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May 31, 2005
You don't want to be my friend
I'll just take advantage of bribe convince you to knit for me, like I did to Julia. I'm the reason she hasn't had of her own knitting to show on the blog. Sorry.
Or you would end up making my unborn child stuff, like my friend Anne did. Isn't this too cute? She hand quilted it. She's nuts, no?
Stay away from me. I'm bad news.
P.S. Thanks so much for all of your nice notes about my debut in IK! You're too nice!
Posted by kate at 06:17 PM | Comments (25)
May 27, 2005
Should I brag?
Yeah. I think so.
I'm always happy to see when other bloggers have met each other and loved each other, but I have to admit, sometimes I feel a wee bit left out. I mean, I'm pretty far away from most of the ladies I read about on a regular basis. But last night, I went to Paris-Tricot for the first time in a long time and there were LOADS of people. I think there were 17 of us, including many first timers! I remembered that knitting with other people is fun and I whipped out a big chunk of a project while I sat there and chatted. And not only were there loads of people, there were visitors! Becky was up from Lyon, Jackie and Bonne Marie were here from the states, a really nice lady from Madrid was there (forgive me! I can't remember your name!) and Stinkerbellcame too. She's in Paris all the time. We just never see each other. Plus, there were lots of French gals that I don't get to see often, like Sophie, Laëtitia and Isabelle. It was really great. I'll have to come out of hibernation more often.
You didn't think I would actually show you anything detailed, did you? Sorry. Maybe next project.
I love this yarn. It's Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK. I love it. I love it. I love it. It knits up soooooo nicely. It's soft. It's springy. It's loverly. (Yes, so lovely I have to say it like Eliza Doolittle)
Posted by kate at 02:26 PM | Comments (23)
May 19, 2005
Swatch...Frawtch? Clawtch?
Anybody know a word that rhymes with swatch? The reason I ask is I make up songs on the spot and sing. I do this a lot, but not for just anyone. It's usually Frog or Blossom who get to hear them. The other night I was finishing up some swatches for... stuff (I refrain from speaking about "stuff" because I'm convinced that it will bring me bad luck and said "stuff" will be rejected and I will be told to go knit toilet paper covers) and I was singing a song about being done with my swatch. And the only words I could think of were watch or Sasquatch. Frog later suggested crotch, but I think that would depend on your accent and for me it's close, but I'm not sure it rhymes 100%, never mind the difficulty of incorporating "crotch" into a song about knit swatches... actually, I probably could because my songs have nothing to do with logic and everything to do with n'importe quoi. Any brilliant ideas you have for words for my swatch song would be greatly appreciated by Frog since he complained that last night's song only consisted of about 8 words that were used 20 times each. It wasn't my best effort.
So, despite my fear of cursing myself by talking about "stuff" and showing you "stuff", I've posted a photo of "stuff." Or at least little pieces of it. If you ever get to see the "stuff" will depend on the knitting gods, aka editors. And in one case, I'll probably just publish the pattern myself if nobody else wants to because I believe in it. That's what I did with Elizabeth. So the first swatch is... a swatch and it has a button and ribs. You couldn't have figured that out without me, right? I knit it in Calmer, which I like a lot, but I only realized today that I knit the darned thing on two different sized needles. Maybe I could have said that in my song. What rhymes with needle? The second thing is... a thing and I used this Phildar yarn that was actually pretty soft even though it's 49% acrylic, which to me, usually screams SQUEAKY! And the third thing is a mini thing. Every time I had touched Noro Kureyon, I had said, "yuck." But I really wanted a yarn with a color change like Kureyon, so I bit the bullet, paid the 9.15€ and bought the stupid stuff. It really wasn't as yuck as I had thought. Anyway, the "stuff" is sent and now I have three quarters of a ball of Kureyon, as well as some Rowan All Seasons Cotton to throw into my stash. My collection of random single balls is getting ridiculous. I guess I could return the ball that I didn't end up using, but that would involve going all the way to the 7th arrondissement which would cost me over 2€ in metro tickets and at least a half hour of stress waiting in line and explaining to unpleasant women why I would want to return the stupid ball. I think I'll just keep it.
PS Why can I never find the yarn I want in the color I want? Either I find a yarn I like in colors that I think are blah, or I find a color I like in yarn I think is ick.
Posted by kate at 11:55 PM | Comments (24)
May 15, 2005
Sleepreading
I got tagged by Justy and Julia for the book meme.
How many books in my house?
Does anybody really know that? If they do, they must have a much bigger house than me or far fewer books and way too much time to make their own card catalog system. Let's just say there are a lot considering how freakin' small our place is. We don't have one row of books on each shelf. For maximum efficiency, they are arranged by size and each shelf has two or three layers of books before you get to the ones in back, plus there are books placed horizontally on top of those books. Plus, a lot of my books are still living at my parents' house in the US. For a while, I would go home with an empty suitcase and bring loads back. Now, there's no more room and I'm even thinking of giving away some that I don't really care so much about just to make room for some new ones.
The last book I bought?
Putting aside pregnancy and childbirth books? Uh... I bought the Hachette 2005 Guide des Vins for a friend and for me, a book about celtic art and knots and stuff thinking I would use it to come up with some fun cables. It's hidden behind two other rows of books in my knitting book area and I don't feel like making a mess so forgive me for not giving you the title.
