novamade

pardon the interruption

 

Catching up now (but I don't think I have any more excuses to do this "ketchup"-after blog-silence-thing for the rest of the summer).  I wanted to let you know that packages are good and mailed.  Winners should be receiving them shortly. 

We got back from our annual family trip to California on last Friday(additional pictures here if you are interested).  It was fun, a great week of rest and relaxtion (if you don't count visits to first aid centers at theme parks and chasing an adventurous toddler around the beach).

 

I spent most of the holiday (on Monday) dyeing wool and then spent the rest of this week waiting for it to dry, no easy task when you are in the midst of a heatwave and it's so humid it might as well be raining.  There will be a shop update on Sunday  night, in case you were wondering.

 
I have been knitting, and quilting like a crazy person--or schizophrenically, which well, depending who you ask, same thing.  In any case, I have a serious case of multiple craft disorder, but that's nothing new.

  

And to top it all off, my family has become an outdoorsy hiking family, much to my chagrin (as most of you know, I detest the whole business of sweating--needs must). 

This whole "we are outdoorsy thing took me completely by surprise, so I can neither explain it, nor can I offer any advice on how your family can become outdoorsy.  I am given to believe that this outdoorsy-ness is something that just happens.

Next time, I might actually talk about some knitting.

too busy celebrating and having fun

 
...to be a good blogger, apparently.  So what kind of blogger has an awesome blog giveaway and waits a month to announce the winners when she very clearly says that winners will be announced at a certain time and gifts mailed at a specific time thereafter?  Oh, that would be me.  Well, I am done celebrating now.  The last birthday gifts rolled in during the middle of this month.  My friend Kathy knit me a beautiful beaded silk scarf.  I loves is.

 
And I got a slew of new books as well.  Always a welcome treat.

 
I barely finished celebrating my birthday before my tenth wedding anniversary rolled around.  Special K and I went on a Mediterranean Cruise stopping starting in Spain and stopping in two ports in Italy and two ports in France.  We had a fabulous time.

 
If you are interested in living vicariously through our  cruise adventures, I put up tons of our pictures in flickr, knock yourselves out. And yes, I did get some crafty bits while in Europe, a few skeins of yarn and some Phildar pattern books, which wouldn't be funny at all (if I could read and understand French, which I can not, but therein lies the funny), save for the language deficiency.

 
And for the those of you wondering, here are the winners of my birthday contest, you know, the one from last month:

1) Book of Wool goes to Cathy whose father gave her a birthday card for"his son";

2) Lorna's Laces sock yarn goes to Meredith O. whose husband sent her flowers and pjs while he was away on assignment;

3) Merino Lace goes to Megan who was lucky enough to get some Addi Clicks for a birthday one year;

4) Clover Leaf Farms roving goes to Janelle who has found her spinning wheel to be quite useful (and whose blog name is terribly clever);

5) Scarlet Fig fat quarter goes to Chancy who might take as long to make quilts as I do (and there is nothing wrong with that at all!);

6) Madeline Tosh sock yarn goes to RisaJ who uses her birthday as an opportunity to do things for others;

7) Kayleigh roving goes to Violet who is not likely to make any sort of gifts out of paper mache again any time soon;

8) and the handspun goes to Kathy who will have to settle for getting one day's gifts and who, hopefully had a stress free birthday as she wished for.

All winners were selected by random number generator.  I will e-mail winners about collecting there winnings shortly.

I promise to be more timely in my announcement and prize distribution next time.  This delay is downright embarrassing!

i went, i saw, i ate, and i even did some knitting

 
The novamade fam went away on holiday last week.  It was spring break for us, so we took a break.  While I had every intention of telling you about our trip before we left...I just never got around to it, and now the trip has happened so the joyful anticipation of a trip about to happen is now just a wistful remembrance of greatness, because coming home forces one back into the reality of work, schedules and responsibility.  Oh, I do love vacation.  With that being said, my family went to France last week and we had a fabulous time.

 
Special K and I have long been of the "you don't change your lifestyle because you have kids" camp, but the reality is, kids will, inevitably, change your life and the way you live it (because, seriously, if you are waking up at three in the morning to comfort a child needing cuddles, a blanket, a snack, or whatever children need when the wake up in the wee hours of the morning, long before they should be awake--its going to have an impact on your day/life/your need for additional coffee, etc.). 

 
One of the things that we have always enjoyed is travel, and while we do a fair bit of travel in and about the U.S. (which is sort of a requirement when you live in one corner of the continent and your family lives on opposite corners), we hadn't ventured outside the U.S. with the kids, and we felt like it was time.  So we made the decision to finally go to France so we (and by "we", I mostly mean Special K) could see the D-Day Beaches at Normandy (but mostly the American Cemetery).

