I ♥ NY

I am back from New York! I've actually been back since Tuesday night, I just haven't had the time to blog. I'll also mention that I haven't knit a stitch in more than a week! OMG! Crazy. I should be getting back into it tonight since we're planning on renting a movie so I'll pick my sock back up. No worries! I had brought yarn in New York, but I didn't touch it the whole time I was there.

Ok, so I'm sure you're all dying to know about the trip, right? It was A LOT of fun! I love New York! It's a great city and I definitely plan on going back. We left early Friday morning and we were at Newark Airport quite early (I think around 9). We also got very lucky because our room was ready when we got to the hotel.

Speaking of which, if any of you plan on going to NYC, I could not recommend our hotel more. Its name is pretty straight forward: The Hotel at Times Square. It's part of the Apple Core Hotels mini-chain. The price is right (we paid 150$ a night), the rooms are nice (though not luxurious, but we didn't care). The free breakfast was good. There was free internet as well as a gym (that I did not use). And it was a 5 minutes walk to Times Square! The location was excellent. I'd definitely stay there again!

The first thing I noticed when we got out of Penn station? The yellow cabs of course! They were everywhere and I really felt like I was indeed in New York!



After we found our hotel and took a shower, we went to Central Park. I loved it, it's so huge and beautiful!





I really wanted to find Strawberry field to see the John Lennon memorial.





We had lunch in a diner and I ordered a shrimp roll. It was huge! But very good.



I think we stayed in Central Park for most of the afternoon. In the evening, we went for a walk and we saw the famous Flat iron building.



Then we went to the Empire State Building and went up. It was great to see all the lights from up there (I don't have any good pics though).

On Saturday, we took the subway. We did ok, but their subway is more confusing than ours, that's for sure. We wanted to go to Canal Street but we somehow ended up in Brooklyn. Oops!



We got back and found the right station. We walked for a while and saw city hall. Then we sat near a fountain and Chris had fun taking pictures of a bird (he likes taking bird pics, go figure).





And I had fun taking weird fountain pics.



Then we walked on the Brooklyn Bridge, which was very cool. We only walked half of it though, and then we decided to get back.



After that, we saw a church where there was a memorial for the victims of 9/11, and then we went to Ground Zero.

We walked by the river and saw the Statue of Liberty. That's the closest we got though. We didn't really feel like going so we just looked at it from afar.



Then, Chris really wanted to go to Coney Island, so we took the metro and went. It was a loooong ride, but we had so much fun there it was totally worth it!





We saw a freaky sideshow with flame eaters, contorsionists and all that jazz. It was fun.



Then we went on the scariest rollercoaster ever. It was old and just scary. I sort of enjoyed it but I screamed a lot.


(It doesn't look scary? Trust me, it was.)

We were so exhausted that night we actually got back to our room pretty early, though we did see Times Square at night and it was something!



We spent a good part of Sunday at the American Museum of Natural History where we saw DINOSAURS! Or dinosaur skeletons anyways. Very impressive. We also saw a meteorite and lots of gems and precious stones.




Ooooh shiny!

That evening we went to a comedy club called Ha! where I drank champagne (hey, why not?) and laughed a lot.

Monday was the best day ever. In the morning, we went to see the UN, and then we walked on 5th avenue and saw the Mac Store as well as FAO Schwarz! I got to make my childhood dream come true by playing on the big piano!



Then I went to the Harry Potter section where I couldn't resist trying on the Sorting Hat.



In the afternoon, we went to wait in line because we had tickets to see THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART! I was so excited! I love Jon Stewart.





We waited for a long time. Think three hours. I had brought things to read and music, but Chris and I just spent most of the time chatting. Even though we were one of the first in line, we didn't get in first because they also had a VIP line (that was apparently for people who hadn't managed to get in the day before).

When we finally got in, I was pretty happy with our seats. We were on the side, but very close to Jon's desk and could see very well because there were no cameras in front of us (except during the interview with the guest). I was hoping John Oliver would be the correspondant that day, but he wasn't there. Wyatt Cenac was though and he was very funny.

