Openhouse NY

So here’s how I spent my weekend:

Open house NY

I went last year with my friend Aleeza:

(She has the most beautiful eyes, no?) who is a friend I made in Ithaca but has lived here in NYC (actually making a living as a pianist and a fine one at that.)  She and I like to get together and play tourist.  We’ve walked all over hell’s half-acre exploring this city and even taken those double decker buses that you see down driving tourists around with some guy talking into a microphone.  I have to say, the downtown and uptown tours were remarkably good.

Last year Aleeza indulged me by coming with me to see a bunch of buildings that were “built green”, using sustainable materials- as a house inspector this is good stuff to keep up with!  This year neither of us really got our act together and scouted out the sites ahead of time, so at the last minute we decided to go to the ferry building at Ellis Island that’s been newly renovated.  Both of us have always wanted to get to Ellis Island, and in fact, the photo above is us last year at Clinton Castle where the ferry departs for the island.  We managed to get there on the one day (besides Christmas) that is was closed because it was too stormy.  In the photo you see us just before we got drenched in the downpour that immediately opened up.  It was like standing under a waterfall.

So anyway, we decided to try again, and again, we failed.  We  forgot that it was Columbus Day weekend and apparentyl so did the MTA.  The metro system was just berserk this weekend and it took me a full hour and a half to get from 110th St down to South Ferry Station at which point we were going to have to wait in line for one and a half hours just to get on the ferry that goes to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Of course, by then we would have been over two hours late for the tour we had reserved for.  Argh!  How can I leave my house at 10:30am and not be able to make a 1pm tour of Ellis Island.  Ah the joys of city living.  Incidentally, Aleeza lives in Brooklyn and was able to spend exactly 3 minutes on the train + a 10 minute walk to the venue.  What’s wrong with this picture?

After deciding that we need to make a yearly event of not going to Ellis Island, we decided to head up to the Masonic Lodge on 23rd St.  So cool.  We got the whole talking to about how they’re a very historical association that raises lots of money for charities, etc, etc.  Someone brought up that they don’t let in women and isn’t that a mysoginist thing to do and they of course didn’t really give very good reasons for keeping us out- well, you be the judge of that:  When the question was brought up, the gentleman speaking said something like this:  “We have centuries of tradition behind us and we want to keep the traditions of our forefathers and, at the moment, that means that we don’t let women in.  Will that change in the future?  I’m quite sure that it will, but at this point we still don’t accept women as members.”  Hmm…

Anyway, there was one woman on the tour who was very vocal about how she despises any mysogonistic society, particularly this one, blah, blah, blah, and I found her a little bit upsetting.  Not so much that I didn’t agree with her point of view, because there were opinions that she held that I agreed with, but more the fact that she felt we were all just sheep being shepherded through this tour of the temple without questioning the underlying values inherent in the organization, and she needed to be the one to educate us.  Please.  I am a 36 year old woman with my own values formed both by nuture and real thought to how the world works and I really don’t need a “young whippersnapper” forcing her opinions on me.  I’m sure it’s a reaction to my Baptist upbringing that I really hate anybody who attempts to proselytize and tell me how I should think.  Fanatics, be they on the left or the right of the issues bother me- and that’s not to say that I’m a middle of the road kind of girl, because those of you who know me know that that is not my style.  No, it’s really that there are people out there who believe that their way is the only way, and there’s no room for compromise.  Of course, writing that I immediately think of some things I wouldn’t compromise on, but let’s say where has the spirit of cooperation gone?  Where is debate in this society now?  We all seem to hold our opinions and argue about them, but we don’t debate anymore.  We don’t present well reasoned rarguments to each other and discuss things and really try to see the other person’s point of view.  I’m not saying that we should then give up our own point of view and embrace the other’s, but there has to be some advantage to understanding where that other person is coming from.

