Lovely Purls

Thinking of something new

2007-02-28T06:21:00.000-05:00

A bit brain-fried and pooped after the unpleasantness of the bar exam, fresh starts are on my mnd today. Like resolving to pay due attention to other things in my life, like cleaning (that's right, honey), cooking good food, and knitting of course. So as my tired eyes wander the internet, there are two lovely possibilities for my next knitting endeavor:

1) Knit and Tonic's Flair. Very Audrey Hepburn in Charade, no?

2) Bamboo. After reading IK's piece on bamboo yarns, I'm dreaming of that Alchemy Bamboo I felt at Purl on my last visit. So silky soft and smooth. And it's on sale at Webs, which I happen to have a gift certificate for from Christmas. However, I have no particular project in mind. Suggestions? Something that would require 1-2 skeins?

Okay, that's it for now. I'll be back soon, rested and refreshed.

Goodness gracious, today's the last day of February!

Sweetness and snow + too much law

2007-02-16T10:02:00.000-05:00

Hello, thanks so much for all the sweet words on Lady Eleanor. I'm absolutely flattered and touched. I will wear her proudly.

On a not-so-exciting note today, I'm sorry to report that the February knitting forecast is not looking so good. Folks, I'm taking the bar exam in a week and a half. After I took the NY exam in 2004 I swore I would never again think of the Rule Against Perpetuities or General Testamentary Powers of Appointment, but here I am, making my outlines and cursing the law of contracts all over again. However, I certainly cannot complain, as my job as a lawyer in Vermont is part of what enabled us to move here, and to continue in that job I suppose I need to be licensed in the state. And my firm has generously granted me a 3-week sabbatical to accomplish this studying, so I've been trudging through this stuff from the comforts of my home, enjoying lunch at my table and watching the snow float down from the sky. I also owe many thanks to Jess, whose recent suffering through the bar has afforded me some great notes. But studying and feeling like a student again, a very strange feeling indeed.

As for the snow, my goodness, I think we have 4-ish feet total outside. That's cumulative over the past month or so, but at least 2 feet in that crazy Valentine's Day blizzard! My dear mother is coming to visit from Atlanta this weekend - she already believes we live in eskimo country or something, and this is going to come as quite a shock to her. Vermonters are tough cookies though, the snow plows have been working around the clock and everyone seems to be continuing business as usual. Our snowplow man came to plow our driveway last night and he wasn't even wearing a jacket or gloves!! I love it.

Hope you had a cozy little Valentine's Day. Ours was lovely and fun, and a little bit of an adventure. We had dinner reservations at a wonderful inn about 30 miles away and we were too stubborn to let a little blizzard scare us away from a good meal. So off we went in our trusty Honda Element 4-wheel drive - how bad could it get? Well, we made it, but probably risked our lives to get there. I would recommend listening to the National Weather Service when they say "extremely hazardous driving conditions" next time. We enjoyed every bit of our well-earned meal by the fire though, and the drive home was made a bit easier by a fresh plow. We ultimately did get stuck, but luckily it was just at the bottom of our driveway!

And thanks to my sweet Valentine, I also have a bunch of new projects for the knitting queue. In addition to the prettiest set of sticky notes I've ever seen, I received this book, which is full of beautiful pillows, blankets, and goodies for the home.

Well, really I must be studying now. Why is it that I feel most creative and inspired when I have no time to put my ideas into action? Oh dear.

I'll leave you with a few shots of my winter wonderland. Keep those fingers and toes toasty!

A whole lot of white

2007-02-03T15:44:00.000-05:00

What better way to kick off February's Project Spectrum than with 5 more inches of snow?

As promised, some finished shots of Lady E:

Stay warm and cozy! I recommend cocoa.

So much

2007-01-25T20:22:00.000-05:00

Oh my, why am I have so many problems with blogger? It took me
forever to publish this post, ugh! Anyway . . .

