My day
Today was a knitting filled day. First I went to Commuknity, the new LYS in San Jose that opened today. It was great, and oh-so-spacious. I mean you could play some olympic games in there it is so spacious. Many's the time I've had to take my big ol' purse back out to the car when I'm shopping in other LYS's, because it kept getting hung on fixtures, knocking stuff off tables, or banging someone looking at a bottom shelf right in the head. Coincidentally Communknity is located directly across the street from where I used to live, and kitty-corner to where I got one of my guinea pigs. I got some black and white Crystal Palace Splash for my stash, and some size 8 and size 9 dpns (since I know how to use them now).
When I got home I tackled Kyoto. This time I didn't start in the sash like the instructions tell you to do. I followed the advice in the new knitty about
correctly sizing a garment, which means I am knitting the back first, so I can be sure it is the right size. Plus it isn't knit in the round so I need not fear a repeat of the seed stitch nightmare. Not right now anyway.
I may even just knit that sash straight like a scarf, instead of in the round next time. The sides of the top part of the sweater are seamed anayway, so I don't think it will be a huge issue if I have a seam on the sash. Plus I have to say that I am the queen of invisible seams. My knitting looks like crap, but by god I can seam the hell out of two pieces of fabric and you'd never know they weren't always one piece. Provided of course that you don't notice the funky knitted stitches in the vicinity of the seam that look like mis-matched plaid. The seam itself is invisible, but sadly it doesn't share its magic hiding properties with all the mistakes my knitting usually has.
New LYS!
A new yarn shop opens in San Jose tomorrow! http://www.commuknity.com/home.html . And guess what!? It's only two blocks from the train station I use to get to work. I see my stash exanding at a more rapid pace than it already is....
Here's my new tiller. Isn't she a beauty?
And here's the first patch of the yard I tilled. It was ankle deep in weeds and icky shrubby palm tree weedy things till I got a hold of it!
Something that I found lurking in the weeds.
Here is the side yard. It's going to get a lovely tropical border.
And the backyard is going to get spiffed up too. Bananas, cannas, lantanas, and all sorts of pretty plants are going to jazz up the joint and make it a lovely place to sit and knit.
my tiller sooo rocks!
I had a chance to use my tiller for a few minutes this afternoon. It totally rocks! I will have to take a picture of it and what I tilled and post it up her for you to see. You'll most likely be underwhelmed, since it isn't like a giant International Harvester combine or anything. It's just a little lady-like tiller, but it is the perfect size for me and my yard.
That damn helicopter is flying around my neighborhood again. grrrrrr.
Guess what I got?
I got my very own personal gas-powered tiller, and my very own personal 1 gallon gas can, and my very own personal 2 cycle engine oil. And I stopped at the gas station and put my oil and a gallon of gas in my new red gas can! It’s the first gas powered piece of equipment besides a car that I have ever owned all by myself, and it is the first gas can I have ever owned all by myself, and it is also the first time I have ever put gas in a gas can. I’m looking forward to putting my tiller together (it has some assembly required) and putting the gas in it, because I have never put gas in anything except my car and my new gas can before today.
I’m looking forward to tearing up the flower beds with the tiller too. The last time I used one was about 7 years ago. I rented it when I was putting in some big huge flowerbeds in the front yard. And it was one of those giant-ass commercial landscaper jobbies that someone used to excavate the Grand Canyon I think. I was wearing flip-flops to use it (safety first, don’t ya know) and when I fired that bad boy up it took off like a team of horses with me attached. The tiller yanked me forward so hard I ripped the strap clean off the bottom of my flip flop!
Just in case my mom is reading this, I should mention that I'll be wearing sensible shoes, gloves, safety glasses, and hearing protection this time around. The older I get the more cautious about that kind of stuff I get. I'm not far from deciding I need to wear a helmet and fireproof suit when riding in the car. OMG- can you imagine the looks I'd get riding down the street in a car with a helmet on? I will have to give that a whirl sometime just for the heck of it.
random musings
Musing 1: After I pulled Kyoto off the circulars- but before I ripped it out- I tried it on. It was about 35% too large.
