The President, Fair Trade, and the Growth Initiative

Today the Prezzy prez, that is Obama, touched down today in Long Beach right outside my office. Folks were lined up all along the streets and in the tunnels. Our parking lot was full of cars that didn't belong to any of the employees that worked in the business park. Folks in the building were excited and giddy. From our office we had a birds-eye view through the windows. The new Air Force One is a very pretty plane. Very sleek and colorful. He landed, jumped on Marine One and was escorted by 3 other helicopters to Costa Mesa. Just a little excitement for the day.

Now back to me. Today is Day 4 of my personal Protective Style Challenge. On Saturday I braided my hair into a gazillion little box braids that I plan to keep up for 3 weeks to a month - repeat. Every night I will moisturize them with my rosewater mixture and baggy the ends. By following this method I hope to be better able to retain my ends and see increased length. At the end of this month after I rebraid I will show progress picks. My goal by the end of this year is full armpit length or just below. I'm being hindered by occasional scalp flair ups in the back area where I had alopecia, which leads me to my next topic.

I wanted to show you my recent haul. I love it when I get boxes in the mail. A couple of weeks ago I infused Castor oil with fresh rosemary and sage leaves. I wanted to see if I could get better effects with a fresh infusion vs. an essential oil mixture. So far so good. I'm loving the Castor oil mixture so I bought a few other treats to try. In a later post I will explain what each of these herbs are and their uses. I may even post a video.


From Mountain Rose Herbs I got the following organic fresh dried herbs: Lemon Balm, Chamomile Flowers, Peppermint Leaf, Rose hips, Nettle Leaf, Horsetail, Burdock Root, and Dandelion leaf. I plan to try some new oil infusions and make tea. I also ordered some fresh unrefined cocoa butter. Many of these items are Fair trade.


During this challenge I also plan to start hennaing my hair more often. One place I've used before and gotten great results is Mehandi. This time I'm not really going for color (my hair is darker than it has every been and I love it) but strength and conditioning. I bought two packs of the red label for African Hair. Mehandi has excellent henna that is finely sifted, smooth in texture and deposits great color. Also the prices are very reasonable. 200g cost me $14 with shipping.

Lastly, I picked up some yarn. I loved the Cycling Aran so much that I decided to make one for myself. My LYS Compatto Yarn Salon was having a sale and I got a spiffy deal on some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. I plan to start working on this soon but it may have to wait until school is out.


Be sure to check me out on YouTube to see what else I'm doing.



Kamika Au natural

I Crawl Because I Like Being Close to the Ground

It really bites that I can't blog at work. That's code for: brace yourself, this is gonna be a long one. This daylight savings time and work takes a lot out of me. Don't get me wrong. I love the extra hour in the mornings but it really messes me up at night and the flourescent lights at work don't make it any better. They and the flickering (useless) computer that I sit in front of all day really saps my energy. The computer at work is useless because I can't BLOG! But the moolah is nice!!

Let's jump right in, shall we.

I've been spending a lot of time with ST (Surly Teenager). She's been attached to my hip and all things auntie for a few weeks now. It's no problem though. She's a really cool kid. So cool that she's picked up crochet! FIYAH! Thats her below at another yarn spot I wanted to hit called the Knit Cafe. It's a cozy little store in Beverly Hills. You may have heard of the book Greetings from the Knit Cafe. Well this is that author's store. Nice folks with no boug at all.

Houston, I think we have a convert. She was so overwhelmed when she stepped into the store. She never knew there was such a thing as a "Yarn Store" that carried only yarn and didn't have a big box chain name *cough* *cough* Michael's/Jo-Anns *cough* *cough*. Here's ST picking out some Cascade 220 in a rich purple variegated.

And here she is practicing on some scrap yarn I had. No sense in wasting the new yarn on test work.

And here she is trying to crochet in peace but unable to hold back a laugh at her corny auntie trying to snap flicks for her blog.

I ended up not buying any yarn but instead picking up this French Girl Knits pattern called Isobel. I later picked up some Cosetta yarn from Jo-Anns. I'm doubling up.

