For sockapalooza. I have the yarn and a pattern but I foolishly left my flash drive at home and can't upload the pix, yet. If I get inspired, I may go home in the middle of the day and get it and come back to upload pix. Otherwise, I'll edit this post tomorrow to add them. You may ask why I'm posting now if I'm thinking I'm going to edit it later. Well, I'm worried my sock sister may be getting concerned since I haven't said anything about sockapalooza except that I joined. So, here is an update.
The sock pattern I've chosen is from Sensational Knitted Socks. I'm knitting the green fair isle sock on the front cover, but I'm using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in a pastel colorway and a purple washable wool as the base color. This will be my second attempt at fair isle and I'm a little nervous about it because I pulled the floats too tight on my first attempt and it didn't look very good. Ah well, you live, you learn, you loosen up.
To help out with my fair isle knitting, I'm buying one of these jobbies. I tried doing the two-fisted technique, knitting continental in one hand and English with the other hand, but I hated knitting English. Therefore, I'm going to try the strand separator, holding both strands in the left hand and see how that goes.
So, that's all the further I've gotten with the sock pal socks. Stay tuned for future developments.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Tragedy
I am sorry I haven't been blogging, but personal tragedy has reared it's ugly head and I was too sad to post about it until now. If it were much later in the year, this post might be named T is for Tea (but it's not, I know, I'm supposed to be doing D, and I will, I swear, but I have to cry about this first). I will save the particulars for that post, but I just wanted to let you know that I am something of a tea freak drinker.
So, imagine how I felt when I came home from the knitting guild meeting Tuesday evening and walked into the kitchen to get the scissors and found this:
In my horror, I screamed. And then, I turned, and my eyes fell on this:
I then screamed even louder. From the living room, my husband (who was home during the horrific incident) shouted, "The teapots had a fight!" To which I responded, "How could you let me just walk into the kitchen without telling me?!?!?!?"
What is responsible for this carnage, you ask? Well, in the words of my husband:
"I was rearranging things on the top of the refrigerator when the [small white teapot with cup] jumped off the fridge and attacked the other one. I tried to stop it, but I was too late."
Yes folks, it was a battle to the death. I had never realized that the white teapot harbored such ill-will towards the black teapot (which is actually a clay tea kettle). I feel like a bad teapot guardian, as though I might have prevented this terrible tragedy. If only I had paid more attention to the little white teapot and maybe gotten it into therapy, this horrible murder/potticide might have been avoided. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20 and I shouldn't blame myself, but I still feel slightly guilty.
Now, it is a measure of how much I like tea that there are three other teapots in the apartment (don't worry, I have instituted teapot counseling and am watching them closely as I know potticide can be something of an epidemic). But, the white teapot was the smallest one--just a two-cup pot, and came with it's own cup that it sat atop ("But the cup's okay," my husband assured me, "it's just that the handle was broken off"), and therefore perfect for brewing a little chamomille tea before bed. I can hold off finding a new one, and give myself time to grieve. But, the tea kettle, I can't go without that for very long (although my husband never did understand why I needed one when we had a microwave and could heat single cups of tea in there). Roommie says I should buy a ridiculously expensive one and dare hubby to comment on it, but I really loved that clay one, so I may get another just like it. (Btw, I'm saving the bamboo handle so I can knit a little bag and use that as the handle, thus memorializing the kettle--I haven't figured out what to do to memorialize the white one).
So, such is the state of affairs in our household. However, there was a ray of light recently. Here is a pic of Roommie just moments before he went out the door to get that thing on his arm removed (which he had suffered through having for several weeks due to having minor surgery on his arm):
P.S. It's a good thing I proofread my posts. I had composed this in html, and during the proofreading realized I had accidently switched the pic of Roommie with the 2nd murder/potticide pic. Go back and read the post imagining the two pix switched. That was the best giggle I had all day!
So, imagine how I felt when I came home from the knitting guild meeting Tuesday evening and walked into the kitchen to get the scissors and found this:
In my horror, I screamed. And then, I turned, and my eyes fell on this:
I then screamed even louder. From the living room, my husband (who was home during the horrific incident) shouted, "The teapots had a fight!" To which I responded, "How could you let me just walk into the kitchen without telling me?!?!?!?"
What is responsible for this carnage, you ask? Well, in the words of my husband:
"I was rearranging things on the top of the refrigerator when the [small white teapot with cup] jumped off the fridge and attacked the other one. I tried to stop it, but I was too late."
Yes folks, it was a battle to the death. I had never realized that the white teapot harbored such ill-will towards the black teapot (which is actually a clay tea kettle). I feel like a bad teapot guardian, as though I might have prevented this terrible tragedy. If only I had paid more attention to the little white teapot and maybe gotten it into therapy, this horrible murder/potticide might have been avoided. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20 and I shouldn't blame myself, but I still feel slightly guilty.
Now, it is a measure of how much I like tea that there are three other teapots in the apartment (don't worry, I have instituted teapot counseling and am watching them closely as I know potticide can be something of an epidemic). But, the white teapot was the smallest one--just a two-cup pot, and came with it's own cup that it sat atop ("But the cup's okay," my husband assured me, "it's just that the handle was broken off"), and therefore perfect for brewing a little chamomille tea before bed. I can hold off finding a new one, and give myself time to grieve. But, the tea kettle, I can't go without that for very long (although my husband never did understand why I needed one when we had a microwave and could heat single cups of tea in there). Roommie says I should buy a ridiculously expensive one and dare hubby to comment on it, but I really loved that clay one, so I may get another just like it. (Btw, I'm saving the bamboo handle so I can knit a little bag and use that as the handle, thus memorializing the kettle--I haven't figured out what to do to memorialize the white one).
So, such is the state of affairs in our household. However, there was a ray of light recently. Here is a pic of Roommie just moments before he went out the door to get that thing on his arm removed (which he had suffered through having for several weeks due to having minor surgery on his arm):
P.S. It's a good thing I proofread my posts. I had composed this in html, and during the proofreading realized I had accidently switched the pic of Roommie with the 2nd murder/potticide pic. Go back and read the post imagining the two pix switched. That was the best giggle I had all day!
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Hmmmmmm.....
I just realized there seems to be three of my red scarf posts on my blog. Not sure how that happened???? I'm trying to delete them, but Blogger doesn't seem to be getting the message.
Happy Valentine's Day!
With Valentine's Day being on the exceedingly inconvenient day of Tuesday, and because DH has a proposal due on the 16th, we are putting off our celebration until the weekend. The good news is, we'll be able to buy Valentine's boxes of Godiva chocolates cheap. The bad news is I'm going to have to cook dinner tonight because we won't be going out. Oh well.
But, I figured it was okay to celebrate V-day on the blog so here's a pic of me and my Valentine:
I figured I'd put in our Christmas pic since we never did end up sending it around to people. This was taken on Christmas Eve, just after we had decorated the tree and it took us 4 attempts to take a picture using the timer that had both of us and the tree in it.
In other news, the Red Scarves should have been received by their recipients by today. There is a report about it here. I looked through the photo gallery and I think I may have seen one of my scarves
. I'm about 90% sure it's my scarf. Even if it's not, I still like to think it's my scarf. :)
Edit: Apparently I made a boo-boo in downloading that image of my scarf--I wasn't supposed to do that! So, I have deleted the image. But the link is still there and you can go puruse the pix and see if you can identify my scarf. It's the multicolor one. Sorry about that!
But, I figured it was okay to celebrate V-day on the blog so here's a pic of me and my Valentine:
I figured I'd put in our Christmas pic since we never did end up sending it around to people. This was taken on Christmas Eve, just after we had decorated the tree and it took us 4 attempts to take a picture using the timer that had both of us and the tree in it.In other news, the Red Scarves should have been received by their recipients by today. There is a report about it here. I looked through the photo gallery and I think I may have seen one of my scarves
. I'm about 90% sure it's my scarf. Even if it's not, I still like to think it's my scarf. :)
Edit: Apparently I made a boo-boo in downloading that image of my scarf--I wasn't supposed to do that! So, I have deleted the image. But the link is still there and you can go puruse the pix and see if you can identify my scarf. It's the multicolor one. Sorry about that!
