Places my Altoid Tin dragged me to, in San Jose, CA.

My Altoid Tin, My Beloved and I went to San Jose last week and here are some of the places we went and things that we did.

Outside of the Clarion Hotel, San Jose.

Complimentary breakfast at The Island Grill.

Making friends at The Island Grill.

Hanging out with friends, by the pool.

The Clarion Hotel, San Jose Airport was a delightful surprise. On site restaurant, room service, spacious well lit lobby in which one can knit, read or just have a cup of coffee. The food, both room service and in the restaurant, was delicious.

Hanging out with Otis, the Yarndog at Yarndogs in Los Gatos.

Yarndogs is a must see when you are in the Bay area. Wonderful yarn, helpful staff and Otis, the Yarndog. No-one batted an eyelash at our request to photograph Otis posing with My Altoid Tin.

A wonderful time was had, by all.

Shawl finished!

Here be the still un-named shawl.

Happy now, Leslie and Karen. ;)

Constructed of Tivoli Luxury Aran Tweed. The picture shows the shade, well, but it does not show the tweedy flecks of yellow, red and blue. It's a basic triangle shape with a diamond lacey pattern. Not bad for a first shot at this pattern. I want to use the same lacy diamond pattern in a half hex shawl. That will probably be the next foolishly ambitious project. I may just lose my mind totally (Shaddup, you guys. Yeah, you know who you are!) and do the math for another type of lace for the next shawl.

The shawl is finished. Washed, blocked, photographed. The whole enchilada. I have not downloaded the pics from the camera, yet, but when I do, I will post the photos here.

Connectivity, Creativity and Contemplation.

Apparently my problems of February 27th are going to be an ongoing issue. I did manage to go through the "back door", as it were, to get a message through to a fellow Raveler to let my groups know that I am not ignoring their comments, nor bailing out. I just gots issues.
Meanwhile, back on the knitting front.........
I am in the process of inventing another pattern. This time a shawl in a lace pattern. It is triangular and in a worsted weight, but the pattern will probably work for most weights of yarn. I have done all the "math" for the pattern repeats and am currently knitting the prototype. When it is done and blocked I will post pictures here and, Great Cosmic Muffin willing, on Ravelry. I scored the yarn at a Stash Swap at The Scarlet Skein. Still have to find out who donated it. I might just have to make them a gift of the prototype. :)
Still contemplating whether or not I will be making the pattern available, to the general population, at this time. I will get opinions from my fellow Scarlet Skein knitters. I value their opinions. They are some of the most talented people I know.
More news as it happens. Keep your fingers crossed for me, Fellow Ravelers.

Un-UnRaveled

I knew that if I whined about it, it would fix itself.

UnRavelry Frustrations!

I really want to play on Ravelry. Honest. Unfortunately some power unbeknownst to me is preventing my answering messages, writing new messages, posting comments, replying to comments, viewing yarns, viewing patterns, viewing projects and creating new topics. In short, all I can do, pretty much, is delete old messages. I hit a button to reply, create or view and all I get is the cute little timer swirl of dots going round and round and round. It has been happening since yesterday afternoon. I can go and do other things, in other venues, so the problem is not with my computer. (Obviously, I can post to my blog. Chuckle.) Even so, I ran all my diagnostic and maintenance whizbangs, just in case. ::::Sigh:::: If any of you that have sent me messages or posted comments which need my attention see this post, please know that I am not ignoring you, ill or lazy. I am sitting here, frustrated and waiting for my Ravelry to snap out of it.

My First (at least first written) Original Creation.

I offered to knit a sample for The Scarlet Skein and this is what I came up with.

A Rose Beret for Tracy.

And once again, I have to do things the difficult way! I wanted something special for this very special shop and the lady who owns it. Something that nobody had seen before. Something that shows off the wonderful yumminess of an incredible yarn. Something that would make people say, "I must buy this yarn!" I have been eyeing it since Tracy got it into the shop. Now I had a reason to play with it. The yarn is a locally raised Alpaca in a unique weight. It is heavier than lace, lighter than DK. Not really fingering. The yarn was held double, throughout.
The knitting of the hat may have only taken a day, but the pattern took me forever to debug. Ever try to decode and debug a pattern that is 147 years old? Then try to turn it into something that it was never intended to be? I still wake up screaming….
LOL Nah, I love a good puzzle. This was a great puzzle.

The pattern is available at The Scarlet Skein. Pop on in and take a peek.

The best compliment that I have ever recieved, from my brother.

Just wanted to post a bit of nonsense from a visit with my brother and his family for the holidays.
My brother and his wife, myself and My Beloved were sitting around after our holiday dinner on New Years day evening just chatting and catching up on the past year. (We generally only see each other once a year, since I moved from Southern California to Central California the summer of 2004.) We were discussing our "favorite" gifts. The subject of gift certificates came up. I like to get them, but I always feel like it is a "cop out" gift when I give them, so I will give one in addition to a gift. My brother said that he adores getting gift certificates. He always has. It's like two gifts in one for him. He gets something and he gets to shop. Then, he looked straight at me and said, "But, if I ever get a gift certificate from you, I will be so pissed." He was wearing the new hat and scarf that I had knitted for him and grinning like a loon. Apparently, according to his lovely wife, he wore the hat that I made him last year to bed. So did his sons. I think that is the best damned compliment that I have ever gotten from my brother. Ever.
Sorry there are no pictures, but I failed to take my camera on the trip.

The New Year and the Old Me.

It's the New Year and I do not make resolutions. I do, however, think up things that I would like to accomplish during the year. I do not "RESOLVE" to do these, I merely would like to. If they do not get done I feel no guilt or angst. If they do get done, I feel pretty darned nifty.
With that said...... One of the things that I would like to accomplish, this year, is to be more frequent in my blog posts. I shall, Dear Readers, endeavor to do so.