Progress is slow...

Homework status: paper not complete, 3 chapters left to read
Life status: sleep levels low, gained half pound, don't care because of exhaustion, and inability to purchase the Lace edition of Piecework last night.
Knitting Status: takes 45 minutes to do a pattern repeat

'Nuff said.

The dayyy the homework died

Well okay, in reality I just wish the homework was dead. But it's not. It's not even a little dead... Good news my cell cultures aren't dead! But I think bowling ball chunks are poisonous...just so you know. Don't stick bowling balls in your body. Also try to avoid rusty screws, not such a pretty reaction. I still have a paper on the loads in ballerinas feet during dancing, and 3 chapters to review for my bioinformatics exam. But progress has occurred. In that I have cleaned the whole house and gotten lots of naps in. So the prep phase is over and maybe I'll ACTUALLY do some homework.

Okay well I can dream.

In knitting news it looks like "a good mix" for april is winning out. There's still some voting time left. I might just meander through my WIPS. Definitely no more starting things for a while I'm leaving the basket o projects out in my living room and its starting to get on my nerves, since it's not in hiding. I've actually made pretty good progress on it. For now I am working on a pair of toe-up sockies called TicTac Toes. They arent actually toe ups but I'm forcing the to be, and it's turning out nicely. There's not really much to see now so I'll photo them later.

Zach's coming in this weekend for a visit ::happy dance:: and we're going to try to finish up his pair of hockey socks so that they fit.

Also, if you're not part of the Facebook group, the Jimmy Beans Wool Lorna's Laces Limited Edition Color of the month this month? It rocks. they DO make pretty string.

Stupid OCD...

It's done!

Wellll...it was done. Observe that little differently colored edge portion? That's where I started the border thinking I had enough purple/green/black varigated to finish it. This picture was taking at 12:45 am....

This is after I ran out of black about halfway around at 11:30PM, swore, ransacked the stash and MIRACULOUSLY found 2 more skeins of black sparkly stuff. I was so excited to be finishing this stinkin' shawl. But as I looked at it laying on the floor that different colored edging reallllly started to bother me.

So I yanked it out. Thankfully it's crochet, so I managed to go right to the middle of the round, snip the purple part, rip out those 40 something edge stitches, tie down where the double black started, pick up another strand of black, and start again on the edge.

After working until 2 am, I decided to call it quits. I have 14 mesh stitches left to put an edging on. The edging pattern involves 11 stitch maneuvers for one mesh stitch. I have a ways to go. I figure about an hours worth of work. I might finish today. I also might leave it until this weekend because of the homework pile that seems to be growing out of control.

But look how pretty the middle is, and it's all done!

I was going for a more poetic version of the whole "stella" thing. Stella meaning star, I wanted to put an actual star in the center, have it fade out into space, then out into blackness. I don't know that I love the physical as much as the conceptual, but hey, its sparkly. It's hard to hate sparkles. :)

As a bit of an aside....

you'll notice there's now a poll on the blog. It's to let you guys help me choose the "big project" for April. Being a grad student, April is kinda a jam-packed month homework-wise. So I'm going to pick some projects that I can just work on a little bit at a time, show some progress, but not feel obligated to devote the month to finishing. Here's some further details on what's up with the choices

-Socks a palooza: basically involves finishing a lot of socks that are just laying around or planned for creating. This won't get rid of the whole pair-a-month deal, but it will wrap up some of the pairs laying around the house.

-Scarf fest: while perusing the project list I noticed I have about 8 scarves that are half finished on there. This would involve reducing that number

-the BEAST: Lets be realisitic, its not going to get finished in a month. This would involve finishing 8 stripes on it minimum, thats around 2 stripes a week, which is pretty reasonable, but will still be challenging.

-Sunset Ruana: I have one of these babies started, I have the yarn for it, it's in the basket. I probably won't finish it in a month either, but progress might not be bad.

-Hats Galore: Bascially this would be a Beret-fest. I have about 3 sweet honey berets on the list for various gifts. Boring? Maybe, but hey, I could probably squeak in some tutorials etc throughout the month.

