Things I Miss About LA

It goes without saying that I miss my friends and family, but these are the things I miss most about my hometown:

My Old Neighborhood (Sunset Blvd. and Martel Ave.)

Summertime movie watching at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Eating the yummy food at Lala's Argentine Grill

Graumann's Chinese Theater (I loved catching a movie here after a long day of work, all by my lonesome)

The Arclight (ditto - and still have my membership card!)

The Bigfoot Lodge (where I first learned the true art of graceful drunkeness)

Late night dinner/early breakfast at Mel's Diner after drinking with friends.

Late night grubbing on Carney's chili hot dog and chili cheese fries.

Feeding my Superman obsession at Meltdown Comic Bookstore

Driving the PCH on the way to El Matador beach

Being able to look up and see the Hollywood sign

And, finally, getting to see Hepcat and Ozomatli at least once a year.

Knitting Origins

I think most of us crafters have been influenced by some crafty person who came before us. I grew up watching my mom make lots of things around the house: curtains, pillow shams, sofa covers, clothing, halloween costumes, jewelry, etc. I still own a shirt she hand-embroidered for my dad when they were still just dating in the early 70s and it was one of my favorite shirts to wear in my early twenties. I was so awed by the fact that she could take basic materials and whip them up into something that was both pretty and useful. I think it's fair to say I was destined to want to make things.

I picked up my first pair of knitting needles at age 7, when my mom was pregnant with my sister. She was making little sweaters and booties and I loved the clickety-clack of the needles and the way her hands flew around creating stitches. I wanted to learn to how she did that thing with the sticks and string! I wanted to make that clickety-clack sound! My first complete project was a little blanket for my Barbie, in combination pink, white, and baby blue yarn that Red Heart Yarn still makes (I think.) I continued knitting and toying with other crafts, always encouraged by my mother, but after a few years, knitting fell to the wayside as other things became more important in my adolescence. Then in my early 20s, a friend and I drove to Pismo Beach on vacation, where we stopped at an adorable fabric and craft shop. She saw some yarn she loved and I suddenly recalled "Hey! I know how to make stuff with that!" Of course, it'd been years since I'd even been around a pair of knitting needles, so back to my mom I went for a refresher course. I remembered everything I loved about knitting and just a few months later I was surrounded by knitting books, all kinds of yarn, and every needle size in existance. When I find a new obsession, I go whole hog. I haven't stopped knitting since and I daresay I know more about knitting now than my mom does, though she'll always be the faster knitter.

While speaking to her last week, she mentioned having a crap load of buttons she's collected over the years (she's never been one to pass up a good bargain) and wanted to contribute them towards my crafty business. She's so proud of my small endeavor and pleased that something she used to love doing as a hobby or practical need could possibly become a passion-filled career for me. And she loves that it all stemmed from her own mother, who at near 90 years of age can still knit and crochet circles around us both.

Anyway, peep the small collection she sent me:

Aren't some of them just the cheesiest? I think those are the best ones. But tell me, what are your own crafty origins?

Etsy Finds Friday and Fruitless Knitting

Here's this week's picks, including some from local Miami artisans:

From left - right:

pixiebell - Handmade Knit Hat Pixie Hat in Green Grass

LoveSugar - Cherie Darling Owl 8x10 Archival Print

Anoriginaljewelry - Camera Silhouette Necklace
ElleGanT - MOUSE cute cashmere hat
Mishky - Dreamcatcher series Turquoise Gold and Coral Sterling Silver
GiantDwarf - Rosette Fascinator - The Bluebird
thekarmatree - Birds of a Feather Mod Birds Friendship Necklace
jDUCT - Toy Soldier Duct Tape Wallet
Studiojellyfish - Comic Bangle
Signaturetshirts - El Jefe The Boss Spanish T Shirt

True to my word, as soon as I finished up the latest pair of mittens I was working on, I immediately switched over to making a ladies' beanie I've had in mind for a while.  I decided to just wing it - no notes to go off of or pattern to adapt and adjust - and it was going to turn out AWESOME.

I'll state it bluntly: I was not successful.

