shlowziknits

After the Party

2007-10-23T14:44:00.000-05:00

A friend visiting from the states brought me two cans of black beans, so I decided to have a black bean burger dinner party. I made burgers, spicy tomato relish, and chocolate cookies. Amanda made a salad and brought hamburger buns from the Champion grocery store in Lilas. Here's the fridge:Of course I decided to take these pictures very late at night, after coming back from an after-party drink at the cafe... so they're a little fuzzy. Up top there is an open carton of Knorr Veloute de Potiron, pureed pumpkin soup. Knorr's version has creme-fraiche in it, it's my Paris version of comfort in a can. That one has been sealed with a piece of tin foil. Next to it is the old strawberry jam (or rasberry... i keep forgetting to buy toasting bread, it's been a while since I've had jam), three 33cl cans of 1664, the goat cheese, and the coffee. That thing wrapped in plastic hanging out in front of the beer is a wedge of lime. It was a fun party.
Below that is one green chile pepper in a paper bag, a tomato in a very large plastic bag, the end of the parmesan cheese, and one egg leftover from that dozen.
The next shelf has some spinach wrapped in paper towels, leftover rice (to thicken out the burgers a bit) half a can of chick-peas wrapped in plastic (they went in the salad) and leftover black bean mixture, just enough for another burger.
The last shelf appears to be salad greens, a bunch of tarragon, and a thing of yogurt.
Do excuse the fingers. In the drawers we have spinach and a paper wrapped package of cilantro, those are some carrots next door. They roasted up very nicely for dinner the next night.
Door shelves: Theres the mustard again, but notice how the vodka has been switched for a more-than half-empty bottle of gin and a carton of orange juice. it was a fun party.

I'm really good at grocery shopping

2007-10-22T12:04:00.000-05:00

I had a party this weekend, which means that my fridge is very full right now. But let's take a look at my fridge a week and a half ago:Hmm. this is depressing. I was sick that week too, I remember being really annoyed that I had no comfort food. Up top there is a thing of Monoprix goat cheese, strawberry jam, half a lemon, and coffee. I broke my coffee maker, so i've actually gone off coffee for the first time in three years, since I started drinking coffee regularly. Life just isn't the same.
On the next shelf I believe that's half a red pepper wrapped in green plastic, half a yellow onion, the end of one butter and an unopened new package of butter.
Then there's half a dozen eggs. I had a friend visiting last week, he makes good eggs.
On the bottom shelf is an unopened slab of Comte cheese and some salad greenery wrapped in a dish towel. Nothing in the drawers.
The side door:There's the Britta pitcher, still no filter, that mustard and still the same vodka.
I thought it would be not at all interesting to take pictures of the insides of my cabinet too, so you can see the non-perishables...Wow, they really aren't all that interesting. That's a canister of rock salt and a box of VanHouten cocoa powder, which is a really good brand. I seem to remember it being a luxury item in the states, though it's not at all here. Behind it is a canister of sugar, that you can't really see, and the funny box of baking soda I had to go to a pharmacy to buy. It's pharmeceutical quality fine white powder. I get a little nervous every time I use it. There are my plates. They are small and I've broken several already. Next to the plates are two green papered cans, one was tomatoes and one was white beans (both have since been consumed). Thats a glass jar of honey, and the thin box in front of it is veggie boullion cubes. I won't tell you what brand, I don't like them very much. The thing wrapped in a pink bag is actually an opened package of spaghetti left here by the previous tenant. I still haven't managed to finish it. I'm not the biggest fan of long pasta. I like to always have a can of tomatoes on hand, they can be tomato sauce or soup pretty quickly for all those hungry people who show up unexpectedly. Next to it, in the package with the blue label, is rice.
This is my countertop. I swear it's usually a little neater than this. There's balsamic vinegar and a bottle of monoprix-brand olive oil. That yellow bottle in the back is rancid sunflower oil left by the previous tenant. I'm in the process of remembering to throw it out. There's a box of matches, a bottle stop, and my lovely fruit basket. There's a lime, a lemon, and half a head of garlic. That bag has delicious pain aux six cereales from the bakery down the street. The small bowl wrapped in plastic next to the fruit basket is cocoa powder mixed with spices and sugar, left over from a fried banana experiment. I've since eaten that with a spoon. between the chocolate stuff and the vinegar is the salt shaker, table salt en poudre rather than rock salt en crystal, and two moulines de poivre, one has a blend that was left by the previous tenant and the other is straight up black pepper.
That empty glass bottle in the back is now serving as a vase for some lovely zinnias I got in the market the other day.

My Life through Pictures of my Refrigerator

2007-10-11T13:39:00.001-05:00

]]I may start doing this weekly.
This is from very early on in my life in 75014.
Amanda was still living here..sigh. On the top shelf we have a bottle of milk, an almost finished thing of organic yogurt, and one lonely bottle of 1664. Below that, there is a slab of President Butter and a container of grated parmesan. The next shelf appears to be a cucumber, half an onion, and half a lemon accompanied by a half eaten brick of chocolate. Amanda converted me to keeping chocolate in the fridge. Below that is an unopened thing of non-organic yogurt.
This is the side shelves. A jar of Bonne Maman strawberry jam, a jar of mustard, a bag of organic coffee from Nicaragua, via Monoprix. Below that is the Brita pitcher sans filter, half a bottle of Svedka vodka and half a bottle of precious precious cranberry juice, which the French call canaberge and vastly under appreciate. It goes with the vodka.We were so healthy back then! This is half a bunch of carrots and a whole lot of girolle mushrooms occupying our bottom drawers. I think there may have been some spinach in there too, that looks like too much bag for just the girolles. We made a great soup...

Bunny Rabbits

2007-08-08T13:25:00.000-05:00

No Knitting, just soup

2006-05-05T17:43:00.000-05:00

I havent been knitting at all lately, despite having these baby things to finish. The baby wont be around for another few months, she can wait. I've been looking for a job, and after another day not getting anything I just decided to go home and cook. My friend Allie is coming to visit me (picking her up in two hours) and we were planning on having an artichoke and asparagus party tommorrow night before the first saturday dance party at the brooklyn museum. I'm not sure if anyone is going to be around for this party, but they should be because I already made more food than I think we can eat and knowing us there will only be more tommorrow. I know this is supposed to be for my knitting, but lately I've just been enjoying being unemployed with my parents kitchen at my disposal.
I started with asparagus soup. My asparagus soup recipe comes from many hours of studying asparagus recipes about two years ago. Asparagus can seem like a tricksy flavor, but it actually goes well with alot of things as long as the tastes balance eachother out. Traditionally, asparagus was often served steamed or grilled with a fried egg and parmesan cheese. If you like fried eggs, (i dont so much) this is great. When I was a kid my parents would steam it in the microwave and douse it in too much vinagrette. This isn't bad, but I could never eat a whole plate of it. My favorite preparation for plain asparagus is simple grilling, preferablly outside on a lovely summer day. Sprinkle a little salt and lemon juice over it and eat. But I live in the city, and I dont have a grill. This soup I first made for a dinner party that me and my friend Yana threw on April 16th, 2004. (I used to keep a paper cooking journal; I wrote down every geust I had and what I served them. We had six people eating dinner, we ate this soup, carrots and broccoli with mustard sauce, salted cucumbers, Josh's mushroom risotto, remember Josh forgot to put in the stock so he just added lots of wine instead?, pignoli cookies, and brownies that someone brought. I also remember that I wore a poufy flowered skirt. That skirt was the reason I wanted to have a party.)
Anyway. I'm giving you my recipe. I wrote down that I based this soup off of the one in Laurel's Vegetarian cooking book, which taught me most of what I know about coooking vegetables. I wrote down that it's on page 156, but I don't feel like checking that and I wouldn't necessarily believe anything I wrote down when I was seventeen.

Asparagus Soup:
You will need:
1/2 red onion, 1/2 yellow onion, both diced
1 yellow potato
4 cups vegetable stock or water
lots of oil for sauteeing
1 pound fresh asparagus
4 cups frozen peas
salt, pepper, fresh mint, fresh thyme (the amounts aren't that important, whatever you like. Use less thyme than mint and adjust the salt depending on the liquid you use.)
Saute the onion in oil until the yellow onion is almost translucent. Dice the potato and add with a 1/2 cup of liquid. Simmer until potatos are soft.
Wash asparagus and snap off the tough ends. Asparagus is nice like that, you don't have to force it, just bend it and it will break naturally where it needs to. Slice the asparagus in about inch long pieces and add to pot along with another 1 1/2 cups liquid. Add peas and the rest of the liquid, then the herbs. Rolling the herbs in your fingers will help release the flavor, tear up the mint and crinkle it before you add it. Cook for fifteen minutes or so, until vegetables are tender. Add salt and pepper. Puree.
-I like to puree this soup using a stick blender. My standard blender is older than my parents and doesnt like hot things anymore. If you do use a standard blender, I reccomend working with batches of two cups at a time. Either way, definately let the soup cool a little first. If you're really anal about it, you can strain out the fibery stuff. I don't do this, I perfer a coarser soup. It's better to serve this chilled. I like to let it sit in the fridge over night and eat it out of a small water glass.
-About the liquid. I often just use water. This time I used water my parents had saved from boiling asparagus last week, but this makes for a really strong taste that you may not want. It's also labor intensive. Use whatever you want. If you use just plain water, make sure to add extra herbs.
get cooking. now.
I'm gonna go make chocolate cookies and then pick up Allie at the train station.

Haven't blogged in a while

2006-05-01T14:25:00.000-05:00

I've been busy, and not knitting much.
Yesterday my house hosted a baby shower for a friend of my mothers. She'll be having a girl around the fourth of July, so I decided this would be a good excuse to knit up the teal tahki saucy sport mercerized cotton I got last summer. I was thinking about drapy cotton sweaters, but this yarn is much to hard and inflexible for that. I think it's gonna be perfect for a baby sweater. I started knitting up the two-needle baby jacket from Elizabeth Zimmermans knitting almanac (I think it's March baby things?). Of course, it's Elizabeth Zimmerman so the pattern is wonderful. I'm just following the pithy directions, I've been too busy lately and as usual much too un-arithematic to do my own math. The sweater starts with fifty-one stitches at the neck (around ten inches if you're on gauge, which I almost am), and a garter stitch yoke turning into a simple lace body. The baby won't need a heavy sweater in July, so I decided to do the lace. The only problem is that E.Z. wrote her patterns to work best in nice cushy wool, so the increase rows in the yoke are alot more obvious in the cotton, something I should have anticipated. I'll knit a little more and see what happens, if it bothers me I can always start over with a decorative raglan shaping. It's a nice relaxing knit though, exactly what I needed. The mother-to-be also made a specific request for this hat. I get the joke of knitting a bunny-ear pattern in alpaca, but I'd rather do it in a yarn that's easier to take care of, also lighter in case it turns out to be the right size for her to wear before it gets that cold. It's a worsted weight yarn, substituting it will be easy.
I've decided that the Jaywalker pattern, as much fun as it is, might not be the best for my super-wide feet. I might redo it using yarnovers to make it stretchier. Or I might find another pattern for the beautiful self-striping yarn Hannah made me. In the meantime, I'm trying to come up with an appropriately sized sock pattern for my fathers socks, but all the mens sized patterns I've seen use worsted weight. stupid big feet.

because sparky refused to get off the couch...