-A good mix: you don't want to commit to just one of the above plans, and want to see a little bit from more than one of them. Leave specific thoughts in the comments! I'm open to suggestions if you have some other ideas!

Boredy Bored Bored

Nothing very exciting happening in knitsville today. I've got 2 rows of edging left on this stupid KJWEAR%@^&#$*(@ shawl. It also looks like I may run out of yarn. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

Today will probably be mostly homework, but I hope to have something exciting ish to share with you all tomorrow.

As a side note, its snowing?!?!?! Or fogging, or raining, it can't make up its little mind! One thing's for sure, the weathers degrading, quickly. I anticipate a crappy afternoon. Good thing I have all this homework to keep me busy inside the house.

Jeans jeans jeans

Went shopping, got new jeans. WOO! and some cute clog/boot thingies. Trés exciting.

Back to homework, I leave you with this for your daily funny:

FASCINATING AIDA - Cheap Flights

ewwww

I have lots of homework this weekend. Thus all knitting will be put on hold. I've gone home in the attempt to get my mother to slave drive me into getting it done. It's not really helping so far, all we've managed to do is go buy shake weights. Then completely fail at working out because we were laughing too hard at how dirty they were. Especially when handed to one of the boys, they make a hilarious face. Knitting/Crochet is on hold for the time being.

Now where did I put all that research... 

say WHAT?!

I spent my morning in cell culture lab, using bovine fetal bone cells (I'm really simplifying here, makes the splainin easier). we got to stick fun things (beads, yarn, pennies, sand, etc) in little well plates and then put the cells in with them. We're going to see how the cells respond to different media (fun things) to test theories on what you can stick in the human body and not regret. It was quite exciting. I feel like some sort of god. Or maybe just a cool evil scientist.

In other news, the shawl is still never ending. I'm 3 rows closer. 5 left....then the border. I've reached that point where a lot of my time is spent chanting "I think I can I think I can", and  "I love this project, I want to finish it", and things like that while counting to five....progress is slow. I'd show you pictures but I doubt it's going to look a whole lot different than the last time you saw it. Pile of sparkly yarn about sums it up. Woo crochet lace.

I finally cracked last night under the pressure and whipped up a motif for my CAL. It's pretty excellent. The color here sucks, but there you have it.

Mini's!

I could really use a nap today. But I know that if I lay down for said nap, I probably won't be getting up. Sleeping is one of my stress-coping mechanisms...it gets real bad this time of year. Projects and all...

I haven't made much knitting progress on the shawl. I got two more rows done last night. Meaning now I literally only have 8 left before the border. I'm going to do what I can to get closer, but it's looking bleak. It might be getting renamed the shawl what never ends.

It may not be getting done because of all the side projects....I got distracted by my new size 0000's last night and a ball of sock yarn...6 yards later:

Sockbert was born....I love it, its precious, I'm going to keep and treasure it forever. Originally it was going to be a set of earrings but I'm just so thrilled with the little first one that I may not be able to concentrate long enough to make another. I'm also not overtly fond of the color. If anyone else loves it, you can have it to make your own little sockberts. The quarter and penny are shown for scale. I'm going to try to make a more mini version. I'll call it Minibert..or maybe Mighty Sock...(think mighty mouse). We'll see. It's poor form to name children/pets before they're born anyways. You want something that really nails their personality/look. Well, I do. Maybe you don't.

In other news I am working on updating THE LIST of projects. I've decided to give you quarterly updates on the length of the list, the number of finished objects, etc. This way we can all see visible progress. Or recognize that I can't get ahead of my yarn problem. Either way... I'm off to class!

La la la la

There's currently a huge fire up the canyon in Golden. It's also monster windy. This has made the power/internet in my house iffy. So since I couldn't do any homework last night due to lack of internet, I managed to craft. Woo hoo!

I know I mentioned National Crochet Month....I'm working on my Stella Shawl, but progress is slow. I'm also a little BLAH with the whole thing, but I think that may be due to the fact that I'm at the "chain five, attach, chain five, attach...." section of the thing. It's okay, I only have 8 rows of that left...But I might die before I finish it.

