Monday, June 30, 2008
It Runs in the Family
We try to instill the importance of education in our child's mind. Conceptually speaking, graduating from a school is more significant than the ceremony, certification or party that symbolize or celebrate this personal historical milestone.
The other day our little family chatted about high school prom. I didn't have one and Bill didn't go to his, so we are counting down days (3,200 and some change) to Henry's, a truly historical event. Henry has been rather focused on which college gym he wants to play basketball in, which shadows the other aspects of high school graduation.
"What about a date?" says Mom, who knows just that much about prom.
"I'll have a date." says Henry, very confidently.
"You mean you'll have a girlfriend?" says Mom, (you are getting my attention, kiddo).
"I might." says Henry, less confidently.
"If you don't have a girlfriend, where do you find a date?" Mom doesn't know much about the dating world.
"I'll just get a date from that website, you know, they advertise during basketball games on TV?" the kid knows what he's talking about.
It was eHarmoney.com.
Now review the How We Met stories, from Bill and Vivian, see a family trend?
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Dye Day and Charity Knitting
About a month ago I brought couple big bags of donated white wool yarn and a bunch of Kool-Aid packets to my mom's place in Carmel for a dye day. She's been knitting all her life using commercial yarns and had never dyed yarn before.
Since then she has knitted with some of the yarn that we dyed that day, and this is what's left when I visited her again last week.
These are the baby sweaters and vests from some of the Kool Aid dyed yarn, combined with other colorful yarns. She has a pretty wild sense of colors.
These intarsia patterns are from various pattern booklets and magazines that people donated recently.
Couple of these sweaters and vests are mostly wool and I will save them for the next round of CIC challenge. The rest will go to local charity groups.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Coat Ripped
In less than two years, my stash of Paton's Classic Wool has gone from this:
to this:
to this:
It was planned for Southwest Goes Uptown by Lily Chin, published in Knitters magazine Fall 1999. The slip stitch pattern gave me some trouble, and a terrible experience with SonShapes who failed to make me an ever so gorgeous wood 36" size 10 circular needle for $35 left me a sour taste on this project.
The previous entries: here, here and here.
The coat rested in the back of my closet for the past year, and couple of weeks ago I finally ripped it all out. My it felt good!
Now go on and plan the next challenge. I want to make something:
1. Large, not a hat or toy, most likely adult size garment
2. Textured. I'm not into color work, and I have two simple projects on the needles already (garter stitch and stockinette stitch), so I need something more engaging.
3. I want to use some of my fine weight yarn, alpaca, cashmere or wool.
4. Use stash! I will find pattern for what's in my stash, not the other way around.
For those on Ravelry, feel free to look at my queue and stash and make suggestions.
to this:
to this:
It was planned for Southwest Goes Uptown by Lily Chin, published in Knitters magazine Fall 1999. The slip stitch pattern gave me some trouble, and a terrible experience with SonShapes who failed to make me an ever so gorgeous wood 36" size 10 circular needle for $35 left me a sour taste on this project.
The previous entries: here, here and here.
The coat rested in the back of my closet for the past year, and couple of weeks ago I finally ripped it all out. My it felt good!
Now go on and plan the next challenge. I want to make something:
1. Large, not a hat or toy, most likely adult size garment
2. Textured. I'm not into color work, and I have two simple projects on the needles already (garter stitch and stockinette stitch), so I need something more engaging.
3. I want to use some of my fine weight yarn, alpaca, cashmere or wool.
4. Use stash! I will find pattern for what's in my stash, not the other way around.
For those on Ravelry, feel free to look at my queue and stash and make suggestions.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Bagged by Frisky
Frisky the ever so cute Chihuahua, who's mom blogs at Yawn Over, wants me to fess up:
1. What was I doing 10 years ago? 10 years ago, the Tuesday morning after Father's Day, we found out I was pregnant with Henry, our first and ever child. I put in a test at Kaiser the day before, after feeling "off" the whole weekend, and told Bill to wait for the result with me in the morning. I wanted to wait for the hospital to do the test, for someone to officially tell me "Yes, you are not dreaming. You are pregnant." The wait was anxious but I wanted to prolong it before my world turned upside down. Bill held my hand while I called the advice nurse line. The nurse was matter of fact, "The test result is positive. You are pregnant." No congratulations, not even a smile in the voice. Oh my heart leaped and we didn't know what to say to each other. We held on to the news to each other for the next seven weeks. It was a delicious secret we shared only with each other, while the small bud grew and grew. Thank you for bringing back the most wonderful memory, Jennifer!
