Mr. Brown's New Home

This past week I was able to visit with a college friend that lives in Philadelphia. Prior to her coming out I heard sad news that her 3 year old cat Noah had passed away suddenly.

R and her husband were devastated and having it happen with no warning made everything worse.



When they visited us and the kittens, I gently suggested that Mr. Brown would be a good fit for them. Ever since coming home from Alaska, he calmed down and became a very affectionate mellow cat. After thinking about it, R & C decided that they would like to adopt him. I was so happy to find a good home for him and with someone I know well. Selfishly too, I'll be able to see him when I visit Philadelphia and hear updates about him.

Yesterday my friends flew back to Philadelphia with Mr. Brown. I went to the airport to hand him over with toys, food and vaccine information. I did not think it would be as hard to give him up even though I know it's the perfect home for him. The whole house including torty are adjusting now to his absence. The little one was really needy yesterday, which made me cry yet again. However, I knew this is what is best, and I knew it was going to happen. I didn't think I'd be so damn emotional!

I'm taking a small break from my Broadway cardigan and started this:


This blurry bunny is from Mr. Funky's Super Wonderful Crochet. I also found this pattern for free here. I'm using Bernat CottonTots yarn in light blue. I picked up hand blown glass eyes from the Dollmakers in Monrovia. The eyes are really hard to use though, and I'm going to have to do quite a bit of fussing to get them to stay. Both eyes were on opposite sides of a wire that I cut then folded over, now I'm bending it to fit the curve of the head and trying to sew the wire down as best as I can without the wire popping out of the eye. The nose is a 9mm plastic nose with a washer that I got from Joanns. The rest of the pieces are done, I just need to sew (?!@$*) it all together. The pattern does not have a tail, so I made one myself, because how can a bunny not have a tail! I'm currently stash diving for a yarn to make her dress with.

Moving On

Although I gave notice at the two shops I teach at a little while ago, I finally had the courage to post something on my website.

I am someone that dislikes change, and it is an uncomfortable feeling knowing that I am gearing up for a new stage in my life. However, it was the right thing to do for me at this time and I am curious to see what comes next.

It is a novel feeling knowing that I can knit whatever I feel like in whatever color I choose without some work related knitting looming over my head! Right now I'm working on mystery stole 3 in Alpaca with a Twist, Fino in a light grey/blue and iridescent blue/green beads. I am also working on a cabled cardigan from Rowan Classic Cafe in a rich dark brown merino superwash yarn by Knitting Fever called Sublime.

Bad Human, Bad Bear

AKA, what the Kim family does on a family vacation.

Bad Human

Bad Bear

The last time my family took a family vacation was 25 years ago to Marco Island when I was still in grade school. So we all met up in Anchorage at the beginning of July coming from Philadelphia, New Jersey, Manhattan, San Francisco, and Los Angeles for 7 straight days on a somewhat confining cruise ship. The best thing is, we all survived each other! Actually, we are a very close family and it was great to be able to spend time with all of them. Especially since the most time we seem to get the whole family together is for maybe 2 overlapping days every 2-4 years. I'll try to post more pictures of the actual trip when I have more time!

The kittens are still with me and we are still looking to find the perfect home for the little boy. Little Tortie almost didn't make it 2 weeks ago due to a possible vaccine reaction, so we're holding onto her at least through the next round of vaccines.

I'm trying to get off my butt because I want to post pictures of what I'm working on and more Alaska pictures.

Spread the Word

The kittens will be ready for a new home in a couple weeks, and I want them to go to a good home, so if you can, please spread the word around. I made a little flyer for them that I posted around town, but here is one for the 'net.

Kitten Flyer (pdf file)

Also, Marie's friend has an all black bottle baby that will be adoptable soon too and urgently needs a home.

And this ends the pleading ;)

Rusted Root is done! I hope to post pictures soon. Started a new project last night, but I'm afraid to say what it is and jinx that it'll never get finished!

