Lunch in Bryant park...
Originally uploaded by Zarzuelaknits.

The view from where I sit...
Originally uploaded by Zarzuelaknits.

Checking in...
Originally uploaded by Zarzuelaknits.

So I find myself in Panera in NJ on a Sunday with time to blog while I wait for HWJF to finish working for the day once again. I really don't mind this situation. I have a nice spot with an outlet near the fire, some good food in front of me and I get to knit while I'm at it too (although I haven't quite figured out how to do that while typing. My toes are not that agile). Sounds like a good Sunday afternoon to me. I have many random things I want to post, so I might as well get to it, shouldn't I?

1. I think it is finally safe to make a rather big announcement. HWJF and I are moving in together this summer. That's right, we are shacking up, living in sin, whatever you want to call it. I cannot deal with my commute much longer, my expenses will go down considerably when sharing rent and all that goes with it, not to mention a cheaper commute, and, well, there is that small issue of us being rather in love with each other and wanting to spend a really, really, really, really long time together. So I'll be moving to NJ. I will definitely miss the many friends I have made in CT, but the overall lifestyle and quality of life change is really needed. We are both getting a little worn out with the jumping around between three states and generally running around like crazy people. We are so looking forward to the little things that most people take for granted in life like being able to plan an evening meal, prepare it and eat it without having to run out the door, going into the next room to talk to your significant other rather than making a phone call, and just the overall reduction in mileage for both of us. I'm very excited. He is too, and he even came up with the idea of us getting a yarn wall. How could I not love this guy?

2. I'm cheating... on my addi turbos! (Now what were *you* thinking?!) Yesterday I discovered Crystal Palace Bamboo circular needles and I think I'm in love. You see, last Tuesday I finally cast on for this sweater. [Please do not point out the fact that while everyone else is starting to think cotton, I am starting a wool sweater, and not just any wool sweater, one of epic proportions. Please also do not point out the fact that I will likely be insane by the time I finish all this cable work.] I decided I needed a project that I had to concentrate on. Well I certainly got it. Oddly enough while the middle motif looks the most complicated, it is the little horseshoe shaped one that is driving nearly drove me f*$^ing insane. While it looks rather indescript, the seed stitch nature of it had me so befuddled at times that it took me ages just to get through one right side row. But I digress. Getting back to the needles, the main reason it was taking so long to work a right side row on this thing was the fact that my beloved addi's just didn't have a sharp enough point. I like to cable without a separate cable needle, and I just couldn't seem to get into the stitches easily enough. A short trip to the Yarn Barn for something else (which I'll get to in a second) found me eyeing these needles and I figured it was worth a try. I'm such a happy knitter now! Not only are they easier on the hands (a side effect that I've experienced before and loved in crochet hooks, but was never able to find in a suitable knitting needle) but the point is just perfect and I flew through the first row I knit with them. The cord is a bit stiff and needed a good steaming after coming out of the package, but that straightened it out no problem. I probably wouldn't use these for magic loop knitting, but for this project, I'm totally in love. One thing I know for sure, when I decide to start a lace shawl, I'll be buying a set of these for it without question. If anyone knows a good source for these at a reduced price (they are nearly as expensive as addis), please leave me a comment and let me know. Sorry addis! I love you but sometimes you just have to go with something else.

3. My original intent in going to the Yarn Barn was to get the fall issue of Interweave Crochet. I gave them a call and they said they had it, so I got there with 10 min. to spare before closing time. You may notice that although the name of this blog is Zarzuela knits AND crochets, there has been a serious lack of crocheting going on here lately. I just haven't found much to inspire me on the crochet front. I decided to get this after checking out the new podcast appropriately called Crochetcast. I'm hoping the combination of the podcast and the magazine will get me back a little of the old crochet mojo.

4. Last week, I bought a domain name. It was pretty easy and I even got a discount for listening to the Daily Source Code. I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do with it just yet, but I expect the blog will be moving there eventually. I'm excited about the possibilities and will keep you posted on my progress.

5. Have you entered the contest yet? Of course you haven't. No one has. This makes me a bit sad. What is it? The yarn? The idea of taking a picture of your desk? The thought of being organized? Tell me. Seriously. I'd really like to know.

