Whew that was close...

Yesterday ended up being a good day for me. It was my birthday. Lately I have not been a fan of getting older and yesterday was no exception, however it was an event filled day to say the least. It started with Sensei and I waking up to go to work, not a mention of Happy Birthday from him. I couldn't believe it!! My mother calls to wish me a Happy Birthday and I missed her call. Sensei called to sing Happy Birthday to me and I missed that call too. So I am in the car in front of the house letting it warm up and I listen to my messages. I proceed to call Sensei and we chat as I now drive away from the house. I then try to return my mothers call and she doesn't answer the phone. I am now on the freeway going to work and listening to the radio, Adam Corolla has Hootie and the Blowfish in studio doing an interview, I love Hootie and the Blowfish. I am zipping along enjoying the radio show and look down to notice that I was going about 80 mph. I am in a 65 mph zone, I said to myself, I need to slow down, I would hate to get a ticket on my birthday! Then 2 things happen at the same time, I look in my back mirror and notice a shiny black and white CHP car 2 cars behind me, but still in FULL view of my speeding Honda Accord and my mother is now ringing my cell phone. I drop speed immediately and pick up the phone. I inform her that I believe that I have narrowly escaped getting a speeding ticket just now and that if I had gotten pulled over that there was no way that I would get a ticket IT'S MY BIRTHDAY. Besides I could talk my way out of it right? So we go on chatting for just another minute and the CHP has now made a move on me, he is right behind me. I signal over, I am thinking that he has some where to go, some bad people to bust. But sadly, he then pulls even with me and looks right at me grabs his seat belt pulls it forward and mouths something along the lines of "did you forget your seat belt?" but it was with a bit of irritation. I then gave him the academy award winning dumb struck look, smiled sweetly and put my seat belt on. I will not be getting the Oscar, he pulled behind me and lit up the lights and pulled me over, on MY BIRTHDAY!!! He gets out of the car and I roll down the window and the conversation went like this:

Officer: You know I pulled you over because you were not wearing your seat belt.

Me: Yes, I know, I am sorry but it is MY BIRTHDAY and I was on the phone with my mom and she was wishing me a Happy Birthday.

Officer: Well that is no excuse and besides you were not on the phone with your mother the entire time. (this is when I figured out that he caught me speeding and was pacing me to give me the ticket, he had been watching me but I slowed down.)

Me: Your right but I had been getting calls since I got in the car and it just slipped my mind.

Officer: I need to see your license and registration.

So I pulled out my registration and got my wallet out. Now my wallet has the trump card if my birthday will not get me off. So I slid my license out and exposed what was hiding behind my license. I would love to say, but since this is a public forum, I should really not expose the exact contents of what is behind my license so that I may protect the innocent. I then prop the wallet open on top of my knitting bag in full view of the officer so that he may glance at it. He did. This is how the event ended...

Officer: Is that your husband or your father?

Me: No that is my brother, he is a Sergent Detective in _______________________.

Officer: Where is that?

Me: It is south east of Fresno.

Officer: Ok, well you really need to be wearing your seat belt at all times.

Me: I understand and I usually do:

Officer: Tell your brother that the CHP rocks! (no lie, he really said that.)

Me: I will, thank you very much.

Officer: Drive safe.

Yes, I didn't get the ticket. Whew!! I called my brother and thanked him for my birthday gift, he said he didn't get me anything and I said thank you for being a police officer, that was gift enough for me!

When I arrived at work this is what I saw...

I got the book of cables that I really really wanted. Thanks Holly!! And a tray of sugar cookies and teas from Jackie, they were yummy too.

After work I went to my favorite yarn store, Purlescense to get some more knitting done before I was off to dinner with Sensei. When I came in Chloe came over and handed me a large envelope that had a gift certificate from Sensei. What a surprise. It was fantastic that he thought to do that, support my yarn addiction, hehehehehe. So Chloe and Nathania are going to be on the look our for the perfect red yarn to make me my first sweater.

Also, I have posted the photos of the Red Felted Tote on my Finished Objects page. I must update that too, because I have many more finished objects that that.

Also, here is the photo of the great things that I have received from my Secret pal in Illinois.

She really has gotten to know me and has really read my blog and it is evident by they things that she has given me, my love of cables and purses, she got me a cabled purse pattern with all the tools need to make it, it was great!

A flower a day...

Will keep the frown away :)

Here is the orchid of the day, that is right, no knitting pictures just yet. I thought that I would go with a classic looking orchid this time.

More of Gma's 80th B-day...

As promised, the lady in the middle is my 80 year young grandmother Jalaine with her two older sisters, Wilma on the left and Beth on the right. My grandmother is the baby of six kids. She had a great time as you can see.

And this is the Clapotis that I knitted and presented to her for her birthday. It is obviously blocking in this photo. But the funny part about the blocking process is that I had to get a box and pins from my grandmother in order to block it at my other grandmothers house because she didn't have any thing I could use. So the Clapotis spent the week blocking in my Mimi's spare room until I could get back down there to gift wrap the wrap. Since I did not have the Clapotis to wrap, I had to find something clever to use to wrap it in that would take only a couple of minutes, see the wine box with the hot pink and purple wavy stripes on the right of her? Clever huh? And to the left of her is the largest wicker basket ever and it is full of yarn for her to crochet her heart out that my mom and uncle gave her. So I have gone full circle with the Clapotis from cast on to birthday gift.










My humble contribution to the party was the table decorations. I decided to make orchid arrangements (surprise surprise?!) with curly willow branches. The photo does not show the curly willow that well, but trust me its there. However it is also an interesting photo of my great aunt Wilma and my 2 year old nephew Josiah. I put rocks and fake water in the skinny vases, I had a really good time making them, 12 of them in all. From the photo here you can see that she thought they were real and had real water in them. Grandma passed them out to her guests when the party was over. She was so happy with them that she wants to make some other arrangements similar to these. So I promised that I would come down after the Holidays and we would go to Michaels and purchase everything and spend the day making silk arrangements.

