Susie Cupcakes

Whoa . . . I think my mind's just been blown.


You are Shetland Wool.
You are a traditional sort who can sometimes be a
little on the harsh side. Though you look
delicate you are tough as nails and prone to
intricacies. Despite your acerbic ways you are
widely respected and even revered.


What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Y'all . . . you revere me? Even though I'm a little on the harsh side? Awww . . . you didn' t have to do that. But now that you've started, why don't we just let inertia kick in and revere away!

I made a pair of mittens this week, in royal blue bulky Lamb's Pride. It only took a few hours to make them, and I was feeling such a smug self-satisfaction. Like, wow, if there were knitting Olympics, I could reasonably expect bronze or better in mitten execution! I felt like, you know how in Billy Madison, Billy has to spell the word "couch" for his second grade spelling bee, and he almost spells it with a "w" and an "r," but he finally gets it right and shouts, "I AM THE SMARTEST MAN IN THE WORLD!"

"I AM THE FASTEST MITTEN MAKER IN THE WORLD!"

You know what that's called?

Hubris. Because one mitten is sliiiiiiightly shorter than the other. Immediate disqualification.

I love living in my little town, just steps away from restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, a drug store, video store, library, spooky Chinese superbuffet, etc. And of course, I especially love being a mere BLOCK away from a yarn store. But I'm developing candy corn tendencies with the yarn store. That is, I CANNOT STOP!

Scene #1: Last Friday. Have completed hurdle #39583 towards getting a degree: the comp exam. I'm definitely competent . . . in making things up fast. Please may I have my master's, dear sir? I'm so tired.

Condition (in head): Foggy, groggy, irate

Condition (in weather): Lovely

Accomplice: One Miss Rebecca, who, I might add, was the one who suggested the trip.

Outcome: Reeeeeeally beautiful laceweight hand-painted local merino wool AIIIIIYIIII!



It is too beautiful. The color you see is much too cool blue . . . in reality, it's the color of, um, let's say the bottom of a pristine Caribbean sea. After several days of fondling it, cooing sweet-nothings at it, wearing it around my neck, I rolled it into a ball. MAN do I wish I had a ball winder. My forearms are going to get all Popeye-style without one.

Anyways, shout out to Three Waters Farm for making such a beautiful yarn. It will become the inevitable Clapotis. I just have to make it, or I lose my knitblogger license. And then this would be just cat pictures.

Which would be pretty awesome, right?

Scene #2: This past Thursday. Laura and Anil are in town, and we just ate brunch at Elmo's and are enjoying the gorgeous very warm October afternoon.

Condition (in head): Joyous, sisterly, full (technically, that would be condition of stomach)

Condition (in weather): Lovely, if not very seasonal

Accomplice: Laura, Anil.

Outcome: Reeeeeeally beautiful fuzzy soft fine Rowan (oooh) Kidsilk (no, not Haze) Night!

EEEEEE!!!! Kidsilk Night has a little tiny bit of intriguing sparkle in it.

In my defense, it's for Laura, not me. Her Christmas present will be a wrap like the red one I'm making.

Which is getting kind of long now, but might need to be put on hold as I gear up for Christmas gift-making. Sorry about the wonky on-the-concrete-avec-flipflop picture.

I also finished a sock, the cabled sock from Fall's Interweave Knits.

It's pretty cute, I think.

The pattern has you make some slightly off-center, vintage-y features in the sock. The author of the pattern, Nancy Bush, has a new book, Knitting Vintage Socks. It looks pretty awesome.

But not as awesome as this, right?

Hey, y'all! Me 'n' my mean face have just been thinking about the trip to San Francisco Mr. Cupcakes and I took last weekend. We love going there. And it's just a short 8 hour plane trip away! Except if Bewitched is your in-flight movie, it feels more like 13 hours.

Sooo...we left at 6:30am, but through the magic of "time" and "space" we arrived at 11am Pacific time. We got our superfine rental car (a Kia--holla!) and immediately rushed to Japantown.
Give this woman soba, stat! Mmmm, shrimp and vegetables and soba noodles. After lunch we left the awesome mall in Japantown and all of its incredible fake plastic food and went to Clement Street and browsed for a while. Clement Street has lots of little markets, dim sum shops, book stores, seafood stores, and best of all: the world's finest collection of Pocky.

Yes, regular and Men's!

