Knitty Gritty Down 'n' Dirty

I finished the bag! Well, okie, so it took like 2 nights and half a day, but I'm done! I put a pretty pin on it just for the heck of it. It turned out a little larger than I expected... I'm not sure if it's because of the yarn I used or what... I used the recommended size needles... or maybe it just looked smaller in the picture in the book... anywho, it's complete... I'm not sure if I'm too attached to it, so I may be looking for a new owner for it. Drop me a line if you like the bag =P (the dimensions officially are ~8 in. tall, 11 in. wide and 3 in. deep, all not counting the strap)
as for other news, I think I'll be starting another project... I couldn't help myself and bought a pricy ball of yarn from Imagiknit cuz it was so soft and cuddly! It's by Wendy, part of it's Chunky line, called Velvet Touch, it's made in England! Oh and it's kind of a mauve pink color... So I wanna make a scarf, or more like a neck wrap/tube/cowl thing... lol! guess u'll just have to see when I'm done... maybe I'll mix it with some of my pink mohair yarn that I got a while back... who knows, stay tuned for the results!

Here's is my lovely bag/purse from the Rowan's Big Easy pattern book. The pattern is called Lulu, but instead of using Rowan's Big Wool yarn, I used Plymouth's Encore Mega. 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

ok ok, I know, it's BEEN awhile.... so let's recap shall we? so as u scroll down, u will see the pics of the past happenings, of which I will be explaining here, but if u just wanna see pics, then be my guest... so, most recent first, we got new Ham-hams! well actually Erica had only expected to get one, but my brother's friend Abby left another one with her, which was supposed to be just for the nite...but now we've got two ham-hams we dunnno wat to do with, they have cages and everything, seperated becuz one's a boy and one's a girl. If someone would realy love a hamster please lemme kno, she's a adorable cream colored golden (syrian) ham, she's still a "baby", hasn't bitten anyone, so good tempered, AND she'd come with a cage! but yeah, there's pics of them down there... so yeah, Cindy's birthday was the 3rd, we had ice cream cake at her house and yeah, I dabbed a bit of icing on her nose and her cheek, but then her sister Shirley caked her whole face, (she caked my brother on his b-day too), actually Benny got some up her nose, but he ran away and washed his hands before she could see anything, since she was blinded by icing... but I didn't catch a pic of it all cuz my camera was off... it was funny tho...
onto Marine World, the annual Kababayan Fest (a filipino family event) was being held there last, last Sat. the 31st of Aug., and Joremel and his band were playing for it! Along with Lalaine, the girl who plays Miranda on Disney's the Lizzie Mcguire show, Once Voice and Rex Navarrete... also a whole lotta "bay area" talent, it was a pretty cool showcase of singing, dancing and a bunch of other stuff too! There was this one boy, Gabe, who just blew the socks off us when he started singing and strummin his guitar... I have a clip of it on video but gotta figure how to post that up first... but yeah, he sounded like a asian Jason Mraz! lol! Cindy was quite smitten with him and got me to hunt him down with her through the crowd to get his CD, but then she was too smittened to ask to take a pic with him, so I just asked for her, and 'viola' pic is below... Joremel's band did well, he had tons of ppl (mostly kids, but still) run up to grab some free demo CDs from him, he really had the crowd goin... overall, it was a fun day...
On a side note, I'm starting that cute little bag from Rowan yarn designs that I had wanted to work on, the blue one in the pic back on july 30th, I finally gotta chance to check out a yarn shop here in SF, Imagiknit (rite on 18th and Sanchez), it's a really cute shop and yes, again, I spent a lot of time there, but Erica was with me, rushin me to hurry up cuz she wanted to go to Petsmart... so not as long as I'd like, but yeah, I was able to find a substitute for the Rowan Big Wool yarn, it's a yarn from Plymouth yarns, called Encore Mega. I was only able to find a nice blue color almost like that in the pic, but I kinda wanted a pink bag for myself... we'll see how this turns out first tho... =)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

this is Toby, Erica's beloved new hamster... and she's using one of the finished pieces of the bag I'm working on.... great... 

