Beep.

Hi. I can't come to the blog right now. I'm too busy knitting. If you'd like to leave your name, number, and some brief encouragement that all the unknit yarn in the picture below will get knit in the appropriate time frame, I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Which will probably be next year. Have a great day!

Awesomely Random.

1. Sorry I haven't blogged in a while! I needed a break. But I'm back! Here's some complete randomness to get caught-up.
2. First (second?), I must say, migraines completely suck.
3. The trip to ski in Salt Lake City over Thanksgiving was AWESOME. I got to knit a bunch AND hang out with my brother. Lets see what the two combined look like:

4. It's really darn windy out here... *wince* That can only mean one thing: red flag conditions... freakin' fire season.
5. I started a few more Christmas gift designs. Here are the sneak peeks:

6. I bought a new car! Go, economy, go! She is the cutest car ever! And now, I have to think of a name. Because a car this cute, definitely requires a name.

7. I had to re-pot Ophelia the Orchid. She was in a mixed arrangement with... SOIL. *gasp* This could not stand if Ophelia was to live so she moved to a new home:

8. Last, but not least, I won Lolly's little contest about guilty pleasures! How exciting! Thank you so much Lolly!

Last Day of November...

30 Days Of Blogging. Check!

Pittsburgh Zoo.

Flashback to Utah.

These are photos from the roadtrip Eric and I took to Utah in April. That was a fun trip. Hopefully, I'm hitting the Utah slopes today, like in the third photo!

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

I am thankful for so many things...
Now it's time to eat turkey!

So close!!!

I realized last night that my month of consistent blogging is in major peril. So far this month, I've blogged for 25 days straight (!?!?) which is quite a feat for me. I have NEVER, in my four years of blogging, been a regular blogger. But I have to admit... this blogging thing? It's pretty fun. I actually have plenty to say and even if I don't, I have manymanymany photos to throw up on this little corner of the interwebs.

But I'm going on vacation starting this evening. Eric and I are driving up to Utah to ski and I'm not sure I'm going to have internet access. So I must coast out of my month of blogging. I will be scheduling some photos to go up, but it feels like cheating to just schedule photo posts for the last 5 days of the month. Oh well. Hopefully, I'll stick with blogging at a more regular pace than once a month. :) Have an awesome holiday weekend! See ya in December!!!

Hijack.

I'm hijacking my own blog to show my sister some yarn color combos. Regular posting will resume tomorrow. :) Ok... in no particular order.

Option 1: Pros = all the same yarn / Cons = purple color is so-so

Option 2: Pros = nice color combo / Cons = all different yarns

Option 3: Pros = all the same yarn, bright purple / Cons = navy is not very dark

Option 4: Pros = cheapest / Cons = not so sure about the purple

What do you think Kaylee?

Knitters in the Wild.

Last weekend at JTree was fun. I allowed myself a weekend of selfish knitting and I restarted my Lady Eleanor stole. I've heard it said by others, but it's true... Entrelac is really addicting. Especially with Noro yarn. It's great incentive to knit the next square and see what color comes up next! One more square... just one more...

Restarted with 55 sts on US8s. Puuuuurfect.

Knitting with some cool chicks: Jenna, me, & Elaine.

Beautiful sunset.

I didn't actually do any rock climbing on belay, but the company and the landscape were well worth the trip. I have many more photos, so I'll post some more later. Good night!

On Top of the World.

White Chief Peak 11,159ft Sep 2008.

Alta Peak 11,204ft Aug 2008.

Moro Rock July 2008.
.......
Some photos of high places. I'll be back from Joshua Tree tomorrow! Hopefully I'll have some sweet photos.

More Orchid Photos.

Sorry. Can't help it. She's photogenic.

J Tree.

I'm off to Joshua Tree this weekend to camp, rock climb, and photograph the wild landscape. I might even fit in some knitting! See ya Monday. Here are some pics from last year.

Be Careful What You Wish For.

I cracked! I couldn't take all the gift knitting... so far I've finished a pair of socks, a hat, 2.5 washcloths. That's pretty good progress, right? I deserve a little knitting love, too? Right?

Whoops.

So I started Lady Eleanor. All that pretty Noro was calling my name in it's silky, multi-hued voice. I would like large-ish squares for my stole, so I changed the pattern to 11 stitch squares on US7s, instead of 8 stitch squares. I cast-on for the recommended 7 triangles for the setup tier and happily knit away. I had great fun figuring out the entrelac and knitting backwards. Watching the pretty colors shift... While I was knitting I thought to myself, this is a bit too tight of a gauge... I wish it were a bit more drapey. But I was halfway into the 1st tier!! No way was I starting over. HA! I should know better than to think wishful thoughts. Even worse, I mentioned it to Gina at work today, warning that she might want to start her stole on US8s. Well, the knitting gods heard me. As I finished the 1st tier, I realized that the thing was a bit wiiiiide.

30" wide is 6" too wide... I should have only done 5 set-up triangles (55sts).

I guess I will get to knit it on US8s. That's what I get for wishful thinking. And cheating on my gift knits. Sigh.

Nine-dimensional Cardigan?

Check out this comic... :D

Random Craftiness.

