Knitting Knews

2009-03-17T19:37:00.001-07:00

I've Moved (Again)!

Check me out at Foxy Craft.

2008-10-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

2008-06-20T12:07:00.001-07:00

The wedding was absolutely beautiful. Everything went off so smoothly and all our family and friends had a great time. I'll f/u with pics of that...and the honeymoon ;-)

2008-05-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

Tears of Sadness, Tears of Joy

Last week I was happy and excited making all kinds of plans for our upcoming wedding. It was maybe an hour before leaving work on Friday (my last day before 3 weeks of vacation) that I got one of those dreaded phone calls. Apparently my grandfather had suffered a heart attack while driving. I was able to visit with him in the hospital on Saturday even though he was unconscious and then he passed away early Sunday morning one week before he was to attend my wedding. We had the funeral yesterday on Long Island where he was laid to rest next to my grandmother who passed away 8 years prior.

I'm having all these conflicting feelings and emotions now. I wake up every morning crying after thinking of some memory of him which is now followed by thoughts of watching him being buried then onto how I won't be able to follow him down the processional aisle or dance with him at the reception. Then I get out of bed and am inundated with calls and emails and check off lists and errands all day long. It does take my mind off things and I'm able to laugh at times and even feel like myself but I know I'm still grieving inside.

My sister read a beautiful speech she had written about my grandpa yesterday. I would have loved to say some words also but was too emotional at the time. I was always better at writing than speaking so here is my own personal tribute to my grandfather:

Since my grandpa lived on Long Island we used to go to the beach often when I was a child. I remember my older sister was always the risk taker and would swim out far on her own. She and my mom always tried to drag me along with them but I was too timid and preferred to stand still at the water's edge watching my feet be buried in the sand as the tide came in and out.

One time in particular sticks out in my mind. My grandpa tried to get me to come out into the waves and I reluctantly agreed as he could be very charming and persuasive. Sure enough a wave came and knocked my 6-year-old self over. After rolling backwards underwater and coming up for air spurting salt water out of my mouth and rubbing my irritated eyes my grandpa asked me if I knew how to brace myself. I had no idea what he was talking about.

He went on to show me that when a wave came instead of facing it head on which inevitably knocked me over the key was to stand sideways with your legs hip length apart and hold out your arms for balance. If you could dig your feet down into the wet sand that was even better. I remember that I didn't really believe him at the time but he was older and supposedly wiser so I tried it. (Secretly I thought the only reason he wasn't getting knocked down was because he was much bigger than me.) Just as I had played at the waters' edge passively watching my feet being buried in the sand this time I purposely dug my feet in. My motions were a bit exaggerated as I kept my legs wider than was probably necessary and stood with my arms straight out as if I were preparing for lift-off.

The next wave came towards me and it appeared bigger and more ominous than ever. I wanted to run back to the safety of the shore line but my grandpa was standing next to me doing the same thing except he was standing there with purpose and anticipation. I took my cue from him and waited terrified as the wave approached. To me it looked like a giant brown monster with its mouth foaming at the top (Remember this was Jones Beach on the south shore of Long Island not the Cayman Islands.) I involuntarily squeezed my eyes shut and dreaded the worst. The water started receding around me as the tide drew it in and I heard the rumbling coming closer and closer until finally it was upon me. I held my breath, dug my feet deep in the sand, and moments later found myself still standing next to my grandpa who was beaming proudly at me.

I was reminded of this image upon waking up this morning. Looking back at it from an adult perspective it's obvious that he was teaching me more than how to combat an oncoming wave. He was showing me that I could face any problem life brought my way as long as I prepared and had someone else watching out for me. There was nothing to be afraid of and any danger whether physical like a wave in the ocean or more figurative it was better to anticipate what was coming and look forward to the challenge rather than run away like a coward towards obvious safety.

This goes along with my grandfather's philosophy on life. His mother died when he was just 4 years old. His father remarried and from what I've heard he wasn't treated very well by his new stepmother and half-siblings. With no resources from which to draw from he found it within himself to overcome any challenge life threw at him. He told me once that at the age of 16 he needed to know how to drive in order to apply for a job that would bring in some much needed income. This was back in 1937. Since his father was either too preoccupied or unwilling to show him he went ahead and taught himself. He took on that delivery job and earned enough money to be more independent.

I don't know all the details but he eventually went on to own an office supply company and did very well for himself. He often made deliveries all around the tri-state area. He served in the military during World War II. He never liked to talk about it much but he told me once that he had helped liberate one of the concentration camps in Germany. He earned military honors which was evident at the funeral when his second wife was presented with an American flag.

My grandpa loved to drive. He owned several large Cadillacs and always drove my grandma anywhere she needed to go. Just the week before his death he had driven from his summer home in Florida all the way back to New Jersey stopping once in Virginia to visit my aunt along the way. At the time of his heart attack he was right where he loved to be...in the driver's seat in control of what was going on and serving as a protective guide to those he loved.

My grandpa was 86 when he died. He had lived a long life. He was married to my grandma for 52 years, had raised 2 daughters who went on to have 4 grandchildren and even has a great-granddaughter although he only "met" her yesterday at the cemetery plot. Everyone was dressed in black and very solemn while Ainsley was radiant in a white sweater and pants with pink flowers on them and ribbons in her hair. All the out-of-town relatives who had not met her yet remarked on how much she resembled my mother. Her middle name Isabelle is in memory of my grandma, Irma.

Although it was very difficult for me to handle my grandpa's sudden passing I know that he didn't suffer much and would have hated to have a long drawn out illness where others would have had to be his caretakers. When his time came he faced it head on and without fear. I know both him and my grandma will be there in spirit on my wedding day. I had wanted to use their wedding bands during the ceremony but they are unable to be located on such short notice so I'm going to use a gold ring from my grandma that has her maiden name initials on it: IK. I will try my hardest to shed most of my tears now so that the only tears shed that day will be tears of joy.

With great love and respect you will be missed by everyone who's life you touched with your wisdom, charm, and fortitude.

Irving Friedman March 5th 1922-May 28th 2008.

2008-05-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

Time After Time

With my wedding now less than 2 weeks away my life has been going something like this, "Wedding, eat, wedding, sleep, weddingweddingwedding!" Every day after work I'm either running to some appointment whether it's finalizing the arrangements with the catering hall/florist/photographer/rabbi/band or rushing around on errands to pick up odds and ends. I have nothing to complain about though. It's been really exciting to see all the details coming into place and to know that I had a large part in making it happen. It feels like an accomplishent.

One new trait I've developed is calling to appointments ahead of time. I'm always the type of person who waits until my hair is a tangled mess before calling the salon for a trim or if it's just calling friends to see what their plans are for Saturday night rather than checking in earlier in the week.

I got on a roll last Friday when I had a day off from work. Looking back at the call log on my phone I called the dress shop, photographer, hotel coordinators at 2 different hotels, spa, hair salon, nail salon, in addition to my aunt, sister, and mother all to either make appointments or discuss little details. The more appointments I made the more I wanted to call other places to make more. It became addictive! I tried thinking of places where JFo might need appointments but he made me stop.

I liked how I could put all the appointments in my PDA calendar and color coordinate them. What I'm finding out is that I need to be flexible as often the other party will cancel or I'll realize that I'm really overbooked or not feeling well and need to reschedule. Now that I'm writing this out it sounds really obvious but this was a revelation for me and my time management skills.

Please share your experiences with time management (or lack thereof) so I can see where I fit in the spectrum.

2008-05-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

I Feel Like a Woman

There have always been many things I wanted to learn more about or skills I wanted to acquire but there never seemed the time or, more importantly, the motivation to see these things out. It's only been while planning my wedding and preparing for my new role as a married woman that I have made the effort to learn.

Take putting on makeup for example. My usual routine (if I bothered at all) was to put on blush, eyeshadow, mascara, lipstick, and pressed powder. However, I never bothered to learn the proper techniques for applying the make-up. I would just use the little brushes that came in the packages and just figure it out on my own. When I was getting ready for my engagement photos I wanted to be able to do my own makeup (and have some new stuff that wasn't so old it made me break out every time I put it on!). For Hanukah JF had bought me blush and eyeshadow brushes from MAC and had given me the card of the manager at the Bloomingdale's counter so I could make an appointment to learn proper application techniques. Three months later when I felt I had a reason to I took this step and realized how little I knew before. For example, if I was putting on 2 colors of eyeshadow I would put one on my eyelid and the other over it on my brow. I learned you're actually supposed to put them side by side; one by inner corner of your eye and one by the outer corner. This was a huge revelation to me and I feel much more confident now when I apply my makeup and have gotten many compliments.

My hair has always been another sore spot. I have naturally curly brown hair that falls a bit below shoulder length when dry. My normal routine was to wash it every day with shampoo and conditioner, towel it try, apply a couple types of styling products starting at the crown of my head and using a pick to comb it through my hair. Most days I would start off with very flat hair on top and by the end of the day my hair had majorly poofed out. Ponytail bands and clips were my friends. My sister encouraged me to go a salon where there was a certified curl technician who could give me a good cut and show me the best way to style my hair. I went to The Beehive in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and received the best hair cutting experience of my life. Now I use shampoo occasionally, condition every day, and apply hair products with my fingers while still in the shower starting at the tips and ending with the roots before dabbing my hair dry with an old t-shirt (apparently not as drying as using a towel).

There are many other physical examples of changes I have undertaken such as trying to accessorize every day with interesting jewelry, wear skirts more often, and even heels on occasion. These may seem like small superficial things but they have made a big difference in my self-confidence. I feel it is worth it to try to look good as compared to before when I would roll out of bed 20 minutes before it was time to leave for work, throw on a pilling sweater and pair of oversized pants complimented by scuffed flats, and rush out the door forgoing makeup or jewelry.

It's amazing what a little mascara & lipstick can do!

2008-04-24T03:52:00.000-07:00

A Night to Remember

A couple weeks ago several members from my knitting group threw me a surprise bachelorette party. I was really caught off guard as I was expecting a low key dinner with my friend SP and ended up with a rowdy night of sharing drinks and appetizers at The Park (one of those uber trendy places in the Meatpacking District) followed by the Coyote Ugly type antics on display at the nearby bar Hogs and Heifers.

All identities have been concealed in order for the muggles to keep up their fantasies that knitters only sit at home with their cats playing with balls of string (Ok, we do that too sometimes but don't knock it until you've tried it!).

In addition to sewing a veil/tiara combo the multi-talented SP also made these awesome knitted panties for me. She definately wins the award for Best Achievement in a Last Minute Knitted Gift Award Involving Lace on Small Needles. Nothing says love and cheesy bachelorette fun more than an I-cord thong. Makes me tear up just thinking about it.

And so as to not end this post with a closeup of my newly acquired 'drawers feast your eyes on this beautiful sock yarn AP presented me with from the Adirondack Yarn Company. She bought herself a skein too so we can be 'Sock Sisters.' (Ok, I totally just made that term up but when it catches on faster than Ravelry you can say you heard it here first.)

Thanks again for thinking of me, you guys, and making this special time in my life all the more memorable...

2008-04-13T03:44:00.000-07:00

New Beginnings

The last couple weeks have been extremely busy with the wedding countdown and my birthday thrown in just for fun. I'm a real sap when it comes to birthdays. I think it's because your birthday is one of those times like the holidays when you really feel like a kid again. Plus having mine in spring always feels refreshing after a long dreary winter. Some people start over in the fall since that's when school starts. Others make a fresh start in January for the new year. I like to regroup every April when I hear the birds chirping letting me know my birthday has arrived.

Last Sunday I had my hair and makeup trial. My mom, sister, and niece came along and then took me out to a belated birthday lunch afterwards. Figuring it was Ainsley's 1st half-birthday (She'll be 6 months old next week) I surprised her with this super cute jacket. The back even has a little lamb tail. Now she's a baby in sheep's clothing!

On my actual birthday last Friday I was greeted by this display of balloons and gifts upon arriving at my cubicle. When you're crammed down in the sub-basement of a hospital with a bunch of women you can't help but bond. My co-workers were so awesome for doing this and took me out to lunch to Le Pain Quotidien to boot.

After work that day I had a little time to kill before dinner so I went over to one of those paint your own pottery jobbies over on 2nd Ave called "Make." JF joined me (and made many juvenile comments about the name of the store in the process) and we made this lovely cookie jar.

We must have painted the whole thing in 1/2 an hour as we were in a hurry but I'm really pleased with the result. I'll admit several stencils were used in the process! Cosette even makes an appearance on the side.

My original intent was to keep the jar open and use it to put large kitchen utensils in. I'm rethinking that now as the paw prints on the lid came out well and JF is threatening to throw the lid away if we're not going to use it now while I insist that the jar may have alternate uses in the future. Men-so short sighted!

Speaking of the big C here she is watching me snap pics of the cookie jar. She gets this adorable look in her eyes whenever she wants food or attention. It's just like that character Puss in Boots in Shrek who uses it as a distraction-it works every time!

After a lovely dinner at an organic vegan restaurant Candle Cafe JF gave me my present-the Knitpicks Harmony interchangeable needle set! It was funny because I was terribly excited about the gift while my non-knitting friends did a valid attempt at faking enthusiasm for something they had no understanding of. "Your fiance got you a bunch of colored sticks-how nice!"

For the benefit of my non-knitting friends and family who read this blog the set consists of 9 different sizes of knitting needles. It also includes two different lengths of cords. The ends of the needles and cords are designed so that you can screw the ends into each other and then you tighten it with a little key.

Voila! You would use a short cord for a small project like a hat or sleeve and a long cord for a large project like the body of a sweater or a blanket. Now I'll never have to delay casting on a new project because I don't have the right needle size at home. And the rainbow swirly pattern is really as an added bonus.

2008-03-29T02:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Grandma Jean!

I came back from Charleston a few weeks ago just in time to attend my Grandma Jean's 90th birthday party. I guess longevity must run in my family! JF and I drove out to my aunt Gerri's on Long Island for the occasion. It was great to see all my aunts, uncles, and cousins that I haven't seen since my engagement party back in September (Shoot, I was trying to keep this post free of wedding references. Guess I failed!) My dad is the oldest of 5 and all his brother and sisters are married with kids so whenever we get together it's always a big loud group of people. My cousin Laura made a DVD with pictures set to music of my grandma and other family members. She gave us all copies which was really sweet.

I tried to think of what a good gift would be. I mean after all once you're 90 years old you've probably gotten so many gifts it might be hard to get a gift that seems original. So of course I knit her something. During my trip to Charleston I worked on this beret. The first version came out ok for a regular ski hat but didn't have enough floppiness to be a beret so I did some extra increases and the second version came out just right. I used this free online pattern from whatifknits and highly recommend it. I used some bulky weight yarn from Brooks Farm I had in my stash from Rhinebeck '06. Can anyone tell me what the difference between a tam and a beret is? I suppose I could just google it but it's more fun to hear it from my blog readers!

And what's the best part about being 90 years old besides having a big party thrown in your honor?

Meeting your adorable great-grandchild, of course!

I used way too many exclamation points in this post!!!!!

