Back From Monterey

I spent most of this last week in Monterey, California for the Internet Librarian conference.  An early flight out on Sunday morning meant that I was able to spend some time exploring the city on Sunday afternoon before I passed out from sheer exhaustion and time change insanity.  Here are few pictures from Monterey.  I’ve got a full set on Flickr.

This red boat really stood out among all the other bots in the harbor.

Doesn't this flower look like it's made of crumpled tissue paper?

I didn't stay in the conference center hotel, so I had a really nice walk through downtown Monterey each morning.

I'd never seen any sort of flower/plant like this before. They were sort of waxy looking.

Of course, I also had to check out a local yarn shop while I was there.  I found a few other librarians looking to make dinner plans on Monday evening and it turned out that one of them was a knitter.  She had met yet another knitter that day too, so the three of us went to Monarch Knitting in Pacific Grove on Tuesday. They had a lot of yarn brands that I’d never seen before in person like Rowan and Tree Frog.

I couldn’t purchase much, since I was limited to just what I could fit in my already overstuffed carry on bag.  (US Airways now charges $25 if you check a single bag at the airport!)  I bought two skeins of Buckingham, a alpaca/silk blend from Bristol Yarn Gallery (a Plymouth Company) in an blue/gray color.  I think this will be knitting into a Pretty Thing (Ravelry) very soon.  I also got one ball of Plymouth’s Sockin’ Sox, which is a superwash wool, bamboo and nylon blend, in a red/purple-y colorway.

This will make a Pretty Thing

Not sure what sort of socks these will be yet.

Thank You Rep Grayson

Via Shakesville – transcript available there as well.

I haven’t mentioned politics very much since the 2008 elections.  I was happy to see Obama win the election even though he was not my first choice for the Democratic nomination.  I’ve been extremely frustrated by the tone of the health care reform debate, which seems to now be called “health insurance reform” because the idea of single payer is off the table.  I’ve hated watching people like Sarah Palin and Betsey McCaughey propagate outright lies about the effects even these minimal efforts at reform while the mainstream media reported these lies as legitimate viewpoints.  (How sad is it that it takes the Daily Show to show McCaughey for what she really is?)

I know this is a fraught issue, especially for those people who have adequate access to health care (or at least think they do), because they fear that their own access will suffer if everyone is covered.  But I believe, as a nation, that we’re capable of rising above our own immediate needs and recognizing that we’ll all be better off when access to health care is not rationed by income or past medical needs. It’s refreshing to see a representative stand up and remind us that we are better than what the media would have you think given the coverage of the health care debate.

I’d like to think that the route to health care reform – and I’m talking true reform of the system here, not just more affordable health insurance – is not necessarily to focus on the mind numbing details but to appeal to the better nature of a country that can and should do a lot better than we’re doing right now.  Maybe I’m just naive, but the route we’re taking now to promote reform doesn’t seem to be working.  It’s too easy to argue against the cost, quibble over who will be covered, and scare people with depictions of that awful Canadian style, “socialist” health care system.  Let’s remember that the people who suffer in our system are your family, friends and neighbors.  Currently, 62% of bankruptcies are caused by medical costs, and almost 80% of those medical bankruptcies happen to people who had insurance.  The full report (from the American Medical Association) reports that “[m]ost medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations.”  You just have to hope that this sort of thing doesn’t happen to you.

It would take lots of work, and I know it wont be cheap.  But considering the costs we’re already paying – not always in money – doesn’t it seem like it’s time to make a change?

I know many people disagree with me on this.  If you feel compelled to comment in disagreement, please keep your comments civil.  I’m not interested in starting a comment war.  Thoughtful comments (no matter your opinion) are appreciated.

FO: Go Big Red Hat

This weekend, Jake and I will be heading to Columbus to watch the Badgers take on Ohio State.  The Badgers actually have the better record at this point with a surprising 5-0 start, but OSU is ranked #9 and only lost to USC, another highly ranked team.  In any case, I’ll be wearing a Badger hoodie this weekend to the game, but realized that I didn’t have any cold weather gear that matches the team colors.  The temperatures are expected to top out at 60 on Saturday, so I know I’ll be chilly during the pre-game festivities and probably during the game itself. Hence, a new hat.

Go Bucky!

Pattern: A Hat Fit For a Boyfriend (also available online for free from designer Stephanie Nicole’s blog – no longer updated)
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool Merino in a bright red and cream.
Needle: Size 6 16 in. circs for the ribbing, size 7 16 in crcs for body, size 7 DPNs for the crown.

I love the decreases in this pattern. This picture shows how they turned out on my hat, but they look even better with a smaller yarn/tighter gauge. Check out the images on the pattern. I’ll definitely use this pattern in the future.

