MY Blog

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!

As you all may be aware, I’m participating (more or less) in the NaKnitSweMoDo dodecathalon.  I’ve finished sweater #3, and cruising away on 4.  #3 is Violet, made from Kid Silk Aura.  Big hearts on this one.  Also, big hearts on the top down, set in sleeve construction.

I didn’t do the foo-foo fancy kidsilk haze inset around the sleeve. I think it would have tickled my elbows.  I do have to say though that my mohair kick is not dying down at all.  In fact, while I was knitting this, I was hankering for a slim fitting (dare I say slinky) mohair t-neck with wicked long arms. Also, I can’t believe I’m on track for the dodecathalon.  My current project is cumbersome, but I should finish by the end of the month, and then I’ll get into some easy peasy japanese-y summer knitting, so I just may do ok.

Now for some non-knitting content:

Last weekend the happy family and I packed up for some “kuru-kuru” sushi.  Kuru-kuru sushi is sushi that travels along a conveyor belt.  As it passes you by, you grab the ones you want.  You pay by the plate.  And there’s a color system–all the plates are different colors, and you pay according to the color of the plate.  This sushi place is in Teaneck, which if it didn’t suffer the handicap of being off of Rt 4, would be an excellent place to visit often.  In Japan, lots of the kuru-kuru sushi places are more like bar setups, with single stools around the parameter.  In Teaneck, there are tables that back up onto the conveyor.  DH and I think the main reason we like coming here is that there’s no “when’s the food coming” questions from the Things.  The food is always freaking coming.

Here’s the set up (with Thing 3 partaking of a california roll):

Here’s our stack of plates about 2/3 of the way through our meal:

The spendiest plates are blue.  Here’s my perfect meal: chopped toro on a blue plate with a nice cold beer.

If you’re interested, the restaurant is called East.   It’s not my fave sushi place (that’s reserved for Tomo’s and I’m not linking to that, cuz I don’t want to share), but it’s yummy and there’s no wait.  But, if you’re going on the weekend, do make a reservation.  The spots along the conveyor are always reserved.

Kristen & I have decided to reel in our shingle after nearly four years of living in retail world.

Modern Yarn’s last day on Church St. will be May 30.  June 1st, the space goes to a new tenant.

Yeah, I’m sad.  This was a hard decision, made that much more so by all the good that has come from the store.

We are considering perhaps a move.  Maybe sooner, more possibly later.  And therefore, as a result, we do need to liquidate all the freaking yarn in the shop!

That’s good for you–we’ll be starting a 4 week yarn blitz on April 21 (Tuesday).  The first two weeks, everything’s discounted 25%.  The discount goes to 35% in week 3 and 45% in week 4.  There will be raffles and lots of fun.  Because although this is sad, we want to be like Mary Tyle Moore, and go out on top of our  game!

We’ve got some changes to our hours.  New hours starting 4/1 are Tues through Sat, 11-6.  No more late nights on Tues & Thurs.  We’ll also be closed 4/12 through 4/18 to get ready

If you have any questions, you can email us at info@modernyarn.com, mostly because I think the comments are broken on the blog.  (sorry!)

Paige

PS–I do have knitting pix to show, but I’ll wait.

Today, March 24th, Tuesday, we will be closing early at 7:30pm to attend a funeral.

Thank you.

I have arms.  Because finally, I’ve finished a sweater that looks better on me than it does 40s Lady, our voluptuous store womannequin.

The pattern is Lily of the Valley from Inspired to Knit.   I used Manos, like the pattern called for in a nice shade of lilac.  I usually stay away from the purple family–it is not kind to me, but for some reason, this works.  The lace trim is in Rowan 4 ply soft.

For comparison–here’s Lilac Lily on the womannequin:

I think it’s not so terrif on her because she lacks arms.  Although I lack shoulders, for some reason, the arms matter here.

I made this shrug because the back is so flattering.  Of course, Thing 3 couldn’t concentrate enough when taking my pic to take both a front and back shot, so the womannequin shot will have to suffice.

Again, the broad back and lack of shoulders doesn’t do much for the pattern.  My narrow shoulders and looonnnngggg arms do.

So I’m able to stick a fork into project #2 in the knit 12 sweaters this year KAL.  I’m wicked behind. On the docket is Viola from French Girl Knits.  Although spring is beckoning, I’m still loving the mohair.   This is made with Rowan’s Kidsilk Aura, a heavier version of kidsilk haze.  I’m using a soft green for spring.  It’s done on 10.5s, so I’m sorta cruising here.

