The Harlot

Was at Northampton! I drove up with Archiknist and Costumchick up to Webs to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee to give a talk. She was hilarious and did not disappoint.

This was my attempt of taking a picture of the Harlot from far away in the dark in the Calvin Theater.

After the talk, we went back to WEBS to do a little shopping. After a very long line, I finally got to talk to Stephanie, and had her signed couple of the books.

I had my sock picture taken, and you will have to go over to her blog to see the picture when she posts it later.

And after another very long line, I left WEBS with these:

I had "At Knit's End", I just brought it along with me for the signing. I bought couple of the "Thins I Learned from Knitting". One for me, and one is a gift. Of course, with 25% off all sock yarn, I couldn't stop myself and bought a skein of Franklin, and a skein of Playful Weekend, which will be part of another scarf I made, but only needed some ribbon threading to be completed!!! One less ZZZ project on my Ravelry notebook!!! Speaking of Ravelry, guess who I saw at WEBS?????

Jess, the co-creater of the Ravelry!!! She also gave me my new "Where are my stitches at?" pin :). I will be seeing her next weekend when I go to Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, so I can complete my collection.

Overall, it was a great trip and we had fun, despite the massive amount of people.

So on a complete different note, I want to show off a little something I made for Anphoe awhile ago:

I saw something similar on a jewelry magazine few weeks ago and wanted to give it a try, and Anphoe had said she needed a pin so her Sunshine top won't keep falling off her shoulder. Few days after, viola! I had fun making it, and I hope she likes it.

Well, I'm exhausted after much excitement from today. Off to rest and read some Harlot-ism before I fall asleep!!! And if you have a chance to see Steph, I suggest you to go to the talk, even if you don't read her blog, or are a follower of the Yarn Harlot, because she will make you laugh, until tears come out of your eyes!

Mystery? Suspence?

But they weren't either of those! Mary and Carol Higgins Clark, the dynamic mother/daughter team, who were at the Pine Orchard Club in Branford speaking for their new books: Where Are You Now? and Zapped!, sponsored by RJ Julia.

I'm so excited I got to meet them. You see, A Cry In The Night by Mary is the first English book I've ever completed reading and understood, so Mary holds a special part of my heart. And I have to say, despite the fact they both write mystery and suspense novel, they are actually both very funny in person! I had a really good time listening to them talk. I hope they come back when they tour for their next book!

And on the way home, I captured this image:

Isn't that a great picture?

I'm off reading the new book.

Some Progress

So I suppose I should update the knitting first -

Let me present you... The Kiri blob! I figure I should keep going on the lace thing so I can keep up with 2klace! It's getting longer and longer to complete each row, but I suppose that's the trade back with an easy start right?

Next up, some knitting books!

I pre-ordered Shear Spirit awhile ago and it finally came on the day of the release. Gale and Joan did an awesome job with this book and I can't wait to see Gale to congratulate her! And in order to get the free shipping, I ordered the 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. I already flipped through this one before, but I really liked it so I couldn't live without it. The third book is Knitting from the British Islands by Alice Starmore and Anne Matheson. I swapped this book with three pair of sock yarn from Ravelry. It's an older book so it has some very interesting garment (if you can even call it that).

So now I'm done updating the knitting related topics, on to FOOD! :) I saw this recipe on Barefoot Contessa so I decided to try it:

I got the fresh noodles from the farmer's market. I also got a pint of chocolate milk, a parsley plant, and some bread. All I can say is YUM.

I started reading a new blog - Vanilla Garlic. I know, it's not knitting related. But who can say no to food? I found him in my search of cupcakes, and this one captured me. The only thing I needed was an orange to make it!!!! Tada!

I haven't try it yet, but I should go now to try it... I'll let you know in the next post!

Surveys?

I took a few... Very interesting.

YOUR REPORT CARD:
Category	Grade
Love	A+
Friends and Family	A+
Body	B
Mind	A+
Finance / Career	A+
Your Life's Average Grade: A+
'What is your Life Grade?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Needham, MA

Oh boy was I busy this weekend!!! It all started off from a phone call from Andrea, the SWE New England Region Treasurer, at 10:30 Friday morning. The vendor where we got the conference bags from made a mistake and shipped the products to her house, instead of Olin School of Engineering in Needham, MA. And not all the bags fit in the car! Jenn to the rescue! I drove up to meet Andrea at her work around 11:30, pick up a few boxes, and drove down to Jen's house to wait for her to come home and carpool to go up to Olin. While I was waiting, I was busy writing all the Thank You cards for the speakers and eat sushi -

YUM. Although I didn't get a lot of cards done, I had a wonderful lunch.

