FIVE MORE days...

It is one A.M. & I am taking a little teeny tiny break from working on one of the two final projects that are due in less than 36 hours. EEEK note to self: do not boil things down to hours or fractions thereof. How about I say; two projects that are due monday afternoon. ahhh better. not really. wow i am rambling. punchy tired. HA HA

Project # 1: design a beach house in SoCal for a couple, of which one is a professional surfer. easy enough. yeah? sorta. there are a ton of restrictions, two tons of specifics that much be included. It's fun. it's just a ton of work, one floor plan and two elevations completly in color. and the truly scary thing... they must be freehand, absolutely no rulers or straight edges. and in 1/4" scale. aye carumba!
Project #2: it's AutoCAD & i am pretty much done. ahhhh
and THEN, a whopper of a final due on Friday. I do not even have the strength to describe that one.

But it's all good. By this time next friday I will be carefree & having as much fun as these people...

PORN! AND CABLE! (Not porn on cable)

Random Yarn- Cuffs(note the cables)


Rowan Yorkshire Tweed dk-Lace leaf scarf from Vougue Accessories


Blue Sky Cotton-Niko's Blankie


Superlong Wrap from the box of Knitting-Frank



Rowan Felted Tweed- & there is way more of this stuff, maybe a big seed stitch wrap someday... ooooh cables, a cable wrap/sweater
This is a just a little peek at what i have been doing while avoiding school. There is actually WAYYYY more than this, this is what was at arms length to photograph. And in actuality I haven't really been avoiding school but i have been seriously distracted with getting my new life organized. The car, the bedroom, my headspace... my emotions...


Mmmmmmanos-Just Because

I have been feeling pretty good lately. My head thinks that my heart is just playing tricks, like the pain is still in there and that i am just numb to it. But I am not sure about that. I even think that i may be ready to start dating again. did I just say THAT?! The pain is definitely still in there, but i am feeling it in a healthier way... that sounds weird i know, but trust me when i say that i am feeling worlds better about the break-up. why just yesterday i was able to listen to The Cure & Patsy Cline at work without hysterical crying, or even that twitchy thing that my eye does when i am trying desperately not to cry in public. I missed listening to The Cure, but man oh man it just rips me open to hear those whiny love/heartbreak/crazy person lyrics that I normally love to hear.


Rowan Biggy Print in Shocking-Whatever

KNITTING...
I have made several more hats, I know big fk-in suprise. I have made a few more wrist cuffs, love them! I have made a couple more pairs of fingerless mitts/gloves, as birthday gifts, people just love those things. Made a birthday hat for my rad new roommate. I am putting the finishing touches on the baby blankie for niko who was born in May. It's just now cold enough to actually wrap him up in it, so I refuse to feel bad about taking so damned long! Well... actually Kate wound up knitting one panel, so the blankie is now officially from the both of us! Finished a lace-leaf scarf for myself out of the rowan yorkshire tweed dk that is discontinued and was purchased about a year ago. I am in process of a fleted bag for me, another scarf/wrap for ME (the "superlong wrap" from the knit box of patterns, i know that there is more than one box of patterns, but it's the one with the good patterns in it. I am knitting it out of my buddy Frank. And for any new readers that may be reading this.... Frank is formally known as Frank Ochre, the tastiest color of Malabrigo, the tastiest yarn! I am also beginning a few new projects that will be holiday gifts for people that just might read my blog, so that is all that i will say about that.


Rowan Kidsilk Haze-Recently Discovered That I LOVE Knitting w/ Mohair-Thanks Janis, oxox
More Knitting news, I am currently SUPER into cables. Maybe it's the season, I dunno. But I am all consumed with cabling. I recently purchased the Vogue Stitchionary vol. 2 Cables.


More Mohair- & Once Again, Thanks Janis


Pile o' Porn


Rosco, Plum Tuckered out after Joining in on the Yarn Porn Action!

Killer Organization...

