Bits and Pieces

Autumn Branches Finale

2012-01-27T01:32:00.000-08:00

Project: Autumn Branches 秋树

Pattern: Branching Out by Susan Lawrence, free download on Ravelry

Yarn: Pajolo Alpacas Lace Weight

Yardage: 2.1oz, 200 yards

Needles: Size 8

Finished Size: 14 feet long !!

Cost: $12.60

Cast on: December 18, 2011

Cast off: January 25, 2012

Previous entries: here and here

Notes: Never under estimate a small ball of lace yarn unless you want a super long scarf. The yarn was lovely and the pattern was complex, it was a joy to work on it, but I sure am glad it's finally over and I can move on to another sweater.

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment!

Autumn Branches, Still Growing

2012-01-20T01:33:00.000-08:00

Autumn Branches is supposed to be a quick and easy transition project after St. Brigid, before the next big thing. It started with a little ball, only 200 yards, such a small yardage I pondered what to do with it. After working on it daily for a month, there is still quite a bit more yarn left. I rolled up the finished part so I have no idea how long the scarf is now, but I'm going to finish it as planned. I may have to wear the scarf double, triple, or quadruple. Super long scarves are in, right?

Tuesday morning I met up with some knitting friends, who didn't mind me taking pictures of their projects and showing them off here.

Sue's wavy scarf

Jamie's Lacy Rib Socks

Mari's Noro shawl and yarn for hats

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

New Project: Autumn Branches 秋树

2012-01-13T01:29:00.000-08:00

Project: Autumn Branches 秋树
Pattern: Branching Out by Susan Lawrence, free download on Ravelry
Yarn: Pajolo Alpacas Lace Weight
Yardage: 2.1oz, 200 yards
Needles: Size 8
Cast on: December 18, 2011
Notes: Extremely fine yarn on relatively big needles, and you get lace. I bought this yarn at Stitches a few years ago. It's so fine and delicate, it wants to become something very sweet and lady-like. It's very soft too, you know, like good alpaca should. There is not much yardage, so a very lacy scarf seems to be the answer.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

2012 Knitting Forecast

2012-01-06T01:43:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone has their feet solidly into 2012 by now. If you are like me you'll be writing 2011 for a few more months and that's OK, no one is going to vote you off the island. On Wednesday Henry and I went to visit my mom in Carmel and picked up her charity knitting. These are what she did besides her holiday knitting for her friends in the retirement community, doctors, nurses, bus drivers, etc. Yeah, she's productive. I brought her two big bags of yarn to keep her going.

crochet child's ponchos and knitted/crochet hat/scarf sets

Carmel beach

When I was a child we were always made to produce new years resolutions, and no one bothered to stick to them. So to keep my adult life easier I decide just come right out and admit what I'm not going to do, and let's call it "un-resolution". These are not things I'm trying to quit or stay away, like latte, but rather things I know I won't be doing for whatever reason. But don't quote me if I end up doing any of them. It's a forecast, not reality. Here we go:

1. I won't run out and buy a spinning wheel and learn to spin.
2. Same goes for loom and weaving.
3. I probably won't knit a cozy for anything that generally should remain naked, like teapot, toilet paper roll, chairs, kitchen sink, sofa bed, yoga mat, bus, boat, Boeing 747.
4. I'm not too crazy about cowls, so I probably won't be knitting one of those, even tho it's all the rage. I was made to wear them when I was young and they were very uncomfortable, and they get in the way of my hair.
5. I can’t resist buying yarn at Stitches West tho I don’t need more yarn and shouldn’t spend the money.
6. I won't create, check out or follow a fiber arts bucket list and in turn feel miserable about my lack of knowledge and adventurism.
7. I don't spend time designing and test knitting. Too many pretty patterns out there and I'm a good follower, except for when I change the patterns.

(This reminds me of some Knitting Revelations I wrote years ago, feel free to check it out.)

Happy Friday and Happy New Year! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment!

A Year of Knitting

2011-12-30T01:05:00.000-08:00

From top left corner:

First row:

1. Fair Isle hats, finished in January

2. Rascal's cable sweater, finished February 4

3. Parker Cardigan, finished May 28

Second row:

1. Oslo Walk Shawl, finished June 25

2. Light and Lacy crochet vest, finished July 15

3. Peppermint Ginger sweater, finished August 16

Third row:

1. Knotty Vest, finished September 3

2. Safe Return mittens, finished September 27

3. Tappan Zee cardigan, finished October 15

Bottom: St. Brigid, finished December 18

This is one of my most productive years. I'm very happy to revisit all the project notes and everyone's comments on Fiber Arts Friday posts. I really enjoyed being part of this excellent group, and the regular postings helped me organized and stay on track. Here is best wishes for a wonderful knitterly 2012!

Happy Friday and Happy New Year! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment!

St. Brigid Finale

2011-12-23T01:07:00.000-08:00

Project: St. Brigid
Pattern: St. Brigid by Alice Starmore, from Aran Knitting
Yarn: Scottish wool, heavy worsted to Aran weight
Yardage: 1000g, about 2000 yards
Needles: Size 6
Cast on: September 27, 2011
Cast off: December 18, 2011
Finished size: Chest 48 inches, body length 26 inches, wingspan 59 inches
Cost: No retail cost. Traded from Scotland for a box of cashmere from China (gift from my aunt). A lot of airline mileage but no money exchanged.
Previous entries: Beginning (yarn story), Front and Back, Sleeves, Edging, Finishing
Modifications:
1. To accommodate the heavy yarn, I followed the pattern for the smaller size, took out one braid panel (chart B) from each side of front and back (total four panels taken out) to make body narrower.
2. Instead of fringe, I used the braid pattern (chart B) as edging on the bottom on the body.
3. I used the same braid pattern for neck band, and a simple 3 x 3 cable for the cuffs.

This is one of the more complex cable sweaters I've knitted. The construction and cables are straight forward and given the oversized look on the model I was ready for modifications. I was determined to use the Scottish wool for this pattern, even tho it's heavier than called for, and that brought on more adjustments. From this and couple of sweaters this year -- Peppermint Ginger, Light and Lacy -- I've learned how important finishing is in fitting. Knitting (and crochet) creates fabric, and finishing is the step to make the fabric into a garment fit a grow human's body. If you are a selfish knitter like me and mostly make things for yourself, you want them to fit! The tinkering doesn't scare me, I'm just glad it all worked out fine and I'm happy with the result.

Happy Friday and Merry Christmas! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment!

Almost There; Rascalversary

2011-12-16T01:25:00.000-08:00

St. Brigid is "this close" to being done. I have a bit of yarn left and I'm putting some cable edging on the sleeves. This week I ripped the side seams apart, blocked the front and back, sewed the pieces back together with an attempt to lengthen the sweater a bit, then added cable edging on the bottom (you can't see it in the picture but it's there), and redid the neck band to tighten up. Next week: Finale!

Thursday was Rascal's home coming day! Exactly a year ago we took the skinny little puppy home from his rescue foster home. You can read Rascal's full story here. At the time we were told he was closer to eight months old, but he's done so much growing (in weight and relative maturity) in the past year, we think he was probably closer to six months, which makes him right about a year and half now. No matter, we are thrilled to have our perfect little Rascal, who does everything to live up to his name.

Earlier this year I shared some of my charity stash with a local middle school's new knitting club. This week I received this cute card the students drew and signed. Isn't it sweet?

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

St. Brigid, Knitting with Friends

2011-12-09T01:51:00.000-08:00

St. Brigid continues to grow at a good clip. Front, back, both sleeves are seamed, collar added. As I was seaming I remembered I was in such a hurry to see how the sweater looked, I forgot to block the pieces. Now the side seams look a little strange, I may have to take them apart and redo the seams. Even after taking out two panels on each piece, the sweater still looks very square. I'm adding a round a braid on the bottom, hoping to make it more vertical, and hopefully the blocking and seaming would help too.

On Tuesday I invited some friends over to knit. These ladies from South Bay Knitters are incredibly talented, in knitting and other fiber arts. Over the years their creativity, their thorough knowledge of fibers, and their tireless intellectual pursuits have pushed me to advance myself in many ways.

Jocelyn of the sock machine's fame is working on a cable and lace scarf

Sylvia working on a baby hat for charity

Carol's Christmas stocking for her grandson

Carol, who blogs at And All That Yarn, is thinking about joining Fiber Arts Friday. Her blog is full of beautiful pictures of her knitting, go take a look and give her a big welcome!

St. Brigid Progress

2011-12-02T01:08:00.000-08:00

St. Brigid is coming along nicely. For such a large project, I'm making better progress than I anticipated. Front and back are both done, one sleeve is done, the other is close to shoulder decrease. The front and back look too square for my taste even tho I took out a panel from each side (total four panels taken out). If there is enough yarn left I will see about adding couple rounds of braids on the bottom to make the body longer.

Some California fall colors:

Orchid blooming second time since the summer.

My home grown persimmon.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Charity Knitting

2011-11-25T01:47:00.000-08:00

Hope all of my friends in the US had a great Thanksgiving holiday! On Wednesday Henry had the day off so we went to visit my mom and pick up some of her finished knitting. My mom is a very proficient knitter, and nowadays mostly knits for charity. If you click on the CIC label on the right hand side column there are some pictures of her knitting from couple of years ago.

It's been rainy so I have to take pictures indoor, the flash really hurts colors.

child's vest

berets and Rascal

knit/crochet baby blanket #1

more berets (wish I got these before Halloween)

baby vest

knit/crochet baby blanket #2

knit/crochet baby blanket #3

little girl hat and scarf set

child's vest

Happy Black Friday! When you are not busy shopping, join the cyber party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment!

The Knitting Room

2011-11-18T01:53:00.000-08:00

I worked at The Knitting Room in San Jose when I stayed home with Henry way back. The owners Mary Ann and Ed both had retired from high tech, so they were my mentors and role models in knitting, fiber arts, and life. This week is their 20 years anniversary as owners of the shop and they put up a big sale, everything in the shop was 20% off. I was very happy to have a chance to visit and catch up with Mary Ann.

Cascade 220

Manos de Uruguay lace

Yarn bowls

Finally have a picture with Mary Ann!

I had a hard time choosing what to buy as always. I had never seen this Plymouth Mushishi before, it's 95% wool, 5% silk, 491 yards, enough to make a little wrap. The yarn feels warm and lofty, and the silk gives it a nice texture.

Loot: Plymouth Yarn Mushishi

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

St Brigid Progress, Ireland

2011-11-11T01:58:00.000-08:00

I'm making good progress on St. Brigid. The back (draped on the back of the chair) is done and front is more than half way done. The back has six pattern repeats, and I just finished the fourth one on the front, so time to think about neckline pretty soon.

