Luck o' the British?

I'm a lucky bugger. Look what I won at a work event today.

Packed full of pampering Bath and Body Works goodies - about half of which will be going to work tomorrow where they will be surely more appreciated. But dude! Look at that basket.

I immediately gave it a job. Doesn't it make a great WIP basket?


And, a little teaser of the apartment, I will try to take more pics of the place at the weekend - but with me going to a Mets game Saturday, not sure when that's going to happen :)

I'm not ignoring you

I've just been busy. Unpacking, buying things, enjoying the company of friends and making the apartment our home - bit by bit. There's plenty left to do, but I'm very happy with how things are coming together.

I promise, there will be some pictures of the apartment to follow, but it's still a work in progress - with about 8 more boxes (mostly DVDs, books, knick-knacks) to unpack. But for now you will have to just be satisfied with knitting pics and stats - I forgot to ad that to the list, but I have been knitting too :)

First is a basic pair of socks for me in Regia

Pattern: I did the foot in stocking stitch and the leg in k2, p2 ribbing, with short row toes and heels.
Yarn: Regia surf in sand (color #5420). I think this yarn is great, it has a lot of potential to stand up to the machine washing, it's not as warm as 100% wool socks, clearly a better choice if you feel the need to wear socks during this heat wave. Oh! and see those curtains in the background? I made them a couple of weeks ago.
Needles: Addi 32" turbos, size 2.


Next is the most boring pair of socks ever - for Mr B - modeled by me, the man is busy organizing the spare room (AKA, the art/craft/fiber/sewing, music room) and I don't want to interrupt the progress - but here it clearly shows that he has gigantic feet.


Pattern: again foot in st st, leg in k3, p1 ribbing, with short row toes and heels.
Yarn: Knitpicks Essential Tweed in "flint" I had planned on making a pair of gloves when I ordered this yarn. However, it was absolutely not what I expected, I was hugely disappointed in this so-called tweed. It looks like a child splashed their paints on it - very primary colour-ish. Having said that, the yarn itself is soft, and Mr. B states that the socks are super comfortable.
Needles: Knitpicks 32", size 1.


Next is a couple of wash/dish clothes. I wanted simple and fast. I love the simple ingenuity of this pattern, the yarn color was inspired by a towel I was given a while back. The towel depicts Die Sendung Mit Der Maus - for which I have fond childhood memories, cute little fella isn't he? That and the green tea + aloe soap we had helped me decide that a lime green theme is necessary in our brand new white-on-white bathroom.


Pattern: 4-corners pattern by Abigail
Yarn: Lily's Sugar n Cream - in summer splash.
Needles: Denises size 7



Today I started the Absorba Bath Mat from Mason Dixon - in lime green, of course. My goodness, knitting with this stuff on the HUGE (to me) #15 needles is teeee-ough!! It will be worth it though.

no knitting here

The move is complete!! I am now longer a Manhattanite, instead I have 'evolved' into a Queenster (or an Astorian, if you will). The move was difficult, moving from a 6th floor walk-up with some very (very, very) good friends is no joke - I am appauled at how much crap we have. But the weather was beautiful on the day of the move, and we managed to make the day fun. Every muscle in my body hurts - a LOT, I'm sure our friends are feeling the burn too. It was worth it though - I love the new 'hood, people actually say 'hello' on the street, they are friendly, that will take some getting used to, it's such a major change from our old neighborhood (don't get me wrong, I loved living there, and will miss it, but people being nice is great).

We now have double the living space, with a spare room for knitting/spinning/sewing (and Mr. B's art/music I suppose). The light in here is beautiful in here. There will be photo's, but not for a little while - no internet (phone or TV) until next week (Time Warner sucks, but I'm not telling you anything new am I?). As a result, I'm writing this post on my Blackberry, which is "interesting" to say the least, I have no idea if it will work yet. I have been trying to keep up with blog reading, but you won't see comments from me for a while yet, that is asking a little too much from the little bb. Thanks again for all your well-wishes with the move, it's appreciated - and I'm sure it helped.

