NaBloPoMo: Check!

I did it! For the past month I have posted every day, and I have thus earned the NaBloPoMo banner (proudly displayed on the left). I apologize for having babbled on mindlessly, and I thank you for sticking with me nonetheless. My clever stat counter thingy tells me that more than 100 visitors returned for seconds, and I thank you for that!

Today I've been mainly catching up with school work and teaching stuff; unpacking and the laundry will have to wait until tomorrow. I've been taken captive by Kathryn Stockett's The Help and traded my knitting for reading time. It's such a marvelous book!

I'll leave you with yet another set of Thanksgiving impressions, and when I return, I'll have some knitting to show.

End of the Line*

As all good things must come to an end, so must our Thanksgiving vacation with the Hubs's folkanoids in the NYC vicinity. Last night's greeting from the train was a quick one, and I owe you a few photos from yesterday's trip to MoMA, another one of my all-time favorite art museums of which I am now a happy member (I'm taking full advantage of annual student memberships these days, since my days of student discounts are numbered).

MoMA was absolutely, totally, and completely packed, and one of the special exhibitions was closed due to large crowds of Thanksgiving vacationeers. The Bauhaus exhibition, however, was open:

It was here that I overheard the following, uttered by a twenty-something year-old gal in that sense-of-entitlement tone of voice that drives me up the wall: "So! Explain to me just what this has to do with the band Bauhaus??" The boyfriend/date person to whom her demand was directed looked a bit uneasy and begged her to keep it down...

In any event, the exhibit was fantastic. As a college student I spent a lot of time in Dessau and attended several events at the Bauhaus. The Hubs wasn't quite as impressed with Bauhaus design as I would have liked him to be, but he was a good sport and listened to my mindless "And when I was in Dessau..." babble.

Of course, we also saw a lot by Matisse:

And by Clyfford Still and Barnett Newman, both of whose work I like very much, very much to the Hubs's dismay (I love walking through large empty gallery spaces with giant abstract paintings or minimalist art: I'm not one for crowded, crammed, cozy, cuddly, etc., spaces. Sometimes I wonder how the Hubs and I will work out our different design ideas: whereas he'd like to live in a Wunderkammer filled top to bottom with interesting things, I'd like to live in a large, empty cube made of glass and white walls. With just a little bit of yarn.)

After MoMA we walked to The Art Students League of New York (sacred halls for my MIL, the artist), visited with our artist friend Hyeseung, had the most amazing Chinese food at a restaurant in Chelsea, and simply walked around the streets of the city:

After a bit of a sleep-in this morning (was it really noon?), we slowly got ready for our return trip to Boston. Since I had gone on and on about the nearby LYS Sticks and Strings, my MIL, who had picked up knitting in June (horray!!!) and I convinced the guys to first drive us there. Hubs and FIL weren't too psyched about yarn and went to a prized wine store instead, and once we got back together again, the Hubs and I had a few new goodies:

That's enough Lorna's Laces Worsted for Norah Gaughan's Bubble Pullover and a bit of yarn for a pair of socks. And while the Hubs won't get to play with the yarn, I sure will help him finish those twelves bottles!

Those manly socks for my dad, you ask? Well, I didn't finish them. We hit the road too late in the afternoon to have any usable daylight, and I didn't knit in the car. I made it around the heels and hope to finish the socks by the end of this week... I got a bit side-tracked the past couple of days trying out entrelac knitting: so addictive, those little squares!

Almost twelve... I'd better publish this post before turning into a pumpkin!

*I stole the title from the Hubs, who has been blogging every day this month as well, and who usually comes up with much better blog titles... Check his blog out here.

Train Ride

Howdy from the NYC-White Plains express train!


Today has been another eventful day in the city, and as I am only now on the return trip to my family's house I must postpone a serious blog entry till tomorow. Suffice to say, I had a grand time, and I beg you to come back tomorrow when I'll share with you my favorite thing overheard today at MoMA...

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Day at the Museum

Actually, it was two museums: first we went to the Met, then to the Guggenheim. Apart from the fabulous Robert Frank show celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his photo essay The Americans and an exhibition of American paintings documenting everyday life between 1765 and 1915, we also saw the Met's famous Christmas Tree, mounted today:

Among my absolute favorite galleries at the Met are the modern European art galleries, and I spent some time there by myself while my family entertained themselves with arms and armor (the Hubs) and Vermeer (the ladies). My eyes usually pop out right about when I come across the first Matisse, and today wasn't any different: so many Matisse, where to look first? Once upon a time I almost became an art history major, and today I ventured down memory lane trying to remember bits and pieces of what I learned in art history classes. The Met definitely is one of my favorite places in the city (and the country, really).

