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or, re-knitting.  I find myself consumed by projects I have no interest in.  Consumed is an exaggeration.  I’m only working on 3 projects, and it’s only two that I’ve lost interest in, and one that I’m not enjoying because the needles are just too big (size 13s).

Meet Bob Katz.  This was the vest for my golf committee chair for my other work.  As a “thank-you,” I was asked to knit him a vest.  He’s a vest-wearing type of guy, so I agreed.  Unfortunately, I had to make up a pattern, and really guess as to his size.  Therefore, the vest came out slightly too big.  The V was too long, and the shoulders too wide.  On the other hand, the mid-section came out nicely.

Bob Katz (the man, not the vest) was pleased.  But he asked for some modifications.  So, in the interest of giving this man something he would actually wear, I agreed to shorten the V (his request), and while I was going to be at it, work the shoulders better (my idea).

Here’s Bob Katz (the vest) in the middle of being re-knit:

Changing the V required a bit more math, and I’ve been putting it off.  Shame on me.  Bob Katz is coming into the office on Friday.  I’d love to be done with this by then.  Pray for me!

In the interest of start-itis, this (2nd from the left on the top row) has garnered my attention.   Not that I love knitting with those huge knitting needles, but boy, does this jacket look comfy, warm, and mod.  I’m thinking I need me some be sweet boucle mohair, pronto!

and this makes my 9th over all adult sweater project for the year.  Yes, I fell short of 12, but 9 is pretty good in my book.

Introducing Amber:

Amber’s a free pattern from Rowan.   I raveled the deets here.  I heart Amber.  However, as I’m sitting here shivering, I’m questioning the wisdom of short-sleeved sweaters.  I’m wearing Amber today to my office, and it’s always freezing there, so I’m thinking (as I type) “do I have enough time to add a long sleeve t-shirt under my white shirt before work.”  The answer, since I’m still typing and I’ve only got a few minutes before I have to leave, is probably not.

I love Amber’s neck.  The cowl is ginormous.  :)  Again, I’m all about protecting my neck.  You never know when the French Revolution will start up again.

So, in the interest of getting to work on time and actually trying to make my arms warm, I’m signing off for 2009.  Happy New Year all, and see you in 2010!

I did not put much on the docket this year for Christmas gifts.  I think my theme was “no wasted knitting.”  If someone has asked, then they shall receive.  I did not assume anyone would want a knitted gift, so I only made things requested.  Except for my secret santa at my other life.  This person got a knitted gift.  Probably not such a good idea, but. . .

One person who did ask was my sister.  She requested 3 hats for her three things.  I’ll have a modeled photo tonight when I trek out to Queens to deliver said hats, but for the meanwhile, here they are:

Three Hurricane Hats (free rav pattern).  The red is malabrigo twist in ravelry red.  the blue is malabrigo in bobby blue.  The pink multi is colinette’s cadenza (not sure of the colorway).  I followed the pattern, the multi is smaller just because of the gauge.  Appropriate for an almost 1 year old, with room to grow. My sister requested the beanie style instead of an earflap–her girls don’t like stuff on their necks, I guess.  It works for me.

Here are the next two projects in my queue:

Amber is a free pattern from Rowan.  It’s done in their cotton alpaca blend.  We don’t carry that, but I’m trying Aslan Trends same blend in an ice-y blue color.  It’s a worsted weight held double, so it should go quickly enough–maybe in time for new year’s?

Then there’s this:

Henley Perfected from Interweave in 2007 (or 8, can’t remember).  I’ve got enough Hunt Valley cashmere sport weight in a camel color that I think will do the trick.  This, however, is on size 4s.  A much longer haul.

right now is from Lily’s purple plastic purse: “today was difficult day; tomorrow will be better.”  because mainly things aren’t better in my other job world.  i can’t really go into details, but it’s distressing and disheartening, which is putting a huge damper on my holiday spirit.

So, to try to lift my spirits, I’ve been cranking out A Hat for Andy that Christina at the shop designed for the Andy’s Merino yarn. It’s beautiful, and a great pattern.  Especially because the rib pattern continues through the decreases.

DH got the first hat, made from Indigo.  No model shot.  Thing 1 was 2nd, and I’m in the middle of Thing 2’s.  Her’s will be done today, no problemo.

