Colour me clueless

The launch party for KITS was at Knitting In La Jolla on the 16th of the missing May.

I was really fun to see the other designs, the other designers, the book and knitters.

In true show of maybe I'm not as full of myself as some people think I am, I was shocked to discover that people wanted me to sign my design in the book.

I was also clueless as to the fact that it, like several other designs, my design had a photo in the book other than the ones directly associated with the pattern pages. So colour me clueless.

So those of you with a strange scribble that might vaguely look like a signature on my pattern page -- you have a collector's item but only if you also snagged autographs of other designers on site in addition to Kristi's.

I hope to be somewhat more polished at this weekend's signing and meet and greet at Bonita Knit & Sew.

Santorini swatching

I was so charmed by Lisa Limber's jacket in Knitting In the Sun that, even though I have said that I don't want to knit anything for the size I am now, I decided to make an exception.

I looked with some lust at the elann samples for May and June and even swatched a couple but budget and practicality prevailed.

So I turned to stash and after a couple of that could work -- oops not quite enough outings, I actually started to inventory my stash and capture the information on Ravelry.

Thus began the process of stash swatching for suitable yarns.

Quite a few hit the not quite enough yardage wall and others, like the cone of recycled yarn in a nice neutral failed the even remotely correct gauge test.

Not shockingly, even the suggested yarn failed the gauge test.

Although I was leaning toward neutrals or at least something on the subtle side with perhaps a bit of a green or yellow tone, that's not what has hit the needles at least for this go 'round. Think Aegean blue

I may or may not written about this before but most edgings are very directional and while that works pretty well for pullovers and for shawls that are round or rectangular it can present a bit of a problem for cardigans and triangular shawls.

The edging on this cardigan/jacket is lovely wave lace pattern that, by the nature of the location of increases and decreases creates a flat side and a "jut out" side.

If you look at the picture of the cardigan on page 109 of the book (great picture BTW), you can see how that plays out in the front of the garment.

So pretty much, the right side of the bottom bit of the pink swatch is the right front side of the cardigan and the left side of that same swatch would be the bottom bit of of the left side.

To be more clear -- | meets <> meets < ? Right now I'm leaning toward > meets <. But that creates another set of problems.

Junkyard from Jersey & a subtle shift on the corner

One of the "new in the hood changes" I've seen recently is a funky vintage boots, vinyl and some such shop in the ever changing small kine space next to The Flame.

The new shopkeepers are originally from the Jersey shore (think Red Bank, Colts Neck and such) and they have been putting it together a bit at a time.

The official opening is slated for the end of June.

Another change just down the way is that the car repair shop on the corner is not, at least for now, going to go away and become yet another condo project. The change in this case is a more ethnic change with the Asian owners out and Hispanics in.

A subtle shift and I'm told they do very good work by a fairly reliable source.

Construction again or I love the scent of diesel in the office

On the 8th, an all too familiar scent wafted through the window of the office -- diesel fuel.

With all the construction that's surrounded me in the last few years I'd be shocked if my lungs aren't an environmental disaster area.

Condo conversion directly across the street, two major construction projects a block away and a third one block over.

Throw in a couple of tear downs and townhouse projects within a three block area and you get the idea of just how much fun it has been 'round here.

Later that day when I went out on walkabout I discovered that single family homes are again taking a hit in Hillcrest.

Three plus this time on Centre Street.

The plus is because a couple of them were two on a lot before the diesel powered North American Bobcat and its associated construction buddies took up residence.

Rumour has it that the final outcome will be an all too rare apartment complex but I have my doubts. The smart money is usually to start as a condo so you can preserve the option to revert to condo when the market shifts.

Regardless it is another round of demolition and construction fun.

They start work around 7am and don't stop until around 6pm so there's a constant back up beep punctuating most week days round here.

Urban art -- toasters

The date on the edited image is mid-May so I probably snapped them earlier still.

I love the toaster but I wish it had wings -- flying toasters appeal to me and flying toasters on a sidewalk appeal even more.

Am I showing a secret (or not so secret) Mac past?

Could well be.

Big backlog of other photos kicking around.

I just have to find time to get them linked up with words and up to the blog.

On shelves now

This photo is from my first tangible sighting of Knitting In the Sun.

After a day of take the meetings job interview swing, I popped into BookStar in Point Loma/Loma Portal and found KITS positioned between EZ's Knitting Without Tears and Maggie Radcliffe's Color Knitting Techniques --- nice company

I couldn't resist a leaf through and I sorta kinda gotta gush.

As a print media person and die hard photographer, I found it to be a visual delight. I totally love what Stephen did with the photo of Haleakala and would dearly love to own a poster sized print of the shot with the sand bucket.

I was sort of impressed with the chair but even more impressed with his staging, treatment/styling and even the best of my bark orders on photo shoots days could not have improved on that shot -- wonderful.

I did my pimp the book duty as I was heading out to mention to the staff that the book has local interest with author, designers, models, photographer & location.

Oy vey, what happened to May?

Last year's blog calendar omissions were A months.

This year, although April had a short run -- drop off after the 22nd -- mostly we're having other issues.

So what up with May?

Short answer is that it got away.

Yes, it rhymes and that totally sucks but, as my cell phone voice mail used to say, WHAT-ever or What-EVER where's my fave linguist when I need her?

So confession, I had to admit that I'm not enough of a super steel woman to hunker down and, with a highly limited to less than zero support network, ace my master's degree term papers 30+ years after I wrote my last term paper, using a previously unknown to me style (APA) while coping with the whole lay off story.

I just betcha that's a total run on sentence and I'm so very sure that I don't much care. It is what it is.

Honestly, I'm proud of myself to have confronted the can't get there from here before it was all slam into the wall and no way to recoup/regroup. I'm doing my best to stop with the self-flagellation of not living up to my internal insane standard of achievement.

So May got away and we will so not discuss the fish afghan (or my own personal fish tale).

Okay, so maybe we will, I still need to rip out and pick up stitches to graft the last panel to the others.

Previously in process loose ends in the category knitting that are still loose:

• Need to be woven in ends for the diagonal rib sweater for the 44 sweaters project
• A crocheted loop (or two) and button closure for the something sunny for Stacy (also 44 sweaters)
• Aforementioned fish afghan
• Way more projects that we hope gentle readers will have either forgotten about or will be nice enough not to remind me about
  

I'm just going to delete the 27, yes 27, place holder entries and write forward a bit to cover the stuff I thought interesting enough to note, photograph but not find time to blog about.

So for today's eye candy we have another in a series of the walkabout vehicle, babe are you sure you're not a dude, vehicle images.

Old Fords and a natural stone are nothing compared to old Fords with lace stencils -- sorry Willie