Paige

Yup, I’m a fairly random poster.  That doesn’t mean, though, that I don’t think in blog posts.  And take tons of random photos to accompany those make-believe posts.

Here’s one from Valentine’s Day:

This was my V-day gift.  It’s sushi.  In the form of a heart.  Hmmmm.  DH had purchased this at the end of the day (which doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not good, but. . .) so the green avocado had turned from that great shade of green to puke.  The heart consisted of the sushi rice (bottom) chopped toro (yummy middle) and the avocado top.   Although I approached the gift with hesitation, I do have to exclaim that it was perhaps the yummiest store-bought sushi I’ve ever had.  Good job, DH.

Moving along to more green food:

My broc fiasco.  I’m a firm believer in getting someone else to do the food shopping.  At least, to pick up the staples.  So for the past few years, I’ve been using Shoprite from Home.  It works, more or less, but I’ve come to realize that the occassional mistake in my order might just not be my fault.  Two weeks ago, broc florets were on sale by the pound.  I ordered 1 pound.  I got one tiny head.  My family loves their broc, so when I saw the florets were on sale again, I thought, “ok, obviously, they didn’t get the ‘pound’ thing,” so I ordered 3, figuring, like before, I’d get 3 heads.  Nope.  I got three pounds.  An entire brown bag of broc.

And to continue the green theme:

I just liked the digital-ness of the odometer.  Fun!

But not as much fun as last Thursday night, when CBS showed up to film some B roll of our SNB.

sorry for the teeny pix–it’s slightly blurry.  You’ll get to see some of the fun we had on either Tues or Wed am.  I’ll let you know.

Paige

Hoot!

My first finished sweater of 2009.  Owls!  I heart Owls.  I heart the fit of this sweater!  I used Rowan Cocoon in gray, and bummed 38 buttons off of Kristen.  Cocoon is next the skin soft, and I’m not sure I’ll be taking this one off any time soon.

Here’s the back. Notice the pretty darts!

Woot woot! Hoot hoot!

But this is my first FO for 2009 (?)!

My first Selbu  Modern.  I heart this hat.  It actually looks good on me.  I heart that it actually matches (yes, in that matchy-matchy sorta way that I typically can’t stand) my winter jacket. 

When I was contemplating the matchy-matchyness, I came to the conclusion that my aversion to it rises from the fact that my hats/mittens/scarves have NEVER EVER matched my jacket/coat.  Never.  In all the photos of childhood me, my outfits never match, especially my outerwear ensemble.  If I were a kid today, I would have that mis-matched mini-boden look down.  In the 70s though, well, that’s another story.  I just looked like pattern vomit.  oh well. 

Kristen loves selbu modern, too.  She’s already made 2, and is contemplating a 3rd.  I think we’re actually going to do a selbu modern window. 

Next on the needles is O W L S.  I’m using Rowan Cocoon in a soft gray color.  I think it’d also work in Cascade Eco Wool, and if I’m successful with this, I’m just likely to cast on again, but in natural (snowy owls, eh).  I need a pick me up knit after the fiasco of my Not So Purple Argyle vest.  Which is still being punished, but the front is just so gd cute that I can’t let it sit for too long.

I had high expectations for today.  It’s Wednesday, which (as of last week) means that it’s a TV night for me (yeah, LOST!).  And I was planning on finishing up the back to my Not So Purple Argyle vest.  Measured against the front, it was right at the bind off for the armholes.  But it looked a bit wide.  So I blocked the front (it’s argyle, so a tad narrower).  But the back was more than a “tad” wider.  It was ENORMOUS.  About 20 stitches enormous.  Where the heck did those stitches come from.  Hmmm.  Maybe the cast on row?  Yup, I confess.  I’m not a counter.  I count as I cast on.  I’m always usually accurate.  The result: sorry for the blurriness.I’m thinking this vest may just have to go into hibernation as punishment.  Kristen finished her selbu modern today.  I may just have to move on.  Something about pulling myself up and dusting myself off.  Yup. 