Desktop Photo

Isn't this a fantastic looking orchid specimen? I loved it so much that it is my new computer desktop background photo.

Monthly Dishcloth KAL

I absolutly forgot to mention that I joined the Monthly Dishcloth KAL. I am so excited. We started a new dishcloth this past Friday, December 1st and I got my first 10 rows done that day. But since I had to travel over the weekend and help with my G'mas 80th b-day party I have not gotten a chance to get day 2, 3 or 4 knitted yet. So I am way behind. I have a feeling I will be caught up by this evening. I plan on getting a few rows done at lunch. Wow, it is lunch time now, got to go knit!

Spelling lesson

Since I can't post any photos of my completed knitting because they are Christmas gifts for some people that read this blog, I thought that I would share my love of Orchids. Here is your Orchid for the day, maybe I will make this a routine in my blog. And yes Mom, your gift is finally finished! I finished it last night while watching TV. And when I have not torchered myself enough, I started my best friend Irene's gift this morning. And later today I am going to be casting on for my boyfriends knitted cap that he requested. Seems that his head gets cold when he goes out to golf in the morning. So I have a brown colored yarn to match his brown golf shoes.

Family news, my maternal grandmother turned 80 this past Saturday. We had a very nice party for her with lots of friends and family in attendance. I think I have mentioned that she crochets, well my mother and her brother bought my g'ma (grandmother) the largest wicker laundry basket that Michaels sells and FILLED it with yarn. I mean lots of yarn. From what I heard, I didn't count them, there were about 58 skiens of yarn. So we all have put in orders for aphgans. Get to hooking g'ma! (OH, I don't think that sounded right, hehehehe) I will down load the photos of my very young 80 year old g'ma for you all to see. I would hope that I look just half as good as she does when I turn 80!

Some of you know this but for the others of you that don't, I was a cheerleader for about 10 years in my younger days, much younger days. And I have a little cheer for you all that I did on Saturday. Here goes...

U-C-L-A (insert pumping fist in the air) RAH RAH RAH !!!

I am sooooo happy that USC lost on Saturday. It was fantastic!!! And if you know me or have ever read part of my blog, you know that I am a HUGE Notre Dame Fighting Irish fan. So ANYONE that beats USC I am a fan of. But I do have a warm spot in my heart for UCLA anyway, my father was a UCLA fan. Which leads me to a story (totally unintentional) unrelated to college football, but it is sort of funny and shows what a real dork that I am.

I am not sure what year this took place but I was not very old, could speak well and had learned to spell some very simple words. So my dad gets tickets to the UCLA basketball game and we go to his mothers house in Panorama City for the weekend. I, being a daddy's girl and wanted to do EVERYTHING that he did, I begged him to take me. He obviously could not because he didn't have an extra ticket and UCLA basketball games were selling out during that period of time. But my dad always liked to play a joke on you and have a little laugh, so he tells me, "If you can spell UCLA, I will let you go to the game." He asked this because he knew I would fail. But I gave it my best... "Y-O-U, S-E-E," then I was stuck, and with my best puckered lip and wattery eyes, I said, "Daddy, how do you spell L?" He laughed and hugged me and said that he would see me after the game. When he got back, he gave me a UCLA key chain showing me how it is really spelled or I guess not spelled. I don't have the keychain anymore, but I still remember that night.

Why do we care?

With the condition that the world is in these days, I don't understand why Britney Spears and Paris Hilton now being "Best Friends" is such breaking news. I understand that we sometimes need a break from tense and emotional situations and a bit of entertainment is in order. Go see Casino Royale, quit caring about Britney Spears, Ooops I Did It Again!

Now on to knitting news....
I can't seem to get my moms Christmas gift quite finished. I need some uninterrupted knitting time to finish it off. And then I can concentrate on the other million knitting projects that have to be done by December 23rd and I have to still block these things too. I have to finish my best friends gift, I have not picked that up in about 3 weeks. But I am finding myself searching out cable patterns now; I think I am hooked on cables now. Anything that has cables catches my eye. I was at the grocery store last night getting a couple of things for dinner and while at the check stand I see this small booklet of knitting patterns for babies. I was intrigued so I picked it up and thumbed through it and pass by a little cabled cardigan, so of course I bought the booklet, it had cables in it!