Okay, I must go and unpack some boxes, if I can stand up :)

You Spin Me Right Round Baby...

The song has been going around my head over, and over again while knitting these socks. I'm actually really relieved the that socks are finished so that the bloody song can finally stop. Oddly enough, when taking the pictures, the only place I could get decent light was on Mr. B's drum stool (well, apparently they are called 'thrones', but that makes me giggle). At least the pictures are in keeping with the music theme.



Pattern: RPMs
Yarn: Trekking XXL in color 105
Adaptations: None, that I recall.
Thoughts: I really didn't like this yarn at first, not sure if it was the color or slight scratchiness of the yarn, but the subtle striping and warm colors won me over in the end.


I also thought I would try the pointy toe in the pattern, um, not convinced I would use it again. Although I'm still keen to try the star toe.

Oh yeah, I'm sure you've figured out from this post that I'm still breathing and all that. We had a 10 day visit from Ma & Pa Schrodinger [the socks were a big hit for Mum btw]. And have been hunting for a new place to live, we are actually anxiously awaiting to see if our application was accepted for a place we fell in love with. In amongst all that, and the blogging blahs I managed to forget my 2nd blogiversary, and barely kept up with bloglines. I'm sure services will resume as normal sometime in April once we have moved - wherever that may be...

Avast Ye!*

First of all, please join me in a moment of silence as I mourn the lost of my Shedir, which is probably in the hands of some hipster brooklyn-nite, somewhere in the depths of Williamsburg. It fell out of my jacket pocket when I was out for some drinks with friends last night, I went back for it about half an hour later, not there, no-one handed it in! I can only hope that whichever thieving bast@rd stole it whoever found it, is getting as much pleasure as I did, man I miss my shedir already. I guess I have to go shopping for more yarn now.

I finished my mitts last week, they took forever to dry in our freezing bloody cold rather cool apartment. I've been dying to take pictures of them so I can show them off. Fortunately, I managed to share them with my Spidey Pals, and now the weekend has finally rolled over and I can show them to everyone else. So, enough with the talk, talk, here are the pics and stats:



Pattern: Hello Yarn's cool, "dangerous" Pirate Mittens.
Yarn: 2 balls of Knitpicks Telemark one in Bayberry and one in Chestnut, inspired by the color combo used by Lisa with her Norwegian Mitts.
Needles: Denise's in US 5's, magic loop method.
Mods: None, the only thing I can say about the project is that I had difficulties with the fair isle initially, I ripped out that first mitt a significant number of times, but it was worth it.



One final word on fair isle [which I know really should be called "stranding", but just can't bring myself to use that term, plus "fair isle" sounds so much cooler]. I wasn't too happy with my stitches on the mitts, they looked uneven to me and not so great. When I blocked I blocked hard. I soaked them in soap-filled water, and basically beat them up in the water (not too hard, since I didn't want felted [or should I say fulled?] mittens. Once scruched of water I pinned them down on the blocking board, Mr. B. laughed and called me a Mitten collector. But I think the results were worth it.



* Apparently, pirate talk for get a load of this, me likey.

Yowzer!

I can't believe it's been a week since I last posted. My I've been so busy, and not really the knitting kind of busy. It seems that this last week and next week has Mr. B. and myself being pulled in multiple directions and out doing multiple things. The good news: I have managed to squeeze in some knitting. The bad news: can't show pics otherwise it can/may spoil the surprise of a certain someone. I am about to dye some more sock yarn, hopefully today, otherwise I'm not going to have time until Wednesday at the soonest. Gotta dash, have to go and do lunch. Sorry it's a pictureless post.

Let's go Mets

Okay, Okay, if you're a Yankees fan you might not care for this post, or already have stopped reading.

