it's still wintertime here...

... but that means it's time for the camellias to begin blooming, and it's time to take the opportunity to pop over to descanso gardens for a mid-winter stroll.  they have wonderful huge koi swimming around in the sky.ツ

no snowdrifts here!  just beautiful white camellias in full bloom.

pink ones, too, but my favorite are the white.  the red ones are pretty spectacular, but how many flower pictures can i post?!

a resident white goose hangs out with a mallard pair (right behind the tree).  there is a pair of wood ducks living there as well, but they were not at this pond when i was there.  the breeze came up as i took this picture, blurring the reflection.

i have never seen a rhododendron this color.  it practically glowed.

not trying to rub it in, really!

ETA: click on picture to really see it, as always.

it's almost embarrassing...

we're having such a lovely day.  i'm spending it doing some spring cleaning -- windows open, fresh air wafting through.

good earth herbal tea

i had forgotten how good it is; it's keeping me company at my desk.

epiphany

the 24 days of advent have been succeeded by the 12 days of christmas, and i am plugging away, slowly but surely, at my advent calendar knitalong.  it's such a fun knit, because it never gets boring.  once you get tired of a lace repeat, you do your transition rows and move on to the next beautiful pattern (she has used traditional estonian lace stitches).  above, a clip of days 1-5, featuring my first nupps on day 2.  they don't really show up much on this colorway, but it's been fun doing them nonetheless.

here's the whole thing up through day 8 (so 1/3 complete), wrapped around a european size pillow (26" wide).  i used weed-whacker line for blocking wires to stretch it out.  it worked pretty well!  we had beautiful sunlight this morning, but it has clouded up this afternoon.  i was hoping for a better picture; however, the color is pretty true.  click on the picture to see much bigger.

this is how i'm tracking rows on the kindle -- with notes.  on this note, i've just completed row 12.

when the kids decorate the tree...

... you may catch an angel in the middle of a full twisting layout.ツ

the thoroughly modern knitter

i received a kindle for christmas!  what a fun surprise -- i did not expect anything beyond the usual socks and underwear this year.  and guess what the kindle does besides let you read books?  you can transfer pdf's to it and read them!  what kind of pdf might i be talking about?  knitting patterns, of course!  oh how exciting!  and what a savings of paper!

i immediately loaded my advent calendar knitalong pdf (combined, it's 62 pages! think of the paper and just the bulk of carrying all that paper around!), and i'm using the note feature of the kindle to track rows.

i needed a quick gift bag for a bottle of champagne, so loaded that pattern on there as well.  i used this pattern from paton's.  i've used it before, and love how they organize the stripes to be so random and wonderful.  i modified the pattern to use up some lamb's pride bulky yarn in my stash (with one color in worsted weight held double), so cast on 48 stitches and followed pattern C, using a size 9 circular needle.  the wider stripes often called for 6 rounds, but i knit 5 so the bag would not be too tall.  the narrower stripes i knit as written.  it felted down just perfectly, so the top of the champagne bottle is peeking out. 

it's very quick, very easy and really fun to do.  and of course, felting always seems like a miracle to me, and the fabric is quite sturdy enough to support and protect a full bottle of champagne.  and THAT is important! ツ