Cable Me

Out of pure necessity... okay! okay! It was out of pure laziness combined with impatience I finally performed the ridiculously easy task of cabling without a cable needle. I had always "known" or understood the concept of the deed, but for some reason I had just never tried it out. I am a tschotze gal, I live for my accoutrements, my tools, my thingy-ma-bobbers, and so on. So why on earth would i not want to lug that big bulky cable needle around with me while I am working on a project with cables?!
Last night at work I started working on Tudora and after casting on 112 stitches I realized that I did not have a cable needle with me. So rather than just working on one of the other three projects I had with me & waiting 45 minutes until I was home to begin cabling... I said "Flip it all anyway! I am going to just cable sans cable needle". And I did. And it was super easy. Many people say that it is much faster to cable without using a cable needle.... I don't know if that is the case for me. Sure, it is nano seconds faster than shuffling that cable needle around from between my pinky and ring finger, but I never really felt that a cable needle was slowing me down.

But anyway.... what about Tudora? I am excited about this simple little project. I love having a cozy scarf wrapped around my neck! I have had some serious problems with my neck in the past and find that keeping it warm makes a huge difference in my general comfort. So even when it's not terribly cold outside... I tend to have at least a little something wrapped around my neck. (same as my wrists... and my super cute cuffs).



The pattern says that it will be approx 17 inches long... mine is 19 inches. And there is still a button band to be added. I am using the yarn which she recommends as the substitute yarn; Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed. I just happened to have a ton of it laying around that I have had no plans for. I made a beret out of this same yarn. I must say.... I am not a fan of this yarn after working with it twice now. It is a little scratchy, which for the beret was not a big issue, I lined the brim with squishy soft malabrigo. But for this neck warmer, don't know what was thinking. The other issue with this yarn is that it is somewhat brittle. It is super thin in some areas and when cabling.... comes dangerously close to breaking.

Speaking of berets... it's my new pastime.

Last month I made three of Kents Moss Stitch Beret. This hat is soooo popular! I had never made a beret before, I really wanted one to wear, I really wanted to make one, and I DO love me some moss stitch. So I made one for myself, figured that if I liked it, it would make great gifts for a few special folks in my life. I had so much fun knitting it. There where a couple of wonky instructions in the pattern. I emailed Kent to verify that what I had thought he meant was actually what he did mean... he was so sweet and replied to me toot suite!

The decrease section is where it is a bit wonky. my interpretation of it (confirmed by Kent) is as follows:
divide into 8 sections (17 stitches in each section) & place markers the beginning of each section. Every other round you will decrease the first four stitches after each marker as follows; {slpw, K1, psso} then {K1, slkw, psso}. Ok... so that second decrease is the wacky one. you will need to {K1, slip one knitwise, then slip BOTH stitches back onto the left needle, now you can pass the second stitch over the first, and then pass the knitted stitch back onto the right needle}.

I made two more, a red tweed one for Sile, and an olive green malabrigo one for Kate. They are such a hit! And you are in luck because I will be teaching it (with Kent's blessing) for knit one one in February.

Where has all the Knitting gone...

Yes I still knit. I know it is few and far between my posts about knitting. My apologies. Some of you are saying that it is few and far between ANY of my posts... fair enough.

A small amount of my yarn that we used in class

In the Knitting News....

Way back in October I taught a Color Class. No, not colorwork like fair isle or intarsia. Color work, like the color wheel. Only not anything like the color wheel. We asked everyone to bring a few different balls of yarn, in addition I hauled a ton of my stash to the class. I organized it in big buckets, and on pretty trays. I talked a little about shades, hues, tones, blah blah. I talked about color proportion, and the texture of color. We discussed distribution and placement. Then I asked folks to step outside of their comfort zone with color, and try combinations that they would never dare to try on their own. I asked each student to pick a color that they hate. Then I asked them to choose at least two additional colors and try to make the hated color work for themselves. Every single person was able to do it. It was fabulous to watch people get turned onto a new way of seeing color. We worked in pairs so that everyone could bounce their ideas off of someone else. Then we discussed as a group what worked and didn't work about each combo. At the end everyone had to talk about an upcoming project, and the colors they may have envisioned using before the class, and then how they changed their mind about using color for that specific project. It was an awesome time for all.

What am I knitting? Excellent question! I am working, or not working on the following;

1. The moss stitch beret from Kent's Crafts. I am making it in Harris/Rowan Scottish Tweed, an amazing bright apple green!
2. A baby alpaca scarf in trade for massage sessions.
3. TWO elmer Fudd hats (I am in process of teaching the class)
4. Half a dozen or so unfinished/abandoned projects (log cabin blanket, a couple pairs of socks, a super basic hat for myself that I started over a year ago....)
5. Swatched for a sweater a month ago... haven't touched it since.
6. Swatched for a lace scarf a few weeks ago... what's going on there?!
   
