Stix and the City

Youse have to start finishing up this project already.

2011-10-24T00:24:00.001-04:00

Still plugging away on Delphine- it's a little difficult to plow through the last few inches before the armholes when you have three sets of directions to follow at the same time. It's also difficult to pay attention when you're sitting here knitting along to Real Housewives of NJ...

On the needles

2011-10-16T22:20:00.001-04:00

Since I'm not the prolific knitter I once was, I'm trying to choose my projects more carefully, and only make the stuff I desperately want. Nothing is worse than wasting a few hours on a meh project, only to rip it and wish you'd spent that time making something amazing.

Anyway, I bought French Girl Knits a while ago, and every time I open it I start drooling over all the lace and textures. For whatever reason, I kept putting off making anything, maybe because the garments look intimidating, even though the patterns are so clearly and easily written.

Here is the first 12" or so of Delphine:

Sorry the photo is a little dark- I'm still trying to figure out my camera;)

The ice breaker

2011-10-15T10:09:00.000-04:00

So I haven't blogged in about a year, and it's just too difficult and too cliched to come up with an all encompassing post to catch up. Instead, I'm just going to say, I missed writing and, fingers crossed, I'll be posting again shortly.

oh crap, the year's almost over.

2010-12-28T22:53:00.002-05:00

Let me quickly sum up 2010: my son turned two (sniff, he's such a big man now), we went to the beach every weekend during the summer, we had another baby. Life is good.

Here's to blogging more often...

i promise i haven't died

2010-07-11T22:22:00.004-04:00

I'm just studying for the bar exam, which it turns out, is just one step away from dying. I will be back to guilt- free crafting in a few weeks. See you then!

it's new year's already??

2009-12-31T23:25:00.003-05:00

I swear, i'm so messed up by having a week off that I didn't realize it was New Year's Eve today until it was mentioned on the radio. I really like New Year's, even though we never do anything, just for the whole formality of ending a year, and the anticipation of what's to come.

One of the topics going around Twitter tonight is "what were you doing ten years ago?" I have no idea what I was doing back then except that I was thinking the whole Y2k thing was a bunch of crap- that's how memorable my life was back in the day. Fast forward ten years- I have a husband and baby that I adore, and a life where the most mundane events are enjoyed and documented in ridiculous detail. I'm pretty sure in another ten years, I'm going to look back on tonight (well, technically I guess I could look it up in the SATC archives, but that's not the point) and remember fondly that we stayed home, watched Bruce on tv together, and our last meal of 2009 was Bobby Flay's Burger Palace. The perfect end to the year...

I don't have a "genius ideas" tag for nothing

2009-11-21T22:02:00.004-05:00

So I decided to spruce up the baby's new room with a fresh coat of paint. Aside from being a bright-like-the-sun shade of yellow, the room was in beautiful condition. Now since I'm kind of on the sensitive side when it comes to breathing in chemicals/ perfumes/ etc., I like working with no-VOC paints (be quiet, art school classmates!) now, and natural cleaners.

My attempt to create a nice, healthy room totally backfired! After painting the room (which looked amazing, if I do say so myself), I wanted to make sure the floor was really clean because we were using old dropcloths covered in who knows what. Instead of just mopping the floor with my regular Murphy's Oil Soap and having to wait for it to dry, I decided to spray some of that Clorox Green Works stuff on the floor and wipe it up with paper towels. I've used that cleaner a million times (not on wood floor) without incident, and truly thought it would be faster and cleaner than [what turns into] dirty mop water. CLEANING FAIL.

I have no idea what happened, but the cleaner left this noxious smell in the room that airing out overnight with the windows wide open and fans everywhere could not kill! I had to re-mop the floor like 5 times with plain water to neutralize the odor. The weird thing was it didn't smell bad, exactly, it just messed up your throat post nasal drip style.

So next time you're tempted to clean your wood floor with some kind of new fangled cleaner, be warned! It's that whole ounce of prevention thing.

**PS- in case anyone thinks we made the baby sleep in this stinky room for 3 days, we didn't. He was safe :)

knitting time is not on my side

2009-11-17T22:52:00.003-05:00

The painting is finally finished!!! Too bad there is still so much to do- no spare time for anything remotely crafty :(

Unless... maybe painting counts as crafty? Hmmm....

There needs to be a place...

2009-11-16T22:23:00.002-05:00

where all the stuff you need for your particular home renovation project, and only yours, is housed in one store. Oh, and they would ,of course, be the best deal, best quality, in stock, and ready for delivery the next day. Let's get cracking on that.

clearly my stay-at-home-mom days are numbered...

2009-11-15T23:10:00.002-05:00

...seeing as I am sitting here working at 11pm on a Sunday night.

Something to consider when buying a home.

2009-11-14T23:19:00.003-05:00

The Barnes & Noble near our new house has a much better knitting section than the one near our old house.

Well that didn't take very long...

2009-11-13T23:53:00.001-05:00

Already locked myself out of the house. This must be some kind of record.

too busy to enjoy this typhoon we're having...

2009-11-12T23:38:00.002-05:00

This week's east coast weather is not conducive to moving. That is all.

2009-11-10T21:45:00.000-05:00

We moved!

2009-11-06T23:10:00.001-05:00

feeling blue...

search for the drama, ghost hunters!

2009-11-04T23:25:00.002-05:00

So I'm sitting here watching Ghost Hunters, and I haven't heard a single thing anyone has said. Again. I've come to the conclusion that it's not that I have ghost ADD- it's that the show has become mind-numbingly dull. Where is the drama from the previous seasons?? I miss that one guy who went over to Ghost Hunters International. You know the one- he'd always fight with Steve, screw up during the investigation... oh, and he was the one who screamed, "dude, run!!" and then took off running in that prison episode.

I used to love coming home from school and seeing G.H. waiting for me on tivo, but now, it's pretty much turned into this:

A sweater saved is... nothing really earned.

2009-11-03T23:22:00.002-05:00

But it is pretty cool! I almost threw out this sweater since it was way too tight when I finished it a few months back, but a voice in the back of my head kept telling me to hang on to it. Turns out the voice was right- after losing a little weight, it's a perfect fit!

Pattern: Alexandra Ballet Top from Fitted Knits
Yarn: LionBrand Landscapes
Needles: 10.5

when all else fails, there's christopher.

2009-11-02T22:49:00.004-05:00

Sadly, I apparently had no interesting thoughts run through my head today that are worth mentioning here. So instead, I bring you Mr. Christopher Walken and his dramatic reading of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face"...

NaBloPoMo begins... how long can I keep up?

2009-11-01T22:18:00.004-05:00

Ok, so NaBlogPoMo starts today and I'm going to attempt to participate again this year in an attempt to pull out of my blogging slump. Last year, I think I made it about a week, but this time, I'm really going to give it a good effort. Anyway, I have a good excuse for not posting in 6 months- how could I possibly follow that last concert post??

Lots of knitting going on over here- as usual, I have a million projects going at the same time. I'm many inches into the Owls pullover:

It's a nice quick knit, on large needles (this photo is of the back, btw). I have no idea where this yarn came from though- I bought it from the MD Sheep and Wool Festival this year, but I lost the receipt for it somehow. :( All I know is that it came from a local farm, and that the guy who spun it looked exactly like Ed Bradley. Anyone want to take a guess?

I'm also almost at the end of my Fitted Raglan Shawl online class with Stefanie Japel. I enjoyed the online format; Stefanie made a bunch of step by step videos to teach you the lace chart and how to make it through any of the tricky parts. The only thing I had trouble with (not the fault of the class) was having time to participate in the online chat once a week. It's amazing how having a toddler can make it tough to find time for something as flexible as a 1 hour online conversation. Anyway, I'm a little behind, but steadily making progress:

I'm using NaturallyCaron.com yarn, which although labeled worsted weight, is somewhere around dk weight. I liked the weight of the fabric when knitted up on size 9's, which is in between the pattern's recommended dk and worsted needle sizes.

It's also a pretty fast knit, as well as an easy pattern to memorize. Stefanie did a really nice job of explaining how to read your knitting, and comparing it to the lace chart, so you can always find your place. That skill definitely speeds things up, especially if you're like me, and always putting your work down without making a note as to where you left off. I'm always like, oh, I'll remember! Never happens.

I also finished a sleepy monkey blanket, and amazingly, it was in time for its intended recipient: my new nephew, who was born yesterday!

I loved this pattern- so much fun to work on. The little monkey faces appear really quickly, which keeps thing interesting. It took a really long time to put together, but I think that was due to my not using long enough circular needles to do the border. Usually that's not such a big deal, but when you have like 300 stitches, it's a pain.

I used Lion Brand Fisherman's wool for all the colors, except for the red, which is Paton's Classic Merino, all in worsted weight.

If I don't post tomorrow, come over here and tell me how sad I am for lasting but one day in NaBloPoMo...

Bruuuuuce!

2009-06-24T22:36:00.006-04:00

I realized that I totally forgot to post about the Springsteen concert!

First, thanks so much to Janet for taking these pics and sending us the link! Ok, so here are pics from Hershey Park Stadium:

Mr. Stix and I scored some sweet spots in the General Admission area, right behind the wait in line for 6 hours to get some wrist band and be touching the stage area. We were literally 75 feet back from the band and had a metal railing to lean on.

Here is our view of the stage:

Bruuuce!!

Steve Van Zandt:

I don't know how Bruce does this move without killing himself. This guy is in amazing shape- the band played for THREE HOURS STRAIGHT, all the while he's running and jumping around. Can you believe he's almost 60??

Clarence and Bruce:

Best sign of the night: "If you play Twist and Shout, I will burn my Hannah Montana cd's!" Needless to say, they played Twist and Shout :)

Look at all the signs!

Max Weinberg was unable to be there because he was working on Conan, so his 18 year old son, Max filled in. He was amazing! A total pro- you'd never guess he just graduated high school!

This was my first Springsteen concert and it definitely won't be the last. I've never seen a band so into making their fans happy.

Setlist:Badlands
Spirit in the Night
Outlaw Pete
Radio Nowhere
Out in the Street
Twist and Shout
Working on a Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Raise Your HandGive the Girl a Kiss
Trapped
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Backstreets
Kingdom of Days
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born to Run
* * *
Hard Times
Thunder Road
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Land of Hope and Dreams
American LandRosalita
Bobby Jean

A mighty omelette forged in the heat of battle...

2009-06-05T23:15:00.007-04:00

Ok, so I know I was supposed to be cutting the Monkey blanket steeks by now, but I still haven't finished knitting yet- 13 rows to go. Thanks for all your lovely comments here and on Rav! I can't wait for you to see it when it's finished.

