Kim and Dale

By 7 pm, when I returned home last night, the temperature was still a whooping 89 degrees. The high had been 90! That just as a post scriptum to yesterday's post.

On to something else.

I stopped by my LYS last night (BTW: my LYS has its own Ravelry group, at last. Check it out!) to see if the new Kim Hargreaves book Misty was already in. Because I reallyreallyreally want to make this:

Jess is a waistcoat made with Rowan Lenpur Linen, and me like it very much. (This is the first time I uttered "waistcoat" and "like" in one sentence. I'm usually not the vest-y type.)

Upon closer inspection I'm also liking Sage and Chalk.

Truth to be told, I like everything in Misty. (Funny. Last summer I felt very meh about cotton and linen and summer knits in general.)

So, anyway, to the store I bike, just to find out that Misty hasn't been released in the US yet. It makes me want to order it from the U.K., but perhaps I should practice patience and simply wait a couple more weeks. Or perhaps I should just order it. (Especially since 16 pounds sounds harmless compared to 34 dollars. Ignorance [of currency conversion] is bliss!)

I did buy something else, something I need for a secret knitting project:

Three skeins of Dalegarn Heilo--what do you think it will become?

Out of the Blue!

Just as I thought I didn't have anything to blog about this week I received a big box full of goodies that arrived here entirely out of the blue. First I thought it was an early birthday gift, but then I didn't recognize the sender's name, so that wasn't it. Only when I put "Victoria" and "WI" together it occurred to me Vicki sent the prize I won at her blog giveaway! Yeah!!

Can you see? A notebook, a Victoria-Pictoria card, a 2010 Yarnharlot calendar, a sheep brooch, I-don't-know-what-they-are-called-needle-tip thingies, a skein of fabulous Misti Alpaca, and a very cool box.



I very, very, very much like the box and the yarn. Thank you, Vicki!

The box arrived yesterday morning, just as I was leaving to go to the local knitters' brunch. The brunch was fun: lots of nice gals, lots of good food, lots of time to get serious knitting done. I've been semi-sick all week, struggling with a cold that wasn't bad enough to interfere with work but serious enough to keep me feeling absolutely blah: too blah to read, too blah to eat, even too blah to knit. And while therefore I didn't knit at all during the week I had a bit of a knitting marathon yesterday: first at the brunch and later while watching a Hitchcock. I'm happy to report that I am back on track with my top-down raglan cardigan, which fits much better now. The countdown's on: I'm seeing my mom in eight days and want to show her an FO!

(Ouch. Did I say eight days? Have I mentioned that I'm making a really long cardigan? Currently it's hip-length and doesn't have sleeves. Good thing there's that Superbowl fête we're going to tonight. Since I have no interest in football I'll find myself a quiet corner and knit for a couple of hours...)

Oh, and there's something else I wanted to mention. I know that I'm the last person on earth to discover Alexander McCall Smith's series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, but ever since I heard the author in an episode of NPR's On Point, I've been inhaling the novels. I adore them! They are so lovely and charming and, well, precious, like Precious Ramotswe herself. I may just have to add the BBC/HBO series to our Netflix queue; I foresee happy knitting evenings with Mma Ramotswe.... The Hubs, too, has a book recommendation that he would like me to include here: he just finished Jane Jacobs' 1961 The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and he declared this morning that Jacobs must have been the smartest woman on the planet with the greatest gift for writing, and isn't this book just the best book ever?!?!?! (There were many more exclamation points in the Hubs' voice. I actually think the Hubs has a bit of a crush on her, nevermind that she'd be 93 years old if still alive.)

Merry Bookmas!

Howdy folks! How was your Christmas? We spontaneously went to NYC for the holidays, camping out at our friend-the-artist's house in Hell's Kitchen, just off of Times Square. I had the most fabulous time and will tell you about it tomorrow (?). For now just a brag picture of what Santa brought to our house:

(Yes, we believe in giving books. Half of those books belong to the Hubs. The other half is Mine. Mine. Mine. My share is mainly art and art criticism books, with a few clever detective novels here and there and the occasional bestseller. The Hubs' half concerns math, economy, and an effective way of saving the planet and making the world a better place.) (We started with the latter by buying local. We loves independent book stores.)

