A Girl And Her Blog

Moving day!

2007-04-18T00:15:00.000-07:00

Hello, Thanks for popping in...but I've moved.
The blog is now here.
come and visit!

Oops!

2007-04-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

I just killed my blogger template...argh.
So, I guess this is the perfect oppurtunity to announce my switch to typepad...which was going to happen soon anyways. It will just be happening sooner.

Spring break

2007-04-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

Its Spring Break at last, and so I'm taking a computer break until next week. I have some projects to finish up, and some to start...and a vacation to go on. Finished Icarus photos soon!

Hanami

2007-04-02T00:09:00.001-07:00

This weekend we had crisp spring weather, so we took our breakfast to Golden Gate Park to see the cherry blossoms!

In Japan, cherry blossom parties called hanami (literally flower-viewing) are a national pastime. As the first signs of the blooms appear, in early late March/early April, areas in blossom are broadcast together with the TV weather report - a blossom report. Sakura bloom first in the South, in Kyushuu where it is warmer, and over a two week period the flowers move in a wave through Japan.

The best sites can get very crowded, as companies or familes picnic underneath the trees in large groups. Hanami parties are also very lively, if the videos shown in Japanese classes are anything to go by, much sake and taiyaki is consumed!

Our own little hanami was quite sedate, we were the only ones under the trees. The flowers were incredibly beautiful... in perfect bloom.

I hope that someday I will have the chance to see the Sakura in Japan, but San Francisco has very nice trees!

The flowers are shortlived, and soon fall; a metaphor for the brevity of live that has been appreciated by the Japanese for centuries. They are the basis for one of my favorite haiku which is:

That which blooms also falls,
the way of life in this world of flowers.

back on track

2007-03-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

Did i tell you that I sewed my first button hole? It was quite an accomplishment and I was extremely proud of myself. And the effort was all in overcoming the idea that it was tricker than it actually was, which of course it wasn't. My machine, I've discovered, does them brilliantly; and all one has to do is note the length of button to be holed beforehand, and press reverse a couple of times while sewing. Amazing. The newly made button hole, and its button live on a new bib for Blu to replace one of our worn velcro ones that she loves to pull off.
I'm sorry to admit that the sight of her struggling wildly to get it off and failing gives me no small amount of pleasure.

As I was on a roll during naptime, I also took a seam ripper to the Icarus shawl. I know that sounds bad, but trust me its ok....I finally got all of the reject mohair free...and very slowly picked up the live stitches and put them back on the needles. It was amazing that I didn't manage to lose any in the process, and after counting twice there were still 523 (it takes a very very long time to count this many :-). So the new correct yarn has been attached and Icarus is back on track! I'm halfway through edging row 4, so my fingers are crossed that I can finish the row and bind off without anymore problems!

beribboned

2007-03-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

Every since our previous move, we have been storing boxes at the same house - but now that we have our own storage we have slowly been moving the boxes over, going through them and packing them away. Peter bought home a small one that said 'Ribbons' the other day, and yesterday Blu and I opened it.

I am a ribbon hoarder, so I wasn't sure exactly which box this was....
I found some lovely things that I forgot that I had, and when I finish going through it I'll show it.

laying low

2007-03-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

I've either had a bizarre case of the stomach flu, or I've been food poisoned twice in the past 5 days...both equally unpleasant possibilites I assure you. Everything is on pause while I reconstruct life outside of my bed. The good news? Spring is here.

Life in the sun

2007-03-16T23:19:00.000-07:00

Ah bliss! If only the weather were like this year round - I'd be in heaven. But then I'm sure that I would knit less. So maybe not.

I had midterms this week (blech..) and in the aftermath of all that hard core studying my brain kind of frizzled, and well I just haven' t been able to concentrate on anything remotely 'serious' since. The weather hasn't helped. All of this glorious sunshine makes one feel bad for being inside, so Blu and I have spent a lot of time in the park this week.

Perhaps too much, we went to Golden Gate Park yesterday and I was shocked how well she sat in her stroller on the ride over - I should have known better right? She didn't even want to get out and walk while we were there, and she napped for 2 hours while I laid on the grass under the cherry blossom trees and knit. Either she was coming down with something, or it was the heat because I realized after awhile that all of this placid behavior was very un-Blu-like ( does that tell you something about her normally?) and by the time Peter picked us up that afternoon she was looking pretty out of it. The poor babe came down with a fever and had a temperature of 102 the whole evening. That was it though...today she was back to normal,

but her school has a 24 hour fever free policy so we had to skip...a shame right? we went for a walk instead.

The kitchen has been too warm to
cook much, so its been very light meals this week...which is probably a good thing. Dinner tonight was a Vietnamese glass noodle salad with chicken, yesterday we did prawns with garlic with arugula salad. I wish that we had a grill so that we could do more but we have to make do. In a couple of weeks it will be winter again and it won't seem quite so practical

Tomorrow is farmer's market day, and I'm going to get 10 pds of navel oranges (organic for $15 - a great deal)...I only got two oranges last time and they were so sweet and juicy that I've been kicking myself all week.
And aving just discovered that we have like 2 pounds of ginger in the fridge - where does it all come from? - I need to search out some recipes to use it up...any suggestions?

Lastly: Pete's going to kill me for posting this, but he got a hair cut yesterday and its super cute!

It's a nice photo too, you can really see the color of his eyes... sorry sweetie, I just had to. I got a haircut last week, but one of the prerogatives of being the blog owner is that you don't have to share photos of oneself!

Spring Socks

2007-03-14T00:16:00.000-07:00

I finished my self-striping lime socks! I put them on immediately showed them to Blu, who was not very impressed - and then yanked them off because its too bloody hot out to wear socks! Can you believe it? 79 today...79. Its March. I'd hate to think that we are using up our ration of Summer now....

Anyways!

Lime striped socks:
Yarn: Lorna's Laces sock yarn
Quantity used: 1 1/4 ball (?) - lets call it a bit more than one.
Purchased: Purl Soho, June 2006
Pattern: Knitty's Universal toe up sock pattern - Free!

Notes: They fit wonderfully. The yarn is great; very warm, but not bulky. I was knitting with bamboo dpn's and some times the yarn would split, but it didn't bother me - well not much anyways. There is probably more than 3/4 left on the second skein, so I can make Blu some socks too. I don't know that I'm sold on toe up socks though. Completing the wraps was just annoying, and I didn't pickup the heel in the tightest fashion...there are all these little holes (see picture)! I wonder how I can fix this next time?

It was difficult trying to take a picture of these in action. Someone kept trying to get in the way.

little patchworks

2007-03-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

I've been planning to try out patchwork for a while now after seeing all the lovely things made on peoples blogs and in craftbooks. Generally patchwork is the provision of quilting, but because I have no need for a quilt (I have several wonderful ones already), I decided to start out small. So its a pincushion....with 1 cm squares. Cute, ne? There is something very soothing about putting together all of the little bits into one whole, and it doesn't have to be done in one go!
Inspired by a Japanese craftbook, an embroidery one strangely enough, I found the whole concept to be simple enough that maybe I could extend it to other things. Like cushions....we definately need some cushions around here.

A warm pot of fish.....

2007-03-06T12:18:00.000-08:00

Hisashiburi.
The blog's unintentional hiccough, due to sunny warm days outside and evenings spent studying ... has not left very much to talk about I'm afraid. We are plodding along. Our days are full. Blu, now that she is very steady on her feet, is bored with mere walking...its now all about the climbing, jumping, dancing and sliding. Our twice daily walks have become searches for the most interesting staircase to climb, the steepest driveway to run down or slide, and for the perfect size rock to hold in a little hand, occasionally licking to keep Mama interested.

It hasn't all been work though. Peter and I had the good fortune to be given some tickets to Sleeping Beauty last week, so Blu had an evening in with her Aunt and we got to feel like adults! Yeah!

Did you know that Japanese cookbooks are just as lovely as Japanese craftbooks?
I picked this one up at Kinokuniya yesterday:

It is on Nabemono, or one pot cooking, with an emphasis on simple 'weekday' meals. Fish, chicken and vegetables in a simple broth - to which rice or noodles can be added afterwards...simple and very fufilling. The pot in the picture is a hitori nabe or nabe for one person; all of the recipies have been sized with the single eater in mind....but its not so hard to extrapolate for two. This morning for lunch I made a pot of hamachi with leeks and spring onions, which I sent to school with Blu over rice. This evening, fish again - salmon this time - with mizune greens and chinese cabbage...and the broth finished off with ramen noodles. It was delicious, but I'm sure that it would be even better if I had as lovely bowls as these:

Isn't it fabulous?

make way for spring

2007-02-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

I think we've had enough of Winter. Its a month early, and there is rain coming this week, but little by little Spring is showing itself in our house. This morning it prompted Blu and I to embark on a crusade against the accumulating toy debris, put away the well used and bring out some 'new'. I saw it later when writing my grocery list for tonight, realizing that all the recipes I had chosen were definately 'Spring-ish' ones - with flavors of lime, honey and tyme and not a stew in sight. I think it must have started last week, when after waiting for at least a month the first rhubarb appeared in the market...

I adore rhubarb. It is my second favorite fruit (after pomegranates) and I have wonderful memories of my mother stewing it with strawberries and honey for me when I was young. Its clean tartness promotes a feeling of 'Spring' that few other things can match. I bought all I could and yesterday it realized itself in the form of a Rhubarb Grunt (from How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson) - a grunt being a variety of quintessential American baked fruit dessert similar to a cobbler or crisp.

We ate it for breakfast, Blu had it for lunch, and then finished it for dessert in the evening with cream. I hope tonight there is more available at the store...so I can do it again. Even if it is still February, rhubarb makes it Spring for me!

a little bit of inspiration

2007-02-11T19:48:00.000-08:00

Seen the pictures on flickr of the Tokyo International Quilt show?? All I can say is...wow and more wow. Check them out here if you haven't had the chance.

re:smock

2007-02-07T22:47:00.000-08:00

Submitted to Whipup : Whiplash catagory #1 - Creative use of normal household waste.
Used: recycled sheet, thread

I really like the idea of smocks. For its history, as a garment that functionally protects ones 'real' clothes, and for its extreme cuteness. I read once, although I can't remember where, that a typical wardrobe for girl before the 20th century consisted of one regular pair of clothes, one set for church and several smocks for everyday wear. I suppose that as the cost of clothing has dropped exponentially over the years, and as so many of us have so much of it, smocks no longer serve the purpose that they once did. But still, they are really cute... and as babies seem allergic to bibs they are the perfect food fight foil. Plus they have the added bonus of showing that in fact, yes - your baby is a girl, even though she may not be covered in pink or have enough hair to be self evident.

Inspired by Amanda's fabulous gnome smock, and these two from craftbooks:

I made this:

The fabric is from a thrifted sheet, which I like because its reversible.

Its so funny how these things are sewn, inside out and backwards - all pieces together until it looks like a jumbled mess, but then you turn it out through a little hole, and ta da! its all finished. Amazing. I wonder is it just the Japanese patterns that are like that, or Western patterns too (I haven't sewn any yet...)?

Anyways it fits her - with room to grow....

and since it only took 3 naps and 1 after-bedtime to cut and sew I think that we will be making some more...

Is it really Friday?

2007-02-01T08:31:00.000-08:00

No, its not....but when thinking of this post I thought it was. Its Thursday, and I'm surfacing for air and a quick look around.

The new semester has struck and Blu and I are back to our commute.... and I have noticed that the closer I get to finishing my degrees, the more distant I feel from the end result. After doing this for so long it will be very strange to actually finish, but thats still ages away.

For now, the classes I'm taking this semester are very wordy...and I'm taking my first Japanese class since Blu was born. I'm behind, as I expected, but was pleased to note that I could still understand my Sensei just fine...I might actually do alright.

Here's where I've been this week:

Remembering how to read
Learning that Aragon was not just from LOTR
Spending alot of time looking at fonts...
Finding a really good recipe for Teriyaki Chicken...
Drooling over this
Trying to do a little yoga (Blu likes to do Downward facing dog with me!)

I haven't lost my resolutions with the loss of my vacation, in fact they have been reaffirmed. Blu's jacket was just the beginning! Several hours were spent trying to re-string stitches on the Icarus shawl...I didnt' make much progress though...there are 570 stitches. I also cast on another green sock like this one. There was a resolution for no new projects I know, but socks don't count right??

I've also taught myself how to crochet with the help of this book,

and some tips from my Mother.
My Mother always crocheted, not anything in particular, just little squares on occassion or things for my toys. But she recently taught herself to knit, and since I've always knitted and never understood crochet we are trading tips. Its fun. This book? Very fun. Here is some more:

Blogger is being odd...

2007-01-25T18:38:00.000-08:00

The new blogger is doing something odd where I can't see a persons return email address when they comment, so I can't reply... has anyone else experienced this?

Completion

2007-01-25T17:59:00.000-08:00

Blu's Cabled Jacket is finished. Can you believe that I did it? If it takes me this long to knit a baby sweater, than I think that Pete's going to have white hair before I finish his!

The Details: Cabled Jacket from The Baby Knits book by Debbie Bliss.
Yarn: 6 balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino purchased on Ebay.
Buttons: Liberty Print, handmade.
Start to Finish: Febuary 05 - January 06.
Notes: Ok, Ignoring the fact that it took me 10 months to sew down some pockets and find some buttons, this was a pretty fast knit. It was fun to knit because it was easy but not mindless due to the seed stitch and the cables.
The yarn was..well, it was so-so. It was disappointing to find that the dye job was incomplete on some of the balls, there are actually 2 or 3 white undyed stitches. They aren't terribly noticable but I feel ripped off because I was assured that this yarn wasn't 'seconds'. I definately won't ever buy yarn from ebay again.
And why is it that Debbie Bliss' patterns are always so odd? Don't get me wrong, the sweater is cute but I'm pretty sure (I dont remember because of course I didn't write it down) that I was knitting this for a 6 mo. old. It fits her perfectly right now, with a bit of room around the middle. She would have been swimming in it at 6 months.

