Just a quick post so I can complete the circle on the interview meme.

Here are Susie's questions.

You all know the rules by now.

1. When did you first learn to knit, and who taught you?

2. How many kids do you have and how old are they?

3. I know you are a Born Again Christian, do you find knitting to be a spiritual practice for you?

4. If you could take a vacation anywhere, where would it be? By yourself, with the kids, a girlfriend or just your husband? (stolen from Katy's questions, because I liked it!)

5. What made you decide to branch out into dying your yarn? Do you spin?

Well Gidget beat me to it but I'm going to show you all anyway. Check out the Clapotis hat that Amy designed. I think it's pretty cool and I just might actually have enough of my yarn left for it.

I was reading Chris' rant yesterday and it made me realize something (although this is not her point she just mentioned it in passing), the reason everything is boring to me at the moment and progress is so slow is because there is no degree of difficulty in any of my projects. No learning new things, no growth. Ok, Bob has his difficult points but I'm not there yet. In order to keep things fun, at least one project must be challenging in one way or another. Now I am certainly not taking on the Stockinette Avengers as I too love to get lost in a good long piece of stockinette on occasion. It's just that usually it's my mindless project, that offsets a more difficult undertaking. Currently I have a garter stitch blanket (the log cabin, the challenge of picking up stitches gets old fast), the circular baby blanket which is wonderful process knitting but doesn't stretch my brain at all, Bob who is basically just tiny stockinette swatches at this point and the good old ribbed scarf.

I think I need to start something challenging, that will make me long for these mindless objects so I can truly appreciate them when I spend time with them. Haven't figured out what it is yet, I'll get back to you.

Avery had his school overnight yesterday. He comes home tonight at 8. No news is good news. I have to assume all went well since I haven't had any phone calls. He was very excited and I am sure he is having an amazing time.

Only one person volunteered to be interviewed, lucky me. I think this meme has just about run it's course. Susie, I hope to have your questions up tomorrow.

Also for those of you who read the comments on my last post. Maribel said she wanted me to go to England with her, she failed to mention that it is for a Knitting Tour of England! The ad was in a recent issue of Vogue Knitting. That girl dreams big...

Katy put up interview questions for me. I had been seeing the interview thing run around the blogs, but I waited until a blogger I knew fairly well got tagged. Then I volunteered. I love to talk about myself, but I am also interested in what people want to know about me.

Here are the rules:

1. Leave a comment saying "Interview Me". I will do the first two people who ask.
   
2. I will list your questions on THIS blog.
3. You will give answers on YOUR blog.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. You should ask 5 questions.

Now my answers:

1. Do you have any siblings?

No, just me.

2. Why did you drop out of high school?

No easy answer to this one. I suppose to put it down to one thing I would say that after my parent's marriage fell apart when I was 13 I pretty much had to parent myself and I did a damn poor job of it. There were many factors that contributed though. I see it more and more in hindsight. The biggest factor I think was the fact that I was considered gifted for most of my school career, yet no one ever challenged me. I coasted for grades 1-5. Then in grade 6 I was put into a special program for gifted kids, and my grades shot down. Mostly because I didn't know how to study or do real work. I was used to completing assignments the night before not spending weeks preparing, fact finding and putting together a good presentation. This was no longer acceptable and I never really recovered. I went to an excellent Junior High for 7-9th grades where I did better because I had some wonderful teachers ( and one who was absolutely amazing, Lois Cohen) but then I was sent to Stuyvesant High School. While it's true I did pass the test with flying colors to get in, I wasn't all that interested in Math and Science at that point. It was also a completely different culture than I had ever been in before and I found it difficult to make friends. By this point my home life was a mess, and I took to skipping school and hanging out. Tenth grade was a joke, I was absent more than I attended and they socially promoted me to 11th grade but I didn't do any better. When I was 17, I got a job at Barnes and Noble and started to grow up and life has been much better ever since.


