MarQ1

So I’m not so into the Holidays—less so this year, this being the first time in over a decade where I’ve worked between Χmas and New Year’s.

Today, I took a day off. J & I need to find a console/buffet table for the living/dining room. It will be replacing the desk that is buried under all of my current knitting. J’s goal is for a piece of furniture that can store much of my knitting. Wish him luck.

I did get some knitting done in RI: one entire sock.

And I cast on for the second sock before we left for home.

The sock is loosely based on Nancy Bush’s Gentleman’s Half Hose in Ringwood Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks. The yarn, Gems Opal, is thicker than the pattern calls for and I’ve reduced the number of stitches and substituted a Dutch heel and a French toe.

There are two problems with this sock. First, the foot is about ¾ in. too short, so I need to take out the toe and add six rounds in length. This is okay because the French toe doesn’t work very well with this sport-weight yarn. Second, and more problematic, this sock weighs 60 g; the skein weighs approximately 105 g and I have only one skein. I can’t decide whether to buy more of the same colour in a different dyelot or replace 7 or 8 g of the toe with a contrasting color that I already have, either red or purple.

Later. Time to get dressed for shopping.

Back to work tomorrow.

It was a slightly disappointing weekend, so I focused on finishing things and cleaning up. The weather was not permitting. Rain all day Saturday, high and gusting winds Sunday. I had no chance to wow bystanders with my biking outfit. I did eat, however.

I finished J’s hat, another disappointment.

It’s too big for J, whose head, while larger than mine, still does not have enough hair to make it work. On my head, it seems a bit too feminine too. Probably the purple. I did swatch; I just overestimated the size of his head. The yarn is Debbie Bliss aran cashmerino, which I find too thick for a decent masculine hat in that color.

I finally finished the chair cover I made to protect my clothing and head from my chair at work. Pictures later.

I finally altered the whippet coat I made last year. I kitchenered the front together and added a d-ring to replace the velcro. I hope it arrives in time. One more whippet coat to go. Btw, the front is on the left.

Today, I finally caulked around the air-conditioner boxes. I’ll cover the air-conditioners later this week.

Saturday, I went to the LYS to buy #7 dpn’s to finish J’s hat and left—shockingly—with only the dpn’s I came for. Today, because the hat didn’t work out and because I had nothing in the stash that met the new requirements—soft in grey and black—boring—I went back to the LYS and came back with ten skeins of yarn and two circs.

Upper left: five balls of Debbie Bliss dk merino in grey (2), black (2) and navy (1).
Upper right: the circs.
Below them, two former hanks of Reynolds Rapture, one of my favorite yarns, in off-white and pale green.
Lower left: three hanks of Koigu Kersti Merino Crêpe (one not shown), in a beautiful shade of blue—I bought it because it was pretty.
Below, the edge of the ever-present Feather & Fan.
Left: the whippet coat.

Dear Ms. Bliss:

Generally I like Debbie Bliss yarns, but Ms. Bliss needs to work on the quality control.

One: the only way to get a decent center-pull ball of yarn out of the Bliss line is to rewind it. Hours can be wasted trying to find the end inside that cinnamon-bun-shaped coil. If it’s any consolation, Rowan isn’t much better.

Two: See those knots? Both were within twelve feet of the end of the inside end of two different skeins. I know knots are inevitable, but that close to what should be the starting point?! See those bobbin lengths? Those are the leftovers. Cheap economizing on not cheap yarn.

Contemplating felting and winter soltice gifts.

I’ve posted a bit in the last day or so, so you might, if interested, want to scroll down from here.

So to prove I’m gay, or overpaid, and to restock my supply of sweaters without having to knit them, I went to Gerry’s on Bleeker—the sales guy was cute and tolerant of my trying on every sweater in the store and leaving it rumpled on the chair next to the counter—he told me to. After a while he started bring sweaters to me so I’d leave the others alone.

