Brooklyn Knit Chick

Destruction and Rebirth

2010-04-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

A lot has been going on in the last six weeks since out apartment has been taken OVER by our kitchen rehab. With the Living Room / Dining Room being the staging area, the kitchen torn to shreds, our guest bedroom / office being our kitchen. That means we have been living in our bedroom. It's kind of like being back in a college dorm w/o the cheap white wine.

I got to escape the madness for a few days in mid March to go to Seattle on business. I got to meet up with the awesome ladies from Knot Another Hat. It was great to hang with them, and Seattle was beautiful, although we hardly got to leave the hotel.

Here we are in the hotel before dinner (Sarah, Nichole & Me)

After a short biz getaway, it was back to the construction zone. We've had more then a few glitches along the way, and a few things that have put us SEVERAL weeks, behind, but it's looking pretty good so far.

The cabinets are really pretty

and include some fab features, like David's spice rack:

and our two level silverware drawer:

Our favorite feature so far is the cork floor. It came out really nice.

As long as we were ordering the granite for our counter tops, we decided to demo the hearth and get a piece of granite for our new hearth stone. I can't wait for Wednesday when the install happens.

I finished the Mini Cardi to wear to the YMN conference in Seattle. It only took me two days. It's a really fast knit. I still haven't chosen the buttons yet, but it's cute without buttons.

I also cast on Hey Teach in the Recycled Cotton. It was a really fast knit (especially since I did the 8" of stockinette on the Studio's knitting machine.

I have a four day weekend and it was in the 70s today, so I decided it was time to clean up the garden. We are a bit behind this year in getting things together, but I thought I could get started.

I finished my swatch for the new Stripe Class I'm teaching and took it upstairs to the deck to dry. The sun was so hot up there, it was dry in a few minutes!

Things were starting to bud all over the place in our little garden

Last year's e-bay purchase of a Weeping Cherry Tree, was looking pretty good. Last year it came in the mail as a stick, and this year:

and FINALLY our little Forsythia plant actually bloomed. We have picked up our free Forsythia clipping at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Forsythia Member Day for three years, and we finally got a non dud clipping!

Tomorrow, plant the Dahlias, the Cannas and finish Hey Teach. Hopefully I can get the earthboxes set up soon.

Let the Rehab Begin . . .

2010-02-20T17:49:00.000-08:00

We've been talking about it and saving for it for years. Now we are finally starting. This Tuesday we begin our 4 -5 week (hopefully) time of living in our bedroom & eating in our office. Say goodbye to this black tiled nightmare:

With broken, badly done tile countertop:

And the undercabinet oven that doesn't fit:

We've packed up our whole kitchen into boxes & bags and stuck it in our office / guest bedroom

This will now be our little kitchen. Toaster oven on the desk,

Here's the tea cart from the dining room with dishes below & the microwave & coffee maker will go on top

The guest bathroom becomes our "dishwasher"

I think I'll be enjoying some serious take out!

I did finally finish the crochet edging and cowl on the Weekend Knitting Cami & Cowl.

I also have almost finished David's sweater back. I feel like I'm not going to make it with the yarn I have, so I did order more, but of course, it's a different dye lot. It's a bit lighter, so I'm going to use it for the ribbing for the front & arms, and for the collar.

David also requested a pair of Wool-Ease Thick & Quick slipper socks, like I made for the Studio staff. I had a bunch of left over bits, so he chose this color combo:

So tomorrow is our last day to enjoy the living room, before we shove all the furniture to the side, cover everything with plastic and move into the bedroom. It won't be so bad, it will be like living in a dorm room. I'll take during and after photos to see how it all turned out

A Series of Extremes

2010-01-23T15:52:00.001-08:00

It's impossible to sum up the last few weeks. A lot has happened in our lives since I last wrote in late December. In honor of a very special man who wanted his family to live their lives and find joy, I will focus on the things that give me joy, peace and fill me with gratitude. First there is my wonderful husband who makes my life an adventure. Through difficult times, I have the support of my amazing family and friends. I am also very grateful to work with the best team of people I have ever had the good fortune to be associated with. In the last few months they have really come through for me which has allowed me to come through for my family.

I've had several good times in the last few weeks too. New Year's Eve was spent in with friends and good food in front of our fire. A little before midnight we walked up the hill to Prospect Park to watch the fireworks. How lucky we are to live in such a wonderful place!

The next day we headed off to the winterwonderland that is Vermont in January.

I had never been to Vermont, and I loved it. It was all like a postcard. David, as always, patiently waited while I visited a couple of yarn shops. I really liked Black Sheep Yarns in Dorset. It was a lovely shop and I picked up some locally spun Silk / Wool blend. It was undyed, and I thought I'd use it to try my hand (finally) at natural dyeing.

Here are a few more glimpses of the snow covered town

Talk about an extreme shift . . . a couple of weeks later, we were in Barbados! The trip had been planned for a long time. It was a 50th birthday trip for my friend Tim. It came at a not entirely ideal time, but then again, David and I really did need the rest and relaxation.

We stayed at my friend's bosses house. It was really lovely.

Right inside the front door, there was a shelf full of beach treasures that guests had collected.

This little garden was just inside the front door. It had no ceiling, but instead a screen roof. This meant when it rained, it rained inside. Very cool.

The sitting area behind the dining area had no walls, just screen. It is so strange to have a house in such a temperate climate that a section of your house can have no walls!

Here's Tim and I in the living room.

The pool, just out back

David and I arrived late afternoon. We headed to the beach right away to take a dip while the sun went down. That's the birthday boy far right (Tim), and his friends Richard & Daryl (and me). This was the first of three spectacular sunsets.

The late afternoon light on the beach and the pink clouds were amazing.

The next morning we sat poolside for a bit. That's David's Tweed Boyfriend Sweater I'm working on. You don't think I'd go anywhere without a few projects, do you??

David spent most of that first day correcting homework by the pool, while we went into town. He was so behind from the week he took off of work, he had to take a ton of homework to paradise.
The rest of us took a short bus ride into town. It was an adorable little town, with some cute shops. There was a nice art gallery featuring all local artists. I picked up a rum cake for Tracey & Michelle back at work. I was missing both of their birthdays, and I wanted them to have a little bit of the island.

Later that afternoon we went back to the house and pried David away from his homework. We walked down the beach a bit to a lovely little beach bar. We had cocktails and watched spectacular sunset #2.

Sunday we made ourselves a fab lunch poolside

Sunday afternoon it was back to the beach for our last sunset.

Our traditional, take a picture of ourselves, picture. Even though any of the guys could have taken it, it would have broken with tradition.

There were these tiny little sand crabs that would come out of the little holes in the sand. They were adorable.
Our last, and perhaps, most spectacular sunset

For our last night, we made ourselves (mostly David) a wonderful meal and watched the Golden Globes. It was a magical place and very hard to leave.

This weekend I managed to finish a few things. I finally finished the cowl for the Fluffly Lace Camisole with Pull off Cowl.

I finished another two pairs of the Wool-Ease Thick and Quick socks. One for me (finally) and a pair for my pal Nell.

I also finished fixing the sleeves for David's Anniversary Sweater. It bothered him that the top of the sleeve and the bottom of the sleeve was so wide. I made this back in the day when I just chose a size and knitted, before I was changing patterns to fit people better. Luckily, it was an easy fix as the cast on edge was the top of the sleeve and then you decreased down to the cuff.

So, I took the sleeve off, and with a careful cut, I took about four inches off the top of the sleeve. This made the top of the sleeve much narrower, as the row that I now bound off was at a much narrower part of the sleeve.

Next I unbound off the bottom edge (the cuff) and knit the four inches I lost at the top, while continuing to decrease. This made the cuff narrower too!

Then, I sewed it all back together. The nice thing is my finishing is so much better then it was 2 1/2 years ago. When David gets home I'll take a new picture of him wearing it. I hope he likes it.

SNOW DAY!!!

2009-12-20T15:36:00.001-08:00

It's been a long time since I've had a day quiet enough to blog. This time of year in retail is pretty crazy, and then there's friends and family visits, social stuff, blah, blah, blah. But today felt like the calm after the storm. That's the snow storm I mean.

Yesterday the snow started and David and I stayed home by the fire until it was time to bundle ourselves up and brave the storm. We were meeting friends at the movies, and it was so pretty in NY.

Today was another day spent knitting by the fire. I've made some pretty good progress on David's cable sweater:

In the late afternoon we decided to take our cameras (video and still) out to the Park to see the snow fun. Here's a few shots

We love the first snow in Park Slope. It always makes everyone so friendly. It feels like a small town whenever it snows.

Halloween & a FINALLY finished sweater!

2009-11-15T14:27:00.000-08:00

I don't have much writing in my this evening, so I'll let the pictures do the talking . . .

First, the fabulous Park Slope Halloween parade. Halloween is when our little neighborhood feels the most like a small town.

