Klosekraft

You never know what's going to grab you.

Every time I go to the Green-Wood Cemetery, something different catches my fancy. Last time, it was all about flowering trees and the inscriptions on grave markers. This time, it was a chance encounter with a snowy egret and a whole whack of mausoleums.

When I've read about the cemetery, the articles always mention several ponds on the property. Weird, I always think to myself, I've never seen one. Today, I went in an entrance I hadn't used before and found myself in the corner housing all of the ponds, including one that's covered in waterlilies and extremely popular with birds.

When I go there, I tend to wander around without a set plan. A trail might catch my eye, curving off in a state of disrepair, and when I get to the top of the hill maybe there are some lilies and when I go to check them out, I see a huge monument, and so on.

I'm fascinated by mausoleums, partly because a lot of them seem to be nicer than anywhere I'm likely to live while I'm alive [this may be a New-York-housing-market-induced point of view; a good friend told me about visiting the Southwest and constantly asking her hosts about buildings they saw. "No, of course no one lives there," they would say, as if to a child, "That's an abandoned gas station," and my friend would sit quietly and mentally compare it to her apartment, primarily in the gas station's favor.] and also because the scale of them brings up memories of books I loved as a kid, Mandy and The Secret Garden and any other books about imaginative children who stumble upon a hidden space to make their own.

Look at this. What red-blooded human wouldn't want to go in there immediately and have a tea party?

This one is decidedly more fancy, lovely but not really my style. The girl who would want this for a playhouse sleeps in a canopy bed wearing a Lanz of Salzburg lace-trimmed nightgown.

I like that this family decided to spend eternity behind an automatic garage door. (I love the tiled roof on the other one too.)

I know a couple of people who would have been seriously creeped out by this. I tried to peek in, but the opening was over my head.

Check out this tree. I'm assuming it's a variety of Japanese maple (though the leaves don't really look maple-shaped, do they?), but I've never seen one with all of that froth before. Love!

[Edited to add: It's a Smoke Tree. Thanks Charleen!]

Porcupine wrestling

Knitting socks from the toe up has a lot of advantages: you can try them on as you go, you can use up every last inch of the yarn, you can usually make the leg a lot longer than you normally would without worrying about running out before the toe. The major disadvantage, at least for me, is dealing with the double-pointed needles at the beginning.

God, I hate this part.

The toe shapes up pretty quickly though and once I have a little more fabric, I'll be able to switch over to a 12" circular, which will make things much easier.

The method I use is pretty simple: knit a square of stockinette 4 stitches by 5 rows, pick up 4 stitches on each side of the square, keep the sides with cast-on and live stitches even at 4 stitches, and increase on the other two sides until you have the number of stitches you need to fit around the ball of the foot.

I must have lost my ever-lovin' mind.

Carolyn is in town for a few days and we got together last night to catch up a little and troll around Soho. Our first stop was at Purl Patchwork, the latest addition to the Purl Craft Empire. I had brought along a couple of patterns I've been considering, just in case something happened to catch my eye. Just the slightest bit of encouragement from her and this is what came home with me:

This pattern is a vintage one that my mom apparently tried to sell at a garage sale (for 25 cents--it's a bargain at twice the price!), but I rescued. The smaller black and white pattern will be on top, and the flowered print will be the skirt.

This fabric is for this dress (the "girly dress" on the left. I wanted a print that I wouldn't have to worry about matching at the seams and that would make me look neither like Laura Ingalls nor someone's couch. I like that the cotton is lightweight enough to wear during the summer, but that the color and style will work with tights and a cardigan well into the fall. I'm a little concerned that both dresses fall well beyond my current sewing skills, but really, what's the worst that could happen? Carolyn assured me that the directions for the Betsy Ross dress look pretty straightforward and easy to follow (they start off by showing you how to tell the right side from the wrong side of the fabric—I already know how to do that!) and I have a couple of friends who sew really well and will rescue me if I need them. If I'm going to get better at this stuff, I have to do projects that aren't easy for me. These both look like they fall between Stuff I Can Already Do and This Is Going To Make Me Jump Out A Window. It doesn't take much, sewing-wise, to really frustrate me, so this will be an interesting exercise. I happen to desperately want to own both of these dresses and the only way that's going to happen is if I make them, so it may just come down to learning through greed and coveting.

What about the yarn, you ask? We had wandered down the block to Purl on our way to Lombardi's for some excellent New York pizza. I needed to get a longer #7 needle to accomodate the ridiculous number of stitches the pleated black jacket is up to, but there's nothing fun about going home, opening up your bag, and finding just a new needle. I've had knee socks on the brain lately and something about narrowly red-and-white striped handknit knee socks makes me extremely happy. I'm going to knit them from the toe up to see if I can get away with one skein per sock. I suspect I'll need a third, but you never know...