Sidetracked. Like I said, I went to Gerry’s on Bleeker an bought two sweaters that I could never knit and were not at all cheap. One was a brown Converse sweater by John Varvatos with a chunky zipper up the front. Young, but not ridiculous. This will be the inspiration for every sweater I ever knit for myself, should I ever do so. Slightly ribbed, which flatters my smallness, without making my shoulders look too narrow, as did half the sweaters in the shop. Raglan sleeves are not my friends. Neither are bright stripes across my middle. The other was an inside-out grey-ish, ribby, v-neck by NSF. Cute. I’d definitely lust after a (thin young) man in this sweater. Don’t ask what I paid.

In PTown last summer I saw a cashmere sweater over which I have kicked myself for not buying. I priced the yarn afterwards: 50% more to do it from scratch and months of labor, and I’d screw it up anyway.

iTunes

Apple upgraded iTunes and I’ve spend much of the last two days incorporating the new format into my life. I’ve scanned album covers (for private use only). I’ve confirmed that much of my music is typical of a gay man in his forties. I’ve bought new music.

Thirty seconds is not enough time to decide if one likes a piece of music enough to buy it.

On one hand, Apple should credit you when you buy an album after having bought a song or two from the album. On the other hand, I spend more for espresso. Or sweaters.

Old Music

On the subject of my music collection, there is too much Pet Shop Boys and I am tired of Jimmy Somerville. Early Madonna grates too. Anybody remember the soundtrack from The Lostboys? Keifer used to be so cute.

Erasure is so lame, but I’m listening to them. I’m so old.

J & I left work early Friday and drove out to Doylestown PA for the opening of an exhibit, Irving Berlin’s Hollywood at the Michener Museum. Our friend David curated it and J designed it and for some unknown reason I have a credit in the program (as J’s driver?). We arrived later than we wanted—no hor d’ouvres remained—and the place was packed. It was a nice show. [I’m not a good reviewer.]

The Holland Tunnel

For a while it looked like we might not make it. The traffic approaching the Holland Tunnel was backed up almost to Chambers St. and filled with angry, pushy, aggressive drivers. Me, I was just annoyed¹. It took over an hour to get into the tunnel. About thirty minutes into the crawl toward Canal St., a white pickup truck tried to cut in front of the blue pickup truck in front of us. The drivers argued. They spit into each other’s cabs. They threw things into each other’s cabs. A passenger in the white truck crawled halfway out the drivers window and began beating on the blue truck with what might have been a sharp object. The driver of the white truck eventually got out and took pictures of the other license plate with his cell phone and called someone. Who? I’m sure it wasn’t 911. I kept thinking, If they shoot each other, we’ll never get through the tunnel. Both trucks, btw, had Jersey plates.

Yarn

Since J and David wanted to see the exhibit again, without the throngs, Saturday morning and we were in Doylestown, I went instead to Forever Yarn again. The owner remembered me from the weekend Stephanie spoke at the bookstore and thanked me for the mention. I bought yarn, of course.

I took some chances here: these are a little more frou frou than my usual purchases. Clockwise, from the top, 1) Blue Heron Rayon/Metallic in Celadon (green again), just because I liked it; 2) Tilli Thomas—I’m embarrassed to type this—Disco Lights in Parchment, because I think it would make a nice, light scarf for a gift; 3) Wool in the Woods Cameo (rayon) in Rosebud, for a scarf for a friend who is sensitive to wool and likes purple; and 4) Debbie Bliss cashmerino astrakhan, because it was slightly cheaper than I get it locally and I want to try it.

Photos

On the way back to NYC Saturday afternoon, we stopped at Gallery 31 North to see a show of photos, Persistence, by our friend Susan had with another artist. Her images are clean and thoughful. The one shown on the gallery site was one of my favorites. I can’t say I particularly liked the other artist’s work.

More Sock

While in Bucks County, I turned the heel of the second railway stitch sock. When we return to our apartment, I frogged it back. Fatal flaw. I have reknit it and am passed the gusset.

¹ If J drove, I could have been knitting.

