Follow up

This is the follow up posting.

First of all a follow up on my life: Dav and I are moving to California. He applied to grad school at Berkeley last fall and was accepted. We decided that Montreal was just too cold for us. I've never been to the Bay area but everyone I talk to says that I will love it. Dav and I have the opportunity to fly out there in a couple of weeks for free while doing a movement/emotions (probably not the correct description) project with a colleague of his from Stanford. We get the whole weekend to wander around the area, possibly looking for an apartment for August when we pack up all belongings in our beetle and drive cross country. "Yikes, I'm excited," is my general feeling these days.

Second is a follow up on the Brioche scarf:

I've written down the directions so I can send people to them when they ask me about the scarf.

Brioche Bi-Color Scarf

co 24 st in Color A on a circular needle (important)

Row 1: With color B *k1, yo, sl 1, repeat from * to last 2 sts. End with k1, sl1

Row 2: Instead of turning your work, slide the sts over cable to other needle where color A is.

Sl 1, bring color A up to work making sure it doesn't wrap around the first sl st * p2tog, yo, sl 1, repeat from * end p1

Row 3: Turn work, sl 1, bring up color B to work still making sure it doesn't wrap around the first sl st. *p2tog, yo, sl1, repeat from * end p1

Row 4: Slide sts to other needle end where color A is. With color A k1, *yo, sl 1, k2tog, repeat from * sl last st.

Row 5: Turn work. Using color B k1, *yo, sl 1, k2tog, repeat from * sl last st.

Rep rows 2-5

Feel free to post any questions or corrections.

Post for Jess

Thanks to Jess I have conquered (well almost) the brioche stitch in flat with two colors. Because the stitch requires one row of each color in order for the striping to occur, she sugested that I use circular or DPNs so I could slide my work from one side to the other to retrieve the correct color. Otherwise working back and forth would create two rows in one color instead of the desired one.


I originally saw this striping in hat patterns that you knit in the round so retrieveing colors was not an issue. Overall it seems to be working well. This is my first project ( a scarf by the way) in Brioche and I love the rhythm it creates. *yo, sl 1, k2tog* It gets a little more complicated with the two colors because part of the time you're working from the wrong side so you have to do a p2tog in place of the k2tog, but I've been taking cues completely visually. Sorry I've probably lost the non-knitters (or "muggles" as some knit bloggers like to call you) that may happen to read my blog.

"The Earth is going to crash into the Sun"

That's what Dav has been saying this whole winter/spring season thing that's been going on. A fellow blogger aptly said, "We had Easter weather for Christmas, and Christmas weather for Easter." Some of these pictures are hard to see the snow in but it's there.




If you look closely the snow is piled on top of the white flowers.

Knit Purl Hurl

Even though Jess has pestered me many times to join her and other tipsy knitters on Tuesday nights at The Pharmacy Bar, this is only my second time around. This time I managed to do a ton more drinking than knitting. Hurling I avoided. I got to see several skeins of Karida's hand dyed yarn that she sells under the label Neighborhood Fibers. In return I let her try on my newly FO. It's difficult to interpret my cell phone pics, so I'll give you a little guided tour:

Basically the lacy red item on Karida's head is knitted lingerie. On Karida's left is the beautiful happy drunk Libby.

This is also only my second time in the physical presence of Libby. I talk to her on the phone every week asking her questions like, "Do you have color #117 in Aurora 8?" (work conversations). This time we were able to talk about more personally pertinent subjects like birth control and the weather in Chicago and Montreal.
Other highlights of the evening were the vegan margarita cupcakes created by the talented Jess. Yum yum.

To top the evening off, Dav drove by after his circus arts festival meeting and picked my drunk ass up and drove me Laurie's where I was house sitting. He's so good to me.

