First, I have been very remiss in not pointing out to you a new online knitting magazine! Have you checked out Knotions yet? It’s Jody’s latest brainchild! If you have a pattern you might like to have published or an article stewing in your brain that should be out in the world, make sure you have a peek over there. Maybe this will finally get me to write up the pattern for my Northern Star socks… Or maybe come up with something new…

And now a short account of Wednesday’s Yarn Harlot tour stop in NYC. As usual, a wonderful time was certainly had by all. I got up to the Border’s around 4:20pm and had a look at the space. My first thought? “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?!” Let’s just say it was small and underwhelming and *obvious* these people didn’t know who they were dealing with!

I commiserated with a fellow knitter and then headed on down to Wholefoods where I met up with Chris. Hilarity was already ensuing because we had a Hollywood moment of talking to each other on the cell phones only to discover we were about 20 feet apart! After a quick bite we headed back up to claim our seats a solid two hours before the event was due to start. It didn’t take long before there were people standing without chairs.

*sigh*

Will the muggles *ever* get it?!?

Books were purchased, pins were obtained, bookmarks dispatched and chatting and knitting made the two hours totally fly by. Before we knew it, the guest of honor was introduced and blogging us.

The speech was delightful as always full of moments of absolute side splitting laughter with a singular wit and delivery that would make the most polished stand-up comic proud, balanced by also stimulating the brain waves in ways that you wouldn’t think you would find in a talk about knitting, even as a knitter. Mr. Borders dude even looked amused on occasion.

The signing followed and Mr. Borders dude was kind enough to snap this sadly very blurry picture of the three of us.

Stephanie said we weren’t blurry in her usual blog pics, so I guess she had to be in ours. The world seeks balance! (Incidentally it looks like Chris’ turned out better so go over there to look if you so desire.)

It was a great time and I highly recommend making a Yarn Harlot tour stop part of your week if you can swing it. You won’t be sorry!

And for those that asked, my “emergency knitting” (if you hear the talk the quotes will make much more sense) ended up being a new sock for the boy.

STR Mediumweight in the Monsoon colorway from last year’s club. I hated it in the hank, but in the ball it’s growing on me. The pattern is just something I’m doodling up on my own.

No blog on Monday. There are big doings which I hope to reveal on Tuesday if I can keep from being totally distracted. Have a terrific weekend!

It isn’t every day…

Originally uploaded by summerofsocks2006

.. You see a KNITTED chicken (turkey?!) in the window. A naked one at that!

September 11th, 2001

WE WILL NOT FORGET

Please take a moment today to remember those we lost six years ago today. Perhaps also take a moment to reflect on how your life and/or thoughts are different today and how your choices effect the global community. As I go to work in NYC today, I know I will.

HWJF and I have continued our efforts to have a little fun this summer despite the craziness that life tends to throw at us from time to time. Friday was a good day for such a thing since he had off and was willing to make the trip into NYC. We decided after a great dinner and some fun in the arcade at Dave and Buster’s in Times Square that we should see one of New York’s more unique attractions:

Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum!

So yeah, it’s a touristy silly thing to do. But we’d never been there before. And besides, you can’t say we don’t know how to show a sock a good time!

How many socks can say they’ve been held by Oprah?

Or Bono?!

Woody Allen seemed less than impressed with our haul from D&B’s.

Bullseye was a little more interested. Probably because of the leftovers.

I got to knit on the moon.

Lenny gave me a conducting lesson.

Jody Foster didn’t believe I was a Yalie too until I showed her my class ring.

The Great One was a little too focused on the goal.

Just call me “Knitty Spice”. Ok. Don’t. Really.

Louie didn’t even mind someone else blowing his horn.

But we were probably all happiest to pose together with this NY icon.

You can see more of our fun and silliness on Flickr.

So if you’re ever in Times Square and want to rub elbows with some of the greats, definitely make a stop here!

Knitting stuff next time. Promise!

As I said in the last post, I had a really lovely weekend. It started on Friday with HWJF coming into the city. He tends to work long hours and our days off rarely land together. Since he had the day off and I didn’t, we decided to go somewhere in NYC after I got out of work.

We will not discuss the fact that we are cheap and went on this particular day and time because it was free.

