Knitting like it's my job.

recently completed

2010-06-10T12:48:00.004-04:00

I knit a pair of log cabin socks for my co-worker's birthday. I love this pattern and have always wanted to knit it. I want to make myself a pair. Actually I want to make everyone I know a pair. So cozy. They make me wish it were winter again.

FO: K's Log Cabin Socks

Pattern: Log cabin socks by Anne Woodbury (from the book: Handknit Holidays)

Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers

Needles: US 5

Size: Woman's small

Mods: made the foot shorter than called for before doing toe decreases because there was a lot of stretch.

I have mostly been working on my dad's sweater from the Aran Sweater Market. I was so close to finishing:

And then I had quite a set back. Can you see how the decreases on the arms are shorter than the decreases on the body? That's because of a lovely little stitch pattern we call the trinity stitch. Because of the nature of the trinity stitch (and because I wasn't using a consistent approach to decreasing in this section) I ended up decreasing quite quickly because at times I was decreasing three stitches instead of one. Sigh. So I have to rip out the decrease sections and re-knit them. I've already redone the front and am working on the back and then will tackle the sleeves.

I will be posting shortly about my recent trip to Hawaii where my husband and I got to watch them film one of the major scenes from the series finale of LOST! Stay tuned...

Will always be with me

2010-05-27T10:03:00.002-04:00

I haven't had the heart to post in a while. My sister had a miscarriage during her second trimester and my family was devastated. Everyone, especially my sister and her husband, is doing much better now but it was very tough on us all since this was the first grandbaby/neice/nephew. I have learned that unfortunately miscarriages aren't as uncommon as one might think although that does not diminish how painful it is when it happens to you or someone you love.

I'm going to be an Aunt!

2010-03-18T10:26:00.005-04:00

So I am finally allowed to spread the news that my sister and her new husband (yes the one who just got married in January) are expecting a honeymoon baby in October! Since the baby is due in October I just couldn't help myself:

FO: Pumpkin Head

Pattern: Pumpkin Hat by Susan Esser

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Orange, Bark and Clover

Needles: US4

Mods: Held the yarn double and cast on 9 extra sts. My gauge was about 5.75 - 6 sts per inch.
I used the just a leaf pattern by hinke for the leaf.

I knit this little hat up in one Saturday I was so excited. It's super cute and was easy. And I used up stash yarn too. My sister loved it!

chunk-a-munk hat

2010-03-03T10:40:00.005-05:00

I've still been knitting away at my Dad's aran sweater, but I also spent some time whipping up this cute hat so I could rock it a bit before winter ended. It's snowing today so it would seem I still have time. It's a free pattern and perfect if you have one hank of super bulky yarn. It would also make a great, quick gift. I had some Debbie Bliss Super Chunky Tweed I picked up at a going out of business sale at a LYS. I didn't have the size 17 needle I needed in my Knit Picks Options set but someone in my knitting group was able to lend them to me which was fantastic and why I love knitting friends!

FO: chunk-a-munk hat

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Super Chunky Tweed in Fuschia

Needles: US15 and US17

Pattern: Bulky Hat by Eveli Kaur

Mods: CO 56 sts and increased to 63- it came out too small when I followed the pattern. Also I decreased for a few more rows than called for in the pattern since I had more sts.

Love this hat! Cute, comfy and warm- the ultimate knitting trifecta!

February Knitting

2010-02-22T09:16:00.006-05:00

My husband's birthday was earlier this month and I made him a hat. I really like the way it came out. I highly recommend that you learn how to cable without a cable needle if you are going to make this hat. There is a lot of cabling and it would be incredibly tedious if you were using a cable needle. I used this tutorial to get the hang of it. It makes a nice thick fabric that's very warm. The true color is a lighter brown than how it shows up in the photo.

FO: Birthday Hat

Pattern: Koolhaas Hat by Jared Flood

Yarn: Cascade 220 in colorway 8408

Needles: US 5 and US 7

Size: Mens

I've also spent a lot of time working on my Dad's sweater that I got from the Aran Sweater Market in Ireland. We had a few snow days followed by days off for President's week so my husband and I watched a lot of movies (Oscar contenders) and I had plenty of knitting time. This is the back of the sweater I finished up to the armhole shaping. I think I am going to put this on hold and cast on for the front of the sweater next since it is knit the same up until the armhole shaping. I'd rather get the bulk of the sweater done while I have some momentum going.

I am happy with how this is turning out. I did find one mistake in the pattern that I will let the company know about- but not a big deal. I am also doing this project without a cable needle now that I have the technique down.

iPhone Cozy Crazy

2010-02-08T10:39:00.008-05:00

So my brother commissioned me to make an iPhone cozy for his girlfriend, Jaime. Her favorite color is dark blue and she likes to wear "earth tones" so I opted to make two cozies (because they're not really that hard). I made one with a cord so she can wear it around her neck to listen to music or so she can just carry her phone, ID, etc. if she wants. I made one without a cord so she can slip her phone inside and then put it in her pocket or in a purse.

FO: Cabled iPhone Cozy
Pattern: Four Rib Braid Cabled iPod Touch Sock by SmarieK
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Sock Yarn in "Porcini"
Needle: US2 for cozy and US3 for i-cord
Mods: I fixed the pattern so that the ribbing lines up with the cables. They don't if you work the pattern as written and you can tell from the pics of other projects on Ravelry. If you want the cables to line up with the ribbing: CO 40 sts. Work ribbing as P2, K2 (in other words start the ribbing by purling 2 sts). When you are ready to start the chart work the first round this way: (P2, K2) twice, P2tog, (K2, P2) twice, knit to end of round
Only work it this way the first round and you will be all set to follow the pattern after that. Just remember to decrease on stitch on your last round before grafting so that you have an even number of sts to work the kitchener stitch with. You have to have an even number of sts on each needle for kitchener/grafting. I had 19 on each needle.

FO: Starry Nite iPhone Cozy
Pattern: improvised from Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Sock Yarn in "Winter Night"
Needle: US2

After that I decided to make one for myself since I am still using one I made with kitchen cotton almost a year and a half ago.

FO: iPhone Cozy for me
Pattern: BFF Socks by Cookie A.
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Potluck in "Jewels"
Needle: US2
Mods: I used the cabled pattern from Cookie A.'s BFF socks for this cozy.

FO: Lace Beret

2010-02-04T11:54:00.005-05:00

I finished knitting the beret and I love it. I re-knit it with a smaller needle and I am so glad I did.

Pattern: #24 Lace Beret by Kate Gagnon Osborn

Source: Vogue Knitting Holiday 2009

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in fog (fingering wt.)

Needles: US2 and US3

I wish it were Friday! :)

the trouble with berets...

2010-01-14T11:17:00.004-05:00

So I finished knitting that beret for my sister for Christmas, but as mentioned previously I thought it came out too big and I was going to frog and reknit it at a smaller gauge. Well, I ran out of time before Christmas so I mentioned to my sister that I had knit something for her but was afraid it came out too big and was already planning to reknit it but that I would give it to her anyway and she could decide. Fast forward to Christmas day- she opens it and loves it. She thinks I'm crazy for thinking it was too big. I am so glad I did not reknit it. She wore it like everyday that week:

Pattern: Lisa's Beret by Kirsten Kapur (same designer as my husband's vest)
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool- originally "Winter White" (kool aid dyed in my own colorway: "Come on Eileen")

Now I am having similar issues with the latest beret I am making for myself. It is #24 Lace Beret from the Holiday 2009 issue of Vogue Knitting. It calls for fingering weight yarn so I am using some KnitPicks palette yarn I had in my stash in the colorway "fog" (gray). It called for size US 0 needles for the ribbing and then size US 1 needles for the lace work but when I CO with size 0 it was coming out too small and would've never fit on my head. So I went up to size US 2 and then did the lace with size US 3. The ribbing is great but the lace part came out too big. I am thinking of trying to CO with US 1 and then do the lace with US 2- but if the ribbing won't fit I will try the whole thing with a US 2. Here's a picture:

I am also running out of yarn. And KnitPicks doesn't carry the "fog" colorway anymore. Luckily I remembered a friend from knitting group who recently knit the "Little Birds" sweater in the fall (and it came out so awesome- I have to make one). I knew she used KnitPicks Palette and that the sweater is mainly gray so I prayed she used "fog" though KnitPicks also carries "silver" and "mist" which are similar. She did and has leftovers! Yes! Where would we be without Ravelry and the knitting connections it enables us to make?

I also cast on for the sweater for my Dad. This is the "Fitzpatrick" knitting kit from the Aran Sweater Market located on the Aran Islands, Ireland. They also sent me the wool. It's Aran Wool from Kerry Woollen Mills also located near Kilarney, Ireland. The people at the sweater market were awesome to deal with and helped me out a lot!

I'm still knitting.

2010-01-11T12:19:00.014-05:00

I haven't blogged about knitting or much of anything in such a long time I've been so busy. My husband and I had our very first Christmas morning together in our own place:

We went easy on the gifts this year because we are planning a trip to Hawaii. He got me the 2 disc collector's edition of Pride and Prejudice (yes, I like Matthew Macfadyen better as Darcy than Colin Firth), the book Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block (if you plan on having kids someday- please read it) and a beautiful print from our wedding that he got through our photographer. I was very happy.

I gave my husband the vest that I knit him (I mentioned surprise Christmas knitting in previous posts). I'm happy with the way it came out although I struggled with the collar. My only mods were to knit the body seamlessly. I loved that the proceeds from this pattern go towards Alzheimers and dementia research.

Pattern: Dr. G's Memory Vest by Kirsten Kapur (Blog: Through the Loops!)

Yarn: 6 skeins Cascade220 Heathers in blue

Size: Large

Needles: US 5/ US 7

My knitting group also donated blankets to the Veterans hospital in Northport. This our second year donating blankets during the holiday season. Last year we donated 3 blankets, this year we are donating 7 (one not pictured). Everyone was very enthusiastic and I am so proud of our work:

Now that my deadline knitting is done I haven't been feeling much like knitting lately. Part of it was catsitting for my sister while she was on her honeymoon. (I don't know how people with cats do it, he would not leave the yarn or the circs alone!) I am working on a sweater for my Dad and I cast on for a beret from a recent Vogue knitting because I feel like I deserve a little something and an instant gratification project might be just the thing to get my knitting juices flowing again.

snow day

2009-12-20T11:46:00.004-05:00

The view from my bedroom window this morning:

I'm so glad we moved to a horse farm. :)

Wedding knitting <3

2009-10-22T09:43:00.006-04:00

My time has been consumed with my sister's upcoming wedding this January.

This Sunday is her shower and I am so excited! My present to her is currently blocking on my living room floor. I was waiting until I got my Knit Picks blocking mats in the mail. Unfortunately it still wasn't enough room so I had to seperate them and use them as best I could. I think it worked out. I may steam block the edge.

Pattern: Hemlock Ring by Jared Flood (but I used the Rainey Sister's updated version)

Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool #8010

I will post better pictures once it's dry.

I also received the Swish DK yarn in my Knit Picks package for the cabled bolero by Norah Gaughan that I want to make for my sister to wear on her wedding day. So I will be obsessing over the pattern for a day or two and swatching and hopefully finally casting on for real this weekend. I am anxious about the sizing but also super excited. It's a huge honor to make something someone wants to wear on their wedding day.

Charity Knitting

2009-10-07T14:40:00.004-04:00

Last year my knitting group made some blankets for the veterans at our local VA Hospital. It is actually a very large hospital and they have a Salvation Army homeless shelter for homeless veterans there as well and I just found out that they received one of our blankets and are using it in their welcome room where homeless vets spend their first night. :)

Well, we're at it again this year and we've got a lot more people interested. A few of us are knitting our own individual blankets to donate and everyone is knitting squares to be seamed together and donated. The support for the project this time around is really heartwarming. Last year about 4 of us participated and this year there's at least 11 women I can think of off-hand.

I am however getting quite sick of working on my own blanket, but mostly it's due to the acrylic yarn (donations must be easy care) and having to knit super tight (I end up with lots of ugly rowing out if I don't).

Here it is so far:

Pattern: Loom Patchwork Blanket by Claire Montgomerie from the book "Knitter's Yarn Palette"

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft Eco in "Wine Country", "Forest Floor", "Chocolate" and "Denim Wash"

I also am very excited about a knitting kit I just ordered from Ireland. My Dad has always wanted an authentic, hand knit, Aran sweater from Ireland so I have decided to knit him one. I am getting a kit from the Aran Sweater Market located on the Aran Islands. I am getting the pattern that goes along with our last name. They get their wool from a local mill, Kerry Woolen Mills so everything is authentically Irish. They were so wonderful to work with and they are even getting me the pattern in a special larger size that they don't offer on their site- although it's going to take some time. Expect a picture-filled post when I finally get my package from Ireland!

