The Harlequin Scarf

What do you give someone who suffers seasonal affective disorder? A bright, colorful, warm handmade knitted scarf with orange fringe, that's what! It took me about two weeks to knit, but a lot longer to finish. You know how that works. You zip through the main part of the project and then for some reason, it take weeks and weeks to sew one last stitch. C'est la vie.


But it's done. My father-in-law loves wearing crazy hats to walk the dog. His latest acquisition was a court jester hat with great colors and little tassels on the end - given to him by my husband. I felt the hat alone wasn't enough to cast away the winter blues. No. He needed an added accessory. Enter, the crazy colored harlequin knitted scarf. It was my first attempt at intarsia (knitting with chunks of color) and it was great fun.

The package was sent and delivered a few days ago. I'm hoping it's new owner will enjoy the brilliance and joy of this scarf as well as the occasional odd-ball looks he'll get from the neighbors.

Harlequin scarf - the early stages

Harlequin scarf - final product

Art Projects Revealed

So, guess who finally graced us with his presence 2 weeks after the new water kettle arrived? You got it, Mr. Swivel Base himself. Unbelievable. It was hiding in the cabinet behind some other stuff. Anyway, I must put this behind me.

Art project. Our first art project was due end of February. To recap, the quote was, "Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly." February's birthstone: amathyst. Timothy and I both scrambled on the very last day and here's what we came up with.

Jen's project
(Photoshop)

Timothy's Project
(nickel and amathyst colored rhinestone)

On February 28 we submitted our projects and searched out the next written work for our March inspiration. This month it was my turn to pick the book. I chose The Bible. I picked the page and Timothy randomly pointed to a sentence. We landed on the Book of Job 42:11, "Then came there unto him all his brethren" March's birthstone: aquamarine.

As usual we were down to the wire. The night before, we stayed up late to finish our masterpieces. The result:

Jen's project
(acrylic paint)

Timothy's project
(mirror and aquamarine stone)

The April project is now in effect. The idea of couple's month was thrown in there, so we might work on a project together. We'll see. April's source of inspiration comes from Edgar Allan Poe's, "The Oval Portrait" The quote is, "...the spirit of the lady again flickered up as the flame within the socket of the lamp". Birthstone: Diamond/Crystal.

Can't wait to see what we come up with. Can you?

Must Create Art!

So, it's been several weeks and I've tried everything I could to find that swivel base for the darn water kettle. I consulted tarot cards, read tea leaves, used a Magic-8 ball, followed a bunch of tracking dogs - the works. Nothing. I've searched high and low and there's no sign of that darn thing, so I gave up. I logged onto Amazon and bought my husband *another* water kettle. It arrived two weeks ago. The household is now at peace.

In other news, Timothy and I agreed to commit ourselves to a monthly art project. This is how it works. At the start of every month, we pick an important (or maybe not so important) piece of literature. The bigger the book the better. Then we pick a page number, any page number. We open up to that page, and then randomly point to a line on that page. Whatever sentence we land on is what we use to serve as inspiration for an art project. It can be any type of art - painting, drawing, sculpture, jewelry, knit/sewn project, woodworking, food, anything. In addition to the quote, we can also refer to the birthstone for the month in which the project is due. We can use the color, the shape and/or the meaning of the stone as added inspiration.

For the month of February, we pulled a quote from the complete works of Shakespeare. We landed on this quote, "Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies instantly." February's birthstone is amathyst.

Not bad, eh?

I already drafted my art piece in Photoshop. I'm worried that my hand-made version will not live up to it's technology generated counterpart. I drafted it in Photoshop just to quickly visualize what was just a garbled idea in my head.

If all else fails, I can just hit the print button, right? I mean, just because I did it on a computer doesn't meant that it's not art. I did in fact make it myself. It's not like I adjusted the hue and called it a day. It was actually a little more involved than that. I do of course prefer to make a hand-made version of it. So, we'll see. I'll keep you posted. I can't write updates on my progress because it's possible that Timothy may read my blog entry. So, you'll all have to wait until the end of the month to see the final product.

Guess what? I start my sewing classes this Sunday. I am very excited about this. Our project will be to sew an apron. I'm hoping I'll be able to learn the basics and then in two weeks time create my own couture dress. I'll have to map out that project plan.

Thanks for reading :)

Swivel Base, Where Art Thou?