I finally (okay, about 20 minutes in) gave up, threw it across the room, and picked up the spinning wheel. I managed to turn this

into this:

pardon the shoddy imaging, it was 1 am. The colors are lovely. It's soft and squishy. I smell like wet sheep and eucalyptus, but it was totally worth it. That's another project off the list.  Double woot!

After finishing up my spinning, having a brownie, and digging through the WIP basket, I ended up pulling out a bracelet I'm working in. WHICH IS ALSO CROCHET SO IT COUNTS! I'm switching between it and Miss Sparkle Pants (the stella shawl's new nickname) until I finish one, both, or March. Wish me luck.

Reasons Being a Student Sucks Today

1. I think I was expected to do homework over spring break. I refuse. It's called a break for a reason.

2. I think my life may be a scramble for the next few days to catch up.

3. All the "big projects" are due in April...It's almost April. I should probably start those.

4. I have to write 4 big papers.

5. I have 3 tests between now and the time those papers need presented.

6. Those tests need studied for....

7. There are only 24 hours in a day. It's safe to assume at least 1 of those will be wasted sleeping.

8. I will probably waste another hour eating.

9. Knitting may get sacrificed for the next few days...

10. I didn't even procrastinate and I'm in this situation.

11. That's hardly fair....

12. I should probably go study now.

On a positive note I think I can probably squeeze some knitting in during class! woo hoo!

Status report: I managed to get two rows done on the Stella Shawl last night. I then got distracted playing video games with the boyfriend....oops? (probably not conducive to studying either but I got a surprising amount done anyways)

I might start a pair of socks, just to take the edge off all this life.

Back to schooool....

For all the parents out there I'm sure this is thrilling news to you. As a student, not so excited. Spring break is over, le sad. I managed to get quite a bit of knitting done at the end there.

As a happy announcement, the orange dream bomb is done! Yay, excitement, happy dance! I accidentally used completely different dye lots in several places, go me. I actually really like the subtle orange striping effect. I put a nice ruffly alpaca border on this bad boy and its now living on my couch. Its fluffy and wonderful. I loved every minute of...psh I hated making it. I'll probably also never make another, but it sure is pretty!

It has also come to my attention, via other blogs, the rav (ravelry), etc etc, that this month is National Crochet Month. Since all my designated Things To Do this month are taken care of, I do believe I will celebrate by picking up some crochet that has been lying around for quite some time. My sparkly wonderful Stella Shawl by Kristin Omdahl. It's kinda just a puddle of sparkly poo right now but this is it:

Any bets as to how long I last before I pick up a new crochet project? I'm thinking probably one evening. I discovered halfway through this project that I'm not the biggest fan of the circular shawl. But I think it will still be quite lovely. If only as a display piece. I'm currently thinking up about 8 other projects that are crochet related that I might be interested in starting...uht oh...



As a little side note, Sam would like you all to know that he is using his blanket and loving it. And that it is also very warm, and he appreciates his handknits. He'd like me to share this with you:

Anyone else celebrating national crochet month? What's on YOUR needles/hooks/looms/spinning wheels? 

Get your Hebrew on!

So, for my "March Project", I decided to finish up the Orange Dreamcicle blanket...or try to. I pulled it out on Friday and looked at in in abject horror. I just wasn't feelin' the love. So I ripped out the huge brown stripe I had put in it and decided that it would just have a brown border. End of discussion. Then I started trying to use up my remaining two skeins of orange fluffy poo.... (If you can't tell, me and the blanket, not getting on so well.)

The two skeins of fluff left have 74 yards each in them...85 g of fuzz. That's not much yarn. ESPECIALLY if you are using size US13 needles. So I figured this would be quick. I started knitting.

and knitting....
and knitting....
and kept knitting.....
and weighed my yarn and in the last 4 hours I had only used 20 g....
so I kept knitting, and knitting and....
well you get it.

This is what I like to call the Chanukah effect. For those of you who don't know, Zach is Jewish, so while I am not, I have a little knowledge of the subject. If you don't know the Chanukah story this is the sum of the point I am getting at:

The Maccabees had some oil, they wanted to light the oil lamp of eternal light, they only had enough oil for one night, it lasted for eight.