2006-04-06T12:08:00.000-05:00

I finished my first Jaywalker (these pictures were taken before I had the toe). I didnt feel like finding the instructions so I just did the toe decreases the way I wanted to, which is probablly exactly the same as the instructions in the pattern (two paired decreases on either side, not especially innovative, but I like the way paired decreases look). I was also too lazy to get Elizabeth Zimmerman and a yarn needle for kitchener instructions, so I just did a three needle bind off. Bad idea. It's wearable, but theres a pretty thick seamy-thing and it just looks sloppy. Not as sloppy as my kitchener will probablly be, but that has the advantage of being kitchener, and much better for socks. I'm considering making knitty's Bristow with the red yarn I got in Montevideo last year. I think the gauge is about right if I go down a needle size, which will make it a little denser for colder weather.

Josh, sweetie duck, this is for you. Alternate title: An Ode to Park Slope

2006-04-01T18:43:00.000-05:00

Today being my first day back in Park Slope, it was necessary to pal around with Josh, Jonah and Michael. We went to three seperate coffee places, walked from berkley to windsor, and ended up, of course, in Josh's parents backyard sitting on the swingy bench thing. There are magnolias and cherry trees blooming. There are daffodils. There are soooo many parents and strollers wandering around, all the stoned high school kids seem to have gone into sunny wheather hibernation. Last year I was invited to a May day picnic upstate. It was raining, so the picnic planned by a crazily elitest elderly German lady was held at the home of an agressively hip artist in Upper Bone Hollow. The party was a nice mix of bumbling academic types, artists swathed in linen shrouds, and a few Chanel jacketed older ladies who spent the whole time talking about someones neice and Max Ernst. It was the most pretentious event I have ever been a part of. Generally I like to make fun of pretention, and it always makes for a great story so I like to watch it in action, but this was too much for me andI spent most of it on the back porch smoking with Nigel. At some point I wandered inside, where one of the linen shrouded artists was trying to convince the older ladies' husbands that the outer bouroughs were totally worthless. Most of the husbands were from the outer bouroughs (each of them at some point that day came up to me to tell me about whatever it was they were doing when they were my age. they all thought I was about five years older than I was and they all decided I should marry their neighbor's son.) and didn't appreciate these stories at all. Niether did I, so I got involved. This guy was from Toronto, but currently living in Connecticut. In the mid eighties he'd lived in Brooklyn, but he'd hated it. He thought it was dreary and slummy. Fair enough, there are places like that in Brooklyn. But then I asked him where he'd lived. 'Grand Army Plaza. How depressing.' Depressing? Fountains, statues, arches, cherry trees, park, botanic gardens, two of the most impressive public buildings in the city. I waxed on about all these for a few moments, one of the husbands, a Carrol Gardens boy from back when Carrol Gardens was a 'real' outerbourough neighborhood, got all teary. Then I talked about the brownstone blocks of Park Slope, the ginko and mulberry trees and all their stupid berries, the way the leaf shapes crush into the sidewalks when it rains in fall. I remembered the way the roads used to be when I was very little, back when there were still a few cobbled spots in Brooklyn streets (there still are some, just not in Park Slope anymore...that I know of). I talked about Grand Army Plaza before they painted over the bronze patina, Litchfield Villa before they let the upper floor cave in, back when everyone in Park Slope drove used Hondas and most people would rather carpool. (We had a used Honda back in the day, but it was a two door and we never carpooled, mostly cause we had nowhere to go.) Carrol Gardens guy was in sobbing convulsions by the time I was done, he gave a short speech about eating spaghetti on the back porch of his grandmother's brownstone on Degraw street. The whole time I was picturing the Catalpa tree that hung over the back porch of Mickey's house when we were very very small, we used to pick the pods off in the fall and get yelled at.
The guy who'd been complaining spent a few minutes trying to think of something to say. He looked very pleased when he finally came up with something.
"You know, I'm really not interested in trees." he said. Not interested in trees? Why did he move to Connecticut? But I don't have any emotional investment in Connecticut, so I moved on. On the other side of the room my father was having a conversation about martians with a dapper old academic, that seemed to have more wierd story potential than me rambling about the beauty of this part of Brooklyn.
Anyway. My point is that Park Slope is so beautiful in the spring, and I was really happy to be out today.
There will be knitting pictures soon, I'm up to the toe on my first jaywalker but I haven't touched it in a few days.
And Josh, if you're reading this, I totally did update on the 28th.

Heels!

2006-03-28T05:10:00.000-05:00

Last night I turned the heel on my jaywalker sock. I stayed up late so I could do it all in one sitting. I also had this idea that I would read fifty pages in Bettany Hughes' Helen book before going to sleep, but i discovered that one cannot take in massive amounts of information about girls puberty rituals in Classical and Bronze-Age Sparta while turning a heel. Trying this out slowed me up a bit. It also exhausted me and I didnt wake up in time to get to class again. Good thing I'm going home in two days, Paris is wearing me out.Instead of going to class I read the Gaurdian that I brought back from London last week and pick up the heel gussets. Not at the same time. The gusset threw me a bit.
When knitting flat, I twist my purl stitches. When I want a straight stitch I usually just untwist it in the knit stitch, but Hannah recently explained to me in depth what I was actually doing so now I know why they do what they do, as Annie Modesitt says. When I was knitting the embossed leaves socks I left the heel stitches twisted because I like the extra strength in the heels. I decided to do that again this time, sort of knowing that it might make picking up the gusset stitches a pain in the ass. This pattern is designed with a slip stitch selvedge on the heel flap, which makes it kind of loose for me. The embossed leaves socks are made with two knit stitches at the beginning and end of every row, for a nice garter stitch selvedge. Thats not the neatest look, but it does make picking up the stitches much easier and it keeps my twisted purl stitches closer to straight stitch row gauge. My leafy socks have no holes around the gusset, but I can already tell that the jaywalkers are going to have MASSIVE holes. I considered going back and redoing the heel flap with garter selvedges, but I dont think it'll look right in this sock. If it's really a problem I can always try to do something artful with a crochet hook later.
I said I'd meet Rik at CROUSE in ten minutes...

a dry, exhausted entry about why Hannah is the best person ever!