Under the Wire

Annette posted a contest at Skeins Her Way and I thought I would join in.

Here are my summer knitting goals:
1. Finally finish my Rusted Root sweater. All I need is to finish the bind-off and do the ribbing on the sleeves. Here it is so far (picture courtesy of KnitDevil)


2. I want to make another summer top, and I have a couple ideas in my head for a design but I'm looking for the perfect yarn. I really should check stash first.
3. Find my papers that I wrote down most of my older stash on and figure out what I really have. However, denial is probably going to win on this one.

That's about it, I have other summer goals, but they don't involve knitting.

And I'll sign off with a shameless kitten picture that I really liked.

who are we?

I never said who these sweeties are! They are foster bottle kittens from the local humane society. I had signed up to foster I think over a year ago specifically for bottle kittens, since I have the time to take care of them and a little prior experience helping my sister with her many fosters. I also believe that young kittens don't deserve to be euthanized because they are too young or too small, it was not their fault. Responsible pet parents should fix their animals, and for strays there are great catch and release spay/neuter options. Pasadena has a great program and an explanation of how and why it works.

I picked up three kittens on Friday when they called and needed someone immediately. The tortoiseshell little girl came with a brother, and the brown tabby had an unknown mom. The siblings also had 3 more litter mates that are being fostered by someone else. Their mom had gone dry. Unfortunately, the little boy had trouble breathing on Saturday night and ate very little, although he did purr quite a bit until he became very weak. It was very sad, but I knew going into it that they don't all make it.

None of the kittens have names, because I was trying my hardest not to become attached, just in case. However, if you have suggestions, I think they are strong enough now that they should make it. The brown tabby is very active and curious, he's also a little older. The tortoiseshell is calmer but has quite a set of lungs when she's hungry. She's learning to hold her own against her older active friend too. The little one is probably around 3-4 weeks old, and the tabby is somewhere around 4-5 weeks old. I'm trying to think of some well known or make believe couple to name them after, but the lack of sleep is starting to prevent me from rational thought. So suggestions are welcome! And no, I will not be keeping either of them. King Winston deserves to reign this household alone, as he likes it.

WIPs

No knitting getting done, because I have these works in progress to take care of:




I was away for a little while and this is a preview of what went on:



Hopefully more to come!

No Comment

Still not feeling like I'm quite on the planet, but thought I would share this for your viewing pleasure.

Venezia and NY

I've been so wrapped up with the holidays, traveling and teaching (my busy time just started) that I almost forgot I had a blog! This swatch is actually a pre-swatch for my Venezia Pullover by Eunny Jang. I just wanted to see if the colors I chose work. There was concern that the browns instead of the golds would be too bland. This is from the Winter 2006 Interweave Knits. I fell in love with the sweater because the construction is incredible. It has a shaped waist and fitted sleeves, and the pattern on the sleeves even match up with the body! However I didn't like the baby poo yellow and the gold just looks funny on Asians, so I changed three of the colors. The two golds are now browns and in the picture on the website/magazine the contrast with the yellow looks like a sage green, but the actual yarn is grey. So I changed it back to green. I purchased the yarn from Two Swans Yarn and the service was great. This was my Christmas present to myself. While I was in NY, my husband called me and said, "Thanks for the Xmas present!". He purchased his own gift, so I did too :)


This photo by the way is courtesy of Dim Sum Knitting. I've been far too lazy to actually find the camera and download pictures to my computer!

Since I never got back to my report on NY here's a synopsis and I'll try to be brief.

Crafting in NY is so-so. I visited 3 yarn stores. Purl was by far the most beautiful. The yarn was laid out well by type and the bins were full. What I liked is that they had plenty of each color to do a project and the store was very packed when we visited it. The yarn selection was good and it relied heavily on basics. Not a lot of novelties and if I wasn't on yarn overload I would have definitely picked something up. I did go to their sister fabric store and picked up some fabric for my secret pal and a little piece for me so my sister can make me a crochet hook case.

