bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

Graceful Stitches

if you look to the side there -- to your right -- over there on the side bar -- you'll see a section i've called "knitting for a cure," and a button that links to the Graceful Stitches website. Graceful Stitches  is a non-profit yarn shop in Medfield, MA run exclusively by volunteers with all proceeds donated to cancer charities.  most of the money raised is through auctions and fashion shows with all items knitted by volunteers.  the yarn shop raises the money needed to support these activities so that all proceeds go to those charities, with none used for operating costs. 

so i volunteered. 

my first knitting project was an afghan square. 

 

nothing too exciting.  they like to start off all of their volunteers with a square to get an idea of their skill level. the fun part for me was getting to knit with a yarn i had never tried before. 

very nice (although not the best choice for the stitch they had assigned me) ....

and today, is my first day on the job.  in addition to knitting for them, i'm also going to get to work in the shop.  i'm very excited.  *mad clapping*

if you live in the area, you must come.  they have a nice selection.  their prices are competitive.  it's a comfortable and friendly place.   and all money spent goes to a good cause. 

Big Girls Don't Cry

i had an amazon coupon to spend so i ordered jillian moreno's and amy singer's new book, Big Girl Knits.

gotta love a book that starts like this:  "chances are if you're reading this book, you're fat."  HEY I AM NOT FAT....I'M BIG BONED!!!

the first three chapters review the best yarns and shapes for our more bodacious ta-tas and butts and gives as advice on how to customize existing patterns or how to design our own.  the rest of the book is filled with some really fun designs.  some of the patterns didn't lift my skirt up (a-line of course) but here are some that did.

this is the mosaic sweater.  i really like the detail but i'm afraid this baby wouldn't be very flattering on me.  but i would definitely use the mosaic pattern in a bag.  i like the colors too.

this is the curvalicious cardigan.  this shape is the basis of my entire sweater/top wardrobe, so it doesn't surprise me that i really like this sweater.

bombshell, a stephanie japel design, is probably my favorite.  but there is no way that i'm making it in lorna's laces lion and lamb as recommended in the book.  c'mon ladies.  take pity on my budget.  don't make me run out and make it in *gasp* TLC (not to worry, i'd sweat like a pig).

this is cherry bomb.  a nice basic tank.  thumbs up.

and i really like this bag -- it's called scarlett carpetbag.  (the sweater coat the model is wearing is also very pretty.  it's called natalie.  designed by libby baker.  i love the color.  not sure i would make it though -- not comfortable with all of that knitted fabric across my double wide ass.)

finally, here's a beautiful wrap designed by kate gilbert.  it's called the bluebelle ruana.  (more expensive yarn though.  jesus.)

all in all this is a great book.  BUY IT! 

oh and there's buttons too.

 

Thanks Mom!

i used to hate my name. in french it sounds harsh with the gutteral "r" in the middle.  ma-rrreeze. when i was a kid, my mother's shrill cry when she'd call me in for dinner was like fingernails on a chalkboard. why couldn't she have named me sophie? in english it sounds dumb.  ma-reese.  and that's when people get it right.  every september, on the first day of school, i would sit there in class, while my new teacher would hesitate, shift in his or her place, take a deep breath and call me something like maurice, marcy, marysay, or my favorite, morris.  (morris?) 

but now, i love it.  and let me tell you why. 

last friday, along with my boyfriend and assorted other bloggy friends, i went to grafton to meet the yarn harlot.  i knew i was at the right place when i saw this:

since i got there a little early, i was able to push my way through to the front where i sat on the floor cross legged much like i had as a kindergartener during story hour, while stephanie, perched on a stool, told us about the social challenges of being a knitter who writes books about knitting.

after her talk, all 2,363 of us stood in line while she signed our books.  when it was my turn, i handed her the piece of paper with my name spelled out on it.  (brilliant idea by the way -- at least i didn't have to go through the "my name?  maryse.  yes, maryse.  yes maurice is a man's name, but that's not my name.  it's ma-reese.  let me spell it for you ...." drill.) 

"you're maryse from the comments?" she asked.

"yes" i nodded.

"yeah, i've read your blog. you're funny"  (or something like that.  i was a little nervous).

*singing angels*

i'd like to think that if my name had been susan, lisa, or karen (my best friend from high school's name is karen.  there were 3 karens out of 36 girls in our graduating class) that she might have taken notice of me.  but i would be lying to myself. 

a maryse by any other name would just be another knitting fan.  so thanks mom and dad. 

