Not one person said anything to me about my shawl at the wedding, but WHO CARES!!! YOU GUYS ROCK! Way to inflate an ego. The next time my husband tells me I’m pretty I’m going to tell him he better repeat that like ninety times or else I’m coming here! Although, honestly, I hope I don’t disappoint anyone at Maryland when I show up in my stained jeans (the only pair that fits) and a t-shirt and Merrells. I’ll try to put gel in my hair, but I’m not promising anything. 😉 Seriously, thank you all so much for your comments on the shawl and on me. Truly appreciated – I was feeling all warm and fuzzy everytime I checked my email.

So, my hair looked GREAT. Really great. Thanks Jen for telling me not to cut it. And my dress looked good. The two pieces of cherry pie I had for breakfast really helped it cling. The shawl was gorgeous, natch. And the shoes crippled me. Hopefully not permanently. Who knew you had to stand so long at a Greek wedding? By the time the ceremony was done I was a mess. Hobbled. Limping is being generous. I calculated the exact amount of time I’d have to be standing – maybe 15 minutes at the Church – half an hour at the cocktail part and then I get my seat at the table and I never have to get up until it’s time to leave. Nope. I stood for an hour at the wedding alone and that was it. I keep getting shooting pains up my leg and occassionally my pinkie on my right foot spasms. But I looked GOOD! That’s all that matters, right?

It was a nice wedding, as far as these things go. G was feeling bad for me because no one said anything about my shawl. He’s so sweet. When I got out of the shower and was getting dressed I told him that I’d had this fantasy that I left the shawl at the table while I was dancing and someone STOLE IT! Georgie – you don’t think anyone will steal my shawl do you? Thank god he loves me because the look I got had divorce lawyer written all over it. At one point during the wedding he was talking with a friend and I got up to go to the bathroom and I gave him my purse and threw the shawl over his shoulder. When I got back and wrapped it around myself he told his friend that I had made the shawl and his friend was appropriate in his response, even if it did look like he was on round 42 of 100 Bottles of Beer On The Wall when he said it. My Georgie! He tries.

On the drive home I was just sad that I have no where fancy to wear the shawl again and G said it would look great with a pair of jeans. So maybe next time we go out to dinner. Thanks again for all your beautiful comments!

On Sunday I did a lot of stuff. Knitting wise. I finally re-tackled the collar on Short Rows and I’ve got it where I want it. Now all I have to do is sew the seams. And fix a couple of holes that appeared at the seams of the sleeves when I was ripping and re-ripping out the collar. I have no idea what happened – a couple of stitches on the edges became INCREDIBLY huge and loose. As far as I can tell the stitches aren’t dropped or anything just gaping. So I’m going to twist the back and tack them down. Luckily it’s the navy blue part so no one will be the wiser – and it’s on the seam. To say I’m sick of this sweater is being kind. I hope to have it finished by the end of the week, but it’s taking all the energy I have to sew a sleeve up, so I’m not making any promises.

I’ve been incredibly inspired by all of you! Here’s a pair of socks I’ve started – I think I like it the best of the four socks I have currently on the needles:

I first saw this sock over at Susan’s (April 6th entry) – I’m calling it the January Sock because it’s taken from the January 15th stitch pattern in the 365 Stitch Pattern Calendar. The yarn is STR Spinel in lightweight. I started these socks on Addi 1s (2.5mm) but switched to 0s (2.0mm) and I like them so much better. On the 1s the stitch pattern was getting lost – not enough stretch, but 0s should work great. I’ve decided that 1s are my favorite sock knitting needle size. They feel just right in my hands. My 2s feel clumsy and dull on the edges and the 0s I feel like I’m going to break and they keep bending. Oh well.

Another project I’m really excited about was completely inspired by MJ and Lauren! I bought a bunch of chocolate brown Rowan Calmer ages ago with the express intention of making a long-sleeve v-neck sweater – something casual and comfortable in stockinette. I also have some purple Calmer for trim and maybe some strategically placed stripes.

