My First Perfect Fall Weekend of 2008

I’ve been working WAY too hard for the last four weeks. So, my boss forbade me to do any work this weekend. Being the good employee that I am . . . I listened to him. This resulted in a perfect Saturday in Brooklyn (and Sunday is starting out pretty nice too!). First we spent a lazy Saturday morning at home. I got a nice hunk of my bam boo top done

After deciding it was time to leave the house (after many Scrambulous rounds with Nell), we checked out the program for Open House New York. I’ve never even heard of this AMAZING weekend. I only wish it lasted a month. There are hundreds of free programs all over the city. After much debate we settled on a dance installation in Greenwood Cemetery. We love Greenwood, and it was a perfect fall day, so we figured, if the performance/installation was a bust we would still have a nice day. The installation was fantastic!!! I found it eerie and beautiful. It was called Angels & Accordions. It is really hard to describe.

It starts at the main gate of the Cemetery. . .by the way, for those of you who don’t know about the wild parrots of Brooklyn, I should mention that there are giant nests of bright green Monk Parakeets that live in the front gate. Their squawking only added to the strange and delightful afternoon. (on a weird side note, the other city that I lived in, Chicago, also had a mysterious population of Monk Parakeets that lived in Hyde Park. There were many theories on how they got there, but nobody knows for sure.)

* I forgot my camera, so these pictures come from a fab Brooklyn Blog, Atomische*

Back to Angels & Accordions. . . it started with a trio of accordion players & the dance performance in front of the gate. First a group of mourners came out all dressed in black under black umbrellas.

Shortly after one mourner laid some flowers on the ground, a group of dancers (presumably the dead) appeared in white flowing costumes. They danced with the mourners, and then after the mourners embraced the dead, they slipped out of their arms and left the mourners with empty arms.
The dancers then walked up the hill into the cemetery and the whole crowd followed. For the next two hours, hundreds of us followed guides holding large black and white umbrellas, throughout the cemetery.

As you walked you came across the dancers, singing mournfully, draped eerily and dancing beautifully all around the graves. It was really spectacular. My favorite was walking under a low hanging willow and finding the dead hidden amongst the branches quietly singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (later we found out that Frank Baum was buried near by).

Another favorite was walking though the catacombs past people ringing bells and projections of pictures, and the soft speaking of names. All to accordion music

It all ended with a final, full ensemble dance, by the chapel. A magical afternoon.

This morning started chilly and rainy, so I lit my first fire of the season (yeah)

and David made blueberry pancakes. Now we’re mulling over going out and doing yet more fun Brooklyn things This weekend is just what I needed to prepare me for the upcoming weeks.

Late Fall Harvest, Late Fall Tank Top

Summer is drawing to a close. Tomorrow is the first day of fall. Sigh. This time of year used to always fill me with anticipation of the coming season. For years as a kid it was the start of a new school year, then for 20 something years in theatre, it was the start of a new theatrical season. As a knitter it’s time to say goodbye to knitting tanks & camis and hello chunky sweaters. This year I’m feeling a bit apprehensive about the future, but that’s because of a whole lot of stuff going on with my personal & family life. We cast on. We forge ahead. My favorite mantra from one High Holiday service I went to years ago was . . . I will try, I will fail, I will try again.

We are still harvesting a bunch of late season veggies. Here’s yesterday’s pickings

And this morning we noticed a few we missed

Since time is running out, today we are going to make tons of pestos, and sauces to freeze. A little summer in the freezer during the cold wintertime.

Just in time for the end of summer, I finally cast off the Lotus Blossom tank

I did a lot of modifications to the pattern so it would fit me nicely. I’m pretty happy with the result.

Now that I finally got that bad boy off my needles, I’m going back to the Cotton Bamboo top that has been languishing in the knitting bag. It’s coming along nicely. I feel like this cable pattern is going to take me forever, so I might cast on David’s Cobblestone Sweater, and alternate between the two projects.

Since I avoid finishing like the plague, I decided to convert the pattern to in the round. For some stupid reason I thought it would be easier to divide for front and back when I got to the cable pattern. I somehow thought I would have to think too much to convert the flat chart to in the round. That was (of course) dopey. There;s nothing too it, and now I’ve just created another seam for myself. Curse you mattress stitch!!

