Girl on the Rocks

A fiber filled weekend awaits February 26, 2009

I have been pretty busy lately and Stitches West is to blame. First, I have a project that has been toiling in obscurity for years… My Central Park Hoodie. I haven’t mentioned it here in over a year, and the pattern, project, and yarn all relocated to different unknown locations. I wrangled everything together and started working on it in the evenings, with the hope of wearing it to Stitches West, a mere 2 years after I bought the yarn there. I am one and a half button bands (and some blocking) away from completion.

The next time you see it, I will be wearing it at Stitches.

Thanks to Jamie at Urban Fauna Studio (booth #1036) and Krista from Pigeonroof Studios (booth #637), I am not just a Stitches West shopper, I am a seller! UFS has both my stitch markers and fiber, and Pigeonroof will have my stitch markers. Yay! I am really excited about this and plan to break some rules and snap some camera phone pics of my items on display. I am headed to stitches tomorrow and Saturday and will be helping out in the aforementioned booths so say hi if you see me. Also I will be doing a Hazel Rose loom demo on Saturday at 1 pm in the Demo area so come by if you want to see a little loom in action. I plan to tweet my adventures, so follow me for pics and updates.

Note to self: Go to Target tonight to stock up on “Adult Juice Boxes.”

A little knitting, with gravy. August 1, 2007

I worked enough today to reward myself with a little knitting. Both of the Central Park Hoodie sleeves are underway.

I know you are wondering about the bright pink post-it in the corner of the picture…

It is my crazy notes on how many rows and increases remain. The eagle-eyed might also notice that for some reason I have indicated the time to increase with the letter d. Makes sense to me for some reason….

edit: I have been get a lot of inquiries about the yarn. It is Araucania Nature wool Chunky in color #129

A while ago CraftyGinger tagged me for a meme, and it is about time I participated:

Here’s how it goes – once you’re tagged write a short blog post about your favorite word, and what makes it your favorite. Of course you can have more than one! Be as long-winded as you like! Just make sure to copy & paste this text into your post, and tag four friends!

CraftyGinger chose a repectable word: luminous. Ever since I was tagged for this challenge a few weeks ago I have had the same word in my head. I tried to pick something literary, serious, insightful or at least descriptive, but I just keep coming back to the same word. Gravy.

Why would I claim that my favorite word is gravy?

• I like gravy. It is delicious. It is the dinner equivalent of the ever-famous dessert mainstay – icing.
• I am good at making gravy, and I make a lot of it. Ask anyone that has had Thanksgiving dinner with me. My grandma has had me in training my whole lfe
• I think everyone might like gravy. I have never heard someone say “I’ll have the chicken-fried steak, but hold the gravy.” But I am from Ohio. I actually don’t think I have heard anyone other than myself say “I’ll have the chicken-fried steak” since I moved to California. But that is not the point.
• I have absolutely no bad connotations or associations with gravy… Me and gravy = good times
• It makes an excellent pet name and currently holds the top spot and my most-likely-next-pet-name. Give it a try. “Graaaavvvyyy… Come here you little cutie!” Totally works.
• It can hold its own as a word… When used a slang, it means good. No one ever clenches their fists and shakes them at the sky wailing “Gravy!!” Instead it is only used when someone is pleased and smugly declares “gravy.”

So what is your favorite word? I am sending tags out to some of my commenters: 5thelementknitr, Amber, Kimchi, and Chris. but, of course if you don’t want to participate (sometimes memes stress me out) no hard feelings, let me know and I’ll tag differently .

Do you even knit anymore? June 10, 2007

It seems like it has been a long time since I even showed you any knitting. But I am working on a few projects.

My Central Park Hoodie has a completed back, and I am working on one of the front pieces.

I accepted the fact that I am not a sock designer and ripped out this single sock that I designed myself.

It was too small for even me, and I somehow made the pattern almost impossible to size (and sock patterns without a S, M, and L size are one of my pet peeves). So the lovely STR will be reincarnated as a better fitting sock.

And I compeleted exactly half of a project by casting off one lonely sock.

Regia Canadian color #4733; 3 x 1 rib – my own pattern

And I do think the casting off was the best part. Why didn’t anyone tell me about the picot bind off featured in knitty? As a toe-up knitter, I was pretty happy to find these instructions and make a cute little bind off on these socks.

There. I have been knitting. Don’t forget about my contest – Midnight Pacific time tonight (sat june 10) is the cut off, so please tell me about your favorite knitting/crafting tool/material. I love reading all of the comments!

Everywhere but here March 16, 2007

I have been talking about my craftiness everywhere but here, so I’ll update you on what I have been up to. But first, a commercial for myself.

My Lunar Eclipse Merino Roving is currently featured on the front page of etsy, so hurry over there and look (This only lasts for about 24 hours, so it might be over by the time you take a look). Thanks to chucklescentral for adding me to his/her treasury list that eventually made the front page. I’ve been a member of etsy for a year and a half and this is the first time I have been on the front page and I’m pretty excited about it.