Both MJ and Lauren used Barbara Walker’s directions for top down set in sleeves. I’ve had this book on my shelf forever and I’ve tried to read it a number of times and even though she says in the intro that she’s going to use plain English and there’s not a lot of math, I still get really jumbled up when reading it. But I’m giving it a go and both MJ and Lauren have both offered their assistance. I swatched the Calmer on size 8s and I like how it came out, so I’m going to take measurements today. We’ll see what happens, but I think this whole top down sweater thing could be a revelation in my sweater making.

Thank you again for being so sweet! Happy MAY Day!!

Have I mentioned how much I love my DVR? I mean really really really really really love it? I’ve have just wound and rewound and re-freaking-round the KISS!!!! OH MY GOD FINALLY MY FANTASIES HAVE BEEN FULFILLED!

And while I’m on the subject of TV, can I just say that THIS is the way a series is supposed to end? Everyone wants Josh and Donna together, so now that the series is ending, we can put them together. And they can ride off into the sunset. UNLIKE Gilmore Girls – that show should’ve ended with Luke and Lorelei kissing and Kirk running out of the inn naked. C’mon. You SO know what I’m talking about. And you know I’m right.

I’m blaming it on PMS, otherwise I’m a big ass cornball, but I totally lost it during Reese Witherspoon’s acceptance speech. She was so poised and beautiful and yet still retained her spunk. I feel like Ryan Phillipe isn’t good enough for her – you know? And despite myself I like George Clooney. He’s so Cary Grant, except not as effete.

Hi everybody! That’s from Max, my nephew. He’s sitting with me while I’m writing on my website. He wants to know when he can get his own website. We told him when he’s ten.

y y h,ugyhhm M,MNJMM. (That’s from Baby Eli! (Who’s actually a big boy these days crawling up the stairs and standing by himself!))

I ripped the Embossed Leaves socks and started them over. This time I did a regular long tail cast on and simple 1×1 rib and they’re so much better. The ribbing is nice and stretchy (on size 2 Addis) and I did the pattern on 1s, but it’s all good. Most people say the Koigu stretches a lot so I thought sticking with 1s on the cuff was the best move. I’ve gone through 2 repeats and it’s all good. I’m happy with them. It was the cast on and twisted knit ribbing that I didn’t like – way too tight.

Thanks for all the good wishes about this weekend. I go by the “imagine the absolute WORST possible thing to happen then be pleasantly surprised” way of life. A lot of the time it works great and this weekend was no exception. It’s still not an ideal situation – but it could be much, much worse. I’m down here until Thursday. I may be on everyday, but I may not. Thanks for reading. Pictures when I get back.

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We’re going RANDOM today – hold on for the ride….

So the Olympics are over. Huh. What now you ask? Short Rows. I am determined to finish Short Rows. DETERMINED. D-E-T-E-R-M-I-N-E-D. Don’t ask about it though, okay? I don’t need the pressure. I want that monkey off my back. Although I gained back all the weight I lost this Summer and now I’m scared it won’t fit. But we’ll deal with that when it’s finished. AND IT WILL BE FINISHED.

I’m also going to start swatching for Crossed In Translation. Teresa came up for the party on Sunday and we had some quality time together. After making like 200 swatches for this thing, she can knit the sweater in her sleep. Which works out extremely well for me because I got a nice little tutorial on all the different stitches and now I am very confident. Although I’m also bummed because I would really like some Rowan Magpie. Theresa’s swatch in that was really great. Anyone know where I can get a sweater’s worth of Magpie in a pretty purply pink color? I will pay. Anyway, I will start swatching asap. Don’t ask about it though, okay? I don’t need the pressure. Speaking of PRESSURE, did you see that (the other) Theresa knit her Am Kamin sweater in SIXTEEN FREAKING DAYS!!!! It was her Olympic Project and my god she deserves like a PLATINUM medal. With diamonds and sapphires encrusted in it. And a tiara. Definitely a sparkly tiara. The sweater is absolutely GORGEOUS and Theresa is GORGEOUS and oh my god she’s my inspiration. Please, PLEASE run don’t walk to go tell her how magnificent it is – the accomplishment as well as the sweater. It’s so good I’m linking to it twice.

