Girl on the Rocks

It’s like a wooden frame but it’s not March 7, 2008

i felt so lucky when I found these at the east bay depot, and the price was great. They are the nicest emboidery hoops I’ve ever seen

The outer ring is flexible rubber with a faux bois pattern. They are much easier to deal with than the flat sided wooden or plastic ones, and they wouldn’t look too bad hung up on the wall. I thought I was super-special and a few ebay and google searches revealed that these were pretty widely available in the UK. I smugly thought about how much cooler that made them, but then lamented the fact that I couldn’t get more.

I found them at Michael’s this weekend. When they go on sale… Watch out!! I’m stocking up.

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Saturday Shopping August 11, 2007

I had a plan to get a lot of work done today, but I couldn’t start until after a visit to my favorite thrift store. Carmen and I walked the few blocks that separates our apartment building from an adorable little thrift store. I had two great finds today - a set of 4 woven placemats, and a pyrex bowl. edit: How could I forget to mention… the bowl was only $1

And they happen to match! How cute!

Speaking of cute, I noticed that Superbuzzy is having a sale on some of their items. If you haven’t shopped there before, Superbuzzy carries a TON of cute Japanese import fabric. Be warned - it is too adorable to resist. Here is a selection from one of my previous purchases.

I noticed that there are some cute cross-stitch tape kits on sale too. Tempting…..

Hopefully next time I post I will have finished a pair of handknit socks for myself.

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Winners June 25, 2007

I am back from vacation. More on that later. Today’s order of business is announcing the contest winners! I printed out everyone’s name and did a very random drawing

There were so many entrants that I decided to also draw a second prize winner.

The GRAND PRIZE WINNER is ….

Julia!! Her comment was even about carders. Perfect!

And the lucky second place winner is

Debbi! I was thinking Debbi might enjoy a skein of handspun

Color totally misrepresented in this photo. It is shades of red, pink and white.

(Here’s the proof of the winners. I went a little overboard with the cameraphone.)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone’s comments (sorry if I didn’t reply to all of them!). Some tools that I love to use that were mentioned were post-it notes and sheet protectors. And the dental floss suggestion… cassandra is genius! It seems like many knitters would be a total loss without their swifts and ball winders. Speaking of ball winders…. look what I found at Value Village:

That’s right baby. $2.50. Hells yeah I bought it! It is a Toyota. As much as I love thrift stores, I thought finds like this were just a myth (along with finding Le Creuset at goodwill). But now, I am living the dream. Colleen is right - Thrift stores are an awesome resource for knitters and crafters alike.

Thanks for all of the helpful carder info. I have been pretty lucky with the Kitchener stitch markers over at the Loopy Ewe (currently sold out!), so I might have one before you know it. I wonder what Sheri would think if I named it Loopy?

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I feel lucky November 9, 2006

I think I may have built up a little bit of good knitting karma. Just after announcing the winners in my contest, I found out that I am a winner. I won a skein of yarn from Yarn4Socks in a random drawing for Socktoberfest. Hooray! Thanks Yarn4Socks and thanks for organizing, Lolly. I chose a skein of Fleece Artist Merino in Hercules, something I have never seen in person but always wanted to try. it is sooooooo good lookin’.

I am lucky because this weekend I thrifted two of the cutest aprons ever.

(that second one doesn’t have a stain, I just got it a little wet)

I am lucky because i got a Mr. Juiceman Jr. at the el cerrito garage sale for $3 and now I can use it to grind up cheap delicious apples for my enjoyment.

I know - you are probably wondering when I am going to quit mention Mr. Juiceman Jr. Well, it’s going to be a while. I love him.

And finally, I feel lucky because I finally got my issue of Craft magazine. i am rationing its goodness.

oops. I am already on page 112. I’ll just start over after that. you should head over there and subscribe! At the very least you should check out the Craft blog. It’s as addictive as crack. And while you’re there you might find the final reason I feel lucky…. i was mentioned on their blog. cool. totally cool.

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I can barter with the best of them October 16, 2006

First of all, a big thanks to Tish at Delightful Designs. We were both very excited to trade some of our etsy goods… I sent some stitch markers and I got this:

A vintage pillow kit! In avocado green! It is going to look so good on my couch- It already does! Check out her shop… I am already eyeing the recycled cashmere yarn…

And let’s just say that on garage sale day in el cerrito $20 will get you everything you want and more.

Click through to see the insanity in detail

i often imagine that special items are always in really high concentrations in the areas that they come from. For example, in my mind, everyone in portland knits with Socks that rock all the time. And they don’t even know that it is special because it is just what they get locally. Coming from Ohio and having only eaten unripe avocados my whole life I discovered that, indeed, everyone in california puts avocados on everything all the time and that they are delicious (but they also put fruit in their salad. weird.) One might imagine that here in the SF bay area everyone runs around with Dansko’s and Timbuk2 bags and that garage sales are busting with them… Well they do and they are. I turned my nose up a to a pair of danskos and turned around to find that abby had secured herself a $5 timbuk2 bag. I made it back to the same sale closer to the end of the day to secure the pictured one for $3. i cannot believe that i didn’t buy it right away!

other highlights include

• 10 cents: the pre-plate tectonics book on earthquakes in California - a geologists delight (wait til you see this one, ingrid!)
• $3: the 70’s Mr. Juiceman Jr. Fresh juice every morning baby - my neighbor’s nightmare.
• $1: Carmen’s set of french onion soup bowls - on the list and found at the first sale we stopped at.
• the giant painting. Bought mostly to teach my fellow garage-salers a lesson about never turning down a $5 bargain. I am kinda already sick of looking at it.
• 50 cents: brent’s box of 70’s recipe cards.
  . I made a flickr group just for them. There are already a few amazing contributions.

