Goals...finally

I realized I never came back and let you all know which knitty patterns I liked from this new issue. I know you all must have been waiting with bated breath…haven’t you? Well I’m not as thrilled with this issue as I have been in the past BUT I did really enjoy the article about loving your stash by Tara Jon Manning. It really got me thinking about my own stash. I don’t think its as big as others might have but I do have that stash guilt. This guilt has started to get the better of me and because of this I have decided to set some goals for myself this year.

1. I would like to work through most my stash. Really this is because I want to make a dent in what I have so I can fill it all up again when I go to Rhinebeck this year.

2. I want to finally make a sweater. I have the pattern and yarn for the flair jacket I have been talking about for what seems like months BUT I also have all kinds of other yarn and its time that I put it to use to make a sweater or cardi or vest…SOMETHING. So to aid in this endeavour I have purchased Ann Budd’s book The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns so that maybe, just maybe, I can design my own.

3. I want to finally work out all the knots in the yarn I bought to make the Doctor’s Bag from Knit-2-Together. I bought this wonderful alpaca yarn when I was in Rhinebeck this past year and I never cast on for the bag because the second skein got all tangled when I had it on the swift and I was too frustrated to ever get all the knots out. Some of the girls in my knitting group have jokingly suggested bring the mess in and they could all take turns getting the knots out. I’m going to warn you all now, I might just being do thing.

4. I need to finish my ocean toes so that I can fall in love with socks again. Maybe after the flair jacket.

5. Finish the scarf I started for Carl about a year ago. There is nothing complicated about it I just got bored and stopped knitting it. It happens.

6. Finally, I'd like to complete a felt project. The challenge in this is really finding a washer in which to felt. I’m keeping my eye out for top loading washers!

For now I think this little plan should keep me busy for most of the year. And now that my goals are laid out I should really get back to my puffball skirt so I can move on and complete a few more things.

Happy knitting…thank goodness its almost Friday!

MCY Drama

Like so many of you, I’ve been following the MCY drama on Ravelry. It’s a little absurd what this person has done. I left a comment on the blog Knit and Kelly was kind enough to respond to me.

It is amazing! Faked death, fake illness, all these fake emails. It's like a soap opera or something! I have a feeling that this Danielle isn't a real knitter - she wouldn't be acting such a way to her community if she was. I think she just saw a bunch of marks and went for it because knitters are so trusting. Unfortunately, after this, all independent spinners and dyers might suffer because it's made a lot of cynics out of people

It made me wonder if this Danielle person really is a knitter. Knitter on knitter crime is just not cool. We’re supposed to be supportive of each other, teach each other new techniques, help pick up a dropped stitch and NEVER cheat each other. I just find this whole incident very sad indeed and I hope if comes to an end very soon. Stop the knitter hate!!

Wow I've been posting a lot today.

I'm so excited...

Spring Knitty is Here!

I'm totally reading this through tonight so I can pick out the patterns I like...YAY Spring!

(picture from www.garden.org)

Random thought I had after spending too much time on Ravelry this week (yes and its wednesday give me a break) - am I the only knitter without a cat? You all have pictures with these beautiful cats and even though I have to hate them since I'm so freaking allergic I'm starting to feel a little left out. I guess that's why I made Kiley.

Weekend in the Jers Recap

I had a wonderful weekend with my friend Meg. She was very excited when I gave her the yarn and needles I bought. She didn’t remember how to knit but she soon got the hand of it. Saturday morning we woke up early and I tried to show her how to cast on but that wasn’t working so well so I just cast on for her so she could get to the knitting. She got a lot done while I was there and I even got the chance to show her how to add a new ball. I left before I could show her how to bind off but she’s going to come up in a few weeks so I can show her.

Isn’t it pretty yarn? Love how the different textures make stripes of nubby, eyelash and ribbon.

And here she is knitting away! I’ve brought another lost lamb back to the flock!

Friday night we were hanging out at her place with a few friends. This one guy, Joe, who works with Meg was so fascinate with my knitting. I kept looking over and he’d be staring. He said he just couldn’t help listening to the sound of my needles. It’s amazing how knitting can relax not just the knitter but those around the knitter.

Saturday night the power went out so I couldn’t knit so we went out to dinner and to a local bar. I met a few other people she works with and he a great time.

Meg made me wonderful breakfasts and generally spoiled me. It was a wonderful weekend! I miss having her around. I’m trying desperately to get her to move to New York.

Yummy bacon…she really does spoil me.

I’ve been working away at my skirt but with the stitch count at 780 its slow going. I have about 12 inches done and I have finally started a new stitch pattern which is exciting. The cable is break again which is infuriating. I have to call knit picks and get these replaced. This is just getting ridiculous. I will post pictures soon of my progress. I really like how the skirt is turning out despite the cable issues.

Girly Weekend

I’m off to New Jersey this weekend. That doesn’t sound very fun or romantic or interesting BUT I’m going down to Princeton to see an old college friend that I haven’t seen in a while. She’s the closet thing I have to a sister and I haven’t seen her in a long time. I miss her terribly. I’m looking forward to a weekend filled with girly things like girly movies, no sports, wine not beer, playing with makeup and all the other things I never get to do because I’m just not that girly and all my friends tend to be men.

I’m most excited about knitting with her. We learned to knit at the same time. We were each taught by our mothers during college. We were sisters in yarns! We knit together or at least what was an attempt at knitting. We both loved it but I think she got distracted over the years whereas I became obsessed which is painfully obvious when you consider the fact that I blog about knitting and she maybe has some yarn in her apartment.

