Scrappy

I had enough leftover yarn from the past few months to get back to work on my Never Ending Project.


Here it is, basking in the below freezing spring weather.


After John took some pictures of this, we huddled underneath for a bit to enjoy the weak sunshine. Even though it is the end of March, my personal groundhogs tell me that it's not safe to take off the long underwear until well into May. Or even June.

Lets Be Poeting

I found a Japanese site (Let's Be Knitting) that has some short poems about knitting. And of course, I found some golf haiku too.

One more stitch
One more row
Ah, now it's dawn

Go Figure

While conducting an unscientific, yet remarkably time consuming survey of why men do not enjoy this Jane Austen Masterpiece Theater series, I learned that 99% would gladly watch if the characters were played by people wearing Planet of The Apes makeup and costumes.

Matchmaking

At five minutes before nine tonight, you could hear a stampede of husbands and kids running out of living rooms throughout my building and indeed, as far as the 'heights: another episode of Jane Austen Masterpiece Theater is on TV.

Although Catherine Moreland is my home girl, Emma is fierce enough to make me a little less lonely for Christian, and this episode has something the other ones lacked: first class millinery and knitted garments. Querulous (and queenly) Mr. Woodhouse is wearing a garter stitch sontag in many of the scenes, and it looks like it was made from some nice sheep native to Surrey. Emma wears one great hat after another, and the day bonnets look like felted knit if you get real close up to the TV set.

Like Emma, I'm hopeless with matchmaking people, but I made a pretty good match knitting recently by combining Dale of Norway Baby Ull and Rowan Silk Haze in a sweater for Lou's birthday. The Baby Ull took on a little more heft from the Silk Haze, and the itchiness of the Silk Haze was tempered by the softness of the Baby Ull. Say, doesn't that sound like every couple you know?

Check out the fuzzy bloom, and the unexpected iridescence:


And like Emma, I am pretty pleased with myself about my matchmaking efforts. This was one of those made up as you go along projects, using the wonderful Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, a heart motif from Vogue Knitting and the lace pattern from Simply Lovely Lace Socks.

Here's another look. The trim is just another color of the Silk Haze. Since this is a fancy sweater, I decided on no buttons or fastenings of any kind, but I did reinforce the front with some pretty grosgrain ribbon.


Despite it's apparent complexity, this was a pretty fast knit, and here are the instructions for your very own. I will also have a picture of it on the recipient next week.

Deja Vu Times Five

Yes, well, Tiger Woods won his fifth straight tournament this weekend, winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational by one stroke. It looked like the guy who was in second place was going to have a stroke when Tiger sunk that winning putt.

I think I should get invited to the Arnold Palmer Invitational if Tiger Woods is going to win all these games. What difference could it make who is playing if 5 times out of five the same guy wins?

People that Live In Wool Houses

Shouldn't throw - what? Water?

These sweaters are the bomb diggity:

You can see more at this site, but you have to work for it, and click on My Town My Home.

My Knitting Group Rocks

You can usually find my knitting group on early Sunday evenings at Basic in Jersey City. But this Sunday, some of us found ourselves at Maxwells ringing in the finale of the WFMU Marathon.

Although it was crowded and dark, we were able to conclude our yearlong discussion of what went wrong with the sweater one member knitted for her husband. A top down v-neck cleverly done with absolutely no pattern, we decided upon seeing it on the man himself that it was just about perfect.

We were also delighted by a visit from knitting group alumna Zoe, who is shown here wearing her recently finished Cropped Cardigan with Leaf Ties from Fitted Knits:



She used a bamboo blend instead of the angora it called for in the pattern and it was fabulously soft and as always, Zoe, beautifully knit.

If Only We Had Some Aquaintances in Bath, We Could Find You A Dance Partner

Now, of course you have been watching the Complete Jane Austen Masterpiece Theater Series every Sunday night! Now you can knit the Jane Austen doll, but you have to scroll down a lot to see a picture.

True, Jane Austen didn't knit. Knitting was a production job early on in the industrial revolution, not a fine arts job. Jane's posse was into embroidery, and since they did not have Project Runway to break up the monotony, many days were spent in what was really the precursor to the stich n bitch, sewing away in the sitting room with your impoverished cousin and your charming governess.

This is the first time I'm seeing these movie-tized versions of the books. I did take a year long Jane Austen course in college where we read the novels, both finished and unfinished, and the related biographies and errata. That was a swell class, largely because of my fascination with a classmate who kept her Camel cigarettes in a Band-Aid tin, and who had an elaborate tamping and flicking routine every time she lit up in class.

And while I haven't joined any Jane Austen knitalongs, because, well, Jane Austen didn't knit, I have been reciting my favorite Jane Austen line whenever I can, and which I used as the title for this post. It is the plaintive bleat of the country squire in the big city, but I think it would make a fine Ramones song.

Yeah, Queens.

I've been home for a few days while my place of employment moves from fun, funky, yarn- store- heaven Chelsea to... to... to... Queens.

Are you from Queens? Well, I bet you don't live there now. Having only been to Queens once, and never in the daytime, I took a trial run to the new office today. I got a little lost, but now I know to make a right at the quarry, and that if I go past the third topless bar, well, I've gone too far.

It's a real New York thing to find your way in a new neighborhood, as long as where you are has actually been charted on a map and given a faboo nickname. And it is even funner to live in a neighborhood where a famous movie was shot, as long as that movie isn't Eraserhead.

As he tenderly mopped my tears with his hankie, John said: "just think how fun it will be to explore at lunchtime, and how happy you will be when you find a hardware store near your office".

What?

Last week, I was within easy lunchtime distance to Habu Textiles, School Products, Downtown Yarns, Knit New York and Purl. Now, even with the help of this kick ass yarn store mapper, I am far, far away from yarn of any kind.

But I am not to far from a hardware store.

I'm Glad Lorena Ochoa Won Yesterday

But it just would have been more sportsmanlike if she had used her clubs.

That's Exactly Right: Zombies

We had to stay in the house the entire day yesterday because our town was under attack by zombies.

You heard me: Zombies. Like many NJ towns with a lot of liquor licenses, we have an annual "St Patrick's Day" parade that attracts tens of thousands of post college tourists to drink beer in the streets, pee on our houses, vomit in our hallways, wear unattractive green ensembles and stagger around with dangerously high levels of blood alcohol from about 8 in the morning. I started out at 10 to go to the gym, and run some errands, but I had to turn back after a few blocks because I was frightened of the gangs men wearing Bermuda shorts and flip flops, and girls wearing, well, hardly anything.

Here are some things you can do if your town is under zombie attack:

• Stay in the house and sort through your yarn stash.

• Unscrew the light bulbs in the hall of your already scary apartment building hallway. Zombies are almost always live with their parents in the suburbs, and therefore are reluctant to go into dark places alone.

• While you are taking pictures of a public urinater, yell - I'm calling your boss at (name of big accounting firm here). Its a scattered shot approach but often you hit the nail right on the head, causing them to pee on themselves.

After I sorted through my stash, and drank some Bactine as a prophylaxis, I worked on a few sweaters and even got through both sleeves on one of them and finished it up. Here is a picture from happier times:



The sweater I finished is a lacy number using Dale of Norway Baby Ull mixed with Rowan Kid Silk Haze. The Rowan gave the Baby Ull a great halo of mohair without any of the itch. I will have some pictures tomorrow I think.

I also worked on the Pub Crawler Men's Sweater in the Son of Stitch n Bitch book. After all the cables in this one, though, I'd rename it something less jaunty like: I Know You Protected Me From Zombie Attack So I Knitted You This Sweater.