Last night we went to a real debate.  Not only is it Open House NY weekend, it’s also the weekend of The New Yorker Fest.  (So much to do here!)  So, Ko being a professor one of the schools of the Ivy League, (and also having gotten all his education at another,) we decided to attend “should the Ivy League be abolished?” (scroll down) a debate between Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Gopnik with Simon Schama presiding.   What a blast!  I know, I know, you’re thinking, “Didn’t we do that whole debate thing in English class in high school and it really sucked?”  Well, yah.  Probably, but I enjoyed a couple of them.  But a real debate between skilled orators and some entertaining and funny men is a sight to behold.  It was fantastic and apparently it was decided (by a show of hands,) that the ivy league should not actually be abolished but should actually be reformed in many ways.

More about this weekend coming soon…

Ode to Knitting Etc and her peeps

Here are some photos of my former LYS, a store that I miss so much that I get all misty eyed whenever I think of it.  It’s a huge place with tons of yarn- a really good selection too, not just one of those stores that’s like, “Well, I can fit it in here, so we might as well have it.”  Hickory and her husband Steven are really good at ferreting oout the best in yarns and displaying them attractively.  They also have the most comprehensive library of books that I’ve ever come across.  But really, all of that is great, but I think it’s the people I miss most.  I’ve only managed to get to one knit night since I’ve been down here in the city and those women were great, but of course, I’m just getting to know them.  What I really miss is having a place to come to every Thursday where we’ve all mostly known each other for at least two years and we just relax into the knitting and all the juicy details of everybody’s lives.  We can quiz each other on how we’re doing with our projects, what’s new in our lives.  It’s really the laughter I miss the most.  Knitting and laughing and just really enjoying each other’s company.  This was a really diverse group of women (with Steven coming in to join us occassionally- and yes, he knits beautifully,) and I have to say, if it hadn’t been for knitting, I just wouldn’t have really known them at all.  Many of them are older or younger than me, and not working in jobs that would bring our worlds together.  A lot of them are mothers- and a surprising number are nurses!  So really, the only thing we had in common was knitting.  And then we had in common that we were knitters who knit together on thursday nights.  And then we had in common that we really cared about each other.  I’ve put up some photos of my girls who happened to be at Knitting Etc on my last night when they threw me a lovely going away party, but I won’t put in the names because I forgot to ask them whether or not they wanted to be named on my blog.  Here are some of my favourite people in the world:  I miss you guys.

I live in NYC now and I’m exhausted.

Well, not all the time, but I’ve been here just over two weeks and I’d say that 90% of those days have been spent feeling like I’ve been run over by a truck.  I’ve been thinking about why moving is so exhausting and I think, (and this will be a surprise to no one,) that it’s just all the newness.  Where can I buy groceries?  Curtains?  Yarn?  WherecaI go for a good cup of coffee?  Where the hell is my toothbrush, (underwear, cat food,) that I’m sure I packed in that box/put in that drawer/bought yesterday?  I feel like a little mouse running around a vast maze where any button I push will produce either an electric shock or a nice little treat with no indication on the dial to give me a clue as to which is more likely.

Thank god for knitting.  My needles are always there for me.  I just finished the Afric Cape from Rowan magazine #42 and I almost like it.  It’s very warm and I think the shoulders are very flattering but it does this wierd poochy thing across my belly that I’m just not sure about.  I think I’ll try to wear it out tonight to dinner with my guy and see if it passes muster.  I’ll also take a picture and get it up here and onto Ravelry.  Are you on Ravelry yet?  It’s my new addiction.  If you’re a fiber freak you need to be there.

The background above is of my very favouritest knitting store ever, Knitting Etc in Ithaca.  Still looking for a fav in NYC, but I can tell you that Yarntopia and Purl are way high on the list.

I’ve almost caught up with my life!

(edit: I wrote this back in July and apparently forgot to post it. So here it is a day late and a dollar short.)

And it’s been moving very fast lately.  The first week of July Ko and I went up to Montreal for the Jazz Fest- what a fab time.  I love that city and may even post some photos/stories about it later in the week.  Of course, I only brought one battery for the camera and left the charger at home, so my pics are of the first few days.  Then Ko and I were getting ready to move, which meant that I would see Ko walking around the house pointing the camera at all our furniture and then it would disappear the next day to someone on Craig’s list.  We had the “real” move yesterday to a storage unit until we get an address in NYC, so the house is completely empty.  It feels surreal in a kind of William Gibson novel kind of way because I still have my desk and office set up like normal, but the rest of the house is empty.  I feel like my desk is a little bit of focus in an otherwise blurry house.  A site coming out of the ether. 

I forgot to mention that I did a little work for a group called Impact Development- you can read about their work here.  It’s complicated to explain, but I was working with another teacher and a group of 12 volunteers and we built wigwams for a children’ summer camp.  The other teacher had the job of asking them (and they were new hires for a big corporation,) “what are we learning from this?  How will we use this in the future?” (and I must say she did an excellent job!)  I had the job of saying, “Don’t cut your finger off with that saw!”  Well, it was a little more complicated than that, but it wouldn’t be off the mark to say that I was supposed to think about every possible way a person could hurt themselves on my worksite and then prevent that from happening.  I was sometimes known as the voice of doom and gloom, but for the most part my peeps were  really thoughtful about how they might maim themselves and adjusted accordingly.

So now that I’ve moved and I only have to clean up the house  I’ve started reading the new Harry Potter book which I got last Saturday, and Have forced myself not to read because I knew I’d never get anything done- and I know a couple of you out there have moved recently and YOU KNOW how much has to be done.  Oh my god, I thought I’d never get all that stuff into boxes.  It was just incredible to get the movers in here and see them make such short work of the boxes that I worried I’d packed too heavily.  I had trouble moving just one of those boxes and these guys whipped through carrying three at a time.  They were like machines!  Very friendly, animated, and funny machines.  We might even have them do the “big move” down to NYC.  What impressed me most about our move: we managed to cull everything down to a 10′x10′ storage unit.  Ok, ok I admit that we got rid of most of our furniture, so we’ll have nothing but office chairs to sit on when we get there, but if any of you ever saw my book collection, you’d know that this was really an amazing feat.

Ok, last but not least, now that I’m all packed up and I have access only to a little bit of yarn, I got my invite to Ravelry.  Wheeeeeeee!  I’ve been hopping up and down with joy all morning!  but that joy is tempered by the fact that even though I’m going to have all sorts of time in the coming month, I won’t be able to get my stash set up there in Ravelry because it’s hard to get to.  I admit that I’m making little plans to take the camera out to the storage unit and go to town there photographing.  Yarn would look good in an industrial setting right?

That photo at the top shows a huge ball of Brooks Farms mohair/wool/silk yarn that I just got done knitting into a scarf for my sweet mummy.  It was her birthday on the 21st.  So knitting has happened lately.  I just don’t have any photos of it!

Sleep, why hast thou forsaken me?

Dear Sleep,

You know I love you in the biggest way possible.  You are the only one in my life that I make time to be with for 7-8 hours everyday.  I don’t even do that for my husband or my cat or any other member of my family!  (Well, sometimes I spend that amount of time with my sister, but I work with her.  It doesn’t count.)  But you; you I try to commune with.  It’s not that we get together and just hang out on the couch.  No.  I really commune with you.  I show up for you everyday.  I look forward to being with you everyday!  So why have you been skipping our dates?  Was it something I said?  You know I didn’t mean it when I said to Ko that I wish I could get by on just four hours of sleep a day.  That was just talk.  Just rhetorical silliness.  You know I could never be without you for that long!

Please come back to me!  I’ve done all the little things that one is supposed to do to coax you into seeing me again.  I’ve counted sheep until my eyes were fuzzy.  I’ve done imagination exercises and relaxation techniques.  Sure I was more relaxed, but they just couldn’t take your place, my dear sleep.  Nothing compares to you.  Please come back to me, and I promise never to joke about not needing you again.  Tonight I’ll hope to see you in my dreams.

with love and longing,

Kylie

ps- ok, so that was supposed to be a funny little entry there, but I think it may have just been way too close to the bone, you know?  I thought it might be funny to treat sleep as a recalcitrant lover, but then who else do you spend that amount of time with?  So anybody got any fav tricks they use to get to sleep?  My relationship with sleep is a bit tempestuous for my liking.  We’ll go for weeks in restful bliss and then boom!  Right out of nowhere we’re fighting and not seeing each other anymore and I don’t know what I did.  She’s so unreasonable and won’t talk about it and then 4 or 5 days later she’s back.  Just slinking into my bed, no explanation or anything.  She just knows I’ll take her back no questions asked.  She knows I need her but she doesn’t need me.  Sigh.  She can have anybody she wants, any time.  (funny that I think of Sleep as a she… probably because sleep is tricky for me.  I don’t think I know any guys who don’t just lie down and fall asleep in two minutes flat.  That’s just not the Sleep I know.  Such a harsh mistress…)

Victory is mine- almost…

Here is that sweater that caused me so much grief.  It actually looks much better on, but my own personal photographer has gone away for the evening.  It’s very soft and squishy and will be the perfect thing to throw on when the nights get cooler- as soon as I actually finish it!

I know it looks done, but if you look carefully, you’ll see the zipper is sticking out the top because it’s too long.  The zipper is just basted in and is awaiting its final back stitching and I have to fiddle with it to get it to line up just right but that project is going to wait til Saturday.  Why? you ask.  Well, Ko and I and Jennie are going up to the Montreal Jazz Festival for the week to enjoy lots of good music and the lovely city.  We’ll drink lots of sangria in cute outdoor cafes and celebrate liberally on July 5th which is that happy day on which I was born.  Well, it makes me happy anyway.  I will be turning the big 3 6 which means I’m entering my late thirties.  (Cue dirge music.)

But I’m not ready to think about that yet- I’ve got a whole week after all!- so let’s  look at what I did today:

Actually, I finished this one a few days ago, but I’m so delighted with it that I just had to show it off again.  It’s from a Kaffe Fassett fabric which I just love to death- I also have some in red, but am thinking it might be too bright for a skirt.  We’ll have to see.  I may not be able to resist it.

Below is what I’m calling the Cherry Blossom skirt, and this one actually looks better on the hanger.  Bummer.  I’m thinking of doing a bit applique to liven it up.  I’ve been cutting out fabric for a new shirt now for about 2 hours.  God it takes me a long time.  The crafty infidel- slowest crafter on earth.

February=disaster

Math books are actually going to start printing that equation.  Actually, it will read more like this: If Kylie knits a well thought out pattern in lovely yarn for February but decides to make a few changes, what does she get?  What if those changes involve completely redesigning the base of the sweater on the body and sleeves?  That’s right class, Disaster!(apologies for the word problem, but I don’t actually know how to access all the fun little symbols on my keyboard.  My computer is a big, intriguing mystery just waiting for me to unlock it.)

What you see below are photos of the disaster before I frogged the back.  The sweater is knit in Rowan Calmer (which I love,) and is a Kim Hargreaves sweater from the Calmer Collection book.  Please note that this sweater was started in November ‘06 as something to knit on my honeymoon in Paris.  I immediately angered the knitting gods by thinking to myself, “I bet I’ll be able to finish this in that week and a half because there will be so much time in airports, and planes and trains.”  The knitting universe obviously took that as comic relief.

Then I decided in February that I could probably just finish it up by the 15th and then use the 2nd half of the month to finish up another sweater that I have half finished.  Nothing like actually COURTING disaster. 

Now I want you to look carefully at the above picture.  (Sorry it’s so abominable.)  What you’re looking at is the back of the sweater sitting on top of the sleeves.  I took out all the little pollops that I thought were kind of cute, but would look Awful (with a capital A!) on me and replaced them with the Carillon Pattern from Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting Patterns, page 140.  This looked just great on the sleeves, but when I put it on the back it had an unexpected effect on my knitting group.  I held it up to myself and asked them, “Does this look ok?” and they all burst into snorts and giggles.  Turns out the yarn is so close to my skin colour that the little triangles looked like an artistic rendering of the tops of my butt cheeks sticking out of my jeans.  You can imagine how quickly I frogged that idea!

