Happy Birthday Scott || January 18, 2003 ||11:21 am

It's my hubby's birthday, and as I write this, he's making us french toast. I married a wonderful man.

I'm going to get some patterns published! It's not actually official yet, so maybe I shouldn't jinx it, or count my chickens or whatever. But it looks like I'm going to do a series of hats for Karabella. I will report on the process once it gets going. So far I have ideas for about 8 or 10 hats. We might even do a booklet, but it might just be single patterns. It's quite exciting, and once again I count my lucky stars that I work for the wonderful and supportive people at School Products, and that I got fired from that horrible unnamed store run that horrible, and certifiable, idiotic unnamed woman.

My my... I guess I'm not quite over the events of last summer.

Here's a progress pick on Glen Albyn.

The sleeve is coming along slowly but surely... I really want to be wearing it today, so I'm motivated to get a lot done on it this weekend. I have Monday off, which is soooooo nice. My dear friend Cristina is coming into the city to play, and I'm sure we'll end up yarn shopping. She's a knitter too, you see, but she started knitting in the interval when we weren't in touch after college. I've known her since we were 11.

My to-go project these days is another hat from Karabella Margrite and it's so lovely. I should be finishing it sometime this weekend or early next week - picture is coming!

My poor pi shawl is feeling quite neglected.

- || January 15, 2003 ||12:05 pm

My knitting group had a potluck party/finishing day on Sunday. It was so much fun, and I got a lot done on a UFO that I finished knitting a few months ago. I had agreed to demonstrate cutting a steek, so on Saturday night I stayed up until 1am finishing the body of Glen Albyn. Here's a photo:

And here's one of me cutting the steek (rather blurry, sorry):

No great knitting adventures since then. I've been working on the sleeve, but it's progressing slowly since I haven't had time to knit much this week. I've also started a new hat with my new favorite yarn, Karabella Margrite, and will work on that at my knitting group tonight. A pic will follow shortly!

Felting Madness || January 08, 2003 ||10:19 am

My computer is still all wonky. DH has to get his tech-head friend to look at it. And all I'll say about it is that it proves, once again, that AOL is the devil.

So I'm posting a pic of Glen Albyn from Sunday, since I wasn't able to get an updated one. Here it is:

I had a bad felting experience last night. Well, I don't really believe that I can ever have a truly bad knitting experience, because I always learn something. I'm working on a project to submit to Knitty. I made a swatch of Noro Kureyon last night and measured it and then tried to felt it, but it didn't felt like I'd hoped. Perhaps the water wasn't hot enough, or there wasn't enough agitation produced by just the swatch in there (I should have thrown a pair of sneakers in or something). The wash cycle ended, and it still looked very holey. I then rinsed it in cold water, and proceeded to use very hot water in my sink agitating it with a spoon, alternating with very cold water. Eventually it sort of felted, but is not as stiff a fabric as I'd hoped. So I think I'm going to try again, this time doubling the yarn and not knitting it so loosely, since it didn't shrink very much. Actually, widthwise it seems to have grown 1/4", while lengthwise it shrunk 1/2". Very interesting indeed.

My next design challenge with this project (besides actually getting the thing to felt properly), will be to decide, with the yarn doubled, if I want the colors to match up or just let them blend as they will. (For those of you not familiar with Kureyon, it has long color repeats, with 4 or 5 colors in a skein.) I think I'll try it with them blending randomly and see how I like it, because matching up the colors could be a chore. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

- || January 07, 2003 ||12:26 pm

I'm having computer problems at home that are preventing me from posting an update on Glen Albyn. It's going really fast! I'm now 6 rounds away from the front neck steeks. I hope to reach that point tonight, if I'm not out too late. And by then DH will have cleared up the computer problem, so I should be able to post a pic.

Last night I helped my friend Nancy teach a large knitting class at the Learning Annex. It was really interesting. There were 20-something people there, and in the beginning, when they were learning casting on and the knit stitch, I felt like it was hopeless, that these people were never going to get it. But an hour later they were all clicking away. I like Nancy's teaching philosophy, that basically it's all a matter of muscle memory. You have to get it in your hands. So then after they had been knitting for about an hour or two, it was very easy to teach them the purl stitch.

