Klosekraft

Blooming trees and weather-beaten angels

One of my favorite places to be outdoors in Brooklyn is Green-Wood Cemetary. I love old cemetaries in general and this one in particular. It has some of the hilliest terrain in the five boroughs so it feels like you're hiking. Wild parrots live there. Other visitors are always quiet and respectful so you don't have to deal with loud music or getting whacked in the head with a frisbee. And I find all of the monuments to people's lives to be incredibly poignant, especially as they age and break and the text wears away.

I had a thoroughly satisfying visit there today. Somehow I've never been there when all of the trees are blooming--I had no idea they had so many flowering varieties. And the place is so big (478 acres; Prospect Park is 585) that I spent most of the time today in parts that I've never seen. I spent a lot of time reading grave markers, paying particular attention to how the deceased was described--by their relation to other people ("mother" or "wife"), their occupation or military service or personality. I was struck by the different ways people said 'died.' One family listed the birth and 'translation' dates of all of the members. I wonder if it's related to a particular religious group--worth looking into. Another family had born/died for all adult members and born/fell asleep for the children.

I've put together a photo album in the sidebar because I really liked a lot of the pictures I took today and didn't want to cram them all into a post. A few are from sometime this fall, but I'm not sure exactly when--before I figured out how to set the date on the camera. And it turns out that I like pink dogwood trees even more than I thought I did. Lots of pictures of those.

"In your face, Botanic Garden!," she's saying, "Our trees are prettier and we have parrots!"

This is what an old cemetary should be: beautiful plants, big old trees and all of the stories those stones represent. I particularly like that there isn't a real order here. Yes, most of them face the same direction and there are some clear rows and groupings, but it's not perfect and it's not consistent.

I love everything about this part of Green-Wood: the narrow path, the steep hill, the stones sort of randomly on the side of the hill... Can you imagine how good those apple blossoms smelled in the warm sunshine?

Creamsicle spring scarf

At Cummington two years ago, I bought 4 oz of Icelandic/dyed angora from my friend Helen and spun it into this:

Then I put it away until I figured out what I wanted to do with it.

I like wearing scarves in spring. They add that little extra bit of warmth that'll allow me to not wear a coat on cooler days. Of course, I'm dead sick of all the scarves I've been wearing all winter and this seemed like the perfect solution.  One pair of size 9 needles, the Miniature Leaf Pattern Version I from Barbara Walker's first book (p 215), and a few evenings later, we have this:

fresh off the needles (above) and after blocking (below, with a cat since I had one handy)

Not much to see here

I haven't been very excited about anything I'm knitting lately. I think it's partly because I've been trying to finish some projects I'd abandoned (for good reasons, it's turned out) and partly because I'm working on a couple of gifts for occasions long past. Knitting presents that will be given on the actual date of celebration is kind of fun. Knitting presents that I'll hand over and say, "Happy birthday...three months ago" or "congratulations on the birth of your child who is now crawling"  just makes me feel like a loser.

I know the recipients won't feel that way though, and that'll make it worth it.

I've been going through my knitting books and magazines and loose patterns to plan out the next couple of projects. I have a goodly number of likely candidates, so we'll see.

That's a non-gift project snuggled in the middle: a handspun scarf I hope to finish in the next couple of days.

In other news, we found a roommate yesterday, a guy who's able to both carry on a conversation and pay the rent and seems unlikely to kill us all in our sleep. And I have a houseguest for the week, though she sleeps a good 75-80% of the time:

More from the garden

In an effort to distract you (and myself) from the fact that I haven't been knitting or cooking or spinning or sewing much this week, here are some pictures from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden from yesterday.

The prettiest pink dogwood I've seen this year:

The lilacs are really starting to bloom--they smell incredible, one of my favorite scents:

And the cherry blossoms on the Esplanade are just about perfect.

The view from under one of those trees:

Comfy sweaters

I'd really rather be sleeping right now, but I  can't because this:
is going on outside my window. There's another one right in front of it. The engines are running and all the lights are flashing, but the firepeople themselves just seem to be standing in the middle of the block so I don't think I need to climb out the window yet.

It's a mystery.

There's a hydrant in front of my building--maybe they're refilling their tanks? Chinese fire drill?

I've been having trouble sleeping lately anyway, partly due to lack-of-job stress  and partly due to the fact that we need to find a responsible normal human being to take over when one of my roommates moves out mid-May. I've had extremely good luck with Craigslist  in the past, but the current crop is sub, sub par. We showed the place to a girl tonight who seemed great, really interesting and fun--someone I'd want to be friends with--until she started trying to negotiate for lower rent, saying her upper limit is more than $200 less than we advertised. It's like, what does this look like, St. Stephanie's Home for Wayward People To Whom Rules Do Not Apply?

It's not.

So, I figured it's as good a time as any to show my comfy sweaters, the ones that I wear around the house, maybe sleep in when it's cold. They're generously sized and soft, both comfortable and comforting.

This is a cashmere/silk blend from School Products. It's a barberpole yarn. I'm pretty sure the black is all cashmere and the pink is all silk. This is two strands of worsted-weight yarn held together. It's really warm, but because it's so loose, I never feel really overheated in it. The proportions are a little goofy because the body and neck are very oversized, but the sleeves are normal. It works though. This gets a lot of wear in cold weather.

This is a different cashmere/silk from School Products. It's worsted weight and divinely soft. I don't usually go in for this kind of variegation, but spice of life, etc. I wear it all the time when it's cool, but mostly around the house and running errands. It doesn't really go with anything I own except jeans. I'm pretty sure it's a 3x3 rib where I did three plain, three seed stitch. This is a fantastic sweater to sleep in.

