Back. Not dead. Yay!

It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?

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!

 

care and feeding of blogs

Since I last posted, I have been to Atlanta, where I spent the holidays with my cousin B. There was much laying about doing nothing, eating good food and trading of family news. There was also a trip to the High Museum to see the excellent Chinese Army terracotta warrior exhibit. It’s so strange to see these in the flesh – I still remember the 5th grade class where we talked about the Chin dynasty and the warriors buried in Xian. More pictures from that trip 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

 

ta-freaking-da!

Ummm…I sort of fell off the face of the earth, didn’t I?  I think I’ll blame ennui for this one.  Also end of semester grading purgatory and workplace moving hijinks made for an extended stay in crankypants-land.  So there.

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. 

 

september summary

Wow, where does the time go? I wish I could say time flies when you’re having fun, but really, this little matter of being employed is a huge time suck. So while time is flying, the fun? Not so much.

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.

 

must be something in the water

My little circle of friends and family seems to have come down with a case of baby fever. Gotta be the water.

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.

 

monkey see, monkey do

Shameless follower I am. Please pardon the extreme bad hair day.

Pattern: Gloria cowl
Yarn: Sundara superwash sock, somewhat solid aqua with purple. Size 8 DPNs, yarn held double

Cowls don’t get much easier than this! This project turned out really well. Looks good, perfect for social knitting, and a great way to use up stash sock yarn. The Sundara yarn was squooshy and knits up very well. I’m a big fan of the semi-solid color, I think it gives depth to the finished garment.

I cast on 91 stitches instead of the called for 99, and did 5 rounds of seed stitch instead of 3. I wanted to use up the entire 2 skeins of yarn, so this turned out just a teeny bit longer than ideal. But no leftover yarn! In fact, I managed to overestimate the yardage a bit that I ran out of yarn before the cast off row. Problem solved by using leftover purple sock yarn. Design element, ahem.

 

for Jacob

My friends Ken and Kathleen had a baby! The little one’s name is Jacob and he’s perfect.

I’d be kicked out of the knitting union if I didn’t try to knit something for him.

Pattern: Bunny Hop baby blanket (Rav link)
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Lime, 2.5 skeins. Size 8 Denise Interchangeables.

This was actually the first time I’ve used Cotton-Ease. I guess I can understand the uproar that happened when Lion (misguidedly) discontinued it a couple of years ago. The yarn is soft and washes like a champ. I have to say I’m not a fan of the current color selection – I think many of the colors look pretty washed out. I do like the lime color though. The baby blanket pattern was fun to knit – I pretty much knit it without any modifications. For the life of me, I couldn’t seem to memorize the pattern repeats though, so this didn’t turn out to be mindless knitting as I had initially hoped. I’m pretty pleased with the results though, and I hope Jacob enjoys his blankie.

 

on the upswing

Umm…hi!

Been a while, hasn’t it? First off, thank you for all your well wishes. The pneumonia, stubborn little thing, has been banished. Unfortunately, allergy season is in full swing. Blech. Better sneezing and sniffling than wheezing and gasping for air though.

Things are generally on the upswing. To fill you in quickly – The Bodies exhibit was just in Pittsburgh, and my co-worker D and I drove down to see it. We’d been meaning to see this for a while, but waited until the day before it ended to actually go. Apparently, lots of other people were slacking too. Witness the line to get in –

Since I teach a gross anatomy class, I was pretty interested in their preservation techniques and how they staged the exhibits. The Bodies exhibit is very similar to the Body Worlds exhibit I saw in Houston, but this one is put on by a different group, and I guess there was some controversy associated with it coming to Pittsburgh.

Then off to the Bay Area for work-related stuff. Busy and slightly brain cell killing, but I love the Bay Area! I got in some great aikido training (the bruises were totally worth it!). And you see signs like this on the BART –

Finally once I got home, look at what was waiting for me!

Mmmm…yarn! My beloved Houston SnB’ers recently had a yarn swap. I was telling Amy that I was just a teensy bit jealous that I wasn’t there to join the fun, and lo and behold, Kelly and the girls sent me a box of bright yarn goodness. Thanks, guys! Y’all know just how to make a girl feel loved 🙂

 

24 hour birthday

Today is Last Day to File Your Income Tax Day, also known around these parts as my birthday! So in honor of said birthday, I decided to stay up an entire 24 hours. Just to see if I could, and also to better savor the birthday feeling.

12:01 a.m. Birfday! Birfday! Another year older (ugh), though not necessarily wiser. Eat ice cream to celebrate.

12:45 a.m. Wow, you can watch Law and Order marathons at all hours of the night.