3. Do you think you'll finish your degree? Do you still want to be a school counselor?

I actually just sent in my application to the School of Education here at NYU, to continue my degree. Let's see if they take me. I do want to be a school counselor. As someone who had a difficult adolescence I would love to help a child avoid the traps I fell in, but I love my job right now and I and my kids get to go to NYU for free. That means that I have 8-12 years for Avery to start and finish and 15-19 for Ian. It looks like it will be a change of life career for me.

4. If you could take a vacation anywhere, where would it be? By yourself, with the kids, a girlfriend or just Rinaldo?

I would love to visit Egypt or Greece. I think that both places and the ruins of ancient civilizations that still exist there call my pagan blood. I'd love to go with Rinaldo, maybe even the kids when they're older (over say 14) but I can't deny that I would love to go with Maribel just she and I in many ways. She understands how I feel about those places and we learned to love them together in our sixth grade classroom. She would be the ideal traveling companion for that type of trip for me.

5. What's your budget for Maryland Sheep and Wool?

I did originally have $300 budgeted but I may have to cut that down to $200 as I just got my reservation for Maribel and I to take the Yarn Bus later in May. It's going to be a hell of a month for yarn.

Yet another post with no pictures to show. I did have my knitting group last night, where I plugged away on the log cabin. Still boring (thanks Nancy for letting me know it's not just me) but coming along. It got lots of compliments. Everyone wanted to know how it was done. Even after I explained how it was done and how simple it was everyone still seemed a bit unsure.

I can't deny I am having an issue with the pattern. Not in the execution of it but in the fact that the directions make it seem so complex. I've given up reading them completely. All I do is refer to the picture to see which direction I am going in next. I really do love working with the Sierra. It is so much softer and more giving than pure cotton.

Since I don't have much to share of my own I thought I would share this article I ran into. It's really quite funny and mysterious...

The Night it Rained Knitting Needles

Now if I could only figure out how to forecast when each size would be coming down so I can complete my collection...

A Busy Weekend with Nothing to Show for it


I was complaining to Rinaldo last night that I had nothing to blog about today. I did spend some time on the log cabin blanket, so some progress was made. Sadly I realized the problem is that I get bored with it very easily. When I pick it up, I think, "wow, it's so quick and easy why do I keep putting it back down?". Then after a few "logs" I realized I am bored to tears with the garter stitch, 10 rows, over and over and over. I am so glad I have until June for this one.

The weekend was spent running around. On Saturday I had to take Avery to Fencing and then get him back home so we could drive up to Rockland County where he was going to spend the weekend with his cousins. We were supposed to then go to Tisha's daughter's sweet 16. On the drive back from Rockland we realized there was no way we would make it to the party. Rinaldo's knee was swollen and Ian was feverish so we stayed home once we got there. Then on Sunday we decided to go to Costco but we had to get there and back, put the groceries away and then head back up to Rockland to pick up Avery.

Avery was spending the night at his cousins' as a dry run for a school trip he is taking. The 4th and 5th graders are going on retreat to an environmental science center in a few weeks and Avery hasn't spent a night out of the house, without us, since he was 3 (that's a long story having to do with certain events and a mother's neurosis). It went pretty well, although Avery would want me to tell you that he only slept 5 hours that night. He had quite a problem falling asleep in a bed not his own.

I did go to Naughty Knitters on Friday. They are far from naughty and should really be called the Cool Crocheters as there was only one other knitter. The company was good however so I had fun. They are soliciting yarn donations so if anyone has any acrylic lying around that they don't want let me know. It would be greatly appreciated. We are currently making blankets for the Children's Hope Foundation but they are looking for other charities to donate to as well. I mentioned doing chemo caps for Gilda's Club so next month I will bring some patterns for them.

If you ever see a piece of yarn on the floor and wonder where it came from, read Bliss' tale and think twice before you pick it up...

Tomorrow is the Barnes and Noble knitting group. Oddly enough some people in the Naughty Knitters had heard about it. I guess we are getting a bit of a reputation. Maybe we should be the Bad-Ass B and N Knitters...

