The Culprit

So I mentioned I have been in a knitting slump lately. Well I thought I should share why. I have started this scarf 4 times now. I get to row 16 and the number of stitches are incorrect. I think it's a nice beginning though. Once again, I found this pattern on the purl bee. You can click to see what it should look like if I ever finish it.

Not much else going on, besides a couple of secret projects I am working on. I might start something new today because its grey outside and football is on. I am dreaming of sushi and Texas these days. I can't wait to be home with family and friends. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Cold Weather Realizations

First snow December 2009

Since this is my second winter in Chicago, I thought I would share my cold weather realizations with my friends from the south. Some of these I really didn't know until I moved here.

1) The only thing worse than a slow person walking in front of you in 7 degree weather, is 2 slow people walking in front of you in 7 degree weather.

2) In case I haven't mentioned it here before, I realized when I moved here that boogers and eye mucous CAN freeze.

3) How does a vegan live in a cold climate? All the warm stuff includes: down, wool, angora, leather. I guess they fleece it up. I have never seen a dressy fleece though....

4) Chicagoans think that setting their thermostat to 65-68 in the winter and the summer is ok. Totally NOT ok.

5) Snow really does glisten :)

6) My dog has excellent slush vision. I will see snow and step on it only to find out its a layer of snow covering a puddle of water. Mona however does not have this problem. She can tell it's slush from 20 feet away. If I could only bring Mona to work in the mornings. Of course slush won't be here again until April or May, as its completely turned to ice now.

7) Shoveling snow is a daily activity here for anyone who owns a house or car. If they miss a day, you will surely hear about it. People have to keep a shovel in their car. And I hear that if you shovel out a parking space then there is a rule about placing a piece of furniture there to hold the space until you return. If you shovel it, its yours. I, of course, do not have this problem as I own nothing except the items in my apartment.

8) It is possible for your car to be ice enclosed, leaving you stranded without a car.

9) Main roadways are completely snow free, but still white in the winter due to the salt. And salt ruins shoes and pant hems. Alley ways are full of snow and look like Narnia. I prefer them!

10) It gets A LOT colder after it snows

11) No matter how many days in a row you see snow falling, its always beautiful.

Slippas for my Sista....in-law

So I am 99% sure that my sister-in-law does not read my blog, so it's safe to post the gift I made for her here. They are really cute, I want some for me. I bought the pattern off etsy from Adventures of Jessica Rose.

I cannot say these were easy to make. I am in a crochet/knit slump right now (if you didn't notice due to lack of posting). I will work something up and then tear it apart. And my stash has got me really down. I feel like I shouldn't buy anymore yarn until I get rid of it all. But its all so uninspiring. I just needed some inspiration....AND I think it might have arrived. Winter is here! Thursday morning its supposed to get down to -6 degrees. Holy Moly! Hopefully my blog will be full of posts in the months to come!!!

Issac's Hat post #2

My friend's, Maria and Ron, sent a photo of their son Issac wearing the hat I made for him last year. He is so adorable....right? He loves that guitar. I saw a video of him rocking out with that guitar. He could be a very talented performer one day.

Vacationers who stare at Goats

After seeing the movie, Men who Stare at Goats, I was reminded of my own goat experience in Ios, Greece of Summer 2008. We were lying on Manganari beach, when all of sudden....

Bobble Beagle Cowl

I decided on Sunday to make myself some boot warmers because its getting colder by the minute here. So I am crocheting along and what do you know I have semi-circle. That's what you get for crocheting during an episode of Fringe. So... what do we have here? A beagle cowl of course! Thanks Mona for being such a great model (that was the least blurry photo I could capture). I am considering knitting or crocheting a body to attach it to. But she doesn't look very thrilled as is. I am thrilled, however, for finally working my way through a stash of blah orange yarn that I bought last year before I learned about specialty yarns. Still have lots left, better get to making those boot warmers.

"Bobble" is the stitch I used.. in case you were wondering about the title.

For those who want to know how to do this bobble stitch:

dc 5 in same stitch, leaving one loop on hook per dc (pull through first 2 loops after the first yo and then pull through one loop the second yo leaving a loop on the hook). After completing 5 of these you should have 6 loops on hook. yo and pull through all stitches remaining on hook. finish by slip stitching.

I've been lazy, sorry the photos still have a halo. I will send it off soon.

Fingerless Gloves # 2

Wearing my fingerless gloves to work made my co-worker say "Ooh I want some of those." Hi Jen!

She requested light yellow and grey. I used bigger buttons this time, because the last ones were too small and didn't stay buttoned.

