Museum of art

One of my goals when we moved here to Los Angeles was to explore it. I've always been nervous driving into LA by myself, but now that I live right here in good old downtown Hollywood.. it's time to say YES to exploring ALL THE THINGS!

Today's photos brought to you by LACMA! I registered online for their NextGen membership, so Wyatt and I both got in free!

atwater village vest

Yesterday, an unschooling mom who lives surprisingly and delightfully close to me, took me on a tour of the neighborhood. We went to coffee shops, toy stores, parks, and more. I got a bunch of practical how-to-park-here advice, and a humongous list of places I want to explore further. This awesome neighborhood tour will get more detailed blog posts in the future... but first...

One of the stops we made was at The Little Knittery in Atwater Village, where I spent an agonizingly long time choosing a skein of yarn to buy. I ended up with this - Noro taiyo silk/wool blend. It's a frustrating yarn - catches on my fingers, it's super tightly spun so it knots up, and it fuzzes together with the other pieces easily. However, once I've knit up a few rows, it's really, really pretty and falls really well.

I've never successful knit a garment for myself to wear larger than a pair of socks. I've decided it's time to change that. Find an easy pattern and copy it? That is not the Roya way. Instead, I am making up my own pattern. Let's see if I am the knitter I think I am.

I'm using this blog entry as a way to update the pattern --

Cast on 500 stitches (to figure it out for your size: figure out the widest you want it to be at the bottom [for me, 53 inches wide] knit up a gauge swatch [for me, 25 sts in 3 inches. That turns into 475 stitches, but then I decided I wanted peaked edges, so I added 25 more stitches, and I'll decrease later on]

I forgot to do stockinette stitch, and knit the first 3 rows. Then I remembered, and began purling on the wrong sides, knitting on the right side.

Continue stockinette stitch for the length you want from bottom hem to under armpits.
I decreased to 475 stitches by knitting 2 together on either ends every 10 rows (ish).

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I'm only about an inch into the stockinette right now, haven't even done my first decrease. I'll check back in with edits, and the next steps when I get there!

zen doodle

I run a challenge group on facebook, where everyone picks something they want to do every day for 30 days.  One of the group members does a 'zen doodle' daily. She inspired me -- my paper journal is now full of them! It's awesome. I zone out with pen and paper next to husband who is watching tv or playing computer games... it's meditative. I wouldn't've thunk it, but it is.

For the record, I also bought a few new micropens at Blue Rooster - a small and local art supply store on Vermont. It's not a huge store, but it's got paint, pens, journals, markers, charcoal and canvas. And it's nearby. Score.

menagerie

Went to the LA Zoo with husband and friend. We saw EVERY ANIMAL and had shave ice and walked really fast to keep up with my husband...  It was a warm day. Lots of little kids. Glad to explore another piece of the park. Next on my list is Travel Town.

dinner and a show

For my mama's birthday we trusted in Yelp and tried an Indian restaurant on Sunset we'd never been to before. It was an adventure - the outside is this terrible looking little hole in the wall - less than a hole in the wall. We almost didn't go in. But we were so glad we did -- the inside was beautiful. Every little detail was gorgeous, lush, rich... the food was southern Indian, and amazing. I have no idea the names of anything we ate -- we got appetizers and two platters, and tried a little bit of everything. It was so good. Can't wait to go back.

After going to dinner, I surprised her with tickets to Cavalia's Odysseo -- a beautiful show that's like Cirque de Soleil but with horses. The music was live, and haunting, the horses were amazing, the production value stunning. We had awesome seats, and I would very much recommend this show to anyone.