Merry Christmas!

Today many of us are fortunate enough to share gifts with those that we love. For some reason this makes me very happy and very sad today. I don't know where this sadness comes from, but I feel it is important to share. Families are incredibly complicated and yet incredibly simple. What family really comes down to is a close knit community of the people you love and care about. Hopefully you are sharing today with those people that you love.

Namaste

Bad Blogger

Wow, it has been over a month since I last posted. So sorry. A lot has happened since I last posted, and yet also not much at all. I am still working on all the same projects. Plus I started a new plain jane cardigan on Saturday.
I participated in the Ravelympics and was greatly disappoint. Basically I feel that I was thwarted at every turn. I planned on finishing 4 works in progress plus a sweater that I was also going to design. I was pretty sure I was not going to be able to complete the sweater, but I figured I would be able to complete the WIPs. The first two projects were already practically done. They were two tank tops. Then at the last minute I ran out of yarn, and was not able to get more in time.
I figured no biggie, I could definitely finish sewing up 1/4 of a sweater and 1 and 1/16 of a sock. I was not able to find the sweater right off, but I figured I had plenty of time. I worked away on the sock, and it was going pretty well. I completed the heel, tried it on, and it was too big. Bootie! So I looked for the mate to compare it to and I could not find it. I looked in all of my many "knitting" bags and no luck. I yelled at my hubby for moving my knitting. He said he didn't know what I was talking about. I kept looking, and at the same time looked for my Sad Pullover. It was Saturday. The day before the Ravelympics were over. I finally came to the conclusion that I would not finish a thing. I was sad and disappointed, but sometimes this is the hand that we are dealt.
Then today I begin a spinning project I was commissioned to do. I finished the first leg, and started to look around for my scale to figure out how much I had done. And I could not find it. Since I am still not finished unpacking I started looking in any and all fiber related boxes. This led to a fiber reorganization. I spilled the guts of my fiber closet and started putting everything back. Guess what I found. My Sock. It was in a bag of organic cotton. Don't know why I thought to put it in there. I think I finished it the day I bought the cotton I put it in the bag when my purchase was rung up. Don't know why I didn't pull it out when I got home.
Then as I near the back of the closet I find my Sad Pullover. I actually remember tossing it in for safe keeping. Now. Too little. Too late. I have not finished any of my projects. I have not finished unpacking. I have not finished reorganizing. I hope this was the week of unfinished things, and since it is Sunday and the week is over this means I will get to start finishing things starting Monday. (Sorry that was a horrible sentence, don't know what to do about that.) Who knows, I guess we shall see. Ta ta for now.

Treasure

We had a blast in the East Bay. Our first stop was Article Pract, and I got these.

Vintage buttons for Mr. Greenjeans and

a Lucy Lu Slide box for notions. I think it is a little entertaining that I will be using it to store notions because on the bottom it says "NOT Notions"

I also bought a really beautiful silk hank of Claudia's Hand Painted Lace. It tried to go live with Sue, but thankfully Sue has plenty of her own lace and sent it back home to me. It is in time out for running away, so I can't show you a photo.

We went to my favorite Thai restaurant for lunch, Lucky House on University. The scallops were so buttery good. Mmm, it makes me want to go back right now. Once we were fat and happy and after we got our geek on at the game shop, we went over to Laci's. Oh was the lace beautiful.
There I bought
beautiful cashmere and merino lace.
super soft wool laceand a bone crochet hook. Size O, I have never seen a size O. I can't wait to use it. Liz and Sue educated me about different methods of lace making and we convinced Sue to buy 00000000 knitting needles. That is 8 zeros, they are made out of piano wire. Crazy!

After Laci's we went up to Stash on Solono Ave. They had so much beautiful yarn and a great selection of books. I have to admit I went a little overboard with the books, but what are you going to do. At least I am going to give them a good home. If you want to see what books I got/have you can check out my library on ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/people/anzula/library (sorry I don't know how to make links yet)

Thankfully I saw the books after the yarn. This is what came home with me.
Yes, that is all lace. I think I may have a problem.