After I picked up Jen, we drove up to Olin, checked into our hotel, and I went to the school to help set up things, and drop off the boxes, leaving Jen in the hotel doing what she needs to do for the next day. If my prof was there from RPI, he would be very proud of our little assembly line with Just In Time feed!

After finishing the prep for the conference, Jen and I went to Somerville and met up with Mer, Adam, and Adam's roommate AJ for dinner.

Aren't we cute!? :)

We went to this sandwich place - the place was completely packed, just people who wants a great sandwich, which is what we all got! I also tried out a local dark beer which was just excellent. We bid the gang goodbye with some ice cream and headed out back to Needham.

Saturday morning came all too fast. Jen and I got up at 6 to make sure we got time to get some things done prior to the conference start - such as those darn Thank You cards.

Oh, I should mention at this point that Jen and I had another roommate, April. April traveled to our region from Illinois to help out with Collegiate Leadership Coaching Committee (CLCC) since the lady who usually comes is currently out of country for work. And April is a KNITTER!!!! :) (everyone wave hi to April!) She is very sweet and nice. Too bad we didn't have a lot of time to hang out with each other.

So April helped me with some of the Thank You cards (I told you she was nice!) and I got them finished on time! (I still can't believe it!) We had our CLCC meeting in our room (two other girls had showed up at this point) and we all went to the conference right after.

The conference itself was a lot of fun. The morning and dinner keynote speakers were both excellent and untraditional, which made it even better. I got to go to a few sessions, but not all. Why? You asked. Because I was speaking in two sessions! ME! SPEAKING! Yeah I know, I can't believe it either. One of them is "Work/Life Balance Panel" (What balance?) and one of them is the CLCC module.

I certainly am no Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee, however, this is almost like a dream come true. Once upon a time, I was the one sitting down, listening to all the speakers of their wisdoms and advice, thinking to myself, wouldn't it be so cool if I can be the one sharing those wisdoms and advice? My day had come, and it was VERY COOL. And to prove it to you that I really was speaking, Trish had taken a picture of me in the panel:

See! I wasn't lying. And yes, I was wearing Rusted Root underneath my jacket. :)

The conference ended around 9pm (including dinner) and I headed back to the hotel exhausted. I knitted a little, and chatted with April until we both fell asleep.

Sunday was the business meeting till 1pm, and I drove home with Jen, which concluded the 2008 Region Conference. I got home exhausted still, and passed out as soon as I was able.

I did knit a little, but not enough to show any progress. But I do have to say Kiri is pretty easy. Hopefully soon, I can show some progress. So how was your weekend?

Rusted Root and Some More

First, I want to say "THANK YOU" to all who commented on my MoonDance. I really enjoy knitting it. And the more I look at it, the prettier it gets! And if you are on Ravelry, and you like my MoonDance, would you please "heart" it?

The reason I was asking is because recently, I got this message in my Ravelry message box:

Request to use your photo: DSC01862
We’d like to feature your photo on the page for Pink Frosting by Elissa Sugishita

So if you are on Ravelry, and you search for Pink Frosting, MY Pink Frosting is the picture you are looking at!!!!!!! And currently there is no other picture listed for MoonDance besides the designer's original picture! So if you like it, "heart" it!!!

Now, without further ado:

Pattern - Rusted Root by Sarah and Rachel from Zephyr Style
Yarn Called For - 3 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Sedona Red
Yarn Used - 4.5 balls of Kona Bay Cotton n Red
Needles - KnitPicks Harmony size 6 for body and size 4 for edging
Gauge - 5 sts per inch
Knit - March 31, 2008 to April 7, 2008
Modifications - I added increases towards the bottom of the tee to shape it even further.

This is a super fast knit, although the lace part is a little confusing because there is no chart, and it's not a even chart even when I made one. Though that should not discourage you to try to knit this tee. Another thing I would do different is to use a different cast on (I saw on Ravelry a lot of people did tubular cast on) so I don't have to pick up the edges later to finish it, although it really isn't hard. I wish there was more puff on the sleeves as you can tell it really isn't obvious.

Obviously I have to start something, and I decided to do another lace:

That's Kiri in Schaefer Andrea. So far, the yarn is to dye for! And the construction of the Kiri is really interesting. I'm thinking of doing a tutorial in case of people not understanding what the instruction meant.

So I joined 2klace in Ravelry awhile ago. It means that 50% of my work for 2008 has to be lace. And so far, Here is the list:

Irish Hiking Scarf
Honeycomb Socks
Cocoa Swap Piggy
Red Sox Socks
Square #1
Jacobean Socks
Undulating Waves Scarf Swatches (lace)
Wedding MoonDance (lace)
Rusted Root (lace)
Kiri - WIP (lace)
SotS WIP (lace)
Aspen Top Down Sweater

There are total of 12 items so far, and only 5 are lace and two are WIP!!!!! So I better go catch up! And you there, you should go heart my MoonDance ;)

Some Memes

Six Words Memoir

I was tagged by MomWifeKnitter for this meme:

Write your own six word memoir. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere. Tag five more blogs with links.

