Because it is Monday and I am feeling a great lack of creativity in regards to my blog entry I will respond to recentish comments.

Thank you again to those who commented on my pity party a week and a half ago. It was a craptastic week, and that Friday was the end of it.

Thank you to Kathy in San Jose, Lu, and Julie for their compliments on a finally finished and actually photographed Birch.

To Peggy, Kimberli, and Alyx… If I can ever remember what possessed me to do that to my poor hair (scorching it with the curling iron then gluing it in place with a shitload of hairspray) I’ll let you know. I’m sure it seemed a good idea at the time, just like the scrunchy socks (We folded our pants — fold the leg over to make it tight against your leg, then fold it up twice to hold in place — instead of pulling the socks over the leg… at least it came in handy come winter… made it harder for the wid to get up your pants leg).

To Rabbitch, I think I used only a fraction of the hairspray my classmates used. You could walk into the girls changing room after gym and there would be a fog of hairspray hanging from the ceiling. I knew girls who carried gigantic bags just so they could bring a full sized can of Aquanet with them wherever they went. What’s amazing is that there weren’t more horrible hair fire incidents as all these girls took up smoking in high school.

To my anonymous commenter (who I think is Erin), I will try to not be worried that I will be stalked now because you find my hair horror adorable and just say mmmm… Johnny Depp. 🙂

To Denise, I do hope you can whip your husband into shape and have him get your bike running. My scooter has a top speed of 55, too… although I did get it up to 60 one day with a good tailwind; of course, that tailwind turned into a headwind on the way back that didn’t let me get over 45 with the throttle opened all the way. *sigh*

To Erin, I am so glad you liked the book (for other readers, I finally was able to get a copy of At Knit’s End to my friend that I had gotten signed for her at Stephanie’s stop in Berkeley). 🙂 Definitely no more accidents (hopefully)… the class I’m taking is the Motorcycle Safety Training given by the DMV and the CHP. We’ve learned all sorts of interesting safety stuff so far, even good enough to make the blister on my thumb worthwhile (definitely not used to riding a bike for 4 hours straight — ow). Your boss sucks. Yea for lace! Just remember if the item you’re knitting can pass the galloping horse test there are no mistakes… otherwise, they’re design features. 🙂

Just as I was getting into a rhythm for posting stuff happens to throw me off balance.

I tried to avoid talking about my work for obvious reasons (it has nothing to do with knitting). But I came into work on Wednesday to find that important things had happened (if you really want to know, you can probably find out about it since it made headlines in the business world). Simply put, Wednesday involved three high level execs resigning and our stock falling dramatically. It was an emotionally draining day in which I spent several hours in meetings so they could explain to us what it all meant.

Yesterday, was my first motorcycle safety training class meeting. The Husband and I carpooled so that we could head straight from work to dinner, then class. We didn’t get home till almost 10:30 pm. I think this is definitely going to be worthwhile. And, the instructor we meet last night has a sense of humor, which certainly made the experience more enjoyable. Sunday is our first on cycle class, rain or shine.

I am blessedly close to being finished with The Husband socks… half an inch more and I can begin decreasing for the toe. I’ve been working on the hat slowly, but I think I’ve figured out how long it has to be before I start the decreases. I’ve even managed to figure out how many decreases will fit in a round and still leave me with 8 stitches at the top.

Now, to distract you from my bad Jersey hair, I will show you some current knitting. To the left you can see my Dublin Bay socks (warning: this link goes to a PDF) being made out of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in the Birch colorway. Thankfully, this is a relatively easy pattern to follow without having to pull out the pattern everytime I want to work on them. Unfortunately, I realized over the weekend that I’m in a DPN funk. Two sock projects going at the same time… all those DPNs. *ugh* I just wanted to knit something that required even less thought… something with just straight knitting that doesn’t require changing needles every 24 stitches.

Something like this (psst, over there on the right). This is a quick improvised hat for me out of Lana Gatto Feeling (70% merino, 20% silk, 10% cashmere). I went to my LYS on Saturday without even bringing knitting with me. A few Tootsie Rolls later I found myself fondling this yarn and wondering what I could make with it. My Lavendar Twist hat is really nice, but if I have to wear it for long periods of time the mohair makes my forehead itch. A softer hat… a hat with cashmere… would make so much more sense. So, after swatching I cast on and got four inches into it before I realized that my gauge swatch had lied to me (gauge swatch: 5 sts/inch, actual hat: 6 sts/inch — just a little bit of a different on the order of 3.5 inches). Out came the needles, rip went the knitting, cast back on went the yarn. It’s quite nice to knit; it rivals the Bouton d’Or Ksar I used last year. The one problem with this hat is I keep imagining what I nice sweater would be like out of this yarn. I come to my sense each time when I think 6 sts/inch… would need about 2200 yards of yarn… 153 yards per ball… $15.50 a ball… *choke* Maybe it’s time to buy another lotto ticket.

