Crazy Ramblings

I'm nearly done with that infernal thing. *Phew!* Just two more rows of boxes to go and the end border and I am done! When did I start this? What day is it? Where am I? God, I need coffee.
I'm not too terribly happy with the border still, but at least I'm not the one who's going to be using it. I won't have to look at it everyday. I would've ripped it out by now.
I can't wait to start my next project. Finally, something for me. Originally, I was thinking of a purse maybe... or a stuffed animal. Not a scarf. I'm tired of straight knitting. I need something new. Like... this.

The womb from knitty.com. Perfect. Or maybe I'll make some for a few uterus-less mothers for Mother's Day... I also discovered a great site through knitty... titbits.ca. So great. I want to make a whole bunch now.

I want a puppy to knit sweaters for. I have the book, and I think... no, I know, I'm ready to knit puppy sweaters. I have the patterns. I just need the puppy.
Gerry said she'd wear the scarf I knit her even if it's scratchy. (She doesn't like wool.) Oh, the price one pays for love. One more day till Wicked! Oh! So excited. It'll be fun.
Micah doesn't wear his scarf that much. Of course, it's not as cold as it was three weeks ago... but I think he has it in his car because I haven't seen it in our apartment...
We really want to get one of these... They're super-fun looking and we could get the doggies little doggles & doggie helmets & put them in the sweaters I'll knit them and just putt around town.

Life is wonderful... Love, AK

It is Tuesday and I'll knit if I want to... knit if I want to.

Not only am I craving vegi sushi, now it's Jim's Burgers' (Norwalk & Carson in Hawaiian Gardens... don't ask) Chicken Philly sandwich. God, those things are amazing. *drool*
I'm half-way done with the baby blanket. *Whew* But I keep getting the urge to rip it all out and start over. I'm very happy with the main pattern, I'm just not happy with the way the border looks... I want to redo it so it's in Seed stitch not garter stitch. I'd have to make a swatch to make sure it'll be even. That's my main beef with the border now. It's not even. That and it's hard to tell where to end the border and start the pattern... and I think the seed stitch is prettier than the Garter Stitch.
And I just realized: I haven't used the Christmas money Jiafu gave me! I'll count the $5.20 I used for Stitch 'N Bitch Nation... but that leaves $14.80... I just might go buy the Knitting Directory, too... That leaves $5.12 for what ever... Maybee a cookbook on sale or something.
I'm also working on a purse in seed stitch for K's birthday. It's not till June, so I'm cool. I'll post photos lay-tah. I also really want to start on the Unbiased hobo bag from knitty.com... as a birthday present to myself.

Vive!

We have liberated ourselves from the tyrany of our coffee table. It really served no purposes except to collect clutter and get in the way of the cable box. So our living area looks so much nicer & roomier, even though our eviction of the table was on impulse. We need to do some cleaning, but that can wait until tomorrow. I'm busy knitting and Micah's busy playing Dead Rising on our new Xbox 360.
I really want to get The Word Directory by Jeffrey Kacirk & The Knitting Directory by Alison Jenkins because they were in the Bargain section of Barnes & Noble. I also can['t wait for my Stitch 'n Bitch Nation I bought on ebay for $5 to get here.
I was totally cah-raving vegi sushi before Micah got home, but we went to Islands instead. I can find sushi when we go to see 300 at the IMAX tonight. It got me thinking about making a sushi purse I saw somewhere online... in green not pink, of course. Mmmm... vegi sushi.
April phoned today and called me domesticated. ... So I knit and live with my boyfriend and want puppies. Does that really make me domestic?
Today is St. Patrick's Day. I'm not Irish so I haven't any reason to celebrate. It was my grandfather's birthday - he'd be 86 today - and he never liked it because every one assumed his favorite color was green. Ha!
That's about it for now. I'm doing pretty well on the baby blanket, if I do say so myself...
~Alie

Moment of truth...

Will I make the Steve blanket work?
Wait for it...
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Wait for it...
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HOORAY!!! I did it!

1820 stitches down, about a million - or the rest of the pound - to go.