Thanks for all of the good wishes about the interview yesterday. I got a call from the HR chick today to schedule a second interview with someone higher up the ladder. That won't happen until the end of next week though.

How to calm pre-interview jitters

Going over answers to likely questions and thinking about why you're perfectly qualified for said job is all well and good, but, really, I think listening to Guns N Roses is a better way to go.

It needs to be loud enough to drown out the fact that there's a guy standing next to you on the F train reading something from the Post and announcing every so often, even though no one is asking, "Yes, I have to read this out loud." It's impossible to be nervous while Paradise City is on. The second that the stomach starts to flutter, you just think back to that video and how freaking TALL Axl's hair was and how stupid his cornrows look these days and how random that Axl Rose/Tommy Hilfiger brawl was and you wonder what kind of freak goes to Sweden and gets arrested for biting someone in a bar. And then you think about the fact that it wasn't the Paradise City video where his hair was so big because that was mostly concert footage and you can't remember if it was Welcome to the Jungle or Sweet Child O' Mine and you make a mental note to look it up on YouTube when you get home and suddenly you aren't nervous anymore.

(The interview went well. Fingers crossed.)

Done.

Here she is. New blog resolution: organize self to be ready when other people can take the pictures. Doing it in the mirror is for the birds.

Pattern specifics:
Pattern source: Cece by Bonne Marie Burns
Yarn: Cascade Pima Silk (85% pima cotton, 15% silk) color 5140, 6 balls
Needles: #7
Notes: My gauge was slightly bigger than called for, so I used the numbers for the smallest size. The fit came out looser than I'd really like (still acceptable, just not the absolute pinnacle of perfection--totally my fault), which had a lot to do with the fabric relaxing after I washed it. If I make it again (and I very well might), I'll either use the stated gauge or tighten it up a little and still make the smallest size. I like the length and the color and the fact that it's sweet without being the slightest bit saccharine.

I also like the button I found, which has several shades of dark pink and red sequins embedded in clear plastic. I had to screw around with the color a lot to make the details read, but the color seems pretty true in the big shot. You can see that the surface of the fabric seems to be peach-fuzzing a bit. It's really not that apparent from more than 4" away and I think it's just the nature of such a soft, short-stapled fiber.

On walking around the East Village in the middle of the night eating falafel

Last night, while I was getting ready to go out and see my favorite Balkan dance band, the friend who was going with me cancelled. I made a few calls and most of my friends were either busy or not interested in going to see a band that started late on a Thursday. (note to self: make more friends who are unemployed or insomniacs) Not a big deal, the crowd at their shows is always really friendly--their whole shtick is creating the atmosphere of a village festival where there's great music and grandmothers and kids and everyone there is dancing up a storm--and I tend to see a lot of the same people over and over. I figured I'd see someone I had talked to before or recognized and would hang out with them.

It was weird though, an extremely sedate crowd (no one was dancing--that never happens) and some intensely smarmy men I didn't feel like dealing with, so I drank one glass of gin-scented tonic water (I hate a bartender who pours light) and left after the first set.

I walked around for a little while and found myself near my favorite falafel place. These guys know their falafel--they fry the falafel after you order so they're always hot and super-crunchy on the outside, they toast the pita, they add all kinds of yummy treats: tabbouleh, chopped cucumbers, chickpeas if you ask for them, and they don't pad it out with too much lettuce. You get tahini and some kind of tangy yogurt sauce and plenty of hot sauce and it's the most delicious thing going. The contrast between the hot pita and falafel with the cool, crunchy vegetables and the creamy sauces with the spicy hot sauce...my god.

I like foods that can be eaten while I walk (pizza, smoothies, falafel..). It appeals to my loves of food and walking around the city and efficiency. Why only do one thing I love when I could be doing two? So what if I drip a little tahini on my shoe? It'll come off. The East Village at midnight on a warm Thursday is full of people sitting out at tables on the sidewalk, going in and out of bars, walking around, standing around. I find it highly entertaining to watch all of the attractive people eyeing each other. I'm always halfway tempted to grab people by the wrists, tell them they each just checked the other out, and force them to introduce themselves. I'm not usually prone to nostalgia, but I had a little attack of it last night, walking by bars I used to go to with friends who've all left New York, places I've had dates of varying degrees of horror (including one who came down with explosive diarrhea mid-date), the place where a really amazing sushi/Korean restaurant used to be. They didn't have a liquor license but, once you were a regular, the sushi chef would share from his personal bottle of whisky.

No finished Cece pics yet. The neckband is looking a little wonky and I can't decide if it's the kind of thing that'll block out or if I should rip it out and do it over. I'm leaning toward blocking, but that's probably the laziness talking.

