knitting

We are women – now hear us ROAR!

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Saturday marked a huge event for the knitting activists AKA Craftivists in all of us! I made a total of 13 pussyhats (and still counting!) for the Women’s March. Knitting 6 for the group I marched with and another 2 were sent to Washington DC for women in the march and a friend wanted one made so she bought me the yarn and I knitted it for her, I knitted for my neighbor and ladies in my exercise class and I am still knitting one for a good friend in Oakland. If anyone wanted to offer me money for the yarn and knitting them, I said to them please donate to a cause that you believe in such as the ACLU. I love how knitting is subversive and how these hats created an impact for the wearer, it said this is what I believe and what I stand for and was handmade with love!

I have been knitting the hats in a bulky yarn and on Saturday evening I watched the film  ‘Hunt for the Wilder people’.  I had the hat finished by the end of the film. I really loved that film as it was hilarious, the characters were quirky and the acting was superb, something I really needed after a day marching and feeling the energy of the crowd! To top off this wonderful New Zealand film the scenery was just breathtaking, I so want to visit New Zealand one day! Hopefully soon, when we finally get back home to Australia.

 

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A couple of the crew here with pink pussyhats on, waiting for the march to begin!
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More pussyhats and the huge crowd of people bottlenecked heading towards the rally in Cesar Chavez Park

 

The activist in me is alive and furious now after this Women’s March, and I promise to do whatever I can to help the resistance against the tyrant that is now the President of the US. I could not vote in this country as I am not a citizen but the whole world feels for the total lack of morals this man has for anyone but himself. It is really difficult to comprehend the craziness that is happening at the moment but we all know that we have to face the fact that this madman is in a place of power and will do whatever he and his band of cronies can do to support the capitalist regime of destruction.

I read an article in Bustle about ‘What to Tell People Who Say You have to Accept the …… Presidency Now’ (sorry I don’t want that name on my blog). In the article, this point rang true to me and that is the fact that, “I condemn ……. as a human being”. His opinions and his concept of “great” has nothing to do with the progress of the future and living in a society that accepts all people. A billionaire has no concept of wanting anything but more for himself and everything HE alone stands for – America is not a wasteland – it is a place full of creative, energetic, human beings wanting to do good for the world and in general. Americans (here on da West Coast anyway) are really caring people, who really do want to make a difference! But now I am living in this bubble on the West that is called Silicon Valley, and I am surrounded by so many cultures, this is what has made me stay here for all this time. Our elementary school had so many countries represented on International Day ranging from Japan to Israel to India to the UK and beyond, the food was amazing!

 

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We got this – let’s use our bodies, minds and power as a democracy!

 

Coming from Australia, I am used to living in an area that is a melting pot of cultures and people from many countries.I have come from Australia is a place where your neighbours do not get harassed because they wear traditional clothing. A place where your neighbour who is an Italian grandma, has a pet rooster and likes to have a chat about the kids in her strong Italian accent. WE accept people for who they are and assimilate them to our communities and our into our lives. This is what being human is about, because living in a global world means to accept others no matter where they came from. We need to listen to their stories and you may find that their stories relate to your lives some way, stop listen and do not be afraid. We all need this in our lives, who wants to live under a dictatorship fueled by hate and supremacy? Not ME and the millions of other people who marched around the WORLD.

As to why I marched on Saturday 21st, 2017 – women’s rights, people’s rights, diversity, protection of our mother earth, acceptance, truth, justice, science, education, respect, being human and most of all love. Let us continue to fight for our rights for freedom and justice, to live in peace with each other and for each other.

This is what democracy looks like!

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A piece a Week – The Striped Infinity Hood

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With only a few days till we leave summer and travel to the other side of the world for winter I finally completed this scarf!

This work in progress scarf is made out of LB Collection baby alpaca yarn and an amazing color combination called Flamboyant Cuttlefish from Cephalon Yarns, I found it at Stitches West a couple of years ago. They worked really well together and the scarf is super light due to the fingering weight and the alpaca. And is the only scarf I will be taking with me on our winter vacation 🙂

The knitting pattern for this is super easy:

The Striped Infinity Hood

Knitting needles in a size 9 circular or straight

LB collection Baby Alpaca

Cephalon Yarns Skinny Bugga in Flamboyant Cuttlefish

Cast on 120 stitches on your needles.