Something I've always struggled with in teaching beginners is that everyone's a perfectionist. People won't give themselves permission to make something ugly for the sake of learning a skill. And then of course some just have unrealistic expectations about how quickly they'll learn to knit. I had one student not long ago who thought I'd show her once how to do it, and she'd instantly be making all kinds of fancy blankets and sweaters. She was really upset when I told her that in this first leason, she wouldn't be making anything.

Nancy told us last night that she used to say, when they asked her "What are we going to make today," "A mess." But that seemed just a little harsh. Now when they ask, "What are we going to make today?" she tells them, "Progress."

I'm baaaaack || January 03, 2003 ||8:15 pm

Happy New Year!

I have not been very good about keeping up with my blog over the holidays. If anyone is actually reading this, please forgive me! (But I don't think anyone is reading this, so I'm sure it's all fine.)

My Christmas turkey was a big hit! And I made homemade gravy, which came out great. I was very proud of myself for remembering how my late mom used to make it. (Her 2 tricks were using corn starch instead of flour, and stirring constantly with a wire wisk.)

I spent about 5 days at my dad's place outside of Boston, which was nice. My younger sister lives with him, and it's so wonderful to be friends with her, after not getting along for our entire childhood. She might come visit me later this month. I really hope she does!

Got lots of knitting on Glen Albyn done. I'll post a pic very soon. I'm up to the armhole steeks. I love knitting complicated fair isles. It's my very favorite knitting.

I've also been making Elizabeth Zimmerman's pi shawl in Skacel Merino Lace. Love this yarn, and wish more places carried it. I made myself a lace stole out of it this summer for my wedding. As soon as my husband makes my web site, you can see a pic of it.

I didn't get any of the knitting books I asked for for Christmas, but I did get Deborah Newton's book Designing Knitwear, which is quite good. And I got the Stitch & Motif Maker software, which I'll put to use very soon when I right the pattern for the hat I designed. Everyone in my knitting group seems to want a copy. yay!

Back to my knitting!

- || December 22, 2002 ||9:48 pm

I am feeling much less stressed out about Christmas. I'm not even nervous about having my in-laws over for Christmas dinner, despite the fact that I've never cooked a turkey before.

This weekend has been fun and relaxing. Yesterday I worked at the store, but it was a pretty slow day and I made extra money since I don't usually work Saturdays. Then I went home and hubby and I rented 2 movies: The Long Kiss Goodnight and Goldfinger. I though TLKG was kind of lame. I don't really like action movies where the villains are one-dimensional and not witty. But Gina Davis kicked some ass, and I'm all for that. You know, girl power. And then Goldfinger -- that was fun and campy. I'd never seen any Bond films before, and I figured that one would be a good one to start with. Now I get all the references in Austin Powers.

And I made lots of progress on Glen Albyn! So much that it's now time for a picture. Here it is:

I'm really enjoying it so far. However, never one to live in the present, always thinking ahead, I have many other projects planned. One of the nice things about working in a yarn shop (and perhaps I already wrote about this) is that I got my Christmas bonus in yarn! One box of Karabella Margrite (sooooooo yummy - 80% merino, 20% cashmere) and a big cone of Italian merino. Both are purple, my favorite color.

So much yarn, so little time...

My hubby is the greatest!! || December 19, 2002 ||11:44 pm

I'm typing this entry on my brand-new computer! Actually, not just mine -- it was an early Christmas gift to both of us from my husand, and not actually brand-new -- he bought it on eBay. But it's brand new to me! It's a PC laptop,and way better than the old Mac laptop that we had. In fact I really like Macs, but sadly many of the programs I like to use (like Sweater Wizard) are only available for PC. And also our Mac doesn't have the right portal for my digital camera, so I can only upload pictures at work.

This was a great end of a rather depressing day. I have had a major case of the holidays blues of late. And general holiday stress as well.

So, yay for my dear, dear husband!

More later... or maybe not until holiday madness is past.

Where's my yarn??!! || December 17, 2002 ||12:04 pm

My yarn is still not here! I will definitely be down to the wire on Dylan's sweater.

But here is a picture of the hat I finished last night:

This is one of the 2 kits I ordered from Bea Ellis Knitwear. I started the other one today. It was originally supposed to be for me, but since the green & white one probably won't suit my sister, I'm going to give her the one I'm making now. I think. Or maybe I'll make another hat for her. We'll see.