Lately, my life’s been dull as…

Since our office moved to Manhattan, I’ve been leaving for work an hour or more earlier than usual—to avoid the rush on the subway. It works. Not many people go to Wall St at 7:30. I’ve also been trying to catch up on my work, with little effect. Every hour in meetings adds three hours of real work. Let’s say I’m in eight hours of meetings in my now fifty-two-hour week. Ugh. I’ve not been leaving the office until 6:00 or later since the move. Been missing the rush then too.

Makes me a dull boy.

Perfect Biking Weather

Yesterday, that is. I put in just under two hours, riding too far and too fast on the way out, and struggling on the way in. The 18mph WSW wind didn’t help. I headed out through Williamsburgh and Greenpoint into Long Island City and over the Roosevelt Island Bridge (36th Ave, Queens). The bridge has a tight circular ramp taking you down to street level—not bad on the way in, a bit of an effort on the way out. Roosevelt Island could be a nice place to live, now that it has a subway stop. I would think that the winter winds coming off the East River would be brutal though. No pics. Forgot the camera.

Totally trashed my legs on the bike. An hour after returning, I could barely walk. I could barely sit at dinner¹, but a cocktail helped, as did a glass of wine.

I didn’t go out today. I was about to when an overrated line of thunderstorms came through. A few drops. No lightning. No thunder.

Red Hook Fairway Opens

Before noon, J & I went to the new Fairway grocery at the end of Van Brunt in Red Hook. I think it just opened on Thursday. This store is wonderful. It has a good selection of gourmet and run of the mill groceries. The fresh fruits and vegetables are better than I’ve seen anywhere in NYC, Long Island or New Jersey. And, remarkably for Brooklyn the staff is polite, friendly and helpful. I can’t tell you what we spent. No more driving to Wegman’s in Woodbridge.

Dinner tonight—all components acquired at Fairway—was tuna steak, caprese salad and celeriac remoulade. The tuna was fresh, no fishy smell at all. The beefsteak tomatoes in the caprese actually had flavor. The basil was potent and not, for once, wilted. The celeriac was huge and tasty.

Shoulder of Pork and Ham

I’ve gotten tired of screening and moderating spam. In the last week I’ve started to get trackback spam, which WordPress doesn’t filter through its moderation and blacklist functions. Now I’m trying the Bad Behavior plug-in. Rather than filtering on words, it looks for characteristics of the spam message to deny access to spammers. So far so good; three spam comments and seven spam trackbacks blocked so far.

The sock progresses slowly. Nothing to show.

¹ Dinner was at Coco Roco, a new Peruvian restaurant on Smith St. The food was flavorful and memorable, much better than the Peruvian place that was in the same spot before. A good size crowd, too.

I had a (personal) record seven straight conference calls Friday, sandwiched between a staff meeting and an impromptu meeting in the department head’s office. Needless to say, I got little real work accomplished on Friday. I did manage to finish this:

When I left for work I was only about 60% done.

This is one hank of Malabrigo Merino in Sunset, knit entirely in a brioche stitch (CO 18st.). I finished up with a warm, soft scarf with great visual texture, about 4 in. wide and 4½ ft. long. I have a recipient in mind.

My laceweight arrived Friday, but I’ve had no time for it or for my sock.

I went to work yesterday (and today, for that matter). It was unavoidable. I had to check the results of the monthly processing. I haven’t quite caught up from my vacation and the office move to Manhattan, so I had work to do anyway. On arriving on my floor I found there were no lights and less a/c than usual. I worked by the light of my monitor and my desklamp for an hour or so then stumbled upon a maintenance worker who turned the lights on for me. I never really cooled off though.

When I left the office I went over to J&R to buy a cradle for my PDA and to look at telephone headsets. And I bought a vacuum cleaner.

I’ve been mulling this over in my head awhile; it wasn’t a total impulse purchase. Then again, it’s not like I use a vacuum that often myself, but the old one was getting old and it’s attachments had pretty much all run away from home. We both had visions of the housekeeper¹ cleaning the sofa with the floor attachment, the only viable attachment left.

