Adam's Nanny

364 days til the next one

 

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday.  I was treated to lunch by coworkers and had Happy Birthday sung to me in English, Polish and Portuguese.  (I even received Happy Birthday greetings from Honda, Harrah's, Houlihan's, and Borders.  All these companies sent me varying degrees of offers from a free entree to discounts; that is, everyone but the Honda dealer.)

Last night there were margaritas and martinis at dinner and this beautiful cake when I got home.   I love strawberry shortcake and this one was exceptional. One of the lightest cakes I've ever had.  It was a surprise that came from Lady M Confections.

Since we are in the process of clearing our storage area (50 years of accumulating lots of stuff) and I was still very awake after the cake, I stayed up until 1:00 a.m. going through papers and miscellaneous pictures that were stuffed envelopes.  I had to smile when I came across this photo from my high school senior prom. It was a lot of years ago.  Five years later we were married.

 

It was a great finish to a wonderful birthday only 364 more days til the next one.

 

 

It's My Birthday!

 

And what a perfect cake covered in sunflowers from the Cupcake Cafe. 

My birthday celebration started early with an unexpected trip on Friday to Brooklyn (There were no more left turns in Manhattan before we got to the Williamsburg Bridge)  But we made the best of it and dined on great  pizza for lunch and then moved on to Park Slope for ice cream sundaes at an amazing chocolate shop. 

Saturday, I went to Knitknack and treated myself to the black yarn for my shawl, which I hope to start shortly.

And this afternoon my co-workers  treated me to lunch. Tonight I am going to the new Beer Garden in Jersey City for dinner.  Even the weather is beautiful.  What a great birthday!

World's Longest Knitted Scarf

 

Last Thursday night I brought all the information to our knitting group hoping we could all participate in Knitting the World's Longest Scarf .   As part of the celebration of the International Year of Natural Fibres, Keep the Fleecein partnership with Heifer Internationalis helping to organize teams around the world to knit sections of the World's Longest Scarf that will all be joined together at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, October 17-18, 2009.  The goal is to raise $250,0000 for Heifer International.  Please check it out.  It's a wonderful project. 

 

Thursday night also turned out to be an incredible Show and Tell night too.  Here is a sampling of the incredible garments that were proudly modeled by their knitters and designers. 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Vests for Warm Woolies

  

I have my sixth vest on my needles.  These vests are a joy to knit and go so fast since they are knitted using two strands of yarn for added warmth.  I made two of them over the weekend.  If you have an inclination to make a donation, please go to www.warmwoolies.org . There are lots of free patterns on the website or visit the Warm Woolies group on Ravelry. 

 

 

 

twistcollective.com

 

I had a few minutes to run out to Knit Knackto see the trunk show from twistcollective.comand immediately fell in love with Sylvi designed by Mari Muinone.  Here is the front of the coat modeled by Irene from Twist Collective. 

   

and the beautiful coat back.  I purchased the pattern on-line and I'm hoping some people in my knitting group will love it as much as I do and will want to do a knit-along.  I'm not sure about the color yet.  If you go to twitcollective.com, you can see it in red along with a lot of amazing patterns. This coat is knit with Atlantic 3-ply Halcyon Yarnfrom Briggs & Little Venerable Spinning Mills in Maine.

 

 

 

 

The Merry Widow

 

My second vest for Warm Woolies is well on its way.  My sense of accomplishement is coming back after finishing a few projects.  I was becoming stressed that everything I started would become part of a pile of unfinished projects.  Finally, all that odd yarn that has been sitting in my kntting basket has a home.

 

 

Although I am doing my best not to start yet another project.  I have become intrigued with the Widow's Shawl, listed now as the Black, Black Shawl, shown in the Folk Shawls book.  It is very black and the lace pattern does not appear that difficult.  (Famous last words.)  Maybe it is the Italian in me that relates to widow's in black shawls and stories that I have heard about friends of my Grandmother wearing black their whole life or maybe it is just because I have been a widow for so long that I can look at it without being sad and enjoy knitting this shawl and wearing it over a little black dress to go dancing.

