Dark Rhubarb

a happy hat story

2011-12-23T11:09:00.002-05:00

I gave the middle hat to my boss on Tuesday or Wednesday for an Xmas gift. For 6+ years we've had a joking/teasing relationship about my knitting, which involves me occasionally showing him something I have knitted or crocheted and and him saying, "great job! but you know that you can find hats/socks/whatevers at walmart for much less effort, right?" At one point I taught him how to knit, because I'd been teaching pretty much everyone in our group how to either knit or crochet. After about 10 stitches he lost patience but I thought it was very cool that he'd tried it, especially after all the good-natured mocking.

Then two weeks ago I showed him the Divine Hats I was mailing to Teri and he said they were too nice to trust to the mailroom! Which was a very unexpected reaction, and it earned him an immediate spot on the Knit-worthy list. So instead of the yearly bottle of vodka, this year I gave him vodka + the hat in the photo, which he tried on and seemed to like :)

This morning he sent me the nicest thank-you email!

"Thank you very much for the gift. The bottle was verynice but I want you to know I was really delighted by the hat. I know Ihave made a few comments about knitting, Walmart and the efficiency ofmachinery but the hat made my day. It was so thoughtful of you to knitthat for me and I really do appreciate it."

I was originally going to share this story only to my Knitters circle but then decided to share it to all of my circles. People, if someone ever gives you a handmade gift, this is a perfect example of how to respond. Even better: an action shot of the item in use, but for a work colleague the above is plenty.

rhinebeck the fourth

2011-10-17T12:52:00.010-04:00

/* Hehe I thought yesterday was my 3rd Rhinebeck, but apparently not!*/

This year 2 of my Knitting Group came with me to Rhinebeck - Marj & Gryffinitter. (For the record, I again tossed the no-pickups rules; Marj lives really close by & Gryffinitter gets special treatment.) We had a lively & entertaining ride up, and Gryffinitter navigated me up the Tacomic Parkway, which was very winding, beautiful, and quick. We were there at the opening of the gates - 10am - and we parked by the "Mulberry Gate" near the food court, which I hadn't even known existed! Hanging out with Gryffinitter is almost always an educational experience for me :)

Sticking to our plan, we hit Sanguine Grypon first & tag-teamed the line so it went quickly. Marj got a skein of the Mithril lace yarn and I got 2 skeins of Bugga! & a Skinny Bugga!. (Photo to come later, I forgot to take one)
Two of my LYSO's - Cheryl and Audrey - found us at the booth, and Cheryl bought 3 skeins of nice brown yarn (I think 1 Mithril and 2 Bugga - we have vague plans for a Bugga KAL). It was their first Rhinebeck, and I think their first time meeting Gryffinitter & Marj even.

The night before R'beck I found Needlesnswiffers (aka the Headmistress) on gchat and asked where I should make sure to hit. Among other things, she recommended the booth opposite SG so we went there next. Their fiber was really inexpensive (but really nice, and soft!) so Gryffinitter helped me pick out some fiber to practice spinning and also got some for herself :)

Next we wandered through 5 barns and fondled a *lot* of fiber. After barn #2 (I think) we lost Gryffinitter, but we had already made up where to meet at 12:45 if that happened. Relevant fiber news:
- We found a booth selling bumps (according to Gryffinitter that is what they call the basketballs) of fiber that had 2 colors blended together, and they'd spun & knit up little swatches, so I bought a bump to try after I figure out how to make useable yarn
- At the booth where I bought this last year, I still liked the sample seed stitch scarf so I bought another skeinof Artisania to make a scarf for myself (er until I find someone that needs a scarf for a gift, anyways) and a pretty skein of Del Rio that will probably be mitts.
- Marj & I spotted a beautiful, striking hot pink & orange shawl that reminds me of In The Pink. Marj bought the yarn & pattern, and we'll do a KAL of it when we both finish up some projects
- In that same booth, we met someone who'd made the Modern Garden Cardigan, which I'd been considering queueing. She had Tappan Zee in her queue, so we swapped sweaters:

Marj & I decided to postpone lunch and head straight to the Ravelry meetup. Luckily we ran into Gretchen from the Sunday knitting group, who is friends with a lovely Raveler named Zuzu-something who is known for bringing cupcakes to Ravelry meetups! The 3 of us made a new friend & enjoyed some yummy cupcakes :) We also met a nice woman from Brooklyn who had taken the train up.

Then KnitforBrains, a House Cup Hufflepuff, found me (by my sweater!) and I got to meet her kids and husband. We hadn't chatted on Rav before Saturday night but it felt like I knew her forever (go Housecup!) Lunathecat found us, and then 2 of her Pints & Purls people found her. We spotted Ysolda handing out Ravelry buttons and (clumsily) used acquiring a button for Luna's friend as an excuse to say hello to her.

Then we spotted Stephen West(!) and decided that our House Cup meetup photo ought to include Stephen West. (Why not?)

(Eat your hearts out, Tower Specialist Study ;)

After the meetup, Lunathecat & I went to the Letter Buildings and, under orders from NNS, went to find the MissBabs booth to say hi to Kate1138

She was great! Talked Luna & I into some more yarn (of course); Luna got two miniskeins of sockyarn and I got 2 skeins of Yowza What a Skein (for a Boneyard and a Trillian, which has since become Trillian and Other, but that's a later story). We also met MissBabs Herself, which was cool! She's really nice. We also ran into Nancy from the LYS at that booth, who already knows about the Cup, so she got to meet Luna, who then had to meet her P&P people.

More wandering around the Letter Buildings, this time solo. I saw the Tsock Tsarina's booth - and must remember to ask Rachel tonight what happened to Holiday Yarns. I ended up at The Fold for some Socks that Rock mediumweight mill ends (boring white spirit skeins, for the record). (Must remember to stalk the Royal Flush colorway though, that was gorgeous). Nancy found me again @ The Fold and then we both found Cheryl & Audrey. The had a successful day and found some of my favorite booths (I'd given them a list).

At 2pm I got a call from Sylvia asking if I was going to the Yarn Hoars meetup. I still had a lot of buildings left to browse, but then she reminded me that she had my Happiness (it's a Madtosh colorway that we ordered together from CA) so I headed over there. So many awesome Hoars: I saw Ninetoedwoman, Caliknitta, MyDogPetey, KangaNYC, Jaylaknitrix. I finally met my archnemesis Skeller in person! (See: the battle of Waterlily). I also got to meet Miss Gusa, Ymalcom, Sheree, and a couple of other people (I'm sorry, the yarn fumes pickled my brain). Most of the Hoars had cool tote bags with their Ravnames & Yarn Hoar printed on them, which earned a few comments/questions from passerby. Since we were standing still, I finally pulled out my lunch.

We decided "Skeins before Ho's," so I bid Sylvia & crew a safe trip home and Caliknitta, Sheree, Ymalcom & I hit Sanguine Gryphon again. They struck out but some Q.E.D. came home with me to become either a Botanic hat or a Cairn hat. On my way to meet up with Gryffinitter & Marj again, I ran into 2 Knitty City friends, Kimberly & Joyce, and Kimberly's sister. Kimberly & sister were wearing a prototype of Joyce's new shawl design, which I loved. (My Turquoise skein of Miss Babs' Yowza will be saved for that (when it comes out) instead of Boneyard). It's so awesome to have such talented designer friends, my queue never runs dry!
The rest of the day is kinda a blur. I found Marj who was with Rachel and met Rachel's friend Robin. Rachel was wearing her Spectra & it looked great! Then they left to take Robin to the Train, and Marj & I did 1/2 of building A. We got some more yarn from someone who might want some wollmeise - I told her about my destash & gave her my Ravname, lol.

Last but not least, Marj & I met Badamy!

Who is awesome & hilarious. I apologized for my NEWT failure, and as I should have expected Amy encouraged me to finish anyways. Clearly this woman doesn't give up easily; she traveled for like, 3 days in 15 different vehicles just to get to R'beck!

Since we were so close I dragged Amy & Marj to meet Kate, who by then was probably certain I was stalking her. Amy was then lured back to her charter bus by wine & what turned out to be string cheese, lol! I went back to MissBabs for some Botanic-worthy yarn and Marj & I made friends with a guy on a bench outside bldg B, where I showed him the MB yarns & asked if he thought it would work for dude-worthy hats. He did. We also found out that his exboyfriend hadn't died, he dyed, which is a joke that really, really, really never gets old.

At around 4:30 we found Gryffinitter for the last time & headed out. It was a very long, meetup- and fiber-filled day, and it was AWESOME. I still can't believe how many people I ran into or met for the first time yesterday. And so many people complimented me on my Tappan Zee sweater (and the Traveling Woman that I knit Gryffinitter). It was a successful shopping day too; I found what I needed to find - some fiber to learn to spin on - what I wanted to find - Sanguine Gryphon and some unusually-milled yarns - and then some.

I totally can't wait to do it again next year!

community pottery and potter

2011-07-29T13:54:00.006-04:00

oribe inside and black dot

oribe inside

black dot

black inside

black inside

oribe

Performance art @ Panera

2011-07-11T20:31:00.000-04:00

tentative hallows plan

2011-06-01T15:40:00.002-04:00

Elder Wand:

Choose an Unstoppable Ravelry Pattern
Make a project you’ve made before so you know you can make it again.
Show other ways that having the Elder Wand empowers you

I might do
Owling (option 1 and 3)
Mara (option 2)

Resurrection Stone

Take a second attempt at making an UGH project.
Reclaim a project (UGH, unfinished or otherwise) and give the yarn a new life.
Give life to a vintage pattern! (Vintage in this case = 1986 or older)
Pay respect to a great crafter who has gone on before us.
Give a Face to a faceless Ravelry pattern by crafting a pattern that no featured project photo.

I might do
Cadence
Wrenna
an EZ pattern

Invisibility Cloak

Make something in House Colors to blend in among the movie goers!
Make a shawl or cape of at least 300 yards.

