A Jewish Christmas in Brooklyn

Just as magical as a Child's Christmas in Wales. First David and I went out with our pal Tim to a fabulous dinner at Stone Park Cafe here in Park Slope. Then a drive to the magical christmas wonderland known as Dyker Heights Brooklyn. Here's a small sampling of the true meaning of christmas (excess)

I made it!

Ode to surviving xmas in retail:

'Twas two days before xmas and all through Park Slope
There was great rejoicing, and no one did mope

The alarm clock was silent, no beep did we hear
"I slept till 10:30!" I said with a cheer

There's knitting to do and movies to see
Chinese Restaurants are where we will be

I've earned three days off, I've worked like a dog
It's time now to celebrate and write in my blog

I was thinking of spinning and fiber and yarn
when all of a sudden an idea started to dawn

My gifts are abundant, my life is quite rich
So here in my blog is my holiday wish

Don't take life for granted
Hug your loved ones quite tight

Be thankful for your stash and to all a good night

Okay you guys, I'm sorry you haven't heard from me in a while, but I've been up to my &%$#@ in yarn. Things at The Point have been hopping. Tons of last minute shoppers, but I made it. The days have been LONG and hard, but there were some nice holiday surprises. I never expected to get gifts from my regulars, but I got a cake, some candy, cookies, a lavender sachet hand made by the fabulous Barbara Kerr, and a bottle of wine from one of my favorite regulars.
The shop is open today and tomorrow, but these are my days off.

The best gift I got this season?? An Assistant Manager. The shop is going strong, and it's time to add some management back up. So all you regulars, come by after the New Year and welcome Kim. I'm really excited about her. She is the rare combination of a knitter with retail management AND food service experience. She's going to make life and the shop great!

The last week has been full of holiday parties as well (hence me not posting last week). First there was David's theatre company Brave New World Holiday party. Then the Sit n' Knit holiday party. That was great! Here's the little beret I knocked off from left over alpaca, for the holiday gift exchange:


Here I am modeling it before I say goodbye:


the party was great. 50 knitters, free food, free liquor, knitting gifts raffle, holiday gift exchange . . . what could be bad. I don't know what the restaurant was expecting when this party was booked, but they weren't expecting us. They weren't expecting 50 or so rowdy, drinking knitters.

Here are some party pics:

The fabulous Anne-Marie

Liquor and knitting!

Liquor IN knitting (that's a martini washcloth)


Holiday gift exchange - drawing names

Happy gift receivers!

Winner of my hand knit beret


A knitter's (knitted) bowl of chocolate


The fabulous Ana Gonzolas (fellow Point employee)

After knocking out my little hand knit beret for the party, it was back to the endless K2 P2 rib of the Pin Up Queen. After I finished the back I decided the ribbing would be to tight around my sizable hips, so when I did the front I cast on more stitches and reduced every 4 rows to get back to the original amount. I will knit a little insert for the sides of the back and mattress stitch them on.

The short row shaping for the front came out pretty well. Now I just have the sleeves. The construction of the front would also make a pretty nice sleeveless tank. Maybe this summer I'll play around with that.

I also finally finished winding the Manos Silk for the Vogue magazine "Life Aquatic" cardigan. From this photo you can't tell how subtly fabulous the colors are:

NOT counting old stash projects, I have in my cue:

- David's vest (my design) Alpaca from Rhinebeck
- Clapotis (Knitty.com) Silk Nylon from Rhinebeck
- Mr Green Jeans (Knitty.com) Merino hand dyed from Rhinebeck
- Gatsby Girl Pullover (Interweave magazine) Sublime extra fine merino wool dk
- Life Aquatic (Vogue magazine) Manos Silk
- Pullover (Fitted Knits) Art Yarns Superwash Merino
- ???? for my own handspun

Better start knitting!!

Knitting detour

I had almost finished the tedious, 13 1/2" k2, P2 rib of the pin up queen when gift giving made me take a knitting detour. First David asked if I could make a baby gift in a week and a half. I told him no problem. Three days later I knocked out this cute little baby sweater knit up with the luscious SWTC bamboo



I also started to swatch for David's vest. I'm using 600 yards of alpaca I bought at Rhinebeck held together with Filatura Lanarota Puno Alpaca. I'm writing a pattern (my least favorite thing to do), because I can't find any pattern I like. Here's a close up of the cable pattern.


Next . . . it's time for the Sit n' Knit holiday party. I finally RSVPed on Sunday, the last day that I could and got the last spot free! Yeah! There's a holiday exchange, so I'm knitting up a little something from some pale blue Alpaca from my stash (as per the gift exchange rule, stash knitting only!).

Soon I'll return to my sweater.

Perfect Sunday part. 2

The firewood is stacked and being used


the hot chocolate has been made. I'm FINALLY skeining, balling and counting the yardage of yarn that my mother in law gave me a year ago so I can figure out what to do with it.


and my husband just pulled a fresh loaf of bread out of the oven. His specialty, baked in the new pot my mom bought for him

A perfect Sunday in Park Slope

I woke up at 7:00 am to David's little voice saying "I have to go to the Food Coop, do you want Bagels & Lox or Pancakes?". As if that wasn't nice enough, I got out of bed and saw this out the window:


You can't really tell from the photo, but it was snowing. Now I am sitting on the couch, waiting for the pancakes (we were going to have lox, but David came home and found we had no cream cheese), and our firewood delivery. I used up the last log of last year's wood. I ordered a full face chord, and I'm going to spend all day tomorrow spinning by the fire!

Speaking of spinning. I bought some dreamy dark Blue Faced Leicester from Spunky Eclectic Fiber, to ply with the free 1lb of light Blue Faced Leicester that came with the wheel. Last night I gave my new jumbo plying head a whirl, and plied up my first 200 yards of yarn!!! Here it is on the plying head:


and on the niddy noddy


It's all over the place gauge wise. It goes from fairly chunky in spots (like 3 st/inch) to almost thread thin. I think I'll get between 600 - 800 yards when I finish spinning up everything. I should be able to make a 3/4 sleeve sweater I have in my head.


Last night after the shop closed, David came by to pick me up, and we hung out with Leia as she closed out the cafe (and she showed me the AWESOME shawl she's working on!) and I finally got around to balling the skeins of yarn I bought in Rhinebeck. Here's the Clapotis waiting to happen


And for Mr. Green Jeans (see pic below), here's the beauties awaiting that pattern



In my current knitting life, After knitting about 10" of the Vogue pattern Grey's Anatomy traveling cable sweater, I ripped it all out and conceded to this simple reality: good yarn, bad choice!. I was using Rowan Tapestry. It's a lovely self striping yarn. However, what bone head (read, me) thought that a horizontal self striping yarn and a vertical cable pattern would be a good match. I returned the yarn to my Point account (love the ability to change my mind!), and gobbled up 8 skeins of the brand new Manos Silk (as Homer would say "ahhhh, Manos Silk"). Here's the pattern I've picked out for my beloved Manos Silk (from my beloved Vogue magazine)

So for now, I'm knitting up the Pin Up from Stitch 'n Bitch, that I've been meaning to knit for YEARS, in a lovely worsted Alpaca. It's a short row sweater, which is always fun, but first I have to get through 13 1/2" of 2 by 2 rib (boring).

Oh, firewood is here! Gotta stack wood and then light up the fire.