It's getting Biblical out there...

I love thunder storms. The noise, the spectacle, I love it all. But there's a small problem around here with thunder storms. They knock out the electricity and, unfortunately, electricity is what runs the New York City transit system. It's also largely underground. Water, electricity and underground tunnels, apparently not a combination that's conducive to the moving around of several million people.

Once you manage to get across town to Penn Station, you get to take the Long Island Railroad. Which also doesn't run well in the rain. In fact, it went about 15 mph the entire way home. It took a very long time to get home tonight, and once I did get home, then I had to go back out again to pick up my mother, who was even more stuck than I was, because by the time she made it across town the railroad wasn't running at all anymore. So, fun evening all around.

Luckily, I never leave home without my trusty Bag O' Yarn. Between sitting on the train and sitting in the car, I got a whole lot o' knitting done tonight.
I had gotten maybe an inch past the split for the neck on this morning's train ride, so everything above that was done during the commute home or in the car while I waited for my mom's train.

Okay, so it was a very, very, very long trip home. But at least it was productive. Looking at it that way, it's harder to complain. Or, at least it was before the battery on my ipod died.

I'm not complaining, but...

It's been some week. They've been keeping me very, very busy at that place they make me go to earn yarn money. I've been getting home later and later every day this week and my dinners have been getting less and less - well lets just say less ideally nutritious. Monday's dinner was pretty good - pasta primavera with some nice fresh asparagus. Nothing wrong there.

Tuesday - I gave in and stopped at KFC on the way home from the train. I try to avoid fast food as much as I can, but desperate circumstances....

Tonight I had ice cream.

We'll speak no more of this.

Look...socks!

The first pair are a bit bright, aren't they? I have someone in mind for these. She's 12, I think she'll appreciate the colors. So that's one Christmas gift down.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the other socks are green. I like the color, but I'm not sure about the pattern. I know you can't see it at all, but i think it's getting lost in the color of the yarn. Odds are though, that I'm not going to pull it out to change now, so I'll probably just keep them for myself.

Two Down

I've actually (pretty much) finished two things. There's this afghan:





















which I started about a year and a half ago. Yes, it sat in a bag about 2/3 done for that long until I came across it and decided to finish. I tried a few different patterns with this yarn, but nothing made me happy. Everything I tried just interfered with the color changes.



All those endless rows of stockinette threatened to make me crazy, but I was saved by the pretty colors.

















I've also (sort of) finished the striped shawl.



I finished the knitting anyway. It still needs to be blocked and fringed, but I'll knock that out over the weekend.

I really need to get it finished because it's absolutely freezing in the office. The guys don't seem to notice it quite as much. They really don't understand the connection between the cold and the fact that the rest of us keep having to run to the ladies room every hour.

No Pictures Today...

I suspect that the digital camera has gone to a Yankees game. I may have to break down and get one of my own. I will, however describe for you what would be in the pictures if I could, in fact find the camera.

1. These are the plants that I spent most of my money on at the garden center yesterday. We should have a good supply of zuccini this summer, along with some nice eggplant and several different varieties of tomatoes. (My mother finds it amusing that I grow tomatoes, since I don't actually like tomatoes and don't eat them.)

2. These are the geraniums that I've been growing in pots in the house since last year. I'm going to have the biggest geraniums on the block this summer.

3. Here are the two hydrangeas that came home in pots at Easter. They probably could have gone outside a few weeks ago, but I've been sort of busy the past few weekends and so they're going out now. They'll look good next to the driveway.

4. See the pretty peach rosebush. Note to self - roses have thorns that will cut your hands even through gardening gloves. Be more careful next time.

5. In case you were thinking that this was somehow a yarn free weekend - how silly of you. Since, as I mentioned, I'm trying to get out and meet other knitters - instead of ordering things off the internet as I usually do, I actually went looking for a few yarn stores in my area. One I wasn't too impressed with - not much of a selection. The other may be a bit more promising - I'll have to go back and check it out again. I did get some nice Regia sock yarn, though. That will be my train project for this week. I may have to start travelling a bit farther afield.

I also made a stop at AC Moore - they had Sugar 'n Cream cotton on sale for $1 a ball so I grabbed a few just in case I ever decide to knit someone a washcloth. I'm actually thinking about running over and grabbing a few more this afternoon.

What in the World?

Okay. Let me explain what happened here. I actually started this bag in different colors and ended up not liking them. Also, I like big tote bags beause I commute from Long Island to Manhattan every day on the Railroad so I need to carry a bunch of stuff with me and I didn't think the bag was coming out big enough. So when I decided to do it in different colors, I also decided to make it bigger. I'm really hoping that I shrinks a lot when I put it into the washing machine. Actually, I'm hoping for a pretty miraculous amount of shrinking. For my first big Fair Isle project though, I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.

I think it's going to be a while though, before I find out how much I can shrink it. I've only got one handle done and the bag's place in the lineup has been usurped by my new shawl.

I've decided that since it's summer now, I'm probably not going to use the wool bag before Fall, so I don't feel bad. And now that the air conditioning is on in my office, I really need the shawl. Apparently they're trying to make up for the fact that we couldn't wear sweaters all winter because the heat was so high we couldn't breathe. How considerate of them.

I wonder if it's possible to get frostbite indoors in June?

The shawl is made from Paton's Soy Wool Stripes in Natural Earth. I'm liking the feel of the yarn and I can't even begin to tell you how much I love self striping yarn. I don't know why I find it so fascinating to watch the colors change. I'll just go with thinking its a good thing to be so easily amused.

I'd Like to Buy a Flea, Please

Mom and I spent the day today at the Spring Flea Market in Ocean Grove, NJ. Ocean Grove is a gorgeous little town on the Jersey Shore, full of pretty victorian houses and cute little shops right on the beach. There's a concert series at the Great Auditorium every summer and if you ever get a chance to go, you should.

I love these flea markets, they do one in Spring and one in the Fall. There are probably a couple hundred vendors there and the place was packed with shoppers.

<----(That's the Auditorium)

Of course, since no day is complete without knitting, I did this while we were waiting for a table to have lunch at a restaurant on Main Street.

At what point are you considered to have crossed the line between hobby and obsession?