Completely unrelated. A few weeks ago I received a private message on Ravelry from a knitter in Ireland. She saw 20 skeins of WEBS store brand, Valley Yarns Stockbridge, in my stash and was wondering if I could sell it to her. WEBS doesn't ship internationally. I knitted Spencer Day in this yarn and rather liked it, but to help a fellow knitter I was ready to sacrifice. I figured I could always replenish at next Stitches, as if I wouldn't do that already. I emailed her back, told her I'd sell her at retail plus shipping. She replied back quickly and said if shipping rate was reasonable we had a deal. (first alarm). So I went on to check the shipping rates. The big carriers, UPS, Fedex, DHL, all wanted $140+ for 5lbs, $80 worth of yarn. USPS was the most reasonable, at $45. That's insane. Someone on Ravelry mentioned if we were lucky we might be able to find a traveler to carry the yarn in luggage. Low and behold, I actually found another knitter on Ravelry who was going to Ireland from Maryland in couple of weeks. It would cost me about $10 to send the yarn to her, and she even offered to deliver the yarn to the buyer if she was in Dublin. I was so happy! During the entire time I kept in touch with the buyer, telling her what I was trying every day. The day after I found the hand carrier, I got an email from the buyer, she was laid off from her journalist job and had to cut back her yarn spending. She apologized over and over for putting me through the trouble. I was very surprised we could make this deal work at all, and even more surprised how it didn't work in the end. But I was happy to keep the yarn!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Sock Knitting Phantom

2011-11-04T01:15:00.000-07:00

My friend Jocelyn is an engineer. I've known Jocelyn since I joined the South Bay Knitters in 1998. We both work in high tech and our kids are close in age, so we have a lot to share. In the past couple of years, Jocelyn got addicted to sock knitting machines, so she bought a few of them (something to the number of 10). Jocelyn is a huge fan of The Phantom of the Opera, so she named the machines as her cast of characters. Here they are in her own words:

"There's Christine the 2007 NZAK, Buquet a Verdun 47, there are the two Legare 400s Firmin and Andre, the large Legare Piangi, the Gearhart Madame Giry, the Canadian AK Meg, the Verdun Semi-Automatic Raoul, and of course the English AK the Phantom itself."

Did I mention she's an engineer? I'm not sure if I understand 50% of this. But if you counted, that's only nine. Her most recent acquisition, and I had the honor of seeing her working in action this week, is " NZAK Mark IV. It's the cadillac of all machines, with steel inserts, brass stoppers, she's a marvel, and my Carlotta."

Jocelyn's own blog entries about the machines are here, here, here and here. Stop by and tell her how awesome she is!

One of these black ones is Phantom, I think the one on the left.

The pink ones (they are more red in real life) are Christine
(the bigger one on the stand on the right) and Meg.

Carlotta and Jocelyn in action.

A full size sock in less than an hour!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Knitting Group Show and Tell

2011-10-28T01:55:00.000-07:00

I have been going to South Bay Knitters group meetings since I picked up the needles again in 1998. This group of ladies have inspired me to do many things that I never imagined I'd do, in a good way. I'm very lucky to have them in my fiber life.

I converse with a lot of people in my day job, though email, LinkedIn updates, Skype, instant messages, Facebook, Twitter, not to mention lengthy phone calls and interviews. Some days I'm literarily talked out, so I have not been meeting with my friends as much as I'd like. Last night was our monthly meeting, it's so refreshing to talk to friends. You know, no one has to plead for a job, or give empty promises, or play some name dropping to show off the superiority. It's just a group of women, knitting, and chatting.

Candace's Stephen West Earth & Sky shawl

A new member knitted this sparkly little sweater.

Julie's baby sweater for her grand niece

Lisa's baby sweater for her niece, pattern is Little Hanten,
by Cheryl Oberle, from Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders.
It's a lot prettier in person!

Lisa's Fair Isle cardigan from Knit Picks Palette. It's stunning!

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment!

Tappan Zee Finale 大班老师

2011-10-21T01:18:00.000-07:00

decrease on both sides

unmatched buttons

Project: Tappan Zee 大班老师
Pattern: Tappan Zee cardigan by Amy King, Knitty Spring + Summer 2010
Yarn: Knit Picks Merino Style, DK weight, 100% wool
Yardage: 6 skeins, 738 yards in stash, used every inch of it!
Needles: Size 6
Cast on: September 3, 2011
Cast off: October 15, 2011
Cost: $18
Notes: I made button holes all the way down so I can wear it as a regular cardigan. I added waist shaping on the sides, but ran out of yarn so not all the stitches were added back. The finished hip is smaller than finished chest size. The button holes came out really small, none of my good buttons would fit. So I raided my "spare" button stash, you know, all those little packs that come with shirts or pants or jackets, I got a big pile of them. The result is seven buttons mix and match, I think it's pretty cool. Adds character, right?

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment!

New Project: St. Brigid

2011-10-14T01:32:00.000-07:00

Project: St. Brigid
Pattern: St. Brigid by Alice Starmore, from Aran Knitting
Yarn: Scottish wool
Yardage: 1000g, about 2000 yards
Needles: Size 6
Cast on: September 27, 2011

Notes: I have been a Starmore fan since whenever, and I have wanted to knit St. Brigid since whenever. I have knitted a few Aran sweaters over the years, but I always see her designs as the ultimate goal I should try to accomplish. And let me tell you, now that I have knitted a few repeats on this design, it's really not that difficult.

The yarn came to me from Harris, Western Isles, Scotland. A few years ago I was on Knitswap (a Yahoo group) a lot, scoping out good deals. A lady from Scotland asked if anyone would like to swap with her, something that she could not find in Scotland. I had a small stash of Chinese cashmere that my aunt sent me so I traded that for Scottish wool. Quite a trade, isn't it? Something soft and smooth for something strong and hardy. The yarn is so perfect for the Starmore design, so perfect for the twist and turns and knots and crosses, it's telling a story as it runs through my fingers. I love touching the cables as my work completes itself, feeling it's roughness, and hearing the tales from a far away place.

The stitch markers are little pugs that I got in my first and last swap in the pug group on Ravelry. Bucky was so deeply ingrained in my life for over 15 years, now I cherish every bit of pugness in my life.

Rascal says Hi!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Gift Yarn; Purlescence

2011-10-07T01:23:00.000-07:00

I received this super nice skein from Ally of AllyB...that's Me! this week. Ally is responsible for leading me to Fiber Arts Friday, after we met and got to know each other in the pug group on Ravelry. This is a skein of her hand spun, corriedale plied with kid mohair and silk. I can't say enough how much I love this yarn, it's lofty and smooth, with just the right amount of irregularity. It will become something very nice to wear I'm sure.

Last week I had some time to kill while running errands around town, so I treated myself with a visit with one of the yarn shops in the area, Purlescence Yarns in Sunnyvale. I haven't been to this shop for couple of years, and they have moved since my last visit. Now they have a much larger store front, which is very well lit, and there is enough room to lay out all the spinning wheels and looms.

Better view of the wheels on the shelf.

Today is my husband's birthday and our wedding anniversary. Never get tired of seeing our younger selves!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Safe Return Mittens Finale

2011-09-30T01:42:00.000-07:00

The lonely mitten from last week now has a mate!

Safe Return Mittens

2011-09-23T01:28:00.000-07:00

Project: Safe Return Mittens
Pattern: Safe Return Mittens by Robin Hansen, Knitting Traditions Winter 2011
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool
Yardage: odd balls from assorted projects
Needles: Size 6 and 8
Cast on: September 16, 2011

Notes: I've always wanted some fancy mittens for my walks in the winter. Yes, it's California, but we do have cold mornings, like in the 40s or 50s. I like my delicate fingers stay warm so I can keep on knitting and tapping the keyboard. The pattern is supposed to be waves in different shades of blue, but I'm too lazy for that. Even with two colors for the body and three color stripes on the cuff, I'm reminded why I never loved color work -- so many ends to weave in, so fidgety! I'm also knitting at a much looser gauge than the pattern, so I'm using Child Large sizing for me. The magazine Knitting Traditions is one of those once-in-a-while magazines from Interweave Knits, and it's more expensive than regular magazines, but it's full of good content and very worth keeping.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Tappan Zee 大班老师

2011-09-16T01:38:00.000-07:00

Project: Tappan Zee 大班老师
Pattern: Tappan Zee cardigan by Amy King, Knitty Spring + Summer 2010
Yarn: Knit Picks Merino Style, DK weight, 100% wool
Yardage: 6 skeins, 738 yards in stash
Needles: Size 6
Cast on: September 3, 2011
Notes: This is for Ravelry China group Fall knit-along. It's a relatively quick and easy top down cap sleeve cardigan. I'm right above the arm hole divide, and the rest is all stockinette. Depend on how much yarn I have left (and how bored I am with the plain knitting), I might add some sleeves too.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Knotty Vest Finale 伦敦结

2011-09-09T01:47:00.000-07:00

Project: Knotty Vest 伦敦结
Pattern: Knotty Vest by Ram Wools Yarn Co-op (free download on Ravelry)
Yarn: Passport Yarn Co. London, 80% wool, 13% acrylic, 7% rayon
Yardage: 770 yards in stash, used about 550 yards
Needles: Size 8
Cast on: July 17 2011
Cast off: September 3, 2011
Cost: estimate $20. The yarn was being discontinued and there was a big sale at Michael's.
Notes: Although the cables look complex, this was a quick knit. I made the front and back the same, and lowered the neckline to match the shape of the cables.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Knotty Vest 伦敦结

2011-09-02T01:42:00.000-07:00

Project: Knotty Vest 伦敦结
Pattern: Knotty Vest by Ram Wools Yarn Co-op (free download on Ravelry)
Yarn: Passport Yarn Co. London, 80% wool, 13% acrylic, 7% rayon
Yardage: 770 yards in stash
Needles: Size 8
Cast on: July 17 2011

Notes: After couple of simple projects, I was itchy for some complex texture action, so I started this right after casting on PepperMint Ginger. I love the way the cables are designed, how they are independent and yet connected. It's my first time to knit cables in the round, which proved to be more challenging than I anticipated. Instead of knitting the non-crossing rows back, now I have to either remember my rows, or be able to tell the crossing by their look and feel. The yarn, London, was discontinued a few years ago and I bought a big batch of it at Michael's on clearance. The Chinese name means London knots, a word play on the names of the yarn and pattern.

Peppermint Ginger Finale

2011-08-26T01:51:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Ginger by Kim Hargreaves (Ravelry free download)

Project: Peppermint Ginger

Yarn: Rio de la Plata handspun kettle dyed 100% wool

Yardage: 560 yards in stash

Needles: US Size 7 & 9

Previous entries: started, math problem

Cast on: July 16, 2011

Cast off: August 16, 2011

Notes: I started with four skeins of yarn, used three skeins for the body, there should be enough for two three-quarter sleeves. Sort of. The second sleeve was only an inch or two shorter than the first. But can you tell from the finished picture? I made the front and back the same, deep V neck, and the result was the sweater slid down my shoulders like I'm a show girl. Henry helped me pick out a bright blue yarn to offset the "too much pink", so I made a very long i-cord out of it for the neckline. I love the overall artsy feel of this sweater, thick and thin single yarn, unpolished edges, unmatching sleeves, unique neckline. I see a lot of wearing the future.

Sleeves, one slightly longer than the other

Rascal invited himself to the photo shoot.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Vacation Yarn Shopping Part Two

2011-08-19T01:05:00.000-07:00

On the way home from Santa Barbara I made the guys stop at couple of yarn shops for me. Fortunately The Man had bronchitis during the trip, not pleasant, but it made him much more willing to give up the wheel. I drove the car straight to the yarn shops.

Yarns at the Adobe is in San Luis Obispo, on a side street in the downtown area. The shop was cute and pretty, had loads of lovely yarns, both fancy expensive stuff and the every day wools. The owner was running a tea party when I was there, an actual tea party with the hot beverage and little sandwiches, so I was left on my own to wonder about.