Turkey Lurkey, Cables Schmables

It is very strange, I had written a couple of entries to my blog, saved them as drafts to add the photos to them and then publish and lost all the stuff that I wrote. So I am pretty bummed because some of what I had to say was pretty witty. So here is what happened since the weekend before Thanksgiving weekend:
Saturday 11/18: Played poker with the girls from work, I did well, but I am not sure that I will be accepted into the WPT. Found my FAVORITE wine of all time, EOS Petite Sryah, bought 2 bottles-drank one at poker night.
Sunday 11/19: Played a 9 hole round of golf with Sensei. *Snicker* I won. He was not that happy. Especially since I had not even picked up my clubs in about 9 months.
Monday 11/20: I recieved my first Secret Pal 9 gift. Very cute and very true handmade sign, "Will Work For Yarn" Photos will have to be posted later, (you will find out why in just a minute.)
Tuesday night 11/21: Went to Target to get a couple of things for my road trip to Selma for Thanksgiving. Went to Michaels to get some yarn to start my moms Christmas gift, I will be knitting it at Thanksgiving since she will not be in attendance this year. Laundry, must have clean clothes when going to grandma's.
Wednesday 11/22: Go to work at 7:30am, get out early, leave at 10:00am. I came to work packed, but forgot to take my grandmothers birthday gift to block at my other grandmothers house, so I had to go back home to get it. Yes, my mothers mom and my fathers mom live across the street, it is great for when we visit them. Sat on grandmas couch and knitted while she sat in her chair and crocheted. Later that evening, my brother and his family arrive at my other grandmothers and we all visit. My niece came and slept with me, we had a little pajama party.
Thurday 11/23 Thanksgiving Day: Got up, helped make dinner, set the table etc. We all gathered and ate a wonderful meal. We played with the kids and I found out that my nephew is a Lighting McQueen groupie! He has seen the movie Cars about a 100 times. He can recite scenes from the movie and he is 2. So we heard "Kachow" and "Mater" all evening, it was very cute. I also had to capture on video him saying Piston Cup, because the way he pronounces it is hilarious. I will have video later, (again, you will know why in a minute.) My brother and his family drive home that night and I take my grandmother to my uncles house to visit. We watch Survivor and then went home.
Friday 11/24: I sat on the couch in my pajamas drinking jasmine tea and knitting until 3pm in the afternoon, it was a GREAT day! I got the majority of my mothers Christmas gift knitted. Then I went to visit my other grandmother for a bit, she fed me and then I went back to the other grandma's.
Saturday 11/25: It is the big day, the big game, I have to get home to see it. I wake up, call my friend Irene who I was to see the night before and didn't work out. I pack up all my stuff, at least I thought I did and went to Irene's because it is on my way home. I was at Irene's for about 20 minutes and my phone rang, it is grandma informing me that I left my digital camera behind. Torn between going back to pick it up and just leaving it until next weekend (I will be returing for her 80th birthday party) I decided that I should not be needing it this week and I can wait. It is Monday today and I have found 5 things that I need to take photos of, Murphy's Law I guess. That is why I have no photos of my Secret Pal gift, not photos of my darling niece and nephew over Thanksgiving, they are trapped on the camera in Selma, CA. So, now back to Saturday, I leave Irene’s house at 11:30am and I am headed north. I arrive in San Jose about 3:00pm, not much traffic at all, thank god! And I get home, Sensei is not there, but I see that he has made an effort to pick up the house, a SMALL effort, but when he got home, I ooh’d and ahhh’d over his “efforts.”
5:00 comes around and it is the kick off to the BIG GAME, Notre Dame vs. USC. Suffice it to say, I am in mourning right now. My Irish lost. It was not an easy loss to take either, Sensei is a USC fan. All I can say is, we have next year.

Sunday is my Stitch n Bitch gathering but before I went to that I had some window shopping to do. I went to Purlescense and then to Commuknity, I knitted awhile at Commuknity and then went to Stitch n Bitch. It was a nice day and it was nice to see some new faces at the SnB this time around.

And now we arrive to today, Monday. When I got to work, it felt odd, I had not been here for 4 and a half days. But work did not disappoint, the phone started ringing off the hook and the papers piled up, it definitely is Monday.

The knitting that I have been doing is all Christmas stuff so I can’t say much about it in detail and no pictures yet, that would ruin the surprise. But I must say, I finally tackled cables. I was so afraid to do them and now that just seems silly. Awhile back, Emy told me that all you did was knit the stitches out of order and when she showed me what she meant, it looked pretty ok. So I started something that has cables, for the knitters out there, IHS, and WOW. How really silly I was to think that it was to hard. So what do I say now? Cables Schmables!!

I will have photos and video posted later, promise.

More Christmas Gifts Completed

As you know, I have been knitting fast and furiously these past days to make up time that I had been unable to knit while sick. I thought that I had planned out all the things to knit for Christmas, but foolish me decided to just "see really how long it takes to knit a small tote/hand bag and felt." Well, surprisingly enough, not long! I have to admit, I think that I just might have found a new knitting obsession, the wonderful world of felting. Now my Christmas knitting project list has been revamped and reorganized.

Shame on me for not getting the before photo of my very first felted bag, but I did get the semi-completed bag (I just have to finish sewing in my handles, please ignore the quite large and shiny safety pins holding them in place.)

So after I felted that bag, I knew that I needed to get some "other" knitting completed, like Gina's gift. So I picked it up and looked at it and said, "this yarn is feltable and I have 3 more balls of it right now." (insert evil grin and laugh) So I drop that project, pick up the unused balls and casted on for a different bag, and the starting gun went off. I was determined to get the bag knitted and felted in a single night. When it got to be 9pm I was getting a bit tired and worried that I was not going to make it. But as you can see from my "before felting" photos here, I finished.

On this one, I used Patons SWS in Natural Earth. And as you can see below here, it felts very nicely.

I have now bought handles to go on the striped bag, I just have to sew them on and I will be sitting pretty OK for Christmas gifts. So if you are a woman and in my family, don't be surprised to see one of these come December.

Now, let me see what else I can felt...

Etc, Etc, Etc...

I am really not sure why this did not post on Monday Nov. 13th when I originally wrote it! But here it is now...

The King and I was FANTASTIC!! My best friend Gina for my birthday/Christmas took me to see The King and I on Saturday. We were a bit late due to the Veteran's parade down town, they had streets blocked off and what streets that were not blocked off were like parking lots! But I finally got parked and then scurried over to the theater as fast as I could in heels. The show started without us, I was a bit disappointed that they didn't wait for me, but then again, who am I really in the grand scheme of things. The only part that we missed was her arrival on the boat to Siam. And when I say "her", Anna was played by Debbie Boone and she was really much better than I had anticipated. The King of Siam was played brilliantly by Francis Jue. He is no Yul Brenner, but I will say that he took command of the role was very very good. All the singing was beautiful.

That was Saturday. Sunday I spent most of the day working on knitting Christmas gifts for friends and family. I am seriously running out of time. And Mugsy is not understanding that yarn and items that I am knitting are NOT play toys for him. I caught him with a ball of yarn in his mouth sneaking off to destroy it in the other room. Lets just say he sees it my way now.

I have to say a big SORRY to my secret pal for buying myself something that she had bought to give to me. My family can relate to that, I do it every holiday time to them. It is just a good thing that I blogged about it so you knew ahead of time! (You see me looking for the silver lining, right?)

