happy chanukah

To follow up with my last post - we ended up going to Deli King.  I gave another coworker a lift after the bowling because she didn't have a car, and she was also nervous about what to order.  I guess kosher restaurants are intimidating/nerve wracking? Who knew.  Which leads me to this PSA:

In a Kosher restaurant, like any other restaurant whose cuisine you are unfamiliar with, you are always safe ordering off the menu.  

Just don't be difficult and start asking for things not on the menu (like swiss on your Pastrami sandwich) or you will look like an idiot.  Same as any other restaurant, right?  Anyways, I was prepared to save anyone from potential mortification but they did fine.  And everyone enjoyed their meal.


****
Happy Chanukah everyone!

 

 

 I'm kinda screwed on the Chanukah knitting front.  I realized last night I need to finish
- 2 hats (Mia and Uncle D)
- 6 scarves (CH, Uncle R, Dan, Gabe, Jason and possibly Lizzie)
- 2 dreidel dishcloths (Grandma and Aunt L)
- 2 more Divine hats for Patricia and Noemi
- a Settlers case for Eytan

The deadlines:
Thursday - 1 scarf, 2 hats, 1 Settlers case, 2 dreidel dishcloths
Friday - 5 scarves

Monday - 2 divine hats
I knocked out a scarf and half a dishcloth last night.  Would you believe the dishcloth pattern is wrong?  The Nun is backwards.  Sigh.  I'm not ripping though, I'm going to re-chart the pattern and drop the stitches and pick them back up to fix the Nun.  Ok yeah, that's going to go well!

If I do 1 hat and 1 dishcloth today, 1 hat and 1 dishcloth tomorrow, and the Settlers case Wednesday I will just make it in time...  Wish me luck!

am i too sensitive?

So we're going bowling tonight after work as our departmental Holiday Party.  I'm the Local, so when one of my coworkers thought to organize dinner afterwards nearby so they don't all drive home drunk, she asked me for a recommendation.  My brother's brest friend's grandma owns 2 kosher restaurants (one meat and one dairy) in the shopping center next door to the bowling alley, so I sent her a link.

Then this morning they email me, "Oh look there's an Italian restuarant in the same place".  I told her she can come check out my Zagats (yes I have one at my desk and yes I use it), and I don't think I was being pushy, but I mentioned that we should try Deli King because it's good, "it's like Ben's Deli" I told her - Ben's  we've been to before, and I've actually been there whereas the other one we'd just be trusting Zagat's, and they got Good not Spectacular reviews.

So she says to me (and she's really a nice person), "Well I've never been to a kosher restaurant".
"What about Ben's."
"Well yeah.  But I mean, what if someone wants to order a hamburger and get cheese on their hamburger.  You can't get that at a kosher restaurant."
I was kinda flabergasted, that the possibility of wanting cheese on a burger would nulify the possibility of going to a kosher restuarant.
"Well they have other things, like Pastrami," then I blanked on stereotypical examples to give, "and other kosher food.  If we went to a Thai place you couldn't order a cheeseburger either."

I really don't think cheeseburgers are a good reason not to go for kosher food, but hey I've never had one before so I could be wrong....

A knitting conundrum

Okay knitters, I need some help please.

My cousin Eytan taught me how to play Settlers recently, and it's my new favorite game.  He has also (recently) become one of my favorite cousins, because we've been hanging out a lot and I've come to realize that we make good friends (in addition to being cousins), but that's another story. 

Eytan likes to bring his games when he visits friends, or when we go on Shabbatons, or to Thanksgiving, or basically anywhere.  He devised a series of ziplock bags to neatly pack away his Settlers so that he doesn't have to  schlep the box everywhere, yet all the pieces are sorted precisely.  And you thought I was OCD, lol.  Anyways, I told him I'd knit him a nice bag for his game for Chanukah, and unlike most of my family, he was properly thrilled at the offer of a handknit.

So I both need to and want to do a spectacular job of it- because I like him, and want to thank him for teaching me the game, but also because he'll be properly appreciative even if it sucks.

The idea first came up in August, and I still haven't picked or designed a pattern and gotten down to it.  The family Chanukah party is the 25th, so I have 10 days to sit down and do this thing... which is okay, but I need to get going!

First up: the Fiona bag. Probably in Lion Brand's Cotton Ease.
Pros:
I really want to make one - it's been in my queue for Ages, ever since I saw the one Spinningmaid made for HSKS54
I like the style, and I think he will also

Con:
Not a pattern I am familiar with already - might take a long time to knit up.
Not Felted - the game has small pieces that might slip through the stitches.  Lining is beyond my abilities at this point, so he'd have to have smaller bags to hold the little pieces inside.