This is just one glove, I lost 3 buttons on my way home from the craft store or while I was IN the craft store, so I have to go buy some more. I hope they have the same ones :)

PS- I am sending my camera in for sensor cleaning tomorrow, so hopefully it will fix my grainy/blurry photo problems.

PSS-Yay! My dumb ass just figured out how to hyperlink today!

PSSS-Happy Sunday!

Birthday Cake

It was Justin's Birthday yesterday and I didn't buy anything for him (bad girlfriend) but...

This is the birthday cake I baked from scratch using this recipe

It turned out pretty yummy. The decor was leftover from decorations I made last Christmas. I just colored some of the leaves orange.

And the beautiful card was designed by my bestest friend Kayla. She is truly an artist!

Hope you had a wonderful birthday Justin!

xoxo,

Eliza

Crafting Fred and Daphne

I was one of those who waited until the last minute to make my Halloween Costume. This year we decided to go as Fred and Daphne from Scooby Doo. Here are the pieces I added to our everyday clothes (well they are new clothes, but I can wear them again). I only had to make the cuffs, the stripes and the scarves, but for some reason it took me all day with changing the thread and technical difficulties with my sewing machine.

But here we are as Fred and Daphne! We saw Velma and Shaggy on Halsted St. just after the Parade, and right before we got home we saw Scooby Doo (a man dressed as Scooby Doo that is).

Chicago is pretty fun for Halloween, people go all out. People (Adults included) were wearing their costumes at 3pm. For some reason burritos were a popular costume this year. I walked by Chipotle and saw in the storefront: three men dressed as burritos eating burritos and they were not Chipotle employees. I also saw a newborn burrito at the party we attended. She was wrapped in a metallic blanket and had a knit had with paper lettuce, beans and tomatos taped on.

Looking for a book

So at the end of work today we started talking about different countries, cultures, ethnicities and races. All very confusing stuff for me. I have been discussing this topic with many Americans since my freshman year in college.

I was saying that I knew a Guatemalan girl who looked Asian, but did not claim Asia whatsoever as a nationality, race or heritage. She was born and raised in Guatamala, her mother tongue is Spanish and she participates in Guatemalan culture. A co-worker said Asian is her "ethnicity." And I had to ask myself once again "What is ethnicity?" Or do I even know what that means? Does a person decide what their ethnicity is? Or do people decide the ethnicity of someone based on they way they look and if so is this what "race" is? I am not sure myself.

A couple of other examples:

I worked with a girl from Jamaica and she said people would always refer to her as "African American" and she didn't like it because she wasn't American, she was Jamaican. So is her ethnicity African even though she identifies with Jamaican Culture?

Friends from Spain were here filling out paper work which asked their race/ethnicity and she asked me "Do I check caucasian? or Do I check hispanic? She is whiter than me (as most Spaniards are, even though people do not believe me) and she speaks Spanish but it is not her mother tongue. If you google ethnic groups of Spain they list Basque, Catalan, Galician, etc. So within each country there ethnic groups that Americans don't even refer to. Hi Anna!

What race/ethnicity are people from Brazil? I know they have a lot of ethnicities within their own country. But to the American, what ethnicity is a Brazilian? The national language is portugeuse, they have many natives (indigenous), blacks, and are surrounded by a largely (hispanic?) population. I put a question mark next to hispanic, because what is Hispanic? I think that Brazilians living in American are often referred to as "Latino" or "Hispanic" but I think this may be incorrect as they do not speak Spanish and their ancestors are not from Spain.

What is my race/ethnicity? My great Aunt has a family tree/recipe book that says my great great great grandfather is Moroccan. My dad's family comes from Poland, France, Ireland, and Russia. But those are all nationalities...can they be ethnicities too? Or can I reach further and have an ethnicity from all the Countries listed? Or since I don't identify with those countries, am I without Ethnicity? Is my ethnicity "American" because I largely identify with American culture? Or is it just my nationality?

What about natives from Mexico that don't speak Spanish but rather the Indigenous languages such as Nahuatl. Are they Hispanic? Language lesson: Nahuatl is the language where words like "Chipotle" and names like "Xochitl" come from. NO Chipotle is NOT Spanish.

Anywho, if anyone knows a good book they can recommend, send it my way. The web is no help. I need something serious, not just blogs. This is one giant question and not intended to hurt anyone. I don't have sited sources, and this is not a literary masterpiece...just my own random questions.

Thanks for reading. Crafting to come.

