New shawl

Well, now that I've finished the April Wedding Shawl for the Cabin Cove-Along I'm starting a new shawl. I may have a "problem." I seem to have temporarily replaced my sock obsession with a shawl obsession (I have no idea why I say temporary, it could be permanant, though I think that very little can beat the sock for travel knitting).

The yarn is Cabin Cove merino Lace Cake in silver grey. I bought it at the same time I bought the pink for my (now finished!) AWS. The pattern is from Victorian Lace Today "A curved shawl with diamond edging." For those of you following along at home, the pattern starts on page 72. The center pattern reminds me of an heirloom baby bonnet I once saw (which, at the time, I thought was tatted, but now I'm not so sure) which I was fascinated with at the time. The difficulty is defined as "intermediate lace" and involves a "loop cast-on" (I'm not sure why since it's not a circular shawl) which I've redone about five times now trying to get it right. And I've started tinking already and I'm only on the third row. This may be partially due to the fact that I forgot to bring stitch markers with me and with lace, I like to put markers between repeats to make it easier to keep track of things. How I could make it anywhere without any stitch markers at all I don't know but I've dug through everything I have and nary a stitch marker to be seen. I did a search for LYS in the area and guess what! There is one, but it's closed on Sunday and Monday. :( So, I may be making a trip to walmart to see what they have.

I think my current obsession with shawls is partially based on my trips to California these past few months. While SoCal is maybe not the place to wear a heavily cabled sweater, the weather is perfect for shawls--particularly in the winter. When we'd go out at night, I'd just grab a wrap and as long as we didn't walk too far, it was perfect. I think I may also develop a strong interest in shrugs and little ballet wraps and cropped cardigans.

Finis!

I was up until 2am, but I finished the shawl and blocked it. All I have to do now is weave in the ends and there are only four of those so that shouldn't take too long.

Whew!

Delusional

I'm not really sure what made me think I could get my shawl done last night, but needless to say, it did not get done. Not even close. I wasn't happy with the way it looked when I turned the second corner. There were some funny stitches along the edge where I was attaching the border. I think I need to be a little more careful about how I slip my stitches on the center panel the next time around. Anyway, I redid the corner about 5 times (okay, more like three). Even taking that into account, I still wouldn't be done by now, but I'm even further behind that I thought I would be. I resisted the urge to stay home from lab today in order to finish it (finish the shawl or work toward graduation, hmmm, let me think about that for a moment; oh and I want to print out my boarding pass which I can't do until 2:05 and I don't have a printer at home), but I am going home early. Also, because I have no clean underwear and I really think I should have some before leaving. I mean, you have to have clean underwear in order to travel!

So, it looks like I may be blocking this thing in the hotel. I have already put my roommate on notice about this (she did not seem concerned or disturbed but then, she knits too). I'd still like to avoid that if I can because I'd like to carry on all of my luggage and I'm afraid the security people will not be in favor of me bringing 80 sharp pins on the plane with me (although, what could I do with them, really--block the living daylights out of the cheap blankets they give us? I mean as long as the pins aren't accompanied by little pilot voodoo doll, there really is nothing to fear).

Two sides down

Only two more to go! I have the border done on one long and one short side of my shawl. This has taken me three days. I now have less than two days to do the rest of it. Will I make it?

Additionally, before I leave I must do laundry because, really people, it's getting out of control. And I need clean underwear to take with me.

And, I need to try on the dress I'm going to wear to the wedding to make sure it still fits. Because that would be bad if it didn't since I don't have a back-up dress.

Yes, it's as exciting as ever here at e-beth knits. Shawl and laundry and no pictures because I haven't found my camera cable yet and haven't been able to go anywhere to get a memory card reader yet. Don't worry. I definitely will take a picture of me wearing the shawl and I will show it to you, it just may take awhile for that to happen.

In other news, I'm obsessed with HGTV. Except for Buy Me because it's too stressful and people sometimes yell at their real estate agents and I don't need that kind of tsoris (my benchmate in lab is Jewish by the way--I've picked up quite a bit of Yiddish over the years; it's a very satisfying language). There's something so satisfying about home improvement shows. There was a problem and in half an hour, Presto Chango! the problem is fixed! Unlike my labwork which is maybe why I like the HGTV so much. In lab, I'll start the day with a problem and by the end of the day, I still have the same problem and it's not getting better. And then I start the next day with the same problem.

Why yes, I'm feeling a little frustrated with my labwork--how did you guess?

Anyway, I really like watching House Hunters because I like trying to guess which place they are going to pick. Unfortunately, the other night there was this girl on that was buying her first place and she had just finished medical school and there were two things that irked me. One was that she was able to get a "new doctor loan" which required no money down and had a low interest rate and so on and so forth and I sat there thinking, I bet you have to be a new medical doctor to get a loan like that and it made me a little bit angry. The other was that she said something to the effect of (in reference to just starting her residency), "I've never received a paycheck in my life." And I thought, how the hell does someone get to the age of 26 or whatever and never have had a paycheck?? How do they get money for things like food???? And then I felt all bitter thinking about how the first paycheck I ever got was when I was 14 and it was for working in the corn fields so that I could have money to buy my school clothes and nobody is going to give me a "new doctor loan" when I finish grad school and it is completely unfair that I have had to work my ass off all of my life and will have to continue doing so and I'm never going to get to buy a condo.

So maybe HGTV isn't so good for me afterall.

Peek-a-boo

I've been here, just hiding out behind a mountain of work!

The exciting news is that Friday I got to meet Kristen of Procrastinating in Pittsburgh! She was in Chicago--at U of C, actually--for a conference and we met up for dinner. She is every bit as charming and funny and witty in person as she is in her blog. I love meeting blogging friends. It still amazes me that I can meet and create friendships with people who are hundreds of miles away!

Additionally, I recently heard from a really good friend from college that I had sort of lost touch with. It was really good talking to her. I have to be better about maintaining my friendships. Really. It feels like there are so many people I just randomly stopped communicating with for no other reason than that life got in the way. But friends are a part of life and I need to take the time to keep in touch with them.

I am still working on my April Wedding Shawl for the CabinCoveAlong. I have started on the border. I'm probably about 1/5 of the way through the border. I'm getting a little nervous because the wedding is one week from today! I'm afraid I may join the ranks of the few, the proud, the people who block their shawl in the hotel room hours before they are supposed to wear it. It was not my intention to join this elite society, but I may be forced into it. Also, I need more blocking pins. Where can I get pins for $2/100 pins? Anyone know?

I wish I could show you a picture, but I seem to be missing the cable that connects my camera to my computer. I had it with me in California (went there the beginning of the month) but I haven't seen it since then. John swears it's not out there. I have a feeling though, that the next time I'm there, I'll take a 15 second glance around the place and locate it. In the meantime, I can't download pictures! I'm thinking about getting a memory card reader that plugs directing into the USB port. They aren't very expensive and it will probably be more convenient in the long run.

In other news, my sister is having a boy. She is naming him B. The same B as M's boyfriend and my boss. It could get a little confusing. Therefore, I have taken to referring to each of them with modifiers before their names. Boss-B, M's-B, and Baby-B. I am officially declaring a moratorium on that name.

I am going to try to be better about updating the blog but it turns out that the more I do on the computer at work the less I feel like spending time on the computer outside of work stuff. And I've been trying to keep all of my notes on the computer lately because I'm really tired of trying to track down pieces of paper on my desk and lab bench. So, that's a lot of computer time. On the plus side, I am getting more organized. Also, I am trying some note-taking software and it needs to be run on a computer with OX 10.3 or higher. In the meantime, the software I use to analyze DNA sequence can only be run on computers running something less that 10.3. Therefore, when I'm at work, I'm taking notes on my laptop and doing other things on my laptop. It makes me look like I'm getting a lot of work done. It also makes me look a little silly. Before you ask, yes, we could upgrade the sequencing software but it would cost $15000 to get the software for the whole lab. Yes, that is the correct amount of zeros! Needless to say, we aren't up for that yet!

Okay folks, it's time for bed.

Guess what?!

April Wedding Shawl, Socks, Ballband Washcloth

My camera has been found!