I might do
Ishbel
Any Wollmeise shawlette

7 west 22nd

2011-05-24T09:52:00.001-04:00

my first yarn bowl

2011-05-12T00:09:00.000-04:00

Ya know, for my first attempt at the wheel in 7-8 years and my first yarn bowl, it's not bad at all. I really like it. It's very thick& heavy, but that's actually a positive feature because I can tug on the yarn a little without worrying that I'm going to knock the bowl to the ground.

I'm knitting on my couch (the project in the photo, actually) and the yarn bowl sits perfectly on the end table to my left. I'm pulling yarn from the outside of my yarn cake and it rotates freely within the bowl, without rolling away all over the floor.

I totally have to make more of these!

crochet capelet photo shoot

2011-03-03T16:30:00.002-05:00

Dani & I went out for pizza last night, & I brought my capelet along to finish the crochet edging & get an objective opinion. I think I like it, but next time I'd wear it with a dress instead of my Captain America t-shirt.

Yarn is Lion Brand Wool Ease in Seaspray, from LB Yarn Studio in Manhattan

small talk shawl?

2011-03-01T23:05:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if the colorway & pattern are a good match...

Sock race

2011-02-08T21:52:00.000-05:00

soup quest

2010-12-28T17:48:00.000-05:00

harry potter christmas

2010-12-27T16:03:00.003-05:00

Since I had a half day Thursday and Friday off, we decided to have Harry Potter Shabbos dinner on Xmas Eve. Harry Potter Christmas was on. Thanks to this wiki and Gryffinitter, we determined the xmas dinner menu from Sorcerer's Stone to be

hundreds of roast turkeys
gravy
cranberry sauce
chipolatas
roast and boiled potatos
buttered peas

Obviously some substitutions had to be made.

roast turkeys became roast chicken, since there weren't enough people to eat a whole turkey
gravy we skipped, as there was no turkey
cranberry sauce became cranberry crunch, a favorite traditional Shabbos food, because nobody wants to eat cranberry sauce with chicken
I don't know where to find kosher chipolatas, so I made Dov's hotdog recipe instead. Same diff, right?
I only made 1 kind of potatos - roast. Nobody minded.
buttered peas became canned peas because we can't serve dairy at a meat dinner

We skipped the Christmas Pudding, and instead Rochel made Double Fudge Brownies, for the Fudge that Molly Weasley sent the boys, and Ayelet made Lemon Meringue Pie and Pumpkin Pasties, which were delicious. I also made Pumpkin Juice, which was pretty good.

To commemorate the 12 giant xmas trees that Hagrid decorated the Great Hall with, Rochel & I made 12 tiny xmas trees and decorated them with glitter glue. Unfortunately only 1 or 2 fit on the table with all the food, but they were really adorable on my coffee table!

madtosh bulky photo

2010-12-15T00:17:00.001-05:00

chanukah and stuff

2010-12-13T14:12:00.001-05:00

Chanukah ended last week (it was December 1-8 this year). Since my aunt that normally makes the family Chanukah party made a Bar Mitzvah on Thanksgiving and a Bat Mitzvah yesterday, I hosted the family Chanukah party this year. I checked with E first, and when I invited people I told them it's a 1-shot deal due to E hosting us all the weeks before & after - the goal is not to get "stuck" hosting Chanukah each year (or piss of E for stealing her holiday).

My immediate family had been over for Mom's birthday this summer, and most of the cousins came to the Cousins Dinner I hosted when I'd first moved it, but for the rest of the family it was the first time seeing my apartment. Out of the 30 people invited, 25 came to the party :) Only 2 of the no-shows are on my sh*t list, but we'll get to that later possibly. Or not.

Anyways, 25 people + 1 br apartment = kind of a tight squeeze, except that as expected (and advertised), people didn't stay for the whole 4 hour party. By the time my last aunt & uncle showed up with their 3 kids, at least 8 people had already left. I had 14 seats, and only for about 30 minutes at the end did we have more people than chairs. It worked out well for circulation. People couldn't cluster because if you got up you lost "your" seat and had to sit in a new spot and talk to new people. Plus, since there was enough seats for the most part, people weren't forced to stay sitting to retain their seat all night.

The food was good, I think. No complaints anyways ;) And I love my family: all but one of my aunts volunteered to bring a dish (pasta, blintz souffle, and quiches). Mom helped a lot, she made Salmon, Guacamole, and a last-minute chocolate cake. I did some quiches, apple-blueberry cobbler, veggie platter and fruit platter... I think I'm forgetting something, but whatever :) I need to remember not to ask E to bring a dish when I know she's going to be super late, that was a total rookie mistake, and I feel bad asking her to cook & then barely using her dish. It was good leftovers though :)

The best day of Chanukah was definitely December 6th, the day after the party. I was SUPER stressed about the party (to the point where I had trouble sleeping), but Monday I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the holiday.

At Rochel's Chanukah party on Tuesday, everyone said they wanted sweaters for Harry Potter Christmas. (I'm hosting dinner that Friday night & we're doing an HP Xmas theme). I think they're all getting mini house sweaters from the Charmed Knits book instead. I need to size them to either fit a bottle of wine, or buy some scented lotions at Bath & Body Works and fit the sweaters to those. (The photo above is one I knit for a Slytherin Swap on Ravelry).

Last photos: this is what my spoiler sent me in the Slytherin Yule swap on Rav. OMG the doily is beautiful. It works really well with my glass vase, too. I just need to clear off the top of one of my bookcases so it can have a worthy display area.

oops

2010-12-02T16:06:00.002-05:00

I'd like to knit a Jacques Cousteau hat for my mom for Chanukah (due Sunday). The pattern calls for size 4 needles. My size 4 16" circular is currently in use for the ribbing on a Mila Beret. Once I finish the ribbing (any minute now) I need to switch to size 6 16" circular needle for the body of the hat. It's currently in use for an Upside Down Daisy hat for my cousin's baby for Chanukah. I can switch that needle out for my dpns in a couple more inches... but I'm not 100% sure where they are right now. Oops. Maybe I need to finish some WIPs?

special orders

2010-10-21T10:50:00.005-04:00

Back at the end of May, my LYS placed an order for me with my favorite Indy Dyer. I remember that it was the end of May, because it was the week after the Israel Day Parade and that was on 5/23. They were ordering yarn anyways, and asked if I would like a certain color. I asked for 5 skeins of a certain colorway, let's call it Colorway, which I'd seen online and in 1 brick-and-mortar shop as a very pretty copper-colored yarn with blue highlights.

My LYSOs are super nice to me, and even though I offered to pay half upfront, which is their policy on special orders, they said I didn't need to. I really love my LYSOs and the LYS.

It's now the end of October, and we have no yarn. My LYS hasn't received their shipment of yarn, and obviously my special order isn't there yet. Here are my problems with this:
- Five months is a very long time to wait for someone to fill an order. Even if I have the timing a little bit wrong, four months is also a very long time to wait. Does anyone know what the "industry standard" is?
- From yarn I've seen at other LYS and ONS, I think that my beautiful Copper-and-Blue Colorway has changed (!!) and is now Chocolate-Brown-and-Blue. I do NOT want chocolate brown yarn, I hate brown and even Copper was a stretch of my color palette. This dyer has changed some of their colorways lately, and I'm worried that Colorway will arrive in this new version that I will hate.
- Another LYS in my area has placed, and received, many orders from this same dyer. They are very clearly not filling orders as they arrive, and that makes me angry.

Checking with my LYS about the order status isn't terribly effective. My LYS has been expecting a shipment of yarn from this Dyer - not necessarily the base that I ordered, mind you, but a shipment - for weeks now, and that's all I know. I don't want to push it and be That Annoying Customer, you know?

To sum up my situation/frustration, I have $100 of yarn that will arrive eventually, in a color that I might hate, and even if they do send me the pretty Copper color I loved tomorrow, the season to wear such colors only lasts until about Thanksgiving, and even I don't knit that fast. So I couldn't wear the cardigan I'd like to make until next Fall. Gah!

I think I might need a new favorite Indy Dyer.

rhinebeck the third

2010-10-17T21:47:00.017-04:00

So, the Rhinebeck recap:

I was supposed to go to Rhinebeck with my friend cre8ivgramom from my Monday night knitting group, but last Tuesday she backed out on me :( I was really bummed, but a friend from the Madelinetosh Lovers group (handdyer fanclub) had arranged for me to give her friend Christina a lift, plus there's really no excuse to miss Rhinebeck, so I was going anyways. Thursday night I spoke to Christina and she asked if I had room in the car for her friend Leslie. Shabbos lunch at Chavi's, I realized that Rochel's a crocheter, and even though she's not crazy into yarn like some people, I thought she might like to go. The enthusiastic "Yes!", even after I explained I'd be picking her up at 6:20 am, was awesome :)

Despite my strict "I am not picking anybody up, you need to come to Rego Park" rule, I left at 6am to pick up Rochel at 6:20 & then Christina & Leslie from Christina's in Astoria at 6:45. It was a beautiful drive through fall foliage and some incredibly picturesque fog

(Don't worry, Rochel took all the photos while I was driving)

We got there at 9:05, because someone (I won't name names here) had told me that Rhinebeck opens at 9am and I didn't double-check :( :( Some booths were open to early shoppers, so I introduced Christina & Leslie to Holiday Yarns and the awesomeness of the Tsock Tsarina sock kits. Of course I name-dropped and told Jen I'm friends with Rachel. Nobody bought anything - I need to finish last year's Oktoberfest kit before I get another - but Leslie & Christina went back later & Leslie got the Golden West sock kit. We then went to building B for The Fold & Socks That Rock, and found out that Rhinebeck opens at 10 on Sundays. I still feel terrible about making everyone leave so early, but otoh we browsed buildings A and B in like 20 minutes, so there was an upside :)

I was the first purchase of the day at Spirit Trail Fiberworks. Thank you SO much Moutons for the recommendation, their yarns are gorgeous! I bought 1 skein of Helen in Waikiki:

Rochel got 2 skeins but I don't remember what base. They were a dark blue and also very beautiful. We then backtracked to pick up some STR. Rochel bought a skein of Lightweight in Mesa for a Beret, and I got some Mediumweight in Paula Mae.