Musing 2: The frogged yarn from Kyoto looked like uncooked pink ramen noodles.
Musing 3: I need more time in the day, more days in the week, more weeks in the month, etc.
Musing 4: The skirt pattern I picked out last week probably isn't going to work with the border on that buck-a-yard fabric I got, since it is more of a circular skirt. Last time I checked you can't make a curved hem on a straight border and expect it to look the same all the way around.
Musing 5: Dang all these crafts that require calculus and mechanical engineering skills.
Ding dong, the witch is dead
I've frogged Kyoto back to absolute nothingness. It was quite cathartic, plucking and pulling and unravelling all that effort. I won't say it was wasted effort since I did learn a couple of new little tricks for dealing with seed stich boo boos, but it was a lot of work that could now be most accurately described at vapor-wear.
Strawberry season
The first strawberry was so much fun I decided to make another one. Who knows what I'm going to do with them. Patch the seat of some jeans or stitch 'em together to make a strawberry purse most likely.
Friday Friday Friday!
Gosh it is a beautiful day and I don't have a lot of work to do today, and I don't have ANY work to do this weekend. By 3:00 today I will be working on Kyoto and thinking about the garden plans I've been making. Yeah!
My strawberry
Here is the finished strawberry. It's about the size of my hand. I crocheted the green part. It sucked, I have to tell you. That green yarn was wacky. It knits just fine, but it is not something I would like to crochet with ever again. I only crocheted it because it seemed like it would be so easy to just whip that out like some trim on the edge of an afghan. Yeah right. It tool me almost 2 hours to crochet that little bit. After a certain point it turned into a death match, just to see who was going to win. As you can see I did. Hah, green yarn! Take that!
Have ya'll seen that new Capital One commercial where the big dude chases the guy through the office? I've been cracking up all afternoon over the part where the guy being chased squeals just like a little girl. I must have watched that part a half dozen times on Tivo. I'm so easily amused that it is scary sometimes.
Another project
I went to Anthropologie earlier today and they had some really cute cotton skirts. I caught the sewing bug pretty bad, and while I was at Walmart picking up guinea pig food I saw a sign that said "SALE! Fabric $1/ yard" Well, I hightailed it on over there and saw the cutest cotton fabric- its kind of vintage-y and very soft, a lot like what I saw at Anthropologie for $98. Yours truly got two bucks' worth and a pattern. I can't wait to fire up the sewing machine.
Isn't that a cute border?
I'm going to make the one with the little ribbon belt.
Happy Monday
I actually had a nice Monday if you can believe that. Work was good, I had a good workout, and I fiddled around with some pink furry yarn from Wal Mart. I think I am going to knit a strawberry. No real reason other than it seems like a fun thing to do. It's not like I don't have Red's shrug barely underway, Kyoto daring me to invade its personal space for round two, and my mom asking me if I have finished her poncho yet (she told me she looked all over my blog the other day and she saw no progress report on it. I have been (not) working on it for oh I dunno, 3 months? Maybe 4?).
Procrastination is good for the soul, don't you agree?
In other news, I discovered podcasts today. There's even a knitting podcast: http://scifiville.typepad.com/knitcast/ I love my iPod more than ever before!
oh. my. god. There is a helicopter flying over my neighborhood again. I do hope this doesn't turn out to be another huge OJ chase like the one on Saturday.
What a lame weekend
I worked ALL WEEKEND. I did not garden. I did not knit. I did not even go outside for more than 3 minutes, and that was simply how long it took to go from car to door at Starbucks for an espresso. It was a beautiful weekend, and the only reason I won't consider it a total waste is because I have a fabulous window in my office that lets in so much light that I feel like I am right outside on the patio. Still I had hoped for something more exciting than doing math and making PowerPoint slides, if you know what I mean.
