One Last Hurrah for 2009

Hi there! I hope you had a great Christmas - this break has been pretty chill for me, for the most part, so I'm thankful for that. DH and I were very productive - we did lots of stuff around the house and I've been able to get a lot of knitting done. Although I have no FOs (Finished Objects) to share, here are the UFOs I'm working on:

First - the Baby Blanket. Since we know we're having a boy, I decided to do a blanket with just blue and green colors. I picked this simple Diagonal Comfort Blanket pattern, from Lion Brand. I'd forgotten how boring 160 stitches of garter per row can be! But I still like this simple blanket with the eyelet border. I'm using "crappy [acrylic] yarn" (Bernat), and did recieve some evil-eyes from the LYS groupees, but hey, I did it because it's machine washable, easy to care for, and I'm not THAT much of a yarn snob where I won't use pleb yarn on occassion. I hear it's important to get easy-to-care for stuff with a baby, since there's likely to be spit-up, food, or poop staining things. Originally I thought I could cram all these stitches onto straight needles, but it because pretty heavy, so I switch to circulars and have been off and running ever since. I also bought blue cotton yarn (quality yarn) to do a second blanket, but honestly, I can't fathom doing another blanket at this point. One is too mind numbing. Maybe during maternity leave I'll consider it. But I hope our little bundle of joy enjoys this soft, pastel labor of love!

And Second - the Baby Jacket. It doesn't look like a baby jacket yet - it kinda looks like a sting-ray fluttering at the ocean bottom now that I look at the picture, but it'll take it's proper form soon enough! I just finished the yoke (I don't really know what a "yoke" technically is, but in the patterns I've used, it seems to be the part of the sweater from the collar to the bottom of the armpits, where it expands to form the back and set up for the sleeves). I absolutely love the pattern this yarn makes! It's Schoppel Wolle Ambiente. I'm making this jacket sized for a 1-2 year old. Why knit something now for a 1-2 y/o? Well, #1 I loved the material and couldn't resist starting. And #2, I didn't want to put in all the effort to make this for a 6 month old, only to have him outgrow it in 2 weeks. I think sizing for a 1-2 y/o will last longer. I have 2 quick rows to knit, and then I'll be switching to DPNs and picking up the stitches for the sleeves. And I like this pattern because I think it can be used for all sorts of jackets and outerware for a baby.

So... that's what's "on the sticks" right now. Ever since we found out the sex of the baby and I put a temporary moritorium on non-baby knits, it's been sweat-shop knitting to finish the baby blanket before I return to work on the 4th of January. I plan to make some baby booties and at least one hat, so that'll be coming up too. I received an invite to participate in the Ravelry St. Patrick's Day Swap, but I decided to decline it this year. But next year I'm all over it!

It's really been a wonderful break from work these past few weeks - working on decorating the nursury, hanging out with friends (hey Amar! I'm glad we got to meet up!!) and relaxing has been great! We've been enjoying our house and all the fun that comes along with it. Happy New Year!

Kitten Mittons

I don't have a cat probably because that, combined with the whole knitting thing, would complete my "spinster" look, but if I did I'd definitely make these "Kitten Mittons" that DH and I saw on It's Always Sunny...

Charlie is my favorite. I love his bedtime ritual of donning a stained t-shirt and holey thermals, followed by ravenously eating cat-food, shot-gunning a beer, and huffing glue to self-medicate in order to sleep through the noisy cats hanging around outside his apartment each night.

Meeee-owwwww!

"Hooray for Me" gloves - Hooray, indeed

A good number of folks chided me for my fingerless gloves (mitts) that I knit recently, saying that your fingers are the very part of you that gets the coldest, so what's the point of leaving them exposed when making gloves? Although , there are times when these gloves would come in handy to maintain dexterity, people think of mitts associated with some undesirable circumstances e.g., holding up a liquor store, hanging out with the homeless, smoking cigarettes outside a bar, or heaven forbid trying to emulate Billy Idol in the 80s. My mitts were perfect for Rhinebeck, but I realize that there is no substitute for owning a solid pair of hand-made, full-finger length gloves. So I knit myself a pair.

The pattern is "Hooray for Me Gloves" by Marnie MacLean. The pattern is actually for tipless gloves (similar to mitts, but these gloves actually have separations for each finger), but I just extended them to regular gloves. The pattern is very easy to follow, except I recommend that instead of casting on additional stitches for each finger, just make new stitches / pick up stitches so that those inevitable, small holes between the fingers require less sewing in the end. But I think it's a pretty universal pattern. Here is an in-progress photo, and a photo at completion.

The yarn is beautiful It was given to me in a swap (Swap on a Budget, #5, a.k.a. SOAB#5) on Ravelry. It's Touch Yarns Merino 4-Ply. It is beautiful material, and 100g goes a long way. I probably used no more than half the skein. Thank you to MITChick, who gave this to me in a lovely gift set. Touch Yarns is a company out of New Zealand, so I feel like it's "exotic yarn"... like I'm all "cultured" now!

Gloves do require weaving in A LOT of ends - 10 per glove, as I recall. But I think it's worth it since they came out so nice.

Now that this project is done, I will be moving all knitting efforts (other than finishing DH's second sock, which has been on-hold for months) to baby projects. I'm 5.5 months preggers! We're having a boy, which is very exciting! I don't know anything about boy babies! I know with little girls, it's all tea parties and dress up, but I'll have to figure out what to do with a little boy, since there aren't any in my immediate family. I'm counting on my MIL, an amazing kindergarten teacher for over 30 years, to help me figure out what they're into. I'll also be tapping into my friends Kim, Larissa, and Ilissa, since they both have baby boys of their own. I already have a pattern and materials for a little blue and brown jacket, but I really need to decide on a pattern for a baby blanket. Decisions, decisions....

