Craft Fair and Craft Fatiuge

So, I have been lazy and I am not going to write about the Renegade Craft Fair. But I can say that I did have a lot of fun! There were a lot of cool vendors. Here is a list with links to their sites.

• Old Tom Foolery
• Urban Fauna
• Spincycle Yarns
• Feusty Elle
• Magnolia Photo Booth Co.

This weekend is the American Craft Council craft fair at Fort Mason. Tonight (August 14, 2009) they offer $5.00 after 5pm admission. So I think that I will attempt to get my lazy but over to Fort Mason. This should be a little more hardcore than the RCT. This seems to focus a lot on the rise of home crafts and innovative use of materials.

This month I am kind of out of it blogwise. There have been an number of changes around me that have distracted me. YARG!! Knitting has also suffered a little. I am almost done with the Victoria Yoke Pullover. I re-knitted the body of the sweater about five times and recently realized that I fudged up on one of the sleeves. i am at the point where I am pretty sure that I am just bored by the whole thing. I really want to finish it. I am afraid that it is going to be a little more snugg than I am comfortable with. Yep people I am committing a knitting sin: depending on blocking to solve all of my problems!!!!

There are now a number of other projects that I want to work on. Small yet challenging projects. Mittens, lace, slippers, hats. And well, I also have plans to make another sweater. I know that it is a bad idea to start one project before I start another, but sometimes you have to indulge in an urge. I would like to work on the Rosamund's Cardigan from Interweave Knits Fall 2009 issue. I think that it would be nice to work with some chunky/bulky weight yarn. I haven't done anything with chunky in a long time. Maybe I will make it in tweed? or a very light green? or blue? We will see.

One project that is going well are my socks. Well, one pair of my socks. I am at the cuff of my diagonal rib socks. I already have one completed and blocked. It took me a while to finish the short row heel. Although I am proud that I am making some pretty good progress, I am not sure if I am completely sold on the sock thing. I think that I might possibly like mittens more. Sure, mittens are just socks for the hands, but you get to use bigger needles (a lot of the time).

Brief Thought About Dating Blogs

I feel bad for people who write Dating blogs. not blogs where people give advise but where people talk about their own personal experiences. Usually a good dating blog involves lots of horror stories. Stories that might make you feel better about your own bad dates or lack there of. Although I enjoy a good share of them I realize that I feel bad for the bloggers when things start to go well for them. I notice that move of these types of bloggers stop once they have found themselves in a relationship that works for them. I understand why they would stop. I think that the best way to ruin a good relationship publicize every little detail. But when these bloggers decide to stop I always find myself wishing that they would find out something horrifyingly embarrassing about their new mate so that they would return to blogging.

This , I admit , is really bad. But because I always think that way I think that I will try to avoid talking about such things myself. If I did post more personal stuff my blog would be so strange. It would be all about food, knitting and dating. I guess that could work but I don't know if I can do it without seeming really cheesy... let me rephrase that. I don't know if I can do that without becoming more cheesy than I already am. But, saying that makes me wonder if my blog is just really boring. I don't even know if people read this thing. I have a feeling that there are just two people and one of them is me. Oh well. For some reason I feel that I should post about twice a month. So readers or no readers the writing and pictures will be put out there.


Oh! Soon I will write a post about the San Francisco second annual Renegade Craft Fair.

A cool video that was sent to me

My friend Jeff emailed this video to me and a whole bunch of other people. It took me a while to finally watch it, but I am sure glad that I did. Its a sweet and cool little music video.

About two weeks ago a friend from college came to visit me. I was happy to see her but also realized that it would provide me with ample time to be a tourist in my own city. There are many times when I think about things that I should do but just never has the time get to them. For example, I live about ten minutes away from the Golden Gate Bridge but I've only walked across it once... and that was about eight years ago.

There were two days when I played the happy tourist. We went to visit a couple of wineries in Sonoma and the next day we took a ferry to Alcatraz. I took about thirty pictures at each place. But like so many of the photos that I take most of them looked pretty much the same. So I narrowed down as much at I could to provide you all with a couple of slide shows.