Smilla's Sweater from Countrywool. For reasons I can't quite remember anymore, I didn't want an attached turtleneck and made a separate moebius. It's alpaca boucle, whatever she lists in the pattern.

The firetrucks have moved on and I think I'll be able to sleep, now that I appreciate how much more restful it is to be in a room that's not bathed in flashing red lights.

Noro cardigan: check!

Noro Sarubia mohair/silk cardigan, stockinette with crocheted edges.  I love the crocheted buttonholes--they're so clean and hold their shape so nicely.

(I wore it on an actual, bona fide, swear-to-god DATE last night--I'm pretty sure it's good luck.)

Phone-in Friday

Not much to see here today. I had expected the Noro cardigan to be done, but I can't get the ratio of stitches to pick up for the buttonband to work. Between the charmingly(?!) inconsistent yarn and the fact that I don't usually crochet onto my knits, I've ripped out more than several bands. It seems like I need far fewer single crochets than knit stitches over an equivalent area. I'm just now getting a handle on how significantly fewer a number that is.

Like the rest of the universe, I've been perusing the Interweave preview and found a few things appealing. I think the Wedgewood Blouse is gorgeous (oh Norah, how I heart you...), but not so appropriate for steamy New York summers in yarn that bulky. I'll probably make it but either make it with long sleeves or make matching opera-length fingerless gloves to wear with it. I think I love the Fairy Net Blouse--that kind of wrap top is a good shape for me--but I hope there's a head-on pic in the magazine. And I think the Bonita Shirt is kind of great. It's a graceful shape and, judging by the yardage, seems to be a pretty fine gauge. I just can't figure out why it calls for all of those colors. It's hard to see in the thumbnail--maybe there's embroidery between the lace motifs? There certainly won't be if I make it.

Two other things jumped out at me. The first is how many designer names were new to me, which is great. I think editors tend to develop a stable of designers whose work they like, whose projects knitters actually make (advertisers are particularly interested in this part), who have relationships with yarn companies, who can be trusted to meet deadlines and turn in accurate patterns, etc, and don't look as hard as they could for fresh blood.  It looks like Pam is really making a point of bringing in new designers and I applaud that. It's a brave choice and I have no doubt that it was a lot more work for her.

The second thing was: when did Twinkle get a yarn line? Yes, her fashion lines have hand-knit items and, yes, she has a book of knitting patterns coming out sometime in the next year, but is that really enough to develop a presence in the industry and justify her own line? Especially one that turns up ZERO relevant Google hits? If she developed the yarn for her ready-to-wear collections and will make it available somehow to handknitters, that makes more sense, but my first thought on reading that was market saturation, baby.

Call me Shitepoke

Yesterday, while I was hanging out in New Haven with Lauren, we were playing around with an anagram generator to find our alter ego names. (If you use the advanced setting, you can specify a maximum of two or three words.) My best one was Lane S. Shitepoke, though Helena Pike Toss and Sheltie Spokane are good too. I wish I had done this before I named the blog. It would have been either Tales Sheep Oink or Apelike Hotness. Or possibly Shitepoke Speaks.

I continued my education in the nuances of New Haven pizza, this time at Pepe's. Truly delicious, but not unlike pizza I can get in New York.  Modern, where we went last time, is still in the lead as far as I'm concerned. Super thin crust and better sauce. We spent the evening at her local Stitch and Bitch, which was a lot of fun.

On my last visit, Lauren innocently suggested that I start a blog. But I don't know anything about this html business people are always on about, I replied. If you use typepad, you don't have to know how to do anything, she told me, and a choir of angels sang. (It's true--I don't know how to do anything, and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to have a blog but is flummoxed by how all of those words and pictures get into the computer.)

Here we are at the end of the evening. I don't know why I'm making that face--a particularly scary moment in the video game Lauren's boyfriend was playing? And yes, there was knitting. Lots and lots of knitting. More on that tomorrow.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

If you don't already check in with The Sartorialist once in a while, take a gander at this picture. I happen to be acquainted with this woman--she's a friend of one friend and works with another--and she always looks that fabulous. She's worn some sensational hat every time I've seen her and she makes them all herself.

I spent a couple of hours today walking around the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I had read something this morning about some of the cherry trees already peaking (nifty Blossom Watch map here) and went to check it out. I'll go back in a week or so when the rest of them should be opening up. The lilacs should be at their best around then too. Some of them were just starting to pop. That scent is pure heaven.

Those cherry trees sure are purdy, but my favorite blooming tree (aptly, some would say) is the crabapple. I love the color--give me a strong pink over a wispy one any day. The Garden had a couple of puny specimens, but luckily they're pretty common all over Brooklyn.

Camo skirt

Once I started thinking about sewing skirts, I remembered that I had one that only needed the elastic put in the casing and a hem. So I dragged out the machine and the basket of fabric and finished it up in an hour or so. The fabric is some fairly heavy cotton twill that I found in the hunting supply section of a fabric store in Louisiana last summer. (They don't seem to have this exact print in stock, but there are some good ones.) I think the print is gorgeous. It reminds me of some of Maija Isola's work for Marimekko in the late 50s. I can't find any good pictures online of the botanical prints I'm thinking of, but some of these upholstery fabrics are close.

It's a really basic a-line, elastic-waist skirt. I cut out two pieces that were wider at the bottom than the top, seamed them up the side, folded down the top edge for a casing, threaded the elastic through, sewed up the other side, and hemmed it.

I pushed most of the fabric to the back, which gives a nice bustle-ish effect, while maintaining a nice clean line in front. The picture is a little blurry, but I make no apologies. It's no easy trick to take a picture of your own ass in the mirror.

My absolute favorite thing about the skirt (and the real reason I bought the fabric in the first place) is this, which shows up randomly in the print:

Oh, YEAH.