Beautiful California!

On the pier at Manhatten Beach in southern California.

Hello SoCal

Well, I'm in Thousand Oaks, California. Wow. I can't believe it. It has been a rather mellow day actually. However, it was rather scary when we got to the PIT terminal to find the USAi*ways check-in line to be 3-4 hours long! It was snaked around the whole upper terminal. Insane. But SuperDad to the rescue! He was his usual assertive self and spoke to a gate agent who helped get my ticket in 20 minutes. Woo! Baggage and security were a breeze. My five hour flight in first class was rather nice. The view was awesome. Then I caught my shuttle to my apartment, took a little tour of Malibu and Thousand Oaks while dropping off other people, and then finally made it to home sweet home for the next few months. I still can't believe I'm here! The apartment is gorgeous. Big walk-in closet, nice kitchen, huge bed, fully furnished. :) But no food. I need to take care of that. So I'm going for a walk to see what I can see. Maybe get some groceries. And then get a good night's sleep. ♥

Spring Showers

After the storm. 

Although the pictures aren't of knitting, I have been knitting. But I'm really tired. So I'll write about it tomorrow. I just wanted an excuse to post macro shots from my spiffy camera. Later. ♥

ProtoPoncho

The prototype. 

My lovely lamb model is showcasing my prototype poncho. I knit a stockinette rectangle and dropped strategic stitches to create the ladder effect and then assembled it in the Knitty Villa fashion. I'm not sure if I would use this construction for a life-sized poncho. I think I might like the "two rectangles sewn together for a v-neck" method. I"m also unsure about the dropped stitches. With this boucle yarn, dropping the stitches back is not the easiest thing in the world. But I like the yarn, even if it is just acrylic and baby yarn. It's like knitting cotton candy! And I think I'll enjoy a Cotton Candy Poncho. :)

In other not so knitting news: I haven't worked much on my Kate Tank. She is languishing in my knitting bag downstairs. I had a lovely time on Memorial Day eating yummy strawberry jello preztel yumminess and delicious pasta salad deliciousness. And there were so many puppies to pet! Have you ever seen a Malamute in person? So pretty, but so big! And powerful. And needs constant attention. I think I need a smaller dog. I really want a Boston Terrier! Those guys are so cute! They are on so many commercials right now. Insurance, allergy meds, flea meds, credit cards... these cuties are promoting them all! I saw one down on the Montour Trail the other day and my dad insists that all terriers are crazy. In fact, he says you may aswell call them Boston Crazies. But I don't mind. I will love my Boston Crazy. ♥

BoogaJ Bag

This is my booga bag I knit awhile ago. I'm actually just testing the multiple picture posting capabilities of Hello. But the colors of Noro Kureyon are gorgeous. So it's all good. :) 

Perfect Poncho

I have been searching for the perfect poncho pattern, but most of the ones I like are crocheted. That's ok, but I have decided to try and design one for the fun of it. This swatch shows a concept I saw at Lerners NY yesterday. It involves dropping stitches to create the ladders inbetween the stockinette sections. It looked really neat with textured yarn at Lerners. I just did a little swatch with some baby yarn I had leftover. I like the texture, but much planning is still to be done. ♥ 

My Kate tank.

This is the front of my tank. Exciting, no? It's fun to play with my new camera. I am familiar with the Nikon set up, but my CoolPix 2200 is so little and cute! Down below is a closeup of the stitches. I love close ups. I have tons of knitting closeups on my hard drive. I'll post them on slow days. Anyway. Time to sleep. ♥ 

True blue, baby I love you.

Close up of the stitches and pretty accurate color of my Kate tank. 

For now...

Since I have no new knitting picture, I give you the pretty water lily growing in my boyfriend Mike's pond. :) Things have been crazy for me. I'm going to south CA this summer to intern at Amgen!!! I'm so excited. So I've been jumping through all the hoops that they place in front of me.

Now for knitting news: I have been knitting my Kate tank. I got a bit scared when I got to the decreases but I think I figured it out. I recently finished the back and I'll take a picture tomorrow. There is a yarn sale up in the State College area tomorrow. I wish I could go. But I'm not sure if I'll make it. Bad timing. Anyway. I'm going to go knit the front of my Kate tank. Have a nice day! 

hmmm....

I used that Hello thing to post the pictures of my Fiona bag and it was annoying. You can only put one picture per post. It's handy because it resizes and links everything for you, but it's a bit cumbersome. Owell. I'll have to find something else to use. Or just do it myself. Or get a typepad account. Yeah...

Anyway, I wanted to point out a little link on my side bar: the Kate Tank link. I translated it from the Phildar website when it was offered as a free pattern. I took German in High School, which was no help in translating French, but I think it's mostly right. If you want the English .doc, I think you can just right click and Save Target As... If that doesn't work you can email me and I can send it to you. I think there is a Kate Along somewhere out there! Maybe I'll join! Woo!

back...

The back of Fiona. I fashioned a button hole by sewing the bottom of the i-cord together and then put a button on the bottom edge of the back so that I could fasten a shoulder strap. It makes it much easier to carry. :) 

front...

The front of Fiona. 

Fiona!

Say hello Fiona! I just finished my cute little Fiona bag using the patterned link on the side bar. It was a very easy to follow pattern. I used Lion Brand Cotton-ease, knit at a very tight gauge with US 4 needles, instead of Misson Cotton. I had the Cotton-ease on hand and I wanted a firm fabric for the bag. I made it a little more colorful than the original pattern; I like the whimsical quality. Such a fun summer bag. I chose the lime green daisy buttons because they seemed to match the colorful theme. I really like it and have been using it as my main purse for the last couple days. She's holding up very well. :) 

Hello.

My new knit blog!!! So exciting. Just testing. Yay.