Thing 1’s is the Mahogany colorway, and Thing 2’s is Buttercup (I think).  You can really see the great broken rib pattern on Thing 2’s.  And yes, the needles will come out when I’m all done!

sadly no longer exists.  Mabel’s was a gift shop on Madison Ave on the UES.  Mabel was the name of the cat of the old lady owner, and everything in the shop had some sort of Mabel rendition on it.  Mabel’s was one of my dad’s first clients when he started is direct mail consulting business.  I remember being slightly mortified that Christmas (my freshman year in high school), when I opened a giftbox from Mabel’s.  Inside:

Long purple gloves with this odd stuffed cat head the hands.  Needless to say, they did not get worn much. Or even ever. I was a savvy enough 14 year old to understand these would earn me no social creds whatsoever in Waterville Maine in 1980. However, they were slightly kitschy enough that I did keep them. Unlike my sister whose bright kelly green Mabels promptly disappeared without ever getting worn.

I must have kept them in a reasonable spot, because 8 years later when I was experiencing my first not-really-cold-temps-but-bone-chilling-damp winter in Japan, I called home asking for mittens.  My mom sent my Mabels.  And they were good.  Good because I needed to wear gloves in my apartment that didn’t have central heating.  Good because they were so purple that I couldn’t ever misplace them.  Good because they sorta smelled like the room I had left behind.  Good because the funny cat head made me think all those Japanese people weren’t actually staring at me, but my gloves instead.

My Mabels continued to serve after my return to the US, through many a winter in NYC and NJ.  However, this must be said.  My Mabels were cool in more than one sense of the word: my Mabels were not warm.  They are ackrylic.  And several times, I had re-sewn the fingers.  Poorly I may add. And with white thread.

Last winter, having burst through yet another finger, I came to the conclusion that the Mabels needed to be put down.  They were just limping along.  But then either Kristen or Christina suggested removing the Mabels from the ugly purple glove and repurposing them onto new gloves.

An excellent idea.  Except that I don’t knit gloves.  Until now!

Meet my prototype of the Knotty Glove (rav link).   Talk about fun!  Gloves are fun!  Even funner than socks.  And easy-peasy!  Even the fingers!  I have conquered my fear of gloves, and along the way, I figured out how to modify the gloves to fit my hand better!  Now I can give Mabel a better home!

My yarn of choice?

Zitron’s Lifestyle in a lovely vibrant pink. It’s head and shoulders above the purple.  It’s wool.  And superwash.  And wool.  And not acrylic.  And wool.  So already we’re one better than the old  Mabels.

Now, I’ve just got to move along the other crap in my knitting queue so I can get to these.

First and foremost, a big shout out to Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops!  The past three Mondays, Kirsten was in the house leading a stranded knitting mitten class. The pattern: Reykjavik.  And then she treated us to a matching hat.  Lots of fun was had by all!  A note to all: we will definitely be having Kirsten back.  She’s a great teacher, and she put up with my calling her Kristen numerous times!

Notice the goodies on the table?   Well, the last class was also Carol’s birthday, so we celebrated!

As it gets cooler and cooler, more and more folk are heading in looking for cowl patterns.  And not to toot my own horn, but read about Erin’s success with our Too Cool Cowl! Kudos to Erin–she did a lovely job!  We’ve got several more folk finishing up theirs.  I’ll post photos if they’re amenable.  Xtina at the shop too found a great cowl to use with the lovely new Twist from Malabrigo.

And to whet your appetite. . .some new misti alpaca in the shop:

think again.

(thing 3 sharing the love while cooling the sushi rice).  Thing 3 has since been banned from food prep.

The next best thing:

Yes, the malabrigo has finally flown north for the winter.  Thank god.  We’ve been waitin far too long for this.  In addition to some of the awesome merino worsted, we’ve got a nice supply of malabrigo sock, and their new Twist.

Twist is just as sumptuous as the worsted, but has a slight twist to the ply.  It’s just amazing.

But I’m holding back; I’ve got some projects in the queue that need to be dealt with now that BobKatz is done.  Some mittens:

and more that I haven’t had the chance to photograph yet.

I have been released from stockinette island.  BobKatz is now complete. 

Yes, I know.  Another craptastic photo.  But wait there’re more.  See the messy bit at the top.  That’s this:

A wee bit of argyle intarsia.  To break up the monotony of the navy blue, I added golf-ish lime green and light blue argyle. 

The icing on the cake:

a fuzzy image of my “handknit by Paige” label.  The ultimate in kitsch.  Just so everyone remembers.

Now onto more, more, more.

“knitting under pressure.”

Meet BobKatz.

Yes, not so thrilling.  A navy blue men’s vest with a citron green stripe along the edges.  This is the back.   It’s gotta be incredibly long.  BobKatz is for a big guy.  Bob Katz (the man, not the vest) sits on the Board of Trustees for my other job.  He’s the chairman of the golf outing that I manage each fall.  He’s a sweater-vest wearing gent, and is sorta a guy that has everything.  Everything, meaning we (my org) can’t really buy him a “thank you” gift for chairing the golf committee, even though he’s done it 23 of 25 years.  Everything, that is, except a sweater vest hand knit by me.