Coming Up For Air (for a day)

The last two weeks have been insanely busy. I just got back from dropping my mom & sister off at the airport. It was a nice visit, but I’ve been so busy at work I didn’t get to spend as much time with them as I’d like. We had a great Brooklyn day yesterday. We went to Prospect Park to see the exhibit on the re imagining of Grand Army Plaza. I hope we’re still living here when this gets done For those of you have been here, you know why this is long overdue. The Arch, Baily Fountain, the Farmer’s Market, they all sit on disconnected hunks of concrete, seemingly impossible to get to without taking your life in your hands dodging traffic.

After eating our way through all the baked good tables, we headed down to Red Hook for the fall art show (thank you free Ikea shuttle!).

I always enjoy taking folks to Red Hook since it’s something so different.

All week I didn’t get much knitting done, but I did manage to finish (almost) the Lotus Blossom Tank. It’s blocking waiting it’s dreaded finishing.

Product or Process

It’s been a couple of weeks full of surprises and gifts. A huge life change (more about that later) and being the recipient of a moment of pure generosity.

Are you a product knitter or a process knitter? I am a little of both, but primarily I’m about the product. I want the garment. Sure, I love to knit it, but I want the finished item. In fact, if you ask my husband, it’s pretty hard to get me to knit for anyone else. I’ve knit myself a whole wardrobe! Then there’s my pal Kiana or Patrick who will find a pattern they love, or yarn they love and just knit. Patrick usually says “I don’t know who I’ll give it to, but I have to knit this”. Well Saturday I was lucky enough to be with Patrick when he was showing off his latest work. It was a cabled vest made from beautiful hand dyed J-Knits Mohair. It was a soft rose color and it was SOOOO pretty. I told him I loved it, and a few minutes later, he handed it to me and said “I want you to have this”. I teared up. Nobody has ever just handed me something so pretty. I was knocked over. Here I am happily wearing a beautiful hand knit, NOT knit by me

My own hand knits are coming along. I’ve put aside the Cotton Bam Boo Top, so I can finish my Lotus Blossom Tank. I’m doing tons of modifications (like everyone has). It’s funny how many people “almost” like this pattern, yet we like it enough to knit it and make it our own. I’m following, as my base, the modifications on Lickety Knit. However, because my gauge is so insane, I have to do a lot of my own. I’m using Alchemy Silk Purse, which is supposed to be 22 stitches per 4″on a US 5. I get 25 stitches per 4″ on a US 6!!!!

Here’s how it’s looking so far

I decreased 28 stitches instead of the 14 called for, and knit the garter rows and another 3/4″ of stockinette. Then I increased back up to the original 200 stitches. My gauge is tight and it seemed to fit me better that way. I went back to a US 5 to maintain my gauge when I divided for front and back.

Here’s my five lotus blossoms/alien heads (instead of the 4 the pattern calls for)

I love the color variation in the yarn. It really shows up in the stockinette

As for my other news . . . this week I started an exciting new job with Lion Brand Yarn. They are opening a New York flagship Studio, and I was hired as the Studio Manager. I don’t want to give away to much right now (stay tuned for details), but it’s going to be a center for learning, sharing, & special events. The real focus of the studio is to teach and inspire.

What I’ve been most struck by in my first week is the passion and dedication of everyone working for Lion Brand. It’s a family owned business and has been run by the same family for 130 years, which is pretty special. I have a lot of work to do in the next few months, but it’s an exciting project to be involved with. I’m honored to be working with so many people who have such a passion for fiber arts. The design department is a constant buzz developing new yarns, patterns, colors. It’s all pretty inspiring.

A Very Special Visitor!

The other day my little roof deck was honored by a very special visitor. She was in town for just a day from the tour of Spamalot. She hasn’t been back in New York in ages, and I was thrilled she chose my little roof garden to visit. I’m speaking of course of Tallulah the cat. She also brought her person Francesca along with her.

I hadn’t seen Francesca in ages, since she’s been touring all over the US & Canada with her adorable cat. It was great to hang out on the roof, listen to some music and knit. Tallulah was busy smelling everything

And when we were visited with a Monarch butterfly (a RARE sight on our roof), she was fascinated.

Everything was fine with Tallulah finding a shady spot under the deck chair

and I settled down to do a little knitting

Life was good until Tallulah decided to crawl under the deck. Remembering what Francesca said about every moving day on the tour being a fight to get the cat out from under the bed (and our deck is a LOT bigger than a bed), I figured I’d better act fast

I went down to the apartment and fashioned this little cat toy out of a KnitPicks flexible needle
cable, some decorative stitch markers a wonderful customer gave me (thank you Patricia) and the needle end I was able to lure the cat out

Didn’t get much more work done on the Lotus Blossom Tank

which is crawling along at only one and a half alien heads long. Ah well. Tomorrow is another day.

