Knitting is in my blood, well almost...

Yesterday my new friend and carpool buddy Claudia, who is from Germany, pointed out that the German word for knitting is "stricken." Today I looked up "knitter" in an English-German Dictionary and in German it is "stricker." Apparently it seems that I was fated to be a knitter since my last name, Strickler, is only one letter off and I am of German descent so it is entirely possible that my forefathers (and mothers!) were knitters. Fun little trivia for me. Now if my mother's maiden name turns out to mean "one who talks too much" then I know I was meant to be who I am...

If it's not mad cow, it's the bird flu...

Woo boy is it raining today! I left the house this morning with an umbrella, got halfway to the train station and the wind blew it inside out and broke 3 of the metal bars so it refused to stay up. I then got on the train, got on my first bus and was waiting at the corner for my second bus (that's right a train and 2 buses to go like 8 miles because it's like that here in LA) when it started to pour. And this bus stop, oh yeah, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO PLACE TO TAKE COVER. So that 5.5 minutes I spent blowdrying my hair this morning were a total waste. I was soaked when I got to work. I finally dried off about 3:30. Of course Magellan doesn't really care what the weather is like outside so long as it's warm and toasty behind the computer monitor.

Tristan was reading an article a few days ago about the bird flu and how it's coming for us. As we talked it over, we decided that maybe we better stop eating poultry, just to be on the safe side since we are so close to Asia and everything. Then we remembered that book Fast Food Nation that we both read which talked about how the meat industry grinds up chicken beaks and feeds them to cows. So we thought, hmm, we better stop eating red meat too, just to be on the safe side. But we will continue to eat fish and seafood because, um, what are the chances that a sick bird dies over the ocean, falls in the water and gets eaten by a tuna? Ok, so that could totally happen. But really, I can't subsist on pasta and cheese alone--wait, could there be bird flu in the cheese??? NO! I will not sacrifice the cheese. Because, to paraphrase Bush, if I give up cheese then the bird flu has won. So we will try to be vegetarians--after we finish all the meat that's in the freezer. We're a little concerned about the cats though. I'm not sure that they will adjust well to tofu....

In knitting news:
I finished off 2 pairs of newborn baby socks for Afghans for Afghans. I was working on the striped ones on the bus last week when a man offered me his seat saying "oh, jeez miss, take my seat." I was delighted and slightly shocked, thinking, there IS a civilized man left alive! Then I looked down at my knitting and realized that he probably thought I was pregnant because I was knitting a baby bootie. I decided then and there never to wear that particular pair of pants again because obviously they reinforced this guy's notion...

In other knitting news, Darcy and I are progressing on our knit along. Well, Darcy is anyway. I've finished the back and have about 4 inches of the front done but Miss Darcy is just about finished!












I'm technically on Spring Break this week but I have too many papers and projects to be working on to really take time off. I declared last Friday and Sunday Spring Break for me. Except I got sick Friday night and couldn't go bowling with our friend Daniel. I felt terrible, since it was his birthday celebration and all but I thought I was going to keel over, and not just from the thought of wearing those funny looking stinky shoes. Luckily I recovered by Sunday and was able to go to Al Gelato's with Tristan, Darcy, Michele and Mark. I had some yummy gnocchi and then some pear sorbet with a "taster" (i.e. a 1/2 scoop) of cabernet sorbet on top. Heaven! The pear was delicious. I know, it was a healthier choice when compared to the gelato flavors containing cream and I apologize for that but I had eaten gnocchi for dinner which are delicious little pasta rocks that land in your stomach and don't leave much room for rich desserts. Darcy came back to our swanky (read: somewhat less messy than last week) new pad for some knitting and Sopranos watching. But alas, the weekend is over. Back to schoolwork and regular work. I'm gonna go change into pjs now, grab my knitting and cozy up on the couch to catch up on Ti-vo'd "Knitty Gritty" episodes before I read another chapter of my Information Retrieval textbook (works better than a nightcap). Stay warm and avoid the rain--just remember it only does this like 10 days a year here!

Ashes, Snow, Sand & Silliness

Tomorrow is Darcy's Birthday so today Michele, Mark, Tristan and I took Darcy to Santa Monica for a birthday celebration. Our original plan was to see the Ashes and Snow exhibit at the pier and then have dinner at Ye Olde Kings Head on 2nd Street. But we were all "famished" (just for you, Darcy) so we opted to have our fish and chips and THEN get a little culture (well, I had the mushroom and chicken pie which came with a pastry thing on top that looked like a conch shell, no lie). Darcy got her picture taken and a weird fruit/custard thingy with a candle in it. They give you your picture in a little "frame" with a history of the restaurant on it--very cute. Next time we go it will be my birthday (or somebody's because they didn't check Darcy's ID and we all decided we want pictures too!) We walked down to the pier and Mark thought he saw Aaron Spelling--but none of the rest of us did (guess we just missed him....). Luckily, Michele, Tristan and I had student IDs so we got in for $10 instead of $15. The photos are amazing and the film is good too, but just a warning, it is an HOUR long. So if you go, muscle your way to the handful of seats up front, and maybe drink some coffee before hand because the music is so soothing it just about puts you to sleep.

Afterwards we took a walk on the beach and snapped some pictures, because it was sunny and we all have blogs to fill with stuff.

Michele, Darcy (birthday girl!) and Me

Mark, Michele, Me and Tristan

Tristan and Me

Michele and Mark looking so cute!

The Guys bonded over discussions of computers, electronics and Bill Maher.

In honor of Saint Patrick's Day, Mark entertained us with an authentic Irish Jig, performed in the cold, cold, water of the Pacific... No pictures of all 5 of us though, we had trouble finding someone who was close by who didn't look like they'd run off with our cameras...Ok, now back to schoolwork. Gotta get all my stuff finished so next Sunday we can go to Al Gelattos!

Flowers, chocolate and scary nature...

I've been quite the busy little bee the last few weeks and my husband got this bee flowers last week! Tristan's not really the romantic type, which is fine with me because I'd rather he clean the bathroom (which he also did) than feed me strawberries by candlelight. But last week I was just so tired that I kept falling asleep while doing my reading for school and then hubby went out to have dinner with a friend and came home with the pretty bouquet above, just because. Brightened my day considerably. And, because he knows me so well, he also brought me these:

Nutty Bars are one of my weaknesses. Tristan has really been helping out quite a bit since I started working--doing the dishes, cooking dinner, going to the grocery store, cleaning the cat box and even dropping my library books off for me. Sometimes I really hate being an over-achiever. I thought of course I can work 3 days a week and take 3 graduate classes and move and finish those Christmas gifts I just haven't quite gotten around to (those ones from 2005 that haunt me from their tote bags each time I pass by them...) and a million other projects I have in my "to do list." Afterall, in college I managed to complete two bachelor's in 4 years, be president of our women's caucus, vice president of the Circle K volunteer service fraternity and participate in weekly service projects, write for the student newspaper, maintain active memberships in three honor societies and two major-specific clubs and have a social life. How? I don't know. I look back and think perhaps I had one of those crazy time thingys that Hermione (had to look that up on Amazon because I had no idea how to spell it) used in the newest Harry Potter movie, so she could go back and forth in time and appear to be in two places at once. Or maybe it's because I'm not 18 or even 21 anymore. Does old age start at 27? Whatever the reason, I just can't handle as much activity as I could when I was young. It doesn't help that I decided to move and start a new job all in the same week, about two weeks before my midterms. So if you see me soon and my eyes look a little glazed--believe me, I want to pay attention to you but about 1/3 of my brain might be sleeping--it's taking shifts.