The day that we visited Sonoma was great. The weather was in the eighties and there were barely any clouds in the sky. The cool stone buildings were a welcome escape from the hot sun. I am not a wine drinker but I was not disappointed. The great thing about Sonoma wineries is that you can find a lot of places that offer food tastings. So I got the opportunity to taste my share of cheese, olive oil and spreads. Another thing about Sonomoa is that each winery has its own personality. There are villas, country homes, and even barns. The one thing that is similar with each one is that by noon the tasting rooms are full of winos.



The next day there my friend and I went to Alcatraz. I once lived in full view of Alcatraz and never made my way out there. Mainly because most of the tours are very expensive. But if you go to the Alcatraz Island Official Site you only have to pay 26 dollars. Alcatraz has a very rich history for a tiny little island. It was first used as a military fort during the civil war, then as a prison, and occupied by Native American civil rights protesters and finally a part of the National Parks reserve. The prison was smaller than I had expected, but it defiantly does not seem like a place that you would want to stay overnight. There is a surprising amount of vegetation on the island. Much, if not all of it, was brought over by people who worked and lived on the island.



Side Knitting Note:
I am currently in the middle of two projects. I am still working on my Victorian Yoke Sweater. I am currently attaching a sleeve. I am currently having issues with the length. As things stand it currently sits right at my waist but I would prefer it longer. So I am trying to figure out whether or not I want to take out the bind off and make it longer or just block the SOB.

I am also working on a Mock Lace Sock. It is a cuff down pattern that is moving pretty quickly. I am also have issues with this project that i hope will fix themselves out during blocking.

Upgrading my updates?

hi there everyone. I am making this post from my phone i guess that you can say that I have been a little restless lately and the result is that I've gone further into the internet cave. i am just adding more and more to the matrix that well all call the net.

As you can see on the right side of the screen I opened a twitter account. I am still getting used to it but i think that the quick little entries will keep you up to date in between my actual posts.

So the most exciting thing going on is that my friend Adrienne is coming in town Wednesday! Yay!!! i haven't seen her in three years and now I have to show her a good time in my city. Luckily we have a working itinerary. I will take lots of pictures while I am touring around the city and I hope have a real nice post up at the beginning of next week

I was gone for a whole month, did anyone notice?

Hey there! So the month of May was a complete bust as far as blogging goes. I wish that I had kept on track for at least one post. Unfortunately finals always seem to get the best of me. Basically I would have made posts like "I only go home to sleep and brush my teeth" or "when is it going to end!!!" So I thought that it might be a good idea to just hold off on things for a little while. In May I took a number of "field trips" and I was smart enough to take my camera. I took pictures of a couple.

First I went to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose. If you ever find yourself in or near San Jose or you are taking an extended trip to the Bay Area I recommend taking a trip there. they have a very large collection of artifacts and replicas. It was funny because there were exhibit rooms that were sort of tucked away. So I wasn't really sure if I was supposed to be there or not. But since no one jumped out of any dark corners to usher me back to where I should be I strolled through anyway. I also went to 2009 Bay to Breakers. There were lots of variations of Swine flu costumes and floats. My favorite one is in the slideshow below. I was down by the end of the race. I think that it was a bit of a let down. I have a feeling that most of the fun people stopped way before mile 6. In May I also made a return trip to the California Academy of Sciences. Although I do have a membership there and I have even made one or two lunch time trips I still enjoy seeing all that they have to offer. I personally think that the best part is the planetarium but the aquarium is a close second.



At the very end of the month I went on a hike with two very good friends of mine. We went up to the Marin Headlands. It was a little chilly, and really gray but still beautiful. I think that I need to make my way out there again sometime during the summer.

Knitting-wise I have been pretty industrious. Not that I've done a great job finishing my work but I am working on some pretty nice projects. I am half way through with my pair if olive stripped socks. I am almost at the point where I do the ribbing on the body of my sweater. And I am working on a hat. I decided to the the Philadelphia Springtime hat. It is a nice pattern to work with. Right now it looks like I I am nowhere near done. But when I check the chart it appears that I am half way through. I think that i am just not used to working with lacy projects. I hope that it all works out when I block it.

I am not cool enough

Can someone please go to this website (MADATOMS) and tell me  what exactly it is. I know that it must be cool. It has to be... it looks like hipsters like it. I am just not cool enough to understand

. Oh wait... no... I figured it out. It actually is an ok site. Once you ge passed all the hipster glam.