Cue The Rocky Music

February 7, 2006 By

Dudes! We’re running up the Art Museum stairs! We’re chasing a chicken! Burgess Meredith is spitting at us with his half-eye! It’s TRAINING TIME!

Rest assured, no photographers were harmed by the ultraviolet glow coming off the Neon Pink Falk.

I received my yarn yesterday, from a lovely shop in Wisconsin, Yarns By Design. Prompt, friendly, and the woman I spoke to you used to live in MY neighborhood. She also told me that if I had any problems with colors running, I should promptly send back the yarn. Good customer service goes a long way in my book.

So here we go! I cast on a swatch last night – late – but so far so good. The Xs on either side of the garter stitch edging are a bit wonky, but the ones in the middle are pretty good. I’m using some kind of mutant combination knitting that is so completely awkward it qualifies for a special version of the Olympics. (Insert Ann and her fake Boston accent!) I’m thinking things will be much easier when I start knitting in the round. So far I like it! I think I might do one mitten with the pink as the main color and one mitten with navy as the main color – just to make things really wild and crazy. So far so good with the yarn – the fabric is nice and thick and I think they will make nice warm mittens – even though it hasn’t been cold enough to wear mittens.

I will be in Philadelphia, home of Rocky, when I cast on this Friday. I can guarantee, at least once or twice in the knitting of these mittens, I will be screaming ADRIAN! ADRIAN! at the top of my lungs. Even if I don’t really need too. 😉

PS! Is there a Team Philly Button? Do I need to make one? I think casting on in the City of Brotherly Love qualifies for team membership. C’mon on out you Broad Street Bullies! Where are you?

Filed Under: Knitting Olympics 2006

Red Hot And…Fizzling?

February 6, 2006 By

I like that word. Fizzle.

My weekend was eh. G had to work a lot so I was kind of lonely. PMSy. And I learned that miscommunications, misunderstandings and hurt feelings make me headachy and tired and a bit sad. So eh.

I also learned that our virtual relationships leave a lot of room for interpretation by virtue of the fact that they are virtual. We learn so much about each other through unspoken language: body movements, facial expressions, voice inflections. Just the other day I was talking to my sister while she was picking up my niece at school. She told my niece there was someone on the phone for her. I heard my niece ask if it was Cara? But her sweet little voiced raised so high at the end of my name that I could hear her surprise (talking to Cara on the phone at the playground at school? What fun!) and delight that I was lifted even higher than her voice! All that very important non-verbal communication is missing from email and blog posts and what might be a heartfelt admission or admonition or constructive criticism or a plain old pat on the back can be received in a way that was much much different than the deliverer intended. I teach my students this all the time. When we do critique in my classroom, the student being “workshopped” (yes – it is a verb) is not allowed to speak at all. Why you ask? This seems cruel when everyone is sitting around discussing their story – the good the bad and the ugly? Well, for one thing, when you write and hopefully your story goes out into the world, you will not be able to sit by the reader and say – no no! I didn’t mean that! I meant this! You’re reading it all wrong!!! The writing must stand on its own. And while you can never guarantee that your readers will always get exactly what you intended – by the sheer fact that they bring along all of their stuff and you brought along all your stuff in the writing and that stuff will never match up – you can try to get your point across as best you can and hope that the broad idea of what you wanted is out there.

Most of us are not sitting in a room together, or talking on the phone – most of us have never even met each other! But good or bad our words carry weight and what we say when we blog means lots of different things to different people. While I certainly don’t expect everyone to read my blog or even like my blog, I would hope it would be clear that when I blog, I try to blog the way I try to live: with respect for everyone.

Whew! I feel a bit better now.

Onto the Red and Hot and I’m not really sure about the Sizzling.

(What a difference white balance can make! The only difference in exposures on these two pictures is that top had the white balance set to Auto and the bottom had the white balance set to sunny. Neat huh?)

Here are my red hot sizzling socks. Ruby Slippers, STR, Jaywalkers with a picot edge, size #1 Addis. Can I tell you? I don’t LOVE these socks. I like them very, very, very, very, very much but I don’t love them. The pattern is great, true, the picot edge is the cutest, true, the yarn is fantastic as always. It’s the color I don’t love. And the striping. The STR colorways I like the best are the ones with lots of different colors – making little stripes everywhere. These are too blocky and the stripes are too thick. But I have to tell you I like them A LOT better on my feet than I did on the needles. They are definitely growing on me. For anyone keeping count, this is my seventh full pair of jaywalkers. 😉 (I’ve actually got eight pair finished, but one’s mismatched so I don’t count it.)