Option 2: Quinn Cabled Bag
Pros:
I've knitted it before
It is GORGEOUS and he will love it
It's a simple silhouette so I will have no trouble lining it.

Cons:
It took me 4-6 weeks to make the other one, and I have 10 days.  But it'll go faster now that I've practiced, right? lol

Option 3: Ripple Me This
Never made one before but it looks simple enough...
Pros:
Felted!
Interesting architecture (ripples)

Cons:
Not sure if I want to make him a felted bag anymore, because will it be "less impressive" to a non-knitter?
What if it takes forever to knit?

Options 4&5: Satchel and Maple, Knitty's felted messenger bags
Pros:
Also felted
I've done 2 maples, they are quick and easy and have gotten good reviews

Cons:
See Ripple Me's "less-impressive" concern

*****

Now I kinda wish I started a Quinn in August.... Anyways, which do you think I should do?  Or, any other pattern suggestions?

Stitches (part 2...)

Friday morning, I woke up at 5:45 because my feet were FREEZING - air matress, basement, you get the picture. I LOVE air matresses though so it was worth it!  Anyways, I couldn't fall back to sleep because I was way too excited for Stitches, so I pulled out my book.  Around 6 Teri came down and found me, and we went to wait for the lazy bums to wake up so we could go already!

Teri made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and at 9 we were ready to go.  Corey helped drive us all to the Light Rail station - another reason why we love him!  On the train we all pulled out our knitting - except Teri forgot hers - and got to work.  We met a bunch of other knitters going to Stitches, and Jennifer even taught an impromptu sock/magic loop lesson to our car.

Once at Stitches we split up into 2 parties.  Jen and Tess had to hit 3 Irish Girls right away, and Sarah wanted Jordana Paige right away.  She dragged the rest of us along ;)  On the way Sarah spotted some $3 skeins of dyeable sock yarn so we made a tiny detour, but then straight to JP!  Sarah talked Jen into a bag like hers, me into buying a messenger bag (the red and khaki color, not pink!)... and later Teri even got a bag.  Sarah had never met Jordana IRL before, but she'd founded the JP group on Ravelry and helped her out a lot... so Jordana gave her a bag as a gift.  Which was really sweet.  They were all mushy and stuff, so Jenifuh and I spent the rest of the weekend teasing Sarah... but it was really cute :)

Next we met up with Tess and Jen at 3IG - really the Yarn Love booth.  It's complicated.  Anyways, Tess and Jen got a crazy amount of yarn there and talked us all into buying some - like that was hard ;)  I got some "Delicate Aquamarine" sock yarn and talked Tess into more yarn for a Calorimetry - the Carson colorway, in worsted weight.

Delicate Aquamarine from Ravelry

Next Jenifuh and I went to the Cocoknits/Three Black Sheep booth and bought the Malabrigo Loafers pattern and Lamb's Pride Bulky to knit it up.


We breaked for lunch, and went upstairs to find Carma and crew. Meeting Carma was fun, she wasn't like I expected from her online persona - she defied my New Yorker expectations, in a very good way.  Centy, on the other hand, was pretty much exactly like she is online (=awesome! ROAR Gryffindor indeed :).  Centy brought a friend from S&B, Heather.  I don't think I'd chatted with L to the F before, and I am very glad that changed this weekend.

Carma brought lunch for everyone from her Cafe, and O.M.G. it was amazing.  There were these Sesame Noodles that were really, really yummy, and we are STILL waiting to see a recipe for ;)  Then I had an Apples Alexander - Apples, Honey, some kinda cheese on a toasted roll.  It's like apple strudel in a roll instead of annoyingly flaky pastry - SO GOOD.  And then there were cookies too.  The Pink Dalmations have a well-deserved reputation for amazingness.  I tried a piece of Erika's macaroon and even though it was coconut, which I usually hate, even that was delicious.

After lunch we hit Webs (I got some Berroco Cuzco and Jasper and an Addi needle), and then a lot of other booths.  At 4 Jenifuh decided she'd had enough, and went back to Teri's with me.  Corey picked us up at the Light Rail (see what I mean? he's the best!), and we hung out at Teri's.  I talked Jen into a corned beef sandwhich for dinner, and then Corey and Jen attempted to teach me to suck less at Pool in Teri's basement.  We tried a normal game, and then "Three Ball".  Progress was made, but I still suck - just less.

needles

So I might be weird (okay I know I'm weird), but my favorite favorite favorite DPNs are the plastic Lion Brand DPNS.