Rochel was a really good sport and let me drag her all the way across the fairgrounds, without any sightseeing along the way, so we could hit Sanguine Gryphon next. I kinda fell in love with Painted Desert on Traveler, until two awesome knitters in front of us in line told us where to find the Bugga. I bought 2 skeins in a color called Red Spotted Purple Butterfly:

Their colorways had the most excellent names.

After SG it was almost 11am, so Rochel & I went to Building C to find some Yarn Hoars. KangaNYC had texted me that she was running late, but I was also expecting to meet Fairfield2002 & family. We didn't find them :( but we did have morning snack :) and then continued hunting yarn :) :)

We accidentally scheduled our day in the best way possible, because after the Big Three - Spirit Trail, STR, and Sanguine Gryphon - all other yarn had a lot to live up to. We made it to every building and only got a tiny bit more yarn. We bought a skein each of this weird-but-beautiful mohair yarn, because the booth displayed a beautifully simple, seed-stitch sample scarf (tonguetwister! :) that we just had to try.

I'm halfway through mine :)

I also bought a skein of "Random Grey Mohair" to recreate this:

I think it will go perfectly with a sleeveless mauve dress I sometimes wear to weddings, and needed to find a shrug for. Oh, and I also bought a beautiful print of a pen-and-ink drawing of a moose in the snow. It reminded me of skiing in Montreal :)

At around 1:30, KangaNYC texted me that she was at Rhinebeck, and we met her & her friend Teri (I think - I'm terrible with names!!) at Jennie the Potter's booth. I owe a HUGE thank-you to Andrea for explaining the Yarn Hoars & Madelinetosh stalkers to Rochel with me - Rochel probably still thinks I'm crazy, but now knows I am not alone in my insanity and that some people are much worse....

We followed Kanga back to Building B for some STR. I think Teri got something. Then Rochel & I went next door to Brooks Farm, where I talked her into a skein of yarn by promising to knit her some fingerless mitts. What hardship - I get to enable her, and play with the pretty yarn, and contribute to her continued crocheting. It was basically a triple win for me! I bought a pattern at Brooks (Counterspell Shawl). We hit Maple Creek Farm but weren't into the colors they had left.

For the first time (in three tries), I actually made it to every building and barn. We saw lots of adorable sheep and goat.
This sheep was getting a haircut prior to entering the show ring. Adorable!

Did this sheep use a hairdryer or what?

CUTEST SHEEP EVER:

Camouflage sheep blended into his environment:

Last stop of the day:

Continuing the tradition started last year with T & S, Rochel & I stopped at Pita Hot on the way home for post-Rhinebeck Shwarma :)

ready

2010-10-12T12:08:00.001-04:00

I think I'm ready to buy some new shoes:

I just hope these don't fall apart before I get home tonight....

the nyc yarn crawl

2010-10-11T12:57:00.004-04:00

The NYC yarn crawl was/is this weekend (I'm working today so it's hard to remember it's still the Columbus day "Holiday Weekend"). I Crawled yesterday, but I don't think I'll be doing it again.

a) Too close to Rhinebeck! I can't get my knitting friends excited about going on a yarn crawl with me when we're all going to Rhinebeck next week. We can just as easily yarn crawl by ourselves another weekend when there's less going on.

b) The hours kinda sucked. Yesterday, stores opened as early as 11 am and closed as late as 7pm, but most were open 12-5. When you only have 1 day, 5 hours isn't very much time to really check out a new LYS, or a shop as chock-full of yarn as Knitty City.

I started out at The Yarn Company on Broadway at 82nd St. It was my first visit to the shop, and I didn't realize that they are "The Yarn Girls", so that was cool. It's a pretty shop, they had a few sample garments that I wouldn't mind knitting sometime. One scarf was knit lengthwise using 4 colors of yarn. I think they just did seed stitch using a different color each row, but the effect was really pretty. Then there was a beautiful grey scarf, it looked like a 6-stitch cable with 6 stitches of purl between them, which were cabled on the reverse side of the scarf. You know I love reversible scarves, and this was so symmetrical too!

Sadly, I never learned where to find the pattern for the grey scarf. I asked about the price of the kit for the multicolor scarf and was told, "It's $100. It's cashmere." As if I don't understand that there are more- and less-expensive fibers out there.

I purchased a pattern booklet at 1/2 price, to make #3 the crochet cardigan, and #7, the felted handbags. I also found a knitting tool I'd had my eye on for a reasonable price, and then for spending $25 I got a free Yarn Girls book. Still, I don't plan to return to The Yarn Company. The Upper West Side is the most inconvenient part of Manhattan to reach via subway from Queens, and none of their products warrant a special trip since I can find most of them at other LYS that are closer to my home or work.

After TYC I walked to Knitty City. I'm an idiot, because even though I've been to Knitty City a few times before, and I emailed myself the address of all the LYS I was planning to visit, I walked all the way down to 72nd Street before realizing that KC is up on 79th St. Sigh. I had purchased an unlimited metrocard and was kinda tired of walking, so I took a bus up Amsterdam to 76th. Don't judge me. The bus was kind of full and I'd accidentally started a conversation with either a homeless man or an unusually unkempt non-homeless man, and either way getting off the bus ASAP was worth walking a couple of extra blocks.

Knitty City was as excellent as always. First someone said hi to me & I had no clue who she was, but then I figured out she's a Tuesday Knitter from Knit in Roslyn. Still have no idea what her name is, but I faked it well enough, I think. Then I found Tofutsies in the sale bin, and it was 1/2 price. I know I'm supposed to be boycotting STWC, and I am doing very well resisting, but I figure helping clear out a closeout isn't supporting them much. The KC staff couldn't find the skein of Madelinetosh DK in Tart that I'd reserved last week, but they found me another skein so it was cool :) They tried to find me some DK in Baltic but didn't have enough in stock for my project, which is just as well with Rhinebeck approaching. I appreciated them trying, ya know? And everything was 10% off, but that's not huge, so I didn't mind waiting to buy it later. And then I ran into with Moutons & her friend Diane (of the Madtosh Meetup cookies), which was really nice. To sum up: friendly staff, found the yarn I wanted and a good deal, and ran into some knitting friends too - all of my favorite things to do at an LYS :)

Last stop for me was Lion Brand Yarn Studio. Their Yarn Crawl sale was 10% off bags, the LB collection yarns, and some other stuff, and a free tote with purchase of yarn. The tote is HUGE - like 2 feet tall huge, seriously. Beth & I got some at Maker Faire a couple of weeks ago. I was determined to buy some yarn so I could get another, but on the other hand, Rhinebeck is next week, and they have a special where you get a certain percentage off on your birthday week, which in my case is 1 month away.

I ended up getting a skein of Wool Ease (15% off this month) to make a chemo cap for Cody's collection. Did I ever mention that? Cody is Teri's son, and back in March he got really sick and didn't have health insurance, so the doctors and hospitals wouldn't treat him properly until he got seriously ill, so they kept *sending him home until it would get to that point, treat him a little but not fully, he would get worse and go back to the doctor/hospital, and repeat from *. He still managed to accumulate $16k in medical bills from the very little they did do, so naturally this was cause for panic too. Also, they still hadn't fixed him! Finally in like, July, one of the hospitals gave him a grant to cover all his medical expenses through the end of 2010 - including the $16k and any other treatments he'd already received for this. As a "thank you" for treating Cody, Teri's knitting friends are making Chemo and Premie hats and sending them to Teri for Cody to turn in to the hospital. They've gotten like 200 hats so far, 20 of which are from one of my knitting friends, Marj, who is officially Super Awesome in Teri's book (as well as my own). She's never even met Teri or Cody, just loves knitting chemo and premie hats!

Back to the yarn crawl... LBYS was very busy but they had plenty of staff on hand to help everyone. Other shops should take note ::cough cough:: yarn company ::cough::. I petted their new LB Collection yarn: Angora! I decided that I don't like the texture of Angora, and the colors were Fugly. However, I do love their other LB Collection yarns and colors so overall, very worth a trip if you are in the area.

After LB I was supposed to meet some friends at City Bakery at 5 for coffee, however J ran late and arrived at 5:45 and they close at 6 on Sundays. So we went out for dinner to a Thai restaurant instead. I had a bad Thai food experience before so I have been resistant to going back, but for Jackie I'd try it again. I got a spicy fried rice dish that was yummy, so now I don't dislike Thai food, just their strangely squishy noodles.

To sum up the day, I tried a new LYS, kept stash enhancement to a minimum, and discovered I like a whole new cuisine. That's a good day in my book, but I'm not sure how repeatable it will be next year, so I think one official nyc yarn crawl is sufficient for me :)

2010-09-29T18:02:00.000-04:00

three quick things

2010-08-24T11:04:00.003-04:00

My now-favorite cousin texted me for washing instructions for the baby blanket I knit for his kid, because he didn't want to ruin it! I knew I liked that one, lol.

This weekend I went to a wedding. I wore my Saroyan shawl to dinner Friday night, and an aunt of the bride asked if I had knitted my Shawl. Turns out she's a knitter, and on Ravelry. It was pretty cool meeting a knitter in the wild like that.

I'm working on a quick project for the Queens County Fair before finishing the 3rd and final sample. Need to finish the first tonight so I can finish the second by Sunday. I think I can handle it :)

2010-08-18T15:24:00.002-04:00

I can't wait for fall! I think I need to start planning a new hat and scarf set for me. And maybe Chanukah slippers for the family?

madelinetosh meetup @ knitty city

2010-08-12T11:39:00.001-04:00

The madelinetosh meetup was at Knitty City last night. It was very fun!