This was the first cabled pattern that I've done, and I found it to be pretty simple to cable without a needle as long as you are not trying to do something else - like hold a baby - at the same time. It bugs me that all the cables twist the same direction. Had I more cabling experience at the outset, I would have twisted the lefthand cables the other direction. But it didn't bother me enough do it again.

I also found the pattern to have way too many button holes, it looks so busy... I think that 5 would have been enough. Oh well, next time. I never did find suitable buttons, these I made from some of my precious Liberty fabric...and when the sweater is too small they are coming off and going on something else, for me. I love them, and after all the knitting they are my favorite part of the sweater. Blu loves them too, she doesn't believe me when I said that they aren't edible. Everytime I put the sweater on her she tries very hard to yank them off and eat them. Maybe she won't wear it after all.

Tourists at home - Pt 2

2007-01-22T18:08:00.000-08:00

This post has been simmering for a couple days... our tourist adventures have continued; this time with the camera.

Wednesday we went to the Park, with a capital P. Golden Gate Park has to be the best place to go for a walk with a baby, if only it wasn't so far! It took us 2 trains to get there, one of which broke down, but we stayed all day. First stop was the Botanical Gardens, where Blu got out and practiced her walking while we had lunch. The gardens are one of my favorite places in the city, and I can remember going with my Mom when I was very small as well. Its free to all and open everyday, its dog free which is a nice change but you have to beat back the squirrels with a stick; they have been fed too much.

Peter told me that the Botanical Gardens remind him of the ones in Melbourne, maybe thats because they have a native plants of Australia and New Zealand section..

Initially, having never seen a squirrel before Blu was rather curious..likewise the squirrels felt positive that we had something for them too eat and fearlessly ventured close. But after one jumped up on the bench at the spot where Blu was hanging over the back, a squirrels approach caused her to shriek in terror so we had to move on.

Close by is the new De Young museum, and the future Academy of Sciences (which by the way is going to be awesome!!). Some people really don't like the new building as it is very modern, but I think its kind of cool. Its made of copper, and so will weather organically as it is exposed over time to the elements. Already some parts are beginning to turn green. Plus (and this I admit is pretty geekish) it reminds me of the pyramids levels in Mario Bros. 3 for Super Nintendo...because its kind of megalithic and has palm trees...anyways, it makes me smile.

I was planning just to have a cup of tea at the cafe and read, but Blu fell asleep and a load table of corporate types scared me away. So I wandered through the museum for 30 minutes or so and caught some of the highlights. Its in between exhibits so there wasn't too much to linger on.

We ended up at the Conservatory of Flowers.

Its a gigantic hothouse, they have tropical plants from all over the world, a butterfly room where you can stand surrounded by hundreds of butterflys and even an orchid room specializing in high elevation orchids from the Andes Mountains. Even better, its like 85 degrees year round. I didn't go inside, Blu was still napping and I didn't feel like tackling any more stairs but its a really really nice place to visit. Just sayin..

So ends our second day of touring our city. At home that evening, Blu was so worn out she went to bed at 7! I followed soon after....

Tourists at home

2007-01-20T11:07:00.000-08:00

Blu and I have been playing tourists this week, our last week of winter vacation before school starts on Wednesday. I've been trying to head further afield than neighborhood for things to do so we have been very busy. San Francisco has a reputation for being a very kid unfriendly town, and while I have certainly experienced this, this week I found that it is possible to find things to do with children that don't involve sitting in the park or lots of money.

Blu was a surprisingly complacent traveller, a godsend because at times we spent 45minutes on trains or waiting. I discovered that as long as I gave her snacks she would sit in her stroller much longer than I would have expected.

Our first outing was Tuesday, we hiked up the hill to the Randall Museum. I had heard about this from another Mom of a one year old as a good place to take toddlers. Aside from the massive hill - it would be really convienent to have a car for this one - it was. Situated above the Castro the Randall Museum is a hands on natural history center. It does classes on weekends and for school groups in art and ceramics and has a toddler rooms and rotating exhibits. The current one was on honey bees. There were gigantic models of bees flapping wings, protecting the nest, larvae - these were a bit freaky like 4 foot white slug plushes - and interactive hives and bee dances... Blu loved it and spent a long time flapping the bee's wings up and down. What a great place, and the best part? Its free.

Facelift

2007-01-16T14:18:00.001-08:00

Playing around with some new template changes today, not sure if I like it or not...
What do you think?

*Edit 1-25: Thanks for the comments, I too like the minimalist scheme but I don't think that this is "it" yet. And I'm not so sold on the red on the sidebar so I think that that is going to go....

Huh

2007-01-14T19:27:00.000-08:00

Doing some research tonight and I came accross this in Flickr's use disclaimer:

"A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF USERS MAY EXPERIENCE EPILEPTIC SEIZURES WHEN EXPOSED TO CERTAIN LIGHT PATTERNS OR BACKGROUNDS ON A COMPUTER SCREEN OR WHILE USING THE SERVICE."

Its really bizarre, but I suppose that it wouldn't be above some people to sue after suffering from a fit while scrolling through photos.

Walking

2007-01-13T23:02:00.000-08:00

It took some effort, and some intense bribery, but I got the video...
Here she is taking hesitant steps...
This stage is already going, everytime she stands she goes a litle farther, a little more steady...
She is growing fast, no?

being upright

2007-01-11T21:01:00.000-08:00

Blu has been making a concerted effort to practice her walking today. Her highest count was 14 steps, with a little snowballing run at the end. I have been desparately trying to get a good video clip of some steps, but everytime she sees the camera she stops. Argh! I swear, I will have video in the near future.

I'm trying to make good on my New Years resolutions this year, at least during January... I think most New Years Resolutions turn out to be January Resolutions don't they? Anyways short duration aside, one of my resolutions was to finish what I've started. This is a big one for me as I'm prone to starting many many things - books, projects, assignments...- and forgetting about them half way, the projects on my sidebar being a good example :-). I'm really trying to make good on this one, no new knitting (or sewing for that matter), until all started knitting is finished. Well, I may cast on a sock but that really doesn't count does it? And I got such pretty yarn for Christmas too!! But I'm determined, I will finish. In that spirit, I've picked up Blu's Cabled Jacket again.

One side, sleeve and pocket seam to go, but I think I might have block it again. You know what? I think it might still fit her, amazing as that is. I'm chalking it up to the stretchy weight of cotton, and not my laziness in matching row gauge.

I also got this in the mail this week:

Ordered from Purlsoho so that I can finally finish the Icarus shawl for my Mother, that is if I can bear to pick it up again. You might ask why I bought two skeins when I only need to knit 2 rows (Yes, Peter that would be you), and the simple answer would be just in case. Honestly, I originally bought this yarn to knit something for Me, so this is just a sort of stash reimbursement....
The pretty fabric sitting underneath the yarn will become pajama pants for me and Blu when the new project ban is lifted, its already washed and ready to go.

And to distract you from my lack of promised video and interesting content, I will send you to Yarn Harlot (if you haven't been already) where you can see the amazing power of knitters en mass. And if you have spare change and feel like being an upright human being, it is IMHO a very worthy cause. When I went to the actual website early in December, I had the strong urge to tell everybody I knew that for Christmas I wanted the approximate value of my gifts donated instead. It was only a momentary urge, otherwise I would have no new yarn, or fabric, or cookbooks....but I still hope to donate something. And I'm not above laying on some guilt and saying you should too.

More Effort

2007-01-06T18:27:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it takes a little more effort to achieve what usually happens effortlessly.
I'm trying to keep this in mind this week as it has been a bit of an uphill battle, literally.

We have been having such nice weather that we went to the park both yesterday and today. Blu's cold seemed to be improving and we were feeling a bit pent up inside the house. Because I usually take the bus to get to the park on the top of the hill I decided not to take a stroller, but to wrap the baby to my chest instead. In retrospect, I don't think that I will do that again. There is only one bus that does this route because its pretty remote, so we usually spend at least 10 minutes waiting. Its a bit of a gamble. After pulling all the tricks I could think of to keep Blu still while waiting for the bus, it came - going the wrong direction of course. Rather than wait with the fidgety baby for another 15 minutes I started trekking up the hill on foot. This is a really, really long hill - 10 or 11 blocks, up and up and up....

I stripped off my coat about half way up. The diaper bag was getting pretty heavy by then too, so I slung it along my chest. Now I felt like a pack mule, or a bag lady, baby strapped to my front and bag across my back huffing and puffing up the hill. .We got some odd looks...but Blu didn't notice, she fell asleep shortly thereafter.

The view from about 3/4 of the way up nearly makes up for the sweaty hike.

The bus passed us at that point.

We had lunch at the top, and played awhile but it was very windy and Blu was very irritable after only having a 20 minute nap, so we came home pretty soon - by bus this time. We must have looked a mess on the way home, Blu had lost a sock somewhere along the way and was shrieking at having to be carried for so long ( I usually can't rewrap her once we are out becuase the wrap trails on the ground) and I was a bit frazzled and tired from the climb.
The moral of this story? Mama should always take a stroller, and try to be prepared for the unexpected.

Today Peter drove us to the park, and everyone was very happy.

The End.

Beating back the cold

2007-01-04T23:46:00.000-08:00

Blu and Peter have been sniffling and coughing for days. .. Going through tissues like we are burning bills. In an effort to stave of the cold myself I'm making stock tonight, for soup tomorrow. There are few things, IMHO, as wonderful and diverse as fresh stock. It takes any flavor you throw at it, builds it up, blends it in and turns into something both warming and soothing. And how many things it becomes! Soups, stews, the basis for poaching and pasta, sauces and seasoning. I often make stock with an asian twist with ginger, soy and star anise. Today it was traditional, onions carrots, thyme and sage; a twist off of a pheasant recipe from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries, my new infatuation. The bird is stove browned and then braised/roasted with dry vermouth and sage with a couple of potatoes. Surprisingly tasty for chicken, and it will make great stock. I highly reccomend the book, I can't stop reading it like a novel, and am making lists in order to make as much as possible from it. We bought it for Anai for Christmas, but at the point that I was feverishly typing up recipes Peter gifted me with my own copy.

If all goes according to plan the cold shall be vanquished, just in time for Saturday's dinner. It will be a treat for us as I gave Peter the implements for Christmas and we have yet to try them out. I'm making Sukiyaki.

Starting Anew

2007-01-02T11:38:00.000-08:00

A new year is born.
After a holiday week of frigid temperatures and rain while visiting family, Jan 1st was warm and sunny, a beautiful start to the year. We spent most of the day trying to travel home, and are now happily back in the city - although I must admit that I did not miss all of the sirens. Sadly the journey proved too much for my poor finch, who died last night, the strain of a week spent in a small cage and car travel without food or water was too much for him. I'm terribly sad, he was the last of 4 that I had for 6 years now, and its very quiet around here without his little chrips. Hopefully we get another soon.

Aside from that low note, our holidays were great. We did our usual Christmas Eve and morning with his family, Christmas dinner with mine. Of course, both sets of Grandparents were very happy to see Blu-chan - they even let us parents sneak away to a movie, our second in a year! I don't think that Blu knew quite what to do with all of her presents, but she really liked the wrapping paper! Luckily she had lots of help:

I was a very delinquint Christmas crafter, and though I spent many naptimes working, did not manage to finish ANY gifts. Actually that's not true, I finished a batch of limoncello for our parents, but then Peter broke his parent's bottle on the way up. I'm midway through a second glove for Cris, and I sort of gave him the first - but I took it back to match the second. So several 'Christmas' gifts are now going to be birthday gifts, but really the recipients (the babies) won't know the difference. I suppose that if I want to make gifts for the holidays, I need to start in January don't I?

After Christmas we had several days of just lazing around.
Then we had a birthday party.

Blu turned 1 on Friday! Happy Birthday Blu-chan!
I made cupcakes:

They all disappeared.

Blu was shown proper candle blowing etiquitte by her cousin. Next year she will do it herself, I'm sure.

She didn't like the meringue icing, but ate the chocolate part with relish (I made mini cupcakes for the girls, I ate the big one in the picture) . Afterwards she opened some more gifts and played alot with her cousin while the adults drank champagne and ate tea sandwiches. Someone managed to get a rare mother-daughter photo of Anai, who hates to be photographed. Sorry Anai, I couldn't resist - its such a lovely photo!

Here is the Birthday girl all tired out from her party:

I was trying to remember how I felt this time last year, just before and after giving birth to Blu. For the first several months after she was born I felt strongly affected by birthing process. I fully intended to write her birth story down at that time so that I wouldn't forget, but naturally I didn't - I was a little busy at the time. Now, the experience of having Blu has ecllipsed the experience of giving birth to her, and the memory has faded somewhat. I still think about it, but am unable to really remember the intensity that went along with it. However, the moment Blu raised her head from my stomach and looked at me for the first time is still very clear, I hope that it will not fade. I might still write her story down, but mainly so that its around at the point that she asks me about it.

The next day (the 30th), Blu - who seems to be a very punctual child, as she first sat up and cut her first tooth at exactly 6 months, and crawled at 7 - took her first walk. We had seen little 1 or 2 steps here and there, but I understand that this was more than that. I was asleep, and woke to a chorus of 'walking, walking'. But I missed it. Whatever it was she had enough, and went back to crawling, although there have been some occasional steps. She just can't seem to get the left foot up. Dancing though, we see plenty of - I'm still trying to get a good video to post, because her dancing is hilarious!

New Years was quiet, a glass of champagne at midnight following a video, but very nice.

and Blu came back with a cold, probably because she spent so much time napping outside.

Noel

2006-12-23T18:27:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a small break for the holidays, not to say that I won't post at all but if I forget it might not get done until the 2nd. I wish everyone warm moments during whatever tradition they follow. Happy Holidays!

Ostrich

2006-12-18T22:35:00.000-08:00

Burying my head in the books this week, my last final is on Thurs! Didn't get much done on the weekend as we all mysteriously got some sort of food poisoning, all on different days. 8 loads of washing later, we're scrambling to finish up our christmas shopping - and me my christmas crafting. Hope to have some things to post soon!

random picture of Blu included to make the post less boring!

