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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Adventures in Paradise

I had a nice trip to the island of Kauai last week. I attended a conference on Infectious Disease put on by UCSF that was quite good. I have many wonderful childhood memories of that island...summer camp at Camp Slogett, visiting uncle and playing in the irrigation ditches, plum picking and camping out with the kids when they were little. Since I was last there, there has been a huge surge in development and and great influx of people from all over the world and lots of changes.

For one thing, there is a lot less glass on Glass Beach. Most of it was just bits of brown and white glass which glistens like sand. The much sought after greens, blues, reds and acquas are getting rare. One of the victims of the world going to plastic.

A must do trip to Hanalei Strings and Things resulted in some yarn acquisition. Apparently I've fallen off my yarn diet. Oh well. The yarn person was not there the two days I was, only the music person but I loved this candy-colored merino silk combo so 3 skeins came home with me. She had some lovely hibiscus-dyed yarn as well, but I have too much sock yarn in stash as it is.

Worth a stop for sure. And very close to Tropical Taco which had nice Ono (like in the fish and the Hawaiian word for tasty) fish sticks and taro fries.

I took my Socks that Rocks Watermelon Tourmaline Medium weight yarn with me but it was very fussy about what it wanted to be. This yarn is becoming a problem!!! I did manage to finish up a truncated version of Wooly Wormhead's Trekking in some handspun. The pattern calls for 18 inches of slouch and I only had 8 inches. It still slouches a bit, and is a beanie with the brim rolled up. Just by chance the only dark blue strip was in the CO edge...and random good thing:)


I finished these socks before the Kauai trip.
Pattern: 3x3 Cable with Moss Stitch by Charlene Schurch from Sensational Knitted Socks
Needles: size 1
Yarn: cabled yarn of handspun with Baruffa Cashwool. Overdyed with Wilton's cake dye in red, purple and blue.
Comments: I ran out on the second sock toe just as I started the decreases. DARN! I frogged back both toes and added another cable repeat, then overdyed some more yarn from my first attempt at spinning cabled yarn. Of course it was impossible to match the colors so the toes are more blue.

Another project finished before the trip
Pattern: Slip-Stitch Cowl by Valerie Zumwalt from Knit Noro: Accessories: 30 Colorful Little Knits
Yarn: Noro Aya and Silk Garden
Mods: This cowl was rather wide for my short neck and is definitely one-sided so I folded it in half and single crocheted the long edge together.



I attempted a Totoro Nook cover with some hand spun. It failed because of the mismatch in the yarn gauges which really accentuated the puckering of my poor two-color knitting technique. I knit it flat as intarsia in the round is still challenging for me, and the seams inside were very thick.

I finally finished my Quilt WIP. I ventured into Kaiumuki Dry Goods and red binding was suggested. I think is really jazzed things up. In the end I quilted in the ditch and left the dark squares empty.

Kauai, The Garden Isle.
Shipwreck Beach
Waimea Canyon

Happy Leap Year!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

this moment

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual started by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Friday, February 03, 2012

Aya Brioche Scarf



Pattern: Brioche Scarf by Kenny Chua from Knit Noro: Accessories: 30 Colorful Little Knits
Yarn: Noro Aya, Colorway 12
Needles: size 10. The pattern called for a size 9 which may have made the scarf a little less scrunchy.
Comments: This colorway has an odd assortment of colors, including pink (yikes). The second skein had a color that was not even in the first one…so Noro:)
In the end end I was quite happy with the colors

The yarn is very soft against the skin. I encountered only one knot in 3 skeins.

Brioche is a bit boring to knit and combined with the short rows, it was a challenge to fix. I found I could only fix it by tinking back. I'm not sure this needs blocking.

Day 21. My narcissus bloomed! I took a class where I learned to carve off some layers of the bulb and place it in water. The container was set in the sun and the water changed twice a day. After the roots formed I put it in a vase mom has had for a long time for this purpose. The leaves and flower that progressed the fasted where actually on a small side bulb I never carved. I'm not sure I'm ready for craft carving where the growth is coaxed into shapes such as crabs and dragons. I'm just happy to have at least one bloom. Our class was to late to have the flowers on Chinese New Year. Maybe next year!

I seem to be in a quiet time of crafting and hanging out at home. I'm spinning some. I've watched the complete Homeland series, reruns of NCIS, some old movies like Shipping News, and spent way to much time on Ravelry trying to get inspired for my next project. I feel accomplished just because I not only folded my laundry but put it all away. Ah those mundane pleasures. I'm working two days a week which suits me. My office mate has quirky sense of humour and that's what one needs to get through the day, lol.

Life is good:)

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Camo Fishy Hat, FO


Pattern: Fish Hat(Dead or Alive) Free from Knitty.com
Needles: Size 7 circs, Size G crochet hook.
Yarn: Stash!! Malabrigo worsted colorway Amazonas, Cascade 220 in jade and, Noro Silk Garden colorway 269
Comments: I've had this pattern in my queue for awhile even though I have no medium people to knit it for. This is such a clever pattern, especially the tail. I did make the dorsal fin a little longer, and enhanced the tail by closing it with two rows of single crochet. I tried both the dead eyes and the alive eyes, and ended up liking the the alive google-y-eyes, the best.













My second attempt at cabling my handspun yarn with Baruffa Cashwool came out much better. I think I will over dye it. The first time around I just added a hint of blue and the purplish pink Cashwool did not appear to take up any dye.