9 - 21 - 08

I've finally moved into a place after months of searching, putting myself out there, getting frustrated, let down, and sometimes even taking it personally. My new housemates are nice and sane, as far as I can tell. Except for the cat who is afraid of almost everything and everyone. I am telling myself I made a good decision moving in by focusing on the fact that there is an enormous amount of potential in the space itself. And I like the neighborhood. Within range of Article Pract, Knit-one-one, Berkeley Bowl, and many other things I haven't checked out yet but am very much looking forward to.
I am also not sleeping on anyone's couch, trying to remember where my stuff is, or spending $7 a day on Bart fare.

The other (almost even more) exciting news is that I won five ribbons at the Lake County Fair! 2 blue and 1 red for knit items and 1 white for crochet (my first real crochet project ever, I might add) and a white ribbon for the shoes I made in May at Peters Valley. Here are some pics my mom went and took:

The red sweater and the red lace shawl were my blue ribbon items. The sweater was my own adaptation of 28 thirty. By that I mean I started it at the top using the pattern but I didn't get gauge with the yarn and needle size I wanted to use so I made it up for the rest of the way down, adding length and waist shaping. I used Cascade 220 Quattro. The shawl is the Diamond Fantasy by Sivia Harding. I did the smaller version using Shaefer Anne.

Another shot of the sweater.

Giant granny square with white ribbon.

Cheese on a stick stand.

Mystery fowl.

Best in show by Sue Wilson!

I guess I'll be able to get back to knitting. I haven't been doing much, partly because I've been living like a transient with most of my stuff 140 miles away, and partly because my creative projects have been more jewelry oriented lately.

Oh yeah! The same day I found out about the new house and the ribbons I went to a Vietnamese fusion restaurant on 3rd and Folsom called Bong Su and had one of the best meals ever. By best ever I mean I was very close to weeping through most of the evening. The fact that I was dining with 2 of my oldest and dearest friends and their families (for the first time in AGES) made the whole experience even more wonderful. It was May Ying's birthday and the manager there is a family friend of hers from infancy who gave us the royal treatment - down to selecting all of our dishes based on a couple of vague requests and doing wine pairings for each course. It made us forget our meal that we had two nights earlier at the Chez Panisse cafe.

One year!

Yesterday was Bastille Day again, which means this blog is one year old! I'll celebrate by posting some of those pictures I promised.

On May 3, I took a chartered bus from midtown Manhattan to West Friendship, Maryland for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. It was gigantic. I highly recommend this event to anyone into this sort of thing. The landscape was so breathtakingly beautiful that I wept as our bus was pulling up to the fairground. Really.

herding dog demonstration

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Just a few of the many cute animals.

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Ravelry meetup. The pink bandana in the foreground is tied around the head of Pam a.k.a lickmysticks - Bad ass webring master.

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Sleeve I made on the bus ride home.

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I stayed in NYC for about a week and a half.

Dana on Williamsburg Bridge.

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Me on same bridge.

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Garage sale. Dana said "dude, those look so good you have to buy them". So I did. I think I look just like Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

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Green tea Kit Kat from Japan

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Carl Hiaasen at Barnes and Noble Union Square.

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Dinner at Les Halles Park Avenue with Alex.

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Alex and her daughter Maven. Aren't they precious?

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A french fry place I should have eaten at on 2nd Avenue.

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Beverly Road subway station in Brooklyn.

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A mural in Williamsburg illustrating the dangers of smoking.

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Junk yard of cab parts behind Dana's.

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I got most of the yarn for this Inga Hat at a store called Knit New York on E 14th Street and 2nd Avenue. The blue and the green are some Auracania handpaint stuff they had on sale. The red stripe is a Malabrigo that I got in Philadelphia at Sophie's Yarns on fabric row. I went to two other yarn shops in New York. One was The Point. The other, and my favorite by far, was Purl Soho. It had the nicest selection, best light, and friendliest staff.