I lost my camera while waiting for Roommie/M to finish being grilled by his committee. As soon as we were up at the party, I went to fish out my camera from my bag. No camera. So, I ran down to where we were sitting before and no camera. I knew I should check with lost and found but I was in denial. If I never check if it's at lost and found, I don't know for sure it's been stolen and lost forever, I thought. Well, yesterday, M sent me an email. Someone in the office had emailed him about it. Yippie!!!!!
I just blocked this shawl last weekend. I've been working on it off and on for 2 or 3 years now. The pattern was free from Lion Brand. It actually calls for a bulky yarn, but I modified it. I had this wool/silk yarn from Blackberry Ridge Mill that I had tried making a different shawl with. After ripping that one out several times, I gave up and went for this one. I adore it. I want to wear it all the time. I want to make five more shawls. Right now we are having the perfect weather for wearing a shawl as an outer garment and I think in California it will be even better.

My strategy for working on this shawl was as follows: have perfect shawl weather, knit a few inches, weather changes, stop working on it; get sick, want shawl to wrap up in, knit a few more rows, get better, stop working on it (you can see why it took so long to finish). I had the knitting done by the very end of my last bout of the flu so I wrapped up in it even though it hadn't been blocked. I finally got around to blocking it last weekend. I actually could only block half of it at a time because only half of it would fit on my bed at a time.

Have I mentioned I adore it?

As for the April Wedding Shawl, I am about halfway done with the center panel. The markers in the picture above mark 20 repeats (they are 2-row repeats). I need to stick another marker in there. I have just over 60 repeats done and I need to do 132 total. Then there is a pointy border that is around 15 stitches at it's peaks. The wedding is at the end of the month, so I should be able to finish. Especially since my cable is getting hooked up tomorrow! Hooray! Back to TV watching + shawl knitting. And I will have high-speed internet so no more uploading pictures at work. Hooray!

Sorry, but it's 60 degrees here and sunny and it feels like spring and I'm feeling a little giddy. I ate lunch outside today. My seasonal affective disorder is devolving into spring mania.

Hooray!

Knitting? What knitting?

It turns out I do the majority of my knitting while sitting in front of the TV. At present, I am waiting to have cable installed and therefore have no tv reception whatsoever and therefore am not watching TV. Instead, I am doing jigsaw puzzles. I have become a jigsaw puzzle fool. Since moving in to my apt. about a week and a half ago, I have finished one 750 piece puzzle and am about a quarter of the way finished with a 1000 piece puzzle. I glued the first puzzle together and hung it up on the wall. With that one done and still no cable, I bought a set of two 1000 piece puzzles on Sunday (I'm working on the one with the flowers in a pitcher right now). I've become slightly addicted to them. Since I have a cat, I had also bought a roll-up puzzle mat. Each night, I unroll the puzzle and work on it for a bit. As it gets later and later, I think, "I should really stop and go to bed. I'll just find one more matching piece." And about 30 minutes and 10 more pieces later, I still haven't gone to bed. It's a little sad, really. A woman living alone, with just a cat for company, addicted to jigsaw puzzles. Somebody should stage an Intervention.

The hold-up on the TV situation has been due to a hold-up on the high-speed internet situation. I am sick to death of dial-up. I pondered DSL, but it turns out my cable company had a deal where you could get digital cable plus high-speed internet for a total of $33/month. Which sounded like a damn fine deal to me. But, I had to order a cable modem (which they gave you a rebate for, so it's free except for shipping). However, it arrived yesterday, so now I just have to schedule installation for later this week and it will be back to TV plus knitting. I guess that means I should hurry up and finish my puzzle or it might never get done!

Introducing...

Dr. Roommie, PhD

Unfortunately, I lost my camera in the midst of his thesis defense (long story), so I don't have a picture of him from that day. Here he is modeling the hat I made for him for his birthday. For another pic of him see this entry.

If it seems like everyone I know is defending their thesis lately, well, they are. Roommie had a particularly rough time. His committee was Evil, so it was a long, arduous process. Like everyone else, he gave a one hour talk. Unlike everyone else, he was in with his committee for four hours after that (with a few breaks). We are usually grilled by our committees in private after our public presentation, but usually only for about an hour to an hour and a half. So, his was an unusual case. But, he passed! Yay!!!! He is now in Michigan, living with friends while he finishes his thesis rewrites and looks for a job. He wants some sort of science job near Beaufort, South Carolina because that's where his longterm boyfriend is moving to (he has a tenure-track position as a Spanish professor at USCB). Here's a picture of them together:

Aren't they cute?

Since Roommie is no longer my roommate, I suppose I should give him another name. I guess M will have to do. Although, I do still think of him as my roommate. And why not? John lives halfway across the country and he's still my husband.

MIA camera

I know I said I would post pictures of my Cabin Cove projects last week but I have lost my camera. I suspect it may have been stolen, but I still haven't checked every lost and found on campus so I can't claim that yet.

Despite the fact that I rarely posted pictures anyway, without my camera I don't feel like a proper blogger and haven't been inspired to post. Sorry.

Can't wait to tell hubby. *sigh*

But wait, you also get--

--the flu!

Like many other people I know, I got a flu shot. Then, this week, I caught a cold (probably from A who had one as well). Much mucus was produced. And then, it started: the fatigue, the getting winded from walking across the room, the fever, the achiness. Yes, it's the flu.

Contrary to popular belief, getting a flu shot does not mean you cannot get the flu. It just means you won't get the particular strains that you were vaccinated against. I just happened to be unlucky enough to get exposed to one of the thousands of other strains of flu out there. *le sigh*

So, I've pretty much been sitting at home, sleeping, drinking tea (decaf only, please, with echinacea if you've got it), grading genetics exams (what some of these children think is possible to see in a microscope is astounding!), and getting a little bit of knitting done.

The winner of the color contest is: Just Pink. Thank you for all of your input, but I went to The Man himself to ask about the colors and which he thought would go better with my dress (I included the picture) and my skin tone. And, because he is a first-rate gentleman, Dave emailed me back. Here is what he said about the colors:

I think with your
skin situation, the Just Pink would probably be a better choice. I think
the Pink Fire will fight with your skin tone. I'd say, with that dress,
either the pink or the medium Silver Grey.

So, I bought both the Just Pink and the Silver Grey. Just to see which I liked better. Besides, I've been wanting a grey shawl/wrap as well, so I figured it would be worth it just in case I decided I didn't like the way the pink went with the dress. It came on Monday (I know! I should've mentioned it sooner!) and I started with the simple lace shawl pattern in Victorian Lace Today (hereafter known as The April Wedding Shawl) in the Just Pink. By the way, I just have to mention that I love getting yarn from Dave. He wraps it up in tissue paper and ties it with raffia and includes a little bit of lavender in it to make it smell yummy. It's like buying something from a fancy boutique! Anyway, I'm glad I went with the Just Pink. On my screen, the colors were looking darker than they really were, more reddish, which I only know now that I have the Just Pink in hand and see that it is more like a mauvy rose than a fushia (which is what it looked like on my computer).* This is why I went straight to the source about my color dilemma since he was the only one who could see the real, true colors.

So far, I'm liking how the shawl is turning out . I'd show you a picture, but I'm on dial-up and you wouldn't believe how long it takes to upload a picture. Maybe next week. Anyway, I took that pic only about three inches into it (at which point, I held it up to Roommie and said, "Look! Only 55 more inches to go!") and I'm now at a foot and a half, so you can see the stitch pattern better. I'm supposed to do 132 pattern repeats and I have 46 done, so I'm a third of the way through the center panel. There is a border that is knitted on at the end, but it is not very wide so it shouldn't take very long. I've never knit on a border before, but the directions in the book are very clear and I'm no longer afraid of trying it!

----

Thank you for all of your responses to my baby woes. John and I are talking and I no longer think I'm going to wait until I leave Chicago before trying to get pregnant. We shall see what the fates have in store for us on that front.

----

Well, that's it for Chez Influenza. Tune in next time for more exciting knitting drama!


*I totally blame my computer for this. If you've ever seen Dave's photos, you know that they are works of art. I'm certain he took photos that correctly represented the colors, but different computer screens show colors a little differently as I'm sure many of you have found out!

Babies, babies Everywhere

And not a one for me.