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and
Juliet is the sun. 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

here's a pic of everyone at Cindy's (in her pj's as usual) house for her b-day and the cutting of the cake... and her little dog... =P 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

and last but not least, was Rex.... 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Here's One Voice, again, at the fest... 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Here's Lalaine (miranda from lizzie mcguire), at the fest, she sang a couple of songs, she's very nice, quite humble, Erica bought her sampler CD.... 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

here's Joremel with his band "HiFly" playin at the fest awhile after the Immij girls... weirdest thing tho, in the upper pic, I think he's lookin at me... 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

here's one of my favs pics from the Butterfly habitat, I took a whole bunch of snapshots of all the beauties, maybe I'll make a collage... 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

here's Cindy and Lana in the Butterfly Habitat with me (behind the camera)... u can't tell, but I think Cindy was a little freaked out by all the free flying flutterbies, I mean butterflies... 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

and there's the Immji girls, and their dancers... 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

here's Joremel playing with "the Other Side" for the Immij girls at the Fest 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

here's Cindy wit a 18 yr. old cutie named Gabe who performed at the Kababayan Fest, he can sing AND play the guitar at the same time! =P 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

this is a clip of Rex performing at Marine World this past Sat.(7/31) it may be kinda choppy, so if u can bare through it then yeah... it's the bit about him being in ESL and it was "back-to-school" nite, so his teacher "Mrs. Scott" is doing an annoucement...

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

So I just realized that I haven't posted any recent project accomplishments lately. welps, here's a couple of them. I made a heather blue beanie too, but I gave it to Joremel before I remembered to take a snapshot... maybe he'll send over a pic of it in it's new home. Anyways, yes, I kno, my latest projects have been cell fone cozies... but hey, they're useful! and I've been pretty good at customizing the pattern to the individual cell fone =P it'll help me customize patterns easier... so yeah, if u wanna cell fone cozy, or palm pilot/ipod/digi cam cozy, just lemme kno! I just need the dimensions and if ur electronic has an antenna or not... a pic of it would be cool, but if I could take a look at it, even better! =) as for my next project, I want to make this really cute bag from Rowan yarn designs,

but the yarn it requires (big wool) is pretty pricey... guess we'll see... oh yeah and I went to the yarn shop today at SC, The Golden Fleece. It's nice there, I always spend way too much time walking around playing with all the different yarns... I should've asked if they had Rowan yarns... oh well, I'm gonna go to another yarn shop in SF 2moro (or well, today now) and run amuck there... =P also hopefully I can pick up the tix for Marine World from Prime Image too... let's see how productive of a day this will be....

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

here's a cell fone cozy I made for Lana, actually took 2 days or so, cuz I was in SC in betw... but yeah, turned out interesting cuz Lana just picked the color and I started knitting, I didn't kno til a couple of rows later that the yarn is a thick & thin yarn. that is, it's thick, then it's thin, then it's thick again and so on... a nice yarn for a scarf or sumding but interesting for a cozy... turned out okie at the end tho yeah? 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

this is my cell in it's new cozy =P whipped it up in a day, it feels a little off, but it's an adorable purple... 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

whoooo hoooooo! It was great! I got to meet the band and chatted with Doug for a little, it was short but sweet. The show was great, Dredge and Phantom Planet opened for them, and Joremel complained that they weren't that good, but he was raving about the drummer of Dredge who at a few points of the show was playing the keyboard along with his drums (he's always been a fanatic about ppl who can multi-task). but yeah, I thought they were cool, but when Hoobastank got on, practically everyone got into the "pit" for some fun jumping action! During which at least 2 ppl got on the stage, they were pretty cool about it tho... they do know howto pump up the crowd, get ppl bouncing up and down. There was a good amount of ppl there, and actually I heard it was sold out like an hour b4 the show started... We were actually waiting in line to get in at like 5pm, and they open the doors at 6:30, so we got pretty good seats (I wasn't ready for the "pit").  Either way, it was all worth it to see Doug with his shirt off all hot and sweaty, and then singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" rite before the last song... Crazy cool stuff, so happy I went! and an interesting part that I have to tell you is that there was this little girl, not much older than Erica, who was standing on top of this sturdy seperator thing, she was so small that it was the only way she could see, but she was bobbin up and down swinging her "rock on" hand sign in the air, just rocking to the music... now that girl's gonna grow up a rocker...

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

all in all, it was an awesome show, and yes, Doug is a very hot boy, and here is a pic of him wit his shirt off, I know, it's not too clear, but just to give u an idea..... 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

and here's the whole band together, I had to wait a few seconds for Doug to stop twirling around and playing catch with his permanent marker to take the shot.... 

• 
• 
• 
• 
•