For the last couple of weeks I have been smitten with the Cycling Aran by Hello yarn. It's been in my Ravelry cue for a few months but I've been feeingl the need to make it in earnest. Two weeks ago I swung by another LYS in Santa Monica called Wild Fiber. Before I say anything negative about them, I will give them one more opportunity to redeem themselves.

I picked up a ball of Elisabeth Lavold Silky Flamme to swatch with and fell in love almost 90%. I just couldn't do it. I decided that in order to get the proper gauge I would have to go from a 9 to a 10.5 needle which would IMO make the sweater too airy. I didn't give up though and kept looking for a good replacement. The only problem I had was finding the right yarn in the same rich gunmetal color and reasonably priced. After searching hard and not settling I finally found it!

So this weekend I decided to do my own little yarn crawl. Just like in my mall hop days, I decided to hit a few shops I had never been to before to say I went. I started out in Santa Monica at A Manos Yarn Center. I've heard a lot about this shop and wasn't disappointed. The ladies in there were having a good ole time when I walked in. They had the music going and about 8 of them around the table just yakking it up and knitting. I jumped right into the conversation. I couldn't find my elusive Cycling Aran yarn there but I did pick up a pair of size #19 needles, and some pretty Rowan Calmer and Berroco Bonsai in reds to start scrumbling for a shawl I'm making for a new friend. Annette and Shenita (the owners) were wonderful. Would you believe I had been talking to Shenita off and on on Ravelry and never even knew she was the owner of A Manos? Well here's your plug girl!.


After leaving A Manos, I drove on over to Compatto also in Santa Monica. Early last week I had gotten an invite to be in the Compatto group on Ravelry and decided I should go check out the spot. This store is niiice! Well decorated and well stocked. It's a small spot but nicely organized. Nancy, Bonnie and Grace are the bomb! They carry lots of Blue Sky Alpacas, Rio de la Plata, and Malabrigo. Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton is what I chose for my Cycling Aran. Check it out! I hope he loves it!

A few more things. Picked up this cute pattern called Instant Oatmeal by Monkey Suits. I think Mercy will look cute in this for the winter. Finally something to use that RYC I bought a while ago. BTW, I don't think I ever showed you all the yarn I got for Arrica's Boobholder. I need to get it popping cause I missed her birthday. I've had this yarn for nearly 3 months now and haven't started yet.

I promise I'll be back this week (Lw). I got some great events going on this weekend to hip you to.


Kamika

Stitchin & Pitchin

Got out in the sunny summer air yesterday and decided to head over to Michael's to perchance find some suitable yarn to make the Surplice Bodice Camisole from the Knitting Lingerie Style book, as if. Yes, as if I could find some likeable yarn at Michael's. But I was being ansy and pinching pennies at the same time and really just wanted to find something so I could start something out of this great new book!

I got over myself real quick and realized that "My name is Kamika and I'm a Yarn Snob" and that no suitable yarn would be found until I saved up some shekels and moseyed on over to my LYS. Only the Knitter's Studio in Bev Hills would do. Drats! I just missed their end of summer 50% off sale because I didn't want to wade through the street faire crowds, the 30 miles of LA freeway traffic, nor the trek from my parked car to the front door. They'll have another sale soon and I'll have a chaffeaur.

God is good and very patient with me. I had a great sub already at home in my measly stash! Yep! Remember that yarn I used for Jackie's Blue Curacao Shawl? Well I'm now determined to mix that with a slick polyester thread to get a different effect. That's the ticket.

So why is this called Stitchin & Pitchin? Well I had my yarn epiphany in the parking lot at Michael's and afterwards just drove on over to a neighborhood park to knit in peace (read: behind a car full of mopey teenage boys smoking bad weed and looking like they needed baths yesterday). They ended up having a girl's softball game right in front of me. Great game, the girls looked like they were having fun, even the losing team. The red team killed the girls in pink. I was really routing for the pink/black team if only because I liked their uniform colors and they all arrived first, making them the home team to me. I guess my like for their colors didn't help them squat! At least I'm closer to being finished with Regan.

