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

I have a confession....

I have been purposely ignoring my hemlock ring blanket. I purposely shoved it under and end table, and distracted myself with 3-4 other wips. Perhaps in its cozy end table cave it would fix itself, because yes, its all imperfect and sad.

Look how chocolately and yummy the cascade eco wool in an unmemorable numerically named colorway:


Now that the cheap diversion of purty yarn has distracted you a bit, I shall admit, it was the K9 into 1s that got me. They are supposed to create a lovely lace pattern that transitions into the feather and fan pattern, as can be seen on functional Hemlocks like Kristina's. I appear to have done about 30% of them correctly, and the rest incorrectly so who knows what the eff I was doing. It was so long ago I can't recall at all...its all a haze.

Now for the fun stuff--pictures of my egregious but yet unidentified errors.


Oh the horror! There is errant yarn bisecting this should be elegant lacey eyelet thingy.


I hate, with a burning loathing from within, frogging from dpns. Off to frog...(orrr perhaps finish up knee warmer numero uno and cast on numero dos!)

Its scarf season

And I forgot my scarf this morning on my way to get my OM on. Very chilly round the neck! Makes me want to immediately cast on a new scarf wardrobe, and perhaps this cowl.

Last night I knit a few inches on my current simple, stress free project: Knee Warmers. Requested by N to warm his knees on foggy morning bike rides to work, I am basically knitting a K2P1 rib for 12 inches of tube for a knee. I chose the 2x1 rib, and cast on for 3 inches less than the circumference of the knee/leg/thigh its intended to warm. Hopefully this will be tight and stretchy, avoiding the slouchy Richard Simmons look of 80s leg warmers. I do believe we are aiming for something a bit more masculine :)

I am about 80% through with the first warmer, having cast on this Sunday.

Here are some late summer-early fall pictures to distract from a lack of crafting pics!

Civic Center, San Francisco:



Monkshood, British Columbia:


Bivalve and purty sand, Kirby Cove beach, San Francisco:


rosa out.

Leaving on a jet plane

I am going on vacation! I will be back in just over a week. Here is a pre-vacation WIP log:


Hemlock Ring Blanket... Kristina and I are supposedly doing a knit along, but I am falling behind. This is where it currently lives, stashed under an end table.

I haven't even reached the feather and fan portion yet.



The Swallowtail. Sigh. I am not sure I love lace knitting. In fact, I know I don't like it, I am just not sure why.


The yarn is KnitPicks gloss lace weight in sterling.



I just hope its purty once its all blocked and done with. Which will hopefully be soon after I return from vacation.




Here is a sort of WIP, mostly FO. Its my third Turn a Square Hat. This one is made with Bernat Natural Cashmere blends in a dark grey, and Rowan Natural Silk Aran in Indigo for the contrast color.


The recipient of this yet to be blocked hat is one of my vacation cohorts, so I will get some good pictures of it in action this week, perhaps side by side with my first turn a square hat!


Here it is, squashed flat on my couch to reveal some of its squarey-ness.




Here are two not yet but soon to be WIPs.

On the left, some Berroco cotton twist for some baby booties. The baby was born a few days ago, but will have to wait a bit for the booties. I forgot to pack this, so its post vacation knitting.


On the right, some super chunky Wool Ease by Lion. For my dear friend Mariam's bday, I promised her the knitted item of her choice. She has requested a chunky ribbed scarf with a big old button, modeled after the Fossil's Mia scarf. The faux mia and my sock will be my vacation knitting.

Happy knitting :)

Rosa

Happy Friday!

Current WIP: Brooklyn Tweed's Turn A Square Hat. I cast on yesterday afternoon and expect to cast off tonight, its a quick knit.

This is my first project involving Noro. I have to admit, I have been a bit skeptical of Noro, despite its massive fan club. I love the idea of a natural, not overly processed silk, but have never fallen in love with a Noro FO. I decided to give it a try for this hat, knowing that the grey would need the wonderful Noro colors to bring it to life. This is Noro Silk Garden color 84, ordered from Webs.

There is a bit more pink in it than I would have liked, since its for my bf, but its easy to exclude the pink given the striping pattern. I do have a bunch of pink scraps now...perhaps destined for a smaller turn a square for my sister this winter.


The grey yarn is some ball band-less lion brand wool ease from my stash. It has been at the bottom of my oldest stash tote for as long as I can remember. This project is a great stash buster, even though I bought the noro for this project, I am using stash wool ease!

Seen below, my birthday stitch markers hand crafted by Kristina in action:





In non-knitting related events, I loved the Chihuly exhibit so much that I revisited today. Below is one of the outdoor pieces, seen below in Golden Gate Park from the tower of the de Young museum. It lights up at night and is amazing.

And a forest inspired indoor piece (I never thought I would be one of those people who takes pictures in museums, but I wanted to share!) It doesn't do the piece justice, but you get the idea.


Some yummy treats I made Wednesday night...
and the parting weekend shot of Dave, the Mountain Dog:

Photo Journal

For my birthday, my blogging buddy Kristina got me several wonderful knitting related presents, all of which I love. The most beeeeautiful ones are these:

Stitch markers, which she made, after sneakily purchasing the beads in my presence! At the time, I thought it a bit out of character for her to buy pink beads, but you never know. They are absoultely beautiful and I love them enormously. I have only been able to put one to use thus far, on my WIP the Swallowtail Shawl.

The stitch markers are photographed on one of my new Kosta Boda plates. I have been obsessed with Kosta Boda and Swedish glassware in general since I went to Sweden two years ago. I love all things Scandinavian when it comes to design, textiles, architecture, and aesthetic. The glass making technique used today by Kosta Boda has been around for hundreds of years; the Kosta Boda company was founded in 1742.

No knitting pictures to post, hopefully next week. My WIP line up is:

Brooklyn Tweed's Hemlock Ring Blanket: This is a KAL with my blogmate Kristina. We are doing 5 rows per week, and at the moment, are only 4 weeks in.

The Swallowtail Shawl, in Knit Picks Gloss Lace Yarn in sterling. We shall see how much I like the yarn when its blocked. Its very easy to knit with, but I thought it would have a bit more luster.

Skrilla Knits' Brûlée Scarf, in Tiur by Dale of Norway. This knit is for a wee little three year old. I kept the original 28 stitch width, but am using a small yarn to shrink it down to kid size. Hopefully this will have a matching hat and mittens by my September deadline.

In most excellent news, Kristina and I will be reuniting this weekend as two of our best friends get married (to each other) this Saturday. I am so excited, but stressing big time about my toast! I am planning on keeping it short and sweet, as no story seems to be funny/sweet/perfect/appropriate enough to tell. I am told I will do fine, but given the sobfest I put on at the engagement party, we shall see.

We will be bringing socks on the needles to take a sock photo a la Harlot, while we are all gussied up.

Until later!

Rose