Tis the Season

So, it is the holiday season now. Yup, it starts with Halloween (which seems like a big deal here in SF) and ends in New Years...and well for good measure my birthday is thrown in right after...Yes, I know that my birthday is not a holiday, but it is still an event in which I try to be around people and celebrate. This year went by very fast, and the closer we get to the end of the year, the faster it seems to go.

This has become the year of the sock (and lace) for me. These are my third pair of completed socks. I am very proud of this pair. I did them top-down magic loop. This time around I got to learn kitchener stitch. I guess that now that I have finished a project I can start another non-lace project??? Or do I have to finish the projects that I already have on needles...hmmmm.

Feather and Fan and all the rest

So what have I been up to since my last post? Well, this past week I was sick (first a sinus infection, then a bad reaction to antibiotics), and I have been working on five projects... well I have five projects on needles (six if you want to count each sock that are on circular needles). Before I proceed to talking about knitting I will blog about something that more than just knitters will enjoy.

This weekend was a knitting group weekend. The thing about my knitting group is that we love doing activities that are fun and adventurous. We actually go out and do stuff. This weekend we went to St. George's Spirits in Alameda for a tasting.

We all crossed the bay and braved an unpaved road to get to the distillery. The weather was actually pretty nice. So I was able to take a number of pictures while on the ferry. It was nice to see San Francisco from the view of the Bay. It's not very often that i get to see the sights that so many tourist come to see.

St. George's is the maker of Hanger 1 vodka. They also make liqueurs, whiskey and absinthe.  The tasting menu was a bit lengthy but the host guided us through with humor and insight. This was my second time there. I just have to remember to start taking visitors. Sure, many people come to Northern California for wine tasting, but I think that St. George's Spirits offers a fun experience that most people don't get to have. I mean how many people knew that swirling vodka is a no no and that there is a specific way that you should breath while tasting.

Now, to the knitting. It is strange how I have become one of those people who sees a pattern and the says to themselves "You know what? I can knit that! I even that some yarn and the right needles (not always, let's just say the me and Addi are quickly becoming friends )!! That is what has happened this year. And the other strange thing about my knitting habits this year is that I have done way more lace projects this year than I have ever done in the total however-many-years I have been a knitter.

I find that I really like how lace looks, but I have a problem with sticking with one thing... the moment that charts get a little complicated and I start to loose count I get a bit frustrated. For example: My Alice top is currently on hold because I have to decrease while maintaining the pattern to shape the waist.... yeah, for me it is as complicated as it sounds. So I have distracted myself with projects that seem a little more doable.

Does this count as being half way through?

What does that mean? SOCKS! Socks that don't have a lace pattern or cables. I am working on the Charade sock pattern. I am doing two at a time using magic loop from the top down. I was worried about doing a slip stitch heel flap rather than a short row. But it seems to have worked out fine and I think that i might even prefer it. But these bad boys are knitting up at a good rate.

The knitting goal for the next few months is to actually organize my stash (i.e. get containers form Walgreens and store my skeins in my closet rather than stuff them randomly on my bookshelf), and to not start any new projects until I finish the ones that are currently on needles. Wish me luck people... wish me luck.

It's been a while

Well it has been a while since I have had time and inspiration to update my blog. For some reason life has sort of been on hold. I really don't know what has happened. It is not as if there have been any major changes, it is just that for some reason I have put the pause on activities. I am slowly returning to my normal way of life: gym, studying, reading, writing, cooking. I mean really! I am a whole month off of my GRE schedule!!! Gurrrrrr. Well there is no one to blame but myself.

This past weekend I took a vacation to Portland, OR. I think that Portland if a very nice city. I used to think that I would want to live there. After doing some exploring I wonder if I really could live there. Hmmm. I think that I could only live in very select areas. As much as I don't like living in high volume areas in San Francisco, I think that I would have to in Portland otherwise I might feel a little stranded. If anyone has any insite on living in Portland, OR without a car, please leave a comment.
 
Well my trip was really nice. I learned that being a tourist while you have a smartphone is MUCH easier than without one. I am one of those people who likes to constantly check maps. So have a little homing device that also tells the time and allows you to take pictures at the same time is pretty darn good. This time around I ventured far from the downtown Portland. Went as far as the McMenamins Kennedy School in NE Portland and down to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in SE Portland.Sure my map obsession can wear on people, but isn't that better than me giving up on going to places because I can't tell where I am and I hate getting lost (arg, I still regret not finding a yarn shop during my semester in London).

One of the first places that I went to was VooDoo Doughnuts. This is a tiny little shop with a lot of character. The doughnuts were pretty darn good. I recommend the Old Dirty Bastard washed down with some milk. YUM. I learned that if you are going to go to VDD then you should go during the week. Because during the weekend there is this thing called Market Day (yes, it's called Market Day even though it is Saturday and Sunday). During the weekend people line up around the corner!Craziness. Well I guess that if I were smarter I would have bought more than one at a time. There were a lot of niknaks and that added to the decor of VDD but my favorite was the ATM. I barely saw any graffittie in the areas of Portland that I was in, so it seems that all of the taggers in town just took it on on VooDoo Doughnuts' ATM.

In San Francisco there is a museum... more like an educational playground really... called the Exloratorium. It is a really cool museum where you can interact with all of the exhibits.  It is a really great place and Portland has their own version. called Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI for short). There were some interesting exhibits, but it was really more of a family oriented thing. You know, bright rooms, lots of primary colors. One of my favorite exhibits was the spinning platter. In this exhibit there was a large table with a spinning platter in the center, You could take balls and hold them so that they would start spinning. If done properly you can let go and they would stay in place on the plater. If it is done inccorectly then the balls just go flying off. I am sure that there is a lesson to be learned there. And I am also sure that at some point I learned it. But I can't remember, so it is all just good fun.