It feels like everywhere I look these days, someone's having a baby. My husband's cousin, my friend from college, Alison from the blue blog, and now my sister.

Yes, my sister.

The unmarried 20 year old with no health insurance. That would be the one.

I have talked about babies before and my desire to have one, but lately, the issue has become so painful, it's practically intolerable. It's been on the back burner for awhile now, quietly simmering and rising up every so often as a deep pang in my ovaries everytime I saw a newborn baby or a pregnant woman (figuratively speaking, I don't actually get pangs in the ovaries). Now, when I see a newborn baby or a pregnant woman, I want to weep. I think my sister's pregnancy has pushed me over the edge and now the desire to have a baby is at a rolling boil (never let it be said I can't mix metaphors). It touches everything I do. "I may as well have a glass of wine, it's not like I'm pregnant." "Maybe I shouldn't get rid of these fat pants, they might be good for when I'm pregnant." I looked at some knitting books for baby patterns on Saturday and it put me in such a funk not even going out with my friends could raise my spirits. And this happens every time I look at a baby pattern book. Which I've been doing quite a bit lately because I want to make something for my sister's baby. But, I can't quite bring myself to buy a book because in my dreams I envisioned myself buying said books when I got pregnant. Not when somebody else got pregnant.

I'm not sure where this all came from exactly. It's definitely been a progression. When I was in college, when everyone I knew was romanticizing pregnancy and how wonderful it would be, I was adamant I did not want to have children. Ever. When John and I got married seven years ago, both of us said, "Well, if you really want to have children, I'm not opposed to it." Then, I turned 30. Suddenly, I had this epiphany. My eggs were old! They were 30 years old! Would you eat a 30 year old egg? They are going bad. They are just asking for meiotic non-disjunction. And I realized, hey, if I want to have children I should probably do that fairly soon (like in the next few years). Especially if I wanted more than one child. And just in case there are problems. And I'd really like to have them out of college before I hit retirement age. And all that. I mean, sure, women in their 40s have children all the time but medically speaking, the earlier you can start, the better (within reason, of course).

So, the tension has been slowly rising. When we got our apt. in California, I thought of it in terms of how long we could live there after having a child. I thought about school systems. When John and I eat, I correct his table manners so that our children don't have a bad example sitting next to them.

I don't understand what has happened to me. I've become someone I used to look down upon. A woman who seems to be just gagging for a child. A woman who is obsessed with having a baby. A woman who is wondering if it would be crazy to go by a basal thermometer to see if I can pinpoint when I ovulate (the answer to that is yes, it would be crazy).

So why, oh why am I not trying to get pregnant? Well, there is the small matter of living half a country away from my husband at the moment. But, we could try to time things a little differently. We could, you know, stop using birth control. But we're not doing that. Because I need to get my PhD. I need to finish my program. I need to have my degree. And then I can get pregnant. At least, that's been the plan.

Only, lately, I've been thinking, "You know, is it really inconceivable (haha) to be pregnant and finish my PhD at the same time?" It's not like any of the stuff I do in the lab is actually harmful, so I don't have that to worry about. And would I really get pregnant the first time I tried? I mean, I only see my husband for three days out of every month. The odds of them being the exact right three days are pretty low (unless I buy that thermometer and start taking my temperature and seeing if I can define a good ovulation window, but to have good data for that [let's remember I'm a scientist], I'd have to do it for several months and even then I might not be able to predict an ovulation window accurately enough to buy a plane ticket at least two weeks in advance and anyway I'm hoping to be out of here in several months).

Basically, I'm beyond caring.

I don't care if I've finished my PhD, I don't care if it might get complicated, I don't care that my husband is hundreds of miles away, I don't care. I just want a baby.

I don't know where I'm going with this. I don't know why I'm posting this. I just need to talk about it or explode, and while talking to my therapist is great, it's not enough. And I think, there must be people out there who feel the same way, and maybe one of them will read this post, and they'll say, "Hey, I feel that way too," and I won't feel like some sad, pathetic fool of a woman who is being dominated by hormonal urges. That's all.

So that would be Knitalong Wednesdays, then?

I meant to knit the Cabin Cove socks yesterday, really I did, but I utterly and completely forgot. So, I knit a few rounds on them this morning while I was sitting in front of my light box. I'm knitting both at the same time, toe-up. I started them toe-up because I was a little bit worried about running after yarn. And everytime I sit down to knit on them and look at those little balls of yarn, I'm a little more worried that I will run out of yarn. Especially when I think about how huge the first pair of socks was that I knit for him. So, my current plan is to do an afterthought heel. I've never done one before, but I'm thinking it can't be too hard. My reasoning is this: if I run out of yarn before finishing, I can make the heel and the cuff in a different color of yarn and it will look like I meant to do it that way.

I am contemplating buying more Cabin Cove yarn--one of the lace cakes. I have a wedding I'm going to where I'm going to wear this dress:

Me and John on our anniversary last year

(Please do not lecture me about wearing black to weddings, I don't have the money to buy another dress right now). I want to make one of the simplest patterns in Victorian Lace Today (a center panel of faggoting with a simple knit-on border--don't look at me like that, it's what they call the stitch!) to wear with the dress to the wedding. I'm thinking of buying either Pink Fire or Just Pink. I was originally going to go for the knitpicks alpaca and silk blend laceweight in a fushia, but then Dave updated his site and I like Dave: he seems nice, he has a pretty kitty, he shows pictures of Boston on his blog, and I'm doing this here knitalong, so why not? But, I'm hung up on which yarn to get. I just fired off an email to Dave asking his opinion (because I'm sure he has nothing better to do than give me fashion advice, yeah right), mostly because I'm always concerned about the appearance of the yarn color on my screen. I'm leaning heavily toward the Just Pink today (yesterday it was the Pink Fire, tomorrow I'll probably be back to Pink Fire). If I wait too long, it'll be sold out, I'm sure, and then I'll be up a crick without a paddle (crick = creek in midwest-speak). So, dimmi!* What do you think?

*That's Italian for "Tell me." My Italian professor used to say it all the time in class and I've been thinking about it a lot lately. We have a new post-doc from Greece and her accent sounds very much like Southern Italian and she's always saying, "Tellll me." Makes me long to visit Italy again.

Introducing...

...Dr. A, PhD


From left to right: Me, A (temporary roommie), Roommie, M

We all started the same year, bonding almost at once and A is the first to defend her thesis. I'm so proud of her I could burst! We've all been through so much together these past seven years and I just don't know how I'm going to live without them. Fortunately, A has a job at UCLA and so won't be too far away! Roommie and M are going to be getting a lot of phone calls in the future.

To jog your memory, A is the one I taught to knit while she was staying with me and in two months she made 6 scarves, a pig, a penguin, and a duck. Before her defense, she sat down and wove in the ends on a scarf for her mother (which she then handed to her, turns out she didn't quite finish it in time for Christmas). Yep, she's a knitter.

By the way

I forgot to say the talk went well. I asked my advisor about it later. In knitting terms, the stranding on the inside was just the right tension, my seams were perfect, and the fit was good. Hooray! I am especially pleased by this because I want to be a professor and therefore I need to have good presentation skills.

In (real) knitting news, I have a few updates:

Baby Kimono from Mason-Dixon knitting:
Done in worsted weight, this is a quick knit! It's knit flat, then seamed up the sides and arms. The pattern calls for Sugar 'n Cream cotton, but I wanted something a little softer. So, I picked up some Peter Pan Velvet Touch which is a synthetic novelty yarn that is soft and fuzzy in a girly-girl colorway of purple, pink, and yellow. It's like it's screaming to be a baby garment. And it meets my standard criteria for baby knitting: machine washable. Because babies, they are messy and parents, they are tired. So, I have the back, one sleeve and most of one side of the front done. And I started on Monday. Okay, so this may not seem very quick to you, but trust me, it is for me, especially these days. Hopefully I'll have it done by the end of the weekend and then I'll just need some ribbons so that it can be tied closed and I can ship it off.

Grandma socks:
I started these socks from Regia Bamboo as my seminar knitting. I've got a cuff and part of the leg for one plain stockinette sock.