2008-03-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

Southern Adventures

I visited an old friend from college last week in Charleston, South Carolina. I had never been there before and found the city to be simply charming. It was also nice for me to have a break from all this crazy wedding planning and just do something on my own. We had fun recounting memories from college and catching up on the current going-ons in our lives.

I still can't believe it's been nearly six years since we graduated college. She's married, expecting a baby, and going to medical school. I'm getting married in just a few short months and been working hard, as always, on my career and all things knitting-related.

The popular touristy thing to do in Charleston is to take a horse drawn carriage ride through the city with a tour guide talking about all the history surrounding you.

Here's a view from the carriage as we started out. Our horse was old and super slow. We kept having to pull to the side so other carriages could trot past ours!

We mostly saw all these beautiful houses that date back to the Civil War era. Fancy gates like the one shown above were a trademark of these houses.

It was also essential to have a large front porch. An interesting fact is that the porches were always built to maximize the breeze since there was no air conditioning way back when. As a result many of the porches are on the side of the house. The owners sacrificed a good view of the waterfront in order to stay cool.

These mansions are worth several million dollars today due to their location and history. Personally, if I was going to drop a few mil on a house I'd want it to be relatively new!

I thought it was pretty how the ivy grew along this staircase.

Here's a pic of King Street which is the main shopping district.

And a nice view of the water. The Palmetto tree, as pictured here, grows all over the place down there. It's on the SC state flag, license plates, and all the touristy souvenirs sold in the Marketplace.

I added this silver charm to the bracelet I started in San Francisco last year. My cat, Cosette, approved of it when I got home.

I was only down there for a few days and would have liked to stay longer. But JF and I will probably visit at some point. After all there will be a newborn expecting a hand-knit blanket!

2008-03-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

Fabulous Flowers

I had a wonderful time this past Sunday at the New York Botanical Garden Orchid Show. I had never been there before and while late winter is certainly less than ideal as nothing was in bloom it was worth it to see so many varieties of my favorite flower. Without further ado here are some pics:

The one above is my favorite. I love the contrast of the pale yellow with the fuschia 'veins' of the flower.

I'm definitely coming back in the spring to see the garden in full bloom.

2008-02-24T19:42:00.000-08:00

Choices, Choices, and More Choices

With less than 4 months until my wedding I've been super busy with the planning as you can imagine. In some ways it is somewhat torturous for someone like me who is incapable of making the simplest decisions: "Paper or plastic?" "Umm....I don't know. Let's see...paper seems better for the environment but plastic is easier to carry. But then again...."

There are a few things that seemed just right though. I know it's cliche but when I put my wedding gown on for the first time I just knew it was the right dress. I had figured out the best way to go about trying on gowns was to close my eyes while I was being zipped into it and the train was being arranged and then open them to get the full effect. Once I put the veil on my choice was sealed. I just felt so beautiful and special I didn't want to take it off!

I also felt confident we chose the right florist. I remember we visited three florists in one day. The first one was a large company that seemed kind of like a wedding factory. I knew something was off when they said they never turn down a wedding. I felt as though I was going to get something very generic when what I was looking for was something unique.

The second place we visited was the one we went with. It's run by a couple who at one point sold their florist shop to focus on doing the flowers for events and run the business out of their house. For one thing they have 3 cats roaming their house and the name of the business is even named after a cat: The Cheshire Tree. Secondly the owner really sat down and listened to everything I had to say, helped guide my choices in terms of what flowers would be in season for the colors I wanted, and she even remembered the specific flower arrangements she had done for other weddings in order to show me pictures.

We did end up going to another florist which was the one recommended by our catering hall. But again they just seemed very generic and not very helpful in trying to customize what we wanted. I felt like I was expected to know everything about flowers when at the time I didn't know an iris from an orchid. (Now I'm at a point where I walk past bouquets and can name every flower!)

I also love the place we chose for the reception and ceremony. They have a beautiful garden looking out onto a lake for the ceremony and then an outdoor tent for cocktails. I also liked that the ballroom had large windows looking out on the lake which let in a lot of sunlight. The nicest part for me is that it's down the street from the house I grew up in. My mother used to take me swimming at the same lake and occasionally we could make out a bride and groom on the other side. Now I'll be that bride!

So when I start to doubt my choices in other areas I try to think of these things where it just felt right. There's no knitting to show in this post as I'm making some things for the wedding and prefer to keep them a secret until that day... but I promise lots of pics afterwards. It's hard for me to even think of afterwards. The whole last year has been focused on this one day it seems surreal as if the whole world will just stop after that.

2008-02-14T20:42:00.000-08:00

Hurray for V-Day!

I was coming home from a rough day at work thinking nothing was going to perk up my mood. Then voila:

Nothing like roses and chocolates to make a girl feel special. We went for a late sushi dinner at Kotobuki, a Japanese restaurant in Roslyn out on Long Island. We had a good time eating lots of fish and listening to the trumpet player they had there. The restaurant was also giving out single roses to all the women there, thus the really tall flower peeking out over the rest.

JF talks up a whole spiel every year about Valentine's Day being this fake holiday where you feel obligated to spend money and go out...then he never fails to surprise me with little gifts. I can't tell whether he says all that stuff just to throw me off or he just gives in 'cause he knows I like all that cheesy V-day stuff. I realize it's a manufactured holiday and all but like any holiday it's nice to celebrate and have another chance to show someone that you care whether it's a romantic interest or your friends and family.

In that spirit happy Valentine's Day to everyone out there in blogland! Thanks for reading all my posts and sending your comments. It always raises my spirits to get the emails especially when I'm having a tough day on the job.

This is a cat bed that JF's mom gave Cosette for a Valentine's Day present. We both liked it but weren't sure if she would go for this cushy type of bed.

We purchased this blue cat bed at the shelter pet store because we just needed something at the moment. It's basically a mat with raised sides but she loves it.

As predicted she wasn't very interested in the new bed. Even when I sprayed catnip on it she was only interested in it for about an hour. Then we got the idea to put the old bed inside the new bed and it worked like a charm.

It's a bit of a tight squeeze but as long as she's happy...although she was disappointed we didn't bring her out for sushi as tuna is her fav food!

2008-02-07T17:36:00.000-08:00

Holy Kippah!

JF and I were planning to make kippahs for the men in the bridal party at our wedding. For those not in the know these are the head coverings also known as yarmulkas (or "little hat thingies" as a friend once said) that Jewish men wear. We bought this Lorna's Laces Shepard sock yarn at Webs. I thought the colors were really beautiful. JF found this pattern online.

The first one we tried was on size 2 needles using the version for fingering weight yarn. I cast on and did the first few rows, JF did the middle part, then I did the decreases. It came out on the large side as you can see above. It's unblocked and looks more like a sombrero than a kippah but you get the idea.

The next version was the fingering weight yarn pattern but on size 1 needles. This was where the project transitioned to me knitting the whole thing....but that's another story. Just like in the Goldilocks story this one was now too small.

You can really see the size difference here. The pattern is intended for the reverse stockinette side to be the public size of the work. We both thought the variegated yarn looked better on the regular stockinette side. For the next prototype I'm going to try the instructions for extra fine yarn on size 1's. Hopefully that will be a keeper as I need to move on to other wedding-related items to knit. This kind of thing always sounds like a good idea until the reality of making all this stuff on a timeline sets in!

This is a little knitting cell phone charm I bought on impulse at the checkout line at WEBS. Unfortunately when I got home I couldn't figure out how to attach it to my Treo. Never one to give up on a knitting related accessory I looped it around the cord of my camera instead.

2008-01-31T10:04:00.000-08:00

The government is finally catching on to what knitters already know...

2008-01-27T17:34:00.000-08:00

Crazy for Calendars!

I had submitted a design for the Knitting Pattern-A-Day calendar last year. I figured I didn't get in since I had sent it so close to the deadline I had probably missed it plus the fact that I never heard back from them. I re-sent it for next year's calendar and got an email back this time stating that my pattern was already in the 2008 calendar. I was December 8th and they would send me a free copy in the mail. That was the best surpise ever!

If you bought this calendar you can be patient and wait or just skip ahead to December and check it out. It was actually co-designed by me and JF. It was his vision then we worked out the math together and I chose the yarn and knit it up.

I made it to go with his Jimmie Johnson NASCAR jacket. If you've seen JF out and about you've probably seen him wearing his Racing Stripes Scarf. It was good to work on this pattern together because I never would have thought to mimic the stripes on the hood of a race car on my own!

Even though I knew way ahead of time about my other calendar design I was still super excited to get this package in the mail. It came from Bust magazine since that's where Debbie Stoller works as editor-in-chief.

Inside was the Stitch 'n Bitch Page-A-Day 2008 Calendar. I had this calendar last year and enjoyed looking forward to little knitting tidbits each day.

Again, if you don't mind skipping ahead check me out on October 24th. My Arrowhead Socks are the 'Socks of the Month.' JF took that pic of me (err rather my feet) in Charles Schultz Park. It's a great little park on the Upper East Side by my old apartment. They have benches where you can sit and look out at the water. I endured multiple stares as I positioned myself on my back on the bench with my feet up in the air and JF shouting, "Hold still... show me some heel...now more toe..I said more toe!"

2008-01-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

Quick Knits and Cat Communication

Lately, I've been working on complicated pieces that involved a lot of colorwork or shaping. While it's interesting to learn new skills and rewarding when I (eventually) finish a piece like that I've been feeling a craving for some quick knits. I find winter is the one time of year I get to display some of my handiwork and if I didn't start soon these would be destined for next season!

These mittens were made from a pattern in Ann Budd's The Handy Book of Patterns. This book is a great resource as it gives you charts to make any basic project such as hats or even sweaters in many gauges of yarn. The only modification I made was to cast on more stitches for the thumb than was indicated so it wasn't too tight. I managed to whip these up in just 4 days starting on a Saturday and binding off the thumbs at knitting group on Wednesday.

I used yarn I had in my stash from Brooks Farm. I'm having trouble figuring out which yarn it was but it appears to be a wool/mohair blend and is on the chunky side. I made a pair of these mittens from a similar pattern a couple years ago but my downfall was leaving tails that were too short and I ended up busting open the thumbs after a couple of wears. This time I learned my lesson and left generously long tails to wind in several times.

Remember that day last week when it was sudddenly about 10 degrees out? JF begged me to whip him up a quick hat the night before, even threatening to buy a hat which at this point would be sacrilege! I felt a little guilty as the '48' hat I had started for him has been sitting around unworked on since I made a mistake in the chart and have been too fed up to take out 2 rows of 130 stitches each in 3 color intarsia!

This hat was completed in one night of speed knitting using Lion Brand Thick 'n Quick. JF had bought a ball of this to use as a trim on a sweater he's been working on we figured there was enough to spare. The edging is a 2x2 seed stitch pattern. It looks nice but isn't as effective as ribbing in terms of conforming to the head. JF added the pom-pom on top which I think is a nice touch.

Finally our very quiet cat has gotten creative in finding ways to communicate with us. The other day she ate her wet food in the shape of a backwards "C." This could mean many things...cat, Cosette, Christmas....or is our kitty just dyslexic??

"No, dummy, I was trying to say put down the yarn and play with me...or at least give me some yarn to play with too!"

2007-12-31T11:54:00.000-08:00

It's Showtime!

Some of the best presents I gave or recieved this year were going to see shows with friends and family.

JF gave me tickets to see The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center. It's the original production by the New York City Ballet. I was thrilled as I was in a local production when I used to do ballet as a kid. I played one of the mice. I remembered the thrill of traveling to different locations to perform and feeling a little sad when the Mouse King was done in by the Nutcracker.

The costumes and special effects in this version were truly magnificent. They had a Christmas tree that grew to be as tall as the stage and at the end Clara and her prince appear to fly off the stage in a sled pulled by reindeer. Afterwards we kept noticing how much the music from The Nutcracker is used in commercials and had fun trying to figure out which song was being used to sell what product.

If you ever need a place to eat before a show at Lincoln Center check out the restaurant Compass. It's on the UWS on 70th St between Amsterdam and West End Ave. They have a prix fixe dinner and the food, decor, and service were outstanding. Would definately go back again.

My sister and I took our mom to see Spelling Bee on Broadway. It was a really cute show. Audience members can register before the show starts to be contestants. One of my sister's friends who had gotten picked told her what questions they would ask. All her practicing paid off as they actually chose to be in it! She let me know right before the show started but it was a big shock to my mom. My sister was on stage for probably about 15 minutes. She spelled her first word 'jihad' right but left with a complimentary juice box when they asked her to spell 'kumus.' I think they said it's curdled camel's milk. Apparently it's a delicacy in the Middle East-bleh!

My Citysearch skills were successful again in picking out the restaurant Eatery on 9th Ave and 53rd St. We had a very yummy brunch there. I had the sweet potato pancakes with mango guacomole. My only complaint was the noise level but I guess it comes with the territory when you pick a popular place to eat at.

And for the knitting related content of this post here's a gingerbread man I made:

At the Upper East Side Knitters holiday party we all made our own versions. Here's a pic of them all playing in the 'snow.'

Happy New Year's!

2007-12-25T12:23:00.001-08:00

Baby's First Pacifier Clip

I wanted to knit something for my niece, Ainsley's, first Hanukah. At the book signing for Itty Bitty Nursery at Knitty City in November the author, Susan B. Anderson, had displayed some adorable looking pacifier clips. Then I remembered that in the goodie bag from Stitch 'n Pitch back in August a free pattern for said pacifier clip had been included in a promotional brochure from the book! It's also available free from the author's blog here.

Truthfully, I had never heard of a pacifier clip before. It's basically a device that you attach to the pacifier on one side and clip onto the child's clothing on the other side. That way when the child inevitably opens their mouth the pacifier just hangs down rather than falling on the ground and getting dirty. To make the project you need to buy the clips at Target or anywhere that sells baby supplies and cut out the ribbon that comes with it. Then you knit your own flower and sew it onto the clip. If you get the book Itty Bitty Nursery she has also patterns for an elephant and a frog that are really cute.

I'm happy with the way it turned out. I used Paton's Cotton Grace in Rose, Ginger, and Blush. I found the directions were a bit vague with how to assemble all the pieces so I had to kind of make it up as I went. I also found it necessary to sew the petals down onto each other to avoid their tendency to otherwise flop all over the place.

If you're making one of these remember to pick up a matching pacifier so it makes a complete gift when you present it. Also, you might want to hint around to see if the mother has an anti-pacifier philosophy. Otherwise your beautiful creation may just sit in a drawer rather than being used and enjoyed!

2007-12-20T23:04:00.000-08:00

"Please, Sir, I'd Like Some More"

Dia De Los Muertos Stitch Markers

Pretty in Purple Swarovski Crystal Stitch Markers

If you check out my Etsy Shop Code Purl I promise to show you some pics of actual knitting in the next post :-)

2007-12-17T07:17:00.001-08:00

New Shop Items

Green Globe Swaovski Stitch Markers

Blue Oasis Swarovski Stitch Markers

Check out my Etsy Store Code Purl for these and other items. I'm going to add a couple more sets this week.

