Lawsy lawsy! The times, they are a-changin'

I'm half-way through finals and it feels as if my brain is sort of spattered on the inside of my skull. So what did I do? I indulged in a little of what we like to call "retail therapy." Now, some of you know that I am what we like to call "dead broke," so my indulgence may come as somewhat of a surprise. But that's all part of the million and six things that have happened since I came back from Michigan, all million and six of which can be reasonably defined as Earthshaking Changes.

I finally convinced my Egyptian sock to pose for a photograph. It preened a little, but finally calmed down enough to get all of itself into the picture: I'm a big fan of the star-shaped stranded toe. I may have to incorporate it into some other socks, but how I have no idea. Toe-up might be a good place to start.

I'm sure you recall the Saga of the Finger, which thankfully has ended well although I think it will be awhile before I attempt marathon stranded work again. I recovered enough to finish my first German Stocking, of which I am quite proud. I resumed work on the Super Secret S--x project, which seems to be going along swimmingly since I swallowed my pride and ripped back the four pattern repeats to the original site of the missing yarnover. Now there is the proper number of stitches and everything is going well. I quite like the yarn and the colorway just tickles me to death, so I'm perpetually entertained. Then again, that's not difficult given my current (some would say permanent, and I know who you are!) state of being.

And now back to the retail therapy portion of our show. Last Friday, I took an interview with a tutoring company that was looking for a writing/English teacher. The interview went so well that I drove straight over to my usual LYS and bought my first Koigu and Lorna's Laces.
Oh, smooshy yarn I love you so! And in such pretty colors! Originally I was looking for something for my Hogwarts Sock Swap pal - a Slytherin - but I definitely came away with yarn I am unwilling to part with. Or should I say, yarn with which I am unwilling to part. Ending a sentence with a preposition is bad, mmkay? And I should know, because after all I am a tutor. And given my current obsession with knee-highs, I may have to pick up one more skein in each colorway before the dye-lots change on me.

Anyway, the interview went really well and on Saturday I was offered a full-time job with benefits and everything. Hurrah for a new job, with no more 5am mornings or snaggy fingernails or harsh chemicals! Can I get a hurrah - in case you missed it the first time - for no more 5am mornings? This clearly deserved more celebratory yarn purchases, so I ordered some things from Knitting Notions. Then I headed to Purlesence, where I actually found yarn for my sock swap partner.

Whew! All that searching and celebrating put a dent in the $900 refund from my student aid, but not as much as tomorrow's trip to H&M will. Since I am moving up in the world, I need more than one pair of khakis. Apparently teachers don't usually wear jeans and t-shirts to work like coffee jerks do. Who knew? So I'm saving some, but most of the rest of that refund is going to end up morphing magically into clothes that are work-appropriate.

In the meantime, the actual therapy occurred today to celebrate the middle of finals, two-weeks notice at the coffee shop and a successful first day at the Tutoring Place. I bought some things from The Knittery and some things from Etsy and and stopped there to create my very own Etsy shop, which will justify some of the purchases of the last 3 days. Once finals are over, I will start dyeing yarn. Hopefully it will continue to come out like this: So that's what's been going on. Lots of changes, no? There are more. Remember the Luscious Boy I mentioned visiting in Michigan? He may be moving here. And since Jer and Elizabeth are moving to San Francisco, he may be moving in with me, which has me in an interestingly mixed state of mild panic and excitement. Updates as they occur.

Can you see the problem with my Stash Drawer?
Technically there are two problems. One is that it is kitty-free - all that unlicked yarn! - but the second has to do with the top right corner. Oh, the depravity! And just so this post isn't as problematic as my Stash Drawer, here is your gratuitous tummy-and-paws shot of the day. Stay back, ladies! He's aaaall mine:

Oh Oh Cee

I can't believe this has happened. I'm so annoyed, I may just burst. And at the same time, I'm relieved and fully plan to use this little setback as a perfect excuse to A) procrastintae profusely on my projects and B) alliterate to my hearts content. But first, the back story!

Last Wednesday I was curled up in Erick's bed, warm and sprawly in a queen-sized set of UofM-colored sheets. Everything was fine. Then, Erick himself toddled in and curled up next to me (he sleeps on the hide-a-bed when I visit in order to Keep Up Appearances for his lovely parental units) and said "baby, I don't feel so good..." So like any good Big Sister has learned to do, I kissed his forehead. Yep, fever. And for the last 5 days of my trip, he alternately sweated and shivered on the hide-a-bed while I worked on my sock and drank Airborne like it's going out of style. Poor boy, he gets fretful when he's ill and says things like "I'm sorry I'm sick, I'm ruining your trip, where is that ginger ale you promised me? I need my ginger ale! Why are you so mean to me? I like you," and snuggles up until the pattern repeats. It's trying, but it's adorable. Men, hmpf!

I thought the Airborne had done its job, and came home on Sunday. This morning I woke up with a suspicious lump in the back of my throat - one that says "you may not get away with this..." So I feel a sickness coming on. It's possible that I got it from Erick, but it's also possible that the blogosphere made me sick. Wendy was sick, Stephanie McPhee was sick, and now maybe me. What illustrious company I'm in!

