Living in the Mathmatical World (where I am a Mathmatical Girl)

Taking a break from my Monday morning math madness, I see that I have 204 projects in my Ravelry queue for which I have big knitting plans.

Given my rate of knitting for various objects, and factoring interference such as golf exhaustion, house cleaning and repetitive stress injury (all at different rates), it will now take me 10.2 years to knit all the things that are on my list right now.

It also dawns on me that given the state of the Stash these days, I may not have to buy any more yarn until June 2018.

Downtown Saturday Night

The very best thing about concentrating on home improvements is thinking about ways to take a break from home improvements. On Saturday night, I put down the power tools and took Em and Clem Downtown to Loews Jersey City Palace Theater. Talk about your home improvement! You can read all about it at their site, but us girls were overwhelmed with delight at the sparkling chandeliers, sumptuously restored staircases and $1 popcorn.

We went to see golfer W.C. Fields in Never Give a Sucker An Even Break. I've only ever seen this movie on the very small screen, but seeing it on a big scale like this gives it an element of surrealism and anarchy that was startling. Along with a golf lesson, wild car chases, unapologetic alcoholism and Jersey native Franklin Pangborn, there was knitting: Fields gets jabbed in the keister when he sits on the needles of his Dear Mrs. Hemoglobin.

Brooklyn, Japan

I have a few days off this week, and wanted to do a million things, like pick up the dry cleaning, take stuff to the Salivation Army and of course, I also wanted to take a little trip. Being a clever and frugal traveler, I figured out we could spend the day in Brooklyn and pretend we were in Japan. Clever, right?

First stop was the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens where we caught the last cherry blossom blooms. They were lovely, but not as breathtaking as the cherry blossoms here in Jersey in Branch Brook Park in Newark. Still, it was a perfect place to take a picture of this divine new Taiyo yarn from Noro:


Isn't it dreamy? If only yarn really grew on trees, well, that would be grand.

We continued on to the Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum which was a Happening, either marred or enhanced by the horrifyingly high prices of tchotkes at the gift store. It made me feel like my American dollar wasn't worth anything in Japan, even when I was in Brooklyn.
It was a pretty eye-popping show that went from clever and cute to satisfyingly menacing and dark. We went early and avoided most of the crowds, but when it got crowded, it got crowded with tremendously cute Japanese hipsters and they seemed more like the art than the art on the walls.

We finished up with a drive to the beach, and a stop at Nathan's for dinner. What's so Japanese about Nathan's? Well, the 2006 winner of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest was Japanese.

Here is the unofficial 2008 winner:

My very first thought when I saw this

was "hmm, maybe she works in a law firm or a bank, that's why she knitted it in that bland ugly color":



Because I am afraid I would knit this thing. My hands get cold at work, often I wear cheap gloves with the fingertips cut off all year round. For work I would knit it in something striped.

But I would never knit this:


This is just too much stockinette stitch.

Superheros of Golf

My Eternal Flame Burns Forever On Route 1

A mere 7 years ago today Joey Ramone died at the unspeakable age of 50. Why is that an unspeakable age? Ask me next year.

Since I didn't have much romance as a teenager, I told myself I was waiting for Joey Ramone to come to New Jersey and meet me and fall head over heels in love with me. I pretty much believed this right up to 7 years ago. He did eventually come to rest in New Jersey, in the cemetery on Route 1 in Linden, NJ, near the oil refinery flame towers. When I drive past I like to think those flames burn for my eternal crush.

This Is Your Brain, On Yarn

On our trip up to the yarn sale on Saturday, Clementine mentioned a recent scientific study in which the arousal/pleasure centers of subject's brains were measured when eating a piece of chocolate, and again when they were given a kiss.

Most surprising to this teenager was that the chocolate eaters had higher pleasure ratings than the kissers. Big fact of life, Clem: I can go to the supermarket every day and pick out a new chocolate bar but - and I'm not complaining, believe me! - I'm kissing the same guy every day. It's scientific.

And although I had protested that it would be some kind of personal failure for me to come home from the yarn sale with a bag of Noro, I did come home with a bag of Noro - but new, improved, pumped up Noro Taiyo! It got me to thinking: someone should map the arousal/pleasure centers of the brain buying Noro yarn. Noro Yarn on sale, 10% off. Can you feel your scalp tingling? And this Taiyo more than makes up for the dreadful dissapointment of the Noro Sock Yarn.

I'd also consider conducting a paralell study of the brain spikes on a chart you get when a friend ( the aforementioned tongue-in-a-light-socket Nancy) overcomes what sounds like strep throat to go to the yarn store and buys yarn, ostensibly for her daughter. Really, I think there may be some kind of yarn pheromone that drives a nonknitter to buy yarn.

Or maybe just a high fever.

Now that's Odd

I'm out of my mind with excitement about a sale at the yarn store this weekend. Right now I have 148 items on my Ravelry list to knit, not to mention the many patterns filed, cross indexed and forever protected in plastic sheets in 3 hole binders that I worked on during my 10 long weeks of unemployment this fall. I'm thinking about the Mr. Greenjeans sweater, I'm thinking about the Pin Up Pullover and I am desperately worried that I will come home with a shopping bag full of Noro Kuryeon like I always do. Because there are a few things in this world I cannot resist, and the top of that list is Noro Kuryeon. I'll thought I could take a non knitter along with me for damage control , someone whose good company I value and who has about a 20 minute tolerance for a yarn store, but when I asked Nancy if she wanted to go with me on Saturday, she looked at me like I asked her if she wanted to stick her tongue in an electric socket. So I guess that's a no.

I could get so caught up in this big sale I might decide to knit this:


Was your first thought when you saw this "Wow, this so very odd" or was it "Wow, this is so very odd that it doesn't this have long sleeves? I'd modify the pattern so it had long sleeves, and maybe a hood"?

Well?