Weekend in the Sun

Here are some pictures from a weekend spent in the sun. On Saturday we traveled north to San Rafael. C went on a bike ride through Marin Headlands while I strolled around town. On Sunday evening we stopped by the Berkeley Marina, where I went for a run and C strolled around the kite fest!
~Chapel in San Rafael~



~Sites from the Marina~


*Notice the big green monster kite in the background!



~Next up: Knitting~

I've made some serious progress on Sarcelle, but between rows I've found some time to complete a few smaller projects. Plus - I finally exposed myself to the knitting wonder that is Elizabeth Zimmerman. What a lady.

~Yosemite~

Here are some pictures from our little trip to Yosemite. We split our hike over two days with some camping in between and swim in a mountain lake for the finale.

Here's a snippet of what we saw:
~El Capitan~


~Moonrise over Half Dome~



~Sunset on Half Dome~


~Flowers~



~Moss~



~Tree Bones~


~The End~

All the news...

I have so many little updates. Here's the news that fits:

Tectonics


The plates shifted early Friday morning around 4:40 am!! It woke us both up, and I was convinced it was an earthquake (because with my east cost experience I know what an earthquake feels like!). C on the other hand convinced me that it wasn't an earthquake and that "someone just fell down the stairs". So we went back to sleep. We didn't listen to the news on Friday, but when I turned on NPR this morning they were talking about earthquake preparedness and that's when I decided to do some investigating. I survived my first earthquake!

Entertainment
We had a busy night of fun yesterday. It started with a series of short comedies at a local theater (in the bottom of LaVal's ~ a pizza place!). The underlying them of the comedies was the seven deadly sins and between acts we were entertained by burlesque dancers.
*This is the other pizza place.

After the show, we stopped by another pizza place, Fat Slice, for some pesto pizza. Then we were off to Moe's Books on Telegraph Ave for the Harry Potter release! I'm not a reader of the series (though I want to know what happens!). So while C waited in line for a copy of the book, I did some shopping of my own and picked up some more summer reading.

The bookstore was packed with a lot of muggles, a couple of witches, and at least one blind Harry Potter by the end of the night.


**Notice in the picture above that you only see the cover of the Harry Potter book, that's because it was taken off immediately so someone could do some "serious Harry reading". hehe

Walkin' on Sunshine
...or rather, walking super comfy foam in my new Crocs!

These are the Prima style and I love them! Easy to slip on and slip off, perfect for walking around town. It was a mission and a half to track these suckers down. The Crocs website is sold out, and so are most of the stores I visited in San Fran. Just by luck I walked into a shoe store in Marin and they mentioned that a Macy's at a nearby mall had some in stock. So I called up the Macy's and reserved a pair and was in the car the car the next day! It's lucky I called because they only had one more pair in my size - seriously - these puppies are hot.

And Knitting!
I finished C's hat and it fits (both me and him)!


Specs:
Yarn ~ Malabrigo Aquarella (the thicker stuff) & Colinette Parisienne (the thin blue stuff)

Needles ~ Daisy 8 mm double pointed (I love the colors of the Daisy needles!)

I did this hat from the top down because I was tired of doing the same old bottom up!. The final stitch count was 51. I held the two yarns together the whole way. Sometimes you see more of the blue and sometimes less, but it's a great addition to the Malabrigo. As for length, I just kept knitting until I was out of Malabrigo, and by the end I had only an inch left. Talk about not having a square to spare! Although, I do wish I had enough for a few more rows because I think the hat would be even better a little longer. As for the bind-off, I did the sewn bind-off (I think it's an Elizabeth Zimmerman trick?). It's perfect for the bottom of hats because it's not restrictive and give the end the springy feel you want when slipping it over your head.

Tomorrow's News
We're off to Yosemite for three days of hiking, camping, and fun!

All the news...

I have so many little updates. Here's the news that fits:

Tectonics
The plates shifted early Friday morning around 4:40 am!! It woke us both up, and I was convinced it was an earthquake (because with my east cost experience I know what an earthquake feels like!). C on the other hand convinced me that it wasn't an earthquake and that "someone just fell down the stairs". So we went back to sleep. We didn't listen to the news on Friday, but when I turned on NPR this morning they were talking about earthquake preparedness and that's when I decided to do some investigating. I survived my first earthquake, and don't worry NPR, next time I won't go back to sleep.

Entertainment
We had a busy night of fun yesterday. It started with a series of short comedies at a local theater (in the bottom of LaVal's ~ a pizza place!). The underlying them of the comedies was the seven deadly sins and between acts we were entertained by burlesque dancers.
*This is the other pizza place.

After the show, we stopped by another pizza place, Fat Slice, for some pesto pizza. Then we were off to Moe's Books on Telegraph Ave for the Harry Potter release! I'm not a reader of the series (though I want to know what happens!). So while C waited in line for a copy of the book, I did some shopping of my own and picked up some more summer reading.

