A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

February 29, 2008

Wait...What?

I'm teaching a class tomorrow. If you had asked me on Wednesday which class I am teaching I would have told you it's an adult sweater class which I have taught many times. I would also have been wrong. Instead, I'm teaching a class on a shawl made with Noro sock yarn which I have never taught before based on a pattern I designed but have not finished knitting. This little neglected thing. Oh, and I haven't written the pattern yet. Time to freak out!

February 28, 2008

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

Big Ass Knits have made it to fashion week in Milan!





And work it.



It seems BAK only repel women's pants. The key is to wear men's pants.



Cheer up, sweetie, it's almost over.

Finishing up with the perfect little number for the blushing bride.



Tube socks and high heeled sneakers are a must.

Thanks to reader Chloe for letting me know BAK had touched down in Italy.

February 26, 2008

If You Give a Knitter a...

I'm a scattered mess right now. I don't have any clean clothes. I can't focus. My younger son loves all the Laura Numeroff books about giving animals one thing and they get distracted and want something else and so on and so on. Last night I got up to get something from my office. I don't remember what because when I got there I saw some handspun and remembered that I wanted to knit the Tulips cardigan with it. I grabbed it and started winding the yarn. I cast on for the sweater and then saw some other yarn that I wanted to wind. So I stopped wound the second skein of yarn and started knitting with that. Two new projects started in a span of two minutes. It's all so silly because I'm so close to finishing my gloves.

February 25, 2008

Prairie Mitts



Pattern: Prairie Handwarmers by Nancy Bush (class handout)
Yarn: Buffalo Gals Bison/Merino (about 2/3 skein)
Needles: US3s
Notes: Very basic garter stitch mitts with a buttonhole thumb. The yarn is so toasty I can barely wear them. But so soft and lovely.

San Diego

We weren't really in San Diego. We stayed at a time share (my in-laws) up in Oceanside. Our first day we went to Balboa Park and did some of the museums. We also walked through the palm garden.



We tried to go to Legoland on Wednesday. It was raining. They told us at the gate that the park would close if it started raining any harder. And they do not issue refunds or rain checks! The guy at the ticket booth suggested we get a shopper's pass. They take am imprint of your credit card and you get one hour to look around. If you stay past the hour they charge your card.

There were bison.



It would be difficult to spin.

The rain showed off all the cobwebs in this howling wolf's mouth.



We left and went to the zoo.

I love the bristly, curly hair on these hogs' noses.



Fiber animals! Guanacos.



And the San Diego Zoo money shot. Adorable panda munching bamboo.



On Thursday the rain stopped and we got a full day of play at Legoland.
Friday it rained again and we just hung out.
Saturday we went to SeaWorld.




It's a little hard to see in the last shot but that's a sea otter sitting on a tub of ice.

Most of February in One Post

Madrona was great.

I took a handcoverings class with Nancy Bush and Judith MacKenzie McCuin. We made gloves from Shetland then spun a yarn to match.

We spun bison then got to knit a pair of mitts with Buffalo Gals Bison/Merino. My pair is done but I haven't had a chance to get a good photo.

Last September I blamed my lack of a decent photo of Stephanie on her height. This year she stood on a freaking chair and I still couldn't get a decent shot. Time for a new camera.

(She's trying to show everyone how she holds knits so quickly.)
She was wearing her Kauni.

So was Ruth Sorensen, Naomi, Melinda, Shelly, Karen and Ellen. I asked to take a group photo and everyone handed me their cameras. I managed to take about ten pictures without dropping anyone's camera.
I took Janine Bajus's Color in Fair Isle class. Her are my yarns to swatch and my inspiration photo.


Okay, I'll do my vacation in another post.

February 24, 2008

Home

Tired. Smelly. Brain-dead.

February 23, 2008

Saw SeaWorld

So cheesy. I thought I would go insane from all the piped in music. And there was a cheerleading competition going on so we were surrounded by young girls covered in glitter and hair extensions. Older son enjoyed sitting in the "soak zone" for Shamu. Younger son enjoyed the sea lion and otter show. I enjoyed the moment at the top of the water flume/roller coaster when younger son realized what was about to happen and let out a very small but resigned, "oh no."



Video courtesy of You Tube. I was too busy gripping the handle and my purse and praying for the ride to end to capture my own ride experience.

February 21, 2008

"Seven Straight Hours of Awesomeness"

Quoting my older son. Legoland was open today and we stayed until the bitter end. The boys had a great time. They are just the right age for this (7 and 9).

We salvaged the day yesterday by going to the zoo. It stopped raining a little while after we got there. We didn't get to cover the whole place but we saw a lot. It's quite a workout.

Tomorrow is supposed to be more rain.

February 20, 2008

Rained Out at Legoland

Sadly the weather in San Diego is the same as the weather in Seattle. Only in Seattle things don't close when it rains. Boo.

February 19, 2008

Madrona Recap from the Road

Wednesday: Headed down in the morning and spent most of the day helping my boss set up her booth. Met up with friends from one of my lists for dinner.
Thursday: All day class with Judith MacKenzie-McCuin and Nancy Bush on handcoverings. We started on knitting gloves in Elemental Affects Shetland, then we worked on spinning a yarn to match in Shetland from the same flock. In the afternoon we started to work on spinning bison.
Friday: Class continued. We spun bison then knit mitts with Buffalo Gals Bison/Merino. More knitting. More Bison spinning. Keynote talk by Lucy Neatby. I wish I had gotten to take a class from her.
Saturday: NO morning class so I got to finish spinning and plying my bison. It came out very nicely. I was very proud. Afternoon class with Judith on making a cabled yarn. Cabled yarns are made by plying plied yarns together. They are very strong and durable but also are very round and make great knitting yarns. Banquet with talk by Judith about bison. Very interesting and I love anything with Judith.
Sunday: All day class on color in Fair Isle with Janine Bajus. Very fun and interesting class but just barely scratches the surface of working with color.