• They are relatively cheap
• The plastic is the perfect combination of smooth for slip and non-metal for grip 
• They are color co-ordinated.

The latter is a BIG part of why I love them.  All their size 5's are red.  When I'm looking for 5's, I stick my hand into the vase-like thingy that holds my DPNs between projects, and I pull out 5 red sticks.  No needle sizer required! I love not needing tools and stuff for knitting :)

Anyways, they aren't sold locally so on a lark I searched ebay. And found an auction the most confusing description EVER, but it looked like 7 sets were in the Lot.  So I bid and ended up as the winning (read: only) bidder, and thus spent $28 for:

TWELVE sets of Lion Brand DPNs! The rest was cake :-)

Stitches! (part 1...)

You know how most of the time, when you spend tons of time planning and preparing for and waiting for an event, it's usually a big disappointment in the end? Or at least it doesn't live up to expectations? Yeah, so Stitches was the exact opposite of that.

Two (of the three) owners of my LYS were driving down to Baltimore Thursday morning with a friend of theirs, and offered me a ride. Lots of knitting-related conversation :) I already knew I really liked my LYS ladies, but over 4 hrs I got to know them much better. I finished a Turn a Square hat (Brooklyn Tweed's pattern) en route.

We got in to B'more in 4 hours, and 30 minutes on the Light Rail later I was at BWI to meet Teri, Shewhoknits, and Svendel for the first time IRL. Svendel I recognized right away from some photos she showed us of her HS reunion. Teri and Jen were different than I imagined they'd be in person, but I knew exactly who they were when the car pulled up, 'cuz they were smiling really, really big like I was. Teri managed to smush my caravan of bags (only 4! lol) into her car and away we went!

Fyi, Teri's house is gorgeous. Plus, her husband built it, himself. And you thought the swift was impressive, right? (more on that in a bit).  We met the oldest Prince on his way out the door, and then Teri left Corey to entertain us while she went to collect Jen and her previously-unknown friend (Tess/Ginny).  We tried corrupting him, but Corey is just too awesome.  He frikkin unpacked the groceries, without being asked.

For dinner we went to Texas Roadhouse.  Dude, we need to get places like that to come to NY.

(L-R: Jenifir, me, Tess, Jenifuh, Sarah and Teri)
Then it was back to Teri's to knit (a LOT), watch the Office ("That's what she said, that's what she said, that's what she said!" - Pam), and 30 Rock ("That's not Oprah")

I think that was pretty much it for Thursday. Stay tuned for part 2, when we finally make it to Stitches and meet up with the rest of the Stitches Witches...

RHINEBECK!!

I went to Rhinebeck yesterday, and OMG it was amazing!

First, I met Kileigh7, in person.  She is exactly the same as online, and just as awesome.  Yes Amy, there are photos :-D  And I met Laura's mom, who is an extremely good sport for someone not as crazy into knitting, Ravelry, and the blogosphere as certain other people.  The three of us walked around the festival together.

First stop was the Author's area.  Laura & Laura's mom had gotten a Yarn Harlot autograph, but I just wanted to see her (and take a photo :).  Anyway, the line was HUGE.  We went over to the front of the line to try and take a photo (ok fine to Kinnear her), and befriended 3 fellow Ravelers. One of whom needs to join HSKS7 because she's a huge HP fan ::goes off to invite her::

Thank goodness I was with Laura, 'cuz after we got our photo of the Harlot I didn't know any of the other authors from a hole in the wall.  She was our guide, pointing out who the authors were and which of my favorite patterns they wrote.  Then we walked past Hannah Fettig's table.  I had to take a photo of her sweatshirt for CentyB.

Not only was she great to chat with, she let me juggle the samples of the Juggling Balls pattern from her book Closely Knit.  She autographed a copy for me.  After my chanukah knitting, I am so knitting my own set :D

Next it was almost noon so we hit the Ravelry meetup.  Since we got there exactly on time we snagged buttons and were able to talk to Jess and Casey before the masses descended in droves.  Well mostly Casey.  It was strange, here we are walking up to him and saying hi as if to an old friend, and yet to him we are all a bunch of strangers.  Being a celebrity must suck.  Also, I had no idea what to say to Casey. I knew that once I got started with a thank you I'd just babble, so I settled for thanking Casey for helping me find my first local knitting friend, Gryffinitter, through the hsks group.  He told us about someone that told him she met someone in her own apartment building through Ravlery!

