TKGA review

Since most of us were still in post-Stitches yarn comas, I don't know that many people who attended TKGA (it was in July last year, when we were ready for more; this year it just came too early.) This led to smaller classes (nice for students, bad news for teachers being paid by the student), and a very relaxed, uncrowded marketplace. I did see some friends (Jocelyn, Ada, and Patt from Meet-up, plus Spinnity, Jen, and Bogie), but most of them were just at the market. My classes were primarily populated by guild members from Arizona and Oregon.

My first class was Saturday afternoon: "Celtic Cables" with Melissa Leapman. I have avoided Melissa since Stitches 2005, when she seemed much too self-promoting for my tastes. Still, I have several friends who like her a lot, and the information she gives is excellent, so I decided to give her a second chance.

I went in steeling myself to not get annoyed at the inevitable book sales, and I succeeded -- it was a full class of about 30 people, and she did the full spiel. I *was* interested to hear about her new cable books, because, after all, that's what we were there to learn. She showed some samples from the books, then got down to the meat of the class -- making those cables!

Melissa always assigns a lot of homework, which I don't mind because it means you'll really get to do some serious knitting in class. This class was no exception. One problem: too many beginners. The whole row behind me literally seemed to have started knitting last week, so Melissa had to cover a lot of basics. This was frustrating for the rest of us, who moved quickly through the exercises and were ready for more. Sadly, we never got to the design portion of the class, or to knitting the final, most difficult, swatch. Not Melissa's fault -- she was well-organized as always. I blame TKGA. Can't there be some sort of prerequisite for so-called intermediate classes -- like you have to know how to read a chart, do basic increases and decreases, etc.? I had never done cables before, but I had enough skills to pick up that part quickly based on charts and instructions.

At any rate, I love Celtic cables, and the DH saw my samples and immediately ordered a sweater in charcoal grey with a celtic motif. That's a successful class, if it can get the DH to want to wear a sweater.

Second class: Sunday morning, "Going in Circles" with Edie Eckman. Edie taught me to crochet at Stitches 2005, so I figured I'd be comfortable in a crochet class with her, especially one labeled as "beginning." It was a tiny class, about 5 people, mostly crocheters, a couple of people who do both. I was probably the second least-experienced crocheter, but with a small class I tackled what I could and ended up with some nice motifs, including a square and a triangle. It was nice to have so much individual attention.

We also stole peeks at Edie's amazing collection of Japanese crochet books. This class inspired me to go down to the market and get Edie's "Crochet Answer Book," a handy little guide for those of us who crochet rarely and need to understand the basics.

Third class: Back to Melissa for "Perfect Pleats." With my interest in design, this was the class I was most excited about. As it was Sunday afternoon, a lot of people had left, and there were only 6 of us in this class, mostly very experienced. We got through the whole lesson and had time to chat. Melissa taught us a number of different and interesting ways to make gathers and pleats and flares, in order to add couture shaping to garments. I love this stuff. Even better, because most of us had taken classes from her before, Melissa kept the sales pitch to a super-minimum, and we focused on the knitting. There was a problem with the way TKGA had posted the homework on-line, and although I had seen it after they'd corrected it, a couple of people had done the wrong thing, and one woman hadn't done it at all. She was quite behind and a little difficult, since she didn't know some basics and was a slow knitter. In a small class, this didn't affect us nearly as much as it had in the large class -- Melissa could see that she was in the minority, and moved on with the rest of us. I know that small classes are a bummer for teachers, but this one was a blast. One of my favorite classes ever! Definitely take it next time she offers it.

I guess my biggest accomplishment for TKGA was learning to like a teacher I hadn't cared for before. I can also do cables now, and read cable charts.

On the shopping front, I focused on the sock yarns -- a couple of men's colors from Village Spinning and Weaving, some Lorna's Laces (on sale, couldn't resist), and a little Koigu project. Not much at all compared to Stitches -- came in well under $100.

Knitting progress: Still on the fab DH sock! Also the birthday project.

The socks at last!

I'm too tired to write much, so I'll relate tales of our Easter weekend in LA at another time. This post is all about photos I should have posted a long time ago. First of all, here they are, the Olympic socks!



Here's also a photo Alimum has been asking for, of me in a scarf she knit for me long before I knew how much work she had put into it. It's a great lace mohair scarf, very beautiful:



Here's CNITU2 in his favorite hat, the one with the letter "L" that I knitted for him in January:



Ooo, de shnuggems! He makes me talk all silly!

Finally, here's me starting the DH's socks on the way to LA. I loooove this Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. It's glorious. And the DH has decided it's not too girly, so there's some hope he'll wear the socks even though they aren't black.