What we will discuss is that we had a wonderful time and saw many great works of art. Picasso seems to be a favorite for me lately, so I took a couple of shots of his paintings when I could.

I may also have a thing for music related artwork. Just sayin’.

We left just as things were really getting crowded, had a lovely dinner at an Irish Pub around the corner and then decided to spend the $20 we saved on the museum to go to the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center for those of you that maybe don’t deal with NYC lingo on a daily basis).

It was a bit cold and windy (and I picked a bad day to wear a flowing and blowing skirt) but it was a beautiful view and we managed to get a picture or two.

Our best “spooky” faces!

On the way back to the train I got to do my best imitation of a hockey puck.

It may be dangerous that the new NHL store, when it opens, will only be a few blocks from my office.

Saturday and Sunday HWJF was working and/or on his way out of town on business. Now I don’t mind a little “me” time now and then, but sometimes it can be a bit much. I decided to take a chance and sent out an e-mail to a few fiber addicted like minded individuals to see if anyone wanted to get together during the weekend. Turns out Deb, her Mom and the ever adorable Chappy were going to be in Princeton on Saturday morning so I got to go hang out with them for a couple of hours.

Deb is a good blogger and remembers to take pictures. I point this out because I totally had camnesia for the rest of the weekend!

After a lovely time in Princeton I headed home only to have the pleasure of spending the rest of the afternoon with Lazuli and Juno! We had a nice time chatting, knitting and trying not to inhale snacking on some great cookies that Lazuli’s hubby was nice enough to bake the previous evening. Juno let me try her Louet Victoria while she was over and I have to say, that may have been a dangerous thing. Luckily my credit card balance after camp has kept me from doing anything rash. Juno also gifted me with some beautiful Tussah/Baby Camel Down top.

This is certainly the most exotic thing in my fiber stash to date and I am immensely enjoying just petting it and staring at it for now.

Sunday was spent teaching at Woolbearers (I have a great group of students again!) and enjoying the company of the afternoon knitting group while I worked on these.

For those that wonder about these things, it’s Austermann Step yarn and my usual toe up pattern.

As if that wasn’t a good enough weekend I was then invited to spend the rest of the afternoon with Jody and her friend H., knitting away in her beautiful back yard! I can’t tell you how nice it was to sit in a back yard again with such fun company. I love our little deck, but a back yard is a special treat. While I was there I worked on my Monkey socks and nearly finished the first one.

I’ve since moved on to the second and will probably finish up the pair in the next day or two. I usually don’t make the cuffs on my socks that long, but I always seem to have so much left over from these skeins of STR that I figured, why not?! Watch… I’ll run out on the second one because I said that.

So I know that if you’ve read this far you are probably bored out of your mind and wondering, “Why the heck does this girl blog about her weekends like this? I just come here for the knitting!”. Well, the reason is so I can come back here and at times when I’m bored and maybe home alone I can remember that in the one short year that I’ve been living here in NJ (well, almost one year… that anniversary is coming up on Sunday) I’ve been lucky enough to do some really fun things. Not only that, but I’ve also managed to meet an amazing group of women whom I consider myself very lucky to call friends. And perhaps this will remind you that if you are perhaps tired of knitting at home alone, take a chance and see if anyone else is doing the same. You may end up having a great time too!

….but you can’t take the country out of the country girl! After an amazing weekend out in the country like the last one (the wide open spaces, the animals, the fresh air, the friendly people) I find it a bit difficult returning to life as usual, especially working in NYC (the cramped quarters, the cigarette smoke being blown in your face every two feet, the grime, the grumpy commuters). I always feel a bit low for a few days.

But when I got home from work on Tuesday, mother nature gave me a reason to smile:

The first baby goose sighting of the spring! Aren’t they just the cutest damn things? Don’t worry though, Mama and Daddy were watching close by:

There were four babies total. The happy family makes me a bit nervous hanging out so close to the road into the train station (especially with the insane NJ drivers trying to get to their train or pick people up), but it will be fun seeing them grow. Especially when the start turning a bit more grey and get *really* fluffy. They are definitely an official sign of spring!
When we got home we had another treat. Our first salad clippings from our container garden! HWJF insisted I pose with the goods:

So I made him pose too:

He actually printed this picture out and sent it to his Mom for Mother’s Day with the caption “Look Mom! I’m actually eating something green!”. I bet she’ll love it.

