Sushi 4 Kitties Giveaway!

Yay, my 1st Giveaway!  This kappamaki (cucumber sushi roll) is made of yarn: a knitting pattern by Christen Haden, author of Yummi 'Gurumi and Creepy Cute Crochet.  Her pattern is my very 1st Etsy purchase: the PDF has 16 sushi pieces (including knit wasabi, ginger and decorative grass) and I can't wait to make them all.  But I had to make this one for a quick welcome gift....

[photo by Jenny G.]

for my friend Jenny's newly adopted kitty, what a beauty!  The last time I made gifts for kitties was some Christmas catnip mice and I figured something fishy would be appropriate, especially when I saw this ad: kind of looks like this kitty, right?

I've mentioned that I've always loved the sea, so I've been reading The Story of Sushi by Trevor Corson (loved his 1st book: The Secret Life of Lobsters) and as I started looking for craft projects Christen's Etsy page really stood out.  She e-mailed the pattern quickly and the directions are super easy to follow.  Plus, it's a great way to use up some yarn!

If I make all the pieces I'll be using all of these colors, so I'm excited to make more soon. 

You'll need double-pointed needles, a stitch marker, row counter, yarn needle and of course I like my crafty, little scissors.

Each piece is a combination of a few layers, all the better to stuff catnip in!

And then there was packaging: one of my favorite parts...

I didn't have time to knit up the condiments this time, so I used the real thing, added some chopsticks too.


So, to enter the giveaway, all you have to do is:
1) be a follower (thank you!)
2) leave a comment, any ol' comment will do
3) and specify if you'd like your sushi with, or without catnip


And on Labor Day, I'll pick one name randomly (U.S. residents only, please, just for shipping purposes) and you'll receive the next sushi piece I make, packaged similarly to the one I gave Jenny today.  

Good luck!

Bye bye bye July...

Summer's 2/3 over (or we have 1/3 left depending on how you look at it!) so a few fits and starts from the months so far and my last July post.

Got some flowers this week for a pink event tasting: roses, hydrangea, phalaenopsis orchid and calla lilies, aaahhh...we had cocktails with jasmine tea and rose nectar, and pink macaroons...

started this project with chiffon from Mood Fabrics and beads from Beads of Paradise.  I gave it to my sister to show her friend thinking about wedding headpieces, hmmm...

also from that bead store, these were for a project in the car on the way to vaca but I'm afraid to say it was a bit of a FAIL!  That's what I get for not trying it on along the way since we were on the road.  Will have to try arranging them differently...

The boyfriend brought this hand-dyed Artyarns hank from a trip to Portland (I think he pretty much wanted to move out there!), a gorgeous mix of silk and mohair with glass beads and sequins from Knit Knot Studio (now closed) along with a diagonal scarf pattern with a lace edge by Elizabeth Prusiewicz, so the crystals will be strewn throughout the finished piece.  Hopefully I'll finish it for fall! 

And started this hat for my Dad, but it was a bit too small (should have paid him a visit to measure first!), so another do-over.  I think Guinness enjoyed it here though.  Got a liiiitle more time until winter to finish this one, maybe for Christmas.  One summer month to go....

...and Out Like a Lamb...

I must be the only one in New York who wore a winter coat today, temp's going up to 60 and climbing over the week.  I figured yesterday would be my last March flower post (and the month would end with rain), but then these tulips came into the office.

I'm not usually an orange person, but this shade is really soft.  We also got some gerbera daisies and parrot tulips for a party last night, so I rescued the extras.  

We did a crazy kids' candy station

and chocolate fountain from Dylan's Candy Bar.

And at last I had some relaxing time to organize sewing stuff.

The little packet of fabric is from Purl Patchwork in Soho and the pieces are about 25" x 17" so I need to figure out what to make.  I'm starting to understand why people have such fabric stashes!  The only piece that's labeled is this cream, pink, orange print from Amy Butler.

And on April 15 the Purl yarn and fabric shops are moving in together and there's a fun customer appreciation day on Saturday the 24th.  They're also promising online surprises if you can't make it in person, so check out their Purl Bee blog.  I like this cute little map they made to show the new location on Broome Street, will definitely be making a trip over there soon.

Just In Time...

It's my 50th post and I finally finished a knitting project!  I can't even remember the last time I could say this, but today I completed my merino candle flame cowl from this pattern by Sarah E. White.  Yesterday I visited the Totallysuperdeluxe pop-up sale hosted by Jocelyn Joson in her husband's video studio in Soho and found out they have these every other month, cool! 