The Point had a completely different feel to it. Where as Purl would be a place I would buy yarn, the Point is somewhere I would hang out. The yarn selection was not quite as good, and a lot of the yarn it seemed that there wouldn't be enough for a project. However, it was a bigger space and not as cramped on the inside. It had more of a community feel to it. They had some different yarns from Purl, and since they are so close to each other it's worth it to visit both. I think this is the store my sister goes to the most. People were very nice at both stores.

The last store I visited was Gotta Knit. The yarn selection was eclectic, relying heavily on luxury fibers but it seemed like there was only 2-3 balls of each color of yarn. It had a very barren feel to it and I'm not sure if it was because of a holiday rush or that's just the way the store is. The owner was very friendly but I'm not sure if I'd go there again.

New York yarn stores really surprised me because the prices were so good. You would think since rents are high they would do the typical slight raise of price over standard retail for the cost of shipping, etc. However the prices were right at retail and for the size of the spaces Purl and the Point really maximized the usage to the feel they wanted.

As for bead shopping, I prefer LA. I visited the diamond district and went to Metalliferous and Ross Metals. Both recommended on-line for chain and findings. I found that prices were higher on some things than Los Angeles, especially chain. I was looking for gold filled chain and couldn't find the chain I wanted. The bead shopping on 37th street was better, but nothing really stood out to me. I did find the gold filled chain I wanted at a small side shop. The highlights were Toho Shoji, which actually had good bulk swarovski prices if you purchased a gross. I also want to go back to Phoenix Beads since by the time I got there I spent too much to want to hit their minimum. I walked into a lot of smaller shops, but I think next time I visit NY I won't spend much time searching for bead shops. I wish my mom had been with me though, I think she would have enjoyed it.

Coffee in NYC

I really love coffee but I only permit myself to have one (good) cup of coffee a day and will cheat with a second every now and then. So I had 4 mornings to check out the coffee scene and I decided to stay close to my older sister's West Village apartment.

The first day was dictated by my older sister since she did not want to walk far for a cup of coffee. I had done some prior research on coffeegeek about local coffee houses and also found this site. I decided since one branch of Joe the Art of Coffee was so close to my sister's we would go there. With high hopes of good coffee, no address written down and a call to the other sister for the address we found the Waverly Place location. It was packed full of people in a small space and definitely felt like a community coffee house. You could tell that most of their patrons were regulars and the service was friendly and efficient. The baked goods looked delicious too.

Since they are more known for espresso, we both got americanos, in hindsight I think we should have tried different things. I'm not really knowledgeable in espresso, but my americano tasted over extracted and a little sour. I appreciated the strong cup, but I'm used to ordering americano's to get a fresh coffee taste. But we were caffeinated and my sister found a nice community based coffee shop to hang out in.

That day we went up to Chelsea Market, did some grocery shopping, went back to my sister's place to drop everything off. Ate at Tom Colicchio's 'wichcraft restaurant for lunch (more to come on that), walked through SoHo to Chinatown and then back to my sister's via some small shops and tour of the area. It was a lot of walking but it was really nice to see places you've only heard about. The highlight of Chelsea Market was the Italian goods store that I had seen on a couple Food Network programs. Chelsea Market wasn't a huge open space like I expected but more of a meandering indoor pathway with all different types of food stores and a flower shop along the path.

But back to coffee. Based on a recommendation by my sister's friend the prior evening over great Italian food I went to Jack's Stir Brew coffee. It was busy but not crowded and again the staff was very friendly. This place had a much warmer feel to it and when I go back to visit my sister I could definitely see myself hanging out here. The coffee was fresh and yummy although not as strong as I make it at home. Still it was a great cup and I appreciated that the coffee was fair trade.

