Waterfall Socks

Since I luuurrve sock yarn, I occasionally make socks:

These are made from Wendy Johnson's "Waterfall Socks" pattern.  I think it was published in her book Wendy Knits but is available at her site for free.

The yarn is Mini Mochi from Crystal Palace Yarns.  The striping pattern makes "fraternal twins", completely unpredictable, and I love it.

The pattern calls for a Turkish cast-on for the toe and a short row heel (after finishing the second sock I realized that I had done the toe increases slightly different on each sock - one is pointer than the other, oh well).  The eyelet pattern is pretty easy to memorize - if you can count to four; I pretty well borked up the first sock because I forgot how to count to four.

Of course, I had to put them on right away, I made them for me! (My feet get cold at night while I'm asleep - not sure why, since they're under the covers, but I have cold feet.)

Pretty!!

I already casted-on for my next project - Melissa Wehrle's "Origami Shrug" from the Brave New Knits book.  408 stitches in the round to cast-on - oy!

Orchid Thief Shawlette (and other knitted things)

Knitting has occurred in copious amounts at my house.  Knitted gifts galore.

First, there's the shawlette for my boss.

The Orchid Thief Shawlette by Ysolda Teague from Brave New Knits, knit from Malabrigo Sock in Primavera.  The boss has an enormous garden and is a knitter, too, so I think she'll love this.

Then a hat for one of the secretaries - she helps me out a TON throughout the year.

A water bottle/coffee mug cozy for my Secret Santa at the office.

And last, but certainly not least because it was the first one done but last given, is my little niece Alexis's Christmas Stocking.  All three girls' stockings were laid out by the fireplace on Christmas Eve and they looked so sweet together, just like ours did when I was little (it's the same pattern my Grandma used).

I'm still working on a sweater (for me), the DNA scarf (for whoever - maybe me), a pair of socks (half-done, for me), and a summer blouse (also, for me).  I need to knit faster!

What I do when I'm not reading (or working)...

Reading has been hard as of late - whenever I sit down to read I fall alseep in about 2 seconds (the last several nights I've fallen asleep with the bedside lamp on, Pandora streaming through the Blu-Ray, my nook on my face, and the cats snuggled under my arm only to wake up when my alarm goes off and wonder what idiot left the TV and light on; I blame the cats for activating the "sleep" neuro-chemicals).  I do have two reviews to finish writing but I've been so busy with work and knitting I haven't had much time to write.

Speaking of knitting....

I finished the shawlette for my boss (shhhh.... she doesn't know that it's for her).  I have to get it blocked out - challenging because this is a curved piece so I don't have a straight edge to pin out first.  Edyie gave me some pointers so we'll see how it goes.

While I was in the yarn shop I was captured by yarn fumes.

Cashmere yarn fumes - they held me ransom until my debit card freed me.  Araucania Trauco Cashmere in a beautiful berry colorway.  It was on sale, not quite half off, and I can't wait to see what I can make from it.

Then I bought my Christmas present to myself because it also went on sale.  I've been salivating over D-SLR cameras for quite some time.  My little Canon point-and-shoot is nice to just take quick pictures/videos but it never quite satisfied for taking really nice shots; nothing came out looking quite like how I saw it.  I learned to take pictures using my Dad's 35mm camera with it's lenses and manual aperture/exposure settings so I wanted a more "professional" level camera.  I stopped in at Best Buy to see what early holiday deals they had and the Canon EOS Rebel XS/1000D I'd been looking at was ON SALE!  Merry Christmas!  I already tried it out on the shawlette and cashmere yarn, but I got the cats into the act....

and they weren't quite up to cooperating, choosing instead to come and "love" the camera lens (I felt like I was on Wild Kingdom with the animals ganging up on me).  They kept licking their noses when I clicked the shutter:

Dante finally let me take a nice profile picture of him. 

Isn't it nice?  No "lazar kitteh eyz" in sight.  All the pictures are wonderful and I just need to learn about all the bells and whistles on my new baby (I already figured out that if I fiddle with the "White Balance" I can take pictures that are blue - wicked!).  I plan on taking TONS of holiday pictures (this is also part of the plan, if I take the pictures then I don't have to be in any of them, hah).

A long-overdue update from the "sticks and string" front

 I've been so busy I completely forgot to post about my Icarus shawl - I finished it in July!

