Updated Update... Brown Lace scarf

UPDATE TO UPDATE:
As for Saturday April 1st I am up to 30 inches...

Here is the detail...





Well, it seems the only thing that captures my knitting attention right now is my brown lace scarf. Thanks for providing the pictures Lis!

If you look very closely, there is pig for scale. :) This scarf is about 20 inches long now. I am pretty sure this is going to be done for the blue and rose one that I was knitting for my mother's birthday so I think this may become alternate birthday present. I am also feeling that is one is going to need some fringe. Haven't felt that need thus far so I am going to run with it.



I also just got a new "purse." Vintage, 1950's French paratrooper bag. All and all pretty great. Lots of pockets for me to lose my cell phone in. I think though that I would like to perhaps sew another one into for small things, with a zipper. As it is now, it just has two buttons and a hook which could lead to some lost items. It also has slots for several large caliber bullets. I am not in the habit of carrying bullets around though so I am using it for pens and the like. This can also double as a fanny pack, but I am pretty sure I will not be using it in that capacity.

Perhaps an odd angle but the large telephoto lens was too hard to remove for me to ask Lis to change it for one pictures. It was quite comical seeing her standing on a chair trying to get the minimum required 5 feet away from the bag.




It was a good lens though to get a picture of the pigs.


That is a point protector for size 6 needles for scale.
For those of you not familiar with the game Pass this Pigs, it is a little similar to craps but with tiny pigs instead of dice. Since Megan got me hooked on it though, it has been a constant bar and dinner party game. (http://www.gamesbyjames.biz/product_info.php/products_id/107?source=gaw&kw=passthepigs) They have it at Games of Berkeley for less than $10.

Lazy Sunday

So I actually woke up pretty early for me today. 9 am. On a Sunday no less. What to do?
First, I read several hundred pages. I am reading Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars, the final book in her crown of stars series.
I decided I had wasted enough time with that after a couples hours. I rearranged some drawers in my house. Nearly done with the spring cleaning.
Now it was time to actually leave the house. It was a great day for a walk
I went first to Stone Mountain and Daughter for their 25th anniversary sale. I got some point protectors for my circular needles. I really really want to buy more of the cascade yarn that I made the rugby scarf out of. I really like one particular shade of green. Also think their grey and burgandy are the perfect colors for a Grizzly scarf for my friend at Montana. I most definitely have too much yarn already. I could save money though. I wish the yarn I ordered had come in the mail. I ordered several skeins of the super bulky wool and the six ply merino from handpaintedyarn.com so I should wait for that. Also I ordered some yarn from knitpicks.com to make a vest so I should just wait and not buy anymore yarn. That doesn't stop me from wanted to buy more.
Next I went to blockbuster. There was nothing there that I wanted. I ended up getting Thumbsucker which I had heard good things about and grabbed a random movie and headed to the counter. At the counter, there was a copy of Howl's Moving Castle so I snagged that instead. I am very excited because I love Miyazaki. I saw this film in the theatre and loved it.
Anyway next stop, half price books on shattuck. I found a book on lace, Crochet Lace by Pauline Turner. I am excited to learn how to crochet. I think it might be just the thing to use the pound of cotton yarn that Javeria gave me.

I also found a book on french food, The French Cook by Louis Eustache Ude. That is not to be confused with a book of the title but by Francois Pierre LA Varenne which I think is the book I really wanted to buy. Oh well. It was only $3.
I finally made it down to the gourmet Ghetto which was my original destination. Right next to Cesar's they have been remodeling a building into a gourmet foodcourt, 1511 Shattuck, Berkeley. It finally opened up. Lis said it was neat so I decided to check it out. It is kind of odd. A couple of the sellers barely have booths. The carviar woman was kind of just standing up against the wall. I got chicken noodle soup from Soop, described as artisan soups, stews and chowders (www.sooptogo.com). It was pretty good, but I wish it was cheaper. The gourmet chocolate lady gave me a free sample which was super tasty, but I couldn't really afford to buy it. I was going to get gelatto. but I stood there for a few minutes. No one helped me so I said fuck them and left. I walked back to the courtyard. It had nice with a little stream and benches and everything. It was such a lovely spring day.
Finally I hit Black Oak books to look for some nice used books. I found a copy of Treasury of Knitting Patterns. At one point it had been marked just $9. Now however it was $50. I decided Black Oaks was too pricey for me.
I made it home and decided it was time to do some cooking. I got some great rhubarb from Berkeley Bowl (http://www.berkeleybowl.com/) the other day. There are so many lovely spring veggie and fruits coming into season.

I barely recalled an old recipe from my grandmother that I wished to try. Rhubarb sauce. It is great with just a bit of cream or over some vanilla ice cream. Here it is.