On the way to the parade, David enjoyed some of the local jack o lanterns:

As always, the parade was a fantastic mix of kids & dogs (all though it was light on the dogs this year)

Last week I finally finished the Flame Stitch Cardi. I had set it aside for most of the early part of the fall while I worked on other things. Here it is blocking, pre finishing

I gave myself less finishing to do by picking up stitches for the collar instead of what the pattern called for (knitting it separate and then sewing it on . . . bah humbug).

Here she is:

Harvest of Eggplant, Peppers and Yarn

2009-10-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

Fall is harvest time at the Lyons / Frutkoff rooftop garden.

The eggplants and peppers did well, but the brussell sprouts are still kind of pathetic.

Fall is the world's greatest season. Hot cider, pumpkins, the changing leaves, and the yarn. The last few weeks have been an insanely busy time at work, but David and I managed to escape to Connecticut a few weeks ago. We stayed in a really great old inn called the Wake Robin Inn.

It's in that great area near the Conn/Mass/New York border. We stopped at Stockbridge on the way, and they were having an outdoor sculpture exhibit. This art piece had a sign that said "Please sit", who am I to say no.

It also had my favorite door

I've been doing a lot of socks lately (they are great on road trips), but I also took my Mohair top along, so I could finish it off. I still have to add the white crochet trim, but at least I got one thing off my needles. Here it is blocking:

The next weekend was RHINEBECK!!!! Will and Michelle had never been, so I had my fingers crossed for decent weather. They were predicting snow and rain for Saturday, but when I woke up the sun was shinning, and although it did get overcast later, it was a pretty nice day.

We started out at the sock machine demo. SOOO cool. If someone made these machines for under $300 I would so get one. Check out Will's face, he's in love

After a brief wander, it was time for a snack. We decided to line up early for the famous Rhinebeck, Chicken Pot Pie. So delish. Since we were waiting online, we might as well pull out our knitting. Here's Michelle working a gift for her mom (shush, don't tell) in the LB Collection Organic Wool, and Will and I are rocking out some socks in our Sock-Ease.

Next we went to visit the stars of Rhinebeck, the animals. Look at the gorgeous color of this little darling.

This guy was David's favorite of the whole fair. David said it was the portrait of pure contentment. His eyes were closed and he was chewing away on something that made him very happy!

Fab pumpkin carvings

Michelle had just finished her Owl Sweater in Alpine Wool, and she was TOTALLY the star of Rhinebeck. Every 10 minutes, someone was stopping her to tell her "great sweater". I spotted someone wearing the same sweater and thought it would make a cute picture. I didn't notice until after I took the pic that it was fab designer, Ysolda. How cute are they?
Speaking of cute . . .

Will said I suffered from "Bunny Turrets". We would be walking around having a normal conversation, and I would burst out "BUNNY" everytime I spotted these guys

David and I made a weekend of it, and had dinner at the fabulous CIA and Terrapin (that has always been booked up in previous years)

Here's our utterly bizarre little room.

And the view out our window

I didn't buy much this year. I just picked up one little skein of Briar Rose Sock yarn, that somehow jumped in my bag when I wasn't looking!

I did make some major progress on the stalled Flame Stitch Cardigan. I finished all the pieces and now it's just time for the shawl collar. The pattern calls for it to be knit separately and sewn on later, but I hate sewing slightly more then picking up stitches . . . so I just decided to pick up stitches and go for it.

In other knitting chores, I've decided to make Wool-Ease Thick and Quick slipper socks for the entire Studio staff. All ELEVEN of us. Yikes. I want to get them all finished by the holidays. Think I'll make it?

My Favorite Time of Year

2009-09-18T10:01:00.001-07:00

I have a three day weekend, fall is in the air, there are still some veggie's hanging on in our garden. Life is pretty good.

David and I said goodbye to summer in the perfect way . . . a Labor Day Weekend Trip to the fabulous Cape May, NJ. It's a sleepy little Victorian town on the Jersey Shore. We sat on the beach,

we walked around the town and looked at all the wonderfully ornate houses (or horribly purple houses)

We went to the State Park and walked on the cute little nature trails

We even found a big band playing in a local park gazebo in the evening. Couldn't be cuter!

I had plenty of knitting time, sitting on the porch, sipping wine in the afternoon. I finally finished the tank top that would not die. It's my own fault, why I felt the need to reknit something from 2006 is beyond me. It does look better now.

(Not the greatest shot, but David wasn't home, so I did the best I could!)

In more knitting do overs, I decided to redo my little tank top w/matching cowl from Melanie Falick's Weekend Knitting. I had made it years ago out of some kind of junky acrylic "mohair", so now that there is the soft, lofty and beautiful LB Collection Silk Mohair . . . do over!!

Speaking of LB Collection yarns, my mother in law did this great afghan out of the LB Collection Superwash Merino. Isn't it pretty?

There is a crispness in the air that knitter's love. It means fall, sweaters, hot cider, fireplaces, coziness. The fall veggie crop is hanging on. The squash is a no go. We can't seem to grow squash and not have it be completely overtaken by powdery mildew. Ah well. However we do have . . .

Eggplants

Brussel Spouts

Peppers

The return of fall has also meant the return of the Flame Stitch Cardigan. It went into hibernation for the summer, while I tried to get my summer tops done.

A Crazy Month

2009-08-22T08:17:00.000-07:00

So it's been nearly a month since we got back from Ireland, and I keep meaning to blog about it, but the entire month as been gobbled up by the work / life monster. We have had a bit of fun along the way. Thursday night we FINALLY visited the fantastic High Line park, and yesterday we had our first beach day of the whole summer (now that summer's almost over)

Back to Ireland . . . After we said goodbye to Dublin it was time to head into the West. We headed out on our wrong side of the road adventure, driving to Galway. David did a great job driving on the left. Here's a snap out our window.

After dumping our bags at the B & B we decided to head off to Leenane to the Sheep and Wool Museum. It wasn't long before we had our first, sheep in the middle of the road sighting. Sheep graze everywhere, so they are spray painted (my first clue that these animals are not being raised for fleece!)

At the museum we met the woman doing the spinning demos, who is a local sheep farmer. She told us that they only get 90 euros a fleece and it's not even worth the expense of sheering. They raise sheep for meat and the great Irish tradition of spinning, dyeing and knitting is all but dead. When I asked her why she explained that in the mind of the Irish people, spinning and knitting reminds folks of hard times. It would not be something people do for pleasure.

Here's a great little homemade contraption from reused bicycle parts, made for putting yarn on bobbins

In addition to all the wheels, they also had some great looms

Here I am with the little sheepys

Later that evening, we headed into Galway for a night time parade. It was the Arts Festival, and they have an annual parade to usher in Pan. It was really fun.

Days were really long, so this is what it looks like at 9:45 pm

It didn't really get dark until after 10:00 pm

We loved Galway. It's a great little town full of winding streets, great shops and adorable pubs

and, of course, great pub music. We went out three or four times in the evening to listen to music, but the night in galway was our favorite. It wasn't a stage, just some musicians sitting at tables drinking beer and playing music.

The next day we drove to the Spiddal Craft Center. It was pretty small, but it had a nice little weaving store.

Although it rained a bit everyday, our first day of pouring rain came the day we went to the Aran Islands. We took a ferry to Inishmore and it was a rainy, dark day, but we drank hot chocolate and looked at some sweater shops.

By the time we arrived by bus, to the fort, the sun had come out and it was a beautiful day. Here I am standing on the huge cliff at the fort. . . no railings, just common sense stands between you and death!

Here's a few of the wonderful thatched roof cottages on the island.

David loved the yellow and red of this building

The next day we left Connomera to head into the strange, rocky beautiful Burren.

On our way we saw what looked like a white waterfall coming down the hill. As we got closer we saw it was a sheep dog herding a flock of sheep down the hill. I caught the tail end of the group on video.

Here's one of the many unmarked "broken bits" (as David and I called them) scattered all over Ireland.

Another roadside animal sighting.

I loved their little faces poking over the wall

The Burren looked like another planet. Somebody said, of the famous rocky land "enough rope to hang a man, but not enough ground to bury him in"

Here I am at the pretty impressive Cliffs of Moher

Next stop is the charming Villiage of Adare. Your first sight is Adare Castle, followed by a street full of adorable thatched roof cottages.

We had a wonderful dinner and a stroll down by the river, we woke up and headed down to the Dingle Penninsula. This area was one of our favorites on the whole trip.

A pub in Dingle Town (a name that kept making David chuckle)

The next few days in the Dingle Penninsula and the Ring of Kerry were filled with too many hundreds of beautiful pictures to post here. A few . . .

I only started to take pictures of the Guinness signs in the last few days of the trip. I wish I had started sooner. Ah well, here are just a few great ones

Here's the Kilo of yarn I got in the Aran Islands for 47 euro!!!! It's pretty scratchy, so I'll make an outer garment with it.

With all that driving / flying I did get a lot of knitting done. I made some decent progress on my do over tank top

and I almost finished Rachel's tank top

Here's a close up showing how unbelievably different my tension is when I pick v.s. throwing. For the strip I was throwing one color and picking (knitting continental) with the other. I then switched every row. You can see that the tension difference make this weird, curvy stripe.

Here it is all finished on my goofy niece who refuses to not make faces when you take her picture (so I cut off her head . . . so there!)

