Five days, five entries. I can't remember the last time I managed that!

I have to confess I didn't go back to the doll yesterday. I am having a little too much fun with Ian's sock, here's where it stood this morning:

It actually has a heel now, thanks to my train ride in this morning. I decided to go with a contrasting color to make the yarn go further. Just to be safe. I only have the one skein of the red. I know that you need two for an adult sock. I suspect one is more than enough for a pre-schooler sized pair but being cautious can't hurt.

It actually should be finished by now but I haven't been working on it as much as I could have. On the train rides going to and from work I've been catching up on some reading and I haven't been doing much knitting in the evening. I'll finish it tonight though so I can get back to the doll for the weekend.

The weekend weather is predicted to be beautiful (it's absolutely gorgeous, temperature wise, today as well) so I think I'll take the kids to the zoo. Ian's been asking for the "zoom" for a few weeks now but the weather has sucked. Rinaldo works tomorrow so it will be a great day for it. No Rinaldo, no car and the zoo is nice and close by bus.

As an addendum to yesterday's post I'd like to give some artisans their due. The lovely objects in the earthenware photo were all gifts. The cup was made by my co-worker and friend Gary's very talented wife Virginia (she's a knitter too so I'm biased of course). It is absolutely my favorite milk cup and if you spend any amount of time with me you will know how much I love milk so it holds a very important place in my cupboard. The house was made by my other co-worker and friend Richard's wife Liz. They gave that adorable little house to Rinaldo and I for a wedding present. The bowl was made by my very dear friend Leslie, who left me a few years ago to go home to San Diego. We recently met up at a conference and she gifted me with the lovely bowl. I'm also not sure any of those items are in fact "earthenware" as I gather that is a very specific material. In fact the cup is actually "stoneware", Gary informed me, but I needed an "E" so I took some artistic license.

That's it for me, have a great weekend everyone!

E is for...

I had a big problem with this one. What the hell do I show for E?

My love of things Egyptian:




The lovely Earthenware items made for me by dear friends:

In the end I realized I had the perfect E -

Elder


Maribel and me on the Knitty Cruise last September.

Please go wish Maribel a happy birthday. She's a whole 3 months and 17 days older than me...the crone...

Love ya Bel!!!

It's a pictureless day today. I was running around too much this morning to take any and last night I was working on the blog. You like? I wanted to re-do the look for Spring anyway. That's the only reason I had a back up of the template. It's not like I always back it up (although I may start now). Since everything was lost yesterday I figured that was a sign to get it done. It's not quite done. Some things are still missing from the sidebar and there is still some color tweaking that I want to do but overall I think it's a nice change.

As far as knitting goes. I did, amazingly enough, find my old copy of the Anouk pattern with all my annotations. Sadly it doesn't tell me what needle size I used. I found a few swatches I had made for it as well (sounds like I'm really organized right? Not quite, just lucky). The swatch is way looser than the one I made so I'm sticking with an 8 and just re-working the numbers. I started the pocket so I can get a really good sense of my gauge.

I got a bit sidetracked by another project yesterday though. It seems there is a great inequity in my home. Avery has a pair of socks made by me, I have a pair of handknit socks I got in the first Sockapalooza and Rinaldo of course has his Socks that Rock. Poor Ian has none. That can't continue. I cast on yesterday for a pair of red socks (Ian's choice) using some Opal yarn I had in stash. This also means that I have begun socks for the Red Hot Socks knitalong. I still plan on making my Ruby Slippers Socks that Rock for me but now they can wait patiently. The joy of these socks is my son's teeny tiny 4 year old feet. Ok they're a bit big for a 4 year old but their small for sock making! I'm already halfway through one and I started on the train going home and did no knitting last night. Love that!

It's back to the doll for me tomorrow. Have to stay on track with that.

Back to the grind here at work.

Happy Wednesday everyone...

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

ABC Along

I seem to have fallen dreadfully behind in the ABC Along so I hope to make up for it this week.

First up is D:



D is for Daddy


An obvious choice it’s true but my Dad had so much to do with the person that I am it’s the only one to make. While my relationship with my mother could be quite contentious. My relationship with my Dad was the brightest thing in my life. I don’t know how well I would have met life’s challenges without the tools he gave me. He taught me most of all to think for myself. Even if that meant I disagreed with him. I just had to be able to argue my point well.

My Dad was born blind. His Mom had German Measles when she was pregnant. He did regain some sight around the age of three. He was quite mischevious from what I’ve heard. He and his brother would play rescue mission and tie their poor cat in a basket and pull it up through the window to the second floor of their house. Cat crying all the way.

He made it to college but when he lost his sight for good in his third year he had to quit because his grades dropped and he lost his scholarship. He wanted to be teacher and it was a great loss that he wasn’t. I and many of my friends benefited a great deal from his patience when he helped with our school work. He had a gift for making things clearer.

