Multnomah Progress...

Blocking:


Blocking, for the non-knitters, is the act of forcing your knitting into submission by dampening it, pinning it down and letting it dry. Oh, and praying that the above steps actually work.

Or that you don't massively screw up the blocking. And now, looking at this photo, I see a bunch of places that I need to go re-pin. Le Sigh.

Ticker Tape Parade!

I'm really excited to work in the Financial District of NYC, as we're going to have a ticker tape parade for the Yankees tomorrow morning.

We had one on my first day at this job for the Giants winning the Super Bowl, and it was unbelievable. There were drifts of paper six feet high on the sidewalks and we were pulling paper out of our shoes and clothes for days.

Here's a picture of last year's:

Sorry about the crazy angle. I can't figure out how to rotate the stupid picture in blogger.

Anyway, all that white stuff is paper, not snow. Wild, eh?

The Multnomah!

She is done!

And, for a change, actual photographs. Timely, even. (and, LOTS OF COMMAS, as well as exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!)

Here it is in all its unblocked glory:


And, of course, my two lovely photo assistants (who wouldn't stay still long enough to be in the same photograph together):


Miss Georgia, who kindly removed her 1,657,932 toys from the exact portion of the floor that I wanted to photograph said shawl on.



And Miss Bagheera, mighty huntress of the east, who made sure that the shawl was appropriately flat for the photograph (and then ran away as soon as I pulled out the camera and pointed it at her).

I think I may have to address this in another post... the fact that cats are 100% responsible for all the gravity in the world.


Gorgeous Blogger Award



So Miss Shortly Stitches nominated me for a Gorgeous Blogger Award, and in order to accept, there are conditions. I must first tell you all six little known facts about myself (which is tough, because a majority of my tens of readers know me really (no, like REALLY) well) and also to pass the award on to six more peoples.

Little Known Facts about Miss Virginia
1. My blood coagulates extremely quickly, and my skin knits back together quite fast as well. So when I get small cuts (such as the nasty one I got today from an errant pair of scissors), I will bleed all over the place for about two seconds, and then it's all gone. Weird, right?

2. My superpower is entropy. Particularly this bit: "entropy represents the potential for disorder in a system."

3. I have an excellent poker face.

4. Except when I don't.

5. I read super fast.

6. I type super fast too. Except when I have a cut finger or hurty hands.


And the nominations:

Miz J, at Constant Chatter of the Crazy Cruisin Chick. She's an amazing photographer, all around kick-ass babe, and has been known to moonlight as a fairy godmother. Oh, and she's going to be a grandmother, even though she looks like she's about 30 years too young for that.

Miz Crawbabes at The Gridiron Girl's Guide to the Good Life. Also, an amazing photographer, awesome graphic artist, amazing mother to two amazing kiddos (who are amazingly blond), tough as nails, and wife to a college football coach. Oh, AND she's organized and actually decorates for seasons. Oh, AND AND AND she looks like freakin Miss America.

Miz Plucky at her namesake blog: katylarson.blogspot.com another amazing photographer (speaking of which, when are you biznatches going to drag ass up to NYC and start taking DECENT photos of my knitting?), grandmother, cook, and cool chick. I still can't get over the fact that you're a grandmother. You look 20 years old.

Knitterwockey, for having an awesome name, for randomly popping into my blog from the not-very-big city in Virginia where my daughter was born, for being an intrepid new knitter who's not afraid to blog about her trials and tribulations, and knitting while dressed in a zombie costume.

Havfaith at Delusions of Domesticity for managing to be a majorly awesome knitter and crafty person, as well as an awesome doggie mama, all while living out of a suitcase on the road for forever! I'm so impressed. Plus, totally lusting after those fingerless mitts she recently completed. And keeps posting tantalizing photos of on her blog...

Geertrude at Sew at Home. Gorgeously creative woman. Her photos (I'm sensing a theme here) are fabulous, and I love all the things she's been creating lately. She sews, knits (on possible permanent hiatus), embroiders, quilts, crochets, beads and writes...


Go forth! Be gorgeous!

I think that's all I have to do with this one. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

We Voterated!

Quick funny Georgia story:

Bruce and I went last night to cast our vote for Mayor and Borough President (among other positions) and decided to take Georgia with us. Before we left I was desperately searching for my voter registration card, which caused Georgia to look for her "voteration" card. She came up with a pink card that she got for her birthday that said "For a 4-year-old Princess" and was good to go.

So she was talking excitedly about voterating for the rest of the night. She gave the registrar her voteration card and got to pull the lever. It was a success all around.

Maybe somebody brilliant...

Can give me a reasonable explanation as to why I would ever want to knit a sweater that isn't in the round.

I've knitted one in pieces. My very first. And even though I was an exceedingly new knitter, I could see 10,000 ways to improve the design of the sweater (and the ease of knitting the stupid thing) by knitting it in the round.

Here's a pic:

Sorry for the craptacular photo. That was pre-blocking (you can see the incredibly sexy way the eyelets at the top don't match up... AND I knitted those suckers in the round) and I just dumped it on the floor in my excitement at finishing my first sweater ever.

Anyway, I'm a little cranky at sweater patterns that aren't in the round.

The Multnomah

I'm still chugging away at the Multnomah, now for mah mudder. I've gotten up to the 10th row-repeat of the feather and fan border, however I've still got quite a bit of yarn left, so I'll probably add on at least one more row-repeat before binding off. I hate the idea of leaving that much yarn to languish in a drawer until I figure out what the hell I'm going to do with it 10 years down the line.

The knitting is going slowly. I realized that part of my hand pain might be due to the fact that the silly thing is ridiculously heavy right now, and I'm knitting it on the subway with nothing underneath it for support. So I stuck my coat on my lap to lift up, and that seemed to work fairly well.

The Featherweight

Is also chugging along. I'm about ready to break out the sleeves from the yoke. That will probably be within the next day or two, whenever I finish off the Multnomah.

Christmas

So, amazingly enough, with the exception of the Multnomah, I've finished all of my Christmas shopping for my mother. Which has got to be a first, because usually she receives her Christmas package from me sometime around New Years. Which, yes, technically still is within the 12 day limit for Christmas, but most people in the US only celebrate it on the 25th. Which is a TOTAL rip-off in my opinion.

Now on to the rest of my list...

A little knitting progress

I knitted some yesterday and it went fairly well. Typing is not so good though. (OUCH)

So I've filled in with some pretty sunrise/sunset pix.

Sunset with the moon over Target in Marble Hill:

And a lovely, but weird sunrise from my subway platform:

Also, Shortly Stitches nominated me for a Gorgeous Blogger Award, which is totally awesome of her. I will have to post on that later today or tomorrow when my poor fingers are more up to typing.

Again with the lack of knitting progress

I have been having some pretty awful pains in my right hand since I had that weird twanging feeling in my arm the other day. I thought it was maybe a tendony type problem, but I've realized that I'm having issues in most of my joints right now, so I'm going to chalk it up to a weather change or something.

I could stand to not ever have these problems again. I need to figure this one out. I've been having these issues since I was teenager.


On the positive side of things, we had a great time in Long Island for Halloween. Georgia had a blast, dressing up as a black cat ballerina. She decided to leave off the fairy princess part of the costume.

Walking around a quiet suburban neighborhood was awesome, Georgia got brave enough to ring doorbells by herself (with Mom and Dad nearby) and she had quite a bit of fun.

Here's Georgia and her "Uncle" John (John is actually Bruce's cousin's husband. Uncle will suffice) walking on the docks at East Northport's harbor:

Here's the black cat ballerina herself: