swatching

i have a problem. and the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem. so here goes - i am a pathological starter. oh you know what i mean. you spy a cute sweater/hat/scarf/socks in a new magazine or on someone's blog and suddenly you need one, too. nevermind that you have 10 other projects on the needles. you need it now! and half the time you're not even using stash yarn. and then one day you wake up and realize that you're cold and that you have nothing to wear because you never finish anything. sigh. i am trying to be better about starting too many projects. i really think it's best if i only have a few things on the needles at once so i can actually finish something. that being said, i started swatching tonight for a shrug/sweater from knit 2 together. when this book first came out, i thought some of the projects were cute but i wasn't dying for anything. but then i saw this post and just had to make the shrug from the book. happily it's only $7 (dang - i just looked and the price has dropped to $5.50. get a copy now!!) on amazon right now so you bet i ordered it. the patterns in it are actually really cute and i can see myself making a bunch of things from it. so i started swatching for it tonight.



i am using a lovely gray-green shade of malabrigo (another problem i have) merino worsted called vetiver. i think i am pretty close to gauge here but i am going to try a swatch one needle size up, too, just to be sure. malabrigo march is starting soon on ravelry and i want to be prepared.

anyway, if i keep my word, you'll be seeing some fo's on the blog soon. :)

happy lunar new year

i can't believe that it's the middle of february already. where does the time go? knitting wise, i've been really inspired lately by ravelry and various blogs and books. i just bought intertwined yesterday and i love it. it's from the person behind pluckyfluff and it's a book about spinning one-of-a-kind yarns and also includes projects for these yarns and bios on people who make the yarns. i don't spin and don't know if i ever will, but it's just so inspiring to see these awesome creations. my mom also sent my a wonderful package this week containing some new year's presents that included some really great sock yarn. i am too lazy to take a picture right now but i am very excited about them. hopefully i'll be able to translate some of this enthusiasm into actual knitting progress. i am so good at starting things but never very good at finishing. i've got some bad cold/flu right now so i am going to hunker down on the couch with a new project i've started. it's cotton and cabled and will hopefully be cute. i'll take pictures when i get a chance.

happy valentine's day! xoxo

fresh start

wow it's been so long since my last post. i seem to say that a lot, but really, with work and everything else, i have a really hard time updating regularly. that's not to say that i'm not knitting or reading blogs every day. it just takes a lot of effort for me to post and i always feel like a need pictures (good ones, hopefully) and something to say. and what with ravelry, it's become so easy to just plug in info to keep track or your projects. and i spend hours just looking at new patterns or what other people have been knitting. it's so addictive. so i am going to try again to see if i can post more often. i am not making any promises but we'll see what happens.

the holiday season was spent doing a lot of gift knitting. i finally finished the stained glass scarf from scarf style that i've been making for my brother for over a year. it came out very nice in the end, but i really don't know if i'd make it again. working each row twice on little needles was not my favorite experience ever but the finished product was really nice.

pattern: stained glass scarf
from: handknit holidays by melanie falick
materials: almost 2 skeins araucania nature wool in brown & 1 1/4 skeins claudia handpaint fingering in eat your veggies
needles: us 4/3.5mm addi circrs

started: july 2005
completed: december 2007

mods: the only real mod i made was to co only 40 stitches to make a narrower scarf. my brother doesn't like wide scarves. other than that i did as the pattern stated and just kept knitting until i was almost out of the brown wool. the scarf ended up over 6' long but my brother likes them long.

i have a few more finished projects to put up (hopefully) in the next week or so. i have also recently fallen in love with malabrigo merino worsted yarn. i'd seen it before and heard fabulous things, but i didn't actually try it until a couple of months ago. since then, it's the only thing i want to knit with and i've amassed quite a little stash of it. with a new year comes the promise of a clean slate. i am really hoping to finish or frog some old projects and start working into the stash. i really have so much yarn and i should use it. that way i can buy more. :) happy new year, everyone!

labor day meltdown

4 whole days off of work and of course it's the hottest it's been all year long. it's been well over 100 degrees every day this past weekend. sadly i only have a pathetic wall unit a/c so the only thing i've managed to do is shop and go to the movies (and there aren't very many good things out in theaters right now). movie rundown:

war - my parents are visiting and they wanted to see this. pretty much what you would expect - lots of action and killing but little plot or character development. there was kind of an interesting twist at the end though.

nanny diaries - meh. i think the story was interesting and i loved the last movie that the two directors did (american splendor) but i just didn't feel sympathetic for anyone in this movie except maybe the kid. the voice over was also annoying.

death at a funeral - really funny and charming. i didn't really know what to expect of it but i liked it a lot. plus it has alan tudyk in it. :)

the invasion - going to see that tonight. i don't know if it's going to be any good at all but i need the a/c.

