This weekend sucked for photography. The sunsets were less than awe inspiring, the location I picked was actually not well thought out & it was realatively a let down. Though, I did take some pictures.
Who would have known that this was right in downtown Ventura? Not me.
Retired as a profession. I want his job!
Outside my favorite sushi restaurant.
Octopus! Yum 
Love this place!
End of a good evening!
I would like to extend a call for help through out blogland. I’ve noticed through my stats that there are quite a few people dropping by daily and though you may not comment I would love you all to come out of the wood work & drop me a line.
If you can go to my flickr page http://flickr.com/photos/preita/ and tell me which is your favorite of my photos I would greatly appreciate it.
Tonight I’m heading out of work early to get my butt up into the foot hills to photograph the sunset on the Channel Islands. Something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while and thanks to my lovely husband I finally have the glass capable of doing this comp justice. Pictures on monday!
Since I refuse to leave ya all empty handed here’s one of my favorites. 
Thanks a ton guys!!!
It could have been a disaster. I worked all the possibilities out in my mind this morning when my knitting bag snapped & hit the driveway. Thankfully the parents driveway it at a rather sharp incline so it didn’t fall far. The bag itself hitting the ground wouldn’t normally matter, but in this instance it desided that it was going to take my camera with it (completely tangled in my telephoto lens). Both camera & lens landed softly on top of the bag or else I would be irrate.
I’ve had this bag about 2 weeks. There is probably only one thing I don’t like about it & that’s that the lobster clasps like to randomly come undone, but I think Matt has fixed that for the most part.
This morning the entire ring that the lobster clasp clipped to ripped off the hardware. I thought about all the possible actions I could take & what would happen. I could bring it back to Anacapa Fine Yarns to return it, or replace it, but I like this color & I didn’t want to really deal with that. I love that store & I hate the thought of having to return something this expensive to the store 
So I wrote the company who makes these bags an email expressing my dismay at what happened and asking if I could return it for repair.
In less than an hour they had replied stating that they were also upset that this happened & that of course they would repair it instantly & are currently sending me a shipping label to send them the bag.
I feel extremely accomplished & satisfied with the results. If you are ever contemplating buying from Offhand Designs I completely recomend it. They are fantastic & deffinately back up their products.
I’m really stuck on hats right now. Soon I will have some substancial projects to share I promise.
Pattern: Claudia Hat (Ravelry Link)
Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Paris Night
US 4 & 6 DPN’s
Not much to say about this pattern. It’s completely lovely in the malabrigo (as almost everything is!). Fits perfectly for my tastes, nice & stretchy. I screwed up the ribbing on the top 1/2 of the hat. It’s supposed to be 2X1 but being me I did 2X2. I like it just fine & I didn’t realize my mistake till I had got to the decreases.
This pattern is completely lovely. Easy to read, easy to follow, just plain EASY. Lovely finished product too. Just enough mindlessness knitting to be good for using your brain for something else. I don’t know why more people haven’t knit this, but you totally should!
So as promised to a few of you, a full write up review on the Dependence Hat.
Pattern: Dependence Hat
Specs: Size US 6 DPN’s
Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Bobby Blue: Roughly 5/8′th of a skien.
As you can probably already tell I changed the pattern. I can’t stand a pointed top hat. I just can’t STAND IT! So I ended up chopping off the cabling chart at row 40. I completely ignored rows 41-64. Though I love the idea of continuing the cables to the crown I just didn’t have the math skills on the plane to deal. I thought about weaving the strands back & forth, but like I said, I was lacking in brain power at that moment.
Since row 40 leaves you at a 4×2 rib (for one row) I continued that with a simple right (left?) twist.
I continued knitting 6 rows for every twist 3 times before starting my decreases. I decreased like this. *K4, P2tog* repeat till end of round. Knit next 3 rounds as apears (knitting the knits & purling the purls). Then *SSK, K2tog, P1* repeat till end of round. Knit the next 2 rounds as they apear (knitting the knits & purling the purls). This will leave you with a 2X1 rib. *K2tog, P1* repeat till end of round. Knit one round as stitches appear. Next *K2tog* repeat for 2 rounds, break yarn. (NOTE: My hat came up a little bit on the short side so feel free to change this & add more rows before decreasing, like I said, I was on plane for the majority of this knit.)
Overall this pattern is quite good. The chart is well written & easy to follow. There were a few parts in the begining where I didn’t quite understand what was being said, but that was because there were supurflous directions when I am used to having quite sparce wording in my patterns.