Look at me I have an FO:



I really love my mitts (thanks to Rinaldo for the picture). They worked up really fast, a mitt a day, and they show off the yarn really well. Plus they're comfy and my hands are quite toasty today, though my office is cold as usual (except when it's a sauna but that's another story). Finishing these mitts got me excited about my other projects again. There's nothing like a small quick project to remind you why you love knitting.

I do seem to have become a baby blanket making machine though. I have 2 on the needles already for gifts and today in honor of my first meeting with the NYU Naughty Knitters, I cast on for a third. The Naughty Knitters knit items for charity and the current recipients are babies with AIDS. So I cast on for a red and blue striped blanket in the classic dishcloth pattern. Quick and easy but pretty. The coordinator had mentioned on the phone that they were running low on yarn so I raided the stash for some orphan skeins and good sized balls to donate. So I will come bearing gifts.

This weekend I am devoting to the log cabin blanket, as it has been quite neglected. It is difficult to tote around since you are changing colors fairly regularly. Five balls of yarn don't fit in my bag very well. I may actually change the way I've been working on my various projects. I had been devoting all my time to each, one at a time. Once I finished a skein (or a section for Bob and the log cabin) I would switch to another project. I think I may have my cousin's blanket for my commute, the log cabin for evening TV knitting, Fridays will be for the Naughty Knitters blanket and Bob and the ribbed scarf can take turns on the weekends. Maybe then I won't get as bored and all the projects will show progress. We'll see.

The new Knitty is up. For the most part I was not overly excited by anything in. Nothing wrong with the patterns just not my style. I am however completely and hopelessly in love with this bag. Now heres the funny thing. A few years ago I was not a bag person. Really, Rinaldo had more bags than I did, only because he is constantly being given new laptop bags and backpacks at all his tradeshows. Something changed. One of course is knitting. Taking your knitting with you means searching for the perfect bag, it used to just have to fit a book but now it has to accomadate a project as well (in addition to wallet, keys and the like). The other thing is my friend Tisha, who is a Coach fanatic. She has excellent taste and frighteningly it has rubbed off a bit (not much, but a bit) on me. Even when it comes to shoes, but we won't go there. So now I want cute bags as well as functional bags, what the hell happened to me! Tisha and I will both be making Via Diagonale...


If you want to see some really cool pictures, go visit Nancy. She has some shots of her trip to Monterey. I really love the otter and jellyfish shots...


Have a great weekend everyone.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled knitting to bring you...

Look at what I won from the wonderfully talented Snooze:



Does that yarn just scream Spring or what (the color looks way more neon than it really is). It's Cascade 220 dyed by Snooze herself. She also made the beautiful stitch markers that accompanied the yarn.

Here's a closer look at them:



Now typically this type of color is not my thing, but I was very intrigued by the different shades in it. I have been trying to decide what I would make with it. I was a bit confused as it is so obviously a Spring color but it's pure wool. That seemed to me to be a contradiction in terms. Yesterday when it was beautiful and warm outside, I sat freezing in my office working on my computer and I was inspired. I am going to make these:



I've been wanting to make them for awhile now and I think it's a good use for this yarn. I can use them at work and for times when I am outside knitting or playing with the boys during the Spring and Fall. So everything else has been put on hold until I finish my mitts. Thanks Snooze for sending a bit of Spring my way...funny how the day after I received it the weather finally warmed up...coincidence, I wonder.

This weekend was oddly busy considering how torrential the rains were on both days. We had a birthday party to attend on Saturday and Sunday was shopping day, plus Avery and I had tickets for the Circus last night. I think I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.

The Circus was fun, more fun than I remembered in fact. I was a bit surprised, happily so, by how amazed my video game playing, mass media devouring near 10 year old was by the whole show. He loved it. The people being shot out of the cannon at the beginning, the tightrope walker jumping over flames, the acrobats jumping through hoops (literally) and the tigers roaring in a menacing way to their trainer, all kept him enthralled for two hours. On the way home he asked if we could go again next year. I'm really happy that he is not so jaded that it seemed hokey to him. They've livened it up enough that I didn't find it too hokey either. Amazing indeed.