But the impending doom of Blog Flu isn't what annoys me. Sure, being ill sucks bigtime, like onions. The question is, what do knitters do when they are under the weather? They finish projects. They work on easy stuff and catch up on Grey's Anatomy, which feverish recent Michigan graduates seem to have an aversion to, even though their nurses luuuust after McSteamy with a passion bordering on the obsessed. (On second thought, perhaps it is the lust for McSteamy that the UofM graduates have an aversion to. This requires more research.) And what could possibly make a knitter unable to knit? Well, a swollen tendon in the little finger of her left hand, for starters. That's right, I have a Knitting Related Injury. During the last repeat of Egyptian Sock #1, I noticed that my little finger was going prickly. Then the joint started hurting. I bound off the sock just in time for some irritating, my-knuckle-needs-to-pop feelings, and haven't picked up my needles since.

There is hope on the horizon, however. I mentioned my KRI to my professor, who assured me that one completed sock was fine (I sense an eternal excuse for Second Sock Syndrome coming on) and that I shouldn't strain myself. Which, like I said before, is a perfect reason to procrastinate. Unfortunately, my usual form of procrastination comes with CraftLit or Lime&Violet on the speakers and a pair of needles in my hands, so we'll see how long all of that works out.

Okay, I'm done whining. I think I'll go play some video games instead of writing my papers... doesn't that sound like a brilliant plan? I thought so too.

Mr. Darcy is in his element - in the closet and surrounded by mylar. He was happy to have me come home though - after an appropriate period of ignoring me for abandoning him, that is.

Of Verbs and Vices

Here are some verbs I have come across in the last 2 weeks:

Gallivant: v., 1. to gad about with members of the opposite sex, 2. to go about in search of amusement or excitement.


Reproduce: v., to produce again; make, form, or bring into existence again or anew in some way, as, (...) d) to make a copy, close imitation duplication, etc., of; e) to bring (a past scene) before the mind again.

Knit: vt., to make by looping yarn or thread together with special needles.

I arrived in Michigan on Friday to hang out with Erick for his graduation. I'm taking the week off of school and staying for about 10 days, so we'll see how *that* all turns out. I had an instant of panic last week and chucked the embroidery project in favor of reproducing a pair of Mamluk socks from roughly 1100-1300CE. It's such a relief, since I wasn't going to finish the embroidery in time for the last day of class, but the stockings are ticking along quite nicely. Added bonus that it's the first time I've done stranded knitting, and picked up the idea quite quickly once I figured out how to hold both strands of yarn in my left hand. I'm sure I'm going at it all wrong, and my Fair Isle friends would be horrified, but since they're due the 14th of May and I'm not likely to wear them myself, I'm just focused on not making glaring mistakes and getting the things off my needles. I'm quite enjoying the process though; watching designs spring (mostly) full-formed from my yarn-tangled fingers is delightful.


As far as the rest of my knitting is concerned, well. I've put myself on a Yarn Diet until I can get some of my needles free - one of the benefits to having a limited number of needles is that I can only have a limited number of projects going at once (or that's what I'm telling myself). I have a few things up my sleeve, including finishing my German Stockings and the Mystery Monkey socks (x2, but that's another story - and no peeking, Swix!!). I also need to start my Hogwarts Swap Socks. Perhaps I'll give in and simply order the proper yarn since I am using the last of my Bare stash for the Mamluks, but I haven't decided yet and really don't need to until 1) I get home and 2) get the Mamluks off my needles (school projects trump sock swaps, after all).

And as for vices, well... how can I resist this face?

It goes without saying.

I love my family. They are a huge barrel of crazy, but I love them. I adore my mom because she wears the ill-fitting socks I made for her the very first day. Because she oooh's and ahhhh's with me over clear water full of Kool-aid dyed yarn, and wonders out loud with me about what Kool-Aid does to our insides if it does that to sock yarn? I adore my brother because we still act like siblings but now that he's a grown-up, we can talk about our childhoods - and there were definitely 2 separate childhoods going on at the same time back then. My stepdad is funny and lurks and makes googly eyes and drives me NUTS, but he makes my mom happy and for that I love him too. Even though I didn't grow up there, the house on the "farm" feels like home. The chickens are delightful, our ancient Peking duck named Donald still lets me pet him even though I've been gone forever, and the cats sleep on my feet. It's nice.

HOWEVER, I have learned something very valuable this weekend, and I'm writing it down so I don't forget next time. Going back to the farm for a "quiet weekend away" is a bad idea. My family loves me and so they make plans, which I then whine about because I just wanted to stay in a room that isn't in my apartment and be silent all weekend. So the next time I want a quiet weekend I'll do it somewhere else - home is more for family time than Tika time.

Speaking of heading home, my train trip didn't materialize due to the City of San Jose being completely incompetent. The train station for San Jose is across the street from the HP Pavilion, pretty close to downtown proper. And while it is on a direct bus line to my house, the bus doesn't run on Sundays. So I decided that rather than catching the bus to the station and then having to catch a cab home on Sunday evening, I would just pay for weekend parking at the train station lot. I packed and left my house in enough time to hit Starbucks so I could avoid train coffee (shudder!). I arrived at the parking lot and found a sign that read "24-hour maximum." At a train station. W.T.F? So I had to drive home instead of sitting on the train, happily knitting away. Grrrr. City of San Jose, I'm putting you On Notice. Having 24-hour maximums at a train station parking lot is stupid. When I am in charge, heads will roll.

