Dogs Steal Yarn

Why are these yarn-stealing dogs so excited?

Because they're so proud to unveil their latest creation: What the well-dressed ragdoll is wearing this fall.

• Pattern: Reynolds Lopi Toggle Cardigan (pattern #82271)
• Modifications: No fair isle; two-way zipper instead of toggles; ribbing and body knit on same size needle for a looser ribbing
• Yarn: Lopi in Celery Heather. Four and a half skeins.
• Size: 37" bust, XS. When blocked the sweater bloomed to gain about half an inch in length and width.
• Knitting time: Six episodes of 24, season two on DVD. Bulky yarn isn't my usual choice, but it does have its benefits.
• Seaming time: One episode of Six Feet Under, season four on DVD. Again, bulky yarn has its benefits.
• Zipper installation: Andrea, my good friend and knitting mentor aka fiber goddess, gave me a zipper clinic yesterday, and basted the sucker into place for me, so all I had to do was sew the already positioned and secured zipper down. The zipper lays perfectly, works perfectly... Thanks to Andrea's help, I think I can tackle the next zipper entirely on my own. Andrea rocks.
• Ranking: My favorite sweater right now. Certain to be worn to death this fall and winter.

Added later, by request, a closer look:

A peek inside my brain

Holy crap. I leave for Ragdale so soon. It was so far off but now I'm leaving in...like...fuck. WHEN am I leaving?
NYFA NYFA NYFA. Deadline is October 3rd.
Application materials are en route via FedEx. I rock with the organization and punctuality.
Should I check the tracking number? Not there yet.
How about now?
Now?
Is it there yet?
How about now?
Crap. It's there. Results won't be out until April, but maybe they're looking at my work sample now anyway?
Do they like it?
Do they like me?
Why don't they like me?
Or maybe they do like me.
Cookie. Damnit, I want a cookie.
Will there be cookies at Ragdale? What if I spend all of my time there eating and knitting and don't get any writing done?
What if four weeks at Ragdale makes me fat?
Does this blog entry make me look fat?
Elliott Smith. Elliott Elliott Smith.
FedEx pak containing (goddamnmothereffing) draft five was signed for by Dream Agent's receptionist at 3:15. Does Dream Agent know it's there yet? Is she reading it?
How about now?
Is it on her desk? In her bag? Will she stay up late tonight reading it and thinking that I'm an extraordinary genius?
Or a rather mediocre little girl with funny hair?
Does she like it?
Does she like me?
I need a cookie.
What's Billy doing right now? I bet he's eating a cookie.
What if I'm at Ragdale and I run out of yarn?
What if I'm at Ragdale and I run out of ideas?
What time is it? Should I eat a cookie?
Well...I am going to the gym tonight, so...
I don't want to go to the gym tonight.
Oscar Oscar Oscar Oscar aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!
Cookie? Cookie.
Is she reading the manuscript NOW?
Or now?
Or now?

Eavesdropping #2

Location: Corner of 52nd Street and Sixth Ave, Manhattan

Construction worker on cell phone: So did you go through the whole ceremony?
[pause]
Construction worker on cell phone: Yeah. You know. They bring you in and you kneel down and they tap you on both shoulders with a tomahawk.

The Lopi cardi reclines after her bath

I was going to ask for votes on the right closure to use for this cardi, but now that it's all seamed up it's pretty clear to me that it wants a two-way zipper. Agreed? Tomorrow I'll buy the zipper and either put the damn thing in myself or do what I swore I'd do NEXT TIME the last time I installed a zipper...and just bring it to a tailor.

In other news, I have a nasty and unpleasant cold, which struck without mercy on Friday night. Harrumph. If I do sew in that zipper myself, I doubt it will happen before my head clears up a bit.

