what howe girls do

so howe girls do stuff is supposed to be about what we do. which can be anything. so one would assume that if there are no posts, howe girls do jack shit. well this simply just isn't true. howe girls do procrastination very, very well. so, without further ado, i present to you what this howe girl did, in picture form...

baked cookies

knit a wonky glove...

...and took it apart

hung out in brooklyn

spent a day hiking

hung w einstein

pissed off a cat enough to do this

was a baller and got flowers

made hipster eggs

saw jack white and his creepy band of zombie ladies

watched the nats win

made a new best friend

stalked adorable children's authors

was jealous of children screaming for coffee in italian

met a baby 

turned my friend into a model

surprised momma w balloons

made an american flag cake...

...for captain america

well there you have it. a snap shot of what this howe girl has been doing. next time i will hopefully have an entire blog post w words instead of just pictures. but lets face it. why do today what i can do tomorrow???

I LOVE YARN!

Today is I love yarn day.  To celebrate...I'm posting a knitting project and sharing a Yarn book with you.

First, the yarn book.  Extra Yarn is a children's book written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen.  In the book, Anabelle finds a box of yarn and starts knitting.  She realizes, after knitting a sweater, that she has extra yarn so she knits a sweater for her dog.  Extra yarn....sweaters for the neighbors, then the houses, the trees, the trucks, etc.  All is well until an evil archduke wants to take her box of magical yarn.  I love this book so much, we put some characters from the book in my classroom this year.  Marmie loves this book so much, she said she is giving a copy to everyone she knits something for.  (Lucky folks!)

And now, my knitting.  There has been a serious hiatus from Howe Girls Do Stuff but we have been doing lots.  Marmie and JJ ran in a Dirty Girl run a few weeks back.  JJ is working on a big Christmas order for a friend...lots of scarves and mitts, and I've been working on my project, the Love Robot. 

The beginning, using yarn I inherited when a friend's
mother passed away a few years ago

Many moons ago my friend Brandon asked me to knit him a robot and I decided back in March to get started.  Then, Brandon and his fiance announced they had set a date so my toy robot was about to become the BEST WEDDING GIFT ever.  The wedding was this past week, on Thursday (10-11-12) and in San Diego, not too far from me.  However, with a crazy back to school and travel schedule I was way behind on the little Love Robot.  So, enter two evenings of knitting until 2 am and voila!  A robot was created.  I had a very tiring week but it was so worth it! 

I delivered him to their wedding and I think they like him.  It also helped that the best man wrote a children's book for them in which the two main characters (the best man and the groom) are a monkey-robot and a clown. Best man then asked why I hadn't knitted him a robot...oops!  Now...to find a pattern for a monkey-robot...this should be a good one!

Deflated, waiting for love

Trying out his new-found Love on NJP

Ready to love Brandon and Elisabeth!

i got 99 problems...but my sis aint one

this is my favorite time of year, and not because i sweat just looking out the window, and nothing is hotter than a sweaty chick in sweatpants. oh no. summer is when meg and i do our annual sisters weekend in NYC!! this year started a bit early after i ventured up to boston super duper early thursday am. some might think i did this just to see meg's smiley little face. some would be correct. but i had an ulterior motive. located in the lovely neighborhood of cambridge, ma is an adorable little crafting store, Gather Here. the first and third thursday of every month, Gather Here invites crafters to bring their piece work (thanks mom) and a pint to the shop to hang out and craft for an evening of Pints and Purls!

i am obviously easily entertained

after the obligatory visit to Salmagundi for a movie montage, we were off to gather here! meg brought her robot, which she has been working on for 3 years now, and i brought an idea. at the moment i'm still working on the million cowl and glove order, but decided i would prefer something quick and easy. as luck would have it, a dear friend of mine had requested a personalized beer coozie. game set. when i left DC i knew she asked for blue and yellow, but for some reason only brought blue with me. thank god we were in a knitting store. so while i sat and tried to remember how much to cast on, meg set off to find me some yellow yarn. when she returned with her spoils, i helplessly pointed out that the hank was beautiful, but needed to be wound. now meg and i have watched mom do this for years. we have watched our nephews wind balls of yarn. we have watched our mom wind balls of yarn after her sixth martini. and yet we had no idea what to do. however, once we found someone to show us, it was easy as pie. (is that a thing? i'm confused).

oh hey, i have a beer.

after way too many drinks that night, we woke up and hopped on a bus bound for new york. i would like to stop for just one second to mention how amazing of a sister i am. my normal sisters weekend trip, from dc to nyc, takes around three and a half hours each way. this year, i travelled eight hours to boston, driving right past nyc while crying a little bit inside. then i turned around and took another four hour trip JUST SO I COULD RIDE THE BUS WITH MY SISTER. you would think she would appreciate that shit. nope. she took the window seat. she fell asleep on me. she got to ignore the creepy couple sitting across from me making out the entire drive. silver lining? she turns 50 first.
back to new york. every year we have the same basic plan: go to the met to see the fashion exhibit and get dinner at philip marie. those are the only two requirements, and they can happen whenever. and since we had soooo much more time than our usual saturday/sunday trip, we decided to take advantage of it.

