afternoon adventure: books

Jon and I have been on a bit of a used book buying binge lately. First it started with paperbackswap.com where I've been trading my unused books for new to me books. Then we discovered the little library used book store, which has great prices (nothing over $1).

And then Jon finally introduced me to John King Used & Rare Books in Detroit. Why had I never checked this place out before? I don't know. We headed down to the city yesterday afternoon and spent a few hours browsing all four floors of books. It's the mecca of used books on any and every subject you can imagine and is the largest used bookstore in the country. The store was overwhelming at first and I was kicking myself for not bringing along my book wish list, but I ended up finding a few things to purchase - two novels and a great book on the history of NPR (my daily necessity!). It's so inspiring being surrounded by shelves and shelves of books! There's so much out there to read and learn about!

We ended our Saturday afternoon book tour at a local used bookstore: Royal Oak Books. It was a bit pricier than the library book store and John King, but they had a good selection and we both found a couple of books to buy. Plus, the store was "run" by these two cute calico cats that followed us around the store while we were browsing. A bookstore with cats...great combo in our eyes!

And speaking of books...I was accepted into grad school for Library and Information Science and I start my first class in May. I hope to complete my master's degree in two years and am so excited to head back to school and to see where this new field of study takes me.

sweater: wip

I started knitting this sweater back in January and now I'm finally trying to make some serious progress on it. It's the popular Cobblestone pattern from Interweave Knits Fall 2007. You can buy a pdf of the pattern here.

So far, I've got about 10" of the body finished. Jon tried it on last night and it fits him well so far, so hopefully my gauge changes and stitch alterations will work to make a well-fitted sweater. I'm pretty confident that the body and the sleeves should give me no trouble. It's the joining of the two and the yoke that has me worried! But, I'll cross that road when I come to it.

Yarn: Patons Classic Wool Merino in Dark Olive. The label says it's dark olive, but it looks more like chocolate brown.

a bag and a softie

I made this little lunch bag last weekend and have had a few days to test it out at work. So far, it's worked out great and because it has a flexible bottom it fits all types and sizes of tupperware containers. While I really love this lunch bag book that I posted about last year, I just couldn't settle on the perfect size for my lunch and have been carrying around my lunch in a dilapidated paper bag (yes, the same one) ever since.

I saw a link for this fabric shopping bag last week and thought it would be the perfect solution to my ever-changing lunch containers/content problem that made using a square bottomed bag difficult.

I ended up having to sew the bag twice because the handles were just too short the first time around. I lengthened them significantly the second time, but they're still not big enough to slip comfortably over my hand. So, if I end up making another version of this bag, I'll definitely add 3-4 more inches to the handles. But this is definitely 2 steps up from my torn paper bag with one broken handle so I'm sold on it for now!

And, I never shared this little treasure, Carmen the Zaubermaus...a Christmas gift from Jon...my very own softie from Soto Softies! He signed up for the mailing list to make sure he could get one and everything! I was so excited to open her up on Christmas and she has been watching me craft in my sewing room ever since.

Nica video

He may not post often, but when he does post, it's always good! You can see a little vacation recap video Jon made of our trip at his blog: craftspace.net.

Nicaragua

We're back...relaxed, refreshed, and full of vitamin D. We had such a wonderful time visiting with Kate and seeing the country. Traveling to a warm destination in the middle of winter is quite possibly the best vacation move we've made...why haven't we thought of this before?

Here are some highlights from our trip:

looking at the beautiful scenery

lounging in comfortable hammocks (with Fanta Naranja, to go)

spending time with Kate (after our hike up to the San Ramon waterfall)

enjoying the sun

kayaking in Lake Nicaragua

seeing a monkey up close in Las Isletas, Granada

going on a night tour of Volcan Masaya

zip lining on Volcan Mombacho

eating beans and rice and more beans and rice and more beans and rice...

You can see the rest of our photos (166) here.

overheard after dinner last night

"What's the currency in Nicaragua?"

"I don't remember...oh, wait, it's the Cordoba"

"Isn't that a word for something else, too?"

"Not that I can think of."

"Oh, I guess I was thinking of Qdoba."

Koolhaas: third time’s a charm

First time: I set out to knit the pattern I didn’t realize that you’re supposed to read knitting charts from right to left. Rip it.

This poor little project sat in hibernation all through November, December and January.

Second time: Oh, that little symbol means knit through back loop. Rip it.

Third time: Reading chart from right to left. Check! Knitting through the back loop. Check! I did get a bit lazy with the pattern on the fourth repeat. I changed the pattern mid-row and didn’t realize my error until three rows later. Then I tried to just make it work according to my own pattern and after seeing that it wasn’t working out I fearlessly ripped back 8 rows and fixed the mistake. Yay!

I successfully mastered the psso and ssk on the decrease rows and ended up making a soft, squishy, stretchy, well-fitting hat for Jon.

Here are the details

Koolhaas pattern from Interweave Holiday Knits by Jared Flood of BrooklynTweed

Berrocco Pure Merino (love this stuff! So soft!)

Color: Storm

1.5 balls for the project

5 pattern repeats

Needles:

Size 7 for the k2p2 ribbing

Size 9 for the pattern

Jon has a really big head and doesn’t like it when hats are too tight or slide off his head, so I used thicker yarn and larger needles to make sure it fit nicely.

As of last week I am the proud owner of 3 sets of DPNs from Knitpicks. Even though I bought the DPNs for this project and bought three different sizes (just in case), I somehow managed to buy 6, 7, and 8s so I didn’t have the right size for the decreases at the top of the hat. Not a big deal, but it was funny that I overlooked this little detail.

I’m not sure how to store these needles and I was a bit bummed that they don’t have any size markings on them but I do own a needle gauge, so figuring out which size is which won’t be such a problem. I have a feeling that a new dpn needle case is going to be in my sewing horizon soon. I can’t stand loose needles!

This hat was finished just in time for our beautiful, powdery snowfall. I love pretty snow like this (when I’m inside and warm and not at work).