Still here? Well, Wednesday was Mr. B's birthday. To celebrate, I took him out to the Mets / Padres game at Shea and what fun we had, it helped that they won of course. I got into baseball when I first came to visit the US and saw the Yankees play the Red Sox at Fenway (I wanted the Sox to win, but they didn't). I had much fun despite not understanding most of what was going on, particularly the 7th inning stretch - what was that about? We moved to live in New York in 2000, only 3 days before the Subway Series started. We were living with a Mets fan, and as Brits, we naturally support the underdog - so we became Mets fans instantly.

Okay, enough history. Piazza was playing with the Padres, and he scored 2 home runs, which were cheered mightily by the Mets fans. However, the chance of him getting another home run and taking the lead shut us all up! We had the cheap seats, but behind home plate. For a few innings I had this view:


I'm proud of myself, I did not hurt the child, just peered through whatever gap I could and bitched and moaned a little to Mr. B. (thank goodness he's a patient man).

So glad we made it to at least one game this year, it's such a great atmosphere, soooo much different to the last couple of years year where the stadium was practically empty and people just jeered the team :(

Hot

Man alive, this has been a hot 3 days. They promise it will break tonight - I can only hope...

Knitting has only been minimally affected by the heat (isn't AC the best invention ever?), sock pics to follow....

Off - Topic

No, not knitting related, not even vaguely knitting related - will have some FOs to show you very soon, promise!

I just had to share this story. It's a story of me ordering in some food. Mr. B. was running late today, so I had the option of ordering some grub all my own!! So, decided to use a store new to me through this online ordering service. I chose Italian Panini (grilled chicken, roasted peppers, mozerella and pesto), biscoti and a diet coke with splenda (I'm excited about that, this stuff is hard to find now-a-days).

Food took it's own sweet time, and the Panini was so, so. However, all that was worth it when I saw my drink - the laugh it gave me was priceless. Here's what they sent:

"Diet Coke with Splenda"

Disaster

Disaster has struck! I know it's not the end of the world, but it's pretty upsetting to me all the same. This weekend, while knitting my socks in the the cool [self] hand-dyed yarn the following 3 things happened:

1. The pattern I originally decided on was not showing the yarn the way I wanted. But, thinking I could get past that, I carried on past the instep. Trying on the sock I realized that it was waaaaay too tight for my elephantine ankles. So I spent several hours trying to find a new pattern, then frogged the 1/2 a sock I had - I was very strong, no crying for me. I cast on again for the River Rapids sock pattern by Sock-bug.

my sock! my beauuutiful sock!
2. In getting past the ankle I tried on this sock, it fits!!! Yay for me. However, half-way through the foot I look at what I have in sock, and what I have in yarn - there is no way that I have enough to finish this sock. The sock needs to be 2 (maybe even 3) inches shorter so that I will have my toes covered. I haven't had the heart to frog just yet, because...

Toeless River Rapids sock
3. During all this sock knitting I started noticing a numbness in my right ring finger. I put it down to holding the needles very tightly (the reason why avoid metal needles at all costs). It is still numb today however, and after a quick symptom check on the internet I have come to the conclusion that there is a 99% chance that I have developed Carpel Tunnel Syndrome from knitting the socks. I have to put down my knitting (certainly the dpns) for at least a week and see if the numbness goes. I could weep!

I'm a strong woman, I know think I can survive not knitting for a week without a complete breakdown, although it's going to be hard. At least I have my spinning, which has been neglected somewhat recently, and I have a little more yarn to dye - which will keep me out of trouble for a little while. I also have plenty of time to find that 'perfect' tank pattern (I'm hoping that circs will still be okay - for some reason I don't hold them as tight with a larger project).

That's enough sympathy-seeking from me. Hope you're all staying cool.

Where have I been?

I know, I know, I've been very lack-luster with the posting this week. Work has kept me pretty busy, as well as the fact that I got a new gadget, which has actually taken away from my knitting time THE HORROR! I love the gadget and, just in case you didn't know already, I am a total geek for gadgets, and something that allows me IM, instant email and internet on the road. As well as the other functions (address book, to-do list, games etc) that I'm used to from my old PDA, what more can I want?