The last books I read?
I'm normally a big reader and read while I'm on the metro or while I'm knitting, but I haven't figured out how to read when I'm sleeping so I haven't read that much in the last couple months.
I'm almost done reading the bookbookbook by everyone's favorite Yarn Harlot. By the way, the book was generously sent to me by Blossom who sacrificed her signed copy for me and went out and bought herself and unsigned one... as well as one for her sister. Oh yeah. She's got the knitting bug, bad.
I was also given a copy of A Bun in the Oven by Kaz Cooke, which was quite funny and not your typical "everything will go wrong if you eat sugar and you should be glowing and majestic" pregnancy book.
Five books that I reread often or that mean a lot to me?
Julia's Kitchen by Julia Child. I love this book. I use it pretty often to find the right temperature for meats or to remind me how to make a basic sauce. I love cookbooks and as soon as I get a new one I lay in bed with little post it notes and mark all of the recipes I want to make. I just never use them since I'm much more of an improvise with what you've got sort of cook. This and Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone are the only two that I use pretty regularly for reference.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I've read it two or three times and think I will never tire of it.
Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman. Every time I read this, I'm inspired to knit more, experiment more, and think that some of the ideas I don't share for fear of doing things "my way" instead of "the right way" might not be so crazy after all. Too bad it only inspires me to work on new stuff, instead of finishing WIPs. If anyone knows a book that will make me do that, I'm all ears.
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I loved this series when I was younger and I've been dying to go to Prince Edward Island ever since.
And because I'm a cheeseball, Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown because my parents read it to me about a billion times when I was a kid.
Who am I going to pass this along to?
I'm tagging Lee Ann who has, and I quote, "a thousand million gazillion books" and who could also probably use a little "Hello" and "I'll be thinking of you" if you have time to give her one since she's going into the hospital on Tuesday for brain surgery so go and give her a virtual hug in her comments.
Posted by kate at 05:16 PM | Comments (9)
May 12, 2005
I'm still here
First of all, thanks for being nice to me when I was whiny. I'm over it now. I'm on the verge of hitting the second trimester. I've traded being tired all of the time for being hungry all the time. I feel pretty darned good!
Now on to knitting, even if it's not mine... check out what I got in the mail today!
I think that I had never ever received a handknit from someone. A good family friend knit these for
Now that I'm back in the world of of the living, I'll hopefully post (and knit) more often.
Posted by kate at 11:24 PM | Comments (14)
May 08, 2005
slice o' life
Here's my slice of life to fit in with Julia's suggestion. Yeah. I know. It's not Saturday anymore, but I just read what was going on. And dammit, I am bitter that I'm not in Maryland. It's all my fault, kind of. If I had known that we would be sitting in the cold, in Paris, instead of moving, I would have gone to Maryland to see my sister and hit the festival. Oh well. Of course, if I had known that I was going to be pregs, ill all the time and my husband would be jobless come May 10th, I might have chosen to stay home anyway.
For all of you who think living in France must be exciting and romantic, get ready for reality:
Yesterday, my mom, Frog and I left my in-laws' house where I had ingested record-breaking amounts of butter in less than 60 hours. Frog drove while I slept the whole way. We got back and I discovered that my email wasn't working, nor was my site. My URL had expired because contrary to my expectations, it had not been renewed automatically. This led to much swearing, yelling, calling New Mexico and I even threw a telephone across the room. It wasn't working. I threw it. It's still not working. No loss. Maybe I'll throw it again just for fun. Then, mom and I went to the grocery store where we stood in line for a long time. We played UNO with Frog and I lost again and again. Then, we went to our favorite restaurant where I struggled through dinner. It was great, as always, but I am just not comfortable sitting down or eating or breathing or doing anything besides laying down. We came home reeking of smoke. We went to bed. Now it's 1:17pm on Sunday and my mom is the only one who has showered. Frog and I are still in pyjamas. After I make myself presentable, my mom and I are going to go buy shrimp to stir fry at one of the only stores that is open on Sundays. Then we'll probably choose between doing laundry and walking around the cemetary down the street or watching horrible TV. Romantique et excitant, n'est-ce pas? At least I haven't blown all of my savings on yarn.
PS. Sorry if I sound grumpy. I'm really not. I'm just perma-tired and the rainy, gray, unseasonably cold weather is starting to get me down.
Posted by kate at 12:02 PM | Comments (14)
May 04, 2005
When mom is here
It's mostly food this time but there were two issues of Interweave, some Bryspuns and some Kool-aid for my first ever attempt at dyeing.
She takes me to my favorite restaurants.
She doesn't care if we go out or if we just lay around and watch bad movies dubbed in French.
She buys me clothes that I would be too cheap (I can be really cheap sometimes) to buy otherwise.
She goes to the laundromat with me.
and I usually end the week with the same amount in my wallet as when she arrived.
I wish my dad could be here too, but it's nice to have mom around. We're off for a weekend at the in-laws' where Frog and I will play translators for three days and come back tired and wishing we spoke a third language just to avoid French and English. Hope you all are great.
Posted by kate at 02:13 PM | Comments (15)
