Handmade knit cowl

I'm not 100% sure when I became a knitter, but it was sometime in the past two months. I was bored, unemployed, and, looking for a hobby that would keep my hands occupied on some upcoming long car rides, stumbled upon kitting. Specifically, I wandered into Bryant Park Knits, a weekly knitting circle sponsored by Knitty City and held in New York's Bryant Park. Every Tuesday in the summer, employees of Knitty City gather in a corner of the park and provide free knitting lessons to any interested parties. For an hour and a half, they give people the use of their yarn, needles, and instructors - but the catch is that everyone works on small squares that are later sewn together and into large blankets that eventually get donated to homeless shelters. Free knitting lessons? Donating my time and talents to make blankets for homeless babies? I'm so there.

I got the hang of knitting pretty quickly (although pearling is a whole other beast that I'm going to try to tackle in my next project), and almost immediately headed to Michael's to buy my own needles and yarn. It wasn't too much longer until I had the beginnings of a cowl; a couple lengthy and dedicated knitting sessions soon created a rectangle of fabric that was of desirable dimensions. The near-finished cowl sat rolled up for a week or so while I hightailed it to Chicago for some friends, family, and hotdogs, but after sifting through my old button collection that is collecting dust in my parent's basement, I managed to procure some buttons that I knew would be the finishing touch to my scarf. One laborious button-sewing session later, et voilà! I am now the proud owner of one very unique, handmaid, dark grey, two-buttoned cowl.

Just to be clear, this is NOT a how-to post about how to knit your own cowl. I'm almost positive I didn't follow all the rules of perfect knitting, I'm absolutely positive I didn't follow a pattern, and I don't actually know if I could repeat my process to make an identical second cowl. However, I couldn't have done this without the advent of YouTube and the following instructional videos: binding off, making button holes, and adding a button - so thank you interwebs, thank you Knitty City, and thank you blog readers (all three of you!) for letting me blab on about my silly knitting project ;)

Balcony garden!

Confession: I've secretly always wanted an herb garden of some sort, but previous to this year, have never lived in an apartment with appropriate ledges/sunlight/floorspace/wallspace/etc. to do so. Confession: I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing when it comes to plants, herbs, vegetables, green things, things that grow in dirt, or anything else of the "plant it yourself" kind.

But this past Easter, along with the requisite egg-shaped Reese's and $20 bill tucked into a plastic easter egg, my mother sent me her version of a home-gardening kit. Seed packets, gloves, a plastic trowel, and one of those knee-pad-kneeling things, all tucked into a watering can and wrapped with a raffia bow (my mother rocks, you guys). So after some mid-April hesitation and anxiety, I threw caution to the wind, bought some pots, bought some dirt, and planted the seeds.

Then I spent the next two and a half months fretting about like a worried mother hen, constantly checking for growth, freaking out that nothing was ever going to grow, jumping for joy when the first little buds popped up through the dirt, and marveling when those little buds turned into actual plants and herbs.

But through this all, at no point did I do any actual research on what I was doing, because why take the fun out of experimentation? I mean, this is the life cycle - shouldn't it just work on it's own?

I did, however, spend one entire afternoon procuring and affixing two plastic flamingos to the balcony railing. Priorities, people, priorities.

Thankfully, the herbs pretty much did just grow on their own. I planted chives, oregano, and basil, and though the oregano has been a little slow to grow, the other two seem to be flourishing (although there might be some weeds in the oregano and basil? Let's not forget that I have no idea what I'm doing). Regardless, I'm sensing some homemade pesto and possibly some baked potatoes with chives in the near future.

There was a point in which I showed a picture of my tomatoes to a coworker, who turned out to be an ex-farmer (I love New York), and she told me that my planter was getting too crowded for all the tomato seeds I haphazardly threw in there and that I needed to replant the seedlings into larger pots. This same coworker also showed up the next day with an eggplant plant that she picked up for me at the green market, which officially makes her my favorite ex-farmer of all time. So after another few trips to the Bargain Stop for cheap dirt and plastic planters (I love New York), I put on my big-girl-gardening-pants and replanted my tomato plants. I now have three different planters of tomatoes - one is full of the original planted tomato seeds, the other two house the replanted tomatoes.

Strangely enough (or maybe not strangely at all, because again, no idea what I'm doing here), the repotted plants are doing much better than the plants that never left their original home. Everyone is getting equal amounts of sunlight (the balcony faces west and we get ample amounts) and I've been pretty consistent in when and how much water I'm giving them - about 8oz. in the morning unless the forecast calls for rain, which at that point I let God do the watering. I think (?) what I'm doing is working, because just this morning I found TWO little new developments - a little bud of something on the eggplant plant, and a little flower of something else on one of the tomatoes.

Are these the beginnings of actual vegetables? Am I secretly a gardener-savant? Should I push this urban farming thing to its' limits and add some chickens to the mix??* Stay tuned, because all these questions and more will get answered in the next installment of Mary's Balcony Garden!**

*No chickens were or will be harmed in the making of this blog post.

