In The Pink

It's now or never

It's my new mantra for my selfish knitting (and, obviously, photo shoots)- get in while the getting's good.  The Koolhaas hat caught my eye, and after letting it marinate for a day or so, I went out, bought the mag and knit the hat in a period of about 48 hours.  While I don't necessarily feel like I did this hat justice, using the serviceable Cascade 220 (leftover from my Nordic Lights wrap), I am very happy with the end result and feel like my lack of intention when muscling through this project won't affect its later wearability.

So, while I ideally would have knit this in a semi-solid wool/silk blend (heavier on the wool), I'm thinking this will do the trick on all of those kindergarten drop off and pick ups.  Hey, even gorgeous buildings have to start with cement and steel, right?

Diamonds are a girl's best friend

I've been distracted by a few things- mostly an infected finger (imagine anything you've seen happen to The Cheerleader and then magnify it- and no, contrary to popular belief, was not obtained via proctological exam of my cat)- but right now it's all I can do not to think of baseball.

It's true that this season, I've been a front runner, but I learned to love baseball many years ago, from my dad.  He lived in Chicago, so it was double the baseball fun.  I've been to Wrigley and both Comiskeys, and while I root for both teams equally, it was the Cubbies who had me yelling, 'I don't even think you want to win' at the television last Saturday.  It seemed fitting, seeing as my dad would have celebrated his 61st birthday during that week, that I would find my reinvigorated love of the game.* 

Luckily, it's Rocktober here in Colorado, and the games have been breathtaking, so I've been knitting and watching, driving and listening, all the while wistfully dreaming of maybe seeing the World Series.  I felt like I should knit something in solidarity, and since I couldn't find my Black Purl yarn, I decided to cast on for the Tree Jacket in Violet Cotton Ease.  The whole thing has gone unbelievably fast, and while I've naturally become distracted with other things, I hope this will be something that I can finish for myself before next baseball season begins.

*I feel it's my duty to disclose, however, that I think we were the only Cubs fans (and he was really a Reds fan, when it came down to it) that disliked Harry Caray.

Back to school

Junior Pink's been back to school for about a month now, and I have to say- I'm completely over-matched.  It's not so much the school, but the three activities I (now, foolishly) signed all of our free time to.  While the kiddos love it (and I do as well- how can I not love the excuse of absence for my lacksadaisical housework?), I've found that I've needed to get my own backpack ready.

The typical contents of my bag, although now that The Post-Birthday World is finished, it's now Hugh Laurie's book that is filling the slot.

Naturally, I take my knitting as well (how did I live without a Knowknits bag?  I am in crazy love, mostly thanks to the snap that allows me to attach the thing wherever I damn well please).  And, appropriately, I just finished up my first back to sample project.

Math Geek Scarf, knit with Alchemy Silken Straw Hidden Place, doubled.  I used 2 skeins for this and the end result was around 70 inches- my feeling is that scarves can never be too long.

Unfortunately, the added length didn't improve my mind at all- while math was my strong suit (although my love lies in the humanities), my IQ is apparently hemorrhaging as we speak.  I took one of those online quizzes (part of me wonders if they automatically deduct points for people stupid enough to put stock in them, or if that's just one of my rationalizations) and it's a full 20 points lower than high school.  Maybe this will be the blow that gets me off of my reality tv kick.

I doubt it.

We can prob'ly skip the until death part

I always think that I'm being so sneaky when I don't blog about what I'm currently knitting, as if somehow, you'll think that I'm not knitting anything, or maybe that I am slow, or...probably just me thinking I'm clever when I'm about as smooth as chunky peanut butter. 

I finished up 2 1/2 things that will be able to be revealed sometime next year, and am currently working on a couple Alchemy things (that I can show, as soon as they're finished), but I managed to slip in a little something for me and me alone.

File this under the All Good Ideas Start with the Letter J .  I've long admired Julie's iconic beret, (and I feel like I can't go without mentioning my main source of J-spiration, who could use a little love right now) and since she used Lion and Lamb, I knew that I could use my fave handpainted wool/silk blend, Alchemy Synchronicity.  I did use the Ann Budd Basic Tam pattern from The Knitter's  Handy Book of Patterns, casting on for the adult small and increasing the body to the adult large size.

More sad than this being the first thing I've made for myself this year is the fact that this is the first thing I've made for myself with payment yarn.  Two years of work and all I can manage to muster up is a beret for myself.  [I don't mean this as a cry for pity- I have a lot of wonderful yarn that will become wonderful garments in the future.]

You know, until it is absconded by one of my children.

Last comics standing

Junior Pink:  Knock knock

Me:  Who's there?

JP:  Yarn

M:  Yarn who?

JP:  Yarn you're knitting me!

