Dogs Steal Yarn

I sat down to write an entry, because it's been a few days and it was time to write another blog entry. Well. First I started writing some nonsense about the fact that there's more snow on the way and I'm sick of snow and sick of winter. Yeah, yeah. Fascinating. Then I deleted that and started writing about how I ordered more Peace Fleece so I could do the hand finishing on the machine-knit cardi. Yawn. If I'm boring myself as I write the entry, chances are you'll be bored too. And I would never want to bore you folks. You deserve better than what I can muster at the moment.

Perhaps I should dance for you? Did you know I studied dance from age six until seventeen? Jazz, tap, and modern. How about a little tapping, then?

tappity tappity tap

Generic blog tapping not doing it for you? Okay... how about the Buck Time Step?

stomp hop step fah-lap step stomp hop step fah-lap step...

That's not especially interesting either, is it? So here's the truth. I'm taking a quick sanity break from an editing job at the moment. I'm listening to the LifterSteady playlist on my iTunes (that's every song by The Hold Steady and every song by Lifter Puller, on shuffle, in case you were wondering). I'm wishing I was in SF tonight, where The Hold Steady is playing and where I could maybe give Rach a hug in person. (And where it won't snow tomorrow.) In a moment I'll be going back to my editing job. Billy and the dogs are already asleep. Wish I was.

Are you sick of endless references to The Hold Steady and Lifter Puller? Are you worried that I've developed an unhealthy fixation? Never fear. I do listen to plenty of other bands on a regular basis. It's just that I'm spending most of my waking hours poking around in the reality of my novel. (I'm up to my elbows in revisions now. I'm thinking about it no matter what else I may appear to be doing. If you've attempted to have a conversation with me in the last few weeks, I apologize. There's an excellent chance that I wasn't entirely...umm...listening to you.) There's a secret door between the notes in quite a number of HS and LF songs that leads to a corner of my main character's brain. I love the music for itself, but I use it shamelessly to get my head where it needs to be for my writing. Oddly enough, I can also sometimes get there on the Q train...

Wait...this is a knitting blog, right? The only knitting I managed this weekend was the bit I got to do while Billy and I met with our accountant yesterday. Oh yeah. And then we saw the Gates. Eh. Underwhelmed. The scale was disappointing and the color was NOT saffron and the park was lousy with people.

I'm still bored. You probably are too. Shall I just shut up and get back to work and let you move on to the next blog? Probably. I feel like I should give you something for having shown up, though. You wonderful, clever reader, you.

How about this... a little something to look forward to if winter ever ends:

Machine knitting is the new yoga

Or something like that. (Or is felting the new yoga? Or woodcutting? When did Pilates stop being the new yoga? When does yoga get to be the new yoga again? Okay. Ignore me.)

Let's start with a confession, shall we? I've been holding out on you. Since shortly after labor day I've kept a rather long, narrow object in a hard plastic case in my studio and never once mentioned it on this blog. I won it on eBay for a ridiculously low price and had been afraid to try it since it arrived. Well, no more.

On Monday Andrea came over and taught me how to set up and use my knitting machine. (She's also the one who taught me to handknit. She's my yarny mentor. We love Andrea. Let's all take a moment to adore her.) Yep. Knitting machine. As in knitting not done with my dainty little hands and two needles alone. I'll give you handknitting purists a moment to go get a glass of water or something.

Okay. Everyone feeling alright? Here's the deal: there are things I want to knit by hand--many things--for the pleasure or challenge of knitting them. However there are also knit garments that I want to have as part of my wardrobe that would be dull as dirt to knit. The plan is to use the machine to crank out wardrobe pieces that don't hold my interest as handknitting projects. (I'm following in Bonne Marie's wise footsteps here.) The finishing will always have to be done by hand, of course.

Get this. Monday evening I started the Everyday Cardi kit I'd bought from Peace Fleece back in 2002. The thing had been sitting around forever. I cast on for it on the machine and got to work. Did the back piece that night. Yesterday evening I did the two fronts and the sleeves. Yep, just like that. A sleeve takes ten minutes in my beginner hands. Now I need to do the ribbed hem and cuffs by hand, as well as the button bands, collar, and seaming. You would have seen an FO tomorrow, but I've run out of yarn so it'll have to wait until I buy more. But all the pieces of a sweater in two evenings! The possibilities... oh, the possibilities... I predict a serious reduction in my stash in the near future, something that really needed to happen. (Afghans and sweaters for everyone!!! Okay...maybe not...)