It's been way too long.

2009-10-02T09:10:00.009-04:00

I am so sorry I haven't posted in so long. I don't feel like I have very exciting knitting news because most of my projects are on-going and I've already introduced them.

I did finish my sister's beret but it came out too big so it is waiting to be frogged and re-knit at a smaller gauge. It looks great otherwise.

I also helped my sister move into her first apartment and made her these ballband dishcloths as a gift. She is using red and white as accents in her kitchen.

Pattern: Ball Band Dish Cloths

Yarn: 1 ball Pisgah Peaches & Creme Solids in "Red"; 1 ball Pisgah Peaches & Creme Solids in "White"

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I am also working on some top secret Christmas gifts.

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I went to a yard sale recently (it was all knitting stuff) held by a woman whose mother passed away (her mother was a professional knitter). I went to another one (same woman) in June and posted about it. I didn't find much yarn that I liked but I could not pass up the books and magazines. I picked up a bunch of issues of Interweave Knits, Vogue Knitting and Knit1 for 25 cents each. I also got some books including "The Celtic Collection" by Alice Starmore, "Vogue Knitting American Collection", "Folk Vests", "Hollywood Knits" and "Adorable Crochet for Babies and Toddlers" (for my mom) all for $2 a piece! It was a very happy day!

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The best part was that I am planning to make this cabled bolero by Norah Gaughan for my sister for her wedding day in January. I was just about to shell out the $6 on Ravelry for the pattern because I don't have that old issue of Vogue and there it was sitting in the pile at the yard sale with the cabled bolero right on the cover for just 25 cents! I was so happy about this find.

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I am worried about making this bolero though. A lot of people on Ravelry have had trouble with the sizing- it calls for worsted weight yarn and apparently comes out ridiculously big. I am going to follow someone's mods that got good results and knit it on smaller needles with DK weight yarn. But I have been having a heck of a time finding white wool yarn in a DK weight. I really want it to be wool because anything else (including a mix of cashmere or acrylic) has a sheen to it that I really don't like for this project. It also has been tough because in wool most whites are more of a "natural" colorway which means they are not pure white. A natural colorway is not going to look good against my sister's snow white wedding dress. It's going to look dingy.

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My solution is to wait for Knit Picks to release the DK Swish yarn in the "white" colorway. It doesn't come out until 10/16. It's the only pure white DK yarn I can find. Honestly I'm not crazy about it being superwash because that can give it a sheen as well, I'd rather it was just wool but I think it is the best I can do. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it I've been spending way too much time agonizing over this!

Fiber Fest

2009-08-24T09:07:00.009-04:00

It was so neat to have a mini fiber fest right here on eastern Long Island. On Saturday a few people from my local knitting group got together at the Tea Time Cottage for lunch and then we headed over to the fiber fest together. I picked up some dyed merino roving to spin up on my ladybug wheel and possibly ply with my first spool of yarn. I also picked up some undyed sweet grass targhee to spin on the antique wheel my in-laws just bought. (Which I promise to take pictures of at some point.) The fiber fest was nice and I definitely showed a lot of restraint because we definitely don't have money for fiber, probably because we spent all of our money on a spinning wheel!Here's a better shot of the dyed merino. The colorway is "green goddess":

Here is my first single spun on my ladybug spinning wheel, I am so proud of it:

I also cast on for that beret for my sister that is going to be a Christmas present. It is the yarn that I dyed with kool aid and described the process in a previous post. I call the color "Come on Eileen" and I love it. The pattern is Lisa's beret. I even knit a gauge swatch!

Other than that I'm just trying to work on projects I already have and not get too crazy with new ones. I guess that's why I haven't been posting so much. Oh, and I saw "District 9" yesterday, everyone go see it- it's such a great movie!

Happy Birthday!

2009-08-05T15:17:00.012-04:00

I went to two knitting groups this weekend and I think that explains why I was able to finally finish some WIPs that have been on the needles for a while.

First I finished the Charade socks that I started about a year ago. The yarn is knitpicks bare that I handpainted with kool aid. I call the color: Sunshine Superman. I really like the way they came out and I am glad I paired the yarn with this pattern.

Then I finished the Hemlock Ring blanket I have been working on as a wedding present for my sister. I will block it when I am closer to actually giving it to her (and when I actually own a blocking board and pins...)

I also finished the baby poonam. It took me forever to pick up the stitches for the sleeves I just never felt like doing it. It still needs button but I think it is super cute.

I'm organizing some knitters here to knit squares for "blankets of gratitude" for the veterans at our local VA hospital. We did this last year, but this year I am getting even more people involved. We donate them right before Christmas and they go to veterans who have to spend the holidays in the VA Hospital/Nursing Home. I am so excited that so many people seem to want to get involved.

I also shared a birthday with President Obama! You have to be awesome to be born on August 4th it seems. :)

My husband got me the best present: a schact ladybug spinning wheel!!! It's not assembled yet our day was just too busy but I can't wait.

Here's my ladybug:

My sister and her fiance got me some awesome knitting books. And she made me those earrings that are on top of the yarn harlot's book. I love 'em!
It was a wonderful birthday- I wish I could be the birthday girl every day!

Fluffy Stuff 2009- East End Fiber Fest!

2009-07-23T09:06:00.003-04:00

We are having our very own mini-Rhinebeck here on eastern Long Island next month. It's at a local organic farm where my spinning group meets in the nicer weather. It's being hosted by a LYS- Now and Zen Yarns in Greenport. Very exciting- I'll have to save some birthday money.

Yarn makes the best souvenir!

2009-07-20T09:12:00.016-04:00

My husband and I celebrated our third anniversary with a long weekend in Maine. (Don't worry new yarn pictures ahead as well!) We got in some kayaking on Swan Lake:

Then we went into nearby Belfast. They were having an art show on the waterfront. I spoke to a woman who was spinning on a wheel and was selling woven scarves. She was really nice and we had a nice chat about how I'd really like to get a spinning wheel some day and she showed me the fiber that she had dyed naturally.

Then I stopped at the LYS in Belfast, Heavenly Socks Yarns. The owner was really nice and they had a really good selection. All of the yarns you would expect, prices seemed good. They also had an awesome selection of local Maine yarns. The owner seemed super supportive of other local businesses which is great. Here I am with my souvenir:

I could not resist this organic fingering weight merino. It's brand new to the market and made locally in Maine so it's not even in Ravelry's database. It's spun locally in Maine and dyed locally with organic dyes. It's made by a company called Swans Island Blankets.

It's got good yardage: 580 yards so I am thinking of making a lacy scarf with it instead of the usual socks. I love the color and the variations in the purple.We also went to the Skowhegan drive-in on Saturday night. This is a big deal for a New Yorker where land is too expensive to be used in this way anymore. I haven't been to a drive-in since my parents took me to see "Big" with Tom Hanks when I was 5 years old.

We saw "The Hangover" which was just about the worst movie I've ever seen. I swear I didn't laugh even once. Super old jokes that have been done a million times and really offensive as far as gender politics, racism and jokes about pedophilia. It honestly scares me that people find this movie hilarious. I would've left if we weren't at the drive-in which I've wanted to do for so long.

The next day we went to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. Here I am at the top of Cadillac Mountain:

Here's my husband dancing on a cliff:

Then we went into Bar Harbor and got some lunch at this lovely restaurant. That's our table below (the empty one in the middle slightly to the left). I had the crab meat quesedilla, yummy. We were in coastal Maine so it was a seafood filled weekend.

We had such lovely views from our table. Everyone should go to Acadia and Bar Harbor. It's just beautiful.

Ah...vacation...I miss you so much on this Monday morning.

The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test #2

2009-07-09T11:25:00.013-04:00

So I took a "mental health day" from work last week and stayed home, watched the "Pride and Prejudice" miniseries (the 1980 version, not the one with Colin Firth) which I got for Christmas and still hadn't watched. I loved it. I also spent the day kool aid dying some yarn.

My sister fell in love with this beret a while ago. However, it's made with Lorna's Laces in "Carol Green" and that is way outside of my budget. I think what I actually said to my sister was "Woah, I haven't even knit with Lorna's Laces for myself." So I made her the beret (she paid for the pattern) in olive green. But I had an idea about trying to dye some yarn a similar color and remake the beret at some point. So that's what I decided to do, I figure I can knit it up for her as a Christmas present.

I used Patons Classic wool in winter white- leftover from the sweater I made my sister for Christmas. In a moment of panic I thought I hadn't bought enough white and rushed out to the original store to find the same dye lot, only to return home and find one more ball of the yarn tucked away in my yarn cabinet and I didn't end up needing either!

So as the Bennets were finding out Netherfield Park had been let at last I was winding my yarn into a skein (by using a short metal shelving unit from my kitchen). Then I tied it with a bunch of pieces of brown acrylic yarn that I knew wouldn't absorb the dye.

While Darcy was exclaiming that Elizabeth was "not handsome enough to tempt me." at the Meryton Assembly I paused the movie and soaked my yarn for an hour:
I also prepared my kool aid and squeeze bottles. I didn't use all of these. I used the lemon lime (upper left) and the kool aid twists ice blue raspberry lemonde (upper right):I mixed the colors in condiment bottles and squirted it on the yarn. Than I wrapped the yarn in clear plastic wrap and put it in a bowl. I microwaved it for five minutes at a time, letting it rest for a minute in between. I did this about 6 times while Jane and Elizabeth were at Netherfield.
The yarn was extremely hot so after letting it sit I carefully unwrapped it and layed it on the table to cool. Extreme changes in temperature will felt the wool so you have to keep everything about the same: the water you soak it in, the water in the squeeze bottles and (after it cools) the water you rinse it with. I used cool water, not cold or warm. While the yarn cooled, Mr. Collins arrived at Longbourn!
Once the yarn was cool I filled a bowl with wool wash and cool water. I soaked the yarn for about 10 minutes- just enough time to enjoy Elizabeth dancing with Darcy at the Netherfield ball... sigh.Then I squeezed out the yarn and hung it up in the shower to dry.

The yarn dried over night because I kept squeezing out the excess water. Here it is although I haven't re-skeined it yet:

What do you think? I think I got pretty close. I call the colorway: "Come on Eileen"

I finished watching Darcy and Elizabeth fall in love with a bowl of popcorn.

After the rain...

2009-06-30T09:41:00.016-04:00

It seems very appropriate that I finished my rainbow chain blanket just as the seemingly endless rain here in New York has ended and we've had our first sunny days.

The breakdown of the last part of the blanket:

I went to a yard sale on Saturday. A woman had posted on Ravelry that her mother had passed away and she had been a professional knitter. She was having her fourth yard sale of knitting items so far. The yarn was kind of picked through but I got some amazing knitting books.

I got two old knitting books from the 40's. Lots of great vintage patterns and the instructions/pictures are actually really easy to follow. They are just really neat to look through:

And because I finished the baby blanket I cast on for Norah Gaughan's baby poonam which I fell in love with. This is some Wendy Peter Pan double knit yarn in dark blue that I picked up at the yard sale for 25 cents per skein. I actually really like the yarn it is so soft.

And just a hint what my next post is going to be about:

Flash your stash, OCD knitting and low-fat Friday!

2009-06-19T09:40:00.018-04:00

I have a few things I want to talk about in this post. First, as promised, a picture of my death socks (a.k.a. the socks I was killed with during Sock Wars):

The pattern is Barcelona and the yarn is tofutsies power stripe ermiere. I like them a lot. I was really glad my assassin chose this pattern (there were three to choose from) because it was my favorite.

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Now on to the obsessive compulsive knitting. Lately I've been obsessed with gauge and tension. I feel like my tension isn't always the same and my sts can vary in tightness. Like my rainbow chain baby blanket for example. The first section (yellow) was knit much more loosely than the rest of the sections and it just kept bothering me. So I finally decided to tighten every stitch by hand. It took quite some time but I ended up with a lot of excess yarn:

That's all the excess yarn from tightening my sts. I don't know why my tension is varying so much at times. I try to just knit tightly all the time now to take care of it.