Here it is languishing at the thought of another ripping session:

Tomorrow: Victory is mine! 

january

Hickory asked that I update everyone on my progress on the sweater of the month.  Remember that?  Back in January in those heady days of making New Year’s resolutions I decided that I should have a closet full of handmade sweaters.  In fact, it was ridiculous that I didn’t have a closet of handmade sweaters!  I am knitter- hear me roar!  I will go forth and make a sweater a month and I will never be cold or poorly dressed in acrylic ever again.

So I think you all remember January.  A nice green wrap from one of Vogue’s Knitting magazines- I’m sorry I can’t remember the issue right now.  I needed something warm to wrap around me while on the computer in the winter- and lo, it was a raging success!  If I do say so myself.  Very warm, very wrappy.  You can see I’m looking a bit rough in the picture above, and it’s nothing I’d wear out of the house, but none-the-less, a clear victory.

The obligatory close up:

Next up: Disaster

Let’s Catch uP

You may be wondering why I haven’t been blogging for the past five months so I thought I’d give you a little update.

1. Ko was in the process of getting a job.  I’m happy to say that his hard work paid off and he landed a fabulous academic job in Colombia, so we’re moving in August to NY City!  But during the process I was the chief cook and bottle washer and I’m not very efficient with my time.  also not a very good cook!  The Boy loves to cook and does a great job of it and I’m happy to be part of a household where having him cook every night is the standard M.O.  Let’s just say that I’m grateful Ko ate as much of my mush as he did.  And I’m also grateful that he got a job and finished and defended his dissertation and now cooks every night again.  Huzzah!
2. My business got better and I hired on my sister to be my right hand gal.  She’s excellent and loves the work and the months of training really have paid off.  She is now the official brains behind the operation.
3. We got married again.  Well, actually it was a wedding reception with the world’s longest time period between wedding and reception.  Ko and I got married last September in a small elopement type ceremony, but we thought we’d have a big party on our original date so that his parents could come and we could have all our friends there too.
4. Because I was getting married again and didn’t have quite enough stress in my life, I decided that I would make my own dress.  It worked pretty well too.  Certainly not traditional, but they don’t call me the craftyinfidel for nothing! (ok, no one actually calls me that, but you could if you like…)
5. Because I was in the quilt shop to get fabric for the band of the wedding dress, I got completely sucked into fabric and took a quilt class and now my office looks like this and I have 84 quilt squares sitting on my desk waiting to be turned into a quilt.

But that has to wait until I’ve finished making my summer wardrobe: Two more skirts and two shirts to go!  “> They seem to take me about a week a piece at this point, because I really haven’t done much sewing before, (the dress was my second garment,) and I’ll sit there and plan and think “Yes! That’s got to be the way to put that together!” and then I put it together that way and lo, it is not the way to put that together and then I have to rip it out and do it again including the thinking part.  If my mum were reading this right now she’d say, (in a sort of despairing voice,)  “Why don’t you just follow the directions?  They come with the pattern!”  Well, I did that for the dress and it still took me awhile, but for the skirt, I wanted to do some things differently… I am a pattern deviant.  See post 1 below.

(ps-I’m having a bit of trouble moving pics around in wordpress, so sorry about the dirth of pictures in this long rambly post.  I thought if I put them in in the thumbnail size one could click on them to make them big.  Alas, no.  Also, the pic at the top is my office with sewing machine ensconced.)

Infidel:

“unbeliever, atheist, freethinker,agnostic.”

Well, we’ll go with “freethinker” in this case.  And perhaps also “unbeliever” in the sense that I am often an unbeliever in following directions to the letter.  I’m a self professed pattern deviant.

I’m starting this because Blogger won’t let me into my blog over at Curiosity As a Sign of Life, (probably because I haven’t posted in so long I no longer exist in cyberspace,) and I’ve really been feeling the uncontrollable urge to write about my projects lately.  So thanks for following me over here.  My goal is to get better at photography so that there will at least be some lovely eye candy to show up for.  Talk to you soon!