Jess and Casey were super nice about taking photos with all their groupies
[I'll post the photo here when I find my camera cable]

We also saw Mary Heather, and I chatted with Erica, helpdesk emailer extraordinaire and sister-in-law to Jess.  She is awesome, and has a very, very cute puppy.

After the Ravelry meet, we grabbed lunch and got down to business.  Shopping.  I got:
- Green Lambs Pride that looks kettle dyed, for a hat for my Dad for Chanukah
- *something* for the Stitches Witches exchange
- Ceramic Buttons for the Calorimetries I made.  They are really cute, just a little funky, and very perfect.
- Handles for my Firefly bag
- 2 skeins of Socks That Rock in the Dreidel colorway.  Can you say Chanukah Socks??? :D
- Backup/extra yarn for my HSKS6 kit.

Laura has been trying to get her mom to sign up for Ravelry with no luck.  I hope she does sign up, because she bough some pretty brown yarn to make a scarf for Laura's dad, and I want to see photos of the finished product!  Laura got some STR to make socks and possibly a Sock Monkey, a starter kit for spinning, and some books.


At 3:30 we were festival-ed and shopped out so we went home.  It was a long day, but awesome!  And even the drive home wasn't so bad, the leaves were changing and gorgeous :)

hats hats everywhere!

Wow, it's been a while since my last post!

Okay, last Sunday I took a break from working and went on a field trip.  First stop was The Yarn Tree, to pick up a prize I won in their raffle.  I won... a pound of coffee.  Which might get regifted, since I don't drink coffee.  Not to waste a trip there, I found their 25% off sale on Koigu sock yarns and picked up enough Teal and Lavender for 2 pairs of socks.  The yarn is basically monochromatic with different color values (light and dark), which is my latest love in yarns.  I might actually finish a pair of socks with them! LOL yeah right :)

After TYT I went to a new-to-me LYS, Brooklyn General Store.  It's literally 3 blocks away from my HS best friend's house, and her mom is a knitter, yet somehow I never heard of it in all my times visiting them.  It's definitely worth a return trip, their prices are better than the LYS near me and they have my new-favorite yarn - Cascade 220.  Yes it's a very "basic" yarn, but its in my price range and soft and wonderful and I love it. Plus it comes in a  bazillion colors, and Brooklyn General carries a lot of them.  I also snagged 4 skeins of Noro Kureyon in a great colorway.  1 skein has already been turned into a hat.

Speaking of hats, I am making them for "everyone" for Chanukah this year.  Everyone being immediate family, Grandparents, aunts, uncles, first cousins, one first cousin once removed, and 3 or 5 friends.  That's 5+2+4+3+12+1+4 31 hats, approximately.  And now that I think of it, I have a couple of second cousins who could use a handmade hat.  But I'll stick to the 31 I've already committed to, I suppose.

So far I've finished 1 Stirling Cloche, 3 Calorimetry,1 Robin's Egg Blue, 1 Divine Hat, and 1 Just Like a Peasant Hat, for 7 FOs total.  The thing is, I need 13 male-friendly hats and I've completed 0.  Also 2 years ago when all the cousins and aunts and grandmas got scarves - the guys got zilch, so I really can't stiff them again.  But dudes hats are so boring - no fun colors, no funky patterns or interesting designs.  They might all just get ribbed watchcaps, and where's the fun in that?

I need to make a list of who is getting which hat, because it's getting harder to keep them all straight in my head.  Therefore:

• Lisa is getting a Grey Calorimetry
• Jackie asked for a Divine Hat, so she's getting a turqoise one to match her scarf.
  
• Rif is getting the Magenta Robin's Egg Blue
• The Third is getting the Like a Peasant's Cap - and if you know an Orthodox woman who covers her hair, this is THE CUTEST HAT ever so make her one!
• C might be getting a Stirling Cloche. Or a Green Calorimetry. Possibly both if I get through 24 more hats in time.
  
• AE is tough because she wears a Sheitel, but I figure a Calorimetry won't muss it too badly and will cover her ears in the winter.
• I is getting a Divine Hat in purple.
  

More will be added to this list (I hope!!) as I complete the hats.  Still hatless:
AG, The Second, Uncle B, Uncle D, Uncle R, Grandma, Grandpa, Avi, Mia, Rocky, Big Rocky, CH, Eytan, my parents, D, Older Brother, Jay, G, Dan, and Lizzie.