First, it got a sink bath in Eucalan.  You would not believe how long it took to do the bind-off, it just kept going and going, the neverending shawl edge.

Then rolled in a towel to get as much water out as possible.

Here it is, pinned out on the floor.  I did some local investigating and no one seemed to have knitter's blocks or interlocking foam blocks that didn't smell like a gasoline factory.  I made do with vacuuming the carpet extra-good and scowling at the cats since they were more-than-a-little interested in what I was doing with thread, pins, and that big blue thing I kept yelling at them for standing on.  Chaucer insisted on being in the picture so you can see how big Icarus is compared to little, old him.

I think I used about 120 T-pins between the top border and the edge points (I don't have blocking wires, either, *le sigh* ).

Icarus Shawl by Miriam Felton, Interweave Knits Summer 2006 and/or The Best of Interweave Knits: Our Favorite Designs from the First Ten Years.  Knit in Classic Elite Yarns Silky Alpaca Lace, 2.33 skeins.

I also bought a pretty shawl pin of copper to wear with Icarus at the AXS Kuebler Banquet in August (it was pretty, sorry no pictures to show, and Icarus unblocked itself in my luggage on the way back to Iowa; it's currently making-do as a pretty scarf until I get a chance to re-block)

 My next project was started at AXS Conclave in order to teach a fellow brother how to knit cables.  The pattern is June Oshiro's DNA Scarf (but only the DNA bit, I didn't want to knit the border cables).  I bought some beautiful Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Sotobosque to use.

 As you can see, I had a little trouble getting the yarn to wind up properly and spent several hours in ball-winder and swift limbo untangling all the crazy knots before I could get it into two pretty yarn cakes.

It's coming along nicely, albeit a bit slow because you cable on every right-side row at least twice in a very long repeat.  It's not very memorizable.

I also cast-on for Wendy Johnson's Waterfall Socks to use my gorgeous Mini Mochi yarn from Crystal Palace.  I think I borked the eyelet pattern already so I may need to rip back a few rows.  Boo.

And then I bought more yarn.  Why?  Ummm, I was in the yarn shop?

Three very pretty skeins of Manos del Uruguay, mint, berry, and pink.  I think they'll make a nice scarf together.

I am sure this is why I buy yarn all the time, it's for the colors.

Except, in this case, it was the soft luxury.  Plymouth Yarn Paca Tweed.  Alpaca.  I have no idea what I want to do with this yarn, I just had to have it.

I also recently (as in last night at dinner) casted on a new project (no pics yet) for my niece Alexis - her Christmas stocking.  I've become a better knitter in the several years since I made her older sisters' stockings so I should be able to get this done by Christmas.  I'm more experienced in intarsia colorwork and I can knit with both hands now so this should go faster (I refuse to give it to her for her second Christmas).

Knitting rules!  Knit on, knit on.

I've been KIP-ing all week

On Sunday I KIP'd at church for Alexis's baptism:

Hi, baby!

And then I KIP'd at my parents' house for a bit:

The twins were completely uninterested in my knitting - they were busy sending Cookie Monster into outer space.

 The rest of the week I KIP'd on the bus - I got plenty of knitting time, too, thanks to the weather.  On Tuesday the bus got stuck in traffic (approximately a 45 minute delay) caused by flash flooding:

The driver of the small blue car (near the center - in the middle of the puddle) tried to do exactly what you're not supposed to do when there's water over the roadway...he or she got the car stalled when they tried to drive through the water.  So not only did the police have to re-route traffic through the shallow part of the flooding they also had to have the blue car towed away.


Then we had a few road obstacles on Thursday:

That's a very large tree blocking 23rd Ave; the bus had to turn around and go back.  We had a ton of downed trees due to straight-line winds estimated at 70-80 mph - yikes!
I must have looked like the most unperturbed person in the world, knitting away on my shawl while everyone freaked out.  However, a few words of wisdom: never interrupt a knitter when she's counting.



The net result of WWKIP is that I'm started on the third repeat of the first chart:

The shawl will get much wider faster than it will length-wise so I switched from a 24" circular to a 40" circular.  This is the easy part of the "Icarus" pattern, very easily memorized.  The "feather" portion on charts 2, 3, and 4 will be far more complicated and with longer rows.