Summer’s Going Too Fast

Somehow it’s already the second week of August. How the hell did that happen? The whole month of June was eaten by work, then David and I went on our FAB vacation, home, family visits NY, then off to my family reunion, and boom, somehow the summer’s almost over. Okay, I’ve decided to try to slow time down. I’ve wasted the last 5 weeks angsting about what I will do with the rest of my life. I’m going to try to spend the rest of the summer not caring. I’ve worked almost non stop for that past 22 years. I think I can take 2 months to figure out the rest of my life.

Right now I am enjoying a Park Slope weekend after a fab family reunion. Once a year (although we missed one last year), my tiny family gets together. My brother and sister and I used to see our two cousins every year and now that we’re grown, we still seem to pick up as if we just saw each other last week. It’s pretty great. Usually someone has an old picture of us as kids that we are asked to recreate. Here’s this years

So then we made the new generation of kids take a picture that we can make them retake when they’re in their 40s

After we got back I was busy catching up with life, and tending the garden. It’s looking pretty lush and dreamy in the lazy days of Aug

The Canna’s are huge!

The Lantanas have spread out and made themselves at home

And, as always, one little sweet potato vine ends up a wee bit overwhelming

One unexpected site was an unexpected visitor. We have a large pot that has composed soil. Part of the compost is our old kitchen scraps which included last year’s tomato seeds. You can imagine our surprise when we saw this growing out of the bottom of the pot

That’s right, it’s a fairly large tomato plant with flowers starting to come in. Crazy. We may be eating food grown from the seeds of last years garbage. If you can’t find inspiration in that, you aren’t trying

I took my Cotton Bam Boo Smock Top out of town, because it’s mindless stockinette and I don’t have to deal with lace.

The last couple of days I’ve been swatching for the Lotus Blossom Tank. I’m using the amazingly dreamy Alchemy Silk Purse. It’s supposed to be 5.5 st/in on US 6. I know I knit tighter in the round, but I wanted to get a tighter gauge. I think the pattern as written is kind of shapeless. I swatched it on a US 5 and got an insane 28 stitches per 4 inch (the pattern calls for 22), I reswatched on a US 6 and got 25, a doable gauge to make it more form fitting. However, when I divide for front and back I’m going to have to go down to a US 5 to keep that gauge.

The colors are amazing and it feels SOOOO good to knit with.

Here’s the back of the swatch showing the old “in the round” trick

David and I are spending the weekend enjoying all that is Park Slope. Last night we took a walk in the park. This morning we woke up early and headed up the hill to our beloved farmer’s market. The light was perfect.

I wore my bamboo top so I could finally get some shots of me wearing it. David is so sneaky, except for the one posed shot, all the other shots were David sneaking in shots when I didn’t notice. What a guy.

Later today (after watching the opening ceremonies on our TIVO) we bummed around 5th Ave and looked at all the shops, and then tonight we are heading over to Prospect Park to see the final concert of the summer . . . It’s going too fast

Swatching in Circles

It turns out my procrastination didn’t last as long as I thought. I actually finished the top a few days after my whining post about all the finishing I had to do.

Once again I was kicking myself for mindlessly knitting a pattern without thinking, “why aren’t they . . .” or “I could just . . .”. First of all, if I had given the scalloped edge two seconds thought I would have done a provisional cast on or invisible cast on and then folded the edge over and knit two together to create the scalloped edge and not have to seam ever ^&%#& edge. PLUS why do I continue to mindlessly cast on for front and back when I could have knit this bad boy in the round right up to the arm hole, thus avoiding yet MORE seaming.

I’m not going to make that mistake again with the Classic Elite Cotton Bam Boo Smock Top, I am going to knit this guy in the round. I learned after my trauma with the Bluebell from Fitted Knits, if your going to knit in the round, for god sake, swatch in the round. BOY does it make a difference.