Oh...and Floyd is no longer Floyd but neither is he Mike. The kitten's final and official forever name is Oscar. Fits, yes? Billy and I are both happy with it. We're also happy to report that Oscar and Sadie played Alpha of the Hill on the bed this evening and the kitten won. I think we're going to be okay in terms of Dog on Cat aggression, providing Diego settles down a bit with time, which I think he will. Now let's hope the cat doesn't beat up too badly on the dogs.

Now that Floyd is feeling better, he politely requests that no photos be taken during his performances. And if you do try to take his picture?

No, he never stops moving. Never. Aren't kittens supposed to get sleepy at some point and curl up into a charming little ball?

And no, no, no, this is not turning into a cat blog. Un unh. Not gonna happen. Though I do think he'll get better about the whole posing for photos thing soon. I hope so... Obviously, he's feeling a hell of a lot better. He goes back to the vet tomorrow for a recheck and for shots.

Believe it or not, there will soon be knitting to show. (Remember when I used to talk about knitting? Remember when I used to, like, knit all the time? Wasn't that cool? Yeah. Sigh.) The Lopi cardi is all done, save the collar. I'm going to seam it up and knit the collar this weekend, and then I'm going to need your help decided on the closure. Zipper? Toggles? Buttons... Oh, the choices. It all depends on how this beast ends up fitting, of course. Stay tuned.

The Must-Read Book for October (yes, we're planning ahead)

My friend Michael Deibert's book can now be pre-ordered! (so many Michaels around here...)

From a company that supports the Democratic Party: Ooh! Bookish goodness!

or a company that (oddly) supports the Republicans: My, what a wonderful read that promises to be.

or from Oregon: Must! Have! That! Book!

PS: Floyd is doing really well, though Billy has taken to calling the poor thing Mike. He's SO not a Mike.

Meet our new owner

The kitten...

He tested FIV+, which will make him very very hard to place. Billy and I have decided to keep him and just watch him carefully with the dogs until he's old enough to get away from them if need be. Actually, so far so good with the dogs. Sadie sniffed him from head to tail and wagged her tail madly and only acted smitten over a baby as opposed to smitten over a snack. She did have a litter before we adopted her, so maybe her maternal side is overriding her evil nature.

Proof, you ask? Behold the coziness last night as Floyd and Sadie shared Billy's lap.

The good news? The FIV may very well be a false positive. He's only 6 weeks old and there's a very good chance he's only showing antibodies from the mother. A retest won't show that for six months, though, and by then there'll be no way we'd be willing to part with him.

The bad news? He was a day away from dying when I found him. He's extremely anemic from a really severe flea infestation. The fleas are mostly taken care of (I wish I'd taken photos of his bath! He needs another one, so I'll take some photos then. He was all skinny legs and big kitten belly and lots of pink skin. Too cute.) and now it's a matter of keeping him fed and hydrated and warm so he can make new red blood cells. He's also on antibiotics, oral and eye drops, to take care of that crustiness.

Here he is, day three. The crusty buildup of goo is slowly giving way to the warm compresses I've been giving him:

Floyd says: "My plot to win their hearts and thereby take over the entire house is going along JUST as I'd planned it. Stupid humans."

"What? Stay still? Impossible. Do you have any idea how many things there are to smell and claw and nip at in this room? Stupid human."

"Okay fine. I'll hold still for the camera, so my public can admire me. But make it quick. I'm a very busy boy. Stupid human."

Ah yes...It's been years since I've been owned by a cat. Time to get reacquainted with the superior feline intelligence.

Crusty Kitty Redux

Attention tri-state area folk!

I found another kitten on the way home today. Sitting all hunched over on the same bit of sidewalk where I found Peony, by the way. I'm pretty sure they're related.

This one is, I'm almost positive, a little boy. He's crusty, just like Peony was. Peony was adopted by Iris and grew up to be a strong, healthy, fantastic little girl cat. This guy promises to grow up to be just as wonderful. He told me to tell you that. Here he is. He claims he'll clean up better than you could ever imagine.

