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i want this kind of weekend over and over again

it was filled – just filled to the brim. there were a few key things missing, but still, i feel terribly lucky to have such good friends and to continue to meet and get to know better super interesting people. ah, i love l.a.. pretty soon after i first moved out here – six years ago this summer – i was riding the buses all over the place and really got to know the city. now, it’s like deja vu all over again, as yogi berra says. my farewell tour. (the drama!)

saturday i hung out with francesca, my spinning guild buddy. she’s awesome. we went over to little tokyo, shopped around kinokuniya and both picked up some craftsy books, then hit the small but delicious (and very nicely priced) famer’s market that’s open in the plaza-area on saturdays. after that, we went back to her place and conducted a photo and video shoot for her unique tubular cast-on that uses no waste yarn – it’s fabulous! take a look at her tutorial, with images, pics, and video, she makes it easy to understand what’s going on.

on sunday, i headed over to knit cafe and hung out with julia, who i’d only met once before, but it was just pretty obvious that we had just hit it off, yay. anyhow, again, so cool to see her and chat. i met a bunch of other nice ladies (hi!) as well. i finally picked up the summer IK and as soon as i saw the icarus shawl, i had to find me some laceweight. julia convinced me to get the prettiest grey that has overtones (undertones? whatever) of green. i think it’ll turn out great, hurrah.

but. in the meantime, check out my deciduous top – so much fun to knit, though some of my stitches are wonky right now, hm. plus, i finally get the whole calmer obsession, that yarn truly is a joy to knit with. anyhow, can’t wait to try it on. i’ve been missing my knitting mojo, but it’s back in full force it seems.

ok, so then sunday afternoon/night, a birthday party at my friend’s home in highland park – she rented a moon bounce and there was also a water balloon fight, plus delicious korean food galore. excellent. a question: what do you call a moon bounce? is it just an east coast thing to call it that, or just an andrea thing? everyone there was laughing at me, because they called it a “jumper” or “bouncer”, then when i probed a bit, they admitted it could be also called a “bouncy castle”, “bounce house”, and a few other bizarre terms. is it like the whole regional soda versus pop thing? hmm. so important, you do realize. ha!

all in all, a satisfying weekend- with lots of boring reality (i.e. putting my whole kitchen back together) and sadness (i.e. blasting music, sighing and pacing around my room) thrown in to make it more real. i like it that way, i don’t trust those perfect weekends.

hope yours was equally satisfying ~ ~

p.s. oh yeah, finally i got up my madli’s shawl pics and project info – i finished it in may (!) and have been using it practically non-stop at work and on airplanes. i’m looking pretty unhappy in that foto to the right, but it was taken in may, when i was in fact fairly unhappy. so glad it’s july and not may anymore.

comment [5]

posted 17 July 06 & filed under busy bee, madlis shawl

twiddling my thumbs

hi there ~ once again, in a bit of a limbo. mostly because my portfolio presentation and defense is this friday at 4 pm (think good thought for me!) – i plan on serving a lot of caffeine and, i’m thinking, some good pizza. anything to keep my panel awake, interested, and benevolent during this horrible timeslot. there’s not much i can really do at this point to prepare, except for a few cosmetic changes to my presentation. i’m mostly trying not to pace too much, to get as much sleep as possible, and turn the music on for a good half hour each day to just shake the willies out.

the limbo is all the more enhanced since, as of today, madli’s shawl is done! currently blocking, it took a little over a month to do. more info, and finished pics, later, but for now, know this: however lovely the shawl is, grafting laceweight truly bites. anyhow, the king is dead, long live the king, right? wrong. my yarn-destined-to-be-an-urban-aran is lost somewhere and i have to wait until tomorrow until elann will ship out a replacement. of course, the color i wanted- and ordered!- is now unavailable, so i’ll have to pick another color. sigh. my hands are just itching to do something.

some drama: this morning, whilst grafting and muttering the grafter’s mantra (i.e. “knit, purl, purl, knit”), a gorgeous tree across the street was cut down branch by branch. i loved that tree – it was just a sweet reminder of nature on this otherwise busy and noisy street. the leaves shimmied and glistened in the sunlight, created the nice dappled shadows you’ve ever seen, and made many a bird fell happy and safe. so sad. i guess it was cut down since it was blocking the “for rent” sigh? ay. i had to take pictures documenting its death and with each creak and crash, i just kept thinking “i’m so ready to leave los angeles.” (maybe that’s contributing to the limbo-feeling as well..) slightly exagerrated, i know, but i hate the way nature is treated here, what little that is allowed to grow freely through the cracks in the cement and beyond the reach of the spinklers and lawnmowers of the wealthy. ugh. anyhow, i loved you tree and will never forget the many happy days and nights i spent with your silhouette in my window.

here’s a really good article – Welcome to ‘Whole-Mart’
Rotten Apples in the Social Responsibility Industry. i think i’ll be avoiding whole foods from now on. [via cauldron ridge]

A closer look at the company’s business practices and [CEO] Mackey’s ideas about business and society reveals a vision not that different from a McDonald’s or a Wal-Mart….This is a vision of mega-chain retailing that involves strategic swallowing up (or driving out of business) of smaller retail competitors. It is a business model that objectively complements the long-term industrialization of organics (that is, large-scale corporate farms) over small family farms. It is also a vision in which concerns about social responsibility do not necessarily apply where less publicly visible company suppliers are concerned.”

lastly, want to know more about this net neutrality thing people are posting/talking/writing about? here’s a good little 3 minute video. then, go sign the petition, wontcha ya?

eat local-wise, made some leek and potato soup last night, yum. even put together a little fruit salad, a rarity for me, and am considering for dinner some nice marinated beets, carrot salad with raisins, and a baked sweet potato. yup, lots of color.

still bummed about the tree,
andrea

comment [9]

posted 16 May 06 & filed under leaving l.a., madlis shawl

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