I was very impressed with Jon Stewart. He was super nice and answered people's questions before the show. He was very professional during the taping, they did the whole thing in one take! The guest was Sarah Fisher, a race car driver. I didn't know her.

Stewart also did a toss with Stephen Colbert at the end of the show, which was great! He chatted with him a bit during commercial and then they did their thing and it was very funny. We just loved that whole day!



Tuesday was our last day and the weather was gorgeous so we went to Central Park again and spent the day in the sun.

Then we went on 5th avenue and we saw the Rockefeller Center.



After that we had about 2 hours to spare before we had to leave for the airport and we noticed TGI Friday had 3$ margaritas so we went in there. And we got carded! Woohoo!

I was very sad to come back. It all went by so quickly. We will go back for sure!

Hats!

I've been a bad blogger and haven't updated much. I'm sorry about that, life really got in the way. I've been working a lot and working out and preparing my trip to NYC (FRIDAY!!!!). And knitting! I'm back into it and my Phlox socks are coming along nicely. I don't think I'll have them finished by the time I leave like I wanted though.



Pink ribbon. You all know what that means, right? Breast cancer awareness. Like many people, I have been indirectly affected by it. My paternal grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 42. So young. Thank God she did survive and had a good long life (she died two years ago and she was in her 80's). She had her left breast AND arm amputated though.

Well in March of this year, the disease striked again. This time, it touched my mom's sister, who is in her early 50's (I think 53). She should start her chemo treatments soon. I saw her yesterday and told her I'd knit her some hats.

So now I need suggestions. Hat patterns, yarn to use. I have no idea how long her treatments are going to take so I think I'll make her a couple of lighter hat (cotton maybe?) and a couple of warmer ones. We'll see.

I think I want to make this one first. What do you think?

Knitting? What's that?

So you probably noticed I haven't been talking about knitting much these past few weeks. I seem to have lost my knitting mojo again. It has nothing to do with my current projects, since I don't even want to start anything new. I do want to place a huge order on Knitpicks though (but I won't).

This past week has been pretty stressful at work. Our weekend news editor is on vacation and I'm filling in for him. Responsibilities = stress. And this past weekend, with all the swine flu crazyness, work was quite stressful (but I think I did ok).

I'm not working today but I have so much to do, I don't have much time to rest. Definite DORMA*. This morning I went grocery shopping and did laundry (I still have a mountain of clothes to fold and put away), then I had lunch. Next on the schedule : the rest of the laundry, gym and cooking. I want to make chicken and broccoli divan, vegetarian chili, pasta salad and carrot and raisins muffins. I need to have meals ready because my work week (starting tomorrow) will probably be crazy again.

My gym is currently having a little friendly competition. Each trainer has a team and each participant log their cardio minutes for ten days. There are going to be prizes at the end of the 10 days. I went yesterday and I want to go again today. I'm trying to go as often as I can during the week since I most likely won't be able to during the weekend.

I'm closing this post with a pic of my Phlox socks:



(They will look much butter when they're blocked). My goal is to get to the heel by the end of the week. Let's see if I can do it!


*Day of rest, my arse (thanks to Tara for the lovely expression).

I didn't want to cry so I chose to laugh

Believe it or not, I missed the Habs game tonight. I can't believe I missed a playoff game! I barely ever miss games during the regular season, and I usually never ever miss a playoff game.

But I couldn't deal with another loss. And as much as I wanted the Habs to win (especially since Robyn was at the Bell Centre to cheer them on), I knew there was a good chance that they'd lose. And they did. We are now 0-3 in the series. I know nothing's impossible, but I don't have much hope.

So what did I do instead of watching an ex-Habs (stupid Ryder) score the winning goal for Boston? I went to a National Improv League game! It felt just like hockey, but it made me laugh instead of making me cry.

We had the national anthem.



We had music.



We had referees.





We had two teams.



We had a good show.



We voted.



The Orange team won.



Go Orange Go!

