Crafting Guilt

"How much did you pay for that yarn?"

"How many hours did you put into that?"

"Sewing is not a cheap hobby."

"How much did it cost to buy all the supplies for this?"

How many times have we heard these questions?

Do you ask triathletes how much they've put into their bikes? Or, how much someone spent traveling to Asia? How long did someone prepare for a marathon? I don't. I think its tacky. Unless of course I might have general questions if you've made something or gone somewhere and I'm just dying of jealousy and I want to price out if I can afford to do it. And the curiosity questions, the can-I-do-what-you-do questions, always flatter me. But here, I'm talking more about the accusations and the second guessing which I've never understood.

On Friday night, after fighting with my mom's Singer over a HEM, a straight seem for crying out loud, I decided I would buy a sewing machine. (I know, rockin' single girl life over here.) I knew my approximate comfort level for cost and timing.

And then something happened.

Regina & I were talking with Russell at the Sewing Arts Center last night about machines. And after settling on a machine I could afford, Regina said something that really struck me.

"I really want a lifetime machine."

How many times have we bought cheap knitting needles only to never use them again because they broke or splintered or even bled onto work? One one project alone I bought THREE different sets of needles before I broke down and bought the nice ones I should have started with in the first place.

I mean, its only crafting, right. Cheap supplies should be fine. Its not like food; its not something you need.

Or is it?

I don't do therapy. My medications don't allow me to drink away my problems. When I'm upset or oxygen-impaired I make something. So then why is buying a new crafting tool considered such an extravagance? Why do I feel fine buying a new computer but I feel I have to justify a new sewing machine? What is this guilt, this need of justification to spend on something we love to do?

I don't know.

I do know that I worked on these machines in class and sewing was fun! Its still not easy, but its learnable. On the home machine threading could take up to an hour...getting even stitches could take equally as long and all that takes place before even working on whatever. But working in class, assuming I was paying attention, I could thread the machine in under a minute and have something complete in just a few hours. And I can make something fun and its mine and no one has one just like it.

So I bought it. The new machine. The one most definitely not in my first price range but the one I really wanted and feel happy and comfortable with and one I won't be looking to replace in a year or two...one I can grow into and make things to torture all of you with.

The he!! with the guilt, this is going to be fun.

Where the wild things are...

One aspect of gift-giving that I spend an embarrassing amount of time trying to wrap my head around is that the gift be something the person wants and not something I just want to give.

As you've seen from my pictures, my knitted gifts are pretty vanilla. I mean, other than me, I can't imagine many people wanting a HUGE dayglow yellow and green bag with pink flowers or a sweater that can be worn to work or as part of a Freddy Kruger costume. Personally, I think that's where the loving hands at home thing gets a bad rap. Many people think that everyone likes what they like.

But, that gift theory goes beyond crafty gifts. My Amazon wish list started because one year my dad gave me books about Hasidic Judaism. I'm not kidding. Boychiks in the Hood was an actual gift for a twenty-something working high-end retail. I totally understood the thought involved. Dad was in his Jewish phase and he was really moved by this book and wanted to share it. I get it. I tried to read it. After my dictionary failed to have some of the terminology I needed to understand the book, I started my Amazon list. How about you get me books/cds/dvds/stuff that I want? So, I try desperately to employ that thinking for others. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail. But, if thought counts, crazy lady here wins.

On to today's finished object....

Its a bird, its a plane, its...


...a happy bear made out of organic cotton.

Ok Allison, you win. Organic cotton really does kick regular cotton's booty. I picked this up when Supercrafty was moving from L.A. to PA and Allison was having a sale. Now I'm hooked. I don't think I can make baby things out of anything besides organic cotton. It didn't hurt my hands as much as regular cotton does and after I washed the bear once to get my stitches even, I wanted to keep it....sooooo soft.

This little guy is going to a 20 month old with parents who I know will approve of the colors and the organic cotton. At least, I hope everyone likes it. Crazy lady strikes again!

So I didn't give up, exactly...

I started the England recap and then the economy fell apart and all sorts of other real-life drama and I just felt weird blogging about my trip to the UK. But there is some good information you all need....like where I bought yarn. This is important.

On the L.A. Stitch & Bitch board there are posts weekly asking advice about where to find good yarn shops when visiting (fill in the city here). As we're all L.A. based knitters, I felt a little odd doing this. I asked the google instead.

Now, the google had lots to say and many suggestions, but the best site belonged, oddly enough, to the London Stitch & Bitch. Not only does it have a list of the shops, but the address, hours, websites and most importantly, maps.

Oh maps, how I do love you, especially in London. If you want the best map of London, you want an A to Z (pronounced "A to Zed"). I found mine at a used bookstore in Pittsburgh but you can get them EVERYWHERE in London (drug stores, book stores, newsstands) and they're 5.50 pounds, so not expensive. You can find anything in London with this, even random yarn shops.

First stop was All the Fun of the Fair. I chatted about this shop in my previous London post but since this is a knit shop round-up, it still deserves a mention. It is the size of the closet with the merchandise of an entire craft fair. You have yarn, needles, notions, gifts...this is seriously one stop shopping. Its a great little shop with fantastic staff.

As you can tell, we're not on ground level. There's this fantastic open-air mall just off Carnaby Street. Though, don't even try to find this place without a map. As with all of the charming yarn shops of London, they are not jumping out in front of you.

Next up, I Knit. We went there after we hit the Tower. I'll admit, I was a little freaked out that we were going underwater to get there. (The shop is super close to the Waterloo Tube Station and to take the tube to that station, you guessed it; you go underwater.) But, once I got over that, super cool.

The people who work at this shop know and love their merchandise. And, they know and love their knits. They were stocking the shop and showing each other stuff on Ravelry when we walked in. I felt so comfortable. After Todd started working on his Blackberry while I looked at the yarn and they told him he HAD to sit down and relax while I shopped, I absolutely knew these were my people.