More Olympic goodness: Have you met Maisie and her mom Rowan? They are too freaking cute for words. And I say cute in the best most grown-up sophisticated practically a teenager who probably hates to be called cute way. Maisie is I don’t know, ten? Eleven? Speak up Maisie! I forgot how old you are! And she’s an amazing knitter. I watched her knit WITHOUT LOOKING on her super tiny DPNs and I was in awe. She rocks. And she taught her mom to knit too. And Maisie made a sweater for her older sister for the Olympics which you can check out on the blog she and her mom write together and lots and lots of socks and she knit Phil an AWESOME sweater (because, really, she says curse SHMURSE!) And in one of my favorite closing ceremony party moments, Maisie and her mom had to leave earlier than expected due to the death of her older sister’s guinea pig (and no, neither the dead animal nor Maisie and Rowan leaving were my favorite part) and Maisie exclaimed that ALL her sister’s pets died and the drama in her voice was all MARSHA MARSHA MARSHA and I felt so bad for Maisie having to leave and wanted to tell her that she rocked even if her sister’s pet died and Rowan showed that she’s an awesome Mom and girls I’d hang with you BOTH anytime. Any time. Thanks so much for coming to the party!

These are the only pictures I have from the party:

Where are all the pictures? I know people took pictures? Where are they? Please leave me a comment or email pointing me to pictures. I want to see them!

Guess what was waiting for me when I got home?!?

My latest Better Pal gift! Yay! Jan from Be*mused was my Better Pal. In this package I got the BEST stuff! Some Rowan Wool Cotton – one of my favorite yarns. Some (more) of Lisa Souza’s GORGEOUS Biffle, which happens to be what I have on my wheel at the moment. EXCELLENT coincidence, Jan. Just great. I’m so glad to have more of this fiber. I love it! Of course, some more caramels. (It’s a good thing I got a clean bill at the dentist!) And a super special KIT KAT from Japan. It’s CHERRY BLOSSOM flavor and it’s a Special Edition. Do you believe that? Special Edition Kit Kat. Awesome. Thanks so much JAN! It was a great Better Pal exchange.

My pal was Dalai Mama Liz. She’s a hoot and a half and I tried to knock her socks off with my gifts. I think I succeeded, although at the beginning I thought I gave myself away. Apparently that wasn’t the case because she bought a crapload of STR a couple of weeks ago. Silly girl! I had to call Tina and change all the colors I ordered for Liz at the last minute because she bought them herself! Thanks Liz for being such a great giftee!

I don’t think I ever showed you the GREAT contest win from Danielle.

It’s all silk and silk blends and it’s soft and GORGEOUS and G was really taken with it. No plans for it yet. I love looking at it though and I think it will have a special place in the yarn cabinet. Beautiful stuff. Danielle dyed it all herself too. She gives great contest, so check her out!

Ready for another KAL? Check out Kris, Miyon, and Scout‘s new endeavor. A Rockin’ Sock Club KAL! Did you join the BMFA sock club? Now you can knit the patterns with other members. Check it out!

Speaking of socks, I’m almost through another Jaywalker and Jenn asked the other day about the Embossed Leaves Koigu socks I started. I hate to admit it, but I’m barely through the ribbing. They’ll be getting a boost soon!

That should be random enough! Have a great day!

Knit Olympics? What’s that? We’re talking Team Ikea here. And trust me when I say this is KILLING me. There was cursing. There were tears. And yes, there was even a bit of blood. But I was cruising on this damn sideboard and I could see the home stretch. I had the room all Martha Stewarted out in my mind when it all came down on me in a crushing, soul-sucking moment of misplaced wood.

I’d like to say I’m an expert Ikea builder. At this moment, I have no less than 32 pieces of furniture in my apartment from Ikea – all built almost exclusively by me. Fourteen of those are Billy bookcases, which I can build with my eyes closed. I’m not taking into account the gazillions of pieces of furniture we’ve since thrown out, other pieces I’ve built at my sister’s house, pieces I’ve built for friends. If you want something built from Ikea, you call me.