And lastly, the only thing I have to say about K-Fed and Brittany is, DUH? I lost my $10 bet, I said that it wouldn't last a year and a half. It is a good thing that she has a stong mother and good handlers, she is really to stupid to be in control of all that money!

Knit ya later!

FRIDAY!!!

Sorry for the long absence from the blog but it was beyond my control! I am still feeling really tired and worn out. By body had to battle a really bad virus and I think it is finally victorious. My dog Mugsy is a little bummed that mom is not home for the entire day. He got a little to used to laying with me on the couch and watching the Peoples Court and Oprah!

I am happy to report that I have gotten the first of my Secret Pal packages in the mail to my Secret Pal in Massachusetts. I went to one of the many yarn stores here in my area of the South Bay Area, Purlescense. They were very helpful in my choosing some yarn for her. She likes bulky yarns and blue was one of her favorite colors so I chose Malabrigo in a vibrant blue sapphire color. And while I was there I saw that they had the 2007 Stitch n' Bitch Daily Desk Calender so I had to have it! Since I got such a late start on send my Secret Pal stuff off, I am going to have to get the second one off pretty soon, it has a long way to travel.

My knitting progress has been sort of slow. I seem to think that I can get 10 things knitted by Christmas, then I wake up from my dream and realize that I have now only 43 days left before time runs out! I seem to start other projects before I have finished the other three I have going! I am still at a loss as to what to knit for my brothers and one of my nephews. None of them live in cold climates, so I will have to come up with something. The more I am writing this and thinking at the same time which is rather challenging lately, I am NEVER going to get something knitted for everyone! I would have to knit 10 hours straight every day to maybe come close. Oh yeah, I will be at the mall on December 23rd frantically looking for gifts! I thought knitting was supposed to be relaxing, who ever said that didn't mean it for the holidays.

I really wanted to get my Lady Eleanor Stole knitted for myself for Christmas to wear when I go see the family, something to show off you know. Well, there is always next year! Oh and tomorrow, I am going to see the King and I, I am so excited. My best friend Gina ( Hey G ) is taking me for my Birthday/Christmas present. Yes, I am one of the many whos birthday and Christmas almost cross paths. But I can't wait to see the big dance scene with the King swinging Anna around the dance floor. I will give you all details later.

Secret Pal Card

Thank you to my Secret Pal for the card. It was a nice little pick me up after being in the hospital. The chocolate coin was sweet! I am gaining strength everyday but not as fast as I need. This recovery is pretty rough. But I have been told that I am fairly resilient and what does not kill you only makes you stronger. After this, I should be able to take on Mike Tyson!

Almost back to normal...

I know that it is unusual to not hear from me for a few days but this time I had a REALLY good reason. Monday October 16th, I went home from work with the worst head ache that I have EVER had in my life. I took a ton of Tylenol, then I went on to prescription Ibuprofen and then followed all that up with Darvocet. By the time Tuesday evening came around and the pain was worse, I knew that something was wrong. So off to the O'Connor ER I went. A little morphine, CT scan and spinal tap later I was admitted with Meningitis. They were not sure whether it was bacterial or viral so they immediately masked everyone that came in contact with me and found me a private room to be with my infected germs. But cutting to the chase, they found that it was Viral and not bacterial which if you were to have a choice, viral is the better option. Bacterial can kill you apparently and now I understood the need for my caregivers layers of protection. I will say this, I have NEVER felt such misery in my life as the pressure and pain in my head continued with what seemed like no end in sight. Even know, I am not feeling 100% but I am feeling better. I was discharged from the hospital Sunday afternoon October 23rd with a prescription of Vicodin. Getting the perscription filled is a whole other story and if I try to tell it now, the pain in my head will get worse. But Vicodin for most is a fairly strong pain reliever, it is a narcotic. I think my body was having a little giggle when I started taking that because all along in the hospital I was given Dilaudid, which I was told that is 10x's stronger that Morphine. But I am doing better, getting stronger every day. I am shooting for going back to work on Wednesday (tomorrow.) But I know that I have to get in touch with my Secret Pal so that she doesn't think that I have fallen off the face of the earth for good, I was just gone for a week. But I have to day, I got out of the hospital in time to make my Stitch n' Bitch meeting and I told my boyfriend, "Look I could still make it SNB" Of course he though I was nuts. I was really kidding with him, but I did miss seeing everyone. So, I will be checking in with you all in a couple of days.

Knit ya later...

Yarn Shopping

Today was the Grand Opening of Purlescense in Sunnyvale. There was a very big crowd, I got there just about 20 minutes after they opened and there was hardly enough walking room. And at the rate that they were selling yarn and the amount of people, it looked like they were going to run out of yarn, and that is not really a bad thing! The store is beautiful, they have done a great job. So my contribution to the new store was the purchase of Scarf Style and 2 skeins of navy blue and 2 skeins of gold yarn. I was needing the Scarf Style book for the Lady Eleanor Stole that I have Noro yarn sitting and waiting to be knit. And well the navy and gold yarn is for my Notre Dame scarf that I am going to knit. It was a small contribution, but it is important to support your yarn store.

I am so close to finishing my Clapotis that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just one more increase and I will be down to my decreases. I need to hurry up and finish it because I have to start my grandmothers birthday gift soon if I want to get it to her on time. I will be getting lots of knitting done tomorrow, I have a karate tournament to be at for our school SJJKC and they are fairly long. I will have plenty of time between our students events to hopefully walk out of there with a completed Claoptis! I will have to let you know what happens.

