cosmic orchid

cosmic cloud -- resembling my orchid.

thx, uncle h.

ode to the olympics

i saw the hat and wanted it.  and then found that someone had reverse-engineered it.  i was golden!

(having trouble stranding invisibly)

i decided to make it my knitting olympics project, instead of forcing myself to write a pattern for my ruffly moebius. (i'll still do that, but not by sunday.)  and i won't finish this by sunday, either.  i'm about ready to switch back to size 5 needles because comments indicate the hat runs really tall.

__________________

and when i forgot to bring enough knitting to wednesday night knit at abuelita's, i indulged in some malabrigo sock yarn -- i have never knit with it before, and it's lovely and soft, just as i'd heard.

here's the little pocket for the martha stewart scarf.  i saw the link on mason-dixon the other day, and so thought i'd knit it up.

natural sunlight

here's my lovely kitchen orchid in natural sunlight.  (click on photo to see it more bigly.)  i hear we have one more day of sunshine before STORM WATCH 2010 begins again (rain is called for tomorrow and saturday).

in other news, i just found some leftovers from christmas day in my refrigerator.  it turns out that home-made bearnaise keeps pretty well for a really long time.  ;-)

and it's fair to just say "ewwwwww!" to that.

follow me...

my new internet acquaintance and lovely blogger marie tells me that she would follow my blog if i just put a button up. so here it is, crossing my fingers that it works!

rachel may has been lonely in the official following room, so i guess if i make it easy, she'll get some company. it's been a while since i linked to her blog (though i do go there regularly -- see "must-reads" over there in the sidebar), and i recommend going to her etsy store. she makes beautiful handmade journals and cards.

i've been knitting; i'll catch up on the picture-taking later this week, i think.

in the meantime, my ravelry/facebook/blog/twitter friend mary from taiwan attended my moebius class at abuelita's (my fav lys), and shared this picture on facebook -- here are all the relieved faces, having conquered the cast-on and just knitting away on their moebii! she should charge me a publication fee on this photo -- i've posted it everywhere and emailed it even more!

i hope you don't mind, mary! thank you again! ;-)

i have to say, knitters are the nicest (and funniest) people. we had a blast, even though that cast-on is sheer faith and determination to get through the first time!

ETA: i've added marie's blog, permission to unwind, and my friend ulli's blog, pure handmade to my must-reads. it's been a while since i edited that list! e.

fed, and happy

here's the new blossom with its older sib's:
knitting will return soon! it's happening, just not being documented.

i know my camera will adjust for the fluorescent lighting over my kitchen sink, but i have yet to look up how to do that. the colors are not quite right. you'll have to imagine just exactly how lovely the orchid blossoms are ;-)

feed me, seymour!

my kitchen orchid is blooming.

moebius class

i'm ready! booklets, stitch markers, we're good to go!

to knit, or to take pictures...

knitting olympics

the yarn harlot is hosting her knitting olympics, and i have signed up to participate. committing to a challenging knit is tricky, but i have a project i want to start and finish, so this is a good vehicle. i want to formalize a moebius pattern, similar to the one i made up as i went along. i like most things about it, but i want to change the lace portion, change the cast-on, and try to make it perfectly reversible.

i'll keep you posted!

we had more weather!

yesterday: thunder, lightning, hail! very exciting for us in southern california, a rare treat. the outcome? spectacular rainbow last evening (can you barely see the double to the left?):
and gorgeous mountains this morning!

as always, click to make the photos bigger. it was pretty dark when i took the first picture (you can see our street lights were already on), so the first one is a bit blurry. the second is cell phone photo quality.

i love seeing our socal icon in-n-out juxtaposed with the snow on the mountains. ;-)
yes, we get snow, too -- we just have to drive 10 miles to go visit it!

after this...

... i can now shop for yarn at my own house.i put some time into sorting yarn:
and needles:
yes, i took over the playroom/formal dining room:
it's cleaned up now, but that effort took hours. i also frogged some projects i didn't like or used for ideas/practice/experimentation.

i suppose i should show you an after picture, but the kids took over right after i cleared my stuff out. it's a mess again, but not a yarny mess. ;-)

after the rain

look how clean my lemons and tangerines are:normally they're quite black from dust, smog and so forth. this year with the fires, they were even worse, with soot and ash. you can see the normal black dirt that didn't wash off under the leaf on the tangerine (as always, click for a bigger image):
but it rained REALLY hard and long this weekend again, so the fruit were lovely and rinsed off.
views from my kitchen sink

i guess i won't notice

we have no purchased recycling box here. we use the boxes supplied by costco to carry our groceries out, and change them when they get too yucky/sticky. they're out on the "service porch" (laundry room), so they don't have to be good-looking, just usable. it's time for a change, and here's the new box:i thought "ewww! i have to look at a metamucil box every time i recycle something." then i got ready to swap it out, and...

...look at the old one: here's a closer look:
HAHA! i think metamucil is a step up!

i had no idea the old one was a fleet box. adult! double ewwww!

i'm sensing a theme here, however...

done, delivered...

and dainty. it's small (by design) and will fit a tinier person than moi.

back to my regularly scheduled knitting!i'm knitting up a french market bag, from knitty. it's a REALLY popular pattern (ravlink), with nearly 1500 projects documented on ravelry, from the talented polly outhwaite.
my favorite thing about the pattern (other than the shape, perfect for shopping or carrying knitting) is that it is a tabula rasa for me -- it inspires me to be creative with decoration or design. i've done two already, neither of which followed the pattern exactly. my first one is documented on ravelry, and it's one of my favorite knitted/felted creations.