My last two mornings though I went to Cafe Grumpy in Chelsea which I did not realize was a brand new location for them. This place made me truly happy. The space is very minimalist which was refreshing because with space being at such a premium in Manhattan I was feeling claustrophobic by all the cluttered shops. It also meant that they were focusing on one thing and one thing only, coffee! This shop has the only Clover machine in NYC and I heard so much about it that it was high up on my list to check out. I've read that the coffee is comparable to an Aeropress coffee, which I own but am still not a fan of. The great thing about the Clover is that the coffee is brewed just for the individual consumer. So upon entering the coffee shop there is a menu of coffee varietals that you can order, and there is a different price point for each cup based on their price.

I had walked more then 10 blocks to get here, and I have traveled further for coffee but I could almost hear my sister saying, "you walked 10 blocks 1-way for a CUP of coffee???". YES.

And it was well worth it. M'Lissa helped me and I told her how excited I was to check them out and that I heard about them through coffeegeek and I roasted my own coffee, and I basically babbled because I was so giddy. I asked a couple questions about the offered coffees and it was clear that she really knew her stuff and she asked me a couple questions about my roasting. The Clover was acting up a bit that day but I decided on a cup of Bolivian coffee since it's not something I have tried. Even though she said she was pouring excellent espresso I came for the Clover. The coffee lived up to expectations and they were by far the nicest and the most customer oriented. As I left I saw M'Lissa pour a beautiful rosetta on a latte.

The next day I dragged my twin sister to Cafe Grumpy where I was able to get my own latte with beautiful rosettas on it. The coffee scene in NYC was exciting and I can't wait to visit again and check out some other places that were on my list but a little further away. I also now have the itch to go to Groundwork coffee and check out their Clover.

good to be home

I'm just back from an 7 day trip to the east coast and it is good to be home, although I had a great time. I was in lower Manhattan for 3 1/2 days and Philadelphia at a wedding for 3 1/2 days. Equal time with each of my two sisters and non-stop activities that I'll have to separate up in different posts.

A major highlight of the trip was being able to see people from my later college days and catch up with them. Many of the people I saw were only sophomores when I graduated and seeing how much they have all changed was really amazing.

I'm back just in time to celebrate my own wedding anniversary (tomorrow) and then off again this weekend to be with family. It's nice to have a lot of today to just sit at home leisurely and catch up with the fluffy cat.

More to come hopefully soon. I had many good coffee, eating and crafting adventures including a cup of coffee from the only Clover machine in NYC.

*sigh*

It's been a long couple weeks with family around and other obligations, and hopefully I'll get a little time to breathe before heading out to the east coast next week.

My secret pal sent me something again! Last week I received it, and I have not had time to even check my email. Again I'm sorry for being such a flake secret pal! I'll take a picture later this week, but I received a maple leaf cookie cutter, a set of 3 pretty pens and stitch markers! My sisters were very jealous!

Siblings

I think there is a slippery slope with siblings, at least in my family. We are a very close family and I'm so thankful to be so close with my sisters and brother. However, learning they will all visit for Thanksgiving with about 2 weeks notice is a little bit of a shock (a welcome one though!). First my older sister bought a ticket, then my brother decided to drive down from the Bay area and then my twin sister who didn't want to be left out, buys a last minute ticket. With all the scheduling and last minute tickets the only day all 4 siblings will be together is Saturday so that's when we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving.

As stated in my secret pal questionnaire, it is my favorite holiday, and I get to do a lot of the cooking, which I actually enjoy. My older sister will also help out a lot. It'll be really nice, although fitting 6 adults, a small boy and a furry orange cat into a little over 1200 sq ft, should be interesting.

We're lucky we're close :) I'm looking forward to it!

Coffee Package :)

As stated in my last post, I have THE BEST sp9 spoiler. This is the contents of the package I found on the doorstep Tuesday:


This package is the the most thoughtful gift I have received in a very long time. It's clear my secret pal took a lot of time and caring putting this together and I'm thrilled. The yarn is on-line Goby and is a cotton/rayon blend. The bar chocolate is dark chocolate with espresso beans and lemon essence. The coffee is from a local coffee roaster in her area, and she said she's a tea drinker, so I even more appreciate the effort she put into it and finding a local coffee. (I'm assuming my secret pal is a she!) There's dark chocolate covered espresso beans, double espresso soap and a beaded keychain that looks like coffee beans. I wanted to rip into many parts of this package, but I also wanted to get a good picture of everything first, it did take quite a lot of self control though! The package is just so very cool and the theme is so perfect with my renewed coffee obsession. So if I haven't gushed enough already, thank you secret pal!