So to encourage her to knit again I have purchased 3 balls of Trendsetter’s Pandora in Olive, see the above picture that I stole from their website (sorry don’t hate me Trendsetters, I love the yarn!). They had a sample of it knitted up in garter stitch and it looked fabulous! I figured why have her knit something boring because she only knows how to knit when I could get her just the right yarn to make something extraordinary! I really can’t wait to get her cast-on and on her way to beautiful new scarf. I’m bring her back to the fold, wish me luck!

Talk to you all again on Sunday!

The Problem with Living in a 1st Floor Apartment in NYC

Last night after a wonderful time at my Upper Eastside knitting group I came home to snuggle into our armchair to knit and watch American Idol and the finale of Project Runway. I crawled onto the chair, knitting in hand, and started to get comfy. I’m knitting with a maroon/red ball of yarn that’s getting rather small and unruly. Out of the corner of my eye I think I see the ball of yarn fall and move a bit. I stopped myself from reaching down to pick it up when I realized the ball was moving MUCH too fast to be a ball of yarn. A GIANT cockroach ran across our carpet and into the air tube thing on my subwoofer! The most girly of girly screams (and I'm not girly) came out of me and I jumped up onto the chair for safety. Carl came running out of the bathroom to...uh...rescue me…kinda. We (yes WE, not HE, WE!!!) tried to get the cockroach out of the sub so we could kill him but no he had crawled somewhere deep into the nether regions of the sub. My sub is now sitting in a big plastic bag that’s sealed like Fort Knox. Every time I have to walk by it I expect to here all this rustling as all the cockroaches hiding in my subwoofer try to escape their black plastic cage. YUCK YUCK YUCK. And yes in my mind one cockroach has turned into thousands.

I used to be all attached to the apartment because it was our first apartment together and it was romantic and blah blah blah. I’m over it. We need to move to a new place, preferably MANY floors up. We’re clean people, we have a maid, we don’t leave food all over the apartment so I know it’s not us but our location in the building. The bedroom is next to the garbage area for the building and the living is on the first floor so all those giant dead suckers we see in the foyer on the way into the building have a chance of hiding in our apartment for safety. I’m over this. I want to move to the suburbs.

I've resist talking about American Idol for a while but...

...why is David Archuleta so FUCKING good. You're like 17 you should be making out with girls and pimping out your car...wow...I predict he wins.

K no more American Idol...back to knitting.

Another Ribbed Hat

Last night BFG came over for dinner and a hat fitting. Somehow I ran out of yarn even though I made the same hat for Carl with the same yarn and only needed one ball. Luckily I had another ball in a similar colorway just a little darker. In the end I like the effect. Dinner was lovely but Carl can’t have curry anymore since his stomach thing a few months ago. He had to stay home sick today because of our dinner. BFG and I are fine which at least means I’m not a bad cook.

BFG doing the dishes in his new hat. He’s single ladies if you want him!

Carl modeling the hat because I didn’t want to disturb BFG while he did the dishes.

I went to a different knitting group tonight and it was nice. There were a few crossovers from my Upper Eastside Knitters group which was nice. At least I knew someone there. I had a great time. Everyone was nice and there were great conversations to be had. The dynamic is a little different, but that’s expected. I think the members of this group are a little more experienced then most the people in UES group which changes the knitting conversation a little. Overall I’m happy that I branched out and met more people. I think I’m going to attend more meetups with this group as well.

What I loved about tonight was that we had a little circle of young knitters and in another corner there was a little circle of older knitters. It was funny, at least to me. I think we should have joined circles. I’m sure we all could have learned a lot from each other, maybe next time.

Anyway back to taking care of Carl. I hate when he’s sick.

Knee Britches

MMM Anthony Andrews in the knee britches is just yummy. I decided to pull out the 1982 version of The Scarlet Pimpernel today. I’ve been reading Lauren Willig’s books on the Pink Carnation and other fictional English spies during and after the French Revolution and I thought it would be nice to see the movie that started my obsession with this particular literary theme.

This was the best britches shot I could find of him in the movie (the one in the foreground). Jane Seymour is pretty stunning too.

I seriously used to dream about this man when I was a little girl. He was everything I thought I man should be. Fit, smart, brave, good with a sword (there is a shocking lack of duels these day!!) and above all else a romantic. Ah fantasies they do make coping with the real world rather difficult sometimes.

I must pull myself away from all this romantic dreaming. I have about 2 hours left to work on the skirt before Carl comes home and I have to start dinner (yummy chicken curry if you must know) and then BFG comes over for winescream, tv and a hat fitting. Busy day!

Oh and my knit pick options are pissing me off. The cables are falling apart. The metal join at the end keeps falling off. I now have three or four useless cables. I’m not happy about this. I’m going to send them an email.

Lazy Saturday

Carl left early this afternoon go out to New Jersey to help his dad move some furniture or something so I have the apartment to myself for the day. I’m taking this time to start the hat I promised BGF. It’s just another simple fitted ribbed hat like the one I made for Carl a few months ago. It’s out of di.ve Autunno again but a different color way. I let BFG pick out which color he liked and he picked this beautiful blue/black yarn. I love the way its knitting up.

I made a lot of progress on the puffball skirt last night but unfortunately it looks the same, just longer. I just don’t think it’s worth showing the next few inches. I think we’re at about 600 maybe 700 stitches now. This is getting out of control.

What I’m most happy about today is that my orchid is finally blooming again. Last year for Valentine’s Day Carl bought me a beautiful orchid. It lived for a year and only bloomed once. I bought myself another one about 6 months ago which stopped blooming and is now blooming again! I’m so happy that I didn’t kill it. I also received another orchid from Carl this year. But that was because the florists never delivered my roses (or 200 other people’s roses that day). I don’t care what the reason I love my orchids and I’m happy I’m not killing them anymore.

One more because I’m excited about the new blooms!