I completed another section on that blanket as well:

It's Friday again! So it's time for another installment of my low-fat Friday series: Turkey-Onion Sloppy Joes. This dish is by far the easiest. It's so quick and tasty.

You will need:

1 tbsp olive oil or cooking spray

1.25 lbs of turkey meat

1 large onion

5 oz of steak sauce

black pepper

whole wheat hamburger rolls (I get the Stop and Shop low calorie kind)

Chop the onion. Heat a skillet/frying pan with olive oil or cooking spray on medium high heat. Saute the onion for a few minutes until just a little brown and soft. Then add the turkey meat and saute until cooked completely. Then add steak sauce (I used about 1/2 of a 10 oz bottle) and black pepper to taste. Simmer for about five more minutes.

In the meantime toast the buns. I also added a slice of Swiss cheese to each of our sandwiches which was yummy but totally optional. This made about 6-8 sandwiches.

We had salad with it. We are using the Bolthouse Farms Yogurt dressings. I really like them and so does my husband. Creamy dressings are usually super high in fat but since these use yogurt as a base they are better for you and have much, much less fat/calories. And they taste like the dressing is supposed to taste too. Most importantly though, most dressings are filled with MSG and other preservatives. That is not appetizing to me, and MSG is a huge migraine trigger for me personally and it actually makes a lot of people sick. These dressings have no MSG, artificial flavors or preservatives. So far we've tried blue cheese and thousand island- I highly recommend them.

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Time to flash the stash! Literally, since it was dark out and I had to use the flash to take these pictures so they're not that great. But this is my own little stash cabinet at our new apartment:

The top shelf is books, sewing box, spinning stuff and WIPs. Also about 10 packets of lemon lime kool aid that I scored last weekend at the market. I was walking past the kool aid aisle and the little green packets just jumped out at me from down the aisle! I ran down and sure enough it was the elusive lemon lime color (I say color instead of flavor because it's the green that I am looking for)... JACKPOT!!! So I can't wait to try dying with it, maybe this weekend.

The next shelf is all Cascade thanks to the 50% off sale (see my Valentine's Day post) at my LYS, Now and Zen Yarns. Then there's a bunch of different yarns including the rest of the cotton for that baby blanket, some awesome Koigu and some knitpicks laceweight Shimmer and Malabrigo. Lots of knitpicks palette on the bottom shelf, some red/white/blue squares for the veterans charity and some completed projects.

Above is my collection of knitting books and magazines. The binder on the bottom is where I have all my printed patterns stuck in nice clear pockets. I can't wait to start knitting from Handknit Holidays for our first real Christmas in our own place. I have big plans for stockings and a tree skirt.

I also did a little spinning last night with my drop spindle. I had to get back into the zone with it, but I think I am doing better this time than my last attempt:

Have a great weekend everyone! Enjoy Father's Day!

Low-fat Friday!

2009-06-12T13:14:00.012-04:00

Woohoo! It's Friday again. Time for another edition of low-fat Friday. Another really tasty, super easy low-fat recipe.

This time I made shrimp and peas over whole wheat linguine. I originally found this recipe at Fitness Magazine but they must've erased it because I can't find it anymore. This is really good and the flavors are nice and subtle not overwhelming. My husband doesn't really like peas on their own but he liked them in this. (What's with me and picking recipes with major ingredients my husband doesn't like?) Anyway he really did like this and requested it again.

-----

First I start boiling the water for the whole wheat linguine. I got a bag of frozen medium-large cooked shrimp. I rinsed half of the bag of shrimp in cold water for five minutes to thaw them. I chopped two tomatoes. I put the tomatoes in a bowl with two teaspoons of chopped garlic and 1 teaspoon rosemary. Then I heated about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. I took the tails off of the shrimp after they were thawed because I think it makes it easier to eat and I hate to have a bunch of tails on the side of my plate- yuck! I added the shrimp, tomatoes/garlic/rosemary to the skillet and cooked for about five minutes. In the meantime I rinsed about 2/3 of frozen peas. Then I added the peas to the skillet and cooked for about 5 minutes more, until the peas were soft in the middle. While doing all of this I cooked the linguine once the water boiled so it all came out at the same time.

Then I tossed the linuine with the shrimp and peas in a bowl:

This is really good with some grated parmasean cheese:

Memorial Day inspired me to pick up my blanket for the veterans for this year:

I am doing a different kind of patchwork pattern, I like it a lot so far. And I am not doing red, white and blue. Instead I opted for red, green, blue and brown. It's an easy pattern and the garter stitch seams together so nicely.

I also added another color to my baby blanket. I am glad I am inspiring others to make this blanket it is so neat.

Have a great weekend!

Low-fat Friday!

2009-06-05T11:24:00.012-04:00

In the interest of having more to post, I am going to start posting on Fridays about my attempts at cooking a new, low-fat dish during the week for my husband and I. Not that we're dieting, but we try to eat healthy in general so I look for dishes that don't have a lot of fat.

Last night I made chicken enchilladas. This is the original recipe, but I altered it since I didn't have shreddable chicken on hand. I never seem to have the things they think you have "on hand".

In the morning before work I put two frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot. I covered them with 1/2 a bag of frozen corn and a can of red beans (drained). The recipe calls for black beans and I would have used them but I had red beans on hand because of a chilli recipe I never tried. Then I added half of the jar of salsa. I use organic salsa because I think it tastes chunkier and fresher. I put it on low and let it cook all day while I was at work.

When I came home I shredded the chicken and put the chicken/beans/corn/salsa mixture in a bowl. Here it is with the other necessary ingredients:

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. I mixed in about 1/2 the sour cream (it's the small container) and a cup of the lowfat plain yogurt. I also added a little pepper. I heated up four tortillas in the microwave (put in between two paper towels and heat for 15 seconds- do each one seperately). Then I filled each tortilla with some of the mixture and rolled it up and put it (with the seam side down) in an 8"x8" pan (sprayed with Pam). Then I spread the rest of the salsa over the top of the rolled tortillas and sprinkled some of the reduced fat cheese mix on top.

Then I covered it with aluminum foil and baked it in the oven for 30 minutes.

This is super easy and delicious. My husband and I both really liked it. He doesn't even like sour cream, so I didn't tell him at first that it was an ingredient, until I was sure he liked it. You don't really taste it because it is baked in there.

I think it is a healthier way to satisfy a craving for cheesy Mexican food.

Here is the picture of the baby blanket with the newest section, light grape:

Have a great weekend everyone!

Dead is dead.

2009-06-02T09:56:00.018-04:00

I was killed in Sock Wars over Memorial Day weekend. I have to say I got a lovely pair of socks. I really do like the pattern, Barcelona, that the lady running Sock Wars designed. When you are killed in Sock Wars it is customary to create a death scene picture. Mine is an homage to my favorite show LOST and the latest fantastic season:

I need to take a more straightforward picture of the socks that killed me though, they are very pretty. I'll post one soon.

When I receieved my socks I had just finished knitting the socks for my own target. So I mailed them to my killer along with my target's information- so she has it pretty easy, she just has to stick them in the mail. Here are the socks I knit:

Since my mother's day knitting is done and sock wars is over (for me) I am free knitter! I can work on whatever I want again. I am working on my Rainbow chain carriage blanket. I am getting it done, one color section at a time:

I also did the light grape section, but I have to take a picture.

I've also been working on my Hemlock Ring Blanket:

Lots of feather and fan in my future...

I also got a little herb garden for the apartment:

I've always wanted one, so I'll keep you posted on how it grows!

Late Mother's Day Post

2009-05-21T10:13:00.016-04:00

An update on my Mother's Day knitting since it is finally finished.

I knit 30 squares (27 green, 3 pink) for CODEPink's radical Mother's Day knitting project:

Here they are working on the cozy at a vigil on Saturday:
And here is the cozy on Mother's Day:

"We will not raise our children to kill another mother's child"

A closer shot for detail:

More pictures are here if you are interested.

My husband and I moved into a new place this month so we've been super busy with packing and then unpacking and now we're still in the process of setting everything up. We really like our new place though. That's why I didn't finish my mom's Mother's Day gift until last night, but it's done! (note: you can see our new comfy couch in the following pictures)

Girasole, by Jared Flood:

There is a mistake in the next picture. On the left slanting part at the top, I ssk the last two sts instead of k2tog. I don't think you can tell though unless you know the pattern well. So I decided to live with it, hopefully Jared Flood never goes to my mom's house... awkward.
I really like how the blanket came out. I really questioned my use of the Lion Brand Pound of Love acrylic throughout. It was tough to knit with at points because it has little give, but overall I think it looks great and the easy care aspect can't hurt. And I really love the color. It wasn't too hard although the edging was very time consuming. This was my first knitted on edge, and I really like the effect.

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

handspun!

2009-04-27T10:05:00.009-04:00

I've been practicing with my Bosworth spindle lately (I have the Purpleheart one), trying to get the spinning thing to "click".

Here is my first handspun yarn, in all its glory:See it's just a little guy, but I spun him myself!This is the next bit of fluff that I will be spinning up:I hope to get the yarn a little bit more even this time, I was getting the hang of it towards the end.

Here is my mom's Mother's Day present. I was able to borrow a 60" cable from someone awesome in my knitting group and now I am on my way again. This is Girasole by Jared Flood. It's getting pretty big, I really hope I finish it on time. It takes forever to just do one round!

And this is officially where I wish I was today, instead of work, my little knitting corner. Complete with bowl of yarn, swift, winder and knitpicks harmony straights in the black velvet case. Sigh.

Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows...

2009-04-18T11:15:00.007-04:00

I just received all the yarn I ordered from Pisgah Peaches & Cream and I have to say they shipped very fast.

I've only added one more color to my blanket: sunburst.
I'm taking a picture after each color. It's only 16 rows. I think I will have enough to make three blankets total. I'll just have to buy more "ecru" for the border and design each time. Nice.

This is such a neat looking design- so different and who doesn't love all those colors?!?

Lots of apartment hunting tomorrow- hopefully it won't interfere with knitting group!

Merry Bobmas!

2009-04-14T13:18:00.010-04:00

Hope everyone had a very Merry Bobmas and a Happy Easter/Passover celebration!

I went to a lovely Bobmas Eve party at Knitter's Knitche on Friday night. It was so much fun. We ordered pizzas and everyone brought a dessert. The theme was black & white (in honor of Bob) so I brought black & white cookies and made healthier brownies. There was so much delicious dessert, but one in particular deserves a photo:

One of the girls in my knitting group made these cupcakes and they were awesome. So cool and they tasted as good as they look. And she let me bring some lemon ones home to Jack!

We also did a "Bob-bag" (grab bag) and everyone brought a gift. I got an origami kit and the cutest Bob stitch markers:

I gave a cotton organic Ravelry project bag. The knitter who got my gift just so happened to have bought the same bag for the grab bag- but she was very happy and had thought about buying two of the bags anyway because she likes it!

In the meantime I am working on a project for CODEPINK- they are requesting pink and dark green squares for a big Mother's Day knitting project. I've been in touch with them and got quite a few squares done over the weekend with some stash yarn.

I went to Atlantic City with my mom on Easter (we celebrated as a family on Saturday) and had a blast. It was very nice to get away with just my mom.

A couple of pictures from the trip:

We had quite a view!

We stopped on the way home to see my brother's new apartment in Brooklyn. It was very nice. Here's a good pic of my brother and I in front of his new digs:

starteritis

2009-03-27T12:04:00.005-04:00

So I've had a case of starteritis recently. But, that's because I have all these long term projects on the needles and there are a couple of gifts that I need to make.

I've mentioned the blanket for my mom, but this guy Brian that works with my mom is expecting his first baby (and they don't know the sex) and I have been dying to make the Rainbow Chain Carriage Blanket from the new issue of Knotions. It is so cute and I love the colors. I like using bright primary colors for a baby instead of the traditional pastel baby colors. I want to use the same yarn as the original, but the only place I can find that carries Peaches & Cream is WalMart. I bought the ecru for the border and pattern and I got the first, second and fourth color of the blanket but I need to scour other WalMarts for the rest. I hope I can find them. Here it is after I finished the yellow section:

I also started my afghan for the veterans charity already. I am doing the Loom Patchwork Blanket pattern from the book Knitter's Yarn Palette. I like it so far, I wanted to do something different from last time. Instead of red, white and blue I am using blue, green, red and brown. I am using the Caron Simply Soft Eco (made from recycled plastic bottles) and it is really soft. It's a bit splitty but I like it.

I figure it's never too soon to start on a charity blanket, even though my knitting group doesn't donate until Christmas time.

