Busy, busy as a little bee over here. Mother's Day was nice. First, Ryan and I went down to the lower east side and got the best NYC brunch stuff - bialys from Kossars, lox and cream cheese from Russ & Daughters, and added that to the organic salad I had picked up the day before at the Union Square Greenmarket. Then Mom and Dad came in and we chowed down at my place before heading up to see the 3-D Imax movie, Space Station. Mom is very interested (and knowledgeable about) aerospace stuff, so this was the perfect plan for her. Dad, too, even though it wasn't "his" day. What an amazing movie - the footage from the International Space Station was fascinating, and the 3-D (gotta love those crazy headset/glasses!) really brought the feeling that this is as close as I'm ever going to get to being in space. If you have the opportunity to see this, do it! It puts a really human face on the whole subject and left us all feeling inspired.

I don't think I knit a stitch all weekend, between cleaning and shopping and entertaining Mom. And this morning I couldn't find the sweater sleeve I have been working on! Of course Ryan found it after I had left. But I did bring my sock with me, even though I find it much harder to do that kind of work on the bus. I am getting a pedicure at Bliss tonight, so I figure while my toesies dry I can get some rounds in on that. Since it's rather chilly to wear flip-flops right now, I expect I'll take an extra-long time drying tonight and have more knitting time. Yay!

So I'm up early and want to read the NY Times for a change, and it's not there. Home delivery is supposed to be there at some ungodly hour of the morning, and it usually is. Except when I want it to be. Argh! All I want to do is sit quietly on the sofa and read my paper! I used to do that every weekend before I met that boy, and since he sleeps so much longer than I do, I kind of want to get back in the habit. I feel guilty when it comes Monday and the little weekend newspaper pile has been disturbed only to get the magazine section (which I adore). Even that doesn't get read the way it used to. I used to do the crossword on Sunday nights. I miss that, too. And now when I do, I am not as good as I used to be! These are things I must correct.

Well, I'll go check again and see if it came while I wasn't paying attention. Hold please.

Nope. Grrrr.

I guess I'll go knit.

Hmm, everyone seems to be moving their blogs off blogspot and onto their own domains. Been thinking about doing that myself lately, so perhaps I will join the crowd soon enough.

Not much news here. I finished off the purse for Adrienne, then wrapped it up without taking a picture. Doh! Oh well, when she opens it tonight I will take a snap or two. It came out very cute, though not quite the proportions I wanted. That's what you get for just letting it take shape as it goes along. Next time I'd go a little wider and shorter, but this is still a cute purse.

No other knitting last night. Had a nice night with my sweetie, and fell asleep exhausted around 10:30-45. Still woke up sluggish this morning, though. But the nice weather is perking me up. I think I'll take a longish lunch and maybe buy some new sunglasses.

What a morning. Up late, then in late, and still falling asleep at my desk. It's rainy and grey and traffic is hardly moving out there. I'm so sleepy my eyes are actually burning.

Hardly any knitting last night. I have been making a little knitted purse for my next-door-neighbor's birthday, and it's mostly finished. I'll post pics later, but it's quite cute - orangey-gold and purple, with mostly purple on one side, mostly orangey-gold on the other, and a little wave pattern at the top where the colors meet (stitch pattern from my Encyclopedia of Knitting). I'm making handles out of i-cord with one strand of each color.

Problem is, I can't find the fabric I wanted to use to line it with! I know it's there somewhere, but I really need to finish the purse by tomorrow, so I may just suck it up and buy some more. We tried to go to a fabric store near home last night, but it was closed after 7pm. Grrr. I was thinking of walking towards the garment district at lunchtime, but it's so crappy out and I was in late so I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe I'll go the place we tried last night after work today, since I will definitely be out of here in time.

No other progress to report, and I'd better get some work done today. Have fun!

Fun as usual last night at Stitch-n-Bitch. Quite a large crowd, particularly for such a nice, warm night. Once again, I was frogging a sleeve, leading Marney to ask if I frog all my sleeves. Sadly, that is starting to become true, it seems! I started again with 8 fewer stitches and the size looks far closer to realistic proportions.

