I Got Skills – 2KCBWDAY2

“Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?”

I have tried many new techniques this year. The following are a couple that I enjoyed.

Stranded Knittng

This time last year I was finishing up my Dale of Norway Vancouver sweater. Stranded colorwork was new to me. I had always admired DoN sweaters. When I saw the Olympic sweaters, I just had to do it. I learned so much from that project. I steaked for the first time and guess what, I didn’t ruin the sweater. I had to have my mom’s support to cut that 8 inches of knitting but both me and my sweater survived.

Lace shawls
An awesome person introduced me to shawls. It started out with Traveling Woman. Then I moved onto Brandywine. I’m planning on Haruni. I love seeing the pattern develop. I especially love being able to read the lace.

Crochet
A long time ago my mother tried to teach me to crochet. It did not make sense to me. At knit group we have a even ratio of knitters to crocheters. They rubbed off on me and I decided to pick up a hook again. I’ve been mainly doing dishcloths but the stitches make sense to me now. I am planning some bigger crochet projects in the year. I am loving my rediscovered craft.

A tale of two yarns

Comparing two yarns is a very hard thing to do. So many senses go into the yarn experience. Do you like the color? Is it nice to work with? Does the finished garment feel good on the skin? Does it taste good with steak? Just kidding on the last one. Some times one sense rules out all the rest when it comes to yarns I purchase and eventually use. The two yarns I’m comparing both have one sense that stands out and makes it the best yarn for me.

Sense of touch
Lobster Pot Yarns Laceweight Cashmere Cape Sky

My first cashmere. It holds a special place in my heart. In July 2010 I went to New York with my boyfriend for a weekend birthday celebration. It was the World Cup finals and my boyfriend wanted to watch the game. I on the other hand wanted to explore so I headed out on my own. I took the subway down to Purl Soho where I was able to walk into the great store and peruse the gorgeous yarn. This cashmere caught my eye. I decided that this will be New York souvenir. I believe the employee said that the yarn was exclusive to their shop, an even better reason to get it.

I look at this yarn in my stash often. I touch it to feel its soft wonderful fibers. I might have just found the perfect project for it. The haruni shawl with beads. I want to start working with it. Its just sad for me to see it sitting there when it could be around my next keeping me warm in this cool weather my neck of the woods has been going through.

Easy on the eyes

Noro Kureyon Sock

I’m pretty sure Noro gets beat up all time for being rough and not fun to play with. I just really love the colors. The first time I worked with Noro was on an entrelac purse. The colors were amazing. Then they came out with their sock line. I just had to have some. I’m still not very good with fiber content and knowing what it the best ratio for socks. I bought a couple of skiens at a lys sale and decided to take a shot at some beautiful socks. I casted on for the Ziggy sock. This was not a good decision at all. They turned out pretty but are horrible to wear.

Just a couple of months ago I decided I was going to work through my sock yarn stash. There I found another skein. Being burned once by a pair of socks, I decided to go for a shawl. I started an entrelac shawl knowing I really want to work with the strength of the yarn. Well, I have put this project down and can’t get motivated to work on it again. I really think its going be frogged and turned into the sunflower satchel but I’m still thinking that through.

Both of these yarns have given me problems in their project selection. I have had a really hard time finding a project for the cashmere since I want something that could match the beauty of the yarn. For the Noro I want something that will show off the colorway but not scratch me when I wear it. Hopefully the will soon find a happy home in my finished object collection.

Walking start

I have never been a morning person. I do not look forward to waking up before 10 am on the weekend. Something has changed in me. Since the time change 2 weeks ago I have been waking up at the horrible hour of 5 am. The thing that has changed though is that I’m looking forward to getting up. I have dedicated this extra hour in my day to my health. The first week was dedicated to stretching to help my back get into better shape. This week I have been walking every morning. The original purpose for the walking was to train for the 5k I am doing in April. I had procrastinated in starting my training with every excuse I could think of and the last couple of weeks I have been and threw out my back. I have a month and this early morning routine is working.

The crazy thing that has come out of my early morning routine is that I have been feeling better throughout the day. The walking gives me a running start to my day.

On another note, I am participating in the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2011. I’m hoping this will get me blogging more. If it doesn’t, it still sounds like fun.

New week

I woke up two hours earlier for due to the time change and new modified work schedule. It was great driving in to work without the sun blinding me. I did end up with this wonderful gift, the orange and purple sky above the blue mountains.

The beautiful scene leading me to work helped put my mind at ease. I have been off work for week, an unplanned week at that. The voicemails weren’t as bad as expected and the inbox was not at capacity. The picture of the sunrise this morning reminds me everything will be ok.

