Seamripper

Yarn Shopping

Yesterday, after brunch with Bessie at Miss Millie's in Noe Valley (I highly recommend the gingerbread waffles, although the vanilla creme fraiche was a little overwhelming yesterday), I went to a few different yarn shops, looking for one more skein of Rowan Ribbon Twist in red in something near my dye lot for Jilly (below). I also wanted to check out the yarn required for Toledo, from Rowan 37, my next project after the Hourglass sweater (which is my next project after the leg warmers).

Jilly:

Toledo:

Going from yarn shop to yarn shop ended up being a nice way to organize a fun little urban adventure. Bessie and I went to ImagiKnit, and after she left, I walked over to Valencia, looked at some furniture shops, found the Hobo International handbag I covet in Therapy for the same price Rabat sells it for, strolled over towards Hayes Valley and Urban Knitting Studio, which is run by the most helpful people on the planet, I swear. Knitting store owners and employees seem particularly helpful, but I really love patronizing this shop because they really go out of their way to help out. Since they didn't have the yarn I "needed," I bought a pair of those fold-up snips to stow in my knitting bag.

Then up Hayes St. Hill (which I will be running up in Bay to Breakers, to the Fillmore bus to Greenwich Yarns in Cow Hollow. They had the Rowan Linen Print that Helen (I think) at Urban Knitting Studio told me was being discontinued. I bought a skein of that and a skein of the red Rowan Ribbon Twist.

Here's what else I discovered:

• The All-Seasons Cotton that I'll need for Toledo sells at SF shops for about $9.75. I'll probably try to find it online.
  
• Kidsilk Haze goes for between $10 and $13.
  
• I got an amazing deal on my eBay Ribbon Twist: each set of 2 skeins cost between $9.50 and $10.50. The one skein I bought yesterday was about $13. Dharma sells Ribbon Twist for a dollar or two less.
  
• Cascade 220, which Urban Knitting Studio stocks, seems like it will be soft enough for my Hourglass Sweater. Although the shipping was delayed, I just signed up for the knitalong.
  

Like Sands in an Hourglass...

I'm breaking a cardinal rule: I just ordered yarn for a project when I haven't finished the project I'm working on. I'm going to make the Hourglass sweater from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts in Cascade 220 in Garnet. I hope it's dark, like the photo on Purl's site and not light like the photo on the Webs site, where I bought the yarn. We'll see... Either way, the yarn will be less than $30, so if it doesn't turn out so great, I won't feel I've wasted too much money.

Hats Off

I finished the hat for baby Owen. I used the Children's Cotton Hats pattern from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, by Joelle Hoverson, and some of the rest of the royal blue Cascade Cherub Collection Aran left over from the sweater.

It was a really easy pattern, and true to it's time designation in the book (two- to four-hour gifts), I finished it in basically two lunch hours, plus some more time for the I-cord. The I-cord did give me a little bit of trouble, but it was my first one.

Now I just have to send them off to the proud new parents!

So far, I have to say, I love this book. I'm almost done the first of the Super-Easy Leg Warmers. I think I'm going to make them either 22" or 24" long instead of 26", which is what the pattern says. I'm not tall enough for 26" leg warmers. I almost can't wait until the cold weather comes back!

I'm doing Bay to Breakers!

I'm running (well, running and walking) Bay to Breakers on May 15. Yikes! For those non-San Franciscans who read this blog, Bay to Breakers is a crazy race/free-for-all. The Kenyans and other serious running run the 7.46 miles (including a hill with an 11 percent grade) fast, then trotting along behind are people in Elvis suits, naked runners (no, that won't be me), and people pulling kegs on trolleys.

My distance runs have been getting up towards the 5.5-6 mile mark. I'm heading out for another distance run today, but I'll need to start doing hill repeats really soon. I'm just doing this for fun, and to help raise some money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, but I don't want to embarrass myself!

Help me reach my goal by donating at:
active.com/donate/llsbaytobreakers/nsolis

Spinning My Wheels

Chad and I did the Tierra Bella 60K ride yesterday down in Gilroy. Since the start time was anytime between 8 and 9 am, Chad booked us a hotel room in Gilroy, about 5 minutes away from Gavilan College, where the ride started and ended. It was so nice being able to get up at 6:45 instead of having to leave our house at about 6 to get down there in time.

The route was absolutely beautiful. California is gorgeous this time of year: the verdant hills have a few months before they turn the thirsty brown from the summer heat, the sky is a clear blue with perfect white clouds. Much of the ride was along a reservoir, which brought some very chilly winds, but the scenery made the ride so much easier. Riding in a beautiful place gives you something to take your mind off your legs as you're climbing.

The first third had a fair bit of climbing and was a big trafficky, but the second third was wide open and went really fast. I couldn't believe how quickly we got to the second rest stop. I also couldn't believe how yummy the PB&Js on cinnamon-raisin bread were. Who would have guessed? The last 12 miles had a few more turns and some more traffic, although it was mostly residential.

I took a sheet with the 100k route in case Chad and I ever want to make it down there for another ride. It was a great reintroduction to biking this season and spurred me on to dream of doing another tri, a half-marathon, a metric century ride. It also made me realize how much I don't like biking in San Francisco. It looks like Chad and I will be heading out of the city a bit more to ride this season.

