two last FOs for 2009

If I can get the toe of my mom's second sock done tonight that will make an even 40, but I'm not sure I'll get there...Right now, I'm losing pretty badly in my family's signature card game, Aggravation. My grandma used to play it all the time with my cousins and I at countless family gatherings, and we taught Spanky, and now she's kicking my ass! Damn. How 2009...but that will all shortly change! 2010 is my year, baby! I just know it. But we'll address that tomorrow. Anyway:

FO 38:


Pattern: Dashing

Yarn: Cascade 220 in the same heather charcoal color that I used for Matthew's Koolhaas hat last year. I thought I would be able to go back to Ravelry and tell you what color that was, but I apparently didn't put that project on my page! What?! I'll have to go back and rectify that shortly, but shoot. I guess sometimes I forget one or the other (Ravelry or the blog...).

This is my favorite color of Cascade 220 so far. I liked the brown of Spanky's sweater, but this black seems softer, and it is really awesome. I have about 4 skeins left that I'm going to use to make myself a vest with next year.



Needle: US 7 bamboo DPNs.

Notes: I modified this by cutting the number of rows by 1/3 on basically all parts of the mitt. As written, the pattern was too long, both in the finger bits and the part going up the arm. Also, I mistakenly knit both thumbs the same. I had to adjust the right mitt a bit when I blocked them, so that they were for right and left, but it seemed to work ok so I left it, and when they were blocked, you couldn't tell. I don't really know how I did that... I guess I wasn't paying attention until it was too late.



Oh well. I think he likes them! I told him they match his hat, but I haven't seen him wear the hat this year. Perhaps he felted it? I don't care for its replacement anyway. Oh well. It doesn't matter. After the new year, he'll be someone else's servant teammate. I'll be knitting for someone new, and with much smaller hands!

FO #39:



Pattern: Cablerimetry This is a take-off of the calorimetry pattern from Knitty, and it looks better, I think. I liked both of them, but this one is just a teensy bit nicer.



Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand-Dyed, in a cool purple colorway (#512) This yarn has been in my stash for a couple of years now. I got it out in Los Angeles when we went to visit my brother. It was in the sale bin at Unwind, which, my friends, is an impressive store. It is so pretty, and they have such cool classes. I'm even on their email list, so I do know what I'm missing. Aww.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. This yarn is awesome--so soft! It is 50% alpaca and 50% merino and is a 10 ply yarn, so really squishy and thick. I don't know why I got this, but after I had it, I thought I would make a calorimetry or this headband. Then, when my mom said she needed a headband to keep her ears warm while she went walking in the morning, I decided to make it for her, and in the meantime, I'd found Cablerimetry, and I liked that one the best, so went with that. I still have a good amount left.

I think I'm going to start using the leftovers of worsted weight yarn from projects like this to make myself some ribbed fingerless mitts. They're simple to make, and I lose them all the damn time, so this way, I'd always have extras. I like really short mitts for the fall and spring, when it is nippy but not super-cold, and you just need something over your palm, long enough to tuck your fingers into.

Again, I'm off track! Back to the project:

Needles: US 10. This seems like an Aran or almost bulky yarn to me. It is definitely a LOT thicker than Cascade 220, which is a light worsted. I guess this must be a 'heavy' worsted. I got to use these awesome wooden needles that my old boss (and now friend) Ilene got for me for Christmas one year. I don't use them a lot because they're really nice (and straights), and because nothing really calls for 10s.



Notes: I really enjoyed this project. I don't cable without a cable needle (don't see the need), but if you did, I can see that this would be a great project for that. The cables are really simple, and I think they pop very well in this yarn. I was afraid that it would come out huge, because the gauge was a bit bigger than the yarn used in the original, but it surprisingly came out very well.



I think my mom likes it too. She's out in Los Angeles now, visiting my brother, so I sent it out to her there:

She's such a cutie!

