1st day away from DC

I'm in Ocean City Maryland today. Dav and I will be here until Friday morning when we have to go back to DC for a performance I'm in at Dance Place with Next Refex Dance Collective. We're performing the "bench piece" formally called "This Seat is Taken." After that it's on to New York City. For now we get to enjoy the beach and a bit of relaxing in the sun (including some knitting), and a little action for the 4th of July of course.

Temp Tolerance

I look so shop girlish!

So far this is my favorite FO! At least for the moment. I have made some other things I was fairly proud of, but this piece still has that newly finished glow to it. I'm wearing it at work today to show it off even though it's something like 99 degrees out with 99% humidity. It's just a guess, but I may not be far off. I'm fine now that I'm in the AC at least and I brought a tank top to replace the knit wear later this evening when I have to brave the outdoors again. I would naturally enjoy staying out in the weather more than the artificial environment, but when the AC is introduced to your environment it's hard to turn back to the natural state of the world. Which is boiling. It's also hard to dress nicely when being a natural gal that's one with the elements. I go back and forth between the two, but in the end I think I prefer the natural route. Maybe the bay area will be paradise for me. Cool enough to wear knitwear occasionally but never too cold to be outside year round.

This is what I'm currently working on.

Orangina by Stefanie Japel
with discontinued "Nice" Rowan cotton

Awesome birthday gift

Even though some of you might be thinking, "She's a little slow with reporting birthday gifts. Her birthday was almost a month ago," I thought I would still have to share this awesome gift that my aunt Jude made for me. I've had a chance to test run it and it's been a good run. It came just a day after I decided that I needed to solve the problem with my old knitting bag falling apart and it starting to make me look a little shabby. Again, those of you who know me know that it takes a fair amount of shab to make me feel self conscious about my attire. Especially bags or purses. *Ick* Even typing the word "purse" is out of character for me. I've never been a "purse" gal. Anywho, I adore this new bag that Jude quilted for me. It's the perfect size and shape and is even an improvement from my well loved dollar-by-the-pound-thrift-store-find of a knitting bag I've been using for 6+ years. Quilt bags only last so long. Here is another one of my talented Jude's project.

technorati tags:knitting, Jude

FO

Another FO (finished object) that was actually finished a while ago but I never posted. I haven't been in the picture taking mode for forever so decided I would share an old pic with you.

I'm living with our x-room mate's girlfriend, Hope, at the time. Instead of in Arlington, VA I'm currently in Silver Spring, MD. Next week is my last week at Stitch DC.

Busy Swatting

Millions of flies ocupied most of holiday weekend. I had a very entertaining and relaxing and physically chalenging weekend. It was a good mix (except for the fly part). Dav and I went to Playa Del Fuego to be the with the radical hippies of today. Lots of nudity (including a naked slip and slide) and fire. I helped with a theme camp called Camp Contact. We built a 20' geodesic dome which I really wish I had a picute of. Maybe one will turn up soon. We did contact classes and jams in the dome. Dav also taught a really good Feldenkrais ATM class. Pretty much all the rest of the time we spent lounging in the sun with friends and drinking. At night people dress up and wander around to the other theme camps. I was able to wear my fishnets that I finished knitting in Cascade Fixation a couple weekes ago. They were perfect for this event!

This is Doug...

an example of standard PDF attire.

I don't have access at the moment but I also have an pic of Dav on some funky stilts.

One of a Kind (or non existent)

This makes me feel special. :)

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Weekend activities

Last weekend:

I performed with Nextreflex dance company in Huntington, West Virginia. (I will have a photo soon). The theater there was gorgeous! I fell in love with it immediately. It was an authentic vaudeville 1920's theater which had been converted into a movie theater for the last 40 or so years. This performance was the first live performance in the theater in who knows how many years. The audience was small in the 500 seat auditorium but very gracious. We had a great show. It's nice to be back home though so I can eat healthy foods not labeled as "American".