Photos and more when I get home.

February 13, 2008

Why Was Tuesday Thursday?

You may have wondered why I did all my Thursday stuff last night. I'm going to be offline until the 24th. I'm heading to Madrona this morning then off to San Diego. Hold down the fort while I'm gone.

February 12, 2008

The Best News from Fashion Week



Axl Rose* is still getting work.

*No relation. Thank God.

Ratty Ass Knits

Instead of Big Ass Knits this season's look is all tore up.






Donna Karan, What Were You Thinking?!





This is all cribbed straight from the Trendsetter 2005 playbook.

Visible Panty...Lines?

In perusing the fashion week photos I found a design team or company called VPL. It really makes me laugh that their clothes look like this.





I think the panty lines are supposed to be visible underneath your clothes.

February 11, 2008

Screen-Full Sunday

A few weeks ago at Purlygirls I was shocked, shocked, to discover that most people there had never heard of Rosalind Russell.

"Auntie Mame?"

Blank stares.

"She starred with Cary Grant in His Girl Friday."

Blank stares.

So tonight I had movie night. I invited over a group of knitters. Wes set up a projection screen and we watched His Girl Friday. I had to run out in the middle of it to take Wes to the emergency room. He got jabbed very hard in the eye by our younger son this afternoon in a coat-putting-on accident. It turns out he got a corneal abrasion. He has to wear an eye patch overnight. Arggh, mateys! He should be better tomorrow.

Anyway, the film was viewed and I don't know if anyone enjoyed it as much as I did (and always do) but I felt I did my part to spread the word on great classic films.

I also finished stitching down the binding on my coins quilt and threw it in the wash. It's drying right now.

I've been knitting steadily on my Tangled Yoke. I have the body and one sleeve done. I haven't been blogging it because stockinette in charcoal yarn makes for terrible photos and dull blogging.

February 8, 2008

Please Stop Raping My Childhood, Thanks Ever So Much

Uma Thurman has been cast as Nanny in a film version of Eloise in Paris. What. The. Fuck.

This woman...


...is going to play this woman.


Why? Why, why, why???

Change of Quilting Course

Over the weekend I started seriously considering making the Stacked Coins quilt from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. Then on Tuesday, coincidentally, I saw that the Doll Quilt Challenge for March/April is a Chinese Coins quilt. So Tuesday night, while listening to primary results, I pulled out all my fabric scraps. I took anything that was 4 inches or larger and put it in a bin. I rotary cut pieces freehand to 1-4" long, then I sorted the contents of the bin by color. I laid them out in a stack and started chain-piecing them into 2-piece units, then 4 and so on. I trimmed them to about 4" x 24".



On Wednesday, I took these strips to the fabric store to pick out something for the sashing. After looking around for a while I decided that I'd just use some muslin that I already had at home.



On Thursday, I pieced a backing from some of the Peas and Carrots fabric.



As soon as I had the top and backing ready I realized that what I really wanted to do was hand quilt this. It's kind of old-fashioned looking and I thought the hand quilting would really add something special. And I've never hand quilted and this little quilt would be a great practice piece. I went off to work. Then I found out the baby had arrived. No time for hand quilting this time. After spending quite a bit of time staring at this top I can't decide how to machine quilt it. I think it would look great with a meandering or stipple quilting but I don't think I have the skill for that. I'll probably end up just quilting grid lines on it.

February 7, 2008

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

It's fashion week.I'm not seeing many knits except for a few watered down versions of last year's insanity.




Come on, people. Can't you come up with anything better (or crazier) than that?

The lack of knitting is most likely due to the fact that the shows are all dripping in fur. Didn't we all collectively decide that fur was beyond disgusting a long time ago? Anyway, I didn't find any knits but I did find this.



What are we thinking here? Paisley? Sperm? Quotation marks?



I hadn't realized that crepe paper was also making a comeback.

And hey look! This one's knit.



And for those of you who are keeping track, this is the same designer that brought us last year's severed hand dress.

February 6, 2008

Stop!

Wes just showed me this very amusing flowchart. I found myself thinking, "Did MC Hammer have a Saturday morning cartoon or did I just imagine that?" Thank God for You tube.

February 5, 2008

LOL Wes

Wes made an LOL Cat that I love.

funny pictures\


Go vote for it!

February 4, 2008

Four Square Stacking Up



I was consumed by quilting this weekend. After spending most of the day on Saturday working on the two Harry Potter blocks and my final Quiltalong block I was looking for something else to work on. I bought a jelly roll of Blossom and some Anna Griffin fabric months ago to make the Four Square quilt from Cozy Quilt Designs. I cut all the pieces on Saturday night and started piecing. I stayed up insanely late then spent the night dreaming about sewing strips. I woke up and went straight back to my machine and sewed more strips. I had a little break in there to hang out with some Purlygirls for knitting and lunch. Then right back to the machine. I just have to sew on the last strip for the basic log cabins. Then sashing. Then borders. This project was made for chain-piecing. I put together a stack like this one and stitch until they're all done.

February 3, 2008

Big Winner

The Seattle Children's Film Festival ended tonight with an award ceremony. Wes's film won Best in the Northwest and the audience prize by a "landslide." Hooray for Cookies for Sale! It's heading to LA for the children's film festival then it will be in the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

February 2, 2008

More Harry Potter Blocks




You can see all my completed blocks here.