What a wonderful kind of day!

Today is perhaps the most beautiful day we've had yet. And tomorrow is supposed to be even better! I continue to welcome the reappearance of my freckles. :)

In knitting: The knitting of the Noro Yoke Sweater is complete. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The sleeves are a tad on the tight side, but I'm thinkin' they might loosen up a bit upon blocking. We shall see.

Yeah, I look kinda crazy in that picture. Maybe it's the sun. Or maybe it's the fact that I knit all that Noro on US 4 needles and it kind of drove me nuts-o. All that's left is to weave in the ends and graft the underarm seams. But maybe I'll love those open...

A wool sweater with pit vents--I could market that idea! No, I'll sew those up. Sometime. Not now. Given how lovely the weather is, I'm not exactly motivated to finish this wool sweater, but I'm sure this dense sweater will be nice come winter.

Once the noro sweater was complete, I went back to the modern lace henley, and I'm plugging along on the front.

I have 18 more rows to go on the front before I start the sleeves. I'm feeling kinda iffy about the color of this sweater. It's a dark, dullish green. I kinda wish I'd gone with navy or dark purple. Oh well.

In reading: I'm slugging through The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. It's a humorous and informative look at the puritan settlers of the early 1600's. I'm about half way through, and just not sure if I really need to gain whatever information could be presented in the second half. We'll see. To distract myself, I started Persepolis yesterday (and will finish it today). I loved the movie. And the book is great, too.

In movies: I went to a screening of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past on Monday. Meh. The Stranger has a funny "review" of it in this week's issue. You should read it and pretend I wrote it. :)

Look how pretty it is here!

One week

Knitting: Last week, after blogging about my progress on the modern lace henley, I promptly put it down and cast on for the rainbow yoke sweater. I brought this with me to Cara's bachelorette weekend (which was super fun), and made a fair amount of progress. This morning I joined the sleeves with the body and started knitting the yoke.

The sleeves and body are Cascade 220 (one of my favorite yarns) and I knit them on US size 6. The noro is slightly larger than the Cascade and the pattern recommended going down 2 needle sizes for this portion. So for the yoke, I'm knitting noro on US 4s, and there are so many stitches that I have to use both my 16 and 24 inch needles just to knit them all. Let's just say, it's not the most efficient knitting. But I think it's going to be really pretty when it's done, on the upside. :)

For the yoke decreases, the knitscene pattern calls for 4 decrease rows, about 2 inches apart. EZ's pattern for a seemless yoke pull over recommends 3 decrease rows, and starting them later than the knitscene pattern. At first, I thought I would do EZ's decreases, but after only 4 rounds of knitting the noro, I'm all for decreasing sooner rather than later, and I think I'll do the knitscene decreases after all. I wish I could do them now. But they're probably another 3 or 4 rows away.

I organized my yarn stash last week.

Isn't it pretty??? :D Going through all the yarn, I just wanted to go cast on crazy! But I restrained myself.

Speaking of pretty, Monday and Tuesday were the 2 best days of weather since I've been here. Look at the view yesterday when I got home from an outing to downtown.

Movies: I saw Adventureland yesterday. It was cute. Some funny parts, a little heart warming, a nice little coming-of-age story. Kinda bummed that Ryan Reynolds played a sleeze-bag, though. I don't like to think of him that way. I went to see this movie at 2:15 in the afternoon on a weekday, something I did in NYC with a good amount of frequency, but never once was I the only one in the theater. Until yesterday. At the beginning of the movie, there was 1 other person in the theater besides me, but he left about 1/2 hour in--I think he may have been an employee of the theater. It was strange.

I have new upstairs neighbors; they moved in yesterday evening. And aparently they have a dog, because I just heard it barking. :) Maybe when I get a dog, our dogs can be doggie friends.

Countdown

Only 2 more nights in NYC. I'm so excited but also freaking out. I made another stop on my Farewell EastCoast tour this weekend with a quick trip down to DC to visit Anna and Matt.

It was so much fun to hang out with them. I really hope they decide to settle in Seattle. We went out to super yummy dinner with some of their friends, went to a couple of farmers markets, played some poker (I won), watched the oscars (I won this too--too bad we didn't bet). Anna wore this super cute little cardigan from Boden and I was so fascinated by the stitch pattern that I spent a good 10 minutes studying it and taking notes so that I could copy it. :D This is what the knit side looks like

but the neat thing about this cardigan is that this is the inside. The purl side is showing (don't have a pic of this) and it looks really cool. I'm going to try to recreate this for one of my sweaters this year.