In knitting news---well, there isn't any. I made one washcloth for the yahoo group Loves Many Cloths and one pair of newborn socks for Afghans for Afghans, which is having a drive to collect 100 hats and 100 socks/booties for newborns by the end of April, if you've got any soft wool to spare. Other than that, I haven't had time. I manged to work on those two things on my lunch break at work and while I waited for journal articles to finish printing. Oy vey! One of these days I will be all caught up and even ahead on my school work and my house will be all unpacked and clean and my taxes will be done and the Siamese will give up her most recent hobby of peeing on things...and Magellan will finally be able to get that grasshopper who's taken up residence in the flowerbox outside our living room window.... yeah right.




Which is scarier--this grasshopper or Laurie's square watermelons?

Cat People v. Dog People

So have you ever looked at someone and thought "he's a dog person..." or "oh she's definately a cat person.." ? Since I now often take public transportation and I have a job that puts me in frequent contact with all sorts of people, I've felt the psychology major in me seeping to the surface of my conciousness. Yes, I admit it, I've been theorizing. You see, I'm a bit of a chatty cathy and I often end up deep in conversation with complete strangers who feel compelled to tell me about their kids, their jobs and even their pets. Most times though, I don't need them to even tell me what kind of pet they have or prefer because I CAN JUST TELL.

Just a warning, what I'm about to say may be offensive to dog people. I'm sorry, it's just the way things go---not everyone was thrilled with Freud's penis-envy stuff so really, you can't please everyone. To better understand my theory, I ask you to picture in your mind someone you know who owns a cat (or cats because cats seem to be like potato chips, you can't have just one) and a separate someone who has a dog--leaving out for the time being those persons who own both types of animals. Still thinking, ok, I'll give you a minute, I want to break into that Take 5 bar I have in my purse anyway...Ready, ok moving on.

Ok, now think about the stereotypical characteristics of dogs. Dogs need lots of attention, you have to walk them and take them outside to do their business (not to mention pick it up and carry it around til you find a trash can) and you can't leave them home alone when you go on vacation. Also, dogs are continually amazed and overwhelmed that you actually come home to them each and every day--there's barking and tail-wagging and a plethora of sloppy wet kisses (and if they had aposable thumbs I'm sure there would be "welcome home" banners). Dogs also constantly want to play fetch or play with toys, usually involving their humans in the game. Dogs must also be registered yearly and get shots yearly and .....well, you get the picture.

Alright, shift gears just a bit and consider the attributes of cats. Generally, cats decide when and if to show you affection. They don't need your assistance to go to the bathroom--although you do have to clean their commodes eventually. You can go on vacation for a few days if you leave out enough food and water and not have to worry about them. When you come home, the cats might even be asleep and really they don't care all that much that you have returned, so long as you feed them. Cats generally entertain themselves by pushing fake mice or the plastic things from milk carton lids, no human required. And you don't have to take cats for shots very often nor do you have to register them with the city.

Ok, you're thinking yeah, yeah so that's what dogs are like and that's what cats are like but how does this relate to those people I've got hanging in my mental picture frame? My theory is that some people who prefer dogs are seeking to fill a void in their childhood. Perhaps they didn't get enough attention or affection or maybe they were never really given responsibility and were allowed to do whatever they wanted as a child. They may need to feel needed and appreciated and a dog is more than happy to provide those experiences.

Cat people, on the other hand, seem to me to be more well adjusted. They don't need effusive displays of affection when they return home each day. They are happy when their cats snuggle with them and ok when the cats decide to sleep on the other end of the house, under the bed, for hours. Cats and their humans can be together without doing something together. Ok, I am tremendously biased and this is not so scientific a theory and I have no real means available to test it but it's just a wisp of a notion I've been pondering recently...

And for those people who have both--they might be even better off because they don't need constant affirmation of their cat's love but they do have the patience and attention to give to their dog. Of course, this theory is based on sterotypes. All cats and dogs may not behave the same. For instance, Magellan is usually waiting for me by the front door when I come home at night and he likes to play fetch with me.


Just something to mull over. I wish I'd thought of this 6 years ago when I dated a very clingy guy--guess I should have just bought him a dog instead of moving out of state to put some distance between us...

No, I didn't move to Swaziland, I've just been busy...

It feels like I made this lapghan about a million years ago but turns out it was just last month. In case you all didn't hear, we moved on February 17th from West Hollywood to Hollywood. There are still boxes everywhere because that week I also started a new job. Oh, and I'm taking three Master's classes and so is Tristan and...we can't afford to hire someone to unpack for us so lots of stuff is still trapped in cardboard. I'm slowly making dents here and there over the weekends but it might be April until I get some pictures up here. (Hey Michele, if the gnomes are finished with your place, could you send them over here?)

In the mean time, I thought I'd post pictures of the afghan I finished a few weeks ago but didn't get up on the blog because we had no internet--story for another post! Anyway, I did this crocheted afghan in Rainbow colors of Sugar n' Cream yarn that I bought from createforless for cheap! I sent if off to a friend of mine in North Carolina as a birthday present--only about a month after her birthday, surprise! I did the traditional granny square, starting the squares with different colors, doing 6 rounds per square using an H hook. It took about 3 balls of most colors but 4 for the purple.

I laid them out like this: (the color is the first starting round in the inside of the square)
R=red, O=orange, Y=yellow, G=green, B=blue and P=Purple

R O Y G B P

O R O Y G B

Y O R O Y G

G Y O R O Y

B G Y O R O

P B G Y O R


I tried several different ways to join them but nothing seemed quite right. I wanted to have some black showing around the squares to sort of frame them. So I made up my own way. It's fully reversible and I honestly can't decide which side I like better. The photo on the left is the "right side" and the photo on the right is the "wrong side." Squares will be joined first into rows and then the rows will be crocheted together, followed by a border.

1st: Hold two squares wrong sides together and line up the corners.

2nd: Slip needle under corner space of square closest to you and do one single crochet.

3rd: place hook under corner space of other square, making sure that wrong side is facing you and do one single crochet.

4th: turn work slightly so that you can comfortably slip hook under the corner space of the first square and do another single crochet.

5th: turn work slightly again to whatever angle works for you and do one more single crochet into the corner space of the 2nd square.

6th: slip hook under the first stitch after the corner space on the 1st square and do one single crochet.

7th: turn work slightly and make one single crochet under the first stitch after the corner space on the 2nd square

8th: keep alternating back and forth from one square to another, making sure that at the end of the squares you do 2 single crochets into the other corner spaces but keep them alternating so you don't end up with holes. You will be making one stitch into each chained arch too, not just into each double crochet stitch from the previous round

Joining the rows:
1st: do the same thing that you did to join the squares, line up the rows with wrong sides together.

2nd: Alternate from one side to the other doing single crochet, making sure that you do two stitches in the corner spaces at the beginning.

3rd: when you get to the point where you joined the squares together, make sure that you are doing 2 alternating stitches into each corner square so that you actually have 4 single crochet stitches over the black yarn that joined those particular squares before you start doing stitches on the colored yarn. Again, make sure you keep alternating to avoid holes.

To finish, I used the "Shallow Scallop Edging" from the Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches (p.311) just to give it a little more pizzazz (sp?) except that I just picked up the edge and did a row of single crochet to start as my foundation instead of working the edging as a separate piece and then attaching it as it is pictured in the book.
















Today, March 7th is Magellan's birthday. He is one today. I can't believe my baby is all grown up. He got extra treats as a birthday present but I told him he'd have to wait at least another year for that pony. At least now we are living somewhere with flower boxes so he can watch ladybugs to his heart's content... from the top of the vacuum cleaner box that mommy still hasn't opened--guess you know I haven't done any vacuuming recently....

Calgon, take me away!!!!!

