Eagle Rock rocks

Today Frannie and I went around to various stores in Eagle Rock to promote our Martini Night (Sept. 22nd) and Singles Night (Sept. 15th). Everyone was very nice to us. It was interesting how some were really into the idea of a Martini Night (like the guys at the Underground store on Eagle Rock blvd.) and some couldn't care less about booze, but thought the idea of a Singles Night was great (like the guy from the ballroom store). The biggest dissapointment of the afternoon was the fact that the firestation was closed (no fires in the afternoon?), but we did put a singles night flyer in their mail box (don't worry, I'll be personally delivering singles night flyers to the Highland Park firestation).

Even though I seem to pass out flyers every few months, I'm always surprised how wonderful the Eagle Rock community is, and how the people who work and live here are friendly and great.

I heard from a number of those business that things are really slow right now, so I want to encourage everyone reading this blog to support Eagle Rock business. Instead of going to Target to buy your next t-shirt, check out some of the cool stores like Regeneration on 1649 Colorado blvd. or Eagle Rock Underground 4690 eagle rock blvd. Shop at Colorado Wine Company, 2114 W. Colorado Boulevard, the next time you're in the mood for wine (they also have a weekly Sangria Saturday which I hope to go to this weekend).

In short, please support your local business, they need your patronage in order to survive, and we need them to help make our community safe, interesting and unique.

Almost finished hat

I more or less have finished the hat for Max. I'm not sure if it's the right size for him so I haven't closed the top of the hat yet.

It's an entirely unimpressive hat, but I think that's what he wanted.
To be honest, I'm not sure. When I asked him what kind of hat he wanted he replied "you know, a hat." So that's what I made. The color's nice at least.

I'm almost tempted to leave the needles permanently on the top. It reminds me of those propeller beanies, but a lot more dangerous. Maybe I can start a line of knitwear called "At Your Own Risk." It will feature clothes with knitting needles still in them, pins holding sweaters together, rusty nails woven into socks ...

Somehow I don't think the line would be very successful.

Spin a Good Yarn Night

Spin a Good Yarn Night is tonight at 7:00

Bring stories, poems, gossip. Or, if you're shy, just bring yourself.

Return of potholder

I did finish the potholder, 3 hours before Max left for SF.


I was asleep by the time Max got back from the Hollywood Bowl, so I didn't see his reaction, but when I showed the potholder to Noah he said "wuh, it actually looks like a potholder, if someone were to ask me what this was, I would say it's a potholder." What that comment actually meant, I'm not sure, but for now I'll take it as a compliment.


Next on my knitting to do list: a hat for Max, per his request (he'll be back in LA in two weeks, so I have another deadline) and a pair of socks for Noah for his birthday (mid September), Noah didn't specify what kind of socks, so I'm thinking I'll make him pirate socks. Black and white stripes, maybe a simple skull, depending on when my yarn comes in.

This just in:
You may have heard of the craft group called Church of Craft (not affiliated with That Yarn Store). They are a cool group with local meetings all over the US. that get together and do crafty things. We think the group is great, and want to let you know that the next meeting of the Eagle Rock congregation is September 10th from 2:00-5:00 or so at The Coffee Table on Colorado in Eagle Rock.


Current project:


I'm working on a pot holder for max, who's moving into an apartment in less than a week. It's made with cotton licious. The black will be regular single crochet, the white will be a single crochet through the back loop.

Let me be, oh opossum

We have an opossum in our attic.

Every couple of months we'll have a rat in an unused closet (closing the hole would require cleaning out the closet which crammed with crap, literally and figuratively, so I don't think that problem will be solved for a while). I've already learned what to do when we have a rat, turn on a light in the closet. Since they are nocturnal it takes them a very long time to adjust, and the noise aspect of the problem (the one that affects me the most, and this the only one I care about) is solved.

I assumed the recent stint of noises inside the walls was another rat, a very active, and large, rat. Then I heard that Noah was complaining about an opossum which was making a lot of noise in the yard while it was climbing a tree. Ah ha, it all made sense now. I told dad, thinking that would make the problem go away, a week later I was awoken at 4 in the morning, and was kept awake for another hour. The next day I mentioned to dad the little problem again, and again I felt sure that the opossum problem would magically get fixed.

Well, it didn't, and this past week, just like the week before, I've been awaken most every night by an incessant scratching right above my head, and last night it lasted from 4-5:30 in the morning. I just did a google search, and apparently one should not use poison, or board up the hole (which dad claims is hard to reach and near the roof) while the possum is out because babies might be inside. So, I'm going to try using a rag soaked in ammonia, and if that doesn't work, I'm calling a trapper. Which of course means if I want to get it done soon I need to call the trapper myself, and just fork over the money I was saving for a dentist appointment. Right now the need for uninterrupted sleep is greater than the need for good dental hygiene. And did I mention we also have fruit flies? What a cruel, cruel world we live in.

yummy goodness

The Stitch n Pitch Dodgers game was a lot of fun, I think I watched about 5 minutes of the game, was too busy working with thin novelty yarn. Don't worry if you missed the event, the Dodgers promised to have another one.