2007-12-10T16:13:00.001-08:00

Hat-tac-ular

Cold wintry weather signals the start of hat-knitting season. Let's give a warm welcome to the newest head covering FO's:

This fun child's hat was knit by JF for his 2 year old niece. It's modeled here by one of my Cabbage Patch Kids who was excited to put it on as she hasn't had anything new to wear in the last couple decades!

I'm having trouble finding the tag to tell you what the yarn is. All I remember is it's an Italian yarn we bought at WEBS. As you can see it's both thick and thin and also has boucle bobbles making it a bit of a challenge to work with but well worth it. I think the floppy pom-pom JF added really puts the cuteness factor over the top. It went into the mail to Texas today. Apparently there are a few days during the Texas winter when it's cold enough to be hat-worthy (and I don't mean cowboy hats!)

Next up is my purple alpaca hat I knit from yarn I purchased at Rhinebeck. (You'll have to excuse my memory as I'm not doing too well on naming yarns in this post.) It's modeled by our very own half goat, half ram puppet, the one and only Goatram.

Here's the side view. I didn't originally intend for it to have ear flaps but after it was all done and I tried it on it felt too short. It looked alright but I prefer for my winter hats to cover my ears, lobes and all. These mini-ear flaps are just big enough to get the job done without looking like a full on ski hat. At first they kept flipping up a la Pippi Longstocking braids but a little blocking fixed that. I had originally made a flower to go on it but am debating whether it will be a bit much now with the ear flaps and all. On the plus side the color of the yarn coordinates perfectly with my new glasses. It's the little things in life ;-)

Finally, here is my current intarsia piece in progress. It's version 2.0 of JF's original '48' hat he made last year. The '48' is for his favorite NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson (who, for those who care, won the Nextel cup this past season). I've only been able to work on it at home and all the color changes are making me a bit nuts but I'm happy with the way the logo is coming out.

Here is the first version of the hat. At first glance it looks ok. However the yarn was so chunky that the '48' looks felted and somewhat obscured. Since it was knit in the round there are a million little ends on the back that make the logo very stiff and thick. Plus it's an inch or so too big and the top was finished in black and grey when JF ran out of blue yarn.

JF designed the logo both times. The plan for version 2.0 was to knit it flat until past the logo, sew a seam then finish knitting in the round. Since the intarsia part was being knit flat there would be less ends to sew in at the end. I'm knitting it this time, however, as he decided after casting on that 130 stitches across just wasn't his thing. One night I had nothing on the needles and picked it up off the coffee table and started knitting it so it became my project. I'm going to attempt to bring it out of the house so I can make some more progress on it. Wish me luck!

2007-12-04T16:35:00.002-08:00

Happy Hanukah!

Here's to eight days of knitting....err, I mean lights ;-)

2007-11-29T21:20:00.002-08:00

Babes in Knits

Here's my niece, the fabulous Miss Ainsley, wearing the baby cardigan I knit for her shower. Can you believe she's only a month old in that pic? Full heads of hair must run in my family :-)

Ainsley gets her napping abilities from the cat who can fall asleep anywhere!

2007-11-23T16:22:00.000-08:00

I'm World Famous!

I received a very special parcel in the mail the other day:

It was Son of Stitch 'n Bitch, Debbie Stoller's latest book consisting of all patterns for men. Turn to page 143 and you will find:

MY PATTERN: RETROPOLITAN CARDIGAN!

Cosette says, "That's great, now let me go back to sleep..."

2007-11-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

Look Both Ways Before Crossing the Street

No, this is not a post about me getting run over (knock on wood!). It's to show a pic of one completed Jaywalker. I finished it a couple weeks ago and was gonna wait to post until its partner was complete but I'm suffering from a lingering case of SSS (Second Sock Syndrome) and need some encouragement to keep going. I cast on the second one, did 1 row, then put it aside.

My sock is tired of the single life. He's been mingling with the other socks in my drawer but feels really left out cause everyone else is coupled off. He's even resorted to hoping the Sock Monster will steal one of my Pomatomus's the next time I do laundry. It's quite pathetic actually. Help!

2007-11-14T13:28:00.000-08:00

What Do You Want to be When You Grow Up?

This is a question I ask my yarn before I start knitting. As many of you know I design my own patterns most of the time. I find it much more fulfilling and creatively stimulating than knitting from a published pattern. I don't mean to knock anyone who mostly knits from patterns. I did the same thing for a couple years and think this is essential if you are going to create good patterns. Besides, who would knit the patterns I create if everyone was off making their own?!

Sometimes I still knit from patterns if I need something quick like I'm traveling and want to be knitting rather than sketching on the plane. Or if it's an item I've never knit before it's a good idea to try a pattern. Case in point, my shawl that came out completely lopsided because I assumed I could design one without ever having knit one before. I failed to understand how lace behaves on the bias or what are appropriate intervals by which to increase.

It does take much more time to design a pattern, whether imagining what I want to knit and finding the perfect yarn or purchasing yarn in advance then trying to envision what it wants to be. Sketching items to get a general idea and knitting gauge swatches and samples (then ripping them out and re-knitting them several times) can be a lot of work. Then there's all the math to work out, the measuring to be done, and writing the actual instructions so they make sense to someone other than me at the moment in time when I scribble them down. It's kind of like anything else in knitting. It can be frustrating at times but in the end I love doing it and also the feeling of accomplishment when the FO comes out the way I've envisioned it.

When I was first teaching JF to knit he saw what I was doing and wanted to design items right from the start. While I admired his enthusiasm and ambition, as I predicted he soon became frustrated when he didn't know where to start. As a beginner (or intermediate) knitter you often just want to start knitting. You need a basis in understanding how to read patterns and in how garments are constructed and the way certain yarns behave when knit up.

I've read a lot of knitting design books, articles online or in magazines, and tutorials on other people's blogs. This gives me a good foundation from which to start creating my own projects. The combination of getting a grip on theories and concepts combined with the hands-on experience of practicing and reading patterns is excellent preparation for designing.

JF and I often work together on designs. Sometimes I ask for his opinion on how certain colors or patterns will look together. If it's an item for him or something we're actively designing together we'll sit down and hammer out the numbers together. It's very helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off of and to double-check that I'm doing the math correctly.

Unfortunately designing is detrimental to my blog in some ways. Sometimes I'm working on a pattern to submit for publication. One of the criteria for acceptance is always that the pattern cannot have been published anywhere else and it cannot have been shown or discussed in any detail on your own personal blog or online photo album. So if it appears that I often just ramble on about my opinions on knitting topics, or show pics of my vacations, or feature new items in my Etsy shop it's probably because I'm designing something that I have to keep quiet in order for it to have a chance of publication. I promise there is knitting happening on this side of the keyboard!

2007-11-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

Single Handedly

JF has been complaining about the wacky air conditioning in his office since I met him. I stayed home sick one day last week and whipped up this custom glove. He said he only needed one for his computer mouse hand which prevented a case of SGS (second glove syndrome) on my part. I used some leftover alpaca yarn I used to make this hat last fall:

Can you see the resemblance? I had triple stranded it and wound it up that way into a center pull ball so there were no problems with tangles. I turned out to have just enough to make the glove and it felt good to use some stash yarn for once.

JF decided the most functional version would be fingerless except for an enclosed pinkie. The the top part of the fingers and thumb would end just before the knuckle. Turns out after 4 years of freezing cold office temps the next day when he brought the glove to work the AC had magically been fixed. Go figure!

2007-10-27T03:23:00.000-07:00

Big 'D', little 'a', double 'L', 'A', 'SSSS'!

Here are pics from the trip JF and I took to Texas in early October. We stayed with his sister and her family for a few days in Plano (a suburb outside of Dallas).

We went to the State Fair of Texas. It's one of the largest state fairs in the country!

Just as we were having unseasonably warm weather here in New York it was also summer weather in Texas. It felt like 95 degrees in the shade!

Here's a shot of 'Big Tex." All the kids seemed to like him but I found him a bit creepy especially when he starts waving his hand!

They had an petting zoo with many exotic animals. For a couple bucks you could buy some grain and seeds to feed the animals. In addition to the usual sheep and goats they had ostriches, kangaroos, large tortoises, a mama pig with her piglets and this giraffe. It seemed a bit cruel to have the animals in relatively small pens in a hot room but it was interesting all the same.

After the weekend JF and I hit the road and drove the 5 hours to San Antonio. Here's the famous Riverwalk. We ate at that restaurant on the left 'The Republic of Texas.' The waiter was really nice and gave us tips on what to do while we filled him in on what's it like to live in New York City.

Here's a daytime view of a bridge passing over the Riverwalk.

These Mexican tiles were everywhere in San Antonio. I loved the bright colors and interesting shapes.

We stopped at the Goodwill in San Antonio to get out of the sun for a minute. I found a bunch of acrylic yarn that looks like it's from the 80's.

Our hotel was right across the street from Texas's most famous landmark-The Alamo. I became an Alamo expert during the course of this trip after watching an IMAX movie then taking the tour of the actual site. After learning more about the history of Texas I understand why Texans are so proud of their state although I still find it obnoxious at times!

We went to the top of the Tower of Americas. It's kind of like the space needle in Seattle. We saw a "4-D" movie inside that was really cool. During a part where you were supposed to be in a helicopter your chair vibrated and the room got real windy. Then during a scene at the rodeo you felt a bull 'horn' jab you in the back and bull 'snot' was sprayed on your face. Gross but definately felt like you were in the moment!

The entrance to Hemisfair Park where the World Fair was held in 1968.

We visited an artist's village aptly named "La Villeta" Most of the stuff was more 'art' than 'craft' so a bit out of our price range. I was shocked to see these handknit scarves made from Lion Brand novelty yarns selling for $50 and $60! Yes, that red scarf IS made out of Fun Fur. Maybe I've been missing out on a big money-making opportunity. More likely it's too hot for Texans to ever wear scarves so they have no idea how much one would actually cost!

From San Antonio we drove another 2 hours to Austin, the capital of Texas. We were so tired from walking around in the sun our first stop was to pick up a swimsuit for JF so we could relax in the hotel pool and spa. Next door to the sporting goods store REI was one of my favorite browsing stores, Anthropologie, where they were selling these knitted bears.

Many of the Mexican shops featured knitted and crocheted finger puppets. Here are a few sheep I though were cute and well designed.

Speaking of sheep here's our mascot, Woolly, who likes to come along on our travels. We took Wendy's advice and dined on authentic Texas BBQ at Stubb's our first (and only) night in Austin. It lived up to its reputation. The next week after we had returned home and were food shopping we found Stubb's BBQ sauce being sold at a grocery store on Long Island! It was a bit surreal. While in Austin we heard some live music on the famous 6th St and played a form of bar shuffleboard that was really fun.

This is a hat I cast on at the start of the trip. The yarn is a silk bamboo variegated blend I bought at the Garden State Sheep and Wool Festival. For some strange reason when I knit it up as a hat it formed this moon pattern.

Look, the back is just all brown except for the brim. Weird!

As you can see the Texas trip was a lot of fun. Glad I could share the highlights with my faithful blog readers :-)

2007-10-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

Guilt-Free Blogging

A big pet peeve of mine is bloggers who start off their entries apologizing for how long it's been since they last posted. This bugs me for two reasons. The first is that it may be a new blog I'm checking out and if I've never read it before I really don't care that it's been 2 weeks since the last post. I probably have months if not years worth of entries to catch up on.

The second reason is that being a sensitive kind of person I feel as though I'm shouldering some of their guilt for infrequent blog publishing. When I go to read someone's blog I view it as a leisurely escape from other things in my life such as working, cleaning, and paying bills. I have enough guilt for not spending enough time on the things I'm supposed to be doing that I really don't need to feel anyone else's guilt.

It's especially bad on podcasts where they really belabor the point. I've heard podcasters go on for 5 minutes on the air about how busy they've been with school and work and kids and blah, blah, blah. Here's news for all you bloggers and podcasters out there. Unless you're a friend of mine I really don't care about what's going on in your personal life that's preventing you from posting frequently. I just want to know about your knitting life. If you want to throw in something interesting or life-changing such as pics from a trip you've taken or you just had a baby or got married or started a new job that's cool but don't apologize endlessly for it.

Think about when you watch a television series. Often a weekly drama series won't air for two weeks or more because of a sporting event or awards show. When the show comes back on the air does a big disclaimer flash across the screen at the start of prime time apologizing for making you wait? No, of course not. They just get right into the action. There's only so much time and what we really want to know is whether George is going to leave his wife or stare at Izzie all season with those puppy dog eyes of his.

I've often been tempted to fall into the same trap with my posts. Instead I remind myself that no one wants to hear it and just start in with the good stuff. I encourage everyone else to do the same.

2007-10-20T21:42:00.001-07:00

Rhinebeck Recap

So I went to Rhinebeck today and it was awesome as was to be expected. JF and I got off the day to a bad start with horrendous traffic (& sleeping in didn't help.) We ended up splitting up for most of the time with JF going off with his parents (a whole knitting family, isn't that cute?) and I went yarn shopping with Monica. We had fun checking out all the vendors.

When it was time for her to go home with her ride I ended up running into Melody who had just arrived. It was yarn kismet! So we walked around together for awhile. She was a sheep and wool festival virgin so it was fun "showing her the ropes." It didn't take much convincing for me to get her to pose for a pic:

Afterwards JF and I grabbed some dinner with his parents at The Daily Planet diner in Poughkeepsie then hit up Grandma's Pies in Yorktown for dessert (The peach pie is highly recommended).

Here's my makeshift Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo bag:

I barely got in on the game as I emailed to be a square a few days after the deadline. Fortunately someone else had dropped out so I got to take their slot. Since I didn't have time to order any of the Cafe Press merchandise I printed out the logo, enlargened it on a copier (is that the right word?), colored it in with colored pencils, and pinned it to my tote bag. It got the job done though. Six or so people came up to me but unfortunately I didn't seem to be on anyone's cards. Oh well, it was fun all the same.

Now on to the loot:

Despite my best intentions to make only non-yarn related purchases I bought this Silk Seductions Yarn at the Seaport Yarns booth. I had actually seen it in their store last week but it seemed more enticing at the festival as they had many skeins of it (there was only one in the store as they had the rest on hold for the festival) and it was discounted. Yarn enabler Melody put me over the edge but at least she bought some in white so I was not alone! I'm going to use it to make silk flowers-can't wait to see how they come out!

This is some handpainted alpaca that was a Show Special. I can't remember the name of the booth. It doesn't look all that great in this pic but the violet handpainted color looks really beautiful in the sunlight. Not sure exactly what I'm gonna make with it but probably something along the line of hat/scarf/mitts.

My official 2007 New Sheep and Wool Festival Sweatshirt. For the second year in a row they were out of t-shirts by the time I got to the souvenirs booth. Last year rather than settle for a sweatshirt I filled out a mail order form to have one delivered to my house. After three months and no t-shirt I received a check in the mail for the $$ I had paid. Guess they realized they had no more in stock and figured they would refund the money which was cool but alas no shirt. Anyway, I learned my lesson this time!

