Bob and Jane

2 little cuties designed by Anna Hrachovec, each takes 2-3 nights to make.

Left one is Bob, right one is Jane.  Philippe and Betty might be joining the party!

Wow wee Wow Wreath

How cool is this!  If Tim and I get a wreath, I hope it will be as fun as this one (from Tahki Stacy Charles).

On a knitting note, I finished the Ganomy hat by Elizabeth Zimmermann.  This hat is for me.  Walking Moose in the dark and cold is no fun, but now I have a funny hat to make things better!  =)

Next up?  A BOB! (you'll see!)

From Moose and my (almost) daily walk

This is what Moose and I see now on our (almost) daily walks.  Fall colors are so beautiful!

Moose hat

I finished Tim's moose hat over the weekend. It was my first real color-work project.

I made it out of some Eco Alpaca by Cascade Yarns.  Very soft and fuzzy.  Purrrty!

Thanks for giving!

A few quick updates on recent happenings. 

First, Tim and I got away to Sonoma a couple of weeks back.  We revisited 2 wineries we've previously liked - Kaz and Imagery.   The owner at Kaz (Mr. Kaz himself) gave us an impromptu demo of how wine is made (by hand).  At Imagery, a place specializing in esoteric wines and local art, Tim was blown away by the blueberry port.

We also tried 2 new wineries.  One of them reminded us more of Disney Land than wine. The other was B.R. Cohn (I never knew the history of this Cohn guy!).  Here are some pictures from B.R.Cohn's front entrance.  Fun!  

We stayed at the local Best Western.  It is a down-to-earth H(m)otel and walking distance to the Sonoma square.  The square is about as "downtown" as a Northern California small town gets.  More importantly, it is where The Girl and the Fig lives.  Yummy.... We ate like royalty.

Some pics from the Square.  Here is Tim in front of the historic Sonoma Mission.

A random (shall we say artsy?) shot taking with my Android phone (NOT the iphone because I can indeed make and complete real calls!)

Lastly, I finished 2 projects recently.  A simple cabled hat for Tim and some fingerless mitts for me.  Both made out of the same yarn (Araucania Nature Wool) and both easy-peasy.  I told Tim I am only going to knit small stuff between now and the end of the year.  I like it!  Instant gratification (at least, as instant as it gets compared to sweaters).  

Happy Thanksgiving all!  Thanks for happy giving!  Happily giving thanks!

Hat no more

Up until 2 days ago I was happily trying a new technique: stranded knitting with 2 colors.  The end result was suppose to be a moose hat for Tim.  Well, attempt #1 at color work did not go too well.  The stitches were puckering and the hat was TOO small.  So, what is a sane woman to do?  Act like a frog and "rip-it" of course!  (!! LOL !! OMG !!  I'm *so* funny.  I crack myself up, right hon? ;-)

Here is the hat's short live, in pictures:

Before (nice new yummy yarn)

During (questionable moose-bottom)

After (nice yummy yarn)

Well...attempt #2 will happen, soon.

What is one thing that made you happy today?

One of the (many) knitting forums I subscribe to posed this question:  

What is one thing that made you happy today?

This being fiscal-year-end-HELL-week-at-work for me, I had to think hard.  But here is my answer in pictures.  How would you answer?

First:

And a lot of others:

http://www.katharinemulherin.com

http://alpaca-yarn-shop.com

http://www.bamboofabricstore.com

http://phoebeontheroad.blogspot.com/

http://theflitterknitter.blogspot.com/

Sweater

This is what I've been working on lately.  The pattern is called "First Class Leisure Pullover" by Katherine Hunt and the sweater is for Tim's step dad.  I used Plymouth Yarn's Baby Alpaca Grande Tweed, and man is it luxurious to work wiith.  Moose agrees too.  In fact I think he wants it to be HIS sweater.

(By the way, I had this sweater laid out for all of 30 seconds before he plopped himself on.  And he refused to budge after finding out how soft this thing is....)

Last night I added the collar to the sweater.  Now the only thing left is to sew the sleeves on and seam up  the body.  Can I just say I LOVE working with chunky yarn!

The word "On"

I have this mild infatuation with the "I'm on a horse" Old Spice guy. OMG he is awesome.  So you can understand why I so appreciate this precious video of Grover. Thank you my dear DEAR friend Heather for sharing!  This just made my day!

Beards

Why grow one when you can knit one!  

 (Originally from http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4816842&fbid=437826519462&id=97925624462) 

Bunch of nerds

I attended Oracle OpenWorld on Wednesday.  Talk about the gathering of a bunch of corporate nerds! At least I got to see some old friends.

From the left:
Tim (old coworker), Me, Sandy (my best friend), Mandar (one of my old bosses)

No (Apple) software!

From the left:
Me, unknown guy who hijacked my conversation with Steven, Tim, Steven (another old boss now friend), Sandy (my best friend), Mandar (who yelled at me once for not prioritizing my tasks right)

Humph

Today was a Humph day. Bad mood in the morning, bad mood in the evening.  Watch out husband!

Scaruffle

Here is the scarf-ruffle I made for Rushan (the newly wed).  After blocking, this lacy number came out pretty nice!  I mailed it to Rushan last weekend; yesterday she sent an email thanking me.  I hope she likes it!

The pattern is from Clara Parkes' "The Book of Wool."  I used a lace-weight yarn of unknown fiber and source that I got from someone's destash.

And now the sun is setting earlier, my walks with Moose usually end with this view of Oracle (see the moon?). I am thankful to live in this town!  (Picture taken from my phone, the HTC Incredible*)

And of course, here is the little Moose with a rawhide bone almost as long as he.