Anyway, have a great Turkey-Day! Gobble-Gobble!

What happened to September and October?!?!?? Moving, a HouseWarming, and Rhinebeck!

Lots has happened! Mainly house-activities. We spent most of September packing things in our apartment, and unpacking them in our house. We are finally settled! I can't say that everything is unpacked,

but things we don't need are at least packed away in closets or in the basement. It's amazing how many boxes and bags of stuff we had labelled "Important" that are now sitting in closets, unopened! We had a really fun Haunted HouseWarming Party on Oct. 30th, which was great. It was good to see everyone, enjoy some festive appetizers, and relax in our new digs. My dad made his southern comfort punch, too, which is always a hit.

I think we needed this party as motivation to get our stuff put away and get the house in decent shape. If we didn't have this party to work towards, I think DH and I would have just lived amid the boxes worked around them, kind of like we did in the apartment for the last couple months, which was really awful. Thank you to all of our family and friends who helped us out!

Let's see... in terms of knitting... I did take a brief hiatus, but now that things have settled down again, I am back in the swing of it! Larissa and I went to Rhinebeck, a.k.a. the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, which was a lot of fun. There were so many vendors, it was hard to resist blowing the budget in the first hour there! I bought a skein of Socks that Rock, a beautiful skein of Briar Rose, and my first skein of Noro! I always hear people raving about Noro, so I had to buy some and see what all the commotion is about. Surprisingly, their yarn isn't that soft - kinda rough actually, but apparently they are known for their amazing color combinations. So we'll see what I can knit up with a skein of it!

Rhinebeck is a really large festival - my LYS chartered a bus up there, which was really convenient. Although the weather forecast was dismal - cold and rainy (even snowy!), we actually saw no hint of clouds until later in the afternoon when we were departing anyway. Of course I packed hats, gloves, and extra socks in my backpack, but happily we didn't need it. I must say that my fingerless gloves were perfect, because the whole day was about feeling yarns, sampling skeins, and of course accessing your wallet to make purchases. So they worked out great. I will say it was FREEZING COLD though! There were also lots of animals to check out. I say lots of alpacas, all sorts of sheep, and even some mohair rabbits which were adorable. They just looked like the most adorable balls of fluff ever!

We also saw some Ravelry celebrities, including Jessica ("frecklegirl" ravatar) and Casey Forbes, founders of Ravelry, plus Bob the mascot, which was fun, too. It was a really nice day and I'm so glad I went! It was my first fiber festival! I hope to attend one each year!

OK - I am off to work on a pair of gloves I've been knitting. More to come soon!

Whoa, What Happened to August?

We were busy buying our first home in August, that's what happened to it! Yippee, we are so excited! And actually, we are so RELIEVED! We'd been looking for a house for 16 months - fortunately we had a very good realtor, who was the consummate professional during the entire time. Why so long? 1) We're picky (ok, I'm picky), 2) Since we don't have kids (and therefore don't have a school year deadline to deal with) or any sort of job re-lo to be constrained by, why not wait to find the optimal house?! 3) we live in an overpriced, highly populated area, so it just took us that long to find something we loved that didn't cost an arm and a leg! We are actually very fortunate that we had all these factors at play, plus with low interest rates and an alleged buyer's market (although I'm not sure how much the latter is true in this fairly recession-proof area), everything worked out. Now we just have to move in!

So the house we purchased is 11 years old and in excellent condition. The previous owners did a great job maintaining it added a lot of nice (small) custom upgrades. I will say that their decorating taste is not aligned with ours, so we've been taking the past 2 weeks to have the entire house re-painted & re-carpet the bedrooms (the BRs are the only place that have carpet). The colors palate we used (and the colors we picked) are shown here. I'm sure these photos don't show the "true" color, but at least you get the idea.

We've also been running around shopping for some necessary / nice to have additions, such as a refrigerator, a bed for the guest room, a dehumidifier for the basement, etc. Needless to say, August zipped by.

We plan to pack this weekend and move next weekend. Even though the house looks MILES with the new paint and carpets, it still don't feel like our home. Obviously, since we aren't living there yet, I imagine it's hard for that feeling to sink in. Right now it just feels like a really nice "financial asset" that we own. But like I said, once we actually go to sleep and wake up there, I think things will change!

In knitting news, I finished my "spoilee" gift package for SOAB (Swap On A Budget). I knitted my spoilee a chocolate brown Drop-Ribbon Scarf, and included a skein of earthy green Sheep Yarn 3, some stitch markers, a pattern for some mitts/gloves, and some hazelnut chocolate. I received a Thank You from my spoilee, and I am happy to see that she enjoyed the package. Now I am waiting for my "spoiler" to send me my knitting package! The dead-line is 25.Sept, so I hope to receive it soon!

The Mitts Are Done - yay!

Hooray, I've finished the cabled mitts! I am very happy with how they came out. I did make a few modifications to the pattern - I made the mitts longer, since I have long fingers. I made them taper a bit at the finger-tips so they don't get baggy. I also didn't do the picot bind-off, as Larissa said that type of ending rolls back easily. This was my first experience knitting cables, and I think it went well!

As to the functionality of these mitts - I was explaining that these mitts could be used when it's cold out but you want to get your metrocard out, or find change for the meter, or use your camera to take a picture for your scrap-book outside in the cold! They'd be good for any time you need to maintain dexterity while keeping warm! Loyal reader Tom said "so... you could use these to smoke a cigarette while standing outside a bar in the cold then?". True, one could. Although the thought of one of my knitted projects getting all smokey does make me sad, he points out an additional valid application of these mitts. I just thought they were a good project to start cables on. And I like the autumn colors of the yarn.