Previous weekend:

I traveled out to the bay area in CA. The weather was chilly but sunny and nice at the same time. It seems that weather here is very unpredictable. Dav and I helped with a workshop presented by Draw the Feeling, a friend of Dav's in Stanford U. While we were in CA we also checked out a few neighborhoods in Oakland possible for moving into. It was a very peaceful and enjoyable weekend visiting friends and getting to know the city.

Dad's whereabouts

This is for anyone who is interested in what my dad is up to. One might ask themselves, "why would she think I would be interested in what her old man is up to?" Well, if you have any interest in the outdoors and climbing mountains then check out the link:



My Dad Climbing Denali (check out the links on the side bar)





Brian Miller, Greg Ballog (dad), and Greg Gilles









I promise I will post something about knitting soon.
Over and out.

Follow up

This is the follow up posting.

First of all a follow up on my life: Dav and I are moving to California. He applied to grad school at Berkeley last fall and was accepted. We decided that Montreal was just too cold for us. I've never been to the Bay area but everyone I talk to says that I will love it. Dav and I have the opportunity to fly out there in a couple of weeks for free while doing a movement/emotions (probably not the correct description) project with a colleague of his from Stanford. We get the whole weekend to wander around the area, possibly looking for an apartment for August when we pack up all belongings in our beetle and drive cross country. "Yikes, I'm excited," is my general feeling these days.

Second is a follow up on the Brioche scarf:

I've written down the directions so I can send people to them when they ask me about the scarf.

Brioche Bi-Color Scarf

co 24 st in Color A on a circular needle (important)

Row 1: With color B *k1, yo, sl 1, repeat from * to last 2 sts. End with k1, sl1

Row 2: Instead of turning your work, slide the sts over cable to other needle where color A is.

Sl 1, bring color A up to work making sure it doesn't wrap around the first sl st * p2tog, yo, sl 1, repeat from * end p1

Row 3: Turn work, sl 1, bring up color B to work still making sure it doesn't wrap around the first sl st. *p2tog, yo, sl1, repeat from * end p1

Row 4: Slide sts to other needle end where color A is. With color A k1, *yo, sl 1, k2tog, repeat from * sl last st.

Row 5: Turn work. Using color B k1, *yo, sl 1, k2tog, repeat from * sl last st.

Rep rows 2-5

Feel free to post any questions or corrections.

Post for Jess

Thanks to Jess I have conquered (well almost) the brioche stitch in flat with two colors. Because the stitch requires one row of each color in order for the striping to occur, she sugested that I use circular or DPNs so I could slide my work from one side to the other to retrieve the correct color. Otherwise working back and forth would create two rows in one color instead of the desired one.


I originally saw this striping in hat patterns that you knit in the round so retrieveing colors was not an issue. Overall it seems to be working well. This is my first project ( a scarf by the way) in Brioche and I love the rhythm it creates. *yo, sl 1, k2tog* It gets a little more complicated with the two colors because part of the time you're working from the wrong side so you have to do a p2tog in place of the k2tog, but I've been taking cues completely visually. Sorry I've probably lost the non-knitters (or "muggles" as some knit bloggers like to call you) that may happen to read my blog.

"The Earth is going to crash into the Sun"

That's what Dav has been saying this whole winter/spring season thing that's been going on. A fellow blogger aptly said, "We had Easter weather for Christmas, and Christmas weather for Easter." Some of these pictures are hard to see the snow in but it's there.




If you look closely the snow is piled on top of the white flowers.

Knit Purl Hurl

Even though Jess has pestered me many times to join her and other tipsy knitters on Tuesday nights at The Pharmacy Bar, this is only my second time around. This time I managed to do a ton more drinking than knitting. Hurling I avoided. I got to see several skeins of Karida's hand dyed yarn that she sells under the label Neighborhood Fibers. In return I let her try on my newly FO. It's difficult to interpret my cell phone pics, so I'll give you a little guided tour:

Basically the lacy red item on Karida's head is knitted lingerie. On Karida's left is the beautiful happy drunk Libby.

This is also only my second time in the physical presence of Libby. I talk to her on the phone every week asking her questions like, "Do you have color #117 in Aurora 8?" (work conversations). This time we were able to talk about more personally pertinent subjects like birth control and the weather in Chicago and Montreal.
Other highlights of the evening were the vegan margarita cupcakes created by the talented Jess. Yum yum.