Bicycle Riders

At one time I used to live in San Francisco and the amount of bicycle riders was huge. If you lived in the city and you drove a car, you had to learn to get along. And for the most part, the bike riders obeyed traffic laws. Well this morning here in San Jose, I found an idiot bike rider. I am at a stop light at the intersection of Market and San Fernando and I had a red light, a bike rider comes up along me and just cycles into the intersection! Oh, but did I mention that he bumped into my car before riding into the intersection against the red light? So I was a bit annoyed with this guy and he has cycled on ahead. But I end up catching up to the guy once the light turned green because a delivery truck was double parked and he darts out into my lane without looking and I had to slam on my breaks so I didn't hit him. And no, he had no mirrors on the bike either and again, he goes on and I end up at a red light. Once it turns green I move forward and I start to approach another delivery van (its downtown, what do you expect?) and just past the van half way into MY lane is the idiot OFF his bike leaning over with his back against traffic picking up his backpack, he is now certifiable an idiot. The manufacturer of my car gave me horn and I used it! He then has the nerve to look at me like I was crazy! And that is how my day started. I hope everyone elses' day was not as annoying.

On another note, I think I have found some great yarn for my Secret Pal. I still have to get a few other things too.

Runway & Survivor

I meant to post this yesterday but I got to busy and forgot. OOPS
For the record, I am a Project Runway fan. I love the art of the design. I am actually in awe of someone that can design and make clothes. I can barely sew a button much less hem a skirt or pants. I did try to make curtains once, I was told that it was REALLY EASY. Well, easy my ass. Fabric, thread, scissors and tiny sharp needles are NOT my thing! But I digress.
Project Runway is about to end its 3rd season, I have seen them all. This season is by far the best one yet. I thought by the second episode that Michael Knight was going to win and I fee even stronger about that now that I see who is in the finals. We will see if I am right soon.
I am just to addicted to reality TV. But let me clarify what type of reality TV. I like watching the shows that are contest based. You have to have a certain level of skill or talent to participate. I am not a fan of show like The Bachelor or any "hook-up" shows. But I am a huge Survivor fan.

This season start was a bit different. I am not exactly sure if I am or should be offended by the division of the tribes. My boyfriend RB and I are an inter-racial couple and I had mixed emotions about this season. I thought that it would be interesting to observe the behaviors of each tribe as they were divided but felt that it was going to possibly set our culture back a few steps in regards of our prejudice levels. But now that they have integrated the tribes again, then I guess the experiment is over. I truly believe that this was just Mark Burnett's way of boosting his ratings for this season. But like his tactics or not, he does produce good television and we all are talking about the show on Friday mornings! For instance, almost the whole tribe turned on JD last night!! Just goes to show you men, don't lay around barking orders and being lazy, you will be voted off the island.

Not late as usual...

Still another day of sharing a car with my DBF. I sure hope that we get that car fixed soon, getting up at the crack of dawn and going to work is cutting into my knitting time! Anyway, today he had to be in a bit earlier and I suggested that he go ahead with out me and come back to get me when he got free and take me to work; translate=Knitty Gritty starts at 8:30am where I live and this is the only chance that I get to see it. So I said that I would be ready at 9:00am. Well, I kinda lost track of time and I was rushing to get half ready so I could watch the show and finish getting ready during the commercials. I had my current project on the couch with me knitting as I watched the show, today Cat Bordhi was on demo'ing her scarf. So you know that I was totally engulfed in the show and my knitting that I didn't move during the commercials and finish getting ready. But let me give you a bit of back ground on my DBF, he would be late to his funeral! The man is hardly ever on time, but this morning was a different story. So back to the couch; I was knitting, my teeth were brushed, my hair was pulled up, I had half of my clothes on it is 8:55am and the gate latch opens! He is here and I am not ready and I am sitting on the couch knitting, well at least I was until I heard the gate open. I dropped the needles and yarn, ran in the bedroom and furiously started getting dressed. He greets the dog and walks in the room and the look on his face, well it was something between anger, anxiety and confusion, mostly confusion. Needless to say, I was out the door in just a few minutes because we were both now running really LATE to work. I thought I could try to explain how gripping the Moebius knitting was and he would understand, but reality set in and I opted not to explain but to smile sweetly and talk about his Fantasy Football team. I know, smart girl!
On another note, I am waiting on my yarn order from Ewe-Phoria Yarn. I have 6 skeins of Noro and one large skein of their handpainted 50wool/50silk. They have really great yarn and great customer service too. I highly recommend them. So once I get my Noro I will have completed my amount that I need to knit the Lady Eleanor Stole. I am getting excited about it, I now just have to get the pattern.
On my last note of this post, I am so happy that a new yarn store is opening up soon Purlescence Yarns. I have heard such great things about the owners that I am excited to see the new place!

BBBB Finshed

As promised, here is the Big Bad Baby Blanket. I almost forgot to post the photos until I ran across them while cleaning up my photo folders. As I mentioned in my previous post for those of you who are knitters, you can see the one twisted row pretty clearly. But since this was my first blanket ever made, I was pretty happy with it and so was my co-worker who I received it. Boy it was a struggle to complete the thing on time. I drug that blanket around and knitted on it every free moment that I had and some that I didn't have at all, I just made the free time. But over all I really loved the ease of the blankets design. I am going to be making a lot of these in the future, maybe make it bigger, adult size. Full details are at my FO page.