Check out those decreases

This also makes my first truly instant gratification project. I started and finished on Sunday. Jake and I spent a good chunk of the afternoon at Donkey Coffee where he worked on school stuff while I knitted and sipped hot chocolate. I think I had the better time.

I’ve got lots of other stuff on the needles right now, including a hoodie for Jake and some small, Christmas gift type projects. I’ve been derailed though by a bit of a love affair with Malabrigo Lace. I bought a skein of this yarn in Chicago, as you may recall. I’ve included a photo should you have forgotten:

Malabrigo deliciousness

I’ve been waiting for the perfect project for it, and finally stumbled upon a great simple, but complex enough to keep me entertained lace pattern. I’ll have more details later, but here’s a preview picture:

This will probably have to be called the Autumnal Leaf scarf, or something like that.

You can’t really see the lace pattern in this picture, but it’s reminiscent of leaves. This is perfect, since the yarn color matches the fall colors around here – that I need to remember to photograph before winter turns everything brown.

OK, since this is a picture heavy entry, I’ll just say what the heck and leave you with a picture of Bunny taking relaxing to it’s extreme in my lap earlier this week:

Note: This picture isn't even catching him stretching out or anything. He was sleeping like that.

FO: Lavender Baby Sweater

As promised, I have another finished object today.  This is definitely a record for me.  My knitting mojo seemed to be lacking all summer, but I’m happy to report that it has returned in time for the Christmas knitting marathon.  This isn’t a Christmas gift, but a present for my soon to be born niece Leonna Marie, who is due on November 27.  She’ll be the first baby in our family, and I’m very much looking forward to meeting her.  This is also my first raglan sweater.

Pattern: Baby Blueberry Cardigan by Elizabeth Smith, available for free on her blog, The Brown Stitch
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted Weight Superwash in what I believe was Mountain Splendor, looking at the color card – I’ve already tossed the label.  Whatever coating makes the yarn superwash also makes it feel almost acrylic during knitting, but it softened up quite a bit when I washed the finished sweater.
Needles: 16 in circs and DPNs #6 for the ribbing and 16 in circs and DPNs #7 for the body
Modifications: No striping obviously and changed button placement.

I think I may have miscounted the stitches on the second side of the button band, as it appears slightly longer on the left hand side. Otherwise, I’m very happy with how it turned out, especially for my first raglan sweater. This would make a good go-to pattern for baby sweater knitting.

FO: Cabled Clutch

It only took a month to get this seamed and finished...

Check it out! I actually finished something. Actually, I’ve finished a whole bunch of stuff in the past few days, so expect to see a bunch of posts soon.

This is the Downtown Clutch from 101 Luxury One Skein Wonders*, the primary reason that I bought this book – though I do expect to knit more projects out of it. I haven’t decided yet whether I’ll keep this or make it my first completed Christmas gift. I really like how it turned out, though I think I’ll make it a little less wide next time and make the lining of the top sturdier. I used some foam to do this one and it’s not super strong. It is a great pattern though, and I’m sure this little clutch will look good on a night out.

Pattern: Downtown Clutch from 101 Luxury One Skein Wonders, by Cirilia Rose available online for free as well.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lanaloft Sports Weight, in color 24 Coastal Mist
Modifications: Added a lining to the purse.

This was a really quick knit. In fact, I think I had it finished knit-wise over a month ago. But then it languished on my desk while I worked up the motivation to sew in the lining on the handle, the lining for the bag and to seam up the sides. I’m not always very good with the final details.

The finished project looks great though, and I’m hoping to knit another in the future, perhaps with only 3/4 of the width so it’s not so floppy.

Lining is made of a fat quarter quilting fabric

*If you knit anything out of this book, be sure to check the corrections. I started a lace scarf out of this before I realized the pattern was wrong and have a whole repeat that is off. There appear to be a number of patterns that need correcting.

FO: Australia Hat

Yes, folks, it’s true, that’s an actual finished object you see below:

Pattern: Freyja Hat (Ravelry) from Interweave Knits Fall ‘09.
Yarn: undyed wool that Jake’s parents brought back from Australia and a couple of different yarns from Rare Yarns Essentials that my friend Janelle brought from New Zealand. I’m lucky to have world travelers who remember my yarn habit when they’re abroad.
Needle: Size 6 and 8 16 in circs, size 8 DPNs
Modifications from pattern: The pattern calls for a much finer yarn, so aside from the colorwork, this hat does look very different from the original. I also changed the brim to 1×1 ribbing instead of seed stitch, which I’m just not that fond of. It’s amazing how well the yarns worked for the color pattern though.

The hat is a little long for me though. It’s almost a cloche style…though I can’t see it when I wear it in that style:

Meet Bunny and Walter

Or…my first catblogging post.

That's Walter with the icy glare and Bunny hiding behind her.

We got them a few weeks ago, but I’m finally getting around to putting up some of the pictures we’ve taken. They are brother and sister, adopted from one of Jake’s co-workers. They weren’t terribly happy to be here at first, having been taken from their home and mother (though apparently the mother wasn’t too upset by the ordeal) but they seem to have come to at leas tolerate our presence and allow some petting now and then. Right now they’re about three months old.

Wot?

Bunny is the boy, so named because Jake has long joked that he wanted a bunny as a pet. I guess this is sort of a compromise, and it makes for a good joke every time we tell someone new. He’s much braver than his sister, and is fond of pulling his head just above the edge of the couch or coffee table as if to say, “what’s going on up here?” He also likes to crawl under the dining room chairs on his back and struggle to bring his paws together under the bars of the chair. I’m not doing this bit justice, but I’ve yet to get it on camera. I’ve also been trying to capture the manic tail chasing on camera, but that’s difficult as well.

Passed out after a long first visit to the vet

Walter is much more reserved, though she’s become much braver in the past week or so. I’ve had a harder time capturing her on film since she’s tended to run in the opposite direction when we have approached. We generally keep them out of the rooms upstairs, but I woke up to find them in the bedroom last Thursday since the door had been left open a bit. Walter darted under the bed when I tried to encourage her to leave and it took some serious conniving to entice her out.

Despite a few minor adjustments, like learning to keep the doors to the bedrooms closed, we’ve adjusted to them pretty well. Even if they did something bad, it’s hard to be mad at cuteness like this:

Sleeping on a chair.

This used to be where I sat to knit, but it's been co-opted.

Fun With Fitness Tools

I got a Nike+ receiver to go with my iPod Touch for running last week. I wore it when I went out running on Sunday, but I seem to have missed something, because the program did not record any of the distance data. Today, though, I got it hooked up correctly, and was able to measure how far I ran/walked while completing Week 5, Day 2 of the Couch to 5k program.

The Nike device uploads to the Nike+ site, which has some nifty features, but also feeds into my running log at Daily Mile. The orange widget in the sidebar links to my Daily Mile log as well. I used the meter while I did the full workout, from warmup to cool down, so the pace is pretty slow, though frankly, I don’t have much to compare it to. I ran 2.32 miles today, or 3.73k. Today’s workout involved two 8 minutes running intervals with one 5 minute walk in between.

The next run though, is 5 minutes of warmup, then 20 minutes of running with no walking! It seems like a huge jump, so I’m already trying to remember to go slowly, so as to not keel over too early!

Though I don’t think it’s a necessity to know how far or how fast you’re running, it’s helpful for a beginner to have a concrete measure of progress. I don’t know how far I ran the first few weeks of the program, but it definitely wasn’t 2.3 miles!

Australia Hat

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve decided to put the yarn that I’ve received from various world travelers to use in a version of the Frejya Hat from the latest issue of Interweave Knits. I’m about half way through the second set of color repeats:

Look, color!

And here’s a close up of the color pattern:

A little closer

The only time I’ve ever worked with more than one color has been with stripes, so I’m enjoying a chance to work with different colors in a new way. It’s been a bit slow going, since the undyed yarn is rather rope-like and a bit thick for the size 8 needles that I’m using. I think this will be a super warm hat for those really cold days. With the thicker, untreated wool and the color strands carried across the inside of the hat, it’s sure to be very insulating. The pattern looks more complicated than it really is, and I’ve found it pretty easy to do, even without much colorwork experience. I think I’ll need to get some size 8 DPNs to finish this one though, but I’m hoping to do that soon so I can actually finish this project!

Traveling Yarns

Please ignore the messy desk

My friend Janelle stayed at our place last night on her way to New York, where she’s moving for school. She was recently in Australia/New Zealand, and remembered my yarn habit when visiting a winery that also included an alpaca farm.

The yarn is from The Rare Yarns Company. There are two skeins of the Brushed yarn (Ravelry link, couldn’t find info on the website for the company) in turquoise and persimmon. The other yarn is their Misty brand, which includes mohair along with the alpaca and merino. The texture is unlike anything I’ve ever worked with before, but I think these will go really well with some undyed wool that Jake’s parents brought me back from Australia. I’ve even got a pattern in mind, the Freyja Hat, from the new issues of Interweave Knits. I think I’ll need a small amount of one more color, but I’m sure there’s something to be found in the stash that will work. Thanks for the great gift Janelle!