This past Christmas, Timothy received a very nice electric water kettle. It's the Capresso H2O Plus. It's swank, it's modern and much better looking than the cheap plastic one we've had for several years. There are two pieces, the kettle and the accompanying swivel base that plugs into an outlet. We've used it about three times. In a mad rush to clean the apartment in time for a dinner party, I seperated the two pieces. I placed the kettle piece in the cabinet where it belongs and the swivel base...well, I cleverly hid it so that no one would be able to find it. Isn't that fun? So, it's been about a week and I still can't find it. Yay, for fun ideas!

I feel so terrible. I've looked everywhere for this thing. Timothy was so excited for his new water kettle. Finally something classy that we can leave out on display. And what do I do? I lose the piece that heats up the water. I called the company to see if I can purchase a replacement base. They said that they don't sell that part alone. They sell the kettle, but not the base. You know what the whiz-kid customer support person suggested? She said, "I think you should just have the person look and see if they can find it."

Really? Is that your suggestion? To look for it?? Okay.

I shouldn't cast stones. I'm no more of a genius than she is. I mean, I did in fact separate the two pieces. And the worst part is that as I was doing this, I remember saying to myself, "This isn't a smart thing to do."

For some reason, my hands completely ignored my brain and went off and did their own thing. After that, my mind went blank. I should try hypnosis.

Anyway, I'm still searching high and low. I suppose I'll have to bite the bullet and buy a new kettle *sigh*.

Welcome 2010

Wow, it's been about a year since my latest post. I've been neglecting my blog duties. So what was 2009 like? Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up: Started knitting a shawl, got laid off, summer started, stopped knitting a shawl, joined Facebook, updated resume, found another job, Michaels, TJ Max and Whole Foods opened up across the street, got a hair cut, went to the Bahamas - overdosed on conch, went to a funeral, went to a friend's wedding, visited my friend 8 hours after she gave birth, had a terrible Halloween, went to another friend's wedding, had an early Christmas in Denver, and last but not least started writing in my blog.

I'm sure there are lots of things in between that I've omitted. If I remember, I'll be sure to add it in.

I haven't knitted in over 6 months. Now that winter smacked me in the face, I started getting an itching for yarn. Today's high is 28-degrees, perfect weather for knitting a chunky baby alpaca scarf. As soon as there's progress, I'll post pictures. For Christmas, my mother-in-law gave me a stash of Donegal wool. She actually bought it in Donegal, Ireland - where she lives. My father-in-law, gave me a gift certificate to the Lamb Shoppe. Chritmas has treated me very well.

I'm hoping the new year will provide blog-writing inspiration. Here's to 2010. Happy Holidays everyone!

Christmas Gift Finally Complete!

Yes, I know. It's mid-January and I finally finished the Christmas gift I was knitting, as mentioned in my Nov 17 entry. It was a present for Timothy. The good news is, it's a scarf and we're still in the dead of winter. So, it's not that late. Late would be giving it to him on Palm Sunday. So yes. He was very happy with the gift. Especially since he had to borrow my scarf for the past few weeks. It was a much needed gift. There's nothing worse than getting a knitted gift from someone that you absolutely can't use. A pastel-pink toilet paper doily in the shape of a French Poodle, for example. I try to keep my gifts practical, whenever possible.

The scarf has a great pattern that has an old Celtic feel. It was easy enough for me to get through, but intricate enough in detail to impress. There are a few minor mess-ups, but the pattern is so forgiving that you hardly notice them. And with my subpar record for fixing knitting mistakes (see previous entry), it was better that I just moved on.

The hubby loves it. And I'm very happy.

Frogging the Gloves

I am fuming. Fuming! I started knitting some fingerless gloves for a birthday gift. They come in handy in the office for keeping warm, while freeing up your fingers for typing, filing and similar "digits-required" activities. The birthday is coming up this Wednesday. According to the pattern instructions, you can knit these babies in one weekend. Great. Sounds like the perfect gift to me.

I started knitting on Monday. Since I had the day off, I spent a good portion of the afternoon on my project. Hey, not bad. These are coming out pretty nicely. I was about 70% done with the left glove and then all of a sudden, something terrible happened. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure what. I just know that I ended up with too many stitches. Not only too many stitches, but they just didn't feel right. It was very strange and a little difficult to describe.

I'm not very good at ripping out stitches and fixing my mistakes. If I can't make it through all the way in one shot, I'm doomed. Of course there are some minor exceptions. If I knit where I was supposed to purl, I can certainly go back and fix that. If I screw up the pattern on the current row, I can take it out stitch by stitch and fix that. Anything more complicated than that, well, like I said, I'm doomed.


