Photo: Accumulated

"Accumulated" (Flickr)

Unless you've been sleeping since Christmas Day, you'll have heard about the blizzard that dumped a whole bunch of snow on the northeastern United States last weekend. I had a snow day on Monday -- which was really a no-brainer since the nearest subway line wasn't running and there was no way in hell I was going to make it to the next-nearest. (Turned out there was no way in hell I would have made it even to the nonfunctional nearest line, but I didn't find that out until I went out for a few groceries.)

So, I took a picture of the snow that built up on the windowboxes out back. Just to give you a sense of scale, each of those boxes is about two feet long and maybe five inches high -- and the snow, as you can see, is taller than the boxes. And just to give you a sense of magnitude, behind those windowboxes is the only side that isn't sheltered.

A Long Day

I woke up very early this morning -- alarmingly so, even -- to make a 7AM bus. (When I left the house this morning, it was still as much dark as it was light. In October. In New York City.) The bus was heading up to the fiber festival up in Rhinebeck, a good two and a half hours from here. I got back at 8:30 or so, and if I was a little tired then, I'm that much more so now that I'm off my feet and am no longer running on excitement and fiber fumes.

I fully intend to write up a longer post tomorrow, but in the meantime, two photos. First, there's a picture of yarn (in small form to hide the vague blurriness):


And second, a much better picture of some of the foliage up there, which is beginning to seriously turn:

This one is better viewed large and on black.

Photo: two sheep

I went to a fleece festival in Ringoes, New Jersey, earlier this month, and have been too lazy to post about it until now -- now that I'm heading off to the huge festival tomorrow, that is. Here's one of the pictures that turned out well:


With the prospect of my first trip to Rhinebeck, I kept my purchases to what I think of as a minimum, buying two skeins of yarn (a worsted-weight ringspun and a laceweight, both hand-dyed), a blue roving, some mohair to blend with something, and a pair of spinning magazines. But more on that will have to wait until my computer figures itself out and starts behaving itself again.

Photo: Face

A sculptural decoration on what used to be John Jay High School in Park Slope. I'm not sure if it's supposed to represent something, but I didn't exactly research it, either.

Photo: Orchid

Orchid
Originally uploaded by The Loopweaver

"My office has an orchid, its..."

It's... Well, it's blooming, even if I haven't fully thought through how I'd rewrite the Oscar Mayer jingle. It bloomed about six months ago, and I got some really good photos of it then, too.

Signs of Misdirection

I have a thing for signs. Especially signs that seem to say something they don't mean. Or, alternatively, have been modified to say something they don't mean. I've seen a few posted on Gownus Lounge recently. One features a sign with a misspelling which, like confusing its and it's (and inventing its'), leaves the capabilities of the sign's poster open to debate. Another sign was merely bent, but in such a way that could very easily create confusion.

Similarly, I spotted a few such signs on my own. One of them suggests that East 90th Street and Madison Avenue is not an intersection, but a single street.


Another sign was deliberately modified, to create a similar effect I'm calling the "all paths lead to 10th Ave":


My contribution to the rash of misspelled stuff is this sign, in front of a soup store that is now (perhaps fortunately) long closed.


But I'll close with a few messed-up one-way signs. (I once saw one that was pointing straight up. As in vertical. If only I hadn't been in a moving car at the time!)

Photo: I committed a funny.

Be careful what you put your drink next to.
Originally uploaded by The Loopweaver

I haven't posted in a couple days, so I'll make sure there's something new by posting this bit of accidental visual humor I committed last night. I got a cup of hot chocolate on the way to a doctor's appointment, and put it down on a table when I got there so that I could take off my coat. I just didn't look at just what the magazines were first.

News off the Blogs: Brooklyn Photos edition

There are two posts of Brooklyn photos today on the Brit in Brooklyn blog.

I'm not sure if the first of the two was taken in Brooklyn, but given the sign on the front of the facade shown, I'm not too certain how necessary the rest of the building was.

The second post has two photos of the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, with a short architectural-history note.

Photos: It must be December

Yesterday, it was bitterly cold. Bitterly cold. Despite this, I took this picture:


We even woke up to snow this morning. Compare the picture above to these I took today:

Photo: Lattice detail

Lattice detail
Originally uploaded by The Loopweaver

OK, here's another photo from the Cloisters. It's a detail of a stained glass window they have there -- I'd write more about it if I had the info in front of me.

News off the Blogs

Two days' worth of "Brooklinks" posts on The Gowanus Lounge produced a pair of links between them that I'll repeat here.

Yesterday's edition included a link demonstrating that congestion pricing really ain't so bad for those of us in Brooklyn.

Today's edition included a reference to another blog's post. Brooklyn's famous parrots. Here's one source for more info.

