359: Look what I finished!

It's done and wrapped!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone =)

356: Finished Objects

There are a lot of crocheted and knitted items that I've finished in the past months that I haven't had a chance to share yet. Most of them are up on Ravelry now, so I figure I might as well talk about them here, too. 

The first is a coaster I made out of some crochet thread. I like it and I plan on making some more, but I still haven't woven in the ends yet (shhh...). It has been used, though.

Next is a cabled hat I made for Miriam. I got the yarn at Purl Soho when I was visiting her in New York. I had the patterns picked out to make a hat for her and one for her niece, Virginia.

And here's the "matching" hat I made for Virginia. For a size comparison, the pompoms on both hats are the same size. It's a bit large, but she's a baby, she'll grow into it.

While I was shopping at Purl Soho, I found some lovely Manos that I had to have. I made Miriam a hat a while ago with Manos so I figured I'd make another Thorpe for me. Isn't it pretty? I love the colors. I used some leftover Malabrigo for the edges.

The last project I finished was a cowl using the handspun I won from Meghan from StitchIt!! Podcast. I love the handspun; it's so pretty! I think it was also my first time knitting with handspun. I made the Bound by the Beauty Cowl from the latest knitty. I don't have a picture yet...But I'm so excited, I still have yarn left (about 100 yards) to make something else!

So with all those finished projects, I started something new: an Abalone. I'm making mine out of the Malabrigo (mmm) I got in Jersey from The Stockinette Knitting Cafe. It's a lot of stockinette stitch, but I don't mind so much right now. I also altered the pattern a bit to fit the way I wanted it to.

I'm keeping the project in my new Namaste Jetsetter bag which I got from eBay. I've been wanting a knitting bag for a while and luckily I had the winning bid. Isn't is pretty?

An update on my dad's sweater: I'm so close!! I sewed the shoulder seams, I picked up and knit stitches for the neck, of which I have a few more rows to do, and the sleeves are blocking (and taking forever to dry because it's so cold in my apartment). Once I finish the neck, hopefully the sleeves will be dry and I can sew them on. I think it should be big enough, but if not, I'm sure he'll appreciate it anyway...hopefully.

354: Gingerbread Kits and Friends

This past weekend one of my old old old old (2 years, 2 apartments and 4 roommates ago) roommates came to visit from LA. Michele's been attending med school in the Caribbean (jealous much?) and I haven't seen her in about a year! With her visit I also got to see some other friends I haven't seen in a while, which was really fun. On Friday, Michele and I got House of Curries for lunch. Mmmmm so good. My go-to dish is their Chicken Curry with rice (as much as I love naan, it just tastes so good with rice...). Then we met up with Stephanie and the three of us went shopping in Emeryville. I picked up a couple of magazines (Knitting Today and Knit Simple, I think) while Michele and Steph shopped in H&M (who, by the way, is having an awesome dress sale). We then met up with Alfred and Cathy (hi, Cathy!!! <3) at Google, because Alfred has the best job ever (I so want to work at Google). We ate dinner in their cafeteria. How amazing would it be to work somewhere that provided great food for you? We took pictures by a giant gingerbread house, in front of a Google sign and in front of a giant android (in the rain).

On Saturday I baked cookies. Lots and lots of yummy cookies with the best recipe I've found (I omit the nuts because 1. I don't really care for them and 2. I never have them on hand). Both Jason and Chris love these cookies, and I got to see both of them at lunch. We went to Restaurant Peony in Oakland and had yummy dim sum with Cathy, Michele, Stephanie and her brother. Afterwards we headed to Shooting Star Cafe where they have drinks that go with your zodiac sign. I skipped out on my kumquat and something else drink and ordered some taro ice cream. From there we went to Jason's place and played games and tried on a 50-lb weighted vest and made a gingerbread house from a kit that Michele gave to Cathy. This house was epic failure, but nevertheless, fun to build. We started off pretty well, icing the pieces before we attached them and making the tiny Santa and Christmas tree look decent, but the icing wasn't solidifying so the walls to the house didn't stay up and the roof pieces kept sliding off. We tried adding super glue but that just glued the icing to icing...And then Santa and the Christmas tree got stuck together. Poor Santa. The finished product was supposed to look like this:

From Create-a-Treat

But it, well, I'll post pictures when I get them. Let's just say it wasn't pretty.

