Bay Area getaway

Drove up for the fourth wedding in as many months.  My first time to Stanford.  It was as beautiful campus, a gorgeous wedding.  Sorry, no pics of that part.  The DSLR didn't go with my dress.  Some pics of the rest of the long weekend should more than suffice, however.  Enjoy! 

On the road. Up the 5. First time in years. 
Blown away by how awesome and varied it looks.

 

Well pruned sycamores. And beautiful buildings. At Cal.
Visiting DC's friend.  The rocket/planetary scientist. (Really.)
Second time here ever.  DC can't believe it.  Thinks I should get out more.

 

Caltrain station.  And awesome skyline. From F17.  Where J+B live. 

 

View by day. Equally awesome.

 

Mission Beach Cafe.  Yum.

 

Near AT&T Park.  Can you tell by the hats? 
Basically: one huge tailgate party. Wish we were going. 
Kenny!

 

Just under the Bay Bridge. 
Not the camera.  Not the photographer.  But the day itself: 
Picture perfect.

 

Cherry blossoms in summer?! Crazy!

Renegade Craft Fair!

Just found out about this through my random web wanderings (more directly, through Daily Candy).  If I can't make it to the LA one this weekend, I can go to the one in SF when I'm there for a wedding next weekend! 

How's that for timing?!

No idle hands

Or, in other words, explainin' where I been...

DC came home last week, after having spent a fortnight in Africa (+ nearly 2 days' travel each way).  Just in time to celebrate the 4th of July.  Which is also our Y1 anniversary.  Luckily, he broke me in to his summer rovings by taking a monthlong trip to Europe when we first started dating last summer, so two weeks really was nothing.  It gave me some time to do stuff around the apartment (rearrange, again) and work on my gift.

The idea that We. Must. Have. A. Logo. got into my head a while ago, and stuck.  So, with the idea of getting the image in my head down on paper and framing it, I sat down with Microsoft Word and my extremely mediocre design skills.  I wanted something plain and graphic, and was going to put it over layers of security-lined envelopes of different patterns.  After nearly an hour of making text boxes, scaling, and aligning, I got it the way I wanted, and hit Print. 

Then I decided that it'd be better to print on the laser printer at work (shhh!), so I saved it to a thumb drive. 

Then I decided to print on my cotton blank postcard stock, so I dove through my stationery stash to find it. 

Then the idea came to me to do a cutout, so I traced the logo onto the blank card, and got out my knife and ruler.

Then I decided to make the cutout circle of the "d" into a heart.

Then I decided to do another "frame" of the security envelope pattern around the outside of the logo.

Then I chose the background color (chose the black over baby blue, to highlight the heart).

Here's what the final product looks like:

Not what I had in mind at the beginning, and certainly not perfect, but organic and spontaneous -- which reflects us.  The second part of the gift is the requirement to take a picture with it every July 4th!  I'm thinking of making a smaller version that we can take along on our trips, too (he doesn't know this yet, but will be happy to oblige, I'm sure!).

* * *

Whenever DC is away, I take out his letters and read through them again.  Not only does he write beautifully -- both in penmanship and content -- he shows his creativity, too.  Here's an example, which I'd been meaning to frame for a while but just got to recently:

[with new succulents!]

It's a little puzzle he made for me, using a coffee cup sleeve!  Cute, no?  I used another security lined envelope innard for the background, it's a subtle gray color that adds the right amount of texture.

For my Y1 gift, though, DC completely surprised me with:

[lovely! green!]

After exchanging gifts, we headed out to meet our parents for brunch.  Interesting way to spend our Y1 anniversary, don'tcha think?!  We celebrated in the evening -- just us two -- with wine and sparklers. 

* * *

In my last post I mentioned that I was already putting the Kacha-Kacha Counter to good use.  I got to over 100 rows much faster than I had time to take a picture, and then got to the point where I don't need the counter anymore!  This morning I finally snapped a couple of shots before heading out the door.