He became an audio engineer later in life (he ran a newsstand when I was born and worked in photo processing after that). It was something he truly loved. He and my mother were married for 15 years. After their divorce he married a woman named Diane, who was also an audio engineer. She is very warm and kind and I love her very much. My Dad had 15 years with Diane before his death from lung cancer at age 63, six years ago. My mother thought that very fair.

I miss him every day…

Edited later- I accidently deleted my template this morning. I have a backup of it but it's at home on the laptop. Consider the site to be under construction for today.

I dont know if I did

...sorry about the weird title, blogger was down all morning so I did this in Word, when you upload it through Blogger for word it automatically creates a title from the first few words...


I don’t know if I did a lot this weekend or very little. If I don’t leave the house at all during the weekend I somehow feel as if I was just lazing around, no matter what I did at home. On Saturday I didn’t do much other than knitting, but on Sunday there was cleaning and furniture putting together to be done.

We finally got a new dining room set (gotta love JC Penney 50% off sales). Our dining room is huge and it simply dwarfed our poor little table. So we got a much bigger one, that seats 6 instead of 4 and has a leaf in the center to expand even more. Of course that means lots of pieces of table and chair strewn all over the place for most of the day. It didn’t occur to me to take a picture but I will later since I’m talking about it!

I did get a great deal done on the doll. The back piece is complete. I started it on Thursday morning. The doll is done in four pieces, a back, a front and two arms. The head continues into the body and the body continues to legs. See:



It’s a little odd but having seen the finished project (scroll down to the 9th, sorry I can't seem to find the link to the actual post) I have complete faith in the process.

As a reward for finishing a quarter of the doll I decided to give myself a break and move on to Anouk for a few days. I was working my gauge this morning and I seem to be off badly. I am using LB’s Microspun which I used on my first Anouk (damn I just looked back at an old post and realized I did the pocket as the swatch, that was smart why didn't I do that this time!). The problem is I can’t find the copy of the pattern I worked from so I have no notes around on what needle I used. I do have a knitting journal but I typically just write stuff like that on the pattern directly, if at all. I’m probably sticking to a 7 or 8 and doing a size smaller than I planned. It should meet somewhere in the middle. According to the blog the other one came out a bit big so that should work just fine. That’s the great thing about baby clothes, just make ‘em big they’ll always grow into them.

Ok, now this is fun:


Booking Through Thursday

Today's questions are from Marie. Thank you!

1. Do you finish every book you start, no matter how bad it gets? Why?
   

No, if it doesn't hold my attention then it's not worth the time. It doesn't have to be a page turner but I have to at least be interested in what happens next.


2. Do you ever sneak-read the ending before you finish the book? If so, what about the book tends to cause you to do so?

No way, no how! My husband does however and irritates the hell out of me, especially since he likes to do it with books I am currently reading. So without ever reading the book he knows how it turns out before I do. Drives me nuts!!!

Thanks to Julie for the link.

You may recall this post from a few weeks back. I thought we should see where we stand:

February 14 - Jaywalkers finished on time
February 16 - Chunky Cable bag finished on time
February 10 - Branching Out finished on time .
Soon - fingerless gloves 2 sets finished one set, mostly done with the second.


Honestly I'd be done with the second set if I had managed to stay awake past 8 last night but my body worked against me. I fell asleep putting Ian to bed.

Not too bad an output if I do say so myself. Let's see what's up for March:

Rag Doll
Anouk
Odessa

On the face of it not much but that doll is on 2s or 3s (I haven't done my gauge swatch yet) so she takes awhile. Let's not forget that poor Bob isn't even done yet and he's just about the same size. Anouk took me a couple weeks last time so I figure it won't take too long. I'll be working on that and the doll at the same time to give myself some relief from the tiny gauge. Odessa can even wait until the beginning of April since I know it's a fast knit. Although I may swatch for it now to make sure I can use the alpaca for it.

Of course I'm already behind schedule since I haven't finished the damn gloves. Hopefully I can finish them tonight and cast on for the doll. Wish me luck!


Happy Wednesday...

"It takes a village to freak out non-knitters...and there is strength in numbers. "
- The Yarn Harlot

Since I kept you occupied with knitting olympics stuff this weekend, and let's face it I'm lazy, I'm phoning in my post today. Thanks to The Spinning Goth for a Monday meme.


Open up your MP 3 player, set it to “shuffle”/random play, and list the first 10 songs that come up. No matter what they are. Ready? Here we go…

1 - Stealing Rosemary - The Bangles
2 - Hard Times - Queen Latifah
3 - Tattooed Love Boy - The Pretenders
4 - Cup of Coffee - Garbage
4a - I've Got 2 - Big Bird & Oscar the Grouch (I have some of the kids' music on it for the car)
5 - Fernando - Abba
6 - The Boogie Hat Be - Black Eyed Peas
7 - I Hear the Bells - Mike Doughty
8 - Porno Star - Motley Crue
9 - The Message - Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five
10 - Edge of Seventeen - Stevie Nicks


I don't typically tag when I do meme's but I've got two fairly new bloggers who should suffer a bit. Maribel, Angelia you're it...