Early April FO's

The Oat Couture windowpane baby blanket in Zara is now in the window of Nine Rubies! I finished it up last Tuesday and took it to Social Knitting. Saloni and Sudha were quite pleased with it. I rewarded myself by buying a skein of Tilli Thomas beaded silk. DE-CA-DENT! Here's the blanket on the sofa before I said good-bye to it:



Lest I submit to post-partum depression, on Friday I finished the Hourglass sweater from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. I looooove this sweater. It fits just right, it's amazingly soft and warm, and the color is perfect. Yes, it's the same color as my sofa. I like green, okay?



I steam-blocked it Saturday morning and put it on while it was still wet for a mini-yarn crawl and pedicures with Spinnity. We went to the two yarn stores in downtown Los Altos, Uncommon Threads and Full Thread Ahead. At the first, I got a copy of "One Skein," from Interweave Press. I got it just for the knitted cupcakes. It's pretty cute, though, some nice baby things and other little projects.

At the second, I got some Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, "Sensational Knitted Socks," an adorable new purse from Lantern Moon (it's sort of a knitting bag, but I think I'll mostly use it as a purse!), and a little bottle of Eucalan. I'm going to make socks for the DH. I really like the sock knitting book; Spinnity and the Knitist both recommend it and it seems really easy to use. I can't wait to start the next pair of socks!

Now I'm in the midst of a top-secret birthday project... I'll show photos in the fullness of time.

So out of touch!

Part of my out-of-touchness is due to opening a show on Friday, and part of it is due to continuing guilt about my failure to take photos of my completed socks.

The show is Tales of the Lost Formicans, and you can see it at The Pear Ave. Theatre in Mountain View. It's a funky little play; so far a lot of people like it and some other people are confused by it. But you won't be bored, I promise.

Now that I am no longer working 14 hours a day and knitting one row before crashing into bed, I am making some progress on both the green Hourglass sweater (yes, the one in Cash Iroha, it's not done yet, but only about 10 rows to go!) and on the more pressing project, the Windowpane baby blanket I'm knitting as a sample for Nine Rubies. This thing is frickin' huge, and it's supposed to be done by Friday. Probably not gonna happen, as I'm not even halfway done, and with 170 stitches/row I'm hard pressed to do more than 20 rows a day. I think I calculated that the whole thing is about 250 rows long. Nice yarn, though, you should go right over to Nine Rubies and buy some. It's called Zara, from Filatura di Crosa. Not cheap, but it's 100% wool, completely washable, and soft as a kitten's tummy.

By the way, a lovely lady named Kathy from Tennessee commented on my blog a while ago -- she wants to make the Cashmerino onesie that I made for CNITU2. However, she can't find the darn Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino book! If you see it somewhere, would you let me know so I can email her? It's the first one, not the one that just came out.

Finally, I have a new favorite blog, which I have added to the sidebar along with some other new links. It's called Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog. Go there now, especially if you were an English major. Don't let the spelling throw you, trust me, it's hysterical.

Quick check-in

First of all, thanks to everyone I tagged. It was fun and entertaining to read about you! I am delighted that we all share such good taste in movies and television.

Secondly, I would like to report that I finished the Olympic socks, thanks to being home sick last Thursday and Friday with the flu. Convenient, that flu, if annoying. I wore them to Spinnity's spinning party on Saturday, where they were much admired, though I completely forgot to take pictures. As soon as I remember, I'll post those.

I am now slogging away on the Hourglass sweater, which is going very slowly since I'm working 12 hours a day at the moment. I can't wait to wear it, though, it's looking fantastic. The sleeves are on the same circular as the body now, and I'm working the raglan decreases.

The next thing I must do is the baby blanket for Nine Rubies -- my deadline is the end of the month, and I don't want to shirk! Plus, I get paid, always nice. Should offset my $500 Stitches spending spree.

Finally, I would like to wish my DH a happy anniversary! We were married one year ago this Sunday. I'd do it again in a second. The traditional 1-year anniversary gift is paper, and the modern is clocks. The DH cleverly combined the two into new Palm PDAs for both of us! This is very useful, since my rather obselete Visor has been by my side for four years now.

I love you, cute boy!

Tagged by the Remarkable Cow

Been tagged. Gotta talk about myself. Here goes:

Four jobs in your life:
1. Current job -- Eduction, Outreach, and Casting Director for the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival.
2. Part-time Associate at Balzac Communications and Marketing in Napa (wrote PR copy and came up with the Bug Spot Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter campaign for Napa, Marin, and Solano counties.)
3. Janitor at U.C. Davis while at grad school. Vaccuumed a lot of meeting rooms and set up a lot of chairs.
4. Part-time Sales Associate at Accessory to a Wedding Bridal shop in Chicago. Learned that most brides are really horrible to deal with, and their mothers are worse.