I'm also thinking about frogging the presto chango I made for my cousin Danny in cotton ease lake blue and buying some cotton ease in taupe and making him this child's placket neck pullover, but with the stripes shown here. I think the presto chango is going to be too small for his first birthday present and I am going to make this in the 1-2 year size.

For St. Patrick's Day dinner I ended up making Shephard's Pie, asparagus, brown soda bread and an apple cake for dessert. We also watched the movie "The Wind that Shakes the Barley". It was very good, but very sad. I will definitely be making the brown soda bread again, probably this weekend. It was so tasty and it's healthy too. Here is a good recipe for it, although I used one from my traditional Irish cookbook.

Not much going on this weekend for the first time in a long time. I have to show my mom how to knit continental at some point (she's a combination knitter- but I'm afraid she may be knitting through the back loop too) I think she'll pick it up because she crochets a lot. Sunday I have my knitting group meet up- but other than that I'll just enjoy not waking up to my alarm. Next weekend I'm babysitting my 3 year old cousin, Liam, so I'll enjoy my quiet time this weekend.

Have a great weekend!

Progress.

2009-03-18T15:47:00.009-04:00

The title of this entry reminds me of a Gallagher joke: "If the opposite of pro is con, then Congress must be the opposite of progress." Badabum.

So I have been making some progress on my current knitting endeavors. I usually wait to post until I have a FO, but since I have some large projects going on I figured the progress I've made so far deserves some recognition. That, and I am scared that if I wait until I completely finish these projects it will be years until I can post again.

I spend most of my time looking at this:

My Knitpicks chart keeper. I think one side is losing its magnetism and I haven't even had it that long. Anyone else have this problem? The magnets just slide down and I lose my place.

Because I spend most of my time looking at the above, I have finished another station of my Orientation LOST scarf! I give you the Arrow:

I've also been working on my Burridge Lake Aran Afghan and am getting very comfortable with the pattern and the cabling even though it's written in a strange chart. Here is my progress so far:

My friend Karen came out to our house this past weekend with her son and granddaughter. Her son has a pet turtle that he can no longer keep due to allergies. She thought she would never find someone to take him but I mentioned that my in-laws have a bunch of turtles, some in the house and some outside in their fenced-in pond. Turns out he's the same kind as the turtles in the pond so when it got warm out she brought him and he jumped right in. Well, Yoshi finally surfaced yesterday so we know he is doing fine. Probably likes his accomodations now much better than the small tank he was in. Here he is getting some sun:I'm making a traditional Irish meal for St. Patrick's Day this Saturday and will post about it soon. Of course I am not making corned beef and cabbage because it is a pet peeve of mine because it is not Irish food. It's American food. The Irish didn't even have corned beef until recently and that was only to serve it to the American tourists. Most restaurants in Ireland do not have this on their menu. They eat bacon and cabbage and it is much different than American bacon. I like to celebrate and learn about my Irish heritage on St. Patrick's Day and eat traditional Irish food. I get to "celebrate" being an American every other day. Hopefully I'll be posting my menu with pictures soon. Hope everyone enjoyed their St. Patrick's Day.

LOST in double knitting.

2009-03-11T13:54:00.006-04:00

I began this double knit LOST scarf (pattern: Orientation) quite a bit ago. After some trouble with the number of CO sts, and trouble with learning the double knitting technique I finally was working on it and then it turned out too wide for a scarf. So I put it aside and recently picked it back up again. I onlly CO 2 edge sts on either side of the pattern instead of 5. I like it much better. I finally finished a station today!

Here is Station 3; The Swan:

Here is the other side:

(and yes, I purposely put my LOST calendar in the background!)

Double knitting is the hardest knitting technique I've learned. My fingers hurt from holding both yarns continental style and it's hard to get consistently good tension. But I am getting better.

I love the scarf so far. And double knitting makes a nice product. If I wasn't knitting a logo from a chart it would be much easier to double knit. I have often thought about making the Hoover Baby Blanket which uses double knitting. I think it would be easier because you wouldn't have to keep looking at the chart.

My LYS is planning a Bob-mas Eve party on April 11th to celebrate the anniversary of Ravelry, I'm really looking forward to that. We're all going to get pizza, bring desserts and knit it up. There might be grab bags and stuff too- it's in the planning stages.

I want to make Girasole for my mom for Mother's Day so I am thinking about stopping at A.C. Moore on the way home to pick up some yarn. I'm thinking Lion's Brand Pound of Love in soft purple. She crochets and is used to acrylic and I think would appreciate the washability. I also think I am going to get her the book Someday. I picked it up at Target and read it and it was really sweet.

Kreativ Blogger Awards

2009-02-24T09:10:00.007-05:00

I was happy to find out Lupie, whose blog I love to read and not just to envy her beautiful knitting projects (and needles!), nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger Award.

Here are the rules for the nominees:

1. Copy the award to your site.

2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.

3. Nominate 8 other bloggers.

4. Link to those on your blog.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominated.

I am happy to brighten someone else's day by nominating 8 blogs that I truly look forward to reading every time they update:

1. Seagulls Can Fly (check out this awesome blog)

2. A Year of Crockpotting (my crock pot is coming in the mail tomorrow)

3. Squee Blog (for fans of the Monkees)

4. LenaL

5. Needles of Iron (I loved your post about your sister!)

6. See Sophie Knit

7. Lunaticraft

8. Knitwithit

Oh, man there are so many more! I love my Lesser Known Skein blogs.

Well, I guess since I'm posting anyway, I might as well put up a FO.

These are the fingerless gloves I made for my brother, the pattern is called Humanity. They were made to match the Habitat hat, which is also pictured. I really liked the way these came out. I left out one cable repeat at the wrist so that they would be shorter and therefore (in my opinion) more masculine looking for my brother. I gave them to him on Sunday and he really liked them. The hat is a Jared Flood pattern and my brother moved to Brooklyn this month so I told him if some guy comes up to him, points to his hat and says "hey, that's my pattern"- then get his autograph for me!

Here's my progress on the Burridge Lake Aran Afghan that I bought all of that Cascade 220 for:

Most of this I did at the Knit-A-Thon on Saturday at Knitter's Knitche. The Knit-A-Thon was for YAI- National Institute for People with Disabilities. The money is ear-marked for Project Assist which helps developmentally disabled and autistic adults stay within their families and communities to work and live fulfilling lives. My sister sponsored me since I sponsor her when she does the AIDS walk. I really love the blanket so far and am finally getting used to the stitch pattern so I don't have to rely on the chart quite so heavily. I still think it is going to be quite an endeavor. This is the first of three panels.

Valentine's Day

2009-02-17T09:20:00.023-05:00

Hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend (if they had one) and had a happy Valentine's Day.

My hubby presented me with these:

Two dozen long-stemmed white roses. He always gets me white roses because that's what I carried on our wedding day, well that along with Bells of Ireland.

Then we went out to Montauk Point on the south fork of Long Island for a picnic of our favorite foods from Wayside Deli in Southold.

So we went from the end of the north fork where we live all the way around to the end of the south fork. It was a nice trip, although I'd much rather live on the north fork which is more farm-country like while the south fork (where the Hamptons are) caters more to rich people. Instead of general stores and charming mom and pop shops- there are designer stores that are trying to look like they fit in, so the whole thing doesn't have that small town feel just a "trying too hard to be small town for the socialites" feel. But Montauk is different, it's more small town again- very charming. You just have to make it through all the Hamptons/Sag Harbor/Amagansett towns to get there. Can you tell I'm a north fork snob? ;)

Here are some pictures from Montauk which has a very rocky shore:

And on Valentine's Day we swung by my LYS, Now and Zen, in Greenport. They were having a major sale: needles, books and ALL Cascade yarn was 50% off. I almost died of happiness.

I have been eyeing the Burridge Lake Aran Afghan since Christmas but have not had the money to buy the yarn. I just couldn't see spending over $100 to make an afghan right now. I have been watching the Michael's/Joann/A.C. Moore flyers faithfully for weeks waiting for the Patons Classic Wool to go on sale for 2/$5. It was not happening, the best I got was 2/$8. Then I got the e-mail from Christine (the LYS owner) and ran over. I got 18 skeins of Cascade 220 in the white color I wanted (8010) for 50% off, so I payed like $60. It was amazing.

Let's just say I didn't stop there.

But can you blame me? I got Cascade Eco and Eco+ at 2 for the price of 1. When she said she had hardly any Cascade Eco left I was so upset but then she pulled out two hanks of this beautiful taupe color and I just freaked. I got the blue too because it's pretty and if I don't use it (who am I kidding, I'll use it) I can trade/sell on Ravelry.

Then I hooked it up with some more Cascade 220. I got the beautiful heather on the left and a nice brown to make a Koolhaas hat for Jack. I also got the deep purple Cascade 220 to make a sweater for myself. Potentially the one in the new issue of Vogue knitting which I also picked up. I know my in-laws got me a subscription for Christmas but Vogue decided not to send me that issue. I guess my subscription starts with the Spring 2009 issue.

And we had my dog, Molly, overnight with us in Southold over the weekend. She lives with my parents because she is the family dog but I miss her terribly. I am trying to work out a joint custody arrangement. For now I just get to steal her for sleepovers. My dad is obsessed with her too but my mom would let me just have her.

Here she is at Goose Creek beach by our house in Southold. She was so happy to be with us, but I am a bit biased.

And on Friday night we went to see my sister's fiance Pete's band: Five Star Heroes at their very first gig since Pete joined and his first gig ever. Pete is playing guitar on the right. They were awesome- so much fun. We're very proud of Pete.

I also finished the hat I was making my brother for his birthday. I am on a Jared Flood kick. This is his pattern, Habitat:

I love it. I was going to make it in grey, but then I saw this great olive color. It's just some Paton's Classic wool. I am also making Humanity to go with it. They are some fingerless gloves that a woman on Ravelry came up with to match this hat. I made them shorter by taking out one of the pattern repeats at the wrist. I think it looks less feminine when it's shorter. I finished them yesterday while watching a Wife Swap marathon but didn't take pictures yet.

Now I am using the rest of that olive yarn (I bought way too much for some reason) to make this beret for my sister (the worsted weight or "Lisa" version). I may dye some yarn blue or purple or both and make another one for myself.

I came. I saw. I froze.

2009-01-23T11:47:00.015-05:00

(picture of our part of the crowd on Inauguration Day)

(Jack and I on our way to the National Mall on Inauguration Day)

I had the most amazing time in Washington D.C. at the Presidential Inauguration. We stayed with my sister-in-law who is a vet at the National Zoo and she had some special things for us to get to do at the zoo that were also once in a lifetime opportunities.

We got to see the elephants up clsoe while they were getting their baths.
I got to see and even feed my absolute favorite animal in the world: the Grevys zebra.

Above on the left is our food at the Vietnamese restaurant where we ate. In the middle is a picture of the viewing stands set up for the parade on Pennsylvania Avenue (this was on Saturday before the Inauguration) on the right is a cool picture of the metro station. Below that on the left is a picture of MSNBC's portable studio that was right on the National Mall. Jack and I got to be on TV on Saturday when we were walking around the mall. I called my Dad quick and he was able to record it! This is the falafel place where we ate. You can see Jess (sis-in-law) and I on the left side with our pink and blue hats (that I knit) enjoying our falafel and fries. I cannot stress how good this place was. You order your falafel on a pita and then there's a whole fixins' bar of goodies to put on your falafel. Yum...

This is the hat I knit to wear all weekend and on Tuesday to the Inauguration. I also made one in blue for my sister in law. I used this pattern but I just did the HOPE logo (with the Obama symbol in the 'O') and I made up my own chart for the back of the hat. I put "1-20-09" on the back. It got a lot of compliments on the streets of D.C. One woman on the metro wanted to pay me to knit her one!

(Jack and I in front of the Capitol before the craziness.)

After the Inauguration we lost Jack in the crowd! I saw him and then I turned around 30 seconds later and he was gone. It was freaky! But with almost 2 million people, what do you expect? We met up with him later no problem. The crowds were wonderful. Everyone was just super nice and patient and just hugging each other and giving out high fives. There was no tension and I never felt nervous at all about all the people, even when we lost Jack. It was freezing but it was worth every shiver and every minute of being cold.