I first swatched the Classic Elite Cotton Bam Boo (which is supposed to get 6 st/in on a US 5) flat on US 5 and got the gauge perfectly. Then I swatched it knitting in the round and I had to go up to a US 7 to achieve that gauge. I really am a crazy tight knitter. The great thing about this is, my row gauge is now 30 row per 4″ instead of 28 and I really need that, because I am about 130 yds shy of the yarn that I actually need to do this pattern. Hopefully between cutting a couple of inches off the length and the row gauge I will be able to eek by.

Does everyone know to cool trick for swatching in the round? Here’s my sample (note the loosey goosey stitches on either side)

But that’s not in the round you say. It’s not! You just cast on the number of stitches you want on circular needles, making sure to cast on at least four more on either end, so you can have a good flat section in the middle to measure. Then knit a row, pull the stitches across to the other side of the needle, and then bring the yarn loosely around the back and knit again. The back of your swatch will look like this:

By knitting every row, you will be able to check your in the round gauge. I’m doing the same thing with the incredibly dreamy Alchemy Silk Purse, getting ready to cast on for the Lotus Blossom Tank. More about that another day.

In the garden, it is one battle after another. Following my triumphant defeat of the Katydids I am now battling powdery mildew. Our zucchini is barely hanging in there. We are picking more green beans, tomatoes and eggplants than we can eat, and the peppers are just starting to ripen, but the zucchinis . . . are rotting on the vine. GRRR

We are getting new and strange bugs arriving everyday. We now have these weird all black bees and black & red beetles, and these crazy dragon fly things:

Our dahlias have been joined by the glads

In our continuing effort to save some cash (eating all our home grown veggies helps), David found some old stale bread in the back of the fridge and turned it into:

Who’s a lucky gal! He’s a keeper

Speaking of keepers. I got a fantastic knitting magazine from my mother in law when we went on vacation. The cover tells you it’s gonna be fun (check out the hair!)

and please note the almost, paper doll like pose, here’s a picture from inside the magazine of the same model

Oh what wonderful things can be done with a crochet hook (eek)

Here’s some equal time for the horrors that knitting needles can create in 1970

Here are my two favorite adds. The first one is one of those “not only little old ladies knit” adds but with a hip 70’s flair

And, last but not least. . . everyone can have a yarn store in their home!

Let The Procrastination Begin . . .

We do I insist on knitting things with so much finishing??

I hate finishing, and now I will look at these pieces for the next week, sew a few inches, and pick up some new knitting.

Vacation and Veggies

David and I got back from vacation on Sunday and I’ve just today felt a little caught up. I always need a vacation after a vacation! I’m typing on my shiny new macbook (yeah!). My baby was waiting for me at The Point when I got home. She’s preeettty.

David was the hero going with me to nine yarn stores in ten days. We went to four in Portland, one in Bar Harbor (this one was called Bees and was 1/2 yarn store 1/2 chocolate shop . . . double yum) one in Newburyport (1/2 yarns store, 1/2 weaving – HUGE room full of looms, cool) one in Lenox, one in Pittsfield, one in Great Barrington. The interesting thing about visiting all those shops was the prices. People talk about “New York prices” or “big city prices”. I’ve never understood that, since I know our prices are in line with the rest of the country . . . at least until I saw “Berkshire prices”. WOW! The stores in Portland and Bar Harbor were pretty much in line with NY prices, but holy moly, the Berkshires. The first place I went in Pittsfield was nice and the prices were consistently about $.25 above NY prices, next stop Lenox. It was very large, great selection, and about $.50 above NY shops. Then the craziest place I’d ever been. From the outside it looked like a tiny weird gift shop in a broken down house, then inside you find five rooms crammed from floor to ceiling with yarn. Sounds cool right . . . until you notice that yarn was anywhere from $1.00 to a whopping $3.00 more a skein than NY. Crazy world. If you’re ever in Western Mass, check them out, just be sure to check the price tag.

When we weren’t visiting yarn stores we were enjoying the incredible beauty of Maine and Western Mass. Here are just a few of the hundreds of picks we took

Peaks Island when the fog rolls in:

Adorable Bar Harbor:

Idyllic Acadia:

My knitting comes to Sand Beach:

We also decided to relive our Memorial Day weekend, and get a 1000 piece puzzle. I LOVED IT. Here’s what we tackled (note all the white sky)

end of day 1:

end of day 2:

Success:

The Western Mass part of the trip (Lenox, etc.) was to break up the long drive home from Maine. We spent the day at Jacob’s Pillow, one of my favorite places on earth. For those of you who haven’t been. . . it’s a dance theatre camps on the top of a hill in the middle of the woods in the Berkshires. They have things going all the time. We went to watch a presentation on old film footage of the Pillow, then a free outdoor dance presentation by the students danced in this idyllic setting:

Then we saw the awesome Hofesh Schecter. They were rockin!