Monday, February 13, 2006
Red Scarves
As promised, here are the pix of the scarves for the Red Scarf Project.
Cabled Scarf
This scarf was a lot of fun to make and I managed to finish it without getting bored with the pattern. I can see a lot more cabled projects in my future (but first I need to learn how to cable without a cable needle, because I want to be one of the cool kids). It ended up being 11 inches wide and about 7 feet long. This is a picture of it while it's blocking. The pattern is out of a Vogue Knitting Scarf book. The yarn is Caron One Pound acrylic. Super-ultra machine washable. :)
Multicolored scarf
This is the second scarf I whipped up real quick when I finished the cabled scarf before the deadline. It's two skeins of Patons Melody, a bulky weight yarn, one skein red, and one skein rainbow colors. Basically, I just knit garter stitch alternating the two yarns at will until I ran out of one of them. This one was probably about 6 feet long.
SSNB Red Scarfers
And these are the scarves knit by the Southside Stitch 'n Bitch group, modeled by their creators. I am the one second from the right in this picture. We didn't have time to pose creatively because our beautiful and talented delivery woman had to leave 2 minutes ago.
I'm looking forward to next year's project for the Orphan Foundation of America, whatever it may be. I'm thinking probably not red scarves again because then the kids who are still in the program will end up with two red scarves....
Cabled Scarf
This scarf was a lot of fun to make and I managed to finish it without getting bored with the pattern. I can see a lot more cabled projects in my future (but first I need to learn how to cable without a cable needle, because I want to be one of the cool kids). It ended up being 11 inches wide and about 7 feet long. This is a picture of it while it's blocking. The pattern is out of a Vogue Knitting Scarf book. The yarn is Caron One Pound acrylic. Super-ultra machine washable. :)
Multicolored scarf
This is the second scarf I whipped up real quick when I finished the cabled scarf before the deadline. It's two skeins of Patons Melody, a bulky weight yarn, one skein red, and one skein rainbow colors. Basically, I just knit garter stitch alternating the two yarns at will until I ran out of one of them. This one was probably about 6 feet long.
SSNB Red Scarfers
And these are the scarves knit by the Southside Stitch 'n Bitch group, modeled by their creators. I am the one second from the right in this picture. We didn't have time to pose creatively because our beautiful and talented delivery woman had to leave 2 minutes ago.
I'm looking forward to next year's project for the Orphan Foundation of America, whatever it may be. I'm thinking probably not red scarves again because then the kids who are still in the program will end up with two red scarves....
Sunday, February 12, 2006
C is for.....
Cell Biology
As the photo boldly proclaims, I took this picture. What the hell is this picture you ask? These are yeast cells magnified 100 times. I work with yeast. Unlike people, it's a lot easier to grow large numbers of yeast and you don't feel bad when you kill them. The glowing dots are structures within the cell that I have made glow under UV light by adding a fluorescent protein.
This picture took 1.5 years of my life to get.
And people wonder why it takes so long to develop a new drug.....
So, cell biology. It's the subject I'm getting my PhD in. Ironically, it also happens to be the worst grade I got in college in any class (a C- ; don't even get me started on multiple choice questions that have five blanks in them that's only worth one point total). You may be wondering how cell biology came to be my subject of choice. Well, that's something of a long story. As a kid, I had been interested in physical sciences until I crashed headlong into physics. After that, I decided I would be a chemist. I most certainly was NOT going to be a biologist. I really and truly hated my life sciences class in 7th grade. We had to go out and collect leaves and bugs and things and properly label them for a class project. You had to get a minimum number of points and the kind of thing you brought in was worth a certain number of points. A live animal was worth more than, say, a leaf from a tree. Now, I was never one to like reptiles and amphibians and bugs and those are the things that are easiest to catch. I had to find and identify an obscene number of leaves to get the requisite number of points. We also had to dissect animals. At the beginning of the school year, we got a Big Bag o' Preserved Animals. I don't know where these things came from, but I tell you if I ever run into a grasshopper that large in the wild, I'm turning tail and running away fast. The smell of the clam dissection made me so ill I refused to even try mussels or clams for years afterward. Nope. Not going to be a biologist.
Then, in 10th grade biology, we studied genetics. Just your basic population genetics, but it was enough to get me interested. You mean you could be a biologist and not touch icky things? Bonus! So, when I went to college, I came in Undeclared because I couldn't decide between majoring in biology or chemistry. And I never did decide between the two. BU came up with a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major that very year (great! I can do both biology and chemistry). So, that's what I majored in and that's when I took cell biology for the first time and I learned to hate multiple-choice exams with the red-hot fury of a thousand suns. I almost changed my major to chemistry after that year, since I seemed to be doing better in my chemistry classes (where they did not have multiple choice exams, btw). But I stuck it out and the next year, I was thrown into a Molecular Biology class with graduate students (I was a junior at this point). Essay exams. I got an A-. (And if not for the bad grade in cell and the one in genetics--which had the same kind of exams--I would've graduated magna cum laude, but as it was, I missed it by 0.01 points. Grrrrrrr)
When I graduated college, I couldn't decide what the hell I wanted to do, so I worked as a research tech for awhile and eventually decided to go to graduate school. I had applied to a cluster of departments that included a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology dept. and a Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology dept. I entered in BMB, but quickly found out that the department should have been named Biochemistry and Biophysics and high-tailed it out of there (I'm so bad at physics, I married my physics tutor so he could take care of any physics I might encounter in the future). So, I ended up in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology. Then, I ended up joining a lab that studied cell biology and my fate was sealed. For good or ill, I am a cell biologist.
I really do like it--there are so many fascinating things going on in the cells of every living thing. Structures are made and destroyed. Cells reproduce themselves and program themselves to suicide. They have their own waste disposal system, postal service, power plant, and library. And all of those processes are so incredibly complicated, it boggles the mind.*
Mostly, though, when I finally get my PhD, I want to teach cell biology, not research it. The life of a research scientist is stressful and not the kind of life I want to live. The life of a teacher is also stressful, but I believe that I will love it enough to put up with the bullsh*t, unlike with research.
So there you have it. Cell Biology. Sounds a lot friendlier than Molecular Genetics, doesn't it? People still look scared when I tell them, though. I've tried to find a way to break it to them gently, but no luck so far.
*And, as I typed that last sentence, I realized that I had inadvertantly just written a line than is often used to justify the idea of Intelligent Design. And, lest anyone read my blog and think that a scientist has just agreed with them about ID, I want to state very, very clearly that I do not agree with the idea of ID in any way, shape or form. In fact, I believe it is horrible science at best and a fraud and a ploy to try to get schools to teach about creationism at worst. This is not any kind of statement about my religious beliefs or lack thereof. Science and religion are separate disciplines that employ radically different ways of exploring the natural world. You are free to disagree with me, and if it offends you in some way, then you are free to stop reading my blog.
As the photo boldly proclaims, I took this picture. What the hell is this picture you ask? These are yeast cells magnified 100 times. I work with yeast. Unlike people, it's a lot easier to grow large numbers of yeast and you don't feel bad when you kill them. The glowing dots are structures within the cell that I have made glow under UV light by adding a fluorescent protein.
This picture took 1.5 years of my life to get.
And people wonder why it takes so long to develop a new drug.....
So, cell biology. It's the subject I'm getting my PhD in. Ironically, it also happens to be the worst grade I got in college in any class (a C- ; don't even get me started on multiple choice questions that have five blanks in them that's only worth one point total). You may be wondering how cell biology came to be my subject of choice. Well, that's something of a long story. As a kid, I had been interested in physical sciences until I crashed headlong into physics. After that, I decided I would be a chemist. I most certainly was NOT going to be a biologist. I really and truly hated my life sciences class in 7th grade. We had to go out and collect leaves and bugs and things and properly label them for a class project. You had to get a minimum number of points and the kind of thing you brought in was worth a certain number of points. A live animal was worth more than, say, a leaf from a tree. Now, I was never one to like reptiles and amphibians and bugs and those are the things that are easiest to catch. I had to find and identify an obscene number of leaves to get the requisite number of points. We also had to dissect animals. At the beginning of the school year, we got a Big Bag o' Preserved Animals. I don't know where these things came from, but I tell you if I ever run into a grasshopper that large in the wild, I'm turning tail and running away fast. The smell of the clam dissection made me so ill I refused to even try mussels or clams for years afterward. Nope. Not going to be a biologist.
