The verdict is in

I met Adam West and he declared that I am not a bum.

It's true.

Rainy days are here again

It would take a rainy day to cheer me up. I sat down and filed about seven more job applications last night. Maybe one of these will stick. And if not, well then I'll live in my car.

We live in a crappy little suburb so close to the freeway that the constant hiss of traffic is louder than the birds and even lawnmowers, in a little house that is trailerpark- and liquorstore-adjacent. It's a situation that we both wish we could change (D wants a house in the country, and I have been dreaming lately of the city) but for the moment, one thing we wouldn't change is the little house. It's cute, it's got more than enough space for us and our things, and on the side of the house, along with tigerlilies and hosta, grows this:


Lily of the valley has it all: beautiful, delicate blooms, broad verdant leaves that last all summer, and the fragrance.

I have wanted to start a Book Report portion of this blog to accompany the list of recreational reading in the sidebar, but I just haven't had the inspiration yet. David Sedaris may be that inspiration. Me Talk Pretty One Day is an engaging memoir; the anecdotes are entertaining and paint a vivid description of a complex life, but more than that, David Sedaris makes me want to write. His stories recall, in a lot of ways, my more... colorful moments. It has reminded me that one of my (more recent) goals is to lead an interesting life. I want weird coworkers and customers. I want unusual situations and settings. I want the unbelievable juxaposed with the mundane. And I want to tell people about it.

But probably not in the weblog. Sorry.

Oh, blog.

Man do I ever feel down lately. There's so much pressure on me to do... well, eight million things.

Things that aren't getting done, for some reason.

There's the nagging problem of getting a damned job. I am at the end of my rope, which is made entirely of resumes and the hair falling out of my head. I have officially been given The Run Around by Andiamo's hiring manager, and because I have no dignity, I will call tomorrow afternoon and pretend that I wasn't stood up for my interview without an apology and wasn't called the next day as promised.

But I do have a job, I must remember. I'm The Director now. That's a lot of pressure. If the show sucks, it'll be Officially My Fault.

Then there's The Wedding. I can't care any more. It's creeping up on me (yeah, Holly, I know that I can't talk, but still) and I have so much to do. I need to get contracts signed and invitations made and and and... the more I think about it, the more I just want to crawl into a hole.

Maybe I just have PMS. But after my period.

I really wish Blogger had a private mode, because I've got some personal kvetching that I can't do publically, for several reasons.

There is a bright side to my life, surprisingly, and expressed in bullet format it looks like a lot:

• Lelah needs some elastic (and a good blocking) and she's done.
  
• I tried on my interview suit my parents bought me in 2004, the year of College Graduation and Real Jobs (ha!), and it fits... well, mostly. I'm not going to get a little snugness in the waist get me down. Surprisingly.
• I calculated it out, and I'm almost positive my period will neither be during tech week nor my wedding, but rather the week between. Small mercies.
  

I took a few photos on our trip to Mt. Pleasant that cheer me up:

This is Miles. He was all in my yarn, until I tortured him with the Swatch Bonnet and the red-eye flash on my camera.

Taz toasting flutes? Why the fuck didn't I buy these? So classy!

This was the pinnacle of my good mood lately. Nothing surrounding this moment, but the combination of sunshine, knitting, and a 4-0 of PBR was sublime. Heaven.

Five photos, three passions

So I've begun Lelah in earnest, and I have to say that although the yarn shed all over my black t-shirt, it's like knitting with bunny-tails (without the sneezing) and therefore I am in love. I've got about half of the lace repeats done:

I am glad this is a tube with elastic at the bust, because I have no clue if gauge is going to screw me bad on this project. I can't tell if it's going to be a tent- or fit at all. But it sure is cute. Here's a closeup:

File Under Wedding Madness: My vase collection is growing, slowly. I think I've just about cleared out all of the resale shops around here, but at less than a dollar a pop, these white glass vases (which, by the way, I saw in a centerpiece arrangement in Martha Stewart Weddings so there!) are going to be quite cost effective. Now, I wonder if I can put snapdragons in the bud vases... you know, if the stems are long enough:

Spring is in the air around the house, and as I left this afternoon to catch dinner with Mike, we spotted one of my many (MANY!) squirrels (which happen to be my power animal, thank you very much) chomping an acorn and generally looking cute:

What, mortal?

Oh, nevermind.

I promise I'm still alive.

I've got some explaining to do, though. I've been MIA and completely kntting-free for quite a while. The good news is that I think the weather's nice enough to start work on Lelah. And Holly and Jenny and I (oh my!) have been working, slowly but surely, on that afghan. And other than that, it's been wedding wedding wedding. And hoping for a job.

I've got almost 400 cranes folded, and I'll do another 30 or so during American Idol (yeah, I know. I roll my eyes at myself, too). I overbought on origami paper. I've got enough to make about 3000 cranes. Whoops. Meh, it's gorgeous and I'll use it for something. MyPublisher has a promising photobook- it's 12" by 16"! And for about sixty bucks! And if you search on the interwebs, you can find coupons! That's definitely what we'll be doing with our candids and pro shots. These are probably the rings we'll get, if Dan's fingers can fit the size (maybe). I still need to buy ribbon, make rentals, book the caterer (but we've got a photographer! YEAH!), order the damn flowers already, etc. etc. We're really not that far along. But I do have a dress.

And a place to do it at.

And a person to do it with.

So it's happening. No matter what.

It might not be knitting, but it's still stitchy

So this is what happens when cool kids with too much acrylic get together to (drink and) crochet charity afghans:


It took all night, but we got 3 squares done (I am by far the slowest hooker of the whole bunch, so the pace was probably my fault). The one on the right is officially My First Granny Square.

Now I want to make granny squares all day and night.

My mother and I went to Value World today and brought the centerpiece vase count up to 13. On the way home, the sun was setting on Colgate Street in the center of the road. I thought it was pretty, so I snapped a picture to share:

I swatched!

I swatched a piece of black felt from Lamb's Pride for Dan's hat. It's been so long (and so wedding wedding wedding) that I thought I had forgotten how to knit, but no. I need to give myself some more credit. Originally, the swatch was 10.5 st/4 in (double-stranded on size 13 needles), but after a good hand-felting in the kitchen sink:


The swatch is a total of 16 stitches across. As maths will indicate, 16 st/5.5 in is about 3 st/in (the original gauge is more like 2.5 st/inch). What will actually happen is that I'll eyeball it, cast on, and then felt the bejeezus out of the hat until the stitch definition is gone and then stretch it to fit Dan's melon.

And just because I like my wedding flowers, here's a picture of the Oceana rose, currently my desktop background:

Wedding Crafting

It's been weeks since the Knitting Olympics ended and I haven't knitted a stitch. Why, you ask?

Because I'm getting married in six months, that's why.

There are paper cranes to fold (Dan and I kicked out about 50 last night, and I've got the rest of the paper coming this week) to hold escort cards, decorate wreaths, fill vases, and generally hang around, not unlike rose petals do for other people.

I've got bows to make for the ceremony chairs with my shiny new Bowdabra. I've got invitations to make, each of which involving hand-torn paper and eyelets, which I haven't mastered. Yet. I imagine that after 100 invites I should have the technique down.

Just in time to make the programs. And escort cards.

I've got to decide on vases for the cenerpieces. I think I'm going to have a cluster of milkglass bud vases, each holding about 5-6 stems. Very simple, keeping the palate to white, ivory, and peach. The robin's egg blue and chocolate brown will come out in the linens (maybe), and the cups, paper plates, and napkins. We're doing glass for everything but beer and soda (because a keg beer in a real glass just feels weird). We just bought a bunch of mismatched silverware on eBay to go with the Mad Hatter's theme (and at 10 cents apiece, save us a dollar a person). Speaking of which, if you know of anyone who has Corelle (you know, harvest gold, crazy daisy, old town blue? look in grandma's cupboard) dinner/lunch plates, dessert/bread plates, cups, or saucers, I want to meet them and talk them into letting me borrow their dishes for my wedding.

It's going to be badass, though. The food is going to rock. The flowers are going to be beautiful. The music will be what we want with no annoying DJ trying to play music I hate. And I'm going to look gorgeous.

That's what I've got to keep telling myself.

Decidedly not knitting

Or, at least for the moment. I'm giving my fingers a rest and focusing on wedding planning. Fear not, I will begin a new project soon!

Finished: Olympic Gold Baby Sweater

I finished in time! I wasn't sure at the end, but I've actually finished the entire thing, woven ends and all.


I like this detail picture. My camera rocks!

Here's the sleeve, folded over the body. My first experience with seam sewing went pretty well, I think. The process was daunting, but I think it would be easier with a less complicated stitch pattern on larger needles (i.e., a sweater for me).

Pattern: Guernsey with bobble edging from Family Knits by Debbie Bliss (smallest size)
Yarn: Red Heart Baby Pompadour, mint green (3+ skeins)
Needles: size 4 aluminum straights, and my NeedleMaster for the bottom hem. The gauge was large, despite my swatching, but the yarn drapes better this way. Oh well.
Notes: I did a plain neckband and cuffs instead of the bobble edging,edited out the bobbles on the sleeves, and added a side placket with 2 buttonholes on the left shoulder to accomodate big baby heads.

It's going to be a photo finish

Here's some progress shots I took yesterday:

This is a sleeve. Notice the lack of bobbles relative to the front and back:

As you can see, the front and back are a little wide, all things considered. This sweater is going to have to be for a f(l)at baby.

Falling Behing Olympic Pace

So I feel like a speed knitter, pushing row after row, wondering if my pace will be enough to get me gold. I've finished the back and I'm within rows of finishing the front, and all I can say is I hate bobbles. I think I might not do them on the sleeves, and I'm just going to do garter stitch cuffs and collar instead of the joker-looking pointed edging. And although it might be a disproportionately wide (I checked gauge, damnit!) sweater, it will look really cute on whatever kid ends up wearing it.

I think.

August 27, 2006

That's the day I'm getting married.

Olympic Update

I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this project. I'm afraid that it's going to be a lot of sleepless nights knitting on tiny needles and hunched over an intricate pattern to get this sweater done, but I am up to the challenge. Here's a progress shot, supervised by Blue Laser:
That's 20 rows of stockinette stitch and 21 pattern rows on the back. I've got at least 80 rows of work to do on the back before it's done. Eeep. At least it's really cute up close:

I showed Dan the first bobbles, and his response was, "How many of those do you have to do?" When I showed him the picture, his reply was, "At least you'll get a lot of practice." There are over 200 bobbles on this freakin' sweater.

Finished: Pirate Stripe Armwarmers

Pattern: Loosely Based on the Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers from Stitch 'n' Bitch Nation
Yarn: Black and Violet Red Heart Super Saver, who knows how much
Needles: size 6 aluminum dpns
Gauge: about 4 st/inch in 2x2 ribbing, slightly stretched (use your wrist/arm diameter for gauge purposes... I've got small wrists and forearms)
Notes: Cast on 32 stitches in purple (MC) and divide between 3 dpns (10, 12, 10).
K2, P2 around, changing color every 3 rounds and carrying yarn up through inside of warmer.
Round 37 (MC): K2, P2tog, K2, P2 around.
Rounds 38 and 39 (MC): K2, P1, K2, P2 around.
Round 40 (CC): K2, P1, K2, P2tog around.
Rounds 41 and 42(CC): K2, P1 around.
Continue in K2, P1 rib for 12 rounds, maintaining stripe pattern.
Round 55: K2, P into back and front of st around, making thumb gusset on 3rd (7th) knit rib as foll: K1, pm, M1, pm, K1.
Round 56: K2, P2 around, cont thumb gusset as follows: K1, slip m, K into back and front of st, slip m, K1
continue in K2, P2 rib around for 8 rounds, knitting into back and front of first and last st between markers.
Round 66: K2, P2 around, binding off st between markers.
Cont in k2, p2 rib for 6 more rounds and cast off in MC. Sew up gusset if you want to (I didn't- I like my thumbs hanging free)

Light the torch already!

I've selected my Olympian project and I'm ready to go!


Debbie Bliss designs such cute sweaters for kids, although I don't know if I'd wear any of the designs from this book... they're a tad schoolmarm.

And just as a note, I'm not doing the joker-looking collar, just the joker-looking everything else.

Gearing up for the Knitting Olympics

I'm jazzed. I've got to find some kind of... pattern for my project, but I fully intend to start on the 10th as planned. Maybe I'll go to the library today and cruise the pattern books. I want to make a fair isle baby sweater (I taught myself fair isle knitting!) in a tiny gauge knit in the round (but sans steeks) with a boatneck/placketed neckline. Yeah.

Yarn cravings

This yarn diet is starving me. I need to get a job, because when I get a job I will be able to justify more yarn. But in the meantime, I have so much crappy acrylic yarn and nothing to do with it. So I make black and purple acrylic armwarmers. And I think I've got enough Red Heart Baby Pompadour to make a couple baby sweaters. I think I might enter the Olympics. I think I can make Trellis, but it would definitely be a challenge (eep, cables!). I would also have to double the yarn, and check and see if I've got enough.

Knitting morsels

In an effort to blast through stash yarn, I'm making some armwarmers in fun pirate stripes out of (egad!) Super Saver:

I'll be wearing these at the bar, and so I don't care if they're 100% afghan. I can wash the smoke out of them, and that's really what's important.

And yes, the bar, in my case, is one of those dimly lit, dirty, goth affairs, and the whole point of the knitted pirate stripes is to make me look more, um, d.i.y. 3dgy. I'm never growing up.

And here's a peek at Super Secret Project #2, which I am building up to be the Project That Will Change the Very Face of Knitting As We Know It, rather than the Project That Isn't That Impressive Unless You Consider That I Am a New Knitter and Made It UpMyself:

Victory dance

I just did it.

I finished Super Secret project #2. It's not much, but I did it. And I did the hell out of it, too.

I'm so proud of me.