Happy Birthday to me

My birthday.

Well, I don’t like being reminded that I’m getting older, but – as a friend of ours says – it’s better than the alternative !
DH was very sweet and attentive. Last night we went out to dinner at one of LA’s best restaurants, Spago. Didn’t see any movie stars, but enjoyed the dinner immensely. I had a sashimi appetizer, roasted duck breast, and raspberry soufflé for dessert. Delicious.
There was also a cosmo and a nice glass of wine. Lovely !

DH’s gift to me was a bunch of tulips (which he has finally learned that I prefer to roses) and a bottle of Calyx perfume (eau de parfum to be exact). It’s definitely one of my faves, and my current supply was getting very low, which he must have noticed. So it was a very good choice.

I had told him I wanted gift certificates to a yarn store, or membership in a sock club, but I think he doesn’t quite get my obsession with all things knitting and didn’t quite believe me.
Oh well, I’ll just buy the yarn I want anyway ;-)

I’m currently destashing some yarn I’m no longer excited about, and in turn buying some items that others are getting rid of. Here is my destash page if you want to take a look.
(link)
So it’s working out OK…

I received birthday cards – both paper and electronic – from lots of friends so I’m happy. We had plans to visit Huntington Gardens today ( a huge botanical garden plus museum), but I have had problems with my foot, so I’d better rest it. I have a long awaited vacation trip to Australia starting Tuesday, and I want to be healed by then.

On my actual birthday, Sunday, I taught DH how to make coffee (I KNOW, right?) and he made me some. We hung around the house a bit (he has a bad cold), and then I sat outside and knitted in the sunshine while he napped indoors.

We went out for late lunch/early supper at Joan’s on Third, where I had a yummy muffelata sandwich. We had planned to see a movie after, but DH’s cold was really bothering him so we came home again. He pointed out that we will be seeing a lot of movies on our flight to Australia, which I thought was a valid point. We ended up watching a Netflix movie at home instead. And more knitting of course. So a very quiet evening.

That’s about it !

….
Edited:
NJ - you asked if I see stars in LA.
Yes, sometimes we actually do. We have spotted: Jack nicholson, Jerry seinfeld (when his show was still being produced), Brooke Shields, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Sean Connery, Rod Stewart, Bill murray, Steve Martin, Ron Howard, Al Pacino. Oh just yesterday I saw James Denton, who plays Mike on Desperate Housewives.

Warm Ewe Up Swap - Question #5

The question for this week:
What knitting pattern could you make again and again?

The only patterns that I've made more than once are these felted purses. link
A friend asked me to make some for her and some for her to give as gifts. link2 link3
I also made a bunch of cell phone/iPod cases for her to give as gifts as well. cases

She paid me a fair price, and I enjoyed doing them, but I didn't want to do any more!
Now I'm all about trying something new with every project.
Oh yeah, except for these...

Now I've got Spring Forward socks, a Noro striped scarf, and a February Lady sweater on the needles. Lots of variety there :-)

Swap package #2 arrived

I want to thank my sweet and thoughtful swap partner. She is somewhat of a psychic, having guessed correctly about my tastes and preferences.

Where to start? She knew that I have a trip coming up, so she included a travel journal and travel size lotions.

She added hand dyed yarn in gorgeous blue and deep purple tones.

A sheep themed tape measure, and Canadian maple sugar candy (a rare treat) complete the package.

Thanks so much, swap partner! I hope you get equally nice goodies.

Warm Ewe Up Swap Question #4

What are your plans for Valentine’s Day this year?

We don't do much for Valentine's Day, it seems too much of a commercialized, made-up holiday. Plus, my birthday is just 2 weeks later, so no biggie.

Since 2008 was my first year as a self employed consultant, we are going to meet with an accountant to help with our taxes. So what day did hubby make the appointment to go meet with the accountant?

Yup, Feb. 14th :-)

Now, that's romantic!

P.S. Take a look at my prior posts for some actual knitting content.

Rather Fuzzy Seascape Shawl

It's done. Here are a few photos.


I think it turned out quite well. You can just barely see the beads, but they are at the edges and within the center of each motif.

I was a bit anxious if my hard-to-please MIL would like it.

Well ---

She did.

I wrapped in tissue and put it in a box, so she would have a nice "gift opening" experience.
When she saw it, she said "how pretty".
Then she said it must have been a lot of work.
Then she wore it the rest of the evening.

I told her I would keep the temperature of the house low so she would *have* to wear it (cause she's totally the type who would put it away and save it for a "special occasion").

So I am calling it a success.

More details are available at Ravelry. Here.

Knitting and such

Maybe I should blog about my actual, you know, knitting, once in a while.