Our garden has not been doing that great, but we have had a few good garden meals. We didn't have much food in the fridge when we came home. Michelle (my friend who was house sitting), left some mozzarella in the fridge, so we picked some tiny carrots, some tomatoes, basil & zucchino and we had a nice garden dinner.

Now that the eggplants and peppers are coming in, we have some more to snack on, but it's not been a great food crop year.

Now that I've caught up on blogging what happened in July, maybe I'll get around to writing about Aug by October!

Knitting do overs and Ireland pt. 1

2009-08-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last blog post. I feel like this summer is being washed away. David and I did take a fab vacation (more on this later), but we’re really not doing any summer NY fun stuff at all. We still have yet to see an outdoor movie or go to a Cyclones Game

Our garden is hanging on, but the rain is killing a lot. We are growing baby carrots this year from seeds.

Here’s David and our carrot crop. . . small but adorable (and the carrot is nice too)

I had another fit of “do over” with the short and chic cardi. The bottom ribbing was just too stretched out, so I cut, ripped, put it back on the needle and reknit the ribbing on a US 9.

Since we were getting ready to head off to Ireland and they don’t allow metal needles. (I was in the middle of doing a pair of socks -on metal, and redoing the bottom of the short & chic cardi -also on metal), I had to cast on a couple of travel projects.

I cast on my other “do over” the xback tank. And the Cotton-Ease tank top I was doing for my niece Rachel.

I left the gang to hold down the fort at work, Michelle to take care of the garden & David and I took off to Ireland.

We started our trip in Dublin, a great town.

We traveled all around the city, listened to some great music, ate pub food, and (of course) drank Guinness. David’s favorite part of Dublin was the Guinness Tour.

He was chosen to start the brew, which was pretty cool.

On the river by the Custom House we saw the amazing Famine Monument & the cool new bridge.

Here are just a couple of the famous Dublin doors.

Also in Dublin began my (semi) fruitless search for yarn. Most of the “yarn stores” in Ireland are mixed stores with a small yarn section. This store had the most hilariously large balls of yarn I’d ever seen. Big, but OH so scratchy.

I did have a tiny bit of success in an out door market in Dublin. Here’s the little Merino Silk hand spun beauty I found.

Shockingly, in all of Dublin, I only one real yarn store, This is Knit.

More on our travels into the West on the next post. (There are a LOT of sheep out west!)

Fun with an SLR

2009-07-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

We got a new camera for the Studio, and I have no idea how to use it. So, I took it and the book home on the three day weekend to learn the difference between the 8000 different settings. Here are some pics I took in the garden (I must have been hungry when I took these, since most of them are of food)

I finished one of my toe up socks. It's SOOOO comfortable

The Flame Stitch Cardigan is coming along. Almost up to dividing for the arm holes.

I can't bring either one of these to Ireland, since they are both on metal needles. I have to start a few projects on my Denise plastic needles. I decided to redo the Ribbon Xback top, since I've never been happy with it. I ripped it out along with my one skein shrug. With the extra yarn I should have enough to remake it longer and in a tigher gauge. I want to rewrite the pattern with side shaping and increase stitches around the chest & go to a tighter needle so I won't look slutty wearing it.

Where did June go? Oh I remember, it got washed away

2009-06-29T05:05:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the first month of summer is almost gone. It's rained about every day of June, so here in NY we still feel like we're waiting for summer to begin.

I spend most of the middle of the month on a plane. First I was off to TNNA, in Columbus. The best thing about flying to beautiful Columbus was my old Stage Manager pal Michele driving TWO hours just to have dinner with me. Now that's a friend!

We had a lovely dinner and then took a stroll around downtown Columbus

I took some great classes while I was there. Here's my tiny little sock from my toe up sock class:

For me I wanted a slip stitch heel, so I started a toe up for myself using this great little calculator for slip stitch heel I found from Knot Another Hat. It was a pretty fast knit on the plane. By the time I got home I had:

I couldn't resist a side by side a few days later

I really like the heel. It's feels exactly the same as a cuff down gusset with picked up stitches (without the annoying picking up stitches)

and the following weekend I flew to Chicago to visit my family. My mom wanted to know why I never blog about them. I told her when she knitted something I'd blog about her . . . just kidding, hi mom (we'll see if she finds this).

It was great seeing everyone, even though I had just gotten off a plane 4 days earlier. My brother and sister and I have never give presents just because it's an occasion. Instead we buy a gift when we see one that looks good. My brother gave me this cool book. He found it at a resale shop.

How cool is that??

I finished my Coachella while I was in Chicago

ta da

I went upstairs to take some timer shots in our garden . . . and of course, it started to rain (hence the next shot being taken inside)

The front ended up way drapier then the pattern picture. I like it anyway.

Next plane trip . . . Ireland. I'm so excited. Aran Islands, yarn shops in Dublin, Sheep & Wool museum in Leanane, and lots of Sheep!

Missing WWKIP day . . . AGAIN

2009-06-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

Sunday was my favorite type of day, some work in the garden, picking some food . . .

(TWINS!)

(Artichokes coming along nicely)

and enjoying the roses.

David settled down to correct a giant pile of homework,

and I decided to do some spinning

I was inspired to get out the wheel in the garden because I knew Michele & Will were coming over for some spindle spinning and Tony night.

My joyful day was interrupted when I realized that my professional knitting life was to (once again) interfere with my personal knitting life. I had been SOOO looking forward to WWKIP day this Saturday. I just looked at the Calendar to realize . . . ahhhhhh . . . I'll be in Ohio for TNNA. Why of why is the trade show for the needle arts on the same weekend as World Wide Knit in Public Day?? Big drag. Last year I also missed it, because I was taking a continuing ed, machine knitting class, at FIT.

I did finish Stew's baby sweater. Turned out really cute.

In addition to the Flame Stitch Cardigan, I needed a mindless subway project. Enter Coachella, done in Cotton-Ease. I LOVE this yarn.

It's all about the food

2009-05-25T09:19:00.001-07:00

David and I decided on way to fight this economy is to grow as much food on our little Brooklyn roof as we can. This year we have going, Strawberries, Artichoke, Arugula, Romaine, Green Leaf, Brussel Sprouts, Zucchino (round Zucchini), 4 different kinds of Tomato & Snap Peas. All the veggies in our “hippie” earthboxes (as a friend of mine calls them) are thriving. Not so much for the plain pot plants.

Here's a side by side of our Brussel Sprouts in a pot v.s. the hippie box

The Zuchinno's are growing so fast that you can actually tell the difference day by day. Here are three pics taken 5/12, 5/15, 5/22

And the Snap Peas 5/12 & 5/22

We have already started harvesting lettuce about every other day for salads, and the Brussel Sprouts are coming along nicely:

The Azelea was brilliant for a breif time and now it's past it's prime. I feel for it.

The Iris's too are about three days from being done. Sad.

The climbing roses are going to be in their full glory in the next few days, and then will begin to fade. I hate that some of our showiest stuff are such early bloomers and are then gone.

The other roses keep going all Summer . . . Yeah!

We've made a strange discovery in the last few days. We've been noticing a TON of tiny Oak Trees growing in our garden. When we go to dig these up, the acorns are buried really deep. I think squirrels were using out garden as a food storage local. Today we dug up 23 (!!!!) tiny oak trees.

In the land of knitting, I've finished lengthening my cotton sweater sleeves. It came out okay. Right now, there is a bit of a line where then new knitting picks up, but I think as I wash the sweater and the stitches loosen up, that will go away.

I also added a tiny piece of elastic across the inside of the shoulder seam so the damn thing would stay on my shoulder.

Stew's baby sweater is coming along. I have to alternate it with other projects, because it's getting a bit tedious. One more sleeve to go, and then button band and hemming.

After much swatching, I've cast on for the Flame Stitch Cardigan from 2005 Vogue. I'm following all the corrections painstakingly posted by this amazing blogger. Hopefully I can get to a nice finished product without wanting to tear my hair out!

Sheep, Cherry Blossoms, Veggies & SPRING

2009-05-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

Nothing says Spring like the Shearing of Sheep. Last weekend I enjoyed two of my favorite springtime Park Slope rituals. . . The Cherry Blossom Festival in Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Fleece Festival at the Prospect Park Zoo.

We started the rainy day at the BBG. Despite the rain, the blossoms were amazing.

My pal Micheal and I relaxing in the outdoor lounge

Next it was off to the zoo to the adorable little Fleece Fest. It's really just sheep sheering with some music, but I love it anyway

In the land of knitting, I finished my Short & Chic Cardi, pretty happy with it

I was also inspired by the Knitting Surgeon class I just taught at the Studio, to revisit an old sweater. I was teaching how you can lengthen or shorten a knitted piece and I remembered the cotton boat neck sweater I had whose sleeves always bugged me. So I came home, cut, put it back on the needles and started fixing the sleeves. One down, one to go.

I also got back to some serious spinning. I did about 4 hours on the wheel, and I forgot how much I LOVE spinning. I really want to get through the roving I have so I can get my hands on the stuff I bought at Rhinebeck in October.

