KnitHappy

I am a dry-witted pastry chef with a variety of seemingly unrelated interests:

*Knitting (socks, hats, baby blankets, and most recently gloves) I love wooden needles and can't stand metal needles. Typically stick to natural fibers in any color--I especially like jewel-toned greens, purples, reds, and natural "spa" colors like aqua, mint, cream. I get a lot of my patterns from Knitty.com and Interweave, and love Stitch-n-Bitch and the Yarn Harlot.

*An inexplicable addiction to reality tv, especially if it involves modeling, bad parenting, or chefs competing to win. I watch Amazing Race, America's Next Top Model, Top Chef, Project Runway, Last Comic Standing, Beauty & The Geek, World Series of Pop Culture. As for regular television, I love Arrested Development (r.i.p.), The Office, Gilmore Girls (again, r.i.p.), Lost, Sex and the City, Deadwood, and just about anything on HGTV or the Food Network.

*Watching movies (60 at the cinema in 2006) Satire, romantic comedy, cheesy action flicks.

*Reading-I am usually reading 2 or 3 things at a time: biographies, dog memoirs, fiction, knitting and classy cookbooks are favorites. For example: Yarn Harlot, Interweave, Barefoot Contessa, Jon Katz' dog books, Ann Patchet, Jodi Picoult, Jhumpa Lahiri.

*Collecting whimsical stationary and cards. I especially enjoy things with a vintage flavor or with funny animals or monograms.

*Anything to do with my dog Big Martha (Dogue De Bordeaux) and her 2 cats. BM loves to chew on big rawhides and balls. She does not wear clothing!

*Makeup & Bath Products--I adore just about anything from The Body Shop, Origins, the Burt's Bees collection, and Sephora. Lip gloss, bubble bath, fun eyeshadow, scented soap, candles, foot stuff, I love it all! Nothing tested on animals.

*Gardening--I've succeeded in growing rather than killing most of my garden this season. I enjoy fun gardening gloves and accessories in bright colors.

*Then of course there's gourmet food, candy, coffee, the 3 food groups... I'll eat just about anything but especially enjoy unusual chocolates, fruit preserves, sauces to put on ice cream, chewy candy, and flavored coffees.

I look forward to doing some serious swapping in the future!