September 03, 2008

Don't Wait Too Long


Baby you and I, got a lot to learn

Don't want to waste another day



Sometimes you gotta lose it all

Before you find your way



Take a chance

Play your part



Make romance

It may break your heart



But if you think that time

Will change your ways?


Pre-season 49er-Chargers game last Friday. If you make a bet about putting a gas BBQ together, make sure it involves drinking beer, and you not doing the work. That way, the other team will think they won (17 minutes to put the entire BBQ together when the directions estimated typical assembly at 30 minutes. Pure genius.) Another hint. Don't buy the very nice and portable grill. It is VERY portable for ANYBODY walking by during the game. Thankfully it was only $25. And whoever took it? Well, they had to clean the chicken wing scrapings off of it. Good luck with that one.



Ah football. All weekend. A morning hike (in order to avoid HS football, hey, it's still football) out at Arastradero; Arlo's usual Social Buttfly expedition outside Starbucks in Los Altos (where he was good a crawling under our chairs, not quite sure how he fit), and then an entire afternoon and evening of college football, beer & pizza. I know, so fancy. There has even been some Rockband. How could life POSSIBLY get better than that?!?


The fabric is new and absolutely amazing and from the Mendocino collection by FreeSpiritFabrics. Probably pillow cases? My friend got the 3 long yards of Aqua Mermaids. Gorgeous. And there was a discussion on the difference between Men & Women's rendering of mermaids. ( No surprise there.)

Madeleine Peyroux again. Going to try something new. We'll see.

August 24, 2008

Not On Beijing Time


But still finished today. California time. They are a little silly, no? Not entirely sure when to wear them, or with what. But I still think they're pretty. And the tassels are awesome Elliott Toys. Maybe when it gets colder it will be easier to find a use for them. Today was awefully hot to model them for the pictures. Phewey.


Should have maybe learned not to knit two socks (belonging to the same pair) over a year apart. They most definitely have different gauge, but maybe with some washing and blocking they'll be better. Louet Gems, 100 % merino, fingering weight. A bit over 4 skeins, the extra in the teal, used for heel and cuff.

Figured out (eventually) how to carry the yarn of the finished square along the line of picking up stitches for the new color, so when you got all the way around the sock, your yarn was in the right place. It was abit tricky, but worked like a charm. (I am sure the pattern said something about it, I'm just a real crappy reader.)


Still love entrelac, knitting and purling backwards is a must for this sock. It's really not very difficult. You don't need a class, or have anyone show you how. Just knit away, turn your work, knit or purl the stitch, turn it back, and check out how you inserted the needle and how you wrapped the yarn. Piece of cake. After you've done it a few times, you'll get the feel for it.

Here's maybe a small reason why things weren't completed on Beijing time. A tiny tiny tiny reason. Say Hello to Penelope Piglet Bottom Dudziak. She's a munchkin. Her Mommy's feet look like big foot foots, but they're not. She's really a very tiny dog. Check her out next to this size 9 foot.


Work trivia on Friday included something crafty (it usually does), with a promise of a prize with team color(s)/pattern for the best answers. This time there were only two questions: Which were the coolest game pants, and why? The answers were:

1) The bunny slippers, by far!

2) I laughed out loud.


If you can make someone laugh at work, on a Friday afternoon around 4 pm their time, well, that's pretty good in my book. Somehow I ended up promising three projects including the Cowboys, 49ers and Chargers. (Received an SMS today asking if I'd bought any 49er fabric yet. Sheesh.) Time to get back to sewing.


Some people absolutely loved the bunny slippers. Had to reiterate they were a birthday present, so there will be research involved in finding out where to buy them.

August 21, 2008

Game Pants





Favorites for sure. And done. Except maybe if attention had been paid, I would remember to turn the football guys the right way. At least one leg is right.


The flannels are for colder football Sunday mornings, (incl. coffee & knitting on the couch). It's kind of nice here on the west coast to start football at 9 am. Oh yea.


And some giraffes that have been stuffed in the closet for months. Maybe even a year. Or two. Just because they were so cute.


Is it a bit of a nod to the ancestry? Or is that kind of like saying the Swedish Chef in the Muppet Show is really Swedish? He really isn't, you know. But they were a Must Have anyway. Decided to do the draw string with button holes to pass the draw string through. Both in the front and in the back. Ok, really because I never remember (or mark) which is the front and which is the back, so doing both sides is just plain laziness. All draw strings also have knots in them. It's a total bitch to pull them through the waist band, so I don't want them to weasel their way out while in the dryer or something.


