gotta have it

sometimes a girl just needs a little instant gratification. retail therapy. whatever you want to call it. today at lunchtime i ran out, drove all over hell and half of georgia, and came back with these: crazy aunt purl's drunk divorced and covered in cat hair, which i cannot WAIT to read (LOVE crazy aunt purl--hey girl!), and a beautiful little natural ball of kidsilk haze, with which i will, in my copious free time, knit a branching out scarf as a gift for my lovely work friend janie, who is both awesome and a really tremendous help to me. why i had to have these things TODAY, i am not sure, but i did. and now i have them. so yay! besides, who can argue with the benefits of a yarn store visit at lunchtime. that's just good stuff right there.

ps--that second picture is just there because i like it--love the sunlight this time of day.

time flies

it always seems like we are busiest at the end of the summer--this year even more so because we put the beach trip off till september. since i last wrote anything, we have been on vacation, had many houseguests, and run around like chickens with their little heads cut off. i actually wrote a post about leaving for the beach and failed to publish it. i even put the pictures from last year on flickr in honor of leaving this year. and the pictures from this year? those are sitting on my memory card just waiting around for me to deal with them. in my spare time.

i am so glad fall's here! fall is quieter than summer. there's more time for knitting. it's such a great time of year to cook. it makes me want to be home, work on my house, knit, make stews and soups, dig holes in my yard, plant things, and generally nest. and i think fall weather might be my favorite of all. i don't know though--it seems like i get excited by every season change...

this fall promises to be filled with events that please me. the hippie's friends are coming down the first weekend in october, which is a huge treat. i thought i would be out of town, but plans have changed, and now i will be here to go with them to a hockey game (the first in a LONG time!), and to feed them a big pot of chili and some pies--man, am i craving some apple pie! then in november, i am flying up to detroit to meet my friend kimmie's new babies. we will then drive (with two infants and a toddler--should be VERY interesting) down to NC, where kimmie will be spending a few weeks in our hometown with her mama. hopefully i will get to see my mama, too! i actually really wish my mama would come to see ME, but she's got some travel phobias--i am always surprised to see her further than 8 miles from home.

and speaking of fall--october is looming CLOSE on the horizon--and that means socktoberfest, which will once again be hosted by the lovely lolly (who is sporting a fabulous new haircut). i have promised THK that i will knit some socks in october. i guess since i started my first sock last october, maybe i should finish it this october. (first sock status: the heel on it's turned, and i am through the gusset and to the start of the foot, but i have STALLED...) i can't say i am looking forward to it, but hopefully i will get more fired up. i am way more into making random items than socks--maybe because i don't really like to wear socks... anyway--it's in my knitting future either way. my goal is to have two finished pairs by the end of the month. and maybe the hippie will finish my pippi kneestockings, too. we'll see...

anyway--that's about it for my rambly catch-up post. i have stuff going on that calls for pictures, so hopefully you will be seeing and hearing more from me in the next little bit. maybe i should make october a month where i promise to post every day like i did last november, so i am committed and don't let time get away from me like this. that was awesome...

points of interest

it's been a busy couple of weeks here, people. the hippie got me a new 8G iPod nano for my birthday, and it still has nothing on it--that's how busy i've been. travesty, if you ask me. so anyway--it's calming down, sort of. i am gearing up to head to the beach on saturday, and i can't believe it's already time to go. i didn't even count down this time. so much i still need to do before then! however, i can't let my life pass withouth ANY commentary, so here are a couple of highlights from the last week and a half.

last week we went to a couple of concerts. we saw nickleback, who were awesome. sadly they were playing at walnut creek, a sucky venue. totally worth it for a band that's great, but i swear, that place actually has energy sucking powers. anyway. then we also went to ozzfest. the hippie goes to this every year that he can, and i had never been--i admit i was kind of a tourist. in years past, there have been at least a couple of bands i love at every ozzfest--this year, not so much. however, this was the last year for it, and i just wanted to experience it for myself one time. really--it was TAME compared to how i thought it would be. we met and hung out with cool people, but there just weren't the number of freaks i expected. nor was there any body painting. and the stuff they were selling was mostly--eh, whatever.