There was some spinning this weekend!

I went back to the biffle and MAN was I a lot happier! This is Lisa Souza’s biffle in the Mardi Gras colorway. About 2 oz. G’s out again tonight so I’m hoping to spin up the rest and try my plying head. I hope it all holds together – it seems so fragile at times. And a lot fuzzier than I remember! I’m still basically spinning to spin and get the hang of things, but it’s all good. I enjoyed myself last night which is the most important and I’m happy with the way it’s going.

I finished the Jo Sharp swatch, which I think I’ll talk about tomorrow, and I made some really good headway with the ends on Short Rows. Thanks to a comment by Anmiryam, I’ve been weaving in the ends between split purl bumps in the most crowded of places and that seems to be working. I’ve got somewhere to wear the sweater now – I’ll be in Boston at the end of February, so I need to get it done by then. Goals. They’re good sometimes. (Speaking of goals – go wish Anmiryam good luck! She’s pursing her dreams and we should all be encouraged in that! YAY Anmiriyam!)

Have a great day!

Filed Under: Jaywalkers, Life, Spin

Did someone say socks?

February 3, 2006 By

Oh My God. I want one!


Sock Peacock by Felt Up Designs

Did someone say socks? TAKE TWO!

Look what I won! All that gorgeous SILK! It’s pretty funny really. Danielle was looking for sock patterns – JAYWALKERS need not apply. So I sent her a link to the Acorn Socks I knit last summer for SockapalTWOza. She loved them and I won! Thank you Danielle! I hope you love knitting the socks as much as I did!

PS – Thanks to Jasmin. I saw the contest link on her blog when I was trolling for Jaywalker updates! By the way, Jasmin has a gorgeous blog. You must check it out.

PPS – Danielle is holding another contest! She wants hat patterns, with lots of hand dyed angora to give away!

Filed Under: Socks

Transference

February 3, 2006 By

Oh to be crazy like Bette and have a doctor like Claude!

Oh my goodness! I never noticed it before, but Bette Davis knits in the movie! And from what I can tell, she’s really knitting!

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Cleaning House

February 3, 2006 By

Metaphorically speaking ONLY. I will clean the house, nay I’ll organize the SHIT out of the house and it will be a heavenly palace (cleanliness being next to godliness and all) but not yet. Baby steps. Itty bitty baby steps.

By the way, to clear up a few things from yesterday: I am fully aware of the goodness a cleaning person can offer me. I grew up with a cleaning lady. She came every other week and her name was Althea and she used to smoke. IN OUR HOUSE. Which when I think about it now is extraordinary. For years the smell of clean to me was cigarette smoke mixed with Lysol. Things were very different back then. My mother would pick her up at the train in the morning and she would eat breakfast and lunch at our house. Breakfast was toast and coffee, I think, I could be making it all up, but probably not and lunch was always a TV Dinner. God I wanted those TV Dinners. It seemed like such a treat. SNORT! Little did I know I’d be subsisting on frozen meals for most of my adult life. HA!

Anyway, I come from a long line of terrible housekeepers – and we fully admit and embrace our defect – and hired my own cleaning lady. When we moved into our new apartment (god EIGHT years ago!), which had 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and an office, along with the requisite kitchen, living room, dining room I told G we needed a cleaning person. Let’s just say that when we moved out of our old one bedroom/one bath the word squalor was used by our landlord. In my defence he was being prickly, but it was pretty bad. So we had a cleaning woman for five long years and then by mutual decision our time together ended. Turns out cleaning people are in short supply around here unless you want to pay through the nose or hire a “team” of people. I just want someone to come every other week and clean my house better than I would clean it myself. I’m willing to pay. Anyway – the house got so bad that we couldn’t hire a cleaning person any more without totally rehauling the house. I actually have a name, but I’ve got the get the house in order. So there’s that.