* HTC Incredible - A non-Apple phone that I can actually call people on without having connection problems!

Friend

I have a friend who I'll call Preety.  I've known Preety for a long time and I've always felt she's a special person.  Well, I found out today she's going through hard times with her marriage.  Her husband doesn't want to try to make things better, but she is still fighting to hang on.  And to add to the tangle, baby #2 is in the "oven".

She loves her son, and she loves her husband.  And she is saddened by the state of things.  She keeps saying "if only I can do the right thing, then everything will be all right."  But she doesn't see that she is only 1/2 the partnership and it is not her job to do everything.  When two people agree to meet somewhere, they both have to come forward towards the middle.  One person can make all the effort and go as far as he/she can, but if the other person doesn't budge, then the meeting won't ever happen.

I'm saddened by her sadness.  And at the same time, thinking about her situation makes me appreciate what I have.  Tim is a good husband and he *does* want to work the kinks out.  Our values and world-view pretty much align.  It's a good marriage by all measures and I do take things for granted sometimes.

I am sad for my friend; I hope she comes to peace with her husband and herself.

Ingenue

Finally, a month after the knitting was done, I blocked the thing and took pictures. In a knitter's mind, that's when a project is Done.

Here it is: Ingenue for Tim's mom

She picked the yarn (good old Cascade 220) and the color (#9442).  Last time Tim and I visited her, we went to Alpaca Direct, the only yarn shop in Brentwood.  The little store had a pretty good selection of yarns; I came out with not only Cascade 220, but also some Plymouth Baby Alpaca chunky.  Mmmmm!  So soft!

Here is the sweater on the blocking board.  The edges are *not* suppose to be curly! (Arg!)

Update

It's been so long since I last posted!  In the past few weeks I finished a sweater for Tim's mom and a scarf for my friend Rushan.  No pictures yet since I still need to block the 2 pieces.  Tim says he will get me a dedicated "blocking" bucket for my knitting (thanks Hon!).  I can't wait since it'll make the job much easier compared to using the bathtub!

It's also been a busy month for us!  My friend Rushan (for whom I made the scarf) got married.  Her husband is French and I swear the entire French population showed up at the wedding.  I never knew there were so many French people in the Bay Area!

Here is the Bride and me at the shower:

And the Bride and Groom (aka Benoit)

Now the whole family!

(The little girl on the low left was just the cutest! She was so bubbly and full of laughs!)

Migraine

I was hit by the worst case of migraine yesterday.  The vomit-inducing beast reared its head right after lunch when I started seeing bright spots.  We were out and about, and I managed to get some chores done. As soon as we got home, however, I just died on the bed.  


For the  the rest of the day I was debilitated and whiny.  Thankfully Tim was so helpful; he took Moose out when I couldn't bear the thought of being vertical, and he got himself dinner (even though I knew how much he would have rather stayed at home).  


I went to bed around 9PM after attempting (unsuccessfully) to knit.  The nice thing is that Moose decided to join me in bed and keep me company!  =)  He's such a sweet puppy.


I feel better now after a long night's rest.  I am hoping and praying the monster stays away.  I don't get 
migraines often, but when I do it knocks me down like nothing else.  

Busy busy, just not busy with the things I'd rather be doing!

Work is busy busy busy. And nothing like agreeing to take on a contract job (outside of my regular job) to make things even busier.  But the amazing thing is that I seem to be getting more done.  Pressure = productivity?  Hum... I hope my boss doesn't' find out.

Grumpasaurus

I finished Neil's Grumpasaurus!  This was a fun but fiddly project; very cute once done.  I can imagine all sorts of different facial expressions and “hair” styles to put on this little guy!

Next up is the Ingenue sweater for Tim's mom.

My family

My Mom, her husband Hans, my brother, his wife Jen and I all got together yesterday for dinner.  I gave my mom the shawl and, guess what, she liked it! Here she is modeling it for me; I think my mom looks beautiful!

And here is my nephew at 15 months. What a ham!

p.s. All these pics were taken with my new HTC Incredible (you may call it the iPhone killer). =)  I can't begin to express my crush on Google.  I just love everything they do. 

62" x 25"

62" x 25" is the dimensions my mom's shawl. I hope she likes it!

And of course I have to add gratuitous pictures of the world's cutest Moose:

One of his favorite sleeping spots is in the crooks of our legs

Grumpy old Moose at the dinner table (he must take after Tim)

One day

One day I will have so much money that I won't have to work. I'll have so much that I can....(sigh)...an email just popped up.  Back to the grind.

Swatch for a shawl

I've been thinking about a shawl for my mom.  I know the yarn I wanted to use, but I did not know the pattern. So for the past week I've been playing around with different stitch patterns.  And ! tada ! today I know what to do.  

Here is my small and unblocked swatch of the Woodland Shawl by Nikol Lohr.  

This is the front (RS) of the swatch.

This is the back (WS) of the swatch.

The swatch is knit with 2 strands of Adagio held together. I did 2 repeats plus an extra 5 stitches on the right side. Can you see how the darker purple on the bottom blends into the lighter purple towards the top?  Neat, IMHO.  I’m going to keep this gradation in the actual shawl.

I think this will be a good project!

Dinosaur

This was a quick knit and good as an “oh-I-don’t-care-if-the-seams-are-not-perfect” project.  Plus Moose seems to not mind it today.  Yesterday he was trying to claim it as his toy. =)