Coffee and waves

Today I:

• had cereal with rice milk for breakfast
• got coffee at Lulu's again
• don't have any idea what I am having for lunch

Lulu's

This bakery did such a soft opening that I didn't even know it was happening until it was open a couple days... and I live two doors down from it. I think it may have been helped along by the fact that it's a hole in the wall with no street level signage. I only spotted it because of the decor. Can it really get any cuter than this without using a lot of pink? I've been getting my morning coffee there every morning on the way to work because of this decor. The coffee is priced like at a coffeehouse ($1.40 for a small drip coffee) but it seems to actually be that grade, rather than Coffee-Like (A sub-species of coffee that has so little in common with quality, fresh-brewed coffee that it falls into an altogether different classification system. It can be found at convenience stores, gas stations, and many workplaces.)

It is also high in caffeine. How do I know this? Well, my coffee intake has dropped from three or four a day to one, for starters. And my boyfriend/ whatnot/ partner got a coffee there the other morning and was spinning out of control until about 10pm. He's pretty sensitive to caffeine- goes through an entire personality change- so he won't be going back there any time soon. Of course, he says it's because the place is too "bright" and that they looked at him funny (He says this about everyone. Hell, I looked at him funny when we met.) but I think the truth is that that coffee whooped his butt.

Wavy socks

I'm still making 'em. I'm a couple rows from starting the heel, and unless I can think of a way to make it wave symmetrically as it comes onto t he foot (fat chance) that's where the waving is going to stop. Which means if you're going to follow my lead on this wavy sock business and don't want to adapt it yourself you really only need the leg and can use whatever kind of heel or toe you want. You could even use this toe-up, it's just a pattern repeat.

I cast on 60s using a ribbed cast on, which is just a cast on where some of the stitches look knit and some are purls. No big deal. You don't need to do it. I chose 60s because the wavy pattern is 6s wide.

Because this pattern is knit in the round, you will sometimes experience a jog of one purl stitch to the left or right when you make shift at the beginning of a row, i.e. you will only p2 or p4 between k stitches instead of p3. My sock is 28s = 4"/10 cm, and at that gauge it isn't remotely noticeable.

At the right is a chart I whipped up on Illustrator for those of you who are graphics savvy. Need I say more?

For those of you who have not embraced The Chart, I've got some line-by-line instructions for you.

Cast on a multiple of 6s using your preferred method.

1: *k3, p3, repeat from * until end of row

2 & 3: knit or purl as set

4: p1, *k3, p3, repeat from* until last 2s of row, p2

5 & 6: knit or purl as set

7: p2, *k3, p3, repeat from * until last 1s of row, p1

8 & 9: knit or purl as set

10: p3, *ks, p3, repeat from * until last 3s of row, k3

11 & 12: knit or purl as set

13: p2, *k3, p3, repeat from * until last 1s of row, p1

14 & 15: knit or purl as set

16: p1, *k3, p3, repeat from * until last 2s of row, p2

17 & 18: knit or purl as set

Repeat rows 1 through 18 until piece measures desired length.

Last night, I:

• had a mozzarella and pesto panini with a soy latte at S'nB
• drank a beer
• bemoaned my slow writing progress

Massive sock progress

Today I:

• had a bowl of cereal with rice milk for breakfast
• ate a banana for Second Breakfast
• am having a Vending Machine Lunch again (Don't look at me like that. It's cold outside!)
• am rediscovering through email with my sisters that there really are three sides to one story through two people... if you know what I mean. Ah, family!

Well, maybe massive is overstating the case, but I have gotten some knitting done. You can see the wave better now.

As per Lissy's request, I will post the pattern for this sock when I'm done with it. I'm not certain whether I should take the abbreviated chart approach or the detailed by line ad nauseum approach to the instructions. I tend to prefer looking at charts and thinking about it but I know a lot of people are accustomed to reading lines of literal instructions, and both have their pros and cons.

In other knitting news

Last night I had a good Vietnamese dinner with the North End knitters and Knitzalot. I try not to pass up opportunities to prove how much of pig I can be when I eat, and last night was no exception. I made it pretty clear how I feel about squid, I think. I could go for some more right now, even. Too bad I've only got this cup of noodles.

My knit gifts for Sibling #1 and her children are officially lost in the mail. This is due to an address change that I did not know about, which then led to the emails between me, her, and Sibling #7 that I mentioned in my opening list. Maybe I should email Sibling #5 and see what she has to say, since she was there, too. I'm going to make an effort to not to feel that this has anything to do with me living 2000 miles away. Nobody told me anything when I lived in California, either.

Sibling #8 still hasn't gotten back to me about what she wants for her birthday (last week) and I know my inquiry should have reached her in time so I am not going to bother feeling bad about it. If she wants free stuff from me, she knows where to find me. So there!

Last night, I:

• had fried noodles with squid, scallops, and shrimp along with a Vietnamese beer
• dug into The Plague, yay!

Today I:

• had a bowl of cereal for breakfast
• imbibed some seriously strong coffee
• am having a Vending Machine Lunch
• have already been scolded twice for it, so save your breath, I am incorrigible
• am going out to dinner with the North End Knitters and one San Diego knitter

I need to get LEED Accredited. I know this is sudden, but that's how it is. I haven't read all the details of the process yet, but it shouldn't be impossibly difficult.

Keep in mind, I will nevertheless whine a lot, of course.

I've been doing a fair amount of thinking about that whole career path thing lately and I think the LEED tests are the first step. I need to make myself desirable to a green firm based on something more than my past as a portrait artist or my obsessive way of constructing models. True, I used to install passive solar water heating systems for swimming pools, but I just don't think that's enough. Besides, that was over three years ago, and I never did the pump work.

Books

I got a book this weekend that I'm wildly excited about: Bogs, Baths & Basins - The Story of Domestic Sanitation. (I know, I'm really living on the edge here. I knit, I have a cat, I read about toilets. I'm am spiraling into a pit of decadence. Really. Any minute now.) I'm almost as excited about this book as I was about The Comforts of Home: The American House and the Evolution of Modern Convenience.

This proclivity on my part is what drives me to post pictures of dirty old sinks on the internet. So don't be surprised if I show you old toilets or something, too. I'll try to soften the blow by having a half-finished sock on top of it or something, don't you worry.

In the area of fiction, I'm supposed to be reading The Life of Pi. It shouldn't be too hard, since I've been reading everything from contemporary Japanese fiction to lesbian erotica these days, but I just can't seem to get into it. I don't know why. I was rifling through my bookshelf today looking for an adequate substitute (okay, so maybe I was looking for my camera chord) and I found a cop of Camus' The Plague that I had picked up somewhere. Two paragraphs in and I was hooked. Which is completely bizarre. Esp. since last night I started reading A Princess of Mars. What do these books all have in common?

Me, I guess.

Last night, I:

• finished reading Lunch while doing laundry
• had tater tots for dinner
• drank half a bottle of water
• ate half a carton of Ben & Jerry's Dublin Mudslide

Drive-By Posting

Today I:

• didn't have breakfast
• had some super strong coffee
• am having rice and bean burritos for lunch
• can't find my damn camera chord again. Grrr!
• am not feeling particularly chatty because I'm caught up in product research
• swear I will post longer tomorrow

Drinkin' 'n Schemin'

Today I:

• had cereal and soy milk for breakfast. (Yay. Need more variety.)
• am having Amy's Chili & Cornbread for lunch
• wouldn't shake a stick at it
• forgot my camera chord at home again

But all is not lost! I have Illustrator and Photoshop. Given enough time, I could entertain you for weeks with these programs.

