Holiday cheer, and sleeves!

xmas eve, chez boston worker bee

For god's sake, don't touch her panettone.

Special holiday wishes to Lady S, Children of Herakles, Betty Crocker, MIT SnB, and BWB readers!


I cast on this week for the first sleeve of my sweater. So far, so good!

I'd like to now take this opportunity to show off some of my mom's handiwork. For christmas, she gave me some lovely waffle-knit dishtowels and a matching potholder, that she wove on her loom. Amazing!

I'm off to Florida early (EARLY!!!) Saturday morning to visit my mother-in-law. I'm planning on stopping off at Windsor Button in downtown crossing to see if I can get some yarn to try making another spiral knit hat. The first one I did in alpaca, which stretched terribly after wearing it just two times. Oh, and ummm, then I tried to felt it, and it came out kind of crappy. Back to the drawing board.

Front is finished!

Whew! I finished the front of the sweater last night. I'll be casting on for the sleeves. Holy cow. I can't believe it.



I'm learning a lot of lessons from this pattern, and it's definitely making me a better knitter. Rule NUMBER ONE: always do a test swatch. This pattern calls for 4 balls of kid silk haze. To finish the sleeves, it'll probably bring me up to six balls of douceur et soie. Also, This weekend, I discovered a mistake I made in the pattern: the alternating stripes are supposed to end at the bust line, and the upper portion of the sweater is all lace. Like this.



However, I misunderstood the pattern, and you'll notice I ended up doing alternating stripes all the way up. I think the end result is going to make the sweater look a little dowdy. But I'm committed, so I'll deal with it.

Wait! Scratch that!

Henceforth, "M. Munroe" shall be known as "Betty Crocker"! Damn, you do make good lemon squares. BC, in answer to your question, no - I did not ask for a Mr. Misty steam hair curling set (I already have one!), however, I do still covet this.

Christmas in Rockport

Panoramic View of Rockport Harbor

I thought I'd entertain you with some photos of Rockport. I was up there visiting this weekend. I almost (and I mean ALMOST) finished the front of the sweater. I'm going to try and do that this week, and cast on for the sleeves.

A special holiday greeting to my friend in New Jersey who is studying nursing. Henceforth on this blog you shall be known as "M. Munroe" - HA! I got your holiday card and note - thanks! I loved the photos.


Home sweet home...


Don't mess with the baby Jesus?


Here we go a-lobstering


Motif #1

rowan static

Just came back from SnB, and I can't extricate my mind from the rowan pattern static that has taken over brain waves. Must. fight. urge. to. open. knitting. bag. until. five. o'clock.

gahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

why am I cursed with a long attention span.

Evil thoughts

This morning as I waited for my train, wearing my new hat, which felt like it was big enough to cover a watermelon, I began contemplating ripping the whole thing out, and trying to re-knit it on smaller needles. It's so loose and stretchy its not really going to keep its shape.

ARGHHH!

Spiral Rib Hat (Ann Norling)

Finished Project!!!!!!

Spiral Rib Hat (Ann Norling)



This pattern works for gauges 2.5 - 6

The yarn I used is Frog Tree 100% Alpaca (worsted weight), which calls for US #7 needles, which may explain why the stiches on my finished hat are so loose. If I were to do this again, I would do a test swatch first, and play around with the tension until it was just right. I would have preferred a tighter tension on this one. It was the first project I made with my new interchangeable needle set.

Also, the pattern calls for using double pointed needles in the decrease section at the top. Man, I do NOT know how to use double pointed needles. I'm hoping someone at SnB will take pity and show me how. In the process of awkwardly holding the various needles, I dropped several stitches and had to go back with some yarn and a needle and do some damage control. The recommended finished measurement for a woman's small in this pattern is 20" - WAY too much hat for me. The final measurement on this one is 8".



Well, I guess it's back to my sweater! I might pick up some extra alpaca and make a scarf to go with.

Half-a-hat

I still only have half-a-hat, which is not doing me a whole lot of good in this freezing $#%@! cold weather. I'll be sitting on the couch tonite, knitting until its done. It would be nice to have a section of my blog that's called "finished projects". Someday.

My thoughts go out to Lady S, who is going through a hard time right now. I'm with you in spirit!

No SnB today

Somthing's come up last minute that I need to take care of! I'll see you guys next thursday!

Girl's gotta have a hat

My DH is out getting us PIZZA for dinner! SWEET.

I'm feverishly working on a hat to match my winter coat, before it gets any colder. This goes against my strict rule about multi-tasking projects that end up never getting finished. BUT, it's knitting up pretty quick. The pattern is Ann Norling spiral hat, which I picked up at Woolcott. It's great because the pattern works with any gauge yarn you happen to have.