7. Just finished a pair of birthday fingerless gloves... finally!
8. Just finished a felted hat in Cascade Pastaza... which felts like a brick... in a good way

But maybe the biggest thing that i have been working on for the last month, the thing that has really sucked up a great deal of time... and yes it is a knitting project.... I think it might be a secret... I am not sure of the extent to which I am allowed to talk about it. But trust me... it's WAYYYY cool!

Can you SEE how flippin thick that felt is?!

Other news...
You should really check out my cabled cuff class coming up in December. You can learn the magic loop technique AND make something that totally rocks, AND get some hand-made holiday gifts out of the way in very little time.
Also check Kate's Hella Cable scarf class. You will be sorry if you miss it.

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.  

Reunited... and uh, it feels mostly good

Yes, it is true, Mac is Back...
I got the call yesterday afternoon... my heart raced, my head was dizzy with excitement... Mac was coming home today. But my hair was a mess, and my eyebrows are long overdue for a wax... and OH MY, my desk is so cluttered! I so wanted everything to be perfect when he finally came home... when we would once again be together. Together listening to music, together watching a movie, together sending emails to our dear friends together. Yes it all sounds so idyllic.
But...
I knew that there would be issues. I knew that we would have our problems. All relationships have their problems.
So the lowdown is that all 3,000 and something of my photos were backed up. They are visible and i can open them up one by one as jpegs... but when I attempt to import them into iphoto it kicks em back and says they are unreadable files. I installed ilife 08, new iphoto.... it imports them... spends 10 minutes importing... then it shows me a bunch of empty boxes which are supposed to be my photos. Did I back something up incorrectly? Am I stuck having to view 3,000 and something photos one by one? EEEK!!!

And then there is the issue of ical. I synced all of that stuff to .mac before I turned mac over to the genius. My address book, bookmarks, mail accounts, keychain thingy, AND my ical. Mac came home and i synced again... everything showed that it had last been synced on the day i handed over mac... and when i synced... it was all there, all correct... except my calendar was of a very old version from like two years ago!!! All of my birthdays, my meeting notes, everything is gone. AHA! It's NOT gone. It's all on my ipod. But here's the rub... I cannot sync from my ipod to the computer. I have an app that allows me to transfer my music from ipod to itunes. (that is another issue for another time). But I could not find an app that does same for photos or calendars.
UGH!
I really thought that I backed everything up properly. But it turns out that I did not. There is some stuff missing here and there, I didn't back up or save Office, so now I have no way to view or use all of my Word files. I should have had my genius back it all up with me. Live and learn baby. Live AND learn!

Broken Mac = Lame Photo Post

My Hard-drive took the big dirt nap folks. The nice "genius" at the apple store said that other than a dead hard-drive, my laptop has lots o' life left in it. In fact he was SHOCKED that it was able to reboot at all considering the state of the hard-drive. He actually gasped, and put one hand to his mouth when he read the "failing" status after running some test program thingy. It's a MacBook Pro- G4... in case that means something to any of you. It's a little over three years old. And with a new hard drive in him... he will be good to go. PLUS.... any day now... well between the first and the thirty first of October I will have Leopard for my newly repaired G4 friend. btw... this is the extent of my ability to geek talk. I really don't know much about this stuff... just the basics to get me by. Really... be nice to your local "genius" at the apple store, they rawk! Mine is named Daryn, and he is truly my hero. Maybe I should knit him a "genius" beanie or something. hmmmm... thinking.

New Vans

Since I don't have my computer... I cannot download photos... So I took some photos with my crappy cell phone cause I just had to share my new Vans with y'all! Aren't they swell? Old Skool OTW (Off The Wall) logo. HAWT I know!!!

And just to throw some knitting related stuff into this post... just one of the MANY things I am knitting... a pair of mismatched, yet matching, fingerless mitts, two-at-once, ala magic loop. The yarn is Lamb's Pride Worsetd, Rosado Rose & Seafoam. The pattern is PuNk rAwK pUrL's & will be available soon. Also.... I was deathly ill over the weekend and knit a to-be-felted hat in one day. It's mustard yellow and plum. The yarn is CascadePastaza, I will get back to you with the actual color #'s. It is gorgeous. I will also get back to you with a better photo of it when my baby is back home.

Just look at those knuckles! Way Cool! haha

P.S. I also do not have my calendar... yep, it's on the mac... so if i have forgotten a birthday, anniversary, or anything important... I apologize in advance!

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.