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I spent about five days in Philadelphia. Ori and I spent the first (incredibly rainy) day at the Franklin Institute. We saw an Imax movie about the space station. Unfortunately it was narrated by Tom Cruise. We also went to the Planetarium.

Here I am on the Sky Bike. Wheee!

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One of those cemetaries that's so old that the headstones are worn away.

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Something Ori found in a dumpster and hung on his wall. His Philly friends think he's a dork for hanging it up. I think it's cool.

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Trying to sneak up on Shani and Barrett. Another precious pair. My old friends are making beautiful kids.

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Some really nice shears I got on fabric row for my shoe class at Peters Valley.

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Shoe class.

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The necklace I made for Dana to thank her for letting me stay at her house for a week.

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For the record, this post took 3 hours. Happy Birthday Lydia Wrench and Rik Giannola (again!)

July 11

The fact that I haven't been posting on here with any regularity has been bugging me, but I haven't had a streaming internal monologue worth writing down. It has just been mostly snippets lately, which I forget soon after they come to me or I find scribbled on bits of paper in the bottom of my bag. A great deal of my time lately has been spent on a frustrating search for a room for rent in either Berkeley or Oakland. It's a really annoying thing to try to do from 140 miles away so I keep going back and forth between there and Kelseyville. I am so tired of sending out emails that all say different versions of the exact same thing to get responses from maybe one in seven. Every time I check my email I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall.

Some things that I've found enjoyable lately are:

My recent crochet project which is a gigantic (over 5' x 5' so far) granny square of a zillion colors. It's beautiful. I will post many photos when it's done (yeah , I know, I said that about my vacation too. pppppbbbbtht!)

Going to the library.

Going with my friend Scotty to quad rugby (a.k.a. murderball).

The farmer's market by the Ferry Building.

Crisp, foggy breezes.

Happy birthday Donovan Drummond! And Elias Welsh (I think) and Garrett Buss (tomorrow).

And congratulations Josh! I hope to meet little Sequoia Holly Boyer some day and that her tiny hat fits her still by the time she gets it.

My dear friend Kelly's beautiful wife Andrea died on July 5. She had inflammatory breast cancer. She was 37. I got to meet her on my recent visit to Philadelphia. She was warm and radiant and lovely and an incredible mother of six. I felt honored to be welcomed into her home, and I wish I could have spent more time with her. She and her family have a blog here.

Happy birthday

George!
And Angela Biondilillo, wherever you are.
And Matt Sciacca. Sorry.

Some things I like in NY (a very incomplete list)

I'm just going to pretend it didn't take me forever to post this...

1. Looking at everyone's shoes.
2. Trying to figure out what languages people are speaking.
3. Making up stories in my head about the people I see on the subway. It's especially interesting when I get to look over their shoulder at what they're writing in their journal or the notations they're making on a court transcript.
4. Certain things are still really cheap, like hot dogs, Indian food, umbrellas, sunglasses, books.
5. I can usually run into my friend Christine there, maybe even at a cool gallery show with her stuff in it.
6. Strand Bookstore.
7. People in NY are generally nicer to strangers than they are in SF.
8. There are some amazing musicians playing on subway platforms.
9. Veniero's pastry shop.
10. My favorite jewelry store, C'est Magnifique
11. Things I overhear, such as "Rae? Do you want chopped liver on a cinnamon-raisin bagel?" and a guy telling someone on his cell phone about how waiting in line at the post office is "always a Kafka-esque experience". (He said this because someone was selecting postage stamps based on the pictures on them.)
12. The Empire State Building.
13. Purl Soho.
14. Whenever I visit, there are at least 3 or 4 other people I know from somewhere else doing so as well.
15. There are fewer sketchy motherfuckers there than in San Francisco. And the streets are cleaner. Really.

Here's a little movie Dana shot of me (kind of by accident) on the train. I would like to rotate it 90 degrees clockwise. And turn it into a gif that's a continuous loop cause it's only a few seconds long.

