Wow… that’s all I can say… WOW!

We just got back from San Francisco last night, at about 9pm, then both came into work regular time. I’m dying! LOL!

SF is just an amazing place and hard to believe it’s the same state as Los Angeles, since the cities are two completely different places.

We drove up on Friday and took our time with the scenic route (the 101 freeway). The original plan was to stop off at the Winchester Mystery House on the way, but we got a little bit of a late start and by the time we were in the area, it was already pretty late in the afternoon. So we decided to hit it on the way back home.

We landed in Sausalito, which, if you haven’t been to SF is just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s always been a dream to drive across this magnificent structure and yay for me! I finally got to



I had Chris snap the photos as I drove. Or else we would have more “car in the water” shots as I drove off the side of the bridge. Yikes!

My brother-in-law’s girlfriend has this amazing little apartment in Sausalito, CA. It’s this little community literally built into the side of a hill on the northern opening to San Francisco Bay. The houses almost look one stacked on top of the other and crammed together, but they’re just so incredibly beautiful. It’s a bit of a wealthier area, but there’s some cool shopping and probably the greatest Italian restaurants I’ve ever been to!

So we drank wine and unwound from the long journey (we started about 9:30am and got there around 6pm) went to dinner and walked around the town a bit.



Saw the view over San Francisco Bay to the city and bridges and our next adventure for the day… Alcatraz!

This was the absolute highlight of my trip. I loved it so much. I’m a bit of a history buff and ghost hunting buff so the combination of the two are all wrapped up in one on “The Rock.” (I took so many pictures there it's hard to post them all up and my internet connection is reacting to the heat and moving super slow)

They have an awesome walking tour that’s narrated by some of the original prisoners and guards. It’s very thorough and walks you inside and out of the main prison. It’s much smaller than I thought it was, since it only held about 300 prisoners at one time, but there’s lots to see (bring good walking shoes and lots of sun block – I’ve still got the worst burn on my face and head). You even get to step inside some of the cells to see how small they were.

We spent all morning there and at about 2, took the ferry back over to Fisherman’s Wharf for some clam chowder bread bowls and a hungry seagull I named Ralph… he and I got along just fine once I found out he likes curly fries just as much as me. (I know I’m horrible to feed an innocent seagull curly fries, but he didn’t like the bread from the bread bowl!)

There was a cool little museum of restored old arcade machines. There were some that were really nifty and downright creepy! Anthony and Willow tried their hands at the original Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots





Then there was this one that I think was supposed to be sort of a public service of the dangers of opium.



This one, I think it said “laugh with Jerry” or something. It’s this creepy thing and you just put in a quarter and it just laughs. Oh how the world was amused back in the early 1900’s!



So we headed back to Sausalito for more wine and dinner.

Sunday we went to Fairfax , CA , which is where my brother-in-law lives. It’s this great little hippy community up in the mountains. We got to see Anthony’s little apartment and walk around town. There’s a great little ice cream shop called The Fairfax Scoop. It’s 100% organic ice cream and it’s absolutely AMAZINGLY good. He had brought us a couple quarts of the Vanilla Honey Lavender (yes it has real chunks of lavender flower in it) a few years ago and we immediately fell in love. So we were excited to actually go into the shop and have the actual ice cream. This place is packed rain or shine, cold or hot, so it’s gotta be good!

They also hand-make the ice cream on site, so the flavors change frequently and aren’t always exactly the same since the batches, like yarn, is in small quantities. I had a scoop of the cinnamon and one of the strawberry in a hand-made-on-site waffle cone. It was just the best ice cream!!

We walked on down to a local brewery and had a few drinks, chatted with the locals, ate some potent garlic fries and then headed up to where Willow was house-sitting. She made us some delicious home made chicken soup and we drank more wine and played with Tasha, the house owner’s kitty. She was a sweetheart.

We made our way home, seeing a few deer on the side of the road on the way. Then we fell into a deep, “I’m exhausted” kind of sleep.

Unfortunately that’s where the real journey ends. We headed back the next day. It’s always so sad when the vacation ends. We did stop at the Winchester Mystery House and took the tour. There’s so many pictures I can’t post them all, so here’s a few of the more interesting shots.