2. What are 5 things on my TO-DO list for today? Today is a rather dull day compare to last week and earlier this week while I worked and ran around like mad. The next few days will be rather eventful:
a) my birthday is tomorrow, my friend at work is taking me out to lunch and our little family will go out to dinner;
b) I'm taking Friday off (and refuse to work the weekend to catch up!), Henry and I will go to Monterrey Bay Aquarium and then have dinner with my mom;
c) we'll celebrate Father's day on Saturday by taking Henry's Dad to Stanford Shopping Center and the restaurant of his choice;
d) Henry will be starting his first summer camp next Monday and it will be quite a juggle on his parents' schedules;
e) our UFO group meeting is next Wednesday night.
3. Snacks I enjoy: In my desk drawer right now: pistachio, raisins, walnuts, and on my desk, a pear and an apple. Guess that tells you what I'd like myself to eat, then again, if you have chocolate I'd trade all of these for a box of truffles.
4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: return my street back to a working ranch. We live in a new development that was a ranch for many years. If I have the money, I'd buy out all the other neighbors, let them live in the houses for however long they want, but in the end, tear down the houses and rebuild the ranch. The ranch will serve as education facility for local schools.
5. Places I have lived: Beijing (China), Jiangxi province (China), Guangzhou (China), Palo Alto (CA), Santa Clara (CA), San Jose (CA).
6. Jobs I have had: dog groomer, office clerk at Hoover Institution, library clerk at Hoover library, vendor in various flea markets, shop clerk at The Knitting Room, telemarketing sales girl at a Chinese PC distributor.
I will tag some of my mom-friends, because I want to read your answers to question #1: Sarah, Lesley, Zelda, Cindy, and Jocelyn.
1. What was I doing 10 years ago? 10 years ago, the Tuesday morning after Father's Day, we found out I was pregnant with Henry, our first and ever child. I put in a test at Kaiser the day before, after feeling "off" the whole weekend, and told Bill to wait for the result with me in the morning. I wanted to wait for the hospital to do the test, for someone to officially tell me "Yes, you are not dreaming. You are pregnant." The wait was anxious but I wanted to prolong it before my world turned upside down. Bill held my hand while I called the advice nurse line. The nurse was matter of fact, "The test result is positive. You are pregnant." No congratulations, not even a smile in the voice. Oh my heart leaped and we didn't know what to say to each other. We held on to the news to each other for the next seven weeks. It was a delicious secret we shared only with each other, while the small bud grew and grew. Thank you for bringing back the most wonderful memory, Jennifer!
2. What are 5 things on my TO-DO list for today? Today is a rather dull day compare to last week and earlier this week while I worked and ran around like mad. The next few days will be rather eventful:
a) my birthday is tomorrow, my friend at work is taking me out to lunch and our little family will go out to dinner;
b) I'm taking Friday off (and refuse to work the weekend to catch up!), Henry and I will go to Monterrey Bay Aquarium and then have dinner with my mom;
c) we'll celebrate Father's day on Saturday by taking Henry's Dad to Stanford Shopping Center and the restaurant of his choice;
d) Henry will be starting his first summer camp next Monday and it will be quite a juggle on his parents' schedules;
e) our UFO group meeting is next Wednesday night.
3. Snacks I enjoy: In my desk drawer right now: pistachio, raisins, walnuts, and on my desk, a pear and an apple. Guess that tells you what I'd like myself to eat, then again, if you have chocolate I'd trade all of these for a box of truffles.