This is Forecast, by Stephanie Japel for Knitty W05.  Yes, I have wanted to knit it for that long.  But I was daunted by something sweater-sized and held off.  For a long time.  During which I knit shawls and socks and other little things.  One day, a couple weeks ago, I decided to cast on, and from there I kept going.  And now I'm almost done!  I got some knitting done during lunch, and am over halfway done with the ribbing on this (second) sleeve.  If I don't have to stand on the bus ride home, I think I can finish by the time I get home today!  So I can start picking up stitches for the button band.  Which shouldn't take long.  Which means I will have an FO to show you shortly!

The full story when the time is right.

Happy belated 4th of July!  I hope yours was good, too!

New knitting goodies

A few weeks ago my parents came home with this yard sale purchase (plus five 50g balls of high-quality-looking yarn!):  a set of bamboo dpns, straights, and circulars, all size US7; a pair of Susan Bates needles, size US8; Clover crochet hook, size J; three markers; and--the gem of the lot--a Clover Kacha-Kacha counter...

...all for $1!

My moms and pops da bomb.

I'm already using the counter, and it's the coolest thing.  Will show you what I got soon!

FO: (slightly) backwards Baktus

Here, as promised, is the full-on photo of the Baktus scarf.  Please nevermind the unwoven ends. 

Pattern: Baktus scarf

Needles: US3 Addi 16" circular

Yarn 1: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Camouflage

Yarn 2: ShiBuiKnits sock, Moss

Yarn 3: Regia, olives

Mods:  I basically did the increases and decreases at opposite ends of the work, resulting in a diamond rather than triangle shape.

The width maxes out at 65 stitches across, which is substantial enough for me!

You'll notice that there are three yarns used.  I ran out of my main yarns with 15 stitches on the needles!  Luckily I found a stray leftover skein of the Regia that was in the same color family, so the difference is subtle.

Going through my sock leftovers all at once has shown me that I've knit a lot of socks--at least 20 pairs!  But, I rarely wear the three pairs of socks I have for myself.  It could have something to do with SoCal weather and the fact that I'm in flip flops most of the year, but I've learned that I'm just not a knitted socks kinda gal.  So: no more knitted socks for myself (no matter how cute the pattern).  And much thanks for this pattern!

I leave you with a snapshot of some Queen Anne's Lace that I picked up at the farmers market last Friday (yes, I buy weeds).  I've always loved the daintiness of this flower; I even enjoy its slightly weedy smell.

You should know one thing, though...

...it's hella messy.

Hit-and-miss knitting

Remember the yarn that I got for myself on my birthday?  It's been through several iterations of summery shawls, all without success.  For some reason, I just can't seem to find a pattern that matches the colors of the yarn.  So sad.

I'd settled on making a long, rectangular scarf, and after a Ravelry search, decided on the One Skein Stole (Rav link).  But it ended up too airy for me.

Next, I discovered AeRang, and thought that the geometric pattern would be really neat.  I didn't want the stockinette triangles on the borders of the shawl, but for the life of me could not figure out how to continue the pattern and maintain the proper stitch count.  Saved by Ravelry again: someone else knit the shawl without the stockinette triangles!  In contacting that person, I made a new friend who very generously shared with me the chart she made to reflect her modifications.

By the third repeat, I was getting the hang of the pattern but losing my initial passion for it.  The geometric pattern seemed entirely obscured by the color variegations, and I felt that it would be a more worthwhile venture in a solid color.  I was getting frustrated by frogging and rewinding the yarn...



...but I frogged nevertheless.  And then started the now-ubiquitous Baktus scarf.  But (again) right after I started knitting it, I realized my poor matchup of yarn and project: this scarf is really best suited for stashbusting, and I wanted to preserve my pristine skein of yarn for something special -- as well as something I knew I'd use.

I didn't have the heart or energy to tink even this little bit, so it sits on my shelf as you see here, patiently awaiting its next incarnation.