This is what this yarn is doing to me. It should only last a few hours, but it just keeps giving and giving and giving.

Do you think god is trying to tell me something?

Anyways, after 3 days of fighting it, I am through the last two skeins of orange poot, and have started the brown border. (cue happy dance!)

It looks like this:

I promise it really is a blanket. It's just knit from the center out so right now it looks more like a diaper-y parachute thing. It's the nature of the beast. It will look more blanket-like when cast off.

The strange different colored stripe in the middle area is a skein of a different dye lot that I was unaware I owned. I think it gives it character. So I left it.

In all likelihood this thing is going into the gift basket anyways. Unless when it's done its just so cuddly and wonderful that I HAVE TO HAVE it. If any of you want it, claim it now.

On a more positive note, I am all caught up on the CAL motif's I missed while in NYC. Here they are!

I rather love them. Especially the whole varigated in the center thing making the bottom one look like its some sort of crazy optical illusion when it really is symmetrical.

I've picked and edged a fabric that I will be sewing all these lovely motifs on to to make one large fancy blanket.

I may be doing that instead of working on the orange fluff.

Deadlines were made to be broken. Right?

Lily and I had a fabulous yarny weekend. We did lots of yarn hopping, and crafting. There was a couch incident in which it appeared I was being eaten. I will show you all pictures later. There was also some accidental tipsy knitting, and some fun yarn shopping. Further details are being saved for later.

New York: Part Two

So yesterday I promised to try and wrap this all up, we'll see if I can manage.


-Little Italy
We didn't spend much time here, mostly we just stopped in for a Gelato (yum)! But while getting in the Cab I saw some of the BIGGEST CHEESE EVER....I wish I'd had time to get a good picture, I really did try. 

-Naps *yay*
We switched hotels on Sunday afternoon. So byebye hooker hotel, hello Marrakech! It was fun, very european seeming. In that there were dozens of stairs, no elevator, and when you relaxed and fell onto the bed you regretted it and immediately said "OW!" as a spring jabbed you in the back. But it was really a lot of fun!


-Broadway: Chicago
YAY! We wanted to see "The Book of Mormon" but it was all sold out, so we went to go see Chicago, since we had only ever seen the movie. It was lots of fun. Not the most fabulous production ever, but still fun to watch! I picked up a sound track (I do these things)

I had to cut my toes out of that shot, but It managed to be okay. See, I REALLY DID GO! I think the best part was that a guy played Mary Sunshine and sang falsetto beautifully. It was AMAZING. I'd like to keep him.
















-Street Meats:
I  never understood Zach's obsession with street vendor hotdogs....until now. I want one just talking about it. When you go to the city, get one, they may seem sketch but they are really really fabulous.

-The Empire State Building
Yay, another Meg Ryan Moment! We hit up the Empire State Building at midnight. It was windy, and freezing, but WONDERFUL. Here, this is the only picture we have that I want to share (the rest are all real kissy and you don't want to see that!):

-Arepas
If you have never eaten Venezulean food, go do it. Arepas are WONDERFUL. They're filling, and meat stuffed, and...just yum! This was kinda a foodie trip too I suppose. This is what an Arepa looks like:

Go eat one, now. You will enjoy it, I promise. You can even get vegetarian options! Also, if you can, get some fried plantains. These are also tres fabulous, and one of my other favorites.












-Toy Tokyo
It's a toy store, for growed up people! They have all kinds of anime characters, kids meal style toys, etc. It's a lot of fun! I picked up Freud and Stitch:

They are now living on my junk toys shelf. Along with all my other little figurines etc. I think they're pretty cool. Also, I more or less LOVE stitch. I wish he was my dog. Not that I don't love my dog, but...just saying....that would be really neat. Right?


-MORE YARN!
I know, you just had heart palpitations. Me too. After Arepas and Toy Tokyo with Darcy and Dave (the ones what just got married), Zach let me drag him to Habu Textiles. YAY YARNS! This place is located in a strange area. You walk past all these spandex stores and fakey hand bag locations to this nondescript brown door. You go in the door, to the entry way (it feels a little like Men In Black), and up to the 8th floor. Then you go around all these strange corners and walk into...THE YARN ROOM! Which is unsupervised. I had a moment where I was tempted to rake as much yarn into my bag as I could and run for freedom. But then it hit me 1) thats totally wrong, 2) I'd feel bad and take it all back 10 minutes later, 3) they'd know it was a knitter, because burglars steal money, not yarn....