Chaucer is doing a very good job of "helping" me take a picture!






I have a large backlog of book reviews to finish - they might have backdates (sorry) since I'm that far behind.  But I am still reading - I didn't just KIP all week.

Don't forget - KIP!

Tomorrow, June 12, is the kick-off for World Wide Knit In Public Day!

The fun lasts all week so don't forget to take your knitting out into the wide, wide world!  Visit the WWKIP site to find a KIP event near you or to promote your own.

I don't have a particular event in mind for me - I will be out and about in the Iowa City/Coralville area.  Since my handbag doubles as my knitting bag you'll find me with my knitting just about everywhere (whether I'll have the sheddy blue sweater or something new I don't know yet).

The socks are knitted!

In an effort to reduce the number of started projects in my Ravelry queue I'm trying really, really hard to finish what I've got started. 

Voila!

Ann Budd's "Punctuated Rib Socks" from the pattern book Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn edited by Carol Sulcoski and knitted using Mountain Colors Bearfoot in colorway Red Willow.

And, yes, they are toe-up socks.

Sorry for the goofy angles.  (Do you know how hard it is to take pictures upside down?  I had to model the socks on my feet to get the pictures.  Head. Rush.)

Now to finish another project...how about the V-neck sweater?

I have been knitting!

Which explains why I'm so far behind in posting!  And reading!

First of all, I have a new baby niece - Alexis - and she deserves a pretty cardie.

This is the Classic Yoked Cardigan by Erika Knight.  I had to use Ella Rae Lace Merino (100% extra fine merino) yarn to get the right gauge (i.e. not very big).  It's a lovely blue-green-lavender-off-white that creates a pretty variegated fabric when knitted in stockinette on US2 and US3 needles.  The only major drawback is that there's no dye lot on the skeins - it's a hand-dyed yarn so no two skeins come out looking exactly alike.  Even though I color matched as close as I possibly could the second skein had a little more green as an overall color than the first skein which was a little more blue.  So the right sleeve is slightly different than the rest of the sweater...boo...but Alexis is a baby and she'll look cute anyway.

Alexis's older sisters turned four in March...and they needed a pretty knitted garment apiece.  Ana and Livy are getting to be big girls so I made them each a ribbon-trimmed shrug in a very drapey bamboo yarn from Sirdar (Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo, 80% bamboo/20%wool).  The bamboo lends this yarn a lovely shimmer and the pattern from Claire Montgomery's Easy Kids Knits is very easy to knit.  It only took about a week each to get the shrugs done before the girls' birthday party.  The hardest part was getting the ribbon to lay flat while threading it through the eyelets!

The shrugs do fit - Ana modelled one for Grandpa so he could see what it was but she didn't wear it long enough for me to grab the camera (I was burping Alexis so I didn't have a free hand).

Now that I have the girls' knitting finished I can work on other things...like socks!!  I have a whole drawer of sock yarn....and I have a sweater to finish for me...and a shrug....

Did I mention that I'm afflicted with knitting start-itis?

I gotta crow!

Because my sweater fits! Or it will when I have it all seamed up and the buttons sewn on. It's my first "real" adult sweater and I made it for myself. It's sooo pretty!

Sorry for the ugly "look I'm wearing it" shot. It's what happens when you're the only one in your house who can use a camera.

Or isn't bored witless. This whole knitting thing is not conducive to getting attention if you're a cat. Now that my sweater is almost finished perhaps I can spend more time reading because then I can pet the kitties at the same time. [ha]

I finished my first knitting commission!

This week I finished two knitting projects, one of them being my first paid commission ever. [Technically, I was asked to make a neck warmer for someone's boyfriend last October and I don't like that boyfriend ... so I'm procrastinating.]

My paid commission came from one of our secretaries (I like her quite a bit and she helps me out a lot); she wanted me to knit a poncho for her 1-year-old granddaughter, who is a sweetie and rivals Cindy Loo Who in cuteness. I'm not a poncho fan, mostly because it's like a shawl you have to pull over your head and at that point you should just wear a sweater, but poncho it certainly would be if I'm going to be paid for making it. I've posted previously on the travails of making this poncho (Knots, Knots, Knots and Frogs, Frogs, Frogs) but I had it finished by mid-July; it actually took me forever just to scrape together enough time to get the steam iron out and steam block it before giving the poncho to Martha.