So this year, instead of buying him yet another gift that goes unused, my boss suggested I knit him a sweater vest.  Lucky for my boss that I have a few bags of rowan wool cotton hanging around.  Lucky also for my boss that I was willing to let my other projects languish in the interim.  And at this point, I’m thinking, lucky for me that a vest has no arms.

Bob Katz (the man, not the vest) is lucky, too.  The last man to get a handknit from me was my father.  In 1987.  It was a scratchy Lopi icelandic cardigan.  Not quite sure if Big Jim ever wore it.  But, just as a good father tends to do, he still has it folded in his sweater closet.  Underneath all his fine gauge cotton sweaters.  I learned my lesson with BobKatz (the vest, not the man).  I actually scoped out his color palette and sweater vest collection before casting on.  It only took 22 years to catch on!

In other news, Kirsten Kapur, our Throughtheloops friend, will be coming to Modern Yarn to teach Reykjavik, a colorwork mitten!  Class starts Monday 11/2 from 7-9pm, and continues for the next two Mondays (11/9 and 11/16).  I’ll be handling the 11/9 class, and Kirsten will be back on 11/16 for the mitten-finishing-fest with celebration bevies, treats, and picture ops!  The class is $25 for all three sessions, plus the pattern and supplies.  Read about Kirsten’s test mitten here!  Call the shop to register: 973-509-9276!

is just amazing.  Really.  Sometimes I’m just flabbergasted by how truly excellent the internets can be!

For example, I got a text message from Kristen saying that the Dream In Color Starry yarn came in today.  Could I post a photo.  Unfortunately, this was in the middle of a work crisis involving unsightly rental tables, trying to direct people to where I had hid the plastic tablecloths, and driving the Things to sundry afternoon activities.  I could not make it to the store.  I did not have my camera.

Luckily for me, Lise (in the shop) had her cell phone.  She texted a photo to me.  From my wicked cool iPhone, I sent it to my flickr account.  Later on, I downloaded it to my desktop, and voila:

There’s the Starry yarn in all its glory.  A decade ago, I would have had to wait for my film to be developed.   I heart the internets.

Or should that read carma?

My new plate for Lady Bug.  And no, I didn’t request this.  Ha!  It makes my day!

I’ve also got a new sweater, finished just in time for golf outing ‘09:

Photo taken by my boss who’s taller than me. Note to self: having tall people take my photo is a good thing.  It makes me look skinny. 

Here are the deets on the sweater: the pattern is Nestle, from Rowan Studio 14, designed by Sarah Hatton.  Raveled here! I used the called-for yarn in the called-for color.  It’s Scottish Tweed Aran, knit on size 9s.  Two weeks start to finish!  I was motivated to have it for our golf outing, and I’m glad I did, especially with the 50 mph wind whipping through our tent and around the course. 

The hood was funny.  I’m not a hood person, and when it’s on, I look a bit like Obi-Wan-Kenobi.  However, when it hangs in the back, it has a nice drape and it just works.

I should know better than to ever doubt a Rowan pattern–there were spots where I tried to figure out a way to knit things as one (instead of the insane number of pieces–hood, back, front right, front left, right button strip, left button strip), but the results were not good, so I followed the instructions to the T, and the damn thing fits perfectly. 

I’m working on finishing up Cottage Garden before the holidays.  But then I saw this and was inspired!  I totally heart the lacey cowl.  I’m not as much a fan of the uterine lace panel down the front, tho.  I’m thinking slinky, drapy, long-sleeved in a sorta skinny-ish weight.  I’ve got 2400 yds of Jitterbug in a burnt orange that may just do the trick. Hmmmm.

So Lady Bug has been a member of the Sato family for 2 weeks now.  I’ve put over 900 miles on her.  And her size is totally deceiving.

In preparation for my org’s upcoming golf event, I made a trip to Costco for snacks for our golfers.  Behold the overflowing Costco cart:

Behold the empty Ms. Lady Bug:

10 minutes or so later:

and:

I could have fit more, but that would have meant fussing with the car seat, and I hate doing that.

In more relevant knitting news, I’m working on Nestle (rav link).  I’m using the called for Scottish Tweed Aran in an oatmeal color.  My goal is to finish this puppy in time for the golf outing (which is Oct. 7).  I’m not sure if I’ll get that done.  I’m finished with the back and two fronts, but still have two arms, a hood, and the huge front bands to do up.  At least it’s on size 9s, so it goes quickly.

that reproduces well.  Kristen’s sib Alyssa (who sometimes you may find hanging out at the store), takes the cake when it comes to producing adorable babies.