I did do a few good things this weekend. I took my dyed yarn up to Ellen and she was properly appreciative. She also helped me with one of Cookie A's sock patterns, since I didn't want to email Cookie herself while she was at Sock Camp. And then, I ripped all 7 inches of that sock out and started over because even though I checked my gauge and even though I was so careful to knit tighter than usual, the size I should have been according to the pattern was too small. Or maybe I like my socks too tight - one or the other. Thankfully, I was diligent all weekend and I'm back to where I was before I headed home, having lost nothing but some time - which although in short supply isn't that big of a deal. And now I'm going to watch Scrubs and work more on that sock. I highly recommend Scrubs, by the way. Great knitting television.

Somebody stop me!

I joined another sock swap. I think I might be a "joiner," but hopefully only in the most positive sense. This one is Sockapalooza and seems like great fun. I'm already behind on the 52-Pair Plunge, but I'm going to do my best to catch up over the weekend since I'll be taking the train to Rocklin and back. My grandfather Jones was a railroad man, so taking a train makes me feel close to him as well as to Those Who Came Before, much like knitting makes me feel closer to women down the ages. One of my favorite train rides was from Sacramento to Oakland. We got stuck for an hour or so due to some track snafu and I was sitting behind an elderly lady dressed in her hat and gloves. She began telling her travelling companion about how she had been taking this particular train ride since she was a little girl during the Great Depression. It was just lovely to hear her stories and made me feel so much better than if I had been sitting in traffic.

Here are the promised pictures of my Very First Socks! I realized today that I had better take some since they are for my mommy and I'll be giving them to her this weekend. All in all, they turned out fairly well and I'm excited to try new techniques and patterns.

WARNING! If your name begins with an S and ends with an X, do not follow the next link under pain of ruining surprises! Here is the picture of the project I'm currently working on until my newest Knitpicks order arrives and I can start my CookieA pattern. Speak of the devil, there's the doorbell! Maybe it's the mailman!


[runs off to open the door]


Oh frabjous day, caloo-callay! My mailman must think I'm crazy. I nearly hugged him I was so excited! We will now cut short this blog to go fondle yarn.

Hogwarts Sock Swap!!

Oh dear. Something about finishing a project must have set me off, because now I've become officially Knitting Obsessed. I dreamed about Monkey socks last night and my fingers started to itch during class today because I couldn't concentrate without knitting in my hands. This is a Bad Sign, people. A Very Bad Sign.

Since the last Harry Potter book comes out this summer (sniffle...), and since Heather Ordover of CraftLit and 1870 Pearl have both been sorted into Ravenclaw like I have, I decided to join the Hogwarts Sock Swap. Hooray! I think I'll use this opportunity to dye some of my own yarn and maybe try out some stitch marker ideas. The house assignment is appropriate, I must say. Ever since the first Sorting Hat Quizzes appeared on the 'Net, I've consistently been sorted into Ravenclaw. Not for me the brave, the dedicated or the sneaky. Oh no - I am clever. And damned proud of it! Just ask any of my professors.

So without further ado, here is the Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire!

1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into? Ravenclaw, hurrah!

2. Shoe size? US 7.5, European 37

3. Foot Length? 22.5cm

4. Foot Circumference? 22cm

5. List your three favorite double-point needle brands, including size and length.
a. Crystal Palace #0-1, 6 inches
b. Britanny #1 or 1.5, 5 inches
c. Clover Bamboo #0-1, 7 inches

6. Would you like to try a new brand needle? If so, which brand? Size? Length?
I tend to have to size down my needles to get proper gauge, so anything from 00-1.5 would be perfect. I have a slight allergy to nickel so I avoid metal needles whenever possible (most metal needles are nickel-plated), but anything made of bamboo or wood I would love to try! I'm most comfortable with 5-6" DPN's but I'm not picky... about *that* part.


If you are a RAVENCLAW, do you prefer the colors in the film or the book? Do you have a strong preference? I definitely prefer the blue/bronze of the books to the blue/silver of the movies. In the Grand Scheme of Tikabelle's Coloring, silver = invalid but bronze = healthy glow.

Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal? Ooo, yes please!

Such a Fanboi

My Very First Socks are donedonedone! I grafted the last toe together, slipped them over my feet and danced around my living room a bit. They don't quite fit properly, the heel of one is juuuusst out of line with the toe seam and I'm not sure about how long the gussets will hold up, but they're done! Plus, they're for Unit 1 and she has to wear them - she's my mommy and it's her job to wear every lumpy, bumpy, misshapen thing I send her like it came from the needles of Coco Chanel herself. And, to her credit, she does. I love my mommy.

Next up is probably a pair of Monkey socks. I broke down on Thursday and bought some sock patterns from Cookie A, along with another order of Bare from Knitpicks. Then, in order to keep myself from casting on for my newly downloaded sock pattern, I dyed the rest of the Bare from my first order. I tried my own version of rainbow dyeing - which if I'm honest I know nothing about - and it turned out quite pretty, not to mention that my house smelled like Kool-Aid all day. I hung the yarn to dry on a nylon line I rigged up on my porch, giving the neighbors a peek at my exclusive upcoming line of hand-dyed sock yarns that probably none of them appreciated as much as they should have. Muggles, I tell ya!

