Knitabel

Silent Blog

2008-07-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

Life has been busy here, but I am sorry about the blog silence.Even now I'm typing over the baby. :)

Since my last post, Little'Un has been born,

my parents came out,

we've moved, Eric finished collecting his data, and he finally got his first ever full-time job. It's his first job that has even included benefits!

You can imagine that we're feeling pretty good, though there have been a couple hitches. But the girls are cute and both are getting stronger and smarter every day!

(This photo is of Little'Un, with a photo of Sweetie held next to her.)

I have been knitting, mostly for Little'Un's bum, though I have started my very first sweater for myself! No pics of that, as yet, but here is one more cute one:

Massive update part 2

2008-03-30T00:04:00.000-07:00

The next part of the massive update brings us to the fabulously beautiful blanket that the BobaKnitters made for my gestating offspring.

Abigail blogged about it here, with a complete list of everyone who helped. It was a total suprise to me! It has another row of blocks that are hiding behind the couch, but I photographed it as it is in our house, waiting for the baby to arrive. I can't even tell you how amazing it is! Thanks ladies!

On a much more domestic note, I'm very excited to have added a line of elastic to the top edge of my water bottle cozy. My bottle has been naked since it's original drawstring felted itself into a knot, but now my bottle is dressed again. :)

Next up, newly on the needles is a summer Clapotis for me. My other Clapotis is Noro Silk Garden, so there is a limit to how much I wear it, based on the seasons. This one is in cotton, apparently. Sandi at Purlescence recieved a whole load of cotton yarns from a friend, and when I was at the store shopping for my birthday, I asked about this enourmous yarn cake that was near the swift. Sandi told me its story, then offered for me to take it if I knew of something I wanted to knit out of it. So it's becoming a Clapotis! You can't really tell from the picture the size of the ball, but it's about 400g of cotton. The ball is 16.75" in circumference, and the needles shown are 24" size 7s.

Last up for tonight's update is my newest knitting tool, a fabulous drying rack from Ikea. Eric thinks I'm nuts, but look at it!

Four levels of flat drying rack space! !!! :)

!!!

And it folds up so that it's flat. It's about 5'x2'x2' when totally set up, but it folds down to 5'x2'x2". I'm so excited! It comes at a particularly good time, because our old wooden drying rack had become wobbly, and with the new baby I'll have plenty to hang on it. I've got a dozen woolies lanolinizing right at the moment, and I'm totally excited to put them on the new rack to dry. It also stands quite nicely with half of it folded down, or even individual levels, so we can hang out our swimming towels without anything dragging on the ground or overlapping.

!!!

That object that appears to be drying on it is actually Eric's sweater. The thing is big enough for his sweater to lay (mostly) flat! You can tell that the armpit sections are standing up, but both sleeves have enough room, and nothing is hanging over the edge!

While I have more to share from the past couple months, this is it for tonight. Happy camera!

Massive update part 1

2008-03-29T23:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight I have a lot to share, mostly because of our new camera! Our old one hasn't been working for the past couple months, so I haven't had pics to share until tonight!

First up, yarn jars. I got this idea from Abigail who has one full of sock yarn. The jars are grand fun, moth proof, and lowish-cost (being from Ikea). I have one for sock & lace weight yarn, two for worsted, and one for bulky. They make me happy! This is the majority of my stash:

Second, EZ's Tomten, for Sweetie. It was a very fast knit. The varigated yarn is an alpaca/wool blend, while the straight up purple is Cacade Heathers. It's totally eye-bendingly bright, and it's so cute on her. I'll get pics of that eventually. :)

Third, Slippery Socks in STR Jewel of the Nile. Grand fun to knit. Eric is enamoured of them (I think he likes the colors). If I were to knit them again, I'd add a couple stitches to make the cables look nicer on my wide feet, but they're very comfortable to wear.

That's it for photo batch #1! More to come.

Tee hee!

2008-02-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

Eric reads this webcomic and today's entry was too funny:

Eric's Flickr (was Photobucket) Meme

2008-02-22T21:48:00.000-08:00

Eric's next.

