Back with a Zentangle

Trying a new thing, going to start posting artwork/pictures/crafts and just things I like. This might not be long lived but I like to put thing out here and see where things go.

Today I saw a quick video on Zentangle and it immediately caught my attention, so I tried my hand at it. I used on my tablet, which might not have been the best choice, but I want to teach myself how to draw using my new toy. Probably think I need to get myself a better drawing program, but for the time being I will continue to use draw.

Here it is:

Thoughts ?

Yellow scarf finished !

This weekend the parental unit was in town, and i took the chance to finish the scarf i was working on and giving it to my parents as a present. It was a very simple pattern but it was finished and after blocking it was 64 inches long. I used 4 skeins of yarn and have one left for a future project.

This was the basic pattern I used:

Multiples of 10

Row 1: p4,k1,p4,k4

Row 2: p3,k2,p2,k2

Row 3: p2,k2,p1,k1,p2,k2

Row 4: p1,k2,p2,k2,p2,k1

Row 5: k2,p3,k3,p2

Row 6: k1,p4,k4, p1

I casted 40 stitches, and used needles number 9.

Here are some pics:

Book Review - The Chosen, Chaim Potok

This last month's book club selection was "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok, a book about Hasidic Jews in NYC during the early 1940's. It is one of those High School books that is given the students in the US, I had never heard of it before it was picked so I had no prior knowledge of the story or it's contents. The story starts at a baseball game, where two boys meet and the story follows them from their mid teens until they graduate from college. Our protagonists are Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders, they are both eldest children, they are both Jews, they are neighbors and they have very particular relationships with their fathers. Danny's father, Rev Saunders is a Hasidic rabbi that has inherited his position from his father and has led his flock from Russia to the United States. Danny's father is an intellectual who teaches and writes, he is an orthodox Jew and the story never really goes very deeply into why he came to the U.S. or when. Since each family is of a different type of Jewish faith, their lives do not intersect even if they are neighbors until Danny and Reuven meet at a baseball game. It is hard to do a summary of the plot without giving the story away, but here are some if the great insights this book provides:

• Explains how the Talmud is studied
• Explains where and why the Hasidic movement was born
• Illuminates the different Jewish positions and feelings regarding the founding of the State of Israel

I would definitely recommend the book it is an easy read, and if you do not know about any of the subjects mentioned above, then you get to know a little more so it is definitely something interesting one can use years later at dinner conversations and intellectual parties, but I do have to warn you that the book is book of ideas. What do I mean you ask ? Well the book uses its main 4 characters to explore different positions, the very orthodox, very traditional Hasidic point view, a more modern orthodox point of view, and through the two boys, they author covers the Americanization of the children of this very tight communities.

Happy reading !

The Return of the Knitter

Well, hello !! Any one there ??? Yes it is me, I am back kind-a-sorta. After 2 years of traveling to California and now 6 months of working from home, I am going a little crazy. Yes the kind of crazy that happens when you wake up at 6:15 for a meeting at 6:30 and then you stay all day at home working remotely and talking to people over the phone , but lacking total human contact for hours on end. So in this 2.5 years i have read a lot of books - thank you air travel for allowing me to read a book a week - but I stopped doing anything crafty, like at all. About two months ago I started knitting again, and I feel like i want to share the results with you.

I was working on this two sided cable scarf, but I was making a lot of mistakes and after some frustrating time I ripped it out and started a new with a simpler pattern, this is all a result of two very good friends who have started a knitting circle with yours truly and that was the kick in the pants I needed to get back on to the fiber arts, and I have made tons of progress.

Here is a look:

This is more detailed look:

The scarf is getting there, I need to do another feet or so, for it to be long enough for me to like and feel comfortable giving as a present. Who will it be presented to you ask, well my mother of course, since she has not received any scarfs as of yet. Next on my list, my mother in law !

2010 New Year's Resolution

Hello, remember me? Yes this used to be a blog, but for the last year a bicoastal commute and a severe case of ADD has prevented me from writing anything on it. But this year things are going to change, first of all I want to announce a new endeavor I am embarking with my dear friend Knack also known as the Crafty one:

http://the-crafty-ones.blogspot.com/

Basically we are going to visit little and well known places in DC and give our reviews and recommendations, lets just say we think everyone is dying to know what we think about such places as the National Gallery of Art, the Octagon Museum, and many, many more. The main impetus behind this blog is to make sure we are enjoy the city we live in. We have both lived in the area for years and we have barely scratched the surface of the places and things that can be done in the DC area.