Meet Alyssa’s Thing 1.  Like my Thing 1, A’sT1 is also a Christmas Baby.

Unlike my Thing 1, A’sT1 has a knitting grandmother.  Who made this lovely sweater (I’m guessing out of Manos) for A’sT1. So not only is Kristen’s sister talented, her mother is too.   And lovely A’sT1 has a talented pop as well.  He cleverly created this:

The talent apple does not fall far from Kristen’s tree!

and in Kristen’s fashion mags, there are cowls.  Cowls cowls everywhere.  Personally, I heart cowls because I hate having a cold neck. That and the fact that I must have been traumatized by a vampire in a previous life makes me always want to cover my neck.

Anyway, these fashion cowls (scroll down a bit) are all drapey and chunky and huge.  Some look more like huge yarn necklaces, because they don’t even come close to wrapping around the neck, but rather hang mid-chest. And some are just too spendy for words. (yes, that’s right.  $225 for a cowl.  Holy cowl!)

But I have been coveting the chunky cowl look.  So I thought I’d design my own.  And I did, and now she’s done.  And she didn’t come even close to costing $225 (thank goodness)!

(forgive the lack of styling.  I was on my way to work).

This cowl is called the Too Cool Cowl.  The pattern’s available at Modern Yarn and is free with the yarn purchase.  I used three skeins of Rowan Cocoon in the light gray colorway ($48 for the yarn).  I think it would equally as good in the Natura (but potentially 4 skeins there).  The Too Cool Cowl can double as the Wicked Good Hood (tee-hee).

If you find cables intimidating, you’re in luck. In October, I’ll be teaching how to cable using this as the project.

Ok Mother Nature (or Dracula), hit me with your best shot!

I had thought re-opening Modern Yarn was my version of my mid-life crisis.  Obviously not.

Meet Lady Bug.  My new mini. 

There’s a long story here (isn’t there always?).  Let’s suffice it to say that in 2003 when I was forced into settling for we bought our mazda mini van, I had lobbied long and hard for the mini cooper.  Obviously I lost, which wasn’t such a bad thing, since the advent of the mini van allowed us room for Thing 3. But, for the past seven years I’ve been muttering “zoom zoom” to myself whenever I got left in the dust at a stop light, couldn’t finesse my way through the crowd at the Union toll, or had to fill up the tank yet again because of its awesome 18 mpg.

I’m not quite sure what turned the tide.  Several weeks ago DH suggested we (finally!) replace the burned-to-a-crisp-two-years-ago corolla.  Earlier this year, we did test drive lots of small cars–the Yaris, the Scion XD.  All summer, whenever we had to rent a car, we tested something small–Hyundais, Nissans, etc.  But the lynchpin: two weeks ago we were in Princeton for Japanese school, and we stopped by the Honda dealership, and were dutifully impressed with both the Fit and Insight. We almost didn’t make it to the Mini dealership. On a whim, we went.  And never looked back.

Unfortunately, the dealership in Princeton didn’t have the one we wanted.  The dealership in Mahwah had the car we wanted but was not so friendly.  Then the dealership in Princeton found one to our specs, we put down a deposit, and whoosh, it was sold out from under us.  (yes, you can read that again.  we put down a deposit, and the car was sold to someone else after that.  really). That saddened me, and I spent an entire evening calling mini dealerships up and down the east coast (as far away as Maryland and CT) to find what we wanted.  It just didn’t exist.  But the dealership in White Plains came close.  And the car was on the lot.  And we put down a deposit and amazingly, the car didn’t get sold to someone else!

So now we have a car that our entire family cannot fit into.  And unlike the Fit which had 10 cup holders, Lady Bug has 10 speakers.  And an iPod connection.  And excellent gas mileage.  It may be a mini, but there’s plenty of room for yarn!

The Things are now firmly ensconced in school.  Here’s the first day of school photo, now a family tradition.  Thing 3 refused her brush, explaining that she had a “hand claw.”  When I mentioned that on FB and in an email to my parents, both my good friend and then my dad mentioned that they thought Thing 1 looked like he used the “hand claw.”  I’ll chalk this up to that I’m better at scheduling dentist appointments.  Haircuts fall through the cracks.

I should mention that the smile on Thing 3’s face totally disappeared by the time we got to school.  It was upside down when I picked her up at 3.  Let’s just say she’s not a fan (and she’s only in kindergarten).  I hate to tell her that it only gets worse.

To brighten their respective days.  I whipped up some treats:

This is the batter for (drum roll, please after a 20+ year hiatus):

WHOOPIE PIES!  Yes, I know they’ve grown in popularity her in the Garden State of late, but they do hail from the grand ole state of Maine, and during our vacation, we were  inundated with them.  After god knows how many, Thing 1 finally said to me: Why don’t you ever make these at home; they’re sooooo good.