4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: return my street back to a working ranch. We live in a new development that was a ranch for many years. If I have the money, I'd buy out all the other neighbors, let them live in the houses for however long they want, but in the end, tear down the houses and rebuild the ranch. The ranch will serve as education facility for local schools.
5. Places I have lived: Beijing (China), Jiangxi province (China), Guangzhou (China), Palo Alto (CA), Santa Clara (CA), San Jose (CA).
6. Jobs I have had: dog groomer, office clerk at Hoover Institution, library clerk at Hoover library, vendor in various flea markets, shop clerk at The Knitting Room, telemarketing sales girl at a Chinese PC distributor.
I will tag some of my mom-friends, because I want to read your answers to question #1: Sarah, Lesley, Zelda, Cindy, and Jocelyn.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Buckyism
If you stare at Mom long enough, there will be cookies.
When in doubt, bark!
Take you beauty rest, you never know what might happen in the next five minutes.
Eat while you can.
All toys are mine. MINE!
Humans are here to serve me. Reward them with sneezes.
Monday, May 26, 2008
East Bay Tour
On Saturday we took a day trip to Berkeley. First we hit Solano Ave:
Had lunch at Zachary's. Their Chicago pizza were voted best pizza in East Bay for a number of years. The walls are decorated with huge poster size paintings in Zachary's pizza theme.
Pegasus bookstore is next door to Zachary's. Nice selection of used books, though not much on knitting.
Then the guys dropped me off at Stash so they can go to some card stores to trade baseball and basketball cards. I have read some very positive reviews of Stash on Ravelry. The store is large and well organized, with both high end fancy yarns and regular every day yarns. The hardwood floor is beautiful, and there is a nice sitting area in the back, where I took a break after shopping. It was a cold day so I wore my newly finished Dickinson Pullover and the ladies in the store appropriately wooed and ahhed over it. They even found me on Ravelry and immediately friended me.
The guys dragged me out of Stash, time to hit Telegraph. It was hard to find parking, and we ended up on the top floor of a garage. Here is the view from the garage:
Corner of Telegraph and Channing:
Cody's Books has closed this location, or it'd require a visit. Tho they only sell new books which is less interesting than a good selection of used books. Now only a huge flower stand in front of the store.
Moe's is wide open and packed with books. Bill is very familiar with these bookstores as he grew up in the East Bay and always comes back for his "book fix". But then he also calls Moe's "the old hippie hangout", what does that make him?
Didn't have time to go to Shakespeare & Co. It's not as big as Moe's, so hopefully not much missed.
Across the street is a big music store, Amoeba Music, a rather messy, chaotic place. Bill has bought me some CDs here over the years, so it's worth a visit.
Amazingly large selection of classical music upstairs. That's where my Bocelli CDs are from.
While we were there, Bill drove further down the road to show us his old dig. This is the apartment he lived in when he was four years old.
His aunt lived in this Victorian home behind the apartment building. He used to play on those front steps. The buildings are still the same color as before, but no telling who's living in them now. His other aunt lived across the street, and an uncle further down the street. My family would have blown up the street if they lived this close.
We passed Article Pract in Oakland along the way, but we were running out of time and it wasn't a good neighborhood, so I decided to skip it.
Final stop, Lacis Museum. This is Jocelyn's recommendation and it's heaven for anyone remotely interested in lace, textiles or classic European culture. Of all places, I forgot to take a picture of the store front of Lacis, so here is a stock picture from their website:
This is a corner of the book area in Lacis. The knitting book selection is huge. I could have lived there for days. Instead I read till five minutes before they closed, while my guys waited in the car.
The loot:
Had lunch at Zachary's. Their Chicago pizza were voted best pizza in East Bay for a number of years. The walls are decorated with huge poster size paintings in Zachary's pizza theme.
Pegasus bookstore is next door to Zachary's. Nice selection of used books, though not much on knitting.
Then the guys dropped me off at Stash so they can go to some card stores to trade baseball and basketball cards. I have read some very positive reviews of Stash on Ravelry. The store is large and well organized, with both high end fancy yarns and regular every day yarns. The hardwood floor is beautiful, and there is a nice sitting area in the back, where I took a break after shopping. It was a cold day so I wore my newly finished Dickinson Pullover and the ladies in the store appropriately wooed and ahhed over it. They even found me on Ravelry and immediately friended me.