off to beat the heat. stay hydrated!

hot day in the park

i know everyone in blogdom has been talking about it already, but ravelry is really awesome! i got in a few months ago but didn't really go on until this past week. i love that you can put patterns in your queue and look at everyone else's version of it. it's easy to spend ours on it just looking up patterns and seeing what's out there. i am super excited about all of the new fall patterns and yarns coming out. i just got the new rowan and interweave knits and there are a bunch of things that i want to knit from both. also did a little stash enhancing this weekend. i got 3 skeins of kaalund silk lace yarn from knitter's studio. never been to the shop before but very nice yarn and nice staff. not sure what i am going to do with this yarn, perhaps the honeybee stole or another shawl, but i just could not resist the color. it's called "forest floor."



the weather this week has also been a bit more condusive to knitting than it has this past summer. when it's over 100 outside and you don't have central air, knitting inside your steamy room isn't always the activity of choice. but it's been a bit cooler this week (it even sprinkled a bit today) and my friend took the opportunity to throw a little homemade soup/knitting party. nothing better than good snacks, good friends and knitting. i worked on a new project (yeah yeah i'll finish the old projects another day), inspired by ravelry and the wonderful new yarn i bought at unwind this week. they got in a whole huge new shipment of colinette jitterbug sock yarn and i couldn't resist. i saved 2 skeins for the beginnings of a chevron scarf.



the colors are gaugin and bright charcoal and i really like how they go together. apologies for the crappy picture but it's dark in my apt. i also saw stardust and superbad in the last week and both were really good. they could not be more different but i enjoyed them both immensely. check them out if you haven't already. well i am off to knit a bit more on the chevron scarf before i go to bed. hope everyone had a good weekend!

running

no time to post. comic-con (or commie-con as my friends like to call it) was awesome, as usual. it was really crowded this year, though. even after standing in line for almost 2 hours, i didn't get in to the heroes panel. that was kind of a bummer. but we saw lots of other cool stuff and i bought lots of fun things. i'll try to post about them more later but right now i am off to catch a plane to nashville, where i will be visiting a friend for a week. see you when i get back!

man, the heat in my apartment is almost unbearable. i am practically sweating as i sit here typing this out. my place is one of those places that sucks in the heat of the day and just won't let it go. i just hope it's a little cooler in a few hours so i can go to sleep. things are busy as usual around here. work's just crazy. new stuff keeps coming in every day and it feels like i may never catch up. i can only hope not to get too far behind. but i can't really complain because i have a new office (though the air in there doesn't always work) at least. i've been staying so late at work that i am too tired when i get home at night to do much knitting. i've been really neglecting it, but i am going to try to make an effort to take some time out to knit just for me. i finished one thing lately. well really half of a pair. i originally started making these fingerless gloves for my brother. he likes things really snug and tight so i made these small on purpose. unfortunately they're too small so they're going to my mom. making the little fingers was a pain but i think it looks cute.



i am making these with rowan ryc cash soft yarn and it's really nice. i bought some ryc cash cotton in blue to make my brother a new pair. i also got an amazing yarn treat in the mail today. yarn from the harry potter sock club from sunshine yarns. i saw the movie a couple of weeks ago and i liked it a lot. much better than my memory of the book (my least favorite out of all of them so far) but the movie put everything together nicely. but back to sock yarn. i received my first installment of the sock club yarn and here it is:



it's called "another weasley," named, of course, after the weasley family from the potter books. it's a great color and i love the inspiration behind it. not sure what i am going to make out of it yet but i can't wait to knit with it.

and i saw a great little film last night called broken english, directed by zoe cassevettes and starring parker posey. it's just a great story about a woman in her early 30's struggling with her life and her search for love. parker posey was really great in it and justin theroux makes and appearance (super cute) and there's an charming french actor in it (melvil poupaud) who is just so sweet and lovely. and drea de matteo plays posey's best friend. you should check it out if you get the chance.

i'm off to take a cool shower now and finish packing, as i am off to san diego tomorrow for the comic convention. it's gonna be so much fun. have a good weekend!

beach bunny

it's been a really long time since my last post. i don't know what happened but i guess life kind of just got in the way. there's been a lot of drama at work lately and that's put an enormous amount of stress on me. however, the smoke is starting to clear a bit and i think things might be under control soon. i went to hawaii (awesome!) and came back right before the fourth of july holiday. i wanted to stalk the lost tv set, but they are on hiatus for the summer, so there was nothing to stalk. i'll just have to go back when they're actually shooting. :)

last friday i took cookie a's class at unwind. it was knitting socks from the toe up class. this is only my second ever knitting class and i am just not sure if i like them that much. it's not the teachers of the students really, but i don't think i like the whole group class setting. i prefer either one on one or just figuring it out myself. that being said, having a class with cookie a was pretty cool. i love her sock patterns (which i will attempt one day) and i learned how to do the figure 8 cast on, which was very cool.

