Monday, June 26, 2006
Pattern: My own Zippity-Do-Da Anklets, because they're zippity fast to make.
Yarn: Koigu, one skein with some yardage leftover
Needles: Size 2
Wow, gee, what's this, another pair of socks. Zzzzzz. It is just a plain 3 x 1 rib, with 2 purl stitches on either side of the instep. Zzzzz. These are knit in the usual toe-up manner, using the usual short row method, with the usual bind-off method for socks, the tubular or knit one, purl one method. Zzzzzz. I had 26 stitches for the sole and 26 stitches for the instep, for a total of 52 stitches. I feel like I've been writing the same entry 5 times.
The only new and exciting thing I can say about these socks is that they aren't for me! They are either going to be a belated birthday gift or an on-time Christmas gift for my sister-in-law. But I am ashamed to say that the chances of me gifting these anklets decreases exponentially the longer I hold on to them, so I'm thinking I should wrap these puppies up right now before my selfishness overpowers me.
These only took a week to finish. It definitely made knitting for others more doable, since I have this problem of treating Knitting For Others as a wretched homework assignment than something I really want to do, or can you tell already. I chose a simple rib pattern with this pretty multicolored Koigu, which by the way, felt really different than the semi-solid Koigu I used for Poma. Like, it was waxy. Crunchy. And kinda made my fingers kinda itchy?
OK no more socks for awhile (maybe). I need to pick up Rose of England again. I had been working on that up until a week ago, when I discovered a stitch that dropped several rows down in between a whole mess double yarnovers, ARGH, so it was either cry my eyes out and rip out 50 rows of lace, or walk away and stay away for enough time to pass until I believe it's salvagable. And I think it is.
I also need to jumpstart knitting that sweater for my mom. It really should have been finished by now, instead of dying a slow but sure death. I completed the front awhile ago but when I stepped back and looked at it, the stitch I chose seemed bleh. I also made it too small, and I actually swatched. Grrrr. Again, some time apart, before starting afresh.
Speaking of afresh, I have a new rule. I have a Mid Year's Resolution to blog daily so my writing muscles don't curdle into sour mush. Maybe I'll post every other day to start with. I should probably be more concerned with exercizing daily so actual muscles don't turn to mush, but. I hate exercizing. So good for you but so boring, like flossing. Anyway, I'm just letting you know so you can berate me when I don't write daily. I need discipline in a bad bad way!
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Socks
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
A true conversation.
Mom: So you are thinking you can have a baby right?
Me: I guess.
Mom: So when do you think you'll have the baby?
Me: Errrrrr...
Mom: BeFORE or AFter you move to Taiwan?
Me: Too many...hypothetical questions...Cannot...compute...
Mom: Please you should have a girl. A girl! She will be so cute! Hee hee!
Me: As if I have control over any of that.
Mom: Oh you do! You can control it. Naturally.
Me: What.
Later, recounting the conversation with Duck
Me: So my mom was going on (as your mom has) about us having a girl. We must have a girl. And I said, I can't control that. And she said, Yes you can.
Duck: WHAT
Me: That's what I said.
Duck: What's the secret. SO I WON'T EVER DO IT.
Me: So your boys are either X or Y right? Apparently, Y boys live for only 24 hours, while X boys live for 72 (or something).
Duck: I see where you're going with this. You have to store it in your mouth.
Me: So if you TIME it so that we "get together" (her words) 24 hours before you (as in me) germinate, most the Y's will have died and you'll have girl.
Duck: Wow.
Me: Dude, technically I don't know how babies are made in the first place, since she never told me, so this is all very advanced and potentially confusing information.
Duck: Tell her you need explicit instruction.
Me: "Mom, what does it mean to 'get together'?"
Duck: "Hey is the sp3rm supposed to be in my nose? Boy or girl if it goes in my nose?"
Me: HAHAHA yeah! "If it goes in my butt, it'll be a boy, right?"
