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!

something not-so-new

umm, so those 'new, puffy diamond cables'? yeah, the chart totally calls for them to be knit the usual way. thanks, heroes.

(if you're wondering, i'm going to continue along as-is. it looks good, just different! consider it one of my 'pattern modifications'.)

also, if you knit, read this blog.

a few of my favorite things

i finally had some time last night to spend on valpuri, which is a bit of a marvel. i've knit up diamond cables before, but never quite with this stitch pattern. you basically do a C4B or C4F rather than keeping up with the purls in the pattern. the extra knit stitches are hidden behind the cabled knit stitches and make the cable knits more 'poofy' and 3D. very cool. let's take a close-up look:





i'd had a tough time of this one at the start because i was trying to follow a new-to-me cable pattern while watching heroes. we are almost done with season 1 (netflix!) and it's so engrossing, it's a bit frustrating to have glance down at a cable chart! so last night, while waiting for b to come home, i decided to download the podcast of last week's this american life and listen to that while knitting (much more successful). b and i had the opportunity to see ira glass in person a few weeks back as part of the USC Arts and Humanities Initiative: Visions and Voices series. he was as fantastic in real-time as he is on the radio. USC had tasked him with speaking about "the arts" specifically, so he came prepared with some really insightful pieces on what to expect upon entering a career in the arts - things like how it can take a long time to become truly GOOD at it (he played a hilarious clip from an interview he gave when he was a budding reporter). he also dissected the show for the audience, illustrating the narrative structure and showing how large a role music plays. it was very cool.

(that is also my favorite knitting bag pictured above with valpuri - from the strand in new york!)

have a great weekend!

sometimes i feel like this

i would be so much more motivated to ride my bike if furry animals would join me and clap along to my meanderings! (it would also help if it wasn't always so crazy hot out - or when not hot, raining.)

last night i finished up gretel and i love it! the yarn i used wasn't very drapey so i needed to pin down the back a bit to give it that true beret effect (otherwise it looks like a big colorful cabley puff on my head). photos to come, because the camera was busy last night...

stylized beauty shot!

awkward pose shot!

beige was having way too much fun taking photos - i had to extract her from the camera! anyway, i wanted to take these before i gave up the sweater so that i'd have something to put with the pattern when i finally type it up. i have to say - this sweater is SO soft and the blue sky cotton is surprisingly warm! i love it!

time to finish my teriyaki tofu burger (yum!).

...and unintended things*

so much for the hoodie



but new things make the bad memories go away


yep, that's really a new project on the progress bar on the right - and lack of progress on valpuri. while i was a good girl and finally ripped out the hoodie (yum, rowan summer tweed!), i didn't get much further than balling it up. i was inspired by everyone's urchin FOs from knitty that i was compelled to knit up a beret of my own. except i desperately needed some cable work; the laura sweater didn't require a whole lot of detail knitting which, being as A-type as i am, i adore. i love ysolda's patterns and had to have this one (bought snow white too - it'll be queued up one of these days)!

i couldn't get a photo of my gretel WIP that's color-correct, so you'll have to trust me that it's awesome. i know most knitters don't love variegated yarn with cabling but this piece is so bohemian i decided it would be a good fit. even with the whole bunch of orange that turned up in the middle of the ball, i haven't been disappointed so far!


*those would be the gretel yarn (was planning to hit the stash) and stitchionary. you go for needles, you come back with more. save me from the LYS!

the best intentions

beige, mike, and bryan rock out to lcd soundsystem; mike does most of the rockin'



this is lcd soundsystem. i swear.


i know i promised photos but... while our seats were decent, they weren't close enough for my lil camera to do the trick. the trick being 'focus in the dark on things far, far away'. i'll post videos of the show if they end up on youtube - someone always puts them up on youtube - but for now i'll leave you with this:




(the show was pretty great. lcd soundsystem was totally on - b and i hope to catch them in a smaller venue sometime soon. the arcade fire was having some sound issues; i blame the french horns.)

thursdays are for frogging

laura on the block!

last night i finally finished laura. this is a sweater i have been knitting up for a coworker, based on an old discontinued GAP sweater that she adores. i am really happy with how it turned out and it is SO soft - blue sky organic cotton, people. it is amazing!

i also spent some time watching heroes and ripping out an ill-fated hoodie. i have GOT to trust my knitterly instincts more; if i think it's going to be too big when i'm knitting it, it's going to be too big. in this case, 'too big' = elephantine. ah well. the yarn is a lovely rose-colored rowan summer tweed and it is going to be repurposed for valpuri, which i hope to start this weekend.

tonight, assuming the rain holds off, is going to be a very good night. photos to come!

welcome, welcome

look at that lovely old post down there. it is so lovely and old. i hate myspace so i'm comin' back. you'll find me here from this point forward!

this is a patch i made from a lovely illustration by the very talented ashley goldberg.

pasadena & punk

Had the most fantastic Saturday and spent Sunday on the couch as a result. Yeeps!

Saturday started out with a subway ride (yes, subway!) here. I spent four fun hours knitting away on my sister's top-secret b-day gift while watching fashion shows, scoring free needles (#15's, of the knitting sort), and practicing 'yoga for knitters'.

(Picture stolen from Wendy. Sorry Wendy. I'm lame.)

See me on the left-hand side? Half of me? In the cute green apple-print shirt that you can't really see? Right.

I think I injured a few vertebrae.


When I got home from the knitting extravaganza, I crashed on the couch for an hour before Leslie stopped by to pick me up for Brandon's party. Good party. Someone send me pictures!


Sunday I needed to recuperate. I attempted to find shoes for my halloween costume, to no avail. Then i settled down to watch this and this (as I somehow miraculously completed Nicole's b-day gift in 6 hours the day prior) and nap. A lot.


Monday's nice and rainy with a chance of shrug knitting to some good 'ole Sex Pistols!