The Podium Shot



I'm amazed. I finished it and it looks good damn it. Alpaca does block like a dream. The scarf does have a large flaw. One end is curved and the other is straight. You can see it if you look closely. I may wet the end and re-block it. I may not. I tried really hard to fix it when I was blocking yesterday and I couldn't. What I should have done was block from that end first. Live and learn. The pattern is so pretty I don't think the flaw will attract much attention.

I've decided to give it to my aunt when I visit her. Her birthday will have just passed when I get to Iceland and I'd like to give her something special. I may do Odessa to go with it, not that they match but in the same yarn it could work. I have enough on my plate at the moment though. Odessa will have to wait regardless.

My review of the pattern? Overall it was good, although I couldn't have done it without the print out that Lisa shared with me. She broke it down row by row, in columns. This way I never confused which direction went for which row. It irritated me that I had to be such a slave to the pattern, literally reading every stitch for every other row. On the other hand there was a great sense of satisfaction as I finished each repeat. Will I do lace again? Yes, I will but never again as my primary project. It's too intense. As for Kathleen's question, yeah I do think Charlotte is next but it will be the kind of project that may take a year to finish.

Thanks for all the support and cheerleading. It helped a lot when the outcome was questionable. Congrats to all my team mates on Team NY (who's button has mysteriously disappeared from my sidebar), Team Iceland and the US Swearing at Lace Team. You're all winners just for particpating, the finishing is actually just icing on the cake.

Enjoy your Sunday...

...ssh...the lace, she is blocking...

Olympic Knitting

Betcha thought I wasn't going to pull it off. There were questions earlier in the week but it suddenly started to come together. I'm not going to lie, I have a repeat or two to go and a small issue with the previous row that I need to tink back but I think she's looking pretty good:


My plan is to finish tonight (I left it home so I could deal with the lack of a stitch in the row on my couch rather than the subway) and block the hell out of it this weekend. Either way there is no reason I shouldn't have it done by Sunday.

Now I was walking around yesterday feeling pretty damn good about myself. I mean I never finish things in time for a deadline, or at least if I do it requires a lot of last minute late night knitting and here I am totally on schedule. Yup the ego was pretty big yesterday. Then I went to my finishing class.

I was pretty excited about class last night as it was about blocking (also short row shaping and kitchener but blocking was what had me interested). I do block but not often and very informally. I wished I had blocked the Irish Hiking Scarf better, hell I wish I'd gotten a better picture of it but whatever. So the teacher brings out the lace scarf she is working on to talk about blocking and oh my it's Branching Out. So I mention to her that I am doing the same one and I pull it out. The scarf gets oohs and aahs from my classmates but the teacher (and the shop owner who was sitting in) were quiet. Ok, I figure they've seen better I didn't think much of it. Then she begins to show how when you pull the lace firmly you can see the pattern better. Now hers is huge. Much wider and longer than mine. It was done on much larger needles and was much more open than mine. It was more defined than mine when I started on the 10s but big and holey. I envision the scarf as being far more delicate but it's a nice version. I showed that mine was not very defined and then the criticism came. "I really would have used a larger needle" (the teacher) and "the yarn is far too fuzzy for lace" (from the shop owner). Now let me say these are very nice women overall but I was really hurt. If I was more of a novice I would have been devastated. The teacher did quickly put in that it will be a lovely scarf none the less but damn.

So now not feeling so good about my scarf. I can't lie that the fuzziness hasn't been bothering me a bit but the yarn on the ball is not fuzzy. It gets fuzzy as the scarf is worked on, especially after all the frogging, but the definition is definitely not there:

not a great shot but you get the idea

I've heard that Alpaca blocks beautifully so I'm still hopeful but seriously I think they could have been a tad more diplomatic in their comments.

Whatever dude, I'm gettin' a medal...

Have a great weekend everyone...

Shameless Filler

Please do not ask about the Olympic Knitting, really please, ok?

Here's the deal. I'm a bookseller (so is Maribel but that's neither here nor there). As a bookseller I get a free (well my job pays for it) subscription to Publisher's Weekly. Every three months or so they do these preview issues for the upcoming season. Every preview issue seems to have more and more knitting related books in it. I've decided to show you a few. Now the magazine is really just ads so I can't tell you anything about them. I will link to them so you can see what they look like and any information they may have out on them but I have no idea how good they are or bad for that matter. Just some stuff to check out in the upcoming months:

Beyond the Scarf : 15 Simple & Fun Fashions You Can Knit June

One Skein April (although the website says it's available now)

Sexy Little Knits May

Lion Brand Yarn: Just Bags 30 Patterns to Knit and Crochet June

These are the ones I liked the most. There's also 2 or 3 books aimed at the tween or teen market and of course a few more beginners books, 'cause you can never have enough of those.