Once we left the Met we walked up to the Guggenheim to see the Oh-My-God-this-is-too-awesome Kandinsky retrospective. I loved LOVED LOVED it! (The Kitty Kraus installation on display, on the other hand, was complete nonsense. Or perhaps my lack of understanding [and appreciation] just shows that my decision against majoring in art history was a good one.)

Today has been such a great day we're going back to the city tomorrow to see MoMA, visit the art studio of our dear friend Hyeseung Marriage-Song, and maybe even step into a yarn store! I'll keep you posted...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Greetings from the very small corner of the house where there is wireless internet access (courtesy of one of the neighbors). I hope you've had a lovely holiday, with many homemade pies, in great company, and sans any drama. My day has been fabulous in every respect! I spent it with the Hubs' father's cousins' family (got that?), and again I am so grateful to have married into such a wonderful family who opened their hearts and homes to me, and who feed me so incredibly well! :)

While the women busied themselves in the kitchen and the men discussed current affairs in the living room, I got to hang with my favorite family members (=the sons of the son of the older cousin of the father of my Hubs) on the porch:

The little guy in the middle is a total rock star! We watched rabbits and the movement of a big skunk in the backyard, but mostly we cuddled.

What did you do today?

Minou

That is the name of this curious creature:







I'm having a blast playing with her. She loves yarn as much as I do! I'm trying something new with Noro Silk Garden, while at the same time working on the manly socks:






In between knitting sessions I am reading this terrific book that the Hubs's aunt gave me today:



You see, it's the perfect vacation!

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Manly Colors

I don't quite understand why, but the Hubs refuses to model his new clothes for me. So I snapped a couple of pictures of the new yummies in their folded configuration. Looking at this, I realized something about men and color:

Men apparently don't do bright colors or stark contrasts. It's all a blur of grey-black-brown, with a hint of muddy green.* I'm so glad, then, that I rethought my yarn choice for Dad's socks and came up with grey-black-brown (sans muddy green). The socks in their present state:

Very small, but again: I'm going on a car ride and by tonight these puppies will be bigger. And eventually they'll be very manly socks, in manly colors with manly cables. Slightly unmanly: the alpaca, which is so very soft, cozy, and slightly fluffy. But since I believe that Dad is going to wear handknitted socks only on the living room sofa watching telly, that bit of snuggliness might actually be appreciated! (Plus, my father, who is one of those guys who rides his motorcycle through the desert and terms the experience 'vacation,' is surprisingly fashionable and into soft and comfortable fibers. When not in leather gear, why not wear alpaca socks?)

*Upon reading this, the Hubs commented that when hunting, one does not want to scare the animals away but sneak up on them. Therefore the camouflage. No contrast or bright colors. (Hunting? Hunting? HUNTING? Not while he's my Hubs.)

Dear Reader:

I had anticipated NaBloPoMo to be a lot of fun, but for the last couple of days I've felt like I owe you, dear reader, an apology. There's neither enough knitting nor enough remotely French stuff going on here for the blog to deserve its name, however, I don't feel quite ready yet to quit NaBloPoMo. As is more universally true, things first need to get worse before they start looking up again, and I'm hereby preparing you for twitter-like blog-posts during the next few days of traveling to internet-free places. The up-side of that: I'll have time to knit! We're going on a four-hour car ride tomorrow (to NYC), and although one year ago this would have sounded like punishment for everyone involved (I'm a bad driver and a worse passenger), today this is filled with the promise of enjoyment: I'm looking forward to knitting during the ride and will do so quietly, without complaining, whining, sighing, or engaging in annoying activities. I'll be all Zen, for each and every one of the two-hundred-and-forty minutes.

And that's basically my grand plan for the rest of the week: I'll be calm and composed, and I'll enjoy everything. I graded for seven hours today before teaching for another five, and now my desk is clean, pristine, empty. Work's all done. I'm ready for this vacation. Au revoir, office!

Photo-Essay

Few words, many photos.

First, the contents of the duffel bag: buttons and yarn...

Second, the Hubs' cool jacket...