I joined the SOAB (Swap on A Budget) group on Ravelry. I am so excited! I've never done a swap! It's a $20 one, where you get assigned a "spoilee" and send them a little knitting gift package based one a brief questionnaire everyone participating completes. Each "spoiler" puts together a kit of 1 knitted item by you, at least one skein of new yarn, a pattern for the new yarn, plus some treats (such as coffee, teas, chocolates, stationary, etc.). Each spoiler mails their spoilee their package and then it's like Christmas in September! I am so excited to get assigned my spoilee! I think it's just nice that someone puts something special together for you! I'll have that project coming up, I need to get back to DH's other sock, and also work on Central Park Hoodie in time for cooler weather. I like having logs of projects going. If I get tired of one (or have to put one in "time out"), there are other things to keep me busy. And TRUST ME, a busy couch-knitter is better than an idle couch-knitter....

Inner City Pressure

As we speak, DH (again, DH = Dear Hubby) is at work. He has actually been at work since Wednesday morning and will be back tomorrow evening, working 'round the clock! This attorney business is a crazy one! At least his "team" was proactive and let him know in advance "don't plan on being able to go home this week - get yourself a room at the Hilton to take a power-nap or two, and prepare to roll your sleeves up for consecutive all-nighters". So I suppose that was a nice courtesy on their part. There's a lot of pressure with his job, and I am always amazed at how well DH handles it.

For some odd reason, his job often times makes me think of the song by Flight of the Conchords called "Inner City Pressure". I'm not sure why though - I mean we don't live in the inner city - we don't even live in a city. I suppose because DH works in the city, and... works under a lot of pressure....? the song comes to mind.

Here is the song (which is a parody of Pet Shop Boys West End Girls. I read that "Inner City Pressure is not only a parody of Pet Shop Boys, it pokes fun at the great hipster/artist/creatively-under-employed social substratum that has engulfed large swaths of urban North America". Yeah, "hipster", "creative", and "artist" are probably the last 3 words I'd use to describe us. But I suppose it's the satire that makes me laugh).

Anniversary and Cables

With all the rain that fell in June, it's particularly nice to enjoy the warm, sunny weather July has brought. DH and I (by the way, DH is short for Dear Hubby) spent Saturday morning at the Bronx Zoo. I haven't been to the zoo is a good number of years, and we really had a nice time. This Wednesday is our 3 year wedding anniversary, so we decided to wander around the zoo and then have lunch in Manhattan afterwards.

I'd forgotten how big the Bronx Zoo is! There was a lot to see, and we didn't even see everything! Highlights were the adorable lemurs, the playful polar bear, and the butterfly garden - I love the fact that you can just sit in the butterfly garden and watch all the beautiful butterflies dance around. My favorite was the giraffes - we saw a family of 5, including a baby giraffe named "Margret". How sweet! Giraffe are beautiful - tall and elegant, quietly munching on foliage... they seem so peaceful!

I will say I didn't particularly enjoy the koi pond in the butterfly garden - I was sitting on the edge of it, enjoying watching the butterflies flutter about, when I heard a lazy splash behind me - I turned around and saw an all-too-shallow pool of water with dozens of overgrown, slimy, slow-moving, straggly-moustached creatures swirling about. There were so many of them, they were practically climbing on top of each other - it was as if they were trying to step on each other to escape their murky pool. Someone really needs to club those ugly beasts. I remember when J and I were in Hawaii at dinner, the restaurant matri'd, seeing that we were newlyweds, seated us right alongside the koi pond. I recall asking DH if I could pour my coffee or perhaps drop a sugar cube into the water to get them to go away. DH, the ever-present voice of reason in our relationship, said no. Anyhoo, now that I think about it I suppose it could be said that sitting by the pond at the zoo this weekend did bring us back to our honeymoon in Hawaii, so if fish do serve one purpose in my life, that was it, and maybe this was an appropriate anniversary activity in a round about way after all.

So what's cooking on the needles - cables, that's what! I've always wanted to try cables, and on Sunday I did. I'm working on a pair of hand warmers (a.k.a. fetching gloves, a.k.a. fingerless gloves - and let's not get into a discussion of their functionality at this point) that call for a few cables in the cuffs. Knitting cables involves re-locating a few stitches onto a spare needle, holding them to the front or the back of the work (depending on if you want a cable twisting to the right of left) while you continue to knit, and then going back and knitting these stitches-in-waiting. It's definitely not as difficult as I thought on paper, but I do have a hard time working with 5 DPN. Once I had the spare needle slip off, which wasn't good. I tried using a cable needle, but found that too slippery as well. I've heard of people using a safety pin, which might work for me. I'll have to give that a try when I work on the opposite mit.

We have a tentative close date for our house! 14.Aug, just has to be vetted by the attorneys. We've got some boxes to start filling, so I plan to work on that during the week, too. So much to do!

Yarn Sale and 5K Follow-Up

So my LYS had a pretty big sale this past month - everything was on sale for at least 30% off. Now would have been the time to purchase material for a big project coming up, or splurge on that luxury yarn I've been eye-ing... But, we've been so busy this past month with house stuff (attorney review and inspections are finally complete - yay! Now we're considering paint colors carpet colors), I hadn't spent any time thinking about new projects until *of course* the last 2 days of the month-long sale. So, last week I visited the sale with Larissa and tried to find projects that could be worked up on the fly. I just wandered around the store, picking up skeins of yarn, saying "this is 50% off - what could I make with this?", which really isn't a good way to shop. Never-the-less, I purchased two skeins of sock yarn for 50% off, 1 more skein of Manos (I need more Manos like I need a hole in the head - I feel like I keep throwing more chips into the pot by buying more Manos, thinking that I'm going to make all these great ear-flap hats this winter) for 50% off, and a skein of "Sheep Three Yarn Company" material is a gold-brown hue for 40% off. I think I'm going to try knitting fetching gloves with the Sheep Three stuff. Had I put in some time to actually strategizing what's coming up next (I must have 50 projects faved on Ravelry), I probably could have taken more advantage of the sale. But I am happy with what I got!