2006-03-24T14:40:00.000-05:00

She came to visit me in Paris and we played with socks. And balled a gigantic skein of yarn. But there arent any pictures of that, as we didnt feel it necessary to document the most aggravating thing ever. Above is a picture of us wearing our nearly matching socks. We discovered that I knit alot tighter than Hannah does.This is the ribbing of my new project, a jaywalker sock from the magknits.com/grumperina pattern knit with the yarn Hannah brought me. See those neat stripes? She dyed that herself. Hannah is amazing. I'm told the yarn is knitpicks dye your own sock yarn, and I have no reason not to believe the most amazing person on earth. Thanks Hannah!
I'm using size 2, and I still feel like I'm knitting a little tightly, but it's a pretty well fitting pattern so I'm not worrying about the gauge much.

Lazy in Paris- no knitting whatsoever.

2006-03-11T07:08:00.000-05:00

I know the title makes it sound like I've been sitting around eating pastries- I really wish. Instead, I've spent the week with a cold, trying to write an essay about the Eumenides (see shlowziworks), and reading other people's blogs. Eunny is doing a wonderful series about lace knitting which I'm really excited about, despite not having worked on my own lace knitting since I got off the plane coming here a week and a half ago. Mostly, I've been reading food blogs. I love food blogs even more than knitting blogs, because its alot easier just to get up and try what the blogger is talking about. Cooking is much closer to instant satisfaction than knitting. My favorite foodblog is Chocolate and Zucchini, she lives in Paris but used to live in California, so her cooking is a nice combination of Parisian and Californian food philosophies. She also keeps me informed on foodie things I should look out for around Paris. It was on her suggestion that I found a Sadaharu Aoki patisserie in the sixth arrondisement and tried his opera au the vert (green tea opera). One of my more frivolous splurges since I've been here, but totally worth it. Leia, who was again nice enough to indulge me, and I were amused that one pastry plus two coffees cost almost three times as much as our cheap-shit student cafeteria lunches. I just noticed on the website that he has something called a Brooklyn, which seems to be cheesecake on a pate sable cookie crust. Through Chocolate and Zucchini I discovered Orangette, who writes about food that reminds me of the way my parents cook, or at least the way they'd like to cook. Another one of my favorites is Chez Pim, she's an incredible cook but I really just like reading about her life. Today when I was avoiding considering a mediaval era Christian interpretation of the Eumenides, or the implications of me NOT finishing yet another knitting project for my mother, I was reading Chez Pim, who pointed me in the direction of Tea and Cookies, who pointed me in the direction of Sur la Table. Sur la Table, if you don't feel like clicking the link, is a cooking supply retailer. I spend plenty of time ogling pots and pans at my parents house, my perferred vehicle of this indulgence is the Williams Sonoma catalogue, which just hasnt been as cool since they cut down the amount of recipes they publish in the catalogue (they still have plenty of recipes online, check it out). In Paris I just wander around cooking supply stores, lots of fun, and in New York last December I spent a little more time than I'd like to admit at the restaurant supply store in Chelsea Market and the Williams Sonoma store at 59th and Lex, where my father and I were served fantastic hot chocolate samples and bought a tin of peppermint bark that lasted less than a week in my house. I don't often look at Sur la Table, we've never received their catalogue at home and ogling the entire Creuset line on the internet just seems creepy to me. But, I'm away from home and a bit sick, so I decided to go for it. I decided to check out their Emile Henry products. When I first moved in to this apartment there were no microwave-safe cooking vessels. I went to the Monoprix (a chain grocery store, they feel slighlty high-end to me, not as fancy as a Whole Foods in the states but nicer than one of the better Key Foods) and bought an Emile Henry ceramic oval baking dish. It's a great thing, it fits perfectly on the revolving stand in my microwave, handles the grill setting really well, alot easier to clean than the no-stick roasting pan someone misguidedly gave my mother for christmas two years ago. The best part? It cost 6 euro. My friend Rik has the same dish, he uses it to make mashed potato casserole (much like Rosie's) Sur La Table has the same one for $27. Williams Sonoma carries the Emile Henry Auberge line, apparently made exclusively for W-S. They offer a similar dish, only slightly larger and with handles, here for $35. I sort of remembered that Emile Henry was more of a luxury thing in the US than here, and I had been considering bringing my dish back, but this is it. Totally bringing my Emile Henry back to the states, I dont care if I have to buy a new suitcase to do it.
On a side note, I really like hyperlinks.

Socks finished-

2006-01-28T12:19:00.000-05:00

There will be closeups of my (many many many)mistakes later. For now, I'm much too busy basking in my pretty socks.

it's cold here

2006-01-27T12:10:00.000-05:00

So I'm pretending it's spring. Interweave put up the spring 06 preveiws, and I think I like it. There seems to be alot of cool texture things going on, but not much playing with shape. Sweaters are not being rewritten, if you catch my meaning. The most interesting design is Kate Gilberts circle jacket, which looks like it might be offered as a free pattern... or maybe subscriber content in which case I'm out of luck. The Caftan pullover by Norah Gaughan is also pretty, but not something I would wear. The yarn sounds lovely though. (OOh look at the angry guy in the saddle sleeved pullover. he's either blowing glass or getting ready to take an eye out). Of course I love the ideas behind the lace pullover and the aran rose, but neither one interests me enough to make. The trellis scarf is gorgeus, and it uses one skein of knit picks alpaca cloud, but I could probablly come up with that my stitch dictionary. In fact, I might do just that for my mothers plassard alpaca scarf. I love the felted bag, but I will never understand the compulsion to felt something as beautiful as Montera yarn. It's fifty percent wool and fifty percent llama, which makes it a little coarse but my favorite thing in the world. I dont see myself buying this issue, but I will spend some time with it at Barnes and Nobles.
sock pictures coming up someday...

