Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday

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Okay, I know I said socks… which is why I cast-on a felted kitty bed Monday night. I had the front and back of a sweater that was the second try at getting some Peace Fleece I bought back when I first started knitting a couple years ago into a sweater, but it just wasn’t happening… the front and back have been laying around for several months, and I had no compulsion to knit arms. So, I ripped the back out and started a felted kitty bed for my sister’s new kitten. I think the socks will come next.

This morning I made my way to the post office to send off a RAOK package, a Secret Pal package, and finally my best friend’s birthday and Christmas gifts (his birthday was at the beginnning of Nov., so I’m a little late). This is my first actual RAOK to go out; it was kind of fun to put together. I found a cute stuffed, floppy sheep on sale (sales are great), some candy, and some yarn from my stash that was languishing… all off to a new home. I hope it helps to cheer up the recipent.

I keep thinking about what kind of shawl I want to make out of my Brooks Farm acquisition… I’d love to do something top down, but I’ve only got 1000 yds; I’d hate to run out before I got to the bottom. I could do a basic triangle from the bottom up but I don’t know what sort of design I’d want to use. All of the patterns I’ve found that I like either use lace weight instead of worsted, or call for more yarn than I have. I will have to think on this more…

Blah

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I don’t know what’s wrong with me today… I just feel so blah… apathy up the wazoo. *gah* I’m having a hideous time trying to concentrate on work. All I can keep thinking about is if the printed book project I turned in today is good enough (you can see it at: (sorry, taken down))
… I’m starting to doubt myself… is this what the teacher even wanted. *ugh* Then there’s the midterm next Monday…. with no study time before hand. Obligations on Saturday that were made before it was known there was going to be a midterm that Monday, and my in-laws are visiting from Canada and want to see us on the Sunday… all day, and for dinner. Maybe I’m just in shock (or working on that website for class killed off the last viable brain cells I had).

On the knitting front, the Wool Peddler’s Shawl has stalled. I finished the garter stitch section (111 rows), did the set up row (no problem), did the first row of lace (slightly confused), got half way through the second row of the lace pattern (completely stumped). What is really confusing at this point is what is going on at the center stitch area. Most of the directions are very clear about where the 4 stitch markers go… except for the stitch marker to (on row 2) the left of the center stitch. tHe directions say something like follow pattern to the last stitch befor the next marker (the marker to the right of the center stitch), k1, knit center stitch, continue… um, what about the other marker… i’m not so sure it’s supposed to go right next to the center stitch cause on the 2nd pattern row it says to purl “everything between the markers.” It’s making my head hurt…

Maybe I’ll put it down until I get a chance to go to my LYS… socks… I’ll start socks in the meantime.

A morning filled with adventure

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Dragged myself out of bed earlier than usual this morning so that I could get into work and get a bagel (Friday’s are bagel day) before 10 am. Why before 10 am? Because 10 am is when the Special Collections reading room at Stanford opens. I have a project on printed books (anything published before 1900) due on Monday… it’s just like the one I did on manuscripts (although this time I’m thinking of doing the website option instead of a paper). Stanford owns a copy of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, which was printed in 1499 by Aldus Manutius, who was a famous printer in Venice at the turn of the 16th century (Aldus also invented italics… nifty). The adventure began just as I was arriving at the vistor parking lot… there was an odd thumping noise. I turned off my stereo. Yup, it was definitely coming from my car. I parked and got out… there was a loud hissing noise. I looked at the driver’s side back tire… it looks alright. Lean down… the noise gets slightly louder. Walk around the back of the car… the noise is definitely getting louder. Bend down near passenger side rear tire… ah… hissing tire. Not good. Examine tire… discover what looks like a small plastic bag with a couple of 2 inch long screws with anchors jammed into the middle of the tread of my new tires. Watch as the tire goes comepletely flat in about a minute. *sigh*

So, I decided to just go to the library and take care of my school work, then worry about the tire. I went with this option cause who knew how long it would take for a tow truck to show up, might as well save the waiting for when I can wait.