 
We stayed in a small village in Normandy situated right on the Seine called Connelles.  It was beautiful, it was charming, and it was a good "base of operations" from which to plan daily excursions.  While we spent most of our time exploring the Normandy region, we did venture into Paris a few times.

  
 
I am not going to lie, international travel with young children is a lot of work.  But at the same time, I think traveling with young children offers the parental units a different perspective on the travel experience.  The last time K and I were in Paris we planned everything with military precision, which, given who we are, isn't too surprising, I suppose.  I am sure we enjoyed our time at the moment, but we didn't take as much time as we could have (or should have) to really savor the experience.  Kids sort of force you to do that.  We spent a lot of time looking at the Eiffel Tower because Little Sir became obsessed with it. 

We spent less time looking and walking through cathedrals because Little Sir articulated a desire to spend less time walking about gothic structures which dwarfed him. 

 
We spent tons of time walking about cities and villages because Little Mister is in a hate/hate relationship with his stroller right now. 

 
And we went to a French McDonald's, Toys R Us and Disneyland Paris, things we would have never done before we had kids, because our children were pretty cooperative and deserved kid-geared activities for their own enjoyment.

 
We had fun.  And we want to do the international-thing again sometime, but maybe when the kids can actually walk on their own without needing to be carried at great length...or when they are tall enough not to wander under turnstiles in the Paris Metro station with a carnet ticket...

 
I am not going to go into much more detail here.  If you are interested in our trip to France, there is a nice and tidy set on flickr (with narration and everything!) that you are welcome to zip through.

When I packed my bags for the trip, I was pretty sure there would be time for knitting.  I wasn't sure what to take at first, but because of Elinor's new sock contest (are you playing?!) I have a renewed interest in sock knitting, and I just happened to have two mateless socks (they have been mateless for years...seriously, I forgot they were there, that's how old they are).  I took two socks and thought I'd get them done.

 
They aren't done yet; but, by the end of the month, I will be able to say I finished two pairs of socks, I am sure.  I will have a lot to say about them (as you can imagine), because there are reasons they have been stewing for years...

Okay, enough yammering from me, go and flash some green and go about pinching the greenless, you know, if you are into that sort of thing.

Happy Shamrock Day!

i was on hiatus, let's catch up!

 
Did you miss me?  Every now and again, I feel a little too wired and I take a break from blogging, from flickring, from, well, pretty much anything that I can (except work, well, it's work) to regroup and spend more time with my boys.  It always shocks me (and I realize this no profound statment) that one can accomplish a great deal in the way of productive crafting if one is not glued to the computer overly much.  Now I am catching up on bloglines and trying to de-buzz my profiles and etcetera, etcetera.  But there has been some crafty going on, of course.

 
Valentine's Day is a mere memory for most, and while we didn't get overly celebratory (it is rather a Hallmark-y day, is it not?), we did make a heart garland because Rae did, and I like everything she does.  Little Sir picked the colors for the hearts.  I wanted just red and pink (I know!); but, he wasn't having any of that monotonous ridiculousness (his favorite word right now = "ridiculous" as in, "Momma, you are so ridiculous." Sigh.).

 
Over President's weekend, we went to Vermont.  I discovered Nido, which, in my mind, is the happiest place on earth.  It's a fabric shop and yarn shop all in one.  The owner, Phiona, is really nice and will have a conversation with you if you are feeling chatty, or she will let you shop and she seems very good about figuring out how to read a customer, which is a skill, in my opinion. 

 
Also, Ashley from Film in the Fridge shops there, so it was very much a fun "six degrees" situation for me, and I like that sort of thing.  Kids were not only welcome, I felt it was almost encouraged, there were toys for the Littles to play with, so everyone was happy. Well, almost.

 

Should you find yourself in Burlington, Vermont and in need of a crafty fix, do yourself a favor and hie thee to Nido.
  
While in Vermont, Little Sir spent a day in an all day ski class for 3-4 year olds at Smuggler's Notch.  After falling the first time, his only concern was staying upright, with that as his goal, he didn't really care who he knocked down to accomplish his task. 

 
While I felt bad for the other children who were unfortunate enough to cross his path, it was pretty funny.  And the other kids weren't hurt at all, so there you are, if you want to see video footage go here.  We also took the boys to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream; because that is what one does when driving through Vermont when it's freezing outside, I guess.

 
And then, I closed up my little millinery by knitting two more hats. 

