Saturday, January 28, 2006

I can't resist.

I was just posting a nifty knitty button on my blog and updating my proflie when I stated midlessly hitting the "next blog" button at the top of my screen. I breezed through a ton of foreign language blogs until I came to this!

It's not even his blog! It's just dedicated to him!

Friday, January 27, 2006

blurry photos


sauveterre
Originally uploaded by Needleworks, Inc..
My goodness - it's cashmere people! I cannot stress enough how much I love to knit with this yarn.
This is A.L. de Sauveterre Mont Blanc in colorway Coco. I'm knitting a cartridge rib on size 8 needles. I have two skeins and there is going to be more than enough to make a super luxurious scarf for the lucky recipient. I was afraid that 400 yards on such a small gauge (about 6 sts/in) wouldn't be enough to make anything substantial, but using the bigger needles and the great stitch pattern really stretched the yarn. And I don't know if you can tell from my blurry photo, but it's not a weird hole-y, lace-y scarf. It's lofty and squishy and soft.
I adore Axelle so much! Not only is she a lovely person, but this is, by far, my favorite yarn ever.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

zig zag scarf revisited


Silk Garden2
Originally uploaded by Needleworks, Inc..
Remember when I had to rip out my modular knits zig zag scarf? That really hurt. But I had to, you know? I didn't realize that I was working an extra repeat on each triangle, so the scarf was growing wider! I don't know how I missed it, but I did. And I didn't notice until it was all done. Really.
So I knit it again. This is the only time I've ever ripped something out and knit it again. I found it really annoying and not fun at all.
The scarf is to be gifted any day now, so I had to finish it right away. Not like I could put it aside until I felt like knitting it again. No sir-ee.
But now it's done and it's lovely. Noro Silk Garden it truly a pleasure to work with and the pattern by Iris Schreier is ingenious. I mean, look what it does with the Noro stripes! It's amazing.
And I will never knit it again. Maybe.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

thank you!


danceparty
Originally uploaded by Needleworks, Inc..
Just a big shout out to all the folks who made my birthday so awsome. It was truly one of the best ever and it was all because I was surrounded my amazing people who know how to have a good time. I love you all!

Sunday, January 22, 2006

weird items that i find in my building - part 1


desk#1.JPG
Originally uploaded by Needleworks, Inc..
I saw this work table in the hallway as I was leaving for work on Tuesday morning. It's just one item in the long line of weird things that find their way into our building's common space.
The way I see it, if you're leaving something in the hallway for more than 1/2 a day, it's fair game.
I want this table. I'm giving it one more day and if no one beats me to it, it's mine. All MINE! Bwaahaaahaa!

Friday, January 20, 2006

I've struggled for a long time about the content of my blog. I didn't know how personal I wanted to get in this forum. All day, however, I've been thinking about posting about a dream I had last night. I thought about how the blogs that I love the best give a glimpse to the blogger's personality. Let's face it, that is the reason we tune in day after day - because we feel like we grow to know someone. It's intriguing to think that we're being included in someone's life.

My dreams have always been odd. Surreal at best. Nothing normal ever happens and I normally wake with a feeling of "What the @&$*#??" This morning was no different, but I turned over and buried my face in my pillow and cried. I cried a few brief, sleepy tears.

I dreamed of my grandfather for the first time since he passed away seven years ago. My grandparents were the most amazing people. Their story is one that I've thought of immortalizing often in the written word, or film. I won't recount,now, the endearing story of how they met in a work camp in Germany following WW2. I won't tell you the tender recount of how my grandmother looked at my grandfather for the first time, over a line of laundry whipping in the wind, and thought, "I will marry that man." I will tell you, however, about my dream.

In my dream, my grandfather was alive and the two of them were living in New York and they vistited me in the store where I worked. But it wasn't the store. It was my dream-eye version - off kilter and surreal as most of my dreams. He was old and shuffling, how he might move now, if he were still alive, not the hearty, vital man I remember.

In my dream, my grandfather, who had at best, a basic command of the English language, was looking over new software with which to do his taxes. He had a cell phone.

And he said something to me that was so poignant, so loving, that at upon waking, I turned my head into my pillow and cried a few brief tears, but now cannot remember. It was something vaguely regarding my relationship with my boyfriend of almost eight years. It was loving and insightful and wise in only the way a grandfather could be and it made me miss him so much.

Maybe I'm being overly sentinmental, but I feel like he was speaking to me. He never visited me before. Never once in seven years. Maybe I'm just feeling something because my 29th birthday is looming around the corner and the image of my grandfather was just a vehicle of my subconscious. A method for my inner most thoughts to come to the surface in the form of something trusted and venerable.

And maybe it was just a dream.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

electric ukulele


silk garden
Originally uploaded by Needleworks, Inc..
Zig Zag Scarf from Modular Knits in Noro Silk Garden

Time to complete: aprox. 4 days, one viewing of Kill Bill, one viewing of The Ice Storm, one episode each of Lost and Project Runway, two episodes of Arrested Development

Time to rip out: aprox. 45 minutes, one rerun of Law & Order: SVU

This is a sad, sad post.

On a brighter note, today, when getting on the L train at 8th Avenue, I saw a young man playing an electric ukulele and singing "I Will Survive". Nice.

I also saw a man walking down Sixth Avenue wearing a cat on his head. Excellent.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

any given sunday


Carmen's Demise #4
Originally uploaded by Needleworks, Inc..



What you are witnessing is the long slow descent into misery and rage experienced by Carmen on Sunday. You see, the Cincinnati Bengals suffered a nasty defeat in the playoffs.

It was not pretty.

If you want to experience stages #1 - #3 of Carmen's Demise, you'll have to go here. That is until I can figure out how to post multiple pictures at once.

That's totally me in the picture with Carmen, in case you couldn't tell. And I am using Carmen's real name in this post - he had fair warning. Every time I snagged a picture, I said, "This is going on my blog." In his state, however, he may not have realized that I actually had a blog.

Some Needleworks-worthy content soon to come. I promise.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Rock the House Party till the Break of Dawn


PICT0006
Originally uploaded by rebacrea.
I hope there were no bitter tears shed for me here at The Works. It wasn't all stoic resolution here on NYE. We went out and didn't drag our sorry butts home until around 4:30am! (You didn't think I had it in me, did ya?)

The day after New Year's Eve was spent on the couch sleeping, eating, and watching a Sherlock Holmes Mystery marathon on the Biography channel. Not much knitting or anything of that nature. Oh! And my brunch was amazing, though I have no evidence of it - my memory card seems to have gone missing.

The day after the day after New Year's Eve my bestest buddy, Super S, and her husband, Top Cop, traveled from NJ to have lunch with me and Master P in Brooklyn at my new favorite mexican diner. The bonus? Seeing Drew, a dear old friend who, it seems, I only see once a year around the new year.

There are lots of good intentions for the new year here at The Works. Stay tuned.....