If you love Sam Cooke check this out

I bought a new CD Sunday and I must share it. If you love late 50's blues/jazz then you'll love this. Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke reincarnated in this young English guy with an incredible band. What Style!!!!!!

James Hunter "people gonna talk"

It's so good I bought his earlier album online tonight.(of course I bought the import from England instead of the re-release because I guess I am a music snob too.)

Ever see a Dolphin wearing a coconut bra?

I want to thank Our lovely friend in SF who sent us these two books recently. The spinners companion is just fuelling the fire for me to buy a spinning wheel. Like I really need the nudge.

We miss you!

Back from Mexico Friday, and had a wisdom tooth removed Saturday No fun there but life goes on. Back on the road for fun times. Saturday afternoon we went to Rogers Garden Center in Newport Beach to see the Orange County Rose Society exhibition. Beautiful roses! I forgot the camera so there are no pics. If you have a chance to visit the Garden center it's amazing. They have a Rosarian there and everything.

Sunday was a nice day of rest. Mid afternoon we took a nice drive down the coast towards Laguna and were suprised with the new costumes on the topiary trees in Corona Del Mar. Most Holidays the trees get decorated and it's just another fun thing we enjoy together. Just one more reason we love Southern Ca.

life is good

I'm off on a business trip to Mexicali Mexico and it makes you appreciate our country that much more. Missing Mrs. Twisted like crazy but I will be home in her arms in no time.

I just received a wonderful letter from my Secret Pal ( spoilee) and this being the first time for me to do the secret pal thing I didn't really know what to expect. For those of you who read my ramblings will already know that I tend to be a tad extreme or even borderline psychotic so it was really nice to read her warm thanks. It was all worth while to me now.

(M) is a young crochet person from another continent. I had such fun investigating and learning about her craft and trying to tie the gifts into where I live and the culture here. She still doesn't know that I'm a guy yet. I had to use my return address when shipping over seas so she knows my general location.

The whole precess is like watching someone you really care about open a Christmas gift you gave a lot of thought to. but you have to read it instead of seeing it first hand

When the exchange is over I will post a link to her blog on mine.

Not to ignore my package from my Secret pal. Thanks for posting on my blog. I can't wait to see what you send. I'm all excited! What to send to a psycho....... lol

Here is some actual knitting content

I know I havent been on lately but I started a new Job and life is busy.



First I need to introduce you to a very special lady, Natalie Wood.

No not the actress.

:-)

One of my guitars

I know it’s just a guitar but men tend to give female names to things like cars, boats, guitars or other inanimate objects. Why that name? I have always thought Natalie Wood was classy and timeless in her beauty. I see a lot of the same qualities in this giutar. Beautiful, mysterious yet not overly complex and the sultry voice . Yes I have a vivid imagination.

Oh yeah the knitting content, I was looking throughthe back of a guitar magazine and one of the advertisements had a slip on neck cover to protect from dust and dirt while it sits on the stand. I now what don’t I just put it away after playing it. You tend to play more if the guitar is readily available. Being the psycho engineer I think I can knit one of those. Mrs. Twisted went … ok. I guess, why not. So I measured the guitar neck and sketched the design and with her help I developed a pattern.

I'm calling it the "Axe Guard"

Off to buy yarn (yeah!) I found some Noro Kureyon that looked good with the colors in the guitar. It develped into a sort of huge sock well sort of.

when the length was correct for the neck I bound off the back and continued the front half until it would reach the stap hook on the end of the body. By adding a button hole to the end it attatches without any issues. I felted the top with a scuncie and did some creative blocking.

I built a filler block to hold the shape from a trix cereal box wrapped in a grocery store plasic shopping bag so it wouldn't desinigrate from the steam.

I need to shrink it a bit more so I will do some spot blocking and pin it flat so it doen't curl and lays flat accross the pick-ups and bridge.

After I finish the blocking I have some beautiful black silk. I plan to sew in a lining to ease the way it slides on and also to prevent lint and minor surface scratches from the wool. Hopefully done this week.

To all you lurkers, please comment if you like what you see or have any sugestions.

I'll Start My Yarn diet again on Monday... I Promise :-P but Friday night it was Liquor, Knitting, Books, Shopping and Friends

Dusk on Friday evening in the Venice Beach area. It's hard to believe that a few hours earlier we were Sun knitting south of Laguna Beach. ( see previous post) The rainbows are a nice diversion from all the bad drivers when it rains in L.A.