I also almost finished Stew's baby sweater. I'm so loving the LB Collection Cotton Bamboo, and it's turning out really cute. She better not turn out to be a boy!

Flowers & FO

2009-04-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

It seems like two weeks between blogging is about the best I can do these days. I keep waiting for life to feel like it's slowing down, but it won't happen on it's own. I've decided that I would find ways to slow it down myself. A couple of weekends ago it was Forsythia Day at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. We always go, as members, to pick up our free Forsythia Day, and to get our first wiff of spring. It was a perfect day at the garden & the sky was a perfect blue.

The week before we had planted our Canna's and Dahlias to start them inside. When we got back from the garden I saw that we had our own first wiff of spring

The yoke pullover was coming along nicely. I was almost finished with the second sleeve, and I wanted to get it done before David and I left town for Passover.

Our next forced slow down came in the form of Passover. Since I work for a Jewish company we are closed for all work restricted holiday's. The Studio closed early on Wednesday night and David and I had a cozy Seder for two. The next day we headed to Boston to spend the second night with David's family and then we headed up to the Berkshires.

We stayed in this cool place called Porches right across from the Mass MoCa. In addition to the museum, which is FAB,

there are all sorts of odd little galleries. This is an installation of hundreds of toys. The artist is Jarvis Rockwell, the son of Norman Rockwell.

Before we headed out the next day, David took some shots of my newly finished sweater.

I cast on a new project in the car, and by the end of the next two days I had finished the front and back.

It's the Short and Chic Cardi. It was originally knit out of Wool Ease Thick and Quick, but I wanted a springy cardi, so I'm double stranding Nature's Choice Organic Cotton. I should finish it over the weekend.

Also over the weekend will be GARDENING! The lettuce gets planted & the Canna's and Dahlias will go in the ground. What a difference one week makes. Here are the Dahlias today that just shot through the ground 8 days ago.

Spring is all over our garden

Slowing down to appreciate. . .

2009-03-28T16:19:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks (of no blogging) have been insanely busy. I've been so snowed under with work that my "days off" have been spent on the computer for most of the day. I feel now like (for a few days anyway) things are under control and I'm feeling overwhelmed by how lucky I am. I have the best husband in the world, a bit of money in the bank (less then a year ago, but what are you gonna do), a roof over my head and my family is healthy, and getting happier.

Today we spent the morning in the garden with our garden expert, Leda. She comes by twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, to help us assess where we're at. I always feel a bit overwhelmed by how much work there is to do in the spring, but the garden is sooo worth it. I can't wait to start growing food again. The rest of the day was spent cleaning up the basement. Not the greatest day off, but tonight we aren't doing a thing.

The last few weeks have been pretty jam packed. First, as many of you know by now, Martha Stewart came to film in the Studio. That was a LOT of work, but it was a big deal for the company, so we were all happy to put in the extra work. Shortly after the filming I headed to my old home town of Chicago for the Yarn Market News Conference. The night before I left I blocked my Nob Hill, in hopes of finishing it to wear the day of the yarn crawl. It's made with my own handspun doubled with Fisherman's Wool in the two new tweed colors

I went a day early so I could hang out with my Mom. We went to the shopping mall we used to go to, had a nice dinner & then watched the Daily Show (I have no cable, so that's a treat.) By then end of the evening I had done one of the sleeves, so I was getting closer to wearing it in 48 hours.

Sunday I had the first part of the day before the conference registration. After a fantastic all you can eat brunch with my Brother, Sister in law & Mom, my Mom and headed downtown for a little sight seeing. We started by visiting on of my favorite places, the Cultural Center. I've always loved this place, and now one of the main rooms has been restored to it's original glory.

We happened to stumble upon a rehearsal for Night on Bald Mountain. It sounded great in this grand room

Next stop, Millennium Park, to see the Bean (all right, it's actually called Cloud Gate, but everyone calls it the Bean). This part of the visit wasn't technically a part of my walk down memory lane, because it was all built after I moved in 2001. David and I came back a few years ago and we really loved the Bean. It happened to be a rare, clear, warm, blue sky day in March in Chicago. The Bean looked as cheerful as I remembered.

When walking past a construction site I saw this classic Chicago site. . . an easy way to erase a crooked Governor (something Illinois has a bit of experience with)

We walked down by the lake to see the ducks floating on the little ice bergs, and to see the lake breaking it's ice cover

Since I couldn't see my favorite Chicago site, Buckingham Fountain, (it was under construction, and surrounded by a large fence), we got to see the Art Institute. It's a great museum with one of the finest Impressionism collections in the world. Right outside the Impressionism wing is a collection of architectural details collected from all over Chicago.

Some of my old friends

By 4:00 pm it was time to say goodbye to my Mom and head to the conference. Here's my traditional shot out my window. I have no idea why a bunch of brides were walking down Michigan ave, but I got a pretty good, zoomy shot of them.

The conference was very good. We were in meetings all day, but I took a shot of what tables at a biz conference filled with knitters looks like. We all had our knitting out at every break.

My favorite part of the conference was meeting the two coolest women ever. There's Sarah & Nichole from "Knot Another Hat", in Hood River, Oregon. I glommed onto them in the first night's cocktail party & then we hung out the whole conference after that. If the shop is even half as cool as they are, it's a run don't walk situation for those on the west coast.

After a second day of meeting it was time for the yarn crawl. A bus took a bunch of crazed knitters to 6 shops. Here's Nichole wearing her purchases.

And Sarah & Nichole posing with their bootie

One of the coolest shops we went to was Soutache.

It's a store with only trim, ribbons, feathers, and BUTTONS. . . . tons of them. So cool

Another unique quality of a knitter's biz conference . . .sitting in a bar unraveling the yarn from the giant styrofoam ball props.

Jessica & Karen proudly showing off our work

By the way, I did finish the Nob Hill sweater.

The Sunday afer I got home I had a blocking class to teach, so I had a lot of swatches to block for class.

On Monday the Martha Stewart yan show aired, but we were all working at the Studio . . . so I had the whole Studio gang over my house to watch the show. Can you find the only person in the photo who doesn't work at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio? I'll give you a hint . . . she's not knitting.

Since I'm almost done with Yoke Pullover from Vogue, I decided to start swatching for another Vogue sweater, the Flame Stitch Cardigan. The pattern calls for knitting the flame stitch separately and the ribbing separately and then create a complex crochet pattern at the bottom of the flame stitch and then sew them together . . . pass. I swatched it by starting with the rib and then going into the flame stitch. Looks fine with me.

First wisp of spring

2009-03-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

We had our first warm sunny weekend, and I needed to get my hands in dirt. I know it's too early for gardening, but we headed over to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to buy seeds. There were signs of spring all over the garden

We decided to try some veggies from seed this year instead of plants. We started lettuce & carrots from seeds inside. They will be ready to transplant outside by the time our first frost date is past.

I really needed this weekend for a fresh perspective on things.

I also tried by hand at some new cool crochet stitches. Lily Chin came to the Studio last Thursday and she showed these really cool techniques from her book Mosaic Magic. I decided to try the Aran stitches. I made a lot of mistakes, but I started to get the hang of it. I'm going to practice some more and then try my hand at a scarf in Fisherman's Wool.

I also got pretty far on the front of my sweater

Next week is going to be another long one. I need a vacation in the worst way.

Bad, bad math

2009-03-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm one of those peeps who reads their patterns all the way through before casting on. I've been to the Vogue errata section, I've been all over ravelry and all over the internet, can anyone splain this math (see schematic). If anyone has done the Yoke Pullover #13 from the 2005/2006 Winter Vogue, please riddle me this:

So according to the left side of the schematic, the entire piece should be 23" long. According to the right side of the schematic that 23" would be made up of three sections 14 1/2" + 8 1/2 " + 2 1/2" . . . which would equal 25 1/2" . . . grrrrr

Then there's this litte, schematic and pattern makes NO sense. For the back you knit from the bottom up to 13" and then begin the first cable pattern (7 rows) before binding off for the beginning of the yoke, which makes sense with the schematic measurement of 14 1/2 ". Here's the annoying part. The sleeve instructions have you knit 17" before first cable pattern (7 rows) before binding off, so HOW is the bind off show at 17 1/2" when you knit 7 rows AFTER you knit 17" before the bindoff???? WRONG. I'm thinking they meant 18 1/2"??

Looks like I'll be doing a bit of punting. I finished the back. After reading all the complaints on Ravelry I decided to go down a needle size for the neck and keep the stitches live, so I can make sure it's working before binding off.

Here's the little darling blocking. Thank you blocking wires.

The other change I made to the pattern was to cast on an extra 10 stitches and then reduce back to the pattern, so I had a little extra hip room.

The back was a really quick knit. I cast it on one week ago. Who knows how much I'll get done this week. It's going to be a VERY long week at work. I have a couple of 12 hour days. Fun fun fun.

