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!!!

HEY YOU GUYS!

Wasn't that what the fat assed Kool-Aid guy shouted before he crashed through a wall? Or no, maybe that was the annoying honey-comb kids??? NO, that "big big taste". Oh yes, now I remember... that was Rita Moreno's line on the electric company. The Kool-Aid dude said, "OOOHH YEAH!" in a very creepy Barry White voice.

So what's all the fuss about Kool-Aid? Well I am glad that you asked. Today at the ever posh knit-one-one the ever adorable Elaine taught a class on dyeing yarn with Kool-Aid. Which is honestly something that I have never had a huge interest in doing, mostly because it sounds so messy, and I don't like messy. haha. Well it wasn't as messy as I had imagined it, partly because Elaine was extremely organized. This was her first time teaching a class, and she was simply amazing! Some of us mixed different flavors together and dyed our natural and unbleached yarns into a semi-solid color. I chose to "hand paint" mine using lime green, and a mixture of blue raspberry lemonade and strawberry to get a purple-ish color. I had a blast. As typical of the knit-one-one crowd, it was a lot of yarn, good food (thanks to Janice for bringing those delicious pork buns!), and hearty laughs all the way around! Now if only I could get the rest of the "dye" off of my fingernails! ewww


I wasn't expecting to post again so soon. (yes! two whole posts in less than a week!) So although my last post promised more photos... you will have to make do with these lonely Kool-Aid yarn pics.

Where in the hell has she been?

OR....
Who the hell cares where she's been?
Yes, it's me again. Hello? Is there anyone there? I can hear the crickets chirping out there in the yonder. Well let's see.... where to begin...

I will just dive right in. I am taking a quarter off from school, and working more so that I can afford to go back to school. I took a second job at a very cool shop in downtown Oakland. It is called Entrez~Open House. (the shop has a myspace page withgreat photos... i caanot seem to get to it though. I am myspace crippled) It is a furniture, house wares, and accessories boutique like shop. The owner's name is Marie, and she couldn't be any sweeter, a joy to work for. Marie also has an interior decorating business. So this job, as you can imagine is right up my alley. The shop is gorgeous! It is set up like,... well, a house, a home. And each separate area maintains a specific color palette, and all of the merchandise in said area is only in that palette. I will take some photos and post. "yah yah", you say, "we'll never see any flippin photos! Who does she think she is kidding anyway?!" HAHA

I am still working at the yarn shop. We have more amazing and gorgeous yarn than you could shake a stick at... or maybe shake two sticks at... well then you would be knitting I suppose. HAR HAR! If you live in the area, or are visiting the area I highly recommend you groove your booty on in and check it out! You won't be sorry.

Knitting news?! Could there be? Just yesterday as a matter of fact I taught my first ever class at knit-one-one. I taught a leaf lace pattern, a scarf. It was so much fun. Sile just got back last night from a trip to NY. SO we feasted on real bagels, as well as that famous shortbread. (for those of you who don't know, Sile makes the most amazing short bread, and often serves it up during classes.) A former student once commented that knit-one-one was like a knitting spa, because Sile waits on you, bringing you anything you could possibly need or want. I think that is a very accurate description.

So what am I knitting? socks.... socks... socks... a herringbone scarf, etc. I promise that my next post, whenever that is, will contain photos and more knitting info.

Hardcore Knitting Fashion & Tammy Teaches

Benjamin Cho at Bryant Park Fall 2007
My adorable & delightful co-worker Logan Rockefeller Harris sent this photo to me & I squealed with joy when I saw it! I LOVE over-the-topness, and I LOVE knitting. So as you can imagine, I LOVED this dress. Would I wear it? Probably not, & only because those hands look mighty uncomfortable! Here is one more shot...

What else is going on in my glamorous & exciting life you may be asking? Well let me tell you all about it! School is flying right along. I have said it before and I will say it again, "man oh man, the quarter system sucks"! It is just plain impossible to fully grasp difficult concepts like two point perspective in just a couple of weeks, especially when you are still trying to wrap your cute little brain around the first two weeks of one point perspective. I am actually enjoying AutoCAD quite a bit. And my commercial design concepts class is a ridiculous amount of work, but I am getting TONS out of it.


How about an embarrassing photo of Rosco? The photo quality here is not great at all. But the image is just too hysterical to keep to myself.

When they conied the phrase "cute as a button" they were quite obviously thinking of these. We have started carrying buttons at work & it has been proving to be a whole new addictive problem for me. I have always had an intense gravatational pull to buttons. When my grandma passed away, many many years ago I inherited her entire sewing room, which included LARGE boxes full of vintage buttons. I have never been the same since! Would you just look at those oranges! They actually have dimples & a little teeny green butt stem thingy on the bottom. You can almost smell the citrus-y goodness. **note** I don't really have anything planned for any of these buttons. They MAY wind up as embellishmebnts on a hat, pair of gloves, or replacing old tired buttons on a vonateg sweater or two. OR they may just stay in my button stash, making me happy in their own little secluded way.