the one standout of the day for me was this one girl's piercing. this picture is from my phone, and therefore it sucks, but you can see the ribbon pattern on this girl's back, right? (click on it to make it bigger.) that's 12 steel rings pierced through her back and laced up with a black silk ribbon. holy OUCH, batman! but it was also really beautiful, in a tortured sort of way. i will also say that seeing ozzy osbourne in person was worth the whole hot day. what an icon in the world of rock and roll! to me, it is amazing he still lives and breathes.

now, on a completely different note, i got to meet isaac earlier this week when his parents came over for a little cook out with us and jenn and harry. he's the 3-month-old son of our friends jeff and carrie, and he's cute as a button. his big sister ella was off running around with gabriella all night, so there was no photographing them, but i grabbed the camera and snapped a couple of isaac shots since he was flailing around on the floor on his new blanket. the top one's my favorite because it's the most accurate. the kid is NOT still. however, i also LOVE that expression on his face in the bottom one. he's all--what in the WORLD are you doing up there??? so cute. he's a smiley kicky baby with a sweet nature and a total cutie pie.

and for the record, long weekends ROCK. we need more of those, please.

down time

the bosses are all out of town. this in no way means that i have no work to do. however, it does mean i have a prayer in hell of getting my office organized this week, something i am dying to do. also it means i can get out of work a tad early and get home to the making of dinner (relaxing), and the couch (relaxing), and the watching of some battlestar galactica, to which the hippie and i have become addicted (also relaxing). i have had a headache for about a week, and i think the time has come to take steps to de-stress and get rid of that thing. tonight's going to be my night to sit, knit, and go to bed early. whoo hoo!

and tomorrow's my birthday, by the way--i keep forgetting... happy birthday to me.

roller coaster

man, this week! it's all up and down. the hippie's birthday was tuesday, and he loved his gifts--at least the ones that made it here on time! on the other hand he's sick. i've had long conversations with well-loved and old friends. on the other hand, it's mostly because some of us are going through a tremendously shitty time, and the others of us are rallying around them. it SUCKS watching your friends deal with the hard parts of life. stuff in the yard is blooming. except for the stuff that's dying instead. i am getting caught up at work, but my concentration level is for shit. i am just all over the place. oh yeah, and the car? seven hundred and fifty-one smackers. but hey--it's running now! so yeah. enough talk--let's look at pretty stuff!

the hibiscus bush that gave not a single flower last summer is bloming up a storm. it's been hot as balls lately, and this thing loves it! we will not speak of how much water it needs, and we will not tell the town how much we give it, either. but we will speak of the vibrancy and beauty of these flowers. i love them so much! and at long last, the crepe myrtle tree in the front yard has revealed itself as a white tree. i have mixed feelings about this. i generally prefer my crepe myrtles to be colorful because the white ones start to look like they have mud spashed on them when they begin to fade. that said, it sure is lovely right now! the flowers are so clean and delicate! this baby is just getting revved up, and promises to bloom like crazy in spite of my fears that the frost had killed it off. what is it about flowers? no matter how crappy i feel, flowers make me feel better.

and so does yarn!!!

jaeger, sadly, is going out of business. this means that webs is selling their yarn in super-cheap close-out prices! as you see--i stocked up. a few of these balls of yarn are for meredith, but most are for me! whoo hoo! it's all good baby sweater/dress amounts of wool and cotton in many colors with the exception of that stuff in the bag that's hiding in the back--that's 2000 yards of matchmaker 4-ply in anthracite, which someday... a day a long time from now... will be come a fine cabled sweater for me.

stupid car, redux

car has a oil leak that's going to cost me a bunch of smackers. suck. i'm getting to that point where i am like--the car is 10 years old and has almost 150k miles on it. it's sliding down the hill into old age and infirmity. when do i replace it? what to i replace it with?? a new honda civic? a used something or other? heh--a mini cooper??! i know i will end up with something practical and economical, because that's how i roll on the car thing. but man--i don't WANT a car payment! bleh! *whine*

dear car,

please last another year before you croak for good and please don't cost me thousands of dollars in the meantime. and if you could eject the tape you have eaten, i would really appreciate that as well. and also, please take a bath--you are NASTY!

