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!

Lovely Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and Jason and I spent it in the city. We really had a wonderful weekend, primarily just because we got to spend time with each other, without worrying about work, life, or the endless "to-do" list!

We started off by having brunch at Balthazar, in Soho. I'd actually read about this restaurant for their entrees and dinner, not for it's bakery, which it's probably even more well-known for. Their food is outstanding - I had a goat cheese and onion tart and a croissant - the tart was fantastic because the cheese was light and creamy! And how funny is this - we were sitting right next to John Grisham and his wife! We actually saw them on the Today Show earlier in morning - he must have finished the interview and went for breakfast with is wife (Jason recognized he was wearing the same outfit as on TV). Every time he looked our way, I kept thinking "I wonder if he's inspired by the way Jason poured syrup on his waffles, or the way I use a "caveman" grip on my fork when cutting, and maybe he'll write this into his next book!" which is pretty arrogant of a thought, I suppose. Anyway, I digress... go to Balthazar. You'll love it.

Balthazar is also just a few blocks away from PurlSoho, one of my favorite knitting stores. We swung by after brunch, before heading up-town. The shop looks like a box of Crayola crayons (the 64 crayon pack), with every nook and cranny of each wall neatly stacking all sorts of yarns in a rainbow of colors. I picked up more Manos yarn. You know... anyone who thinks knitting can't be addictive hasn't been to this store.

After Purl (and a tenuous 30 min where temporarily I mis-placed our theater tickets), we headed uptown to the Music Box Theater to see August: Osage County. This show was fantastic. It had a bit of a slow start, but got better and better every act. I really liked Johanna Day's portrayal of "Barbara Fordham" - Barbara is the pragmatic, sharp-tongued daughter who temporarily steps in as matriarch (out of duty? or personality?) of the family when her father disappears and her mother's drug-addiction becomes incapacitating. The show's set looked like just like a scaled up doll-house! I haven't seen a play or a show in years, and this one has reminded me how talented Broadway actors are and what a great experience seeing a live show can be!

After the play and dinner, we retired to our hotel, the Waldorf=Astoria (owned/operated by Hilton, I believe). You know.... for a "luxurious, elegant Hotel" (their words, not mine), we though it was a little bit lacking. The 100 year old hotel itself, is beautiful, and I don't even like "old stuff". The lobby and concierge area has classic dark-wood walls and a beautiful clock in the center - the lobby actually reminded me of the clock area at Grand Central. But... there were just some amenities that didn't stack up. Like the shower - it took 20 min to run before hot water arrived (or course I realized this AFTER I finished a chilly shower and was about to call the front desk once sensitivity returned to my frozen fingers). And the parking situation - even though we called the garage 30 min before we were heading out per instructions, we still had a 20 minute wait to boot. I'm sure part of this is something that just comes along with a "vintage" hotel - I'm guessing that the old plumbing doesn't support bringing hot water 26 floors up quickly - and it's not like originally the hotel had to deal with parking and jockeying hundreds of cars around the way they do now. So I suppose I understand that. But the continental breakfast kinda felt like a feeding frenzy with lots of people cutting lines to eat egg casserole and cereal from plastic dispersers (like something you'd find at a casino in AC); This kinda stuff has nothing to do with the age of the hotel. And rather than pay $30 for a pint of ice-cream from room service, we just walked across the street to Duane Reed and got the same for $5. Overall, the hotel is nice, but doesn't justify it's price-tag.

I think just having an entire day together, with no responsibilities other than to relax and enjoy life, was what made Valentine's such a lovely day (cue the music, please).

What Not To Knit

These cotton market bags, that's what! The pattern I followed was"Elisa's Nest Tote" and I don't think I'd make them again. Even though I did knit two of them. (I have a tendency to get excited about a project and buy enough yarn to make 2 or 3 items even before I start - I hope this is not forshadowing problems with my upcoming ear-flap hats). I made the green tote first - the achilles heel of this pattern is the handles. Do you see the problem with the way the handles bind to the bag? You can't open the tote up when you pull the handles apart! In the photo here, I went to put some magazines in the tote, but had to fold them in a cylinder shape to get them in.