no school!  no work!  I can finally take a breath and catch up.  It’s only 9:30am, already been to the bank, dressed Thing 3, played Super Smash brothers, finished up my end of the pool’s annual report, and downloaded many an app to my iPhone.  Now the blog!I’ve come to the realization that I’m not super knitter.  I say this for several reasons.  First, when I eagerly signed up for the “knit 12 sweaters this year”-along (for some reason, all those shortened words don’t quite make it into my memory), I thought ‘easy-peasy.’  For crying out loud–I make lots of things every year.  No problemo.Well, now that this “along” is hanging over my head, I’ve lost my knitting mojo.  Well, maybe not so much the mojo–just the desire to knit 12 sweaters this year.  I’ve been working on my Not So Purple argyle vest now for a month.  There’s no reason that a vest should take this long.  The front’s finished (old photo): I’m going with non random stripes of uniform thickness on the back.  I’m almost at the armpit.  I love felted tweed, and am sad that this will not be suitable for the office.  Unless I plan to wear it a day that the powers that be are not in.  hmmmm.  There’s a thought.Now that I’m nearing the end of this, I’m examining the queue to see what’s next.  Surprisingly, DH has asked for a vest to wear to work.  At his new job they dress “corporate casual.”  DH has no “corporate casual” clothing.  His old job was “fussy corporate.”  His home life is “jeans and sweatshirt.”  In the short time he’s been at the new job, he’s noticed lots of the men wear sweaters and vests.  Thus the request. He wants a cardigan vest.  In a fine gauge (damn!).  I’m trying to find something suitable that would be fun to knit.  I’m just glad DH is not such a big guy (less than a 40″ chest), so it should go quickly (maybe).Off to shovel.  

that the amount of time I’m on my feet at home is in direct proportion to the amount of time I sit at my office.  I’m on my tush from 8am to 4pm daily, and then when I get home, I think I’m on my feet until at least 9 or 9:30.  Maybe if I stood more at the office, I’d get to sit more at home.

In my knitting world (which does, for the most part, require sitting at home), I’m cruising on my Not So Purple Argyle Vest

Tonight I plan on (sitting) and finishing up the 2nd half of the V neck.  Then the back.  While I like the argyle, I’m not sure I want it on both the front and back, so I think I’m going to do the back in MC (brown), with random stripes of random thicknesses in the CC (pink. green, blue).  It could be great.  Or awful.

Project 2 in my Nanibooboknitalong NaKniSweMoDo is the Mosaic Yoke Jacket.  Here are my colors:

That is, unless I can scrape together enough koigu KPPPM for this.  I’ve been stalking it since the book came out.  Since it’s done on 3s (and most likely I’ll have to use 2s), it could be a long, hard slog and really throw off my tempo for the knit-along.

One of my favorite traditions from Japan is Osoji, the Big Clean.  Typically (or at least where I lived), the last week of the year was a when Japanese folk literally got rid of the old to make way for the new.  Houses are scrubbed from top to bottom.  Lots of garbage is purged.  All of this to welcome in the new year, the fresh start.

We’ve kept this tradition, albeit slightly modified because whereas in Japan, working folk are all on vacay during this time, we aren’t.  However, I’m nothing if not efficient, so last week after Christmas, I was ruthless when going through all the treasures crap in my basement. I was also pleased that I got it all out in time for the garbage pickup.  Only to learn that the garbage men no longer pick up cardboard boxes.  Even cardboard boxes filled with garbage.  So now it’s back in my house.

I said I was ruthless when purging.  These did not make the cut.

This Hello Kitty collection, amazingly, came from McDonalds Happy Meals in Japan (circa 2005).   Yes, they’re enormous for a happy meal toy.  I think Japan takes the “happy” in Happy Meal waaaaay to literally.  Anyways, after three years of taking up space, they were relegated to the curb.  However, they were rescued by DH whose job it was to get the garbage out of the boxes and into trash bags for the next pick up.  Sadly Wedding Kitty, Beach Kitty, Tutu Kitty (no relation to Desmond) and Denim Kitty and the random Mr. Kitty (groom) found their way back into the toy box. (Madame Foo, are you interested?)

But the holidays aren’t only about getting rid of crap, they’re about getting even more of it.  I was delighted with my crap this year.

Yes, a terrible photo but an excellent, excellent, excellent phone.  Except that noone’s called me yet because my number’s changed.  So it’s an excellent excellent excellent toy.