I am currently working on the second sock for Jason, and will probably fire up the fetching gloves after that. I do have CPH (Central Park Hoodie) on the needles at the moment too, but after the clapotis took so long to finish, I feel like doing some quick projects. So the fetching gloves will work out nicely. Here is a picture (and pattern) for what they'll hopefully look like. I'll likely adjust the pattern to make them cover more of my fingers. I think they'll be a good project to learn cables on.

Oh, I never followed up with how our 5K run went last month - it was a lot of fun! I completed the race in a decent time (32 min or so). I think there were 2 components that made this race fun: 1) running with good companions - I ran with Julie and her friend Rob, who are both "real runners". They kept a steady pace and were fun to run with, which was so helpful because it kept my mind off the actual run, and 2) reflecting with friends on how the run went after the finish line. DH, Julie, Rob, and I met up with my colleague/friend Jen and her boyfriend (who happens to be my trainer too!) afterwards - it was fun to say "jeez, weren't those hills long?!?" and "did you see that guy wearing the spandex fly by everyone??" and "what was up with that lady pushing her litter of kids in the stroller while talking on the cell phone?!?!?". Jen and Bill were super sweet because after they finished, they jogged back to cheer the rest of us on. It was really motivating! I think Jason and I would like to run another one, maybe in Sept some time, when it's cool again. This was my first 5K and I'm happy to have completed it!

Finished, at last!

Hooray! I finished the clapotis yesterday! I am very pleased with how it came out! The pattern was very easy (just repetitive). I can't wait until the fall to wear it! The nice thing about the clapotis is that you can wear it as a scarf or a shawl (I'll probably go for the former).

I tried to block this, to even everything out. First of all, I didn't have a surface big enough to lay it out on (I suppose I could have pinned it to the carpet in our living room?) and second, I didn't want to stretch it out any more than it already was. I plan to wear it kinda scrunched up (like in the photo above) anyway, so I think I'll be OK.

I've seen a lot of people knit clapotis with sock yarn - that'd be nice too - I think it'd make for a very soft, cuddly final piece. The Handmaiden Sea Silk is cozy, but it's definitely more silky. If I ever re-visit this pattern, I'd like to try making a clapotis with sock yarn.

On to the next project: finishing the second sock for DH? Learning cables? Another pair of socks? Continuing on the Central Park Hoodie with Larissa? Probably some combination of the above....

Garden Sweet Pea - the Smell of Contentedness

Who doesn't enjoy a nice yankee candle every now and then? I've got one burning right now, called Garden Sweet Pea, and it's spring-y and sweet. I'm relaxing tonight because I passed my PMP exam (Project Management Professional, for those of you not in "the biz") earlier today and feel super-relieved! It's a professional certification offered by PMI, the Project Management Institute. I studied for about the past 8 weeks and I gotta say, I'm glad I did because the exam wasn't a cake-walk. I will say that I'd rather take a standardized PMP exam than a Finance final exam or any of my undergraduate exams
(especially a ChE 210 Thermo exam - I shudder just reminescing back to the midterm, where my professor wrote "Assume Comet = Carnot Engine...? Nice try, -40"), but there were a substantial number of topics that were challenging in preparation for the PMP. I'd advise others who plan to take the test to relax because it's not rocket science, but know that it does require preparation.

Everything went smoothly during the exam, UNTIL I CROSSED MY LEGS. 2 hours into the exam, I shifted my weight and crossed my legs and the computer monitor screen went blank. In the process of crossing my legs, I must have clipped the monitor input wire and pulled it out. 2 hours in, I was about 2/3 of the way thru the exam. I looked up, saw the blank screen and my heart did start to race - not necessarily because I thought my 120 answers out of 200 had vanished for good, but because I kept thinking of the seconds ticking away as I fumbled to replace the cable, while tying to raise my hand to summon a monitor. I kept a decent pace on the exam, but did find that it was taking me longer than when I'd practiced at home, so I was time-conscious. A monitor did came over by the time I'd plugged the cord back in, so she just confirmed the exam was proceeding as normal (thanks?!?!) and I continued along. Those exam monitors must have some sort of "corrections" background because they are completely directive and order test-takers around continuously ("stand here", "wait here", "do not put anything there") - and I can see why they behave that way - they need to keep the setting very controlled so the test environment is suitable for exam-takers. But if you're looking for a comforting comment such as "don't worry, your computer is fine", you can forget it.

This exam experience is way better than when I took my GMATs - I remember then that when I sat down to take my exam, the girl next to me started crying because apparently she wasn't doing well and wanted to withdraw from the exam. Now that was a bit un-nerving. Happily, there were no crying test-takers this time.

So back to the candle. I'd bought this a couple weeks ago and was waiting to burn it - I didn't want to light it the week I was taking my exam because if I didn't pass, I was afraid I would have some sort of sensory association with the smell of the candle and failure - I envisioned encountering the scent outside years from now, walking thru a park or a garden perhaps, and immediately starting to choke, feeling my stomach knot up, or having my throat close for some "phantom reason". So I wanted until now! And I am happily enjoying this lovely, floral scent as my evening continues. I am excited to go back to knitting and cooking (and planning for the house) in my free time now. Yay!

