Thursday, March 9, 2006

A Weekend With Leigh Radford

Look, It's Me & Leigh!!



It was a grand weekend. Leigh was at The Shop Saturday and Sunday. Saturday she held a workshop on shibori, followed up by a book signing. That evening the entire staff & Leigh went out to dinner. We dined at an amazing restaurant, Le Cheval. I was lucky to sit next to Leigh, and just soak up the wealth of her creativity. We had so much wonderful food, but my fave by far was the famous broiled green mussels, on the half shell with lemongrass sauce, peanuts, & grilled onions. Lucky for us that most everyone else at the table was either allerigc to shellfish, or just didn't like mussels, the platter wound up between Leigh and myself, my god they were delicious!

Sunday was The Alterknits workshop with Leigh. I urged my friend Nomi to take the class, and she had a blast, read about it on her blog. I was working in the front of the shop, & they were giggling, & laughing throughout the entire class. I was so jealous that I had to work both days, & miss both of the workshops. BUT- Leigh signed both of her books for me, & she was more than happy to honor my uber knitting geek request to have my photo taken with her. Also, I was stunned that she totally remembered me from when I first emailed her back in September about an error in the lace up fingerless gloves pattern. Besides being such a brilliant, & open minded artist, she is truly one of the warmest, nicest people that I have had the privilege of sharing Broiled Green Mussels with.


In other news, slightly Leigh related... I have Been looking for wool/mohair/angora, i.e feltable sweaters at thrift stores since I first started knitting/felting. Then the AlterKnits trunk show came & I loved that blanket way more than I thought I would. I always liked it in the book, great colors, composition, etc. But in person, WOWIE! I was out in San Leandro buying cat food, (I refuse to give money to petco, petsmart, or any of those mega crappy pet stores!) & there is a huge Salvation Army a few blocks from Mike's Feed & Pet. This SA occupies what was once a large grocery store, i.e HUGE. I found a couple of dozen wool blend sweaters, angora, mohair, even one charcoal grey heathered 100% cashmere sweater, all for $ 3.20 a piece. Note: probably won't felt the cashmere, it just feels wrong. Besides, it's in brand new condition & fits Chris. I narrowed my selection down to 12.

After laying them all out, I realized that I won't be using them all together in one blankie. Some of them just don't go together. The oddballs will become purses.


And here is my sassy new haircut. I was so long overdue for a new do. I had forgotten how dang curly my tresses are.

16 comments:

  1. oh my oh my, le cheval!! i used to eat at le petit cheval in berkeley all the time. soooo good. does le cheval still have that jar of snake in liquor? snake juice! ick!

    that blanket sounds pretty awesome. can't wait until you start making it.

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  2. first off LOVE the hair! so cute!

    you are freaking lucky to have met leigh and to have a fab dinner with her. Im so jealous.

    cant wait to see this blanket (glad to hear you arent felting the cashmere, I would need to fly over there and shake you)

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  3. reese-I have only been to le cheval a couple of times. The bar is usually so crowded, I hate to say that I have never witnessed the snake booze.
    Miss Pink- I have always been curious about felting cashmere, but I just don't have the balls to do it. Besid

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  4. sounds like a fabulously fun weekend!
    I really need to maek a trip to the trift shop! I did a few of the bags from sweaters, but that blanket has been calling my name.

    too fun!

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  5. Great haircut! And I'm totally jealous of you hanging out with Leigh. I love her books SO much!

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  6. I too have witness the yumminess of Le Cheval! French Cambodia food...mmm! My all time Bay Area fav is Cha Am! I am having to get a towel to clean the drool off my keyboard now....I'm back! Sounds like you had a great weekend and you are lucky to have the resource! I am stuck with blogs and internet for knitting inspiration. Which is remakably good, considering it is such a tactile thing, knitting. Love the haircut too!

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  7. Sorry to be the longest post ever, but I just realized that I am on yer blogroll (THANKS!) and I recently changed the URL. It's now mommymoshpit.blogspot.com. Thanks!

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  8. Stacie-you have been on my blogroll for a long time. & I had to hunt you down, I realized this morning your URL had changed. just glad that I found you!

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  9. Your hair looks great! Tres cute. :)

    What a fabulous opportunity to meet and dine with Leigh. Lucky you. And it'll be fun watching you make that blanket.

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  10. Nice hairdo!
    Thanks for stopping by my blog! Yeah, that Lorna's Laces colorway is funky, eh? The color is called Jungle Stripe (302) I'm still trying to figure out which pattern to use and I must admit that I think another Jaywalker would be a good idea. I just liked how it puts some more spice into self-striping yarn without being 'too busy'. Any other recommendations?

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  11. Hi! The blanket looks like a lot of fun to do. I love having to hunt for "ingredients".

    also, I love the haircut...I am trying to recover from a bad one. The girl cut it like Dora the Explorer. Not a good look on me.

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  12. Thanks for the Elfine tip, I actually have the pattern somewhere, but I'm unsure if it goes well with the stripey yarn. Definitely worth a try, tho! I really gotta find a good solution for my almost exclusively stripey sock yarn stash and my desire to knit patterned socks...;-)

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  13. Oooo, Le Cheval. I've always wanted to go there, and have had several chances, but never actually got through the door. One day... one day.

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  14. awesome!! how fun!! I have been picking up wool sweaters to make a tote bag or diaper bag from.. Your secret pal finale package went out on Friday- priority. should be there Monday or Tuesday. enjoy!

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  15. Love the hair! Because of your 'uber kntting geek' post I went and checked out Leigh's books, and I must say, WOW! her patterns are great!! I've ssen AlterKnits before, but not One Skein. I LOVE IT!

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  16. Hey again,
    I now know which pattern to use on my jungle stripe L'sL! The Mermaid Socks! The pattern looks awesome with stripes:-)
    Um, but I seriously can't cast on for yet another pair of socks right now;-)

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