I ran into this article today. It flipped me out to learn that thanks to us (and the crocheters of course) yarn is a billion dollar a year business. I find that amazing. Of course with the price of some of the high end yarns I really shouldn't be I suppose.

This has nothing to do with anything but I know many of the bloggers I read have small dogs and this news story was something I wanted to share with you.

...what was that? Olympic Knitting, I'm sorry we must have a bad connection, you're breaking up...talk to you later...

I started this post yesterday but holidays being what they are I never actually got back to it. I did manage to finish the Chunky Cabled Purse in time for my student's birthday. I am frankly amazed at how well it came out:

Nice right? I am feeling pretty damn good about my mad skilz right about now. Tishana (the student) literally squealed when we gave it to her. She didn't even realize that I had made it, at first. She loved it more after finding out. She was thrilled because now she didn't have to buy a purse for Spring Break when she goes to Florida. Yes, she is that young...

If lace knitters are the figure skaters of the knitting olympics then I hit the ice pretty hard this weekend. On Saturday I was looking at the scarf and realized there was a fairly large problem:

Now I knew that one of the holes was bigger than it should be but I kept telling myself it wasn't that noticible. As I went further and further along however there was no denying it. On Saturday morning even Rinaldo had to comment on it:

So I had to rip back about 5 repeats. I have to say it hurt like hell. I worked on it as much as I could on Saturday so I could at least get those five repeats done again by the time I went to bed. Which I did.

I haven't done much work on the scarf since then because we decided to take a trip to Massachusetts on Sunday. I've decided lace knitting and riding in the car do not go well together so the scarf stayed home. We drove up with the cousins to visit Tashie at Mt. Holyoke. I'll share some pictures of the trip later in the week but I had to show you that Tashie's little sister Zeyda is a big fan of Clapotis:

She was feeling a bit cold in the dorm room so I let her use it to keep warm. Interestingly on the way home Ian also used it as a blanket in the car when he got a little chilly. That Clapotis, she is so versatile!


Have a good one!

Dude I Won a Prize!

I am not a person who likes surprises. For one of my birthdays a surprise party was planned and those closest to me knew that was not going to go well for the person throwing it. So they told me and we flipped it and made it a surprise party for her (her birthday is less than a week after mine). That being said, there are some surprises that even I approve of. Such as this:


Months ago Nancy did a 3 day walk for Cancer. I contributed to it. Now I don't even remember her saying she was going to do random giveaways for her contributors but she did. The package came on Tuesday. The keyhole bag is the prize but she included some Kureyon as well and a pack of pink ribbon post it notes. Cool. Thanks Nancy!

Olympic Knitting Update

No, picture today I was out at dinner with some business associates last night, so I got in late. For those who are interested we ate here. I love eating on someone else's corporate account. I have about 24" inches done on the scarf. Which puts me at the halfway point I think. I'm figuring 4 feet is fine especially since it may block a bit longer.

Thank you to everyone for the encouragement that blocking will bring out the pattern in the scarf. I needed to hear that.

Have a great weekend all!

Olympic Knitting

Have you seen how many people are now participating in this thing? I was skimming through Time magazine last night and they had a small piece on all the events inspired by the Olympic Games and there we were:






...and this is where I stand in my race for the gold. After another round of frogging last night, don't worry I have a lifeline in there so I only frogged one pattern repeat... a few times, I have completed about 18 inches. I guess that's not too bad. With 11d 4hrs and 34m remaining, according to the countdown on Stephanie's blog, that still gives me plenty of time to finish.


I did manage to get the needle and thread to put together the cabled bag, but I had this idea in my head that I should have 10 repeats done in Branching Out before I started. With the frogging I never got past 9. I guess Red Eye was just too exciting to knit lace by. I'll remember that.

Of course it could just be that I'm trying to live up to my team's credo of, "swearing at lace" since I have done plenty of that. For those of you out there who have knit lace before, now would be a really good time to remind me that the magic of lace is all in the blocking because at the moment it has even less definition than my first attempt. That means I'm doing it right, right?

Happy Wednesday!

C is for Cat



I was racking my brain trying to come up with something for C. I had thought of my cat but it seemed a bit trite, ya know? I was talking to Rinaldo about it and he too thought of the cat. Then I realized I could post about her on Valentine's Day and it suddenly made sense. You see my cat's name is Valentine.

The first Valentine's Day Rinaldo and I were together I went to visit him. On my way up the stairs to his apartment I saw the most adorable little kitten in the hallway. She was such a tiny little thing. I continued upstairs and Rinaldo let me in to the apartment. Once inside I told him about this cute little kitten that was down on the next landing. He wanted to see her so he opened the door...and in she walked. She has been our cat ever since. Hence the name. We celebrate her birthday on Valentine's Day since it's impossible to know when exactly she was born but she couldn't have been more than 4 to 6 weeks old when we got her.