I decided to spend some quality time with Bob this weekend. I finished his overall bib as well as one boot. I am about 1/4 of the way through the other boot. I should finish it by tonight. This dude is going to be a bit bigger than I imagined but that's ok. My bigger fear is that Ian seems to be past his obsession with all things Bob the Builder. Will he even care when I finish it? That remains to be seen. He did choose to wear his Bob the Builder shirt yesterday. Maybe he was trying to reassure me.

It looks like I will be going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival after all. I am almost afraid to admit this, due to the fact that I was commiserating with Ann only a week or so ago because she won't be going. I told her we would both have more money to spend at Rhinebeck. Well I won't have as much. My husband had been planning on going to Florida the following weekend and our family vacation is the week before so I felt that it was just too much traveling in a short period of time. However Rinaldo's trip has been postponed so we decided to go to Maryland for a little grown up alone time. That plus yarn shopping is going to make for a great Mother's Day weekend.

Sorry Ann, I'll be sure to bring you back something pretty...

I seem to be in a bit of a slump knitting-wise. You would think having 4 different projects to choose from I would have no problem finding something I want to work on but it seems not. I have been awfully tired so my evenings in front of the TV have been shorter than usual. We also drove in yesterday and today to accommodate Rinaldo's injury and although I usually enjoy knitting while he drives, Manhattan traffic is so entertaining I never have an urge to pull out my project.

I did do a little work on the log cabin blanket:



I'm a bit further along than this picture now, since my blue yarn finally came in. It's a fun and easy knit. Sierra is great to work with. The softness of cotton with the some of the give of wool. The only issue I had is the number of stitches to pick up. The pattern is very specific in the number it tells you to pick up along each side, but it never worked out right for me. I always had to stretch it over long spaces. Yes, I always have issues with picking up the required number of stitches on any project. That's just me. So I gave up looking for the perfect number. Now I just pick up however many stitches I need to, to get comfortably across the side. It seems to be coming out fine.

Ann discovered a fun new site:

It's pretty cool. There are articles, free patterns, yarn shop reviews and even a crossword, which I have not yet completed. Go visit when you have a chance, it's always good to support new sources of knitting info.

Enjoy the weekend everyone...

Well the week has settled down a bit. Rinaldo came back to work today, with his knee immobilizer. Thankfully he does most of his work at his desk so he should be ok. I haven't done much knitting since the ER. Yesterday on the train I was reading, although I had Bob with me to work on. I was happy to see when I got to work that my Patternworks order had arrived, so now I have the missing blue for the Log Cabin blanket.

I've actually acquired a few books over the past couple weeks, so since I have no knitting pictures to share I thought I would show them off instead.

Maribel picked this up for me at her store this weekend:



It sounds like a good read. It's about 2 women who are widows, and are completely different but come together over their knitting. It's an Australian author. I can't wait to start it.

I picked this up at the last meeting of my knitting group (Maribel's store has all the best knitting books!):


I always love Debbie Bliss and with all the babies making their debuts this summer I thought it would be a good investment. There are some really beautiful pieces in here. I just have to decide which one to start with.

I got this with my reward points from the Crafter's Choice book club:


I've been meaning to get it for awhile, as my finishing skills are lacking, but I kept putting it off. I couldn't resist it for free though (ok I paid shipping but it was only $4).

I also got a call from the woman who heads the NYU Naughty Knitters. We will be meeting next Friday and they knit blankets for babies with AIDS. Fun for a good cause, it doesn't get much better than that. She said they were running low on yarn so I will be bringing in some of my larger odd balls to share with them. She seemed pleasantly surprised to hear I had yarn to spare, little does she know...