One other thing. The Oprah debacle. In my post yesterday I did not mean to imply that I was defending Frey in any way. The guy lied – and not only did he lie – he lied about stuff that was easily verifiable. In my mind he WANTED to get caught. I mean there’s a big freaking difference between three MONTHS in jail and three HOURS. And dude – you know – they keep RECORDS about that stuff. Now I’m sure his three hours FELT like three months, but still. A good writer could’ve conceivably evoked that feeling without the actual lie. No, my defense was more for Nan Talese and MEMOIR as a form. Given the dressing down poor Ms. Talese received from Oprah – don’t you check EVERY FACT in the book? Well, again, I renew my argument that MEMOIR is about memory – which is never wholly accurate. I think Oprah’s call for fact-checkers in every corner (and I think fact-checkers are very important – one of my favorite jobs EVER) is unnecessary and needlessly alarmist.

Okay. Back to what I really want to talk about today. Cleaning House. My knitting house. I said yesterday I was bored and I’m still bored. I didn’t spin yesterday. I didn’t knit really either. But I did read some of Barbara Walker’s Knitting from the Top Down. What a GREAT idea! How come no one told me what a GREAT IDEA knitting from the top down was? I want to make another Almost Everyday Cardigan. My Manos one pilled beyond belief so I never wear it – that and the fact that it’s like a guaranteed sauna and the weather is just not cold enough. I want another sweater I can ACTUALLY wear every day and never take off and will be like the sweatshirt that I wear constantly that is now so gross I’ve taken to wearing G’s because his is softer and nicer and rarely gets worn. Anyway, I went through the stash and took out some of my Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed that I have. Remember when this stuff was practically being given away on Elann? Yeah. I bought a shitload. So I started to swatch.

I know. About fifteen rows in I got bored. BUT I love the fabric this yarn makes. Have you ever knit with it before? It’s sticky, for lack of a better word, but soft and in the end the fabric – especially a stockinette fabric – feels like a great sweatshirt. I’m so making this! Top Down Raglan Cardigan. Because I can’t do pullovers. I want to cast on THIS MINUTE.

And then I remembered all the other crap I’m supposed to be making. Here’s where we get to cleaning house. I should’ve done this back in January but better late than never. I’m going to list my projects – the ones I’m giving up on – the ones I’m in the middle of and don’t want to turn back – and the ones I have every intention of making. Then I’m going to look at it and cry.

Stuff That’s GOT to GO!!
(Or at least come off the sidebar.)

Nona’s Gloves. Welp, the KAL is over and I hate the glove I’ve got so far. So rip, rip, rip.

Noro Silk Garden Wrap. I see a Lady Eleanor in my future. Not 100% sure of this though.

Ribby Cardi. All the pieces are neatly in the bag and I can honestly say I will never seam them up. This is the deal: I don’t like ribbing and more importantly, I will never knit with a yarn I HATE again. Peruvian Highland Wool doomed this project for me. KILLED it. Oh I don’t know. Never say never, but I’m saying maybe never.

Cuba Libre Socks. I found out that I despise purling in socks. Funny because I really love to purl otherwise, but I hate purling in the round, maybe? The Retro Rib pattern, while easy on the eyes, was INCREDIBLY tedious. The sock that’s on the needles will be ripped, as soon as I can find it. (Oh and Kay – if you click on the link for this entry and scroll down you’ll see the Army picture.)

Sunshine Socks. This is another case of I hate the yarn. One sock is done and one is on the needles and while I won’t be ripping these, I will be putting them away somewhere so they’re not sitting on the floor next to my bed taunting me. I started knitting these B.STR. (Before Socks That Rock) and you know – the yarn feels like crap compared. CRAP.

Pinwheel Baby Blanket. This will be done before Eli’s Bar Mitzvah. But I don’t like it. And I feel bad about it because it’s a great pattern and a great yarn and I don’t know why it doesn’t work for me but I’m sick of seeing it in the sidebar every time I come to my blog. So it’s going. But not being ripped.

Stuff I’ve Started and I’m DEFINITELY Going to Finish

Powell 106. Lace shawl – I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately – thinking it might be just the thing to get me out of my boredom. I will for sure finish this at some point.

Prairie Blanket. Hopefully this will be finished for Xavier’s first birthday – but I’m not promising anything honey pie.