Cabin Cove socks:
I still have two toes and the beginnings of two feet. I haven't gotten any further because I need to pay attention to the pattern and I haven't had any time for that kind of knitting. I have faced the music and realized that my roommate is not getting these socks until next Christmas. But that's okay because that means I'm early for next year's Christmas knitting. I've decided though, to make Tuesday knitalong day. So every Tuesday, I'll knit on the Cabin Cove socks. Yeah. We'll see how long that lasts!

She's alive!

Perhaps I should rename the blog, e-beth MIA.

You know how it goes. Lots going on. Deadlines. The need for sleep. Snowstorms. General mayhem.

Yesterday, I gave a talk about my research to people in my program (students and faculty). There's always something a little scary about this. While it's fun to share your research, at the end of the talk, people ask you questions and point out flaws in your thinking. Put another way, it's like showing someone the fair isle sweater you knit knowing that they're going to want to look at the stranding on the inside. And the seams. And, they're going to want to know what the pattern was, who the designer was, what weight, brand, color and fiber your yarn was, when did you do the steeks and how long did it take you and if you didn't do steeks, they're going to want to know why.

So, I spent all day Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday working on this 20 minute talk. On Monday, I had a practice talk for my lab and got constructive critcism (it really is constructive, even if they do hate your slides and think that you aren't explaining things well enough). Then, I had to redo my talk. And practice, practice, practice. I looked over old data and papers from before my time and talked with my advisor about my data and freaked out about the questions people were going to ask, and got down on my knees and prayed that a certain annoying, rude faculty member would not be there (she wasn't-yay!). God help me when I get to my thesis defense.

I would love to share my presentation with all of you, but I haven't figured out how to add a file to the blog. I think I might not be able to because I have the free version of Blogger.

Needless to say, the knitting, it has been languishing. However, I did get two books:

Mason-Dixon Knitting
Victorian Lace Today

These are two very different books (I can't read one right after the other because it gives my brain whiplash), but I love them both. Mason-Dixon Knitting is a tower of practicality. I cast on for the baby kimono (for my husband's cousin's baby which should be arriving any day now), and the ball-band washcloth, and I desperately want to make the linen hand towels, and a log-cabin afghan, and I bought some cotton yarn for the baby bibs and burp cloths (for a different family member which is a matter for a different post--Imbrium, remember who I was saying I should make something for and I kept browsing books and looking at yarn and in the end I just couldn't bring myself to commit to anything? That's who they're for). Oh, and the spiral rug, I want to make one of those, too. And the nightgown and robe. And I love the technical hints they have with the patterns. It's like borrowing a pattern from a friend and having them tell you how to do the hard bits.

Reading Victorian Lace Today is a completely different experience. If Mason-Dixon Knitting is like meeting a friend at a coffee shop, Victorian Lace Today is like going for high tea at the Ritz. The photography is stunning and gives the book a "coffee table" quality. History is my second favorite subject (science is first, of course), so I am thrilled to read the introductions to each of the chapters and the historical notes with the patterns. Being new to lace knitting, I appreciate the notes with the patterns and I am looking forward to the day when I feel brave enough to design my own pattern and can use the information in the back of the book. I long to own just about every shawl and scarf in the book and even if I never, ever buy another lace book, this one will keep me busy for years and years to come. I can't wait to start something from the book. My brother is getting married this summer, so I have the perfect excuse to knit something delicate and beautiful from this book.

DON'T CRY OUT LOUD!!!!

JUST KEEP IT INSIDE!
LEARN HOW TO HIDE YOUR FEELINGS.......

When I was in college, one of my roommates did not like to cry in front of other people. So, even though we were the best of friends, if she was feeling really sad, she would not cry. This made for some awkward moments if we were talking about whatever it was that was upsetting her. So, to ease the tension, I would suddenly belt out at the top of my lungs, "DON'T CRY OUT LOOUUUUD!" At which point we would start giggling and the tension would be released. Having done that regularly for an entire semester and at various times since college, whenever I feel sad, that is the first thing that comes to mind.

John left for California yesterday afternoon. All in all, I think I handled it pretty well. After I dropped him off at the airport, went to Michaels and bought a sketch pad and some crayons and some wool/soy yarn from Patons that I've been wanted to try (only 2 skeins). Then, I went to the grocery store and bought a baguette and some goat cheese (mmmmmm.....goat cheese!) and some of that spreadable cheese with port wine in it and a few pears and red seedless grapes and a bottle of reisling and a small box of Lindt truffles and went home and took a nap and when I got up, I ate my cheese and fruit and had a glass (a mug actually because all of my wine glasses are in California) of reisling and watched Law and Order Criminal Intent and then SVU right after that and ate four of the truffles. Yes, I comforted myself by buying things and eating things but I bought a small number of inexpensive things and ate relatively healthy things (well, except for maybe the truffles and I only had four of them and there were 12 in the box). Not bad really. It could've been much, much worse.

On the knitting front, I remade Calorimetry so that it is a little shorter and fits more snugly on my head. I am wrapping the old Calorimetry around my neck inside my coat(it fits with about 3 inches to spare on each side) and tucking the ends to help keep my neck warm so I can use my scarf on the outside to cover my mouth because it is well below zero here these days (Celsius and Fahrenheit!). I finished the baby socks and need to send them to my friend. I finished the toes on my Cabin Cove socks (toe-up) and started the pattern but decided that I didn't like how it looked in this yarn (really needs a very light color to do the twisted stitches justice), so I switched to a different pattern in the book and had to revise it for the number of stitches I am using. Since I finished the baby socks, I was without a pair of mindless socks to knit in seminars and on the bus and so forth, so I started a pair for my grandmother out of Regia bamboo. You can never have too many socks on the needles.

So, today I am back in lab and life is back to "normal" and all in all I'm coping better than I did after the last time John visited so, yay me!

The kindness of bloggers

A while back, Norma asked people to write about what motivated them to knit for the Red Scarf Project. For me, it was because I never received care packages when I was in college, so I know how hard it can be when everyone else is getting them (especially freshman year). When I posted this comment, Norma, being the dear, sweet person that she is, asked me for my snail mail address. A little while later, I received this in the mail:

Item 1: Impossible floating jam. Tasty enough to blow up your kitchen over. Seriously. If I had to blow up my own kitchen to get more of this jam, I would.

Items 2 and 3: Sugar and Cream cotton yarn with which to make Mason-Dixon's infamous, addictive washcloth

Item 4: Chocolate from Norma's sister's shop. The best damn chocolate this side of the Atlantic. Go, buy some.

Item 5: Notecard, image of Blue Moon yarns on front, photography by Cara Davis

Item 6: A Rhinebeck Bingo button (it's sooo cool I get a souvenir of the world-renowned Rhinebeck Festival when I didn't even get a chance to go!)

It's funny, this blogging community that we have. Norma wouldn't know me if she passed me on the street, and yet, here she sent me this lovely package and I probably communicate more with her than I do with most of my own family (which is pretty sad, really, since by "communicate" I mean "leave comments on her blog"). And I have read many, many accounts of bloggers who are in need in some way, and other bloggers have come to their rescue. And even when I have a terrible day and I feel just awful and I have had a bad experience and I write about it here, I get words of encouragement from people I "don't know" in the conventional sense. And I truly care about the people I have met in the blogosphere.

What is it about this "place" that makes us all so caring, so honest, so giving? Is it just that knitters and crocheters in general are those kind of people? You have only to look at the Yarn Harlot's Knitter's Without Borders drive to know that knitters are incredibly generous with whatever resources they have. How is it that in this world where people are so often cruel to each other that there is this little oasis of comfort and beauty of the human spirit? And why can't we see more of such goodness and kindness on the news instead of the senseless violence that predominates? Maybe the answer is to take away everyone's guns and hand them knitting needles and a ball of yarn.

That's why he's a rocket scientist

I tend to forget how intelligent my husband truly is. If you lived with a man who suffered from GBB, you'd forget too. And really, how often can you tell someone not to wear two prints at the same time before you start thinking he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer?