I've been a little quiet about knitting recently, not because I
haven't been knitting of course, but really it's just been repeat and
repeat of entrelac for the Lady Eleanor stole. Not something that I
find boring in the least bit, but there's only so much you can write
about. But now, it's ready in all of its lovely silk garden glory:

This is really only a sneak peak. This project is deserving of its
own photo shoot in good light, and not just photos consisting of me
turning the camera on myself. This weekend, perhaps.

I do love this shawl. I'd longed for this beautiful shawl for ages,
hesitant to plunge in to such a large project - size-wise, I thought
I might get bored or tempted to start something else mid-way
through. 10 skeins of noro is no small investment, and I wanted to
make it worth it. And boy did I ever. I completely enjoyed knitting
this shawl from start to finish. Entrelac is surprisingly easy, and
there's enough variation that I never tired of it.

This past week has also been a perfect week to roll out a new winter
accessory, in terms of the weather. All I really want to do is stay
in my house, wrap myself in warm things, and split my time between
the kitchen and knitting by the fire. Sounds great, right?
Unfortunately, I do have to make a living, so I have been reluctantly
venturing out to work every day. But that hasn't kept me from
promptly parking myself in my comfy chair, with my comfy pants, after
dinner each night with my new project, the ubitquitous clapotis.

This is my second clapotis, the first was knit with the pattern
choice of Lorna's Lace Lion and Lamb, which is hands-down the most
wonderful yarn I've ever knit with. This time, I'm knitting with a
yarn I've had my eye on for a while which I received as a gift for
Christmas - Brook's Farm Four Play in a lovely brick red. Though not as buttery feeling as Lion and Lamb (that's the best way I can think to describe it), Four Play is a similar wool/silk blend and it's really
nice too.

And, in the spirit of my continued infatuation with lists, a few
things I love right now:

1.
Sometimes I think the snow looks like the surface of the moon.
And it's so white!

2. The Black Apple, beautiful art and charming stories.

3. Nicole is a newbie blogger, who shares my love for babycakes treats and endures many colder days than me.

4. Socks for all! Knee high wool socks in every color of the rainbow, I'm in heaven.

5.
My new earth
shoes. Yay for sensible shoes.

6. Good stuff.

7.
Sunshine in the morning.

Friday is right around the corner!

Baby it's cold outside

2007-01-17T07:34:00.000-05:00

Holy crap, it's sixteen below!

Warm wishes from chilly Vermont!

Tea for two

2007-01-14T18:10:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I'm just so overwhelmed by all the neat things out there on the internet.

This caught my eye the other day and I thought it was just about the cutest thing ever. So today, in the mood for a delightful little snack to accompany my delightful Saturday afternoon, I pulled out my favorite recipe for pumpkin muffins and set some water to boil.

The table was all decked out with my fancy vintage napkins, special teacups, and our teapot from Sunrise Mart (my favorite NYC source for all things japanese).

The tea du jour was one purchased over Christmas in Pittsburgh. It's a japanese green tea called Fukamushi-cha, which is really fun to say. We ran out of our usual organic japanese sencha, also from Sunrise (man do I wish they sold online), but this one was quite similar.

All ready

The tea was superb

And the muffins were fantastic! You must make these.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins (adapted from Sweet and Natural
(makes 8-10)

1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves)
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 - 1 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup canola oil (or other light veg. oil)
1/2 cup maple syrup (use VT maple syrup, it's the best)
1/3 cup raisins

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately
- Stir wet into dry; add raisins
- Spoon into muffin tin and bake for 18-19 minutes. Do not overcook!

Have a lovely week!

Home from the holidays

2007-01-04T08:54:00.000-05:00

Happy 2007 dear internet! I'm amazed how quickly 2006 flew by -
whew, in a flash!! Looking back on the past year, I'm pretty
astounded how things have changed for me. I moved from NYC to rural
Vermont, changed jobs, bought a house, made my first sweater, etc.
What a year. I'm a very lucky girl; I can only hope 2007 will be as
sweet.