Lily

This is what I did today:

(I apologize for the dark lighting but it was getting later in the day)

I went to yoga class this morning and than on my walk home I was inspired to knit a flower for the bug's vase. It's been wanting one for quite some time now. I was just going to slip it into the car so I could get Dav's reaction from happening upon it instead of me shoving another knit item in front of him to ask for aproval. I figured it would take at least a day for him to spot it but it was literally minutes after I came in the house from shooting this picture that he walked in from work and told me he spotted a new knit item. He's a keen one he is!
The weather was amazing all day. I sat on the back porch in the sun with my pant legs rolled up and stripped down to my tank from yoga class. I swear I can see a little tan line but Mr "keen" doesn't see it. I guess he doesn't see everything. I know it's there!
I also made sure to call Mom today. After having two nights in a row of dreams in which either myself or her is terminally ill and can't get in touch with the other, I thought it would be a good thing to settle my mind by calling her. She's fine except for a little cold. Besides I had to tell her about the trip to Montreal and to see if Jackie (sister) liked her birthday hat (she did and has gotten several compliments). I totally forgot to take a picture of it before sending it off. She did get it in time for her birthday! I'll have to squeeze a picture from her wearing it so I can post it.

My "other" Life

Yippee. I get a mini vacation up in Montreal this week. Dav and I are driving up there to check out the possibility of moving there. He has been accepted to the Universite de Montreal and so we are both visiting while he interviews with staff. Other future living options are San Diego, Berkeley, and Maryland. My top two choices are Berkeley and Montreal but Dav really likes the department in San Diego the best so far and we're still waiting to hear back from Berkeley.

And for the current dance news in my life: (I thought I might share a little about my dancing life and not just the knitting side) A piece that I'm dancing in has an actual blog that the director is posting. Daniel Burkholder's The Playground is a fun company to dance with. It's an improvisation company, so I get to make up the movement on the spot. We have a lot of structures and sequences to remember but besides that I have freedom of movement and no worries about choreography and counts. The piece that we're working on is called "My Ocean is Never Blue" and it's focus is water.

Related to Daniel, is Andrea Burkholder, whom I have been taking aerial classes with. This includes circus arts like silks, hoops, and static trapeze. I have totally fallen in love with flying! Andrea and Sharon's company is called Arachne Aerial Arts.

The other company is Next Reflex Dance Company. We had a showing in the new Joe's Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier this last Saturday. Milestone: Dav gets to see me dance for the third time

Color

The sun is out and all the snow has melted away. I've decided this is the time for pretty colors so after the knitting class that I taught (by the way it went really well and several people immediately signed up for the second class afterwards) I would get a manicure. Those of you reading this probably know this is not a common past time of mine. I think the last time I went was several years ago after being coaxed by a friend.
The past few days on my walk to and from work (about a 13 min walk) I've seen several bright little flowers blooming. Maybe this far south it's not that uncommon to see flowers this early in March, but it seems a little out of place for me. Regardless, I've been enjoying them. What I'm trying to say in my loopy way is that my fingers felt they needed to be colorful too.
It was then on my ride home on the Metro that I realized it was great fun to watch my colorful fingers dancing around while I knit on my socks. I now have shiny pink spots floating in front of my eyes while I'm knitting. Hee hee! I feel so girly.


Here is a better picture of my socks. The design is called "Monkey" by the wonderful Cookie whose pattern is free on Knitty.com. It's knit in Cherry Tree Hill "java".


And while I'm in the mood of sharing pictures of knitting here is a picture of my first displayed item at Stitch DC. It's nothing that fancy but fun to have people ooh and ahh and buy yarn because of it. It's the ballet T out of Loop-D-Loop with double strands of a worsted hand dyed cotton. Super soft but I don't remember the name of it off hand.











I also have a fun colored hat that I'm working on at the moment but out of caution that my sister might actually read this post before receiving her birthday present (the hat) I've decided to wait on posting it.

Update

I must post something to keep my imaginary audience attentive and imaginarily (pardon the imaginary word) existent. Well I guess I'll do what any girlfriend would like to do and that's post pictures of their cute guy in their blog. This picture will also conveniently include some of my handiwork from over Christmas. I can take the credit for the crochet part but the machine sewing must be credited to my mom. Thanks again Mom for saving me.

My Heroine

I was just listening to a song from the soundtrack of Flashdance when nostalgia hit. I used to think the female heroine's were so adult and mature so when I think of these movies that I used to watch when I was a little kid I still relate these adult characters to my Mom's age. I know I'm actually reaching the age where I'm older than most of the romantic movie characters portrayed. This makes me feel like I'm getting old but on the flip side I still picture my Mom as a young heroine.

