the eviction notice was posted and being the good tenant that he is, baby N packed his bags and made his way to the real world this saturday morning. congrats to kate and chet! we’re all so happy for you! i would post pictures but i don’t have the parents’ permission. the good news is that the baby N blanket is done (finished last night) and i will be travelling to NJ on saturday to present it and hopefully snap some pictures of it and the baby.

baby N blanket almost complete

due to the sun setting at around 7PM nowadays, i asked KP to take this picture just short of the blanket being done so that you could see just how big and stripey it is. personally, i LOVE this blanket. the mission falls cotton is so springy and soft and just perfect in this pattern. i just have to weave in the rest of the ends and give it a good wash before saturday. i’ll move the project to the 2006 finished projects page once i have pictures.

so i was knitting like a madwoman all weekend! i wanted to finish the baby blanket so that i can get on to other things but it was too big to carry around with me. so on saturday, while i administrated the auditions for the second annual project playwright, i knit on the first angel sock and listened to my ipod. let me just say that i have found zen and it is the garter stitch short row heel using the misocrafty psso technique.

the zen of heels

it’s brilliant, easy to do, and requires almost no thought whatsoever. i didn’t even have any help from printouts at the auditions. i knit it entirely by memory. very zen. the psso method was super easy as well and there are no discernable holes in the heel.

no holes

i’m truly happy.

this is only the beginning of socks for me this month as i’m participating in socktoberfest! i’d like to get jamming on some knee highs soon (i have the perfect brooklyn handspun set aside for them) so i’m really going to work hard to get these finished as soon as possible.

i also knit on kyoto last night as well, but no progress shot. i’m not taking any more pictures of it till it’s done and i’m wearing it, by jove!

and to top things off this morning here are a few things to note:

• lion brand is bringing back cotton ease! with new colors! huzzah! i see some some more baby blankets in my future.
• the october magknits is out. i love the minimalist sweater. sigh. if only i weren’t pregnant.
• i’m just over 16 weeks preggers now. around week 20 we’ll hopefully know the baby’s sex!

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so it seems that lots of people this year overbought their stash and have no need to accumulate more, huh? that’s ok i have alternate plans for most of the yarn in the last post. my mom has asked for the assorted cotton and someone else is going to take the sock yarn off my hands. i’ll leave the post up for a few more days in case anyone has second thoughts (that tahki cotton classic is a STEAL! especially if you need some for a mason dixon log cabin blanket!) but i do need your advice on two other matters.

1. NYC residents! i’m seeking a charity that will take yarn donations. i have a large bag of mixed yarn from the spiders that needs to go to a place that will use it. i was thinking that a senior’s center, domestic abuse center, or other women’s center might be good choices. i’ve done plenty of google searches and asking around but have come up empty. if you know of someplace that will allow me to drop off this yarn in manhattan or brooklyn (no shipping! that would be crazy), please leave it in the comments.
2. on a more non-localized charity note, i’m looking for charities that will take things like simple knitted hats, scarves, etc. also for a good cause. i know plenty of you knit for charity but a lot of the names are escaping me. i figure i can whip up some really quick and easy hats with a lot of this leftover yarn and that they would be greatly appreciated by a charity that collects such things. also, please leave names/URLs in the comments. thanks!

a quick update on all of my projects:

the baby N blanket is past the half-way point and is getting easier to handle, row by row, as i’m decreasing one stitch per row. i already wove in the ends on the first half of the blanket so that it wouldn’t be a crushing task at the end.

the angel sock is ready for its heel! i made good progress on this first sock at a play reading this weekend. i’m going to do a garter stitch short row heel using the wrap method outlined by misocrafty.

wow, the contrasting yarn looks really gold in this picture. it’s more of a wheat color, i swear. i took all these photos this morning as i was running out the door. should have color corrected them! kyoto has the beginning of its sash! horray! i looked at the photo on knitty and made sure to do the opposite (incidentally, her instructions in the pattern are correct.. it’s left over right but the photo is backwards. my guess is that knitty flipped the photo.) i noticed also in the photo that the cross over on the front is pretty wide, but when i tried it at home, it looked horrible. it looked best crossed right at the front. so i’m working on this every now and again when i’m tired of the baby blanket. but the baby blanket HAS to be finished soon. my cousin, kate, is ready to pop! she’s posting her eviction notice soon. i must knit furiously!

speaking of furious knitting, check out this really cute youtube video i found this morning (runs about 7 minutes, but it’s worth it.)

the last knit

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thank you to everyone who left such kind comments considering the peanut and our expectation of a new baby. it is very exciting! and a new chapter to our life is approaching that i’m both happy and anxious about. there are times that i sit back and can believe that college or high school were just yesterday and then i remember that my 10 year high school reunion was already two years ago! where does the time go? it just seems to slip by more and more each day. i’m sure that time will speed up even more once the baby enters our lives. it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

back to san francisco (though that trip is already a week past!), KP and i drove back into the city late on thursday just in time to catch rush hour traffic across the bay bridge. first off, damn that bridge is long! and what are all those cranes for that are just sitting off to the side? i’m not sure. we decided to spend the last few days of our trip at the W hotel and, boy, is that a lovely hotel. really swanky and nice and the staff were outrageously competent. i highly recommend it.

on thursday night, we decided to take it easy because of my knees and had dinner at lucky creation which is a must for all vegetarians! oh my, the sweet and sour pork was AMAZING! they have the best fake meat ever and our HUGE dinner was less than $20. it’s a bit of a hole-in-the-wall and definitely dress down if you do decide to go. but don’t be turned off by their decor. the food is excellent.

mmmm, hot tea

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aaahhhhhh.. having a full week off from work is such a major luxury nowadays. the bosses always tell you take the time off before the year is over but it’s not easy when there’s only ONE other person to cover for you. in this case, the week off was well deserved and over way too quickly.

sunset in cape cod

so last weekend, KP and i played it cool and went to LI to visit friends and generally hang out around the house enjoying our time off. on monday, we took to our rental car and drove up to cape cod to visit with our friends lee and jackie in lee’s mom’s house. lee and jackie also brought along their three vivacious girls just to show us what life is like with three children all under the age of 5. needless to say, it’s fun and hectic at the same time.

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