Hello from Brazil

Just a quick hi from Brazil. I do not have any pictures and the keyboard is weird here BUT I did finish my anniversary socks on the flight here and I have made a lot of progress on the sweater sampler from The Sweater Workshop. I hope to have so fun things to show you all when I get back home.

Hopefully the world won`t go to pot now that Bhutto has been assasinated.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

I'm getting Carl all packed up for Brazil since he flies out tonight to meet up with the rest of his family. Tomorrow my brother and I head back to the Burbs so we can do Christmas with our family. Then I'm off to Brazil myself. So I will not be posting for a while BUT I will be knitting A LOT so I will have lots of things to show you when I get back.

Merry Christmas!

Party Pics!

Ok I promised pictures of our party shenanigans so here you go:





I told you it was crazy!

And for those who are interested in my knitting life...

This is the Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton I bought for the Flair Jacket in Pickle

And these are the buttons I bought. I like the brown and teal ones the most I think but I'm still torn. What do you think? The brown/teal looks more funky the ambers look more traditional...

And I found this awesome ring and I just couldn't help myself!

Oh and one Anniversary Sock is down one more to go! I listen to two books completing this sock. Ruddy Gore by Kerry Greenwood and Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn! Great little mysteries!

And apparently after a long day of shopping in the rain I felt the need to do a little still life photography...I call it "Knitting" (original huh?)

Christmas Craziness

Things are really starting to get crazy around here. The Christmas Party season is in full swing, work is picking up as we get closer to year end and just hoping it will all slow down just a bit so I can enjoy the season. Friday we had dinner with friends at Stanton Social which was really great. Carl's cousin joined us and announced that she's pregnant so we're all really excited about that. Saturday we had a friends Christmas party to go to in the West Village. It was crazy. I will post pictures later I promise. There was a Drag-Queen Erotic Balloon Artist. I never knew such a thing existed. I learned that if you give a room full of adults balloon penises and vaginas they will all turn into 13 year old boys and it doesn't matter if they've been drinking. I promise there are pictures of the madness. Surprisingly I was pretty much sober for this party. And I'm very happy about this now because I can remember everything about the night! When we woke up the next morning Carl told me "you're like a prettier Kathy Griffin, the gays and transsexuals your people" Maybe he's right...

Any in all this madness I did manage to finish one of my Anniversary socks and I like it! Sunday my mom and I braved the weather (god was it awful, cold and rain and slush YUCK) and went to Purl and Knit NY to find Moving Mud Buttons. I love this company. I found them when I was at Rhinebeck. I'm getting closer to starting my Knit and Tonic Flair Jacket and I wanted to find buttons from Moving Mud. The only stores that carry them are Purl and Knit NY. I love love love the ones I got. I have two to choose from. I like both of the color combinations but I think I will have to wait till I'm working on the jacket to know which set it will want. I forgot how expensive these buttons are. Even the lady at Purl was shocked when she saw the total. It will be worth it though.

I started the second sock on Sunday night and I think I stand a chance of finishing the pair in a week or so. If things start to quiet down.

I'm starting to compile all the projects I want to take with me to Brazil. I have one more week...then sun.

Its time to sleep. I promise to post picture tomorrow. The battery died and I'm tired. Thank you for listening to me ramble.

Reminder

I'm getting all my Holiday cards ready, if you want to participate just send me a note:

Original post:

Ysolda had this great idea on her blog about sending Christmas cards to her readers and I thought “Hey, I can do that too!” so if you’d like to participate please send your address to kitti2323@gmail.com. I will 1) send you a wonderful, non religious Christmas card (unless you want a more traditional religious card because I’m down with that too) and 2) NEVER EVER EVER let anyone else see your address because well that’s just not safe or nice (got to keep the good Karma flowing). I hope you all have fun with this. I’m starting to get very excited about the whole holiday season!

Blog Reading Level?

You know what Anna, I don’t think I buy this either:

Get a Cash Advance

How do they even come up with this?

