I'm Back!

It's been a while since I posted, for a lot of reasons including a family hospitalization and a couple of whirlwind trips taking me from San Francisco to Phoenix in less than a week's time. I have a lot of catching up to do. This will be a long one. Put on your jammies and make some popcorn.

San Francisco

About two weeks after I got to Orange County (on April 15th), I drove up to San Francisco for the "Ice People" premier, a film by Anne Aghion, at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). I stayed with a friend of mine that I knew in high school and it had been 23 years since we had seen each other! Heidi Jane is a brilliant violinist and musician and is almost done with her second album.

Having breakfast at Boogaloo's down in the Mission District where she lives.

San Francisco is a cool place. It was an unseasonably warm spring weekend and EVERYONE was out working on their tan. I was a bit taken aback at the number of people in this park. I definitely felt like a country mouse.


Getting off a bus, we were greeted by a flock of very friendly pink bunnies down at 18th and Castro.


A few more things that struck me about the city. Here's a classic SF home. This city reminds me of Wellington, New Zealand.


Street name embedded in the sidewalk.


Amazing architecture.


At the premier of Ice People, I ran into some Ice Friends including Rhonda Rodriquez, Bruce Iler, Kelly and Andy Lawson, Tizoc Spears, Sandwich, and a few others.


Over the first two weeks of my stay in California, I knitted these two hats made from awesomely gorgeous Noro yarn from Japan.



Phoenix, Arizona

Two days after arriving back in Orange County, I was off again and across the desert to Phoenix in a fiery red rental car. I stayed with my 86-year old Grannie in Apache Junction, about 60 miles east of Phoenix. Months ago, I had signed up for a couple of jewelery classes at the Bead Expo in downtown Phoenix so I had to high-tail it in order to make the dates.

I had a lot of fun at the Expo. The first day was a class called "Frame It." It was using silver and copper sheet to make little frames that go around laminated images. You then texture the frames using hammers and metal stamps. On the back we wrote little messages using letter stamps then embellish with beads. Here are the two I made. The red one was for my Mom for Mother's Day.



The second day was a class in making PMC beads. These are my creations. Aren't they cool?


Of course there were a lot of vendors selling all kinds of beads and other great stuff. I spent a little money on some great tools, some beads, Swarovski crystals and some great stone cabochons to be used for a future silver smithing project.

I also spent a week with my dear Gramma and helped her get some things done. Here is a great picture of her playing her organ (I love her joy in this photo -- this is her essence).


Spring in the desert is amazing. All the cactus are blooming.


Lots of Quail around too. They are very cute with their little top-knots bobbing as they walk.


Oh, and I turned 41 on May 8th. I spent my birthday with my Gramma and she took me out to the favorite local buffet.


Back in Orange County

While in Arizona I started knitting a felted bag. I finished it on the last day of my visit, then took it back home to my Mom's house to felt it.

When you felt a knitted item, you need to make it way bigger than you intend the final size to be, because the felting process shrinks it. It got this pattern from a great little book called, "One Skein" by Leigh Radford. It has tons of cute projects using one skein of yarn or less. Of course this bag took more than one skein, but I think the pattern is intended for using up all those little bits and pieces of yarn that are laying around. I ended up using 4 skeins of yarn -- 2 solid colors (mohagany* and dusty pink* in Cascade Peruvian highland wool) and 2 balls of self-striping Noro Kureyon to get the striped pattern. Normally you would use scrap yarn to make the stripes.

*not the actual color names from Cascade.

Here's the knitted bag. It measures 19" high by 15" wide before felting.

To felt, fill the washing machine on the lowest water level with HOT water and add a tablespoon or two of dishwashing soap. Put a few tennis balls in there for friction.


I threw in the knitted bag and let it agitate for about 20-30 minutes, checking every 5 minutes or so. Eventually the wool shrinks and binds and the knitted stitches seem to disappear and become a dense wooly fabric. Then it's done. It took out the bag, squeezed out the water, shaped it and have been letting it dry for a few days. It shrunk to 13" x 13" ...so it did not shrink evenly. It shrinks more vertically than horizontally. Cool. Here's the bag today.

Cascade felts up REALLY NICE. I recommend it for this purpose. The Noro did okay, but came out a little fuzzy. But I absolutely LOVE Noro's colors. This colorway reminds me of Tourmaline (a semi-precious stone that commonly varigates from pink to green), so I'm calling this my Tourmaline Tote! It has a little pocket on the inside that I knitted and attached before felting.

So, I've been back in OC for nearly a week and catching up with family. On Mother's Day we hung out with my brother's family. Here's my neice Taylor and nephew Hayden helping me with some sewing.


Okay, am I just being a squishy aunt, or is the cutest face you've ever seen?


Life is good.