Stayed later than I expected (10:30) and I'm paying for it a bit now. It took a long time to wind down once I got home, and I didn't fall asleep until after midnight. Yuk. Didn't have a great morning, either. I spent too long downloading new music to my MP3 player, only to discover that the stuff I recently downloaded from KazAa makes it "hang." Something to do with the ID3 tags, and I didn't have a chance to run the ID3Kill program on the new stuff. Supposedly they are releasing a firmware update sometime that will prevent this problem, but for now I am just sad and grumpy because I couldn't listen to any music on the way here! Oh well, I suppose there are far worse problems I could be having right now.

Last night, Deb commented that she was expecting someone with much longer hair when she read that I had been growing it out for several months, and that it must've been really short before this. She is absolutely correct, and I told her I'd post a pic from the shorter days. This was in October, which was right before I started growing it. My hair had been approximately this short since about 1995, so you can see I am just about starting from scratch here.

Oooh, I am so excited! We just got invited to a surprise birthday party for a friend's 30th, and it's a carnival theme! Party's going to be held at her brother's house (more like "estate" - he's a dotcom millionaire I used to work for, actually) and sounds like a real blast. But the best part is I've decided to make my first foray into really designing something. She really really loves bright colors and crazy flowers and stuff, so I am going to design something with a great flowered intarsia pattern on it. Probably a purse, since I don't really think I can finish all my other stuff and knit a tank or something in time (6/15) and she has odd measurements (skinny girl, HUGE boobs). Maybe a pillow or something, but one pillow seems lonely. So I think a purse would be perfect, and with this girl, would actually get used. It might be flowers on one side, smiley face (another fave of hers) on the other. Either way, it's going to be fu-u-un!

This week's reading (at work): stuff about schizophrenia and atypical antipsychotic drugs. Whee!

Had an unsatisfying manicure experience at lunchtime. I went to the place I went last time, which is a little nail shop 2 blocks away from the office. The owner did my nails this time, and she was very odd. First off, she commented on my eyebrows, saying she liked them thick like that, then tried to get me to let her wax them. Now, in all fairness, they are pretty messy at the moment, because I wax and tweeze myself and just haven't gotten to it since I noticed it was time. But still, it felt weird that she was so intent on them.

Then, she made a comment I couldn't quite understand (thick accent, talking fast) about either the hair on my arms or the paleness of the skin on my arms. Either way, I know it wasn't a compliment! Then, to top it off, she "wouldn't let" me use the color I picked (the quotes are because, obviously, I have insisted, but she was very opinionated on this one.) Instead of the opaque light pink I had chosen, she made me go with a sheer light pink. It's pretty, but not what I wanted. Because of the aforementioned fair skin, I like a manicure with a big of contrast, and this just doesn't do it. My nails look very neat and clean and lovely, but not girlie-pretty the way I wanted them!

To top it off, I got a little smudgie when I went to pay for my lunch sandwich afterwards (and yes, I did sit through the whole cycle on the nail dryer and yes I was being careful.) That part isn't her fault, but it adds to the unsatisfying experience. I think I shall have to find another place for my lunchtime manicures. Someplace a bit more comfortable. It's not like there aren't 50 nail salons in a 10 block radius - I'm sure I can make a better choice next time.

OK, once again I am posting about a Rowan sleeve problem. I'm about 9 inches into the first sleeve for Mom's sweater, and the thing is way to friggin big! I even followed the smaller size instructions for the sleeve, and it's still going to be a frog-o-rama. Mom has thin arms and tiny wrists, and this will swim on her. So I know I have to adjust the pattern, but I am not sure how much I should adjust. And whether I should just cast on fewer stitches and work the increases at the same rate, etc. Also whether it will screw up the armhole and not fit. I'm going to bring it to Stitch-n-Bitch tonight. Hopefully someone there will be able to help. Obviously I'm open to suggestions here, too!