I'm taking him to the vet tomorrow, and after that he'll need a new home. The dogs are going nuts over him, so he needs to move on asap. If you can take him either as a foster or forever, please let me know. And please pass this along to anyone who may be willing to open their home to a little orange boy.

Finish your work like a good girl and you get to go out and play

Revisions are done. Fourth draft is with my readers. (Thank you Emily, Philip, Lon, and Ernesto!) I finished my work. I got to go out and play.

The weekend started, as a good weekend should, at The Point on Saturday. The fabulous Claudia was in town for the whole weekend, and she met us there. No photo evidence of Claudia at The Point, but here's a shot of me, John, and Em. It was John's birthday that day. Go wish him a happy belated. (After you're done here, mind you. We still have a lot of ground to cover.)

Claudia's visit was an excuse for a yarn crawl. She, Cassie, Em, Jackie, Juno, Regina, and I headed next to Purl.

From there it was on to Habu, where Claudia kindly censored Jackie's cleavage for the camera.

Juno ordered a kit for a paper linen cardi. I, foolishly, tried on the sample sweater. After that I really had no choice but to order the kit too. No, no photos. I was a mediocre blogger at best this weekend.

At this point I peeled off from the group to visit with a friend in the East Village and kiss her gorgeous baby (Hi Rebecca! Hi Olivia!) and the Cassies and Jackie and Claudia continued on. I don't have the details--you'll have to get that from them--but I understand there were hamburgers and cocktails and bath products involved.

Later my friend Shannon and I went to see my friend Lon's band, Atomati, at CBGB's Lounge. We thought it was a really good set, though Lon--ever critical of himself--says otherwise. (Lon's the charmer at the mic.)

Here's where the evening gets tricky. See, Atomati went on at 9:15 at CB's in Manhattan. From there we were hoping to get back across the river to Brooklyn to catch Lungfish at Southpaw. They were due to go on at ten. (Yeah, cutting it a bit close.) Atomati finished up at 9:45ish, so Shannon and I hopped in a cab and hoped that Lungfish would go on late.

The cab raced toward the Manhattan Bridge. Our hopes were high.

And then we sat in traffic.

And sat. And sat. Construction. The upper level was closed.

Shannon despaired of making it to Southpaw in time.

BUT!

Because I had worked so hard to finish my revisions, and was so very deserving of some play time, the Rock Gods smiled upon us. Lungfish indeed went on late. Even though it took us 45 minutes to get there, we arrived at Southpaw with thirty minutes to spare.

And then Lungfish took the stage.

And kicked ass. Absolutely kicked ass. They've been at it for years, and it looked like most of us in the audience had been too. We were all in our thirties and some forties, and may I say that the eighties hardcore and indie kids are aging quite well, thankyouverymuch. It felt like I'd probably been to countless shows with these same people since I was sixteen, and for some reason that felt really good. Yeah, we grew up. Kind of. But we didn't grow up the way "they" told us back then that we'd have to. We're responsible adults with jobs and relationships and many of us with kids. But we still look the way we want to look. We still rock out in small clubs in Brooklyn. Many of us have managed to find ways to make a living that we can feel good about and be passionate about. I can't explain it... I looked around the club and thought, "Here we are."

And I got home really late. Really late. And I went to bed really really late. And I had to get up reasonably early (entirely too early, based on how late I went to bed) to meet Claudia, the Cassies, and Jackie for brunch at Beso. Proof that the waking up was worth it? I came up from the subway stairs to see Claudia knitting a sock and the Cassies both taking photos of it.

And then there was brunch. And walking (lots of it). And shopping (quite a bit of it). And then there was the sitting at the Flying Saucer Cafe and the drinking of coffee and the eating of cookies and the knitting. And then the arrival of the husbands and the leaving of the Claudia and the end of the knitterly weekend.

And now I'm exhausted and trying to get together enough energy to cook some dinner.

And I just realized... This is the first September 11th since THE 9/11 when I haven't spent the entire day in some kind of depressed cloud. It feels good that today wasn't so much September 11th as it was a beautiful September Sunday spent with good friends.