 I made the Aran Cable Watch Cap from Charlene Schurch's Hat's On! again.  It was made for a student who works at my library.  He mentioned that no one had ever knit him anything before, which seemed sort of unfortunate to me.  He mentioned that he liked the color red and cables, that seemed doable, so I did it.

 
And I also made myself a hat without a trace of possum in it.  I spun up some beautifully dyed merino from Funky Carolina a while ago, but had no idea what to do with it.  I ended up using it for a Felicity hat. 

 
I am not sure if it is "Boho Chic" or "Hobo-esque" but I love it.

 
 Have you been knitting Olympically?  I tried, but I end up watching the Olympics rather than knitting through the telecast.  So I will save my chit chat on my new cable-y vest project for another time.  I am able to do other crafts while watching the Olympics though. I have been doing a bit of stitching (as in embroidery)...but more about that tomorrow.  I wouldn't want to overwhelm you with my craftiness or anything.

nutty, of the macadamia variety

Hi.  So it's been a long week, here's a quick run-down:

 

I went to a seminar on photographic copyright (for archives) in Albany last Friday.  Look at me, being all studious.

Albany is only an hour away from Rhinebck, NY, so obviously I had to go.

So yes, I went to Rhinebeck on Saturday.  I met a blog reader named Victoria (thank you for saying hi!), Little Sir tried fried dough for the first time and now refers to it as "dough with snow." 

It was fun, but when you are almost 8 months pregnant, nothing that involves much walking  (or any physical activity, really) is going to be all that exciting.  We got there late and left early, but I managed to purchase exactly what I was hoping to.  I sweater's worth of grey aran weight yarn (for a sweater for Special K) and 3 silk caps because I have no idea what to do with them, but I thought it would be fun to try and figure out (this is the way most disasters start, of course).

Modest; but, sufficient, all the same.

I started working on a plethora of wip's I'd left sitting in various project bags.  They were all brown or predominantly brown and sort of sad and depressing, I didn't even bother taking photos because it would have been a parade of brown--not so visually appealing when viewed en masse.  In need of color, I started (or rather, restarted) a baby garment with jubilant blasts of color.  It should be finished soon, so that's something.

And last night, while watching Pushing Daisies, I made pie (of course).

 

Chocolate - Macadamia Nut Tart courtesy of Martha.  I thought it was just okay, but the pie was gone within 15 minutes of my setting it out at work and the dishes washed and dried, so I guess others thought it pretty tasty. 

 

That or they found that splash of bourbon in the pie appealing, I have no idea.  I think my taste buds are all wonky right now, what with the hormones (or whatever), so my taste assessments probably shouldn't be trusted at this time.

I didn't have unsalted butter, so I substituted regular butter (salted) and eliminated the salt prescribed by the recipe.  Also, there was no way 2.5 cups of macadamia nuts was going to fit in my tart pan.  Martha called for an 11 inch tart pan, mine was ten.  I only used a cup of nuts, so I have enough to make another tart...which I might do since I have more patee sucree dough in my fridge (the dough recipe was pulled from Joy of Cooking, 1972 reprint,  natch).

Aside from all that, work is crazy right now (I am moving into a new space after a major renovation) with it being a celebratory weekend of sorts, fall reuninon, homecoming, etcetera.  Oh, and yes, I am 33 weeks pregnant.  So, you know, I'm not tired at all.

If you are into picture peeping, there is a smallish (so you won't be overwhelmed and because I am lazy) Rhinebeck set of pictures over in my flickr world, knock yourselves out.  Otherwise, see you soon with a cute and colorful FO!

things i like, the san fran edition

I attended a conference in San Francsico at the end of last month,  aside from being professional, I got a chance to do a lot of things that that I like to do that are fun.  And since I recently found my point and shoot, I can share all these things with you!

I had the oppotunity to meet up with knitbloggers.  Quite possibly the best part of any trip, work or otherwise.

Clockwise from left to right, me and my zaftig self, Lolly, Vanessa, Risa, Steph and Rangsiwan.  The locals really treated me and Lolly to a few days of fantastic fun.

There was shopping, of course.

I bought a lot of fabric and patterns from Stonemountain and Daughter Fabrics.  I truly magical place that that carries tons of fabric, including a good selection of Japanese fabrics (some with bunnies!).

I bought a little yarn, not a lot.  I am not sure if I was being good because I was being mindful of the pre-existing stash, or if I remembered that my one carry-on was getting fuller with every penny I spent.  The Koigu is for Minty's Tapestry Cowl.  Have you not gotten your copy of the pattern yet? Go and get it now!  Risa, Rangsiwan and I all got yarn for said cowl...we all got the same orange with a different contrat color.  Great minds, and all that...