The guys dragged me out of Stash, time to hit Telegraph. It was hard to find parking, and we ended up on the top floor of a garage. Here is the view from the garage:
Corner of Telegraph and Channing:
Cody's Books has closed this location, or it'd require a visit. Tho they only sell new books which is less interesting than a good selection of used books. Now only a huge flower stand in front of the store.
Moe's is wide open and packed with books. Bill is very familiar with these bookstores as he grew up in the East Bay and always comes back for his "book fix". But then he also calls Moe's "the old hippie hangout", what does that make him?
Didn't have time to go to Shakespeare & Co. It's not as big as Moe's, so hopefully not much missed.
Across the street is a big music store, Amoeba Music, a rather messy, chaotic place. Bill has bought me some CDs here over the years, so it's worth a visit.
Amazingly large selection of classical music upstairs. That's where my Bocelli CDs are from.
While we were there, Bill drove further down the road to show us his old dig. This is the apartment he lived in when he was four years old.
His aunt lived in this Victorian home behind the apartment building. He used to play on those front steps. The buildings are still the same color as before, but no telling who's living in them now. His other aunt lived across the street, and an uncle further down the street. My family would have blown up the street if they lived this close.
We passed Article Pract in Oakland along the way, but we were running out of time and it wasn't a good neighborhood, so I decided to skip it.
Final stop, Lacis Museum. This is Jocelyn's recommendation and it's heaven for anyone remotely interested in lace, textiles or classic European culture. Of all places, I forgot to take a picture of the store front of Lacis, so here is a stock picture from their website:
This is a corner of the book area in Lacis. The knitting book selection is huge. I could have lived there for days. Instead I read till five minutes before they closed, while my guys waited in the car.
The loot:
1. Bill Bryson's African Diary from Pegasus. I didn't know this book existed.
2. The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book from Moe's. I have been wanting this book for a few years and now I have it.
3. Creating Original Hand-knitted Lace by Margaret Stove from Lacis, published by Lacis.
4. Alchemy silk purse in Mediterranean (deep aqua green)
5. Claudia Hand Painted merino in Midnight (purples and blues)
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Happiness
When I started this blog two years ago, I was working at Netflix, 0.4 miles from my home, running their Ad Sales on the finance side of the house, and feeling completely empty. The boss was a micro manager and eventually the project fell through and I was axed.
I'm two years older and wiser. After much digging in what's left of my brains, I began to figure out a few things that didn't make me happy:
-- Having the bragging rights for working in a "cool" company was not my life time goal
-- Working for an accounting manager certainly put a big dent in my happiness, worse yet, it happened before and I had temporary memory loss at the sight of the big number on the offer letter
-- Participating in the Netflix initiation dance and act like a fool brings one's ego to a new low
-- While doubling my salary in one year was an accomplishment, it's important to remember I was seriously underpaid for many years and chasing a fatter pay check should not be a reason for changing jobs
-- Watching the company stock tumble and 5% of my salary disappear was very sad
-- Free soda and plenty of company gears does not make up the lost pay, tho I do appreciate the plastic utensils available everywhere except for Seagate
-- Leaving my child to be brought up by care givers feeds the ego but damps a mother's heart
-- Unfortunately, Jocelyn, adding my stash gives me a small satisfaction, for a short time (but that obviously didn't stop me from buying yarn)
Happiness
Happiness is coming downstairs on a Sunday morning and my husband gets up from the breakfast table, big grin on his face, saying "There is my family!" and plants a big kiss on my forehead.
Happiness is seeing my child all hot and sweaty from playing basketball.
Happiness is watching my child grow up all boy and reminding him a millionth time, "Scrub your neck!"
Happiness is to be able to focus and multi-task at the same time.
Happiness is getting comments on my blog, and watching the number of little hearts grow on Ravelry (being added as favorite by other Rav users).
