MY Blog

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!