I think Spring has finally decided to stick around here. It was so nice to walk out this morning in capri pants and be comfy. Soon, I will be able to do away with those pesky socks! (I see Squib and I share this love of going sockless.) I'll still knit the ones I am working on, of course. By the time I finish them, it will likely be Fall.

I think today's the day for a lunchtime manicure. I go in cycles - for months I won't care a whit about my nails, then I'll get all into them for a few months, getting regular manicures. Then I'll go back to not caring. Funny, these cycles often correspond to my disposable income...

What a beautiful weekend! Hardly got any knitting done, but I did get to check out the new yarn store, "Knitting Hands" on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Nice store, and a great selection of yarns and patterns. Lots of needles and other accessories, too. I was pretty pleased, especially since I will probably be moving to Brooklyn some months from now! The owner wasn't overly friendly, but she wasn't unfriendly either, and seems like she'd be helpful if it's needed or if one becomes a "regular."

I am very conflicted over buying yarn these days. I want to support my LYSs, but their prices are just too high sometimes, especially here in the city. And they don't always have the selection I want, particularly when it comes to color and quantity. For some yarns, like Rowan, I just can't see spending nearly 40% more to buy them locally when I can order them at far less cost online. I think I've decided I will continue to buy needles and stuff locally, and the sort of "basic" yarn - Brown Sheep, etc. that doesn't vary too much in price. And mostly I want to continue to support Downtown Yarns, since that's my "localest" store and where they are so nice to me. I wish I could see my way clear to walk in and drop 100 bucks on yarn for one basic sweater, but even when I can afford it, I hate to do that. Anyone else feel the same way?

Thanks to my dear sweetie (yay Ryan!), you can now see the "CBS Early Show" knitting segment featuring our NY Stitch-n-Bitch group. It's a quicktime movie, and you can choose either the low bandwidth or the high bandwidth version. If you're not sure what that means: if you're on a dial-up connection, definitely go with the low one. If you're on a good, speedy DSL or cable connection, or an office network, you can probably download the high bandwidth version (better resolution, looks nicer) and play it from your desktop. And if you want to know who's who, check out Carolyn's screenshots!

Just time for a quickie post before I head out shopping with Diana, who just got a new job and needs stuff to wear to it. Happy Birthday to Carolyn! A perfect day for a birthday - sunny and happy outside.

Wish my sweetie was in as good a mood as the weather seems to be. He was not cheerful when he left to head over to the computer lab. Tried my best to cheer him up, but it didn't work. I'm sure it'll wear off later. Among other things, he's going to digitize the "CBS Early Show" video from the other day, so I should have a link to that soon.

In the meantime, have a nice day, everyone!

Kat'nea, this pic's for you!



It's a throw, not a bedspread, but this was the best way to photograph it. A gift from the sweetie a few years ago. :-)

Very un-busy at the moment. And I think I have found what I want to make as a baby gift for my cousin Jill, courtesy of Erica's blog: MOO! Although she's making it in blue and white to look like clouds (an idea I love!) I will make it in the regular cow colors. Jill and I independently ended up liking cow print stuff in our kitchens, and I think this will be an absolutely adorable gift. Not to mention something completely different from all the pastel stuff she's bound to receive.

I'm ordering the book and yarn from Apple Laine, which I think I saw mentioned on Shetha's blog a while back. I like the idea of ordering from a real farm. I'm also asking for some samples of the beautiful yarns they show on their site. Sometimes mohair is itchy, so I want to feel theirs before I buy it.

Finished the last two squares for the small baby block last night - a duckie and a housie. So cute! Didn't get to take a pic, but I will later. Now I guess I will move on to the large block, and save the medium one for last, since it will feel small after the big one. This is definitely a good project to teach myself intarsia knitting. I'm a little concerned about assembling the blocks. Just afraid they won't all match up, even though I'll block them to the right size, and all. Gotta head down to the foam store soon to get the blocks to stuff them with.