Yarn arranged to coordinate with the adobe themed mural.

The Scarlet Skein is in Paso Robles. The shop is large and airy and comfortable. There was even a little dog to greet me. The sad part was I couldn't find a thing to buy, even tho the entire shop was 25% off. The entire shop! I have a good sized stash, and I've shopped in a lot of places, I'm picky.

I did not come home empty handed. Here are two skeins of O-wool worsted weight from the sale rack at Knit and Pearl Boutique in Santa Barbara. I've read lots of good reviews about this yarn and now I have a chance to try it myself.

Last week I won the button give away on Melissa's blog Curly Bird Express, and she packed all these nice buttons just for me! Aren't they beautiful? These are just some of them. Thanks Melissa!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Yarn Shopping in Santa Barbara

2011-08-12T01:04:00.000-07:00

This week we are enjoying a much anticipated week-long vacation in Santa Barbara. We've passed through the town quite a few times when we traveled to and from Los Angeles and San Diego areas, but never spent much time to explore. This is a beautiful city, with Spanish style architecture everywhere, and a huge downtown leading to the ocean. We rented a small bungalow that's built on top of a garage. The home owner listed it on TripAdvisor, and the week rent for this nicely furnished two bedroom one bath apartment with full kitchen is much less than any hotel I could find, no brainer!

Of course, what's a vacation without yarn shopping! So far I've visited three shops in Santa Barbara, with more planned on the way home. Here is my experience so far, good and bad.

Loop and Leaf is a block away from the main drag (State St.) in downtown. Very cute little house turned yarn shop which also sells its own tea blend. The shop is pretty small (cozy/cramped). I got in an hour after they opened. There were two ladies sitting in the living room knitting, they barely acknowledged when I walked in, which is fine as I usually enjoy to be left alone. There was a class in one of the rooms, I heard one of the ladies telling someone it’s ok to go in as the class was ending and there were a lot of yarn in that room. I tried to go in to look at the yarn, twice, and was stared back like I was an alien. the other room was the tea room with yarn, books, etc., but someone kept vacuuming in it. Couldn’t get around her. I was quite disappointed at the experience as I was really looking forward to visiting this shop.

Cardigans is a little ways away from downtown, also a very cute house. I went there in the late afternoon but not close to closing time. Another class in session in an area full of yarn and books, but I was able to check out the rest of the shop (more than half). Quite a bit of high end stuff, nice displays.

Knit and Pearl Boutique is also in the downtown area, away from Loop and Leaf (it’s a very large downtown). The shop is slightly bigger, very friendly staff. Fortunately there was no class in session when I visited, so it was very pleasant. On the other hand, their table and chairs are set up away from the yarn displays, so visitors won’t be in the middle of a class. They had Mission Falls and O-Wool, among other things, on the sale rack. Super :-)

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Peppermint Ginger -- Math Test

2011-08-05T01:46:00.000-07:00

I started with four skeins of Aran weight Rio de la Plata Kettle dyed wool, used almost exactly three skeins for the front and back. If two full length sleeves take a third of the yarn in a sweater, how much sleeves will I get with this last skein of yarn? I'm guessing 3/4 sleeves, but we shall see. It might just be my wishful thinking.

In case you missed Rascal, here he is enjoying some sandwich time. He folds himself between the cushion and the bed, just like Trinket did.

Don't forget to visit Andrea's blog for the Fiber Arts Friday party!

Peppermint Ginger Top

2011-07-29T01:31:00.000-07:00

Project: Peppermint Ginger
Pattern: Ginger, designed by Kim Hargreaves (free on Ravelry)
Yarn: Rio de la Plata handspun kettle dyed 100% wool
Yardage: 560 yards in stash
Needles: Size 7 & 9
Cast on: July 16 2011
Notes: Another project with China group on Ravelry. The yarn is a lovely single spun, thick and thin, very lofty at places, I hope it'll bloom nicely after a wash. The pattern is for a summer top, with crew neck in front and V neck in the back. Since I'm knitting in this heavy wool yarn, mine will be more like a layering piece. It will be a little longer than the pattern, with V neck on the front and back. Looks like I have enough yarn for some sleeves too.

Light and Lacy Finale

2011-07-22T01:45:00.000-07:00

Project: Light and Lacy 波萝丝

Pattern: Light and Lacy by Doris Chan

Yarn: Schachenmayr Nomotta Belana, superwash wool

Color: F8410, blue

Yardage: Had 4 balls, 546 yards in stash, used exactly 3 balls, plus small amount of white Encore worsted weight for edgingHook: US Size G & I

Previous entries: in progress

Cast on: June 25, 2011

Cast off: July 15, 2011

Cost: About $15 (I don't remember buying the yarn, so this is really an estimate.)

Notes: The beginning was difficult, but once the body was joined together it was fun making the pineapple motives. The Chinese name of the project means shredded pineapple, a word play on the translation of lace and shreds. I made this top as part of Crochet-Along with the China Group on Ravelry. My crochet skills are practically next to none so this was a very good practice. Another reason was so I could use my fancy Brittany rosewood hooks. When I first started knitting this time around, in 1998, Brittany needles and hooks were all the rage. I collected a stash of their rosewood straight needles and crochet hooks. Then they stopped making them. The price for the needles went sky high. I couldn't resist the temptation of making a quick buck and sold all the needles on eBay. These hooks survived. It feels good just to touch them.

Light and Lacy China CAL

2011-07-15T01:42:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Light and Lacy by Doris Chan

Yarn: Schachenmayr Nomotta Belana, superwash wool

Yardage: 546 yards in stash

Color: F8410, blue

Hook: US Size G & I

Cast on: June 25, 2010

Notes: I learned to crochet with steel hook and cotton threads when I was a little girl, but never done much other than an occasional edging. This is my first time to crochet from a pattern, and to make a garment that supposed to fit a human body. The beginning was a bit challenging, I couldn't even figure out where in the pattern was the "cast on". I was constantly lost where I was on the garment. When I finally got the idea how the back and front and shoulders fit together, I thought the shoulder straps were way too short, so I added a few rows (like quite a few). This resulted a massively plunging neckline that only JLo would wear in public. I added a round of white to pull it together. Now, that looks better.

(Update to add, this is not done yet (yarn and markers attached!), still yet to finish the bottom, and white edgings around the arm holes to match the neckline.)

Knit Sighting

2011-07-08T01:20:00.000-07:00

For this week's Fiber Arts Friday, I'm going to feature some knit sightings of late. To see lots of other interesting fiber arts, be sure to visit Andrea's blog Wisdom Begins in Wonder.

Saw some very neat yarn bombing in downtown San Jose during the long weekend. These were put up during International yarn bombing day on June 14.

On July 4th we went to Marin County Fair where fiber arts were on display with their winnings. This is only a partial sampling of what was there, we have some truly talented people in the area!

Last but not least, a knitter's cake!

Oslo Walk Shawl Finale

2011-07-01T01:21:00.000-07:00

Project: Oslo Walk Shawl

Pattern: Oslo Walk Shawl by Susanna IC, Interweave Knits Winter 2010
Yarn: The Periwinkle Sheep watercolors sock yarn, 75% merino, 25% nylon, 420 yards. I used just about the entire skein.
Needles: US Size 6

Previous entries: planning, lifeline, home stretch

Cast on: May 29, 2011

Cast off: June 25, 2011

Notes: I really enjoyed working with this yarn and pattern. The yarn is so soft, and Karin has a huge range of colors to choose from. She will be at Sock Summit, and her etsy store is always there. Susanna has a few other very pretty small shawls and they will work very well for my other hand dyed sock yarns too.

Oslo Walk Shawl Home Stretch

2011-06-24T01:03:00.000-07:00

Only a few short rows away from casting off! This picture shows the center panel of the shawl, the widest part, the short row makes a lovely crescent shape. This shawl has been a quick knit, and I will miss the buttery yarn and easy pattern when I'm done.

On the cheap knitting front, couple of weeks ago we went to Michael's to buy a frame and there was a huge yarn clearance (you know where this is going). I scored eight balls of Paton's Classic Wool, $2.99 each, all same dye lot. That's enough for a sweater for me. Made my day!

Don't forget to visit Andrea's blog where Fiber Arts Friday party is going, lots of cool people and cool projects there.

Lifeline

2011-06-17T01:36:00.000-07:00

I have knitted quite a few lace projects in my knitting life, include big shawls like Irish Diamond Shawl and Muir (do click on the links, the shawls are lovely). Luckily, I never messed up too much to use a lifeline. If you are not familiar with it, lifeline is a contrasting thread that you insert in a row, generally below where you want to rip back, so you don't end up dropping massive number of stitches. It's usually used in lace knitting because all the yarn overs and knit togethers make it very hard to pick up the right number of stitches. Some people insert lifeline at regular intervals, I'm much too lazy/dense/ignorant for that.

So guess what I had to do this week? Lifeline threaded through 369 stitches, rip back five rows, pick up 369 stitches (plus or minus a few), add some yarn overs to make the stitch count right, re-insert all the stitch markers. This is an "after" picture, doesn't look too bad, does it? I have only two or three lace rows left, then short row decreases. Easy :-)

New Project: Oslo Walk Shawl

2011-06-10T01:49:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Oslo Walk Shawl by Susanna IC, Interweave Knits Winter 2010

Yarn: The Periwinkle Sheep watercolors sock yarn, 75% merino, 25% nylon

Yardage: 420 yards

Color: Avocado (light green)

Needle: US Size 6

Cast on: May 29, 2010

Notes: I received this yarn from my friend Karin (of Periwinkle Sheep's fame) last year, and it really wanted to become a spring shawl. It took me some time to find the best pattern for it. This pattern has the right combination of delicate lace and short row shaping. It's a small shawl or a large scarf, but not a boring triangle or rectangle. So far I'm loving both the yarn and the pattern!

Be sure to visit Andrea's blog Wisdom Begins in Wonder, home of Fiber Art Friday. There is immense talent in the group, I'm surprise every week at what I see on the blogs!

Parker Cardigan Finale

2011-06-03T01:06:00.000-07:00

Project: Parker Cardigan

Pattern: Parker Cardigan by Deborah Newton, IK Spring 2009
Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Alpaca, sports weight, used 7 skeins
Needles: US Size 4

Previous entries: planning, progress1, progress2, progress3

Cast on: February 5, 2011

Cast off: May 28, 2011

Cost: About $52 including buttons

Notes: I wish the stitch patterns were charted. If you've been following the progress, it took me some time to figure out how the ribs in the top portion were stacked. I had to rip out top half of the back so the ribs look right. Lucky this is a very nice yarn and I really enjoy working with it.

Our Trinket left us this time last year. He was our first born and showed us we were good enough for a human child. We miss him very much.

Fibery Update

2011-05-20T19:58:00.000-07:00

Last week I got my acts together and was going to do a FAF update, and the helpful Blogger went down before I loaded pictures. oh well. So this picture is a week old. Parker Cardigan is almost done! I'm onto the cap decrease on the second sleeve, then it's the (much dreaded) finishing. I love this yarn (Drops Alpaca), so I'm not complaining.

Remember my Yarn Bombing at Home project? Added couple more pieces on the wall. They look small because of the vast empty blank white walls. They are really good sized pieces, especially when you have to knit them stitch by stitch.

And who can't use another cute Rascal pictures.