I finished my holiday knitting right on time (12/25)!  And I promptly forgot to wrap Thing 2’s hat. There was some distress in her voice when she asked “did Santa forget my hat?”  “No, Thing 2, Santa did not forget.  Your overwhelmed mother, however, did.”  I’m pleased with how it came out, but have completely lost my hankering to do any more fair isle for quite a while.

The hat still needs a pom-pom and a good blocking.  But Thing 2 is pleased.

On a whim, I signed up for the NaKniSweMoDo (national knit a sweater a month dodecathalon).  I know I can totally do it, but I don’t want to burden myself with 12 “well I’ve got to knit 12 sweaters so I’m going to do this” sweaters–so I’m on the lookout for 12 really great adult garments.  I’ve cast on for this one in felted tweed.  This will be #1. I also want to do this Habu kit.  It looks tedious, but since it’s felted it’s knit up on 10s, so it should go fast.  I’m also jonesing to make the Mosaic Yoke Jacket, and I’ve picked out my colors in Cascade 220, too.

I can just tell this year will be a busy busy busy one. Thank god I’ll be able to answer the phone in style.

Things just don’t ever seem to fall our way.  Not much we can do about it, and frankly, all the mishaps make for good stories.

Earlier this year we were on a roll.  3 1/2 weeks without phone service.  5 days without electricity, yadda, yadda, yadda.  All very typical.  Then our fridge broke for the 2nd time in about 4 months.  I hate coming home to rotting food.  I would have made a lousy pioneer–the fridge is the one comfort of life that I REALLY REALLY heart.

Anyway, the craptastic old fridge wasn’t even old.  It was only 5.  It must have been a lemon, though.  The compressor just konked out way too often (that would be any time more than once) for my choosing.  So, instead of spending $170 to have it break down within a few months again, DH and I decided to fork over some dinero for a new fridge.

We wanted this one.  We ordered it 11/13.  We scheduled the delivery for 11/28.  (The first available date was 11/24, but knowing that we were going to be out of town for T’giving made it’s delivery that much less urgent).  On the 28th, the delivery idiots guys came, unilaterally decided our doors were too narrow, and drove away without attempting to get the new fridge in the house.

I spent the next 4 1/2 hours on hold the phone with Best Buy, trying to get my fridge back.   It was not to be.  The order was canceled and we purchased this one. The soonest it could get here was 12/8.  This made me very sad.  2 weeks without a fridge is one thing.  3 1/2 is another.

But it finally arrived, splendid in all its whiteness. DH drew the short straw and got to stay home to wait for the delivery guys again.  Once the fridge was properly inserted into its resting home, he had to scoot off to the office, so no time to load it up.  I came home to this:

DH & I have a high set of priorities.

I can hear it, ever so faintly.  “Who do you think you’re kidding,” it says to me as I sit nightly with an ever growing pile of UFOs at my feet.

It’s right.  Who do I think I’m kidding.  I have low hopes for finishing anything on my list.  Oh well.

Here are some of the “musts:”

This is a 14 color stocking cap for thing 2.  She picked it out.  The pattern’s from Interweave Knits ‘06 (i think).  The designer lives in Maine, where (and I know this from personal experience), you have plenty of time in the winter to devise ways of using fourteen different colors in a hat.  I’ve already screwed up the coloring sequence more than once, but the beauty of this project is, not only, who the F* cares, but who the F* can actually see it? I sure can’t.

Also in my queue for a due date pre-12/25 is:

These are bed socks, using malabrigo sock doubles on size 3s.  They are for my secret-santa at work, and our party is in two weeks.  I wanted to make socks, but was afraid of the time frame, so I went with the slightly thicker sock.  I heart the easy-peasy pattern and the picot edge, and the malabrigo sock color, which reminds me of spilt gasoline.  Although the SNBer’s were convinced I could do a regular sock in that time frame, I’m glad I’ve doubled the yarn.  Even though my recipient has small feet, there are still other projects in the queue. Like the damn 14 color fair isle stocking cap.

I took some time out from knitting today to make some cookies of the Christmas variety.  Thing 3 helped with the shapes:

The older things helped with the decorating:

Not everything went as planned.  Several of the cookies broke, and the older Things applied much pre-teen sarcasm to the ordeal task at hand.  Several of the santas morphed into lawn gnomes.  A broken reindeer became roadkill (as evidenced by a rare blog appearance by thing 1):

sorry for the over-exposure–the roadkill reindeer is next to the bottle of red sprinkles.

doesn’t get nearly as much press as Thing 3.  This has been her fear ever since, 4 1/2 years ago, Thing 3 entered the scene.  Thing 2 was the princess.  Thing 2 wouldn’t be seen wearing pants.  Thing 2 was all about butterflies, lavender, and sugar & spice.