Speaking of knitting, I've made a good deal of progress on the Sixteen-Point Tee. But it is slow going. I guess I didn't realize that knitting a sweater on size 5s would go significantly slower than knitting a sweater on size 7s or 8s. Even after knitting the entire bus ride to and from DC and all through the oscars, I've just divided for the sleeves.

But I'm still hopeful that it will be ready to wear to my party this Saturday--I have today, tomorrow, and let us not forget the flight on Friday: 5.5 hours of prime knitting time. If only I'd done a gauge swatch at the outset, instead of after knitting for a week.... Oh well.

As a soundtrack for the knitting, I've been listening to a lot of Andrew Bird. His new CD is called Noble Beast and it is so lovely. His voice, the harmonies, the music, his violin! I love it. And there's some prime wistling on here too--you know I love wistling!

Other music coming out of my speakers lately: the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire. Fun music. I especially like the two versions of M.I.A.'s Paperplanes it has. I think it might be time for me to get an M.I.A. CD into my collection. Hmmm.

What I've been reading: Just finished Revolutionary Road. Without a doubt, a good book. However, I felt like I was reading the screenplay of the movie--the similarities were so great.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'm just used to books giving me more than movies. This happened a few times--the book gave a bit more background about what the characters were thinking and feeling in certain scenes that I didn't get in the movie. And this isn't to say that I wish I hadn't read the book. I just wish it had been more. Now, if I'd read the book first, then seen the movie, I probably would have remarked at what a good job Sam Mendes did at capturing the whole book in his movie. And this is true. But I don't think this book is a must read. Just go see the movie. One big difference: the very end. And I think I like the movie's better. More uplifting after such a heavy story.

What I've been watching: I've already extolled on my love of Hulu, but let me just reiterate it's greatness. In my queue right now: Last night's Daily Show and Colbert Report. I broke my no-movies-until-employed rule last week and went to see Waltz with Bashir. Probably the best movie I could break the rule for. This movie is an animated documentary about an unsavory bit of Israeli history. So well made. Moving. Left me speechless afterward.

I would like to take a small moment to say that I love Mini Eggs. I'm not sure what it is about them--the crisp candy shell so different from M&Ms? the awesome cadbury chocolate inside? Maybe it's just the fact that they're only available during a part of the year. Or maybe it's that their arrival on store shelves heralds the upcoming arrival of spring.

So yummy!

Coraline!

I've probably already raved to you about how much I LOVED CORALINE!!! But in case I haven't, let me take this opportunity to make it perfectly clear:

Coraline is the best movie I've seen since I don't know when. Everything about it was perfect. I would watch it over and over if I could (I'll do this when the DVD comes out).

Here's the trailer. I'm glad I didn't see any trailers for this prior to seeing it, because I had no idea what to expect. This trailer pretty much tells the story.

And there's a little song by They Might Be Giants in it. :)

I want to be Coraline for halloween. Maybe I could make a wig out of electric blue yarn. :)

What I've been doing: I had a great time in Boston this past weekend. I spent Saturday afternoon with a dear friend from UPS, then went out to the suburbs to visit a dear friend from 4th grade and everything after. It was cold up there, but not unbearably so. Look at all the snow they've gotten!

I was supposed to be in jury duty the past 2 days, but when I went yesterday morning, I found out that I would have to get a postponement because I have this FNP certification review course next week that I cannot reschedule, and if I were to be called for a case, that would be a problem. Lucky for me, I won't be for the postponement--thank you, impending cross-country move!

Speaking of which, the packing has kicked into 3rd gear (we were in 1st for a couple weeks, I anticipate hitting 4th in a week or so).

I've emptied my closet, except for a few shirts to get me through the next 3 weeks. And see that blurry cart? It's been my savior, helping me haul my boxes to the post office. The heaviest one I've taken so far weighed 43 pounds!! I mailed it "media mail" and it only cost $17--what a bargain. :)

I'm not the only one working on packing--look what appeared in the kitchen today:

That's the roomies' moving checklist. We're having our House Cooling party 2/15, so I've set this as a goal to have most of my packing done.

What I've been knitting: I finished knitting the Baby Surprise Jacket; it still needs seeming and buttons, but that can wait. What a fun little project, nice mindless garter stitch, though I'm still annoyed about the dropped stitch. I think it turned out super cute.