The most memorable moment for me was seeing a black man walking around the National Mall with tears in his eyes but a smile on his face holding a sign that read:

From slavery to the Presidency.

bookmarks and cable needle holders

2009-01-12T10:40:00.011-05:00

Got a few things done this weekend. I finished the bookmark I knit up on Friday. This bookmark was an extremely quick knit and I am really happy with it. It only took a bit of KnitPicks Palette yarn (I used the "lilac" colorway). I wanted a pretty bookmark to go with all my Jane Austen books. The pattern is called Flourish.

Then I made a cable needle holder. I picked up some paisley print fabric, elastic and buttons on the way home from work on Friday. On Sunday my mom helped me put it all together. I used the basic idea from this fantastic tutorial. We cut a peice of fabric a little bigger than called for and we folded it twice so it was three layers thick and about an inch wide and four inches long. Four inches is too long so then we folded the two ends to meet and turned them inside out and seamed them together. Then we right-sided it out and sewed the button on the end with the seam and the elastic on the end without. This made it have nice, neat edges all the way around and be a little thicker/sturdier. I absolutely love it! I think I will be using it a lot too because I want to CO for the Burridge Lake Aran Afghan while in D.C. this week for the Inauguration.

I also finally took some finished photos of my green cabled hoodie from the Fall 2008 issue of Vogue Knitting. I wore it to dinner with my in-laws yesterday and took some pictures before we went. I opted not to add a button to the front since I wasn't planning on wearing it closed and didn't want a button flapping around all the time. I really love it. It is very warm.

(Not bad for my first sweater!)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T09:13:00.009-05:00

I cast on a new project on New Years Day that incorporates lots of yarn from 2008:

This is the scrappy lengthwise scarf. It's super pretty and easy and uses up a ton of leftovers. You just have to use scrap yarn of the same weight. You knit the scarf lengthwise instead of widthwise. I love this scarf because it's a perfect example of my favorite thing about knitting: being able to make something truly unique. No one else will have the same scarf as you and I just love that.

Its grown quite a bit since then but that it is how it looked on New Years Day. Jack and I got snowed out of New Years Eve plans. We were supposed to go to the Custer Institute Observatory out in Southold. They were having New Years Eve Under the Stars: a buffet dinner (I was going to bring my Irish soda bread) live jazz/dancing, a special sky show and they were going to open up for star gazing if the weather permitted. Needless to say it did not. So Jack offered to make it a Pride and Prejudice marathon night to cheer me up- and it worked! :)

I got some knitting done- I'm almost finished with my Christmas knitting!

Here is the stocking cap I made for my Uncle Jack. He loves it! I have the feeling he is going to wear it a lot. Which is fine with me but I think my Aunt is kind of embarassed.

The above little picture of me modeling the cap should give you an idea of how long it is.

Also here is the picture from donating the afghans my knitting group made to our local VA hospital. They are going to be given to disabled veterans who are spending their holidays in the hospital. Everyone is ready to do this again next year and I'm so happy!

The people at the hospital could not have been more thrilled and excited. They called everyone over to look at the blankets and knew exactly who would be getting each blanket. This was a really worthwhile cause and I really hope the blankets comfort the vets who get them and show them that there are people out there thinking about them and they are not "out of sight, out of mind".

I also whipped up 1/2 of a pair of baby mittens for my cousin Danny while at my knitting group yesterday:

I am using Knitpicks Palette in "pool" (blue) and "bark" (brown). I am using this pattern but just doing the stripes so it will match this hat which I want to make to go with it. The mitten came out way too big the first time and I was using a size 1 needle, I didn't have a size 0 circ so I just cast on less sts. I CO 32 and increased to 38 after the ribbing. Then I got a good 6-9 mos size.

I hope.

I did it!

2008-12-26T12:07:00.008-05:00

(Bridget on Christmas)

I finished the sweater for my sister on Christmas Eve morning. Wow! My fingers were sore from the yarn running through them basically 24/7. I gave it to her yesterday on Christmas. It fits perfect! And she loves it! She's wearing it out today even though I never got a chance to block it. Her face was priceless when she opened it- she was so happy! She was just like: Oh! My! God! My brother's friend Graig wondered what all the fuss was over a "store-bought" sweater until someone clued him in that I had made it.

I really like it. It looks so much better with the long sleeves and I made the torso longer. Not only because my sister is tall (5'9") but I just think it looks more stylish with the longer ribbing and if it actually goes over the waist band of your skirt or jeans. Here are some pics from this morning:

I am thrilled!

Here is my soon to be brother-in-law Pete with his MST3K hat, which he also loved:

As for my Christmas it was great. Knitting gifts: This classic caddy from Lantern moon and a 3 year subscription to Vogue knitting from my in-laws (along with the holiday issue), also the knitter's companion book. My husband got me Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knitting Patterns. My sister got me the Yarn Harlot's calendar. My parents got me this book which I stupidly started reading on Christmas morning. There is a short story in there about a baby blue blankie and it made me cry on Christmas it was so sad. I think that was it for knitting stuff. Except for the check I got from my in-laws which I will use to pick out some yarn, etc. I'll keep you posted.

My favorite gift was from Jack: the Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen Collection. I love it.

call me crazy but I'm doing it!

2008-12-16T10:28:00.009-05:00

I am attempting to make a sweater for my sister in time for Christmas. I bought the yarn Saturday and cast on.
I am made the ribbing longer and I am making the whole sweater longer. I am also going to turn it into a long sleeve sweater. Yikes. Wish me luck!

I am so excited to give Pete (my sister's fiance) his MST3K hat. It is all finished. I knit it flat and it came out much better. He is not expecting it at all. Here it is just prior to wrapping:

Soon I will post pictures of him modeling it!!!

I also am creating a pattern for a scarf for my sister. I am calling it Polly Pocket. I haven't seamed on the pockets yet though...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

2008-12-12T11:20:00.005-05:00

So much to do lately! So much knitting to do, specifically. I had to go into super-knitting mode with the presto chango baby sweater I was making for my boss's baby. I had to give it to him today because he is taking a leave of absence while his wife makes the transition of going back to work. He loved it. In fact, everyone in the office loved it. I highly recommend it. It is quick, easy and the results are adorable!

I made three interchangeable panels to go with the sweater in case the baby spits up or something you just quickly change it. On the left is the cascading leaves panel that is in the pattern, in the middle is the heart panel and on the right is a panel with an "A" for the baby's first initial (her name is Allie). I used the Heart pattern from Knitty to make the heart panel. It turned out to be my favorite. I also included a bit of extra yarn and an extra button.

I wasn't a big fan of doing k4tog (that's right FOUR) with cotton yarn, but it was well worth it:
I am working on another presto chango in blue for my cousin's baby, Danny. It's his first Christmas as well. I am making them both in the 12 month size although both babies are around 8 months old. Hopefully pictures of that one soon. I won't make the heart panel for Danny- too girly. I think I am going to make a cable panel like the one in this pattern. I am also going to make this stocking cap for my Uncle Jack (he's been asking for months). I am going to attempt to knit a sweater for my sister too. That's right a sweater by Christmas. I want to do this sweater, but with long sleeves.

Wish me luck!

back to the grind

2008-12-01T10:32:00.004-05:00

Hope everyone had a really nice Thanksgiving. Mine was great. The food came out perfect. I can't recommend that roasted brussel sprouts recipe enough.

Since I got a comment or two about it, I just wanted to talk about why I used acrylic yarn for my sister-in-law who is a vegetarian. I had heard of a few vegetarians (that I know and famous ones like Alicia Silverstone) who have stated that they don't wear leather, fur or wool. Now, I was surprised to hear wool lumped in that category since the animals are not killed for it but I know there are some controversial practices out there such as mulesing. I didn't know my sister-in-law's feelings on this and didn't want to ruin the surprise by asking her (I think she would have figured out she was getting something hand-knit if I asked her feelings about wool) so I just went with easy care acrylic so that I wouldn't offend her. Although she never specifically answered me about wool when I gave her the sweater, I got the feeling she wouldn't have been so adamant against it if I had used it- but I think she was touched that I thought so much about it. Personally, I prefer using wool if possible.

Above is me in the finished cowl. It was a quick knit once you got the hang of the stitch. I like it very much. I am thinking of whipping one up for my mother-in-law in a classy tweedy color for a Christmas gift.

I am currently working on my first presto chango baby sweater. I am making one in Azalea (bright dark pink) for my boss's baby's first Christmas and one in Lake Blue (light blue) for my cousin's baby's first Christmas. I love the sweater so far. It is easy and really cute. I keep thinking what a perfect, quick baby shower gift it would make.

I couldn't capture the color it's actually a much darker pink and not peachy at all.

gobble, gobble.

2008-11-26T09:17:00.009-05:00

Woohoo. Thanksgiving is tomorrow. It is my absolute favorite holiday. Bridget(sister) and I are making dinner. We've got our menu all planned. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, roasted brussel sprouts, broccoli cauliflower casserole, green bean casserole, my world-famous homemade Irish soda bread, not to mention snacks, a spinach-pinwheel type appetizer and all of Bridget's equally famous homemade desserts. Like the delicious homemade oatmeal chocolate chip (my fav) cookie she left me on the kitchen table this morning with a note that read: "For Meg - Eat me!" I wanted to post the pictures of my lovely swap gift from the Warm Woolies Charity Swap I participated in. This gift was perfect. Everything was from Purl in Soho, NYC.

It contained: the cutest knitting card you have ever seen (I didn't even know there was such a thing!) two hanks of Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino in lovely autumn colors (I have always wanted to make a pair of socks with Koigu, I had already picked out the pattern long ago for "someday") and a little project bag in my favorite color- it's an iradescent orange. Lovely.

Let's see that beautiful Koigu again:
I completely finished the Mrs. Darcy Cardigan I was making for my sister-in-law. Which is good because Monday was her birthday and I gave it to her when we got together for dinner last night. Here I am modeling it before we left for dinner:
I made quite a few corrections to the pattern and knit the body and sleeves seamlessly. I am going to post my directions on my Ravelry project page for this sweater. I think the sweater came out well. I love the color and the buttons. I used acrylic because my sis-in-law is a veterinarian and a vegetarian so I didn't want to use animal fiber. I think she liked it.

My current project:

Jack surprised me with a new grey, wool coat so I am knitting a cowl to wear with it. It's the Stormy Morningside Neckwarmer by Jared Flood. I am using my knitpicks wool of the andes kettle dyed yarn in bourdeaux. I love the color changes. I just have to do the sewn bind off.

In sad news...

2008-11-12T10:46:00.005-05:00

I have been sick for the past week and a half. First I had a migraine, then I had the sore throat/fever thing going on, then I had a stomach virus, then I had runny nose/eyes/sneezing. I think it is all gone now. (knock on wood)

I have much to report in the knitting world. Although I didn't feel much like knitting most of the time while I was sick. I will be posting soon with the appropriate project pictures and swap pictures!

For now the real sad news is the sweater I just cast on yesterday afternoon. It's the Mrs. Darcy Cardigan I am knitting for my sister-in-law. The pattern has a lot of problems but nothing that can't be addressed with some knitting common sense and I am writing down what I did to fix it as I go. The color is beautiful: a rich saphire blue. Here is my progress:
And here is the project's current state:

That's right. I had to frog the whole thing. I faced every knitter's favorite dilemma this morning: could I live with a mistake I made? I somehow ended up with the buttonholes on the wrong side. I couldn't live with it. Especially since it is a gift. So I will start all over again. Sigh.

Thanks for riding with me!

2008-10-21T09:41:00.008-04:00

Had a nice weekend. Went way too fast as always. Babysat for my cousin, Liam, again on Saturday. Jack and I took him out to Greenport. Jack got a haircut, then we took him on the Grumman Carousel that is now out there. I've been riding that carousel since I was a baby at the Grumman Picnic. He was so cute, he was grinning ear to ear.

Afterwards he said: "That was really fun! Thanks for riding with me!" It was too cute.

This was Sunday:

I spent most of the day seaming my "blanket of gratitude" for the Veteran's charity. All the squares are garter stitch so I used the technique described in Stitch N' Bitch (you can see it open on the left) for seaming two garter stitch pieces together. It came out very nicely. Then I had to weave in a ton of ends. It wasn't as bad as I thought. I really want to finish it soon. I hope I have enough yarn.

Last night I got up the nerve to dive right in and frog the hood of my green cables sweater. I didn't re-knit any of it because I didn't want to get involved with turning the hood unless I could see it all the way through. But I am glad that I am ready to go now. Frogging cables is the worst.

