Slippers for a Yeti

In a couple of weeks, I will be heading to San Francisco to visit my sister and meet up with some friends. As a housewarming gift for my sister, who just got a house, I decided to make her a pair of house slippers from Knit 2 Together, which I bought for an awesome price of $5.50 on Amazon!

The pattern in the book calls for some of my favorite yarns - Manos del Uruguay or Rio de la Plata yarn. However, I decided to use some Japanese yarn I got from a swap instead. The yarn feels like a virgin wool yarn, which would be good yarn for felting. For the life of me, I could not get the same exact gauge, but I used it anyway -- it was close enough. The pattern gauge is 8.75 stitches per 4" of garter stitch using 3 strands of Manos/Rio yarn on US13 needles. I tested the gauge of my yarn using double, triple and quadruple stranding and US 11, 13 and 15 needles. The closest gauge I obtained was 8 stitches per 4" of garter stitch with US 13 needles and triple stranding.

The slipper was a quick and easy knit, although picking up and working stitches from the sole was a little awkward at the toe and heel. As I was working the last 4 rows of the second slipper, it suddenly dawned on me that maybe the yarn is superwash. Even though I don't read Japanese, I should have done a spit-felt test! Oh well, if it doesn't work out, I'll leave the slippers in a forest for Bigfoot. Time for the washing machine!

I'm also planning on knitting my sock fanatic sister a pair of socks. She has lots of socks organized very neatly in OCD fashion in a drawer, but she's never had a pair of hand-knitted socks. She has never asked me to knit her a pair either. I haven't decided whether to knit a pair of argyles or a pair with a skull motif. My sister loves argyle socks, but I don't know if I'm ready for knitting argyle socks - plus, I'm having a hard time finding a nice pattern. Since the age of 13-14, my sister also has had an inexplicable (in my mind) obsession with all things skull. I'm leaning towards the skull thing, but either way, I'm sure she'll be pleased.

When's Your Turn?

Within a month of getting married, my mother-in-law called to ask if I was pregnant yet. We've been married 6 years, and the questions have not stopped from family and family friends. Most of my friends know better than to ask, because they know that the question is redundant and that they will get a scowl in return. I'm not so fortunate with some family friends who insist on asking me and telling me that I should have lots of babies, though I've repeatedly said "no." The tricky thing is, due to cultural reasons, I can't very well tell them to shove it, no matter how annoying it is.

My dad is okay about the B-word, and respects my personal life and decisions, but he could not help himself recently when I told him that my brother- and sister-in-law just had a baby girl. With some (not much) self-restraint, he finally asked "so, when's your turn?"

For my brother-in-law's baby, I sent them some onesies that Linh and I made when she visited. We borrowed some ideas and created our own as well, and then I designed and edited the images on my Photoshop program. We printed the images on some transfers I had purchased to make sewn labels for my stuff. Because my BIL is a huge soccer fan, I made one to resemble a player's jersey, with Barcelona's logo in front and the last name on the back.


In addition to the cute and personalized onsies, I also knitted my new niece a pair of T-strap booties and a matching hat out of some yarn. I didn't have enough of the right kind of buttons for the booties, so I improvised and put different buttons on each side.

Pattern: T-strap Baby Booties (my own) and Hat set
Yarn: 1 skein hand-painted fingering yarn, 50 %wool, 50 %silk (I purchased from a local yarn supplier that does not have a national or commercial label, nor does it carry this yarn anymore.)
Notes: I'm working on finalizing the pattern and trying it with other more commonly available yarns. I haven't decided whether to post here or sell on my Etsy shop, but if you're interested in it, email me and I'll let you know when I'm done with it.


I wrapped the gifts in some tissue paper and tied it with a really cute farm animal ribbon. I still haven't heard whether my BIL and his wife received or even like the gift. However, I'm sure they're too busy with their first baby, all the dirty diapers, and trying desperately to catch up on sleep!