Done

2009-02-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

Why . . . when I know how much I hate it

2009-02-21T17:00:00.000-08:00

Why do I knit sweaters that end up in SIX pieces when I hate finishing

1 - back, 2 & 3 - front pieces, 4 & 5 sleeves, 6 - yoke . . . grrrr, arrg

So I started by blocking the front and back. Gotta love the blocking wires, flexible for the neck & straight for the front sides

Next I laid out all the pieces to see if the yoke needed blocking (it did)

Then I decided I couldn't deal, so I worked on the Yoke Pullover (Vogue Winter 2005/06) I cast on a few days ago. I started it at the Park Slope Knitting group on Thursday night, but then totally ripped it out. I decided I had to cast on an extra 10 stitches, like I did for the Pin Up Queen, to go over my hips & then reduce to the original cast on.

The twisted rib makes it slightly more interesting to knit

After a few hours of procrastination, I sewed up the sides, and sleeves, and then reblocked for the yoke.

There is still sits . . . maybe tomorrow

Cable Cardigan

2009-01-31T17:15:00.000-08:00

More plane trips . . . more knitting

Trade Shows & jet lag

2009-01-19T16:00:00.000-08:00

I'm finally unpacked and pretty much over my jet lag. Last Wednesday I left right from the Studio to head to San Diego for the TNNA winter show. I was really tired when I got in, and I had a six hour class on my first day, so I tried to get right to bed. Unfortunately the fire alarm went off at 4:50 am and we all had to evacuate the hotel. Drag . . . bigger drag, nobody could find anyone from the hotel to tell us what was going on or if it was okay to go back to sleep. Finally about fifteen minutes later we went back in since the alarm had gone off. When I woke up, I was greeted by a great view and a beautiful view

and a bright sunny day. The convention center is right in downtown San Diego, not in the middle of nowhere like Long Beach. Here's some public art I passed on my walk to the center:

After the first day I again tried to get a good night's sleep, but it was not destined to be . . . some alarm went off in my room at 5:14 am!!! (turns out it was a test of the smoke alarms, I was kind of hating this hotel at this point).

The second day was classes and meetings from 8:00 - 5:00 straight without even a moment to stick my head outside to enjoy the sun. In the evening I was treated by a visit from my pal Zeena and her impossibly cute daugher Zaleeya (she is a fan of knitwear and her young age!)

Day three was another class, sales floor, dinner & the red eye. I did get a lot of knitting done on the plane and in the evenings . . . and (drum roll please) Cobblestone is DONE!

As soon as I woke up I wove in the ends, kitchenered the underarm, and blocked the little darling

Today David tried it on for size. He looked pretty swell in it

Lots of yarn, lots of knitting . . . and Vegas Baby

2009-01-11T14:48:00.000-08:00

I've been a bad blogger, but I'm a retail manager, and the holiday's just ended, so forgive me. We survived our first holiday season at the studio. All in all it went pretty great. We are blessed by a great staff, so we all pitched in. I rewarded myself with a trip to VEGAS. I had a vacation day, and we were closed New Years day, so David and I took a four day trip to Vegas. We had a blast. We stayed at the super lush Bellaggio

which had this stunning Chihuly glass ceiling

Our room was pretty great, loved the bathroom, and that's David in his "It's Vegas Baby" pose

And the view from our room

Our first night we ventured out to the first of the bizarre fake Vegas recreations . . . Paris

Just as we did in the actual Europe, my knitting posed by a famous landmark. This time it happened to be fake

After a FANTASTIC dinner at the Bellagio (using all our Amex gift cards we got for the holidays), we got to bed early ready to spend the day visiting more fake landmarks in the morning.

Of course, we had to start by going to Brooklyn, our home town

There's David by the too clean Brooklyn Bridge. How bizarre to visit the Vegas version of your town

After leaving that surreal sight we went to one of my favorite hotels, Mandlay Bay. It was pretty in an over the top, yet classy way (no easy trick in Vegas)

Then of course we went to fake Venice. Since David and I had been their twice we were pretty amused at the Rialto bridge taking you into San Marco Square, but I gotta give it to them, it was pretty.

We got to see Bette Midler, something I've ALWAYS wanted to do. She was fantastic. Many jokes about her age. She is amazing.

Back at our humble hotel home we visited their crazy holiday greenhouse

We gambled on the cheap machines for three days, and ended our trip $2.00 up . . . whoo hoo! We are soooooo small time, but as my pal Nell likes to say of my cheapness "and that's why you own your apartment". I must say, in this economy, I'm pretty thrilled with our cheapness.

All in all, a great trip.

With 12 hours on planes and in airports, I got lots of knitting done. I took the sleeves of the sweater that wouldn't die (the Cobblestone). I didn't want to take the whole giant sweater with me, and I knew I'd finish the sleeves, so I cast on a new project, Karabella's Cabled Cardigan.

When I got home I attached the sleeves and started the ENDLESS yoke. I can't WAIT to be done with this bad boy. David better wear this all the time or I'll kill him.

I'm loving the way the cables of the Karabella sweater are looking.

and yet more cables . . . my head was getting cold before the holiday's, so I knocked off this little beret out of scraps I had around. I used my old Rowan Tapestry, I could never figure out what to do with it.

I'm in a total cable mode lately, and I just started swatching for the cable class I'm teaching at the studio.

One down, five to go. Swatching hell
I finished the swatches for the gauge class I'm teaching. Everyone teased me about the gauge class being the class nobody wants to take, but I'm teaching two sessions, and one is already sold out . . . go figure

My finishing nightmare is over

2008-12-21T19:10:00.000-08:00

A scant five months later . . .

Snow Day!!!

2008-12-20T05:54:00.000-08:00

I am listening to This American Life, still in my pjs (it's 2:00 pm) loving my snow day. Yesterday it was our first really soggy, wet, snowy day. It being a Friday I was finished at the shop by 4:00 pm. It had been a nice day at the studio with a steady stream of folks coming in to stock up on yarn for a snowy weekend. There was a really cheerful, pre weekend feel to the day. I was home by 5:00 pm (LOVE Fridays), lit a fire, and waited for David to get home. I did a little spinning while I waited. I also wanted to finish up the baby hat & booties I was working on for David's friend. I had knocked off the hat and had cast on the bootie on the subway ride home.

We spent a lovely evening by the fire with our pals Nell & Time, eating Thai food we had delivered, and drinking wine. All in all, a perfect evening for me.

I also had brought home the demo scarf we made at the Studio on the super cool little Cricket Loom. There's no pattern, and about everyone's hands have been on this thing. Claire set it up and pulled a bunch of grey & purple yarns. Then she started it, but we left it on the project table for customers to play with. This thing has Jiffy, Wool-Ease, Vanna's Glamour, Homespun & Cupcake. It's kind of the kitchen sink scarf. Weaving is so fun & easy, I may have to buy myself one of these little beauties (thank you store discount!)

Here it is blocking

This is a close up of a few fun things we played with. Holding a little bling (Vanna's Glamour) with the Wool-Ease:

And running two yarns through at once. Love this look:

Today I finished my first bootie (so cute)

and then I'm going to force myself to do one of the two tedious chores I have. Either finish the bamboo top or weave in all the ends of that woven scarf (althoug I might make someone at the Studio do that!).

Gotta make another bootie now.

Stockinette, Fear of Finishing, and double crochet

2008-12-13T14:48:00.000-08:00

I've been a bad blogger, but I have an excuse
1) opening a brand new yarn studio
2) thanksgiving
3) having my asst. go out of town for a week

and that brings us to now. On top of all that craziness (I didn't even mention getting a new class & workshop schedule ready to launch in December) David got sicker then I've ever seen him. Right now we are sitting at home, skipping a holiday party because he started to feel a little sick again. But (joy) we turned on our TIVO to find a brand new feature . . . it's connected to our NetFlix & we can just download movies. SOOO cool.

In the land of knitting, I finished my summer top just in time for winter. Now it will sit, and sit and sit while I avoid doing the finishing. God I hate finishing.

I did manage to make some major progress on the miles of Stockinette that is the Cobblestone Sweater. I finished the body & now I've started the sleeves. You can keep your &^$& dps, I'm a magic loop gal all the way.

I've also been having fun with crochet. I got a skein of one of the brand new colorways of Homespun (a nice perk of the job), called Wildfire . . . really pretty. So in two days I did this little ruffled crochet scarf pattern. I'm kind of digging crochet.

Another delight of the job is getting your hands on the brand new yarns as soon as they come out. I couldn't resist the 100% Italian Cashmere that just came out. So yummy

Don't know what to do with it yet, but I'll figure it out

ADD knitting

2008-11-22T15:06:00.000-08:00

I've felt all over the place lately. These last three weeks have been an utter blur. The Studio opened on Tuesday and I've been working pretty much non stop to get to the opening. Last weekend I was trying to get my Vanna Glamour shawl done for the opening night party. I looked at my couch and realized my knitting was a scattered as my brain felt.

