Show ‘N Tell
Peggy’s Handspun
Elena’s Fingerless Gloves
Jill B’s Three Cornered Shawl
A few more pictures here.
Archive for November 2007
This week has been filled with social events. Most involved eating, and there were three restaurants worth mentioning. One old favorite, and two new experiences.
Wednesday night we met with Stephen and Todd at Sanamluang Cafe, our favorite Thai restaurant. (Sorry Jill B. I took my camera, but forgot to get some Kodak moments.) Sanamluang’s food is super tasty and cheap. It also opens late for club goers to get some food in their stomachs after a night’s activities. We ordered some usual appetizers, Shrimp cakes and Satay. Those can never go wrong. My favorite is the Spicy Beef Noodle. Super hot, but so delicious.
Thursday noon we met Nancy and Mark at Canter’s Deli, a Los Angeles landmark that I always wanted to visit. Very friendly service. I ordered Corned Beef and Cabbage. I almost fainted when it arrived. The thing was HUGE! Half head of cabbage covered with layers of thinly sliced corned beef. Plus a super large broiled potato. So good, but there was no way that I could finish the whole plate. I would definitely order it again though!
Thursday evening we went to a new French restaurant comme Ça. Nicely decorated interior. Music was a bit loud when we walked in. But then we were lead to a section partly enclosed by walls that dampened the sound a bit. Waiter was very attentive and friendly. (Cute too!) Maybe too friendly that it bothered CB and Dorothy. It was fine with me.
We started with Moules Frites and Tarte Falmbée. OMG! The fries with garlic aïoli were just heavenly. And the mussels, the broth was not too heavy, but flavors just exploded in the mouth. CB especially loved the tarte. Caramelized onions so sweet and tasty. And it was as big as a medium pizza!
For entrées, Dorothy ordered Salmon, CB ordered Beef Stroganoff, and I ordered the waiter-recommended Braised Lamb Shank. I didn’t try the salmon or stroganoff. But the tasters assured me that they were really good. The lamb shank was tasty but a little too salty for me. They did top it with a sweet tomato jam that balanced the saltiness. But there was too little to go with the meat. I am not saying that it was bad though. Just a little salty. I think I will try the Duck Confit next time.
Spider Queen is back on the needles. Only 4 rows done, but it’s easier now that it’s casted on, no? I used Harmony this time. There are positives and there are negatives. First the positives. I love the sharper points. They make k2tog way easier. I don’t mind the colors either. In fact, they make looking at white yarn easier than the light gray of Inox. The wood is grabby, which helps keeping my YOs tidier, I think. Now the negatives. The wood is grabby. It takes a little more effort to slide stitches across the needles. In fact, they don’t really slide across without my help. Sure, I can get used to that extra step. Also I can use TechKnitter’s tip for conditioning the needles. But there’s another negative that made me decide to go back to the Inox… not-so-smooth joint.
Yes, it doesn’t look like a big deal. It probably won’t be a problem with heavier yarn. But with finer yarn it sangs a little. That scares me because the single ply Thistledown can get very thin. Do I want to worry about it getting snagged and break? NOPE! Back to the Inox. I can use Harmony for something else. I know. I’ll use it for my other Exchequered.
I made some progress on CB’s Exchequered.
CB really loves how this scarf looks. And he wants it NOW! I can’t even pick up Spider Queen without him asking if the scarf was done. I do have one issue to consider though. I did a cable cast-on (which the patterns suggested) and I love how neat the edge looks.
How do I mirror that at the other end?? I am thinking maybe the Backstitch Bind-off that I found in Knitter’s Handbook. Or maybe try Annika’s suggestion:
Knitting the knits and purling the purls, work two stitches, then slip them back onto the lefthand needle. Purl those two stitches together, work one more stitch. Slip the two stitches from your righthand needle to the lefthand needle, and purl them together. This bind-off will mirror the cable cast-on. Because it is a loose bind-off, you should use smaller needles and bind off relatively tightly.
Any other suggestion? I’ll have to knit a few swatches to compare the results.
Oh, I couldn’t resist the temptation to buy this:
I was going to make a long post about Nancy. But, you can find info about her on the Internet. So I am just going to leave it up to you to click on the links if you are so inclined. Plus, I reconsidered and decided not to get into personal stuff. Too bad though. She’s an amazing human being and can be a good example to so many people.
Nancy, an old friend of CB’s, has a two-month teaching engagement at Otis. She also has a show up at Ben Maltz Gallery on the campus until January 18, 2008. The title is “Media Madness”. (See details on the current exhibition page.) One opening night, she gave a talk on her current and on-going work “Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear”. She was engaging, and very very funny.
Anyway, it’s a great show. Go see it if you are in the neighborhood.
Oh, do you know what an autistic savant is? Do you know what synesthesia is? We also met Nancy’s brother who is a psychiatrist. He introduced us to this book, “Born On A Blue Day” by Daniel Tammet. Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant, and he experiences synesthesia. He sees numbers and letters as colors and shapes. He can recite the number pi to the 22,514th digit. He also learned Icelandic in one week! I am really looking forward to reading this book.