6. Speaking of telling me stuff, I've been thinking a lot lately about the reasons why I and others read specific blogs and not others. So I've created a little poll that you will find over in the left sidebar under "Random Fun Stuff". Please vote and if you have more to say or this doesn't cover it, discuss it in the comments. I'm very interested in the thinking here.

7. Just to let you know, I have the week from hell on tap next week. I have rehearsals for a job with the ECSO every night except Tuesday. This means that I will be getting home around 11pm, only to get up for work at 5am. I expect there to be little knitting, much less blogging or rational thought in the coming week. I'll be attempting to prepare a couple of posts that I can release easily for your blog reading pleasure, but don't expect much.


That's all the randomness for today. Have a great week (and get some extra sleep for me)!

Friday fun part 3
Originally uploaded by Zarzuelaknits.

Friday fun part 2
Originally uploaded by Zarzuelaknits.

Friday fun part 1
Originally uploaded by Zarzuelaknits.

A contest!

That's right. In honor of my birthday month and the coming of spring I'm having a little blog contest where you could win (say it with me now) a fabulous prize! So what is my contest called?

SHOW ME YOUR DESK!

Ok. Seems weird. But here's the deal.

I've been at my job for almost 5 months now and my cube is BOR-ING. Take a look:


Center

Right side

Left side

Rather ho-hum, I'm sure you would agree. The thing is, some of the papers that are hanging there I need easy access to. I do have a few pictures under the shelf on the right, but that's about all I have as far as "decor".

So what do I need from you? Ideas! Inspiration! H-E-L-P!!

Here's what you need to do:

1. Take a picture of your desk. (Yes. this is somewhat cruel, I know, but think of it as "spring cleaning" motivation.) Now when I say "desk" you don't need to take it too literally. I generally mean your workspace, whatever it may be. So say you are a stay at home Mom and your "office" is the livingroom where you keep the kids stuff organized in some fab way that I can apply to my situation. Send it in!! This is an equal opportunity contest and not limited to those of us chained to a computer all day. Be creative!

2. Tell me about some of your best decorating/organization tricks in your space that you think might help me out.

3. E-mail me at my contest address with your picture and description no later than midnight EST on March 31st. Be sure to include your e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win.

I will use a random number genorator to pick the winning entry on April 1st. I will then notify the winner who will have 24 hours to respond and "claim" their prize by sending me their mailing address. If the first winner does not respond in time I will continue to chose a winner in this manner until I get a winner.

So what's in it for you? How about this:



A veritable grab bag of goodies. Two balls of sinsation in black that will make a sinfully soft scarf; 4 balls of Katia Venecia, two blue, two red; a full skein of Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in Peppermint (already in a ball because I did start to knit something with it but I just didn't like how it was working out, but it is still good as new I assure you) and probably a few other goodies I'll throw in before I mail it off. Now tell me, that isn't a bad haul considering what you have to do for it now is it?!

A few ideas of things I would love to hear about:

What kind of plants would surive in conditions where there is absolutely no natural light (we don't have any windows in my office at all)?

What can I do with all those papers that I need quick access to?

What creative ways can I use to put pictures up of friends and family (I have some pinned under the shelf to the right now but it isn't too attractive)?

How can I bring some color into this space?

How can I incorporate my knitting and crocheting into this space?

How can I do all this and more without breaking the bank?


There are some ideas. Now it's time for you to get going and send in your entry now!

Last Friday was my birthday. I was pretty much dreading it because a) who the heck needs getting older anyway? and b) I had to work and who wants to work on their birthday? But I was actually quite surprised by the way the day turned out, and pleasantly so.

First, the weather was Amazing with a capital A!! So warm and beautiful. As I walked to Penn Station in the afternoon I saw that it was 73 degrees in Central Park! Not bad for March 10th, that's for sure.

In the morning I got to go to a program at the research library that was quite cool. It was called "Books to Remember" and can be found online here. Some of the publishers and authors of the books selected were at the presentation. A short description of each book was given and some excerpts were read. Subjects ranged from feminism in the 1600s to the war in Iraq. I'm definitely going to keep my eyes peeled for some of these to add to my reading list in the near future.