On Sunday I decided to tackle the Gingerbread Train kit that Michele gave me. I cheated and just started with glue. My train is definitely not edible but it is somewhat structurally stable. It was supposed to look like this:

From Create-a-Treat

I don't even know where they got those candy cane pieces for the wheels, because they definitely were not in my kit. I think I did an okay job of replicating the train.

I know, I can't be a cake decorator any time soon.

So, that was my weekend. Oh! I also blocked the body of the sweater for my dad. In hindsight, I should have taken a picture to share. The first sleeve is also done and the second one is so close. I should be able to finish it in time for Christmas, and if not that, then for his birthday on the 27th. Yay!

347: Food and Monday

Today I have a severe case of the Mondays. I stubbed my toe this morning, which promptly started bleeding. I seem to be experiencing allergies in the middle of winter. People really didn't know how to drive during today's commute. And I'm just plain tired (I suppose I shouldn't have gone to bed at midnight).

So to brighten things up a bit, I'm going to talk about a food blog I discovered the other day. Stonesoup is a blog about food, but not just any type of food, simple food. The blogger, Jules Clancy has committed to creating 5 ingredient or less recipes, and has come out with books that feature 10 minute meals. Every week I always tell myself that I need to cook more, and every week I always make something like tuna helper or stove-top (mmm, stuffing). Not the healthiest food ever...But then I discovered this blog and although I've only made one thing from it (pan fried tofu with spiced yogurt), I'm inspired to cook more food from Stonesoup because it's so easy. Getting 5 ingredients from the grocery store on the way home from work is a pretty quick and simple task. I'm so excited to make more dishes and actually eat something healthy for dinner without exhausting myself.

341: I Must Be Going Crazy

I've recently started knitting a hat with a Pokeball on the front, in intarsia, and this thing must be playing tricks on my mind. Last night I dreamt (why does this computer say that dreamt isn't a word?) that I was knitting socks with colorwork. They were actually quite pretty, this turquoise base with caramel spots. Anyway, I think all this knitting has started to infiltrate my subconscious, not that that's a bad thing. Obviously I just need to buy more yarn and knit socks.

309: Mu

I thought I would share today's comic from xkcd. I heart xkcd; it's one of the many web comics that I follow. It has that nerdy sense of humor that I really like (e.g. The Big Bang Theory). So, in a way, it was a good thing that I majored in Engineering because then I can make/understand even nerdier jokes. Because that's the only thing my degree is good for. Definitely.

Speaking of web comics, there are a few others that I follow, in case the few of you that read this are interested: Questionable Content, Cyanide & Happiness (sometimes nsfw), Kawaii Not, Apple Geeks, Cat Versus Human, and Cheer Up Emo Kid. I would recommend starting from the beginning, especially for QC, as there is a story line for that. Enjoy!

p.s. I took pictures yesterday of most of my purchases in NY, so I should have the old posts updated with them either today or tomorrow. Yay for pictures!

306: New York, Day 3

I'm on a plane! Do you guys know how awesome Virgin America is? Granted, WiFi isn't free, but for $13 I can use the interwebs as much as a please. So I will take time to write a post about my last day in New York.

First, we got a horribly late start. The sleep was wonderful, though. We left around 1 pm and headed off to a knitting cafe to get breakfast.

Stop 1: Stockinette. The Stockinette Knitting Cafe was the coolest thing I've ever seen, yarn-wise at least. They served sandwiches and coffee and tea and best of all, yarn! I got a grilled chicken, mozzarella, and sun-dried tomato pesto sandwich and a nice and warm chai. Mmm, I love chai. The sandwich was really good, too. As for yarn, I bought 4 skeins of Malabrigo Merino Worsted to make this lace shrug...

a skein of Twinkle Soft Chunky...

and a skein of Malabrigo Aquarella...