Also wanted to share with you my resolutions for 2010, and this year again I will only focus on 4 or 5 things. After many years of writing 12 resolutions every year and never really getting past 3 or 4, I have made an internal change and for the last 2 years I have mostly focused on a couple of things, and last year was a weird year in terms of goals. Weird because I feel I accomplished a lot, but still in terms of traditional goals, lots of things fell by the way side.

So, this year I have the following 4 goals:

1. Exercise at least 3 times a week (with the travel 3 in average seems like a good goal for when I am in California). This goal should really be loose 20 pounds, but not sure this is going to happen and I do not to set up myself for failure.
2. Read 2 books every month, one will be the book club book and the other one can be a trashy fiction book of my choosing. In order to keep myself honest, I will use this blog or Knick and Knack to post reviews.
3. Save some money, with the move and all the purchases for the new apartment savings have diminished, but I think that this year, I will be able to put some money away, and no I will not post any of the progress I make to this goal here.
4. Consistency,by that I mean keeping up with Knick and Knack, no slacking and no stopping mid way through the year.
5. Lastly a very specific goal, I need to knit 2 scarves and a baby sweater this year.

Well there you go, that is all I have for this year. I am hoping I can do it all. I am kind of sorta cheating since I already read 2 books in the last 2 weeks (one of them the January book club book) and the Crafty one and myself are planning on taking a knitting class later this spring.

First Impressions

• People drive fast ! really fast
  
• The city is huge, I drove and drove and drove
  
• The hills are amazing, as is the vegetation
  
• Restaurants close really early, I had to have MikeyD’s for dinner the first night
  
• Have I mentioned how fast people drive ?
  
• The hotel in Camarillo is nice, but not as nice as the newer hotel in Thousand Oaks.
  
• Dulles Airport is a zoo
  
• LAX is an even bigger zoo, after Charlotte, I was not sure what was I thinking, but I felt like an ant.
  
• Weather is amazing, just a little chilly.
  
• Does everyone have an iPhone ? I never got the memo, but I am feeling I should have.
  
• Yes I am the lone gay person in the team, I think I will be alright.
  
• Need to get with the swimming program, or the gym program or something, and please take the cinnamon rolls away before I eat another one.
  
• I am tired though, very tired, I think I slept like 2 hours naps every day last weekend, and think I could sleep all day today and still not be rested.
  

California here I come ...

Darling readers, I have been gone, I know. The last project kinda sorta swallowed me whole, I had no breathing time, I stopped swimming, blogging, knitting (partially, there is some progress to talk about) and except for eating, working and struggling, I feel like little else has been going on in my life. Of course that is all hyperbole, I manage to go home for the holidays, to have a great New Years with the husband, and to be content mostly surviving from weekend to weekend. The project came to an end and here I am getting ready to go on the road again, without even one week at home, and this time its not even the East Coast, no, this time I am going to California.

Yes you read that correctly, I will be going back and forth between the coasts, every week. Yay for airline miles and hotel points, not so much for quality of life. I am lucky, the Argentine, is very supportive and he promises to come visit and be patient with me. I adore him for that, so I am trying not to complain too much, and chin up, and keep going. So today - Sunday, I am leaving DC at 5:30 and flying cross country (always wanted to say that) and will arrive in LA at 8:15 or so, should be interesting. I will be in Ventura County, 1 hr north of the city.

From a professional stand point it is a great opportunity, and I think it will even be fun, and the people I am working with will be great and all that, but at the same time i am terrorized and nervous. I am not sure how good/bad the flight will be, and I am not sure how my team over there will be, and how traffic will be and all those things that always have kept me awake will be, but in other hand it is a great opportunity and I get to not skip a beat and will be billable (the magic word in consulting) from one week to another.

All these lamentations need to be toned down, because a) its not the end of world and b) its California - fabulous weather, a high of low 70's and low of mid 50's. Really who am I to complain when there is snow in the card for DC this week. Still that means, fit, good looking people, which means, I need to go on a diet and start exercising pronto! I already found a swim team, lets hope I can make morning practices.

Wish me luck, and I will try to keep y'all posted