Then we got on the road to head back. This time we took the 5 freeway, which shaves off about 2 hours in the total journey. It’s a more boring, bland route, lots of farms and rolling hills, but no great views until you get to the Tejon Pass. By the time we got there, it was useless to take pictures since it was getting to be that time between dusk and dark and we were exhausted. It also meant, one hour until we got home.

We pulled in about 9pm and promptly passed out. Of course after hugging and kissing the kitties till their little eyeballs popped out… I miss them when I’m gone… can you tell?

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to actually do any knitting the whole time we were there. I had looked up a few yarn shops but after everything I was just too tired to bother to go. Also, with the winding twisting adventure, I was a little car sick going up, and having to look down at my knitting would just make it worse. I drove us the whole way home so obviously I couldn’t knit and drive (oh I wish!).

I did get a super idea, since Willow pretty much gave us her apartment for the weekend, I was trying to think of a great “thank you” gift for her. Why does my brain always go to bought items??? She herself is a bit hippy-ish, very environmental and organic… why not knit her some socks!? She’s very much also into Buddhism and other Chinese spiritualist type things (I’m generalizing because I myself don’t know much about it). So I thought about the Red Thread Socks by Cookie A. I had bought the yarn and pattern at Unwind about a year ago because I really wanted to make them, but now I know they have to be a gift for Willow .

Now all I have to do is figure out how to do toe-up socks! Eep!

Off of my rant...

I'm sorry to those who read this for my last post... even if you're lurking, I'm sorry...

Ugh!

You know sometimes when you're in that high-tension situation and you just have to let it all out?! Thankfully my family doesn't know about the blog (or probably care), so I can really get away with a lot of rants.

This is supposed to be a knitting blog!

So where was I? Oh yeah. Not much knitting has been going on for the summer months, though this has been an odd California summer indeed.

For Southern California, the weather pretty much stays the same all year long (a warm sunny 72 degrees). When it comes to July – September however the temperature can soar up into the low 1,000’s and stay there hovering like an evil step mother for at least a few weeks. Then there’s about a 1-2 day break and then we’re right back into the heat.

This year we had a few days of extreme heat, where it got to be about 98 degrees one day, but for night time would drop down into the 60’s so it made for somewhat comfortable sleeping. Then it shifted to being in the mid-to upper 80’s. So like an evil sibling going “I’m not touching you!” while waving a finger just mere centimeters from your face, the weather was taunting us going “I’m going to get hot, but not quite hot enough to make you sweat in the shower!”

So I put off most of my knitting plans (The Rona Lace Shawl, the Bombshell Sweater, et al) because it was hot-ish. The weather though recently took a weird turn. It’s only in the mid-70’s and the mornings are really foggy and cool (typically referred to as "June Gloom" or "May Gray"). So of course that’s perfect knitting weather. Alas, in a perfect world, I could sit in my chair with a warm cup of coffee and my knitting and enjoy the dank morning weather. As we all know though, this doesn’t pay the bills. So I’m hoping beyond hope that this will hold up through the weekend so I can at least get two days of ugly weather knitting.

I’ve started on a new pair of socks for Chris. They’re made from – gasp – Red Heart yarn.

Now before you all start to break out into an acrylic induced rash, this is Red Heart, SOCK YARN.

It’s a wool and nylon blend (more wool than nylon)…
It has aloe built in…
It’s self-striping…
It’s less than $5 per ball (I think it was $3-something)…
Two balls makes a pair…

OH… MY… GOD!

Chris had asked me to make him more hats to sleep with at night (during the colder months early in the year). So I had picked out Franklin Habit’s Gentlemen’s Night Cap (or whatever it’s called since it seems to have two different names). This calls for super fine thin, thin, thin yarn, which I went on the hunt for. I discovered by asking Franklin directly (oh my god it was like talking to a rock star – I was so dorky-giddy!) via Ravelry and found that the yarn was more like that really thin crochet yarn that crocheters use to make lace doilies and such. I also poked around Ravelry to see what others were using to make this hat and those who were, successfully** at least, were using this type of yarn too.