Who needs reality TV when I've got lots of drama right here? Since Thursday morning I've:
--skipped with glee
--discussed paint chips and painted "virtual" rooms at the Behr paint site
--signed paperwork that has obligated me to pay a large chunk of change every month for the next 30 years
--discussed, with an air of longing for simplier times, the merits of various Nintendo games (um, that's the first Nintendo--Duck Hunt, Super Mario
Brothers, Tetris etc)
--ate crepes at IHOP
--tried to get my own money out of the bank for our downpayment and subsequently:
--screamed in a public place
--swore at several people I don't know
--expressed a building sense of homicidal rage growing within me (justto Tristan so no charges will be filed or anything)
--took 3 buses and a train to get to a job interview that lasted 7 minutes and then took 2 buses and a train home...
--cried in a bank lobby--sobbing, crying--it wasn't pretty
--won a $500 library scholarship
--AND, spent 3 hours last night in the emergency room with my husband after receiving a call that he had ploughed head first into the back of an SUV that swerved in front of him on the road and yes, last night he was running late and forgot to grab his helmet!!!

Thursday: Oy! so Tristan and I closed on our condo--well we signed all the paperwork. Then we went to IHOP for a breakfast celebration (I actually skipped part of the way because I was so happy). Then onto the bank, the Bank of EEEVILLL, to get our downpayment wire-transfered to the mortgage company so that we could close and get the keys to our new home on Tuesday or Wednesday. We get to the bank, we wait in line for about 10 minutes because none of the customer service reps would meet our eyes so we could get their attention. We get up to the teller who tells us we have to go fill out this form and then get back in line to talk to someone. I have never sent a wire transfer before and let me tell you, that form was confusing--beneficiary, beneficiary bank's account number the mortgage number etc. I filled out what I could and then we got back into line. We sat and waited for another 10 minutes for a "customer service" person to see us. He pulled up our info and said, "oh you're an out of state customer, we have to verify you account, it'll take about 10 minutes."

Because, see even though we moved here a year ago and changed our address with the bank and have been doing all our banking in CA, we are still considered "out of state" because we opened the account in MA. Hello, they are a national bank! Why would you have to close your account and open up a new one with them when you move? However, having had past dealings with the Bank of Evil, we anticipated this being a problem. Three weeks ago, Tristan called their customer service number and explained to them what we wanted to do, that we had opened the account in MA and that the amount was several hundred thousand dollars so we couldn't just get a cashier's check. Their response: "you'll be fine, just go into the nearest branch with your driver's license, have a nice day!"

So here we are 3 weeks later, trying to get the money out. Turns out, that they can't actually access our account info because the states aren't hooked up to one another through the computer system. "Could you please go sit over there so I can help the next customer while we wait for your previous branch to call us back?" Half an hour later, we are talking to a different rep who tells us that we can't get our money out without a copy of the "signature card" we filled out when we opened the account 5 years ago and that this piece of paper is not scanned into the system and can only be gotten from the branch where we opened the account. And said branch closed at 4pm Eastern time on Thursday and we were informed of this about about 4:30pm Eastern time. "Sorry, you'll just have to call back tomorrow. We'll TRY to get that bank to look for the card, but other than that there's nothing we can do. Now I need these seats for our next customers...." As a side note, I just finished reading "Talk to the hand: the Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door" by Lynne Truss on Wednesday, perhaps I can collaborate with her on a sequel...

Friday: I go off to my interview in the morning--and I missed the bus that goes to that town because it was 25 minutes early and the electric sign on the front of the bus was malfunctioning and only displayed 2 letters and absolutely no bus number so I had no idea that was the one I needed to flag down... So I had to find another bus that went part of the way there and then wait for the next bus. Craziness. I got to my interview on time, was there for 7 minutes and then back out on the next bus home....

While I was riding all sorts of public transportation, Tristan was on the phone with the bank trying to get them to call Boston. He finally ended up calling the branch manager in Boston himself who said "I don't have time to talk to someone in California. I have to take care of my customers here." And then he hung up. Tristan kept calling back so he could explain that we could LOSE OUR HOUSE if this transfer doesn't go through and that, in fact, we would be losing our apartment too since it is already rented and we have to be out of it by Feb 20th. Finally the CA bank called the guy in Boston and he started looking for the card 5 minutes before he closed (again, at 4pm--what kind of bank closes at 4?). And nope, he says he doesn't have it.

Saturday: 9am, the CA branch manager's office. Tristan was supposed to take the CBEST test today so that he could become a substitute teacher while he works on his masters. But we had to straighten this thing out so he forfeited his registration fee and now he has to wait until the end of April to take the test which means he can't get on the teaching list until next Fall. Again, the manager's like,"I don't know what we can do." We have to have that signature card to verify who you are. I said "you need verification of his identity, won't this do it?" And I proceed to dump an entire folder of crap on her desk: passport, birth certificate, marriage license, taxes going back 5 years, copies or our leases from here and Boston, old checkbooks full of carbon copies from when the account was opened and other official documents. And guess what, this couldn't prove who his is to these people--only that little piece of paper could. That piece of paper that THEY lost.

Their proposed solution: How about you just write a personal check? Which will take 10 days to clear and force us to put our stuff in storage and live in a motel and possibly stay there for over a month if the seller decides to back out of the deal and we have to find a new condo to live in, go through the escrow and so on... The branch manager was on the phone with customer service while Tristan said, "if you can't get this straightened out today, I'm flying to Boston on Monday, getting the money out in person and you will pay for my ticket and hotel!" I sat there and imagined the worst: that our seller would back out of the deal, we would be thrown out of our apartment, we'd have to rent a storage unit and live in a cheap hotel for God knows how long. I couldn't stop myself, I started bawling in the lobby of Bank of Evil, in front of all their other customers. The branch manager looks at me and says, "wait don't get upset. I'll just authorize it myself. Let me make copies of all the IDs you brought with you and I'll put it through on Monday morning. I'll take personal responsibility for it." So apparently folks, the only way to reach the human beneath the Bank of Evil alien employee is to CRY! Sobby, snotty, hiccuppy crying.

Sunday: Still worried about the transfer. Hoping it will go through. I was watching a 60 minutes segment about severe head wounds and thinking I would follow Darcy's advice and just take a hot bath and go to bed after it was over when the phone rings. It's Tristan's friend Grady and he's telling me Tristan was just hit by a car while riding his bike, that he hit his head and there is blood pouring from the wound. Can I grab the bike rack, throw in the car and pick him up so we can meet Tristan at Ceder-Sinai's ER? So that's what I did and on my way out the door I see Tristan's bike helmet, laying on the table. Three hours and 12 stitches later, Tristan is good to go home. No broken bones, just a bunch of bruises and a Harry Potter scar on his forehead to remember this accident by. He is very lucky. He was riding down Hollywood in the right lane behind an SUV that slowed down like it was going to turn into a parking lot. Tristan moved over to the left lane to pass it and at that moment the guy swerved into the left lane and slammed on the breaks. Tristan tried to stop but couldn't and his bike wheel locked up, he flew over the handle bars and slammed forehead-first into the SUV's huge bumper, hitting the round hitch for dragging a boat or whatever. Luckily, no sign of a concussion. The guy felt really bad and drove him to the hospital (with Tristan bleeding all over his expensive leather seats) and offered to pay his medical bills. Our insurance will most likely cover it all so no worries there. Tristan has promised that from now on he will wear the helmet I bought him as a wedding present (just like Lance Armstrong's helmet, by the way).

Monday: Tristan's phone/pda got smashed in the crash and they are replacing it for him and he's excited because his model is now obsolete so he's getting the improved version which apparently has more megapixels and blinking lights or something. The wire transfer finally posted and I am taking the day off from worrying about anything but packing and some schoolwork. UGGH! I thought weekends were for relaxation....


In Knitting News: Darcy and I have been working on our knit along project--the short-sleeved Michael Kors sweater from the Holiday 2005 issue of Vogue. Yep, so far we've done the ribbing and the first 11 rows. Tonight Darcy and I will be tackling the first decrease row and it's all downhill from there, folks!