I didn't get any photos of the HUGE amount of yarn they had in stock, but it was a lot of yarn. 80lbs arrived yesterday - plus they had been stocking up for us. The shelves were full, there were 4 HUGE bags of yarn on the floor, and there was more in the back that you could ask GuyAtTheCounter (Zack?) about if you had a skein in hand.

It was really neat to meet so many people that I already knew through the Ravelry boards. Everyone was very cool, and we had a lot of fun discussing madtosh yarns, checking out all the colorways and looking at ways to combine them. I also got to meet a bunch of Knitty City "regulars" who were really awesome, and if it wasn't such a schlep for me I'd love to go more often :-/

Pearl is the best! She arranged for us to Skype with Amy at Madtosh:

It was very crowded around the computer as Amy answered all our questions. Her dyeing process sounds really interesting. She said that Earl Grey is going retail whenever someone orders it, but I'm not a neutrals person, so I was more interested when she described Sugar Coated as MGP for people who like primary colors. (My SC arrived today and I think that's accurate!) I missed the official answer straight from Amy, but someone relayed that Sport and MCN are going retail, in the Fall and sometime this year respectively.

After a lot more time chatting and fondling yarn:

We made our selections and headed out to dinner.

I picked out some yarn to make a Cosette Wrap, 2 skeins of Bloomsbury and 1 Norway Spruce in Dk:

Some Mulled Wine (love that color!) and Dahlia to either make another, or a heavyweight Akimbo shawl, and 2 skeins of Well Water TML because it was SO pretty. It'll grow up to be a shawl someday, if Moutons doesn't claim it from me first!

We closed Cosi down afterwards chatting about, well, stuff. You want to know what we talked about, you shoulda been there! lol.

Caliknitta kindly let me hop in her cab to the East Side, and I made it back to Queens by 11:30, too tired to do anything but shower (it was so freaking muggy all day) and go straight to bed.

ugh

2010-07-20T16:35:00.002-04:00

According to Ravelry, I have 25 projects "in progress" - and I know I have a couple of projects that are off the books (but on the needles, lol). Goal for the week: get 2 things off the needles. There's a 2-project penalty for anything I start before Saturday night.

2010-06-23T10:37:00.003-04:00

I made another Anthropologie Inspired Capelet. It's really cute! I just picked up a button for it yesterday at Knit, but here it is buttonless:

It's my favorite color combination: Green and Purple.
The yarn is some Colinette Graffiti I got on sale from Knit. All the yarn was about $35, which isn't bad for a sweater. And OMG it is super cute with a tank top and jeans.

Now that I'm knitting sweaters, I decided to finally knit the Lotus Blossom Tank I'd been wanting to make since last summer. I gathered my supplies and headed to Knit yesterday on my 1/2 day off work to cast on, which worked out very well. I didn't swatch because I never do - swatching hasn't been very accurate for me in the past so why bother? Anyways, Ellen helped me determine the size I'd need (the 39" bust size), whereas I'd have assumed the size smaller & been WRONG. Lol. I cast on and started knitting, and at about row 5 I realized I could much-too-easily slip the sweater-in-progress over my head, and then go swimming in it. Ellen said it was no good. So I packed up my sweater & went to run errands. I'll try again later.

Tuesdays at Knit are really jumping, I found out. Both tables were completely full of knitters. At my table, 2 women were working on the same scarf from crocheting in color and 2 were knitting the same sweater from a Sublime booklet. One other person was working on the Clapotis scarf in Koigu that a bunch of other Knit Patrons had already made. It seemed like a lot of people were working on the same projects and helping each other out, which was really nice to see.

Anyways, after I left Knit I met up with my friend T and taught her how to knit. Then we went to an Israeli Dance class at our shul, which was SO FUN. I am a terrible dancer in the real world, but Israeli Dancing I am good at :) It was the last class before a break until after Tisha B'av for the 3 weeks, so they were going over all the dances they'd already learned and T & I were trying to follow along. Sadly, T and I were already better than 1 person in the class, despite not knowing the dances & just following along. It was really fun, although some of the ones with a lot of turns I sat out & watched, they're a little hard to follow blind.

T might come to my knitting group tomorrow for followup knitting instruction. I think I hooked her with the Pi Shawl - she's a math nut.

This morning I was thinking: I should pick up some cheap yarn to practice the Lotus Blossom Tank pattern on, and then knit the real thing on the good stuff. I might hit Michaels on the way to softball and use my 20% off coupon...

sweater number three

2010-06-12T20:29:00.004-04:00

Sweater number three is done!

Pattern: Anthropology Inspired Capelet
Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Bulky in Fragrant

I bought this yarn from the MadelineTosh Etsy shop. It's so soft and the colorway is gorgeous. However, I had a major problem with it. When I used up the first skein I wound another & went to attach it - and the yarn seemed thinner than the yarn I'd been knitting with. Sort of like a size 9 needle and size 8 needle are different sizes. Or even a 9 and a 7. It was very noticable. I pulled out the 3rd skein and that seemed to be the same thickness as skein #1 so I wound it up and used that one instead. Dye lot issues like my Saroyan shawl are one thing, but I've never heard of someone buying skeins of yarn from the same dye lot and getting such obvious differences in thickness. I need to email them....

Anyways, yarn weirdness aside this was a very quick knit and I love the finished results :)

I cast on the 49 stitches the pattern called for. I wasn't sure how to tell when to finish the Raglan Increases section, so I took some scrap yarn and measured around my arm. When I stopped increasing I had 28 stitches for each arm, but I think I should have gone 1 more row. Oh well.

After I split off the sleeves, I got through 2 rows before finishing my first skein. After I attached the second skein and knitted a row or two I realized that I should have knitted the sleeves before attaching the yarn to the body, so that I’d know exactly how much yarn I had to spare for the body of the sweater. Instead of ripping and un-attaching the yarn, I started knitting the sleeves using the other end of the yarn cake, and then went back and did the rest of the body.

On the sleeves I added 4 rows of stockinette before the 5 rows of ribbing that the pattern called for. For the body of the sweater, I knitted 15 rows of stockinette before switching to the 5 rows of ribbing. I have a tiny bit of yarn leftover, enough for at least 1 row but I didn't want to make the sweater too long.

I have 2 ends to weave in (oh Sarah, where are you?) and then I need a button or clasp or something to close the sweater with. Or not, I need to ask my Monday Panera group if I can wear the sweater open. Hey, everyone needs a fashion committee ;)

the story of my hat

2010-06-09T13:15:00.003-04:00

About a week ago I was invited to a Bridal Shower for L. L is marrying A, the son of my parents' very, very good friends whom they've known since college.

A was Bar Mitzvah-ed but his family isn't very religious, and L isn't Jewish at all, so this will be my second non-Ortho bridal shower ever. That's significant not because I'm snobby about hanging out with gentiles or non-Ortho Jews, but in my experience, Ortho people in NY have a very specific Way of Doing Things which is sometimes loosely based on what the rest of the world is doing, but usually is quite different. I'm familiar with only the Ortho WoDT because that's what I've experienced to date, so I'm going to have to go over the etiquette with my coworkers before this shower. And the wedding.

Typical Bridal Shower I've been to: The invitation (or evite) invites everyone to Bridesmaid X's house at whatever time of day. We're asked to bring a recipe on a card. Sometimes we're asked to bring a photograph of ourselves with the bride or something. When I call to RSVP I offer to bring something, and usually end up bringing my favorite chocolate cake. Alcohol is unfortunately optional, but it's very low key and fun.

L's Bridal Shower invite: Very pretty printed invitations invite everyone to some nice-sounding place in Manhattan. The party begins at 2:30 and we are told to be on time (!) because L's arriving at 3. It's a surprise - my friends usually can't pull off a surprise. There are printed index cards for our recipes, and we are told to wear our favorite hats. (In July!)

Mom can't go because she'll be out of town that day, so I'm flying solo. I'll know L, A's mom and sister, and I may or may not recognize some of A's aunts and cousins from the Bar Mitzvah 13 years ago - but it's highly unlikely that they will remember me.

So of course I focus on the hats :) My favorite hat is probably the Divine Hats I've made 30 of, but that's hardly appropriate for a fancy affair in July. So I'm knitting Windansea, a free pattern from Berroco that uses 2 skeins of their Seduce yarn. The project calls for 50" of 18 gauge Milinery Wire, so yesterday I scouted the garment district and found some (6 yards for $6,which I think is a good deal). As of Monday I was up to the crown shaping, but the dpns I have are too grabby for the yarn, which is also super-grabby, so I'll have to hit Knit on my way to Softball tonight to get some Brittanys or Clovers.

*****

Last night Mom & I went to see Promises, Promises with Sean Hayes and Kristen Chenowith.

I like Neil Simon's Rumors a lot, and I also really liked this play. Sean Hayes is such a good actor!! I've seen Will & Grace but wasn't a fanatic or anything. I'm now a Sean Hayes fan :) There was a lot of witty and funny dialogue and he did such a great job with it.

Kristen Chenowith was pretty much as good as I expected her to be, and I had high expectations after seeing Wicked (without her :( ), Pushing Daisies, and Glee. She's so freaking talented! I hope she does more Broadway once she finishes this show.

As musicals go, this wasn't my favorite music-wise. All the actors did a terrific job singing, however I just didn't like many of the songs they were singing. Not my taste I guess. I didn't realize that Say a Little Prayer and A House is Not a Home were from Promises Promises. Both were on Glee this year, and I liked them in the show. There's a song sung by the 4 executives, and it was very well done - very witty and funny and they performed it very well too. My favorite song of the night though was I'll Never Fall in Love Again (and the reprise). The two main characters sing it as a duet, and they just did a GREAT job. It was beautiful.

I need to go see more Neil Simon plays, and I'd like to see more of K Chenowith & Sean Hayes's future projects.

the continuing saga...

2010-06-06T09:33:00.004-04:00

The continuing saga called "Where the hell is my mail???"

I was expecting my sock club shipment to arrive this weekend, so I checked my mail twice on Friday, once yesterday, and even again this morning in case I missed the mailman yesterday. The only time I left my apartment building since about 8pm Thursday was lunchtime Friday to run some errands (it is WAY too hot out for me).