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Aaahhh… that’s better September 21, 2006

I ripped the sock back and decided on a 3 x 1 rib for the top (and eventually the cuff).

I love it! It looks so much better (see what it looked like before). I have been working on the sock today while at work (which is school). I am running samples on a fancy mass spectrometer that has the annoying need to have someone hit the ‘a’ key once every few minutes. I would hire a monkey to do it, but i think it would shed all over the room and get me in trouble. Anyway, it takes me exactly the right amount of time to complete a row before I need to hit the ‘a’ key again (sometimes i mix it up and hit ‘p’. fun, huh?). Like principal skinner says

Ah, there’s nothing more exciting than science. You get all the fun of sitting still, being quiet, writing down numbers, paying attention. Science has it all.

He forgot to mention using 15 year old computers… Luckily, when I need to leave the room, I have the sock to operate the computer for me.

I won’t say this in front of the computer, but the sock is totally smarter. The computer thinks the year is 19106. The sock is smart enough to not say anything regarding the year. And the sock is able to display far more colors than the computer - that should count for something.

Finally, since it is thrift thursday I can brag about the steals i got at my secret little thrift store.

The loot includes a bowl knitting notions (25 cents each) - my favorite being the bakelite handled pattern transfer wheel. Also two king size pillowcases with a cute yellow print (background) for $1 and a bunch of hand embroidered vintage napkins (25 cents each). More napkins pictured here. And what about the bowl?

It is just what i have been looking for! A pyrex casserole dish with lid for only $3.

Now i am off to prepare for my exciting evening. one of the movie theaters down the street from my apartment is showing The Jerk tonight. one of my favorites…..

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Thrifting Down Under September 14, 2006

Sarah and Carmen and I took a drive on the Great Ocean Road. It was beautiful and scenic, as expected. Somehow, I dont have any pictures of it. Oh right, I forgot my camera. Sarah did get some snaps of the ‘Twelve Apostles,’ the natural wonder that was our destination…

As I was still need of a bathing suit for later in my vacation I kept dragging everyone into every surf shop we passed. While in Lorne we ran into a small, chucrh-run thrift store, where i found thrifting gold. I can only guess that “Doona” means comforter in australian… I got two twin sized Doona covers covered in australian marsiupials for $6 AUD.

only have crappy pic right now, better ones to come

An Echidna

A koala

And I also snagged a couple of yards of cotton canvas that has blue flowers all over it for $1AUD

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Bounty from the Godforsaken island August 10, 2006

Last weekend I went to what is technically called an ‘Antiques Sale’ at the Naval base in alameda*. After arriving i realized that this was the event casually referred to by some as the ‘Alameda Flea Market.’ It takes place the first weekend of the month at the old naval base in alameda (you know, the place where the mythbusters go to make a big mess…). For anyone that had to spend 10 hours touring the decommissioned USS hornet with their Dad, it’s right by there. It has a really nice view of san francisco (crappy photo here… And some really great bargains. Here is my less than $20 (including $5 admission) haul:

I was planning to give the bowling ball bag (which is in SUPER shape) to a bowler i know that needs one, but i talked him out of it, so i get to keep it! The fabric was labelled as ‘vintage’ but I am not so sure; it is immaculately clean and has no fading. Got a bunch of knitting needles in US 1, 2, and 3s that are only 7 inches long. These are hard to find in general, and i would hate to pay for new ones. I also got a bunch of buttons in ziploc bags which i promptly transferred to a mason jar. Based on my garage sale and thrifting experience, the most desirable resting place for buttons must be a jar.

*Often referred to by me as “the godforsaken island” though i am not sure why I started doing this. i have always known it is nice there. i guess i like to remind myself that it is an island. weird.

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A girl, a plan, a thrift store July 13, 2006

It is hard to find a good thrift store in my town, but I have one that I have made friends with. It is in a small room in the basement of a church, and is only open 2 afternoons a week. The old ladies that run it are very selective about which items they will put up for sale, and they have a very unique pricing structure. For example, they find doilies very valuable, so a doily might cost you a few dollars. however, that is the same price as a toaster oven. Interesting, huh? My favorite thing there is the 5 cent button basket.

Kate and I made lunch plans this week just so we could stop by the thrift store on the way back. and let me tell you, we cleaned out the the 25 cent craft drawer.

Click through to flickr and mouseover to see notes about everything. I put those 25 cent needes right to work. more on that later…..

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Two Finished Baby Items June 16, 2006

This past weekend I wanted to make a small, but staisfying project. The poppysocks have looked too daunting lately. So I decided to make pair of baby socks.

Pattern: from 50 Baby Bootees to Knit
Yarn: Schachenmayer Micro that i bought from Elann a long time ago.

But wait, it gets cuter….

Pattern: I didn’t use a pattern, but I was inspired by the bibs from Mason-Dixon Knitting that i have seen everyone making, so i just made up something similar. I made the strap button on the front so that it is a feature of the bib. i also tried my first crochet picot edging. i just made it up as I went along.
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Cotton in color 105

I got the buttons at the thrift store for 5 cents each. I will miss them when they are gone.

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