Secret Pal 9 Questionnaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I like all types of yarn, I even like acrylic for some projects. However, no offense to Lion Brand Yarn, I love lots of their yarns, but I do not like Homespun yarn by Lion Brand. It frustrates me.
2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have a cotton wrap needle case for my srtaight needles, I can fit a couple of circulars, but I don't have a good place for my circulars.
3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I have been knitting since June of 2006. I started by teaching myself from a book and then joined a knitting group where I learned more in one day than I ever did by myself. I would say that my skill level is between beginner and intermediate. I have dedicated a lot of time to improve my skill. I still like to knit a scarf but I have started a childs sweater and some wraps.
4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
No, but I sure can make one very fast! There are a few books that I want that I still do not have. Scarf Style, Vogue Knitting-The Ultimate Knitting Book, Knitting on the Edge, Big Girl Knits. Anything really other than the Stitch n' Bitch books, I have both already.
5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
Oh that is easy, Jasmine
6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I love dark chocolate. Truffles are always excellent. But if I am at the grocery store or drug store I have been known to buy Dove Dark Chocolate Promises they are wrapped in red tin.
7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I do not spin. I don't have a lot of time for other hobbies because of the karate school that my boyfriend and I have. But I do like to make the schools website. Oh and I love to take photos.
8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
Yes, I can play MP3's. I love all kinds of music.
9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
Hands down, RED. Not an orangy red, a true red or blueish reds, blood red. I have been very partial lately to greens too. I have so dark brown hair that it looks black and I wear red and green pretty well.
10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I have a boyfriend of 3 years and my dog Mugsy he is a Pekingnese or a Tibeatan Spaniel. I have been told he was both by differnet people, they look so similar.
11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
I wear scarves and wraps.
12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
So far it has been the Clapotis and my nieces pullover sweater. Oh I did a baby blanket that I am pretty proud of!
13. What are you knitting right now?
I am still trying to finish my Clapotis and my nieces sweater.
14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Absolutly.
15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Circular needles, bamboo or aluminum.
16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
No
17. How old is your oldest UFO?
About 1 month.
18. What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas
19. Is there anything that you collect?
Now days, YARN!
20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I don't have any subscriptions to any magazines. I want the Lady Eleanor Stole pattern because I have a stash of Noro SIlk Garden especially for it. That pattern is in the Scarf Style book. I want more circular needles. I need small sizes like 2-5 and 7-9.
21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Yes, I want to learn how to knit socks. I have bought sock yarn, I have size 2 dpn's and not a clue in the world what to do with them!!
22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
See above answer...hehehehehe
23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
December 20. I know, it really sucks being so close to Christmas, trust me!!

I hope this helps my secret pal out and any family members that were wondering what to get me for my birthday or christmas.

Knit ya later...

I could not think of a title...

Making progress on my Clapotis. I just wish that I had more time to knit so that I can finish this and start on my Christmas gifts! I was reading one of the message boards that I subscribe to and someone had posted a link to YouTube called The Last Knit. It is hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM

And I want to thank my mom for sending me my Notre Dame Fighting Irish mouse pad. I know that she is an Irish fan deep down inside. And I have to mention that she has adopted a new hobby, she is making earings. They are really fantastic. Mom, send more silver!

Where art thou knitting?

It has been a few days since I have posted anything, but that is for good reason. I have not completed very much knitting. I am still working on my Clapotis and have dropped the 3rd stitch so far. But it has become dreadfully obvious that I am going to have to buy more yarn to finish this project. Especially since I want to make it longer than the pattern calls for. So I am visiting eBay sometime this week.
I have also stumbled across a pattern when I was surfing through knitting blogs that I want to start knitting, the Lady Eleanor Stole. So I will be searching for the best price on Noro Silk Garden #34 and #88. I decided to use two colorways because this will make the wrap more versatile. From what I have read, I am going to need about 9-10 balls of the Noro yarn, I have 3 balls of Silk Garden #34 already, so I can start the pattern, I just have to make sure that I get the rest to finish.

So the title this posting must be explained. Sunday's are usually my Stitch N' Bitch gathering that I have NEVER missed since I have started going, but this Sunday I was to miss my knitting. My DBF scored 2 tickets to the Sunday matinee of Romeo and Juliette at Opera San Jose. I was first of all shocked that he got the tickets and then was even more shocked that he wanted to go and miss a fairly large amount of Sunday NFL on the tube. But at this point I was not going to ask questions, just go with it. All of this might have been spurred by my question that I posed to him a couple of weeks ago. I asked him to name a romantic thing that he has done for me. I did have to clarify that taking out the garbage was not romantic but a necessity, so he had to think again. When he could not really answer me properly I think he got the point. So off to the Opera! I have never been to the Opera, he thought that he over heard me say that I wanted to the opera, but in actuality I said that I wanted to go to see a play. Play, Opera, same thing in his eyes. But I am not complaining at all, I am quiet impressed that he was willing to give up part of his Sunday football for a little culture with me. It was very enjoyable and we both had a great time. He even said that he would like to go and see another! Madame Butterfly is on my list. After the opera we went to our favorite sushi place and ate until we could eat no more. Shiro Maguro, yummy!!

So roll back one day to Saturday...
NOTRE DAME WINS!!! It was a fabulous come back. They should have never gotten into the position of having to come back, but it was still a fantastic come back!! Cheer Cheer for ol Notre Dame!
Go Blue and Gold!!
I am still looking for the right yarn to start my Notre Dame scarf. Please let me know if any of you have any suggestions.

Needles, Needles and More Needles...

I do believe that I need to sign up for EA (Ebay Anonymous.) My set of Clover bamboo circular needles came in the mail today. I got a set of six sizes 9, 10, 10.5, 11, 13 and 15 all 16". They were a really great price, practically got them all for what you would pay for just 2 of them in a retail store. Now I guess I need to learn how to make hats now! I am finding more and more that I only want to use my circular needles. I have every size straight needles, but am using them less and less. I still have some other circular needle sizes to get obviously, but these came in a set and were a fantastic price, couldn't pass them up.

On another note...
My other passion besides knitting, Notre Dame Football. Yes, my boys did horrible. It hurt to watch. But they will recover and play fantastic against Michigan State this Saturday. I severely got heckled at work Monday over the loss, but remember, He who laughs lasts, laughs best. This reminds me, I must find my gold and blue yarn to knit my ND scarf!!

Mail Call !!

