Slow and Steady

seems to be the motto of my summer. I'm still working on the back of my Josephine top. I love the how nicely the mercerised cotton shows off the stitch work. It really is quite lovely! Now that I've reached the allover mostly stockinette section, I think the rest of the back should zoom along nicely. I've seen some other very pretty Josephines out there in blogland. A lot of folks have substituted ribbon or leather for the knit cord. From what I've read, others have spent tons and tons of time doing the finishing work on this project, which involves picking up hundreds of stitches around the neck and hem. I'm planning on finagling some crochet solution to avoid all that. There are currently two lovely, albeit wintery, sweaters laying about waiting for buttons and a zipper to be sewed in. Clearly, finishing is not capturing my fancy these days.

Hopefully the lovely Josephine will not be relegated to the same fate....

House update:

While I have been lax in knitting and blogging, I have been quite effective around the house. Please note the BEFORE shot if my kitchen. Points of interest include:
1. Crappy, but new range - recalled for lack of a heat shield and propensity for setting homes on fire.
2. Hole for a dishwasher, but no dishwasher
3. Third-hand 2/3 size fridge held together with packing tape and mold. Undoubtedly leaking CFCs into the atmosphere.
4. Ugly, chipped up laminate countertop.
5. Not visible behind the door on the left: hook-ups for a washer and dryer, but no washer or dryer.
6. Microwave on the countertop, ineffective range over the scary stove
7. Also not visible - the sink is about 1.5" deep and the hot/cold water is hooked up backwards

DURING
Please note: there are no electricians, plumbers, or handy-people in the shot. While the kind Azerbajiani men from PC Richards hauled the appliances upstairs, the Husbeast and I installed everything ourselves. We hooked up water, electricity, and gas, and STILL haven't blown ourselves up.

AFTER:
1. New appliances installed!
2. Lovely granite counter top installed!
3. Walls painted!
4. Double crazy deep sink and goose neck sprayer faucet installed!
5. Not visible: ugly booby-looking light fixture replaced with halogen track lighting!
6. Ineffective hood replaced with microwave/hood combo!
7. Empty dishwasher & washer/dryer holes replaced with actual appliances!

The knitting will undoubtedly remain slow and steady throughout the summer. I hope to keep the home makeover updates coming fast and furious!

Where did that month go?

It's been over a month, mea culpa. The month of June flew by with all the end of school obligations and festivities, and very little in the way of knitting going on. Coupled with trying to settle in to the new house, still in the works, my energy was simply syphoned off in other directions.

Happily, on many fronts life has returned more or less to normal. Yesterday I managed to finish (yes, FINISH!) the first room in the house - the all important kitchen! Now that one space is completely, utterly finished, I can turn my efforts towards tackling other areas still littered with cardboard boxes and assorted piles of stuff. I really want to have a housewarming party this summer, but the boxes need to go first!

I've also been able to focus more on my knitting! Just in time for summer, I completed the knitting on a little jacket I've been making for the past 3 or 4 months (conservatively speaking). I bought some adorable buttons, but have yet to sew them on. I'm not in much of a hurry given the positively swampy weather in NYC. I would have taken the required self-portrait-in-the-mirror but we have no mirrors up yet. None. I've been getting dressed using a compact mirror, which explains things if I've been looking particularly dodgy of late!

Getting back on track, this sweater used about 7 skeins of Frog Tree Merino in a color I called kermit. The yarn is a super soft single ply worsted weight, and probably destined to pill like a mo-fo. It was a simple knit during a stressful period of transition, a top-down raglan. When I was designing (making it up as I went along), I was thinking about a layer that would work during the transition between seasons - too warm for a full sweater, too cool for only a shirt. Transition-transition. Hey! Clearly this wants to be called the Transition Cardi!

Next up: two projects started in the last couple of days.

First we have another cardigan I'm making up as I go along. Muchas gracias, Barbara Walker! It's another top down raglan. This one will have a crew neck, maybe puffy sleeves, and have an assymetric button placket. I am using the "Edie" sweater from YarnPlay as a jumping-off point design-wise. I like the idea of assymetry, but I really did not like the shoulder cap/armscye shaping of the actual sweater. It looked like a modified drop-shoulder, which is definitely not the best look for me. Raglans are better on me, easier to figure, and let me add in cute girly eyelets around the armscyes. The yarn is some random wool I bought on ebay a few years ago. I'm sticking with my plan to only use yarn from my stash for the foreseeable future, and the happy colors here called to me. There was no label information on the balls when I bought it, although it was advertised as 100% wool. It's definitely not the softest wool out there. I'm hoping this will become one of those workhorse sweaters this winter. Gotta love a workhorse sweater - they may not have the fanciest needlework, but they get you through the cold, cold months.

The other project I'm currently working on is the Josephine top from the latest Interweave. I've seen this sweater in real life, and it's lovely. There also seems to be a lot of people making it out there in the blogosphere, although I'm not sure if there is an official knit-along happening. I'm having a lot of fun knitting it - the stitchwork is keeping things interesting. I'm using some sportweight mercerised navy blue cotton, Elann Cotton Sonata I think, which I bought a few years ago. As Jenn pointed out last week, the navy is a departure for me, colorwise.

I'm looking forward to the final product, although I must admit that the mercerised cotton is angering my wrists. It's reminding me why I generally don't like to work with plant fibers. I also have concerns that the resulting fabric is starting to bias. Is there any way to prevent that from happening? Since the eyelets and decreasing only go in one direction I think I have to accept the biasing as part of the territory. Hopefully my fears are unfounded, or can be remedied through aggressive blocking.

I'm off to see whether others are having the same issue on RAVELRY!