This morning I saw my neighbor leaving the elevator as I was heading upstairs from the laundry room, and she tells me to ring her apartment because they have some mail for me. Her husband tells me that the package has been sitting out since Friday evening so Saturday morning they took it in for me, because he doesn't like leaving mail out overnight. And that this morning he was going to ring my doorbell.

I've been home the whole time!!! And I would've seen a package Friday because I went downstairs after 5 to double-check if the mail came late.

I told him I was home the whole time but didn't necessarily leave, and thanked him for taking it in. Um, maybe next time he could ring my doorbell when he sees the package out there? Sigh.

To recap, the possible places for me to find my mail now include:
My mailbox
A slip to go to the postoffice
The Super
The Porter (assistant Super)
My neighbor

2010-06-03T14:34:00.004-04:00

Sarah came to visit me again, and this time she brought her husband too :)

They arrived in NY last Friday afternoon. I cooked dinner (because how often does one go to a Shabbat meal in Arkansas) and invited 2 couples from the neighborhood and a friend from GN. I figured this way, Sarah & Chris wouldn't be the only "new" people since the GN friend was new to the RP friends. Also, T is from Nebraska originally, so S&C weren't the only non-NY-ers.

One of the dinner guests also has a motorcycle, and he was in an accident on Friday! He has a broken something but is otherwise okay.

Saturday S&C went to Manhattan while I cleaned the kitchen and mostly hung out on the couch. :D

Sunday I introduced S&C to the NYC bus system. Gotta love the unlimited ride metrocards! We took a bus to the express subway stop since the local was closed in the direction we needed. We got out of the subway @ 63rd and since it was on the way we stopped in to String (65th @ Madison) for literally 5 minutes. We could've taken the 6 but the M3 up Madison Ave was much more scenic, and I pointed out my high school as we passed by.

The Met was SO fun. We started in the Egyptian wing. It's incredible to look at stuff that's 3000+ years old. I'm amazed that they even know it's that old! We tried the 2pm 'Highlights of the Museum' tour but it wasn't our taste, so we ditched that. I was really into finding the Van Goghs and S&C indulged me :) Along the way we found a special exhibit on Picasso, which was so inspiring to see. We found the 19th century impressionists eventually and I decided that it's my favorite kind of painting. I LOVE the happy colors. I also decided Van Gogh's my favorite artist. I got a couple of posters of his art for my apartment, and since they had a buy 2 get 1 free deal on the posters, S&C picked a Monet poster.

Lunch was good, we went back to Ozu on the UWS. Mostly because it was near Cafe Lalo. S&C are obsessed with You've Got Mail, and S loved the cafe. Then we walked around some part of Riverside Park that was in YGM. We hit a Starbucks & then caught the subway home to meet T. Her first time at my apartment! I think it got a good review, it was hard to tell :) After some super quick showers - I love that Sarah's as OCD as I am! - we went to a diner a couple of blocks away for dinner.

Monday - on Sunday C invited us out to Fire Island, and S&C had expressed interest in going to the beach, so that's where we went Monday. I had fun, and I think S&C did too. My friend from GN that was at dinner Friday went with us also.

I started a toe-up sock with some KP Felici yarn.

Tuesday I went back to work & S&C went back to Manhattan. At night we went to see the Yankees play the Orioles. Of course my Yankees won :)

Wednesday S&C had their concert at night, so I played softball. Thursday morning I dropped them off at JFK to fly to Boston. All I can say is that Jen'd better treat 'em right up in Boston! lol

the sweater i knit in a day

2010-05-18T14:13:00.002-04:00

It must have been last summer that I found the yarn at a Smiley's sale. Who could resist buying a whole bag of Rowan Biggy Print for $6 - a yarn that normally goes for over $10 a skein in stores? I'd used some in college to make hats, and loved the colors, but it was too expensive to become a favorite yarn. Smiley's only had a solid-colored bright pink, not my favorite, but I bought two bags with the vague notion of making a sweater.

An extensive Ravelry search for patterns for patterns was the next step. I wasn't interested in a solidly stockinette sweater. First I searched patterns with Rowan Biggy Print (or their similar yarn Big Wool) as the recommended yarn, but nothing caught my eye. I poured over page after page of projects knit with both yarns, but nothing clicked for me. Then I searched for yarns that seemed to be the same gauge and searched patterns with that as their recommended yarns, and that is how I found Wrenna.

When Sarah came to visit me last October I cast on for Wrenna, thinking that she could help if I got stuck on my first sweater project. A couple of days and about 14 rows into the sweater I lost a couple of stitches. I needed something more mindless to knit while hanging out with Sarah, and something more portable than 400g of superbulky yarn for our excursion to Boston, so I set the project aside & started some socks.

Fast forward to May: Sarah is coming back for another visit in less than 2 weeks (!!!), and I'd promised her the leftovers from the 2 bags of yarn once I'd finished the sweater. My DVR was at 90-something% full because I've been away on the weekends, and too busy during the week to watch much TV. I'd blocked out Sunday for a road trip to Webs' tent sale, but it just made more sense to stay home & knit down my stash (and my DVR) rather than aquire more.

Sunday morning I cast on the sweater, and 13 hours later I cast off the second sleeve :) I either used a whole bag of yarn or I lost a skein or two, I can't tell yet because I weave in ends as I go. There's a photo on my project page but it's got a lot of stuff in the background so I'm not re-posting it here.

softball last night was interesting

2010-05-11T13:52:00.003-04:00

Softball last night was interesting. I'll try to tell it how it happened.

First game I was Catcher, and the very first inning one of the first guys up hits the buntiest ball ever - it kinda dropped straight down, and just barely rolled fair. It took me a sec to realize the ball wasn't going anywhere, and by the time I set to throw to first he made it safe. On the other hand, I didn't throw a wild pitch that could've cost us a second base, but I was bummed.

A couple of innings later, someone else hit a bunt, and I threw the girl out at first! It was my first time ever getting an out in softball! And it was the third out so I ended the inning :D

Then there was a third bunty shot, which I fielded it okay but the guy got to first safely anyways. Considering I've never fielded one such ball while playing Catcher in this league, this was a lot of action for one game.

As for hitting, I struck out once swinging, but the pitching from the other team was so poor I don't think I swung the bat the whole rest of the game. The whole game was walk after walk after walk for me. I made it home once or twice too :) We got 11 runs one inning, and won the game 22-15! (This is our second win of the season, whereas last season we only had 1 win total, so everyone was pretty happy about it.)

Second game was a whole 'nother story. I was DH (designated hitter), which was fine with me 'cuz my arm gets tired of throwing after about a game, and the next day my legs are sore if I crouch too much. And I would rather not play other positions, because there's more chances I will screw up a chance to get someone out.

Anyways, we're up and get 1 run. The other team goes up and gets six. Then we're up again, and get one run. They might have gotten 2 more runs in the second inning. Third inning was the worst. One of our guys (one of the team captains) hit a nice shot to left field, which should have been a double. He made it to third and kept going... The other team's catcher sucked, I mean really. She rolled the balls back to the pitcher! So it's not terrible strategy to try for home plate, because there was no way she was making an out. It worked for two other guys last night. This time though, the pitcher had plenty of time to cover home, and he got our guy out. The bad part was, when our player slid into home, he got up holding his shoulder, in a lot of pain. Nobody on our team was medically trained, but after a couple minutes of walking it off you could see that the injured shoulder was hunched much lower than the other shoulder...

He was tough though, and sent the male DH in to play the field the next inning, while he decided how he felt. Maybe two plays into the inning, the ex-DH fielded a line drive that popped out of his glove and bounced into his nose.

After about 15 minutes of figuring out what was what, it was decided to seek medical attention (ALWAYS!) and the surviving team captain decided to call an ambulence instead of us driving them to the hospital(s) ourselves. 2 for 1 deal and all :) The paramedic showed up along with a police car, and the officer questioned the injured players separately about how they'd gotten hurt. Apparently they thought that the guy with the shoulder injury might've punched the other guy in the nose.... The team captain got a ride in the ambulance, and the other captain drove Mr. DH to the hospital, along with about 1/2 the team who were going to help move the injured players cars to the hospital (we thought they'd lock the gates to the park & possibly keep the cars overnight otherwise).

Word today is that the one guy separated his shoulder and the other has a broken nose, which might require surgery so he can breathe through his nose. Yikes!!!

Anyways, moral of the story is twofold:
a) always have at least 1 first aid kit (which we did)
b) when someone hits a line drive to me and I jump out of the way, I'm not going to feel stupid about it anymore...

PS I finished the first of my 50/50 socks on Sunday at the Mother's Day BBQ, and I'm 2 inches into the leg of sock #2.

old friends and new tricks

2010-04-22T12:13:00.002-04:00

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

2010-04-19T12:55:00.004-04:00

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

2010-04-18T09:04:00.005-04:00

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 :)

what happens when I order from smileys

2010-03-22T14:50:00.000-04:00

What happens when I order from Smileys online yarn sale is this:

6 skeins are going to Gryffinitter, the rest will become a Hemlock blanket, a sweater, and probably some hats :)

felted bowl/vase/thing

2010-03-14T12:10:00.006-04:00

Yarn: 1 skein of Chaco, color #59 which is a green.
Needles: Size 10.5 Clover DPNs
Knit using 2 strands held together - I wound the yarn into a cake and pulled from the center and outside.

