FOs in three media

After an FO drought, I've managed to finish a few things in the last couple days.

I decided to try making an Artist Trading Card for a swap on Swap-bot. It's my very first ATC. I entitled it "Daydreaming." I can see how these little guys could get addictive:

Next up, a finished pottery dish. The blue splotches are melted glass. I quite like how this dish turned out. I'm developing a problem, though: most of my pottery isn't nice enough to inflict on others as gifts, but I'm too attached to it to throw it away. Our house will soon be buried in the stuff. For now, this piece is sitting on my kitchen island, where it will inevitably attract Stuff. Our island is like a giant Stuff magnet.

And here's this scarf, knit from some beautiful alpaca Knatolee sent me. I love the color, which is this soft gray-brown. The lace pattern was really easy--perfect for knitting while watching season 1 of Dexter. And the scarf is now ready just in time for what passes for winter around here.

Vase and Books

This is the vase I posted about yesterday. I'm very happy with it. :-)

And today a nice person in Israel sent me a children's book in Hebrew, as a surprise because she learned I collect kids' books in different languages. Several other people have generously sent me books, too. Here's the collection (well, most of it--the Things have secreted some favorites in their bedrooms):

I've picked some of these up during my travels, some came from friends and family, and some came from swaps. I love the diversity of languages: Hebrew, French, Korean, Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese, I believe), Romanian, Portuguese, Czech, German, Russian, Spanish, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Malay, Catalan, Japanese, and Dutch! The Things and I all enjoy looking through these. When T1 was about 3, the Russian and Czech alphabet books were some of her very favorites, and T2 currently is extremely fond of a couple of the Chinese books. I can manage to read and/or partially understand some of the books, but for the most part we just enjoy the pictures. I also like how sometimes you can learn things about a culture just by looking at the pictures.

Fun Day in the City

Soon (but not soon enough) this semester will be over, and I'll have a few minutes to breathe. And maybe knit. Currently, I'm making snail's pace progress on a scarf in beautiful grey Canadian alpaca.

Now, I did take yesterday off--I spent a wonderful day in San Francisco with some friends. Some highlights of our day:

• We went to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. It's a really nice museum with beautiful gallery space.
• The museum was hosting an artisan fair, with maybe 18 or so artists selling their jewelry and glassware and the like. As soon as we walked in, I was very excited, because I spotted Joanna Mendicino's table. One of her ceramic vases had just been featured in Sunset magazine, and I liked it so much, I'd torn out the page to use as inspiration for my (much less accomplished, obviously) pottery. Not only are her vases even nicer in person, but they're affordable, too. So I now own one of my own. And she is very nice, too. When I told her I've been taking a ceramics class, she was quite supportive. Another artist there, Cuong Ta, also had some really nice pottery, and he encouraged me, too. :-)
• Later, we were walking by city hall just as an anti-AIDS rally was finishing up. We walked across the square across the street, which was empty aside from a small group of cops and a guy in a suit. We walked right by them, and a moment later, one of my friends casually mentioned that the guy in the suit was Gavin Newsom, the mayor. So I turned back and took a more careful look, and sure enought, it was him.
• We had dinner at a Korean restaurant in Japantown. Japchae and kimchee. Mmmmm.
• Then we walked over to Yoshi's, which just opened on Fillmore a couple days ago. We had tickets to see Taj Mahal. The venue itself is quite nice--every table is a great seat, and the acoustics are really good. We had some dessert there before the show: chocolate cake with a scoop of caramel ice cream, with bits of caramel corn and nori (!) sprinkled on top. Strange as that sounds, it was delicious.
• Taj Mahal was fantastic. He puts on a great show. He's been performing for 40 years, and still seems to enjoy it. It was supposed to be a 70 minute set, because we were at the 8pm show and there was another show at 10, but he didn't finish until nearly 9:45.
• I didn't get home until 1am, and that's later than I've been out in a long time. When I arrived home, everyone was asleep and Hubby had cleaned up the kitchen. :-)

Festive Tiki Cups

I found these at the grocery store a couple years ago for $1.99. The Things like them. And when they demanded wine glasses on Thanksgiving, but I balked at giving them fragile glass, these were an acceptable substitute. And somewhere, probably China, somebody's job is to make these things.

Thanksgiving

Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend!

Twenty

Aren't these nice fall-ish colors? Happy Thanksgiving!

Tickets

I just bought tickets to see Taj Mahal in San Francisco. Yay! I have no life and I never get to go to concerts, so I'm excited about this.