***
Sorry, I had to share. My mom cracks me up. Ever since I told her I was not violently opposed to the idea of having children (as I once was), she took that to mean I will be having ALL of the children, and suddenly we're having conversations that not so long ago she would have rather drowned herself over than partake. She went from, You Will Never Know What Sex Is to How to Get the Sex You Want. She sure did sail right over the basics. And I wanted to call her on it, oooo how much I wanted to call her on it.
Filed Under: Life
Friday, June 16, 2006
Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me.
Pattern: Pomatomus
Yarn: Koigu semi-solid in colorway I don't know, 2 skeins
Needles: Size 1
Maybe you are sick of seeing another pair of Pomatomii. I dong care. I love Pomatomus. It makes such lovely scallops.
Also, I am drunk.
 Why am I drunk? Because I am sad. I am compensating. I am supposed to be drunk in a lakehouse next to GOOSE POND in New Hampshire right now with my bestest friend from high school, before she leaves for Mozambique for years and years. But the stars were aligned against me today. I got up early this morning to finish up work, got a backpack ready, cut a bouquet-full of mint from the backyard for mojitos by the lake, got the car packed up, made sure I plugged the satellite radio correctly to all the orifices so I could listen to Howard on the way, blah blah blah, ready to go at 3pm. And then realized, Where is my wallet? Where is it? I can't find it. Wallet where are you?
I turn the house inside out all the while knowing I most likely left it on the train yesterday on my way back from jury duty. I hate you jury duty, civic privilege be damned. Let me tell you, I have actually been selected as a juror once and your right to a fair trial was totally dismantled by one that was SO uninteresting, with the lawyers SO bumbling and ineloquent, none of us had ANY idea what was going on. We never made it to deliberations (defendant ended up plea-bargaining, as he had incriminated himself during examination. Not that any of us had noticed), but if we had, oh god. Does a fair trial involve vacant blinking and blank stares and silence? I don't think so.
Luckily yesterday we were all dismissed, after hours and hours and hours of waiting around to die.
Pomatomus against Japanese paper.
Maybe that's why I like this pattern so much.
It reminds me these stylized clouds.
On the other hand I got to finish Pomatomus. Jury duty is good for knitting at least, if not for a fair trial. This chick sitting next to me, though, did not have knitting, nor a book, nor nary a hangnail to pick at. She just stared straight ahead the whole time, and let me tell you it drove. me. crazy. I don't know how many times I took a quick peek to my left see if she was doing anything to keep herself occupied, but her glassy eyes stared straight ahread. For five. Miserable. Hours. Shoot me!
After I ransacked the house for my wallet and called all credit card companies to make sure there were no funky charges in the last 24 hours, I finally went to North Station's lost and found to see if they had my wallet. And they did! YAY!
But it was locked up and the guy who had the only key was gone for the week. SUCK! No one else has the key? No one?
The guy behind the counter was very nice but totally unhelpful. "I don't agree with the policy, if it were up to me I'd give you your wallet right now, but he's a union man....a union man...a union man..."
He must have said this 5 times as if I would nod in sympathetic agreement, but I have no idea what signifance a union guy would have over being able to turn a key or not. I want my wallet now damnit! My license is in there! I have to make it to New Hampshire!
I walked out of the train station empty handed, and stopped at the usual liquor store for some rum, for my sad, uncelebratory mojito. I was frazzled and in need of a tall minty drink. But of course it was not to be! Of course this was the one day of all days I get carded!
I walked out of the liquor store empty handed. Had to get Duck to pilfer some alcohol for me, like some common tenth-grader.
Stars. And planets. All misaligned.
So Goose Pond in NH was a bust. I was/am sooo disappointed. There were to be loons (i love loons) and owls (i love owls) and grilling and drinking and a lake and stars. And my BFF.
I dig the tubular bind-off.
But not the nasty chicken skin legs.
But I have another pair of Pomatomus. I love these puppies. I knit them toeup.
Here are the details:
1) I provisionally casted on 30 stitches for the toe.
2) I short-rowed down to 10 stitches, then back up to 30.
3) After picking up the stitches from the provisional cast-on, I have 30 stitches for the sole, and 30 stitches for the instep.