1:15 a.m. Get call from my dad (Chinese in italics)

Dad: Hellooo? Helloooo?
Me: Pa? Is that you?
Dad: YES! This is your FATHER! Happy birthday!
Me: Thank you. You remembered. (My dad is notorious for forgetting my birthday.)
Dad: Yes, I had our secretary remind me this year. Are you having a good lunch? Did you get yourself something good for your birthday meal?
Me: Pa, it’s 1 in the morning here.
Dad: Oh, I thought it was 1 in the afternoon. Because it’s lunchtime here at the office.
Me: Pa, there’s a 12 hour difference. 1 in the afternoon there is 1 in the morning here. (My dad lives halfway around the world; I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve told him that)
Dad: Well then, have a good time at lunch…

4:00 a.m. Oh look, an Eff Oh (picture taken later during the day)

Pattern: Koolhaas, by Jared Flood, from IK Holiday Gifts ’07
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere #10 (Orange), 3 skeins. Size 6 and 8 Denise interchangeables, and size 8 Inox DPN’s

I love the hat! I love the pattern. I wish I could say the same about the yarn. I mean, it’s cashmere, and I like it OK, but I wasn’t impressed by the yarn. First, there’s only about 49 yards per skein, and to me it didn’t feel any softer than baby cashmerino. Maybe I was expecting too much, but cashmere! I have to say though that the cables really pop with this yarn.

I CO 96 stitches instead of the called for 104, and made 5 repeats of the pattern because I wanted the hat to cover my ears. There are a few boneheaded mistakes, but they’re near the top of the hat, and I was too lazy to rip back. I did run out of yarn at the very top, but couldn’t justify buying another skein of the DB, so I used leftover orange Lamb’s Pride worsted – you can kind of see it in the picture. I like it – it looks like the hat has a bright(er) orange dot on top.

 

unexpected

A list of things I never expected to encounter while I was in Nashville recently for some work stuff –

1. getting evacuated because of a tornado

While the rest of the country was busying itself with Super Tuesday, a number of tornadoes were tormenting the Nashville area. Unfortunately, because the conference I was attending was held inside a hermetically sealed, climate controlled biosphere – the convention center, hotel, and connecting mall were all enclosed by a plexiglass dome! – I had no idea that outside, the winds were howling and the rain was pouring. Until 1:00 a.m., when the fire alarm went off, and the hotel staff started pounding on doors to evacuate the hotel. We were led to the bowels of the hotel basement, along with other sleepy/ grumpy/ bored hotel guests. I think the evacuation was more of a safety precaution and the hotel wasn’t in any real danger of being swept away by a tornado. However, I would’ve been much less grumpy if the fire alarm didn’t proceed to go off 2 more times in the dead of the night!

See? Hermetically sealed!

2. seeing a 10 foot plant walking towards you

The day after the tornado evacuation brouhaha, while my friend Jill and I are catching up, I spot a tall, leafy plant walking towards us. I have to do a double take. Turns out, it’s one of the attractions in the convention center. The plant’s actually a performer covered in leaves and green make-up, walking on stilts and manipulating another pair of stilts as “branches.” Really cool, and at the same time, slightly creepy looking. Particularly when she wraps her leafy limbs around posts and makes like ivy.

Needs a lot of coordination, also, lots of green make-up

3. actual knitting happened. Complete with finished product!

I’ve been in knitting ennui lately. Dreary weather (I am ready for winter to be over!), crazy work schedule and the occasional life blues have all conspired to sap my knitting mojo. So imagine my surprise when I actually finished something!

Pattern: Bloody Mary by Sandra Park
Yarn: Koigu KPPM color #12060, 2 skeins. Size 2 Crystal Palace bamboo DPN’s

This was my first time working with Koigu. There’s already a lot of love out there for Koigu. Let me join the bandwagon. Koiguuuu, so soft and squishy and nice to knit with. The yarn was a generous gift from Amy’s mom 2 Christmases ago. This particular colorway was so color-rich that I was afraid it was going to pool like crazy. The slipped stitches of the Blood Mary pattern though, seems to have done the trick. Also, I really like how the slipped stitch rib leaves these raised ribs. Yeah, it’s a pair of ribbed socks, but it’s got some pizazz!

These socks had been languishing in the unfinished pile for a while. I started them in September 2007, when we went to the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival. And then they just sat there, unfinished and neglected. These were supposed to be my travel knitting when I went to Manila (and the butt numbing 27 hour plane ride that accompanied that trip), but I couldn’t bring myself to knit much during that trip. So they sat neglected some more.

Unfinished no more.  Bring on the knits!