So yesterday, as I set out to build my gorgeous new yarn cabinet, I did what I always do. First, I spread out all the pieces.

4:07 PM EST

Then, I put together all the nuts and bolts and weird Ikea thingamajiggys that don’t look like they’d hold anything together but somehow they do.

4:31 PM EST

Then I go through the directions at least once to see if there’s anything I haven’t already seen before, and get to work. The worst part of Ikea directions is figuring out which side things go on – there are always so many freaking holes in everything and you really have to pay attention. PAY ATTENTION. Get it? Anyway, I started building around 4:45 and I was cruising along – things were going pretty well. There was a moment or two and some chipped particle board when I tried to get the top of the thing onto the rest of the structure. I think I can safely say the top weighs almost as much as I do and it’s almost as tall as me so trying to get all those wood freaking pegs into the holes while matching up the silver doohickeys almost killed me. I say almost because goddamnit, I did it. All by myself.

7:58 PM EST – Ignorance is bliss!

Once the base structure was up, I took a little break and put the new lamp on top and stood back to admire my work. It was going to be great! And I still might have time to build the nine freaking drawers before G got home. No way was I going to have time to fill it, but that’s okay. He’d get the idea.

I started with a little drawer and the first part went well. I finished the first three and then went to attach the runner track that lets the drawer move in and out smoothly. This is a fairly new Ikea innovation. In the old days you just had these clip things – the drawers stuck a lot. The new way is better, but jeezus it was hard to get those little screws screwed in. I had all my tools around me and alas, I don’t think I had the perfect freaking philips head – even though I had about seven philips head screwdrivers in front of me. At this point, my hands are a mess. My palms are killing me – both of them – from screwing in four thousand screws and my back is aching from sitting hunched over on the floor. At least I stopped sweating from when I was trying to get the two-ton top on the structure. Anyway, I was tired and hungry and I slipped with the screwdriver and managed to screw my thumb instead of the screw. Fucker bled a lot too. In the end, it’s a pretty superficial wound, and I managed to stop the bleeding and get on with my work. Once you start an Ikea piece of furniture, you don’t stop for anything. Well, almost anything.

So I’m getting the drawers down good now. I’m doing all the tops first, then attaching the drawer part and in between I’m attaching the runners, because that’s the hard part with the little screw and the wrong size screwdriver and the bum thumb. Every time I finish a drawer I put it in to see how nice it’s goes in and out. This is when I find out that I’ve attached some of the tracks on the base structure incorrectly. Upside down or the left one on the right and so forth but it’s easily fixed. So I fix it.

Here’s where the agony part comes in. I finish one of the two drawers in the middle and go to put it in. But it’s not going in at all. I figure, okay, time to switch out the track on the body. Check it out. DISASTER. I realize that I’ve made a blunder of such colassal proportions I want to kill myself ON THE SPOT. I want to take one of those ill-fitting philips heads and hammer it through my heart. I want to lay on the floor and PULL OVER the four thousand pound gorilla ON TOP of my body and martyr myself to the Ikea gods.

The tracks weren’t on wrong. THE FUCKING PIECE OF WOOD IS ON WRONG. This is the middle piece of wood holding the whole damn thing together. Possibly the first piece I attached. In order for me to fix this, I would have to TAKE APART THE ENTIRE PIECE OF FURNITURE. Everything connects to this piece of wood. And it’s not freaking particleboard either, or maybe it is, but I tried to make a new hole so I could attach the track in the right direction and I couldn’t get through the piece of wood. At this point I’m so desperately sad I make myself something to eat. And I’m not a tension eater. It’s about 10:30.