I enjoyed some seriously good food.  Pregnant or not, it is something that I always enjoy (see above reference to zaftigness).

I told Rangsiwan that Tartine had to happen.  She made it so.

And we went to, not one but, two ice cream places.

And lest you think that I didn't do anything conference related, let me assure you, I did.  I went to the crowded sessions.  I learned about how we archivists are revlutionary and all that...I went to the reception at the San Francisco Public Library and fought against all the other archivsits trying to get to their bevereages of choice (mine was seltzer, everyone else was consuming things with some alcohol content...imagine).

And since there was a whole morning where nothing was scheduled, my friend Jess and I walked to Union Square and from there Chinatown to browse and shop.

It was in Chinatown that I discovered my love for all things hooty.  I mean  really, what is cuter than an owl?  Or a bunch of them on a big giving you directions?

And who doesn't want to drink their tea from a mug shaped like an owl?  If you don't, well, I don't want to know you (just kidding, I know some of you might be partial to chickens).

So yeah, that was my trip to San Francisco, in a nutshell.  It was fantastic. Now back to shawl knitting, which I am not really liking so much right now... but more on that later, I don't want to put the kabosh on the happiness in this post.

on productivity

I have written many blog posts in my head, I just haven't actually typed and posted them.  We have all been there, right?  I have been too busy actually doing stuff to talk about it, I think every now and then we crafty folk need to do that; do the thing and not talk about it so much (or, if you are like me, obsess over other people's amazing craftiness to the point of inertia, or something like that).

Over the past weekend I went to New Hampshire to craft my little heart out, it has sort of re-energized the craft of crafting for me.  It was supposed to be a knitting weekend; but, I spent a goodly amount of time making buttons.  With clay.  And a toaster oven.

I just think it's funny that one can make buttons with a toaster oven.

 

But maybe that is just me.

These buttons are not assigned to any sort of project at the moment (none of them, and there are a lot of them).  Should you have any great contribution to make to spark my creativity, do share.  I am almost at the edge of being "all tapped out."  Almost.

 

I am particularly proud of my shawl pins.  I know the sticks look like carrots.  Try imagining them with some sort of earthy twig found while taking some walk down some path somewhere.  I know, it's hard to see past the carrots.

But I did also do some knitting; or rather, I did some weaving of ends on knitting.  You know that tomten with the 50 bajillion ends?  Ends woven, surplus cut.  The fact that there is now the zipper and pockets to contend with is something to think on later.  Let's focus on the positive, shall we?  Ends woven.  Surplus cut.

Such a feat deserves a fitting celebration, like pie.  Truly great and excellent pie.

Like carmelized orange tart with blackberry puree (go and print the recipe, I will wait).  Delicious.  Perfection in pie form, really.

Okay, back to the doing.

new york in november

First we were going.  Then we weren't.  And then we said, who are we to let a little thing like sickness deter us from taking three bites out of the Big Apple?  In a spontaneous (for us) decision, we opted to go.  And on the advice of my friend Al, we thought we would take a ferry (long story).  When I say we, I mean Special K.  I came home from work and was told, "we are leaving in 15 minutes, pack a bag."  Good times!

We were sick, but we had fun.  We stopped at School Products.  I bought some yarn.

We stopped at Purl Soho.  Special K got to meet other knitter spouses outside the shop while I discovered that I am somewhat claustrophobic in the shop (tiny shop), try going on a week day, that would be my advice.  I, of course, bought some yarn.  I would have probably bought more if I didn't feel so frantic and uncomfortable in the cramped quarters that was Purl on a Saturday afternoon.

We also went to Purl Patchwork, right down the street.

I was able to see many of the projects from Joelle Hoverson's new book.  The shop is small, but it wasn't as crowded as the yarn shop.  Special K  waited outside with Little Sir for a while but did have to bring in Little Sir at one point though, it was getting really cold outside.  Not that he was complaining.

We also managed to get to Brooklyn to check out Brooklyn General Store. 

I am convinced that it is, quite possibly, the most wonderful place on earth.  Special K mentioned that of all the yarn shops he has been in, this was his favorite.  We won't even analyze that statement.  Just go with it.  It is a great place, the atmosphere is excellent, the staff is friendly and the customers are fun.  A quilter had a really long conversation with Little Sir about her quilting adventures.  He thought she was fascinating. And of course, I bought a few things.

And though we had a lot of fibery fun in New York, we really enjoyed going to The Strand (18 miles of books people!).  I was able to add to my collection of Dorothy Parker books (by and about).  I am a fan.