Third, pretty things at the Harvard Museum of Natural History...

(Almost 4.400 glass models of plants, made in Germany around the turn of the century for Harvard's Botanical Museum. Absolutely exquisite!)

(Cuban land snails.)

(Blue butterflies.)

(Awesome-looking beetle.)

Knitting? Perhaps tomorrow.

Thankful M.

I took these photos this morning to discuss in tonight's post:

But now that I opened the duffel bag that the Hubs' mom left with me this evening before retiring to the B&B after an eventful day of traveling, I'm at a loss for words and can't possibly discuss holey (and now frogged) socks, a new sock project, and the status of the Fiddlehead hat. I don't actually know how and over what span of time she's been doing this, but it seems that my wonderful MIL has collected a lot (and I mean A LOT) of yarn for my stash. There's some French yarn from her trip to France, there's some Schaefer Yarns Martha, Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock, Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Grande Hand Dye, and something unlabeled that looks handspun and is incredibly soft. OMG! Also, she brought me an assortment of very pretty buttons! I wish I could call her at the B&B to thank her, but I'm afraid I'd wake her up... she was asleep the second we said our good-byes. I'll have to wait till tomorrow, when we meet again to see Harvard's glass flower collection. And until then I'll play with my new yarn... :)

(How we spent our first vacation day? Shopping! Photos will follow of the Hubs, who now owns two extremely cool, very professorial and grown-up looking jackets and three pairs of shoes that are not tennis shoes but made of leather. Hallelujah! It was amazing to see the Hubs crack under the pressure of his wife and his mother to go shopping for clothes that no longer say "grad student/math geek.")

Within 24 Hours...

When I woke up to this, I predicted the day to be pretty crappy overall:

All morning it rained, and rained, and then it rained some more. Alas, after I completed chores that corresponded to the weather and my general meh-feeling (such as cleaning, doing laundry, paying bills), the sun came out, the temperature rose, and the Hubs and I decided to go for a looooong three-hour walk. The destination: my LYS (via the Hubs' hair salon, our fave bookstore, and Trader Joe's: to get my man a better haircut, find some good holiday reads, and replenish our wine [and butter] supply). Why the LYS? I was about to run out of purple Cascade 220, and since I'd like to finish my Fiddlehead hat before the first snowstorm (predicted for early December), I needed more. On the way to the LYS we ran into this prettiness:

Once I was at the LYS I confessed (first to myself, then to the staff) how much I really hated the socks I was knitting for my dad. How could I have ever thought that green, blue, and yellow would make an appealing sock color combination? In addition to color ugliness, I also realized that I had made some serious mistakes and accidentally picked up stitches at the turning point between needles. I often get my yarn twisted, but never before had I actually made new stitches that, at their base, create terrible holes. Suddenly I saw that Dad's sock had three such holes:

So, right then and there I decided to frog and start over again, this time with yummy Classic Elite Alpaca Sox:

On the way home we walked by this sign, advertising the services of the new emergency room of our local hospital:

Goodness! I hope that, once I have a problem that is serious enough to deserve ER treatment, I'll get medical attention within 24 hours! I'd better stay healthy...

Bus Ride

Farewell, Knitter's Review retreaters, and have a grand time this weekend in Williamstown, Mass.! Obviously I would have loved to go, but at the time of signing up I still anticipated November to be the busiest month this fall and decided I couldn't afford the time. Compared to October, November is turning out to be a walk in the park. *sigh*

But I have something else to look forward to: the Hubs's parents are arriving on Saturday to stay till Tuesday; then we are all going to New York City to spend Thanksgiving with my FIL's uncle and cousins. The cousins are the two wonderful ladies I consider my favorite aunts (genealogy isn't my strong suit) and for whom I made this and this. I'm very much looking forward to next week.

Want to see knitting progress? Here are the Fiddlehead hat and the Galaxy socks for dad:

I'm not riding the bike to work today but am taking the bus. This doesn't sound marvelously exciting, but since I hardly ever take the bus I'm actually looking forward to it. It gives me an extra hour of knitting time. (And why is it that a route that takes 35 minutes on the bike takes almost 60 minutes on the bus? I try not to think about it. [I have to take the bus today since I have a thing at night at the other end of town to which I can catch a ride with a co-worker. {It's funny how I feel compelled to explain myself for taking the bus. My bicyclist's pride just can't deal with bus dependence, I guess.}]) In any event: because of the bus ride I'm hoping to get a big chunk of sock done today. End of story.