4) I start knitting in the round, increasing one stitch at each end for the sole until I have 32 stitches, and one stitch at each end for the instep, every other row, until I have 36 stitches. So sole = 32 sts, instep = 36 sts.
5) I start Chart B on the instep for 2 full chart repeats.
6) Then I start the short-row heel on the sole, going down to 12 stitches, and then back up to 32. (2 chart repeats plus short row worked nice and snug for my size 6 US feet)
7) As I'm working the last row of the heel, I pick up 4 more stitches on the sole to get 36 stitches, and rearrange the stitches so to get 24 stitches on 3 needles. Then I start Chart A and work that for 3 pattern repeats.
8) I do 20 rows of ribbing for the cuff, and do a tubular (knit one, purl one) bind-off.
I'm wearing these now. They are comfy and snug and covered with cat hair already.
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Socks | Pomatomus
Thursday, June 08, 2006
I feel like a bride. It is June afterall, and how amazing are these peonies? I saved them this morning from a watery grave, as all blooms were bowed to the wet soggy ground from the weight of their own heads and a day and night's steady rain. They smell heavenly. So much pretty, pink goodness...
"Yes, you are correct. Few can handle my pink little nose.
It is so pink. So little. So devastating."
Filed Under: Life
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Pattern: Pomatomus sock from knitty.com
Yarn: Merino wool I bought on ebay
Needles: Size 0 dpns
I consider this pair a practice pair. After declaring I would never knit socks again due to bad first sock experience, I couldn't help myself and thought I'd try these. The first sock I knit per instructions - top-down, gusset heel, wedge toe, grafted toes.
The second sock I did toe-up, with a short row toe, short row heel, and tubular bindoff. Except for the scallop pattern, they're really two entirely different socks. But it's all good - I have mirrored scallops!
Different heels, same fit
I love this pattern. I have one more pair to complete, done toe-up, and this one will definitely be matching. After this I'm thinking I might go back to the top-down, gusset heel flap method. Fitwise I can feel no differences between a gusset and short row heel. They're both comfortable. I was only sold on the short row for awhile there because it's just so easy. But the gusset is pretty...and it's nice to change things up a bit.
Pretty tubular
One method I'm definitely sold on is the tubular bind-off (Vogue Knitting as reference). Nice and elastic and really neat-looking too, especially with the 1x1 ribbing. I'll have to learn how to do the tubular cast-on next.
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Socks
Monday, June 05, 2006
Ooooo I have so much to talk about today, so much to talk about. I don't know where to start. Lessee...
How about we tackle the oldest news first before it becomes stale bread. Or should I say, stale yeasty beer bread? Or should I say, stale, yeasty, IRISH beer bread?
When people say to me, "What nationality are you, Japanese? Korean? Russian? I just can't tell You People apart," I can now say without batting an almond-shaped eye, "I'm Irish."
Yes it's official, I am a citizen of Ireland, ba ha ha! Even though I went through all the proper channels to get this, it still seems totally wrong. I think the requisites should have at least been something like:
Applicants must 1) fry within 5 minutes in the sun or 2) fry within 10 minutes in the shade or 3) own all Riverdance videocassettes 4) avoid sushi.
[P.S. I was eligible for an Irish citizenship through marriage. Duck has been Irish himself for a dozen years or so. He was born in the US, his parents were born in the US, but his maternal grandmother was born in Ireland (and a distant cousin of Gregory Peck!). You can obtain citizenship if a grandparent was born in Ireland, and you have the birth certificate to prove it and other documentation that prove you are indeed related.
November 29 2005 was the last day they were accepting applications for post-nuptial citizenship, so I really wanted to get it done before the opportunity closed for good. Why not!?]
None of those apply to me, but worse I have never even set foot in Ireland. Not even for a layover. I am a fraud! I don't know who the president is! I don't drink Guinness and never freckle in the sun! I can take a Jameson on the rocks, but not without some mild gagging. And the Magners cider, it comes in a can that's so enormous, I get stage fright.
