How my niece and I bonded

Last time I saw my niece, I showed her the magical way of turning skeins into center-pull balls of yarn with the swift and ball winder. Here are two balls of Cascade Yarns in Luna, the top in green, the bottom in brown. The colorways are 746 (the green) and 744 (brown). 100% Peruvian cotton which needs to be handwashed (good to know).

The niece will be staying with us for a week this summer, so I have a feeling a lot more of my wool will be wound up ...

Do you read me?

(Unfortunately, I cannot credit the photographer ... as I don't know who took it. Great job!)

My mother's younger cousin, Arlene, is a talented sixth-grade English teacher, in Upstateland, New York.

She's also a great singer.

Go check out Angel Lena's techno-boppy hit ... "Do you read me?"

Tweet!

Hello fellow Twitter Tweeters!

Thanks to the very informal poll (answered by KnittyBob), I'll be casting on for my brother's scarf tomorrow.

Or will I? It all depends on if I can find the pattern...

Back to homework.

Fantastic music!

Last night was very exciting, as my lovely cousin Racquel performed at Chick Singer Night, at the Bitter End!

Accompanied by the Chick Singer Night Band, Frank Walker, Scott, and Krissy Holly, Racquel delivered an amazing set. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures (though I was in charge of Scott's camcorder).

You were fantastic! I'm so proud of you! :)

Also in the crowd were a bevy of relatives who all wanted to see Racquel perform at New York City's oldest rock club (hi everyone!).

Go over to Racquel's myspace page or to CDBaby if you want to hear some of her tunes.

(groan)

Taken by Goodrob13, found through Creative Commons

Being sick has majorly screwed up my plans for today.

Tonight I was going with my friend Katie to see Hair with the yummy Jonathan Groff (who I last saw as Melchior in Spring Awakening). Interestingly enough, when I first saw Spring Awakening, Matt Doyle was playing Groff's part, as Groff was acting in the 40th Anniversary Tribute to Hair that night.

Additionally, my mother (who I suspect was getting tired of me taking over the guest room with both sewing projects and sewing anxiety over Dances of Vice), was going to help me pick out fabric today, and help me get sewing.

My mother's sewing talent is extraordinary. When I was fifteen, with a limited amount of time, Mom constructed an 1860s ballgown. She can do things with pleats that I still can't figure out. Here are some terrible pictures I just took --- the lighting is awful and I have a fever, so you must forgive me.
Oh. And I'm totally wearing this ballgown on August 24th at Dances of Vice. I promise to have my (incredibly talented at photography) Time Lord take pictures :)

7 Things that make me happy

1. Helping really awesome patrons
2. Getting said patrons to check out ANYTHING by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (in this case, "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" and "The Frog Prince Continued")
3. Knowing that Grandma is happy
4. Singing with my cousins and Grandma
5. Steve Jenkins' "Actual Size" and "Prehistoric Actual Size". All of you should go out to your nearest bookstore during lunch hour, hit up the children's section, and look at those books. They're that awesome.
6... and while you're in the kids' section, check out "Tuesday" by David Wiesner.
7. snuggling with my Misty, the perpetual puppy.

Family

Grandma is doing a little better today ... Racquel, Sean and I spent some time singing with her.

Hopefully the next few days will be okay.

Don't expect any sewing or knitting updates for the next few days.

Mary Poppins Bag

Back in high school, I used to bring my knitting bag with me to class, every single day.

My classmates referred to it as the Mary Poppins bag. Besides whatever project (this was back in the days before I knew how to knit, and just crocheted ... badly) I was working on, there was bound to be a First Aid kit, candy, chocolate, extra pens, a book...

The bag fell apart eventually.

Anyway. Flash forward to Sunday, my mom is cleaning out her closet, and finds her aunt's Mary Poppins bag.

Somehow, we wound up with my great-aunt's knitting bag, which includes the last project she was working on before she stopped knitting. There's a pattern book in the bag, but I'm not sure *what* she was knitting.

Same name, different projects

So if anyone has been keeping track of my progress bar, Edgar shrunk! The pink mohair and silk combination is still languishing in my knitting bag. I just started a new scarf :)

Back in April, after a visit to Knitty City in Manhattan, I picked up a skein of Tonalita Trendsetter Yarns in the Rio colourway.

Word to the wise: do *not* wind this into a center-pull ball. I spent several hours (over the course of two days) undoing the big knotty mess.

Monkeying around

Monkey has completely taken over my knitting life. Currently working on the heel flap. I may have the first sock done in the next two weeks! (Maybe sooner, I'll be logging a bit of public transportation time soon)

I did try the Magic Loop, for about an hour. I am no longer terrified of it. However, once I'm done picking up gusset stitches, then I'll put the sock on the circular needle.

Spent yesterday at the beach, sans knitting, but running around with my niece and nephew.

Never too early...

...to start thinking about Christmas. According to my desktop widget, there's 262 days until Christmas.

Since I'm just a little in love with brooklyntweed's photographs of the Urban Aran, I thought I would knit it up for my brother, in a show of sisterly-love and daring (especially since this would be my first sweater).

Except my brother doesn't really wear sweaters. However! he would love a long white scarf. Grumperina has a free pattern on Ravelry (so dude, if you're reading this, hah hah! You can't see the picture!).

Since joining Ravelry in the past two weeks, I now have a ridicolously long list of queued knitting projects, most with notes - "show MarySusan (genome socks)" - "knit for next baby in family" - "hmm. Knit up in green?"

And I'm madly in love with my Monkey sock.