Friday, March 23, 2007

This is it, for a bit...

The cozy is done except for its drawstring, and looking marvellously cute and, well, cozy. Still no photos, but when I get back from Raleigh I will post them (which means, of course, that I have to take them first!).

And still, no progress on the Raleigh project. Hmmm...at least its Friday and I have two full non-work days (not including the multitude of errands and stuff I have to do this weekend) to figure it all out.

I'll be back in a week with photos, and maybe some purchases from knitting shops, should I happen upon any!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Cozy, cosy

No progress on the Raleigh trip project yet. I didn't have time to work on it between making a big spaghetti and meatballs dinner and finishing the socks (uh-oh, my blog's first FO! Guess I should be posting a photo, eh? Well, they are on my feet right now at work, and I don't have a camera here.). But when the socks were done, I cast on for a nifty little ipod cozy.

I got my first ipod today. Which isn't to say I haven't been suffering all my subway time without music, not at all. Four years ago (which is like an eternity with electronics, right?) I bought a Rio Karma. I researched the whole thing very carefully - ipods were just starting to be commonplace, but they had a lot of problems then - super low battery life, heavier, bad customer service, etc. So I decided on the Rio Karma and never once felt bad when the pod people acted as if I couldn't afford an ipod. Actually, the Karma was the same price as an ipod with lower memory, if I remember correctly.

I really liked it! I loved that you could put it on random for an amount of time (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 8 hours, etc.) so not waste a lot of battery power randomizing. So, one day, this wheel control stopped working (this was like a year ago, so I'd had the thing for three years). But you could control it through the red stick, so no big deal. Then, last April, the stick froze too, so I managed to make it play everything, in alphabetical order, from beginning to end and leave it like that. You could advance songs, but you could no longer select an artist or album or individual song.

Actually, that was a good thing. Because I can get so ADD about listening on random, I was constantly skipping over perfectly great music because I thought I didn't want to hear it. It took me 8 months to get through all my music from A-Z. I was at the beginning of my second go-through, when the hold button broke. So, that was it. That was just on Monday, and now I have an ipod.

So, to the cozy - the same Regia 4 ply that I used for my socks seems appropriate and handy. I was going to get all fancy and use a provisional cast on to make tunnel hems for a drawstring, but then I decided, why? I just started with ribbing, changed to stst and added a row of yo's and k2togs to make eyelets for the drawstring. I intend to finish tonight and will post a photo of it - and my socks, since its all the same yarn - tomorrow. Then, I devote all my energies to the Raleigh project...

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Knitting and Flying


"I'm going to North Carolina, baby mine,
Going to North Carolina, baby mine,
Going to North Carolina, and from there
On to China, I'm going to North Carolina
Baby mine..."
-- Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerard, Banjo Pickin' Girl

I am indeed off to North Carolina next week for a business trip. The land of barbeque and cole slaw! I am definitely planning on some good eatin'. And good knitting, because whenever I travel, I start a new project. See, I'm not one of those people who, when flights are delayed, sit there quietly and think to myself, "well, we'll get there when we get there." I wish. I tend to get really impatient and rather enraged - but if I have a big, new project I'm working on, then I can look at delays as more knitting time. So for my own sanity (and that of my fellow travelers), I always bring a project I can be excited about.
Truth be told, I would like nothing more than to devote that time to working on my spider net shawl. But I am using aluminium needles for it, they are working out fabulously, and I don't want to risk them getting confiscated at the airport. Can you imagine, really, taking your lace shawl off the needle at the airport (or losing it for good - or missing your flight!). You'd be left with a big, loopy mess and no calm, civilized place to sit down and try and get it back together on some back up needle (which you probably don't have anyway). So, to be safe, I always travel with bamboo. I figure, if it can't show up on the xray machine, then they won't take it away from me. I know knitting needles are perfectly legal on planes these days, but this story is always in the back of my mind.

So, on to a new bamboo needley project. But what to knit at this odd, between-seasons time? I swatched with red Panda Woolbale and green Cascade 220 and am considering making this . I also have a whole bag of Kureyon in purples and greys that would make a nifty top-down raglan cardigan. What to do, what to do? I have oodles of stuff in my stash that could be made into something wonderful, but after our recent move, my stash is in a trunk. Which, at the moment, has lots of heavy boxes stacked on it. And, even when the trunk can be opened, I have to remove my quilting fabric stash to get to the yarn. So, I was trying to use yarn that is not in the trunk, for the moment. Hopefully, inspiration will strike tonight - or, if not inspiration, energy enough to get into the trunk and pick something from the stash...

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

My mom's Einstein Coat


My mom was a big-time crocheter and counted cross stitcher when I was growing up, she's taken up knitting seriously only in the past year. Her first project for herself was an Einstein Coat from Sally Melville's The Knit Stitch. She's using Cascade/Bollicine Victor Print in color S7, variegated browns/greens. She realized she was running out and ordered more from her LYS . One day, they finally called her - the yarn was being permanently discontinued. We've both been looking all over the internet and our yarn shops, but it appears that there's nary a ball left to purchase commerically, so we're turning to you, fellow knitters. If you have some in your stash that you'd like to part with, contact me at glorypea AT hotmail dot com. She only has one sleeve and the collar left, for pete's sake!

Monday, March 19, 2007

Suddenly, I'm blogging

Somehow, you'd think the beginning of a blog is signalled by a bang, or a drum roll, or some type of fanfare. Not so. All you really have to do is think of some pseudo-clever name and feel like your random thoughts and interests are somehow interesting to the rest of the world.
So, this is my blog - it will be mostly about knitting, but also about other crafts (sewing, weaving, embroidery and lace making), eating and cooking, and the other things, big and little, that make up my life.
Sunnyside comes from the fact that I live in Sunnyside, Queens - actually right on the border of Sunnyside and Woodside, but I associated with Sunnyside for this purpose as a play on the Carter Family classic, Keep on the Sunny Side.
And away we go...one minute, I'm a non-blogger, and the next, I'm a blogger. Joy!