[Funny, in the rules it says you "must have had a period of one year's continuous residence in the island of Ireland immediately before the date of your application." Hm. I think they just made that up. There were a lot more rules that applied that aren't listed there.]
People ask me what I'm going to do with this citizenship, like it's the oddest thing to want to have. Hello, I'll get a passport, and then the key to the doors of all of EU will be mine!!! I can live and work in France as a citizen. Or Turkey. Or Greece. Who knows if I ever will, but having the option to someday exercize those options is a no-brainer.
PS The president of Ireland is Mary McAleese. So progressive! I should have known this.
***
Finally we get to some knitting. I feel I've slacked off a lot in knitting even though I still knit a bit everyday. I've just adopted an extremely scatterbrained process. I currently have about 4 projects going on, 2 of which could have been completed a long time ago if I could just focus on one thing at a time.
So, here is another half of what will one day become a second pair of Pomatomus (so I have a complete pair now, but mismatched). I so love this pattern. This one is worked in Koigu, toe-up with a short row heel.
With this half of a pair finished, I've gone back to finish the other half of my first pair. I hate this non-linear approach but it keeps me from getting bored with a yarn.
Remember me wanting to make a table runner/doily/something very lacy? I haven't forgotten about it. It took me awhile to settle on a yarn. I visited a yarn store with my mom last month in Atlanta, it had a 30% off sale on a laceweight cashmere/silk blend. Yummy. I bought 2 hanks with Rose of England in mind. But I hedged. Do I really want to use cashmere for a tablecloth? This was all supposed to be about process knitting so practicality shouldn't have mattered, but still...couldn't bring myself to start.
Later in Michaels I spotted a spool of cotton crochet thread and for $1.50, I thought what the hell, I'll give that a go.
 
Rose of England progress
I started Rose of England this weekend. It took several tries and I nearly gave up after the 1000th attempt of trying to get past round 3, but once I finally did, pretty smooth sailing! I made it to round 23 before I started running out of room on my supershort DPNs. I'm excited about this project though. The potential for mistakes are aplenty and I was convinced that, especially with no end-of-rounds stitch counts given - I'd find myself losing my place or missing a stitch here, there. It hasn't happened so far. The easy-to-read chart and written instructions are really helpful used together. And most surprisingly, working with cotton thread has been pretty decent. Once I get a pair of suitable circs I'll be on my way again.
***
Now I've saved the best for last. A couple of weeks ago a reader named Veronica requested a photocopy pattern swap which I happily (and hopefully not illegally) obliged. You know how I love one-for-one pattern swapping. I sent it off but instead of getting a pattern in return, I got two skeins of HANDSPUN 100% CASHMERE. Can you believe it? How generous is that? I love you knitting people! Come here, let's all get in a big circle and snuggle!
The yarn is gorgeous, scrumptious, edible, luxurious, beautiful, lovely lovely lovely, too lovely to knit with. She sent one 2-ply skein, but because that one turned out "flawed," (whatever!), she included another skein in 3-ply. Oh cashmere what have I done to deserve you? It came attached with a HANDSTAMPED multi-paged card. AND a handwritten letter. I was totally beside myself with glee, but also a little sheepish and embarrassed. So much handiwork and care, and all I did was make a few photocopies and lick a stamp. It doesn't seem fair, but I'll take it!
LOVE the personal card
The spinner of the glorious yarn lives in Seattle and that's all I can tell you. She doesn't have (or didn't include) a website to some online business and doesn't have (or didn't tell me) a blog. Too bad! Maybe she's working on it...?
Thank you Veronica for the incredibly generous gift! If you have a website and/or business, let me know!
Filed Under: Life | Socks | Pomatomus | Rose of England
Thursday, June 01, 2006
We're back from Maine, tanned, relaxed, and full of shellfish. It's amazing how a trip - no matter if it is a mere hour's worth of driving - tricks your brain into thinking you're far away from home, and so how cleaner the air, how bluer the Atlantic, how colder the beer, how tastier the food, so that you must order one lobster at every single meal and not feel even slightly guilty for the indulgence. Vacations put this weird happy smog in your head that makes you think you're full of cash and enough digestive juices to break down the bite after biteful of sweet lobster flesh. I mean lobsters can be had just as easily in Boston, but only on vacation would I ever consider having it for THREE MEALS IN A ROW. It seemed like such a good idea. But though you might not feel that twinge of irresponsibility, your colon will. Your poor, twisted colon will.