After Thing 3 came along, Thing 2’s spice went from, um, confectioner’s sugar (yes, I know, not a spice, but bear with me), to curry.  She’s a tween and totally complex.  I think Thing 3 ushered in this complexity, laced with a bit of noir, earlier than necessary.  It’s taken the Things and DH and I some time to get used to this newer, grimmer Thing 2.

Maybe a new knit would help.  Thing 2 needed a new knit.  The beret didn’t quite cut it.   So about 2 weeks ago, Thing 2 tagged along to the store, moaning and groaning all the way.  She picked out the Alchemy Promise.  In Cookie Monster Blue.

Tah-dah:

A simple top down raglan.  It used only one skein (making it both easier on the wallet and easier on the eyes)!  Size 7’s, about 4 st. to the inch.  A week from start to finish.  Fits like a glove and she hasn’t taken it off (really, she slept in it one night).

The smile–well, that’s about as big as it comes from Thing 2–but you can tell she’s pleased.  Me, too (counting my blessings that new knits still have the power to please).

this is a trend that deserves more press.  I heart the cowl.  I heart scarves too.  In a previous life, I must have been attacked by a vampire, cuz I’m all about covering up my neck.  Turtlenecks.  Scarves wrapped around so many times, and now the cowl.

I’ve got a few cowls hanging out in the shop.  On election night, I cowled away at this:

The Darkside Cowl (rav link).  I’ve discovered that I like a tighter cowl.  I reallio trulio hate draughts on my neck.  Darkside is a nice closer fit.  The pattern was not tricky, even though on election night, I was pins and needles until they called Ohio, and there are a few errors in my knitting.

After my success with Darkside, I moved onto Jenny Watson’s Noro book.  This just has some adorable patterns, and I quickly whipped up this:

This is Design 12.  I only had a teensy bit of yarn leftover.

Yes, this is cutting it close.  In fact, I had to modify the collar to take this into account.  However, this is not the fault of the pattern.  My gauge was at 4 to the inch when the pattern called for 4 1/2, and even though I was on 8s and coulda moved down to 7s, I felt that the knitted fabric was about as tight as I wanted it.  I shoulda paid more attention, but I’m happy with the end result.  I will probably do this again, in a non-stripey yarn so that I’ve got a cute cardi for the office that looks not so stripey.  Again, this falls in the “not so professional” category (one day I’ll figure all this “professional dress” thing out. In the meantime,  Design 12 will live at Modern Yarn).  Feel free to visit.

yarny old kim, I too heart Halloween.  First and foremost, it’s Big Jim’s birthday.  Second, it’s fun to be creative in that ‘concept‘ sorta way.

This year at my office, we dressed up.  It got competitive–the law office next door would judge “best costume” and the winner would get a 1/2 day off.

I’m nothing if not competitive.  And I got the perfect idea, based on my friend Mark’s reluctance to dress up, and my desire to make everyone participate.  American Gothic.

Here’s our rendition.

Alas, we did not win.  Can you guess who did?

(left to right; Angelina Jolie with several babes in tow, a nerd, a ghoul, a vampire, a prisoner, a witch, American Gothic, sexy witch, and “I’m in Shape; round is a shape.”

The nerd won.

I’m swearing on a stack of bibles this year that I’m not going to jack the heat up to above 68.  I’m fed up with forking over beaucoup bucks to PSEG on a monthly basis.  And since the Things and DH seem immune to the chill, this winter is going to be a war of willpower. My willpower against my chattering teeth.  I really don’t heart the cold.

To aid in my cause, I thought I’d knit me up something fuzzy in mohair.  Because there’s nothin’ hotter than mohair.  Yes, cashmere is soft and warm, but I think (and I know Kristen agrees) that mohair is downright furnace-ish.

