little miss messy hair

2005-12-29

a holiday surprise

thuy sent a fabulous care package last week, which promptly went under the christmas plant and then not-so-promptly opened to reveal:


mmmiso

check out that gorgeous yarn! i do not think i am knit-worthy, honestly, but i'll do my best. Any suggestions?

Also in the package was a "cute mini case"


kawaii mini kasu


convenient for your desk or backpack,!
(but perhaps only if you are an angel with a huge, heat-shaped head)


Thank you so much thuy! We dined on miso last night!

2005-12-28

photo a day - high art



utah museum of fine arts

2005-12-27

the holiday weekend

i'll admit, i disappoint most people: I do not decorate every inch of the house for the christmas holiday, this year i didn't even do holiday baking (which really just hurts me, since only a small percentage of the treats actually make it out the door when i do bake anyway). I don't send out cards to every person i know (which is a disappointment i need to remedy), nor do i sing christmas carols non-stop from the beginning of advent on. Despite what people want me to be, given my name, i am not into christmas all that much. I love picking out gifts for people, though, and christmas is an excellent excuse for that.


op thought it wasn't too bad a gift (i think)

Other than that, there is one holiday tradition that i really enjoy, one that my family has not done in a number of years but that sop and i revived this year:



may you enjoy the time you have with friends and loved ones


and may you not do too many face plants in 2006!

2005-12-25

photo a day - a christmas tradition



25 dec 2005 - 9:35 and all is well

2005-12-22

photo a day - school's out



2005-12-21

photo a day - longest night



the day the sun stood still

2005-12-20

IHS

i, like possibly the entire knitting world, am in the process of making the irish hiking scarf this holiday season.

This will be for sop's dad, op:


made of nashua creative focus in carmin


hope he likes it...

photo a day - kumihimo

this is only a test...


made from hemp

2005-12-19

snow



2005-12-16

i'll be in a home for christmas

two of my absolute most favorite things are driving through town and shopping. really. well, standing in line is up there, too, but it really is at best a distant third.

logically then i had a fantastic day, as i had the opportunity to do not just my two favorite things, but the third as well. If someone would have tried to run me off the road while flipping me off, well, the day would have been pretty darn close to perfect.

IF YOUR INITIALS ARE S.O.P. YOU MAY CONSIIDER YOURSELF EXCUSED AT THIS POINT. THAT'S RIGHT. LEAVE. NOW. YOUR EYES ARE NOT WANTED HERE.


i had the day off, and spent the morning seperating threads. the present that sop doesn't know about is a kumihimo neckband for him to put his wedding ring on. So, getting ready for a trial run, i took embridery thread and started seperating and then loading into the kumihimo plate (traditional kumihimo is done on a marudai, but i'm just getting a feel for this, and do not know how much i'll be doing it in the future, and so i opted for the plate and disk method). After an hour of seperating threads and starting my first braid, i realized that i needed bobbins to hold the loose ends - and quickly. If i didn't, i was never going to get to this:


no more tangles instruction

and most certainly not to this:


mmm... twirls


Time to hit the road, as they say. Get the ball rolling, stop dragging my a**, you know what i mean.

Thirty minutes (10 minutes looking, 20 minutes standing in a four-person line) after entering michael's, i emerged with these:


10% more plastic goodness


Since one really cannot have enough of driving in holiday traffic, i decided to do more of these fine activities while i was out. After a short stop to the Library, i headed through town, buying the last gifts on my list and a candle ring to get some greenery in the house, dropping some things off for good will, not recycling cardboard due to the overflowingness of the recepticles and posting a sign for some items i'm selling at REI. But i have to say, i love Steve Hagen's audio book "Buddhism Plain and Simple". I'm an addict of Pema Choedron's, but i don't always quite know what she's saying. When i finish listening to this book, i just might.

Zen state aside.

I got home and pulled out the bobbins, wrapped the first thread around its bobbin securely,let it go and watched it unravel to the floor. Hmm... it seems that these bobbins MAY hold an entire skein of embroidery thread, but only if you don't seperate the threads out. Thank goodness i waited the 20 minutes in line for these. I grabbed one of the boxes that didn't make it in the recycling bin and voila:


today's apad

Now, with the kumihimo fiasco well hidden and sop coming home with FOOD, i can sit by the candle ring and enjoy the smell of pine blended with one of my favorite scented candles:


nothing says holidays like tangy pear


Enjoy your weekend!