Wacky Wellies

I just found this great site WellieArt through Manolo's Shoe Blog. I have to say, I love the idea of brightly colored rain gear. I have black wellies with daisies on them that my dear mom got me for Christmas, and I love wearing them with my H&M panelled denim skirt. I also love them because I can wear my wellies to work on rainy days and then change into my beautiful chocolate brown suede boots from Boden, who also have some great patterned wellies. Leave it to those Brits to make rain gear fun.

Noro Cash Iroha

I just found this site that has Noro Cash Iroha, the yarn the Hourglass Sweater pattern calls for, on sale. It's $8.50/skein (you need to buy 10 skeins), but I think it's $11 or $12 at my LYS. Don't quote me on that.

I'm still also thinking of Rowan Kid Classic and this Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, but I think the Kid Classic would end up being a little bit cheaper in the long run.

**Updated 4/10/05: Now I'm thinking of Cascade 220 in a purple color, especially since I found it online for $4.70/skein. So many choices...

Turkeys are done, I'm finished

(Whenever we said we were "done" a test in middle school, one of my teachers--I forget who--would say, "Turkeys are done. You're finished.")

Since I have to wait for my 12" circulars to arrive from The Yarn Exchange before I can get started on my legwarmers from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, I thought I'd spend last night finishing up some old projects. I had been hoping to get help from the folks at Dharma with seaming first, but I just used my books and tried it myself. And look, not too shabby.

A sweater for Owen in about six months.

My first sweater! It looks pretty homemade, but maybe he can wear it when he's playing.

And a hat for Chad.

I ripped out Freda and put the yarn away for now. Although it's a beautiful pattern and I love the Rowan Cork yarn, I need some easy projects to work on.

Since I had so much of the blue yarn left over from the sweater, I started knitting up one of the baby hats from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts tonight. It's going pretty quickly, but it should tide me over until my needles come. Then the legwarmers, then the Hourglass sweater. I'm thinking maybe Rowan Kid Classic for that one. Then back to baby gifts. With Simone's twins, Tiffany's baby due this summer, and Paul K's baby due in the fall, I'll be knitting all year!

Things I Covet

Since I can't afford to buy them right now, I might as well blog about them.
- any flower pin from Supermaggie. The Lariats are pretty cool, too.
- a fruit stripe Laurie Weber belt. I love the buckles she uses.
- a Miele Fresca/Lilywear t-shirt. I so love my flower people one.
- a Colleen Keenan handbag (sadly, her site is down as of when I posted this message).
- a Maya Kini organix beet or watermelon daikon necklace.
- a Terry "Ride Like a Girl" cap and commuter skort (for the day when I finally am able to ride the 30+ miles home from work).

I envy all the gals on this Craftster discussion about their projects from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, which was apparently the iPod of the knitting world last Christmas. I drooled over that book for days when Jen first gave it to me. Maybe I'll set aside the Freda poncho since I'm, er, having trouble with the pattern anyway, and work on the hourglass sweater.

Speaking American

My mom just sent me two jackets in the mail (which she bought for a total of $35--my mom is the primo shopper) along with a clipping of Katie Haegele's book review of Do You Speak American?, a new book about language in America, from the Philadelphia Inquirer (March 21, 2005).

Of course, my mom, a born-and-bred Philadelphian, highlighted this passage:

The story begins, in a sense, in Philadelphia. "It is possible that Philadelphia shaped American speech more than any other city," [the authors] claim, since it's the only East Coast city to originally pronounce its r's. (Think of New York, Boston, Richmond and Charleston pronunciations of Harvard to see what they mean.) Go, Philly.

The book sounds fascinating, and yes, Mom, I do want it for my birthday. I'll spend the intervening months reading the prequel, The Story of English.

But I have to respond to Haegele's assessment of language prescriptivists. She writes, "Grammar prescriptivists...think the language is going to hell in a hand basket."

I respectfully disagree. As a prescriptivist myself, I'm of the opinion that reference books--dictionaries and style manuals, especially (yes, Chicago 15, I'm talking about you)--should actually tell us what's right. So many of our authors and fellow editors at String Letter are absolutely befuddled about what correct usage is. Descriptivist grammarians, linguists, and editors record the language as it's actually used, warts and all. Their advice is often, "X is acceptable, so is Y, so is Z, but those pesky prescriptivists will think you're an idiot if you say W (although we think that's fine, too)." (Of course, I'm exaggerating to make the point.) This leaves the thoughtful writer, editor, or student trying to finish a term paper with no clearer idea of the answer to their question, which generally is some form of "Is what I've just written right or wrong?," than they did before they opened the reference. Ultimately, I fear it will make them wonder if the reference is work the shelf space it takes up, let alone the $55 price tag.

American English is a pretty unruly language. With so many regional dialects, ethnic dialects (one interesting point Haegele mentions from the book is that Black English in American is much more standard across the country than white English), and the very nature of our country as the place where people from all countries can find refuge and, dare I say it in these times, a home, our language is constanly in flux. But it's my opinion that those of us who chose to protect and preserve our language as a profession should be better disciplinarians rather than letting it run quite so amok. Perhaps that's the true difference, prescriptivists want to protect and preserve the language where as descriptivists just want to observe and record it.