January Springtime

El Niño

Shrinkage

Well it's been a while. Of course for most people the holidays create a bit of a wake in the pattern. That's why we need it though. Starting Christmas early is not about the commercialism for me but rather an excuse for excuses. Drinking more, eating like crap, not working as hard, and skipping dance classes are some of the my excuses that have developed over the past month. They all will come around and kick me in the ass though. Already the eating like crap and drinking more have created a nasty little head cold. Soon to be divulged are the results of my other excuses.

Story Time

On new years day Dav and I took a nice walk on the boardwalk in Ocean City where we had spent our previous night following his sister's drama around town from nightclub to bar. The wind was blowing hard on our walk but we both pushed though without a word to the other. Finally on a decided landmark (the dough roller) we turned back. The wind was now at our back so it was considerably warmer for our ears. Unfortunately a few drops started falling but we kept prodding down the boardwalk.
A little side note: Dav has adopted a "look" that has drawn lots of attention from strangers. This is exactly what he desires and he feels that he has finally found his "look". One main aspect being his handle bar stash that curls quite impressively towards his dimples. The other main aspect being a bowler that I trudged through London this summer looking for specifically to complete his look. The three of them have been inseparable since. End side note.
Being New Years, Dav had packed accordingly and also dressed to impress the entire time we were there including in the living room with his new pink "action pants" and on the beach walk. Bowlers, or Derbies as Dav likes to call his, are made of felted wool.
Second side note: As a knitter I know of the treacheries of wool and shrinkage. Do sheep and goats have this problem when they're stuck in the rain? Anyway, I am super careful now after my favorite hat is now a little too small for comfort. I went through lots of tugging and reworking to get it to just fit me. I know I'm lucky. I've seen much worse. End second side note.
So as you have probably already have concluded, Dav's hat was in trouble after the rain started gradually becoming a pour rather than a sprinkle. Now this is an event which Dav looks back at with frustration because he didn't think to remove the hat. He probably won't appreciate this blog. We got back to his sister's condo soaked and miserable. I was miserable because of my wet feet, coat, mittens and pants but he was mostly gloomy about the hat (he didn't even really care about the wet cashmere sport coat). Long story short (too late) I stuffed the hat after making him wear it wet for a little while. The outcome is a slightly distorted brim and bumpy surface with much less firmness all around. Outcome: I feel great that I could find a gift that meant so much to him. On the other hand I feel really bad that he had to experience the terror of shrinkage.

I just had a long weekend full of Santas and sangria with a little dancing for good measure.
Dav and I went to Santarchy on Saturday so we spent the entire day wandering around with a hundred Santas through DC. I took a few pictures with the camera phone but they didn't really portray the madness of so much red and white. Dav and I handed out cookies, whipped cream, and radishes. The radishes were actually more popular early on in the day but as it grew later the cookies took the lead. Whipped cream was a bomb only because we left early to see a dance performance at Dance Place. I'm sure it would have seen glory later in the evening.
After the dance performance we went to a birthday party of a friend of a friend and that's where the sangria came into play. Good times with the karaoke and Dav's trombone, that by the way, he had been carrying around the entire day.
On Sunday I was able to spend most of the day recovering with a delicious chai latte, knitting and two hours of rehearsal.

Global Warmth

Now that I'm a working girl you may not hear from me as often, but I'm committed to keeping in touch. Thanksgiving went well. I met tons of Dav's family; his Mother's husband's family, his Father's wife's family, and his grandparents with close family. Lots of people! Someone of note that I finally got to meet was his brother, Derek. He's been on a sub since the beginning of summer or something ridiculous. He said it was like living in a third world country.
Speaking of the world and in turn thinking of how the end is ever nearing, the weather was incredibly warm today (Not good for the knitting business). It was around 70 F all day so I opened all the doors to let the air come through. I also did a bit of wood chopping for when and if the temperature drops. Wonder how the snowy weather and power outage is going for my folks out in the Northwest?

Party

Our house party went well this last weekend. It was a fairly long day considering I had a rehearsal earlier. We drank lots and danced wild in the front room. Here are some photos I took during the evening. It was a great mixed crowd of about 20+ and everyone seemed to have had a good time. Dav and I went to bed around 3:30am.