That was a big purchase...

Stop 2: The Lion Brand Yarn Studio. I've been looking at Joann and Michael's for Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Linen for the longest time since I started making a garment and ran out of yarn, but I bought the yarn about a year ago and they stopped carrying it in my local stores. But thankfully, the LBY Studio was next to the 14th St Path station and they had the color I needed. I bought two skeins of those and Miriam found a pattern on their iMacs (awesome) on Ravelry to make a snood.

Stop 3: Downtown Yarns. We went here and Miriam bought some needles to use for her snood. I got some more Malabrigo (mmm, Malabrigo...)

and then we rushed back to the subway so I could get back in time for my flight.

And that was it! It was an all yarn store day, which was really fun. The whole trip was a lot of fun but I wish I could have stayed longer. I only got to see a small, but big, part of New York. Next time we'll have to venture out farther. Thanks Miriam! And thanks to Matthew and Kat for letting me stay in their home!

305: New York, Day 2

My legs are so tired. And I am so stuffed. What a day.

Start: Take the Path to 33rd St. On our way to Time Square!

Stop 1: FedEx. Miriam had to make copies of her sheet music so we stopped at FedEx. I remembered that Comic-Con tickets went on sale at 9 am. But I couldn't get them on my phone, which I thought was a phone issue, but I guess they were having technical issues. Next week!

Stop 2: Time Square. There were so many moving screens, it was ridiculous. But it was kinda cool to walk around and see everything. We saw Cookie Monster and Elmo from a distance. And a giant M&M store.

Stop 3: Nintendo World and Rockefeller Plaza. The Nintendo store was awesome. They had games and clothes and toys and Miriam and I played Kirby's Epic Yarn (want!). I got a sweater, shirt, two toys and a beanie. Pictures to come.

Stop 4: D'Espresso, kind of. We went in but we didn't get anything. Instead we planned to where we would go next.

Stop 5: Le Pain Quotidien. We stopped here for some coffee and a snack. Initially, we were going to get lunch, but the place was a bit out of our price range, so I got an apple turnover and mochaccino and Miriam got a brioche.

Stop 6: The subway to 53rd and 7th Ave. My first subway ride in the city (different but still similar to the Path). Miriam had a voice lesson in the afternoon so while she did that, I went through Central Park to my next stop.

Stop 7: String. I loved this yarn store. Everything is very neat and instead of having all their stock out on the floor, they had one of each colorway from each type hanging on a rod. Then you would let the staff know what you want and they would go get it for you. I got two skeins of yarn, one Koigu KPPPM and one Prism Merino wool.

KPPPM

Prism Merino

Stop 8: A carriage ride through Central Park. After Miriam's lesson we went on a horse-drawn carriage ride through the lower East side of the park. The guy was nice, although the ride was really short.

Stop 9: Lincoln Square. Miriam had to return one of her books at the library and we got to see Juilliard and the Met and the Lincoln Theater and this really awesome fountain. I could have stood there to watch it forever. But I didn't because we were hungry.

Stop 10: Subway back to the West Village and to a restaurant called Hummus Place. This place was great. It was vegetarian, which we didn't expect at first and both really wanted meat, but we made do. The food was so good and so reasonably priced! And to add to that, they had live music! It was a great atmosphere.

Stop 11: The Path back to home. To make pear galette. Which is done now, so I'm going to eat it. And I really wish we had vanilla gelato to go with it. But we don't. But it's okay, because it will still be good.

304: New York, Day 1

I've never been to New York before, and the only part of this side of the United States I've been in is Virginia and Florida. Yesterday, I stepped foot in JFK and experienced my first taxi ride in NY. My friend Miriam moved out here after college and I decided to visit her this weekend, which ended up being the same weekend as Halloween. Perfect to see the Halloween Parade down 6th Avenue! But more about that later.