I could go down this road further but I think I'll just stop right there.
We totally lucked out on the weather this weekend. You never know what you might get at the end of May in New England, even if summer is technically only a few weeks away. It was supposed to rain on Saturday, the day we set out, but luckily weathermen are idiots and I bet my cats could forecast the weather just as well by reading the patterns they make in their litterbox. After Kitty and Tomcat arrived in Boston, we hustled to Ogunquit and made it there in just over an hour. We checked into the "resort" (really a timeshare of condos) that turned out to be thoughtfully stocked with a huge lobster pot in the kitchen, and was only a 1 minute walk to the action. We walked down the driveway way and across the street, and before we knew it we were looking at ocean.
Later that night we had our dinner out Arrows. FaaAAAaancy. It was dark by the time we got there, otherwise I'd be showing you pictures of me trying to eat the wisteria that were blooming deliciously over the entrance of the farm-house-turned-restaurant. We had a table overlooking the large backyard garden and even in the dark I could make out the bushels of lilacs lining the yard. Wisteria and lilacs drive me WILD. Frothing-at-the-mouth kind of wild. I missed lilac season in Boston when I was down South, but Maine is just far up north enough to be 2 weeks behind schedule, so there were lots of lilacs still in bloom.
The food at Arrows was easily the most expensive I've ever had, anywhere in the world, and logically you would then think it was the best food I've ever had anywhere. It was great food, but I can't say if, considering the price, it was the BEST I've ever had. If you were to graph the price of an entree against its tastiness, I think at the $26 mark, the line on the graph would just plateau. After $26, you could put one more ingredient or one million more ingredients into the entree, and it would probably be just as tasty as if you hadn't at all. Know what I mean? And the starting price for each entree were way over $26...
This was my dish:
Soy lacquered Tai (snapper-like fish) with Thai eggplant, baby bamboo in a grilled shiitake mushroom sauce with a hot and sour lobster broth and daikon dumplings. Accompanying the broth was a quarter-sized dollop of sambal which the waitress told me was made from "like, 50 different spices." The dish was delicious but I'd bet that 3/4 of the price was in that small bowl of broth and that tiny plop of sambal, not the fish.
It is however the little accents like that that I end up remembering most about a dish. Duck and I had dinner once at No.9 Park in Boston two years ago (very highbrow), and the ONLY thing I remember about our entire meal was this shot of tarragon frappe that accompanied my dessert. It was strange and amazing and I can still taste it. The lobster broth and sambal were small but wonderful, so I'll probably be thinking about them long after the main fish.
Sunday was a glooooorious sunny day. A perfect day for long, ankle twisting walks along the rocky beach, a yummy lunch of lobster roll and rum punch by the ocean, then a Booze Cruise along the coast with more rum punch. While we were waiting for our cruise to begin we found out that President Bush the Senior had lunch at the restaurant across the one where we were and we probably just missed seeing him by a few minutes.
The boat ride was nice until I started to feel queasy with 1 hour and 28 minutes to go. The cruise was 1 1/2 hour long.
By this time we had long abandoned our plans of cooking lobsters ourselves. Really, who wants to cook while on vacation? So we didn't. More lobsters for dinner at another oceanside restaurant. Kitty and Tomcat had theirs baked and stuffed, I had mine boiled over a bed of steamers and mussels - and to start with, a really thick and hearty bowl of clam chowder - and Duck was the odd bird out with his bowl of scallops swimming in this bacon and bleu cheese sauce. Oh. My. By the end of this meal we were all clutching our sides crying. Why Lobster why can I not say No to you?