i haven't had a ton of time to knit lately but i did buy some very nice yarn at suss design in beverly hills this weekend. i guess they are moving to the space next door and are getting rid of a bunch of things. i bought some nice bulky yarn in pink/green/black and a bunch of ella rae wool in muted colors for charity knitting for $1 a ball.

well it's bedtime for me but i'll leave you with a picture from oahu. night!

bunny bums

Happy Easter, everyone!

well i really meant to post, but life's just been crazy. not to mention that the internet's been down at home (let me just say that sbc yahoo is not my friend). but i finally got it working and am going to try and start posting regularly again. we'll see how that goes. last weekend i went gallery hopping with some friends and we saw the damien hirst exhibit at the gagosian gallery in beverly hills. it's only there for a couple more days, but if you're in the area, it's worth seeing. they are these awesome pieces made entirely of real butterfly wings. it's crazy and so beautiful to look at. here are a few images that i took:







the patterns are just amazing and it's incredible to look at them from far away and then close in on them and see the individual wings. the pictures don't really do them justice, as some of the butterflies were just glowing. the gagosian gallery is also mere steps away from sprinkles, which has very delicious cupcakes. the milk chocolate and red velvet were particularly tasty, though my friend fell off her chair for the banana dark chocolate cupcake.

progress is slow going on the knitting front, given the fact that i have about ten projects going at once. i am still trying to finish up by brother's christmas/birthday present, the stained glass scarf from holiday knits.



pardon the crappy picture. it's coming along but it's taking forever since i basically have to knit each row twice and one of the yarns is sock yarn. he also requested a pair of fingerless gloves so i am working on a pair out of rowan cashsoft dk (a very nice squishy yarn). i tried a couple of patterns but i was having trouble with all of them. i finally settled on using ann budd's handy book of knitting patterns to just sort of make up the pattern and that seems to be working ok. i am also working on the baby kimono from mason dixon knitting for my work charity project.



this is done in the mason dixon favorite of peachs n creme cotton. so far it's going along fine. the pattern is pretty easy and i think it will be cute. my birthday was also a few weeks ago and my lovely friend (who is just getting into knitting and discovered the beauty of manos del uruguay yarn this week) bought me a wonderful yarn-y gift from unwind.



i am just in love with the color of this yarn. it's #153 (i know, so unromantic) in artyarns supermerino. it's so soft and pretty, i just want to pet it. i think i am going to make them into campfire socks. i want to start them right away but i am making myself finish some things first. one can dream, right? and did anyone see lost last week? freakin' messed up, i tell ya. can't wait to see what happens on tomorrow's episode.

gone so long

i'm in the midst of a little spring yarn cleaning at the moment and i am just amazed at all of the yarn i've amassed in such a short period of time. it's been awhile since i last blogged but i've still been knitting. i have been reading lots of blogs and seeing beautiful projects all over. hopefully i'll get some pics taken soon so i can get a real post up soon. have a great weekend everyone!

i officially hate shopping

i spent over 5 hours at the mall today getting the rest of my christmas shopping done. i started at 9am and by the time i was done, the mall was filled to capacity. i was carrying so many packaged that i had rope burn from my macy's bag. i couldn't wait to get out of there. the good news is that i got most of the people left on my list done. bad news is i can't pay for the elecricity bill this month. j/k i did get to sneak in a showing of happy feet, though, and it was very cute. well i am off to wrap some presents now while listening to the rain fall. happy weekend!

we had craaazzzy weather here in southern california today. the second day of december and it's 80 degrees outside! it was colder during the week but i guess it just didn't want to stay that way. i finally took a picture of my first pair of socks.



these are the socks that i made from the sweetgeorgia speed demon yarn in angel colourway purchased from pickupsticks. the pattern is sell your sole, designed for this awesome yarn. no real pattern changes except that i had to use a 2 needle to get gauge. i love my new socks and am eager to start a new pair.

i was lucky enough to go to a screening of the new film 300 this week. it was so freakin' awesome. visually stunning and well written, i just loved it. i don't want to give too much away but i am definitely going to see it again once it hits theaters early next year. there's still time to read the frank miller story on which it's based before the film comes out. both are definitely worth your time.

gotta run. i am off to meet a friend for a sneak screening of the holiday. happy weekend!