Freak Accident

2006-01-18T15:26:00.000-05:00

My apartment here has ten light bulbs. Five vanity lights in the bathroom, three bulbs in an overhead ceiling light, one bulb in a bed lamp and one really wierd bulb in the floor lamp by the desk. In the past three days, six of those ten bulbs have burnt out. I don't care about the two dead vanity bulbs, when it gets to be a problem that should be easy enough to deal with. I changed the bed lamp already, that made me feel very accomplished. Two of the overhead bulbs went out within three hours of eachother, and that made things a little difficult. The overhead light is a frosted glass disk bolted onto the ceiling, and I have no idea how to get it down. This is not made easier by the fact that I am a short little girl and there is no step ladder in this apartment. The owner of this place is clearly not a short person, my people always have step ladders. I got my friend Rik, who's six foot two and deals with my household problems (he was a big help with the faulty sink drains in my last apartment), to come over and try to figure out the ceiling light. He propped a chair up on the bed (and I screamed, "but the chairs are wicker! the bed is cushy! you can't stand on that!") and pulled rather alarmingly at the glass for a few minutes before giving up. The floor lamp is also complicated, it has some kind of tube bulb that I have never seen before. I'm thouroughly confused.
All this is to say that I won't be knitting at night for a little while. Especially since I'm almost at the toe on the second leafy sock. That star pattern on the toe took quite alot of concentration last time. Sock number two has alot of flaws next to sock number one, I'll go into details as soon as I get finished pictures, but badly formed stars will not be one of them.
Instead of knitting, I've been thinking about socks. This is my first successful sock experience (successful meaning no blistery lumps on the heel flaps and nicely sized calf) . Still, there are alot of things I will do differently in my next socks. Next Socks will be soon, as they make perfect plane knitting and I will be on alot of planes in the next few months. I recently started reading Purly Whites, where she is doing a Master Study of Nancy Bush. You can read more about her project here. While I am not interested in doing anything so long term, this idea appealed to me. I'm thinking that when I get home I should take a day (an hour...) to do a heel study. For Christmas I got a copy of Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road, my first all socks book, and she presents alot of different heels. I'd like to try all of them, starting with the flap constructed heels. I have this image of a long strip of short rowed heel flaps. I know Hannah has a pretty recently acquired sock book too, would you care to join me?
I have also been considering my stash back home. My first major yarn acquisition was eight skeins of bulky Soho Tweed, by Tahki (color; russet. Of course I didnt forget any of the specs of my first sweater plan!). It's been half knitted about three times, and at least six of those skeins are now one gigantic ball attatched to a half finished sleeve sitting in a carpet bag in my room in bklyn. None of the sweaters I've tried with it have worked. Right before I left I found a stitch pattern for a ribbed cable, and ever since I've been imagining it in this yarn. The tweedy-ness looks great in ribs and cables are of course made for tweed. I've been working it on size ten needles, it's not especially dense but it does make a very sturdy fabric. For me, this would be flattering only in a more tailored design. I'm picturing a slightly cropped jacket-y sweater (slightly cropped because of yardage issues, not too cropped. I don't do too cropped.) With an extended button placket (like on a motorcycle jacket) and some kind of collar detail. The Vogue knitting design book should have a good idea for the collar. Most of the cabling will be on the back, lots of ribbed cables doing lots of intricate things. The kind of cabling that will make me want to eat babies, but will look beautiful. With such complex work happening on the back I won't want to have to worry about shaping the front at the same time. So the back will be knit flat. Flat sweaters make me nervous though. They remind me of sewing machines. My idea is to pick up stitches along the back and knit the front all in one piece. How am I going to do this? SHORT ROWS! It's brilliant. In a sadistic sort of way.
But this is a long way off. First I will spend the summer swatching ribbed cables and knitting the Hourglass sweater from Joelle Hoverson's book Last Minute Knitted Gifts, to learn about something about dramatic shaping. Hourglass will use up my cranberry yarn from Morehouse, which is lovely because then I can buy more Morehouse yarn. Lace weight. I will want lace after bulky cables.

PICTURES!

2006-01-13T03:26:00.000-05:00

A.J. came over with his digital camera last night and took yarn pictures. Ain't he sweet?
First we have the embossed leaves socks- I'm about to start the heel on the second one.
Here's a closeup of the pattern on the first one

I'm planning on starting the heel today...yeah. I still love these socks, and I'm really looking forward to wearing them with my red shoes.

I went to my favorite craft store here. It's on rue Francs Bourgeios in the Marais, so it's kind of upscale, but they have beautiful things. Their yarn selection is small, and inexplicably behind a counter, but they have some lovely stuff. There's alot of Rowan yarn, which is much cheaper here than in the US, I guess the import fees are less or something. They carry some European yarns that I've never seen in the US, including this lovely stuff;

It's Plassard Alpaca, which I had never even heard of. You can't really see the color in the picture, it's a bright, saturated dark purple. It seems bright enough to show up a lace pattern well, I plan on making the second mom present that I promised (second to Cinxia, which is sitting in my parents living room in brooklyn in a sad ziplock bag-shhhhh. I feel so guilty, she must be cold without sleeves. or a yoke.) My mom requested a dark purple lace scarf to wear with her leather jacket and look oh so chic, so I'll start it as soon as I finish these socks (soooon!) and she can wear it when it's that season again. This is a really beautiful yarn, I'm looking forward to working with it. I got three skeins of 180 meters. In the store they showed me a baby dress knit with it. I wish I could knit myself a dress with it, but that would cost a small fortune. They suggest a size three needle, I'm assuming thats metric sizes. I have a size five circ that I brought to make a flower basket shawl (free from the IK website! yay!) with this;
This is a massive skein of llama. Hannah recognizes it cause I got one for her too when I was in Argentina almost a year ago. See the sock in there for scale? It's alot of llama. I think Hannah made socks with some of hers, I think its about a sport weight. I thought it would make a nice, slightly heavy smallish shawl. I only brought the size five circs (aside from my sock making toothpicks which don't really count) and I think I will need a couple sizes bigger for this yarn. The pattern suggests size seven with (i think) a laceweight yarn, so I might go with an eight or maybe even nine. It can wait till I go home in February and come back here in march. Socks and scarves should keep me occupied until then.
For more about the Plassard yarn you can google Kate Gilbert's Union Square Market Pullover, from IK last spring (?). She used this yarn (of course she used this yarn! she used to live in Paris!) and it's a beautiful sweater. I'm very excited about it.

back in paris...