I bought a jersey knit dress on sale from J.Crew a while back. It is a lovely dress, a very flattering fit, but the color was a bit bright for me. I believe it was called Melon? Or maybe Bright Rubarb? Perhaps Neon Orange? Anyway, it was a bit bright for me. Right on the edge of being an OK color, but I thought it might be fun to dye it. I bought a bottle of Rit dye in Wine and collected some rubber bands. I gathered the bottom of the skirt and randomly tied the rubber bands around the bottom foot of gathered skirt. I filled a bucket in my tub with hot water, 1 cup of salt, and a bottle of the Wine dye. It was reaaaaaally dark. It kind of scared me, but I tossed in the dress. After 30 min of soaking, I starting rinsing. Man! That dye did not want to rinse out. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed some more... the water was still pink! So I tossed it in the washer... I peeked in during the final rinse... the water was still pink! So I'll have to wash this puppy by itself a few more times, but I really like it! The color is awesome now. Check out the cool tie-dyedness!

Front.

Back.

I think the back might be cooler than the front, but oh well. This successful dying experiment is making me want to tie-dye all my boring clothes! Fun!

Whoa.

Where did the day go? Where did the WEEKEND go? It was my birthday weekend so I got to choose the weekend activities. That means Eric went with me to Felt Club 2008, a craft show in LA. It was really cool! It was fun to see all the creative folks I admire on Etsy in real life. It's very inspiring. And speaking of inspiring, I know everyone has seen all the new patterns coming out, but did you check out the new Twist Collective? Or the new Knotions? Or the Interweave preview?!? So many good things. So little time to knit. I never thought I'd want to knit a coat, but check this one out: Sylvi. It makes me want to throw out all my Holiday knitting obligations and cast on right away! But first I would have to buy yarn, which is a no-no until March. So I'll wait... or will I?!? Which color would you choose?? The red is fabulous, but I don't really wear red. Orange, grey, creme? Purple?

Photos from Twist Collective. Color manipulation by me.

Ophelia Orchid.

Jenna gave me an orchid for my birthday. She's chock full of buds and very pretty.

Let's hope I can keep her happy, green, and blooming.

Smokey Sunrise.

The Santa Ana winds are blowing.

Smokey red sunrise.

Fire season is upon us. It's kind of scary living in a place that has a "fire season." Give me snow over fire any day.

Vintage post: "Loose ends..."

Here is a vintage post that I forgot to publish back in Oct 06. Whoops! Better late than never:

I have a couple loose ends.

Some to tie up. Some to rip out.

First I'd like to post about an FO that was never really shown on this blog before. It's nothing fancy, but as I was transfering files from my old computer to my new computer I happened to stumble upon the pictures. Introducing the Seafoam Scarf.
The loose end to rip out is referring to my Jaywalker sock. Sigh. It doesn't fit my foot. It fits my ankle very well, but the heel and instep are way too big. I don't have much experience with a heel flap, so I know it can probably be adjusted with something simple, like a shorter heel flap or picking up less stitches... Here's a picture of the ill-fitted-ness... Can anyone help me out here? Or should I just fall back to my old standard, the short row heel?

Happy Birthday to me!

I have the most awesome friends. :D

Coconut, Lemon, Boston Creme, Godiva Chocolate, Red Velvet

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and cupcakes my friends! I have a feeling 26 is going to be a good year.

Some of my knitting buddies: Kate, Gina, Rosalind, Grace, & Elyse. And the next gift knit: Thorpe III.

Knitting Math.

This photo has nothing to do with the post. I just couldn't blog without a photo.

Last weekend at the bike party, a lot of people were impressed by my mad knitting skillz. I was turning the heel on the second Retro Rib sock and it was fun to try to explain sock architecture to non-knitters. The most frequently asked question was definitely "how long does it take you to knit a pair of socks?" Hmmm. Well, I'm not sure. I don't normally keep track of how long it takes me to knit in any concrete way. Sure, I fill in the start and end dates in Ravelry, but how much actual knitting time does it take to knit a pair of socks? I guessed 40 hrs as a guesstimate last weekend and then I timed myself knitting Monday night to get a better estimated time.

It turns out that it takes me ~3 min to knit on round on this sock. There are 10 cuff rows + 80 leg rows + 32 heel flap rows + 72 foot rows + 25 toe rows = ~220 rows * 3 min/row = 660 min = 11 hrs * 2 socks = 22 hrs!!! Wow... that doesn't seem like long at all. I was way off on the 40 hrs.

Anyway, I finished the socks last night! On to the next gift knit!

Christmas Countdown designed by Christmas Gifts.org

EZ Mitered Mittens.

This weekend was lots of fun! Eric mountain bikes with the coolest people. It was actually pretty chilly in the mountains so I got to make use of multiple knitted objects. Hats, scarves, mittens! I finally got a decent modeled shot of the mitered mittens I made out of some beautiful handspun yarn in my stash.

I even have enough handspun left over to make a coordinating hat. I'm thinking that brooklyntweed's Turn A Square (ravelink) would be perfect.

Check out more pictures from the weekend below! Here is a link to the slide show if you can't see it below!

One Word Meme.

Where is your mobile phone? desk

Where is your significant other? far

Your hair colour? dirty
Your mother? sweet

Your father? good

Your favourite thing? sleeping

Your dream last night? forgotten

Your dream goal? happiness

The room you're in? glowy

Your hobby? making

Your fear? spiders

Where do you want to be in 6 years? together

Where were you last night? Visalia

What you're not? well-rested

One of your wish-list items? tripod

Where you grew up? suburbia

The last thing you did? flickr

What are you wearing? pjs

Your TV? off

Your pets? Libby

Your computer? iMac

Your mood? sleepy

Missing someone? always
Your car? dirty
Something you're not wearing? bra
Favourite shop? yarnshop

Your summer? short

Love someone? muchly

Your favourite colour? purple

When is the last time you laughed? today

When is the last time you cried? today

Sorry for the meme cop out, but I thought this one was fun. I'll be back in the morning with lots o' photos!

Silhouette.

Kayaking through cave in the Channel Islands. July 2008.