I also picked up some items at Windsor Button.



And here's somthing gratuitously cute:

No SnB today

there's some kind of horrible hacking cough/cold going around my office. I've got it too. FANTASTIC.

Introducing Children of Herakles (C.O.H.)

I'd like to introduce a friend of mine, named, Ruhhh....... oh wait, this is the blogosphere, so he needs an alter-ego! Fair enough, Ruhhhh... I dub thee "Children of Herakles" or COH, for short. Henceforth you shall be known as COH. Children of Herakles, you ask? What an odd moniker!

COH is the name of a play, but also:

a. a former colleague
b. a Cillian Murphy look-alike
c. non-knitter
d. all of the above

If you guessed "d", you are correct! COH, thanks for generously hosting me at Silvertone last night, I plan on returning the favor very soon, so lookout! COH is also a native of the city where I currently reside. That's right - CITY - not suburb, dude!

Happy Thanksgiving

Boston Worker Bee had a great Thanksgiving. Thanks to our special peeps who trekked through the rain and traffic for turkey dinner at our place: Mama & Babbo, L-squared, and Lil' H & Lil' D.

Mom was wondering what's on my christmas list this year, it's pretty much just knitting stuff. and socks. I have a few projects in mind that I'd like to try using Kid Silk Haze for, which is sold here:

Webs

I could also use a knitting needle holder for my straight needles, and a knitting bag to carry my projects in to and from work. I saw a beautiful silk embroidered knitting bag at Woolcott in Harvard Sq., that looked kind of like this. It was black and white, with some green leaves embroidered on it.

Knitting books and gift certificates to Halcyon Yarn are always welcome!

interchangeable needle sets?

I'm thinking about buying a set of interchangeable needles. These from Denise seem to be the standard. Any thoughts? I kind of like the price point of this set, too.

Gearing up for next project

I'm putting the cart before the horse here, but for my next project, I'm going to do another rowan sweater using this kid silk haze. I've got a gift certificate that's burining a hole in my pocket. "Spend me! Spend me!", it says. The skill level says "easy", so THEORETICALLY it should be less frustrating than my current project.

I'm also considering some palette cleansers. I still have to do baby booties for a friend, and thought I might use some of that fabric from NYC to make a cool needle holder, and little zip-bag for my knitting unmentionables (measuring tape, stitch holders, etc.) If anyone has patterns for stuff like that, let me know!

New York... Part Three

... What the.... HUH?? I bet you're wondering why I'm doing Part Three when I haven't done Part Two. I just posted Part Two

I'm having a little trouble uploading all my NY photos as a group, hence a separate Part Three.





I was really surprised at how much there was to see, botanically speaking, given that it is November. So many of the trees seemed to be peaking in color or still in leaf. The Japanese Garden in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden was aflame. I can't be sure that the fall isn't the best time to see it after all.

Back in the city, I took my DH up to the top of the Empire State Building. He'd never been!!



We also shared some matzo ball soup at a deli across from the Carnegie Deli. Before you fly off the handle, YES, we ate at the Carnegie like good-doobies, but we didn't feel like waiting in line a second time so walked across the street to this place. Yikes - that is a BIG matzo ball! We ate the whole thing. I could have polished it off myself, but I try to be nice and share.



We also spent a lovely morning walking around the grounds of the Cloisters.







So it ends. Busy weekend ahead.I'd like to continue working on my sweater. That's what I'd rather be doing. Ta!

Public Service Announcement

Just a friendly reminder to college students: flip-flop season is OVER. Kindly wear your socks and shoes, since it's getting COLD out!!!!

I had to get that off my chest, thanks.

SnB today

I'll be there today. There's a new person in my office whose interested in knitting. She'll probably be coming along, too!

Recycling yarn

An interesting link on how to recycle yarn from old sweaters has made its way to me from a lapsed SnB'er, who I am trying to rehabilitate, and who shall remain nameless for the time being (HA!). Thanks to she-who-must-remain-nameless, and to Femiknit mafia, who passed the link to her.

New York.... Part 2

The people demanded it, and we listened. Without further ado, here is part two.

A week ago I didn't know what "mid-town" was, and smiled politely when terms like "upper east-side" were used in my presence. Now I'm throwing the lingo around like I own the place. I can take the A train uptown, and the B train to Brooklyn. Getting around New York is so EAASSSYY! Woo hoooo!

I spent most of our five days in NYC walking around and doing things outside. I spent a lovely day at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Autumn leaves and turtles. What could be better?







Here's a short video I took in the Japanese garden.



Ducks and Koi
Brooklyn Botanical Garden

New York.... Part 1

For those of you who are interested in what I found in the New York fabric district, I present to you, "Part 1"!