*********

the fun did not end there though. 20 or so of us ended up at the canyon cafe in westborough where we pretty much took over the place. 

in summary:

1.  knitting is such a quiet "sport" it's amazing how loud we can get. 

2.  if asked what kind of group this is by a nice man out to dinner with his lovely family (who were very good natured about having a bunch of rowdy knitters sitting around them) , don't be surprised if you hear the sound of crickets in response to your "um, we're knitters" answer.  stephanie had mentioned this phenomenon earlier.  to actually experience it with her in such close proximity made me want to grab her by the arm and exclaim "oh my god you were right!" 

3.  when in doubt, tell people it's a bachelorette party.  just randomly select a bride and go for it.

4.  i'm glad for sandy that i don't drive a honda and that there aren't that many minis west of route 128.  she can't comment on a blog post (noooo, that would be too easy), but she will leave me notes on my car.

5.  j met us later on.  oh sure, not as comfortable with the bridesmaids (see number 3) as dale, but i think he did ok. i'm glad he came.  except that now he wants to read the blog.

phew.  i think i'm all caught up.

 

Demonic Possessions

i always feel a little weird posting pictures of something that i gave as a gift. but if i had kept it for myself, i would have posted pictures.  or if i had given it to a non-blogger, i would have posted it.  so i'm posting.

i present to you the demon twins that i made for melanie's demon twins.

i used kim's amigurumi pattern from crochetme and sugar'n cream yarn.  i find them to be deliciously evil looking, in the best possible baby way of course.

Crochet me? No, Crochet you!

a couple of saturdays ago (april 15th to be exact) after a couple of years of online correspondence, i finally met kim of crochetme online mag fame and co-author of these two fabulous books on crochet. (i've been pushing the first one on everyone i know who wants to learn crochet.)  and if that's not enough, she's also a regular contributor to knit.1.) (i don't rub elbows with just anyone, let me tell you.)  she was visiting family in boston; me, i was at work (yes working on a saturday -- rat bastards) and needed a break.  so we made plans to meet at park street station because i was taking her to windsor button.  have i ever said how much i love windsor button?  every yarn animal under one roof:  everything from red heart (yes red heart people) and cottonease (yes they still have cottonease -- sorry cathi -- no baby pink though) to lamb's pride, cherry hill, and manos, colinette.  a yarn for every budget and project.  not to mention feather boas. 

then we went to south station to meet up with josie.  i got us a little lost (i know embarrassing) but not horribly lost -- we just ended up walking a little bit farther than we needed to.  josie is a crocheter originally from north carolina (with a cute little accent) who now lives in rhode island. we then headed off to quincy marketplace for lunch and then back to windsor button, where we laid down some serious cash.  mmm yarn.

kim was exactly as i imagined she would be.  we hit it off right away.  to this day, i'm still a little amazed about how this works.  josie on the other hand, was a total bitch.  HA!  JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!! i think i scared her just a little at first,but again, when we began to talk about yarn and crochet and crafts and age inappropriate footwear and jobs and life, everything just seemed right.  i didn't want to go back to work, but i had to.  rat bastards.

Brushes with Celebrity -- Stitchy McYarnpants

phew, thank god the word is out.  i can now yell from the rooftops (after having to keep it a secret since december) about how proud i am of mrs. mcyarnpants.  because you know...she's got a book coming out.  go congratulate her now.  (i love how i try to get traffic going to her blog when she's got a bazillion more readers than i do.)

anyway, what many of you probably don't know is that i've got a design over there on her book website.  not too proud to ride on the coattails (or cocktails) of her celebrity, i'd like to point you to my latest creation .... the aluminum can tissue cozy.  so dreadful, it's almost a thing of beauty.  really.  you should see it up close. (see, my name's really there!)

anyway, congratulations stitchy!  and thanks for allowing me to bask in your brilliance.  i couldn't have done it without you.

It's a Yellow and Orange World

Catching Up

work's been busy and when i'm not at work, i've had trouble concentrating on fun life stuff.  so i've been a little remiss with my thank yous.

here's a little lamb/basketball stitch marker that kat sent me for participating in her march madness pool.  isn't it cute?

 

and here is the project spectrum postcard for april that i received a week ago from coleen.  i sense a theme.

i love this postcard.  it's so pretty in real life.  i'm afraid that my photo doesn't do it justice.  coleen is self-labeled "theater geek" and a talented and obsessed sock knitter who lives in maryland.  go check out her beautiful socks. 

and on the topic of socks, here's my latest pair.  some pink in there, but mostly orange and yellow for april. 

and check out my picot edge (thanks claudia for the directions).