This morning was Miriam's brother's birthday brunch / her niece's baby shower / Halloween party where her brother and sister-in-law cooked up an amazing meal. There was pulled pork and warm apple sauce and pumpkin biscuits and apple slaw and mushroom-asparagus frittata and mashed sweet potatoes and mmm it was good. After the brunch we planned our trip into Manhattan.

Start: Take the Path from Grove St to the WTC stop. After walking in the wrong direction at first, we made it to what we thought was going to be Seaport Yarn. Which it still was (we saw the sign) but was closed on Sundays. So instead we headed towards SoHo.

Stop 1: Easy Spirit. Miriam was looking for some comfortable shoes to replace her old wedges and found the perfect pair.

Kambria wedges

Cute, right? And they were having a special where you could buy two pairs and get 20% off your purchase. So, of course, I had to buy a pair of my own cute shoes.

Elga boots

The best part is that they are water repellant. Win! And now I have a pair of ankle(ish) boots.

Stop 1.5: Starbucks. But not for the coffee, for the restroom.

Stop 2: Purl SoHo. Which was open, thank goodness. One of the cutest yarn stores I've ever been to, and they have fabric, too.


I got some yarn for me, and some yarn to make Miriam and her neice matching(ish) hats. I also got an adorable embroidery kit. Onward!

Stop 3: Kate's Paperie. I got some great stuff here. They had a pack of random pretty papers that I can use to make more magnets (excited!) and I also got a set of alphabet stamps. Their Halloween stuff was on sale, so I bought some sparkly, black, gothic letters and a mask (to be decorated). Such a cute store.

Stop 4: Think Coffee. On the way to the Village we stopped by this coffee place in NoHo. We both had the Spanish Latte which was delicious at the bottom (the condensed milk piled up a bit, yummy).

From there we headed up to Washington Square Park.

Stop 5: Washington Square Park. We saw the arc. That's about it.

Stop 6: 6th street and the Halloween Parade. We walked around for a bit and eventually found a spot on 6th street to watch the Parade. We didn't get to see the meat of the parade until about 7:30 (started at 7 pm). There were some neat puppets and some semi-enthusiastic Thriller dancers. There were also some French people that were standing way too close behind us. I like my personal space...But otherwise the parade was enjoyable.

Around 8 we headed back to the Path and back to Jersey City. All in all a very fun day. Tomorrow is going to be an early start heading to Times Square and Central Park. More yarn stores and coffee shops and other cute places to visit. Yay!

301: Look What I Saw Yesterday...

More knitted graffiti! I was on my way to Starbucks and passed by this Giants-themed street light cozy. How appropriate for San Francisco.

298: Crafty Weekend

I did a lot of crafty things this weekend (by a lot, I mean two three!) and as soon as I take pictures I will post them up here. On Saturday, Garnet and I made magnets, thanks to the tutorial by not martha. It took forever to find the items we needed at Michael's, because our Michael's in Emeryville just has to be different and organized all funny. Once we found the glue (between the kid's and the paint section), the magnets (in the kid's section), and the circle punches (hidden in the scrapbooking area), we were ready to go to Tap Plastics to get our cabochons (best name for a plastic shape ever). We got a whole bunch of 3/4" ones for $0.45 each. Next time, we're going to buy them online in bulk, because they were so easy to make, we want more!

Yesterday I made a laptop case from my Home Ec class. I love it so much. The fabric is so pretty and it fits my laptop like a glove (it's amazing what accurate measurements can do). I can't wait to use it!

Update: I lied, I did three crafty things this weekend. The third thing I did was cast on for a new sweater for my dad. The old one has been a work in progress for at least 3 years, and although I was almost done, the second sleeve was about 2/3 the size of the first. So I decided to start over with a different pattern. We'll see if I can get it done it time for Christmas this year.