So that my crochet skills don't get too rusty (it has been about a week, appalling, yes!), I made up a square to send to Drew the Crochet Dude who is collecting 12 inch squares for afghans for Heartmade Blessings. You can see all the details on his blog. And yes, I do realize this isn't quite square--I was watching the Olympic figure skating pairs and my eyes were focused on the Russians who were skating a perfect program instead of on my stitches and...I lost count somewhere on the second to last row or thereabouts. OOps! Hopefully someone will be able to finagle it--put it on a corner, Drew!

I'm going to try to score some Valium (kidding!) and some more boxes (not kidding!) and then chill our for the rest of the afternoon. So everyone, take your drama someplace else, cuz we're all full up here!

Oh the places I've been....

I actually found this map thingy when I looked at Michele's friend Amy's blog. Pretty cool. Though I must admit, some of these were places we stopped to use the bathroom on our cross-country trip--but only a few, the rest we actually did stop in and look around!



create your own visited states map

Looks like I need to do more international travel--glad I just renewed my passport for another ten years--I've only visited 4% of the world's countries!




create your own visited countries map


Where have you been? Where should I go next?

I'm reading a book right now that is set in China so maybe I'll have to plan a trip there--guess I better start clipping coupons if I have any hope of saving enough money...

The book is Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (It'll be back at the LAPL in about a week if you don't want to buy it!). I'm about 1/3 of the way through and this book is not for the faint of heart. There are several chapters that discuss footbinding in painful detail--describing bones breaking as she walks etc. Why anyone thought having a foot that was only 7 centimeters long was a necessity, I'll never know. Oh, of course, it was to keep women in their place--they certainly couldn't run away from abusive husbands or even engage in business or anything else that requires you to walk more then ten steps at a time. For those of you who are metric-challenged, like me, my shoe size is size 6 and my foot is 22 1/2 centimeters long. Yeah, so 7 cm is like ridiculous. Yet again, I can never see this happening if men were the ones supposed to be bound. Same with the whole abortion issue--there's no way the government would even think of telling a man what to do or not to do to his body...ok off subject but I got all fired up watching the State of the Idiocy, I mean, Union, address the other night. Turns out there was a sizeable anti-Bush demonstration in Hollywood that night. I guess I should have gone there instead of yelling "ha, you liar!" repeatedly at the TV all by myself.

And in knitting news: I'm one row away from completing the granny-square afghan and I'm exploring decorative edgings to give it just a bit more "ummph." I've also started working on a pair of alpaca socks--another Spring birthday present. However, I seem to have misjudged the amount of yarn necessary so I will be substituting some other AIS alpaca (Already In Stash, people) for the heel and toe so all should work out in the end. The yarn is Classic Elite Inca Alpaca from The Knitter's Studio--purchased during their sale a few weeks ago. It is beeeuuutiful--all different shades of green from lichen to olive to a muted chartreuse but they're gonna have chocolate brown heels and toes. And if you recognize the pattern, I'm doing the same cable pattern from the orange socks I made a few months ago...but on size 7's instead of 2's so it is going much faster! I'm actually reading for class while I knit, except for the cable rows.


Also, Darcy and I have started our own little knit along project. We're both doing the short-sleeve sweater from Vogue Knitting's Holiday Issue--they've taken down the picture from the website since the new issue is out. I'm doing mine in Tahki cotton classic in a pretty Avocado green color (the one that's displayed in that link) and Darcy is doing hers in Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride in a very pretty oatmeal-type color (not sure exactly what it's called). So far I've just swatched and done the ribbing on the bottom back. Pictures to follow when I've done more...Or if you're in the area, come to the Farmer's market tonight at 7pm for the WeHo SnB and you can see how both of us are doing...

And did I mention my Christmas present finally came? It's a Scunci steamer--I am so totally excited. However, I haven't finished anything yet since it arrived last Thursday. Some good motivation for me to finish something quick, just to try it out!

I'm it!

I've been tagged by Carla (sappmama) and because quizzes are much more fun than reading or packing or sleeping:

Four jobs in your life: (best to worst)
1. Legal Researcher at the Tobacco Control Resource Center in Boston
2. Yarn store sales clerk (up until the paychecks stopped coming in...)
3. Fine Jewelry Sales Associate at Walmart (I was in high school, way before I realized they
were EEEVILLL)
4. salad bar girl at the Ponderosa steakhouse (chickpeas and thousand island dressing, folks!)

Four movies you could watch over and over:
1. Sleepless in Seattle--I'm a sucker for a good love story!
2. Tootsie-don't know why I always feel compelled to watch it when it's on
3. Forrest Gump
4. Dances with Wolves

Four TV Shows you love to watch:
1. Lost
2. Medium
3. Scrubs
4. Ghost Whisperer (don't laugh, it's interesting--if you ignore all the Jennifer Love Hewitt boobage, unless you like that sort of thing..._

Four places you have lived:
1. Dallastown, PA--if you know where it is you were probably either born there or you car
broke down and you were stranded with no hotel in sight....
2. Shippensburg, PA
3. Boston, MA
4. West Hollywood , CA


Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Hawaii (Honeymoon, is that considered a vacation too?)
2. Paris
3. Belize
4. Toronto

Four websites you visit daily:
1. the SJSU mlis site for my class stuff
2. elann.com--gotta see their newest updates
3. www.thebreastcancersite.com--to click their daily "fund a free mammogram" button
4. All my friends' blogs

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Gnocchi--yummy, yummy
2. crab cake subs from Roma's Pizza in Dallastown PA
3. Fontina or Port Salut cheese and Trader Joe's woven wheats wafers
4. Pecan pie with vanilla bean ice cream

Four places you'd rather be right now:
1. Maui
2. my new home--moving in less than two weeks!
3. in bed (but I'm not sleepy and its 2:30 AM...)
4. My parents' kitchen--because I'm hungry and they have more food on-hand than we do...

Four bloggers you are tagging:
1. Tami
2. Michele
3. Darcy
4. Mark (you may regret giving me your blog address, walrus!)

It has been 13 days since my last confession...

Don't adjust your computer monitors--this is not a warehouse, it is my spare room/office! Well, half of it. The other half has so much junk piled and awaiting boxes that I can't even get to it. Indeed, there is so much stuff in here that I couldn't even back up enough to get you a shot of the whole cardboard tower that stretches nearly to the ceiling (or at least another foot and a half above my head--did you just say we must have low ceilings? for shame, I'm not that short--wait, yes I am, moving on). Lest you think I've only packed up like 15 boxes, here's a shot or our living room:



Yes, there is a fireplace in there somewhere. A fireplace that we've never lit in the 10 months we've lived here and will probably not light before we move because, hello, huge pile of flammable materials within inches of the gassy-fake log goodness. There are 2 chairs in there too, I think. We'll know for sure when the movers come on Feb 17th. We've decided to be relatively cheap with this move. Our initial cross-country move and the April move from Covina set us back about 2 semesters of SJSU tution. We're going to take over as many of the small boxes ourselves before the movers get here and then have them take the rest over with the furniture. It helps that we are moving, like, 10 minutes from where we live now. For anyone who is thinking about moving, don't get your boxes at U-Haul, get them through Used Cardboard Boxes. They have pickup sites across the US. They collect usable sturdy boxes from companies and people who have moved and you can buy them to use for your move at less than 1/2 what U-Haul charges. We opted for the 1-2 bedroom house unit which gave us 45+ boxes, 2 rolls of packaging tape, a huge roll of bubblewrap and a box cutter for $65--have you seen what U-Haul charges for their boxes? Oh, did I mention they gave us lollipops too? And when you are done, you can take your boxes back to them and they recycle the ones that are too damaged to use again and the others they sell to other customers.

We are using the Delancy Street Movers again for this move. We used them when we moved from Covina to West Hollywood and they are awesome. Reasonable rates and they really were very quick and careful with our furniture. You can find the LA phone number and address for them here. The Delancey Street Foundation was founded in San Francisco and provides training and housing for people with substance abuse problems, repeat felons and the homeless among others. They give them marketable skills, such as learning to be experienced movers so they can start their own moving companies or earn a living working for another moving company. They are definitely doing great things.