On our jaunt to japan, I spied (and tried on, and modeled, and pranced around in for a good 30 minutes) this lovely green mohair sweater.  It was not a really fine gauge (ala kid silk haze), but slightly thicker.  It was plush and had some neat design elements to it.  It was also $400 smackeroos.  And although I truly deserved such a great sweater for being such a good sport for putting up with a jaunt to japan, I just couldn’t fork over the cash (part of the issue for that was that we never did get to the bank to change over our dollars to yen).  However, in the 30 minutes I spent in the store, I studied the sweater in depth.  I even considered asking the shop girls to take my photo in it (with close ups of the sleeves, the neckline, the arm scythe, etc), but refrained.  Instead, I left, and quickly jotted down the details on the back of a receipt, knowing that at the shop we had the perfect yarn for this sweater.

The Alchemy Promise.  If you’ve been in the shop, it’s the colorful stuff that actually doesn’t look like yarn.  Well, I’m here to tell you, it is.  And it’s lovely, and although it’s a spendy $34 a skein (which I think has detered folk), it only took me 2 (with about 1/4 left over) to knit this puppy.  So that’s a $78 answer to heating.   Is there any other yarn you can actually only use $78 worth and get such a hot (in color, style and warmth) sweater?  I think not.

I’m writing the pattern up.  Cuz you folks deserve the warmth too.

First my knitting life:

Somewhat Cowl is done.  It’s not this blue.  It’s a green melange by Frog Tree (sport weight alpaca melange).  I heart this yarn.  It’s not alpaca-prickly at all.  I was worried about this baby actually fitting–it’s a bit narrow in the torso, but after some aggressive blocking, it worked. 

Now the rant.  What’s up with meanie people?  Really.  Here’s what happened yesterday, just to end my day on the perfect note.  Those of you who visit the shop know that we have parking behind our store for those that work here in the store. Often times, though, we fight with Taro or Antique Center customers who assume they can park anywhere because they have money. On Sundays, noone parks in the back because I usually walk or ride my bike because we’re a single car family ever since the crappy corolla caught fire (nice alliteration, huh?).

So Sunday around 7, I’m finishing up, and I hear a car pulling into the back.  When I open the door to get me and my bike out, I see Moby Dick a huge white Mercedes SUV in our spaces.  I pedal over and ask the gentleman jerk if I can help him with anything.  He says no, he’s there to pick up his dinner.  I mention that where he’s parked isn’t public parking, that it’s private, and ask him if he’s got any business with our store because he’s in our spaces.  He says no, but that since we’re “obviously doing booming business, he can park there. just while he picks up his dinner”  I begged to differ that the amount of business we’re doing is irrelevant.  That we pay for the spots and can determine who can/can’t park there.  He tells me to call the cops if I have trouble with that.  I roll my eyes and pedal on.  He yells after me “you f**kin’ c**t, have a nice day, b*tch.”

I’m not a big one for confrontation, but I’m getting braver.  However, although my instincts said “turn around, Paige, turn around and say something super duper clever,” I didn’t, and kept on pedaling towards Glen Ridge.

The entire time, and then for the rest of the evening, I kept wondering, am I wrong to expect people to not park in a private parking space?  You know, if the dude had knocked on the door, and just asked, “hey, I’m picking up my dinner at Taro, do you mind if I park here just for a sec?” I would have, while questioning his taste in Asian food, said “sure, no problem.”  I think it’s the entitlement factor, the expectation held by Moby Dick drivers and their ilk that they get to just rule the world that pisses me off. 

Next time I’m going to turn around and say something super duper clever. 

the power of the teru teru bozu. 

Teru teru bozu are close cousins of Japanese ilk to handmade halloween ghosts.  Teru teru bozu are made to ensure excellent weather (or to ward off bad weather) prior to special days.  They are hung near windows.  Yen are wrapped in their heads (for additional good luck).  As they hang, they forecast the weather.  If they remain upright, it will be sunny.  If they’re sideways, it will be cloudy.  If they flip upside down, well get your wellies ready.

You’ve all heard (ad nauseum) about my golf outing.  Or maybe not.  Suffice it to say, I’ve been planning this major fundraiser (a golf outing) for my other job for what seems like an eternity.  It’s always the 1st Wed of October.  That would be today.  And for the past week, the weather forecasts have been calling for showers throughout the day.  Yesterday’s forecast for today, in fact, even had lightening in the icon. (note to self: weather icons are not reliable).  On Monday night, while fretting about the forecast, Thing 2 had the great idea to make teru teru bozu for my office.  One for each of us.  I distributed them, along with the rules, to my coworkers on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, one coworker comes in later than I do, and she missed the explanation and promptly, when she saw the teru teru bozu on her computer, thought there was candy in its head and ripped it open. Yikes! If upside down is rain, what does a ripped off head portend?