So doomsday arrived and I sat staring at my work for about 15 minutes, trying to come up with SOMETHING. I tried taking out the first couple of rows and picking up the stitches. Didn't work. The stitches kept falling out of their loops. It was a mess. I finally decided to frog the whole thing. It was a sad moment. Very sad indeed.





The birthday is tomorrow and well, obviously, I won't have them done. I'm still determined to make them. But dagnammit! I wanted them to be done. *Sigh*

Michaels in the City

Such exciting news! Michaels craft store will be opening up across the street. No longer do I have to trek out to Queens for an exceptional variety of bargain-priced yarns. I was passing along the street with the hubby and noticed the signage by the construction site. It listed all the retail businesses coming soon. I pointed at the sign and said, "Oh, look. They're opening a Duane Reade, a Borders, a Chase Bank, a [insert quick inhale]."

My eyes widened. Timothy looked up, read the sign and said, "Uh-oh."

I grabbed onto his jacket sleeve and quickly jumped up and down. Not a comment, not a sound, just a spirited bounce that took over me for several seconds. I can't wait! I can't wait! I just hope they have their grand opening before my lease is up.

On another note, I still haven't finished my knitting project that I mentioned in my previous post. It's about 65% completed. It's going to be a very, very belated Christmas gift. I've actually taken the B train back and forth during my lunch break to get some extra knitting done. I'm so close, I can feel it. I promise to post it as soon as it's done.

In Donegal and not a single skein of yarn to show for it

It's four months later and I'm happy to announce that I still have knitting on the brain. Haven't given up the craft just yet. Now that winter is shortly approaching, I feel that I now have a little more incentive. I'm in the middle of a project right now, but I can't talk about it nor can I post pictures as it's a gift for someone who will most likely run into it on my blog. All I can say is that it's half way done and I hope to reveal it to you by the end of December. It's nothing huge nor terribly complicated, but still very cool looking considering my beginner's status.

Just came back from Donegal, Ireland. Was there for about a week. It pains me to say that I was in the area and didn't pick up a skein or two of Donegal Tweed yarn...but that's okay. I have plenty of others in my current stash and frankly, just don't have the room for any more. The trip was lovely, rainy and windy. But evenings were filled with live music sessions from the local pub. Timothy had the opportunity to sneak in a couple of ol' Irish songs during the "open mic" portion. Fun was had by all.

On two separate occasions, we enjoyed a couple dozen oysters fresh from Donegal Bay. Yum. The Guinness, I heard was to die for, but I'm not one to jump in front of a moving bus for a pint, so I just took everyone's word for it.

Hopping Back on the Knitting Bandwagon

Once summer kicked in, my knitting was suddenly put on hold. It's just not as easy to knit in 90-degree weather. My hands get sweaty, the yarn sticks to the needles - it's an awful mess. Unless the air conditioning is on full blast, I have no business picking up needles and yarn. I did however, find a small retreat under the wings of the ceiling fan in my dining room. Turns out it's the only place in the apartment where I can knit comfortably in 90+ temperatures.


With that said, I've started working on my 3rd pair of booties. I'm making it for a couple who I think can truly appreciate funky and wild color combinations. I came across these two yarns and thought, Eureka! This is what I'm looking for!

Together they didn't look so good, so I decided to combine the green with an orange yarn I recently purchased. Sounds funky, sounds groovy. I did one bootie but now I'm not sure if I'm feelin' it. It looks a little crazy, but not the crazy I was going for. But who knows...maybe it works, and I just don't realize it. What do you think? (I haven't seamed it up completely, so you'll still see some random yarn hanging out.)

I'm also in the middle of knitting a cushion. I started it about a month or so ago and as I continued to knit, I realized it was too big. I didn't get too far, only about 10-15 rows, but still enough to feel some pain at the thought of unravelling what I had started. I had to accept my failure, unravel, and start over. I started this weekend and hopefully all will go well. Inspiration for the cushion came from a "Jennifer's Sofa" subway ad. There was a striped cushion made of fabric and I thought...hmmm, I can probably make a knit version of that.