So glad it's Friday, and a sunny one, to boot! Last night I cleaned up the sofa and other stuff, so I feel a b it better about the state of affairs at home. Next task will be to get some stuff listed on eBay. Mom has a bit of a Home Shopping/QVC thing, and she ends up buying more stuff than she can use. Either that or she buys a big kit of makeup and doesn't like all the stuff in it. Either way, about a year ago, she discovered she could give it to me to sell on eBay. I've been deluged ever since. Right now there is quite a pile of stuff next to the computer that I need to photograph and list so I can get it the hell out of my house! I shouldn't complain - all my spending money for last year's vacation came from selling that stuff, so it's definitely worthwhile. Just now that I have a full-time job again, the motivation is a little lower and I am busier.

Yay! I'm finished with the alcohol studies! Reading and summarizing nine of those things in two days was just not so fun. But at least now I have a really good understanding of them. Ack. And now, the project that I wasn't enjoying working on before this came up has been put on hold, so I have nothing hanging over my head. Yay!

So Marney started a blog, too - go Marney! I thought I had knitted a lot in the past 6 months, for a beginner, but that girl puts me to SHAME! And she looked cute talking about it on CBS this morning, too. Update on that - the boy says he may be able to digitize the video tomorrow.

Still yukky weather. Do I really have to go to the gym? I haven't gained any weight since I slowed down on it. And I am awfully tired. And there is an awfully large pile of summer clothes on my sofa, there since Sunday when I got tired of switching my closets over and disgusted at the sudden cold turn of weather. And I have knitting to do. I'm all into the blocks again, which is good, since the baby they are meant for will be born soon. :-) Given all that, I think I may just go straight home. Sssh, don't tell anyone.

So, I'm not famous yet, but I did catch several glimpses of myself, Carolyn, and Jackie a little while ago on the CBS "This Morning" knitting segment. I was particularly amused by the close-up of my hands knitting the sleeve of my cardigan - boy do I wish I had freshened up that bright pink manicure! The piece was amusing, and maybe it'll recruit some new knitters. I'm going to see if Ryan can digitize the VHS so I can post it somewhere, if no one gets to it before I do.

In other news, I hope the reservoirs are getting some of this rain that we're getting here in the city. Boy is it pouring out there. Luckily (well, no luck about it - shall I say smartily?) I wore my rubber rain shoes, nylon "track" pants (Old Navy), looooong London Fog raincoat and carried an umbrella. So basically the only part of me that really got wet were a few inches of my ankles, and they dry quickly because of the nylon.

I remember that back in high school it was decidedly uncool to use any sort of raingear. Particularly a raincoat or umbrella. So we'd end up like drowned rats at school, even though I only had about a four-minute walk. Looking back on it, I realized an interesting hierarchy of issues here: hair (BIG HAIR) was very important at the time, but apparently was less important than being "cool" in the rain, since the lack of raingear meant the flattening of hair. Interesting, and all exceedingly stupid. I wonder if high school kids are smarter today?

Back to the knitting news. I started off the night thinking I wouldn't do anything, but then got back into the baby blocks and did two more squares on the small block. The sailboat and the flower are the new ones, and have not been blocked or had their ends woven in yet, but I took a quick photo of the four I have completed so far. There's also a sailboat for the large block, but I didn't include that in the picture. Two more to go on the small one, six on the medium, and five on the large. Hmm. Perhaps I should've started on the large one, so it would get easier as time goes on.

I was afraid I would see what I saw when I made the blog rounds today. Kate is busy gloating about the Maple Leafs' victory over my dear Islanders. Oh well, I decided I would still like her - she can't help being Canadian any more than I can help being born on Long Island. Almost as irritating as the loss was that for some dumb reason the game was blacked out on my cable system, so when I returned from Stitch-n-Bitch I had to listen to my team lose via webcast. Ick.