2006-01-07T06:55:00.000-05:00

and I'm actually knitting! I cast on for the second embossed leaves sock the knit before (er- Hannah cast on and counted for me cause I am physically incapable of casting on and counting stitches, especially the night before I leave the country). I finished the twisted rib section on the plane and started the second repeat last night. I'm geussing I'll have these finished by the end of the week. Not to worry- I also brought that llama yarn I got in Buenos Aires last year, which may become an oversized flower basket shawl now that IK is offering it for free on their website.
Having a free wifi in my apartment means I can check the nytimes website in the morning while I have my breakfast and knit. It also means I can knit while I read knitting blogs, play tetris, and waste time on myspace. All at the same time.
Pictures as soon as I can get A.J. to come over with his digital camera.

No Pictures--

2005-12-18T18:06:00.000-05:00

But I finished something else today.
It suddenly dawned on me that even if the baby isn't coming for another week or so, today is probablly the last time I'm gonna have to see Emily and Haya before I leave. I realized this about three hours before we were supposed to have lunch with them, and obviously there was no chance of finishing a sport-weight sweater, even for a new-sized person, in three hours. I wanted to give them something for the baby in person, so I pulled out my Stitch n Bitch books. I found the one hour baby booties in SnB Nation and knit them in less than an hour, about twenty minutes per bootie, using two strands of worsted acrylic. I finished weaving in the ends in the car going across the Verazzano bridge on our way there, so no pictures.
This pattern is kinda nifty. I wasn't sure about it, I always think the picture in the book looks a little lumpy. It's knit flat in one piece with a short row toe and sewn up the back. I didn't figure out how it worked until after I finished the knitting on the first one but then it seemed really obvious. I didnt do the little ankle strap thing because I was going for less of a mary-jane look, but it's still cute. I hope they fit!

i actually did finish something!

2005-12-16T15:20:00.000-05:00

Not Cinxia, not a sweater for Emily's baby...

It's a sock! An embossed leaves sock from the newest Interweave Knits. I love it.

Here's an action shot------
Sorry I couldn't get a better close up of the leaves.
It took me about a week to finish one, and I think it was just what I needed to get myself excited about knitting again. The lace pattern became instinctual before I finished the first repeat, and check out the short row heel! I finally did a real heel! Lace and short rows are all very nice, but my favorite part is the twisted one-by-one ribbing.
The yarn I used was from my stash, I got it the first time I started knitting when I was about eleven. I'm really proud of myself for finally using it. It's a superwash sockweight, I think it's called Lanette or Lunette or something but the label seems to be in German and I've never seen this anywhere. If I do see it again, I'll be buying out the store. It's so soft. I had a little trouble with splicing, but that was probablly just because of the size 2 bamboo needles.
I promised myself I would finish baby and mommy sweaters before I knit the second one, I'm looking forward to working it on my flight back to Paris in January.
Baby sweater will have to be done by NEXT WEEK! AHHHHH!

knitting? yeah, that too.

2005-12-05T11:58:00.000-05:00

I feel terrible. I havent been interested in knitting in weeks! The last time I knit was two weeks ago, when I did the first row and a half of a cinxia sleeve and realized my stitch count was off and I hated those needles. I'm back home now, with real needles I think I can love, but I just havent wanted to knit.
This morning I woke up with an extreme desire to knit fair isle mittens. Some problems; I'm not sure I have two colors of yarn in the right gauge for the kind of project I'm envisioning, and I've never done fair isle before. Both of these things will have to change, especially since I've become obsessed with these. know that those are not mittens. The mittens that I'm crushing on are the bird mittens in Vibeke Lind's "Nordic Knitting" book, but I'm not sure I'm in an appropriate knitting state of mind for following Lind's rather nebulous instructions. Right now I need something more clear cut, with everything written out and charted in meticulous detail.
Nothing like the new Knitty coming out to cure my knitting malaise.
This issue just isnt as entirely beautiful to me as the fall issue was. It does have its good points though and there are so many patterns! My unadulterated favorites so far are the Knecklace and Bristow, but I am also very interested in Tubey (I could actually see myself making several of those, without stripes) and, a little surprisingly, Tempting II. The first Tempting reminded me a little too much of a wrapped present, but the new one is absolutely lovely. If I knit it, I would make 3/4 sleeves and do the body in stockinette, ribbing doesnt work so well with my body type, and knitting it would be exasperating to me.
I also like the Pomatamus socks, love them actually. I might need to do that with my oil slick yarn. Spike is the coolest thing I've seen in a while, but I dont see myself knitting it. I looove Chaos, but I want it in my size! The thing that excites me most is Bamboozle. Why do I want to knit a bamboo box? I have no idea, but I really really do. And I happen to have a skein of Bamboo hanging around that will never become the scarf it was intended to be. Bamboozle it is.