Gift Ideas that Give Twice

Around the corner from my office is a staff lounge room. I go in there periodically to use the microwave. While I'm waiting for my soup to heat, I like to peruse the interesting stack of literature that has accumulated on a table in there. There's a copy of an obscure medical journal, several New Yorkers, and--my favorite--acouple of romance novels. Recently, though, I noticed an interesting new magazine called GOOD. And thanks to Virgin Mobile, I learned this morning that if you subscribe now, 100% of the subscription cost ($20/yr) will be donated to your choice of 1 of 12 worthy causes. Here's the link. Sounds to me like a great gift idea, for yourself or someone else. Sorry, Canadians--you have to pay an extra $10 shipping. But at least you're paying it measly, nearly-worthless, greenbacks.

I think I posted this last year, but there are also some great things at The Hunger Site and its sister sites. Also, if you're planning some online shopping you might want to check out iGive. It has lots of major retailers, and they'll donate a portion of your purchase price to a charity of your choice.

There. Now go forth and shop. I'm already almost done--Hanukkah begins December 4 this year!

Lizzie

Robin asked what the deal is with these squares. Angela's knitting them, too. So is Emily in France. Robin, they're parts of the Lizard Ridge afghan, affectionately known by some as Lizzie. You're supposed to knit 24 squares, and then you sew them together. The yarn, Noro Kureyon, is amazingly gorgeous. I've been working on Lizzie in between larger projects, and I now have my 20th square on the needles. I hope to finish sometime this century.

Nineteen

Sorry I haven't been posting the colorway numbers. I've been really disorganized about them, and have been basically throwing them into a pile. So I know which ones I've used, but don't know which is which. Anyway, of course I like this one, too.

Sssshhhhh!

Don't tell Thing 1, but I had to share with you this note I found tucked in her backpack. Apparently she intends to bring it to school on Monday.

Dear Troy,
I love you. Did Aurora already tell you? Anyway, my mom, when me and her
were watching you do the g in cursive after I did the d in cursive she said she
thought you were cute to. (I told her I loved you.)
Love,
[Here, she just signed her initials]

T1 one brought home a video her teacher made of the kids practicing their cursive. And it's true--I did say Troy is cute. He is.

I'm thinking, though, that very few 8-year-old boys would be pleased to discover a classmate is in love with them and her mother thinks they're cute. I haven't decided whether to reveal to T1 that I read the note, and try to discourage her from giving it to him, or to remain silent and let her face her first heartbreak. Maybe we'll just have a general discussion about 8-year-old boys and their typical disinterest in romance.

Stolen Meme

I stole this from Knatolee.

Rules:
A. Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.
B. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
Eight facts/habits about me:

1. My very first real job was at McDonald's. I still have a small scar on one arm from a hot french-fry basket.
2. I like being barefoot and almost always kick off my shoes as soon as I get home.
3. I'm allergic to grass and bamboo, and touching them gives me a rash. But bamboo knitting needles don't bother me. :-)
4. I am a member of the Nebraska State Bar. I went to grad school/law school in Nebraska.
5. We bought our first house when we lived in Lincoln, in 1989. It was 100 years old and cost $26,500.
6. I met Hubby in high school, when I was 15 years old.
7. The moment I realized I was probably pregnant with Thing 2, I was standing in a square in Karlovy Vary, in the Czech Republic. But because "pregnancy test" wasn't in my Czech-English pocket dictionary, I couldn't confirm her existence until I returned home.
8. I am a terrible singer.

If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged. :-)

Many FOs!

Look how productive I was yesterday! First off, I finished the Habu Textiles Kusha Kusha scarf. I like how it turned out--looks like something someone would wear to art school. Most of the scarf is knitted with a strand of thin merino and a strand of silk/stainless steel, but the final part is just the silk/stainless steel. And it's lightly felted, too. You can sort of scrunch and pull it into different shapes.

I also finished block #18 of Lizard Ridge. Take a look at this colorway!

And I brought home several ceramic FOs last night. I made plaques for the Things' rooms. T2 has an undersea theme, so she gets fish. T1 has a jungle, so she gets a flower. The spots in the flower and the top fish are actually bits of crushed colored glass (some of which used to be Hubby's beer bottles!), which were melted onto the clay during the final firing. I also quite like how the glaze turned out on the bottom fish. Very fishy, I think.

Here's my favorite thing I've made so far: a bowl that actually looks like a real bowl! Obviously, I threw this one on a wheel. I also like how the cobalt and white glazes turned out.

And finally, this little bowl/dish also came from the wheel. It looks like a cat dish to me, but my classmates suggested it'd make a good soap dish or pillar candle base.