Happy 14th birthday Valentine!

Although I'm sure everyone has seen a ton of blizzard pictures, I have to share mine as well. This is what I saw outside my backdoor:



This is what I saw outside my front door:



This is where I decided to spend my time while it was snowing:



You would think I'd have a ton of progress to show you right? Not so much I'm afraid. I did mostly finish the Chunky Cabled Bag:



I had some gauge issues so I had to go up to a 15. It's still a smidge smaller than it's supposed to be but not enough to notice. Unfotunately I don't have the right needle and thread to sew the lining in nor put on the handles. Otherwise it's done. I have to have it finished by Thursday so I need to get to a store soon. The snow obviously kept me in yesterday and I'm home with the kids today (the schools weren't closed but the bus delays were horrible, I couldn't put Ian on a bus and not know when he would get off of it) so I doubt I will get out today.

I did get some Olympic knitting done:



I had gauge issues with this also. It was far too loose on the 10s I was using so I frogged and went down to an 8. It's much better now.

One of the reasons I didn't get as much done as I would have liked it because of Maribel. She was a bit tired of being blogless. So we took care of that on Saturday. May I present Maribel's new blog, The Knitting Cube. Go make the girl feel welcome willya?

...and so it begins...

Ok, not actually this moment but Olympic Opening Ceremonies are very, very soon and I am ready:



I've also joined a couple more teams. First the obvious, Team New York:



Thank you to Iraida for the link to Mod Girl

Now in honor of my cousin Ingileif I also must claim allegiance to:



Thanks to Cassie for coming up with the idea and Sigga Sif for the execution.

Have you caught the publicity this thing is getting. That Stephanie, she has no idea of the power she wields.

Thanks for all the compliments on the Jaywalkers. I wasn't thrilled with the pooling on the foot but at least they both have it. Tisha loves them. She claims they are too pretty to wear but their softness will soon win her over I'm sure.

Have a great weekend everyone. Good luck Olympic Knitters!

Stick a Fork in Me...

...cause I'm done:



Do you want to see how close it was:



I was left with just enough to graft the toes. Just to be clear on what was going on here with my little siamese twin socks. Since I knew that yarn shortage was a problem with Socks that Rock (at least in the original skeins, they have since added more yardage) once I got to the toe decreases I stopped working on the first sock and began the second. I was using the other end of the ball. So basically I had socks coming out of both ends. Once I got to the toe on the second sock I worked 4 rows on one, and four rows on the other back and forth. The idea was should I need to use a different yarn at least it would be in the same exact spot. You can see some left over yarn from Devan waiting patiently in the corner of the first picture. As luck would have it I didn't need it.

I cannot recall being so happy to be finished with something. Though I like to think I am a process knitter, these socks were vexing me and I wanted them over. I don't know that I will ever make another pair. I can't really say why. It's a simple, well written pattern, that comes out quite beautifully but I didn't find it fun. It seemed like work. I may change my mind now that I've completed a pair. Should another sock yarn come along that screams for a pattern to show it's stripes it may be time to Jaywalk again. I just can't imagine it right now.

Tisha's excited. She will have her socks tomorrow, they are drying as I write. By the way Ms. Maribel, the blogless wonder finished hers over a week ago. I was just too petulant to share:



Enjoy the day...

I kept putting off blogging yesterday because I was trying to finish the Jaywalkers. I figured I would blog when they were done. I was home yesterday, I didn't feel well and with all the bus drama at the NYC public schools, I had no idea what time my kids would be getting home. The little one has the longer day, the big one doesn't. That means a day of knitting and TV for me until 2PM. All of that and guess what? Not done yet. I am very close though. I am halfway through the toe of the second sock, at this point I am switching to the other sock to keep them even. This way the yarn (which is running a bit low) will end in basically the same spot if it doesn't make it.

In the meantime I signed up for this:



This is just such a cool idea. A surprise at every stop, very exciting.

I didn't post anything other than the poem yesterday. I thought it should stand alone. I've loved Phenomenal Woman since the moment I first heard it. I think I appreciate it more because I heard rather than read it first. It's a rather funny story. I guess it must have been about 15 or so years ago I worked with a guy named Elvin. He was gorgeous and sweet and a very dear friend. He saw Maya Angelou on Oprah one day. The next day when he came to work he could not stop talking about this poem. He went and found a collection of her poetry and performed the poem for us (myself and some of the other staff). He was quite amazing, particularly for a guy. I've loved it ever since. For it's power, message and that great memory.

I thought you might want proof that I am actually progressing (somewhat) on Tisha's Jaywalkers:



There is the first toeless wonder and where I am on the second. I'm a bit farther at this point thanks to some subway knitting this morning. Yesterday we had a fire drill here at work so I took it with me outside to work on it. My boss looked at me and said, "Now that is obsessive". At which point Tisha said to him, "She's working on it because it's my Christmas present". She totally called me out. She's right though. Wish me luck on finishing it this weekend.