And then? I packed my as-yet-unfinished Very First (Second) Sock into my purse, gathered my courage and headed to Bobaknit. Oh, what joy! What rapture! A Tapioca Express full of knitters and purl tea (iseewutudidthre), and right in the middle, Cookie herself. Whose patterns I dreamed about and fashioned an entire outfit around. Now, I will freely admit that part of the reason I didn't start a new project on Thursday is that my next pair of socks will be one of her patterns (probably the ones after that, too since I don't know whether I'll be able to stand the suspense generated by the USPS). I will also freely admit that part of the reason I decided on Bobaknit instead of the Campbell SnB is because I love Knitters Anonymous and I knew that the blog authors would be there. What I refuse to whisper even to my treasured ball of Tilli Thomas 100% silk in the exact color of the baby blanket whose shreds are still in my closet and so provides both comfort and yarn pr0n in one handful of silken love is that I studiously - studiously, dear reader! - ignored her the entire night in an effort not to gush about how much I love her patterns and how I caved and bought two that very day and by the way I dye my own sock yarn canIgiveyousomeprettyplease and willyoubemyfriendbecauseyouusedthewordwhackinyourlastKnittybio! Loose lips sink (possible friend)ships, people. So I kept mine buttoned and tried not to look starstruck. I think I failed. Ah well, there's always next time.

I did make a few aquaintances there that I'm hoping will turn into full-fledged friendships. Sarah from Bella Knitting is a lovely treat of a human being who is growing a verytinyhuman of her own. We waxed rhapsodic about the Harlot's upcoming visit to Napa in June, and how to score ourselves tickets. So rhapsodic, in fact, that I traipsed over to B&N on my way home from work on Friday and bought one of her books. Thank goodness it was payday!

All in all, a quite satisfying week. Aside from school stuff, that is. Damn, am I still procrastinating about my ARTH175 paper? Nooooo, I'm just organizing in my head. Yea, that's it.

Jer took the camera to the Giants game with him today so I can't show you My Very First Socks, but I did dig up a picture of Darcy in his natural element:
Yes, he pulled the books down on his own and made an alien-shaped spot on the shelf. Impressive, no?

Flash Your Stash 2007

Well people, it's that time again! Let's see those stashes - mine is regrettably small, but I'm workin' on it, trust me. In all its tiny stashy glory, here it is!

Spring break is over, and I suppose I should rehash my List of Demands. I'll admit I was lazier than I intended to be, but it was Spring Break, and I keep a fairly good schoolwork-to-games ratio so I'm pretty content. Here's the updated list:

1. Starting Monday, do not spend any money for 1 week (not including plane ticket or bills automatically deducted from bank account). This was the big one, hooray for me!
2. Get laundry situation under control. White socks do not look good with black shoes! Laundry, to my great and abiding despair, does not stay done. Unlike, say, a paper for ARTH 175...
3. Begin ARTH 175 paper, due April 10. Notice that this is the thing due soonest. Surprised? HAH!
4. Begin ARTH 183C project. I'm counting this as completed because I've been working diligently on it and also don't need 100% of the chart to be finished in order to start the actual stitching.
4a. Scan and print stitch descriptions Now that I can spend my spare change, I'm heading to Kinko's instead.
4b. Chart motif (2/6 pages complete)
4c. Pull colors/linen from stash. And boy howdy, are they pretty! I'm excited!
4d. Begin stitching (outlines first?). Only a couple stitches into the fabric so far, but it's a beginning.
5. Finish My Very First Socks. Or at least *almost* finish them, because the 52-Pair Plunge begins April 1. I'm not above stacking the deck in my favor, especially with Spring Break Demands 4 and 7 on the books! Sock #1 is about 1/2 inch from being finished, and it will count for the Plunge. Oh yes.
6. Kool-Aid dye first set of KnitPicks yarn. They're pretty! I'm impressed with myself.
7. Choose a topic for ARTH 185B paper, or design a project. One fewer paper to write will be a blessing come May, I'm sure. Not yet, but project ideas are percolating in my brain...
8. Finish tearing apart, washing and skeining RUS's. Not a chance. Didn't even look at'em. But Darcy enjoyed sleeping on the ready-to-be-torn sweater pieces, so that counts for something right?
9. Get to 70 in World of Warcraft (yes, I said video games! What?!?) Made it to a hairs-breadth from 69. A few hours diligence here would have me at 70, but I chose schoolwork and knitting over games. I'm so good.
10. Catch up on Battlestar Galactica. Made it up through 2/18, so only a few episodes to go. Argh! The suspense!

And just in case you were missing him, here is Mistah Daaaahcy in all his glory:

Yes, he's licking my Manos del Uruguay. No, I'm not sure what it means, but I'm still highly amused.

Physics at Work

This week has been a study in things-taking-longer-than-I-planned. The charting of my motif for Islamic art goes slowly. The leveling to 70 in World of Warcraft even slower, although I suppose it's a good thing those 2 things are in that particular order. Shows I'm making some progress in Life, instead of video games I guess! Tonight we head to Conrad and Kate's house for Italian food, wine and Wii. But today, oh, today I opened my front door and discovered a package that contained this:
Seven skeins of bare sock yarn and 50g of silk/merino gloss in Chestnut from Knitpicks.com. I swear, the neighbors must think I've gone crazy. I jumped up and down, hugged that plastic package and danced a little jig from sheer anticipation of playing with color.