I think we mostly enjoyed the parks (Central and Prospect) though.  We are fans of public spaces.  And who is going to deny the fun of a park to a kid?

We didn't get as much done as we would have liked; but, we were sick.  And of course, you all are right.  New York will always be there, so we can go back!  Probably when it warms up a little though.  We had some frozen fingers and toes on Saturday!

to maine and back

Lolly has mentioned to me that I need to do a better job giving a head's up when I am going somewhere.  I will try to work on that.  In the meantime, I went to Maine over the weekend; and, I had a great time.   Saturday was rainy, Sunday was perfect (if you are into that whole sun thing). I actually like the rain.  And a rainy day is perfect for shop-hopping, particularly of the yarn variety.  There are many yarny places of fun in Maine, I only had time for two places though.

 

First thing, fuel for the journey. Bintliff's American Cafe (best breakfast place EVAH), worth the 4 hour drive, all by itself. After breakfast and a brief stop in Freeport (L.L. Bean, anyone?), we headed up to Brunswick to visit Ms. Purl Diva. 

I LOVED this shop.

 

Ellen has a great selection of yarn, she is really friendly and the customers all talk to each other like they are old friends. 

Even Loki gets in on the fun.

My search for more Dream in Color yarn was what originally led me to Purl Diva, but I am so glad it was my first yarn shop stop. It was a great visit.  And I will just say I was very successful in my purchases and leave it at that.

My other yarn stop was Halcyon Yarn. 

Oddly enough, the store was smaller than I thought it would be.  But, I have to admit, I was a little overwhelmed (which leads me to believe that a trip to Webs might not be the best idea for me, but I am willing to build my resolve). 

I really liked the way the store was arranged. 

Floor to ceiling color, gorgeousness everywhere. 

I didn't go in with a plan and mostly just looked around.  I wasn't planning to buy much, or anything in particular at all, actually.  I had a vague idea about buying yarn for mitts for Special K and "maybe something suitable for lace."  I ended up getting some gorgeous lace-weight silk orange-red stuff, some light orange wool for something fun (I have no idea, the color was fantastic), and then an inky skein of Malabrigo for mitts for the man.  And then the man says, he doesn't think he'd have any interest in mitts that provide no finger coverage.  Your loss buddy.  I mean, Malabrigo, people. 

After yarn shopping, eating, visiting with friends and sleeping, we ended the trip by looking at some lighthouses and playing in a few parks.

It was a good trip.  Now, back to the knitting of socks.

the road to rhinebeck

I tried to think about what my intentions were for Rhinebeck this year as we drove the three hours to get there on Satruday morning.  My goals for this year's trip to Rhinebeck were not extensive; but, it's still good to have a list, just to keep yourself in check.

1) Probably the best part of these festivals is meeting your knit blogging friends...especially when you have never actually "met" them before.  I wanted to make sure tomeet up with one particular knitblogging friend and her family:

Check (she and her family were even sweeter than I thought possible! And man, does Abi LOVE Rhinebeck!)

2) Buy a sweater's worth of yarn, preferably dark brown, preferably wool:

Check. (I have no idea what I will do with it, but it will be brown, it will be warm and it will be wonderful...a winner, if you will.)

3) No more than two skeins of sock yarn, preferably something that I can not easily acquire:

Check. (On the left, naturally dyed goodness from Ancient Threads Farm, on the right Acero from Brooks Farm.)

4) Yarn for some fingerless mitts...(maybe for dashing, maybe not):

Check.

5) Test drive some spinning wheels, at the very least a Lendrum:

Check. (Hello, pretty girl.  Would you like a home?  I have a home for you.)

6) Look at spindles for their beauty and craftsmanship; but, do not buy one unless my life depended on it...and not even then:

Double check. (It was really, really hard.  But I said "no."  That's right kids, just say no to drugs and spindles that you do not need).

7) Buy a goodly amount of fiber to spin on spindles currently in my possession and possibly in anticipation of a spinning wheel (see #5, above) to arrive, oh I don't know...sometime in December...

Many, many, many checks.

I figured it was time to stop with the fiber when I had to ask if it was starting to look like too much (Special K remarked that "it started to look like too much a few hours before [I] asked..."  I am pretty sure he was joking.).  I didn't want to be too greedy with the fiber, I did tell Kirsten I would leave some for her, after all.

I didn't go to any after parties so I missed out on meeting up with the vast majority of knitbloggers who attended on Saturday.  We ended up leaving late-afternoonish to head up to Saratoga Springs.

It was pretty fun.