1) What's your first name?

2) What's your favorite food?

3) Where did you go to school?

4) What's your relationship status?

5) What's your favorite color?

6) Who's your celebrity crush?

7) Who are you listening to right now?

8) Favorite movie?

9) Favorite book?

10) Favorite Disney Princess?

11) Favorite drink?

12) Where's your dream vacation?

13) What's your favorite dessert?

14) What do you want to be when you grow up?

15) What do you love most in life?

16) One word to describe yourself?

F.Y.I., I cheated....I couldn't stick to a pic on the search word.

Anabel's Flickr (was Photobucket) Meme

2008-02-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

Following Nathania's lead:

1. Go to www.photobucket.com (don't sign in) (ok, I used flikr.com)
2. For each question below, type your answer in the "search" box and hit ENTER
3. Use only the first page of hits that come up and select a picture. If no matches are found to your search query you can revise your answer.
4. Copy the html for the photo you select and paste it in your post.

1) What's your first name?

2) What's your favorite food?

3) Where did you go to school?

4) What's your relationship status?

5) What's your favorite color?

6) Who's your celebrity crush?

7) Who are you listening to right now?

8) Favorite movie?

9) Favorite book?

10) Favorite Disney Princess?

11) Favorite drink?

12) Where's your dream vacation?

13) What's your favorite dessert?

14) What do you want to be when you grow up?

15) What do you love most in life?

16) One word to describe yourself?

That was fun!

(responding to Urrrg! comments)

2008-02-02T23:18:00.000-08:00

Cindy: the baby blanket is all done. The best pic that I have of it is on Ravelry, but the camera stopped working just before I finished it.

Abigail: Someone at Purlescence mentioned that it might just be the chemicals used in manufacturing too... hard to tell because all the alpaca that I've knit so far has been from KnitPicks. I had had a minor reaction when I blocked the alpaca scarves that I gave as gifts for Christmas, and I became suspicious when I reacted after washing Sweetie's doll's clothes (knit from leftover alpaca), but Eric's sweater just confirmed it. I could try washing the doll clothes again, but after this last one I'm not sure I want to. Maybe I'll give it a shot in a couple months. :) Oh, and once the clothes dried, I stopped having the reaction again.

Thanks for the support, y'all! I think I'll keep plugging away on the lace after all, though I think I'll be destashing the rest of my alpaca. More room in the jars!

Urrrg!

2008-02-02T00:03:00.000-08:00

My dear friends, I have learned something sad about myself.

I am allergic to wet alpaca.

Urrg!
I found this out (confirmed, more like) this past Tuesday when I tried to wash and block Eric's sweater -- the beautiful cabled 100% alpaca sweater that I worked on for so long. Breathing became less pleasant soon after pulling it out of the water. By 6 hours later, my voice was hoarse and disappearing, breathing was beginning to hurt. When Eric moved the sweater outside, everything improved.

So, let's see... besides Eric's sweater, I just finished (minus the buttons) a Tomten for Sweetie (sorry, no pics because camera's on the blink) that's mostly wool, but does contain probably 25% alpaca. Oh, and then there's the lace that I've been working on for somewhere around 2 years now. That's totally alpaca. What's the point of knitting lace if you can't ever block the #&$# thing? And I was thinking of knitting another Clapotis out of the remaining yarn I had left from Eric's sweater. Guess not. :(

Still no problem with wool, though. :) Wet or dry. Some can be itchy, but that's true for lots of people.

On my needles: EZ's Tomten just came off, I've started on soakers out of Cascade 220, random extra yarn bits, and some Marr Haven (how is that spelled again?). Slippery socks in STR. Lace.

Announcement

2007-11-27T21:20:00.000-08:00

I decided tonight (rather abruptly) that it was time to announce (however belatedly) that I'm pregnant. I keep being surprised that some folks don't know yet.

And it's a girl.

