jacques cousteau pour ma jeune fille

i have to say that the last part of this hat goes really quickly. my superbowl sunday ambitions aside, it was fun to knit, especially when i switched to the noro kureyon and started the decreases.
it is too small for an adult, but thing 1 loves to wear hats (i need to knit one of those felted cloches for her) so i gave it to her.

the swirlies are great. i (compulsive about changing a pattern) did a ssk decrease instead of the kks -- i wanted the ribs to sort of disappear, not crash into a wall. i did not knit all that 3x2 rib, several more inches for folding up as a brim -- it would have been pretty hot here in socal. if i were to do this pattern again, i think i would try doing the decreases right up against the vertical knit rib instead of the purl part of the rib. just for grins to see how it looks.

in this picture, the swirlies are pretty visible but the color is too bright.

in this picture, the colors are right but the swirlies are blurry.
on to the next project. i have two bags ready to decorate and felt, and just haven't done anything with them. i am not inspired on the decorating, and i need that inspiration. it'll hit! it just hasn't yet. in the meantime, my nephew at bucknell where it has been snowing and snowing has suggested he could use "the hat that you made for uncle joel -- it's awesome". how flattering! it's simple and gorgeous -- brooklyntweed's pattern. here's mine, if you're on ravelry, featuring my brother, uncle joel ;-).

she looked out through the kitchen window

i love looking out my kitchen window at this time of year. i have a tangerine tree straight out there, and at this time of year the tangerines are ripe and beautiful. i prefer looking at them to eating them (!). see them down there on the left?
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at the corner of my house, accessible from my neighbor's driveway, is a lemon tree. i use those lemons all year round in my cooking -- even if they're old and sprouting seeds in the middle, the rind is still lemony and flavorful, and the juice is still tart and sour. i wish i could convey with pictures how pretty it looks. at another corner of the house is an unruly bird of paradise plant. how fantastic that doing some necessary trimming in the garden leads to a bouquet of b of p and ficus in my kitchen window.

in the morning (right now) the sun is streaming onto the lemons, making the ripe ones gleam. i am a lucky gal.

lemon yellow, tangerine orange, bird of paradise spike blue.

pffft.

the game was too good, and the laundry pile was too high. i only got this far:

plus, the comments i've read are true -- the 3x2 rib is a bit boring. but i want to finish it, hope it may fit an adult (it's pretty stretchy), and can't wait to see how the noro i'll switch to will look with the twirly ribs.

how much can i do

with laundry and superbowl-watching, but i think i can get a bunch done of this hat

see, i've already started:


i'm fooling myself.

crochet 2 knit

so i ran across these adorable crochet lovebirds, amigurumi:


here's my problem: i don't really like to crochet (flinch) (embarrassed, chagrined flush to the cheek), but those birds are cute. but i found this set of instructions on eHow where they tell you how to convert a crochet pattern to a knit one!! woo - hoo! don't know whether i'll do it (you have to do two, really, if you do one, and just like with socks and sleeves, the charm may be long gone after the first), but i feel i'm sneaking around in the crochet world with secret powers or something.

恭喜发财

chinese new year celebrations at our little elementary school were marvelous. it is SO much fun to be exposed to the traditions of another culture, and have them incorporated into our own tasty cultural amalgam here in smalltown southern california.

the celebration included a trip to the new huntington library chinese garden for the 4th graders -- absolutely gorgeous, with incredible motifs even in the walkways. the docent did a wonderful job of explaining the symbolism, multi-layered, to the kids. circles mean the moon, the white moon, hinting at white jade, the most treasured color of jade. keeping 2 rambunctious boys separated and listening prevented my learning too much -- guess i'll have to go back! we are members, so in theory can go any time. i used to take thing 1 and thing 2 when they were tiny, to feed the ducks and watch the koi, the turtles, the frogs, and marvel at the tiny bonsai trees in the japanese garden. this field trip motivated me to pop in after school some day soon.


look at what you walk on!


for the last week, chinese new year has involved decorating the school with lanterns, masks and dragons in anticipation of the chinese lunch and festival today. what an event, featuring a dancing lion, parasol dancers and lots of ladies dressed up in their chinese silk jackets (i must have missed the appropriate dress portion of my invitation). and i was interviewed for the local chinese language newspaper. hope they quote me correctly! i'll have no way of knowing ;-).

this dragon greets you at the drop-off circle:

beautiful lanterns hang in all the breezeway arches:

the emperor and empress (principal and pta pres.) were the honored guests:

parasol dancers:


the lion dance was entrancing:


thing 1 wore red today -- it's good luck


a sample of the beautiful chinese jackets:
so what did the reporter ask me? how i felt about celebrating chinese new year at school! how i felt about the incorporation of chinese culture into the curriculum! i mentioned that, having grown up in maryland, where we just had white people and black people, with the rare exception, i had no exposure to the wonders of the far east, and just love it. i told him that thing 2, being adopted and looking what i call "generically ethnic", and having lots of little chinese friends, wants to be chinese and has told me that his friends believe he has chinese in him. the reporter was highly amused, and identified with socal's wealth of multicultural stimulation, as he grew up in IOWA, of all places, where everyone was white (except for him, obviously!) i gave him my name, and hope someone gives me a copy of the paper where i am quoted. wouldn't that be great!

Happy New Year! Gung Hay Fat Choy! or Gong Xi Fa Cai! (mandarin vs. cantonese)

now on to valentine's day...

my constant companion / mindless wip scarf

though it does not get as much attention as it deserves, it remains constant and faithful, sitting in the passenger seat of my momcar. it's covered often by my french market bag filled with newer, more stimulating projects, projects i've started in order to test a notion, or, in the case of elefante, couldn't stand to not start and finish tout de suite.

but i work a couple of rows a week, and i'm telling you this multi-directional scarf is starting to look great! i decided to use noro sock yarn, but after a couple of garter rows, i frogged it and worked in seed stitch instead of garter. the seed stitch illustrates the wonderful nubbly, yarny nature of the noro, i think, and i've been tickled with how it's coming out. it's so fun to watch the colors juxtapose unexpectedly.

i just don't know what i'll do with it when it's done; maybe this one's for me!

ETA: if you click on the pic below, a giant version will come up and you can see the seed stitch nubbliness.