a dillydallyknitter

Friday, January 01, 2010

Happy New Year! 2010!

Long time, no blog!

Some goals for this year:

1. Keep up with the Blog. Not that many people noticed I wasn't posting anymore but I do miss keeping it up to date.

"Umm, maybe they didn't miss you but I'm sure they missed us"


2. Organize my house and get rid of clutter and stuff I no longer need




3. Get healthy
What you laughing at? It could happen .

4. Knit stuff


Blankiemania has hit my local knitting gal gang (aka the Heathers). This was what they looked like last September--Mine's the one second from the bottom. Josie's is on the bottom row. Leftcoastknits is on the right (square one), Sunbny's is the upper left and knitpshycho was out of town but she has one too. Next time I'll post an update to show you what they look like now.

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posted by cpurl17 @ 6:31 PM   15 comments

Monday, June 08, 2009

Spinning at the Winery...2009

The problem with being a Bad Blogger is that you end up with stacked up things you want to blog about. First off, a week or so ago, Knitpsycho blogged about some Cotty socks she made out of Squoosh Fiber Arts Sportweight Merino/Cashmere/Nylon. Sadly they didn't fit her. But guess whose feet they did fit?

Mine! They're so comfy! I'm such a lucky girl!

On Saturday, I went to the annual Spinning at the Winery at Retlaff Winery in Livermore Valley. It was a lovely day spent hanging out with lovely people!

ceallach (holding a new treasure bought from Carolina Homespun, leftcoastknits and Josie

We sat, knit, spun, chatted and sipped delicious wine while being surrounded by vendors with tempting fiber goodness.

knitpsycho and josie share a laugh


The prize covered table with jars to put raffle tickets in. (I won 3 prizes!)


The weather was wonderful and there was a fantastic turn out. The man standing in the middle of the photograph is Will Taylor. Will, his wife, Kate and the members of the Treadles to Thread Guild host this event every year.

I brought my Liesl with me so I could sew on the buttons and have an official FO!
The vintage crystal buttons were purchased at the Antique fair a few weeks ago:


And, um, maybe this came home with me too.
Will Taylor is a talented craftsman, spinner and, once in awhile, sells used wheels.





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posted by cpurl17 @ 4:44 PM   17 comments

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

You've Seen a Million of These...

so I hope you can stand one more!

I finished my FLS on May 1st (May Day! May Day!) but she didn't have buttons until this past weekend when Josie, LeftCoastKnits, Knitpsycho and I went to Stone Mountain and Daughter in search of buttons.

I suck at self portraits. (psst..Make a note of the basket of make-up on the bathroom--it comes up later in the story).

Stone Mountain has a fantastic collection of buttons-don't believe me? Click HERE

After sorting through a gazillion buttons, I picked this one. I love the vintage-y feel.

Since I couldn't get a decent self portrait, here she is lying on the bed:


Pattern: February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Heavyweight, Jasper colorway
Needles: Size 7, Knitpicks options
Notes: I knit the yoke a size smaller than the body (and had to so some fancy math to figure it out) but its still came out a little too big.

It's warm here out west but our office AC has been on mega overdrive for the past week so I actually wore it to work today over a t-shirt and was quite comfortable. (Office AC is often on the cold side but it's been so cold we were showing up in our winter boots and sweaters and still freezing) Figures that this afternoon they finally adjusted it and I had to take it off so it goes in the drawer until Fall.

Now, remember the basket of make up on the counter in the first photo?

In case you wonder if the Gangsta Kitties have been behaving themselves, take a look what I found when I came home from work today:


WHO DID THIS?


"I'll never tell"

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posted by cpurl17 @ 7:47 PM   21 comments

Monday, May 11, 2009

"A-tisket A-tasket...

I Learned to Weave a Basket....

On Saturday, LeftCoastKnitter and I went to a basket weaving workshop at Knit One One Studio in Berkeley. (no, it wasn't underwater)


As you can see, we were the first to arrive. Our teacher had to run out and pick up the instructor, who was lost.



Knit One One Studio is filled with light and beautiful hand crafted items and friendly people. The owner, Sile, is a delightful woman and, if you're lucky, she'll have some delicious home made shortbread on hand.