Oh--and to my charming reader who recognized me at the cafe? I must have misheard your url because I can't find you. Please leave me your url in the comments so I can check out your blog!

In which a corset is set aside in favor of cozy green things...

I had a clear knitting plan for fall. Once the revisions on the book were done and I actually had time to knit again, I would focus all my knitting energy on the Corset Pullover, allowing myself to be distracted only by the occasional sock, so that I would have that Corset Pullover to wear come fall. And then I was going to get started on the Turkish Cape. In the heat of summer that seemed like exactly what I should do.

First off, let me say: Revisions are done. (again) Now it goes to my draft readers--one already has his set of pages, and this week I'll give it to the other three--and then there'll likely be more revisions based on their feedback and then...back to Dream Agent who we really really hope says yes.

So, revisions done. Time for knitting. I looked at the Corset Pullover this weekend. I had every intention of casting on for the first sleeve. But now that fall is actually in sight, I found myself really wanting something different. As lovely as the Corset Pullover will be, it doesn't seem like a priority right now. As some of you already know, I'll be spending a month this fall at an artists colony. It's an incredible luxury to have four weeks away at a place where my only responsibility will be to write. I wasn't expecting to be awarded this residency when I applied--Ragdale was a bit of a reach since my only published book at this point is a Spanish phrase book. But you never know who'll be on a selection committee from season to season, and the people on this colony's committee apparently thought well enough of my writing to grant me a place to write for four weeks. I'll be fed three meals a day, given a room and a studio... It's kind of amazing. The one downside? I'll be missing Rhinebeck. Eat some fried dough and pet some alpaca for me, please.

So I'm thinking about fall, and thinking about how I'll be spending the bulk of each day of it alone in a writing studio on fifty acres of prairie, then sitting around a dinner table each night with a group of artists who've also spent all day alone working (which makes for some odd conversations, in my experience) and then probably more writing at night. Can you picture a Corset Pullover in this situation? Not so much. When I picture myself at Ragdale, I'm seeing warm cardis and cozy pullovers and lots and lots of handknit socks. I've got the socks pretty well covered. I've certainly got sweaters from past years to wear...but I want NEW warm cardis and cozy pullovers. You know what's coming next, right?

This weekend I cast on for two new projects. Do you remember the Lopi fair isle toggle cardigan with the screwed-up fair isle chart? The one that drove me, ironically, to pick up the long-neglected Corset Pullover? (Don't worry; I don't really expect you to remember it.) The chart was wrong, but I decided I don't care about the fair isle enough to take the time to tinker with it. What I like about the cardi is the shape and the main color. So I'm knitting that cardi, minus the fair isle. I cast on yesterday and am about halfway done with the back. Pictures when I've got a bit more of it knit.

I also cast on for a Ribby Cardi, using the yarn that was going to be Rogue* way back when. I've been meaning to make one of these for ages. Ah yes, it will be a very green fall for me.

After these, I've got an Hourglass Sweater planned, Valtos, and Salina. Then the Turkish Cape. And I'm sure I'll work the Corset Pullover in there as well. And let's not forget the Dulaan knitting! There will be some long evenings on the prairie where I won't feel like writing, after all. Now the question is, how much knitting does one pack for a month away?**

*Rogue was the project that taught me that I'm allergic to knitalongs. Joining a knitalong is an absolute guarantee that I will lose interest in a project. It's like a shellfish allergy, really. Utterly beyond my control.

**That's a trick question. I'll be packing one or two projects and mailing myself several others. Not sure which yet...

Good, necessary deeds AND the chance to win socks...

Please go see what Margene and Susan have organized, and donate what you can.

In addition to my donation, I'm contributing two prizes: two skeins of yummy delicious Koigu, and a pair of handknit socks. The socks will be knit after the prize is awarded, so they will be knit to the precise size (and personality) of the winner.