I wanted this item to have some texture and detail - relatively different from the simple beanies I've made so far - and while I like the way my ribbing turned out, the rest became a disaster pretty quickly. The great thing about knitting is that if something isn't working, all you have to do is undo it. No yarn wasted, no needles harmed. But, boy, does it feel like a waste of a day. Knitting is not a quick activity, folks! I suppose I could "cheat" and take a look at how someone else has accomplished something similar, but I take very seriously the fact that what we sell has to be original and well-executed and I don't want my items influenced even subconsciously by someone else's design. I refuse to look at the details of other folks work for that very reason and at the most reference "how to" books when trying to remember a basic technique. I'm not saying the items I create have never been made before (I didn't invent the concept of knitting beanies or mittens or scarves, afterall) but how I accomplish the creation of them is all my own. So, I've set aside my hideous beanie for now and gone back to the mittens. But after this set is done, away to try again I go!

Crafting this weekend will be pretty limited for me since we have friends in from DC and plenty of fun-having to do before they leave Sunday night, including watching them perform Saturday at the Miami Salsa Congress! But I intend to make time to try to tackle another new pattern - maybe not the beanie again yet - so I don't get stuck in the mitten rut. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Friggin Innernet

So, my internet keeps going down and up. Something about the modem or a cable or my footprint being too slow - I don't know. I don't understand that fancy speak. I always think my footprint's pretty slow but that's 'cause I don't like to run.

HEY OH!

(I slay me. I'll be here all night, folks!)

Anywho, AT&T will be sending someone out tomorrow to fix it, but while I still have it on an "up" moment, how 'bout a blog post!

As you know, there isn't much going on with my days besides knittin' mittens. The above is what I've managed to complete in the last week, minus one that I sent to my sister as part of her gift package. She loves nautical-themed items (much like me - go figure!) so I made her an anchor-embellished pair of mittens.

I first made them with a white rope, thinking the colors complimented each other best, but it was just so GLARING against the blue and the gray. So I switched to the wheat color that I'd originally been using and I think I like it much better. It looks more...authentic? I don't know - you know what I mean. Or do you? What do you think? Either way, I think next time I'm going to center the design just a bit higher, but other than that I like the way they turned out. And they look cute on! You'll just have to trust me on that since I've no photo to show you that. 

I've decided I'm gonna finish up another couple sets of mittens and then start making the prototypes of all the other items I want to carry - for a little change of pace. And to make sure I'm happy with my designs before I start ordering supplies to make them. This way, maybe I can post at least one of every item in the shop and start getting some feedback. I don't know why I was so emphatic about completing each design in large batches before moving on, but I made the rules, so I can break them if I want to! Hopefully, I'll have more to show you than just mittens by the end of next week (although, at least two more designs are still in the "mittens" category). Then I'll continue with my batch making.

Oooh, and guess what? I'm in another treasury! This time, a nautical-inspired one created by Stitchy Impressions.  I love being "treasured"!

Weekend Recap

This past Friday we went to see a small exhibit entitled Falsos Positivos at a gallery near our home. While the exhibit was interesting and well done, the best part was running into Karyna from Papersquid and being able to chat with her for a bit that night. She's so friendly and makes such pretty prints and stationary. Here's some examples of her work:

Gorgeous, right? You can see more at her etsy shop here. So glad I'm getting a chance to know her. Besides that brief activity, I spent the rest of the weekend working it up like some sort of craft fiend. Not only did I knock out all the gifts I wanted to make for my sister (while singing at the top of my lungs to whatever shuffled through my iTunes) but I also managed to make three more mitten sets! Suck on that carpal tunnel and back pain! You can't keep me down! Ain't nothing gonna stop me from crafting! (except for maybe lack of supplies or actual immobility.)

I felt such accomplishment this weekend - with all the usual errands and quality time spending with The Doomed and Moondoggie, I'm usually lucky if I can get ONE set of mittens done in both days - and when The Doomed saw me sweating it out in my dining room workspace, he came up with this for me:

Can you spot Moondoggie?

Way to contribute to my craftiness! It's like an IV of crafty energy! He knows I hate how hot the dining room gets and the fact that I have to share the space with our actual meal eating, so he brought in some legs he got from who-knows-where, plopped an oversized dry-erase board he had brought home for himself on top, and - tah dah! - instant table. So now I get to work right next to my desk and underneath the deliciousness of two air conditioning vents AND an overhead fan and easily collapse everything away when I don't need it. Such a great solution for our limited space and my anal retentive need to have everything looking neat at all times.

I capped off what I consider an AWESOME weekend with some delicious steak and mash potatoes that Boy Toy prepared and grilled, Inka Cola drinking, a little knitting, and True Blood and Mad Men watching. Ah, sweet satisfaction. It's the simple things that make me happy. Hope your weekend was just as great!