Anybody know what's up with GoStats? It's been down for days. I was pretty close to hitting 50,000 hits. I'd hate to have to start over with another service. On the flip side does anyone have another hit counter that they like, in case I do need to switch?

Have a great weekend everyone...

Phenomenal Woman

Maya Angelou


Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

In honor of the Bloggers' (Silent) Poetry Reading.

Thanks to Cara who saw the link Juno's...

I am so screwed...

I am in way over my head and it's not even Christmas. What is up with that? I need one of Lene's famous schedules to get everything I want to do accomplished in the time I have allotted. Here's the run down:

February 14 - must have completed Jaywalkers to qualify for Cara's contest.
February 16 - I want to make this bag for the student who works in my office for her birthday.
February 10 - cast on for Branching Out, supposed to finish by February 26 .
Soon - Rinaldo's co-worker asked for fingerless gloves for he and his girlfriend, I'd like to get them done before this faux winter has given up all pretence and become truly warm.

Are you laughing yet? You are if you've been reading this blog for awhile. Me and deadlines, so not compatible. I'm not even listing the doll I want to make, the Anouk (run that through Blogger's spell check and see what you get), another baby blanket or sweater for a baby who was born around the holidays and has yet to get a gift from me and finishing Bob. All of that I want done before I go to Iceland in April.

You're laughing right? I hear you, don't pretend...

I may pull this off. I can't work on Jaywalker today because I am working on homework for the finishing class Maribel and I are taking. It begins tomorrow night and I need two swatches for it. I got one done this morning on the train so the other should be done on the way home. If I can then devote myself, faithfully and wholeheartedly to Jaywalker this weekend I should/could/might be done by early next week. Then I can do the bag fairly quickly since it is a bulky yarn. Either way I have to cast on Branching Out next Friday. Hopefully the bag will be done or at least done over that weekend. I know damn well that if I am going to finish Branching Out it is the only thing I can work on. That's how I got lost last time I did it. I got distracted by other projects and couldn't find my place when I went back.

If I start to not be able to laugh about this Jaywalker can take a break. I promised Tisha it would be done for her birthday that's in April so there is time. But I'd love a shot at more Socks that Rock. Obviously the Olympics is for fun so I'm not getting to caught up in the deadline on that. March will be another hurtle.

Why do I knit again? Oh yeah to relax...

Bad Blogger

One of the reasons I don't ever do any of the secret pal things is because, frankly, I'm afraid of letting someone down. I forget things, lose track of time and can be quite unreliable sometimes. Here's a lovely example. Just before I moved I received a package in the mail. It was a RAOK gift from Susan:



It's a little photo album plus a postcard and bookmark from her trip to Lake Placid. In her note she says she ran into my blog, liked it and sent these along. She even mentioned that maybe I want to put some pictures of the new house in the photo album. Isn't she sweet and thoughtful? Of course I rushed out a thank you right away...not! I received the package literally in our last days at the apartment. I left it on the shelf next to the door as a reminder to e-mail her. It would appear that on the night before we moved, hell maybe even the day we moved, I put the whole package in the large rattan basket we use for our shoes. It was moved on it's own so I threw a lot of small things in there. Last week I was looking for Rinaldo's knee brace (which had gone in there as well) and lo and behold I found Susan's care package. So I officially suck as a gift recipient and Susan I apologize for never acknowledging your kindness. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Of course I do now have some great house and kid shots to go in it so it will go to good use.

Along those same lines of me being a sucky person I also never gave an appropriate show of appreciation to Elizabeth who put together the Knit Blogger's Cookbook. Which I contributed to and own a copy of. Thanks for all the work you put into that. It came out beautifully.

Be warned people, if you're nice to me I am evil and don't say thank you. I apologize in advance.

This weekend I went out to buy a skein of black Wool Ease and came home with this:



Now in my defense I was emotionally overwrought. It seems that Treasure Island is going out of business. Now for you yarn snobs out there this is no great loss but I really loved their selection of yarn. It was far more varied than Michael's or Jo Ann's and the prices were quite good. Their needle selection was quite good as well and they always had points and cables for my NeedleMaster set. It seems that while the store that I shopped at in Scarsdale was doing well, the rest of the chain was floundering. They declared bankruptcy and that's all she wrote. Maribel was with us in the car when I saw the sign so we ducked in and took advantage of the clearance prices. While in line we found out that the yarn shop we frequent in Hartsdale, Goldman's Yarn was closing as well. This store was originally in the Bronx and moved up to Westchester years ago. It seems the owners decided to retire. I'm sure they were spurred on by the Michael's that opened down the block. I avoided going to see what their clearance was like. I simply didn't have any more to spend. I probably would have gone there first if I had known.