I also got a fews rows of Glen Albyn in last night. Here is what it will look like. If only I could wear it standing by a water fall like the model is!

Finally, a little holiday cheer. Here are the stockings I made for me & Scott last year. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I got the kits.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... || December 16, 2002 ||12:19 pm

Happy Monday!

I am very relieved that so far, there's no transit strike here in NYC. I live far from where I work, and it would be very difficult to get around with no public transportation. I'm hoping they'll work it all out.

This morning we had the staff Christmas party at the church where I work. We did a Secret Santa, and I received a nice photo album. Yay! My friend Amy and I were in charge of getting all the food for the party and setting up, and everyone said we did a great job. Yay again!

I didn't get very much knitting done this weekend, because Saturday Scott and I had a holiday party at our apartment. It went really well, but it was so much work! We spent the entire day preparing. I didn't knit a stitch all day! When was the last time that happened? I did get to show off some of my knitting at the party, though -- we put the stockings I made last year up on the wall, and I got many compliments on them. They were great fun to make. I should take a picture of them. I'll try to do that tonight and post it tomorrow. I gotta get some photos up here and make my gold membership worth it!

Yesterday I finished most of the sleeve for my little cousin's sweater, but now I'm waiting for more yarn to come in the mail. I feel very foolish running out of yarn, since all day at School Products I tell people to make sure they buy an extra ball so they won't run out. Well, nobody's perfect... I'm just hoping the dye lot difference won't look too bad. I'm going to try for the rest of the sleeve alternating rows with the old lot and the new one and see if that will blend them together. But the neck will be only with the new one...

I also got some knitting done on the hat I bought from Bea Ellis Knitwear. It's a great kit, and she has very good customer service. I found her through Wendy Johnson's website.

I read Wendy's blog every day. She's amazing! I aspire to be such a prolific and talented knitter as her. And I hope someday my blog will be as cool as hers, too!

I can't wait until all my Christmas knitting is done! I really want to get back to Glen Albyn!

- || July 12, 2018 ||5:15 am

Ha! This is the date and time that my computer thinks it is. In reality, it's December 12, 2002, 11:15pm.

I bought yarn today at my favorite Manhattan yarn shop (besides the one I work at, School Products -- more on that some other time), Downtown Yarns. Nothing like buying Christmas presents for myself! Well, at least one of the things I bought will be a gift, because it's orange and I can't wear orange. The coolest thing I bought was a skein of Skacel Merino Lace in a deep red. I love this yarn! I used it in white to make myself a lace stole for my wedding. It's a great lace yarn, and at $12 for something like 1200 yards, it's a great deal. I wish more stores sold this wonderful yarn.

On my way home on the subway, I made a list of all my WIPs, and projects that I'm planning. There were about 20 items on the list! I'm only currently working on 3 of them. If only I didn't have to work for a living...

And I'm off! Wheeeeee! || December 11, 2002 ||5:28 pm

So this is my new weblog. I've been wanting to start one for a while now, and at the end of the workday, I spontaneously decided to go for it.

I wonder if anyone will actually read it.

I'll just jump in and start talking about what I'm currently working on. Here goes:

An Aran pullover for my cousin's son Dylan. This is a Christmas present, and I still have a sleeve and all the finishing to go. Also, I'm going to run out of yarn, so I ordered more today, but it won't be the same dyelot. I feel very irresponsible. Hopefully what I have will be enough for the sleeve, and the new dyelot will just be for the neck and the sewing up.

I also just started a cardigan from Alice and Jade Staremore's website, Virtual Yarns (note, I'll figure out more about how to make links and such later. I'm still new at this. But given their business practices, I'm not so interested in promoting them right now anyway, even though I'm obsessed with their designs. I hope they don't read this and ban me from buying their yarn.)

Anyway, I probably should have waited until I finish all my Christmas gifts before starting this cardigan, because I only want to work on that. It's a fair isle called Glen Albyn. Sometimes I think I could knit only fair isles and die a happy women.

I also am making a hat for my sister for Christmas, but the hat I started turns out to be the wrong colors for her. So I'll probably make another one and give this one to someone else. It's very pretty, though -- it's from a kit from Bea Ellis Knitwear. I recently found that site through Wendy Johnson's website -- they sell mostly Dale stuff. Really great kits designed by Bea herself, and her customer service is great.

Okay, that's enough for today. More to come!

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