Spider Granny!

The Grim Ripper and Spider Granny

Last night's Stitch 'n Witch party at the Original Farmers Market was outstanding! Our Mistress of Activities, Natalie (aka The Grim Ripper), outdid herself with the planning and giftbags. She made great Dia de Los Muertos pouches, stitch markers and even gave the prize winners this disgusting candy. I helped with some of the prizes (cotton yarny goodness and some HBO DVDs).

Incredible Prize Bags

Mr. Larry attended with his super-duper faboo camera to take portraits of everyone in their incredible costumes! Also, there were numerous yummie goodies!

Witches Fingers

Divine Pastries and Cookies

Obama Cookies

Spooky Cupcakes

I don't have Larry's photos yet, but I'll add them to this post over the weekend.

The Winners

Spider Granny, Gnome-ar Garciaparra, Hola Gatito Luchadora

That Natalie is sooooooo sweet, she even gave me some gifties for helping with the party. She found this incredible vintage crocheted potholder in a shop in Houston. She also made me some wonderful stitch markers! I love her newly designed Gocco weiner-dog postcard! Thanks, Natalie!

Many of us are going to continue our Halloween costume fun with a Dia de Los Muertos visit to the Homegirl Cafe SnB tomorrow from 2-5. Join us, if you can....bring your knitting and crochet too!

Sing along to the Spider Granny Theme Song, sung to this tune:

Spider Granny, Spider Granny

She will knock you on your fanny.

Crochets a web with her hook

Don't give her a dirty look!

Watch out, watch out, watch out for Spider Granny!

I have Larry's photos in slide show form:

Old Time Entertainment

Last Saturday Larry and I visited the Velaslavasay Panorama for their festive Fall get-together. There was music, food and drink in the gardens. The Panorama is located in an old theater (the Union Theater) just west of Hoover Street, north of the USC Campus. It was too dark outside to take pictures, but I did get a few snapshots of the interior.

Traditional Theater

During the party outside, there was a slide show in the traditional theater, along with the viewing of the Panorama in the circular chamber, upstairs.

Artistic Slide Show in the Main Theater

We hadn't seen the current panoramic painting...."Effulgence Of The North", a 360 degree arctic panorama. It was quite amazing. The proprietress of the Panorama, Sara Velas, painted the piece.

A Portion of the Panoramic Painting

This is such an interesting place to visit. I can definitely guarantee that you'll find it fascinating when you visit!

Velaslavasay Panorama, 1122 W. 24th St., Los Angeles, CA (213) 746-2166

Shaping Up

Our bedroom addition is really shaping up! Now, we can actually visualize ourselves in the room, along with the placement of furniture, clothes, etc. Squeeeeeeeee!

Lotsa Socks!

My Sock Yarn - Fernwood's Socks

Last year, in preparation for the holidays, I knitted tons and tons of wristwarmers. It drove me nuts! Of course, the wristwarmers were well-received, but I really knocked myself out doing all that knitting!

I decided to take it a bit easier on myself this year. I ordered lotsa socks from Fernwood Woolworks in Oregon. You send them your own sock yarn, wound into a cake. A few weeks later, they send you back a beautiful pair of socks to your size specifications. Lynette at Fernwood knits the socks on a 1920's sock machine. The price is reasonable, the socks are beautiful and everyone loves them! This is a win-win situation. I will be supplementing my gift-giving this year with these gorgeous socks! Maybe you're on my list!

Monday Morning Conference

Important Conference

I really do like my job. I work at a cable entertainment company in Santa Monica. I've been here for 10 years. It's like a college campus over here. We have great activities. Last week there was a company-wide barbeque on our front lawn. I'm looking forward to this year's holiday party. By far, one of the best activities is our pumpkin carving contest. The company provides these huge pumpkins. There is an instructor to show you how to carve these monster pumpkins. Then, we have all the pumpkins on display in our lobby for our annual Halloween luncheon! In-between all of that, we have to actually work!

Last Year's Monster Pumpkin

Speaking of Halloween.....are you all preparing for the West Hollywood Stitch 'n Witch? It's on Thursday, October 30th at the Original Farmers Market, 3rd and Fairfax, 7-9pm, in the upstairs dining area. It's going to be super fun this year!

More Signs

I love public paintings of food!

I've written about signs seen around L.A. many times. I'm constantly amazed by my surroundings. I do love Los Angeles and the little surprises that I see daily. A few interesting signs, recently spotted:

Johnie's on Wilshire @ Fairfax

A Happy Daisy, Downtown LA

Too many signs on one corner!

Keep your eyes opened for fascinating signs in your neighborhood and then report back! Have a great weekend. I'll be furiously working on my costume for Thursday's Stitch 'n Witch, coming up this Thursday, 10/30 at the WeHo SnB, Original Farmers Market, 3rd and Fairfax!

Craft From The Past

Was it first grade, second grade? When did we make potholders on a loom in school? I remember making some blue and white ones for my Mom. She used them for years.

I've been clearing out my closet a bit in anticipation of moving into my new and improved closet. I came across my old metal potholder loom. Wow! Of course, I didn't have any loops, so I ordered some. You can buy wool, cotton or synthetic loops. I ordered some wool loops and some polyester ones. The polyester loops are in hot, modern colors. The wool loops are slightly more traditional looking.

