Eye Candy Friday: Dinner Edition

IMG_5917.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.

After I passed up the cafeteria’s offerings on “Japan Day” (I mistook edamame for lima beans on the main course line and thought better of trying the dining hall sushi), I developed a bit of a hankering for a real seaweed salad. When it didn’t pass for a few days, I had to pick up the phone. This isn’t the best capture ever because the light was too low, but I loved the jewel-like colors and the different textures of seaweed in my salad. It was pretty tasty too.

Finish line

IMG_5968.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.

Whew. I was starting to think that it would never happen, but I’ve finally finished my razor cami. Things progressed much more quickly once I split for the front and the back, but they didn’t always go smoothly. Instead of knitting the straps flat, as indicated by the pattern, I decided to pick up 5 stitches on each side of the front to make I-cord straps. I started out by making each strap 12 inches long, and then I bobby-pinned the straps to the back and tried the cami on–way too long! I ripped back to 10 inches, and 8 inches–the same result. Finally, I settled on 6.25 inch straps. Then came the next hitch: I managed to lose my tapestry needles. Again. I swear that there must be some sort of black hole in my apartment where these things are all collecting, but a preliminary search didn’t bring any of them to light. I Kitchenered the first strap on using a bobby pin as a needle, but it was fairly frustrating–I’d have to wait another day to get proper needles at the LYS to finish up and weave in all the ends.

I’m fairly happy with how the project turned out, and I look forward to wearing it. The front and back seem to flare out a little, I think because the bamboo doesn’t have any memory, and I might end up doing a row of crochet across the top. Of course, that’ll require me to learn how to crochet, so it may or may not happen–I’ll have to see how the cami wears a couple times first before I do anything rash.

And here’s the view from the front:

Splitsville

IMG_5922.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.

After what has begun to seem like an interminable period of knitting around on the cami, trying on, and then knitting some more, I’ve finally reached a point where I can split for the front and the back without having a midriff-baring cami. I might have built a little too much negative ease in, because what seemed very long on the needles was dispiritingly short on me, but not being allowed to start any new knitting projects until this one is finished is a powerful motivator to keep at it.

I’m even a bit further along than this picture indicates. While the directions say to knit 3.5 inches in pattern, bind off, and then pick up stitches in a contrasting color and bind off, after knitting three inches in pattern, I’m going to finish with .5 to .75 inches of 3×1 ribbing to keep the cast-off edge from being too wavy. I also modified the number of stitches that were divided for the front and back (6 pattern repeats for the front, 7 for the back), because of other people’s results with dividing evenly, and decreased by 2 stitches on each side so that when I pick up 5 stitches for the I-cord straps that I have planned, the cord will be centered across the column of decreases. The last time I tried it on it seemed like that would work, but I’m really flying blind here, so I hope it does.

The Reunion Socks are getting there too. I’m about two pattern repeats from being able to turn the heel.

Eye Candy Friday: Hometown Tourist Edition

IMG_5543.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.

There are tons of touristy things in New York that I’ve never done. When you grow up in the suburbs, you just sort of never get around to them, because they’re just…there (case in point: I never went up to the top of the Empire State Building until I was in my twenties, and my parents didn’t go until they were 25 years older than they were when they had me). As I’m getting closer to finishing up, I’m working on knocking a few more off my list, like taking the Staten Island Ferry, which is free, and provides a great view of the Statue of Liberty:

and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge:

Between ferry rides, my parents and I caught a Staten Island Yankees game. Their ballpark is a very short walk from the ferry, so that was quite convenient. We saw the Baby Bombers playing the Vermont Lake Monsters, the Nationals’ short-season A affiliate.

Delin Betances, the 19-year old eighth round draft pick for the Yankees gave up two runs and came out early with elbow stiffness, the relief pitching had a rough day, and the SI Yankees never got into the game offensively. Despite the rather unconventional stances that some of the VerMonsters employed (he seriously stood like that until the pitch was thrown), they had a much better outing. But we still got to enjoy watching mascots
cheating at tug o’ war, and I got a free compact fluorescent lightbulb from ConEd! Not bad for a day out.

Putting it together

Applique in progress, originally uploaded by limonene.

