black blox exercise

There is a special place in hell reserved for my boss and other non-retail business owners who insist on keeping their centrally located midtown Manhattan offices open the week between Christmas and New Year’s.

It just took me 30 minutes to walk from 55th and 6th to 47th and 5th. Why? Because of the tourists, the majority of whom seem to have been procreating since last year’s trip. Here is a tip: Don’t use a large stroller in midtown. Just don’t! Because that makes it all the more hard for people to fit into the pens the NYPD has set up at all corners along 5th and 6th avenues. Yes, pens, like protesters. I would like to protest the amount of assholes walking around the city today.

Christmas was really great, though. I did not get as much sewing/knitting/etc. things as I would have thought but the people I made things for seemed to appreciate them and I enjoyed the chance to do it. I was bestowed with some very lovely gifts, such as a bass guitar (!), some really really really great moccasins and a really really really soft robe, books I had wanted, a 2-qt. Le Creuset (!!!) and a lady tool kit. It was a banner year.

Sadly, still, I definitely feel a sense of dread now that they are over. I am in apartment limbo at the moment, so if that works out I would feel a lot better. But the weather is not very wintry, and while yes, I know it sucks to be cold and wet and snowy, it is New York, for chrissakes. Live in South Carolina if you want this 60-degress bullshit year-round. I like that the snow is supposed to come and people bundle up and stay indoors or rush into bars and steam up the windows.

Sigh. I apologize for spewing too much bile. I am just hoping things work out…

maybe a trip to Cute Overload will save me...

Ugh! Worst week!

Here I was, assuming I was ahead of the game, getting the bulk of my Christmas shopping done over the Internet last week and leaving just a few picky things to get. I could take this week to relax, bake, and bask in the glow of our beautiful Christmas tree with the old-fashioned big glass bulbs. Like a twenty-something grandma, yes, but relaxed!

The reality is, of course, that it is already Wednesday, the production schedule has been pushed forward two days, the Christmas tree is dying since the stand no longer holds water and the bulbs broke when it fell – twice - last week, and I am panicking as to how I can afford all the “little picky gifts” I left until the last minute. I was “shopping” on our review books shelf earlier for back up gifts, in case I can’t find the exact Irvine Welsh book my brother wants, or something that is just the right amount of heartfelt without being showy to my manfriend’s parents. Not to mention the gifts I still have to make. My god.

I hope this all pays off in dividends when I can have next Tuesday off and get back to getting shit done, something I am usually so good at…

sad Christmas tree

I know it is bad to be openly Christmas shopping (or, window shopping) on the Internet while at work, but today I think everyone is a few rungs low. The office party was last night and the forced niceness has resulted in some pretty fierce nasty hangovers.

I am glad that I had an e-mail talk with one of our freelancers earlier this month, however. Editing her usually gave me a headache but she’s been proofing her work (what a concept!) before she sends it in and that means less work for me. Less hair-tugging, eye-rubbing, wonderment type of work.

I don’t know what it is but the last few years have been less Christmassy. I love the season, I would be content to just sit in front of my tree all night and day. But the last few years it just flies by so quickly and all of a sudden I am running out to stores and finding things sold out, shelves ransacked, and wrapping hurriedly in tissue paper.

More of a reason why I like the idea of making presents. I get the immediate satisfaction of having it in my hand, and the practice of working on it. Granted, some people I give to are too, hmmm, let’s say on a one-track-mind to appreciate a homemade gift. I also can’t assume that my skills are really up there with mass production. Perhaps in another year or so. Then again, some people just like gadgets.

I am also at a loss as to crafty gifts for boys/men. I know the knit thing might work for a sweater or hat but I seem to have a mental block about working in dull colors like gray and browns. I have a basket full of yarn and there might be a lump of dull Donegal tweed sitting in a big knot at the bottom of it. Funny, as I am typing, I just realized maybe it isn’t as hard as it seems. My brother probably would wear a nice knit hat and a scarf. And a certain someone else is waiting for me to make a wallet that I promised him after I ripped up his old one to see the construction…

Knee-deep in… mittens?

It is December 13, and as I while away the days until I get paid so I can do some proper Christmas shopping, I am knitting at a furious pace. I stopped once last week to make a bag for my friend Anna (she is also getting scarf I made), but I know myself well enough that if I don’t pick the needles back up now, I will end up in Target in Atlantic Center Mall next week, looking for something to get certain people.

I am knitting mittens loosely based on this pattern, which is originally for Rowan Plaid. I am using two bulky yarns, Reynolds Blizzard in Violet and Morehouse Merino Bulky Yarn in a nice blue (it is called “Pacific.”)

I rarely see Blizzard yarn spoken about online or used in patterns. I can see why – it feels almost too slippery and soft, like hair that has just been conditioned. I am learning more about the different fibers that are better for different projects. It turns out they make a soft mitten, but I can see them being soppy and unpleasant when wet. It is, however, terribly soft and nice for scarves. My first scarf was one-third Blizzard, because I only bough one skein and I was on vacation in L.A. and just came across it and loved it and bought some size 15 needles and I had a new hobby. By the way, I finished the scarf with Blue Sky Alpaca bulky naturals and yes! It is terribly warm.

Because I like to support the nice yarn stores that supply me in this big bad city (and pay their big bad rents), allow me to mention that I bought the Morehouse at Brooklyn General and the Blizzard at The Yarn Connection. I love Brooklyn General because it is huge (they just moved into new digs) and has miles of pretty yarn and fabric. I love the Yarn Connection because it is close to my job, they always have a 10% off coupon on their Web site, and the two ladies who I assume own it are very nice - not at all what store owners in Manhattan are usually like.