Easter and the ER

The weekend was good. On Saturday I was home with the boys. We dyed eggs. It was the first year Ian was interested in participating. Of course after seeing 2 eggs change color, the novelty had worn off, but he did get a kick out of the finished product:



Kinda cute huh? I had picked up the Spider Man egg dying kit and it had all the cool little accessories to dress up the eggs. Ian walked around with the bowl showing it off and saying Spider Man to anyone he could find.

On Sunday we went to the zoo. We spent some time in the Children's Zoo first. The boys had a blast playing:



Then they did the egg hunt that the zoo put on:





There weren't really many animals out because it was so cold but this guy was showing off:



Beautiful isn't he?

I got a little bit of knitting done, not as much as I expected. I finally finished a skein on the blanket for my cousin. Then I went on to another ball for Rinaldo's scarf but didn't get very far.

On Monday Rinaldo's knee was really bothering him. He said it was the worst pain he has had in his knee ever and that's the knee that has always given him problems. Today he woke up and it was just as bad so I made him call out and took him to the emergency room. He recently switched doctors and the new doctor is impossible to get appointments with (I actually switched him back to our old doctor this evening, the wait in his office is forever but you can see him same day). The ER is never fun, I mean where are Mekhi Phifer and Goran Visnjic anyway? It was packed and moving slowly but it gave me ample opportunity to finish another foot on the scarf so I counted it as time well spent. Turns out Rinaldo probably tore his meniscus, that's cartilage to you and me, so he needs to see an orthopedic surgeon. Never a dull moment around here. I didn't make it into work either since the ER took so damn long. I should probably be more upset about that then I am. Oh well tomorrow is another day...

I got mine...



The copy I special ordered has yet to come in at our distributor so I went over to the closest Barnes and Noble to pick it up. It is of course very funny. A few of them even had my husband laughing out loud on the train coming home. It's a little weird because I feel like a dear friend wrote a book. I have yet to meet Stephanie, though we have exchanged e-mails and comments on occasion. I also remember her pre-blog from when I first started knitting and she always had those great posts on the e-mail Knitlist. It is just another sign of how close "knit" (ha ha) the blogging community is. One of our own has made good...go Stephanie!

On the advice of Ann and Nancy (have you guys thought about getting together and forming a rock band? Oh right it's been done), I think I will buy the yarn called for in the sweater pattern. The blue colorway is closest to my beloved sweater so that's what I'm going to go for. Thanks for the enabling ladies.

I'm home today so I hope to get in some good knitting time. Rinaldo works tomorrow so that has potential too as I will just be hanging around the house with the boys. On Sunday we've decided to inaugurate our new Bronx Zoo memberships and go to their Easter Eggstravaganza. My mother was the only one in the family to really still celebrate Easter so I always had a dinner. I figured this was a good way to keep myself occupied and create a new tradition rather than letting myself get depressed. Wish me luck.

Have a great weekend everyone and happy Easter to those who celebrate it...

Somehow I missed blogging yesterday, sorry about that. I don't have much progress to report. I've been working on the blanket for my cousin. I am having some silly problems with it. I don't have stitch markers in it to mark off where I should be increasing but it's pretty obvious, or at least I thought it was. I seem to be forgetting to increase every few sections. I always catch it after the fact and then have to fix it to match all the other sections. I am just not paying enough attention.

I saw a woman in Starbuck's this morning with her knitting on the table. It looked like a front piece for a cardigan. The interesting thing about it was that she was knitting on chop sticks. I've toyed with making some needles out of chop sticks for Avery maybe now I will.

I also found out there is a knitting group here at NYU that I knew nothing about. The NYU Naughty Knitters. The question is, how did I not know about this? Am I not naughty enough or as people keep telling me, am I far too naughty to be involved. I have e-mailed the head of the group to see if I can find out when they meet so I can attend.