I did manage to get myself under control and picked up some goodies. Let me go dig out my yarns so I can give you better details, here's what I picked up:

 On the left there is some  Laos Handspun Silk (on a straw) 630 yards (562m) of pretty jewel toned wonderful.


On the right is water soluble vinyl coated cashmere 1250 yards (1117m) of fluffy goodness. You wash it when you're done knitting and it gets all fluffier and lovely.

 These are both 2 skeins of Habu's N-75 fine merino, 747 yards (667m) a cone. The green is for Lily, as she asked for some yarns, and the pink is for myself. I'm thinking lovely spring shawls!


















After this we had lunch with Zach's wonderful wonderful cousins, who I adored, and want to keep. Then we hit up LION BRAND YARN STUDIO! Yes, it really is there, no 
I'm not making this up. Zach picked me out some buttons:

If you can't read those (its possible) from left to right they say
Yarn Ho
SHHH, I'm counting! (he hears this a lot)
I'm a Yaaaaarn Pirate!!
S.A.B.L.E. Stash amassed beyond life expectancy (he says I'm close on this one)
Real Live Knitter. No you can't touch me. (psh, I'd totally let someone touch me...probably...if they were clean...)
and MFRA (Multiple fiber related addictions)


What can I say, the boy knows me! I love them and am trying to come up with a fun way to display them. Any thoughts? I also picked up another skein of some Hometown USA to finish a hat I started on my way over there and then ran out for....


We then parted from Zach's cousins and went on:
-The Great Hockey Hunt
There was a Washington Capitol's game Zach wanted to watch. We hopped several bars in hopes of finding one that would play it but had no such luck as there was also a Rangers game...JERKS! We even tried to go to ESPN zone in Times Square, but it has closed down. Sad day...so instead we went SHOPPING!!


-Shoes:
Need I say more?

They make me feel lumberjack tastic. I love them. They're fabulous. Feel free to disagree. I saw them and just HAD TO HAVE them. Zach probably thinks I'm silly right now.
















-Accidental Romantic Dinner
After all this we were fairly pooped out. So we started hunting for foods. We walked over to Hell's Kitchen (a neighborhood in NYC where there's lots of foods) and began our restaurant hunt. We walked between two Thai places and saw the prettiest window display of artichokes and cheese and other fresh veggies, and we decided (thanks to the restaurant pep-lady) to go in and give it a whirl. It was called the Trattoria Casa di Issaco. If you couldn't tell, it was italian. The food was FABULOUS. The atmosphere was wonderful. There was house made sangria and grappa and we tried all his good new cheese. He spoke english at such a quick pace we barely followed what he was saying and just let him tell us what was good to eat. I stole a picture from the web for you that I think really sums the place up:

The littme man in red, sloching while talking to the lady in red over in the right of the photo? That's Isacco (or Isacc). He's a lot of fun, and he likes to get people drunk. Just saying.















-More Times Square
On our way out we swung back past Times Square for one last hurrah (and to get to the Subway), and I picked up a sweater I'd been lusting after all weekend.

It kinda makes my couch look fat...Gosh I hope it doesn't do that to me! I think it's most excellent. I particularly like the paint splatter. It makes me think of the NYC graffiti. It's just a fun thing to have...


-Two hours of sleep
We went back to the hotel, and I zipped up a toe for Zach's socks that I'm making him, so I could figure out how big around they needed to be. This way I can maybe make some progress on them before I see him again. I meant to try and work on them for the whole trip, but as you can see it was a whirlwind tour. We finally went to bed around 1:30, and got up at 4am to catch a cab and go to the airport!

-The New York Airport Experience
I've never before understood the airport jokes in the papers where they pat someone down and get all personal and stuff until being in NYC. The man made me take of my glasses (WHAT AM I GONNA SMUGGLE IN THOSE) to go through the security checkpoint. I just thought I'd share.