Rhubarb Sauce

4 cups diced rhubarb
1 cup sugar
1/2-1 cup water
2 tablespoons tapioca

Wash and dice rhubarb. Add rhubarb, sugar, and water to saucepan. Bring the ingredients to boil and simmer until rhubarb is tender. Add the tapioca and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot or cold. I like it hot with ice cream or with a little (or a lot of) heavy cream.

Lazy sunday then morphed into an excursion to the Sarah's rollerhockey game. There was plenty of beer and I even got some knitting done. Unfortunately, Sarah's team didn't win. Perhaps I am a jinx.
Next we went bowlingl. The first game went pretty well for me, but the second was so bad that I decided to sit out the third.
We then hit up the Graduate on Claremount and College for some more beer and some yahtzee and Set.

All and all a pretty good day.

Two New Scarves: Real (though fuzzy) Photos

I was knitting over at Karrie's tonight, watching the (and I am sure Karrie and Elowyn will agree) quality film, The Transporter 2.
Karrie let me borrow her camera again (Thanks Karrie!).
Here is the first (or if we are keeping track this is project four). I am calling it my brown lace scarf. Again, it is 100% pure alpaca.

I put a piece of paper behind it so you could see it a little better. Need a bigger piece of paper it looks like. I am pretty pleased. After only 2 days of knitting it is almost as long as the paper.

The next scarf I am calling the blue cable scarf (aka project 5). I am not sure if you can really see the cables on the scarf since well I can't see them very well, and I am holding it.

I didn't quite like how the single cable was looking on the scarf with variegated yarn so I decided to split it into two cables (which only used 4 stitches and flanked the trace of the 6 stitch cable) about halfway into the length. I knit some more then felt they should merge again so I brought the two of them back. I like the pattern but am not sure I choose the correct yarn for this project. It is only 6 inches long or so so I might still rip it back and try again. So perhaps I will provide an update that will have the scarf going further and perhaps I will tear it out and use a different pattern for this yarn. Stay tuned.

Two New Scarves

Okay so perhaps I have a problem with scarves. I got bored again with the one I was knitting for my mother and started two more.
The first I decided I wanted to see what would happen if I knit two together then did a yarn over for a couple rows so I cast on 20 stitches and did just that. Karrie has since told me this is lace garter stitch. I added 4 fours of regular garter stitch for a 6 row repeat. So far I like the result even though it is only 5 inches because it is interesting and knits up pretty fast. The yarn is splitting a lot though and the knit two togethers can be difficult. I am using size seven Boye interchangeable needles as well so even the standard garter stitch is a little looser because this is one size larger than the DK weight yarn recommended.
I am using Alpaca Yarn Company Classic Alpaca in Timber Brown from West Valley Alpaca. This yarn is 100% superfine alpaca DK weight. I returned the camera I borrowed from Karrie so I don't have a picture of the scarf but I did take a picture of the yarn so you could get an idea of the color.


The next project I started was one I had begun a while back but ripped it out completely when I didn't like what was happening. This is the scarf that I am practicing my first cables. Previously I had started it in sort of reverse stockingnet on the cable side but I didn't like that. This one is just simple garter stitch outside of the cable. I cast on 18 stitches. The first 6 stitches were simple garter stitch the next six are in stockingnet and every 4 row I take the first three of these six with a cable needle and set them behind the rest of the scarf. Then knit the next three and picked up the cable needle and knit the three stitches on that. I finished the last 6 stitches in garter stitch. That is either way too much detail if you knit or way too confusing if you don't. Sorry.
I am using size 9 straight bamboo needle from Clover. I am using the same yarn if used for the green scarf, the DiVe Teseo but in variegated blues (color number 44146). This yarn is from Italy and 55% wool 45% microfiber. It is about 4 stitches per inch.

There is a little bit of the green stuff that was left over from green scarf next to it.

Yarn Swap

So yesterday at B's house our knitting circle had a yarn swap. I was excited to try to trade away some of the yarn Javeria gave me that I didn't know what I would ever use it for. She gave me a one of those very large tuperware books that are larger than a laundry basket full of half finished projects and extra yarn.
Thanks to Gen, Kate, and Debbie for taking some of that yarn off my hands.
Thanks to Gen and B for letting me trade/buy some nice yarn off of them.
I still have a ton of yarn from Javeria (most notably the cocoons). I am not sure what to do with it. It is primarily cotton and acrylic.

My Second Project: Mother's Scarf

I started a scarf for my mother for her birthday. It was Saturday and well I didn't quite make it.


