09.15.09
A Short Trek Through Part of Downtown LA and Knitting Again. . .
Nothing too exciting happening on this end. Just doing the usual chores that consume our time. But, just to keep the blog updated, I’ll add some pics of the things I’ve been up to for the past few days. House cleaning and repair work are kinda boring, so I’ll skip that for now. I did take the boys this weekend to Chinatown for a couple errands. For those who haven’t been to Chinatown, it’s located in Downtown Los Angeles. This shot is off of Hill Street.
I wanted to take my youngest son to a Chinese bookstore that I stumbled into one day that happened to carry the Chinese curriculum he likes. It’s the older version of the Chinese Reader, which has been updated, but Aaron doesn’t like the new format. So it was really nice that I found a store that sold the series in the old format.
One thing I enjoy is traveling and learning about different cultures. So that’s one reason why I really enjoy popping into some places even though I don’t understand the language and can’t read the signs. It’s just fun to see the types of things they sell and see the people. And since this was a bookstore which carried mostly Chinese material, I couldn’t read anything. It sure gave me a feel of what it’s like not to be able to read. Occasionally I think of how strange it is not to be able to read. Well, at this store I got a taste of what it feels like. Imagine a whole bookstore filled wall to wall with books like these.
A few stores down from this bookstore was Foo Chow, the restaurant that Jackie Chan used in his film Rush Hour.
I got a chuckle at how they “painted” advertisement on the side of their restaurant that it was used in Jackie Chan’s movie, hehehe.
Another thing that caught our eye was this “solar powered” trash compactor just outside of this restaurant. I’ve never seen one of these before, but hey, not a bad idea. . .
Here’s the top with the solar panels just under the plastic cover.
We continued to walk around and snoop around the vendors’ tables. I like the idea of supporting small businesses, so we picked up a few little items from them. Then we headed off towards the garment district in Downtown. Years ago I used to sew a lot more than now, and one of my favorite stores was Micheal Levine’s in Downtown. This is what part of the garment district looks like in the section where they sell lots and lots of fabrics.
There are rows and rows of stores along this street selling not only fabrics, but anything to do with sewing such as batting, trimmings, foam, etc.
Along this street is the store I was looking for–Micheal Levine’s. This time I wasn’t heading there for fabric, but yarn. They didn’t have yarn there years ago, but now they also carry yarn and other yarnie supplies. This is what I was after when I got there.
One hank of Cascade yarn to do some repair work on Matty’s sweater and a pair of Addi Turbo Lace needles! because I needed to spend at least $20 to get free parking, heheh. What a good excuse, huh?
Here’s the sweater that needed the repairs. It’s the first gansey I ever made in human size. Matty actually liked it quite a bit and has worn it like a uniform at times resulting in worn out cuffs. . .
I’m not sure how he wore them out like that, but I was just thinking that he’s gotten plenty of use out of the sweater, so was going to consider it time for retirement and toss it. BUT, then I remembered that one of the things I liked about the gansey design was that if the sleeves wore out, I could just rip the sleeves back down and re-knit them. . . Ah, here was my chance to try out this selling point of the pattern. So I got the yarn at Micheal Levines, then started to work. Here it is with the cuffs cut off and the needles back on. I decided to cut off the sleeves rather than unravel them as I figured I could felt the little pieces and maybe use them for some felting projects like flower pieces or something.
In a short while, the cuffs were done. I’m glad I decided that I should try to salvage the sweater because, hey!, Matty likes it and why not? Here are the repaired sleeves.
Now let’s see how much more wear he can get out of it. I noticed that the color of the yarn looks different when I use the flash as opposed to when I don’t. The true color of this yarn/sweater is closer to the pictures where I used the flash such as in the hank of yarn picture and the picture where the repair work on the cuffs are in progress. It’s more of a brown than a gray.
Well, that’s all for now. I’ve been hopping up and down to cook dinner and type this post. Dinner is just about done, and so it this post, so toodles for now!
Marlakins
