On the left is this great looking cotton/viscose yarn that I really dig, even though I am not much of a pink person. I think it fell off the back of a truck because I can’t find reference to it anywhere, and I don’t have enough to cover myself with it, so I bought this Pingouin in a close shade to mix with it. I haven’t decided if I will do a top and bottom kind of thing, or front and back, maybe? I think that I will make it into Joan M-M’s Shapely Tee though.
I picked up the pattern for her Heirloom Lace Jacket too, but I haven’t picked out any yarn yet. I wonder if the Harrisville Shetland Style would work for it? I will have to swatch. That’s on sale at Webs.com.

This is the yarn I picked up at the TKGA Conference from Shelridge Farms. It is destined to become, at least, a swatch for the fair-isle that I am imagining that uses the colors of the bachelor buttons from my grandma’s front flower box. I haven’t played with the yarn yet, but I will, after a few other projects are out of the way.

I picked these up at a store that was closing and they had a decent price. Since I hardly ever see solid colors of this yarn, I picked up 2 skeins of each color here.

Some of us at work are trying to be good and eat something healthy once in a while, so we came up with a plan to have one of us bring a salad once a week to share.
Today is my day, and here is my salad. It’s a chopped salad, something I never heard of before coming to California, but there you have it. The inspiration for this salad is the California Citrus salad from Claim Jumper.
I really don’t measure anything, but these are approximations:
— Dressing —
2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
4-5 Tbsp Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 tsp dry mustard
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
— Salad —
1/2 -1 head Lettuce
1 Avocado, chopped
1/4 Cup Walnuts, chopped
1/2-3/4 Cup Crumbled Blue Cheese
1/4 Cup Dried Cranberries
1 Granny Smith Apple, chopped
1 Cucumber, peeled & seeded, chopped
1 can Mandarin Oranges, drained
3 Green Onions, chopped
Put salad in bowl, toss. Add dressing, toss again. Share. Eat.

Wendy got some new boots. Makes me miss my boots. I have these great black leather and green suede cowboy boots, but they don’t fit anymore. I can’t give them away though, in case a miracle happens and they suddenly fit me again…
I also have some green suede moccasins. I think I should dig them out, they were fun.
My favorite green shoes are my chuck taylors – autographed by Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger from (at the time) General Public. Can’t get rid of those either.
Strange thing is, I really only wear two pair of shoes. My brown suede Birkenstock Alton’s and the same shoes in black leather. They are that comfy. If I have to wear a suit one day, I’m in trouble.

When is there going to be a new Buffy? This is really boring, and I already saw that Gilmore Girls.
Got my needle, picking up and tinking back around and around and finally going forward again. I misread the intructions twice and had to tink. Now it’s going to move slowly, but at least I am just knitting, no more purling. It’s not that I don’t like it, I just haven’t found my way with purling and I don’t know any other knitters to compare!
And I am sure this month’s Knitting Meetup will not happen, Orange County is just not going to meet up.

I had to put the shawl on hold til Saturday when I can get a longer needle. I think I will pick up the 120cm one for this project. I have been trying to use a 29″ and a 24″ together, but I don’t like it.
I started working on the celtic spiral socks though, and they are progressing nicely. I am about half-way through the first cuff. When I am done, I will post my interpretation of the pattern, but not before contacting the source of the chart and asking if I can share.
I received a bunch of books yesterday from the Interweave clearance sale, including Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting. There’s some stuff in there that I will make, maybe one of the shawls of aran weight wool would make a nice gift, and a good place to practice cables before starting a cabled sweater where gauge matters more!

I finished the center panel of the shawl tonight. I am thrilled that there will be no more purling after this. My left thumb gets tired of purling which is why it took so long to get to this point, I think.

It is being carefully watched over by sock monkey. Space monkey is, however, staring off into space. I don’t know what sock monkey is doing to space monkey, so don’t ask. 🙂

Saw this while knitting and reading the LA Times at Sushi Time. That’s pretty neat, I am going to have to spend some time there. I think I only have one volume of a two book set of Mastering The Art of French Cooking that I picked up for a quarter at a friends of the library sale, but I have always only used it for reference. This woman is preparing the whole thing. Check this out:
The Julie/Julia Project

On my way home from work tonight, I stopped off for some sushi-takeout and while I waited for my food I knit a row on my shawl. My husband has taken a job that is about 4 miles from home, so I no longer get to knit while he drives our carpool. Such a bummer, I lose a good 45 min to an hour of knitting a day now that I have to drive myself to work. So I knit at any chance I get.
The sushi-woman saw me pull out my knitting while I was waiting, and came over to see what I was making. She really liked the color and asked me to bring it back so she can see how I am doing each time I go in for sushi. I usually stop in at least once a week, but don’t usually bring my knitting because I always order the same thing and call it in. Today I felt like something different, but once I got inside I ended up ordering the same thing anyway. (Spicy Tuna Roll and a Foothill Roll, in case you are wondering.
The shop is called Sushi Time, and Foothill Ranch is my town.)
So, that was kind of cool. I have someone actually interested in what I am making.
What was silly is that I went to lunch at Sakura in Culver City and had such good sushi for lunch. I had a scallop sushi, tuna, and sea urchin and they were so fresh. MMMM I wish I could find the good scallops around my home. I haven’t found a fish market that sells dry scallops. The ones I had from Nova Scotia this past summer were so fresh and sweet. The ones you can buy here have been preserved and taste nothing like real ones.