Oh and speaking of etsy, they have made a cool new little script that lets me show off the items in my shop. you may have noticed it in the sidebar on the right. I think it is pretty sharp. Etsy rocks.

So what have I been up to? This is what the Central park hoodie looks like at just over one ball in.

i blabbed about it over at the knitalong. long story short – love it, love the yarn. I’ve actually almost finished the entire back piece, but no updated photo yet.

also i joined the granny square knit along where I showed off some of my recent granny squares.

Man, these are fun. I still stand by my claim that they are the perfect use of acrylic yarn. And while we are on the topic of granny squares, partners for my granny-square swap-bot swap were assigned today. We ended up with over 20 participants, and I am already planning another swap. stay tuned.

A quick beginning March 3, 2007

If you wind up just one ball of your new yarn before you loan your ballwinder to a friend, and you make a really quick gauge swatch, and it turns out perfectly, you are supposed to start the sweater right away even if you already have a million projects in progress, right?

The beginnings of my Central Park Hoodie out of Arucania Nature Wool just acquired at stitches west. First use of my lovely Zero Stitch Markers.

It’s cold outside (relatively speaking) December 18, 2006

Back home in the middle of the country, when the first ice coats the streets the local news goes crazy. They send all of their field reporters out to the salt barn for on the spot news. The salt barn is a giant shed where the city stores its supply of winter road salt. If they declare some kind of “snow emergency,” or the ice occurs close to christmas, there will be so many reporters there that you will be able to see them in the background of each others shots. I find this completely riveting. Mind you, NOTHING is happening there. The most excitement you can hope for is a shot of a plow getting a salt refill.

Today i awoke to a cold morning in the bay area. It was below 40 in my backyard, and the local news quickly made it clear that it was below 30 degrees in some of the valleys nearby. And how did they do that you ask? Through ever-fascinating live shots of frost. Yes, frost. They described a light coating of frost as a “winter wonderland.” They also showed a shot of a woman defrosting her car by spraying it with her garden hose. That one really got my attention. Lucky for her it warmed up quickly and i don’t think it had time to re-freeze completely. And the sad thing – I think it is really cold too! They have assimilated me!

The chilliness has motivated me to work a bit on the Knitpicks Emma Jacket that I planned to finish in early December.

The blob on the left is the body, knit in the round to the armpits and awaiting steeking. The sleeves are on the right with a lovely fold up ribbed cuff. i love the yarn. I think it would look great for cabled projects – a little bit of color, but not too much. I am still undecided about the pattern..

The couch of shame May 26, 2006

If it seems like I have been busy finishing crafty projects, let me show you what I haven’t been doing….. I present a gallery of barely UNfinished objects on the couch of shame.

To begin, at the top left, the drop stitch cardigan from the Fall 2005 Interweave knits. The yarn is handpaintedyarn.com ejido in “fondo marino.” I really whipped this thing out – it was finished with the knitting in no time. I applied an i-cord edging, then i hand-sewed a zipper into it and wore it school. Like this:

with the zipper sticking out of the top like a big ol’ dork. and then i wore it like that to school again.

Next we have my most recently unfinished object, the Deep-V argyle vest from eunny jang made from knitpicks merino style (asparagus and white). i made it through the steeking okay, and i managed to add a neck band, but i didn’t make it through the arm bands before i decided to wear it out and about.

Luckily my friends were there to help tuck the waste yarn back into my armpits. aaawwww, isn’t that sweet…. And if you are interested, you can see a photo of our wine tasting adventure here (somehow, the sweater is completely obscured).

And finally the oldest unfinished object, my Lamb’s pride worsted weight Rogue Cardigan. what can i say… i keep meaning to order a really nice two-way zipper from zipperstop, but I haven’t. so instead i still wear it all the time and safety pin it shut.

Not pictured: The Ribby Cardi. Current Status: unassembled in a ball somewhere we are not talking about it.

You might want to avert your eyes May 5, 2006

You might not want to read this for two reasons. the first is that i am going to talk about how sick i was the last two days. really sick. some horrible gut wrenching flu that sucked the life out of me. Really, it was the kind of flu that kills old people. couldn’t even keep down liquids. But now i am immune – hahahahaha!

the second reason is because of something that I did on wednesday night and didn’t tell you about…

I cut it. It was awesome and I can’t wait to do it again. still no finieshed pics though… Still needs some bands around the arm holes and the neck.

Tomorrow I am going to Sonoma for a little wine tasting. I doubt I will have much wine, but maybe i will try a little MoBlogging…

So much stuff April 4, 2006

My Deep-V is speeding along… i have completed the waist decreases, so i can’t really try it on easily anymore.
It looks pretty curvy… i hope it fits! I had some sock yarn dyeing success…. Inspired by the california poppy (i accidentally typed poopy first -hah!)

(photo from flickr)I made a skein that I am calling Poppysocks
because i really need more sock yarn.

The Deep-V report March 31, 2006

The deep-V is going great! I love it. My row gauge is a little off, but I think I have compensated for it…

Ugh. look how i stuck my hip out in this photo – I have been watching too much ‘America’s next top model.’