I know the discussion took place awhile ago, but it took me time to track down a copy of this photo. The white stuff is just flash reflection off the picture.

This is for Rabbitch…

This is me in 8th grade in all my New Jersey hair glory… bad poodle perm… flipped up bangs (you have to spray them with hairspray while your hair’s still in the curling iron to get that crispy fried look).

No, I don’t know why I thought I looked good like this.

It’s only been finished since Sept 15, but I am pleased to introduce you to Birch:

I’ve worn it several times already (it’s been great for the NorCal fall), and get compliments wherever I go. Once I got the pattern memorized it was a great knit. Of course, after I finished it, I kept finding myself wanting to knit that same pattern. I don’t know if that was due to it being relatively easy, or if it became so familiar that it was hard to do without it. Probably the latter.

I must apologise for the pity party I threw for myself on Friday. It was the end of a long, tiring week. I don’t know why I care how many people I have reading my blog. I’m usually not that much of an attention whore… well, not for a large audience; I prefer smaller groups or one-on-one attention grabbing. (Edited to add: Thanks to everyone for all the comments. We can all have a good time without whoever it was. 😛 Of couse, they’re all welcome back when they see the error of their ways. *grin*)

I gutted a pumpkin last night, and The Husband carved it. It got a test run on the balcony for a few hours. I think my neighbors thought I was odd placing a pumpkin on the balcony (I haven’t seen any others in the complex), but then I thought they were odd for putting out Christmas lights this early (of course, then I realized that they were mostly likely for Diwali not Christmas). What’s kind of nice is with the pumpkin in a certain spot on the balcony, it can be seen from the street and brings in the trick-or-treaters (there is way too much candy in my apt right now).

I even managed to dress up this year for work. There was a Halloween picnic in our parking lot complete with a costume contest that I didn’t sign up for because several other costumes were much more elaborate than mine. I don’t know who won, but there was a guy dressed up as Jamie Hyneman… deadringer… made me do a double take. Of course, there were also 2 separate people dressed up as “cereal killers” — take outfit, tape on cereal boxes and knives… ta da… cereal killer. *sigh* (I prefer another friend’s take on the matter — wear what you usually wear, people ask what you’re supposed to be say, “Serial killer, we look like everyone else.”) I also saw an iPod, a dinosaur, a couple of doctors, a zombie/dead guy, and one person was dressed as one of my company’s products. Generic vampire(ss) seemed pale in comparison.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween.

Let me leave you with this last spooky thought… I went to Target yesterday to get earrings and candy. While checking out what Halloween stuff they had, I turned down an aisle and got quite a scare… There at the end of an aisle filled with orange and black Halloween delights were Christmas decorations. BOO!

Thursday was a speed bump in my week.

I haven’t really been knitting. I worked on The Husband sock at the library talk I went to Wednesday night, and I think that’s the most knitting I’ve done in at least a week.

I don’t know if it’s the lack of knitting content, me talking of things knitter’s would rather not hear about, or if someone didn’t like my cursory review of KnitLit the Third, but I’ve lost subscribers from Bloglines. Oh well… I know a lot of people believe in the blog for yourself mentality; I apply that to what I choose to post. But, I do blog for the purpose of sharing with those people who choose to read what I write. And I do know I am far from entertaining. But, there is a whiff of wanting to feel special and/or popular online. *pout* I wanna be special… who doesn’t?

The Husband is actually home now (it’s been one of those weeks), so I have to think about what I want for dinner.

It’s all dark and threatening to rain outside and there’s no hot chocolate to be found in my building. I’m debating if venturing off to one of the other buildings is worth the hope of finding hot chocolate mix. When something runs out on both floors of my building it’s most likely been in high demand in the other break rooms around our campus as well. I want a hot beverage; I just don’t want tea. This sort of weather calls for slightly sweet, creamy hot chocolate… mmmmmmmm. Of course, I also wish I could have a nice comfy couch with a snuggly afghan in front of a warm fire while sipping on that hot chocolate… not going to happen, unfortunately.