I found this adorable stuffed lamb simply irresistible. "Dutchess County Fairgrounds" is embroidered on her tummy and she has an ear tag that says Dutchess County Fair. I suppose it's the generic toy they sell at other events but I thought it seemed fitting not to mention that she could join my stuffed animal sheep collection (wow can't believe I just admitted that on the air!)

This is a really pretty sterling silver charm bracelet I purchased from one of the jewelry vendors called Millpoint Emporium. I was wearing a green sweater and the bracelet matched so perfectly I couldn't resist. While the lambs with bells on are super cute the kicker for me was the sexy little shepherdess in the middle.

Finally I picked up some handmade saps from Barrytown Soap Works. One is Annandale Apple and the other is simply called Violet. The Chocolate Mint lip balm smells incredible and makes my lips feel so soft.

I'm passing on Sunday's festival as I have plans to go up to CT to see my sis and the new baby. Since JF isn't much of a baby person he decided to keep himself busy cooking a week's worth of meals for the new parents to eat during the week. Isn't that sweet? How did I luck out with a fiancee that both knits and cooks?!

2007-10-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

Make Way for Baby!

I'm officially an aunt! Let the baby knitting begin...

Stats

Name: Ainsley Isabelle
Birthdate: October 16, 2007
Birth time: 3:48 pm EST
Weight: 7 pounds 15 oz
Length 19 1/2 inches

Need I say more?

2007-10-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

Return of the Knodcasts

My next favorite knitting podcast I'd like to review is the Knit Picks Podcast. As most of you know Knit Picks is a website that sells their own line of yarn and needles in addition to knitting books and accessories. Through some magic of either smart business practices or child labor (my theory) they sell their yarns at 1/3-1/2 the price of name brand yarns of the same fibers. I was skeptical of this knodcast when it first came out as I figured it was just another vehicle to push their yarns.

I was pleasantly surprised when I first listened to the knodcast to realize it was nothing of the sort. It's hosted by Kelley Petkun who owns the company. Her voice is very warm and comforting and sounds to me like the kind of aunt who would give you good advice but not judge you. The knodcast is obviously scripted and while some may argue that takes away from the spontaneity of the episodes I've actually come to prefer it. I find that without a script the speaker tends to ramble on and I end up fast forwarding my iPod until they (finally) get to the point.

Recent episodes I have enjoyed included how to teach someone else to knit, the properties of wool produced by different types of sheep, and the technical differences between balls, hanks, and skeins of yarn. She also throws in a couple book reviews and briefly discusses what she has on her needles at the moment. On one episode she did biographies of Knit Picks staffers but I found it interesting to hear about their career paths and how they ended up working at an online yarn store.

In short: a well thought out pleasant knodcast.

Rating: 4 out of 5 dpns

2007-09-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

Knodcasts

What's better than knitting? Knitting while listening to someone talk about knitting, of course! Now that I'm an official subway commuter I've gotten more into listening to knitting podcasts, or "knodcasts" as I like to refer to them (Ok, I just made that up but am going to start calling them that from now on!)

My favorite knodcasts currently are Sticks & String, Knitpicks, Knit Science, and Stitch Stud and his Bride. I'm going to do a brief review of each one in upcoming blog posts.

Sticks & String is hosted by David Reidy, a teacher and knitting enthusiast who lives out in Australia. While the content is decent I'm a bit ashamed to admit I mostly enjoy listening to his accent. It makes it a little more interesting to hear him talk about "blokes" rather than men and "jumpers" instead of sweaters. He manages to strike a good balance between discussing his personal knitting projects and general knitting content. I especially enjoy the "essays" he reads on air about his opinions on knitting topics. The only slightly negative thing is the offbeat instrumental songs he includes to break up the first and second part of the podcast. The music is often hit-or- miss but you can always speed through that part if you want to.

Rating: 4 out of 5 DPNS's.

2007-09-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

Mystic, CT

JF and I went up to Mystic, CT over Labor Day Weekend for our engagement party. We tried to visit the LYS, Mystic Yarns, but it was closed by the time we got there.

All I got to see was what I could make out through the window. It was a very sad moment :'-(

On the bright side JF's parents put out "engagement toys" for us alongside the cake. (No, sicko, it's now what you're thinking.) As you can see JF got a little NASCAR model car and I got this Ty sheep stuffed animal. On closer examination it looked a bit like a rabbit so I named her, of course "Sheeprabbit." Every now and then she likes to strip off her dress and run around the apartment yelling "Naked sheep! Naked sheep!" but that's a story for another post.

Speaking of sheep I have an amusing ancedote. In one of my wedding magazines they had a photo shoot with a bride holding a little lamb. That got me obsessed with the idea of having "wedding sheep" at the ceremony. Where would you go to rent one out? Anyway, I called a florist today to try to make an appointment to come in. The lady on the phone was like you'll have to call back because "the owner is out with the wedding sheep." I got all excited and exclaimed, "OMG, I was just saying that I really wanted wedding sheep at the ceremony! That would be awesome if you could provide sheep in addition to the flowers!" It was later that I realized she had said "wedding sheet" as in the piece of paper where they wrote down all their appointments. Oopsy.

2007-09-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

Oh Baby!

I finished my Feather and Fan Baby Cardigan last weekend just in time for my sister's baby shower. It was up to the wire with me sewing on the buttons, weaving in the ends, and blocking the sweater the day before the shower. I used Tess' Designer Yarns baby/fingering weight yarn and adapted a pattern for a basic baby cardigan to include the feather and fan edging at the bottom and cuffs.

I found these beautiful lavender pearl buttons at the store Tender Buttons on the Upper East Side. Thanks A-M for telling me about this store. I put off my button finding expedition for weeks since I never could found time to trek over to the Garment District. It's a lovely (but pricey) store that has thousands of beautiful buttons all neatly organized. I had heard the staff could be a bit snobby. I found the older woman working there was helpful and seemed interested in helping me choose the right buttons for my project. They're sticklers for closing on time though and will not hesitate to tell you they're closing soon and you need to make your final selection.

Here's a close-up of the feather and fan edging. It's not too hard to do. The most difficult part was figuring out how to work the pattern repeat into my stitch count.

You know what that means....time to cast on a new project!

2007-09-11T17:09:00.001-07:00

Pretty in Purple

I picked my long forgotten second Hedera sock up last week in order to have some circular knitting to work on for my knitting group's theme: DPN's & Decaf. I had abandoned this sock at the beginning of the gusset because I was finding it difficult to keep track of the moderately complicated instep along with the gusset decreases while using 2 circular needles and stitch markers. Switching to DPN's along with faithfully using my row counter did the trick. In fact, I became so addicted to working on them that I nearly missed my subway stop on 3 separate occasions! I was trying on my WIP and thought my lavender toes went unexpectedly well with the sock yarn and thought I'd take a pic and share it with my few but faithful blog readers.

2007-09-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

New Shop Additions

Drumroll please....

Spooky Halloween Stitch Markers

Magical Stitch Markers

Now how come whenever I need a stitch marker there's none available??

2007-09-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

Another One Bites the Dust

I'd been meaning to check out Knits Incredible! a LYS on the UES. I'd heard it was on Lexington Ave somewhere between 68th St. and 70th St. on the 2nd floor. It was strange that I had never noticed it on my own but I think I spend most of my time in the area either below 68th St. or above 77th St (where the 4/5/6 stops) so I suppose there were 9 blocks of uncharted territory there.

Anyway....I found the place and pushed a bunch of buzzers until someone let me in. A sign said the store was in apartment 1A. When I got up there I was a little taken aback to find the door unlocked revealing an empty dusty room except for a cash register. A sign on the front of the door indicated the landlord now owned the property. I got the feeling the owners must have left in a hurry because the awning on the street was still up and there was no real notice of what had happened. I tried calling the phone number and got a message the number was no longer in service but to try a different number. That number instructed me to leave a message for Ann of Knits Incredible as if the store were still in existence.

When I got home I Googled the store and found out that the store had, in fact, closed suddenly likely sometime in June. Apparently the owner had been having a lot of personal problems and would often close the shop sporadically. A couple women on the Knitters Review forum who had left sweaters there to be finished (they offer this as a service) were now fretting that their sweaters had gone AWOL. I can only imagine!

2007-08-28T09:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Blogiversary!

Today is my 1 year blogiversary. So much has happened in that time knitting-wise. In chronological order here are events I attended or other things I accomplished:

1) Started UES Knitters on Yahoo groups (July/August '06)
2) Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival (September '06)

3) New York City Knit-out (September '06)
4) New York Sheep and Wool Festival (October '06)
5) Won jar cozy contest with tuxedo jar cozy co-designed with JF (November '06)
6) Got my sock pattern "Arrowhead Socks" accepted for publication (November '06)
7) Went to WEBS up in Mass (Ok, it's just a yarn store but it's an experience in itself!)
8) Got my sweater sweater pattern "Retropolitan Cardigan" accepted for publication (December '06)
9) Started making stitch markers and opened my own Etsy shop: Code Purl (Feb '07)
10)Yarn Harlot's book launch at FIT (March '07)
11) Adopted a cat (Hey, that's knitting related...sorta; April '07)
12) Radical Knitting and Subversive Lace exhibit (April '07)
13) Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (Noticing a pattern here? May '07)
14) Broke the sweater curse! (May '07)
15) Secret Feet Exchange (June '07)
16) Moved UES Knitters to Meetup.com (July '07)
17) Stitch 'n Pitch (August '07)

Of course I knit a bunch of stuff in between all that running around! Excuse me for tooting my own horn but, hey, it's my blogiversary and I'll brag if I want to :-) I'm looking forward to doing so much more in my second year of blogging. Stay tuned...

2007-08-27T16:26:00.001-07:00

Holey Increases!

I'm designing a baby sweater and figured I'd try to save time by knitting the sleeves in the round. I don't know if I was doing something wrong but I noticed that all the stitches that were increased were looking stretched out. For some unknown reason I just kept on going deciding I was being too critical of myself and, if anything, the uneven stitches would smooth out with blocking. Keep in mind I was also trying to be fancy by doing the sleeves 2 at a time on 2 circs.

I was off work one day and had gotten several inches done before JF came home and gave me a reality check. These sleeves just weren't up to par with my usual work. Part of the problem was the ladders that were created where the 1st needle left off and the 2nd needle began. Sticking increases in the same area didn't help things any. I did try periodically to move the stitches around on my needles so the join wasn't always in the same place. However, since I was doing both sleeves at the same time one sleeve became trapped in the middle and I was only able to move the stitches from one needle to the other if I removed it completely from the needle and put it back on in another spot.

I finally gave up on my experiment and admitted I just needed to do the sleeves flat and probably one at a time. The concept of doing both sleeves at the same time is so that you are certain you have done the same number of rows on each sleeve. This is more exact than simply measuring 8 inches or however long your sleeve is. I tend to get confused with this method and end up increasing where I shouldn't or continuing to knit Sleeve #1 when I should be on Sleeve #2.

Anyone out there in blogland have similar problems? If you have any tips on how to deal with this problem I'd love to hear them. I hate having to sew sleeve seams!!

2007-08-21T17:38:00.001-07:00

A New Toy!

I ordered yarn from my new favorite website: Jimmy Beans Wool and couldn't help ordering this cute cake tape measure from Lantern Moon.

Of course it's not like I really need another tape measure since I have the Lantern Moon sheep amongst at least 5 other cute ones and a few plain ones. Yet somehow I can never seem to find one handy when there's something to measure!

2007-08-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

Stitch n' Pitch!

I had a great time at Stitch n' Pitch last Wednesday at Shea Stadium. The day got off to a rocky start when a freak tornado hit NYC and flooded the subways during early morning rush hour. I couldn't make it into work at all as my subway line was down the whole day and the traffic was a nightmare. People commuted for 3-4 hours that day!

I had to contact everyone in Upper East Side Knitters who was going to the game to have them meet me right at Shea instead of at Grand Central as we had planned. Fortunately the 7 line was still running since it was above ground and I was able to get a bus to pick it up at Roosevelt Ave. As you can see above the stadium was packed.

We received these knitting goodie bags full of free yarn, patterns, and the summer issues of Interweave Knits and Knit.1 magazine! Debbie Stoller, Nicky Epstein, and Lily Chin were at the table greeting people.

It was really exciting sitting in the stands and spotting knitters throughout the crowd. The last time I knitted at a baseball game everyone was looking at me like I had two heads!

Here's Aruni stealing sideways glances at Alex's pattern.

Alex's friend Megan was working on the kick-ass sock you saw in the pic above.

Megan was whipping up a pair of wrist warmers in Mets colors with help from her friend Amy.

Here's a zoomed in pic of a woman in the crowd who apparently had crocheted a hat in Mets blue and orange just for the occasion. As for the game itself the Mets were down a few runs to the Braves about halfway in then rallied back to win it 4-3. As if being at a baseball game with hundreds of knitters wasn't exciting enough!

2007-08-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

Stitch n' Pitch: Here I come!

I'm going to Stitch n' Pitch at Shea Stadium tomorrow with my group The Upper East Side Knitters. We have 9 people going-boo ya! Here's a version of that popular 7th inning stretch song I wrote for the occasion:

Take me out to the ballgame,
Count your stitches out loud.
Buy me some Koigu and Noro yarn,
I can't wait 'till it's time to cast on!

Let me knit, knit, knit for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three dropped stitches you're out,
At the old ball game!

Stay tuned for pics...

2007-08-02T20:18:00.001-07:00

Baby Fever

When I was coming off my sock phase and starting on a mittens jag last winter I announced, "Mittens are the new socks!" Well lately all my knitting has been baby related. Are babies the new mittens?

I made the above hat for my friend and former co-worker Rachel's baby. I knew she was pregnant back in December and even bought the yarn soon after. It wasn't until July I realized that the baby would arrive soon looking for his hat!

It's the same yarn (Louisa Harding's Kimono Angora) and basically the same pattern I designed for A-M's baby's hat. I used brighter yarn with more male appropriate colors and ix-nayed the bow. After I finished it I realized it might be a tad impractical for a summer baby but all babies need hats when the AC is blowing, right?

She delivered the baby in the same hospital I work at so I was able to visit her when she was first admitted for observation and then once she had delivered. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the baby in person or try it on him since there were some minor complications and he needed to stay in the nursery. But I saw the pics her husband had taken on his camera and the baby was really cute. I think my friend was actually more upset than I was that she couldn't show me and my co-worker her new baby.

In other baby Knitting Knews the Feather and Fan Baby Blanket is nearly ready to be bound off. The baby cardigan with matching feather and fan trim has the body and 1 arm completed. Good thing because my niece is due in October and the baby shower is next month. Wow, time really flies. My future sister-in-law is requesting a sweater for her two year old this winter since the one I made a couple years back was such a hit. The baby knitting never stops!

2007-07-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

Broken Addis...Boo Hoo!

Now I've broken bamboo dpn's before. I'm even ashamed to admit to breaking a pair of beautful straight Lantern Moon needles. But never before have I stooped so low as to break a pair of Addi Turbos!

"How could this have happened?" you ask. Those things are supposed to be indestructible. Well I was knitting during a long car ride. I had several pairs of circular Addis in a totebag with my knitting projects. I got out of the car at a rest stop and when I got back in I found these poor Size 6 24 inchers on the floor of the passenger side. I can only assume they must have tried to escape thinking it was their chance now that I had just bound off. They tried to make a move when I opened the car door but weren't quick enough to get out.

