyrus' portion of the event to hoof it to the troubador to see architecture in helsinki. much more my speed. as always, they put on a fantastic show. this is one of those bands that sounds even better live than they do on their CDs.




i've decided that my camera simply hates taking photos of moving objects without the flash. does that mean i'll give up trying? probably not.

then thursday night work sent me to the cheetah girls concert. ohboy. there was a huge mixup with the invite list and we were close to bailing before one of the girls' managers came and helped us out.

needless to say, i slept hard last night and am fighting off a burgeoning cold!

oh! but! tuesday night - i went to the inaugural meeting of the rose city knitters, a new pasadena knitting group started through ravelry. the women were wonderful and i'll be attending this one regularly!

a distinct need to nap

magnificent things afoot

i knit knit knit this weekend. finished up the marsan watchcap in the requisite couple of hours:


and started secret project #1:


and that's all you'll be seeing of secret project #1 until after the hols!

a great thing about dining with my friend the other night, besides the fabulous company and meal?


that friend works for sanrio. oh, does she ever.

exactly what i needed

last night i had a lovely meal and drinks with a friend downtown, which kicked off my weekend in just the right way. and then i come home to find 11 skeins of knit picks shine worsted? oh, bliss. i scored this stash on sale for $2 a skein and it is earmarked for ysolda's snow white. i am having a really, really difficult time not casting on.

but i'm trying to be a good girl. after the disaster of last week's andean silk armwarmers i decided i needed an easy project, and the marsan watchcap was definitely the right choice. it's perfect for the yarn and i was able to knit almost the entire thing while watching bread and tulips this afternoon (which, by the way, i highly recommend). after this i really need to get going on a secret holiday something, but i might just end up with two projects on the needles...

nap time!

mmmnf

this post was going to be longer but i'm having an incredibly grumpy week, and i just can't muster up the energy. so i'm just going to leave you with a photo of a couple of lovely new acquisitions.


thanks to beige for the gift yarn! (oasis farm fiber mill bunny blend - an angora/wool blend. yumm!) now i'm going to knit my way through lunch whilst catching up on work emails and hope i can make it to dinner tonight.

it's the most wonderful time of the year

i love autumn. i woke up this morning and actually needed my slippers. my car was covered in cold dew. and i can wear those very neglected sweaters!


24 more hours of blocking and valpuri's good to go. i'm definitely taking her for an inaugural outing tomorrow. can't wait!

unfortunately, this week's knitting has been less productive than usual. i'm trying to work a herringbone eyelet lace pattern with 4-ply worsted weight yarn and, well, the stitch and the yarn just aren't getting along. this is the net result of two nights' work:


sad, sad lil swatch. i've tried different needle types and sizes, thought i finally was ready to go, and then every time i cast on something would go wrong. i think i recast at least five times last night. so now i face a decision: different yarn or different stitch pattern? i'm leaning towards different yarn - something lighter and with a tighter ply, if any at all. this yarn is the lovely knitpicks andean silk which is so nice and soft and squishy, so i'll probably knit up a marsan watchcap with it instead - something simple i can embellish and personalize.

by the way, have you seen the new kim hargreaves pattern book yet, heartfelt? i think i'm in love.

(a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my lil sister, and halloween post to come!)

the encounter

this hour brought to you by...

it felt like a nice, long weekend for once - probably because we spent friday night out rather than in the house slow-cooking in front of the tv as usual. so a very happy b-day shout-out to blake who provided our friday night festivities. late-late we checked out the griffin which was incredibly hipster-ish in ambiance and music but not in patronage, which appeared to be the usual hollywood set. and it was loud. maybe on a thursday night i could handle it.

saturday saw knitting, knitting, and more knitting. and also a trip to the local laemmle for lars and the real girl. loved it! it's an absolutely sweet story about a twentysomething struggling to deal with his mom's death in childbirth (his) when his sister-in-law becomes pregnant - and a small town's willingness to help him no matter how bizarre the process might be.