The wonderful ladies at A Mano Yarn Center literally raised the bar once again. Friday night we had the opportunity to attend a reading by the author of Knitting Under The Influence by Claire LaZebnik. There are 5 drinks noted in the back of the book with knit reference names. A Mano graciously supplied the drinks and the crowd was very happy as we all knit while listening to the prose read by Ms LaZebnik herself.

Knitting Under the Influence

As the evening wore on we all had a chance to ask questions of the author and chat amongst ourselves. She did something that was quite a nice bonus, she handed out measuring tapes with the books name on it to all of us attending the event and personally signed copies for us. I had a copy autographed to my Secret Pal and got an extra tape for her as well.

For the price of two books she posed for a pic with Mr. Twisted

Lot's of liquor and non-alcoholic drinks for those of us driving,
a store full of inspiring yarn, great conversation and knitting. Life is good

Our gracious Host's and fibernistas Annette & Shannita in the background. We do wish you were a bit closer to us but it's always worth the 60 mile round trip to attend your fabulous events. Thank you !!

Before the event slowed too much the store owners announced a special discount till the store closed as thanks for the participation in the event, "Danger, Will Robinson". That's all it took for us to grow the stash and pickup a couple items for my Secret Pal.


New Royal Ball winder for my secret pal Shhhhhhhhhh!

7 hanks (1512 yards) of Malabrigo Azul Bolita Merino Yarn

Some Karabella Chameleon for Mrs Twisted.
70% merino 20% silk and 10% cashmere... so soft!

Nice way to spend a sick day

Mrs. Twisted and I planned a sick day and it was wonderful! Shopping, yarn, a relaxing drive, knitting at the beach with the woman I love! It doesn't get much better

I had the operatunity to shop at Purl Soho Costa Mesa a few times but the Mrs. never had the chance to sneak over during a work daytill today.

We justified the trip by needing a couple hanks of Black Manos del Uruguay to finish the 3 handed Lovers Mittens that are on the Christmas list for friends back east. Pics to come

1. Two hanks of Manos del Uruguay Black
   
   
2. Lantern Moon Project bag and a magazine for the Secret Pal
   
   
3. Two hanks of Koigu Kersti merino in Electric Purple
   
   
4. And the buy of the day 13 hanks (1,560 yards) of 100% alpaca from Blue Sky Alpaca @ $5.00 per hank!

We had to take it out for some action pics :)

Now isn't this why we live in sothern California?
75 degree heaven sure beats the hell out of working.

A Few hours of Sun Knitting and relaxing was just
what the Dr. ordered.

My eyes are bigger than my Needles....

I sometimes feel like I’m at one of those all you can eat buffets where you put more food on your plate than you could ever eat. I guess it could be worse.

We had another wonderful weekend. One of the ladies in our Wednesday night knit group had a table at a local craft fair so that was on the agenda. But… we received a post card with the fall knitting class schedule for La Petite Knitterie and it had a 15% discount coupon on it so went to see what we couldn’t live without. One 200-yd skein of hand painted and hand spun silk merino in the most amazing ocean colors and two Purple blue twilight hanks of Malabrigo (feels like cashmere) Merino yarn

After we caught out breath we went to the craft fair to see Zona’s hand dyed hand spun yarn. Loved the way she named the yarn after song titles. Left to right, "Beautiful Days" wool, "Delilah" Silk, and Skin-a-Ma-Rinky-Dink"Merino/Cashmere. Well three more hanks added to the stash as our part to support the local economy and some wonderful kettle corn and it was off to drive the coast and see the sunset.

We headed south and as we were ready to head home we found a small group of car enthusiast who all had PT Cruisers with colored lights under, in and around the cars all working in conjunction with the music. Love the wierd stuff in So Ca

Secret Pal # 9

Here is my Secret Pal #9 questionnaire

This is my first time doing the secret Pal Thing and I'm all excited. I found out My "Pal" is on anther continent and I can't wait to see the blog entries when she/he opens my packages. I must admit I read every entry and comment on the blog when I learned who I was paired with.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I prefer to knit with something that I would wear next to my skin. I prefer silk or silk blends, cashmere and cashmere blends. My favorite yarns are:

Capistrano Fiber Arts 100% silk available from La Petite Knitterie

Alchemy Silk Purse

Debbie Bliss 100% silk
Twisted Sisters Voodoo
Malabrigo Merino
I also Love local hand dyed yarn wherever I travel.
Please no acrylic

See my Stash flickr for my current stash inventory

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

A special coupon holder that works very well as a Addi Turbo circular holder. The Knit Picks circulars came with a nice zippered binder

I have a Namaste Vintage bag that holds my straight needles.
3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I started eleven months ago and I consider myself a budding intermediate. My loving wife taught me last year so I could make my daughter a felted purse for Christmas.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

I will post it on my blog soon.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)

Heavy or flowery, fruity scents don’t work for me. I prefer very lite clean scents. By the way I’m 6’5" and really don’t fit in the tub very well….STRONG>

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

See’s Dark Chocolate, Dove Dark Chocolate

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I want to purchase a spinning wheel soon. We dyed our first yarn last week, Noro 100% silk. See blog for details and pics

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I love Music, from Brian Setzer to Sinatra to NOFX to Alan Jackson to Weezer to SRV etc. Rock, Punk, Ska, New Wave, Blues, Standards, Swing. really perfer local/regional or unsigned bands …………….I will have a music list posted on my blog as well...... I have some updating to do I guess

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

My favorite is Purple and Purple variations, I have a deep Purple couch. Fan of the Jeweltones, anything deep and rich in color,reds, burgandy/magenta, deep blues and dark emerald greens and Teal! Sheen goes along way in my book. I don’t care for the NT color=#33ff33>pea soup/ army greens and brown/orange colors.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

Very happily married to my best friend and soul mate. Two wonderful teenage children living in AZ with their mom. Son 17, Daughter 14 No pets

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Poncho… nope sorry. I live in So Ca so the hat season is thin and the gloves are not practical. I sometimes wear a hat or scarf if it’s cold and we walk some evenings on the beach.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

I’m still learning so I haven’t tried everything yet. Only 4 FO’s so far.

13. What are you knitting right now?

I have a Mitered square rug in Manos almost finished, a pair of socks mid way in Koigu Merino, Flickering flame Lace Skirt in Blue Heron on hold until I finish a Cherry bomb Tank from big Girl Knits.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

I love hand made gifts, it shows some creativity and thought. Hint: I would love some cool stitch markers….

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

Here we go again; first of all I’m a guy, I love the tools. I bought clover circulars for my first project and gifted them as soon as I tried Addi Turbos. I prefer Ebony,and Rosewood needles by Holz & Stein when I can find them. I bought the new Knit Picks Options in september and love them too. I will post a needle list and flickr pad on my blog. No plastic needles here. I know, I know yarn snob and needle snob too..

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

But of course.. See # 15 for reason and see #2 for picture. I have a Oregon wood worker cherry wood yarn swift and royal ball winder
http://wood.charlestree.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=35

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

Three months, I have a project I designed for my guitar. I need to block and sew a silk lining into it. It’s a guitar neck cover made from Noro Kureyon to keep my guitar neck from getting dusty while it sits on the stand.

18. What is your favorite holiday?

Christmas, I love the shopping for just the perfect gift. Seeing the surprise on the face when the recipient opens the gift and loves the item.

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Yarn, Needles, Guitars, Music, Christmas ornaments and Refrigerator magnets.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I will amend this soon

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

Continental Knitting

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I'm learning Men’s US size 15 Eur size 49.5 (what do you expect, I'm 6'5" tall)
Bare foot is 12 ½" long. I will have a dimensioned foot print on the blog shortly

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)

10/05

You Know it's Fall When........

If you live in so California it's hard to tell when the seasons change unless you pay close attention to the retail store decorations and some of the corporate packaging of the staple foods we love.

You know the Special Christmas wrapping will be out
sometime after Halloween but before Thanksgiving.

We did get a beautiful card last week from Mrs. Twisted's sister who lives in Vermont. The one season she misses is the fall because of the turning leaves and the brisk coolness that is screaming at you to get out your winter clothes because 4 plus months of snow shoveling is just around the corner. I love the fact that I never have had winter clothes. Shorts and flip flops on Christmas is the norm for me.

What a wonderful thought. She knows how much the Mrs. loves the fall and in her better than Martha Stewart ways, she took a plain white card and attached the mat and a real Vermont Maple leaf from her yard with the nicest hand written note wishing us a happy 1st anniversary. Thank you Joyce