Four movies you could watch over and over:
1. The Princess Bride (my first date ever)
2. Pride & Prejudice, which is technically a mini-series (the Colin Firth one, not the Keira Knightley)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird. Love me some Gregory Peck.
4. Vertigo. The ultimate San Francisco movie.

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Deadwood
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
4. The Daily Show

Four places you have lived:
1. San Francisco, CA
2. Chicago, IL
3. Napa, CA
4. London, England

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. New Zealand
2. Fiji
3. Belize
4. Switzerland

Four websites you visit daily:
1. Google
2. Yarn Harlot (not quite daily, but almost)
3. SF Gate
4. Spinnity

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Anything Indian -- Palak Paneer, Aloo Gobhi, it's all good
2. Fish and chips
3. Dark chocolate
4. Really good San Francisco sourdough bread

Four places you'd rather be right now:
1. Our honeymoon jungle hotel in Belize
2. Just about any yarn shop
3. In my cozy bed on a Saturday morning
4. In a theatre, watching a really good play

Four favorite types of yarn:
1. Karabella Aurora 8
2. Noro Cash Iroha
3. Debbie Bliss Cashmerino
4. GGH Samoa

Four bloggers I'm tagging:
1. Alimum
2. MKMonahan
3. Jeff
4. Jo Knits

Feelin' a little like Sasha Cohen

I said I'd reward myself the silver if I made it halfway through the second sock, so there it is. With absolutely no time to knit on Days 11, 12, and 13 (having gone into rehearsal for my next show), I only just managed to cast on and knit about six rows. Friday night, I sat down and accomplished this:



Saturday morning, I got a lot done -- about 30 rows. With rehearsal Saturday afternoon and dinner and a show on Saturday night, I added just about 5 more after we returned. Today, I woke up and did 30 rows before heading out in the afternoon, but when I returned my hands were pretty cramped. I decided not to push it. Here's where things stand tonight, as I watch the closing ceremonies:



Not bad -- very nearly done with the leg, and the foot is much easier without all that lace. I should finish this week, and that's the true reward -- gold medal or not, at the end of the day I'll have a nice pair of socks.

I wish we knitters got to have a big closing ceremony, with us all waving our FOs and not-quite-FOs in the air as we march triumphantly into Stadio Olimpico, no doubt to the tune of some terrible pop song.

Congrats to all the participants! And good night!

Week One = One sock

I haven't been blogging. I've been knitting. Oh, yeah, and somewhere in there was Stitches West -- four classes in three days, three large bags of yarn and other sundries purchased.

But at the end of it all, I have a sock! And it's beautiful and it fits. I'm going to reward myself the bronze medal right now just for getting one sock done. I may have to kill myself to get the second sock done, but even if it doesn't happen, I feel pretty good about accomplishing one.

Here's the quick wrap-up of the last few days:

Days 4 & 5:

So little accomplished on the sock that these days hardly count! We did have a lovely Valentine's dinner at 231 Ellsworth on Monday, and saw "Brokeback Mountain" on Tuesday. No way could I knit complicated lace patterns in the dark.

Loved the movie, but the idiots at the Century Theatres in downtown San Mateo had WASHED THE SEATS that afternoon. By this, I mean that they had sprayed the seats with water so that the aroma of human sweat and spilled sugary soda pervaded the theatre. We also had to SIT on these seats. By the end of the movie, half the theatre looked as if we had wet our pants. To their credit, they did refund our money, but their short-sightedness was amazing to me. They said they thought it would be a slow night at the theatre. Valentine's Day? A major date night? Not to mention the fact that this is the most critically acclaimed romance of the year? Hellooooo, people.



Day 6:

I headed over to Nine Rubies, our lovely new San Mateo LYS, for social knitting, but unfortunately I finished up ball #1 quickly and ball #2 was at home. So I sat in front of the TV and watched some skiing while plugging away at the leg of the sock. And then, like Lindsey Kildow during training, distaster struck! I missed a couple of yarn-overs and didn't notice, blithely knitting on until, about five rows later, I realized I didn't have the right number of stitches to decrease properly! I tried to drop a few stitches back and add in the decreases, but I knit pretty tightly and it just wasn't possible. I frogged the whole thing back and then had quite a time trying to get the teensy little stitches back on the teensy little needles. The DH needs special kudos for bearing with me during the 45 minutes of frustrating wasted time this all entailed.

