Jon's Knit Blog

Good News

You will soon be able to take scissors on planes again! See?!

In other good news, I have been watching too much television lately. And I feel compelled to mention my two current favorite characters. They are, suprisingly, non-knitters: Stewie on "Family Guy" and Dewey on "Malcolm in the Middle."

Anyhow... what are your favorite TV characters?

Dain Bramage

How come whenever I mean to say "Zauberflote" I type "Rosetta"? Except that time, apparantly.

Anyhow.

I didn't knit on anything tonight. I worked late then I had some chicken salad and now? Bedtime.

Yay!

(See, isn't this the least exciting blog ever!?!?)

Did You Miss Me?

I know, it was longer than a week. I missed you, too.

I had a lot of fun, though. My mom was in town, then I was in Ohio, then I was at work. That sort of thing. And I bought a new chair. It reclines and rocks. It's going to be the bestest knitting chair ever! And I bought a new rug for it to live on, once it gets here in January. So there will be pictures then.

There will also be pictures of Rosetta which is now longer than ever - 2.5 full repeats are done! And I promise to do some real blogging soon. I feel so out of touch; I haven't read any blogs in days and I have no idea what's going on. But I will soon!

I also did an exciting house cleaning project and I have actually cataloged my stash... and I will post the results of the stash-o-metry in the next few days. I bet you can't wait for that one!

Thanks!

Consider this a collective "Thank you!" to everyone who sent Birthday wishes! You're all so kind and I'm thrilled that you take the time to read my blog.

I take time to read lots of blogs, too, as you might expect, and since Kay and Ann of Mason-Dixon Knitting tagged "everybody who's never been tagged," well... here goes:

All-time favorite yarn to knit with?

Uh.. Zara Merino!

Your favorite needles?

Lantern Moon. Beautiful and SOOOO nice to use.

The worst thing you've ever knit?

It's a specific yarn that turned out to be a lovely scarf but was such an unpleasant experience to knit that it wins this award: Colinette Mercury. 100% viscose ribbon that is like the metal mercury: slippery and hard to control. Not easy or fun to knit, but somehow I persevered.

Your most favorite knit pattern?

I dunno... can I cop out and say "one that is written so that you actually understand what's going on"? Honestly, the only thing I've ever knit twice was the Flouncy Scarf (remember it? It was bright pink) out of Giotto, and I knit it differently the second time than the first.

Most valuable knitting technique(s)?

The ability to count. It's weird, people say to me, "I can't understand how you could knit that without going insane." Well, to me, it's just about counting and being patient.

If you want my answer to be about a specific stitch or something, I'd have to tell you that I do love me a good SSK. What a fun decrease to do!

Best knit book(s) or magazine(s)?

I learned a lot from the big Vogue book, and I love browsing through the Barbara Walker books. And I could sit and look at Starmore's "The Celtic Collection" or "Tudor Roses" for hours and hours. The patterns are so beautiful that they're even just fun to read.

Your favorite knitalong?

I only did one, and I didn't finish. I like to knit to my own drummer.

Your favorite knitblogs?

In no particular order,
Rachael
Em
The Harlot
Ann & Kay
and
Wendy.

Your favorite knitwear designer?

Sorry, but I'm picking two: Kaffe Fassett and Alice Starmore. Is anyone surprised that I answered like that?

The knit item you wear the most?

Ironically, I almost never wear anything I knit. I occasionally wear my Colinette Mercury scarf. As soon as I weave the ends on the Seed Stitch Scarf (remember that one?), I expect I'll be wearing it a lot.

Anyhow, TAG! You're it!

Happy Birthday To Me!

So I have to say, this has been an incredible week for me.

Tuesday was, without a doubt, one of my best days ever. I don't like to blog about work very much, but let's just say that I got one of the biggest awards that is out there for what I do. It was so unexpected and such a huge treat.

And to top it off, I got free tickets to see "The Odd Couple" on Broadway! And then the restaurant I really wanted to go to for my birthday called to tell me I'd cleared their wait list...

The only thing that would have made it better was winning that $315 Million Lotto prize. Or having more time to knit...

And now that it's my birthday, I get to go to sleep. But you know I'll be back soon to share more fabulous things with you, because I know you like to watch my knitting grow!

Oh, and I'll tell you what I want for my birthday: I want all you lurkers to come out of the cybercloset and say something in the comments!

It's Not Even My Birthday Yet

Yes, it is almost my birthday. But something exciting came in the mail today and it wasn't even birthday related:

That's a close-up of a 2100 yard skein of laceweight wool boucle with nylon binding from Cherry Tree Hill Yarns. Where did I get such a wonderful skein of yarn, you ask? How did I find something that matches Zauberflote, no less?

Well, I have to say that I won it! Thanks so much to the lovely ladies of Give A Little and thanks even more to everyone who gave such a lot! Particularly to Teabird who donated the yarn I won. I never expected to win a prize, and I expected even less to win a prize that I actually really like. Yay yay yay!

Now... let's see what happens on Thursday...

"George, I Thought I Was Going to a Yard Sale"

'Twas a good night of "Desperate Housewives." I almost dropped my knitting, though, when he threw him over the bridge! (No names to avoid a little bit of spoilering...)