So I've been gone for a bit. Here's my holiday, by bullet points:

- Visited my family in Atlanta before Christmas. I spent some
quality time with my parents' new Shih Tzu puppy, became a creature
of strip mall suburbia for a few days, and was reminded how much I
absolutely love seeing my family.

This is Blair. He is so lovable.

- It was almost 70 degrees in Atlanta. I didn't wear a jacket, and
my wool socks never saw the light of day. It was kind of strange
watching the high school kids walking around in flip flops doing
their Christmas shopping though. And as an aside, when did it ever
become fashionable to wear pajama bottoms as regular pants? Do
people have no dignity?

- Oh, while I was in Atlanta, I got the urge to cut some bangs. One
of those things I just need to do every once in a while. I like them
a lot.

- Travelled from Atlanta to Pittsburgh to spend Christmas with my
husband's family. We lounged in our pajamas in the mornings, enjoyed
feasts prepared by my culinary-gifted Danish brother-in-law
(including a traditional Danish Christmas dinner), wandered the
Carnegie Museum, visited my favorite vintage store, watched a little
too much of the Travel Channel and Food Network, and, most
importantly, chatted amongst the ruins of a Christmas morning
centered around my fabulous 5-year old niece.

- Back to Vermont. Though our trip was wonderful, it was so nice to
return to our comfy little abode. We were greeted with nice layer of
fresh snow, which was supplemented by on and off snow showers over
New Year's weekend. By this point in my vacation, I was fully
adjusted to my new holiday sleeping-in schedule and wanted nothing
more than to stay in, cook all day, and sit by the fire when I wasn't
occupied in the kitchen.

- About a week too late, I finished the irish hiking scarf for my
brother. It turned out great, but it was a little anti-climatic
watching him open a scarf which I had to promptly re-claim, promising
the needles would be removed in about a foot.

- I watched a few good movies. All the Real Girls, bittersweet, and
Zooey Deschanel is oh-so-lovely. Capote, which is a bit of a downer,
but Philip Seymour Hoffman was superb. The Bishop's Wife with Cary
Grant, a perennial favorite of mine. And The Life Acquatic, which
although pretty entertaining, I my eyes got quite heavy by the end
(that's not saying much considering my record though). And An
Inconvenient Truth . . . did I mention 70 degrees in Atlanta?

In the words of our wise king, oh why can't every day be like
Christmas? Hope your holidays were merry and bright, and may that
magical holiday feeling lasts well into 2007. Until next time . . .

Sometimes I love dreary days

2006-12-16T09:52:00.000-05:00

It should be snowing up here, but instead it's a drizzly grey day. Dreary Saturdays are sometimes the best though, staying inside and feeling content doing simple things. Today I plan to go to the coop, look for some Christmas goodies in Montpelier, and make some serious progress on this:

It's the Irish Hiking Scarf, of course, knit in the oh-so-luscious Malabrigo. This stuff feels soooo good slipping through my fingers. So squishy and soft. It's a Christmas gift for my brother, and it will be a hard one to part with. Of course, that's assuming I actually finish in time! I'll be going down to Atlanta to visit my family in a few days, so my fingers will be working hard until then.

Actually, I'm not doing much gift knitting this year. Last year, I decided making an entire family of Jess Hutch toys for my niece would be a good idea, and then I turned into "grumpy Christmas knitting lady" and that was that. The toys were a big hit though, and definitely worth it.

Something else that caught my eye recently from the winter Knitty is this neat little head thing.

And then all these other ideas flying through my head, like making specialty notecards with these, baking cookies for the cookie swap on Monday, and finally pulling out that embroidery set again.

Finally, I have to share the gift my aunt sent us yesterday. She found the funniest ornaments for me and my husband, and they are just perfect!

A lawyer with a legal brief for me:

And a computer whiz at a desk for my husband:

We laughed so hard when we opened them!

Warm thoughts on a chilly winter day

2006-12-09T07:41:00.000-05:00

Memories of our wonderful thanksgiving with family (21 of us packed in my grandparents' house).