285: I Can't Seem to Stay in One Place

Guess what? I moved again (which would explain the absence of crafty posts; not very possible when all my stuff is packed up). That's right, after staying in my old new place for less than 5 months, I pick up and leave. Originally I was going to be there through December. Well, originally originally, I was going to be there through May of next year, but after the whole roommate debacle, the lease was changed to December. And then I found out my apartment wanted to kill me, or at least render me useless to the outside world. Something on/in the property was giving me a stuffy nose and a sore throat. I know that doesn't sound that bad, but when you have it every day, and the sore throat gets so bad that it's painful to breathe, let alone swallow, it's no fun. At first I thought it was a cold, or some extension of the Strep I had. But then it just kept going...and I would feel better after I went outside and away from the apartment. So we determined that I had to leave this apartment at once (this was on September 27) and in order to avoid paying another month's rent, I had to move out by October 2. And I didn't have a place to move to yet. Lucky for me, I found a place the day of, and signed the lease a day after. That has to be a record of some sort.

Packing everything up was no fun. I have way too much stuff, because I'm definitely a hoarder. I'm reminded of a post by Allie over at Hyperbole and a Half which I cannot seem to find. I know it was there because of this:

Click to embiggen

But I can't find it when I actually click on the link...

Anyway....thanks to everyone that helped me move. That would have been difficult (understatement) to do on my own. I had about 5 people help over two days, all of them much stronger than me, thankfully. No one helped me unpack, though, which is a good thing, since I'm very particular about where my things go. But finally, after about a week of unpacking, I'm pretty much done. There are some things I still need to hang up, or put somewhere else, but for the most part, I'm done. *phew*

270: Mundai

265: Sewing!

Can you believe there are only 100 days left in the year? Where did 2010 go? I guess I did a lot of things in 2010...like graduate, for one. And I also took a sewing class (Home Ec link in the sidebar) ^.^

So far, I love the class. It's technically over but I'm only about a third of the way through the projects. Luckily for me, they plan on keeping the blog up for a year, and the instructors will be around for an extra month to answer questions. Having written instructions is of course different than going in to a studio and taking a physical class, but I think the girls over at Home Ec did a great job laying out step by step instructions and pictures. I can mostly follow everything (the hardest time I had was with the hemming the jeans...go figure). So let's look at some projects! The first project had two different techniques to make napkins.

Zig-zag stitch napkin

Ric-rac border napkin

I like polka-dots...Surprisingly, the ric-rac one was easier to sew than the zig-zag one. I have a whole bunch of fat quarters so I might be making more of these in the future.

The next project was a drawstring bag.

My sewing was kind of iffy here. I completely changed the dimensions of the bag because I thought something smaller would work fine and I wanted to use up some fat quarters.

Project three was a market/tote bag. This is one of my favorites. I love the fabric and I was so proud of my sewing.

Look at that baller x-joint

And those professional looking straps

At first I had sewn the straps on wrong, like two different straps on one side....silly me. But that was easily fixed with a seam ripper and some patience. I've used this bag so much already. And I still have more of the pretty fabric!

I skipped the fourth project (bunting) because it uses different colored smaller fabrics. I figure I would wait until the end to see what I would have leftover. So the next project I completed was a supplies roll-up. This project took a lot longer and my tension was off in my bobbin so the stitches are all messed up in the lining. I was a little lazy and didn't want to redo it, so I just left it as is. I don't plan on giving this to anyone anyway...The fabric pattern is kind of fun, though, right? The project actually called for an oilcloth outside, but I had this zebra print on hand already, and it was thicker than your average cotton, so I used it instead. I also made the roll-up bigger than called for because I wanted to use it for knitting needles.

Outside - rolled

Outside - unrolled

Inside - empty

The next project I completed was an ironing board cover. This was so simple! And so quick! I bought this lovely fabric from Joann and I ended up having a lot leftover (even with cutting way too much fabric out), so that's exciting. I needed the ironing clips badly because of all the extra fabric. Surprisingly the elastic was pretty easy to sew on. And "finishing" the edges with a zig-zag stitch wasn't too bad either, although it gives it a more rugged look.

See? Pretty fabric...

I'm working on pot holders right now, which are much needed. I only have one which doubles as an oven mitt. All I have left to do is finish the seam and find matching thread to quilt them. And instead of making one, I made 4, because there was enough fabric in the fat quarters to do that...I love fat quarters.

