I'll be out of the country till Friday, Cousteau-ing it up. The blog will pick back up by the weekend - in the meantime, I hope everyone has an outstanding start to the new year. I've got big plans for this little blog; lots of ideas and changes you'll see in the next few months - huzzah for 2006!
Check this out!
All those times they tell you in school that x is not a popularity contest? Yeah, it didn't stick. I'm unreasonably, childishly, burblingly excited to have found this.
I hope everyone is having a nice holiday season, with a minimum of stress and a maximum of pastry seasonal cheer.
Me, I'm just glad it's winding down. Despite my efforts to keep things simple, everything combined always ends up being too...too, what with the booze and the sodium and the electronics and the paper and the lights and the crowds and the general atomoshpere of frenzy. I spend the last week of every year slightly dazed, as though I've just emerged from out of a particularly garish pinball machine.
Last night, that sweater coat became
a lot of very fine, somewhat fragile yarn. I was wrong when I guessed that it would be a fingering weight made of several plies - turns out it's two strands of laceweight-ish knit together. It needs to dry, and be wound, and then we'll see what we see.
To rip the coat, I used this
!!!!!!
Courtesy of my boyfriend, who apparantly braved the uncharted and highly treacherous territory that is the knitting store in order to pick this up. It's perfect, since I don't need a ballwinder - I'm getting pretty handy with the nostepinne method - but the whole outstretched-knees-as-skein-holder thing wasn't really cutting it.
He gave me this, too:
I've been wanting this collection for a long time; there are some unbelievably beautiful patterns and motifs in here (Frost Flowers, anyone?). It's worth having for the charts alone, but the prose is charming and some real effort went into making this a coherent collection. Huzzah for wonderfully thoughtful, much-needed and much-appreciated presents!
Yesterday, I got my first (long-delayed) closeup look at the winter Interweave. This design was the only thing that caught my eye in the magazine -
but, oh, what a winner it is! I'm not crazy about the colors, but I love the concept, the shaping, the sense of geometry together with those sinuous cables that interlace and join the panels of the garment as though they grew that way. This is the sort of stuff I want to come up with - there's so little that's truly innovative when it comes to a craft as old as knitting, but man, is this a clever take on things.
Project Rundown:
--I decided Friday afternoon that I wouldn't try to finish my dad's sweater or the houndstooth clogs - a copout, maybe, but there were shrimp to be fried and temaki to be rolled in preparation for a big party. I really should learn not to bite off more than I can chew or choke down or chug.
--Some time ago, I took stalled-out projects off of the progress list. Brief obituaries follow:
Phew! Now, I just have to decide what knitting to take on vacation with me. The Austrian stockings? The baby sweater I've got to make? Those damn convertible mittens?
Last night, I'm sure there were families gathered around eggnog and cider, their cheery windows squares of yellow light in the blizzard - welcoming the weary and heart-sore traveler home, home for the holidays.
Us? We had good scotch, cheese and crackers, and Bad Santa on DVD. Here's to good times with people we love, whatever we do and wherever we might be gathered. Happy holidays!
Some days it's the best thing you've got going.
This properly belongs on my other site, but -
Good, clean, simple dinner on Thursday, of
I hope everyone, in the US and out, has a happy, healthy Thursday.
I'm always late to the party. In ninth grade, I was the last person to find out that Allison Whittier and Bryan Kranz had broken up at the senior prom after-party. This was news that rocked the world, people - and I had no idea, until I saw Bryan necking with Shannon Hines.
Then, I heard only that Bruce Willis had a new movie that was kind of interesting, didn't bother to see it, and thus was embarassingly confused whenever anyone brought up the fact that he'd been "dead the whole time." He was staring at me from the checkout line magazine display every week - how could he be dead?
The list goes on and on. You mean those people were high?! Why is everyone so down on Ray Lewis? There's this site, it's pretty funny, called The Onion...oh, you mean you've heard of it already? I don't know, I thought those were pretty nice boots Condoleeza had on.