I've been rather prolific as far as knitting and other crafts lately so my next post should have some pictures of those things.

Almost time

for another post. It will be long and contain pictures of New York, Maryland, Philadelphia, and maybe New Jersey. And two new knit projects and the shoes I made over the weekend! I fly back to SF on May 21. And I actually get a ride all the way home after that so once I step off that bart train it'll be no more public transit! No ferry to Vallejo followed by long ass bus ride to Calistoga! No 3 hour bus to Santa Rosa followed by hour long short bus to Hopland! It will be such a relief not to haul around a bag or worry about stepping in a puddles (it sucks to travel in wet shoes). Some day I will travel in luxury.

Yes I'm still here

It's been so long since I've posted that I don't know how to get back into this, other than by sharing some nice, meaty, random, factoids about myself:

1. I own a vest that once belonged to James Hetfield from Metallica and a pair of pants once owned by Topper Headon, former drummer of the Clash. I have worn both garments numerous times and they are tiny. I'm guessing James never wore the vest [care to comment, Dana?] because it looks like it could barely fit his head. It appears to have been a gift from fans. The magic marker scrawl on the back, now barely discernable, read "To James from the German bangers!" Apparently Topper wore the pants when he had a huge drug habit around the time London Calling came out. (and I'm sure I'll never fit into them again. If you ever see me wearing them, an intervention is definitely in order. They are black denim with some kind of black rubberized reptile print and some rhinestones that make it uncomfortable to sit down) This is a photo of the person who gave them to me, taken by Helmut Newton.

JASSARA, Rue Aubriot, Paris, 1977

2. I have smoked cigarettes since I was in junior high school, but never enough to where I thought I needed to quit. Never first thing in the morning, never a pack a day. If I can smell a burnt butt I can't sleep, and I am repulsed by the smell of it on my clothing. I recently had the same pack for two months before finally throwing it away because the remaining few were completely stale.

3. I have been called beautiful, but am dismally unphotogenic at least 80% of the time.

4. I can't stand raisins, bananas, yogurt, cilantro, blueberries or shellfish of any kind.

5. I have tattooed at least 50 people including myself, all by hand (no machine).

6. I was very uncomfortable around dogs when I was a child. The ones I knew were either terrifying or crusty.

7. On April fool's day 10 years ago I shaved my head and was disappointed to discover that it isn't perfectly round. Ha ha.

8. I have four unfinished sweaters that I stopped knitting after completing the body and one half of one sleeve. I'm working on a fifth.

9. There are 1,000 origami cranes hanging from the ceiling in my bedroom.

10. I was on my school gymnastics team in 6th grade (1980). Our mascot was the penguin, and our ill-fitting uniforms were blue and green. The mascot has since been changed to the Titans or something macho like that.

Here are some pictures from my recent visit to SF. I finally finished Jeffrey Boyce's second sweater after months of cajoling. It was a huge pain in the butt because I was using something machine made with serged edges as a model. The round arm holes were the biggest challenge. I am also a little irked by Jeffrey's dad's interest in pimping my knitting services to his friends. He swears I could make "so much money". Hah.

Ocean Beach now has a whole section with really pretty sparkly black sand that smells kind of like petroleum. Dennis swears it's always been there but I don't believe him. He says it couldn't possibly be from the (56,000 gallon!) oil spill because "they" would never let people on the beach if that were the case. Anyway, this is my attempt at capturing it on film. I have absolutely no idea how to photograph anything black in daylight with a digital camera. I am not a fan of the damn things anyway (digital cameras, not black things). I'm convinced that they are why I look like crap in pictures now.

I got to stop by the only place I know of to buy my favorite preserved mandarin peel snacks. It's on Noriega and 22nd Avenue. The one in the black foil pack is the good one. The other things I decided to try, and they are not good.

This is the stump of the big tree they cut down on Sanchez Street, right outside my friend's house

I finally finished my first toe-up sock. I wonder how many months it will be before I have a pair.

Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of Lisa Anne Auerbach - my very first Ravelry friend to have met in person. She was cool. I'd like to meet her again.

#@$*%&!

If the finishing of a project takes longer than the knitting does, it is only acceptable if it's insanely cute. Case in point: these

are totally redonk. Does a baby (who is not born prematurely) ever have a foot this small? I sure hope so because what a pain in the ass.

Gung hay fat choy!

Today is Chinese new year, or the first day of the lunar year 4705. It is a year of the rat, which I believe is the first animal in the Chinese Zodiac. "Gung hay fat choy" does not actually mean "happy new year" in Chinese, but something more along the lines of "congratulations on your upcoming prosperity". The parade in San Francisco is on Saturday evening, February 23. It will be exciting and really loud. Too bad I won't be in town.

Today is also the birthday of Eddie Izzard! Eddie Izzard! Eddie Izzard! Ahem, sorry... And Chris Rock, and my dear old friends Jon Biller and Chris Whitney.

Apparently it's also International Men's Day (whatever that is) in Malta

before

I have no camera to take pictures of anything new with at the moment. I guess this is the perfect time to post all these old pictures that I love. See, before I figured out that I could knit, one of my outlets usually involved paint markers and an agreeable surface. Another was compiling lists. This particular project had both! It was a squishy (and icky) rubber skull, yellowing and cracking in areas the way an old rubber band does. I was at a friend's house and asked if they had something I could draw on and this was what I got. The list is the names of all the states in the U.S. that have a town called Springfield - for my friend with a Simpsons obsession. I think the pictures turned out really well... Enjoy!

bacon

I don't know how I never knew about this bacon wrap until now, given how much time I spend looking at fiber related blogs and what not. After looking at it my brain went GZZZT! and smoke started coming out. Words can't really describe how I feel about this, uh, garment. Let's just say that if I ever make it to Los Angeles I may just track down this Lady Linoleum and be her new best friend. I could even get over her using the phrase "for all intensive purposes". Ha ha.

Birthday bits and such

Just showing some new (birthday) yarn.

Ginger got me this hand dyed 50/50 merino/silk at Article Pract. It's actually more of a plummy color but the camera was sucking at the moment. Yay thanks, Ginger!

This is some Socks that Rock in "Socktopus" and "Count Cluckula". I don't remember what the name is of the tied dyed mess looking one in the middle. It's from a company I'd never seen before. They are laying on a bed of Misti Baby Alpaca Chunky.

I don't really know what else to write about because I've just been watching too much TV while house-sitting. Some things I can tell you are:

- Most commercials are worse than my worst nightmares, especially ones advertising weight loss programs and ones with "cute" children and acoustic guitar music.

- Ray Johnson and Chuck Close are both incredible artists and there's some new channel called Ovation that showed films about them both.

- I quite like Morgan Freeman but I think I'd rather get oral surgery than watch Jack Nicholson play his predictable self in the new sappy movie "The Bucket List". I also hate that title.

- Tony Sinclair is a putz.

Holy shit I almost forgot! Someone nominated my Noro striped afghan for a Bobby! It's for the "most colorful project" category. If you'd like to vote for me go to http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-bobbys/73503/1-25#19 and click "agree". You will need to be logged in to Ravelry to do so.

Oh hey! Hi!

It feels like it's been ages since I've posted anything here. I just haven't had it in me. Maybe this is normal for NaBloPoMo participants.

So I've made 3 trips to San Francisco within the last 5 weeks. One was sudden because one of my best friends died. She was a superhero named Lynette. Her death was untimely and accidental. It fucking sucks. I had the privilege of being by her side until she was cremated, thanks to my dear friend the mortician. I could go on about this, but I prefer not to.