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.

The Hubs Has a Knit Picks Account!

My wonderful Hubs left this morning to attend a four-day conference in Ohio. When saying our farewells outside on the porch we acted like teenagers: we were both very dramatic. I miss him. I do enjoy that I can have cereal in the evening and call it dinner (rather than cooking something proper), that I can watch House episodes online without someone telling me how ridiculous this show is, that I can knit for five hours straight without feeling guilty about being anti-social. Mostly, though, I miss the Hubs. I'd rather have him here with me. *sigh*

He was still on his way to the airport when a package arrived. It had his name on it, but that wasn't all: it also had "Knit Picks" written all over it. I sent him a text message and he responded: "open it its 4 u xo."* For me? In November? No birthday, no anniversary, no nothing in sight? I called just to make sure... he said, yes, I should open it. Here's the content:

That's, like, the five books I've been eyeing every time we go to a bookstore. OMG. The box also contained sock blocking thingies:

Awwww... thank you, Hubs, for being so good to me!

*That's not actually what his message said. I'm using hip, cool SMS code to make us sound like a hip, cool couple, when in fact we still write out entire words and observe rules of capitalization and punctuation in text messages, if we send those at all.

Have I mentioned...

that it's application season for academic jobs starting August 2010? I have the distinct feeling that that's all I've been talking about for months now, but maybe I haven't brought it up here. Both the Hubs and I are in the midst of putting together our dossiers, a project that this week has turned into a full-time occupation taking up each and every evening, often late into the night or even early into the morning. I'll be sending stuff off after this weekend; the Hubs has another week. Do wish us luck! His postdoc is soon over, I'm graduating in May, and we really need to find a new home for ourselves to start the next phase in our lives.

Speaking of that next phase (and all its promises: a career, a permanent place to live, a house with a garden filled with happy dogs, and... and... and maybe little people): my previous two posts created quite a stir at the Hubs' childhood home. My MIL returned from her trip to France and, jet-lagged as she was, checked the blog, saw baby cardigans, read the word "bumpy," and immediately drew the wrong conclusions. :) (My mom, too, finds my baby-knitting highly suspicious.) No no no. Rest assured, you'll not learn that kind of news through the internet. (Although I'm sure plenty of people nowadays make announcement of that sort using twitter and facebook. [I facebooked three minutes before walking down the aisle that I'd be walking down the aisle. But all of our close friends and family were present, so no one dear to us had to learn the news through fb.])

In knitting news: Sean's LYS in Cambridge is closing its doors. I wasn't much of a frequent shopper there, but it nevertheless saddens me to see Sean go.

Despite little time this week, there has been some knitting. Heron is a very quick knit; I (almost) completed the main body:

Looks funny, doesn't it? But once it's folded over, it does actually resemble a wearable piece:

Of course, the cardigan is missing its pemplums (I had to look up the plural of "pemplum," and apparently, this is it) and sleeves. I will have to make the pemplums longer to adjust for my height. Since I'm substituting Cascade Eco Wool for Berroco Peruvia Quick and need to account for the difference in gauge, I'm making the cardigan one size larger than needed and hope for the best!

Look, it snowed here last weekend:

Yesterday it was in the 70s again. Tomorrow there will be icy rain. Perfect weather for staying home, sipping tea, and knitting working on my dossier.

The Hubs, who's been falling behind keeping his own blog (on cultural stuff) updated, wants me to tell you that we went to a reading by Jonatham Lethem last night (our one-hour diversion), and that it was awesome, and that the Hubs loves Jonathan Lethem. In fact, he loves him so much we even waited in line to get our copy of Chronic City autographed (the Hubs isn't much for waiting in lines and getting things autographed, so this is news). Lethem came to our favorite neighborhood, Brookline, reading at the fantastic Coolidge Theatre:

To my utter shame I must confess that I fell asleep during the reading; I had had 4 hours of sleep the night before and was exhausted, and sitting in a warm theater listening to a lovely voice telling stories... well, it did me in.

Today I feel much better and ready to roll... dossier, here I come!

Cute!