Photo: Crocuses at the Cloisters

Crocuses at the Cloisters
Originally uploaded by The Loopweaver

I haven't said a thing here all day, so yet again I'm falling back on a photo. I took this at the Cloisters in the Manhattan panhandle. Despite being so far north, it really isn't all that hard to get there: the A stops at 190th Street, and take the elevator to street level. From there it's a pleasant enough walk through the park , though I'd recommend waiting for the M4 bus if there's any reason whatsoever to think the ground may have any weather-related slipperiness. There is an especially steep set of stairs along the way from the station to the museum, which would be particularly nasty with a coating of rain/snow/ice. The trip takes maybe an hour and a half from Park Slope, maybe a little longer if they're screwing with the subway service.

Photo: Park Slope, Late Fall

Park Slope, Late Fall
Originally uploaded by The Loopweaver

I've been quieter than usual today, so perhaps it's time for another foliage photo. I took this one over the weekend and finally got around to uploading it yesterday. It promptly got a comment: so promptly, in fact, that the uploader was still thinking, and hadn't registered that the photo was fully uploaded.

But I would have liked this shot, even if someone hadn't commented so quickly.

Photo: Montreal Foliage and the Marché Bonsecours

Montreal Foliage and the Marché Bonsecours
Originally uploaded by The Loopweaver

As I said earlier this afternoon, I discovered a disappointing, if simple, error in my knitting and had to undo a day’s work. As an ego boost, I decided to post this photo. It's one of the most popular ones I've uploaded -- Scout says it reached #30 in Flickr's Explore -- and has been blogged by Urban Nature.

I took this picture in Montreal in October of 2006, when I turned my one week of vacation into a week and a half, courtesy of a Columbus Day return to New York. The foliage was early (something to do with a wet summer), and I took Amtrak up there. Spending a day on an Amtrak train is no worse than going through airport security, and the view is often better. Especially when that view is the Hudson Valley in October.

Photo: Potted Plants, St-Guilhem Cloister

Potted Plants, St-Guilhem Cloister
Originally uploaded by The Loopweaver

I got an e-mail this morning that this photo was shortlisted for inclusion on Schmap.com's guide to New York City. I agree that it's a decent shot, but I'm a little surprised that they went for this one and not, say, the double capital I took in this same part of The Cloisters.

The full list of my Cloisters photos can be found in a Flickr set.

Shots they passed over include:

Photo: The Foliage is Up Late.

Girl Scout Tree
Originally uploaded by The Loopweaver

I took this photo yesterday in Cranford, New Jersey. Like many trees across the region, it still has leaves -- an unusual occurrence around here for this late in November. The trees in Brooklyn are noticeably barer this afternoon than they were a day before, due in all likelihood to the wind we had, there was still a good amount of color still up.

Photo: Swan Detail, Prospect Park Brooklyn

Swan Detail, Prospect Park Brooklyn
Originally uploaded by JGNY

One more post today, and then I'll shut up. But as I think this is a damn good photo, I thought I'd blog it anyway. Uploaded to Flickr by JGNY.

Under the River and Past the Malls

Like many people, I will be traveling today in advance of Thanksgiving. In my case, instead of crowds at the airport it will be crowds at the train station: I'm going one state over, to New Jersey. I am not looking forward to the number of people I will be fighting trying to fight to get there. The Population density at Manhattan's Penn Station is high enough during a normal rush hour, and many more people than usual will be trying to get to the far side of the Hudson. What's more, my "weapons" as such are more of a hinderance than a help: a big leather bag which won't stay where I put it, a ratty green tote bag, and one six-inch cheesecake.

I hope we close early.

As a pragmatic decision, I decided not to bring the "Nevis" cardigan I talked about yesterday. It's grown too big and requires five balls of yarn in three colors, a chart, and directions in British (I knit in American, and there are some subtle differences that require translation). In it's place is a scarf I'm knitting as a gift. (Its Ravelry page is here: I doubt the scarf's recipient will sign up before said recipient has the scarf.) It measured 7½" wide yesterday afternoon, at which point the progress was:


The pattern is Jo Sharp's "Misty Garden" and comes from a book called Scarf Style, published by Interweave Press. I'm using a chubbier yarn than the tiny mohair used in the original. It comes out bigger but the effects of the stitch pattern are still the same. Yarnovers create holes; the holes happen at the same place in every row, creating a column of eyelets:


Since yarnovers increase the number of stitches in a row, you gotta add some decreases if you want to keep the width stable. Like the yarnovers, these are grouped. The result is a festoon-like hem:


The whole thing is light and fluffy, and someone commented to me that it's "Victorian" in appearance. (I agree.)

I like this pattern. I'll have to make one for myself.