I did manage to get my ass to a rock show on each trip:
- Old Grandad at the Cafe Du Nord on the night before Thanksgiving. Old friends. Super heavy. Great night. Excellent show. Exactly what I needed. Especially after I shoved the dumbass out of the way (nicely, of course) who was blocking my view and text messaging someone the entire time. These damn kids and their technology... grumble grumble...
- Hot Lunch at the Knockout. This is the new band of Aaron Nudelman, one of my old favorite neighborhood rockstars, formerly of Wig Torture, the Beach Girls, Mensclub, Sunless Day, and countless other projects. I only caught about 4 songs but it was great. I don't know where he found his bandmates, but they're well matched and he sounded just like I remember.
- Queens of the Stone Age at the Warfield. Love QOTSA. Hate the Warfield. It was the last night of about an eight month tour for them and I could tell they were a little tired, but it didn't affect their performance. Much. I'd love to see them every night because they have such a huge repertoire and I think they pull random surprises out of it on impulse, maybe even by request. I don't think they're one of these huge acts that does the same set all the time. I really just can't get enough of this band.

One of my new dog friends is Jake A.K.A. Jakie Pants, the geriatric chihuahua.

This sweet lil' dude keeps me company on the couch where I sleep at my friend's house in SF. I did my best to get a shot with no view of his huge balls and "button butt" (read slightly prolapsed rectum) because he really is super cute.

And I am still knitting.

This is a toe up sock using new techiques that I've been teaching myself. It Started as a 2-at-a-time magic loop thing, which I'd never done. Then I decided I didn't like that. I think I also prefer to use double point needles instead of circulars for most of the body. I had also never done the short row heel, and I think it's coming along nicely. I just hope I don't get so sick of this teal-brown ("Teal Party" from Claudia) colorway that I only finish one sock.

Also made these booties for Sacha, whom I still haven't met, and a bunch of hats.

I was flipping through the American Heritage dictionary yesterday (one of my absolute favorite books) and the "Ben Davis" entry caught my eye. " ?! ", I thought. Turns out it's an apple. Hmmm. Did my favorite designer of men's workwear know this? In case you're wondering, I was looking up Erasmus (1466-1536 Dutch theologian, scholar, humanist, and traveler). I was curious after seeing a movie in which some guy kept having hallucinations of him. I was also looking up the word dowdy (lacking in stylishness or neatness; shabby). And yes, if you must know, I'd been sucked into a "Project Runway" marathon. Thanks Abie!

WTF?: I decided to kill some time one evening in the shoe department of a Nordtron Rack store in SF and came across this ludicrous item:

I like Arizona green tea sometimes (especially the plum) but not in the form of some fugly high heel sneaker boot!

I almost forgot - here's a picture of one of my favorite things in Kelseyville.

It's the bubble machine from our Christmas parade of lights that we have every December. Sorry, the picture's kind of a joke. As you can see, I have not mastered the art of night time photography. I am getting a little better at photographing food. The light in our house is just so yellow. But look at that rigatoni!

Happy birthday Paige Cole!

Some things I see

when I walk to "town" from my house. It takes about 40 minutes.

Yes, it's a truck that says I Love Hydrox on it. And yes, it's referring to the cookie (like an Oreo). It never moves from this spot.

And a cute goat gate.

Happy birthday, Matt Rissler!

Things I learned recently.

- Nallbinding is something that looks like knitting at first glance, but is actually done with yarn threaded into a needle and it is pulled all the way through each stitch.
- The first computers were jacquard weaving looms.
- When the nation's economy is in the toilet (by that I mean everyone's broke), the lipstick business does really well.
- It is unadvisable to use powdered sugar to sweeten one's tea (or coffee) because it has corn starch in it.
- Our dog Ace panics anytime we park and sit (like at the bank or at PG&E) anywhere on Forbes Street in Lakeport. Supposedly this was where animal control had picked him up and he'd been living on the street in this area for some months.
- That NaBloPoMo thing was a silly idea. After three weeks I hated it. Could you tell?

Happy birthday Billy Anderson!

November 27

I was going to put off posting until tomorrow, but this day has too much significance. It is the birthdays of Bruce Lee, Jimi Hendrix, and my boyfriend Andrew Dees. We made a special dinner of his favorite: breaded pork chops and peas.