I think the crowning glory of my shining career in cluelessness came when I realized that the "Every Kiss Begins With Kay" jewelry-store jingle is a pun - you'll receive a kiss when you bring home a gift from Kay Jewelers, but also, the first letter of "kiss" is "k," har har har.
I realized this TWO WEEKS AGO.
So I don't feel so bad that I've just now discovered the wonder and glory that is the nostepinne, or more properly, the wonder and glory that is the nostepinne technique. Sure, people have been doing it for centuries; sure, it's a common-sense kind of thing; sure, I'm an idiot for drawing complex diagrams of a handcranked ballwinder's movements and thinking I'd build one someday. I don't care - I'm too pleased with myself.
Those are the scraps I'm collecting for my Someday Fair Isle Vest, wrapped into neat, stackable cakes with an elegantly low-tech and seamlessly appropriate method. Ahhh, tradition.
Executive Summary of WIPS - the Peacock, she grows. I'm going to limit chatter and pictures, I think, because 1) I know lace-in-progress is deadly monotonous, and 2) everyone saw a thousand Peacocks being worked this summer. Next time you see it, it'll be blocked and draped around the nearest available elephant.
The convertible gloves - I finally got around to asking Jeff about them, and miracle of miracles, he likes them. They fit perfectly, without ripple or wrinkle; he likes the color, the yarn, even the cable. Huzzah! I'll finish those, too, this week, start test-knitting the pattern for smaller hands (crossing my fingers - I think it just might downscale perfectly with smaller needles and fingering weight yarn), and then offer a nice little free pattern. Whoop!
I have been thinking lately about the phenomenon of the upscale knitter - that is, he or she who embodies American knitting's century-long shift from the only practical way of outfitting a family with warm winter underclothes to a luxury parlor art indulged in more often by those with disposable income and idle time than those without.
I'm a practically penniless writer, myself (lacking only the garret room and the consumptive lover), but I can't help but smile a little at the irony of indulging my champagne-and-cashmere tastes in order to reinvent as a pastime what has historically been a chore - Marie Antoinette playing at milkmaid.
Don't worry - this isn't turning into a fiber fascist's manifesto - I knit for the simple pleasure of it; because I think making something that pleases the eye and hands is worth time and effort; because I have an unconquerable inability to sit still; because I can't bear to step into a mall come Christmas. The holier-than-thou who sniff at "trendy" knitting can see me in hell - I'll be the one wearing the mohair legwarmers.
I do think, though, that it's important to be a thoughtful knitter, aware of the spirit of economy and thrift out of which today's expensive hobby grew. I'd like to learn to spin, and learn more about fiber production, but for now:
True scraps and leftovers that will become a bonny Fair Isle vest, in the best tradition of turning waste into something new and useful - exercising my portion of the innate and universal eye for beauty, gratefully.
Welcome to the new site! It's very much in progress yet, but we're working on building it better, faster, stronger. Or something like that. I get confused sometimes.
Yahaira and Mintyfresh have both sent some meme dust my way. I love reading these - I love seeing the variety of answers to one question, and I dig seeing knitters address topics they normally wouldn't go out of their way to discuss (needle talk, yarn talk, disaster talk...).
What is your all time favorite yarn to knit with?
Hmm. I'm going to cheat (gotten off to a great start, haven't we?) and say it depends on the type of project. I like doing a lot of different things (cabling, felting, lacemaking, Fair-Isle-ing), and have my go-to yarns for each of those (Cascade 220, Lamb's Pride Worsted, Jaggerspun Zephyr Wool-Silk, and Dale Baby Ull, respectively). I do think very fondly, though, of one discontinued yarn - Rowan's True 4-ply Botany, a fingering-weight wool that came in vivid, deeply saturated colors, and knit up beautifully into highly-formed texture, or jewel-toned colorwork, or plain, smooth stockinette. It wasn't as buttery-soft as a Merino yarn, but the Botany wool definitely had its own brand of lush richness. I don't know why Rowan discontinued it - it was "replaced" with, I think, 4-ply Soft, which isn't the same thing at all.
Your favorite needles?