Wendy’s Warm Hands Mittens. This is just
stupid because one’s done and one is half done and in a couple of hours I’d have a pair. I’m an ass.

Jaywalker Socks. I’ve currently got three socks finished for three different pairs. One mate is to the heel, one mate is in the cuff. I plan to have a pair of these in STR on the needles at all times. Of course I will.

Okay – now here’s where things get hairy….

Stuff I TOTALLY Want to Make and Goddamnit I WILL!

Crossed In Translation Cardigan. I’m almost ready to start swatching. G’s going to be gone a lot this weekend so I thought I might take the alone time to work out the charts in Excel so I can start to swatch and get a handle on the project. Also, I’m hoping SOMEONE will swatch some of the VY yarn I bought so I can know if it’s worth swatching. I so totally want this yarn to be IT.

Pirate Mittens. I’m making these for the Knit Olympics. Yarn has been ordered (Neon Pink and Navy Blue Dale of Norway Falk) and should be here this weekend. Defeat is not an option.

Jo Sharp Top Down Raglan Cardigan. See above.

Dad’s Sweater. I’ve got the yarn. Have to put the pattern together, but I will knit this for my father. Someday.

Diamond Fantasy Shawl 2.0. In black STR with beads in the center of the Diamonds. I think about this all the time!

Sockapalooza Socks. Looking for patterns as we speak.

My So Called Scarf. To match the Warm Hands Mittens. This is iffy. I’m not good at scarfs. I get bored super quick. But I want this set badly, so we’ll see.

Elizabeth Bag. I’ve got some gorgeous RED Donegal Tweed in the stash for this. It will happen. Sometime in my life.

Okay. Not as bad as I thought. These are the projects I think about all the time. There are others I promised and am trying to ignore. As well as others I keep in the back of my mind. And of course all those unknown patterns out there dying to be knit by me, I just don’t know it yet. 😉 Ahh. The life of a knitter.

Time to go procrastinate some more. Have a FANTASTIC weekend.
L, C

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Randomness…

February 2, 2006 By

it’s not just for Wednesday’s anymore.

Can I tell you? I’m bored. Not bored in the sense of there’s nothing to do – oh my god there is TONS to do – but bored in that restless, I don’t want to do anything I have to do but there are no deadlines MAKING me do stuff kind of way. Yesterday I felt like I just wandered around the house, aimlessly, looking at the crap piled in every corner – the dirt so caked it doesn’t even blow around anymore when you move things out of place. God my house is dirty. I did vacuum though – but only the small area around where I spin because it turns out that while I don’t care about the piles of dust and hair that have been collecting in the corner of my bathroom behind the door for MONTHS on end, I do care about the pieces of fiber that cling to the carpet. Weird huh? G’s pretty funny because the other day I was in my bathroom taking a crap – because really that’s the only time I see the hair and dust collected in the corner behind the door – and I noticed that the pile was considerably smaller since the last time I crapped in there. (I like to think of it like a science experiment, honestly. The hair and dirt and dust – not the crap.) Georgie had cleaned up! He had been using my bathroom because the shower in his bathroom (yes, we have three bathrooms and two showers for two people. Deal with it.) was broken or something and he couldn’t stand the pile anymore! I think that is SO funny!

G is very good with household chores. He washes ALL the dishes, which is something I particularly loathe. And he does all the laundry, except I fold it, which honestly I don’t think is a fair trade, but he does hang up all my delicate clothes and makes sure not to dry them too long. He’s kind of obsessive (if you ask me) about taking out the garbage. All other household cleaning is left to me. Hence the pile of dust and dirt and hair in the bathroom. Oh and I wash all the sheets and make the bed and stuff. Usually he doesn’t comment about the caked on toothpaste stains around the sink in the bathroom or the fiber sticking to the carpet in all areas of the house or the piles of crap and yarn and work stuff under foot everywhere – but this little corner drove him crazy! I’m still laughing.