Supper is Super

Hello there! It's been a while since my last post - things have been pretty busy!

Tonight I met DH in the city for dinner after work. We went to a place my friend and colleague Ritesh suggested: Supper, located in the Lower East Side. If you're in the neighborhood and looking for a good Italian place, I definitely recommend it. The restaurant is small and cozy, but still has an energetic vibe. Supper offers "family style" seating on the main floor, or a few smaller tables scattered about (we sat downstairs at a table for 2). We were surrounded by brick walls, rustic art (wooden paintings of various religious officiants adorned the walls), candles, and wine bottles. I kept staring at the exposed pipe running everywhere that was painted gold, with a floral design! Anyway, the food was very good. We had polenta topped with Gorgonzola cheese to start, which was delicious. DH had spinach gnocchi with a cheese and marinara sauce, and I had a butternut squash ravioli, both of which were fantastic - home-made pasta is the best. I think I liked DH's dinner more than mine, which always seems to happen when we go out. He says it's not that the food is better, but that I just enjoy it more because it's his. That's not true!! (OK, maybe a little bit true?). And we split a hazelnut pannacotta for dessert - very rich! My only critique of Supper is that it's cash only. Boo! Other than that, I definitely recommend it!

OK, so - we found a house. We love it. It needs new paint and carpets, but other than that, it's great!! We've completed attorney review and are finishing inspections (all this house activity is actually why I've been delinquent on my blog posts!). It is a HUGE RELIEF to finally have found something that we like. We'd been looking for 16 months! Granted, we are picky - but we can be, since we are just renting and don't have kids. So fair is fair. I feel relieved but still concerned that something could go wrong. My friends keep assuring me that at this point, we have very little to worry about since home inspection is done (we're just having an additional inspector come to look specifically at the fireplace). I'm still nervous! But with every milestone we complete, I feel better and better. Please still keep your fingers crossed for us!!!

Tomorrow we'll be running a 5K race, my first one ever, so that's going to be a lot of fun! I think our carb-intensive dinner at Supper will serve us well, and hopefully we won't pull a "Michael Scott" - recall episode 4.1 where Michael carb loads by downing a plate of fettuccine alfredo immediately before running a 5K (the Race to Cure Rabies) and winds up barfing everywhere, shortly after starting the race. So assuming our stomachs are settled, we should be OK! I'm looking forward to tomorrow, especially because a bunch of friends and co-workers will be running with us too!!

I haven't had much time to knit, but I'm almost up to the decreases on the clapotis. At this rate I should have it done by the fall! Just kidding. I'd like to have it done by the end of the month. We'll see!

Busy Bees

It's been a busy couple weeks for us! House-hunting continues, we just got back from CA for a short trip, and DH had his sinus surgery today!

Not much to say on the house hunting front - people have told us "oh, your first house - how romantic! What fun!". No. No, no, no. It's been stressful, frustrating, and a lot of work, as we've been looking for over a year now. But, as painful of a process as it's been, at least we don't have a house to sell, or a kid's school calendar to work around. So my hat goes off to folks who have much more complex situations than us. I try and remind myself to stay positive!

On Tuesday we flew back from a brief jaunt to the LA area, for one of Jason's friend's wedding. We had a really nice trip. Highlights (in addition to the wedding) include:

1) experiencing a 4.4 magnitude earthquake! Yes, indeed! The quake lasted for about 3 seconds. At first I though it was just a really loud rumble of thunder. Then I thought perhaps someone had backed into the hotel with their car. But nope! The CA news confirmed it was an actual earthquake!

2) horseback riding over the Hollywood hills. We did a sunset ride, which included dinner at the half-way point. Despite having a sore bum and back, the trip was really fun - we saw some beautiful views and had a bunch of laughs trying to direct our horses! I don't think Jason will forget having to prod "Samson" to follow in line!

3) discovering In-And-Out Burger. This is no ordinary burger joint. I had a "double, double", which is TWO cheese burgers on a bun with onions, tomatoes, lettuce. DH had a "double, double, animal style" - the same as the double, double but with fried onions, pickles, and a thousand island sauce. I'm not even a burger person, but these were delicious. Everything tasted so fresh and delicious. I kept thinking that my mom, who loves burgers, would really enjoy this! Let me note that I did run 3 miles on the treadmill at the hotel the night we had In-And-Out, to try and make a dent in my net calories for the day.

4) visiting the Getty - it's a beautiful museum, with an amazing view of the area. The museum is great because you can see just as many exhibits (sculptures, gardens, fountains) outside as inside. And we had a beautiful day - a bit cool in the shade, but sunny and warm otherwise.

5) spending time together. We've been so busy, and life has been so hectic, it felt great to just take a step back and relax. It was fun hanging out with DH's friends, too. We felt pretty rejuvenated coming back home!

So - speaking of my wonderful hubby, he had his sinus/throat surgery today, and all went well. He's recovering with pain meds, soft foods, and lots of R&R. Hopefully he'll be back to himself shortly!

Anyway, with all this hub-bub, I've barely had time to knit! But I'm still working on the clapotis, row by row. Hopefully now that things have calmed a bit, I'll have more time to "pick up the sticks and sting" and keep making progress!

Moms' Tea - Butterfly Garden

This past weekend, I hosted the 3rd annual "Moms' Tea" at my place - my mom and MIL come over for some appetizers and lunch, followed by tea. I always look forward to this soiree because it's fun to plan for a ladies afternoon, and the moms get to catch up. I really love to entertain, so it's perfect. I prepared goat cheese tarts, some cantaloupe and prosciutto hors d'oeuvres, a cheese platter, & some lemon and blueberry cookies. The moms brought a salad and some individual blueberry cheesecakes, as well. And - the piece d'resistance were my butterfly cupcakes. They came out great!