If you are wondering about the Merry Widow painting, is was painted by the Polish artist, Rafal Olbinski, who is famous for his Opera posters.  I first saw the poster in the Barnes & Noble across from Lincoln Center.  After inquiring, I was told it was not for sale but could probably be bought at the City Opera gift shop.  Unfortunately, they did not have it.  So last year I finally searched the internet and contacted a poster shop in Poland. The poster was sent and it is now waiting to be framed. 

Wool Peddler's Shawl is Complete

 

 

It was a beautiful weekend.  I finally got my hair cut and styled on Saturday and it just put a good spin on   the weekend.  I felt good about getting some knitting projects completed and did some household chores and cleaning.  And now that I know that I can watch a week's worth of the Young and the Restless on Saturday evening, I decided to do just that and spent the evening knitting and watching my favorite Soap.

Sunday night is usually pizza night but last night we made the mistake of trying some place new.  Beside the fact that it was outrageously expensive,  the pies were awful. I know it's good to try new places but even though this restaurant was highly recommended for it's coal oven pizza, it was not worth the trip.  My son's directions were a bit off.  He had the restaurant ten minutes from the house when actually it was on the other side of Staten Island and took us an hour to get there and back. We should have known something would be off when the waitresses wore 1950's uniforms. Just a little too Disney Dining for me.  From now on, when I am on Staten Island, it's Denino's pizza or no pizza at all.   

Finally, I can say that my Wool Peddler's Shawl is complete even though I am still frustrated that I couldn't do the lace edging. I will probably give it another try over the summer.

Here is a picture of the shawl before it was washed and blocked. 

 

And here it is as it sits drying and is now much bigger.  After all that aggravation, it's nice to know that it will fit.  I have the shawl folded down the center since I didn't have enough blocks to open it and block it.

 

Here is the shawl after blocking.  I'm loving it now that I know I can wear it.

 

In between I have started to knit some vests for Warm Woolies.  This is my first one.  It worked up pretty fast.  The pattern can be found on their website.  I used the Punta yarn that I was using to make the sweater wrap.  A project that has gone by the wayside.  The yarn is being put to far better use by making a garment that will keep a child warm this winter. I am hoping to get six of these finished over the summer.

 

Wool Peddler's Shawl

Well, I have avoided blogging about Wool Peddler's Shawl (see previous post) because I have ripped it out so many times.  So many times, in fact, that the yarn was fraying in one spot.  I don't know why I can't get the lace to work out for me but I can't lose any more sleep over it and I have lost all my patience in trying to figure it out.  So I have decided to ruffle the edges instead of working the lace edging. And even though everyone on Ravely rates this as an easy pattern, I will have to leave it for another time.

So here is where I am at with the shawl. I used the red Cascade 220 for the main section and I am knitting the ruffle with the left over Kathmandu DK, Queensland Collection that I used to make my first Clapotis.  It seems the red flecks in this yarn are working well with the main color.  

  

 

Everyone keeps reminding me that I still have tofinish my shawl from Wendy Knits and they are right.  I think the summer should be all about completing all those unfinished projects.  Especially, since it would be nice to show it off at Stitches East in October.

Folk Shawls - The Wool Peddler's Shawl

 

I had some free time before getting my haircut on Friday and since it was such a beautiful Spring evening, I walked over to Stockinette just to kill some time.  But we all know that never works, so I purchased the Cascade 220 that I needed to make the Wool Peddler's Shawl and it is now on my needles.  It's very simple and the lace edging doesn't look too difficult.  Hope to have this finished soon.

 

 

 

Second Cowl - Knitty Aibhlinn is Completed

  

My second Aibhlinn is complete. I am actually hoping for a cool day so I can wear it once before the weather changes.

  

I only used one skein of the Manos.  Now looking for fingerless glove pattern for the rest.