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.")

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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?!

All is well

Grandma made it through the surgery fine. Well, that is, they didn't accidently amputate her leg or anything like that. We'll know more about how the hip is in a few days. I haven't talked to her yet (she didn't answer the phone when I called), but my mom is going to see her tonight so I'll be able to get second hand info.

Knitblogger something or other

I was at Norma's when I found out about this. It seems that someone is doing a study on memes and how fast they travel. And while I am a no-meme zone, since Norma is as well and she was doing it, I figured it was okay. So, the deal is this: visit the link above (this) and then say something on your blog about it and ask other people to do the same and ping technorati. I'm not even sure what that does, but you know me--lemming all the way. Besides, I'm a sucker for an experiment.

Grandma's surgery is today. I am staying in Chicago. I am trying to be a productive person but failing miserably. This does not surprise me, but at least I'm trying.

Gah!

My grandmother is having hip replacement surgery.

It was supposed to be late in December.

I had not decided if I was going to go to Iowa for the surgery or not.

The surgery is now on Wed. (yes, THIS Wed.).

I don't trust hospitals.

There can't be someone there with her all day everyday.

I don't trust hospitals.

I need to go to Iowa.

I need to graduate.

Maybe I don't need to go to Iowa.

Or I do.

Or I don't.

I don't know what the hell to do.

Jet-setter

My husband is becoming quite the traveler. I was trying to find a time to visit him in January and here's the schedule I have to work around:

Jan 7-12: Seattle
Jan 13-22: Hawaii
Jan 31-Feb. 2: Ontario
Feb. 2-5: Chicago.

Craziness. Some of you may be wondering about the Hawaii trip. The telescope is on the top of Mauna Kea on the big island. It is cold up there. He brings a hat and gloves. It is not a vacation!

Speaking of hats, my dear husband has asked me to knit him a hat that is medium-warm. See, I knit a hat out of wool-ease that he wears when it's not too cold (the man starts wearing a hat when it getst to be 50 degrees out; he's a little thin-blooded). Last year, he requested a warmer hat. I made him a double-knit hat using KnitPicks Decadence, a bulky weight 100% alpaca yarn. It was slightly big, but it was warm enough for walking half an hour from our apt. to campus everyday during a Chicago winter (I just took the bus; this may explain why he is a stick while I am pleasantly plump). Apparently, this hat is "too warm" for Hawaii, but the wool-ease hat is "not warm enough" therefore, I need to make him a hat that is "just right" (perhaps I should start calling him Goldilocks?). Therefore, when I ordered the red scarf and Dulaan yarn from KnitPicks, I also ordered more of the Decadence to knit him a single-knit (as it were) hat. I hadn't planned on giving it to him for Christmas, but since he's going to be going to Hawaii in January, I want to get it to him before then. So that's one more project to add to the Christmas list.

Speaking further of hats, I finished the second pattern repeat for the Dulaan hat. I tried some of the techniques Eunny suggested in her recent post to even out my stitches on my colorwork with mixed success. I think I need to just keep doing colorwork projects until it becomes second nature to me. The Dulaan projects will be good for that. Anyhoo, I suspect that, with the holiday weekend approaching, I'm going to finish this hat before my red yarn shows up, so I am wondering what I'm going to do for charity knitting in the iterim. I will have some yarn leftover from the hat, but I'm not sure it will be enough to make matching mittens. I suppose I could just make small mittens. It'd be nice for a child to get a "set" but not mandatory I suppose.

You may be wondering how it is I'm getting so much knitting done these days. It's A. She knits constantly. You would too if you had six scarves and a pig to knit before Christmas. And a duck to put together. Though she has finished one scarf and is 2/3 done with a second. The first was worsted weight knit with size 8 needles and the second is bulky weight knit with size 10 needles (Brittany needles that I got her for her birthday which she loves due to their pointy tips; she's been using Clover bamboo for everything else). And they aren't very long scarves. But she is really cranking them out. So when she's home, if she's not sleeping, in the shower, or eating, she is knitting (and watching tv). This, in turn, inspires me to knit more because even when I'm dead tired and don't feel like doing anything, having her sitting there knitting her little fingers off makes me want to knit.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with good food, good friends, and knitting!

Look, pictures!

My brother-in-law's scarf:


I folded it in half prior to arranging it for its picture. It needs to be blocked so that the ends (on the right) don't look wider than the rest of the scarf. The yarn is a Borrocco wool/acrylic blend that is not only variegated in color but also in thickness. There is a faux cable rib (rows 1-3: k2,p2 rib. row 4: *k2tog keep stitches on the needle, knit through first stitch again, slip both off needle; p2*; repeat from * to * around). It's soft and warm and should go well with his dark gray coat (he's not a bright colors kind of guy).

My sister's socks:


These are made out of a sport weight sock yarn from either Cherry Tree Hill or Bearfoot Mountain Colors (lost the ball band) using size 4 needles. In trying them on, I noticed a couple imperfections I'd like to fix, but after that they will be ready to be wrapped. I used the same faux cable rib that I used on the scarf. It's a simple stitch pattern that is easy to follow, gives you more variety than plain rib, and makes a nice looking fabric (though it's difficult to tell in this picture). No, my legs have not seen the light of day for years, why do you ask (hey at least they're shaved)?