Circulars, for sure. Addi Turbos for cables, Addi Naturals for lace and Fair Isle. I keep meaning to try out the ebony and rosewood needles everybody talks about, too. I also have a mild obsession with glove needles - I can't help buying a set whenever I see them, although I only knit maybe three pairs of gloves a year. I love the 5" length - so comfortable. I own birch, bamboo, plastic, and metal sets, with the wee little aluminum ones being my favorite.
The worst thing you've ever knit?
Ahh, I wish I had a picture. It was this pretty thing:
Erin, from Rowan 30, a few years ago. As I knit, I learned that I 1) hated stringy, papery All Seasons Cotton; 2) hated reverse stockinette; and 3) hated myself when I seamed the sucker and then couldn't get my head through the turtleneck. I promptly frogged, and then hid the yarn so well that I just realized that I have no idea where it is.
Your most favorite knit pattern? (maybe you don't like wearing it...but it was the most fun to knit)
The Norwegian Stockings were a lot of fun; a cleverly written pattern with zen-like simple colorwork. Fabulous fireside knitting:
The macho aran was interesting to knit, too - my first from-scratch garment. It was immensely interesting to watch it develop as I went along.
Most valuable knitting technique?
Cabling without a cable needle, hands down. I love cables, but don't think I could bear the fiddliness of working with that short, crooked needle for more than a few stitches at a time.
Best knit book or magazine?
I like to look at Interweave Knits, and occasionally make a project out of it. Best one-subject knitting book would have to be Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting, for the incredible wealth of historical information she presents, the beautiful patterns, and the excellent guidance on developing your own garments.
Your favorite knit-a-long?
I thought the Union Square Market Pullover knitalong was really interesting. Lots of information and discussion.
Your favorite knitblogs?
I'll join the chorus, and say I love the blogs with beautiful photographs: Sweet Georgia and Streets and YOs, of course, but I also smile when I see that Knitfix, Whispering Pine, and Fig and Plum have been updated with my daily dose of yarn porn.
Your favorite knitwear designer?
Kate Gilbert. Teva Durham. Veronik Avery. Kim Hargreaves, though "interesting" usually moves over for "classic" with her stuff. Oodles of others.
The knit item you wear the most? (how about a picture of it!)
My cabled hoodie cardigan. Perfect for throwing on over a swimsuit once the sun goes down at the beach, perfect for fending off high whistling winds in the nosebleed seats of a ball park, perfect for layering in these chilly, sunny days. It sees a lot of wear:
Tag time
How about Kate at Knitlit, Laura, over at the almost brand-spanking-new Soapturtle, and Leah at Use Your Hands?
Thank you so much for the nice comments about Der Schmetterling! It's pretty, but it's not exactly practical for everyday wear anymore. During the summer, I wore it a couple times over a plain white strapless shift, under a fitted bracelet-sleeve jacket. The pink dress I have on under it in the photo is something I bought at Ann Taylor many moons ago...you can't see the back, but I couldn't...quite...zip it all the way. Gah.
It took about four ounces of Jaggerspun Zephyr, a laceweight Merino/tussah silk blend. The yarn is fabulously airy, with that peculiar rich crunchiness silk gives, tempered by the softness of the wool. It's exceptionally strong for its weight, too, which is more than I can say for other laceweights *cough*Merino Oro*cough*. I liked making this a lot - it goes blazing quick on 4.5mm (US7) needles, since the lace stre-e-e-e-tches so much when blocked. There are less than 100 stitches on the needle at the widest point. The double frill was the most tedious part...the rest was mindless, Zen knitting.
New things: the Norwegian Stockings out of Nancy Bush's Folk Socks are an object of desperate coveting for me (and I am the Grand High Poobah of covetousness).