That's what I think this is:

Many thanks to Ivete, A-L, and Yarnhog for their comments about Bumpy. For my own peace of mind and in acknowledgment of the baby's current size (7 pounds, according to ultrasound, with one more month to grow) I frogged the cardigan and will redo it on larger needles and/or in a larger size. But to meet Monday's deadline I put aside this slightly more time-consuming project and cast on for a super quick baby knit: Jennifer Hagan's Baby Soft Cardigan, in Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton. The knitting took just one evening; sewing the itty bitty pieces together took the next morning. It was my first attempt at sewing (that's why it took so long), and I think the seams turned out alright. I think they are a bit chunky to be comfortable, but... but... but I just won't worry about it:

This morning I went to my favorite LYS to pick up buttons. Nice daylight pic, but without fastened buttons yet:

Slightly less well-lit picture, but with the buttons sewn to the cardi, all twenty (!) ends woven in, and a crocheted border:

I really, really like how it turned out. The Hubs responded with "pretty cute," which is his way of saying, "awwwww.... soooo cute!!!!!!!!"

Speaking of the Hubs: he went to the Head of the Charles Regatta this morning to hang out with old college pals. I would have joined him, except I had to get buttons. Upon my announcement that I would be going to the LYS by myself he made jokes regarding my yarn allowance, and he meant to tease me when he said that I could use all the quarters I would find in our house. I took the challenge and collected all the change residing in different jugs and bowls and drawers, and I took the quarters to the bank and exchanged them for crisp bills worth all of this:

That's enough Cascade Ecological Wool for Norah Gaughan's Heron. And a little bit of much-reduced Rowan Four Ply Soft to try my luck at color work (I'm going for Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mittens). Yeah!!! (Just to clarify, my husband isn't a miser or in control of my spending habits; the whole quarter thing was a bit of a joke, but a very lucrative one.)

As I returned home from the LYS, Clara's new book was waiting for me. I already have a favorite pattern (may have something to do with the color):

And by the time the Hubs got back from the river, he too had gotten a package: his new computer arrived that will make the math magic happen even at home, not just in the office. However, he lacked the energy to be all enthusiastic about it, because the poor fella suffered fairly badly from allergies and went straight to bed. Which is where I'm going now, too.

Feiertag...!

How odd, but I forgot that it is my home country's 19th birthday today! October 3 is Germany's national holiday, and while I wondered why Der Spiegel covered so many East-West stories today, I wasn't able to put two and two together and realize what day it was. Only in the evening did it dawn on me: it's Tag der deutschen Einheit, the day of German unification. We celebrated with a bottle of Italian wine, homemade eggplant pizza, and coconut sorbet. (Not your traditional German fare, I do know that.)

Here's one of my favorite pictures of Berlin, taken three years ago, a year after the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was opened to the public. It was the first time I visited the memorial, on a gloomy November night:

Behind the memorial you can see the American embassy (still under construction), the brightly lit dome of the Reichstag that houses today's parliament (the Bundestag), the German flag (on one of the corners of the Reichstag), some barren trees of Tiergarten, and a massive laser show coming from Tipi am Kanzleramt, a cabaret show housed in a tent next to the chancellor's office. For me, the picture shows Berlin in a nutshell: it's a party place, yes, but it's also the home of a strong democracy with a strong (at last!) cultural and historical memory.

But enough of that. Come November, I'll say more about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, a historical event I witnessed wearing my pajamas in public (thanks, parents).

Has there been knitting this week? Uhm... very little. But here are some knitting-related thoughts:

1. I can't wait until Clara's new book is out.

2. Clara reviewed Cat Bordhi's book Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters for Knitter's Review, and I'm entirely intrigued and curious and want to learn more. Sadly, the book's out of stock. (I wonder if this is what always happens after Clara's reviewed something...).

3. I've gotten a lot of wear out of my shawls. I can't commit yet to the grown-up-have-a-real-job uniform of blouse-cum-slacks, and I'm holding on to jeans and semi-casual tops. I decided that spicing up my grad student look with shawls and such would professionalize my outfit. It seems to work. My clapotis in particular has received many compliments. I noticed, however, that dangling earrings (part of the professionalizing-my-appearance-plan) do not work well with knitted neck things, such as clapotis. I have many pulled threads to put back in place.