I somehow had four projects going at once. . . not at all like me. First I decided to whip out a shawl in two days. I decided to do a simple three rows of drop stitch and then an eyelet row

Here's a couple of bad pics

The other couch projects . . . My first crochet scarf (I decided I needed to beef up my crochet skills for the Studio)

David's Cobblestone Sweater

and there's STILL the bam boo top that I totally lost interest in now that it's no longer summer

Today was my first day off where I didn't work all day (I did work until about 3:00 pm), but tomorrow . . . NOTHING. I will give myself a whole day off! Now it's time to light a fire and knit

Time moves slowly & quickly

2008-11-02T15:23:00.000-08:00

It's November. Finally? Already?

On the one hand, when it comes to the Presidential election . . . FINALLY it's November. I felt like it would never be here. I don't remember a time when this campaign was not going on. On the other hand, it seems like a minute ago it was June and I was going to enjoy a summer. Time moves in strange ways. Seemingly dragging on endlessly and whipping by so fast, you don't know how you got to be forty something.

Studs Terkel, my beloved Studs, finally died the other day. On the one hand, he was 96, had a good run, lost his wife years ago, and was probably ready to go. On the other hand . . . five more days!!! If he had just held on five more days he (god willing) might have seen the first African American President, from his own State no less. After all he'd seen, the last of the great liberals, having to suffer through the last eight years. It made me sad.

This weekend I also greeted and said goodbye to two of my favorite things. I love Halloween, and I love the fall. On Friday night David and I went to our adorable local Halloween Parade. It is our Park Slope neighborhoods G rated version of the Halloween Parade, all dogs and kids.

Saturday was a, stay in your pajamas, light a fire, and sit and the spinning wheel all day, kind of day. I really needed that. It's my last weekend of calm before all the pre opening events in the next two weeks leading up to the Grand Opening (photo shoots, member preview days, staff open house, private parties . . . lots)

Sunday it was time to say goodbye to the garden for the summer. Time to dig up the Glads, Cannas & Dahlias, cut down the lillies, bag all the clippings and put the garden to sleep for the season.

Insanely enough we still had more tomatoes, peppers & green beans to pick.

The craziest thing was the sweet potato we dug up. Every year we plant a couple of sweet potato vines. This year we only planted one, tiny plant, it grew into the plant you see above (after we ripped it out of the ground). The plant just has plain old roots when you plant it, but by fall when you dig it up there roots turn into a potato. It's usually a medium size potato, but this year it was larger than my head! Crazy

You might not hear from me until we get through the

Small town Brooklyn

2008-10-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

I really do love our Brooklyn weekends. After two of the hardest weeks I've ever had, this weekend was SOOOOO what I needed. The last two weeks have been back-brakingly hard (yarn is NOT light when packed by the hundreds in cases), so what I needed more then anything was to relax. Saturday it was blustery and wet, so we stayed home all day. I got on the spinning wheel in the morning, and didn't stop spinning until my pal Nell came over. We then cracked out the wine, cheese and Paul Newman documentary we added to our Netflix cue the day he died.

I'm really happy with the yarn I spun. It's my very first three ply yarn. One ply is the Cascade Magnum I started spinning when I got sick of knitting with it

The other ply is the Corredale roving I bought from Morro Fleece Works

And the third ply is a mix of them both. It resulted in a pretty dreamy mix

I took it up to the garden to dry in the sun

and here it is all skeined up . . . mmmm

I still have tons more to spin, so I should get a whole sweater's worth out of it.

Much to my shock, although we've left it TOTALLY unattended, the garden doesn't look half bad

Even more bizarre . . . veggies are still growing.

Last night David made our (probably) last meal made from our crop. Pasta w/ eggplant, peppers, tomato, basil, green beans. Every bit of it (except the pasta) grown in our own little Brooklyn roof top farm.

Today was sunny and georg, so we headed over to the Fort Green Halloween Festival. Brooklyn often feels like a small town to me, and anytime we go to these park festivals, I feel like this could just as easily be the town fair in Stars Hallow (Gilmore Girls anyone???).

We got there right at noon in time for the Dog costume show - The Great PUPkin! Here's a few cuties:

Goldie Locks & the Wolf that ate Grandma:

Lego Helicopter (runner up)

Diva

Peter Pan

Laverne (of & Shirley)

Peas & Carrots (Third Prize)

More food . . . Sundae

yet more food . . . Lobster Dog
Dancing Queen

Sweet 16 (she really was 16, and it took a LONG time for the old gal to walk around the ring)

Pumpkin

Dogzilla

The stubborn Caterpillar (second prize)

Then there were many political dogs. Our first place winner was Joe the Plumber tries to fix the Fort Green Dog fountain (an inside dog owner joke). What pushed him over the top, was the fountain was rigged up to shoot water . . . very cute

Lipstick on a Pig

Revenge on Sara Palin

Continuing with the same theme. Here's Palin & McCain (note the devil tail & horns) guns a blazing w/ a moose & polar bear. Here she "shoots" both dogs

The golden parachute

And my personal favorite, a truly Brooklyn entry . . . Marty "Barkowitz" and Bruce Ratner. For those of you not from Brooklyn, click here

After they took a turn around the ring, someone in the crowd shouted "roll over for emminent domain", and the dog promtly rolled over . . . genius!

We ended with a late afternoon walk in Prospect Park, and then back home for some knitting. Tomorrow it's back to hauling furniture & boxes around (sigh)

So many boxes . . .

2008-10-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since I've had a moment to blog. I'm up to my (&^% in boxes getting the Studio ready to open. I have managed to get sick for about a week in the middle of it all (yeah). The sucky part was missing the Yarn Harlot when she spoke at B & N in Park Slope. Michelle (who is cool lady working in the Studio with me) even saved me a seat, and I was WAY too sick to go. On a brighter yarny note, I did get a lot of knitting done in my sick bed.

This cotton bam boo top is taking me forever. Plus I no longer get any knitting time on the subway since I'm back to rush hour riding (which means standing . . . boo).

Amongst working sun up to sun down David and I did manage to squeeze in two great weekends. Two weeks ago David and I did our Brooklyn open house thing. I wrote about our Saturday at the cemetery, and then Sunday we did a whole other round. First we stopped at the Montauk club. It's right down the street from our house, but I've never seen the inside. It's both opulent and oddly run down at the same time. Kind of hard to describe.

On our way to Fort Greene we passed Urban Glass, who was also doing an open house. It's a really big glass blowing place that has a gallery and they give classes and rent their space to artists. I love that places like this still exist in Brooklyn.

Next we went to the fab new(ish) Brooklyn Flea Market. It was a perfect fall day and the flea market was great. We spent the rest of the day walking around Fort Greene. I must admit, we don't spend much time there. It's really cool. The neighborhood has changed so much, and it's filled with great restaurants and shops. We will definitely be going back for the Halloween festival next week. I've always wanted to see the dog costume contest!

After another back breaking week at work setting up the store, I was hanging on to the light at the end of the tunnel . . . RHINEBECK!!!!!!!!! We headed out late on Friday night and got into our B & B around 10:00 pm. We didn't get to see the amazing grounds until we looked out our window the next morning to see this:

We were staying in a spa / B & B on a ton of land, called Buttermilk Spa. Just like last year, it was bright blue sky and perfect color. . . only difference, about 20 degrees colder then last year.

Our first glimpse of the fair grounds was an explosion of red

We started by visiting the little darlings that give us the fiber we love. Here's a little cutie getting shorn.

We decided after such a killer week that we would take it easy this weekend. I did a little shopping, ran into some pals, watched some Canine Frisbee toss, ate some cheese, and then we headed back to the B & B in the afternoon to go to the spa and walk around the grounds.

My first day's booty was a pound of this stunning Corriedale roving

After the spa we walked around the grounds which were swell

They also have their own little herd of sheep and alpaca.

SOOO cute.

After a wonderful dinner, great sleep, great breakfast it was back to the fair grounds. Our pal Francesca was meeting us. She was on hiatus from the Spamalot tour, and we've been trying to go to Rhinebeck together for three years, and we finally made it!

We started again by visiting the animals. Why can't I have a farm???

David was trying to take a picture of this cutie alpaca, but right as he snapped, the alpaca stuck his nose right in the camera. It's my new favorite picture

Francesca went through her budget in the first 10 minutes or so . . . mostly at Brooks Farm. I picked up another pound of Merino roving

Here we are saying goodbye to our wonderful weekend, clutching our treasures

Monday it was back to unpacking boxes and counting balls of yarn.

My first perfect fall weekend of 2008

2008-10-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

I've been working WAY too hard for the last four weeks. So, my boss forbade me to do any work this weekend. Being the good employee that I am . . . I listened to him. This resulted in a perfect Saturday in Brooklyn (and Sunday is starting out pretty nice too!). First we spent a lazy Saturday morning at home. I got a nice hunk of my bam boo top done

After deciding it was time to leave the house (after many Scrambulous rounds with Nell), we checked out the program for Open House New York. I've never even heard of this AMAZING weekend. I only wish it lasted a month. There are hundreds of free programs all over the city. After much debate we settled on a dance installation in Greenwood Cemetery. We love Greenwood, and it was a perfect fall day, so we figured, if the performance/installation was a bust we would still have a nice day. The installation was fantastic!!! I found it eerie and beautiful. It was called Angels & Accordions. It is really hard to describe. It starts at the main gate of the Cemetery. . .by the way, for those of you who don't know about the wild parrots of Brooklyn, I should mention that there are giant nests of bright green Monk Parakeets that live in the front gate. Their squawking only added to the strange and delightful afternoon. (on a weird side note, the other city that I lived in, Chicago, also had a mysterious population of Monk Parakeets that lived in Hyde Park. There were many theories on how they got there, but nobody knows for sure.)