On the coffee side of things, as Madge put it, I MacGyver'd my larger roaster together. Last Friday it had it's first roast, and I was fairly pleased with how things turned out. I had to tweak the order of nuts and bolt around so it would fit nicely. This is what it looked like before the final tweaks:


The only things my husband did was enlarge some washer holes for me and I had trouble disconnecting some wires that he did for me. This part of the center shaft fits into a metric socket that sits on top of the motor. The original piece is all plastic, and I didn't want to risk it melting. It seems a lot of people just cover the top of the plastic piece with a metal cap, but I just wanted to be safe. Plus it was kind of cool to do it myself.

I was a little too excited when I did the first roast and kept on lifting the lid to look, which resulted in a slowed roast, but the coffee doesn't taste baked. The oven top slid around on top of the spring form pan and wouldn't stay put, so my next purchase will be some high temperature gasket goo to prevent it from slipping so much. I also need to find a way to get rid of all the chaff. On the whole though, for a first run I was pleased.

Spoiled Rotten

I'm a bad sp9 recipient, but I have the best sp9 spoiler. I've been so busy with work, since I taught 2 new classes for me this weekend, among other stuff going on. There are literally hundreds of emails in my box from 2 busy lists I subscribe to. I also was on duty for a list I help moderate last week so was even more overwhelmed. But I'm finding time now before I pick up my mother in law from the airport.

Last week I received this:


I was so surprised to see another gift from my sp9 spoiler! The air freshener is hanging up near my desk, and the yellow package contains a quilt block. When I get around to it, it'll probably end up being a small pillow. And I love the card, so sweet for her to put Winston look alikes on the homemade card. In a really busy week it's so nice to get surprises.

However, yesterday I was heading out the door, slightly late for work when I saw a small box by the front door. And it was another sp9 package! I couldn't believe my eyes, and even though I was running late, I tore the box open to look what was inside. But that will have to wait for another day when I have more time. I don't feel worthy for all the care she put into this package, and I really like everything in it. THANK YOU SECRET PAL!

I'm so lame

I was heading to bed last night and suddenly I realized just how lame I was. So I apologize. I'm giving away a reject, that's really crappy.

So to sweeten the deal and make me feel better that I am not being so lame, I would like to add 2 balls of sock yarn to the little sock. You have your choice of 3 stash regia sock yarns:

The regia stretch on the right has been swatched a little bit, but the other two sets are untouched. They've been stored in a ziplock bags and have been kept preserved in a rubbermaid bin deep inside my closet and have a slight hint of lavendar on them.

So hopefully this will get me out of the feeling so stupid!

Miniature Socks

When I knit, I normally knit compulsively. Any sweater that gets finished is done within a month, anything that does not is languishing in various rubbermaid bins. Last week I received 6 sock blocker keychains from Felt Up Designs.

I have yarn bins in the garage and my closet, and after going through at least 4 or 5 of the bins, I finally found my sock stash. In the 2+ years we've lived in this townhome, I have not gone through my stash. It was a little scary. Anyway, the sock stash was much more substantial than I thought and I could not remember when I purchased some of this yarn! But I found many great yarns to use for the keychains. From Saturday night to Tuesday I made 7 miniature socks, here are 6 of them:


I don't think I've been this compulsive for a long time, and I rarely make the same thing twice unless I have to as a sample. It really surprised me that I enjoyed making these so much, and my fingers are itching to make more. But I ran out of blockers. The pattern included with the blocker was pretty good, however I had to change my needle size a couple times to get one that fit the blocker like the picture and I substituted ssk's for k2tog tbl. There was no gauge so I set my own. With size 2 needles, after the first 16 rows the piece should measure 1/2" wide and about 1 1/2" long. Some were exactly 1 1/2", a couple were approx. 1 row shy of 1 1/2".