I actually haven’t made them at home for a few reasons:
1.  I tend to eat all the sweet things in our house after everyone has just one.

2. The summer of 1978 I burned out on whoopie pies.  I vaguely remember my neighbor friends and I making whoppie pies every day for an entire summer.  Between the group of us, there were like 10 hungry brothers, so we’d bake a batch, frost them, and they’d disappear.  I think our plans were to sell them, but we never got any out of the kitchen.  I think I’m still scraping the marshmellow fluff off my hands.

The whoopie pies went over well on (whoopie!) the first day of school! Whoopie!

or not.  Seems like I’ve crossed the line yet again.

Tomorrow, i’ve been warned, I’m going to be spoken to about my outfit. And it’s inappropriateness at a bored board meeting.

sigh.

exhaustion.  it’s been a tough week (because of details way too boring to recount).  thank goodness for the 3 day holiday coming up.

It’s hard to believe a week ago we were relaxing in Maine.  When we go to Maine, I tend to stay inland.  It’s more my speed.  And the weather tends to be better.  So when the forecast was calling for a week of rain, I just crossed my fingers and forged ahead.  While it may have stormed along the coast (Maine has a coast, people, not a shore), inland it was 80s and sunny!  Just one daytime storm to contend with.

This was our home for a week.  The red cabin (a “camp” in Maine parlance) on the right is ours.  There are others nearby, but not so near to be on top of each other. The camp is known as Sadulsky’s and it’s on East Pond in the Belgrade (pronounced with the long a) Lakes region of central Maine.  Many lakes in Maine are called “ponds.”  I guess with the ocean as comparison, nobody wanted to be accused of exaggeration.  East Pond is a lovely lake.  The water temp was an unheard of 82 degrees.

East Pond is also home to many loons. And reading Things.  Amazing what the lack of an internet connection will cause you to do.

Without the internet, many games of Monopoly were played.

Our monopoly was missing its housing.  We subbed tokens and coins.  Notice all the splotches on the board.  No, not the fault of a craptastic photo–those are the bugs.  Maine is not without bugs.  Maine is for the truly hearty.  There’s a saying, “if you can’t take the winter, you don’t deserve the summer.”  Same thing goes with the bugs.  (if you can’t take the little bugs, you don’t deserve the bigger?)

As for the monopoly, sadly I lost.  And I was a poor sport.  (note to self: do not show this ugly side of self to Things ever again!).  We won’t be playing monopoly much in the future though.  I conveniently left it behind in the cabin, to join all the other “forgotten things” from over the years.

I did get a lot of knitting done!

This is the back to Jasmine (from Kim Hargreaves).  Big heart.  But it’s been placed on hold temporarily.  Because it’s being knit on tiny size 3s, and if I even hope to come close to finish that stupid excellent knit 12 sweaters this year KAL, then I’ve got to move on.  But, I am enjoying this knit, and I’m using koigu in a semi-solid.  However, after knitting the back, I realized it wasn’t really the sweater I wanted, it was the shiny belt.

After finishing this back, I moved along to finishing up a UFO, my argyle vest.  And, ta-dah, after 10 months, it’s done!

There’s a surprise on the back:

stripes!  I wasn’t interested in continuing the argyle pattern, so I just improvised.  V. pleased.  And done just in time for the slight chill in the air!

Anyway, back to vacation.  In the middle of the week, we traveled to SoPo (South Portland).  I visited a best friend and former co-worker who’s just had two very Job-like years.  She’s due for something good.  I love visiting her house though, because she’s got this amazing birch tree in her front yard.  Everytime I’m there, we put our respective Things in front of it for some pix.

Prior to the tree shot, we did make it to Freeport and the best store in the world (even if it’s getting a big to big for its britches) LL Bean. Thing 1 needed some shoes.

Thing 1 is leaving boy-hood behind in a big way.  In June, he was a size 6 shoe and 73 lbs.  At his dr. check up the week before Maine, he weighed in a 93 lbs! (and about 3 inches taller).  He was still wearing the size 6 shoes, but I was thinking, “hmmm, we ought to go to Beans and measure his feet–i’ll bet he’s in adult sizes now.”

Here’s his new shoes.  Not really, but he is a men’s 9!  Ouch.  I feel like the chinese foot-binding mom.  ouch again!

So we’re refreshed, ready for school (with new big shoes), and ready for Fall!  Woo-hoo!

for blocking.

My giant scarf is complete.

It needed blocking, and the steam iron wasn’t quite working out.  Which lead me to give it a full immersion bath.  140″+ of alpaca soaking wet takes up quite a lot of room in the tubby.  And in the bedroom.  I think the scarf is longer than my bedroom is, wall to wall.