I've settled on the layout for the Fair Isle hat for my dad. I did a search for Fair Isle images and found a color scheme (scroll down page to Fair Isle) that was close enough to what I had in mind for me to totally rip it off. (Can't say I'm not honest about this.)

I did not realize until yesterday how nicely a tree motif works up into a hat crown. I saw this hat yesterday and thought, "Well, duh!"

Thank goodness for search engines. I probably wouldn't have thought about that until I was about to knit it. And I'd be tipsy, to boot.

Which brings up...

Knit 'n Sip

I went boozing with the ladies from the North End S'nB meeting last night at an Irish pub. This is our second time, and I think it's going to be a regular, once a month thing. The lighting isn't bad in the bar we chose, tho' it was a bit difficult to get anybody's attention to make orders. I must say, one of the things I like about these sessions is that the fried food counterbalances the vodka tonics and fancy, spiked whipped-cream topped concoctions I tend to drink so that I am miraculously hangover free the next morning.

Or maybe it's that I couldn't manage to order more than two drinks in three hours?

We may never know.

Until possibly next time.

Last night, I:

• had fish and chips with fries and coleslaw
• drank... well, you know what I drank
• finished reading The Lost World, which redeemed itself by showing that Gladys is a total putz

Another pair of socks begun

Today I:

• had a bowl of cereal with soy milk for breakfast
• had half a pesto-mozzarella sub for lunch
• also having veggie meatloaf for lunch (What? I'm hungry!)
• am imbibing copious amounts of coffee

Wavy Socks

Last night at S'nB I began the second pair of socks for my mom. They're going to be a pair of Frankenstein socks - some of this, some of that, stitched together (and I don't mean entrelac!). Wavy scarf from Knitty meets Knitting Vintage Socks, basically.

I got this far before I called it a night.

Gratuitous cat photo

Yesterday, I:

• tabulated how many times macho words are used in The Lost World to describe the main characters (virile-2, virility-1, masterful-3, commanding-2. This book is so gay, it doesn't even know it.)
• had a bowl of mushroom bisque with croutons at the coffeehouse with a soy latte
• ate half a pesto-mozzarella sub and a bag of chips at a lunch lecture on sustainable surface drainage
• thoroughly enjoyed it, I'm just that kind of girl
• liked the sub, too
• fell asleep way too early

Wild Inaccuracies in Classic Fiction

Today I:

• had a bowl of cereal with soy milk for breakfast
• made myself a cafe au lait at work
• am scarfing down a bag of Fritos for Second Breakfast

I was reading The Lost World last night (because I still haven't gotten myself a copy of The Life of Pi for Knit the Classics) when I stumbled across something that gave me pause. I'm not talking about the implicit (and sometimes explicit) racism and ethnocentrism, or how repulsive I find Gladys' mentality. It's difficult to find a pre-Civil Rights novel that, when touching upon other than mainstream WASP races/creeds/ethnicities/lifestyles, doesn't say something to make a liberal-minded 21st Century reader twitch. I expected that. I've read a lot of nineteenth century fiction and have developed coping mechanisms to deal with the things I don't like about them so that I can enjoy the things I do like.

But this. This thing I read last night. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was no botanist. He had redwoods growing along the Amazon. Redwoods. You know, the world's largest trees. The trees that only grow in coastal Northern California.

This reminds me of when I was reading Around the World in 80 Days a couple years ago. The problem - which, I must say, stopped me cold - was that Jules Verne was describing snowfall less than an hour by train outside of San Francisco. An hour by train in the Victorian Era is not very far, maybe 1/3 into the valley. Snow is very uncommon in San Francisco. Sacramento lies smack between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe (where I used to go skiing. There's snow there. they even make it.), and is well over an hour into the valley, but snow doesn't occur much there, either.

Interestingly enough, the longer I am away from California, the more Californian I become, even as I shove someone out of my way on the sidewalk. I can endure a lot of things - snow, brownfields, the word "wicked" - but not inaccuracies about Northern California.

Today I:

• had a bowl of cereal with soy milk for breakfast
• ate a banana for Second Breakfast
• gave my laundry to my boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot so that he can drop it at a laundromat for me
• forgot my lunch at home
• remembered the camera attatchment

Priorities, eh?

Knitting Diet

Resting my wrists is turning out to be virtually impossible, largely because I use them all day at work. I suspect that is why it is taking so long for them to feel normal again. What irks me most, I must say, is that this is not really the Knitting Olympics' fault. I was only feeling a little tightness across the back of my hands in the last couple days of working on Lara. But I am organizing construction documents at work... endless piles of construction documents... about fifty pounds a day of construction documents that I am punching holes in, then systematically sorting into binders in an attempt to reign in the chaos. I admit this was my idea. And it's looking like a good idea. But it's rapid, repetitive wrist and arm motion. All day. And the next. For breaks, I work on the computer.

You see where this is going.

Kitty Teapot

Doesn't everyone need one?

This verges on cute to the point of nausea. I'm not usually a cute advocate - being a petite blond most of my childhood, I fought it ruthlessly - but I do approve of it for medicinal purposes. That my boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot saw this in a free box in the foyer of our building and brought it home - along with two shot glasses with drunken, pink elephants on them - is truly bizarre. That he washed it and seems to like it is even weirder. (This is a guy who thinks khaki pants are effeminate.)

Other finds

Very bright, very busy 100% lambswool sweater vest I scored at Goodwill this weekend for something around $4. I know I've often said that I can't really wear pullover sweaters or vests because of my need to adapt to my microenvironment, but I'm changing my mind. Most of the sweaters I want to make right now are colorwork pullover vests, and I do own a pullover sweater. I like it a lot. But then, it's just a boxy, red tweed stockinette v-neck sweater. Simple.

Attempts at creativity
I bought yarn to make my dad a Fair Isle hat for...um... whatever holiday I finish it around.

This photographs much better than it looks in person. Or maybe it just looks like hell at home because I live in a dungeon. I don't know. I got five colors (dark gray, light gray, dark mossy green, light green, yellow-green), which may have been a mistake. I probably should have bought four or six so that I wouldn't be confused about what color to repeat with the 5th color. The only section I really like so far is V-pattern in yellow-green and dark gray on the bottom. I wanted a tree motif because my dad lives in redwood country and used to be a logger, but now I'm considering just making the entire hat out of small abstract patterns. I'm also not happy with the dark gray and light gray backgrounds abutting each other.

What do you think? I haven't done fair Isle in about five years, so opinions are welcome.

Oh, and I doodled this square bird and some... I don't know what they are. My boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot says they look like rabbits.

Sure.

The Weekend In Brief

Friday, I:

• went out to dinner in Chinatown and had the "meat" and taro with brown rice
• decided I need to rest my wrists for the weekend
• didn't do laundry

Saturday, I:

• had a bagel with cream cheese and a coffee with soy milk for breakfast at the coffeehouse
• scored a wild knit vest at Goodwill
• had something or other for dinner, I'm pretty sure...
• drank three beers with whatever I was eating... probably pizza
• agonized over not knitting
• watched About Schmidt and Elizabethtown
• started reading The Lost Word by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• bought some real Shetland wool for a Fair Isle hat
• didn't do laundry

Sunday, I:

• had a bagel with cream cheese and lox with coffee at the South Street Diner before going to the MFA
• had a bag of chips and a soy latte while planning a Fair Isle pattern
• doodled a square bird
• made corn chowder
• was given a cat teapot and shot glasses with pink elephants that my B/P/W found in a free box
• watched Broken Flowers
• had Chinese food for dinner
• ate half a pint of chocolate-fudge Ben & Jerry's
• didn't do laundry

Today I:

• had a cup of soy yogurt for breakfast
• took pictures of the square bird, the cat teapot and a Fair Isle pattern swatch
• had corn chowder and a banana for lunch
• am drinking too much coffee
• forgot the download attatchment to my camera at home
• have to do laundry

Yo! Mystery Swap Buddy!

I'm participating in the Mystery Book Swap at Knit the Classics. This is my first swap, and must say I've already hit the yarn store to fulfill my receivee's wildest dreams.

(Here's a sneak peak. Are your dreams hazy?)

With that in mind, below is a list of what my wildest dreams do and do not consist of.

Yarn

• I like wool. I even like rough wool. I can take it.
• I like cotton, too.
• Oh, and bamboo is neat, I want to try that some day!
• I bet silk is nice, even in blends.
• I do use Lion Brand Homespun. I'm only a little ashamed. But it's not along term goal or anything.
• I collect sock yarn. Someday I'll use it.
• Eyelash yarn makes me twitch.
• Alpaca is often involved in my more explicit fantasies.
• I have no favorite color, because, technically speaking, black isn't a color, it's all colors mixed together. Or the absence of color. Or whatever. Green is nice.

Knitting Accessories

• I'll only use circulars if I really, really have no choice. I'm a belt knitter.
• I am a needle slut. I buy the cheapest thing there is, and you know what? I'm still happy.
• Stitch markers make me insane. They are the enemy.
• I use a cat-chewed sewing tape measure to measure everything. Sometimes. Paper is usually 8.5 x 11 and if you fold it in half it's almost 4", right?
• How does one get a tam frame out of the tam? I really want to know.

Book Preferences

• I am a mystery hound. I have read everything by Sir Conan Doyle, Sr., Agatha Christie, Martha Grimes, Elizabeth George, Anne Perry, and most the Brother Cadfael and the Inspector Morse series. Oh, yeah, and the Lord Peter Whimsey stuff. Been there.
• I haven't read everything by Ellery Queen, ghost writer or not. But I am willing.
• I like humor.
• I like things set in Britain.
• I don't like mysteries that are too contemporary. For instance, Florida PI investigates murder of socialite that turns into a connection to Cuban gangs selling crack or whatnot: not interested!
• I like the '20's and '30's in particular.
• I like Noir. But I've read everything by Dashiell Hammett. I'm prepared to give Raymond Chandler a spin.
• Used books are okay by me.

Edibles

• I have the same view on cocoa content that I have on alcohol: the higher the proof, the better.
• I am only allergic to cigarette smoke and bees. Be sure not to include them in the package.
• No beef, chicken, or pork, either, but somehow I suspect that won't be a problem.
• I only like coconut in soup. Or under a tree.
• I don't like things too, too sweet, funny enough. (See the first line of this section.)

Randomness

• I like postcards. After all, I have ton of siblings to write.
• I am not affiliated with any religion at the moment, Christian or anything else. Although I have been considering the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Thank you.

Just a book would be nice, too, come to think of it.

Last Minute Gifts

Today I:

• had cereal and white tea with soy milk for breakfast
• am having an instant cup of noodles with Fritos and a banana for lunch
• am swilling the coffee, of course

I got a Yahoo! warning this morning that Sibling #8 is having a birthday next Thursday. Sibling #8, you may or may not recall, is the one who I was going to make the Broad Street Mittens from Knitty for. You know, as a X-mas present. Those mittens I never could figure out the sizing to? Yeah, I suddenly remember those, too.

I never made them, and Sibling #8 didn't get so much as a card from me for X-mas. But it's not my fault. I asked her to measure her hands, even drew her a diagram, and she never did. Maybe I could have made her some fingerless mittens or Voodoos or something, but I had a lot of other relatives to tackle and somehow I forgot to get around to it. Shucks, Sibling #6 didn't get her present until Feb. practically, and Sibling #8 should know it, because she lives with her.

Am I going to throw together a hurry-up present? Finally make those mittens?



Uh, no. Not with how my wrist has been feeling lately. (I've been resorting to crocheting rather than knitting lately for the change in hand motion. See Above) Even if I didn't have to mail it 2000 miles, a week would be pushing it. This is where the comic book addiction comes in handy. Genetics are an interesting thing, and amongst the nine siblings I have there are three lefties and three artists. (This makes sense, since Mom is a leftie and both my parents are artistic.) Sibling #8 is one of those artists. Over the past year I have been running a campaign to corrupt her with Sandman comics and acrylic paint. (Really, somebody's got to do it. It's what I would have wanted at thirteen.) She's taken to it like, well, a skater-goth girl to Neil Gaiman. I didn't even have to give her a hard sell. I'll just call her tonight and ask her which Sandman graphic novel I haven't bought her, and presto! My gift problem will be solved.

Yesterday, I:

• had cereal and white tea with soy milk for breakfast
• had half a tuna salad sub, a bag of pretzels, and a cola at a free lunch lecture
• ate a cheese and veggie panini with coffee at the S'nB meeting
• graciously gave the bag of Fritos and banana I would have had for Second Breakfast to my feverish boyfriend/ partner /whatnot
• drank some kind of weird "vanilla cream" tea

I'm going to be sick

Really. I mean it. The boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot is home sick right now with some kind of body ache-coughy-tired illness, and it's only a matter of time before I go down, too, despite the Airborne he gave me this morning. (Didn't seem to work for him, did it?) True, the word "hypochondriac" could easily be used in a sentence with the man, but even a sinking suspicion that he has skin cancer or lupus will not make him alter his usual workaholic routine one jot. He goes to school seven days a week, works six, and when he's home, he spends half his time working on something related to school. (This kind of obsessive behavior is one of the things we have in common, believe it or not.) Last night he said he was taking a day off to lay in bed. Maybe read.

The boy is definitely sick. So sick, in fact, that he offered of his own free will monetary contribution toward buying a bed. This has been an area of contention for some time. Crazy me, I keep wanting the inconvenience and bulk of a bed. Well, maybe not a bed in the traditional sense, with a mattress and box spring (How would that ever get up my stairs?) but a futon. With a frame, even. And he didn't flinch when I said one of us would probably have to take a day off for it to be delivered. It took all my self-control not to stare open-mouthed at him.