“Rise, rise and shine, shoes on again its time.” – Sunparlour Players – If the Creeks Don’t Rise

Week 1 wrap up

The first week on weight watchers had some ups and downs. The first part of the week was awesome. I got to work out 3 days in a row then life interfered. I started going to ducks games and taking care if other obligations. I had less time to work out. For the food part of the program I did really well until Friday. Thursday I avoided all the sweets outside my cubicle for the celebration of bosses day. I must have used all my will power that day since I basically went all out and went to a pizza buffet and ate in n out on Friday. The only good thing to come out on Friday was that I got to jog that night.

The next week I ended up making 4 cakes and only having a piece from one of them.

On the non-ww front I was able to finish my two pairs of socks for socktoberfest.

The first day of the rest of my life

Today I made the commitment to live a healthier life. I have had too many health issues lately that a person my age should not be having. I’m just frustrated every time I go to the doctor and get diagnosed with a new issue. This motivation is coming from within me and this is the first time that has happened. This isn’t so I can look hot for my boyfriend (that is just an added bonus). At this point its not even guaranteed I will even lose weight (cortisol levels are high). My goal is to just eat better and take care of myself.

I have a basic plan on how to live better. I have gone back to Weight Watchers. I had great success with it a few years ago and kept the weight off for a while but it just crept back. I am back to belly dancing at least once a week. I am considering doing something like couch to 5k but that will come. The next part I need to work on is relaxing more and not letting stress get to me. I have not figured out I’m going to tackle that.

Day 1 down so many more to go.

Butch Walker at the El Rey

This post is brought to you by the artist Butch Walker.

Actually I saw him last night with the Black Widows at the El Rey. I’ve seen Butch Walker more times than I count but I take each experience like its the last time I will ever get to see him since when I first got into him, it seemed like he would never play in LA or the show would sell out.

Yesterday was no different. Every show is different, whether its the banter or a new cover, he never disappoints. I haven’t fully fallen in love with the new album but I haven’t had “love at first listen” with his albums for a while. Eventually that album gains full acceptance and can be placed in the secret place with the rest of my favorite albums where I can listen to it when the moment is right. Every album is a soundtrack to another part of my life.

Butch delivered an excellent show. Pink came out and performed “Here comes the heartache”. He played songs from the last 3 albums, “Cigarrette Lighter Love Song”, and covered Hall and Oates. If you ever get a chance to see him live, do it! I love the new songs live.

For some reason Fran Capitanelli always puts a smile on my face. Maybe its because he rocks the Parros ‘stache

Baking fun

Made a Marble Cake with chocolate glaze. It was from the Cake Doctor book (Cake Doctor Blog). The cake was pretty good and moist. I would change the glaze. I have never been able to get this glaze to not have clumps in it. Maybe I’ll search the interweb for a new glaze.

Sugar cookies flooded with royal icing. They taste good. I think this was the first time I have done royal icing in a year. I really liked the swirly effect I got on some of the cookies.

My other recent baking was for Melissa’s birthday.

I made chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with peanut butter frosting Recipe. I have fallen in love with the frosting. The cupcake was a little dry.

A Week In Pictures

I have made it through the first week of photo 365. I have been good about taking pictures but bad about uploading them. Here is a run down of my first week of pictures.

Broken Betty:

This is my boyfriend’s cup.  It looks so sad with a chip in it but serves a purpose of holding change instead of coffee.

Butch Walker

This is live from the Hotel Cafe. He is my favorite musician and I got to see him at my favorite venue. This will become a full blog post when I get flickr situated.

Autumn Cake

This was my latest cake creation. It is a  Chocolatetown Special Cake from the Hershey’s website. It is actually the first cake I created from scratch. This is also the first time I have worked in Marzipan. This cake is my favorite of all the ones I have created.

Chilli trophy

I won “Favorite Chilli” at my jobs 1st annual chilli cookoff. I was a collaboration between mine and my grandma’s chilli. She was so excited to hear we won.

Creative people

This is from the Gypsy Tolers annual sale. The members do decorative painting on different mediums. It’s talent I do not have.

Chocolate Pumpkin

Too much chocolate, still having Halloween Hangovers…

Domo

This is more about the coffee that was in the Domo cup. It’s a Monday, so I needed my cup of coffee to get through the day. It just happened to be in a totally cool cup.

Year in Pictures

“Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.” -
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Throughout my life I have been impressed with the lesson to appreciate the world around me. As I have gotten older, living in this 100 mph world, I forget to stop and smell the roses.

I have decided to challenge myself to appreciate the little things in life. I am going to take on Photo 365 or a Year in Pictures. I will be taking pictures everyday so that I can capture what is going on in my life and the world around me.

My first day was November 8, 2009. There is no significance to that date. I just wanted to start. I will be going back and forth between single post and weekly digest depending on how interesting the photos are.

I hope you will join me on this trip through the next 365 days (actually 363) of my life in photos.