Too cold to do anything but . . .

. . . drink tea, sit by my fire and knit. My favorite type of day! It's was a crisp 10 degrees when I lit the fire at 9:00 am. It's 6:30 pm now, and it's still going. What's the only thing that can make this day better? David having the day off and staying home with me - YEAH. I got a few tedious life things done (file papers, open mail, renew car insurance, change homeowner's insurance), got a few work things done (worked on March's class/workshop schedule for The Point, worked on cleaning up our house pattern file), so I felt perfectly good about eating fudge and knitting.

I finished the back of David's vest and started on the front:


Mr GreenJeans is far enough along to try on. I need to do a few more inches on the length before going to the sleeves and band



Last week I got over my hatred of finishing to sew up my Pin up Queen from Stitch 'n Bitch. I wore it to work and asked Cale, who works with me, to take a picture in front of the store.


He then put the camera on that continuous setting and took a zillion pictures including those where I was threatening to kill him

It's a whole new year . . .

Sooooo much to tell you all since last I blogged. Where to begin. First of all, it's another lazy Sunday in Park Slope. First brunch with a friend, a walk, and now David reading in our cozy chair and a half. I am sitting by the fire listening by my MANY podcasts that have piled up (including over a year's worth of Quirky Nomads). I fully plan on finishing my Pin Up Queen, and my vest for David is coming along nicely. Since I've only roughly sketched out the pattern, I am avoiding doing the math for the armhole & shoulder until I knit the 13" I need to. Love the cable pattern I'm doing though. I'm finally treating myself to a few new books. We got a HUGE book shipment to The Point, and Vogue Stitchionary Vol. 2 (cables), and The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns is calling my name!

New Year's brought me a deLICious three days off. David and I went to Boston to see his folks and to go to First Night. We had the swellest of all possible times. We treated ourselves to staying at a nice downtown hotel right in the middle of the action. We crammed a LOT into that day (making sure we got our $15 dollars worth!)

First we all went out to breakfast and then David and I went to his folks house and spent the day over there. That night we stayed at our nice downtown hotel (robes & HBO - yeah) and the next day we met up with friends and did first night events all day. We saw the ice sculptures, went to see some foreign short films, went to the museum, went out to a nice lunch, saw a few concerts, saw a parade and fireworks. It was really fun. The next day we had brunch with friends, went back and saw David's folks again, and then drove home.

Here are some highlight photos:











The beautiful rotunda of the MFA

First cool ice sculpture . . . time for the parade now

These super cool dinosaur balloons kept stretching into the crowd and bopping people on the head


More super cool (pun intended) ice sculptures

After that it was time for fireworks and concerts. All and all it was a great start to what will, hopefully, be a great year.

David's sweater vest is coming along nicely. The alpaca from Rhinebeck is so soft and a pleasure in my hands

My new work schedule starts next week, with our new asst. manager. I'm SOOO excited that I can go to my Park Slope Knitting group again. My late nights will be Wed & Saturday, but Thursday I will be able to go straight from work to the knitting group.

I've been so missing Chicks with Sticks. That was by far the best part of being in San Francisco. Those women cracked me up. I went to the web page and looked at all the pictures from the last couple of months. Miss you all!

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What a crazy week

One week ago today I was on a red eye from San Francisco heading back home. I had been away since November with the national tour of Jersey Boys and I was coming back to start my first training week as the new manager of The Point Knitting Cafe. I spent the rest of Monday unpacking my suitcases (by unpacking I mean piling up stuff everywhere). Later that day my giant trunk arrived. Oy. It was way to heavy to haul up two flights of stairs, so I unpacked it . . . on tiny arms full at a time. I collapsed in bed around 11:00 pm.

The next day the fun begins. Training at the Point made me feel like an intern again. It's an odd sensation to start learning a brand new business at my age. There is so much to learn. For the first few days the only time I felt happy or comfortable was when I was helping customers. Finding the right yarn for a project, matching the perfect pattern for the beginner knitter, fixing the unraveling blanket a customer brought in, helping a customer who was stuck on a pattern . . . these are things I know. Inputing invoices, paying bills, creating purchase orders, inputting special orders . . . not so much.

There were moments of great fun (helping a new knitter, who had just moved into the apartment above our store, find the perfect first sweater project), and moments of great terror (living in fear of someone ordering a Cappuccino before I learned how to make it).

In the world of knitting, I got very little done this week. I did manage to cast off a sweater that was almost finished when I got home. A had two skeins of Rowan Polar left over from another project, so I knocked off this little Bolero.




I have a feeling I won't be doing much knitting, except on the subway, for a month or so. There are so many special events coming up in the store this month, and the new fall line being released, and the new alternative fibers coming out, and on and on. It's SO much to learn.

Here were some of my favorite and least favorite moments of the week:

favorite: meeting the knitting groups that come to The Point, listening to them gab and knit
least favorite: screwing up at the cafe register and needing Rebecca to void out my sale
favorite: finding the wonderful Dave, a visitor from North Carolina, waiting for the shop to open (I let him in early. He had come so far)
least favorite: inputting invoices

The best thing about working at The Point?

The smell of coffee, and the sound of laughter against the clicking of needles.