In between packing I've started on my schoolwork. Yes, I'm FINALLY back in school. I quite enjoyed the long break, even if I did spend it packing and signing paperwork. I had my first trip of the semester to Fullerton yesterday. This was the first time I actually drove there. Last semester my classes were on weekdays so I took the Red Line to Union Station and then took the Metrolink to Fullerton station and after a 10 minute bus ride I was at the campus. I much prefer public transportation to sitting in traffic. Gives me time to read and knit and eat breakfast! I lucked out in the morning, no traffic but the ride home took twice as long because there ALWAYS seems to be traffic on the 5 and the 101 once you get into the city.

Last night we went out to dinner with Michele and Mark and Darcy. Michele and Mark will be living in our apartment when we move--they were nice enough to take over so we don't lose a whole month of rent because of the move. We went to El Compadre on Sunset which has yummuy Mexican food. Usually when we go in there, the place is pretty quiet but apparently Sunday nights at 7pm is El Compadre's rush hour. We opted to sit out on the back patio which was fairly empty and quiet (until a bunch of kids came with their parents and they all decided to wait for their table on the patio--more proof that our decision not to procreate was a good one). Great food and great conversation!

I've been crocheting too--trying to finish a granny square blanket for a friend's birthday. I'm putting the rows together now so stay tuned for a picture of the completed blanket later this week.

I've gotta run--I promised myself I would pack up at least one more box today before doing a few more hours of school work. I'm trying to work ahead because I'm sure that when we get the keys to the new place on Feb 9th, it'll be much more tempting to unpack and paint than it will be to read and write papers.

Oh yeah, and as you look at the pictures above, let me know if you see a cat--I may have accidentally packed one up with the pots and pans. Magellan,where are you?????

Good Morning and don't mind the meows!

Gratuitous cat pictures! Ok, I just really wanted to post some pictures and since I forgot to take pictures of the knitting I did this weekend, this is all I've got. I spent the weekend working on 5 hats for the Afghans for Afghans kids' wool hat drive. Unfortunately I ended up doing the last 13 rows of hat 5 at around 2:45pm--the mailman comes around 3 so my fingers were a flying' to get it finished. I was in such a rush to get them into a ziploc bag, into an envelope and down to mailman before he left our building that I completely forgot to take photos of them. You'll just have to use your imagination: 3 were basic striped hats in reds, browns and greens with a 1-inch seed stitch edge, 1 was a jester type wedge hat from the winter Interweave knits magazine and the last one was a ribbed-edge hat using a slipstitch ladder pattern from the Reader's Digest Book of Knitting and Crochet stitches. Or ask Darcy, she saw me working on one.

Magellan (above) made this face because I showed him some of the bazillion pages of forms we have to read and sign for our new condo. He was so amazed by the amount and complexity of the documents that his tongue fell out of his mouth and he was bored into a deep slumber. It is unbelievable the number of trees that had to die so we could have a place of our own (huge contribution to The National Arbor Day Foundation as soon as we pay off the mortgage, in like 2046). I have signed so many papers and read so many things that are too confusing to understand even on the fourth read through that it is possible that I have not only agreed to pay a pro-rated share of next month's homeowner's association dues but that I've also agreed to give Oprah Winfrey and the Devil equal and non-severable rights to my soul, my first-born and my key lime pie recipe. This attorney can't remember the last time she read such convoluted crap referencing other pages of crap in separate, yet equally long and obnoxious, documents.

This beauty below is Amanda. I don't know what kind of kitty she is--any guesses? I refer to her as the long-haired brown one who is nice but skittish and I really need something shorter. She made one of her rare appearances downstairs yesterday so I just had to memoralize it in non-existant film.



Today, however, she and the Siamese Samantha spent the whole day under the bed. It had to do with a visitor we had this morning. They refuse to come downstairs when there is a stranger in the house. Both yesterday and today I was awoken before 9am by a 4 ft 4 in Asian man waving a paint brush and gesturing at my door. It seems our building is getting a face-lift. Last week they painted over the horrible color that was stuck somewhere between silly putty and pepto-bismal and replaced it with cream and a nice sage green trim. They said they'd give advance warning before they painted the apartment doors but I guess they forgot. So yesterday I asked the man to come back tomorrow because well, it was a holiday, I had just woken up and was wearing pajamas with little moons and stars on them and I really was not in the mood to herd 3 cats into the office with their litterbox, food and water where they would have to stay until the paint dries enough to shut the door. Because frankly, they would kill each other and I would likely go insane from the noise.

So he went away. Last night there was a paper on our door saying that the apartment doors will be painted on WEDS JAN 18th. Thinking I was off the hook, I slept in. Again, at 8:55am I had to open the door to the man waving the paintbrush. I said, can you give me 5 minutes to get the cats locked up? I turn around to start looking for them and he says "oh, cat" and throws the door open and stars slathering it with paint. At that very moment, Magellan saw his moment of freedom and began making a quick bee-line for the door. I almost had to tackle him to keep him inside. I picked him up, threw him in the office and grabbed the litterbox which I also put in the office/guest bedroom as quickly as I could before he realized he was about to be caged up for awhile. I kept him in there while the man was painting and as soon as he left, propping the door open so it wouldn't latch I made up a little cardboard box deflector and put it in front of the door to prevent an escape. I then let Magellan out (who was practically hoarse from 20 minutes of intense meowing) and then spent the rest of my day with one eye on the door.

Well I was playing prison warden, I started looking at some of my school stuff because classes start next week. I've been trying to ignore the reminders to sign into the class website etc... My classes are mostly online so we have to post pages about ourselves and do little "getting to know you" exercises since we won't meet face to face until April. One of the assignments is to list 3 websites that are either entertaining or library-related that you particularly enjoy. Ok, the websites that I frequent are: ebay, knitty.com, elann.com and other knitting blogs. Oh, and I check the LAPL website frequently to see when my books are due. Yeah, so I have to find some websites to make myself seem more interesting fast!

I googled "librarian websites" to see what I came up with and I found Spinster Librarian that is somewhat entertaining. And it had a link to an internet quiz. Which is fun and a good way to avoid packing and other stuff. It was the "The Obnoxious French Slang Test." Turns out I'm 72% fluent in French slang. Yes I did have about 6 years of French but my high school textbook was full of people wearing side ponytails and leg warmers so I'm sure my "slang" was a bit out of date. In fact, I'm sure that when I met my French penpal in Arles, France in 1997 I sounded like a kid from the French equivalent of the Cosby Show or Saved by the Bell.


Maybe I'm a bit of a nutter today or maybe it's just the paint fumes....

Half-way Grown-up, sort-of!

This has been one crazy week! I thought my month-long school break would be a time of relaxation--of reading novels, eating chocolate, knitting and watching netflix movies. Huh, yeah Lori--great call on that one because the dream, as usual, is so far from the reality its scary...

The reading novels...In anticipation of this extended break, I put myself on the waiting lists for quite a few books at the LA Public Library. If you're not familiar--it's a great system where you just add your name to the books catalog list online and then they send it to your local branch and email you so you know to go pick it up. There were several books on the NY Times bestseller list and a few LA Times book review books that I wanted to read and they had gigundo waiting lists (you are number 344 and there are 40 copies available for borrowing etc) so I put my name on those lists in November. Then I went on in December and added some other books that were less in demand. Well, be careful what you wish for folks because I now have about 20 books to read before Jan 27th--when they are all due. And, since they are in demand I'm not sure I can even renew them...

So I've been using the bookstand and doing some knitting while I read. Because, um, I still haven't finished some Christmas presents....Yes I know it is January. And no they are not for next year. They are the 2005 edition. I'm aiming for Chinese New Year, maybe--that's in February right? One present I did finish on time was that plaid wrap I've been showing you bits of over the last month. I'm quite pleased with it--so pleased that I may have to make one exactly like it for myself...In like October 2007 when I finish all my current projects. I gave it to my husband's aunt on Saturday when we had our "Christmas."


