Archives for June 2010

that I will probably rarely wear.

Sadly, I'm just not happy with it. I've taken a few pictures, and trust me, it looks optimal in these. You might leave nice comments that it looks fine, yadda yadda, but truly, these are the best of the bunch. The fit isn't right, and I just don't know how to adjust it so that it is. I might be almost ready to give up (after wearing it for a couple of days and not liking how I felt in it):

Specs:

Pattern: Lace Wrap Sweaterbabe #112

Yarn: Brooks Farm Mas Acero

Needles: US 7

I love the yarn –gorgeous, drapey stuff. And I like the IDEA of the pattern. It just didn't really work on me. Honestly.

But I can still grab a cat when necessary:

And hold it, too:

 

See, the problem is it slides off my shoulders at just the wrong times. And when fastened differently (it won't just hang open, not on my frame), it makes my hips look HYOOGE:

Those are not my hips! I don't know what they are!

 

Hello, WTF with the break in color at the mid-tricep? I have no idea.

Now, I have normal body issues about normal body parts, but one thing I'm sure of is this: my hips are not too big. Nor would I mind if they were. I'd love to take some padding off other parts and put it on my hips. This sweater is lying, and I don't like untrustworthy sweaters.

I'm not pleased. But that's okay. There is more yarn in the world, and I have some of it. More to follow.

And just for fun, you know you're in the Bay Area when a guy is up a pole…

 

…with his desk.

 

Oh, Albany Bulb, I love you.

Did you know about this? I can't wait. It's at Splash Pad Park (across the street from the Grand Lake theater) this Sunday, June 27th 10am-4pm. There's an article about it here, and I'll be there from noon to three, signing The Book. I'd love to see you, and I think it's going to be an awesome event.

(PS – Fiber festival! Oakland! Just when I thought I couldn't love Oakland any more than I did.)

You guys.

I have big news. BIG. 

From yesterday's Publisher's Marketplace:

Rachael Herron's KNITTING IN THE ROUND, a memoir in essays about the ways in which knitting defines the milestones of her life — from surviving a typhoon, to marrying the love of her life, to grieving for her mother's death, to Jodi Warshaw at Chronicle, for publication in Fall 2011, by Susanna Einstein at LJK Literary Management (World excl. UK/AUS).

 

Um. Yes. I am SO excited.

<cartwheel>

Okay, pretending like that huge news up there doesn't exist, let me go on and say that I had a marvelous weekend, and you all should get up right now and plan on making a trip to San Luis Obispo, on the Central Coast of California, because it just become a Yarn Mecca.

First, there was Yarns at the Adobe. Owned by the lovely Anne, they hosted me on Friday for a reading, and it was so much fun. Lots of knitters, as well as my favorite high school English teacher (and I had lunch with my favorite college professor, so it felt very circular and awesome). And this gorgeous yarn store is located in the second oldest building in SLO-town, the adobe across the street from the Mission, and on the huge back patio is a real adobe stove…

…in which they cooked many pizzas, which cooked in UNDER A MINUTE in there. And then Anne fed them to the many awesome knitters. WIN.

Also: Are you ready for this? You know Garnstudio? Yes, that one, that makes the wonderful free DROPS patterns? They now have a real brick and mortar store: Nordicmart. In San Luis Obispo. Their yarns really are the most GORGEOUS colors, and should I really even start with how affordable they are? It is truly worth the trip — to be able to feel and touch yarn that you won't see anywhere else. Beautiful, lovely yarn.

(Photo lifted from their FB page with thanks.) 

Seriously. My sister and I hit it just hours after it opened on its first day (Saturday), right before we got on the road home. I believe I rhapsodized about the store for the next 75 miles, and I've done the same periodically since. I have more to say about it here than I did for my new book deal.

NEW BOOK! OOOOH!

Yarn is good.

mean to get me one of those shiny FAQ things. Now I have one.

My friend Esther has this in the front yard of the house she's currently renting. HAHAHAHA. Seriously, if I had this in my front yard, I would laugh every time I came home.

Instead, we have grass. I hate that grass. In our familial division of labor, it has fallen to us that Lala does most of the work in the back yard (BUT I DO THE TOMATOES I LOVE THE TOMATOES DON'T TOUCH THE TOMATOES) and I do the front yard.

Well, we have a gardener now. Or gardeners, rather.

I never thought we would. I thought we'd kill the lawn somehow and put in veggie beds or desert/native plants (we live in a hot zone of Oakland), or that I'd just keep mowing it with the gas-powered lawn mower I bought four years ago on Craigslist. It was the worst mower in the world and always took more than a hundred pulls to get it started, but it worked once it was running.

Then the mower died. And wonderful, perfect, best-of-all neighbor Sam moved (we are still in mourning). After the mower gave up, Sam would have pity on us every once in a while and do the front yard for us. We gave him huge hugs in return, which weren't enough, but it was all we could think of (besides giving his tinkering son our spare screws and loose bolts — Sakai loved making things). But after his family left, the grass just got higher and higher until the tallest weeds springing from the evil bermuda grass reached past my waist. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.

One day last month, I lost it. I drove around my neighborhood, looking for gardeners. When I found a team working nearby, I asked them to come over. They did the work in about fifteen minutes, mowing, trimming the edges, cutting back the camellia bushes, and weeding the flower beds (without pulling up the flowers). The loveliness of it all almost made me cry.

So now we are People With Gardeners. I never thought I'd say that. (Now, People With Housecleaners, YES. I'm living for the day we can afford that. I would hire a person to come in every day and scoop the litter, I swear to God. I hate that chore so much.)

But it's so nice to come home to. Nicer, I think, than that mower above, but I'm not sure, because that is HYSTERICAL.

And in the back, I've ripped up my square-foot garden and put in tomatoes and basil and some squashes and beets. This is what it looked like earlier this month:

That foxglove and those greens were taller than I was. A rainy winter and some sun made them shoot right up. I can't believe how well plants do in those little short boxes. Lala has done a ton in the yard — you should see the glass bricks she liberated from her father and made into a border. I'll show those another day.

Gardening. I like it. I should do more of it, in fact. (We need salad greens! Note to self to plant some!)

I know, it's been all mom all the time around here. We're missing her a lot this time of year. It's her birthday today and in a week or so it'll be the 2nd anniversary of her death.

Bethany dug out some great pictures for us, and I found one I've never posted here (of knitterly interest! It still exists 'round here!).

You already know the story of the sweater of hers I replicated just before she died? Here I am wearing it:

And here she is in hers:

What a great shot, huh?

All is well here; we celebrated nephew Isaac's first birthday and Lala's *mumble* birthday. Big parties, raucous celebration, Isaac and Lala both had their first beers (just kidding! It wasn't his first!).

Lala got a super-cool fanny pack hip holster that she's been dying for, and she's pretty happy with it. I'm stealing my sister's photo again, since I haven't dealt with my pics yet:

And I had a touch of stomach flu. But it was brief, and I'm all better.

(Gah. I feel like lately I come here and just put up pictures and tell you what I've been doing. Where is the introspection? The deep thoughts? The carefully crafted intricate lines between meaning and emotion? I ain't got none of that here lately, and I hope you don't mind. I feel rather pulled in quite a few directions lately, all of them good, but I hope you don't think we're losing touch, because we're not. We're as close as ever. MWAH! And OH GOD, you don't know the best news. I got a portable air conditioner that I can move between the bedroom and the office. I might survive summer after all.)