Day 7:

After work, it was off to a friend's 40th birthday dinner at Buca di Beppo. Stuffed to the gills with eggplant parmigiano and fried shrimp, I managed a few rows after we got back. (Fortunately, I stayed away from the Chianti, or we might have had a repeat of yesterday.)

Day 8:

I was supposed to work at home in the morning, but my webmail account was down, so after I'd made a few phone calls, I had nothing to do but knit! At this point, I crept toward the end of the long leg section, then headed down to Stitches for my first class of the weekend, "Two Hands, Two Colors" with Sally Melville, my absolute favorite knitting teacher.

By the end of the afternoon, I could do Fair Isle! Gotta love it. I can't wait to do my first Fair Isle project, and I spent much of the class blessing Nancie Wiseman for successfully teaching me Continental in TKGA last April. I love holding a color in each hand, far superior (in my opinion) to any other way of doing it.

At random moments in the class, I picked up my sock for a row or two, thinking that I wouldn't have much more time to knit that day, since I had to drive up to Berkeley for callbacks that evening. Fate had other things in mind, however -- I ended up stuck in terrible traffic with no way of getting to my destination by 7, let alone 6, my planned arrival time. I abandoned hope of joining the director and choreographer, called in to let them know I was stuck, and made a left turn across the bridge to home and a cozy evening with my sock. Leg finished, heel begun.



Day 8:

Officially halfway through the Olympics, and the first sock ain't done. And not much chance to knit today! First there's Nancie Wiseman's "Intarsia Basics," and by lunchtime I can add Intarsia to my list of new color knitting skills. Lunch with Spinnity, a quick dash through the marketplace, where I purchase a little more alpaca for the DH hat/scarf at Yarn Barn. In the afternoon, it's back to Sally for "Creativity," a fun, mind-opening class that's mostly lecture, so I knit away at my little sock and turn the heel, which is no big deal as far as I can tell -- not sure why it's supposed to be so challenging.



Then I dash back to the marketplace and make some more purchases, yarn at Webs, buttons at the Button Lady, and Nicky Epstein's new book signed by the lady herself. So far very little financial damage done. Then we had a birthday dinner to run to, and a play to run to after that, and then I crawled into bed and only knit a couple of rows. One more day gone, and still lots of sock to do.



Day 9:

I wisely did NOT sign up for a class Sunday morning, so after sleeping in a bit I headed out for a calm stroll through the marketplace. Fewer people, much more mellow, which put a bit of a strain on my pocketbook resolve. Particularly when I came across the must-own kits from Drops yarns, sold at a knitting store in Washington state. I got a cute bolero kit on green alpaca and mohair with a bit of sparkle. Then I bought some yarn at Hand Jive Knits from Sacramento. Then I bought some more buttons, from Buttons! in Calistoga.





I was starting to get a bit reckless, you know that "I've already gone over budget, what does it matter now" feeling. I got some Debbie Bliss cashmerino Astrakhan on sale, and some sparkly colorful Wool in the Woods for a certain birthday project. Luckily a call from Spinnity saved me from more spending, and I went to sit with a bunch of Santa Clara and San Mateo Meet-up friends in the stage area, to eat lunch, knit, and wait for the grand prize drawing of $750. Lo and behold, it went to Bogie! We all gave her a standing ovation, she was totally overwhelmed. If anyone deserves it, she does, my dear Fairy Godknitter who helped make the extra Shawlapalooza for my wedding!

My afternoon class was "Keeping Trim," my first ever with Lily Chin, and I have to say, believe the hype. She is funny and creative and clever, and she taught us a number of useful trims for the bottom of sweaters that won't curl or cling or make you look pregnant, and showed us a lot of great new stitch patterns and techniques to use just about anywhere. She's very high energy and New York-y, but she didn't flog her books or spend half the time self-promoting, which is what I was afraid of. I prefer Sally's laid-back hippie Canadian charm, but I would certainly put Lily on my good-teachers list.

By the end of the class, I was exhausted, and ready to curl up with my sock. The DH and I met up at Spinnity and Bill's for dinner and yarn-sharing. The foot of my sock was growing, and a new problem presented itself -- there was no way I was going to finish this sock without running out of yarn. Sure, I had two more balls at home, but those are for the other sock! What to do!

Day 10:

I made an emergency run to Nine Rubies for more sock yarn. Unfortunately, they don't carry Rowan 4-ply Yorkshire tweed. Choices -- order on-line, wait, risk missing Knitting Olympics deadline, not to mention a totally different dye lot. Or do the toes in a different color. The second option started to appeal to me; after all, then my socks would be truly unique! Nine Rubies yielded plenty of gorgeous colors of 4-ply Scottish tweed, which is a little loftier than Yorkshire but claims to have the same gauge. I got a nice contrasting burgundy. I actually really like how it's turned out. My lack of patience has resulted in something truly lovely.

