I can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks since we went to New York City! I can barely get my head above water since I have 3 kids in very little camp, and lots of work! I have been knitting regularly, though.

We had a very nice trip, where I brought one sock, one WIP with sock yarn, one left over half ball of sock yarn, and another ball of yarn just in case. I ended up making the one scarf for my grandfather’s girlfriend (and I still have a bit left of that yarn), and working on the leftovers. I started making a scarf, then put it aside when I ran out of yarn, thinking I’d check Ravelry for someone trying to get rid of this very popular Regia sock yarn at some point in the future.

We had a very entertaining trip to New York, including South Street Seaport (we never did find Seaport Yarns, though):

OR, posing across the river from his Great-Grandfather’s house.

Rockefeller Center:

And even Nintendo World:

I tell you, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen your parents playing with the Wii:

So after a quick 4 day trip (including 2 days of travel), we were back. I set to work trying to find more yarn to finish my project. I did check Ravelry, and a couple of people were willing to sell/trade their Regia sock yarn, but I thought I would see if I could find it myself on one of the cheaper sites (since theirs was from Elann already, why not cut out the middleman?) I found the Regia yarn quickly at Jimmy Beans Wool, for only $4 each. Since there was a flat $4 shipping rate, of course I had to get another 2 balls of a gorgeous Regia yarn I found (I have so much Regia yarn it’s scary.) I must have ordered it on Wednesday and it literally got to me on Friday! Talk about service!

But here’s “how they get you.” I was getting ready to add my new yarn onto the old yarn and *it isn’t the same gauge*!!! Apparently the “antique” Regia sock yarn is more of a DK/sport weight, and the newer, same colorway Regia yarn is more of a fingering weight!!! So here I was trying to be good and use up one ball of yarn, I end up buying 5 more, and they don’t even match! (3 of the same color, 2 of a different color). I have since restarted the project, and I think I’ll end up knitting with one ball of the new yarn, using up the old yarn, and then adding in a 2nd ball of yarn. Or I’ll use it as fringe or something. I can’t believe it! I’ve seen colorways not matching, but this is ridiculous!

I am definitely sold on Jimmy Beans Wool, however (notice the candy extra)

I happened to be in Portland on the exact weekend when Craft Magazine was having an issue release party at Twisted, so I decided to stop by. I didn’t do anything related to the magazine, but I thoroughly enjoyed the yarn. They have a great selection of yarn, and specialize in sock yarn by local dyers. I bought this gorgeous yarn while I was there:

More sock yarn from Lavender Sheep. I have some of her other yarn my parents bought for me from Etsy, but I couldn’t pass up this colorway too!

I also bought more gorgeous sock yarn. Next time I’ll show you what I’ve been doing with all my sock yarn. But until then, isn’t this great? It’s the “Alice Cooper” colorway by Stitchjones:

and to prove that we were actually there:

T, baby A. and A., valiantly chaperoning me to yet another Portland yarn store.  Do you think I’ll ever have visited them all?

On the airplane to NYC we saw “Definitely, Maybe” which was a movie I was interested in seeing but hadn’t gotten around to.  It was very lucky that the movie on the way across the country was one I hadn’t seen and I enjoyed it.

In this movie, Ryan Reynolds plays the dad to Abigail Breslin (?) and before bed he starts describing how he and her mother had married, and did it in a “mystery” format.  Much like the “How I Met Your Mother” format, I assume, but I don’t watch that show so I couldn’t definitively tell you.

In the story, there are four or more girls that Ryan’s character meet over a number of years, and each is given a fake name, then the daughter is supposed to guess which is her mom.  The stories are cute, and the movie is entertaining, but it is a bit weird of a setup for a romantic comedy.  And of course I’d have to say you can guess who he ends up with because frankly all the other characters are pretty lame.

I’m glad I didn’t pay extra for this movie, but I did enjoy it, and I got some knitting done in the process.  I started a scarf on the plane and ended up finishing it before we got to NYC, and forgot to take a picture before giving it to my grandfather’s girlfriend! Oh well.  At least I’m down one ball of yarn from my neverending stash.

