refresh, refresh

new glasses. new yarn and a new WIP. sometimes i need a little new.

mister ups man, bring me a dream!

a few weeks ago, my long-time pal (and original knitting teacher!) malaraky asked me if i wanted to do a mini knit-along for stefanie japel's textured tunic, since we both had it in our ravelry queues.


umm, yes please!

i immediately hit up my favorite online yarn stores to see if i could find a deal on something that would get me somewhere near the right gauge. this one's tricky - the yarn called for is a heavy worsted bordering on bulky. lucky for me, WEBS was having a huge sale on rowan ryc soft tweed! single ply, pink tweedy goodness? yumm...

of course, the yarn has been sitting in an ups depot 16 miles away for three days and i'm dying here. i haven't cast on for anything new because i don't want to be distracted when this yarn arrives - goodness knows i don't need another WIP. jemima, well, i'm planning to rip out a major side/sleeve seam and block before finishing, and i just haven't been in the right frame of mind for something so unpleasant; life's been too unpleasant lately. but i did rip snow white so i can cast on the next size up when i'm ready. that's something. and the new yarn's out for delivery today!

while i was at it, i ordered some rowan big wool for this:


could anything be more jennifer ehle in bbc's pride & prejudice? well, maybe if the sleeves weren't so belled. and in my version, the sleeves won't be so belled!

so this weekend while my hands were crazy itching for my new yarn, i had to knit something. and i recently joined hat attack!. this is probably one of the most insane ravelry/yahoo groups i've associated myself with, and it's silly fun. basically on feb 9 i'll get an email with the mailing address of my target, along with a hat pattern i need to knit up quick quick quick. i have to finish the hat and get it in the mail to my target before my hat assassin sends a hat to me. then i get the info for my target's target, along with their partially-finished hat. see how optimistic i am about this one? anyway, the gauge has been released for the pattern so i've been swatching in preparation - a little head start, if you will...


oh yeah, i'm gonna kick at this thing!

no good can come of duarte

one of the reasons i'm not going totally crazy living in LA is that one weekend you can be on the top of the world and it looks like this*:






and then the next weekend you can be on the top of the world and it looks like this**:






yes, folks, you can find some serious snow less than an hour's drive from los angeles. and boy did i need it this weekend...

mr b's EC titer results came in yesterday, and they're just as high as lil b's. looks like both my little guys have some unwelcome brain parasites. lil b's progress on the fenbendaz is promising, though - she's still stumbling quite a bit but her head isn't tracking to the right as often anymore. and mr b has yet to show signs of any neurological issues, so... fingers crossed the meds prevent it from progressing to that state.

ah, why oh why can't things just be easy?!

(knitting? tomorrow, please.)



*mount lowe, a nice, dusty 2.7 mi trek up up up!

**mount baldy, a nice, wet who knows how far up. we got as far as the ski lodge and then lost the trail to the skiers!

testing, testing

lil b's titer came back on the high end of the moderate-positive block. i'm told this means her body has produced a high number of antibodies to combat the e. cuniculi parasite. while we can't be 100% certain that EC is the cause of her neurological issues, it's definitely the best guess. there is no cure and there is a good chance she will have balance issues for the rest of her life - if not constantly, then on and off.

i can't wait to get home from work and spend some time with my little girl. now i know we've got to get her used to this disability so as not to impact her quality of life because it's probably not going to go away.

over & over again

let's start out with some knitting, shall we? it's been a long, long time since we've seen any knitting on here. that doesn't mean i haven't been hard at work!:


jemima is almost done; i've only the seaming, button band, and collar left. i'd probably have all of that finished up but for a wayward sleeve, seen above, which required extensive ripping twice (hence the lifeline at the bottom of the cap). okay, maybe it's not fair to blame the sleeve. but i'm sure glad we made up! the frog tree yarn is deliciously soft and light and i can't wait to get this sweater put together.

lil bunny is much the same; still tilting toward the right day in and day out. so i decided to force her to try to hop about.

you want me to what?

she's a bit scared to move with anything other than the most tentative of steps (and even that, not often); i'm nervous her muscles might start to atrophy if this goes on too long. so out into the living room she came, with cole to help nudge her along.


baby steps.

happy new year?

where to start? lil b - she's doing okay. we have her on several meds while we await the results of some tests. it's probably either an inner ear infection or this. fingers crossed it's the former, as there's no cure for the latter (and it's contagious amongst the bunnies - yay). at least it's generally not fatal - just sometimes physically debilitating. poor girl is still very dizzy and not terribly mobile but at least now she's found a way to control a nasty head tick that she was unable to shake for about 24 hours.

so. what's a stressed and worried girl to do? why, watch as her friends make light of themselves with some good 'ole high school musical karaoke.






we sure know how to party, don't we?

* * *
now that it's the new year, i can finally show off my secret holiday projects! first up is a baby sweater i've dubbed ellie berry for my little niece baylie.


oh, isn't she just the cutest thing? here's a close-up on the sweater; i'm in love with the buttons!:


and here are a couple of hats for b's family, quietly blocking:




and before i head to bed, i just have to show off all the amazing knitting and sewing books i received over the holidays from family and friends, all of which are geared towards helping me create original garments. i love you guys!

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!