SOOOO much has been going on. I have missed blogging so very much!! School is so intense & I must say honestly that I am not motivated whatsoever! I was able to pull off straight A's last quarter despite my life being turned upside down and violently shaken. This quarter I am trying to stay focused on school, but all I want to do is work on organizing my new life. Set up my bedroom/workspace, get a car, a new bed, etc. I picked up my new car today (pictures will follow). I got my new bed last week. The photo above is of the midbeam that supports the bedframe. Gotta love that IKEA graphic charm! I laughed so hard that I forgot to heed the warning and wound up cutting myself on the damned thing. Stack that one up onto the half a dozen other cuts, scrapes, and bruises from my head to my stubbed toes....(anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that I am ridiculously clumsy)

Injuries aside, this last week has been the most solid. Things have just been falling into place, and quite beautifully. Car, bed, friends, shelving... Just look at my new shelves. And not even close to holding all the yarn that they are quite capable of. My life is starting to feel like it's mine. I am in control of my own emotions finally. things for being here for my sap! Now I am misty eyed and ready for bed. ; )
But before i go... I have been knitting quite alot, while i am putting homework off. I will snap photos of my current projects and of the MOUNDS of new yarn I have adopted since my regular posting. Yarn porn city... just you wait.

Back to School... And something that really Sucks

Yup, tomorrow is back to the drafting board for me! I have been knitting sporadically during my ever so brief break. The past couple of weeks have flown by! I celebrated my birthday, relocated my studio into my bedroom, moved in a new roommate, worked pretty much everyday, taught a knitting class, and... There is probably something else that I am forgetting because I am so damned exhausted.
OH! I remember. I had to deal with lame ass sbc/att/yahoo!! It started with there being a problem with the dsl connection and I had to call to get it fixed... The phone & dsl accounts were under the ex boy's name, and sbc would not even talk to me unless I provided them with HIS ss#. So I had to call him up and ask him to call the phone company and change the accounts to my name. LAME! Turns out that they are more than capable of changing the name on the phone account, but absolutely cannot change the name on the dsl account. The dsl has to be shut off under the boy's name (2-3 weeks), THEN AFTER that, I can sign up for a new dsl account which will take a week to get up and running. Kiss my ass, I don't think so. Not to mention that the woman told me I was stupid for not canceling the phone and opening new phone AND dsl accounts which would only take 2 weeks. I thanked her for making my decision to move to high speed cable internet easier. Comcast was out the next day with everything up and running.
Although I did have to spend TWO days on the phone with Comcast and then apple trying to get the modem to play nice with the airport extreme so that the wireless network would work and my roommate could use it too. Everyone is so afraid to help out with macs! I could actually hear panic in the voices of the Comcast people when they said "we are not trained to work with mac computers". My eyes rolled so hard I swear they could hear it on the other end of the phone!

So as for the SUCKY part of this post... I knew that I was a true mega domestic goober when I saw this new product and could not live without it. The dirt Devil KONE hand vac. I rushed to target a couple of days ago, but they only stock the pink, charcoal, and champagne colors, none of which I remotely liked. I wanted the white one, HAD to have the white one, the only one with the "illuminating" charging base. I emailed dirt devil to find out where in my area I could purchase the amazing "illuminating" KONE. Turns out that I would have to go to... ewwwww, yes Walmart! ICK!
BTW, I was actually in the market for a handheld vac. I use an electric eraser when I draft, which creates MOUNDS of eraser poop. Since I am no longer in a separate studio room, and do not want eraser poop blowing all over my bedroom I decided a few weeks ago (while I was working on my final for drafting) that I would get a handheld vac to clean my table off everyday. I put off shopping for one until I saw this amazing product! And now I honestly cannot remember where I first saw it advertised.

Done! And Happy Birthday to Me!