Parker Cardigan Full Body, Fiber Sightings

2011-04-22T01:31:00.000-07:00

I ripped the top half of the back and reknitted it in the right stitch pattern. Now it's just the sleeves left. (If you look closely the back of the neck doesn't match the fronts, since I forgot to decrease every row -- darn those "at the same time" patterns! Will just have to do some nip and tuck while I knit the button band.)

Last week we went up to North Bay for a quick get away. When I travel with the guys I don't usually stop at yarn shops since they don't have a whole lot of patience for wool or alpaca or cashmere or plies or gauge. So I squeeze in whatever I can. This time I stopped at Balls and Skeins in Sebastopol and scored some discontinued Noro from their sale bin. Blogger is not cooperating with me with formats, whenever I move the pictures around, everything gets messed up. I loaded tons of pictures on Facebook, so you'd like to see them, just friend me there! This link should take you straight to my profile.

Last night in our knitting meeting, one of the ladies showed us a piece of fabric she bought at a garage sale. It turned out to be part of a Chinese skirt from the 19th century (Qing dynasty). Look at the embroidery details! I learned a little bit of embroidery when I was a little girl, no where near this complicated.

Update to add this link. #12 is the style of skirt we saw. It's called "hundred pleat skirt". In the old days gentle ladies supposed to walk slowly in their bound feet and the skirt was not to move with their steps.

Fronts (Almost) Done, Rascal One Year Old!

2011-04-08T01:22:00.000-07:00

Last week I pondered whether I should rip out the top half of the back since the stitch patter was wrong, and the consensus (from Kathryn and Beth, thank you!) was that I should rip. That's what I will do. In the mean time, the right front is done and the left front is getting smaller every night. Hopefully next week I will have better pictures to show off.

Far more impress than my knitting, my son Henry played his first concert with the school Jazz band on Wednesday night. He has been playing low brass only since the beginning of this school year, and joined the band only two months ago. You can't hear him in this video, but he's the little kid sitting in the middle of the stage with the biggest horn.

Last but not least, our Rascal puppy is turning one year old today! When the rescue people picked him up off the street they estimated him to be eight to ten weeks old, and the vet gave him this birthday. We are happy to stick with it. A birthday bash is planned.

To Rip, Or Not to Rip

2011-04-01T01:59:00.000-07:00

Project: Parker Cardigan

Pattern: Parker Cardigan by Deborah Newton, IK Spring 2009
Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Alpaca
Needles: US Size 4

Previous entries: planning, progress1, progress2

Notes: Three weeks ago I complained about not having charts for the stitch pattern, and not being able to visualize the ribs in the upper body. I finally figured it out from a larger picture in the front part of the magazine. I've since finished the right front, and the ribs are stacked correctly. In this picture it's on the left hand side of the diagonal line - the line is a shadow but it happened to line up perfectly with the front decrease. Now the back, the right hand side in the picture, looks terrible with the mis-stacked the ribs. I'm debating if I should rip the top half. This is the part will be covered under my hair most of the time, and I'll have to redo all the arm hole and neck decreases. But I know it's wrong and it's going to burn my back when I wear it.

In the non-knitting news, we had record rain fall in March, after years of drought. A creek close to our home overflowed and washed out part of a walking trail. We need the water, but now it's too much water everywhere! No one is in danger, not because of this creek any way, but it'll be weeks before we get our trail back.

Yesterday it started to clear up. Sun is out, flowers are blooming. This little plant survived the winter, outdoors, what a trooper!

Be sure to visit Andrea's blog Wisdom Begins in Wonder, and better yet, join Fiber Arts Friday if you are not already part of the group. This is a wonderful group of women with endless talent.

Yarn Bombing at Home

2011-03-25T01:26:00.000-07:00

We had our living room floor done last week.

Six years ago we bought this brand new house, carpet in the living room was default. Trinket and Bucky were nine and ten, so we decided to keep the carpet for the old joints. In the past year we occasionally talked about a new floor "after", and now we finally have it. It's so nice not having to live with that dirty carpet any more!

Now with hardwood under our feet, 17 feet ceiling above our heads, our voices start to echo, much like frogs living in a damp well. Ok, maybe not that pathetic (frogs, pathetic? never mind), but you get the gist. So I came up a brilliant idea to add some texture to the living room with the hope that the wool padding would absorb some of the excess sound waves. Actually I was inspired by some talks on Ravelry about Yarn Bombing in San Francisco and Berkeley.

If you are not familiar with the concept of Yarn Bombing, I'm sure you've heard of graffiti, so just imagine a brave fiber artist spreading her knitted fabric on public properties, in very bright colors, usually at night, ducking around the cops. That's what I did, but instead of sharing my artistic work with the general public, I turned some swatches into stair railing covers. For now they are all wool pieces, a few of them were dyed with Koolaid and felted. One piece had some cables, but of course I manage to sew it onto a red pole and it just pretty much disappears into the background. Kinda defeats the "bombing" concept.

Give me another ten years, I'm sure I'll have the living room covered.

Parker Cardigan Progress, Mystery KAL

2011-03-18T01:21:00.000-07:00

The latest and greatest with Parker Cardigan. Back is done, and got couple of inches on one of the fronts.

Most knitters I know usually have multiple projects on the needles, but I'm stubborn and I'm a monogamous girl, I always have only one main project at a time. There are small, plain, carry around things I do, but big projects, always one at a time. This one project may take a few months, and when it ends, it's like saying goodbye to an old friend, or a special child, or a limb. Then I get into the planning mode for the Next Big Thing. I start flipping through all of my books and magazines, digging up yarn from each box, running random searches on Ravelry, asking silly questions on Ravelry and Facebook -- I'm lost, can you help me? I'd go crazy for a cute pattern, but can't find the right yarn for it (because I don't have enough yarn, duh); or I'd be determined to use the long discontinued Passport Yarn that I bought from Michael's years ago, but of course I wouldn't be able to find a pattern I like.

Lately I've been wondering about life after Parker. I have a bunch of very pretty sock yarns that I didn't want to use in Que Sera Sera, because they are too pretty to be a blanket. They, or maybe just one of them, wants to become a nice little shawl for the cool nights in the summer.

But of course I can't find a good pattern for it.

So when my friend Jocelyn posted on South Bay Knitters Yahoo group that there is an interesting Mystery Knit Along coming up with designer Laura Nelkin, to make a small shawl that uses 400 yards of fingering weight (sock) yarn, my ears went straight up. Since it's a mystery, all I can show you is the yarn I'm using. This is Watercolors Sock Yarn hand dyed by my friend Karin, aka Periwinkle Sheep. Aren't they pretty? I think the green one will be a perfect spring shawl.

Don't forget to visit Andrea and my other fiber friends at Fiber Arts Friday on Wisdom Begins in Wonder.

Parker Cardigan Progress

2011-03-11T01:08:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Parker Cardigan by Deborah Newton, IK Spring 2009
Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Alpaca
Needles: US Size 4
Previous entries: planning
Notes: I'm not too crazy about this pattern. The stitch patterns are not charted, it's hard to judge how the ribs are supposed to be stacked, especially when there are increases and decreases. But the lace bud pattern on the bottom is very cute. I made that part too long (guess I really like the stitch pattern!), but too lazy to rip it out, it'll just look different from the pattern.

The buttons I ordered from Black Water Abbey Yarns came in the other day, and the Marilyn pattern. The buttons are so cute, it's fun just looking at them.

My friend Carol wrote up a very nice report of our annual knitting retreat, with lots of pictures. Check it out! And don't forget to visit Andrea's Fiber Arts Friday main page.

Fair Isle Hats Finale

2011-03-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

Catching up on my finished knitting from before Stitches.

Top: Boxes
Bottom left: Purple Temple
Bottom right: Red Crown

These hats are loosely based on a Paton's fair isle tam pattern. I increased significant number of stitches to make the crown bigger, and recalculated the decreases on top. All were using leftover Classic Wool from my Great American Aran Afghan, with one strand of variegated yarn as main color and one strand of solid yarn as contrast. Interesting thing to point out, Boxes and Red Crown shared the same variegated yarn, but by using a different solid yarn, the color palette turned out completely differently. Towards the center of Red Crown I ran out of the red contrasting color, so you can see how the variegated yarn looks by itself (click on the picture to see a larger version).

A few more pictures from different views.

Something extra from Rascal never hurts. I made this mobius toy from a knitted strip, felted, and sewed the sides together, tied a knot, then sewed the ends together. He loves to stick his nose in the loops.

Don't forget to visit other Fiber Arts Friday blogs, all listed on Wisdom Begins in Wonder, where Andrea hosts the alpaca yarn feast.

Rascal the Littlest Lumberjack

2011-03-03T08:37:00.000-08:00

Rascal had some fun in the backyard going after a gopher. One night Bill took the pup outside for the last potty break and caught him half way down the gopher hole, with just the butt sticking out. When the gopher wasn't around, Rascal went after the roots and branches for entertainment, and we saw the results in days.

There used to be trees here.

There used to be bushes here and we had to replace them after Rascal uprooted them.

There used to be bushes here too.

Rascal waiting for his punishment.

On a positive note, we don't have a gopher problem any more. Apparently Rascal took care of all their food source, or in his view, he scared them out of town. Good boy, Rascal !

Don't forget the read Henry's puppy update from couple of weeks ago. They are best of friends, but Henry claims to have nothing to do with the lumbering.

Stitches West 2011 Review

2011-02-25T01:23:00.000-08:00

First of all, a rare snow scene, only on top of the mountains, but it's real snow! (Ok, come back when you are done laughing.)

Previous years' Stitches reviews: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

This year I spent every minute in the market, no classes, no other events, just the market; and every minute the market was open, I was there!

Thursday night's preview was fun, but way too short. On Friday and Saturday I worked with Judy in the Black Abbey Water Yarns booth, fending off the crowds, and shopping with my yarn credit, to my heart's content. When there was a bit down time on Saturday afternoon, I tried on a few samples, and really liked couple of them. Working in a booth meant I could play with the yarn (think about all the different colors went through my hands), read the patterns, and get to know every button intimately. It was sooo much fun dragging the bags home on Saturday evening! Another benefit for working in the booth, by the time I was done with practically two whole days of shopping, I got some of my shopping bugs out of the system, I was a less dangerous shopper on the rest of the market.

On Saturday, I wore my Pagode, and this lady walked into the booth in the same sweater, just a different colorway. Of course we had to take a picture together.

The rest of the pictures are all taken on Sunday, not in any particular order.

Green Mountain Spinnery from Vermont is trying out Stitches West for the first time. I hope they liked it and come back next year. Their yarns and patterns are lovely. Very nice display in the booth too.

Spinning wheels at Carolina Homespun's booth.

Some have their priorities set.

Sanguine Gryphon from Maryland is also a first timer, and had the most unique booth arrangement.

I even joined a Ravelry meet up for a few minutes and sneaked in a picture with Jesse. Her baby is due on June 4, maybe he'll be late and land on my birthday (12th).

Remember the pictures I posted last week, the booth with all those colorful sweaters? They have Kauni, the fine wool from Denmark with super long and unique color changes. One of these had to come home with me, if not one of the $350 kits.

This is the year I really fell in love with buttons. This booth had some antique ivory and bone buttons from China, very tempting.

These are so pretty, like candies.

Annual obligatory picture of WEBS taking their booth apart. In less than 15 minutes they boxed up almost all the yarn, these are work horses.