However, the other day, when I was telling him about the socks I was making for our friends' baby (who was born in July or there-abouts), and complaining that I didn't know how big to make socks for a 6 month old, he came up with a simple answer. Look up pediatric growth charts. This was incredibly brilliant, but alas, they only have length, weight, and head circumference on those things. But, in my travels, I did find a chart for baby foot sizes on a website for shoes. According to Shoofly, a 6-9 month old baby needs a shoe that is 5 1/8 inches in length. This seems a little long to me, but what do I know? The sock I finished is just under 5 inches in length, heel to toe, which should probably be okay. Really wish I had my own baby to compare to. The second sock is on the needles and will likely be done by the end of the week.
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Tiny stitches

I usually knit socks on 2mm needles using fingering weight yarn. This generally means they take quite awhile to make. Like months. For Christmas, I've made socks with sport weight yarn on US4 needles and those just fly by! I do like how the stitches look at 9.5 stitches per inch, though. So tiny and perfect. No floppy stitches, just nice and even.

However. I'm not sure I want to devote the next three months to making these socks. So, I started swatching the Cabin Cove yarn using 2.5mm needles. I don't have enough done to get a good stitch count, but the stitches do look bigger.

Swatching

Yesterday, I started swatching for the Cabin Cove Along:


This morning, I finished the swatch and counted stitches per inch: 9.5 on 2mm needles. A little small, but I like the fine gauge. But, I don't want to spend an enternity knitting these socks, so I have to decide if I want to go up in needle size or what. If I continue with this, given the size of my roommate's leg, I will need to have 92 stitches around. The pattern I want is only 72 stitches around, so I am modifying it. There's a faux cable/twisted stitch pattern running down the front of it and I'm widening that slightly. The rest is just ribbing and I can add more of that fairly easily. I'm going to do the socks toe-up because I'm afraid of running out of yarn. Possibly another reason to have a slightly looser (more loose?) gauge.

I'm going to make the decision tonight whether or not to go slightly larger on the needle size, then cast-on (if I happen to have the correct needles available, may need a trip to the LYS). I know the Along isn't supposed to start until 2/2, but they seem to be pretty flexible and these socks are already a month late.

Scarfin' it up

Today, I sent out the Red Scarf. Here are a few pictures:

Model: Labmate LY

Model: Dissecting microscope

Ready to go:

Specifications
Yarn: Swish Superwash from Knitpicks in "Fired Brick"
Pattern: I used a stitch pattern from this book surrounded by a garter stitch border. The length was 4 balls of yarn; I never actually measured it. Width was the length of a bamboo dpn which I used during blocking to make sure I was being consistent down the length of the scarf.

I also included a box of Sweethearts and the card is a postcard of the Sears Tower. On the back I glued a pink card made from fancy paper that I got at a stationery store in Paris. I wrote this note:


The ribbon was something I picked up at JoAnn's a couple weekends back.

I hope he/she likes the scarf. The people in the lab sure liked it. LY was sad when I took it off her.

On a related note, it's clear to me that college students are desperately in need of winter clothing. This morning, when I took the bus in to campus, it was 16 degrees Fahrenheit with snow flurries. I wore my new winter coat, my new wool mittens (pictures to follow), my Calorimetry head band (which I didn't redo over the weekend--maybe next weekend), and my scarf. And I was freezing my butt off (literally, because my coat only goes to my waist!). When I got on the bus, I was seated acrossed from college students wearing the following:

Boy #1: T-shirt, hoodie, knit hat, jeans
Boy #2: Fleece, jeans (couldn't see his shirt, he did have the fleece zipped all the way up)
Girl: Winter coat, fingerless goves, knit hat, turtleneck or scarf (couldn't tell which), lightweight capris, moccasins (no socks or tights)
Boy #3: Button-down shirt, light-weight courdoroy jacket, chinos
Boy #4: Leather coat, jeans

It was all I could do to keep myself from wrapping my scarf around one, giving my mittens to another and buttoning Calorimetry around the neck of a third. What were they thinking????

A disturbing realization

My advisor's wife is a playwrite. One of her plays is being performed at a theater in Chicago. Last night, a group of us from the lab went to see it (not my advisor, he had already been to see it). It was a drama about a mother and her grown twin children (a boy and a girl) over Thanksgiving weekend (very dysfunctional family, we are about to find out). The son has secretly married an older woman about a month ago and doesn't tell his mom about it until they arrive (surprise!). Mom decides at that moment to call the (single) chemistry teacher from school (she's a home-ec teacher) and invite him to Thanksgiving dinner (he had suggested they go out sometime). This leads to dialog in which the daughter (the rebel who drinks a lot and has sex with just about every male to cross her path) to say something like, "A chemistry teacher--how kinky! I bet there's a lot you could do with a beaker and a bunsen burner!"

We laugh. We are thinking, "This is probaby more amusing to us because we are scientists."

Then we think--

Wait.

Our advisor is a scientist.

This is his wife's play.

.

.

.

Ewwwwwwww!!!!!!

You'll have to excuse me now, I'm helping my labmates bleach the glassware and order new bunsen burners.

Finished objects and what's on the needles

But no pictures. Sorry.

I finished the Red Scarf, but there's no pictures yet. I haven't gotten around to taking them. I have to hurry up, though, so that I can send it out on time!

I also started and finished Calorimetry in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Bittersweet. I love the bright colors and it's the perfect thing to spice up a grey winter day. But, I think it is a leeetle too big. While I was making it, I decided it was too wide, so I ripped back and did fewer short rows in the middle, but I think it should be more snug on my head, so I'm thinking of ripping the entire thing out and redoing it with fewer stitches (maybe 100 instead of 120). If it wasn't such a quick knit, I wouldn't even think of it, but I could redo it over the weekend, I think. I'm in the process of making matching mittens, too.

AND, I'm making a pair of baby socks for a friend. Someone I knew in college had a baby this summer and I made her a pair of socks and a hat. Apparently, the socks were a really big hit (she was using them as booties over the other socks so the baby wore them practically every day) but they are getting too small. So, I'm trying to make socks that would fit a 6-month old. I have no idea what size these socks should be. I looked at this site, though, and think I will make a sock that's 5 inches long unless that looks ridiculously huge. It would help if I had the dimensions of the original socks but of course I didn't record them anywhere. It would probably be easiest to ask the person the size of her child's foot. But, you know how it is, I'd ask and say I wanted to make some bigger socks and she'd say, "No, no, it's okay, you don't have to make more." "No, really," I'd say, "I'd like to make some socks, it's no trouble." "No, no, I don't want to bother you." "Seriously, it'll only take me a few hours, baby socks are small." And it would go back and forth and I'd never get the size of the child's foot. So, if you know any 6 month old babies out there, could you measure their feet? Thanks.

What else? Oh yes, I signed up for this:


I have a ball of sock yarn in Gingerbread that I wanted to make into socks as a Christmas gift for my roommate. For last Christmas. So, um, I should probably get started on those, huh?

Stitch Markers

Most of my stitch markers are rather plain--the kind you can get for a few bucks at a yarn shop or even Joanne's or Michael's. I have the little orange and green plastic pins and the green and purple rings among others. The other night, I reached into my tools bag to get a stitch marker. It's not very organized in there, so it took a bit of doing, but I was able to pull one out. I try to put them back into the little plastic pocket they come in. But, when I pulled out that little pocket, there were perhaps four in there. Where do they all go?

Some of them are hanging out on UFOs. I've got a number of those hanging around, still on the needles even (unless, by some great misfortune, I needed those needles for something else in which case I should rip out the project because I'll never remember what size needles I was using for that project). But not that many. I probably own fifty or more stitch markers and yet, it seems they are all gone.

On the other hand, I feel like I must have a very large number of them because I find them everywhere. Around my apt., I understand. I set them down on a table, or the bed, or the couch--wherever I'm knitting--instead of putting them away right away and then forget they are there. So, there are a little piles of stitch markers on just about every flat surface in the apt. If I need a large number of them at once, I have to go around and gather them like berries (or buy more). However, they do show up in odd places like the bathroom or the kitchen. Perhaps some people knit while sitting on the toilet or in the shower, but I'm not one of them. I can't tell you how many we found under the bed when we packed it up for California. These, I can blame on the cat. We have a wood floor and these markers slide across it like little hockey pucks on ice. I've seen him batting at them from time to time. This is probably how they ended up under the bookcases. Because, while conceivably I could fit under the bed and be knitting there (!) I definitely do not fit under the bookshelves.