Besides the linen shirt (I really, really don't want to do the math) and arm warmers I started on two years ago (don't even remember the needle size!), I don't have any other projects on the needle right now. To be honest, for the past two days I've been playing Rail Baron in all my spare time. Fortunately, Max requested a hat, and picked out the yarn today, so I have a project I can start tomorrow, right after I buy all the rail roads and laugh at Noah and Lily because they lost.

David has been on a free-form crochet representation of real life object kick lately. First it was the star fish (complete with little suckers), next an octupus, and he just finished this ice-cream cone.

Finished Dishcloth

I finished Max's dishcloth

The pattern's very simple.
Row 1: *P1, k3*
Row 2: *K1, P5, K1, P1*
Row 3: *K2, P1, K3, P1, K1*
Row 4: *P2, K1, P1, K1, P3*
(the picture is sideways)

I CO 40 sts, started with 3 rows of garter stitch, then started each row with slip 1, k3, and ended with k4. When I got to my desired length I purled 3 rows. And voila, a dishcloth.

Lucinda, who occasionally teaches classes at That Yarn Store, has a knitting machine she would like to sell. Here's the information, if you're interested please email me at thea.yarnstore@gmail.com and I'll pass on your information.
Studio 360K (standard bed) $200/obo
Built-In Accesory Box
Row Counter
Main Carriage
Clamps (2)
Auto Tension
Yarn Rod
Claw Weights (2)
Transfer Tools
Needle Pusher
Tappet
(English directions - Xerox copy)

Max is moving out of the dorms and into an apartment, so I'm making him a dishcloth. It's out of a grey/brown linen. I call the color ugly, Jessamy says it's manly. It's probably both, but I don't think Max will care either way.

Haircut?

For my birthday Sarah bought me a gift certificate to a hair salon.

Just like with other life-changing events - weddings, births, etc. - haircuts require an extreme amount of planning and forethought. To my recollection I've only really had one bad haircut, and that was by a teenager who didn't speak English. Instead, what repeatedly happens is that the hairdresser disregards my plea that it be a wash and go cut. So the cuts look great at the solon, and crap at home. The past two hairdressers didn't believe me when I said that my hair takes too long to blowdry. After 10 minutes of "drying my hair" they believed me.

I've spent the past few days looking at salon websites for inspiration. But it's hard to find a short haircut that's cute but doesn't need gel. I like messy cuts, and love the idea that I could let my hair go wild, maybe brush it every other week. How is that any different from what I do now, you may ask. Right now I just ignore the fact that I don't brush my hair, but if I get a haircut that's supposed to be messy I can feel good about the negligence.

Of course one of the main ironies of life is that you can't just jump out of bed and get something like this:
oh no, it takes hours of preparation to look like you don't give a crap about your hair.

That picture was from the website of a salon in London, www.colournation.com. So far this week I've looked at maybe 10 sites so far. Most of the websites just have pictures of bad haircuts on bored looking women, but Colour Nation brilliantly got around that by showing bad haircuts on two bored women nearly kissing. At least I assume they were bad haircuts.

I'm having a hard time finding pictures of nice haircuts on people with my face shape. I've basically narrowed the choices down to one.

What do you think?

7 months late

I finished (almost) mom's Christmas present (for last year). Her birthday is in late August so now it's a birthday present. Though technically I still owe her a present for last Christmas. Maybe I can make Birthday socks which will be ready by Christmas.



I did actually finish a second sock several months ago, but the guage was off by a lot, so I donated it to the store as a sample. This one isn't a perfect match in terms of size, so I'm hoping blocking will help.

First it was the Swedish Heart, now the socks. Could the summer knitting blahs really be over?

Wonky Heart

Lucinda, who taught the knitted gnome class in early July (yes, we will be having another gnome class), asked if she could teach a beginners crochet project class in September. I said, "of course, we're not picky" which on second thought was not the best response. In any case, she dropped off a sample of the "Swedish heart" that she had made,and the pattern so that I could make the store's sample. When I finished the store sample I thought it was a nice enough decorative item.

That is until I took another look at her piece. Then, all I could see was ...


Knitting is supposed to be an art - soothing, unique. And yet it brings out this competative nature that almost always results in my crochet/knitting self esteem in being completely demolished. And it's not even when comparing similar items. When someone remarks on how even my stitches are I immediately begin to point out each ugly stitch. It's sad and depressing, but I know it's not just me. One of the hardest parts of teaching someone how to knit is trying to convince them that it's ok if their stitches are uneven. The first knit piece is supposed to look uneven, I tell them that one of the great things about hand knitting is that it's imperfection makes it unique, and makes it yours. 9 times out of 10 they don't believe me, and why should they when the little voices in my head are wispering "lies, all lies."