Tuesday, July 18, 2006
On the left: GEMS Opal merino yarn in teal, bought at a lovely yarn store (Loop) in Philadelphia. They stocked a variety of colors but this one was the only I came away with. When faced with so much variety, I freeze instantly with indecision, until of course I get home, 500 miles away, and then do I think, Oh why didn't I get that or that or that when I had the chance? I'm wishing I picked up a skein of red to make my Boston Red Socks. This is some nice yarn.
On the right: Self-striping sport-weight yarn from yarntini in colorway "Three Rivers." Yay! I've been coveting yarntini's goods for awhile, admiring from afar...Finally broke down and asked her to dye me up some in sport-weight when all the stock from her store and pureknits were gone. That's of course when I wanted it the most. What a pretty, pretty skein, so pretty I could eat it.
So now that I have more than enough inventory (including these yarn here that I haven't yet touched - except for the blue Koigu) for Christmas socks, I have to go through the task of determining WHO is worthy of receiving socks made from which yarn. The obvious answer is ME, but me is not the right answer.
I started knitting another Pomatomus with the Opal, and since it's sport-weight, I had to adjust gauge and rewrote the chart to be a 8-stitch by 14-row pattern repeat (as opposed to a 12x22 pattern repeat). I decided I would finally do this one cuffdown for once.
Help me.
But look how ugly it is. I always have a problem joining the round after casting on. I can't avoid the little gap or a having a sort of tier form between the first and last stitch on the cast-on round. Usually I go back with a tapestry needle and sort of tighten it shut, but it still doesn't look clean, and this tier here is particularly bad and annoying. Waah.
I cast on long-tail, and usually doublestrand with the long tail for the first two stitches when joining the round...what else can I do neatly join a round?
Filed Under: General Knitting | Socks
Monday, July 17, 2006
Because it's just too damn hot to make with the knitting.
Filed Under: Cocktails | Life
Friday, July 14, 2006
The scene from last night:
I knitted for the first time at Fenway! I'm bashful about a lot of things but for some reason I'm not bashful about knitting in public. (I do draw the line at taking pictures of myself knitting in public though, especially at a jam-packed Red Sox game. How cooky would that have looked?)
I was knitting the mate to this:
YES it is the Pomatomus again and again and again, but now in anklet form. I bought the yarn while in Lenox a few weekends ago, and yes I said I wanted to take a break from the multicolored but I just could not say no to this purple and gold-flecked Mardi Gras colorway. I knit this anklet while on the train to and from Philly, and while sitting out waiting for the fireworks. Love the quick knits. This will be a Christmas gift.
So pleased to be starting the Christmas gifts early. Might as well put my sock craze to good use. Everyone's getting a pair!
 It occurred to me while at the game, staring at the Red Sox logo on the wall, that I should knit that. Red socks with the white toes and heels (pointed toes and gusset heels, see!). There are plenty of fans in the family who I think would get a kick out of Boston Red Socks - including my cousin in Taipei who is the BIGGEST Sox fan you'll ever meet. As is his new baby. Just not by choice at this point. Poor thing.
Filed Under: Life | Socks | Pomatomus
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Did you know Benjamin Franklin is one of our nation's Founding Fathers?
Of course you did, but if you were somehow able to get away from that fact in school, Philly is here to remind you. Over and over.
But I bet you didn't know that he invented the glass harmonica? (I didn't know such a thing even existed)
And, the urinary CATHETER? (Shudder)
Me, I'm just happy to be able to knit a sock toe-up and cuff-down, and here he is being all nation-founding and glass-blowing and musical and medical and electrical within the same week. Show-off.
But clearly Philly loves him. For he is everywhere.
I like Philly. It is so diverse and informative, and their City Hall looks like the Hotel de Ville in Paris. It doesn't compare to Boston's City Hall, the ugliness of which is so obvious to anyone with vision that babies throw up when they see it.