Cute overload - Welsh Corgi

2006-12-10T08:25:00.001-08:00

This may be the cutest thing ever

Friday

2006-12-08T14:13:00.000-08:00

It has been a very full week...

The first of the Holiday cookies arrived and very quickly left. We had more banana bread, a little bit of Egg Nog and lots of pasta...
I bound off the first of the lime socks, but the second is on hold until I finish my holiday knitting.
I enjoyed looking at these and these... and learning about this.
There was happy news and sad news.
A little bit of crafting...and not enough studying, time at the park before todays storm spent learning to stand on our own.

And from here on out its just one giant snowball...
This weekend we have the dubious pleasure of braving holiday crowds in the rain to christmas shop downtown.
Next week there are deadlines, slightly eclipsed by the looming shadow of finals the following week. Then Christmas, 1 very special birthday and New Year's squished together.

Good thing I like being busy.

The Smell of Lemons

2006-12-03T16:55:00.000-08:00

December is the beginning of citrus season in the Bay Area. I had always figured that it started in February when my parent's Meyer lemon tree would bow over from the weight of its fruit. But not so...there are citrus everywhere, and many of them have invaded our house. My hands are stained with the scent of zest and are still a faint yellow.

Some have found their way into forthcoming Christmas gifts. Others made their way into this Lemon Lover's Tart from this book. A extremely lemony-custard tart thrown together with my favorite type of pie crust - the pat in the pan crust. Its wonderful because the ingredients are mixed roughly by hand and dumped into the center of the pan, and then pressed gently out into a rough shape before being pre-baked without weights. The easiest thing ever and it always comes out flawlessly.

We also made swordfish with a Japanese citrus marinade, but this still leaves us with over 15 lemons left to use. I'm thinking to make Lemon pot de creme, and perhaps juicing and freezing some but would love to find a creative solution for the rest.

Peter and I met friends this morning for a deem sum lunch at Yank Sing this afternoon. The food was really good, but I always wonder if the deem sum that we have here is similar to the deem sum experience in China. I have often heard that the Chinese food that we have in America is incomparable to the food in China. This of course makes sense, but in America we are brought up to believe that all Chinese food is greasy and over salted, just like pizza is soft and doughy - there isn't really anything else available. You would think that if what we have isn't 'real' Chinese food, then someone would hit upon the hole in the restaurant market and fill it. Yank Sing does a good job of not being very hard on the stomach, but the overall experience is a little hectic. One sits in a big hall of very large tables, each equipped with a lazy Susan to pass food around. Waiters pushing carts laden with bite size dishes whiz around talking into their headsets. If you are a new table the carts come from all directions, and they bombard you with choices...pork buns, dumplings, fried crab, spare ribs...... Naturally since you're hungry you say yes to everything, eat it very quickly so you don't miss the next round, and then waddle out 45min. later feeling sick because you ate so fast you forgot to breathe. Much less carry on a conversation with your dining partners. This is what Deem Sum feels like to me, but again I've heard its different in China - that its like brunch, you chat, you drink tea, you eat normally. Maybe their waiters are slower.

On the way home we stopped in at Cookin' which is a store I have been driving past for 4 years now and always going, 'one day I have to go in there'. Well today was the day, and God I wish I had gone in sooner - well maybe not considering how small my kitchens have been. They bill themselves as a 'used gourmet kitchen appliance store'. But really its a floor to ceiling (and most of the floor space too!) treasure trove of cooking stuff. Somewhat dusty, somewhat worn around the edges, but in our 10 minute stay I saw more than a few things that I'm absolutely positive I must own - small copper double boiler, miniature spring form pan, gold lace rimmed 3 layer cake tray...- hopefully it doesn't take me another 4 years to get back!

Thanksgiving

2006-12-01T21:53:00.000-08:00

We are still recovering from the Turkey. It was a nice holiday though. Stayed with my family, dined with his, and than again with mine. Saw friends and family and shivered a buch, because it was very cold. Here is a quick (because its late) set of photos from the holiday.

Blu-chan, Mom and I took a break from the kitchen to take a walk, enjoying the fall color.

Many leaves were crunched underfoot...

I sat on a bench in the sun...

..while Blu explored some rocks.

Later, Blu remembers her favorite part of visiting family - her cousin!

Setbacks

2006-11-30T21:58:00.000-08:00

I swear the universe works in mysterious, and infuriating ways. There must be some sort of cosmic rule that dictates whenever one comes close to finishing something really big, a catastrophe must occur at the very last moment. Icarus has had a catastrophe. It happened two days ago. I had finished it at last, well nearly- I had to bind off - and I had just run out of yarn. The last edging row was worked in the new yarn that the shop keeper at Noe Knit assured me was a perfect match/compliment and wouldn't at all be 'too much'. well, it was definitely much 'too much' it was hideous and bright, and after beginning the bind off I decided to take it out. At which point the new yarn clung desperately to the old, and refused to budge. More tugging resulted in a tangled knot that needed to be cut out. What I wanted to do most at that point was shove the whole thing into a corner and give up knitting entirely, but instead I have been painstakingly threading a guide thread through the 570+ lace stitches several rows back in advance of taking the shawl off its needles and cutting out the naughty new yarn. Stupid sticky mohair. Its taken me hours to do this, but I think that I'm nearly ready to put it back on its needles, hopefully with all stitches intact. I'm crossing my fingers that i will be able to finish this in truth as soon as the new ball gets here....I can't believe I have to order a ball of yarn for 1 row and a bind off. Somebody somewhere in the universe has something against Icarus.

In Progress

2006-11-21T16:43:00.000-08:00

6 rows to go. I feel like this shawl is getting heavier every minute, and I'm bowed under its weight unable to cast on anything else until its finished. And I must finish because I desparately need to knit these fingerless gloves...and these socks..I'm still worried that I"m going to run out of yarn but we'll see how far I get tonight, if I don't finish I make a yarn run tomorrow.

I'm also making progress on my stripey socks. Here it is just before I turn the heel.

Althougth the yarn isn't striping in clear cut stripes I like the diagonal striped effect that its turning into. Haven't decided yet what heel to use, generaly I go with a short-row heel but I would like to try something different. Any suggestions?

Best Ever

2006-11-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

Banana bread has the most heavanly smell. It warms up the whole house, and makes me salivate long before its ready to eat. I made this loaf the other day from a recipe found on epicurious - actually from a recipe found in the comments for a banana bread recipe on epicurious - and it really is the best banana bread ever. Banana bread isn't subject to the same sort of subjective tastes that other baked goods are. For instance, it would be difficult to say what the best brownie recipe ever is, because some people like cake-like brownies and others prefer fudge-like ones. But banana bread has an international standard I think - moist, but still firm with just a little bit of nuts - and this one was perfect!

Best Ever Banana Bread

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
3 very ripe bananas
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup crushed walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream butter and sugar together.
Beat eggs, and add with bananas to butter mixture.
Sift flour, salt and baking soda 3 times.
Blend into banana mixture.
Pour into greased 9x5 loaf pan and bake until a skewer poked into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.
Place on rack to cool.

We ate this very fast, I think that I will have to make another loaft tomorrow.

I'm almost done with the Icarus shawl, only 9 more rows to go! Its a race though, the last ball of yarn is getting smaller and smaller very quickly and I'm worried that I'm going to run out before I'm through. Also on the needles is a nice stripey sock which I hope to have a picture of next time as well.

Until then, a gratuitous image of Miss Blu looking very chic in her beret!

Kisetsu

2006-11-17T21:22:00.000-08:00

Every year with the passing of Halloween I start to feel the 'Holiday' season looming ahead. It always feels like one big rush from Thanksgiving to New Years, interspersed with Christmas, my father's birthday and now Blu-chans birthday as well. Aside from the usual expected consumer pressure, I often feel a sort of internal seasonal pressure as well - a drive to feel connected with the end of Autumn and the beginning of Winter. This time of year I constantly dream of soups and cider and pumpkin pie, and I get excited at the thought of brisk walks through leaves, wearing mittens and scarves and frost - which is amusing considering that I live in San Francisco, and it was 65 today and probably never frosts. But these are things that I remember from my childhood on the east coast.

I have been thinking about these types of remembered rituals lately, and how they connect to the Seasons. How sometime next week most of America will be eating Turkey, regardless of whether Turkeys are native or not to their state. Isn't that odd? And cranberry sauce? Cranberries have a pretty specific enviornment that they grow in, and it certainly isn't California. But I wouldn't dream of having Thanksgiving without these things (well ok, actually I do occasionally) because its tradition and just wouldn't 'feel' right. It amazes me how ingrained the rituals of the holidays are in me, and that no matter how far I go I'm sure that I will probably always look for pumpkin pie in Nov. because, in my understanding of the world, it is supposed to be there.

I have been trying to eat more 'in season' for awhile now. It ensures that your food travels less distance to your plate, and the local organic produce is generally better. This isn't that easy, because most of my cookbooks aren't written according to a season and if a recipe calls for tomatos they are certainly available from a hothouse at the grocery. To help my shopping I recently got a food wheel for the Bay Area, that shows which produce, fruit, fish and nuts are available in each month locally. and according to this wheel, in November instead of cranberries I should be eating - limes. which most likely do not go well with turkey.

The purchase this week of Martha Stewarts Holiday issue has also tipped off my Holiday craft lust. So many pretty things....so little time. I start to think that if I started now, this instant ,maybe I could knit socks for everybody I know and bake cookies by Christmas. This is truly delusional. I know that while making everyone on my list handmade gifts is a wonderful idea, I would never finish, and would end up buying stuff anyways. But I will make cookies.

This is Halloween...

2006-10-31T22:09:00.000-08:00

...Tra-la-la. The Nightmare before Christmas is the best. I hummed that song for most of the day.
I had hoped to have some wonderfully cute pictures of Blu-chan in her Halloween costume but.....it didn't happen. Blu had a fever most of the weekend so she wasn't feeling her best, I never got to making her costume, and then yesterday we had a scary accident. She reached up and pulled a newly made cup of tea onto herself. As you can imagine, it was horrible. Very luckily the tea missed her face, but the poor baba has some nasty 2nd degree burns on her shoulder. Peter and I were beside ourselves, it was a total accident but I think both of us just keep replaying the 'should haves' over and over. 'We should have known she'd reach that shelf', 'we should have pushed it back further', 'we should never drink tea...'.

So Blu is going to be out of school for a little while until the burn fuses over, and so am I. and possibly posting around here could be a little scarce as well. But her costume will still get made, and she will wear it proudly out when she feels better.

Happy Halloween!

By the seat of our pants

2006-10-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

It feels like we are wringing the last drops of Summer from the year. Late October and it's sunny. warm. 80's. Lovely. The weekend was spent outside, picnicing in Golden Gate Park, and then a early Sunday brunch in Dolores Park after a trip through the line at Tartine for bread pudding and gougere's.

The rest of the weekend was happily spent sewing a new pair of pants for Blu-chan. She's almost outgrown all of her others.

Fall Pants

Reversible lined cotton pants in fall colors.
Pattern: New York kid's clothes; b 12month size
Fabric: 0.5 yd. Cotton from Purl
0.5 yd. Vintage cotton found at an antique show
Learned: Installing a lining. Making a casing, and inserting elastic.
Notes: This pattern was great, very visually oriented. I didn't have to break out my kanji dictionary at all. The inside-out-backwards piecing together took some thinking about, but that was just more my inexperience than anything else. Putting in the elastic though, wow that was tough. I think it took me 45 minutes of inch worming it along and then I had to rip the casing back when it got stuck. Need to find a better way to do that.
My only problem with the pattern was that it failed to tell you how to treat the second cuff, so I just hemmed it up, but now the cuffs on the reverse side don't really look identical. Which is fine, I'm not that picky. In all it was a really fast (1hr layout and cutting, 3hrs piecing and sewing), easy project and I really like the finished product. There will be more in the future, and Blu likes them too!

I put more photos of the pants and lining over at my flickr, check them out!

New spaces and places

2006-10-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

We have slowly been adjusting to the new space. All the boxes are gone, and its now just a matter of letting everything find its proper home. My office is undergoing a metamorphosis this weekend, Peter says that he is going to build me a desk. The picture above, is looking in to the office at an angle. I'm not going to show you the floor, its covered in piles - mostly books about cooking and craft.

I've had midterms this week, and now because they are over I feel like I'm on vacation. If I can keep myself from thinking of the things that are due on Tuesday, maybe that will even be true. I vacillate back and forth on whether going back to school with an infant was such a good idea or not. Somedays I think it was a crazy decision, other times I think it was a poor one. This week I thought the later, especially when it was 9 at night and Peter had to put Blu to bed while I was writing papers and studying (she did not like that at all!), or at 1am when I would crawl into bed. But now in hindsight it doesn't seem so bad, things are always better in hindsight though right? I have to remember this when finals roll around.

Blu and I have been exploring the new neighborhood in between tests. We have been looking for a playground, but have been unsuccessful so far. Really really unsuccessful. (Don't ask, long story). Its surprising that given Noe Valley's reputation for being Kid/Family friendly that there isn't more recreational areas available. There certainly are a lot of kids, they all walk up and down the main shopping street in their strollers, just like in our other neighborhood. In Pac heights though, most of the walkers were Ecuadorian nannies, not moms. There is one big park close by, but I can't really let Blu play in the play area there because it has a sand floor.

Blu + Sand = bad idea.

Don't get me wrong, she loves sand - loves to eat it anyway. But Dolores Park gets a lot of wierdos, and I don't want to follow along after my baby taking cigarette butts and needle caps out of her hands before it reaches her mouth.

People tell me that when they start to walk, they stop doing that. I hope so.
We are getting closer to that point, Blu now can stand on her own. But then she gets all excited that she's standing, and waves her arms and falls over. No balance. But she's getting better at it!

Fall Finished Objects

2006-10-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

This post is very late in coming but oh well. For my birthday last month, Peter very kindly contributed this to my growing craft obsession. I have been staring at it longingly in its case ever since, to busy to take it out. Over the weekend it made its debut, and the first thing I made was a little sleeve case for my camera to travel in.