turkeys ate my homework

winter is definitely in the air, even in southern california. i have a very nice long weekend up in northern california with the fam, where the food was awesome and the weather was fabulous. it was really bright and sunny but cold at the same time. i really miss rain and cold weather living in la, so it's nice to go home and get a bit of the seasonal change. this weekend i also did something that i normally never do - i woke up really early and went shopping the day after thanksgiving. what sale could possibly drag me out of bed at 5am? a yarn sale, of course! i remembered reading that a new yarn store was opening up in sunnyvale, very close to where my parents live. i popped over to the website, and it turned out that the store was having a pajama jammy jam sale starting at 6am on friday. if you got there from 6-7am, the discount was 30% and 25% from 7-8am, and so on. well i wanted the best deal so i made my mom wake me up in the morning and we scraped the frost off of my windshield to make it to the sale. once there, we were given a pink post it. each color represented the discount that you got. and boy, are knitters ever crazy for a good sale because we only got there a bit after 6am and there were already at least 10-15 people in the store. they had a really nice selection or rowan, a whole huge section of every color of cascade 220, tons of awesome sock yarns like claudia handpaints, lorna's laces, artyarns and socks that rock (not much selection left), and had some nice cozy chairs to hang out in. i actually bought way more than i normally do in one yarn outing, but the yarn was so beautiful and the discount was too good. here are some goodies (taken with my mom's plants cause they're so pretty).



i got 11 balls of rowan tapestry in whirlpool to make sorrell from rowan 40.



2 skeins of claudia handpainted yarn in freesia for some socks. i love this color. it just makes me smile.



2 skeins of artyarns supermerino in 132 for more socks.



i also got this awesome wool/mohair blend from chasing rainbows dyeworks in coral reef maybe for something like a scarf. the blues and browns and oranges are just awesome in this. also purchased but not photographed is one skein of cashmere laceweight in plum from the yarn place (another local shop). yarn place yarns were really gorgeous, too, and they had some fun laceweights that i'll have to pick up on my next trip home. i also got one skein of malabrigo in a bright blue called tuareg, 2 skeins of opal gems fingering yarn in red, two skeins of burgundy cascade 220 superwash to make mom something and the latest issue of knitscene. writing it out makes me amazed at how much i bought. well hopefully i will be finishing some things soon and will be able to start some new projects.

i also managed to see casino royale and deja vu this weekend. i liked casino royale. it was much more of a throwback to the classic james bond flicks than the most recent ones. i admit i was a little doubtful about daniel craig as bond. i think he's a fine actor but i never thought of him as bond material. but i must say that i think he pulled it off very well. he was charming but not smarmy but he had a little attitude. there was enough action to make it exciting but not just one action sequence after another. eva green is a very good actruess and is also extremely beautiful. mads mikkelson is a memorable villain and i know a lot of guys who wouldn't want to mess with him after a certain scene. the sappy bits were a bit hard to take but overall i thought it was well done. i feel bad for pierce brosnan because i think he got some really crappy scripts when he was bond. the other film, deja vu, while not really striking out into any new territory for tony scott or movies about time travel, was also enjoyable with solid performances by all, including a pretty creepy jim caviezel and very good adam goldberg as a nerdy tech guy. i still want to see for your consideration and happy feet. so little time...

gobble gobble

i really thought i was going to be good and post more often but it seems like i am back on my old schedule of posting sporadically. well it does seem that november has really flown by and i really can't believe that thanksgiving is tomorrow. work was kind enough to give me a half day today and it feels so strange to be playing hooky. my family lives up in northern california but i never drive up on wednesday because traffic is so horrible. hardly anyone is on the road on thanksgiving day so that's when i usually make the drive up. i haven't had too much time to knit in the past few weeks. i have gotten some charity knitting done but not much else. i really have to start my holiday knitting, too. i don't really have much holiday knitting planned, as i feel that a lot of my friends and family won't really appreciate and use something that knit. sad, i know, but i am determined not to give any more gift knits unless i know that they will be appreciated and loved. so not much to show on the needles but i did finish my first real sock.



this is the sell your sole sock done in sweetgeorgia speed demon yarn in the angel colourway. i love love this yarn and sweetgeorgia has so many awesome colors. i just want every single one of them to fondle and cuddle. here is a bad shot of it on my foot:



i'll leave you with a shot of my leg here. hope everyone has a safe and happy thanksgiving!

hump day socks

as promised here are some progress pics on my angel socks.



i've turned the heel and am cruising along on the foot. the heel was a lot less scary than i thought it would be and i am really excited to finish it. here is a closeup of the heel:



i guess this is a dutch heel and, while i don't think it's going to be my favorite (feels a bit bulky), it looks pretty good and i think it will be a very cushy sock. i just can't get over how much i love this yarn. the only bad thing so far is that on the instep (not shown in the pic), the colors have started to pool and i'm not getting the cool stripey effect i had on the cuff. but i can live with it and i think it's going to be a really awesome sock anyway. hopefully i'll have a finished sock next time. :)