What I would do diffrently: First off, though it looks uber damn cool to have the “V’s” come right down at the temple you loose the regular smaller gaged rib on this hat. That means that with the malabrigo it’s already stretching out a little. After just 3 days of wear I could tell it wasn’t hugging my head right anymore. I think this could easily be compensated just by starting out with smaller needles even for those first 4 rows. (I would also extend those 4 rows to about 8 next time).
Also, this hat is SUPER tight. I hate tight hats normally. I am a short haired chick & I hate anything that smashes my carefully coifed do. It’s not like you can fluff that back up either. It’s SMASHED in this hat. To combat this I would use US 8′s next time. Seriously, I don’t have a big head either, my head is 21 inches & this hat barely squishes over it. I’d also like to state that I’m a LOOSE knitter & still made this hat tight. If you are sizing for a man’s head please gage!
All in all a great knit. Just enough of a challange with out getting tedious. I would suggest that you learn to cable with out a cable needle though because there is tons of 1X1 cables (Actually I think the whole hat is 1×1 cables!)
One last final note. See that indent in the knitting, right in the middle of my forhead? Yeah, add a few more rows to the inital rib, all sides do that & it’s super annoying.
This past weekend I was in Minnesota for my grandmothers funeral. This weekend it was also -10 with a windchill of -40 (for those of you fortunate enough not to know what a wind chill is, it’s what the temperature FEELS LIKE when it hits your unprotected skin.) Needless to say it was cold. The kind of cold where you honestly couldn’t care what you look like just so that you are covered from the cold.
The funeral was nice, though very Catholic & sometimes quite random. The Priest had obviously been denying his sexuality for about 40 years and according to my uncle’s partner “Couldn’t be gayer if he tried!”. Which I though was quite funny. I do say that I have never seen a priest so fastidious about getting all the crumbs out of the chalice, I mean he rinced like 4 times with holy water. Also there were bits were it seemed like was tired & just went up to his chair & sat, while no one did anything. Maybe it’s just because I’m not Catholic that I don’t fully understand these things.
I did get the oppertunity to visit at length with my Dad & my grandparents. My grandparents as always are just beyond fucking cool. The amount of stuff they have done & still do (well into their 80′s) is just astounding.
Not many pictures were taken because it was just to f-ing cold. I do have a few to upload though.
Many are like these, completely random & inside.
We visited Uncle Hugo’s Fantacy Bookstore & bought many a books I used to go here every other weekend with my dad when I was little to pick out new books to read. Thankfully we brought 2 suite cases.
And required yarn pron.
A few purchaces from the Yarnery. The small package is buttons which I will show later A skien of Malabrigo Merino, 3 rowan 4 ply in apple, 6 rowan 4 ply in “I don’t know”, 2 brown sheep worsted, & 3 diffrent sets of buttons. I finished Dependence
I will show you better pictures later I promise with a FULL write up on mods this pattern might need if you don’t want a weird looking beautifully cabled hat.
I have a large variety of UFO’s to my name right now. Wouldn’t that be cool if I was talking about flying sausers? I’d want those too
I added 3 new hats to the project list for Minnesota. I think I will finish 2 deffinately. I can’t bring my massive shark hook of a cable needle on the plane so I’m going to have to make due with mock cables
Also the strap is the perfect length being that it sits right as a good purse should, right at the ribs (slightly on the back) but short/long enough that I can whip it right around in front so I don’t have to think about people’s hands going in there. Yes I realize I’m from Minnesota & I’ve never been pick pocketed, but that might also be because in crowds I wear my purse UNDER my coat. Just a thought. That was taught to me by my cousin who did have her purse slashed open on the subway.Yes, another one. They are all slightly diffrent but not very much so. One I hemmed the edge to make a beanie, one I left out the ribbing at all & had the cables right down to the brim & this one, well, this was knit as the pattern directed.
Malabrigo Mernio Worsted in Olive on US 6 & 8′s. Perfectly stretchy for the man’s head it’s intended for. Nice & long too. Only thing I did was omit one chart repeat in the actual body of the hat.
I think my monitor at home is crazy bright compared to any I’m currently using. These pictures all look so DARK. Please comment if it’s dark on your screen too so I can adjust at home. I’ll get some better pictures of the recipient wearing this I promise.
