got your sunglasses handy?

Today passed in a blur; both the small men are sick (low grade fever & croupy cough, but that's it- they're still running around) and I am just tired for no reason whatsoever. Ok, maybe sitting up with Monkey Boy for half the night might have tired me out some, but I really was useless today. The only chore I got done around the house was managing to get the dishes out of the sink & into the dishwasher. Some days you just have to take what you can get.

I should have laid down for a nap this afternoon, but I was sidetracked by the arrival of this:

An assortment of train-ish fat quarters from Bear Paw Quilting. Aren't they cute? I know they're super busy and I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with all the busy-ness.... But the important thing is that Monkey Boy LOVES them all. He pet them and kept saying "pinkie? pinkie?" (his version of "blankie").

After playing with the fat quarters and the fabrics I bought previously, I came up with two possible combinations for the quilt. The first uses yellow as a binding & the second uses red for the binding:

Right now I'm leaning toward the yellow binding; the spotted fabric will be combined with blocks of the train fabrics for the center of the quilt. Not sure yet if I'm going to do actual pieced blocks or just strips.

And just to complete the overall busy-ness of this quilt, check out the backing fleece I found:

Are your eyes bleeding yet?

quilt-y potential and a visit with granny

Material Possessions, a local quilt shop, has a Superbowl weekend sale every year. They mark all fabric 20% off, then have a special selection of fabrics that are $3 & $4 a yard. This sale is usually controlled chaos- lots of ladies wearing appliqued sweatshirts jostling each other to browse the special selection fabrics. It all starts when the shop opens at 10am on Saturday and I heard that the line to get in the door was at least half a block long this year.

Luckily I didn't show up till 10:30am...so I was able to walk in and the whole selection/cutting/paying process was actually fairly painless. I was looking for some fabric for a train quilt I want to make for Monkey Boy. I found all of these in the $4/yd pile:

They might not all be used, but at $4/yd, I figured I could always make something else out of them if they didn't end up in the quilt.

Then I spotted some gorgeous 30's reproduction fabrics also at $4/yd. I wandered around some more and look at what I came up with:

The top four fabrics were $4/yd and the bottom one was 20% off $7/yd. I am seriously thinking of making a quilt out of these because I love the red and blue so much.

These will hopefully turn into a lovely chenille & patchwork scarf (similar to the one in Denise Schmidt's quilt book):

And somehow I couldn't pass up this sweet color combination:

day 35 of 365

After shouldering my way out of the store (it was like being a salmon fighting its way upstream!), I met with the Dearest and my Mom for lunch with the small men. My Mom loves hanging out with them, and she spoils them rotten (isn't that what grannies are for?). Just a couple of images of the afternoon:

(more photos here if you're interested)

All in all, a great way to spend a lovely Saturday!

the great yarn crawl of 2007 (LaLa Land episode)

A few weeks ago, Chelle mentioned that she wanted to do a Mom's Day Out (where we mommas do something fun that doesn't involve the littles). Her plan was to get a bunch of us knitting/fibery types together and break through the Orange Curtain to visit some yarn shops in LA. She really wanted to visit the Black Sheep Knittery (and get away from the small ones for the day).

It turned out that the other ladies who wanted to attend couldn't make it for various reasons. So just Chelle and I jumped into the car for the trip to La La Land. She had directions to three different stores in the heart of LA, all within a few miles of each other. Our plan was to hit each store, have lunch at some point during the all the yarn-y goodness and then head on home. So here's my capsule review of the day:

Black Sheep Knittery: Located in the shadow of the Capitol Records building with some metered parking out front. Unfortunately we had a difficult time finding parking and ended up with a metered spot about a block away. The neighborhood is a mix of residential and small storefronts, so not much else was open.

The BSK is long and narrow, with a big table in the middle for classes or knitting meets. Yarn is in cubbies on two walls, with some placed in baskets or hung in the display windows. They also have a loft in the very back of the store...I didn't notice it till we had been inside for a while. We were greeted by a nice young lady as soon as we entered (tho she didn't introduce herself or ask if we needed any help). Yarn is organized by brand and somewhat by type. The two walls of cubbies held lots of wool and wool mixes: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, Rowan Yarns, GGH, Blue Sky, Noro etc. They had a pretty nice selection of Koigu KPPPM and Lorna's Laces. Some yarns I hadn't seen before: Rio De Las Plata, a new Noro with sparklies (don't know the name), a twisted tape/rope Noro in a DKish weight, Blue Sky Organic Cottons.

Upstairs in the loft, there was a small couch and a big blue fluffy rug as well as most of the needles, knitting accessories and a small wall of cotton yarns. Patterns and pattern books were spread throughout the store. They have a 50% off clearance table next to the cash register with patterns, needles, older magazines and assorted small bags of yarn. There was a pretty large stack of sweater kits next to the stairs. I ended up buying Louisa Harding's Winter Muse Classics pattern book (like I need more pattern books, but I couldn't resist!).

Overall, the prices were fair, the store was pretty easy to navigate and they had a good selection of workhorse yarns, as well as some more expensive stuff like angora and cashmere. The shopgirl was very helpful as we were paying and even cheerily broke a $10 for some meter change (anyone who lives/works in the city knows how unusual that is).

