Anyway, Kristen & I were in search of the next great thing in terms of bags.  You know, something functional, practical, wearable, but just so freakin’ great that not everyone else has either.  We found some contenders (which I won’t link to–don’t want to give away trade secrets ya know, but we’re bound to blab about it on SNB night or Sunday, or any other time you may ask).

We returned to the shop after 6 hours of walking walking walking all over the Javitts center.  I ate a Javitts salad.  Kristen had the cobb.  Both were yummy.  We had some ice cream, but mostly, we were scoping out stuff.  And let me tell, every inch of that ginormous building was filled with stuff.  Lillian Vernon type stuff.  Pier 1 type stuff.  Pottery Barn type stuff.  Dollar store type stuff.  Because, and maybe you’ve figured this out by now, almost everything in the world can be categorized as a “gift.” (really, think a bit–everything can be considered a gift.  Except maybe carrots.  If you’re not a rabbit).

Once we returned, we, with the help of Kristine & Christina and a bottle of wine, re-orged the store.  You will not recognize the place.  OMG, it looks so great.

That’s right, the fall yarns are out!  Ladies (and gents) start your needles! I still don’t have a sweater project that’s caught my fancy, but don’t worry.  I’m truly inspired now, and can’t wait to get something going.

Meanwhile, Kristen’s been on a finishing streak:

And even though I don’t have my all-encompassing project started yet, I’ve been busy knitting.  Here’s a beret (based on the purlsoho beret) I did for Thing 2.  Voila, mon petite chou!

The day ended with a clean shop, miles walked, and a hunger for the cooler weather of fall (although I cannot complain at. all. about this summer) at midnight.  And now I’m soooo sleepy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/opinion/08brooks.html?ref=todayspaper

I’ve finished my monkeys:

Yes, the nearer one is shorter than the one further away.  Somehow I knit 7 repeats on the 2nd sock and only 6 on the first.  Oh well.  Who’s going to see it?  Noone.  Except I’ll know, and that will bother me.  argh. The question is, will it bother me enough to rip it out and redo?  Hmmm.  Still thinking about that.

In other shop news: Modern Yarn has a new friend–Bert.  Bert comes to us through Elly.  He was a big fan of hers, and since she’s retired, we’ve inherited him.  Bert may not be speedy, but he’s consistent.  Here’s Bert:

Bert is colorful.  He’s working on a complicated fisherman knit in the already wound up teal-ish yarn on the left.  Good luck Bert! (and yes, that is Bert’s wine to the right).

Here’s my one finished pair:

These are for my co-worker who wasn’t as uncertain about the colorway as I was.  These are serious clown colors.  All the while I’m knitting, I’m thinking “good thing these will go under pants and in shoes.” The co-worker however, thought the first one was lovely (I was knitting at lunch).  Since she’s given notice and will be leaving my office at the end of July, I thought this would be a good send-off gift.  Plus she’s moving to very cold environs.  As in Ithaca.  Yup, these will come in handy.

Here’s what I love about these jaywalkers.  (ravelry link) I made no effort whatsoever to get them to match up.  The second just followed suit. Talk about serendipitous.  I mean, really, these buds are so cut from the same dna.  While the color scheme was a tad bold for me, I am slightly sad to see them go, just because they matched up so perfectly.

And now for the line up of singles:

my monkeys.  these will be coming off this crazy “two-at-a-time” long circ real soon.  it’s driving me crazy.

Thing 3’s Crazy Sock:

And then my pom pom ped and embossed leaves, posing together:

For the life of me, I can’t get embossed leaves long enough.  I’ve re-done this toe four times now.  argh.

Now for some interesting knitting:

Meet Elena, she’s a customer, and a darn good knitter.  This is her latest project made out of GGH’s Leona.  The top is adorable.  Elena even more so.

Woot for Elena and the hottie top!

And I’ll leave you with some hydrangea.  For some reason this year my hydrangea are back with a vengence (after a two summer absence).  I’m happy they’re back.  I’m not good with living things at all, and I just love these for their color!  Usually they are a soft blue, but this year, the colors are particularly vibrant.  Enjoy:

I was also excited for the trip because it involved 10 hours of driving, and I had big knitting plans.  Until we hit Dubois, PA, that is.  For it’s in Dubois, PA, that we encountered our first glitch–getting rear-ended.

ala the Yarn Harlot, I’m adding socks to my pix now.  That’s Embossed Leaves in Koigu KPPPM next to my freshly dented Mazda MPV.  Zoom zoom my foot (ha!).  We had to wait nearly an hour for the police report.  The Dubois police may not be timely, but our officer had the best handwriting.  Both DH and I commented on it.