It was very cool handling a book that is 506 years old (I have a weird fascination with extremely old things, and I don’t know where it comes from). When I handed the book back in (*sigh*) I got talking to the Rare Book librarian. He seemed rather impressed with my selection of printed book for my assignment. We chatted about the book and the printer. He told me about The Rule of Four, which is about the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Then, he shared with me the fact that 3 floors up there was a copy of the English translation of the book (I don’t read Italian, sadly). With call number in hand, I trotted up (well, actually, I took the elevator) to the fifth floor and found the glorious book on the shelf. Very nifty… now to find the… oooo… I was going to say the $70 to get a copy for myself cause that’s what the inside of the cover said on the one at Stanford… but, apparently they have reissued the book at it’s like $20. The really nifty thing about this translation is they used all the original woodcutting illustrations… pretty. *grin*

Anyways, I left the library and headed off to deal with the pain in the butt problem car. I called the husband to get the roadside assist phone number. Called the roadside assist people and got a very friendly Texan-sounding lady (my insurance company is based in TX), who took all my information and told me that I would get a call from their automated system telling me a time estimate. Now, I did not think this sounded too good. (The last time I had tried to use a roadside assistance serve (one that came with my phone) I was told it would take an hour for a truck from the place around the corner to come and give me a jump… That made me none too happy since I was alone, it was getting dark and cold, and I was surrounded by crazy football (soccer) fans.) So, I waited and waited… no call. It was getting on 20 minutes… when was I supposed to receive this supposed call… and suddenly there was a tow truck. YEA! The guy had my car jacked up and the tire changed to the donut in 10 minutes.

Off I drove to the tire place where I have the nifty deal of lifetime fix any problems with the tires. Unfortunately, the guy there said it would take an hour/hour and a half to fix. So, I walked home in the 88 F heat to wait for the husband to come and take me to work. He’s going to come and get me in a couple hours so I can get my car before the tire place closes.

But, now… there’s beer… at work. *grin*

A little start to spring cleaning

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This weekend proves that Spring is definitely on the way. Yesterday, it got up to 71 F… don’t know what it was today, not quite as hot, but definitely nice enough to work with my balcony garden. The majority of my plants were moved when the winter rains began, so that they could partake in the wet. Today, I moved the ones that reside on the railing back into their proper places, and began the process of trimming things. Now, I have a pile of new trimmings mixed with slowly-turning-into-compost winter debris all over the floor of the balcony. I just didn’t have the energy to try to wrangle it into a garbage bag. That’ll probably take place next weekend. I do have another tulip in bloom, just didn’t take a picture, but it’s a very delicate pink… and I can see it through the glass door while laying on the couch.

On the illness front, my cold-that-was-coming turned out to be a no-show. Sure, I had a sore throat and a headache for a few days, but my temp never got over 99.8 F. Meanwhile, the husband is slowly recovering… he got hit hard. Since Tuesday, his fever slowly came down, and finally seems to have left, but he’s still got a nasty sounding cough and gets tired easily. I’m very glad I didn’t get sick. I’ve got a project similar to my manuscript paper due a week tomorrow, with the midterm the week after that… the day after my visiting in-laws want to spend all day Sunday with us. I’ll have to study that Saturday and hope I don’t forget anything.

In knitting news, I’ve gotten to row 106 on the Wool Peddler’s Shawl. That means 5 more rows, then I start the lace border. This one has gone a lot faster than I was anticipating. I am contemplating what my next thing should be… socks for my toesies, or a shawl for myself made with the Brooks Farm yarn I got at Stitches, or a sweater… I’ve been eyeing Mariah… if I made it from one of the new Knit Picks yarns it would only cost about $40 or $50 to make. I do have this wool/mohair yarn I got from Dyeing for Fiber (I’m slightly depressed that she decided to close her store, it’s gorgeous yarn). I originally got it to do Rogue, but after making Lavender Twist I have decided I don’t like a yarn with mohair for cables. I could just do a simple cardy from it…. hmmm… difficult choices.