The pattern is Lilliana's Organic Cotton Poncho from Barbara Albright's lovely book The Natural Knitter and it knitted up very nicely in Cascade Sierra. I have been told I didn't ask for enough when I was paid for knitting the poncho. I only asked for an amount large enough to cover the cost of the four skeins of yarn used plus a little bit for me in commission; I don't think my commission for knitting something for a friend should be very large and I do like to knit as my hobby not my profession.

My next finished item is the little cardie I made for my friend Rebekah's not-quite-arrived-yet little girl (little one is giving mom some fits right now). This is the first actual sweater I've ever made with set-in sleeves, not raglan ones, so I was a shade on the nervous side. It turned out just right.

This is made from Dale of Norway's Stork yarn (which I hear is discontinued, boo) in a pretty turquiose with white bunny buttons. The pattern uses most of the Classic Yoked Cardigan from Erika Knight's Knitting for Two but I changed a few of the instructions to make a bit more sense.

Chaucer decided that a picture of a cute baby sweater was ever-so-much-more-cute with a super cute kitty in the shot, too. He was being such a pill that evening/morning (it was about 3am when I finished the cardie's seams and took the pictures; the baby shower for Rebekah was only 8 hours later).

Since I was in a yarny mood last weekend, I dropped by the LYS on Saturday to use my birthday coupon and got 5 skeins of forest green Cascade 220 The Heathers yarn to make myself a cardie (16-Button Cardie pattern from Interweave Simple Style) and some Mini-Mochi sock yarn before Rebekah's shower; it was a good "acquire stuff" day in general because the mail carrier brought me the copy of Between the Assassinations I won from a Simon and Schuster Twitter contest. I also figured out why Flickr and Ravelry were having a massive disagreement so on Sunday I updated my Ravelry page with photos of my yarn and projects before winding up the new yarn and heading to the movies. It looks very pretty now (I'm "balletbookworm" on Ravelry, too).

Current books-in-progress: Foucault's Pendulum, The Pickup (for LbW August) and Frankenstein (for LbW September), The Embers, and Under This Unbroken Sky (for First Look) PLUS my turn came up to read the ARC for Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry so that's moved into the #1 slot for reading

Current knitted item: new forest green heathered Cascade 220 to make up into a cardie for myself.....mmmmmmmm

Current movie obsession: Too many!!! This is the first evening (Tuesday) in weeks that I'll not be at work so what should I watch first? Videodrome, Sleuth, Trainspotting, Disney's Robin Hood....oy

Current iTunes loop: Lady Gaga's Fame (heard enough tracks off it to go out and buy the album)

Knots, knots, knots

Bollocks.

My new cotton yarn is trying to wind itself into knots while I knit. It's been giving me fits since I got home with it. The blue skein wouldn't wind itself up nicely - got all twisted on the swift and then the knob on the ball winder kept popping off. The white skein wound up beautifully. Joy. Then I casted on with the wrong color (white). Sigh. So I had to pull it off the needle and cast on with the other color (blue). Then Dante tried to make off with the skein of blue yarn - while I had it wrapped around my hand trying to get the 1x1 rib started.

Dante's hiding behind the bed now. He got yelled at.

And now that I've got about an inch knitted the yarn is trying to twist into snarls/knots. Sigh. At least this garment isn't for me - it's a poncho for one of my UIHC co-worker's granddaughter (she's only 18 months, the baby, that is). I finally got the handles crocheted onto the linen evening bag I was working on; the problem now is the dratted thing keeps gaping open so I'll need to make/purchase/sew on a fastener of some sort.

I forgot this part recently:
Current book-in-progress: Emma, Wives and Daughters, The Wars of the Roses, and The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane (for First Look)
Current knitted item: Red socks and Karma's poncho
Current movie obsession: You've Got Mail (this is my go-to movie)
Current iTunes loop: I've been listening to audio books - Harry Potter #1 is currently playing in the car

Eureka!