Ah, sadness and woe

Text of card discovered on my bed last night:

Dear Dad & Mom,
Why do you keep grounding me? And by the way dad, [Thing
2] atcually started the throwing thing. Do you guys love me or not?
Love, Your daughter,
[Thing 1]
P.S. Did someone leave me on your doorstep or Did I come from your stomach?

The card also contains a four color illustration of four people in a house. The parents are frowning and telling a crying girl, "You are grounded for the rest of your life." Another girl is smiling and saying, "Yay. Tee hee." There are also four hearts, three of which have scribbles through the center, symbolizing heartlessness, perhaps, or broken hearts.

Lots of Stuff!

I have been remiss in my blogging, but this post helps make up for it. Prepare for lots of images!

I've signed up for another 8 weeks on ceramics, and last night I brought home some FOs.

The little bowl on the right is the very first thing I threw on the wheel. It's only slightly lopsided. I like the shape and how the glaze turned out. I'm not sure what to use it for. Condiments? Candy?

The thing on the left is an idea I had one day while knitting. I always end up with little pieces of yarn, which I place on the end table, but which inevitably end up on the floor. This vessel is for those little snips of yarn. Here's the other side of it:

And I often end up with an extra needle floating around, especially when I working on double points. They tend to roll away. So I made a place to stash them:

There's a matching hole on the other side, so I can just stick the needle(s) through.

Today I received a really wonderful package from Eve in Switzerland! Eve always sends me such nice things! Ruthie thinks so, too.

The calendar on the table is from the Barry Foundation. Eve made that really cute little bag. The yarn is one of my favorite colors, and it's a beautiful wool/cashmere blend. And Eve included some delicious-looking chocolate and other sweets. Thank you Eve!!

Finally, the California fuschia on my back patio looks gorgeous right now.

It's a little overgrown, but I won't let Hubby chop it back until it stops blooming. Not only do I like to look at it, but it's a hummer favorite. Although actually, the hummers seem to spend more time gaurding it than they do eating it. They hang out nearby, chirping loudly, and chasing away anyone else who gets near their treasure. I just saw one little guy go after some pigeons. Can you see him in the picture below, looking triumphant?

The Joy of Monday

I'm still working on that Habu scarf kit. Ten billion rows of stockinette using--I kid you not--stainless steel yarn. My orthopedic surgeon and physical therapist would be so pleased. Meanwhile, I've caught a case of the Creeping Crud. I spent most of the weekend in bed, but I don't have time to be sick this week.

I was informed that today is supposed to be Green Day, or something. So I guess I can gloat that in the past two months, we've generated more electricity with our solar panels than we've used. So the power company gave us a credit. They also charged us an $11 "customer fee" each month. I think that since we're selling them the electricity, we ought to charge them a customer fee. Anyway, the fog will settle in soon--we've already had some foggy mornings--and then we'll be back in the red for a while.

Meanwhile, the Things have been creatively inventing new ways to be naughty:
T2--fell asleep wearing a poky, scratchy tiara
T1--used up 1/2 bottle of shampoo doing an "experiment" in her bathtub
T2--smuggled a pen into her room and used it to scribble on her footstool
T1--made some sort of concoction involving crushed Smarties in water, which she spilled on her bedroom carpet
T2--fell asleep with a poky, scratchy giant plastic flower
T1--either accidentally got hit in the mouth while playing with boy friend at school, or else deliberately licked his hand. The stories differ.
T2--learned to use the computer mouse and messed up my email; also managed to find and attempt to play Yahoo games, even though she can't read yet
T1--during sewing lesson, when thread slipped out of needle, said, "Goddammit!"
T2--hid a rather bulky stuffed cat between her mattress and the support boards
T1--tortured T2 by refusing to let her help empty the dishwasher (!)
T2--tried to "rescue" a snail out of her sister's fish tank, because "snails don't like water." (Did you know those little guys actually can survive several hours in a dry plastic cup?)

Watch This

I saw a link to this video on Neatorama today. It's one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. And after you watch the video, visit Mortified.

Trick or Treat

Thing 1 had 2 costumes today. For school, she was Jenny the cat from the book Jenny and the Cat Club. I improvised the costume myself. Her tail is part of a feather boa.

This evening. T1 was Cleopatra and T2 was Ariel.

Ruthie helped me pass out treats. She loves Halloween because it means children + candy. Here she is waiting for the next group to arrive.