Pretty Green Cowl

I had been seeing all these really nice patterns for cowls, and thought, how pretty, and fun to knit. Too bad I can’t use them, here in LA where it’s 70 degrees (20 Celsius). Then I thought of my poor sister, freezing her tail off, up in Toronto, and emailed to ask if she would like one. Mind you, I have already knit her a scarf (cashmere, doncha know), socks, and 2 hats this year, so she has not been totally deprived.

She emailed back that she would indeed like one, so that she can cover her mouth and nose with it on the coldest days.

All I can say is “Brrrrrr”.

I chose the Cherry Garcia pattern, because I love cables.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cherry-garcia

I had a great skein of wool for it too, 127 Print (soft sage green with splashes of other colors) which I got from a person who was destashing. I had been waiting for the perfect use for it.

I knitted it quickly because I wanted her to have it while it was still cold. There was enough yarn left that I could make a double lining for extra warmth. Perfect!

So I mailed it off to her in less than a week. She did indeed like it.

That was my first FO of 2009.

Seascape Shawl

I had 5 skeins of a fuzzy mohair yarn which looked as though it should work for this pattern. It’s a really lovely blue-lilac color, like hydrangeas or blue hyacinth. I picked this up at a yarn swap at my local Stitch n B!tch group.

The Seascape pattern (from Knitty) http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/seascape-stole

was less fussy, more tailored, than a lot of lace shawls and seemed like a good bet for my first lace shawl. Mohair is really hard to unravel to I’d better plan on getting this right.

Also, inspired by someone’s version on Ravelry, I decided to add beads: some at the edges, and one in the center of each motif. So, my first beaded project as well.

Might I add the mohair is really hairy and gets all over my clothes and even up my nose when I work. I have to stop working on it an hour before I go to bed or else I sneeze and cough when I’m trying to get to sleep.
Anyway, my mother-in-law is staying with us for a while, so I decided I would make it for her. She is always complaining that she’s cold, even here in LA, so this might help.
She used to knit but doesn’t anymore, so at least she does appreciate the work that is going into it. I hope she’ll like it.

There are some errors near the beginning, before I decided to obsessively put stitch markers every 10 stitches and keep counting that there were exactly 10 stitches between markers. Once I did that, there were no more errors.

As I write this, I have about one more inch left to go, then I have to block. (gulp!) Of course I’ll post pics here and on my Ravelry page. I will also share my MIL’s reaction.

I think it looks pretty good.


Globe and Mail article

Here's an article sent to me by my sister.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090130.wlyarn30/BNStory/lifeMain/home
Yarn bombers cozy up to the urban landscape

Stealthy knitters are leaving their mark on the Great Wall of China, the Golden Gate Bridge and a street near you
From Friday's Globe and MailJanuary 30, 2009 at 10:03 AM EST

VANCOUVER — Beware the friend who suddenly takes up crochet. She (or he) may be a yarn bomber.

Working under code names such as Incogknito and the Microfiber Militia, a global network of "craftivists" is stitching makeshift sweaters, oversized tea cozies and giant pompoms around public property. Street poles, trees, bike racks, bridges - nothing is safe in target cities such as London, Paris, Chicago and Stockholm.

The craftivists' manifesto, according to Vancouver knitters Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain, is "world yarn domination."Paris was hit in 2007 when hundreds of knitted socks were slid onto street posts in the Marais district.

I liked this quote, "Knitta has since left its mark on the Great Wall of China, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, inspiring legions of youth to rush out and buy knitting needles."

Hee. Watch out for stampedes at your local LYS!:-)

Here is one of the comments: "So that's why they won't allow knitting needles onto planes! They're weapons of mass production! "

See you next time for more knitting tales, or should I say -- yarns :-)

Get it ?

Warm Ewe Up Swap - Question #3

What is your favorite way to keep warm when it’s snowing outside? (And if you live in a warm weather climate, what would you do to stay warm and cozy while it’s snowing?)

Well, I now live in LA, but I do remember those cold snowy days from when I lived in Toronto and Montreal. (Bbbrrrrr!)

What I used to do -- to avoid actually doing housework or laundry, heaven forbid -- was cooking and baking. Lots of healthy muffins that I could take to work for snacks, occasionally a nice banana bread, stuff like that. I also would make soups and stews, do some advance cooking so that on weeknights I just had to heat up food that was already cooked. Doesn't everyone do that?

I will still do this if it's a rainy day in LA. In fact yesterday (even though the weather was nice) I spent about 4 hours making lemon marmalade from my abundance of lemons off my own tree -- 9 jars! Tiring but very satisfying.