My mother- and father-in-law will be here sometime in August and through part of September. I don't think I will be able to escape that dreaded question. Maybe they'll be so excited about the new baby that they will forget to ask. Well...one can hope.

Esty/ Instructables Contest Entries

I just entered the Etsy and Instructables SewUseful Contest. I think judging will be based on views and ratings on BOTH Etsy and Instructables. The contest required that we post instructions on how to make an item on Instructables, and then post the item for sale on Etsy. If you like my stuff, please help me click away on both site links, add a positive rating, and help spread the word. Thanks!!!

My first Instructables entry is a yarn swift; the corresponding Etsy listing is here. My other Instructables entry is a recycled sweater flower brooch; the corresponding Etsy listing is here. I wanted to do more (3 entries max per person), but didn't really have time to come up with lots of ideas.

We Don't Have A Dog

For the will and not the gift makes the giver.
-- Ephraim Gotthold Lessing

My husband came back from a business trip with an unexpected gift in tow. Apparently, he wandered into a NYC bookstore and happened to see a knitting book on sale, sot he go this for me:

For many reasons, I was quite surprised and a little puzzled by this gift. First of all, my husband has never bought me anything knitting related of his own volition, and this was certainly a nice gesture. (He did begrudging go to an LYS to find me some knitting needles upon my request once.) Secondly, we don't have any dogs, nor are we planning to get one in the near future -- 3 spoiled cats, 0 dogs and some ugly black widows lurking in our yard. Thirdly, my husband has not really asked me to knit anything for him -- he once requested socks, but at my prompting, and as a joke, he once asked for a pirate's eye patch for the fat one.
My husband doesn't really wear sweaters either. The only time he bought sweaters in the 7-8 years we've been together was when Amazon had a great sale on them. Knowing him and his sense of humor, he probably thought getting this book would be ironic and funny, and that I'd probably appreciate anything knitting. However, just to be sure, I asked him if we wanted one of the sweaters in the book or if it was a hint for me to knit him a sweater. He doesn't want one.

Thankfully, he didn't waste his money, even if he meant it as a joke. The patterns in this book don't look as crappy as the title sounds. There are some nice sweaters and many cute doggie things, like the ones in the photo below. Maybe the cute dogs camouflage some of the uglier ones, like the hat on the cover or the variegated yoke pullover on page 32.

Well, whatever my husband's reason for getting this book, I will cherish it and appreciate his first knitting gift to me. Perhaps he or my dad will want me to knit them a sweater one day.

Oh L'Amour

Oh L'Amour, Broke my heart
Now I'm aching for you

Everyone who knows me, knows that I'm stuck in the musical 80's new wave/alternative. (Fortunately for me, I didn't fall too prey to the regrettable fashions back then -- I was too nerdy to!) I'm totally dating myself, but some of the top 80's bands for me, in no particular order, are Depeche Mode, Erasure, New Order, Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Psychedelic Furs and The Smiths.

I was momentarily brought back to my youth when we recently attended the True Colors concert, organized by Cyndi Lauper, at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. It was Zona, her hubby, my hubby and me. Unfortunately, due to a family emergency, Aubrey and her hubby could not go at the last minute. Unfortunately, we could not find someone available to go to a concert at the last minute, so those poor tickets went to waste.

If I recall correctly, The Cliks performed first. In my opinion, the band sucked overall. The lead singer sounded like a dying hoarse dog. Sorry if this sound harsh or if you're a fan. Actually, Zona and I both agree that the music had a nice sound and power to it...now if the singer could be replaced, or just tuned out, it would've been superb.

Second to play was the 2-member band, The Dresden Dolls. The DD put on a great show, was entertainingly theatrical (guy in a dress) and had great energy. I enjoyed their unique sound and music, but I have to admit, to no fault of DD, I didn't enjoy them as much because I was itching and anticipating Erasure.

Introducing the bands and keeping us all entertained before and after each act was funny woman Margaret Cho, know for some her raunchy jokes. Another guest comic was Rosie O'Donnell, also funny and entertaining, and certainly took the chance to poke fun at The Donald.