Its made from a little bit of a fat quarter that I got at Purl this summer, lined with some vintage dots that I found here. This was my first time attempting to line something, its a little tricky to wrap your head around the first time isn't it? I'm glad I made this before I tried to line anything else! No pattern here, just some arithmatic. I really like it, but I think it should be about an inch longer than it is - so I'm going to make another one. What do you suppose I should do with this one?

I also finished the little baby shirt prototype:

The sleeves were the hardest part on this one, it felt like I was wrestling them into place (very gently), but the actual sewing was very smooth. Its a good thing that I made a mock up, because I think that the seam allowance was off on the sleeves they just wouldn't matchup with the armholes. Hopefully I can fix that in the real version.

The new sewing machine works beautifully, so very smooth - and quiet!! I can now sew during nap time, yeah!

Next up? Halloween costumes....

High class knitting

2006-10-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

You know something has become truly mainstream when Tiffany's gets in on the action.

ps: as you can see I found my camera cable, while I was looking for the netflicks (which I didn't find). ~ ;-)

Still here

2006-10-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

Really I am. Time is wizzing by, can you believe its Fall already?, and I haven't had much of a chance to post. Still adjusting to the new place I'm afraid (read: lots of boxes left to unpack), and while I've found the camera, I have yet to find the USB cable. D'oh! Also still adjusting to our new schedule with classes and daycare, which is working - sort of. Luckily there isn't much to report....lots of things on the horizon though...like walking babies and other more craftyish things which I'll talk about later. Hope to be back soon, please wait for me...

Laura

Trading Spaces

2006-09-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

And we are in! We are exhausted, sore, and swearing to ourselves that we are never moving again, but after a massive 2 day weekend pack-and-move we are in our new house. All due to Pete's incredible efforts I tell you, going from work to painting until midnight every night last week and moving and cleaning non stop on the weekend. The walls are painted, we are drowning in boxes, I can't find any spoons, and until recently the fridge only contained beer, baby food, and takeout but we are happy. It was a joy to drink a cup of coffee with sunlight streaming through the window, while gleefully watching the fog cover the other less fortunate parts of the city. I would show some pictures, but well, I can't yet find the camera either. Its here though, it all is. Somewhere.

Thank you to everyone that sent me birthday wishes!!! I had a delightful day with morning brunch (complete with mimosas), many wet baby 'kisses' and this which was my gift. Beautiful, no? It makes my palms sweat just looking at it.

25

2006-09-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

In honor of my birthday, here are 25 things about me :-)

1.my favorite fruit that's really a fruit: pomegranate
2.my favorite fruit that's really a vegetable: rhubarb
3.my favorite dessert: Panna Cotta
4.something I wish I eat everyday: Sushi
5.my least favorite color: Yellow
6.my favorite animal (currently): Nudibranches
7.my favorite animal that's not an animal: Slime molds
8.the best vacation I ever took: Japan, 1 month
9.the vacation that I will take someday: a Rainforest
10.first thing I do in the morning: make coffee (an absolute necessity!)
11.last thing I do at night: turn off my laptop
12.something that pisses me off: rude service/sales people (what's with that?)
13.something that makes me happy: colors
14.my favorite pastime: reading
15.my least favorite pastime: being on the phone
16.I wish that I could stop: procrastinating
17.I wish that I hadn't stopped: dancing
18-22.when I grow up I want to:
at age 2: play
at age 7: play with animals
at age 17: study animals
at age 23: study cells
at age 25: play
23.something I learned this past year: to relax
24.something I learned in my life so far: tolerance
25.something I hope to learn from now: more patience

Blu's Meme

2006-09-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

Phoebe's daughter Zara has tagged Blu for a baby meme. How could we resist?

Blu's Baby Meme:
3 Things That Scare Me
The Ocean
Swimming Pools
Black Shirts

3 People Who Make Me Laugh
Daddy
Amelie
Other babies crying

3 Things I Love
Yoga with Mamma
Playing in the Park
when Dad tosses me into the air

3 Things I Hate
Sweet Potatoes
Getting my nose wiped
Long car trips

3 Things I Don't Understand
The word "no".
why I have to nap
that biting is not the same as kissing

3 Things on My Changing Table
Nothing...Its very Zen.

3 Things I'm doing Right Now
Dancing
'Reading' Books
Funny faces like this:

3 Things I Can Do
Climb Stairs
Go on tip toe to reach the books on the shelf
Peekaboo!

3 Ways to Describe My Personality
Happy
Curious
Determined

3 Things I Can't Do (yet)
Walk
Sing
Use the phone

3 Absolute Favorite Foods
Pears
Yogurt
Noodles

3 Things I'd Like to Learn
How to use that cell phone!
Walking
How to open doors

3 Things I drink regularly
I'm a purist...I only drink Mom's milk

3 Shows I Watched as a Kid (that would be NOW)
Totoro
Howl's Moving Castle
Spirited Away

whose lace is it?

2006-09-15T16:13:00.000-07:00

In July I signed up for the Whose Lace is It Anyways? swap. Yesterday my swap package arrived...from Mona in Malaysia.

3 skeins of beautiful yarn, A pattern for the Seascape Shawl, a pair of beautiful wood needles and a whimsical little stitch holder. I love swaps..

Thanks so much Mona!!!!

4

2006-09-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was our wedding anniversary: our 4th. Peter actually forgot until the day before so he bailed on getting me a gift, but that was alright because I was able to coerce him into doing what I wanted for the afternoon - he drove me to hear the Yarn Harlot talk in Los Altos.

He took the baby and for 2 hours I sat in the sun and laughed really hard while knitting, as Stephanie spoke humorously about knitting.

I never knew knitting was so funny!

Or maybe that was just her. Anyways, it was fun and a welcome relief from the seemingly endless house search we had going on. If I was by myself I probably would have stuck around for the book signing and knitting festivities, but Peter and Blu were looking rather worn out so we went home and split a half bottle of champagne to celebrate.

Sunday we found our apartment! Its small but beautiful, rather costly but very centrally located in one of the cutest neighborhoods in SF. The cutest thing about it is that off of the living room there is this teeny tiny little room that was probably a little walk-in closet but could probably hold a shelf with a computer, or sewing machine, rather well if one squinted ones eyes. Its going to be my 'office'. I am very excited. We sign the lease this Friday, and we will probably get in there and start the painting on Saturday; the living room is currently this depressing color of Burgundy, ugh. So we will start packing up Saturday, but not on Sunday. Sunday is my birthday! I don't know what we are going to do for it, but there is no way I'm moving!

Blu Agrees!

In Class

2006-09-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

Here is what I'm up to these days...
My classmates...very dutifully demonstrating serious student syndrome.

My lab partner, using my scope..as hers was on the fritz.

My specimen...Tetrahymena thermophila....a single celled organism that has been very useful in genetic research. Although its kind of fuzzy because its difficult to aim a camera without a viewfinder down an ocular lens, you can see the cell pretty clearly (I've circled it in black). This particular slide is stained with a Feulgen stain, which is a stain for DNA. The DNA is pink, easy to see. Cool, huh?

Geeky yes...but wow, its great to be back in the lab!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming....

2006-09-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Eekk! I am a delinquent blogger, I know. Sorry for the lack of posts, I'm afraid that recently life has intervened with blogging. We are still looking for our apartment, and all of my computer time has been dedicated to the search. Not to mention that all of our weekend time has been dedicated to house showings...how depressing. Its one non-stop headache, house hunting is, all of the places around seem to be cramped, decrepit little caves in the fog zone - and all $500/ month more than they would have been 2 months ago. The rental market is simply robbery right now.

In other recent events: Blu and I have started school. I meant to take some photos on her first day at daycare, but well it was rather traumatic - so I didn't. The second day we fared better...so here is Blu looking every inch the baby schoolgirl:

Blu is refusing to eat at daycare, but at least she is sleeping! 1 out of 2 isn't that bad. I figure that if she gets hungry enough she will eat, right? And given that I nurse her before I leave and during my lunch I hardly think that she is going to starve.

Its pretty sad though, leaving a little baby there with strangers. I wish I didn't have to.. But when she's happy she seems to really like it, there are many more things to play with than at home. But when she's sad... you come back to this:

Blu wouldn't budge from the hammock and fell asleep that way. Poor baby!

Last week was so hectic, absolutely no crafting was done. I hope that things settle down in the next couple of weeks so I can get back to posting more frequently...but no promises yet!

Holding my breath

2006-08-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for the nice comments about my apron! Can't say that I have yet remembered to wear it when cooking, but just wearing it about the house makes me feel very domestic.

I have an Icarus update for you...

*WARNING* If massive injuries to helpless knitting upset you, than come back later. Just sayin....

Chart one was nearly finished. 1 1/2 rows to go, I kid you not, and what did I discover 2 repeats from the end - a very very large mistake. 10 rows back. Somehow the eyelet column kind of 'jumped' 3 stitches to the left, and continued without my noticing. Unbelievable that one could continue knitting row after row with that kind of error I know, but well I did.

The yellow shows the mistake (like you need a guide to see it!).

I wanted to scream, but what I actually did was put it down and walk away for awhile, just in case I was overcome with the urge to frog the darn'd thing then and there. Ripping it back and redoing it was not an option, it takes even longer to rip lace back than to knit it in the first place - and I'm just not that sort of patient. Remembering that the Harlot had discussed something similar last month on her blog, I looked in her archives and decided to attempt surgery.

The requirements for conducting the type of surgery on knitting as described by Yarn Harlot are these: pins, extra needles, good light and alchohol. So I poured myself a stiff drink and cut the shawl open.

Very very carefully. It really feels like at any moment the whole thing is just going to unravel into a big lump. Luckily it didn't, although I'm not in a hurry to do this again anytime soon. As soon as I hit the lace section, those thread lifelines are going in!

Surprisingly after a lot of sighing and wrestling with stitches, it worked.

Back on track, and ready to start the lace chart at last. I wish I knew of a way to even out those stitches, right now I'm just crossing my fingers that it will sort itself out when blocked. But if anybody knows a better way, please tell me!!

In Stitches

2006-08-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

Its surprising that given the amount of kitchen gadgets I have accumulated, I have never owned an apron. That is, until yesterday. This is my new apron:

I'm rather proud of myself to tell you the truth, it turned out great. Aside from a few minor glitches - sewing the pocket on sideways, oops!- it came together pretty fast. Or would have had I known what I was doing, it took me the unexperienced most of the day.

Its made from a thrifted cotton sheet using a pattern from Amy Butler's wonderful new book.

It was this pattern to be precise,

well actually there wasn't really a pattern because it was just a bunch of rectangles - it was more like instructions. Following Anai's lead I bought this book a couple of weeks ago - kinokuniya had it even though its not supposed to be released until Sept 1st! Its really great - just what I needed: easy useful projects that don't look like they were styled in the 50's in Idaho.

Since Anai also bought a copy, I've got to return her sewing machine to her - she's more eager than I am to use this book! So, I'm going to *try* really really hard to finish all of the projects I've started on it in the next week before I give it back. Thanks for your patience Anai!!

Also recently purchased (this week), the new Issue of Donna Hay.

Cupcakes anyone?

Getting Faster

2006-08-14T16:49:00.000-07:00

This is her favorite spot to climb. Underneath the dining table, it must be just the right height. She stands here ans does little dances back and forth.

Abunai - Don't Fall!

2006-08-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been much sleep to be had around here. We seem to be entering yet another developmental stage, and Blu-chan feels the need to practice - usually at 3am. As you can see she is no longer just crawling, she climbs.

This new standing stage has me a little worried. Until now, we have been putting her down to sleep in our bed without any problems. When she started scooting around, I put big bolsters on the sides to pen her in if we weren't in there with her. But now that she is more upright, she climbs the pillows and I am worried that she will climb right over the edge before I ever know that she is awake. Add to that the midnight crawling practice, extra nursing to supplament all of the energy she's putting out and a new tooth or two and I feel like I haven't slept in weeks. Last night, I put her down to sleep on a mat in the Living Room where I didn't have to worry, and I was so tired that nearly left her there at the point that I went to bed. I sat in bed dozing nicely for a half an hour before my better sense prevailed and I went to get her, and of course as soon as I brought her in to bed I couldn't fall asleep for another hour at least. Sigh.

Blu has also gone on a food strike. Well that's what I call it anyways. She won't have anything to do with baby food these days. Doesn't matter what it is, or how I prepare it, if its pureed and/or on a spoon she doesn't want it. However, she will play contentedly with whole pieces of food for ages, this morning half of a peach kept her occupied all through my own breakfast. It doesn't really bother me I guess, its just a little aggravating. I was hoping to at least have her eating a little by the time she started daycare so I wouldn't have to provide as much milk. But I guess that will have to wait.

I'm reading all sorts of articles on Infant Nutrition and solid food, and talking to lots of people, and I have come to the conclusion that no one really knows for sure why babies do anything. I've been told that I should be feeding her this or that, it should be cooler or hotter or blander. Veggies. Fruit. Rice. That pureed is good. That pureed is bad. I don't know if she just didn't like what I was giving her, if it didn't agree with her, if it was too cold, too tart, too boring. We will just keep trying, we will play with our food. Sooner or later some of it will have to make it into her mouth, right?

Without a title

2006-08-12T08:56:00.000-07:00

Its too early in the morning to think of a title...
I'm running around keeping miss Blu out of things. Somehow once they can crawl, babies develop an unerring radar for the places that you would least like them to be. Blu always dashes towards the stereo (because its low to the ground) if I don't block it with a chair, and then second best is the potted plant next to it.

I have been busy, really I have. But not much of it is craft related so I don't have much to post. We have two weeks to buy a car, and find a new place to live before Blu and I start school so I've been focusing my 'online' time on those things. But here and there I've been able to do a few more fun things.

Like this:

I know it doesn't look like much. But I tell you it feels like a hell of an accomplishment. I am on the last repeat of chart 1 on the Icarus scarf. from 2 stitches to 343, a lot of repeats. I've been knitting on it every night while we watch movies, and its exciting to finally be at the end of a seemingly endless pattern.