The sock was finished about 11:30 last night with the painstakingly grafted toe (thanks again to Sally M for last year's Good Grafting class notes). I will never like grafting, but it did work and the sock is done, except for weaving in ends and adding the cute ribbon bow trim (which will be burgundy to match the toes, of course).



So I'm 10 days in, only 6 to go including today. Can I do another sock, especially now that I have rehearsals every night? Solani and Sudha at Nine Rubies cheered me on yesterday, making me think that just maybe, if I give up a certain amount of sleep and sanity, I could do it. Time to give it that old Olympic try.

Sean White rules, but so do I

While watching Sean White kick snowboarding butt, and poor Apollo Ohno not even get to compete, I completed my goal for the day -- 42 rows of the pattern, the complete first chart!



And some unexpected news in the Knitting Olympics world: Team San Mateo has a new surprise member! My DH picked up the needles for the first time since childhood to make me a coaster to match the one I gave him. The yarn is GGH Samoa in a nice green. He's using my size 7 needles. And honestly, for his first two rows, he's doing pretty well, even if he looks a bit annoyed.



Immediately after I took this photo, he returned to playing Civilization IV.

The next two evenings are somewhat busy ones, with Valentine's Day and all, but I'm setting the modest goal of completing the next 29 rows of the pattern and 1 decrease row. 15 rows a day, pretty manageable. Wednesday is meet-up night, and I'm hoping to get to the heel that night -- another 42 rows, but shorter ones, so I might make it. The heel terrifies me slightly, I might need a little help from the sock goddesses.

If the first sock is finished by next Saturday, I'm in great shape to finish the second by the closing ceremonies. However, Stitches looms large on the horizon. It's kind of like suddenly broadcasting a Nascar race in the middle of the Olympics... oh, wait, they're doing that.

A busy day, a rest for the hands

Day Two:

When I woke up Saturday morning the cramps were gone from my hands -- the exercises seem to have worked. It was a very busy day, not very much knitting time, but I got a good start on the leaf lace pattern of the body of the socks. Here's a different angle, with a bamboo chopstick mat backdrop (a present from Bill and Spinnity):



So far it's not difficult, and the size 2's aren't killing me.

Let the games begin!

Day One:

Marathon couch session during the opening ceremonies.





Cast on and knit 25 rows. Challenges: #@*! tiny 1.5 needles. I was determined to finish the ribbing, and I did, but I had to do some major hand exercises afterwards. Felt MUCH better when I switched to #2's; it's amazing what half a needle size can do. Here's what I had at midnight:



And here's the goal. One sock certainly doesn't seem impossible, but can I do two?

A good month for FOs

I've been waiting to blog until I finally had some photos to show. I'm very pleased with my January output -- my butt may permanently weld to the couch, and I have watched a LOT of Veronica Mars and Battlestar Galactica (not that there's anything wrong with that), but I have a bunch of FOs to show for it!

Here's the Kaalund Waterlilies scarf from a yummy Wizard of Yarns find:



I love this scarf; it matches with everything I own and it's nice and long. I cast on length-wise instead of width-wise, and did just a few very long rows of garter stitch, then added fringe -- very simple, and shows off the thick-and-thin yarn really well. I wear it about every other day; on the off days I'm wearing the Anny Blatt scarf that was my second project ever. Here's the Anny Blatt taking a trip to the Palace of Fine Arts:



That was a great day -- we took Princess M to the Exploratorium for the first time. I should also mention that it was my DH's first time at the Exploratorium. I'm not sure who was more excited.

Here's Ethan's car backpack, finally finished and ready to go to the little guy (one of CNITU's pals). It's in Karabella Aurora 8 and GGH Samoa. Please note the cute VW Bug button and racecar lining:





I knit this little hat on the way back from SoCal, for CNITU2. It's from Crystal Palace Kid Merino held together with Filatura di Crosa Millefili Fine, my own design:



Including the onesie and Heidi's gloves, that's five FOs in the month of January! If I can keep that up, it'll be a record year. I also started the Hourglass sweater from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, one of my favorite books. I've got the body and one of the sleeves done now, but here's what it looked like a couple of weeks ago:



It's in Noro Cash Iroha. This yarn is so amazing it should be illegal. Miles of stockinette stitch, but never boring because, oh my god, the yarn!