I had so much frickin fun last night! I went to dinner in north beach (San Francisco's little Italy) with some girlfriends from school. We drank the yummiest chianti (I don't remember the label). At the end of our meal our waiter brought out a HUGE platter, of the rockin-est tiramisu that I've had in ages, he announced that it was a comp on the house. Someone at the table innocently said "is this for Tammy's bday?" -and of course the cheesy, kinda slimy, but super cute Italian waiter runs to get a candle, and proceeds to make a HUGE production. The entire staff sings LOUDLY, and makes all of the customers sing too. Then our waiter sits at the table and spoon feeds me tiramisu, & gives me the double cheek kiss. One of the Italian waiters even looked a little like a young Michael Bolton which provided me with the opportunity to crack a couple of jokes. It was all so cheesy and north beachy, and exactly what I needed after the last few months that I have had!!

So last Wednesday was my actual birthday. It was also the week of finals. So I spent my birthday morning frantically finishing off my 5 page, single spaced, 10 pt. research paper on mid century modern homes. The afternoon was spent at school trying to print my paper, a way too long story. Just trust me that printing my paper was more painful than writing it! The evening of my bday Kate came over, took me to in & out for my bday diner ( I had been craving a double double for a super super long time). She gave me the awesomest birthday gifts; some cool yarn, and a set of vintage kitchen canisters that match my kitchen some dang well!! Then we ate the radest peach pie from bake sale betty's while watching project runway.

All damn day and night Thursday I spent attached to my drafting table. My final project for drafting consisted of 2 floor plans WITH lighting & electrical, 2 elevations, a section, AND a cover sheet from hell! My drafting isn't great, but it's pretty good. My lettering is pretty darn good though, which I hear is the more important thing to grasp for my line of intended work. Of course I was not able to get all of that done in time, and our horrible but nice instructor allowed us to Finish the final during the allotted class time. So I spent another 3 hours drafting my little fingers to the bone! (note in the photo the drafting table that I was chained to all day Thursday)

As soon as I was done with drafting I went to the library and started working on my CRAZY project that was due this past Monday. Sunday night I went to "sleep" at 5 a.m. and got up at 7 a.m. to finish my project. Needles to say that I was a bit loopy and stunned when the instructor announced she wanted us to give an oral presentation about our projects. UGH! But I made it through and good things are beginning to happen.

My new housemate starts to move in this weekend. Which means that my gigantic huge studio space is no longer mine. You can see from the photos how good I had it. (please keep in mind that the utter chaos and pig sty-ness of the room is due to finals & life. I will be going to birtthday dinner again this weekend with a small group of some of my oldest girlfriends, that is gals that i have known for a long time, not old age broads. ; )

ACK- Finals!!

Here are some quicky photos to hold you over until I am done stressing out over the last week of school! My last day is the 18th, and then I start again on the 5th of October. I am still searching for a roommate! I was hoping to have someone lined up so that during my break I could just deal with moving someone in, and not having to spend it searching for a place & moving myself somewhere else. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
XOXOXO

Rosco Models the before felt....


Flower pot models the after felt....


Rosco, experiencing sympathy stress for me, rests his weary little head in a pile of yarn...

SHORT and SWEET, the LONG of it...

This photo makes my teeth hurt -it's so dang SWEET!

My new do. SHORT and sassy!

It won't be this straight again. At least not until someone else blow dries it that way. It will be wavy, but with cute little bangs.

Like my LONG cozy gloves made from Classic Elite's Bazic Wool?

I cannot get enough of these. Because of my gimpy hands and arms, I need to keep my upper extremities warm and toasty. Naturally I need many pairs to match each and every look that I sport on a day to day. Pattern: mine, adapted from Leigh Radford's Lace-Up fingerless gloves. The Bazic Wool is a superwash, 100% wool. It is dreamy to work with. I will definitely use it again.

Name That Hedgehog!

Kate makes these a-DOR-able hedgehogs (a fiber trends pattern). She even taught the class at Article Pract. On Sunday, one of my sadder days, she surprised me with this little cutie, a cheer up hedgehog. He doesn't have eyes or stuffing yet, but I love him. He even matches my living room. Here's the deal... I need a male name that begins with "H". He has to be a boy because I am replacing a boy in my life right now. i.e. Harold the Hedgehog, or Hank the Hedgehog... But not either one of those names. Something unique.