Hopefully I will pick it up again tonight. I still don't know what to do about the hood edging. I am going to have to make something up.

retail therapy

2008-10-15T14:44:00.007-04:00

today was kind of rocky. this morning I presented Jack with the bright idea of going to D.C. in January (if Barack Obama wins) for the inauguration, seeing as how it will be so historic. My sister in law just took a job as a veterinarian at the National Zoo there and we have yet to see her new place which is within walking distance of everything. Anway, I came to work all excited about the potential trip and was mentioning my idea to a girlfriend at work (she asked why I wanted to go and I was talking about the historic nature) when a guy who works with us felt the need to interrupt a private conversation and say "you want to see the assasination?" He then answered a phone call so I had no chance to reply. It absolutely ruined my day, well, my morning at least until I got myself to snap out of it. I can't believe someone would say something like that out loud, especially in the work place. It was so blatantly racist and inappropriate.

Now, my parents are big time conservatives and that's how they raised me, heck they taught my big brother to kiss the tv screen when Reagan came on when he was little. So I have respect and a good understanding of the conservative side of things, I even agree sometimes. Since graduating college with a degree in political science I have worked with a lot of conservatives and on local conservative campaigns and in the law enforcement environment which is mostly represented (on Long Island) by conservatives and so many of them are racist, homophobic and completely intolerant. I hate to pigeon hole anyone because I know my parents do not fall into this cateogory (although they can be somewhat intolerant but no more so than my liberal in-laws) but working for and with conservatives has turned me into a liberal!/rant

So...in the world of knitting. I am working on my "blanket of gratitude" to be donated to my local VA Hospital to a veteran that has to spend the holidays there. Here it is in all it's almost half done glory:

At my Sunday knitting group I received squares from Danielle to be made into another blanket for the same charity:They're a bit thicker than what I have so we are trying to get people to help us knit up some more quickly. But I like that she used different stitch patterns on the squares.

Then I bought some yarn from Michael's. I am going to make the Mrs. Darcy Cardigan for my wonderful sister-in-law for Christmas. I loved this Saphire blue color. I had to use acrylic, she's a veterinarian and a vegetarian so I am not sure on her feelings about wool. I always sneered at the Vanna's Choice yarn but then I used it for my MST3K hat and it was pretty soft.

I am trying to avoid the urge to cast on until I get some projects off the needles. Or at least I have to finish all of these charity projects.

I have not even looked at my green gables sweater.

TGIF!!!

2008-10-10T11:50:00.005-04:00

Yippie! It's Friday! It's about lunch time so the day is half over. Can't wait to go home and start my three day weekend. This is what is on the needles at work:

Yup, just a few more squares to go for my Warm Woolies Charity Swap. They have to be signed, sealed, delivered by October 25th. This is using two strands of some Red Heart I bought when I first started knitting. I think I bought this purple yarn to make a garter stitch scarf for my mother in law. My, how times have changed. I currently have some Knit Picks Shimmer (lace weight silk/baby alpaca) in the Lilac Dream colorway waiting in my stash to make her a Clapotis for Christmas. I don't mind using acrylic but I will be glad to have this Red Heart out of my stash. I can't stand Red Heart or Caron Simply Soft. The former because it's so stiff and rough and the latter because the skeins are always tangling if you use the center-pull.

I've been feeling a bit discouraged when it comes to knitting lately. First, all of the snags I ran into with my sweater. I still haven't even looked at it since the whole hood debacle. And then my first attempt at double knitting on the LOST scarf. I must've frogged and restarted this scarf 5-7 times no joke. Last night I was working on it and having major tension issues with holding two strands of yarn in my left hand at once. I just couldn't get my pinky and ring finger to stay together so the yarn wouldn't be loose. I finally started to get the hang of it and just told myself to go slow and pause to tug on the yarn if I had to. I also began holding the stitches on the right needle with my right hand after I knit them so they wouldn't get any looser as I was knitting/purling the next stitch with the opposite color yarn. It's not terribly fast, but it's not that slow either. And I think as I go along I may get more used to it and be able to move faster. But I'm feeling more confident now. I also tightened up some wonky stitches:

This scarf is quite an endeavor though. I had moments where I questioned if I can even complete a project like this. It's going to take so long. But I will be an expert double knitter by the end. If I had to put a price on this scarf I don't think I could part with it for less than $2,000- that's how much work it is! But if I met Terry O'Quinn on the street I would give it to him for free just to hear him say "Don't tell me what I can't do!" in person.

I need to stay away from Ravelry until I complete some of these WIPs. I just keep finding more and more that I want to do.

Have a nice weekend!!!

hello fall...

2008-10-08T09:28:00.013-04:00

Fun fall-filled times this weekend. We had my cousin Liam all weekend while my Aunt/Uncle were away and we went pumpkin picking at Harbes. Every time he would pick up his pumpkin he'd grunt like a body builder: He's such a cutie. When he woke up in the morning (at 6 a.m.) he sat up in his porta-crib and said: "he's awake! he's awake now!" Smarty pants. If I could have a kid just like him I would start having kids right now. Heck, I'd be lying if I didn't admit having him around has made me think about it. I miss the little guy! You never know what little kids are going to say/do next.

Above is my sister, Bridget, and me at the pumpkin farm. She's the one on the left. Later I made Jack take me for a waffle cone with half pumpkin ice cream and half apple cinnamon. Yum. Fall is truly here.

In "knitting this sweater is getting pretty old" news...... knitting this sweater is getting pretty old. I practically finished it on Monday. But I hate the hood. I am using the word "hate" about the hood. I hate the hood. It said to stop crossing the cables after turning the hood. But now I think I should have done one more. The ribbing makes the hood too straight and narrow like a duck bill. I looked on Ravelry and saw plenty of other green gable hoodies that look just like this and people seem to be okay with it. I am not a fan. I don't know if you can see it in the picture but the ribbing sticks out a bit farther than the sides of the hood. I think the crocheted edge will help even things out but it's still too far for me. The hood came out pretty big too, I might make it a bit smaller. When you have the hood down (which it will mostly be) it hides the cables and doesn't have any cables on it itself so it kind of ruins the whole cable effect.

I just had so many problems with this pattern. So many mistakes and so much of it was unclear or didn't add up properly. Most of the time (after the body and sleeves) I felt like I was just "winging" it. Which I am not comfortable with for my first sweater. I want to be happy with this sweater and the hood is ruining it for me. I did the best I could with the pattern I don't know how else to alter it to make the cable pattern more even when it meets the rest of the hood. Sigh.

Since I didn't even want to look at this sweater yesterday I made some progress on my falling leaves scarf. It is sooo soft. And I still love it. I wish it were a bit heavier though.

And if you want to laugh check out this sketch from SNL(and no it's not Tina Fey/Sarah Palin).

It had me giggling all day yesterday just thinking about it.

Happy Anniversary!

2008-10-01T10:34:00.003-04:00

I have been knitting for one year! I stumbled upon this survey on the blog: Interwoven and decided it was perfect to see where I've been in the past year. The only thing that was missing was double knitting which I just learned to do. I noticed that I really have no interest in machine knitting or knitting toys. But I have definitely challenged myself over the past year and have so much left to learn. That's what makes knitting such a long lasting hobby.

The rules:
Bold the things you've done.
Green the things you are currently doing.
Red out the things you've abandoned or will never attempt.
Italicize the things you want to try.

Afghan
American/English Knitting (vs. Continental knitting)
Baby Items
Bobbles
Buttonholes
Cable stitch patterns (including Aran)
Cardigan
Charity knitting
Continental knitting
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Darning
Designing knitted garments
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Drop stitch patterns
Dyeing with plant dyes
Dyeing yarn
Entrelac
Fair Isle knitting
Freeform knitting
Fullling/felting
Gloves
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Hair accessories
Hat
Holiday related knitting
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies.....)
I-cord
Intarsia
Jewelry
Kitchener Bind Off
Knitting a gift
Knitting and purling backwards
Knitting for a living
Knitting for pets
Knitting for preemies
Knitting in public
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting socks
Knitting to make money
Lace patterns
Longtail Cast On
Machine knitting
Mittens: Cuff up
Mittens: Top down
Moebius band knitting
Norwegian knitting
Olympic knitting
Participating in a Knit-a-long
Pillows
Publishing a knitting book
Purses/bags
Rug
Scarf
Shawl
Short rows
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Slip stitch patterns
Slippers
Socks: toe up
Socks: top down
Steeks
Stockinette stitch
Stuffed toys
Swatching
Sweater
Teaching a child to knit
Teaching a male to knit
Textured knitting
Thrummed knitting
Toy or doll knitting
Tubular Cast On
Twisted stitch patterns
Two ended knitting
Writing a pattern

knitting news

2008-09-30T11:33:00.011-04:00

Lots of knitting mistakes going on lately.

Brought my green cables sweater out to Southold this weekend to hopefully join the body and sleeves together and get as much done on the hood as possible. Of course the pattern wasn't making any sense to me and I wasn't on the right side for my cables. I was so confused. I joined the KAL group for the sweater on Ravelry and posted my trouble there but I didn't hear back right away. After putting it away and giving it some thought by Sunday I had figured it out, frogged back my mistake and was well on my way. Now the sweater is progressing nicely. It is heavy though. I make sure I support it and don't let it hang- I don't want to break my circular needle. I love this sweater- it's so amazing. I can't wait to try it on for the first time! Keep in mind this is the back of the sweater. The cables are on the sleeves, then travel up the back all the way up the hood. The front is just plain, divided in half at the top with two buttons.

I also cast on for the Column of Leaves scarf. I used my swift with my ball winder for the first time and it worked perfectly. It is my first time using Malabrigo yarn and I am absolutely smitten. It is sooo soft and I love the colors. I can't wait to have my own place I am so going to try kettle dying with a crock pot. It is now my dream to make myself an entire sweater out of this stuff. On to my next mistake. The scarf is knit flat. I am used to knitting in the round using a pattern chart. I knit quite a few pattern repeats reading the chart from right to left on every row. Then it hit me: only the odd rows are read right to left I should be reading the even rows left to right. So I frogged all of my progress. Here is what it looked like with the chart read incorrectly:

Here is the scarf done correctly:

Look at the color variations...drool. It's so pretty. I think I am going to work the scarf in two halves and then graft them together so that the leaves all face up when it's laying around your neck.

I finally grafted the toe of my day-glo monkey socks. Unfortunately one toe is longer than the other, so one day when I get the nerve I think I will have to redo it. I don't know if I can live with it. These socks are my favorite knitted item so far. The pattern is awesome and scrunchy. The yarn is just so beautiful. It's so hard to photograph.

stash and burn

2008-09-23T16:31:00.008-04:00

I spent some time this weekend going through my knitting stuff and getting organized. Long over due since I ordered all that yarn, etc. Here is the after picture:Let's see...

I've got projects on the top shelf you can see my squares for the warm woolies charity swap, my neatly bagged moseys and pomatomus socks and some WIPs like Pete's MST3K hat and my Project Linus baby blanket.

On the bottom shelf I have all my knitting books. Behind them (you can't see it in the picture) is my yarn ball winder, a shoe box full of leftover small balls of yarn, on top you can see my last 3 skeins of wool-ease chunky for my cabled sweater.

To the right of my books I have my knitpicks shimmer in lilac dream- some lace weight for a clapotis for my mom-in-law. Directly above that is some roving and my drop spindle in bags. Continuing to the right there's my Malabrigo in Saphire Green for my falling leaves scarf. Then there's a bunch of black superwash worsted from Elann.com for my LOST scarf. Followed by my kettle-dyed knitpicks yarn in bordeaux for a foliage hat I've wanted to make for forever.
In the back to the right of my wool-ease chunky is a bunch of knitpicks palette in several different colors. I can't help it I just love the palette so much and it's so cheap. Clockwise from bottom left: orange, grass, fog, lilac, bark and pool. Below the palette yarn is my Cascade ecological yarn in colorway #8010 for a secret project. In the back right corner you see some of the white worsted yarn from Elann.com for the LOST scarf and some assorted acrylic that I've had since I started knitting. The red, white and blue skein you can see peeking out will be for the blankets of gratitude charity project my knitting groups are doing for our local VA Hospital.