I'd call myself a process knitter more than anything else; I like having a FO as much as anyone, but (nerd alert) I take a lot more pleasure in the nitty-gritty of technique and method. I actually cast on for the stockings last night with some random yarn ends lying around in my stash, just to try 'em out. I'm planning to get yarn for the "real" project today, but I was very taken with the way the cuff is written, and wanted to see it knit up right away. Nancy Bush stripes the ribbing with a row of plain knitting at each color change, so the integrity of the stripe isn't compromised either puckered
Or stretched
Why didn't I think of that before? Narrow stripes in regular ribbing look fuzzy in the purl portions of the color change, since the loops of the preceding color show below the loop of the new shade. This way gives you proper stripey stripes. Brilliant.
And THANKS, too, to Meg of Yarn Expressions for her tip on intarsia, taken from Kaffe Fassett. I'm sure everyone else already knew this, but (as usual) I'm the last one to the party. She told me to use short lengths (I'm finding that even strands as long as three yards or so work fine), let them hang, and just pull them through when they get too tangled.
It works capitally. Kiss my bobbin!
WTF moment of the day: The squirrely-looking roofing guy who came out to investigate the water pouring down alongside the woodstove chimney apparantly informed my boyfriend that he (he being Jeff) is "smart not to get an Amurrican one, 'cause Amurrican ones are nuts." An American one of what? "Get"? Two for the price of one! Vaguely misogynistic AND vaguely racist, all in one comment! How efficient.
I just realized that "misogynistic" has "miso" in it. That can't be a coincidence. That's got to mean something. It's making me hungry, too.
Gratuitous shoe photo of the day. I was a solitary crusader against this whole round-toe trend, but I've given in. These are too cute to wage a war over.
This is one of the links that shows up regularly in these AdSense boxes I'm testdriving. They handknit and sell sweaters using "traditional clan patterns" traced from your last name. Like, if your name is Ó Caomhánaigh (or, you know, Cavanaugh), you'll receive a sweater patterned with honeycomb for work and cables for good luck.
It's a beautiful sweater - but I thought it was well-established that the Aran sweater as we know it had nothing to do with family crests, ancient symbols or identifying dead fishermen washed up an shore. The Aran sweater - drop-shouldered, saddle-strapped, and patterned in a symmetrical fashion with any number of textured stitches - is a commercial product of this century, born with the arrival of big fishing outfits and tourism to the Isles. The Scottish gansey, with its utilitarian gussets and quick-knit construction, is a traditional fisherman's garment, but the Aran is purely an item for export. The motifs have no traceable meaning or symbolism; Alice Starmore even goes so far as to say that most of the "traditional" textured stitches we know were made up over a period of years by one woman whose name has been lost to time.
The idea of an ancient homespun tradition is mighty appealing, though, especially when combined with the thought of discovering a heritage you may not have known you had. This company (which seems to have a pretty big footprint in the economy of the Aran Islands) has certainly done its research. They know exactly what your average baby boomer American tourist wants to hear. They make wonderful things - and I bet they do a bang-up business selling them.
Don't you just love it when you go to pull out the center end of a new skein, and this happens?
I really think it's my favorite part of knitting. I can't decide what I like best about it - the tangled ends, the snarled center, the inability to transport the ball...it's awesome, really.
The sweater jacket is moving a bit faster now:
I finished both back sides and knit across them to join, and am at the first few increases. It's hard to get a sense of scale in a picture, but it looks...curiously tiny. It's been pinned to meaurements for the photo, but it looks like doll clothing. I don't know if it's a function of the pattern, or the shape, or what, but hey - if it looks the same way on me, that'll be a good thing, right?
I leave you with this - a booklet published by the Chungsong company, promoting their cotton crochet thread. It doesn't contain patterns, but instead just has pictures of the things you could make, I guess, if you bought their yarn. It's mostly stuff like badly photographed and utterly irony-less antimacassars and doilies, but the cover shot is worth note:
Knitting as art therapy for the deeply, deeply insane.
I used to be a sweet girl. I would sit quietly, industriously knitting my little sweaters and socks and shawls, ever mindful of my mother's admonishions to keep my legs crossed at the ankle, to speak in a low voice, to never be drunk in public and to be modest and unassuming in all things.