And I baked a cake.

November 27 is the day my house at Haight and Pierce burned down in 1993. It is also the birthday of one of my neighbors at the time, Joe Curcio, whose house also burned. He and his bandmates (they had a band called Mars Bonfire) had just loaded all of their equipment into the basement the night before. The whole corner burned, taking out at least 5 buildings, displacing around 150 people. There was one human fatality. Not sure about other animals. I do know that even though Henny Penny was severely barbecued, both of our cats survived. HP made an amazing recovery, thanks to the kind people at Pets Unlimited.

November 27 is the day that San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot and killed in their offices at city hall by Supervisor Dan White. I remember when it happened. I was eight years old. Dan White was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder because of something having to do with his over-consumption of sugary foods (this became known as "the Twinkie defense"). I remember Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys running for mayor after that, and one of his proposed plans was to erect statues of Dan White around town for people to throw eggs, stones, and tomatoes at. You can read more funny stuff about his mayoral candidacy here.

I hear there is a movie in production about Harvey Milk with Sean Penn in the leading role. Um, ok. If you want to see a really beautiful movie about Harvey Milk and some important San Francisco history, see the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk.

My friend Matty Luv (now deceased) wrote this great lyric and very clever rhyme:
The only lesbian in Tulsa,
Oklahoma is lonely,
She's never even kissed a girl,
She's never heard of George Moscone.
When she drives a car,
She pretends she's an astronaut
shooting through the stars,
waiting for the world to catch up.

Dan White committed suicide in his wife's garage by running the carbon monoxide from his exhaust pipe into his car with a garden hose on October 21, 1985. I remember this day as well, I was 15 years old and was hanging out at Just Desserts on Church Street with a girl named Laurel Johnson, whose birthday was that day. I may have fried a zillion brain cells, but I still remember all kinds of stuff.

At midnight tonight San Francisco will be the first city in the US to have a ban on plastic grocery bags. I can tell you based on having worked in grocery stores there that people are going to flip out. I think it's cool though.

This is that thing I started on Saturday night

WTF?: I saw the scariest commercial on TV today. It was for something that I think was called a Pedi-egg. It's like a cheese grater with a container attached to the back of it that is for sanding your feet. It even showed its most special feature which is that it collects all of the dead skin shavings, and it showed someone emptying it out into a garbage can! Like tablespoons full! Fucking gross! Nobody wants to see that!

I don't feel like

blogging today. My brain is tired and I'm on someone else's computer. I started this Balsam yesterday and I'd rather be working on it than sitting here typing. I guess I'm a little cranky. Oh yeah I finished all the knitting of the shetland triangle last night and it just needs to be blocked

swatch

Did the swatch for the mystery knit along. I think I'll like the project, but am considering doing it on a larger scale, like for a bedspread or something.

WTF?: So today a woman and her daughter were shopping for beads in the store where I work. They're really pleasant customers and are excited about doing their craft together and it's really cute. Anyway, I was knitting and they were watching me. The little girl was curiousand I asked her if she knows how to knit. They told me that there is a knitting group at her school, but that she's not allowed to be in it because to be in it you have to have a boyfriend! This girl is seven years old! How fucked up is that? I looked at her and said "Whatever with those girls. They're giving knitters a bad name and should be ashamed of themselves". I also was wondering aloud with her mom (who of course is just as disgusted by this as I am) what happens if one of these girls are in the middle of a project and they "break up" with their "boyfriend". It's not like little kids have long relationships. The whole thing really grossed me out.

Mystery object and other knick knacks and junk

The mystery object is what is called an "eye cap". It is inserted under the eyelid by a mortician to keep the eye closed. You know how in the movies when a person dies, someone (the hero, usually) will go over and close the eyes? Well it doesn't work, they just open right back up again. Apparently so does the mouth, and they make something similar for that, too. I got my eye caps from my friend Craig Featherstone who is a mortician. He has stuff like that just lying around on his coffee table.