Even though I’m primarily a knitter these days, back when I was in middle and high school I also used to sew and quilt. I can’t remember exactly how long ago it was that I took sewing lessons, first at a local fabric store, and then at a local sewing machine shop, but way back then I purchased a refurbished, basic-model Bernina machine, and I’ve been using it on and off (mostly off–it was too heavy to go to college) for at least 10 years, and probably even longer. I recently brought the machine to New York with me, and although I haven’t gotten a ton of use out of it, it’s definitely been nice to have around, and I keep coming up with projects that I want to do, someday (like bedroom curtains).

For many reasons, Lou Gehrig is one of my favorite Yankees of all time, and definitely my favorite deceased Yankee, and I wanted to be able to express my fandom with a #4 jersey. Unfortunately for me, I don’t seem to be in the hall-of-fame jersey demographic. Even the “replica” jerseys with a name and number on them (the Yankees only wear numbers) were definitely targeted towards a crowd that was a bit more strapping and barrel-chested than I happen to be. The smallest available size seemed to be a 40″ chest, which was pretty discouraging. However, with a little help from my trusty old sewing machine, I got a Lou Gehrig jersey that would actually fit me, and saved a lot of money in the process.

It was quite simple. Modell’s was having a sale on team jerseys last month, so I went in and tried several on and figured out that a child’s large was big enough to button up, but not so big that I was swimming in it, or that it came down almost to my knees. Then on a tip from a friend, I found a seller on eBay who had player “number kits”, which were basically twill numbers with an iron-backing. I purchased a Carl Pavano (45) kit, and marveled on how much less than the sum of his number’s parts (Gehrig’s #4 and DiMaggio’s #5) he ended up being for the Yankees. Then I set to ironing on my number. I may have been too timid with the heat and pressure for fear of burning the polyester doubleknit, but the iron-on backing was definitely not going to hold up to wearing, let alone washing. Reinforcing it with zig-zag stitching was a little harrowing, because my work was, by nature, so visible, but with the exception of a few rough patches–one when I was getting started and a second when I started sewing crooked, I think I did an OK job.

The finished product:

It’s ready to go for the game tonight, if the weather cooperates.

One down…

IMG_5785.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.

One Reunion Sock to go. I finally finished the leg and the cuff on my Staten Island Yankees adventure on Sunday (by the way, since this was my first minor league baseball game–are all minor league team mascots horrible cheaters? Scooter the “Holey Cow” running off with the last remaining chair for the musical chairs game was kind of harsh, I thought). I was careful about dividing the Sea Wool in half, so I feel pretty confident about my decision to make a nice long cuff. The drooping elm leaf pattern is quite stretchy, so increases for the calf weren’t necessary, and I finished it off with 12 rounds of k1tbl, p1 ribbing and a sewn bindoff.

This is my attempt to get a shot of the sock in its “natural habitat”. I have a vague recollection of seeing a sign indicating that there are some elm trees somewhere in Central Park, but I didn’t have time to try to retrace my steps and actually find them, if they do exist, so I enlisted the help of some “stunt shrubbery”.

I’ve already cast on for the second sock. This time I’m going with the Magic Cast On, because I had computer access while I was doing it, and because adjusting the tension of the Figure 8 was kind of a fiddly process. Hopefully this one will take less than a month to finish, though, so I can finally make those Monkey Socks that I’ve had my eye on.

Sight for Sore Eye Candy Friday

This is a little bit of a departure for me on Eye Candy Friday. I know I’ve highlighted Yankees before, but they’re generally a good bit younger than Bobby Murcer, who was on the team in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. I don’t really even remember him as a player, because I’m too young; I became familiar with him when he started calling the games for the YES network. But Bobby Murcer hitting what would turn out to be a hard lineout was one of the nicest things that I got to see at the Yankees’ Old Timers’ Day on July 7th. Bobby was diagnosed with brain cancer around Christmastime last year, so it’s pretty outstanding that after the rounds of surgery, chemo and radiation, he was able to join in the festivities.

There were plenty of delights that afternoon. When we arrived, the retired players were taking their batting practice and chatting on the field:

After they moved the screens out of the way, we got to watch Reggie Jackson talking to his public for a good long time:

Then John Sterling and Michael Kay came out to the field for the player introductions. The World Series champion team of 1977 was being honored (we got commemorative pins), so there were a good number of veterans of that team present: Nettles, Guidry, Dent, Blair, Rivers, etc., as well as the widows and family members of Elston Howard (first base coach), Catfish Hunter, Thurman Munson and Billy Martin (manager).