met

we woke up bright and early saturday morning and headed over to see Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations at the met. now i must say, this was not my favorite exhibit. the met has put on display some of these two women's most beautiful pieces, and yet the entire time i kept wondering where inspiration stops and straight up copying begins? maybe i'm the only one. i also think that coming off the heels of last year's Savage Beauty exhibit, which featured the amazing alexander mcqueen and was impossible to walk through due to the crowds, they were looking for something a bit more low key.
to round out our NYC experience, we brunched, went to a comedy club and i laughed while meg got hit on by a NYU student who could have been her son. (oh snap!)
all in all, it was a great sister weekend, one that will be replicated this weekend when i head to boston as her plus one at the wedding of a very dear friend who will hopefully have a top shelf open bar.
below are some random pics from the weekend. meg accepts all the blame for their crappy-ness as i lost my camera for the millionth time on my last visit to LA. i will, however, accept any accolades they may deserve. 

this is the bruise meg gave me. but she wouldn't hit me if she didn't love me. right?!?!

i wanted to swim.
















there's some scene in when harry met sally that this arc thing is in. i'm not really sure as i think meg ryan is stupid. but meg howe loves it, so i took a pic.

 on our way to dinner.

this was in boston. i figure nikolas wanted a buddy shot at 1am with a drunk chick. who doesn't?!

this was the cause of the drunken buddy shot. woo wha? from Trina's Star Lite Lounge

i need to stop w the drunken buddy shots. at least meg was a willing participant.

Get Yer Knit On!

I have two knitting events for all you knitters out there.  One is here in Cambridge, MA and the other is back in LA.

Pints N Purls
Pints N Purls happens every other Thursday at gather here on Broadway St. in Cambridge, MA.  What is it exactly?  Well, you bring your knitting, a beer, and you join other folks in drinkin' and knittin'.  Two Howe girls will be making a guest appearance there next Thursday.


Stitch N Pitch
This Friday, June 13, the Dodgers are hosting a Stitch N Pitch Night. (Read more here as well.)  Basically, you buy a baseball ticket to the Dodgers/Padres game this Friday, bring yarn and knitting needles, try and make something.  You don't have to know how to knit, you just have to look like you are trying.  If you aren't sure what to make, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier have been on the DL and could use something cozy to make them feel better. There is word they may be back tomorrow to play but they could still use some stitched up love!

Summer Knitting?

Mouse, ready to pour Tequila

I just posted my Summer Reading list on my other blog, Alice, Ever After. However, reading is not the only list to be conquered this summer. I haven't knit anything since I knit a cute little pink elephant who was appropriately named Mouse and is manning the bar scene in Boston.  That little lady was finished back in February so it is time to get to stitchin.  So, this summer I am creating a Summer Knitting list!  I have a couple of knitting projects that I am going to try to tackle.    Bold?  Ambitious?  Yep!  But I'm sticking with the mantra of the Little Engine Who Could...I think I can, I think I can, I think can...


So what's on the list?  Two toys.  I know it's short but it takes me a hella long time to do these projects.  The first is a Shiny Robot for a good friend of mine who has designed tattoos, sent comic books, and more for me...never asking for anything other than a knitted robot.  He is getting married this fall so I figure I need to mush on this little guy.

The beginnings of a Shiny Robot

After I finish the robot I am going to start a toy dog for my little brother, Zach.  Zach's dog Buddy (yes, he has his own FB page) is a lovely mix of big dogs, with a whole lotta dog soul.  I like to call him Doobie because...well, he is one chill dog.  Zach asked if I could make Buddy a buddy so I said sure!  Zach helped me pick out a pattern by Alan Dart and we will see what I can do!

Zach and Buddy

Buddy has traveled across the country many times!

Do you have a Summer Knitting list? 

where my needles at?!

so i know i briefly touched on the topic before, but i recently moved out of my apartment. and when i moved, i made the mistake of taking all of my knitting "stuff" (for lack of a better word) to my parents house. for some reason i thought i would be able to fight the urge to knit. but just like an addict going through withdrawal, i was itching to for just one mitt.
and with all this time on my hands, it was a perfect time to start working on my very first knitting order. so after i received my yarn from Knit Picks, i was pretty excited to get started. until i realized all of my needles were at ma and pa's. f*ck. meg's suggestion, as usual, was to throw money at the problem and just go buy more (HA). my thought was to order a new pair online with my gift certificate. moms suggestion was to overnight the needles i already owned. i decided to go with moms advice.
so i finally got the needles yesterday and set to work on the first scarf. after a couple of hours, i had a small panic attack. the scarf is supposed to be 15" wide, and as i was getting to the end of the yarn, i realized i didnt order enough. f*ck. i was super impressed by my inability to plan ahead or add up yardage. i was about to throw the stupid thing of the floor and give up when i realized i had an entire box of yarn in my room and i should really just take a quick peak before i lost all hope. and alas, i dont suck. and i can do addition. i just cant count balls of yarn. huzzah!
so at this point, im about halfway through scarf numero uno and thinking it's a good thing that i started this is june. it's taking a bit longer than expected, but i guess i will just have to get back in the habit of bringing my knitting everywhere. so take that as a warning, friends, and get your old lady jokes ready.

and in true jessie form, i totes dropped a stitch while taking the following pic. huzzah?

Happy KIP!!

i know meg pointed out that tomorrow is international yarn bombing day, which is awesome. i just wanted to point out that tomorrow also starts KIP- Knit In Public! it runs from June 9 - June 17 so get your needles ready!!

and what better way to start the holiday than to get a big ol' box of yarn! it's my first ever order from Knit Picks and i couldn't be more excited!!

Happy Friday and get out there and knit!