SuperEggplant

My friend Wendy gave birth to baby Paulina at the beginning of February, so I decided to knit her a little poncho. I think she’s going to have to grow into it, but that’s okay. I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease and got the pattern from the poncho generator, which is the coolest thing ever! I don’t know how pleased my model is, though:

Here is another view:

It was a beautiful day today, and the Hedster and I enjoyed some sunshine and wave watching at the beach. We also visited the Ball & Skein, the only yarn store in the entire county. We didn’t buy anything, but we spent plenty of time in there staring at and touching yarn. There were these tiny little balls of angora that I so wanted (a project down the line is an fuzzy T-shirt sweater), but you’d need a gazillion to make anything, and you know how that goes. I am now on the hunt for the discontinued Cascade Indulgence, thanks to Rachael, who introduced it to me. Anyone know where I can find some?

blt/bpt had been finished and blocked for over a week, but it was waiting for a zipper. The green was rather difficult to match, as you can see:

After three orders from zipperstop, I decided just to go with the least offensive one. I had never before installed a zipper into a sweater, so it was a bit of a challenge. First I had to shorten the zipper. A piece of advice–if you need to shorten a molded tooth zipper, fingernail clippers are your friends. It’s much easier to remove the teeth if you clip off one half of it with fingernail clippers then pull the remainder off with pliers. Anyway, I sewed the zipper in with the machine but didn’t do a great job. Actually, I didn’t do such a great job on the sweater overall, but it’s comfy and is a good throw-on sweater. It turned out a bit on the large side (I think that is the result of overzealous blocking), but once I wash it, I can probably block it a tad smaller.
I decided to go with a regular 1×1 rib collar rather than the hood. Thanks to everyone’s suggestions on that. I picked up with smaller needles (about 5 out of every 6 stitches) on the right side then began the rib on the wrong side, decreasing every once in a while (usually right above a cable) to tighten it up a little bit. I continued the rib on smaller needles for about an inch then switched to regular needles. Oh, to match the front of the jacket, I had two knit stitches on either side of the front, and I slipped the first stitch of each row.
Hello blt/bpt:

The past two days were very fun and filled with activity! The Hedster and I took off Thursday morning and headed straight for San Jose and Kooki Sushi, a small, family-run business that makes cookies and chocolates that look exactly like sushi. The place is run by two sisters and their mother! The craftsmanship that goes into the confections is really incredible.

See the plates in the left-hand photo? They are CHOCOLATE. No kidding. If you ever need a nice gift for someone, you might consider these! Thanks goes to Carolyn for telling me about this place!
After Kooki Sushi we headed to San Jose Japantown to Shuei-Do, the manju shop. Manju are Japanese sweets that consist of a ball of sweet bean paste encased in pounded sweet rice. They are kind of hard to describe. They are little pillows of soft gooey goodness!

We headed to Berkeley and hit Stone Mountain and Daughter, an incredible fabric store. I mean, where else but in Berkeley can you buy dingleballs then have the clerk tell you about the time she sold some dingleballs to a homeless guy who wished to make himself earrings with them? Here is just a small portion of their cotton room:

Next we visited a couple of old friends and their new babies, ate some super yummy lemon poundcake and tasty homemade salsa, then met cancer-fighting Megan for dinner at Le Cheval, a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Oakland. Megan just finished her course of chemo and will meet with the surgeon next month to decide what goes and what stays. She is hanging in there, but she is understandably tired and not thrilled about the prospect of surgery.
Okay, I know most of you don’t care about sushi cookies or manju; you want to know about Stitches West and other knitbloggers! I have to say it was really fun meeting all the knitbloggers in person and learning about their lives beyond their blogs. We started out with breakfast at Jack’s Bistro in Jack London Square, right on the water.

From left to right is the amazing Rachael in her ribbie cardie, Elizabeth wearing a gorgeous Crystal Palace Labrador sweater, me (wearing a readymade sweater. Oops), the Hedster in her first ever handknit sweater (she got SO many compliments on this sweater at Stitches!!), and Yvette, who was signed up for FOUR classes at Stitches. Marie joined us right after we took this photo.
Then on to Stitches West, where there was a disturbingly long line to get into the market (this is just one section of the line. It continued for another 75 yards or so down the hallway):

Once in (we were in line for about an hour), the Hedster and I went straight to the Habu booth. We had heard it had been impossible to get within spitting distance of it last year. It was very crowded, but we wormed our way in, and it was worth it. They have very unusual and intriguing yarns and kits. They use a lot of interesting materials, such as bamboo and paper and even stainless steel! Those wacky Japanese!Here’s a glimpse:

We wandered around for a while in a daze (there was a lot of yarn. There were also a lot of novelty scarf-clad women). We ran into Dee Dee, Sharlene and her mother, then the lovely Silvia, who is just as witty as I thought she’d be. Seven of us headed to lunch at Le Cheval (because you can never have too much claypot rice):

From left to right: Rachael, Silvia, Hedi, me, Joanna in her drop-dead gorgeous Adrienne Vittadini sweater made with a silk blend from Tess’ Designer Yarns, Elizabeth, and Marie with her fun and funky loopy scarf. Sadly missing in action altogether were Gabrielle and Stella. We had a lot of laughs and good food and were fortified enough to head back to Stitches (except for poor Rachael, who had to go home and pack) for more fiber fun.
Heard enough? We got home after 9pm, and though I didn’t think I was tired, I fell asleep on the couch. It was a great experience, and here are a few of the goodies I brought home:

The gorgeous water bottle cozy is from Rachael from one of the swaps in which I participated. The little stitch marker, if you can see it, is from Elizabeth, and the soap was made by Yvette’s sister (it has chocolate in it!). The yarn was my only purchase at Stitches. Doesn’t it look like peppermint candy? Hedi and I tried to convince Silvia that she needed some, too, but oh that Silvia is a rock and would not budge.
All right, my throat hurts from talking too much, so I’m signing off for the evening. Stitches West 2005 will be at the Santa Clara Convention Center. See y’all there!