This morning, I was at our work's annual fundraiser in Central Park and after all that rain, flooding, subway stoppage and power cuts, I was a little worried that it might not happen, or that the turn out would be bad. However, the rain held off for most of the event, the park was not flooded, and the turn out was great. People seemed to really enjoy the event and I got to see people I hadn't seen in years, which was lovely, I also did the walk, so a little bit of exercise for me as a bonus. On the way home I saw a bunch of enthralled children and adults listening to a woman talking, I had discovered the Hans Christian Anderson story telling hour. I stopped to listen to the rest of the ghostly story and enjoyed every minute of it, another one of those reminders that this city is pretty amazing.

As for knitting, well...um, not much to tell you there. I've promised myself that I will concentrate and try to finish Mr. B's socks, as tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. I also signed up for next weekend's WWKIP which will be taking place on the East Green in Central Park (assuming I'm approved of course) - hope the weather is better for us next weekend. Okay, that's it from me.

Here I am.

Close-up of lace wrap pattern
Okay, I'm still here, alive and kicking. I've been enjoying my week off and don't have too much in the way of knitting to show for it (just over 2"). I was swatching for days (felt like forever) to find *just* the right pattern for my hand dyed lace yarn. And I think I have it, you can't see much of it now, and the pattern will not show it's true coolness until after blocked. But at least the color is great for project spectrum. More info about this pattern, and how I found it, another time.

Sock beginning
I have also cast on (a second time) for Mr. B's Breakout socks. I did already knit down to the pattern, but wasn't happy with knitting the pattern in the sock as I know I won't be able to do it all the way, and it was turning out to be really messy. So I will be embroidering the pattern on later with duplicate stitch.

I also managed to find my first gifto for my Secret Pal. I am really pleased with my choice, and only hope that my pal will be too. I guess I will need to find out when I'm supposed to be sending the gift. I also bought myself a gift - a swift umbrella. I'm so happy, it should be arriving today (better bloody do since I waited in all day for it - thanks again UPS!!!). We have our fundraiser for work tonight, so hoping that will be a success. Then myself and Mr. B. will be toodling off to Boston, MA for the weekend, plenty of geeky sock knitting to be done on the bus there.

As time goes by

Just so you know, I'm not mad. I love the "before felting pictures", particularly the latest Catty one.

>Caution, none-knitting content below:

While I wish that my 'real' job was knitting or fiber related, it is not and I have have to pay the rent somehow. Some of you may recall that nearly a month ago I was offered a new position at work and now my time is coming up. While I'm super-lucky to get a week off in between jobs, Friday will be my last day in this job. I can't believe my last day in my job is coming up so soon. I have been going crazy trying to tie up loose ends - anyone who's ever done what I do will understand that it is just an impossible mission. However, I look back on the 4 years in this job with fondness at all the different things I have experienced, the amazing (and not so amazing) people I have met, and am amazed at the ability people have to cope in some really trying circumstances. I have been fortunate enough to touch peoples lives (and have theirs touch mine), I have seen parts of people's lives that others will never know. Worked alongside people from a plethora of cultures, religions, stories, abilities and personalities. I have knocked on the door and entered the homes of Jehovah's Witnesses. I supported 3 people through becoming US Citizens, while only holding a working visa myself. I've listened to rants about how great Dubya is, as well as how evil he is. I've seen way too much flesh (too many tales, that make me shudder). I've had people tell me their most intimate personal details. I've had heart-stopping moments. I've seen incredible joy and heartbreaking sadness. And, yet I've experienced so much more than that. I am grateful to each and every family that allowed me into their homes and trusted me to do what they needed me to do, I miss and will miss them all.

As I look back on the past 4 years with fondness, I also look forward to my future with trepidation and excitement. Along with my new position comes new responsibilities and new experiences. So much to learn and so many more wonderful, scary and different people to meet. I can't wait, but I am fearful. What if I don't get 'it'? What if all these new people hate me? What if I fail? I know that all these fears are natural, and I also know that this is not the "biggest mistake of my life". Wish me luck as I embark on a new journey at work.