Since there’s a Joann’s fabrics 4 blocks from my work, I drove on up (they’re long blocks and it’s uphill and I sweat easily- don’t lecture me on why I drove there!). I found the crochet thread and was just poking around in the usual Joann’s mess they call “bins of yarn” and found Red Heart made sock yarn. I was shocked and appalled that this cheap-ass brand would actually think to make sock yarn. I mean did they want people to walk around scratching at their feet making themselves look like they had some sort of gross fungal infection??? So I checked the ball band and sure enough, there was wool… more wool than nylon… and it was superwash… no hand-washing needed… “I’ll give it a shot” I said to myself.

So it sat on my sewing table for a few months through the heat and sweat of those few weeks. It wasn’t even good enough to go into my sock yarn bin… I was so above this stuff… Man I’m such a snob!

After a few months of sitting around doing nothing, hands itching to do something, I decided to start a new pair of socks for Chris. So I pulled out the Red Heart to give it a whirl. I thought that within the first half-inch I was going to rip it out and throw it in the trash and…

It’s actually not bad…

There, I said it… Red Heart sock yarn is actually usable… a little fuzzy, but usable.

So, I’m half-ways done with sock # 1 and hopefully I’ll have sock #2 completed by the end of next week. “Why,” you say?

We’re going to San Fransisco!

We’re finally finally going!

Chris’s brother moved up there about 2-3 years ago and since then we’ve planned 6 times to go. Yes SIX TIMES and each time something happened where we couldn’t make it. Either we had the in-laws coming into town to fix something or for a visit, we’ve been out of cash and couldn’t afford it or Chris switched jobs and he couldn’t get the time off just yet… So we’re finally going. I’m so excited to drive across the Golden Gate bridge (we’re staying in Sausalito so we have to go that way) and we’re going to Alcatraz and to see Lombard Street and hopefully we’ll be able to side-track it to the Winchester Mystery House too.

I’ll have tons of pictures, I’m bringing my knitting with me too so I’m going to Harlot-it-up and hopefully get some pics of the knitting with the landmarks.

So hopefully next post will be all about our visit


**There's some issue with the gauge listed in the pattern versus the description of the original yarn used. Franklin let me know that the yarn description is somewhat inaccurate or deceiving and the actual gauge swatch was not done in the pattern for the hat.

Drama!

So, for the summer, the knitting has been placed on the back burner. I had plans. Wonderful, glorious plans!

Alas, it's just too hot, even for lace.

On the side, there's been some drama. To fill you in a bit, the house we live in belongs to my mother in law. There's an upstairs, where we live and the downstairs, which we've been trying to rent out for about 2 years.

The reason it's taken so long to rent was because when the in-laws moved to New Mexico they pretty much packed up everything and said "see ya! let us know when it's rented!" and left. Well the downstairs needed many, many, many things done to it.

Firstly, it needed paint. So Father-in-law hired a friend to come do the work and also fix a few spots in the ceiling (popcorn style). They told him that the carpet was going to be changed so no need for drop cloths.

He came, he painted, he left... half finished... and a huge mess…

So we told FIL and he said he was going to get in touch with said friend. Well, said friend never returned his calls.

Finally six months later when FIL had to confess the issue to MIL, they make the trek back to L.A. to assess the damage.

They finished the painting job, replaced the carpet, all the while MIL is complaining up a storm (about the friend who didn’t do the work, about the price of the new flooring/carpet, about why this wasn’t already done 6 months ago, about everything).

So they leave.

A few months go by and we discover the stove doesn't work correctly down there. So we call Mr. Appliance to come take a look. No good, he has to take the stove with him (it's the counter-top style). While dearest Chris is downstairs dealing with all of this, we discover there's a leak from upstairs coming down through the ceiling.

So we call FIL and MIL and they rush out to see what's the problem (FIL is a retired plumber so yay for us! free plumbing work!).

He has to tear up the floor and discovers a bad leaky waste pipe (ok lets not kid ourselves, the pipe was cracked almost completely in half and it's a good 3-4 feet long). It's replaced, bing-bang-boom they're back out to New Mexico.

In the meantime, the downstairs gets rented to our neighbor, her two children, her mom, and her sister. Bad breakup with her husband, major drama, blah!

So they start to move in and discover there's an electrical problem and the stove we sent off for repair still hasn't come back. UGH!