Helicopter Update
Well, I sat my irate taxpayer self on hold with the non-emergency number for the San Jose Police department for 15 minutes to see if the helicopter will be moving on anytime soon (I entertained myself by blogging my last post on the topic). I was clearly not the only person to call about it because I didn't have to say anything more than "Hi, there's a helicopter..." and the nice lady said "yes, it's looking for a vehicle involved in an incident at Tully and 101." That's just around the corner from me. I sure hope they find it soon cause I am getting cranky.
I'm living in a war zone or something.
It is 3:40am. A police helicopter has been flying over the neighborhood for the last hour, and they've finally narrowed down their search area to some house behind mine. I have no idea what is going on, but their big old 2-million candle power laser beam looking spot light is focused on something. Really, I wish they would either get a squad car out here to set up a set of halogen lights to do whatever they are doing or move on. I haven't heard a single siren, so I don't think there is an actual crime in progress or emergency or anything. Damn it's loud though, and as a tax payer irritated at the late hour and the high price of gas, I wish they'd do soemthing more productive.
My voice is gone!
I have three conference calls to participate in today, but my voice is completely gone. Not so much as a whistle, a skweek, or a crackle is coming out. I told everyone (via email, natch) that I'll be answering questions by morse code today.
In other knitting news, I've gotten my Kyoto courage back. Yeah!
Over the hump
Last night I finished doing all the hard work associated with my taxes. Namely all the work associated with sifting through reciepts, credit card and bank statements, and Quicken for all of 2004 to accurately capture my business expenses. Note to self: stay on top of expenses monthly/ quarterly to prevent such a nightmare from happening again next year.
I pulled out the Crystal Palace Fizz for Red's shrug this morning. I've been fiddling with that yarn for ages, trying to figure out how it works. Alas, I can't make heads nor tails of it, so I have decided to just plunge in. I'm getting about 5 stitches per inch, 3 rows per inch more ofthen than anything else. Naturally I'm confident enough that the law of averages will NOT be on my side and by the end of this I will end up with 14 rows per inch and 2 stitches per row. Right now though I just want to knit something, so I am going to knit in full denial of this uncertain gauge. Here's a wierd thing though- that yard dries out my fingernails!
Speaking of denial, I am still punishing Kyoto by ignoring it. I think by this weekend it will have learned its lesson and I will be able to frog it back to nothing and start again. You can bet your bippy I will be the Queen of No Twisting Allowed. This is one of the those magnitude 7.8 mistakes that you only make once.
Busy busy busy
This weekend was so hectic. I was busy every single solitary second! I got up at 5:30 saturday morning to make $23 at the garage sale I've spent the last couple of weeks getting ready for. Rain was the likely cause of no one showing up, but sheesh. Where is everyone's sense of adventure?
Besides that I was cleaning house, working on my taxes, cleaning the house some more, and worked on a presentation that is due the 18th. I am still not done with the presentation or the taxes. I did not knit at all. I sat with some yarn in my lap for a few minutes, but didn't get any farther than that.
Seeing Double or Nothing
I visited the eye doctor for a checkup today. I had my eyes dilated and I can't see a thing. I can barely see the screen and keyboard to type this. I'm a little nauseous too- this is different than just not being able to see without my contacts or glasses. Things are fuzzy and clear and distorted and have funky rainbow colored halos around them, all at the same time. I definitely do not like it. I'm going to flop down on the couch and wait till this passes. Hopefully soon, since I'm going bonkers not being able to read or knit or watch TV or anything...
What is it about Wednesdays?
This is the second time that work has foiled my attempt at getting to
Spinnity's knitting meet-up. I didn't leave my office in San Francisco until close to 7:00, and by the time I retrieved my car from the parking deck, got gas, and got on the 101-South, it was 7:40. By the time I got to San Jose it was 8:30. Too late to get to the meetup in Saratoga before everyone left.