Baby Pink:  Knock knock

Me:  Who's there?

BP:   Yarn

Me:  Yarn who?

BP:  Yarn, I love you.

* I have to say, in my somewhat meager defense, that, aside from running, I never wear shoes with socks with anything other than the longest of pants (which was my idea with the flats/trouser socks).  And the gouge on the back of my heel is about the size of a silver dollar (still), which is the reason why I'm scared to even look at the shoes, much less wear them.

**I put my senior photo up in my Flickr stream.  You're welcome.

I certainly haven't been shopping for any new shoes

We're not wearing socks with ballet flats, right?  Not even trouser socks?  I bought some super cute ones, wore them once for two hours and have a gash on the back of my heel (almost two weeks later, no less) that would earn Stan Winston untold millions to re-create.  So I was kind of hoping that I could get away with trouser socks...but I'm thinking it's a no.  Please weigh in.

Not yo momma's quilt

There is a long crafty tradition in my family- my mom has done a beautiful shadowbox with some handknit mittens made from leftovers in the early 20th century (I think), and my great aunt, who was like a second mother to my mom, could have opened a craft store with her stash (when she passed, after living a very full life, we hit the Sequin Jackpot- could there have been anything more thrilling to a seventh grader?).  My mother is the consummate seamstress (I still can't get over my uneasiness with this word- sewer/ist/ette just doesn't sound right-because it isn't- but seamstress sounds more like someone attending to your every hemly need, and she was never that), with all of my Halloween costumes being handmade (they're all gorgeous) and a lot of clothes that no one would have suspected came from anywhere other than the mall (I went through an unfortunate vest period- it was the early 90s, I guess I can use that as my excuse- and she made many, including one I wore in my senior picture).  She has also made many quilts, all by hand, none of which I have proper pictures of, but take my word for it when I say she made an amazing full size Cathedral Window quilt (you can see an example of the pattern here) using scraps from all of the old clothes she made for me.

Our crafty lives have never really intersected- until now.

My fabric stash has always been relatively small- it mostly fits in my pink Article Pract bag.  And even though I am surrounded by inspiration, and drool over all of Sam's quilts- her whole house is covered in them- in the most stylish of ways- I've never really been that tempted.  Make my own clothes?  Sure, that'd be great, but I'm just not good with that whole 'measure twice, cut once' jazz.  Outfit my house in handmades?  Sure thing, except that I'm pretty much paralyzed by indecision when it comes to that stuff as it is, much less adding the whole getting off my ass and making it part of the shebang.  So what was the tipping point?

Michael Fricking Miller.  [That is my own photo, obviously, and I put the quarter in there for scale.]  Sam sent me the link to this and I nearly started hyperventilating.  I'm not really a skull/skeleton girl, but holy cow- I am in love with this fabric.  Unsurprisingly, my biggest weakness with fabric is novelty stuff- my other foray was attempting to make a nursery set for Baby Pink out of the Paris Ville line (I got a blanket made, and now have enough leftover to upholster a full size couch).  Of course now I am just ga ga over a lot of fabric, none of it new to the fabric people out there- Anna Maria Horner's Chocolate Lollipop (if her blog doesn't make you want to do something with fabric, you are a stronger person than myself), Joel Dewberry's Aviary (mostly the woodgrains) and Manzanita, and of course- MM's Mirror Ball Dots.

So while I will be doing the quilt thing my own way (read:  by machine), it's kind of like I'm carrying on the tradition.  With skeletons and zombie cats.

The Amazing Race

I'm constantly searching for interconnectedness in my life- very un-Black Swan of me, I know.  And while a lot of things simply don't mesh (hi, feminism and NFL), I guess seeing the intersections makes me feel like I've got some sort of larger grip on my life, that I've become self-actualized (reality:  I think I'll attain that when I am about 6 years post-mortem).  So while my mind was wandering, I realized that two of my biggest leisure activities do go together:  sample knitting and reality television.

See, I like to pretend that I don't really watch that much reality tv, or that I watch only the socially acceptable stuff, or that guilty pleasure (which, thanks to Chuck Klosterman, isn't really a phrase I indulge in) does not fit in my entertainment repertoire.  But, honestly, there are quite a few secret shows, that, if I don't admit to them outloud, or only pretend that I watch them when I'm sick, or when the TiVo is empty (hint:  it's never empty), or since I don't Season Pass it, I'm not really watching it.

When I sent out e-mails to some yarn companies earlier this year, I got a few responses (for those of you that have asked, about half of what I do has been a result of recommendations of friends, the other half from my initiative, sending e-mails), and then I got maybe the most exciting e-mail I've ever received.  It was from Teva Durham.  Like, THE Teva Durham.  Like I bought your book the second it came out without even looking at it first Teva Durham.  In little old Cathi Arfin's inbox.

