I so loved the knitted and beaded bracelet Emma worked up that I had to go on over to Earth Faire and order a kit for myself. Here's mine in the Golden Raspberry colorway. For the most part, I love this bracelet. It is very unique and I love the blending of my two passions of the moment: knitting and beading! And yes, this was knit up on size 00 needles. Who would've thought knitti-me would ever trade in her tree trunk needles for twigs! Well, I can take small needles in little doses.

I was disappointed to find out the beads were mostly plastic. I'll definitely be working up a few more of these beauties from my own bead mixes.

I was pleased to see how well the bracelet matched my new shoes!

Here is a photo taken sometime in 1965 with me and my mom and dad in front of our house in San Francisco. I am now the same age as my mom in this photo (and yes, she had that same hair-do for years!). I love seeing my dad in his work shirt.

In 1965 we still had our milk delivered in glass bottles to our little milk box on the front step.

On trash day (Tuesdays) the garbage trucks would groan up the San Francisco hills to our street with the garbagemen hanging onto the back and sides. The men would swarm all over our neighborhood carrying the trash cans back and forth to the truck as it slowly drove along the street.

Gas stations were closed on Sundays. Dad would always fill up the car with "Ethol" at the Atlantic-Richfield (now known as ARCO) station at the bottom of the hill.

Our classy neighbor, Margaret Blakely, would dress to the "nines" in a hat and gloves with matching shoes and purse just to take public transportation downtown to go shopping at The Emporium on Market Street.

And no, we never recycled.

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Here are some beaded stitch markers I made a few weeks ago for the craft boutique. The Sunflower markers are a for the "big guns" of kntting needles. They can fit onto a needle up to size 17 and perhaps even a size 19.

These Cat stitch markers are for mid-sized needles, up to 10.5.

Here is one of the bracelets I beaded up and that got away before I could get a really good picture of it. This was made from ceramic beads and silver accents. At my brother's New Years party there was a friend of his family (and I guess she's now my friend) and she flipped out (in a good way) over this bracelet. She collects blue/white pottery and she really loved this look. She has commissioned me to make a matching necklace.

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Knitting! While down South I, of course, checked the Yellow Pages for any local yarn stores and found one, Anapalaca Yarns, just a few miles from my Uncle's home in Ventura. I picked up some wonderful hand-dyed yarn from the Schaefer Yarn Company. This is their Elaine Yarn in the Jane Addams colorway from which I knit this quick hat/scarf set.

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From the Ally Archives - Scary Ally in all her stinky, hairy glory! It's off to the Doggy Day Spa for you dear pooch.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Bamboo. 21. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

Yes, but my swift is the cheap plastic one; I would like to acquire a wood one eventually. 22. How did you learn to knit?

I can remember working on the incredible increasing/decreasing scarf out of industrial grade acrylic when I was about 8 or 9 (I wonder what ever happened to that scarf...). However, my real first introduction to knitting was on my honeymoon when my mother-in-law taught me to knit (English). Then I put the needles down for about 17 years. 23. How old is your oldest UFO? About 2 years. 24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?

Love The Brain from Pinky and the Brain. Stewie from Family Guy is pretty funny too. 25. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas. 26. Is there anything that you collect? Yarn, beads, knitting and beading magazines/books. 1930's Metlox pottery (200 series). 27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? Interweave Knits. 28. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? I really want to get a hold of the Butterfly Sweater pattern knit with Noro yarn and the Must-have cardi pattern. 29. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? I had the opportunity to try my hand at cables and reading from cable charts last Fall, but I would like to practice more and give Kepler or the Rogues a try. 30. Are you a sock knitter? No. But I have no problem wearing hand-knit socks. What are your foot measurements? 8.5 inches long by 3 inches wide. 31. When is your birthday? (mm/dd) December 5th.

Me and my Honey smiling for the camera.

I'm really excited about January's assignment - "Personal History: Explore the cross over between self portraiture and family photography. This challenge can be as simple as revisiting old family snap shots - to tell a story."

I have a couple of ideas for some photo essays regarding some of my family history, etc.; hopefully this will light the fire to get me working on those.

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The Holidaze are over and I am so ready to get on with my life!

Yes, I'm back and ready to make 2006 MY year (I had mistakenly thought that 2005 would be MY year - but we all know how that turned out...). Anyway, we have been criss-crossing this great state of California visiting relatives et al, eating our way through numerous holiday feasts and generally making pigs of ourselves.

We treated the kids and ourselves to a day at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Here's a quick scan of our souvenir pic from Scream - ride out loud! That's me in the lower righthand corner (with my mouth open wide enough for a swarm of flies to take up residence) with Graeme beside me (I love how he's gritting his teeth). The kids are behind us. It had been about 18 years since Graeme and I had been to a theme park, other than Disneyland in 1998. The rides have certainly become more extreme, or should I say X-treme, over the years - but I'm so there! Love it!

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[after being in a coal mine for a day] Derek Zoolander: [high-pitched cough] ... I think I'm getting the Black Lung, Pop. It's not very well ventilated down there. Larry Zoolander: For Christ's sake, Derek, you've been down there one day. Talk to me in thirty years.

Snark on... I could tell you about the vendor, new this year, that made a killing last night with lots of Red Heart and Fun Fur hats/scarves that were sold for $10 bucks each - but I won't...Snark off.