-Home....ZZzZzzZzzzZzz
The first thing I did when I got home? Pick up some food. Eat it, then crash. For 24 hours straight. YAY SLEEP! Then I woke up, rolled over, and saw Hank....

-Oops I forgot I owned a fish?
For those of you who don't know about my fish, his name is Hank Who Lives in a Tank. He's a betta. Zach bought him for me since I can't afford a dog (financially or time-wise). He was doing his "I'M STARVING" dance, the tank had a layer of slime along the top of the water, and it was only about half full because of evaporation. Thankfully, I managed to get to him in time and Hank survived the experience. But, it was a close call. 


That's all for vacation! Lily and I are partying it up with yarns this weekend. Woo hoo! I'll be sure to take pictures of our yarn-ventures for you.


What is every one else doing this weekend?


PS- Happy (Late) St. Patricks Day!


PPS- sorry for the weird photo/text spacing, the blog and I are having a little tiff

Souvenirs, and further explanations

Today will not be a Finished Object Friday, but it probably should be. Instead you will get to enjoy those goodies tomorrow. :)

There are things that I would change about my digital camera, given the chance. For one, the fact that it's the weirdest computer setup ever. But I digress, I have taunted you all with promises of souvenir yarn, and I should probably come through. For your sanity, and all that.

I also had a few questions from yesterday's list, so I will just mosey on down what I posted yesterday while providing descriptions! HUFFAH! Let's begin:

-The Hooker Hotel
No, we did not actually stay with hookers, or meet hookers, or pick up any hookers. Sorry to disappoint. This hotel, which was impossibly hard for my cab driver to find even though we were sitting right in front of it, was just hooker-looking. When lit up at night, from the street, some of the windows were blue. It made me think of the red light district. Observe:

Now Imagine some of those lights were out, there were people moving around inside, and I was sitting in a cab on the street. To make things better this snazzy place is located between a mechanic's shop and a some other sort of rundown building. It's a *very* nice hotel, don't get me wrong. But I'm going to insist on referring to it as "the hooker hut" forever. For lots of reasons. The all glass showers being another of them.








-Darcy's wedding
Was FABULOUS. Best wedding ever. Lots of fun. She was smart enough to provide flip flops for the idiots who tried to dance in high heels all night (cough cough me cough cough). The ceremony was beautiful. The rabbi sounded a bit like kermit the frog mixed with the teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but he had a good sense of humor! The location was lovely (an old metallurgical building, it was all brick and wood floors and lovely), and we all had a fabulous time. Yay! Courtesy of some facebook photos heres a shot for your viewing pleasure: 

Thank goodness for facebook, I'm really trying to load up on pictures since you've all been deprived of them lately. But again, I had one of those "uhm, what camera?" moments....for five days straight.












This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole night:

Here's what happens when you loose Zach and me in the photo booth at your wedding:

 It starts out pretty normal.....








Then the mood gets to us.....

We digress quickly into small children.....

But want you to know we still love you!

 And think you're sexy too!

Blue Steel....I personally think mine is more Zoolander and his is more sleepy boy at wedding.


ANYWAYS, it was lots of fun, time to move on, yes?

-Dim Sum
Was okay, and involved some people making funny faces. We decided we could get better food at home, but not better company. This is what we get for letting Nancy pick, right Zach?

-CHINA TOWNNNN
Was FABULOUSSSS. I've never been so inclined to buy a samurai sword, or strange hat. I ended up just getting a crazy colored bag and t-shirt. I got the good stuff later, I just needed something to tote my wallet around in for a while.

-The Great Pizza Hunt

I insisted upon needing pizza at 10pm, which would be fine, except it was Sunday. So we ended up walking ALL OVER THE PLACE trying to find pizza. Just when we had almost given up we found Patzeria's Perfect Pizza. It was the best Pizza I have EVER HAD. It was the best of Italian and American Pizzas....I was so excited about it I burnt my mouth on it. If you're ever near Times Square, go get a piece, its worth it.