And (note to self) 90 degree weather in amazing humidity makes wet fiber not so delicious smelling.  We don’t have central air, and now my house smells like wet alpaca.  yum.

The scarf, tho, is lovely, and I’ll post excellent photos when it’s dry (if it ever does).

To be filed in the “new in the shop” category:

Bonnie’s Bamboo from Farmhouse Yarns.  200 yards of wonderful bamboo-y fiber!  So pretty!

cool.

the melting can now cease!

My #01 Lace Scarf from last year’s vogue knitting is growing.  It’s hard not to, when you’re knitting Blue Sky Alpaca bulky, doubled, on size 19 needles.  Notice the weight.  Thing 3 is having a hard time holding. it. up.

This project has taught me that sometimes you just have to follow a pattern and trust in it.  When the pattern called for the Blue Sky bulky held double, I thought, “that’s wicked too much money for just a scarf,” and promptly adjusted the pattern to knit the project with a single strand of the yarn.

Well, it just didn’t look the same.  Yeah, it was big and bulky, but not nearly as structural.  So, I resigned myself to making a million dollar scarf, ripped out and started again.  Boy am I glad I did.  I heart this.

I think the scarf would work equally well knit up in the Rown Big Wool, held double of course.  Big Wool, being wool as opposed to alpaca, doesn’t weigh nearly as much, though, which is probably a plus.  The structure of this scarf is great.  Not so sure my neck will appreciate it though, come winter.

whirling dervish (?), cuz that’s how it feels.

The first week at the new Modern Yarn has been exciting!  We welcomed back tons of old (and young) friends!  We’ve met plenty of new folk!  We’ve learned there’s a lot more square footage to cover in the new space and the excellent looking stool in the back of the counter is really only excellent to look at (not sit on, as my aching back will attest).  We signed up on twitter (modernyarn is our name–look for us), which helped immensely when we had to send out a traffic/closed street alert.  It also let everyone know that we’ll soon be carrying Dream in Color!

In between all that, Things 2 and 3 help skein the kajillion kilos of Manos that arrived today.

And I have been knitting.  Even though it couldn’t be any hotter, I’m working on this (rav link).  I don’t have photos yet of my version, but I’ll tell you this, it’s green.  And it’s blue sky alpacas bulky held double.  Which means that I’m 20″ into this thing and it already weighs about 4 lbs.  Photos will come after tonight’s knitting, when I’ve got at least another repeat done.

Yup, whirling dervish, but boy it’s good to be back!

Paige

I’m Thingless this week thanks to Connecticut Grandma and Grandpa (mostly grandma; grandpa wasn’t aware that he was parenting the Things for a week until we showed up at his door).  My house sans Things means echos, lots of computer time, not much of a mess, and plenty of knitting time.  So much so that I finished Kimono Blue!

Voila, here she is in all her glory.  (notice that I’m smiling with my eyes–i’ve been watching lots of Top Model marathons, and am practicing this technique.  Just in case, you know, I lose my teeth).

I love Kimono Blue.  I haven’t put the button on yet.  Not sure if I want to.  In the pattern, the button goes up by the collar.  For some reason, my collar is tighter than the FO in the picture in the book.  I’m thinking I may move the button to just slightly higher than bustline.  We’ll see.

I’m not so happy about my picked up neckline stitches–but the finished edge on this jacket are tricky, so we’ll just deal with it.  I do love the shape and length and I know I’ll get a lot of wear out of her.

In somewhat knitting news, today Kristen & I get the key to the new Modern Yarn.  Woo-hoo!  And the excitement begins all over again. 

Paige

although i’m about a week away from unveiling Kimono Blues.  But hold your horses.

I say I’m about a week away because tonight is a good knitting/tv night.  First Antiques Roadshow, then Jon & Kate +8.  Nothing better than that–old junk followed by new crap.  Anyways, I suspect I’ll get the collar finished within those two hours, then I’ve only got the button bands (but thankfully no buttons) and sewing.  If this wicked excellent weather holds up, then I’ll be sporting this jacket not just for fashion, but also warmth.

TW (trainwreck) minus 2 hours and counting!

I think.

Yup, I’m sure.  It’s number 4, in the lineup of 12 that I’m supposed to finish by December.  I can already guess that that’s not going to happen.

No, don’t adjust your monitor.  It’s just another craptastic photo.   Anyways, this is Skinny Empire by Wendy Bernard from Custom Knits.  Deets raveled here.