Of course, girlhood passes - pearls slipping off a string, and all that. Suddenly, the world was awash in colors I'd never noticed; patterned with textures I could never have expected. It was as though a curtain had been drawn back to reveal the secret lives of the staid and the familiar, and I was watching with vicarious, knowing pleasure. A sudden thrill of understanding - an awakening, if you will.
I want to learn to spin. How do I go about it?
Thank you so much for all the sweet, thoughtful comments on the USMP. You guys make me blush.
On to pattern notes, and questions about the sweater -
Yarn substitution is a big issue with this garment; the Plassard alpaca called for isn't widely available on this side of the pond. Frog Tree Alpaca, Knitpicks Alpaca cloud, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, and some singularly gorgeous handspun have all been spotted over at the knitalong, but I am deliriously in love with the Garnstudio DROPS Alpaca I used. It's a fingering-weight 100% alpaca yarn that manages to be really rather all-around decadent and reasonably priced at the same time (poor man's cashmere, indeed). It even comes in an enormous palette of beautiful, sophisticated colors to boot. Four and a half skeins (about 900 yards) of main color and most of one skein (about 150 yards) of contrast color went into the smallest size.
On 3.25mm (US3) needles and a gauge of 7 stitches to the inch, it took exactly two weeks from caston to weaving in the last end. Therein lies a huge part of the appeal of this garment - though the shaping is fresh and architectural and unusual, the knitting itself couldn't be simpler (plain stockinette, done almost entirely in the round). The payoff is exponential to the amount of effort put in.
Pattern mods - I modified the bell sleeves to 10 stitches (about an inch and a half) smaller in circumference - it made a big difference. I also worked the sleeves a little differently than called for - I worked the short-row cuff as written; then decreased 1 stitch at each end of the round on every 19th row 5 times to give an even flare to the sleeve, starting about halfway down the forearm. The way the pattern is written, the sleeves are knit to measurements rather than row counts - I think I took about one inch off the total length.
Blocking - though I covet a blocking board with the lust of a thousand nuns, I'm still blocking on the guest bed mattress. I wet-blocked, squeezed out excess water, and pinned carefully, matching stitch for stitch and checking with a big T-square.
With all that said - I want to keep this! < /three year old >
Back to business as usual around here - we went to see The Corpse Bride tonight (it looked spectacular, of course...but I think Tim Burton's starting to mistake creepiness for whimsy and forgetting to put his tongue in his cheek). The rainy weekend we had seems to have ushered in fall proper - it's getting so a little something at the throat would be welcome. I've started a scarf with the leftover white alpaca, using the lace pattern from the Kimono Scarf and a simple garter stitch border:
and I'm ready to start on a new project (that will be mine! MINE! Muahahah!) - the sweater jacket, re-imagined:
In playing with the Korean merino, it turns out that fair isle produces a marvelously smooth, sturdy fabric.
I think I'll do this little jacket as a nipped-waist type thing, patterned brocade-style with a very simple light-color lattice over a dark brown background. I'm thinking princess shaping; I'm thinking seamstress detailing; I'm thinking I need to start right. This. Second.
Bless her. I went to pick her up from the airport yesterday, and managed to go from this:
to this:
while waiting for the ice caps to melt, for the sun to go out, and for her to clear customs.
I guess I attracted a lot of attention, doing the knitting-while-standing thing with my eyes fixed on a book propped on the rail in front of me, needles pointing in every direction and the yarn ball looped over my wrist. A lot of people came over to strike up conversations (I'm making a sweater for my pet boa); one broad just started fondling the fabric and flipping through the pattern magazine without a word (Gahh! Are your hands clean?); and one woman looked at the porcupine in my hands, decided I looked clumsy and not to be trusted, and hustled her kids away (I should have worn safety goggles).
Bless my mama, too, for the lovely suprise she brought me:
100% virgin merino from Korea, in a deep chocolate and a greyish beige. She bought eight skeins of each, still wrapped in their factory bags. Unfortunately, the labels say only that they're 100 gram skeins of "D4" weight new wool and give washing instructions - no yardage or US weight. Undaunted, I played with them a bit this morning, and found that they knit up beautifully on a 3.5mm (US4) needle to 5.5 stitches and 8 rows per inch:
and that both colors felt marvelously.
