The Alchemy of Knitting

Bobbin’s Nest, a small yarn and fabric store in Santa Clara, had a huge sale during the month of May — a “moving” sale since they’re closing down their brick & mortar to focus on their online store, instead. Initially, when the first email went out at the beginning of May, I deleted it to avoid temptation. But as a I got more absorbed into knitting and as Bobbin’s Nest sent out more emails towards the end of May, I finally took a look online just to see if I would be interested in anything.

I wanted to own a stash of yarn that wasn’t acrylic. I’ve never knitted with anything except acrylic and a ramie blend that I picked up from Daiso a couple years ago. So, I looked through what was left in Bobbin’s Nest inventory and laid my eyes on Sanctuary yarn by Alchemy, a 30% silk / 70% wool blend. Twisted up in these skeins, I hope it’s not blasphemy saying it feels pretty similar to the Caron Simply Soft yarns I’ve been knitting with (and love a lot!).

I probably wouldn’t have grabbed these if they weren’t on sale, though (more than 50% off the regular price). I find it funny that these are made by a company called “Alchemy”. I opened up my mail while (re)watching Fullmetal Alchemist — how appropriate! I’m saving these skeins for a future project, though I don’t know what yet, perhaps a cowl once I get the hang of circular needles.

Speaking of circular needles, Bobbin’s Nest also had knitting needles on sale at heavy discounts. I have been enjoying knitting with my first pair of circular needles, but they are only good for larger projects since they are 29″ circulars. So, I decided to buy smaller needles at various sizes since they were $3 each — what a freakin’ steal! So I bought 12″ circulars in size 4, 6 and 8. I was hoping for something shorter, but 12″ was the shortest length available; seems that anything shorter than 12″ only exists in interchangeable needle sets or I’m just not looking hard enough.

Anyway, pretty happy with my purchase and don’t plan on purchasing any more yarn until I use up what’s in my stash now. Looking forward to starting a project with the Sanctuary yarn!

Avocado houseplant, 1 month later

About a month ago, I saved an avocado pit and poked sticks in it and left it sitting in a jar full of water, occasionally refilling the glass jar to the brim.

A reader had commented on that post about how her son, with success, experimented on sprouting an avocado pit by wrapping it in a damp paper towel and placing it in a plastic bag and letting it sit in the sun. That resulted in nothing for me, so I tossed that and kept hoping for the one in the jar to sprout someday.

After two or three weeks, I thought it would have sprouted. Nothing. Not even a teensy hint of it now. I wondered if it had something to do with the amount of water it was being submerged in while suspended on the jar, so I switched the avocado pit to a small bowl, where more — about half — of the pit is suspended in water when the bowl is full of water.

Perhaps I should have used toothpicks instead of dowels I cut and carved myself, which are much thicker. Or maybe I should’ve just dunked the whole pit in a jar sans toothpicks. It might even be time to just try with a new avocado pit altogether, though I’m still placing a little bit of hope in this one.

I’m not giving up yet!

Font Friday: Too Much Coffee & Donuts

Leave it to my BFF in a time zone two hours ahead of me to be the first to wish me a Happy National Donut Day!

While this font is more coffee than donuts, it’s still good enough to point out today and let your brain digest it. Or have your brain be digested by it … what, with all this zombie talk recently. Agh!

Unfortunately, there are no doughnuts to be had in this font at all (preposterous!). Indeed, too much coffee, not enough deep friend goodness. I guess I’ll have to satisfy my needs by going to the donut shop down the street.

My Spoonflower Votes: Crests

When I saw the theme for Family Crests on Spoonflower a couple weeks ago, I had an idea. Mine would inevitably have a lion in it. Then, I just never got to it.

I knew this would be a difficult theme compared to other recent Spoonflower contests, so I wasn’t surprised at the minimal number of entries. There were a handful that were really great — stunning, cute, clever, funny — but in the end, I narrowed down to these three:

Love and Family by demigoutte. I loved this. It was satisfying without being overwhelming. Every nook and cranny filled without looking too busy. And! If you take a closer look, you’ll notice ice cream in the crest — much tastier than toothpaste, wouldn’t you say? The designer’s uncle is an ice-cream maker, so it wasn’t a random input. Love love love!

