Life

I did not post last week --things got a little bit hectic in life as they sometimes do. But life is getting back to normal, so here I am. I finished Zoe's top out of the soya cotton - it came out so cute! I put these great butterfly buttons on the straps and they definitely make the top. I am so excited that it is supposed to get very warm at the end of this week - maybe I can put her in one of the cute summer dresses/ skirts I've made her. She is getting so funny...so verbal - it is amazing. She is starting to say three words at a time and talk in the first person. The other morning while eating breakfast I put something on her fork and started to feed her and she grabbed the fork out of my hand and said "No! I do it!" And now when she wants some thing it's no longer "want it" it is a very definite "I want it!" My babysitter also told me that she dropped something the other day and said "damn it!" - something to be proud of, huh? I guess I'd better watch my mouth - especially since Max said "F - it!" the other day. Oy. This weekend Zoe got her first haircut. She really doesn't have much in the way of hair - but people kept telling me that if I got it cut it would grow back faster. I really was loathe to cut it - it is hard to get rid of any hair when there is so little - but I really want to put her hair in pigtails someday so I figured I'd try the haircut. She was really good and was so happy when afterwards she got two lollipops! She was so cute riding in the backpack on Jeff's back with a yellow lollipop in one hand and an orange one in the other. Jeff especially loved it when she rubbed the lollies in his hair and on his neck! The sad thing though is that it was such a non-event. When Max got his first haircut I brought a camera took lots of pictures....with Zoe, no camera, no big deal. But we do have a lock of her hair to save. Jeff thought the haircutter was crazy when she gave me the lock of hair. I told him that they give us a certificate with the date of her first haircut and we can keep it forever! He was puzzled aas to why we might want to do that. I told him that I had Max's hair - and I even knew where it was. Jeff went from puzzled to amazed and dropped the questions of why we might want the hair. And Max enjoyed looking at his hair when we got home. Next week we go to Disney! We are flying on American, on an M80. Needless to say that last week I was freaking out that we might not be going - but they say all is back to normal - we'll see. But now Julie's son has a 103 fever - a virus - right in time to give it to Olivia. And to Zoe - who was feeding herself and him Pirate Booty yesterday. Last year Olivia got strep throat while we were at Disney. She puked on Max on the bus to Animal Kingdom. Then Max got strepon the way home and puked all over the cab a block away from our house. Ah - memories. Everyone should keep their fingers crossed that we have two healthy children next Tuesday!

Eat at Telepan!

I can't believe it is already April. Almost time to wear all of our great new tank tops and tee shirts. Mercedes just finished this fantastic new tank top out of a new yarn by Berocco called Seduce. http://www.theyarnco.com/doSearch.php?search=0&key=seduce&x=10&y=4 It is light and falls really nicely. The pattern is from the Norah Gaughan Berocco book - it is #5 - called flow...a very appropriate name. There are one or two other cute things in the pattern book and a few not so cute ones - but I suppose that is par for the course. So, I gave up on Zoe's dress. The three row pattern was killing me. I will just knit the same style dress with 2 or 4 row stripes. I figure, why make life any more difficult than it has to be?! Instead of starting on the dress right away - I just wasn't prepared to rip what I had already done at the moment - I started to knit a little smock tank top out of Sublime's Soya. I love the soya yarn. It is really nice to work with - and has a wonderful hand. I'll tell you though, 11 years ago when Julie and I bought the store I never would have imagined that I would be knitting with soy and bamboo and organic cottons. If someone had told me I'd be making a sweater with made out of soy I'd have told them they were nutty. Now I have some non-knitting related items: First, Julie and I are taking Max and Olivia(our 5 year olds) to Disneyworld in 3 weeks. If anybody has any tips, suggestions or warnings - let us know! Saturday, Jeff and I went to the Max's school auction. It was fun - a lot of good items to be had. We won a movie and lunch for max with his teacher, Cara. There was actually a bidding war for her in the silent auction, two other parents and I stood at the sheet and kept raising the bid - we finally came to an agreement that Cara would take them all and we'd all pay up. If we hadn't done that it could have gotten ugly as to who would write down the last bid before the items closed. Max was so excited when we told him - he is totally in love with her - it is very cute. We were also hoping to win a live auction item - Bill Telepan ( a parent at Max's school who owns the excellent restaurant Telepan) - offered to cook dinner for 8 in someone's home, wine included. We had a good budget (or so we thought) - but it went for $7200!!! Then he offered to do it a 2nd time if someone else would match that bid - and it was immediately matched. Then he offered it up a 3rd time - and again - snatched up for a mere $7200!! We go to public school!!!! Crazy. But very generous of Bill Telepan - so if anyone needs a great restaurant to go to (I've been several times and greatly enjoyed it) I would highly reccomend Telepan - you will have an excellent meal and at he same time support a very nice and generous person! Good Karma. Finally, a question. What is wrong with some people? Julie and I took a pilates class this morning and as we were leaving a yoga class was coming in. Julie was sitting on the ground putting her shoes on and a woman literally began to put her mat down on top of Julie's feet. She could have put her mat down anywhere else in the room (maybe 2 other people had come in for the yoga class already) - but she chose to put it down right on top of Julie. Okay - maybe this was her favorite spot in the class (not three inches to the left or to the right) - but she could have waited until Julie got up. This is still bothering me four hours later - I probably should have said something at the time but I held my tongue - so now I ask - what is wrong with some people???? Yoga / Karma / Do unto others...???? Bill Telepan she was not!