Lobster Four Ways: in a roll, boiled with drawn butter, bisected and stuffed with breadcrumbs and more lobster, as beer
We ended the night with a game of Trivial Pursuit. Boys vs Girls. Obviously the girls won, decidedly. Look at our huge brains, enhanced by lobster tail.
Monday morning Duck made French toast for breakfast. We were all crazed for something uncooked and crunchy. Nonetheless, after Kitty and Tomcat had to leave to catch their train back home, I got another hankering for a lobster roll. After this last indulgence did I finally learned my lesson. That night Duck and I went to the grocery store, bought two ears of corn, boiled them and ate them plain. We couldn't even handle a pat of butter. For dessert, grapefruit. So nice on the digestive system!
The Bush Compound in Kennebunkport
Duck and I stayed for a couple more days. We took a drive to nearby Kennebunkport and without meaning to, meandered by the Bush Compound. It's huge and sprawling and stands on its own peninsula. The Texas flag waves from out front, right next to the Saudi flag. Ha ha.
I took a couple of pictures from across the water and when I got back into the car, Duck told me that while we were snapping photos and idling around, each of us were in the crosshairs of a sniper's rifle. Do you think?! I said. SO COOL. I suppose that makes sense - but for an ex-President? Oh so ex-President but father of very unpopular, could-really-do-without-him, current President. Yes it does seem plausible. I suppose instead of pulling out a camera I could have pulled out a missile launcher from my purse. Luckily for me I left it at the hotel. I wonder what I look like through a scope?
Perkins Cove at night
Knitting content coming...some day!
Filed Under: Life | Travel | Ogunquit
Thursday, May 25, 2006
 Is it the weekend yet? So close we're so close! For Memorial Day Weekend we're going to Ogunquit ME, and my sweet Kitty and her boyfriend will be joining us from NYC.
Do you know how huge this is? Do you know how many vacations Kitty and I have planned together over the years that ultimately never happened? How many tears I've wept? And do you know how many times it was her fault? (All of them.) I should really start calling her Kitty McFlakesters.
I had put money down that she would back out of this trip (like she did with our most recently defunct plans for Napa Valley this past spring), but to my amazement she has done the complete opposite and already purchased train tickets to Boston. But that's not even the best part! The best part is she put together a Powerpoint presentation of things we'll do. Powerpoint! There were all sorts of matrices and grids and charts. Clearly the girl needs more free time on her hands like I need more sock yarn.
To kick things off, we're having dinner at Arrows the first night. The 2001 issue of Gourmet mag rates it #25 on its list of best restaurants in America. La! But after that we'll be cooking in - the place we're staying has a full kitchen - trying some things we've never cooked before...
Kitty: We will COOK like little MONKEYS.
Me: Maybe I'll bring a big big pot in case. To put live LOBSTERS in.
Kitty: I've never cooked a lobster Cat. I'm scared.
Me: Neither have I!! So we need to look up how before we go. Mm...I may not be able to do it. So cruel. My mom boiled live crabs while I was home and it was sad. Delicious, but sad.
Kitty: I was at the fish store last sunday and there was a girl who worked there who was laughing about a lobster that she poked in the back of the head the way you're supposed to to kill it and it kept MOVING for like HALF an HOUR. She was like, Ha ha ha what a crazy lobster.
Me: Maybe we'll just do clams.
Kitty: Mussels and shimp and clams.
Me: If we can't cook the lobsters though, I'm having trouble picturing the guys being able to. We're all wussies.
Kitty: I think Tomcat would do it. I'll ask him.
Me: I picture us dropping the lobsters and screaming.
Kitty: And them grabbing our faces with their claws (bring the OLD BAY). Latching onto our arms and lips.
Me: ooo la this is going to be GREAT.
Kitty: By the way I can't eat really big shrimp.
Me: Hahah what?
Kitty: Because they're too BUG like.
Me: Hahaha WTF.
Kitty: The BIG ONES.
Me: You're an idiot.
Kitty: You bite into their BIG BUGGY flesh.
Me: BUGGY FLESH you are so stupid.
Please don't rain.
Filed Under: Life | Travel | Ogunquit
|