So I am probably going to be dog sick very, very soon. But hopefully not so sick that I can't knit. I admit I'm looking a little forward to getting sick for the potential knitting time. (Obsessive, remember?) If I get sick, and have a day off, I could finish a UFO or even plead that I am so sick that I must cast on something new to ease the pain. My yarn hoarding tendencies are outstripping my rate of production, so I have all of this to choose from:

1 skein "cranberry" Wool-Ease Thick & Quick
1 skein "Blue Surf" Malabrigo
4 skeins black Lamb's Pride Bulky
10 balls "Avocado" KnitPicks Wool of the Andes
12 balls "Chocolate" KnitPicks Wool of the Andes (FLAK sweater)
6 balls "Coal" KnitPicks Wool of the Andes
5 balls "Coal" KnitPicks Merino Style
1 ball black Reynolds Andean Alpaca Regal
7 skeins Classic Elite Inca Alpaca (color 1168)
1 ball black worsted weight Misti Alpaca
2 skeins red Catalina Baby Alpaca (worsted weight)
1 ball "shell" Crystal Palace Waikiki
2 balls "Charcoal heather" Lamb's Pride Super Wash (worsted weight)
1 balls black Lamb's Pride Super Wash (worsted weight)
1 ½ balls black Lion Wool (worsted weight)
1 ball cream Reynolds Andean Alpaca Regal
2 balls blue/brown Jawoll Cotton Jaquard Superwash
1 ball Sockotta (color 13)
1 ball Sockotta (color 5)
1 ball Sockotta (color 6)
1 ball Sockotta (color 16)
2 balls Cascade Yarns Fixation (color 8176)
2 balls Juvel Multi (color 352)
1 ball black Meilenweit
1 ball Fun & Stripes Meilenweit (color 630)
1 ball cream colored Jawoll superwash
1 ball black colored Jawoll superwash
1 ball Crystal Palace kid merino (color 9801)
1 ball Crystal Palace kid merino (lime green color)
2 balls "charcoal" Scheepjes Invicta Extra
2 balls black Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-ply
2 balls Reynolds Odyssey (color 404)
5 balls KnitPicks Essential (color 23695- green)
2 balls KnitPicks Essential (color 23692- wheat)
1 ball KnitPicks Essential (color 236932- navy blue)

Of course, this is just a partial list.

Last night, I:

• drank a cup of hot chocolate with coconut milk
• had mac and cheese with tuna for dinner
• ate a small bag of Fritos
• drank a glass of wine
• started calculating a savings plan for a bed

Good times are here at last!

Today I:

• had cereal and white tea with soy milk for breakfast
• missed Second Breakfast
• am having mashed potatoes with some kind of broccoli/red bean slop for lunch

My nemesis, a.k.a. the person who I work under, is taking a 6 month leave of absence, beginning in March. I didn't realize this until Monday, but come to think of it, she has been unusually happy the last couple of weeks. But then, so have I, because for the past couple of weeks she hasn't been working with me.

It has been confirmed by other people in the team that it's not me, it's her, so if you're thinking I'm a difficult person, there. (sticking out tongue) Apparently, despite my disdain for my job and the tasks it entails, even my general lack of enthusiasm for the structures I work on, I am considered a good intern.

Can you imagine what the other interns are like? I've only met and worked with a few, and all I have to say is: They thought I had more education than them. Actually, they were ahead of me by nearly a year.

Sorry if I'm tooting my own horn, but not being oppressed by confusing, oblique instructions and micromanaged by someone who freaks out at the tiniest thing (and is only entitled to half of my time, but worries about all of it) has left me strangely light headed and - dare I say it? - optimistic. This woman nearly drove me to a nervous breakdown on several occasions and was so picky and displeased with anything I did that I had serious doubts about my abilities, which is why I even had to ask the rest of the team whether I sucked. It's going to take me a while to get my normal design cockiness back full-time, much less in one post.

That said, I think I am going to knit her a going away present.

Last night, I:

• had mashed potatoes and broccoli/red bean slop for dinner with two glasses of wine
• knit very little - my wrist still hurts.
• finished reading "Kitchen" by Banana Yoshimoto

Fug one, fug two

Today I:

• had a bowl of cereal for breakfast with soy milk
• had a banana for Second Breakfast (big surprise there)
• am having Invention Soup* for lunch

Fugly Socks

Pattern: Uh, this is the Handy Book of Knitting Patterns (CO, leg shaping and heel) meets Knitting Vintage Socks (toe), which probably says something deeply psychological about me, but I'll pass on that subject for now. I already came up as Severus Snape on a personality test, so I'm good to go in that area for a while.

Yarn: Lion Brand Magic Stripes "Lumberjack Black"

Size: women's 7 1/2

Gauge: 8s = 1" (or 32s = 10cm, for those of you on metric) on US #1 and #2 needles

I must confess that despite all my whining and kvetching about these socks, they fit like a dream after washing. I've been wearing them for a length of time that I dare not admit publicly. (Longer than the usual store bought sock, but not as long as Lara, which I happen to be wearing right now. Do you have problem with that?) Being a rather rough wool, they do itch a little around my ankles, but not enough to really bother me. They're not cutting off my circulation like a lot of my store-bought socks do.

Fugly Piggy
Why are my KO's so fugly? Am I buying the wrong yarn, looking at the wrong patterns? I can't see where I am obviously going astray, so I'll just say that it must be a knack or something.

I made this camera cozy Saturday morning. I guess It's not so bad, considering I didn't have pattern - or coffee. I started it by knitting a small rectangle for the base, then picking up stitches all around it to work in the round, adding shaping to fit the contours of my camera as I went. I'm very happy with how well all of that fits. But I really need to fix the pig head flap, it bothers me to no end. I suppose I could just go buy the Stitch 'n Bitch book this idea came down to me from, but I'm cheap. (I partially suspect that I am knitting in different direction than that pig, anyway.)

Purge, Purge!

Why do I always live in shithole? I've seen the insides of three apartments in the North End lately, and they're all so much cleaner and nicer than mine. Nobody has to hold their fridge back when they open it so that it won't slide towards them on the sloping floor, or has a 6' clearance on their landing. They can't reach their overhead lights without a chair or stool. For goodness sake, they have a sink in their bathrooms!

I got absolutely no knitting done Sunday. I completely forgot all about it. I was too busy purging my apartment of crap.

What have I chucked? A tea cup set and two glass plates. Three large trash bags of clothing. One trash bag of incomplete (and likely never to be completed) quilting. Uncoated wire hangers. Natty towels. Boxes made of rolled newspaper. A ragdoll. Five books. (Which leaves about 500 behind, but those 500 are necessary. Really.)

I almost threw out my 2000 Sweets catalog. I know throwing it out is probably the right thing to do, I haven't used them in months (except as a step to do leg exercises) but I flipped one open and saw a section of a triple pane glazing unit with wood trim and I just couldn't do it. I am very weak when it comes to graphic diagrams.

Last night, I:

• had a glass of wine
• made and ate Invention Soup* while watching Runaway Jury
• really upset my cat with my cleaning
• found all of the cat toys

*Necessity is the mother of Invention. Invention Soup is what you make when you're too broke or tired to go grocery shopping and just use whatever you've got at hand. In this case, this was seaweed-red bean-broccoli stem-coconut milk-miso-rice soup, sprinkled with nutritional yeast. Mmmm.

Remodeling

Today I:

• had cereal and white tea for breakfast with soy milk
• ate a banana for Second Breakfast
• just finished up some fettucini noodles with soy beans and pesto for lunch
• am drinking a moderate amount of coffee
• am boggled by my blog

So I found a tutorial yesterday through Blogger on how to change the appearance of my blog. All was going well until I realized that somehow, some way, what was previewed was not exactly what was actually happening. For instance, in my preview, I had a nice, tidy border around the body of the text. Do you see a border now? If I go to my template, and hit preview, there's a border, and some padding, too, to keep the text from grinding up against the edges of everything. But not in reality. Urgh. (The text is also a little larger in the preview. Anybody going blind reading this right now?)