Anyway, another crafter told me about Etsy.com. I'm probably going to set up a store and try to off load a lot of my stock.

Will I participate next year? I don't know. If I do, I'm going to have to come up with a more marketable product instead of unique scarves and accessories made from fabulous high end yarns and materials.

There's only five years age difference between Chris and me. We are more like cousins. It's funny when I leave a voice mail for her, I always seem to say, "Hi Chris, it's Marie, (then in an ominous voice) your Aunt Marie..." Christine just released her Christmas Album, "All is Bright." It's a wonderful compilation of Christmas classics in a smooth jazz format. It's a great album, but of course I'm biased.

Here's my brother and sister-in-law (Christine's parents) acting silly with their backstage passes. OK, on with the busy weekend blow by blow. Sunday dawned bright and clear and after church we rushed home for lunch and then Graeme and I went to Mervyn's (where I subsequently had my meltdown) to get him some duds for my company (semi-formal) Christmas party that evening. We finally arrived at the posh Italian restaurant about 40 minutes late where a rousing game of Jeopardy was in full swing. After a couple glasses of wine and some appetizers, I began to settle down and enjoy myself. I tried to get some pictures from coworkers of the evening (we forget our camera), but have been unsuccessful thus far.

Birthday celebrations have been put on hold for a bit; having a birthday in busy, busy December AND on a weeknight AND not coinciding with a paycheck - well, you get the picture...

This weekend will be dedicated to going to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe, decorating the church sanctuary, caroling, getting ready for the holiday boutique on December 14th and perhaps, maybe, getting MY Christmas tree up - another fun-filled weekend (maybe we should hold another contest to predict the time and place knitti-me has her next meltdown - HA!).

As in my last bracelet, I made three passes of fringe in varying lengths and random beadage.

I have gotten so many compliments on these two bracelets and many requests to make one from various aquaintances. However, when I tell them what I'd have to charge (probably around $160 in time and materials), they balk. There is the Tutorial afterall.

We had a wonderful, low key Thanksgiving at my sister's house. Normally we have between 20-25, but this year we were down to 9. Mom roasted the turkey, made the dressing and gravy and sister and I did the rest (with the help of the kiddos and husbands for chopping, pounding and signing off of the various side dishes).

From the Ally Archives~

In lieu of a trip to the groomers, Ally underwent a dump and fluff in our kitchen sink. Oh, piteous Ally. Hopefully, we can get her into the doggie day spa sometime this next weekend.

Vary the fringe lengths with the longest at 1" to 1.25". In the bracelets I make, I do three passes (of fringe) up and down the length of the bracelet. You may do the first past with the longest length, the second pass with medium length fringes and the third with short length fringes; or just randomly adjust the lengths as you go along.

Once the beads are snug up against the base beads, pass the needle back up inside the length of beads (except for the last bead of the fringe; if you thread up through that bead again, you're just unthreading the fringe - the last bead is used as a stopper) and then through the next base bead and out.

3. Attach the other half of the toggle clasp and secure with the other crimp bead. Keep in mind not to jam the E beads too close together, they need a little wiggle room (but don't leave big gaps either) so you can weave the nylon thread between each bead two or three times as you add each layer of beaded fringe. 4. To attach the nylon thread, make a slip knot and slip it between the first and second bead on one end of the bracelet and pull to close the knot around the wire. Leave the tail long enough to thread because once a couple of the beaded fringes have been made, I thread the tail and then weave it through one of the fringes and pull it out and snip it.

5. Now it's time to brew your bead mix. I poured the bead mix in and add a dash of each of the three complimentary seed bead colors and stir.

Note: I utilized my bead spinner so I wouldn't obsess about bead placement or pattern on each of the fringes. Random beadage is really all that is needed.

- A bead "mix" made up of various types of beads in complimentary colorways;

- Two or three additional colors of seed beads to coordinate with the mix;

- 50 or so "E" beads (enough for 7.5" length of the bracelet);

- 8 to 10 metal charms;

- An assortment of additional specialty beads a bit larger than the beads of your "mix";

- 12" medium-weight metal beading wire;

- Nylon beading thread;

- Toggle-style clasp;

- 2 crimp beads;

- Beading needle;

- Scissors;

- Wire Cutter;

- Pliers for Crimping

- Ruler Finished Length 7.5"

Notes: To take the guess work out of choosing beads I start with a bead mix, which is usually available at any bead shop, consist of a variety of shapes and sizes of beads with similar or complimentary colors. I usually supplement the mix by adding two or three other complimentary colors. For example, for this bracelet I started with a green mix and added dark olive, light green and off-white seed beads. Here is a closeup of the green mix. As far as the specialty/accent beads go, I usually get a variety of glass beads in the shape of stars, leaves, bell flowers, crystals, bugles, etc. and of course, the metal charms. These add the extra bling, that makes the bracelet fun. These beads are usually larger than the beads of the mix. The "E" Bead are used as the base, i.e., they are strung on the wire between the toggle clasps and are the beads through which the beaded fringe will dangle. Basically, the "eye" of the bead needs to be large enough for the metal stringing wire and two to three passes of nylon threading as each layer of the beaded fringe is added.

Regarding the nylon thread. I thought I would be fancy and pick up a spool of upholstry thread in olive green, but I found the thread was too thick for the eye of the beading needle and would not work with the seed beads. So I ended up going back to your basic nylon beading thread; thin, but strong.