| y'all, my sister rocks |
monday 12.04.2006 |
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i was knitting the azalea during the thanksgiving weekend and one of my sisters commented that she'd like to try knitting some day. since i had to go the dentist in san jose this past saturday, i figured i'd swing by and hang with my sister for a bit. i brought along spare needles.
we ended up gabbing about nonsense for hours. then, right before i left for the dentist, i remembered about knitting. so i gave her a five minute lesson: cast on, knit, and purl.
i decided to show her the continental method. i figured that since she is an expert crocheter, she would be used to holding the yarn in her left hand. believe it or not, she struggled with the yarn holding, but she had no problem with the knit and purl stitches.
i saw to it that she cast on 15 brand new stitches before i left. at the door i said in jest: i hope to see a scarf when i swing by tomorrow.
that's what i saw on sunday. she wasn't home but her husband was. he mentioned that my sister was holding the yarn funny. i asked how he would know. he said: my mom taught me how to knit when i was a kid. i think he might have impressed me more than my sister did.
so, not only can my sister knit and purl, she can also increase.
20 stitches on the needle (15 at cast on)
you can see the increasing on the left hand side of that picture. she did it all on her own. i lost stitches when i first learned. i guess my sister found them.
it looks like i have to move a bit faster with these lessons. i suspect she may have already figured out how to decrease by sunday afternoon. i won't see her again until christmas. who knows what she'll have knitted by then. a seamless aran, probably.
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| baa baa blue sheep |
tuesday 12.05.2006 |
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bill came into my office the other day right when i received six pounds of roving from paradise fibers. he immediately started saying: baa baa.
then he told me how he used to do his laundry at a joint on de la vina. and every so often he'd see a man knitting. turned out to be a male nurse who knits to relax after a long work day. wish i was there witness this scene.
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i don't know what possessed me to do post these. they're the actual steps i took to come up with the knitwit sheep. someone asked what programs i use. just two: autocad for lines and photoshop for colors. very easy.
thanks to holly for having introduced me to the concept of coloring in layers in photoshop. makes it even more fun to mess with these bird brain sketches.
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| the george+erin show |
monday 12.11.2006 |
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i had a great weekend, rain and all. why? because my best friend erin was back in town!
da doctor is in da house
i had a terrific time hanging with erin. we shopped, gabbed, watched movies, and even had craft night. look who joined us!
my housemate george
friday night erin and i went to thai food. then we hit up borders for knitting books and magazines. some hours later we left the store empty handed. we decided to go home for craft night.
when we got home i noticed craft supplies on the kitchen counter. to my surprise, they belonged to george. he bought them to make a gag gift for his work christmas party.
george was very methodical with his craft project. he had never done it before so he had to discuss each step at length before executing it. he needed a lot of advice. but only because he had finished a bottle of wine with dinner.
meanwhile, erin worked on a christmas present for her brother. i sort of worked on the azalea; i was too busy running around taking pictures making fun of george.
i was actually pretty taken by george's project. he got the idea from a shirt someone had given him with his initial hand sewn on it. it looks rudimentary but crafty. i forgot to take a picture of it.
c for metro
threading
moving right along
all the while watching you me and dupree
crafters vw golf drivers
george loving "crafty night"
erin, still vibrant well past midnight
voila
with that, our exciting friday came to an end. salinas place hadn't seen so much craft action since the odaniels visited. george plans on making a couple more of these shirts before christmas. if you're interested in coming by to poke fun at my housemate, please drop me a line.
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this post brought to you by the letter
stay tuned for the thuy+erin show
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| the reveal |
tuesday 12.12.2006 |
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i had posted about the unopening of the envelope on the knitting project forum and effectively drove everyone nuts. even berlin wants to see the hat already.
i didn't mean to hold out. i actually opened the envelope first thing saturday, right before i got my coffee.
love at first glance
sigh
how much i love my hat: the knitting, the colors, the pattern (norwegian, no less), even the note! i wore it all day saturday while shopping up and down state street. i even got a compliment while i was in anthropologie!
at saturday farmers' market
i need to go snowboarding so i can put my new snazzy hat in action. snow or otherwise, i hope to take lots of fun pictures of me in it. yes, watch out!
great big thanks to trond for the hat and to erin for the pictures. my christmas is made.
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| the thuy+erin show |
wednesday 12.13.2006 |
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that's erin bright and early saturday at the farmers' market on cota. we made sure to hit starbucks before we let the shopping begin. it was a bit rainy but we did fine hopping from tent to tent.
erin buying organic beans
and crispy apple chips
tasting bee pollen
i had four beads of the pollen and they each tasted differently. and not anything distinguishable, either. erin tried some, too. i think that's her facial expression for odd tasting edible product.
erin putting her brand new camera to the test
the best find of the day was the succulent plants seller.
schmee loves little old ladies
not only was she adorable, she was thoroughly knowledgeable about her plants, too. even doctor erin was impressed.
my purchase, pregnant and with babies
after farmers' market we hit state street. it was pretty early so we were more or less the only shoppers in every store we hit. i took full advantage of every mirror i saw.
coach
american apparel
look at our outfits. how can it be possible that we were dressed for the same weather?
kissed by a polar deer at z gallerie
we headed up state and ended up the yarn store on figueroa. we were hoping to get a glimpse of the well publicized book signing. except we were mistaken. we were 26 hours too early.
erin continued to shop
we hung around the store anyway and chatted up the owner. neither of us had ever seen this yarn shop since it changed hands.
after that we headed back down state for hamburger habit. but not before erin waved her credit card around some more at anthropologie.
upstairs at anthropologie
side note: i was hoping to get a close look at the rapunzel hat but it is not carried in-store. alas.
the foodie's lunch of choice
that was pretty much the last i saw of erin before she left town. our time together was short but i enjoyed every minute of it. we've already made plans for the next get together. i can only hope that george will be there to entertain us.
george (complete with alcohol+nicely wrapped gag gift)
ready to rock saturday night
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| azalea butchered |
tuesday 12.19.2006 |
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i have been working on the azalea off an on, making decent progress. it is now 1,164 stitches around. and i still enjoy knitting it.
as the shawl is close to being done, i have been wondering how it would be worn. folded in half, probably. the idea got me thinking about how the pattern would look when cut in half.
trial one
black+white because the lighting was so bad when i took the pictures this morning that i've decided that they look better without color. anyway, that's exactly half the original shawl pattern.
trial two
and that's 5/12 of the azalea. i cut one leaf repeat out of the half pattern to see if i could get the shawl to look more like a half circle. it works well, except i have decided that i prefer the shape of the first trial better.
but, as much as i love the look of the half shawl, i don't think i will be casting on for it any time soon. i just can't imagine having to purl over 500 stitches in a row.
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| live, from dresden |
friday 12.29.2006 |
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how much i love that picture! my friend anett sent it to me along with a short report:
hi thuy,
I'm knitting! it's so exciting! I'm knitting with Jan and his grandma
and the first "thing" it is - cuffs for my sister's birthday!!! And all
the time I have to [t]hink of you....I need to send you a pic once
I'm ready!!!
follow up emails reveal that she's learning to knit and:
I'm doing terribel mistakes which jan and his granny have to
correct.
sigh, i love germans. i'm gonna see if i could convince her and jan to start up a knit group. watch out, dresden!
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