Friday, November 30, 2007

ECF: Mission Santa Barbara


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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk
I took my dad to Mission Santa Barbara when he was visiting. He'd never been in a California mission before, and they have a pretty good museum there.

I snapped this photo because we have a painting of the mission that looks just about like this. Just pretend the cars aren't there. ;)

Have a great weekend! (And Go Bears!)

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Which way do your needles point?

I have an open question. I often see knitting portrayed in comics, and this one reminded me: does anyone knit like that, with the needle ends (the capped ends, the ones that don't have the points) pointing upward? Or is it just that lots of artists know knitting involves two needles and an area of fabric, but are ignorant as to how the needles are involved?

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!


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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk
Don't these guys look like they've finished their pie and are watching football?

Have a good Thanksgiving, y'all who are in the U.S. To the rest of you, have a great rest of the week - see you after the break!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

OMG! A FO!


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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk
Alert the media! I knit!

I've been meaning for months to make this humble afghan square for the Mafia. Finally, my energy has returned, and knitting no longer makes me feel queasy, and I finished (and blocked!) it.

Specs:
Pattern: Uh....garter ridge afghan square. CO 3 stitches, Kfb at the beginning of every row until it measures 8", then k2tog at the beginning of every row until there are 3 stitches left, bind off.
Yarn: Leftover from my 3rd ever finished project, Eric's Sampler Scarf, vintage Brunswick Germantown.
Needles: Size 9, Knitpicks Options (steel).

Yay! This might signal the return of the knitting mojo!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Reaper is good again


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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk
A while back, I mentioned that the pilot episode of the new show Reaper was really good, but the following episodes weren't.

We continued to watch it out of continuity, hoping that it would get bad enough we could dump it. Tim Goodman, TV critic at the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote about how it could be a good show, if only it fixed several big problems.

The latest two episodes, "Love, Bullets, and Blacktop" and "The Cop" were really refreshingly good. We watched them both last night.

The difference? Kevin Smith is credited as a "consultant." The dialogue is tighter and funnier, there is more action, less formula. The characters are allowed to be people (even The Devil).

This show is back on my list of shows to look forward to (when the WGA strike ends....)

Friday, November 9, 2007

Go Bears!


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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk
I'm off again for the all-important USC game tomorrow!* Thanks for the well wishes and congratulations that continue to pour in. I'm happy to "meet" some of you new readers, too! And hopefully I'll have some good photos after this weekend. I've even been knitting!

Go Bears!

* Well, almost all-important. There is a fan in our section who always leads a pre-game cheer, reminding us that every game is merely practice for the One Game That Counts, "Beat Stanford!"

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Random updates


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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk
Thank you, thank you all, for the wonderful well-wishes! The Sweetie reads all of the comments too, and we feel so well-loved by you all bloggers and blog readers!

My dad came to visit this week, and I took him to Santa Barbara yesterday. We saw a rat on top of a cat on top of a dog. Sorry, no photo - I was too cheap to give a tip to the guy who had them. But it was a pretty impressive sight.

We also went to Mission Santa Barbara and I didn't take a picture (bad blogger!) of a wool carder they had that looked like it was made of spiky pods of some plant. That would be a lot of work!

The Bears won on Saturday! Go Bears! Much as we do not prefer their banana-yellow jerseys, they seem to be undefeated while wearing them.

That's all the news for now!

Friday, November 2, 2007

Go Bears!


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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk
Well, 2 losses in a row means our team is unranked. But tomorrow night's game should be a bit roomy! There's always a bright side.

Thanks to all of you who sent us good wishes at our news. We're still excited and terrified. And I'm tired. (I had heard about morning sickness and was prepared for that, but no one mentioned being so tired!). On the bright side, I'm enjoying the freedom to eat cheese (calcium!) and also pretty much whatever I want, which seems mostly to be fruit, salads, and green vegetables. Yum!

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Secret WIP revealed!


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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk
My knitting progress on the blog has been very spotty (okay, non-existent) lately. But that's because I've been working on a secret project!

Now I'm at 13 weeks and I can tell all of you - The Sweetie and I are having a baby in May!

How was this related to my non-knitting? Well, while I haven't actually been sick like Cara, but for a good part of the first trimester, looking at or even thinking about knitting made me feel queasy, so I've been sorrowfully without knitting. That's beginning to fade a bit, and I'm able to do a few stitches here and there. I'm taking it slow, because I've read that during pregnancy you could be more prone to carpal tunnel syndrome than usual.

I'm trying not to go overboard with tons of baby knitting plans - what I get done, I'll get done. (Although truth be told, I'd rather do newborn size stuff than bigger kids stuff - newborn size is so much smaller and faster!) I also fantasized about making a Mommy Snug but I'm not sure my sweater knitting speed is up to it!

Our official due date is May 9, we don't know yet if it's a boy or a girl. I'll keep y'all posted, although this blog will still be primarily about knitting. We're both excited and terrified!