Tag Archives: school

Non-Knitting Content

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I think I’m still reeling from my paper that was turned in on Monday. For 2 nights after I keep dreaming about manuscripts and ink and pens…. really trippy. It was actually a rather fun project. I had to examine an manuscript from earlier than 1500 AD and write a paper on it. I drove over to Stanford since they’re right down the street from where I live and got my hands on a collection in their Special Collections… Medieval manuscript fragments, ca. 850-1499 (a.k.a. the Philip Bliss collection). Now, I’ll have you know that this was no mean feat… it was like trying to visit someone in prison (not that I’d know what that’s like, but that’s what it made me feel like I was doing). First, I had to find the main entrance… visitors are only allowed to enter through the main entrance. The, I had to fill out a form on a computer that printed out a sheet with my information, which I then had to show to the lady guarding the turnstile, who compared it to my driver’s license before buzzing me through. Once at the Special Collections reading room, I again had to fill out a form on a computer. Then, I had to turn over my driver’s license in exchange for a key to a locker out in the hall where I could place my belongings because you are only allowed to have a pencil and loose leaf paper when consulting the collections. After stowing my stuff, the nice lady gave me the archive box of the collection and a pair of white gloves.

The manuscript I chose for my paper was titled “About the Proper Conduct on Monks” according to the finding aid. You can see it at http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/medieval/gif/m389-5.gif, there should be an enlarging click-y thing in the lower right corner for a closer look. I chose this manuscript because of all the nifty little drawings in the margins that appear to have been done at a later date, as if someone were studying it. Pointy hands, a couple of faces, some scrawled notes…. very nifty. Unfortunately, the Stanford the page with links to the manuscripts they have in digital form had this one labeled incorrectly… as coming from folder 5, rather than folder 15, and it has the description for the item from folder 5. I think I’m going to try to notify them of the mistake. At least I hope it’s a mistake, cause the other option is I completely messed up. *Gah* Now, I’m going to sit around worrying that I got the folders messed up, and I was looking at 5 not 15…. *groan* Maybe I could try to get a look at the collection again to see if I’m a complete idiot.

Well, if you want to see the paper, mistake or not, I’ve put it up at (sorry, taken down).

My head hurts now…

Do I have to go back?

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Back at work after a beautiful week off… if only the week had been longer… but we can’t have the week adding on extra days just for me, other people might get jealous… or pissed if they have to work. The unfortunate thing of the week off was I have come to realize that I need at least a month off from both work and school. The nervous twitch in my left eye actually went away for a couple of days; it was back this morning. *sigh*

I didn’t really get any knitting done… I finished my bookmark, so now I need to block it. I guess it will get into the mail eventually. I did get the spinning for my sister-in-law’s Christmas gift done… approximately 118 yards of fingering weight romney. I think I need to practice the whole spinning bigger. I’ve gotten damn good at spinning lace weight, which means I can’t spin anything else. Maybe if I got a lazy kate… just spin lots of lace weight singles and start making 3…5… 8-ply yarn… I’d be spinning forever in order to get anywhere.

Anyways, the yarn came out pretty nice; now I need to dye it. I don’t know my sister-in-law very well, so I have no idea what colors she likes. I was thinking of going with a green blue combo… everyone likes green and blue, right? Now to find a time my husband won’t be mad at me for making the whole apartment smell like vinegar and wet sheep.

Did I really say I didn’t get much knitting done a couple paragraphs ago? I did, look at that. *groan* I actually did work on the Sister Shawl at Thanksgiving. I can’t believe I forgot… especially since knitting seems to be one of the few ways I can impress my family. Knitted lace seems to truly amaze them, and it rocks my socks that it’s my skill they’re impressed with. I think it’s funny that my mother has told me more than once, “We never thought you’d be one to knit.” What she did think I’d do, I have no clue.

Sadly, knitting will be laid by the wayside for most of this week unless I need a stress break. Must get to work on the 15-20 page paper that is due come Saturday. Most of the work is reading all the articles and books I’ve been collecting… should have gotten started on it over the weekend, but laying around in my pajamas for a few days made me feel better. I’m such a procrastinator. At least I’m getting better… a couple years ago as an undergrad I would have just begun looking for sources right about now.

A few days of freedom

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There’s nothing quite like sleeping in… especially when you haven’t done it in awhile. I had class all weekend… Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We had our midterm and the last of our lectures on Friday, and Saturday and Sunday were filled with processing papers, boxing them up correctly, and creating a finding aid (sort of an archive index). My group worked on personal letters* written to an enlisted guy in the Army who was stationed at Camp Roberts, CA during WWII. He was from Alameda, so there’s a local connection. We only sorted through the letters from his girlfriend/then wife, and his brother-in-law… 299 letters, cards, and telegrams altogether. It was a lot of work, but it was really interesting.

Stephanie** has left me advice on throwing the idea of relaxing my tension out the window, and by thus convincing me (wasn’t hard I think I already knew it to be a not-so-wise idea), has probably saved me many hours of frustration. Of course, I do think that part of the tension problem is from me knitting it at work. Definitely a very not-so-wise idea… at least the last few weeks… bah, who am I kidding it was a stupid idea. I had thought it would help me relax, and instead I strangled my needles with the yarn.

Now that the laundry’s done, I think I will sit myself in front of my wheel and spin up some more of the light grey romney, which I will then dye some color to be determined as a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law. I know she knits, but I have no idea what kind of stuff she likes doing, or what books she might find interesting. I figure I’ll use it as another opportunity to practice doing some dyeing, and hopefully, she’ll like it.