You might notice that the FOs have a deep, sexy Espresso wood background. This is my new Stinson coffee table from Pottery Barn (or, as Spinnity likes to call it, Poverty Barn.) I swear to you, we went to buy bedside tables, and this followed us home. It was on sale! I swear! It has five deep drawers that can be pulled out from either side. They were designed especially for yarn. At least, that's what I'm telling the DH. He asked politely if he might have just one of the five, but he has yet to come up with anything better suited to these drawers than yarn. Just look at this Patagonia, you can tell it feels right at home:



These random leftovers look quite cozy:



I don't think I've ever been quite so enamored of a piece of furniture. I may have to betray it soon, however, because we have purchased the matching 16-drawer CD Console. It's clearly named a "CD Console" for purposes of deluding non-knitting SOs into buying it. CDs can be stored on computers. But yarn... yarn can live in deep, dark, espresso-stained drawers. Yum.

Olympian effort

I was reading The Knitist's blog just a short time ago. She has declared her intention to enter the Knitting Olympics, hosted by none other than the Harlot herself, that mad, wonderful creature. I, of course, not being the type to resist a challenge, have been thinking about it for the past twenty minutes. Can I do it? What would be my challenge? Then I thought of it -- socks. My first pair of socks.

I own plenty of sock yarn but have resisted the temptation thus far. I like big, impressive projects, I guess, not things that get hidden inside of shoes. However, this may be destiny calling my name. Surely I can complete socks in 16 days, even if I'll probably be working on my Stitches homework simultaneously. Surely.

To make it harder, maybe I should do knee socks? I am a pretty fast knitter these days. I am tearing through my 2006 projects. I have completed four so far (the sexy Kaalund scarf is off the needles, love it love it love it), thanks to watching the complete first season of Veronica Mars, and I'm a good 5 inches into the Hourglass sweater from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts (in blessedly sensuous Noro Cash Iroho, how decadent). And knee socks would be less hidden by shoes, especially if worn with gauchos or a short skirt.

Hmmmm...

In other knitting news: CNITU2 wore his Cashmerino onesie out on the town Saturday night -- it finally got cold enough in SoCal. Wouldn't you know it, he picked that night to projectile poop with such force that his diaper leaked all over his pale blue loveliness! Sis has washed the thing twice and it's still stained. I am less upset about this than you might think -- after all, it's meant to be worn, and babies poop and spit up and pee all over things, that's just what they do. I do hope she can get it out well enough for him to wear it again. At least I got photos...

Year in Review (and look! actual photos!)

It was great to see Spinnity, Jo, and Lori at Meet-up last night. Spinnity brought in a "conundrum" for our review -- a turquoise FunFur shrug, knitted by a friend, that (despite gauge swatch) was many sizes too large and also included some dropped stitches, thanks to the tricky yarn and a slightly complicated pattern. Solutions ranged from tearing the whole thing out to clever use of steeks. The project can't simply be abandoned, because the yarn was a gift from the knitter's adoring husband. The fact that the dear man went to a yarn store and voluntarily purchased this yarn for his wife while she was sick in bed means that she *must* complete it. And wear it, so it has to fit.

Being in a knitting frame of mind, I came home and posted photos! I calculated that I completed 25 knitted and/or crocheted FOs last year. Here they are, with their recipients, and eventually I'll link to photos of all of them (the numbers are all different than my first list, because I forgot a couple of things):

1. Shawlapalooza (Sis)
2. Yellow crocheted dishcloth (in our kitchen)
3. Red crocheted coaster (DH)
4. Princess M purse (PM)
5. Koigu Bias Betty scarf (Mom)
6. Pillow sachet (Mom Wiz)
7. Red fingerless gloves (Me)
8. CNITU's fish backpack (CNITU)
9. Blue Cardy (CNITU/CNITU2)
10. Squiggle Choo-choo scarf (Sis)
11. White Lies Nicole camisole and panty (Me)
12. Vintage camisole (Me)
13. Green fingerless gloves (Ragnar)
14. Basket stitch scarf (Andrea)
15. Basket stitch hat (Luke)
16. Mini-longshoreman stockinette stripe hat (Ethan)
17. Bear costume (CNITU)
18. Ugly yellow hat (hiding in the stash somewhere)
19. Zofia purse (sold)
20. LuLu purse
21. Lucas backpack
22. Kylie purse

Here are those last three for sale at Wizard of Yarns!



23. Green bolero (Sis)
24. Rowan flower pin (BF)
25. Rowan flower pin (Mom)

Here's my best friend modeling her flower pin before Christmas! Isn't she pretty?



So that's my year! A heck of a lot more FOs than last year. Plus, I've got three FOs since January 1st. Here's CNITU2 modeling his gorgeous Debbie Bliss Cashmerino onesie:



His big brother thinks it's pretty cool, too! (Notice his lack of clothing -- it was actually about 85 degrees in Laguna, and a cashmerino onesie was hardly necessary.)