Cushion from the ad

Cushion from the ad (close-up)

In the meantime, I've got plenty of knitting to do and..OH! I almost forgot. Some lady on craig's list was selling a ton of yarn for $1 a skein. ONE DOLLAR! Nice stuff too! So of course I jumped on it and bought 22 skeins. About 5 different kinds. Fun! Fun! Fun! I don't know what I'm going to make with all of it, though. The hubby wants me to make a bikini out of the burgundy eyelash yarn. I dunno...we'll see ;)

The Matrix Revisited...Again

The trailers for Wanted really pulled me in. I'm a sucker for a good action flick. So, on Saturday night, the hubby and a friend of ours took off to the Lincoln Square Theater for 110 minutes of car-jumpin', gun-slingin', fist-throwin', knife-jabbin' good fun.

As much as I looked forward to it, I have to say I was a little underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, the stunts were great and the action was non-stop, but the execution of storyline could have used some work. From beginning to almost end, the movie was practically a dupe of The Matrix. A young man working at a dead-end job, stuck in a cubicle all day who has no sense of identity...c'mon. And then only to be rescued by a hot chick with a gun who, by the way, can kick serious ass. Oh, and let us not leave out the wise and all-knowing leader of the pack who reveals to our hero his true calling. If that doesn't have Neo, Trinity and Morpheus written all over it, I don't know what does. While Neo can dodge bullets, our Wesley can bend them around the corner. Close enough. Come on Hollywood, I know The Matrix was a hit, but let's move on.

If you don't care about the obvious carbon copy elements of the movie and are just in it for the excitement, you'll certainly get it.

You know what's funny? After the movie (and generally after every Angelina flick), my lips felt just little bit more plump than before I walked in. I think I've stopped puckering after two days.


Out of 5 poofy lips, I'd give it a 3. That's my rating and I'm sticking to it.

No Salmonella In These Babies!

The hubby has put great energy and effort into this project. Lo and behold, the fruits of his labor have come alive! We have tomatoes! Some were planted with great care while others were bought as already growing plants. But it wasn't until recently that tomatoes started to show. This is so exciting. I never had fruit growing in my own backyard. Okay, so we don't have a backyard, it's a balcony. Whatever. They're still growing. We have plum tomatoes, black tomatoes and...um, regular tomatoes. Haven't got all the names down yet. But either way we'll have fresh tomatoes ready for consumption in a few weeks or so. Yay!

Smart *and* Cute

Wow. I'm falling way behind in my blog entries. Can't believe the most recent one was around Mother's Day! Well, just to update all of you, the hubby applied for a scholarship at his culinary school. The scholarship was created in memory of his Chef who recently passed away. In addition to maintaining a high GPA and submitting strong recommendations from instructors, the other requirement of the scholarship required that each applicant write an essay about an event in their life that embodied the characteristics of this beloved Chef. Three scholarships were awarded and Timothy was one of the lucky recipients! Yay! Go hubby!! A well deserved award, I say.

Alleluia! The Booties are Done.

I finally finished  sewing on the velcro for the booties. It was agony. More so in thought than in actual execution. When I look back on it, it really wasn't at all bad. In the end, it turned out fine. Finished the project on Saturday morning, just in time for Mother's Day. Mommy was very happy with the gift. Yay :)

I still have to work on my seams, they still look a little wonky. But I'm sure with practice, I'll get there. My first pair of baby booties for a real baby was, for the most part, a success. They fit and EVERYTHING!

Iron Man - Go See It!

Hi All! Just a quick note to say that the hubby and I went on an unplanned trip to the movie theater. We were walking along Broadway with nothing special scheduled, when suddenly a giant LED screen screamed out to us with the words "IRON MAN" in neon green. Yes, the signage is cheesy, but a great theater nonetheless.

I loved it. Timothy was very happy with Robert Downey Jr.'s performance and so was I. Great character, great story. For those who know me, I never followed the comic book series, but according to Timothy, they did nice interpretation.

So whether you're a follower of the series or an Iron Man newbie, fun will be had by all. There's probably a lot more I can say, but I'm working on a tight schedule so we'll have to chat later. In the meantime, if you've seen it, feel free to leave your comments about the movie.

As far as the knitting, I still can't bring myself to sew that last piece of velcro on those dang booties! Okay, tonight. For real.

My Husband's Blond Tart

That's right, the hubby's got a tart on the side. Not that kind, silly. DESSERT! Culinary school has been treating us both very, very well. He's brought home quite an exquisite medley of sweets. All to my liking, of course. Out of all the desserts, the fruit tart, was by far the prettiest. The crust was blond* baked (baked before the addition of the pastry cream and fruit), hence the scandalous title.