I had a butterfly theme for the day, and the genesis of this idea is pretty ridiculous: A couple weeks ago, I was sitting in the food court at the mall, eating my Chik-Fil-A kids meal (what can I say, I wasn't really that hungry). The meal came with a toy, which happened to be a packet of trading cards with different animals on them. I was going to give the toy to a co-worker's kid, but I'd already opened the toy bag to see what was in it. Mainly cards with creepy, crawly critters, but one card had a photo of a beautiful monarch butterfly on it. And I actually though of my Monarch Handmaiden Yarn that I'm knitting the clapotis from! I thought that I could make these monarch cupcakes and wear my clapotis for tea!

I don't know why I quite often times set these ludicrous expectations on myself! I calculated that I'd need another 20 knitting hours to finish the clapotis. There's no way I can finish it anytime soon! But..... it did motivate me to progress on it, and make the chocolate butterflies, and the menu for the tea! So it all worked out! I had a great time at tea, and I think the moms did too!

The recipe for my tart is here, along with a little butterfly poem below!

I've watched you now a full half-hour;
Self-poised upon that yellow flower
And, little Butterfly! Indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless! - not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!
~William Wordsworth, "To a Butterfly"

"Thou shalt not drop a stitch...unless knitting a clapotis"

So..... I've been working on the clapotis. I've finished the increases and am well into the body of this wrap. The pattern isn't difficult, but calls for a droppped stitch to fall and propegate to create the parallel bars between knitted columns. Yes, that's right, an intentional dropped stitch that you let run down the project. This wasn't intuitive at all, since in knitting, a run-away dropped stitch is generally the kiss of death to a project. The saving grace here is that the pattern has built in yos at the bottom of the dropped stitch row that protect the run-aways from spreading beyond the column. Plus, the knitted columns are bordered by a "K tbl" stitch that keep them intact, as well (I'm not sure if that's fashion or function, but I'm not taking any chances). Droping the stitch is kinda like watching a run spread in a pair of stockings, except this actually is intentional and has a positive outcome. A close-up of how the dropped stitch creates a ribbon-y effect is shown above.

This weekend, I knit a good amount of this clapotis while watching "The Ten Commandments". I love those religious epic movies, and this one is the grand-daddy of them all. I just realized this is a Passover movie, even though watching it is an Easter tradition for me. True, there's no mention of Christ since this is an Old Testament story, true they mention the plague PASSing OVER the blood-sealed doors, and true Moses liberates the Jews from Rameses. But I didn't put all the pieces together until discussing it with DH. Better late than never! It is a great film, and I got a lot done in those 5 hours I spent watching and working on the clapotis.

Speaking of timing - I have to say with this project, I definitely underestimated the time I'll need to finish it. I was thinking of trying to have it completed for "Moms' Tea" this weekend, but no way. Not even my sweatshop-knitting pace could crank it out that fast. The portion of the scarf that I'm on calls for 12 set of repeats, with 10 rows per set (and 107 stitches per row). Yeah, definitely delusional to think I'd have it done anytime this month. But that's ok! The yarn (Handmaiden yarn) is beautiful to work with, so it's been a pleasure to knit it. Here's where the project is now:

A Square Deal - Lazzara's Pizza

Last week I met Jason in the city for dinner after work. Now that the days are getting longer and the weather is warming up, it feels great to walk around and be "out and about" after work. We went to Lazzara's cafe (in the Garment District of NYC) for dinner and had a wonderful meal.


Lazzara's is located one flight of steps above W. 38th street and has an easily spottable black awning. When I first walked in, the vibe didn't suggest "hoppin' pizza cafe" to me - if actually had a more of a subdued, relaxed tone - the 3 things that stick out in my mind are the rounded tin ceilings, the low lighting, and the daily specials written on chalkboards along the wall. I kept trying to imagine what the area was originally used for prior to becoming a cafe (and came to no good conclusions). So Jason and I split a pie (6 slices): half Lazzara's Special (prosciutto, sundried tomatoes, and olives) and half Alorna (mushrooms, peppers, ground been and sausage). The thin-crust, square-cut pie arrived on a plastic lunch tray (lunch trays work for me!). Although both types were very good, I think I enjoyed the Alorna better - I found it a bit more flavorful and spicy, with the sausage and mushrooms. And the priced was very reasonable - $18 for the pie. A $25 dinner out for 2 is pretty darn good.

You know... dinner in the city after work was perfect after a stressful day. We're lucky because we're just a short train ride away, so by the time Jason's done working (on an "early night") we can meet up, get dinner, and take the train back together.

The night would have been perfect if it wasn't for the train station vagrant hanging out on the platform at my departing station, who repeatedly asked me to borrow my phone (while I was on it). The inquiry itself wasn't disturbing, just how he inquired - by yelling through an open mouth full of orange cheese crackers, thereby projecting little orange cracker crumbs at my head and face as he yelled. Really, is that any way to ask some one for a favor?

Anyway, I think you'll like Lazzara's pizza. Give it a try.

Oh Happy Day!

We're in a recession. Unemployment is going up. The stock market is coming down. It's raining out. BUT MY HANDMAIDEN YARN JUST ARRIVED IN THE MAIL!!!

2 skeins arrived, neatly packed in a ziplock bag. What a pick-me-up! I purchased the Seasilk yarn - 70% silk, 30% sea cell (a cellulose fiber made with seaweed...). I only ordered this after doing a good amount of research on it, since it is pricey. But everyone on-line and on Ravelry said this was amazing to work with. I hope to be able to agree!