There were some first-timers there too. They included Ken Griffey Sr., and a few more recent retirees:

Paul O’Neill and Scot Brosius (on Paul’s right).

And of course, there were the old fan favorites: Don Larsen, Whitey Ford, and one Mr. Lawrence Peter Berra:

(It’s very hard to take a decent picture while simultaneously cheering one’s brains out)

Once the introductions had concluded, we observed a moment of silence for members of the baseball and Yankee families who had passed away, sang along with Robert Merrill’s rendition of the National anthem, and then sat back to watch the Clippers and the Bombers play some baseball.

Bob Wolff and Keith Olbermann announced the game and interviewed the players between innings.

They played kind of fast and loose with the pitching–there were a lot of changes, and pitchers returned to the game every few batters. Ron Guidry got the game started, and to be perfectly honest, looked a lot better than a scary number of the guys the Yankees have been running out on the mound every five days (or for one excruciating inning every other day, Kyle Farnsworth):

Paulie didn’t look half-bad out in the batter’s box, either. The Bombers sort of overmatched the Clippers, but then a team that includes the likes of Paul O’Neill, Don Mattingly, and Reggie Jackson has Ron Guidry for a starter is pretty formidable.

Of course, when you have a bunch of guys from many different baseball eras, there’s always a bit of rust that needs to be shaken off. It wasn’t always the prettiest, but there are no errors in the Old Timers’ Day Game!

Straw actually escaped that.

In the end, the Bombers defeated the Clippers 4 to 0, and it was time to prepare the field for the afternoon’s official game, between the Yankees and the Angels.

Of all the teams in baseball, the Yankees are the only one who still have an Old Timers’ Day and game. I really wish that more teams still did it–it’s great to see many generations of a team “family” get together for one day. I think that it’s a lovely tradition and I was really thrilled that I got to see one of them before the true Yankee Stadium is taken down.

Knitting around town

I have a tendency to get fidgety when I have downtime, so whenever I have a few free moments, whether they’re on the subway, or at pub trivia, or waiting to meet someone, I’ll reach for whatever knitting project happens to be in my purse and work on it for a while. A lot of the time, people won’t make eye contact with me, as is the custom in New York, and sometimes people will look at me and kind of smile, but sometimes the knitting can be quite a conversation starter. At trivia last week, it actually enabled me to meet some friends-of-friends. I walked over to another team to admire a sock that one of them was knitting, and noticed that the man sitting next to her looked awfully familiar–turns out that he and another member of that team were part of the group who organized this past year’s MIT Mystery Hunt (and that one of them co-wrote a baseball puzzle that I totally geeked out on). I’m kind of shy, so without knitting to bridge the gap, I most likely would have just wondered who the familiar-looking people in the corner were, but with the power of RPM Socks (hers) and the Razor Cami (mine), I was much more open to talking to people.

The Reunion Socks also led to quite a conversation. Last Wednesday I was waiting by the bat outside of Yankee Stadium to meet J., so I decided to get a few rows in on the project while I was there. Now, the bat (which is a boiler smokestack dressed up to look like a giant Louisville Slugger) is a pretty common meeting place at the stadium, because it’s sort of centrally located and extremely distinctive looking, so I was by no means alone. As I was working a lady came up to me and asked me what I was making, and how I was making it. So I explained that it was a sock, and that making it was much easier than it looked, etc., and then we got to talking a bit. It turned out that she and her family were in from Connecticut and were waiting for her nephew to get in from Queens. Then as other people joined us around the bat, she started pointing out what I was working on–first to her husband and son, and then to the couple with a pair of adorable young children. We joked about how at least my socks weren’t red, and the number of “mixed marriages”, although in both cases, one of the spouses converted. Then J. arrived, so we went into the stadium to watch the Yankees play the Twins.

It promised to be an exciting pitching matchup–Mike Mussina vs. Johan Santana, and for the most part, it delivered– until the 7th inning, that is. Even though he didn’t seem to have much left in the tank, the Moose got sent out for another inning (to try to get the win is the only reason I can come up with for letting him back on the mound), and was out there for two batters too many. Torii Hunter doubled, and then Kubel homered, and that was it for Mike.

