FiberTribe

All Is Revealed

In Secret Pal land, anyway. Go see Robin over at Yogaknitter, my lovely yarn enabler, I mean secret pal 3...and will somebody pleeese tell me who came up with the knitblog secret pal idea so I can kiss massage her feet! What an amazingly wonderful idea. And I still think Heidi (SP 2 mistress) and Vidardottir (Icelandic SP3 mistress) have mystical, mythical powers of prescience for the magical SPs they hooked me up with both on the giving and the receiving.  Here's my total SP ring:

• Laurie at Green-eyed Grrl
• Michelle at Blog-o-rama
• Corine at knit at nite
• Robin at Yogaknitter

Who's in your ring?

Irish Progress

The Irish Kochoron Hiking Scarf turned out to be excellent road trip knitting, even with the top down on the Camaro. We trekked about 2 hours up the coast on Saturday to see friends outside of Stuart, Florida. It was the kind of weekend snowbirds come to Florida for: brilliant winter blue skies, hot sun and a cool breeze with a bit of a nip in the air starting at sundown. And an almost full moon is rising early in the night sky. We were off to visit the Boy's oldest and dearest friend, the Duck. The two have been friends since they were 15 or so waaay back in the day in Brooklyn. They've seen each other through 5 marriages between them and the death of Duck's dear first wife. Also the raising of kids, blood-kin and step-kin and oh, so much more. Duck and Evie's house took two direct hits this year, from Hurricane Frances (she who lingered for almost a week off shore) and then from Hurricane Jean. They are ok and the house is basically intact except for needing new roof and screened in patio. They are one of the lucky few. The devastation is still visible everywhere. Almost every single house we passed had a blue tarp and wood sheeting up on all or part of the roof. Duck says that they can't even get a roofer or screening co. to return a phone call. But spirts are good and we got to lounge in the hot tub and toast friendship and survival.

And the scarf seems to fly. I had to excuse myself at one point and borrow Duck's computer to look up how to cable without a cable needle (on Wendy's site, look on her sidebar for a link to tips and FOs etc.). Some nifty trick this is and I highly recommend it if you don't already know it. It really let me move quickly through the cables. Mind you, I've adapted the pattern and am making only one cable up the center of the scarf. I'd forgotten how much cabling pulls in the fabric you're knitting so the scarf is coming out rather narrow. But that's fashionable this year (again) and anyway, the scarf is very stretchy and can be expanded width-wise as needed to cover face and nose.

The actual color of the yarn and scarf above is shifted into the red and away from the blues so to see the real color, scroll back a post or two. Blame it on the lack of daylight in the picture.

And I've been outted in Secret Pal 3. (I put my name and address on the last package, so hey, it was gonna happen but she's so clever she found me out earlier) So go say hello to my wonderful Pal, Corine, over at knit at nite.  She's got two handsome and stylin' boys and baby Beatrice in addition to hubby and house and, well, you get the picture.  As to who might be my SP 3 gifter? I haven't a clue. But she surely is an angel in disguise. Can't wait to meet her.

The Kochoron Irish Hiking Scarf

Here's the Kochoron color #36 for Nancy's gift scarf. The pattern, Irish Hiking Scarf, is a freebie from Hello Yarn. Scroll down to the Nov. 22 post for the links. I'm adapting it for a smaller, less complex scarf and to compensate for the much thicker and more colorful yarn. I'll do only one cable in the middle so as not to distract from the lovely color progressions. Again, the colors just pull me along.

But for that manly man in your life, I'm seeing the scarf in Silke Tweed or for the wool allergic, a nubby silk yarn. yum.

Blossom for Eloise

Next installment of the yarn from the LYS raid. Meet Blossom #06 for the Eloise sweater in Jane Ellison's second Noro book. Isn't she lovely?? I don't think I'll be bored knitting this up...

Rosehips Scarf

OK. The details: 

• 2 skeins of Mountain Colors Moguls in color Rosehips. Each skein was about 62 yds. 100% wool.
• Size 13 Takumi bamboo circs.
• Cast on 14 sts., just plain old stockinette and knit on till morning. Cast off.
• I completed this in about 5 hours total while waiting on line at the airport and on the flight to NY. Maybe one hour more when I got to Nancy's.  But I'm not a speedy knitter.
• Ends? I wove them in with my fingers because the stitches are so huge though the boucle bumps hide that.  It's soft and really great to knit and to wear. The colors are accurate at least on my laptop.  I like the fact that it rolls, no wrong side ever. Wait a minute and I'll go measure it...
• Unrolled it's about 7 in./17.5 cm wide and 72 in./83 cm. long. The width when you let it roll up is about 3 in./7.5 cm. And it's very stretchy.

GOBBLE, NIBBLE, CHEW!

Courtesy of Threadbear's Rob's mom...

Got NY?

This is getting weird. I just typed another post and was almost to the end of 40 minutes of typing and typepad ate it. Again. It was about the trip to New York. I am starting to think someone or something doesn't want me to blog about this.

But I'm determined. Now I'm typing quickly. New York was total bliss from landing at LaGuardia in the pouring rain on Friday night till the plane took off Sunday night. Just incredible. The energy, the people, the design of the restaurants, the signs and ads, the music, the wonderful connections. All amazing. I hadn't been to New York for either 15 or 18 years, can't remember and definitely cannot figure out how that happened. But peeps, what an incredible change for the better. I credit the impact of the 20 and 30 -somethings who literally weren't there back then. Omigod, what a shift.