In this workshop, we wove "Celtic hoop and rib" baskets, also known as "Appalachian Egg Baskets" (aka "buttocks" basket because it has a butt shaped bottom). I failed to get a photo of the teacher but her name is Carol Grant Hart and she lives in New England and has family in the Marin area. She was informative and interesting and quickly got us started shaping our "hoops". We all got to put our own stamp of individuality on our baskets by playing with the placement of the intersecting hoops, thus changing the handle length and shape of our baskets.

Next we worked on securing our hoops


The weaving created pockets in which we added more ribs.

The lengths of the ribs give the basket its bottom shape. The blue ribbon we tied on top to help us remember which half was the handle and which half was the bottom!



Time flew by and a few hours later we all had a good start!


Each basket had a slightly different shape.

(photo shamelessly stolen from LCK's blog)

And, after a few more hours of weaving at home, I had my own basket!


Basket weaving is so much fun and, like knitting, has a meditative quality as you weave the reed in and out. It's also a bit hard on the hands and you have to be careful with those long pieces of reed whipping around.

Hmm, and it's kitty size. Make sure you get my good side


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posted by cpurl17 @ 3:00 PM   15 comments

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Roller Girls Rule

At the beginning of the year, LCK and I decided that this would be the year of excellent adventures of trying something new. On Saturday night we continued our quest by picking up our friend R and going to the City to watch the Bay City Bombers Roller Derby at Kezar Pavilion.
R, me and LCK waiting for the fun to begin

These ladies are tough


Euw! Crack! Poor LCK had this view sitting in front of her.


Sudden death overtime results in victory lap for the Bombers



R. with a Bomber Girl



"I'm Cary, aka Cat-ATTACK"

Post event wrap up:

Q:Was it what you thought it would be? What was different?
A Cpurl didn’t realize it was co-ed (women skate one round and men skate one round) and it was less violent than she thought it would be. LCK thought some sort of ball was involved in the game. We both thought the crowd was great and having a great time. Neither one of us understood the rules. Cpurl also thought their uniforms would involve rhinestones, skirts and a beadazzler.

Q: How would you rate the souvenir stands?
A: Caps, t-shirts and buttons sold over fold up tables.

Kezar Pavilion was built in 1924 and has an old skool "high-school gym" look. The seats were all old wooden benches.

Q: What would be your Roller Derby name?
A: Cpurl: Purly Skates. LCK: Still thinking about it

Q: How would you rate the hot dogs/concession stands?
A: Hot dogs, aka “Derby dogs” were 4 on a scale of 10. No beer but probably a good idea in old gymnasium full of screaming fans.

posted by cpurl17 @ 11:00 AM   7 comments

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Catching Up

"Would it kill ya to post to your blog once in awhile?"


Well....not so much going on chez Cpurl. Work's been a little busy and my knitting mojo has been in a funk for awhile.


Making some progress on my February, March, April, May Lady Sweater. I looks like it's almost done but I started the left sleeve and noticed a mistake on the completed and bound off right sleeve. GAH!


It's hard to find but I know it's there so I have to rip back half of the right sleeve and re-knit it.


I loved knitting the body but the sleeves feel like a slog along. And the hank of yarn I wound to use for the sleeves (so I'd have one continuous length of yarn) has not one but two knots in it so far, ugh. But I really enjoy knitting with this yarn so I'll be forgiving.

BMFA Heavyweight in Jasper.

Hopefully I'll finish this soon so I can move on to something new! :)








L

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posted by cpurl17 @ 10:40 AM   12 comments

Friday, March 27, 2009

Hello Seattle!

Last week I went to visit my sister in Seattle.

And we were so excited.

On Sunday we rode the ferry to Bainbridge Island and I got to visit to Churchmouse Yarns & Teas. It was my first time driving a car onto a ferry boat and it was fun riding over.

They had a display of pretty Fair Isle sweaters in the shop window:

And the shop itself was adorable with friendly staff, eager to help.

Jamieson's Shetland dk wool was on 10% off so I picked out a few colors to (finally) attempt a fair isle tam or gloves.

decisions, decisions

We also went to see Hello Dolly at the historic and gorgeous 5th Avenue Theater in downtown Seattle. According the theater's website the "ornate interior was modeled after three of Imperial China’s architectural achievements: the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heavenly Peace, and the Summer Palace." This is a photo of the ceiling:



admit it, you really came to see ME


this is my good side


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posted by cpurl17 @ 9:37 AM   17 comments