Then, in 10th grade biology, we studied genetics. Just your basic population genetics, but it was enough to get me interested. You mean you could be a biologist and not touch icky things? Bonus! So, when I went to college, I came in Undeclared because I couldn't decide between majoring in biology or chemistry. And I never did decide between the two. BU came up with a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major that very year (great! I can do both biology and chemistry). So, that's what I majored in and that's when I took cell biology for the first time and I learned to hate multiple-choice exams with the red-hot fury of a thousand suns. I almost changed my major to chemistry after that year, since I seemed to be doing better in my chemistry classes (where they did not have multiple choice exams, btw). But I stuck it out and the next year, I was thrown into a Molecular Biology class with graduate students (I was a junior at this point). Essay exams. I got an A-. (And if not for the bad grade in cell and the one in genetics--which had the same kind of exams--I would've graduated magna cum laude, but as it was, I missed it by 0.01 points. Grrrrrrr)
When I graduated college, I couldn't decide what the hell I wanted to do, so I worked as a research tech for awhile and eventually decided to go to graduate school. I had applied to a cluster of departments that included a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology dept. and a Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology dept. I entered in BMB, but quickly found out that the department should have been named Biochemistry and Biophysics and high-tailed it out of there (I'm so bad at physics, I married my physics tutor so he could take care of any physics I might encounter in the future). So, I ended up in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology. Then, I ended up joining a lab that studied cell biology and my fate was sealed. For good or ill, I am a cell biologist.
I really do like it--there are so many fascinating things going on in the cells of every living thing. Structures are made and destroyed. Cells reproduce themselves and program themselves to suicide. They have their own waste disposal system, postal service, power plant, and library. And all of those processes are so incredibly complicated, it boggles the mind.*
Mostly, though, when I finally get my PhD, I want to teach cell biology, not research it. The life of a research scientist is stressful and not the kind of life I want to live. The life of a teacher is also stressful, but I believe that I will love it enough to put up with the bullsh*t, unlike with research.
So there you have it. Cell Biology. Sounds a lot friendlier than Molecular Genetics, doesn't it? People still look scared when I tell them, though. I've tried to find a way to break it to them gently, but no luck so far.
*And, as I typed that last sentence, I realized that I had inadvertantly just written a line than is often used to justify the idea of Intelligent Design. And, lest anyone read my blog and think that a scientist has just agreed with them about ID, I want to state very, very clearly that I do not agree with the idea of ID in any way, shape or form. In fact, I believe it is horrible science at best and a fraud and a ploy to try to get schools to teach about creationism at worst. This is not any kind of statement about my religious beliefs or lack thereof. Science and religion are separate disciplines that employ radically different ways of exploring the natural world. You are free to disagree with me, and if it offends you in some way, then you are free to stop reading my blog.
Friday, February 10, 2006
I'm back
Well-rested, feeling recharged, and on the verge of being overwhelmed again. But, that's the way life is around here!
I got the name and info on my sock pal for:
This is my first sock exchange and my first internet exchange and I'm very excited about it!
So, now I just need to choose the yarn and pattern and get started!
I got the name and info on my sock pal for:
This is my first sock exchange and my first internet exchange and I'm very excited about it!
So, now I just need to choose the yarn and pattern and get started!
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Well, I tried
I was going to upload the red scarf pix today, but my connection is abominably (sp?) slow. Therefore, you'll just have to wait until I get back from sunny Arizona!
Monday, January 30, 2006
Two red scarves in two weeks
I finished knitting Red Scarf 1 on Friday evening, then blocked it on Sat. Then, I cast on for a second one. This time I cheated and used bulky yarn and a size 15 needle. I only had two days, you know! This one is made out of Patons Melody (?) yarn--one skein bright red and one skein variegated rainbow colors. I alternated the red and var. yarns at different intervals and I like how it turned out. It's pretty bright--hopefully it doesn't go to some incredibly conservative college guy! On the other hand, maybe he'll decide to wear it anyway and feel so good about, he'll branch out into brighter colored clothes. Just leave me to my delusions, 'kay?
So, I bet you want to see pix of these babies. I haven't uploaded them yet, sorry. Also, I'm hoping to take pix of everyone with their red scarves and SnB tonight, so I'll show them tomorrow.
On Wed., I'm leaving for Arizona for reasons of my health (seasonal affective disorder--must get some sun), so I won't post much. Not that I post much anyway. I guess I just wanted to brag about going to Arizona.
So, what am I knitting now? Well, I've got a sock on the needles as usual. I'm still working on a shawl (which I haven't picked up since starting the red scarf endeavor). I have another fingerless mitt to make for hubby (but it's been so warm in Chicago, his office hasn't been that cold, so he hasn't needed them). I have a red scarf I'm knitting as a holiday project for my Holiday SnB (but I'm a little tired of red scarves for a moment, so I'm not picking that one up for awhile). On Sat., I bought a pattern and yarn for a bonnet, booties and cardigan set for a friend's baby (my first sweater, ever--yikes!), and I bought more sock yarn (not that I needed it). So, I've got plenty of options. So many, in fact, I'm not sure which to choose. So, I'm knitting the sock by default since I don't need a pattern for that and it's portable.
So, I bet you want to see pix of these babies. I haven't uploaded them yet, sorry. Also, I'm hoping to take pix of everyone with their red scarves and SnB tonight, so I'll show them tomorrow.
On Wed., I'm leaving for Arizona for reasons of my health (seasonal affective disorder--must get some sun), so I won't post much. Not that I post much anyway. I guess I just wanted to brag about going to Arizona.
So, what am I knitting now? Well, I've got a sock on the needles as usual. I'm still working on a shawl (which I haven't picked up since starting the red scarf endeavor). I have another fingerless mitt to make for hubby (but it's been so warm in Chicago, his office hasn't been that cold, so he hasn't needed them). I have a red scarf I'm knitting as a holiday project for my Holiday SnB (but I'm a little tired of red scarves for a moment, so I'm not picking that one up for awhile). On Sat., I bought a pattern and yarn for a bonnet, booties and cardigan set for a friend's baby (my first sweater, ever--yikes!), and I bought more sock yarn (not that I needed it). So, I've got plenty of options. So many, in fact, I'm not sure which to choose. So, I'm knitting the sock by default since I don't need a pattern for that and it's portable.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Chickens
Do me a favor. The next time you are at the Chicago M*useum of S*cience and I*ndustry, go to the chick hatchery in the genetics exhibit and shout, "They're sending the baby chicks to be used as food for the animals at the Lincoln Park Zoo!" Run up to the hatchery, pound on the glass and scream, "They're using them as snake food--help me free the baby chicks!!!"*** Got that? Okay.
You may wonder what prompted this little bit of PETA action. Well, I'm doing a part-time internship on the museum presentation of science through the university and I'm putting together a proposal for a demonstration on chick developmental genetics for Science and Industry (hereafter known as MSI). My original proposal was to use live chick embryos from days 1-4 for the demonstration. How cool would that be, to see live embryos??? The Exploratorium in San Francisco does it and it is the grand-daddy of all interactive science musuems. But, it has come down from on high (within the museum, not On High, on high because I don't think He cares if we look at chick embryos for educational purposes) that live embryos exhibits are not allowed at the museum. They have not even read my proposal but they have quashed it. Grrrrr...... Yes, the those higher-ups are too...
wait for it....
CHICKEN to use live embryos. Hardy-har-har. *snort*
This information came to me yesterday. My proposal is due on Friday. I've been trying to get information from the museum about this for ages. And my team leader wants to see a draft of my proposal tomorrow. And, here I am writing you. Well, I did work on it all day, and I'm just sick of chicken development at the moment. Because it occurred to me that while I took a developmental biology class, I still know very little about it. I'm probably overpreparing as usual, but I've been picking people's brains, using the internet (and for some reason, the connection at the lab is abominably slow today), and two textbooks. I know, this is for lay people, but I'm having a hard time finding the particular information that I am looking for.
What? Knitting? Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a knitting blog.