But I will not despair. I have plans for the look of this blog, and I will not be thwarted. There will be pictures, yea, pictures in my header and background! They will be mighty good pictures. I will draw these pictures, color them in on Illustrator, and present color scheme options to vote on. But don't expect them next week or anything, because my knitting is backed up and must be attended to. At least it feels that way. I mean, just today I am falling behind by a total of nine hours, just by being at work.

Hmm. Was that an obsessive thing to say?

Last night, I:

• had fettucini with organic pasta sauce and soy beans for dinner
• drank two vodka-soy milks
• watched Ghostbusters
• finished the Fugly Socks and The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Projects, Projects!

Today I:

• had cereal and white tea for breakfast with soy milk
• had a banana for Second Breakfast
• am having veggie potstickers for lunch
• am drinking coffee, of course

My digital camera needs its battery recharged, so there will be no original pictures today. Which is no great loss. There are no new F.O.s, and my W.I.P.s pretty much look they way they did before. (Do you really want to see 3/4 of my second Fugly sock, even after seeing the first one completed? Not exactly fascinating material.) Fortunately, I have lot of W.I.I. (Works In Imagination) to discuss.

Knitting for family
In Mandarin, if you want to ask somebody how many immediate family members they have you need to use a measure word. The measure word for this situation is generally for amounts up to ten. After that, you have to use another measure word. I was the only one in my class at the time this idea was introduced that had this dilemma: my immediate family consists of over eighteen people. The sad thing is, I don't even remember if at the time I was counting step-relatives. Either way, that's a lot of people to knit for come the holidays.

I solve this problem by being biased. The first people to be eliminated are those whose current address is unknown to me, for fairly obvious reasons. Sure, I could ask Mom, but considering that 80% of the time I speak to her she almost immediately loses her cell phone connection I think that may be more trouble than it's worth. The second criteria for elimination from my knitting list is whether or not I can think of a project that's interesting to me. There's a real poverty out there for men's knitting, so I don't knit for my brothers. As far as I know, my brothers aren't even aware that I knit, so no harm done anyway.

Who does that leave?

Mom, Dad, five sisters, nieces and nephews, a grandmother and maybe an aunt or two. (Who are all probably reading this right now, thinking, "She didn't make me anything for X-mas!" Well, hold your horses. There are a lot of holidays.) Let's not forget the boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot, either, someone who is going to be assaulted with numerous knitted goods over the next twelve months, whether he likes it or not. I have big plans for his wardrobe, and his squeamishness at asking for things is not going to get in my way!

That said, here are some lists:

Mom: This is what I am going to make her for next X-mas. It's the perfect sweater for her. It's stylish, elegant, and looks like it will forgive a fluxing waistline. And in KnitPicks Merino Style it'll probably not break the bank, or rather, credit union, either. I'm also going to design some wavy socks for her birthday.

Sibling #1: For next X-mas I am making her this bulky weight yarn cardigan, most likely out of cranberry Wool-Ease Thick & Quick, because I am cheap. I also want her to be able to machine wash it.

Dad: I've been having a perverse notion to make him a sweater. "Perverse" because he's an ex-logger who does building maintenance for a living, so even if he likes the sweater, he'd only be able to wear it holidays, when he's clean, and going to stay clean. To get full mileage out of any sweater I knit for him he'd have to wear it about five times a year for the next twenty years. That's why previously I made him a hat.

Boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot: He's got some gray socks coming really soon, in worsted weight. Then a v-neck cardigan, a hoodie, and an argyle cardigan. Then probably some socks. And gloves. And... well, you get the idea.

Last night, I:

• had a bowl of mushroom bisque with croutons for dinner with coffee
• ate leftover rice and veggies for lunch with a bag of Fritos

Edit: I'm revising the look of my blog, so you may notice it being published over and over and... over. Ignore that. Thanks!

When will that gold medal be up, anyway?

Today I:

• have had coffee. Lots of it.

My First Sweater

Pattern: "Lara" from Debbie Bliss Silk Alpaca

Yarn: Lots of "coal" Wool of the Andes from KnitPicks

Size: 32" (I am a 34", but the pattern runs large)

Gauge: 18s = 4"/10 cm on US #8 dpns and straights.

I'm not certain what to say about this pattern. It was simultaneously difficult and easy. It's easy to work a sweater all in one piece, and it's difficult to understand the very concise explanation of exactly how that is supposed to happen after a couple screwdrivers. There were some definitely weird maneuvers in this pattern that could probably be eliminated without any ill effects. That said, it was an easy knit. I would do it again.

Especially now that I know I can do a simple sweater in nine days. Whoo - ha!

Last night, I:

• had stir-fried broccoli and mushrooms with rice for dinner
• drank a lot of water
• worked a little on the Fugly Socks
• watched The Upside of Anger

No Photos, Just Some Thoughts

Today I:

• had a bowl of cereal and cup of white tea with soy milk for breakfast
• had a banana for Second Breakfast
• scarfed down a bean and rice burrito and a bag of Fritos for lunch
• have had a lot of coffee
• just want to go home and knit

I have a huge line-up of Things To Knit in my head, tangled up with What The Hell Am I Doing With My Life and concerns about the infinite quality of my dirty laundry pile. (That thing will never be cleared away, I know it.)

What the hell am I doing with my life? I'm still interested in architecture. Unfortunately, going to school while working full time doesn't work for me. Neither does office work. If I could be an architect without ever entering a cubicle or cow-towing to a boss, I'd do it in a heartbeat, provided I could finish up my degree as a full-time student.

What are the odds of this? Take a look around. See many architects like that? I mean, plenty of people have had their educations paid for in full by someone or something, either reaping the cost of it afterwards in exorbitant loan payments, or (for the lucky few) not all because Daddy paid for it. (Does that sound bitter? It is.) But the cubicle. The boss. You would think that in architecture - a field traditionally aligned with Fine Arts since the Renaissance - individualism, creativity, and independence would prevail. It's design; it's art. And everybody knows what artists are like.

Well, I wish that was how it really is, or ever really was. I feel like Sherlock Holmes - not in the brilliant, acute sense, but in that I am attempting to invent a career to suit my skills and interests - yet I have neither the funding nor the concrete direction that good ol' Sherlock had. If he wasn't fiction, I'd be pissed.

What are my current goals?

I'm going to finish the Fugly socks (I am already past the heel on the second sock) , then knit the front of my FLAK sweater. Early in March I will begin a pair of socks for my mom and try to weasel back into a fine woodworking workshop. After that, things get hazy. There are a lot of projects to choose from, but I know I am going to try to take more woodworking courses. Fine furnituremakers are closer to artists than architects, at least in the areas that I think count.

Yesterday, I:

• blocked Fulgy Sock #1
• had a coffee and a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast
• ate two bean and rice burritos for lunch
• chopped my hair
• had a tuna fish sandwich, an artichoke, and sauteed mushrooms for dinner
• drank a vodka-soy milk
• watched Four Brothers

Edit: And wouldn't you know it, the moment I posted this, a piece of spam slipped through the word verification. Sorry, folks, but I'm switching to moderated comments.

Day 11

Lara

This photo is really a lie, because I've been wearing this sweater for two days now - I just haven't gotten a picture of myself in it yet. I'll post all the F.O. specs. once I have that picture.