The only knitting progress I have to show you is something I can’t show you! Let’s just say that something is in the mail, on it’s way to it’s new owner, and I promise to post about it just as soon as I’m able. In the meantime, I’ve started something new but am picture-less at the moment.

Actual knitting content next time!

It was a busy but nice weekend in my world. On Saturday I had to go into work for a few hours in the morning to make up for my day off thanks to the great flood of ‘07, so I took a few pictures of all the blooming trees in our area on my way:

At the train station

At our apartment complex

On the way to the train

HWJF and I have a theory. You see, there was so much water that the trees drank so much that they got *really* drunk. And now they are throwing up, only when a tree barfs, it comes out as flowers! Yes. Well. Perhaps we are not exactly mentally stable. Moving on…

Since I was done with work by noon I decided to take a trip down to Purl in Soho. It’s rare that I actually get to do anything fun in NYC, so I take my chances when I can. It was a nice store, with a very small but very well stocked storefront. I fondled some of the softest cashmere ever, but at $40 a skein managed to put it back on the shelf. I also resisted the wall o’ koigu and came out having only purchased one of the new addi lace needles (Maryland is in two weeks, I’m on a budget!). On first inspection they really don’t appear all that much more pointy then the old ones, but the chord does seem a lot more flexible. I’ll be sure to tell you more when I finally get to use them.

When I got home, HWJF managed to get out of work early so we could go make some spring purchases:

I haven’t lived in one place long enough to make this kind of investment in years, but seeing as we’ll be in NJ for at least another year, the time was right for making a container garden on our balcony. Obviously we went with two railing containers. The first is for edibles and has peppermint, lettuce and basil in it with a few marigolds thrown in for fun:

The second is for flowers and contains mini impatiens, dahlias, a begonia and more marigolds (can you tell I like marigolds?).

There were a few leftovers:

We plan on finding a big pot for these. Maybe we should have gotten this one that we saw at one of the garden centers:

A tea pot flower pot! Genius! I happen to love tea pots too.

We also got one other food plant:

I sure hope this guy grows up to give us some fresh tomatoes!

Finally, for the first time since we moved in, we had dinner out on the deck:

Gotta love the self portrait with the glowing red eyes!

By the time we were really moved in last year, it was way too hot to be able to enjoy it out there. I think this year, we might do this more, especially now that we have some nice plants to admire! Or at least I hope we will all summer. Besides knowing how to plant something, I seriously have no clue when it comes to gardening. I’m sure that probably shows in the pics.

On the crafting front I spent Sunday teaching crochet, trying to finish a sock and plying up some new yarn. The teaching was exhausting, but a lot of fun. The socks didn’t quite make it and the yarn is drying. Thanks again to all of you that weighed in on the plying situation, even if it was just to offer encouragement! I always appreciate the conversation that goes on here between us. It’s very inspiring.

Hopefully there will be more fiber-related content next time. Until then, enjoy the beautiful weather if you can!

And now introducing…

Originally uploaded by summerofsocks2006.
The sun! It *does* exist! And hopefully we’ll all get to enjoy it a bit this weekend. And hopefully I’ll get something finished this weekend too…

ETA: Umm… yeah… could that upload have come out any worse?! There is part of entrelac sock number two in there incase you’re curious. Sheesh.

I was out on my break today, knitting on my blue entrelac socks (about which I promise to write about in more detail soon) when someone came up to me to sell me candy. As I told him I had no money, his eyes fell on my knitting and in an incredulous voice he asked…

“Are you gonna have a baby?!”

Muggles….oye!

No. I am *not* going to have a baby. I’m going to be a little busy this weekend playing with my new toy! Hope you have a good one (and be careful of those blue knitted socks)! :)

 P.S. Thanks for the input and offers of help on the possible next run of the Summer of Socks. I’m still in need of some tech help (I think I need some php to make a sign up form that works with a database), so if you can be of assistance, please let me know. Thanks!

or…

Knitters Represent y’all!

or…

Dude, I am so tired but I was part of something awesome

There are probably a million ways I could title this post. These are just a few.