I have so much old yarn, I'm wondering about using this same little loom with some bulky yarn and just tying up all the ends. I keep you posted on my progress.

Quick Gift

I'm always looking for quickie gifts to knit or crochet. I do love giving wash cloths (I call them "spa" cloths), paired with fancy soap for gifts. But sometimes, I don't even have the time to knit or crochet a quick cloth. In the past I've knitted spiral scrubbies. I recently found a crochet pattern for this quickie gift. I made one for my friend, Joan on Sunday. Of course, I forgot to photograph it. Mr. Larry liked Joan's spiral scrubbie so much, that he requested one...only slightly larger. I'm working on it now.

Spiral Scrubbies on Ravelry

I have so much kitchen cotton hangin' around, I just might crochet up a few dozen of these spiral wonders!

A couple of Ellen's Spiral Scrubbies

Art Exhibit

On Saturday evening we drove over to Bergamot Station in Santa Monica to attend the opening of the Robbie Conal retrospective. The show is called "No Spitting, No Kidding." It not only encompasses Conal's guerilla-tactic posters, but many of his paintings too. It was like taking a walk through U.S. politics for the past 25 years.

Artist, Robbie Conal (Center)

We arrived early, so we could actually SEE some of the artwork. After about an hour, the place was packed solid! It was definitely a scene. We saw a few friends and beat it outta there for a nice, relaxing dinner at Kaido.

Track 16 Gallery, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404 (310) 264-4678

Four-Eyed Friends

Short Line

Success! I found just what I was looking for at the L.A. Eyeworks sale this past weekend. I was looking for eyeglass frames with an orange - rust tinge. This is what I found:

Orange and Pink Two-Tones

Rust with Aqua Interior

The street was empty when I showed up. The line was short. I suppose, with this economy, people aren't looking for extra specs. Eventually, more people showed up. It was very comfortable inside the store.

Melrose Avenue, 10 am, Saturday Morning

I always have a good time when I visit L.A. Eyeworks. I am with MY PEOPLE....four-eyed people. Everyone inside, customers and store personnel, are there to help everyone else. It's an amazing community. Natalie wrote a bit about this feeling too. I also spoke with my cousin Amie after she attended the sale on Sunday morning. She couldn't believe how great everyone at the shop was. yes, us four-eyed ones hang together.

How was your weekend?

L.A. Eyeworks Sale!

Over the years, I've written ALOT about L.A. Eyeworks. I'm addicted to fabulous eyeglass frames. L.A. Eyeworks has a great sale once a year. We ALWAYS try to attend. Larry is there right this minute scoping out some cool Buddy Holly frames for himself. I have almost every color imaginable. This year, I'm looking for frames in the orange, rust terra-cotta color family. I plan on going Saturday morning. It's always jam-packed, you have to wait in long lines, but it's soooooo worth it! The prices are amazing! See you there!

7407 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood

Knitting Lesson

I came prepared with chunky yarn and wooden needles

One of my goals this past weekend in Idyllwild was to reintroduce knitting to my old friends. I'm an enabler.

As campers and counselors in the old days, we would always sit around and knit. Knitting popularity goes in cycles. During the late 1960's and early 1970's, there was a huge resurgence of everything crafty, including knitting, crochet, macrame, jewelry making, batik and tie-dye, mosaics and more. I never stopped being crafty. I learned to knit when I was seven years old.

Jonde, Knitting at ISOMATA, 1970
Jonde, knitting this weekend in Idyllwild

So, Melissa, her daughter Stephanie and Jonde were my prime targets for a knitting lesson on Sunday. Julie happened to sit down and I gave her a few pointers too! As soon as Melissa, Jonde and Julie sat down with the needles, it all came rushing back to them.

Ellen and Melissa

They were knitting in a matter of seconds! Stephanie was new to the art, but she picked it up in about 5 minutes.

Julie remembered!

This was the easiest knitting lesson I've ever given. Our hostess for the weekend, Carolyn is a knitter too. I suggest we meet up in beautiful Idyllwild again for a knitting retreat!!!

Carolyn is knitting a cotton spa cloth

Jonde, Julie, Ellen, Stephanie

FO's and WIP's*

* For the uninitiated, FO's are Finished Objects. WIP's are Works In Progress.

Model Melissa

Last week, I finally finished the February Lady Sweater for my Mom's holiday gift. Over the weekend we were in Idyllwild, so I had my friend, Melissa try on the sweater so I could photograph it. The sweater looks GREAT on Melissa. I hope it looks as good on Mom and that she likes it. Thanks for being my sweater model, Melissa!

I have a million WIP's going right now. I've had to drop everything to work on my Stitch 'n Witch Halloween costume. It's getting more difficult to come up with something clever every year. In the past, our West Hollywood Stitch 'n Bitch group members have always invented the most wonderful costumes. This year's categories for prizes are: Most Original, Best Use of Yarn and Weirdest Super Hero. Here's a sneak peek of my progress:

Please join us at the WeHo Stitch 'n Witch on Thursday, October 30th, 7-9pm at the Original Farmers Market, 3rd and Fairfax in the upstairs dining area.