Team VA Weekend

I know I've mentioned before that my brother is getting married in June. We're all very very excited - his "ex-girlfriend", Virginia is absolutely amazing and I'm very lucky to have her as a sister-in-law. She's cute, she's smart and she knits! I am part of her "Team" and we went into New York City for the weekend to celebrate!

Amy has already done a fantastic blog post about the day. We had set up a scavenger hunt to some great spots around the city. We had lunch at our hotel and then went out for gelato, some shopping and plenty of photos.

One of our stops was Purl - OMG, what a great fabric shop. And you know that I had to pop in to their knitting shops as well. What a feast for the eyes that was - immediately I was drawn to some hot-neon-pink Koigu KPM sock yarn (we were just talking about KPM at SnB last week) however, I managed to resist and instead went with Alchemy Yarns Juniper - in "Turquoise Pool" - machine washable sock yarn!

It's fantastic!

Our day continued on to the Arch at Washington Square Park, and we had some time to kill. Of course I had my knitting to work on (Florida Sock #2) - and we noticed that we were right under a knit tag!

Awesome!

Dinner was fantastic - Hill Country BBQ (OMG, the food was so great!) & Music by the Crevulators (great band - very friendly!)


The next day we took it easy and I met up with my brother Matt (of the Mother's Day note) - we walked about the city for a while and ended up at this great little place for Argentinian sandwiches (arepas? I think they were called). I ate a lot of meat this weekend. I have no problem with that, but what's funny is that Matt and I came across the rally that followed the Veggie Pride Parade - um. Hm. We had a bag of meaty leftovers from Hill Country, and we just came from eating meat-bomb sandwiches. I will support and respect anyone who decides to go vegetarian or vegan - but some of this just made me giggle.

Great pepper costumes though!

I was telling Matt about the knitting "tag" we found and then he says, "Oh, you mean like that?" - there was more!!



We had stumbled upon an installation! Yarn Theory / 9th Street Fence



I love love love going to New York City - there is always something different to see or experience, and this time was no exception!

Orange Racer

It's been sunnier this past week, but I am still very glad for the opportunity to knit with orange yarn. I've finished the sweater for Romney Ridge Farm
Pattern: Racer Sweater from Miss Bea's Rainy Day Collections by Louisa Harding.
Yarn: Romney Ridge Farm Hand dyed (4 oz / 250 yards) 100% Maine Grown Wool


I knit the 2-3 year old size. It is such a great shade of orange (I keep calling it carrot, but I think it's official name is pumpkin), and it did soften a bit with a steam while blocking.

Lorelai was not too thrilled about modeling the sweater - it is a bit big on her.


She needs another haircut already.


Thank you Elmo for capturing her attention for a moment or two.

Smiles

It really is the little things (which sometimes are big things) that can make you smile. Last week I found out that my job for Google had ended - not a terribly big surprise as I knew when I was hired it "could end at any time" and "don't count on this for full time income" - seriously, I worked about 10 hours a week, but it was a sweet deal. Pay was good, I was already online, it was interesting and different and I could still take care of the Lorax. I was bummed out and on top of that the weather sucked for a week straight.

Looking to the brighter side of life, it was a nice weekend. I got to see Betsy and her sister while they were in town - Betsy brought me Mike & Ikes and Organic Gummi Bears (those didn't even last 24 hours, they were fantastic!). Dan and I went out to dinner at a new to us restaurant, which was to celebrate Mother's Day. Dan gave me the royal treatment on Sunday - blueberry pancakes and we grilled burgers for dinner. Fantastic! Lorelai must have some sort of psychic sense about what was up because she was quite verbal about asking for me. Yay, as usually it feels like she never calls to me unless we are out at a store! Anyway, it's all good. I even have a new movie:

Love (1,000,000+) this movie. If you haven't seen it yet, get it - it's that good!

Today I finished a sock - just a plain stockinette sock a la the Yarn Harlot's in "Knitting Rules" - I also love this sock. I needed a break from the two other socks I was working on and as most of my stash is variegated, I wanted to embrace the colors - I've been distracted by solids lately. Yarn is "Florida" by j.knits.

The iPhone camera does not do it justice - it's great yellows and oranges - almost candy corn-ish, but better.

Today there was also some fun mail.

"Thinking of Moo"

My (baby) brother is a man of few words and embraces the whole "simple living" concept like no one else I know. :)

Hopefully the week brings more of the same!

Pajamas

A quick post, totally not about knitting.

The Lorax is quickly building up her vocabulary - including "No" but she says it in a very coy way - almost with a drawl! "Noooooo". Luckily she hasn't quite figured out to say it in a short "No!" as in disagreeing with me (yet.) She doesn't say "Yes" but on occasion will say "Yeah" and it has been said at appropriate times, so I think she's starting to get the hang of that one.

So yesterday we were driving to the outlets. I wanted to stop in a store to look for new pajamas for her. Here's how our conversation went:

Me: Lorelai, would you like to get purple pajamas?
L: Noooooo
Me: Would you like to get blue pajamas?
L: Noooooo
Me: What about red pajamas?
L: Noooooo
Me: Pink pajamas?
L: Noooooo
Me: Yellow pajamas?
L: Noooooo
Me: Green pajamas?
L: Noooooo
Me: Would you like to sleep naked?
L: Yeah!

Dan and I totally bust out laughing. Ahh, what other gems will she share? I'll keep posting them.

And in the end, she didn't get new pjs anyway, so if she can bust out of her pjs, she may just get her way!