I signed up for the Whose Lace Is It Anyways swap, and my partner is overseas. Its a secret swap so I can't tell you what I got her but I think that its kind of cool and hope that she likes it. I hope I get something neat too, then my next lace project will be picked out for me already.

Even though our fridge has been dangerously empty, we've managed to churn out some pretty ineresting things the last couple of days. I have come to the realization that I cook by inspiration. Not that genius type of inspiration where there are a bunch of random ingredients in front of me and I whip it up into something fabulous. I wish. No, my inspiration is usually in the form of a recipe I see or something that I eat that I feel inspired to try to recreate. Its easy to get inspired, the trick is the timing. I have to either write it down on the shopping list right away, or flip through cookbooks before going to the store; otherwise I will never remember what it was that I wanted to make when I'm actually in the store and we'll come home with a lot of macaroni and cheese and no vegetables. sigh. this happens alot.

Somehow, this week the timing worked in my favor. Donna Hay's Autumn issue (spring issue for me) of her magazine inspired me to make this:

Gorgonzola bread with Pears. This was my first go at making bread by myself, and using yeast. Turned out well considering the obsticles that I was working with. (read: my pathetic oven) So aside from having to bake it for twice the recommended time, and a slight doughiness at the bottom it was very tasty and really nice warm with butter.

From the same issue I also made Mussels with Chorizo sausage and basil garlic sauce.

Highly recommended. The chorizo added a spicy kick to the usual butter-white wine-garlic sauce thats paired with mussels, and made a fantastic dipping sauce for bread. We paired it with a simple salad and a nice Austrian Reisling, a great simple meal.

And third, from the same magazine - I really need to get a subscription don't I? - she had this fantastic looking pan fried whole trout that I was itching to try. But the market didn't have whole trout that day. No big deal, since they had some fantastic fresh sardines. I boned them, wrapped them in prociutto and pan fried them. On top the recipe had you make a wilted spinach pesto-ish sauce, with pinenuts and vinegar cooked in the juices from the fish. It was great - although next time it would be better to get more sardines, those little guys don't fill your stomach very far. No pictures of that one though, it went to fast!

Gee's Bend

2006-08-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

The De Young Museum is hosting an exhibition of Quilts from Gee's Bend, Alabama until November. We went to today to see the exhibit and I was amazed at how unexpected and interesting they were, especially considering how little the women who made them had to work with. Until recently I had never heard of these quilts, but I've seen people refer to them on various blogs and Whipup recently mentioned the exhibit in SF - so I went. For others like me who had never heard of them, the quilts of Gee's Bend are the work of extremely poor African-American women in the early 20th Centery from Alabama who used what ever they had to piece together patchwork quilts in order to keep their families warm. These people were so poor, they covered their walls with old newspapers to trap in heat and the randomness of these papers provided inspiration for many of the quilts.

The exhibit mentioned that while the basics of quilting were taught by the elders, most of the women were largely self taught. This is pretty obvious, the quilts themselves are not the polished type of cookie cutter product that we are used to today - there were no patterns, and pieces were added and sewn until the quilt was big enough and then they stopped.

Also the women were limited to the materials on hand, salvaging worn out clothes and curtains. Several of the quilts are made entirely of denim from workman's clothes, and one can still see where the jeans had been sewn together originally,

others were constructed entirely out of cordoroy.

It was a very interesting exhibit to see, strangely what these women were doing out of necessity seems to have become fashionable in crafting now - the vivid colors, unusual materials, the minimalist design. 'modern' quilting such as Denyse Schmidt's designs and those I've seen around on craft blogs have drawn alot from these quilts - deservedly so. I wish that the pictures I had did them justice but I was taking pictures of the postcards I bought. But you can see them here. If you've never seen them before (or even if you have), check them out!

She Crawls

2006-08-03T10:24:00.000-07:00

Some of the first steps. Hurrah!

Sausage rolls

2006-07-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

Peter has been pestering me for sausage rolls for ages. Last night I finally made some.

It was unknown territory, as I have never seen or eaten a sausage roll before so I was going by some different Australian and British recipes and Pete's childhood recollection. In America we have Pigs in a Blanket but these were much lighter, and tastier. Peter said that they were better than the ones he remembered, but that's probably not true.
We ate them with some hard cider, and heaps of ketchup (which I was told was necessary). Not bad for a first try, eh? Oh if anyone has some sausage roll tips, please tell me because I'm pretty sure that they will be requested again.

Love

2006-07-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your journey?

- Rabia al Basri

Please excuse....

2006-07-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

My extreme dorkiness. I just discovered that I finally fit back in to a pair of my pants, for the first time in a year! Yeah for me!!!

*sorry, I couldn't help myself. Here is something to make up for my nonsense.....

Summer WIPs

2006-07-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Today is almost everything that you want out of summer. Laid back, a nice breeze, warm but not too warm. Its lovely isn't it when the universe decides to give you a reprieve from life and let you chill out? I'm chilling by watching Chocolat - I love this movie, and it was nearly better watching it on dvd so that I could see the production extras, now I have to read the book! - and working on my Icarus scarf

I'm still just increasing and increasing, but its moving along smoothly. After the headache that was the Trellis scarf ( I kinda shoved that one to the bottom of the WIP pile) this is a breeze.
I'm also working on this

A mockup of a little blouse from my NY children's clothes craftbook. I'm doing it by hand so that I know how it all fits together before I start cutting into the real fabric. Its going good so far but I'm kinda hung up on the sleeves. How does one piece them together and pin them so that they fit seamlessly, it is so counter intuitive how they fit inside out and backwards....I just keep moving them around and repinning? I'm winging it, but I'm sure that there is a 'proper' way to do it and dread doing it on the machine for the real version.

Blu-chan is enjoying her day by taking an especially long afternoon nap. We had a rather exciting morning, very out of pattern. Our yoga class was filmed for a segment on postnatal (mom and baby) yoga for a local daytime show, which was rather interesting...to be filmed while exercising. Actually they really just filmed the part where we help the babies do yoga, but the camera guy got very close up to take shots. So Blu is going to be on television! Unfortunates I don't' have a television to watch it, which I suppose is just as well....I don't need to see myself on screen.

San Francisco is just hitting the point where everything is in bloom. This is my favorite part of living in the city, honestly - the fact that things grow here! Walking around San Francisco this time of year is great because not are there only fabulous bouganvilla but calla lilies, orchids, magnolia trees all in bloom.

Hope you are enjoying the summer as much as we are!

Starting from zero

2006-07-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

This week we are starting at the beginning, energy-wise. Instead of -1 or -2 that is. Usually Monday hits and I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep. Why the clean slate? Yesterday I was very fortunate to be able to sneak out of the house on my own for a couple of hours, to the spa. I came home in very relax noodle shape...like a soggy piece of spaghetti, but well, not that gross. I believe I have mentioned the Kabuki spa and communal baths that is near my house. How wonderful it is, how relaxing, euphoric....etc. It was exactly what I needed yesterday after a stressful week, and to top off the bath I went whole hog and got a massage. I think it seriously has changed my life. Never having had a massage before, I admit that in the past I have been a little dubious about how incredible it could possibly be when others have told me so. No more, I am completely converted. I'm now positive that I should have a massage at least once a month (well maybe once every 3 months...they're pricey) to get rid of all of the residual tension gathered from carrying around a heavy infant. My massuse -Chris, a very authentic Kiwi, pounded me back in to shape (it was a deep tissue massage, I really do mean pounded) and as a result I have had more energy today than I thought possible. Trying to convince Pete that he needs to go, I'm almost there - I think that it might appeal to him because its not a 'back rub'-type of massage.

Its a good thing that I'm all relaxed because Blu-chan has a cold, her first. The poor thing is coughing and sneezing and blowing snot bubbles everywhere. So is Peter (except for the snot bubble part). :-(

Toshiyuki Fukuda

2006-07-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

I have a new favorite illustrator. Toshiyuki Fukuda does wonderful illustrations, with interesting subjects and compositions. I love the colors that he uses, they make the pieces feel very old like something out of an antique children's book.

If I knew where to go I would buy a bunch of his work.

(Found via Mais Pozinhos another great illustrator)

ふくだーさん、絵を使ったからごめんね。それはだめなら、私を聞てください。

Lots of Changes

2006-07-10T22:06:00.000-07:00

We have been undergoing a lot of changes around here. The changes have been piling up in little doses recently, but this last week I feel a little un balanced with all of the shifting going on. The most glaring change (#1) has been the weather. It is absolutely freezing! A true San Francisco summer, 55 degrees farenheit with doses of fog and wind. Its miserable, but so is the other extreme. We spent the weekend at my parents, 2 1/2 hours to the north, where it was 105 degrees and we prayed for a breeze. Blu-chan found the heat a bit difficult but I dunked her into the baby pool.
Which brings me to another recent change (#2), the sitting. Blu has been scooting along the floor for weeks, like crawling but more commando style - its not quite cross crawling on hands and knees, but effective - she can still cross the room to something she wants. But she wasn't sitting on her own until this week, probabaly because she spends more time on her tummy than sitting up. But now, its all about the sitting. And what a difference it has made for her.

Now Blu can play with things two handed, as evidenced by this bucket which she is in the process of dumping on herself. We also got her a highchair this week, now that she is sitting up, and have started to feed her actual food! (Change #3). This is very very exciting for her, (and for us - we finally get to sit down to dinner together). So far she's only tasted bananas but she really likes it, and now everything on a spoon she follows with an open mouth. Not to mention that if she watches you take a bite of something, she makes puppy dog eyes and munches her mouth in imitation. So cute!

But along with the first bites has come....the first tooth(#4)! I wish I had a picture - its on the bottom-middle, peeking out. Very white and very very sharp. She started cutting it about 2 weeks ago, but its still wiggling its way out - rather painfully. Luckily the homeopathic stuff works wonders- we only resorted to Tylenol once, after walking in circles for 3 hours at 2 in the morning.

Our last change came in the form of Blu's acceptance to day - school this fall. Which means that I get to go back to school. I am relieved that she got in, I didn't think that she would, but its also a little bit bittersweet because it means our 'babymoon' will be over in just 2 short months. After that I don't know if we will ever be able to spend time like this together again, just the two of us. So we are working hard to enjoy the time we have left, changes and all, so while I might not post so frequently over the summer - I'm still here!

Japanese craftworld

2006-07-07T16:16:00.000-07:00

From time to time I have the urge to scroll through Japanese Zakka and Handmade shops online. To see whats out there, and what people are doing with the craftbooks when they can actually read them. Thre are many many talented people out there making things, some are selling their items in handmade shops, some are writing books and articles that find there way into Kinokuniya for people like me to devour. Some keep blogs, some don't. But all are noteworthy. Here's a couple of things that I found recently....

Felted coaster and coinpurse

from Cage a really cute online shop with nice needle felting.

I'm also digging these bags from Kabott

and this little guy by mokomoko via Lu*Lu

Homecoming

2006-07-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

We are very excited around here today. Peter's sister Anai and her family are coming home this afternoon, from a 10 month sojourn in Rome. We are thrilled, because not only have we missed them terribly but we haven't seen our niece, now 2, since she was 1 1/4. And Anai has never met Blu-chan! So I'm off to give the house a welcome-home clean. I might even tackle the growing pile of craft items that is threatening to over take my living room. I have been inspired by all of the organized craft rooms floating around in the blogosphere to take action with my own space! See here and here.

Home at Last.

2006-06-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

Its good to be back. I'm now offically ready for the vacation from my vacation. I'm tired, the house is a mess, and I think that I gained five pounds...but I'm also really pleased with the great trip we had, and the fantastic goodies that I brought home!

I hit all the spots on my list.
The Met of course, the highlight of which for me are the Vermeers and the Rembrandts.

Also where this art deco mosaic reminded me of a patchwork quilt,

and where there was this amazing lace in the Medeival art exhibit. I wish I remembered where it was from.

Next, we hit Pearl Oyster Bar,

for their luscious lobster roll. and blueberry pie.

Saint Ambrous Gelateria
for some mouthwatering gelato.
Peter tells me this is the best he's had outside of Italy, I'm taking his word for it.

Oilily (when they wouldnt let me into the Frick with the baby), for some shameless drooling over their adorable dresses. I bought Blu one little outfit, but sadly the dresses will have to wait until she's walking. Don't want her to get tangled. Nearby Oilily I discovered Bonpoint....wow. Thats it, the entire store summed up in one word. Wow. This place rocks...and it knows it. It costs a mint. But, wow ( I can't say it enough) I wish that I fit into their clothes. Everything is made from Liberty fabrics, everything. The pants, the blouses, the dresses; all in beautiful subdued shades, no wild pinks and oranges here. The sweaters are wonderfully designed, hand knitted, and cashmere. If I didn't knit myself, I would have had fits over them . The whole store looks like it was made from a japanese craftbook, but well, French. Needless to say we bought stuff...just a little.

The main event of the trip's shopping was Purl.
It is everything that has been said about it and more. I think that if I lived close by, I would never leave. I would be there in the morning when they opened and would have to be pried away when they closed. The store, and Purl Patchwork a couple of doors down, is not large. But its contents are so refined, so beautifully organized (by fiber and color), that you feel like this is the ultimate yarn shop. Similarly with the fabric shop...it is as if, because the stores are so small, they only have room for the very best things. I think that they thought I was very odd. We, the baby and I, must have fondled every yarn in that shop. T wice. I just couldn't decide. this is what I came away with:

see that? thats cashmere...lime cashmere. It was calling to me, I tried to leave without it but no, it needed to follow me home.

This is some lucious silk. Peter asked if it was enough to make anything with. I kinda dodged the question because well no its isn't really. But its so expensive, that had I purchased enough to actually knit something, he would have choked. This way, I can buy it in bits...ease the pain as it were. Sneaky, no?

This is some Alchemy destined to become an Icarus shawl in the future.

and this is some selfstriping sock yarn from Lorna's Laces.
Made exclusively for Purl, so its kinda like a souvenier.

At Purl patchwork I was more modest. They swore to me that their website would be up in the near future, so I felt consoled as I will be able to order more fabric as needed.