Knit in garter stitch in random rows of stripes carrying up the strands on the same side of the knitting. Keep on knitted to desired length – mine is 46″ long.

Cast off and sew ends together to make the infinity scarf.

To Finish : Crochet loosely on the edge on the stranded yarn side to enclose them.

Summer vacation is finally in full swing we leave the country in a few days so here are a few pics from the last day of school with our kiddos amazing teachers and getting in trouble with the principal, hehehe!

 

 

A piece a Week – A summer sojourn by the beach

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With the summer vacation coming to a close we had a last sojourn by the sand dunes in Monterey Bay. I found this lovely Air BnB right on the beach by the sand dunes of Pajaro Dunes Resort for our neighbors family and ours. It was just one night but being right near the beach bought an incredible sense of relaxation to all of us with healthy and delicious meals, reading and chatting. The kids enjoyed the walk along the beach this morning with following the dolphins and sea lions jumping happily in the waves eating their breakfast of fresh anchovies. 
This week I celebrated a much needed clean and dust free house with a vegan strawberry ice cream using a favorite recipe from Food 52. I used brown sugar and lemon to macerate the strawberries to add to the ice cream maker – delish.
Strawberries macerating

Coconut cream in a ceramic bowl I made

Ready to eat and a job well done!

I am in the middle of making a cardigan at the moment which has taken me ages to knit – I think it take me up to half an hour to knit one row as there are so many stitches. This is the Noro yarn I have left for the rest of the cardi and the sleeves – hopefully there will be enough!! This has been an excellent summer project whilst watching the kids flicks at the local cinema each week and our marathon of Harry Potter films!

Goodness Gracious – Great balls of yarn!

And now for our last sojurn of the summer in the sand dunes of Monterey Bay. When we stayed at Sunset State Beach I always wondered how to find accommodation at the condos right on the beach nearby and there we were living it up and relaxing to the sound of the ocean right at your doorstep. We had fig tart for elevenses after our walk along the beach watching the dolphins play and jump up in the water showing their underbelly – it made us all so happy! And yes we have been watching The Lord of the Rings films too over the summer.

Fig tart – perfect with a cup of tea for elevenses 

The sunset by the dunes at our back patio

We found the shells of the sand dollars and I have seen them at the California Academy of Sciences but to see them move is pretty cool I found this video of sand dollars in action.

The kids check out a live sand dollar 

Let’s chase the birds said one kiddo and off they went – just like a Hitchcock film!

Our walk this morning and the sun coming out

Enjoying the freezing cold sea water between my toes

Find the busy bumblebee in the gardens of Pajaro Dunes Resort

A piece a week – Road trip scarf

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Off we go on our 4th July getaway in the redwoods of Richardson Grove! Another fun camp trip for the summer amongst some super tall giants by the Eel river. I’m knitting a scarf with yarn called Flamboyant Cuttlefish by Cephalopod Yarns (who now do not exist – boo hoo). It is a very special color way as you can see…

A piece a Week – Waves Handspun Wool Scarf

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My sister found me this gorgeous handspun yarn in Maleny, Australia for Christmas from a local craft guild and I finally found a pattern to make with it – an easy lace 13 row pattern repeat. The Waves of the Atlantic pattern I found on Ravelry was perfect for the weight of the yarn and the color is just beautiful. It is yellow with tiny specks of pink spun through which makes me very happy! I love when the yarn and the pattern fit just right and sometimes it takes more time to make that happen which can be well worth the tries and fails.