The details: It's a Singer Chunky Knitter, Model 150. (Chunky doesn't mean only bulky yarns. It can go down to a pretty light DK weight yarn.) They don't make them anymore, so you can only buy them used. It's a lovely solid thing, all metal and sixties/seventies style goldenrod heavy duty plastic. It has a tension rod thingamabob that looks just like a praying mantis. Seriously. It's adorable. When I take pics of the sweater, I'll also take some of the machine. I don't know why I let it intimidate me for so many months before I tried it. Think of all the things I could have cranked out by now! I must admit, though, I was only able to get up and running so quickly because of Andrea's help. These things don't work the way you would expect them to, and I don't do well with learning by reading instruction booklets.

The next machine project? Fair isle mittens!

New Sock Sunday

(or what to wear with silk long underwear)

Pattern: Columbine Peak from Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Motherlode

Behold, the glory of KnitPicks Merino

Diego insisted on using this modeling opportunity to flirt with a certain family of dachshunds. Here he is with the back of a sweater I'm calling Isa in honor of the character who inspired it.

I'm making the pattern up more or less as I go, based on a sketch I did. If it works out well, I'll post the pattern here. If it doesn't...well, we'll just chalk it up to a learning experience, won't we? The yarn is a darker mossy green than the print catalog led me to believed. I like this color, but it isn't what I had originally imagined for this sweater. There will be some striping on the sleeves, so hopefully that will go a long way toward perking the sweater up.

The KnitPicks Merino Style I'm using is really nice to work with, and makes for a soft, springy fabric. I used two and a quarter skeins to make this 18.5" back. At $2.29 a skein, this is going to be insanely cheap for a 100% merino sweater. (No, I'm not getting any kickback from KnitPicks. Wouldn't that be nice? Hey Kelley! I happily accept yarny bribes!)

I also picked up some of the Sock Garden yarn and look forward to trying that. The next time there's room in my yarn budget I want to get some of the Wool of the Andes. Has anyone tried that yet? How is it? How does it compare to the Elann Highland Wool?

on the brighter side...

...there are always babies in eggplant hats. Here's Aron in the hat I made for him.

angsty grumpy day

and for some reason I can't get my hands warm.

For the record, the wind coming up off the Hudson is about a hundred degrees colder than the wind coming off the East River. I'm sure there's a scientific reason for this, but don't bother to tell me. I don't actually care. Just enough to know that I spent my day in the West Village and Tribeca and froze my wee ass off.

Seems I was walking into the wind all day. I hate the way the wind makes my eyes tear and then passersby look at me like I'm crying.

I don't cry in public. I wait until I get home and then cry into my coffee.

(I love coffee. I drink too much of it these days.)

Bought some of that KnitPicks house brand merino and it arrived the other day. It's fucking fantastic. I'll take some photos of the way it's working up tomorrow, most likely. Making a sweater based on the one I coveted in The Dreamlife of Angels.

Do dentists and lawyers and phone sex operators ever have days when they wonder if they really have it in them to be dentists and lawyers and phone sex operators? Does a dentist ever worry that people are going to "find out" that she's an imposter? Does a phone sex operator ever wonder if she's significantly less brilliant at talking dirty to strangers than she originally suspected? Does she ever feel merely competent?

I'm feeling self-indulgent after a day that's been hard on the ego. (Read: It's my blog and I'll gaze in self-pity at my navel if I want to.) Check this space for a real entry tomorrow or the next day or maybe the next day.

Mark your calendars

Okay, so this is serious advance notice, I know. I'll post a reminder closer to the actual day. I've been invited to take part in a fiction reading series. I'll be reading from the novel, and I hope those of you in the NYC area can come down to listen and say hello. Also reading are two friends of mine, both rather wonderful and talented. Here are the details:

Fiction Reading Series at Junno's Bar
Tuesday, April 19
7:30 pm

Philip Kadish
Cari Luna
Emily Mitchell

Come hear young novelists while they are still mired in obscurity!

