Tough Knit!

Allow me to start by saying that i am 110% IN LOVE with my new tattoos! I love the font, the placement, and everything about them. They aren't too big for my lady like hands. The font is unique & fun, yet classic and simple.

Although a few of my friends were skeptical about the idea of me getting ANY more tattoos, MUCH LESS on my hands... I said TOUGH KNIT & I did it anyway. After all I am an adult. I am PunK rAwK. I am headstrong. And I am a designer, and therefore know most certainly what i like and don't like when it comes to aesthetics. I was indeed going to be picky-choosy about what i put on my hands. I assured everyone that having knuckle tattoos would not increase my chances of winding up in prison. I wouldn't be committed to getting into bar fights. Nor would I have to take up smoking.

I was trying my best to look bad ass

I thought long and hard about getting my hands tattooed. I have wanted my knuckles tattooed for some 10 years or so now.... I just never knew what in the hell I wanted to announce to the whole wide world upon my dainty knuckles. Then after my two year knit-aversary, last spring, I realized how much knitting has affected me...

they look a bit blurry & crusty still... this photo was hours afterwards.

Knitting changed my life. In the most rewarding and positive way. It provided me with something crafty, creative, inspirational, and practical to do. It was something that by gosh... I just plain had a natural talent for. And most dear to my heart... knitting introduced me to some of the most amazing people I have ever met. Everyday I am constantly thankful for the people in my life. **Note (All of my friends, non knitters included are amazing people!! Truly amazing people.)
So it naturally made sense to me to label my hands with the words that have served me so well over the last few years. And while I was at it...

I thought it was a hoot to get these. And before the peanut gallery chimes in... YES, I did think about which arm to put which phrase on. I wanted the right slanting decrease on my right arm... the left slant on the left. The way that i imagined it is that it mimics the shape of my body \ / on the top. And if I decide to I could get the opposite / \ on my hips. HAHA

I did receive an email from one of the dearest of dear friends this morning before I left for my appointment. She was one of the naysayers. She emailed me with this...
"ok so i just wanted to make sure you knew that even though i am not sure how i feel about the knuckle tattoo thing- although i love the message! i would totally go with you and be supportive becuz i know you know what you are doing- anyway i wish i could go and be part of the process... i know it is going to be hot as shit- i am just working on my own assumptions of people with knuckle tattoos and the stigma in my head about it- but i'm really excited to see how it looks!!!! "

It meant the world to me.



I chose this post for i made it so's Fabulous Friday Feature Archive Dive:

Mitts with Moxie!!!

Hurry! While there is still time left you should rush over to the knit one one site and sign up for my Mitts with Moxie class. It is two class sessions beginning this Thursday evening. We will make all kinds of Fingerless Mitts... long, short, stripey, solid, even cabled if you like. These mitts are so popular. When you wear them your friends will go nuts. They are a fairly quick knit... making them great for gifts... and the holidays are coming.
Why do I love wearing fingerless mitts?

• Obviously... They look wayyy COOL!
• They keep my hands warm, while looking wayyy COOL!
• While keeping my hands warm and looking wayyy COOL... I can still
  

1. type
   
2. scratch the cats behind the ears
3. open a package of cookies
   
4. turn pages in a magazine
   
5. poke people in the nose
   
6. put on my make-up
   
7. KNIT (cannot believe that wasn't #1)
   
8. drive safely
   
9. eat a bagel
   
10. paint my fingernails
    
11. put in my contact lenses
    
12. pick my nose (if I wanted to)
    
13. dial an old school rotary telephone
    
14. floss my teeth
    
15. get finger printed
    
16. smoke (ewww gross! I DO NOT smoke! but I COULD while wearing fingerless mitts.)
    

The best part is that we will make them using the Magic Loop technique. Now let me start by saying that I do like double points. I have no struggles with them,no fear of them, no beef with the multi sticks whatsoever... BUT, and yes, I do have a big but here... Magic Loop is such a time saver. I find that it is much quicker, the whole ladder issue is avoided altogether, it is easier to try things on while you are knitting them. Use Magic Loop to knit socks, gloves, baby hats, cool cuffs, toys, etc.

See you in class!