BOO

happy halloween, everyone! halloween is probably my favorite holiday (though christmas is pretty close). i just love the costumes and candy and the air turning cooler, despite the anxiety that grips me every time i need to get a costume. this past weekend a friend and i threw a little halloween shindig and i ended up wearing all of my roommate's clothes to make myself into a gypsy. it went over well and we had some really fun costumes like an aviator, a rice cooker, roman gods and a member of star trek. i wish i had a finished angel sock to show you but i haven't had time to knit anything in the past few days. but i hope to finish the first sock soon (once i figure out how to tacked grafting the toe) but i am definitely excited to finish my first real sock. well i am off to see if there are any scary movies on tv and knit my angel sock. happy halloween!

angels and demons

i've been itching to knit a pair of socks lately. maybe because socktoberfest is all over the internet or maybe because i finally noticed that i have a large sock yarn stash for someone who's never actually made a sock. then i found out that pick up sticks was carrying sweetgeorgia yarns and i just had to get some.


look ma, i'm swatching!

this is the speed demon sock yarn in the angel colourway. yes, angel after the character in buffy. how halloween appropriate is that? this yarn is super soft and smooshy and i love it. i am done with swatching now and have started my first sock using the free sell your sole sock pattern made especially for this yarn. let me tell you that i am loving the yarn and watching the colors change as i knit. and of course i couldn't buy just one thing (that would be a waste of shipping). i also got this:


superwash sock yarn in firefly (can you tell i am on a sci-fi kick?)

this is a fingering weight yarn and is also super yummy. there are so many great colourways for this yarn and i can't wait to finish my socks so i can buy more. and i am still looking for a halloween costume. i am trying not to stress out about it but it's not good to show up to our own party without a costume. i have to get back to my sock now so hope everyone has a good night.

ooky

i can't believe it's the end of the week already. man, time just flies. i am so happy it's the weekend again. i have opted for staying in tonight as i think i might be fighting off a cold or something. i really do not want to get sick. last night i conked out after staying at work late. i didn't even watch the office, which always puts me in a better mood. well, with the magic of tivo, i can watch it tonight instead. there's been minimal knitting going on due to pure exhaustion but i do have pics of the finished stripey hat.



this hat made from knitty's half dome pattern. i made the medium size but this hat came out way too big. i don't think my gauge was way off but for some reason this thing is huge. so it's not going to my friend and will be donated to my charity knitting group. i hope there are some orphanage kids with big heads. i do like the colors a lot, though (patons classic wool in brown and teal) and will be making a smaller hat for my friend. another reason i wanted to try this pattern was because it had raglan decreases instead of the usual spirals. it's pretty cool looking.



that's all i have to show you. i am going to a musical called sweet charity tomorrow afternoon with some friends. molly ringwald's in it. i've never been a huge ringwald girl (somehow i missed the brat pack obsession that all my friends have) but my friends talked me into it. it actually got bad reviews but it couldn't be worse than the little women musical we saw. man was that bad. and my mission this weekend is to find a halloween costume. i really have no idea what to be and halloween's practically here. i am even co-hosting a halloween party so i really need to find something soon.

i finally got to see the departed last weekend. i'd seen the original it's based on (a chinese film called infernal affairs-i just realized after all this time that it's inFernal affairs and not inTernal affairs.) anyways, i wasn't super excited about seeing it since i already knew the plot, but i went and saw it and i must say that i enjoyed it a lot. the story is pretty similar to the original, except for a few twists, and i thought that the performances of all the actors was really solid. that's all for tonight. i was bad this week and bought some yarn online so i'll have some yarn to show soon. have a fantastic weekend!

raindrops falling on my head

looks like it's going to be another lazy weekend for me. this week at work was super busy and all i want to do is sleep. it doesn't help that it's been kind of gloomy outside this week and it actually rained last night. unfortunately my car was under a tree and the free carwash i'd hoped for didn't really work. oh well. yesterday there was a big bake sale at work to raise money to send people to mississippi to help rebuild houses for katrina victims. a bunch of people from my company went for about a week last year and even more people want to go this year. so we had a bake sale to raise money for airfare. for some reason, i went a big overboard and decided to make 3 things. one was the awesome banana pudding from nyc's magnolia bakery (recipe found in this book) which didn't require any actual baking and two kinds of cupcakes. since my oven has no temperature control (just off or fiery inferno), my friend and fellow bake sale volunteer was kind enough to let me use her oven.



these are cupcakes made from a devil's food mix (really moist and tasty) and i made some peanut butter frosting to go on top and then added mini peanut butter cups from trader joes as a garnish. if you haven't had these peanut butter cups, you should get some right away because they are so tasty and very addictive. i don't usually make my own frosting (can's good enough for me) but i thought the peanut butter would be fun. i used used this recipe i found on supereggplant and made 1 1/2 portions of it to frost all of the cupcakes.