At this shop I picked up some lovely natural locally grown, sheered, spun, loved, tended to yarn in a gorgeous dark natural brow. The most difficult thing about shopping here was trying to limit myself on what to buy. As I did on every yarn stop, I asked the staff what could I not find in the U.S. Since these guys are proud to carry tons of locally grown, spun, dyed, etc... types of yarn, there was a ton to choose from. They could even tell me the exact part of the UK the sheep my yarn came from live.

Third and final stop was the most famous of the bunch, say it with me now, Loop.

Ok, for a shop this famous, it was tiny! Not, All the Fun of the Fair tiny, but considering everything I had heard about it, I was surprised. Now, that isn't to say that they didn't have a ton of stuff, knowledgeable staff and a class full of people downstairs...it was just smaller than I expected. But, as evidenced by my bag, size did not stop me. There was lovely fair-trade African bamboo yarn not available in the states as well as a skein of orange cashmere spun on an island that I needed.

One thing I will say about Loop is that it resides in my new favorite area of London. We got off the tube to walk over to the shop and we never wanted to leave. For lack of a better word, it was just lovely....shops and restaurants and people walking dogs. When I win the lottery, I'm renting a place here for a month.

I had a great experience at all three shops. The staff was friendly, the merchandise was well-priced (you can't blame a shop for the exchange rate!) and the shops were just so fantastically charming. And, with all three, when you think you've walked too far, you're almost there. (See map notes above.)

And the beat goes on

As do the holiday gifts.

Thanks to my elves, I think I might actually get to all of my holiday knitting this year. Of course I added yet another something I want to make to my list at about 10pm last night. And its brilliant and the person would love the concept. Yeah. If I could stop adding to my list, I might just finish it.

Anyways, today's finished object... mittens!

Isn't weird what scares us? I wanted to make mittens for ages. And the idea of a thumb totally scared me. I have no idea why. I can't explain it. But, after realizing I had made socks and came out completely unharmed, how tough could mittens really be?

Not tough at all I tell you.

Unless the pattern is meant for elves, with short fingers.

That was an easy fix as I just unraveled the decrease and redid it based on the mitten fitting my hand and then matched the second. And before you ask, yes I was on target for gauge. So there.

(I bet my non-knitting friends wish I'd try a new restaurant or something...Sorry! Go read Yarn Harlot's post on the Canadian Parliament for some balance.)

And, since you can't pet the screen (though one of my co-workers tries when she comes to visit the puppy cam), I'll share that this yarn is scary soft. Its seriously the softest wool I've ever worked with or worn. Its Naturwolle, a German yarn I picked up at the great Black Sheep Knittery Sale last year. Sadly, the BAG of yarn (i.e. 8 skeins) that I picked up wasn't enough to make the sweater I wanted so I've had to break up the yarn into individual projects. And that's fine. It knits up stupid fast so I'm sure a matching hat will be joining these mittens soon.

We Interrupt These Pittsburgh Lessons for an Important Announcement

OH.
Mi.
Gawd.

My flight was five (5) hours late last night.

But that's not the worst part.

Wait for it.

Seriously.

Still there?

I ran out of knitting!!!

[Cue scary music]

I brought two knitting projects with me. I also brought about eight hours worth of work, and two magazines. I even bought a book in Pittsburgh. But, I didn't plan on being finished with fixing the computer on Day 2.

I powered through the first knitting project and the first five hours of worth of work without blinking. Then on Day 3 I couldn't sleep so I started and finished the book. And our flight to PIT was late so I finished the magazines before I got on board. But, but, I still had the booties and the 100 page contract. I was good. That's seven hours right there...easy. I didn't panic when they announced would be late. I continued to keep mom calm as they would tell us we would be delayed, two, three, and then four hours. Remember, we're going home. They need this plane in L.A. They won't cancel. Its fine.

I was smug. I took a walk around the mall at the airport...tried on a few pairs of Gap jeans and wandered through the sale at Victoria's Secret. I ate the dinner I bought before we left my grandfather's. I was fine. I knew I had enough to keep me busy and I was content in that knowledge.

After my walk I started with the contract. I fell asleep twice trying to read this thing earlier in the day so I thought I was good. Read. Sleep. Read. Sleep. Perfect! Not so much. Compared to the five hour delay, that contract was gold...interesting....I was taking notes, getting ready to discuss on Monday. And after finishing it, I even found an amended complaint I forgot that I had with me. 145 pages of fun! That'll take hours! As I came to the last pages, they announced boarding. Awesome, home free.

We boarded the plane and sat down. There was a mom with two five year old girls and a small puppy, unable to get seats together. My mom loves the window seat so she happily agreed to trade with the mom. (Mom makes me sit in the middle seat...I know, a good excuse for elder abuse later on.) The only thing worse to me than being in a middle seat is being in a middle seat without being able to get out of that seat easily. Sigh. Fine. Everything is fine. I walked around before the plane was fully boarded, stretched my legs and sat down as the last people wrestled with their lugged. As a reward for that middle seat, the booties.

Woo! Finishing gifts months before they're due. I rock. I'm awesome. The captain gets on the P.A. and announces that we can't finish loading or fueling the plane because of thunder and lightening. That's ok. We're on the plane...another 30 minutes and we're on our way.

30 minutes.

60 minutes.

Everything is fine.

Until the primary color of the booties started to run out.

It was horrible...like something out of a bad dream...the end of the hopalong cassidy yarn...the yarn needed for the majority of the Ugg booties...the best travel project ever...or so I thought.

As I sat there, mid-panic, watching my skein wind down, I looked over at the very cute, very chic girl in the aisle seat to my right. She had on her Seven jeans (actually hemmed to an appropriate length), silver gladiator sandals, white long-sleeve tshirt, scarf and her Marc by Marc Jacobs white leather handbag and Longtemps carry-on. She quietly read her two magazines.