Oh and I still need  to seam up that afghan (yes I decided I was sewing it up) and line a bag for someone (I HATE sewing!).  Better get cracking...

OMG I got published!! Kinda.

Ok now that they are up I can post about it.... The Leaky Cauldron has published my two snitch patterns on their website!!!!

I've tweaked patterns before but those are my first two completely original patterns, and I'm really excited that other people like them and want to knit and crochet them! Now if only they listed their projects in Ravelry so I could see how they turned out... but that's another story :)

dragons beads and stinky sox

Elle and MJ talked me into this online game called Dragon Cave. I'm still learning the ropes and it's already cutting into my knitting time, so I might have to stop playing soon. But for now, meet my dragon posse:

Michaelangelo
Lucky
Spike
Sky
Ivy II
Lava Junior
Splashface

In more interesting, knitting-related news, I taught myself how to knit with beads and started a ridiculously tiny Beaded Amulet Purse. My first attempt kinda sucked because I didn't realize I was supposed to slip the beads on the WS rows also. It's not essential for aesthetic reasons, but because otherwise the spacing gets wonky. I was almost halfway done with the thing but I was good and frogged it. Now I'm nearly back to where I was before frogging.


(This was taken before the frogging, but it looks pretty much the same now)

Tuesday night I went to the Yankees Red Sox game. We were winning in the first inning, see?

Sigh. At least the sky was beautiful. It was probably my last game in Yankee Stadium, so I took a whole bunch of photos. I'm going to miss that place. I finally learned where our seats are, and now we're leaving. Oh well...

to seam or not to seam?

One of my coworkers is having twins. My first question was, of course, what are you crocheting? Now, she's not a crocheter in the sense of crochets all the time, more like she'll make a baby afghan once a year for a good friend. Anyway, she says she's going to make 1 afghan and they'll have to share it, because it's too much work for her to make 2 and her mom can't crochet that much.

How can you do that to your poor kids, make them share one blanket between them? What do you do when they hit 2 or 3 or 4 years old, and they want their security blanket... and they have to share?

So, I said I'll make the second afghan. Even though normally I don't make baby afghans unless we're related or you're my oldest friend. The next day my coworker comes over and shows me a pattern book - look, this is the one we're making. ::Screech:: Um, it's not crafter's choice? Okay.... The thing is, she picked a pattern with SEVENTY little motifs that you have to seam together.

I do NOT sew. I do NOT like sewing pieces together, and SEVENTY is WAY past my limit. My coworker said she'll sew them together if I crochet them, because it's a big just to not have to crochet all that. But seriously, can I make a pregnant lady sew up all those motifs for me? I feel like she's busy with baby stuff, or even if she has time, she's gonna get cranky that she has to go it and then she'll be pissed at me for not sewing it up myself. Like, who gives a bunch of motifs as a lazy-a** diy baby present?

I reeeeeally hate sewing and seaming. What do I do?

Rav link here.

walking and running

Last night was the Long Island Workplace Challenge, a 3.5 mile run/walk at Jones Beach State Park. It was my 4th year walk-run-ing, and my second as team co-captain. Whoa do I have a lot to report!

First, my ascention to co-captain occured when I volunteered to help with the t-shirts last year. Every company prints up a shirt for their employees to wear while running, and the nice side-effect of all that corporate marketing is that people can find and cheer on their fellow employees more easily. Anyway, this year's shirts are simple - "I survived 3.5 miles" atop the race logo on the front, and our logo big across the back. As someone who mostly walks, I like seeing to be able to catch up to my coworkers during the race so I make sure to put something on the back :D

Each company that registers for the Challenge gets a site. Then you can order a tent or bring your own, there is a box-lunch option or you can use 1 of a handful of caterers, and you can also bring in food and drinks. For the past 2 years we've gotten a very good turnout - 1/5th of the company - so we have a better budget and rented a tent and hired a caterer to do a bbq dinner. Not that I eat the barbeque, but one of the perks of being a captain is that I can ask the guys planning the menu to order pasta salad as a side dish :D

The race itself is NOT my favorite part of the evening, and I was trying to talk myself out of walking - 90 degree weather, obscene humidity, complete lack of training. In the end of course I went. I was really pleased with the t-shirt design this year because I kept spotting my co-workers along the race, and that motivated me to jog a bit to catch them :D I finished the first 2 miles in 15 minutes, a good pace for me.