Berkeley Here We Come

I am so excited, some of my buddies and I are going on a road trip tomorrow. We are going to cruise up to the bay area to visit Lacy's, Article Pract, and Stash. I wonder if we could stop in Elk Grove on the way home to visit Knitique. Funny thing, my aunt lives in Elk Grove and I am up there fairly often and yet I have never been to Knitique. Crazy!

I wonder which projects I should take with me. I currently have 7 active projects, but I don't want to take too many. I need to have plenty of room for bringing back goodies. Oh, and I hope it is not going to be smokie up there too. I really need some fresh air to breath.

Remember how I said I had a toe. Well...


I have big feet. I was following the pattern for the largest size, and I guess it just was not big enough. Cause you know that toe I showed you?


It was supposed to fit over all of my toes, not just my big toe. Oops. I was then supposed to continue in the round until it was the proper length. Well, that just wasn't going to work. So I measured my gauge, measured my foot and figured out how many stitches I would need to have to fit around my foot. 80, I had 57. That is a big difference. Like a 2 1/5 inches difference. As much as I would like to believe that my feet are smaller than they are, it just was not going to work. And I really wanted to keep these for myself. Unlike the last pair that I crocheted last year that became a Christmas present for my sister in-law.

So, out it came. Thankfully I am really enjoying the short row toe. It is just so neat. Now to cast on 40 stitches.

I made a toe!

Or at least a toe covering
I am (obviously) working a toe up sock and I just took out my provisional crochet cast on. I love crocheting, but having to unpick a chain from the tail end and picking up stitches at the same time was a little maddening. But oh was it worth it. I think I am in love. It is just so neat that you can be working in one direction, then pick up stitches, and start working in the other direction. So cool!

Did I mention that this is my first knit sock? If I did I am going to have to apologize. I lied. A few months back I started these socks.


Did I say these? I am still on the first one. Two of my friends started them about the time that I did and they are both done. Unfortunately they scared my off because apparently the pattern did not work out well. They had to be creative with the heal and toe.

Seeing as I pulled it out and and photographed it, I am considering trying to finish it. Should I try to follow the pattern, or just wing it?

Too Hot to Knit?

It is supposed to be 105 degrees here in Fresno today. I think we are going into a heat wave. Usually I love the heat, and it doesn't inhibit my knitting or crocheting for that matter. In the Central Valley, we are lucky enough to have dry heat. Which makes the heat more tolerable. But today it is muggy and the air is thick with smoke. I don't know how many fires we currently have going on in California, one article says 300. Not good for the air quality in Fresno.

So I am not only hot but sticky too. Makes for unpleasant knitting.



I am thinking about starting a set of socks. I have crocheted quite a few, but never knit. I am not a big fan of dps, so I am thinking about doing magic loop. I am going to do toe up because I have gigantic feet, and I don't want to run out of yarn. I think I am going to a short row toe. Quiet honestly, I have never done short rows, and I don't know what other types of toes there are. I am sure there are others. But I have a pattern that calls for short rows and my lovely friend Liz showed me a wrap and turn. Which is not at all what I expected it to be, but what ever.

I need to get 40 inch circular 0's and double 0's. I'll have to go to the yarn shop tomorrow.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to Anzula. I crochet, knit, spin, and dye. For the longest time I was mainly a crocheter. There were not many great patterns out there, so I created my own. After almost a decade of doing this, I got a little tired/bored of almost always coming up with my own patterns and so I branched out into knitting. And oh boy are there a lot of patterns. I am on www.ravelry.com and I have queued about 11 pages of projects. Almost entirely knitting related projects.

I learned to knit about 8 years ago. But that was it, I could only do a knit stitch.Which means that this year, when I decided to begin a more serious relationship with knitting, I had a lot to learn. Almost every project I embark upon teaches me something knew.

I learned to yarn over and cable with Mr. GreanJeans

I learned two ways to increase with Honorine


I learned the "right" way to yarn over with my Old Shale Shawl, and now I am doing lace with Juno Regina.


Right now Juno Regina likes me, but she had me in time out all last week. Although, now that I have said that I am sure something horrid will happen. Lets think happy thoughts.

So this should be interesting for whom ever is out there reading this. There are sure to be a lot of laughs to be had of my mistakes. Happy reading, see you soon.