8 bit Family Crest by leighr. With plans on attending a minibosses concert tomorrow, I’ve definitely had old school video games (NES!) on my mind — I couldn’t pass this up, especially after having attending the Zelda Symphony at the SF Symphony back in March (which was beautiful, amazing, and so … epic). Based on the Hylian Shield from Zelda, although this shield isn’t used by Link until later games, this designer brings back the days of blowing into plastic cartridges, button mashing when you only had a directional pad and red A & B buttons, and midi music with the use of 8-bit aesthetics and the dungeon-block background. Hmm, I must go find my gold cartridge somewhere, now.

Fodio. Delineo. Ludo. Amo. by leeleeandthebee. Detailed and specific, I love that I can pick out laptops, dice, books, a paintbrush, and shovel in this crest. The designer explains her choice of objects and turns her story into something playful and cool on fabric! Her selection of Latin words on the crest ribbon translates into: “Dig. Draw. Play. Love.”

Although many of the designs for this contest were based on personal experiences and backgrounds, there are a few that I wouldn’t mind getting and making something out of, like the 8-bit crest above!

WIP Wed: 642 Things To Draw

I forgot I had this book.

I bought the “642 Things to Draw” book from Blick at the beginning of 2011 but still, to this day, have not put a pencil to any of these pages yet. Shame on me. Shame, shame, shame.

So, I’m hoping to change that. One drawing a week? Doesn’t sound too hard. A few of my friends have done or are doing the 365 Project / One Photo A Day thing, so sketching once a week should be cake. But we’ll see. I always say these things and they go down the drain, like how I told myself I’d use this book right when I bought it. Pfft.

I found my charcoal pencils (my favorite medium!), thin sticks, and blending sticks in mysketch pouch, along with a tiny ruler, a tin of 6 weighted drawing pencils and a pencil sharpener. I know my colored pencils and other weighted pencils are on a shelf, so I have absolutely no excuse. All my materials are gathered. I just need to draw.

And is it nerdy that I opened up the sketchbook and the first thing I noticed was that the themes were set in FF DIN? Type geekery at its finest — and proud.

Okra, week 3

Of all the things I’ve planted so far (arugula, basil, okra, avocado, pineapple), the okra seeds have been the most fulfilling. They have survived and progressed the most.

The last two updates included the progress on the arugula seeds, which I planted inside at the same time as the okra. Unfortunately, those just didn’t make it to the second week, so I gave up. I did, however, buy another packet of arugula seeds and will try again and keep them out of the sun more often than not.

Last week, the okra sprouts were only about 2 inches tall at most. Since then, I’ve taken out the weaker seedlings and sprouts and left the tall, strong ones — which all happen to be on one edge.

Now they’re 3 to 4 inches high, still going strong. A bit exciting, a bit scary. I hope they keep on at it! I’m unsure if I should transplant them to another container, a deeper container. I’ll have to wait and see, because I don’t want to mess with them now.

If I buy another packet of okra seeds, I’ll probably plant them outside in the bigger planter (where I had originally planted the now-gone basil seeds/sprouts).

I still have yet to tackle the backyard, but I’ll wait until it’s not so windy here since I’ll have to spend some time weeding before I do any gardening out there.

 

Curry Mango Turkey Sandwich

Happy Memorial Day! Hope everyone’s been having a wonderful extended weekend, whether you stayed home, grilled, or went out and enjoyed fresh air somewhere else.

I’ve realized that one of the advantages (or disadvantages, sometimes) to working from home occasionally is that I don’t snack as often. I’m less likely to eat with my eyes, because there isn’t a box of fruits or some baked goods a co-worker brought in sitting deliciously on one of the kitchen tables in the office. When I’m at home and lunchtime comes around, I don’t go out. Besides the fact that I am quite comfortable in my sleepwear and don’t feel like changing to go out for food, I save money and end up eating healthier while I’m at it (about 99% of the time, really).

Most of the time, I resign to fruit or oatmeal. Other times I remember that I have extra goodies in my fridge that I almost forget about. Like mangoes!

I like to put little tidbits of flavor and experiment with sandwiches. This turned out quite delicious when I had it last week:

- whole grain oatnut bread
- turkey breast
- slice of yellow onion
- slices of mango
- curry powder

Mustard and mayo optional, I just put these altogether and warmed up the sandwich before sticking in the mango slices. Surprisingly good and filling! I had cooking chicken with mango, peppers, and maybe a little bit of curry powder before, so I didn’t think this would be too out of the ordinary.

I love oatnut bread.