No place like home

I have lived in Northern California and the Bay Area my entire 24.5 years of life. I have crossed the Golden Gate Bridge countless times, and yet, every time I catch a glimpse of the red towers, I smile. And take gratuitous photographs. It is a bit like being in Paris, but less delightfully romantic. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower peeks at you from the most unexpected locations, and every time, it brings a smile, and a wonderful feeling that I associate with a hot lemon sugar crepe.



The Golden Gate Bridge is the same. There is no more beautiful and striking way to enter a city than to enter San Francisco from the North, as rolling green hills give way to sea side towns, and finally, you emerge from a tunnel, faced with the red towers of the Golden Gate, and San Francisco's beautiful skyline.

Every time I see the Golden Gate peeking at me from an unexpected spot, perhaps picking up take out in the Outer Sunset, or driving down Twin Peaks, I get that Eiffel Tower feeling.

The northern backdrop of the bridge is the Marin Headlands, silhouetted below with some awesome sky:


And what would a photo post of mine be with out more pictures of flowers?

At school

Looks like Spring is beginning to peek out on my campus. A nice shot of color after a couple weeks of rain.

I love taking pictures of flowers way too much. They are so photogenic...one picture, or five, is never enough.

The creek that runs by the library is so picturesque. It comes with a nice stone bridge and quaint moss.

Meow

My favorite fat cat, Ooddll (pronounced oodle.) Named by my sister after Oodle the safety poodle on the old Nickelodeon cartoon Rugrats. Sounds like an adorable little kid thing to do, but my sister was like 17 at the time, and being the adorable little random wiseass that she is. Love you sis! And we all love ooddll:



And some pictures of our Feb. 14 feast for N's birthday:

Cheesecake

And a table set for 11, with some of the first course laid out:

Shocking!

Pictures of actual knitting! On a knitting blog! Unheard of.

And not the beret I mentioned in my last post, but another pair of Symmetrical Braided Gauntlets, for my friend Jess. Jess just started knitting, and has turned out a cute shorty scarf, and two hats! As soon as she started hats, she caught the knitting fever.




This cat is incredibly sweet, loves to warm your lap, and is hilariously ginormous. She is an active outdoor cat who runs around and pretends to hunt, but she is still huge. I think it adds to the cuteness.


Here is a picture of me wearing my symmetrical gauntlets, while knitting Jess's.


Yes, that is the same yarn, and the same pattern. Not the most scintillating knitting news. I made the first pair for me since I had never made fingerless gloves before, and I don't like to give away the first version of something. Its always full of those charming hand made flaws. Like those charming little holes where I started the thumb. I worked out that issue on the second gauntlet. Hence, the practicing on me!

March Madness

Last night I cast on Crazy Aunt Purl's beret recipe pattern, in some chunky, soft, unidentified red wool. It seems to have liberated itself from its ball band, sneaky thing.

My neighborhood, March 2008.

A stash peek

Some items in the stash....

Around the City

More pictures, to distract from the lack of knitting! Kristina and I are both back in school, in short, intensive programs. Someday, there will be knitting, I promise!

San Francisco, during the crazy storm last January:



An SF landmark:
My fabric store, Britex! Four stories of fabric glory, and a whole wall of buttons:

I love California

Still no knitting around here, but plenty of pretty pictures.





Monterey, CA, March 2008

Flower Power

Happy Friday

FO: N's Hand Warmers
Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Cascade 220 heathers in color #9465
Needles: US 7 dpns

These bad boys each spent about and hour and a half on the needles. Mega instant gratification knitting.
This is my first project with Cascade 220. Its soft, its squishy, its warm, and it is CHEAP! These hand warmers took what seems like less than half a ball, and the 220 is like 5 bucks to begin with. Awesomeness.

Overall, not much to say. Very simple, improvised pattern. Mostly plain old stockinette, with a little 2x2 rib at the cuffs. The project was requested by N, to keep his hands toasty while they are glued to the laptop (about 20 hours a day!)




That's all I have today....busy at work, busy at school, busy in life! Hope to cast on 3 new projects soon here...

Hats off!

Two FOs and a seriously cute puppy picture today.

FO: Manly Manos Hat

Pattern: The Boy Hat by LimulusKnits

Yarn: Manos of Uruguay 

Needles: US 8 Bamboo DPNs

The Manly Manos hat came into being after N deemed the Boy Hat I made for my cousin for Christmas "Hat, version 2.0."  Hat, version 1.0 being Brooklyn Tweed's Turn A Square Hat (I made and gifted 3 of these this past fall).  N assured me that while he loves hat v. 1.0, hat v. 2.o is just more awesome.  So, enter a nice brown colorway of Manos, and Hat, V.2.0 is born.  

Photographing a wool hat  just seems odd, when its so sunny your eyes are watering, and the subject wearing the hat is also wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  Gotta love California.  I think the browns of the hat look awesome next to the blue sky.

FO: Colin's Christmas Hat

Pattern: Ranger Hat, by Anni Laine

Yarn: Bernat Cashmere Natural Blends

Needles: US 7 bamboo DPNs

I love the way this pattern looks, but it was a bit laborious to knit at times.  I put it down for a while, and came back to it just this last week.  I am trying my darndest to get rid of 5 skeins of this bernat cashmere blend I have had in my stash about a year.  Its soft, dark grey, and machine washable, which means its great for hats for guys.  Guys tend not to get the whole hand washing of handknits thing.  But this yarn is miracle yarn.  I have made I think 4 hats, and I still have 1.5 skeins left.  Will it never leave me!?!

I used the decreases on beautyisntperfect's blog. Disclaimer: by the time I took pictures of this hat, my eyes were hurting so badly from the brightness I was just snapping pictures without looking.  Hence, blurriness. 

And the cute puppy.  Hi Dave!  Happy weekend.