Also, I've been trying to work in a few wool hats for kids. Afghans for Afghans is desperately trying to gather 500 wool hats for children by January 20th. They received a donated airplane trip or something of that nature and would like to fill it. Check out their website. Even if you don't have time now to knit anything up, they will be collecting wool hats, mittens and other items later in the year. Even with the new postage hike, one wool hat doesn't cost much to ship in an envelope!

Speaking of that Christmas get-together with Tristan's Aunt Marilyn and her husband Ken... Ken lived in Alaska for a while and he bought a beaver pelt at some market there--fresh off the beaver folks--and commissioned someone to make him a hat out of it. Only it turns out it takes 2 beaver pelts to make a hat-who knew? So now we know for next time. This is Tristan modeling said hat...Hey folks, don't judge, I only married into this family...



So when I haven't been knitting or reading or dining with relatives, I've been packing because...drumroll please (or eggroll, those are tastier, uumm, eggrolls)...we bought a condo. Yes it is official, I own property--and a mortgage. Does this mean I am a sort-of, almost grown-up? Next thing you know I'll have a Roth IRA and an investment strategy. Wait, no I won't--we have to pay the mortgage.

The condo is in Hollywood but close to Weho and eveything important--it's in a 1950s building with only a small number of units. It's a huge 2 bedroom and 2 full bath and it has a huge kitchen, hardwood floors and a woodburning fireplace. It is actually big enough to have dinner parties--whoohoo! So now I have a month to pack up the apartment--escrow closes Feb 10th. At least I was able to watch "Out of Africa" while I packed up the living room. I've been packing the breakables first--surrounding them with yarn and quilting fabric, so much more environmentally friendly than packing peanuts! Magellan has been helping me by making sure there is nothing in the crates and boxes before I try to fill them up. He is so helpful that way...So exciting but now I've got lots to do before my classes start Jan 25th. If I actually know you, email me for pictures of the condo--don't want to put it up on the 'internets' while someone else is still living there....


Oh, I have been eating some Stauffer's chocolate holiday stars--a real Central PA Christmas treat--dark chocolate covered graham crackers shaped like stars and sprinkled with white non-pareil dots.

Resolution Solutions

Ok, so I'm a bit late. Yes I do realize that January 2006 is five days old already but I've made some resolutions that will hopefully be the solutions to unfulfilled wishes and dreams of last year, not to mention the minor vexations and the all-too-familiar "oh great Lori, just great" whispered under my breath. No, this year is going to be different. I will not give up on my resolutions by the end of February. Tristan suggested that I look at them not as resolutions, but as decisions--things I have decided to change about my life. He also suggested not writing them down because if I fail to keep one, I might become discouraged and feel guilty. He said "just decide you're going to do it right before you do and then do it." Sounds simple, right? However, I am a person who delights in lists, as does Crazy Aunt Purl, so I must write them out. Well, that and I can't remember anything without writing it down. Plus there's the "cross-off accomplishment factor"--funny how a check mark or a skinny black line drawn through a to-do item can give a person such satisfaction...

Here they are in random order:
1. eat healthier--this means eating at least one thing a day that did not come out of a can, box or shrink-wrap (with the exception of plastic-wrapped leftovers)

2. plan out weekly menus and shop for food once a week--no more monthly stock-up trips that result in 4 boxes of pop tarts, 3 bags of chips and absolutely nothing that could pass for a decent entree

3. Get to know my surrounding environs by walking more--other than my usual routes to the Farmer's Market (for Stitch n Bitch thursday nights), the library and the grocery store (added bonus of exercise!)

4. Try out the stationary bike in the fitness room--at least 3 times before calling it pointless

5. start my Christmas gifts for next year in FEBRUARY

6. Clean more frequently--pick a day of the week and stick to it

7. Keep in touch more, especially with friends in faraway places

8. Do not buy yarn until my yarn stash has been reduced by at least 1/3

9. Read 15 more books next year (2005 total: 58)

10. Quilt more often

11. Call my parents more frequently

12. Stop beating myself up for not completing every task on my daily to-do lists--I'm too ambitious and set myself up for failure

13. Watch less tv (movies without commercials, even though they are on tv do not count)

14. Try to finish my library school assignments at least one day in advance of their due dates

15. Make time for charity knitting

16. Take a Spanish class

17. Make an earnest attempt to declutter

18. Take more pictures

19. Give sushi another try

20. Be less of a hermit--several people remarked to me at Christmas "how come you aren't tan? are you really living in California?"

Of course there are a thousand other things--like filing bills in the filing cabinet the day we get them instead of adding them to a "to be filed" stack on the coffee table until the pile threatens to topple over and smother one of the cats under 13 lbs of dead tree. Ooh, that's another one, use less paper....

Really, it could go on forever but 2006 only has 365 days (well only 360 as of today)in it so I can't be too ambitious.

As a side note, if you happen to have a copy of the January issue of the American Journal of Public Health, take a look at page 33--an article I co-authored as a law student was just published. Now my resume can have a 'publications' section, not that that will do much to get me hired...

Knitting Karma

Yes folks, that crazy guy wearing the hawaiian shirt and sporting an afro is my husband. Tristan decided to play open-mic night at the Karma Coffee house on the corner of Cahuenga and Selma in Hollywood (in the shopping center with the chinese place--Big Wangs, I kid you not). We got there around 7pm so Tristan could sign up and get a spot--they go fast! There are lots of big comfy couches and leather chairs. I found one by a great table light and pulled out my knitting (what? You didn't think I would spend 3 1/2 hours in coffeehouse without knitting, 11 days before Christmas did you? No, I didn't think so).

I've been to open-mic nights before. Usually there is one or two (or 6--really bad memory) really obnoxious poetry readings from some chic's hello kitty journal, hoping to be the next Jewel. But this was totally different. The performers were so amazing. Really unique, original music sung by people with fantastic voices. Lots of just guys and guitars and a few girls with guitars as well. Oh, and they have a house bongo player too!

There was a performer, Extreme Janine, who changed the lyrics of songs by Al Green, Crystal Waters and Tom Jones to words about loving women and being a lesbian--very funny and upbeat. There was also a guy who called himself the "Minstrels of Decency" and who was (supposedly) a right-wing fundamentalist nutcase but you could see he was just actually making fun of those people!

Then there were several guys with amazing soulful voices who sang wonderfully original heartfelt songs. One guy sang a song he wrote for his Grandfather's 80th birthday called 20th Century Man--I got a bit teary-eyed, really, it was lovely. A friend of a friend performed, Benjamin, and he did a song called Ballad 90, I think, written by a friend of his that gave me chills, 3 times!

Tristan's stuff is a bit different. Well, have you heard of Weird Al? Tristan likes to spoof famous songs--Eric Clapton's classic, Tears in Heaven, becomes "Working at 7-11." He also played an original song he wrote about finals week in college which is very funny. Oh, and he got to be on internet radio. The people who sign up for the 9-10pm slots are broadcast on Internet radio (link on their website, if you ever want to listen). People were yelling, encore, encore when he finished--they didn't yell that for anyone else! I'm so proud!

They have open-mic every Wednesday from 7:30pm-11pm. We might just make this a regular thing--after we get back from visiting my folks in PA for Christmas. Next time, though, I'm gonna drink less coffee. I was nervous for Tristan and that combined with the bazillion cups of coffee I had yesterday made me so shaky that I was having trouble holding on to my cable needle in addition to the two I was knitting with. Oy! Next time I'll stick to herbal tea. But seriously, check it out. It was like a free concert. It's just up Cahuenga from Amoeba Records. Oh, and I knitted about 8 inches of a sweater vest. Success all around.

Coffee contamination! Code Red!