Now if you will excuse me, it is time for my office Christmas party. Excuse me while I try to drink as many Makers and waters as I can in an effort to forget that I hate this event more and more each year.

Bushy-tailed

I used to hate squirrels. They would systematically gang up on me and attack me. One flew at me from a garbage can when I was in college. It grazed my head. Another darted out in front of my path and I tripped on it and fell, and skinned my knee. This was only a few years ago.

Now, I kind of like them. They are cute. And now some important research is underway to try and understand the little bastards. This picture is from here, a site by two people with more time on their hands than even I have.

this weekend in craft

Looks like there are lots of crafty wares for sale in NYC this weekend:

Saturday “is the G running?” in Williamsburg

BUST mag’s Holiday Craftacular
Booze, handmade stuff, and I am sure a shit ton more.
11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Warsaw, 261 Driggs Ave. (at Eckford)

Fred Flare's Carnival of Cute
While not exactly a craft fair as much as a pop-up store, they are having a big ‘do. Amy Sedaris will be there, for chrissakes. That’s pretty huge.
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Fred Flare, 175 N. 10th Street #3

Sunday “chock full of brunchers” in the City

New York City craft fair
Wren Handmade is helping to organize this, which D*s says will feature perch!, deadly squire, laurice curran, kristen mccloud, donna jo brady, alyssa ettinger, wren handmade and more.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Divine studio, 21 E. 4th street, suite 605


A personal goal I have is to be in a craft fair next year. While I would love to get my things together for The Renegade Craft Fair, now spanning like a million cities, I should remember to think small and local, too. At least to get my feet wet. While I would be swallowed up by the myriad semi-famous and multi-talented people at McCarran Park, I walked through a holiday craft fair at a local Park Slope high school last weekend and while there were a lot of people there (and a lot of kids), yet no one was peddling stuff like mine. I kept thinking how I would have made a killing. How does one hear about these things?

The best resource I have seen on craft fairs was Loose Tooth’s Craft Show 101

I like commas

I am going to start out strong - keep the personal missives to a minimum, link to all the wonderful sites I find, and be a friend. I have already used the word "missive," however, and I foresee lapsing into my old ways. I used to keep a blog mainly for the entertainment of my friend and co-worker (oh, what a tangled web we weave!) and as I recounted tales of disastrous family vacations I would hear her laughing across the office. Then I accidentally deleted it!

So, I promise, no tales of family vacations.

This is also going to link to my own site, where I hope to accomplish many things. I am a maker of things (though I cannot go as far as calling myself as crafty as some of the insanely talented people I link to here), I am a writer of news, I photograph on occasion, I am involved in a musical collaboration that could one day take off if I get serious, and I love making and eating and finding new food. I just made an apple cider pie the other day. And they said it could not be done!

I am also way too wordy for the blogosphere. Oh, darn. There I go again.

So, two specific words I should not have used on the first day, and too many of them in general. I will win, one of these days.

some basic information, please...

1. Flip to page 18, paragraph 4 in the book closest to you right now, what does it say?

"The pressure in his chest and temples, thought Eddie Willers, was the strain of the effort he was making; he had decided to make the issue clear for once, and the issue was so clear, he thought, that nothing could bar it from Taggart's understanding, unless it was the failure of his own presentation. So he had tried hard, but he was failing, just as he had always failed in all of their discussions; no matter what he said, they never seemed to be taking about the same subject."

"Atlas Shrugged." I tried reading it once on a 10-hour train ride to Pittsburgh, but only got so far. When I picked it up again, 8 years later, it had forgotten what I read and had to start anew! I've made it considerably farther this time.

2. If you stretch out your left arm - as far as possible, what are you touching?
Papers on a rack thing. I'm at work!

3. What's the last program you watched on tv?
A Frontline about credit card companies.

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.
4:20.... It's 4:25!

5. Except the computer, what can you hear right now?
The tone of someone saving on Microsoft Word... telelphone ringing... new receptionist answering...

6. When was the last time you were outside and what did you do?
I went to get a slice of pizza for lunch. I love pizza.

7. What are you wearing?
Sailor-pant jeans, chuck taylors, a tank top and a wrap sweater that is gray and oddly shaped.

8. Did you dream last night? If you did, what about?
I don't think so but I lied and told my boyfriend I dreamt about a tiger, sorry, a LIGER, eating him.

9. When was the last time you laughed?
Today.

10. What's on the walls, in the room you're in right now?
The beaten and tarred souls of myself and my coworkers.

11. Have you seen anything strange lately?
I saw a guy peeing on the street on my way to work this morning. I thought it was a bit early for that.

12. What do you think about this meme?
It is my first.

13. What's the last film you saw?
Space Oddesey 2001, "but I fell asleep halfway through."

14. If you became a multimillionaire, what would you do with the money?
Quit my job, buy land, and start planning. I would also go away to a small Carribbean town for vacation until December 15th or so.

15. Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know.
Most people don't know about the time I turned on the TV and saw my uncle and cousin -on opposing sides, mind you - on a daytime judge show.

16. If you could change ONE THING in this world, without regarding politics or bad guilt - what would it be?
I can't help that it is in regards to politics - I would prevent Ronald Regan from being elected and give Jimmy Carter another term.

17. Do you like dancing?
Yes I do! It takes me a while to get over the shyness though.

18. George Bush?
Groan.

19. What do you want your children's names to be, girl/boy?
I like August for a boy and I don't know about girls. I just hope I don't have any.

20. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Yes.

21. What do you want God to tell you, when you come to heaven?
That you really can walk on clouds and it is a really fun place to be. Not that it exists or anything.

22. Who should do this meme?
Groan.