So usually when the receptionist calls my desk due to the nature of my job, it means that an angry customer is standing there and they want to talk to me. But this day was different. When Rosie the receptionist (no, I can't even make that up) called she didn't have new of an angry customer, said that I had a package downstairs. I left my desk like a 5 year old on Christmas morning heading for the tree. My Ebay purchase had arrived, 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden color #34. I was so excited to get that today. I just love getting things in the mail, useful things, not 15% off water softner system junk mail. I try to buy something on Ebay once a week so that I get something delivered and I have Christmas once a week even if I already know what it is and I bought it. It is still fun.
So what to do with only 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden? I am not sure but I can't wait to knit with it. It will sit nicely with the rest of my small stash for the moment until I can find the perfect project for it.

Secret Pal

So I signed up for the Secret Pal that I had read about on someone else’s blog. I thought that it would be an exciting thing to do. So I can’t wait. It will be great fun. On the site where you sign up you had to put comments about what your interests were, I really had to think about that. Is there anything other than knitting? Hahahahahaha

Over came the IT Department

It’s a Monday!! So I have not posted for awhile and that is because for one I can’t get on to Blogger from work because our IT department has the site blocked and I can only post from the dojo (our karate school, San Jose Japan Karate-do Center) and secondly because I had no idea what to post! But now that I have read up on how to post to my blog via email, watch out! I am going to be able to post things when ever I get the notion and I get them a lot lately!

Yesterday was the Stitch n’ Bitch weekly gathering and there were several in attendance, at least the most since I started coming. I so look forward to Sundays meeting with the girls. They are so helpful to a beginner like me and they have such a great talent and I am continually inspired. I try to soak up as much knowledge as I can every Sunday. So I brought my niece’s Christmas gift there and was so upset because I though that I mad a HUGE mistake. To me it looks like the raglan armholes were completely off and that I had to frog it back to the decreases. But thanks to Janice and Mary, they shined a bit of knowledge my way and showed me that it was fine. So now I am on to making the front. And before I left last night I had to get some understanding on the pattern for the Clapotis that I am knitting. I was just about to finish Section 2 and start Section 3 (straight rows) and in rows 6 and 8 there were instructions that I was not familiar with. So Emy came to my rescue and showed me what to do. So you know that I got home at about 8pm and continued knitting until I finally DROPPED my first row on my Clapotis!! I was so excited to see how that was going to work so I stayed up until it was dropped. I wanted to keep knitting until I got to drop the second one but I just couldn’t hang on any longer. My head hit the pillow at about 12:30am. This morning I felt a sense of accomplishment, however my warm fuzzy feeling was quickly flattened when the reality of 5:30am set in and only had 5 real hours of sleep.

Ok, I am going to get some real money paying work done now. Until another notion hits…

All I want for Christmas is my Clapotis

So I am knitting the Clapotis and I still can't stop searching EBay for new yarn. I am going to have the IT department at work block that site from me because I have not been able to demonstrate any sort of restraint! So I have not completed that much on the Clapotis as you can see! And no, contrary to some popular belief in my office at work, this is NOT my new knitted G-String!!

Also like a fish takes to shiny objects, I was in the fabric store for a completely different reason and I happen to pass by and display of yarn that caught my attention. See I had an idea to knit my darling little niece a sweater. Honestly I have never knitted anything that somone would wear and it had to fit. I have just knitted blankets, scarves etc. So I thought that a kids sweater would be a good start for me. Besides, how can you not knit something for this face!
So I called Caitlin a couple of weeks ago to see what her favorite color was at the moment and she said it was purple. Last time I checked with her it was pink, but for now and I hope at least until Christmas purple is her fav color! (Mom, make sure that she loves purple still!) So I found the purple yarn for her sweater and here is what I have so far. (Crystal and Caitlin, this is all you will see of your gift until Christmas!!)








This Wednesday Sept. 13, 2006 we are having the baby shower at work for one of my co-workers. So the Big Bady Baby Blanket will be given to her finally. I will have to post the photo of the blanket later. So I had some left over yarn and thought it was enough to make booties. I have never made booties so I had to search online for an easy pattern and I ran across one on Bev's Country Cottage. But appearantly I can't read or count because I made the booties a bit wrong as you can see. But I think they are a decent first attempt.
So now I have two projects OTN (on the needles) and I am about to start another with the yarn that was just sent to me that I bought off EBay. Not sure exactly what it is going to be but I just want to start knitting it because I can't wait to see what it looks like. Actully it is going to be someones Christmas gift and I just don't want them to know!

Knit you later!

Tada!!

I am done with the Big Bad Baby Blanket for my friend at work!! I finished it last night finally. Got up this morning and put it in the washer and then layed flat to dry. I am so happy that I am finally done with a fairly large project (at least for me.) Hopefully she loves it. I will post photos of the completed BBBB when I get a chance.

Ok, I have to address the reasoning behind my blog being named Twisted Stitches. No, I am not a huge Dee Snider or Twisted Sister fan for the record. I was a my second or third Stitch n' Bitch meeting and I was chatting with Emy and I mentioned that the way she does her knit stitches looks different than me. She asked me to demonstrate and of course when someone asks you to do something while they are watching like typing you do it ever so slow and wrong any way! So I showed her how I was doing the knit stitches and then she said purl and knit a few rows and let me look at them. I completed my tiny swatch and she immediately said, "You twist your stitches." Utterly confused, I said that it looks like stocking knit and she then showed me her stocking knit, and sure enough, I see the twisting! I have to justify my twisting, I learned from a book and it was not as clear as I thought apparently on how to knit. It seemed to feel ok when I was doing it twisted but I had no real frame of reference to the "correct" method. So then when I "knitted" the correct way, WOW how much faster I can go! She did explain to me that there are patterns that call for the twisted stitch and that it is not necessarily a wrong way to knit, it is just not the standard. Well I have since done away with the "wrong" way of knitting with the exception of one whole row of the BBBB. I had a brain fart 2/3 of the way in to the blanket and k tbl for an entire row!!! I did not realize it until I had completed about 5 more rows correctly. I was on a deadline and made an executive decision, it is my first blanket I was bound to make errors and I just said MOVE ON!! So there is one row that is twisted in my BBBB, I am going to tell the recipient that just like any artist puts their signature on their piece of work, the twisted row is my signature (that is my story and I am sticking to it!)