:)
I'm about halfway through the pregnancy, which is a little scary because I'm already halfway through the time I told myself that I had to get used to the idea of having a second small person running around my life. I know that, once I meet her, I'll be totally happy about it (falling in love can do that to a person), but for the moment, I'm a bit nervous. Which is an improvement from scared-out-of-my-gourd, which is how I started.

So Little'un (as I seem to be calling her at the moment) will be the recipient of my latest large project:

Name: Smooshy (because it is)
Pattern: To The Point
Source: Vogue On The Go: Baby Blankets Two
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish
I've just about doubled the size from the original pattern, because it really ought to be about the same size as Sweetie's baby blanket. For her part, Sweetie helpfully reminds me just about every week that "fringe is better than scales" (her blanket has fringe, while this one has those lovely colorful scales).

Happy day.
:)

My first adult sweater

2007-11-01T17:08:00.000-07:00

The Front

The Back

The Sleeve (in a fun pose, of course)

Happy man! Very, very warm man.

Pattern: Jack's Aran Sweater
Book: Men in Knits
Yarn: Knit Picks Decadence (bulky alpaca)
Needles: mostly 9s
Size: Small
Modifications: by request, I left all the rolled edging off -- at the bottom, around the neck, and on the sleeves.

Trick or Treat!

2007-11-01T16:41:00.000-07:00

The Purple/Lavender Pig

Trick or Treat!

Birth & Parenting Books

2007-09-28T22:36:00.001-07:00

[By request of several pregnant or hopeful friends, we interrupt this regularly scheduled knitting blog to bring you a public service entry]
Hello! This is (once again, I suppose) not a typical blog about knitting, but folks keep asking me so I thought I'd put this here so that people could find it. These are the books that Eric and I have found helpful so far in our parenting experience.

Birth
England, Pam: Birthing From Within
Gaskin, Ina May: Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
Taylor, Catherine: Giving Birth (though this was more fun-reading, rather than fact-finding)
Brott, Armin: The Expectant Father
NOT any of the What to Expect books. Didn't like them at all. Period. Anathema sit.

Breastfeeding
La Leche League International: Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

There are other good ones, but just as a starter, I found this helpful both in planning to nurse and when I was looking for help about various topics. Also, if you want to breastfeed, go to a LLL meeting or other breastfeeding support group before the baby is born, as well as after.

Parenting / Discipline
Sears, William & Martha: The Baby Book
Kabat-Zinn, Jon: Everyday Blessings
Sears, William & Martha: The Discipline Book
Faber & Mazlish: How to Talk so your Kids will Listen and Listen so your Kids will Talk
Cohen, Lawrence: Playful Parenting
Neufeld, Gordon: Hold on to Your Kids

The Baby Book was essential right from the beginning, even during pregnancy. Once Sweetie hit about 2yrs, and really, really needed good discipline, I found that Playful Parenting was good for concrete ideas and Hold on to Your Kids was good for parenting and discipline philosophy. Hold on to Your Kids was also really helpful when I was in MN with the teens in my life.

[Eric adding a few thoughts here] Anabel and I have been talking and it feels like there is something else about our parenting that is very central to our success thus far. This isn't something that we learned in books but it is very important. We disciple our children much more assertively than almost all of the other parents that we know. Now let me add to this by letting you all know that we are not usually anal, strict, or uptight people. Generally, we are referred to as soft, gentle, and laid back. For those of you that know anything about the MBTI we are INFPs. As a friend once said this means that we "go around feeeeeling" all the time. For those of you who know the Enneagram, we are both 9s who are referred to as peace makers who go with the flow of others around them. But when it comes to disciplining our children we are firm. We expect "please" and "thank you". We see any kind of violence from our child as a call to immediate and definitive response that the child cannot mistake. We insist on table manners, sitting at the table (in a lap if necessary) until others are done, and we insist that our child treat others respectfully.