I bought the frosted glass buttons above and wasn't sure what I'd use them for until I was finishing up my cowl...

I started this at the beginning of the month with Organic Merino Wool DK from Sublime that I got at Gotham Fine Yarn in the Lower East Side and thought the buttons would be a nice, little touch.

I admit that I sometimes start more projects than I finish, so it was good to get one done just in time for what will hopefully be a spring warmup soon after not such a great weekend. 

I also bought some bright daffodils to cheer me up and put them on my beloved desk next to an Easter project I started.  Hmmm...still have to finish that hat for my Dad too...but gotta post this before it's tomorrow, right now it's 11:59 p.m....

Spring Flowery, Yarn-y, Cookie, Pretty Monday

Today was a gorgeous day in New York City, sunny, warm and very pink for me.  This week's flower arrangement is with ranunculus.  I've gotten a few bunches of ranunculus recently and I'm in love with them, but they're quite delicate so I'm hoping this bunch lasts through the week.

The stems are kind of wild actually, almost like parsley or celery, and there were a few stray unopened buds that I put in water too, maybe they'll bloom?  I tried the arrangement in a fishbowl first, but then went with just a simple upright vase as above.

It was a beautiful weekend and we walked around the city for a lot of it, feeling like bears coming out of hibernation.  We happened upon Gotham Fine Yarn and my boyfriend snapped this pic of the storefront while I went in and browsed around.

There was a cute, little table of ladies knitting and chatting and showing off their projects and I fell for this Organic Merino Wool DK from Sublime.

I looked online for a pattern from Sublime and wished I had some of their books or leaflets because I wanted to start something while we watched the Oscars.  I'm usually very bad about testing gauge, but I did a swatch for this Candle Flame Cowl and even though it's written for a bulkier yarn I loved the way it was knitting up.  This yarn is so soft and gentle, it just flows, so I'm going to go with it. 

Tonight my boyfriend was testing some cookie recipes so we got some more side-by-side kitchen time like on Valentine's Day.  While my project grew, the cookies appeared and yes, a few disappeared as well....a nice way to end the day.

Unfinished Projects

[background paper from Kate's Paperie]

I was talking to a few friends recently about starting and not finishing projects.  Why does this happen?  This is the beginning of a pink cable knit pillow and the first pattern I tried creating myself.  I planned to do two colors:

Then one evening while having a glass of wine my cat bumped my hand and the glass went flying and spilled all over the cute, little bag I had holding this project.  After drying and cleaning everything I hung it all up to dry and then couldn't find the pattern I wrote out again.

Then there was this beautiful, soft, blushingly pink angora piece knit from Classic Elite Lush Angora Wool.  I think She Crafty told me that Downtown Yarns sold it a while ago, but I couldn't find it anywhere after I bought the first hank.  I just googled it and it's available online from several suppliers.  The shell pattern i used however, is long gone and I'm not sure I have the skills to recreate it myself.  Maybe it can be the front of a pillow and I can just do a simple stockinette stitch for the back.  Lovely yarn though, I wish you could touch it.

Recent Resources

[From broadwaypaper.com]

This picture is from Broadway Paper, "the paper store with so much more," not in NYC, but in Wisconsin.  I found the site while doing some research on mini hat boxes today.  Looks like a fun store, wish I could visit, but until then I'll just have to check out their website some more, it's quite pretty.  I've also found a few other interesting shops recently:

I stumbled on Exotic Fragrances, Inc. all the way up on 104th Street when I didn't have an umbrella en route to The Museum of the City of New York.  I had been looking for fragrance oils to use in poured candles so I was shocked to find this shop with over 1,000 scents!  I chose Peppermint and Dewberry, so hopefully I'll buy the other materials to make these candles soon, maybe before winter is over.

I also just happened to walk by Beads of Paradise on 17th Street.  They have pieces from all over the world: South East Asia, India, Indonesia, China, the Middle East and Mexico and beads made of glass, metal, wood, shell, gold, silver and semi-precious stones.  They even have reasonably priced classes, might have to check those out sometime.

If I'm not working at events, my office closes at 6 p.m. each day.  I've wanted to go to New York Central Art Supply on 3rd Avenue, but it closes at 6:15!  So, it was cool when I got out early yesterday and could check it out.  This store has been in business since 1905 and I like that they had a vast selection of "serious" art supplies from paints to embossing and silk screening supplies, as well as "lighter" stuff like glitter and sculpey clay.  

And I also made it a little further south to Downtown Yarns and saw these cool yarn snowflakes in the window.