Did you see the poem I posted? I’m not feeling particularly bad about the infertility today – not sure why since I’ve been crying off and on about for months. I’m FINALLY, and when I say finally, I mean finally after a year or so of absolutely TORTURING myself, coming to terms with my grief about the whole thing. I finally realized that I’m ALLOWED to be sad about all of this, no matter how or why or where I am in the process. I walk around feeling like I’m going to burst into tears sometimes and I wasn’t letting myself understand why. I’d sit there and take stock – I’m not depressed. I wake up each day looking forward to friends and family and the things I need and want to do but yet I was overwhelmed by this physical need to cry – but no tears were coming. In the summer it completely freaked me out and sent me into a tailspin of anxiety and panic. This time, I understand. Jen was so good to me, in the car one day, I was telling her about it and she looked at me with this oh my god how silly can you be look and said, Cara. You’re grieving. It was like she gave me permission or something and I was good to go. I still feel like crying off and on but I’m not panicking about it – just living it.

So I’m feeling kind of cheap for choosing that poem since today I don’t really feel like I need your sympathy or anything. When I saw Juno‘s post this morning and thought hmmm, what poem would I choose, I immediately went to the anthology I put together when I taught my undergraduate creative writing class at NYU. It was the first class I ever taught and I was required to teach poetry and fiction. The poets in the program were required to do the same, so it was like equal opportunity screw up the freshman kind of a thing. I’m joking. I don’t know poetry – at all. I’m a fiction person through and through – I don’t read anything else, really. In the end, even though I was scared to death of the poetry, it was my favorite part of the class. Turns out undergrads are a hell of a lot better at writing rip out your heart angst poetry than they are at writing rip out your heart (literally) angst short stories. This morning, flipping through the poetry collection I put together for the class, I was struck by the poem by Ellen Bryant Voight basically because it so mimics my life now, but when I chose it for the class, I was years away from even TRYING to have a baby. Even, honestly, knowing if I wanted a baby at all. This premonition, if that’s what you could call it, was very interesting to me. I’m okay right now. Thought you should know.

I’m adding stuff, because, well, it’s my blog and I’m allowed.

I have two zits on my chin that rival Lincoln and Roosevelt on Rushmore. They’re large and deep and painful. And nothing to squeeze, which I love to do. Ouch. PMS sucks.

Have you been reading Bookslut and all the links they’ve had to the Oprah/Frey debacle? I’ve been known to watch Oprah every now and again (ask Rock Chick) and I’ve also been known to drive many miles out of my way to find the last remaining copy of a book WITHOUT the Oprah seal. I haven’t read Frey’s book (see above about reading fiction – although maybe now I’ll give it a shot), but I did see the show where Oprah ripped him and Nan Talese a new one. While it’s clear this guy made up A LOT of stuff, I see a HUGE distinction between Non-Fiction and Memoir. Non-Fiction is that book about how bees build hives and make honey and by reading it you KNOW you’re reading facts. Facts that you and the author and the publisher have all sort of contracted together in believing its veracity. Memoir, by definition, deals in MEMORY. The way an author REMEMBERS their life. I’ve never taken a psychiatry class (philosophy fucks you up longer and harder, just so you know) but I’ve been in therapy for years and it doesn’t take another Freud to know that memories are EXTREMELY selective and by virtue of the fact that they are remembered, are bound to be WRONG, as in not the exact truth of the moment as it happened. All you have to do is look at all the science on ey-witnesses to know that no one remembers anything right. Add to that the filter of our whole lives in which every action, thought, dream, relationship must be push through like a sausage make in order to get the LINKS that are our MEMORIES, well, then Oprah is off her rocker. You can’t expect the same facts that occur in the beehive book to occur in a book written by an avowed junkie. Please. Memoirists are writing the NARRATIVE of their lives. NARRATIVE=STORY. All story, to be successful, needs a clear-cut conflict, a protagonist and lots of drama on the way to resolving that conflict – for good or ill. I think Oprah’s call for truth is a bit misplaced. To me, it’s all, once again a case of semantics gone wrong.

I tried to spin a bit yesterday but it was a disaster so I stopped before I got really frustrated. Today I will try again. I tried to weave in some ends on short rows because after I laid out the front with the sleeves by the sides I was jazzed and I want it DONE! But there are so many ends right on top of each other and I wove some in, cut them, then realized you could see them from the front so I stopped before I got really frustrated. In the end, the only progress I made was that I’m about to turn a heel on a sock and I folded three loads of laundry.