And GIANT! Too big to bring on the plane, but I feel better just knowing it's out there. We bought Almond Crunch Mini Pocky and Coconut Pocky. Delicous!

There were lots of other festive foods, too.




We also hit best-named-store-ever (even including the hilarious "Sox Appeal"): Cheaper Than Cheaper. That's how cheap it is, you guys. Here we found the best popsicle holders ever.

Guess how much they cost? No, cheaper than that! AHAHAHAHA! Okay, it was $1.00. The salesman helpfully suggested combining tequila, gin, vodka, "your favorite fruit," and enjoying it with your eyes rolled back in your head. That guy's like Mr. Food, but more drunk.

So after the excitement of Clement Street we hung out with our dear friend and ex-Carrborite Naomi and mysteriously happened to go to the exact same bar and then the exact same restaurant we had gone to almost five years earlier with different friends. Spooooky. Then we went back to Malena and Graham's swank house and got to spend some time with them. On Friday we did breakfast and Mr. Cupcakes worked on special projects to help the groom get the wedding reception prepared. I went, um, yarn shopping. BUT! I foolishly forgot my yarn when packing up, so pictures will have to come later. But I will say: Kureyon. Mmm.

That night was the groom's dinner (rehearsal dinner) and it was an astounding Chinese ten course meal. So delicious. Mr. Cupcakes will have pictures up soon.

The next day, we took a walk around Lake Merritt with Malena and Graham.

Nice and Minnesoty.

Here's the cover of Alex and Graham's upcoming album, Hermanos Nortes.

And we saw this flier:


It totally reminded me of my dirty Jenna! You might not be able to read this, but at the bottom it says

I totally concur.

That night was the wedding, which was beautiful, funny, gorgeous, and so much fun. Stu and Michelle really are, as their internet-ordained officiant said, the coolest couple in the world. Again, Mr. Cupcakes will be posting pictures soon. I just always forget to bring a camera when he's around.

The next morning we dashed off to the airport for a flight to Atlanta, where we got delayed an extra hour. Good thing for SUDOKU!


Tune in next time to see how Sudoku drives you insane, so you start inserting random symbols in an effort to make the puzzle work.

Yep, looks like that fits juuuuuussssst right.

First of all, this just made me throw up a little.

And now, I don't usually address individual people here, but I would like to respond to two gentlemen I encountered today at the bus stop.

Dear Sirs:

Today I was walking to the bus stop, deep in thought. Thoughts such as "I can't believe Paris and Paris are no more! When will another celebrity couple share both the same name and insane stockpiles of inherited wealth?" And "I can't believe Nick and Jessica couldn't work it out! I just saw them in US Weekly, and they were holding hands! Does holding hands mean nothing anymore?" And of course, "Poor Kate Moss. My favorite supermodel ever, felled by her own nostrils. I thought her crazy eyes were just naturally crazy eyes, but I guess they were more like coked-up crazy eyes."

And while I was mulling these issues, I passed you two young men, both wearing yellow construction helmets. As I passed you, you both shouted, almost in unison. One of you shouted, "SMILE! IT'S A NICE DAY!" And the other of you yelled, "WHY YOU HAVE SUCH A MEAN FACE?"

I appreciate your comments, good sirs! Indeed, the day is nice, and I cannot claim to have been smiling. But I must take some umbrage at the description of my face as "mean." Like, nasty? Snarling? Scary? I hardly think that's accurate. I have a serious face and I'm not a smiley girl, but that does not a mean face make.

Also? You are not the first interested party to stop me on the street and tell me to smile. And the resulting ricktus of a smile, filled with annoyance and probably a little bit of fear (strange men with loud commands make me nervous--my bad!), would certainly make you feel less happy than you were before encountering me.

Oh, and also? SHUT IT.

Sincerely,
Susie C.

It's finally October, and the weather has turned cool (relatively). Only in the 70s! Time to pull out those wool sweaters.

I kid . . .

Even though I complain about the warm weather, all the heat and humidity does make plants grow, even when unattended and uncared for. When I walk to work, I pass a an overgrown patch of morning glories, happily sunning themselves next to train tracks every morning.



They're purple and pink and white, and are still going strong. Given how warm its been, maybe we'll still be seeing them in November.

Today I spent some time with Stef at Internationalist Books, and worked on some homework assignments. In 5 days, Alex and I are heading west to San Francisco for a wedding. Woot!

Gemini spent the day relaxing, too, with his crazy black-on-the-bottom paws up in the air.

Awwww.