Chic Knits for Stylish Babies

The second book that S sent me is called Chic Knits for Stylish Babies: 65 Charming Patterns for the First Year by Patricia Wagner, who is apparently the Editor in Chief of Modes & Travaux. Modes & Travaux appears to be a type of lifestyle magazine, like a wacky Martha Stewart-esque publication, in which you get not only beauty advice, but also crafts and home decor. Weird. Anyway, this book was not really what I expected. I don't know if I ever looked at this collection in depth in the bookstore or not, but I usually check out new baby books, seeing as I do so much baby knitting, and for some reason this one totally snuck under my radar.

In contrast to Mother-Daughter Knitting, this book has virtually no text outside from the patterns at all. Basically you get several layouts that show the patterns in little 'outfits', and that's all. The outfits are all really cute, and very elaborate:



The one with the knee patches is my favorite. (It's called "English Style" in the book, and the outfit has the pants, the argyle sweater, the tam, etc.) The other one is called "Irish Leprechaun" because of the cable detail, I guess. Here are two more I really like:


Sorry about the glare on the second one. That one has the two black & white sweaters, and I don't know if you can tell, but the pants are a cabled jumpsuit. (the set is "Black and White") The first of those two is called "A Touch of Folklore". I just love that hat! So cute!

Anyway, there are other pieces that are just plain:


or pretty standard for baby knits:


But even those are still cute. And let me tell you, I really could use some new options in terms of what to knit for those who are expecting. The one thing I don't understand, though, is why you'd want to put knit pants on a baby that don't have the snaps on the crotch. You have to take them all the way off in order to change the diaper, so how is that practical? Maybe someone who has babies can leave a comment and let me know if most baby pants have snaps or not, because I guess I just assumed that they did. But none of these patterns include that option, so maybe I'm wrong?

There are some other cute projects, including a diaper bag and a wall hanging thing you can put toys in, but the story outfits are the highlight. I'm definitely going to try something out of here next time I have a baby shower, but I'm just not sure if I'll include the pants or not... Let me know if you have any insight into this dilemma!

Also, I just really want to thank S for thinking of me when these became available. She knows how much I knit, and I think it is awesome that she's so supportive. Maybe someday I'll be making her some baby pants sans snaps as well!

i've been remiss...

My good friend S (hi, S!) works at Random House, and she's gifted me recently with a couple of really interesting titles from their vast, vast offerings. I told her I would blog about each of them, and things have gotten in the way every time. Namely, exhaustion. But now that I've had a few days off, and am feeling close to normal again (thanks, Christmas!), I think it is time to give it a go. First up, Mother-Daughter Knits: 30 Designs to Flatter and Fit by Sally Melville and her daughter, Caddy Melville Ledbetter.

I'd coveted this book for a while, mainly based on the cover sweater, and the few pages I'd seen on Knitpicks.com. I also like the idea of a mother-daughter team working together to create a collection, and I knew that with Sally Melville involved, at least the patterns would be well-done.



The first part of the book consists of a really well-written section on sizing to fit and flatter, and a lot of the information is useful whether or not you make any of the garments in the book.

Then you get the pattern collection. Considered as a whole, I think the collection hangs together pretty well, but it doesn't seem very curated either. What I mean is that it seems like a knitting 'jam session'. You can see the different ideas each designer has, and the other patterns that are building off the fundamental ideas, and the interplay of each person's aesthetic on the other. It's really interesting, but like any good jam session, you may have a few great performances that shouldn't make it into the final piece because they don't fit. I think that would be my only beef with the collection. Someone should have said, well, the knitted headband is great, but it doesn't really go with the rest of the book. Who really can't figure out how to create a garter stitch headband? There are a few things I would have culled out as being too weird or basic, and encouraged the designers to take the idea and stretch it a bit to come up with something even better. The collection starts out with a few of these awkward pieces, and gradually builds to some really fine pieces. Here are a couple of the weird ones:


First, there were a whole range of buttony-y type accessories, including these leg warmers, wristlets, and spats, if you can believe that. Ech. I even like leg warmers, but I wouldn't waste all those buttons on them, you know? One of these type would have been plenty.

There was also the garter stitch headband that I mentioned, and a corsage headband and corset belt, both of which seem pretty strange choices. And then there is this:

It is a cardigan that closes with a scarf, which apparently, you can then tie around your neck. Personally I think that would choke me as I was moving around, and I'm not sure about the whole idea of this garment. Without the tie, it seems ok.