During the trip I ate some really good food. Rather than going into detail (I might Yelp! about it later) I will just list a couple of places

• Kenny and Zuke's
• Stumptown Coffee
• The Bijou Cafe
• Doug Fir Lounge 
• The Grilled Cheese Grill 

On the knitting scene I have not really made any progress. I am almost done with the first pattern on the Hanami sampler stole and I am just started the waist shaping on the Alice Top. Things are going slow. There is a secret project that i need to start ASAP. We will see.

NATURE

This weekend I went on my first post-boot trip. I took a day trip to lovely Point Reyes . The weather was good and I was in great company. Although

Point Reyes is beautiful they do give you warnings about the landscape. I know that the great part about nature is that its wild and free. But it still doesn't make you feel very good to know that you are running the possibility of falling do your death while you are trying to take a break from the city life. Well, I guess that it is a good thing that they warn you about the what may happen if you don't pay attention.

My favorite part of the 5.whatwever hike is that I was able to do some camera hunting. there w as tons of bunnies and quail everywhere. It was really fun trying to take a good picture of the fuzzy brown bunnies and plump little birds. The funny part about quail (aside from the fact that they eat stones) is that they will run for a longer distance than they fly. So in the end it was a lot easier to get a picture of one of the birds than it is to take pictures of rabbits. Rabbits are tricky because they will run down their rabbit hole even if you breath too hard in their direction.

Yes, you read correctly, I went on a hike that was about 5 miles long. It was a feat that I am pretty proud of. I know that 5 miles is not really that long of a hike, but for someone who fractured a toe and had to wear a boot for a month and a half any pain free distance is something to take joy in.

Oh! I would like to finally visit more National and State parks in Northern California. If anyone has any ideas of where I should go let me know!

Finally Spring is in the Air

Well, I got my boot off and the weather became nice enough for me to wear my flip flops. After having the boot for so long I am ready to go out and do things. Last weekend I actually put air in the tires of my bicycle and I took a little ride around the neighborhood. This weekend I wanted to go camping. But as some one pointed out to me, EVERYONE will be camping this weekend because it is a three day weekend. Ah well. With all of the great parks around I will hopefully go for a hike. For some reason I have a real urge to be in nature.

On the knitting front I have not been very good with completing projects. I am still working on the Alice Top, and I am also still working on the Hanami Stole (which I am failing at). But! I really wanted to make a baby gift for my very pregnant co-worker. After days of searching for baby hats and booties and jackets and all that cute baby stuff I got realistic: I only had a week to knit a present! So I decided to stick with hats . I made the two pretty little caps listed below. I got the patterns from the Chronicle Books "Hats Mittens and Scarves". I have owned this box of patterns for a number of years an I don't think that I ever made anything form it. My co-worker is having a girl but I didn't want to make anything that was super pink. She really liked the aviator cap because of its ears. These two bad boys used less than a skein of yarn. Woot Woot. If I had a little more time (or if I was more skilled) I would have made matching booties or socks. Awe well. Next time I know someone is having a baby I will do more planning ahead.

I hope to distract myself with yet another knitting project. Because the Alice top is so slow for me to work with I felt that it was alright to work on something that should be a little easier.I did some searching and mistakenly downloaded a couple of sweaters that looked like they should be of the top-down variety but were really done in pieces. Then I found this snazy number called Rusted Root. It's pretty and has a little bit of lace but it shouldn't make me want to tare my eyes out and bite my fingers off.

I got off of the horse when it came to GRE studying. My plan to take it in June will not happen. I guess maybe I should say that I will take it in September. What I should do is just schedule the test so that I have no choice but to take it. Wish me luck I guess.

I know that I am late in the game but I saw this and I just thought that it was super cool.

I am so good at self sabotage that I amaze myself!

So, some people who know me would say that I am accident prone. I would like to believe that not everyone thinks that I am, but if they do they are nice enough not to point it out. I would say that I am perfectly fine, but it seems that January/February of the past three years has resulted in me being incapacitated in some way: 2008, bike accident resulting in cracked elbow, 2009, pulled back muscle resulting in a few months of physical therapy, and now 2010 sudden fall in my apartment resulting in fractured metatarsal and boot for 4 - 6 weeks. So sad. So although I was hoping to start running this year I will have to put that on that back burner till this summer.

Some how the moth of April got a way from me. During the month of April I started to study for the GRE. Yes, I am interested in going to graduate school one day. My goal is to study for the GRE and take the exam this summer. That will be a big step towards applying. Yes it is true that some of the schools that I am interested in do not require GRE's but they are good to have when you are not sure about where you want to apply. I still like my job and my apartment so I wont be going anywhere soon but so far it looks like if I do get into graduate school I might be leaving San Francisco once again. If I am lucky I would get to move into a city otherwise I will have to finally learn how to drive. I think that it would be in everyone's best interest if I didn't have to learn how to drive. 

This month was also a big soup month but I forgot to take photos. This month I made a spicy pinto bean soup (from the Deborah Madison book that I mentioned in earlier posts) and a beef burgundy from Cooking Light Soup magazine. I forgot to take pictures So I will have to remember to do that next time that I make it.

Knitting has gone slow but well. There are not many projects that I have finished. I did finish my first pair of socks. I have also started a new sweater. It is a top down (not challenging) but it is a lace project (AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!). So this is taking a long time. I think that I might want to try to find a less challenging project but I should really finish these plus my other lace project.