Button Fruit

I have not been knitting very much at all for the last few weeks. I think that I have maybe picked up my needles two or three times in the past 3 weeks. I am still knitting the two pairs of magic loop socks, and just yesterday I started another elmer fudd hat. his one is double strand worsted weight, ella rae in lichen & brown sheep's nature spun in grecian olive. I am now wondering if I will like the color blend after it is felted.... I guess we will see. I haven't had much luck knitting this hat for myself, but the ones that I make for everyone else come out great! I will spare you yet another picture of the same socks, but here is a boring photo of the fudd hat.

Elmer's hat band & earflap action

SOOOOO, Tammy Teaches, what's that all about? The lovely Sile (pronounced Sheila), has an amazing new thing going on. knit-one-one is her creation, a sort of knitting rec-cenetr/community/school. I suggest visiting the website to obtain a much better description. I was fortunate to have been invited to teach classes at knit-one-one, and my first class for Sile will be next month. Check out my bio for funny pictures & riveting info of yours truly. I will say it again, knit-one-one is an amazing resource for knitters. If you live in the Bay Area you shuold take a class. And if you don't live here, you should take a class the next time you are visiting the Bay Area... Nessie!

Photo Post

Things that make me smile....

Blue Sky Alpaca Sport Weight in #'s 50, 522, & 57

I am ony slightly smiling about this bag, it's growing on me. Two or so posts ago is a before felting pic.

World's sweetest buttons. Don't know why but I am so in love with these little darlings!

A gift from Kate. Isn't it adorable?

Magic Loop Fiasco!!

I am still cruising along on my mini cable socks, NO thanks to Rosco!!! I was knitting right along, enjoying my brief little break from homework. It was extra exciting because I was on a cable round... Rosco really wanted to be on my lap. Really! He would try to climb on, I would shoo him away. He would push harder, I would shoo harder, PUSH, SHOO, PUSH, SHOOOOOO! His foot got tangled in the yarn, my heart skipped a beat, I reached for his foot, pulled it out of the yarn, meanwhile his other foot got tangled in the magic loop cord. Then the worst possile thing, he freaked out because I was touching his foot and took off running with his foot stuck in the cord. He managed to pull ALL of the front side stitches off of the cord. My mini cable socks had evolved into mini heart attack socks! I can pick up stitches totally fine, BUT this was really fine yarn on little needles. I usually use a needle one or two sizes smaller to pick those lost stithces up. These are being knit on a size 1. As it turns out, I don't own anything smaller. After locking Rosco in the bathroom I set to work rescuing my stitches! It was super tricky because the the round before the cable round is a combonation of knits, purls & lot of slipped stitches, again usually not a big deal, but under the pressure of working with teeny tiny materials, UGH.

Fiasco # 2... I felted the long awaited malabrigo winter cap, i.e. the elmer fudd hat. It was own my own fault. I knew better that malabrigo felts in a nano second. It sharnk down WAAAYYYY too much. It barely covers the top half of my head. So I need to find a small child to send it off to & get started on another one while it's still cold enough to wear it! GRRRRR

The hat pictured below is another random felted hat. I was playing with the pattern & the end result was a fairly boxy fit that all in all I was not so happy with. But I continue to learn from each mistake!

It's A Sock Thing...

I think that I have a better handle on my time. That is, I think that I can manage school, work, my social life and still blog more than once in a blue moon. I really miss being active in the blogging world.
Rosco is the official House sock knitting snooper-visor.
Do these look at all familiar? They are longer than when you saw them last. Somewhere around a year ago I taught myself the magic loop technique & started these socks. Life happened and i put them aside after about two inches of sock. I had forgotten ALL about them until I stumbled upon them last week. Yes, I have officially become that kind of knitter... I have so many projects that I actually loose track & forget about some.
Sexy Koigu cable socks.
The sock bug has bitten me once again. I have been working on the black Regia socks that I started a year ago, AND now I have started a new magic loop-two-at-once-toe up pair out of some yummy ochre Koigu. The pattern is Badacaul from My Fashionable Life. Dig those mini cables, they really pop in that CA-raz-ee Koigu! I think the sock bug is going to stick hard this time. The sock monkey has moved in onto my back. Well... not THE sock monkey, a sock monkey... nevermind. Also, I am looking for more patterns written for toe up magic loop socks. I know that it's fairly easy to convert any sock pattern to magic loop, it's the toe-up part that I am not so certain how to convert.
Before felting... flopp-a-doodle.
YES, more hats. Are you sick of seeing hats here? This one was a xmas gift for my pal Kate. The yellow (frank ochre) and blue (bobby blue) is malabrigo, the brown is lambs pride in bronze patina.

After Felt

Soooo... this bag- ugh. I wanted to make a bag big enough to haul my school stuff around plus a knitting project. I knit this one up out of lambs pride bulky. I made the pattern up, the shape is great, I am happy enough with that. And I am really happy with the way the handles came out, very sturdy. But the stripes, colors... YUCKO! Don't know what I am going to do with it. I actually liked it better BEFORE I felted it. I will snap a post felt photo to share.

An Elmer Fudd hat for me out of malabrigo in color Pearl Ten. I just need to felt it. It's been so ridiculously cold that the last thing i want to do is touch cold wet wool to shape the darn thing. BUT, it's so damned cold that I really need to finish this hat. Those earflaps are so warm!

AND.... more sock yarn. LOVE these groovy colors!

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...