Life After LSAT

It's done done done!

After the test, Sam met me at a coffee shop, where he had some yummy Hungarian coffee waiting for me. On our way to lunch, I spotted Yarntopia, a yarn store I had never seen before or heard of, even though I spent the summer of 2005 at Columbia, where I spent my days going to class, wandering around Manhattan, and knitting obsessively. That summer, I walked to every knitting store I could find, and believe me, I would have remembered Yarntopia. I find that in New York, a lot of the stores have a lot of really beautiful yarn that is extremely expensive and for which I couldn't really find a project unless I were to buy a ton of it and go broke. Not so with this place. It's a New York LYS, so of course it isn't cheap, but I could see myself making something with just about everything in the store. Upon some internet research, I learned that the store just opened in December, so that's why I didn't already know about it. I assure you, it rocks. They even give paper bags instead of plastic, which is super cool.

As my post-test retail therapy, I decided to buy a book instead of yarn because I really need to finish my UFOs. But when I found Son of Stitch 'N Bitch I just had to buy it! I could finally have a choice of patterns that I could use for my dad's long-overdue sweater! And stuff I could make for Sam! I'm a little hesitant to make him a sweater because knitting a sweater for your boyfriend is said to curse relationships, but the book talks a lot about the curse, and I think that our relationship could withstand a sweater. Besides, he wants me to make a sweater for him. And I think he would like a lot of the sweaters in this book (though I would have to alter a lot of the color schemes). But now I'm getting ahead of myself. So many projects to finish first!

Speaking of Sam, the first review of Worst Case Ontario's first Album, Burning Politely, came out during my LSAT hibernation. It's on Frederick Foxtrott. Check it out!

This and That

so my computer is kind of dying. it's very slow, and although i can download pictures, i can't get them up on my blog. so although i have a picture of amna's hat, i can't put it up yet. sorry! (don't be surprised if old entries suddenly accumulate pictures.)

the other matter of knitting business is that sam (my boyfriend) is visiting his parents and brother in europe for ten days. so although i miss him, i have a short window of time to focus much more energy on my knitting! i'm still working on the gauntlets that i started a couple of months ago. it's been an on and off affair.

and i haven't forgotten my dad's sweater! i finally bought the yarn for it! the problem is that my father is extremely allergis to wool. a lot of knitters think that most wool allergies are actually people mistaking skin irritations caused by the courseness of wool for allergies. not so with my dad. he can't go near the stuff. so i went to school products co. and found some nice (non-returnable) cotton. i thought i was buying grey, but in better light, it looks brown. for some reason or another, my dad absolutely hates the color brown. but i can't return this and there's no way i'm not going to use it - not at that price! so he'll have to like it simply because i made it.

After a six month hiatus, I'm back!

In the past six months, I:

- moved to New York
- started a new job as a paralegal
- started a pair of gauntlets and a sweater... and haven't finished either yet. but did crochet one hat.
- was visited two glorious weeks by one of my best friends from home and for three months one of his best friends, who soon became one of my best friends too
- got an amazing boyfriend
- crocheted hat mentioned above for said boyfriend. but stupidly didn't measure guage and made it way too big. thinking about felting it now...
- made some awesome friends and got to know New York... well on the way to becoming a true New Yorker

...and that's about it. i miss my knitting friends in philly. i got to the point of looking up knitting groups on the internet. unfortunately, i have to work late tuesdays (just how late I have to work varies), so i can't always make it to the original Stitch 'n Bitch. ah, sigh. but there is one around my neighborhood on wednesdays. really looking forward to that. i always get nervous when i go to new knitting events though. i boil it down to shyness. last year, i just had to suck it up and go because my thesis depended on it. but now, it's all up to me.

today, i went to a knitting store that didn't exist. i googled knitting stores in nyc and found a list, which included one relatively close that was open on sundays. so i took the crosstown bus and walked nine blocks. and it was aparently a kitchen supply store. i reeeeeally should have found the store's website or phone number and called them. oh well. next time.


to do:
- buy yarn for amna's way overdue birthday hat. and make the hat.
- make the sweater i promised my dad two years ago that i would make him for his fiftieth birthday...by december 12. (still have some time)
- make promised scarf or "muffler" for auntie carol
- finished two relatively-close-to-being-finished projects. and one weirdly-crocheted sweater. still.