(notice the product placement)




My first day of work was last Thurday and it went well. Along with once again having purpose in the rat race, I also get to hone my craft by helping others with yarn choices and dropped stitches.

Activity

I just got back home after a successful interview at Stitch DC. Jessica, the person who interviewed me, was around my age which was a bit of a relief. I was afraid I was going to be stuck with a bunch of middle-aged women. Don't get me wrong, I would get along with them really well. I was just worried that their first impression of me wouldn't be great for a conservative yarn store full of women knitting frumpy sweaters. Instead they seem to be a really friendly shop that focuses on the new trends. I may have a chance to teach some classes as well!

On a different note...I had a fabulous weekend in NYC for Malina's concert. It went really well and my piece was well received. Even Dav liked it (he was afraid of what to tell me if he didn't like it). On top of the show being a success overall, I was able to be with a bunch of great friends. We all went out to a Japanese restaurant Saturday night after the show for sushi and drinks. Good times.

Big Stomachs

I love fall food. The kitchen is filled with the smell of cornbread, baked apple, baked, squash and lentil soup. Lots of warm yummies. I can drink my herbal infusions (herbal tea) now without the worry of being too hot. My hair really needs a trim and I know once Dav is finished cutting it'll be drafty near the shaved section.
Having someone to cuddle with at night is now another huge bonus of cold fall weather.

VOTE

Frustration Venting: thanks blog

Today I worked on my solo for Malina's show. I hate making solos for myself! I knew this would be a headache for me but I really wanted to do this performance for Malina. I'm sure it'll turn out just fine but I'm fighting with the music right now. It seems that in my search for interesting and engaging music I picked a piece that was really hard to choreograph to. Maybe it's just me though. I need to stop analyzing every second of movement and worrying if it sucks or not. It's less than a week away!

I'm currently sitting at a comfy coffee house in College Park. It's nice to get out of the house even though I'm still sucked to the computer. Dav picked me up from the subway after a lecture he went to at the University of Maryland. When he picked me up he mentioned that NYU peeps are much cooler than College Park peeps. Who knows where I'll end up? I like the unknown but I hope I can adjust to the new place we end up quickly enough that I don't go batty. I like new places but I take a long time to settle in to a new environment. Have to end up somewhere. Dav and I just need to make it through this sluggish year of uninspired togetherness. The sluggishness and the uninspiredness is lame but the togetherness is great. Not that I'm not looking for inspiration. More on that later.

Happy Halloween!

The weather is amazing here so I'm excited about dressing up for the DC Guerrilla Poetry mob in the streets of Georgetown tonight. Dav finds these weird events through the DC burner list. Hopefully I won't be called upon to recite much but I can count on Dav spouting and free associating plenty to make up for my lack of verboseness.
My costume was a last minute purchase so we'll see how martian I can be.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaiourackyish!

Community

I went to a contact jam today in a really nice church parish with wood trimming all around and stain glass windows. There was a huge courtyard garden leading up to the space as well. It's a little far from where Dav and I live but nothing serious. It will be the new permanent home for the jam. Since I've been attending, we've been in limbo with nowhere in particular to call home. In addition to the space being potentially permanent, I was blessed with a nice committed group to dance with this time. It seems like the contact community is very committed in DC. Communities are nice. You end up seeing the same people when you're in a group situation and they end up being your friends, either that or you abandon the group 'cause you can't stand the people. I don't think that will happen with this group.
On Saturday I had attempted to join up with a knitting group at the Murky coffee shop a block away from home. It's a great coffee shop and of course I love knitting so I decided it would be a great opportunity to socialize! One problem. No one decided that it was worth coming that week. It was an online group that I had come across and I guess people don't feel like they're held accountable for things they decide to do in the virtual world. I understand that sometimes I change my mind at the last minute or I become busier on something I'd rather work on, but did that have to happen to all 5 or 6 of the people that had said they were coming? Oh well, I got a lot of knitting done while I drank some nice lychee green tea while Dav worked on his computer.

I think my knitting is calling me right now. I just spent an hour plus trying to renew my anti-virus software so I'm a little computer'd out. Isn't that always how it goes?
Later, Meg


PS for those of you who are new to reading blogs: you can click the highlighted links in my writing for definitions of weird words or phrases I use. The new web page that you link to will have an article or something explaining my highlights.