Saturday, May 31, 2008

congrats maggie

maggie, the closest thing i have to a sister, graduated with her masters in counseling from sf state, a few weeks ago. i was able to spend the day with her and her family (my second family, we met in preschool, about 24 years ago). we had lunch and went to the ceremony and then had ice cream. it was great to be in the middle of that family again, something that was a common occurrence during my childhood. i fit in there somewhere and that is a very comforting feeling. i am very happy for you maggie, and very proud as well. major props to franny and zoe (sandwiched between mags and me) and glenn, who took the picture. glenn goes down in history for making the best worst jokes ever. expect for my dad, of course.

california hornblower






i have been running yarn divas, a knitting night, at the women's cancer resource center for a couple of years now. every year they have an event to thank their volunteers. this year, margo decided it should something different than the usual. so we went on a dinner time cruise on the california hornblower. it was beautiful. we ate good food, knit and laughed as we watched the sun set on the bay. i also got to wear a name tag that said: kate, cultural and healing arts. i like that. the center does great work and has lots of services. its actually where sile of knit one one and i met. on that note, the june classes and events are up, so check them out. i have been listening to cast on, i am about 2 and a half years behind, but i have been listening to brenda about four or so times a week as i run and commute to work. i do not run to work, if you were concerned about that. i am up to 212 miles this year for runagogo!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

when i am 64

my dad turned 64 a couple of weeks ago. for about three months, both my parents will be 64, until my mom's birthday in july. we woke up early and drove over to sf. we got coffee at blue bottle coffee on linden street for some of their amazing coffee and then made our way to the san francisco conservatory of flowers. we first had a picnic breakfast on the lawn in front. my mom made a frittata from alice water's new book. it went well with the coffee. although i would be hard pressed to think of something that didn't go well with coffee.
my parents are fantastic. we had a lot of fun walking around looking at flowers and butterflies. and taking funny pictures with our heads in flowers. i found myself singing 'when i'm 64' by the beattles. that song is filed in my brain under the heading of 'camp song'. maggie and i grew up going to hidden villa during the summer. its an amazing farm summer camp in the los altos hills. we had a song book that we would sing from around the camp fire every night. i remember singing that when i was 11 or 12 thinking that 64 was soooooo far away, not even in the realm of things possible. it still feels far away. but i also remember feeling a tiny bit of excitement deep in my stomach about the idea of finding someone to be 64 with, someone that would embody the song for me. i think my parents are good poster people for it.
my dad is wearing one of his birthday presents, a baseball hat which goes with the sailboat he bought himself recently. doesn't he look happy? i knit him a beret out of queensland kathmandu aran and i will post a picture of him wearing it later. it is quite dashing if i do say so myself.
pretty plant
pretty flutterby- well i bet its actually a moth. its little brown legs are super fuzzy, like it knit itself legwarmers out of brown fun fur.

"Well, it was rage honey"

I just found some photos I have been meaning to post and some stories I wanted to share.
Mae and Mary of Ruby' Garden, and their friend Mary and my mom and Faith threw me a surprise party the week I got into nursing school. The second Mary I listed is a RN at the General in SF and she supplied the props. I walked in a everyone was all dressed up. It was very sweet of them, and a great surprise. Ruby's Garden is a great shop and everyone should go check it out when they are at article pract because it is just across the street.
Here is Sam in his A's gear.
My mom just finished a quilt for me, and it was in the East Bay Heritage Quilter's Guild show a bit ago at the Oakland Convention Center. This is us in front of one side of the quilt. It is beautiful and keeps me warm and I feel very special to have had a quilt made for me.
My parents and I had a thrown together Passover. Notice the wholewheat torilla next to the orange, that was all my dad could find due to the Great Matzah Shortage of 2008. We had lots of fun.
Now something knitting related. Last week a customer came in to article pract and we got to talking. Her name was also Kate and we hit it off. She said a couple of things that have stuck with me that I thought I would share. She was in her seventies, I am guessing, and she refered to her knitting life as something of the distant past. She said she stopped knitting over thirty years ago when she had knit everything that she had wanted to knit. Wait! Stop the presses. She said that she had knit everything she had wanted to. I asked her if that time actually would come. She said it did for her. I can't imagine that day, the day when I have knit everything I could possibly want to. Can you? Knit through your stash, your raverly queue? I am still processing that thought. I am not knitting as fast as I am coming up with things to knit, so I can't run out, can I?
We were walking around the shop and she was pointing out things that she liked or pattern she had used on projects in her previous knitting life. We came to a cabled sample and she told me about a sweater she had knit long ago, for a man she was with at the time. They were traveling in England and she bought some yarn there to knit him a cabled sweater. After they split years later, she took the sweater back and she ripped it out! And then she balled the yarn back up and donated it to Goodwill. She said she hoped someone was out there wrapped up in that yarn.
"You frogged that whole cabled sweater?" I asked, shocked that she had it in her to do that.
"Well, it was rage honey" she replied.

