I am happy to report that isn't going to be another post with me saying ain't nothing going with my knitting.
Hallelujah! I made something!
With all of the craziness going on and the knitting block, I wasn't prepared for Martha's (Baby Legall's Mom) baby shower. The BSJ yarn is being balled by Suzy as I type this post.
I couldn't afford to buy a present and I couldn't go empty handed, so I decided to make some simple washcloths. I read on several sites that handmade washcloths were a great baby shower gift, so I decided to make some. I wanted to make 4, but only finished 2, because the first one I made was really really ugly and I didn't start making them until the morning of the shower.
Martha seemed pleased with them and I told her that I would make her a couple of more. I personally believe that you can never be too clean and babies are always making a mess.
Making the washcloths was a great project to work with my current state of mind and budget. They were simple to make and cotton is a cheap material. I would recommend others to make wash cloths for baby shower gifts. Washcloths are a great way to practice new patterns/stitches. I have a feeling I will be making more of them soon. I have been dying to try patterns from the Knit Purl book that I bought a few months ago.
I promised Martha that I would 
complete the BSJ shortly. I am not going to use the two colors together for the next jacket. I really didn't like the way the colors looked together. I still have to use two strains at one, because of the size that I am trying to achieve.
It is official that I no longer know how to knit. Or that I have the attention span of a ti-ti fly.Today was laundry day and I figured I would get in a little laundromat knitting. So I grabbed Mr. Crawford's scarf and headed to the laundromat. Surprisingly, it wasn't packed so I was able to get a seat. (Did everyone leave Brooklyn this weekend? I guess I missed the memo to get out of town. Too bad cause I could use a couple of days out of New York. I think I need to cash my miles in really soon.)Anyways, I totally screwed up the scarf. It is not completely over, because I have my lifeline, but my lifeline is really far down. If I have to go that far down, then I will really spiral deeper into my knitting depression.I don't know what is going on. I am fucking everything up.UGH! Maybe I need to retire from knitting until I get my life in order. Maybe my mind isn't settled, because I am too busy trying to figure out how to fix this mess I call my life.So right now I have a jacked up sweater and a jacked up scarf on the needles. UGH! What happened to the days when I had things on my needles forever and there were no major mistakes? I guess my knitting is representing my screwed up state of my mind.Wish me luck. I am going to attempt to fix the scarf and put in a new lifeline.
UGH! UGH! UGH! Baby Legall is coming next month and I have NOTHING for her. I was chugging along with the multi-colored BSJ. I got a third of it done; I started feeling like I was going to be ready for next weekend's baby shower. I pulled it out on Thursday night and noticed that it was turning into a big mess! It has snags in it and I dropped a stitch. I NEVER drop stitches. How did that happen? This poor baby is not going to have a jacket when she is born. Thank god she is coming in August and it is still going to be hot. Guess I need to go the store and get an impersonal present, so I don't go to the party empty handed.
I guess I will frog the BSJ today. :(
Again, I am writing another post saying the same thing. "I ain't got nothing going on with my knitting, so I am going to talk about something non knitting related."
Yesterday was another hot day in Brooklyn, so I decided to do something out of the ordinary. I wanted to go swimming/play in some water. My first idea was to go to Spa Castle in Flushing, Queens, but it is in Flushing and it cost 45 dollars just to go in (that doesn't include spa services, food, drinks or anything else extra). After a few minutes of pouting, I realized that I live in Brooklyn and Brooklyn is the home of Russian immigrants, so why not go to a Russian Bath House.
After a little research I realized that I live blocks away from the 
Coney Island Banya. (A banya is a Russian public bath in Russian can refer to any kind of steam bath, but usually refers to the Russian type of sauna.) Once I realized I was steps away from a pool, I knew that is where I was going to spend my day.
The only problem was that my two besties (Suzy and Amanda) that was supposed to chill with can't swim and didn't have any interest in spending their day in water, so I texted my road dawg "Momo" and of course she was down.
2 hours later Mo and I were standing in front the Banya. Trying to figure out if we should go in or not. As soon we walked in and we meet Victoria. Immediately, I was in love. She was very warm and welcoming. She didn't even blink at the two black dykes rolling into a Russian bath house.