Actually pretty close

My New York age is 34

This New York age puts you into a middle category between young and old (but not "middle age" per se). Be proud. You've got a nice balance between going out hard-core and staying in. You care about culture but also like some quiet nights. Keep it up, but think about expanding your horizons in the other directions. Head to Studio B or Anthology Film Archives for the first time, or finally check out the Village Vanguard or Elaine's for a dose of old-school NYC.

Does your age reflect how you're living? Let us know.

What's your New York age? Take the Time Out New York quiz and find out!

bienvenidos a brooklyn

And so it is done! The Husbeast and I survived our move! It was a long, stressful day. The movers broke a couple of inconsequential things, it was hotter than a barbeque in Hades, and I had to relinquish control of all my earthly possessions. The couch wouldn't fit through the doorways and stairs of the new place. The movers knew a guy. We called him; he came and disassembled the couch on the sidewalk. He noticed that one of the wooden ribs inside the couch was broken. An un-trash-picked piece of the former countertop was laying around on the sidewalk. He cut a new rib from it, replaced the broken one, carried all the pieces inside, and reassembled it. Now that's crafty! If I had known where my camera was at the time, I would have photodocumented it all.

Now, we're living in a cardboard labyrinth. I don't know where much of my stuff is, and it sure feels good! I love my new house! I love my new neighborhood! I love meeting my new neighbors! I love the SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE of the new place. I was worried about leaving the meticulous loveliness of Battery Park City for the up-and-coming-ness of the Bed-Stuy end of Clinton Hill, but everyone I've met has been so friendly and welcoming. Seriously, the head of the block association came over and introduced himself and welcomed us to the neighborhood. Block Association!

Not too much knitting has gone on lately. The Husbeast and I were putting in 30+ hours per week outside of work in sweat equity on the new place before we moved. Now that there is no clock ticking down, I can unpack at a reasonable speed and (gasp!) reconnect with my life.



Although there hasn't been too much in the way of knitting, I have been able to see the stash all at once for the first time in over 5 years. Holy crap! Photodocumentation will be provided at a later date. As will evidence of the formerly craptastic, now stainless steel and granite heaven of my new kitchen!

Getting close to the finish line....

The Husbeast and I are officially leaving Manhattan behind for the borough of Kings in a mere 12 days. The task of preparing a home for living has been quite time consuming, but also quite rewarding. We have been spending our blood, sweat, and tears on the new place every chance we get. It's been like having another full time job above and beyond our real jobs. Happily, the effort has finally started to pay off.

After two coats of primer and two coats of Benjamin Moore's Apricot Ice, the booger green bedroom has stopped looking like it did back in January:


and started to look more like this. I've never been one for subtle colors, but my tune may be changing. There was something about that green that I found so unsettling. It's not a color either the Husbeast and I would ever look good in, so it had to go. The results (poorly lit) are a warm whitish color that reads peachy at different times of the day. Me likie.


Check out my latest look for spring. This is how I have spent the last 4 or 5 weekends. That's the fast paced life of New Yorkers for you. Nothing but glamour around these parts.


The thing that sets house living apart from apartment living - there's a whole lot more wall to paint! I didn't have a chance to photograph the "after" shot, but I painted two coats on this room this weekend.

Don't feel bad for me, though. The Husbeast set about installing all these appliances! You wanna know the true test of love? Let your partner set up gas appliances. Seriously, it takes a lot of trust to believe that a novice won't blow you up with a gas leak. I can't wait to shoot the kitchen once I get my granite counter tops installed - sunset red. Woot!


Once all the paint is dry and we've moved in for good, the next renovation frontier lies above! I really want to get a roof deck built up here before school is out.


Because then I could sit under an umbrella at a table and look out at this:

Yeah, that would be the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. At night, you can even see the New York Life Building. Brooklyn rules!





I almost forgot to mention: Have you heard about the new yarn store in town?


They've got some pretty neat stuff!

Strangest thing about All Spun Out? It's not an actual store. It's a product demo at Ikea Elizabeth! I guess all that hooplah about recognizing the consumer power of knitters a while back really had an effect! Do all Ikeas have this display?

Not much knitting going on

But lots and lots of painting, scraping, sanding, priming, taping, and general banishing of the previous owner's poor taste. Fortunately, the prior owner of my new house did not get around to much beyond painting my bedroom an awful booger green. So awful it required two coats of primer!
While I've only owned the new Casa Sweetgirl for a mere two weeks, I am already a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of being a homeowner. Have you ever bought major appliances? The selection is dizzying! I've seen so many sinks I'm ready to cry. How does one even begin to select a kitchen faucet? None of the tricks and strategem I learned whilst buying yarn comes close to applying! Walking around a granite warehouse does not lend itself to fondling or swatching. Yo.


Since I haven't done a whole lotta knitting, I need to start documenting the work the Husbeast and I are doing on the house. We're moving in at the end of next month, and have a whole bunch of projects to accomplish before then. I've painted and decorated apartments before, but never anything of this scale. It's so exciting to have a larger (by NYC standards, anyway) palette to work on.

The colors we're planning on using throughout the house are:
Benjamin Moore's
1. Apricot Ice
2. Golden Lab
3. London Fog
4. Ruby Red

Will post again soon. with photos. seriously.

Guess who.....

became a homeowner today? ME!!!! and the Husbeast, of course!

In a marathon 4 hour closing, the Husbeast and I signed a gazillion papers, borrowed a bazillion dollars, and bought ourselves a little piece of Brooklyn. We're landlords, too. Mrs. Roper and Donald Trump all in one day, yo.

I'm so excited! I just can't hide it! I'm about to lose control, and I think I like it! Oh yeah! (courtesy of the Pointer Sisters, for all of you out there not old enough to remember the Pointer Sisters. Now that I'm old enough to own a piece of NYC real estate, I can talk about folks being too young.)

New House = design opportunities! Yippee!