We went through a LOT of candy. We had probably 300 trick-or-treaters tonight. People drive their kids into our neighborhood on Halloween. Ruthie thought it was wonderful. Almost all of the 300 kids petted her. But her very favorite was a little girl, maybe 6 years old, with Downs syndrome. Ruthie gently and methodically covered her face in kisses, and the girl (who has 4 dogs of her own) was ready to take Ruthie home with her. :-)

Last night, the earth played her own trick on us, and we had an earthquake. It was centered near San Jose, over 80 miles away, and didn't do much damage, but we felt it pretty well here. It didn't wake up T2, who was asleep. T1 thought it was "cool." Ruthie didn't seem to notice.

Happy Halloween!

We love Halloween! Here are the Things getting ready.

Yes, Thing 1's pumpkin has "blood" dripping from its mouth. And T2's has really big purple ears. But you know what's really scary? Two monsters hopped up on excitement and too much sugar!

Life

I'm working on a scarf from a Habu Textiles kit. It's going to be a while before I finish it. Life intrudes. It's too bad, too, because I have a fairly strict 1-project rule (Lizard Ridge blocks being the exception to the rule). And Friday I received the newest Blue Moon Sock Club package, which had nifty blackish yarn and a pattern for fun gothic socks. In the meantime, last week, Ruthie turned 9. The average lifespan for Saints is 8-10 years, so 9 is getting up there.

Can you tell she leads a hard, hard life?

Seventeen

Strange Coincidence

I'm on Postcrossing--a wonderful project that I think Emily pointed me to. I never know when the mail will bring me a postcard from abroad, or where that card may come from. Today I lucked out with 3. And here's the slightly odd part--the first card was from Finland, but the sender attached a cute little Saint Bernard sticker (my profile on Postcrossing says I have a Saint, so that part's not so strange). The second one was also from Finland, and that person's screen name is "Saint." And the third card came from Switzerland. All very appropriate, considering my Ruthie turns 9 this Wednesday. It must be All Saints Week. ;-)

Sixteen

I believe this is block #16 of the Lizard Ridge afghan, which means I'm 2/3 done with blocks. It's an interesting colorway--kind of like Noro threw in whatever dyes were leftover from other things. I like it anyway, especially the blues and purples on the right.

Yesterday was a busy day. T2 has soccer in the morning.

She pours her whole little heart into playing. In the afternoon, we went to see Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D. It was cute. The theater even had the entryway done up like a haunted house, and an employee wandering around in a Jack Skellington costume. Tim Burton + 3-D. What's not to love?

Potted

Today I have a couple FOs to show from my ceramics class. I'm quite fond of them. First, a pumpkin bowl with lid:

And then, this funny character:

Unfortunately, I managed to break her cauldron handle. I hope she doesn't put an evil spell on me. I love that black glaze, and I'm quite happy with how she turned out.

I only have one more ceramics class left, and I didn't sign up for the next 8-week session because this time of year is always so especially busy. I'll miss it. Last night I threw a couple bowls on the wheel. One of them I had a lot of help with and it turned looking like a slightly misshapen cereal bowl. The other I did all by myself and it looks like a wobbly cat food dish. I'm enjoying the wheel. :-)

Thanks for the nice comments on the pinwheel sweater. And Knat, Hubby wore shorts in winter in Nebraska (in the snow!) so I'd bet he would in Ottawa, too. WHat can I say? He's a 3rd generation Californian.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

THE GOOD: I finished T1's sweater last night. I think it's really, really cute. The front and back were lots of fun to knit. And the yarn is scrumptious: soft soft, lofty, and lightweight. I like the colors, too.

THE BAD: The pattern has lots of fussy finishing. You have to pick up stitches four different times (for a total of nearly 400 stitches). The sleeves have to be swen in and then two long seams need sewing as well. And I'm going to have to do some blocking to correct that curl at the hem.

THE UGLY: The pattern is one of the worst I've worked with. In the sleeve shaping, decreases leave you with 11 stitches, but then the pattern calls for a bind-off that requires 13. The collar part says to work back and forth in garter stitch for 20 "rounds." The worst part, though, is that the shaping is quite eccentric due to the unusual construction of the front and back. At one point, the pattern says to sew a shoulder seam before picking up the neck stitches, but the pattern doesn't give any hint as to where that seam might be. And if you look at the pics to try and figure it out, good luck, because it turns out that in one of the pics the model is wearing the thing frigging backwards. It took me a long time to figure this out. A diagram or a few words of explanation would have been really, really helpful.

T1 celebrated her 8th birthday last week. Doesn't she look happy and grown up?

My inlaws came for the weekend to join the celebration. My SIL came with Melinda, one of her foster daughters. Melinda loves animals. As you can see, Ruthie considered this pure torture.

One Sunday, T2 and Hubby visited the pumpkin patch. Is tayed home with T1, who'd over-celebrated a bit the day before and was extremely cranky.