When following through on this discipline track we try as much as possible to follow attachment parenting. So, we try not to punish, but we do stop the child. We try not to scold so much as to explain (both what happened that is not acceptable behavior and also why). We have both sat in the middle of a store with our daughter on our lap trying to get eye contact letting others steer their carts around us. We wait with her, talking with her until she is ready to do the behavior that is polite, respectful, decent, and effective. The result of this is that our daughter listens to us much more than many of the other children listen to their parents. You will not catch us doing one of these, "Sweetie don't do that. No, stop that. Don't do that. Sweetie, please don't do that it isn't nice. I don't like it when you do that. No, please stop." If we get to the second sentence we're already on the way toward her to stop the behavior ourselves. There is no third sentence. If she didn't hear us the first two times we stop her by getting down on her level, holding her body and her attention. Most times, now she is listening at that point, we can repeat ourselves and our expectations and she will follow through. Sometimes, this turns into a together-time-out where we sit until she is ready to hear. It is tiring, but is has great payoff.

Embedded in the way that we wait until she is ready to hear what we have to say, we are also trying to be respectful of her. We are listening, trying to find compromises where possible. Often we use play as a way of motivating her, or of keeping her in good behavior. The best example that I have of this is our current bedtime routine. Right now, I put Sophia to bed most nights. Bedtime routine starts with her picking a "ride" to the bathroom. These "rides" might be me dragging her across the floor slowly while she lets her arms flop behind her, a traditional piggy-back ride, or being chased by the kissing monster. Once we get to the bathroom she picks a game to play during the bedtime routine. Her two favorites right now are the "Runaway game" and the "Wrestling game". In the runaway game she runs away after each of the aspects of bedtime prep such as taking off her clothes, getting on a night gown, or going potty. She might over dramatize this running away by telling me, "I'm going to runaway" and I will say "No, come back!" Then she giggles and runs away as I chase her (or maybe get delayed putting toothpaste on her toothbrush). When I catch up to her, she is often behind a piece of furniture or in Anabel's arms. I pull her away using melodramatic grunts and groans. If she struggles too much, I might say, "Okay, its time to come along now" in a non-play tone. She almost always acquiesces instantly then because she has learned that not playing the runaway game by the rules means we have to stop the game. Once we get to the tooth brushing she picks a tooth brushing game. Right now, this is usually that the tooth brush is someone or something looking for something in a fantastic location (her mouth) and whatever it is is always found last as I brush her tongue. I narrate the imaginary search across her molars, get lost while brushing across her incisors, find clues in her cheeks, and get back on track as I bush over all of her teeth one last time before brushing the roof of her mouth and finally her tongue. Searching for these ways to play with her into the things that need to be done has decreased confrontation, opened conversation, activated her imagination, and generally created a lot of fun for all of us.

As a final note, this really works for us because we both do it. I asked Anabel which of us is more authoritative or permissive. Her response was, that depends on which of us has had the most sleep. We trade off if we're together and frustrated. Last night our daughter woke cranky and in pain and we traded off about 4 times during the ordeal to decrease the level tension. Though I'm gone now nearly 70 hours a week (that ends Dec 7th, yeah!), Anabel still gets 3 times away from the house a week to recharge her batteries. That is 2, 3-hour periods away and one additional 1 hour during the week (this last one will increase to several hours after Dec. 7th). I also have happy-fun time away.

[And now back to your regularly scheduled knitting]

A Very Sad Day

2007-09-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time series, died yesterday. I am very very very sad.

	James Oliver Rigney, Jr. October 17, 1948 - September 16, 2007
"May you shelter in the palm of the Creator's hand, and may the last embrace of the mother welcome you home."

Quick update

2007-08-23T23:57:00.000-07:00

On the knitting front...

Small project: After a brief stint of hat knitting for Eric (Coronet, in something Rowan tweedy) and running out of yarn (must wait until October to buy more yarn to finish it), I'm back to knitting socks for Sweetie. It's not what I really want to be knitting, but they're easy to carry around and knit on the move.

Lace project: I've probably knit another 5 rows since my last update about the shawl. That's a good 5-6 hours of work, depending on how focused I was (I admit that I do tend to knit that -- successfully! -- at BobaKnit). But it is growing!