Our stop at Frank Lloyd Wright's Zimmerman house in Manchester, New Hampshire. Everything about this house makes sense.

Lady Eleanor continues to grow. A truly enjoyable knit.

Cozy nights bundled in our new down comforter.

Steaming green tea in the afternoon, usually around 3:30, as the daylight begins to slip away.

Snow-kissed trees, a perfect white blanket over our yard, and watching the ice creep across the lake.

Have a lovely weekend!

Moose tracks, and not the ice cream variety

2006-12-07T20:02:00.000-05:00

Spotted on my driveway this morning. My goodness, I really do live in the sticks.

Addicted to entrelac

2006-11-18T08:38:00.000-05:00

First of all, thank you so much for your sweet compliments on my sweater. I'm quite pleased, and there's certainly another sweater in my future.

But now, I'm in love with Lady Eleanor . . .

. . . the lovely Lady Eleanor entrelac stole from Scarf Style, of course!

After the hourglass, I wasn't quite sure what my next undertaking would be, but then, in a moment of blogging serendipity, this spoke to me (thanks to Jess, who I might add, dons quite a stunning Lady E herself). And that was it.

Being that I am no longer a hop, skip, and a jump away from a million knitting stores as I was in the city, my sudden-onset immediate need for several skeins of Noro Silk Garden required some special efforts. Thankfully, my sources in Montpelier came through, and since I was very conveniently working in Montpelier for the day, I was able to start right away.

Though my choices of colors were limited, I decided on color #221, which is turning out to be just perfect. I think it's a beautiful combination of blue, green, grey, and maroon. It may be the same color I used for a hat a while ago.

Entrelac is so fun. Though it looks complicated, it's really quite simple and easy to memorize. I'm hooked. My weekend forecast calls for lots and lots of entrelac.

At long last

2006-11-13T07:19:00.000-05:00

Finally, after five years of knitting, and several months of staring at an unfinished orange mass in my knitting pile, I've completed my first sweater. Hooray!

I had my doubts, and plenty of frustrations while finishing the darn thing, but I love it. Seriously, this sweater fits me better than any other sweater I own. And its warm. And orange.

The pattern, it goes without saying is the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. The yarn is Knitpicks Andean Silk. I'm very pleased with this yarn. It's soft, drapes well, and really cheap. I particularly recommend it for a project you're not quite sure will end up being worth the big bucks you would pay for the premium yarn.

I woke up Sunday morning determined to finish this. My very patient husband was as quiet as a mouse while I was hunched over like a grandma, feverishly sewing down hems and weaving in ends. We were going to Burlington in the afternoon and I wanted to give my new sweater its proper debut. Since I've gotten so many sweet comments on my Vermont pictures, I was hoping for a bright sunny day so I could shoot one of those picturesque scenes of mountains, trees, cows, maple syrup, you name it, but I had to settle for a grey day. But I don't think this sweater needs much help from a colorful background.

After finishing my pumpkin-colored sweater, I was inspired to whip up some pumpkin muffins (the best), and off we went to Burlington for a perfectly pleasant afternoon. We bought super warm winter coats, strolled down Church Street, and enjoyed a very tasty meal at Five Spice Cafe (my new favorite). I couldn't imagine a better day.

And then I started scheming up what I would knit next. . .

With visions of sugarplums

2006-11-11T18:46:00.000-05:00

Christmas is right around the corner, and inspiration abounds - with special thanks to my first holiday purchase, a gift for myself:

I exercised restraint last year and never bought this book, but I couldn't resist it this time. True, many of the projects I will never make, but I just adore all of Melanie Falick's books, and never tire of just browsing and oogling over fantastic sweaters and such that I would never have the patience to knit myself.

But one project did jump out at me for a good little kickoff to the holiday season: the apres-ski kerchief

With and without flash . . . why do I always find myself waiting until nighttime to take my blog pictures? One of these days I'll learn.