CO 6 stitches on 1 needle

Row 1: KFB into the first stitch cast on and the second, use a second dpn to kfb into the next stitch, use a third dpn to kfb the next two stitches, and use a 4th dpn kfb the last stitch (12 stitches)
(Adjust your stitches every few increase or decrease rows so that all 4 needles have similar #s of stitches)

Row 2: K in each stitch around
Row 3: *kfb, k1* around (6 times)
Row 4: K in each stitch around
Row 5: *kfb, k2* around
Row 6: K in each stitch around
Row 7: *kfb, k3* around
Row 8: K in each stitch around
Row 9: *kfb, k4* around
Row 10: K in each stitch around
Row 11: *kfb, k5* around
Row 12: K in each stitch around
Row 13: *kfb, k6* around
Rows 14-15: K in each stitch around (2 rows)
Row 16: *kfb, k7* around
Rows 17-20: K in each stitch around (4 rows)
Row 21: *kfb, k8* around
Rows 22-29: K in each stitch around (8 rows)
Row 30: *kfb, k9* around
Rows 31-40: K in each stitch around (10 rows)
Row 41: *k2tog, k9* around
Rows 42-49: K in each stitch around (8 rows)
Row 50: *k2tog, k8* around
Rows 51-54: K in each stitch around (4 rows)
Row 55: *k2tog, k7* around
Rows 56-57: K in each stitch around (2 rows)
Row 58: *k2tog, k6* around
Row 59: K in each stitch around (1 rows)
Row 60: *k2tog, k5* around
Rows 61-64: K in each stitch around (4 rows)
Bind off all stitches

I had about 4 inches left after binding off.

Photos before felting:

Stay tuned for photos of post felting... laundry day is Friday.

ravelympics report - day 11

2010-02-22T23:53:00.006-05:00

Three down, lots to go.

So after I finished the Divine Hat I got back to knitting Traveling Woman. I finally finished at 1:30 am last Friday! Lots of rave reviews about the color, but it desperately needs to be blocked:

Close up of the lace:

I earned 3 medals for this FO!

(well I got this one twice, once for the Divine Hat too)

Tonight I finished another hat project called the Slouchy Hat. Usually I look terribly in slouchy beret-type hats, but this hat is made of alpaca. I'll make it work :)

PS - Taking a photo of a hat that's on my head, from the side to get a good view of the slouchy? Not easy.

ravelympics report - day 5

2010-02-16T11:13:00.004-05:00

Some of you may recall from Thursday's post...

Proposed project schedule:
2/12-2/14 Traveling Woman & Citron
2/15 - both Divine hats
2/16 - 2/18 - the Elegant Ribbed Stockings
2/19 - 2/21 - FLS
2/22 - 2/25 - Bella's Mitts
2/25 - 2/28 - Maple and Wrenna

So far I am way off the pace. Sigh.
Saturday night I worked on the Slouchy Hat and Traveling Woman.

The Slouchy hat came with me to Chavi's to watch The Wiz with some friends. OMG. That movie is nothing like the play and very trippy to watch. Anyways, the hat is coming along just fine - except it's not slouchy. I started on the recommended size 6 needle, but I went up to a 7 instead of the 8 the pattern calls for because I usually knit loosely. Well anyways, end result = no slouch. By Sunday afternoon I was up to the decreases for the top, but I decided Monday that I need to rip back about 30 rows and use the size 8s the pattern calls for. Oh well, lesson learned!

The Traveling Woman was coming along fine... until I hit row 9 of the second repeat of the lace chart A, and realized that in the first repeat I'd used row 9 of the lace chart B the first time through. Majorly demoralizing! Sunday my friend Emm1e talked me through it. It's not a glaring mistake, and I'm just repeating it in each repeat of Chart A so it looks uniform (because I'm OCD).

Anyways, right now I'm up to the 4th repeat of chart A. I'm doing 4 or 5 repeats of A before the single repeat of B (and binding off). I hope to be done tomorrow, realistically by the weekend is do-able.

Yesterday I crocheted about 1.5 divine hats. I started one on the Subway to Manhattan, where I met O to do a mini yarn-crawl. That would be the .5 - because I dropped the hook on the way home, and although I wrapped it in napkins and will wash it thoroughly before using it again, there was simply no way I was going to use it unwashed.

The yarn crawl was awesome! It was great to see O!! We went to School Products first, where I got some lace yarn for a reworked Citron (the original yarn choice is not a good fit). O got some cashmere that I won't talk about b/c it's for people. Then we both got 1lb cones of Jute (yellow for me, Navy for O) to make these cute crocheted bags - there was a sample in the store and the lyso told me how to recreate it.

Next we walked downtown to the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. Despite the lowbrow rep that Lion Brand Yarns might have, it's really really really worth a trip. O got some LB Baby Alpaca, and we both got some of the LB Wool with Stainless Steel to try different projects - knitted scarf for O, crocheted necklace for me. I also picked up a couple things for my Reducio package - house unity stitchmarkers and a mini sock blocker keychain.

Monday night was the big Ravelympics meetup slash hat race at Panera. It was fun!! R finished a Ravelympics project already - a very pretty Ear Sweater in blues and black. B and M brought WIPs to show us. Ph finished a Divine Hat-inspired cowl she is designing called - what else? - Intervention! Lol. Ch wasn't doing the Ravelympics thing, but she brought a Sock Monkey to work on.

M, Ph, B and I all worked on Divine Hats, and although M and I came close (under 2 rows left) nobody finished theirs before leaving Panera. I finished mine quickly after arriving home, so I present my Ravelympics 2010 Team Uniform:

This morning I logged onto Ravelry to find that I had been awarded a medal for finishing the Hat Half-Pipe!!!

Ravthletes are also awarded a special Ravatar:

ravelympics training

2010-02-11T16:13:00.004-05:00

Ravelympics to do list:
Write up project schedule
Print out all patterns (in duplicate)
Pull Ravelympics yarn from stash (so it's easy to find)
Arrange for period well-being checks from a local knitter (because a non-knitter might miss-interpret the yarnbarf and have me committed)
Grocery store: stock up on hot chocolate, tangerines, bread, honey and peanut butter.

Ravelympics project list (so far):
February Lady Sweater in Nashua Focus Superwash - Emerald Green (b-day gift from Gryffinitter!)
Wrenna in Rowan Biggy Print - hot pink
Citron in BMFA STR Rare Gem - purple/red
Maple (possibly more than 1) in Chaco - colors tbd
Bella's Mitts in Louet Riverstone - Aqua
Elegant Ribbed Stockings in Louet Gems Worsted - Neptune
Traveling Woman in Dream In Color Stardust - Firefrost
Divine Hat (2+) in Chaco - colors tbd

On the fence:
Arden in WOTA Bulky - Red and Black
I bought the kit and want to knit it, but I worry that the colorwork will slow me down too much.

I am SO excited for the Ravelympics, it's not even funny. Of course I tell non-knitters I am excited for the Olympics but I really mean Ravelympics. Although I do like watching the Olympics on TV. I'm especially looking forward to the Cross Country Skiing, because I just started doing it last year and I love it. So I want to see how the pros do it, because I'm sure I'm doing it wrong, lol. And of course the Figure Skating, Snow Boarding, and Skiing are great to watch. Especially the Figure Skating!

As for strategy, I think I should get a few projects out of the way before I hit the February Lady Sweater. The Divine Hats, Stockings, Maple, and Bella's Mitts are the most portable so I'll save those for when I am out of the house. I also want to have FLS be my first sweater, so I think I will start with Traveling Woman and Citron the first weekend, then do the FLS, and anchor my big projects with Wrenna - which is Super Bulky and should be good for the final stretch.

Proposed project schedule:
2/12-2/14 Traveling Woman & Citron
2/15 - both Divine hats
2/16 - 2/18 - the Elegant Ribbed Stockings
2/19 - 2/21 - FLS
2/22 - 2/25 - Bella's Mitts
2/25 - 2/28 - Maple and Wrenna

Ok, I just re-read that. I might be insane...

ETA: Crap! I forgot the Slouchy Hat with Picot Edge. Um... maybe I'll do that this weekend also. Because, you know, 2 shawls aren't enough.

reducio

2010-02-10T14:41:00.005-05:00

Despite the snow, an hour ago an adorable little owl tapped its beak on my window. I didn't even catch his name before he flew off - he absolutely loved the snow - but he had an unbelievable package for me from Selina/ZTAgirlknits!

The little socks are so cute. I'm 90% sure I have a skein of the purple yarn (from Hobby Lobby, right?) so obviously the color is a hit too :) And I love love love the mini knitting bag!

Selina sent tons of little goodies:

Check out the house unity teabags! And the hot chocolate with chili sounds yummy :) And new Potter magnets for my collection! And the Slytheriny stitchmarkers - you probably can't see how awesome they are, but one even has a dragon.

Thanks Selina! I hope the package you receive is as excellent as the one you sent me.

snow photos

2010-02-10T14:24:00.001-05:00

I'm working from home today so no day off, but the snow is beautiful outside my windows.
My kitchen window:

The building across the street. Can you see the huge snowflakes falling? It's great.

My air conditioner...

Aren't snow-covered trees beautiful?

sock progress

2010-01-27T14:31:00.002-05:00

I'm up to the heel gusset on my Luna socks, but I'm not feeling it. Or maybe I just have caston-itis. Anyways I really wasn't feeling the Luna sock vibe this morning, and my Inside Out socks are at the point where I need to try them on a lot... so I cast on new socks.

The pattern: Leafling, a Socks That Rock club pattern that I picked up at MDS&W '09.
The yarn: STR MW mill end, purchased at the BMFA website sale of 12/31. The 3rd skein from the top (or 2nd from the bottom)

The yarn is about 1/2 leaf green and 1/2 yellows (from golden yellow to yellow-green), with a splash of dead-leaf-brown thrown in. I'm calling it "First Signs of Autumn" in an effort not to hate the yellowness.

In other news, Gryffinitter talked me into signing up for the Reducio mini sock swap. It's only fair considering how many Ravelry-related things I've talked her into, plus she's always telling me about the swap and the people in it and how fun it is. It should be a good time.

