Neil Gaiman gave a reading at the Cleveland library as part of their Writers and Readers series.   I’ve been a huge fan of his work for a long time -  no way I was going to miss this, my hatred of driving notwithstanding.  I got to the venue rather early because I had expected to get lost on the way there – my sense of direction is unerring!  A lot of other people may have had the same problem -

are other people lost too?

The reading was fabulous!  Neil Gaiman read from the Graveyard Book, and Odd and the Frost Giants.  He is a really good interpreter of his work – you could definitely discern the nuances of the different characters.  Also, I want to marry his accent.

There was a signing afterwards.  I don’t think the event organizers expected quite a turn-out.  I heard later that about a thousand people turned out (the auditorium seats about 600), and people had to be turned away.  The signing was a bit chaotic – it was essentially a free for all in the beginning, with the requisite line-jumpers, loud super-stalkerfans, and people trying to get their entire Neil Gaiman library signed.  Still, it was a mostly laid-back, patient crowd.

fangirl dorkdom

When it was my turn, he had to replace the inkwell on his fountain pen ( I love that he still uses fountain pens!) – and that’s when ny new friend Bonnie snapped this picture.   The signing was supposed to end an hour after the reading, but Mr. Neil was really generous and kept signing for a couple more hours, signing for everyone in line.

What did I get signed?

Right.  Mooncake phase.  Every night for a month, she fed us (and unsuspecting friends, neighbors and relatives) the results of her latest mooncake trial.  I still remember vividly the whack-whack-whack of the mooncake mold hitting the thickest book in our house as she tried to unmold the cakes.   Contrary to making me sick of mooncakes though, I love mooncakes! Especially the ones with crumbled egg yolks in the middle.  NOM!   So I was so thrilled to get this in the mail today -

contented sigh

I have the most awesome friends! That blank square in the corner?  Inhaled.

Also, an embarrassment of unexpected of treats!  Unfortunately inedible, but so wee and so cute!  Penny for reference.

we are wee with perfect details

Off to inhale some more mooncake.

Since the last update, here’s what I’ve been up to, in no particular order -

• recovering from dental surgery.   My wisdom teeth belatedly decided to give me all sorts of problems,  so out they came.  The surgery itself wasn’t too bad – I remember being loopy and feeling high as a kite, but don’t remember anything during.  After a couple of days, am feeling better than expected.  There is of course, the sore jaw and swollen cheeks, and the overwhelming urge to poke my fingers into the gaping holes in my gums (sorry TMI!).  Also, I am getting tired of eating soup.  The ice cream though, is made of win!
• witnessed nasty car accident in San Francisco, complete with on the scene first aid (by me!), getting statement taken by nice policeman, and getting asked stupid questions by rubbernecking passersby.
• went camping at Salt Point State Park.   Salt Point State Park was where the sandstone for streets in San Francisco were mined back in the day.  Also, there were tanning seals and random abandoned safes in the middle of the hiking trail.  Click and see!
  

  sandstone formation

• saw fishies!  And pretty water things! More here.
  

  sea anemones at the National Aquarium

• drove to Detroit for work and to visit Nana, and accidentally ended up on the bridge to Canada.  Without my passport – see part about driving to Detroit.  Ended up having to get my car searched, answering a bunch of tedious questions from the nice immigration folks, and watching the guy in the next car pod getting yanked out of his car and arrested.
• there was knitting.  Most of which have been gifted.  Unfortunately, before I remembered to take pictures.  Except for this – which I made for my cousin Celeste.  Gooseberry hat and wee socks, out of good ‘ol Cotton Ease in Azalea.  Rav deets here.
  

  Gooseberry hat and wee socks

• a renewed commitment to hopefully blog more!  Fingers crossed!

embracing the sky

Drawing me in and making me not want to leave.

No sign of winter there.  No sign of spring here.  At least not yet.

More pictures here.

comparing heights with the terra cotta warrior at High Museum

On to the Bay Area, where there was much laying about doing nothing, eating good food (sensing a theme here?). There was an awesome camping trip to Point Reyes, where it is impossible to turn around and not encounter a breathtaking vista. More pictures of that trip here.

there were sea lions sunning themselves at the beach

Then to Las Vegas for a work stuff, to present at a conference, and to visit my cousin B, who just had a baby! Unfortunately, there was none of laying about doing nothing, as the work part of the trip was exhausting. Whatever leftover time was spent trying not to snorgle and eat this -

nom nom nom!