The race course is shaped kind of like a backwards, lower-case r . Imagine a vertical loop - that is the main length of the race. To make it 3.5 miles, somewhere between mile 2 and 3 they add a little horizontal loop through a parking lot on the way back. Right before the turnoff there was a crowd of about 20 people, and someone waving people off/telling them to keep going. As I got closer, I saw a woman giving a man CPR on the ground!! A police car arrived almost immediately. Eight minutes later when I exited the loop, they were still doing CPR, and the ambulence arrived a minute later. A 9+ minute response time is probably not so great for the guy, no?

I found out later that someone from my company was there when he went down and called 911 from her cell phone, and last she heard was that he had a pulse again. It's weird because in previous years there were more people stationed along the way on bicycles with Medic kits, and there were more police cars too. I hope the guy is okay, but I can't find any mention of him in online news sources.

Anyway, I finished my 3rd mile in 16:30, and the entire race in 53:30. I think that's my 2nd best time in the 4 years I've gone. At the end of the race they give out water, sodas, fruit and pudding - all things I can eat - plus a goody bag with a T-Shirt. This year Whole Foods sponsored the bags, they were made from a recycled plastic bottle and they're reusable for shopping - very excellent.

The best part of the night is, of course, the post-race. Something about getting super sweaty and gross while going 3.5 miles makes everyone really friendly. Plus there were a lot of endorphins. I finished the race at about 8, and the party broke up around 9:30 'cuz we were all exhausted and had work the next day. But overall, really fun and sucessful event. A couple of people in my group who I badgered into going for the first time both came up to me afterwards and thanked me for pushing them to come, they had had a great time and were looking forward to going back the next year. :D !!

curtains

I think it's time for new curtains. My current curtains are kinda old, but even worse they are blackout curtains and too matchy-matchy with my wallpaper. So I'm thinking of modifying this pattern to something 20" wide for use as curtains.

Thoughts?

good thing i called first

I found a really cute FO on Ravelry, and I wanted to order the pattern for it. So I called the store in California that prints and sells the leaflet. $6 for 1 pattern? Okay. Even though I know I could make up something very similar on my own, I want to support the independent business. And actually Teri wanted one too, so I was ordering 2.

The salesgirl on the phone didn't know the cost of shipping, well first she was just going to ring me up without charging but I had to mention it. Stupid me. So anyway, she tells me it's like a few bucks but she 's going to call me back with the exact amount, when the owner walked in. I hear the salesgirl tell the owner that I called to order 2 patterns, and ask her how much shipping is. The owner is like, there's a flat shipping rate of $9. The salesgirl is like, Nine dollars just to mail two patterns? I couldn't hear the rest of the convo, but she came back with $2.50.

And I thought the Dark Mark Yarn Shop* was bad.... Now I want to see what $2.50 worth of envelope looks like ;)

*the new codename for my LYS

designing

This past week I've taken my first big-girl steps into the world of designing. In the past I've always felt comfortable modifying designs - making something longer or shorter, wider or narrower, and changing colors or yarns. This was my first experience sitting down and saying, "I want to end up with X, now how am I going to accomplish that?"

After Quidditch, I had an idea to crochet a cover for a tape-measure that's shaped like a snitch. A quick trip to Michaels netted a tape measure ($2.49), gold crochet thread ($2.49), and white crochet thread ($2.49). I already had crochet hooks.

There are 2 schools of thought on crocheting a circle in thread. Increase "as needed" is the MO of the kippah crocheter. People who work in thicker fibers usually increase evenly, but when you crochet with thread that makes your work look like an equilateral polygon instead of a circle. I'm super anal about making things even so I went with option 2.

A little fiddling created the "sides" of my circle, giving it depth. I decreased symmetrically to close off the top, and voila! I had a golden tape measure. Just add wings, and it's a golden snitch tape measure. :D The whole process took maybe 2-3 hours, and then I had to try it again to make sure the directions were like I remembered them. It worked!

That success got me thinking about my other design attempt, for the HSKS bag design contest. I was bored of the messenger bag I was knitting, so I started thinking about snitches... snitch bags... knitting a snitch bag!

The construction of the snitch bag came to me very quickly, and I had to start knitting it to see if it would work. The first attempt didn't. Instead of a cylinder with flat, disc-like sides I had a cylinder with poofy sides, and with no structural integrity the thing poofed and looked like a yellow blob. I modified the # of stitches for the 2nd attempt and it totally worked. Knitting wings sounded weird, but after a chat with Minee I had another idea - a half stuffed, half mesh wing that would keep its shape and not flop around. I had to sew a little, but in the end it really worked out.