I have almost 60 inches done on my scarf. The question is, do I stop now (since I was aiming for 60 inches in the first place) and start another one, or do I make this one longer? I don't like my scarves too long, but this seems a little short. And I can't decide about the fringe. And, if I do fringe, do I block the scarf before or after fringing?
And, I didn't make it to Stitch 'n Bitch last night because I was too busy working on my proposal that I left work late and couldn't eat dinner before going to my Curves class and I couldn't eat the food at Borders because I am on the Curves 6 week solution and the food at Borders is so unhealthy, so I had to go home and fix dinner after Curves class and by the time I got done, it was pointless to go out.
Which is why I'm doing my bitching here, of course.
Now go home and eat some chicken, but for Godsake, don't look at the eggs, just in case they're fertilized. No live embryos around here!
***Which they do, btw. Many of them go to happy farms, but they have so many, some of them are shoved off to the zoo.
You may wonder what prompted this little bit of PETA action. Well, I'm doing a part-time internship on the museum presentation of science through the university and I'm putting together a proposal for a demonstration on chick developmental genetics for Science and Industry (hereafter known as MSI). My original proposal was to use live chick embryos from days 1-4 for the demonstration. How cool would that be, to see live embryos??? The Exploratorium in San Francisco does it and it is the grand-daddy of all interactive science musuems. But, it has come down from on high (within the museum, not On High, on high because I don't think He cares if we look at chick embryos for educational purposes) that live embryos exhibits are not allowed at the museum. They have not even read my proposal but they have quashed it. Grrrrr...... Yes, the those higher-ups are too...
wait for it....
CHICKEN to use live embryos. Hardy-har-har. *snort*
This information came to me yesterday. My proposal is due on Friday. I've been trying to get information from the museum about this for ages. And my team leader wants to see a draft of my proposal tomorrow. And, here I am writing you. Well, I did work on it all day, and I'm just sick of chicken development at the moment. Because it occurred to me that while I took a developmental biology class, I still know very little about it. I'm probably overpreparing as usual, but I've been picking people's brains, using the internet (and for some reason, the connection at the lab is abominably slow today), and two textbooks. I know, this is for lay people, but I'm having a hard time finding the particular information that I am looking for.
What? Knitting? Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a knitting blog.
I have almost 60 inches done on my scarf. The question is, do I stop now (since I was aiming for 60 inches in the first place) and start another one, or do I make this one longer? I don't like my scarves too long, but this seems a little short. And I can't decide about the fringe. And, if I do fringe, do I block the scarf before or after fringing?
And, I didn't make it to Stitch 'n Bitch last night because I was too busy working on my proposal that I left work late and couldn't eat dinner before going to my Curves class and I couldn't eat the food at Borders because I am on the Curves 6 week solution and the food at Borders is so unhealthy, so I had to go home and fix dinner after Curves class and by the time I got done, it was pointless to go out.
Which is why I'm doing my bitching here, of course.
Now go home and eat some chicken, but for Godsake, don't look at the eggs, just in case they're fertilized. No live embryos around here!
***Which they do, btw. Many of them go to happy farms, but they have so many, some of them are shoved off to the zoo.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Red Scarf
Well, the opera on Tuesday really knocked me out. Therefore, I only got one pattern repeat done on the scarf. Here is what it looked like Wed. morning:
This picture is a fairly good representation of the color (if a little fuzzy). Mostly, I've been working on the scarf in the mornings when I sit in front of my light box. It's a good time to knit because I can think about my upcoming day.
This is my first major cable project and I'm really liking it. The pattern has been easy to memorize.
The opera was wonderful but long. Very long. Not as long as some Wagner operas, but when you are used to going to bed at 10pm and the opera doesn't end until 10:45pm, it feels long. I didn't get home until around 11:30!
This picture is a fairly good representation of the color (if a little fuzzy). Mostly, I've been working on the scarf in the mornings when I sit in front of my light box. It's a good time to knit because I can think about my upcoming day.
This is my first major cable project and I'm really liking it. The pattern has been easy to memorize.
The opera was wonderful but long. Very long. Not as long as some Wagner operas, but when you are used to going to bed at 10pm and the opera doesn't end until 10:45pm, it feels long. I didn't get home until around 11:30!
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
B is for.....
At first, I thought that B was going to be for Beth which is what my family calls me and I would just tell you about myself. Then, I thought B might be for Boston University which is where I went to college and met my husband and I would tell you about my college years (ahhh the memories).
But one morning, I looked up from my cereal and realized that:
B is for Books.
In my dining room, I have four 7 foot tall bookcases crammed so full of books I've had to start stacking them on top of each other. These are most of our fiction books and most of the books on these shelves are mine.
And then, there are these:
This is in my living room, and these are most of our non-fiction books, although those are really spread out among various other small bookshelves in the apt. depending on where they might be most useful (old textbooks next to the computer for instance, self-help books in the bedroom....STOP THAT--that's not what I meant! *blushing* it's just that I don't like the rest of the world knowing how neurotic I am so I keep psychology-related books in my bedroom, geez get your mind out of the gutter!).
I know you are still giggling. *stern look*
Anyway, I have loved books ever since I first started reading. Reading became my obsession, and my escape from the world. It didn't matter what was going on in real life, because I had my books. Reading probably saved my sanity in my youngers years (and still does on occasion). Parents fighting? Go read a book. Problems at school? Go read a book. Bad breakup? Go read a book. Reading was and is my cure for everything (that and chocolate, but that's another story). In another life I might have become a librarian. Or a used bookseller. When I was younger, I read obsessively and when I was reading, nothing else could get my attention--I was in a completely different (and more interesting) world. My father was the same way. You could literally stand right next to him and say his name and he would be oblivious. My two younger brothers read in this manner, too, but my younger sister missed out on the crazy, obsessive reading gene. I still become completely absorbed in what I'm reading, but I don't read as much as I used to (which was at least two books a week).
When I first started reading, I liked mysteries. I had stumbled across The Boxcar Children books in my school library and loved them to death. A little later, Trixie Belden became a favorite, and also Nancy Drew (the classic ones, not the new ones). In middle school and junior high I read a lot of teen romance paperbacks--Sweet Valley High and Couples (couldn't find this on Amazon--you should see what you get when you just type Couples into the amazon search engine!)--as well as Beverly Cleary, Cynthia Voigt, Paula Danzinger, Judy Blume, and my all-time favorite, Madeleine L'Engle. By late junior high, I found my true love. Fantasy.
I started reading David Eddings and got hooked. When I started reading, his first series, the Belgariad, was finished, and his second series, the Mallorean had just started. I remember when the last book came out. All of this time, I had been patiently waiting until the books came out in paperback to read them, but with this one, I just had to read it. Right now. So, I bought the hardcover--the first hardcover book I bought--and started reading. It was over Memorial Day weekend, and I had to march in the parade in band, so I brought the book with me and while I was waiting in the band room, with my uniform on, I read the book. There is no way I can ever forget this, because a reporter from the town newspaper was there and took a picture. The caption says I was studying. Right.
Fantasy fiction pretty much dominated my life until about 7 or 8 years ago when I decided to give some of the classics a go. I had tried reading Dickens in high school and hated it, but I thought that maybe my tastes had changed a little bit. But, before I got into Dickens, I decided to make a small foray into Jane Austen territory with Sense and Sensibility. That was it, I was hooked. I read the other five in very short order and bought them all in hardcover (that's how you know I really love a book--I buy it in hardcover). Then, I decided to try Dickens again and I loved A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, and Great Expectations. I tried the Bronte sisters. Wuthering Heights made me want to throw myself out the window (I have never read a book with such disagreeable characters--I hated every one of them), but Jane Eyre was lovely and so I also read Villette.
My most recent new area of literature is non-fiction. I enjoy learning and reading about things I did not know about before. I'm particularly interested in epidemiology and read The Hot Zone and The Coming Plague (we're all going to die in a flu pandemic any day now, btw). I also love history and if it's history of science, even better.