Just so we're clear though, Maribel spent $8 more than me. Obviously I am the more disciplined of the two of us...

Friday is for Finished Objects

Look I finished Rinaldo's fingerless gloves(or mitts or whatever you want to call them):


Rather smashing, I think. He loves them. He was happily driving with them this morning. A happy husband makes for a happy wife. So there is much happiness to go around.

I have joined yet another knit along. Please help me!



I have Socks that Rock in Ruby Slippers and I am keeping it for myself. Once I saw this knit along I knew I was in. I find it easy to join knit alongs for things I was already planning on knitting. I don't usually (see below) see a knit along and then decide to knit the item. I guess that's why I'm such a joiner in this area. I'm a bit of a slut when it comes to knit alongs.

I just loved this button so I am now a part of the:



'cause ya know I will be...

go visit JenLa for tons of cool buttons for the various teams


Have a great weekend everyone!

I have some progress shots for you today. I am just about finished with Rinaldo's fingerless gloves:



He loves the one that's finished. I am a bit ticked though. I bought two balls of Silk Garden, double checked the dye lots and yet this second ball has no blue in it whatsoever. Instead it has two repeats of the purple. Not big in the masculine color range. Rinaldo says he doesn't mind. I actually spliced out one of the purple lines. I had the end of the first ball and it was all grey so I substituted that instead. The pattern does the thumb slit in a way I haven't before (of course it's simply the easiest way to do it so it's not revolutionary or anything). You stop knitting in the round for about 12 rows, you just go back and forth for an inch and a quarter. Then you join the round again. It's amazing how awkward it can be working back and forth on double points. Of course the pattern calls for two circulars but I wasn't up to trying out a new technique this week.

As for Jaywalker, Maribel is just about finished (that bitch...oops I mean that amazingly talented and fast knitter):



It's looking really good. I haven't done a damn thing on mine but here they are anyway:



sorry Tisha but yes I did try on your sock, but it will be washed before I give it to you don't worry...;)

It's a bit tight on me which is good since Tisha's foot is a bit smaller. The only problem I have is the ribbing at the top is loose compared to the rest of the cuff. I'm not ripping the whole thing out to re-do it but I will probably start the second cuff with a 1 and switch to the 2 after the ribbing is complete.

I will leave you with this story from my subway ride this morning, my embarrassment is your entertainment after all. I was working on the fingerless glove and the ball is getting quite small. It was inside my bag but I must have pulled too hard, the yarn flew out of my bag and onto the floor in front of the guy next to me (and yes of course the train was packed). He picked it up and handed it to me. Now I am trying to figure out how exactly to keep this wild ball under control. I looked at my bag and realized that I have the perfect thing. My bag has a cell phone holder on the side that closes with a velcro flap. So I took my cell phone out put my yarn in and voila, instant yarn tamer.

Necessity is truly the mother of invention...

Happy Wednesday!

I had a post in mind. Planned it on Saturday night. I was very excited about it. Sadly it didn't work out. Maybe Wednesday. In the meantime I'll show you this:



This is obviously not taken with a camera. I forgot to take a picture at home so I threw it in the scanner/printer/beast on my desk here at work. Any port in a storm, ya know.

This is beginning of the fingerless gloves for men in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I find it rather funny that Alison is doing a few things from the right now book too, yet it's January. Well there's always time for gifts right? Rinaldo's been wanting a pair for over a year now so I decided it was his time. He loved the yarn my hat was made from so I am using the second skein I had bought.

Poor, sad, neglected Jaywalker. I never did pick it up on Friday to do the last inch. I will although probably not pick it up again until I finish the gloves. That should be quick though.

I am seriouly cranky today. We are having a bit of drama with one of the publisher's representatives that I work with. Nothing serious but more than a bit unethical. Half the staff is out sick. I think it's really because of the nastiness of the day.

I'd rather be home...knitting of course.

Bloggin on the Train

I am actually blogging on the NYC Subway. I’ve been taking my laptop with me the past few days to watch my new box set of Titus Seasons 1 and 2.  There comes a point in rush where my mind turns to mush. I don’t want to read on the train to and from work, I don’t want to knit and I don’t sleep on moving objects so I bring something to watch.  Today I wanted to blog before the kids got up but the bed held me prisoner longer than I intended. I did manage to load some pictures at least. I realized while walking to the train that I could just type up my post in word and publish it when I get to work.  How efficient am I? Aren’t you impressed?