I was sitting there in pink wrinkled J.Crew capris, now-dirty white sweater, old Vans with my roller bag stuffed into the overhead and my carryon crying for mercy under my seat....filled with knitting, work reading, bagels, my purse and other various items I can't remember after four hours of sleep wondering why I can't be the chic traveler. The one who looks cute and put together even after a five hour delay, not the one who looks like she hasn't washed her hair 'cause the water pressure at her grandfather's wouldn't wash a small spider down the drain let alone a full head of hair.

I always want to be that cute traveller. I want to be amused by two magazines and an ipod. But I can't. I guess its the price I have to pay for having this HUGE brain. Huge brains demand large quantities of yarn. Next time, I'm bringing a bigger carryone.

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday

Seriously, the yarn doGs are taunting me. Here I am, spinning and/or dying my own yarn, all proud of myself that I haven't bought any (already dyed) yarn in ages and not one but two (!) sales are happening on the same day which happen to be either near or on the way to a new SnB meeting that's happening that same day which I was thinking about going to because I've always wanted to go to HomeGirl Cafe and this gives me the perfect excuse. (Wow, run on sentence much.)

Here are the details of all three so I can pass my torment on to you.

1. SUSS DESIGN Backroom Sample Sale
Saturday May 17th
11am-6pm
ONE DAY ONLY!

Womens & Baby Knitwear
$10 $20 $40 $60

Closeout Grab Bag Yarn Sale
$10 per Bag
7352 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90036
323.954.9637


2. Hissy Knits

This is a reminder that HISSY KNITS is having a CLOSEOUT SALE on May 17th and18th. You don't want to miss these bargains on quality yarns like Noro, Katia, Lousia Harding and more.

Everything is going for wholesale - 50% OFF all yarns, (except Bungee's Best Hand dyes) tools, needles and books. Hours Saturday are 11am to 8pm and Sunday Noon to 6:00pm. For any questions, or directions, check hissyknits.com or call Annie at 323 804-0479


3. SnB - HomeGirl Cafe Knit/Crochet Group

This SATURDAY, May 17, 2008
2-5 pm
HomeGirl Cafe
Knit and Crochet Group
Homeboy Industries
130 W. Bruno Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Best Intentions

I'm in no way an expert knitter. People tend to like what I do and although I'm often my own worst critic I can usually live with what I've created. But, here's the problem with the experience level to which I've graduated: I think anything I'm going to make will just take a little while. Two weeks to k8's birthday? No problem! I can whip something up in two weeks.

Well, I can knit it in two weeks, but I always forget about the finishing. Its sort of like projects at work. I will tell you, dead serious, with nothing but love in my heart, I'll be done in two hours. I'm convinced everything work-related takes two hours. And, after doing what I do for 7 years now, you'd think I'd have learn this isn't true. Nope, I still believe, deep-down, that everything takes two hours. Luckily, I work for guys who are never ready for projects in two hours. Kind of like everything in L.A. is twenty minutes away.

Ok, back to the knitting...two weeks to birthday, no problem!

As we've talked about before, Regina & I dye a lot of yarn. Its fun. It amuses us. And, we make darn pretty colors. But, here's the thing, we have to start using all this pretty stuff. I'm staring at the bin' o dyed yarn in my bedroom (yes, until recently, I kept my special dyed yarn close, whatever, shut up)...what to do, what to do...k8's birthday, what to do.

So, I go to my library o' felting books.

Bingo!


See that backpack on the left...that's my girl. Of course I'm not doing those odd little squiggles or fair-isle. I'll let the yarn speak for itself. I gathered all the blues I've dyed, and off we went. Some yarn was dyed with Kool-Aid, some was dyed with jacquard, and some was redyed Kool-Aid with jacquard 1.5 weeks before our deadline when I decided that I just HATED the yarn I was about to work with so obviously, something needed to be done. Here are the colors we ended up with:


I was quite pleased. Regina was quite pleased. Gramma was quite pleased until she learned the bag wasn't for her.

Four days before the deadline, the bag and strap were felted. I'm feeling pretty good about myself. All I have to do is enclose the top for the drawstring straps, feed the strap through, sew the straps down and buy & sew in lining. And all of this is going to happen with Todd in town. Ok, for future reference, maybe I should write all of this down 'cause when its all in my head, it doesn't seem like much.

Ok, 2.5 days to go and Todd happily escorts me to Michael Levine's. He and I walk around the store together pulling out various bolts of fabric. We have slightly heated discussions involving polka-dots and Hawaiian prints and why we don't line bags in dark colors. I'll spare you the details but I will tell you it was nice having somewhere there who had a strong opinion and would actually listen when I would say things like "No, remember, nothing dark, she'll lose everything in there." 'cause then I'd pull a bolt out with some dark color and he would scold me ant tell me that she won't be able to find anything.

Here's what we both decided would be perfect:


I didn't mean to buy Amy Butler. I don't want to be one of those crafters who just waxes on and on about her like there are no other cute fabrics out there...but it matched perfectly and I swear I didn't realize that it was Amy Butler for Rowan until I got it home. Kinda funny it worked out that way...sort of like making fun of the "flyover" states my entire life and then spending all of my vacation time in those states for the last two years, but I digress...

Here's the bag, done at 6:22pm, in time for our 7pm birthday dinner. (Thank you 405 traffic doG for ONCE letting me run down the freeway at rushhour at 65 miles per hour.)



















Yeah, I know the pictures aren't the most even, but seriously, it was 6:23pm and I had to be in Marina del Rey at 7pm. I was pushing it even taking pictures.

Woo! At the restaurant at 6:50! I made it to the birthday dinner with wrapped gift in hand on time. Of course, I got work an hour early, didn't feed the dogs that day* and wasn't accepting personal phone calls until I went to dinner, but damn it, I finished that bag in two weeks.

Just like I planned.