The question is, what should I make with them? Gloves? Mittens?
I do have an idea I've been mulling over, for which the chocolate merino would be perfect -
A structured sweater jacket, with an inverted back pleat to give it shape, a self-belt, big covered buttons, a wide shawl collar, slightly belled sleeves, and same-shade lace peeping out at cuff, hem, and neckline. I was thinking of this in a tweedy brown wool, but this new stuff would be mighty tasty, too. The grey wool might be nice for showing off cables.
Unfortunately, I have infinitely more ideas than I have time to execute them, and way too many WIPs as it is. I guess I'll finish the USMP, and then decide what to do.
Here's the motif of the circular shrug:
And a shot of the other little giftie my mom sweetly brought me:
Post Script - Using the highly scientific and technically infallible method of "First Come First Served," I'm going to send the Trinity sweater to Eastern White, whose blog is compulsively readable indeed. Email me!
Post Post Script - a lot of people find this blog by Googling my name; it's a little creepy, I guess, especially when the IP gives me an idea of who they are and wonder why on earth they would look me up, but no biggie. More and more people are finding this blog by Googling knitting terms and the names of projects I've done, which is really cool. But who is the person finding this blog by Googling "tall women clips", and how did it bring them here?
Frenzy of housecleaning yesterday. Floors waxed, boxes unpacked, dark spaces between furniture and walls investigated, stored clothes aired and refolded. That is, all those things would have gotten done if I weren't a mere evolutionary step removed from a raccoon distracted by tinfoil and gotten all sidetracked by any and everything that seemed marginally more interesting than changing the filter in the range hood.
I think this was my first finished object ever. I've been knitting for at least fifteen or twenty years, since I was a wee small kid - I have vivid memories of trying to figure out how to fix a dropped stitch in the blanket I was making for a baby doll I had - but I had this bad habit of never finishing anything. At fourteen, I'd blow my allowance on Wool-Ease and overdue fees from the library; at sixteen I'd blow my Starbucks paycheck on Rowan magazines and that beautiful 4-ply botany wool they used to produce; at eighteen I discovered Noro. I've probably started hundreds of projects, knitting and ripping and rewinding until the poor yarns waved white flags of destroyed elasticity and fiber fatigue. Thus it was that a lot of self-manufactured fanfare went along with my finishing this sweater, on a trip to California, four or five years ago.
Too bad I don't care for it at all. It's from a Jaeger pattern book, in that peculiar papery silk/cotton/polyamide Trinity yarn (my first - and last - impulse to spend big money on manmade fiber). Nothing about it is right for me - it's too short; the cable panel down the middle and the high neck aren't flattering; the knitting isn't smooth or even; the fabric is fairly delicate. But, I knit this before I believed in blocking (forgive me, O blocking sprites!), so I'm hoping a soak and aggressive pinning will even things out and give it a bit of fluidity in addition to correcting the size issues.
I found my Flower Basket Shawl, too, crumpled in a heap on top of one of my bookcases. It was in a bad way:
I didn't block it enough before, and the spring in the yarn (100% wool, if I recall) had drawn it in to become a lumpy little mess. Another sacrifice at the altar of T-pins and Woolite:
Much better.
I know I've pimped this before, but the Yarn Harlot's lace blocking method is genius. Fewer pins, straighter edges, less making of the crazy.
I've gotten a lot done on the Union Square pullover, too - the body is blocking, and I've started the sleeves.
Speaking of which, do you think the bell is a little too big? They're beautiful and graceful and all, but I fear it won't be quite so elegant when the cuffs fall in the spaghetti sauce or knock over a glass of wine or simply give a general effect of a little girl trying on her mom's fur coat. I'm thinking of taking the suggestions from some of the good ladies at the Union Square Knit Along and modifying it for a cuff caston of 72 stitches rather than 92. I was looking forward to knitting a pattern exactly as written - and this is a well-written, interesting pattern, indeed - but I guess it's not to be.