I tried to think of some logical use for them hating to just throw them out. The only possible use I came up with was to use them as the third needle in a 3 needle bind off. But even that's a stretch. So these are their farewell pics. May they rest in peace.

P.S. Since the aforementioned road trip happened to be to Mass I wasted no time stopping by WEBS and picking up a new pair. Easy come, easy go, right? Or vice versa...whatever, you know what I mean!

2007-07-19T17:20:00.001-07:00

Shiny Happy Stitch Markers Holding Hands....

I revamped my Etsy shop, CodePurl, a couple weeks ago. Fellow jewelry maker, Nicole, had showed me some new wire twisting techniques so my stitch markers are now snag proof and more uniform looking. One of my favorites, Swirly Stitch Markers, are pictured above. Don't they look almost magical the way the light hits them?

These Chinese Lucky Star Stitch Markers are a new addition to my shop. I bought the beads in San Francisco's version of Chinatown. Every time I look at these I think of the great trip Julian and I took back in March. It will be hard to part with these but there are more where these came from!

Simple but beautiful my Fiery Red Stitch Markers are a real knockout! I'm going to continue to work on new products so be sure to check back often.

2007-07-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't noticed the giant Meetup badge on the left side of my blog I recently started a new knitting group. Well, it's not exactly new. Long-time readers of this blog (am I allowed to say that when I've only been posting for 8 months?) know that I started the Upper East Side Knitters as a Yahoo Group last year. I decided to move the group's web headquarters over to Meetup.com to utilize their unique features such as RSVP's, message boards, and to gain greater publicity.

UES Knitters lives here.

It's working well so far. We met last Tuesday and had a decent turnout of really interesting friendly people. We were going to get together tonight in Central Park to knit during the New York Philharmonic concert but got completely rained out. I'm planning on us meeting every other Tuesday or so mainly at M Rohr's coffeeshop. The shop recently moved to a larger location at E 86th St. between 1st and 2nd Aves.

If any New Yorkers out in cyberspace want to come out of lurkdom go ahead and join my group. There's no fee to join except to buy a cup of coffee or something while you're in the shop. My idea was to have frequent get-togethers mostly in the same place so people can get to know each other and feel comfortable getting to the location. If anyone has a job like mine the workload is very unpredictable and often requires staying late so I made the start times at 7pm figuring people could either go home and change or grab a bite to eat on their way over.

I'm having fun running this group so far. I'd like to extend a public thanks to Julian for being my faithful assistant organizer and always being supportive. Whether pushing me to go ahead and start my own group rather than just talking about it to always coming along even when he was tired or had other things to do I'm really lucky to have him :-)

P.S. I presented my felted laptop case to its recipient and he loved it. It fit his Mac Book perfectly. Yay for designs that actually knit up the way I planned them to (we'll make no mention of my "Shall We Dance" lace shawl)!

2007-07-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

Felting Finale!

The last segment in our three part series here at Knitting Knews!

The knitting and sewing were all done. We went up to JF's parents house to mooch off their free washer. I was surprised how much the laptop case shrunk after one "power wash" in hot water. I thought at first it had shrunk way too much but then realized all I had to do was block it to the correct dimensions.

Blocking involved a joint effort of stretching out all sides and the flap and using thumbtacks to keep it in place. It dried out in the sunlight on the deck (remind me why I live in NYC again??)

Feeling inspired when I got home I made another attempt at a hand knitted cat toy. I put a purple and blue strand together of some leftover yarn from the baby blanket I'm perpetually working on. I basically free-styled a fish shape as I went using a bunch of techniques including short rows, picking up stitches, knitting in the round, and a 3 needle bind off. Who knew a little toy could be so complicated!?

I filled it with catnip and offered it to our resident cat toy tester....

The result? I couldn't even take a clear pic of Cosette with the toy as she was going so wild for my knitting...err, I mean the catnip!

2007-07-02T16:38:00.001-07:00

Pre-felting: a Photo Montage

Here is the laptop case fully knit in its pre-felted state.

The cardboard model simulates the actual dimensions of the laptop.

Ok, I admit this is getting tedious but I'm just so proud of my little laptop cover.

Almost there except for sewing the seams and weaving in the loose ends.

Folks, we have garter stitch!

Yay-all sewn up....

"Please don't throw me in the wash....I promise I'll be good!"

To be continued....

2007-06-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

It's Not What You Think...

My future felted laptop case has been taking shape really quickly. I suppose it was to be expected when you use size 15 needles and garter stitch! In the pic above it looks kinda like a jumper.

The cardboard is a replica to scale of the recipient's laptop. The case is being knit all in one piece so it starts to make more sense when you wrap it around the "laptop."

If you can see past Cosette's rapidly expanding belly you can start to get an idea of how the finished product will look. The opening in the front is so the user can easily reach in and grab his laptop without having to dig his hand all the way into the case. I'm hoping to finish all the knitting by this weekend so I can get to the fun part: felting!

2007-06-24T16:40:00.000-07:00

Secret Feet

Since my Secret Feet knitter fell through the ever fabulous and super-speedy Penelope subbed in and made the socks of my dreams. They're Jaywalkers in the color scheme I requested and one of my fav sock yarns-Koigu. She even made the right foot a 1/2 inch larger than the left to accomodate my differently sized feet! Thank you Penelope. You're the best!

Cosette says, "Yeah, yeah where are my Secret Feet? These paws don't clean themselves ya know!"

2007-06-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

Never Felt this Way Before

JF's coworker inquired whether I would be interested in being paid to make a felted laptop case for him. He was specific in that he wanted a light natural colored wool and since he's into graphic design he even made a 2-D model of how it would look "unfolded." I had the above yarn in my stash from the 2006 MD Sheep and Wool Festival. Although it was variegated and dark in some areas I figured I'd give it a try and see how he liked it. After handfelting it looked like this:

I didn't really like the look of it all that much. It kinda resembles a dead squirrel on the side of the road. Although he didn't like the color of that yarn he liked how the felted fabric looked. He ordered this yarn from WEBS in the 8015 shade. As a sidenote WEBS ships everything UPS. It was going to cost $5 to ship one $15 skein of yarn. He emailed them requesting they ship it first class instead which they were willing to do!

Before I entered into this I was a little concerned about the whole payment issue. I had the usual conundrum about whether he'd be able to really pay me what my time was worth. After all I was designing this case from scratch, knitting it, then felting it. It may very well not come out right the first time as you just never know with felting and I would have to do it again. What I worked out was rather than him paying we'd trade services. Since he's very good with computers and design he could help me out with the layout of my website so I'm not doing the same generic background everyone on Blogger is using.

Well it's time to start swatching!

2007-06-11T18:04:00.000-07:00

Needle Organization: Part Deux

In my last post I shared my new circular needle ID tags. I have now completed the next step and broke out this purchase I picked up at WEBS:

"The Circular Solution" is a cloth hanging organizer with labelled slots for most needle sizes:

It was helpful to have all my needles labeled clearly. However, they were all still in a jumble in my Lantern Moon case. If I was looking for one needle I ended up pulling everything out.

I realized that both products are good but the combination of the two are ideal. If I only had the hanging case and not the needle ID tags then when I removed a couple needles from their slots I would still have to use my needle sizer before putting them away.

Yesterday I made a gauge swatch and it was great being able to see right away that I owned Size 13's. Then when my stitches were too loose I went back to the closet and pulled out a set of 11's in just a couple seconds. Sometimes I think I put off projects just because I'm not sure if I own the right needles or I'm in a rush to leave and it's too much trouble to pull out three different needles. In the worst case scenario such as my last pair of socks I was knitting with what I thought were 3's and they were only 2's. My fingers were cramping up and I couldn't figure out why the toe of the sock was way too tight!

2007-05-23T20:48:00.001-07:00

Finding a Needle in a Haystack

I bought these ID tags for my circs at the MDSW. I had seen them once before at Knitty City and have been trying to find them since. I have amassed quite a collection of Addi Turbos bought for numerous projects and raiding Going Out of Business Sales at LYS's. For the most part I keep them altogether in a beautiful lavender silk Lantern Moon case. However, I never know which is what size. Many of the needles aren't labeled with the size at all and the size on most of the others is written very faintly on the cord. I have a needle sizer specifically for the Addi Turbos but it is always a bit of a pain to have to size each needle when I'm anxious with new project anticipation.

As you can see above the tags are made of yellow plastic with a cutout on the back that be clipped onto the cord. The size is written in permanent lettering in a computery font with the US size followed by the metric equivalent. I bought one package that is for small needles up to size 6 and the larger set that goes up to size 35. The manufacturer makes an effort to give more tags for commonly used sizes so there are many more tags for size 2 needles than size 10.5's.

Here is my lovely knitting needle collection once I was done tagging them all. The tags are not intended to be kept on while there's a project OTN's. The manufacturer suggests you remove the tag and tie it to the hanging tail of your WIP so it doesn't get lost and you can clip it right back on the needles once you've cast off. The only downfall I can see so far is that the tags don't specify the length of the needle so I need to get out my measuring tape or just eyeball it.

I then arranged them neatly back in the case. It seemed a bit pointless as they only stay that way until the next time I go looking for a needle and end up pulling them all out. But maybe this will help that problem as I can just look at the tag and not have to take each needle out to size it. When I was last up at WEBS I bought a hanging case with labeled pockets for each needle size but have not set it up yet. I hope these attempts at organization will make my knitting life run more smoothly. If not, I'll just go back to the jumbled mess of Addi's I've come to know and love!

2007-05-20T21:10:00.001-07:00

New Beginnings

Now that my Secret Feet Socks are done I gave myself permission to cast on a new project. This is going to be a baby raglan cardigan using the new Sock/Baby fingering weight yarn I bought from Tess's Designer Yarns at MDSW. It's going to be for my sister's baby who is due in October. I'm pretty sure at this point that neither she or the other non-knitters in my family read my blog on a regular basis. At first I was disappointed but then I realized I have free rein to post about any projects I'm making for them without worrying about spoiling the surprise!

Since we don't know yet whether she's having a boy or a girl I chose this rainbow colored yarn figuring it could go either way. Now that I'm knitting it up it definitely looks more girly than, umm, "boyee." I've gotten a couple more inches done since this pic was taken and the pink and purple really jump out at you. So here's hoping for a girl or at least that she doesn't take gender rules too seriously!

This is such an exciting time right now for my family with me planning to get married and my sister expecting a baby. Then my mother called the other day to tell me about a big promotion she got at work. I guess good things really do come in 3's! Hmm, maybe my sis will end up having triplets ;-)

2007-05-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

K2tog: an Engagement Story

Julian and I were at the MDSWF on Saturday and Julian became intrigued by the R.E. Piland Goldsmiths booth in the Main Exhibition Hall. They specialize in handcrafted Celtic inspired jewelry. Julian took a liking to the extensive ring assortment and I bought him one of the sterling silver designs.

Fast forward through further yarn shopping and sheep gawking to that night. We were staying at the Columbia Hyatt and they suggested we go to nearby Ellicot City for dinner. It's a historical town where Main Street is lined with antique shops and restaurants. We found a cozy restaurant called Cacao Lane that seemed popular with the locals (Rachel Ray would be so proud!) We enjoyed a delicous steak and seafood dinner topped off by the most scrumptious chocolate mousse.

Afterward we strolled up the street peering into the windows of the antique shops and commenting on the treasures inside. I remember thinking that I was so happy and would love for it to be like this forever.

We crossed a pedestrian bridge passing over a flowing body of water that appeared black on this clear night. It led into a little park then we continued on to the historic B&O railroad station. We read the little plaques aloud that explained its significance during the Civil War then sat on a bench under a large tree.

We were talking quietly when a guy in a sports car pulled up to the traffic light obnoxiously revving his engine and blasting heavy metal music into the quiet night. We laughed over how it was ruining the moment. After he sped off squealing his tires while making a sharp left we sat there admiring the Celtic ring I had bought him at the festival. It was a little large on his finger so he took it off and went to put it on my left ring finger. I started protesting that he couldn't put it on that finger. When he asked why I simply answered, "Because, you know...."

He then said, "Well, I have a replacement ring..." The next thing I knew he reached into his pocket and pulled out A LITTLE BLACK BOX! He opened it to reveal a beautiful diamond ring with small channel cut diamonds on the sides. I was in shock and for a second thought it was all a joke. When he said, "...but you can only have it if you'll marry me" I realized it was the real deal! Without skipping a beat I exclaimed, "Of course I'll marry you!" He put the ring on my finger, we laughed, I cried, we called all our family to share the news and the rest is history :-)

2007-05-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

MDSWF Part II

On Saturday the first thing I did was hit up the Tess' Designer Yarns booth. With no further ado here are my purchases:

This beautiful microfiber ribbon yarn in cool pastel colors...

Will be used to make this stylish baby kimono.

Next up we have this lovely superwash wool fingering weight baby yarn. Since I don't know the sex of the baby I'm knitting for I'd figured rather than go yellow or green I'd just use every color of the rainbow!

I was planning to purchase the Tess pattern for the "Lace Leaf Baby Cardigan". However, for the second year in a row they ran out of the pattern by the time I was ready to purchase it. I opted for the generic "Raglan Sleeve Baby Cardigan" figuring I could always add any pattern stitch I wanted to the basic template.

And then since the shawl I tried to make without a pattern turned into a disaster I decided to start fresh with this pretty lace weight yarn. I'm going to do at least one shawl from a pattern before I attempt to design another one.

Then I guess I was on a purple/turquoise/white kick because I bought this sock yarn at another booth in the Main Exhibition Hall.

I realized that at these festivals I've become a victim of what Julian calls "Pretty in the Hank" Syndrome (PITH). I go crazy for the varigated brightly colored yarns because they look so unique. Then when I get home I realize I can only use garter or stockinette stitch because any pattern stitch will get lost. So I bought this apricot colored sock yarn from a booth selling all Canadian yarn. It's really soft and I can't wait to make some beautiful lacy socks with it.

Since Julian is sadly blogless I'm also featuring some of his purchases here. He became interested in the Tess microfiber ribbon before I did and purchased these rainbow pastel skeins. We attempted to wind one of these into a ball last night. It wasn't until 2 tries of using my swift and ball winder when we finally read the instructions on the inside of the label that explicity states DO NOT USE A BALLWINDER WITH THIS YARN! The problem is that it is super slippery and rather than adhere to itself the ball just starts falling apart and getting tangled. What we had to do was set up the swift at a 90 degree angle to the floor and wind it into a non-center pull ball by hand with super tight tension. I hope the finished product is worth all the trouble!

Julian decided to reattempt knitting a replica of his Jimmy Johnson number 48 hat. The intarsia design became too bulky when using worsted weight yarn. So this is the same Canadian sock yarn I bought but in team colors. He's going to see if the fingering weight yarn will create better stitch definition.

Believe it or not this is only day one's yarn purchases. In the next couple postings I'll share Sunday's yarn purchases, some interesting non-yarn purchases, and the details I promised on how Julian popped the question ;-)

2007-05-07T18:22:00.000-07:00

A very special Sheep and Wool Festival....