I received the new Family Circle Easy Knitting, not too much in to be excited about but I love these baby sweaters:



and I am definitely making this sweater for myself:



It reminds me of a sweater I had when I was 12 or 13 that I ruined when I put it in the washing machine. I think unconsciously I have been looking for that sweater for years so I'm very excited. I just need to decide if I'm going to use the yarn they suggest, Porto Cervo, or go for something different. Decisions, decisions...if any of you have used it what did you think or do you have something you prefer that would work?

I got this quiz from Nancy and I couldn't resist, mostly because I love this stupid bunny:


you are the cute but psycho happy bunny. You
adorable, but a little out there. It's alright,
you might not have it all, but there are worse


which happy bunny are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

yeah like I haven't heard that before...

What a difference 2 days make. I feel so much better, now that I have finished the antibiotics. I didn't need the cough medicine all weekend either. I also have the sock monkey off my back. What did I do? I worked on not one but two projects this weekend.

First let me show off some yarn acquisitions that I got while I was sick. It turned out that the package I was expecting from Patternworks had been sitting in my super's apartment for over a week. I am not even going to get started about that. I'm just happy I have my yarn. Patternworks was great. They tracked it for me told me it was delivered and told me that if the post office couldn't tell me where it was to call them back and they would re-ship. I'm glad it didn't come to that but I was happy for such good customer service.

Here is the yarn for the log cabin baby blanket, see if you can spot what is wrong in the picture:



Let's see, there's pink, yellow, purple, green and...hey where's the blue? Oops somehow I screwed up and didn't order it.

Here's the yarn for Rinaldo's scarf:




This was such amazingly soft yarn and the color so interesting that I had to cast on as soon as the socks were done. Aah the relaxing feel of thick yarn on large needles. It's a heavy worsted, but after the socks it feel like bulky. Look how fast it worked up this weekend:



Rinaldo is very happy with the way it is coming out, but a ball only gave me 1 foot. He very specifically wanted a "six foot" scarf. So along with the blue Cascade Sierra for the blanket, I am also ordering 2 more balls of the Print 127.

When I wasn't working on the scarf I was working on the blanket for my cousin so no pictures there but it is coming out beautifully.

There are many advantages to working in a bookstore, but my favorite has to be getting advance copies of books. Look at what I picked up last week:



It's a sequel to Shop on Blossom Street. I wasn't completely in love with the first one but it was a fun read and I like the main character, so I'm looking forward to reading more about her in this one.

No one asked but I found out from my sockapalooza buddy what yarn she used. I had to ask because these socks are really, really soft, seriously. Here's what she said,

"The yarn is Regia Silk, 55% merino wool, 25% polyamide nylon, 20%
silk, color #091. 1 (one!) 50g /200m skein made your pair of socks,
with just the tiniest smidge leftover."

I am definitely going to pick some up and make somebody socks with it someday! Just not today, or anytime in the very near future. I'm not going near anything below a size 8 needle for a little while...

I've been on the disabled list all week so I must apologize for the lack of posting. I've had this cough on and off for the past 6 weeks or so. Last weekend it got really bad again, then on Monday we had the first day of inventory at work. Lots of actual physical labor, which can take a lot out of a desk jockey like me especially when I'm not at my best. Then there was all the dust flying around. Together this added up to me being horribly sick on Tuesday. I called out, dragged myself to the doctor and discovered I had a respiratory infection. He put me on serious antibiotics and cough syrup with codeine. I didn't make it into work on Wednesday either mostly because I was so doped up. I managed to drag myself in on Thursday but mostly because I had a meeting and I knew Friday we were off (inventory is a four day week).

This left me very little energy for knitting and no energy for blogging. So I didn't get to show you what I got on Saturday:


and a close-up of the instep:



Aren't they beautiful and so, so soft. They came all the way from Hawaii just for me! Thanks sockapalooza buddy!

Sadly my buddy has had to wait for her socks, due to my illness. I did manage to finish them last night (finally) so I will send them out today. She is in California so I am going to fork out for expedited shipping since I am 4 days late in sending them. Here they are:



In the end I'm happy with them. Although it will be a long time before I knit socks again and never again will I do socks on a deadline.