This post has no knitting content

I am completely addicted to the Genius feature on iTunes. I.Love.It. I have a lot of music on my computer but I'm often listening to the same songs over and over again. Lately I've been choosing my favourite songs on iTunes and generating playlists with Genius and I absolutely love the results. The one I'm listening to right now is based on Sometime Around Midnight from The Airborne Toxic Event (I love the song) and here's what Genius gave me:

1. Sometime Around Midnight (The Airborne Toxic Event)
2. Troublemaker (Weezer)
3. Oxford Comma (Vampire Weekend)
4. Ulysses (Franz Ferdinand)
5. Rebellion (Lies) (The Arcade Fire)
6. Gamma Ray (Beck)
7. I Still Remember (Bloc Party)
8. The Heinrich Maneuver (Interpol)
9. Middle of Nowhere (Hot Hot Heat)
10. Hammerhead (The Offspring)
11. Flathead (The Fratellis)
12. Last Nite (The Strokes)
13. All the Same (Sick Puppies)
14. Lost Cause (Beck)
15. Time is Running Out (Muse)

Ok the list actually has 50 songs in it so I'll stop here but you get the idea. I just wish I could get the feature on my iPod (I have an iPod classic, 5th generation and it doesn't support Genius, unfortunately). But I can save the playlists and drag them into my iPod so all is good.

What are you guys listening to these days?

It's going to be that kind of day...

Anybody watches 24? (no spoilers ahead)

I just wanted to say how disappointed I was at the twist at the end of the last episode! I don't want to say too much, in case some of you haven't seen it yet, but let's just say I'm mad at my favourite character. If you've seen it, you know what I mean ;)

And yes, I am perfectly capable of being mad at a fictional character. That's just the way I am, I get into the stories too much and I come to care too much about people that don't even exist! ;)

That being said, I'm having a bad case of the Tuesdays (which is just like Monday, except, you know, one day late).

It all started yesterday, actually, when I went to the gym. I don't bring my purse with me to the gym, I just shove my keys and wallet in my gym bag. Forward to today, I need to go grocery shopping even though I really don't feel like it. I shop through the whole store and just as I was about to go to the cash, I realized, you guessed it, that I didn't have my wallet with me! It was still in my gym bag. *sigh*

Chris was at work so I couldn't call him to come and bring me my wallet. So I had to ask an employee if I could leave my cart somewhere, run back home and come back to pay. Joy.

Ps/ I finished one Phlox sock! Yay!

Food and planes

Last week, the weather was very blah. Rainy and cold and all. So it made me want to eat soup.

I had seen a yummy looking lentil soup recipe on a blog, and I decided to try it. OMG. Delicious. I loved it so much I ate it for lunch and brought the leftovers at work that same night. I definitely recommend it and it's so easy to make too. You can find it here.

Also, I have news:



I'm going to New York, baby! I've actually never been before, can you believe it? I've almost been a couple of times, but something always came up. This year, it looks like it's going to happen.

We're going in May and we'll only be there for five days. We found a place to stay that looks nice (and it's close to Times Square). I seriously can't wait.

Oh and we have tickets to a taping of the Daily Show!!! Seeing as I'd like to have Jon Stewart's babies, you can guess I'm excited! Of course, having tickets doesn't mean you'll actually get in, but we'll get there early and hope for the best.

Since we won't have that much time, I'm not planning on going yarn shopping, but if there happens to be a yarn store close to where we're at, I'll make sure to go in. So if any of you can recommend good LYS in NYC, let me know!

I feel meh

I had today off and expected a great day but it didn't up being yucky. And it rained all day so I stayed home and knit (that wasn't so bad, I'll admit it).

Last week I cast on for a new pair of socks:



Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good pic and of course the sock hasn't been blocked yet so it doesn't look as good as it will when it's finished. The yarn really is beautiful though, isn't it?

The pattern is Phlox by the lovely Jennifer. The yarn is from Biscotte & Cie. I got the yarn and pattern from Robyn's nest (it was one of the sock club kits).

I can't wait till I finish them so I can show them off. I'm thinking they may become a gift for my sister.

Waves of blue (and white!)

I finished the baby blanket on Saturday morning, just in time for my friend's baby shower!