The theme of this round is house unity... I hope I get a Hufflepuff to mail to, because I now have the perfect green-and-yellow yarn to use for a mini sock...

if luna were a gryffindor

2010-01-14T14:09:00.004-05:00

I worked in Manhattan yesterday, so I made a lot of subway-knitting progress on my sock:

The Pattern is Luna's Moonlight Socks by Ann Kingstone. I got on a kick last weekend after my brother and cousin came to visit, and had a very strong urge to knit this pattern. The Ravelry photo shows a midnight blue (shaded solid?) sock but I didn't have a similar color, so I stash dove and found a skein of Kettle Dyed Essential (in Wine) from last month's Knitpicks order. I figure Luna hangs out with enough Gryffindors in DA that she can pull off a pair of Gryff-colored socks ;)

I am loving the pattern, and the yarn makes me very frustrated. It's really nice to knit up, but the "Kettle Dye" translated into a mostly-solid sock with dark stripes every so often, which make the sock look wrinkled, no?

Last night I was going to hit Gotham Fine Yarn after work but they posted on Ravelry that they'd be closed, so I went to Seaport yarn in search of Louet Gems in Worsted Weight... which they did not have. They did have some other, very reasonably priced (!!!) yarn - so I got a skein of beautiful purple sock yarn, and Arauncia Ranco in dark blue for another pair of Luna socks - I did mention I love the pattern, didn't I? Also picked up a set of square dpns to try.

Wednesday night, I discovered, there is a Knitting Circle at Seaport Yarns. I was too tired to go straight home so I sat down and started working on my sock. Two cool things happened then:
- Every single person (all 5) said that they really liked Ann's sock pattern! I'm looking forward to passing that along to her :)
- One of the people knitting there lives about 5 blocks away from me in Queens, so she and I took the subway home together and had a nice chat about knitting.

As a reward for making it all the way through this post, the very pretty skein of sock yarn:

dog

2009-12-28T15:56:00.000-05:00

Isn't he cute?

funny sign

2009-11-19T09:45:00.000-05:00

whiskey

2009-11-10T20:39:00.001-05:00

Drunk testing = bad
Drunk blogging = ok if it's socks!

@ the HP exhibit

2009-11-05T10:14:00.001-05:00

rhinebeck the second

2009-10-19T15:01:00.000-04:00

The day started out drizzly and cold and finished just cold. Perfect weather to pile on the handknits! I wore a tan Divine Hat (my fave hat pattern at the moment), a purple & green Malabrigo Darkside Cowl (first time wearing it!), purple, blue & green Fetching, and handknit socks that noone beside Sarah saw 'cuz they were in my boots. Sarah rocked another of my Divine Hats, and some wristwarmers that I'd crocheted last year. She forgot her scarf home, but I saw it today and it's very pretty. Gryffinitter wore handknit socks and a handknit-by-someone-else shawl - both also pretty.

Speaking of pretty, the trees were all changing colors and stuff... gorgeous!

See that white tent on the left in the photo above? That's a hot chocolate stand. Gryffinitter saw this in their tent, and thought it was the coolest thing:

that's a LOT of cocoa powder!

We went to The Fold first so I could get my STR fix. Last year at Rhinebeck Clidonia introduced me to STR , so I had to go back, right? I got a pattern (inside out socks) and a couple of skeins of the mill ends - one is apparently a christmas edition but if my goishe radar wasn't tripped, I think the xmas tie-in is subtle enough that I can still use the yarn :)

The authors were also in that building (B), and can I say that I was really disappointed this year? Last year we had the Yarn Harlot and a LOT of other knitting book authors. Including the other Knitbot who was awesome. This year it seemed like 1/3 of the books weren't even knitting books! Lily Chin was the "big name" - and she's cool, but the table had a sign that she'd be there at 12:15, so we didn't stick around 2 hours to meet her.

Next Sarah and I went to Building C and Building A and Gryffinitter hung out with an old college friend for a bit. At 12 we hit the Ravelry meetup. We chatted with Erica, who might be my favorite Rav staffer even if she's technically off the staff, and her husband, Jess's brother, who is also very awesome. Frecklebrother hooked us up with buttons and we all chatted a while. Then we took a photo with Jess and Casey and went someplace warm and dry.

Back in Building C, Sarah talked me into some sock yarn and in revenge I talked her into a skein, too. Gryffinitter made sure nobody bought an inferior wheel, and I talked her out of a sweet deal on a 4' loom. Her husband would've been angry, so I pointed out that either she or it would fit in my car to go back to Queens, but not both.

We went to the Horticulture building next, where Gryffinitter bought a much-smaller-than-4-feet loom. Sarah and I punked out and ate lunch - not as good as what Carma packed for MDS&W, let me tell you! Gryffinitter was still at it inside when we finished :) Then we dropped our stuff at the car and hit the Holiday Yarns booth to see the Tsock Tsarina's kits. I got the beer socks kit, and I have my eye on the margheurita socks next. Gryffinitter went straight to Carolina Homespun, Sarah & I detoured to Sheep Incognito & Creatively Dyed yarns and met her there. Gryffinitter taught me what a Wanda is (and talked me into a couple, of course). Sarah & I found a great deal on some Noro silk yarn at Cadogan across the aisle.

At some point Sarah got a skein of alpaca that she wore as a cowl for the rest of the day.

Gryffinitter tried out this cute wheel for us.

It was really squeeky.

Sarah won our Scavenger Hunt, which was to find a copy of The Joy of Sox so we could see Emma's/Ann's Snow Bunny pattern!

(Please note the Darkside Cowl keeping my neck toasty warm.)

On the way out we hit one of the food booths for donuts and hot cider - although Sarah was good and just bought 2 apples. That's willpower!

It was a looooooong day.

in other news

2009-10-07T15:24:00.000-04:00

... Ann got a pattern published, in a real book! It's called The Joy of Sox. Of course I ordered one, and you should too! I'm nowhere near skilled enough to knit her sock pattern but there's a couple in the book I want to try. They are interesting (and pretty!).

... I am playing volleyball at work. We had a game last night - well, we play 3 games in a row, so I guess you would say that we had a match last night? I joined the team as a complete beginner and have attended all-but-one practice, and last night I sucked the least I've ever sucked at volleyball! I might not even be the worst player on the team anymore :) Our coaches-slash-managers from the "A" team said we might actually win a game this season - I'm told the "B" team didn't win a single game last season, so that's actually a compliment. I think.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

the city

2009-07-20T19:19:00.000-04:00

On days that I work in the city, I get great views of the Empire State
building on my walk to the train.

Note the HBP advert on the bus.

Fun new trick!

2009-07-16T15:15:00.000-04:00

I just discovered the coolest trick on my phone - I can email multiple
photos at a time.

May I present the only bit of knitting I've managed for two weeks: a
fleur-de-lis dishcloth. Half of which was knit on the plane ride home
from Chicago.

Mytoi gardens

2009-06-29T10:01:00.000-04:00

Halp! I'm being eaten alive by bugs!

vineyard day one

2009-06-26T13:53:00.000-04:00

Martha's Vineyard is so much fun!

Yesterday we caught the 10:45 ferry to the Island. Sat outside on deck, in the sun... might've gotten a little sunburned, but it's all good :)

Willie, our cab driver, graciously answered my bazillion questions about how to pronounce the town names (Katama = kuh tame uh, Aquinnah... shoot I forgot that one already! lol). We found the house easily, got a little settled, and headed to Edgartown for lunch.

Edgartown is really cute! L recommended a sandwich shop named Humphrey's, and on our way over we passed an impromptu a cappella performance - The Vineyard Sound advertising their show that night. Shaina was really hungry, and thought to distract me from the a capella by pointing out a needlepoint shop. LOL! They dragged me out by promising to return after lunch. Humphrey's was great, HUGE sandwiches (and yummy too ;). I got a small project to work on this trip, and Howard got one for his grandmother.

After Edgartown we went back to the house, and bicycled into Vineyard Haven. It's a very nice, flat ride... it didn't feel like 7 miles at all. My bike had a problem just as we got into town, but there's bike places everywhere, so we went into one (Craig's fyi, in case you ever need), and he fixed us right up. For $3. $3 buys you nothing in NY, so this was kinda awesome :D Howard wanted to go to the Bunch of Grapes bookstore, then we got ice cream at Scoops and headed back to the house. It took us 30 minutes, no kidding! Maybe it's the water here, bicycling was never this fun/easy.

Last night we went to the Vineyard Sound concert. They were so good. The music was excellent, but they really put on a show, with lots of things going on visually onstage, acting, dancing, and comedic pantomime. Not "just singing", like most a capella I've heard.

More socks!

2009-06-24T09:27:00.002-04:00

Look Thea, I can Kitchener now! (srsly not really, I ended up with an
extra stitch & just fudged it... so no worries, you still have a job :-)

The left sock is snug, the right sock, the first one I made, is too big. Snug socks stretch, so I'm glad I am tighter now not looser.

progress

2009-06-09T17:00:00.001-04:00

My friend Rochel crochets and wants to learn to knit so I offered to teach her, and from there we kinda decided to start a Stitch and Bitch with our friends. So last night 6 of us met in J2, and I taught 4 friends how to knit. Shaina already kinda knew how to knit, but also not enough people told me to bring them needles so I ran out. It was a great success though, everyone seemed to like it and plan to come back next week!

I've been meaning to teach those friends to knit for ages, so I am glad to finally make progress on that :)

I cast on the 2nd sock of my Burning Pyres socks last night... but this morning I crunched 2 of my 6 knitpicks DPNs. Notice the blondwood dpn - that's from a Brittany set :( I need to place another KP order... but in the meantime I am making progress on my socks anyways!

softball again

2009-05-28T11:25:00.000-04:00

OMG we WON last night! Our first win of the season! Sarah called me right after the win and I might've been a little hysterical/screechy, but we really do suck and it was a GREAT game.

I hit onto base twice! Of course I was running my butt off and not watching the ball, but they must've *sucked* at fielding my hits because I am a slow runner and I didn't hit it out of the infield of anything. I also got a walk, and made it home that time, running!