For some reason I love Kewpie dolls. I love their hands and their sideways glance and, of course, their dimples. I have a small collection of them somewhere in my storage unit. I also have a collection of Princess Phone keychains. I can't wait til I can have my own place someday and it will be a museum of very cute useless stuff. Actually it's not totally useless in that it makes me happy to look at it.

I am reminded of a restaurant I used to eat at in SF around 1990 or so. It was called New Dawn and it was on 16th Street. On the weekends at breakfast was great because it was crowded with all the same people from the bars or the rock shows you were at the night before, many still in the same clothes. There was a refrigerated dessert case at the front counter that said "We have many knick-knacks and junk in this case". There was a section in the back where it said on the wall in magic marker "employee smokeing lounge" (this was before the smoking ban in SF restaurants). Then a few feet away it said "visit our new speling lounge". I loved that place. There was also an incredible burrito place right across the street called Chapalita that hardly anyone remembers.

P.U.

The weather was beautiful here and the air felt so nice today, then I went to three places in Lakeport that all smelled horrible. First it was the animal shelter to renew Ace's licence. The dog piss was foul and heavy and a couple of times I thought I was going to hurl. Then it was K-Mart. I think it was the Little Ceasar's Pizza that stunk up the place. Then Bruno's (supermarket) deli department. This one was special because it had the visuals to go along with it. Imagine the only thing even remotely close to the olives you're looking for, with some kind of icky fruity salad-y thing with bright pink dressing spilled in it. Funny thing is, after all this, I realized that I'm not congested anymore! This is what it must be like when heavy cigarette smokers quit. I smoked for many years, and do still occasionally, but never just halted. I think that if there is a hell it will smell like old dog urine, old frying grease, an ashtray, and cheap perfume. Might as well throw some Mennen Speed Stick into the mix too.

I hope I haven't lost those of you who are reading this blog for the knitting content. Here are some nice fuzzy felted bowls. They are ideal for collecting change, keys, jewelry, marbles, cuff links, stitch markers, and other small objects. Also perfect if you like collecting junk on a surface of, say, an antique dresser with a finish that you don't want to mar. And you can use up all your zillions of little scraps.

I joined a knit along a little while back, it's a mystery shawl type thing called Sring Shawl Surprise. We just got our first swatch today. I'm almost done with it. It sounds like it's going to require extra attention -apparently there will be some pattern stitch work on the purl rows. We'll see.

Happy birthday, Mary Albanese!

Most of sweater

So I've reached the point with sweater where I'm now waiting to get a hold of a 47" needle. But here's most of it. You can't tell by this picture that it's much darker (like black and almost black grey heather).

In the meantime it's a mindless linen dishcloth. I love these Colonial rosewood needles, but I think metal is more suitable for this fiber.

Some funnies from Trailer Park Boys season 1 episode 4:

-"Hey Lahey, knock knock!"
-"Who's there?"
-"Mr. Stupidyhead fuckin pissin me off right now, thinks he's the captain of the shitliner and by the way, your fishsticks suck so fuck off!"
-"Oh that's real smart, Ricky!"

-"What're you, from the department of 'know what I'm sayin'?"
J-Roc to Tyrone T

WTF?:A news item about a fly resting on Joe Biden's hair for eight minutes during a televised presidential debate? Come on.

I had a frustrating day with my sweater but am back on track now. I'm working on the top part of it and was forgetting to do the neck shaping (a V to pick up and knit a shawl collar around) because, I'm ashamed to admit, I didn't read the pattern all the way through beforehand. So I felt like an idiot for a minute. People, don't make that mistake! Some may not have the patience I was able to muster today. Pictures will have to wait another day.

We just watched a movie called The Lineup on TCM. It has murders and heroin smuggling and stars Eli Wallach. I wouldn't say it was a terrific movie (maybe because I never use the word terrific). But I loved watching it because it featured one of favorite movie stars - San Francisco. We got a great tour of the city in 1958. Also caught a funny glitch in the dialogue: a guy giving the address 9020 Jackson Street and we decided that it doesn't exist. Then later they say 2090 Jackson Street which does. It's at Laguna, and the drive past Lafayette Park when they leave.

