Happy Pride!

Got back from FL just in time to dash into NYC for the March today. I love going, but Spanky's not a fan. Sometimes it is more fun than others. This year is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, so it seemed to be more of a political march and less of a parade. Some years, it is the opposite. Frankly, I appreciate the march more this way. There were more ladies, and less naked men in body glitter, and much less garish commercialization than other years. Also, a lot more older people this year. I don't know what that augers, but it was fun. I only stayed for about 2 hrs and saw about half the marchers. Here are some of my favorites (click on any of the pics to make bigger):


This was just one Stonewall float, but it seemed to be one of the first big floats and set the tone. I love the body art on those guys!


This float held the actual veterans. There was an interesting piece in NY mag recently about the riots. Very interesting. Love the LGBT history.


Gay marriage float. I should have taken this sooner, to get a better angle on the grooms on the cake, but I was feeling pretty ambivalent about it for too long. The theme of gay marriage ran through a lot of the floats and is obviously still a really important issue.


This is the Imperial Court of New York. You can read about them here. Sounds glamorous! And they've raised over a million dollars for gay-related charities and organizations. This year their float had a weird Italian-related theme, which I thought kind of took away from their main focus, because I kept thinking it was a gay Italian group until I saw the float (there were outlying marchers preceding the float).


omg, the Flaggots. I couldn't find a NY website, but this one has a lot of info. They were pretty cool.


The Gay Men's Health Crisis--GMHC. They are the oldest HIV/AIDS related organization, founded by Larry Kramer and others, and I give them money whenever they ask. They provide tons of services and I like how they're really focused on practical needs of people living with HIV/AIDS as well as education and research.


I'm really glad they're still around, but I wonder if they might want to think about publicizing a bit more. Anyway, just in case you're interested, I found them here. This could be a whole long conversation/post of its own someday.


Finally, you gotta love this guy. What a proud bear! He's out there all by himself, got his flag raised high. I really hope he's wearing sun screen and has some friends or is meeting them later.

I'm bummed that I missed the Dyke March, but my mom really loved having me down for just the few days I was there that I can't begrudge her that time with me. I love her, and I'll go over that more later. I hope everyone in NYC is having a great Pride and going out and celebrating with their sweeties or meeting lots of new people. Me, I'm sitting at home waiting for Spanky to get home from that freaking movie job so that we can snuzzle some. I've barely seen her for weeks now it seems like, and I miss her! I had to text her everything I was seeing at the March because she was working. How sad is that? I'm sure she'd have rather been with me but at least we have each other for the long haul, so one pride march more or less won't make much of a difference. Now, if only the country could get those marriage rights sorted out so I can finally get hitched, eh?

FO #20 Scott's cowl

I'm one half a ruffle away from finishing the onesie, and I still have to document my mom's socks, but in the midst of all of this, I balled up a skein of yarn and knit a bulky cowl for my friend Scott.



I don't know if he's ever going to wear it. After I started it, I remembered that he does get hot easily, but Spanky pointed out that he does have a motorcycle, so hopefully he can still use it when he's on the bike. But I think he's going to look really good in this, and I wanted to make him something warm and cozy, so...



Pattern: Cowl'd and Frosty Morningby Kelly Herdrich. This is a lovely pattern--very simple and effective, especially for such a beautiful yarn. Since it is for a guy, I didn't want a pattern that was too fussy, and I needed something that would work with the bulky gauge. I didn't really have enough yarn to have 10 rows of stockinette between the seed stitch bands, so I went with 5 rows of stockinette between the bands.



Needle: US 10 Boye circular

Yarn: Misti Alpaca Tonos Chunky--this is a hand painted tonal yarn. It's beautiful and soft. I got this skein and one in another color (for me!) when The Point was closing. The colors were just too beautiful to pass up.



Notes: This took me about two days to finish. I had to start it a few times, because of the difference in my gauge from the pattern, but I didn't mind, because the yarn is so nice to work with. It does shed though. After blocking, it's very soft and warm. Just in time for summer!



Oh yeah, I got my hair cut too. What do you think?

lordy

This crochet stuff is HARD. I have to start all over with the romper. I held it up today and looked at my hours of painful work, and realized I could wear the romper. WITH A DIAPER ON. So...



I am back to where I join the legs together. Sigh. I think the way to do this is just to count the stitches every round. All 116 stitches. Every round. Because I don't know what the hell else I'm doing wrong! It looks right when I put it together, just huge, so I know I'm adding stitches somewhere.

And they say that crochet is quicker than knitting! BAH.

ho humming right along

Mom's present is finished, and mighty fine, if I do say so myself. I'll be flying down to spend her birthday with her at the end of June, and she'll get the Jaywalkers then, and I'll be able to take some finished pictures, but I don't want them to be leaked. I think I also have enough sock yarn left to make either some anklets or socks for Bella. YAY! If I can ever stand to look at that yarn again... It is kind of splitty and hard to use. But really soft! I think she'll like them.

Veil is crawling along. Maybe it would move faster if I would just work on it, but I get really tired of that lace stitch. And the yarn. I'll finish it soon though. I want to see it all put together. Perhaps I'll work on it this weekend while watching Casino Royale.



I haven't worked on the crochet scarf in a while either, because when I finished my mom's present, I started swatching for the next baby project I have to do. I had to go down two hook sizes in order to get something approximating gauge. I must be a loose crocheter. Weird. Well, we'll see. the romper is so cute. I may do something else that is knitted just to be on the safe side.

This past weekend, I also went to the Lion Brand Studio in NYC for the first time. WOW. That place is really beautiful. Anyway, I took advantage of their monthly sale yarn (cotton ease) because I have a second baby project to make after this romper--a sweater. sigh. I also bought a US F size crochet hook for the romper, which ended up being TOO BIG if you can believe that. I actually got gauge with the E that I already had at home. Isn't that always the way? Anyhow, I'll probably be concentrating on the romper until I get it under control, and then I may go back to Veil or the scarf. We'll see. I'm not particularly enthused by any of them at the moment. I'm in kind of a funk with the projects. They're all ones that require a lot of concentration--the crochet ones because I'm not that good or fast at crochet yet, and Veil because of the challenging knitting circumstances I built into the project (slippery needles).

I worked on one other project over the weekend, but I'll debut that later. It's GORGEOUS, and I want to block it and get some better quality photos first. In fact, it was such a quick, fun project that I think I might make another for myself sooner rather than later (one for me was always the plan, but it was planned for later!).

Spanky's at a conference in Atlanta, so it's just me and the babies until Saturday. And you know what that means! More North and South and some Bond, James Bond.

Man, that North and South is one underrated soap opera of a mini series. I'm on "Book II" now, and it is SOAPY. Everyone who was anyone in 1980s pop culture is in that series, including not only the easy ones like Patrick Swayze, Kirsty Alley and David Carradine (in a deliciously evil role), but royalty like Elizabeth Taylor and Morgan Fairchild, Hal Holbrook, Gene Kelly, Robert Mitchum, James Stewart, and freaking JOHNNY CASH as John Brown. O.M.G. I love it so much! It is SO GOOD. And one man, one very special man, has been in BOTH The Blue and the Gray and North and South: LLOYD BRIDGES!!!