First off, we stayed in Club Quarters, a hotel on W 45th Street (between 5th and 6th avenues) that caters to business travelers. With our discount (offered by my employer), our stay was about $200/per night, including taxes. For the most part it was pretty nice. Despite being less than two blocks from Times Square, it wasn't very noisy. I'd read a lot of bad reviews about the hotel on Trip Advisor, that really were not justified. Although, if you are looking for a high level of service, concierge, etc., this is probably not the place for you.



The "fabric district" was about 4-5 blocks away from my hotel. The majority of stores are located on W 39th Street, between 7th and 8th avenues. There are also a few located on W 40th Street (see my links!). A lot of places on W 39th Street seem to make up prices as they go along. Bolts and rolls are not marked and heaped together everywhere. I overheard some shoppers bargaining with store owners, so that seems to be acceptable in many of the places. I wish I had worked up the nerve to bargain myself, because I'm pretty sure I got taken for a ride! My advice to shoppers is to spend one full afternoon looking at all the stores, and getting a feel for who bargains and who doesn't. I saw the same prints in many different shops, some priced differently. Then, when you've seen and heard, go back and spend!

I was really blown away by New York Elegant Fabrics. They have a cheesy name, but a vast selection of high end fabrics. I've never seen so much beautiful material in one place. Sadly, it was all out of my price range. Across the street was Lace Star, which as you can probably guess specializes in lace (beaded lace, regular lace, you name it). Again, prices here were not clearly marked. I also made it to Rosen & Chadick, Paron, and several hole-in-the-wall places on W 39th. I really enjoyed Purl Patchwork in the Village, but didn't enjoy the knitting store as much. The merchandising was very nice, but everytime I went to touch a ball of yarn, the staff would kind of look at me fishy. It was also pouring rain that day, so I was looking for a welcoming experience.

I bought some interesting prints, which I will bring in to SnB for show and tell. Here's a sneak peak:



Stay tuned for Part 2... PatchesMom1973's boring vacation photos!

A few things before vacation

Pre-vacation blog-a-thon! Today I've added two new features to Boston Worker Bee: a site-meter, which I clued into looking at Femiknit Mafia's blog, and a listing of the knitting books I own. Now I will be able to count all the five people who read my blog! Sadly the booklist is pretty short thus far! I think I have some more in the basement, but I'm too lazy to get them just now. I definitely have a sock book down there some of the SnB might be interested in.


First things first, meet "my preciousssssss", our new dishwasher:



I won't say anything else about this new addition to our home, because quite frankly, I just get too emotional.

Here's the status of my sweater. Back is completed, and the front is progressing. The large hole is where the 3" wide ribbon will thread through, and tie in a bow:





Looking over the 1988 article (Threads Magazine?) on NYC's fabric district my mom gave me, I read about a place called Tender Buttons. I think I kind of HAVE to go see it now. With a name like that, how could you not? I'm not sure I'm going to be able to handle New York. They have whole stores just devoted to ribbons, for chrissakes.

Keep it real knitting people. I'll be back after Veteran's Day with a full report. I'll be knitting in spirit on Thursday at 12:00.

Neewwwwww Yooooorrrrrrrk.......

Yes, in just a week, I will BE a part of it, old New York. My husband and I are spending five days there for vacation. This morning he asked me what I wanted to do. When I told him I wanted to go to yarn shops and fabric stores, his response was "WHAT??!!!!", as if I told him I wanted to spend the entire vacation in CVS pharmacy browsing magazines and greeting cards. My response to HIM (in a feisty, outraged tone of voice): "I am SOO blogging about this! Of course I want to go look at yarn shops and fabric stores. Ummm, New York happens to be THE place in North America for all things fashion."

He was sitting next to me at "Devil Wears Prada", he should KNOW!

Getting into a groove

I'm feeling really psyched because I seem to have turned a corner with understanding the Rowan pattern I'm working on. Now that I'm finished with the back, the front has (so far, knock on wood) been a breeze to translate! It takes a lot less effort to sit down and work on it, and I'm procrastinating much less. SnB'ers may NOT have to wait seven tyears, as originally anticipated!

I am fully planning on being at SnB this week. Work has been so busy, and knitting has been a good stress-buster.

I may try to bring in another pattern I want to work on next (also Rowan) for some guidance. There are some cryptic things in there like "K0" and "P0", which I take to mean don't knit any stiches. If so, why the $%^# can't they just say "slip stich"?

No knitting, only work

I won't be able to make it to SnB today. Toooo muuuuuchhh wooooorrrkkkkk.

:(

On the bright side, it looks as though I may be getting a much longed for dishwasher and garbage dispoal installed in my kitchen very soon. How did life get so these are exciting events? I don't have much good to say about the people at sears though. Ordering the $#@! machine was quite a task. We'll see if it actually gets delivered.