Anyhow, I've always had a thing for kerchiefs, though I was never sure if I could quite pull one off. Not really sure if it was my look. But I will wear this one proudly, whether it will fulfill its apres-ski function is to be determined. It sure is great for bad hair days though. A great stash buster, I whipped this up out of some leftover blue sky cotton I used for a baby hat.

Next up, finish those gosh darn sweater seams. I will never make a sweater that requires sewing down live stitches and all that extensive hemming again. I'll be hemming to my new favorite BBC series - The Life of Mammals. Boy is that fantastic. The camerawork is unbelievable! Who hasn't always wanted to see inside the pouch of a marsupial? And bats! They are the most amazing creatures. A must see for sure.

Yes, we are quite the lively Saturday night pair. Now to those seams. . .

Hi there again

2006-11-06T20:41:00.000-05:00

Where to start? My last post was really a month ago? Well, in that
time it has gone from lovely fall to indian summer to full-blown
winter here in northern Vermont. Not entirely winter, as the snow
has since melted, but it seems as though every time I look out my
kitchen window at the thermometer it is holding steady at 30
degrees. I can't speak for the afternoon hours (at least during the
week), but the mornings and nights here are pretty darn chilly.

To illustrate my point, this was the beginning of October - crisp air
and leaves of bright red and orange:

We went for lots of hikes in September and October. There are so
many amazing trails here. We bought a very handy book of day hikes
in Vermont, which has been an invaluable resource. It's remarkable
how a very inauspicuous-looking trail, marked with a humble little
wooden sign, can lead to such a spectaular sight.

At this lookout point on Owlshead Mountain, we talked to a man from
Boston who, very aptly said to us, "I drove hundreds of miles to get
here, for this little slice of heaven."

And, this was barely a week later, after our first snow, on October 21st. Snow
before Halloween, people! That's nuts!

That's my new hat - reconstructed and improvised from my original
vision. It's close enough to what I had in mind, and the alpaca is
so wonderfully soft.

Since that picture was taken, we received another round of wintery
weather the following weekend, along with lots of flurries in between
and a couple of [thankfully] minor power outages. I have a lot to
learn about warmth, it appears, and lesson #1 is how to fashionably
pile on as many layers without looking completely ridiculous. I just
don't think one sweater at a time is going to cut it when it gets
much colder than this. Stay tuned.

And knitting! Since my trip to the Sheep and Wool Festival I've been
making my way through my new purchases, mainly working on smaller
projects, like my hat. So to the backlog of finished projects:

I finished these quite a while ago, I don't even remember when.
These two skeins of Rowan Calmer were my last yarn purchase in NYC,
from Downtown Yarns after my last teanychino with Michelle. So I wear
these legwarmers with fond memories of good times on the LES.

I made this hat on a whim, a quick Sunday afternoon project by the
fire, using less than a skein of lovely blue merino purchased at the
Sheep and Wool Festival from the nice couple that runs Still River
Mill. I'm thinking this will be a gift, though I didn't really have
a recipient in mind when I made it.

And believe it or not, dug out from the dark recesses of my knitting
basket, my hourglass sweater has re-emerged, which I am now just a
few seams away from completing. I've resolved to finish this thing
before Thanksgiving. Yep, you can hold me to it.

There is more, but perhaps I'll just leave that for next time. It's
almost time for me to brew my nightly cup of tea and curl up on my
comfy chair to enjoy what remains of the evening. Sweet wishes to
all, more to come soon . . .

Stalled . . .and bread!

2006-10-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

Okay you sage knitters out there. I need help! Winter is coming soon . . . in like, a week . . . and I have my heart set on a new hat. I have a pretty specific idea of what I want, but I'm having a hard time finding just the right pattern to turn that vision into a reality.

This is the yarn I plan on using - 200 yards of super soft baby alpaca from Snowshoe Farm Alpacas in lovely Peacham. The yarn is roughly worsted weight. And this is my inspiration. Wardrobe remix is great.

