The Pinkie

I have strange pinkie fingers. When I get grossed out, say, during a gross CSI autopsy, my pinkies tingle and go rather numb. When I first learned to type we were taught to press shift with the left pinkie to capitalize letters. I had to retrain myself later to press shift with my ring finger because after a couple capital letters, my pinkie goes stiff and numb. Very strange indeed. Lately, this stiff numbness, which comes with a bit of pain, has been occurring while I knit.

This is how I hold my knitting with my left hand:

I seem to curl my pinkie under the left needle to hold it up while I knit. I have two projects on biggish (US 10 and 10.5) needles, and the larger the needle, the more acute the pinkie problem. The pinkie problem lead me to cast on the green monkey socks on wee socky size 2 dpns. I have tried to loosen my grip with the left hand's fingers, but its not working so well, and slows down my already manatee-esque pace.

That blob above is my DROPS cable bag...almost ready to be delivered to my friend Jess and her sewing skills.

Here is my preferred lunch knitting spot, a roof top garden atop a galleria with shops and restaurants:

This is my favorite spot to spend my lunches, which will soon become impractical with the rain, but these past weeks its been up in the 65-70 degree range (did anyone order a large portion of climate change?!) but its starting to turn cooler.


Enjoy your Wednesdays!

Just call me Afro Thunder

I finished a bag! Not a holiday gift tote bag, but a cotton bag that has been awaiting handles for about a month. Since setting the Great Tote Bag challenge I have managed to produce two sewn items that do not qualify for the challenge at all. Funny how that works!


Here it is stuffed full of books and other misc. purse items:

In knitting... DROPS bag in progress, on my lunch break:

A cabley close up:
In other exciting knitting news, I got a knitting magazine in the mail that I did not order! No idea where it came from, but its the premier issue of Verena magazine, and they must have sent out promo copies to IK subscribers or something.

It is by Burda, whose open source sewing website I browse occasionally.
The bulk of the patterns are nautical themed (some very cute ones too!)
This one below, whilst not nautical, caught my eye as especially cute. Doesn't look like a good choice a sweater novice, but it sure is pretty. Also, is anyone but me jealous of the afro? If I could pull it off, I would soooo rock the afro. And make everyone call me afro thunder.

Happy Friday and Happy Halloween!

October heatwave

Hello, blogger.com. Why do you upload this picture sideways, no matter how I rotate it on my computer? Ahh well, still gives the general idea...

San Francisco is undergoing a massive October heatwave. We are in week two of said heat wave. It is so hot that on my lunch my elbow crease/pit/whatever that thing is are getting sweaty while I knit in Union Square on my lunch. I have co-workers who won't even go there to eat lunch, because they feel like people are people-watching them. I brazenly knit in this meat market for the avid people watcher--every type of person from tourist to political canvasser to homeless man that yells to business folk on their lunches. I am not kidding about the yelling, I was accosted (while knitting my first DROPS cable bag) and yelled at. I recall this story, because today, sitting in nearly the same spot at the day of yelling, I cast on DROPS cable bag #2.


This is a belated birthday gift for my dear friend since the third grade! She saw the first one I made, and requested/nicely demanded one of her own.
I am off for some delicious Vietnamese food, then to the symphony hall to see the legendary Dave Brubeck.

Rosa