a beast of a sweater

Many months ago Carmen scored a lot of superbulky yarn from the ebay branch of Handpaintedyarn.com/Malabrigo right as the website stopped carrying it (and the price was subsequently raised from $5 to $12). The yarn is really nice and Ive made several hats out of it (pattern for cabled hat). I decided to make a raglan cardigan but I wasnt sure 10 skeins was going to be enough. I have knit and re-knit most parts of this sweater several times because I apparently have no ability to plan out a project ahead of time and I keep changing my mind. I just decided I wanted pockets, but not patch pockets since I wont have much extra yarn, so I ripped out the whole body back to the top of the pockets. Its pretty quick knitting and this is the sort of sweater that should have been done in about a weekend but my indecision has drawn it out for months. It also weighs a ton. All I have to say is thank goodness for interchangeable needles!

nasturtiums

I made this skirt in middle school from some fabric my mom had lying around. Needless to say it no longer fits me but I love the fabric so much that I need to find some appropriate use for it. I was thinking about piecing it together with some plain colored fabric to make the top of a blanket but im not sure how much I like that idea. Anyone have a good suggestion of what I should make?

pork chop!

I bought this stuffed pork chop from Sweet Meats at the craft mafia trunk show in SF this last weekend. It even came all wrapped in butcher paper with a deli sticker. So cute! I think apollo likes it too...





this weekend really did have too much shopping involved. I may or may not have the energy to talk about it (yes it really was that exhausting) except to say it involved BOTH the Mountain Hardware wharehouse AND the Patagonia outlet and that some items were cheap enough that I had to buy them and Ive already started pawning jackets off on other people... (I have two more - anyone my size?)

Avocados grow on trees! and other news from Hawaii

lava!, originally uploaded by abmatic.

At last! i have uploaded photos from my Hawaii trip. You can see the full set of photos (ok, actually I tried to pare it down as much as i could) here, a condensed set here and a few favorites are below. We saw lava flowing into the sea, white, black and green (olivine!) beaches and sea turtles. We ate grass fed Hawaiian beef, tropical fruits and shave ice with fresh coconut and drank large quantities of kona coffee. The first day we had lunch with Phoebe in Waikiki and the next three days we stayed with Ingrid who was visiting at HVO in Volcano National Park. Then we spent two days sitting on the beach and two days sitting around on our porch looking out over the ocean. It was warm and wonderful and in strong contrast to the 30knt winds and 40 degree temps in chicago right now (where i am sitting in the airport-- almost home!) and thats not even cold for Chicago...

anyway on to the photos

Green Sand Beach


Punaluu as a storm was coming in. This beach was 100% shattered basalt and entirely black.


Sea Turtles! There were a bunch of them hanging out at Punaluu


Punaluu





Waipio Valley


Sunset from the porch