Happy Birthday Kate!




*no skinny dogs starved in the making of this bag; gramma fed them.

Mama's got a brand new bag

And she made it too!

This bag is from Hollywood Knits Style by Suss Cousins. I have the hardback version of the book, just in case you were interested in my personal knitting library. I have all her books. I dig them all. They're written well, the patterns work and generally your stuff looks chic while being pretty darn easy to make. The purse above, knit & purl. I know, complicated right? And its a quick knit so for all you wacky advanced knitters that get bored easily, this will take you no time and yet be a go to bag. Its light, sturdy and just happy. In fact, lean in. I'll tell you a secret. I'm making one for my mom in summer colors. Shh, don't tell her.

Ok, back to the purse at hand. The handle and the yarn are also Suss. Both were bought on sale so yeah, not too useful for your current purchase purposes. But, if you do happen to swing by her next sale, the yarn is a red/pink (1 strand red, 1 strand pink) thick thin sort of thing called Suss Charm. I love it. I loved it when it was full price. I loved it on sale. I loved it on clearance. And, I bought it all three times. I have oodles. Love. it.

What you can't see (mental note take a picture and learn to share) is the lining, my particular favorite part of the purse. Its a skirt that I bought back in college that I love. LOVE. (I know, there's alot of love in this post.) I got it at Wet Seal (shut up!) on Clearance for $9.99. Hmmm...what year? 1996? Anyways, it was a slip style skirt, small slit on the side, elastic waist and black lace trim at the bottom. I was so cute wearing that with black mary janes and a black top that I would wear over it. I even wore it when I was personal shopping at Bloomingdales with a black sweater set, black tights, and yes, black mary janes. Sadly, I stopped wearing it years ago but just looking at it made me happy so I couldn't get rid of it.

*Idea*

I could reuse it (!) and get the same joy from that shiny leopard every time I opened my new purse.

More knitted stuff, with links for her pleasure

As I've talked about before, k8 takes fabulous pictures. And, lucky for me, sometimes stuff I've made for her beautiful daughter ends up in the frame.

Here's the blanket I made for the wee vampire. Isn't she just gorgeous? I love this picture. And, the blanket I made doesn't look half bad either. Its "Baby's first blanket" from Hollywood Knits Style by Suss Cousins. In general Suss's Hollywood Knits books (there two of them) are great for beginners. She writes her patterns clearly and there are no charts in sight. (As I've only been knitting for a few years, well written instructions are a must have!)

This is a great blanket for beginners as the only skills you need are knit, purl and single crochet. And, its a perfect travel project as you work on this in parts and then put it together at the end...nothing bulky to carry around.

I used a combination of Suss's cotton yarns and the always reliable (and inexpensive) Sugar'n'Cream cotton yarns. I'm guessing, if you did this in the Malabrigo organic yarns Allison is going to be carrying, this would please even the pickiest of new moms.

Don't forget to exercise!

As my non-knitting readers may not know, knitting isn't just sitting in a chair. Oh, no, no, no. You may think you know since you might know someone who goes to a knitting group or class. That makes sense to you, the non-knitter. Socialize, brush up on your skills...perfect sense. But, as as the knitters who are reading this know, there is so much, much more out there...knitting charities, wars, Olympics, swaps and so many new and unusual ways to torture, er, amuse yourself with your needles and a bit of string.

Although I get to the Thursday meet up of the Weho S'n'B as often as I can, and I've been known to participate in a charity or two, that's about all the time I have. I'm too busy torturing myself with my own twisted ideas of what I can and cannot do on a set of needles in a given amount of time to try to conform to someone else's twisted ideas. For example, tonight I made the first 2 inches of something on circulars that, although I checked twice for twisting, somehow had twisted itself. So, I spent the last few minutes of my evening, frogging said project, to begin again tomorrow, hopeful not to twist again. (Knitters nodding, non-knitters wondering where this is going).

So, it seems, someone has unintentionally put it upon themselves to set up a sort of knitting exercise for me. For Christmas, Santa brought me yarn, Lantern Moon needles (which I'm sad to say, I broke tonight. Moment of silence....carry on) and gift certificate. I've already gushed about the needles (they really were lovely and their death was no fault of their own) and the gift certificate so I'm here to talk about the yarn.

The yarn is beautiful and was picked out so carefully I was touched. Seriously. I could see the buyer in the choices. It was so sweet. Sadly, I could not see myself. As many of us write, there are certain yarns that speak to us. I'm definitely in that camp. I dig reds and burgundies and purples, mostly in wool. That's just what talks to me. I also buy large quantities of wool in different blues because that's what speaks to the significant other, making for some excellent gift giving. But, those color or fiber choices did not talk to Santa. Although I was told I could easily return the yarn to buy whatever I want, I just couldn't bring myself to do that. It was such a kind gift that I knew I needed to figure out a way to not only use the yarn, but to use it on projects I would love. There were three yarns gifted to me. All three consist of 4 skeins in various colors and fibers.

First up, lilac ribbon yarn.

Ok, I don't do ribbon yarn. And I certainly don't do ribbon yarn with mohair in lilac topped of with a sprig of something black.

Wow.

I stared at the yarn.

It stared back at me.

As odd as it might sound, the yarn finally spoke.

SHRUG ME.

Yeah, like I'm going to argue with talking yarn.

I tore apart my knitting library and burned up the interwebs looking for the perfect pattern. I didn't find it. Such is my life. I settled on a pattern from One Skein Wonders and knitted it in one night. Yeah. When I put it on, I figured it might fit someone about 8 years old. Not the sort of outcome I had wanted for such a lovely gift.

So I did what any lazy knitter would do. I frogged the whole thing and used the same pattern but on needles 3 sizes bigger, and added 6 stitches. (What, you expected me to spend hours to try to find a better pattern. You're funny.)