So, if any of you have a perfect hat pattern in mind, I would welcome your advice and suggestions. And what the heck, if you have a favorite hat pattern you'd like to share that's totally different than my vision, I'd be interested in hearing about that too.

In other news (besides that awful Congressional scandal that I am _so_tired_ of hearing about) I made bread!

If you haven't seen her blog yet, Jae has the most fantastic collection of recipes. I've made her maple flax cookies before (which were a big hit), and there are a handful of great recipes in my baking queue. The sunflower nutmeg bread was lovely heated with earth balance or our local strawberry jelly.

Happy weekend!

The bumper sticker says all

2006-10-01T21:28:00.000-04:00

The bumper sticker says all

It's the story of my life! So a few weeks ago, I mentioned I was
heading to the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival. Well I went and I
was not disappointed! I've been meaning to share, but I just
wasn't feeling the internet thing for a while. But now there's so
much to report I'm overwhelmed!

So, we trekked out to Burlington for the festival, thrilled we didn't
have to make the usual 6 hour hike we made from the city. The
festival was actually held a month earlier this year than it had been
in past years, and although I appreciated the warm weather, I think a
wool festival loses a little something when you don't feel the urge
to wrap yourself in wooly goodness. But nonetheless, I was really
impressed by the variety of vendors and yarns available, I made out
quite well indeed. I'll let the pictures tell the story:

These guys were so soft and friendly. I could see myself with a pet
llama.

Lots of sheepies too. They're not as friendly and cute as the llamas
though.

And here are the goods. I ended up making most of my purchases from
farms close to me, or from past favorites.

So so soft alpaca from local Snowshoe Farm alpacas, soon to be a
comfy winter hat, and vibrant blue merino from Still River Mill (run
by a super sweet couple - they also had some very intriguing dog hair
yarn that was really really nice and not how you would imagine dog
yarn to be like at all)

Old favorite Green Mountain Spinnery mountain mohair for legwarmers,
and alpaca from Randall Stick Park (also local) for . . .
legwarmers? Yay warm legs.

And finally, a merino/tencel blend for those ubiquitous jaywalkers.

So what else have I been up to?

Stacking wood . . .

Exploring Vermont in the fall . . .

And so much more it will have to wait for later. Good night dear
internet.

Wonderful weekend and falling for fall

2006-09-06T18:58:00.000-04:00

Hello! Time is flying so quickly, I can hardly keep up. Last weekend we were lucky to have a very special visitor (my dad), who also happened to be our first visitor in our new house. We ate, drank, and merried all weekend long, but yours truly was so caught up in the fun that she forgot her camera at the restaurant on Saturday. So I can't share neat pictures of our walks, the craft fair in Waitsfield, or my birthday in Stowe (I'm a labor day baby, oh yes)! But get ready, the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival is this weekend, and you can expect gratuitous pictures of wooly sheep, oodles of yarn, and our new pet alpaca (okay, not so serious about that one . . . I think)! So for now, I'll leave you with the the first indications of the colorful season ahead, spotted on our street last week:

There are peeps of fall leaves all over the place in NE Vermont. It's so interesting to see the gradual change. Bright yellow to crimson orange to vibrant red, in just a few days!

Back in business

2006-09-01T08:39:00.000-04:00

Quite literally, folks. I started my new job the other week, which
can account for why there hasn't been any news to share here at
Lovely Purls. (The other culprit being blogger, which has decided
not to work at all at my house, grrr!) Though I'll certainly miss my
vacation - cooking leisurely lunches and long afternoon walks - I
think I'll adjust just fine to the working world in Vermont. I was
happy to learn that the people I work with are equally as nice as
everyone else I've encountered here so far.

