oops! (blogging is hard)

Just a brief post today - my feet are sore and the day is not over yet! NYC is the place to be and now we are off to SPAMALOT - I promise to write more tomorrow abut my fabric and yarn shopping adventures.

RE the OOPs factor - i just found out that i had the comments set that only people with Blogs could comment - sorry about! html is hard man - there is a reason i was a theatre major...

more from me tomorrow

Knitting Tomatoes...

or - Why I think my mom is cool. (Can that be any more 4th grade?) –
Well, she is – and I am not just saying that ‘because she reads my blog (HI MOM!)

For example: When I was little and told my mom I wanted to go to college to become an actor; she said, “Great!” When I changed my mind in the 8th grade and told her that I wanted to become a lawyer; she said, “Not with my money!” And I was quite happy to change my mind and go to school for theatre – the only thing that changed was that I realized I had no acting talent whatsoever and should work in costumes - fortunately for me (and the world of Law). So I ended up with a double major in Theatre and German - and they paid :) (along with help from the US govt, of course)

So I have every right to blame my mom for my life in the arts. You know what’s scary about that? She thinks *I’m* the normal one! When the “normal” one in the family works in theatre, it doesn’t say much about your definition of normal, now does it? But then again would you trust a woman’s idea of normal if her house looked like this:

To be fair, we children and my dad did buy more than half of the over 100 tomato items. But we are not the ones who stenciled the underside of the toilet seat with a tomato! Though, I am fond of this tomato lady – I am hoping of someday turning it into a stencil and doing something like this

When I went to my 10 Year High School Reunion a few years back and people asked me if my mom still collected tomato things. People, who had probably been to my house once or twice for a cast party after a show, remembered my mom and her tomatoes! Pretty nifty, when you think about it.


Must be off to bed nice and early! Going Fabric shopping in NYC! Cannot wait! And thanks to Jan at be*mused, I will be off to more than just the fabric district – I will be checking out Purl Patchwork, City Quilter and Kinokuniya (now I can get those Japanese craft books everyone has been going on about!) – And maybe a few yarn stores in-between!

Best cheesecake ever and late night sewing...

Is this not yummy? Since my birthday is this wednesday and this is a holiday weekend - my mom decided that we should have a birthday party while I am in town. And this is the most fantastic cheesecake EVER. It is called the Victorian made with Chocolate Mousse - and you can get it at TastyCoco in Caldwell, NJ. Oh yes! That is whip cream and caramel on top of the chocolate-y goodness......yummmmm. I know what I am eating for the next three days!!!! So good, I tell you!

Before I left for the holiday weekend I cut out the lovely linen and voile to make a skirt and blouse. And I did - last night - or I should say early morning - It was around 1:30 am on Saturday when I finally got off the computer and down to my mother's basement to do some sewing.

Now, I know that I am not going to look like my size 8 mannequin, shown here, at left, with the orginal outfit that I copied to fit me...especially when sewing into the wee hours of the night. So I am pretty happy with how it looks on 5' 10" (1.75m), size 20 me. Though it is hard to take a picture of one's self in the mirror. I had to flip the image so the whole - wrapping the shirt right over left-wasn't backwards. And the shirt is missing the lovely waistband/tie - but it was 4:30am est and there was no interfacing to be found - and the voile is lined - so i cannot complain too much about the end result. And to make me feel better the skirt really needs to come in about 2" at the waist. I am also quite pleased that the hem came out even - especially when there was no one around to mark the hem (I don't think my mom would've appreciated a 4:30am wake up call) and I am crooked (one hip higher than the other).

As a cutter/draper (Schneiderin, auf Deutsch), I don't get much time to have enough energy to be all super anal for my own sewing - so it was just nice to make something that was not work related. And it was nice to have a little summer party outfit.

And now a little gratuitous "knitting" content, in honour of my Mom (which I will explain tomorrow):

Just need ONE thing....

Yeah how many times have you said THAT?

That was me this morning before my drive to Jersey - all I needed was a zipper and some thread...but there was a Memorial Day/Weekend Sale! Which means I needed way more than one or two things.
I needed piping for a nice detail on the blouse I am sewing ..and then I needed cording for something at the shop and then there was the quilting section....

I am not a quilter per say - I make the occasional baby quilt (yes Jeff and Martha, there will be one for you too) but not large quilts. One would think that I did, I mean with the evergrowing collection of Fat Quarters and random yardage of beautiful cotton prints. Smooth cotton fabrics - with that lovely nice weight to them. I love Amy Butler prints, along with Kaffe Fassett (very Klimt like some of them), and the Michael Miller prints are fabulous too!

I like fabric with a sense of humour.

Then there are all of these amazing novelty prints with a Retro feel to them - such as 1950's housewives doing laundry or baking in the kitchen. Or that swirly 60's groovy feeling.
I also like asian prints - such as geisha's and sushi :) - not necessarily Geisha's eating sushi - but you get my point.