While working on the blanket last night, I ended up knitting to Man vs. Food. The host travels the country to various restaurants famous for extreme dishes (i.e. super spicy/ gigantic/ weird) and then attempts to eat them and get his picture on the wall or whatever. In one episode, the guy goes to some place in Denver that offers a 7 pound breakfast omelette that was the size of my head. He attempts to eat it (there's no time limit, and it has been done before) and totally gives up without even puking or passing out, even though the whole crowd was cheering him on. What a loser! Maybe it's me, but if you are going to represent ALL OF MAN in Man vs. Food, you better bring your A game. The food stepped up here, but the man was an epic fail. Check it out here under under Denver Time Lapse.

Looking forward to a nice, juicy steek

2009-06-03T23:55:00.002-04:00

So I am working on the Monkey blanket from Twist Collective- it's a surprise for my SIL's baby shower in a few months and I actually gave myself enough time to finish it. Originally, I planned on making the sock monkey baby blanket from SnB: The Happy Hooker, but I didn't have the patience to teach myself crochet. Too confusing. However, I'm actually thankful for my impatience, because I think this blanket is really going to kick ass.

Each side is knit in the round, and then you cut steeks to flatten. Sides are attached and then the borders are picked up and knitted. The original pattern has this southwesternish border that I'm going to change. Instead, I'm going to use red, and the brown/white mix to give it more of a sock monkey look:

Keep your fingers crossed that I don't screw up the steeks. I'm going to sew the crap out of the seams before I cut them, so I'm sure it will be fine...

The King likes square butts?

2009-04-08T22:40:00.004-04:00

Ok, I couldn't believe this is a real commercial, but it just came on tv, so apparently kids' meal advertising just got waaaaay more inappropriate.

Thanks Leah for posting this on Twitter this morning!

Walk like crabs, talk like people

2009-04-08T00:26:00.002-04:00

I'm watching Deadliest Catch right now, and all I can think of is how Mr. Stix and I watched this show day and night for weeks when Baby Stix was first born. It was on Discovery Channel NON-STOP and it was the only real show on during the really early hours (you know, infomercial territory) whenI had to get up every 2 hours for feedings. I owe my sanity during that time in part to Captain Sig and the other guys, so thanks king crabs for being delicious, living in the Bering Sea, and being the subject of compelling reality tv.

Godzilla has a sensitive side.

2009-04-05T23:22:00.005-04:00

Gah! I'm still being a lazy blogger and a very active Tweeter. Oh well...

As promised a million years ago, I have some project pictures! Here are my Mosey legwarmers (US 8 needles; Paton's Classic Merino in Natural Mix):

Here is Godzilla modeling the Miss Dashwood hat (Lion Brand Cupcake in violet). He's pretty secure in his masculinity, so he took one for the team here:

Apparently, purple is a good color for him.

Our friends had a little baby girl a few weeks ago, so I finally had the opportunity to knit up this little hat. It's so cute and knits up extremely quickly.

Finally, I also cast on for the Lacy Dolman from Glam Knits. It gives me the chance to get rid of left over mustard color Paton's Classic Merino (it's from all the little Gryffindor items that only require a yard or two as an accent stripe), and for Mr. Stix to see me in something other than my cozy, yet boxy gray cardigan.

I think he's excited :)

Twitter = my ADD blog

2009-03-11T23:30:00.004-04:00

Ok, I have to admit it- I'm hooked on Twitter. I wish there was a way to blog as quickly and easily (minus the 140 character requirement). Maybe then I wouldn't have these month long absences...

So the word around Ravelry yesterday was that Tuesday Morning was selling amazing yarns like Arucania for dirt cheap. So many people were posting that they had gone over and that the rumors were true. Since we have two of those stores in our area, I decided to run over this morning and see the selection.

What a dump!! I thought the stores would be like Marshall's or something inside- bare bones, but at least clean. Tuesday Morning reminded me of that discount store in Romy and Michelle where Lisa Kudro can't believe the manager paid a whole dollar for his tie (including his employee discount!). It was horrible, but undeterred, I looked for yarn and found 3 sad little bins the size of loaf pans. The yarn was crap; I could've easily found better stuff at JoAnn's. Mweh! Oh well. Not like I needed to add to the piles of yarn I already have. There's still tons of stashbusting to be done.

I've been working on a bunch of projects concurrently, and most of them are about 75% finished. Too lazy for pictures tonight, so let me explain. Not enough time to explain- lemme sum up: I just have the thumb left on the Fig and Plum engagement mitts, using leftover Gryffindor red Paton's Merino, and leftover Arucania from an old Clapotis. I'm a few inches away from finishing the Mosey legwarmers, and 1-1/2 sleeves away from finishing the Loop d Loop Ballet tshirt in sugar n' cream navy cotton. Whew!

We're going to another book signing this weekend, this time for Kat Von D. It's a collection of (surprise!) tattoo art- pretty cool from what I saw when I flipped through it the other day. What I'm really excited about is getting a picture of Kat with Baby Stix (while he's wearing his sweet tattoo t-shirt).

2009-02-09T15:17:00.001-05:00

Not nearly as gifted as his half brother Dirk Diggler, Riggs Distler had no choice but to enter the contracting field...

I will totally step away from the guacamole dip and put the chicken fingers down.

2009-02-08T22:59:00.006-05:00

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the internets? Despite the total douchebaggery on Ticketmaster's part, I found GENERAL ADMISSION FLOOR TICKETS TO THE SPRINGSTEEN CONCERT at a different venue along with a 15% off code online. Wheeeee!!! Hey Steve, what time is it?!?!

Like this wasn't the best news ever, I also found out that my favorite celebrity chef Bobby Flay (sorry Alton!) was holding a book signing at Bobby's Burger Palace in NJ:

I must have sounded like the biggest dork-- "I Tivo Boy Meets Grill every day!" and "you should have your wife on the show more- you guys are so cute together!"-- but he was very gracious and talked to/ took pictures* with everyone.

Here's my signed cookbook:

and our post-meeting lunch:

Nothing like a burger covered in guacamole and cheese and a chocolate shake to make standing in line for an hour and a half totally worth it...

Oh yeah, and I'm on Twitter now- come follow me!

*Note: Mr. Stix is in a moustache growing contest at work. In case you're wondering...

Didn't Tickemaster know it was Boss time?

2009-02-05T00:26:00.008-05:00

As you all know, I'm originally from Jersey. I love all the typical Jersey things: going down the shore, rooting for the Giants, going to diners at 2am, and letting other people pump my gas. And like any good Jersey girl, I love Bruce Springsteen.

While some people were rooting for the Steelers or the Cardinals on Sunday, I was rooting for Bruce:

Tickets went on sale for his 2009 tour this week. Now here's the problem: Ticketmaster is a bunch of jerks. Have you read about this in the news? If you try to order tickets for the May concert at the Meadowlands (read: Izod Center), you can't because Ticketmaster sold them all to some other company called TicketsNow. Guess how much tickets there cost? For a single ticket in section 103 (I forget which row, but it's off to the side of the stage), it's $1600. For one ticket. WTF??

Anyway, I've resigned myself to the fact that I won't be at the concert, and the closest I'm going to get this year is listening to E Street Radio on Sirius or watching the Barcelona concert on DVD. Oh, and apparently I'm not the only one who put that DVD on their Netflix queue. Status? LONG WAIT. Ugh.

1-20-09 -- The end of an error

2009-01-19T23:39:00.003-05:00

We're pretty excited about the inauguration tomorrow- here's some of the swag I made :

Baby Stix is pretty excited- it's his first inauguration and first opportunity to wear a political bib. :)

Welcome to the White House, Mr. President- we've been waiting 8 long years for someone like you!

Oh NPH!

2009-01-15T13:25:00.002-05:00

Selvage, smelvage

2009-01-12T21:54:00.003-05:00

Well, since it's apparently January 12th already, my resolution to blog more is already shot...

I finished a couple of projects since last month- the Alexandra ballet top is all finished, washed and is drying now (I can't even call it blocking, since I didn't pin it down- I just stretched it out and laid it on top of a sweater drying rack.) Hopefully it will fit, otherwise I guess I will have to re-wash it and block properly. Pictures to follow...

I've started on the Multiplicity sweater from Sensual Knits (stop snickering, Lisa!) and have about 15 inches of the back finished so far. This is a really cool sweater for those who haven't seen it yet. There is a long strip attached to the neckline and buttons running across one shoulder so you can either wrap the strip around your neck like a cowl or just throw the strip over your shoulder like a scarf. Ingenious.

The only thing I'm not enjoying with this pattern is that it calls for a selvage stitch to run down the sides of all pieces. Like a good little knitter, I followed the directions carefully and added this in- however, it turns out that there is no good reason to do this because it's going to be seamed together anyway. Even worse, it's more likely that my seams will look worse than they would had I left the selvage out (ie little gaps and holes), so I'm thinking I might omit it for all the subsequent pieces. Maybe no one will notice...

Bye 2008!

2008-12-31T21:45:00.003-05:00

Jeez, is it December 31st already?? This had to have been the fastest flying year of my life- I'm not even sure what happened (especially since I didn't blog much at all- D'oh!). Most of the year centered around the arrival of the incomparable Baby Stix. It's weird to think that he's only been around for months, because it seems like he's been a part of our lives forever.

Here's looking forward to another year of new discoveries, love, laughter, and (hopefully) law school graduation and bar passage.

Happy New Year everyone!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-24T23:08:00.003-05:00

Wishing you peace, joy, and Godzilla

this holiday season!

who wants to be seduced by the king?

2008-12-23T01:43:00.004-05:00

No, not Elvis- the Burger King. Check out the new Burger King cologne: Flame! (Make sure you keep clicking the middle of the screen where it says, "click to spray." It goes through different romantic scenes until you end up with the King wearing a towel in front of a roaring fire attempting to seduce you.) Best part? The tagline- ""Behold the scent of seduction, with a hint of flame broiled meat." Gross!

Shut up stupid, you just fired at a White Elephant

2008-12-20T23:15:00.006-05:00

We have an Xmas tradition in our family called the White Elephant- everyone wraps a secret ridiculous gift and puts them into a pile. Then each person either picks from the pile, or they can steal a previously opened gift. Every year, we try to contribute the most ridiculous gift possible, and usually succeed. One year we wrapped up an old wooden pulley and a statue of an old school sea captain that we bought down the shore. The best thing ever was watching our 18 year old cousin open up the sailor and having one of the grandparents say, "oh, you could put that in your dorm room."

This year, I was on a mission to find the worst gift ever, so we headed over to the Five Below. We were not disappointed. I found a giant action figure of Jack Bauer kicking down a door. Random. Mr. Stix found an old school somersaulting monkey wearing a vest and holding maracas.