After that, we still had about 6 hours to go.  And then the storms hit Ohio the same time we did.  Several months ago DH changed our wiper blades and bought some cheapo ones at Walmart.  You get what you pay for.  The left hand blade flew off the wiper, mid-storm.  We pulled over to the break down lane, and amidst thunder and lightening, switched the right blade to the left wiper, and pulled the rear wiper off the back and attached it to the right wiper.  20 minutes later, same thing.  Cheapo wiper flew off, and again we’re on the breakdown lane, playing musical wiper blades with the one remaining wiper.  Thing is, though, that the bladeless wiper can now scratch the glass.  So we used a Starbuck napkin to tide us over.  It didn’t work so well.

You can see, I’ve turned the heel on embossed leaves.  The brown smudge on the windshield, well that’s the wet starbucks napkin.  At this point, we soon found a rest area, overpaid for new blades, and thus guaranteed a rainless remainder to our trip.  And sure enough, the sun soon came out.

The rest of the reunion was uneventful compared to the journey.  On the way home, we stopped at Cedar Point, an amusement park in Sandusky, OH; home of 17 roller coasters.  I hate high, fast rides, so the $42.95 entrance fee (per person!) was wasted on me.   Thank god for Thing 3, she gives me an excuse to stay on the ground level.  We saw plenty of merry-go-round action!

I’ll leave you with a shot of the Things in a Nest.  This is before Thing 1 started spinning the damn nest too fast, nearly shooting Thing 3 from the ride.

anyways, it’s about books.  And with the first name of Paige, you can bet your bottom dollar that I read. I’m hijacking the meme.

bold the ones you’ve read, ital the ones you want to, and leave plain the others you have no interest in.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) 6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien) 7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) I HEART THIS BOOK!
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) (halfway through it)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91.The Skin of the Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

My “want to read” list is embarrassingly short, esp since I’m just trying to play catch-up in SOS ‘08.  if only someone could invent something to hold a book and turn the pages while you knit.  hmmm.  then life would be perfect.

We’ve had a busy coupla weeks at Modern Yarn. There was a kick-a$$ sale to celebrate WWKIP day. And then last Friday we hosted the official summer of socks cast on. Watch the video.

You’ll notice in the video that we consumed vast amounts of pocky. Thanks Ina! She waxes much more eloquent about Pocky than I do, but I have to say, I HEART pocky. I think it’s my 2nd fave of all snacks Japanese. (my number one fave is the sesame/soy rice crackers. yum. oh, and then their version of the moon pies. hmmm, maybe pocky is now third). Here’s a shot of our pocky fest.

Before the official cast on at 12:01am, I was knitting along on a new summer cardi–I put the ggh Lenore with Alchemy’s silken straw for some sheen. Oh la la–the result is just fab, if I do say so myself. At 3.25 st to the inch, this babe took just one week from start to finish.

I don’t have a name for her yet–it’s a pattern that I made up, and may just have to write up. I wore her today with a high waisted navy pencil skirt, a ruffle shirt underneath (short sleeve) and navy polka dot kitten heel slingbacks.

Now, if you’re not part of summer of socks, that by no means precludes you from coming to the event.  Because knitting at midnight on the summer solstice is something not to be missed.

Hope to see you there!

Paige

On the stick a fork in it list are my 3rd pair of Sprung socks

No, the one sock is not shorter than the other. One of my legs is longer than the other!

I know, I know, I go on and on about how much I heart this pattern.  I really do.  It’s easy to memorize; it makes great use of the variegated yarns–this particular one was from The Neighborhood Fibre Co. in Washington DC.

Switching projects, I also finished up the mohair turtleneck from Knit So Fine.

I wasn’t so sure about this end result, until I began to wear it.  It’s so freakin’ versatile.  We were up in Maine immediately after I finished it.  Maine’s still chilly this time of year, and I wore this over a long sleeve tee and was just honky dorey.  I wore it to my office (over the white shirt) and it kept the central air chill at bay.  I’m truly hearting this sweater.  A few notes: as I mentioned before, I used the Alchemy Haiku single stranded (where the pattern called for single strand knitting) and triple stranded where it called for double.  My gauge was still slightly off (4.5 st to the inch instead of 4) so I thought the entire thing would be tooooooo small.  It wasn’t, except the Haiku pulled up in length when I wet-blocked it.  That was  first for me.  So even though I increased the length (because the photo in the book showed the model’s bellybutton which is much cuter than mine), it still ended up what I thought was too short.  However, when I pair it with a skirt (as I did for work) or with my lower cut chinos and a long-sleeve tee (as I did in Maine), it worked out fine.