Happy Spring everyone....

Thank you all for the kind birthday wishes for Maribel, I forwarded them on to her and they did indeed make her day a bit more festive.

As for knitting, since ostensibly that's what this blog is about, I did in fact finish the first Sockapalooza sock on Tuesday. I took a picture of it this morning to prove it to you but my batteries died just as I was trying to upload it to my computer. Trust me it's done.

I am about half way through the cuff on the second one and it is going much faster than the first. If I can maintain my discipline this weekend and work on it during every free minute I am sure it will be done in time to be sent out Tuesday.

I had my knitting group at Maribel's store this past Tuesday. Much fun was had as usual. One of the knitters, Sonia, brought cookies for Bel's birthday. Chocolate chip and still warm from the oven. They were amazing. I took a break from the sock to spend some time with the baby blanket. It's large enough now that I was able to switch to circular needles so it's going pretty quickly.

I haven't received my package from Patternworks yet. According to their records it was shipped out on the 28th. I do have problems receiving packages from USPS at home, though I don't know why. If it fits in the box it doesn't seem to be an issue but anything larger doesn't seem to get through and they never leave the little slip to tell you to pick it up at the post office. I am going to call Patternworks today and see if they can re-ship it to my office. That's what I should have done in the first place.

For all of you wondering where the beautiful Izzy doll came from. The pattern for her is in this book. Bel said it was very challenging but she gained all kinds of skills that she can now use on bigger projects, like turning a heel and the intricacies of sweater construction.

Back to work and later to work on that damn sock...have a great weekend everyone...

Top 10 Reasons Why Maribel is my Best Friend

10- Because Mr. Poloso sat us next to each other in 6th grade.

9- Because she will without hesitation go to a Motley Crue concert and a Duran Duran concert within 1 month of each other and not for one minute wonder why two women in their mid-thirties would do such a thing.

8-Because she spent the last two months doing the most challenging knitting project she has attempted to date so her other best friend's first daughter can have this when she is born:


believe me the doll, Izzy, is even more beautiful in person.

7-Because she taught me that to embrace your culture you needn't give up your individuality. There aren't a whole lot of 36 year old Puerto Rican women who can discuss, with great knowledge; heavy metal, Latin music, Wonder Woman episodes and their favorite pieces at the Met. But the most important thing she will tell you about herself is that she is a Boriqua.

6-Because when her brother was deathly ill and waiting for a liver transplant, she took charge and held her family together. Even though I know she got up every day wondering how the hell she was going to get through it. And when my mother was in the most difficult part of her illness she would come with me and just sit and lend me her strength.

5-Because even though both my parents are dead and I have no siblings, thanks to her I have 3 brothers, numerous nieces and nephews (especially Nina and Danny) and a mom who adopted me when I was 13 and many times made me feel safer and more welcome in her home than my own.

4-Because I got her a job at Barnes and Noble when I first became a manager (back when we were 18) and she is still there and is one of the best damn booksellers around.

3-Because she still doesn't get how amazing and wonderful a person she is.

2-Because she is strong, intelligent and independent and she lives life on her own terms, even if it's not always the life she expected to lead.

1-Because (yes it's a cliche but so true) she knows all my secrets and loves me anyway.

Happy birthday Bel, you have always made my life better just by being in it!

As Maribel is sadly blogless feel free to leave her birthday wishes in the commments, I will forward them to her.

There is knitting, I swear, just not enough to talk about.

In the meantime you have to suffer just a bit more through my renewed obessession with my favorite band:


You are Nikki. You won't let anyone mess with you
and have very strong opinions.


Which Motley Crue member are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Yes, Nikki is my favorite, yes I will try to stop talking about Crue constantly. If you think you're suffering imagine how my poor husband feels...and no he doesn't like them, at all.