Among the items we didn't end up buying were:

action figures of the girls from Lost wearing bikinis and packaged with a tiny airplane

Cocoa Puffs t-shirt/ baseball cap sets

Dilbert mug set

Tiny fake excavation site

Biggy Smalls and Tupac glasses

and my personal favorite, the Bling Apron, which had the words, "Kiss the Cook" in giant rhinestones across the front. Hot!

The cake sweats are setting in...

2008-12-20T00:04:00.006-05:00

For those of you on Ravelry, you may have noticed the whole controversy over the cake emoticon suddenly disappearing from the site. I'm totally fascinated with the situation- as soon as people realized it was gone, they organized a "bring back the cake " group, and posted hundreds of messages on various boards begging Casey for cake .

I don't even feel like knitting- I just want to see what happens...

Hey mercury, get out of my sushi

2008-12-19T00:34:00.003-05:00

So this is weird- apparently Jeremy Piven had to drop out of Speed the Plow on Broadway because he has high mercury levels. He thinks the problem was caused by eating sushi twice a day for two weeks. If that's the case, that sucks, but I can't help but laugh at David Mamet's reaction, "my understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer."

Don't worry though- he's supposed to be back to his old self in time to tape next season's Entourage. How convenient.

Come debate the Hitler cake on Ravelry.

2008-12-17T23:52:00.004-05:00

First of all, can I just tell you how much I love Ravelry? I haven't had much hang-out-with-other-adults time in the past few months, so between the Election and other debate-able topics (see yesterday's post), the Rav forums have been a total godsend. I love love love that the conversations do not resort to the name calling, etc. that you normally see in, say, the comments section of regular websites. If you're the crafty sort, come join us!

Second, you have to go check out Sandra's shop on Etsy. There is some super cute jewelry, and other stuff like stitch markers for sale. Check out the adorable Domo Kun stitch markers Mr. Stix bought me as an early xmas gift. Sweet!

Just in time for the holidays...

2008-12-16T22:47:00.001-05:00

There are no words, except maybe WTF:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081217/ap_on_fe_st/odd_hitler_cake

Stop shining on me, Chris Dane Owens

2008-12-15T23:54:00.007-05:00

On November 5th, I intended to write this super profound post about how I felt about the outcome of the Election, but I waited too long, and then ended up losing my blog mojo for the remainder of the fall semester. Luckily, I had my last final of 2008 tonight, and voila! the mojo is back. Next semester will be my last one- I can't believe it's been four years already.

This whole school/ baby thing is crazy busy- however, I have managed to work in some knitting time (usually late at night when everyone else is sleeping). I finished the Ballerina top, but it needs some serious blocking before I can show you a photo.

I also finished the Opulent Raglan back in October- it's been up on Ravelry for a while, so I forgot to post a photo here too:

This was a super easy knit, despite how detailed it is. The instructions were very clear, and I didn't run into a single error. Sorry about the crappy picture quality (the flash was on)- the color is actually a really rich wine, and the fabric isn't as open as it looks here.

I also have about 50% of the Ballet t-shirt from Loop d Loop finished, but it definitely needs to be modeled. I'm using navy blue Sugar n' Cream, held double stranded, so there isn't really anything to see at this point but a big blue heap of cotton. It will definitely be finished this week though, so stay tuned.

The other project I'm working on is a mod of Camden from last season's Knitty. I'm not a big bobble fan, so they came out and a lace pattern came in. Needs waaaay more work. I keep messing up the lace pattern (need more stitch markers), so it's been ripped out about a dozen times. Keep your fingers crossed that it's finished before the spring semester...

I leave you with the greatest music video in the history of the world, and quite possibly, dare I say, the greatest video in the history of the internet:

A night to remember

2008-11-04T23:33:00.004-05:00

Barack O' lantern

2008-11-01T01:43:00.004-04:00

Barack O' lantern
Originally uploaded by Stixandthecity

Happy Halloween everyone! My Barack O' Lantern was a huge hit with trick or treaters :)

The 2009 Knitty calendar has arrived...

2008-10-24T00:05:00.010-04:00

... and my Clapotis photo received an honorable mention! Huzzah!

You can see the calendar here, and all of the honorable mentions here. Congratulations everyone!

Overhaulin' my sock

2008-10-10T00:17:00.005-04:00

Well, my sock is coming along slowly. I've gone through about 1-1/2 repeats of the pattern and I need to make sure that I don't make the same mistakes again. Unlike the last time I started this pattern (when I actually cared enough to rip out the mistakes and then proceed hopefully error- free), this time I'm just muddling through and trying to make the mistakes look as invisible as possible. It's like when Chip Foose uses all that Bondo on his cars. The cracks are still there underneath, but it looks nice and shiny on the outside.

How are your Socktober socks coming?

Socktoberfest 2008

2008-10-03T00:20:00.005-04:00

Socktoberfest 2008 is underway! I haven't participated since '06, but I have an amazing multicolor orange Koigu that has been burning a hole in my stash that's just begging to become a pair of socks. Pomatomus is the pattern of choice this year, and even though I tried to make these last year (and totally screwed it up), I'm going to give it another shot.

Leah and I are teaming up this year, hopefully to make a full pair of socks between us. :)

Is anyone out there still listening?

2008-09-24T22:30:00.006-04:00

I know, I know- I have promised to post regularly many times previously, but I haven't come through. Lame? Perhaps. Busy as all get out? That's more like it!

Let me recap the past couple of months, because they have been a total blur. Baby Stix has gone from a tiny little baby to a big giant baby! He smiles all the time, rolls over like a little log at every opportunity, sleeps through the night, eats like a champion, and got the go-ahead today to begin eating solid foods. *tear* My baby is growing up :)

School started last month, and so far, so good. I'm taking family law, federal criminal law, appellate advocacy, and bench trial advocacy. All of my professors this semester seem really cool and for the first time in the history of my education (all the way back to 1st grade!), all the professors are really interesting. There aren't any days where you're fighting to pay attention. It's like the law school perfect storm...

Mr. Stix had some big news this month too- he earned his blue belt in jiu jitsu! Hooray!! The guy who conferred his belt is really good and studied under one of the Gracies, so he's excited. I want to start a fight with someone so he can defend me with his moves, but I won't, of course. :)

Oh yeah, I just remembered, you can also blame my lack of posts on the time suck that is Ravelry...

Finally, believe it or not, I've been getting a lot of knitting done. I have trouble sleeping at night, so it's been a good opportunity to work on some projects. I am 3/4 of a sleeve away from finishing the opulent raglan, and about 60% finished with the ballet pullover. The opulent raglan is looking amazing- it's by far the best looking thing I've ever made. I'm using Berroco Linen Jeans, as recommended by Dori over at the Wooly Monmouth, and let me tell you, it's absolutely gorgeous. Everything about this yarn is perfect- the drape, the texture, the weight, everything. I couldn't seem to get gauge with it, but it hasn't been a problem at all. I should be finished with it this week.

The ballet pullover is coming along, although I totally screwed something up and have elected not to go back and fix it. The front of the sweater is supposed to be garter stitch, and of course I wasn't paying attention at the beginning, and knit up the whole front in reverse stockinette. It looks fine, except for the line on the side where it turns from reverse stockinette to regular stockinette. No one will notice, I'm sure, but if I would have noticed it earlier, I would have staggered the line to make it look a little softer. Whatever... I just want to finish it so I can wear it. The only thing I'm worried about is that it won't stretch to the right size when I block it. I'm using Lion Brand Landscapes and it has a high acrylic content (and says it can be felted on the label. A likely story.), so hopefully things work out. It fits now, but it's a little snug, to the point of it needing to be pulled down a lot instead of staying in place on its own.

I also FINALLY blocked the puff sleeved cardi this week and will wear it this weekend.

Pictures on everything above to follow...

Oh, and do you think I should sign up for Socktoberfest?

How wonderful life is now you're in the world

2008-08-05T21:54:00.006-04:00

Two years ago, I married my best friend:

Two years later, I still get excited when I hear his car pull into the driveway after work. I still make mental notes to tell him the weird funny stuff that happens during the day that only he would appreciate as weird and funny. I still think it's so cool when we get mail addressed to "Mr. and Mrs.". And best of all, we still look at each other like we did in this photo.

Happy Anniversary Mr. Stix, and thank you for being the best husband and father I could have ever imagined!

The big three... oh.

2008-07-27T23:44:00.005-04:00

Thanks so much to everyone for your congratulations on Baby Stix. I apologize for not responding to all of you personally, but as you can imagine, things have been really busy over here. Things are calming down though- we actually just came back from a week down the shore.

Not a ton of knitting was accomplished (as compared to pre-baby vacations), but I do have some stuff to show. First, I finally finished the Ubernatural cardi, which according to Ravelry, was started in September 07:

It still needs to be blocked, but in case it takes me another 10 months to get around to it, I figured I better post pictures ASAP.

Some progress was also made on the Alexandra Ballet Top from Fitted Knits, although not as much progress as one would think considering the amount of time spent. I kept messing up the cables, not because I didn't download the errata, but because of some crazy mystery force that caused me to rip and redo them three times. Ugh. They're still not right, but at least now they're symmetrically incorrect...

Yep, that's Lion Brand Landscapes, the most overpriced yarn that Joann's offers, but thanks to a barrage of coupon- filled flyers, it was 40% off. Sweet.

I also headed over to the Wooly Monmouth in Red Bank, NJ and added yet another project to my Ravelry queue. Originally I planned to look for something that would work for the Razor cami, but I couldn't find anything that felt quite right. Instead, I picked up the latest KnitScene and decided on the Opulent Raglan and 10 skeins of Berrocco Linen Jeans in a really rich maroon. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it (or at least make serious progress) before school starts or it will be a looooong WIP.

By the way, I'm 30 today. 30. When the hell did that happen???

My best FO yet

2008-06-24T15:57:00.006-04:00

So my latest FO took months less than the Sesame cardi, but turned out to be the most beautiful creation - may I present Baby Stix:

Apparently he wasn't sure what to make of the outside world at first:

He's a wonderful baby- the only thing better than staring at him all day is staring at Mr. Stix interacting with him. He's already a great father. I'm not sure what I ever did to deserve it, but somehow I seem to have hit the family jackpot.

The eyes are the windows of your face.

2008-04-06T21:37:00.012-04:00

Ok, ok, I guess after taking an eight week blog hiatus, I should post the obligatory bump photo.

I'm HUGE. Not that much longer to go, but longer than you think...