So - I decide to modify the pattern such that the handles don't impede opening the bag. The final product is seen here, with 12 clementines in it. I suppose changing the handles did help the functionality of the bag some, but there is still a gap where the trim doesn't cover on the top of the bag. Well.....with this orange tote, at least you could fit more than a baguette loaf through the opening of the bag.

Other comments / modifications about this pattern - I agree with what most folks on Ravlery said - the bag would look better if knit on circular needles. And I only used 4 stitches (vs the 6 the pattern called for) on the I-cord.

But... at least I learned how to make an "Applied I-cord" with this project, so I did learn something! And I think the semi-permanent dent in my thumb from knitting the applied I-cord with size 3 DPNs is starting to go away. So those are at least a couple positive take-aways!

Drinks and Dessert

Drinks are another great way to unwind! After work this past Thursday I was in the city at a new place for me, Pegu Club with my hubby Jason and friend Tom. Tom, who is the author of My Cocktail Journey blog, had recommended the place, and it did not disappoint! The Red Pepper! Red Pepper! drink was outstanding. I thought it was going to be a spicy drink, but it was actually red bell pepper tasting - sweet and refreshing. My hubby also enjoyed the ginger beer cocktail, which was very flavorful, as well. Pegu Club is definitely worth a visit.

Also in the neighborhood of Pegu Club is Rice to Riches - Jason and I were introduced to this dessert gem by his good friend Bill. It's a great cafe that exclusively serves rice pudding, but in some unique and luxurious flavors. By the time we left Pegu Club, we barely had time to swing by for dessert. Thanks to some skillful driving by Tom we just made it!

As a take-home treat, Jason and I got a "Sumo" container of rice pudding for home. Of course we planned that this would last us the week, but I think it was gone in 3 evenings. I don't even like rice pudding, but the stuff this place serves up is undeniable. Please don't tell my trainer.

Oh and in a knitting update... I just completed this little scarf for a colleague's birthday. It's the Airy Scarf pattern from LMKG. I used KidSilk Haze (Rowan) in a sage green color. I thought knitting with this very fine, feathery yarn (70% kid super kid mohair, 30% silk yarn) was going to be like knitting a cobweb, but it actually went quite well! And it knit in the timeframe the book suggested! I definitely recommend this as a quick knit that yields a really nice final product.

Manos Madness

My local knitting shop is having a sale, so I stopped in. Earlier in the week, employees told me this sale brings in loads of people, and lines have been know to go out the door. This was exactly the motivation I needed to NOT participate - Who wants to fight for left-over colors, odd lots, or a bin full of "fun-fur"? But.... I happened to wake up early this morning, and figured that since today is the 2nd day of the sale, lines would be far less lengthy and maybe I could pick up some good deals, even if some good inventory was gone.

I arrived 30 min after the store opened and actually found it to be a nice experience - lots of employees floating around to help customers and good discounts - everything was at least 20% off, with lots of items up to 50% off. I'm guessing the fun fur was 90% off???. I decided to pick up some Manos to make some winter hats! In the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book, they have some cool hats that have ear-flaps, pom-poms, and interesting stripes. (I love pom-poms). Lots of ways to be creative with this project. And this would be my first time making hats, so buying the yarn on sale would be good all around. I had some left over Manos from knitting the Purl scarf (from the same book), so I chose colors to compliment it. Here's what I got:

# 34 Oilslick
# 26 Rosin
(I have a bit of the #49 Henna left over - perhaps enough for earflaps?)
# 36 Mallard

So... this is always the dreamy part of the project to me... my stream of consciousness goes something like: "I love this material these hats would be adorable maybe they'll come out just like what's in the book maybe someone on the street will stop and ask me about it and inquire if I could make them one and then their friends will love the hat and insist I make them some and maybe income from knitting ear-flap hats would at first compliment my current salary working for the man and then quickly meet and surpass it and then I could just knit beautiful, unique hats and various other accessories and maybe then I'd be like that lady who patented spanx and run my own company and retire at an early age"........ and then I start knitting, hit the first dropped stitch, unclear pattern direction, or repetative-motion-induced pain in my hand, and remember why I don't quit my day job.