Oddly, my laziness worked:

No, the shrug isn't lopsided. I am. But since I was in the little girls room taking pictures, time was of the essence.

Book: One Skein Wonders
Page: 57
Pattern: Shrug This
Needles: 13 (pattern calls for 10.5)
Stitches added to pattern at cast on: 6
Pin: Dominique Cohen for Target (yeah, like I was going to do buttons after knitting this twice)

So that was my workout for the week. I'll tackle the other two yarns later.

Don't worry, I'll bore, er, tell you all about it.

Back to the knitting talk

Not that I ever stopped talking about knitting, I just couldn't post anything. All projects were going to be gifts so I couldn't exactly chat about them.

Of course, in the mad rush of Christmas, I didn't take pictures of most of what I gave. But, as time goes on, I'll try to post shots of the gifts "in action." I mean, remember the picture I took of the Baby Brunhilde hat. Hot, right? k8 took one so much better (not that its any real shock since she's got mad photo skilz)...but my point still remains in the power of action shots.

Ok, here's how I spent my Saturday afternoon/evening.

Catherine made this hat first. As a general rule, Catherine makes cool stuff. Poking around her projects one night on Ravelry I found the hat. The hat changed my life. All through my Christmas knitting I was jonesing to make the hat. I needed the hat. And now the hat is mine.

Funny thing about the hat...For Christmas, I was lucky enough to receive yarn, needles (Lantern Moon!) and a gift certificate to Suss Knits. (More about that yarn in another post.) Today, I treated myself to that gift certificate. As I walked through the store and stared at the nook o' yarn, I kept going over and over what did I need or want...and I was struggling.

As luck would have it, I'm absent minded enough to accidentally buy the yarn for the hat. The alpaca yarns (on the top shelf about six feet up no less) kept calling me so I bought skeins in black, gray and white, thinking I would make myself, or others, nice hats or scarves, weight appropriate to our SoCal winters.

Yeah, I needed white for the hat.

That occurred to me when I was driving home.

I think that was the first time I've smiled while coughing this week.

Best Laid Plans

The plan was to stay at home, eat leftovers and knit. I had every intention of doing just that. But, I have embarked on the single most difficult knitting endeavor ever. Its "Level 2." That means easy people. This shouldn't be difficult. Seriously. And I can't show you because it may or may not be a gift to someone who may or may not read this blog. I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

So, to get a bit of breathing room from something so ridiculously simple, I headed down into the trenches. Black Friday.

Well, not really. I went down into Westwood to Bel Air Camera. I was fightin' the crowds. It took me 3 seconds to make eye contact with Victor, it took him about 15 seconds to grab what I needed, about 2 minutes to discuss the purchase and another minute to be rung up.

Do I suffer for my deals or what?

Ok, for those of you who don't know Bel Air Camera, you should. In this age of big box stores taking over the world, Bel Air Camera keeps getting bigger and better. I mean, how many camera stores do you see in buildings that used to house banks. Everyone in there knows their stuff. Its a nice change from a kid earning a few bucks an hour over minimum wage shrugging when you ask a question about a particular product. In the interest of full disclosure, I paid about $30 more since I didn't stand outside of Circuit City at 4am this morning.

Hmm, getting up at 4am or paying another $30. Fighting crazy crowds or paying an extra $30. I don't know about you, but I think it was worth it.

So yeah, I ran a few errands and came back to continue the most difficult project ever.

And ate my left overs.

Even the best laid plans can have wee bit of modification.

File this under stuff I didn't know

Tito's Tacos chips never go bad.

I was the lucky recipient of boxes of tacos and bags of chips last Saturday. I put one of the paper bags full of chips into a very fancy Gelson's plastic grocery bag and tied it up. Its like a Ziploc only not.

Mom calls me at work today to announce we're going over to a friend's house for dinner. She grabbed the bag o' chips, and a bin o' Tito's salsa and a 3 chick party was born. Both the chips and the salsa tasted exactly as they did last Saturday.

I'm not sure if I'm excited or frightened by this discovery.

Then I came home, walk and fed the pups, watched Heroes on my DVR and knitted.

Do I know how to party or what?

A Trying 2 Year Old

But not how you think. I have a wee one in my life, like a neice if you will, and she has requested a hat for Christmas. I have lots of patterns for baby hats but I need a super fabulous hat for a two year old. Any suggestions?

Ang has the right attitude

And because Angela has the right attitude, and was very sweet to comment on my blog (Holla North Carolina!), I checked out her profile and blogs. On the sidebar of her previous blog, she has a badge to knit a sweater in November. Well, since I just did one in October and Laurie was kind enough to take my picture, I thought I'd steal, er, borrow her pictures and share them with you.

I'm proud to say no one recognized me at the WeHo S'n'B Halloween party. I can't imagine why. But, if you want to just see me, sans mask, holding out my arm, as I was told to do, here ya go. (Apologies to those of you who can't see Flickr from work.)

Revel in the Ravelry

I'm in!

Boy, that sounds dirty out of context. Ok, for all y'all on Ravelry I'm up and running, well, more like jogging, but I'm in! So, if I haven't found you, please find me. You'll never guess what my user name is. (Here's a hint, its the name of my website and perhaps even my last name...ok, ok, radomile.)

Dude, its Thanksgiving

That was my thought looking at my datebook right now. As I am a full-fledged member of the 21st Century, of course I have the most modern appointment keeping tool available. And, there it was, staring right at me...Thanksgiving. Yes, I understand there are a few weeks until then but seriously.

10/26 - 10/28 - T is in town.

10/31 - Halloween

11/1 - S'n'B WeHo Day-of-the-Dead-Halloween Party - I'm so close to being done with my "costume" I can't stand it. Hopefully tomorrow...see T is in town entry above.

11/3 - Soap Making at UCC - I don't see it on the website but I have an email that lists it. 10am - 1pm - Fight Club! Come join me!

11/9 - 11/13 - T comes back to town.