I also found myself liking both some of what Sally did and some of Caddy's work, not necessarily more of one or the other, and definitely not all of either. That's what I mean by a jam session. I think I remember reading in the intro how they both went away, came up with some ideas, came back together, developed them together, and sort of tied everything together. But normally with musicians, like I said, you have someone like an engineer or producer who says yes, that's good, no, that one doesn't fit with the collection. Basically, this collection needs better accessories that go with the awesome garments. Here were my favorites:


That last one I think would be really good to make for my mom. My favorite of the whole collection did turn out to be one of the cover sweaters, just not the one I thought. I originally liked the green sweater worn by Caddy, but after I saw it in the book, I wasn't too thrilled with it. However, Sally's sweater is really gorgeous:



The front is all gauzy and light, and the back is more structured and lacy. I really like it, and out of all the projects I like, I want this one the most. I could wear it to work all the time, and it isn't super trendy like some of the other pieces.

Anyway, although the collection is a bit uneven, it is still a really interesting idea for a book, and I hope that we see more collaborative efforts in the mix. I like how the ideas influenced each other, and most of the garments are really lovely. Finally, the information in the introduction is really valuable, even if you never make any of the projects. I would definitely recommend this book, although you might want to take a look at it in the library or at a friend's house to see if it is really for you or not.

the three best christmas songs ever

1. Fairy Tale of New York by The Pogues
2. Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses
3. A Christmas Duel by The Hives and Cyndi Lauper (this one is my new favorite...I can't stop singing it!)

Merry Christmas, everyone. May there be some peace with you, wherever you are, and may you carry it forward into 2010, which I know will be a better year! Just you wait.

an unreliable narrator

The last two weeks have been a haze of either work related hoo-ha (my assistant got promoted and I've been frantically interviewing to fill his spot before the new year) or running errands after work (one each night) to get ready for Christmas. I've had absolutely no energy for anything. Not exercise, knitting, movies, blogging, or anything. Spanky and I have been basically watching episodes of Modern Family or Rachel Maddow online and hunkering down.

Also, there is this:

This is Rosie. Our next-door neighbor had to move back in with her parents when she got laid off, and she was fostering a few cats for our neighborhood animal shelter, and rather than put Rosie back into the shelter, which is horribly overfilled, she asked us to watch her until she could find someone to adopt her.



She's about 2 years old, polydactyl, loves to play and snuggle, and is cute as a button. She's also really hard to photograph because she is all black (she has white patches on her belly, but they're small, and when she's curled up, she's all black, except for her eyes, which are this deep yellow/orange. Here's her paw with the extra toe:



We want her to find a good permanent home soon though, because our cats don't particularly like her, and Stella can't stop barking at her. So if you know someone who wants a kitty, please let me know! Anywhere in the tri-state NY area or environs. We don't mind driving her if it means someone who'll love her.

Aside from all that jazz, there has been knitting. I'm working on a pair of socks for my mother out of some Bamboo and Ewe yarn that we got at Joann's on my last visit home. They're just plain vanilla socks that I'm using a beginner's sock pattern to do, since they're so plain. I'm up to the toe on the first one. The yarn is pretty standard. I can't feel the bamboo too well, and of course my mom picked out the craziest color pattern ever. But she deserves another pair of socks, and they've been good knitting when I couldn't concentrate on anything harder.

I also finished this:



FO# 37
Pattern: Fibertrends' Ribbons Baby Blanket



This was a really fun blanket that you start in the center and work out from. I did most of the knitting down at my mom's over Thanksgiving, but it took me a while to finish the edging, because I wasn't sure about what I wanted to do.

Yarn: I used the last three balls of Comfort that I had in my stash from the last baby blanket I made, and it was about 600 or so yards, when I really needed about 800 yards of worsted. I thought briefly about buying another ball, but then what color? Where would I get it on short notice? So I decided to just use up all the scraps I had left, and use every last bit of the yarn I had to make the blanket as big as I could. That is why the edging ended up being so variegated.