The loot:

Do these remind you of certain someone who's rather fond of footwear?

The buttons I brought home, more on order from Black Water Abbey Yarns.

The yarns (clockwise from top left corner):
- Kauni in red and black, 150g ball
- Cashmerino, 93% merino, 7% cashmere, in Irrestringibile (it must mean lime green in some language), 10 in the box
- Textiles A Mano Wuxi, 50% silk, 50% wool, in a different shade of lime green
- Black Water Abbey Yarns sports weight in Moss, 4 skeins for Sprossling
- Colinette DK, two skeins laying across, in dark purple
- Black Water Abbey Yarns sports weight in Wood Violet, 6 skeins for Squirrel Monkey
- Black Water Abbey Yarns worsted weight in Wine, 7 skeins for Marilyn, a Beth Brown-Reinsel design, named after Marilyn King, the owner of Black Water Abbey Yarns

Till next year.

Stitches West 2011 Market Preview

2011-02-18T01:00:00.000-08:00

Previous years' entries: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

Thursday night is student market preview. Since I signed up to work for Black Water Abbey Yarns booth this year, I have a vendor badge and can come and go all weekend. I stopped by the booth to meet Judy, but the rest of the time she allowed me to roam around.

Last year's "the beautiful booth" Isager is back, make a mental note to visit them again.

I don't remember the name of this booth, but most definitely will be visiting them again.

Ali MacGraw will be there on Saturday.

And then there are people don't even bother the show up.

And some unwilling shopper.

I wore my Spencer Day and ran into Melissa Leapman. She recognized it instantly and really liked seeing her creation on me.

Full report next week.

Handsome Puppy

2011-02-10T10:21:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy week and I'm recovering from a nasty flu that Henry brought home, so I'm going to be lazy and make this one post serve both Dogs on Thursday and Fiber Arts Friday. Rascal and his sweater are cute enough to hold people's attention for two days.

Project: Rascal's I'm-a-handsome-puppy Cable Sweater
Pattern: Very loosely based on a basic dog sweater pattern found online many years ago when I made Trinket's T-shirt (sweater for Trinket post surgery), but I changed the shaping and added the cables. The neck is knitted in the round, body is knitted in two pieces, until they are long enough to cover the dog. (And on Rascal, the back takes a looooong time!)
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool
Needle: US size 8
Cost: less than $5
Notes: Rascal is a trooper for clothing-tolerance, so mom hopes there will be many cute outfits to come.

New Project Plan -- Parker Cardigan

2011-02-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

I'm joining a Fiber Arts Friday blog on Wisdom Begins In Wonder to give myself more excuse/motivation to blog about my knitting.

Since I finished Spencer Day (sweater) and Que Sera Sera (sock yarn shawl) in December I've been working on a few small projects, hats, doggie sweaters, etc. About time to plan for the next big thing.

I bought this yarn in July 2008 when a bunch of knitting friends went on a yarn crawl in the north bay. Sadly the store Marin Fiber Arts is now out of business. In real life the yarn is a lot more purple than it shows in the picture. I have over 1500 yards here, plenty enough for a cute top, and I'm considering Parker Cardigan from IK Spring 2009. Swatching starts tonight!

Rascal's Army of Lawyers

2011-02-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

Rascal is a sweet little dog and he needs humans to stick up for him. We are constantly hearing conversations like this:

Mom: "Oh no, Rascal had an accident!"
Dad: "Darn, I should have taken him out sooner."

Henry:"Rascal stole my shoe."
Mom:"You should put them away in the closet."

Rascal whines in the car. After much consideration, Henry drew the conclusion that for the little pup car rides meant his family surrendering him to strangers, of course he's not pleased with it.

Apparently this doesn't stop in our house. The other day I posted this video in the Chihuahua group on Ravelry. More than one person agreed that Rascal was framed, someone put the shoe in his bed. True story was I was sitting at the table and the Rascal stole the shoe. I should have kept the shoe on my foot, I know.

Rascal Is Spoiled

2011-01-27T09:46:00.000-08:00

Rascal was a stray, a rescue dog, an abandoned dog. He lived with a big pack of dogs, somewhere between 8 to 15, on a farm, before coming to our home. He's a tough little guy.

We love our new puppy dearly. Although he's not as young as some folks with milk breath and can't control their bladders, he still has a lot of puppyness in him that make us smile every day. He is small, so we can't help but picking him up and carrying him around like a doll, or a trophy.

For Christmas we gave Henry a Cesar Millan dog training book. One morning soon after that, Henry announced, after reading some chapters of the book: "Rascal is spoiled!" We are still scratching our heads to figure out how the little guy went from tough guy to spoiled puppy in such a short time. But then again, what's not to love about the little Rascal and what's wrong with spoiling him? He's earned the privilege in his short life, and it's not like we are expecting him to make it to Harvard or anything.

One day couple of weeks ago we fed Bucky outside, and when I went to pick up the bowl, Rascal ran out with me. The little snitch grabbed the bowl and carried it off. Guess what I did? Run for the camera of course. By the way if you have an account on YouTube feel free to subscribe to us. I'm taking a lot of videos of Rascal these days. One thing I learned from 16 years with Trinket and Bucky, one can never take enough pictures and videos.

Bucky Butters: November 5, 1995 -- January 18, 2011

2011-01-20T01:18:00.000-08:00

Put to sleep peacefully at Dr. Larsen's office on a sunny and warm Tuesday morning, at the age of fifteen years and two months, in his mommy's arms, with his daddy looking on. Dr. Larsen was not able to be present to say goodbye. Bucky is survived by his eternally grateful parents, Bill and Vivian, his human brother Henry, and his newly adopted canine brother, Rascal. Bucky was predeceased by his canine brother, Trinket, and canine sister, Macie. Bucky is also survived by his fond grandparents, many human relatives all over the world, and numerous fans among the pug and canine families online and offline.

Bucky was born in the backyard of the Butters family, on a small street behind Whole Foods in Los Gatos, California. On the day he turned eight weeks old, he was sold for $300 "as is" in De Anza Flea Market, with a flea on his belly. He was two and half pounds. As a very wet-behind-the-ears young pup, he ate, pooped (in all the wrong places), harassed his siblings. He promptly doubled his weight in three weeks. As a youngster, Bucky attended no more than three intellectually and physically challenging courses before his parents threw their hands up in the air and declared him "spirited". Bucky loved to play chase, carry his toys around and tease his siblings, and talk back to his parents. He barked at Rottweilers and motocycles, barked at the TV when the door bell rang, barked at the real door bell, barked at dogs on TV and dogs on the computer, barked at real dogs everywhere; he barked when Henry cried, when his humans returned home, when birds chirped, when there was a fly in the house, when chasing butterflies in the backyard, when leaves fell in the backyard, when birds chirped in the neighbor's backyard, when leaves fell on the street, three blocks away; whenever Trinket barked, Bucky barked, only louder.

As a child of digital age and product of high tech parents, Bucky enjoyed fame and virtual belly rubs on the internet. He was a star in the original Pug List hosted on RT66 during the mid and late 90s. Since the inception of this blog, and lucky for Bucky, a less demanding, more maturing human sibling, his mom was able to devote more digital time for Bucky's PR. In his old age Bucky enjoyed increased attention from his friends through Dogs on Thursday, Ravelry Pug Lovers group, and Facebook.

Bucky attended Pugtacular from 1996 to 2010. In 1998 Bucky won the fastest in agility, among the amateur attendees. In 2006 Bucky won the Pug Race, after a decade of trying. In 2010, Bucky was the oldest pug attending the event and had pictures taken by the local paper. Twice in their lives, Bucky and his mom won the second and third place in Pugs and Owner Look-alike. There were other ribbons and stuffed animals that Bucky won and his people lost track what they were for. Since Pugtacular happens right before Christmas, Bucky's winnings have become part of the holiday decorations and they will always remind his family of the rambunctious puggy.

In lieu of flowers, a donation to your local dog rescue organization in Bucky's name will be the best way to memorialize him and benefit other canine kind.

Bucky Update - Decisions

2011-01-13T09:04:00.000-08:00

Bucky is fifteen years and two months old. He started "getting old" when he was about nine, when he turned into an off-track-bowling-ball on walks. But he never lost his mental sharpness and appetite for food and attention. He injured a disc in his neck when he was ten, so we started carrying him up and down the stairs. He had pancreatitis in June 2009, so we started cooking for him. Winter has been hard on him in the last few years, and we know it'd be a challenge for him to pull through this one. In the past few days he's have more and more difficulty standing up. He has almost no muscle tone left in the hind quarters, so sometimes he topples over. He has no control or awareness of his eliminations. We clean the floors A LOT.

The end of life question is looming. Trinket passed away suddenly, and spared us the most difficult decision. In the ancient days dogs would go off to the woods when the time came. Sometimes I wish we are living in the ancient days, but that would be irresponsible of me, to escape the decision making.

When is it ever a good time to play God? Does Bucky gain a few extra days in his life because we can't manage to squeeze in another vet appointment between music, sports, Chinese lessons, movie dates? Or are we simply tired of the care-giving and need an excuse to end our suffering? I've always thought we are among the most responsible dog parents, but are we going to live up to our own standard?

Rascal !!

2011-01-06T08:56:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago we welcomed Rascal into our family. Rascal is a Chihuahua Dachshund mix, now about nine months old.

CARE, Companion Animal Rescue Effort, the organization we adopted Trinket from almost 16 years ago, rents a store front couple of miles from our home on Saturdays. So while we are out and about between library visits and video game shopping, we often stop by to visit the animals. On December 11, this little long bodied semi-grown dog caught my sight. He was very calm and quiet among all the people hustling in and out, oohing and ahhing over a litter of very young puppies. We asked about him, took him out of the cage, and the rest is history.

This video is Henry having some special time with Rascal, you can hear Bill's voice in the background talking to the rescue people.

Rascal was a stray in a small rural town about 75 miles from where we live. CARE took him in, and estimated him to be about eight to ten weeks old. They named him Boots because of the light coloring on his legs. They adopted him out to a family very similar to us, with an 8yo boy and two working parents. The new family called him Rascal. A few months passed, the family had to move and returned the pup to CARE. The pup answers to Rascal, so that's what he's going to be.

We are happy to report that Rascal has been successfully living up to his name. On one hand, he's super sweet, cuddly, and seemingly very tame, especially compare to Trinket and Bucky were pups (the racket they made every day!). Then just as we are ready to declare he's the perfect resident, there goes Henry's sneaker; there goes dad's belt; there goes my sock .... My sewing kit has been living on the kitchen counter, because there are always toys to be mended. Rascal has iron teeth, can destroy a squeaker faster than I can stuff it in the toy.

I see a lot of Rascal the demolition expert postings on Thursdays in 2011.

Update: Our friend Sue kindly put up a welcome message for Rascal on Dogs-N-More. Be sure to leave your comment!