Large project: !!! I finally finished a sleeve, and it fits beautifully!!! This is a rather big deal, since I had once before almost finished the sleeve, but had to frog the whole sweater, and then after reknitting the sweater, I had almost finished the sleeve again, but Eric decided that it (just the sleeve, not the whole sweater) was too tight, so I frogged a good bit of it, and now it's done! One sleeve and a neck to go!

Good night!

We love you Kristi!

2007-08-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

Flowergirl!

2007-07-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid to say that I have not accomplished much on the knitting front. Eric's sweater has not grown an inch, even Sweetie's socks have not changed much from last week, but I have accomplished just over one row on my lace. That's a fair amount (I won't call it a lot yet!) of knitting, but it's not photograph-worthy.

That's why there will be flowergirl pictures this week.

Our friend Holly got married this weekend, to her high-school sweetheart Tom. They met at a Latin convention. (Awww!)

It was a good wedding. I don't usually praise weddings so highly; most of the time weddings are nice at best. But this was a good wedding. Oddly enough, the highlight of the wedding was during the reception. Holly asked the swing band to play a song just for the married couples, and all the married couples were instructed to dance. Every so often the announcer would ask some of the couples to leave the dance floor, based on how long they had been married, the shortest leaving first, leaving the long-married couples dancing on. I initially thought it was corny (I'm sure I've read about this in a bridal magazine somewhere), but it was awesome! Eric and I were tickled to make it past the first "round" when people married less than 5 years were asked to leave, but we were in shock when they asked everyone married less than 30 years to leave, and there were at least 20 couples still on the dance floor!!! Whoah! The last two couples were married 56 and 57 years, and the rest of us hooted and hollered in amazement and joy.

Speaking of dancing,

We also had a couple fabulous friends come visit. Here's Sweetie's shot of them:

Four-year-old at a wedding with a digital camera can lead to lots of interesting photos. This one came out rather well, but we also have a series of shots of some guy's elbow...?

Here we have the Colorado College alumni photo, featuring Sweetie, Eric, me, Kara, Christine, and Holly:

At the end of the night, we were all feeling tired, and it was good.

Current projects

2007-07-13T00:28:00.000-07:00

Socks for Sweetie... this is one of those nice, fun projects that is easy to do. I didn't even have a full ball of yarn (having made socks for her in a smaller size previously), but I'm just knitting socks until the ball is gone. Shockingly, these long, skinny socks fit her feet perfectly, though I doubt they'll last 'til she's eight (they're a 4-8 year size). In the picture they look like they're all different sizes, but rest assured, they're all the same size.

"Feathers & Fan" from A Gathering of Lace in Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud. I'm doing ok on it, though I haven't worked on it for a while. I have a long, long way to go, but did start the second ball (out of something like 6).

"Jack's Aran Pullover" from Men in Knits, Knit Picks Decadence. This is my second time though this part of the sweater, having frogged the whole thing more than a year ago due to size issues. More recently, I frogged a good chunk of the sleeve because Eric deemed it too tight in the forearm.

On the rest-of-my-life front, things are coming together. I feel like the housework is finally coming under control, I'm knitting more, I've finally started working on our wedding scrapbook again, and I'm working on all that fabulous faith-stuff again. (Whoa, I sound like a weird midwestern-Christian-SAHM there... funny, I don't feel like one, though the description fits me fairly well, except that it's lacking any green hair or Californian-liberal-treehugger-granola implications.) I have to say that Sweetie and I have been at odds at times this week, but that was much better today. Life is good! Knit on!

what have you knit meme

2007-05-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dyeing with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths,tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else's handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns (but I don't like it)
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dyeing yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
LongTail CO
Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves (fingerless, but still gloves.)
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerlessmitts/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Tag, you're it!

Eric's Happy MeatCake

2007-05-09T23:19:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this because Eric doesn't have a blog to post it to. He made this cake a while back for his gaming group. It is a meat cake! The cake layers are made from meatloaf and the frosting is colored mashed potatoes. The orange border around the sun, the bottom, and the sides of the cake are made from a carrot puree. Here are two more pictures:

Birthday Celebration

2007-03-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely birthday this year. Eric and Sweetie made me a chocolate cake with a wonderful berry topping:

And my BobaKnit pals are sponsoring me to go on the knitting retreat, and Kristi gave me fabulous yarn to knit with, and they had a small gathering in celebration!

