weekly update

At this point, I'm averaging one update a week. Oh well. This has been a crazy week, with the start of Project 333 (for me), and then lots of plans over the weekend. I took a sick day today to recover from it all. I know, that's questionable behavior, but I was teetering on the edge of exhaustion, and was very foul tempered. Now, I've had extra time to sleep, to clean, and to do a few of the chores that should have been done over the weekend.

This past weekend, my aunt celebrated her 70th birthday. She lives out on Long Island, so within commuting distance of us. Spanky and I got up early on Saturday, trekked over to Penn Station, and took the train out to Garden City. It was worth it, because my aunt was so surprised and delighted. She didn't know anyone was coming. But that took ALL DAY, and we didn't get home until dinner time, exhausted and frazzled.

Then Sunday, I took an Introduction to Color Work class at Vogue Knitting Live. The class was taught by Sarah Hatton, who is a UK-based designer, who's worked for Rowan, and several other companies.

Strangely enough, there aren't a lot of knitting events in New York. I guess it is just really expensive, but this was pretty awesome. I enjoy Rhinebeck as much as the next person, but I don't get to go very often, since the timing interferes with my travel schedule for work, so since VK Live was right in the city, I decided to try it. I had never taken a knitting class before, and really didn't know what to expect, but it was fun. Not really what I thought it would be. Sarah's really cute, and clearly knowledgeable, but I don't think she's that experienced of a teacher. She didn't bother learning anyone's name, and she didn't have an organized agenda that we went through step by step. She basically laid out the project for the course and then threw us in. The description of the course said you would learn color changes for stripes, intarsia techniques, and fair isle. We just basically learned as we went, and she didn't bother taking time to do it step by step. As that's the only class I've taken, I have no idea if that's typical or not, but I did feel a little short-changed in the camaraderie department. However, I learned what I came for, so all in all, I'd call it a success!



I have a pretty decent-looking swatch that I did FLAT, if you can believe that, and a pattern for a pair of fingerless mitts, so that I can practice doing fair isle in the round if I want. Maybe the upshot is that I thought there was more to the technique than there ended up being, and I guess at the end of the day, I probably didn't really need that course. But Sarah did share some other tips with us (like how to keep a bobble looking "nipply" rather than inverting itself into your knitting. I do love a bobble, so this was good news). Plus, it was just good to participate in the conference. Any conference that is about bettering your own craft rather than catering to someone else's (which is what I do with work)is fine by me. I really loved being a participant for once.

The package I bought included a one hour lecture as well, and I got to listen to Debbie Bliss talk about successful designing for babies and children. That was a very interesting hour. Her kids were with her, and I saw not only one blogger that I recognized; I was sitting in front of Cirilia Rose. She's just as cute in person, and sat and chatted with Debbie Bliss's son (who looks nothing like DB, while her daughter is just like her--you've probably seen her daughter modeling if you've ever looked at one of the DB magazines.). Anyway, I have this burning question about Cirilia that I almost asked her to answer but I thought she might think I was crazy if I did. Here it is: I pass this bank every morning on my walk to work. I think it's a Capital One bank, but I'm not really sure. Anyway, they have these window clings of all these happy banking people satisfied because they bank there, and one picture is this girl that looks just like Cirilia, drinking a coffee, which is obscuring most of her face, so only her eyes are showing. I have always wondered if that's her or not. It's really neither here nor there, but I think it's funny every day when I pass it and she's there, staring out at me. I have to see if I can remember to take a picture of the sign.

Anyway, that was my weekend. I'm still knitting my January (self-imposed) sock club socks. I'm about half way down the leg of the second one. I'm not really sure if I can finish it by the end of the month or not. Maybe... I hope so. I think for Feb, instead of doing another new sock, I might just concentrate on finishing up the languishing THREE PAIRS of socks I have sitting around. We could really use more wool socks in these frigid temps. And soon! I know that will put me a month behind in the sock club, but at least I'll be able to reclaim the project bags and needles that are currently stuck in those projects. Plus, it's all still stash yarn, so it counts, right?

Oh, and finally, I wanted to show you WHY I'm so late with the January socks, which are really not hard socks:

FO 1:

Pattern: Brother In Law Basketweave Hat by Kody May Kline.

Yarn: leftover Bernat Lana yarn from the Crooked Paths beret.

Needles: US7 circular and DPNs.



Note: I ended up casting on more stitches than the pattern specified, and then just decreasing evenly across as per the directions until I closed it up. I think I also made it a bit longer so that it would fit my giant head.



One day late last fall, I met this young guy on the PATH train coming back to the city from having seen a game with his family. I was knitting, and we got to talking, and he asked me to make him a hat. I told him I'd show him how and he could make his own hat, but he held up his hands and told me he couldn't hold the needles. He was physically disabled, and his hands were drawn up like claws. He was very charming though, I have to say. He wrote down his name and address, and sure enough, I ended up making him this hat (although about 6 months late!). I still had leftover yarn, so I made a matching cowl too. (FO #2 below) I even got to use up some of the leftover Knit Picks tan merino I had from when I first started knitting. I don't think that stuff even made it into my stash page on Ravlery. Either way though, both colors are now done and out of the stash, and hopefully he's been able to wear them in this cold weather.



FO #2: Man's cowl
Needles: US 7
Pattern: none--I made this up

Oh, and a short update on Project 333, since it's been a whole week. I didn't find it as hard as I thought, although I did have to add a second warm sweater when the temperature dropped so much. I'll switch out one of the work blazers though. I don't need 4 of them in my general 33 things. I think I'm going to take our 3rd vacuum storage bag and vacuum in the rest of the clothes though, just to make the point much clearer. I haven't even looked at the other stuff in my closet, but I do worry what's going to happen when I hit week four or five and I'm really sick of what I currently have. I guess only time will tell, right? Also, I'm really starting to pay attention to which shoes I wear the most, both for work and on the weekend. Shoes are really my weak point, but I know there are things I could weed out even now...