Eat, Knit and be Happy

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Count down, cast offs, and goodbyes

The count down begins. I have 8 more shows, 6 more days, 4 rehearsals left of Jersey Boys before I'm HOME. . . . back in Park Slope, back in my own bed, sitting in my garden. Then, a week from today I will start my training at The Point. Yeah! I should be packing today since Wed - Sun I need to be at the theatre at noon. I'm avoiding it by blogging and watching The Colbert Report. I've been here for nine months, so I have a LOT to pack.

Yesterday was a big day for cast offs and stash busting. I finished two of the "left over cotton projects". My mother in law gave me a ton of white and red cotton yarn. She had been given a half finished sweater that neither of us liked or wanted to finish, so we frogged it and reballed it. First I made the white cotton cable sweater


The pattern called for the sweater to be knit straight (with no side shaping),
but I added side shaping since cotton has no negative ease. It turned out pretty good, but I could have gone narrower in the waist. I really like the cable on the shoulder and the roll neck line.

I still have a lot of white cotton left, but not enough to do the lace cardigan in Vogue's summer 07 issue, so I'll buy some more. Why is it that the attempted stash busting always lead to buying more yarn??? Does that happen to any of you?

As for the red cotton. I whipped up this little cable tank.




Next cast off from yesterday was a simple garter stitch triangular shawl/scarf. It was made from some cool black and white boucle yarn (more Mother in law left overs!) mixed with a ball of leftover black mohair from my cotton/mohair sweater.


Of course you can't have cast offs, without cast ons. Continuing my trend of stash busting, I'm making a little lace bolero from my two leftover skeins of Rowan Polar from my Winterwonderland sweater.



That's count down, cast offs, and now to the goodbyes . . . Yesterday was my last Monday with Chicks with Sticks. Sadly I could only stay a half hour (more about that later). I was glad I came by, but sorry I missed so many folks. I can't thank this group enough for welcoming a stranger into their midst nine months ago. It's been my home away from home and, many weeks, has been the only part of my week that I've liked. This group was a big part of my decision to change my career and my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I ended my evening going to a benefit performance for BCEFA. It was a join effort by the casts of Jersey Boys and Avenue Q. They were great! Some highlights for me . . . the puppets of Avenue Q auditioning for Jersey Boys singing "God I hope I get it" from Chorus Line. The swings from Jersey Boys singing about how hard it is to be understudying all those roles to the tune of Avenue Q's song "It sucks to be me", but the winner has to be Jake Speck's original country music song - wait for it - "You're only gay if you take it". Beyond words.

Right before intermission was the auction. At one point when the bidding had slowed John Hickman offered to put on a red bra if they got a bid of $1300

John Hickman, Drew Gehling, Jarrod Spector

Here's another pic from the auction. This was for the Jersey Boys package. It went for $2800!

Drew Gehling, Jarrod Spector, Jenny Lee Ramos

The boys singing their movie medley


The whole cast singing the finale

Eat, Knit, and be Happy

That is the new slogan for my life.





Before I left for Italy (which I will blog about later) I said I had some huge news. I have been an Equity Stage Manager for (ahem) 21 years. I've been thinking for some time about a life change. I often spent my day off from Jersey Boys, poking around the Internet to see what kind of jobs were out there. . . and then one day I saw it, an add for a manager of a knitting store. Hmm I thought, I wonder what store it is. When I found out it was one of my favorite stores in the world, The Point Knitting Cafe, I had to explore it. After several e-mail exchanges, I met with the owner in person, and, long story short. (drum roll please), I begin my new life as the manager of The Point on September 4th!!!!


For you New York knitters out there, many of you already know and love the shop (and if you don't know it, run, don't walk to 37 A Bedford Street in the Village). It's a fantastic knitting shop and an adorable cafe all rolled into one. It's the kind of place you can come meet up with some friends and spend the day. My friend Francesca and I could spend hours there. We would start early in the afternoon with coffee and muffins and before we knew it, four hours would go by and it was time for a salad and the worlds' yummiest quiche.

So all you blogger/knitters out there, come by and see me. I'll be on my own starting after Labor day and I'd love to have some friendly faces. I also really want to hear from you all. I'd love to get your thoughts on what makes your dream knitting store. What do you love, what do you hate, what do you wish you could find?

Stay tuned there will be lots of news to come. Stories of life in the store, what it's like to learn a whole new business. I may use this blog from time to time to kick ideas around and see what you all think.

I'll take some time over the next few days to tell the tales of my knitting through Italy. I'm back in beautiful Brooklyn and tomorrow I head back to San Francisco to finish up my time with Jersey Boys.

The two projects I took to Italy were Jenny Lee Ramos' bikini and a cotton tank top. I mostly worked on the bikini, the tank top was for travel on planes in Europe (plastic needles!) I cast on the bikini top on the plane to London, and cast it off on the train to Venice.


Here I am blocking the top while wearing it on the deck of our place on the Lido


I cast on the bottom and finished the front by the time we were home:



The cotton cable tank (to use up some more of the cotton yarn my mother in law gave me) is also coming along:


It's been so great to be back in Park Slope and it makes me SOOOOO excited for my permanent return in the fall. The first thing we did the morning after arriving home was do a little garden clean up and then spend a good chuck of our day enjoying the roof garden:


All in all the garden is doing pretty well. The lilies are in bloom





More later. I must sit on my roof deck now and enjoy my last day in Brooklyn for the next six weeks.