Multitasking

I figured the stockinette from the yoke to the waist on my cardigan was going to take years. But yesterday I tried it on just for kicks and was totally psyched that it's pretty much where I want it to end before I knit the ribbing on the bottom. Only problem? I must have had a brain lapse at some point because it turns out I didn't have the size 5 needle I wanted to use for the ribbing. (Oh gosh do I have to order from Knitpicks again? Ca-ching!) Anyway, then of course I wondered what I could possibly do in the meantime while waiting for said size 5 needle.

You guessed it. I got out my smaller circular and picked up the stitches for the sleeve. I'm thinking that maybe even by the time I get the needle for the ribbing I might have both sleeves done! How neat would that be? Verrry happy knitting thoughts about this.

On a more sombre note I know some people still think the podcast thing is a little nerdy but once again I have to give my 2 cents and just gush some more about how much I love Cast-on. If you have a free hour somewhere in your life I strongly urge you go to the page and click on the 'Listen to Episode 21' button. This weeks podcast is just so good. It is all about tragedy and strength and beauty and how even though bad times can be so tough, they really are what make the good times all the better. Bring your tissues and open up. I promise it's a good cry and it will not disappoint.

Digging in...

I had one more sweater I wanted to get done before it gets too hot. This is Knitting Pure and Simple's Summer Cardigan #221.

It's going very well so far. I'm using Knitpicks new yarn Main Line which is great. A nice cotton merino blend, I think will be good for summer. I like that, cotton doesn't bother me like it does some people. I don't think it will be too heavy for the warm weather, at least not from my very air conditioned office. And it doesn't really bother me knitting it, it doesn't seem to hurt my arms or wrists like it does some people I guess. This is a good thing. Because since I am only slightly (only slightly of course:) larger than the model pictured here, it looks like it may take me a slightly longer time to knit this sweater.

Yeah. I figure I have another 10-15 inches of stockinette to go. On the body that is, then there's the sleeves, the buttonband, the neckband... But that's really ok, sometimes I am more of a process knitter than a project knitter. I likes me some tv so 15 inches of stockinette is ok. Also before the big knitting addiction hit, remember I was spending most of my time crocheting afghans, so I'm used to long rows. I just hope the weather can cooperate. Meaning-it's supposed to be 72 today, and 78 tomorrow. Every once in a while more and more I'm getting that yucky summer knitting feeling. The yarn seems to stick a little, or now lately, the sweater feels kind of heavy on my lap. A definite harbinger of the sock and lace knitting season to come. I just have to hang in there and dig in. I just have to stick to it right? I think I'll make it.

"Must.... finish... one more... sweater... before... heat wave... arrives..."

Hoppy Easter!

I wasn't really going to do an Easter post today. I know, I'm a crank, but it feels kind of forced. Besides the fact that I have come to the realization that Easter does have the best candy. (Peeps? Hello?) I've also come to the realization that we're not really big Easter people. We visit with family and do the big meal thing, but when I think about it Easter is a pretty religious holiday. And in this house we are unfortunately pretty much heathens. We sleep late on Sundays (never go to church), never miss a South Park episode (this alone will probably earn me a fiery aftermath) and have been known to say a few swear words here and there. (A few?)

But oh well, that all went right out the window when I woke up and the first thing I saw this morning was this:

It's the Easter Bunny! In my backyard! And look he brought a friend too!

How cute is it that they decided to pose for me like that on either side of the evergreen? And on today of all days! Of course I do have some reservations. I'm not so sure about this being purely Easter Karma. We're a little behind on the spring cleanup in the backyard so I'm pretty sure the overgrown grass out there is just like a big version of the Sizzler for these guys right now. After the bunnies hopped off a few robins dropped by to get their piece of the action too.

Happy Spring/Easter/Passover everybody!

A brush with fame

Last night I went to East Rutherford with some of the Fun Fur Bandits and the Crocheter to go see the Yarn Harlot.

Here she is displaying her knitting style of 'armpit knitting' which is officially called 'cottage knitting.' Before this she talked for a little while, telling us some great stories. Reliving some of the events of the Knitting Olympics. Telling a story of what it's like to go out with her uber-cool record producer husband only to be outed as a knitter. She is entertaining and humorous and intelligent and so down to earth. And I think she makes a great 'knitting ambassador' to the rest of the world. Because let's face it, the rest of the world often has a pretty skewed view of knitters. A lot of the time I think they basically consider us as a bunch of Hello Kitty characters or something.

After her talk she took some questions, one of which was to display her knitting style as shown above. She then signed her book which I bought there and posed for pictures.

This part is kind of all a blur to me. There she is posing with my sock. I felt I should ask something creative when I finally got up to meet her. All I remember is I kept giggling and sweating and making snarky comments about our affiliation with the Crocheter. Sorry Chris! However, Stephanie I suppose is used to overwhelmed knitters like me meeting her with a mouth full of marbles. She just remained her very cool self, and had an even better idea. A picture with my sock and her sock together!

My sock is a regular little stockinette sock I started the other day because I realized on the trip to the museum that that white sock would be waaay to complicated to work on when I went to see the Harlot speak. It's a Knit Picks yarn called Zinnia. I have since renamed it the Ronald McDonald Colorway. Red, yellow and orange? Whoa! So I now have 3 projects going at once. More on that later.