P.S. I am now speedyneedle on ravelry.
P.P.S. Listen to Y Knit, they are amazing, great and local knitters with a funny podcast.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

baby hoodie

baby hoodie- how cute right? top sweater is knit out of berroco comfort which i bought at article pract.

this one was knit out of some yarn from my stash- still super cute. this sweater is a knitting pure and simple pattern (#982) top down and in one piece. no seaming. you knit the body in one piece and then pick up for the sleeves, button band and hood. super cute and easy once you get a hand on the pattern. come take the class at knit one one. the next three saturdays! see you there.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

some things knitted

i didn't make this collar, julie of cocoknits did. and sammie wears its proudly. yes it is shibori and felted and fantastic. and its FREE! so go check out her website - she has amazing patterns and she created the knitter's block, a new blocking system which is like so hot right now. i have one and i love it. sammie does too.

that little beard kills me.

something i knit. i had the SARS or the bird flu or something ridiculous two weeks ago. i am ok now. anyway i watched way too much Law & Order: SVU but i did knit envy and i love it. i used some burly spun that i had in my stash and size 13 needles which the pattern calls for. it knit up very quickly. and then i went to stonemoutain & daughter and bought this amazing buttons. they are so amazing that i think they are kind of distracting from the actual knitted object, but i couldn't pass them up. and only $1.20 each! it has cables running up the sides- which are hard to see in such a dark yarn, but it was in my stash. and yes that is seed stitch in the middle. yes i did seed stitch. if you have ever talked to me about seed stitch, then you know that i hate seed stitch. anyway maybe it was the SARS that had my brain fogged enough to do it, but i did. at least on a few stitches on size 13 needles for like 2 hours. anyway when we end global climate change and its normal weather again here, then i can wear it again. until then, and i am not holding my breath, i can at least wear it to work at ucsf where it is always about 30 degrees colder.


three good things

1. i just made the most beautiful lasagna ever. ok that i have ever made. if you turn your computer screen to the left- it will make more sense. i sort of followed the recipe on the side of trader joe's lasagna noodles- but i took out the alfredo sauce and i put in spinach and the lite mexican cheese mix from trader joe's. i haven't tried it yet, but it smelled amazing as it was baking.

2. my cholesterol levels are 'optimal'. i got some blood work done last week and i just got the results in the mail. my good and bad cholesterol levels are both perfect. this makes me so happy because i have borderline high blood pressure, and this makes me very nervous. hypertension is called 'the silent killer'. it totally messes you up slowly over years and years. your kidneys can't deal with the extra pressure on their tiny little parts and they get shot. then you have to go on dialysis. i won't even start on how much that sucks.

3. marriage is legal for everyone in california! now let's keep it that way.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

hug limits and wearing a jacket

so i am moving out of my wonderful housesitting-house and i moving back to a place i call home. some people already live there, i call them mom and dad. and then there is dog of course too. he is going to be so excited to have us all under the same roof, all of his toys in one place, and some many hands to pet him. he will have to learn that he can't climb the stairs to get up to my room though, and that whining at the bottom of them is not ok. my stairs are a ship's ladder - yes a ships ladder- aka steep. not stairs but a ladder, so not really schnoodle ready.
moving is never fun, it has consumed my busy life for the last month or so. but i keep reminding myself that the reason i am moving, and moving back home is because i got into nursing school! my life must go on! so i am going to save some money while staying at the folks house. then i am going to find some sort of living situation that will be quiet in which to study.
living back at home will be fun. some things will have to get worked out. like what kind of coffee is made in the coffee pot. my parents drink some sort of caf/decaf blend that doesn't have enough caf in it for me. shall i use my own pot? or is it all silly? yes silly. at least that is one of my only worries. ok not only worries. my dad likes to hug me. i like hugs just as much as the next gal, but its my dad. i guess the middle school ew-dad-grosses-me-out period is not over yet! sorry dad i am just being honest. so how about a hug limit? one a day seems ok right?
my mom likes to remind me to bring a jacket with me when i am leaving. i know i will always be her baby. but i learned about jackets along time ago. i can even knit them now if i need too! all those years that i have not lived at home, i have been able to keep myself warm, yet the minute i am living under the same roof, she thinks i have forgotten. i know i know, this is not really a big worry either. and yes mom, i had my coffee, my vitamins, and breakfast and i packed lunch and its in my bag. i was raised very well i have to say. and i am getting much better at flossing every day. so i have some more cleaning to do tonight and tomorrow. i will bring over my last load of stuff tomorrow (plants and food from the fridge). and then it will be me at home again. we have a great time together the four of us (that includes the dog). so i think this will be a fun summer. but i don't think i will be bringing home any dates!