The color I chose is called "Monarch" - it's got lots of golden tones. I'm going to make the clapotis scarf with it. The clapotis pattern involves a lot of intentionally dropped stitches to make a ribbony effect in the scarf. Click here to see a finished one!

One interesting thing I've read about this yarn is that it smells like the ocean. There was the faintest smell of salt water when I first sniffed it! But now that I've had it out of the bag for a couple hours, it seems to have gone. I'm amazed at all the beautiful colors and the silky (yet strong) texture of this yarn. I can't wait to get going on this project!

Happy St. Paddy's Day (Belated)

Who doesn't enjoy a parade? (At least for the first 45 min, before your back starts to hurt and all the good floats have gone by). Again this year we had great weather for the Morristown St. Patrick's Day parade. This is a really nice event - it's the second year we've attended (this year we met my parents there) and it was a great morning! We had breakfast at a bagel shop (Jason's breakfast sandwich on a green bagel was very festive), found some good parade real estate, made camp, and enjoyed the event!

One of the parade marchers was NJ Governor Jon Corzine. In this photo, he has somewhat of a defeated expression - lots of parade-watchers were boo-ing him when he walked by. (For any of you out of state residents, Corzine has a pretty low approval rating - he's cut funding for a lot of educational programs (Rutgers had many of their athletic teams cut a couple years back), raised major state highway tolls, increased taxes, etc. Apparently he has some plan to get NJ out of debt by leasing the GSP and NJTPK? How does that work???). Not to mention his car accident, where a state trooper was driving his motorcade 90 mph up the parkway.... Anyway - I felt that the booing was kinda rude - so I just hissed "wear your seat belt" under my breath when he walked by. I wonder if he participated in the Hoboken parade - they probably would have thrown a beer bottle at him (or worse) from the article I read!

Hey, BTW - did anybody see John Stewart rip Jim Kramer apart on the Daily show? That "Brawl Street" show just MADE my week! I think Stewart really captured everyone's frustration with those CNBC market-analyst clowns.

I digress. After the parade, Jason and I went to his parent's house for an Irish dinner. It was wonderful - his parent's make such good corned-beef and cabbage! The meat has practically no fat on it and just falls apart (kind of like pulled-pork) thanks to a lot of trimming and preparations they do in advance. Generally I don't even like corned-beef yet this main course was fantastic.

Holidays like St. Paddy's day are great. I think you need to get out there and enjoy them, otherwise every day just blurs together with the last. I'll leave you with an Irish toast to friendship:

"May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and a smooth road all the way to your door".

Second Sock Syndrome (SSS)

Hooray! I've completed one sock of the KOIGU pair my hubby requested! Now I just need the motivation to complete the second one! Why am I not ready to jump in and complete the pair? Because 1) there's always the temptation to start one of the new projects that you found while you were knitting sock #1 and 2) in my case, completing sock #1 did have some knitting drama associated with it... (hence this post). Enter... second sock syndrome (SSS).

So I'd just completed about 4 inches of the foot portion when I "requested a fitting" from the future owner (my husband). He donned the sock, and I measured that I needed to knit another 2" before starting the decreases for the toe. So I knit, knit, knit and requested a second fitting. Jason tells me "you know, it doesn't really seem any longer". So, I continue to knit, knit, knit, WITHOUT confirming that the sock was positioned in the same place on his foot during fitting #2 as fitting #1. So I complete the toe decreases and after a brief kitchener stitch youtube refresh (compliments of the KnitWitch), I graft the sock and am done. Excitedly, I show the sock to Jason, who tries it on, and behold - the foot was easily THREE INCHES TOO LONG!

His foot looked like a Dr. Seuss character!!! I was crushed! I think he must have pulled the sock up higher on his foot, in fitting #2, which I definitely should have noticed. I thought of knitting an identical misfit sock, and then shrinking them in a hot laundry cycle.... but I realized this KOIGU is 100% wool, and they'd felt. So.... at midnight last night, I un-sewed the toe and proceeded to rip out 3" of sock! Amazingly, I was able to pick up all the stitches and resume at a safe point. Looking back, I should have taken a picture of his Dr. Seuss sock because it looked really funny, but I think I was too crushed at the time. Here is a photo of the properly sized sock #1, which I completed an hour ago. The final product did come out great. BTW, that's my husband's leg, not mine. :)

So I'm kinda pooped on the socks. Hence the SSS.

Most knitters remedy this condition by knitting 2 socks at once, using 2 circular needles - and also because I think using double pointed needles (DPNs) has a bad rap. But I actually love DPNs - they're more compact and I think you can knit faster with them, rather than sliding stitches along a cable, if you don't have a perfect length circular needle. But... to each their own.

Single sock.... I promise to knit you a mate.... but enjoy a solitary lifestyle for a bit - it might be a while until you meet your match.

Do You do Shabu?

Enjoying a great meal is another way to unwind! With these challenging economic times upon us, dining at home seems to be the way to go - since going out to dinner is less frequent, selecting a good restaurant for the times you do splurge and go out is key! This past weekend we went to one of our favorites - Shabu Tatsu, in the East Village. This place is great. New York magazine selected this restaurant in their top critics pick list and indicated "Shabu-Tatsu is messy fun for a generation of foodies who were denied the interactive delights of the sorely lamented fondue pot, that recently resurrected staple of the bad-taste seventies". I love fondue and am not afraid to admit it (heck, if I'm admitting my addiction to knitting, most other things pale in comparison)... The restaurant features "Shabu entrees", consisting of thinly sliced cuts of meat, which diners immerse in boiling water to cook. Two savory dipping sauces accompany the meat, in addition to salad and a bowl of white rice. After the meat course is over, a platter of veggies and noodles are served, which diners immerse into the broth, and enjoy ladled into seasoned soup mugs.