Junno's
64 Downing Street, Manhattan,
Near Seventh Avenue and West Houston Street, near the Film Forum
directions: http://www.junnos.com/directions.html

The news from Saturday

The Jolie Holland show last night was really good. She’s definitely worth seeing live if she’s in your area. Her voice is just as amazing live as on CD, and she’s got a really charming stage presence. There were some technical difficulties (equipment problems for the poor guitarist, who couldn’t figure out exactly what was going wrong, only that it WAS going wrong) but they took it all in stride and it didn’t detract at all from the show. Some swapped out cables and everything worked just fine for the second half, anyway, whatever it was that had been wrong.

We missed the first opening act because we had to fortify ourselves with coffee and carrot cake at Teany first (priorities, you know). We arrived toward the end of the second act’s set. Maybe three songs away from the end? I use the term “song” loosely. They were inexplicably awful. Godawful. Most of the crowd was looking at these guys with mouths half open in disbelief (“Um, who are these people and what exactly might be living in those beards?”) but like twenty kids down front were sitting on the damn floor. Sold out show, and everyone got there early (early meaning before both opening acts were done. It’s hard to be an opening act round here.) to get a good spot to stand, and there were people taking up room by sitting and watching this truly awful act do something that flirted with the idea of being music. There were a few moments there where a structure appeared to be emerging, but they’d soon dump that in favor of more nonsense. I’m all for experimentation, but this just sucked. Xina said Phish fans would probably like that crap, by way of explanation. I certainly wouldn’t know. By the time Jolie hit the stage, everyone was standing and the Phish-listening types had either left or faded back into the crowd. Or maybe people were just standing on them. Whatever. I think it may have been oversold, rather than just sold out, because we were packed in TIGHT. Of course, we still managed to wiggle our little ways up toward the front. We’re small and we can’t see otherwise, dammit.

In other weekend news, the Kehinde Wiley exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum was really strong. I wish I’d seen it before the last day, so I could tell all the NYC kids to get their butts over there to see it, but alas, too late. If the show travels elsewhere and I hear about it, I’ll let you know.

Eggplant hat and booties were gifted yesterday. No photos—sorry—but I’m happy to report that the baby is gorgeous, as babies tend to be.

That was yesterday. Today I’ve started revising the novel-type beast. I think I found a fix for something that’d been bugging me about the second chapter all along. Hopefully next week it will still read like a good change. Hard to see these things clearly when you first do them... And with that, my break is over. Back to the revisions. I hope everyone had a beautiful weekend.

What to do with leftover sock yarn

Koigu booties! The pattern is from the Jaeger Handknits book # JB29.

My friend's new son came home today. Tomorrow I get to meet him. Details once I determine how much information the new dads want shared with the public. I'm selfishly hoping they'll let me post a photo of him wearing his eggplant hat and booties.

I had a lovely afternoon at KnitNY with the usual crew: Em, Iris, Mindy, and Jackie. We were joined today by Regina (who really should start a knitblog with all her free time), and the delightful Mrs. Pilkington. We got to meet her gorgeous daughter and husband as well. Always nice to see proof that the characters of a well-loved blog actually exist in the real world. While at KnitNY I cast on for another baby gift. Everyone is either pregnant or adopting right now, and I have quite a list of fruit caps, booties, blankets, and tiny sweaters. Of course, I can't share most of this stuff on the blog until they're finished and gifted...

The Jolie Holland show at the Mercury Lounge is sold out, but the brilliant Christina managed to get tickets anyway, so Alicia, Christina, and I will be seeing Jolie Holland tomorrow night. Of course, I'll blather on all about it afterward, so there's something to look forward to, hmmm? In the afternoon Billy and I will be hitting the Brooklyn Museum, because I want to see the "Passing/Posing" exhibit before it closes. Maybe I'll tell you about that too, seeing as there's all this secret baby knitting happening around here that I can't share. Otherwise I could just post pictures of the dogs or the novel (ooh! A stack of paper!) Okay...so maybe the dogs.

Have a fantastic weekend.