Since I can't try anything on at this point, I have a giant pile of pullover sweaters in progress that are all on hold. However, I have some progress shots of the Arwen cardi. Here is the front left side after casting on the sleeve. Does anyone know why this is constructed using the backward loop method instead of a regular cast on? Does it do anything beneficial? It seemed like the points where I cast on for the cable and then again for the sleeve got very loose and sloppy looking, no matter how tightly I pulled the yarn. Also, I didn't like having to break the yarn to cast on for the sleeve- the fewer ends to weave in, the better for me.

I realize this is a pretty dull post, so please enjoy Christopher Walken on this week's SNL at the Walken family reunion:

and as a gardener who is afraid of his plants:

Enjoy!

Holy crap!

2008-02-04T00:11:00.000-05:00

Giants win!!

Sesame Cardi was brought to you by the letters F and O

2008-01-31T00:14:00.000-05:00

So I've been kind of down on blogging lately since I haven't had anything to really show for myself in ages, and thus, I decided to finish the crap out of my pile of unfinished projects. Voila! I give you the Sesame cardi, which according to Ravelry, I began exactly a year ago:

This may be the last non top-down raglan I make for a loooong time, since I think all the pieces for this sweater were all finished by the end of the summer, and sat around waiting to be seamed for a mere 6 months... Actually, it took so long to finish, I can't even close the bottom three buttons over Baby Stix. You can't tell from the photo, since it turns out that Mr. Stix is pound-erasing genius of a photographer, but the baby belly is getting huge- I have another sweater to show you below, but I couldn't even close a single button, so you'll just have to imagine what it looks like when worn.

I ended up using the polymer clay buttons that I made, since I couldn't really decide on what kind of store-bought buttons to buy. The colors of the new Cotton Ease are bizarre- the charcoal grey goes from looking grey to black to brown, depending on the light, and the taupe ranges from warm to cool, so I couldn't decide if I wanted wood or metal buttons. The ones I made are black and brushed with a dry silver pigment and sealed with a matte clear coat, which ended up giving the same level of variation depending on the lighting.

I'm pretty happy with the way this sweater turned out, with the exception of the shoulder seams where they meet the arm. It looks a little lumpy - any suggestions (for future shoulders) on how to achieve a smooth, rounded seam?

Here is my second finished sweater of the week, the pouf- sleeved cardi from Fitted Knits. This was another super quick knit, dragged out by having to seam like 5 inches worth of sleeves and sewing on a bunch of buttons. How lame is that? As mentioned earlier, I can't fit into this at all right now, so this is the best photo I can do until the summer. It's pretty cute though- I modified the pattern to remove all of the detailing on the bottom few inches and made the purled ends of the sleeves and the body a little shorter.

Check out these cool buttons (if you can see them- sorry about the dark photo). Grandma Stix donated them from her extensive button stash. I love the finish on them- they look so vintage:

Finally, I am 95% finished with the Cashmere Neckwarmer pattern from Yarn Abuse. Mine, however, is make from Paton's Shetland leftover from the Ubernatural cardi- another casualty of my sweater ADD, waiting to have buttons chosen and sewn on.

I leave you with the cradle my parents sent us last week as a gift. We put it together in under 30 minutes and then enlisted Domo to take it for a test drive:

He gave it two thumbs up.

Not much to report

2008-01-15T22:54:00.000-05:00

School started yesterday, so between that, trying to cook actual dinners, and general baby sleepiness, I have little knitting content to share. I did start the Leafy Lace Shawl from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms, using some olive green Wool Ease Thick & Quick, but alas, I'm too lazy to go get the camera...

2008-01-14T00:11:00.000-05:00

GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crossing the [blog] writers' picket line to bring you this update

2008-01-01T17:11:00.000-05:00

First of all, thanks to everyone here and on Ravelry who commented on the wine cozy. I pinky swear to post a pattern sometime soon- I have to figure it out first. Apparently while I was knitting it and making notes on my computer, I managed to not save it (is that still possible??), so I just have to sit down and think it out.

Baby knitting is in full swing over here, now that I am too round to even try on any of the fitted sweaters that I have been working on. I guess I could still go back to the eternal Sesame seaming, but the puff sleeve cardi is definitely on hold for now.

And so, here is what's been going down:

First, check out this kick- ass onesie I got for Xmas:

That's right- our baby will be able to intimidate other babies :)

To match the onesie, I made this hat, from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms, out of the decidedly unnatural Lion Brand acrylics, Vanna's Choice and Pound of Love. Has anyone used Vanna's Choice? It's on the splitty side, but I have to admit, has a nice hand compared to other acrylics.

I think the hat might actually be a little too small, even for a newborn. The pattern says to knit the first 4 rounds using a size 7 needle and then switch to an 8 for the rest, so who knows if this will fit. Whatever. It took something like two hours to make, so making a new one is no problem.

Here is half of the pair of booties I made (sans the drawstring, which I added after taking the picture) out of the Arucania left over from Mr. Stix's skullie.

There's still a small amount of the Arucania left, so I have a little baby sized skullie in the works, but I need to transfer it to some lighter needles. I cast on using a pair that belonged to my grandmother, but they weigh a ton, and are so slippery that stitches keep sliding off. Too stressful for a tiny hat.

Oh, amd in case you were wondering, turns out Baby Stix is going to be a boy :)

You buy a bag of peanuts in this town, you get a song written about you...

2007-12-18T21:09:00.000-05:00

Small knitted projects that require no finishing are making me really happy this week. Here is a wine cozy I designed and knit up to bring to our friends' holiday party on Saturday. It took no time to make (once I settled on a design, which took the longest amount of time), and was finished after watching Citizen Kane and an afternoon of The Ultimate Fighter marathon.

If the lace pattern looks familiar, that's because it was also used for the Arisaig wrap sweater from Knitty, which I have always wanted to make, but don't think I could handle the time required to knit an entire sweater on #1's and #2's. Maybe someday.

I haven't written up a pattern yet, but I will if anyone is interested. It was a great stashbusting project, requiring less than a half skein of Wool Ease and less than an arm's length of Lion Suede.

The other thing I'm working on this week (along with STILL sewing the sleeves on Sesame- I can't stand it!!) is a blanket for Project Linus. I started a striped garter stitch blanket, but I don't like how it is starting to look, and garter stitch is just way to slow. For some reason, I have this weird thing where I want any blankets that I make to be double sided (thanks for ruining my life, Hoover Blanket), so I thought that garter stitch would be the way to go. Not so when also adding stripes, which I didn't think of until I was about 25 rows in. Grrr. So I'm starting over again...

I can't believe the 1994 Bon Jovi cd I bought today still cost $10

2007-12-11T23:18:00.000-05:00

Things are finally getting back to normal this week after the hell that is finals week. Ugh. After a semester where I only really enjoyed one out of four classes, I could not wait to be finished. Now that I am, I have FIVE WHOLE WEEKS before classes start up again. Nice.

Thanks to everyone for your kind words on my Baby Stix news! I hit the AC Moore and the JoAnn's yesterday looking for what I thought would be the easiest thing to find on short notice- burgundy and mustard colored Wool-Ease (yes, Harry Potter colors) to work on gender neutral baby stuff, and to my surprise, it wasn't anywhere to be found. What the hell?? So instead, I bought 3 balls of black and grey Wool-Ease to design myself a decent maternity sweater, since there are so few non-matronly patterns available. Depending on how it turns out, I will either show you pics, or try to submit it to Knitty or something. Leah was giving me some advice on designing, so I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens.

I worked all weekend on weaving in the billion ends on the Sesame cardi that have been hanging over my head all semester. I'm such a jerk for breaking the yarn after each stripe, but I can never remember to run the other color up the side anyway. Now I just have to sew up the seams and I'll finally be finished.

2007-12-01T19:33:00.000-05:00

Is that a bun in your oven, or are you just, uh, baking?

2007-11-30T22:31:00.000-05:00

Look, an actual finished hat, with the ends woven in and everything! It's the Hermione hat from Charmed Knits in Paton's Classic Merino (burgundy). The only thing left to do is block it and stretch it a tiny bit larger. I must have an exceptionally large head or something- I used a bigger needle on this than the pattern called for and it's still a little snug around the folded part.

This took two train rides and 1 viewing of Letters from Iwo Jima to complete and it was definitely not a moment too soon. I was SO SICK of cabling by the time I was about 2/3 of the way through that I had to keep telling myself to keep going. It was like a one person motivational seminar. I had to finish it though, since I've come to the conclusion that I no longer like any of my existing hats.

Thanksgiving weekend was busy for the Stix family. Lots of traveling around to catch up with family and friends. I finally got to catch up with two of my best friends, who, because we live about 5 hours away from each other, I haven't seen since my wedding over a year ago. We met up for shopping and the obligatory multiple Starbucks runs and I finally got to tell them our big news- Mr. Stix and I are having a baby!

We don't know the sex yet, so I haven't been able to knit up any cute baby stuff, with the exception of two really boring off-white hats. I stopped by Michael's tonight to see if I could find any good unisex cotton yarns to make that little hooded blanket from this month's Magknits, but I couldn't find anything that seemed appropriate. Maybe I will just order something online, maybe in Gryffindor colors... (but what if they are sorted into a different house?)

Ode to ground and pound

2007-11-18T22:46:00.001-05:00

Guess where we were last weekend? That's right- we were at UFC 78! Since the UFC is rarely held on the east coast, we were not going to miss this opportunity. Check out the view from our seats:

We were sitting pretty high up (tickets to these events do not come cheap), but every seat in the Prudential Center seem to be a good seat.

I overcame my normal cheapskated-ness and bought this obnoxious crystal encrusted UFC shirt. Sweet. You can't see it in the photo, but Mr. Stix was wearing the Tapout shirt I bought him for the occasion (the Tapout guys were there at the fight, but we didn't get to meet them or the other fighters there- BJ Penn, Matt Serra, and Rampage Jackson).

Ever wonder what $10 worth of UFC food looks like?

Fries + coke = $10. Eating it while watching Bisping v. Evans= priceless.

----------------------------------------------------

BTW- Since not everyone has heard of the Xmas pickle, here is the story as per the Oriental Trading catalogue: "legend says that the pickle was the last ornament placed on the Xmas tree. The first child to find the pickle on Xmas morning was rewarded with an extra gift left by St. Nicholas. This tradition encourages children to appreciate all the beautiful ornaments on the tree, rather than rushing to see what Santa has left for them."

While it's a nice idea and all, I doubt the kids appreciate the other ornaments, and are just rushing to see where the pickle is to get the extra present. Cynical? Little bit. Anyway, I just think a pickle- shaped ornament is hilarious next to all of our other random, non- Xmas related ornaments (think Hello Kitty, Starbucks, and motorcycles).

What's Xmas without the pickle?

2007-11-11T19:24:00.000-05:00

Warning: Actual knitting content ahead:

Ok, so this post per day thing isn't exactly going as planned, but, whatever. Here is a really crappy photo of my almost-finished Ubernatural. All that's left is to sew up the sleeves, attach the buttons, and give it a good blocking.