I had to do a secret pinky swear that I wouldn't talk about it at all, and I made two pieces (of her design, of course) for the new Loop d Loop collection.  Both are made with Moss, a merino/nylon blend with great yardage.  All the way back in March (which should be obvious, since that was about 14 hairstyles ago).  Each piece took me a little less than a week.

So, while I don't really know if I'll ever knit for her again, it was an exciting experience, and one that I can now own up to.  Unlike my habitual clearing of my Monday night schedule so as not to miss Wife Swap.

Oops.

Friday Night Lights

I think I may have oversold that whole 'I What Not to Weared [wear? wore? woear?] My Closet' thing, although I really wasn't trying to actually sell anything.  Had the bra that hit the can actually been something that helped, instead of a garment I could have worn in the Been Caught Stealing video, I would have insisted on being buried in it, instead of tossing it.

In truth, 97.6% of what is out of my closet and drawers didn't fit.  It was too big.  And if my mirror wasn't telling the truth, countless Friday nights with S&C have taught me nothing if not the fact that ill-fitting clothes make you look worse, not better.  Couple that with the fact that most of said couture was work wear (I could open a BR outlet in my garage), which I haven't touched in about 5 1/2 years, and most of it was really painless.

In another little nugget of truth, there are definitely things still left that I know would have hit that shiny tin trashcan, had they made the trip to NYC.  Like my pink Desperate Housewives pink velour tracksuit that I got for Christmas 5 years ago- I know that there isn't supposed to be room for sweats, but I think any mom will disagree, and it's not like there is anything as comfortable when you're shlepping your kid to school on Day 6 of My Flu from Hell.  Or some flouncy June Cleaver skirts that I love but desperately need to be altered.  Or maybe, just maybe, the 2 pairs of leather pants (black and silver- and no, they haven't seen the light of day, save some photos, for 5 years) that I kept, from the times when I was just flat out desperate.

But, until I get that $5k BoA card with my name on it (I'm not the only one that wonders why there has yet to be a Manolo or Louboutin purchase on the show, am I?  I think that would be the first place I would go- then Searle, then H&M for whatever was left), I'll take what I have left and slowly work on building up my closet to its most fabulous.  Since I live in a fashion wasteland (nevermind having Anthropologie tastes on a Family Dollar budget), coming up with some new winners might be tough, but seeing the upcoming GO and Isaac collections (nevermind some visits to the Contempo Casuals of the 21st century- sparingly, of course), it shouldn't be too long.

Are you ready for some?

The Family Pink went to our first professional football game as a fam-damn-ily last weekend.  Just the boys went last year, and now that Baby is fully potty trained, we all went.

We had a great time- saw the players, saw the pyrotechnics, saw the cheerleaders, mascot and an actual Bronco.  Until the kids asked if the game was over.  And it had yet to even start.

I've grown to love football in my time with Mr. Pink.  I have to say that I really love just the game in and of itself- there really is a lot about the NFL that I hate passionately dislike, nevermind my feelings about people's attitude towards the players (like how The Longest Yard is now bordering on ironic, since it seems that most players are now training to just play in said yard, and maybe- like another opinion about this needs to be added- how people's disgust with the Most Hated Dog Owner is partially based in self-hatred, since I fail to see how he's not going to be accepted back into the league after he serves his sentence).  Mr. Pink's not a rabid fan, by any means, (although the entire reason we got DirecTV is for the NFL season ticket) but it's really the only sport he follows, and really just the Black and Gold.  I would say my knowledge is enough to talk more intelligently than most men think a woman can about football, but I wouldn't say that I'm anyone's Go To Girl.

It is for these reasons, and because I was lucky enough to be asked by Vera, I'm doing the Crafter's Fantasy Football League.  I'm nervous and excited to see how the year turns out- we haven't drafted yet, but hopefully my team, the Stitchlers, will do ok (or at least bad enough to be laughable).  And for the crafty portion of it all- I finally finished Mr. Pink's socks.

Even though I started them last January- as in 2006- he didn't get to wear them until the game vs. the Eagles on Sunday night (and they were good luck!).  Granted, I ripped everything I had knit previously, as I didn't like how it had initally turned out, tried to do a star toe which doesn't seem to really work on men's feet, and then just bit the bullet, knitting both of them toe up with a short row heel.  As much as I love the symmetry of the one, having even striping, I think I might be more mesmerized by the side foot of the other (or possibly it's due to the fact that I worked on it while watching The Lake House- something had to keep my interest).

So even though they're knit out of two mis-matched lots (that's how I received them via mail order), you never know how they'll turn out or who will be your favorite at the end of the day.  Kinda like foosball.