All this driving gave me a lot of knitting time. The back of my scallop edge pullover was finished in Cape Cod (the first stop on our va ca), and I cast on for the front. By the time I got home . . .

The other thing that grew (besides my bamboo t-shirt) in ten days was our garden. Holy @#%@#!!! First of all, when we left there were no Canna flowers, Dahlia, Lillies, and when we returned . . .

Here’s what can happen in one month:

(June)

(July)

And then there’s the food. We came home to find ripe tomatoes, peppers, green beans, zucchini

And then there’s the veggies right out of the movie Sleeper . . .

SOOO much knitting . . . SOOO little blogging

It’s been almost two weeks since I posted and WOW have I been doing a lot of knitting. First of all, I finally cast off the Branching Out Scarf. I love this pattern, but I watched way too much TV and made way too many mistakes to have knit this bad boy out of mohair. If you’re not willing to pay attention, then BACK AWAY FROM THE MOHAIR! Here’s she is getting a little sun in the garden

Speaking of the garden, all was well in our little bucolic wonderland. Our lettuce was tasty, our zucchini coming in nicely, many tomatoes were on the vine and then . . .

These all over. Eating holes in our rose pedals, in our rose leaves, in our sedum, our basil, our tomatoes! What the devil were they??? Thanks to the wonders of the internet we were able to identify them as Katydids.

So now we know what they are all we have to do is follow the remedies outlined in all the clever gardening web pages. Here are the suggestions culled from all over the net.

1) Release toads (on our roof garden in Brooklyn)
2) Let the field mice eat them
my FAVORITE

3) see if you can borrow some chickens for a few days.

Any gardeners out there know a remedy that doesn’t involve releasing mammals or foul onto our roof???

Last Saturday I took my first session of Machine Knitting at FIT. It was really hard and frustrating to get the hang of. The weird thing about knitting on a machine is, it’s the cast on and cast off that takes all the time. The knitting is nothing! Our teachers were so patient and knowledgeable. Here’s the class room

And some random yarn pics (who could resist when faced with shelves and shelves of yarn!)

Here’s the machine we worked on. It’s a Brother 850

Despite all the frustrations of the first day . . . ripping out and starting again, and learning a whole new language, I still knit two sleeves (at a 9 st/inch gauge) in one day. CRAZY

The cuffs of the sleeve and sweater bottom look just like K1 P1 rib, but it’s a mock rib. It’s just a tube of stockinette knit on every other needle.

There’s one thing the machine doesn’t do for you . . . finishing (UggggggH). Still gotta do that the old fashioned way. We took home our sleeves to seam them up. The next session was going to be the sweater body.

In the week between the machine classes, I was quite happy to pick up my needles again. I finished the cutey little Debbie Bliss Bolero. It was a fast little knit (although the machine knitting teacher was quick to point out I could “knock that out in a few hours”)

I truly adored working with the Rowan Purelife Cotton. This is the softest, dreamiest cotton I’ve ever worked with. And the subtle color variations are really pretty.

Yesterday was the second session of Machine Knitting. We made the front & back of the sweater. Here it is just waiting for finishing

Today was the final day and we learned increases and decreases, we made silly little leaves and flowers, and I practiced de-knitting, and dropping and picking up stitches.

Then it was time to take the tour of the Dr. Suess like knitting lab. There we saw whozitz and what nots, dodads and thingamgigs.

Strande and wonderful machines that did strange and wonderful things. Here are a few of my favorites.

Here is the industrial machine that can knit whole garments (seams and all). Our teacher had made a piece of lace that took her 10 hours on the machine, then after programming the computer on the industrial machine, it kicks in out in about 15 min

Here’s a video of the machine in action and then a picture of the lace panel as it comes out of the machine

Here are a couple of insane looking sock knitting machines

Finally it was back to the classroom, where I sat and did my finishing while listening to the teacher tell us about the different machines. If I do every buy one, it will be the Brother 260 bulky. I will NEVER put down my needles, buy I could see myself doing a combination. For instance, I could have put the bodice of the Feather and Fan cardigan on the machine and used the machine to knit the miles of stockinette at the end.