To top the evening off, Dav drove by after his circus arts festival meeting and picked my drunk ass up and drove me Laurie's where I was house sitting. He's so good to me.

Lily

This is what I did today:

(I apologize for the dark lighting but it was getting later in the day)

I went to yoga class this morning and than on my walk home I was inspired to knit a flower for the bug's vase. It's been wanting one for quite some time now. I was just going to slip it into the car so I could get Dav's reaction from happening upon it instead of me shoving another knit item in front of him to ask for aproval. I figured it would take at least a day for him to spot it but it was literally minutes after I came in the house from shooting this picture that he walked in from work and told me he spotted a new knit item. He's a keen one he is!
The weather was amazing all day. I sat on the back porch in the sun with my pant legs rolled up and stripped down to my tank from yoga class. I swear I can see a little tan line but Mr "keen" doesn't see it. I guess he doesn't see everything. I know it's there!
I also made sure to call Mom today. After having two nights in a row of dreams in which either myself or her is terminally ill and can't get in touch with the other, I thought it would be a good thing to settle my mind by calling her. She's fine except for a little cold. Besides I had to tell her about the trip to Montreal and to see if Jackie (sister) liked her birthday hat (she did and has gotten several compliments). I totally forgot to take a picture of it before sending it off. She did get it in time for her birthday! I'll have to squeeze a picture from her wearing it so I can post it.

My "other" Life

Yippee. I get a mini vacation up in Montreal this week. Dav and I are driving up there to check out the possibility of moving there. He has been accepted to the Universite de Montreal and so we are both visiting while he interviews with staff. Other future living options are San Diego, Berkeley, and Maryland. My top two choices are Berkeley and Montreal but Dav really likes the department in San Diego the best so far and we're still waiting to hear back from Berkeley.

And for the current dance news in my life: (I thought I might share a little about my dancing life and not just the knitting side) A piece that I'm dancing in has an actual blog that the director is posting. Daniel Burkholder's The Playground is a fun company to dance with. It's an improvisation company, so I get to make up the movement on the spot. We have a lot of structures and sequences to remember but besides that I have freedom of movement and no worries about choreography and counts. The piece that we're working on is called "My Ocean is Never Blue" and it's focus is water.

Related to Daniel, is Andrea Burkholder, whom I have been taking aerial classes with. This includes circus arts like silks, hoops, and static trapeze. I have totally fallen in love with flying! Andrea and Sharon's company is called Arachne Aerial Arts.

The other company is Next Reflex Dance Company. We had a showing in the new Joe's Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier this last Saturday. Milestone: Dav gets to see me dance for the third time

Color

The sun is out and all the snow has melted away. I've decided this is the time for pretty colors so after the knitting class that I taught (by the way it went really well and several people immediately signed up for the second class afterwards) I would get a manicure. Those of you reading this probably know this is not a common past time of mine. I think the last time I went was several years ago after being coaxed by a friend.
The past few days on my walk to and from work (about a 13 min walk) I've seen several bright little flowers blooming. Maybe this far south it's not that uncommon to see flowers this early in March, but it seems a little out of place for me. Regardless, I've been enjoying them. What I'm trying to say in my loopy way is that my fingers felt they needed to be colorful too.
It was then on my ride home on the Metro that I realized it was great fun to watch my colorful fingers dancing around while I knit on my socks. I now have shiny pink spots floating in front of my eyes while I'm knitting. Hee hee! I feel so girly.


Here is a better picture of my socks. The design is called "Monkey" by the wonderful Cookie whose pattern is free on Knitty.com. It's knit in Cherry Tree Hill "java".


And while I'm in the mood of sharing pictures of knitting here is a picture of my first displayed item at Stitch DC. It's nothing that fancy but fun to have people ooh and ahh and buy yarn because of it. It's the ballet T out of Loop-D-Loop with double strands of a worsted hand dyed cotton. Super soft but I don't remember the name of it off hand.











