Brief notes

In case I get to lazy to blog any more I need to note down two major non-NY knitting events in my life.

- the working to the bone winding green skeins of factory yarn to pass round campus in a ridiculously over ambitious attempt to guerrila knit the university trees and lamposts sweaters for Green Week. Sadly my holiday was booked for that week so I couldn't oversee it and don't know if it was followed through at all. Even more sadly my flight was delayed by storms so I could have gone back and tried to put the stuff up myself but vegetated at home instead..

- what was far more successful and beautiful was and is MuJew knitting. Because we were the MuJew Theatre first and, because I came straight from knitsoc and was always spilling over with yarn and needles, we had a knitting scene in the play - I'll type it up soon. And this cool knitting scene of us Muslim and Jewish girls knitting and chatting together is staying true after the performance is over..

Mel has become a pro and my little protegee- I can see her getting good and addicted :) And Laura is more like a mentor because I only found out after that she's actually done an embroidery degree and there's an article about her exhibition in this month's Fiberarts magazine. So amazing.

The MuJew guys were too macho to knit but not to request a hat, a kippah and a scarf respectively. I'm quite proud of the kippah cause I made up the pattern and it's way neat.

We're going to begin something together using Baghdad Blue Peace Fleece. This is the description of the yarn:

Baghdad Blue
Like everyone else, we are trying to find an appropriate way to respond to the tragedy of the Iraq War. One answer we have come up with is Baghdad Blue, a vibrant new Peace Fleece color as bright as the desert sky. We will donate all the proceeds of this yarn to two organizations in the Middle East. To our friends at Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salaam , an intentional community in Israel where Palestinians and Israelis families live together every day struggling with the realities of war and peace, and Seeds of Peace, a Palestian-Israeli summer camp based here in Maine.

There was the perfect ebay lot of 7 skeins all ready for me to buy but I got outbid ugh.

NY City= Insanity Part 1

Or insaknitty if you like painful punning. Even before we arrived Knitmedic and I ordered ridiculous amounts of yarn online so when we finally got to my aunt's flat she dramatically removed a cloth revealing a whole stack of cardboard boxes and parcels.. Of course we greedily opened up these treasure chests- piles upon piles of knitpicks yarns- merino style, alpaca cloud, decadence, gloss and other droolsome stuffs as well as some Bare stuff for hand-dye experimentation- and Sarah's delicious wool and silk laceweights. Photos of our yarn mountain will follow once I and Mrs C unpack.

I am also the proud possessor of Knitpicks Options needles- my own set of interchangeable circulars with their shiny smooth metal and pointy tips.. Now I am all set to make all the projects I've been dreaming of. Including not a few patterns from the beautiful designs in Fitted Knits by Stephanie Japel..

1)I've cast on for (but will have to recast I think) both Eunny Jang's Print O' the Wave Stole using some gorgeous laceweight JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk Yarn that Mrs C spared me from her Sarah's Yarn booty. Young Knitmedic was alarmed at the physical proof of her online excesses and is trying to offset her extravagance by selling off what she can bear to part with. I'm not doing the centre panel going in two directions though- I'll spare myself the pain and it'll still look pretty going one way.


2) Casting on has also be done (and undone) for the Coquette Lace top from Fitted Knits using the shimmery shiny Gloss in dusk which I spent a good two days untangling as I doubled it and wound it up. I so need a yarn swift.

3) The Cranberry Merino Style has been set aside for the puff-sleeve cardigan also from Fitted Knits:

It's similar in some elements to the Knitty Forecast cardigan which I plan to make with the dark plummy Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Mrs C gave me but it's special all the same. And I lost the beginning of my forecast on the bus which disheartened me.

4) The Redwood Forest knitpicks sock yarn is such a rich colourway- I totally love it. I may make some Jaywalker socks because the pattern rocks- but I'm copying my sister on too many patterns already so I'll look around first. I got sock size dpns too in a soft tan Italian leather case- from an amazing shop i'll describe in part 2. Unless knitmedic blogs first in which case i'll just direct you to her post.

5) Reviews I read about Wool of the Andes seemed a bit down on it- but I really liked it. The colours are so nice and deep and the yarn is much softer than I was expecting.. I got contrasting shades so I can Fair Isle me some cool mittens. Mrs C bought me Folk Mittens for my bithday and it's such an exciting book- full of traditional patterns and knitting histories from all around the world. Like how when female students in the US first began going to uni they'd all figure out which lecturers would allow them to knit in class and they had these dangling cage things on their wrists to hold yarn so they could knit and walk between classes. Uni knitting life hasn't changed overmuch.

That'll do for my stash description for now- I'll add more photos later. I'll go into the exciting places we discovered in New York- especially Brooklyn which is a dream place- and maybe even get to the uber coolness that is MuJew knitting, in part 2.


ps. I kept wierdly dotting apostrophes at every plural. I think it's dying and going crazy as it does..