*One of the girls in my group had found them in an antique shop and thought they were interesting.

**Who I think is one of the greatest knitters ever (she doesn’t seem afraid to just jump right in) because she seems to have a lot of fun knitting or at least she knows how to laugh at the hard parts, although I think that comes after copious amounts of wine, which I heartily agree with as a salve for knitting frustrations.

The week of blah

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Yesterday, I typed up this wonderful entry that described quite clearly how my week was going… and Blogger ate it… Blogger glupped it down, and unlike the previous entry Blogger ate, this one will not come back. Why? Because I tried to post yesterday’s entry 2 minutes after they began updating their servers…. who the hell updates their public servers at 3 pm?! *groan*

A prime example of my week.

Most of the blahs were work related. I was rushing to get things done as I was taking off today for school purposes and taking off the part of next week that I do not already get off for Thanksgiving… because I need a break.

Unfortunately, part of my week off will be spent with the family… the husband and I are driving down to Monterey to have dinner with my parents, my sister, and my future brother-in-law. Fun fun. The other unfortunate part of my week off is the looming paper… 15-20 pages due on Dec. 4th. My topic is digitization as preservation… geez, is it thick… what was I thinking? I think the lack of knitting a couple weeks back affected my thinking. But I’m committed now.

I am planning to take the shawl with me… hours of waiting for a turkey to be cooked should provide for hours of knitting undisturbed. I’m not sure about giving my sister a chance to see the shawl, especially since it will be her Christmas gift from me (just in time for her wedding… isn’t that a cunning plan?). But the unoccupied time won’t be available for studying since my family likes to gab when amongst themselves.

New projects include a beaded lace bookmark that I need to finish off, block and get into the mail so that it can be whisked off to my bookmark exchange partner. A picture will certainly be taken before said whisking… and I say this knowing I’ve never taken a photo of any of my other bookmarks. *sigh*

Another project is super secretive… I decided to knit up a little something for the husband to augment his Christmas gifts. Sadly, the super secretive project may be running into a road block. I knit a gauge swatch (and even did it in the round since that’s how the item is knitted) and now I may be getting a whole extra stitch to the inch… I won’t be able to tell if it is truly a bad thing till I have enough to try it on… if it fits me well, it’s too small, and I will either have to relax a little or try another needle size… don’t know if I’d need to go to a 10.5 or an 11 (part of me hopes, if I do need to change needles, that an 11 will work because I already have one along with a set of double points*).

*Boy, that gives it away doesn’t it? Good thing the husband doesn’t read my blog. Haha!

Finally getting back to knitting

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The last week has been grumpy… well… okay… I was grumpy. Between the election results and having a paper comparing Terry Cook’s and Luciana Duranti’s appraisal models* due on Saturday not much knitting was done… okay, no knitting was done until Saturday evening.

I had written an entry about the lack of knitting and furious paper source reading that had been occurring, but Blogger ate it. Hope it was yummy.

But, now, thankfully, knitting has recommenced. I got 12 rows done on the lace shawl. Somehow I feel accomplished, but I also feel like I’m getting nowhere. I have to keep remembering that every 4 inches stretches out to 6 inches. But the end still feel a long ways off… I’m on row 56 and I estimated that I need to have 144 rows done to get the desired length without the edging, which I’m guessing will add approximately 2 inches in length… the numbers all work out nicely that way, which could mean I’m horribly wrong**. I have decided that I need to get cracking on it again since December 28th is looming, and I need enough time to block the thing.

Now, back to work.

*This particular link goes to Cook’s theory, which is the one I sided with… cause I know you all care. *grin*

**I did, in fact, knit a gauge swatch… which I promptly forgot to measure before blocking, so my 4 inches knit = 6 inches blocked is, simply put, a guess… an edumicated guess, but a guess nonetheless.

One of those weeks

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I am sorry to say that there has been no knitting since I finished Lavender Twist on Tuesday. This is due to a mixture of sore wrist muscles after speeding through a hat with cables not using a cable needle (and I blame it on the circular needles… I always seem to tightly curl my pinkie fingers when knitting on circulars in the round. Why? It’s a mystery to me.) and the general crappiness that followed Tuesday. I have a lowered amount of motivation at the moment and a paper to write, so no knitting until after class tomorrow (and if I’m not sick by then… knitting and sick just don’t mix well with me, and I seem to be trying to fight something off). *blah*

Happy Halloween!

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Lavender Twist is progressing nicely. Although, now I need to tink back a row, so I can begin the decreases. I measured my head…. if I do the pattern as written, it will have a depth of 9 inches… that would cover my eyes. But, if I leave out one pattern repeat it should fit well. I keep forgetting what a small head I have.

I finally have an in-progress picture… Yea!


Class yesterday went well… paper turned in, 7 rows completed on Lavender Twist, disaster planning discussed*, and wet book received. Yes, wet book. My prof has given us an extra credit project… a wet book… that we must dry out and write up a report about the experience. I’m going to try the freezer drying method. The book I got is not a hardcover, so standing it up and fanning the pages won’t work very well… and I don’t want mold to develop. Mold growth = game over… we can still get extra credit, but we’re supposed to throw the book out so we don’t risk our health. I have to admit the Preservation Management class had been quite interesting… protecting books and protecting wool have a lot in common… there are pests to worry about… disasters to plan for… that sort of thing.

Hope everyone has a good Halloween!

*I never realized that practically every kind of disaster involves water damage… hurricanes and floods are obvious… but fires have water to put out the fire, earthquakes and tornadoes can break pipes… so, in a library anyways, you always need to be prepared to handle wet books and papers.