Today we have the next shot in the ABC Along:

B is for Bookstore



Welcome to the New York University Main Bookstore. My home away from home. I took this shot last night as I was leaving a little after 6. This is when things begin to die down. This is the view as you come out of the Text Floor Coordinator’s office (that would be Mike). I figured I spend a huge portion of my life here so it makes sense to share it with you. I have worked in bookstores of one kind or another for 20 years (this September). I have a degree in Early Childhood Education. I am technically pursuing a degree in Psychology (I haven’t registered for classes in quite awhile). My long term plan is to be a school counselor at some point, but here’s the problem: I like my job.  Not every day of course but overall I love what I do. Managing a huge department (with two excellent coordinators, the aforementioned Mike and Tisha so I never really have to manage), buying books and dealing with faculty and publishers.  I really do enjoy it. This leads to quite a lack of drive to get anything else done. I am a bookseller and it is such a part of me, I’m not sure I will ever be anything else.

For those of you looking for a Jaywalker update, here it is. I still do not have a finished sock (see the above paragraph about brain turning to mush). The first one is about an inch or so away from the toe decreases, see:



I put it down and haven’t picked it up. After Stephannie had to enlist the assistance of the Canadian Postal system to determine she was short on yarn I decided to stop before the toe. I have some yarn left over from Devan (remember that? Ian just about fits it now) that is similar in color so I am hoping that if I run low I can do the toes with that. I will finish the foot portion tonight and cast on for the second but I am taking a little break after that to work on some fingerless gloves for Rinaldo.

As for the Knitter’s Olympics, sanity has prevailed and I am backtracking from the shawl idea.  I think I am going to tackle Branching Out again. This time with some nice alpaca I picked up at Rhinebeck a couple years back. A scarf is a little more realistic but lace is the challenge.

Have a great weekend everyone.

How sad is it that when my best friend has an incident with her knitting I get all excited because it gives me blog fodder? Seriously pretty high on the pathetic meter isn't it?

So Maribel took her mother to see the Tony Danza Show this morning. As they are going in security asks if they have anything metal on them. Of course Bel had her Jaywalkers with her. So security confiscated it! They also confiscated her scissors which I suppose makes sense but damn are double points really that dangerous that you can't bring them to sit in a TV show audience? Of course maybe they were just afraid that she would be caught knitting on camera and make it seem like Tony just wasn't interesting enough to keep her attention. She had a good time anyway and of course they returned everything to her when she left.

My Jaywalkers are coming along. I'm not sure if I should finish the toe or wait until I have the other one at the same point so I can come up with a creative yet symmetrical solution if I run out of yarn. One of them would have been done but I got really, really sick this weekend. To the point where I only worked a half day yesterday. Not such a big deal you say? Well it is when it's the first day of classes and you're the Manager of the Textbook department. I must have done about 9 hours of work in less than six. I just tried to stay focused on the goal of the work being done so I could go home and collapse on the couch. It's very funny today, everyone is being so solicitous. I am never out sick during rush, even for a half day, so I guess they thought I was at death's door. Everyone is coming in asking how I am, do I need tea, etc. It's nice to be cared about but kind of funny at the same time.

Finally I'm going to take the Harlot up on her challenge:



I'm not sure what I will make but I think it will be a shawl (not Charlotte yet) maybe a feather and fan. It'll be fun...I think.

Happy Wednesday!

Look Ma I'm Jaywalking



Having gone up a needle size, and switched to metals, Jaywalker and I are now getting along just fine as you can see. I might actually finish one over the weekend...

but don't bet on it.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Happy retirement #11. Thanks for the cup!

Two weeks into 2006 and I finally have an FO:



Like my hat? I do. I had to rip it out a few times because I kept dropping stitches which is weird since I didn't have that problem with the first one but this was a darker yarn so I'll blame that. I made it out of one skein of Silk Garden. I have not stopped wearing it even though it is unseasonably warm.

I'm back on to my Jaywalkers. It's moving a lot smoother on metal 2s, although I can't say it's going that much faster. I'll spare you pictures since I haven't even gotten to where I was before I frogged the first pair. Hopefully I'll have real progress to show on Friday.

Maribel is also a Jaywalker now (hey Cara can she join the knit along without a blog?) and she was showing them off at our knitting group last night:



You may recognize the yarn as the grey Spirit Trail yarn I picked up at Rhinebeck. Since Rinaldo decided he wanted the Tiger's Eye Socks That Rock for his socks the grey was up for grabs, so Bel took it. It really shows off the pattern nicely for such a dark color. Damn she's probably going to finish long before me.

Claudia is a member of our knitting group. She works at the Barnes and Noble a few blocks away from Maribel's store. She has been working on a shawl for the past year and I have never ceased to be impressed with the intricacies of the work. It's on like 0000 needles, from a chart and yet she was always able to completely participate in any discussions. I know for a fact that she has worked on the shawl at baseball games. Way beyond my skills. All that hard work paid off and she too was showing off last night:



It's yarn she picked up at Rhinebeck a few years back and it may be from this book (she told me if I Googled Galina, Russian, Shawl I would find it and that's what came up). Gorgeous isn't it. Maybe one day I'll have the patience for something so intricate, but then there's that whole chart phobia thing, oh well...

Added later: Here is the actual book that Claudia got the pattern from.

Happy Wednesday.

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