I have the second Husband sock with me today so that I can work on it at a talk I’m going to after work. Jessamyn West is giving a talk on “The Information Poor and the Information Don’t Care: Small Libraries and the Digital Divide” at the King Library on campus. Since The Husband has to work till at least 9 pm tonight, I thought it would be more fun than being home alone. I also figure that The Husband sock will be a good project to work on while listening. I just picked up the gusset stitches last night, so once I’m thought the gusset decreases it will be non-thinking knitting for a good bit.

Another nice thing about tonight is I get to go to Peanuts (if it’s open… I’ve never tried to go there at night). Peanuts is down a little ways and right across the street from the library. A lot of people would probably be loathe to go in… it doesn’t look like all that much, and some people beg off cause I usually describe it as a greasy spoon (how else would you describe a grill that makes breakfast all day?). They make fabulous cheesesteaks (geez, my mouth is watering just thinking about it and I’m not even hungry at the moment). What is even better is they let me order my cheesesteak with chicken instead of beef and mushrooms instead of peppers. It’s hot and gooey and only $5. Since I don’t get downtown very often, these cheesesteaks have become a rare treat that I get whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I have to go wipe the drool off my chin now…

It’s time to accept that these will never be mine. (I wear a US 8.5, which is no where near a US 11.) It’s not very often that I feel such a strong need for a particular pair of shoes, but these called to me and my limited fashion sense. It doesn’t hurt that they would look awesome on my feet while I’m riding my scooter (I have a shiny dark red helmet that they would match nicely). *sigh*

It appears that Dr. Martens have become extremely hard to find. I used to know of at least 4 stores in the South Bay Area that carried them, and each of those stores has gone out of business. It probably doesn’t help that once Docs went mainstream their popularity declined, and you really don’t see goths or punks wearing them any more (these days it looks like they’re back to wearing All-Stars).

So, now I am reduced to pining for beautiful red vintage big-eyed satin ribbon-laced Docs.

Yesterday, I attacked the dining room. After three and a half hours of dusting, spraying, tossing out, and vaccuming, I managed to find the top of my horizontal filing cabinet dining room table. It’s kind of odd to walk into the kitchen now because all the clutter you could see from the kitchen doorway is gone.

I’ve gotten two of the main rooms in the apartment cleaned, and now The Husband is talking of inviting people over. He even mentioned names of people who are coming to town for business. The hallway is still cluttered, and we won’t speak of the condition of the main bathroom. *gah*

My Ribby Cardi is all seamed up and blocked (well, as blocked as I thought it needed to be). I even gave it a test run today at work. But it’s zipperless… I’ve never put a zipper in anything. I’m not sure if I want to try doing it by hand, or if I want to take it down to my parent’s and have my mom and her fancy quilting sewing machine help me. I have my own sewing machine, and I think I even have a zipper foot, but damned if I know how to use it.

I picked up a copy of KnitLit the Third on Saturday at my LYS. I’m not sure what I think of it so far. A few of the stories I’ve read so far left me thinking either “Why should I care?” or “Whatever.” Stephanie‘s story was funny, but she has a very easy going writing style. Several of the ones I’ve read seem to be trying too hard…. trying too hard to be funny… trying too hard to be different… trying too hard to be literature. I’ve had a hard time connecting with the writers and what they are trying to convey. Steph’s story is easy to empathize with… I can easily imagine the jitters I would get being forced to wait for long periods of time after my knitting had been taken away from me by airport security. But I’m still trying to figure out why I shouldn’t knit and drive as one of the stories admonishes readers. The first two KnitLit books had stories and essays that were heartfelt and invoked reading enjoyment through a shared sense of knitters as community. This third one feels as if many of the writers are writing to writing not writing to share their love of knitting.

I did it… I pulled out the Supersock, did a quick swatch, and cast on for the Dublin Bay socks. And now, after I got almost an inch of ribbing done last night, now I am thinking of ripping it out and using the Twisted German cast on.

I had not heard of this cast on until reading The Knitting Biologist‘s post today. The whole time I was knitting my ribbing last night, I kept thinking to myself that my cast on looked crappy (I used the knitted cast on instead of my usual cable cast on). It looks all loosey-goosey compared to the ribbing. I wanted an elastic cast on edge, not one that will fall down.

So, out it will come tonight. And I’ll get to try my hand at a new technique.