Distractions

Check out this video my friend Arlene sent me a link to today. I was speechless. I guess the song is called Apache.

And if you look at Cute Overload you've probably seen this. It's worth seeing more than once.

Before anything else I must say that I am so upset about the 58,000 gallon oil spill in San Francisco Bay that I am both preoccupied by it and unable to speak about it at the same time.

Happy birthday:

George Crawford
Mike Cornwall
Genifer Yoshimoto
Erica Stolz
wherever you are!

It is also the birthdays of Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan Winters, Stanley Tucci, Leonardo DiCaprio, and queer eye guy Carson Kressley. And it's Independence Day in Poland.

The body and sleeves of the sweater are one piece now! I'll post a photo when I can actually try it on. Soon, I hope. Like probably tomorrow or Tuesday.

Can you guess

what this is? A hint: it is pictured larger than actual size. It's about the size of a US quarter.

Um...

I don't have much to blog about at the moment (there's not a hell of a lot going on around here), but since I've committed to posting every day I'll at least give you this. It's a very incomplete list of incredibly heinous cover songs. Plenty more have been recorded since I compiled it, but they're not here. I just dug it out of my basement, ok?

Love Machine Wham
Taxman Rockwell - yeah that same guy who did "Somebody's Watching Me"
1984 Tina Turner
Dancin In The Streets Mick Jagger & David Bowie - watching this video is painful, especially if you really like both of these artists
Tell It Like It Is Don Johnson - dude, why?
I Only Have Eyes For You Art Garfunkel
And Then [She] Kissed Me Kiss
Tossin & Turnin Peter Criss
Can't Explain The Scorpions
In The Air Tonight Henry Mancini & The Boston Pops
Let's Spend The Night Together Charo
Be My Baby Shaun Cassidy
Baby I Love Your Way & Freebird Will To Power - the video for this one is really foul.
I Saw [Him] Standing There Tiffany
I Believe When I Fall In Love With You (It Will Be Forever) Frampton's Camel
Ticket To Ride The Carpenters
Do You Wanna Dance The Mamas & The Papas - I think they must've been wasted on demerol or morphine or something when they recorded this one
Rock & Roll (the Velvet Underground song, not the Led Zeppelin song) The Runaways
Stayin' Alive Ozzy Osbourne & Dweezil Zappa
American Pie Madonna
Bringin' On The Heartbreak Mariah Carey & Dave Navarro - WTF? Dude, you used to be in Jane's Addiction.

Thank you very much! Goodnight!

Sorry no pictures today

I'm making great progress on that sweater. I cast on the waistband yesterday and it is now 6" high. You won't see it again until I can photograph it in the daytime. I tried to get a shot of it tonight but it just doesn't even show up. Instead I will give you a selection of "fun facts" I heard on a rerun of David Letterman last night. They made me laugh. I hope they do the same for you.

- In China, Campbell's alphabet soup contains over 3,000 characters.
- Hardware stores in Utah have to keep male and female pipe couplings in separate aisles.
- A broken digital clock is right zero times per day.
- Despite his escape skills, Harry Houdini spent 12 years trapped in a bad marriage.

Happy birthday Anat!

Sleeve #2 done!

Today I cast on the waistband. I am very stoked about this sweater. I will make myself not stall at the point where I need to pick up a zillion stitches for the shawl collar. My only excuse will be if don't have a 47" needle to do the job. And since I work at a yarn store, that would be some lame excuse.

WTF?: This evening a girl in my French class told us that women use birth control so much that there is estrogen in our rain because it comes out in our urine.

Sleeve #1 done!

I've already started the second sleeve of that sweater I cast on yesterday. I'd join that NaKniSweMo thing but I haven't calculated whether this pattern has 50,000 stitches in it.