While searching Ravelry's pattern, project, and yarn databases for ways to get rid of all that fugly Bernat Boa Fur yarn I acquired from the boss, it hit me.....CAT BED! I noticed a number of Ravelers had made Kitty Pi beds using a pattern from WendyKnits. Turns out the pattern is free online - wow. While Wendy's pattern calls for Noro Big Kureyon and felting it, the yarn I'm going to use won't felt (I'll just follow the directions for increases, using the needles called for by my yarn, and quit when the bed reaches as appropriate size). I will instead attempt to dump not only the Bernat but also other large amounts of fugly yarn that I have acquired.

Like four big balls of Lion Brand cotton craft yarn in bright red, gifted to me by my mom who bought it all for Raggedy Ann and Andy doll hair and then decided she needed a different kind. And couldn't find the receipt. And realised she'd already wound up one of the skeins into a ball and lost the ball band...so she gave it all to me.

I don't think the cats would mind a bright red bed with brown fur on the edges as long as it padded their perch. I think I might put this one on the rocking chair when I'm done with it (the cats first bed, my second knitting project, is on top of the bureau so they don't scratch the finish with their kitty claws).

Proust Questionnaire

I've been hearing a lot about the "Proust Questionnaire" lately - apparently the Olsen twins did a version in their new book so Proust it getting some play. I've never seen the questions in this questionnaire because a) I hadn't heard of it before (my experience reading Proust is limited) and b) I am not hip enough to read Vanity Fair (which has a "Proust Questionnaire" on their back page in ever issue). So I looked up the Vanity Fair version.

Pfft. Olsen twins. I am way more interesting than the Olsen twins.

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A good dinner, good conversation, a good book, and a good snuggle before bed.
2. What is your greatest fear?
That one day I will wake up and I'll be the crazy, lonely old lady who wears athletic socks with sandals and owns too many cats (considering that I consider the sock/sandal combination one of the seminal fashion faux pas, that would be bad).
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Impatience
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Ignorance
5. Which living person do you most admire?
Perri Klass
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
I buy tons of books - I read fast, but not that fast, so they are starting to pile up. You know that Erasmus quote? Yeah, that's me.
7. What is your current state of mind?
Jumbled
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Piety
9. On what occasion do you lie?
If you think your outfit/hairstyle/fill-in-the-blank rocks, I will probably not dissuade you of this notion, even if I think you look like a barrel with appendages.
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
I will always be zaftig, even when I'm skinny.
11. Which living person do you most despise?
Hmmm, well, I would have to say an ex-boyfriend who thought that being a stalker was an attractive quality.
12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
Intelligence
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Intelligence
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
"Dude" and the F-bomb in all its incarnations.
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
I don't think I've experienced that yet - I'm still waiting.
16. When and where were you happiest?
Walking through the stile to meet my friend Kate at the train station in Cardiff - I travelled by myself, internationally, and got through immigration at Heathrow and onto a train at Paddington Station without losing anything, including myself. I was really proud - and I got to visit Kate!
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
To play the piano beautifully - you know, at the level requiring a nine-foot concert grand. I can play but, to quote Elizabeth Bennet "very ill."
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I need more calm - I'm such a frazzle most days.
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I have an advanced degree, that I never planned on getting, but I am very respected for what I do with that degree.
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A well-loved housecat (that's what my Grandmother Margaret wanted to come back as, too).
21. Where would you most like to live?
Well, I kind of like where I live now....but I wouldn't be opposed to living in the British Isles.
22. What is your most treasured possession?
A tie between my copy of Winnie-the-Pooh (given to my by my Grandmother Margaret), my honeybee quilt (made for me by my Great Aunt Lillie), or my two cats, Chaucer and Dante (who I'm sure think they own me).
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
The third rejection letter from the University of Iowa College of Medicine; I cried for days and it still hurts, seven years later.
24. What is your favorite occupation?
Reading. Or dancing. Or knitting. Or reading....
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
I am extremely direct; beating-around-the-bush is not really in my make-up.
26. What do you most value in your friends?
Their humor.
27. Who are your favorite writers?
Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, AA Milne, Judy Blume, Jasper Fforde, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, AS Byatt, Willa Cather, Sandra Gilbert, Susan Gubar, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton
28. Who is your hero of fiction?
Thursday Next - she does it all!
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Alice Roosevelt Longworth
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
My Great-Aunt Lillie, a brilliant woman who was never allowed to go to college (boo on that great-grandpa but she kept learning - for proof ask my father, who was amazed that she could help him with his college calculus and physics homework even though she never learned more than trigonometry in school; she could also do the crossword puzzle in ink - no mistakes).
31. What are your favorite names?
Margaret, Ann, Lillie, Christopher Robin
32. What is it that you most dislike?
People who can't seem to behave themselves in public.
33. What is your greatest regret?
Sometimes I feel like I missed out on my dreams, the ones I had when I was graduating high school, even though I'm successful and grateful for my achievements now that I'm thirty.
34. How would you like to die?
In my sleep, in my own bed, after a good long life filled with family and friends.
35. What is your motto?
A combination of “Dance as though no one is watching, Love as though you've never been hurt, Sing as though no one can hear you, Live as though heaven is on earth” (Souza) and "I read banned books - got a problem with that?"