So the needles I got-

2005-11-16T09:29:00.000-05:00

the twelve inch long ones? That I spent two weeks pondering and looking for? I hate them.
First of all, they're really really long for dpns. I prefer my needles, unless they're circulars, to be about nine inches long, or less. Thats why I like circs for everything. With four twelve inch long needles, thats forty-eight inches of needle you're dealing with! I don't even have circs that long!
Second, they're made out of what I think is uncoated steel, so they feel really nasty and the wool actually sticks. It's annoying. I might go to the fancy store again tomorrow and see if they have nice wooden ones. I know I said no wood in this project, but uncoated metal is no good for anything. Better than nothing I geuss, but they make knitting a little painful.

ever so slightly dazed and confused

2005-11-12T08:44:00.000-05:00

I've been in Paris for two weeks now and only today managed to find needles for cinxia's sleeves. The Phildar store I went too last summer on the Rue Daguerre is alllllllwaaaays closed. A Japanese jewelry designer in my class who wears beautiful hand crocheted scarves every day gave me a list of stores to check, so today I went out for a look.
First up was an Anny Blatt store on the rue Francs Bourgeois. I'm spelling that wrong, so please excuse me. The only dpns she had were a size three, but she did let me check her needle gauge to make sure I was asking for the right size in metric. I wasnt too thrilled by the yarns there, she had some nice mohair, but I'm not the biggest fan of mohair. Other than that it was mostly acrylic blends and...FUN FUR. oy. There were about four versions, all of them were nicer than the Lion stuff, but fun fur is fun fur.
Then I went to the BHV, a huge department store on rue de Rivoli. First I looked on the second floor (taking about five minutes to remind myself that the second floor is the third floor here and so on), in the section for 'dessins; beaux-arts; loisirs creatifs'. I found a shelf of moleskein notebooks, but no knitting stuff. Upstairs in the 'tissus' (fabrics) section, I found a phildar counter. Again the yarn wasn't too interesting. There was some fine-gauge cotton and alot of heavy worsted wool/acrylic blends in granny colors. No offense to grannys, but you get the idea. I asked the attendant for needles. This is hard, because I don't actually know the word for needles. The woman at the Anny Blatt store told me, but I forgot. (Now I think its aigille? or something). Asking for dpns entailed miming knitting, pointing to the straight needles they had and saying 'pour les chausettes'; for socks. She told me she didnt have any small enough for socks, only sleeve size. I told her I was knitting a sleeve, and she got very happy and produced a set of 4.5 needles about a foot long each.
I decided to go to one of the other stores my friend told me about. Its at number 8 rue Francs Bourgeois, in case youre ever in Paris, inside a courtyard, and it is fabulous. Seriously. They have ready made clothes on one side, but then they have an entire section of crafty fiber stuff, including ribbons and trims, buttons, fabrics, and beautiful yarns. It was mostly rowan stuff, thew had all the books too, but there was also filati and some really nice looking alpaca. I didnt buy anything, but I think I will be going back there for ribbons and trim. Lovely stuff. I still dont understand French keyboards, but I have my needles and I can start cinxia s sleeves when I get home.

It's late...

2005-10-24T23:48:00.000-05:00

So this won't be the best post. I'm writing it now because I need to study Greek tomorrow instead of dreaming about knitting projects...
Cinxia is temporarily stalled. This is a really stupid story. I was using my hand as a rough measure, and it turns out my hand is a little longer than I thought it was. When I took out the measuring tape, I had a little over ten inches. I needed 8.5. I ripped, and lost one of my stitch markers. She's back on the needles now and waiting for me to be in a counting mood so I can get the stitch marker back where it's supposed to be. Maxine at Stitch Therapy ordered me a set of metal size seven dpns so I can start the sleeves, but I'm trying to draw out this sweater a little bit because it's gonna be one of my Paris projects. I'll be there for a month, and the only things I have any interest working on are Cinxia, the sweater for Emily's baby, and a pair of arm warmers made with the oil-slick colored sock yarn I got at the Livingston wool festival last spring.
I finally came up with a swatch I liked for the baby sweater-

That's 'Jacquard Diamonds' from Barbara Walkers Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. Sorry about the picture quality, it's really alot lighter than that, and less blue. It's more of an apple green. Tomorrow I'll find my dad's camera and see if I can get a better picture with that. The yarn is Gems Opal, and I really like it. It's a sport weight, so I started it out on size 4's. I was getting a gauge of five stitches to the inch, which seemed a little flighty to me. This swatch is done on 2's at seven stitches to the inch. It feel's a little denser than I was hoping for, but the slip stitch pattern shows up beautifully and it's a superwash, so I think it will loosen up a bit after I wash it. Now for a pattern...

PICTURES!

2005-10-21T14:39:00.000-05:00

Finally I've solved *some* of my digital camera problems.
Here's a progress photo of Cinxia from a few days ago, I've made some more progress since then but you get the idea; theres a quarter for scale.

Someone on the livejournal advancedknitting community asked about knitting dog sweaters. Last winter I knit a sweater for my dog. Sparky is a miniature poodle, and he knows all about velcro, buttons, snaps, and even zippers. He can undo them all, so the only sweaters that he'll tolerate are pullovers. Poodles are bred for deep chests, unlike chihuauahs (which i can't spell) and yorkies, which seem to be more popular among dog apparell designers. So sweaters on him are either too tight around the chest and bulky around the 'waist' or whatever you want to call it, or huge all over and hanging below his knees. My sweater took about a half skein of Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Bulky. It was knit entirely on size 10 double points. I cast on just after lunch and finished after dinner. I think he likes it.

Some notes: It's basically just a tube, started from the bottom edge with a few rounds of garter stitch. Theres some shaping after the armholes, it looks like I decreased on the back and increased around the chest at the same time. I really can't remember how I did the armholes, but they were pretty messy, so if I make another one of these I'll find a different method. I'm actually planning another one, in a worsted weight superwash (probablly the one made by Brown Sheep). I think Sparky likes the fuzziness from the mohair content (he likes fuzzy wool things, his bed is a sheepskin from Moorehouse farm) but it doesnt stay clean and it's not the most durable. The bulky weight was nice at the time, I knit this during a blizzard so he could go out and play in the snow without getting ice allover his chest, but I think a worsted weight would be more comfortable for him in lighter wheather. I would also make it longer. And of course, I mentioned this in the lj thread, but I let Sparky play with the yarn while I was knitting it, so he would think of the sweater as his toy from the beginning.

moving right along...