Now that’s what I call taking back the blog.
L, C

Filed Under: Life

A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading

February 2, 2006 By

THE WIFE TAKES A CHILD

She has come next door to practice our piano.
Fat worms, her fingers hover over the keys,
dolce, dolce, advance to a black note.
I call out answers: she blinks a trusting eye.
From the window I can see the phlox
bank and flower, the violets’ broad train
at the yard’s edge, and beyond, the bee-boxes,
each one baited for summer with a queen.

Love, how long must we reproduce ourselves
in the neighbors’ children, bees in false hives,
bright inviting blossoms, mine for a season.
Against the C-scale’s awkward lullabye
I carry the offense of my flat belly,
the silent red loss of monthly bleeding.

ELLEN BRYANT VOIGHT

Poetry Reading by Grace’s Poppies, found via Juno

Filed Under: Life

musicmememusicmememusicmeme

February 1, 2006 By

Yesterday was the last day of E Street Radio on Sirius. For months I’ve been sitting at my computer listening to Bruce – and only Bruce – all day. The best part of the station was that somehow the Springsteen Powers That Be decided it was okay for Sirius to play “fan-based recordings” which means bootlegs. This is remarkable in that the SPTB have always been very, very ANTI-bootleg. Guess they were more against the money being made from the bootlegs as opposed to the creative control aspect of bootlegs. Anyway, it was great listening for the last three months and I thank Bruce, Sirius and my dad for letting me tap into his account. It’s small consolation, but I found this today. Rock on!

Cordelia tagged me for a music meme, even though she says I don’t do memes. Not true exactly – I’m never tagged! Maybe like two or three times, which isn’t a lot considering the amount of these things floating around. And given that I’m sad about E-Street Radio going off the air, I thought I’d answer it:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

While we were away I got to listen to G’s mp3 player (he’s very anti-IPOD – don’t ask). I think his is from Creative. Anyway, I’ve been listening to what he’s got going on and I thought I’d share a few of the songs we both enjoy. I’ll leave out the Bruce – even though it’s on there. Well, maybe one Bruce, but he only sings back up.

1. Lovely Day. Bill Withers. I’m reprinting the lyrics because this song has saved my life many a time.

When I wake up in the morning, love
And the sunlight hurts my eyes
And something without warning, love
Bears heavy on my mind

Then I look at you
And the world’s alright with me
Just one look at you
And I know it’s gonna be
A lovely day
… lovely day, lovely day, lovely day …

When the day that lies ahead of me
Seems impossible to face
When someone else instead of me
Always seems to know the way

Then I look at you
And the world’s alright with me
Just one look at you
And I know it’s gonna be
A lovely day…..

When the day that lies ahead of me
Seems impossible to face
When someone else instead of me
Always seems to know the way

Then I look at you
And the world’s alright with me
Just one look at you
And I know it’s gonna be
A lovely day…

2. Cry Love. John Hiatt. I love this song. I like to play it really loud with head phones on so it fills my head and my heart.

3. Ride Wit Me. Nelly. When Max was a baby we used to dance with him all the time to this song. He loved it. This and Pacific Coast Party. We used to laugh that a time would come when he would be too old (and therefore too young) for these lyrics. Sadly, that time is now.

3. Valentine. Nils Lofgren. (with Bruce Springsteen) I love the mix of Nils’s and Bruce’s voices on this. It’s a very nice song.

[TWO THREES? Can’t count for shit.]

4. Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard. Paul Simon. This song has me jumping and dancing and whistling and when I saw S&G in concert a couple of winter’s ago I screamed Julio throughout the whole show. They didn’t play it.

5. Come and Get Your Love. Redbone. G’s also got the Real McCoy’s version – I like the original better.

6. New York Groove. Ace Frehley. C L A S S I C. ‘Nuff said.

7. This Woman’s Work. Kate Bush. This song always makes me cry. And think of Kevin Bacon. But that’s not necessarily why it makes me cry.

Fuck it. I’m going for TEN.

8. A Girl Like You. Edwyn Collins. G and I first heard this in Milan in Nov. ’96. Always makes me think of that trip. We thought it was David Bowie.

9. The Secret Garden. Quincy Jones. Featuring Al B. Sure, Barry White,
El DeBarge and James Ingram, this was one of our dating songs. You know, the ones I’d listen to late into the night on the days when we DIDN’T have a date. Do I need to spell it out for you?

