Red is Dead...

just some of my awesome new office supplies.  

Crisp Little Apple Clips!  Even though they are red...

I am finally working on my bedroom suite. I call it a suite because I have the entire upper floor of the house... my own bathroom, bedroom, office, and walk in closet. It's not HUGE, but it is a healthy sized space. When the ex still lived here the suite was done up in red, black, brown, and cream/white. It was good. I liked it. It suited us as a couple. Not too girly, not too masculine, and playful, fun. When the space became my own, I left it pretty much as is. Sure there were changes, I got new bedroom furniture. But overall I kept the same color palette.
I DO like red... and I like black. I also like brown. And cream & white are ok as an accent. My original plan a year ago was to keep the red and black (the strongest presence with artwork, and accessories already in the room) and to add a mossy lime green. I slowly added some green here and there... but with all that red, it just wasn't floating my boat... and slowly started feeling a little like Xmas. Last month I went to IKEA and bought a gorgeous leafy printed green duvet cover. I brought it home but left it in the package for over a week... I wasn't sure if I was going to go for it. But every time i looked at that cover I got so happy. THOSE were my colors. that was my sanctuary. So I decided to ditch the red, pitch the black, and go green!

Last year i bought some raw wood shelves to use as... well shelves. I also got a couple of 5ft long ones to use on top of two filing cabinets as a desk. My intention was to stain them, make them look nice, etc. Over the past month, and a year after their original purchase, my awesome roommate stained all of the shelves and the desktop a gorgeous espresso. He also spray painted my filing cabinet. They were the UGLIEST fleshy tan color. And now the are gorgeous mossy green. And i have been shopping at work for super awesome green desk accessories. Like a little green magnetic hedgehog that holds my paperclips for me, his name is Dozi.  And then there is Winni, the green dinosaur guy that has a mohawk and mane of bristles for cleaning my computer keyboard. Archibald is the green turtle that floats upon my desk with a pad of post-it-notes atop his tummy.  Or what about Johnny, the little green guy with open arms just waiting to hold my cell phone. Though I am pondering introducing some orange. Dozi might get swapped out for a little orange ghost type guy.  I will also be adding Sebastiano in green.  What do you guys think?  Dozi or Curly?  Curly was named curly before he had spiral paperclips.  Dozi looks good in the spiral clips as well.  btw...  all of the above mentioned names did not come from my creative mind.  they were given those names by their creators, and all can be found at the fabulous shop where i work in downtown Oakland.  

Rusted Root On Fire... A Real Class Act

Ok... I am having a ton of fun knitting this sweater! As some of you know... I don't do sweaters. More than two years ago I knit this sweater. It was just a couple of months after I first learned how to knit, and well... allow me to recap... As most new knitters, my gauge was ridiculously tight, so I was very careful to swatch and get the correct needles so that my sweater would fit. It was knit in the round, from the bottom up. Somewhere about half way up the torso of the sweater... after knitting 14 inches or so of 2x2 ribbing (besides being bored out of my skull) something amazing happened! I was cured of my wrist numbing tendency to knit super crazy tight! But I had NO idea of that until I was all done with my sweater. I was SOOO excited to try it on... I had gone out and found the perfect ribbon to thread through the top... It was HUGE! The top half of the sweater was gigantic. Way too big to cinch up with my fancy silk ribbon. The thought of ripping back and reknitting that 2x2 ribbing... I would have preferred to watch an episode of American Idol... which for me, would be akin to having my eyes ripped out of their sockets. SOOO.. I hooked it up to the ball winder & frogged the hell out of that mother!
So back to Rusted Root... All of the details are there on my ravelry page. I am loving it! I am still obsessing every 10 rounds or so about the fit... Will the chest be too tight? Will the sleeves be too big? What if I screw up the waist shaping? Is the neck too high? The area between the neck and the start of the sleeve should be bigger... UGH! I modified the hell out of the sleeves. I had read everywhere that people were losing the pouffiness of the sleeves... which HELLO... is the entire feature of the sweater. Lace panel?? What-eva! On the 8th round you are supposed to increase each sleeve to 37 stitches (medium). I increased mine on the 8th and 10th rounds for a total of 49 stitches. How much pouf can one girl handle? I may wind up with too much pouf... we'll see. I am being my usual anal self, using not ONE... but TWO row counters... one to mark the beginning of the round, the other to track which row I am on in the lace panel. So now I am beginning to decrease the sleeves. I am 6 rounds away from slipping those babies onto scrap yarn.


How about some more of that amazing Downtown Oakland architecture?? OK, since you all asked so nicely. This building makes me swoon whenever I pass by. The photo does no justice to it whatsoever. Those tiles SHINE.... oh how they shine. And it's the most gorgeous midnight blue. And the silver... oh man... that silver. HAHA They are in the process of refurbishing it right now. btw... it is not a part of the Sears.
Don't forget.... I will be teaching the coolest summer class this month. Check me out at knit-one-one. Come on down and learn the magic loop. (kinda sounds like a dance at the sock hop) The magic loop method simply rocks! For those of you who are not familiar with this godsend of a technique... it is knitting small circumference items, socks (two at one time!), gloves, cuffs, preemie hats, the tops of adult hats, etc. Basically, if you hate double points or just want to expand you knitting horizons, the magic loop is for you.

We will be making the very cool little lace cuff. It is knit out of a cotton elastic yarn, stretchy and cool for the summer. It can be worn sweet an demure... a little touch of lace at your wrist. OR PuNk rAwK pUrL style... one tough rockin mama (or daddy). (note the cuff in the photo above is not the little lace cuff, it is the little cabled cuff. maybe a class for the winter. hehe)

Happy Birthday Niko!!

Baby Niko turned one last week. And auntie PuNkrAwKpUrL just finished his blankie last week. I started his blankie while he was still in uetero. I worked on his blankie in the waiting room while he was being violently pushed into this world... I worked on his blankie for the weeks following his birth... then I got REEEEALLY bored of the damn blankie and put it aside for a "few days"... which turned into a few months... which turned into "wow! holy crap! I have to get this thing done!" Well it is done! I don't love it as much as I did when it began. I was sooo into it, I remember that I sketched a zillion different color layouts for it. I still love the colors, love the idea... but after looking at it for sooo long, it being a thorn in the side of my knitting hands.... ugh! The blankie is a little janky looking in the photo below. It was taken right after I finished, before ends were woven in, and before it was blocked. Tomorrow is the birthday party (I cannot believe that I am going to a children's birthday party! UGH!) & I will try to snap a photo of Niko with his blankie. Watch... he is going to hate it! HAHAHA

I love you Niko!!

Other news...

I have been better at toting my camera around with me. I snapped some more photos of downtown Oakland while wandering from the parking garage to work. The architecture is so amazing, so rich in downtown Oakland.








Check it out!!! Look at that jade green color!

And take a gander at the rhythm of the windows on this old beauty... they aren't just stacked up in a grid formation. And the satirwells, how graceful. Click on the photo to really enjoy the amazing-ness of this building! Did I mention how much I love the arrangement of the windows?

If you haven't checked it out, you should really pick up a copy of this guide to Oakland. You can pick it up at Entrez. (keep in mind the website is having a makeover) It is an awesome book, even for someone who lives here. It is full of Oakland history, and all of the businesses covered are independently owned. Article Pract is in there natch! The author even highlights green businesses.