Guess where I was last night...

with my boys:


After all these years I still love Crue. I was 14 when I saw them for the first time opening for Ozzy. Last night they were just as amazing if not more so. I'm glad I saw them so early in this tour because it was obvious how much fun they were having. On my way out of work last night I was talking to my store manager and he was saying that at least one of them must be broke for them to be doing this tour, but I'm not so sure. Watching last night all I could think of is what a high it is to perform in front of a crowd of nearly 20,000 people. Hearing them sing your songs and screaming your name. Most of them are addicts or recovering addicts of one kind or another so isn't this just another form of addiction?

Obviously there was no knitting at the Crue concert. There wasn't even an opening act so I had no downtime to worry about. I was kicking myself though because I wore Clapotis, and I realized too late that I should have brought my camera to document her night out a la the Harlot's Dublin Bay socks.

I did turn the heel and am just about done with the foot decreases. I am off today for Crue recovery so I am hoping to get a fair amount of work done on it.

Thanks for all your compliments on the yarn organization. It worked out really well with the new drawers but we all know it will all be out the window in a matter of months as new yarn joins the family. Thank you also to all of you who make suggestions for the orphan balls. Most were charity oriented and I think I can do just about all of them at one point or another to help reduce the yarn and do something nice.

For those of you interested in how Rhonda the Roomba is doing (yes we named her), she is currently vacuuming the living room. I haven't had a problem with her yet but I will keep you informed as Kathleen mentioned that her parents returned theirs. We'll see if our honeymoon ends.

Have a great weekend everyone....

Ok, as promised I will share with you my adventure in organizing my stash. On Saturday I gathered up all my yarn from the various places it was hiding and laid it out on my living room floor:



Honestly it wasn't as bad as I thought. As I was saying to Tisha this morning, it can't be too bad since it still fits in one picture, right? The other thing I was happily surprised about is the quality of my yarn. When I first started knitting again 5 years ago, I didn't know anything about yarn. My grandmother used to buy yarn at Woolworth. The very first ball I bought was at Gotta Knit here in the city. I didn't like the people and the atmosphere so I didn't want to ask any questions. I bought a ball of nice yarn and a set of bamboo needles. Imagine my surprise when they rang it up and the yarn was $18. I still have this ball because of course it's too little to really do anything with (I also have my original swatch). I don't even know the fiber content because I was too ignorant to check it back then and now the ball band is in the middle of the yarn.

The next mistake I made was in the opposite direction. I bought a large lot of yarn and needles on e-bay. It was fairly crappy and as time has passed and I have learned about good quality yarns I have thought of this yarn sitting at the bottom of a rubbermaid container never to be touched. Surprisingly I seem to have worked through most of it. I was very pleased to see that most of the acrylic I have is pretty good and much of it was bought for specific purposes. Even Red Heart has it's uses.

I decided that I need to separate by fiber or use so I would be able to find yarn in my stash quickly rather than it being easier to just go buy new stuff. For example I had no idea how many colors of Paton's classic that I had. It is just shades or red and blue but still more than I thought. Lots of felting possibilities there.

So here are the drawers in my bedroom, the black ones are the new ones:



In the white ones I have all the yarn for specific upcoming projects and the bottom drawer is odd balls, of which I have far too many. What do you do with these orphans? Most of them are not enough for even a child's hat. I hate to see them go to waste but I don't have any ideas of uses for them. Any suggestions are appreciated.

The black drawers are broken up into sock yarn, cotton yarn and 2 drawers of wool.

My rubber maid container which I decided you really didn't need a picture of is filled with all my acrylics.

I straightened out the basket next to the chair I like to knit in. Now it only holds yarn for projects in progress or in the on deck circle:



That's Bob in the zip lock bag, the varigated is for the baby blanket I am currently working on, the Kureyon is for a Booga Bag and the blue chenille is for Ian's baby blanket which I will be expanding into a more appropriate size for him since he loves it so much.

All in all my stash reorganization project was a great success!

Just don't ask me about the sockapalooza sock ok....