We dealt with the stove issue, it took 5 weeks for the guy to figure out it's just not repairable and we need a new stove. The problem though with these types of stoves is that the hole cut into the counter is very specific to the stove itself. So if the stove is damaged or breaks, you're royally screwed. Not only are they really expensive, but the dimensions have to be exact or else you're left with a gap in the counter or they have to cut an even bigger gap to make it fit.

So once again MIL & FIL rush out here to take care of the electrical problem. So that's where we stand at the moment. FIL has fixed but they're staying a few days extra so that they can recoup from the long drive.

Before, when they'd come to do whatever needed to be done, they would stay in the empty apartment downstairs. MIL would bring everything but the kitchen sink with her, so unloading the truck upon arrival took about 30 minutes. Half of that time is telling her to relax and sit down or else she's going to fall down the stairs trying to get everything into the house. The other half is corralling her dog and keeping her from tripping over the poor thing.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: they’re both in their 70’s and it’s like chasing around two 5 year olds.

This time, they stayed upstairs with us. I think poor Chris is about to lose his mind and I’m blogging this just to vent. I’m getting to the point here in a minute…

MIL finally saw the replacement stove we got, and we got what we could afford and what was practical ($693 + the initial $215 we paid for the first stove to be repaired – the guy knocked off that from the real price of the new stove, so we’re talking about $900!). The new tenants downstairs have a 2 and 3 year old as well, the sister has Down syndrome we got a stove that was “safe” and had the knobs on the side; somewhat out of children’s reach. Well, MIL doesn’t like that. She liked the old style she had with the knobs in front.

All we ask for is a “thank you for helping me out and dealing with all of this” instead we get, “I don’t like it.”

She also planted a bougainvillea out in front and trained it up over a makeshift pergola. (If you don’t know what a bougainvillea is, basically it’s a Brazilian vine that grows like crazy. You really have to aggressively tend to it or it’ll get out of hand very easily. ) Chris and I do our best to keep at this thing but there’s just times when we’re too busy to deal with it. Since their recent visit was so sudden, Chris didn’t have the chance to cut it back, so once again, we’re here listening to her complain about it.

Don’t get me wrong, she is gracious and does tell us she appreciates what we do to keep up the house, but everything is a complaint. The way we put the furniture in the living room isn’t the way she had it when she lived there, so she doesn’t’ like it.

I keep having to tell Chris that I think she has dementia and remind him that this “ungratefulness” is probably a symptom.

Long story short about the thoughts on dementia; whenever she is not at this house, she’s angry. She gets upset really easily and doesn’t like living in New Mexico. I noticed that the minute they pulled in on Monday evening, her personality switched 180 degrees. She lived in the house we’re currently in for 23-something years and upon retirement FIL suggested a move out to New Mexico (I think it was more for him and not for her). She hasn’t been happy since they moved and even though we constantly tell them to move back and we’d be happy to help them move back, she’s not having it.

We try so hard to help out and are just met with anger. I feel worse for Chris because it’s his dad and his dad’s girlfriend (I refer to her as Mother In Law though) so he has to deal with the brunt of all of this. He is truly a saint.

We worry about both of their health because essentially if something happens to either one of them, they live so far away, we can’t be there. They rely heavily on each other but what’s going to happen when one is gone? We just wish they would move back, that way we could have some peace of mind.

We’re going to dance when they leave but it’s going to be sad and we’ll miss them and worry about them. Does everyone deal with this same stuff???

Cycles, Fraud and Sweaters... Oh my!

Ok, so I've finally started the Bombshell sweater and I'm loving it. It's so incredibly easy and yarn is so fluffy light and soft, I'm just totally ADORING IT!

However. (there's always a however isn't there?)

One thing that unfortunately knitting does not promote is health.

While it's a healthy hobby as opposed to ya know, gangs, drugs, and other sordid past-times, it still forces one to sit on their bum for long periods of time. And if you're anything like me, you like to have a little treat nearby to nip at once you've completed a row. Not to mention yes I'm still a smoker, so every once in a while, I pack away the project to puff away, then resume knitting once the smoke has cleared.

Don't get me wrong, you do burn calories while knitting, just not as many as you would say... biking.

So, this past weekend we went bike shopping. I had bought myself a Specialized Hard Rock women's mountain bike way back in 2000. I was too shy at the bike shop to give it a real test ride, plus I hadn't ridden a bike in probably 10 years at that point, so for fear of eating the curb, I just said "I'll take it!" Big mistake!