This is only the second time I have driven to work in oh, gosh, 6 or 7 months. I usually take the train. It's an hour and 30-45 minute drive in traffic or a 53 minute train ride. Pretty much a no brainer which is the better option. Today though I had problems. Want to hear them? Of course you do! When I set my alarm last night, I dusted off the clock. Apparently I dusted the volume wheel right into the silent position. The neighborhood rooster woke me up at 7:15, which is exactly the time I need to be pulling out of the driveway to catch the train that will get me to work in time to check my email and get coffee before my 9:30 meeting. Needless to say I didn't make it. I hopped into the shower, threw on some clothes, jumped in the car and drove on up to San Francisco. I made it in time, but holy moley, it was a junky drive and I don't want to do it again anytime soon. I like taking the train. I can knit or watch a DVD on my laptop (or both), or I can read, or work. Or do absolutely nothing but look out the window. The drive is not so fun. You have to pay attention when you are driving.
And guess what!?! It cost me $50 to fill my tank with gas today. FIFTY DOLLARS. I actually didn't fill the tank completely, that's just where the pump shut off. I didn't bother to re-swipe my ATM card to add that last half gallon. The price of gas at the gas station this evening was $2.83 a gallon! I saw on the news the other day that the national average was like $2.32. I'd love to find a station with that kind of price.
Oh man, I totally sound like an old man, complaining about the high cost of gas. Next thing you know I'll be fussing about kids today not knowing how good they have it, and how back in the day when I was just a young whippersnapper I had to work the nightshift at the coal mine to pay for my yarn, and I had to walk to the yarn shop barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways.
One of my girlfriends has a birthday on Saturday. I didn't know until late yesterday, and I want to knit her something. I don't know what it will be, but I have the feeling the item that will be delivered to her on Saturday will consist of a picture printed from my computer (on real photo paper just to snazz it up a little), a 4x4 swatch of the yarn I'll be using, and an estimated date of completion. What with my taxes yet to be completed, work being very busy right now, and my garage sale on saturday I will be lucky to get even the swatch done. Oh well. It's the thought that counts right? And I honestly didn't know Saturday was the big day....
It's tax time!
I'm trying to get my taxes done. This means I am grubbing around trying to find all the pieces and parts and papers and totaling mileage and parking and expenses for last year. I am not even going to attempt to transfer all that stuff to a tax form, I'm letting H&R Block's online tax service do it for me. All I have to do is fax and email all my stuff to the nice lady who is assigned to me.
At the moment I think she has the better end of the deal though, because it's taking me ages to get all this stuff together. I wasn't as diligent as I should have been by totaling up all this stuff every quarter last year. Now I have to do it all at once. Ugh. Oh well. It's not that big of a deal in the long run. Plus it keeps me from thinking about Kyoto. Sheesh.
I think I am going to make myself a long skinny scarf, which the March Lucky Magazine says is one of the 5 must have accessories for spring. I've got a nice lime green cotton yarn in my stash that I've been trying to figure out what to do with for about a year, and I think it will be lovely. It looks like a bunch of little green circles stitched together. My camera is in my project bag, right next to Kyoto and I am afraid to go near it right now or else I'd take a picture of it.
In other news I made salmon croquettes for dinner tonight. I hate fresh salmon (too fishy for my tastes) but I adore canned salmon. And these came out really nice, if I do say so myself. I cooked them in a little olive oil and that is definitely a very good thing.
Two Words
I have been slaving away on the bottom band of Kyoto now for a week. I really hit my stride on Saturday afternoon and cranked out about 3 rows/hour (at 238 stitches per row that is a big accomplishment for me). And I happily worked on it for oh, I don't know, two and a half, maybe three hours. Last night I picked it up to try to get in a few more rows before bed when I finally noticed.
IT'S TWISTED!
I've just knitted a pink and white
mobius strip.