Anywho, at 2pm yesterday, with a forecasted 80% chance of showers, thunder, and just general lousiness throughout the day, we decided to postpone all my hard work the golf outing until Thursday.  We all breathe a sigh of relief and get on the horn to all our registered golfers, informing them of the decision.

Last night when I went to bed at 11, I thought it was odd that the rain hadn’t started.  And when I woke up this morning, I thought it even odder that as cars travelled down my street, I wasn’t hearing that “car-running-on-wet-road” sound.  And then, the radio announced the weather. . .

Cloudy but rainless.

OMFG. 

The lesson here is “odd little wives tales from Japan are to be trusted over the (not so) Accu-weather forecast.”

onegaishimasu.  This is a phrase you just hear over and over and over and over again in Japan.  Getting on and off trains, in and out of cabs, leaving restaurants, and conveniently so, disembarking from a plane.   The phrase (wasure-mono no nai yo ni…) translates loosely (and a lot more bluntly) as “don’t forget your crap.”  When visiting Japan you hear this phrase so often, in a lovely sing-song and not condescending at all tone of voice, that it lives on, like a bad pop song, in your head for days.

And I’m glad it did.  Because I almost had a “wasure-mono” (forgotten thing) of tragic proportions.  My somewhat cowl.

The somewhat cowl made the cut for the Jaunt to Japan.   That and some sock ends that are a Christmas project.  And I was cruising along in the round for on the first two legs of my trip.  On the way back (Fukuoka to Narita), I had gotten to the point where I actually joined the round (at the bottom of the cowl).  The plane landed.  We disembarked. We were stranded on the steps of the aircraft (having just missed the bus to the terminal, awaiting the next one), when “ach!” I thought, “wasure-mono!”

I shove aside nearly 70 people as I raced back into the plane (never, ever, have I been so glad to get back onto a plane), cruised through the cabin, to find my lovely knowknits pouch, with the somewhat cowl ensconced inside.  Woot!  And, of course, as I made my way back to the head of the bus line, I was reminded by at least 7 flight attendants, “wasure-mono nai yo ni. . .”

Here she is:

I’m about ready for the ribbing!  I’m using Frog Tree Sport Alpaca Melange, and I’m loving the texture, the softness, and the heathery color.  Can’t wait to finish this puppy.  I think she’ll be my Stitch N Pitch project.

Meanwhile, I thought I’d treat you readers to some photos from Japan, seeing as it’s not a country on everyone’s “weekend trip” list, as well as some wedding pix.

First,  here’re my SIL and new BIL, in their fancy wedding kimono.  Actually, his is called a “hakama.”  Although it looks very kimono-esque, the bottom half is actually pants, not a skirt. It only looks like a skirt.

The photo is taken in the holding room at the wedding palace.  Before we parade out to have the enormous family photo taken (all relatives in attendance from both sides, in one photo).  Please note the huge grin on G’ma Sato’s face.  She never thought this day would get here.

At the wedding, the food was actually delish.  This is unusual for a Japanese wedding; typically the food is traditional, beautiful and not so tasty.  SIL did a nice job of picking the food, which was served in many teeny, tiny portions all afternoon.  Much of it consisted of good things from the sea:

This was squid, sushi, octopus (see the tentacles? in the background?), and tofu.  The stuff in the glass is fish jello.  (it’s tastier than it sounds). Then we had:

This was more sashimi, delicately sliced vegies, and more glutinous sea jello.  Again, much yummier than my description.

We also had live tempura:

When I heard “live tempura,” I actually thought the food was going to be fried alive, and was wondering how that’d go over at a wedding.  Actually, “live tempura” means that the tempura’s made ala benihana’s with the chef chopping and frying right in front of you.  Naturally, this was a hit.  And I’ll have you know that I wasn’t being some dumb “gaijin” (foreign person) by misconstruing the meaning of “live tempura.”  Many of the old people in attendance were also confused.   It’s nice to know that I’m old.

Families of five are somewhat unusual in Japan, and to get to the wedding we had to march off to the train station to get a cab that would fit all of us.