Thank you everyone!

Duck in our pool!

2007-03-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

A duck in our pool and in a tree nearby!

I love ducks. It would be very exciting to have ducklings in our pool, even if it slows down our reentry to the swimming life we love so dearly. Maybe we could knit instead.

Is it too much?

2007-03-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

Is it too much to keep a life blog separate from a knitting blog? I'm one of those people who creates blogs like they're water (?). But maybe I need to merge my lives... it's not as though I'm living my life without thinking about knitting anyway.

Today was fun. After a delightful breakfast at Dana Street (coffee and pastry, yum) and reading about the ins and outs of the housing situation in Mountain View, Eric and I gave blood (that's always fun) and then spent the next several hours trying to cook enough to satisfy our ravenous blood-replacement appetites. Pad Thai tastes good. Mmmmm. And then I worked on the socks while we had FMN (Family Movie Night) and watched The Cat Returns. I'll be knitting more tonight still.

I'm very much looking forward to knitting tomorrow. And I think I may be knitting on Monday night too?

Oh oh and I made a new friend on Friday. Well, "friend" might be too much, but she knits, so it's like she's on a different plane than just an acquaintance. I met a new knitter. How about that. She's a lace knitter and has been knitting at the local library. I found her blog on Thursday night (looking for "asian knitting -manufacturer -industry") after that whole yarn-store-thing I had going on and she mentioned (in her blog) that she knits at the library, and then when Sweetie and I were there for our Friday afternoon run, we popped by and met her. I think she was a little suprised that her online world and her RL met. But the library is a good place for that.

:)

Knitting Brain Returneth

2007-03-16T01:32:00.000-07:00

Look! My brain has returned from its two month hiatus! My plain-simple-boring (but very knitable with no brain) socks have suddenly become more exciting. I know they aren't necessarily the most wonderful design, but they make me happy.

Look -- Cables(!):

I have the biggest smile over this. Maybe now I'll be able to finish the soaker, the other socks, and Eric's sweater (in that order?). Oh yeah, then there's the lace. And that other thing. We'll see. But at any rate, I'M KNITTING AGAIN! :) :) :)

Ok, that was fun. And it's not like I haven't been knitting. I have knitted a whole bunch of things since I left, despite my shocking lack of proof. But having my brain stop working for a while there was most unnerving, and I ended up starting extra projects to compensate. I'm much happier being able to knit what I want when I want.

So tonight at BobaKnit I began thinking about our Boba/Yarn store again. It's such a delight to think about, especially with so many empty storefronts on Castro. I have a lot of thoughts about it tonight, so here I am typing away.

If we had one of the larger stores, there's so much we could do! I have two main themes in my head at the moment: Asian influence and intentionally being family friendly. Of course. I love those things. I'm still thinking about the fact that we'd be competing with several other Boba stores in MV, but that doesn't seem to be a focus tonight.

Asian influence: in downtown Mountain View, it seems like a no-brainer to play up the Asian side of knitting. We could carry Japanese knitting & crochet magazines, yarns, and teach Amigurumi classes. I've also got an idea or two for knitted Indian fashions. I'm sure there's more, but I have limited knowledge about the various Asian cultures and their fashions or their handknit (or crochet) styles.

Family friendly: as a Mom, I really would want to support other knitting moms or dads in the community. We'd totally have a little sticker in the front window indicating that we were breastfeeding friendly. And the kids' portion would be designed to hold their young attention: a train table is a no-brainer, and things like a dollhouse or a teaset (in an Asian style) would make sense too. This area would take up some space, so one of the little stores wouldn't work as well, but one of the larger ones would.

On the boba front, do you think we could run "specials"? I don't think we'd want to compete with the huge number of flavors that other stores in the area offer, but if we had a couple staple flavors, and then cycled through other flavors for fun, we might be able to actually provide some quality.