Anyhow, I didn't drop the knitting, but I did get four more rows done on Zauberflote. That means the next row is # 95 of the main pattern and there are only 64 til I get to the armholes and actually have to start paying attention. Of course, there's 120 until I get to the neck shaping, so I guess we'll be staring at Zauberflote for some time to come.

In other news, I may soon be staring at Zauberflote from a new chair... I'm thinking about getting some new furniture! Stay tuned for exciting news in that department. The one teaser I will give you is that I found this amazing rug which everyone must get...

Holy Saturday, Batman!

Um... Wow.

I just found out that if you google "Knit Blog," I come up as number 6. Wow!!! Thank you to everyone who helped make that possible! It makes me feel special.

And what makes me feel cool is the new Knit.1 magazine which lists me among the "Cool Guy Knit Bloggers" of the world. Yay!

And just to make matters even more fun, I had a nice time last night at Boyz Night at KNY. I got six rows done on Zauberflote, so it rocked on many levels.

And just in case we needed things to get any better, well, it's almost my birthday, and Mom is coming to the City to help me celebrate in style. Well, I don't have a boyfriend or anything like that, so having Mom come will be fun. Plus, she's buying me new furniture! Some of which will be acquired because of its capacity for (yup, you guessed it) yarn storage!

Look Who It Is!

It's been a while since you saw Zauberflote trouncing around San Francisco, and, well, she's grown. So I thought you might like to see another photo of how big she's gotten...

In other news, can we just complain for a brief moment about people who "Probably think that song is about them"? I was at the opera tonight, and a woman stepped on my foot as she was passing over to get to her seat. So she said, "Sorry."

And the guy next to me, whose feet had not been trodden upon, said, "No problem."

I wanted to smack him. I wanted to smack him even more when he kept yelling "Bravo!" when he should have been yelling "Bravi!" or "Brava!" (Or just plain being quiet; the opera wasn't that great...)

Me and Typos

Did you ever see Meg Ryan in "D.O.A."? There's a scene set on Halloween, and she wears a negligee, and tapes the word "Freud" to it.

"Get it? I'm a Freudian slip!"

I've been full of those lately. Or at least, full of something.

Three days ago, I discussed "triumph over diversity," and yesterday I talked about tinking back on a project that I've been done with and had out of my apartment for months... [ed. note: I actually had to tink back on Zauberflote the other night... but last night I finished the second pattern repeat! I still have a ways to go because even though the repeats are 40 rows long, it's a long jacket, so there are actually four reps before shoulder shaping.]

So anyhow, I'll try to be more attentive, in both knitting and blogging, in the future.

I Can't Remember If It Was The First Time

I didn't vote yesterday. I usually vote. Heck, I even voted in the primary for this election, and then not even in the main election. And I always vote. Well, clearly not always. And I don't really feel guilty about it. But I simply didn't particularly care about either of the candidates. They're both just... well... whatever, you know?

So I got some extra sleep, and you can't beat that, now can you?

It prepared me for the point in Rosetta tonight where I realized, at least 100 stitches too late, that I'd flubbed a part of the pattern and had to tink back. But it's done and the row is finished and now I get to go to bed. Yay!

Um... Oops.

So yesterday I typed about triumph over diversity.

That's NOT what I meant. I meant, as Sam pointed out in the Comments, triumph over adversity.

Speaking of triumph over diversity, though, I'm not very excited about today's mayoral election in which the rich white Republican is going to beat the not-so-rich Latino Democrat. I'm not even sure I want to vote.

What I will go down on the record as saying, though, is that Sunday evening's "Live Debate" episode of "The West Wing" was, perhaps, one of the dullest hours of TV I have ever encountered. Seriously, that was lame.

Anyhow, I had a headache tonight and didn't particularly feel like knitting. Too bad I didn't have a cute little kitty to cuddle with. That would have made it more fun. Oh well! I did get to buy a ticket to go to my sister's for Thanksgiving, so that made it a better evening, I must say.

And that's all for now.

Home Sweet Home

The best part of being home from San Francisco? I got to sit on my couch all weekend and knit. I knit 19 rows of Zauberflote, which is a whopping 6,631 stitches.

And it felt good! I guess I didn't realize how much I missed actually knitting while I was too busy working. So this was sweet.

In other news, it was the NY Marathon today, and I watched some when I went out go get coffee (what, I needed knitting fuel). I have to say, though, I was totally humbled and awed to see a man with only one leg out there running... then a guy with two prosthetic lower legs and feet. I mean... wow. That's about the true triumph over diversity.

And it makes 6,631 stitches seem, suddenly, like not a whole hell of a lot.

A Non-Knitting Thought...

And Here I Thought You Didn't Love Me Anymore

So MT Blacklist has evidently spun itself into overdrive, and nobody can leave comments anymore. I have to admit, though, I'm relieved to find that it's a technical issue and not one of nobody wanting to comment. I think I've already even fixed it!

Anyhow, I'll be flying back to NYC tomorrow night, so you can expect much more knitting and more blogging very soon!