I don't just love reading books, I love owning books. I love having an obscene number of books in my house. I almost always buy books instead of going to the library (this is also because I have a leeetle problem returning books on time and run up huge fines). I love the smell of books. Old books smell different from new books--have you ever noticed? I think it may have something to do with the ink. Madeleine L'Engle once commented that books from Britain smelled different that books from the US (at least when she was a child). I read my books more than once. There are some books I've read so many times, I can practically recite them from memory. There are some authors I read specifically when I'm feeling very overwhelmed and frustrated with my lab work. Terry Pratchett comes to mind. He writes delightfully absurd parodies based in a fantasy world. It's perfect for getting my mind moving in a different direction. He's a fairly new find to me, so I haven't even read all of his books yet.
So that's it. B is for books. Or bibliophile. Or bibliomaniac. Your call.
But one morning, I looked up from my cereal and realized that:
B is for Books.
In my dining room, I have four 7 foot tall bookcases crammed so full of books I've had to start stacking them on top of each other. These are most of our fiction books and most of the books on these shelves are mine.
And then, there are these:
This is in my living room, and these are most of our non-fiction books, although those are really spread out among various other small bookshelves in the apt. depending on where they might be most useful (old textbooks next to the computer for instance, self-help books in the bedroom....STOP THAT--that's not what I meant! *blushing* it's just that I don't like the rest of the world knowing how neurotic I am so I keep psychology-related books in my bedroom, geez get your mind out of the gutter!).
I know you are still giggling. *stern look*
Anyway, I have loved books ever since I first started reading. Reading became my obsession, and my escape from the world. It didn't matter what was going on in real life, because I had my books. Reading probably saved my sanity in my youngers years (and still does on occasion). Parents fighting? Go read a book. Problems at school? Go read a book. Bad breakup? Go read a book. Reading was and is my cure for everything (that and chocolate, but that's another story). In another life I might have become a librarian. Or a used bookseller. When I was younger, I read obsessively and when I was reading, nothing else could get my attention--I was in a completely different (and more interesting) world. My father was the same way. You could literally stand right next to him and say his name and he would be oblivious. My two younger brothers read in this manner, too, but my younger sister missed out on the crazy, obsessive reading gene. I still become completely absorbed in what I'm reading, but I don't read as much as I used to (which was at least two books a week).
When I first started reading, I liked mysteries. I had stumbled across The Boxcar Children books in my school library and loved them to death. A little later, Trixie Belden became a favorite, and also Nancy Drew (the classic ones, not the new ones). In middle school and junior high I read a lot of teen romance paperbacks--Sweet Valley High and Couples (couldn't find this on Amazon--you should see what you get when you just type Couples into the amazon search engine!)--as well as Beverly Cleary, Cynthia Voigt, Paula Danzinger, Judy Blume, and my all-time favorite, Madeleine L'Engle. By late junior high, I found my true love. Fantasy.
I started reading David Eddings and got hooked. When I started reading, his first series, the Belgariad, was finished, and his second series, the Mallorean had just started. I remember when the last book came out. All of this time, I had been patiently waiting until the books came out in paperback to read them, but with this one, I just had to read it. Right now. So, I bought the hardcover--the first hardcover book I bought--and started reading. It was over Memorial Day weekend, and I had to march in the parade in band, so I brought the book with me and while I was waiting in the band room, with my uniform on, I read the book. There is no way I can ever forget this, because a reporter from the town newspaper was there and took a picture. The caption says I was studying. Right.
Fantasy fiction pretty much dominated my life until about 7 or 8 years ago when I decided to give some of the classics a go. I had tried reading Dickens in high school and hated it, but I thought that maybe my tastes had changed a little bit. But, before I got into Dickens, I decided to make a small foray into Jane Austen territory with Sense and Sensibility. That was it, I was hooked. I read the other five in very short order and bought them all in hardcover (that's how you know I really love a book--I buy it in hardcover). Then, I decided to try Dickens again and I loved A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, and Great Expectations. I tried the Bronte sisters. Wuthering Heights made me want to throw myself out the window (I have never read a book with such disagreeable characters--I hated every one of them), but Jane Eyre was lovely and so I also read Villette.
My most recent new area of literature is non-fiction. I enjoy learning and reading about things I did not know about before. I'm particularly interested in epidemiology and read The Hot Zone and The Coming Plague (we're all going to die in a flu pandemic any day now, btw). I also love history and if it's history of science, even better.
I don't just love reading books, I love owning books. I love having an obscene number of books in my house. I almost always buy books instead of going to the library (this is also because I have a leeetle problem returning books on time and run up huge fines). I love the smell of books. Old books smell different from new books--have you ever noticed? I think it may have something to do with the ink. Madeleine L'Engle once commented that books from Britain smelled different that books from the US (at least when she was a child). I read my books more than once. There are some books I've read so many times, I can practically recite them from memory. There are some authors I read specifically when I'm feeling very overwhelmed and frustrated with my lab work. Terry Pratchett comes to mind. He writes delightfully absurd parodies based in a fantasy world. It's perfect for getting my mind moving in a different direction. He's a fairly new find to me, so I haven't even read all of his books yet.
So that's it. B is for books. Or bibliophile. Or bibliomaniac. Your call.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Red Scarf Project
I have joined the Red Scarf Project as mentioned on Norma's blog. It is a charity project centered around sending scarves in Valentine's Day care packages to former foster children who are now in college. Since they need the scarves for Valentine's Day, the due date for collection is Jan. 31! Not a lot of time. Consequently, I have been spending all of my knitting time on a red scarf. I am doing a cabled scarf pattern from my Vogue scarves book. The yarn is Caron One Pound yarn in a very reddish cranberry. Yes, one pound. No dye lot. Don't judge me. It's a sturdy worsted weight soft acrylic yarn and it is knitting up beautifully. I didn't even want to try something that would have to be handwashed. I would love to pamper these kids and send them something made in a luxury fiber, but the fact is that these are college kids, some of them male, and the odds that they will take the time to handwash a scarf are slim to none. I can see the average college male simply throwing it in the washing machine and will have to end up putting it on his teddybear (real men have teddybears!).
I have finished 23 out of 60 inches of the scarf and I'm right on track as far as schedule. I decided if I knit 15 inches each of the weekends in between now and then (counting last weekend, because I got the yarn on Sat.), and 4 inches every weekday, it will be done in time. This is easy to figure out because 4 inches is approximately 2 pattern repeats. Frankly, it's coming out so nice, I'm going to have a hard time giving it away. I'm pretty sure I'll have yarn leftover (gee, you think?), so I could make myself one, but I suspect after knitting 60 inches of this scarf, I'm not going to want to do another 60 inches.
Picture? You want to see a picture? Well I haven't taken one yet.
I know, I know, Bad Blogger, Very Bad Blogger!! *thumps self on the nose*
I'll try to take one tonight and post it tomorrow (or the next day because I need to do B for the ABC-along). However, I won't have much time for taking pictures this evening because I am going to see the Magic Flute! Some friends and I (John didn't want to go) bought tickets way back in the early fall, and finally the time has arrived. I haven't been to the opera in two years, so I'm quite excited. It's really the feast after the famine because I'm going to the opera again on the 31st to see Rigoletto. Roommie is taking me as a Christmas present.
So, actually, I'll have to have my scarf done before the 31st because there's no way I'm going to get to an Einstein's Bagels before the opera on the 31st!
I have finished 23 out of 60 inches of the scarf and I'm right on track as far as schedule. I decided if I knit 15 inches each of the weekends in between now and then (counting last weekend, because I got the yarn on Sat.), and 4 inches every weekday, it will be done in time. This is easy to figure out because 4 inches is approximately 2 pattern repeats. Frankly, it's coming out so nice, I'm going to have a hard time giving it away. I'm pretty sure I'll have yarn leftover (gee, you think?), so I could make myself one, but I suspect after knitting 60 inches of this scarf, I'm not going to want to do another 60 inches.
Picture? You want to see a picture? Well I haven't taken one yet.
I know, I know, Bad Blogger, Very Bad Blogger!! *thumps self on the nose*
I'll try to take one tonight and post it tomorrow (or the next day because I need to do B for the ABC-along). However, I won't have much time for taking pictures this evening because I am going to see the Magic Flute! Some friends and I (John didn't want to go) bought tickets way back in the early fall, and finally the time has arrived. I haven't been to the opera in two years, so I'm quite excited. It's really the feast after the famine because I'm going to the opera again on the 31st to see Rigoletto. Roommie is taking me as a Christmas present.
So, actually, I'll have to have my scarf done before the 31st because there's no way I'm going to get to an Einstein's Bagels before the opera on the 31st!
Thursday, January 05, 2006
A is for Astrophysicist
I've decided that it might be nice if other people read my blog so that I'm not just talking to myself here, so to that end I've joined the A-B-C-Along ring. It's pretty straight-forward: every two weeks, I post a photo about something that means something to me. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to my first one:
This is my Astrophysicist, aka my husband (standing next to a space capsule at Kennedy Space Center; I took the picture when we visited there once, he doesn't actually have any professional relationship with the Space Center). There are two general types of responses when I say my husband is an astrophysicist: intimidation, or confusion. Sometimes both. The confused ask, "What's an astrophysicist?" to which I reply, "A rocket scientist," which is completely inaccurate, but at least it's something people have heard of. Inaccurate, because he doesn't build or study rockets. The intimidated, well, there's not much I can do for them. I try to comfort them, I try to let them know that he's not scary, I try to tell them that it's okay, you can just go back to talking about the weather, but alas, they simply back away. They might try and ask me what I do, to which I reply, "I'm a cell biologist," (which is the least scary title I can give myself, technically I'm getting a PhD in molecular genetics and cell biology), and that pretty much clinches the deal. It happened just this past weekend at a New Year's Eve party, actually. But I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about my astrophysicist, not how people react to his profession.
I met John in the dorm lounge at college. He was smart and funny, and helped me with my physics homework. Eventually, he became my physics tutor. For various reasons, we didn't actually "get together" for a couple years. I can honestly say that all of the good things I experience in my life today started then. We were married in the spring of 2000 and I have never been happier. I'm not saying it's all been one big party, there are ups and downs as there are in any relationship, but my life is better for having him in it.
John grew up just outside Boston, but was fortunately spared most of the accent (he pronounces all of his r's, but he has a few funny words: sawr [saw], idear [idea] and arnge [orange] ). He has always wanted to be an astronomer, at least since junior high or so, and he majored in astronomy and physics in college, then got a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics at U of Chicago. He studies cosmic dust. Yes, that's right, dust, you know, like the stuff that collects on your figurines. To do this, he uses a telescope with a special device on it that lets him see infrared light . STOP! DON'T RUN AWAY!!! It's not scary, it's like you see in spy shows on tv or in movies when they have a device that lets them see people because of their body heat and they show up like little red people moving around, that's really infrared light. I don't really understand it all, but basically what it means is that he goes to Hawaii (just left this morning as a matter of fact), way up high on a mountain (where it's very cold--he brings his winter coat when he goes, there's no laying on the beach for him), staring at cosmic dust. Which is pretty zen when you think about it.
He likes to read science fiction and political humor (I got him an Al Franken book for Christmas). He hates George Bush (don't we all), and is a democrat as only a half-Irish [non-practicing] Catholic from Boston can be. He likes to play cards, Trivial Pursuit, and Parchisi. He's tall and skinny and has a really great metabolism, such as I can only dream of. Don't get him started on the Vatican and the Catholic Church (please, really, don't do it). He pretends not to like our kitty but I've seen him petting him when no one was looking. At his most stressed-out, he resembles what I look like at my least. In an effort to get him a hobby, I bought him a toy train once and my mother now buys him train things every Christmas without fail. It's amazing how many books about trains there are out there. Now, if only we could set up the train set again, it would all make more sense....
So that's it. That's my Astrophysicist/husband John.
This is my Astrophysicist, aka my husband (standing next to a space capsule at Kennedy Space Center; I took the picture when we visited there once, he doesn't actually have any professional relationship with the Space Center). There are two general types of responses when I say my husband is an astrophysicist: intimidation, or confusion. Sometimes both. The confused ask, "What's an astrophysicist?" to which I reply, "A rocket scientist," which is completely inaccurate, but at least it's something people have heard of. Inaccurate, because he doesn't build or study rockets. The intimidated, well, there's not much I can do for them. I try to comfort them, I try to let them know that he's not scary, I try to tell them that it's okay, you can just go back to talking about the weather, but alas, they simply back away. They might try and ask me what I do, to which I reply, "I'm a cell biologist," (which is the least scary title I can give myself, technically I'm getting a PhD in molecular genetics and cell biology), and that pretty much clinches the deal. It happened just this past weekend at a New Year's Eve party, actually. But I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about my astrophysicist, not how people react to his profession.
I met John in the dorm lounge at college. He was smart and funny, and helped me with my physics homework. Eventually, he became my physics tutor. For various reasons, we didn't actually "get together" for a couple years. I can honestly say that all of the good things I experience in my life today started then. We were married in the spring of 2000 and I have never been happier. I'm not saying it's all been one big party, there are ups and downs as there are in any relationship, but my life is better for having him in it.
John grew up just outside Boston, but was fortunately spared most of the accent (he pronounces all of his r's, but he has a few funny words: sawr [saw], idear [idea] and arnge [orange] ). He has always wanted to be an astronomer, at least since junior high or so, and he majored in astronomy and physics in college, then got a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics at U of Chicago. He studies cosmic dust. Yes, that's right, dust, you know, like the stuff that collects on your figurines. To do this, he uses a telescope with a special device on it that lets him see infrared light . STOP! DON'T RUN AWAY!!! It's not scary, it's like you see in spy shows on tv or in movies when they have a device that lets them see people because of their body heat and they show up like little red people moving around, that's really infrared light. I don't really understand it all, but basically what it means is that he goes to Hawaii (just left this morning as a matter of fact), way up high on a mountain (where it's very cold--he brings his winter coat when he goes, there's no laying on the beach for him), staring at cosmic dust. Which is pretty zen when you think about it.
He likes to read science fiction and political humor (I got him an Al Franken book for Christmas). He hates George Bush (don't we all), and is a democrat as only a half-Irish [non-practicing] Catholic from Boston can be. He likes to play cards, Trivial Pursuit, and Parchisi. He's tall and skinny and has a really great metabolism, such as I can only dream of. Don't get him started on the Vatican and the Catholic Church (please, really, don't do it). He pretends not to like our kitty but I've seen him petting him when no one was looking. At his most stressed-out, he resembles what I look like at my least. In an effort to get him a hobby, I bought him a toy train once and my mother now buys him train things every Christmas without fail. It's amazing how many books about trains there are out there. Now, if only we could set up the train set again, it would all make more sense....
So that's it. That's my Astrophysicist/husband John.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Stitch 'n Bitch Revival
As I said before, I've hit the knitting blahs. This is probably related to the January blahs I always get due to my seasonal affective disorder. Anyway, last night, I went to our weekly stitch 'n bitch meeting and I feel a little bit revived. I sat and worked on my shawl while chatting and planning our Holiday/Gift Stitch 'n Bitch group that I am starting [in a feeble attempt to get a jump on holiday knitting, I have started this spin-off group that meets once a month at my apt.]. It reminded me how soothing I find knitting and how enjoyable it can be.
Additionally, I straightened out a corner of my bedroom that had my knitting stuff in it and got some WIPs sorted out. Most of them are now in plastic boxes, ready to be picked up. There were some I had completely forgotten about (like a drop-stitch ribbon scarf), and some that were completely knitted but lacked finishing (like a scarf knit from yarn I bought in Paris). I also got a halogen lamp for my bedroom which will make it more enjoyable to knit in there. I spend quite a bit of time in there since my husband watches tv in the living room. I try to moderate my tv watching habits because when I watch too much tv I don't sleep well. And I cleared off the chair that was in that corner so I don't have to sit on the bed to knit.
Finally, today I decided to subscribe to Cast-On, a knitting podcast. I thought it might inspire me to listen to it while knitting.
I still haven't started the second mitt for my husband. I have second mitt syndrome I guess. Speaking of which, someone in my group last night said she knew how to knit two socks at a time on one circular needle. I have got to learn how to do that.