4. I learned that Santa Claus lives in the South. Somehow a ball winder and a yarn swift are making their way up North. Now. In October. From Mississippi. 'Cause I mentioned my need for said items in the same sentence as I mentioned Santa Claus, and a certain someone read aforementioned sentence and decided to act. (Thank you, J.!!!! [Your son is devastated. You ruined his Christmas gift ideas. Not to worry, though, I'll think of something else to subtly place on the fridge door.])

5. Hubs decided we are officially an old couple. While I've been a member of Ravelry for six months, he now joined an online gardening community. His words: "You've got your knitting club. I've got my gardening club. We should ask for our retirement benefits."

(5a. Just in case you're wondering: we live in an apartment building and don't have a garden. We have three planting pots: one with mint, one with basil, and one with thyme. They live in our office. The mint is about to die.)

6. Unrelated but noteworthy: I broke one of our first wedding gifts. I'm very efficient at breaking nice things, and therefore we don't even use any of the stemware we got for our wedding. Just so I wouldn't break any. Who would have thought that the glass lid of our fancy (and much used) Le Creuset wok would be the first item to go? So unfair... the thing was hot... so I dropped it... it fell... but just 8 inches (we measured, trust me)... and it BROKE. Argh.

7. Knitting? Well then:

One and half pair of Nanners. I hope to finish them tomorrow.

Cheers!

Oh My Goodness, the Goodies!

I can't believe my luck! I clandestinely ordered a few little things while Hubs was still in the house, to be delivered after his departure to conferences in Utah, from that online mega book store that I wouldn't support if it didn't sell most knitting books 30% off (my apologies, favorite independent bookstore; I swear, I buy all non-knitting books at your place! Just last week Monsieur and I bought five books from your beautiful store, among them Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, to be read and enjoyed on my New Mexico trip. Please, please excuse this little affair of mine with your competitor).

Unbelievable, but the mail man delivered the goodies already this morning! Three gorgeous knitting books. Which ones, you ask? Well, Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up (reviewed this week by Clara on Knitter's Review, as it so happens), Martha Waterman's Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls, and Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia. The excitement doesn't stop here, though, since the mail man also brought something from Oregon: the long awaited Sea Wool, along some Cashlana, both by Fleece Artist. I ordered the Sea Wool several weeks ago, inspired by Clara's review and her suggestion to use it for a Clapotis. Apparently I wasn't the only one to be inspired, since Colorsong Yarns sold out of Sea Wool quicker than I was able to hit the order button. But now it's here: Sea Wool in Aurora, and, as a little extra, Cashlana in Fleur (possibly for a Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf; here is a pretty one, knitted by Carol Ann).

Gorgeous? Gorgeous! Happy? Happy!

PS: This is a test if Monsieur reads my blog. If I don't get in trouble for making secret book purchases, he gets in trouble for not following my knitting blog. If I do get in trouble, I'll blame everything on the need to know if he reads the blog. Terrific plan? I say so. He's a scientist. He knows about the need to know and having to test things and the costs involved in testing said things. :)

New Kittykats

That's what I brought home from Ithaca: five skeins of yumminess, rescued from the sale bin. My husband took on calling skeins little kittykats (WIP projects are, as of this week, our kittens. Please note the plural: our kittens, our kittykats), so here they are, the latest addition to the kittykat bunch:

The Malabrigo lace yarn wants to become a Swallowtail Shawl (if I understand kitty language correctly. I may have misunderstood, and it actually wants to grow into the Children of Lir Rectangle Stole I found in Martha Waterman's wonderful Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls book). The trio of Colinette Parisienne, Colinette Tao, and Rowan Kidsilk were first excited about turning into a normal-sized stole-type-of-creature. However, I think the Colinette siblings went off on their own and decided on a very skinny, diagonal stripy something that could potentially look like this (imagine several feet of it):

In any event, the trip to Ithaca was a success, and not just yarn wise! My grad school business went surprisingly well and the pats on the back that I received motivated me to finish that dissertation ASAP and get on with life. More importantly, my lovely hubs completed another revolution about the sun, and we celebrated with cake, candles, and--it was his wish--plenty of BBQ. (And ice-cream. And flowers. And bubbly. And presents. And all the good stuff.) We were in the company of good friends, which made the day (and the weekend in general) all the more special.