Anyway, it was a joy hearing the Harlot speak. Anyone who has a chance to check her out in their town do so! It is a much better way to spend an evening than watching that stupid Howie Mandel show again. (Who in god's name brought Howie Mandel back to tv????)

Anniversary

Yesterday was our sixth wedding anniversary...

Awww... I know. They really have been six of the best so far too. So in honor of, we decided to try to get away a little and go somewhere we have been talking about forever, but just never got around to going to. We decided to take the train into the city and go to the American Museum of Natural History.

I've decided this museum is a lot like walking into an encyclopedia basically. There is just so much stuff. Stuff about animals, nature, space, dinosaurs, different cultures. And it's 5 floors and many, many exhibitions of it. For anyone who's never been I guess one of the defining features of the museum (I think) are the dioramas. No, not the crappy shoe boxes you put together in elementary school. These dioramas

Those are water buffalo. And you wanted to see them life-sized and up close didn't you? On top of hundreds of these dioramas there are other huge informative exhibits on everything from dinosaurs...

To African Mammals...

And of course, my personal highlight is always the Hall of Ocean Life...

Affectionately known in my family as 'the room with the big whale.' Currently the museum also has an exhibition going on about Charles Darwin which I just thought was so cool. I probably just learned the very bare bones about Darwin in my crappy science classes in school. This was much, much more. This delved into the experiences that really helped him formed his theories and had a lot of information about his personal life. Did you know that Charles Darwin had 10 children? Me neither!!! Anyway, we also attended a space show at the planetarium narrated by Robert Redford. Ooh listening to Robert Redford in the dark... Dreamy... And we got to go to the Butterfly Conservatory which was really, really neat!

Look at all those butterflies! There were hundreds and they fly up to you and land you you and everything. Anyway, so the moral of the story is, if you've never been or if you're not from here and you visit New York City and have a chance to go, you should go. It was a great day.

And of course no great day is complete without some knitting. Especially when there is a 2 hour round trip train ride involved.

Another sock from Sensational Knitted Socks from Charlotte Schurch. Regular old Kroy Socks in white. More progress to follow...

Thanks Secret Pal!

Wow! There's good stuff in here!


The black thing to the left (sorry for my amateur photography skills) are lovely black satiny slippers that I just adore. Then there is a box of Slow Cooker liners to help me with my developing crock-pot skills, someone at work was actually raving about them to me the other day so I'm excited to try them out. Then there is some great Cascade Fixation sock patterns to go with some great fixation sock yarn!

This box has the sock yarn, an origami magic box (missing from this photo I think I opened it already), Gloves in a Bottle hand cream (love it!) And the pretty cardboard box has stitch markers and Hello Kitty gum!

I love the stitchmarkers, especially the small pink and blue ones for the socks I'm going to make! Then there was the basket which had this in it... Sigh...

Yay!!!!!! Candy!!!!! Yep that gold box is Godiva! :)!!! Which is already opened. The Reese's double chocolate cups and Oreo choco stix are already gone too and were delicious. (Did I mention I got this Monday? Just so you know I didn't like inhale this stuff in an hour or something) The white bag has some really tasty tropical-type jelly beans. The Hello Kitty Pez dispenser and marshmallow candies are soooo cute. And I love it that I got tea too! I am such a big tea fan. I know it probably doesn't make sense, I eat all this crazy candy and then settle down with simple tea but it's just so much more varied than plain old coffee. I love a cup of joe now and then all the time, don't get me wrong, but I just always find tea so interesting and calming.

So that's my Secret Pal package! Isn't it great? Just one thing, the pretty box with the stitchmarkers had this tag on it...

Hmmm.... Boussada.... Not sure what that is. I've googled it and tried Babelfish, which was no help whatsoever. I even asked my sister who speaks Arabic and Spanish and is the smarter one of us and she didn't know. Is it a clue? I'm not sure. I emailed the other day because I think I may know who you are SP but it was your anonymous email so maybe it got missed. I know I haven't checked mine in ages. Anyway, I still wanted to say Thank You Thank You Thank You for the awesome gifts! I hope you enjoyed SP7 too!

Neckband Carnage!

Before... (Really, how could she ever fit her head through that????)

During....

After

Much better! So Addy's sweater is now done with a new bigger neckline, thank goodness. It was scary frogging all those stitches but I went slow and somehow managed not to drop any.

After this was done I started this messed up project which involved me trying to trying to knit this bunny pattern with the yarn I had leftover. Sigh... Of course any bunny I try to knit has to end up being large & lovely...

The pattern called for a 6 inch knitted square. Math genius that I am thinks "If I make an 8 in square it will just be a bigger bunny!" Somehow I think I made the head too small though and it looks like I'm just ending up with a bunny with a bigger butt! I'll finish this eventually anyway, I just have to add ears and a tail and then I hope to give it to my niece with her sweater. But I cannot tell you how frustrated I was when I took this picture. I think this might be the beginning and end of knitting toys for me. All the times I've looked at those cute Jess Hutch toys and drooled are seriously being reconsidered. I'm fighting with this bunny people. I totally underestimated it's power. I figured ok, knit a little square and then what 5 maybe 6 minutes of finishing? Ha! Try an hour and a half and I'm not even done. It's like trying to get the seams matched up, then trying to seam while theres all the crazy filling all around. And I'm really not a big fan of the seaming to begin with.

On a positive note I finally got the neckband of the navy sweater tacked down and that's it blocking in the background. I hope to have a picture of it on a person to show you soon...