In knitting news, I finished my slouchy beret. It's really cute! Now I have to finish my red variegated scarf.

I finished Jackie's socks

Yippee! That second sock really flew (I wonder why the first one took so long) so no Second Sock Syndrome here. Sorry no pics because I gave the socks to Jackie before I remembered to find the camera. Oops.

Now I think I'll make a pair of socks in Mountain Colors Bearfoot for myself. Mmmmm...

Current book-in-progress: The Black City by George Sand for BNBC May, Notes from Underground, and At Swim-Two-Birds (there must be a disorder that's known as reading ADD because I can't concentrate on any one thing)
Current knitted item: Pretty red scarf; I might have an idea for the obnoxious tan neck warmer
Current movie obsession: Criminal Minds Seasons 1 and 2 (Mandy Patinkin is AWESOME and Thomas Gibson isn't too bad, either; Shemar Moore is just HOT); Enchanted just came from Netflix
Current iTunes loop: audiobook of 1984

Sock virgin no more

I knitted my first pair of socks. I friggin' rule! Check them out (I fixed the Chaucer damage - note to self: keep all things made of wool out of the reach of the goat-cat).

Knitted from Artyarns Supermerino (hand-painted!), color 140, these socks are warm. Mmmm, mmmmm. They do have one teensy, tiny mistake - the cuffs are knitted in two different ribs. Look carefully. One cuff is in 2x2 rib and the other is in 1x1. But who cares. My socks fit!

I also promised pictures of my vest:

And my shrug:

Both are knitted from Cascade 220 (my favorite).

In other aspects of my life, I found out that the people who ride the mid-day bus are generally very strange. Today there was a man riding with a 4 1/2 foot tall stuffed tiger. No joke. There was also a day care center that took 11 preschoolers on an outing to the Children's Museum at the mall. Via the public bus. Mental note not to use that day care once I find out who they are.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and for the first time in my life I will not be spending it with my family (or boyfriend's family). I'm going to Annie's house to spend the evening with her family and the Donelsons. Should be fun. Please think good thoughts for my parents (who are driving to Illinois as usual) and for my brother (who is working this holiday, so please don't make him scrape you up off Interstate 80).

Current book-in-progress: Mostly Middlemarch and A Temple of Texts (because I would really like to finish that; I'm currently working on some interesting commentary on Rilke's relationship with Rodin; did you know that Rodin fired Rilke, who was sort of like his social secretary, for making business decisions without speaking with Rodin first?)
Current knitted item: Second pair of socks and I need to get cracking on the Christmas stockings
Current movie obsession: Three DVDs arrived from Netflix today: Hot Fuzz, Jane Eyre (Samantha Morton version), and Angels in America: Part 1; what shall I watch??????

Missed a few

So much for blogging every day - I didn't go near my computer all weekend. Just knitting, and reading, and, well, working.

I finished my tank and wore it to work on Friday. It looks very nice and I got lots of compliments on it. Next time I use that pattern I will make the lower half longer and the neck not quite so tight on the bind off (speaking of Friday, we had Knit Nite at the store and I tried to teach Janice to knit; I'm not an experienced knitting teacher and whoever helped Janice pick out her yarn did not pick out a good yarn for a newbie so lots of frustration all around).

Worked a full shift on Saturday. Yup, Christmas psychosis - that should be a recognized disease in the DSM-IV.

Had the store meeting Sunday (also worked a split shift due to a sick co-worker). We gave the store manager his "mohawk" hat and I think he liked it. Just because I'm silly, I packed the hat in a box punched full of airholes and had "this side up" written all over. If I could have found something that would have meow-ed or ribbit-ed I would have snuck that in the box for effect. I didn't have my camera, but I'll post a picture once I download a couple Beth took.