Admission to Maryland and Sheep and Wool Festival: free

One night stay in a hotel and gas: $150

Official festival t-shirt: $16

Yarn purchases: $150

Getting proposed to at the Festival: PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Julian and I are engaged!!!!!!!!
Stay tuned for more festival pics and all the juicy details ;-)

2007-05-02T17:06:00.000-07:00

Bye, Bye Yarn

I found a woman on Etsy who was looking to trade her handmade jewelry for yarn. I figured this was a good way to de-stash especially since I've become a jewelry whore as of late. I managed to fill this entire box with yarn to give away.

She was even willing to take partial skeins and leftovers so it really added up.

I have to admit I was having a hard time saying goodbye at the end. When the lady at the post office took my box and put it behind the counter I had to stifle my urge to shout, "No, give it back! I've changed my mind!!"

Cosette says, "I know you've been eyeing my fur and no, you may NOT spin it into yarn!"

2007-04-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

Shawl we dance?

I'm going to a wedding this weekend and needed a shawl to match my new party dress. I've had this yarn in my stash for at least a year awaiting its transformation so it was time. The pattern is my own design and the lovely ribbon yarn is Filatura Di Crosa "Farfalla." I think it may have been discontinued since I can't find it on Yarndex. It's not quite done yet so I'll be knitting right up until Saturday night.

I bought it in White Plains at the Goldman's Yarns going out of business sale. I really miss that place. They always had a great selection and had the space of 3 NYC LYS's. The owners were retiring after about a jalopagon years. They were always overly strict if not obnoxious about closing at 6 pm on the dot and had the typical snobby yarn store attitude. But after the relationship ends all that fades and you just have the warm fuzzy memories of mohair on a spring day, ya know?

I took a pic here to document the perfect length of yarn I had at the end of the row to join the second ball with. I'm guilty of always trying to get that last row in before the end of the skein and run out mid-row 9 times out of 10. This time it worked out perfect. Ah, the little things in life....

Cosette says "Touch Ratta and die!"

2007-04-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

Noro Obsessed

Ok, I've sunken to a new low by putting other people's knitting on my blog! I've never really been that into Noro. Somehow it never feels very soft to me and all those colors make it hard to imagine how it will look knitted up. My friend, Monica, however, is on a big Noro kick. Check out the neck warmer she made above. I never even thought to make something like that. She said she makes them sometimes when she's making a hat and changes her mind in the middle of the WIP!

There was something strange going on with the Noro Sakura she was working with last week at UES Knitters. When knitted up the yarn completely changed color 1/4 of the way into her scarf. The strand the colored ply was wrapped around changed from black to white drastically changing the look of the yarn.

Check out the closeup:

Anyone ever had an "out of yarn experience" like this?

2007-04-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

Review of Yarn Harlot's Latest

I bought my copy of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Casts Off hot off the press at the KNYTTERS UNITE book launch in NYC last month. I'm not a huge fan of the cover since the YH bears a strong resemblance to a weasel. Having seen Stephanie in person I know that with a little work she could definitely look more put together even if she's not looking to go all out glam. It seems like her deal is to be very humble and approachable but I don't think it does much for modern knitters to have a frizzy haired woman in an old school fair isle sweater on the front cover.

The book is a guidebook to the "land of Knitting" which is a pretty cool concept. She discusses its "inhabitants" (knitters) and "embassies" (LYS's), amongst other metaphors.

The illustrations are really cute as you can see from the Sports Chapter above. Like the YH's other books it's an easy read full of interesting tidbits and observations and her trademark self-deprecating humor.

It starts out strong at the beginning but I found the material in the middle and towards the end a bit weak. There's only so many times I can laugh at the idea of gauge swatches being little liars and women being overcome by wool fumes near the sale bin at their LYS's. This book might actually be better suited to new knitters who would see this material with fresh eyes. The funnier parts are broken up by fictional letters and emails between a new knitter and her mother that are obviously just filler.

I figure the target audience is likely hard core knitters and personal fans. In that case this book is pretty much guaranteed to fly off bookstore shelves and (Amazon.com shopping carts). Keep in mind I have read the Yarn Harlot's previous books and check her blog fairly regularly so I definitely get her sense of humor and writing style. While I found 1 or 2 things that made me LOL in each chapter I have to say that overall this book suffers from Sequalitis. If it were a movie I'd say wait for it to come out on DVD.

2007-04-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

America's Next Top Model

Here's a pic AM sent me of her babe wearing the hat I knit for her birthday. I've been gushing so much about my new cat lately I can only imagine what it must be like to have a new baby!

Oh, and speaking of my furry friend now the pet food recall has expanded to her wet food. Effective April 10th Menu Foods is recalling all the 3 oz cans of Nutro Gourmet Classics cat foods. Sigh...just when we found something she was willing to eat. I found a list of all the recalled foods but am wondering at this point if there's a list of "safe" foods I can feed my kitty!

2007-04-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

Knitting Exhibit

Last week I finally got a chance to check out the now infamous exhibit "Radical Knitting and Subversive Lace" at the Museum for Art and Design. There's a strict no picture taking policy but JF was able to sneak these while I distracted the guards ;-) This was my second trip to the museum as I went last summer for the launch of Nicky Epstein's latest book. The museum is pretty small but I like that I can really see everything and read all the descriptions comfortably in an hour before my feet start to hurt. There were a couple interesting pieces such as the dress made from strips of dollar bills, the family garments made of old newspapers, and the sweaters done to 1/12 scale.

Upon reflection I realized I enjoyed the exhibits that showed some level of knitting skill combined with creativity. There were a lot of pieces that just seemed like a jumble of random stuff. When you read the accompanying information you realize that it's supposed to make some kind of political statement on nuclear bombs or the economy. As JF likes to say, "Eh."

Actually I enjoyed the accompanying exhibit "Contemporary Netsuke" more than the actual knitting pieces. Netsuke is the Japanese art of carving intricate miniature figurines out of materials such as ebony, exotic wood, and precious metals. Check out the Octopus above (I'll admit to taking this pic off the museum's website.)

Check out the exhibit and form your own opinions!

2007-04-07T12:53:00.001-07:00

As you can see above I made my annual visit to the Macy's Flower Show in Herald Square.

The theme was exotic flowers. They had these neat garden sculptures of giraffess...

and even a zebra!

and of course there were the flowers...

I was so into looking at the flowers I was able to hold back from doing any actual shopping. I have to save up a bit as Maryland Sheep and Wool is fast approaching :-)

2007-04-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

Post-birthday recap

Yesterday for my birthday I went to see The Fantasticks on off-Broadway:

I've heard about this show for the longest time and wanted to check it out. Plus it was one of the few musicals left at the TKTS booth by the time I got there!

I wasn't a big fan of the first act. It reminded me of The Drowsy Chaperone in that they use a lot of stage cliches and cheap comedic ploys. However, I really enjoyed the second act which depicts what occurs following "happily ever after." Call me a cynic or a realist but I just wasn't buying the whole boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, drama ensues, then everything works out perfect in the end. The lesson learned in the second act is that through pain and experiencing the world in all its cruelty we can then truly appreciate the things we had from the start.

A highlight was that Tom Jones, the creator and director of the original show, played a character in the cast. Afterwards he autographed my Playbill!

That night JF took me down to Chinatown. We found this vegetarian kosher restaurant Bodai Buddha that was pretty good. They make all the regular chinese food like Sesame Chicken and General Tso's but subsitute bean curd for the meat. Anyway, I finally got to open my presents from JF:

This beautiful Chai necklace and...

these tags I can sew into my FO's. (Thanks to everyone who has read this far...you knew I would get to knitting related content eventually!)

2007-04-04T07:47:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yay, today April 4th is my birthday. Here's a kosher for Passover cake my sister got me that wasn't half bad. It can be a problem having your birthday over Passover if you're being observant since you can't eat any bread products that have risen. The kosher bakeries must have some trick though since it was hard to tell the difference on this one. Anyway, wish me a happy 27th. This is going to be my best year ever :-)

2007-04-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

"Cosette, I love you very much...."

JF and I finally caved and adopted a cat. We hadn't planned on it Sunday when we went to North Shore Animal League just to look around. But then I saw this beauty:

At first we were a little hesitant to get her because she seemed a little down and had been labelled "picky eater" by the staff. We took her home and upon realizing she smelled like a foot proceeded to give her a bath:

Later she seemed curious as to what we were cooking but wasn't eating much of her own food:

Once she was clean and adjusting better she started eating some wet food. She wouldn't eat any of the dry food we put out. It was Wellness brand that she had recieved at the shelter. The next day we bought her Nutro dry food and she loves it!

I made her some handknit cat toys. To my delight she actually liked them and started battting them all over the apartment. Later we sprayed them with catnip and she liked them even more! Check out this purse she can take with her on shopping trips to Petco:

She was also keen on this fish toy I made:

I made these toys freeform without any pattern. I'm working on short row heel socks right now and started playing around with short rows on these toys. I figured I'd come out with either a ball or a mouse. I think these are more orginial though :-)

And for you theatre buffs out there; Yes, she is named after the character Cosette from Les Miserables. Of couse she is anything but miserable in her new home!

2007-03-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

WIP's

Hedera number 2 is coming along. As you can see the leg and heel flap are done and I turned the heel. It always feels like a huge accomplishment to get to this point. Take that SSS (Second Sock Syndrome)!

A new woman who designs jewlery came to Upper East Side Knitters last night and we're going to trade skills. She's going to help me with wire wrapping so I can improve my stitch markers. I'm going to teach her to crochet so she can do all those fancy picot edgings. Then we're all going to live happily ever after in Craftland :-)

2007-03-25T16:22:00.000-07:00

I was thinking as I walked home from work today (Yes, I know it's Sunday...no, it wasn't my choice to be there!) that we need a common project that is the opposite of the ubiquitous "garter stitch scarf." In conversation and blogversation (ooo, new word :-) people discuss the garter stitch scarf as often being the first project attempted by a beginner knitter (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

So in order for everyone to be on the same page I was thinking we needed a generic project to encompass something most advanced knitters work on. As I was trying to choose between Aran sweater and Entrelac socks I came to a realization. Like many things in life, as knitters, we all begin in the same place and end up in entirely different ones. Each one of us learned to cast on, knit, purl, and bind off either from a friend or family member or a book or website. We all sat there cursing the needles thinking we would never get the hang of it.

And for those of us that became enamored with knitting no two are the same. I know very skilled knitters who focus mostly on delicate lace shawls or cabled socks or steeked sweaters. Knitting takes you as far as your skill and imagination is willing to go. So I suppose the garter stitch scarf really has no equivalent on the other side of the spectrum. Anyway, "intarsia jacket in fingering weight yarn with bust dart" just doesn't sound as catchy!

2007-03-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

I'm a little concerned about the pain I have in my left wrist lately when I knit. I thought at first I was just imagining it and if I ignored it it would go away. It started on the airplane ride to California when I knit for about 4 hours straight on my Secret Feet Socks. I was in the middle seat and even though I was on circular needles my arm tensed up and my wrist started aching by the time we landed. I think the small yarn and needles and trying to do those impossible left slanting M1's didn't help any either. It's continued on and off in the last week. I really hope this isn't a precursor to carpal tunnel. Maybe I should rest it for awhile. Does anyone have any experience with this problem?

Here's the hat I knit for A-M's baby. The yarn is Louisa Harding's Kimono Angora. It's the softest yarn everrrrrrr. The colors came out different when knitted than they did in the skein. It appeared semi-striped in the skein but then looked more variegated when knitted. Hmmm, wonder why that happens. I made up the pattern myself. Since it was my first baby hat I was worried it was too small because I was bad and assumed the gauge of 5.5 stiches to the inch on the label when mine came out closer to 7 stitches per inch. I came to visit and see the baby and when we put it on her head it was actually too big! Which isn't really a problem as she'll grow into it. It was just funny to me as I was all ready to take it back and make a larger size.

When I wasn't looking Merino went ahead and tried the hat on. The only way to get it out of his hooves was to promise to make him his own. Sheep hats....maybe I'm on to something!

2007-03-23T18:36:00.000-07:00

JF has been telling me I should write more about my thoughts and perspective on knitting and not just provide pics of my WIP's. So in an effort to make this blog more entertaining and interesting I'm going to be writing more about my thoughts. I have to warn you: some of my ideas are contradictory to the general knitting culture. Do not read on if you are faint of heart.

I'M NOT INTO KNITTING FOR CHARITY. Wow, it feels dangerous to admit this to the knitting public. It's not that I'm against volunteering and donating to charity per se. It's just I'd rather knit things for myself and friends and family. I did make a few squares for a Project Linus blanket last year but that's it. I know the Yarn Harlot last night said something along the lines of 'A century ago it was expected that you would knit hats for your family rather than buy them. In less than a few generations it's now expected that you buy hats rather than knit them.' I think it sounded more eloquent when she said it.

Anyway when I think about people who are really poor and needy it does make more sense to me to send them, for example, one hundred store bought hats rather than 10 hand knit ones. I know about the whole concept where the person feels special because it's handknit. In the case of third world countries where they're just trying to survive I think they'd rather have that ubiquitious $1 Walmart hat rather than no hat at all while their neighbor is flaunting a beautiful striped Koigu beret.

I do make an exception for oncology patients or hospitalized children though. Maybe that's why I went ahead and made those Project Linus squares. In the former case it's hard to buy a hat soft enough that it won't irritate the scalp for people who have lost all their hair to chemo. In the latter case children in the hospital, even if their families are of limited means, still have access to blankets. Then having a one-of-a-kind colorful blanket would seem more special than the generic scratchy hospital linens.

I can also relate to people who make blankets for cats in shelters but that's probably more because I have a soft spot for cats than based on logical reasoning. In fact now that I think about it, it actually makes less sense since the cats do not have the concept of something handknit vs. machine made. If you took a really soft blanket and cut it up into cage-sized squares it would probably have the same effect for the cat. In most cases it probably just makes the knitter feel better.

The other reason I can see knitting for charity making sense is that most likely people will not go out and buy blankets and cut them up for cats or purchase one hundred hats at Walmart. Perhaps this is a way to get people involved in donating who otherwise would not. I also understand that there are charitable knitting groups at hospitals and churchs who enjoy the social aspect of knitting together. If that makes your needles click then go for it.

I think my overall problem with charity knitting relates to the pressure I sometimes feel that I'm supposed to be knitting for charity. Are other hobbies or interests like that? To bring up similar obsessive pasttimes to the ones Stephanie mentioned on the tour do Star Trek fans, fly-fishers, and model builders frequently donate to charities in the context of their shared interest? Not that I know of although feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I spend all day at work helping other people and I have volunteered my time for causes in the past. Am I terribly selfish if I only want to knit myself a scarf or only make a baby hat if it's for a friend?

I just want to encourage knitters to think for themselves on a variety of topics and not feel pressured into thinking and doing things the way everyone else seems to. And please, don't take this as me urging people to stop knitting for charity. In fact go ahead and knit double to make up for me and thousands of other knitters who haven't knit for charity but are too ashamed to admit it!