I also have a fun colored hat that I'm working on at the moment but out of caution that my sister might actually read this post before receiving her birthday present (the hat) I've decided to wait on posting it.

Update

I must post something to keep my imaginary audience attentive and imaginarily (pardon the imaginary word) existent. Well I guess I'll do what any girlfriend would like to do and that's post pictures of their cute guy in their blog. This picture will also conveniently include some of my handiwork from over Christmas. I can take the credit for the crochet part but the machine sewing must be credited to my mom. Thanks again Mom for saving me.

My Heroine

I was just listening to a song from the soundtrack of Flashdance when nostalgia hit. I used to think the female heroine's were so adult and mature so when I think of these movies that I used to watch when I was a little kid I still relate these adult characters to my Mom's age. I know I'm actually reaching the age where I'm older than most of the romantic movie characters portrayed. This makes me feel like I'm getting old but on the flip side I still picture my Mom as a young heroine.

January Springtime

El Niño

Shrinkage

Well it's been a while. Of course for most people the holidays create a bit of a wake in the pattern. That's why we need it though. Starting Christmas early is not about the commercialism for me but rather an excuse for excuses. Drinking more, eating like crap, not working as hard, and skipping dance classes are some of the my excuses that have developed over the past month. They all will come around and kick me in the ass though. Already the eating like crap and drinking more have created a nasty little head cold. Soon to be divulged are the results of my other excuses.

Story Time

On new years day Dav and I took a nice walk on the boardwalk in Ocean City where we had spent our previous night following his sister's drama around town from nightclub to bar. The wind was blowing hard on our walk but we both pushed though without a word to the other. Finally on a decided landmark (the dough roller) we turned back. The wind was now at our back so it was considerably warmer for our ears. Unfortunately a few drops started falling but we kept prodding down the boardwalk.
A little side note: Dav has adopted a "look" that has drawn lots of attention from strangers. This is exactly what he desires and he feels that he has finally found his "look". One main aspect being his handle bar stash that curls quite impressively towards his dimples. The other main aspect being a bowler that I trudged through London this summer looking for specifically to complete his look. The three of them have been inseparable since. End side note.
Being New Years, Dav had packed accordingly and also dressed to impress the entire time we were there including in the living room with his new pink "action pants" and on the beach walk. Bowlers, or Derbies as Dav likes to call his, are made of felted wool.
Second side note: As a knitter I know of the treacheries of wool and shrinkage. Do sheep and goats have this problem when they're stuck in the rain? Anyway, I am super careful now after my favorite hat is now a little too small for comfort. I went through lots of tugging and reworking to get it to just fit me. I know I'm lucky. I've seen much worse. End second side note.
So as you have probably already have concluded, Dav's hat was in trouble after the rain started gradually becoming a pour rather than a sprinkle. Now this is an event which Dav looks back at with frustration because he didn't think to remove the hat. He probably won't appreciate this blog. We got back to his sister's condo soaked and miserable. I was miserable because of my wet feet, coat, mittens and pants but he was mostly gloomy about the hat (he didn't even really care about the wet cashmere sport coat). Long story short (too late) I stuffed the hat after making him wear it wet for a little while. The outcome is a slightly distorted brim and bumpy surface with much less firmness all around. Outcome: I feel great that I could find a gift that meant so much to him. On the other hand I feel really bad that he had to experience the terror of shrinkage.

I just had a long weekend full of Santas and sangria with a little dancing for good measure.
Dav and I went to Santarchy on Saturday so we spent the entire day wandering around with a hundred Santas through DC. I took a few pictures with the camera phone but they didn't really portray the madness of so much red and white. Dav and I handed out cookies, whipped cream, and radishes. The radishes were actually more popular early on in the day but as it grew later the cookies took the lead. Whipped cream was a bomb only because we left early to see a dance performance at Dance Place. I'm sure it would have seen glory later in the evening.
After the dance performance we went to a birthday party of a friend of a friend and that's where the sangria came into play. Good times with the karaoke and Dav's trombone, that by the way, he had been carrying around the entire day.
On Sunday I was able to spend most of the day recovering with a delicious chai latte, knitting and two hours of rehearsal.