The color in the above photo isn't very accurate- the yarn looks more like this:

The puff sleeved cardi just needs buttons and serious blocking (the bottoms are so curled up that I didn't even want to take a picture of it) and another WIP down. Only about a million to go :)

-----------------------------------------

Xmas is in full swing at Target- lots of ornaments to buy, including the Xmas Pickle! Nice.

Off the blog wagon

2007-11-05T22:15:00.000-05:00

Well, nice to see that my committment to posting every day this month lasted a whole 4 days. Crap. Start again...

As promised, here are the winners from this year's World Series of Costuming:

Best costume inspired by public art:
Male/ Female sculpture (and may I say, that the costume was way cooler than the actual statue).

You can't see it in the photo, but there were little toy cars on the floor to show the scale of the "statue" :)

Best Couple's Costume:
Joker and Poison Ivy

Most handsome costume:
The spy from Team Fortress 2, who was disguised as Mr. Stix

Best glam rock costume:
David Bowie (when he starred in Labyrinth as Jareth the Goblin King)

Best prop:
Borat's wedding sack

Best Costume of the Year:
Big Daddy and Little Sister from Bioshock

As a founding member of the World Series of Costuming, of course I could never win a WSOC bracelet, but I did receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. You know, for my committment to excellence in costuming :)

My McNugget wore a snorkel

2007-11-03T22:13:00.000-04:00

We went to a party last night held at a pop culture museum. The collection was completely random and amazing- everything from comic books to antique toys to antique food containers. I thought the best thing was that everything in the museum was stuff everyone could have actually owned. Nothing was expensive, unattainable artwork or the like- it was just stuff. In a few rooms, we just walked around pointing and saying, "I had that!"

One of those things, embarassingly enough, was the Princess Diana paper doll book. I loved the clothes in this book as a little girl. How could you not, when every outfit (including jeans with a button down plaid shirt) was accessorized with a diamond tiara?

They also had Ovaltine Little Orphan Annie products (think Ralphie in A Christmas Story), an official Beatles mop top wig, a complete set of McDonald's McNugget toys (I had the one with the snorkel) and a Charlie's Angels hair care kit for girls. Sweet.

The thing that struck me the most was how you often hear today that all the marketing targeted towards little children is so harmful, yet most of the toys and products from the 40's onward were all blatently sponsored. It's not this new phenomenon like the media makes it out to be. "Drink more Ovaltine?? Awww...."

*by the way, the McNugget picture is not from the museum- that was complete with the display that would have been on the counter at McDonald's.

Hallowen 2007

2007-11-02T17:57:00.001-04:00

Happy fall from the Travelocity roaming gnome and Hollywood Hulk Hogan :)

Coming soon- the winners of this year's World Series of Costuming. Stay tuned...

This month will be different (allegedly)

2007-11-01T23:36:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I posted one time all month and I feel like crap about it. Even though I did not join NaBlaPoMo thing, I am still going to attempt to post something every day this month. Get ready for a lot of boring crap!

I have lots of Halloween party pictures to post, but I just wanted to write this little blurb to prove that I posted today (before it hits midnight)...

Willie Randolph is the luckiest man alive.

2007-10-03T22:06:00.000-04:00

I've been feeling inexplicably un-bloggy this month- I think it's because most of my inspiration occurs while I'm at work and can't do anything about it. Maybe that's a good thing- if I could blog while at work, I'm sure it would be mixed with lots of grouchiness and snark. :)

The puff sleeved cardigan is one buttonhole band away from being finished. I'm pretty excited about finishing this one, because I love the color so much. The only element of the sweater that has me a little concerned is the puff sleeve. The shape of the sleeve seems like th fabric needs to be stiffer to have the right amount of fullness. Originally, I almost took that puff out, leaving regular short sleeves, but decided to just go ahead and try something different. I hope I like it!

I also have about 70% of ANOTHER sweater finished- Ubernatural. I had to make a lot of changes to the pattern. Luckily, before I started, I saw someone's post on Ravelry saying that the pattern had a lot of errata, so I knew to keep an eye out for problems. There were a couple of false starts using double stranded Paton's Classic Merino in Winter White. That version looked kind of weird- I think it was the color of the yarn- it was just too white. However, I found a really nice, natural looking yarn at AC Moore- Paton's Shetland Chunky in Taupe. The best part? Machine washable! Yay!

Since I've decided that I need some practice in taking some decent photos, I'm going to have Mr. Stix take the 2 sweater pics this weekend, and then I'll post them.

I love you, trans fat. You make the fried twinkie a reality.

2007-09-06T00:54:00.000-04:00

Geez, I didn't mean to be away from the blogosphere for so long...

School started up again- this semester I'm taking Administrative Law, Federal Income Tax, Constitutional Criminal Procedure, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. It's incredible how a summer break of less than 1 month spoils you.

I started a new sweater (yes, I know, I have a very serious case of start-itis, but there's a really good reason!) last week and it has been pushed to the front of the WIP line. Since the pouf sleeved cardi from Fitted Knits is a short sleeved sweater, I figure there is probably only another 6 weeks left of wearability, assuming I finish it this week. Hence, it needs to be finished ASAP. I don't have any pictures to post yet, since it's all bunched up on a fairly short circular, but I can tell you about it :) I'm using Zara superwash merino in a cozy olive color, but haven't chosen any buttons for it yet. Do you think I should try to pick out a colored button, or should I just go for clear? Or is that cheesy?

We dropped into our local Renaissance Fair last weekend. I've never been to one before- the closest I'd ever been was making a fool of myself on multiple occasions at Medieval Times. It was so much fun- we dressed up in some old Halloween costumes (I have to admit that my corset top is just a regular shirt out of my closet) and met up with some of our friends.

The food was really good- I had some steak on a stake, fried Twinkie (greatest invention ever), and Mr. Stix had this fried fish on a croissant. Mmmm...

Jack Sparrow showed up too (check out Ye Olde Pepsi- they were the sponsor of the festival- does anyone else find that annoying?) and this dude was hard-core.

Here I am throwing axes at targets, trying to get them to stick in the wall. I couldn't get any of them in, but Mr. Stix got one. He had to throw next to this crazy guy who was some kind of professional axe thrower or something. All of his axes went into his target, and then he started to throw axes into all the other players' targets at this rapid fire pace. It was like a machine gun, if the gun was made of a blur of arms and axes.

By the way, I still don't have any ideas for Halloween costumes- it's already September and I'm completely blank. Any ideas??

Chlorophyll? More like BOREophyll...

2007-08-21T22:34:00.000-04:00

I'm back to school again this week- where did the summer go? I haven't blogged in a while, since I was trying to squeeze like 10 weeks worth of doing stuff into the 3 weeks I had off from classes. I'll fill you in...

Mr. Stix competed in another Ju Jitsu tournament this month, a much bigger one than last time, sponsored by the North American Grappling Association. He won a bronze medal for his weight class! Kick ass!

There was a lot of sitting around during the tournament, since there were so many competitors and so many weight classes. It left plenty of time to work on the V-Neck Pullover from Fitted Knits. I have a ton of Lion Brand Homespun laying around that I was going to use for another project, but figured it would make a cozy little sweater instead. I think I'm going to modify it a little bit with some side buttons (like in the Fitted Knits' Textured Tunic) and skip most of the ribbing except for maybe 1.5" at the collar and cuffs.

I actually made 2 V-Neck Pullovers this month (thanks vacation at the shore!). Here is another version I'm working on that was inspired by the Gryffindor House pullover from Charmed Knits.

The Airy Wrap sweater is also almost finished. I realized last week that I will never be able to wear it open, because the front panels (due to my height) would be dragging on the ground. Beh! Oh well. Just a few more inches on the right panel and the other front panel to go.

Wish me luck this week at school- if nothing else, I know I have the coolest schoolbag ever, as modeled by Ugly:

Don't you dare raise the roof...

2007-08-08T20:37:00.000-04:00

A year ago this past Sunday, I married the man of my dreams - handsome, intelligent, funny, and not afraid to be himself. I don't think I can do justice to my feelings for Mr. Stix without telling you this story.

Before we met, I always hated to dance- I felt ridiculous, lacking rhythm and confidence. I think dancing is somewhat representative of personality- you can see when someone is free spirited or uncomfortable or whatever. The thing with me was, however, that as much as I loved the music and felt exhilarated when certain songs came on, I just couldn't let go of my inhibition. I would just stand off to the side, feeling paralyzed. I always felt that people would just see my uncoordinated flailing about and judge me as being a total loser. It's absurd, but that's how it always seemed.

When I met Mr. Stix, suddenly I had found my dance partner. I don't think I really have any moves or look any less ridiculous, but I couldn't care less. I love to dance with my husband, whether at our wedding, or a party, or in the kitchen while making dinner. It's like I never thought twice about it back in the day. He makes life fun and like never before, I see the glass as half full (or maybe, more accurately, I see the house half full of robots and yarn).

Happy anniversary BFT- you are the best husband ever :)

Would you like a boost? It's free...

2007-07-31T20:42:00.000-04:00

Cake day weekend was a smashing success! We went to a baseball game Friday night and although our team lost, it was still a lot of fun. On Saturday, we went into the city and saw Wicked on Broadway. It was fantastic. I'm sort of on the fence about musicals, because I either really like them or really hate them- I'm never just like, eh. However, I thought Wicked was pretty inventive in its use of special effects/ lighting/ set design and the way the plot intertwines with The Wizard of Oz. We picked up the cd during the intermission- well, actually Mr. Stix bought it on the sly during intermission, while I was on the world's longest line to the ladies room. My house has more bathrooms than the Gershwin Theatre- something is not right...

After the theatre, we walked down Broadway and ended up at the Hershey store. We didn't end up buying this giant syrup bottle, but we did pick up some gigantic Elvis-themed Reese's cups- peanut butter and banana creme. Mmmmm. Oh, and officially, they were King Size.

Mr. Stix also wanted to try Jamba Juice after we saw that Natalie Portman skit from SNL, ("How are YOU doing??" ) but unlike the overly energetic balls of energy we expected them to be, the employees were the most mellow people I have ever seen. Maybe they don't drink the juice, or maybe they drink them sans boost, but man, they looked ready for naps. Mr. Stix, on the other hand, looks like he could run a marathon:

Someone wanted to stop by Rockafeller Center:

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that and a new orange Uglydoll came to live with us on my cake day. So cute.

