New Home....

Please visit me at my NEW Blog:

A Southern Gal Knits in the North

Back online....

ok, so i've been away for awhile... here's why. i only had a dialup connection at home and finally decided to get a DSL connection thru Verizon. it was activiated last week and so now i can join the many knitting bloggers i admire (wendy, chicknits, ....) and get my stuff on my blog. i am also going to buy a digital camera (what... finally!) and then i can really add to my blog's interest.

and hopefully ill be approved as part of the southern knitters webring and then maybe someone will visit me ;o

i was born in Lake Charles Louisiana and lived in Baton Rouge for many many years before moving to Washington DC and then to big bad old New York City where i seem stuck. but hopefully not for long - im not sure living in this city is worth the aggro and expense anymore. when i first moved here it was much more affordable and easier to live here... but thats not about knitting.

ill do another post in a little bit on my current wips, etc.
e

Hot and Muggy in NYC

my absence last week was due to the RING Cycle at the Metropolitan Opera House and my subscription night at the Ballet. The RING (as it is called by afficionados) is the opera tetralogy written by Richard Wagner and put on only with great expense and exhertion by a major opera company. there are many websites devoted to more explanation about this cycle. suffice it to say that attending a RING cycle brings one in close proximity with a rare type of opera fan - the very devoted one. These operas are a marathon event = the first one is 2.5 hours with no break and the next three are almost 6 hours with two breaks each night. you see people with picnics outside and sandwiches and thermoses inside - myself, i had sandwiches and diet vanilla coke to sustain me. you would think that sitting and listening wouldnt be tiring - but after working and hurrying to get to the opera house by a 6 pm curtain, it does take a toll by the end of the week. the operas are on Mon, Tue, Thu and Sat. by the last night, you feel a camaraderie with all around you - just to have made it thru much less with glorious music as well! and it was glorious - the met opera orchestra played their hearts out - there were two articles about the conductor, James Levine, over the weekend prior to the opening of this last Cycle and at the end of the first opera we all leapt to our feet and screamed for the orchestra and Maestro Levine - he was really taken aback at his reception for his solo bow. the last night of the cycle was the last night of the entire SEASON as well. i could go on and on at how thrilling it was to be there but this is a knitting blog, so enough for now.

ok. so not much knitting happened last week - but last weekend i collapsed on sunday (the last opera was saturday night and was so exhilirating that i was up til close to dawn sunday from the excitement ) anywho, i crashed and watched TCM and knitted - a perfect way to recoup . RANDOM HARVEST with Greer Garson being her beauteous self and Ronald Colman acting all lost and perplexed thru most of the movie. and then HITCHCOCK on monday night - DIAL M and VERTIGO (thankfully had to go to sleep and missed THE BIRDS).

anyway, progress on the WIPS - Baby Sweater is coming along - decided to steek the armholes as well and am in the midst of them. need to sit and have a measuring session to make sure the body proportions are ok. worked on this during the weekly group at work yesterday. Baby Aran Blanket is also coming along - need to decide how long to make - must get some comparable blanket lengths. its going to be a nice warm blanket and thankfully the recipient is moving to the northeast and will be able to make use of a warm blanket! the secret WIP is coming along nicely and should be finished soon - its at that stage where its just knitting to get the length and its not as exciting as the others .... i feel another project start urge.

well, maybe to tide that i had to order some knitting goodies from a website this week - Yarn Forward had a pattern i have drooled over for quite awhile - MUST HAVE Cardigan - and of course i had to order the new Elsebeth Lavold books - been meaning to get them for ages. and some yarn - and needles and well, it was fun and since i havent ordered or bought any yarn since February (jury duty), i didnt feel guilty.

not much knitting but a new photo

ok... a little bit on the sweater this morning.. more tonight during intermissions at the ballet - the first performance of the Spring Season of the New York City Ballet - all Balanchine!!!

anyway, i have to finish that blanket tonight for the mother's last day is ---- shhh! friday!
so whatever length it is when i get home is what it will be for now.

have to dash to the ballet - but here's the latest nephew photo - isnt he a munchkin!

a good start and then ...

nothing like a bronchial infection to slay you and make you feel CRUDDY. i shouldve know when i was crying thru out GOTTERDAMERUNG on saturday while listening on the radio. i usually cry when i am very tired or getting sick or right before that "time of the month" (still). and i couldnt eat anything - you know when nothing sounds good to eat except like yogurt and m&ms (wierd)

anyway, sunday i spent the day watching some of the news and other shows i have 'dvr-ed" - its my cable company's version of TIVO and then woke up monday with a fever and the desire to not move at all.

so that lasted thru tuesday - and today i dragged myself in to work - still not 100% more like 70%... but here i am 650 pm ... on my way out finally - it sometimes doesnt pay to be sick cause of the mess you find when you get back.

sigh.

so tonight i am going to watch at least the first one of these great movies on TCM..
8:00pm Doctor Zhivago (1965) ***+ (PG13), CC, DVS
11:30pm The Bridge on the River Kwai.... **** (PG)
2:30am Lawrence of Arabia (1962) **** (PG), CC

i'm a sucker for Omar Sharif... sigh sigh.

anyway - FEAR NOT there is knitting content here. i was able to get a substantial number of inches done on the baby aran blanket for mr walter, my nephew - whose mom knows now since she read the blog! - and ripped out and added more inches to a baby blanket for a colleague - have to get that finished by friday oops - and started a baby sweater for another colleague - whose second boy was born on saturday. but that one can be by next week sometime.