After the presentation I had my lunch outside in the park (I told you it was nice!) I'd been waiting to do that since last fall and I just about ran out of my office. I was so excited I had to take a picture for proof:

I'm dying to tell you all about last weekend's festivities, but I'm having picture issues at the moment (i.e. The computer with the card reader is in NJ and I am not).

In the meantime, you can get Mondays part of the story over at Lolly's blog. She was in NYC and we got to hang out for a bit after I got out of work (I'm still laughing at being called a *real* librarian. It still doesn't quite feel like it to me!). Let me just say that Lolly is just as sweet and cool as she sounds on her blog. We had a million things to talk about and not enough time! Meeting her has really inspired me to keep on blogging (I've been considering giving it up lately or just posting my FOs or something). Our meeting just reminded me that craft blogging really is a community and there are so many wonderful people out there to interact with. I may not get many comments or hits to my blog, but the people that I do interact with really are cool and special and I don't want to give that up!

So go check out Lolly's trip to NYC and hopefully I'll have a new post up with this past weekend's adventures by Thursday. Hope you are having a great, craft filled week too!

Does this ever happen to you?

You have this really awesome idea for a blog post. You think about it and get it all figured out.

You even get part of it done.

Then life happens.

The blog post doesn't happen. It was great inside your head, but getting down on electrons is just never going to happen.

Remember the Diary of a Super Secret Project Part I? I had this great idea that I would write a blog post or two about the process of making a hand-knit item from the perspective of the item. I'd do it in two parts and make the readers guess at the end what they thought the thing would look like before I posted the finished object picture.

Well, that was in January. I got the first half written while I was working on the project. Somehow, the project got finished and gifted, but the other installments of the diary never got written. And all the ideas that I had for the other parts?

Sucked into the blackhole that is my brain. Bummer.

It's now been almost a month since the FO was gifted, and the other parts just are not going to get written. Sometimes you just have to know when to let go (or so my yoga teacher used to say). So do me a favor, go read the post I linked to above. It's ok. I'll wait.

Did you read it? Good. Now, take a wild guess as to what it might be. Go on. No one's looking.

You don't even have to write it down!

So, do you think you know what the super secret project is? Now it's time to find out!

HWJF likes sweater vests, so I thought I'd make him one for a Valentine's Day present. I also know his favorite color is orange, so off I went to the Knitpicks catalog and picked out 9 skeins of this yarn. I ended up having an entire skein leftover plus some small parts of two others, but better to have too much than not enough!

To keep it all a secret, I measured the hell out of another vest he likes to wear that he left at my apartment one time. Using those measurements on the trusty book mentioned above, I picked out a v-neck pattern that I thought would fit with a few minor alterations. I wanted something simple, but not too plain, so I added a simple 8-row cable up the front. While I was afraid that this would pull the front out of proportion with the back, it didn't turn out that way. The blocking might have helped that.

I worked on this during train rides and times I was home alone and managed to pull it off without him suspecting a thing! His look of shock and confusion when he opened it was well worth all the sneaking around. I'm pretty pleased with how it all worked out and I think he likes it too. Here's a couple more pics just because...




Many thanks to HWJF for putting up with me making him get dressed up on a weekend for 5 mins. so we could take blog pictures in 15 degree weather outside! What I won't make my loved ones do to serve my public!

So there you have it. Not as cool a presentation as originally planned, but there it is.

You may go laugh yourself silly at my stupidity now.

Because I almost forgot the most important part of my trip to Memphis! The yarn shopping of course!



The last couple of years I've taken a couple of hours out of the conference to check out a local yarn shop. This year I made a trip to The Yarn Studio, which was only a short cab ride from my hotel. What a cute shop! I wish I had thought to bring the camera so I could have taken pictures inside. They had a nice selection of a variety of different things including Rowan yarns, Koigu, a bunch of different types of sock yarn and lots of patterns and samples. I had it in my head that I wanted something to make a shawl with so I ended up with this:



It's Karabella Lace Mohair, 540 yards per skein. I love the color and the softness is comparable to the infamous Kidsilk Haze while costing a good deal less for more yardage. Anyone had any experience with this yarn? I'm still not sure what pattern I'd use with it. I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have for shawls or other wearables that would make good use of 1080 yards of laceweight!