Still, I came away with these:

and these:

Next on the list was, Kinokuniya.
Surprisingly the Kinokuniya in NY is not any bigger than the one in San Francisco. It may actually be smaller if you include the stationary store. It is more centrally located. Right across form the Today show stage in Rockefeller Center, which boggles my mind because that has got to be some pricey real estate and to have it filled with a bookstore, and a non english one at that is kinda astonishing. But I disgress. I was there for the craftbooks. And I found some great ones.
This is called "Simple Quilts".
The text at the bottom in white says "I wanted to make this sort of white quilt..." While I haven't yet ever attempted quilting, I liked the minimalism of the colors and the contemporary designs.

Next is one on Handbags.
Called roughly: "Start of the journey, with this bag". there has to be a better translation, but well I can't think of it right now sorry. It is a book of handbags for travel, or going out. Each bag featured has a smaller accessory bag, and some have 2.

Finally I got this book which I have seen on a number of blogs.

New York children's clothes.

I love this book. It has two stories associated with it for me. The first crafty blog that I ever read, last year sometime, was Nikkishell. I was amazed at her skill and especially loved the clothes that she made for her daughters. In particular, there was a kimono top she made that I adored, and she posted later on that she got it from this book. I've been on the look out for it ever since. The second story is that when we were walking in SoHo after going to Purl I went into this little children's shop that had some really cute things in the window. Inside were many wonderfully simple little outfits, out of Liberty of course, with a very familiar style. Eerily so. On the wall was a little ribbon map that I recognized. I realized that it was all made from that same book! Then I asked the clerk, who of course was Japanese, that had the store by any chance ever written a book? And of course....they wrote it! I'm a bit of a dork, and I got rather excited. He seemed rather surpised that I knew of the book at all, as I'm not Japanese..but put up rather well with my pathetic fangirl gushing. I had to buy something at that point to show my appreciation, so I got a little knitted monkey for Blue who's really a girl- monkey cause she's got her baby on her back. I thought that I had a picture, but I can't seem to find it right now.

The store's name by the way is Makie and when I got back to my hotel and looked in the book there indeed was the inscription, 'Makie's childrens clothing'. Amazing.

Traveling with the baby was easier than I expected it to be. She graciously slept on the plane, most of the long train rides and sat through several meals and trips to the museum.

She's started to creep along the floor now, nearly crawling. Its rather exciting.. and a little worrisome. I think that I have a lot of baby proofing to do in our house yet. Hope to have some new things to report next week. Have a good weekend!

A Short Break

2006-06-21T17:46:00.000-07:00

In a matter of hours I will be getting on a plane. We are going on vacation, to NYC, for a week and so I will not be blogging again until next week. I've been busy all day packing, trying to keep my mind off the impending flight. I do not like to fly...I hyperventilate, break out in a cold sweat, and clutch the armrests whitefisted each time the plane takes a dip. Though I know that the odds are against a crash, I cant help but think that we are like sitting ducks..or rather sardines trapped in a little metal box tossed through the air with no way out. Fun, huh? Also this will be the first plane ride with the babe; making it even more nervewracking. OK...I need to think about something else..Happy thoughts.

One happy thought at the other end of the tarmac, Purl SoHo. I'm so going to spend lots and lots of money there. This was assured when Peter said "you know, you can always ship things home rather than carry them back". Oh can I please?? Likewise with Kinokuniya NY, I'm crossing my fingers that its better stocked with craftbooks than the SF store, and which I'm hoping is not as disappointing as Takashimaya NY. This thanks to Disdressed's list of crafty places in NY. I've been doing my research.

Anyways, I'm packed, prepared and ready to face the plane. and I sincerely hope that I'm back next week to tell all about it. But if I'm not, well you know what happened to me. I ate too much and was too fat to get on the plane. A distinct possibility.

jaw nee!

Happy Father's Day

2006-06-18T23:16:00.000-07:00

To all Dads out in the universe, and to those that celebrate them - Happy Father's Day.

The Sponge Sequel

2006-06-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

So I had another go at the sponge cake. This time I used a recipe from Donna Hay, and it would have worked out great but my pans were too large. I ended up with 2 very fluffy pancakes. But hey, now I know that had I the right pans, I would have had a sponge. We had it for breakfast this morning, smothered with black currant jam and whipped cream. Yum!

Phoebe was kind enough to send me an article on Australian Sponge Cake craft. I gather that there is a society of people who make it their business to perfect baked goods such as sponges. Very serious business, baking in Australia. There was an attached recipe for the perfect sponge, which made me laugh because I didn't recognise a bunch of the ingredients! I would have thought that all cakes were pretty similar in construction, but not so! It seems that as long as you have eggs (of any sort - as the recipe suggested ducks eggs), some sort of flour, and some sort of liquid you can have cake. This particular recipe mentions things like 'full cream custard powder' which I'm fairly sure I will never find in the US, and the aforementioned duck eggs but also requires dropping the pans before and after baking. Are they serious? Is this common practice??? I haven't had very much baking experience, but I've never heard of dropping your cake on the floor intentionally. Anyways - Thanks Phoebe for the article, it was enjoyable to read even if I stick to my own recipe!

Kitchen failures

2006-06-15T23:42:00.000-07:00

Domestic Goddess I am not. Yesterday I had an urge to make a sponge cake. This involved: buying a cake pan, ingredients and carefully balancing naps with bake times. I used the recipe from the Domestic Goddess cookbook for the Victoria Sponge, and I thought that I followed the directions rather carefully. There was only one rocky bit when the baby wanted to eat and the cake wanted to go into the oven, well the cake sat around a little while. Which probably was a bad idea. Taking it out of the oven it was as promised, a nice golden hue and an inch or so above the rim of the pan. Mission accomplished...or so I thought. 20 minutes later, I glance into the kitchen and wonder in shock where my cake has gone. It fell completely, to about a third of its size. Although the taste was fine, the texture resembled that of a brownie; not a sponge cake at all. How disappointing. What did I do wrong? Did letting the batter sit cause it to lose all the air? Did I take it out of the oven too early and shock it? Should I not have used the food processor? (I had my doubts about that one from the start, but since Nigella said it was ok...)

And where do I go from here? Hang my head in defeat, promising never to bake another sponge again or give it another go?
I'm tempted to try again, the new Donna Hay magazine has some seemingly idiot proof sponges.
Though if it goes south again, I swear I will never bake sponge cake again.

Kickin' the dust off our shoes

2006-06-12T08:15:00.000-07:00

Blu and I are back from our sojourn in the country. It was a wonderful trip, visiting with both Peter's parents and my own and enjoying a real summer (rather than San Francisco fog).

We arrived home last night, and this morning we walked down to the post office to pick up a package that came while I was gone.

From June in Singapore, my Backtack softie has arrived!! It was pretty exciting to receive a package from so far away. Look how many stamps it took! Here she is,

Isn't she cute? I just love her little ears, they have the perfect curve.

I'm not sure of her name yet, but I'm pretty sure she's a cowgirl bunny...somehow the back of the dress reminds me of a bandana, and paired with the black and white fabric... I think I need to make her a hat!

June also sent along a fabulous brooch for me that she made (!!!) and a bell toy for Blu which promptly went in the mouth.

And little present was paired with the cutest little cards stamped with June's handcarved stamps!

Thank you so much June! It was wonderful to be your receipent.

And now....(drumroll please!!)
Since Serena emailed me to say that her Backtack kat had arrived, I can now reveal what it was that I sent! Here she is:

I used the Pointy Kitty pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. And I thought that she turned out rather well.

And here is a close up of my favorite part:

I loved this button so much. It was very hard for me to part with. Sigh. Well I know that its gone to a good home so I can't be too sad I suppose.

So what did I do on my vacation? - well, nothing really. Which was kinda nice, and rather unavoidable since my parents live out in the middle of no where. We took walks, sat on the porch in the morning sun drinking tea, took Blu for rides in a little red wagon. Country stuff.

Each morning I would get up and my baby would be missing from my side, I'd find her out in the garden with Mom watering sitting happily in the wagon, lap and face strewn with rose petals. (I never did manage to convince Mom that roses were probably not the best thing to give her, I kept finding petals everywhere, and pollen all over her mouth.)

Mom and I would chat until her kids would arrive (my Mom is/was a Montessori teacher, and has a small community pre-preschool out of their home), and then Blu and I would go off for a nap. All before 8:30 am.

Slow internet, fuzzy television, fuzzy phone and water that never gets quite hot enough. Plenty of mosquitos, snakes and lizards. But also a ripe cherry orchard a stone's throw away, no traffic, birdsong, and warm sunrises. Even with all of the dust, it will always be home to me.

My visit home was not as productive as I had planned. I had hoped that a miracle would occur and somehow the Trellis scarf would get knit up, if I was lucky, by little elves like in the story about the shoemaker? well unsurprisingly it didn't, I barely sat down to my knitting at all. I did manage to make a batch of lime curd, a german chocolate cake (my Grandma's recipe) for my Mom's birthday and a strawberry sponge cake for Peters's but that was about the extent of my craftiness, almost.

Do you see that dress in the picture? That is Blu's octopus dress. I love it. I bought it last year when I found out I was pregnant; at about 2 months I started going compulsively into baby stores and testing the waters. You know, to see what was out there. I saw this at Gymboree and knew that my baby absolutely *needed* to wear it. While I was at home, my Mother and I sat down and set out to copy it.

Mom has been sewing her own clothes since High School. She sewed most of my clothes when I was young, decked out all of my toys, and made her wedding dress. She knows what she's doing. I, however, have no clue. So I was a bit lost. But Mom was really patient with me. She showed me how to draft the pattern, and cut out the pieces (though she made me do it!), and wrote a list of very detailed instructions for me to follow when sewing it up at home. A little scary, but not too bad...yet. I hope to finish it this week and have something to show for myself. Crossing my fingers...

If you've made it to the end of this post congratulations!!! I think it was my longest ever. and there is still more tomarrow....including some goodies received from Italy, but that's all for tonight!

A Little Break

2006-06-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

Its exciting to see all the back-tack projects emerging. They are all very wonderful, a lot of time and effort that has blossomed into creativity. I'm looking forward to seeing the completed flickr gallery in a couple of weeks.

This has been a very busy week for us. Very out of the ordinary! Blu had a vaccination on wednesday, for whooping cough, which made her very fussy for most of the afternoon and evening. But she is so brave when she gets her shots! Of course she cries, but she also pauses mid cry to smile at the nurse and she fell asleep nearly immediately afterwards. The shots are definately more difficult for me than her. I agonize each time I give her one, wondering if it is really the right thing to do. I believe in vaccination but I have definate doubts about the mass immunization of a population, and wonder whether all of them are really necessary and at such a young age! We are spacing out her shots quite a bit, and being rather picky..but still.

Because it's Peter's birthday on monday, we have also been running around looking for the 'perfect' present. Which sadly we didn't find. We found some good substitutes though, and a fabulous anniversary gift which will just be about paid off when I pick it up in 3 months.

For his birthday we are going Home to visit his parents and mine. A long car ride, we leave tonight after traffic, but the weather up there should be beautiful and its always nice visiting family. While Pete has to come back to work on Tuesday Blu and I are going to stay with my parents and visit next week, so I won't be blogging until next weekend.

Hopefully all the rest and relaxation in the country will inspire me to knit like a whirlwind and complete the trellis scarf in time for my Mother's birthday next sunday. Unlikely, 21 lace chart repeats + a border, but you never know....

Well I'm off to pack, wrap presents and knit lace...Until next time!

back-tack'd

2006-05-31T12:12:00.000-07:00

BT Kat is done! And zooming off this afternoon to Serena in D.C. I will post some full frontal pics when she arrives at her new home. Just a little teaser for now!

At Serena's request I added a 'W' instead of a "S".

New bloggy favorites

2006-05-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

Some recent places I've been reading:

Pink Chalk Studio - I am in awe of this woman's skills. Seriously, I want to be her when I grow up.
A Dress a Day - cause you can't have too many dresses.
Twelve 22 - Fun stuff
Bara + Design Beautiful, just beautiful. Another who I wish I would grow into spontaneously. Sadly, I have a feeling she's younger than I am...(which is pretty young).

Thats all for now!

Friday Progress Report

2006-05-26T22:39:00.000-07:00

No pictures today, sorry no time to stop.
I was a busy busy bee today...

My to do list:

Laundry....check!
Practice kanji...check!
Work on Back-tack...check! (1/2 done, yeah for me)
Knit....check!
walk...check!
Lunch....check! (this is a rarity)
Lemon curd....check! - from Nigella's Domestic Goddess....for tomarrow's breakfast, yum!
Dinner...check! (spaghetti bolognase)
Sing many many rounds of Baa baa black sheep...check!
Blog post....check!

Whew! I can't believe that I got all that done. well not everything got done; my plants are looking rather thirsty, but otherwise...we are ready for our weekend. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll have a FO to show on Tuesday. 3 day weekend for us here, so we're going to take it easy...

oh and a silly photo to end the week!

Fundamentals

2006-05-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

So I was looking at the neato papers shown over at Design Sponge the other day, and showing Pete some of the highlights from ICFF.

Me: look isn't that neat?
Him: Its ok.
Him: why is there all this paper....
Me: Its a stationary show.
Him: oh. Its not very interesting.
Me: (scrolling down to the cool outdoor wallpaper) this is cool.
Him: its ok.

(gets up goes to kitchen, comes back out)

Him: That site sucks.
Me: why do you say that?
Him: isn't it all kinda feminine?
Me: That would make sense, she's a girl.
Him: really? Huh, I was wondering where the criticism was. And why the guy was using the word 'lovely' so much.
Me: Idiot.

Does this strike anybody else as one of those basic differences between boys and girls? That women point out things they like (and use words like 'lovely'), and guys feel the need to criticize? And they say we're critical, sheesh.

WhipLash #6 - Color

2006-05-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

1 fish, 2 fish ...red fish, green fish...

This is my entry for the final week of Whiplash, Theme: color.

I've been wanting to applique on Blu's clothes for awhile in an attempt to make baby clothes that I actually like - that don't cost a fortune, and so I took a plain white onesie and added some color in the form of some cute little fish. Red with a token green one, for going against the herd, with little (nearly invisible apparently) blue air bubbles embroidered around them.