Before the 6th, he pitched pretty well, but ultimately, once he got tired, he couldn’t get the job done. Brian Bruney allowed another double and a home run in the 9th, to put the game truly out of reach.

Johan Santana was really something to watch, though. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him pitch live before, and he was really quite graceful out there on the mound. Hideki Matsui did manage a home run off of him, and Derek Jeter doubled and got brought in by Andy Phillips in the fourth, but other than that, Santana shut the Yankees down.

Even though the outcome wasn’t what I wanted, it was still really nice to spend Independence Day at the ballpark. It’s hard to say too many good things about getting to spend an afternoon outside, hanging out and catching a ballgame. Especially when you can follow it up with some fireworks:

That’s the (somewhat limited) view of the Macy’s fireworks from my window. Not bad at all, when you consider that I didn’t have to stand out in the rain to see them, no?

Eye Candy Friday

IMG_4738.JPG, originally uploaded by limonene.

Objects in the pond are closer than they appear:

There’s a little pond out in Central Park with radio-controlled sailboats to rent It’s something fun to watch while you’re killing some time in the park on a nice day.

Not much knitting to report lately. The weather we’ve had for the past few days hasn’t really agreed with me, so I’ve been needing to save my hand strength for my experiments. The Razor Cami is finally too big and heavy for me to cart around in my purse all the time, so I’m back to carrying my Drooping Elm Leaf Socks. I did manage to get a few rows in before the Yankee game on the 4th, which really seemed to engross the lady standing next to me and waiting for her nephew. I tried to tell her how easy it was, so maybe she’ll try to pick it up, but you never know.

Yankees at Orioles 6/27/07

We’ve secretly replaced their New York Yankees with the Staten Island Yankees. Let’s see if anyone can tell the difference.

You know how usually, even if your team has a pretty bad game, you can console yourself by telling yourself that a bad day at the ballpark is often better than a good day at work? That doesn’t work so well when it’s 97 degrees out when the game starts. When the two Yankee fans in front of you end up running down to tend to an unconscious old man in the upper box seats while they wait for the EMTs to arrive, you just know that you’re in for it.

Handing in lineup cards

Roger Clemens was the starting pitcher for the Yankees, and he was no match for Bedard, who I believe leads the league in strikeouts. In fact, we saw Clemens’ first game in which he went 6 innings without recording a strikeout in many, many years.

He was doing OK for several innings–he worked into and out of trouble, but by the end, it was becoming painfully obvious that he didn’t have anything left in the tank. The trainer even came out to the mound at one point, but even so, nobody in the bullpen stood up. This would prove to be Joe’s fatal mistake–in trying to get Roger his 350th win, he left him in way too long–with the way the Yankees were batting, an RBI single followed by a 3 run home run were enough to do the job. I can’t blame him for tiring out, because it was so miserable out, but I do blame Torre for not pulling him in time.

Oh well. As bad as the evening was from a team-performance perspective, at least we got to watch Mariano pitch. We have to take what we can get, right?

Another thing sort of marred the evening for us. When you go to watch your team in another ballpark, you don’t expect the fans of that team to greet you as liberators, but you do expect civility from the organization that was happy to charge you a premium for your seats at the game and to collect your money for food and beverages throughout the night. On an individual level, a number of people who worked for the O’s were absolutely lovely, especially the lady at the souvenir stand who gave me one of her own supply of pencils so I could use my scorecard. However that courtesy didn’t extend to the folks running the scoreboard and PA system–playing a recording of “New York, New York” interrupted by a record scratch after (yet another) half inning in which the Yankees didn’t do much offensively was just the icing on the cake. For the most part, the fans of both teams were polite to one another and got along OK–it was management that was the problem. If that’s how they like to treat paying customers, then I don’t really have any desire to be one ever again.

Overall, though, despite ending on a down note, it was a good trip to Baltimore. My father got to help fold up the “post” flag at Fort McHenry after some rough weather on the horizon caused them to exchange it for the “storm” flag, and we also made a trip to the St. Jude Shrine downtown.

I’m still working on my Razor Cami, and I’m finally at the point where I’ll have to divide for the front and back. I really can’t wait for it to be ready–I’m so looking forward to wearing it!