No spoilers here

2007-07-21T01:27:00.000-04:00

We headed out to a Borders' Grand Hallows Ball last night, even though I wasn't picking up my copy of Deathly Hallows - I still have to read the Half Blood Prince this weekend, so I pre-ordered mine online. My Gryffindor tie was only halfway finished by 8pm last night, so I wore it as-is (you can't see it, but there is scrap yarn holding live stitches tucked into my shirt so I can finish it later!). Mr. Stix wore a Slytherin logo and his black magic shirt, but don't let that fool you- he's one of the good guys :)

They closed off the whole block and renamed some of the stores for the evening. Look, it's The Leaky Cauldron!

Dumbledore and Prof. McGongall must have pre-ordered their books too. You'd think they would know how it ends...

Here are some random witches and wizards. Probably about 25% of the people there wore some kind of costume or house colors. The whole thing left me longing for Halloween...

This band was pretty cool- the guy on the left must have been dying in his giant scarf:

I better go finish the Order of the Phoenix now, before I accidentally find out the ending of the new book. Have I mentioned that I still haven't seen the last 2 episodes of the Sopranos?

Cake day is marching inexorably closer...

2007-07-12T23:36:00.000-04:00

Before I talk about anything else, I have to show off my new shoes:

These are the coolest shoes in the history of the world. They're like Mini-Coopers for your feet. It's kind of hard to see, but there are little jeweled crowns on them! Mr. Stix bought them for me as an early birthday gift (this is the last time I will refer to that day as a birthday since I'm only 1 year away from turning 30- from now on, it's "cake day") after I told him that if I didn't get them I would die. After leaving the store, I thanked him and he said, "the decision to buy them was easy." "Why?" I asked. "Because you were going to die." He gets it. :)

My other early cake day gift was Charmed Knits- the ultimate in nerdliness for knitters. Sweet.

I finished up the gingham part of the gingham cosmetics bag, but I can't go any further until I do some serious blocking. The lining, despite being knit on needles two sizes smaller and 5 stitches smaller around, is a little too bulky to fit inside the gingham. I'll have to stretch the exterior out a fair bit, but I think it will look awesome once it's done. The bottom seam looks great- three needle bind off, so it was impossible to mess it up. Depending on how everything looks post-blocking, I might be able to sew that zipper in after all. Hopefully I can find one in the right size...

BTW- I still have like 1200 Harry Potter pages to read before the new book comes out in 9 days. Crap. I'd have to quit my job to finish it in time.

Professor Snape is slowing my knitting progress...

2007-07-06T22:23:00.000-04:00

Project time is becoming scarcer lately, what with everything else I'm trying to get finished over the summer. I just finished painting one of our rooms and it will be all done after I get around to putting the furniture back... oh yeah, I have to finish painting some of that furniture. Nothing major, just spray painting a couple of things white- it's just been really humid here lately, and I'm waiting for a nice day. Or some other reason besides - I keep forgetting.

My other big time - sucker (besides Ravelry) is that I'm attempting to finish all of the Harry Potter books before #7 comes out this month. The catch is that I hadn't read any of them prior to last month, and today I am only up to page 81 in Goblet of Fire. I know, I'm super late to the party, but hey, I can still join in now!

There has been a little time for knitting here and there- here is the Gingham Cosmetics Bag from Holiday Knits. I'm using Sugar n' Cream in brown, pink, and cream and I also used size 8 & 10 needles. The solid brown area in the photo is actually the lining of the bag, which will be folded inside of the gingham part later on. Pretty cool so far, except this is my first real attempt at fair isle and in certain spots you can definitely tell. There is a top flap that folds over and buttons, which I intended to leave off and just add a zipper, but now I think I have to add it after all just to hide all of the mistakes.

Here's the progress on the Airy Wrap- I finished the second sleeve last night and now it's on to the front pieces.

On a very special episode of Karma and Greg...

2007-07-03T20:37:00.000-04:00

I witnessed the greatest example of karmic payback today on the drive home. Against my better judgment, I took a back road that normally backs up during the school year and at rush hour. Since it's the summer and tomorrow is the 4th of July, I figured it couln't possibly be backed up, right? So wrong. The real problem lies in the timing of the lights at two intersections. You can't help but create gridlock there.

Anyway, I made a left turn and got stuck in the middle of the crazy intersection. To avoid creating a gridlock situation, I pulled up next to this guy's SUV, with every intention of letting him go ahead of me. Seriously, I just wanted to be out of the way. This guy totally thought I was trying to cut him off, so he pulls ahead and turns his head out the window and tries to stare me down. He looked so pissed. I stare back, as his head stays out the window facing back towards me, and he rolls right into the back of another SUV. DUH! If you're going to enter a stare down, at least make sure your foot is on the brake... It's almost as big a blunder as entering a land war in Asia or going up against a Sicilian when death is on the line. Lest you worry, no one was hurt and there was no damage to either party, except maybe the staring guy's ego. Watching him throw his hands up in utter disbelief at his stupidity was priceless. :)

In other news, I finished one sleeve on the airy wrap and am half way down the other arm. I'm almost ready to start the cabled section.

Finally, have you all seen these knitted marzipan cupcake toppers? So cute!! Here's a link to the tutorial.

Bear Grylls couldn't handle my mini-break

2007-06-26T23:39:00.000-04:00

Well, I can't seem to get my stuff up on Ravelry fast enough. It's a little tedious to catalogue all of your projects, although I know I'll be happy I went through the trouble in the end. I have to admit, it's a little depressing to go through all my WIP photos, only to find so many things that were ripped out or thrown out for various reasons. Oh well, what can you do- if I had finished those crappy projects, then some of my favorite FOs may never have been made.

I didn't do any knitting this weekend, as we were away on a little trip (or as they say in Bridget Jones' Diary- "on mini-break") with a group of friends and packed in tons of activities. After arriving on Friday morning, we went straight to the beach. I ended up taking a nice long nap on the sand, as was the result of taking lots of Dramamine for the flight. Later, we barbecued dinner on one of those gross public charcoal grills - how do those always make food taste so good? Mmmm!! I think it's like those hot dog vendors in NYC- the dirtier, the tastier.

The next day, we went kayaking through these mangrove forests and saw various gigantic birds- herons, pelicans, etc. They didn't even look real- it was like seeing a dinosaur fly by and then hang out not 20 feet away. So cool. The forest itself was wild- the trees grow out of the water, creating a really dense tangle of roots and branches. A nearby hotel decided to turn it into a tourist attraction, so they somehow created some channels/ tunnels running through the forest that are so narrow in some parts, you can't even use your kayak oars. You basically have to reach out on either side to the tree branches and just pull yourself through. Appparently Bear Grylls tried to get through a mangrove forest sans tunnels on one of his shows, but gave up after a little while. If that guy can't get through, no one can...

The following day, we took a long bike ride- I think it was about 25 miles or so. I'm completely out of shape, so I was struggling, but I made it back without incident. I felt pretty good about not having to call someone to come pick me up on the side of the road somewhere, so I'm looking into a buying a beach cruiser type bike. I'll let you know when I find a cool one.

Anyone have an unwanted bookmobile?

2007-06-18T22:31:00.000-04:00

First things first, ***I got my Ravelry invite today!!! Yay!!!****** I'm trying to figure out how to use it, so it may take me a while to upload my projects.

Anyway, on to regular business:

So I've been trying to not only downsize my yarn supply this summer but also de-clutter my house of useless crap. My goal for the summer is to finish painting our guest room (which I started about 2 weeks ago and only have about 20% of the walls to go. Oh, and the trim and doors, too...) once the temperature goes down a little, and to transform my now rarely used office into a more craft-friendly room where my sewing machine can fulfill its life's purpose. So far, I have cleaned bags of junk out of the office, organized the yarn into 4 Ikea baskets, and sorted out a box of books that I no longer want.

The majority of the box consisted of old undergrad textbooks, and the remainder were free paperbacks that had been picked up with the best of intentions but the worst actual follow through (ie, never made it past the cover before sticking it on the shelf for the next 6 years). I decided to donate the box to this organization downtown that collects and offers free books. It is run solely by volunteers and with the philosophy that no one should be denied being able to own books because they can't afford them.

Anyway, I haven't been there in a few years, so I printed out directions. I drove all the way down there, following the directions, and found myself in a pretty rough neighborhood. I guess they must have moved their operation a couple of miles away from the original site. When I am about to turn onto the street where the place was located, I realized that this wasn't even a street. It was a dead end alleyway. There are no women anywhere in sight for blocks, just random men walking around all over the place. I didn't feel comfortable to turn down the alley or get out of the car, so I turned around and went home.

I felt really bad that I never made the donation, but I realize that I have to keep myself safe if I get a weird feeling about something. I'm not sure what to do with the books now. Any suggestions?

PS- I'm so bummed out- I completely missed my 2 year blogiversary last week on the twelfth! Grrrr- well, to compensate for that complete oversight, I am going to celebrate this, my 200th post instead.

You wanna hug it out?

2007-06-16T21:00:00.000-04:00

I've been such a bad blogger lately- it's been two weeks! Don't worry though- I'm fine. I've just been hiding out:

I had some bad luck last week with my crappy stash yarn- I really wanted to start on the Fitted Knits Airy Wrap Sweater after seeing Leah's lovely version, but I'm still trying to destash acrylic from the early days (AKA 06) and pulled out some TLC baby sport weight. After a few inches, I realized that the yarn was defective- it was continually breaking and just looked cheap. I threw it away and staked out the Michael's and AC Moore looking for something decent. No such luck. I'm irritated too because AC Moore used to sell some quality stuff (remember my clapotis? That yarn was from there and only about $5/ skein!) and now they seemed to have purged everything from their stock that isn't generic lion brand or red heart. Bleh. I finally went to a LYS with little hope of finding something affordable, but Mr. Stix ended up treating me to 1000 yards of undyed worsted weight alpaca. Check it out:

I'm sitting here determined to watch all three seasons of Entourage on DVD this weekend. Nothing like setting goals...

just shrug it off

2007-06-03T13:35:00.000-04:00

As promised, here are some pics of the Fitted Shrug:

Just a few ends to weave in and it'll be good to go. It didn't do a whole lot for whittling down my year's supply of yarn- it only used up (not even) two skeins of Wool Ease. Hmmm...

Still working on Sesame- just a couple more rows of the button band to go!

Just put the pizza in that spare piano box...

2007-06-01T00:04:00.000-04:00

So we took a trip to Jersey this week - I did the following: eat pizza, knit, more pizza, watch UFC (h0w could Chuck Liddell lose to a guy who howls like a wolf???), Sopranos & Entourage (which I'd never seen before, and now I'm hooked), and yes, more pizza. Am I some sort of pizza freak? Perhaps, but let me show you the beauty of Jersey pizza:

Look at the size of this thing- the box was so big it was blank (ie. sans red and green graphics), like there's no printing press big enough to handle it.