This was fun to make.  I sometimes hesitate with raglan sleeves because they can be too deep.  This one, the sleeves are perfect.  I subbed Noro’s Silk Garden sock for the sport weight the pattern calls for (copying another such sub on Ravelry–god I love Rav for the inspiration!).  I also knit the empire i-cord a bit further down than the pattern called for.  I am narrow on top and typically make the size for a 37″ (or there-abouts) bust.  However, I have nursed three children and the girls are not nearly as perky as those belonging to the  37″ PYTs  that the sweater was probably designed for.  So instead of having an empire i-cord cut me through the chest, I lowered it.  All in all, I’m hearting this sweater.  I didn’t think I’d get much use out of it this summer, but since our weather’s been so summer-like (?????!!!!!????) I may be in luck!  It will also suffice nicely with a long-sleeved t-shirt this fall and winter.

Lots of moving.  This week has been one crazy week.  Suffice it to say that if you think moving from one house to the next sucks, moving from a store to a garage (then on to another store in four more weeks) is like super suck.

The moving has been stressful, because it couldn’t be accomplished in a vacuum.  It was surrounded by deadlines at the day job (for me), deadlines at school (for Kristen), a long weekend full of family (both of us).  Happily, we unloaded some of the stress at the Modern Yarn Kegger, which should become a regular event, but next time, it will have to be in a store with actual sound-deafening product in it.  Boy, is an empty store just an echo chamber or what?!

I had absolutely no ability to concentrate on anything other than “wake up, go to work, get home, go move, go to sleep, rinse, repeat” for the past few days that Kimono jacket is taking a breather.  Instead, I’m just knitting in the round, round, round on this skinny empire top down raglan from Custom Knits.

Here’s what I love about Ravelry: the photo in the book is nice and all, but when I first saw it, I just saw rounds and rounds of stockinette on tiny needles.  Not so motivating.  Then I saw this on ravelry. More my speed!

Here’s my version.  Probably the same colorway.

Yet another craptastic photo taken on my yucky sofa.  Oh well.  Which will come first–better photography skills or a new sofa.  Who knows?

Anyways, i’ll be posting more frequently in June as the dust settles (and before it starts up again).

until then. . .

because we’ve found a new home for Modern Yarn.  Woot!  Definitely a “if it’s meant to be than it will happen” moment.

Our new home is 182 Glenridge Ave in Montclair.  We’re close to the new children’s YMCA, and around the corner from Aunt Jean’s Toys & Treats (which I love).

We’re excited, but there’s still lots to be done–like getting the stuff out of Church St. and in storage for a month before we can move in.  But it’s exciting nonetheless!

one step back.

That’s what it feels like working on this kimono jacket.  I thought I had progressed to the bind-off for the sleeves.  So I did (eliminating 110 stitches from a grand total of 270!).  But alas, I had measured wrong and misinterpreted the German.  So I unknit many rows to take me back up to 270 stitches.  Unknitting in this complicated braid stitch is a PITA.

Here she is, after an additional week of knitting to the correct sleeve length, then binding off of the arms.

The braid pattern is beautiful:

(slightly fuzzy, but. . .oh well, you get the point).

In non-knitting news, I want to shout out to my super great mechanic: Lance.  Lance is super great.  We were having problems with the minivan (which at 104,000 miles is to be expected).  The problem happened right before the DC trip, and unfortunately, Lance couldn’t take our car–so we went to another place, local in Montclair right on Bloomfield Ave that begins with an F.  They “fixed” it to the tune of $650.  Right after the trip, same issue.  The Montclair place just dealt with it by “resetting” the check engine light.  Which continued to become un-reset.  So I took it to Lance.  And he re-fixed it for another $400, remarking that when comparing the bill from the first place to what he saw in the engine, it didn’t quite add up. He made changes.  And then the check engine light re-appeared.  argh.

At this point, I seriously considered the advice offered by the Car Talk guys–black hockey tape conveniently placed over the check engine light.  Outta sight, outta mind, you know.  But I did the responsible thing, and called Lance.

So the good ole minivan made another trek to Clifton, another rental car was rented, and for three days Lance poked and proded.  And found the source of the pain.  And replaced it.  For the tune of $188.  The part itself was $87.  When Lance told me the total, I just couldn’t believe it–where was the labor?  And the diagnosis?  The part took 1 hour to extract and another to install. I was left with this odd feeling: relief that the car was fixed.  Relief that it wouldn’t break the bank, but a thunk realizing that Lance most likely did not cover his costs.  I asked him to really let me know what the bill was, but he demured.  But his sense of responsibility (re: not fixing the car the first time) trumped, and he didn’t charge nearly what he should have.

So my (knitted) hat off to Lance!  I heart Lance!