10. Got to Give It Up. Thin Lizzy. Live Version. R.I.P. Phil Lynott.

Hey you. YES. YOU. Over there. Consider yourself tagged.

Filed Under: blogging stuff

Jaywalker Eleven!

February 1, 2006 By

DONE. Finished. Finito. Baleep Baleep THAT’S ALL FOLKS! The Great Legendary Absolutely FREAKING INSANE Jaywalker KAL is officially CLOSED. NO MORE!

But oh my god it was a blast! Wasn’t it? Sheer madness! As of 2AM last night there were 311 people involved in the KAL. I can assure you that I visited every single one of you at least a half a dozen times. Thank you for inviting me into your homes.

Here’s how the last two weeks are going to work: Check THE LIST. Make sure you’re on it if you think you should be on it. If you finished your pair way back when and for some reason you didn’t get a star next to your name, let me know. If you’re not on the list and you can show evidence as to why you should be on the list, let me know. If you finish your pair, let me know. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: TO LET ME KNOW SEND ME AN EMAIL WITH THE WORDS JAYWALKER UPDATE IN THE SUBJECT. THE EMAIL ADDRESS IS CARA at JANUARYONE dot COM. I WILL IGNORE ALL UPDATES IN THE COMMENTS.

Here’s how the winning’s going to work:
At midnight on February 14th I will list all of the people eligible AS OF THAT DAY to win yarn. I will keep the list up for the day and at 11:11 PM on the 14th I will pick the winners. You will have the day to let me know if there is a mistake with the list.

Any questions? Email me.

I gotta say, with all the craziness, I hope I haven’t come off as disliking the KAL. In fact, I’m bowled over by it. Proprietary about it. I love it but I hate it. I definitely want my blog back. I want to be able to post something and not have half the comments that day be about jaywalkers when my original post was about spaghetti. I’M NOT BLAMING ANYONE!!! I asked for this. Actually, I’m blaming myself, but that’s a whole other story. The good part of all this – I still LOVE the socks, goddamnit!!! In fact, just this weekend I finished two more and cast on for another two. They will never be old to me!

Legend:

= Everything’s going A OK! Making progress!

= ^&$#$%@ this ^&$^$#%$#%@ SOCK!

= We’re JAYWALKING BAYBEE! FINISHED!!

Adelle
Adrienne

Aija
Allison
Amy
Amy
Amy
AmyP
Anita
Ann
Anne
Annie
Ariel
Beth
Bethe
Bethieee
Bliss
Brenda
Carla
Carla

Carmelle
Carol
Carole
Carole
Carry
Cece
Cheryl
Chihiro
Chrissy
Chrissy
Chrissy
Christine
Claudia
Cynthia
Danielle
Deb
Dene
Diann
Elaina
Elaine
Emily
Emma
Erin
Foogrrl
Gwyn
Hanne
Helen
Helen
Hillary
Holly
Jane
Jasmin
Jennifer
Jenny
Jenny
Jenny
Jessica
Jodee

Johanna
Julia
KaisaKaisa
Kandy
Karen
Karen
Karen
KathyB
Katie
Kelly
Kelly
Kenny
Kris
Lara
Larissa
Laura
Laura
Lauren

Linda
Lisa
Lisa I.
Liz
Lori
LoriG
Lynda
Manda
Maria
Maribel
Marie
Marie

Maritza
Melissa
Miriam
Morgan
Nancy
Nancy

Nicole
Noelle
Paula
Phoebe
Ramona
Rebecca

Renata
Rhonda
Roberta
Roberta
Robin
Robin

Rosemary
Rossana
Sandra
Sarah
Sarah
Sarah
Scout
Shanidy
Shannon
Shelley
Stephannie
Stinkerbell
Susan
Suzanne
Sylvia
Tania
Tara
tgz
Thorn
Tiffany
Tracy
Vicki
Vicki
Wannietta
Wendi
Wendy
Whitney

Filed Under: Jaywalker KAL

Knit. Eat. Sleep.

January 31, 2006 By

Rinse. Repeat.