love,
jackie

just thinkin'

so i was just looking for something back in my archive, and made the mistake of clicking on last november. i forgot i had actually written a post every day of that month, and then i got lost re-reading what i had written and remembering everything. compare that to this summer, and well--i should really write more posts. it's actually kind of cool to have that whole record back there, and i find i enjoy re-reading the snippets more than the long tomes i tend to write. there's no real point to this post--i was just thinking about it, this whole bloggety thing we do. i'm sure not tired of it yet, but i wonder occasionally if i am maybe just a TAD narcissistic. but then--i guess you have to be to start a blog in the first place, right? anyway...

knittin' for littles

i've been running around like a mad-woman latey, and work has been kicking my ass--thus the lack of posts. even so, i've been knitting when i can, even though i have way less time for it than usual. i spent some time this past weekend project-wranging and trying to assess my overall knitting progress. i haven't gone ANYWHERE on the baltic sea stole as it takes all my concentration not to mess up. some people won't let me work on it on sundays because they think i am BORING when i knit it--it's probably true. however, i have been making some headway. get ready for a long post about knitting! (tom, you may as well stop reading now...)

this is the garter stitch baby cardigan from simple knits for cherished babies, which, if you recall, i hae made before. i really love this pattern, and i like how it comes out with this mission falls 1824 cotton. it's a heavier gauge yarn than the pattern calls for, which makes for a sturdier garment; i like that in a cardigan. it's got a wonderful hand, and the colors are fabulous--they remind me of beach glass. i am also all about these little wooden buttons. i think this will look smashing on kimmie's new baby boy, matthew!

this is the same sweater as the cardigan above, but this one's for baby matthew's twin sister katherine (katie). these itty bitty babies are only a couple of weeks old and are quite a long way away from fitting into these sweaters, so i am not in a gigantic hurry to get them finished. (plus--hello? it's a hundred degrees out, even way up north in michigan!) however, they're fun to knit, so they are going quickly anyway! i can't decide which of these two buttons to use on katie's sweater, although i am leaning heavily toward the green ones. you can't tell from the picture, but the grey ones are actually iridescent shell buttons, and also look smashing. any opinions would be welcome and appreciated.

ah, ella's hoodie. i finally sucked it up and did the finishing work on this on sunday. i am embarrassed to say that i have procrastinated sewing up the casing for the drawstring on the hood and finding a button for this thing since NOVEMBER! ugh! seriously, people--that's just crazy. that said, i think this might be one of my favorite things i have ever knitted. i LOVE the noro silk garden and the way the colors just fade into each other. (look at this detail!) i am going to block this tonight, and hopefully ship it off to little ella in a couple of days. it's going to swallow her whole, but that's kind of the idea. hopefully, she will be able to wear it for a couple of seasons.

yet another basket weave baby blanket made from paton's melody. i just keep knitting this thing--it's so fast and practical, it's almost hard not to! this one's for our friends, jeff and carrie's new son isaac who was born in may. i knitted this in two days, and then it took me a month to get around to weaving in the ends. i picked something bright this time, just to try something different, and as you see--there's some pooling and flashing going on up there. it doesn't really bother me, but it's something to consider if you are thinking about using this yarn for anything.

in addition to all this, i am also about 2/3 of the way through yet another felted bag, this time in red. that's my current knitting-in-the-dark project for. you know--movies, road trips at night, and such. i also started another baby blanket for a co-worker who will be having a second squeaker in january. that one's my knitting-in-front-of-the-tv project. and there's still the baltic sea stole in the wings as well--that one will be on hold until i can find a day to myself somewhere in my crazy life.

in other, un-knitting-related news, the hippie's been away at a conference since last saturday, and it's time for him to come home. i miss him! look how cute he is knittng me some pippi kneestockings. how i do love my man!