Lately, there has been a surplus of “hurry up and wait” situations, so there has been knitting. I find that I prefer small projects that give me instant gratification. Hence, hats are made of win!

turn a square, take 2

Pattern: Turn a Square hat by Jared Flood (rav link)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran 330014 (dark purple) , 1 skein
Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino 340607 (purple), 2 skeins. US 6 and 7 DPNs

The first attempt of this hat was a big FAIL! The hat grew to sasquatch proportions after blocking. So to the frog pond it went. The second attempt turned out much better. This is a great pattern, and a good way to use up partial balls of yarn. I ended up using doubled baby cashmerino yarn with the aran weight yarn because I wanted to use up my lonely ball of Cashmerino Aran but couldn’t find a complimentary color that I liked in the same weight. The stripes did become a bit fiddly with the untangling of the yarn, but minor detail. This hat has already been gifted. I hope the recipient enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it.

purple thorpe

Pattern: Thorpe by Kristen Kapur (rav link)
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome in Blues and Purples, 1 skein, yarn held double. US 8 DPNs
Trimmed with bits of Knitpicks Shine Worsted in Black

This is the first of many Thorpes, I think. I’m a big fan of earflap hats, as much for the dork factor as for the practical aspect of it. The doubled sock yarn made a nice, firm fabric. Since the hat is knit from the top down, it was very handy to be able to try on the hat as I went. I trimmed this hat in bright blue yarn initially, but I think the black trim is a better fit for the recipient.

Anyway, there were quite a few knitting projects completed since the last update so -

with extra purple for pizzazz!

Pattern: Gentleman’s sock in railway stitch, from Knitting Vintage Socks.
Yarn: Crystal Palace Panda cotton in jet black (2 skeins) and royal purple (1 skein), size 1 DPNs.

These were a present for Oki, who seems to like ‘em (huzzah!).   Contrasting purple heels and toes on request.  The yarn has a nice heft and feel to it, but was a bit splitty.  The colors are pretty vibrant and kind of sheeny.  Pardon the somewhat washed out photograph – I wanted to try to show some of the stitch detail and the black was not cooperating. 

clappy in the wild

Pattern: the ubiquitous Clapotis, Knitty Fall ’04 (wow, has it been out that long?)
Yarn: Steam Valley Fiber mohair-merino, 3 skeins.

At Nana’s last year, Andrea took a liking to the Clappy I made for myself out of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn.   Well, since Andrea was the one who got me started on knitting in the first place, and because I had these skeins of yummy mohair-merino that was just sitting in my stash, and the clap happens to be perfect social knitting….this was a pretty easy project decision to make.   The yarn is hand dyed so the skeins didn’t exactly match.  In fact, once unwound, the skeins didn’t look like siblings at all.  More like very distant relatives.  Very distant.  Leading to the following conversation in my head -

Anal Jet (AJ): Oooh, it looks like the colors are gonna pool.  You should alternate skeins.
Laid-back Jet (LJ): Enh!  It’ll be fine.  Besides, if we alternate skeins, this project will be too fiddly for social knitting.
AJ: But it’s a present!  It should be juuust right.
LJ: But a little pooling never hurt anyone.  It’ll make it more dramatic!

Laid-back Jet usually wins out.  Of course, it pooled like a champ.  Fortunately, the dropped stitches made the pooling a lot less obvious.  Whew!

fits like a glove

Pattern: Ipod cozy.  Made up pattern.
Yarn: left over sock yarn – Koigu for the body and Regia for the earbud pocket

My “antique” Ipod mini finally died an agonizing death so I ended up getting an Ipod Nano.  In orange!  Those who know me are not surprised at all.  Anyway, good stashbusting project this one.  Totally winged the pattern – knit a tube of appropriate size, bound off half of the stitches and continued knitting the top flap until the right size.  Sewed up the bottom of the tube, leaving a small hole for the earbuds.  Picked up stitches for the pocket and knit until tall enough to stash earbuds.

I am hoping that this will not be my only post for December.  Since the earth might open up and swallow me whole though- happy holidays, y’all!