HIGH FLYING FUN

On Friday we took Max and some of his friends to go flying on the flying trapeeze. It was so much fun! We did it at the NYC trapeze school, http://newyork.trapezeschool.com/ - it used to be located on the river and was outdoors - but for the winter they moved it to 30th between 10th and 11th - it's in this cool bubble. Max and I have done it before - and he totally loves it and has no fear. He just climbs right up the ladder and off he goes. It really is a great thrill, my heart beats so hard as I climb up the ladder and as I reach out for the bar - but once I start flying it is awesome. I even got caught. (that means I flew through the air, got my knees latched onto the bar, let my hands go and someone on another bar reached out and grabbed me!) I video taped it all - I will have to try to put some video up so everybody can see Max's bravery and my high flying skills (I am working on figuring out how to get my video onto discs and onto you tube.) But in the meantime, just to get a taste, check out Max's friend Henry, he is 6! http://youtube.com/watch?v=22Conbj3r0o Not so much to report on the knitting front. I am still working- very slowly- on my dress. You can kinda see a picture of it - it is the 2nd one in - the girl wearing the boots - http://www.rebecca-online.de/cont_en/heft_archiv/heft_36/seite_08.php. But it is very slow going - I must get up to nearly 400 stitches after row 5. Maybe it will be ready for next summer. It is not a knitting project that I want any of my customers doing!! I also began yet another dress for Zoe from the new Ella Rae book. I am doing it out of Tika yarn, http://www.theyarnco.com/brand_display/432, in navy, green and white. I had a hard time deciding between that color combo and the red/orange/tan. It is a great yarn, I love knitting with it. It is super soft. The pattern itself is a little wierd - it is a 3 row repeat which is a real pain in the butt because that means you cannot carry the yarn up - but have to cut each time. I am going to have a lot of ends to weave in.

GOT THE PICTURES ON!!!

I (well really Julie) figured out how to get the pictures on - so check out my little girl in her Samba Dress and her new Tiger skirt. Now that I know how to get pictures on look forward to lots of them - I've been trying to convince Max to let me take pictures of him in all his sweaters and cuddled up in his new blanket. We'l see - I might have to think of a good bribe...

Am I nuts?

I finally finished Zoe's skirt this weekend. All I've had to do for weeks was the i-cord - but it was just so boring. But I did it and sewed it together and I must say the skirt is adorable. The pattern is from Barefoot Knits - with some tweaks (like the boring i-cord) by me. I made the skirt in orange and brown cotton classic http://www.theyarnco.com/brand_display/14, it looks a little tiger-like - I might have chosen other colors if I had to do it again - but I don't - so orange and brown are good. I need a cute brown top to go with it for the summer - brown is a hard color to find for a little girl though. I took some pictures which I will post soon. (I am having trouble with the pictures - what is the best way to get them on?) I basically tortured Zoe the other morning, dressing her up and trying to get her to stand still for a million pictures. I got some cute ones - although the photo session did end in tears. I am still working on her cream sweater in the Mayra http://www.theyarnco.com/brand_display/414 - just one sleeve to go. However, I've gotten a little side tracked...I decided to knit a dress from the new Rebecca book for myself. I think I might have lost my mind. I cast on 242 stitches for the skirt part - and everyother row I do yarn overs and increase a gazillion stitches until on row 7 I finally do some knitting 2 together. I haven't actually counted how many stitches I get up to - but this morning it took me a whole episode of In Treatment to do my row with the most stitches. I'll be done with the dress by next summer and then it probably wont even fit well. For some reason though I really want to make it. I am making it in a new yarn we just got - GGH Leona - it is half cotton and half acrylic - but very light and drapey and I think it will be excellent for the dress. I chose a nice navy that I'll wear with my corkies. Let's see how long it takes for me to become disenchanted with this project!

