:: My Urban Eyes ::
All that I see, and then some.
:: Friday, November 23, 2007 ::
Dear Mom,
I went and I saw the clock at the Westin St. Francis Hotel that you saw on Samantha Brown's travel show and said I had to see. The clock you've been reminding me about for months, the clock that all the people meet at because it's so cool, the clock that survived the fire because, well, it wasn't there yet. The room was dark but I still managed to get a picture:
It is indeed a very nice clock. And now I've seen it... so you don't need to bug me about it any more. -_^
Love, Karla
PS. I finished your socks. ^_^
Rat Socks
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici, Firefighter, one skein
Needles: US size 1 dpns, set of five
Pattern: Basic toe up sock with gusset and heel flap, over 64 stitches
PPS. Karla's First Thanksgiving dinner was a success.
For the record, that's turkey (from a frozen tin thingie... still tasted great, though!), stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce, and sparkling apple juice. The biscuits made an appearance later. Along with being the first Thanksgiving dinner I cooked, it was also Ken's first Thanksgiving ever--he's been in the US for a couple of years but never had the whole dinner experience. He's a quick learner--he conked out immediately after dinner with the football game on, in truly American fashion. -_^
Labels: Knit, Life, San Francisco
:: Kazen @ Always Doing 7:01 PM [+] ::
:: ... 2 comments
Comments:
Awesome clock! Love the socks too!
Glad to know you HAD some type of Turkey for Thanksgiving!!
Love Ya!
Karri
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Glad to know you HAD some type of Turkey for Thanksgiving!!
Love Ya!
Karri
# posted by 
: 7:57 AM
: 7:57 AM:: Friday, November 09, 2007 ::
Tawashi Time
Japantown is wonderful. It's a beacon of all that is good and Japanese, from food and restaurants to kitchen supplies and origami paper. The brightest jewel, though, is the Kinokuniya bookstore. They have every Japanese novel I could ever want, daily Japanese newspapers, study books straight from elementary school classrooms (I'm loving the 4th grade books at the moment), and last but not least, craft books. So, I bring you this:
魔法のタワシ - Mahou no Tawashi - Magic Scrubbers
The cutest dishcloth/scrubber things ever. EVER. Here's my proof:
The ball is featured on the cover and is crochet. The middle square is garter stitch edged in crochet, and the spiral is crochet. Here are some other designs that I haven't gotten to yet:
And what is this last weird creature? Well, a duster, of course!
Whomever did the design had amazing color sense as well--next time I order dishcloth cotton I'm going to stock up on the solids so I can do these designs justice.
Needless to say, I'm in love. Kinokuniya is full of books like this, and you don't even have to know Japanese--an understanding of crochet (most are in crochet) and chart-reading skills are all you need. Craft on.
:: Kazen @ Always Doing 1:25 PM [+] ::
:: ... 2 comments
Comments:
They are too cute. What a great idea. They look like they are easy and fast projects. Hope your still doin fine, it was great to talk with you! Love Love Love
# posted by : 3:18 PM
: 3:18 PM
That book looks awesome. One of my absolute favorite things to do is go to Kinokuniya and browse craft books. I have one that I haven't made anything from yet, but I keep buying pretty cotton and linen for those patterns.
Awesome scrubbers!
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Awesome scrubbers!
# posted by : 5:07 PM
: 5:07 PM:: Thursday, November 01, 2007 ::
Of the Horrible Ends
Beadknitter left me a comment on the last post asking if I had any advice for dealing with the awful number of ends a striped sock creates. After weaving in all those monstrosities (and how did I spell that correctly on the first try?!) I couldn't help but have a tip or two.
--
Unless you only use two colors and carry each as you go there are going to be a lot of ends. There's no avoiding it. But fear not--it's possible to minimize the number of beasties you have to weave in. The first one is obvious: if you change colors less you'll have fewer ends. Wide stripes are the order of the day. Second, if one color pops up every other row (like the gray on the ball of the foot on the Random Stripe Socks) and the stripes aren't too wide you can carry the yarn from one stripe to the next without breaking it. It does add a little extra bulk, though, so beware.
Take careful consideration of where you place the seam. I started with my seam down the back of the socks (least visible, I thought), but after turning the heel I had a minor dilemma--do I place the seam at one edge of the sole so I don't walk over it, or do I put it smack dab down the bottom of the sole so it's completely invisible? I went the invisible route--the yarn I used is really grabby and tends to felt, so I figured that any discomfort from woven in ends would flatten/melt away after a wear or two.
There's also Meg's Jogless Jog to help prevent unevenness where you change colors. The website says that the seam will lean left with time, which is true if you're doing colorwork with a vertical element like checks or fair isle. With simple stripes, though, it's easy to keep the color change at the beginning of a needle and truly straight.
And then, when it gets down to it, there will still be pesky ends to deal with... but think of how much worse it could have been! -_^
--
I'm tempted to write more, but I should really be in bed--I open the store tomorrow. Just know that I (and my knitting/crocheting) are going well, and next time I post hopefully I'll have pictures of some amazing タワシ to drool over. (You'll see once we get there.) ^_^
Labels: Knit
:: Kazen @ Always Doing 9:55 PM [+] ::
:: ... 0 comments
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