I am currently working on quite a few diffrent hats because I am on sweater burn out & have lots of random 1 skein colorways to my name. Right now I am doing Dependence in Bobby Blue (looks like robins egg blue to me!) Malabrigo Mernio. I have about…7 more skeins of malabrigo in random colors so if you are so inclined to request a 1 skien project (hat, scarf, fingerless mits) let me know I’d be happy to whip those out for you.
In some random notes:
1. I saw a tow truck yesterday that literally had one car chained on top of another car it was towing. I tried to take a picture but alas, his load was too heavy to go my speed & I wasn’t about to be a dick to people behind me also trying to get to work.
2. I think I need to start going to a diffrent starbucks for my mid afternoon 1pt (on weight watchers) latte because I keep standing next to super model wanna-be’s. I have never felt so short & fat & ordinary in all my life.
3. A small hawk flew about 3 feet in front of my face this morning while I was walking up to work, it swouped up to a light pole & shook it’s but at me agressively. I again wish I had my camera.
4. I lost 4.8 pounds last week. Last night I had my first official weigh in at weight watchers & I seem to be doing good. I know weight watchers works, and I like rules so it’s a good fit for me. Almost 5 pounds in the first week. I’m pretty happy about that. My goal is to get back to my pre-wedding weight by Matt & my 5th anniversary this September. That’s about 35 pounds & I know I can totally do that. I have a much further long term goal but lets all celebrate the small victories.
“I waited for so long outside myself. You see, I was pretending to be someone else. I was longing to see who I wanted to be.” -Yael Naim
It has finally stopped with the terrible weather in California. Finally we are going to be able to wring ourselves out and dry in the sun.
Course I’m leaving for Minnesota in 2 more days. My dad faithfully reported that it was 25* today. I’m hoping that it gets up into the 30′s before I get there. Though, honestly, it doesn’t really matter. Your blood never thins out that much if you are born in the north.
Is it ever possible to get sick of the beach? I’m always amazed that more people aren’t out and on it all the time. Being near the water, out feeling the strong winds on the pier, I would live on it if I could.
I have picked out about 5 hat patterns to take with me on the 4 days total I will be gone from California. I wonder how many I will finish? I deffinately miss Minnesota. I miss Ohio too, but in a diffrent way, I miss the people in Ohio more than the actual state. With Minnesota, the state itself is in my blood. The smells, the people, the places, everything, I miss it all. I secretly pray every night that Matt will be picked up and transfered out to the US Bank corporate offices in Minneapolis. Maybe, who knows? That man seems to have more ambition and more clought every day. And honestly, I couldn’t be prouder.
This weekend was actually quite nice. Friday Chuck made some amazing baked cod and we all had such a nice family dinner. I come from a family that doesn’t nessisarly enjoy each other’s company as much as my in laws. Yes we all love each other, but I think we are all a little bit more high strung and get a little annoyed by each other faster. The Salyer’s just do things diffrently. The love is always genuine and unconditional. The depth of the love in this family is a bit overwhelming sometimes but once it washes over you, and you are finally immersed you realize that family really is all that matters.
In knitting news I radomly cast on the Norwegian Snail Mittens by Adrian Bizilia from The Knitters Book of Yarn. Yes, I cast these on, me, who said I would never do colorwork. The ladies at knitting laughed that this would finally slow down my psycho fast knitting. And in a way it did…a little.
Hello crazy cute snail mits.
Since I am using stash yarn I didn’t have the full 500yds of 2 ply (to be held double) for the mitts. I had 2 skiens of 108yds aran weight instead. So I made an excutive decision to make these fingerless mits. Hey, I live in California, what do I need full on mittens for anyways?
I dropped the welted cuff for yardage concerns, adding instead a simple 1×1 rib for 1 inch. I then knit in pattern until right after the first swirl, then added matching ribbing as for the cuff cast off. I did the thumb the same as in the pattern (I’m doing a gusset on the next one, the thumb hole wasn’t quite large enough for me, (it will be with some better blocking).
First one done saturday morning. Hello cute owl tea pot, I love you both.
Saturday morning staples. Since it takes time to brew the coffee I usually start with tea. Please ignore the un-woven thumb stings. O_O
I cast on these mitts friday knit & finished them sunday nithg
How cute is this texture? 
Spiral Hat in Malabrigo (NUM!) hollyhock colorway. This hat has TIGHT fabric. I would deffinately check gage & even size up. It’s a hair swasher for sure, but so cute!
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