Here’s another short on one of the womannequins:

I think she’s just lovely.

Lastly, in yarn news, Kristen & I are trying out Riverstone from Louet.  It’s wicked excellent with some great colors.  Come and see for yourself.

And it’s like $7.95 a skein for 193 yards.  Can you say “bah-gain” (still trying to lose that Maine accent).

Paige

Thing 1 noticed last week that Cinnamon’s coat has changed slightly. It now has a heart pattern on it.

You have to cock your head to the right to fully see it, but it’s there by golly.

In knitting news, I’m cruising on Fete, and I’ve started a project from Knit So Fine. I think I’ve already mentioned that I heart Knit So Fine. I’ve decided to work on the Mohair T-neck. It’s just the sort of sweater I can wear to the office and still be considered “appropriately dressed” (long story there, and many of you have already heard it, so I won’t bore the blog with details.)

Here’s the photo:

The project uses Rowan’s kidsilk haze either singled or doubled to achieve that “tank under the sweater” look.  I decided to get fancy and substitute Alchemy’s Haiku, because I’m fancy like that.  Well, guess what.  Although both Kidsilk Haze and Haiku are considered fingering weight, and both are a blend of mohair and silk, you’d think they’d knit at the same gauge.  Wrongo!  Kidsilk Haze is 70% mohair, 30% silk; the Alchemy’s 60% mohair, 40% silk.  That 10% makes all the difference in the world.  So instead of doubling the yarn where I need to, I’m tripling it (and in all likelihood, tripling the overall cost of the sweater, given that Haiku’s about double the cost of Kidsilk Haze).  And my gauge is still slightly off (4.5 st to the inch instead of 4).  And because the sizing’s slightly bizarre on this sweater (they offer a size 36″ but then skip to 40″, thereby skipping my size, 38″, which I do tend to think is one of the more common sizes), I’m knitting a combination of the 36″ and 40″ and just praying for the best.

Hmmm.  After reading that long boring explanation, please wish me luck on this one.

Meanwhile, I did finish Dinah, from Rowan 42.

Yes, you could say I’m in a kidsilk haze rut.  But I’m really enjoying knitting with this skinny stuff.  But back to Dinah.  It doesn’t suit my body type.  It looks much better on our womannequin.  She’s not too chesty (like me), but slightly broad across the back (I’m not), and she doesn’t have too long a torso (unlike me).  I just looked plain foolish in this; she looks much better. But it was a good knit, so I’m pleased with the process of this project.

Knit and learn.

Up next is this adorable baby bird, I named him BabyFeathers. Kristine found him outside the modyarn door this morning. He’s been hiding out from the rain under the awning all day. He probably fell out of his nest trying to fly. His parents haven’t abandoned him, they’ve been bringing him food, it is way too precious. I hope he does okay, he’s definitely not injured and hops around all over the place.

And I’m almost done with my first pair of mis-matched socks (no photo, too busy knitting).

But I’m about to put Fete on hiatus–we got Knit So Fine in the shop last week, and I’m just smitten.  There are about 4 projects in this book that I just heart.  Mostly this one:

It’s a mock turtle using kidsilk haze.  Where it looks like the model’s wearing a cami, though, is actually the yarn doubled.  How freakin’ clever is that?  So I’ve already cast on (using alchemy’s haiku, though, cuz I’m special).  I’m having some issues with gauge, but I swear, I will persevere and get this done. 

Also of note, though, are some new bags we got from Vy and Elle.  They’re made of re-claimed billboard.  Ha!  This is taking recycling to the limit.  We’ve got some awesome totes:

The best thing about these bags–wicked cheap.  That’s the kind of recycling I like.  I hate when the organic/environmentally friendly thing to do is spendy.  I can live with this.

Paige

The highlight of the game for us was that Things 1 & 2 appeared on the jumbotron.  Woot.

Thing 3 did not make it to the game.  We only had 4 tickets, so Thing 3 was shuttled off to my sister’s in Queens.  She had sleepover with cousin1.  Cousin 1’s mother is brave.  She hosted Thing 3, entertained her Thing 1 with my Thing 3, and also kept an eye on her own Thing 2 who’s not even 1 yet.  All while BIL was at a cricket tournament in Philly. 