So I started a project for myself now. I have yet to knit anything for me yet, which is fine, but I want something now and I have chosen the Clapotis. I know what you are thinking, but I love it and I will not learn anything if I don't just jump right in the deep end! So I bought my yarn off Ebay at this great store Ewe-Phoria Yarns. It is a mixture of black, dark purple and some rosey browns 50% merino wool and 50% silk. I thought it was beautiful and with a yarn name like "Queen of the Night" how can it not be! It does not stripe like the yarn that Katie Gilbert used in her pattern, but I think that this will do fine! I had a hard time starting this project because I am a new knitter and have not learned increases until yesterday while I was at the Stitch n' Bitch group meeting. My newly appointed knitting mentor, she does not know it yet, Laura helped me start out and explained the pattern to me and I perfectly understand it now. So at the point I am on section 2 and the first repeat of 12. I know that when I finish this piece my family and co-workers will be asking where is their Clapotis?? My response will be "At the yarn store!" Maybe if I make them go and buy the yarn they will see that it is not cheap to knit nice things!! By boyfriend is finding out how not cheap it is too. I have another hank of yarn that I just bought on Ebay that I don't have a clue yet what to do with. I purchased it because 1. it was a good price and 2. it has my favorite color RED. I just love red and I am always looking for a good deal on red yarn. This one is 100% merino wool with red, black and grey. I bought it to learn how to make socks, but the dpn's still intimidate me so now I am not sure what it will turn into.

I have made my Christmas projects list and need to start right away if I want to complete every thing on the list. Not everyone will be getting knitting from me this year, I just can't do it all. So I am going to spread it out. Ok, have to run, I have work to be done!

Knit you later...

Sunday, Sunday

ORGINAL POSTED DATED 8/27/06

So it is Sunday and Sensei (DBF) is out of town visiting with family. I decided to stay behind becuase I had the opportunity to work Saturday for 10 hours of overtime!! The decision was not hard. Also, Sundays are my Stitch n' Bitch group meetings and I CAN"T miss that!I gave my best friend the scarf I just completed for her birthday this past Thurday over lunch at this Thai resturant, Blue Mango, and she loved it (See above) . Well at the very least she is a good liar if she didn't. I am still working on the Big Bad Baby Blanket for the lady I work with, I am about half way done, see below. Maybe I will get quite a bit comepleted at today's Stitch n' Bitch meeting.Speaking of the meeting, I have 15 minutes to get there, got to go!Knit you later!

In the beginning

ORGINAL POSTED DATE 8/18/06

So I took up knitting because I need to relieve stress and it was suggested to me. Also because I had surgery and during my recovery I need to be doing something, so I bought needles, yarn and a book! The underlying reason to start this craft comes from my childhood. As a little girl my great grandmother Myrtle Larimer Davis crocheted. She was a pro with yarn and a crochet hook. All year long she would make blankets, hats, scarves, toys, etc. Then when September would come around, the family all got together for her birthday and I mean all of us! (Not exactly positive on the numbers, but it was at least 16 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren, my grandmother would know better than me. Come on, I was young!) She would have us all line up according to age, her grandchildren, then great grandchildren (which I was apart of that group.) And one by one she would lean over and fumble through large containers of handmade projects and find just the right one for you. Every birthday that I can remember, the grandchildren and great grandchildren received the birthday gift from her. I have to admit; at the time when I was a little girl I did not fully appreciate what she had given me. I just thought, wow, another blanket from GG (Great Grandma.) But now that I am all grown up and have began to knit, I often sit and think of her and can now fully understand all the love and attention that she put into every piece that she made from the little baby booties to the large Orange and Black afghan (our school colors) she made. She had created something for us that we were able to hang on to long after she was gone from our lives. To this day our family has pieces that she had created decorating our homes. I want to carry on that type of legacy that she started for my own family. Therefore, I knit. Myrtle Davis, my great grandmother was born September 28, 1891 and passed January 22, 1988, I was 16 years old.

My beginning knitting was not that good as you can imagine. But I am always up for a challenge. I am determined to be a good knitter. I have completed about 3 scarves so far. The first scarf that I made was a pretty wine color in Lion Brand Homespun yarn. Needless to say, it was not perfect! One end the scarf was wider than the other. I just said that it was a design feature! My friend at work who is crafty herself had encouraged me to try out knitting, so she was the recipient of my first FO (Finished Object.)Since the first FO, I have completed 2 more scarves, both using Lion Brand Homespun yarn, because when and if I make a mistake it is not as obvious with that yarn. One is a skinny long Oatmeal color and the other is a wider Charcoal color. They are currently folded up and stored away for future gift giving. Not sure who is going to receive my early work, but I just hope that they will be put to good use!


I am currently working on 2 projects, which I have heard is common with knitters, to have more than one project going at a time. I am going to try to limit myself to 2 at a time because my skill level is not up to par just yet. The first is a scarf (who would have guessed?) for my best friend’s birthday. I am using Lion Suede yarn. And let me tell you, I am not sure that I will ever use that stuff again. It is turning out great but it is the hardest yarn to knit that I have found so far! The other project is a pale blue baby blanket for a girl I work with. She is expecting her little boy October 24th. As of this point, I have only completed 7 rows of the blanket. This is the largest project that I have attempted and I am not sure if I am going to make it in time for her delivery! I am using the pattern Big Bad Baby Blanket (BBBB) from the Stitch n’ Bitch book. I love the pattern; simple but great looking and I love the Stitch n’ Bitch book. I think it is a must have for new and experienced knitters! So instead of blogging, I need to be knitting. Bye for now, will update you on my progress!!