This is the ultimate guy’s vacuum cleaner. It’s bright for one thing—it coordinates with the bedroom walls. It is very powerful. It is very complex. It’s an über-gadget. Lots and lots of buttons and removable parts. I just hope the housekeeper has the patience to learn how to use it.

[Insert boring story about the horrors of trying to get back to Brooklyn with a forty-pound vacuum in an unwieldy box and no train service to any useful part of Brooklyn because of weekend trackwork or equipment malfunctions and no cabs available because everyone who was on one of the five lines not running out of West 4^th was trying to hail one.]

¹ I’ve stated elsewhere that a biweekly housekeeper visit is a reasonable expense. We never fight about whose turn it is to clean what.

Not getting a bike ride in this weekend because of work and the dreary weather, I walked home over the Brooklyn Bridge, in under 45 min. It would have been less had I not been stopped by a traffic signal at Atlantic Ave. Geez, the tourists on the bridge.

This is the one good shot I got from Boston. I am not a good photographer. This was last Friday morning on Boston Common. While it was cool, the day was beautiful and the trees were in bloom. We had just walked back from having breakfast on Beacon Hill and were headed to pick up the car to drive to P-town.

I’m working on a pair—I hope—of socks from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks, Gentleman’s Sock in Railway Stitch (p. 37). Obviously, using Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock Stripe is deviating from the pattern, but I mainly wanted to try the shaping and liked the effect of the railway stitch. I’m not sure what I was thinking. I had just stated that I dislike purling on dpn’s and then chose a pattern where 40% of the stitches are purls. I like the sock, but it will be too large for me. I knew it would be, but I wanted to follow the pattern once before altering it. I just have to find someone with bigger feet.

The striping is a little odd in the Shepherd Sock. The the length of the pewter sections is slightly longer than that of the neutral ones. On the leg the pewter overlapped slightly, but the neutral never does, giving me a meandering grey strip down the back of the sock. Fifty cents that the other hank does not behave the same way on the second sock. I like what the yarn did on the heal flap and the finer striping on the stockinette bottom of the foot.

Birthday Stash Enhancements

This is what I bought myself for my birthday (at Woolcott & Co.). Top left is two hanks of Malabrigo in Sunset. I should have bought three. The color in this yarn is stunningly rich. I’ve started a brioche stitch scarf. Top right is two hanks of Malabrigo in Continental. I needed more blue in my stash. I seem to have mainly greens and greys. Below the Continental is two hanks of Schaffer Yarns Anne for socks eventually. The first os mainly red and blue with a bit of green, the other is blue and greens. Again, I need more blue, but managed to add more green. The dark blue on the lower left is 1375 meters of Skakel Merino Lace. This took forever to wind. I had to pull up a chair. The light blue in the center is Jade Sapphire Cashmere-Silk, a beautiful, soft yarn that was an absolute bear to wind. Both hanks were very loosely wound and tangled immediately on the swift. The first eventually resolved itself. The second I painstakingly wound on to the spindle of my ball-winder, threading it in an out of the tangles. Halfway through, the yarn broke under the strain and I had to slip-knot it together to continue. Then I unwound the whole thing back onto the swift in order to wind it on the ball-winder properly. This was 400 yds of fingering weight yarn so the process ate a good portion of yesterday morning.

This is a close-up of the brioche stitch on the Malabrigo scarf. The brioche does a good job of highlighting the color variations in the yarn.

Meanwhile, I’ve ordered the yarn to make the Feather and Fan shawl from A Gathering of Lace. I’m still reading Bleak House (to the far right in the stash photo. I caught up on my e-mail at work, but we moved offices to Manhattan Friday, so I’m behind again. The new cubicle has half the space of the old one so getting organized may take awhile.

I had a great bike ride yesterday and I’m already up to end-of-season speed and almost up to endurance. New York drivers still lack graciousness. Some guy shot me the finger yesterday as he made a left turn in front of me, cutting me off. In front of a patrol car—like that matters. Why do some people in cars have antagonism toward people on bikes?