I was originally going to make one for my secret pal, but after further looking through her blog, I realized she already had one :( They all will have good appreciative homes and I'll think of something else for her.

The lonely seventh sock is from some striped regia and looks like this:


Compared to the others, I did not find it very pretty, so it was not blocker worthy in my eyes. I showed my SnB group and some people did like it, so if anybody would like this sock, please let me know ( basicknits [at] yahoo [dot] com ) and if I have more than one person that wants it, I'll draw a name next Friday, October 27th.

On the coffee side of things, I'm really excited because I'm building a larger capacity roaster. I'm loosely using the tutorial from here. My Fresh Roast has less than a 2 ounce capacity, this new roaster will be able to roast 1 1/2lbs. We ate dimsum last week in Rowland Heights, and Sunpentown is only 5 miles away so we were able to pick up the oven (top only) from their offices. I'm going to use a different spacer and I modified the all metal shaft a little. I have all the pieces, I just need my husband's help enlarging the holes in some washers, disconnect the heating element and it'll be ready for a test run. Hopefully Sunday I'll be able to give it a try.

Thank you Secret Pal!!

The mail yesterday brought two packages related to secret pal :) One is for my secret pal, and the other was from my secret pal! I could hardly believe it when I saw "SP9 Pal" in the return address!

Here is what I received:

The card said, "Just a small taste of treats to come". The Verbena scent is really subtle and very pretty. The drink cozy will be great for work since I take so long to finish my sodas and now I'm wondering if I should make halloween sugar cookies. Here I'm still coming up with a game plan to spoil my own secret pal and I already receive a gift. :) So thank you Secret Pal, I really appreciate the gift and you definitely put a smile on my face when I received it yesterday!

Nieces and Nephews

WARNING: If you don't like cats, don't read this post.

Although my husband has two nephews, on my side of the family we have cat nieces and nephews. Winston was the first cat to enter into my family and as stated earlier, he has lived with everyone in the family, which is saying something since I have 2 sisters, a brother and my parents. About a year after I adopted Winston, my twin sister adopted Tabitha:
She is a petite cat that was a stray on the streets of Philadelphia. She was brought into the clinic my sister was volunteering at and she fell in love with her. She's a stereotypical cat that does what she wants but she does like people to talk to her. Tabitha also likes to talk, A LOT, we tease her that she's all eyes no brain. My older brother now has her and she has a happy life in the SF bay area.

A couple months after my sister adopted Tabitha, two kittens were brought into the same clinic. They were only a day or two old and were found in a plastic bag in a drainage ditch or sewer. Neither kitten were expected to survive, but they both did with a lot of human mom loving and not much sleep. My sister raised a black tuxedo cat named Malcolm:
He looks all sweet in the picture but he is a monster. He's over 15 pounds and is constantly cranky. His body is very big but his head, whiskers and paws are small. I think that my sister overfed him, although he's pretty much all muscle. As Malcolm grew bigger, he and Tabitha increasingly did not get along, which is why she found a new home. Malcolm doesn't realize that he is a cat and does not like when my sister has a man in her life.

The calico cat behind Malcolm was named Chai, but after her food obsessions were found out she was renamed Tummy. When she isn't begging for food, she likes to hunt and has unfortunately caught many small animals. My twin sister also rescued her from a clinic she worked at for my older sister.
This is Tummy in a dog sweater my twin sister knit for a friend's dog. She needed a model, and Tummy was the right size. Poor tummy.

And last is Rocco. He was rescued by my twin sister as well. For a little while he lived with a friend and was named Marley. However he now lives with Malcolm and they have their rough patches but mostly get along. This picture of Rocco is pretty much the expression he gives most of the time.
We also call him monkey, because he will wrap his front arms around your neck if you lift him up. It took a while for him to trust humans and was a little aggressive, but he's now a very sweet affectionate cat.