Knitting- I finished the shrug from Fitted Knits on Monday, and will post a picture tomorrow. I also am almost finished with the Sesame cardi. All that's left is the button band and a lot of seaming.

Here's a little dishcloth that was finished on Tuesday:

It's destined to be gifted in one of those cool takeout containers from Michael's...

Six degrees of bacon cheeseburgers

2007-05-21T22:02:00.000-04:00

Woo hoo! Another semester down, just under a million to go :) This weekend was great- a 3 day celebration of my freedom, for a week anyway. I have one summer class that starts after Memorial Day, but it shouldn't be too bad.

On Saturday morning, we went to a Jiu Jitsu tournament, where I watched Mr. Stix kick some guys asses. That was pretty cool - and he came in 2nd place for his weight class:

On Saturday night, we had an 80's dinner and movie night with two of our friends- we watched Footloose and Pretty In Pink and ate "Kevin Bacon cheeseburgers," "Kevin Bacon pasta salad" and "Pretty in Pink cupcakes." I LOVE the song Footloose- I played it at our wedding reception to kick off the dancing. I wish I had watched the movie again beforehand. Then I would've had some really cool moves :)

Oh yeah, and so the boys wouldn't feel like we made the evening too girlie, we added these very manly knights and dragons to the pink cupcakes. Mine had a catapult on it.

On the knitting front, I did very little during exam time, if any. Last night I finished the second sleeve on the Sesame cardi, and I am aiming to finish it by Memorial Day. I also want to cast on for the Two Toned Ribbed Shrug from Fitted Knits in the next day or two, so I can have something to wear at work (we have a hella cold air conditioner in there).

Oh and check out these little takeout containers- Mr. Stix found these when we were in Michael's. Aren't they cute?? Perfect for giving little knitted gifts, and they were only $1 each. Steal!

This is the World's Greatest Blog Post.

2007-05-13T14:09:00.001-04:00

I'm thiiiis close to being part of the normal world again. I finished my last exam Friday night and just have to finish one more paper. Can't wait.

We woke up early this morning to see the new Spiderman before I had to sit in front of my computer for the rest of the day. It was pretty good, although I could have survived with a little less of MJ's weak singing and lack of committment to Peter Parker. Other than that, it was an enjoyable movie with amazing special effects. One thing that finally hit me (finally!) is that the Green Goblin's kid Harry is played by the same guy who starred in Freaks and Geeks, James Franco. Those F&G kids are everywhere. Did you know the kid who played Eli on the show grew up to be Angel/ Warren Worthington III in X-Men?

I leave you with the weirdest thing I looked up on the internets this week- maybe I should make this a weekly thing- Trump Steaks!

For a mere $999 (not joking here, that's really the price), you can get a selection of Porterhouse, NY Strip, and Filet Mignon steaks and burgers. My favorite thing is how you have to buy them from none other than The Sharper Imagine (the first name in steak). How bizarre- when I think of Sharper Image, I think of life size Stormtroopers and the Ionic Breeze air purifier, not meat and weird haircuts.

I think from now on I'm going to preface everything I do with "this is the world's greatest ____ (fill in the blank)" a la Donald Trump. Eventually, some has to believe that mine is the World's Greatest Parallel Parking, or the I'm the World's Greatest Air Guitarist...

what's worse?

2007-05-05T22:49:00.000-04:00

It's been said that only death has a worse reputation than haggis, but I think the person who said this clearly never went to law school. Exam week is here and I can't wait to do something, anything besides studying and writing papers. I am looking to the 17th like a death row inmate looks to an 11th hour pardon.

Please, if you did anything, and I mean ANYTHING, interesting this week (including the S&W festival), drop me a link to your blog story or just leave it as a comment here. I am counting on you to give me something through which to live vicariously.

See you on the 17th.

Robot cake, the next generation

2007-04-29T13:15:00.000-04:00

This Tuesday is Mr. Stix's birthday, so when we had some people over last night for Bad Movie Night*, I made him this Mazinga birthday cake:

In making this cake, I have come to the realization that our oven is possessed. Remember how I was baking the Sculpey buttons and had all of those problems? This was the same kind of deal. Now I'm no chef, but I've made many cakes before with no issues- EVER. The cake you see above was from the second go-round. The first cake was a disaster- I put the pans in the oven and set the timer for the shortest bake time (32 minutes), checked on it midway though (it was lovely), and upon removal from the oven, found that it had overcooked and SHRUNK. WTF? Cake shrinks?? The top had been almost to the top of the pan, and fairly even overall in height about 15 minutes in. After 32 minutes it was like 1" tall and the edges were all burned and pulled in about 1/2" from the sides. Not good. It was like one of those souffles you see in old cartoons where it's nice and fluffy and then it pops and falls flat. Even worse was the taste! If you took a taste from the center, it was like the cake had taken on this strangely dense, concentrated form.

Anyway, we ran back to the store (this was 11:30 pm Friday night!) to buy more cake mix. I mixed up the second batch and put it in the oven, setting the timer for a mere 20 minutes. I sat on the floor in front of the little window in the oven door for like, 18 out of the 20 minutes. Total bake time until the toothpick came out clean = 25 minutes. Baking time according to the box = 32-38 minutes. Weird.

Whatever- it tasted pretty good (it was a strawberry cake, but it tasted kind of like fruity pebbles. mmm.) and it looked so cute!

I guess the second time's the charm for robot cakes --my sweet husband loved it. :)

By the way, check out the coolest nerd wedding cakes ever- look at that Mario Bros. cake (2nd photo down)- it's unbelievable!

*Bad movie night double feature: The Marine (ridiculous, but strangely entertaining), and Commando ("please don't disturb my friend. He's dead tired.")

I finally found my Lisa Loeb CD.

2007-04-24T21:35:00.000-04:00

So I have nothing of crafting interest to show you because, as you may have guessed, the semester is coming to a close and there is no time for that sort of thing now. Beh! It truly is the worst time of year, fun-wise, since the weather is finally warming up and there are lots of outdoor activities for free people. I have to miss the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival again this year- sucks!

Anyway, since I'm sure you don't feel like listening to me continue to bitch, here is what I did for Earth Day 2007:

1. I finally went out to buy recycling bins. Our state doesn't require you to recycle, and to be honest, I haven't done so since I parted ways from my last roommate (who had the bins set up and would drive them to the center) about three years ago. I think my busy schedule was always a convenient excuse for not being more conscious of things like conservation and recycling- I need to get out of that habit.

2. I bought Mr. Stix a new soup bowl for work after he told me he usually nuked his lunch in disposable bowls every day.

3. I wanted to finish Lisa's shopping bag, but I kinda sorta fell asleep really early on the night I was going to do that...

4. I don't like the idea of spraying harsh chemicals all over our house, and I've used Simple Green for years, but it SMELLS. Yuck. It's kind of like a menthol type scent- really annoying, because you always have to light a candle after cleaning, so I scouted out some alternatives. Apparently, Borax is a highly effective natural cleaner that you can mix with water and lemon juice in a spray bottle to disinfect (and if mixed at a higher concentration, you can strip paint of the floor. Weird.). Vinegar also kills 99% of bacteria and supposedly the stinkiness fades quite quickly when diluted with water and sprayed. This weekend, I will hopefully find a store that sells Borax and make our house spic & span.

I know these aren't huge steps or anything, but it made me feel really good to do something. I'm looking forward to researching more things that will make our home less wasteful. Any suggestions?

Holy Cro Cop!

2007-04-22T00:06:00.000-04:00

Did anyone see UFC 70 tonight? Mirco Cro Cop got destroyed in a huge upset- Gonzaga kicked him square in the head and he folded right in half. Sweet.

Want to go to Chotchkie's? Get some coffee?

2007-04-13T23:12:00.000-04:00

I'm glad you guys liked the green bag. To answer your question, I do plan on it being a grocery shopping bag. Actually, when it's finished, I'm sending it to Lisa :) I have another idea in my head for how to make an original pattern, so that will probably take forever. Too long to make her wait! I will post the patterns here as I finish each one.

It's amazing how many plastic bags I go through per week because I tend to pick up lunch from the supermarket. I wonder how many bags one store goes through per day, just to hold stuff for about 20 minutes, and then trashed.

--------------------------------------------------

Random-ness:

One of our friends came up with this idea for a movie night. You try to combine the titles of two different movies, by finding a common word. The only time we actually got together and did this, we watched Hudson Hawk and Hawk the Slayer, hence, it was "Hudson Hawk the Slayer" night. I'm trying to come up with as many combos as possible. Any ideas?? So far, I've come up with the following:

Raging Bull Durham
Beastmaster and Commander
The Princess Bride of Frankenstein

Kermit was wrong- it IS easy.

2007-04-12T21:14:00.000-04:00

So I've decided to reveal my secret knitting project, which is a mesh cotton shopping bag. After working and reworking it, it turns out what I really like the look of is just a modification of the french market bag. I thought I would be able to come up with an original pattern, but it is just not meant to be on this one. After knitting 3 of those, I guess the pattern must be stuck in my head.

Anyway, I've nicknamed it the "it's easy being green" bag. I'm using Sugar n' Creme cotton, for economy's sake, but I would love to make another out of one of the LionBrand organic cottons. Too bad they're so expensive ($6 for the bag using Sugar as opposed to $18 for the bag using the organics).

I'm working on the handles now, so it should be finished shortly. Here's a sneak peak of the base:

Pink pod people

2007-04-11T00:30:00.000-04:00

How sweet and thoughtful is Mr. Stix?? He came home today and surprised me with a super cool and super pink present for me- an iPod Shuffle! I've been making a big deal lately about wanting to get a Shuffle, since it would be nice to have at school (especially when people are being loud and annoying in the library or before class or whatever) or any time I'm feeling a little musical. However, I've been dragging my feet on buying one because I don't know anything about iTunes or using any related programs. I'm so out of the loop. So far I've learned how to load music from cd's, but that's it. I'm sure I could devote plenty of time to searching for cool music on iTunes, but that is for another day. Does anyone have any iPod tips for me?

Look how tiny it is! That is a tiny keychain UglyDoll for scale!

Thank you so so so much, my sweet husband!

No bunny saw it coming!

2007-04-08T23:24:00.000-04:00

What better way to spend Easter weekend than watching one of the greatest upsets in MMA history?? Last night, during UFC 69: Shootout, underdog Matt Serra TKO'd Georges St. Pierre in 3:25 of round 1 to take the welterweight belt. It was unbelievable- no one, and I mean NO ONE thought this dude could win, and he totally kicked GSP's ass. Stunning.