2007-03-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

Look at all the knitters! I was fortunate enough to attend the Yarn Harlot's book launch and "Show the Muggles Night" at FIT tonight. Nearly all the seats in the 750 seat auditorium really were filled. And for once I wasn't the only one in the audience knitting! I went ahead and bought a signed copy of her new book "Cast Off." Originally I thought the premise was her traveling around the country and writing about the knitting related places she saw and people she met. Then I realized it was actually a trip to the fictional land of knitting. I havn't had a chance to read it at all yet but will give a review when I do.

They handed out these pins to everyone who entered the auditorium. It took me awhile to figure out that the "Y" in knyitters was for "NY." Am I the only slow one this wasn't obvious to? Every chair had a bag on it containing a pair of Boye size 8 straight needles and a skein of Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes) yarn. There was a pattern for making a square for Warm Up America. The stated idea was for everyone in the audience to make a 7x9 square during the evening and hand it in the end to make into a blanket. I think this was a thinly veiled attempt to quell Stephanie's nerves by talking to a room full of bentover heads rather having to look anyone in the face as she spoke. I finished about 6 inches before my arm started to hurt. I'm not used to using straights when the seats are so close together. But I'll finish it at home and mail it in.

As for the event itself Stephanie came out wearing her Bohus sweater and jeans as I and other readers had recommended to her on her blog. I took pics but I was so far back that you can barely see her in them. The sweater did look really nice in person and fit well. At one point she started overheating and took the sweater off tossing it on the floor of the stage. The New Yorkers in the audience called out to her to pick it up off the floor. Apparently in Toronto the bitter cold keeps all the floors clean (note hint of sarcasm).

Her response was that wool is washable. I guess she has never lived in a NYC apartment where your bathroom is the size of a moth's balls, your two tables are constantly covered with clutter, and even if it's superwash you still have to treck to the laundromat and pay $2 for what they claim is a doubleloader. Sorry for the tangent but if you haven't lived here you just don't get how 8 million people can live together in such a small area and only kill each other occasionally (more so in certain neighborhoods). Things get dirty...really dirty...so we don't put our handknit sweaters on the floor!

Anyway she was totally nervous in the beginning. But once she opened up she gave a really funny speech; part standup comedy routine, part rallying cry for people to see knitters for who we really are and how many of us there are and not succumb to stereotypes. She used the acronym CHOKE which stands for Constant Humiliation of Knitters Everywhere. She told some really funny stories of people's reactions to her such as when a man literally withdrew his business card after a ten minute conversation with her when he realized she wrote knitting books. One of the funnier bits was when she told people what they should say should a non-knitter come across your stash in all its glory without any preparation. You could say something along the lines of "Thanks for noticing. It took me a long time but I'm almost there" or "This is only the amount of yarn I need for the week" or pick up and stroke a skein of yarn and call it your kitten.

The only downside to the evening was the so called "Question and Answer" part. Only about 3 out of 15 people who took the mic actually asked questions. The others all just gushed to Stephanie about how great and funny she was and then competed by comparing how far away they had traveled to come to the book launch. I think she liked this because she didn't get put on the spot but I really wanted to call out "She's just a normal person. Unless you want to go backstage and feel her up under her Bohus just ask a simple question and then shut up. I know we're all these happy feel-good knitters but it's getting late, I haven't eaten dinner, and I don't care that you caught the red eye from Sweden or that your 5-year-old cracks up when you read Yarn Harlot books as bedtime stories." Wow, I feel better now that I got that off my chest!

To end on a more positive note I was interviewed for the "Let's Knit2gether" podcast. You can access it here. I was kicking myself for forgetting to bring my fliers for UES Knitters but the interviewer was happy to let me put in a plug for my group on her podcast. Hopefully it'll get into the final version. I'm going to go read my new book now. Now I don't have worry about finishing "At Knit's End" and having no other good knitting humor to read!

2007-03-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

I've been AWOL from blogland due to a much needed vaca in California :-) JF and I flew to San Franciso last week where we stayed for a few days before driving down the coast, stopping in Monterey, then continuing on to LA. I have about 500 pics and JF has another 350 or so but I'll spare you guys and give you some highlights:

Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier

Carousel also in Santa Monica
:
Morro Rock-it's actually made of lava!

Seals sunbathing on the coast

Fisherman's Wharf-you can see Alcatrez in the background

Muscle Beach on the "boardwalk" in Venice

Chinatown in San Francisco

Nemo at the Long Beach Aquarium

Mr. Friendly Seal

Coral

Lion fish-beautiful but poisonous!

Golden Gate Bridge on a foggy day

Buddha statue at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park

Waterfall in the park

Sonoma County

Barrels of wine

While JF was antiquing in Monterey I came across this knitting section of the store :-)

Anyone ever heard of this yarn?

Beginner knitting book from the '50's

Some patterns from the book

This is where the novel "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck took place. Alright I'll admit I never read it but I did muddle through "The Grapes of Wrath" in 11th grade!

Knitting themed charm bracelet I purchased in San Francisco

"Till the sun comes up over Santa Monica Bld!"

2007-03-07T16:29:00.000-08:00

I've become addicted to making stitch markers. It's taking away a little bit from my knitting addiction but I'm ok with that. I opened up a shop on Etsy.com and already made 2 sales! My shop is called Code Purl. First I made several sets with beads I purchased such as these:

Then I moved onto making my own beads with Fimo clay. After baking them in the oven I applied glaze to make them shiny.

So take a look around and tell your knitting friends. You can never have too many stitch markers ;-) You may have noticed that the quality of my pics has improved. JF bought me a new camera in anticipation of our vacation next week. We're going to California-not sure what the knitting is like over there although I vowed I would not turn this trip into a tour of West Coast LYS's!

I have more good news to report. I found my Glittens pattern!
It was stuck in the couch between the arm and the bottom cushion. I was in the process of making a stitch marker and dropped it down there. When I reached down to get it, voila!

2007-03-02T20:35:00.000-08:00

JF and I "felted together" last weekend. It was a bonding experience. I bought 5 skeins of Paintbox by Classic Elite Yarns. It is a "colorful merino wool" that "felts beautifully" per the label.
I decided I was going to make a proper knitting bag for JF. I wanted to do this right so we conducted a little experiment. We knit several different swatches of the yarn. We tried 3 different sizes of needles: size 11's as indicated on the label:
Size 13's:

and size 17's (no 15's were available so we jumped up a size):

We took turns knitting a swatch in each size. I did the stockinette stitch swatches with a garter border and JF did all garter. I just made one swatch on the 17's as it was getting to be a lot of swatches! Here they all are in their pre-washed states:

As you can imagine we needed some sort of system so that we would be able to identify which swatch was which once they had been washed. As there was no shortage of stash yarn lying around JF cut a small piece of 5 different yarns and knotted one onto the corner of each swatch. Then I measured each one and wrote down all the information in this chart:

After all that preparation the time had finally come to actually wash them. Since we were at JF's parents' house we took advantage of the "free" washing machine. We put all the swatches into a lingerie bag and put them in the machine with a pair of jeans. First we washed it on the lightly soiled cycle checking on it every five minutes. We found the agigation phase of this cycle didn't last very long. Then we washed it on the heavily soiled cycle to get the most agigtation. And here are the results. First the size 11's:

Then the size 13's:
And finally the size 17 swatch:

Here they are all posing together:

It was interesting to hold each swatch and get a feel for the relative stiffness of it depending on the needle size. I liked the look of the stockinette swatches better since they were smoother but JF preferred the garter since there was more surface area to felt.

After they had dried I remeasured all the swatches. Then I calculated the percentage of shrinkage lengthwise and widthwise for each swatch and took an average of all the numbers. The numbers actually worked out pretty consistently. The swatches shrank by 1/4 widthwise and 1/3 lengthwise. So now everyone reading this can go out and buy this yarn with confidence knowing how much it's going to felt. You're welcome :-)

In other knews I recieved my Secret Feet partner today. We each knit each other a pair of socks then exchange them in two months. Of course the person you knit for isn't the same as the one who knits for you; otherwise it wouldn't be much of a secret! So I have her favorite colors and yarns and have to decide on a pattern. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to get too fancy. Otherwise I'll never get them done in time. I'm going to try to knit them together using Magic Loop. Penelope (no blog) demonstrated this to me and it didn't seem too difficult. She said the most difficult part was casting on then it's smooth sailing from there. To the sock yarn stash I go!

2007-02-26T16:28:00.000-08:00

I finished one Glitten recently and was thinking I'd rather start something else than make the second one. However, I forced myself to sit down to cast on the second glitten. Lo and behold I realized I had misplaced my pattern. I took it with me on a weekend trip but was certain I had it when I got home to refer to as I finished the top. If anyone has a copy of the Glitten pattern by Shelley Kang it would be much appreciated!

Here's some pictures of my lonely Glitten:

Sniff...it's so sad. I have hope the pattern will turn up. My other option is making the second one from memory with the first one as a model. We'll see.

I went up to WEBS this weekend to get more Tahki Ghost Yarn for my vest in progress. When we got there I couldn't find anymore in the right color. An employee told me they took most of it to Stitches and would bring back what didn't sell on Tuesday. I was ready to cry! I went up and down the aisles trying to find some other yarn to cheer me up. Then I came across the Ghost Yarn in a different section and they had 3 balls plus a mystery bag of samples. They didn't charge me for the sample bag since it had no tag and considering how much $$ I was laying out.

Here are updated pics:

When I got home I realized the sample bag contained one full skein!
Unfortunately those skeins I picked up this weekend are a different dye lot than my original ones. The new ones have a brighter pink and a darker shade of tan. Since I'm using them all for the top I'll just consider it a design feature!

I finished knitting the body. Now I just have do the trim on the neck and armholes and darn in all the loose ends and I'm done! Last night I tried seaming the shoulders using the same yarn and mattress stitch. This looked terrible due to the bulkiness. I redid them using a worsted weight pink yarn and a three needle bind off which looked much better.

Ok, I know I'm an official blogger when my roomate no longer questions why I'm posing my knitting and taking close-ups. Although she did look up when I called out to my vest "Smile for me. Now give me a pouty look. Ok, let me see mad; real angry now!" I don't think my vest will have much of a modeling career since it just sat there like an inanimate object. Oh well :-)

2007-02-14T20:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a little raggedy-looking heart I whipped up for JF for Valentine's Day:

I bought this yarn over a year ago when Goldman's Yarns in White Plains had their Going Out of Business Sale. As much as I hate to see LYS's close you really can't beat the prices when they're trying to unload all their inventory. It's Farfalla by Filatura Di Crosa. I don't see it on Yarndex so maybe it was discontinued. I bought a few skeins in black to make a shawl and this one skein in red I thought I could use as a trim. They've been sitting in the stash so I thought it couldn't hurt to use a little red to knit up a heart.

In other Knitting Knews I finished one Glitten and made a lot of progress on my bulky Ghost vest:
I'm almost ready to bind off for the armholes. The best part about doing a vest-no sleeves! This bulky yarn is dangerous. It goes so fast I don't know how I'll ever be able to knit socks on size 3's again. I'm almost out of the fourth skein I had in my stash. The weekend after President's Day weekend JF and I are making a trip up the Berkshires and I can pick some more up at WEBS. But I don't think I can wait! I may cave and put an online order in this weekend.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

2007-02-10T12:42:00.000-08:00

I've been promising some pics of recent FO's and in an effort to avoid showing pics of my Glittens with another two rows done I'm finally going to deliver!

Here are some pics of the finished "Wine Country Sweater" or "Purple Sweater" as I've been referring to it as. I finished it in December just in time to give to JF's dad for Hanukah:

Here is Mr. F admiring his newly purchased yarn......and here he is modeling the finished sweater:

Here's the "Racing Stripes Scarf" JF and I designed together this past December:
I knit it using Aussie Wool I bought at Seaport Yarn. JF loves NASCAR and since Jimmie Johnson is his favorite driver we used the colors of his race car. It took trips to many yarn stores to find the right colors and wool that was soft enough for a scarf. I guess Seaport Yarn really does have everything!

This wool comes from Australian sheep and then it is dyed in China. The language barrier is apparent when the the color Mystic Purple is obviously blue and the color Onyx is green instead of black like the stone. I also don't quite understand why the yellow color I used in the scarf is called Honeymoon. Any guesses?

I knit the scarf the long way on 40" circs and was relieved when I bound off that it came out the length we had planned on. I had to redo the fringe on one side after getting a little overzealous with the scissors trying to make the ends even. He's been wearing it everyday so I guess it's a winner!

2007-02-05T17:10:00.000-08:00

So I have a new hobby now-beading! Check out my purchases from this weekend:
I bought all kinds of beads and pins and tools and this case to organize them.
And I made these neat stitch markers. It took me a few tries before I was able to get it right but then I was addicted!

I used a tutorial from the Fall 2006 issue of IN Knitters. They said to use "T pins" for the base. JF took me to three different craft stores before we located some. When I got home it didn't seem to be working. After checking out a few people's blogs I realized they meant to say "head pins." I actually e-mailed the editor of the magazine about it.

Fortunately I had bought a package of "eye pins" which are similar and I used those to make the stitch markers above. I quickly ran out and was having beading withdrawal. When I went to my office at the end of the day I found this package on my desk from the Pin Fairy:
Look what was inside:
If anyone's looking for some cool handmade stitch markers-you've come to the right blog :-)

2007-02-01T15:28:00.000-08:00

MITTENS ARE THE NEW SOCKS!
There, I said it. I'm not bashing socks any. I was an avid sock knitter myself in 2006. I suppose now that the cold weather has finally arrived we're all realizing those fingerless gloves we loved last spring and fall are not going to cut it anymore. Plus there are all those neat folk mitten patterns using Fair Isle to make it interesting. Other advanced techniques include using a provisional cast on and making each individual finger. Here's some updated pics of my Glittens:

The thumb and pinkie are done!
I used to balk at the price of fancy beaded stitch markers. Then I picked some up at sheep and wool festivals and now I can't go back to the little pink and blue plastic circles. I'll admit sometimes the larger glass ones can weigh your project down and feel a bit awkward. Plus you have to make sure you keep the bead to the front of the work. Otherwise it gets trapped in the knitting and when you try to pull it out it leaves a big hole. After reading an article in a knitting magazine I decided to try to make my own. I looked for the right pliers at AC Moore and online but think I'm going to go to Lowe's this weekend to pick some up. Soon I'll be making ones like these:
In an effort to not drive my roomate crazy with all my knitting paraphenalia scattered about the living room I re-organized and gave them a clever disguise:

I also found that I had so many cords around that looked unsightly between the chargers for my Treo and Ipod and the card reader for my camera. I now keep them partially hidden in here:

Ok, time to work on the the other fingers on these Glittens so I can wear them before Spring!

2007-01-25T20:22:00.000-08:00

So since I completed my sweaters I churned out that chunky scarf and also matching scarf/hat set for JF. Now I'm just stuck. I tried to cast on for my "Glittens" convertible glove/mittens. I did the tricky 2x2 tubular cast-on and did the entire cuff before admitting they were just too small for my hands.