On the bus up to Boston I pretty much finished the second Flaming Nuts sock. I used a star toe for this and I really like the way it looks, though I haven't worn the socks for any period of time, so I'm not sure if I'll like the way it feels.

I think I must have knit the bottom sock tighter--the pooled stripes are thinner. Maybe it's just the yarn. The socks seem the same size. I really like this yarn--it's brilliantly colored. Not sure who these socks are for yet. I think they'll enter the gift bank.

Yesterday, Chana and I went to the wonderful LYS and I bought yarn to make thank you gifts for Jamie and her husband for letting me stay with them this weekend. Unfortunately, I underestimated the amount of yarn I would need for their gifts, so I can't finish them until I get back to the LYS on my next day off--Friday. Boo Karabella Aurora 8 for not having more yardage per ball!

In lieu of finishing those gifts, I cast on for a pair of socks--Traveler's Stockings, from Knitting on the Road. I'm using some teal Louet Gems Merino Fingering.

I was a bit wary to cast on for these and I took care to choose a pattern that would offer a bit of interest. I came to a realization the bus up to Boston as I was busily knitting away at the Flaming Nuts socks: I'm tired of knitting socks. I didn't think I would ever reach this point. I think it has something to do with the quantity of knitted socks crowding my sock box right now (yes, I keep all my socks in a box in my closet); and there aren't any holidays or birthdays coming up. But socks make good portable knitting, so I'll probably keep knitting them, as back-burner projects.

What I've been watching: Last Friday, I was among the first people in NYC to see Entre Les Murs (The Class)--I went to the first showing opening day. :) What a fabulous movie! It's a docudrama. This guy wrote a book about his experience teaching at this high school, and he plays himself in the movie adaptation of the book. The whole thing felt very real. This movie's nominated for an Oscar in the category of foreign film. I haven't seen any of the other nominees (yet), so I can't comment on its chances, but it sure was good.

Today I watched Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist from netflix. Better than I expected. Funny, endearing characters; light, amusing fare; excellent music throughout. And look! In this picture, that guy to the right of Michael Sera--

It's Hanschen from the original cast of Spring Awakening!

I have 10 days of work left (dance around!), all in 2 day pairs. I want this part to hurry up and be over; but I don't want my time in NYC to hurry. There are still things I want to do before I leave, but time is slipping away. :( I guess I'll save the list for when I come to visit.

Buttons!

What I've been knitting: The purple cardi is off the needles and blocking on the living room floor. My goal (to wear it in Boston this weekend) will be met! I went shopping today for buttons. I ended up at Pacific Trimmings on W 38 St.

I got some lovely pale wood buttons that remind me so much of drift wood and the beach. I also got little purple buttons to use as stabilizers on the inside.

The sweater is blocking to hopefully just the right size (I measured it and everything!) and I'm so excited to wear it. I really love the color and the pattern. I would definitely make it again! I'll have some finished object pics next week.

In the mean time, I'm plotting my next project. I've decided it will be a Baby Surprise Jacket. I'm going to use some leftover cascade 220 superwash in purple and white, and some yarn that I dyed myself that's a strange mix of red, white and purple. I'm not really sure what size sweater I'm going to make--I'm just gonna wing it!

What I've been watching: I saw Milk today, which leaves only 4 more movies that I want to see before 2/22 (The Class, The Reader, Waltz with Bashir, and Doubt). What a good movie! Excellently done, quality acting throughout, moving. If only all of history could be told like this. I'm not sure how this one stacks up against Frost/Nixon or Slumdog Millionaire. Possibly better than both? I'm not sure.

Tomorrow I go back to work for 3 days. I have to go write my official resignation letter now; I can put it off no longer! Then to Boston this weekend for a quick trip so that I'll be back in time to go to jury duty on Monday. I think it's kind of fitting that I'm finishing my time in NYC with a stint on jury duty. I better not get called for a case.

What I've been watching: Watched Brideshead Revisited from netflix last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it--it's just the kind of period piece that I could get lost in; I'm definitely reading the book. I love being alive in the time of computers, the internet and iPods, but if I could pick another time to be alive, it would be the early 1900's. Emma Thompson did a good job as a super Catholic mother who ruins her children's lives in various ways, the main guy, Matthew Goode (previously seen in Match Point and Chasing Liberty), was super handsome. This is a movie that I could watch again and again.