It was a good day.

So the weekend started out a little rough - blockages in the main sewer line in our buildings basement, that caused filth and water to spew forth when the laundry machine was in use. This led to me taking friday off from work, while 4 plumbing experts gouged out our pipes and restored running water and flushing toilets to us. Oh, happy day!

The weekend DID get better. I bought myself an early birthday present. The Canon powershot A630 . Sweet. I can't believe the level of detail you get with 8 megapixels! Check out some of the pics I took:



Lookit her wet nose.



Oh, and by the way.... I finished the back section of the sweater. Thanks to the good people of SnB who gave me the encouragement and tips I needed to persevere!

Stalled

Ugh. I'm stalled on my sweater. I can't seem to work up the courage to try and figure out the next chunk of my pattern directions on my own (my mom helped me translate the last part), but I feel its the next step in improving my knitting. I keep finding other things to be doing and avoiding it. But this weekend, I am going to do it, I swear!

Some of my procrastination activities have included purchasing MORE knitting patterns, such as Rowan Book #37.

Yeesh!

And now onto more pressing matters...

Last weekend I made some more progress on my rowan sweater. I'm almost done with the first piece (the back). Maybe I'll finally finish it this weekend!



While the rest of you are busy "de-stashing", I have been stockpiling (thanks to Knit Wit of Rockport closing sale):



"Dune" (mohair blend)



"Flash" (cotton), socks, perhaps?



Alpaca - socks or a hat, maybe?



"Blossom" by reynolds. Synthetic blend - sweater of some kind?

And finally, last weekend my Mom and I finished up our canning activities by making grape jelly and applesauce. It was tiring. No wonder this weekend I'm sitting around in my pj's blogging.

Our cat uses more toilet paper than we do. Discuss.

Meet our cat Patches. Usually she is pretty well behaved. But lately, at night, while her human companions are fast asleep, she has been raising hell, frat-party style. How bad is it, you ask? read on...







Or perhaps this will give you the idea...

It's a terrible thing to feel you can no longer trust your kitty.

damn rowan

Damned rowan knitting and their cute patterns (see project list in archived postings.) Instead of saving my money like a good little girl, I just went online and bought several sweater patterns........

Really COOL new computer

My computer at work was just upgraded, and I discovered it comes with this software that not only allows you to take pictures of yourself with different vsiual effects, but you can also upload them into a do-it-yourself comicbook software. Which is ALSO free on my new computer. holy COW!

Check it out...

They have grapes!!

YESSS! Verrill Farm has grapes!

Stay tuned...

Blogaholic

Wow. I'm turning into quite a little blog fiend. I spent a lot of time this weekend making a gardening blog for my condo association, documenting our plants and contemplating some fall projects.

I took a stroll down the street to introduce myself to the guy who grows grapes in his yard. I was hoping to buy some from him to make grape jelly this fall. They are very hard to find at farm stands. You'd be surprised. Anyhoo, his grapes were completely ruined by all the rain and the heat spell we had. We're going to try and see if Verrill Farm has any this year. Our last hope...

However, I did find some time to work on my knitting, which is where I'm off to now!

Working one's hiney off

I did want to get to SnB today, but all week I've been working my HINEY off, and I CAN'T get AWAY from my desk. Help! Help!

Peach Jam

Chances are, if you're reading this, Santa will be bringing you peach and/or strawberry jam for Christmas. Depending on how nice you are, that is. The peach jam is strictly limited edition, people.

Here's a basic overview of how we made the jam:

First we scored the peaches on the top and bottome, making an "x" with a sharp paring knife, then we blanched them for 15-30 seconds in boiling water, and set them on a rack to cool off. Once cooled, the fuzzy skins slipped right off.

Next, we chopped and mashed the peaches into a rough pulp, added sugar (per the recipe included in the box of pectin), and stirred in a big pot on the stove.



Once the peaches came to a steady boil on the stove, we removed the pot from the heat, and added the pectin.



After stirring in the pectin, the jam is ready to be poured into the jars. Then the edges of the jars should be wiped clean with a damp cloth, to ensure a good tight seal.




Once the lids and tops are screwed on, the jam jars are then submerged in a "bath" of boiling water. This will create a vacuum seal. The "bath" time required will vary depending on how many feet above sea level you live. Ours took 15 minutes.

Finally, we placed the sealed jam jars on a rack for a few hours to cool off for storage. During the cooling off period, you will hear a popping noise as the sealing process completes. This is completely normal. Before storing the jars, press the middle of each lid. If the lid is flexible and moves up and down when pressed upon, it is not properly sealed, and must be consumed right away or it will spoil.