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!

the disapproving rabbit...

...disapproves.


(mr. b was totally disturbed by the camera. he wasn't having any of it!)

pretty things

why, what's this? yes, more yarn - soon to be armwarmers. knitpick's andean silk in colorway pitch. yumm! (thanks for the recommendation, lk!)

and here is your patrick wolf for the day:

the libertine

i'm still running off of last night's high - the best live show i've been to in a very, very long time.






i'm not really sure how to explain patrick wolf (and my photos do him no justice). for one, the boy is only 23. and he is unbelievably talented. i was utterly in awe of him when i first discovered his latest album, the magic position. when i read that he was giving up live performance, i was really upset because this was one guy i wanted to see. badly. well, he must have something of a tumultuous (or fickle?) soul, because shortly after, he announced a US tour. and he played the el ray last night in good 'ole downtown los angeles.

the performance was amazing. i thought his albums had tremendous energy - but they're nothing to his live show. he somehow seemed to keep eye contact with everyone in the room. his outfits were fantastic. and the crowd was so into him. no half-paying-attention chatting with neighbors. just dancing, dancing, dancing and singing.

if and when he comes back? i'm there.

and veggie score to boot!

it just keeps getting better!

when i got home tonight i found a box on our front porch. it was filled with this:


yumm, organic produce from paradise o. we decided to give this home delivery company a try because we were not eating enough fruits and veggies and it was making me sad. i immediately cooked up some of the spinach with a little olive oil and crushed red pepper to go with my brown rice and bharta (cost plus world market style!). the spinach was amazingly fresh and just delish. so was this:


TJ's tiramisu ice cream with cinnamon-cooked bosc pears. i kind of made that one up after reading a couple of recipes. it involved spiced cider, white and brown sugar, red wine, and of course cinnamon and pears!

time to wind down. 'night!

yarn score!

i kind of can't believe this: i had completely forgotten that a pal owed me, and we found ourselves at unwind yesterday. all of a sudden she suggests she pays me back in yarn! SCORE! i am now the proud owner of this:




oh yeah, that's six skeins of berroco ultra alpaca light and seven of misti alpaca worsted. oh, they're both gorgeous. the misti alpaca is 100% baby alpaca and just unbelievably soft. i can't wait to work with them! i have a cute, form-fitting cardi planned in my head for the berroco and plan to spend some time with my vogue stitchionary soon!

valpuri's doing well - i'm just about to split for the neck on the front. maybe i'll actually finish this weekend? i don't want to jinx myself!

now let's all go take a nap with maeve and as always, KNIT ON!

a little diversion

... and now back to your regularly scheduled program. (just. couldn't. help. myself!)

the new love of my life

it's been one of those weeks: i have to take a mild sedative every single night because i'm designing things in my head. i place the blame on a new book i recently bought. but really, i should know better than to read things in bed that make me think.


what is this? why, a photo of gretel! finally!



and this! this is the new love of my life. shh, don't tell b.

a whole lot goin' on

as i suspected (oh, i know myself far too well), i spent a good chunk of time on saturday playing around on ravelry. but first i had to photograph all of my older knits.


::loop-d-loop ballet t::
::cable scarf::
::rowan 38 eowyn arm warmers::
::loop-d-loop hooded capelet::
these are some of my favorite pieces. teva durham's loop-d-loop book is absolutely beautiful. so many of the designs are simple, intuitive, and fun to knit!


just because i was busy pretending to be a photographer doesn't mean i didn't get some work done on valpuri:



the back is finished! i've cast on and am about 15 rows into the front. look at me all being a one-track, blinders-on knitter! when did that happen?


while i'm at it, here's one of my favorite spaces in our house (where i photographed valpuri - it gets the most natural light):


it's so colorful and full of wonderful books and plants. makes me happy!




look, mom, i can keep some plants alive!

and the wait is over!

more things i adore

::magic jelly's gone to earth pocket mirror::
::j. mendicino's ceramic pigeon vases::
::daria tessler's tree-boat print::

one day, maybe i will actually possess these things. in the meantime, i'll just lust after them!

(last night, after beige and mike fed me (yumm!), i started the armhole decreases in valpuri - just 20 or so more rows to go on the back panel!)

1850 more to go!

that's right, folk. only 1850 people ahead of me in the waitlist for ravelry. that means i should get my invitation in four days. FOUR DAYS, PEOPLE! oh, after all this waiting... and by the end of the week to be up and running? please, everyone, excuse me if i disappear from all known subliminalrabbit activity while i get my first fill!

in other knitting news, i am continuing to work away on valpuri. i have two knit nights coming up - tuesday craft night with beige and hopefully the burbank SnB on wednesday - so i'm hoping to be done with the back panel this week! ahh, if only i had more time to knit.

also, i've uploaded the pattern for the laura sweater. right now it's only available in a size 34" bust but i've promised to do the maths for a size 38" soon.

honestly i didn't get a whole lot of knitting done this weekend because we had big! events! on saturday b and i trekked down to the beverly hills public library (not part of the los angeles public library system) for a george saunders reading. with the price of admission we each received a copy of his new book of collected nonfiction/essays, the braindead megaphone. i love his fiction so immediately started reading while we waited for the event to start. this man is just brilliant. in fact, he's a certified genius! first up saunders read from his new book. then he brought up miranda july to read one of his short stories. that was less fun; she tried to hold the microphone while turning the pages of the book. and read bits in a really odd voice. overall clunky and completely unprepared.

but better than what was to come - some silly radio interview. the host asked so many leading questions - too many about saunder's mcarthur prize - and it just wasn't the intimate Q&A forum we had expected. ah well. saunders answered all of the radio host's questions beautifully, at least.

and last but not least, here are some photos from sunday's outing at the la county fair!:



yumm! and stuff!



these bulls have big horns


have a lovely day, all!