Spencer Day Finale

2010-12-27T21:55:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Tweed Boyfriend Sweater from Melissa Leapman's Continuous Cables
Yarn: Valley Yarns Stockbridge (Webs store brand, 50% alpaca, 50% wool), 10 skeins, bought at Stitches West a few years ago.
Needle: US Size 8
Size made: Sub-small. The pattern is written as men-size, so the smallest is 42, while I need about 38 to 40. I took out one small panel on each size (6st each). The finished size fits me well.
Cost: About $40
Notes: There were some continuous cable squares in the Great American Aran Afghan, and someone on Ravelry mentioned Leapman has a much easier way to work these cables. She does. Instead of starting a new set of cable with new yarn (and extra ends), she puts in some increases on the bottom. Give it a try and you'll see what I mean. Why Spencer Day? I was planning my new project in the summer, during our weekly Jazz on the Plazz concerts; one of the last acts was a young (good looking) performer named Spencer Day. When I decided on this particular pattern, a certain male figure in my life claimed it was because the male model looked like Spencer Day. So I'm going to name it such, rub it in.

Que Sera Sera Finale

2010-12-25T19:02:00.000-08:00

Pattern: My own (there is really not a pattern)
Yarn: Assorted sock yarn, all fingering weight
Needle: US Size 6
Cost: About $80
Previous post: September 2009
Notes: The original idea was to use up some of my left over self patterning sock yarns, and a mitered square blanket seemed like a good option. In the end it became a very long shawl, which I have used a few times and no one accused me of wearing a blanket. It's light weight, colorful, and very unique.

Pugtacular 2010

2010-12-16T21:17:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday we went to the annual Pugtacular, a big pug party where you can see hundreds of snorting slobbering sometimes screaming pugs. Bucky won two out of three events we entered -- first place in senior pugs (Bucky, at 15 years old, was the oldest in the building), third place in pug race (we had to enter him as physically challenged, Bucky made it to the end through some detours). Bucky and I got eliminated in the first round for Lap Pugs, one'd figure we should be able to win that with a pug hardly walks!

We were interviewed by the local paper and they put Bucky's picture as the headliner in the article. Here is the link.

Bucky's first place winning was a Christmas wreath with a stuffed animal and cookies as decorations. While I was talking to the reporter Bucky snatched off one of the cookies and ate it right there. He hasn't had a hard cookie in well over a year, but he crunched it all up in no time, licked his chops, and wanted to attacked the next one.

Bucky Turns Fifteen!

2010-11-10T18:36:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Bucky's fifteenth birthday last Friday, November 5th. A few days ago, he threw a big fit because his human brother was eating chicken nuggets and would share with him. Since he (Bucky) can't eat most other things any way, for his birthday he got a chicken nugget. I did put a candle in it!

I didn't get any good pictures, so instead I made this little video to capture his years with us. I shared this with the pug group on Ravelry, and I was very touched by everyone's comments and well wishes for our old pug. He's old and fragile, but not a bit timid because of his short stature or inability to get where he wants to be. He's still our feisty little dog, full of character, full of life.

One thing I learned after 15 years, one can never take enough pictures and videos of our dogs. Enjoy them while you can.

Bucky Napping with a Baseball

2010-10-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

The other day I got home and saw this cute scene. Henry apparently left the baseball in the dog bed, and Bucky decided to cuddle up with it. It's the perfect size for him. I bet he had some sweet dreams hitting home runs. We used to joke that Bucky as a batter had the smallest strike zone, and he'd be constantly challenging the pitcher to throw him a good pitch. Then he'd hit the ball three feet away, we called that The Bucky Ball.

Henry in the Press

2010-09-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

Humane Society's eNewsLetter came out yesterday and Henry was featured in the Two Paws up section. Click here to see the newsletter, and scroll all the way down to the bottom to see the boy with Dino the big bionic dog.

Humane Society Visit, End of 4-40

2010-08-26T16:57:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we went to Humane Society to drop off our huge collection, and meet a few people. I had emailed back and forth with the volunteer coordinator previously, and she wanted us to meet some folks in Marketing. They even arranged a volunteer photographer to take pictures of Henry.

Here is Henry with Dino the socialization mascot in front of the donation center. Dino had hip replacement done by the good doctors at the Humane Society, and of course Humane Society covered the costs too. Henry never had close contact with big dogs before (they are right about the same size, 75 lbs), so Dino was quite a new experience for him. Dino's foster dad let Henry walk Dino for a bit and give him treats. Henry recorded the experience on the 4 Weeks, Forty Blanket blog.

Next to the donation center is a door that leads to the surrender counter. Every time we went to donate someone went into the surrender door with a crate. If you are thinking about bringing a new pet home, please consider the shelter.

To wrap up the 4-40 project, we reached the target on Monday when we picked up from three separate locations. A woman lives in Los Gatos mountains offered to meet us in town, so we met her in the high school where her child was in band practice and which Henry will be attending in three years. Then we went to a home in Almaden for our second pick up. This was through Henry's post on lmtrade, a Yahoo Group I started years ago for Las Madres families to buy/sell/trade household items. A woman responded to Henry's email and offered a big bag of blankets and towels. In the afternoon, we went to our third pick up of the day in Los Altos. This was through Henry's post on a Freecycle group, another big bag of blankets and towels. I think these people really like Henry.

Back in July I told my mom about the 4-40 project, so she collected a bunch of stuff from her friends and neighbors. On Tuesday we went and picked these up. Our final total was 55 blankets, countless towels, sheets, and lots of toys. I'm very happy with what we've accomplished, very happy with how Henry managed the project and made his summer meaningful.

Operation Blanket Update

2010-08-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

We are in week three of 4 Weeks Forty Blankets and things are going very well. To date we received 28 blankets, some pads and small rugs, bags and bags of sheets, towels, and even more bags of stuffed animals. We have a visit scheduled for Humane Society tomorrow morning when we, hopefully, might be able to hand some of these items directly to the adoptable dogs.

Now the question is, how am I going to fit all these in my little car?

(Bucky is not invited on the trip, although he certainly would enjoy a romp on the big lawn and the playground that Humane Society set up for exercising the dogs. He was here to supervise our photo shoot.)

Bucky on Vacation

2010-08-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

We spent early part of this week on the central coast of Califonia, which we planned to visit last summer but didn't make it since we couldn't find a dog sitter. Now that Bucky is our only dog and with his fragile state I don't trust others taking care of him, he went along for the ride.

The ride he had! Everywhere we went he had fans. We picked restaurants with outdoor seating, and people stopped to admire "your cute old pug". At an icecream shop a girl volunteered to bring a bowl of water outside so she could meet "the cute puppy". The place we stayed was right on the beach, and Henry and Dad enjoyed hours of whacking a paddleball around. To my surprise, Bucky had a great time exploring the beach. He doesn't walk very well, and I thought it's more difficult for him to walk on the soft sand. Instead the sand cushioned his falls, and he really liked all the new smells.

Four Weeks Forty Blankets

2010-08-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Henry and I have August off from camps and work, so we are going to collect 40 blankets for the Humane Society. Henry is mostly in charge of the project, and I'm helping him here and there with ideas and most importantly, driving. So far we have collected eight blankets and tons of stuffed animals. Yesterday we did our first drop off at Humane Society and visited some of the adoptable dogs.

You can follow our progress on our blog: 4 Weeks, Forty Blankets; or our Facebook page in the same name.

Box 96 Finale

2010-07-31T16:18:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Box 96 Pullover by Mari Lynn Patrick, Interweave Knits Summer 2010 cover
Yarn: West Valley Alpacas Classic DK Yarn
Needle: US5
Cast on: May 10, 2010
Cast off: July 22, 2010
Notes: After Great American Aran Afghan and Pagode, I was pretty burned out on colors, so I really wanted something simple and plain for a change. This little top was on the cover of then latest IK in blue, so I knitted it in white and added a bit of blue trim. It was a fun, quick knit, perfect for the summer. If you follow the pattern the arrow would be off center, so I changed it to center decrease to make it symmetrical.

DOT Spotlight Rerun

2010-07-22T01:38:00.000-07:00

More than two years ago Trinket and Bucky were featured on Dogs on Thursday, and I just realized that I never ran that post here on our own blog. Shame on me. So here it is in full. Remember this was written in January 2008.

Trinket

Trinket is my first dog, the first new member of our little family. Trinket is Chihuahua and Fox Terrier mix; he’ll turn thirteen on January 30th.

Couple of years into our marriage, my husband and I still felt like newly weds, but looking at each other across the dinner table every night was getting a bit dull. We needed something to jazz up our lives.

A local rescue group, CARE, was holding an adoption fair on a Wednesday evening, April 6, 1995. It was love at first sight. The foster mom was showing Trinket to other people, and I followed her around like a puppy. When she got good and tired of that she handed me Trinket, “do you want to hold him?” I held Trinket and Bill signed the contract.

At first we were pretty determined to bring up a presentable good citizen; we changed our minds within twenty four hours. Although we tried very hard to be good doggie parents, our little puppy denied the fact that he was a dog, he insisted on eating with us (our food) and sleeping with us (on my pillow). When we left him home alone in a playpen, he chewed up the lanolin floor.

Trinket used to run circles around the kitchen every night, or leap a few feet into the air and land on a big deck in the back yard. He had so much energy and only had these two big humans to play with. We told him he deserved someone to bug the hell out of him.

Oh did he get what he deserves! In twelve years he endured two rescues, a pug brother, and worse of all, a little human brother. Being the smallest in size, Trinket insists on being the pact leader. Sometimes teeth are shown to enforce the leadership.

Bucky

Bucky is a black pug. He turned twelve on November 5, 2007.

The following “How We Met” story has never been told before. You see, pug people are very protective of their beloved little apple heads and big ears, and we were fearful that someone might consider us traitors of the breed and retaliate.

We met Bucky in the flea market. It was January 6, 1996, first Saturday of the month and we were happily strolling along in De Anza Flea Market, as we did almost every month.

Someone had two little puppies in a playpen, the boy, the little black one, was still available. The little guy had been lying on the cold hard parking lot for the entire day; all he had was some blue tarp for comfort. Yet he was playful nonetheless, tugging on the tarp, and when someone picked him up, he licked and chewed on girls’ hair. I looked in those big googly eyes and couldn’t put him down.

They were asking for $325, as is. Since it was the end of the day they lowered it to $300, and we took him home, with a flea.

We soon found out his energy level was simply out of this world. He ran around so much in the first two years, we could hardly take a decent picture of him. He was our perfect answer to Trinket’s puppy hood, ha-ha. They are about ten months apart, so Bucky has almost never spent more than a few hours alone in his life. He looks to the big brother for the next action. If Trinket thinks he hears a car is in the driveway, he starts to bark, and Bucky follows, and Bucky doesn’t know why Trinket is barking, and he doesn’t care.

Our four-legged children helped us proof to ourselves that we are indeed capable of keeping small creatures alive; in return, they got the human brother, Henry.

Bucky the lonesome traveler

2010-07-01T15:52:00.000-07:00

Life as the only dog has been very nice to Bucky. He realizes that he now has sole privilege of manipulating his humans, especially his mom, and he's taking full advantage of it.

Here he is, at Stanford Shopping Center, taking a break during some busy wondering and flirting to rest his legs on the grass.

Enjoying Jazz on the Plazz, and a back scratch.

I Don't Have A Wooden Heart

2010-06-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

I have taken so many pictures and video clips of our dogs over the years, they slowly scroll through my screen every day, like a random review of our lives together. I grabbed some of our favorites to put in this little video, to capture the spirit of Trinket from his bright eyed innocent babyhood, to a bouncy teenager, to an intelligent pack leader, to a playful goof ball, to our elderly sweet cuddle bug. They say a picture means a thousand words; a thousand pictures maybe a life time for a little dog, what's more, is the warm little spot in our hearts, and yours.