while we were burning some time before the movie started, bryan bought me this book:


it is wonderful! edited by dave eggers and with an introduction by sufjan stevens, all proceeds go to 826. i highly recommend it!

and, so yes, i finally finished valpuri! now, i am a decent seamstress when it comes to knits, but man this was a tough one. the rowan summer tweed had serious self-loathing issues: it kept snagging on itself, often breaking. i had SO MANY joins in the seams it's ridiculous. ah well. she's now wet-blocking on the counter until she's dry enough for the dress form.


no one seems to have told my computer that daylight savings time was pushed back a week. oops.

pow!

today is a sharing day. i'm not sure where i first saw these things but i mainly blame CRAFT's blog. it is great for all sorts of zany procrastination! let's start with...


...the world's biggest yarn stash! ohyes. mochimochi's MIL is the proud owner of enough yarn to start not one, not two, but i would say at least three entire local yarn stores.

next up is...


...yarn made from old newspapers! utterly amazing. and probably very difficult to work with.

and finally...


...the knit octopus muffler. isn't it just beautiful?

on a personal note, valpuri's first sleeve is done! now please excuse me while i polish off my kung pao tofu.

it's getting better every day

i guess things are clearing up out there because the local networks have dumped the constant fire newsfeed and are back to their regularly scheduled programming. so don't worry - if you live in the socal area, you don't have to catch up on your favorite soaps at 3:05AM anymore.

contrary to what you might think, i have been hard at work on valpuri.


front and back are done and the first sleeve has been started! and stopped, and ripped, and restarted! it's at a happy place now, though, so if these exhausting smoke-induced headaches go away some day in the near future, i might actually finish this puppy over the weekend. and by 'puppy' i mean 'sweater'.

and on the topic of things that are not, in fact, puppies:


some more new ikea purchases! the lighting in our living room leaves a lot to be desired (although we just got a fabulous new lightbulb for the overhead that seems to be helping). so we bought this absolutely beautiful new lamp - and a short bookcase for it to sit atop! we needed additional shelving for the dozens of books for b's latest classes, so this solved both problems. i am very happy with the way our decorating is coming along!

and on a final note, the interweave knits winter 2007 preview is up! photos that catch my eye: the alicia tabard, forbes forest pullover, and citrus yoke pullover. honestly, i will probably not knit any of these - my ravelry queue is long enough as it is - but it's good to see the latest fashions (seriously, what's up with swing jackets this season?). and i'm really, really curious about the construction of alicia tabard.

baby, it's smoky outside

seriously, it's like an instant headache out there. luckily, i have a cure-all with me: a nice fluffy sweet red bean roll and green tea!

so i thought i'd take this (less than ideal) opportunity to post some photos of one of the locations currently engulfed in flames. ll and i took the 2-hour trip inland last weekend to lake arrowhead for a wedding. this was what we encountered on the trip up:




fog, fog, and more fog. pretty, but not fun to drive through. the way back was pretty amazing, though:




all that stuff that looks like a big white sea? clouds. utterly beautiful. i sure hope this land can be saved, but there are so many fires right now, there's a lot of 'prioritizing' going on. such a shame.

because, you know, i really need another hobby

i don't know what got into me. one minute i'm happily packing up to leave work; the next, i have dozens of skeins of embroidery floss in my lap. yep, i've finally lost it.

so yesterday was spend pretending i know how to embroider and navigating our way through ikea. let's let lil b model one of our finds:


finally! decent drawers for the bookcase! we can't keep books in the lower shelves of the study because the bunnies like to nibble on them - so we had quite a bit of wasted space. these drawers allowed me to clean up my work table so i can actually use it and all in all, life's much more organized.

today i'm doing a bit of knitting and then it's off to see the darjeeling limited, finally! b and i have both been dying to see this one but just haven't had a chance. i'll report back!