I have been a dancer all my life, and I think the sparkles and bright rainbow costumes have worn off on me. Sometimes I stand in front of Unit 1's Closet-o-Fabric and just drink in the reds, blues, greens and yellows. She is also a consummate gardener, so there has always been gorgeous color in my life. So is it any wonder the desire to create my own lovely color combinations has been marinating? I speed-cleaned the kitchen, grabbed my shoebox full of Kool-Aid and set to work (note the necessary liquor and chocolate - a girl's gotta have her fix!).

Soon my yarn was percolating away in Jer's beer-making stockpot:

Do you see the physics problem I created for myself? Not having 3 jars of similar heights, one is much shorter than the others. So the yarn kept sucking up liquid from the taller jars and siphoning it to the lower one. So until I get another jar of the proper height, I think I'll stick to 2 colors.

At the end of the dying frenzy, I am left with only 4 packets of Black Cherry Kool-Aid and these gems:I must say, I'm quite proud of them. They make notions and dreams fly about my brain, and it's difficult to keep from making Grand Schemes and Things. But I'm trying!

Spring Break, baby! Woo!

My midterms are over! I breathed a sigh of relief and headed off, prepared to begin a rockin' spring break of work and video games. I know, exciting right? But brace yourselves, I may get wild this week and actually go outside. Hmm, maybe not. The only disadvantage I can see to having friends who are actually brown - instead of just from a brown-people sort of country but actually pasty and freckle-free - is that no one will lay by the illusion pool and worship Ra with me. Otherwise, you guys are great. I love the food, the warmth, the flash-in-the-pan emotions, all of it. But seriously... if one could only go to the beach! A little sun-bathing would set me up forever. And Mrs. Bennet I think would agree.

So remember My Very First Sock? I frogged it. And re-started it. But the pattern is a divisible-by-four pattern and I wanted a K2P1 rib, which (as my l33t math skillz soon informed me) is NOT divisible by 4. So I re-worked everything and created my own pattern, which is its own special brand of challenging. Then I realized that the self-patterning yarn I have isn't quite the right stuff to show off my genius First Sock pattern, what with the baby cables and the ribbed heel and all. I've made it all the way to the point where I have to pick up the stitches for the gusset, and I'm quite proud of myself. I think I may even use the pattern again!

Spring break in my world has never been a very exciting time. I'm usually too broke to go anywhere that involves flashing cameras or really anywhere that involves spending money. This year is no exception, but this time I'm doing it on purpose. That's right, #41 on my 101 in 1001 list starts in 2 hours and 27 minutes. I am going to go this entire week of spring break without spending any money, and it is going to suck. But I've set myself up for success; I have a full tank of gas, milk in the fridge and coffee both at home and at work, knitting projects to last me and a Netflix account to keep me occupied in case I should get bored catching up on Battlestar Galactica (uh huh, like that'll happen). I also have twice as many hours at work as usual this week, which is awesome. The only thing I am going to be lenient about is buying my plane ticket to Michigan for Erick's graduation; I've been waiting for my tax return to be deposited into my bank account, and if I don't get the ticket this week I'll be under the 30-day mark and I won't be able to afford it at all.

Assuming I can get at least one thing done per day - and some days two things (don't look so shocked) - I'm listing 10 things I'd like to finish before next Monday. So without further ado, here is the Spring Break List of Demands:
1. Starting Monday, do not spend any money for 1 week (not including plane ticket or bills automatically deducted from bank account).
2. Get laundry situation under control. White socks do not look good with black shoes!
3. Begin ARTH 175 paper, due April 10.
4. Begin ARTH 183C project
4a. Scan and print stitch descriptions
4b. Chart motif
4c. Pull colors/linen from stash
4d. Begin stitching (outlines first?)
5. Finish My Very First Socks. Or at least *almost* finish them, because the 52-Pair Plunge begins April 1. I'm not above stacking the deck in my favor, especially with Spring Break Demands 4 and 7 on the books!
6. Kool-Aid dye first set of KnitPicks yarn
7. Choose a topic for ARTH 185B paper, or design a project. One fewer paper to write will be a blessing come May, I'm sure.
8. Finish tearing apart, washing and skeining RUS's.
9. Get to 70 in World of Warcraft (yes, I said video games! What?!?)
10. Catch up on Battlestar Galactica.

Seems reasonable when I put it on virtual paper like that. Sweet.
And now I'm going to go work on my socks. Expect a pattern after I've made a few!

Deconstructionism is an art term...

...practiced by knitters everywhere. But first!

I rocked my Islamic Art midterm. The professor was sick with a horrible flu last week and as a result didn't feel like creating a huge test, so there were only 10 (of an original 50+) images to define. Thanks to my super-stressful cramming techniques, I knew all 10 pretty much spot-on. Go me. She also gave me the go-ahead on reproducing a piece of embroidery from Marianne Ellis' Ottoman Embroidery, so all that's left for my term project is to choose, design and make the thing. I'm going to make an effort not to bite off more than I can chew, as per my usual modus operandi.

In a fit of celebratory... celebration, I stopped at Goodwill and bought some Ridiculously Ugly Sweaters. RUS buying is tricky, because the yarn cannot be heinous - only the construction of the sweater. All in all, I came out with four selections: an ivory angora blend, a white-and-gold cotton/acrylic, a forest green 100% lambswool and a cranberry red cotton. We'll see how they deconstruct; I think the sparkly yarn will go into the stash for sock embellishment and the rest will go onto eBay for some pin money if I can get Darcy to relinquish them.