2005-10-18T19:52:00.000-05:00

Cinxia is going! I feel bad for not posting earlier, but I'm a little less than four inches through the body. The twisted stockinette stitch is easier for me than it seems to be for other people in the KAL. Thats probablly because I always twisted my knit stitches until a few months ago, when I suddenly realized why my knitting looked wierd. It's still instinctual for me, so it's easy.
We never actually got to Rhinebeck, so much dissapointment all around, but I did get to see Hannah and her pretty scarf, which is absolutely fantastic.

You get two in one day

2005-10-12T16:12:00.000-05:00

To make up for not having updated.
The new Vogue Knitting preveiws are up-- http://www.vogueknitting.com/vkm/preveiw/preb.shtml
nothing too thrilling. The only thing that really interests me is the Victorian Coat (on the top right of the Miss Miseltoe section), and it's not really all that fascinating. Besides, I dont think I would have enough patience to knit a coat. I dont like to buy Vogue Knitting magazine, their patterns aren't usually that original and the articles aren't very helpful. Also, I dont like how all the patterns are stuck in the back. The patterns are the whole point! They should be in the front! It just generally bothers me. I do like to see the pictures though and check out the designers work. (They don't credit the designers in the previews either, unlike Interweave.) I'm sort of fascinated by the choices different publications make. Interweave presents itself as a sort of forum for designers and knitters, while Vogue is more of a fashion show. Vogue is impeccably stylized and beautifully, professionally, formatted, but Interweave is much more communal. I love that they have a reader gallery on their website. It just seems a little more knitterly to me. I can't remember, but I'm using the defination of knitterly as laid out by either Elizabeth Zimmerman or Anna Zilborg (from the book Anarchist Knitting...which is alot of fun). Of course Vogue gets beautiful designs, and I have bought it before (Last spring's issue completely floored me). I remember Annie Modesitt once posted on her blog something about the differences in the way Vogue and Interweave handle their designers....
I'm not really talking about knitting anymore, am I. Oh well. Just thinking.

Reasons why I haven't updated in a while;

2005-10-12T09:02:00.000-05:00

1. My dad went away to California with his digital camera, so no pictures
2. No small projects
3. (not all that much knitting going on...)
4. I've been looking for a place to stay while I'm in Paris
5. Everyone is home for the holiday so I've been butterflying around visiting people

In short.
I'm working on Cinxia and absolutely loving it. I love the slip stitch pattern (even though i seem to have missed a row.... really dont know how that could possibly have happened, but something is definatley a little off), and the knitpicks wool of the andes yarn is fabulous to work with.
My mothers step sister (actuallly a fairly close relationship for my family) is expecting a baby in January, so there is a baby sweater that needs to be knit. I bought two skeins of Gems sportweight superwash merino (I think its merino) in a nice green color. It's about five hundred yards, I was assured it would be enough and that the Gems yarn is good for babies. Since his birthday is in January, I'm thinking it will probablly need a sweater right away.
Argh this is a badly written entry. Not enough sleep. I've been too excited about going to Rhinebeck this weekend!

felting the old fashioned way...

2005-10-04T18:17:00.000-05:00

I got this felting kit from my parents about six months ago, so finally this weekend I decided to try it out. You set four layers of wool roving in opposite directions over a form (I used a soccer ball) and agitate it through a stocking until it gets strong enough to stand on its own. Then you take off the stocking and keep on agitating it. It took me about an hour. I'm prettyhappy with the result. Here are some pictures...

About that purple cardigan...

2005-09-29T12:09:00.000-05:00

I finished the body over the weekend, but it came out all wrong. I decided to unravel most of it and redo it with real shaping. Also, I need to figure out a way to close it that does not involve button holes, the fronts are way to wide already. The new and improved purple sweater will also have cables. yes.
To celebrate finishing the shawl I cast on for some slipper-y things using two skeins of manos del uruguay yarn I got for my birthday last year. I'm ready to do the heel now, but i think this yarn is much to nice for slippers, and the colors are too similar for the color work i was thinking of doing. It wants to be something sticking out of a jacket collar- like a scarf. Or -gasp- capelet. I hate capelets, but it could be so pretty....
My mom requested two things be knit for her, a purple lacy scarf and the Cinxia sweater from the most recent knitty. Knitpicks orders have been made, two balls of ambrosia (i think it involves cashmere, alpaca and silk?) for the scarf and ten balls of the peruvian wool stuff in blueberry for Cinxia. I realized after we placed the order that the blueberry might be kind of dark for the stitch patterns on Chinxia, but my mom really likes the color (so do I, Hannah was using it last time I saw her and it was beautiful.
About Cinxia. Knitty claims its Piquant, but I read through the pattern and I cant find anything completely unfamiliar. The neckline looks like it will be a little tricky, but then theres a reason why necklines go on last. I'm really interested in the shaping, and it's exactly my mother's kind of thing. Her birthday is at the end of October. After Christmas I'll be taking requests from my father for his brithday in February. Don't I feel efficent! Even though I don't know how to spell efficient?
It's rainy and cold here, so I need more tea. Excuse me.

I finished my shawl!

2005-09-26T21:58:00.000-05:00

I cast off last night! This took me about three or four weeks to finish and I used less than two balls of knitpicks shimmer, which happens to be an absolutely amazing yarn. I'm calling it the cloud shawl, and I'm in love. I was thinking of putting a border on it, it's really light and might need a little more weight. Not decided yet, mostly because I haven't found a border I really like. This might be a time to learn to crochet.

I have a blog!

2005-09-23T17:02:00.000-05:00

Now I have a blog too! Mostly because my friend Hannah (http://hannahknits.blogspot.com) got one and I wanted to comment. You can expect to see pictures of half finished sweaters, badly blocked lace, and my dog, Sparky the poodle. I promise to update regularly and attempt to use proper grammer.
Right now I'm working on a top-down raglan cardigan worked in one piece with bryspun kid n' ewe, a neck down shawl using kniticks shimmer in morning mist (my new favorite yarn!) and very soon I'm also going to start a lacy scarf using that Bamboo yarn that I got yesterday. I also spin and I'm hoping to try other fiber-y stuff. Soooo... pictures later, I promise.