Fug Progress

I completed the first sock yesterday, and as of a couple minutes ago I am about 1/4" from starting the heel flap of the second sock. I'm using Lion Brand Magic Stripe yarn on US #1 dpns, and the sock fits, but it's tight. As in, I fight it on, and then it's okay until I need to get it off again. I hope this sock loosens up either in washing or wear, otherwise I won't be able to wear them on days when I am feeling too fatigued for a fashion fracas.

I'm also having a heel problem, it seems. My sl1, k1, psso has a gap right before it. I don't know what's causing this, but I think on the second sock I am going to use a different decrease stitch and see if that fixes it. If that doesn't work, I don't know what to do. I'm going to wear these socks, so it doesn't really matter now, but I don't want this happening on socks I am giving away.

Looking at these socks objectively, I still think they are ugly. However, they match half the pants I own, so I suspect that they won't exactly be languishing at the bottom of my sock basket.

That is, assuming I can get them on.

Day 7

Due to the incorrigible antics of Jamieson last night, I am not done with Lara yet. At midnight, with six rows of the cuff remaining, I called it a night. He had food, he had water (some of it airborne, via squirt gun) but nothing would calm the raging beast except me going to bed.

Does anyone else have this problem with their cat? That if the lights are on too late at night, they go crazy? I know knocking over glasses of water is pretty much a universal cat trait, but midnight madness? Hmm.

My determination has been revised: I am now determined to finish the sweater tonight, probably at Jeanette's cocktail party. I have the neck seamed, I just need those six rows, some side seaming, and blocking. Maybe I can get it done during lunch...?

Yesterday, I:

• had soy yogurt and coffee for breakfast
• ate a bag of Fritos for Second Breakfast
• had some veggie potstickers for lunch... and some peanut butter cups
• watched State and Main and Reign of Fire
• ate fake cheese on crackers with avocado slices
• drank a beer and half
• had a bowl of minestrone for dinner
• cursed vehemently at you-know-what

Day 6

Right Sleeve Begun

I did about 2 hours last night before I pooped out. I'm determined to have this sweater finished and drying by bedtime tonight so that I can wear it tomorrow. I was going to block it then sew up the seams with black embroidery floss, but since it needs to be ready by 7 am, I'm going to sew it up with yarn and then block it. I hope it comes out alright. I seamed the back of the collar and it looks very awkwardly done to me. Hopefully, that's just me being overcritical of my own work.

Speaking of which...

Sometimes the criticism is justified, and it's entirely the project's fault. Therefore, I present (as a gift from me to all of you Knitathletes who may be feeling a bit overwhelmed and frustrated) this button:

Enjoy!

Day 5

Knitting Olympics

Knit for 2-3 hours while watching Get Over It and Reign of Fire; right sleeve is begun.

A scene from last night

A poll for you. The winner of this poll will be rewarded with the satisfaction of knowing they are in tune with how my cat thinks. I'll close this the day the Knitting Olympics ends.

What is jamieson doing?
	falling off the table in a drunken stupor
	reassessing the standard concept of perceived reality
	attacking my Knitting Olympics project
	attempting a sly transition from the table to my lap
	yoga
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Day 4

Right Side

About 3 hrs.: 16 rows of 168 stitches

Tonight I expect to begin decreasing to begin the right sleeve. In this photo I have the piece folded so that you can better visualize it as a sweater, as opposed to some amorphous thing on my kitchen floor.

Knitting time slowed by watching Danny Deckchair and Harry Potter, again. I really need new movies.

WIPs
I knitted my boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot an intarsia scarf a couple months back, and in an effort to get it over with a soon as possible, I didn't knit it double. He said that was OK, but we're both regretting it now: the scarf curls like crazy, of course, being stockingette, and my B/P/W's alledged tolerance for a curling scarf has revealed itself to be very, very low.

He is also very stubbornly in love with this curling scarf and won't let me frog the whole thing so that I can knit it in the round. Which means I have to knit a backing to it, remove the crochet border, and sew it all together. I haven't been exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of this, since I think it may look like what is commonly termed "ass", but what am I to do?

Mom's back-up sock

I'm currently knitting three sweaters - one of which is Aran - and I have five socks on the needles right now, so of course, I have another project idea. And it's socks.

In a sly attempt to get my mom to wear the socks I knit her for Xmas, I am going to knit her a second pair for her birthday. (A second pair of socks - not a second pair of Bed Socks. I think it will be a while before I get over that k3tog every four rows thing.) Perhaps with some back-up socks she will feel that actually putting the socks on wouldn't be a desecration. I want to use Sockotta yarn again for this project, so the pattern of the sock needs to be fairly simple to deal with the business of this yarn. I haven't decided which one to use yet, and opinions are welcome.

I've looked around for a simple yet interesting sock pattern, but I haven't struck upon anything that really grabs my interest. I dimly recall seeing a pair of socks somewhere like the wavy scarf in Knitty. Maybe this was my imagination, because now I can't find them. Oh well. I will just have to design them myself. Such is life.

The deadline is the end of March, so I should start them promptly after I catch up on Part 5 of the FLAK, after the Knitting Olympics are over.

Yesterday, I:

• had bag of Fritos for Second Breakfast
• had burrito for lunch
• drank a lot of cheap coffee
• was so cranky when I got home that I ordered pizza and had a screwdriver
• decided that all other pedestrians in the North End are my enemy, esp. the ones who block me from passing for whole block and then cut me off when I finally have a chance to pass and say something condescending to me when I sigh in exasperation. (Does that sound bitter? You should have heard me yesterday.)

Plan B

Over the course of the weekend, The Plan has degenerated into Plan A. Perhaps "degenerated" is not quite the right word. "Evolved", maybe? "Transfigured"? Whatever the adjective, it is not working properly.

Is it difficult to fit into my lifestyle?

Not at all, sadly enough.

Is it proving to be ineffective? Is it hindering my quest to achieve Knitting Olympics greatness?

No. On the contrary.

It's working too well - I'm almost done. What to do?

Plan B

• I will work on "Lara" with unrelenting dedication until it is completed. (Probably Friday; I have Chinese class Tuesday night.)
• I will then fill the time until the Knitting Olympics deadline with neglected W.I.P's, no matter how much it may hurt to look at them.

The order I will work on these W.I.P's is as follows:

1. backing for boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot's scarf so that he will stop asking for it;
2. fugly socks (this may take all the KO time left. And the vodka.)
3. Gentleman's Shooting Socks (just in case I do whip through #2)

Day 3

Right Front Begun

About 8 hours

At this point, this yarn is a blend - 99% black wool, 1% white Angora cat - like everything I knit.

Slowed by watching Harry Potter: The Sorcerer's Stone, Wit, Monsoon Wedding, and Sabrina over and over, as well as eating and, of course, popping out midday to take pictures of snow:

Man skiing down Hanover, the main business street of the North End

Salem Street
Paul Revere Park
Jamieson sleeping atop the yarn for my Knitting Olympics project
Okay, I know that's not snow, but he is white.

Yesterday, I:

• had coffee for breakfast
• ate tater tots for lunch
• had tofu ravioli with marinara sauce and an artichoke for diner
• drank half a Belgian beer
• snacked on fake cheese with crackers and avocado
• realized I need a Plan B
  

Day 2

Yesterday I:

• had tea for breakfast, and a soy latte and reg. coffee at the coffeehouse
• had tater tots for lunch with seaweed sprinkles
• had a microwave veggie lasagna for dinner and an artichoke
• drank two screwdrivers and a lot of mineral water

Beginning the back

9-10 hours (lots of interruptions)

Knitting time slowed by gadding about the North End and watching Just Like Heaven, Doom, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades, and Monsoon Wedding - repeatedly.