No crying over dropped stitches

I am knitting up a rather large project right now and I am about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way done without any mistakes. Then tonight I totally goofed it up. It seems that I am clumsy on Sundays. I should just sit and watch TV and not do anything else. For the last 3 Sundays I have succeeded in hurting myself and messing up my crafts. It all started 3 weeks ago. I was walking the dog and fell on my back and injured my tailbone. That night I went home to knit a scarf and messed something up (still haven't fixed that one). Then last Sunday I started to do 1x1 ribbing on a Knit Only blanket then proceeded to burn my fingers to a blister (couldn't knit myself into any mistakes after that). This weekend I popped some ligament out of socket to get around some trick or treaters and came home to drop some stitches. I literally almost cried, started to frog it and I believe (cross fingers) that I have inserted my needle correctly and have saved the project (hallelujah).

But this further confirms I need to take a knitting class. I have learned quite a lot from the web but there are mistakes that I cannot describe to google to get me the answers I need. But there are so many classes I need to take...I wish they had sampler classes like you have when you're a kid. I would take Knitting, Spanish, Yoga and Dance. It could be like 2 hours and you get 30 minutes of each. Perfect.

When I fix all my mistakes in the past week, I will post them. Halloween costumes are on my list this week...stay tuned!

Brown Hat

It's officially hat season in Chi-town, so Justin requested another hat. Pattern found here.

I modified it by doing 11 rounds for Justin's head and adding one black stripe using single crochet front loop only.

Mona is looking at me like "Where is my hat? And why are you on the internet when you should be walking me?" Must walk that beast! Hope everyone's weekend was as nice as mine!

Celebrity encounters

Another memory entry! I never thought I would be interested in celebrity sitings...but its pretty fun. Shallow post...I know! But I saw the following celebrities during my 2 year stay in LA:

1) Robert Downey Jr. at the Rose cafe in Santa Monica.

2) Orlando Bloom at Runyon Canyon

3) Skipper from Sex and the City on Abbot Kinney

4) Joshua Jackson on Abbot Kinney

5) Jamie Lee Curtis at Euro Grocery Market

6) David Spade on Abbot Kinney

7) Dog the Bounty Hunter + Wife on Venice Boardwalk

8) Cheryl Hines on Santa Monica Promenade

9) Chris Klein at French Market Cafe in Venice

10) Owen Wilson on Abbot Kinney\

*Updated (Thanks Alicia)

11) Nathan from Heroes at a play he directed at the Geffen in which Justin's uncle and friend were doing the set design. I actually met Nathan (aka Adrian Pasdar) but he was kind of a douche.

12) Umm... if it counts, I went to a screening of Hot Fuzz at the Hammer Museum and Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and the director had a Q&A.

13) Also if it counts, one of our clients was Thom Beers (director of all things History/Discovery Channel) and I helped in turning the famous "Monster Garage" into editing bays.

14) Oh yes, I attended High School with Michael from Barney.

Man shallow posts are fun!!!!

I'm sure there are more so I will update this post as I remember them. Anyone else have celebrity sitings?

Oooh....I also saw Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, and bumped into Woody Harelson (he is short) all on the same night at Martini Ranch in Dallas.

K1P1 tip

In the case that any new knitters should come across my site, I wanted to share a tip I have just learned. I am a new knitter myself. I am much better at crochet and I am used to the counting you find in crochet patterns. I even count in simple crochet patterns because that is just how I learned. The first time I tried a Knit 1 Purl 1 ribbing project, I tried counting because I thought it would help me. But DO NOT COUNT!!! Some advanced knitters might disagree with my advice.

First I tried counting...one, two, one, two

Then I tried counting...knit, purl, knit, purl

Neither worked and I ended up with a lot of mistakes.

So....the best advice I can give is:

1) Start with a small project

2) Just get used to the ribbing rhythm

3) Watch a television show and try to forget that you are knitting

4) Learn what a knit and purl stitch look like, in case you do need to stop and restart

Crocheted Canister

I had some wool yarn that I accidentally bought, MEANING I bought it without a project in mind. That is illegal from now on, because I am running out of yarn stash space. So since it was wool, I set out to try a felting project. Felting failed! I don't own my own washer/dryer so I tried the stove top boiling method and it didn't work for me. I think maybe a special felting wool is the trick, I bought wool of the standard variety.

I had made a Pink canister. I liked the way it turned out. Now to find a use for it! It's out of my stash, but now I need to find shelf space for it.

This is not a pattern by any means, but if you want to try and replicate it, here's how I went about it:

1) Crocheted a flat circle using single crochet

2) Crocheted a tube using single crochet

3) Single crocheted the 2 pieces together.

4) Blocked it using a cookie jar with the hard edge bottom on the outside