Trinket Thomas: January 30 1995 -- June 2 2010

2010-06-03T01:02:00.000-07:00

These are the last pictures of Trinket.

This afternoon Trinket decided it was time to go, and he did. Our first born passed away around 3:30pm, on the living room floor with my hand on his chest help him breathing. After 15 years 4 months, his heart gave out. Trinket lived a happy healthy life. In human years Trinket would be about 80 years old.

We never thought Trinket would be the first to go. He's been very healthy and active, occasionally taking on a hunger strike to keep his slim and agile figure. He had first degree (lightest) mast cell tumor in 1998 when I was pregnant with Henry. I thought gain one lose one, but he pulled through the surgery and recovery, and the tumors never came back. In the last couple of months, despite his enlarged heart and refusal of his medicine, I still thought he's somehow pull through and live out his golden years as our only puppy, like he did when he first joined us at eight weeks old with sharp little milk teeth.

This afternoon less than an hour before he passed away he climbed up and down the stairs to follow me when I did laundry. Then he had some trouble breathing so I held him and tried to make him feel comfortable. It didn't seem to help much and I had to let him go and stumble away. I turned around a few minutes later and he was on the floor, looked like he just collapsed. He was very happy to see me, gave me a good wag of the tail. I helped him through the last moments.

Trinket joins Macie, our rescued Westie who passed away five years ago while with another family, and they so enjoyed playing tug. Bring it on.

Puggie is Hungry

2010-05-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

"I want Trinket's dinner too!"

Pagode Finale

2010-05-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd never see this post.

Pattern: Pagode by Hanne Falkenberg
Yarn: Hanne Falkenberg No. 2 Shetland
Needles: Size 3
Colorway: Khaki/Straw/Ivory/Blue green/Flax/Rust
Cost: $130 from Knitswap email list
Cast on: April 2007
Cast off: April 28, 2010
Progress posts: Enabled, cast on, first rip, why oh why did I knit two identical fronts, ripped again

This was a spur of the moment purchase through an email list. It was half price and I was bored at work. But I truly love the yarn and the unique design. It's all done in garter stitch on size 3 needles. The fronts (plus half the sleeves till where the colors end in the picture) are done in two pieces, and back is one piece, sleeves are picked up from the edges after shoulders are seamed.

The project took three years to finish, partially because it's all garter stitch and becomes quite boring after awhile. But because of the simple garter stitches, I mostly kept it in the car, as something I worked on during long car trips. Because of the simple stitches and unique construction and pattern writing, one small slip in reading cost me quite a bit of trouble. There were three major rips, first I switched colors (ivory and wheat) in the first front, then I forgot the pocket on the second front; then once the second front was finished, it looked exactly the same as the first. I didn't have enough yarn to knit two more identical fronts (why would I want to do that anyway?), and couldn't just flip it over and use the back side. I had to rip out an entire finished front -- 386 stitches on the cast on edge.

But really, look at the finished product, it's all worth it.

GAAA Great American Aran Afghan Finale

2010-05-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Great American Aran Afghan booklet
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool (worsted weight)
Needles: US Size 8
Previous entries: First post, Squares One to Six, Seven to Twelve, Twelve to Seventeen, Pre-edging
Cast on: February 18, 2009
Cast off: April 19, 2010
Finished size: 59inx88in, about 5ft x 7ft

It's been great fun being with this project for 14 months. There are twenty four squares in the booklet and I knitted every one of them, in the right order. Some of the squares were quite hard, even for me who consider myself a well-experienced cable knitter and willing to take on challenges.

The patterns call for different sizes needles, and I was lazy and only used size 8, so the squares were all different sizes. I believe the biggest one was about 14x14. After all the squares were done, I added the first round of black borders to make them all the same size. Some needed more and some less, some were rectangles and the borders made them into squares.

Arranging the squares was a lot of fun. I brought them to the South Bay Knitters winter retreat and had my friends help me. During the assembly I had to knit up more borders on the ones turned out too small or too short, and just knitted right onto their neighbors. I could have done a better job calculating gauge, sizing, etc., but I rather like the unevenness. It’s more art than math.

The final big cable braid all around took me a few more weeks. First I knitted a seven foot long braid by itself, sewed it onto the afghan, then knitted the rest right on. It was a very unportable project but kept me nice and warm every night while I worked on it.

When all was done, I wanted to take some good pictures to reflect the largeness and overall gorgeousness of this afghan. I wanted natural light, and I wanted some place large. I thought about putting it on the lawn with sheets or towels under it, but I’d have to climb on a ladder to take the pictures and be the neighborhood monkey for the rest of my life.

Earlier this week I had to visit my mom in Carmel, so I brought the afghan with me to stop at my favorite coastal area, the West Cliff in Santa Cruz. There is plenty of natural light, and the blankie looks rather pretty and petite against the Pacific Ocean. A lot of climbing involved in the photo session, up and down the rocks and trail, tumbling in the flowers, but it's all worthwhile.

Now some highlight of its past.

Yarn by my bedside.

Square one by Judy Sumner.

A tangled mess.

Group diagnosis at the retreat.

Trinket Is My Sweet Baboo

2010-04-29T16:32:00.000-07:00

Between this picture and the one from couple weeks ago, you see all the humans that Trinket would allow to hold him. He's all Chihuahua in that regard, two people dog, no more. Our faithful pup he is.

The Pill War II

2010-04-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

Let review what we've tried for Trinket so far for his pill taking:
1. Provolone cheese (too strong)
2. Pill pockets (too doggie)
3. Turkey deli meat (too whatever)
4. Liver treats (gag)
5. Plain toast (too crumbie)

Here is the latest routine (it's been working for the past couple of days, so keep our fingers crossed it's going to stay working):
1. Dad gets a vanilla wafer cookie and break it into four pieces -- one half and two quarters
2. One quarter goes to Trinket
3. One quarter goes to Bucky because by now he knows Trinket gets treats and he can't miss out on it
4. Dad puts a dab of peanut butter on top of the half cookie and quickly sticks the pill in the middle of the peanut butter
5. Trinket gobbles it up
6. We wait and make sure he swallows, cause sometimes that rascal does spit out the pill and we have to start all over.

Bucky says he'd prefer the pill pocket, thank you. Wait, with some of that turkey please. And liver treats. On a piece of toast. Might as well have the cookie and peanut butter. With cheese on top.

Humming Birds

2010-04-14T08:21:00.000-07:00

Last week I was at a home with a large orange tree for Village Harvest. My friend Pat pointed out that there was a humming bird nest on one of the branches. I really had to kick myself for not having my camera with me, cause from the ladder we could see the little chicks in the nest, little yellow beaks and all.

Then Pat told me this lovely story how she saved a humming bird chick in her own backyard. Apparently the nest fell apart after a rain storm, and one of the chicks fell out. She put the chick in a tiny Christmas basket and hang it next to the original nest. Luckily mom-bird fed both chicks till they flew the coop. Pat uploaded all the pictures of the chain of events here.

Enjoy!

The Pill War

2010-04-08T14:28:00.000-07:00

Trinket has been very healthy all his life, so we never learned his pill habit -- as in, how difficult it is to make him take pills. We know he's a picky eater, even has to sniff test his water every morning, as if from day to day the filter might just change a bit, well I guess that could be true. When he was a baby I used to hand feed him kibbles, or give him table food when he refused his meals. He's our first born, what can I say.

Last week Dr. Larsen prescribed couple of meds for Trinket -- Enacard for the heart, twice a day, and Torbutrol for breathing, as needed. That's at least two meds a day. First we did fine with cheese, good Provolone cheese. Did that for four days until Trinket turned his nose at it -- too strong, I'm a little dog after all. We ran out and bought pill pockets, which worked magic for Bucky. Did that for another four days, until Trinket started spitting the little balled up pocket out, no like it, want real food, this is for dogs.

Trinket's Dad is a big guy at six foot four, I mean he's A LOT bigger than the little dog. When Trinket gets nasty about things like taking pills and I don't feel like fighting those sparkly little canines, we bring out the big gun. Trinket and Dad settled on a pill routine something like this:

1. Dad brings out a pack of deli meat and offer Trinket a little piece.
2. Trinket: Yum, turkey, good stuff. Can I have more?
3. Dad gives Trinket another piece.
4. More?
5. Dad quickly wraps the pill in a piece of turkey, before Trinket figures out what's going on.
6. Trinket happily eats it.

Stay tuned.

Little Dog with a Big Heart

2010-04-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Trinket turned 15 in January, that's pretty old. He still acts like a puppy for the most part, runs up and down the stairs, stands on his hind legs and begs at the table, chases away cats and squirrels in the back yard. He doesn't hear nor see very well any more, which just makes him a bit more reasonable.

In the last couple of years his breathing has been getting noisier, especially at night. Sometimes he hacks as if imitating a cat coughing up a hairball. We thought we should consider sending him to the circus. He doesn't like visiting the vet, and we let him be.

Last weekend Trinket started hacking on and off rather loudly, more frequently than before, and worse at night, much worse than anything we'd seen. We called the vet and she said it might have to do with his heart since she detected heart murmur before. We took him in right away. Dr. Larsen managed to get couple of X-rays of his chest without any drugs, just a little cat muzzle. (Did I mention Trinket doesn't like her? He really shows it, physically.) The X-rays show Trinket has enlarged heart and collapsed trachea, both problems that we had a sense that existed, but now aggravated by old age. We got medications to help his breathing.

It's been three days since we started the medications and so far so good. We are all getting some sleep. Trinket is rather liking the pills routine, which involves a piece of cheese and some scratches behind the ears.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed Trinket will maintain his health and snuggle with us for many more days and weeks and months.

Green with Envy

2010-03-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

A good looking pug looks good in anything, even a diaper. Bucky has been Mr. Leaky for a little while, slowly going from oh-no-I-can't-wait to Good-morning-Mom-you-look-mad-I-want-my-breakfast. I asked on the pug group on Ravelry for advice, and someone recommended belly band, and that someone handy on etsy would be able to make one for me (for Bucky actually).

It was quite easy to find 2Parises, and she even found some pug fabric to make two belly bands. Then when I got the package, she included this St. Patty one as a bonus. How sweet!

Bucky, His Royal Highness, is quite embarrassed with this whole belly band business. We only use it at night, when he’s too tired to say much.

What you looking at? Got something better to do?

Cookies, I think I see cookies. I'm getting a little foggy, but I think I see cookies.

Stitches West 2010

2010-03-09T22:19:00.000-08:00

The prior year reviews:

2007 -- look somewhere in the middle
2008 -- that was a fun year with Ravelry new in the community, doing the passport thing and all
2009 -- haven't made anything from last year's loot, don't ask

This year I signed up to help an Indie Dyer from East Bay, Snicklefritz Yarns. Janelle is a scientist by day, and fiber artist (and long distance cyclist) by other parts of the day. She looked for booth help during Stitches on Ravelry, and offered to pay with yarn (!!!), so I gladly raised my hand. Hey, I got time, right?

I was so happy to see the inner working of Stitches Market. On Wednesday I went in to help Janelle set up the booth. It's my first time to see the vendors without all the gloss and makeup.

Webs was all boxes and empty shelves.

Brooks Farm, the only thing recognizable was the metal sign.

