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I dropped off the yellow cropped pullover the other day. (Can't show photos) It sure turned out cute! When I was at the VK offices I saw the (not sure which issue) photo of the Rebecca Taylor lace cardi that I knit. The photo looks pretty great! I can't wait to see the actual printed issue. It's always so fun to see how they style it!

I've ripped out the new cardigan that I'm working on. I mindlessly knit about 14" too many. Huh? Well, actually, I forgot to do some shaping and it totally wasn't going to work. So I ripped (for the 2nd time) the thing. I've reknit back to where I was - almost. It's a really EASY knit. I'm slightly concerned about the sleeves. But I'll write about that when I get to them! I haven't figured them out quite yet. They will be knit cuff to shoulder - vertically - the length of the sleeve instead of the normal horizontal method. ???????

In other non-news, I went hiking in Montauk on Sunday. I found a deer tick on me yesterday..full of blood... GROOOOOOOSSSSSS! I got it out of me but now I'm a little freaked about getting sick. Of course I have a sore throat, headache, stuffy nose and I'm completely exhausted.....It was an awesome hike and there is NO WAY I'll ever do it again. I was covered up head to toe. Almost no skin exposed. And the ticks are really, really, really tiny. I can't handle the creep factor so better to stick to the beach hikes.

Oh, no update on the Dansko situation. I think they are probably just gathering all the different shoes up and will send them out to the kitchen soon??? I can't wait. I wore mine to work 2 nights ago with a pair of slightly thick socks. NO BUENO! So I can't wait for mine either!! hahaha. (The other day, Tanis at Vogue had the same patent leather clogs on as me! wow!)

That's all. Off to my meeting....

Wow!

Here's the latest in my ongoing Shoe Issues:

I wrote about my Dansko issue a week or two ago. That I LOVE my patent leather Dansko clogs but that they absolutely were killing my feet at work. WELL.......

LeAnne from Dansko left a comment suggesting that perhaps I'd been put in the wrong size. And that I should send her an email to discuss. I KNOW, CRAZY, RIGHT? Why is LeAnne reading my silly little blog?

Well, I did get in touch. I explained where I worked, what the "personality" was and how the entire kitchen staff kept seriously encouraging me to "break" in my shoes. Because they loved theirs and wanted me to love mine. Seriously. They took an interest!

Because LeAnne is like the sweetest, most amazing person ever, she thought it might be nice to send the entire kitchen staff a new pair of Dansko Shoes!!! Can you imagine how completely STOKED those crazy cooks were to here that??

She also is sending me a new pair - in the correct size! Huzzah!!!

We love LeAnne!!!!!

Happy Memorial Day! I'll be checking out the new Surf Lodge in Montauk. I have to work tonight but I'll be going out east after work! So, yeeeha, I'll be at the beach in the morning!!!!!! And having cocktails at the latest place to hit Montauk in like 30 years tomorrow night!

F/W '08

A few of the handknits for fall:

Scarf:



Sweater using vinyl and satin tape:



Crazy satin tape skirt:




Giant square with huge horizontal cable across the back:







Strange hat with hanging yarn, vinyl, satin:




Cashmere/mohair turtleneck w/sleeves:

So,

My swatch is perfect! It grew 1.5" in width once it was dry and it shrunk an inch in height. But I'm very happy with the total fabric. I'm going to get started on the front today and see where I end up. I'm working for someone tonight so I only have a few hours to knit. It's a pretty simple pattern so hopefully I'll make some headway. There are 2 garter sts in the middle of it and I seem to have a problem remembering to knit on the rs/ws... D'uh!!


My Dansko clogs are breaking in. I've been wearing them to work and I've totally been HATING them. But I've tried to have an open mind. And lo and behold there is some forward motion. They still kill the balls of my feet at the end of the night but everywhere else seems to be ok. Also, my Kork-ease (eaze?) are awesome for work. The only problem is that the toes are open and sometimes when I'm not being a neat freak, I get "stuff" on my toes - bartending stuff (alcohol, juices, whatever....grosssssssss). but I kind of love wearing them! I've tossed the crocs. They were absolutely HORRIBLE. Super Ugly, Super uncomfortable and too low to the ground!
And the ballet flats are well ballet flats. Nothing to write home about. They're fine. I never seem to wear them though.

Ok, off to knit a Left Front!