Beautiful detail of this sunshine yarn

The scarf being blocked – the drape will be so soft with the lightness of the yarn

Over the weekend we went on our second camping trip for the summer – this time to Little Basin. I was dreading the drive as I thought it was via Big Basin. As it turned out the drive is up through Boulder Creek and we avoid the 9 miles of squirrelly road that made my son throw up in the car last time we visited Big Basin for a hike. The drive was 1 hour and 30 minutes away from our house and it was the usual drive through the redwood and oak forests to get there. Back in the day Little Basin used to be used by Hewlett Packard for their employees until the land was sold to the Peninsula Open Space Trust and Sempervirens Fund and now it is park of Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the California State Parks (amazing) system!! This campground was open to the public in 2011 and is perfect for families. We arrived on the Saturday morning enjoyed lunch at our campground surrounded by redwood trees with our cabin neighbors close by. Still when night came the stars were beautiful as the open meadow was steps away from our campsite and we could look up and see the clear night. We enjoyed this campground so much we have booked the cabins for a Thanksgiving getaway – hopefully we will get to see some banana slugs in the rain, bring on some rain!! 

Tom Riddle the Gopher snake in his burial ground after he got run over by a car

The kids had such a fun time with Kaki the ranger on duty from the WOLF school. The WOLF (Web of Life Field) school is open to kids aged 11-13 for a sleepover for a week in the redwoods to learn all about life and science – in a couple of years our kids will get a chance to join in the fun. We met Kaki as we were enquiring about the Junior Ranger program and the next thing we were invited to help build a bug box for the afternoons kids camp program called Sense-o-Rama. The bug box was fun and we got an opportunity to learn about our ranger Kaki. Everything the kids were doing around camp centered around wanting to go back to Kaki to ask her questions about the goings on. Missy found a snake in the morning, as the kids were wandering around the campground while we were packing up and wanted to have a funeral for it. Next thing they had Kaki by their side with reference books identifying this road kill snake. It made for an interesting lesson on this little guy. The night before at the campfire the kids were making Ranger Apples, that is roasted apples on a stick that taste like a hot apple pie without the pastry – yum!

The kids with Kaki their hero – when can we see Kaki again??

We had to go for a hike before we left Little Basin and it seemed like we were up for it until we started and everyone was all a bit out of breath by the time we conquered the elevation of the first hill. I think a better breakfast of a smoothie and some fruit would have been helpful rather than the s’mores the kids had!!

Wandering the forest after our elevation climb

Just outside our campground this redwood stretching out it’s branches

Up up high in the sky a family circle or fairy ring of redwood trees surrounding it’s long gone great grandfather tree
The workshop that I was supposed to have next week is moving to the end of July due to hiccups at the library and my lack of time with being “on” for the school holidays and being mama taxi and the like with the kids. Lucky, I can make time to write this while the kids play with Legos or go bike riding around the trees outside. This is another sample for the video I am making as it has French seams on the inside. I will post that sometime but it is definitely a work in progress until I can find some quiet time in the house to record the sound!! 
Another sample for the library workshop

A piece a Week – A stingray gift for a baby and a weekend away to Aptos

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For my birthday I booked an Air BnB getaway by the beach which was so relaxing. The times have been so busy these past few weeks that a weekend away by the beach was the best thing to do. The fun thing was that it was the same weekend as Easter so the easter bunny came to visit the lovely garden right by the house. On the way back home we stopped by at Capitola – we have lived here for 8 years and this was the first time we visited Capitola by the sea. I was entranced by the Venetian Hotel pictures I had seen on the internet – so I was on a mission to find them! 
On the Sunday we were at Capitola it was a rainy and overcast perfect for photos and Capitola is an excellent place to take pictures, it still has a lot of old signage and the Venetian Hotel is so colourful. The evening before was my birthday and we went out to dinner to a vegetarian restaurant with Sri Lankan and Indian flavors! I was so excited to find a vegetarian restaurant with a Sri Lankan spin and could not wait to go – the restaurant was Malabar and the food was divine. I really should not have worn a belt that evening as I ate so much!! There was no alcohol on the menu but they did have a collection of very tasty drinks and a favorite was dates, rose water and almond milk so I will have to try this at home, what a combination. Malabar in downtown Santa Cruz was certainly a highlight of my weekend, a vegetarian restaurant and Sri Lankan goodness all in one 🙂 
For one of our teachers at school I made this stingray (our mascot the Stevenson Stingrays) for her little baby it is a spin on the Bunny Blanket Buddy pattern by Lion Brand Yarn. 
Hello stingray in the sea!

