old friends and new tricks

I can't believe I didn't blog about this!

So last May (and I know it was May only because of my project page) I had Jury Duty. I was super excited because it was my first time on Jury Duty, and I like new experiences. I asked a whole bunch of friends and family what to expect and was told lots of sitting around and wanting to leave, but I was undaunted! When I called the hotline Monday night & they told me I had to go in the next day, I was psyched. I prepared - me, prepared! - a whole bunch of knitting projects, a book or three, charged my ipod, and then I even left the house on time. I parked ok, got to the metal detector, and mini-disaster struck: no knitting needles allowed! They said to go leave my knitting stuff in my car - good thing I was slightly early :) - but that crochet was ok. Well fine, I didn't really want to crochet my acorn (it was coming out wonky even then), but thank goodness I had it.



(See, not thrilling, right?)

Anyways, about 30 minutes into the opening schpiel about doing our civic duty and everything, I was happily crocheting away and I noticed a woman sitting a few rows up knitting a sock. After the talk when everyone dispersed, I moved my seat over near her, and we were happily knitting and crocheting away when another sock knitter found us! They commiserated about my trouble with security, I admired their very nice-looking socks, and we hung out all day. We even got called up to the same potential jury pool but they only needed 1 guy. During our lunch break we walked to Garden City Stitches together. It was very fun! We got dismissed at about 3:30, and it was really much better than going to work for the day. Best Jury Duty ever!

Last night Gryffinitter invited me to her Spinning Guild. Her friend Alphawave, who she taught to knit, was recently elected president, and did a good job of going over guild business and explaining some stuff to the n00bs. Then there was a really interesting talk about Mohair from one of the Guild Members. I always thought mohair meant scratchy, hairy (ugly!) sweaters, but that's completely innacurate! It was sooooo interesting. And all the while, I was spinning away on my little Drop Spindle, using some great fiber I received in an HSKS from Sara. Fun night! Afterwards, I met the Sock Tsarina! (::swoon:: I love her patterns! And Rachel talks about her sock club All. The. Time., which I love). She was as cool as Rachel & Gryffinitter described, and when I mentioned that I knew Rachel from Panera, she mentions the Sunday Panera that they do, and points out two friends of hers from that Panera group.

One of whom, of course, was one of my Jury Duty friends! So now I have to go one Sunday, because a) I was invited b) JDf is very cool and c) as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I enjoy new experiences, and from what I've heard the Sunday group is a blast.

As for my new trick, I ordered some yarn off Etsy and didn't completely love it. Someone on Ravelry was looking for 1 more skein for a big project, so I PM-ed her about a destash. Learning to let go... a very good thing :)

games both non-magical and magical

Yesterday I played a pickup game of softball in the park with some friends. We played against a bunch of guys that have a longstanding Sunday game. I have NO IDEA why they'd want to play a bunch of 20-somethings, 1/2 of whom are girls, all but two of us hadn't played since high school... and Dani & I play on our company teams, but neither of us is spectacular - we just know how to throw the ball properly. We were up for a while, but they picked up about 5 runs in the last inning, and it was all over. It was a LOT of fun anyways. The other team wants a rematch next week, but idk if we'll be able to reassemble our team again.

Last night I finally caught up with all 500+ posts in the Reducio swap's round 10 chatter thread. Someone had a good idea for the handmade item - a pouch for gobstones. I like that idea a lot, especially since it'll be useful, but I don't have gobstones to put inside. I was thinking of doing stitchmarkers instead, maybe reducio'd Quidditch balls out of Fimo, with a hole through them, and turned into stitchmarkers? All still very useful - I like pretty things that are useful :) Then I think I have to make a Golden Snitch tape measure, since I wrote the pattern. But its not reducio'd so it won't count as the second handmade item, in my book.

I was reading the Wikipedia article about Quidditch to check what colors of Fimo I'll need, and I'd forgotten all about the Golden Snidget. I have the yellow wool crepe yarn from the Secret LYS that I could use to crochet a tiny bird.

Considering that last round, I went through 3 failed ideas before coming up with something that I liked enough to mail, I am very happy to now have too many ideas of what to do. Something will work out right!

Oh I forgot to mention, yesterday I ordered yarn for some baby blankets. Two of my first cousins' wives, one on mom's side & one on dad's, are due in July. Of course neither side knows - or wants to find out - what they are having. The cousin-in-law on my Dad's side - let's call her L - is very quiet around our family so I'm not sure if she likes us. I checked with my cousin first, and he was ok with me knitting them a baby blanket (in fact, really liked the idea). So I called L to check what colors she likes. It took a few back-and-forths but I am so glad I asked, because she requested Cream or Yellow. They aren't really my taste, but who cares? It's not my kid that's going to be using the blanket!

The cousin-in-law on my mom's side - A - is super religious, and those super-frum types have very specific ideas about appropriateness, especially wrt colors. But, she's really really sweet, and I think they'll use it no matter what color it is. I ordered Knitpicks Comfy Worsted in Seafoam, a blueish-green, and Pomegranate, a cranberry red color. Boy or girl, they can pick whichever color they like best.

field trip

Last Tuesday, I met some knitters from my neighborhood in Queens at our local Starbucks. Friday, 3 of us went on a field trip to a Secret Yarn Store! It was pretty awesome, the kind of hole-in-the-wall place that you'd never find without an experienced guide, with lots of interesting yarns inside.

I bought a cone of hemp yarn to make a shawl, and some "Wool Crepe" yarn in Gryffindor colors for my Reducio swap package.


The theme for round 10 is "magical games and sports". I have no idea what I'm making yet, but getting the yarn is a good start :)