I asked her if we could take a look around to see what the facility looked like. She gave us a tour. The place was really small. They have two dipping pools one hot and one cold. Two saunas one wet and one dry and one steam room. She also explained if we wanted to drench ourselves in freezing cool water all we had to do was pull a string to get ice cold water. I wasn't sure what she was talking about; only thing I knew is that I was ready to jump in.
The surprising thing was that even though the it is over 90 degrees outside there are only 10 people in there . We decided to stay. As we are paying, Victoria told us about the restaurant (which sounded amazing) and then we headed upstairs to the changing room.
Our adventure began as soon as we entered the changing room. The first thing I noticed about the changing room is that there are NO CURTAINS. Not even on the showers. There isn't a separate changing stall either. So that means that I have to strip down in front of everyone and I have to look at everyone too. YUCK! I don't want to see these people's junk and I really don't want them looking at mine, but I got over it and I put on my blue and white fat man swimming trunks and a wife beater.
As soon as we made it down stairs we walk over to the two dipping pools (both are less than 4ft deep). The hot one is empty (surprise surprise) and the cold one has a 10 year old boy in it playing. We decide to get into the cold pool. The water isn't super cold, but it is nice. I see a pipe and go over to it thinking that this must be the freezing cold water is that Victoria mentioned. But I couldn't figure out where the water would come from and then I looked over and saw a shower with a pulley string and realized that is what she was talking about. (Thank god I wore my contacts, because I wouldn't have been playing with the pipe trying to figure out to make the cold water come out.)
We stayed in the cool water for a while. I attempted to swim in the sallow pool when the boy walked away. It was nice to to glide across the pool and feel the water all over my body. Mo had the brilliant idea of going to the wet sauna. We went in and again I was confused, because I had no clue what to do in a wet sauna. I have been in several saunas, but never a wet one. I had noticed while we were in the pool that a woman had filled a bucket with the freezing cold water and went into the wet sauna room with it, but she was already gone. Mo, I and another first time attendee were standing in there trying to figure what made this room wet and then we figured out that the buckets that were in the sauna room are supposed to be filled with the freezing cold water and pour the freezing cold water over your body. Once we figured that out. I was in love with the wet sauna room.
That was until Leo arrived. Leo is the masseuse/keeper of the heat. Leo, who I think was a flaming homosexual, came in and told us we weren't using the room properly and it wasn't hot enough. (At that moment the room was at least 105 degrees.) He informs us that we should be sitting on the top row of bleachers to feel the full effects of the heat, so me being the adventurous jackass that I am. I climbed up to the top. Leo processed to warm the room up by throwing a couple of spoonfuls of the now warm water into the oven (the oven is a beautiful brick oven. It reminded me an oven you would find in brick oven pizzeria.) Then he took a towel and swung it around the room and all of sudden the room starts to warm up a bit. Then all of a sudden it went from being a bit warmer to being unbearable. At that moment I understood importance of the freezing cold water.
Mo left me before all of this started and I was left alone in this hot room with two strange men (both of them are newbies too) and I thought I was going to die. The guys were nice and they realized that we needed more water and they filled the buckets with FREEZING water and I poured the water all over my body and then fell in love with the room even more. After torturing myself on the top bleachers for a few minutes I climbed down and decided to join my fellow newbie on the lower level. Big yucky mistake! The guy was super sweet and we chatted and shared a bucket of freezing water together. Seemed like a nice man; we shared pleasantries and I was learning about him. Then I looked down and I learned a little bit too much.
Dude was not wearing swimming trunks. He was wearing boxers. And his junk was hanging out of his boxers plus he kept wetting himself with the water and his boxers were transparent. During our chat, I learned that he had not planned to come to the Banya, so he didn't have trunks with him and the front desk didn't have a pair in his size to sell him. So he decided just to chill out in in boxers. At that moment, I wish I had my one piece bathing suit in my bag, because I would have given him my fat man trunks. (In his defense, I do not think he realized that his junk fell out or that his boxers were transparent.)
After sitting in the wet sauna I made a pit stop at the freezing cold shower station and drenched myself. For some crazy reason, I decided to check out the dry sauna. Dear god, please tell me why anyone would willing walk into a room where the temperature is over 130 degrees. When I opened the door to dry sauna I was welcomed by the pleasant smell of eucalyptus. Between the scent and the dry heat I was captivated. I figured that Mo should experience this and I waved like a crazy woman trying to get her attention, but she had fallen asleep in a plastic chair. So I walked back in to the dry sauna and enjoyed the minty fresh room for at least 10 minutes.