Writing up the patterns was a kick. I'm mailing out 2 tape measures today, and when they are received I'll post photos and the pattern. The Snitch Bag pattern is being submitted tonight, and then I have to decide whether to sell it or list it as a free pattern. On the one hand, it is unique enough that I don't feel bad charging for it. On the other hand, I like free patterns, plus less people will try the pattern if I charge for it and that's less fun. We'll see what happens I guess, but I'm interested in hearing opinions on the whole free/charge patterns idea, so leave comments please.

It is sooooo cold in the office today! I'm wearing my Dashing mittens, and for one they match my outfit since I'm wearing a green shirt today :D But even the mitts and a lot of hot tea are only helping so much. I can't wait to go home!!

OtN: I did a major clean this weekend, and found some old yarn I'd bought at KnitNY back in 2004 or so. It's actually the reason I stopped going there: I bought some 100% wool Lopi thinking to make a shawl, and nobody thought to warn me that it would be really warm and bulky. There are just so many LYS with friendly staff that do take an interest in what you're knitting and offer free advice, that I just prefer to give them my business instead. It happened twice actually, and I also had the strong impression that the staff didn't know their stuff, so I started going to Yarn Connection on 36th street and I love them. They're just more my style.

Anyway, I found the offending Reynold's Lopi, a lovely, feltable, bulky-weight wool that just strikes me as super scratchy to knit with. I have 3 skeins of pink, 2 of one purple and 1 of a brighter purple. I'm not sure if I'll make another Little Slip of a Thing, those boxes are SO annoying. It might turn out more like a Coco bag. Either way it should be a quick-to-knit, fun purse slash knitting project bag. And felted - hehehe I loove felting these days.

knit picks, ravelry love and bag design

My Knitpicks order came in Tuesday! Squee!! So now I have all the yarn I need to finish my Princess Mitts and Ravenclaw socks. Guess what I'm doing this weekend?

I actually worked on the Ravenclaw socks a little this week, finished the cuff and got to the part where I need to actually use both colors in the same row. I've only done one other project like that - the bag I knit for HSKS4. It came out good, but I had to be really careful about holding the yarns loosely, and it didn't look perfect to me until it was felted. I'm not felting these socks. We'll see how crazy I get trying to make it perfect.

Some of my Knit Picks order was new needles. I don't have a lot of sock needles, so I ordered the set of sock-sized Harmony DPNs. The metal DPNs I got from Joann's tend to slide around and I'm really paranoid about losing them. I also got some 0 and 1.5 circular needles to try the 2-socks-on-2-circs method with fingering weight yarn. The Susan Bates size 2's were a bad call - the cord is too stiff. Anyway, I was really excited to try out the toe-up pattern that Enid/Jessica sent me for HSKS4... but one of the needles is really sticky. Wtf?!? I tried handsoap with no luck, now I gotta scan the Rav boards and see if other people had this problem - and how to fix it.

I also got some lace yarn in - Shadow. The price is right ($2.50 a skein) and I'd like to wear shawls on shabbat, I think they'd look great with some of my skirts. On Ravelry you can browse what projects people have made with each yarn, and I found a really nice looking Laminaria shawl, so I clicked through. Imagine my surprise when I saw the knitter who made it is Akabori. I met Diane at the end of April in School Products in NYC. A couple of patrons in the store were speaking French, so of course I started talking to them right? The convo switched to English because I wasn't 100% sure how to say "Most awesome, incredible, amazing website ever" in French ;) and Diane overheard me gushing about Ravelry... so now I have a new Ravelry friend that I also know IRL. :-D

/*There's mold growing on the inside of my water bottle. Eeeeeew! Ok back to the regularly scheduled blog post*/

So this week besides knitting the Ravenclaw sock sloooowly, I also finished the base of my 3rd attempt for the HSKS bag design challenge. It's going to be felted - shocker right? I really need to let go of the felting and MOVE ON. Sigh. Maybe next week :D

finished!

Ravenclaw Boot Socks
Originally uploaded by k1ms

Check it out - I finished my Ravenclaw Boot Socks! It only took me like a week to knit them, but they're in worsted weight Swish so that's nothing to brag about. I wore them already - soooo comfy! Almost makes me want to start the second start of the first sock I made. Hmm, maybe not.

I finished my train project last night! Let me tell ya, 2-color kniting on dpns is a little bit tricksy to manage on a train. There was no cursing involved though which was a good thing - when I turned around to stretch I noticed a guy in the row behind me watching me knit. We all know it's much more impressive to watch when the knitter isn't muttering under her breath ;)

Anyway, this is my Lavender Berry Hat:


I started some Dashing Mitts on the needles I was using for the Ravenclaw Socks. Work is cold in the summer with all that AC, so it'll be nice to have "sleeves". Speaking of work, Kim showed me the baby afghan she wants us to crochet for the twins. She's going to do one, and I'll be doing the other. The good news is that she said she's getting the yarn - not necessary since I volunteered to make the 'ghan, but definitely appreciated. Especially if she wants more than Caron Baby Soft - my go-to baby 'ghan yarn since it's so soft and washable. The bad news is that she picked the pattern and it 8 gazillion little motifs to sew together. Okay maybe just 81 motifs, but I. Hate. Sewing. And finishing. Le sigh.

new socks and other things

Jessica sent me some very nice Knit Picks yarn and needles through the HSKS4 sock kit swap. I'm still not sure how she knew about my current Knit Picks obsession, or that I was seriously eyeing the Knit Picks Interchangeable needles. I don't think I blogged about them. But she figured me out, and I'm really loving the sock kit she sent me. I only held out 2 days before casting on my Ravenclaw Boot Socks. They are being knitted 2 at a time on 2 circular needles, so I'm almost done with the whole thing! I have a ridiculously awful case of SSS (=second sock syndrome), so the 2-at-a-time thing is pretty amazing. Plus, the yarn is Knit Picks Swish Superwash, a worsted weight, so they are going very fast besides. I need about 2 hours of knitting time at home to finish these socks - and I haven't found them yet. Must. Chat. Less!

My current train project is a baby hat, the same style as the hat I knit for Sarah but different yarn. There's pros and cons to this new yarn but the main con is lack of elasticity, and I'm not sure how the 2-color colorwork is going to work out. Hopefully it'll sort itself out on the way home tonight, which is when I start the color changes.

Coming up on the hook: a baby afghan for the other Kim at work. She's having twins (!!). She told us yesterday that she was only crocheting 1 blanket and her mom wasn't going to do any. Really how can you have 1 blanket for two babies?!? When they reach toddlerhood and carry their blankie, are they each supposted to lug around only a half a blankie? So I volunteered :D I've since reached out to the other knitters and crocheters at work, so maybe we'll all do squares or strips and make a collaborative afghan for Kim. Brian (Sarah's dad) already volunteered to help. He's pretty awesome regardless, but that makes him even awesomer in my book!

More on the 'ghan next week when things get started...

cuffs and stripes

My current focus project for knitting at home are Emma's Ravenclaw Pride Socks (Etsy link here for you non-Ravelers). After a rough start - I stupidly started knitting these one night at 1am and read the directions totally wrong! - Emma set me straight and I'm really enjoying knitting these.


Check it out! I'm on the 2nd bronze stripe of the first sock.

The details:
yarns - Knitpicks Essential in Dusk and Pumpkin
needles - cheap-o Boye DPNs, size 00

I can't put these down - I just have no time to knit at home these days.

starting out

This is going to be my knitting and crocheting blog. About knitting and crocheting and yarny things. Because writing stuff in the project pages of my Ravelry projects just doesn't cut it anymore, and I like the organization of a blog better anyway. I'm going to *try* to steer clear of non-knitting events in my life so that I can keep this Ravelry-friendly. Some of my friends IRL are my Ravelry friends, and what they don't know about my crafty hobbies won't hurt me.

Some organizational info: I have 3 different "types" of fiber projects.

• projects that I only knit or crochet at home. these are worked on in bursts and it might take 2 days to finish a ginormous messenger bag
  
• portable projects that I knit while in transit/in public. will be worked on slowly and steadily until their completion. If I'm going away for a day or two these will get finished very quickly, otherwise it's a process.
  
• projects that start out as "home" projects and transition to transit projects, or vice versa. This only happens when I have lots of home projects and no transit projects, or vice versa. Usually crossovers are rare.

I like crocheting and knitting equally. There are things that I only crochet and others that I only knit. Hats are almost never crocheted. Afghans and doilies are never knitted. When I teach people their first fiber art, I start with knitting. My logic is that once you can manipulate 2 needles, 1 hook is not intimidating whereas the transition from 1 to 2 is difficult and intimidating.

One day I'd love to write The n00b's guide to fiber arts, with all the do's and dont's and what the heck does this mean?s of starting out to knit and crochet, based on the questions I've gotten while spreading the fiberlove. We'll see how that goes :D

Welcome to Dark Rhubarb!