Another jaunt on Ravelry (Obsessive? Me?  No way.) and I've got my eye on the Maja shawl as a possible contender.  I'm pretty hopeful, but, honestly, after so many misses my color confidence is a bit shot I'm hesitant to cast on.  Anybody out there have any suggestions?  Lemme know -- I'm all ears!



In the meantime, I dove into my stash of leftover sock yarns to cast on for Baktus.  I grabbed the remainders of the Lorna's Laces Camouflage from my dad's recent socks, and the ShiBui Knits yarn left over from a pair of gloves I'd made for DC last winter.  I'm alternating every two rows; the green of the ShiBui yarn is more semisolid so you don't see a distinct striping, but I quite like it.

At this sitting I'm already done with the scarf (garter stitch = perfect brainless bus knitting).  Instead of doing the decreases at the end of the row, I did them at the beginning, resulting in a parallelogram-shaped scarf.  (Weird to explain, I'll snap a pic soon.)  It looks neat, and will be a nice gift for someone.  I know, I know.  But it's too masculine to be a Knitting For Me FO...



Of course I have some softer and more feminine-colored sock yarns just itching to get on the needles.  What's pictured here isn't even all of it, but it's a good start. (Did I really make that many socks?  Sorting all the colors has been a nice trip down memory lane!)  I'm so glad to have discovered this pattern; looks like it's gonna be a garter stitch summer.  Well, it's back to Baktus-ing for me!

More old apt. pictures

I decided that I don't need the internets at home so cancelled my service when I moved to my new apt.  Since then I've been blogging in my mind, jotting drafts in my journal, and uploading at work.  And I'm taking pictures on two different cameras, so it's a juggling act to remember which pictures are on which memory stick.  DC has a mobile wireless device that he leaves with me when he's not using it, but it's been acting kinda wonky these days, so we've opted not to use it rather than be frustrated about it.  Needless to say, then, technical difficulties abound these days.  Luckily, I've been saving this post in draft form for such a rainy day.  In lieu of all that I've been doing these days (not a whole lot, admittedly), I give you more pictures of my old apartment.

Last time I showed you pix of the common areas.  Voila the private areas--my bedroom and bathroom! 

Here's my old desk area, next to the east facing window.  The table is one of my best purchases ever from Ikea.  It's solid wood and collapsible for storage, the perfect writing desk and small dinner table--alas, it's no longer available.  Could do with a refinish.  Maybe this summer.

  

Here's where I used to sleep.  But if you know me, you also know that this was also my work station.  Books, yarn, stationery all within arm's reach.  Sometimes they even shared the bed with me!  Yes, the bed's at an angle.  I decided that centering it on the wall meant a lot of wasted space, but didn't want to square the bed up into the corner (too college dorm room style for me).  Now that I'm looking at it here, I'm thinking that my current setup could use a similar refresher to open up the room a bit more...

 

The closet, which I tried my best to keep organized by color.  As you can see, I am a firm believer that a gal can never have enough pairs of black trousers.  In the move I purged less than a dozen pieces from my wardrobe, but I think I can do better this summer.  Would like to add more purples, by the bye...

And finally, the bathroom.  Luckily, the old apt. had 1 3/4 bathrooms, so I didn't need to share.  I made this my "Japan room" by putting up all the gifts I'd received from various friends over the years.  The one you can see up close here (in the cubby above the toilet) is most dear, hand-painted by a friend and taiko team member.  Over on the wall are a Japanese translation of Psalm 121:8 ("the Lord will watch over your coming and going now and forever more"), gifted by the pastor's wife on a missions trip; a framed calendar; cute Japanese sayings; and a message on a photograph from a very good friend, given to me the first time I left Japan.

Reminiscing with these photos reminds me that my new place, although already dear to me, still needs a lot of work to really reflect me!  Luckily my landlord will put up my art for me (they want it done their way, it's an old building), so I'd better get to arranging it soon!

And yes, this is still primarily a crafting blog.  I've haven't been particularly successful of late, but will post an update as soon as technologically possible!  Byefornow (but not for long, mehopes)!