So today I am sitting here sipping a delightful cup of Pumpkin Spice coffee from Quilter's Coffee- a delightful online store with lovely flavored and normal coffees. The beans are so aromatic and oily. The coffee is smooth and divine but lurking beneath the calm brown surface is a history of violent conflict. You see, this coffee is special. It is the first pot brewed in my coffee-making exile. No, no, let me start at the beginning....


As a single woman, I often enjoyed a cup of flavored coffee--delightful aromas of cinnamon and vanilla or mocha and spices would play about my nose. Equally perfect when savored while reading the Sunday paper or slurped from a travel mug as I stood in 20 degree weather waiting for the bus. Then I fell in love and moved in with a man who HATES flavored coffee. HATES it! He is a coffee purist. The beans must be oily and fresh and of course he grounds each pot immediatly before brewing (at least he hasn't made the move to using bottled water in the coffee maker yet--the fancy $80 coffee maker that has its own special water filters in addition to the paper ones, non-bleached natural ones from Trader Joes, that is). However, I continued to make flavored coffee occasionally, usually when he wasn't home and I'd be sure to wash out the pot and the filter basket to remove the evidence.

But 4 years later, I got tired of thoroughly scrubbing the coffee pot after each use just so he can come downstairs and make a pot of "his" coffee an hour later. So one day, one day 3 weeks ago to be exact, I DIDN'T clean the pot. I rinsed and returned. I dumped out the filter and put the filter basket back in the maker with nary a rinse. He made a pot of his coffee a short time later and proclaimed that it was contaminated and that it all tasted like cinnamon. I said, no way could cinnamon survive your double-strength Starbucks crap. But he insisted that it had.

Later that same day he went to Target. He came home with a 4 cup coffee maker and a pack of filters and the rest is history. Should I desire flavored coffee, I must use the little white coffee maker instead of the big fancy silver and black one (it was the reason we bought a silver and black microwave and a silver and black toaster oven--we had to match the coffee maker, just so you know how important it is). I've become so accustomed to making 8 cups of coffee and drinking them myself. Now I make a whole pot in my new coffee maker and it gives me a mug and a half. I suppose I can always make 2 pots....and use the thermal carafe he bought just for that purpose--so that my extra flavored coffee would not sully the "good" carafe that we use so the coffee doesn't get bitter from sitting on the hot plate. No, that carafe is for "regular only, please."

I suppose he sensed that I was feeling like an exiled patriot in a foreign (and smaller) land because yesterday he came home with a bag of coffee, coffee just for me....cinnamon hazelnut.

Well, they say marriage is about compromise, right? Don't get angry, just buy her a damn coffee maker of her own!

Freshly caffeinated, I return to my knitting....

A rolling knitter gathers no moss....

Whew boy, I've been knitting so much I might just need a new shoulder joint for Christmas (you know, like a hip replacement but except in my shoulder). Magellan has been keeping me on task and helping me decipher patterns:



Someone posted a query on the SnB discussion list, asking what they could do with one 250 gram ball of recycled silk. Here's what I did with my recycled silk from the breast cancer site store--made a scarf in double moss stitch:


Here's my pattern for the scarf which is 5 1/2 inches wide and about 54 inches long:
Using size 8 needles:

CO: 20 sts--I used the cable cast on b/c I think it makes a neater edge
knit 3 rows of garters stitch
beginning 4th row:
Row 4: * K2, P2 repeat to end*
Row 5: * K2, P2 repeat to end*
Row 6: * P2, K2 repeat to end*
Row 7: * P2, K2 repeat to end*

Repeat Rows 4-7 until you are about an inch away from the end and then do 3 rows of garter stitch and bind off. Very simple but it gives just a hint of texture to this shiny yarn.

I also finished a pair of socks that are a birthday present that someone will get at Christmas because I just didn't finish them in time. Don't look too close, I messed up on the cuff. I did one in October, improvising a bit on a pattern I have but then I didn't start the other one until November and I forgot to look at the first one before I started. I followed the ribbing directions in the pattern and ended up with a K1, P1 rib. At around the heel flap, I thought to look at the first sock and, um, realized I had done a K2, P2 rib on the first one--whoops! I was not about to rip out 9 1/2 inches of cabled sock done on #2 needles to fix it! So now the recipient knows which one is for the right foot and which one is for the left...yeah, that's what I'll tell 'em. I used Brown sheep wildfoote in shades of rust, brown and olive. They are big boot socks, heading for a chilly climate. I really should invest in some sock forms....Close up shot of those never-ending cables. ...



Oh, did you notice the photos are better? Well, that's because I got my birthday present early (it's on Friday)--a new Canon Powershot. It's so slim it fits into even my smallest clutch purse (I had to try it--you know, in case I ever go to the opera and want to take pictures). It's gonna take me about a month to figure out how to use all the settings (it has a "foliage" setting and a "beach" setting--this may just be more exciting than the "baked potato" button on my microwave!).

Ok, back to playing with sticks!

Getting to know you...

I got another email survey thingy and I thought I would just share it with all ya'll instead of sending a bunch of copies into cyberspace. Plus you guys may need some distraction at work and reading through this could be just what the doctor ordered.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Blah! definitely hot chocolate--the stuff made from milk, not the water & mix and not the kind with the marshmallows already IN the mix!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Depends when santa finishes knitting them....

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White on both
colored lights on the tree. No lights on the house if you can help it but if you just can't, go with the white and absolutely NO LAWN ORNAMENTS such as that obnoxious blow up snow globe they have at Lowe's

4. Do you hang mistletoe? NO

5. When do you put your decorations up? Day after thanksgiving--need the motivation to finish the gifts

6. What is your favorite Christmas dish (excluding dessert)?
the ham! or maybe the green bean casserole

7. Favorite Christmas memory as a child? sitting in front of the fire on christmas morning opening gifts

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
hmm, kindergarten or first grade? The news had on a report that Santa's sleigh had been spotted by their news chopper and I announced I was going to tell everyone at school the next day that santa was on his way. My parents told me to spare the embarassment

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? yes--usually gifts from my grandma but sometimes Tristan can't wait and has to give me at least one!

10. What kind of cookies does Santa get set out for him?
none but I bet he would love an Irish coffee and some snickerdoodles

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
LOVE IT but probably won't see any now that we live in SoCal

12. Can you ice skate? Um, no. Tried it once and ended up in a very unflattering position on the ice

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? the barbie house my dad made for me as a kid

14. What's the most important thing about the Christmas for you? spending time with friends & family, singing Christmas carols (I sing them at home other times of the year but it just isn't appropriate)

15. What is your favorite Christmas Dessert? cookies!!!

16. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? going to midnight service and singing silent night by candle light--gives me goosebumps every year

17. What tops your tree? the saddest angel you have every seen. We need a new one

18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving? GIVING, most definitely. I almost don't care whether I get anything myself, I get so excited about everyone else opening up the gifts I gave them!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol? O Holy Night

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? yum--but not the weird pina colada flavored ones or whatever


Ok, your turn...

Too fast, too furious, too flustered?

Only 19 days until Christmas so the needles are a' flyin. I've been mostly working on presents but it seems everytime I see a news story about Toys for Tots or how the survivors of Hurricane Katrina are coping with the coming holidays, I feel the need to do some charity knitting. The piece above is destined for the Pine Ridge Reservation, and hopefully I can finish it in time for it to be a Christmas present at the teen center. I like the orange and yellow tahki cotton classic yarns together and I have some fizzy little yarn to use as fringe at either end that is shades of yellow and orange.

I spent some time yesterday working on the plaid wrap by Annie Modesitt from the Vogue Holiday issue. I just started the third pattern repeat and the wrap has 6 repeats total. But it's going fast and I love the colors. My hope is that I can finish it by like Saturday and then focus my attention on the two sweaters, one sweater vest, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of mittens, a scarf and 9 golf club covers that I need to finish by Christmas. Thank goodness I'm now unemployed. I loaded up the netflix queue with good movies and I'm all set for two weeks of non-stop knitting and crocheting.


