And we're back...

New York was wonderful - perfect weather, good food and company, a foray to The Age of Rembrandt at the Met - even if I didn't visit a single yarn shop and missed Spin Out in the Park. I did get a fair bit of Clapotis knit up, especially as Bravo had a 30 Rock marathon during my return flight (love DirecTV on JetBlue!). Tina Fey is awesome! Most of the episodes I'd seen, but there were a few that were new to me. Anyway, I giggled my way back to Chicago and the leetle lady, who had a great "bacation" with Grandma and Grandpa while I had mine back East.

So, this show at the Met. What a ridiculous way to organize - by robber baron donor! Never mind that there are five Vermeers and 20 Rembrandts, it's all about who donated the paintings to the museum and when the pieces entered the collection. The show did crystalize for me that I prefer Dutch floral still life painting, as well as other still life works (table scenes, mostly) to portraits and plein air pieces. Frans Hals leaves me cold. And the Vermeers were not as stunning as I had hoped. Well, actually Young Woman with a Water Pitcher is gorgeous, and A Maid Asleep is a tour de force of light, which is what I realized I respond to in Dutch painting. Maybe that's a "duh" for everyone else, but it was a little revelation for me. The show was crowded (we went Saturday early evening before dinner in Soho), but it is fun to experience the New York crowd.

I'll try to get a progress shot of Clapotis this afternoon (it's incredibly misty here this morning). The yarn is great, and the drops are fun. The first one I made was for my mom in handpaintedyarn.com's wool laceweight, a single-ply, sticky yarn that made the drops a bit of a chore. I'm on the third skein and think I will end up using four of the five, leaving the last skein of Koigu for Endpaper Mitts.

In knits in New York news, I did wear my Reading-in-bed Shrug Saturday morning out to brunch.

Off to New York City!

Be good, kiddos. I'm off for a real vacation for the weekend. Who knows how much knitting I'll get done without a toddler to manage in the air! I'll report back on my adventures on Monday.

Clapotis, take two

For those of you who haven't knit Clapotis, why not join us on the Second Wave KAL? And for those of you who've been with me for a while, yes, I did knit one before, but I couldn't resist when my friend Bridget started this one.

Isn't my yarn pretty? I wanted to wait to take a picture until I'd dropped at least one stitch (the big exciting part of this pattern, you know). And now I have my new fall bag to show with it. I didn't even realize when I chose the brown over the red that it would look so nice with my shawl-to-be. And the skein of brown Koigu is to make a pair of Endpaper Mitts for my friend Keri's Fingerless Mitts for Fall KAL with the leftovers from Clapotis. I think I'll pause on the Clap, knit the mitts, and then finish the shawl with the rest of the yarn. What do you think? But then I also think I should go with a slightly more solid and light-colored yarn for the contrast. The Endpapers I've really liked in Ravelry have been high-contrast.

Something to think about, anyway.

Happy Blogiversary, Keri!

Belated Blogiversary

Purly is one! And six days. Wow, I can't even tell you how much has happened in the last year. It's kind of insane. Thank you for coming along with me; there are more adventures to come.

For now, of course, there is knitting. I'm working on my first BSJ for my ... niece once removed (my sister-in-law's brother's baby). It's a lovely, squishy garter-stitch adventure. I'm using the 100purewool worsted yarn in Pasionaria (rose and lilac) on US5s. So far, so good. I'm nearing the end of the first skein and have started the increase portion, so I should make it with only the other skein.

I'll have to get the camera out and snap some pics, especially as I received some lovely birthday presents: four skeins of Misti Alpaca Worsted Handpaint in blues and greys from my bro, sis-in-law, and sis (mmm, alpaca); a two-year subscription to Interweave Knits from my BFF (yippee!); and a Jane Austen action figure from my dear former roomies (squee!).

ETA: I also had a lovely birthday breakfast today with Miss Isobel and my dear friend Nicole (hi!) who almost fell out of her chair when I mixed it up by ordering a Pecan Waffle instead of my usual Dutch Baby and Hashbrowns at Walker Bros. The benefit of being back in Wilmette is that I get to indulge in such goodies more than once or twice a year so don't have to order the same things I've been getting since childhood.

All in all a good turn of the year for me and the blog I'd say.

Oh, almost forgot, since I took a break from it, but the back of the Slouchy Cardi is complete, and I cast on for the right front. It is going well, but the surprise hot weather (90 degrees on Monday and again tomorrow they say) makes smaller projects more palatable.

Feathers and Fans

Crazy feather yarn I purchased at Whitefish Bay Farm. The Turkey Feather Yarn was crafted by Fiber Artist Laurie Boyer in Wisconsin and consists of turkey feathers, Salish x English Leicester wool, and cotton thread. I have ten yards and am thinking of some sort of scarf/necklace thing to wear to a charity fashion show next month with a grey wrap dress.



And here is some 100purewool yarn for Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket from The Opinionated Knitter in Pasionaria for my brother-in-law-in-law's new baby girl (that would be my brother's wife's brother's baby). I haven't done one of these yet, but the yarn has been sitting in my stash for a while and needs knitting, and I think the variegated yarn should look lovely in this pattern.



And here is the Zephyr DK (which I consider more of an aran or knitting worsted) at the start of my Slouchy Cardi. First sleeve is complete, and I cast on for the back last night. I've come to the conclusion that for me, now, knitting stockinette back and forth is sometimes easier on my wrists than in the round a la Cobblestone. Knitting in one piece means you have the weight of all the yarn on your needles, even though it's distributed along the circular needle. Some knit-bloggers extol the virtues of top-down raglan knitting, but with Cobblestone I realized that I like knitting the sleeves and then attaching them to the body, rather than knitting the sleeves once the body is complete.



Loving the yarn! The sheen! The texture! I foresee more Zephyr in my future.

As for fandom, the new Knitty is up! Neiman would give me an outlet for the two skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk in Turquoise sitting in the stash. And it's a bottom-up seamless raglan. How apropros! And I haven't done any stranded colorwork yet, so this would be good. The other appealing pattern at first blush is Cinderella. I started a pair of socks recently using the Yankee Knitter family sock pattern (#29 at the bottom of the page) and some nice sock yarn from Laughing Rat Studio. I started out OK but got bored (sorry, sock knitters of the world!). But Cinderella may kindle an interest in socks again. I really like that heraldic pattern and had tagged it in my copy of BW's Second Treasury. Plus these are knit on US4s!

Happy Birthday to me!

Make a wish...


Off to storytime with my girl, but not before receiving a beautiful bouquet of roses from a dear friend for my birthday.


And tonight we've got a pizza party with my BFF's family. The Wilson Family dinner is tomorrow night.

I'll post a picture of the crazy feather yarn during naptime. Promise!

Finished!

OK, I just popped Cobblestone into a lavender bath. I hope it fits the intended recipient. There will be pictures after it's been gifted.

In the meantime, how about some "live" shots of Icarus?