Simplicity #9871 in Medium. All of them. They're alittle big, but they're just for doodling around the house. And watching sports. A lot of sports right now. Adore the Olympic Games. Lovely.

August 17, 2008

Elliott's Favorite Game





A very close second is the "I-will-be-as-annoying-as-possible-by-being-in-the-way". Good thing he's damn cute.

Guess what that bump is? Someone skilled at combining two of his favorite games.


Can't decide on whether to add a border to the quilt or not. Solid color and crazy binding, or simply a solid color binding? Getting flashbacks while watching the Women's Marathon, to sewing like crazy four years ago during the same event in Athens. Yes, on the Monkey Wrench Quilt that was just finished. Whoops. This one has to be completed & delivered in a month and two days.

It's a tough life he leads.

Oh, right. Knitting Olympics. There's been progress. And even some Rockband.

August 12, 2008

Put Your Game Face On





WIP Wrestling is progressing after countless hours on the couch watching the Olympics. Ah Sports. Slowly remembering knitting and purling backwards. My theory is, knitters who "throw" the yarn (non-contintentals) knit tighter, throwing it makes you automatically pull it tighter around your needle. Experienced this while knitting backwards resulting in VERY uneven gauge between the rows. But, practise, practise, practise. And now entrelac is fun again.






Admit it, whimped out a little bit on the Knitting Olympics this time around, compared to the first one, no entire cable sampler blanket to knit this time. Don't have time, but also have a new overly ambitious secret birthday project going on with a pile of Amy Butler fabrics from Bobbin's Nest. Crazy, but it wouldn't be quite as much fun if it wasn't a challenge.

August 04, 2008

On Finishing Things





I am a process knitter. A finished project is always very satisfying, but my initial motivation and drive is to just knit. Probably explains the large (and only getting larger) pile of WIPs in this shoe box of an apartment. Like I have room. However, this weekend has been all about satisfaction. Finishing projects that have been hanging around for years, but also starting new projects that have mentally bounced around for months, sometimes even years.




Almost forgot the one-track-mindedness of quilting and sewing. It's difficult to stop; two, three o'clock in the morning, and you have to forcibly lift your foot from the gas pedal and make yourself to go bed. It's been loads of fun. The pattern for the Monkey wrench quilt is from some quilting book, the color choices inspired by an affinity for amish quilts, the bright colors and also the stern blackness. Used regular 100% cotton black fabric (and let me just say, buy enough for an entire project because finding a black that matches the one you have is impossible); the colors are all batiks.



May have also spent an ungodly amount of money at JoAnns today. Even showed restraint. Also, on a related note, found BOTH Leinie's Sunset Wheat, AND Sam Adams Cherry Wheat at BevMo (well, Jill fond both for me, because I am clearly blind) ! Even took a picture of the most awesome 21A assortment on pallets as well. Is it bad when you have six different kinds of beer in your fridge? (Hrm.)


Oven mitts, revision III, were also started with the cutest chick 100 % medium weight cotton fabric (hello, even pre-washed it!!). Made a slight modification to the pattern, a little wider along the base. t's kind of fun winging the hand quilting. Went a little crazy on the french knottiness maybe. (Apologizing for the crappy tungsten light colors, it's difficult to see the stitch detail..) Lately alot of inspiration has come from Posie Gets Cozy. Excited about sewing again, check out those cute cute pillows, ( and boy is that puppy dog of hers cute).


Rockband has beeen seriously suffering.

July 31, 2008

Rene Descartes was a drunken fart





"Good Sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess.""



At my work, and with ex-coworkers who are now friends, we have a constant war going. Mac vs. PC. We bait each other all the time, the e-mail threads grow into the double digits, with fervent opinions and sarcastic remarks. But really, people are just jealous of my iPhone. Tonight, while eating dinner at the bar ( at Chili's, across from my hotel in San Diego ), by the way, when you go out to eat alone, where do you sit? I personally like sitting at the bar, people are friendly and there are always sports on TV, I discovered BOOKS on the iPhone. I mean, you pay 99 cents for the ENTIRE Pride & Prejudice!! (It is full of classic lines, gotta have it.). They also have Shakespeare, Thomas Payne's "Common Sense"...


I am a word junkie. Love reading, love poetry, love the structure of words & sentences. Entire books. In the palm of your hand. At your fingertips. Whenever you want them. Woah.


Polishing your silver is maybe a little Yoga like. Check out those ninja knives. They're sparkly. Tired, tired, tired. So much work. Uncertainty somehow brings out nesting tendencies. The "new" kitchen table now holds a teeny sewing corner. It's nice.




Quote: by the man in the title. Title: From Monty Python's lovely song about him.


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