-Times Square
What more need I say? If you've been there you know. The lights, the sound, the whee!!! It was fun! :) We went back 4 or 5 times just for the sake of it.

-Statue of Liberty...ish
We went down to some seaport...hang on I'll go ask...South Street Seaport! Woo!


Anyways we went down there and got tickets to go see Chicago that evening, and we attempted to see the Statue of Liberty. Or, as my brother so fondly called it growing up, the Liberty of Statute. We didn't manage but that's okay. We had fun wandering and eating hot dogs.


-Katz Deli (and my first Knish)

If you've ever watched "When Harry Met Sally", you've seen this deli. It's a ton of fun, and totally a Jewish deli. I let Zach get me one of all his favorites that he thought I would eat and we had a lot of fun. I was accused of stealing his Dr. Brown's Cream Soda...I say I just borrwed it. We had huge pastrami, corned beef, and mustard on rye sandwiches (yum!), chicken salad, chopped liver, and knish! We also probably had bad breath when it was all over, but it didn't really matter because we both ate it...Right?


-YARN YARN YARN
...my hands are getting sore from all this typing, but we've reached the part you've all been waiting for!!! If you read vogue knitting you've probably had the urge to play in the rainbow colors of the Purl Soho ad's. Well, the whole store is organized in that rainbowy goodness. I had to resist the urge to hop up and down and giggle while clapping, like a toddler at Disney Land. I picked up these goodies:

Alchemy Mysterioso, in Dream 2 skeins, will become a lovely cowl.... :)

The top yarn:
Habu Bamboo....760 yds (679 m) of silky goodness....


The bottom:
For my purple people eater blanket, you will all get those details later, 
Manos Silk Wool, it matches perfectly. :)










Well my dear friends, I know I told you I'd wrap it up today, but I think this is pretty hefty. So I'll leave you with thoughts of Purl Soho and Pizza while I head off to yarn with Lily, who is visiting me this weekend. I'll try to finish the trip summary tomorrrrrooowwww. Then you can all have a Finished Object Friday on Sunday! yay! BE EXCITED! It's worth it. (Lets be honest I might save it for a real Friday)...anyways, TA!

Wheeeeee....New York!

Wow, what a trip. It's probably the best way to sum it up. We had SO MUCH FUN that I completely forgot my camera existed except for possibly on two occasions, and the pictures from those are all romancy and blah so you don't want to see those...I do need to unpack so I can show you my yarns. But for now, a brief list of events...

-The Hooker Hotel
-Darcy's wedding
-Dim Sum
-CHINA TOWNNNN
-The Great Pizza Hunt
-Times Square
-Statue of Liberty...ish
-Katz Deli (and my first Knish)
-YARN YARN YARN
-Little Italy
-Naps *yay*
-Broadway: Chicago
-Street Meats
-The Empire State Building
-Arepas
-Toy Tokyo
-MORE YARN!
-The Great Hockey Hunt
-Shoes
-Accidental Romantic Dinner
-More Times Square
-Two hours of sleep
-The New York Airport Experience
-Home....ZZzZzzZzzzZzz
-Oops I forgot I owned a fish?

It was everything you could ever hope for in a vacation. Dancing, walking, laughing until your sides hurt, no sad moments, every kind of food you could ever want (and then some). I got to have the best piece of pizza I have EVER experienced. I had SO many new foods, I haggled, I shopped, I got offered fake name brands. I also felt a little like Meg Ryan, I ate in the deli from "When Harry met Sally", and I went up to the tippy top of the Empire State Building at midnight with my guy (okay well almost, we decided the last 160 feet for the 102nd floor was kinda silly, and expensive). Did all the touristy things possible, did all the non toursity things we could fit in. Etc Etc etc. I wish every vacation was like this one. I promise to go unpack all my good yarn and souvenirs now, and take post vacation pictures to share with all of you this afternoon. I hope this will get you through until then, it's kinda too much to post all at once. (Plus I want to drag out the reliving it thing.) :)

The really impressive part? We did all of the stuff post Dim Sum on that list in 3 days. According to Zach all that stuff should have taken like 2 weeks. It's okay we did it anyways; and it was FABULOUS!