By the time I left the show floor Wednesday afternoon, Webs was in decent shape. Amazing how much work they had done in a few hours.

But this booth was all pretty and well protected by early afternoon.

I took Double Knitting with Colors by Karen Frisa on Friday afternoon. It's a very good challenging class, requires some thinking, not just "doing". As for shopping, Isager is new to US and first time to appear at Stitches West. Marianne Isager is from Denmark and has a few books published in English. Someone on Ravelry referred to the booth as "the beautiful booth". I was completely drawn to their Alpaca 2 yarn (50/50 alpaca and merino) during Thursday night's market preview, but I liked every color and couldn't decide what to do.

By the time I made it to their booth Sunday afternoon some of the colors were sold out. Oh well, I hope they come back next year. I said goodbye to the booth on my way out.

It's even more amazing how fast booths were taken apart and packed. This is Webs 45 minutes after market officially closed. The big sign came down about 30 seconds after I took the picture.

The ladies were stripped bare.

So was the guy.

Will they ride the forklift all the way home?

The loot:

-- Ellen’s 1/2 pint farm, Falkland Wool, color Purple Mountain Majesty. Ellen is my weakness. Once I make peace with that I'm fine collecting the yarns in every color and fiber.

-- 2 skeins Heather Prime Alpaca (total 1lb) in purple
-- 10 skeins Lambs Pride worsted (at $5 a piece!) in red (apparently I was on a red and purple kick)

And the best part, I shopped to my heart's content in the Snicklefritz booth. Couple of days work earned me this delicious lot:

-- 1 skein of sock yarn in Little Caymen Gnome (blue/green)
-- 1 skein of natural dyed cashmere/silk in New England Mussel Shell (pink). I tried to talk everybody into buying this yarn. It's simply heavenly.

-- 3 skeins of Bishop (100% blue-faced leicester), 1 of them in Blueberry Pie and 2 Purplelicious
-- 2 skeins of silk/merino in Lady Gnome (yellow/green)

Till next year.

A Rare Treat

2010-03-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

Bucky is almost 14 1/2 years old. When he was little he used to walk funny, almost like the back half of the body wanted to be parallel with the front. The vet said he'd out grow it, or it'd indicate something wrong with his spine. Well, he never did out grow the funny walk, just like the rest of him, always stays very much baby- or toddler-like. When he was ten the neck went out of wack and we have been carrying him up and down the stairs since. Last year the vet found severe arthritis in both hips. This has been a hard winter on his old body, the legs are getting more and more stiff, the walking space he covers getting less and less. One day last week he gave up walking and standing altogether. It took us some effort to convince him it's not time to give up yet.

So it was a rare treat the other day when I caught him barking in the back yard, telling the neighbor's kids off. Something he used to do every day, every minute if I let him, now I'm just happy he hears them (maybe), stands up (yay!) and talks (well).

A Perfectly Good Hat

2010-03-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Scottish Tam on the cover of Vogue Knitting on the Go: Hats and Caps
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport brought at Golden Fleece almost four years ago
Needles: Size 5
Cast on: February 12, 2010
Cast off: February 27, 2010
Notes: This was my Ravelympics knitting -- the knitters on Ravelry give each other a challenge during Olympics. Participants would choose one or multiple "challenge", could be a new technique, or a project need to be finished, or a project related to the games, like my Chinese Red Vest in 2008. This time I decided to go with the winter theme and do some color knitting. This was planned to be a beret for myself, fair isle in two-handed knitting which I never attempted before. The knitting turned out to be fun and a bit challenging to make my hands learn something new, but the hat turned out a lot smaller, and not quite beret-like. It'll still keep someone's head warm.

Happy Birthday Henry!

2010-02-15T09:25:00.001-08:00

Eleven years ago today, on another Monday morning, at 9:24am, my only child was born in Kaiser Santa Clara. I was 24 minutes into my maternity leave, and Bill missed his 9am meeting. Life has not been the same since.

Happy Birthday Henry!

This picture was from our gathering with other Feb99 families for the babies' first birthday. It's one of my favorite mother-son pictures.

This morning Henry found his mandatory acceptance letter from Hogwarts. The past weekend was our city's basketball tournament. Henry's team made it to the championship game, despite winning only two games during the season and came into the tournament as the last seed. We lost to the champion, but Henry played a great game, on Chinese New Year no less, scored, and was very happy.

Trinket Is 15

2010-02-04T01:04:00.000-08:00

Fifteen years old! Our first born turned 15 years old last Saturday. Quite unbelievable if you ask me. We had a little cake to celebrate, and Bucky had some baby food from the jar.

I made a little video with some pictures of Trinket and us to honor the event.

Bucky and His People

2010-01-28T01:46:00.000-08:00

They say owners pick dogs that have qualities they admire, that doesn't explain how Bucky landed with me. This completely willful little guy, never bothers to listen to his humans, talks when he wants to, at the volume that, well, he feels appropriate. When I one day lie down on the shrink's couch, what's he gonna tell me? "You should be firm, young lady, show him who's the boss."

Right.

Muffins

2010-01-24T20:48:00.000-08:00

This season Henry is playing basketball with a team that calls themselves Muffins with Attitude (Henry hates the name). Our coach put together this video clip for the only winning game so far. MWA is in white, Henry is number 22, and yours truly took the video.

Puppy Sandwich

2010-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

On rainy stormy cold winter nights, Trinket likes to bury himself in a pile of pillows or the doggie bed to keep warm and hide from the nasty monsters. He flips up the cushion in the doggie bed, and makes himself a little sandwich.

2010 Knitting Retreat

2010-01-11T16:07:00.000-08:00

The South Bay Knitters annual knitting retreat in the Quaker Center in the Santa Cruz mountains was this past weekend. The retreat is from Friday to Sunday and I'm always a Saturday day tripper. We start the day early, leaving in a carpool around 7am when it's still dark and foggy, and end the day late, after dinner and dessert, when the roads in the mountain are pitch black. In between we fit in an early morning breakfast of scones and fresh fruit, a late morning brunch with lovely egg dishes and bacon aplenty, some of us go for a hike while others are content to sit around and knit all day. Dinner is not to be missed and the chocolate cake is the die for, seriously. Gift exchange in the afternoon is the highlight of the weekend. The nice ladies take off their masks and steal mercilessly. Somehow I always end up with the good stuff.

A very special moment this year was when I showed off my Great American Afghan squares. They are lined up on the table, some still need edging to size them up. One of the squares was deemed too bright and voted off the island. I need knit another one to fill the hole.

The kind ladies applauded for my effort while I busied myself playing paparazzi.

Re-arranging the squares so they all look right.

Dr. Nancy is holding the evil turquoise square. "No, I don't think so, out you go."

Pre-Retreat Yarn Crawl

2010-01-11T15:35:00.000-08:00

The annual South Bay Knitters retreat was this weekend, so on Friday, on the way to the retreat center for most people, we went on a yarn crawl to visit the Santa Cruz area shops.

First off, the Yarn Place in Capitola.

A stop for lunch at Gayle's Bakery across the street.

Second shop is Chic's with Sticks in Santa Cruz. This is a new shop and for most of us it's our first visit. Owner Cathy opened the shop early for our group and offered us a 10% discount. Her sweet grand daughter climbed on the table and showed us how to cast on.

Fae was drafted as temporary tutor and knitting doctor while the young lady admired her crocheted leaf scarf.

Third store is Swift Stitch on the west side of Santa Cruz. The store was having a big sale, 20% off total purchase if you pay by credit card, or 25% off pay by cash or check.

I took advantage of the deal and bought four skeins of hand dyed merino wool called Hacho (from Peru). With almost 550 yards, I think this will become a small shawl or a lacy vest.

Last stop was The Golden Fleece, at the base of Highway 9. By now the troop had scattered, some went for icecream and some finished early and went to Cost Plus across the street or the coffee shop. The shop has not agreed with me much since they moved almost two years ago, so my credit card stayed intact.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T12:55:00.000-08:00

Twas the day before Christmas

When all through the house

Not a creature was stirring

Not even a mouse

GAAA Squares Done, Pre-Edging

2009-12-14T21:18:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Great American Aran Afghan booklet
Yarn: Paton's Classic Wool (worsted weight)
Needles: US Size 8
Previous entries: Squares One to Six, Squares Seven to Twelve, Squares Twelve to Seventeen

There are twenty four squares in the booklet and I knitted every one of them, in the right order. The biggest square came out about 14"x14". Next I will add black edging to the other twenty three so they match in size. When it's all done, the blanket will be at least 56x84, which is more than seven feet long (with final boarder). I think it's big enough.

Pups Update

2009-12-03T01:06:00.000-08:00

Since Bucky's birthday a few weeks ago, the weather has suddenly turned cold, and Bucky started having a lot more trouble walking. One day he simply stopped walking on the hardwood floor in the kitchen. He has severe arthritis in both hips. When he can't get a good foot hold, the hips just give out and he sits down, legs stuck under him, and he can't move at all. This gives him a bad temper and he hollers till someone picks him up and unstuck him. He can still walk around on the carpet in the living room and bedrooms, or outside on the stone walk way. But I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and he always wants to be with me. Lately we got in sort of a routine -- we carry him to his food bowl, to the water bowl, to the big potty outside, to his bed. As long as his humans are within eyesight he's fine, within ear shot is not good enough.

Some days he feels well enough to enjoy the sunshine in the garden.

With all this going on with Bucky, Trinket becomes the much ignored big brother. As they say, sometimes no news is good news. He will be 15 in less than two months and we are all happy that he's gingerly chugging along.

Happy 14th Birthday Bucky!

2009-11-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

We made it through another year, and wishing you many more happy days with us! So much we've learned in 14 years, since the cold winter day we found you in the flea market, with a flea, the tiny 2 lb 7 oz bundle. You were all mouth and belly, kept eating, (pooping!), and growing, doubling your weight in three weeks. When you were a youngster you made your brother and sisters chase you to no end, until Mom caught you, and you gave her a dirty look and called her a "Traitor"!

Life was good so we gave you a human little brother that you so deserved. Dog, was his second word, right after Mama, and the first word he learned to spell. You inspired the little boy to be a puppy dog, cause you got away with being you.

Old age is giving you the dignity, and plenty of excuse for your obnoxious ways. A pug that eats is a good pug. A pug that barks is a healthy pug. A pug that gives us the stare demanding attention is a happy pug.

We are happy to have our pug.

Charity Knitting

2009-11-04T20:43:00.000-08:00

The latest batch of knitting from my mom. I didn't take pictures for everything, only a select few interesting ones.

This, and another batch from the summer, netted us altogether:

- 18 vests

- 2 ponchoes

- 1 pair of baby pants

- 1 scarf

- 1 pair of socks

- 1 baby sweater

They were all donated to our local charities. Three big bags full!

Henry and Bucky

2009-10-22T01:41:00.000-07:00

and Trinket too, hiding in the background.

From the little dogs and boy's perspective, carpet is the best thing since the milk bottle (or what it replaced). We keep the living room carpeted for the old dogs. With sheddy little dogs, dirty little boy, dirty big guy, the carpet is always a dirt and fur heaven. Once in a blue moon I have it cleaned. Dogs are kept away for couple of days. As soon as they are let back on the carpet, Bang! like clock work, one of them throws up in less than five minutes. This time I was pretty sure it was Bucky. It was next to his bed. What can I say, he needs his smell. Apparently the sniffer still works.