The Things clean up nice.  I forgot Thing 1’s tie.  Considering the nightmare involved in getting to Japan, only forgetting the tie is a fairly nice accomplishment.

Taxi’s in Japan are super fancy:

Thing 3 thought we were off to heaven.  Notice the gloves on the driver?  They all wear ‘em.  And, (and this is the part I like best), the driver has an automatic door opener, so that passengers don’t have to open the door to actually get in the cab.  The doilies are the best though.  Thing 1 thought if we moved to Japan, I could actually knit taxi doilies for a living.  That would be excellent.

Japan’s not big on zoning.  I think their philosophy is “it it fits, you can build it.”  This is the view from the wedding hall:

Yes, directly below our window was a neighborhood.  Sorta in the middle of the photo is a school, just squished right in there.  And there are factories and parking lots and neighborhoods just all mashed together.  And, keep in mind, this is a small city with mostly post-war construction (but we won’t get into the reason why).   The water in the middle is Nagasaki Bay.

I think one of the shining moments of our trip was this:

The view from the train station!  Finally, after four days without, I got my venti skim latte.  Amazing how that can make the day brighter.

We finished off our trip to a famous ramen shop.  It’s an odd spot–you buy your meal ticket in a vending machine (and if the crowd hadn’t been so impatient, I would have taken photos), then you sit at this booth, and hand over your tickets.  The booth is curtained in front, so you never see your server, or the food being cooked, but then it appears.  And it’s sooooo yummy.

Thing 3 and DH were having a great time.

It was only slightly disconcerting.  But lots of fun.

I’ve been trying to finish up some stuff even though I don’t have a “gotta knit” project yet for fall.

Fete is now a fait accompli!:

And so is my “ode to bev” wrap.

Pattern for Ode to Bev is forthcoming.  I used Rowan’s Cocoon for the first time ever!  LOVE IT!

The Things, DH and I are gearing up for a short (!) jaunt (!!) to Japan this Thursday.  We’ll be back next Tuesday.  This is where we’re going.

DH’s sister is getting married, so this is supposed to be a pleasure trip.  Unfortunately, it’s 7 days into the new school year and 2 weeks before my other job’s major fundraiser (a golf outing) which became solely my responsibility this year.  Thus the 48 hours on the ground, and 30+ in the air and 10+ on trains and in various other vehicles.

I’m not a good flier (mainly because I’m not in charge).  I’ve got plenty of crafts for the Things, but I’m at a loss as to what I can knit to keep my mind off the fact that I’m too high up in the air.  I am really eager to do a jacket; one that could pass at work for “professional” (of the white collar, not street walker, variety).   I saw this in a catalog, and have written up a pattern.  I’m also loving this from Custom Knits.  However, I’m not so sure I can put the concentration into option 1 given that with every bump I instantly think I’m plummeting to the ground, and option 2 just might cruise along too quickly and get to be less than portable on the way back (since it’s in the round).  I was hoping Knitty would come out (it’s usually around the 10th) and wow me, but I’m guessing I’m going to miss it.

Maybe I’ll just stare out the window.  For 14 hours.

Yeah, right.

rant.  I noticed that in the ABC along that I’m not participating in that it’s R week.  So I’ll chime in with a rant.  Because I’ve been holding a bunch of stuff in for far too long.

Why can’t ice cream shops sell a small size that’s truly small?  Small like in $1.50 small.  Not just knocking some off the top of their usual small (which is too ginormous anyways to warrant the word ’small’) and charge me the same $3-$4 bucks.  Yes, I know cream and sugar are expensive.  And so are hired teenagers who scoop the stuff.  But seriously, if a local ice cream store actually had a kid size that was suitable for, well, a kid in the 4 year old range, then we’d be there all the time.  Instead, I get to pay $4 for this:

Yes.  Lucky for me Applegate Farm only filled up half the cone (still charging me the normal size, though).  Seriously, though, after paying over $10 for 2.5 ice cream cones last week, I’m ready to start a revolution. 

The rant continues:

What’s up with people with jobs actually not working.  As in setting the clock ahead so as to skip out early.  I’m going to sound really cranky here, but if a place is advertised as being open until 5, then at 4:50 it should still be open.  4:50 is not 5:00.  It’s before 5. 

I’ve lost a little steam here, because the rant actually brewed too long in my head; we’ll just leave it at “sometimes things are frustrating” and move on.  Now where’s my knitting at?