So I ripped it out, went up a couple needle sizes but just can't get that cast on to work. Sigh.
Then I picked up a few skeins of Tahki Ghost Print Yarn when I was up at WEBS in Northhampton, MA. I had this idea to make a pretty capelet. First I tried making up my own pattern from the top down with raglan shaping. Two skeins in I decided it didn't look right and ripped it out. Then I attempted the Acapella pattern from Knitty. I had to readjust the numbers for my bulky weight yarn. Again, 2 skeins in I decided it looked like a dead cat wrapped around my shoulders:

So now I ripped it out a second time and am casting on for a vest. If I like the way it's going I'll have to order a couple more skeins but I'm waiting to see if I like it first!
I hate it when knitting is frustrating rather than fun and relaxing. I thought I was over all that beginner frustration but I guess as you advance you keep hitting up against it with each new challenge.
I did fulfill one of my knitting New Year's Resolutions so far. The hat I made for JF was done using Magic Loop. No pic yet. It's blue using Lion Brand Kool Wool-a merino wool/acrylic blend. It came out a little short so I picked up around the brim and knit another inch or so. The only thing was I accidently did the ribbing differently. The original ribbing was a 2x2 rib but with seed stitch in the background rather than straight purl. The second ribbing was your standard knit 2, purl 2 ribbing. JF said he liked it that way and not to change it. Another unintended design feature!
Although I haven't yet gotten to my Fair Isle Sweater Resolution I am using Fair Isle techniques on the Glittens. I've knit with two colors before and just kept them both in right hand twisting them over each other each time. This time I tried knitting with one color in each hand. The yarn in the right hand is knit by wrapping and the yarn in the left hand is knit Continental style. I had heard of people doing that and thought I would never be able to do that. But after reading about it on the Yarn Harlot's blog I thought I'd give it a try. Amazingly I picked right up on it and started two handed knitting like I'd been doing it that way all along. I think it was because I recently showed someone how to knit continental style and even though I pretty much sucked at it something must have clicked in the meantime and Voila! That made it all the more bittersweet to have to rip out those Glittens since I was on a role. Well, I'm not giving up just yet. It's cooooold outside and I vow I will have these finished before it warms up again.

2007-01-10T15:59:00.000-08:00

I've been knitting the last month like I've never knit before. I had good and bad news early in December. The good news: My men's cardigan sweater design had been accepted for the Stitch 'n Bitch Men's Book! The bad news: the completed pattern and finished garment were due by Jan. 2nd. That meant I had only 3 weeks from the time I got the yarn to knit a whole sweater and work out all the kinks in the pattern! Somehow I managed to get it all done.

Debbie Stoller gave me the thumbs up when I brought it in since she was on the phone discussing important knitting related business. I'm so proud of myself and now I know that I can knit anything in any period of time if I put my mind to it. I hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday season.

I think I won the award for most obsessed knitter when I told my family we couldn't have a holiday get-together after I had handed in my sweater in January! Ok, so I know you're all waiting for the picture. But it's top secret so you'll have to check out the book when it comes out later this year.

I finished the infamous "purple sweater" in time to give to JF's dad for Hanukah. It was a perfect fit and he's already gotten complements on it. Pictures forthcoming. Knitting related gifts I recieved:
Secret Santa: a gift certificate to the LYS Knitting and Stitching.
JF'S parents: the book At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much by the Yarn Harlot herself Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee
JF's sister and brother-in-law: the book Dominknitrix by Jennifer Stafford
JF himself: subscriptions to Knit.One magazine and InKnitters magazine, and the 2007 Stitch 'n Bitch Page -A-Day calendar. (Next year my socks will be in it!!)
My family-I'll find out this Sunday when we have our belated Hanukah get-together ;-)

After those labor (of love) intensive sweaters were done I treated myself by whipping up this quick cabled scarf of my own design. I had bought the yarn (Bear Creek from Kraemer Yarns) at P& S Fabrics a couple months ago. It's a craft store in Chinatown that was having this big going out of business sale. I went there with JF and my roomate ND and it was sooooo crazy. It was so crowded we had to wait 15 minutes just to be let into the shop by a security guard. ND saw a couple things she liked and made the wise decision to join the line while I finished scouting out yarn and supplies for us. Turns out she was on that line for an hour and a half! But we did score some great deals. We even bought felt and puffy paint and made ourselves stockings that night:

My knitting resolutions for 2007 are:
Make a fair isle sweater.
Continue to design patterns and get them published.
Learn to make 2 socks at the same time.
Complete some projects using Magic Loop.
Make more handknit items for other people rather than keeping all that yarny goodness to myself! Hmmm....yarny....I just created a new word!

2006-11-29T18:22:00.000-08:00

I have very exciting news to report. One of my designs is going to be featured in the Stitch n' Bitch 2008 Page-A-Day Calendar. It's expected to come out next summer. I designed and knit this pair of socks modelled by yours truly:
In other Knitting Knews the dog sweater I knit actually fit my sister's dog. Heeeeere's Tyson!
I got Tyson into the sweater while my sister was out just to make sure it fit. I was planning to give it to the little guy as a holiday gift. However, he just looked so cute in it I decided to keep it on him. When my sister came into the room she was surprised and excited to see him in the new sweater. Then he wore it to Thanksgiving for my whole family to admire.

Since I've completed so many projects recently it was time to cast on for something new. I've been wanting to make a pair of "glittens" or convertable mittens. I already had a pattern and made a sincere effort to use some yarn from my stash. However I realized the yarns I was combining were a completey different gauge and it just wasn't going to work. So what'd I do? You guessed it-went out to the LYS and bought some Cascade 220 in complementary shades of orange.
I did learn a really interesting cast on method called the 2x2 Tubular-Cast on for this project. It involves crocheting a chain of stitches using scrap yarn, knitting into them using the yarn intended for the project, then doing an interesting ribbing that ends up twisting on itself. Finally you pull on the crochet chain to unravel those stitches. It forms a really stretchy cast on edge. Here are some pics using my stash yarn. Sorry for the poor photo quality. These were taken on my camera-phone.
BEFORE & AFTER

Pretty cool, huh?

2006-11-14T20:20:00.000-08:00

Remember this lovely pic I posted on my personal Flash Your Stash Day?
Well the other day I went a little crazy with my swift and wound up a good chunk of it into balls or "cylinders" as JF refers to them. Check it out:

I also finished my Alpaca hat. It's done in 1x1 ribbing and features a large brim that can conveniently be pulled down over cold ears.

Another project I recently completed was this stately tuxedo jar cozy. JF and I co-designed it from some leftover mercerized cotton yarn I had lying around. A couple weeks of knitting and sewing later and voila! It even has little tux tails in the back for added authenticity.

2006-10-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy month of knitting. Too busy, apparently, to post to my blog! Here's what I have been working on:

I finished my FiberTrends Mock Cable dog sweater. It's being modeled by the one and only "Non-Floppy Dog." I love how the colors of Brooks Farm Four Play yarn came out in the pattern.

Next I will update you on the Wine Country sweater I started awhile back:

The back is completely finished and I'm almost ready to bind off the armholes for the front!

Lastly here's another WIP:
I'm making a simple 1x1 ribbed hat out of the softest alpaca yarn. I actually triple stranded it so I can knit it up on size 8's. So far it's 7 inches long. I'm going to fold over the brim for about 3 inches. So 3 more inches of knitting then I get to start the decreases. I know-so exciting :-p

In other important knitting news JF and I drove up to Rhinebeck, NY for the annual Sheep and Wool Festival. It was my second trip and JF's first. We met his parents up there and they mostly chatted while I shopped away. I seriously did hold back on the yarn purchases as I am trying to use up a lot of my stash. I miss the feeling of being able to pop into a yarn store, buy something on the spot, and start a new project with it. I always feel guilty now if I don't knit from my rather extensive stash (as you can see from my last post).

I can never resist Brooks Farm yarn (even if mad hordes of people are swarming the stand.) I bought another skein of their Four Play yarn in a variegated pink/grey/white as you can see above. It's a 50/50 blend of merino wool and silk. Beneath it is a bulky yarn I believe is new to Brooks Farm. I wish you could have seen it in the skein. One whole side is white and cream colored while the other side is dark brown and reddish. I can't wait to see how it knits up! A skein of the purple superwash merino for my Wine Country sweater snuck into the pic on the top. Sometimes it just seems like my yarn has a mind of its own!
In the next picture are a set of beautiful cards I purchased with pictures of colorful Fair Isle knitting on them.

These are a couple more sheep pics to add to my collection. I bartered with the vendor and thought I got a good deal until I saw the KNITTING pic being sold for nearly 20 dollars less at another stall. Oh well! My roomate is even going to let my hang the KNITTING sign up in the living room over my little corner of WIP's.

The crowning glory of my Rhinebeck purchases is this swift and ballwinder I bought at Morehouse Merino after the show was over. They had an awesome afterparty at their store nearby with wine, hot cider, refreshments, and booksignings with knitting authors. It was great meeting Debbie Stoller in person. Unfortunately the camera was in the car so no pic for the blog.

Anyway as for the swift and 'winder it is making life much easier and it's also really fun. It still took 4 hours to wind the second 800 yard skein of the purple Wine Country Sweater yarn even with the ball winder. I need to write a letter or something to the company I bought it from that they need to "skein" their yarns properly.

JF has the actual photos from the S&W Festival on his camera so will upload those when they become available (hint, hint). The sheep and goats were adorable as always. I somehow missed the alpaca barn which was a bummer. There was the funniest sheep that had laryngitis or something. It would start to bahh then seemed to lose its voice. Well, I guess you had to be there but it was pretty funny.

I hope I made up for a post free month with all these pics. Until next time (insert cheesy knitting catchphrase here).

2006-09-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

Since I missed last year's Flash Your Stash Day (Yes, I had a stash, just not a blog to flash it on) I thought I would have my own personal FYSD. After spending time with JF's 1 year old niece I rediscovered the joys of Peek-A-Boo. So on that theme here goes:

Oh, what a nice faux wicker basket...

...full of yarn!

Hmmm innocent looking baskets on the shelves...
...full of yarn!
What a pretty fabric case...
...full of yarn, err...I mean needles!
But where oh where are the...
...straight knitting needles?!

Not to be outdone my assorted knitting notions wanted to get some camera time.

Then my sheep sketches wanted to say hi:

Helloooo sheep!

The End :-)

2006-09-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

It's my pleasure to introduce......
Mousie, Mousie!
I used the pattern from Toys to Knit by Tracy Trapman. The head is kind of bobbly but the scarf keeps it in place for the most part. He's my little punk rocker! Also the tail was a bit of a challenge. The pattern tells you to make an I-cord with 8 stitches which is a lot for an I-cord. It took me a few tries before I realized you have to pull the first and last stitches really tight to make it work.
He wasted no time making new friends :-)

I also finished a really pretty pillow for my mother. I used a variegated yarn of pinks/greens/blues and cream. I sewed four mitered sqares together for the front. Then I used a fuzzy pink yarn in stockinette stitch for the back. I designed the pattern myself. Unfortunatley I went ahead and gave it to her last night before taking a picture! However, it was a 4 month late belated birthday present :-o so it needed to go out. Next time I go over there I'll have to take a pic so everyone can see my handiwork.

There's another reason to put me in the knitting blogger hall of shame. Last weekend I went up with JF to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival. We did take many pictures. However, when we returned home we realized the camera was nowhere to be found! I think we might have left it at Cracker Barrel where we ate dinner on the way home. Mmm, Cracker Barrel. Anyway there are soooo many pictures of cute sheep and alpacas in there. Not to mention all the glorious yarn! We saw a sheep being sheared and border collies herding sheep which was really interesting. There was also a Llama Obstacle Course and a Drop in and Spin demo. It was a lot smaller than Maryland and Rhinebeck but I secretly like it better that way. The crowds aren't overbearing and there's more yarn for me! I did take some pictures once I got home:

Here's a brochure about my favorite sheep breed-the Leicester Longwool. It has curly hair like me! Below are some very fat sheep on the cover of the festival program.
Here's some stuff I purchased at the Vermont S&WF: a festival t-shirt, a book of knitting short stories, some pretty stitch markers, a double point needle holder, and the softest alpaca (I couldn't resist making one yarn purchase!

Then we went to the Knit-Out in Union Square this afternoon. Again no camera. Even if I had remembered to bring mine I've dropped it so many times that the zoom button literally fell off. So everything ends up being taken from too far away! I handed out a few cards advertising my knitting group the UES Knitters:

It was a very sunny day and, as usual, thousands of people were there. We took in a bit of the fashion show and all the retailer booths. It's funny how AC-Moore and Michael's and all the yarn brands they sell (Lion Brand, Caron, Paton's) have booths there and yet they don't have stores in Manhattan! At this point I'll admit that I'm too much of a yarn snob to shop there anyway for anything but needles. We got in line to recieve a free pair of Clover glow-in-the dark needles but of course they ran out as we approached the front of the line. Anyway, then we met up with our friends from Sit 'n Knit on the lawn at Union Square Park. It was nice to take a break from all the crowds to just relax and do our favorite thing-knit!

Here are some pics from last year's Knit-Out. I was gonna try to pawn them off as from today but I think some of you die-hards would see right through my ruse!

Lovely Knitted Displays.....
Me and Lilly Chin!!

Ok I think I made up for my lack of recent postings. As you can see I've been really busy with knitting and knitting related events :-)

2006-08-28T19:06:00.000-07:00

It's funny. I talked for months about how I wanted to start my own knitting blog. Then when I finally take all the steps to do so I only update it twice in a month! Anyway I have made a lot of progress on several projects. I finished JF's sweater just in time for his birthday. It's the rolled edges sweater from the boxed set Knitting To Go used a wool/silk/mohair blend called Riata from Brooks Farm Yarn. I bought it at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May. So I figure 3 months isn't too bad for a sweater. Especially when I keep starting other projects in the meantime!

I cast on for a sweater commissioned by JF's father. He picked out the yarn at the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fairl. I don't have the label with me but will update when I can. It's a beautiful purple superwash wool in a lightweight worsted weight. I finally found the perfect sweater in a special edition of Vogue Knitting from 2002. I have to credit the lovely storeowner from the knitting store in Freeport for actually giving it to me for free when I brought it up to the register! The sweater is called "Wine Country." I spent 4 hours 2 weekends ago winding one enormous tangled hank into center pull balls. I know it's crazy but after a while it's addicting to sort through the maze of yarn and conquer it into neat little skeins. Anyway I completed all 7 1/2 inches of the ribbing this past weekend. It's a 2 x 2 rib with seed stitch in between the stockinette ribs. Then it's all stockinette stitch with a lovely cable that runs around the neck and down the center. Well you'll see when it's all done. But check out the sneak peek in the pic above!

2006-08-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

We had a huge turnout tonight at the knitting group I created. Well relatively speaking of course. It was me and JF plus a couple other girls. Then we were creating a stir knitting in Starbucks and two more women on separate occasions came up to us interested in joining! It's true what they say: if you build it they will come. Check out these pics!

If you wanna join in on the fun go click on the link below the pictures:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UESKnitters/