SOLITUDE

Just got back late last night from a fantastic weekend of skiing! We (Max, Jeff & I - we left poor Zoe home) went to Solitude mountain in Utah and it was really great. Max went to ski school and was going down steep blue trails and riding chairlifts by himself by the end of the weekend. And at Solitude some of the chairlifts don't have bars that come down - it freaked me out a little - having Max on such a lift without an adult - but I was brave. The only time I almost vomited though was when Max and Jeff went up a really long lift with no bar and I was sitting behind them watching Jeff on his Blackberry and Max squirming a bit. My heart was in my throat. But on a better note - we had fantastic weather - it snowed the first day and was beautiful and sunny the next two days. And I skiied like a champ! I went down double black diamond trails, through trees, down steep stuff with bumps and I am here to tell about it. It really was a nice mountain - not too crowded, lots of terrain, good ski school - I would highly reccommend it! And flying to Salt Lake City is soooo easy. Really, the trip is almost the same as going to Vermont and the skiing is a million times better. On the plane I worked on knitting a cardigan for Zoe out of the Gedifra Mayra yarn. It has a cute lace bottom that I stole from one of the Sublime books and then it is just a plain drop sleeve cardigan, in off white. It will be perfect for the spring. I also started reading Eat, Pray Love - a book I've been avoiding because everyone has said I wouldn't like it, given my lack of any sort of spirituality and my love of long, engrossing novels - but I actually really like it so far - Elizabeth Gilbert is a great writer - very funny and wonderfully descriptive. And I even got to watch a movie while I was knitting on the way home. I watched Gone Baby Gone. Disturbing, but I liked it a lot. So, all in all the weekend was a sucess. But it is always nice to come home. Also - check out the post above - I put some pictures on of Zoe in her new dress that I made out of Katia Samba. http://www.theyarnco.com/brand_display/421

Bad Bloggers

So, we haven't blogged in a month. Bad Bloggers! I am making a new commitment - to blog at least once, if not twice a week from now on - so those of you out there that are actually reading this - so sorry. In the past month things have been a bit hectic around here. We've gotten almost all of our new spring/summer yarns. We have a ton of great stuff - you should definitely check out our website - www.theyarnco.com. Getting it all out on the shelves and onto the website takes up a bunch of time - but it is here, it is on the site and now we just have to knit up samples. We've got some beautiful linens and linen blends (my personal favorites during the summer months) - and just so many great colors. Another new favorite of mine is the summer sublime line of yarn. There is an organic cotton that is to die for and a soy and cotton blend that I am planning to use to make Zoe a jacket that is in one of the new Sublime books. On another note, part of the reason I've been so remiss here is because I was on vacation. We went to Jamaica for a week. The weather was great - but as all of you with young children know - when you go away with your kids, you cannot really call it a vacation - more like a change of venue. All of us in one room - with Zoe waking up at 5:30 am was a little tiring. But she thouroughly enjoyed running around the lobby of the Ritz Carlton in her PJs at 5:45am, flirting with all the employees as they arrived for work. And we weren't the only ones in the lobby - so she had many other early morning playmates. A word of caution to anyone out there planning a family vacation - I would steer clear of the Ritz Carlton in Jamaica. While it is a perfectly fine place - the kid's club is basically non-existant and the food is TERRIBLE. We did end up getting Max this lifegaurd/babysitter with two other 5 year old boys - and he took them out on a Hobie Cat and played soccer and basketball with them and swam with them - so it all worked out - Max had a great time...we've just had better luck at Club Med. Max also fell in love with Reggae down there and is into Bob Marley now - it is very cute. Tune in soon. I will be back - and maybe Julie will be too....