So what do I make with these fabrics, you wonder - if I am not the big quilter that my stash says I should be? - Purses, sewing notion cases, lingerie bags, cloth napkins are so nice, tea cozies (can never have too many), Knitting needle and notions cases...and nothing at all....I think this is really when I need to say:

Hi. My name is Marietta and I am a Fiber-holic. It has been 11 hours since my last fiber purchase and I plan to make another one Tuesday morning. (Actually several - but it will be for work, aka the Land of Oz 'cause the building is big and green) Grant me the serenity to accept....nah, screw that! I am going Fabric shopping in New York City, baby! and you can't stop me (well my credit card company can, but that won't happen - i hope!)

How could you not want to make these lovely items!

Well enough for now! If i keep looking at my fabric fabric stores that are on line, I might just buy more fabric....and we can't have that - can we? (YES!!!!!!!!)

Stupid Question of the Day...

me: You haven't seen any knitting needles lying around? Have you?
Fritz: Yes....(eyebrows raised, as if to say:stupid question) Where haven' t I seen them?
me: Point taken. (exit stage left)

Okay - so there is this word in the title of my blog - KNIT - but so far, no knitting content - a mention of socks but no real knitting.
So now for the knitting.....drum roll, please.....this is what i am currently knitting:


No, not socks, it is the Bias Corset by Annie Modesitt that is featured this month in Interweave Knits. I am making it for Starr, who I went to DM with - and she, being a tiny thing, I figured this would be quick and simple.
At first there was some basic trauma with the pattern - Though it is a really simple and nifty shaping pattern - there was an issue with the pattern repeat (not the Math, the repeat). I would retell my drama but you can read it at the Knitty's Coffeeshop - but there is a happy ending! Well, there will be, when I finish it this weekend! And then you shall see fabulous pictures , really.
(ps - I am making it out of Debbie Bliss Cathay - a lovely cotton/silk/microfiber blend on size 3.25mm addi natura's)


In other crafting news, I have been on a sewing binge. Due to the shopping verboten that I have put myself on (gifts and personal birthday do not count!), I am forcing myself to work through my fabric stash and make a few new outfits. The linen will be the skirt and the voile, a shirt - i made the pattern for both from store bought perfect fittings items. I bought the linen somewhere between Montana and New Jersey after I, ahem, left grad school (long story but 4.0 is all i'm saying). I think I needed a depression fix somewhere around Chicago and drinking and driving is not recommended. And the voile is from Hancock Fabrics.

I have been trying to post the picture of the hopeful end result - but no more pictures today - i promise to show you on Sunday! I am driving up to Jersey to see the mom and the rest of the family. I cut everything out at work today but no time to sew - which i can do at mom's. Oh! and we are going to see SPAMALOT and hit the Fabric District! Very exciting!

So tschuess! Bis Sonntag!

Day 2 and all is well

Okay, so I have figured out how to add links on the side - now I need links in the blog content (sounds like I need eggs to go with said links - get it? sausage? okay then...)

And there must be pictures - so I got one up and I think I will go for another one. But what should I show you all (all = my mother, so far - but i have high hopes). It could be yarn or fabric- that would be gratuitous. I could show you pics from my fab vacation in Germany last fall....and that does include sock yarn at the grocery store. Or the cats! Do I have any digital pics of the fatties? let me see...

There don't seem to be any cat pics on my work computer but there was this:

Depeche Mode!!!!!!!!!!! The first time I saw them was about 20 years ago - My freshman year of High School and I have been obsessed ever since. So when my friend, Starr, asked if I wanted to go when they came back through DC ('casue i missed them the last time due to work - geesh) I jumped up and down like a 5 year old and said YES PLEASE!!!!!!!! And they were here and we had amazing seats! And it was fabulous!

SOOOO other than the knitting and the sewing and watching way too much tv - I am a Depeche Mode fan - and my crush has always been on Andrew Fletcher - I like the quiet ones. Enough of that...

Here is a gratuitious yarn picture:

Small little souvenir/yarn shop in Donaueschingen, Germany. Bought some Regia Silk yarn there - for socks, of course. Even showed the sweet woman who owned the shop how to knit socks on circulars - she had never seen it before! And was excited to see that I could make 2 at the same time.

Lunch is over! Back to work then!

"Knit or get off the pot" is here!

No fabulous witty words as of yet - but i am working on it. I figured I had a few days rest from the LAND OF OZ (also known as the theatre where I work) with the holiday weekend and a birthday coming up. And we got a new computer at home.

How should one celebrate? Become a sheep and start a knitting/sewing/whatever blog!

And yes there are cats...'cause who doesn't want cats?

There will be pictures of said cats and the knitting and the crocheting and some of those things I sew, costumes, yes.

There will be the occasional crazy knitting story - the annoying designer story (which at times is about me)- the obligatory "husband just doesn't get my crafting" story and so on.

Oh and the name of this blog - blame the husband - who shall be known as Fritz. Which is actually his nickname, not some blogland name.

Okay have to go - Fritz would like the (read: his) computer back - needs to do work or something important like that :)

more tomorrow....