 

 

How Could I Forget?

2 years ago yesterday i started bag 'n' trash with my first post. 

last year i celebrated with very little quietly with some cake.   

but this year i think it's time for a celebratory song .

jesus, i need to proofread these things sometimes

G is for ...

GARGOYLES

ready for a close-up?

a little search on the internets made my entire belief system come crashing down.  all of this time i thought gargoyles were these little grotesque monster guys that sit on the ledges of gothic cathedrals to ward off evil spirits.  but that's not really true.  well it is, these are gargoyles.  but what makes them a gargoyle isn't their funny little scary faces (some of them are kind of cute, aren't they) but the fact that they are water spouts.  yes, that's what a gargoyle is.  a water spout. 

when i took these pictures during my last trip to france i could have sworn i took dozens, there were so many of these guys hanging from every ledge of notre dame cathedral.  if you ever go to paris, do not miss seeing notre dame.  it truly is divine, in every sense of the world.

and the gargoyles are cute.

It Looked So Close on the Map

so by now, you know where i was saturday.  i waited until now to post because i wanted carole and martha to do all the work and tell you about it first.  i'm wiley that way.

anyway, martha and i decided to surprise carole and visit her during one of her re-enactments.  i have to admit, i've giggled on the inside when she's posted or talked about her and dale's hobby.  but i'm a grown up now and rather than mock, i wanted to see for myself what the deal was.

well, there will be no more giggling.  this whole re-enactment thing is fascinating.  here's some of the things i learned.

1.  carole and her friends know their history and are more than happy to educate.  it was very cool. 
2.  blogless sharon is real.  i met her.  she's very nice.  and she looked stylin' in her civil war garb (my understanding is that blogless sharon isn't really a re-enactor so much as a re-enactor groupie.  yes, they have those).
3.  not all civil war re-enactments involve the killing of confederate soldiers.  as martha explained, this event was a union camp set-up type thingy.  i was a little disappointed.  i wanted to beat some confederate ass.  but that's just me.
4.  triscuit crackers and marshmallow peeps existed in 1861.  YES THEY DID!!!  CAROLE WOULDN'T HAVE HAD THEM IN THE TENT IF THEY HADN'T BEEN PERIOD CORRECT!!!
5.  miller lite (also period correct) tastes awesome when drunk out of a mason jar.

thank you carole and dale for such an enlightening afternoon (i promise not to giggle every again).  thank you martha for sharing the afternoon with me.

and because a post isn't a post without a cute animal photo (although not as cute as stitchy's) i leave you with this.

F is for ....

FRANCE

as many of you know, i'm from france (but i am not a conehead). my parents both immigrated to the united states in the late 50's-60's.  they were both very young.  my mother came to join her sister and brother because there was nothing left for a 19 year old girl to do in her native village of cominac.  my father was 24.  he worked for renault and was made an offer to come to the US for a 6 month training.  he ended up staying 18 years.  my parents met many years later while my father was dating my mother's roommate.  my father dumped the roommate and married my mother 4 months later.

my parents, brother and i moved back to france when i was 13. although i came back to the states to attend college, the rest of my family still lives there today;  my brother in paris, my parents in a small town on the atlantic coast.  i don't get to go back nearly enough and when i do, my time spent there is always too short.  by the time i start thinking in french again it's time to go home.  i get asked a lot if i'd ever live there again.  when i was single, the thought did occur to me.  the ideal situation would be if i could travel back and forth for work, but there aren't that many jobs out there for bi-lingual french english health services research project managers. 

this summer, j and i are taking the older nieces for a visit.  it'll be fun to show them around.

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana?

am i the only one who is a little sad that march is over?  i think i'm going to miss red and pink a little bit ... won't you?  not that i don't love orange. 

the last few days of march were spent knitting up another pair of socks in march/april transitional colors.  (it's been confirmed.  i really like pink and orange together.)

and i just started another pair.  this time i'm trying claudia's picot edge.

again, lots of orange, a little bit of pink (there's yellow too).

and for sandy, some project spectrum april sky (taken at the crack of ass AM -- can't say i'm not committed).

now i need a little help.  any ideas for what to do with this yarn i snagged from claudia awhile back (imagine that.  orange yarn from claudia.  so not like her.) 

it's about 300 yards of katia ingenue -- a mohair, nylon, wool blend.  anyone?  anyone? (don't make me make a mohair tissue cozy people!)   

if i pick your idea ... there might be a prize.