Needles: Size 7 24" circular and dpns. I wish I had been able to find the size 7 tips from my Boye needle set, because at the end, the blanket was absolutely squished onto that 24" needle. You start the pattern in the center, as I mentioned, and increase through the yarn overs at each end going around. The edging has those cute corners where you increase in the garter stitch, in order to make sure you don't end up with a blanket where the edges curl because they're too short.



The project was for my friend Sarah's baby Charlie. She didn't get to have a baby shower, because she went to the doctor for a routine check-up and he told her she needed to get to the hospital right away. So she had him a few weeks early, and we had to send the gifts, but that's ok, because I wasn't done with the blanket anyway! I had to block it out severely to make it as big as it was, so I wrote directions to that effect on the card to go with the blanket. I love this blanket, and if I had a baby, I'd definitely want one (maybe in different colors, but I was working with what was available). It is so cute!

December 4

December 3rd's entry was delayed due to going straight to Adam's house after work for our annual book club holiday party. It was lightly attended this year, but the holiday salad was roundly praised, and they ate it all the way down to the bottom of the cheap foil pan I brought it in. Warms the cockles of my heart, that does.

holiday salad in the top left!

Joel, Adam's partner, makes wonderful mai tais, which I only have at this party. I don't drink a lot of rum, but these drinks are SO GOOD. And so was the company, so I always have a great time. Spanky never wants to go, so I'm flying solo most years. Luckily, a few months ago, I talked my coworker John into joining the group, so we went over together. Beats the lonely trek to 69th street by myself!



The book group is called The Gay and Lesbian Reading Group, and it meets once a month, on the second Thursday of the month at the GLBT Center in NYC. Each month, we read a book written by a gay or lesbian author or featuring a gay or lesbian character. One month it is a male author, one month a female. This month, we're reading The Bishop's Daughter by Honor Moore, and it is surprisingly engaging. I really don't care for memoirs, as I'm sure I have mentioned here before, but this one is written poetically, and the story is as much about her parents as it is about herself. The story is about Paul Moore, an Episcopal priest who was secretly gay, yet was married with nine children, and about his oldest daughter, Honor, who is also gay. And that brings me to the other big difference in this book from other memoirs I've read. Honor doesn't seem to be whining about how hard or terrible her life was. She's just trying to tell things the way she remembers and she seems like she's done a lot of research into her family's history, to make sure she's written it correctly. However, I'm only about 1/3 of the way through so far, so who knows whether I'll finish before the group meets next week.

Constance and Beverly have been together 25 years! So precious.

ANYWAY, after three mai tais, it was time to do the champagne toast and go home. I left with Julio, and we talked about Brooklyn on the way to the train. My mother grew up in Park Slope, on Prospect Avenue, between 6th and 7th Avenues, and Julio apparently did too. They went to the same grade school (PS 146) about the same time, and probably knew the same people. And GET THIS. When I was out in Denver, I met a man named Tom McInerney, and we got to talking about Park Slope, and I had the same damn conversations with him about where my mom grew up, so I mentioned this to Julio, and Julio KNEW HIM. What a small world! Crazy, right?

Julio is on the right.

And then I thought I would come home and update the blog with the pictures of the party, but I just crashed instead, and then was late to work, and spent the morning cradling my head in my hands. Kids, once you leave 35 in the dust, it ain't so easy to recover from a MILD night out, let alone partying all night long. Christ.

I yelled at my assistant, couldn't figure out how to do simple procedures, and was just generally in a really dumb-ass state for most of the day. Don't you hate days like that? Fricking useless. I wanted to call in sick, but I have so. much. work. Also, HR posted the ad for my assistant's job this morning, and by the time it was about 4:30, we had 140 resumes. OMG. Seriously. For a temporary-to-permanent job. I took a few home with me to read, and it's been entertaining, but also making me remember how traumatic this was the last time I went through this. Matthew was my third assistant, and now I'm on my fourth. Sigh.

Last but not least, still not done with the blanket. There's been hardly any time to knit, what with the hangover and the dumb-assery. Tomorrow, folks, we'll be finishing it up, weaving in ends, blocking the fuck out of it, and making chocolate peanut butter cookies for the next holiday party I'm attending--the knitting group's!