beautiful

a couple of weekends ago, we took the kid home to pennsylvania. it's been like 3 years since we have been up there when it wasn't winter: cold, rainy/snowy with iron grey skies and ice on the ground. i forgot how beautiful it can be in the summer, with the blooming and the ripening and the sunshine and the kitties. i think we managed to hit the Perfect Weekend up there. i took a lot of pictures, which i will now attempt to show off, using this pictobrowser thingy i discovered on another blog. let's see if it works.



ok, so there are a couple of scaling issues to work out. not to get too technified, this thing wants to be 500 pixels wide, and my template only allows for 400. when i try to scale it, things are getting a little pixelated. there must be a way around that, but it's going to take some time to figure out. till i get to that, here's a link to the set on flickr, if you feel like having better picture quality: click here for the set. oh, and for good measure, here's a link to the un-pixelated pictobrowser thingy too: click here for the un-pixelated pictobrowser.

you can't make this stuff up

today i made a ninja strike on the grocery store to get tampons. ii saw this great bottle of wine we like on mega sale (ravenswood sonoma county old vine zinfandel—yum!), so of course i grabbed it. as an afterthought, i added a couple of those hershey's dark chocolate and almond nugggets. so i went to get in the checkout line. there were two women in front of me.

the first woman was buying the following: a six-pack of bud, a box of kotex maxi pads, and a 2-pound bag of peanut M&M's.

the second one was buying a 4-pack of peach wine coolers, a box of tampax tampons, and a snickers bar.

and then me.

funny.

and now, we're on the road to PA to deliver the kid back home. the kid's in a foul, foul mood, angry to be leaving in spite of having declared that he wanted to stay another week. can you believe how MEAN we are?!

the trip is being made easier by the spontaneous last-minute purchase of the audio book of harry potter and the order of the phoenix. the book? 75 bucks. the peace? priceless!

ps—writing from my phone, so please forgive my typos. (not that y'all aren't used to those...)

poor kid!

being an insta-parent for a cople of weeks isn't all fun and games. the kid is sick. i've filled him up with ibuprofen and apple juice and piled him on the couch with chicken soup, tissues, blannkets, pillows, cough drops, and a big glass of water. he's watching the mummy and will probably talk me into a sequel before i stick him into the bed for the night. the sad thing here is that he's probably not going to get to go sailing with his big brother and harry tomorrow, which blows--i feel bad for him. anyone with good tips for entertaining a sick 10-year-old, feel free to pass them along.

sum-sum-summertime...

it's summer alright. i can tell by how days and days go by without me writing any blog posts, and i end up SHOCKED and APPALLED that i have been so slack. but then the truth is that i have NOT been slack--i have just been running my ass ragged. we have the hippie's family in this week, so i have been focussed on them and not my own pursuits. in fact, we've put the hippie's baby brother, who is only 10 years old (almost 11!) into camp here for two weeks, so we'll have him till the 21st. so far, he's liking camp, which is awesome--he's been home schooled till now and hasn't spent a ton of time with other children, so the camp thing was either going to be pure love or pure hate. i am so glad for him that it seems to be LOVE! hopefully this will help him adjust to going to a public school this fall--just being on a tight schedule is something of a shock to his system. it's kind of funny, having this kid in the house--i feel like an insta-parent a little bit. i am sure that feeling is going to get worse when his mother leaves tomorrow. heh, maybe this is good for me, too! we'll see--ask me in a week! :)

in other news--DAMN, it's hot! thank the sweet baby jesus for air conditioning.

in still other news--those rocking chairs are getting a WORKOUT. it already seems like there aren't enough of them. and we should have gotten a smaller one for G--that's clear.

in knitting-related news--i am back to work on the sweaters for kimmie's soon-to-be-born babies, since thery are you know, soon-to-be-born. the blue one's almost done... the green one's yet to be begun. poor neglected baltic sea stole. poor neglected project spectrum. poor sock, resting in it's cool dark bag waiting for october when i have decided i will knit socks and nothing else. poor bags in need of felting. poor ella's hoodie that's ben done except for sewing up the casing for--oh--about 7 months. do all knitters have this problem?