Kamika

Variety Is The Spice of Life

Right? On Tuesday I went out and purchased the Fitted Knits book by Stephanie Japel. Upon leaving the store I immediately moseyed over to LisCat to buy another skein of Deluxe Worsted 100% Wool. Assuming I didn't have enough at home, I plopped down the $9.50 for it in a pretty lilacy color. While I was passing over my hard won (seeing as I have no job, it wasn't earned) money I couldn't help but complain in my mind that, "Wow her prices have gone up." and "Yea K, she's expensive to be a no-frills yarn spot." For some reason she felt the need to tell me that the yarn I was buying was the best. "That it knit up easily and washed sooooo well!" she schmoozed. I bought it anyways thinking it would make a great or shall I say Perfect Periwinkle Turtleneck Tube Vest [TTV]. At least it would be cheap for today. I already had 3 skeins at home and stash busting is a lot cheaper than buying commando.

As soon as I got home I went to work on the TTV and immediately joined the Fitted Knits KAL hosted by Robin (Yarn Crawl) on Typepad. Looks like a good industrous group of ladies over there.

As usual I had to make my usual modifications. The Wool I bought is booty!! BOOTY do you hear me!! It's 100% wool! Duh! It's itching my hands. Actually, it's not that bad. It is a little scratchy and it does hold heat, but it knits very prettily (see the swatch). I knit up 1 swatch and my gauge was right on. It's just, just, just... Too raw and natural for what I'm making. Maybe it's the summer temps here in So Cal but this yarn looks like it's giving off heat vapors. I really can't see wearing this directly on my skin in any season. Wife beater or fitted blouse here we come!

So what's the resolution and why do you see two colors in the pics? I decided to create a backless version less the turtleneck using the remainder of that beautiful Berroco Ultra Alpaca I used for my Mom's Sambuca jacket. It's so soffffffffft! And it doesn't itch me like I got fungus.


So we'll see what comes of the both of em.

Kamika

I'm In Love! (With Yarn of Course)

Ooh Ooh Ooh! Look at my new baby. It's Regan from the new Rowan Magazine #41. Can you hear the heavenly choir singing? It's Rowan! This book is so pretty!

**Kamika pets the magazine while holding it tightly to her chest and cooing.**

I am officially a Rowan convert. It all started when I went to my LYS, The Knitter's Studio, and got some great chocolate colored Felted Tweed to trim my Truffle Clutch, which is finè by the way and lined in a pretty butterfly brocade.

I really liked the way it felt [the tweed that is] and how sturdy it was and that led me to the site. After looking through all the online magazines (don't you just love how Rowan shows you every pattern in the book?) I couldn't stop jonesin to get the latest one. I called all of my nearby LYS and could only find it 25 miles out in Bev Hills. No problem, it's near my church, down the street from one of my fave restaurants (Grand Luxe), and I got to take Dee Dee (I'll introduce her later). We went on Sunday afternoon.

This mag is packed with over 50 well done patterns. I really like how Rowan does stories and themes. I found at least one pattern I wanted to complete in each story. Not to mention, the pictures are just beautiful. I'm really a sucker for colors and colorful clear pictures. After looking through (more like studying) a couple of times I settled on Regan.

**Buzz of the flies flying around Kamika's agape mouth.**

I tried to pace myself ya'll, really I did. I told myself that I couldn't buy anything until I finished the WIPs I already had but I needed my fix.

**Kamika flashes back to the jittery, foot shuffling, dry mouth having, all over body itch feeling she had that's common to junkies.**

Besides, I finished four out of the five WIPs in the que. Well, more like three because one was a starter for my Pastor. She'll be finishing that one. AND! I had a little birthday money burning a whole in my pocket. God is so good! Suffice to say all I could think about was yarn.

BAM BABY!

10 hanks of Tahki Stacy Charles Cotton Classic in a beautiful seafoam/mint green. I have never bought this much yarn at one time in my knitting life. Not only that I have to go back and get 3 more (Patricia over at Slipt Stitch is holding them for me). My silly self got so sidetracked by color that I misread the yardage on the sleeves. BTW, Slipt Stitch is another new to me LYS that I found. Very comfortable spot.

So I'll be swatching this bad boy up tonight and dreaming of more projects. Talk to you all soon.


Kamika