Around this time, G calls. He’s on his way home and he can hear that I’m upset but this whole thing was a surprise for him and I’m not going to ruin the last remaining joy in the project just so I can bitch. They’ll be time enough for that when he gets home. I fuck with it a bit more, then he does get home and I proceed to burst into tears immediately. He absolutely LOVES the piece and he’s so upset for me because he knows how these Ikea things are being that he can’t read the directions for shit and usually willingly succumbs to my “so-called” expertise. He gets out the drill (which, admittedly, I don’t know how to work) and we try to drill the hole I’ve made deeper. It sort of works, but it’s all wonky and when you put the drawer in it’s very lopsided. Doesn’t work for me. I cry harder. I’ve now spent a solid seven hours on this thing – and I’m fucked. In order to fix it RIGHT, I will have to take apart the entire thing and start over. It’s doable. It really is. BUT oh my god. G thinks that we can use glue to attach the track. Some super duper gorilla glue that works on wood and metal and it won’t be that big of a deal – because it’s not like we’ll be opening the drawers all the time. We can be delicate. What do you think. Will that work?

Colassal Blunder!

Please tell me it will work. The thought of taking this thing apart and put
ting it back together makes me very, very sad.

The morning after.

And to make matters worse, I moved all the crap from one side of the bedroom to other so I could build this thing and in the process my Olympic knitting – yes – it’s still here – I knit three rounds the other day – somehow got tangled up and I spent the next 45 minutes untangling a ball of navy blue yarn at 12:30 AM. And this morning my hands are swollen and killing me and my wrists hurt and my arms hurt. I’m here to tell you – there’s LOTS of crying in the Olympics.

ETA: Now my picture host is off line. So you can’t even see my pain and misery. Fuck it. I’m going back to bed.

Guess where I was all morning?

I dropped G off at the train – I didn’t even have knitting or water with me – and decided I needed to go to Ikea. And since I was already out of the house, I might as well go now. I called Jen and she was up for it, so Jen, Xavi and I all headed out to Sweden for the day. My intention was baskets. The house is still a mess and it’s driving me crazy, but it’s really hard to clean up when you don’t have anywhere to put anything. My closet has about as many bins as it can hold and I figured some pretty baskets in the living room would be good for holding fiber near the spinning wheel. But I ended up with this:

It’s MY VERY OWN YARN CABINET!!! It will be perfect in the bedroom, right under the Dali print and I can put yarn in it and notions and fiber and I can finally get the crap off the floor. Georgie doesn’t know, so shhhh! He’s out tonight for work, so I’m hoping I can get it all built and filled with crap before he gets home. He’ll be so happy I’m finally cleaning up! I also got a nice basket, and a new lamp for the cabinet. Okey dokey! I better get building!

A simple I love you means more than money.
— Frank Sinatra

I had a beautiful post all written out and I freaking closed the browser. Yes. Without saving. An hour of my life I can’t get back. Nothing I hate more.

So, sigh. Valentine’s Day. Ol Blue Eyes had a way with words, no? G wants me to remind you all that everyday is Valentine’s Day in our house. It really is true. We rarely celebrate circumscribed holidays. We’re never together on Thanksgiving. Christmas is more an obligation than anything. Chanukah was fun this year for a change – and we were together. Birthdays are a REALLY big deal though – because why not celebrate a day that’s special to US instead of the rest of the free world (my birthday is still MY birthday.)

Happy Valentine’s Day if you celebrate. Or happy Tuesday if you don’t.

Last night I called Ann to tell her that her beloved Pug won the Toy Group at Westminster and she yelled at me. Why wasn’t I watching the Olympics?! Why wasn’t I knitting on my mittens?! Didn’t I know I was going to LOSE if I didn’t knit on them every second of every day?! I promptly told her that FINISHING was winning and that I wasn’t in competition with anyone but myself. It’s all about pacing too. Even though I didn’t knit at all yesterday on my Olympic Mittens, I fear I chose a too easy project. I’m pacing myself. I want at least SOME suspense and tension. Right? I am learning a lot though – enough that I now want to make this. Especially after seeing Sydney’s GORGEOUS sweater. My god GORGEOUS! But shhhh! I need more projects like I need another rib. It’s awfully crowded in there.

Also, I’ve been trying to cast on for the Embossed Leaves socks from IK using this lovely Koigu. I’ve cast on twice, with no luck. Today I will succeed. I’m going to do just a regular cast on with the twisted rib on size 2s and go down to 1s on the body. I’ll also be casting on for the next jaywalker. And of course, mitten knitting.

Check back tonight for the WINNERS!

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!