Lots of fun last night at the Stitch-n-Bitch. Much smaller crowd this week, since the bright lights and TV cameras were not on the agenda. Got to see Carolyn working on a fuzzy pink donut (OK, someone said it was a swatch for a sweater, but we call 'em as we see 'em), and Jackie knitting away at her pretty Kidsilk Haze sweater. Plus I got to meet Deb, who doesn't have a blog at the moment, but I'm sure we'll convince her soon enough. Deb had my favorite story of the week when she told me a few days back that her 3-year-old daughter wanted to meet me because she saw the picture on my blog and thought I was a little girl, too!

I left the cafe and had the good fortune to catch the bus just as it was pulling into the stop across the street. Normally I would walk, but this particular bus happens to go up Avenue A, turn left on 14th Street, and drop my about 100 yards from my apartment. Who could resist? And when I sat down, I had a nice surprise in the form of Diane, the woman who taught my first knitting class! This is not so bizarre, since she teaches at Downtown Yarns, the LYS right near the cafe we Stitch-n-Bitch in. Still, it's always nice to run into friendly faces, particularly on the bus at night.

As for my knitting, I'm just plugging away at the sleeve of Mom's sweater. It feels big. I am having lilac cardigan sleeve flashbacks. Are all Rowan sleeves written big? Do women in the UK have particularly large arms? It's not as though the rest of the pattern is large. On the contrary, they seem to run a bit small, except for the sleeves. I am torn between frogging and sizing it down, and continuing on but checking it out before I make the second one. Am I stupid for giving myself the opportunity to make this mistake twice?! Only time will tell. I've decided this is a birthday sweater, so I am off the hook for finishing it by next Sunday.

And there you have it, today's minutae. Now I have eight clinical studies to read and summarize by the end of the day, and boy am I looking forward to it. We've moved from alcoholic rat studies to alcoholic people studies, so it's slightly more interesting.

Made it back to the gym last night, after about 2 weeks AWOL. Felt really good to get moving again! Being sick a few weeks back took so much out of me and it just took a long time to feel good again. Now I'm back to (what passes for) normal.

Finished the back of Mom's sweater last night and started on the sleeve, which I will work on at tonight's Stitch-n-Bitch. Funny, I was doing a sleeve there last week, too. People will think I only make sleeves! I was contemplating trying to do both sleeves at once, as suggested on the knitblogs list, but I didn't want to carry all that yarn and all that (eventual) sleeve with me everywhere, so I am doing them one at a time. I am debating whether to try and finish this for Mother's Day, or save it for her birthday, June 11. I suppose time will decide for me. I'm sort of leaning towards the birthday, just because if I give it now for Mother's Day, anything I give for the birthday will be anticlimactic, don't you think?

I also have to get those baby blocks done soon, as Tracy will be giving birth in the next few weeks, though I won't see her right away. Those are more of a sit at home project, since the intarsia requires chart-reading and concentration, as well as several different colors of yarn, making it (once again) too much trouble to carry around.

I promised photos from the Cherry Blossom Festival last night, and I'm only 12 hours late.



Some of the pretty cherry blossoms - the photos hardly do them justice.

Little fishies in the lily pool (no lilies yet).

The happy couple in the bluebell wood. We're loving the new camera with the variable-angle LCD monitor that swings out so you can take pics of yourself!

The gratuitous kissie shot.

Phew, what a morning. At 5pm Friday some hell broke loose on a project here, and we had to clean up the mess and have a "let's be a team again" meeting. This project has been @$%ed for quite a while, though I only got involved a month or so ago, so I mostly listened. I was really impressed that my boss handled it so well - I am so happy to be working for him. I've worked for some awful people in the past (well, nice people, lousy managers) and this is so refreshing!

Kinda pressed for time, so I'll give you the quick summary - cherry blossoms were beautiful, pics to come later tonight. And I finished the lilac cardigan! Well, except for weaving in a few ends and sewing on a button. It looks pretty good, though I think it needs a wash to maybe soften it up a bit. I noticed my swatch of the Summer Tweed was softer and nicer post-washing, so I will probably do that before I take pics and stuff. So, try and be patient and go on with your lives while you anxiously await the photos.