Front And Center

I've got this professor I really enjoy who has admired my knitting. (I knit in class.) I not-so-subtly asked what color she likes to wear. The answer: red. She told me not to make anything, but I have just the skein for this project. It's a skein of Wollemeise that didn't have quite the spring I like in my sock yarn, but Herzblut is the perfect red color. The scarf is going to be largely plain weave, but I'm putting leno lace at both ends. 

Last week I had hardly started my latest sweater, my Arrowhead Cardigan. I initially thoughts that there wasn't any chance of me wearing the sweater before Christmas, but I might have changed my mind. I'm already at the armholes! I will admit that I've been sweating about where the diamond motif might land. Unfortunately the center of the diamond looks like it is at exactly bust level. (Not good) But there will be a four inch (5cm) button band on that will be put in after the sweater has been steeked. I'm hopeful that even if the diamond motif is at bust level, it will be closer to the armpits rather than "front and center."

I finished knitting my Denature socks earlier month, but it took me a while to get around to weaving in ends and blocking them. I'm pleased. The stripes line up and I only had to cut the yarn and splice it in three times to do it :)

Stray Cat Socks in Silver Star

I've been doing my best to take things off of my crafting list so I can remain relaxed and happy. The scarf is going well enough that I might try to weave one last scarf before Christmas. We shall see.

Three For Me

I've been a selfish crafter recently. All my knits are for me! I started knitting the Hylestad pattern. I only had to rip once to switch from a grey to a white. The grey didn't give me the contrast I needed. Luckily I still have a pile of whites to choose from after the whole Sheep May Safely Graze debacle.

My Joyeux Noel socks are coming along great too. Have I mentioned recently how much I love Stray Cat Socks' yarn? Yes? Well, I'll say it again. It is vibrant and wonderful to knit with.

This week I also cast on the most anticipated knit of this year, my Arrowhead Cardigan. I've been talking about this one for ages. So much so that Connor started asking when I was going to cast on. It is an oversized cardigan (the smallest size is 49.5 inches/ 126cm) that I am resizing to be a more reasonable size. Rather than have a cardigan that has 14 inches/ 36cm of ease, I'm going for 6 inches/ 15cm of ease. After talking to my friend Carol, who is an excellent tailor, I'm also adding side vents to help me move more freely. I was really inspired by Rachel's version of the cardigan, so I also am also going to add closures to mine. I really hope I can be wearing it by Christmas, but I've never knit a sweater so fast. We shall see.

I'm also proud to show off what should have been the last of this year's gift weaves. Of course now I've thought of more people who need to be covered in wool, so I might make a few more. 

But back to the gifts at hand. These scarves are made out of yarn I've been hoarding for 5 years now. It took me all this time to find a way to show off the yarn in a way to convey the subtle color changes in the ocean around Big Sur. I even had to learn a new-to-me skill! Weaving. The warp is the beautiful yarn from Anna Gratton, but I ended up using yarn from Lost City Knits for the weft. 

Is anyone else making gifts this year? Wha kinds of things are you making?

Morro Bay Weekend Pt.2

The weekend adventure was far too short. I could spend quite a bit more time in the peace that is Morro Bay. In the morning we stopped by the Elfin Forest before heading back home.

It's called the Elfin Forest because the oaks here are stunted because of their location on an ancient sand dune. They are a few hundred years old, but only four yards (4ish meters) tall.

We said good bye to Morro Bay, but decided to drive up the coast a bit to tour Hearst Castle. Connor hadn't been before and I thought he might like it.  I was right.

Hearst Castle is full of artistic treasures. There are tapestried from the 16th century. The Louvre has the same tapestries, but they are 17th century copies of the ones at Hearst Castle. The piece of art that Connor found most impressive was the statues of Sekhmet. The bust on the right is the oldest at 3500 years old. The others are a mere 3000 years old.

We were just about ready to head home, but before we finally committed, we stopped to see the Elephant Seals that were 5 minutes up the road. At the moment the beach is filled with juveniles. The big guys won't show up for another month. 

Of course Connor and I were lucky to see two juveniles practice their fighting. Although rather than fighting over females, there were fighting over a prime spot on the beach. The guy on the left won and pushed the previous occupant off.

And with that we headed back home. There were accidents all along the way, so we took back roads and enjoyed seeing the stars come out and we drove into the night.

We did come away with a few more patches for the future quilt as well as a magnet. I've already posted the patch information onto the patch map.

Morro Bay Weekend Pt.1

With the time change happening, we haven't been able to hike after work/school; it's gotten too dark. The last weekend or so has been rainy, so the trail around here have been too muddy to go to. I've been just itching to get out of the house and see the sun again. This past weekend I found myself without any pressing homework, so Connor and I decided to go to Morro Bay for the weekend. We had stopped by on our way up from the Channel Islands, but there is so much to see, do, and eat, I knew we had to come back. We stopped by the visitor center as well as the natural history museum, which I would highly recommend. Thanks to that stop at the visitor center, we had a clear idea of where we would hike the next day.