these are called black bottom cupcakes and they are also from the magnolia cookbook. they are basically a really dense chocolate cupcake with a cream cheese and chocolate chip topping that is baked on the cake (not frosted). they were good but very rich. they were all a sucess. the pudding went really fast, though. if we do another bake sale i might just make two batches of that instead of baking since it's pretty easy and no oven involved.

i have finished pictures of the big ass striped raglan hat but i'll post it tomorrow. off to find something for dinner. have a great weekend, everyone!

another day

i meant to post over the weekend but never got around to it. now it's practically the middle of the week! where does the time go? my weekend wasn't super eventful. i did try to go costume shopping for halloween but that failed. i really don't know what i want to be this year. something easy and uncomplicated would be nice. and not a slutty version of something (slutty nurse, slutty pirate, etc.). i still have some time but if i don't find something soon, i might start to panic. i finished a hat this weekend. it was supposed to be for my friend's birthday, but it ended up way too big. this is what it looked like before i finished it.



it's based in knitty's half dome hat and made in size medium. i don't think my gauge is that off but it's massive. my friend has a big head but i think even this is too big for him. it's going into my charity knitting pile. i know there must be some people out there with big noggins that need covering. but the yarn is patons merino wool bought from michael's in teal and brown. i like these colors together and will probably try and make a smaller version before my friend's birthday.

i also saw reds last friday, a film from 1981 that was directed and starred warren beatty. beatty plays radical american journalist john reed and diane keaton plays his parnter, also a writer. the first half of the movie focuses on their relationship and their interactions with their liberal activist group of friends in greenwhich village. they both get involved in the socialist movement and end up going to russia and are witness to the communist revolution, something that changes both of them. when they get back, reed becomes obsessed with bringing a similar revolution to america and is subsequently kicked out of the socialist party. he goes to russia to get recognition from the communist party and finds that he is not allowed to return to america. it's an interesting story about one man's staunch idealism in the face of the reality around him. at the end it felt like he was trying to convince himself that he still believed in his cause. it was too long for my taste (at 195 minutes, it's over 3 hours long, people!) but i think well worth at least one viewing.



i know i need to get cracking and finish some of those almost finished sweaters i have going but i just can't get myself to do it. instead i've been making hats and thinking of christmas knitting. hopefully the laziness will lift soon and i'll have some more progress to show. until then...

a new season

well it's certainly been a long time since i last posted. a lot of stuff happened this summer and i just didn't feel like blogging, so i didn't. perhaps it's the change in seasons, or just the fact that i've been away for awhile, but i've gotten the urge to write again. or maybe it's just reading all of the awesome blogs out there that's making me want to share again. i haven't finished any of the sweaters that i said i was going to finish. they all seem to be languishing while i knit small things, like hats for charity and afghan squares for a co-worker who has since moved to nyc. i am trying to slowly get back in the groove of things and finish up some of those sweaters so i can start some new ones. until then, i'll show you a hat i finished for charity.





this is the droplet hat from knitting nature. pardon the crappy pictures but i am not so good at taking pics of myself and the lighting isn't very good in my apartment. details:

pattern: droplet hat from knitting nature by norah gaughan
yarn: manos donated from a generous soul
needles: us 6 16" circs later switching to dpns
gauge: not really sure but the hat ended up too big for me. i'd say it's more like an adult male size or just for someone with a larger noggin.
notes: i didn't change much about the pattern except i adapted it to knit in the round (i really don't know why it's written to be knit flat). i learned a cool method to make bobbles without turning the work, which, while not making bobbles super fun to make, make them a lot faster and easier to knit. i really like the texture on this hat and it was simple to make. i'd definitely reccomend it to someone who wants something a little more challenging with great results.

this hat is going to charity. my group at work is going to be donating a bunch of stuff to an orphanage in my co-worker's hometown in michigan. they are part of an indian tribe up in northern michigan where it gets really cold. i hope they like the bobbly goodness.

and inspired by cinemaknits and the fact that i finally figured out how to do screen captures on my computer, i am going to try and write some more about some of the movies i see, because it's fun and it gives me something else to write about. well this weekend was a good movie weekend for me and i went to see the science of sleep, the new michel gondry movie starring the yummy gael garcia bernal.



the movie is about a guy, stephane (played by bernal), who has trouble separating dream from reality at times. he moves back to france after his father dies and his mother gets him a job that isn't what he expects. in france, he meets a girl (stephanie, played by charlotte gainsbourg) who he falls in love with. she likes him, too, but his erratic behavior is off putting and a little scary at times. if you've seen a michel gondry film or his music videos, you probably know that this isn't going to be a traditional love story. there's lots of cool visual imagery and animation and both characters are played wonderfully by bernal and gainsbourg. what i like about it is that neither of these characters is perfect but you really root for them. stephane is irrational and immature but he's also endearing and sweet and you really empathize with him. i thought it was a lovely and quirky romance that i would definitely see again. and on a nerdy knitting note, there are a few really amazing knits in it. the long, knit hat you see in the pic about is worn quite a lot and stephanie wears a sweater made out of multi-colored plied yarn in many scenes as well as donning a super cute aran knit mini dress at one point that i would love to have (if only i had her figure). so if you see it, keep an eye out for those.