I also find them in the car. This can probably be explained by the fact that every so often, I knit in the car. But not on the driver's side. So I'm not sure how they get over there. I find them in the lab on the floor around my desk and bench. I've found them on my lab bench. How did they get there? I don't use them in my experiments (I've found that the bacteria and yeast can grow happily without a little plastic pin stuck in the petri plate). I don't sit at my desk or my bench and knit, either. Yet, there they are. When I visit my relatives, inevitably a week after I get home I get a card in the mail with a stitch marker taped to the inside of it (a good way to get sent cards, I guess!).

As a scientist, I am trained to look at all of the evidence and draw my conclusions from that. Therefore, I present you with Elisabeth's Great Theory of Stitch Marker Displacement: I shed them. No, really. I leave behind little plastic rings everywhere I go the same way my cat leaves behind half of his fur everywhere he goes (or, looked at another way, like a bunny leaves behind little brown pellets on your floor everywhere he goes). People used to complain that they found my hair everywhere after I had visited. Now, it's stitch markers. I wouldn't be surprised if my roommate found one in his underwear drawer (where, apparently, he has found one of my hairs--he was very disturbed about this, as I'm sure you can imagine; he claims this is why he doesn't allow the cat in his bedroom--bad enough my hairs end up in his unmentionables but if the cat hair did too, it would be even more unnerving).

I have a set of fancy stitch markers that are still in their packaging. I'm afraid to use them. I'm sure they're going to wind up in some unlikely place like the vegetable drawer in the fridge (also known as Where Cucumbers Go to Die). Or Roommie's sock drawer (I can hear his boyfriend now, "What is this earring doing in your sock drawer? Is there something you're not telling me about?"). Or in the PCR machine ("Eureka! I put in this DNA and out came this pretty bobbled zipper pull!"). Or in some place even I can't imagine ("We've discovered why your shower isn't draining properly ma'am--do these little rings look familiar?").

Don't get me wrong, it can be beneficial, too. I was knitting in a seminar once, wishing I had a stitch marker, and it turned out I had one in my jeans pocket (probably put there by whoever randomly puts a dollar bill in there that I discover just when I need it, or a kleenex right before I throw them in the wash, if they're feeling malicious). It probably says something about me that I even thought there might be one in my pocket. So, I'm a little concerned that it's another step on the road towards That Crazy Woman Who Lives in 3A. I would rather not be known as That Woman Who Leaves Behind Little Plastic Circles All Over the House. On the other hand, if we're knitting together in some obscure location, you can look at me and ask if I have a stitch marker and I probably have one on me somewhere (just don't be surprised if I have to take my shoe off to get to it). And really, what more could you want in a friend?

Presentation Anxiety

I am about halfway through the third skein of yarn (out of four total) for the Red Scarf Project, and I am considering my presentation options.

Last year, I just packaged them up with a note saying I made them and they could machine wash them and that was it. It never occurred to me to add goodies! But this year, things are different. I do not want the student who receives my scarf to miss out on the gift card, pretty packaging goodness. For an example of what I mean see here. I'm leaning toward a bookstore giftcard because a kid at Grinnell is never going to see a Starbucks. As for the wrapping, I would like to get some nice ribbon, but I don't know if I'll be able to make it out to a craft store for that, so I might go with some curling ribbon or something like that. Or maybe a gift bag? I don't know. I'm a little anxious over it, to be honest. I know the scarf is all that is required, but I want my student to feel special. And then there's the photo for the gallery. I'm not all that great at staging photographs. I haven't quite developed my photographer's eye (if I even have a photographer's eye). I'm trying to come up with a unique backdrop. The nature thing has been done. I'm thinking lab. But what? Shall I artfully drape it over our PCR machines? Or maybe wrap it around our fluorescent microscope? I could lay it on my bench, but then I'd have to clean the bench. Really clean it. I can see it now. My student will come down with ampicillin resistant E. coli (although the stuff we use in lab is not infectious). Maybe the key is to take lots of pictures and see what looks best....

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In other news, please join me in congratulating Roommie's boyfriend, B (that's Dr. B to you), on successfully defending his dissertation in Spanish Literature entitled, “Tending to Empire: The Spanish Pastoral Novel and Its Reflection upon Imperial Spain.” I attended and was very impressed. I have never seen someone appear so calm under pressure. I didn't even realize some of the questions scared the bejeezus out of him.

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Winter has arrived in Chicago at last. We've had snow flurries all day and late this afternoon, the ground actually got cold enough for it to start to accumulate. I've been secretly disappointed by this year's winter. It's my last winter for a few years and I'm going to feel robbed if I don't get to stay home from lab at least once on account of a blizzard. Not that this qualifies as a blizzard. But, at least it's a bit more natural for these parts at this time of year.

How To Take Care of Your Boobies

It's all girl-talk all the time here these days!

Yesterday, I was talking to the girl whose lab bench is next to mine about buying bras.* First, about buying sports bras (completely imperative to do calisthenics in the fitting room), and then we moved on to other bras and properly fitting bras and lingerie stores and salespeople who know what they're doing when you go in to buy a bra and so on and so forth (one of our male labmates tried to join in but quickly realized he was out of his depth). And I said, "There should be a class about this. You know, in middle school. There can be the 'What's happening to my body' class and a--" "--how to take care of your boobies class!" my benchmate said. And the more we talked about it, the more important it sounded; we would have a professional bra-fitter come in and measure the girls and talk about how to be properly measured and what a proper fitting bra looks and feels like and how, no matter how pretty the bra is, if it makes you look mishapen under your clothes then you should not--must not--wear it (don't women know it makes them look like they have four breasts? sheesh!) and we can include information about breast exams.

And then I thought, why stop at breasts? I had just read Imbrium's post about the Moon Cup and I thought, why do we have to wait until we are in our 20's or 30's or whatever to learn about these things? Where was the advice about curbing your bleeding when I needed it? Yes, my mother said, "Here, use these," but there was no other discussion, no, "Well, there are these different kinds of things and each of them have their advantages and here are some women who have actually used them so you can talk to them about it."

Years ago, there used to be "Finishing school" where you would learn to be a proper young lady, and receive instruction in the "womanly arts" (if you were rich enough to afford such things). And they would teach you about posture and needlepoint and all of that stuff. And, maybe those things mattered back then, but I think there should be a different kind of finishing school for the things that matter to women now. That can tell you what you really need to know to live as a happy, healthy, proud woman. Where there are women who come in and tell you about those things that maybe your mom didn't feel comfortable talking about (and you didn't feel comfortable hearing from her) or she just didn't know because it wasn't part of her experience. Like cramps, for instance. My mother never had cramps. It wasn't until college (COLLEGE! I started my period when I was 12!) that I found out that a hot water bottle on my womb was a damn fine thing one week out of every month. Now, of course, there are these great ThermaCare things so you can walk around all day with a heating pad on your abdomen. And ibuprophen. Why didn't anyone say I could take 800mg of ibuprophen when I had cramps? Where was the woman to tell me that yes, while some women get toxic shock syndrome, the VAST MAJORITY of women have no problems (I swear to you, I had heard so many warnings about tampons, I didn't even want to use them so I could go swimming while I had my period--I was scared to even look at them!) and so, therefore, I might just want to try them and by the way, they're all a little different so just because you don't like the applicator on one doesn't mean you won't like the applicator on the other or you can just use o.b. which doesn't have an applicator at all. Or how to have sex while having your period without creating a mess (which I just recently figured out!)?

And, when we learned about birth control, why weren't there women who had actually USED these various kinds of birth control? Where were the women to say, yes I have been on the pill and a) it was great, b) I could never remember to take the damn thing so it wasn't terribly effective for me, or c) I hated it? Or women to say to you that yes, the birth control patch is a fine thing but it leaves a gluey residue when you take it off and looks a little ratty by the end of the week, which is perfectly fine, but if that kind of thing bothers you then maybe you shouldn't use it? Or women to say, yes, I use a diaphragm and it was a little complicated in the beginning and once it accidently shot out across the room, but I practiced with it and it works quite well oh and by the way, it can be nice for when you have your period, too?

AND, where were the women who had been through a pregnancy scare to let us know what it really felt like to go to the pharmacy and buy a test and pee on a stick and wait for 5 WHOLE MINUTES all the while wondering what you would do if it came out positive? Or what it was like to keep forgetting to take your pill so that every Monday morning you end up going to the clinic to get a morning after pill and have the nurse practitioner look at you and say, "You know, you can't keep doing this"? Or, had unprotected sex with someone you didn't know well and it seeemed like a good idea at the time, but then later you spent months being SCARED TO DEATH that you had AIDS or some other STD, and then finally got tested and you couldn't work, you couldn't sleep, you could barely even eat until you knew the results?

Someone should tell you that if the doctor is going to use a metal speculum, have them run it under warm water first. Because the cold speculum is unpleasant. And, if you have a tilted uterus, you are NOT some kind of freak just because the gynecologist cannot find your cervix. The problem is the gynecologist, not you! And yeast infections? How do you know if you have one? What do you do if you get one? And what the hell is the difference between the Monistat 1 Dose and the Monistat 1 Dose Day or Night? Why is there $3 difference in the price? Why?

And, for the love of God, STOP IT WITH THE BLUE, SPARKLY EYESHADOW ALREADY!

There should be a CLASS! There should be a BOOK! Hell, there should be an ENCYCLOPEDIA! Sure, there are women's magazines, but those are full of skinny, impossibly beautiful people. They don't give you the impression that they are written by real women. Besides, no magazine, or book even, can possibly substitute for real, live, normal looking women sitting there telling you what it is you need to know. Why should we have to wait for word of mouth? Why should we have to wait until some friend happens to mention some vital tidbit of information?

That's all I'm sayin'.

Disclaimer: Lest you think my life has been one gigantic nightmare of feminine problems, I've used examples from women I know in addition to my own experiences.

*In June, when I'm whining that I'm not done with grad school yet, feel free to remind me that I spent a significant amount of time in lab talking about anything and everything. And blogging.

Earth to Elisabeth....

I'm having one of those days. You know, the kind where you wish you had written your name on your brain with indelible marker so that if someone finds it they can return it to you. I've been turning off my timer without noticing so my reactions are incubating longer than they should, forgetting to add important reagents so that no matter how long the reaction incubates it's never going to work, spilling things, and generally making a mess of things. In the past, I've thrown in my towel and given up on days like this, convinced that even if by some miracle I made it through my experiments the results would be so screwed up I couldn't use them. But those days are over. I am A Woman On a Mission. I Must Graduate. I must not back down in the face of misplacing my brain. I must carry on. It just means I'll be in lab a little later than planned.

In knitting news, I have increased the length of my Red Scarf by 1 episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent plus 1/3 of my light box time, plus the development time of two x-ray films (lab stuff). Those are British Imperial units, that's why they are so complicated. Don't argue with me. Who's the scientist here, anyway? For those of you who are more used to the metric system, that's half a skein of Knitpicks Swish Superwash.

Bobbie socks, knee socks, nylon hose

I have developed an intense dislike of pantyhose. I still wear them when appropriate, but I find them annoying. When I was younger (read: thinner and more flexible), I never understood why (usually older) women claimed to hate them. However, these days, I feel like I need to be a contortionist to get them on ("Dammit! Are these things twisted?!?!?") and once on, the waist is uncomfortable and doesn't stay put.

Usually, when the hubby and I go out to a fancy place, I like to get ready in private. That way, he doesn't see the intermediate, not-so-attractive versions of my evening's outfit (that, and I have to try on five things before I can decide which one I want to wear and I don't want to listen to him say, "So what was wrong with that one?"). However, one evening, we were short on time and we were getting ready simultaneously and therefore, he witnessed The Donning of the Pantyhose. He stood silently watching as I laboriously determined which was front and which was back, rolled them up to put them on, unrolled them because they were twisted, rolled them up again, hopped up and down on one foot while trying to get the other foot in the leg, and finally (because they were control top) the gymnastics that accompanied me pulling them up over my butt (which included laying down on the bed on my back, with my feet on the bed, pelvis in the air, pulling). And then the pulling them up little by little so they didn't sag at the ankles and knees and so on.

He said, "Now I know why you like to get ready in private." (yes, he really said that)

So, in an effort to regain a little feminine mystique, I decided to try the garter belt and stockings route. A friend of mine suggested it and I thought, what the hell, why not? I've tried thigh-highs, those stockings you can wear without a garter, and I don't like how the plastic sticks to my legs, especially in the summer. So, garter belt and stockings it is. Imagine my surprise when I went to VS (which, in theory, should sell enough feminine mystique to seduce a legion) and no garter belts. Stockings, yes. Garter belts, no. How did they think you were going to hold up the stockings, I ask you? Prayer?

Right. Enough about that.

In knitting news, I am a little less than half-way done with a red scarf for the Red Scarf Project. I'm using Knitpicks superwash in red. My Brittany needles have taken on a nice red hue. I used my stitch dictionary in California to find a nice, simple, knit/purl diamond pattern which I am surrounding with a garter stitch border (apparently I can't write a paragraph without using the word "garter" anymore). Four and a half hour plane rides are good for knitting, let me tell you!

I have another red scarf (also with a garter stitch border) that needs blocking, but this is a birthday present (past due). Then, I should really start on the socks that were supposed to be my roommate's Christmas present.

Garter.

A learning experience

Things I learned today by going to the Glendale Galleria:

1. In order to drive in California, I'm going to need two things: sunglasses (so I'll be needing to get contacts or prescription sunglasses) and patience.

2. California highways are huge and confusing. If I am going to drive in the left-most lane, I need to learn how to cross 5 lanes of traffic quick, fast, and in a hurry.

3. I live near mountains and valleys. Yes, they are pretty. Get over it. Pay attention to the road (see number 2).

4. It is much easier to find clothing that fits you if, before you leave, you look yourself straight in the eye (a mirror helps with this) and say, "Elisabeth," (you can use your own name, it'll probably be more convincing if you do), "you are no longer a size 10 and a medium. You are a size 14 and a large. If you bring size 10 (or even size 12) pants into the fitting room, they will not fit. Accept it. Move on. And medium button-down shirts? Not happening. They will pull in the bust. Medium knit shirts are okay, though. Medium underwear? No. You do not have a medium-sized ass anymore. Maybe, when you finish graduate school and you can take the time to eat properly and maybe even exercise and you do not have a toxic concentration of stress hormones ravaging your body telling it to maintain fat reserves, you will go back to being a size 10," (you can leave that last sentence out if it's not applicable), "but, it's not happening in the next couple of weeks. Face it. Embrace it. Bring on size 14 jeans."

5. If you want to buy a garter belt, you should go to Frederick's of Hollywood not Victoria's Secret.

6. Frederick's of Hollywood does have tasteful, sedate things.

7. Or not.

8. For sheer self-amusement, nothing beats wandering around the mall carrying an Eddie Bauer bag and a Frederick's bag (yes, I wear flannel and cotton t-shirts with modest v-necks, but what am I wearing underneath that?).

John has gone to a conference in Seattle so I have had to amuse myself today. It's a little odd being here when he's not, but it does make it seem more like home. I leave for Chicago tomorrow. I'm trying to prepare myself for that, mentally, but it's difficult. Here, I can relax and sit on my balcony and knit. There, I must work, work, work, and even if I had a balcony I couldn't sit on it without getting frostbite (although it's been relatively warm there, recently--it's creepy). But, it's not forever. It's not even for that long, in the grand scheme of things. It helps if I keep telling myself that.

I've been tagged

While I usually shy away from memes, I decided to go ahead and do this one because... what the hell (no pun intended, see below).

1.Find the nearest book.

2.Turn to page 123.

3. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.

4. Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.

"It is left as it is in some translations, but it is rendered 'grave' or 'hell' in others. According to Greek myth, Hades was ruled by Pluto and Persephone; a place to which the dead 9with coin in mouth) were feried across the River Styx by the avaricious Charon. Judgment followed, with the righteous going to a meadow on the edge of the western world (Elysian Fields) and the wicked doomed to eternal suffering in the depths of Hades (Tartarus)."

5. Name the book and the author, and tag three more folks.

The Catholic Source Book, Rev. Peter Klein. Nihil Obstat: Rev. Richard L. Scaefer. Imprimatur: Most Rev. Jerome Hanus, O.S.B. Archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa.