Left: Philly's City Hall
Right: Boston's Eyesore
Here is but a small snippet of what I did and saw last week.
1. Newly minted treasonists all hot and stuffy on this July 4th. Yes on July 4th 2006, Chrusty (my high school BFF (not real name)) and I did July 4th appropriate activities like visiting Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, drinking ale, and listening to Lionel Richie and Fantasia perform live before the fireworks. It was fun! I love freedom!
2. Elfreth's Alley, the oldest residential street in America. I compare this to Acorn Street in Boston's Beacon Hill. I did a lot of comparisons and analogies between Philly and Boston. Like, "Isn't it interesting that Ben Franklin was born in Boston but died in Philly, and now I live in Boston and you live in Philly?" etc. etc.
Chrusty and I then did a lot of Philly vs. Atlanta and Boston vs. Atlanta comparisons. After points were made on both sides, the conclusion was always "Yeah Atlanta blows, can't believe we grew up there" and we'd give each other self-satisfied props for living in such cute cities now.
3. The Liberty Bell. There are some funny shots of Chrusty and me taking self-portraits in front of the bell, and no matter how we positioned ourselves, each time our heads got perfectly in the way as to obscure the bell completely. I think we spent more time trying to take pictures, laughing at the results, taking more pictures, laughing some more, than we actually did admiring the bell.
It's got a huge crack in it anyway.
4. Assembly Room in Independence Hall. Some really important stuff happened here.
5. The Big Colon on display in the Mütter Museum, which showcases shelves upon shelves of medical "anomolies," or possibly "X-Men." In the case of The Big Colon, I would say "big" is a bit of an understatement. Colossal doesn't even do it justice. You could see this thing from space. It is horrifying.
You might think that this giant colon belonged to a proportionally giant man, so maybe life for this dude wasn't so bad, but instead it belonged to a wretched average-sized, skinny man who could never find a proper-fitting leotard. His colon just kept growing and growing...I sort of wish that had happened to my chest. When he finally expired, doctors extricated 40 (that's forty) lbs of poo from his colon. Luckily, that part was not available for display.
There were many equally if not more horrifying things on display at this museum, like babies in jars in various stages of malformation and mutation. My favorite (not an appropriate word, but can't think of one) anamoly is of a skeleton belonging to this poor chap who had a mutation that caused bone to grow in places of muscles, tendons, and ligaments. BONE. In place of MUSCLE. And you could SEE it.
If you visit this museum, bring a friend. And maybe a sick bag.
Other things I learned in Philadelphia:
- It is large.
- There are a lot of abandoned rowhouses/buildings in what I would consider prime real estate location, like near all the points of interest in the Old City. I don't get it.
- But they understand mojitos. Chrusty took me to this Cuban restaurant where they make their mojitos with pressed sugarcane.
- They understand mussels. Chrusty took me to a Belgian pub. We had a pot of plump juicy mussels in this Dijon, garlicky, lemony broth. Mmmm.
- They understand gelato. Chrusty took me here and I got the Lime and Cilantro sorbet. You are either in the camp that believes cilantro tastes like soap, or that it doesn't, and prior to this gelato I believed cilantro tastes good with everything. My hypothesis is now fact! And YAY! They have an online store!
- How to grill a pizza. Chrusty and I cooked dinner one night and she taught me how to make pizza dough and then grill it. I've made it twice now since I've been home.
- Chrusty is all grown up. Chrusty's one of those friends who you may not see or even hear from on a regular basis but when you do, it's as if you saw her yesterday. We've changed so little since high school that we're able to make each other laugh with the same antics, and yet we've changed so much that most of the usual or not-so-usual insecurities of high school have evaporated -- and now therefore, Chrusty is all fine with engaging in PDAs with her new boyfriend that I had to shield my eyes in case they caught fire from the blush that was rising from my cheeks. Chrusty, kissing a boy! In front of me! And other people! It's a big deal.
Now I wish Chrusty good luck and good research when she leaves for Africa next month. If I don't see you in a year, congrats on your doctorate! And see you at your wedding!
P.S. I did buy yarn while in Philly. It is for socks. Big surprise there.
Filed Under: Life | Travel | Philly
Monday, July 10, 2006
Last weekend while Duck and I were in western Mass., we took his mother out for a lovely al fresco dinner at a restaurant in Lenox. Afterwards we took a stroll among the quaint little boutiques and finally ducked into one of the many antique stores lining the pretty, manicured streets. The store was empty, save for the owner who was reading a magazine on the couch. As we said a polite hello upon entering, she took one look at me, fell hopelessly, madly in love, and pounced!
WHY?
 Because I was wearing Butterfly! HA HA! (And funny, it was the first time I've worn it since October. I'd forgotten about it, for shame.) She seriously couldn't keep her hands off me - or the hem of Butterfly at least, and followed me around the store while I tried to browse and not feel incredibly self-conscious and embarrassed. But oh I was flattered.
We fellow knitters know how beautiful Butterfly is, how fabulous ALL of our knitting is, but don't you find that strangers are strangly immune to all of it? So to have this person's Good Taste Radar (heh heh) go off as soon as I walked into the room...She knew immediately that I had made it, was so enamoured with it, that she asked if I would make one for her store - where she also sells a little clothing and shoes - on consignment.
"But of course, it must be in a more average size," she said, illustrating the point by grabbing her own bosomy bosom, and I was like Ha ha ha! Then, Boo hoo hoo, yes I know I don't have any of that, stop comparing!
We didn't get into specifics besides size and color (neutral only, to keep it "simple and sophisticated"), so I have no idea what she would charge if I were to make one for the store, and how much of the cut I would receive. Materials for three skeins of KSH would already be at least $35-$45 depending where I buy them, and let's not even talk about labor, or I'd have to charge about $1,000 for Butterfly. (She also talked about making "neck and wrist ruffles." English is not her native language so I was a little unclear by what she meant, but I bet she's thinking of a ruffly scarf like this, or a wrist cuff like this.)
But as everyone later reminds me, you get a certain kind of shopper in the town of Lenox...The kind that would be willing to be buy cashmere legwarmers for their dogs for those chilly nights by the lake when they go to Doggie Summer Camp. $$ Kaching kaching! $$
In any case, I'm only talking about making one Butterfly, and it would really be for the pure enjoyment of it. And it would give me a fun reason to design a label. Plus, the novelty of having your handknit be displayed in a store, for actual sale and not for show. Handmade with luuuv by domesticat! Buy me!
Addendum: Well no, I should not like to be sued by the scary Rowan lawyers for selling a copyrighted knitwear design. The thought did cross my mind, but it was trumped by the other thought that it's one tiny Butterfly, made with tiny yarn, by one tiny girl, for sale in a tiny store in a tiny town. Can evil exist in such tininess? Now that word is starting to look weird.
Filed Under: General Knitting | Butterfly
Friday, July 07, 2006
I just got back. I meant to work some on the train there but got trainsick as soon as I popped open the laptop. But I was OK to get some sock knitting done, heh. And meant to post some but it just never happened, with all the carousing around the city and having fun with my BFF and all. Now I have to concentrate on catching up on the work I didn't do, so more updates in a bit...
Filed Under: Life | Travel | Philly
Friday, June 30, 2006
Since I have no new knitting news of interest to report, I'd like to share with you, on this 4th of July weekend, the other addiction that I have to attend to on a daily basis.
Mojitos. BRING IT.
I make my mojitos like the way one might make a parfait, or a chocolate sundae: in layers.
- First, squeeze a lime. My metric is usually one lime per drink, but sometimes I'll juice two. When I'm feeling very daring, or when I have run out of limes, I will squeeze a lemon instead. Sometimes, like last night, I might even squeeze a lime AND a lemon. I NEVER use anything that comes out of a bottle or that plastic lime thing.