Military Brats

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I have noticed that there are more than a few military brats out there in the knitting blog world. So, I have added a few interesting brat links to my side bar.

Today, I found out about Brats: Our Journey Home… a documentary that is currently in production. It addresses the idea of brats as a lost American tribe… a subculture of people who grew up on military bases around the world and who feel different from the people around them.

I know my sense of normal is skewed compared to the majority of people I call friends. I also know that I have have experiences that they will probably never have…. I have been to places they will probably never go. I have trouble unpacking boxes. I don’t remember events by the year they happened, but by where I lived at the time.

For the curious…

The About the Film section is really interesting… it also has links to pages about things like Moving or Life on Base if you scroll down. There’s also information on the filmmakers, the people they interviewed, and how to make a donation to help them get through post-production and get the film into film festivals.

Tulips!

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My tulips seem to have weathered the rainy winter much better than the iris bulbs I planted. My crocus bulbs seem to have been hit or miss. I’m afraid that for several of the bulbs the rain just made them rot. My bearded irises are starting to shoot up, too. Yeah, for spring flowers. I had to drive up to San Bruno to see my chiropractor this afternoon and the dandilions are blooming along the Palo Alto section of 280. Very pretty.

Meanwhile, there was yarn…

This is about 140 yards of a 60% silk/40% wool yarn. I haven’t measured the wpi, so I don’t know if it classifies as lace weight, or if it’s fingering weight. The silk is multi-colored: pink, yellow, green, blue… I got it from The Silk Worker. The blue ply is a 80% wool/20% silk that I got off eBay.

Okay, I’m going to go have soup now… soup is good.

It’s coming… I can feel it

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I think I’m coming down with something. My husband’s been sick since Sunday, and now my throat has that scratchy, warm feeling. *ick* Thankfully, my manager let me work from home today cause my husband was running a 103.6 fever this morning and I wanted to keep an eye on him. It’s coming down slowly, but it is coming down. I just hope I don’t have something like that to look forward to… I’m a big baby when I have a fever (that is anything over 99.8).

On a happier note, I have pictures for sharing…

Here’s the stuff I dyed at my sort-of dyeing class. I carded it, mixing the colors slightly and started spinning it up. I used it to practice a long draw… lesson: works very nicely with rolags, doesn’t work with combed top, which is what I usually sping with. The singles are nice and fuzzy looking; quite different from the yarn I get normally with my short draw technique.
 

I got a package from my secret pal on Saturday. Pretty roving from Deep Color in Berkeley and a couple skeins from the Himalayan Yarn Co. They’re 60% wool and 40% recycled silk. They’re soft… softer then I would have expected. I had heard rumors that recylced silk could be unpleasant, but I think that’s really when you’ve got the skeins that are nothing but the silk. The wool is a nice match for the rainbow of colors in the silk. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it yet… maybe something felty.

States

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bold the states you’ve been to, underline the states you’ve lived in and italicize the state you’re in now…

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

Doesn’t quite show the bouncing back and forth across the country that my family did… Places I’ve lived goes something like this: New York -> Georgia -> Alabama -> New York -> Arizona -> Alabama -> California -> New Jersey -> California (inside of which I’ve been bouncing around for the last 12.5 years). The only move we didn’t drive for was New Jersey to California because it was Oct and we had to get there for school. Every other cross-country move involved loading up the car(s) and going… usually so we could see the sites and see relatives who lived in the middle part of the country (we only really ever saw them during these moving trips). The funniest one in my mind is when we were moving from Georgia to Alabama, which should have been a few hours in the car total… but we had to go see my grandparents who lived in Iowa, so it wins the longest trip to move the shortest distance award.