Current book-in-progress: I had to start Middlemarch for BNBC November since that board will open the Monday after Thanksgiving
Current knitted item: Socks!!!!!!!
Current movie obsession: "History of Britain"

I am just, well, ...

...bleah. I've spent the last month trying to catch up from being out of town and haven't done a very good job. I am inundated with work and I can't seem to concentrate on much of anything. Except knitting. I've made considerable progress on my tank but I've been having trouble reading. Or even watching TV for that matter. My couch-potato skills are not working right now.

So instead of reading books, I've been buying quite a few of them. Confessions of a Spoilsport by William Dowling was a really good sports memoir about how Division 1a sports is ruining higher education; got a few more Barnes and Noble Shakespeare titles (Hamlet, King Lear, and Julius Ceasar); picked up the Portable Professor What a Piece of Work is Man (lectures about the seven great tradgedies of Shakespeare by Harold Bloom); the Wrinkle in Time boxed set; Michael Dirda's Classics for Pleasure; Ulysses (stop snickering). Someone stop me please!

In research-related news, I found out that we got the CDC grant that we applied for back before Easter. The acceptance came while I was in Europe. This means there are two ginormous, grant-funded multi-year studies to design and submit to IRB as well as the two clinical trials we are starting at Christmas. And the boss has yet to hire new grad RAs so it's just me doing all of this right now (oh, and the other RA who is useless, so let's not talk about that).

In other news, my youngest brother gets married this weekend. I don't even have a date. Meh. I'll go play with my neices.

Current book-in-progress: Wide Sargasso Sea for BNBC Literature by Women November, Classics for Pleasure, I finished re-reading the UK versions of TN1-4, Death in Venice and, oh, everything else I've started but not finished recently. I'm also entertaining a review of The Red Tent because Anita Diamant will be online at BNBC in November.
Current knitted item: After ripping out the aforementioned crappy dart shaping, I finished the front (the re-done darts look very nice) and I'm past the shaping on the back. Just a few more inches until I need to decrease for the straps. Then I really need to start on Christmas stockings. Oh, but I have to knit a scarf instead (I hate being volunteered for things) so I'm going to knit it with cotton yarn. Ick.
Current movie obsession: After dumping my digital cable (friggin' Internet still costs about $50, then basic cable another $50 - WTF?), I bumped up my Netflix. So I've been drooling over the nearly 400 movies in my queue (is it obvious that the selection is better than anything at the local rental places?) and have recently become obsessed with the Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Gaskell's North and South. Richard Armitage is so gorgeous - in a few years he could be the next Rochester if there are any new Jane Eyre adaptations. N&S is probably going to be my next acquisition.

Ta-daaahhh!!

I finished my first sock!!!!!!!!!!!

It actually looks like a sock AND it fits on my foot, despite all my worrying about making the foot too big. Apparently I have feet that large (feet just don't look at all big when you're looking down at them).

The only drawback to the toe-up sock was trying to get a strechy bind off. So three bind offs later - bind off in pattern of 2x2 rib (bind off edge was sooooo tight the cuff wouldn't even fit over my heel), a sewn cast-off for 2x2 rib (which was so confusing that after about 5 stitches I unpicked it and swore....a lot), a regular knit bind off (which looked really bizarre) - I bound off the cuff in half double crochet and that worked. Stretchy and not to wierd looking.

I'll have to put a picture up when I can find batteries for my camera (the digital camera is currently a battery-eating machine; boo).

In other knit-related news, I have a stuffed animal that resembles an Eeyore, minus ears and tail. It took six hours (gaaaahhhhh) but all the body seams are sewn and the little blighter is stuffed. Now I have to make another one.

And my ball winder arrived at the shop. Which is good because I'm going to need to wind the next ball for the tank and the sock.

Current book-in-progress: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, Travels in West Africa by Mary Kingsley (for which I'm probably going to go to hell because I'm supposed to moderate it for the BNBC and I can't get past the first chapter), Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and I'm chipping away at Cultural Amnesia (Clive James went on an anti-Sartre tirade; it was great).
Current knitted item: I have about 4.5 inches done on the tank and I'm starting my second sock.