What is going on around here?!

It's been pretty busy over at Casa Unskeined recently. I have a lot I've been meaning to blog about, but work has kept me so freaking busy lately. Let's talk about that first.

1. When the recent snow storms hit NYC, I was very lucky to miss them. Instead, I was on a business trip. The good news, it was right on the beach. The bad news, I was only down there for a total of about 24 hrs. Bleh. Luckily, I didn't fly JetBlue. The co-workers of mine who did were stuck down there for two extra days after already checking out of the hotel! I flew Continental, and not only didn't have a problem, but I lucked out and got to board an earlier flight into Newark! Yippee!! I have a lot of problems with Continental, but at least they get you where you're going.

The view from my hotel room:



Where I spent all my time:



Again, bleh. I'm back now for a week, and then have to go on one of my twice-annual UK business trips. This time, I convinced Spanky to come with me, so we're taking a few extra days to do some touristy things. But can you say "burned out"? The travel season is in full swing for me. Look for more trips to come.

2. I fell off the yarn-diet wagon. Yes, that was quick. No, it is not insurmountable. I know, because I went to a yarn store again today, and walked out without buying anything. I'll get to that in a minute. Anyway, my friend at work wanted me to teach her to knit so that she could make legwarmers. I took her to the LYS near our office, and she picked out two skeins of Cascade 220 and some needles. I figure I'll teach her to knit and purl, and to change colors, and once she's mastered a 1x1 rib, I'll let her go to knit two big rectangles, and then I'll show her how to seam them up. I don't have time to show her how to knit in the round.

Anyway, something came over me when I was in the store. It was insurmountable, but at least I stayed focused on the projects I was planning for the immediate future. I bought three skeins of Berroco's Touche, because it is just fabulous for baby things, and one skein of some silly novelty yarn that I'm planning on using with the Touche at some point. Two of the skeins are red, and I'm planning to use them to make something for my friend Ilene's baby, and one was blue. I already knit a hat out of the blue for one of the babies at work, and I'm using the rest of the skein and one left over from the other baby project to make the mittens from the Natural Knits for Babies and Moms book to go with the hat.

Once I got back to my office, I had a bit of buyer's remorse, but I'm going to use this stuff pretty quickly, so no worries. Much. Eh. Everyone needs a get-out-of-jail free card. And I always knew that I would have to break down and buy stuff for specific projects since my stash is so bizarre. I have a collection of one and two skeins of different yarn.

I also just bought some Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton in Nut for another impending baby. I'm telling you, they just keep coming!

3. Between the travel and the babies, much actual finished knitting was accomplished in the last week or so:

First, the baby knitting. The hat and booties were from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms, and the baby arm warmers were from an LJ knitting community post, the link for which I no longer have. The booties/armwarmers were knit from vintage acrylic from the stash, and the hat was from the Touche. I believe they were all knit on US 6s. I changed the hat pattern to be done in the round and did it entirely on dpns. The armwarmers were likewise done in the round and have a thumb hole for the little baby thumb. I did a very rough blanket stitch around the thumb hole so that no little thumbs would be unnecessarily yanked.



I still have to finish mittens to go with the hat, which will be going to one boy baby at work, and maybe a hat to go with the the booties/armwarmers for the other boy.

I'm still working on Spanky's second Regia sock, but oh my god is it boring. I've turned the heel, and the foot part of it just keeps going and going forever. It is on US 1s, and they're metal, so I didn't want to chance the air travel, because for my overnight trip, I didn't check my suitcase. Instead, I cast on for this:



This is the Interweave Knits Lacy Hair Tamer, from a free pattern (Fall 2004) on their website. Unfortunately, there is no way for me to wear this gracefully with my shorter hair, so I think I'll be gifting it. It was made on bamboo US 2s with Cascade 220 in this gorgeous blue heathered color. I finished almost the whole thing on my trip, and just had to graft it together and weave in the ends when I got home. I did a regular 3 needle bind off, because I didn't understand their directions. I suppose I could have used the kitchener stitch, but I still don't really know how to do that, so I just opted for the big seam down the middle. I actually like it. You can't see it in the picture though, because it is right at the top. Good airplane knitting. I highly recommend the pattern.

4. Today was my 6th anniversary with my Spanky. This is now officially the longest relationship I've ever been in. I am still very much in love, so I guess things are working out. Keeping things going with someone is so much harder than starting things up. I'm so lucky to have someone who makes it easier by being so patient and easy-going and loving. Plus, it doesn't hurt that her skin smells better than anything on this earth. Ha. Anyway, she even voluntarily went with me to Knit NY today looking for that aforementioned Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton yarn. They didn't have it, but they suggested Araucania Nature Cotton, which felt very nice, but was $10 a skein! It only has 105 yards, where the BSA has 150+ yards, so I passed. I also didn't buy any Koigu, even though it was 20% off. So yay me. See? Yarn diet in full effect. Anyway, when I got home, I discovered that you can buy a bag of 10 skeins of the Araucania Nature Cotton here for $60! So I'm glad I didn't cave. I ended up ordering the BSA cotton from Kpixie.com, which had the lowest prices and gives 10% off with your first order. And that will be knitted into a baby blanket and hat from Natural Knits. Man, I wasn't kidding when I said this would be the only baby book I ever needed. I guess once I knit all the patterns I might have to move on, but I love them so much.

5. I'm not perfect* update:



I meant to post this a long time ago, but what with the conference in FL, and my ungrateful assistant quitting (moving on up, is more like it), I just haven't had the energy. This lovely photo documents the two bags of books that have been sitting in front of the front door for about 6 months now, or half the time we've lived in this apartment, waiting to be donated to the local church, which holds a book sale to raise money every weekend and loves donations. I have three more bags like this in my office that I optimistically thought I would donate to Housing Works. Did I? No, they're still in my freaking office, taking up space and junking the place up.

*I'm not perfect is a photo meme started by Natalie at Keeping Me in Stitches

6. Finally, just a reminder that it was fashion week recently in Bryant Park, which is near my office. Too bad I never get to see these things live. Here's the highlight from the Benjamin Cho show. Fantastic!