More Shopping.... with my Top Off

Round two of girly shopping spree...
Knit Ya Ya, aka Carrie, and myself slathered on some sun block, took the roof off the del sol, pumped up the tunes on my new car stereo, and drove south for some cheap shopping fun. We were off to Daiso, a Japanese super store that is totally CRAP-tastic! It is bursting forth with plastic, paper, bad engrish, cutsey goodness. They boast that they produce and stock over 90,000 different products. And what's even better... it's all priced at only a $1.50 a piece. (some items, very few, are at slightly higher price points)

For $21 I got:

• Two Packs of ADORABLE stationery (and please remember that "Many cars are produced by the every year")
• Three of my very fave plastic folder thingys with a way cool clamping device inside (trust me they are way cooler than my description)
• The worlds most adorable pouch, it replicates packaging for tortilla chips, with the ingredients on the back. (My friend Zoe had this bag first, I admit copying her. But I HAD to have it!)
• Two containers of binder clips. (which i actually NEEDED)
• A very cool plastic "brief case" type of thingy.
• A cool green and ivory colored bandanna with a repeated arrow print.
• Two packages of neon colored hair elastics. (now Carrie and I thought that we were buying headbands. i had opened a package in the car, intending to wear one of my rockin new headbands to tame my hair while riding in the convertible, and to my major disappointment it was "broken". Alas... when we got to Elaine's and reported on our booty, the broken elastic came up. She giggled at us and explained that they come that way so that you can make your own ties. you cut them and tie them to whatever size you want. So it turns out that i could get one head band, and four ties out of one elastic band... two bands to a package... for $1.50... What a bargain!!)
• A much needed lingerie bag for laundry. It's shaped like a beach ball with flowers all over it of course.

We had some lunch, then mosied through the mall. We came upon a store called For Love 21. It is an accessories store, much like a Claire's Boutique, yet a bit classier. It is a branch of the Forever 21 clothing stores. We went a little nutty amongst the beads and baubles. So many wonderful color palettes and pretty shiny thingys. I found a bag that I just had to have, the shape and color was just was I had been looking for. And at $25 bucks.... who am I to say no to such a fabulous deal?! (it was impossible to photograph the bag and have it not look like a big blob of mustard. You will have to trust me that it is cooler than depicted here)


We headed back to the east bay, to attend a bbq at the ever so delightful Kim Chi Crafts new home, which is conveniently located on the very same island where miSs PuNk rAwK pUrL lives. We knit, munched, & gabbed, while Carrie and I cooled off in the shade after a long day of shopping with my top off... it was indeed fantastic.

Knit So Sweet

Miss PuNk rAwK pUrL has completed yet another display/art installation/creative endeavor. If you stroll into the ever so delightful and delicious Sweet Adeline's bakeshop in Berkeley between now and... ummm... I am not sure how long the display will be up... you can gaze upon an artfully arranged showing of the Fall class line up for knit one one.

Classes include, an amazing honeycomb patterned felted bag from the mother of felted bags, Petra, a monster making workshop with Sonya, beginning knitting & some mesmerizing enterlac with Miss Kate, a must have (no joke, you will NEED this bag) bobble bag* by the ridiculously talented , yet self proclaimed "beginner knitter" Miss Emily, a sweater workshop with knitting goddess Julie W, & some fabulous fingerless gloves, a woolly cabled winter version of my rock star wrist cuffs, & a super cozy felted cap complete with ear flaps and a brim with yours truly! *note... the bobble bag will be a first time crochet class for knit one one. The class will start off with beginning crochet lessons.

This Saturday, the 25th, there is a gallery opening from 6 - 7:30. Come by and have a mouth watering cupcake and some champagne while gazing upon adorable, yet non edible knitted cupcakes.

I want to say thank you to all of my friends and helpers for assisting, co-creating, and keeping me on track throughout the process of these installations... And especially to the Queen Bee for being a constant source of motivation and inspiration to ALL of us!

So I then I Took My Top Off....

Wednesday was a fairly crappy day. I would even go so far to say the Wednesday was one of the crappier days in the life of Miss PuNk rAwK pUrL. Let's just say that I actually had to leave work for a couple of hours to come home and cry. I know... super pathetic. BTW- the crappiness had absolutely nothing to do with work. Soooo, then I made some rad last minute plans to cheer myself up Wednesday night... that didn't go so well either. It was a heaping load of totally unrelated salt in my already aching wounds.

So by the time Thursday came around I was chomping at the bit the to make things better for myself. But alas... crying in the shower didn't get "it" all out... I would need some help... Lucky for me my good buddy Kate and I had made plans to go shopping!! Yes, I broke down and took an entire day off from my 6 day work week.

We began with breakfast at La Note in Berkeley. Cinnamon Brioche Pain Perdu soaked in orange blossom water, and sprinkled with lavender honey ... of course that alone made me feel worlds better! The service was SLOOOOOOOW! But the food was tres tres delicious!

