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

6 Degrees of Eliza

So today at lunch I checked my blog reader and Dooce.com had posted something she ordered from Loobylu off etsy . My friend Kayla sent me Loobylu's blog awhile ago. The content of these two blogs are unrelated. And while I know that everyone these days shops on Etsy.com, Loobylu only has 49 feedback responses so its not a HUGE store (a very good one though). And Dooce resides in the States and Loobylu in Australia. So it got me thinking "That.... that is weird." This seems to happen a lot, where paths crossover. Most of the time its interest related and due to small town encounters, but here are my 6 degrees of Eliza (if you don't have time to read it all, at least read #6, I saved the best for last):

1) I had P.E. with a girl named Angie in Jr. High. She was super nice and we used to be lazy together during class. We went to high school together too, but we didn't talk or hang out. My sophomore year of College I am hanging out with some friends and then Angie shows up. We became good friends again. At the time I was also dating a guy named Conan, and Conan and Angie knew each other too. THEN....Angie's friend, Ann, lives literally 2 houses down from my Dad.

2) I was a girl scout for 10 years (ages 8-18). I didn't make a lot of close friends in my troop. And those last 4 years or so (embarrassed to be a girl scout in high school) we didn't have troop meetings. But right before we all went off to college, the 4 girl scouts remaining, have dinner and go around the table to say where we are going to college and what we are going to study. I said "UTA and architecture" and so did Alicia. We had all of our classes together and we became best friends and roommates. Funny it took 10 years!

3) Went to college with a girl named Ginny. She was from Cleburne. And my half sister, that I did not grow up with, also lived in Cleburne so I thought I would check. Yep turns out Ginny is good friends with my half-sister's brother.

4) Met my current boyfriend, Justin, at my first job in Dallas. He also went to the same university as me but I didn't know it until we started working together. Found out he was friends with Marcus, who I had a sustainability class with. Moved to LA to live with Justin and Marcus, find out Marcus and I graduated at the same high school together.

5) The only 2 authors whose whole collection of work that I own are: David Sedaris and Jhumpa Lahiri. Their writing has nothing in common. I come across a commentary by David Sedaris stating that one of his favorite writers is Jhumpa Lahiri. The are both incredible and wildly famous, no suprise there, but # 6 is WILD...

6) During my first job in Dallas I enter a competition. I need help learning about Sao Paulo so I contact a professor, Jessie Marshall, because she is a knower of all things South American. She tells me to call Eurico Franscisco. I meet up with Eurico Franscisco at his very large office of RTKL architects. He is incredibly interesting, gives me a fabulous book and tells me he knows my boss Jorge Gonzales. Fine...dandy...this is all in the same city. THEN...I move out to LA, work for 2 years and tell my LA boss, David Reddy, that I am moving to Chicago. David's wife, Betty, works for Westfield and sets me up with an Interview in Chicago. I get to Chicago, have my interview with a guy named Mike. Mike says he worked for RTKL in Dallas. The ONLY person I know that worked at RTKL is Eurico Francisco, so I say "The only person I know from there is Eurico Franscisco and he gave me a great book." Mike in Chicago says to me "You mean that book that's right behind you?" I turn around and there is the book! THEN he tells me that Eurico is in Chicago on business that very day and that they are having dinner together that night. HOW WILD IS THAT? From school, to Dallas, to LA, to Chicago. Whew...

Anyway I doubt that anyone read all of this post. But I think from time to time I will use my blog space to record memories, even if it bores you all. I think its great, you can't lose your blog like a piece of paper, the ink never fades and you can access it from anywhere. If you have any six degrees of separation stories I would love to hear them. They are fun and hard to follow, kind of like word problems.

Fingerless Glove Pretties

Aren't these just fun? It only took me a few hours to do these. I bought the pattern here. I might even make some more. I really liked the yellow ones she has in her store, but I couldn't find any nice yellow yarns. But the turqoise/mint is really cute. I even got to wear them today, since it was in the 40's this morning.

To Frog...

Yep so I am officially frogging the ripple blanket. Starting over, going to try replacing the orange with an off-white. It will be more girly but I am ok with that. So the color palette will be more like this since I already have a ton of purple and red. I am super depressed about restarting, but hopefully I will be more in the mood to work on it once I switch the colors out. So question....Should I 1) restart and throw what I have away? 2) Unravel and wind and then restart? I know its wasteful to toss all that yarn in the garbage. But unraveling will take me at least a week! Feedback please.

Realizations

Since I have been absent I figured I throw some realizations in here (I'll start bitter and end optimistic):

1) Why is it that only American women are pickpocketed? In Europe the only people you ever hear screaming after their bag are American women. Come on ladies!!! Protect those bags!

2)Wanna know what makes a city a great? Pedestrian only streets. There is an art festival outside my apartment this weekend. They have shut the street down and I wonder why it can't be like this everyday?

3) Earlier this week something died in our elevator and was really smelly. Today it smelled like a hair perm!

4) Why is it that America loves to watch people dancing, but they don't like to dance themselves? Come on and shake your booty on the dance floor!

5) I thank the people who don't follow the rules of fall clothing colors, I saw a woman the other day wearing a magenta coat and carrying a bright green umbrella. She stood out from all the blah neutrals like myself and made everything seem so beautiful and surreal.

6) I am a season ticket holder of the Joffrey Ballet this season!!!!

7) I owe my desire to learn to crochet to Amanda Hutt and possibly a random girl crocheting on a bus in Turkey.

8) Yoga really works for stress.

9) The easiest 3 miles you will ever run is when there is a show choir performing on the sidelines.

10) My dog has super cute toes! See photo!