Having read the Oscar nominations a couple days ago, I went out this morning to a matinee of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button so that I could see for myself what all the fuss (13 nominations including Best Picture) is about. The acting was good, the makeup and set design impecable, but Best Picture? Really??? No way. And it's so flipping long; there must have been a few minutes they could have shaved off here and there. Of the 5 Best Pic noms, I've also seen Frost/Nixon and Slumdog Millionaire, and I think both of these are superior to The CCBB (plus, WTF, where's Revolutionary Road on this list????). I'll be severely disappointed with the Academy if the CCBB is voted Best Picture.

Movies I need to see in the next month, in order of how much I want to see them: The Class, Milk, The Reader, Waltz With Bashir, Doubt.

In neighborhood news: Walking past my laundromat this morning, I saw an unexpected site. The place was closed, the grate was down, and taped to the grate were florescent signs explaining that the business had been closed by order of the Supreme Court of New York for "Illegal Gambling."

Crazy! When I came home in the afternoon, I saw that the business owners, a couple I've very fond of (I've been doing my laundry here for 3.5 years, and I've had various members of the family as patients), had put up signs saying that they were sorry, the laudromat was closed due to legal matters, and that everyone who has laundry inside would get it back (a lot of people drop off their laundry to be washed and pick it up a few days later when it's clean). I hope they open back up soon! I don't want to have to find a new laundromat for my last month here. I figure I have 2 or 3 trips to the laundromat left and it would just be hassle fo find someplace new. Boo. They couldn't have waited another month for this debacle??

I've been going through a bit of teenage vampire withdrawal. Any suggestions? I checked Ask Metafilter, searching "twilight withdrawal" but got nothing. Really? No one else has asked what to do to remedy twilight withdrawal? Hmph.

New Day

I've decided to give this blogging thing another go. My goal is going to be once a week. We'll see how that goes...

What I've been knitting: Now that the madness of holiday gift knitting is past, I've been plugging away at a few projects for me. A pair of socks, Flaming Nuts, from the Nutkin pattern.

I've reversed the pattern, I didn't like the way my ssk's looked in the pattern--I much prefer the k2tog. Also, the pattern on the leg really wants to twist, so I decided to do a plain stockinette foot to avoid annoying twisting on the foot. The yarn is Hazel Knits, a Christmas gift from Melisa last year. It's beautiful--soft and squishy!

I finished my second shawl a few weeks ago, and just got around to blocking it yesterday. It's Laminaria, from Knitty. The yarn is Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace, and it is just divine. I didn't block this shawl quite as severly as I might have, it's definitely a shawl-ette, but I love it. I wasn't sure what I would do with it when it was done (probably why it took me so long to finish it), but now I've decided that I'm going to keep it.

My main project right now is my adaptation of the 28Thirty cropped cardigain. I'm un-cropping it. I'm using wonderfully cheap yarn, Wool of the Andes from knitpicks, in Amethyst Heather, purchased with a christmas gift certificate. I just started this last week, but it's been cruising along.

What I've been reading: Since I finished school last month, I've been reading up a storm. In the last two weeks I've read the following: The White Tiger, The Emperor's Children, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Twilight #3, and now I'm reading Twilight #4. I could go on an on about why I loved each of these books, but I don't want to sit here at the computer all day.

What I've been listening to: Oh, I cannot get enough to Taylor Swift! I had been mildly interested in her music, but then I saw her performance on SNL and she won me over. Her music is the perfect accompaniment to the Twilight Saga--teen angst all around from every angle. :) I've also been rocking out to a little Mates of State, and mellowing out with Blind Pilot.

What I've been watching: Well, right now I'm watching CNN picture-in-picture with other stuff from the DVR, waiting for the inaugural action to start. Movie-wise, I saw Revolutionary Road a few days ago, and I can see why Kate Winslet won the Golden Globe. I can also tell that the movie was made by her husband. It was a very moving story. Well shot. Another movie I loved recently was Slumdog Millionaire.

Also in the watching department, I watched the whole "season" of Children's Hospital, on theWB.com--laughing my ass off! This spoof of hospital dramas is written and directed by Daily Show alum Rob Corddry. Soooooo funny!

Today is my last day of vacation. So sad that it's ending, but it helps to know that I have less than 5 weeks of work left--which means less than 6 weeks in NYC. I bought my plane ticket to Seattle yesterday, I leave 2/27. Crazy. I've started packing. I packed one box yesterday, moderately heavy. And one today so heavy that I could barely lift it! I'll have to repack that one lighter, some how.