11/17 - Brentwood Holiday Boutique - Anyone want to go with me? Its a great place to get ideas on things we can make and we can laugh at how much the parents are paying for the stuff. Think of the legendary Pidge. I'm sure we'll see stuff like that.
11/17 - S'n'B UCLA Hockey Night - Who wants to drive?

11/18 - Erin Fetherston for Target - Yes, I will have bought most of the collection on-line, but that doesn't mean I can't check it out in person as well!
11/18 - Felt Club - Ok, I've been promised that the new venue is like a bazillion times better than the last one. So, I'm willing to give this crafty gathering another go.

11/22 - Thanksgiving.

One year ago...


Three years ago...

So this has been bothering me for 2 days

So yesterday I went to the Suss sale that I told you about last week. (I hope you went 'cause it was fabulous. But, if you didn't, you can join me for the next one. You know I'll be there! ) When I was there I saw my favorite yarn. I heart this yarn. Its red, its pink, its purple, its bulky, its hand dyed, its 100% wool...I mean, it just makes me happy. And, at the sale was the very last skein. So, of course I bought it.

And then...

I couldn't remember what I did with all the other skeins I bought. I mean, I remembered buying them. I remembered where I bought them, when I bought them, how much they originally retailed for and how much I paid. But, for the life of me I couldn't remember what I made. This was really bothering me...not like I couldn't sleep Saturday night (I mean, we're not talking about solving the world hunger situation) but I'm just that girl who can recall incredibly useless information like that so I felt like I was loosing my super power.

Ug.

That was yesterday morning. Finally, about 15 minutes ago, it hit me! I saw a laptop bag in Alterknits (pg. 61 for those of you who might happen to own it) that looked super cute and something, at the time a super-exciting selling point, I could actually make. This was the first felting project to which I committed time and resources. Previously I had used wool that had been gifted to me so I didn't really care if the projects worked...which of course meant they did...this was a leap of faith using my favorite yarn ever.

I know, as usual, my fine photo skilz don't quite do it justice, but it is super cute live and in person.

Situation resolved. Maybe I should think about world hunger. If I figured out the yarn issue, maybe I could make a dent.

Did you know there was an earthquake yesterday?

It happened at about 1:45am. Yeah, I got the notification yesterday morning in my email but that's not how I knew about it. I knew 'cause I felt it. I was just getting to bed. You know why I was just getting to bed?




If you guessed because I was obsessively finishing the second version of the world's cutest baby hat, (blue brimmed version above) you would be correct! (Apologies to my married or out-of-town friends who live under this thin veil of illusion that I live this glamorous L.A. single girl life, though stay tuned for my pole dancing public service announcement coming up next!)

Anyways, back to the world's cutest baby hat. Seriously, my pictures don't do it justice. (Though the folks at Knitty did a damn fine job photographing it!) But, let me tell you, it really is the world's cutest baby hat.

Seriously.

Anyways, this was made from all sorts of yarn I have. As the pattern calls for double strands of 100% superwash merino wool, I sort of improvised as I don't really knit with superwash merino wool...I mean, that would be too easy.

Hat with Lime brim:

Lime: Baby Alpaca I picked up at my first crafty yard sale last year; fingering weight bordering on thread so I put 5 strands together.
Blue: Suss 100% wool (discontinued, though I will be at their sale on Saturday, 10/20/07, 9am - 4pm at 117 N. Gardner St., LA, CA 90036 - email me if you want a copy of the announcement) doubled.
Light Blue: Baby Alpaca I picked up at the yard sale listed above, again 5 strands together.
Yellow: I used the two yellows I dyed at Urban Craft Center, 100% wool, fingering weight, one strand each.
Turquoise: I used one strand of my latest creation of Kool Aid died Yarn, 100% wool, worsted weight.
Purple: 100% wool Bulky weight gifted from Melissa in her move to L.A.
Pink: Baby Alpaca...ok, you already know...same craft sale, same strands.

So yeah, point being, as long as you stay away from the bulky weights (I know I cheated but for that purple purl row it just worked for me) you really can use any yarn. Let me rephrase that, depending on the baby for whom you're making this hat, you can use any yarn. This hat is heading to Minneapolis where they actually dress children in wool to keep warm so I wasn't worried about offending a new California mom by presenting a wool infused hat. But, let me tell you between the happy personality of the hat, the super soft Alpaca and the smell of the Kool Aid and natural dyed yarns, these hats are among my favorite things I've made.

Random Knitting Things You Should Know for This Pattern:

Knitting on Circular Needles: I prefer circulars to DPNs but that's just me. I did 80% of the larger hat on the circulars and flipped over to 3 DPNs to finish it.
Knitting on Double Pointed Needles: If you know the theory of DPNs, you're all good. I had never really made anything on DPNs before and this was super easy. The Blue hat was just too wee for the circulars so I used all of the DPNs in the set (5?) for this hat. The hardest thing for me was to find one of the needles when I'd put my knitting down to pet a neglected bread-stealing greyhound.
I-cord: Anything with the word idiot in the title is easy.

According to Regina, I did Fair Isle which I've never tried before. (Good thing the author didn't mention that or else I would have been too scared to try the pattern.) I've never knitted a hat on double pointed needles and I've never done that flower on the top before. And, let me tell you, out of all the things I did for the first time on the hats, that little @$%^#$ flower was my nemesis. Ug, you're at the END and it looks so easy in the pattern and yet its not WORKING. But, its fine, I now understand how to do it and its all good. I'm ok. Happy thoughts, think happy thoughts. Vacation, Hawaii, cruise to the Panama Canal....

Live and Let Dye

Ok seriously, some people pay to have people seam up sweaters they've knitted, I need to pay someone to do titles for me.

To review:

Before:

During:

After:

I have to admit, the ghetto Kool-Aid cake (the candy cane striped one in the front) is my favorite. The other happy yarn cakes of goodness turned out really well and much softer than you'd image after being tortured in dye (all be it natural) and hot water. The two yellow cakes are finding their purpose in the world's cutest baby hat. I'm sure the others will find their calling shortly.

As you sit transfixed by the candy-cane striped skein, you'll be happy to know that I'm perfecting the Kool-Aid dying recipe and will post as soon as I'm done with my experimentation. While you wait anxiously for that nugget of information, I will warn you that winding home-dyed yarn is a wee more challenging than winding usual yarn-store yarn. I mean, the skeins held. They didn't tangle or anything so they went onto the swift quite easily, but the winding itself was a bit of a negotiation between the yarn and I. If you must know, the bright yellow one and I had some choice words.

See, its not all the fault of the bright yellow skein. I accidentally started to felt the bright yellow skein while rinsing the dye out. FYI, don't do that. As someone who has both intentionally machine and hand felted items, I didn't think this would be a problem. I mean, if you've ever felted you know what I mean. When you're trying to felt something, it takes for freakin' ever. But, if you're not trying...yeah...hot water and wool really should be treated gently. But, despite the wee felting, the yarn is super soft and fabulous to knit with.

Deep Thoughts for a Tuesday

Personal:

Weehoo! We have a fabulous baby girl. Mother and baby are healthy and happy and really that's all we can ask for.

Knitting:

Why is it no matter how many needles I buy I never have the right ones for the pattern I want to make? And its not that I can't find the needles. They're all organized. No, seriously, they are. I'll show them to you. For whatever reason, I just don't have the correct needles. Ugg, drives me nuts.

Fall TV Season:

I so missed my fall TV. Sure, Burn Notice is fabulous and Ice Road Truckers changed my life. But I need me my Heroes and Grey's Anatomy. And, the new shows are a good diversion .

Will anyone else admit to watching Gossip Girl. Other than the Chuck character who tried to date rape not one but two girls in one episode, it looks really good. Seriously, Josh, keep the date rape down to one per episode if you're really feeling that need. But we get it, Chuck is a skeeze, message received, really.

Speaking of new fall characters named Chuck, Chuck surprised me. I didn't expect it to be that good. (Dude, NBC, work on your ads.) Then I saw the credits as the show was opening and my expectations were raised. I'm definitely interested in seeing more.

Could someone fill me in on Journeyman. I watched the first 5 minutes and ran away. Did I pull out too soon?

Ah, and that brings me to my beloved Heroes. I love that show. As much as I love Masi I'm not loving his story line. But, the show just rocks on such a higher level than 95% of the tv out there, I can deal with one story line I'm not loving.

Un-Raveled

Ok, I admit it I jumped on the Ravelry bandwagon. Now, when I say jumped I really mean I'm walking behind the wagon hoping it stops so I can jump on. Now, I only signed up about an hour ago, here's where we are:

Found you!
You signed up on Today
You are #34712 on the list.
18963 people are ahead of you in line.
23 people are behind you in line.
44% of the list has been invited so far

In other crafty news Yarns Unlimited (828 Pico Blvd., just east of Lincoln) is having their HUGE annual sale...not my favorite kind of sale where you have $1 and $ 3 bins but everything in the store is 25% - 50% off. Now, that's cool. There's some blue wool I've been needing for a few projects so this is the perfect opportunity to stock up on such a basic. Of course, I'm sure I won't be tempted on anything I don't need. Gramma put a ban on bringing any new yarn into the house.

Heh. Yeah.

So you think you can knit

I've been kicking myself 'cause I rarely torment you, er share, my knitted creations. My excuse is rather sad: I need a tutorial on how to photograph them. 'cause when I remember to get an action sort of photo, they're cool but when I'm left to my own devices, well, that's never a good thing.

Here's the hat I made for the future Ms. Mina...

Action shot is super cute, right? WAY better than my still life.

Nothing says knitted love like a roll of paper towels.

Seriously, I need help. This is a cry people. Step up.

In case you too need a Baby Brunhilde Hat, you can knit one with the fabulous kit you can purchase here. Of course to find that link, I just found two other projects at Bella Knitting that I can't live without. Oh, the torment I endure for you, my dear 2 readers.

Speaking of torment, don't go to Morehouse Farm. Torture. There are literally 6 different patterns that would solve all of my family Christmas gift issues. And just to torment you further, the site is not, hmm, how do I phrase this politely, easy to navigate so you find all sorts of other things you need to make while looking for that one thing you saw last week and forgot to bookmark. Or, maybe that's just me. And they're super nice and they ship quickly and the shop looks like I place I need to go to ('cause you know I'm always hanging in New York). Its all bad.

Because my blog is all about me

and my short-term memory, here's something I've been meaning to look up on the internets and happen to stumble upon today.

Knitting with plastic bags!

Although Dick & Jane have dibs on the majority of my plastic bag collection, I do have extra.

Red Scarf Project

Yarn + Needle = Doing something nice for someone else.

Since ya'll know I can be a bit chatty with my posts, I'll let someone who really knows about this tell you about it. I'm going to make one and ship it out. If you want to join in, let me know and I'll ship it for you! I'll even toss in a Target Gift Card for the recipiant for every scarf ya'll give me.

Relocated

Well, since I brought it up, I'll talk about my routine.

Weho S'n'B: That's short for West Hollywood Stitch'n'Bitch. I learned about these kids after I started knitting. In Yahoo Groups I typed in "los angeles knitting" and this was my first hit. I joined and read for months. I learned about knitting workshops, sales and the different group gatherings.

At the time, the West Hollywood was the closest group to me. (Since then a Westwood group has sprung up but they meet on Wednesdays and my Wednesday night is already booked.) After reading about these ladies on that board and in several blogs of the members, I finally found the courage to not only walk into what seamed (HA!) like a tight knit (I slay me!!) group of women but also brave Thursday rush hour. And, let me tell you, there is nothing more frightening than Los Angeles Thursday rush hour. Seriously. You don't believe me? You go Eastbound mid-city for a 7pm start time. I dare you.