Anyway, one of the best things about the game was the fabulous amount of knitting I got done.  I’m working on two socks on one circ (super duper magic loop, I suppose).

Um, the claw hand is not mine–it belongs to DH.  The sock progress was amazine.  I finished the leg and started on the heel flap by the time we left the parking lot.  Last night I turned the heel, and now I’m on the gusset.  The 2 socks on one circ is a great technique–said to alleviate “2nd sock syndrome.” Unfortunately, I followed the advice of the book’s author and used two different yarns for my first “sample” pair, meaning, I will now probably fall prey to “3rd and 4th sock syndrome.”

BTW, the game was freezing.  I had to dig out winter coats, hats, fingerless mitts, etc. to keep warm.  Therefore, once we shook ourselves free of traffic, we stopped in Palisades Park for some of our favorite Korean soft tofu.

This restaurant specializes in “soft tofu;” it’s served with steamed rice cooked in an earthenware pot.  My soft tofu was “very spicy” (see how red it is).  It was soooooo hot, both in a spicy and warm sense, which was the perfect end to the perfect day.

BTW again, see the white rice in the pot–the rice closest to the bowl gets all hard and crunchy.  At this restaurant, when you’re at that point, the waitress pours some weak tea in your pot, to help you get the rice off and it’s a perfect finish to the hot and spicy meal.  When I lived in Japan,  I loved the crusty rice.  I later learned that there’s a specific vocab word for that type of rice (”okoge” pronounced oh koh gay).  What sorta funny about that word is that it’s slang for girls that hang out with (or stick to the sides of)  gay men.  I know, I know, that’s a random piece of information, but I just like that visual imagery. 

Last week the class worked on knitting two socks at one time on one long circular needle.  This is a variation on the magic loop, and while not that complicated, it’s not easy peasy either (at least at first).

But the group plugged along, and I’m proud to say we were ribbing away by 9pm!  Take a gander:

Although my knitting mojo’s been in a funk, I’ve actually been making progress on several things. First is the Brighton Bag, the inaugural product of the MY Sunday Knit-alongs. I finished. Not that it was a contest or anything (cuz I’m not competitive like that. . .right!), but I did think that I would peter out before the lining part. Sewing’s not my strong point.

But I plodded along on Sunday night:

You’ll note that I have all my very important tools nearby–my wonderful Necchi sewing machine, appropriately colored thread, pins, and the all important beer. I never sew without a beer–it keeps me thinking everything is going ok.

My round table sucks, so I do a lot of work on the floor.

I’d like to point out my wonderful new iron in this photo. I finally broke down and got a Rowenta. Holy cow, do I love ironing now! I kept ironing the bag lining, it was so much fun.

You’ll also note that my bag lining has absolutely no color in common with the knitted bag. So it doesn’t quite match–it does, however, “go,” if not in color, then in attitude. I truly heart this fabric, purchased at Purl Patchwork. The birds just make me happy! The green is there because I didn’t have quite enough bird fabric for the circumference of the bag. Drat. However, it at least “goes.”

Here are the two pieces together:

When I got to the store on Sunday, I added short red Grayson handles. But of course I forgot to take a picture. However, one other knit-alonger brought in her bag (which totally put mine to shame):

I was feeling sorta confident in a sewish way until I saw this beaut. The lining is perfect, and includes pockets. My bag definitely suffers in comparison. I had thought of giving mine to my mother for Mother’s Day, but now I’m re-thinking that.

Ok, the low-down on the Brighton Bag. I used one skein of Louet Euroflax linen, sport weight, in orange and size 6 needles. I made my bag only 9.5″ tall, instead of 13″, and in my lining I didn’t use the fusible interfacing. That was a mistake. Otherwise, I worked the pattern as written. Lastly, since my bag is shorter, I used shorter handles. My mom doesn’t put much on her shoulder.

I’ll leave you with a few shots of my posse’s annual cherry blossom party (on 4/19, in part celebrating thing 3’s birthday).

Here are the blossoms:

Here they are a few hours later:

(note the beer, lower left corner. The Japanese truly understand how to get beer into the mix. There’s nothing better than a lacquer box full of food, bottles full of beer, and trees full of cherry blossoms on a 75 degree day in the park)

And here’s Thing 3 with her post party hangover:

As always, there’ll be more to come.