Olympic-like knitting...


I'm making good use of my sick time in the meanwhile. One of my college roommates is pregnant and her baby shower is March 12th. I can't make it up to Binghamton to go, but I'm making a baby blanket to send. Here it is so far, one ball finished:



It's a simple basketweave pattern.




I've got three skeins to go but it's got to be finished, washed and in the mail before the end of next week. Will I make it? Tune in next week...

When you are spending a quality day at home with this:




And it's doing this outside:



What better to do in the time you are actually awake than blog right? (Incidentally, when did daytime TV decide to suck so much? Or was I really just that bored before I got my job?!) I'm at home today and from the looks of things outside my window, it's probably just as well that I decided to call in sick. After a second trip to the dr. in a week my sinus infection has the beginnings of bronchitis in it's sights and I'm not willing to go there. So home I sit, blowing my brain out through my nose (snot farm anyone?) and ingesting as much fluid as I possibly can without peeing my brains out too.

Since I'm sure y'all wanted to know about all that and have continued reading (yeah right) I will reward you handsomely with a few more highlights of my trip to Memphis (which got me into this sniffly mess I'm in now). The conference, overall, was quite good. There were two sessions on sound recording cataloging, one on spoken word and the other on "unusual" formats, which I found very valuable. There was a good deal of discussion about RDA and the plenary sessions this year were the best I have attended in my four trips to MLA. One involved interviewing four members at differing points in their careers. These ranged from someone just starting out to a near "founding" member who will celebrate her 90th birthday soon! It was very interesting to hear how things have changed and yet, how similar some things still were. The other plenary involved Augusta Reed Thomas and the conductor of the Memphis symphony discussing the new work that would be performed that night as part of the commemoration of MLA's 75th anniversary. Both of them were very eloquent speakers and it was very interesting to hear about the genesis of a new work, straight from the horse's mouth.

As usual, the accommodations were very nice. We stayed here:




The Peabody Hotel. Quite the landmark. And definitely in stark contrast to the rest of the surrounding area. The Peabody is famous mostly for one thing. The ducks! They have a fountain in the middle of the lobby which hosts live ducks from 11-5 each day. They march in and out to a Sousa march and it is just the funniest thing to see. My pictures didn't come out all that well because of the lighting but you can kind of get the idea:







Twice a day the crowd that assembled to watch the march was like the worst paparazzi for any Hollywood star you could think of. Just too funny how people lined up, sometimes an hour in advance, to see these ducks do their thing!

You can see much more and read the story of the ducks at the Peabody Website.


I also got to walk down the famous Beale Street:





And even had dinner at one of the restaurants one night. Overall, the food was a bit difficult for someone with my dietary issues to deal with while I was down there. I had a salad one night and it was like a meal from heaven.

I also got to take a quick walk to see this:




That would be the Mississippi River. I've never seen it before. And I've never been west of it in the United States. That's right, I've been to Calgary and Banff and Vancouver (and hell, I've even been to Spain), but never west of the Mississippi in the U.S. apparently I may get my chance four years from now when MLA looks like it will be in San Diego! I'm very excited about that and the upcoming conferences in Pittsburgh, Newport and Chicago before then. At least I'll be able to drive to the next two.

I'm also happy to report that the Snowflake Bag brought a decent price at the silent auction and is now owned by someone who also won a package that included her first knitting lesson! Nice to see others picking up the craft.


I got a good deal of knitting done while I was on my trip too.




The Jaywalkers are for me and the other is for HWJF. Mine is Trekking XXL that I bought when I interviewed for my current job and the other is Regia that HWJF and I picked out at the Superbowl sale last month. What you see here is basically exactly what I did while I was gone. I have barely put three rounds on the Jaywalkers since I got back. Seriously. When I realized that, I knew I was really sick.

And after all that, I think it's time for another lie-down. Hope the end of your week is much less snot-filled than mine...