Speaking of socks, mine is a sad, pathetic, bagging-at-the-ankle monstrosity that might possibly drive me mad. I scoured knitty.com today for sock patterns, which led me into a bright, shiny, devlish world of yarns and techniques, each one making my poor saggy sock seem more and more unbearable. So tomorrow I will venture to the LYS to buy a set of 00 DPN's and bid this incarnation of sockdom farewell. Again with the biting-off-of-more-than-we-can-chew theme...

Darcy says:

"I do not look ridiculous. Go about your business, human!"

The Heeling

I'm so punny. Moving on.

Today is gorgeous and sunny and lovely in the South Bay. This is the view off our apartment's back porch - I love trees in bloom. (The netting keeps the kittens from getting off the deck and works until Darcy uses his alien skills to find a hole, the little creep.) I discovered a set of knitters via Sock Pr0n (who has become one of my knitting heroes, BTW), went to the Pre-Midterm Lecture in my Roman Art class only to discover that the midterm has been bumped one more day - hurrah for reprieve! - and actually did study for my Islamic Art midterm a bit. All those beautiful but hard-to-pronounce words are swimming through my head, along with images of octagonal tombs and brick-and-tile work. Islamic art is so different from western art, it sometimes boggles my mind. I've been searching for the perfect piece for my term project - something not difficult to embroider but still lovely, and I've become enamoured of the arabesque designs and beautiful textiles that have been passed down through the centuries. The wheels are turning, if ever-so-slowly.

In other news, I've been listening to Craft Lit and playing with My First Sock instead of studying, but at least I'm not playing World of Warcraft. Not that it's bad - it's quite entertaining and has filled most of my free time for 2+ years now - but I decided last week that I wouldn't play video games until after midterms, which end a week from today. I'm curious to see how much I can accomplish. Anyway, last night I turned my first heel! Jer came home in the middle and took great delight in my Milton-like muttering to myself: "purl ten, purl two together, he said I could play music at a reasonable volume, slip and turn, I'll burn this place to the ground, knit eleven..." I sounded like a maniac I'm sure, but at the end of the night, there it was - a respectably turned heel.

Darcy was proud and cheered me on from his favorite spot on the couch. I think I see some of his alien workings back there, but I can't be sure without further proof.

Visual Puns and Socks

My stomach has been roiling since I got to work at the Ass-Crack of Pre-Dawn, and I'm tired of it. Usually my cure-all for tummyaches is to take a nap, but I have shit to DO, people! And it's 6pm, so if I took a nap now I'd completely screw my sleeping schedule. Damn you, internet for encouraging me in my procrastination!

My good friend Sarah and I hooked up today to sit in the sun with huge sunglasses and dish about men. It was great fun, and I learned several things:

1. Naval officers and former bartenders are not a good mix, marriage-wise.
2. The best way to derail a conversation with a soon-to-be/already/formerly married person is to bring up wedding plans.
3. I don't brown as quickly as some of my more olive counterparts, for which I am grateful.

But alas, while dishing gossip with Sarah is one of my favorite things (missed you girl, glad you're back around!), I must still head to the homework with a heavy heart. Two chapters of History of Islamic Art to cover tonight. So overall, I'd say the day is a wash so far, what with my Islamic class being canceled, tea with Sarah, getting ready to make the first sock part of my sock, versus the tummyache and the studying for a midterm and the self-imposed "no video games till spring break" policy. Why are self-imposed restrictions so much easier to blow off? I'm determined to keep this one.

My First Sock is coming along well and I start the heel today. Pre-heel, it looks much like the tubes my esteemed state senator thinks make up the internet:



Here is how I'm feeling today.








Get it?

Road Trip! (picture heavy)

Several weeks ago, Nadia and I sat down with a calendar and decided that we needed to go visit the Mother Ship.

On the 25th of February, I called the Mother Ship and confessed that I am a daughter of the worst order - her birthday was the 22nd and I was three days late wishing her happy returns of the day. She replied that yes, I am a daughter of the worst order and all her training has clearly gone to waste and by the way, she bought snap-together wood flooring for the great room and since I was a Daughter of the Worst Order, my birthday present to her would be to help her rip up the carpet in the great room and lay down said floor. On my nice, sleepy, wandering-the-Gold-Rush-Town weekend with my citified best friend. Suffice to say I was less-than-pleased, but since I was also contrite, it couldn't be helped.

On Friday, Nadia, myself and all my laundry (free wash/dry at the Mother Ship!) packed into her Mini Cooper and headed to the mountains. Once we got there, we discovered that it was not going to be the weekend for tearing up the floor, and settled in for a weekend of relaxation instead. Ahhh, reprieve! My brother and Nadia went disc golfing on Saturday while Parental Unit 1 and I slipped out to the LYS - a favorite store of mine and one owned by a former coworker of Unit 1's. And there, I accomplished two fabulous things: I started my first pair of socks and I began teaching Unit 1 to knit. Yes, she crumbled like a crumb cake when I started shamelessly shoving chenille and lace into her hands, and as she settled at the unbiquitous craft store table, needles and fresh ball of yarn in her hands, I did a victory lap of the store a la Rocky in case anyone in the county missed my triumph. Then I sat down and taught Unit 1 to knit. I also stashed a bit - triumph in dragging a recalcitrant knitter back into the fold deserves some sort of celebration! - by picking up 750 yards of some lovely worsted something-or-other and adorable, non-splitty yarn so I can start back up on Jenny's baby hat/booties.