I’m T-12 hours before we travel across the country with 3 kids, so I thought I’d show off one of my many recent FOs. I did finally finish A.’s socks, just in time for Father’s Day, but I had so much yarn left I thought I would make a pair for his son A., but then I ran out mid-pair! So here are my 3 socks I’ve made in the past two years, as I’ve really been uninterested in sock knitting lately.

They’re Manly Socks (named after “Manly”, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s husband? Who knows…) plus one ribbed kid’s sock I’ll probably give to IM.  And there is still sock yarn left!  I decided right after I finished to start another pair of socks, so I’m on the foot of the next pair, which has ended up being a very short crew sock.  I should have those finished when I’m back from NYC next week.  Goal 1: completed!

Our lesson was Tuesday night, and just look what I made:

I made some yarn (top middle) and even started spinning more!  Now to get to all the other roving I couldn’t help but buy on Etsy…

I was a bit worried when I showed up because I often think I’m not creative enough to make anything truly original. Luckily enough, Amy had a collection of related books and patterns, I chose one, and she helped me with the sewing (YPS is one of those amazing hybrid stores with yarn, sewing, scrapbooking (yuck), and card making supplies and classes). You’re going to love what I came up with, I do!

This was formerly a concert t-shirt from Ween’s New Year’s concert in 1999. We had two of them, so I wasn’t too worried about ruining one. I was so happy to be at a store, because I could buy the purse handles right there, and they had buttons aplenty. Here is the back:

I loved doing this so much I ran over to Jo-Ann and bought more buttons and ribbon so I could alter more of my t-shirts! Now I just need to get the sewing lessons I have been promised as a belated Mother’s Day present.

There were some very funny scenes in “Zohan”.  I laughed out loud many times, but then again I may have been the only one laughing.  And someone did walk out.  But it tried to be too serious, uniting the Palestinians and Israelis, which really could have been cut out of the movie, or at least if they had trimmed it down to 1 1/2 hours it would have been much better.

The story line is that The Zohan (Adam Sandler) is a career soldier in the Israeli army, and can do everything.  John Turturro is his counterpart in the Palestinian Army, Phantom.  When Zohan realizes they traded a big enemy while he was on vacation, he becomes disillusioned about having to do everything for the Army, fakes his death, and reinvents himself as a hairdresser in New York City (only with a 1980s Paul Mitchell hair catalog for reference).

There are some hilarious scenes as Zohan indulges his interest in older women (one of which being “Mrs. Garrett” from “Facts of Life” ), and figures out that he is himself in love with a Palestinian woman, who ends up being Phantom’s sister.

I did think this movie was funny, and you might like it on cable, but it’s definitely not worth watching in the theater.

And I didn’t even get any knitting done! The sweater I brought with me had lost a few stitches so I spent what light I could on trying to get it back to a knittable state, which didn’t work out.  Maybe next time.

*Besides being an old SNL sketch, in the ’60s, Lothar and the Hand People were “singing” group that did a pretty great cover of the “Woody Woodpecker” song.

Stay tuned, I’ve got lots more FOs to show and new yarn, if I can get a break from work long enough to take some pictures!

1) Finish at least A.’s socks and 2 of my unfinished sweaters (I’m thinking the tank I just started, and then either the red or black sweater, both of which only need sleeves

2) use up one more set of yarn stash that I have floating around, which means start and finish one more project that will use up all that I have of one particular yarn (set).  I have so much yarn, and I bought more in Portland, don’t you know?

Thanks for the encouragement Ali, and Chris, where I saw this contest posted.

In fact, before today I liked Miranda, but I was unimpressed by her rant about how “non-working” moms were into dressing up for Halloween at Brady’s school and “thought it was fun”.  Some of us have a husband, house, kid(s), more than one job, and don’t think dressing up for Halloween is “fun”, but we stay at home moms are all lumped together. Technically I’m a work at home mom, but I still get insulted.

All in all the movie was fun. I love Chris Noth, so if nothing else he was gorgeous. However, the 2+ hour movie was a bit slow at times. I read that they wrote enough for way more than 2 hours, but I still thought they could have edited a lot out. Having one storyline for each person was way too long, and I found most of Samantha’s storyline over the top and uninteresting. I was glad that Carrie and Big ultimately got married, but I never did understand what he saw in her.  In any case, it was entertaining.

Next up: “Kung Fu Panda”, which they started advertising 6-9 mos. ago and my kids have been harassing me about ever since.