I know that its not up there with the complexity of some of the other entries this week, but I'm pretty happy wiht how it turned out (and it took me nearly the entire weekend to do!) My husband commented "its not very much color", but I rather like the simplicity of the design..and well I'm a rather monochromatic person - just don't really do the potpourri of color thing, I guess.

In my opinion it looks very stylish on my very uncooperative model:

hard to see the little bubbles in that one.

It matches her red pants perfectly!

I'm just glad that I made it in this week. Thank you Whipup for hosting this fun competition!!

Saturday Silliness

2006-05-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

If the video does not display properly
click here to upgrade to Flash 8

I have a very silly baby.
We were playing with the camera on Saturday, and she was just making too many funny faces!!

How was your weekend?

2006-05-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

Mine was fantastic. We had a lot of fun! It was my first Mother's Day yesterday and we decided to take a picnic to the beach to celebrate. The day was sunny and warm, we packed up the baby, blankets and sunscreen and drove to Whole foods where we bought a bottle of wine, some prociutto, cheese, salad and cherries and drove to Muir Beach accross the bay. Early in the morning I walked to Boulangerie and bought a bagette and some cakes for dessert, so when we arrived on the beach after searching for a parking spot and skipping accross hot sand with the stroller and bags, we made some simple sandwiches and drank our wine facing the ocean. It was lovely, and very very crowded. But although the sand was hot, and there were many people, the spray coming off of the water was great and it actually wasn't too noisy.

And of course the setting was fantastic. Muir Beach is a very tiny beach surrounded by high green cliffs, with trails that stretch back into Muir woods - A redwood tree preserve.

Blu, as I think that I have mentioned before, loves the beach. She just sits staring - at people, at the sand, at the waves. This time though she had a new skill, rolling over! She started this on saturday, she did it once - very wobbly like and slow. And then it was like a switch had been flipped, now she does it all of the time! So because she was rolling around it was hard to keep her out of the sun, I slathered on sunscreen twice though and kept her under a rain umbrella and it seemed to have done the trick. She is not sunburnt anywhere Thank goodness! Peter and I however, are a very different story...

So a lot of hot sticky fun was had by all. Last night when we got home the baby wouldn't go to sleep, it was so warm, so she stayed up with us and watched La Dolce Vita. This meant unfortunately that I didn't finish my project for the Whiplash competition, but what can you do? There is always this week I suppose, and I'll still finish and post pictures when I get a chance. I'm working on setting up a gallery of photos, but its going to take me awhile - inbetween naps and outings.

Mattarihonpo

2006-05-14T17:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I found a really cute site of an illustrator and photographer in japan called Mattarihonpo. They make illustrations for website use, amoung other things. A couple of my favorites: which I hope to use when I update my blog.

Websiting

2006-05-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

Perusing japanese websites, as I am wont to do, I've found some neat things this week. Amoung other places h ere, here and these:

Ladybug tacks!

Little knitted kitty measuring tapes, how cute is that!

Fabulous knitted cozies!

Yarn - and a small rant

2006-05-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

The theme of this weeks Whiplash competition is: Yarn. I'm trying to think of something to make; something that maybe does not actually use yarn. But this one has me stumped, although I would have thought that this would have been the easiest week for me to do as there is plenty of yarn lying around here.

*warning* rant to follow....Stop here if you don't want to hear me vent.

I'd like to participate because so far this week there doesn't seem to be to many entrants, I think others are having the same brain freeze I am over this topic, but also I have a feeling that everyone is saving up their creative energy for next week when the Denyse Schmidt book is offered up. I had thoughts like that too. But you know, then I thought its really not about the prizes, its about the creative experience. Focused exercises or competitions like this really help develop ones creativity. Why do you think that we spend so much time in grammar school doing this type of thing? We are all trying to pump up our little creative muscles.
Trying to fit your ideas to a theme, trying to come up with ideas in the first place and executing them without a guide is difficult with out a doubt. But the more that one does this, the more you build upon your past creative experience the easier and faster it becomes. Then you see the awesome work being done by others around you, and some times you think that 'wow I could never do that -I should just give up', not a helpful thought to have. But sometimes you think 'wow that's really cool, I would have never thought of that. But if I think of it from their perspective what can I come up with?' and then you've gotten started.
Using eachother as springboards and support is the value of the craft community I think, the value of Whipup and Whiplash. In that sense I try not to think of Whiplash as a competition - we are not at odds with each other secreting away our ideas and work until the last moment; it is more like a communal project - individuals sharing their parts, and discovering what others have to offer, a much nicer feeling.
I'm sorry for the rant, but I've been thinking about it recently. About craft, and community and the value of Whipup. There were some comments this week that kind of shocked me. That people didn't like the whiplash competition, or felt that it had taken over Whipup in general. I'm surprised at this because I thought that one of the great things about the whole thing was I got to see handicraft by individuals like me - people doing craft in their homes and not afraid to post it, as well as the polished artisans that have degrees and studios and clientele. Two ends of the spectrum as it were. In short, I hope that the moderators continue the Whiplash thing (not even necessarily with prizes) - I like the mental exercise.

Friday updates

2006-05-12T23:23:00.000-07:00

Two steps forward one step back. Whoever coined that phrase was a genius. Life just kinda feels that way sometimes. Didn't feel like doing much today... picked up a couple projects and put them down again after 20 minutes. I've been working on the Trellis scarf from the Spring 06 Interweave Knits, and it was going o.k. but then today I dropped it. Metal slippery needles, plus smooth alpaca yarn equals tangled mess on the floor. Sigh, well I guess this means that I needed to do it again (with fewer mistakes). A couple of times I got to the end of a pattern row, and found that mysteriously several stitches had disappeared (or appeared). Did I rip it back when that happened? No, I just kinda fudged it, a couple of yarn overs or K2togs and kept going. It seemed to hard to rip back lace in any practical way. And well, because its for my mother she should love it no matter how odd it looks, right? Perhaps I'm just not cut out for lace knitting.

In the new Interweave knits though, there are a couple of tips so that even knitting klutzes like me can knit lace. A lifeline: a waste yarn or thread string strung though a non pattern row, one with no mistakes, that will make it easy to rip it back when the mistakes inevitably happen. Wow, why didn't I think of that? and moreover, after I read about it why didn't I use it?

In which the stash increases dramatically

2006-05-10T22:29:00.000-07:00

Today we went on an adventure. A perilous one, involving multiple bus rides, crowded streets, crying babes and hot sweaty mothers. Downtown we went in search of the elusive dream of the perfect black and white fabric, to Britex. Now in the past, I have heard any number of terrible horrible things about Britex. Their selection is expensive; their sales reps are all B*****s, and couldn't care less if you bought anything. In fact they would rather you didn't. A heavy reputation, but I was prepared to brave it. Why? because I was desparate. With Backtack deadlines looming on the horizon, and no sign of my order from Hancocks in sight I felt compelled to at least have something I could use as a last resort.
So to Britex we went. And let me tell you, people who have less than happy experiences there, you have obviously never gone to Britex with a social infant. We were treated wonderfully. I had swarms, swarms, of sales people clammering to giggle at the baby each eagerly piling my selections and expanding on the pinchability of Blu's cheeks. And when she melted down on 3rd floor (buttons and notions) no one batted an eyelash, they simply smiled and so did she. It was like Blu was my bribe, my way in to the rows and rows of cotton and hall of remnants (she never did let me look at buttons though, each time I went close she cried!). I spent way to much, and am banned from further fabric purchases this month. D'oh!

The loot:

These are my Back-Tack fabrics. the one on the left is the one that I originally ordered for the softie, it was sitting on the step when I got home today!

I got too little of the red one, I hope that I have a chance to go back and get some more. I just love it.

Some blues to even out my stash. It was hard to pick things out honestly. There was so much! and I was only really looking at the 2nd floor, the first being way to expensive. I also got some batting, interfacing and handles but no pictures since thats boring.

With the trip to Britex and package in the mail I'm finally able to send off this:

Going to Anai in Rome. I'm sorry it took so long to send Anai! I was trying to wait for the fabrics to come..and then your birthday present..but that will have to go later!

After Britex we went to visit Constanza at her office. Nice, lots of black computers and guys in black t-shirts. C matches, being dressed in black stretch and leather herself. Blu took fright at something though and had a absolute hysterical fit. for like 25 minutes, I had no idea what to do since she never crys like that but eventually she was just whimpering and Constanza took us to the park for some tea.

In all it was a very long day, and hot!, the longest that we have spent out of the house I think. 3 Diaper changes, as all time increments are counted in diaper changes these days. Blu fell asleep on the way home and went to bed very early tonight after her bath, I tired her out! Admitedly I'm tired too, but happy to have fabric at last.

Tomarrow is mom and baby yoga class for the two of us and some sewing at home. We went to this class on Tues and Blu really liked it, she just stared at the teacher the entire time, and talked very seriously during the Ohm chant.

Hopefully I will have some actual craft progress to show next time, until then goodnight!

FO Thursday

2006-05-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is my first true sewing finished object! A cover for Blu's down comforter made from some Aphabet soup reproduction fabric that I simply couldn't resist.

Isn't the pattern fun?

Here are a couple of my favorite letters:

I think they were searching for something for W.

And what the hell is Xebec?

You have to love the Valise, so classic!!

This one makes so little sense, I love it! It reminds me of Engrish.

So its not that impressive of a FO, just 3 seams sewn. Its basically a giant pillowcase, but boy did I have a time cutting this out! I have no idea why, it just seemed to not want to become a proper rectangle after I prewashed it, and I kept trimming and trimming, and the fabric kept getting smaller and smaller...luckily I stopped before it got too small to fit the cover. But I'm happy with it, and it will certainly be functional - as Blu has discovered the fun and joy of kicking off her coves.

Car lust

2006-05-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is a Ferrari. Sitting placidly on my walk back from the grocery last night.
It is just plain wrong for a car to be that sexy. :-)

Spring at Last

2006-04-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

Clear Skies and temperatues in the high 60's had been predicted all week. As so often the case the forcast was horribly wrong...low 50's and heavy fog. But today, today the promised spring weather came at last. Beautiful clear blue skies, warm sun with just the slightest hint of cool breeze. The type of day that reminds me that yes indeed, I do live in California, and yes Spring (with a capital S) is here.

So what did we do with our beautiful day? We played at the beach, along with about 500 other people. This was Blu's first time at the ocean, and she found it very exciting! Lots of bouncing up and down and giggly talking at the waves. It was nice to watch her experience the beach for the first time, although I'm sure that she will enjoy it more when she can move around more.

What else did we do?? well, we made eggs florentine for breakfast. That was delicious. And I made chocolate chip cookies tonight for dessert, yum! we also polished off the last of a box of
chocolates from cocabella and started on the one that we picked out yesterday.

In my opinion Cocabella is the best Chocolate store in San Franicsco. They carry chocolates from 12 different counties and some of the most origianl and decadent! flavors around. A couple of my favorite pieces are: the dark chocolate with passionfruit ganache, dark chocolate with a whole prune stuffed with marzipan and the strawberry balsamic truffle.

I knitted quite a bit as well, several inches on a new project - which I will talk about next time. And the pocket tops and collar on Blu's Cable Jacket. I expect I'll finish that tomarrow. At last!

Finally the Blu pic of the day. She is happy spring is here too!

Practicality is subjective

2006-04-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

How practical an item is, is definately in the eye of the beholder. To me: this is a pincushion.

To Blu, this is a chew toy. Which is the more useful? Probably the chew toy.

Apologies for the crappy pics. As you can plainly see, I'm still using the camera phone. Fear not though, the end is near. May 10th. The day on which this is released. I am waiting with baited breath.

The pincube was inspired by a Japanese patchwork craftbook that I saw this morning in Kinokuniya. It took all of about 35 minutes to make. Hint: I see many more of these in my future. The fabric is little sample bits of some Amy Butler Charm, and a BackTack 3 contender. I rather like the floral stripe combination, but I'm not decided yet.

Frankenkitty

2006-04-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

May I present Frankenkitty - brought to life with stuff, fluff, thread and cloth. He is my BackTack 3 prototype, and surprisingly wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. (Cheated a bit, he's half machine stitched, half hand stitched - so much for learning to machine sew.) I think that I could actually pull this off, although I am glad I practiced. The hardest part was turning it inside out, though some of the difficulty may have been the remnent I was using. I think that it was a very 'open' weave and the stitches turn inside out really easy and fall apart. I'm hoping that with a tighter weave, and maybe an adjustment of tension it will be better. and maybe some better quality stuffing, he's a little lumpy in spots and I like a nice firm softie. But in all not so bad huh? I received my back tack matchups last week and am very excited to see what everyone comes up with. I think that its amazing that there is such a common need for more creative endevors that hordes of people sign up to send little things all over the globe. and speaking of little things....what do I send along with the stuffie??? It seems there is all this talk and expectations of extras, and I'd like to send something but what? I must think on it.

Thank you to everyone that emailed me on Blu's Spots. She is doing better and better everyday. and now looks only mildly polkadotted!

In which we have a weekend with more chicken pox, and less sleep

2006-04-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

This is what Blu-chan looked like on Saturday. Luckily, that was about the worst of it. Today it is much better, the sores are mostly little scabs now and she no longer has any fever. But it was a very boring and sleepless weekend for us all.

However all that time on the couch meant that I finished the second sleeve of the Cable Jacket. Now all that I have to do is sew up seams, attach sleeves, and knit a collar. Oh, and find some buttons. I guess thats quite a bit, isn't it? It always seems to me that once you finish the second sleeve of a piece that its basically finished, but thats not really true. There is always alot of finishing to be done, and then blocking, and darning in ends....well, I'll post a picture when its all done. I'm in the process of swatching two different things right now, and whichever I finish first will be the next project to be started.

Chicken Pox=1. me=0

2006-04-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

The chicken pox is kicking our ass. We spent a very fretful night last evening. Blu didn't want to do anything, not eat, play or sleep...she just fussed and sat dazedly in Pete's arms as he walked around with her in circles. This morning was more of the same, little whimpers and half hearted playing. I feel very sorry for her, she's so little and has so many spots! they are even on her eyelids. This picture is from yesterday, so it show nowhere near the amount of spots now. We are glad that this is a mild case, I don't think that I could take it if it wasn't.