December 2

My friend and coworker Sarah is currently delivering her baby (or has already)! She called someone at work to let them know she wouldn't be in after her doctor's appointment because they were going to induce her!!! Yikes. I hope everything went ok. She was due in December, sure, but December TWENTIETH. I'm not done with the blanket! Argh. But on the plus side, I'm making this awesome Fiber Trends pattern called "Ribbons Baby Blanket", and I'm using the three balls of Berroco Comfort I had left from the other baby blanket I made earlier this year. I don't know exactly if that will be enough yarn, but I'm playing it by ear, and so far, the amazing yardage of the Comfort has held out. It's going to be close though!

Due to having to make a salad (which entailed going to the grocery for the ingredients, since we have no food in the house this week because of the late return from Thanksgiving) for my book group's holiday party tomorrow (I'm bringing salad and spreadable boursin and french bread--how festive. Boo. But as these things go, they're already heavy on desserts, so because I'm running late with everything, I got salad duty. I made a good one though!), I wasn't able to just finish the last 'ribbon' already, so tomorrow, I'll have to finish it at lunch, and see if I'll have enough left for the border.

Here's hoping!

December 1

So, I missed a lot the last month. I've been traveling, knitting, frantically working, thinking and worrying, and that brings us to now. I guess I'm not going to try to recap it all. I'm just going to move on from here. There are finished knits to document, big things going on in my life, and lots to talk about, so three things for today, and then I'm going to sleep:

1. My assistant just got a promotion, which means that he won't be working for me after the end of the year. Mixed emotions about that one. He's earned it, deserves it, and it is the best thing for him. For me? Not so much. Although it will all eventually work out, and I'll have someone new to work with, there are other circumstances that make it less than ideal for me as well, including the impact it is going to have on my travel schedule for next year. Whew. There is still a lot to work out, but this sort of feeds into my resolve to make 2010 a better year than this one. I just know it is going to be a good year.

2. Thanksgiving was good! I was down in Florida for a week, visiting with my family and just relaxing. The Thanksgiving dinner turned out amazing--we did roasted vegetables, and sauteed the string beans with shallots and lemon zest instead of the heavier string bean casserole.



My sister brought my niece, but her other two children were with their mom. It was a quiet day, but a good one. It was nice to be all together.

I also got to visit Spanky's family overnight, and we went to see her brother at the treasure museum where he works down at the beach.



3. I finished the Mystery Socks 2009 (FO #36). This was my Socktober contribution. I would have posted about the process a lot more, but life has just been so freaking crazy. I did enjoy Socktober, and I am definitely going to do it again next year. I also really enjoyed the process of the mystery sock! Getting a clue per week really allows you to do a prescribed amount of knitting at a time, which works well with my schedule, and you can also then afford time to work on both socks at once. It was so much fun. And the pattern is so pretty!



Pattern: Mystery Sock 2009
Yarn: Louet Gems, Fingering Weight, 100% merino wool, probably 300 yards total--this was not the ideal yarn for these socks. There is no nylon, so they sag a bit, and the yarn isn't really all that squishy. I probably should have used it for a lace scarf or shawl of some sort rather than socks, but I was sick of looking at it in the stash (YES! Two skeins of STASH down!), so I just grabbed it. Also, the yarn is a really rich purple color (#1452-Violet), and I thought it would be perfect for showing off the lace of the pattern, and it does! They're really pretty socks, and I've already worn them.
Needles: US 2 bamboo DPNs. I have two sets, so I was able to work each clue for each sock as they came out. So much fun!



Notes: I did the smaller size pattern. I was originally going with the larger size, because I have big honking feet, but the people in the Through the Loops group on Ravelry who were posting as they went along said that the cuff was big, so I ripped back what I had and went with the smaller size. They're still a tiny bit baggy, but I also attibute that to the lack of nylon in the yarn.



I found this color impossible to photograph. Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with them. Next up will be the socks for my mom out of the crazy sock yarn she picked out when I was in Florida back in October. More on my WIPs tomorrow!