And here's my neighbor Heidi modeling one of the fingerless gloves I made her for Christmas (I was her neighborhood Secret Santa. I actually gave her a ball of yarn and promised I would turn it into gloves by the new year.)



The third FO has yet to be photographed -- it's a little blue hat with the letter "L" on the front, knit during the drive back from Laguna for CNITU2.

Yesterday at meet-up I started a gorgeous burgundy, purple, and green wool scarf made from yarn I bought at Wizard of Yarns -- an Australian brand called, I think, Klaalund. It's amazingly lovely and soft. I got some other interesting goodies there, but some of it's meant for knitter gifts so I won't share just yet.

Happy New Baby!

I just returned from two weeks of heavy holiday-ing, playing with my 2-year-old nephew, and moving furniture and appliances around Sis' still-being-remodeled house. But the best news is wee CNITU2, born 12/30/05 (two days after my birthday, oh well), a special gift for us all. (And a big one -- little chunky is 9 lbs of adorable chubbiness.) He looks really cute in his onesie, too!

CNITU did pretty well when Mommy was in the hospital, and he really loves his baby brother. There were, however, a couple of major tantrums involving the correct way to prepare a muffin. I include them here just in case you know a 2-year-old and need to make them a muffin.

1. Put whole muffin in microwave WITH PAPER STILL ON IT.
2. Microwave so that it goes "beep-beep" - very important to have the beep-beep.
3. Bring muffin to table, remove paper, in that order.
4. Do NOT under any circumstances remove any part of the muffin until instructed. Even when instructed to "make baby pieces," double-check before actually doing so. The two-year-old may still be contemplating the serene beauty of the COMPLETE UNTOUCHED muffin, and if you dare to defile it, woe betide you.
5. If you have double- and triple-checked that it's okay to tear off a piece, remove one small piece from the muffin for your young master to savor. Terrible things might still happen. Your best plan is to convince the young gourmand that things will be much better for everyone if he just makes his own baby pieces and allows you to retreat strategically to the other side of the table.

My sister, brother-in-law, and I broke some combination of these rules not once, not twice, but three times IN ONE DAY, causing serious screaming and crying and near bodily harm (to us, not to him). After which, we hid the muffins in the fridge. Imagine our trepidation when he opened the fridge the next day and asked for a muffin. Sis very carefully talked through each rule in order, checking with the sage at every step. He happily tore off his own pieces and ate all the pretty outside parts of the muffin, which is all you can expect a two-year-old to eat anyway.

Let us all pray that CNITU2 will be the sort of relaxed kid who will, when he turns two, bring his mother tea and fresh fruit in bed, before whipping up muffins from scratch and serving them on a tray garnished with hibiscus blooms.

Ha.

Happy Holidays to all!

Just a quick post before I take off for Laguna Beach. There was a bit of a scare earlier this week that CNITU2 had too large a head and may have something wrong with his wee brain. However, Sis saw a specialist yesterday and it turns out that he's just large in general, so they don't want her to carry to term but will induce next week. Hopefully on my birthday!

We had some Xmas present opening already -- wonderful gifts from Spinnity and Bill include a gift certificate to Creative Hands in San Carlos as well as fun goodies from REI. Their birthday present to me was a beautiful pair of fingerless gloves, in brown and cream with lacy cuffs. So elegant! Susan and Princess M went all out with a brand new knitting bag for Christmas (it's Jordana Paige's messenger bag in brown) and a beautiful silver Tiffany necklace.

And at last, Adam got some of the photos out of the camera. Here's me finishing up (L to R) Kylie, Lucas, and LuLu bags for the sale.

Another long hiatus

After this one, it will be amazing if anyone's still reading this blog! My very good excuse is that I have been rehearsing and performing in "A Christmas Carol" up in Napa. I think it turned out rather well, so if you're interested visit our website for more information.

In a triumph of holiday knitting, I also finished four purses for the trunk show in Laguna Beach. I failed to finish the fifth. Turned out that the sale was badly attended, anyway, but I did sell one purse! Zofia, the sherbet-colored one with sparkly maribou trim. Wendy is keeping the other three in the shop for the time being. It was a fun experiment, but I have to admit that it got boring, knitting the same thing four times in a row. I couldn't wait to get back to Lucas' onesie.

I *did* take all kinds of photos, still in the camera, of course, but I promise, they're coming.

I have not been to a knitting meet-up in ages due to all this rehearsal stuff, but last Wednesday I did spend a delightful evening with M.O. at Julie's in Alameda, working on our Christmas knitting projects. We like Julie's; they are very knitter-friendly and have a crafting night every Friday. And very good teas, coffees, and cookies.