Yep.... Boring I know, more lace-up fingerless gloves. I taught that class at the shop this month. People just love those things. These goth-y ones are for my dear friend Irene. You know, the one that made me wear that red silk corset for her wedding! ; )hehe.

More hats... YAY! I do love hats. And I do love felting. So it makes perfect sense that I would love felting hats.
The grey/blue/red fedora style is a "just because' hat. Just because I liked the colors together a lot. The upper blue band is too thick. I was watching project runway while knitting and wasn't paying attention. I am thinking I might sew random buttons, or cut slits and thread a ribbon through to break it up a little. Or maybe nothing at all. I did discover that not only is a terra cotta pot the perfect size and shape for this style hat, BUT the terra cotta sucks moisture out of the hat, speeding up drying time. WOW, I know!
Kate models the pre-felt hat, while Niko models his own jaunty cap

Before FeltThe Elmer Fudd hat is a sample for my second job. Yes my second job is at another yarn shop. Jealous? I have been wanting to make one of these for so long now! The yarn is Rowan /Harris tweed aran... Ok, in my old age I am loosing things... When I find the label I will give you the exact yarn name & color number. After FeltThe pattern is for 3 adult and 3 children sizes. There are only three sets/sizes of numbers. You use worsted weight for the kids sizes, and bulky for the adult. I made the smallest size with doubled aran weight and it is insanely thick and heavy, and a little too big as well. Fortunately it is a shop sample and no one has to wear the two ton thing. I will make one for myself using single strand and making the medium or large size. The pattern is # AC-16, from Fiber Trends, called "Felt Winter Caps" by Bev Galeskas.

My Hats off to You...

Thanks a ton to all of you who have left comments and sent very supportive email. I truly appreciate all of you, and value your kind and supportive communication. Things have been ridiculously rough this past week. The boy still has quite a lot of his belongings in the house, and it is really tough to go to sleep every night with his clothes in my closet, but him not in my bed. (he is still working out how to get half of a house into one small apartment)
I think I am going to drop one of my classes. I am SOOO overwhelmed and horribly distracted, and I really want to keep my 4.0 gpa. There are just not enough hours in the day to work two jobs, go to school, do mountains of homework, and mourn the death of a monumental relationship. UGH.


Kate models my soon to be felted wonder! Isn't she glamorous? As you can see I have been super into felting hats. Now you all know that I have felted tons of purses, half a ton of slippers, and one or two cell phone cozies. BUT the orange hat that is on Kate's hand is the very first hat that I've felted. The pattern is "Belle" from pick up sticks. The yellow and grey hat a few shots down is representative of the pattern as it's written and shaped, a cloche style. Very cute. The orange hat is still same pattern but shaped more like a bucket style. I actually wear it flipped up on one side, kinda fedora-ish.

The frank-molly-bobby hat.... WAIT, what in the heck is she talking about... Soooooo, these are all malabrigo, which is hands down my all time fave wool. Frank ochre is my absolute fave color, i have around 8 skeins, just always on hand, ready to go. The Molly (pink) is so sweet, and I had a skein that I made a kitty hat for someone with. Now as the Molly lay snuggled along Frank, awaiting her hat destiny, I thought, DAMN, those two make a gorgeous couple. While making the Molly hat, I threw in some spruce blue lamb's pride. THEN I thought OH WOW, all three together, what a threesome they would make! But then I remembered another member of the malabrigo family... Bobby Blue, a color that we had in the shop long ago, it would be months, many months before we had him again. So I sat and waited.... and waited... and waited. The yarn comes from Uruguay and is dyed when you place your order... and I waited. This whole idea was developed over Xmas 05. I didn't even know what I wanted to make with the trio, I just knew that they had to be together.