Here is My First Sock Yarn, a Meilenweit Safari that Unit 1 picked out (remember the shamelessly enabling part of our mother/daughter relationship? So does my bank account):

And My First Sock!:
Isn't it great, folks? The color in the second photos is much closer - it's more brownish than red. And I am tickled pink, let me tell you.

After that, we spent the rest of the weekend messing about, taking pictures of chickens and flowers:














Unit 1 is a consummate gardener and the light was perfect this weekend, which combined to make me a camera nerd. Plus, the chickens are so fun I just can't help but take pictures of them.



Napoleon is our aptly-named King Rooster:

Unit 1 also has a thing for ridiculous chickens:



I apparently have a thing for cherry-blossom pink and peacock blue:










But Waffles is content to simply supervise the new knitters while I'm outside playing with the camera toy:

Here is the look I got when I returned home with another cat's hair on my collar:

I am properly ashamed of myself. For penance I shall go knit on my new sock. Eeeee!

The Saga of the Scarf

I'm toiling away on my dad's scarf. This week I open three days in a row - today, tomorrow and Friday - which for those not familiar with coffee shop hours means I get up before the sun, at a time commonly known as the Ass-Crack of Pre-Dawn. It also means I have to head to bed around 9pm. Now, way back in my pre-coffeeshop days 9pm was when the evening was just gettin' started, but nowadays it's when I begin to yawn slightly. I'm definitely blaming the coffeeshop and not my ever-increasing desire to just stay home with needles and yarn, listening to audiobooks/podcasts. Lucas once asked me sweetly to not turn thirty-eight before my time, and the request has stuck. I really must try to get out more.

But back to the scarf! I did The Halfway Test today - the test where I hold the needle under my chin and drape the scarf around my neck to see where it falls - and it passed! Just barely, but it passed which is a huge relief because it's all downhill from here! At least this time around, I'm comfortable about the thing. The times before, it itched me wrong; the needles were too big, the pattern too wide, the edges too sloppy and of course, the yarn strangely striped. This time, although one edge is looser than the other, it's relatively well in line. Which is also good, because spring has sprung here in California, and I am dreaming of socks. Yes, socks.

Dear god, I never thought I would want to knit socks when Steve Madden has done such a phenomenal job. I mean, really - why mess with the man's work? But I do want to knit socks, and for this I again blame the afore-mentioned Wendy. And sock pr0n, whose web mistress I have a sneaking suspicion lives sooooomewhere near me in the Bay. Did you SEE her Space Invaders socks on Knitty? The 80's child in me is jumping for joy and whining to make them in knee-highs right now, but my more adult mental voice is chiding the child, saying it's too big a project for her Very First Socks, and that she should perhaps try something ever-so-slightly less difficult, having not only never knitted socks but also never tried stranded work or knit with double-pointed needles or for that matter successfully used a chart, and all those things aside, would she ever really wear them? No, I didn't think so. But I could show them off, and get mad cred with my nerdy friends, yo. Which is really what counts, right?!? Crap. I think I'm going to learn to knit socks, and I think my mother has taken over a part of my brain. Juuuust great. I also have a hankering for this yarn from Pickupsticks. I crack myself up.

Darcy gives the socks two paws up. SETI left a message on my cell phone today, but I don't think I'll call them back quite yet. The kitty paws are too cute to put behind one-way glass, don't you think?

The Projects

First, a finish! I made a (practice) baby hat!

The pattern was a pain in the ass to learn, but once I stopped trying to "fix" it (HAH!) and just worked it the way the book said, it turned out okay. The yarn was splitty and the edges of the piece are less-than-gorgeous, but it's done and will be even cuter with matching booties. Originally I bought a Clover circular needle, but it tried to poke my eye out so I bought an Addi Natura circular needle instead; love at first stitch, let me tell you, and well worth the $15. I haven't worked with circs (as they are apparently called in the biz) much, but this brand is pretty f'in sweet, yo. I think I'll try this little set again with better yarn and see how it goes, since I'm sure as heck not giving THIS flawed gem to anyone. *ahem* My perfectionist is showing.

Faina's Scarf:


This one will be for my mom, who picked out the yarn (Cascade 220 wool) and the pattern last time I visited her. Yea, remember what I said about enabling eachother? Mmhmm. It is by far the most complicated thing I've ever done, and I had to go back to traditional continental-style knitting from Annie Modesitt's combination knitting. I think I'm too noobish to use non-traditional knitting styles, so I'm just going to stick with continental for now, even though I like Modesitt's style better. I need to somehow rig my embroidery stand to hold my knitting chart. Perhaps a clipboard? Hmmm.