Pattern: Waves of Blue by Bev Galeskas
Yarn: Bernat Softee
Needles: US 7/ 4.5 mm

The pattern was very simple and easy to memorize. I absolutely love the end result and my friend was very happy and touched that I would take the time to make something for her. The yarn, well it's acrylic that I got last Christmas. It really wasn't bad though. It's very soft and easy to work with.

Next on the needles: Socks, maybe? I also want to finish a project or two.

Glorious markers

I've always thought I had enough stitch markers. I only ever use a few at a times anyways, so I don't need millions of them, right?

That's what I thought until I realized I just couldn't live without Brigitte's Go Habs Go stitch markers.



Seriously, how cool are they? The Go Habs Go beads even look like little puck! She sells sets of 5 stitch markers and the 5th one is custom made to honour your favourite player (TP14, guess what it means?). I love them!

BTW, Brigitte's Etsy shop is named Les TricotLores (brilliant!) and she sells Habs inspired yarn. Profit from the yarn go to the Montreal Canadiens Children's Foundation. It can't get any better than that.

Blankie in progress

I've been meaning to post these past couple of days but I've been so sick! Both Chris and I were hit with a bad bad bad cold (the worst I've had in years). Usually, one of us gets sick first and the other one gets sick right after, but this time, we both got sick at the same time and it was just bad. I'm feeling a little bit better today, but the past three days have been hell. I would just cough and cough and cough and medication didn't help much. And I think we went through 5 boxes of tissues. It was ugly.

Unfortunately, that means I wasn't able to work on my friend's baby blanket much. This is what it looks like now:





I want to have it done by March 28. I'll have to knit a lot in the next week...

A year ago...

A year ago, I took this yarn:



And I cast on for a pair of socks. I knit and knit and knit and progressed:



And then I got one sock. And then I decided I didn't want to knit the second sock. So I didn't.

A year later, I decided I did want a pair of green cabled socks after all so I picked the project back up and I knit and I knit until I got... A finished pair!


Picture 1: Good colour


Picture 2: Blurry, but more detailed

Pattern: Cable Net socks by Ariel Barton (from Knitty, Fall 2006.
Yarn: Reynolds Soft Sea Wool in Olive
Needles:2.25 mm dpns
Modifications: I did 3 repeats of the leg pattern (instead of 4) because I was scared to run out of yarn. I think it's a good thing I did because I didn't have much leftover.

I love the socks and I love the yarn, but I don't know how much I'll like non-superwash socks. We'll see.

I wanted to cast on for my Go Habs Go socks as soon as I finished the Cable Nets, but then I realized that I do want to knit something for my friend's baby shower (March 28th) so I cast on for a baby blanket (Waves of Blue blanket). Being a slow knitter, I doubt I'll finish it before the shower, but I'm going to try. She's due in June, so I have extra time if I can't finish it by the end of March.

Have you guys seen the new Knitty? There are some cute things in there, but nothing that makes me want to cast on ASAP. I really like Decimal and Cachoeira.

Nothing to see here!

Oh blog, dear blog. I wish I had more interesting things to write about. Some knitting pics to share. Yarn porn*. But I have nothing.

I'm still working on that UFO I don't want to talk about until it's done. The good news is that I should finish it in the next couple of days. Yay!

I think I'm getting startitis. I haven't suffered from it in a while, but I've been having a few symptoms these past few days. The main one is that I keep looking at my Ravelry queue. And since I have no pics to share, I'm going to share the patterns I'm liking right now.

Froot Loop socks
Arbor
Central Park Hoodie (Classic. I really want to make it.)
Shifting sands scarf
Jeanie wrap
Après-surf hoodie
Nalu mitts

I've also been thinking about going yarn shopping. Thinking about it. But I'm trying to be good and knit from my stash for a while, at least for small projects, which is all I've been doing for the past year or so. Still, I see yarn shopping in my future.




*Everytime I use the word porn on my blog, I assume I'll get more hits. I'm looking forward to seeing how many people are going to find this blog and be so disappointed to see there are no naked chicks on here. Oh my, and now I just wrote "naked chicks".