Hmmm. I know I'm not in a place to actually open a store right now, but it is lovely to dream, isn't it?

Finished: Longies

2006-07-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hooray! My first finished pair of Little Turtle Knits Longies. They're in Marr Haven, and really, really soft. They remind me of something knitted in chenille, but without the annoying way that chenille can lose its threads. And they're supposed to get softer and fluffier once they're washed!

Finished: Hat

2006-07-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

Here's my new sun hat, crocheted in Lion Brand Micro Spun. It's a lovely purple, but you can't see that so much in this picture. I used boning to make the brim stiff, though I'm still trying to work out some problems with it. Special thanks to Sampson for modeling it for me.

Finished: Chava & Kenji's clothes

2006-07-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

Kenji & Chava have new clothes! Ok, so Kenji has had his clothes for a couple months now, but Chava's clothes are all new.

WIP: Feathers and Fan

2006-07-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a closeup of my current long-term project... "Feathers and Fan" from A Gathering of Lace in Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud.

Maya's Dress

2006-07-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

I knitted this dress a while back, but it is finally finished! Ends are sewn in, and buttons have been added. (Of course, the buttons aren't really working because the button holes are too big, but they are sewn on! That's what matters, right?)

Mama & Daughter Clapotis

2006-06-14T17:58:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Sweetie! Sweetie always liked my Clapotis, so now she has a matching one. Hers is in Red Heart yarn.

Clapotis

2006-02-24T17:55:00.000-08:00

Clapotis in Noro Silk Garden. I know it's overdone, but I love it anyway.

Finished: Prayer Shawl

2006-01-24T22:16:00.000-08:00

This shawl is from the end of the summer (2005), knit for a friend who is fighting cancer. It's Knit Picks Andean Treasure, and the pattern is based on this Papillion Shawl.

Finished: Womb

2006-01-24T22:04:00.000-08:00

This picture is from the day I finished Womb from Knitty. Even before it was finished, Sweetie took a liking to it and claimed it as her own. These days the fallopian tubes are about 50% longer than their original length, and she's discovered that it makes a nice finger puppet and that I laugh really hard when she makes it sing.

Finished: Stool

2006-01-24T21:59:00.000-08:00

This isn't knit either :), but I painted it over the summer and I'm pretty proud of it.

It's actually an Ikea stool. Isn't it nicely disguised?

Finished: Dress and Cardigan

2006-01-24T21:56:00.000-08:00

I posted in CheekyFaith about this dress and cardigan, but I had to include at least a little picture of it here.

Finished: Stockings

2006-01-24T21:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the Christmas stockings that I've knit. I've actually made six of these for different people. It's my own pattern, and I'm pretty happy with it. The only thing about it is that the size that the stockings turn out is not consistent. The two stockings on the left in this picture are what I consider "normal", while I've had one turn out smaller and the one on the right in the pic is obviously much larger. And this is with the exact same needles and the same size yarn.

How do you take "emotional state" into gauge?

Finished: Baby Blanket

2006-01-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, so this isn't knitting, but I'm proud enough of it. This is an acrylic (don't remember the brand, but it's soft) baby blanket made from the "Woven Stripes" pattern in Our Best Baby Afghans by Leisure Arts. I crocheted this several years ago, when we lived in Minnesota.

One thing I love about this pattern is the fringe that automatically forms along two sides. Another thing is that there is absolutely no weaving in ends. My husband appreciates that there are no little holes for tiny fingers to poke through -- not that it has mattered much here in CA, but I can image that the typical croched baby blanket could be annoying in MN if it's intended to keep the baby warm.

I may make another one of these in the near future. My question is: should I listen to Elizabeth Zimmerman and make it out of wool? Or should I stick to trusty washable and dryable acrylic? How hard is it to was various smelly bodily fluids out of a wool blanket without felting it?

2006-01-24T19:51:00.000-08:00

This blog is intended to be my listing of all things knitted -- past, present, and future. My own little catalouge.

:)