The bookstore was packed with a lot of muggles, a couple of witches, and at least one blind Harry Potter by the end of the night.


**Notice in the picture above that you only see the cover of the Harry Potter book, that's because it was taken off immediately so someone could do some "serious Harry reading". hehe

Walkin' on Sunshine
...or rather, walking on super comfy foam in my new Crocs!

These are the Prima style and I love them! Easy to slip on and slip off, perfect for walking around town. It was a mission and a half to track these suckers down. The Crocs website is sold out, and so are most of the stores I visited in San Fran. Just by luck I walked into a shoe store in Marin and they mentioned that a Macy's at a nearby mall had some in stock. So I called up the Macy's and reserved a pair and was in the car the car the next day! It's lucky I called because they only had one more pair in my size - seriously - these puppies are hot.

And Knitting!
I finished C's hat and it fits (both me and him)!

Specs:
Yarn ~ Malabrigo Aquarella (the thicker stuff) & Colinette Parisienne (the thin blue stuff)

Needles ~ Daisy 8 mm double pointed (I love the colors of the Daisy needles!)

I did this hat from the top down because I was tired of doing the same old bottom up!. The final stitch count was 51. I held the two yarns together the whole way. Sometimes you see more of the blue and sometimes less, but it's a great addition to the Malabrigo. As for length, I just kept knitting until I was out of Malabrigo, and by the end I had only an inch left. Talk about not having a square to spare! Although, I do wish I had enough for a few more rows because I think the hat would be even better a little longer. As for the bind-off, I did the sewn bind-off (I think it's an Elizabeth Zimmerman trick?). It's perfect for the bottom of hats because it's not restrictive and give the end the springy feel you want when slipping it over your head.

Tomorrow's News
We're off to Yosemite for three days of hiking, camping, and fun!

Shining Star Sophia!

Here's a little knitting update for you. Last winter I fell in love with Kate Gilbert's Shining Star hat pattern. I wanted to make Shining Stars for anyone and everyone. But I didn't, after a few Shining Stars, I was distracted by other, new exciting patterns. As a result, the only Shining Star I gifted was to little Sophia (I actually gave it to her pregnant momma as part of a Christmas gift because I was so excited!).

Soph was born this May, and after spending a few days with her, we decided to play dress-up. Here's Sophia modeling the Shining Star hat at 4 days old:


And here she is today!:


Wow, what a beautiful, growing baby! And look at the focus in her eyes. And now I'm thinking great...she's wearing the hat in July. Looks like someone is going to get a new, larger shining star for Christmas!!

Post 108

Just another summer update with more pictures to share!

I'll start with the knitting update. I'm still working away on Sarcelle and am almost at the halfway point! I don't have any pictures of that, but I did start another project.

This is just a top-down hat that I'm working on for C. He wanted a hat for winter. I've made two for him before and they weren't the right size, so I'm taking my time with this one and hoping for the best!

Here's a shot of our favorite block of shops near our place. The green storefront is a sandwich shop called the Filled Inn and to the left of that is our cafe called Brewed Awakenings.


And, of course, some shots of the lovely California greenery:

All Better :-)

The camera has been found! under the car seat. Where I looked.

Anyway, while the camera was missing, I realized ~ I can still snap some pictures! Kris - this is for you. ~wink~wink~

Me and my morning espresso from a new machine bought to keep the mathman going and going and going!

Note: if you're not family, you may not care about the next picture (then again, do you care about espresso?!? hehe). I also realized that I didn't get to share the full birthday weekend experience, so here you go:


In knitting news, I've been working away, but only on Sarcelle - so I figured you didn't need another picture of that! My next couple of projects are going to be short and sweet ~ a hat, a baby sweater, and maybe a summer tank!

sad news!

my camera is gone. i can't find it anywhere, what a bummer. i'm going into San Fran on Saturday and there are so many good sites to share. i'm hoping the camera pops up somewhere... until the missing camera is found, here are some flippers!

Some pics from last week.

Before I show more recent pics, here's another shot of Shedir. This one doesn't have the special effects, so you can see the real hat!

As I mentioned, we spent the past week in LA and in a calm, cozy lake house. We were in LA for the 4th and attended a big picnic full of food and games.

I'm pleased to announce that C and I were the CHAMPIONS in the three legged race! We won't brag too much, but we'll just mention that we left our competitors in the dust. Unfortunately, I did not fair as well in the watermelon eating contest:


While at the lake, we did a bit of birthday partying, wind sailing, lake swimming, and book reading.

Back in Berkeley, sunflowers are blooming and I finally had a chance to stop by the Berkeley Farmers Market! My trip to the market was perfect ~ I bought bags of fresh peaches and plums, along with some other veggies and fun stuff:





In other west coast / Berkeley news, how cool is this little glass bottle of apple juice?? I don't think we have this on the east coast.

All the while, I've been working on a new version of Sarcelle with some wool from Article Prac.