So not much crafting going on around here. I've actually been doing quite a bit of studying, looking at flashcards while I nurse the baby in bed. Making flashcards is a mindlessly soothing activity for me. I've made so many hundreds, that I can just run on autopilot and make them rather fast. Its also rather nostolgic, reminds me of time spent last year cramming with my friends right before tests and secreting myself in the library until 1Am the night before Kanji midterms.

After the baby was born I sort of lost my drive to study, and it felt like all the Japanese that I knew floated out of my head. It was disheartening to feel that I could lose it so fast, after studying so long and hard. But now I seem to have found some new energy and am working again in ernest. Although I can't meet with my tutor everyweek, I try to cover the chapters she assigned and just keep going. I think some of this new momentum is from finding blogs of other people learning Japanese, and reading about their struggle. Just this morning, looking at the Back-Tack 3 roster I found Red Swirl, who is a crafter and has the most beautiful 'a' characters that I think that I've seen. Mine suck in comparison, but I write illegibly in both japanese and english, so its not like thats surprising.

I guess its not true that I haven't been doing anything. I finished the main body of the Cable Jacket, and have about 5 inches of Sleeve #1. It turned out rather well, a couple of wonky bits but I'll discuss those when I finish. Stay tuned!

Spots

2006-04-19T17:02:00.000-07:00

It started yesterday. One on her head, one on her thigh. By this morning the little blisters were popping up all over. The back of her head is covered, her diaper area, the backs of her knees. Everytime I look there are more of them, yet she seems blissfuly unaffected by the change in her skin.
Chicken Pox. It took 4 doctors to arrive at this concensus. They hmm-ed over her dotted skin, while she giggled and smiled; pleased with the simultaneous attention of 5 adults. An unusually young, and unusually mild case they said. Its rather uncommon now, due to the vaccine, but apparently there is an outbreak in San Francisco right now. I bet they are kicking themselves since they let us sit in the waiting room for 20 minutes. As we left, a sign on our door "do not use this room". Secreted contagiously out the back entrance, regulated home to sit inside with our spots. Tomarrows 4 month shots will have to wait. And she still smiles at me, with a spotted face.

Coffee Cozy redux - the pattern

2006-04-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

Wow. I never would have expected people to actually think that my little cozy was cool. I actually felt kinda bad for entering this because it was so quick to make - and not nearly as cool as some of the other entrants, everyday panties? Wow. But it was fun, and it used up the end of a ball of yarn. Which is good, cause those little leftover bits tend to accumulate and hound you until uses are found for them. So I didn't think that this deserved a pattern, but it was requested - and how could I refuse a commenter?- so here it is:

The Coffee Cozy:

gauge: whatever you like -
i used 6 st/ 1 inch on size 8 needles (this was the original project gauge)
Needles: size 5 dpns - again whatever you like to fit measurements
Optional: crochet hook and contrasting yarn for embellishments

I'll spare you the math, but if your interested the number of stitches cast on is simply a reflection of gauge versus desired circumference - minus 20% for ribbing. So if you use a different gauge/needles adjust accordingly

Instructions:
Cast on 40 stitches loosely. Divide among dpns, and join (careful not to twist).
Knit in rib (k2, p2) until desired length. - Mine was approx. 3 1/2 inches but I only ever drink small cups of coffee, if you are a grande or vente kinda person knit longer.
Bind off loosely.
Weave in ends.

Decorate as suits your fancy. or if you want a handle....

Handle:
cast on 4 sts on dpn.
knit across 1 row. Do not turn work
knit again right side pulling yarn across back of work.
This starts the i-cord.
knit in this manner (trying to maintain even tension) until slightly longer than cozy.
Bind off.
sew both ends to edges of cozy and bind off ends.

As for the flower...
I don't know how to crochet. Sorry. I taught myself what I needed to in order make the flower, using an online tutorial - I heart internet tutorials by the way.
I'm very sure that anybody can do better than this. So go wild if you know how.

And there you have it, now go make your own! And if you do send me a photo, ok?

Coffee Cozy

2006-04-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

This is a little cozy that I made over the weekend for the first Whipup sponsered WhipLash comp. with the theme "everyday creativity".

My original idea was for something to keep bottles warm,
but then I thought of how many times I'd been to a coffee shop and they'd run out of those java jackets. So I made my own. Good for the enviornment, uses stash yarn and super easy to boot!

In use:

Happy Easter!!!

In which the sun finally comes out

2006-04-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

At last. a partially sunny day! It is absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to go out, but it will probably still be cold. And guess wha? its supposed to rain tonight and tomarrow, and the day after that....

I have been rather productive I suppose. I am making a trial run of the Pointy Kitty from Wee Wonderfuls out of some white cotton scrap. All of the pieces are cut out, now I'm just trying to work out how exactly one goes about pinning all the gussets and parts together. It feels like I'm forcing the fabric together at odd angles..and I have no idea how I'm going to attempt sewing around these curves. Most likely very slowly.

As for Knitting: I've made definate progress onBlu's cable jacket. The progress being that I now know exactly where the buttonholes are going to go. Why is this necessary?? well besides the obvious, the right front is knit with the instructions "knit buttonholes that correspond to button placement". Thats right, you have to do all of the math yourself. Or in my case, have your husband do it for you! I knew that his job would be of practical use to me someday! So now that I know where all of the buttonholes go, when I come to a button spot I just replace the seed stitch border in the pattern row with a buttonhole. Pretty simple huh?

Yesterday I managed to order some different knitting things online as well. First, I ordered the proper Jaeger yarn for peters sweater. The substitute I had found, Rowan Cashsoft, while beautiful knit too thin a fabric for such a manly (hah!) sweater. A look in Atelier Yarns found nothing extraordinary, so I sucked it up and ordered it from Knitting Garden. The good news is that if this one is approved, I can order the entire sweaters worth 10% off. Also ordered was some Alpaca Cloud from knitpicks so that I can try my hand at the lace Trellis Scarf in the Spring Interweave Knits. That will also double as Mother's birthday gift should I get it done before the beginning of June.

Lastly because she is so adorable when she is sleeping, I took a bunch of pictures of the princess last night. Here is one:

Sorry about the darkness, but shes sleeping!

In which I make several fruitless shopping trips

2006-04-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I'm a complete ditz. In the past week I've made several outings; crossing the city with baby in tow, in the rain none the less, to stores that are closed. I tell you, it makes one feel exceptionally stupid to come to the store you've been looking forward to only to find that it doesn't open for another 45 minutes, wait around with fussy baby until then only to discover that if you'd read the rest of the sign you would have seen that it wasn't even open that day! That was the trip to Satin Moon. Yesterday it was the trip to the yarn store, at least then I didn't wait I just left.

But today! Today is Tuesday, and so everything is guaranteed to be open...If I go after 12. I'm torn though. Should I venture out in the rain, in what will probably be a most frustrating afternoon in hopes that I find something in my price range? Or should I just sit at home and knit and try to keep the baby from being bored? True, I would like some fabric - I need to at least swatch something for Back-tack 3 (yes, i signed up!) and I could finally purchase the Alphabet soup for M's Duvet. And I could go to Atelier Yarns and see if they carry Jaeger for Peter's sweater, or some laceweight but its raining....And yes I know I'm whining.

As desirable as increasing ones stash is, I don't know when or with what inspiration I will ever make stuff. Blu-chan, I discovered yesterday, is terrified of the sewing machine. So, either I give up my idea of learning to sew or try to get her used to it I suppose.

No, its decided. I must get outside. If only for the sake of my stomach. The fridge is very very empty, as we defrosted our freezer yesterday. There was enough ice packed around and inside the freezer to make at least 20 Margaritas - I'm serious! It was incredible. And amazingly, that freezer has yet to keep a pint of ice cream colder than slush. It took all day to defrost - mostly cause my ditzyness struck again, and I thought that the switch on the outlet where the fridge was plugged in was the on/off switch. Turns out it was a light! Who would have thought? (well not me) So the refrigerator was on all day with the door open. D'oh!

New Technology

2006-04-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

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I just figured out how to post a movie! This is very exciting. Yeah for us! Blu is now in live-action mode!

In which we finish a busy week

2006-04-07T07:58:00.000-07:00

Its Friday! Hurrah! This was a very busy, and quite possibly productive week for us. I finished one project, made progress on another and set of on a whole new spectrum of projects. Firstly, I went to my uber-beginning-never-touched-a-machine sewing class on Wednesday. It was really basic, but a lot of fun. I'm glad that I went, because while I'm pretty sure that I could have figured out from the instructions how to wind a bobbin or thread the machine, it would have taken awhile. But I got it after being shown once so that was a lot of time saved. Also I got to get a bunch of frustrating mistakes out of my system (although I'm sure I'll do them again), and learned how not to swear at the machine when it jams up...Be very gentle. We made a little pillow thing...Mine of course had an "M" on it. I was inordinately proud of this pillow, not only did I manage to kinda freestyle some little flowers and swirlys - I was only 1 of 2 people who didn't sew both pieces of their pillow together while decorating the right side. Yeah for me! and that took all of 2.5 hours to do...Well its a start. I can't wait to take another class, either the buttonhole one or the totebag is next. It will be awhile before I can take one though, Pete and Blu-chan can't take these three hour chunks..She screams and he gets a headache.

However now I'm at home with a sewing machine and I don't know where to begin. I hope its not busted before I ever get to use it, but I push on the little pedal and it makes a kinda spinning noise but it won't go. (can you tell I have absolutely no technical terms for sewing?) I think I have to read the manual again. On the good side the appearance of the machine (Thanks Anai!) has meant that I had to clean the cabinet...and here it is my new craft space:

Please excuse the fuzziness. I took it with my camera phone, its better than nothing I swear.

See how nice and clean it is? That took most of yesterday. It was quite a production to pull off. Look closely and engrave this image in your mind. It will never be this way again. At least I have evidence right? That's gotta count for something.

There was a request for a photo of my finished pincushion attempt. Here it is:

Yes, it is another camera phone photo. Its made from the remnant that I bought at satin moon, and some crepe chiramen (sp?) ribbon. I have yet to add a button, because I don't have any. Its curious what types of things one accumulates...I have ribbon coming out my ears, but no buttons. Not surprising I suppose given my job history. Its really not a very suitable pincushion, a bit too soft, I'll have to think of something better to fill it with next time. The next one I'd like to do on the machine, if I can convince it to sew in a circle with a 1/4" seam that is.

Lastly, we have a new Blu-chan pic! I send her daddy photos at work all the time, so I have quite a collection on the phone, so while I was sending things from the camera phone I thought to throw this in as a freebie.

rain, rain go away...

2006-04-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

It has been raining forever. and it feels like it will continue raining, forever. Or as the weather says at least until next wednesday. I finished the back of Blu's sweater last night. Yeah for me! The cast off instructions gave me a bit of a turn. I had to take everything back once and I still ended up with four fewer stitches for the neck I think, but it will be ok. Babies don't have fat necks, just cheeks. I'm not following the pattern exactly at this point because I wanted to try a three needle bind off at the shoulder seams. I'm thinking of doing the sleeves in reverse too, but for now its pocket linings in duplicate.

This is our recent trend in sunday night dinners.

I thought that the browning of the top came out well so I had to take a photo. It was delicious and they are super simple.

And I'm rather excited because my sewing class is tomorrow, Yeah! It is also the beginning of back-tack 3 which I may or may not try out for.

Lastly we have a new Blu pic! (This is what you were waiting for right?)

A cookbook review

2006-03-30T08:22:00.000-08:00

I am a big Nigella Lawson fan. Not only is she a great writer, with lovely ancedotal recipes but she's pretty to boot. Obviously she has not gotten super fat on her own cooking. I also like her rather spur of the moment approach to cooking, as it so closely resembles my own; that unless I'm making an effort to cook a specific item I tend to bend the recipies I find around what happens to be in the fridge at the time and that in any recipie the more fat and butter the better it will taste, hands down (can you tell that I'm not fond of low-fat?). So I'm very pleased that yesterday my very own copy of Feast came in the mail. Purchased from a used seller on amazon for $10, I'm pleased that it arrived in even better condition than described - I'd swear that this book is new.
Early purusal of the contents and pictures has come up with some very exciting things so far; a ham cooked in cherry coke, the proper way to roast a turkey, goose or pork loin, an indian feast - with a recipie for chicken that looks, at first glance, rather similar to one sold in a certain restaurant in the Mission, Christmas pudding and pavlovas, and slime soup for Halloween. I love the photography, just the right amount for a cookbook; not so much that one gets stuck with the way things are 'supposed' to turn out, but enough to wet ones appetite. The writing is rather editorial, which personally I like but I know not everyone does. Nigella comments on all manner of things; from the importance of the stability of Thanksgiving and Christmas culinary traditions to the intense pleasure of homemade hamburgers. My one tiny, little hangup is the paper quality; I like a cookbook to have a heavy, archival sort of feel and this is a little thin, but no biggie.

Its also very interesting to read about anglo-saxon holiday traditions from the perspective of a British cook. English cuisine developed quite a bit in the later half of the 20th Century in my opinion with the integration of the immigrant cuisines from places like africa and india. And this is definately reflected in this book (This idea thrills me, I think that I could write an essay on the influence of colonization and immigration on the cuisine of the Parent country). Also for most of America, or perhaps just my own fairly bland catholic/protestant, anonymous white family, the traditional food of Christmas is just a shallower repeat of the food of Thanksgiving with a little more nutmeg. Not so for the British, with their Christmas plum pudding, Mince pies and goose. They have individual christmas recipies. A fact that I find very exciting.

In any case all theorizing aside, I've been looking for a long time for a cookbook that would allow me to forge my own holiday traditions; to accent the mush that I've made in my head of the childhood holidays spent around the tables of my Mother and Grandmothers, and more recently that of my in-laws. I think that this one will be perfect, I look forward to the next excuse to cook a feast.