At any rate, September’s almost over. Here’s a mishmash of the months highs and lows:

I finally made it to Niagara Falls! I live a few hours drive away from the Falls and have been meaning to go check it out for the longest time. My friends Meg and Jenny (we’ve known each other since grade school!) were visiting from Manila and Niagara Falls was on their must-see list.  I met up with them there, where we joined a large throng of tourists on the Maid of the Mist, got thoroughly drenched and had a great time. The Falls are pretty spectacular, although there was a lot more construction near the shores of the Falls, both on the American and Canadian sides, than I expected.

There has been knitting! I finished a couple of pairs of socks. Here’s one of the pairs out in the wild -

Pattern: Oak-ribbed socks from Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Left-over hand-dyed stripey sock yarn, meant to mimic Gryffindor house stripes from Harry Potter, size 2 DPNs.

The Oak-ribbed socks have become my go-to mindless knitting sock pattern, and this particular pair turned to be the best fitting pair I’ve made for myself yet. I wore this pair out on my regular weekend bike ride around Presque Isle and several people stared at me/ came over to ask questions when I pulled out my camera to take pictures of the socks. The other pair of socks is a gift and is still winging it’s way to the recipient, so I’ll have to write about those later.

Speaking of bikes, there’s been a rash of car vs. bicycle accidents around these parts. And I haven’t been immune. Even though there’s quite a number of bike commuters and recreational bikers here, most motorists around these parts don’t pay attention. A couple of weeks ago, while biking to work, I got into a little accident with a car. Fortunately, I was wearing my helmet, and feel super lucky to have been able to walk away from that incident with only bruises and a slightly dinged bike.

By coincidence, one of my co-workers also got into a bicycle accident several days later and broke her collarbone. Ick. We’re already short-staffed at the hospital (the clinical part of my job), so now I’m probably going to be working extra hours over there because co-worker is probably going to be out 6 weeks or more.

As for the academia job? It’s going relatively well, although that hasn’t prevented me from staring out the window and wistfully wishing for Fall Break to get here already.  Because that means I get to take a trip to Houston!  To see friends!  Who I’ve been thinking a lot about lately because of that wretched Hurricane Ike.

I had a great time. One of the many things I like about Seattle is how lush and green and alive everything looks, stereotypical wet Seattle weather notwithstanding. I mean, who can resist an explosion of color like this?

This trip also turned out to be mini reunion of sorts. My aunt made a last minute trip up from SoCal, one of my cousins was in town for an extended business trip, my globe-trotting 90 year old grandaunt was in town between trips, and two of my friends from Manila (who I’ve known since we were in the fourth grade together) were in town visiting. The stars were aligned this time.

Seattle also happens to be home to many totally random and odd sightings. This was one among many “huh?” moments. Spotted inside a Chinese dimsum restaurant. Maybe because the red in the sign matches the decor?

More photos here.

This is for my cousin B’s little one, who is supposed to make her entrance in a few short weeks!

I’ve made Bobbi Bear before, but he’s so cute I had to make another one! Plus Bobbi II can help scare away the monsters under the bed, or stand guard while the baby’s napping. I used 2 balls of Lion Brand Organic Cotton on this one – I’ve lost the ball bands, but I think it’s the Almond colorway. Size 10.5 DPNs.

I also made some booties and a hat. I was originally planning on making a sweater, but nixed the idea because my cousin lives in sweltering Las Vegas, and is giving birth at the height of summer. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in periwinkle; the patterns courtesy of the good folks at Ravelry. The hat is Vibegrrl’s Bananahead Baby Beanie, (Rav link) and the booties Ruth B’s Perfect Baby Booties. (Rav link)

Knitting for babies is fun because it’s instant gratification! Also I got to use stash yarn for this project – I feel so virtuous. Bobbi II wanted to try on the booties and hat, but he’s a big bear.

At any rate, the inspector shows up at my place promptly at 9 in the morning, digital camera in hand. Proceeds to test the lights and electrical outlets, then snap a bunch of pictures of the fire extinguisher and the fusebox. Casts a critical eye around the apartment -

Inspector: You don’t seem to have a lot of furniture in here.

Me: …

Inspector: Are you a student?

Me: Nah.

Inspector: Oh.  Sometimes, student habits are very hard to break. Very hard.

Me: Are you trying to tell me my apartment is messy?

Inspector: Uh-huh.  You should get better furniture.

Me: At least I don’t have milk crates.