My purple cardi is calling to me. Gotta go!

Bulky yarn n'est pas pour moi

Ugh! I've been knitting up this bulky hat today and it's totally killing my hands!!! Maybe I chose the wrong needle size. I'm using Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky Hand-dyed and size 11 addis. Seriously, my right thumb is having difficulty typing. I'm about to give up on this hat. I wanted to make one of Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hats for a xmas gift, and I found this beautiful yarn at Yarntopia yesterday, but this is turning out to be a huge PIMA!*

Mondays seem to be for blogging. This past week has been crazy. And this coming week promises to be just as crazy, if not more so. But one week from now, 1/2 the craziness will be over. One week from now I will be done with fall semester. Hard to believe. A little scary to think of the stuff I should accomplish in this week.

I've been having a bit of knitter's ADHD this weekend. Flitting between the plum cardi (almost done--one button band, arm pit grafting and buttons to go); the February Baby Sweater; the Embossed Leaves wristwarmers; a newly cast on pair of socks using Kaffe Fauset Regia sock yarn.

I saw an awesome movie last night--Enchanted. Oh did I ever laugh! Sorry no pictures today, I'm being lazy.

*Pain in my ass--I learned this term last week from a nursing student who visited our floor last week...hehehe :)

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Now playing: Iron & Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth
via FoxyTunes

mid October update

So much to talk about, so let's get right down to it:

1. Blue Stripeys. Finally finished these socks that I started waaaaaaaaaaay back in July on the way to Jamie's wedding. Way back when, I'd nearly completed one sock, when I had my roommate try it on, only to find it was way too small! So, completely frogged. Re-cast with larger needles. And many months later, here we have the finished product.

I wasn't too happy with these socks. I don't like the way the short-row heel turned out (note to self: investigate other short row heel methods). Also, not so fond of the knitted fabric that resulted from increasing the needles size.

But thankfully I've got a family full of women with similarly sized feet. A quick text message to my sister, "Hey, check out my flickr page and tell me if you want those blue socks," and her reply, "Yes please!!" and these socks have a good home with someone who won't look at them and only see their flaws (do you think I'll be like this with my hypothetical children? only seeing their flaws??? I sure hope not)

2. Plum Sweater Update. Making excellent progress on the sweater. Done with the body up to the armpits. Need to cast on the sleeves. Nothing too exciting, just LOTS of stockinette.

3. Cast-On-itis. A week or so ago I got a mad case of cast-on-itis, went stash diving and started a few new projects. First, the Chevron Scarf from LMKG, using two amazingly bright colors of Colinette Jitterbug. I have no idea who I'm making this for--it's sooooooooooo bright.

Also cast on last week, Dirty Hippy Hat. Just a basic hat, seed stitch brim, with tall stitches on the body of the hat. Yarn: Noro Silk Garden. I plan on making a few of these as xmas gifts; good mindless TV knitting. This first Dirty Hippy Hat has been almost done for about a week now (I knit it in one sitting while watching a movie). I just need to suck it up and finish the darned thing!

The 3rd NCOO (newly cast on object) is a slightly modified version of Broadripple from Knitty. I started with a picot edge; am working the sock over 64 st (large footed family); and instead of yarnovers, I'm using M1 on the plain row for slightly smaller holes in the lace pattern. The heel is a plain stockinette square. I love these socks so far. Hopefully their recipient will like them as well.

4. In non-knitting stuff, I went to Boston last weekend, my first time there in a year. I visited Jamie and Jessica, and had such a nice time! On Saturday, by sheer dumb luck, Jamie and I ended up at the Partners in Health Symposium at Harvard--we heard Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Jim Kim, Melinda Gates, Danny Glover, and people from PIH sites around the world. It was inspiring; my desire to work abroad has been re-ignited. Me and Jamie (I forgot to take a picture with Jessica...oops!)

5. Today I saw Gone Baby Gone. What a good movie! Though, I can't say the title without thinking of the Gnarls Barkley song Gone Daddy Gone. Anyways, back to the movie--well acted, beautifully shot. Heart breaking, though, as social commentary. A bit demoralizing.

6. On the subway today, I was sitting next to little boy--not more than 4 years old--who was studying a placemat map of the world from 125th to 168th. It was pretty much the cutest thing.

7. Let me leave you with this sentiment: I love tofu. It's so yummy. I really want this shirt: