Got Class?

Tonight I'll begin teaching classes at a wonderful local shop in Montclair, NJ called Rock Paper Scissors.

It's been a few months since I was able to WORK work and this will be a nice toe back in. I'm still working on the "full-time, bill paying" sort of job, but this will allow me to meet some people and TEACH! I miss teaching!!

What's in store for this class?

I'll be teaching the Amy Butler pattern for the Barcelona Skirt. (That's the sample I was whipping up for class in my newly unpacked work room to the left!)

There are still a few slots open! Classes are very reasonably priced and the shop has a great work space!

Feel free to call the shop and get the materials list. Also, feel free to use your own fabric (meaning, you don't need to buy it at the shop.)

Class cost is only $30 (plus purchase of pattern and your choice of fabrics.) Machines and tools (scissors, pins, iron etc.) will be provided.

So go make that call, grab your fabric and pop it in the washing machine to shrink it down. Then, join us tonight at 6:30pm where the fun will begin!!

I'll be setting up some more classes for the future and will be sure to give more than same-day notice!! Happy Wednesday!

Busy!
The cold...it took. Cloudy head, stuffy nose. Thankfully we'd brought back a few boxes of Samahan from Sri Lanka.

I LOVE that stuff!!!

Dissolve into hot water, and drink! It doesn't taste bad either and it gets the cold moving right along.
5 days later I'm left with that linguring dry cough but not much else. Yeah! What have I been up to (aside from planning my next trips -- San Diego & Hong Kong both for work starting later this week...more on that later.)
In no particular order...

I bought these:
plants for my garden after finally singing up for Zipcar! My first experience with Zipcar was stellar indeed! I rented Terry the Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck for 4 hours and dashed up to the Matterhorn Nursery thirty some miles up the Palisades and back, unloaded and returned the truck to the lot from where I picked it up.

Friday night we checked out a French Caribbean restaurant called "A" on Columbus between 106th & 107th streets. I popped my head into this wee little spot (seats perhaps 24 people?) and was greeted with a smile. I reserved a table for 15 minutes from then and dashed to the liquor store up the block for a nice bottle of wine.

Let me state here how MUCH I like BYOB restaurants!!!

If you go, also note that it's also CASH ONLY so hit the ATM before you arrive! Upon my return, Sebastian, the owner, greeted my smile with a big one of his own and showed me to one of the four open seats in the small room. Upon popping open my wine he suggested a few dishes on the petite but lovely menu that would go well with my wine selection. Dan was running a bit late while he wrapped up a school deadline and encouraged me to order a little something while I waited. So I did...the baked Shrimp with rum curry special.

Let me interject here and say there will be no photos of the food as the lighting was very dim and I couldn't get a single one that did the food justice. The kitchen is very tiny and part of the dining room.

The music, mostly 80s favorites, came from a stereo atop the fridge and everyones heads bobbed as you looked around the room. Smiles too. No one looked at me oddly when I pulled out my knitting and sat knitting and people watching until my dish arrived.

Upon Dan's arrival, we ordered two more appetizers, the baked pear with raw honey and Gorgonzola and the pate. Yums all around! We followed that with the chicken and duck entrees, bith served with a nice couscous - yums again!

I was FULL...but when they threw in a dessert I had to eat it up! YUM! He had gotten the Chocolate creme brulee (which he commented was less cremey and more puddingy but good none-the-less) while I enjoyed my French apple tartin - very buttery and not too rich. I can't believe it's been in the neighborhood for seven years (as I have too!) and this was my first visit. Shame on me! I'll be back! Yum!

I also had a lovely meal at Mama Mexico's, after our mani-pedi date, with Jennifer and a tasty meal with Linda and Michelle later in the week at Gennaro. It was a good eattin' week!

Back to that fun word above... KNITTING... I have cast on a new project for my weeks of travels ahead. I'd stopped into Yarntopia this week and decided I HAD to have this beautiful BRIGHT TURQUOISE (#204) yarn - Artyarns Ultramerino4 and a hank in a bright apple green too!

What am I knitting?

The Undulating Rib Socks (pg 93 in the Favorite Socks book from Interweave.) I'll do the heels and toes in the green. Yum! The photo doesn't do the color justice at all!! I'm knitting them both at once on two Addi-turbos. Weeeeeeee!


I'LL BE TEACHING
I also found out from Dona at Yarntopia that I'll be teaching a class on Intarsia in August at the store, and likely one on socks in the fall. So, hop on over to the store website and sign onto the email list and she'll email out the entire class schedule list later this week. Oh, and her downstairs knitting lunge is NOW OPEN! Yeah! It's a great color too! Walls are a Raspberry and the floor is a pretty rusty orange. Fun!


Cooking -- I think I've perfected the steamed Chinese fish. Yum!! I've made it a few times these past few weeks.

It was amoungst the dishes of July 4th. Also Mango Salsa (yum!) and a stone fruit cobbler of sorts. Although I've been enjoying trying out many new restaurants, our wallets and tummies haven't been as happy. So I've been trying to fit in cooking some meals...difficult when I can't use my own kitchen... although I've been told the job will be DONE Tuesday...I have hope!!

LONDON BOUND

Racing past deadlines in a single bound...OK so maybe it was less racing and a bit more meticulously plotting...and it wasn't really a single bound unless you can squish 3 weeks into one hop.
Through broken USB ports (minor cursing), running out of memory (yeah - my new 200G portable drive arrived just in time -- I think my company should invest in a few) and clogged printer ink cartridges... the project is done and here I sit at JFK sipping scalding hot Italian Wedding soup and chasing it with some Sparkling VOSS awaiting my departure for Heathrow.

The flight to the UK always seem to depart at night, thus you arrive 6-7hrs later feeling like you've pulled an all-nighter-- because you have. It's a more difficult flight for me than to Asia any day. It does make me chuckle when I hear folks complaining about how LONG the flight was when I am thinking, "it was so quick! I didn't get in more than one movie after the meal, and the nap was just that." Anything compare to a direct flight to Asia is short.

Upon landing you grab a taxi or the train into London and work your way to your hotel. The old hotel they would put us up at NEVER accomidated an early check-in. This left one no choice but to colapse on a couch in the lobby after a full english breakfast. The next hotel we tested out last trip is stellar! Quirky and accomidating with a far friendlier staff to boot.

I'm looking forward to getting a few hours in on the cowl-necked draped top I'm knitting on the flight. I'm using Laines Du Nord "Dream" in a primary color blend (#71). It's a Cotton/Linen/Poly blend with a lovely texture. I bought the yarn in Florence from Beatrice. I can only knit on the way over since you cannot fly out of the UK with your knitting in your carry-on. Knitting needles are still on the "No-no" list when you check in. Blah.

I'm in talks with one of the yarn shops in NYC to teach a Finishing class in August. No not how to get through your UFOs (I've a cabinet full!), but the cast-off options and ways to assemble and ties in all those ends as beautifully as you knit the pieces. More on that as it/if it develops!
Cheerio!

Sent from my Blackberry