It was about six months later before we got another shipment in from Malabrigo. But there was Bobby! I brought him home and placed him alongside his soul mates. I was totally correct! They made a harmonious set! But now the question came.... what do I do with them. Another month or so rolled by.... Then I discovered the "Belle" pattern. I decided to make a couple of tester models first( Mr orange, and Ms. yellow). Things developed, I started playing with pattern tweaks/mods, shaping etc. And this gorgeous little hat came to life. People stop me and try to buy it off of my head all the time, actually any of the three hats. I am working on developing my own unique pattern, very similar to the style of frank-molly-bobby. Once I get my own pattern down, I think that I will try and set up and etsy shop to sell em. Maybe even try to get them into some boutique shops around town. Am I crazy?

This was the first time I have felted malabrigo. I always felt guilty felting such a dreamy soft yarn. It felts up GORGEOUS, and retains it dreamy softness. I mean seriously! It is so ridiculously soft, just as soft as is in it's unfelted, natural state. Oh Malabrigo, how I love you! xoxox Note: the orange and yellow hats are made from Wool of the Andes, less soft. Much less soft.

The class: Design Process (for interior design)
The assignment: Water as a concept; choose one element of water & demonstrate that element without showing ANY images of water.
Can anyone guess which element I chose? There is one very specific word that I am looking for. No one but the instructor got it, most of my classmates had never even heard of the word.... though keep in mind that most of my classmates are fresh outta high school.

I SWEAR that I am now back from the dead....

I have had good reason to disappear from the blogging planet. Actually I have been out of touch from all planets. A couple of days into my summer vacation the boy and I split up. The past two months we have been living together while he finished up his summer session of school, and while I started my summer session of school. Rough doesn't even skim the surface of explanations for how it has been. Before anyone asks, or draws any conclusions, or starts to boy bash I want to clear a few things up.
There was no cheating, beating, or meanness (aside from a shattered heart or two). Merely a case of him being adult enough to recognize that things have been a bit "off" for a while now, and that it was high time for us to each take the time to take care of ourselves independently. I have a bad habit of becoming way too dependent on my partner, and he tends to "give" too much, enabling me to just "take". It was a dangerous combination. And both of us being in school... Yeah, not possible.
I have had an amazing support group of friends! I have been up and down as to how I was going to afford to stay in school, eat, live, feed my cats... I am still trying to figure out the school tuition part. But I think I have figured out my housing situation.
School is kicking my butt this quarter. On top of the extra life distraction (having my heart ripped into a zillion pieces) this is by far the heaviest course load so far. My head nearly explodes when I think of how much homework I have in a given week. Also- I have had to take a second job so that I can continue to eat.
Yup- things have been SHITTY!
Enough of my whining! I hope that things have been better for all of my knitting blogging friends out there. I have missed you all terribly!
I will post photos of knitting & school work soon.
xoxox

My summer vacation...

best viewed large- just click on the photo

I have a little over three weeks until school starts up again. I have been taking it pretty easy. I slaved over finals (actually got an art blister executing my final for sketching class), and it paid off. Straight "A's" in all classes again. WOO HOO! BTW- I didn't notice until i published this post that the colors of my final project are pretty much the colors of my blog. too funny. I wasn't thinking about that at all. Guess it's obvious where my taste in colors falls.
I have been knitting feverishly since school let out last week. The one item that I actually worked on while in school is the baby blanket fro Niko. The blankie is not yet finished, and I am ashamed to say that once school let out I have completed one other project, and started two others. One of the two new projects is for a birthday that is right around the bend. So there is slightly less guilt there.

The blanket in progress: I spent hours sketching out different schematics and color layouts for a blanket. Being me, one solid color was obviously not an option, and I didn't want to do stripes, that would have been far too easy. A postcard from one of the museum's that we are members to came in the mail. It was a picture of a Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass. And there was my inspiration. I love all things from the Arts and Crafts Movement. There will be a strip of orange running the entire length along the left side, and currently the plan is to pick up stitches and add a seed stitch border in the graphite color. I was working on the upper left section while in the hospital waiting for little man to be born. I was so nervous and distracted that when I went to change from blue to graphite I snipped the yarn to switch while facing the purl side. DUH! But, I loved the ridge and the added color contrast, so I went with it. Oh yes, I will use the three needle bind off to "stitch" the pieces together, it will compliment my oopsie color switch.