The rest of my modest Christmas knitting is a secret. I have not taken on any big ambitious projects this year, except for the onesie, and that's progressing well. Needed a break from deadlines. But for all of you who are counting the hours, keep the faith! You will make it!

Music plug

No, sorry, no photos yet. But I just wanted to mention the lovely night of music the DH and I experienced yesterday! Normally, I try to avoid plugging theatre too much on this blog - it's impossible to promote everyone's shows, and as a casting director I don't want to be perceived as slighting anyone. However, when it comes to music, I am purely a consumer with so little talent of my own that I can only sit in awe when I have an experience like last night's.

My former roommate Megan and her partner Sam are extremely talented musicians, and they played a great gig last night at the Bazaar Cafe in SF. This is one of my favorite music venues -- tiny, cozy, great food, nice folks, and of course, you can knit to your heart's content. If you're familiar with Beth Waters, Mokai, Vienna Teng, or Ira Marlowe -- they play there. It also happens to be half a block away from our old apartment. It was a birthday show for Megan, and the owners even had chocolate cake for everyone. When was the last time you went to a concert and got free cake?

Anyway, we bought the new Bazaar compilation CD, which M & S are *not* on. This morning, I went to the SF Hootenanny website where you can buy a compilation CD including two of their songs. The site also heaps praise on this terrific duo. If you can't get enough of Sam and Megan's acoustic brilliance, their CD is on CD Baby, too.

In other music news: Four tickets to KFOG's concert for kids (featuring Madeleine Peyroux, KT Tunstall, and Aqualung) up for grabs! After purchasing tickets to the concert and pre-show wine and food tasting, I found out I can't go due to my rehearsal schedule. The rest of the group decided not to go either. These are great seats, so if you're interested in buying them let me know!

Knitting news: Trunk show progress continues -- the knitting for LuLu is all done and I've started Kylie. Friday, I'm planning a big sewing day for all the linings, buttons, trim, etc.

Trunk Show preparation...

... is actually going pretty well. Credit goes to long hours spent in rehearsal. Knitting really is the perfect hobby for actors. You can simultaneously pay attention to what's going on, study your lines, and get projects done. No missed cues, which tends to happen when you immerse yourself in a book during rehearsal. And you never get mad at your director for keeping you there for 2 hours without ever getting to your scene. It's all good -- it's knitting time.

The adorable little girl playing Tiny Tim is also a knitter. Last week she saw me with my knitting and told me all about her projects. Yesterday she brought a little fuzzy scarf in to work on. At one point, leaping to her feet to make an entrance, she got tangled in her yarn and arrived on stage trailing pink and blue fluff. If I had done this, I would have looked stupid, but coming from Lucy it was just about the cutest thing that ever happened on a stage.

I finished lining Zofia and sent it off to Sis to show to Wendy at Wizard of Yarns. Stupid me, forgot to photograph it before I sent it. It's pink, orange, and green sorbet colors with a fluffy trim and a green floral-embroidered lining. The button is a little green butterfly.

I'm close to done with the Lucas backpack (named for CNITU2). This one is all Aurora 8 wool, smoky blue, persimmon, and Aurora Melange in fall colors. The lining has little trucks on it, and the button is a wooden teddy bear.

I started LuLu a couple of days ago (named for CNITU's best girlfriend). It's pale blue, yellow, and green, very preppy. I plan for it to have sparkly trim, a little blue button in the shape of a house, and a blue lining with girly sayings on it like "call me," "let's shop," and "girlfriends."

Ethan's backpack is already spoken for by its namesake (CNITU's other best friend), but I'll probably do it next. It's primary colors -- blue, red, and green, with racecars on the lining and a little green VW bug button.

Kylie is the last one I've designed -- it's spring green, pink, and lavender, probably a floral lining and a button in the shape of a little purse. It's named for my DH's co-worker's adorable daughter, who is amazingly cute and smart.

I'm debating whether to do a couple of holiday-specific ones, with sparkly blue and red yarn and a fluffy white trim. Maybe if I have time! Sis thinks they would sell well.

Check out the new look!

I kept the address, but changed the title. You like? I had to make sure first that other knitting "Wiz"es Spinnity and my MIL were not interested in using it.

I opted *not* to use "Auntie Becca Knits" as the title, although it is my brand (I have a brand! Hee hee!). I have been in touch with lovely Wendy from The Wizard of Yarns My purses and backpacks will hopefully be featured in a trunk show in Laguna Beach on Dec. 2-3. I say hopefully because I will actually have to work damn hard on making them before then. I had better finish Zofia's lining tonight, so I have one to send to Sis (my business manager) tomorrow!