We then climbed into the car and took off for Petaluma! Woo hoo! WAIT... Petaluma = woo hoo?? wtf? Don't get me wrong... Petaluma is a lovely town... but why would two hot single gals be so excited to take a day off of work and drive their happy asses up there?? Well... I will tell you why. Y-A-R-N We were going to visit Knitterly, a delightful yarn shop in Petaluma. The drive up was nice. And the shop was gorgeous! We found skeins a plenty to tempt ourselves! And I finally found the perfect dark grey heathered boucle to make my vintage styled capelet... and it is an alpaca blend!! In case anyone was not aware... I *heart* alpaca. It is my fave fiber. I also got some Rowan Felted Tweed in a dreamy shade of blue! And of course I acquired some adorable buttons too. WHAT?! A girl always needs more buttons! Kate picked up some items as well, including some yarn for the super cute Carrie.
Next we headed to the outlet mall... yes, this was a serious shopping expedition. And we did LOTS of shopping at the mall. My fave purchases were at the Vans shop. I bought a pair of old skool blues (just like the ones I wore 20 something years ago... ugh) & a jaunty pair of slip ons. (wish i had a photo of Kates new Vans... white w/ pink flamingos... adorable, just like Kate.)
Ok... now we were about to get wild and crazy! It was hot up there in Petaluma... and we had been shopping for hours by now. And what is the point in driving a two seater convertiable if you don't take the top off now and then?! After changing clothes and shoes in the parking lot and hand feeding one another left over breakfast we pulled out the drivers manual and read up on removing the top from my car. (This would be the first time that I have taken the top off) It was a sight to behold. All buckled in, fueled up on cold pain perdu and homefries... after Kate secured my hair into an updo with the new hair accessories that we purchased at Claires Boutique we took off, waving our hands in the air and yes, we actually were hooting and hollering. It was like some bizarre lesbian spring break... though it wasn't spring and we are not lesbians.
We drove down to San Rafael... to go to another yarn shop natch. We drove with the top down, strands of hair carelessly whipping around, radio blaring, and smiles a plenty. We arrived at Dharma Trading Co. More a craftastic wonder than a yarn shop. I found some Mission Falls 1840 in a luscious green and blue, as well as some more Rowan Felted Tweed, this time in a sultry rusty orange that would set off the sexy blue I had picked up earlier in the day. Kate shopped for some Noro Kureyon and Cascade 220 to start a super sweater out of. So the woman at Dharma recognized me all celebrity style from working at Article Pract. She recommended that we head up the street to yet another yarn shop that shall remain nameless... It is owned by a dude, which is cool... yeah? Hell yeah it is. But it wasn't. Nope, it sure wasn't. Although the shop was cool enough, he was pretty lame. He did greet us when we first walked in, but after that he never got up out of his seat, never asked us if we needed any help or if we had any questions. It was pretty lame.
From there we drove back home, starving and exhausted. But did we go relax & eat? NO. We went to H & M and yes.... we shopped some more. I bought a new purse... it's a sinful shade of plum... which is going to be my color for the fall. It was a good day.

Progress!

After not touching my Rusted Root for nealry two weeks... we were reunited last night... and yes, it felt sooo good! Sooo... it is coming along nicley. The chest fits, the waist shaping is looking good... I am just not sure if those sleeves are going to be too darned pouffy. In the above photo one sleeve is ready for bind off, the other still awaits decreasing. Although red has not really been "my color" for quite some time... I am really digging this red.

Other news... The Little Lace cuff class (a knit-one-one class) was a success... if I do say so myself. It was a full house, eight brilliant students, bursting full of creativity. I just love watching people realize the simple but powerful "secret" of magic loop. When we say it will change your life... we truly mean it. And as always the lovely Sile was on hand to pamper and oversee the comfort of everyone involved. I just have to mention the unbelievably delicious strawberries that were dished up this time around. WOW... berry-tastic. The photo above is of all my students and their finished cuffs, or nearly finished. I was really impressed with every one's color combos, and that is saying a lot for Miss PrP.

Great Job Lace Cuff Class of '07!!

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.

Ravel-ry Rouser

OH, my darling Raverly ... how I love you so!

Yarn + Knitting + RAD Organizational Tool = An Ecstatic PuNkrAwKpUrL!!!