We got up bright and reasonably early to headed over to Montana de Oro State Park. We had learned that the Point Buchon trail, which could be accessed by driving to the end of the road at Montana de Oro, was open from Thursday to Sunday from 8-4 during their winter hours. We decided to take advantage of that and hiked the full there and back again trail. The views were spectacular. We also saw some whales spouting as they traveled north.

The land is owned by PG&E. It buffers their nuclear power plant, which locals told us looks like a pair of boobs sprouting from the earth. I thought they were kidding. They weren't. This is the more pleasant view of the "Stonehenge" formation.

After heading back, but before checking back out at the gate house, we saw a bird feeder.

The wee finches were kicking seeds down to a huge group of quail and two bunnies!

After the cuteness overload, we rushed back to see if the Spooner Ranch house was open. There was a narrow 3 hour window and we had hiked during most of it. We were in luck. We even were able to get a patch on our way out. We had our lunch while overlooking the ocean. Both of us were jealous that someone once got to call this place home. 

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve. The oaks there have twisted in many different directions. The only thing more twisted than the oaks are the trails. We managed to get lost and had to retrace our steps to get back out. Luckily it isn't too big an area.

Our day ended with a fantastic sunset and a fantastic dinner at Taco Temple.

With full bellies and tired feet, we both feel asleep around 8:30.

Daily Creative Practices

I was feeling a little down this week. I've been wanting to find time to do little paintings, but it seems like I keep running out of time once some of my more mandatory projects have been attended to. (School work, getting groceries, etc.) I thought about how I could "make time" when I realized that I have quite a few daily creative practices already. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had reasons to celebrate.

The daily comic has been updating daily for a few months now, but behind the scenes, I'm still catching up on the backlog. This week, however, I finally finish editing Book 2. Hurray! I'm on to editing Book 3 and it feels like a big hurdle has been crossed because I am still drawing in Book 3. I'm looking forward to being entirely caught up, although to get there, I know I have to continue to make it a daily practice.

Related to editing the daily comic, I make it a practice to draw the daily comic daily. The goal is to never have a backlog. I finally found that I if I drew the comic while eating breakfast, I had more success. Now it just feels wrong not to draw it in the morning.

Another thing Connor and I have been keeping up on is writing with our non-dominant hand. We started in July as a way to prove that there is no such thing as talent. The idea was that talent is just a culmination of practice. Well, I'm not sure if either of us has seen much improvement in our non-dominate handwriting, but both of us have noticed that our left hands have felt much stronger. The experiment continues.

These three daily practices have required making a habit, but my last daily practice is one that I just can't help myself: knitting. Just about every day I've got knitting in my hands and a few more rounds find their way onto my current project. And let's face it, my current project is probably socks.

Does anyone else have a daily creative practice? Or is there something you'd like to make a daily creative practice?

If You Go Two Years In A Row, It's A Tradition

And like that, October is gone. I really enjoy the nights getting cooler, the leaves becoming crisp on ground, the curl of smoke coming out of chimneys. Our last few days of October were full of fun. Last year we went to Arata's Pumpkin Farm for the first time. Jackie, Connor, and I returned again this year.

We are responsible, serious adults

Arata's has an amazing hay bale maze. It's different each year.

It's really, really, really big

This year was colosseum-themed.

You can see the minotaur over Connor's shoulder

We went though twice, saving a group of people who had been stuck in there for two hours on our second run-through. Then we headed to the pumpkin patch to picked out our pumpkins. It's a careful selection each year. We want to be sure to choose shapes that best show off what we are going to carve into them.

The next day was pumpkin carving day. My brother joined us this year and the three of us decided on a Futurama theme. It was kind of funny how that came about; Connor and I decided we wanted to do Futurama, so I called up my brother to let him know and it turned out he had independently decided on the same theme. Jackie's pumpkin was going to live at her place, so she decided to break from theme and go with a classic Frankenstein's monster.

I had been really careful with my pumpkin. When you carve words, you want to be sure not to misspell anything. I showed everyone multiple times throughout the process. At the very end, I asked what everyone thought. Jackie and Christopher agreed that it looked really good. Connor gasped and said, "You spelled Plant Express, not Planet Express." I couldn't believe it! Luckily I had enough space on the pumpkin that I was able to turn the T into an E and add a T at the end. Crisis averted.

Left to right: Jackie's Frankeinstein's monster; Christopher's Bender; My Planet Express logo; Connor's Fry

Mum let us know that the pumpkins were admired by the trick-or-treaters who came by their place. It's always fun to carve our pumpkins. We are already discussing what next year's theme could be.