Each team had to take an automatic out at the end of our lineup because we only had 4 girls, and needed to have 5. Our automatic out was after Dan, so if he came up with 2 outs I was supposed to run home because the inning was going to be over anyways. The first time I hit onto base, I stopped at 3rd instead of running home because I didn't know about the automatic out. I don't think I could've made it anyway, the pitcher had the ball and would've thrown me out. But the second time, after my walk, the 3b coach was telling me to stop running and the ball was on the other side of the field! So I ran home, and the runner after me got home, but the dude after him got tagged at 3rd. It was a crucial two runs though :)

We lost our second game, but it was still a good, evenly-matched game. I struck out (I think twice), but I also got a really solid (for me) hit to shortstop. With bases loaded. Sucks that he caught it, to end the inning.

The league is co-ed, and you need to have evenly divided infields and outfields. So it's always a guy pitching and girl catching, then shortstop and a base are dudes and the other 2 are chics, and we play 2 and 2 in the outfield. The guys like to "cover" our positions a little too much, but I am finding that if I talk the the guys nearby before the inning starts, and explain that I know what to do in the case of this or that play, they are slightly less likely to cover me unnecesarily. Slightly.

Jess and I are going to practice and make sure that if they aren't over-covering us we can actually step up and field well on our own terms.

Oh PS, minimal leg pain today! I am so loving Softball :)

Socks!

2009-05-28T07:58:00.000-04:00

Well, technically I finished my pair, but I am going to redo the toe
of one of the socks. Can you guess which?

Softball is painful

2009-05-20T20:25:00.001-04:00

I hope I can walk tomorrow.

why a $20 discretionary fund is a necesity

2009-05-18T16:08:00.000-04:00

T is evil

T goes to the Smiley's sale Saturday. It's okay that she didn't invite me because it was a Saturday. She could have asked if I wanted something, but that's still not the evil part.

Oh no.

She did the absolutely most evil thing ever.

She IMed me at work this morning to tell me that my favorite DPNs were being sold for $1 a set. It was kinda a slow morning at work, so I headed over there during my lunch break.

40 sets of needles later... we won't discuss how much yarn I got.

Self fringing shawl

2009-05-10T19:40:00.002-04:00

Yarn from MDS&W. Took me about 5 days :)

OWLs

2009-05-08T00:45:00.000-04:00

I'm signing up for an OWL in the House Cup game. Hopefully it'll get me to finish some socks!

house cup #2

2009-05-05T19:09:00.000-04:00

I signed up for the 2nd round of the House Cup. The first one was fun, I just couldn't stay into it for March due to other things... but it was still tons of fun.

Olive and I had our monthly strategy meeting. I love these chats with Olive b/c otherwise I would be completely lost. Anyways, for May I am making:
A.R. - a Self Fringing Shawl (Invisibility Cloak)
A - a soap sweater with stripes in the Fibonnaci sequence.
C - a green and silver purse... or slippers... or something
DADA - Fetching
H - skipping for now
M.S. - Penny-inspired Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Wristers

I still need to figure out which OWL I am doing, but I want to make socks. I figure that's the best way to make sure I finish a pair sometime this century.

scarf travels

2009-04-13T13:42:00.001-04:00

An update on my Scarf Travels:
Ronnica asked me to help moderate the Scarf Travels group, along with herself, MissLucy and Netta. I'm keeping an eye on the International Group - the only group I'm in. So far my group is the best! Of course :) For the first mailing, we had everyone mail by the Monday after the Friday deadline and all but 2 scarves have been acknowledged as received. I gotta check on those two others today.

I decided what to do with my scarf! I am using the Drop Stitch Scarf Pattern, and some beautiful Colinette yarn called Cadenza, in the Jay colorway because it's gorgeous and it reminds me of mermaids and the ocean. My scarf went out 4/5 and Nancy already let me know that it was received. Phew!

Ronnica's scarf came Friday, but since I'm having them mailed to work and I was out last Friday, I just saw it today. She did a pretty Entrelac pattern with Patons Soy Wool Stripes. I have no idea what I'm going to do next on her scarf, but I'm sure it'll turn out okay.

Traveling Scarf project

2009-03-24T18:31:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday Ronnica invited me to join a Round Robin she's organizing on Ravelry, Scarf Travels. The basic premise: you get assigned to a group of 10 knitters, cast on and knit 5 inches of your own scarf, and then each scarf gets mailed around the group and everyone knits 5" on each scarf. We can be as vague (="crafter's choice") or control freak (= X pattern in Y yarn that the scarf's owner sends you) as we like.

I don't sign up for everything I read about on Ravelry, but this sounded like fun. Ronnica assigned me to her group, the International group, which is cool 'cuz I'm mailing to Illinois. Ronnica's mailing to me. I wonder if we can do an in-person handoff when we do the meetup at the end of April?

The worst part is picking the parameters for my scarf. First, I thought it would be cool to pick a pattern and let people chose the yarn they wanted to work with. Then I started searching for a pattern... There's too many options, and at the same time nothing is screaming to me that I should pick it for my scarf.

At this point I'm tempted to go crafter's choice just so I don't have to deal, but last night I had an idea. I think I am going with an Theme for my scarf - Water. I think that most people live near a coast or a lake or an island continent like Australia ;). Well, except for MissLucy out in Vegas, but there's always the Bellagio Fountain right? I like the Morning Surf and Drop Stitch scarf patterns (and I dare you to find me the difference between them). So, Drop Stitch scarf, blues/greens for yarn color, worsted weight... right?

Then I was thinking, what if I include a "get out of jail free" card, with a list of 5 ways that a knitter could break the rules: different color (x2), different pattern, different yarn weight, different stitch count/width. If you sign your Rav userid on the card you get to break that one rule for your section, as long as you keep it ocean themed. For example, instead of blue yarn maybe use bright red and white for "fish", or a deep purple for "seaweed". Or a fingering weight yarn on huge needles to make the width stay the same. Or switch to a different ocean-y stitch pattern for your 5".

I'm basically trying to think of ways to allow free reign, but keep some uniformity throughout the scarf so it doesn't look completely patchworky and weird. My other idea was tossing in 2 skeins of whatever I cast on with, and asking people to try and include an inch in my colors at some point in their section, to acheive color uniformity.

Now that I think about it, it's going to be HARD to be the 9th and 10th knitter on a scarf, and try to make my sections match/go with all that have gone before... Hehe, this is gonna be fun!

felting

2009-01-14T13:14:00.018-05:00

I wrote this post on 1/14 and then my aunt called to tell me about a friend of our family's that was in an accident.... Here it is, 2 weeks later.
******************************************************

Who knew?

Over the last 2 weeks I knitted 3 large projects that were to be felted:
The Pink Lady Bag (my project in Ravelry)
A Noni Purse with felted flowers - Spring 2006 "Evening" (my project in Ravelry)
Kitty Pi (my project in Ravelry)

Ok so first of all, the project backstories. Over New Year's week I went to Lake Placid with 3 friends, We went downhill skiing one day at Whiteface. We went to the Olympic X-Country facility and the Olympic outdoor speed skating track. New Year's Day we went to Montreal, where the only things that were open were the kosher restaurants and the Casino. I won $123 at Blackjack! I learned to cross country ski, and I was pretty good to.

That is literally when I learned to stop. I was going down a ginormous hill and there was a turn. We all didn't quite learn how to turn yet, either. We couldn't see him from the top of the hill, but my friend was standing at the bottom taking a photo - in the exact place I was heading for.
Me: "French fries! French fries! Wtf? Howard, MOVE!"
But I learned to stop :D

We all really liked cross country, so we went again, this time to the Olympic facility. WAY harder, but also lots of fun because there were more inclines, and we were better at it :)

Anyways, back to the knitting. My friends were really nice and dropped me at the LYS for 30 minutes on Friday - called Adirondack Yarns. I didn't see any yarns I *had* to buy, and I wasn't loving any of the kits, but then the shopkeeper showed me to the pattern section. It was really hard not to walk out with all of them, but I bought 2 bag patterns I've had my eye on for months - the Lucy Bag, and the Noni pattern I linked to above. I also got 2 others, a messener bag pattern called Mercury and The Pink Lady Bag. I had my set of Knitpicks Options needles with me of course, so I picked up 2 skeins of Lamb's Pride Worsted and a cute Fimo button to start the Pink Lady Bag.

It. Knit. Up. HUGE. I was imagining a medium or small purse - this thing was like 12x16 at LEAST, and the handle was looong. Then I made the bag part of the Noni bag - also ginormous. The pattern says small evening bag - HA!.

A friend of mine emailed me to ask if I would cat sit for her while she went to the inauguration. It's a really inconvient location for me, and my parents aren't so happy that her apartment is in Harlem, but whatever. She can't find anyone else. Anyways, I decided to knit a Kitty Pi, in an attempt to elicit good behavior from the cat despite the fact that I am a dog person. Yeah... anyways :) It's a big project - I used 4 skeins of Lion Wool - but I finished in some ridiculously quick time like 5 days or something.

Last night I felted them in the washer. I put it on the hot/cool rinse cycle for the longest time possible. I have never had anything felt so well in the past. They came out perfectly felted, very sturdy, and overall awesome.

happy chanukah

2008-12-22T09:32:00.001-05:00

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?

2008-12-18T14:25:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-15T16:36:00.000-05:00

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...)

2008-11-13T15:33:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-12T20:23:00.001-05:00

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...)

2008-11-10T14:01:00.002-05:00

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!!

2008-10-20T10:10:00.001-04:00

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!

2008-10-05T14:03:00.001-04:00

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.

2008-09-12T11:09:00.002-04:00

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

2008-08-28T10:10:00.002-04:00

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?

2008-08-13T10:57:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-30T13:19:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-13T22:40:00.001-04:00

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

2008-07-13T20:08:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-12T13:24:00.002-04:00

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.

2008-05-20T16:42:00.003-04:00

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

2008-05-16T11:44:00.003-04:00

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!

2008-05-07T10:02:00.003-04:00

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

2008-05-01T13:19:00.003-04:00

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

2008-04-24T15:57:00.001-04:00

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

2008-04-24T15:30:00.000-04:00

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!