Having a "stash" makes me feel like a real knitter. Although 95% of this has a planned project in mind if it's not just leftovers. I hope this lasts me until Christmas because there is no money for yarn right now.

the long con

2008-09-23T13:27:00.003-04:00

no wonder I called this project "the long con" because I sure feel like a fool.

another false start on my LOST scarf. I was speeding along with what I thought was the right number of stitches and when I got to the pattern chart I realized something wasn't adding up.

you guessed it- once again I cast on the wrong number of stitches. I forgot to multiply both sets of 5 edge sts by 2. In double knitting you have to cast on double the amount of sts you need, one set for each side. I need a selvedge stitch for each end, 5 edge sts and 38 chart sts. I multiplied these numbers by two but forgot that I need 5 edge sts for each side so I got a CO of 88 instead of 98. Fun.

This is how far I got:

Anne of Green Cables

2008-09-23T09:30:00.007-04:00

Been working on my sweater from Vogue Knitting Fall 2008. I love it. I finished the body and one sleeve. I began the second sleeve (as seen in picture) but frogged the whole thing and am currently waiting to cast on again. Sigh.

At my knitting group I learned how to cable without a needle and began incorporating it into the second sleeve. The cable wasn't coming out the same tension-wise though. Also, I messed up the cable. I was supposed to reverse the direction on the left sleeve and forgot on two of them which was bothering me. I hate ripping back a few rounds or rows. I find that I'd almost rather redo the whole thing. Especially working with cables. It makes it really hard to pick up stitches. I'll get back to it soon.

Then I cast on for the LOST scarf called: Orientation. This scarf is double knit. Double knitting is something I have wanted to learn for a long time. Ever since I saw the Hoover Blanket on Knitty. It makes a double thick fabric with one color on each side. My scarf is black and white. This is the worsted weight yarn I got from Elann.com. I got 7 skeins of white and 7 skeins of black. My dad couldn't believe it was all for one scarf. The worsted weight seemed like more of a DK weight to me though. I am doing pretty well with the double knitting. I ordered the cd-rom from knittinghelp.com because there is a bonus video with a double knitting project from start to finish. I am holding the MC in my left hand wrapped over my index finger and the CC in my left hand wrapped over my middle finger. It took some practice but I am doing well. Unfortunately I think there was a mistake or two in the pattern. The pattern says the chart is 37 sts. so I cast on double (for double knitting) plus edge stitches (which I miscalculated- totally my mistake) but when I got up to the chart I realized that it is 38 sts. So the work you see above will be frogged and restarted with the right number of sts. I wasn't really mad about the pattern being wrong because I cast on too many edge stitches anyway. Also, the pattern says to begin the chart on the white side (odd row) but then it tells you to work rows 1-9 in stockinette and then "start chart"- but that would put you on row 10 which is the black side (even row) so I believe that is wrong too. I am slipping the first stitch and knitting the last stitch with both yarns for the edge. I think this project is going to take a loooong time.

What did you do today?

2008-09-17T15:59:00.000-04:00

has anybody here seen Molly?

2008-09-16T09:32:00.004-04:00

This is the face I had to leave behind this morning to come to work:

Molly was pretty sulky this morning to be spending another day alone. She didn't want to move. So sad.

I received all of my knitting packages!

I cast on for my first full-size sweater from the fall issue of Vogue Knitting. I LOVE it. It is beautiful. The yarn is so pretty. It has a lot of variation of green in it. I am so scared about getting to the shoulders/neck part. I have no idea what I am doing. I also joined my first swap. It's also for charity: Warm Woolies. You have to knit 7"x7" squares and send them in to be seamed into a baby blanket for needy orphanages. The swap is Halloween themed and I've already got some goodies for my swap partner. I signed up to knit 25 squares but I hope to do more. So far I've got 9 done.

I noticed when I was filling out my project on Ravelry that I started this project on September 11th. 9/11 is a very strange, sad day for obvious reasons. Mostly I feel like I did on September 11, 2001- I want to do something to help people but I don't know what do with myself. So I do believe that I subconciously signed up for this charity swap on 9-11 to combat that helpless feeling. Here are some of my squares from yesterday:

better eat all the ice cream!

2008-09-09T12:42:00.007-04:00

The lights are flickering as I'm watching the storm roll in through my window at work:

Here is the latest project that's got me excited:

It is based on a baby sweater pattern that somebody created. But I've decided to make it as a hat. It's going to be a surprise Christmas present for my future brother-in-law, Pete. He loves MST3K. I think this will be a HUGE hit.Of course I ran right out to Michael's with my mom to buy the yarn. I ended up going with Lion Brand Vanna Choice which I always cringed at but decided to try because they had the best shade of green. Pete loves green and I think it makes it look "science-y". So I got black and Kelly green. Being new to intarsia I naively tried to knit this in the round. It has quickly become obvious that I will be ripping this out and knitting it flat and seaming it. Sigh. The above construction was based on this pattern but I will base the new construction on this pattern. I am waiting on my new Harmony straights from KnitPicks before I start the hat again.

I am waiting on a few orders actually. First there's the KnitPicks order: Harmony straights (after MUCH deliberation I decided to go with the 14" size as opposed to the 10" size) and some palette yarn in fog, lilac, bark and pool.

Then there's the Lion Brand chunky wool-ease I ordered from JoAnn's. I was just notified that it finally shipped yesterday and Fed-Ex expects me to have it on the 15th! A week more. A bit ridiculous, if it really takes that long I doubt I will order from them again. I wonder if it would have been faster to order it in the store.

I also fell in love big time with this LOST scarf. It is double-knit, which I have never attempted but would love an excuse to learn. And is this ever an excuse. I have seen double-knit baby blankets that I would like to make as well so the new technique won't be wasted. I ordered the black and white superwash worsted weight yarn from Elann.com. Their shipping was expensive I guess because they are in Canada but I almost changes my mind but their prices were very competitive. I ordered the CD-Rom from Knittinghelp.com because it has a tutorial on double knitting from start to finish. It also gives me access to all of their videos even if I don't have internet access and I am happy to support their site since it has basically taught me how to knit and most LYS would charge a lot of money for lessons. I can't wait for my stuff to get here.

instant gratification

2008-09-05T09:44:00.005-04:00

I finished the comfy socks I started on Wednesday. Bulky weight yarn = instant knitting gratification. They were so quick. I made them in a size 6.5/7 because I'm pretty sure Brenda's feet are smaller than mine, but they stretch to fit me too so either way it should work out.
Above is me modeling them this morning before work. Molly was pouting on the bed and I tried to lay them on either side of her face but she wouldn't stay still. She's just upset that Jack isn't home during the day anymore. Atleast it's the weekend now and people will be around. Especially since we are supposed to get hit with tropical storm Hannah tommorow.

get well soon

2008-09-04T09:59:00.006-04:00

I cast on for the comfy socks last night for Brenda. It took me a million tries to get the cast on to join in the round in a half-way presentable way. I got so aggravated with it. I finally put it down for a while and just watched some tv and then when I picked it up again I got it right.

I did 2x2 ribbing for the cuff instead of straight stockinette to make it stretchy. Working with the bulky weight yarn for a sock makes any holes show more which irks me. But overall I think they are coming out well and they are nice and quick and will be comfy.

The color is truer in this picture than in yesterday's although I wouldn't say it's quite so pale. I hope to finish these by tomorrow night.

I ordered the Lion Brand Wool-Ease chunky in Grass from Joanns. I got 7 skeins just to be safe. I am going to work on the cabled pullover from the fall 2008 issue of Vogue knitting that I absolutely fell in love with. (pictured above: it's the one on the right in the third picture and the back of it is shown in the fourth picture) I made Jack go to 4 different stores last week to try and find the yarn. Michael's doesn't carry it they only have Jiffy. Joann's has like no yarn selection in store (but a great accessories section comparably) so they didn't have it. A.C. Moore had 5 skeins. The woman their helped me look for it but we could only find tons of Jiffy in that colorway. I had to explain to her that Jiffy has mohair so I can't use it. We even tried Walmart but they didn't have it. So I ordered it online. Joann's had the cheapest price ($5.99) and no shipping fee. I can't wait for it to arrive.

I've also been looking at spinning kits on Etsy to start learning with a drop spindle. This is the one I am seriously considering.

Granny's Yarn Shoppe

2008-09-03T16:29:00.005-04:00

Had a big press conference at work today and on my way back to the office I stopped at Granny's Yarn Shoppe in Islip for some yarn. I want to make my stepmother-in-law, Brenda, a comfy pair of socks to lounge in while she's recuperating from surgery. The woman in the shop was extremely nice and helpful. I was looking for a bulky weight yarn that was very soft. At first I eyed some baby alpaca but it was expensive and I wasn't crazy about the twist although it was dreamy soft. I finally picked out some Sirdar Click in a dusty rose color. Here it is sitting in my French Market bag just waiting to be knitted up. It should knit pretty fast. The pattern called for 80 yds for the smallest size. I want to make them a bit roomy and Click yarn comes with 81 yds so I got two. If it only takes one then maybe I will make a pair for someone else also.

I would say the color is a bit paler than the picture shows. It can be tough to photograph yarn. I kind of freak out when picking a color for a knitted gift. I went back and forth between this and the purple color. I asked everyone working at the store. They were very patient with me.

I really liked Granny's Yarn Shoppe. They are helpful and friendly but manage to maintain that difficult balance of letting you know they are there to help and letting you browse without bothering you. They also are the biggest LYS I have ever been to. They have more affordable yarns and luxury yarns which is how I would do it if I had a LYS.

I am making progress on my endpaper mitts. I have almost completed one. I just have to learn tubular bind off. I read through the instructions and it doesn't look too bad I just need some undisturbed quiet time to work on it. Then I just have to do the ribbing for the thumb quick. I really like the way these came out. I was paranoid about the purl "seam stitch" because when I saw it in other people's FO pictures I didn't like the way it looked but since mine doesn't stretch tight when you put it on, you don't even see the seam which I think is great. I didn't switch needles for the ribbing either. I was supposed to go down a size but I figure since I am knitting my fair isle so loosely those parts are going to end up tighter anyway.

cold hands...warm heart

2008-08-27T10:10:00.004-04:00

Finished one of my Chevalier mittens. It's a bit...roomy. It's too long even though I left out both green sections. I may look for a modification if I make them again. I am thinking of making them for Bridget in the Knitpicks Swish Wisteria color because it looks like it will match the new coat she loves so much perfectly. Well here are my photos:

I also made some serious progress on my endpaper mitts last night which was nice. It's slow going with the fair isle but I enjoy it. It's relaxing. I have so many projects I potentially want to do it's hard to commit to one. I feel overwhelmed by everything I want to do lately.

the weekend

2008-08-25T08:57:00.006-04:00

Went out to Greenport this weekend so Jack could get a haircut and I could swing by Now and Zen Yarns. I paid for my Cascade Eco wool and lovingly fondled the Koigu that I am obsessed with. One of the first things I will do when I am pregnant is go buy about 8-12 skeins to make the big bad baby blanket- I've already picked the colors I want for a boy or for a girl. I also seriously contemplated buying some Cascade 220 Heathers for the February Lady Sweater but decided against it because I just didn't fall in love with any of the colors. I really want to make my first full sized sweater though. I like the Cascade but it has to be the right color. I'm thinking blue or grey.

Here is a picture of me in downtown Greenport modeling my French Market bag. This is my finished object photo because it gives you a good idea of what size the bag ended up. Of course I wish it were bigger, but I really like the basket shape of it and the way that it stays open. And I like the colors.

It's perfect for carrying around one or two smallish projects. At the time of the photo it contained the Chevalier mittens I am working on and the Endpaper mitts I started. It's not really enough room for my big knitting tools bag from Knitpicks so I either need to make that smaller or just take what I know I will need from it for the project I am carrying.

I also got my Royal ball winder from Knitpicks on Saturday and I couldn't be more in love with it. I seriously stayed home and let Jack go to the gym alone just so I could play with it. By the time he got home I had quite a pile of neat little yarn cakes. It's so easy to use I'm obsessed with it. Also I love my pattern keeper. The "grass" knit picks palette yarn I ordered is a little bright for my taste. I said to my mom "they call this color "grass"? Maybe the grass at Brookhaven lab..." It looks radioactive. We'll see if it will work for my secret intarsia Christmas present. I'll post a picture soon. I also made Jack buffalo wings on Saturday while I was playing with the ball winder, but I baked them instead of frying. They came out well.

The battery in my car went on Sunday so I spent the day buying a new one and then helping Jack and my dad install it, well they mostly did it I was cleaning out my car as they were working. I missed my knitting group though so I was bummed. Then Jack and I spent the night watching a few episodes of "Band of Brothers" and I got sushi from Tony's Sushi again. Yay!