Good Day

Despite the gut wrenching pain in my stomach for the last 4 days and wanting to puke all day I had a good day all in all. The nauseous feeling went away before I had to go out to dinner and:

The new yarn I found on Knitpicks.com for $1.99 came today. I picked it up to make my Sweater Shop Sampler while flying to Brazil in a few weeks.

AND



I'm almost done with my Anniversary Socks!



Now I just need the weekend to come, I'm exhausted.

Quite a weekend...

Friday we finally picked up our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree. Since we won't be at home for Christmas Carl wanted us to get a small tree. Now apparently we have different definitions of small. I grew up in a house where a new room was put on when I was about 7 so we could get a bigger tree. For most of my life the trees were approximately 11 feet tall. Carl...not so much. He was nice and let me get a slightly bigger tree than he had in mind (why I love him) and it made me much happier. We carried the tree up the street and started decorating. On a side note, it will always seem weird buying trees off the street in NYC. Anyway we had a great time decorating and I think its wonderful.

Carl and the tree after the lights went up. He's still a little sick and got dizzy and had to relax.

I had to do a bunch on my own but it was fun I love Christmas!

It's beautiful all lit up!

Carl really liked the juxtaposition of the angel and naked lady...whatever makes him happy

Saturday I found my old ipod mini and put all my audiobooks on it so I could list to them while I waited for the package to come from Mac so I could return the stupid thing and get a replacement. I finally found a number for Apple Care and they told me I had 8 days left on my warranty (woo hoo) so I got a new ipod. Anyway after that I snuggled into the couch and started working on my socks for the December Sock Down KAL which I am participating in on Ravelry. I knit all day. In the afternoon I had a wheat thin and chipped a tooth (incident 1) then in the evening on my way downstairs to bed I fell down our spiral staircase smashing my bad knee into the railing (incident 2). I have cuts and scraps and I'm limping. I hate our stairs. I knew I'd fall one of these days and Saturday was the day. I hate them.

Our stairs of death. House guests beware!

Sunday, with a functioning ipod and uploaded audiobooks I crawled my bruised and battered self onto the couch and resumed my work on Nancy Bush's Anniversary Socks from Interweaves 25 Favorite socks. I listened to "Ruddy Gore" by Kerry Greenwood while I worked. She writes this great detective series with this character Phryne Fisher. She's an awesome female protagonist. Anyway...I managed to turn the heel and complete the instep decreases by the time for BGF came over for dinner with Carl and I. (He just found out today that he doesn't have testicular cancer or a cyst and I"m sooooo soooo happy about the news. I've been worried sick). I decided to take a break at noon and check out Annie's Co. Knitting store on Madison and 93rd since I learned on Saturday that when I stay in all day I hurt myself. I really liked it. The people were very nice, they had a wonderful selection (I picked up the Blue Sky Alpace Cotten yarn I need to make the Flair Jacket in pickle but don't tell Carl I promised him I wouldn't buy anymore yarn for a bit) the whole store was just pleasant. I am going to have to go back there again.

I had a little problem with lace pattern in some areas by all in all they look great. I just wish I had used a different yarn. I think the stripes take away from the lace.

They're not perfect but I'm proud of them all the same.

I might kill Apple

I’ve been listening to the Knit Picks podcast a lot recently and Kelly is always talking about how she listens to lots of audio books while she knits. I had tried this once before but my iPod is a pain in the ass and likes to skip around and play whatever it feels like playing or it just stops. It’s very frustrating. I then stopped buying audio books from iTunes (the iTunes files do give me the most trouble) and gave up on reading and knitting. Last night I thought hey let me give the little guy a second chance…NOPE big mistake. How can I listen to a story (which I bought from iTunes so it should work with an iPod) when the thing skips around turns off freaks out? I update my software, I run diagnostic to see if there are problems (there aren’t) and restore to the factory settings and start again and guess what…it gets WORSE!! And of course I’m no longer covered by my warranty so I have to pay them to maybe fix my iPod. Or I can just buy a whole new one for $200 more but it has like 4x the space. Sometimes I hate APPLE! Seriously, just make a product that works!! You’re ruining my knitting. I knit to de-stress and this whole iPod thing just freaks me the heck out. De-stressing ruined.