I will blame my twin sister for us becoming a crazy cat family. She falls in love with strays and then distributes them among friends and family. We tease her that she only chooses lemons because they all have issues, only Winston is normal. Or that's what I like to think!

Secret Pal 9 Questionnaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I like to knit anything wooly, especially alpaca. I tend to use aran weight or lighter yarns just because they are easier on my hands and I like the feel of the fabric. I don't like yarns with a lot of acrylic or microfiber, and anything that catches on semi-dry skin irritates me.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
My circulars are in a BassPro soft tackle binder with most of my accessories in that binder or in a small pencil case. I don't own many straight needles and what I have are mostly contained in a toolbox.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I'm a self taught knitter via books with some internet help. I learned in college but became a more serious knitter about 7 years ago after I got married. I would consider myself a more advanced knitter since I teach and frequently draft patterns for my customers. However, I do acknowledge there is always something new I can learn.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
no.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
I like light floral clean scents. Any scent that comes in a green bottle normally falls into that category. I generally don't like anything that smells like food, because I don't like to smell what I can't eat ;) However, citrus smells are on the ok list. Anything too strongly scented gives me a migraine.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I like salty foods better, but I am addicted to Loaker chocolate wafer cookies. I also like most gummy candies and dark chocolate. I tend to like tart or citrus flavors over sweet berry like flavors. I just don't like things that are overly sweet.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I bead when I don't feel like knitting. I have a spinning wheel that is neglected and a loom that is even more neglected. I also enjoy cooking and baking.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I have a pretty eclectic taste in music from indigo girls to beethoven. Most of my CDs are very old. My friend made me a mix lately with Ben Folds, Travis, Jack Johnson, etc, and I really like it.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
Blues, greens, reds, and pinks are always safe. Orange, purple, and yellow are not so safe but like in smaller doses. Being Asian, I like the color yellow, just can't wear it, although when I was little my mom put me in a lot yellow. And she wonders why I looked cranky.. I look jaundiced!

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Happily married for almost 8 years. We have one very spoiled and very loved fur cat child and many cat nieces and nephews.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
I wear scarves, but not that much, it really is not necessary out here. Don't wear any of the others either, it's just too warm for hats and mittens, and although I made ponchos, I didn't wear any of them.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
If I had more time to knit for myself it would be sweaters. But I do like to knit smaller warmer items for my sisters and as gifts. Although we live in Southern California, I was born and raised outside of NYC and I have a lot of family out there. I make a fair number of purses but don't really use them.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Beaded purse and a double knit coaster, both as samples. I want to start an alpaca Michael Kors sweater from an older Vogue knitting magazine, or the Herbslied pullover from a Japanese knitting book. One of those will probably be my next major project for myself. Darn, should finish the ribby cardigan. ooops.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I use mostly metal circular needles. Some bamboo and plastic are ok as long as they are fairly slick, although I own all types because it can change with the yarn or stitch pattern. For double points I like Brittany's the best.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
yes to both.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
More like a TOAD at this point. About 7 years old, started soon after I really took back knitting again. Top down striped raglan sweater.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Thanksgiving. Turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce and oyster/sausage stuffing. Oh and my mom's tacos for lunch. Yum!

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Other than yarn, probably beads and coffee pots ;) I also have a weakness for things with an orange cat on them.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I subscribe to Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting, although I need to renew soon. I always look at new handpainted yarns, but haven't ordered any other than the socks that rock yarn. I just feel like I'm on yarn overload and don't have time to knit my own stuff these days.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
I'm always looking for new little tricks to make better finishes on items, whether it's a cast-on or a selvedge edge trick.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I knit socks every now and then, but don't wear them that often. Although I think I finally found a pair of shoes that I can wear my socks in. I wear a size 6 shoe.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
5/10