and last but not least, a moment of extreme sadness for crazy aunt purl--laurie's lost her sweet kitty, roy, and every time i think about it, i start to cry. i keep reliving the horrible day when my mean josephina died in my lap. losing a pet just blows, especially when one has seen you through a lot of time and rough patches. hugs for laurie today, people.

front porch livin'

one of the major selling points of our house was the front porch. we are front porch people. all my life, i have heard my mother longing for a big front porch, and since i moved back to raleigh, i have made it a point to try to have one. even our old apartment had a good one, and believe me, we used the heck out of it! this is something that people not from the South don't always understand, but let me tell you--there is no better place to relax than in a comfy rocking chair out on the front porch, especially if you have a big glass of iced tea, a bowl of cold grapes, and a ceiling fan. last weekend (which the hippie and i have been referring to as "the weekend of acquisition") we bought 3 brand new rocking chairs and two little tables for the porch. they were made here in NC and sold by a cool old guy at the local flea market--our favorite. add them to the wonderful little bistro set that i inherited from my grandmother's house, and the porch is really coming together. we even have homes for the bugs of benefit we bought years ago. i want to pick up a few more plants and some wind chimes to complete the environment out there, but it's already becoming my favorite place to be in the whole house. there's already been some knittin', some readin', some drinkin', and the smoking of a cigar or two out there. the porch tells me that it's really summer. i may not go inside till fall.

baltic sea stole, the early years

my, time certainly flies by, doesn't it? especially in the summer, when we are tremendously busy and there is so much going on. you can expect a few catching-up style posts today, as i have the day off. :)

last sunday, i finally got a chance to sit and knit for a whole day, something i haven't managed in months! i now have a good foothold (knock on wood!) on the baltic sea stole. the pattern is from fiber trends (designed by faina letoutchaia) and calls for a sport weight mohair, but i didn't want to knit it with anything that fuzzy. there's a beautiful sample shawl at my LYS that's made out of this super soft alpaca from curious creek fibers, which is what made me want to knit this pattern. however, the LYS doesn't have that yarn in any colors i love, and upon further investigation, i decided that the yarn was also way too inconsistently dyed for its cost. it's soft as hell, but i don't know--not really worth it. i found some yarn i like even better at bella filati a few weeks ago, this beaded rayon from blue heron yarns. neither THK or i were certain about how well this yarn would do with lace, but so far, it seems to be about perfect. the proof will be in the blocking, but that, my friends, is a long way away. even though the yarn is turning my hands and my needles blue as the beejeezus when i knit with it. however, the results are so soft and drapey, i am finding it hard to care too much. i'm knitting on size 9 straights and it's working out pretty well. the only downside is that i have to seriously concentrate on the pattern. THK and amy spent all day sunday giving me crap for not talking as much as usual and begging me to go back to working on washcloths, but i wasn't about to waste a whole day NOT working on it, especially after the whole train debacle. now that i am getting further into it, the pattern is starting to make more sense to me. i can see the structure, and the repeat is burning itself into my brain. hopefully the concentration level can drop to something like 87% in the very near future. i am afraid this thing is going to take me a year to knit, but i just don't care. i am loving it!

weekend excursions, part three: YARN!

i have crossed over, people. i am buying yarn with no real plan. everyone told me it would happen, and i said--no. and i still have to have SOME rough idea of what a yarn will be before i just go throwing my money down and walking out with a pile of it. but i challenge anyone to go to purl in soho and not come out of there with a pile of yarn. i mean, seriously--that place is a wonder. so many beautiful things packed into such a tiny space! the yarn just about comes to you--all you have to do is soak it in. add to that the generosity of a good friend, and a trip to bella filati in your recent past, and your stash is going to have some serious new members in its ranks. and lucky for me, rita's window sill turned out to be a FABULOUS spot for yarn photography. here's the run-down:

ok, so i mentioned in my previous post how THK saved my ass on friday, right? how she came to get me at the train station in her bathrobe at 5:30am and made me an omelet? yeah. i owe her so MUCH for that day. i decided to start with some sock yarn, as she has some kind of SOCK OBSESSION. i picked these two little skeins of koigu from the--oh--8 or so shelves PACKED with it at purl. lovely, no? i am sure she will make at least one sock from this. maybe someday she will even make two--we'll see...