Fortunately, the crankiness was gone by yesterday. Last night, T1 helped me make turkey meatloaf.

SP11 Package

I got back from Reno last night. It was beautiful. It'd snowed the day before, and they'd plowed the road, but there was a nice bit of snow on the ground. It's rained a good amount here today, which means snow at Donner Pass--I'm glad I got home yesterday. While I was in Reno, I did visit Jimmy Bean's Wool, and I might have managed to acquire a little yarn.

Today's mail brought me a wonderful package from my SP11 pal!!

I can tell she really spent a lot of time reading my blog and choosing my favorites. There's my favorite yarn in my favorite colors, really pretty sock yarn, a Saint memo pad, and See's caramels which I cannot share with the children. Plus, my pal included treats for the Things and spectacular cookies for Ruthie. Here's Ruthie badly wanting the ghost cookie, which was in my hand:

Ruthie was so funny when I gave the cookie to her. She spent a good 10 minutes wandering around the house with it "hidden" in her mouth, trying to find exactly the right spot to eat it. I think she coouldn't believe it was really all hers.

Thank you, Pal!!!

Hubby's family is visiting this weekend. Hubby decided to barbeque, weather be damned:

It's a good thing my MIL was willing to be Umbrella Holder. Note, too, Hubby's attire. He wears shorts year round.

Conference time

I'm in Reno for a couple of days for a conference. It's a great time of year to drive here--there's a little snow in the mountains, the leaves are turning color, and the nights are nice and crisp. There is a nice yarn store here, Jimmy Bean's, but I don't know whether I'll have time to make it there. Pesky conference, you know. I didn't even bring my knitting, because I won't have time for it and there wasn't much room in the car. Below id a crappy pic of the view from my window, taken with my camera phone. You can see me and the phone in the reflection. It is a nice view--there's just a dusting of snow on that mountain top.

And the winner is....

My Mom has noticed I haven't been blogging much lately. Instead, I've been spending my life in meetings and doing 1,001 work-related projects. It's a busy semester.

Thing 1 has been taking a digital photography class in school. Here's a self-portrait:

Her 8th birthday is this coming week, and we bought her a real, grown-up, digital camera. Shhh. Don't tell her. Tomorrow is her birthday party, so if any of you hear loud noises coming from this direction, you'll know why.

Yesterday a student presented what may be the new winner of the Best Excuse for Missing Class prize. The previous champion was "My brother's foot got run over by a car." That one replaced the two-time favorite, "I got arrested and I was in jail." (I teach Criminal Justice, by the way). This time, I actually saw the student sitting and reading the textbook shortly before class. Five minutes before class began, though, she came to me with the new contender: "I just realized that I have cat pee all over my shorts." Apparently, her cat had peed on the shorts after she took them out of the dryer, as they were in a pile on the floor waiting to be folded. So she started noticing the pee smell as she was reading, but couldn't place it. When she finally realized the source, she went to the bathroom and tried to get the shorts wet, which only made the smell worse. I could smell it as she stood in my office. The class is in a crowded, windowless room, so I sent her home with my blessings. What do you think? Do we have a winner?

Potting

Last night in ceramics class I finally got to use the potters wheel for the first time. I:

• made a small, funny-looking bowlish thing
• tried to make another one, but chunks of it kept flying off and I eventually gave up
• managed not to step on the revolving platform thing, and therefore managed not to fling myself across the floor

For a first attempt, I consider it a success, especially with regard to point three above. I am a major klutz, so not hurting myself is a major milestone for me. Anyway, it was fun, and the more advanced students were very supportive. And it was really goopy and messy, which can be a good thing once in a while.

Gotaway

We took the Things for a weekend near Monterey. We stayed at Asilomar; I've been there a couple times before, but Hubby and the Things never had. Alas, we never made it to the yarn store in Pacific Grove, but we did do a lot of other things. We stopped at Casa de Fruta, which has a pumpkin patch.

Of course we spent a lot of time at beautiful Asilomar Beach.

We hung out on our balcony. If you look very closely at the picture below, you can see two of our neighbors (you'll have to look very closely to see the second):

A whole bunch of deer spend most of their day right around the building we stayed in. There was a buck with pretty big antlers, but our favorite was a doe with two half-grown fauns. Mama Deer spends a lot of time grooming her babies, but doesn't seem to mind to0 much when there are somewhat noisy human children quite close.

We spent most of Saturday at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They have 3 species of otters, plus, of course, the beautiful jellies. And currently, a great white shark, too.

We topped off Saturday with ice cream at Ghirardelli.

What could be better than to sit and eat a cone while you watch the kayakers and seagulls and otters and sea lions in the Bay?