Take 2

Ok, as promised, yesterday I went to Knitty City, Purl, and Kinokuniya. Oh, I also went to Knit New York. I had a feeling that I would be on my own in charting my cable. But I was interested in seeing any new books/yarn, whatever. Clearly the energy it took to get to all of these stores was way more than sitting down for 10 minutes and charting but whatev...

It was interesting. I was slightly disappointed in the Japanese books. They were kind of a reprint of the other books out there....They only had about 3 or 4 stitch books...one had 500, another 300 and one with 100 patterns. Nothing new in the cable sections. When I went to the yarn stores I was given the obvious books...Barbara Walker's, the Harmony Guides. I looked through some of the recent "cable" design books. Nothing new. But that was ok. I had fun.

When I got home I sat down and charted my sweet little 1x1 cable. It literally took about 5 minutes. I knit it up. Ripped it out. Knit it again. And ripped it out again. It wasn't going to work. I didn't take a photo but trust me. It didn't work. It was still too fat. Soooooo......

I knit this up this morning. Another swatch with your basic Oval Cable. I think the size is what is should be. It's not super huge or super small. But just right.

This is it pre-soak.....




And after, it's wet in this photo. Curiously it shrunk in height by 1"!!! Isn't that crazy? It gained about 1.5" in width. I'll see what happens after it's dry. Maybe it will pull in.



I also realized after I said that I had a month to knit this that I really only have 2 weeks. Yikes! But it knits up pretty fast. I have to work for the next 3 nights and it's raining so maybe I'll just hang out inside and knit????

Does Your Brain Get Tired?

I need to replicate this beautiful twisted cable pattern. Easy, right?

I've been putting it off because I thought I would be able to just open up any one of my many stitch pattern books, find the pattern and get on with it.....



WRONG!!! No such luck....

UGH!




Obviously my yarn is waaaaaay thicker than the sample. But this cable is a 2x2 rib instead of the 1x1 in the other photo. This is soooooooo UGLY. The other one is pretty and dainty. This is like a bulldozer. It's gross.

A simple solution to my problem would be to just write out the pattern for the pretty, dainty cable.

I DON'T WANT TO. MY BRAIN IS TIRED........I'd rather look through the nice picture books in the yarn store!

So, I'm off to kinokuniya book store. I've been meaning to go there for ages. I am totally in love with the Japanese stitch books. When I was working on the Rebecca Taylor piece for VK, Adina loaned me her Japanese books. I wanted to keep them all!!! There is just something so right about their books....

I'll let you know what I find. I have 1 month to make this sweater. If in one month I'm sweating it out, this is the reason why. I just didn't want to write out the simple directions for a couple of twisted stitches. Sometimes I'm such a disappointment!! hahaha.

Finished! (almost)

I've pretty much finished this cute-as-a-button cropped top. I just need to graft one underarm, give it a bath and block it. What a fun and easy knit! It took me a little longer than I anticipated because I absolutely refused to crunch numbers. So I would knit a little, put it on the dress form, knit a little more, try it on me, knit a little...rip a little...and so on. But I've got it all worked out. I'm going to write up the pattern and then hand it off to Vogue Knitting! I hope it looks great in photography.





I'm about to start on an interesting cashmere cardigan (for VK). It's a self-belting cardigan. The interesting part is that the arms are worked lengthwise. So it will be tricky to get them to actually fit and fit into the body without looking like a total sack. It has some fun cables and some architectural stitches that enhance the overall fit/look of the sweater. Hard to explain. I'll try as I go along.

First things first, I have to make a pretty large swatch that includes all of the cables....I'm using a new as of yet unnamed Stacy Charles yarn. I'll show photos when I have something to show!

I'm loving the NO PRODUCTION knitting law that I've laid down for myself. I feel so much more relaxed about my knitting. I feel like I'm procrastinating a bit for some reason but my day to day stress level has been greatly reduced. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Knitting and loving it again!

Happy Mothers Day!

I bought this...

The ipod touch





I will be getting a new phone at the end of the month. I absolutely despise my phone. It's a Treo 700p. Whenever I talk on it all of the buttons start pressing for no reason. The person on the other end of the line only hears beeps and buzzes.

My phone service is with Verizon. It is hands down the best service in Manahattan and that is where I spend most of my time. I've had every other service in town and it's no joke, Verizon blows them all away. Therefore AT&T will never be an option. (no iphone for me).

My ipod was swiped a few months ago. And at the same time my computer crashed. So I lost all access to my vast library of music. I've been looking around at different options. But I seemed t0 always end up back at Apple.

I need text messaging. I need music. I REALLY need email. I need contacts. I need a calendar. I need photos of projects I'm working on...Good ones.

