after a marathon knitting session yesterday, i finished stitching down the cowl at 1:30AM (kind of 2:30AM with the time change but who’s counting?) this is my first sweater ever and boy am i happy. the yarn was a dream to work with (why didn’t i bring more back from japan?!?!) and looks all shiny and happy once blocked. this pattern was fun and went by quickly when i actually had time to work on it.

the only things that i would do differently if i were to make it again (and i just might!): make the arm holes smaller with less arm increases, and not make the cowl so scandalously low. i have to wear a tank top underneath it! it’s way too revealing otherwise.

anyway, here are the pictures and stats.

no-head shot.. no makeup and glasses don’t make for a pretty model

yarn: munsell merino 150 rainbow color no. 136 (this yarn is found in japan only)

needles: US5 and US4 boye needle master and susan bates (thanks amanda!)

pattern: the somewhat cowl by wendy bernard of knit and tonic

sorry for the short post but big love is on and since my DVR mysteriously decided not to record the sopranos (damn time warner! can’t they do anything right?) it’s the only TV i’m really going to watch tonight. will update backpack tomorrow.

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i spent all weekend working (thankfully from home) and i can’t think of anything more stressful than working all week THEN working on the weekend. what gives? i used to think that i had a great laid back job but now i’m not so sure. i hope this passes because i’m not much fun when life is like this. my only saving graces are the hubby and my knitting. KP keeps me well fed and puts up with my sour attitude when i’m completely swamped. he’s such a trooper! the knitting helps me destress at the end of a long day. there’s nothing more zen than picking up the needles and knit knit purl purl knit knit purl purl.. or in my new projects language, knit ssk, knit knit knit knit knit… anyway you get the picture. any guesses as to what i’ve been working on?

i finally picked up all the stitches for the cowl part of my somewhat cowl hence all the two by two ribbing.

the cowl is upon us!

i’ve got two inches here and i’m shooting for seven because i want a floppy cowl like katie does. this is a great late night project. the 2×2 ribbing is completely mindless and the US4 susan bates needles are so much easier to handle than the US5s (the join seems to be smoother.) i also started a quickie scarf using a bunch of aurora 8 that i’ve had since i started knitting. the majority of it was bought on my first ever trip to school products (MEMORIES!!) this is the zigzag scarf from scarf style.

i should have flipped this image. oh well. i have no time to go back and correct it.

so i hope that everyone who’s downloaded the vino arm warmers pattern is loving it. i checked my stats to see how many downloads there were and i’m quite impressed! there seem to be more lurkers out there than i originally thought (hi lurkers!)

anyway, the only other pieces of news i have are: 1) i’ve decided to install mint on my blog to check stats. i’ll let you know how the installation goes and how i like the tool once it’s up and running; 2) i’m actually thinking about reading dune again. i can’t believe it but my mind is telling me to pick up the book and read the whole series again. i think that i’m desperate to write a series of essays on dune as well, covering all the different aspects and plots that are contained within it. it’s a shame that no other book besides the wind-up bird chronicles has ever so captured my love as this book has. (what i’m neglecting to mention here is that i’ve read dune almost fifty times already. yep, i’m a freak.)

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i can say with 90% confidence that i’m going to finish my olympic knitting in time and it’s due largely in part to the lovely blood orange gin and tonics that KP has been cooking up around here.

bloody good drink

this is the only good part about winter.. it’s when blood oranges are in season and they are a particular favorite of mine. blood orange gin and tonics remind me of italy which is the first place i had ever had one. drunk and insane partying with our italian friends all over veneto. good times.

i’ve also been working like a dog at work. this is a three-day week for me yet it felt like three months. so much to do and so little time.. and i won’t be there tomorrow for any of the craziness! huzzah! i’m going to sleep in late, knit, and get my hair done. i couldn’t ask for a better friday.

for those of you who have been stopping by from craftster, i’ve finally taken a picture of my underarm decreases on the somewhat cowl. this was the second iteration of this pattern and i believe that it’s the best fitting one for my body.

underarm decreases

the dilemma: my chest size is large in proportion to my arm size so the sleeves were coming out absolutely huge!

the first solution was to decrease a bit after knitting a few rounds. this didn’t work at all. when i put it on there was all of this bunchy fabric right under the armpit. i realized that i had to decrease away those picked up stitches (and then some) if it was going to fit. so i whipped up this little pattern…

pick up and knit the amount of stitches specifiied in the pattern under the arm. placing marker in center.

knit 2 rounds.

*knit to 6 stitches before marker, ssk, k1, ssk, k1, pm, k1, k2tog, k1, k2tog, knit to end of round. knit 1 round* repeat from * 3 times more (4 total).