It was a wonderful vacation. We slept great. We ate even better. And, well, I surpassed my knitting goals. There was lots of cuddling and togetherness. A pedicure. A spin out. A suite. All in all, it couldn’t have been better – even though the weather wasn’t as warm as we’d have liked and the wind was a bit too strong. I wouldn’t trade it for the world though.

Here’s what I knit:

I finished the Short Row sleeves. YAY! All that’s left is to weave in the 3,418 ends from the back and the front and seam, do the collar and seam some more. I can taste the end. Hopefully it won’t take another six months to finish.

I finished my Rare Gems sock AND my first Red Hot Sizzling Sock. The RHSS is knit using Ruby Slippers STR with the picot edge modification – I started it Wednesday when I should’ve been packing – managed the picot edge and a couple repeats before it was time for bed. So most of the sock was knit in Florida – including the last couple of repeats and the toe while waiting on the runway for the plane to take off. The flight took about two hours longer than scheduled so I was also able to cast on and start the second Petroglyph sock. I got past the ribbing and a few repeats – but we were watching The Wedding Crashers on the plane and until I got smart and put it down, I screwed up some of the repeats. I’ll rip that today and start the second RHSS as well.

The food was unbelievable. I had what can honestly be described as the best meal of my life. I was dizzy it was so good. We ate at Mark’s in South Beach. For an appetizer I had Jumbo diver scallops, puree of calabaza, guava butter and plantain chip. Georgie had Tartare of yellowfin tuna, avocado, cucumber noodles, lemongrass oil. For dinner I had pistacio crusted lamb chops with brussel sprouts and cauliflower with bacon and pomegranates and potatos au gratin. G had Maine lobster tossed with saffron linguine, roma tomatoes, basil, white beans, English peas and prosciutto, served with roasted garlic crostini. Neither one of could speak the food was so good. (All of the dishes above are on the menu at the website except my lambchops.) I don’t even remember dessert, but it paled compared to the meal.

The next night we ate at Azul in Miami. I started with the butternut squash soup with hazelnuts and G had fried oysters wrapped in salmon, tuna, beef and crab carpaccios. For dinner, Georgie had the halibut and I had the Salmon duo – one side of the plate had poached salmon and the other side had salmon wrapped in mushrooms in a kind of spring roll type wrapping. Yummmm! Dessert here was really a treat though – vanilla souffle with three different sauces – chocolate, rasberry and creme anglaise. So divine.

Every meal we ate was delicious – but these two meals stand out.

What else? We had our first stuck on the runway experience – you know – when they taxi out and it looks like you’re going to take off then they stop the plane and tell you we’ll be sitting here for the next two hours – make yourself comfortable? Yeah. Not too much panic from the anxious claustrophobic girl. The good thing was I had already taken my pre-board Xanax so I was nicely juiced when they made the announcement. I knit along happily on my RHSS and finished it – I was about to kitchener the toe when I couldn’t find my cuticle scissors – I always travel with them. The round tips have been allowed by the TSA for years and years. Anyway, since the plane was a free for all I went up and asked the flight attendants if they had a scissors. Not allowed. But one of them told me she saw a woman knitting a blanket back in coach – let’s go ask her. So I walked to the back of the plane with the flight attendant – but she didn’t have scissors. We talked for a bit about my sock and then I made my way back to the front. Fun times on an airplane.

By the way – in case you’re flying any time soon – customs has completely RELAXED the requirements for knitting needles and such. I used to have a whole system for getting my needles and such through customs – but this time they barely batted and eye and even told me I didn’t have to take my scissors out (I used to put them in the cell phone bin because otherwise they’d rip apart my stuff.) I traveled with addi turbo circulars – from US 1s to US 6s exclusively and had no problems what so ever.

I’ll be making the official announcement tomorrow, but I’m closing down the jaywalker knit along after the giveaway on the 14th. I decided yesterday and as hard as this decision is for me, oh my god what a weight off my shoulders. This thing has taken over my life and that’s not fun. Basically I’ll be shutting down sign-ups tomorrow, because, well, if you haven’t had an update by then, you’re not eligible to win anyway. It’s been an amazing ride, but I kind of want my blog back.

I wanted to add a word cloud which I saw over at Karma’s but I’m having server issues all over the place. When things get back up I’ll add it.
Here it is!

Have a great day!

Filed Under: Jaywalkers, Short Rows, Socks, Vacations
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