Next we headed over to Suss Designs:
The store is located in a tonier section of LA, on Beverly Boulevard. There was a lot more retail here, so more foot traffic. Metered parking is available on the street in front of the shop, but we had to park around the corner in a residential street (free parking for 2hrs, no parking after 6pm without a permit).

A big, airy space with exposed brick walls and lots of yarn cubbies. Suss carries her own yarn line which includes merino wool, alpaca, cotton, and several blends. All of them were priced very competitively (for example: approx 200yds of nice alpaca in natural colors for $9.00). Books and patterns were placed in a central area & organized so it was easy to look through them. There are comfy chairs & couches in the main display area, a back room with a big table (for classes, I'm sure), and what looked like a coffee or wine bar in the back of the store.

Yarn was organized by type/brand and easy to browse through. Lots of sample swatches were tucked into the cubbies with the corresponding yarns. Needles and notions were all on one wall toward the back of the store. I saw: some Blue Sky Alpaca, Debbie Bliss, Lamb's Pride bulky & worsted, a big basket of Artyarns Supermerino, etc.. Yarns I hadn't seen before: Suss' entire line, the Artyarns, some GGH yarns. I'm not sure that I spotted any Noro, but it might have been there.

About a third of the store is dedicated to Suss' own line of knitted goods and fashion. Some of the sweaters were interesting, but I didn't really browse through the racks since that wasn't why I was there.

The only employee in the store was a very friendly and knowledgeable shopguy. Chelle was looking for yarn to match some handspun she had been gifted with, and the shopguy was helpful without being annoying. I was also impressed by his ability to help three people at once without getting flustered. Kudos to the shopguy for being so on the ball.

Finally we headed over to Knit Cafe, which is in another tony part of LA, very near the Beverly Center. Metered street parking is available (we parked about 1/2 a block away).

The store itself was quite small, but very charming. The shopgirl had a sweet (French?) accent & was helpful without being too pushy. There were some comfy chairs located in the center of the stores (they seemed to have a small sit n knit going when we got there), as well as a table in the front. There was a coffee bar in the rear of the store & another larger table in a back room.

Yarn in the cubbies included Colinette, Rowan, GGH, etc.. Needles & accessories were in a central spot on one wall. Pattern books and mags mostly clustered in near a shelf. I saw quite a few purse handles and buttons.

They had a lot of crocheted and knitted items out- I loved the tiny little crocheted cowboy boots and knitted cupcakes. Some of the yarn was displayed in old 50's style wooden cabinets. There was a small but decent selection of sock yarns (Regia Cotton Surf, Regia Crazy Color, etc.). I found a small stash of Colinette sock yarn and one of them said "Buy me", so I did. Prices overall were reasonable/competitive.

And that wrapped up our yarn crawl for the day. Since we were right near the Beverly Center, we headed over there to get some lunch and rest our wallets.

The only other eventful thing we saw today:

day 28 of 365

That's right: this is the only photo I took all day and it's of Bobby Trendy's 'shoppe' in LA. And let me tell you, I felt like quite the tourist holding my camera out of the sunroof for some drive-by photography. (I know I'm one sick puppy, but as soon as I saw the sign, I couldn't resist!)

So, that was our Mom's Day Out/Yarn Crawl. Thanks to Chelle for the great idea and we'll definitely have to do something like this again!

just step away from the mom jeans

day#19 of 365

I've been feeling kinda dowdy lately. Like I'm wearing the same tshirts and jeans all.the.time. I've never been much of a fashionista, but the mommy uniform was starting to get me down.

After Christmas sales were a good place to pick up some fun boots, a couple of nice new jackets and accessories. But I was still looking for a good pair of jeans. Something in a darker denim so they could be dressed up if need be. Since the small men were hanging out with the babysitter today, I headed off to be the local mall to be Gapped, Nordstromed, and Hollistered to within an inch of my life.

Normally I buy my jeans at Old Navy (along with 90% of my wardrobe). Today I decided that I was NOT going to buy jeans at ON. So that meant I tried oh, about six THOUSAND pairs of jeans at practically every place in the mall that sold jeans. I finally found the perfect pair at Gap (it only took about three hours). Yay me!

Then I headed over to Nordstrom's lingerie department for some new bras, another item I was badly in need of updating. It's been about 4 yrs since I wore anything but nursing or soft cup bras. Let's just say that the 'girls' were not quite as perky as they should be after two pregnancies and nearly four years of nursing.

Nordstrom's always has the best Lingerie Ladies. They *really* know their stuff. As soon as I walked into the racks of lingerie, three LLs descended on me like a pack of tiny, impeccably dressed sparrows armed with measuring tapes. Twittering at me in soft, Eastern-European accented voices, they measured, poked and prodded, then led me into a dressing room. Half an hour later, after trying on a multitude of undewire, cross yer heart, padded, gelled and 'air-foamed' (wth?) undergarments, I emerged with The Perfect Bra.

The Perfect Bra cost almost as much as my first car, but it put the 'girls' back where they belong -above my navel. With the 'girls' in the right spot, I looked like I had lost 10lbs! In fact I looked so much better that I ended up wearing TPB out of Nordies. The Lingerie Ladies just nodded sagely and threw my tattered old bra straight into the trash. They'd seen it before.