By the time I walked over to Mo she was awake. We both agreed it was time for lunch, so I went to Victoria and ordered a Greek salad, potato pierogies and chicken pierogies. When the food came out, I couldn't believe the portions. Omg! There was so much food in front of us! I couldn't believe how good everything was. The pierogies were fresh. Nothing like the Mrs. G pierogies you get out of the freezer section. The bread...omg the bread was like fachcha bread, but better! And we had this "juice"...omg. Victoria is an amazing cook! During lunch we talked about how we had to come back to the Banya.
Leo, Mr. Junk out of his boxers and his very sexy lady friend came to visit us in the restaurant. They told us about their massages. Then Leo told us about a service that he offers at the Banya. To sum it out he beats the client with oak leaves to remove toxins from their body. It sounded crazy and amazing. All I could think about was how was I was going to round up the cash to get it done, because I want a flaming Russian man to beat me with oak leaves.
Now the point I dreaded the most. It was time to go upstairs to shower and get dressed in the curtain less changing room. After the relaxing day I didn't care and showed my body to the world.
After hanging out at the Banya we headed into the city, because Mo had to run some errands and she wanted to go the Buttas spot. I was more than happy to go the Butta spot, because the food and drinks are yummy. I had a lobster tail, shrimp, shrimp fried rice and small buttas. Then we headed home. It was a good day! Came home watched a little TV and started working on this post. I slept like a baby for the whole night which is a rare thing. Maybe it was the sauna, all of the food or the buttas. (For all you who don't know. A buttas is a mix drink. Don't ask me what's in it.)
My final recommendation is - go the Coney Island Banya and go often! It is worth the $25. The food is amazing. The saunas are relaxing and the staff is really great.
Suzy and Cheryl came over yesterday to help me pack up my apartment and dehoard. I am moving out of this shit hole apartment at the end of the month.
It was a fun day (until Ms. Edwards tried to make me throw out my scrap note paper). When the 3 of us get together we have a ton of laughs and we always have a bunch of knitting/yarn chats.During the course of the dehoarding we went through my crap yarn bag and I actually threw out yarn. I don't think I have ever thrown out yarn. The crap yarn bag is filled with random remnants. I think I have remnants from EVERY project that I ever made. When I say EVERY project I mean EVERY project.Luckily they didn't make me throw out anything from the real stash. :) Since I am putting most of my stuff in storage, it doesn't make sense for me to take all of my yarn with me, so I pulled out enough yarn to create a bunch of projects.
Here is my wip/Christmas to do list. Let's see if I get all of this done. WIPS:Baby Legall's - Baby Surprise JacketMr. Crawford's - Meandering ScarfTO DOS/Yarn I am taking with me:5 Balls of Red Cashmere - Scarf for Jan or Debra4 Balls of Red Baby Alpaca - Scarf for Jan or Debra5 Balls of Red Inca Alpaca - Scarf for Jan or Debra4 Balls of Green Alpaca Yarn - Something for Allison5 Balls of Bulky Hot Pink Yarn - Bulky Baby Surprise Jacket for Kaia or "Baby"1 Ball of Pink & White Cotton - ?2 Balls of Sugar & Cream - Wash Cloths for Baby Legall2 Balls of Multi-Colored Paton Merino Wool - Hat for Mr. Crawford4 Balls of Patons Kroy Sock Yarn - Socks for Dr. Freeman
Between the heat and the job hunting. I haven't been knitting a lot. But here are some very small updates.I am happy to report that Olivia's (Baby Legall) jacket has been put back on the needles and is no longer a pile of yarn on my futon. It is starting to form its shape, but nothing to brag about or post a photo of yet.Mr. Crawford's scarf is just too hot too deal with now. At least I know he will be warm this winter.Since I don't have any progress photos to show of my knitting. I posted a sideshow of the amazing graffiti I saw at 5pointz, a graffiti museum in Queens, NY.
I am happy to report that isn't going to be another post with me saying ain't nothing going with my knitting.
complete the BSJ shortly. I am not going to use the two colors together for the next jacket. I really didn't like the way the colors looked together. I still have to use two strains at one, because of the size that I am trying to achieve.