Buttons, beads, and bathing suits

This morning, I went up to M+J to get a button for Cece. I think I must have chosen the absolute least matchable color possible to knit this sweater. All of the reds were too red, none of the pinks were red enough. The one I got will work color-wise, I think, but it may be too busy with the lace pattern. We'll see. You can all lambast me once it's done.

Since I was in that part of town, I stopped at my favorite bead store to see what they had. This place is not great for findings and not where you want to go if you want your hand held while you pick stuff out, but they have the best (and best-priced) selection of semi-precious beads I've ever seen. I got the supplies to make these:

They're strung on stretchy stuff right now, but the stones are heavy enough that I want to restring them onto fishing line. I just wanted to make sure the color placement was okay and that the lengths worked without interfering with each other. (they do.) I'm going to wear them tonight with a sharply v-necked black tank and short denim skirt when I go see my favorite Balkan dance band. With comfortable shoes, of course, for dancing.

Since I was over by Herald Square, I stopped into the big H+M [sidenote: Viktor and Rolf are the next designers to work with H+M? where I have been? that's great news!]. The clothes there are pretty easy to place in one of two categories: well-designed basics or the crap I'm going to hate seeing on everyone all season. Unfortunately, a lot of the basics are being shown in either beiges or a rather fantastic yellow-green (sort of a slightly browned-down chartreuse), both of which are not kind to the fair-skinned girl. Seriously, I'd be lucky to hit 'death warmed over' in either color. That green especially makes me look more like 'death left out in the rain after a rough night drinking.' But the good news is that I bought a couple of bathing suits. The one that I currently have is an extremely unflattering child's two-piece that I bought in Puerto Rico last November when I couldn't find anything else in New York, online or in PR and I just needed something to swim in. H+M is currently stocking some great suits--I got a couple of pin-up-girl-esque halter top and plain bottom combos that should serve me well for a while.

Also, and it pains me slightly to admit it, I bought a headband. A headband, people. I ask you. I can only assume that it was being in such close proximity to so much trendiness while I waited in line for the dressing room. All I need is a pinafore and someone to dress up as the White Rabbit and I'm all set for Halloween as Alice in Wonderland.

I've had a couple of off-blog questions about how I liked knitting Cece. Honestly, it's a fantastic pattern. It's extremely well-written, has some clever yet simple details that elevate the piece fit- and finishing-wise, and contained no mistakes that I found. I made one simple change, which was to add about 2" to the length of the body to accomodate my freakishly long torso. The only caveat I'd offer is that there are several things going on at a time that you have to pay attention to. It's not difficult, but for someone like me who tends to think she'll remember what's going on and then goes through weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth while trying to piece it all together when she forgets, you'll want to plan ahead. The way I kept track is with this notebook.

You can see on the right-hand page that I've written out the pattern rows of the lace pattern. (Since you have to buy the pattern--see the above link--to know what to do with those rows, I don't think I'm giving anything away here.) Below that, I wrote out a little map for myself that tells me how many plain stitches, how many repeats of lace, and how many increases I've added. One the left-hand page, I've just listed column after column of numbers that correspond to the pattern rows. I count ahead and indicate by circling or ticking next to the number whether I need to increase or decrease. Then I cross the row off once I've done it. That way, if I put the project down for a few days, I can tell at a glance what row I left off and how long it is until I need to take some kind of action.

Almost there

Left to do:

Knit and sew neckband.
Find and sew on button.
Weave in ends.
Block.

Good junk

That's what I used to call the odds and ends I'd collect around the house and in the woods: old keys, stones that looked like hearts, tiny, perfect pinecones.

I went to a reading of this book last night. Love, love, love it.

By far the coolest thing at the Renegade Craft Fair: handcarved, custom made wood eyeglass frames.

One Day in New York City

Making a skirt out of an old men's shirt.

A recent find: the report I wrote of my second grade field trip to the Museum of Firefighting.
   "When we got to the train station, we sat down. I looked at the computers on the walls. I looked at some trains. I even saw the baggage claim. A man came to tell us out train is here.
   Once on a train, we got snug. I wrote a story about maps.
   Then the loudspeaker boomed. "Breakfast is still being served in the dining car." I couldn't belive [sic] it. It was after 12:00. Then we got to Hudson.
   We got out of the train and took the bus to the museum. The oldest firetruck I saw was from 1731. The newest was 1900. I saw a story about a dog that died 116 years ago. There was an interesting firetruck called piano engine. It was funny.
   We ate in a shed. I had carrots, sandwich, grapes, and cookies. (Only because I traded Jessica.) We cleaned up and Mrs. Rogers said there was no time to play games. Then we all went home."

The daily farm photos at Farmgirl Fare.

Other People's Stories

Overheard in New York 

This picture of my roommates:

Say it ain't so

Boo.

You, Mr. Affleck, are no Tom Selleck.