I'm no Eunny.

But of course, that should be obvious. I mean, come on, my knitting is not even close to on a par with hers (I have two kids to watch, if I knit up lace they'd haul me away for neglect) and my photography leaves a hell of a lot to be desired (and much the time it leaves most of the work to your imagination). I mentioned that I was knitting socks FOR a knittyboarder whose screen name is Entrelac. I have been asked several times now how my Entrelac Socks are going. I have never knit entrelac so I really don't think I'll be introducing myself to the technique with knee socks! Lord, I can barely find the time, tenacity, and inclination to knit a pair of plain old socks letalone knee socks, letalone ENTRELAC knee socks! You people expect too much from me (and by 'too much' what I mean is 'anything, anything at all'). Now I feel bragging about my very first bit of colorwork is going to be a letdown. Oh well, I'm going to do it anyway, far be it from me to not gloat about an accomplishment. Go back and look at that first pic again to see my very first attempt at colorwork! Okay so it's not really my first attempt, my first (and second and third) attept was ripped out so I could get a nice even band that wasn't to tight to stretch. I wanted to make sure these things will fit (Jaywalkers taught me to always double check). After I did the colored band I knit a few rounds, put it on waste yarn and pulled it up my leg to see how far it would go. I got it past my knee. I am certain that it will fit. Ooh, I hope they fit! I want these to be awesome. It helps that I have great yarn. I'm using Wildfoote again. It makes a really lovely fabric on size 1 needles. SOme people think it's too splitty but I love it anyway. The colors shown here are Black Licorice and Purple Splendor (which is a tweedy yarn with some blue in it). Now, I have to tell you about the fabulousness that came in the mail today. The lovely Miss Entrelac for whom the above socks are being knit, sent me some of her famous stitchmarkers. These are not the plastique kind I usually use, oh no! These are better than most of my jewelry (and more useful, although I have used a dangly earring as a rowmarker but...). Anyway, the fabulous markers featured in these pictures are made of niobium wire and the beads are hematite, except the larger beaded markers which are sterling and hematite. I could just swoon, couldn't you? I only wish I could take a picture that would really show them off. Even with the macro function on my camera the best I could do was an exquisite photo of the woven detail of my tablecloth (though it is a nice one, it repels liquid, really it just stays beaded up and wiped right off). Jealous?

At least 7.5 random things about California.

I challenged Bezzie and now I shall have to make good on my deal. 1) The Center of the World is in Felicity, California. I have never been there durring hours when it's open but Edina and I have climbed to the top of it and also pulled open the double doors to get inside after hours. They made those things lock into each other but not bolt into the ground, if you yank hard enough they just come open. Of course, they may have fixed that by now and it's not like there's anything inside it to take or anything so maybe they weren't worried about it. Eh, here's a photo from a postcard that some guy got on his trip. I have no idea if that girl got the duck at The Center of the World or if they just have a random duck walker or something. It's a weird place, who knows. 2) The largest and oldest wooden building in California is the Hotel Del Coronado on the island of Coronado here in San Diego county. It is also the second oldest remaining Victorian resort in the world. One time my buddy Dan and I wandered around the Del for several hours while he pretended to be a tourist of undefined Eastern European or Germanic origin. He kept shouting about shoddy American beer ("I have been in your country three weeks and have not yet been drunk! What is this piss you call beer!?") and asking people if they knew where they sold hot nuts (The Del used to sell hot roasted peanuts but must have stopped sometime before that particular trip). Also, most locals refer to it as The Del as opposed to The Coronado, which make no linguistiacal sense really. 3) This is a real street sign that is used on numerous freeways around San Diego. A huge deal was made of these things when they first went up and people from other states have told me they don't believe that these are really up on I-5. I see three of them on my way to drop off my husband at work every morning. In the 27 years I've been alive I have never actually seen anyone running across the freeway. Ever. 3.5) If California's economic size were measured by itself to other countries, it would rank the 7th largest economy in the world. 4.5) The U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition is held annualy in my hometown of Imperial Beach, California. Imperial Beach is considered to have some of the best sand in the counrty. I find this amusing since the beach has been eroding like crazy for the past 10 years. There's like half as much beach now as there was when I was a kid. If I owned a beach front home I'd be pretty worried. Anyway, after the competition the sand on the beach is totally displaced and for two days while it washes back out to normal it creates two sets of breakers in the water with a big, calm area in between like a swimming pool. The picture at right is actually from the amature division of last year's contest. The winning team for the main contest sculpted a giant hand holding a royal flush that was way detailed. Those people are nuts! 5.5) No one seems to know where the word California actually originated but everyone seems to have an opinion about it. (Wikipedia has a fairly good article about it.) Personally, I like the idea that it was a slam on Hernan Cortes. I find it amusing. 6.5) The only one of California's 21 Missions I have ever been to is Mission San Francisco Solano, the final mission built by the Spanish and the one farthest away from where I live. The first mission was Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala it's right here in town and though I've been by it a number of times I'm pretty sure I've never gone in. Churches wig me out and they still actually use the mission as a church. It is beautiful though, check out the picture over there. They also have a legend that if you hear the mission bells in the middle of the night you shouldn't follow them because you'll never return. You know, good old follow the bells to your death stories. Which will take me to the last fact... 7.5) According to the Travel Channel's show America's Most Haunted the U.S. government actually keeps a list of the most haunted places in our country. The number one house on that list is Whaley House in San Diego's Old Town area. If you stop through town, I'll take you there. Afterward we can go over to the Haunted Coldstone down the street. Okay, so Coldstone isn't haunted but we say it is since it's located in between Whaley House and the graveyard where Yankee Jim is burried. Although there's plenty of skepticism to go around, I have to admit there are many weird things that go on in that locale. Not the least of which being that if you park your car over the grave markers in the road (the cemetary line was moved back ages ago and some of the graves are under the paved road, there are small brass plaques simply stating "Grave Site" where graves have been paved over) your car won't start. It doesn't always happen and it doesn't happen to everyone but it happens just enough to be really odd. The photo below is of my sister Shaniqua and my cousins Irie and Hawkeye at Yankee Jim's grave. And thus ends my 7.5 facts about California that are mostly about San Diego since that's where I'm from. Since I mostly talked about SoCal, I think CPurl17 should tell us about NorCal. On the knitting front, I'm working on a pair of socks for Entrelac that I will show you just as soon as I'm sure they're looking right. Lastly, my baby girl is THREE years old today. Yikes!