What I hadn't realized was that they sold it to me with the tires flat (they just needed to be pumped up) and rather than buy a pump and ride it, it sat collecting dust from Chicago to Los Angeles.

One day about a year or two ago, Chris got out his trusty pump and filled my tires... we loaded up our bikes and headed to the Rose Bowl. If you're not from the area, the Rose Bowl (where the big college game happens each New Years Day) has a cool bike path about 3 miles long around it. Lots of folks go there to walk, ride, run, hang out and we'd started walking there for exercise. We decided this time to take our bikes.

This is when I found out how truly awful the bike I had bought way back when, was. I'd always had a 10-speed road bike or borrowed my brother's BMX style dirt bike; never had I actually sat on a mountain bike and felt how unstable and uncomfy it was!

So the bike went back out into the wash house and started collecting dust yet again.

Recently a little bell went off in my head (strange how it sounded similar to an old fashioned bike bell). Why not get a bike that suits me and actually ride it?!

Most bike shops will accept a "trade in" like a car dealership. While they won't give you too much credit, bikes aren't that expensive, so a discount is a bonus!

We poked around the internet just to see what the pricing was on bikes, they weren't too bad. Most good styles were available for under $200. I decided a cruiser was more suiting to me, I could sit more upright and the seat wouldn't make my seat ache for days after.

Saturday, we headed off to one bike shop only to discover they were closed. Thank goodness for Blackberries because we found another just down the street.

They gave me $75 for my old bike and we got me this cool beast...



I like it partly because of the Pantera name, which is a favorite band of mine. To make it more girly since it's actually a man's bike, I got a cool pink basket to carry my knitting (and other stuff too).

We loaded her up into the car and headed home. Since it was a big sucker we had to loosen and turn the handle bars and wait until we got home to put the basket on. Getting on it was like a dream. No wobble, no nervousness... just smoooth sailing! And it's a 7-speed so I can get up hills (sort of - LA has some STEEP hills).

What we didn't know was that while I was making my purchase, someone was off in another land taking money out of my account via an ATM.

They wiped us out.

Bank of America thankfully gave me my money back and we're filing a police report. And thankfully, we were at the bike shop making a purchase at the time so it's proof we weren't stealing our own money! (The money was taken at an ATM about 50 miles from our home)

It's a scary experience, you feel robbed, as if someone came into your home and took everything. But I did get a bit of information that might help to the capture of these jerks. Since I still had my bank card in my posession, and so did the Chris, it's suggestive that our card was skimmed. This happens at just about every gas station here in California. Some dishonest employee or owner decides he or she wants to steal your PIN number and make off with your money.

I had to mosey into the bank to cash a check since I haven't gotten the new cards yet and wouldn't you know it, one of the bank employees said I was the 4th or 5th person to claim the same thing since last weekend. And we all have a common link, we all paid for something with our cards at the same gas station at some point just prior. So the police are going to have a field day with this one!

So for now I'm just working on my sweater and getting stronger with my bike. My first rule is that I can't buy more yarn until I can get to my LYS by bike. Abuelita's is only about 5.5 miles from home so I should be able to manage it (crossing fingers).

Unfortunately though Los Angeles is NOT bike friendly. People get injured often out here because of the inconsiderate drivers. Pasadena, where I work is very bike friendly and has a deep biking history. However, there's still LA drivers who would be happy to flatten you like a pancake. We aren't going to do any heavy city-riding until our bike helmets come in, why take the risk?

Eventually I would love to be able to bike to work, but I haven't quite worked that one out yet. Since work requires that I dress nice and we don't have any facilities in the event that I get all hot and sweaty. Plus I'm not sure if there's someplace safe to keep my bike. I know it sounds like excuses, but until they make LoJack for bikes... I don't trust people, no matter how bike-friendly Pasadena is... I don't want to risk it!

FINALLY

How long have I been blogging? I know this was one of my very first posts waaaaay back when... I'm finally, finally making my sweater...



This is the Bombshell Sweater from Big Girl Knits.

It's taken me this many years to finally cast on this sucker. Don't get me wrong, I love this design and it's knit from the top down so you can try it on and adjust it as you go along. I just couldn't find the perfect yarn...