Ten on Tues-, 'scuse me, Wednesday

Yesterday's Ten on Tuesday challenge was Ten Things You Wish You Knew How To Do. Not at all challenging, since loads of things come to mind (my egocentric self is asking for: how to knit! how to speak French! how to finish a dissertation in time! how to add two extra hours to each day! My world-improving self is requesting: how to improve women's lives! how to end world hunger and poverty! how to end war! how to stop racism/sexism/homophobia!). Having talked to the Hubs about realistic things I wish I knew how to do over dinner last night, I've come up with this list of seven:

1. Read sheet music, sing, and play the piano (I used to sing in different C-list choirs during childhood, teenage years, and early twenties. I've always wanted to learn how to play the piano, and Grandma B. took me to a music school when I was four or five years old to sign me up for piano lessons. Alas, I was turned away because my fingers were deemed "too short" and "too fat" to stand a chance of becoming a world-famous pianist, and in those days [and in that country] children without promising prospects for fame weren't supported much. Because I was predicted to grow to six feet tall I was put on a basketball team, however.)

2. Speak an additional language. That's on top of improving my French, Russian, and Latin. The new language is going to be one of these: Czech, Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew, or Finnish.

3. Do photography, like grandfather J. and my dad did. Grandpa was a passionate photographer; my dad inherited his darkroom equipment but somehow lost interest in keeping up with photography. I'd love to know how to do it properly.

4. Keep a garden. Again, our daydreams take the Hubs and me to a place where we'll stay longer than a mere two years. We think: house, pets, garden. I want to have an herb garden! I'd love to know how to care for plants.

5. I wish I knew how to speak in public confidently. I still get very, very nervous.

6. Sewing. My MIL used to sew clothes for her family (including four bridesmaid dresses, her own wedding dress, all clothes for the child-version of Hubs...). I think I need to spend a summer with her and have her teach me how to sew.

7. Carpentry. All men in my family are terribly crafty. My dad built a house and completely renovated a rotten city apartment (wiring it anew, building brick walls, taking some down, tiling, redoing wooden floors... ). I think I'd like to do things with wood. (Think built-in bookshelves.)

And here's one thing I used to think I wanted to know how to do well: cooking. I finally admitted to myself that while the Hubs gets a real kick out of cooking, I find it only mildly pleasant. So why force it? It's his Cook's Illustrated subscription anyway...

Voilà!

Hat Ahoi!

I'm embarking on a new learning adventure. I love my mittens so very much I need a hat (and a scarf) that I can wear with them. And since there seems to be no Fiddlehead hat (at least not on Ravelry), I came up with the brilliant idea of designing one myself. Ha! Designing, however, is a bit of an exaggeration, since I'm merely trying to plug Hello Yarn's design into Charlene Schurch's Triple-Patterned Watch Cap pattern. I printed some knitting graph paper and spent a couple of hours tweaking the plan, then I spent another two hours casting on a 120-stitch i-cord. I'm hoping to get some real knitting time later tonight...

But since the Hubs was such a trooper last night to pick up the slack and blog in my stead, I'm taking him to the movies first. He's been dying to watch the Coen brothers' A Serious Man, and that's what we're going to watch in about one hour. I better run to make it on time!

***
Several hours later... the movie was good! Although not at earth-shakingly fantastic as previous Coen brothers movies. But still good. Dinner afterwards at my favorite Jewish delicatessen Zaftig's: even better!

Guest post

NaBloPoMo Day 16.

This is the Hubs. You may have thought I was a fictional character invented by M. to carry the narrative thread of the blog, but that is not the case -- I'm real, and I read the blog regularly. (Maybe with a bit of prodding from time to time.)

M. was yawning her head off and had to be packed off to bed, but the NaBloPoMo challenge still had to be met, so I'm filling in.

I don't knit (I tried it once and found it too stressful), nor do I take even half-decent photographs (it's on my list of skills to master, but that list already runs six pages, so don't hold your breath), so there will be none of that in this post. Sorry to disappoint.

I will say that I like M.'s knitting and I'm proud of both her constructions in yarn and in words. She's great!

(I'm sure most knitter husbands feel the same way, even if they just grunt "Mmm-hmm" when a new yarn concoction is presented to them.)