Here are some shots of his masterpiece.

To learn more about my hubby's culinary adventures, visit "The lunatic ravings of an insane Culinary Student."

*editor's note: My husband made a typo in his blog, using the word "blond" instead of "blind". Freudian slip? Who knows, I'll confront him about that later. In the meantime, I'm keeping the title as-is because, well, it's just funnier.

Bootie Struggles - Pair #2

Slow progress this week. We had a couple of visitors these past few days, so I didn't have much time to devote to knitting. That's fine though. We had good company and my fingers needed the rest. On the guest list were two friends with a seven month old baby. So, you know what quickly came to mind, right?.....BOOTIES! I showed them the sample pair that I made last month and they thought they were adorable. So off I went to start stitching up the new pair.

I'm not very happy with how I seamed up the edges. They came out a little lopsided. I unseamed, seamed, unseamed, seamed....went the through the process FIVE TIMES and it still looked like it was sewn together by a three-fingered wino. Oh well, I still hope they like it just for the amount of love that was put into it. I'll start on the second bootie within the next couple of days. Here's hoping that at least this pair will be of equal size.

In the meantime, I have to find a dress for a friend's wedding this weekend. Tootle-loo!

Anyone Know How To Sew?

Okay, so I nixed the laptop case idea....for now. The pattern scared me and since I had to scale it down for the mini baby laptop we own, I wasn't quite sure how to go about it. So, instead I decided to work on a cabled purse that I've had my eye on. The pattern was designed by "Princess Philo" who has a set of 5 patterns from which to choose. My favorite is the "Kelly" bag, so I decided to get started on that one right away. The pattern is fairly easy once you find your rhythm. The bag is cute and small so, it only took about two days to finish the knitting part. Then I realized, uggh. I need to make a lining for this, don't I?

Okay, a lining, a lining. That can't be too hard. Just sew up the sides and attach it to the bag. Ah yes, minor detail. I don't know how to sew. So, off I went to the library and took out books on sewing. I'll also jump on all the youtube videos I can find. In theory, I know what needs to be done, but I don't want it to look like I stitched it up with my feet, you know what mean? I want it to look professional.

So, as soon as I find the time to learn yet another craft, my Kelly bag will be sitting in the closet. Until then enjoy some pictures of the bag in progress. Sorry about the changes in lighting. Took the pictures on completely different days in completely different rooms.

Two of a Kind - Not Exactly

I started and finished the second bootie on Sunday. I wasn't as excited as when I finished the first, mainly because it ended up being slightly larger.

With the first bootie, I think I weaved the ends together a couple of stitches in, while with the second, I weaved the ends right at the very edge of the seams. This could have very well changed the size of the bootie. At first I thought that maybe my knitting was looser with the second one, but I'm leaning more toward the first reason.

Oh well, still not a bad first try. They still came out pretty cute. My next attempt at booties will be camouflage with a black sole and maybe some army themed metallic buttons, maybe with an eagle or something similar. How neat would that be?

I'm going to take a break from the booties for now and try a laptop case. It looks crazy complicated, though. Not the case itself, but the design. There's lots of cabling involved. Not sure if I'm ready to explore that realm just yet. But I guess I just have to throw myself into it like I did with the booties and not worry so much about the outcome.

I'll see you next time on BITS, hopefully with a picture of a laptop case ;)

Bootie-Licious

Last night I finished my first baby bootie! I was too excited to wait until I finished the second one before telling you all about it. I have to say, Saartje's Bootie pattern had me stumped for a while when it came to the straps. Definitely not written for a newbie...but somehow I got through it. So exciting!!

Toward the end, I couldn't help but giggle every now and then as I knitted. It was just so freakin' cute! My husband started getting paranoid, thinking that I was secretly laughing at him. I didn't want to reveal the source of my amusement because I wanted my accomplishment to be a surprise. Since he knew I was struggling with the straps, I thought he would be extra proud if I just showed him the final product in one shot.

At the beginning, I had no idea how this little mass of knitted fabric was going to turn into a bootie. I stopped questioning it after a while and just figured I'd keep knitting away, trusting that the pattern would eventually lead me to a final product. And it did!

Speaking of bootie...my bruise from skiing has healed quite nicely. It's about 90% healed. Throwing myself down in a chair is no longer a major issue. But I think I need another week or so before I'm completely pain-free.

More pictures of The Bootie!