I know better than to tag Norma. So, I will tag Imbrium, mc78 of Knitoramus, and Allison of Perknitious.

This meme would've turned out very different if I had been where I usually read blogs, which is at lab. However, I was sitting on the couch in Pasadena with our two bookshelves of non-fiction books about three feet away and the closest section was on religion. I bought this book when I was teaching Confirmation prep because every time I planned a lesson, I thought of about 10 questions the kids might ask that I didn't know the answers to. Of course they never asked those questions. They always asked questions I hadn't thought of that I didn't know the answers to ("Um, let me get back to you on that.")

----------

The other day, mc78 left this comment: "I guess travelling is a pain, but I'd like the couple of hours on a plane with Vogue magazines and knitting. And snakes, of course."

Now, while I can do without the snakes, I was in truth looking forward to having four and a half hours where I couldn't do anything but listen to my audiobook (A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin which is 33 hours long, about three times longer than the average audiobook) and knit John's scarf which was one of his Christmas presents. I did manage to cast off by the end of the flight but I hadn't woven in all of the ends. I gave it to him anyway since I knew I would be on hand all weekend to weave in the ends. As it was, the scarf needed to be slightly longer--just one more color panel--so I added that bit, too. Here he is with the scarf and the hat I made that goes with it:


Yarn: Knitpicks Decadence, 100% alpaca
Pattern: Made it up as I went along.

John needed a hat that was warmer than the wool-ease hat I made him a couple of years ago but not as warm as the double knit hat I made him a year or two ago for when he is in Hawaii (on the mountain, where there is snow). He already had a scarf but it didn't match the double knit hat or the new hat, so I made him a scarf, too.

California here I come

This Chicago to Pasadena thing is becoming old hat (sort of). I still have problems packing (although this time, instead of listening to John about the weather--disasterous last time--I checked it out myself). I overpack. It's genetic.

Hopefully, on the plane I will be able to finish John's scarf (really meant to have that done by now). It's a four and a half hour flight so it could happen (or I could sleep, you never know).

Now, I must be off to finish (over)packing. Talk to you later!

Happy New Year!

As winter progresses and my labwork continues to give me problems, I feel less and less like posting to the blog. In part, this is also due to the fact that I rarely have the time or energy to download photos to my computer and then upload them to the blog, particularly since I must do this in lab. However, in the future, I believe I will simply post as often as I can, and if I manage to throw a few pictures in there, then so be it.

The holidays were as joyful as they can be when one is separated from one's spouse. I missed John terribly (and still do, of course), but managed to enjoy a few celebrations these last couple of weeks. In addition, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Imbrium for the first time since she was in the Chicago area visiting her parents for the holidays. I confess I was a little nervous--what if we did not get along when communicating face to face? But not to worry! She is warm, kind, friendly, funny, supportive, and well, just a wonderful person and I am glad to call her a friend. She even put up with me calling Bradon "Brandon", which I did several times before catching on. I also got to hear her good news and offer my congratulations. Much screaming, and laughing, and jumping up and down, and hugging ensued. I am so very happy for her (and Bradon, too, of course)!

One holiday celebration I skipped out on was New Year's Eve. I was invited to a party of a friend of a friend but decided to not go. I've spent every day of this holiday season in lab, except for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and New Year's Eve Day was no exception (nor was New Year's Day) and I could use a night to myself. So, instead of drinking champagne and toasting in the New Year, I watched a couple of episodes of CSI (the original, I don't like the other two), and then did some introspection.

Several weeks ago, I bought a planner from Franklin Covey. Included in the planner are several activities designed to help you create a personal mission statement. I've used planners from Franklin Covey before, but never created a personal mission statement. But, I want this year to be different. I am tired of being miserable. I am tired of making choices that lead me to depression. I want to be happy. So, I worked through the activities. I thought about what I value, who I am, who I want to be, what I want to do in life, and what I want to have. I answered questions like, "What have been some of my greatest moments of happeness and fulfillment?" "What activities do I most enjoy and find most fulfilling in my professional life?" "What are the activities of most worth in my personal life?" "What talents and capacites do I have or want to have?" "How can I best contribue to the world?" Then, I wrote my personal mission statement.

I will pursue happiness by:

1. Doing the things I love
-broadening my mind academically
-being creative

2. Being with the people I love
-never being separated from John for a long period time again
-having children
-maintaining contact with friends and family

3. Treating myself in the same way I treat others
-with love, kindness, and respect

4. Making a difference in the world
-by passing on my knowledge in both formal and informal settings
-by contributing to public understanding of science
-by helping others with mental illness
-by working toward a better public understanding of mental illness

It may need some tweaking here and there, but it will do for going on with for now.

WTF Wednesday

I have never participated in What the Fuck? Wednesday, but today, I have to. Why? Because I got the following email from a labmate today:

Long story short, there was a short in the switch to turn on
the lights in lab. 

After some phone calls, me getting to pull a fire alarm for
the first time in my life, AND a visit from 10 or more fireman
power was turned off to that switch.  should be fixed by 8 AM
they say, but until then only safety lights in lab.

Yay!  Lab burning event averted!

L

Okay, first of all, no burning down the lab before I graduate, are we clear? Second, there are still no lights in our lab. It is now 10:40am. Fortunately, we have electricity from the outlets so our equipment still works, but the lights are out. Also, fortunately, it is one of those rare sunny days in Chicago otherwise it would be much, much darker in here. But, the windows are small so it's not like we're flooded with light. And, I have a lamp. So, there's some light there. But, here's the thing, I have seasonal affective disorder so darkness, it is not good for me and second, my experiments aren't working, I have to get them to work before I can even start on the next thing, I have to get all of this done to graduate and I'm leaving this Friday to go to LA until Tuesday (Yay!), so that's time away from lab, so I can't just say, "fuck it," and go home. People have been called. Advisor out of town so no help from that quarter. If the lights aren't on by this afternoon, I'm going to hunt down the facilities people and force them to work on the lights at gunpoint (don't ask me where I'm getting the gun, this is the Southside of Chicago, I'm sure I could buy one off of someone fairly quickly, and as long as I get a receipt, I can get reimbursed).

That is all. Rant over. For now.

Knitting unto others

I have been doing the charity knitting. Here are the finished hat and a pair of mittens*:
I think the mittens are actually too small to be worn by the same person who wears the hat, but that's okay. The mittens are connected to each other by a long, crocheted chain so that they will stay together.

A close up of the hat:


I actually like how the fair isle came out.

I have started a red scarf. I went through the same problems with this one as the first one I started except for the hating the yarn part. I really liked the yarn, I just couldn't decide on a pattern. And I had to go down a needle size. But I think I have something I'm happy with.

Grandma update: I haven't been able to get ahold of her, but I talked to my mother after she saw her and Grandma is doing great! She is pain-free for the first time in years. According to the doctors, her hip was the worst they'd ever seen in terms of arthritis. The past couple of years, Grandma has really started to look old. She never had before, but all of the sudden, she just sort of sagged, and looked unhappy and frail. Mom says she looks like her old self now. So, hooray!

Speaking of Grandma, we have a Grandma's Mother's Day socks reprise. The socks I made for her didn't fit. So, the last time I saw her, I took them back. Here they are along with Mom's flip-flops before I mailed them off:
I lengthened them, and sent them off today:

I couldn't find the left-over yarn I had (probably in California), so I redid the toe in purple. Then, to make the toe look like it really belonged with the sock, I did the purple ruffle at the top. I sent these to Mom so she can bring them to Grandma next time she sees her. It makes me smile to think of Grandma wearing these pixie socks in the rehab facility.

*Ghiradelli has been complaining that he doesn't get his share of blog time. "There's a picture of Lucy everyday on Wendy Knits," he complained, "And Miss Lulu Kitty gets screen time over at Cabin Cove." I tried telling him that I didn't want to exploit his cuteness for the sake of my blog, but he just sniffed, turned to show me his butt, and walked away. So, I decided to try to include him in my pictures here, but he wasn't particularly cooperative. Honestly, how am I supposed to include pictures of him in my blog if he doesn't pose for me?!