Update: Ape arms are still passe

2007-04-07T01:10:00.000-04:00

So my head is about to explode- after completely finishing sleeve #1, it was more than apparent that it was waaaaaaaay too long. I had to rip back 4 stripes worth and now I have these little balls of yarn that I have to re-use or I might not have enough to finish.

As you can probably guess, I'm bummed out by this setback. Bweh. Oh well, whatever. While I'm working on this, check out this bizarre video (you have to watch it all the way through) of Kermit the Frog covering the Nine Inch Nails song, Hurt.

Ape arms are a hot item for spring

2007-04-05T23:10:00.000-04:00

So I'm a little nervous that the arms on my Sesame Cardi are going to make me look like some kind of Neanderthal or something. The pattern says to work the sleeves until they are 20.5" and then start the arm hole shaping. However, you also have to match the stripe pattern, which made my sleeve 24". I know the cuffs fold back, but I'm still concerned :) Oh well- I guess the worst case scenario is that I won't have to wear gloves when I have the sweater on...

I saw the most incredible documentary the other night, So Much So Fast, on Frontline. It's the story of Stephen Heywood, who was diagnosed with ALS at age 29, and given a life expectancy of about 5 years. Because ALS is a fairly rare disease, it does not have the research funding or manpower of major drug companies (who are busy working on the next Viagra) to find new treatments. The film follows Stephen and his family for about two years. In this short time, Stephen's two brothers and best friends quit their jobs and found the ALS Therapy Development Foundation, in a race to develop new drugs in time to save his life. You watch Stephen rapidly decline into almost complete paralysis, but he never loses his sense of humor or his will to live and watch his son grow. The family is extremely adaptable considering the circumstances- they still travel abroad, visit the beach, and play video games, with various technologies that allow Stephen to still take part in the fun. If you can't see it on tv, just wait about a week and it will be available for viewing on the Frontline website. Check it out- you won't be disappointed.

Procrastinators are pro-birds

2007-04-03T19:32:00.000-04:00

So this is kind of weird- I have this thing about outside Xmas decorations, in that, well... I don't like them. They're nice for other people, but it's just not my bag. I don't really like climbing up on ladders when it's really cold outside, and that sort of thing. I did, however, agree to one of those nice simple wreaths that hang on the front door. Ours was hanging up (yes, still! Our fake trees are still up in the living room too!) and when Mr. Stix left for work today, he discovered that there was a little bird's nest tucked into it. How cute is that? We also have a little nest from last year that is still up in our front tree. I hope another bird family moves into it. It's nice to see them hanging out and doing bird things when you walk outside.

Moral of the story- procrastinate when it comes to taking down Xmas decorations because it means one less bird family will be sans nest come spring.

Almost one sleeve down...

2007-04-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

I have no new pictures to share, since I'm still working on the sleeves for Sesame. :( However, something cool did happen today. My professor brought in his father as a guest speaker, which normally I would find somewhat odd, but not this time -- his dad was one of the Tuskegee Airmen honored last week in DC. It was really cool- I actually held the Congressional Gold Medal!

Girls gone crafty: Spring break edition

2007-03-25T21:15:00.000-04:00

So I spent my spring break doing research paper, uh... research, and working on the Sesame cardi and buttons. I looked at a book on polymer clay and it said that if you put a little tin foil tent over the clay while it bakes, it will prevent it from scorching/ smoking/ stinking up the house. What the book didn't tell you, however, is that if you use the foil, you have to double the curing time.

Here is the first set that I made last week (the smelly batch):

They are made from silver clay with silver pigment dry-brushed on top for a little more depth. I think they look pretty good for a first attempt, if I do say so myself.

Here is a very crappy photo of the second batch that I made today. These are made of black clay with silver pigment and have a really pretty, aged silver look. I'll try to remember to post a better photo after these have been sealed and laid out on the table.

People in plastic smelling houses shouldn't...

2007-03-18T19:34:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. It's just been a little busy around here with school stuff. However, I did have a little time for some craftiness.

#1- Sesame Cardi- the left front is about finished, which means I only have the sleeves and button band left to do.

#2- I didn't finish my secret project in time for the Knitty summer deadline, but now I'm not sure if I still want to submit it or if I want to knit up a couple more for a possible Etsy store... decisions, decisions.

#3- Has anyone ever used Sculpey III? I made some buttons for the Sesame Cardi and brushed on some Pearl Ex prior to baking (as per a how-to on the HGTV website). Anyway, while it was baking, it was smoking the entire time and now our house smells like plastic. Is this normal? Is it because I used the Pearl Ex?

Paper! Snow! A ghost! **

2007-03-11T23:12:00.000-04:00

Thanks for your kind words and condolences. The whole thing really had me shaken last week- the last time my friend and I had been in contact was when I got engaged. I figured she was one of those friends that you could always meet up with again after a long time and nothing had changed. It made me realize that you shouldn't let that kind of time go by, because you just never know.

Anyway, I continued to work on the Sesame cardi, and I just finished the right front section. This isn't the greatest view, since the sides are rolling underneath, but you get the idea.

I'm also working on a little mystery pattern that I am going to submit to Knitty. I just thought of it last week and the summer issue's deadline is coming up, so hopefully I can finish it in time. If I get rejected, then I'll post it here as a free pattern. If not, then cool :)

I picked up Fitted Knits this week and I am dying to finish some WIPs so I can start on some of the patterns. Stefanie Japel is so talented- I can't believe she can come up with so many designs and knit up the sample on top of having a full time job. Amazing. I'll probably start with the shrug (I really like how Leah's came out), so I can use up some of the large quantity of Wool Ease taking up space in our house.

By the way, if you get a chance, check out last week's UFC title fight between Randy Couture and Tim Sylvia. It was UNBELIEVABLE. Why? Because Randy retired last year at age 43 after losing a second time to light heavyweight champ Chuck Liddel. So what does he do? He returns to the octagon as a heavyweight and beats the crap out of the highly- overrated, 7' tall goon Tim Sylvia, becoming the new champion. This was a great fight- not a dull moment.

**One of my favorite Friends scenes:
[On the game show Pyramid, Joey's partner Gene gets the word "cream".]
Gene: You put this in your coffee.
Joey: A spoon! Your hands! Your face!
Gene: It's white.
Joey: Paper! Snow! A ghost!
Gene: It's heavier than milk.
Joey: A rock! A dog! The earth!
Gene: Pass!

A sad panda

2007-03-06T21:36:00.000-05:00

I'm really sad right now- I just found out via a blog I read to keep up with hometown stuff that a very old friend passed away last week. She was only 30 years old.

It's strange- we went to middle school together, she went to a different high school, but then we ended up going to college together. We literally reunited in the registration office during orientation. We would ride the train home every day, pissing off the people around us with our loud conversation and fits of laughter. She was a very sweet girl, who really came into her own during college. We lost touch soon after I moved away.

A.M.P - rest in peace

Nostalgia- part II

2007-03-01T20:51:00.000-05:00

**sorry, this is an image heavy post**

Here are some more photos from our honeymoon that I thought were cool- here is pH deciphering the [replica] Rosetta stone at the British Museum:

The biggest fist I've ever seen:

This is the chateau where we stayed while in France. pH taught me how to drive a stick shift in the driveway :)

This is the church in Sainte Marie Eglise- during D-Day, they dropped American paratroopers over the town, and one soldier ended up getting stuck on the steeple (he ended up being captured by the Germans). There is a memorial to him on the church:

It was a pretty cute little town; actually all of the D-Day towns were adorable and didn't seem like they had changed at all since the war.

Here are some of the Assyrian sculptures in the Louvre:

And... the Venus de Milo. This sculpture was stunning in person. The stone had almost a glow to its surface, and the fabric was so realistic.

Oh yeah, and I'm still working on Sesame- I'm about to start the neck shaping...

I'm getting nostalgic

2007-02-27T21:13:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here watching Globetrekker, and it just so happens to be the episode on England and Wales that inspired pH and I to plan our honeymoon. I had never been outside the US before, so I was pretty much open to everything. We ended up traveling from London to Portsmouth to the Normandy region of France to Paris.

If you haven't learned by now, we are big history/ museum geeks. Here's a basic rundown of what we visited (also, the links have lots of pictures- I think Blogger would die if I tried to post all of this stuff):

England:

First stop- Starbucks :)
Westminster Abbey
Parliament
Tower of London
Buckingham Palace
Millennium Wheel
British Museum (home of the Rosetta Stone)
Tower Bridge
Carnaby Street
and we ate lots of fish & chips and some Cornish Pasties. Mmm...

HMS Victory
Portsmouth historic dockyards

France:
D-Day beaches
St. Malo
Mont St. Michel
Bayeux - home of the Bayeux tapestry
Eiffel Tower
Les Invalides
French Armory Museum
Sacre Coeur
Moulin Rouge
Notre Dame
Musee d'Orsay
Le Louvre
Les Halles
Starbucks

I can't really describe how I felt while we were overseas, except amazed and overwhelmed. Everything was so beautiful- the craftsmanship on the old buildings and castles was so intricate and in near perfect shape after hundreds of years.

We took over 2 GB of pictures, spread over 6 different memory cards :) Here's a few- I promise to show more.

Check out the ceiling and carved wood panels in Westminster Abbey:

This is kind of random, but I thought this was really cool- in the London parks, instead of hard park benches, they had these fabric lawn chairs. The parks were incredibly clean and you didn't see any signs of vandalism. I thought that was such a nice change from parks here- you could never have a nice lawn chair in the parks without someone walking off with it. It also seemed really nice that the parks were really set up as a place for people to gather with friends and just relax. London's pace was faster than I expected- it seemed even faster than NYC, but it seemed like once the work day was over, people were ready to kick back and leave work at the office.

We took the train down to Portsmouth, which is on the southern coast of England. It's where the Battle of Trafalgar took place, and sometimes they re-create it at night using fireworks to recreate the bombs. So cool. They didn't do the recreation while we were there, but we saw it on tv.

This is the HMS Victory, the oldest ship in the Royal Navy- it's still commissioned, even though it is sitting in dry dock:

We took a ferry across the channel to northern France and explored most of the D-Day beaches. Here I am in one of the bomb craters at Utah Beach:

Here is Mr. Stix in front of one of the Utah bunkers:

We also drove out to Mont St. Michel, which is an ancient monastary on top of an island hilltop. When the tide comes in, the water covers the parking lot where we were standing:

BTW, not only did Clapotis come with us, but so did the Saturday Market Bag :)

Traveling was so much fun- I feel so lucky that I was able to go to all of these places. Hopefully, we'll be able to go on more trips abroad. There are so many places I want to see, I don't even know which one I would put at the top of the list. I'd also love to go back to the UK and France- there are so many more places to see, just in those two countries! Thanks pH, for the best honeymoon ever!!