Another pair of felted slippers. These are a birthday gift for a friend of mine who lives out of state. I won't say where, just in case that person reads my blog. Although I seriously doubt it. This person loves camo colors and these colors are the closest to camo that I had in my stash, I think it looks pretty camo-ish. I am totally broke and having to limit myself to making projects from my stash. I started late Sunday night, finished one slipper early Monday evening, and am well into the second slipper today. Because of felting logistics I don't know if they will make it to the intended recipient on time. But I am ahead of the game for now at least.

I would love to introduce you to Frank, Bobby, and Molly. Better known as Frank Ochre, Bobby Blue, and Molly (it's like Madonna or Sting) from the Malabrigo family. I have loooong been in love with Frank, seriously in love. I have several skeins purchased long ago. Molly is a heartbreaker. I used her to make a gift for someone last winter, and had some of her leftover. Now it was when I first met Molly and brought her home that I noticed how spectacular her and Frank looked together. It was also at the same time that I thought about Bobby (he came to our shop a long time ago. I admired him them but did not act on my feelings and he was unavailable for many many months), and wished that I was able to bring him home.
Well recently Bobby came back into my life and I was able to introduce him to Frank and Molly. I have completed a project
with the trio, but you will have to wait to see it. It is to be felted and I want to show you the before and after at one time. I have never felted anyone form the Malabrigo family. They are way too soft. I have always thought of it as some kind of sacrilege. But the time came, and I am anxiously awaiting the results.

I have swatched for and about to start the Opera Gloves from "Mac & Me". If you aren't;t familiar with her patterns you should be. The money made from the patterns goes into a college fund for her daughter, Mac. Each pattern has a bio on the back telling us how old Mac was at the time that particular pattern was published, and what she wants to be when she grows up. It varies from waitress to diagnostician to firefighter and so on. There are so many great patterns from this designer. I will be using Koigu in a gorgeous blue grey brownish palette. Yes, it was in my stash. I will be doing these without the fingers. These may or may not wind up as a gift. Not sure yet.

This sack of stash will be transformed into the Rather Huge Carpet bag from Noni patterns. We recently started carrying her patterns at the shop. They are fabulous.

Two More Weeks...

I have finals in two weeks. In the meantime here are some photos of what's been going on. I will spare you photos of me hunched over the computer writing papers and studying.

BEFORE (one of my bestest friends was about to pop) this photo was taken three days before the stork arrived.


and AFTER (she popped) this photo was taken hours after the stork arrived. Niko is his name. 7 lbs, 5oz. super healthy, and dangerously cute!

That mmorning started at 4 a.m. and ended at 1:02 a.m. the next day. it was a long long day. but i got to see him minutes after he came screaming into this world! it's not often that you meet a person for the first time and are already madly in love with them. I creid a lot that day. A LOT!!


Months ago... (the wedding, the corset, etc.) this is not the greatest photo. i haven't yet received any of the professionally snapped ones

Barely Knitting, Always Busy, & Life

I have been super busy with just about everything... And still am super busy. School started. It's great and very time consuming. I will keep this brief. And btw, I miss everyone so much & have been very touched by all of the sweet comments and emails that I receive. I wish that I had more time to post, read all of your blogs, and return emails. I think of you all everyday. xoxox
Knocked out a kittyville hat in one day for a birthday gift. It was well received.
finally finished knitting the "stash bag" from Leigh Radfords' One Skein. Still have not felted it. :( So unlike me, the felting is the exciting part.
...Was a bridesmaid in my oldest friends wedding. I realized that we have known one another for HALF of our lives! jeesh, talk about feeling old.
I really liked my hair that day. I will have more photos of that day eventually. This was the corset wedding. So hot! ; )
Chris threw his back out at the gym. He finally made it onto the couch after four days of laying on the floor. The first four days he had to literally crawl on all floors up and down the stairs. It was heart breaking to see him in that much pain. He was cold, so I bundled him up & fed him almond M&M's.