* I forgot my camera, so these pictures come from a fab Brooklyn Blog, Atomische*

Back to Angels & Accordions. . . it started with a trio of accordion players & the dance performance in front of the gate. First a group of mourners came out all dressed in black under black umbrellas.

Shortly after one mourner laid some flowers on the ground, a group of dancers (presumably the dead) appeared in white flowing costumes. They danced with the mourners, and then after the mourners embraced the dead, they slipped out of their arms and left the mourners with empty arms.
The dancers then walked up the hill into the cemetery and the whole crowd followed. For the next two hours, hundreds of us followed guides holding large black and white umbrellas, throughout the cemetery.

As you walked you came across the dancers, singing mournfully, draped eerily and dancing beautifully all around the graves. It was really spectacular. My favorite was walking under a low hanging willow and finding the dead hidden amongst the branches quietly singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (later we found out that Frank Baum was buried near by).

Another favorite was walking though the catacombs past people ringing bells and projections of pictures, and the soft speaking of names. All to accordion music

It all ended with a final, full ensemble dance, by the chapel. A magical afternoon.

This morning started chilly and rainy, so I lit my first fire of the season (yeah)

and David made blueberry pancakes. Now we're mulling over going out and doing yet more fun Brooklyn things This weekend is just what I needed to prepare me for the upcoming weeks.

Robbed

2008-09-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

I was planning this post in my head . . . its title was going to be "My greatest triumph". The entire content was going to be a picture of me next to a score board. Sigh.

Saturday David and I met some friends for bowling. I haven't bowled in years. Back in the day, I was on the Broadway Bowling league for two years. I bowled for the Broadway show 42nd Street. We bowled at the bowling alley at Port Authority. I was not good. Then came yesterday.

First game, a respectable 98. Second game, a less respectable 92. Then came game three. Frame 6 - STRIKE, frame 7 - STRIKE, frame 8 - STRIKE. I was trying to figure out my score (since the machine won't score until there's a non strike to score it off of). Then frame 9 - first ball 9 . . . my score went up, a breathtaking 133 with a frame and a half to go. I was already dreaming of my final score. Then came ball two, I released the ball, SPARE!!!!! So great was my joy, I did not notice the lights had gone off on our lane. We had paid for a set amount of time. Then to my HORROR, my spare was not scored, my last frame was never bowled, and my score was wiped clean.

In one moment,my greatest achievement, turned into my greatest disappointment. This BETTER not be a metaphor for my future.

Late fall harvest, late fall tank top

2008-09-21T08:21:00.000-07:00

Summer is drawing to a close. Tomorrow is the first day of fall. Sigh. This time of year used to always fill me with anticipation of the coming season. For years as a kid it was the start of a new school year, then for 20 something years in theatre, it was the start of a new theatrical season. As a knitter it's time to say goodbye to knitting tanks & camis and hello chunky sweaters. This year I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about the future, but that's because of a whole lot of stuff going on with my personal & family life. We cast on. We forge ahead. My favorite mantra from one High Holiday service I went to years ago was . . . I will try, I will fail, I will try again.

We are still harvesting a bunch of late season veggies. Here's yesterday's pickings

And this morning we noticed a few we missed

Since time is running out, today we are going to make tons of pestos, and sauces to freeze. A little summer in the freezer during the cold wintertime.

Just in time for the end of summer, I finally cast off the Lotus Blossom tank

I did a lot of modifications to the pattern so it would fit me nicely. I'm pretty happy with the result.

Now that I finally got that bad boy off my needles, I'm going back to the Cotton Bamboo top that has been languishing in the knitting bag. It's coming along nicely. I feel like this cable pattern is going to take me forever, so I might cast on David's Cobblestone Sweater, and alternate between the two projects.

Since I avoid finishing like the plague, I decided to convert the pattern to in the round. For some stupid reason I thought it would be easier to divide for front and back when I got to the cable pattern. I somehow thought I would have to think too much to convert the flat chart to in the round. That was (of course) dopey. There;s nothing too it, and now I've just created another seam for myself. Curse you mattress stitch!!

Coming up for air (for a day)

2008-09-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been insanely busy. I just got back from dropping my mom & sister off at the airport. It was a nice visit, but I've been so busy at work I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I'd like. We had a great Brooklyn day yesterday. We went to Prospect Park to see the exhibit on the re imagining of Grand Army Plaza. I hope we're still living here when this gets done For those of you have been here, you know why this is long overdue. The Arch, Baily Fountain, the Farmer's Market, they all sit on disconnected hunks of concrete, seemingly impossible to get to without taking your life in your hands dodging traffic.

After eating our way through all the baked good tables, we headed down to Red Hook for the fall art show (thank you free Ikea shuttle!).

I always enjoy taking folks to Red Hook since it's something so different.

All week I didn't get much knitting done, but I did manage to finish (almost) the Lotus Blossom Tank. It's blocking waiting it's dreaded finishing.

Product or Process

2008-09-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple of weeks full of surprises and gifts. A huge life change (more about that later) and being the recipient of a moment of pure generosity.

Are you a product knitter or a process knitter? I am a little of both, but primarily I'm about the product. I want the garment. Sure, I love to knit it, but I want the finished item. In fact, if you ask my husband, it's pretty hard to get me to knit for anyone else. I've knit myself a whole wardrobe! Then there's my pal Kiana or Patrick who will find a pattern they love, or yarn they love and just knit. Patrick usually says "I don't know who I'll give it to, but I have to knit this". Well Saturday I was lucky enough to be with Patrick when he was showing off his latest work. It was a cabled vest made from beautiful hand dyed J-Knits Mohair. It was a soft rose color and it was SOOOO pretty. I told him I loved it, and a few minutes later, he handed it to me and said "I want you to have this". I teared up. Nobody has ever just handed me something so pretty. I was knocked over. Here I am happily wearing a beautiful hand knit, NOT knit by me

My own hand knits are coming along. I've put aside the Cotton Bam Boo Top, so I can finish my Lotus Blossom Tank. I'm doing tons of modifications (like everyone has). It's funny how many people "almost" like this pattern, yet we like it enough to knit it and make it our own. I'm following, as my base, the modifications on Lickety Knit. However, because my gauge is so insane, I have to do a lot of my own. I'm using Alchemy Silk Purse, which is supposed to be 22 stitches per 4"on a US 5. I get 25 stitches per 4" on a US 6!!!!

Here's how it's looking so far

I decreased 28 stitches instead of the 14 called for, and knit the garter rows and another 3/4" of stockinette. Then I increased back up to the original 200 stitches. My gauge is tight and it seemed to fit me better that way. I went back to a US 5 to maintain my gauge when I divided for front and back.

Here's my five lotus blossoms/alien heads (instead of the 4 the pattern calls for)

I love the color variation in the yarn. It really shows up in the stockinette

As for my other news . . . this week I started an exciting new job with Lion Brand Yarn. They are opening a New York flagship Studio, and I was hired as the Studio Manager. I don't want to give away to much right now (stay tuned for details), but it's going to be a center for learning, sharing, & special events. The real focus of the studio is to teach and inspire.

What I've been most struck by in my first week is the passion and dedication of everyone working for Lion Brand. It's a family owned business and has been run by the same family for 130 years, which is pretty special. I have a lot of work to do in the next few months, but it's an exciting project to be involved with. I'm honored to be working with so many people who have such a passion for fiber arts. The design department is a constant buzz developing new yarns, patterns, colors. It's all pretty inspiring.

A very special visitor!

2008-08-15T15:47:00.000-07:00

The other day my little roof deck was honored by a very special visitor. She was in town for just a day from the tour of Spamalot. She hasn't been back in New York in ages, and I was thrilled she chose my little roof garden to visit. I'm speaking of course of Tallulah the cat. She also brought her person Francesca along with her.

I hadn't seen Francesca in ages, since she's been touring all over the US & Canada with her adorable cat. It was great to hang out on the roof, listen to some music and knit. Tallulah was busy smelling everything

And when we were visited with a Monarch butterfly (a RARE sight on our roof), she was fascinated.

Everything was fine with Tallulah finding a shady spot under the deck chair

and I settled down to do a little knitting

Life was good until Tallulah decided to crawl under the deck. Remembering what Francesca said about every moving day on the tour being a fight to get the cat out from under the bed (and our deck is a LOT bigger than a bed), I figured I'd better act fast

I went down to the apartment and fashioned this little cat toy out of a KnitPicks flexible needle
cable, some decorative stitch markers a wonderful customer gave me (thank you Patricia) and the needle end I was able to lure the cat out

Didn't get much more work done on the Lotus Blossom Tank

which is crawling along at only one and a half alien heads long. Ah well. Tomorrow is another day.