**I should probably find a day job. I'm working on that, I promise.

summer(2014): book report #1

Every summer in high school, I had reading and writing assignments to complete. Sometimes I'd have a list of books I needed to have read by the first day of school, other times I'd have to write a history paper and send it in to the teacher by a certain date in July; summer before senior year, I was faced with both types of assignments. Though it was a bit tricky to comprehend a detailed account of the Civil War while surrounded by blaring whistles, screaming kids, and the reverberation of the nearest diving board and corresponding ker-splash of an unfortunate belly flop (what, you weren't a lifeguard too?), I didn't really mind having to work my way through a tower of books all summer long. With graduation, though, came end of my summer reading. I spent that summer before college (and a few summers after that) bathing in the glow of the newest Cosmo magazine and not much else. However, I eventually grew to miss what had previously been a huge part of my life - reading for pleasure. It took me until I moved to New York to really get back into the habit of regular reading (long subway rides proved to be the perfect vehicle to rekindle my love of literature...pun intended), and now with my iPad I can't even use the excuse that a particular book is too heavy to fit into my purse (don't roll your eyes. it's a harsh reality of life in the big city.)

I am always looking for book recommendations. It's probably a result of all those high school summers, but I can't resist a good reading list - so in case you're looking for a little reading inspiration yourself, below are some of my most recent favorite reads. Almost all are novels (though I desperately want to be, I'm just not a non-fiction kind of gal), and you've probably heard of or even read most of them. But just in case you haven't, why not give 'em a try this summer?

I Was Told There'd Be Cake and, How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley - I'm not normally a fan of essays or short stories, but each tale hits so close to home that these books could have easily been my own (more well-written) diary. Starting out as a struggling artist in New York. Traveling solo in Europe. Awkward presents from ex-boyfriends. If you want a beautifully funny patchwork of what it's like to be in your 20's in the 2000's, grab one or both of these books.

The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison - I got this book after picking up one of those free iTunes downloads at Starbucks one afternoon. I hadn't really even intended to read it (I don't usually put too much stock in free downloads) but after having nothing else to do on the train one day, I started it - and then couldn't put it down. I found myself absorbed in an anti-hero's odyssey and desperately wanting to be included in such an unlikely group of people's northwest road trip.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson - this is a bizarre book about an even more bizarre childhood, but Lawson imbues so much humor and love into her story that you can't help get on board.

The Telling Room by Michael Paterniti - truth be told, this book gets a bit long and lost in the narrative at times, and there are way too many footnotes for my liking. But it's evocative descriptions of rural Castile and dozens of passages devoted to the taste and smell of cheese may have you booking your next vacation to a tiny village in northern Spain.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - part mystery, part travelogue, part diary, and part satire, this book is that rare combination of comedy and page-turner that I thought about for weeks after finishing it.

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead - this is a beautiful and unassuming story about a wedding weekend fraught with lust, envy, regret, and an exploding cetacean. You may grow to really dislike the family's patriarch, but you'll certainly want to stick around to see what happens.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed - the movie version is coming out this winter, so do yourself a favor and read the book first. If you're like me and think "hiking" is when you walk up a few stone stairs in Central Park, then let yourself get lost in the beautiful desolation of Strayed's solo hike on the Pacific Crest Trail.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - as the most recent winner of the Pulitzer prize for fiction, nearly as much has been said about this book as it is long. Clocking in at almost 800 pages, this tome takes you on an near-fantastical journey from New York to Las Vegas to Amsterdam as the protagonist tries to protect a stolen work of art and meets a dizzying cast of insolent and self-absorbed characters along the way. I could NOT put this book down.

The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. by Adelle Waldman - set within Brooklyn's nouveau-lit community, reading this book was like reliving every date and dinner party I've been to in the past five years - not necessarily a pleasant experience, but since the novel is told from the point of view of the guy, an educational one.

  

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer - while at times this novel had a Forrest Gump-like quality as it chronicled the lives of a group friends over the course of almost 40 years, it was a fascinating look at the development of the "me" generation as the narcissistic and self-absorbed teenagers struggled to find fulfilling careers and relationships.

Please note: the above are affiliate links, which may earn me a small commission if you click on them (but at no extra cost to you!) Regardless if I get paid or not, I still stand by my recommendations and hope you enjoy them too ;)

summer(2014): to-do

If last year was the summer of yes, then this year is the summer of slow down. We are all too busy, too over scheduled, and pulled in too many directions. It's not even halfway through June and I'm already stressing about how I'm going to get it all done this summer - how am I going to manage running two different productions while still making time for street fairs-flea markets-green markets-long walks-short skirts-outdoor movies-rooftop bars-panama hats-maxi dresses-bike rides and beach walks? When am I supposed to get it all done? Well, as my lovely friend Kristen recently reminded herself, it's time to put on the breaks. I need to stop trying to up with the Joneses (or in this day and age, keeping up with the perpetually sun-drenched and DIYed instagrammers and mommy bloggers) and go at my own pace. The other day I jotted and doodled some quick summer goals, and once I reached the end of the (relatively small) page, I stopped. No pushing for more, no stressing about opportunities lost. And the truth is, if I don't even get to half of the things on my list, I'll be ok. I'm just gonna keep on keepin' on for the next three months and most importantly, enjoy these summer moments - hopefully though, while wearing that panama hat and sipping that cocktail ;)