I made a few clothsforkatrina this week too. I wanted to try out some crochet patterns (including some free patterns from Drew the crochet dude's site--but I butchered the black round one, turns out I doubled the number of stitches on the last round so it has ruffles, but they're not supposed to be there) and, um, make room for "new stock" that I just ordered. I got a box today from Createforless.com---some plastic canvas that will be the brim of some newsboy-style hats and sugar n'cream yarn for a birthday present that I will be working on AFTER the holidays. Sugar n cream for only $1.49 a ball, minimum of 6 per color and a one pound cone of white for $10.49. So much fun in a box, don't ya just love it? And the boxes that they use are recycled boxes--they reuse ones from their suppliers to reduce waste!
My birthday is coming up soon and hubby informed me that my present is on its way--a new digital camera so hopefully I can post pictures with actual stitch-definition (and without taking 8 shots just to try and get one decent one!) Tonight I have to work on one final project for school then I plan to spend at least an hour or two on that beaded cardigan.

Congrats also to Tami who has joined the world of blogdom.

Count down to, um, everything?

Laurie, Crazy Aunt Purl, posted an "internets" quiz on her page a few days ago and I've decided to take it since my finals this semester are actually all papers and maybe I have a little lack-of-test anxiety? Anywho...

Ten random things you might not know about me.
1. I hate to throw out coffee left in the pot
2. I will microwave yesterday's coffee and
then promptly forget about it until I go
to microwave something else,
hours later
3. I was once a model in a fashion show at a mall
4. I won a college scholarship from the NRA BUT
I abhore guns (will take their money though...)
5. I can sing "Silent Night" in Japanese
6. I only paint my toenails in "Firehouse Red"
7. I sometimes interrupt myself when I'm speaking
8. I love to straighten-up/clean other people's
houses but hate cleaning my own
9. I want to retire to a cabin on an island off
the coast of Maine and do nothing but knit,
spin yarn and bake zucchini bread while
singing folk songs all the live long day...
10. Sometimes I wish I smoked just to make
conversation with people when I go out "to
get some air" at parties

NINE places I've visited:
1. Monaco
2. Switzerland
3. France--once as a pseudo-chaperone!
4. Belgium
5. The Bahamas
6. Belize
7. Cozumel
8. Hawaii
9. New Orleans--and hope to again someday soon...

EIGHT ways to win my heart:
1. Make me pancakes!
2. Drive me places--I too HATE to drive, Laurie!
3. Vacuum my house
4. join me for an impromptu ice cream run
5. Not laugh at my silk scarf fetish
6. ask me how my cats are doing
7. tell me "I don't mind if you sing along with
the radio"
8. email me silly animal pictures

SEVEN things I want to do before I die
1. Visit Angor Wat in Cambodia (I had a dream
about it once)
2. make a baked alaska
3. finish my own wedding quilt (still in squares
and I've been married a year and a half)
4. be someone's doting aunt
5. drink coffee in the original starbucks and
remark, loudly, that the coffee is sooo much
better at the Starbucks around the corner from
my house...
6. make a little vegetable garden where onions and
peppers are verboten
7. Take my dad to Germany and visit as many cuckoo
clock shops as he wants...

SIX things I'm afraid of:
1. earthquakes
2. running out of kitty litter when it's too hot
to leave the house
3. losing my teeth and having to get dentures
4. that my sister might be better at something
than I am
5. that Tristan will die first
6. that Ben & Jerry's will stop making Chunky Monkey

FIVE things I don't like
1. big honking SUVS
2. bigots
3. peppers and onions
4. people who feel it is necessary to own more than
one home when so many people live in cardboard
boxes...
5. the book Wuthering Heights--only time I ever
resorted to Cliff's notes

FOUR ways to turn me off
1. be bitter and cynical
2. force your religion on me
3. swear in front of children
4. eat veal

THREE Things I do every day
1. Knit (well, I try to)
2. Read a book before bed (at least one chapter)
3. open the fridge at least twice without taking
anything out and I then get a glass of water
instead

TWO things that make me happy:
1. when Tristan makes me "movie popcorn" in
our popcorn popper (even though he knows I'm only
pretending I don't know how to make it myself)
2. going to get the mail--there's always hope that
there will be something great in that little box!

ONE thing on my mind right now:
1. how good does my paper (that's due tomorrow) really have to be to maintain my grade for the class? Should I be working on it or sleeping right now?

Oh and a knitting update:

I found a yahoo group, clothsforkatrina, that is collecting knit and crocheted facecloths/handcloths that they are sending to Hurricane Katrina survivors, along with soap. Since I had some extra Sugar 'n Cream laying around I decided to make one as a "reward" for finishing yet another page of my paper. I used Drew the Crochet Dude's free pattern "sunshine dishcloth" from his blog. Thought I would make yet another forray into crocheting, just for fun. I'll snap a photo tomorrow. Also, I started the daisy mohair cardigan from the Vogue Knitting holiday issue (the picture where the chic is wearing a teal satin dress and a huge black feather hat). I strung 250 black beads onto the Karabella lace mohair and made 2 pattern repeats so far. It looks pretty cool so far (photo tomorrow as well-I'm too tired to get out the camera). Also, saw on the Knitzilla email list that there's a new yarn shop opening up on Franklin in Los Feliz, a block east of Vermont called The Little Knittery. Maybe I'll have to go check that out this week, since I lost my #3 circs and I need them to finish a project.

Maybe I'll just type one more paragraph of that paper before I go to bed since it is almost 4 AM! only 4 more days in the semester, yikes!

In the land where yarn is my slave....

I have spent the past week hard at work on my papers. Or maybe this is just something I tell myself. Because you see, I still have so much more to write but I don't know why because I've spent hours in front of the computer since Monday. Yes, strange things have been happening because suddenly I have three emails from three different websites telling me my orders have shipped, and what, are they all yarn? that I ordered? Why yes, they do appear to be of the fiber persuasion. The furry little beauty below was a free gift from the knitting gods. (Ok, it was a free give-away from mary maxim that I sent away for a few weeks ago). I have no idea what I'm going to do with it--a scarf for charity perhaps? It is brown with gold flecks and furry-eyelashy, not my usual milieu but it was free, n'est ce pas?

I have also decided that I am the Ruler of the Yarn in my stash and I can make it take whatever form pleases me. The form this time: crocheted flowers that will somehow be strung into a 12-flower placement. Yes, I said crocheted. Up until Tuesday, I didn't really do crochet. Oh sure, I did edgings a few times, snuck a few crochet cast-ons on the side but that doesn't make me a crocheter, does it? Well, I decided to expand my skills (and put off yet another paper) and voila, this is the result. Now I just have to finish this one and make, um, 7 more sets of 12? At least it is faster than knitting....
Samantha the (perhaps somewhat evil?) Siamese disapproves. She tells me to get back to my papers. Ok, ok just a few more comments...
Laurie is collecting some toys for her internet friend Haji who is currently in Afghanistan. The soldiers and other people on the military base would like to give toys to the children of the village who have basically nothing. You know you have toys laying around too that you'd love to throw her way. I however, cleaned out all of our stuffed animals before we moved from Boston except for two, which Magellan claimed and now they are constantly covered in happy cat drool. So, I decided to make a pink elephant from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book. I'm using double-stranded Blue Sky Alpaca (which I got at a 75% off sale, thank you very much). I just need to finish the head and trunk and stuff the little guy with polyester fiberfill (or "flufferfill" as I saw on the Blick art supplies site--isnt' that a funny word? I keep saying it over and over again...)
Ok, ok, Samantha, geesh, I'll get back to the darn paper (hate to swear too much in front of her, she is only 12, you know). At least after Dec 8th I'll have nothing to do except knit up the Christmas presents because I quit my job this week and my papers and the semester will be over!