In knitting...

A long overdue look at the WIPs , UFOs and FOs...

The biggest FO? The felted intarsia bag I designed for Debbie Stoller's next Stitch 'n Bitch book (the advanced one.)

The photo sample has been done for a few months (weeee) and I think she's got everything she needs from me to go forward.

It's here that I must admit how much I like using Knit Visualizer on my Mac for charting. Oooh-la la!!!
More on that as the months progress!!

A long overdue congratulations to my friend Shannon Okey for her recent placement as EDITOR of Yarn Forward magazine!! I'm hoping to collaborate with her on some things inthe near future. More on THAT as the months progress too!

On the sticks:
*Wrapping up the two-stranded man's skully (in Frog Tree Alpaca).
*Stained Glass Scarf (in Frog Tree Alpaca) from handknit holidays - double-knitting.
*Mermaid mits
*cotton child's hat for the next Bonadurer coming this month!

And did you see the article in the Observer this week? Yeah for Knitty City & Ravelry for the shout out!

A MUST READ & I must now knit

Something those of you who have been reading my babble for years may or may not know about me... I lLOOOVE hardcover books. They just FEEEEL GOOOD in my hands. I travel the world often toting a hardcover book or two along. I read paperbacks when that's all that's available, but give me a good hard cover volume any day!
I don't understand how people can read books only on their PDAs/Pocket computers - no offense to those of you who can. If I got the same joy from that, there would be SO MUCH more space in my New York City apartment.

Yes, I love books and I keep them. I buy them and keep them. Which is good news for publishers, but not for space within my apartment. I blame it on my parents.

Why the topic of hardcover books?

While eating my breakfast at my desk in a factory in the remote suburbs of Dongguan, I just finished a truly funny book that I've carried with me around China.

Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

Some of you may know her from back in the early days of blogging when many of us followed along with her Project. Then the book was published and there is (slightly old) news of the book being optioned for a MOVIE with names like Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Stanley Tucci being thrown around!! EXCITING!!!!

You can see a VidLit selection from the book here.


The premise...well if you'd read the blog you'd know now wouldn't you? But in case you didn't...

1 self proclaimed Government Drone living in a shitty loft apartment in Queens decides to make all 536 recipes in the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 by Julia Child. I have a copy of it. It's a legend in the cook book world...and quite an undertaking since she gave herself the deadline of a single year to complete it all. She wrote about the Project through out the year in her blog. Has a great sense of humour with a proclivity for dropping f*bombs to strike home the point and will leave you wanting more.


Buy the book.

Read the book.

It's damned funny.


It had me laughing out loud on the subways of New York City, while I waited for my turn in the chair for an unexpected root canal and in the Shanghai airport as I waited in the queues (as written about here.)


The funny thing about reading in public (RIP) as opposed to knitting in public (KIP). When I KIP I find people are intrigued and stare and wonder, often asking, "what are you making?" But when I RIP and dare to laugh out loud, which I do often when something strikes me as funny, people look at me as though I'm being rude. It's as though I'm laughing at a joke that they worry either concerns them or that they are missing. Hell with it. Let 'em think they're missing out...perhaps they are. They should go get the book and read it themselves. (Julie - is it printed in Chinese yet? The pages I've read to my team with the help of translation have had them laughing too!) But the book is done. This brought to the realization that I don't have another book with me.


What does this mean? This means my Adjusted Incan Pullover [tunic] is going to be worked on again. I'm about 1/3 of the way finished with it. You all know how much I love to knit...but a girl can only take so much plain old knitting. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I put in some short rows to allow it to fit nicely over my curves. That was fun. Now it's back to the plain knit. It's good to do in the movie theatre, on a plane or when watching TV...but can be boring when I'm looking for something mind fulfilling...even stripes would help. I know, I picked it. It will be very cute! I look forward to wearing it.

Cotton Millefili Fine by Lifatura Di Crosa (which slits a little when using 5s), in a beautiful orange with white accents. Oooh, it'll go so nicely with the white pique trousers that I'm having made.

I need a knitting afternoon with the girls. That would help me get along with it. Oh yah. I'm in China. Hmmm...maybe on May 1st? I'll be in HK and it's a holiday! Or the afternoon of May 2nd? Hong Kong Ladies? Are you free?


But that's neither here nor there for now. I've fascinators to design today. The days are ticking away. I can't believe May comes in a few days. This whole thing about having no assistant (qualified or other) due to budget cuts due to our lousy economy due to... *sigh*

It just sucks. Thankfully I'll have the aid of my friends' niece again for the actual photo shoot days. I absolutely need to have someone there to assist on those days since I'm acting as Design Director, Producer and Art Director.


Samples are all due in NYC in two weeks. Photo shoot process starts in 8 days.

I guess I'd better go finish designing the collection eh?

Think Good Thoughts

Life...Life rolls along with a speed that increases the older we get. There are no brakes that we can control, just marginal steering.

This summer has rolled along at top speed. Partially because I shared it with an energetic 8-yr-old...and partially because I have had so much upon my plate (by choice for the most part.)

My brakes were pulled. Monday morning. Labor Day.

My dearest friend called to let me know she had been told a few mere hours before, on Sunday, that the results from her lumpectomy were received by her surgeon on Sunday and...she has Breast Cancer. I. Am Still. In Shock.

Like any of you out there who have been touched by this, I'm sure you know the feelings.

I want to fix it. I'm a fixer. It's what I do. I want to look at it logically and break it down and fix it. Find the solution. Make it stop. Bring it back to where things were before.

It's not fair. She is 34.

Helpless. I feel helpless. Not only can I not "do" anything -- but she lives across our dear country in California so even simple things like a cup of tea and a hug in person won't be possible for another month.

I leave Tuesday for a month of traveling. A month. So much can happen in a month.

There are added complications and stresses involved which I won't get into...a month is a very long time. I can tell you I have planned my fall to be able to make as many trips out to California as I can.

Life here in NYC is still rolling along. Work is busy. Books are being read (I'm 1/2 way through the 6th Harry Potter determined to wrap it up and only bring book 7 along on the trip.) Socks are being knit (I'm almost done with the Undulating Rib Socks!!) The garden is being harvested -- this weekend looks like pesto time! (I make pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays - crack the cubes into a ziplock and voila - pesto for one or two all fall long!

Dan and I went to see the Mariners vs. Yankees game here in the Bronx last night. Sadly his team was beaten...well...spanked in the 7th inning...but it was an enjoyable night none-the-less!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night (Taking Allegra out for her birthday dinner), Saturday night (company coming to town and we're going to a fashion show under the Tent in Bryant Park followed by a soiree WAY WAY uptown), Sunday (hopefully an opera matinee) followed by an organic wine tasting later that night...

So much to squeeze in before I leave for 27 days of working nearly straight (one day off in Italy to spend with Tatiana - yeah!!)

Life rolls along... but I still wish I could FIX it.

Oh, the planning!
(Not a complaint...simply a statement.)

Just as Unravelling has a lofty goal of 100 miles of knitting and walking by April 1st, I have a lofty goal of umpteen pages of reading in 4 travel books...which has cut way into my knitting time!! OK, so it's not QUITE the same thing -- but you should definately check out Celia's knitting/walking journey!

The planning itself isn't the problem... it's doing the planning while bouncing from NY to Seattle to China to NY to Puerto Rico to NY -- phew! Oh yah...all while working full time.

"Yes, today I'm honored to accept the master certification in multi-tasking. Thank you..."

I guess I'll start at... the start... I'll be making 4 new stops in four new cities/countries in the next... less than 2 months! That doesn't include the stops in Hong Kong, 2 stops in China, and Florence, Italy... all for work.

Sunday, VERY early, I'll fly to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico to start my week away! I'll proudly walk down the isle and represent my dear friend Toni as her maid-of-honor while there. I'll take a ton of photos - yeah new camera!! Have rental car, will drive! I want to hike in the tropical rainforests: El Yunque and Guanica State Forest, visit the Rio Camuy Caves, swim with the dinoflagellates in Mosquito Bay on Vieques and perhaps even learn to surf in Rincon!! Yes, I've been reading the travel guide. I didn't realize the lack of safety at night in PR... traveling alone I'll have to be extra careful! I do wish Dan could have come...but it's quite a commute from South Africa.

Yesterday I booked the hotel rooms for the start of the BIG trip (starting March 9th)...which begins in Mumbai (otherwise known as Bombay.) This first stop is for work, but I'm hoping to get in a bit of play time! Dan will arrive in India a day before my boss and I arrive. This will be the first time I see him since I last saw him in Seattle. Since we last saw each other I will have been to China and Puerto Rico, and he will have completed his month-long volunteer journey through South Africa and some of their botanical gardens. Yeah!! I've been reading the two Mumbai guides trying to sort out my evening fun and what I could squeeze into that one free day!!

From there I'm taking a few days off (shocking, I know) and we're traveling onwards to Sri Lanka! I've been reading the The Rough Guide to Sri Lanka too! I have to book the hotel for our first night, in Negombo, today. Thankfully Dan's taking care of the rest of the days where we'll call Kandy home-base. A friend of his will act as tour guide too boot! I'm really looking forward to it!

The forth guide I haven't looked at in weeks, but will do so after Sri Lanka... What guide? Paris! Yippee!! A little planning will undoubtedly go far! It's a few years old, this guide. I bought it in 2004 when I had tried to plan a trip to Paris to no avail. Michelle and I have got the housing swap organized too! Yeah!! And...our plane tickets have been secured! There are quite a number of people coming for the wedding from NYC and around Europe! It is sure to be a FUN time!

It's also likely that I'll have a day or two free in Florence, an unexpected treat, due to Good Friday and Saturday...So this means I'm also going to be packing these two books! (Narrowed down from three volumes we'd used last fall!)

Ohhhh, where has the knitting time gone!! Work really does get in the way! I am very excited. So much to see... so little time!! I'm also happy to be sharing a few of the stops with Dan and girlfriends of mine. Yeah!!!

The hardest part? Packing!! How the heck am I going to pack one suitcase that will work for the tropics of India & Sri Lanka, the air conditioning of Hong Kong and China, the style and elegance of Italy and Paris -- AND the wedding in Paris. All in one suitcase! I guess it'll be the true test of packing! I guess I'll have to rely on fabulous accessories! I'm hoping to send the dress I'll wear to the wedding with Michelle so it doesn't have to visit and survive 7 cities in 5 countries first! And I may send the Paris and Italy books ahead to pick up in Hong Kong... these travel books are HEAVY!!

If anyone has any "You MUST SEE" suggestions for any of these cities, please drop me a comment! Cheers! Time for work!