The next act up was Blondie herself, Ms. Debbie Harry. Don't get too excited. She didn't really sing any of her Blondie songs. And up her olden age, she really should not have been doing some of the rocker moves. She was waaaay out of practice. Even if I did have a fresh mind (slept 4 hours last night), I still would not have the words to describe her fluttering -- you simply had to see it yourself.
That's a crappy photo of her though. Here's a better one from the SF Gate.

Enough about Debbie. The next act was ERASURE! This is actually the first time I've seen them in concert. Really. Andy Bell and Vince Clark were fabulously entertaining and were fantastic to watch live. Although they looked older, they surely did not act like it. Zona and I danced our hearts out and sang our voices hoarse. Our hubbys must have thought we were temporarily possessed. If you haven't visited their website yet, there an interesting photo gallery, which seem almost more like a photo diary, from 1985 (!) to present.

I was never really into Cyndi Lauper, but after seeing her finale act, I have new found respect for her and her music. She is a fabulous entertainer, and also like Erasure, she still seems to have an abundance of energy and could still rock, unlike Debbie Harry. A rather odd sight of her act was Rosie O'Donnell playing some drums to the right side of the stage for a few of Cyndi's songs.
For the finale all the acts came on stage. They first sang Erasure's cover of Abba's "Take a Chance on Me" and made it extra festive withe all the colorful giant balloon. The final song (surprise, surprise) was Cyndi's "True Colors."

Jeepers Creepers

As part of my fantasic purchase, my spinning wheel came with a set of hand carders and some roving. The roving was old, nasty, wiry, rough and had lots of weird vegetable matter in it. Needless to say, it got tossed. But before I could practice hand-carding, with better roving, I had to clean out some of the residual roving and vegetable matter (or so I thought) from the carder teeth.

I meticulously picked off the fibers between the teeth with a toothpick and ended up with lots of gross fuzz all over my table and my clothes. Besides sneezing at the annoying bits of fiber, I really didn't think anything of it until I saw that one of the little vegetable matter bits had legs!! Gross! I almost threw up at the thought of inhaling the microscopic remnants of these dead bugs. It was very hard to finish getting all that crap out of the 100s of teeth in the carders.
I can't believe that the original owner actually sat there to comb and brush dirty fiber, complete with bugs. Ewww.

Aside from those nasty bugs, I had slightly creepy experience of a different kind this Wednesday. As I walked across the parking lot towards Starbucks for my Wednesday knitting group meeting, I noticed a guy in the donut shop 2 doors down grinning and waving from his booth inside the shop. I ignored this, since I didn't know the guy. But then the aggressive waving and grinning continued...who is he waving at? No one was walking towards the donut shop, not even in the parking lot, and no one was driving away. Then I noticed that he was looking at me, with his body turned in my direction. The waving and sheepish grin was a little odd, but I quickly brushed it off.

Feeling a little bored and loser-ish, Rachel and I decided to depart early, since we were the only ones who showed up to knitting on July 4th. Outside, some teenage skateboarders were praciting there tricks while an older man (in his 40s?) sitting on the edge of a flower bed wall chatted and watched the boys. The older man seemed short and had a slightly rotund protrusion in his midsection and appeared to be Latino. I thought this guy was related to the boys, maybe one of the dads. I walked past them without any interaction and headed towards my car. As I opened my car door, I saw someone waving out of the corner of my eye. I got into my car and waited for a car behind me to pull out, and the man sitting with the skateboarders continued to wave with a grin. Then I realized this was the donut man! He kept waving at me and grinning until I left the parking lot.

I never waved or smiled back at the donut man, because I didn't want to encourage it. I am still perplexed as to why he was waving like that. I guess could just appreciate that someone was trying to make a connection and may have found something attractive or interesting in me from yards away. But, it was so odd! He didn't even say hi, when I walked by, and he sat outside while Rachel and I knitted. All he did was wave fervently and grin. Weird.