On a related note, my 20 minute drive to work sure beats the hour I
spent on the subway. And I can listen to VPR the whole way. I don't
know if I've ever professed my deep appreciation for NPR before, but
I just have to say that VPR is the greatest. The funniest thing to
me, coming from NYC, is the weather forecast on VPR. The Eye on the
Sky forecast is, quite literally, 10 minutes long. I love it. I can
listen to the weather and learn about the wind direction, jet stream,
all the approaching fronts and how much rain will fall in different
parts of the state, etc. It totally makes sense because, although
VPR is broadcast on different frequencies across the state, it
doesn't change in different locations, so the weather has to cover
all parts of the state. The only thing is, after listening to that
comprehensive forecast, I'm usually not able to remember the
temperature and weather for my area. Too much information I suppose!

And in further support of the title of this post, I've actually
finished something! I present the first legwarmers of the season:

And they will not be the last. I have a lot of yarn earmarked for
legwarmers so I apologize in advance for my redundancy. Fall comes
early in these parts, and all indications point to a need for warmth
pretty darn soon. I'm already wearing tights.

Anyway these legwarmers are the basic pattern found in Last Minute
Knitted Gifts, knit with 2 skeins of Cascade 220. I'm very pleased!

And I'll leave you with a few of our recent Vermont photos. I'm
overwhelmed by the natural beauty that surrounds me! Highlights
include visiting a gem of a park behind the state capitol in
Montpelier, wildflowers from our yard, and one heck of a view from
Wheeler Mountain.

Explorations

2006-08-12T08:38:00.000-04:00

A morning hike

A garden along the way

A general store with a hidden nook . . .

. . . featuring the whole line of locally-produced Cherry Tree Hill yarn! Though the mill is wholesale only, apparently they have a gigantic sale every Labor Day and offer tours to the public!

Finders keepers

2006-08-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

So one of the interesting things about our house is that it was sold to us completely furnished, which at first we were a little skeptical of (generally we're pretty particular about our furniture), but when we actually saw the interior of the house it made sense because the pine wood furniture coordinates perfectly with the pine walls. And it sure beat the Ikea furniture we had leftover from our apartment.

But the downside of buying a fully stocked house was that we had to get rid of a lot of crap before we could unpack our boxes. To my surprise, this turned out to be a rather amusing chore, as I came across some pretty interesting finds. Check out what I found stashed in the china cabinet:

Oodles and oodles of recipes relying upon America's favorite non-dairy whipped treat! What the heck is Cool Whip anyway? An ingenious chemical concoction of the food industry, I think. The pencil and eraser set is my favorite. What a hoot!

Ah, microwave cooking. Too bad we got rid of ours in Brooklyn. The big debate was whether the bag of microwave popcorn we made every three months was enough to justify the counter space we would sacrifice. If we had only known! Call me crazy, but am I the only person creeped out by idea of nuking that whole chicken on the cover? Some things just aren't meant to be cooked in 2 minutes on high.

At last! A fitness routine that will allow me to look toned in this stylish ensemble!

And for those lonely days . . . ooh, saucy.

And who said cleaning can't be fun?! But in the spirit of giving, I'm passing along these goodies to goodwill. I hope someone can bust a move with Denise followed by a feast of microwaved steak and cool whip pencils!

Stay tuned for some actual knitting!

Home sweet home!

2006-08-04T09:37:00.000-04:00

And, we made it! We are now officially Vermonters! All things considered, moving out of New York was relatively smooth and painless - mostly thanks to a brand new Uhaul truck and a helping hand from our neighbor who offered to help after we gave him all our furniture for free (now that's karma). And the fact that we left a week before temps topped 100 degrees in the city sure did help too.

It was so refreshing to park the van in our driveway and unload at a leisurely pace without having to worry about getting towed or robbed. Although it's been pretty darn hot recently by Vermont standards, we have a ton of trees surrounding our house so its generally nice and cool with a refreshing cross breeze through the house. And I love love love having a deck - private outdoor space is still such a novelty to me. We seemed to have established an evening ritual of pre-dinner drinks on the deck, much to the mosquitos' delight - a routine which will unfortunately come to an end once I start work and those evening temperatures inevitably start creeping lower and lower . . . quickly. But for now, it's one of those lovely things that's contributing to the sense that I'm on a vacation somewhere rather than in my home.