I was a little extra cautious and bought way too much yarn for my purple headband. I went back to Sophie's to return the extra stuff but they didn't have the anything bulky for the sweater I want to make. They didn't have it there at Loop the last time I was there either. So I decided to make another headband. Turns out, my separation anxiety wasn't just from my thesis. The pattern ended way too quickly. I'm not used to such instant gratification. So I'm making another one now. This one is black baby alpaca. It is amazingly soft. And I can wear it to my new job (at least that's the plan).

One problem. This one will end too; and I won't have anything to bring to New York this weekend. Yes, I'm still working on the green sweater. Maybe I should figure out that little place marker problem.

Another weekend of Apartment Hunting

I spent the entire weekend in New York. We wanted to get started early so I splurged on Amtrak this time. I LOVE Amtrak. It's the classiest train ride ever. I don't know why they even bother having a first class carriage, because the whole train really is first class, compared to Septa and New Jersey Transit.

I took my green sweater to crochet on the way there. The woman next to me talked about how she used to crochet and she had been meaning to start again. That seems to be a comment I get a lot about knitting and crocheting. Then I inevitably mention my thesis. It's found its way into my repertoire of small talk.

New York real estate is the biggest headache ever. We didn't sign a lease yet, so by New York standards, the trip was unsuccessful. The whole idea of a four person loft didn't work out. One of the girls didn't come and wasn't answering her phone. Laura and I tried to see an apartment with a broker -- and the tenant answered the door. She had signed the lease the day before. It wouldn't have worked, though, because the second bedroom was the size of the closet in my room in my parents' house.

But we saw this awesome place in Park Slope, Brooklyn. A girl Laura knows in moving out, and she's going to talk to her landlord about renting it to us. That way he doesn't have to go through the hassles of either a broker or Craigslist. We are keeping our fingers crossed. The bedrooms are very small but there is an enormous livingroom, a sizeable kitchen, and outdoor space.

I stayed over at Laura's house in Connecticut. She has a huge collection of DVDs and I chose a spy movie to watch with her and her sister. I got out my sweater and pattern book, which I had lugged around all day in my backpack in the rain. Now the book was wet and kind of wrinkly. I hate it when that happens, especially to books I like, and ESPECIALLY to my knitting (and crochet) books. After a couple of minutes, I came to the next part of the pattern. I was supposed to put markers on the sweater. Not only did I not have any markers with me (although I'm sure I could have imrpovised), I have no idea how to place markers on crocheted garments. I know how to do it when knitting, but I just can't figure out the crocheting equivalent. And there were no instructions in the book. I'll have to figure that out tomorrow. In other news, it's my sister's birthday today. Happy 20th birthday, Devon! She opened her birthday present today and says she loves the hat. She wore it for two hours even though it's not really winter in Australia anymore. What a sweet heart.

So I'm Making a Different Sweater...

I tried to make the seamless sweater from, you guessed it, Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet, my favorite and only crochet book.

After Lu Mei and Lindsey had watched me unravel the first few rows of my new sweater several times over the course of several episodes of Weeds, they were feeling its pain. I, on the other hand, custom to the inevitable countless frogging that comes with knitting, especially at my level, didn't really notice until they pointed it out.

That was on Friday night. Then, on Saturday, I took Septa and New Jersey Transit to New York to meet some potential future roommates. I brought LSAT homework and a book for the ride. I also took my crocheting. I had planned to spend most of the time studying, but instead I spent the entire time on that sweater. I got really far. That's one of the things I love about crocheting; with the exception of sc, it's so quick! And it's just as relaxing as knitting. The problem with this project was that some time between Newark and Princeton Junction I realized that I had wrongly interperated the directions. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that what I was making looked very different from the picture. But the great thing about crocheting is that anything goes; it looks like I intentially made it like this. So I'm going to finish it and then some time in the future I will follow it for real, but I can totally wear this. The only problem is that on Sunday, after I took these pictures and added the waste section (done actually according to the pattern!) I tried this on. And I think I might have started it too tight, because I don't know how well the bottom will go around my hips. I guess we'll soon find out.