2005-12-14

photo a day - caution



2005-12-13

photo a day - thoughts of summer



2005-12-11

photo a day - clean



2005-12-08

photo a day



2005-12-06

photo a day - devotion



2005-12-05

photo a day - clear



on a clear day

panta revisited

remember the panta? It was a little big. Big around, big across, big at the front and big at the back. Seems to be a theme with me of late.

well, from the moment i read the panta pattern, i wanted to do it in the round. So, this weekend, in the downtime between cutting wood and sanding for darkroom cabinet drawers, i drew it up, made a rough draft, ripped it out and made it again.




I liked the cross-rib action of the original panta, but just didn't want a seam. So this is worked in the round, using short rows to create the wide front. I did the short row sections to appear as purl bumps, as you can see here:


short rows with style

The pattern is quite easy, and formula-esque, ala schmee.

******************

Make a swatch using the yarn you wish to use.
a = stitches per inch (or whatever unit of measurement you wish to use)

Measure your head
b = head measurement

This panta is stretchy, i found i preferred 25% negative ease
c = ease factor (20% neg. ease = a factor of .8, 25% neg. ease = a factor of .75, etc)

Calculate the cast-on stitches (d), adjust up or down to be an even number
d = a*b*c

Calculate 'llama' in stitches(from org. pattern, essentially, how much space between increases in band width)
e = d/10

In my case i had 3.75 st / in and head measurement of 20", so..
a = 3.75
b = 20
c = .75
d = 3.75 * 20 * .75 = 56.25 = 56 stitches
e = 5.6, rounded up to 6 stitches

1. cast on d/2 stitches, PM, cast on d/2 more stitches
2. join into round, being careful not to twist. Place a unique marker at start of round
3. knit one round
4. purl one round
5. knit one round

6. knit to e stitches past center marker slip next stitch to right needle, bring yarn forward, slip stitch back to left needle and turn, forming a wrap
7. knit to e stitches past center marker bring yarn forward, slip next stitch to right needle, bring yarn back, slip stitch to left needle *NOTE that the second wrapped stitch is done differently than the first*
8. purl to e stitches past center marker, knit the wrapped stitch with its wrap and continue to knit the round.
9. knit one full round, working the wrapped stitch with its wrap when you come to it.

10. knit to e*2 stitches past center marker slip next stitch to right needle, bring yarn forward, slip stitch back to left needle and turn, forming a wrap
11. knit to e*2 stitches past center marker bring yarn forward, slip next stitch to right needle, bring yarn back, slip stitch to left needle *NOTE that the second wrapped stitch is done differently than the first*
12. purl to e*2 stitches past center marker, knit the wrapped stitch with its wrap and continue to knit the round.
13. knit one full round, working the wrapped stitch with its wrap when you come to it.

14. knit to e*3 stitches past center marker slip next stitch to right needle, bring yarn forward, slip stitch back to left needle and turn, forming a wrap
15. knit to e*3 stitches past center marker bring yarn forward, slip next stitch to right needle, bring yarn back, slip stitch to left needle *NOTE that the second wrapped stitch is done differently than the first*
16. purl to e*3 stitches past center marker, knit the wrapped stitch with its wrap and continue to knit the round.
17. Knit one full round, working the wrapped stitch with its wrap when you come to it.

18. Repeat steps 10 - 13
19. Repeat steps 6 - 9
20. Purl one row
21. Knit one row
22. Cast off loosely.

Note that you could make the whole headband wider by adding more short row sections, e.g. add an e*4 section. You could also make the front (center) of the headband wider by working more short rows, e.g. work steps 14-17 twice rather than just once.

Comments or suggestions for improvement welcome.

*******

2005-12-03

photo a day - snowy walk



2005-12-01

photo a day



shiny black vinyl
is much better while the heat
is low and pants long

http haiku

so, i've been slowly working on moving messy hair to a new space. A space with categories and variable options. In this endeavor, i signed on with dreamhost. While i still am working on getting stuff ready ( the 15 minutes of free time one the weekends has been severely limiting), i received a newsletter yesterday which made me realize again why i think dreamhost is so fantastic. The newsletter was in haiku!

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