Lance is a mechanic that I want around for a looonnnggg time.  So, I told him that I’d blog about him and his garage as a big THANX for the steep discount.  So, if you’re in need of a great mechanic, visit Lance Super at Top Quality on Trimball in Clifton.  You can google him for his info.  He’s honest and good.  And good and honest.

Yes, I’ve been hiding (and knitting). This spring has been crazy, not the least of which is that we’re shuttering up on Church St., so let’s just say that the candle that I normally burn at both ends no longer exists.

Last week we were in DC for my kids’ absurdly late spring break.  We had some good luck with the weather, and all in all it was a great trip.  I think we walked a kajillion miles.  Thing 3, since she spent her time running ahead, rushing back to us, then running ahead again, covered 2x the distance as we did and was even more exhausted.

Some highlights from DC (which I haven’t visited since April 1995):

a pooped Thing 3.

The Things in front of the NJ stones at the WWII memorial.  (the aside here: I’m at odds having them stand in front of NJ, even though that’s where all 3 were born and are being raised.  As a child, I remember being proud to stand in front of the “Maine” shout-outs.  There’s something slightly embarassing about being in front of NJ. Or maybe that’s the New England snob in me.  Most likely that’s it).

At the zoo.  (funny how I’m not so embarassed to have them in front of the word “zoo,” only New Jersey).

DC in a nutshell.

Prior to DC, we celebrated Thing 3’s 5th birthday.  She wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  We relied on Ms. Rie, cake baker extraordinaire for the loot.  As usual, Ms. Rie came through in a big way.  However, I thought there might have been an issue.  When we picked up the cake, and Thing 3 saw that there were pink dots on it, she said, “I wanted chocolate with chocolate icing, so that it is like mud.  There is no pink in mud.”  She’s right.  There is no pink in mud.  However, the cake was delicious (not like mud), so Thing 3 was appeased.

Thing 3 didn’t have a big party for her birthday.  She decided beforehand that she wanted her party at the town pool.  Which doesn’t open til June.  I reminded her of this several times prior to her actual birthday (you know, you won’t have your party til the pool opens), so that there’d be no disappointment on the day of her birthday.  She kept saying “I know, I know.”  The day after her birthday, when I wake her up for school, the first question out of her mouth is “Is the pool open today?”  thunk.

In other fun, we hosted our annual cherry blossom party at Branchbrook park.  This year the blossoms popped slightly before, but that did not hold us back.  The day was beautiful!  The food awesome!  The company wonderful!

Whew, what a spring–bring on the summer!

just keeps growing.  Thing 2 is the first girl cousin in the extended family.  When she was six, we welcomed Thing 3 (a girl), and then a year later, Cousins 1 and 2 (two girls), and then two years after that, Cousins 3 & 4 (again, two girls).  On Thursday, we welcomed Cousin 5, yet another girl, and in July Cousin 6 will join the gang.  We already know that Cousin 6 is a girl.  Thing 2 insists that she’s the harbinger for all these girls.  Thing 2 is excited that her posse’s growing, and has pointed out to Thing 1 that he’s way outnumbered.

Meet Cousin 5.  Boy, (girl?) is she tiny!  Although Thing 1 is sorely outnumbered, he is still happy to have a new baby to impress.

Today was also Cousin 1’s 4th birthday.  We celebrated with an egg hunt.

And she’s off!  Did I mention Thing 3 is competitive?

I could barely keep up with her.

Ah, victorious! (yup, she beat out a 4 year old and 20 month old for the most eggs.  Way to go Thing 3!

Lest you think I’ve been ignoring my knitting, I’m cruising along on this excellent kimono-style jacket.  I think this actually qualifies as appropriate for work.  Who knows.  Actually, I don’t even care–I think it’s so freakin’ fantastic, I’ll wear anyways.

The pattern is from Schulana.  It’s in German and (poorly) translated into English.  I’m not afraid of working from foreign language patterns–I spent four years in Japan counting kanji strokes, looking them up in character dictionaries, and then highlighting those same characters throughout Japanese pattern books, but boy, poorly translated German can be tricky.

The garment is made from Fashion Silk, a yarn too expensive to bring into the shop ($17.95 msrp/ball, and I need 17 for the small–yup, 17 for the small.  Small Germans must be huge). But the stitch pattern on this garment just called out to me, so I took the plunge.

The front and back sides are made with 55 increases for the arms.  Then the two fronts are joined together at the neck, and the back is knit from the top down.  There are only two seams to sew at the end (from the armhole to the waist  on each side).  I’ve finished one front side, and have just started the arm increases on the other.  I hope to be on the back by next week, and then flounting this pretty puppy for the rest of the spring!

Sorry for the craptastic pix.  It’s a blue–not quite as dark as navy, but close.  I heart navy.  It’s so professional! And sailor-ish! And blue!