this yarn is maybe the best thing EVER. (although i am sure i will think that about a bunch of other yarns as soon as i start fondling them!) it's enough alchemy silken straw to make a whole entire sweater. with sleeves! for me! do i have a pattern? no! but i know i want to make something simple with it, not too fitted. think something you would want to put on over your tank top and linen pants to go take a walk on a windy beach. that's what i want. suggestions highly encouraged. requested even. perhaps i will go so far as to say--suggestions DESPERATELY NEEDED AND SOUGHT! help! have you guys ever touched this after it's been knitted and blocked?? it's AWESOME.

next is this kidlin, which i had never seen before. it's a blend of nylon, kid mohair, and linen, and the colors were deep and saturated and gorgeous. i wanted this all for myself, but i wasn't done with gifts for THK yet: i got some for her and some for me. i love that green with a fervent passion (is that redundant), but the truth is that it looks like crap on me. the close-up of the red? that's all me. i am going to make something lace from this and wear it in the fall with bright red lipstick and smoky eyes. THK is trying to talk me into some kind of kidlin knit-a-long with her, but i know for a fact that her fast self would kick my ass, be done in a week, and have made three (single) socks while i was still working on my setup rows. then again, that WOULD mean she would have already made the lace and be able to help me with it when i get stuck. hmmmm...

rita de-stashed and gave me some FREE YARN! and not just that! free yarn from steam valley fibers, a small family farm in pennsylvania near where my friend rita used to live. this stuff is lace weight, hand spun, and hand dyed. check out the close-up to see just how awesome it is. it's a superfine wool of some kind, and it's solft and fuzzy and pliable. i have no idea whatsoever i am going to do with it, but it sure is fun to fondle! this one is going to take some thought... again--if anyone has any suggestions for what to do with around 260 yards of fab yarn, i will be glad to hear them.

more free yarn from rita's stash--this is a ribbon yarn from berroco, the name of which is escaping my tired and tiny brain right now. it's awesome though--rita made a scarf from it that's very pretty and actually feels a little suede-ish. again, i don't have a clue what i am going to do with this, but there's enough of it to do something good. might make a drop stitch something or other to show off that ribbon-y-ness. by the way, while digging around in her closet, rita said--i have some cashmere in here somewhere... and i was really torn between yelling at her one of two things: 1) WELL, KNIT IT, GIRL!, and 2) FIND IT RIGHT NOW! 'cause i love me some cashmere. i'm just sayin'.

ok, this yarn isn't from nyc. it's from bella filati. it's the blue heron beaded rayon that's destined to become the baltic sea stole. i have mentioned it before, but i could NOT get a good picture of it at my house. rita's window sill, however, proved to be the perfect place to actually GET the color. the color name is blueberry, which i think is wildly appropriate. this yarn is what THK wound for me. i was planning to knit it on the train, but only got as far as the cast on. this sunday, come hell or high water, i will start in on the stole. it's time i made something for me! yay!

whew! are you overwhelmed yet?! i am! i can't wait to swatch it all up and play!

it's official...

i still hate canteloupe. yuck.

weekend excursions, part two: NYC

the sam's birthday was this weekend, and we met in new york to play. this is always a good idea. new york is just such a mecca of shopping and eating and walking and people-watching--it's just a fun place to be. sam and wendel and i shopped and ate our way across the city of course, and walked and walked and walked. then the sam left, i got to spend and afternoon and evening with my friend rita, who i haven't seen in person in about 3 years, so that, too, was delightful. some highlights from the weekend:

first, the trouble: got up at 4am on friday to take the train to new york. i had a knitting project all saved up to work on and everything! i check for delays and none are posted, so i head to the train station, get ticketed, and find out that my train is a minimum of 3 hours late. so, the hippie helps me find a cheap plane ticket and i shift fire and fly. THK proves her worth as my friend a thousand times in the space of 3 hours by a) coming to pick me up at the train station in her bathrobe at 5:30am, b) making me a cup of tea and a omelet at her apartment, c) winding my giant 500+ yard hank of yarn into a perfect cake for me, and d) driving me to the airport in rush hour traffic. i owe her. i bought her some yarn, but i think i still owe her. meanwhile, the train home was ALSO 3 hours late, so i ended up not getting in until after midnight on monday. i am still tired. conclusion: take the train to DC, yes! but do not take the train to new york--it's just too far. blah.

now, on to the good stuff...

we saw wicked on friday night, which was awesome--i haven't seen a broadway show in ages! highly recommend this one for the polular song alone... and then as we were leaving the theater, i get an text message from my friend alyce that says, "in new york. everything makes me think of you." so i asked where she was--she was ONE BLOCK AWAY! so i got to have an unexpected drink with her. very serendipitous.

wendel appeared to have a good time biting people in central park, having some cheesecake at lindy's, stealing wine from alyce, and yarn shopping. he's a pretty good traveling companion as long as you remember to watch those teeth! fortunately, i got the silken straw away from him just in time!!!

we went to a somewhat famous place for cupcakes, the magnolia bakery. and well--i have to say that in spite of both its reputation and the massively long line that got my hopes all up, the cupcakes were just ok. first of all, they only had vanilla and chocolate cupcakes--i was really hoping for something a little more creative (and maybe some place to sit). they were pretty, but mine taste better. theirs were a little dry and crumbly--sam was making fun of me for feeding some of mine to the pigeons, but i still think it was the Right Thing to do. that said, the piece of coconut cake that sam got was fantastic. i wish i had some more of that filling right now.

a rundown of my purchases in NYC: yarn from purl (more on that later--it gets its own post!), a ton of makeup from face (the best make-up store on the planet), some artwork for the hippie, some porch art (i'll provide a link to these things later, but in short, they are wood things that hang on your porch and spin in the wind--very pretty), street jewelry in the form of a murano glass necklace, some handmade soaps at a street fair, a bunch of small things at the MoMA design store (baskets, an umbrella, presents, etc...), and some clothes (new dress--yay!) (freaky silver top--yay!). i almost bought a fabulous ring, but i talked myself out of it. now, i am filled with regret over this ring. i am also now very poor. i love you, ne your, but you are a thief of my cash!!!

this is a cool picture take by rita's boyrfriend. he's a camera guy for CNN, and i think it's clear he knows what he's doing. the crazy man was standing int he middle of the street to get this. i love it!

more on the yarn tomorrow--there's much to show.

weekend excursions, part one: sailing

y'all, i have been running hard the last couple of weeks. i guess you probably figured that out from my conspicuous silence. so this will be the first of three posts to get us all caught up. think of it like this--you have called me to chat, but i have only about 15 minutes, and too much has been going on to catch you up in that tiny little phone call, so we're gonna have to talk again tomorrow--ok? ok. so.

weekend before last the hippie and i went sailing with our friend harry at his boat, which is a 25-foot o'day. it's moored down at this place called the river rat yacht club outside belhaven, nc. in other words--it's in the middle of nowhere. and we're definitely using the term "yacht club" pretty loosely here. but i digress...

sailing rocks! it was really fun, and only a little bit scary on occasion, and i really want to go again. i learned more sailing terms than i even wanted to know--i now know which side of the boat is port and which is starboard, what a-lee means, what shrouds are, and how to tie a bunch of different knots. (i am better at the knots than the hippie is, but don't tell him i said that. heh.) no one fell in the water, which i think is a good thing since the river in which we were sailing was brackish and filled with jellyfish and crabs--YUCK! the wind was high and the sailing was fast and rowdy--apparently just the way the boys like it. and me, too, if i am honest. it was downright exhilarating! however, i am sorry to say that i have few pictures to show for it. i was just too afraid of dropping my camera into the river!