Ive been feeling pretty blah in general lately, and it's been hard getting things done. For instance, I still haven't mailed my friend's birthday (from Nov.) and Christmas gifts. I think about it, then end up putting it off. Procrastination is a really big part of my life right now. I should really do something about that. Maybe tomorrow..... :)
Additionally, I straightened out a corner of my bedroom that had my knitting stuff in it and got some WIPs sorted out. Most of them are now in plastic boxes, ready to be picked up. There were some I had completely forgotten about (like a drop-stitch ribbon scarf), and some that were completely knitted but lacked finishing (like a scarf knit from yarn I bought in Paris). I also got a halogen lamp for my bedroom which will make it more enjoyable to knit in there. I spend quite a bit of time in there since my husband watches tv in the living room. I try to moderate my tv watching habits because when I watch too much tv I don't sleep well. And I cleared off the chair that was in that corner so I don't have to sit on the bed to knit.
Finally, today I decided to subscribe to Cast-On, a knitting podcast. I thought it might inspire me to listen to it while knitting.
I still haven't started the second mitt for my husband. I have second mitt syndrome I guess. Speaking of which, someone in my group last night said she knew how to knit two socks at a time on one circular needle. I have got to learn how to do that.
Ive been feeling pretty blah in general lately, and it's been hard getting things done. For instance, I still haven't mailed my friend's birthday (from Nov.) and Christmas gifts. I think about it, then end up putting it off. Procrastination is a really big part of my life right now. I should really do something about that. Maybe tomorrow..... :)
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Knitting blahs
I seem to be going through a time when none of my knitting excites me. I have all of these projects started, but I just sort of look at them with a ho-hum feeling. It's really too bad, because I know I have some lovely projects going. I think the problem is that none of them feel very challenging. This is mostly because most of the knitting I do these days is at Stitch 'n Bitch and I have a hard time concentrating on challenging projects when I'm there. So I have all of these projects that, while pretty, are fairly boring to knit. With five or more projects on the needles, I really don't want to start anything else, but I need to jump start my knitting. Maybe if I bought a nice patterning sock yarn, that would help. Hmmmm....
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
A couple photos
I finally uploaded the photos from my digital camera to my computer.
The bag-exchange bag:
J's fingerless mitts:
I have one mitt done, I just need to secure the ends. I have yet to start the second one (really should do that right away or I might suffer second mitt syndrome).
The bag-exchange bag:
J's fingerless mitts:
I have one mitt done, I just need to secure the ends. I have yet to start the second one (really should do that right away or I might suffer second mitt syndrome).
Monday, December 26, 2005
Long time, no post
Between getting ready for Christmas and a conference and then actually going to the conference, and Iowa for Christmas, there hasn't been much time for blogging. I have gotten a bit of knitting done, though:
Finished: Socks for my sister for Christmas. Made out of Lorna's Laces in Shepherd Sport, colorway seascape (or something to that effect). Regretfully, I didn't take a picture of them. Despite being really quick to knit, I was still Kitchner stitching the toes in the car on the way to Iowa (that was quite a sight--me sitting with Stitch 'n Bitch on my lap [which have the best K stitch instructions in the world], trying to graft the toes, and deciding that I had to lengthen one sock to make them match size-wise). Sis loved them, so I feel good about it. She pronounced them soft and warm. Which is how all socks should be, really.
Finished: Bag for the Windy City bag exchange. It was made out of LionBrand Landscapes and I felted it at my mother's (because it costs $2 a load to use the washer in my building and I wasn't going to pay lots of money to felt a bag). It was my first felting experience and I think it went pretty well. I think I should've left the handles in longer because they ended up being obscenely long, but when I gave it to the person in the exchange, she loved it and said that she loves bags with long handles so I guess it was okay. I have pictures, but I have to upload them at home and I'm at work right now. I got my bag and it's a cute little purse/handbag. I think I want to put a handle on it. I think the knitter didn't put a handle on it because she ran out of the Fizz yarn (which is my fault because I supplied the yarn). She knit the purple Cascade 220 and Fizz held together. There's plenty of the Cascade left, so I'm going to buy more Fizz and finsih it. I'm of two minds about participating in an exchange again. Even though we had 10 months to do it, it was inevitable that I wouldn't start it until right before it was due and that was incredibly stressful. However, the actual exchange part was a lot of fun and like a knitter's Christmas. This is the first time anyone has actually handknit something for me. Okay, my mom made a couple of sweaters for me when I was very little, but this is the first time someone made me something when I actually had the sense to appreciate it. And that was incredible! They probably won't exchange the yarn until Feb. so I have some time to think about it.
Started: Fingerless mitts for my husband made out of the same yarn (because I had quite a bit left over). I have one mitt almost done. I would've had it all the way done if I had remembered that stockinette stitch fabric rolls up and I would therefore have to do some kind of edging at top part of the mitts. I did garter stitch at the top of the thumb and it worked fine, but it didn't match the cuff which was k1, p1, ribbing, so I decided that I'm going to redo the thumb. Meanwhile, I ripped out two or three rows off the top of the mitts and will do about 3 rows of k1p1 ribbing to match the cuff. Unfortunately, I had an odd number of stitches (from picking some up around the thumb to make the join prettier), so I had to p2tog at the end of the first round. Oh well. Now, I need to write all of this down so I can remember to do it for the second mitt....
Started: Socks for me in Shepherd Sport (a different colorway). The yarn on this skein is much lighter than the seascape ones. It might be due to the dyes, or it might be because I bought it on sale as a second.... No worries, though, I think they will be fine all the same. But I had to put them aside while I worked on hubby's mitts because his poor little hands were cold at work and I had to use the same needles the socks were on for the mitts (well, had to is a bit strong; I liked the way my sister's socks turned out so I wanted to use the same size needle and that's the only one I have in that size).
For Christmas, I got a Vogue Knitting, Scarves (between that and Scarf Style, I could make a scarf for everyone I know), and a Knitting Journal which was really cute from my brother-in-law and his wife. Lots of other things, too, but nothing knitting related.
Sorry there are no pix--I'll try to do better in the future.
Finished: Socks for my sister for Christmas. Made out of Lorna's Laces in Shepherd Sport, colorway seascape (or something to that effect). Regretfully, I didn't take a picture of them. Despite being really quick to knit, I was still Kitchner stitching the toes in the car on the way to Iowa (that was quite a sight--me sitting with Stitch 'n Bitch on my lap [which have the best K stitch instructions in the world], trying to graft the toes, and deciding that I had to lengthen one sock to make them match size-wise). Sis loved them, so I feel good about it. She pronounced them soft and warm. Which is how all socks should be, really.
Finished: Bag for the Windy City bag exchange. It was made out of LionBrand Landscapes and I felted it at my mother's (because it costs $2 a load to use the washer in my building and I wasn't going to pay lots of money to felt a bag). It was my first felting experience and I think it went pretty well. I think I should've left the handles in longer because they ended up being obscenely long, but when I gave it to the person in the exchange, she loved it and said that she loves bags with long handles so I guess it was okay. I have pictures, but I have to upload them at home and I'm at work right now. I got my bag and it's a cute little purse/handbag. I think I want to put a handle on it. I think the knitter didn't put a handle on it because she ran out of the Fizz yarn (which is my fault because I supplied the yarn). She knit the purple Cascade 220 and Fizz held together. There's plenty of the Cascade left, so I'm going to buy more Fizz and finsih it. I'm of two minds about participating in an exchange again. Even though we had 10 months to do it, it was inevitable that I wouldn't start it until right before it was due and that was incredibly stressful. However, the actual exchange part was a lot of fun and like a knitter's Christmas. This is the first time anyone has actually handknit something for me. Okay, my mom made a couple of sweaters for me when I was very little, but this is the first time someone made me something when I actually had the sense to appreciate it. And that was incredible! They probably won't exchange the yarn until Feb. so I have some time to think about it.
Started: Fingerless mitts for my husband made out of the same yarn (because I had quite a bit left over). I have one mitt almost done. I would've had it all the way done if I had remembered that stockinette stitch fabric rolls up and I would therefore have to do some kind of edging at top part of the mitts. I did garter stitch at the top of the thumb and it worked fine, but it didn't match the cuff which was k1, p1, ribbing, so I decided that I'm going to redo the thumb. Meanwhile, I ripped out two or three rows off the top of the mitts and will do about 3 rows of k1p1 ribbing to match the cuff. Unfortunately, I had an odd number of stitches (from picking some up around the thumb to make the join prettier), so I had to p2tog at the end of the first round. Oh well. Now, I need to write all of this down so I can remember to do it for the second mitt....