These ladies are more than worth the traffic challenges. Not only have a learned quite a bit but holy crap do I laugh. I can't say I ever remember being surrounded by so many sincere, interesting, intelligent women all in one place at one time.

Now for the relocation title of the post...normally we meet above Kip's Toyland in the Original Farmer's Market. Someone gave them permission to have an event in our usual spot. So, we were down on the ground floor with the masses. You would have thought we were all sporting 3rd eyes with some of the looks we got. Ellen took a few pictures of us in our temporary home. (No, not the cactus, keep scrolling down.) It was nice down there but boy was it loud. We all joked about how we need rugs and afghans to put on the floor and the walls to deal with the sound issues.

Fresh Prince of Bel Air

Before I start the actual post I feel the need to explain my crap titles. One of you has registered a formal complaint and I'll take this time to respond.

I really don't believe in titles. I mean, they're good for books, but for my own essays and such, I have never found them necessary. However, Homer always gave me crap about that and insisted that I title my essays. So, I used cheesy titles just to appease him. If he had insisted on good titles, I would have worked harder at it. But just having a title seemed to work for him and really it was all about Homer. The joke is on me since I'm incapable of liking anything but horrid titles.

Today is gramma's birthday. (Gramma styled this photo in case you were wondering; she LOVES it.)

Since she wouldn't let us plan a party, we went out to dinner. Wow, the Sultan of Brunei is a hellova hotel owner. The Bel Air Hotel is stunning to the point where the grounds even smell good. Seriously. When was the last time you were in a parking lot and it smelled good? The food was spectacular AND the staff was genuinely nice. I was overwhelmed.

As expected, I had a celebrity sighting. There was also some musician guy who pulled up in a yellow Porche while we were waiting for our car. But, I'm musically challenged so I haven't a clue who he was. But I recognised him. Sort of.

If I win the lottery, I'm spending a large amount of time there. This place seriously kicks the Penisula and Beverly Hills Hotels' asses.

I know, I'm Klassy. Its a gift.

Be SuperCrafty!

Holy crap, Supercrafty.com is live! No more eBay. I can't believe I didn't get the memo. I have the memo on the TPS reports but I missed the all important SuperCrafty memo.

I hate it when that happens.

Happy Mother's Day

Mom actually liked her bag! So exciting.

If you'd like to make this bag, go buy the pattern from Allison. Go now. You'll need to buy yarn at your local yarn shop since she doesn't carry solid color felting yarn. But seriously, Allison has the cutest patterns. And really, if can make them, so you can too.

Of course, Eleanor almost didn't get Mother's Day bag. Mom liked it way more than I expected. (Don't tell Mom I just ordered more yarn from Allison to make her one for her birthday.)

I don't know what's cooler about this bag, that its cute, that its easy or that Allison links to the pattern so you can get it for free. I guess its all good. But the yarn is Noro Kureyon and she has a bunch of different colorways for you. And her prices are pretty damn stellar. But I warn you, once you enter the cult of Noro, you can't ever leave. The color combinations are just amazing.

Anyways, I hope all the moms out there had a great Mother's Day.

All sorts of Suss

In my quest to create items for people older than my dogs, I hit my favorite brick & mortar yarn shop today. Suss has beautiful yarns and killer sales twice a year. Everytime the announcement goes out, I heed the call and head over. (Of course, that doesn' t mean that I don't head over when there is no sale, but I feel less guilty when the yarn is discounted.) Its a great store with beautiful yarns and knit items. Of course, I could be a bit biased since I learned how to knit there and I just adore Suss's patterns and designs.

This time around I couldn't get over there until this afternoon, the tail end of the sale. It worked out for me; I was able to score on the supplies I needed for what I hope to be Gramma's Christmas gift. (When it comes to me knitting something more complicated than a scarf, the gift often rests on a hope and prayer.) So yeah, finding beautiful yarn I needed on sale is very exciting in my happy little world.

Something I realised when I was babbling to T about my good fortune...for all the non-knitters out there in blog land, I'm guessing you don't know the full life of a knitted item. Of course you get the reading books for a pattern and then heading over to the yarn shop to fetch yarn and then spending the time actually knitting the item. But, what you might not know is that if you buy the purtier yarns, you need to wind them. No, you can't knit with the yarn the way it comes; it gets tangled. Trust me, I've tried to skip this step. I don't advise it.

Most stores, when offering yarns at deep discounts, don't offer their winders for your use. That space is taken up by the sale tables. So, you either sit and wind them by hand, which to say takes a bit o' time is a bit of an understatement. Or, you buy a winder. And, you can't just buy the winder, you have to buy this thingy that the yarn sits on while you wind it.

Here's the thingy on which the yarn spins in its quest to be wound.


And here's the winder itself....


You can see the already wound balls o' yarn next to the winder. I know, pretty damn exciting.

Hey, I'm recovering, I'm still trying to get back into the swing into this whole writing and taking pictures thing. This will get more interesting...hopefully....

Backdrops

Yeah, I know, my keyboard is pretty sexy; the Diet Coke can is a fabulous accessory, not to mention the extra pair of "comfy" shoes under the desk. Do I know how to compose a picture or what? I'm overwhelmed just looking at my masterpiece. Though, I have to say, the Hello Kitty eraser has to be the best part.

But, yes, here are the booties in their completed glory. The pom-poms took longer than the actual knitting of the booties. Though, you have to admit that pom-poms make EVERYTHING better. Seriously.

Its weird...I'm more tired today not working crazy hours than I have been working the crazy hours so I wasn't focused on taking any pictures at lunch, hence the gratuitous bootie pics at my desk again. Well, that and Bloomingdale's frowns on people taking pictures while they shop. So, there's that.