Twist and Shout

I've been MIA again, sorry! I thought I had posted last week, but apparently not. I have to admit I don't have any pretty pictures to post. No FOs, no interesting WIPs that I want to share, no new yummy yarn.

I haven't started anything new since I finished my Bella Mittens. Instead, I picked up an old UFO that I plan on finishing. I'll wait till I'm closer to finishing before posting pics though, as I'm scared I'll get tired of it again and set it aside.

I do plan on casting on soon though. First of all, the fantastic ladies from the Go Habs Go Ravelry group are planning a "Sock-u Koivu KAL" (get it? Haha!). I'm going to use my Go Habs Go yarn of course and knit Chris a pair of socks.

I'm also tempted by all the cute Spring-y patterns that are coming out. Have you guys seen the new Twist Collective? I adore the Ardent Jacket and I would make it if I thought I could make one that looks as good. Of course, it would help if *I* looked as good as the model (who is, I believe, the girl who thought me how to spin last year).

I also really like Dulce de Leche, the sleepy monkey baby blanket (though I doubt I'll ever make it), jennie's toys, cherry fizz, Collette, Primrose path and all the socks.

Of course I also got the new Interweave Knits, and I love the Float Stole, Fountain Pen Shawl, Silk Cocoon Cardigan and Soap Bubble Wrap.

We'll see if I ever manage to start (and finish) one of them!

Every single day of forever

Pattern:Bella's mittens, by Marielle Henault
Yarn: Knitpicks Cadena in Mist
Needles: US7/4.5 mm DPNs

I absolutely LOVE these mittens. They are perfect and they were a quick knit (I would have finished them last week if it hadn't been for my injury). They are also the perfect colour to go with my woven cables scarf...


... except that I lost my scarf the same day I finished the mittens. *sigh* I guess I really can't go through a winter without losing some knitwear. And now I need a new scarf.

In other news, my neck/shoulder still hurts and I'm still not sure what's wrong. It got really bad at one point and I just couldn't sleep. I went to an osteopath and it's gotten better every day since. Hopefully it'll be back to normal soon. I want to try and go back to the gym this week (my trainer has designed a program that won't hurt my neck).

Mitts in progress

I gotta say, those Bella mittens are a quick knit:



No, I'm not done yet, but I haven't knit at all these past few days. Imagine being in a doctor's waiting room for 3 hours but not being able to knit because you're in pain. That was yesterday morning. I'm still not sure what's wrong with me. The doctor called whiplash, but I thought that was something you had after a car accident. Apparently not. Anyways, I got me some anti-inflammatory drugs (and no cervical collar, thank God). Hopefully I'll get back to knitting soon.

Green socks!

Look at my beautiful new socks! I love them!



Pattern: Paddy's Lucky Clover Socks by Angela Dominey
Yarn: Shelby B's Designs 100% Superwash Merino in Lucky Clover
Needles: 2.25 mm dpns

The yarn and pattern were from last year's March sock club from Robyn's nest. The pattern was fun and easy to memorize and the yarn is just fabulous. Very soft. I'm wearing the socks right now and I just love them.

I'm trying not to knit too much right now because there's something wrong with my left shoulder/neck. It's been hurting for days now and it's getting worse each day. I don't think it's knitting-related, but still. I'll go to the doctor sometime this week (probably Tuesday). Last time something like that happened (last year or so), I has to take pain relievers and muscle relaxers, but I was better after a few days.

To Angela: You asked me if it's easier to learn to knit with smaller or bigger needles. I think every knitter has its preference (I like to knit socks, so I like small needles) and I think you can learn using any needles BUT my preference for a beginner would be size 4mm to 5 mm needles (US 6 to 8). Bigger needles are cool cause you can use them with bulky yarn and it goes quick, but I find them harder to manipulate. Of course, you also need to choose yarn that will go with the needles (using bulky yarn with 2mm needles wouldn't be a good idea). But for the yarn I sent you, 4-5mm would work great.

Tara (and anyone else who loves Twilight), go and read this (PDF file), it's hilarious! My favourite part is "Rosalie Hale is making dinner…I know, right??"

Another funny. (Not Twilight related)