This site is simply amazing. It's like they read my mind. You will need to have a Flickr account to make it work properly, which is fine by me. I love me my Flickr. And at this stage, the beta stage that is, there is a waiting list. Being a knit-one-one diva, I received an invitation and got in on the VIP list. It pays to know the right peeps. The first night I was there I spent far more time than I have to spare on something that others would judge as frivolous and unnecessary. I went crazy, foaming at the mouth, my eyes darting around the room, looking at the piles of stash artfully displayed, taking inventory and entering it into the site, under the stash page of course. I attached photos, I checked dye lots, I retook photos of certain skeins. Then I started entering projects... wow, I have sooo much more to do. I decided to be systematic about it, I am going to take one shelf, one drawer at a time and catalog the stash that way. As for projects.... I have to decide how far back to go... So much to think about, my head is swimming! Check out the site. If you need to get your knitting world organized, or more organized, or ridiculously anal organized... it will become your new home.

Other news...
or... what is the deal with that big huge photo of your wrist at the top of the page?

New classes have posted on the Knit-one-one site. Check out the Lace Cuff Class being taught by yours truly. Not only will you make the cutest, coolest, hippest, lace cuff... BUT you will also learn the coolest, hippest technique, Magic Loop.

If you haven't heard of magic loop allow me to enlighten you... Using one, count them, ONE long circular needle you can knit small circumference items in the round. For example, maybe something like a little lace cuff, a sock, a leg warmer (if you like that sort of thing, Stevie Nicks!), a baby hat, the top of an adult hat, gloves, etc. It is really ideal for those who are terrified or just annoyed with double points. Which I am not. I got hooked on magic loop because I wanted to be able to do two socks at once, which magic loop is ideal for. Now what is the advantage to magic loop over using TWO circulars to knit small items in the round?? I have no idea if there are any technical advantages. I have not done the two circ method. The obvious advantage to me would be having to only buy ONE needle, and not having to keep track of which needle you are using next.

**btw... except for the cell phone pic taken by me at the top of the page, all of the pretty cuff photos were taken by the ridiculously talented woollywumpus! thank you Emliy! xoxo**

Lincoln Logs...???

*****EDIT****** For some janky ass reason the allow comments feature was turned off! I was feeling so sad that not one single person had left me a comment! hehe XOXO's to xtina for calling it out to me!

NOOO! Not Lincoln Logs!

Log Cabin Blankie! It's all the rage right now, and you know me... such a follower! (that was a huge joke, in case any of you have never seen me in person) All of my friends are making 'em. So anyway, always trying to be one of the cool kids (again... haha), I thought I would leap onto the bandwagon and start a Log Cabin Blanket. I am using Lamb's Pride Worsted in Spruce, Bronze Patina, Oregano, and bulldog Blue. I am "stacking" the colors so that they appear in "v's"... at least that is the plan. I could very well end up ripping the whole thing out (all 8 square inches of it, HA) and starting all over again. HEY! That’s just the way I roll.


Walking to work from the parking garage... They are restoring the old Fox Theater Building in downtown Oakland, which is one block from the store. It's going to be fabulous! Downtown Oakland has SOOO many amazing buildings. Very art deco, very cool, very old Oakland. I am trying to get in the practice of toting my ancient (i.e. heavy) camera around with me all of the time, so I will begin snapping photos of Oakland to share with y'all. I may even throw in some photos of Alameda, because we rock too!

Speaking of work... some of my handy-work. I get to wrap gifts, some days I get to wrap a lot of gifts. Now some of you may not know this about me... but I LOVE LOVE LOVE to gift wrap. Come Xmas time I am one happy camper. In fact bring your gifts to me and for a small and reasonable fee I will wrap them into an amazing feast for your eyes! The recipient of said gifts will be soooo amazed at how much effort you put into the eye popping wrap that they won't even notice that the gift inside was something they in fact gave you last year! HAHA Hey... is there a job in there? Will people pay me to wrap presies? hmmmmm, wheels turning in my little head.

Hmmmm, I wonder what's in there??

The week before Mother's Day was a big gift wrap week! YAY!

I will leave you with a photo of me with my new haircut. Now I will say this again, as I always do when sharing photos of me on haircut day.... Ir will never look like that again... well, not until I get it cut again. My stylist does a great job in making it straight, my dream hair. But as soon as I wash it... it will never be straight and shiny like that until the next time I sit my butt down in that salon chair.

EEK! Is my nose really that pointy?

P.S. This is my first post using Firefox as my browser. Now I have used Firefox in the past... here and there. But for some reason I have always been super content with Safari (maybe it just sounded more adventurous! I am going on Safari... uh, no... I am just surfing the net from my same old boring dinning room chair). But after trying to post here for two days and not being able to... it dawned on me that maybe a different browser would improve my situation... (I am not very bright when it comes to computer stuff). And here I am... and WOW! So many more formatting features are available on Firefox! There is even a button to add links! WOW! Now I don't have to remember all of that pesky Html crap! wooo hooo, it's a new day and the sun is shining!!!