When in doubt, go for it.
or
Look forward, not backwards, no regrets.

I think I would say I go by those in general. Although I'm not much of a risk taker, but I would definitely say I try to be more adventurous. And ever since I met David, I become more fluid, not so rigid. I can adapt more on the "go with the flow" philosophy and try not to plan too in advance - to a degree.

In The Kitchen

Acambras had this on her blog and I thought I gave it a try. I do have to say I like baking a lot more than cooking though.

What three kitchen items do you use the most often?
Hmmm... My KitchenAid Stand Mixer, Henkel Santoku Knife and my food processor.

What kitchen gadget do you wish you had?
A bread machine or a slow cooker.

What kitchen gadget do you never use/wish you hadn't spent the money for?
Actually I don't think I have one that I don't use!

What is your favorite cookbook? (Link if you can!)
My Moosewood cookbooks! I'm not a vegetarian, but my friend from college turn me onto them. When I went to Ithica, I went to the restaurant and the food is fantastic!

Who is your cooking inspiration?
My dad. He makes something out of NOTHING all the time growing up. I have quite a few favorites that he made up but I don't know how to make. I wait till he comes and visit and ask him to make it for me.

What are three recipes that you use all the time?
1. My future Step MIL's Minnesota Wild Rice Soup - ever since she made it on Thanksgiving dinner of 2006, I couldn't stop making it. It is so good and so fast.
2. Grown Up Mac and Cheese. I actually get that one out of foodnetwork.com. I think I actually post a picture before.
3. My grandma's Vegetarian dumplings... mmmm soooo good! Maybe I'll do a feature of recipes on my blog sometimes.

Can you share a cooking secret?
Go with your heart! You know what flavors your like, so play with the flavors. Don't be afraid to experiment! You will only get better! And use spices! Even if it's dry. When in doubt, add a pinch of nutmeg or paprika - it always worked for me!

What is your greatest cleaning secret?
See, I don't like cleaning. So the deal in the house is if I cook, someone else cleans. Although I know usually I end up doing the cleaning. I would say to try to put the dishes in water immediately and throw them in the dishwasher!

What is your favorite thing to clean?
I have agree with Acambras here... "Favorite" should not be in this sentence. See above.

What is your least favorite thing to clean?
A pan with crusted bottom.

What is your most embarrassing housekeeping moment?
Archiknist came over on Saturday so I took some time to clean the living room. I would say my living room is roughly about 150 sf, and it took me 2.5 hours to get it cleaned to a presentable stage. Yes, I'm a piler.

So for those of you who want to play - go for it.

Knitting

Rusted Root is officially off the needles. It took me exactly 7 days to make it. Picture to come later! On to the next project!!!!

Oh The Prettys

Or the Pretties? English is never my strong point, but then again, this is not about English. Let me present you with MoonDance:

Pattern - Moon Dance by Melanie Gibbons, aka Pink Lemon Twist
Yarn Called For - 1000 yards of lace weight yarn, JaggerSpun Zephyr used, Ebony
Yarn Used - 866.25 yards (2.75 oz) of JaggerSpun Zephyr in Vanilla
Beads - 95 Swarovski crystasl in Crystal Moonlight and Crystal AB, bicone, size 3
Needles - KnitPicks Harmony size 4
Gauge - N/A
Knit - January 9, 2008 to March 30, 2008
Blocked - March 30, 2008
Modifications - I added size 3 bicone crystals in crystal moonlight and AB effect, alternating between the pattern repeats.

Like I said from the last post, Melanie is a genius on this pattern. It is super easy and absolutely a fast knit for lace. I would said this could be a good first lace project for someone who is new to knitting lace. Here are some more shots of the pretty:

I started another pretty after Moon Dance:

This is Rusted Root from Zephyr Style. I am using Kona Bay Cotton in red. This is a fast knit and the yarn is super soft! I wish I have more of the Kona Bay Cotton. It seems to me this yarn is either being discontinued or just very hard to find because not many people carries it.

So Archiknist came visiting today. I haven't seen her for a few weeks. Partly because I don't usually go to the Wednesday SnB anymore due to schedule conflicts. We sat around knitting (big surprise?) and made dumplings. Yum. A good and relaxing fun was had by both.

So was your Saturday relaxing and fun? I sure hope so.

Until next time...