Happiness is handing my Muir to Jocelyn and watching her go all misty.
Happiness is floored by Jocelyn's stash.
Happiness is to plan where I want to be in ten years.
Happiness is to look up the boss's boss's boss's home address on Zillow and go "I thought he was much better off than that!"
Happiness is to tell the boss " Screw you, I'm outta here!!"
So, my friends, leave a comment and make me happy :-)
I'm two years older and wiser. After much digging in what's left of my brains, I began to figure out a few things that didn't make me happy:
-- Having the bragging rights for working in a "cool" company was not my life time goal
-- Working for an accounting manager certainly put a big dent in my happiness, worse yet, it happened before and I had temporary memory loss at the sight of the big number on the offer letter
-- Participating in the Netflix initiation dance and act like a fool brings one's ego to a new low
-- While doubling my salary in one year was an accomplishment, it's important to remember I was seriously underpaid for many years and chasing a fatter pay check should not be a reason for changing jobs
-- Watching the company stock tumble and 5% of my salary disappear was very sad
-- Free soda and plenty of company gears does not make up the lost pay, tho I do appreciate the plastic utensils available everywhere except for Seagate
-- Leaving my child to be brought up by care givers feeds the ego but damps a mother's heart
-- Unfortunately, Jocelyn, adding my stash gives me a small satisfaction, for a short time (but that obviously didn't stop me from buying yarn)
Happiness
Happiness is coming downstairs on a Sunday morning and my husband gets up from the breakfast table, big grin on his face, saying "There is my family!" and plants a big kiss on my forehead.
Happiness is seeing my child all hot and sweaty from playing basketball.
Happiness is watching my child grow up all boy and reminding him a millionth time, "Scrub your neck!"
Happiness is to be able to focus and multi-task at the same time.
Happiness is getting comments on my blog, and watching the number of little hearts grow on Ravelry (being added as favorite by other Rav users).
Happiness is handing my Muir to Jocelyn and watching her go all misty.
Happiness is floored by Jocelyn's stash.
Happiness is to plan where I want to be in ten years.
Happiness is to look up the boss's boss's boss's home address on Zillow and go "I thought he was much better off than that!"
Happiness is to tell the boss " Screw you, I'm outta here!!"
So, my friends, leave a comment and make me happy :-)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
White Lies Designs Heather
I have always enjoyed Joan McGowan-Michael's designs. Every year I see her booth at Stitches West and I always stop to admire her samples, and couple years ago this pack ended up coming home with me.
This is the Heather pullover, size medium. Comes with seven skeins of Joy, a soft merino wool in lilac, and two glass leaves dangles.
Started the front last week. The body length in the pattern is 22.5 in. and I’m thinking about making it a little longer, more like 24 in. I would just add couple of inches before decreasing for the waistline. I might have to buy an extra skein of Joy just in case.
This is the Heather pullover, size medium. Comes with seven skeins of Joy, a soft merino wool in lilac, and two glass leaves dangles.
Started the front last week. The body length in the pattern is 22.5 in. and I’m thinking about making it a little longer, more like 24 in. I would just add couple of inches before decreasing for the waistline. I might have to buy an extra skein of Joy just in case.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Dickinson Pullover Finale
Pattern: Dickinson Pullover by Kathy Zimmerman, Interweave Knits Fall 2007
Yarn: Yellow heavy worsted weight wool from knitswap, a very long time ago
Needle: Size 7
Started: January 2008
Finished: May 2008
Total Cost: about $40
Previous Entry: In progress
Notes: I didn't realize that this is actually my first raglan sweater. Even though the pattern called for, I ignored the one slip stitch that supposed to be carried on the decrease edges to create the neat raglan seam. Next time. I've done a few Viking or other Aran type sweaters before. I love cables. We all have something in life that seem to come naturally. My friend Sarah can knit two-handed fair isle in her sleep, and Jocelyn can shop for yarn with her hands tied behind her back (well, you get my point), cable is my thing. I knit from charts, but usually dump the charts by the third repeat and figure out where the cables go from the previous sets. They make perfect sense to me.
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