Resistance is futile

2008-08-22T15:57:00.002-04:00

I couldn't resist casting on for these awesome mittens. Plus, I had merino wool left over from my french market bag in "too teal" and I don't know what else to do with it. I think they will go well with my navy blue pea coat.
I am magic looping them and I love it. Magic looping with worsted weight wool is a dream come true. It makes knitting so simple and quick. These are going so fast. Just the cabling is slowing me down a bit, but I don't mind. I can't wait to get the magnetic chart keeper I ordered from Knitpicks. I think it will help with this one.

float my boat

2008-08-22T09:18:00.005-04:00

I did it!

I've been eyeing the endpaper mitts forever but dreading the italian tubular cast on I would have to learn. I almost just cast on using long tail CO but decided to give it a whirl and I actually got it on the second try no problem. I thought it was easier than long tail cast on. Whenever I need to learn a new knitting technique I find that the best way to go is to just jump in and start doing it one step at a time, I always end up thinking how easy it was after all. I'm also doing quite well with my fair isle. My floats seem even and nice. I am so proud of the way this project is coming out so far. I think it might be a little big since I am knitting loose to make sure my floats are even. It will fit but I don't think it will be a snug fit like the pattern calls for.

Don't you just love floats:

Today is Friday which means sushi tonight and frozen yogurt. Also, no trip to the gym for once so my legs can get a rest. I can't wait.

second sock syndrome

2008-08-21T09:44:00.005-04:00

I think my knitting funk is ending. It couldn't last too long with all that malabrigo that just arrived, right?

I finished one of my charade socks. I'm not a big fan of the pattern. I know it's simple but it got pretty tedious. Also, it didn't help that I had to knit tighter because there was no gauge listed in the pattern. But my second attempt at this sock came out much better. I am not really looking forward to the next one though. I think I may have my first case of SSS (second sock syndrome).

I also didn't like the toe for this pattern. I knew the decreases were too far apart and I was going to go with my standard toe decreases but decided to throw caution to the wind and learn a new toe. Well, it ends up like 3 inches long (as opposed to 2) and it makes a big difference. It looks like the pattern stops too soon. It's not too bad but I'm not completely happy with it. But I tried something new.

Last night I knit a swatch for my next project:

This is for the endpaper mitts. I was considering turning it into an iphone sock as well. I tried it first with the colors reversed: eggplant (purple) as the background and clover (green) for the contrasting color but the clover just didn't stand out it just got swallowed by the eggplant. I like it this way much better. This is knitpicks palette. I just ordered two more in grass and orange on clearance for my secret Pete present.

The fair isle was a little intimidating at first. My only other attempt at it was the Vyridia Fair Isle hat that I made with cheap-o purple and white red heart acrylic for practice. I watched a video on it from knitty gritty and it helped. I just wasn't sure whether to try English style knitting or not, but for now it works for me to stick to my usual continental but just drop and pick up the colors as I need them. A bit more tedious than normal but my tension seems ok.

play that "funky" music

2008-08-18T12:44:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Jack took me on a date to Tony's Sushi in East Moriches.

We both loved it. It was delicious. The service was awesome and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We were there between 1 and 3 on a Sunday.

I had yummy mango salad with spicy chili dressing, a spicy Cali roll, vegetable tempura roll, miso soup and I gave my other salad to Jack (not a fan of ginger dressing). I also tried Jack's dumplings which were delicious and he loved his bbq spare ribs. For desert we had Micho (sticky rice) ice cream in vanilla, strawberry, mango and green tea. They were good. I loved the mango the best though. Sticky ice cream would be a must for me there.

My knitting mojo has been waning though. I don't know if the answer is to start a new project (that new Malabrigo is calling me) or just keep on working on my hand dyed socks. I frogged them because the sts were too loose and therefore the sock was coming out a bit too big. I started again and am almost done with the leg, but am purposely trying to knit tighter. I think that it why I am tiring of them. We'll see.

i <3 my iphone

2008-08-13T11:43:00.004-04:00

I wanted to add that I just got this free app for my iphone- stitchminder. Jack told me about it last night. It just came out yesterday. I've played around with it but haven't used it yet. Meanwhile, I just bought my mini kacha kacha (on right) last week for $10. This application is nice because you can keep track of multiple things. Like when I was making my Mosey leg warmers and I had two charts going at the same time- one for the front and one for the back, I had to use two of the barrel row counters and write "1" and "2" on them with a sharpie to keep track- this would've been awesome.

Here is the progress I made on my Charade socks yesterday in the hospital waiting room. A few of the nurses commented on them and the color- I got to explain kool aid dyeing to a lot of people! :) And someone told me my stitches were perfectly even... a great compliment.

Here's where I was:

Sorry for the crappy picture, but you get the idea:

Two sweaters I completed, and by "completed" I mean bribed my mom to sew on the buttons. Too tedious for me. The one on the left is my baby print cardigan. The one on the right is a short sleeved version of the top down yoked cardigan. Short sleeves because I was running out of yarn. I think I was knitting too loosely. They are both the same yarn, Moda Dea Cherish and I still have some of the Baby Print color left over. The Ocean color one came out much bigger.

you've got mail!

2008-08-13T11:13:00.005-04:00

Took the day off yesterday to be with Jack during his surgery... he's doing fine. Went to dinner with my in-laws at the Hellenic Snack Bar in East Marion (see photo below). Yum. I had the Flalafel Souvlaki and homemade lemonade. I had ice cream for dessert but tried Jess's Baklava and it was awesome.

I am also posting a picture of my Cascade Ecological wool that Jack brought home from Now and Zen. It's natural, undyed wool. I'm really happy with how soft it is. It is for a surprise present so it is the last you will hear of it for a while.

Even more exciting though is what the mail man brought:

that's my Malabrigo worsted merino in Saphire Green. It is absolutely to die for. SO soft and I love the subtle color variation. Nice shades of green. It's handspun so it's a little bit thicker at parts which I love. It will grow up to be a Column of Leaves Scarf. It's totally handmade. I love knowing so much about where my clothes come from, feeling involved in every step of the process.

exactly how it felt

2008-08-10T10:59:00.006-04:00

I am so scared. I am felting for the first time. I made the French Market Bag. It is now in the dryer. I think it is still a little too big and not stiff enough for my tastes. The Berroco Peruvia felted very small and nicely but the Patons Merino isn't felting as much. Here are some before pictures:

the birthday girl

2008-08-05T10:05:00.007-04:00

Yesterday was my birthday! It was a three day weekend of celebration.

My husband got me a swift which he keeps referring to as a "switch"- good thing the owner of my LYS knows me and knew what he meant. I tried out my hand-dyed sock yarn on it and had some trouble. Jack helped me figure it out. I think it was because my re-skeining job was kind of make-shift and ended up too small. So we re-skeined it on the swift and then I wound it into a ball.

Now all I need is a ball winder.

Sunshine came softly through my window today...

2008-08-03T12:02:00.007-04:00

Finally. Finished pictures of my reskeined first kool aid dye job.

Colorway: Sunshine Superman
I love it! What a difference reskeining makes! It was a total pain but it was worth it. I can't wait to knit this up. I am thinking of making Charade socks.

kitchener

2008-07-29T15:41:00.006-04:00

today was a day to finish some knitting projects. in some ways they are like reading a good book and you get sad as you have fewer and fewer pages left. but I have so many new projects that I want to get started on all the time- I can't leave them all in limbo.

the first project i finished has been a long time coming. they are the Baby Fixation Socks. I knit the first one in April on size 3 dpns. I tried to knit another one on the same size 3 dpns and it came out quite a bit bigger. So I switched to size 2 circulars (my new Knit Picks harmony fixed circs!) and used magic loop. I had to frog the entire sock and start again, luckily this pattern knits up super quick. I enjoyed doing it much more on the one circ than the dpns. I am reallly converting to magic loop. I am really glad that I learned on dpns though becuase I think any other way would have been harder to grasp. Now I can experiment.

Here they are in front of my lovely window at work.

Then it was time to finish my grey kerttu socks. I absolutely love these socks. They knit up so quick but still look intricate and impressive. The Swish yarn from knitpicks is also a dream. So squishy soft.

in that same knitpicks order I got some of the new kettle dyed yarn. I've been eyeing the Foliage hat FOREVER and really wanted to use kettle dyed yarn. Malabrigo seemed way too expensive and then knitpicks came out with a line of kettle dyed yarns and I jumped at the chance. I wish it were a little softer though. Maybe I'm too used to the superwash.

I reskeined my first hand-dyed yarn last night. Took forever but worth it. It was too dark to take pictures so I will post pictures tomorrow. I am super happy with the results.

the electric kool aid acid test

2008-07-26T19:58:00.008-04:00

first time experimenting with kool aid dying today. i used this tutorial. i was scared pretty much the whole time that i was going to ruin my lovely bare knit picks sock yarn. i soaked my yarn first.then i mixed my colors:

from left to right we have: 2 burstin' berry cherry, 3 pina pineapple, 2 strawberry (with one strawberry lemonade mixed in) and 2 mango

I added them:

It did spread toward the middle a bit, but after ten minutes there was still too much white for my taste. At this point I had only added one pina pineapple (the above numbers are total numbers) so I added one more and then ten minutes later with a bit of white visible I added the third. I figured even if the yellow spread a bit it's not going to effect the darker red and pink color so it's the best to add. It seemed to cover pretty evenly at this point, so I just kept it simmering.

Finally I rinsed it in a collander:

It seems to have covered all the yarn pretty well. And so far I really like the colors. I can't wait to see it reskeined. My first dying experience has made me very happy.

The neat thing about this picture is i was unaware i was wearing a shirt i got at the CSNY2K show at Madison Square Garden that reads: "If you smile at me I will understand that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language." :)

now just waiting impatiently for it to dry.

Pomatomus!

2008-07-16T14:16:00.005-04:00

The story of my awesome Webbed Toes socks. The pattern is Pomatomus and I love it. It would look good in so many color variations. But I liked this one because it is green and brown and reminds me of my backyard in the summer. The photo shoot took place at Jack's house in Southold because his parents have a pond with lush plant life and I thought it would look good.

I love this yarn. It's the new Cascade Heritage sock yarn. It's super soft and the color variations are perfect. I got it at Now and Zen Yarns in Greenport. My very first purchase there.

I call these socks webbed toes because it seems like green scales to me and also because of my own inherited webbed toes. They have prevented me from wearing toe socks my whole life. Although a few times my mom ''forgot" and my sister ended up getting two pairs and I just got a promise to "get you another pair of regular socks." I finally had to start making my own. ;)

some recent FOs (finished objects).

2008-07-16T11:29:00.011-04:00

Here are some of the projects I have finished lately. My WIPs on Ravelry have gotten way out of hand and I just can't add "ZZZ.." to them all and cast on more exciting ones. So I won't cast on until I finish most of them. Which is hard to do because someone got a knitpicks delivery.

first up is my Don't it Make my Brown Eyes Blue baby blanket that I made for my sister's co-worker.

This is the big bad baby blanket from Stitch N' Bitch. I like the way the blanket turned out overall, a bit heavy for a baby blanket though.

My sister picked out Caron Simply Soft yarn and I couldn't stand working with it. It just kept turning into one big tangle. I spent more time untangling than knitting the blanket. yuck.

Next up is Capulet- my anthropologie inspired capelet.

This was a really fast, super-cute knit. I can't recommend it enough. I got the idea from Danielle, my knitting group friend. I wish I had made it a little longer though- I hear everyone says that.

My next sweater was a bit smaller. It was made for my mom's employee, Brendan, who's wife just had a baby girl. I love the buttons. Jack hates shopping for buttons. We were in the store looking at buttons and an older man with his wife passed Jack, took one look at him and said "I know how you feel."

I am falling in love with chunky yarn sweaters. They knit up so quickly and I'm all about instant knitting gratification. Below is my Shalom in the Home cardigan:

I was unsure about this cardigan because I knew the arm holes were purposely big. But I like it. It's almost like a little cape with a sweater attached and it's warm but not overwhelming.

I also dug into my grandmother's old button jar from the 50s-60s for the button. It makes me feel connected to her and I know

she did some kind of crocheting/knitting but my dad's not sure what. It makes it feel vintage to me.

a blog is born...

2008-07-16T10:22:00.000-04:00

today i should cast on my second Monkey sock.

Above is the first sock, just after doing the gusset decreases on a leisurely drive through the white mountains and vermont, this is on the Orient Point ferry.

i should also start finishing "the watchmen" so i am done before the movie comes out (3.6.09).