I was obviously thinking blackberry but had serious reservations about it. But after my crappy time with the Treo I was feeling like low tech was where I wanted to be.

So that meant I would have text messaging and phone service from the phone. I needed something else for music, internet, photo storage, etc. The ipod touch fit the bill.

That said, I don't think it's for everyone. Internet service is only available when you are in a wireless situation. Like your home, or wherever free wi-fi is. In NYC it's pretty much everywhere. If I lived in a more rural location I don't know if it would be so fantastic.

Also, there isn't a camera. But I love my dinky little Olympus Verve. I prefer photos on it than on a phone. So I just take pictures like normal and they automatically download to my ipod touch. I can pick and choose.

The greatest thing for me about this is that I got it on ebay. New in the box. Never opened for about 100.00 less than the cheapest going rate. I bid on a few and lost each time by like 5.00. It made me crazy. So I sniped and voila. My ipod touch.

Regarding my phone...ugh. I think I'll get the new env (2). low tech but with a qwerty....I'm still looking into phones.

I'm almost done with the cropped pullover. I managed to get a bunch of knitting in yesterday at the salon. Yay!

My Next Project

First of all, I'm not sure if I mentioned the yarn that I used for the buckled pullover. It was Classic Elite Bam Boo. Really a great yarn to work with. It has fantastic drape but can hold up under the pressure of cables. It has a lovely hand and a nice sheen. It makes a very sophisticated fabric.

OK, next up is this cute cropped pullover. ( I won't be showing any more pix though because it's another VK project) This is the yarn that flew onto the subway tracks! At least it's 100% machine washable! I'm using Dalegarn Falk. Not the softest yarn in the store but it certainly holds it's own in the stitch definition department. I never use machine washable yarn so this is new to me.



This top is going to be SUPER cute. Really fast. Really easy. Excellent payoff. This top would look really awesome with a pair of high waisted pants that are totally in fashion right now...Perhaps in a different color - white? Like maybe using that Bam boo yarn? Cute.





I'm off to the new Eva Scrivo Salon. I can't wait to see the place. I've only gotten emails and post cards. My usual location coincidentally burned down the weekend her new location opened. Fishy, right? Anyway, I can't wait to see it.

I'm Finished!

After much belly aching I decided to rip the sleeves. I reknit them both. Finished up the sweater and wrote out the pattern. I've emailed the pattern to vk and will drop off the sweater tomorrow.

Next...

Sometimes I need 4 hands

I've been very busy. Sorry for the disappearing act...

I've been finishing up a pullover for VK. It was due on the 1st but I took the weekend to work on the pattern. Since I had a few extra days I decided to give the sweater a nice soak so that the cables would all relax and look beautiful. Well, they did and they do. HOWEVER, my sleeves grew.... a lot! So, my dilemma is this...do I take both sleeves out and rip back...way back to before the sleeve cap? or do I leave it and hope they can fix it in photography? I HAVE to deliver this tomorrow. And I HAVE to write the pattern. But I also want the sweater to be received well. Not like - oh, here we go again with this knitter.... WHY DID I BLOCK THIS SWEATER?

I'll let you know what I decide. I'm heavily leaning toward ripping back. It would take me a bunch of hours but I feel pretty strongly about delivering a totally gorgeous sweater.

A few nondescript shots:







While waiting for the train yesterday on my way to work I was knitting on the next sweater that's due. My yarn was in my purse and I was zipping along listening to music totally in my own world. Suddenly, I pulled a little too hard and my yarn flew out of my bag and onto the subway tracks!! It was pretty funny. I tried to yank on it to pull it back up but it just kept unwinding. A nice guy that was standing next to me said he would get it. I was like NO WAY Don't go on the tracks. I mean was he CRAZY?? He got down on his hands and knees and started yanking on the yarn...He had a backpack on and as he yanked it pushed him forward (I guess it was heavy) and he almost fell onto the tracks. It was totally freaky!!! I told him that it was no big deal, REALLY. STOP!! I kept winding it back up but was getting really grossed out thinking about rats and funk on the tracks so I decided to just break the yarn and move on....

I'm totally sad that for the 2nd year in a row I'm missing the MDSW Festival. I have absolutely no reason to go but I really love going. Maybe next year.

I am going to a county fair this year in August. I was thinking about entering something??? But I don't think I'll have time. Wouldn't that be fun?

As an update, my shoe issues are still not worked out.

Off to fix my sweater.....