Juicies and Blahs
So much happened last week! I'm still going to blog about it before I plunge into this week (where not much is happening knitting-wise anyway). First things first, I finished Rapunzel, and got *tons* of comments about it. Thank you commenters! It's great to feel the love!
I never told you that on tuesday, we went to the Mason-Dixon book signing at Coliseum Books. It was great to see Ann and Kay with my own eyes. They sound and look just like I imagined from reading their blog. Their book is beautifully photographed, and contains variations on beginner projects like log cabin blankets and mitered square blankets. Although I often smugly feel that as an intermediate/advanced knitter, I should not waste my time on beginner projects (insert sneer here), some of these projects appeal to me. However, my 2 favorites (the slip stitch patterned dishcloth and the spiral log cabin blanket) are not Mason-Dixon original patterns... Weird.
Next to the Mason-Dixon book, you can see a gift I just received. I was blown away: it's a gigantic (seriously, it weights 10 lbs. I'm not kidding, check out the Amazon page) book called "the Earth from Above".
It was given to me by the Secret Pal that I was giving gifts to! It was great to have a french SP: I got to email her in french every week, and I got to send her yarns and needles that seemed crazy exotic to her... (Apparently, there's no bamboo needles in France. Who knew?) Unfortunately, we had a few hiccups, mostly stemming from the fact that her english is not so great and she didn't grasp all of the SP7 rules. And there's pages and pages of rules... Poor girl! I was very touched to get a gift from her.
I've been inspired by the Mason-Dixon color concept of "juicies and blahs". The idea is that when making stripes you should choose a bright color and tone it down with a neutral color. And at the same time (usually ominous words in a knitting context), at the same time, the bright color gives some life to the neutral color. Brilliant.
I have 2 projects right now:
The juicy project is a Phildar pattern from the Spring 2004 (?) Tendances, knit in the recommended yarn, Phildar Rivage in Pomme Verte (aka Granny Smith Green). This green is so limey, acidic, fluorescent green it hurts to look directly at it. As you can see, I've completed a sleeve and started the back.
Here's a pic of the pattern (I couldn't find a link anywhere):
And the blah project is Birch knit in Habu's Silk/Mohair (color Charcoal, which is actually steel gray). I know it looks like a ruffle. Trust me, it should progressively become triangular. I just hope I have enough yarn...
Then, on friday, Katie threw a party at her new digs! The Casa de OSOH is oh so lovely.... I asked Katie about a mysterious closet in her kitchen. See it? To the right of her shiny fridge?
Look inside, and there's a washer and dryer! You have to live in NYC to understand the sheer extravagance of this. And you'd also understand why I was so amazed that I had to take a picture of it. Look at Katie beaming!
Edited To Add: And on monday I found out that my Secret Pal, Alice, has a pattern in the new Knitty! She designed a double knit checkered scarf called Exchequered . She sent me a pattern for Fair Isle checkers a while back, so now it all makes sense... Well, I guess she was trying out different ideas, and Fair Isle lost to double knitting (phew!). Oh, and I love that she's putting her model out there for all knitters to gawk at!