I'm working on my Craftster shrug, too:
I'll block the bejeebus out of this to even the cables and give the thing drape. No chunky knits, ever!
Yarn shops? Don't talk to me about yarn shops. You're looking at a girl who thinks of going to the yarn store like a kid dreams of going to the candy shop - with epicurean, voluptuous pleasure. Going to the yarn store with money to spend? Call Sir Edmund Hillary; it's an expedition fraught with dilemnas and obstacles (silk or wool? or wool-silk blend?), tempered by breathless discovery and revelation (my God...pink fingering angora! At $8.00 a 200m skein!).
Which is why it's such a pleasure to come across a new (to me) store. Will the staff be sweet? Will I want to go and chat with them? Will the walls be lined with merino and cashmere, or with yarn dripping with cheap spangles and "fun fur" (totally my new favorite euphemism for pubic hair)?
Babble aside, All About Yarn is a great store off 108 in Columbia - it's enormous, full of beautiful and hard-to-find things, including more hand-dyed silk than is good for me, and staffed with knowledgeable, personable people. It's a bit out of the way, so I thought I'd pass this tip along to anyone in the DC/Baltimore area.
Another day; another two repeats on the kimono shawl. It's getting loooong already...I think 20 repeats will be plenty. Which means I'm more than halfway done!
Sweet Leah over at Use Your Hands tagged me. Thank you, Leah :)
TEN YEARS AGO: I was in sixth grade (!)
FIVE YEARS AGO: I had, in a fit of disgust, graduated high school a year early by taking a senior english credit over the summer and getting my diploma in the mail, much to the dismay of the high-retention-rate-loving coordinator of the IB program I was in. I got a job at PR firm in the city, moved into the first of many apartments in Dupont Circle, and suddenly found that everything moved very quickly.
ONE YEAR AGO: I had just left a materials technology startup in a storm of tears and burnout and was interviewing to be a technical writer on a huge GSA proposal for MCI. Jeff and I had been dating for a year...he'd come down to my apartment, I'd cook really fabulous food, and we'd fall asleep watching The Daily Show every night.
FIVE SNACKS: Kettle-style potato chips; cold pasta eaten standing up in front of the fridge; Judy Rogers' egg fried in breadcrumbs; cold Orange Beef; pie.
FIVE SONGS I KNOW ALL THE WORDS TO: "In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry; "Comfort Eagle" by Cake; "Hotwax" by Beck...um..."To Sir With Love" by Lulu..."King of the Road" as sung by Dean Martin
FIVE THINGS I WOULD DO WITH $100 MILLION: 1) Invest. 2) Gamble (just to see what it's like). 3) Create a scholarship for first-generation kids. 4) Eat and drink at The Fat Duck, Arzak, El Bulli, and all over Japan. 5) Make my family and friends comfortable.
FIVE PLACES TO RUN AWAY TO: The desert (Sonoran); the mountains (Blue Ridge); the ocean (Great Barrier Reef); the city (London and Florence)
FIVE THINGS I WOULD NEVER WEAR: Birkenstocks; excessively flared jeans; tube tops; ponchos in any form; anything with a visible logo.
FIVE FAVORITE TV SHOWS: Deadwood, Carnivale (the first season, anyway), The Daily Show...umm...that's about it.
FIVE BIGGEST JOYS: Working with my hands; reading a really good book for the first time; spending time with my family; doing work I'm really proud of; seeing my name in a byline (it never gets old).
FAVORITE TOYS: My Powerbook, hands down. I don't really have any other gadgets or toys.
PEOPLE TO PASS THIS ON TO: Here's the thing - I'm sort of new at this whole thing, and have no idea who has and who hasn't done a meme.
Do you have a blog? Have you done this? Let me know, and I'll tag you.
Choose an organization you trust, and give a little.
I have started
a new kntting blog
that will clog
the internet
and which
you were probably
not in the least
desirous of.
Forgive me
it was irresistable
so cheap
and so self-promoting.
(with apologies to William Carlos Williams)