Summer's going too fast

2008-08-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

Somehow it's already the second week of August. How the hell did that happen? The whole month of June was eaten by work, then David and I went on our FAB vacation, home, family visits NY, then off to my family reunion, and boom, somehow the summer's almost over. Okay, I've decided to try to slow time down. I've wasted the last 5 weeks angsting about what I will do with the rest of my life. I'm going to try to spend the rest of the summer not caring. I've worked almost non stop for that past 22 years. I think I can take 2 months to figure out the rest of my life.

Right now I am enjoying a Park Slope weekend after a fab family reunion. Once a year (although we missed one last year), my tiny family gets together. My brother and sister and I used to see our two cousins every year and now that we're grown, we still seem to pick up as if we just saw each other last week. It's pretty great. Usually someone has an old picture of us as kids that we are asked to recreate. Here's this years

So then we made the new generation of kids take a picture that we can make them retake when they're in their 40s

After we got back I was busy catching up with life, and tending the garden. It's looking pretty lush and dreamy in the lazy days of Aug

The Canna's are huge!

The Lantanas have spread out and made themselves at home

And, as always, one little sweet potato vine ends up a wee bit overwhelming

One unexpected site was an unexpected visitor. We have a large pot that has composed soil. Part of the compost is our old kitchen scraps which included last year's tomato seeds. You can imagine our surprise when we saw this growing out of the bottom of the pot

That's right, it's a fairly large tomato plant with flowers starting to come in. Crazy. We may be eating food grown from the seeds of last years garbage. If you can't find inspiration in that, you aren't trying

I took my Cotton Bam Boo Smock Top out of town, because it's mindless stockinette and I don't have to deal with lace.

The last couple of days I've been swatching for the Lotus Blossom Tank. I'm using the amazingly dreamy Alchemy Silk Purse. It's supposed to be 5.5 st/in on US 6. I know I knit tighter in the round, but I wanted to get a tighter gauge. I think the pattern as written is kind of shapeless. I swatched it on a US 5 and got an insane 28 stitches per 4 inch (the pattern calls for 22), I reswatched on a US 6 and got 25, a doable gauge to make it more form fitting. However, when I divide for front and back I'm going to have to go down to a US 5 to keep that gauge.

The colors are amazing and it feels SOOOO good to knit with.

Here's the back of the swatch showing the old "in the round" trick

David and I are spending the weekend enjoying all that is Park Slope. Last night we took a walk in the park. This morning we woke up early and headed up the hill to our beloved farmer's market. The light was perfect.

I wore my bamboo top so I could finally get some shots of me wearing it. David is so sneaky, except for the one posed shot, all the other shots were David sneaking in shots when I didn't notice. What a guy.

Later today (after watching the opening ceremonies on our TIVO) we bummed around 5th Ave and looked at all the shops, and then tonight we are heading over to Prospect Park to see the final concert of the summer . . . It's going too fast

Swatching in circles

2008-07-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

It turns out my procrastination didn't last as long as I thought. I actually finished the top a few days after my whining post about all the finishing I had to do.

Once again I was kicking myself for mindlessly knitting a pattern without thinking, "why aren't they . . ." or "I could just . . .". First of all, if I had given the scalloped edge two seconds thought I would have done a provisional cast on or invisible cast on and then folded the edge over and knit two together to create the scalloped edge and not have to seam ever ^&%#& edge. PLUS why do I continue to mindlessly cast on for front and back when I could have knit this bad boy in the round right up to the arm hole, thus avoiding yet MORE seaming.

I'm not going to make that mistake again with the Classic Elite Cotton Bam Boo Smock Top, I am going to knit this guy in the round. I learned after my trauma with the Bluebell from Fitted Knits, if your going to knit in the round, for god sake, swatch in the round. BOY does it make a difference.

I first swatched the Classic Elite Cotton Bam Boo (which is supposed to get 6 st/in on a US 5) flat on US 5 and got the gauge perfectly. Then I swatched it knitting in the round and I had to go up to a US 7 to achieve that gauge. I really am a crazy tight knitter. The great thing about this is, my row gauge is now 30 row per 4" instead of 28 and I really need that, because I am about 130 yds shy of the yarn that I actually need to do this pattern. Hopefully between cutting a couple of inches off the length and the row gauge I will be able to eek by.

Does everyone know to cool trick for swatching in the round? Here's my sample (note the loosey goosey stitches on either side)

But that's not in the round you say. It's not! You just cast on the number of stitches you want on circular needles, making sure to cast on at least four more on either end, so you can have a good flat section in the middle to measure. Then knit a row, pull the stitches across to the other side of the needle, and then bring the yarn loosely around the back and knit again. The back of your swatch will look like this:

By knitting every row, you will be able to check your in the round gauge. I'm doing the same thing with the incredibly dreamy Alchemy Silk Purse, getting ready to cast on for the Lotus Blossom Tank. More about that another day.

In the garden, it is one battle after another. Following my triumphant defeat of the Katydids I am now battling powdery mildew. Our zucchini is barely hanging in there. We are picking more green beans, tomatoes and eggplants than we can eat, and the peppers are just starting to ripen, but the zucchinis . . . are rotting on the vine. GRRR

We are getting new and strange bugs arriving everyday. We now have these weird all black bees and black & red beetles, and these crazy dragon fly things:

Our dahlias have been joined by the glads

In our continuing effort to save some cash (eating all our home grown veggies helps), David found some old stale bread in the back of the fridge and turned it into:

Who's a lucky gal! He's a keeper

Speaking of keepers. I got a fantastic knitting magazine from my mother in law when we went on vacation. The cover tells you it's gonna be fun (check out the hair!)

and please note the almost, paper doll like pose, here's a picture from inside the magazine of the same model

Oh what wonderful things can be done with a crochet hook (eek)

Here's some equal time for the horrors that knitting needles can create in 1970

Here are my two favorite adds. The first one is one of those "not only little old ladies knit" adds but with a hip 70's flair

And, last but not least. . . everyone can have a yarn store in their home!

Let the procrastination begin . . .

2008-07-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

We do I insist on knitting things with so much finishing??

I hate finishing, and now I will look at these pieces for the next week, sew a few inches, and pick up some new knitting.

Vacation and Veggies

2008-07-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

David and I got back from vacation on Sunday and I've just today felt a little caught up. I always need a vacation after a vacation! I'm typing on my shiny new macbook (yeah!). My baby was waiting for me at The Point when I got home. She's preeettty.

David was the hero going with me to nine yarn stores in ten days. We went to four in Portland, one in Bar Harbor (this one was called Bees and was 1/2 yarn store 1/2 chocolate shop . . . double yum) one in Newburyport (1/2 yarns store, 1/2 weaving - HUGE room full of looms, cool) one in Lenox, one in Pittsfield, one in Great Barrington. The interesting thing about visiting all those shops was the prices. People talk about "New York prices" or "big city prices". I've never understood that, since I know our prices are in line with the rest of the country . . . at least until I saw "Berkshire prices". WOW! The stores in Portland and Bar Harbor were pretty much in line with NY prices, but holy moly, the Berkshires. The first place I went in Pittsfield was nice and the prices were consistently about $.25 above NY prices, next stop Lenox. It was very large, great selection, and about $.50 above NY shops. Then the craziest place I'd ever been. From the outside it looked like a tiny weird gift shop in a broken down house, then inside you find five rooms crammed from floor to ceiling with yarn. Sounds cool right . . . until you notice that yarn was anywhere from $1.00 to a whopping $3.00 more a skein than NY. Crazy world. If you're ever in Western Mass, check them out, just be sure to check the price tag.

When we weren't visiting yarn stores we were enjoying the incredible beauty of Maine and Western Mass. Here are just a few of the hundreds of picks we took

Peaks Island when the fog rolls in:

Adorable Bar Harbor:

Idyllic Acadia:

My knitting comes to Sand Beach:

We also decided to relive our Memorial Day weekend, and get a 1000 piece puzzle. I LOVED IT. Here's what we tackled (note all the white sky)

end of day 1:

end of day 2:

Success:

The Western Mass part of the trip (Lenox, etc.) was to break up the long drive home from Maine. We spent the day at Jacob's Pillow, one of my favorite places on earth. For those of you who haven't been. . . it's a dance theatre camps on the top of a hill in the middle of the woods in the Berkshires. They have things going all the time. We went to watch a presentation on old film footage of the Pillow, then a free outdoor dance presentation by the students danced in this idyllic setting:

Then we saw the awesome Hofesh Schecter. They were rockin!

All this driving gave me a lot of knitting time. The back of my scallop edge pullover was finished in Cape Cod (the first stop on our va ca), and I cast on for the front. By the time I got home . . .

The other thing that grew (besides my bamboo t-shirt) in ten days was our garden. Holy @#%@#!!! First of all, when we left there were no Canna flowers, Dahlia, Lillies, and when we returned . . .

Here's what can happen in one month:

(June)

(July)

And then there's the food. We came home to find ripe tomatoes, peppers, green beans, zucchini

And then there's the veggies right out of the movie Sleeper . . .