the Akamai Knitter

Even though I’ve picked up my knitting again, I really have nothing to show you. I’m almost halfway through the Ocean Feathers Stole, I finished one of the Monkey Envy socks, and I got a few more inches done on the Springtime Triangle Shawl. So progress shots would be boring and dull, even though I’m making some headway.

Instead, I thought I’d show you what’s been on my wheel. Here’s another 4ozs of more Merino roving from Yarn Wench that I spun up into another 3ply. This colorway is called Napa.

I think this one turned out much better then my first attempt at 3ply. Though I haven’t counted the exact yardage, I know there’s more for me to squeeze out a pair of socks. I think the singles were much more consistent too.

The colors aren’t something I’d normally pick out for me, but I seem to pick things out of my preferred repertoire when I spin. I think it’ll be interesting to see how I like to knit with these colors.

I’m really eager to get this yarn on the needles and I hope to do so once I finish with the current pair of socks on the needles. I’ll probably just do a simple rib pattern to properly show off the color pattern.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a shot of the Ko’olau Range that I took on the way home from Kailua a few weeks ago. The haze you see isn’t mist from the clouds, it’s vog, which is nasty stuff that gets blown this way when we have south winds. It’s mostly made up of volcanic ash and it’s hell on my allergies. It’s hard to complain though, when the temperatures are in the 80′s!

Kung Hee Fat Choy! It’s a new year everyone and this time it’s my year. That’s right, I’m a rat and proud of it.

In celebration of this special year, I received a tiny little rat figurine.

The piece of paper you see with him is full of cute little tidbits of information. For example, my flower is the Peony and that means “dignified like a king”. Does this mean I’m like royalty?

It also says:

“You will have many chances. Do not miss them. But if you are too proud and lose your presence of mind, or get lost in an indecent life, and you’ll lose your fortune immediately.”

Hrm. Now I’m worried about having an indecent stash. ;-)

In our family there are a few traditions that we practice every year. There’s the red paper we buy from China Town and put near the doorways to bring in good luck. This one says, “good health throughout your household.” Good health is always a good thing.

Before we put up the new paper on New Year’s Eve, we burn the old paper to burn away any bad luck from the previous year. This is always an adventure as I’m more then a little afraid of fire.

There’s also a frenzy to clean the house to sweep away the bad luck. This has to be done on the eve of the new year as there’s no cleaning done on the first day of the year. That supposedly sweeps away any good luck.

Another must do for our Chinese New Year celebration is Chinese food.

There’s the traditional Jai that we have every year, Mongolian Beef, and Salted Fish Fried Rice. Delicious! And no, I didn’t cook a single dish. I’m a disaster in the kitchen. :)

Another thing I like to do for New Year’s Eve is finish a project. So I started another felted fish. I was able to get the knitting done, but not the felting. Hopefully this won’t mean that my year will be filled with only partially finished items.

On New Year’s Day, I started a new project in the hopes that my year will be filled with beautiful and joyous projects. More on that another time, I need to felt a fish.

May your New Year be filled with good health and beautifully joyous projects too!

What a weekend! There were highs and there were lows. There was good and there was bad. There’s a lot to say.

It all started when my camera broke. The lens just would not extend. I didn’t drop it and I didn’t spill anything on it. It just would. not. work. The only way to fix it would have been to replace the whole freaking lens. That would cost me nearly as much as a new camera!

So I got a new camera. A Nikon Coolpix S51. In a dark blue and silver, which just happen to be Dallas Cowboy colors. I swear that wasn’t my intention. I was just looking for a good deal. :)

I also got a nifty new camera case to hold my nifty new camera. Here’s a picture of it taken with said camera.

The Nikon has 2 megapixels less then my former camera. Can you tell the difference?

Another good thing to come out of my camera breaking was dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant, Payao Thai. I had some red curry Thai hot and boy, was it good. When your lips start burning, you know the spices are just right. I would have taken a picture, but at that point I had no working camera which was the point of the whole trip.

Unfortunately, between the playoff games and my trip to Best Buy, I didn’t have time to get beading wire for earrings. So there was no beading this weekend. Hopefully, I can make it to the shop on Thursday for the wire.

However there was much knitting. Unfortunately, I can’t show you exactly what I was knitting. :( It’s a test knitting piece for Hattie of Stitch Therapy. I should eventually be able to blog more about it in June.

What I can tell you is that it’s a pair of socks and that I started them again and again, trying to get the yarn and the pattern to work. It’s not the fault of the pattern, which is great. It’s just that sometimes you really need to find just the right yarn to fit just the right pattern. You know how it is.

I finally hit on a yarn that worked the best on my third try, which was some TOFUtsies I received for Christmas.

It’s my first time working with this yarn and it’s been a delight. It doesn’t exactly stripe nor does it pool. I would have never chosen this colorway for myself, but there seems to be some strange conspiracy between various people trying to induce me into the throng of pink lovers.

(I figure I can at least show you the foot. Ain’t much going on there, but a craptastic night shot I took with flash.)

All I can say is that while I have come to terms with knitting with the stuff, I don’t think I’ll be adding much of that color to my wardrobe. These will be gifted to a friend who has a much great appreciation of all things pink.

The worst low of the weekend was the Cowboys loss to the Giants on Sunday. Of all the ways to end the season this was the most disappointing and heartbreaking ways to do it.

As always, I turned to my knitting for comfort and came up with a finished pair of socks. I’ll have more on that tomorrow. For now, I’ll take the consolation prize in a Duke Blue Devils win over Virginia in their opening ACC season game.

There is life after football. Repeat as needed.

On Jon’s last day* here in Hawaii we took a drive out to the Pali Lookout. Unfortunately it was raining so Jon rightfully decided to forgo a photo shoot, which would have gotten his lovely camera wet. I decided to risk it with my little point and click anyway and I managed to get this picture of the clouds slowly clearing the Ko’olau Range.

After enjoying the cool winds of the Pali, we went on a driving tour of the Windward side of the island. Since I wasn’t in the driver’s seat, I gladly took the opportunity to break out the knitting needles. I managed to finish the Lagoon Pomatomus Socks and then I started a new pair of socks.

I chose some Opal yarn (ha! I still snort at the name!) that I bought way back when the yarn first debuted and they offered one of a kind colourways. I thought this would be a good colour since it’s predominantly black and hey! Project Spectrum‘s colours for the months of June and July are red, black, and metallics. The yarn has some red in it and you could even stretch facts to say that the gold is somewhat metallic looking. Just squint your eyes a bit.

I chose the Slipped Ribbed Stitch, a simple pattern from the book Sensational Knitted Socks. It makes great car knitting, since the pattern is so easily memorized. Plus, it’s not too busy for the already busy yarn.

I couldn’t believe how quickly the knitting went by. Just like I couldn’t believe how fast Jon’s visit went by. I’m already looking forward to his next visit. He was really good about how I toted my knitting around with me and how I pulled it out every chance I got. A true friend understands the opportunistic knitter in every one of us, don’t you think?

*Monday, June 4th

This has been a fantastic weekend and I have the pictures to prove it. Granted they’re all taken by Jon, but he’s such a great photographer. How can I not show off his talent as well as the beauty of the island I live on? These were all taken from the lookout at Makapu’u.

Hopefully we’ll get to take more pictures tomorrow and hopefully I’ll get some knitting done as well. In the meantime, I hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend and thank you for reading!