i also finally saw little miss sunshine this past weekend. i think i must be one of the last people to see it. i enjoyed it a lot. i laughed a lot and i thought all of the performances were really good. some of the situations were a bit ridiculous but i liked how they worked themselves out and i thought that the familial interaction was very genuine and the dialogue was just really good. i especially liked steve carell and the teenage boy (whose name eludes me right now).

that's all for tonight. promise more knitting pics soon.

weekend

comic con was an adventure, as usual. i really didn't take too many pictures this year, even though there were some really cool costumes. it was hot hot hot down there, though, and we almost passed out in line waiting for the kevin smith q&a to start. we missed the whole spiderman 3 panel because the line was so long. more and more people come every year but it's still a fun time and i managed to pick up some fun books and cute pins and things. here are some boring and random photos from the weekend


imagine this, times about 10,000 and you get the idea of how crowded it was


kevin smith talking about clerks 2 and other things


hilarious snakes on a plane display

not much else to say except that i can't wait for next year!

temptation

did you see that the new knitpicks yarns are out? it's taking a lot of willpower not to order anything especially since i want to try their needles, too. but i will be good since i am saving my money this weekend for comic-con. yes, the nerd convention is here again and i for one, cannot wait to go. see you monday!

hot heads

wow i can't believe it's been more than a month since my last post. needless to say, it's been a bit busy around here lately. fourth of july seems like ages ago but i did manage to take a nice trip back home to the bay area to see my parents. the weather up there is so refreshing after the stifling heat and humidity of southern california lately. i am dying for an a/c unit in my room but i can't afford it. this means sleeping in the living room for most of the summer and fans that never stop blowing. i don't know if it's the weather or just me, but lately i've been having a hard time working on just one project. i spent most of june working on hats and things to donate to the dulaan project. someone started a knitting group at work and we decided to knit things for dulaan. a lot of people who joined up had never knit before so my friend and i spent a lot of time teaching people to knit and crochet. the odessa hat in my last post was one of the hats being donated. here's another one:





pattern: asymmetrical hat from one skein
yarn: lamb's pride bulky in periwinkle (almost a full skein)
needles: us 9 16" bamboo circs and later switched to dpn
size: 16 1/4" to fit a child but it was stretchy and big enough to fit my head
notes: i really like the whole asymmetrical part of it. it was really cool to have all of these different cables going on. the only thing i really don't like is how there is no crown shaping. it's hard to tell from the photos in the book, but you bind off, seam it and then tie the two ends together. it made it harder to wear cause it would look lopsided if i turned it one way versus another. if i did it again, i think i'd try to figure out how to do some crown shaping so that it would decrease like a normal hat. otherwise it was quick and easy and pretty cute.

now off it goes to kids in mongolia since i certainly don't need one in this 100 degree weather.

this has been finished for a couple of weeks now. if you don't recognize it, it's odessa by grumperina.



pattern: odessa by grumperina

yarn: about 1/2 skein of peace fleece in kamchatka sea moss

needles: us 6 16" circs (with a 4 for the bottom ribbing)

notes: this was a very fun and easy pattern to knit. i left out the beads, as you can see and i adjusted for the heavier weight yarn by casting on only 90 stitches instead of 110 and it fits my head nicely (my head is pretty normal sized). the pattern is super easy to adapt to different yarn weights and the results are super cool. i am not actually keeping this hat, as we've started a little knitting group at work and we've decided to knit hats for the dulaan project. i've decided to try and use up stash yarns and leftovers for these hats so i get to do a good deed and clean out the yarn closet. i also love making hats but i never wear them (my head looks funny in hats and it's just too dang warm in california for them anyway). this will be a good chance to try some new hat patterns. for anyone who is thinking of making this hat, i definitely recommend it. it's fun and fast and really cute. i may just have to make one for myself one of these days.

i can't believe the weekend is over already. the weather here was just grand, nice and sunny but breezy and not hot. i didn't do much really except catch cars (very good) and go to a streets concert. i've also decided that i can't shop anymore. i am in way too much debt and i just have to buckle down and pay everything off before i do anything else. so no more yarn and no more shopping online while at work. the madness needs to stop so i can actually start saving money.

cool down

wow, my last post was a awhile ago. i've been super busy the last couple of weeks because a good friend of mine was getting married and i was the maid of honor (and the only person on her side of the wedding party). they finally gotch hitched on saturday and it was so beautiful. the chapel was right by the ocean and you couldn't have picked a better day for a wedding in a glass church. the sky was so blue and it was just a really lovely thing to be a part of.