E. aka Hubs

In Lieu of a Green Thumb

As much as I wished I had a green thumb, unfortunately I don't. But now look at this:

I made the solemn promise to myself not to post another Fiddlehead Mitten photo, but special circumstances require special measures. As I was about to finish the second lining and thus be completely done with the beloved fiddleheads, I ran out of Kidsilk Haze. What's a girl to do? I stole some of the yarn I'm using for my Seascale Stole (GGH Kid) and knit a blue thumb! No one will know but you and I...

Lazy Day

The weather forecast for today announced a 100% chance of rain, and, indeed, it rained all day. We woke up to rain, and although we got up and puttered around the house in our usual Saturday morning fashion, the Hubs suddenly disappeared into the bedroom for a nap that lasted from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. I declared today a spa day and splish-splashed in a candle-lit bathroom, with hot tea and mystery novel at hand. (This sounds more idyllic than it was, since the weird acoustics in our house carry every noise our neighbors make right into our bathroom. And our neighbors usually fight on the weekend.)

It's been an altogether lazy day with lots of reading and knitting. No surprise, then, that I finished the first of the Fiddlehead linings and thus have completed one mitten.

Kidsilk Haze is an incredible yarn for the lining. It is so soft, so warm, so smooth, and... so delicious! Now I have fantasies of a Kidsilk Haze blanket, a robe, a pillow, a sleeping bag...

I love the result. The pattern is just perfect, and then there's also this gratifying feeling of accomplishment: I feel a bit sheepish admitting this, but I'm amazed at myself for having made something so beautiful.

Make Mine Local!

That was the motto of tonight's Common Cod Fiber Guild meeting hosted by the guild's president, Guido Stein, at MIT in Cambridge. My friend Shannon invited me to come along, meet and greet the Boston knitting world, and see some of the local designers' newest work.

This was my first knitters/knitting event, and I loved it! I was surprised how quickly people connected and struck up conversations, and how genuinely enthusiastic knitters are about each other's work: experiencing this sense of community first-hand was quite different from just reading about it on blogs and in Sock Summit or Rhinebeck reports. It was terrific!

I also loved the decorative details of the event, like the knitted covers for the lecture hall's bannisters:

There even was a band! Our focus, however, was quickly drawn to the fashion show: Ten designers put seventeen knits on the catwalk. One of my favorite pieces was Suzanne's Moebius Shawl with Hood, modeled here by herself:

The funkiest and coolest piece was this vest, designed by Windsor Button's very own Rebecca:

There were several other really gorgeous hand-knits, among them two skirts by Jill of Yarns in the Farm, and I urge you to check out the guild's blog to see the video of the fashion show.

The MC of the show was former Bostonian Shannon Okey, aka Knit Grrl. After the fashion show she talked about her career as professional knit designer and answered questions regarding the publishing business.

And guess who was in the audience? Jessica!

I got a chance to talk to her (for about two seconds, before other peeps wanted to say hi):

Groovy!!

Mmm-hmm

The Hubs is back! I missed him very much, partly because conversations like these are so wonderfully entertaining:

Me: You like these?
Him: Mmm-hmm.
Me: For my dad?
Him: Mmm-hmm.
Me: Would you wear them?
Him: No.
Me: Why not?
Him: Because they're your dad's.
Me: But if they were for you, would you wear them?
Him: No.
Me: Why not?
Him: Maybe if I were in Germany.
Me: What?
Him: In Germany people wear funny things.
Me: What?
Him: You know, funny socks. Like, here people wear just plain socks.
Me: So, you'd wear them in Germany?
Him: Mmm-hmm.

What we were talking about? Socks for my dad that I started this evening:

Plain vanilla socks: toe-up, st st all the way to produce the galaxy effect the yarn (Regia) is promising ("create Jupiter-style spirals and ellipses"). I'm using US #1 needles and increased to 74 stitches; I hope this will get the galaxy going!

Looking at the two toe-caps I'm reminded of the last time I knit two-socks-at-a-time and happened to do so on an airplane (this was in May): a woman walked up to me and asked if I were making a bikini. (!!!)

I realized I completely missed the starting shot for Sock Knitters Anonymous's November Mystery Socks, a pattern by Star Athena cleverly called Miss Marple. How did that happen? I may have to run out tomorrow to get some sock yarn in contrasting colors... Why not learn how to do mosaic knitting right along with stranded knitting?

So much knitting, so little time...