Feeling very cocky.

Snow day!

Day 1

Left Sleeve

6 hrs @ home

Knitting time slowed by watching The Bicycle Thief, The Seventh Seal, and Just Like Heaven. Photo seriously brightened to show stitch definition.

This evening I:

• had pizza for lunch and dinner
• drank three Screwdrivers
• still could count, luckily
  

The Plan

My laundry is clean, my apartment is almost, and I did a little shopping. Tomorrow I go grocery shopping (after the flame is lit, it can't be helped) and then I'll be ready to rock 'n roll, or rather, er... sit 'n knit.

For sixteen days.

Whoa.

My boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot is just now beginning to realize the gravity of the situation. He is used to me knitting through movies, through him talking... through parties... but I do often take breaks to do other things, like eat, read, etc.

That won't necessarily be the case soon, esp. if I fall behind.

So. The Plan. The Plan is pretty simple. I need to have the knitting portion of the sweater completed by Wednesday evening, Feb. 22nd, so that the following Thursday I can mist and block it for seaming on Friday night and Saturday morning. I have two full weekends that I hope to use for the bulk of the knitting, which will require some rules:

• I will avoid all activities that cannot be integrated with knitting. If it would be weird for me to knit in the restaurant, etc., I'm not going.
• I will be on a severe blog diet, avoiding any temptation to endlessly troll through knitting blogs to see what others are doing. This only counts if I am at home, since it would eat away at knitting time. I can't knit at work so anything goes there.
• When I'm done with the day's knitting I will post on my blog, then do something else. This has to happen before midnight on work nights so that that something else can be sleep.
• I will not knit/crochet on anything else. Sounds rather obvious, but I think I better mark that one out, just in case. You never know.
• I will plan what I am going to wear in advance to save the time I would otherwise spend blundering around, half awake and half blind in the Cave weekday mornings. (I can't stress this enough. I wear mostly black and gray. Ever look for a coordinating outfit in black and gray at 7 am in a dimly lit room?)
• I will try not to constantly whine, or watch the same movie for 16 days straight.
• I will not cook in a manner that requires real attention for more than five minutes straight. Hello, instant potatoes!
• I will eat at least three times a day, no matter what.

Now, to see if this actually happens!

P.S. I'm not going to the Team Boston Kick-Off: not only would that be distracting from actual knitting... but I'm too shy. Go figure.

Wristwarmers

Today I:

• had a cup of soy yogurt and white tea for breakfast
• am incredibly bored

One More Day to Prepare

I do have a Plan, I swear I do. The first phase of it is for me to update this blog and then go home early from work (There is nothing to do! I already Windexed my desktop and moved my monitor!) . What I do from there will be reported on later. Really. I have a Plan.

F.O.s
Last night I finished the Revised Voodoos from yesterday's post.

If you're not interested in how I revised them, now is good time to click on one of my links or something, because I am going to post about it in detail, just in case I need to remember the pattern, or someone is actually interested. Maybe that person in Estonia. (Yep, I notice you. There aren't very many people reading this blog to hide behind!)

Here goes:

Revised Voodoos 2

Yarn: Reynolds Andean Alpaca Regal 3-ply Bulky (90% alpaca/10% wool)

Size: One size

Notions: US #6, #7, & #8 dpns, scissors, darning needle

Gauge: 16s = 10 cm/ 4 inches

• cast on 40 using US #7 dpns
• *k2, p2 repeating from* to end of round
• work 9 rows as set
• switch to US #6 dpns and work 10 rows as set
• switch to US #7 dpns and work 18 rows as set
• k1, place all stitches but the next 12 on a holder (28 on holder)
• k1, p2, *k2, p2* twice, k1, cast on 4
• join to work in round (16 stitches)
• k1, p2, *k2, p2* 3 times, k1
• k1, p2, *k2, p2* twice, k2tog, sl1, k1, psso (14 stitches)
• cast off using a US #8 dpn
• join yarn at base of thumb, leaving a 6" tail (to be used later to tighten any loose stitches around thumb area)
• pick up 6 stitches from base of thumb (where the 4 s were cast on) and the 28 stitches on the holder, working as set (34 stitches)
• k1, p1, k2, p1, *k2, p2* 14 times, k1
• work as set for 6 rounds, cast off all stitches with a US #8 dpn
• weave in ends, use cast on tail on thumb to tighten loose stitches with darning needle

Not rocket science, but now you know how my mind works when I'm knitting on the fly. Fun, eh? Well, maybe that's an overstatement. The important thing is they're done, and I've written down my method so that I can make them again if I want.

Last night, I:

• had a cheese panini, a bag of chips, and coffee for dinner

More wristwarmers for my apartment to eat

Today I:

• had cereal and white tea for breakfast
• had a veggie wrap, a cookie, and a bag of chips with apple juice at a lunch lecture
• nearly fell asleep during said lecture

Voodoos Revised... Again

Since I still cannot find the wristwarmers I made for my niece, I have resorted to making another pair. Not that she is going to get them. I'll eventually find that first pair and mail them to her, but in the meantime it's frickin' cold here. I mean it. This isn't just the Californian in me. Look at my new weather pixie thing. Cold.

I made this wristwarmer last night with (if I do say so myself) very satisfactory results. Aesthetically speaking, it's a bit crude, but it is hitting all the practical considerations on the head. It fits... well, like a glove, and it's fuzzy, comfortable, and tighter than the original Knitty Voodoos. That's because I went down a needle size at the wrist for ten rows (so that I could feel it gripping my wrist, very important for a sore knitter!) and instead of adding stitches for the thumb gusset, I simply backed up the rest of the hand. And it fits. Comfortably. Did I mention they fit?

I hope to complete the second one before the Knitting Olympics begins Friday.

Cripes! Did I say Friday? As in, two days from now?

Maybe I should start formulating my Knitting Olympics Plan!

Last night, I:

• had an artichoke with mayo for dinner. (What can I say? I was knitting.)

Seagulls, anyone?

And Now For Something a Little Different...

Today I:

• had a cup of soy yogurt for breakfast
• drank two cups of black coffee
• am having leftover pasta for lunch with coffee

Do you ever have one of those days at work where all you can think about is knitting? Surreptitiously, you eyeball knitting blogs, searching for more projects to add to an already endless list like a drowning person grasping for a life line, and whenever you are given a task, you think about how much knitting you could get done instead, if only you could knit at work? Or - even better - if they just let you go home to knit?

That day is today for me, yesindeedy. We had a deadline Friday, so there is literally no work. Usually, this annoys me to no end, but after filing and organizing everything I could think of, I called it a day rather than sit at the computer all afternoon, pretending to work. I got permission, but I didn't think there was much risk of being turned down: everyone else was engaged in the important task of eating ice cream.

Crocheting

I offered to help Lissy from the North End S'nB rediscover her crocheting skills a couple weeks ago, and it has since turned into me helping the entire group along. Everyone has prior experience, albeit dormant, so I'm not stressed. The plan is to make flowers from The Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches. No big deal, except...

I can't read crocheting instructions. I always just looked at pictures, or made something up. So I borrowed the book and did my homework last night.