I like the integration of courses at Shabu - during the meat course you prepare your own broth for the veggie and noodle course! Very cool! We've been to Shabu Tatsu with a bunch of our friends over the past couple years, so if you go for the first time 1) ask for instructions from the waiter if you're a newbie because otherwise I think they assume you know what you're doing - if I didn't go with an experienced friend the first time, I could see myself eating raw meat and boiling the salad 2) be fairly competent with chop-sticks - I've never seen any forks and don't think they'd work anyway 3) be prepared to get a steam facial from the cauldron of boiling water. The only thing that would make Shabu better would be for them to bring back the ginger ice cream. Overall this place is one of my top picks.

After dinner, our friends took us for "Bubble Tea". This drink was a first for me - Saint's Alp's Teahouse offers these really neat tea drinks that have tapioca balls ("pearls") in them. How cool is that!? The tapioca blobs are the size of large blueberries, I'd say. You use a pretty wide straw to drink them up - I was envisioning myself choking on them in the middle of the street, but our friends assured us they travel up the straw pretty slowly, so everything went smoothly. It's always fun to try new things!

Handling a Hank

You may be thinking that this post is about how to evade an irritating person named Hank, but no, it's a knitting post! Earlier this week at my local knitting store, I was permitted to use the wooden swift, unattended, to ball up my hanks of KOIGU and I'm actually pretty proud of that. (Sadly it doesn't take much, ladies and gentleman....).

So. Many yarns are sold in tractable bundles such as "center-pull balls" or "skeins" that allow you to cast on immediately and start your project. But a lot of yarn is sold in a bundle called a "hank", which is basically a big loop of yarn that's twisted up like a figure eight and needs to be re-wound into a ball or a spool before starting your project. Why would yarn not already come balled up? The answer is pretty odd, according to my research - a lot of yarn is large-scale manufactured in 3rd world countries, where cheap manufacturing costs are key. Apparently purchasing and maintaining a machine that is designed to wind center pull balls is an expense many factories can not (or choose not to) fund. I've also heard that yarn can be packaged better when it's in a hank, as well. So the expense of balling yarn goes to the purchaser. Note that although balling up my yarn by hand wasn't the worst thing in the world, it does take time and I'm sure it wouldn't be fun if I was chained to a radiator, doing it for 20 hours a day.

OK, so how does the yarn get into neat little balls? Do customers wind them up at home? You can - and I've done it a couple times - and it starts to be a serious pain after about 5 minutes. Also in this scenario, the balls pull from the outside, which means they roll all over the place as you knit. This isn't a major inconvenience, but when it rolls far away, it causes extra tension in the yarn when you knit. And not to mention that if it rolls under the couch, it gets all sorts of dust bunnies on it. At least with my sofa. A yarn swift is used to create center-pull balls that will sit nicely in one spot as you knit. You basically loop the yarn hank around the "umbrella" portion of the swift, and expand it so the loop stays taught (but not too taught). Next you cut or untie (I never like to suggest cutting anything in knitting) the yarn holding the hank together and feed one of the loose ends through the metal eye and onto the winder. As you turn the winder handle, the umbrella will rotate and feed the winder. And 2 minutes later: Voila! A nice center-pull ball of yarn is ready! Generally the yarn store has a swift that they'll use to ball your material, as a courtesy for your purchase. Using a swift does require a little bit of hand coordination, which is why I am excited that the employees at the store let me finally use it on my own. If you don't know what you're doing, the yarn can slip off, or get caught in a nasty knot - and no employee wants to deal with customers doing this.

Could you skip balling up your yarn and knit right from the hank? I suppose, but I've read comments from many knitters who've done this and almost all report ultimately cutting their losses (from vicious knots that formed) and purchasing a whole new skein of yarn. You can see the center-pull yarn ball here, that I'm making socks from. These socks are for my wonderful husband, who requested them oh about a year ago, and has been patiently waiting. The socks are KOIGU KPPPM, knit on size 3 DPNs.

So that's a little blurb on using a swift. Hey, before I go, Happy Birthday to my mom, my father-in-law, and my cousin's wife, who all have birthdays this week! Cheers!

Pom-Poms... a Party for Your Head!

My first ear-flap hat is complete! These hats are a great project - I followed the Kim's Hats pattern in LMKG. Although I made the design of this hat with a very simple, I am looking forward to putting in stripes and different colors in subsequent ones.

Pom-poms are key. And these are home-made ones - no pom-pom maker for me! A note about this picture - my camera generally will blur any subject matter that isn't statuesque - so I am happily surprised that this action shot came out so clear!

The pattern from LMKG was OK, but I definitely did make deviations. Originally I cast on 88 stitches, per my measurements and the instructions. Sadly, I had to rip this version out and start over after I was swimming in the brim. So 76 stitches was the magic number. Also, the instructions called for 7" from CO to the beginning of the crown decreases. I did 6.5" and I definitely could have just done 6". I also made the ear flaps smaller. I knit this hat on a 16", US #9 circular needle (and used DPNs for the ear flaps and top of the hat). The pattern was good as a guide - but 88 stitches for CO and 9.5 inches from brim to top pom-pom?? I guess there must be someone out there whose noggin fits those dimensions - maybe they're all at MIT or NASA.

I'm really happy that this hat was so fun and quick to knit - I think knitting these hats will be good interim projects to break up longer ones - speaking of said longer projects, I'm considering starting the Central Park Hoodie on Ravelry. Larissa is also thinking of starting one, so it'd be fun to both work on our hoodies together! Anyway, cheers to the ear-flap hat!