and now they are off in hawaii for their honeymoon, guests have left town and i am finally able to just relax. thank goodness the temperature's gone down this week. it was just horrid last week, with high nineties everday and no a/c in my room. seems like june gloom is trying to make up for it and i couldn't be happier. i do some fo's to share today.



pattern: warshrag from mason-dixon knitting

needles: us 5 bryspun circs

yarn: about half a ball each of sugar n cream cotton in a solid and ombre shade

notes: these are fun, fun, fun to make and i can see how they can be addicting. i love watching the colors change in the ombre and it was fun to see the pattern emerge by just slipping a stitch. i am not sure what i am going to do with it, since i really just think that washing gunky plates with a cotton rag sounds gross (i don't know why i can't get over it).


"i'm ready for my closeup mr. de mille."

and far be it from me to let a lame little thing like not actually liking to use cotton dishrags to wash dishes stop me from making more of these fun babies. oh no.



more warshrags to come! i have one more fo to show you all but i am pooped at the moment. i'll do it tomorrow. (random note - my neighbors are driving me a little insane. i don't know who it is but someone across the way from my building has taking to singing really loudly and talking at the top of his lungs at all hours. wtf? our new owners chopped down a bunch of trees between the buildings and i think that's why i can hear him better than ever. ahhhh!)

and congratulations jana and kevin!

bananas on parade

i just made the best banana pudding ever (and i don't even like bananas). last month when i went to new york, i had the most delicious banana pudding from magnolia bakery. the place is known for its cupcakes (which i think are overrated and not that tasty) but we also tried the famous banana pudding. the pudding itself isn't actually banana flavored, it just has bananas in it, which is probably why i can eat it. and it's got cakey bits of nilla wafers mixed about-mmmm. i bought this book, just for the pudding recipe. little did i know that this recipe is available online here. it came out tasting pretty similar to what i got at the store so i am happy. however, i have a huge vat of it now and don't know what to do with it. i just wanted a little bit.


this is kind of a crap picture.

here's the recipe for anyone who wants to try it. it kind of killed the fun by making it because now i know what's in it. and what's in it is NOT good for you, but it's worth it.

magnolia's famous banana pudding
taken from recipe link

• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

• 1 1/2 cups ice cold water

• 1 (3.4-ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix (preferably Jell-O brand)

• 3 cups heavy cream

• 1 (12-ounce) box Nabisco Nilla Wafers (no substitutions!)

• 4 cups sliced ripe bananas

1. In a small bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the sweetened condensed milk and water until well combined, about 1 minute. Add the pudding mix and beat well, about 2 minutes more. Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight, before continuing. It is very important to allow the proper amount of time for the pudding mixture to set.

2. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the pudding mixture into the whipped cream until well blended and no streaks of pudding remain.

3. To assemble the dessert, select a large, wide bowl (preferably glass) with a 4-5-quart capacity. Arrange one-third of the wafers to cover the bottom of the bowl, overlapping if necessary, then one-third of the bananas and one-third of the pudding. Repeat the layering twice more, garnishing with additional wafers or wafer crumbs on the top layer of the pudding. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours - or up to 8 hours, but no longer! - before serving.

a little bit of knitting going on. here's the left front of the astrakhan sweater.



it's going well so far, but i think i might be short on yarn. it's gonna be really tight and now i am debating whether or not to order another ball or wait and see if i can finish with what i've got. i also have no idea what yarn i am going to use to sew it up, as the astrakhan is way too bumpy and weird to sew anything with.



the mason dixon dishcloth. most people can finish one of these in a few hours but i'm still going on mine. i just can't seem to stick to one project so everything only gets a little attention. this'll be done soon, though. and look how nice the colors are.

holding my breath

did you guys see grey's anatomy tonight? i can't believe all the sh*t that's going down. tomorrow night is the season finale and it's two hours long! i think i'll be biting my nails for most of it. i didn't get a ton of knitting done this weekend but i did manage to finally finish the collar for the astrakhan sweater. fronts, here i come! i know i was supposed to be good and not start any new projects but i've been reading the mason dixon knitalong and i just had to try one of those cute little dishcloths. one trip to joann's later and i cast on. i really wanted the peaches & creme yarn but they only carried sugar n cream, which i hear is almost the same. i am still looking for the peaches & creme, but it seems like only walmart carries it. oddly enough, there aren't a ton of walmarts in the la area so it looks like i'll have to wait. this is what i have so far:



i know it's not much but i like seeing the pattern show up in the ombre yarn and the colors are so bright and fun. i don't know what i am going to do with all of these dishcloths i plan on making, as the thought of washing my dishes with them sounds kind of icky. i just imagine bits of food stuck to the cotton. ew. give me a sponge any day.

hope you all had a great weekend. and happy mother's day, too. :)