This is the second project I started but not sure when it will be finished. It is on size 6 needles. Again I am using the Boye's interchangeable circular aluminum needles and loving them. I am only 19 inches into the length of the scarf. It is about 5.5 inches and is curling a lot. I am using Misti DK 100% baby alpaca that I got from The West Valley Alpaca booth at Stitches West. The colors are Ocean Mist and Peony. I have four balls of yarn so hopefully this is enough. I think I will get at least 4 feet easily.
I am using moss stitch which is a four row repeat of
row 1: p1 k1 repeat until end of row. You should have an odd number of stitches to end on a purl
row 2: k entire row
row 3: k1 p1 repeat until end of row. You should end on a knit this time
row 4: k entire row
Repeat until desire length.
This pattern isn't really reversible but is interesting on both the front and the backside. I really like it but it is taking a lot of time.
In detail the front looks like this.

The wrongside of the scarf looks like this.


On the wrongside there is the interesting line. I figured out (thanks to Karrie) that I had been twisting all the knit stitches so this line is the opposite direction of the way it should be. Switching back to normal knit stitches halfway through a stripe created this interest V on the wrongside.

The cocoon

I inherited a bunch of yarn from one of the ladies in our lab who is moving back to Mexico.
One of the most interesting thing in it was this thing that looks like a cocoon or a pupa or a larva (or poop). Karrie enough put it on her head and made sort of Viking horns out of them.
I have five of them. Not quite sure what to do about it.


No one seems to want to take them off my hands. Javeria told me they were made out of wool that she had picked up in Switzerland, but Karrie and Kate think that it is probably cotton. I have been thinking of setting a little bit on fire to see what it smells like as it burns.
Please let me know what you think they look like or what I could do with them. Perhaps a rustic pattern or something that would work well with the tweed of the yarn.

Debbie did take the pink yarn I didn't want, but I just couldn't get her to take the pupa.

My third project: Vandal Rugby Scarf

This is my third project; I call it the Vandal Rugby Scarf because I made it for my brother who is one the University of Idaho Rugby Team. Go Vandals. I realize that is a little out of order. I started this scarf while working on my second project which was on much small needles. This knit up much faster.

This project is made out of gold and black Cascade chunky yarn. It is on 10.5 needles; I used Boye interchangeable needles. It is in simple garter stitch because well it is for my brother, and he isn't going to want anything fancy. I alternated the side I added the ball of yarn on so that the seam flipped back. I like the symmetric effect. This took about 2 balls of yarn, one of each color. The Vandal Rugby scarf is 5 inches wide and 53 inches long.

I had bought 4 balls of yarn so now I have two extra balls. Was going to make a more feminine one for my sister but she wanted different colors. No school Spirit. So if anyone wants a Vandals rugby scarf I can make you one. :)

My Favorite Plants

I have two plants that I got from my friend Megan. They flank my desk and I think they look quite tranquil.

The first she gave me as a present. The common name is a Wandering Jew (Tradescantia zebrina).


This is a close up of the leaves. They are lovely variegated purples and greens.



The other plant Megan bequeathed to me when she was moving to Colorado. I am not sure what the name is, but it is about 3.25 feet tall. It also has the lovely variegated leaves, tending towards reds and greens.

My Apartment: Part Three

Stupid radiator that doesn't work right now.


Overview


Another side view

My Apartment: Part Two

More Picture of the place
"The Study"

The Bedroom


The closet (at one point when moving I actually looking at a bedroom for rent for $425 that was about this size)

My apartment: Part One

Here are some pictures from my apartment. Studio apartment living can be a little tight. I like to use the lines in the apartment to define specific area.
This is my living room.

And the dining room

The kitchen

First real project: The green scarf

I was looking at my learning squares, and I was wondering what would happen if I took that same pattern and instead of doing the entire row in knit or purl I were to break up the pattern into alternating blocks. This is the result.
It is made out of DiVE Teseo yarn from Italy, and the color is variegated green (39360). This is a self-striping, 55% wool, 45% microfiber yarn. I used size 9 needles. The final dimensions are 6 inches wide and about 60 inches long. This took a little under three balls of yarn.

I cast on 28 stitches and knit garter stitch for 8 rows.
I broke the next row into seven, 4 stitch segments. The outside segments I reserved for garter stitch. The inner five segments I alternated in this fashion: p4 k4 p4 k4 p4. I repeated this row. The next third row I inverted the pattern: k4, p4, k4, p4 k4.
I repeated this 4 row repeat for the length of the scarf. I ended with 8 rows of garter stitch.



I really need learn how to read and write a pattern.

Learning to knit

I recently learned how to knit thanks to my friend Karrie. She lent me some size 10.5 needles and some chunky wool she had dyed using Easter egg dye and koolaid. She cast on for me and should me the knit stitch. I made the first square over the course of a couple days and was introduced to garter stitch. I taught myself to cast off via the internet.
The next one Karrie taught me to cast on and how to purl.

Hello, I just figured out how to start a blog

I am graduate student in geology at University of California, Berkeley. I live in a studio apartment. And this is the outside of it.

I have recently taken up knitting so I think that is where most of this blog will be directed. I am going to put some pictures up of the rest of the apartment.