I was searching and searching for something that I could wear year-round that wasn't going to be hot, wasn't going to grow from 2 feet long to 20 feet long (et-tu 100% cotton?) and something that wouldn't pill like hell.

In my searching it was difficult.. really, really difficult. I'd read reviews on yarn and either it was too thick, too warm, too this, too that.

So finally on Saturday, armed with a $30 discount card, I put my hand over my eyes, spun around really fast, knocked over the poor girl in the shop and stopped dizzy, ready to throw up and pointing at this.

Ok I'm kidding about the spinning and knocking over... but I did have the $30 off card (yippee!). I found some Tahki yarn (that sounds so funny... like tacky, ugly) in Torino... I picked color 130 Pastel Pink. I love this color! They had a red but it's a very purply red (I think it was #125 Crimson). I like true red, so I couldn't go with that one.

This stuff is so light and fluffy, like holding a freakin' cloud in your hands... Even though it's 100% Merino it's so spongy and light I don't think it's going to be hideously warm so I can get away with it when the weather gets a bit warmer.

Speaking of weather, they said on the news this morning that we've had 19 straight days of May-gray and June-gloom. Those are the fancy meteorological terms they use here in Los Angeles... Essentially the ocean washes in cold air and heavy clouds (the marine-layer) so most of the day is pretty murky and a little nippy. It usually burns off by about 3pm, but makes for a slow-going morning... It's so relaxing... I just want to knit...

Just a quickie

As promised about 100 posts ago. Some updates

This is one baby blanket (for Lisa)


The gorilla scarf, for Carlos (it's ape length, he's 6'5")



The other baby blanket (for Alicia)



Finally, Chris's sock(s)

This is the first try on... he made me promise to edit out his "crusty toes" - he's all sensitive about his dry feet :P



Clyde helping me model them...



Sock 1 down and sock 2 started... this is more the true color of the yarn, the other photos make it look more orange...



Sorry, I changed the layout again, I was getting annoyed with the "see thru" photos.. that and the length was too skinny so it made my posts look a mile long...

Just Plain Silly...

I know that this is going to sound ridiculous but, I’m making this for Chris.

Yesterday I finished his first handmade sock and cast on for number two (you know, a pair would be nice eh?). I had been bustling away on it and it just seemed oddly huge to me; possibly because it’s the first man’s sock I’ve ever made. So gently slipping it over his foot so as to A. not poke him with my super-sharp Knit Picks DPN’s and B. not slip those slippery suckers off the needles (we’d already had a few near incidents at this point and I was getting crazy); I discovered it fit him perfectly!

Though most of the ball area and toes were still exposed all he could exclaim was how warm they were. I think possibly because my hands and lap had warmed the yarn but also because they’re wool. Glorious wool***.

So later, we’re chatting about how nice the sock felt and he asks me to make him another one of these hats…



He loves this hat. Even though I still tease him that he doesn’t appreciate the hand knits I’ve made him if he wears anything but this hat, I know he really loves it. He asked me to make him more so he can wear them to sleep in.

(I swear to you this boy just knows nothing of true cold. He’ll bundle up in sweats, a sweat shirt, a hat and get under 2-3 heavy blankets. Why? Because he’s supposedly freezing… it’s like 60 degrees out!!!)

Then during the night he gets all hot and ends up kicking off all the blankets then pulling them back, kicking them off then pulling them back… The one thing he’s discovered that really helps is the hat I made him. Since he has to wear a CPAP mask for sleep apnea, he can’t easily pull the blankets up to cover his head if he’s cold.

Suddenly, this gentlemen’s nightcap popped into my head. I remember seeing it ages ago in Knitty and kind of goofing on it, but deep down inside I really wanted to knit it badly. Even if it were just to be a piece of décor to use in the guest room, I really wanted to knit one.

Since Chris asked me to make him more hats, I joked I’d make this for him. He goofed on it a bit, I did too. I hadn’t shown him a photo of it until this morning and well… I think he actually likes it too.

Do people still sleep with nightcaps?

***I still maintain that I hate this Regia yarn. It’s splitty and slippery and if it weren’t’ for the fact that it was my first sock yarn EVER purchased… I’d probably have set fire to it by now.