I’m not quite sure how words could possibly describe what went on during Thursday. It was pretty amazing when you think about it. One person who writes a blog about knitting motivated hundreds of people to descend on certain areas of NYC on the same day for a common purpose– To show the world that we are a force to be reckoned with. Pretty damn cool just doesn’t cut it.

I managed to rearrange my schedule enough to get to Central Park for the sock photoshoot. Others have already posted much better pictures than I seem to have managed, but here are some of my favorites:

Socks, socks everywhere

Despite the 40 degree temperatures, the finished socks had to be shown off too!

In some ways, it just didn’t last long enough. I can understand why though because a lot of people had plans for more yarn shopping and a trip to the museum.

Since things ended sooner than I thought, I ran back to work and was able to leave earlier than planned. That meant I was able to make a quick run to Habu (with which I was not really impressed) for a quick bit of yarn shopping (I didn’t buy anything) before running over to FIT for the tour of the knitting classroom.

Yes it’s true. A classroom for knitting!

That’s a bit of yarn there (but nothing you’d probably want to handknit with). Some of the machinery was really interesting.

That’s an antique sock machine. I’ve seen a couple of these before and they are pretty interesting. Apparently they go for quite a bit of cash on ebay these days too.

This is a closeup of the needles of one of the knitting machines. The instructor kept telling us how these machines had upward of 28 needles per inch. Definitely not a gauge I want to knit at any time soon!

These little looms were on tables in one area of the lab. Students were making small weaving projects on them and I thought they were quite fascinating little gadgets.

And this, ladies and gentleman, is why manufactured clothing does not FIT (pun intended) a human being. I saw this dress form and just started laughing. The pelvic area of this thing was about as wide as my *hand*. And the thigh circumference ….. let’s just not go there.

The best part of the tour was when I recognized Kristyin the crowd, who was there with her boyfriend (now there is a supportive muggle!). After the tour, they were nice enough to save me a seat in the auditorium while I went and bought my copy of the book. We got to chat for a while before the show began. We even discussed possibly trying to start up a knitting group on Thursday nights in Plainsboro (any of you locals interested?). Once again, I am a very bad blogger because I did not take a pic of the two of us together *slaps forehead* Doh! I did get to say hello to Minty before things got started but I wasn’t able to hook up with the Northern NJ crew until afterward. By that time, Kim had to run to catch her train so we didn’t get to chat at all. Next time I hope!

During the launch I did get a few pictures. Look at all the knitting hands!

The sound in the auditorium when the talking died down was just unbelievable. Hundreds of pointy sticks doing their job. It was totally awesome!

Steph wore the Bohus of course

At one point she took it off and threw it on the stage and people freeked out about it getting dirty. Pretty funny.

I almost wish I had a transcript of her speech. From discovering Joe in the audience to pointing out just what we’re up against when it comes to getting some respect from the muggles, it was funny, poignant, well researched, informative and hopeful all at the same time. Add to that the squares that were made (I will admit that I did not make one at the time. I just can’t knit with straight needles any more. I will knit mine and send it in after I finish an upcoming gift that needs to be done.) and the money that was donated (yes even more!) to Doctors without Borders and the experience is one I will not soon forget.

By the time the “AA for Knitters” part was over (at least that’s what it felt like to me. It was supposed to be a Q&A but ended up being more of a testimonial than anything– which was cool in a way but went on a bit too long), I was starving and there was a group going out for Chinese and despite the fact that I knew I was going to get in really late, I went along. I’m glad I did. The food was wonderful and the company was even better!

If you see yourself in this picture, do say hello in the comments (Kimberlyalready has! *waving hello back*)! I was woefully unprepared and didn’t get everyone’s names or blogs I am sad to say.

If you want more pictures, check out my set from the day, and better yet, head on over to the Flickr group for the day!

After dinner we began to go our separate ways. Four of us walked to Penn station, two went in, and then I was alone again for the train ride home. And then I suddenly realized how much I miss my old crew in New Haven. Some of us have scattered since so going back still wouldn’t be the same, but it used to be so nice to go to things like this and always know that there would be friends to go with. Time changes these things I guess.

In the end though, it was an amazing day and totally worth it, despite the lack of sleep. It just leaves me with one question on my mind….

Who’s going to Maryland Sheep and Wool so we can do it all again?!