264: Yarn Bomb

Look what I saw today on the street:

Knitted graffiti! This is the second one that's popped up in Berkeley that I've seen. The last one I didn't get a chance to take a picture, but that's okay because this one has little ruffles! I love seeing knitting out on the street; it's so exciting. I feel like it's seeing someone else knitting in public - you know you're not the only one who shares your crazy obsession with yarn...

263: How Accurate

P.S. Yes, I really like that site....

260: I'm Alive!

Hi. I'm here. Still breathing and the like. Sorry about that one-month (30 days exactly!) hiatus. Besides my computer being out of service for a few days, I got sick. Like, a lot. First I got strep throat. That was okay because I had it before and I knew I just needed rest to get better. So I got rest. But then I went back to work too soon and relapsed-ish. I didn't have strep anymore but I was sick again. And tired. So I worked a little less but kept chugging on because I had to go to San Diego that weekend and I can't not work if I'm going to go to San Diego. So I went to SD for a weekend and spent all the first day on my feet, in the sun, at Legoland. Granted, it was a lot of fun, but probably not the best idea. The next day I spent on my feet as well, but more relaxed as I toured a bit of San Diego with one of my UCLA friends. All of this while I'm still sick, with a terrible sore throat. So I come back and go to work on Tuesday, another bad idea, and end up needed the rest of the week off because guess what, I had an ear infection. FAIL. So then I tried to recover from that, got some antibiotics (that wanted to rip apart my stomach into tiny pieces), which cleared up the ear but I was still congested with a sore throat. That wouldn't go away. For daaaays (with 4 a's!). Then my ear felt blocked again...So I went back to the doctor and she said, "It's either an infection that I'm not catching, or allergies." She gave me more antibiotics (ones that didn't want to kill me from the inside) and some allergy medicine. That did the trick. I'm finally healthy again (it's been a month??) and I can breath through my nose, mostly. I'm thinking I'm allergic to something in my apartment, or my immune system had a temporary failure...Normally my system is a lot stronger than that. I would get sick about once a year maximum. I feel like that's not that much, but maybe it is?

Anyway, even though I was dying sick I did a few crafty things, including my Home Ec course (which is technically done but I'm on like the 5th project or something...). I don't have pictures yet, but I plan on taking some of my pretty napkins, pouch, tote bag and supplies roll-up. And I might make a whole different sweater for my dad....but that's another story.

To wrap things up...

230: Finished Project (and the End of the World)

I made a cupcake cowl!

The pictures aren't amazing because I took them on my iPhone and uploaded them through Quickpic and Ravelry.

The reason I had to upload them from my phone is because my world just ended. My MacBook Pro decided not to wake up yesterday morning. It was a sad day. I tried turning it on but it would just turn back off. I could tell it was trying really hard to start up, but its screen stayed black, and then it just gave up. I tried taking the battery out like customer service (really nice, btw) had suggested and it still didn't work. So I'm waiting for Apple to send me a coffin FedEx box to send my baby in to them to repair. Hopefully they can bring it back to life. And maybe throw in Snow Leopard.

227: How to Be Alone

I like this. I found it here.

225: Love This

From here.

222: !!!

Remember the post about hippos? I just discovered this hippo kit while reading a blog that belongs to a fellow Home Ec student.

Want!

Update: They only deliver to the UK...*sigh*

219: I Got Yarn!

I got something in the mail today.

There were little flowery birds like this all over the paper my package was wrapped in.

I ordered some yarn from Yarns on Etsy and look at how gorgeous this is...

It's called cupcake, and as soon as I saw it, I had to have it. You know, since I like to bake and stuff...

It also reminds me of cotton candy, like, if I were to eat it, that's what it would taste like...And tutti frutti jelly beans, it looks like those too.

There were all these little stamped labels and such that just added to the adorableness of it all.

And with the package came a little surprise...

Stitch markers! Now I have legitimate stitch markers, not some flimsy plastic ones. They're so cute!