sleeping on that boat is as close to camping as i care to get, by the way. it's close and cramped, but good enough for a night or two. the saving grace is that the club house has a shower and a full kitchen. this came in pretty handy considering that the second saturday of every month is a big pot luck thing down there. i made crab dip and roasted potatoes with old bay and rosemary. yum! the crab dip in particular was a hit--it's a recipe from a church cookbook i bought last christmas in beaufort. very easy and awesome, so y'all just ask me if you want to know how to make it. anyway--we managed to get some work done on the boat (and by we, i mean harry and the hippie--i was knitting while they did that icky work stuff) and still go sailing both days. totally, totally fun! the only bad thing is that i got a weird--ass sunburn in the shape of a gigantic X in the middle of my back. now i just look retarded. stupid sunscreen...

tomorrow, news of this past weekend, when i was in new york playing and also news of all my new yarn--there's a lot to tell, people.

UPDATE 06/21: harry read this post and protested that the river rat IS a real yacht club, and he's right--i added the quotes lest y'all think it was a yacht club in the sense of white jackets and caviar and captain's hats. it's a shack in the woods. also, apparently the boat isn't moored--it's docked. i made a sailing faux pas there... oops!

dance class trends

we have been taking dance lessons for almost two years now, and it's still awesome. we have met all these great people! beth and dave with whom we may have to go on a cruise next year, amy and kelly who have become standards in our social repertoire (although kelly has quit dancing--the ass), mike, denise, grant (who is leaving us to hike the appalacian trail--check out his trail journal), john and leanne, kim, and of course, our fabulous instructor, katy. she's AWESOME--young and cute and super-enthusiastic. last week, the hippie and i danced in our first show--we were part of a formation team, dancing jive to greased lightning for the studio's hollywood broadway showcase. we didn't do too badly. but anyway--none of that is the point of this post! but y'all know me and digression...we go together... the POINT was that--we are slowly all getting silver shoes!!! it's a trend started by beth (shoes in the upper right), and followed by amy (upper left), me (lower right), and denise (lower left). i love that we all have different styles and that they are ALL fabulous. even katy got some, although she wasn't wearing hers this week. anyway--i have no real point to make with this--i just love silver shoes. :)

knitting notes from the weekend...

finally this weekend, i managed to spend some time with my yarn. NEW yarn, no less! THK ended up not working on saturday (for once!), so we made a little roadtrip down to southern pines to visit bella filati again. she took pity on me and drove so that i could knit--a true friend. i came away with a copy of favorite socks, some blue heron beaded rayon yarn (in blueberry) with which i will make a baltic sea stole (more on that in a later post), and a bunch of rowan hand knit cotton with which i will make a whole slew of wash cloths for my guest bathroom. i got a little leisure arts booklet of baby washcloth patterns, and immediately made a butterfly. but then, the butterfly was so cute, i wanted a dragonfly to go with it WAY more than i wanted a stork or a baby bottle. i wanted it badly enough that i just stole the construction and drew my own. i know it's a bit silly to be so excited about designing a washcloth, especially when the construction isn't my own--but people, i just LOVE it! look how cute it is! now i need to make more garden critters and flowers and stuff--i am going to knit through all my cotton in no time. and then i am thinking maybe i will try drawing some shells and sea things for my own bathroom, too. i am fired up about wash cloths all of a sudden. :)

in other knitting news, check out my new knitting bowl! THK gave this to me a few weeks ago to try out. her friend leanne, who is an awesome potter and painter designed these and made a couple for us to try and critique. they have little holes in the end that you can thred your yarn through so you can keep multiple strands from tangling, but i haven't tried that yet. so far, the bowl part is working great at keeping the cat hair out of my cotton! these little 50g balls of cotton fit well in the bowl, but i think it might be a little small for anything much larger. i am still checking it out, though--we'll see... in the mantime, i LOVE the bowl itself. it's so pretty and such an interesting knitting accessory. THK put pictures of hers on her blog, too--check them out.

i have managed to finish up a couple of other long ongoing projects, too, but i haven't taken pictures yet. soon...