This is an eggplant dosa from Malabar – just like my mum used to make her eggplant curry. As the kids are not fans of eggplant at home so when I get the opportunity to eat it at a restaurant I grab it! This was spicy and in a Sri Lankan style of curry that took me back to my roots.

This dosa and it’s accompaniments – yummo!!
On our way back from our weekend away we stopped at Capitola and here it looks like the kids are wandering alleyways of Europe 🙂 This is the Venetian Hotel right near the beach built by a Venetian Architect in 1924 – super cool and very colorful! 
Look out you are on private property!! 

We took a wander on the pier where you can hire boats and kayaks to go fishing and hang out on the water for the day – I found this though Mr A is not too keen!

Should we go on a boat ride?? 

We had the easter bunny drop his eggs the night before in the garden – that was very foolish as when we woke up in the morning for the egg hunt the eggs had been pilfered by the bandits of the night! The raccoons had a feast of easter eggs and enjoyed the milk chocolate and dissed the dark chocolate eggs!

The hunters in action!

Egg aftermath after the bandits struck 😦

Score from the Easter bunny

“This dark chocolate egg sucks,” says Racoon and his buds!

A piece a week – Emerald stripe shawlette WIP and a Trip to the Emerald city Seattle

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This post is a bit late as we were visiting some friends up in Seattle for a week. It was our first time up there visiting the city and it is just beautiful. The sun was shining and the weather was warm. The last time we flew in and drove out of Seattle up the I-5 all the way to Vancouver, Canada to do some visa business and it was raining, cold and not so blue!

This weeks project a super easy knitting project called the Seven and Zero Shawlette (I still have not finished it). I started it just before we left so I could have an easy project to do at the airport and it is an easy pattern to memorize. Oh, it has been a lovely knit and I am looking forward to finishing it as we felt the chill down the park this afternoon, even though it is still summer! I wasn’t up to doing a linen stitch at the beginning so I put a few rows of linen stitch in the centre in emerald green – just like a forest of trees you see from the highways of Seattle. The colour of the yarn is chipolte and is black with deep red throughout, I have a lack of darker scarves in my collection… so looking forward to seeing this for the upcoming season.

While we were in Seattle we visited the Aquarium to see the Giant Pacific Octopus, went to North Bend to go to the Twin Peaks cafe for some cherry pie, went on a bus and travelled on a boat from Lake Union to the Locks, enjoyed a chocolate tour at Theo in Fremont, chilled out by Lake Sammamish and visited the Woodland Park Zoo. It was certainly a mix of fun stuff with friends and very family friendly. After we visited the troll sculpture who lived under the Fremont bridge, I enjoyed the Fremont Sunday market near Theo with an underground car park filled with vintage clothes and other treasures. And on the the streets lot of food trucks and this guy, I really want the ladder back chairs for my table – such an interesting person to talk to about woodworking. I really love Shaker Style furniture as the designs are so practical and timeless.

My Emerald City shawlette in progress

Feeling tentacle of the Giant Pacific Octopus

Monkeys unite at the zoo!

Hanging out with the Komodo dragon

Enjoying one of the many ciders on offer in Seattle

Kids doing what they love – climbing big trees!

NaBloPoMo – Day 19 – A knitting odyssey

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I am in the process of beginning a project for a friend as a trade off for some lovely barkcloth fabric she gave me. I gave the option to choose yarn and she liked the Malabrigo – my favourite yarn to work with! It is absolutely beautiful and soft to the touch and so snuggly. The cast on has been an absolute test to my knitting knowledge – for some reason I have been having trouble with the long tail cast on. With so many videos of ‘how to’ I am still not getting the right length and either my tail is way too long or too short! Today I managed to get a perfect row of purl stitches down the needle but then the tail is too long and I don’t know if I am doing it right yet again… So it’s back to unravelling and starting from scratch. Well at least I will be mastering this technique by the time I am finished with it!

The great balls of yarn that I was unravelling while reading to missy at the playground today

Lots of yarn everywhere – mmmmMalabrigo