Started: Socks for me in Shepherd Sport (a different colorway). The yarn on this skein is much lighter than the seascape ones. It might be due to the dyes, or it might be because I bought it on sale as a second.... No worries, though, I think they will be fine all the same. But I had to put them aside while I worked on hubby's mitts because his poor little hands were cold at work and I had to use the same needles the socks were on for the mitts (well, had to is a bit strong; I liked the way my sister's socks turned out so I wanted to use the same size needle and that's the only one I have in that size).
For Christmas, I got a Vogue Knitting, Scarves (between that and Scarf Style, I could make a scarf for everyone I know), and a Knitting Journal which was really cute from my brother-in-law and his wife. Lots of other things, too, but nothing knitting related.
Sorry there are no pix--I'll try to do better in the future.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Much better
Now that Monday is over, I'm feeling much better. That, and the fact that it has finally gotten cold. I'm very sensitive to my environment, and when the weather isn't "right" I get irritable and uncomfortable. Seriously. It really bothers me. I think it may have something to do with my seasonal affective disorder. My circadian rhythms are already screwed up. When the weather is acting like it's spring, it just screws me up even more. And don't even get me started about daylight savings time....
Okay, on to knitting. I still don't have a pic of the completed Knit Unto Others hat. However, I decided to suck it up and start a new hat. I have some Wintuck acrylic yarn in bright red. It's worsted weight, but it's a "hard" worsted--not soft and squishy--so I'm knitting it on size 10 circulars using the magic loop method. The pattern is something I saw at the Show and Share for the Windy City Knitters' Guild. You start with an odd number of stitches (number divisible by 4 plus 1 extra stitch), then knit 2, purl 2 around. When you get to the end of the round, you will need to purl 2, but there will be only one stitch left in the round. Therefore, the second purl will start the next round. The result is a diagonally striping rib. I started it last night at Stitch 'n Bitch, but I got off-count and ended up ripping it out and starting it over this morning. I know all I had to do is k2, p2, but I can never follow any sort of pattern when I'm at Stitch 'n Bitch, because I'm too busy yapping to pay attention to what I'm doing. When I realized I was off-count, I switched over to my shawl. I've done so many rows on that one, my fingers just do the pattern without me having to know what I'm doing.
The highlight of the Stitch 'n Bitch evening came at the very beginning. I was standing over one of the stitchers, admiring her fair isle baby jumper and saying how cute it was, when a guy from the chess group (there's a large group of mostly black men who play chess at the Border's cafe) comes over to tell me that, speaking of cute, I was looking pretty cute in the light blue top I was wearing. At first, I didn't realize he was talking to me, but after looking around, I noticed I was the only one wearing light blue. So I graciously said thank you and proceded to go about my business, going to get a cup of hot chocolate, and when I came back, a stitcher joined our group and handed me a chocolate truffle and said that the same man was waiting around to give it to me but he gave up when he found out that I was married! I guess at 31, I've still got it. I brought the truffle home to show my husband (in an attempt to shame him into buying me chocolates), but he was just concerned that I was taking candy from strangers (by the way, I am not going to eat the truffle [my mother taught me to never take candy from strangers, but I feel what's the harm as long as I don't eat it!], but I am going to keep the wrapper and tape it above my lab bench so I can look at it whenever I'm feeling old and unattractive). So, I said to hubby, "at least somebody finds me attractive," and stalked off to the bedroom. Ha! (our roommate witnessed the whole event by the way, and remarked that it had suddenly got very cold in the living room) If there is not a box of chocolates waiting for me when I get home tonight, someone's in trouble.
Speaking of Stitch 'n Bitch, I have a confession to make. Way back in the early summer, we had a knitalong for making chemocaps for Windy City headhuggers. I was in charge of sending them off to WCH. But, when I finally got around to searching for their address, I found that they wanted you to fill out a form for every hat you send in, including the type of yarn you used and wash instructions. Now, this was sufficiently after I had collected the hats that some of these people had dropped out of the group. I toyed with the idea of putting down what I thought the yarn was, but then I had this horrible vision of chemo patients coming down with the hives and dying because there was wool in the hat and they are allergic. So, I have been keeping these hats, wondering what I should do with them. Do you think it would be very terrible of me to send them to the Indiana Tornado victims? That way, they're still going to charity, but we're not giving hats of unknown fiber to sick people.
Okay, on to knitting. I still don't have a pic of the completed Knit Unto Others hat. However, I decided to suck it up and start a new hat. I have some Wintuck acrylic yarn in bright red. It's worsted weight, but it's a "hard" worsted--not soft and squishy--so I'm knitting it on size 10 circulars using the magic loop method. The pattern is something I saw at the Show and Share for the Windy City Knitters' Guild. You start with an odd number of stitches (number divisible by 4 plus 1 extra stitch), then knit 2, purl 2 around. When you get to the end of the round, you will need to purl 2, but there will be only one stitch left in the round. Therefore, the second purl will start the next round. The result is a diagonally striping rib. I started it last night at Stitch 'n Bitch, but I got off-count and ended up ripping it out and starting it over this morning. I know all I had to do is k2, p2, but I can never follow any sort of pattern when I'm at Stitch 'n Bitch, because I'm too busy yapping to pay attention to what I'm doing. When I realized I was off-count, I switched over to my shawl. I've done so many rows on that one, my fingers just do the pattern without me having to know what I'm doing.
The highlight of the Stitch 'n Bitch evening came at the very beginning. I was standing over one of the stitchers, admiring her fair isle baby jumper and saying how cute it was, when a guy from the chess group (there's a large group of mostly black men who play chess at the Border's cafe) comes over to tell me that, speaking of cute, I was looking pretty cute in the light blue top I was wearing. At first, I didn't realize he was talking to me, but after looking around, I noticed I was the only one wearing light blue. So I graciously said thank you and proceded to go about my business, going to get a cup of hot chocolate, and when I came back, a stitcher joined our group and handed me a chocolate truffle and said that the same man was waiting around to give it to me but he gave up when he found out that I was married! I guess at 31, I've still got it. I brought the truffle home to show my husband (in an attempt to shame him into buying me chocolates), but he was just concerned that I was taking candy from strangers (by the way, I am not going to eat the truffle [my mother taught me to never take candy from strangers, but I feel what's the harm as long as I don't eat it!], but I am going to keep the wrapper and tape it above my lab bench so I can look at it whenever I'm feeling old and unattractive). So, I said to hubby, "at least somebody finds me attractive," and stalked off to the bedroom. Ha! (our roommate witnessed the whole event by the way, and remarked that it had suddenly got very cold in the living room) If there is not a box of chocolates waiting for me when I get home tonight, someone's in trouble.
Speaking of Stitch 'n Bitch, I have a confession to make. Way back in the early summer, we had a knitalong for making chemocaps for Windy City headhuggers. I was in charge of sending them off to WCH. But, when I finally got around to searching for their address, I found that they wanted you to fill out a form for every hat you send in, including the type of yarn you used and wash instructions. Now, this was sufficiently after I had collected the hats that some of these people had dropped out of the group. I toyed with the idea of putting down what I thought the yarn was, but then I had this horrible vision of chemo patients coming down with the hives and dying because there was wool in the hat and they are allergic. So, I have been keeping these hats, wondering what I should do with them. Do you think it would be very terrible of me to send them to the Indiana Tornado victims? That way, they're still going to charity, but we're not giving hats of unknown fiber to sick people.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Finished
I finished the hat I was working on for the Knit Unto Others knitalong. However, I didn't start a second one. I was going to, really I was, but then I thought it would take me forever to finish one made from sportweight yarn, so I should use something heavier, but then I didn't think my worsted weight yarn was "good enough" and I wanted to go to JoAnn's to get more, but I didn't do that either. The result of all of this is that there is still not a second hat started, when I could've been halfway done if I hadn't done all of this fussing, but just started the damn hat. Grrr....
Oh, and I don't have a picture of the hat because I left my flash drive at home meaning I can't upload pix while I'm at the lab.
My Monday is not going well.
Oh, and I don't have a picture of the hat because I left my flash drive at home meaning I can't upload pix while I'm at the lab.
My Monday is not going well.
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