So. It was supposed to rain all day Saturday. Nope. The rain stopped Friday night and both Saturday and Sunday were cold, crisp and with that deep, clear blue sky and blindingly brilliant sun that only comes on certain winter days in the city. 

I went to NY to attend the Hat Over The Wall party to celebrate the completion of a 90-day life coaching group I've been part of. My Hat was to do medical intuitive readings on 2-3 guests invited by members of the group. I ended up reading all 13 of the attendees. And it went really well, with some interesting 'hits'.  But to put this in perspective, I'm just starting out at this, only a grasshopper, eh?  To use a NY analogy, it would be like announcing to family and friends that in 90 days you are going to give a piano recital at Carnegie Hall, no wait, not announce, you send out invitations! and you've never taken a piano lesson in your life. And you are trusting that when the moment arrives, it will somehow be not just all right, but perfect.  And peeps, it was.  I was and still am walking on air! It's not that I don't still have far to go in this, but a lot of my doubts about this path have eased.

And then there were the great conversations with everyone and getting to know Nancy, who hosted the brunch and with whom I stayed. An old friend came into the city from NJ on Sunday and we caught the Aztec Empire exhibit at the Guggenheim which I had never seen. The leaves were still up, if a bit dried out, on the trees in Central Park across from the Guggenheim. And the New Yorkers strolling and waiting on line were such New Yorkers, ya know? My friend Trinity and I went to dinner at Teany's, Moby's restaurant in the East Village. Serves wonderful blends of every tea imaginable and vegan and vegetarian food AND good wine. Serves breakfast and lunch, too.  And can you imagine the music they were playing?? Try to get all that in Miami. Right.

Alas, I didn't get to one single yarn store and for one reason or the other didn't hook up with Iris or Cari or Mindy or StaceyJoy. But I will, you betcha. StaceyJoy is having an opening for the new location of her store (she's moving it within the same 'hood) on January 15th. I'm there. Wanna meet up?

Shorthand report? I had an amazing and wonderful weekend, fell in love again with NY, will be back very soon and very frequently in the year ahead. How about a new ad campaign:                           

                                                             Got NY?

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Turkey is as Turkey Does

Well, the shopping for the feeding frenzy feast is done. Unless I decide I need champagne to celebrate getting through this 3 day week. Once again, I didn't get home after work and grocery shopping and stopping at b*rders to pick up SNB Nation (!!) till well after 10 pm.  So regrettably, no pictures yet of all the luscious yarns and books. Tonight, really. No, really. And the Rosehips scarf.  And the start of the Irish Hiking Kochoron scarf.

I am going home after work and blogging and knitting and organizing my to-do list for tomorrow and for the impending 3 week visit of my best friend Gomez who is flying in from Lempaala, Finland with her two daughters. I am NOT running one more errand to save my soul.  If anything needs fetching, well, that's what the Boy is for.  Ahem. Among other things.  I do not want to think about what I spent on this feast. Let's just say we could dine out quite luxuriously for less. But somehow it just isn't the same unless I'm up to my ears in flour and sauted celery and mashed potatoes.  I love opening the door of my house and smelling roast beast and sauted onion and garlic. And hot apple pie in the oven ain't too bad either.  Yes, I can too be domestic on occasion. The Boy is in shock because the only thing he's seen me make heretofore is reservations. And hamburgers to which he vociferously objected because I committed the cardinal sin of dosing them liberally with comino (cumin). I ask you, how can a person live 25 years in a 70% latino city and NOT like Cuban spices? And he was formerly married to a Venezuelan! Whatever.  You can take the Boy out of Brooklyn but you can't take the Brooklyn out of the Boy.

So. I still owe you the Noo Yawk story, too. I haven't forgotten but it also requires a stretch of time when I'm not falling asleep over the keys.  And I am really dying to get back into SNB Nation. What an incredible book for only $16!! I only wish the SNB members had been identified under their respective pictures. I'm sure my Secret Pal is pictured in one of them. And I've already seen a few projects I want to tackle. I won't go so far as to say I'm going on a yarn diet (ACK!) but in clearing out the extra bedroom for Gomez and her two girls I realized that I don't have any place else to store the bags and bags and bins of yarn, magazines, and books. And yes, I did consider stuffing a couple of sheets with the yarn and calling it a futon, but Gomez is waaay too smart for that and will give me unending grief about it. Heh.

Scarf Pattern Found

I did find a scarf pattern to adapt for Miss Nancy's Noro Kochoron scarf. It's a one cable version of the Irish Hiking Scarf from Hello Yarn.  We shall see how it swatches out tomorrow.

Late Night at the Orifice

No pictures and stories tonight, sorry. Stayed late at the orifice and then had grocery shopping to do. Am just raggedy. But oh, the yarn pictures will be worth the wait. I did take a whack at 100 things under my 'about' header. Not sure I like this, secretive little beast that I am. But Miss Laurie, lately my Secret Pal 2, reminded me that I had promised to share. Ack.  Am off to the land of dreamy dreams. Nite nite.