Clockwise from the top left: "Little Flower", "Little Rose", "5-Ring Rose", and my half completed "5-Ring Rose"

I was using some leftover Sockotta yarn to work these up, so I got to remember why mercerized cotton is the usual medium of choice with this kind of crocheting. It's difficult to see what you're doing if the yarn is variegated, and if it's inclined to split, it's difficult to aim properly - which pretty much sums up the physical experience I was having, aside from my hand cramp. I need to pick a better yarn for the actual "lesson." (Let this be a warning to you all!)

The other aspect of my crocheting experience was anger. Who wrote these instructions? What were they thinking? After spending a half hour on the "Little Flower" instructions (decoding the abbreviations, and the abbreviations within the abbreviations) I finally realized my initial take on the flower was correct: It's a damn chain loop with double stitch petals, spaced evenly all around. They just have a inner ring of single stitches so that the petals aren't increases. And they said it in the most obtuse language I have come across lately, and that's saying something, since in a little while I have to start studying for my Chinese class.

But all is not in vain. I have unraveled the secrets of the three flowers into English, and I actually think they make a good progression from basic to complex. We could probably get through at least the "Little Rose" before the meeting is over, maybe even work 2 rings of the "5-Ring Rose" if we're all feeling particularly clever. You never know. We do have coffee.

Last night, I:

• had fish and chips with a ton of coleslaw for dinner
• washed it down with a Heiffeweizen
• cursed The Ultimate Sourcebook (Don't worry; my curses barely rank a hex.)

Blogger must have heard me

No sooner had I published that last post than I tried uploading photos again and... it worked.

Well.

If kvetching on my blog always got me this kind of instantaneous result, you'd be reading some very different material right now, let me tell you. Fortunately, I think this is a one-time thing, a fortuitous circumstance, so I'll spare you my take on foreign policy, religion, and public cell phone usage. Instead, here are photos. Yay!

The Mighty 8"

I wasn't kidding about 10s per minute with cabling. This weekend, it felt like 5s per minute. I am so glad I have reached this point, it's been like passing a gall stone: I just want to get it over with, already. Other projects call. They are queuing up, staring at me through the semi-transparent plastic drawers. Begging me to cast them on. Tonight, or maybe tomorrow, I will give them some relief. I have a couple or a dozen WIAs I need to pay a little attention to in the meantime.

Speaking of attention...

This is what I see when Jameson is not on my lap, my shoulders, or under my chair, whining. Whoever said cats are independent doesn't know my cat.

Recycling yarn

I've had this yarn for six years. Yes, six years. As I told knitcake during a Knit 'n Sip session (somewhat slurrily - I'd already had two vodka tonics and balled three skeins of yarn) this yarn was what got me into knitting. I was a crocheter, even and Afghan crocheter, but my Grandma sent me a care package that included this yarn in it's first sweater incarnation. It fit me; it had wonderful buttons, but the styling was so-so. Dolman sleeves, poofy body. Grandma didn't make it, she was just sending it along, so it ripped it and started making a sweater from a Rowan magazine I saw in the library. (You know, that same library where I learned to knit belt- style? I'll never forget that knitting section.)

I was half-way up the back when I began to fear that my yarn was running out. Two frogged sleeves had gone into making that half-back. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!

So I put it off. And off. Until now.

Saturday I wound it all up on my handy new yarn meter, tied it off, and washed it in Woolite. I was drying it in the shower with a towel on a coat hanger as weight until it became evident that the shower might be needed for something else (like showering) within the next couple days, so I relented and slung it all over a chair.
It measures about 780 yards. Doesn't sound like a whole sweater, does it? Well, I could have sworn it was a whole sweater when I got it, and I haven't lost more than 25g of it over the years.

To use this yarn I'm going to have to learn to knit a raglan from the top down, just in case I run out - a simple raglan. The yarn is heavy worsted, about 16s =10 cm/4 inches. Maybe if I use big needles and have YO increases, it'll just make it. Any thoughts?

Foiled Again

Today I:

• had cereal and white tea for breakfast
• an having rice and bean burritos for lunch
• am frustrated with Blogger

What is with blogger lately? It is one thing that I can't use Flickr at work - I'm getting used to that - but now I can't upload photos into Blogger. WTF?

And I had some wonderful photos, too. I was saving them up all weekend. (Not that I had a choice... Blogger wasn't working at all during the weekend!) My boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot made me a yarn meter, so I finally washed, dried, and skeined some single-ply, light green wool with flecks I'm recycling. I have photos of that.

I also finally hit the 8" mark on my FLAK back. 8" of cables! I'm not sure which excites me more: looking at all that cabling or knowing that I have four days until the Knitting Olympics begins to knit something else.

Last night, I:

• had fettucini with mushrooms, zucchini, onions, and tomato sauce for dinner
• ate a large artichoke with mayo
• drank 1 1/2 beers (forced the other half on B/P/W)
• watched Danny Deckchair
• knit on some socks

Busy, busy!

Today I:

• had cereal and white tea for breakfast
• am eating udon soup and a banana for lunch
• am in the middle of a charette

The shortage of time I have for an entry today has caused me to ponder what I will during the Knitting Olympics, when I will no doubt be not only reluctant to pause for extensive blogging, but unwise to do so.

I have devised A Plan.

This is not a Knitting Olympics Project Plan - I'm going to work on that this weekend - but a Blogging Plan. To save time, but still convey some information, every night before bed I will post a photo (or several: I knit while waiting for photos to upload!) followed by a brief description, in this manner:

Knitting Olympics swatch #1 in "coal" KnitPicks Wool of the Andes

Intended for "Lara" from Debbie Bliss Silk Alpaca

+18s x 24r : 1 hr @ S'nB

Knitting speed slowed by showing off Baby Bobbi Bear, drinking coffee and general gabbiness. Hastily blocked this morning.

Last night, I;

• ate a bag of Fritos
• had pasta wheels with pesto and seitan for dinner
• worked on my FLAK sweater and the Embossed Leaves socks

More Wacky Antics

Today I:

• had a bowl of cereal and a cup of white tea with soy milk for breakfast
• am having veggie meatloaf for lunch
• am still on a black coffee kick

Bear Sweater

I finished the Baby Bobbi Bear sweater last night after work.

Originally, I was going drop stitches along the edges, re-knit them, and trim and weave in the ends of every row... but I didn't do that. To my work-addled brain, that seemed like too much work. So I chopped an inch off either end and wove the ends in (photo to right). That made this tidy edge you see on the left. Then I picked up the stitches along the edge and knitted the button flap. I crocheted a loop for the button.

Perhaps this wasn't the most logical way to go (I don't even know what to call it) but it was fairly effective. I like the points on the sweater, it gives it visual interest. I'm not entirely happy with the button placement; I imagined it centered, but with the sweater style I ended with it wasn't possible without the button practically hanging off the edge, and I didn't want to just have a frog or toggle. Live and learn.

I have yet to wash Bobbi and his sweater, but I'm hoping the sweater will shape up a little. The bear nose is a catastrophe, but I'm going to let it go. If I ever make this bear again, I'm going to get a tiny embroidery hoop and use it on the head. Luckily, I will never have to see this bear again after Friday, when I am pawning it off on a co-worker who has a new baby. Not that I'm traumatized or anything, it's just that if I have this fella sit on my bookshelf, right where I can see it every day, I would feel compelled to fix it.

What a mess that would be!

Last night, I:

• had miso soup and vegan cheese and crackers for dinner
• watched Best of Show
• finally chose my Knitting Olympics project