- Have glasses ready. I usually use squat scotch glasses as this keeps the alcohol-level-per-serving in check. Taller glasses are reserved for special days.
Add a heaping tablespoon of bar sugar into your glass - the more sugar the better - then add lime juice. Stir until sugar has dissolved.
Then tear the leaves from 2-3 sprigs of mint - the more mint the better - and muddle them in the lime juice to release the minty essence. I use the handle of knife for muddling.
- Now fill your glass with crushed ice. Regular ice is fine, but I find my drink is more refreshing somehow with crushed ice.
- Now add rum. I usually eyeball it, but you may discover later when you've woken up with pounding eyeballs that eyeballing is a dangerous technique. What you want is about 1.5 to 2 shots of rum. And only light rum will do. I use Bacardi.
- Optional: Now add a splash of whiskey. I use Jameson. Just a splash or so. This is my own twist on the drink, discovered when I was just short of rum for a full drink, so I topped the glass with whiskey instead. It turned out pretty good.
- After the alcohol's in place, top off with a splash of club soda, stir lightly, and garnish with a sprig of mint. Enjoy!
It should only be enjoyed once per evening. This drink is pretty potent, the way I make it.
We are heading to western Mass. for 4th July weekend, and of course the questions I always have to ask before we go to western Mass is 1) do I need to make a stop at WEBS? and 2) do I need to make a stop at Col0rful Stitches? In other words, Do I need more yarn?
I think the answer to that is NO, but then I think of my upcoming trip to Philly, and I'm swishing my tail...Know how my high school bff invited me to the lake in NH a few weeks ago, and I couldn't get there because I left my wallet on a subway (I did get it back finally)? Well to make up for that I'm going to spend 4th of July with her in Philadelphia, where she's been studying for her anthropology doctorate. She goes to Africa next month for a year or so for research towards her dissertation. Here is an excerpt of her proposal:
I take as a case study a rural district in central Mozambique where Pentecostal/Charismatic African Independent healing churches and female spirit mediums are both undergoing rapid growth. It examines the ways in which language is used as a critical means through which healing is effected in the ceremonies of spirit mediums and of healing churches.
I'm like, Whuh.
I leave Monday via Amtrak. Taking the train will be fun, and with 6 whole hours at my disposal, what will I knit? Rose of England is too unwieldy, I still can't garner interest to knit my mom's sweater (sorry Mom), so the only choice I have is to knit socks. Sigh. Such a burden. Really it's not such a bad thing since I'm planning to gift them for Christmas, but the problem is which sock yarn do I bring? I have three skeins of Regia self-striping which I don't feel like using right now because the wool is itchier and hot than the merino variety. So I have a skein of Koigu multicolored, but I'm kind of not into the multicolored at the moment...
Long story short, do I get more solid or semi-solid sock yarn, even though I so don't need them? I know as soon as I step in WEBS or Col0rful Stitches I won't be able to control myself. But I want sock yarn. But I have some already. But I want others. Damn this horrible sock addiction.
Filed Under: Cocktails | Life
Thursday, June 29, 2006
I started on another sock, bad, undisciplined me. I thought I'd do an anklet version of the "Bed Sock" from Knitting Vintage Socks, and try a tubular cast on. I can see why people get giddy at the sight of tubulars. It's so clean, so mesmerizing, so clever.
I don't like this sock pattern though. In fact I don't think I much like anything in this book, except for "Child's First Sock," and that's only because it looks like Pomatomus, with smaller scales.
That's all the knitting I've done in the last 24 hours. Kind of hard to update every day or every other day when you accomplish too little to report on...
...so here is a completely unnecessary picture of Veeb's famed BCB's (Bi-Colored Ballz).
Veebs, ready for his early physical.
Filed Under: Cats | Socks
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