The long six-hour drive between Boston and Ithaca was less boring than normally, thanks to a mystery novel on CD and: knitting! I finished Wendy's lace socks:

Love 'em! I'm eager to cast on another pair of socks, but first I want to make some progress on the Icarus Shawl, which is growing, slowly but steadily.

When I went to the library to pick up the book on CD, I discovered the knitting section for the first time (which was totally bent out of shape. I'm certainly not blaming library staff for the lack of reshelving, but instead I imagine hordes of enthusiastic knitters who passionately pull books off the shelves and, out of excitement, leave the area a bit of a mess. I'm guilty!). I'm just sharing this with you because of the good finds I brought home with me: aforementioned Traditional Lace Shawl book is just the beginning! I also checked out Meg Swansen's A Gathering of Lace and, probably my favorite, Kari Cornell's For the Love of Knitting (not a pattern book, but full of great stories and wonderful pictures). Oh--did I mention that in Ithaca I found Marianne Kinzel's second Modern Lace Knitting for an unbeatable price of one dollar? I was quite pleased with myself. While I'm in love with yarn kittykats, I can't deny that I also love pattern books (and books on knitting). It's 'cause of my love for all things made of paper, books in particular.

And now off to bed (with a good book!). Sorry to have been rambling. Had such a terrific weekend, is all.

Retirement Plans

I must be crazy.

I received a little something in the mail. A book. A knitting book. About the history of knitting, sort of. With background stories of different knitting and design traditions.

That's why I wanted it. For the history. The background. To educate myself. Do a bit of reading. You know, background reading.

The book came with pictures. Gorgeous pictures. And patterns. Incredible patterns. And little tags, such as "master knitter." A warning?

It didn't keep me from getting out my stack of sticky notes. Then I started sticking sticky notes to patterns I liked.

I liked many.

Not only did I stick sticky notes to patterns I liked, I also added those pattern to my queue on Ravelry. For people to see what I intend to knit.

I figure if I knitted consistently for the next thirty years I may have a chance of becoming a "master knitter." Then I'd be able to knit a few of those patterns.

This would coincide with retirement.

In the meantime, I'm keeping to my lonely first sock and my almost completed knit & purl cardigan.

(PS: It's Nicky Epstein's Knitting on Top of the World.)

Hello Knitters!

I accidentally deleted my Knitter’s Review introduction, so I’m trying again, this time with a brand-spanking-new blog! 

My mom taught me knitting when I was young, but I didn’t enjoy it as a teenager or young adult, and I never made it past that scarf that’s too short to deserve the name. However, in the last three or four years, whenever I’d visit my parents’ house, I’d end up with needles and yarn in my hands… Because I usually stay at my mom’s for two weeks at a time (she lives in Europe), I’d start real projects–not just little scarves! But then: as soon as I’d return to the U.S., I’d abandon those poor projects. This has left me with an unfinished sweater, an unfinished shawl, and an unfinished bed jacket.

I have a very passionate knitter friend, who produces gorgeous, GORGEOUS knitting, and she was so kind to give me Clara Parkes’ Book of Yarn for my birthday, three weeks ago. Now I’m hooked! Seriously. Since my first, very shy trip to my LYS I’ve knitted a (rather long) “sample scarf” to try out different stitch combinations and lace stitches. I *love* knitting lace stitches! The scarf is ugly, but my brave husband offered to wear it anyway. I wouldn’t let him; instead I started Kenny Chua’s Sculptured Lace Scarf (in Knits, Spring 2009). It’s beautiful! I’m terribly proud of myself and daydream of all the things I will knit next… My friend gave me sock yarn a couple of nights ago to try out socks, and here we go, I’m knitting socks! 

Woohoo!!! My inner knitter is out!

(This is the Sculptured Lace Scarf, which doesn't look very lacy here; I'll take a better picture when I finish it!)

(This is the GIANT unfinished blue shawl... UFO for the past two years.)