*knit to 2 stitches before marker, ssk, k1, pm, k1, k2tog, knit to end of round. knit 1 round * repeat from * 5 more rounds (6 total).

knit to ribbing… decrease to a multiple of 4 for 2×2 ribbing.. etc.

looks like it’s working for now. anyway, i’m at 8.8 repeats of my flower basket shawl which i should really get to right now.. and there’s ice skating on! huzzah! (i’m so glad to be home.)

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ok, let’s get the obligatory snow pictures out of the way. yes, we have had the blizzard of ‘06 and it looks a little something like this…

snow on my temp gauge

i’m just excited that i didn’t have to go out in it. i’m not a snow person despite growing up in michigan (or maybe because.. hmmm..)

snow on the cars

anyway, before the big blizzard hit, friday evening was my usual spiders night at the point where i got a chance to cast on for my new knitting olympics project.

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sorry for the lack of updates around here. you’re all probably wondering how my boiler saga ended. it ended peacefully although it required plenty of late nights at chez gleek. the plumbers were especially nice, helpful, and hard working. they almost never took breaks or even sat down. they came on sunday to rip the old boiler out and installed the new one on monday and tuesday (both days they did not leave our house till late at night). but now we have heat and hot water.. and what’s really cool about it is that my landlord had an on-demand system installed. this means that the water is heated fast as it’s needed and there’s no tank either. this cuts down on the gas bill because it doesn’t have to keep a tank warm at all times. let me tell you, it’s pretty sweet. we have a large jacuzzi tub in our bathroom and i’ve always wanted to fill it up and take a hot bath but i would always run out of hot water before i could fill it up. no more!

so, now that that problem is over and done with, let’s move on to the more important stuff in my life. last friday was joy’s going away party at dragonfly. let me just say that it was sad and happy all at once. we’re really going to miss you joy! but heck, you’ve moved to hawaii! i’m so jealous.

me and joy

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my good friend kat in tokyo is always talking about having to do interviews (or turn down interviews) for the japanese media on knitting in the big city. her tokyo s’n'b has received plenty of fame for doing something rather radical by japanese standards.. and the japanese are just eating it up! we here in NYC are the subject of much chagrin to felllow new yorkers. people walk by the point on a friday evening, look in the window, and point. some make such a scene that it’s hard to concentrate on what you’re doing. two or three weeks ago, some tourist thought that it was the weirdest thing he had ever seen and took four or five pictures to prove it to the friends back home that, oh my god, people knit! IN PUBLIC!

so it came as no surprise that a news crew showed up at the point on friday night.

¿usted hace punto?

what did surprise us was 1) the news crew was from/for a spanish news channel and that they were hoping to elevate the craft of knitting in spain by doing this piece, 2) they avoided the spiders table till the very end. do we look intimidating or what?

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man, i feel like i was run over by a truck.. or a bus.. or some other large moving vehicle. remember how i was feeling crappy? well, it hit me like a ton of bricks and tuesday and wednesday i was laid up at home, barely able to move, much less go to work. i ask KP to get a gun and put me out of my misery at least twice but he refused. he’s a good man. as is my usual style whilst sick, i sat on the couch all day and watched movies.

have you seen shall we dance? not that crap jennifer lopez remake but the original japanese one? so very cute. i actually lifted my boycott of subtitled movies (this boycott is in effect only because i can’t knit and read subtitles at the same time.. well, i didn’t think i could but now it seems possible) and popped this in on tuesday. there’s just something about japanese men and women ballroom dancing that is so strange yet endearing that i couldn’t help but laugh and cry at many points in the film. yes, i’m sick but that doesn’t mean i’m overly emotional. i highly recommend it.

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well, i came back to work all excited about going to the gym and really getting started on all of my new projects for the year.. and i totally forgot about how going back to work also means returning to an office full of germs. yep, i’m sick. i felt it coming on friday with a cough, then on saturday i felt run down, sunday i was feeling better, but today the nose has decidedly backed up and i’m feeling like utter crapola. i’m sneezing and blowing my nose every three or four minutes. not happy! all i have at my desk is a packet of halls and like a hundred sudafed that expired two years ago. looks like i’ll be making a trip to duane reade soon.

the good news is that i’m making great progress on both of my current projects. on the somewhat cowl, i have about two more inches to go in the top before i can move on to putting the sleeves on waste yarn. this project feels extremely slow but when i unfurl the fabric i’ve already made i realize just how much progress i’m really making. it’s quite deceiving this whole top-down raglan thing. no seaming.. and that’s quite ok with me. i’m a little bit slower on my embossed leaves socks. i’ve made it to the heel on the first one but not much farther. i’ve been feeling lazy about following any sort of directions so the somwhat cowl suits me better in this respect since it’s just miles of stockinette. sorry i have no progress shots. i keep forgetting to take pictures in the daylight.

but i have other photos to show. friday was our biggest spider turnout ever at the point! we took over the entire large table and the little side table too.

there’s much knitting discussion going on here

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