It’s like it has a mind of its own. Has anyone else had this problem? How do you fix it? I’m so close to just buying a discman and using that…seriously!

Project Runway Rant...I know it has nothing to do with knitting but I just need to work through my thoughts

Which of Henry VIII's wives are you?

this quiz was made by lori/'>http://www.spookbot.com">Lori Fury

So anyway, I just want to rant a little about Project Runway. I'm a little annoyed with this season. For some reason this season isn't grabbing me like past seasons have. I don't know if its the contestants or the challenges but I'm not hooked yet. I'm giving it time but it is a little sad. I so want to be hooked. I want to be as excited and involved as I have been in the past. Maybe it will happen over time. Maybe I just need to get to know these people a little better. I do think though that the challenges are a little over the top this season. It almost like they are trying too hard to make them challenging and interesting. But I must stop myself. I love PR and I cannot bad mouth it anymore. In time I think I will learn to love (and hate) these contestants as much as I have those from past seasons. Next week there is crying so hopefully the fun will really start.

Anna's got another contest and I have another pair of socks on the needles....I see a trend

What’s your knitting scandal? Post yours at Anna’s blog. She’s running another contest ending this Saturday 12/8 so take a deep breath and share those knitting secrets you’ve been trying to hide from your knitting peers.

And of course I chose to cast on another pair of socks. This time the Anniversary Socks from Interweave’s 25 Favorite Socks. Its time to spice up my sock knitting with more challenging patterns! Its already harder than the last two. I had to ripe out the 4th rnd a couple times before I got it right. But I’m up for the challenge. I can do this!

I thought I'd share this:

My Conversation With my Best Guy Friend (BGF) About My Sock Knitting Obsession:

Me: yup I'm obsessed with socks
BGF: why?
Me: why am I obsessed? well they're small so I can work on them anywhere
I can finish them relatively quickly so I get almost instant gratification and
there are so many patterns! So I can try all different techniques but on a
smaller scale so if I fuck up and have to rip back I don’t want to cry like
I would if I was making a sweater
BGF: it's like knitting masturbation
Me: yah I guess it is like knitting masturbation

Only a man would make that comparison.

All Done!

The ankle socks are done. The yarn I used was Opal Hundertwasser in Der Blaue Mond and I just used Ann Budd's basic sock pattern to make ankle socks.

I love them!



What should I cast on next??? Hmmmm...

Ah that was a nice break

November is over and it was nice to take a few days off from blogging. And though I don't have any finished objects to show you I can show you the progress I have made on my socks. I'm almost there, hopefully I can finish before the week is up.

My god do I need a pedicure...moving on

What I'm really excited about is the idea kit that arrived from Blue Sky Alpaca. I just love all the colors and textures. So now I just have to get my creative juices flowing. I bought it so I could figure out which color I want to use on this jacket pattern (flair jacket I think, I can't remember) I got from knit and tonic. I have had the pattern now for about a month and I can finally sit down with my mom and discuss colors. She recently took a color class and is excited to help. She took it for quilting but the concept is the same. But I think I talked about this in an earlier post.

Look at all the pretty colors...I could play in this box of fun forever

What I really wanted to tell you all about was our experience on Saturday night. We had a surprise party for a friend at this place called Rasputin in Brooklyn. Its this Russian cabaret night club thing. It was insane and cheesy and awful in just the right combination to make it totally fun. We're never going (or at least not Carl and I) but it was fun. There was tons of food and vodka. And there were showgirls. Not good showgirls but showgirls nonetheless. I took a little video clip so you all could experience the cheese that is Rasputin.

Yah it was an interesting place. The whole night people in our party would look at each other and say "be careful or the mobs going to get you" It was a great weekend till Carl woke up sick again on sunday. I got a lot of knitting done while I took care of him but I wish he was getting better. He went back to the doctor today. Hopefully we get this stomach thing fixed soon. I'm getting asked to come upstairs and hang out with our guest so I must go.

Happy knitting!