I'm Sorry For Not Calling

It's like when you neglect to call, and then put it off because you feel badly, then it just goes longer and longer and you know you should just do it, but then you have to address why you slacked in the first place. Well, I'm sorry blog for not calling.

Update from way back.
So I finally got a hold of pictures from the mittens I made for New Hampshire cousins, Max and Gabe. They're both crocheted: after a quick stop into Michaels for Paton's wool and a looong drive in the traffic - voila!

These are Gabe's. He's little so they're still cool for him. No detail shots, but they have little blue mouths (crocheted like a little pocket) with red tongues sticking out.


I also finally got a picture of the cool gloves my New Hampshire grandmother was knitting. Simple garter stitch with some short rows (to pull in the wrist), and some casting on/binding off. It's one of those - huh, why didn't I think of that. They whole thing is knit sideways (so the left of the picture is the top of the knitting) in one piece. Very cool.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
I went with Emily and her friend to McGinty's, a cute little Irish pub in downtown Silver Spring. I tried to get a picture of the band, but to not real avail. The blur in the background is two guys and a gal singing/playing very good Celtic music. This picture is also reminiscent of Senior Thesis when some girl decided to put up some lame digital shots at bars, just like this, and call it her senior show.

A few days later I was at Z Pizza, also in Silver Spring, also with Emily, and found TW Cen MT!!! My favorite font (hello NightCap. brand, and just about everything else I've designed in the last few years.)


Happy Easter!
I flew to Florida for Easter and Spring Break. I appreciate Pine Island more and more each time I go back. It's this funky old fisherman island full of artists. For instance, we went Easter dinner shopping at the local grocery store and all of a sudden they had "celebrity baggers" - local authors, artists, tv personnel, etc bagging the groceries to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. Cool. THEN two musicians started to play - one with a drum, the other with a little flute kind of thing clad in mullet boots (white rubber fishing boots?) with bells on them, turning it into a musical instrument (sort of like the bells around the ankles of Morrison dancers.)

Another day, mom and I walked down to the end of the island and found this adorable little sand castle.

After Pine Island I spent some time at Stetson with Will, doing all those things I never did as a student (hung out in the quad, read in the sun, walked around downtown, played tennis, went out to the bars, hung out at the beach). Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this. But we had a really great time!


Cherry Blossom Fever.
I came back up to DC in the middle of the blooming of the Cherry Blossoms. They are magical. I don't have many pictures yet, they're all drive-by shots on the way to work (don't worry, I wasn't the one driving). But the contrast of the dark, knarly wood on the bottom with the delicate tissue-like blossoms in ivory and light pink is absolutely stunning. I'm heading to the Cherry Blossom Festival in a little bit and hope to get more pictures.

Back to Yarning.
So I've been working on two tops lately. The first is mostly done, but I still need to resolve the sleeve area. I used some Sublime - a cashmere/silk/merino wool blend for it, so it's unbelievably soft. Unfortunately I'm still not in the mind-set of creating things and then being able to make it into a pattern, as this top was started under the bust with crochet, then I picked up the stitches and knit down to the bottom, finishing with a lace stitch, and then crochet bottom. Then I came back up to the top and crocheted up the bust, and then double crocheted the very top part. I call it my million-stitch headache.


So I moved onto a new top. This is with bamboo (omg, I'm hooked! I LOVE working with bamboo now!) I started on a lovely day in the park with the neck line. I ended up abandoning that idea and riping it out, and settling on a smaller band in single crochet.

Then I double-crocheted down the front with increases at every row on both sides. I still need to crochet an edge to add some more cloth on the front - it's a bit more revealing on the sides than I'd want to wear. This picture was taken right as I was about to connect it around the back and start down the length of it. Now I've got it connected and am about 3/4 down the length of the body. Next I'm going to crochet down two strips from the neckline in the back to connect to the back of the piece. It's completely modeled after a dress I wore for my parents' 25th Vow Renewal - color and all.