There goes the gayborhood

Tue Mar 13, 1:26 AM ET
Gay leaders in S.F.'s Castro and other U.S. gay neighborhoods fear their enclaves are losing their identities to straights and gentrification.
In just about any other place, the sight of a man and woman pushing a stroller would be welcomed as a sign of stability and safety. In San Francisco's heavily gay Castro District, some people can't help but think: There goes the neighborhood.
Gay leaders in the Castro and other gay neighborhoods around the country fear their enclaves are losing their distinct identities.
These areas are slowly being altered by an influx of heterosexual couples, the forces of gentrification, and growing confidence among gays that they can live pretty much wherever they want nowadays and do not need the security of being in a "gay ghetto."
"What I've heard from some people is, 'We don't need the Castro anymore because essentially San Francisco is our Castro,'" said Don Romesburg, co-chairman of the GLBT Historical Society, a group that represents gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals.
For decades, most big cities have had a district that was understood to be the place to go if you were gay -- the West Village and Chelsea in New York City, Dupont Circle in Washington, the South End in Boston. Men and women who had kept their sexual orientations hidden reveled in the freedom to live openly as gay.
Don Reuter, a New York writer researching a book on the rise and fall of gay neighborhoods in the United States, said he has observed a trend in cities as far-flung as New Orleans, Philadelphia and Seattle: Gay neighborhoods are becoming Disneyfied places, with chain stores and other businesses with little or no overt appeal to gays.
"What makes these neighborhoods gay? Not much," he concluded.
As the fear of AIDS has eased, gay neighborhoods have become attractive to developers and investors trying to encourage families and empty-nesters to return to city centers, Reuter said.
Besides the brigades of baby strollers in the Castro, ominous signs include the security gates installed last year by a hotel to discourage cruising, and the recent closing of a store that sold erotic leather gear. National chains like Pottery Barn and Diesel now occupy prominent Castro locations.
In addition, a sex-toys shop that had posters from gay porn movies in the window and an antiques store that had a naked male statue were asked last year to tone down their displays. They grudgingly obliged.
Also, several nonprofit agencies serving the gay community in the Castro have also moved out because of rising rents. Meanwhile, 500 new apartments and condominiums are planned for the area, and half of them have been designated "family housing."
"When I see a stroller now, I see it as someone who evicted a person with AIDS, right or wrong," said longtime community leader Brian Basinger, president of the Harvey Milk Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transsexual Democratic Club.
No one is suggesting that the Castro has been overrun by heterosexuals just yet.
The neighborhood has the nation's second-highest concentration of same-sex couples, behind the Cape Cod resort of Provincetown, Mass., according to analysis of 2000 census figures. And San Francisco as a whole is still America's unofficial gay capital, with gays making up 15 percent of the population.
"I think people are looking for something to worry about," said Betty Sullivan, a writer and event producer who lives in the Castro. "I take the fact that some straight people want to live here as a compliment."
But some activists point to cities with less-established gay districts as a sign of what could happen. Honolulu's Kuhio district stands vacant after its gay bars were dispersed during an economic revitalization project in the late 1980s. In Atlanta's Midtown, gay nightclubs recently have given way to condominiums, diminishing the neighborhood's allure as a gay nightspot.
Community activists worry that gayborhoods are losing their relevance as gay men and lesbians win legal rights and greater social acceptance.
"Thirty years ago, if I lived in the Midwest and I was gay, my thought was I would go to San Francisco or New York," says Gary Gates, a demographer for the Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA that specializes in sexual orientation and the law. "Now, a person can go to Kansas City and find a fairly active and open gay community."
In fact, from 2000 to 2005, the 10 states with the biggest increases in the percentage of same-sex couples were all in the Midwest, Gates said.
Sandy Sachs, a nightclub owner in gay-friendly West Hollywood, has started promoting special dance nights for straight Iranians, Israelis and Russians because her gay clientele has fallen off. Sachs said that many gay men and lesbians now prefer to meet potential partners on the Internet.
Another factor contributing to the decline of gay neighborhoods: Many young gays feel comfortable mixing with people of different genders and sexual orientations.
"We don't want to ostracize ourselves," said Matty Lamos, 20, who moved to San Francisco's diverse Mission District from nearby Petaluma three years ago.
Activists agree it is a good thing that gay people no longer feel confined to the Castro, but some fear younger generations will overlook their history.
"We have Chinatown and Japantown and so forth, and that's important for minority communities in this country, to have a place where they can get a sense of being the majority," said Joe Curtin, an architect who serves as president of Castro Area Planning Action.
"But if you took those away, you would still have China and Japan," Curtin said. "If the Castro goes away as a gay neighborhood, there is nowhere else." (LISA LEFF, AP)
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. If you'd like to know more, you can find stories related to There goes the gayborhood.

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Is this happening in the Long Beach gayborhood of 4th Street? (Otherwise known as the Pink Ghetto.) I shall have to keep my eyes & ears open and maybe get back to you on that...

A blog?

Hello out there in bloggerland. I have been on other bloggy sites... this one is for my knitting. I started about a month ago with my boyfriend's sister, Heather. It's been fun.
First, I knit Micah, my live-in boyfriend (how sinful), a scarf for his birthday... a gray scarf in the garter stitch. When I started he immediately asked if I could knit him a hat. I informed him that I'd just started and such a difficult project would be nigh on impossible at this point. And he keeps bugging me to knit him a sweater. I keep telling him about the boyfriend sweater curse, but he won't listen. "Can't you knit me an over shirt?" "No, that's a cardigan which is a sweater." He's so funny.
I'm almost finished with a pink scarf for a friend for her birthday in a rib pattern, which looks quite nice.
I just started on a baby blanket for Micah's step-sister. I balled the pound of yarn - huge - on Friday, which took an hour. I'll get better I'm sure. I worked most of Saturday & Sunday but kept messing up, but I think I've got it. It's just hard because it's my first time with circular needles and it's bigger than a scarf.
Hope to get some pictures up so this'll be more interesting.
~AK