Before I left New York, I made an obligatory last stop at Purl and picked up two skeins of Cascade 220 to make the legwarmers from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I figured these would be a great project for that hectic moving-in time when I don't have the time or patience to devote to a complicated pattern. Little did I know, my pattern choice was particularly fortuitous because now I think I may need them sooner than I thought! I forsee lots of legwarmers in my future! My new neighbors will refer to me as "that girl with the legwarmers." Some Rowan Calmer is on deck for the next pair. Lots and lots of knitting up here my friends.

And speaking of local knitting, on my trip to the post office this morning I discovered that I am very close to two farms that breed alpacas and sell their own yarn. I'll have to check those out soon and make friends with the farmers. For now, I've found a charming little yarn shop for all my knitting needs, conveniently located just down the road from the best food coop ever!

That's all for now. More soon blog friends!

One last stitch in Brooklyn

2006-07-27T07:47:00.000-04:00

Goodbye New York! See you in Vermont!!

Memories

2006-07-17T08:25:00.000-04:00

I'm starting to get sentimental about leaving New York. I've lived here for five years now, and I certainly feel like it's time to move on, but I kind of have that feeling that I used to get on the last day of school - like, oh sad to say goodbye and I'll miss this and that, but I think I'm done with fifth grade now, etc. etc. If that makes any sense.

Update** It's been nearly 100 degrees for two days. Sentimentality has passed - get me the heck out of here!!

Now that we've started to pack up, the move actually feels real. This is my last week of work, and in a little over a week we'll be making our last journey across the Triborough Bridge as residents of New York. Hard to believe!

Last week was filled with fun (and new!) things. I had the pleasure of finally meeting Krissy, and seeing Michelle and Aaron, for a feast of vegetarian dim sum! Then over the weekend we visited a sake bar in the East Village we'd been meaning to try, which we were bummed we hadn't found earlier.

I've also been reminiscing over our photos we've taken over the past five years. New York really is the best city ever - at least the best big city. Some of the memories I will hold near and dear:

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge - yay Brooklyn!!

The Gates in Central Park

Times Square - why waste so much electricity?

The Brooklyn Academy of Music, where I've seen so many wonderful performances. I would really love to come back for the Next Wave Festival every year.

Living it up like a Cary Grant movie, etc.

2006-07-10T22:24:00.000-04:00

So Saturday we did visit our fancy Korean vegetarian restaurant, and on a whim we decided to do the touristy thing and ride to the top of the Empire State Building. I felt just like Deborah Kerr . . . though I actually did make it to the top. And Mr. Lovely Purls - a dapper Cary Grant double for sure.

Yesterday was a day for staying in and watching World Cup soccer, making cookies, and not leaving the apartment until 5. Italy - wohoo! I'm not usually a sports fan (at all), but I was totally into the soccer thing there. It's a good thing I'm not a regular spectator though, because that last game was getting to be too much pressure for me, whoa. Afterwards we felt compelled to visit our favorite Brooklyn Italian eatery, where we sat among waving flags and Italian men taking swigs out of very very large bottles of red wine. Loved it.

Here and there I've been working on a purple sock, something to occupy myself in this in between time when I'm not up for working on my hourglass and therefore holding a big [hot] wooly mass in my lap, nor do I want to embark on something big right now. So my purple ankle sock was just right.

And I do intend to make another.

On my list for the next few weeks . . .

2006-07-08T13:48:00.000-04:00

I definitely want to go here for a special celebration with my sweetie

And here for some sweets on at least one occasion

Here to keep my tea collection stocked

And here for the proper tea-drinking vessels

Here just to scope out the cashmere situation

Here to bid adieu to my favorite yarn store in New York

This new discovery for the best vegetarian sandwiches I've ever had (esp. the vegan panini - yum)

Here for the necessary wardrobe support

As many visits here as possible because I love it so

Don't know if I'll be here for this, but if I am I wouldn't miss it!

And if I have time, here, here, and here

Did I miss anything?