the blanket is in Periwinkle Brown Sheep Lambs Pride (i love this yarn - bought on ebay). and is in the Cat's Paw shetland lace pattern from one of the Barbara Walker pattern books (two i think) with a garter stitch border - simple simple but looks really nice.

more about the sweater tomorrow - i need to get home....
toodles
elizabeth

been a long time...

ok. i know.. its been awhile - i keep thinking i have to make these gorgeous entries like wendy over at http://wendyknits.net/ so ive not been doing it and work has been crazy and ... well, its been a rough winter.

but its SPRING finally and i have new contacts (and new *expensive* glasses) and new cats - a mother and her baby - Cordelia and Katie - and well, things seem to be better in the spring no matter how bad your dayjob is. ;o

this week, to take care of my duties as gardener, i ordered a ton of rose food and need to order mulch and bulbs. the clematis is growing like a weed and the roses are all leafing out and growing like mad - i gave them old very DRASTIC pruning - march 15th and they are responding like crazy. if this new rose food is as good as it purports i should have roses galore this summer! fingers crossed.

over on wendyknits- she is speaking of commuter knitting - so here's my story for the day - as i got a RARE seat on the # 4 this morning, i pulled out my knitting - the first three inches of a baby aran blanket for my latest nephew. its on 20" circs and is a LOT of stitches.

SO a woman sits down to the left of me and looks at my knitting and says - oh is that a hat? (for a giant maybe!) but i was nice and explained it was a baby blanket.. that was however the extent of her interest which was fine as i wanted to concentrate on the cables as it was the first setup row.

i am in awe of wendy - the poncho she is making looks so lovely - but i wonder how it will be on a slightly zaftig person? maybe i could make them for my sisters' bdays this year - i have four! and its always hard to figure out what to get/make for them.

i have been getting home way too late this week and really miss knitting - i wanted to stay on the train this morning and knit all the way til the end of the line. but saturday is the final Texaco Sponsored Metropolitan Opera broadcast and its GOTTERDAMERUNG - the final opera in Wagner's RING Cycle... so i plan to sit and knit for all 6 hours.. should be able to get a lot done... and of course the cats will be thrilled that i will be home. Cordelia has been attacking my leg each morning this week as i am getting dressed - i had two concerts, an opera and i stayed late at the office on wed.. whew, i am looking forward to Britcoms and knitting tonight!

so to bring a little fun to this post - here's a photo of my nephew - who will be moving to the NY area in july!

knitting rhymes?

who's got knitting rhymes?

i found one at chicknits*

In through the front door
Around the back
Out through the window
And off jumps jack.

*All graphics, pictures, patterns, text and content on this site are the sole property of Bonne Marie Burns©2003


i have several new students (all of a sudden = they have just joined a knitting group at work that i coordinate) and i am finding the need for some aids in teaching.

anyone with suggestions, please let me know!
thanks

my newest nephew

walter burke
born monday 19 january 2004 - 11:13 pm
to my baby sister and her husband.
now i'd better get knitting!



more tomorrow about the TWO knitting groups this week at lunchtime and three new students...and several emails from another ad in the firm's classifieds.

ok so i imagine anyone who ever read this blog (all two of you) gave up a long time ago.

well, i've decided its time to start up again. mostly cause i'm knitting almost daily now and i'm starting to teach some other knitters. and i'm always inspired by many other blogs - wendy's (of course) and curlnsandpurlsnyc and chic knits among the ones i read daily... not that i have a digital camera yet - but maybe soon.

anywho, between now and the weekend i'll try to catch up on my knitting life...such as it was... this past year. basically i worked way too much last year and, well, let's just say it didn't pay off. so "less is more" is my new motto regarding worklife.

here's a tidbit of knitting news - there has been a change in my knitting group at work - instead of after work (its way too cold this winter in nyc to stay late), we are starting to meet at lunch time - and it seems to be much more popular. although way too short for my liking, but, with my new motto of taking lunch every day - any time is knitting time is fine by me.

ok off to grab a bite and then to the New York City Ballet for the Centennial Birthday celebration of Balanchine!

oi vey its been too long - something about the turning into spring here in the north - its seems like such an upheaval - with rain and wind and dark cloudy days and then a day or two of sun and promise of warm weather and then back to the wind and rain and clouds... this goes back and forth for weeks - - - it really takes a toil on me. i think i am much more sensitive to the weather than i realize.

work has heated up to a stressful level - lots of angst and tension and - well, lets just say i was at the office very late three nights last week (like midnight including friday)... and although the weekend was really gorgeous i was exhausted. and enjoyed it thru my windows - of course i had done my garden winter clean up last weekend in the cold and wind and wet - but it was nice to know that as i was tired i wasnt remorseful about not working in the garden - its a grand feeling to look out at my little garden plot (its only 80 square feet) and see it all clean and laid down with mulch and all the roses pruned nicely (like haircuts ) and lovely little green and red leaves bursting on the rose canes and the gorgeous red peony buds poking up thru the mulch in such a hurry to come up. and the few lillies that survived the drought poking too.

so today and this week i MUST plan my orders - at least the summer bulbs - i once again didnt order any spring bulbs - i was working way too much last fall and didnt get anything in. but next year... tulips and croci and hyacinths i swear!

anyway i love lillies and would have a whole garden of them if i could - but i love phlox and snapdragons and sweet willilam and foxglove and delphs and , well the list is way too long for a little plot such as mine. so i have to be judicious and order three of this and three of that and ....

i do get to order a new rose as i have decided to get another rose pillar and put another climbing rose on it - this one will be taller and willl have some gorgeous pink climber - i just have to find one - i could also have hundreds of roses if i had the room.

ok more later