Knitting? What Knitting

Oh my gosh. I have to finish the Tuscany shawl, or something else that qualifies as a shawl, by July in order for it to be used as an incentive prize for people selling raffle tickets. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but my knitting has totally taken a back seat to life in general. The only thing I've accomplished this week has been the sock you see here, taken from Lace Style and modified to be a short little anklet. And I don't like it, so you're not going to see a second one in this lifetime!



Anna had a birthday this week including two parties (friends & family), Fiona got back from a singing trip to Chicago, and I've been busy with Las Patronas because we're coming up on a newsletter deadline! Oh, and we had a fencing tournament on the weekend but that turned out to be awesome - check out Anna's good news!

Hippity Hoppity, Easter Came and Went

Well, we're back in town, the big girls are in school again, Mary's on break, and Easter came and went. We had Easter at my sister's, where I got to see my little nephew Charlie in one of the versions of the five-hour baby sweater (although it took me more than five hours - ymmv). He is such a cutie patootie.



I've put aside the Tuscany shawl for a while because I realized I was doing a stupid thing. I've been slipping the first stitch on each row, but only on the right side. So I've got slip stitches on the knit side and regular stitches on the purl side. What a dunce...I'm seriously consider ripping the whole thing out but before I do anything drastic I'm working on the socks from Lace Style. Sometimes the knitting mojo just takes a vacation.



Snoop spent Easter at home, even though Anna made him a bunny suit to go with his ears.

On the Mission Trail

Whew...we have been covering a lot of ground. We've seen a lot of schools already and we're still not in LA yet!

It turns out g-girl is a Mills alum - Mills is an incredibly beautiful women's college in Oakland. It's more like a park than a school, and there's a lot to be said for all-women's education. Fiona liked it a lot, and said she'd be happy to go there. She also like USF well enough, mainly because it's in the middle of San Francisco, which is great. St. Mary's was acceptable as a lower choice.



Santa Clara was the favorite coming out of SF and surrounding areas, though. And who could blame her? It is the most beautiful campus, with incredible gardens, gorgeous buildings and friendly staff. Check out that wisteria!



This morning we were in Sarah-Hope's neighborhood, UC Santa Cruz. Fiona loved it so much she had to dance through the woods. It's currently in first place, at least until we hit Santa Barbara tomorrow.

And then this afternoon we rolled into San Luis Obispo to take a look at Cal Poly, which is down near the bottom of the pack. It's okay, and it's a good education, but it's so big.



And the best thing about road trips? How else would you see a giant artichoke?

Adventures in Googleland

I'm posting this from my BIL's commuter apartment in sunny Mountain View, CA (home of Google) and where we have been staying since Thursday night. Mountain View is actually a cool place - there's a little downtownish place where there are a couple of blocks of cheek-to-cheek restaurants, most of which have sidewalk tables and all of which stay open into the late evening.

Fiona and I have been looking at schools, so far hitting Sta. Clara, Mills, Berkeley, USF, Stanford, St. Mary's. On Tuesday we leave for Sta. Cruz, San Luis Obispo and points south.

I was totally expecting cooler weather so I packed kind of wrong (Why oh why are my beloved flipflops in La Jolla?) and even optimistically packed some of my knitted warmy things, but it looks like they'll go unused yet again.

Yesterday we were only going to visit USF, so we thought we'd go on a little yarn crawl first. Armed with mapquest directions, we made our way to Uncommon Threads in Los Altos. First of all, Los Altos has a cute little shopping area, much like Girard in my beloved La Jolla, but SO MUCH BETTER. Sigh.




Anyway, Uncommon Threads is a great yarn shop...in my opinion, not as great as Knitting in La Jolla, but it is roomier. I got to see a ribwarmer all knitted up, which I'd never seen before except in photos. And which, PS, I won't be making one of anytime soon, at least for myself. I think it would actually subtract inches from my height and add them to my hips - no thanks.

I also got to touch a bunch of Jamieson's wool, which I've almost bought a boatload full of before sight unseen, and discovered it's scratchy. Even after swatching. Even after washing. Still a little too scratchy for me. So see? Yarn shopping ends up saving me money in the longrun.


Instead I came home with some of my beloved Koigu, which was there in the flesh and you see pictured at the top and below, and some Lana Grossa sockyarn, and some little 4" dpns in size 2 for said sockyarn. Remember, it's vacation yarn!



After Uncommon Threads, we hit the 101 north and headed for ImagiKnits in San Francisco. It turns out that ImagiKnits is smack in the Castro, where, I'll tell you right now, people are having a damn good time on the weekends. In looking for a link for you just now, I found out that I Remember Mama took place in the Castro...it doesn't look like, however, you'll find anyone anyone vaguely resembling Irene Dunne there now.

Fiona tried to get some pictures of the local landmarks from my moving vehicle as we cruised for a parking spot (in vain), but sadly, no photo of Moby Dick. We gave up trying to park and headed for USF (pictured below) instead.



Last night we took in a show at the Eureka Theatre on Jackson, where the 42nd Street Moon puts on lost or obscure Broadway gems from the golden era. We saw Plain and Fancy, a musical about the Amish, I kid you not, from way before Weird Al even had the idea for this. It was actually fabulous!

Despite the parking, San Francisco remains just about my favorite city. It's got the culture and the art scene, it's got nightlife, it's got great food, and it's tolerant. It's tolerant almost to the point of being intolerant, true, but I love it. And everywhere you look, there's something beautiful.

And now, since it's Sunday, your weekly dose of Snoop, weighing himself.



"I gained 8 ounces this week!"