Papa's Scarf:
Oh lord. I want to throw the damn thing away; the only thing keeping me from such a drastic measure is that the yarn is gorgeous. Obviously papa's birthday has come and gone, and the scarf remains unfinished. It started like this:


Super-pretty, right? Here's a close-up of the stitch:

But of COURSE I ignored the suggestion of the knitting store lady (always a bad idea. ALWAYS!) and the second skein striped differently from the first. My dad isn't a picky guy - he would love it no matter what - but if I inherited my craftsy inclinations from my lovely mother, I inherited my perfectionist inclinations from my dad. And I know it would have bothered me that his scarf was striped weird. So, I ripped out the WHOLE DAMN THING, toddled to my LYS, where the knitting lady kindly let me re-wind my skeins, and started over with a new pattern:

I've used this pattern before to make my beloved Zig Zag scarf, but I think with the myriad colors in my dad's yarn, the original stitch would look much better. So today when I'm done, I will be ripping the scarf out for what feels like the 50th time to go back to the original pattern. ARGH! I am consoled by how lovely it will be when done, and that the stitch itself isn't ridiculously hard. Whew!

Going along with my quest to document the lives of extraterrestrials on our planet, Mr. Darcy recharged in the sun today:


But then his alien started to show:


It's a good thing he's so loving, otherwise I'd have out-ed him to SETI long ago.

Introducing...

March came into California just like you'd expect: like a lamb. It's about 60 here, I have all the windows and doors with screens open to air out the house. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 65. Hooray! My friend Erick visited for his spring break from UofM in Dearborn, MI. I never remember how nice it is here until someone from the world outside my California bubble arrives to remind me that not all of the country - nay, the world - enjoys the weather and atmosphere we do.

I've finally messed with Jer's snooty camera enough to take pictures of what I'm working on. But first, most of the blogs I frequent have mascots of the feline persuasion, and the delightful furballs who run my apartment have become a bit jealous. Without further ado, here are the Keepers of the Klink:

Kami is a rare and endangered San Jose Brown Gutter Cat. Jer found her, tiny and sick, on his doorstep one day roughly 7 years ago. She has since blossomed into the beautiful tortie you see above. And she is such a tortie, complete with the cantankerous but utterly sweet personality. She curls up on an available lap and watches TV with us.


Mr Darcy is an alien from an unidentified planet, currently observing the human race from a feline perspective. He doesn't sleep, he uploads, and I'm fairly certain the alien race he represents must be preeeeeetty confused by now. I was volunteering at C.A.T.S. in 2001 when he showed up in a box full of short-haired black female kittens who were found abandoned under a freeway. I picked him up, he rolled over onto his back and laid in my arms for 4 hours. I took him home and he's been sleeping at my feet ever since. He doesn't like sitting in laps, but he will settle within about a 10-foot radius of wherever I am in the house.


And them's the felines!

Feeling Craftsy

Ok, 13 months between postings is just too damn long. I've never been good at keeping a diary and I'm equally bad at taking pictures; I've always justified it under the Mae West clause: "Good girls keep journals; bad girls don't have time." And while I may not be a "bad girl," I certainly don't keep up very well with journaling my life. Anyway, one of my "101 in 1001" goals is to keep track of my craftsy activities, so I may as well do it in a blog form. More on the 101 in 1001 later.

I blame my mother for my obsession with craftsy things. Yes, it's a deliberate mis-spelling. Move along. Mom loves textiles and stamping and hobbies that require a lot of stuff, so I picked up the tendency from her. Our craftsy hobbies dovetail nicely together: she quilts, scrapbooks, sews and stamps while I knit, embroider and (occasionally) paint. My point here is that when we're together, we tend to egg eachother on. We'll go to a yarn store and she'll pick out something for me to make for her, then because she's in a craftsy mood we'll stop at the fabric store "just for a minute" and I'll find something I want her to make for me. It's a vicous cycle and ends up with both of us hiding our purchases in the back of the van so my stepdad doesn't give us The Face. Inevitably he finds out we've been shopping, but I try my hardest to make it after I've left for home instead of while I'm there - that way I get The Voice instead, and it's much easier to justify my cravings via phone.

Lately I've been knitting. Like most craftsy things, it looks difficult but is actually easy. Unlike most craftsy things, knitting is easily portable and doesn't take a lot of set-up time. Plus, it makes useful stuff! Sweaters and hats and bags and wee bitty baby booties with matching wee hats in all the colors nature invented (and some she didn't). So far I've collected enough yarn to fill a small set of drawers, planned roughly 50 projects, begun 7 of them and finished 2. I was going to crow over my admirable restraint - smugly picturing my mother's craft room - but then I realized that it's about par on the golf course of my crafting existence. I have roughly 50 embroidery projects, 8 of them started, and 2 completed. So much for being restrained.

I snagged Jer's snooty camera and took pictures of the knitting that's on my needles right now, but for some reason the camera cable isn't working so I'll have to wait for Lizabeth and him to get home from Tahoe to make him fix it. For now, here's the list of projects I have started and plan to finish in this lifetime:

1. Scarf for Papa for his birthday on 3/1 (finish by 2/24)
2. Scarf for Mom for Mother's Day on 5/13 (finish by 5/7)
3. Baby hats and booties for Jenny's baby (Finish ASAP!)
4. Stole for Nadia's Ammi (Mother's Day?)
5. Ravenclaw Scarf for Sioux (someday...)
Everything else I haven't allowed myself to start yet, which is actually admirable restraint on my part, thankyouverymuch.

I need to get one of those nifty little bar graph things that shows the % completed for each project, and maybe learn how to set up a blog a bit so I can put the % bars in a sidebar. Hmm... so much to do, and so little motivation. I think I'll go work on the baby stuff, since I missed Jenny's baby shower yesterday. "I'm sorry I didn't show up" is so much easier to forgive with a hand-made gift accompaniment!