Mom's sock:


The yarn is Lorna's Laces and the pattern is Grumperina's Jaywalker. The yarn did some strange pooling around the ankle and I ended up fiddling with it so there wouldn't be a ginormous red spot on the instep. I like the striping that occured on the foot and wish it had done that for the rest of the sock, but I'm not going to be picky about it. For both this sock and my sister's socks, I used a short-row heel which I like much better than heel flaps (because I hate picking us stitches and then decreasing down). Usually I knit two socks at a time to avoid second sock syndrome, but I was having a hard time with the pattern in the beginning (first I couldn't count to seven, then I kept forgetting to knit in the front and back of the first stitch in the repeat because I had just knit in the front and back of the last stitch of the previous repeat) so I decided to do one sock at a time here. I cast on for the second one yesterday and have the cuff ribbing done and have started on the pattern (much easier the second time around). I am using 2.0mm Inox express circular needles (love, love, love these needles--much pointier than addi's).

And finally, the product of my Weekend of Charity Knitting Agony:


The fair isle pattern actually shows up very well in this picture; much better than in person. In the photo you can't see the little hairs that obscure the pattern a little. This is a very hairy/fuzzy yarn. Here's a lesson for you: take a moment to look at your colorwork pattern to see if it makes sense BEFORE you start it. The pattern is supposed to be evergreen trees and the chart was written assuming you were making a bag. Think about it for a second and you'll understand why this is a problem if you actually want to have evergreen trees. However, I like the pattern as is--it's not crucial to me that I have right-side-up evergreen trees (besides, the yarns are blue not green, although I suppose they could be blue spruce). I have finished one pattern repeat and am starting the second at the top of the chart so that the colorwork will have mirror symmetry across the horizontal axis. Once I finish the second pattern repeat, I will make the rest of the hat in the color of the brim which will eliminate the problem of decreasing in the middle of colorwork. I haven't measured the hat yet, but I think it will fit an American child 5-8 years of age. I'm not sure if Mongolian children grow at the same rate (nutrition really does make a difference for that sort of thing), but I'm sure it will fit some child. That's the nice thing about knitting for charity, you don't have to worry about the item being a particular size--it's bound to fit someone.

Right now, I'm knitting on the hat at home and Mom's sock on the go (on the bus, in seminars, in the dark room while I'm waiting for the machine to develop my film for lab [where today, btw, in the faint glow of the red safety light, was desperately looking for something I could use as a stitch marker--is it normal to wish you carried around stitch markers in your pocket?], etc.). The hat should be done by the end of the week. Hopefully my red yarn from KnitPicks will arrive by then. If not, I'll go scavenging for my wool for Dulaan projects. Along with my red superwash yarn, I am expecting some 100% Peruvian in green, yellow, blue, orange and red which I plan on knitting for the Dulaan project. I am going to make a vest. It'll be my first large garment (well, I'm not sure quite how large it will be, but you know what I mean). The vest may have to wait until after Christmas, though.

Decision-making: Not my strongest point

Norma asks: What are you knitting on THIS INSTANT?

Nothing. I'm sitting at my computer typing. Ha.ha.

With Saturday being the start of Knit Unto Others, the fact that I had a strong belief that Dulaan knitting should be done in wool because it is warm, my (erroneous) belief that I had no wool that was unspoken for, the fact that Dulaan knitting is due in July while the Red Scarf Project is due the end of January, and the fact that I still had a considerable amount of the one pound of Caron red yarn (acrylic) from last year's Red Scarf Project, this weekend I cast on for a red scarf.

Almost immediately, I regretted this decision.

I did some swatching because I wanted to modify a pattern from a Vogue knitting Scarves book (the pattern called for sport weight yarn and I was using worsted). I tried size 10 needles and hated the look of the resulting fabric (I guess I'm too used to making tight-knit socks these days). I switched to size 8 needles. This was better, but I wasn't enjoying the yarn so much. Undaunted, I figured out the modifications of the pattern that I needed, ripped out the swatch, cast on, and completed about a foot of scarf.

I hated it.

The pattern had horizontal ribbing along the bottom edge and vertical ribbing along the sides. This created a look of concentric rectangles in the finished scarf which was very nice. But the vertical ribbing pulled in the sides too much, making the bottom look weird. And this being acrylic I wasn't confident I could block the problem away. I ripped it out.

By this time, I had really started to dislike the yarn. It was stiff and unwieldy. It didn't help that A was sitting next to me knitting a scarf out of KnitPicks Andean Silk, an oh-so-soft alpaca, silk, and merino blend. I pondered what I should do next. I looked at various pattern books. I couldn't come to a decision. I sat and watched tv and mised out on prime knitting time. I went to bed.

The next morning, sitting in front of my lightbox, I cast on for another red scarf, this time a basketweave pattern with a seed stitch border. I thought that maybe part of the reason I found the yarn unwieldy was that I was using bamboo needles and the yarn wasn't sliding off the needles as easily as I am used to with my Inox express and my addi Turbo needles when I knit socks. But, I didn't have size 8 metal needles, so I went back to using 10's. I wasn't sure I liked it, but I kept on trucking. I put my knitting down to wash some dishes, then went to my room to listen to my audiobook and do some serious knitting. I still didn't like it. After knitting about a foot and a half of scarf, I decided to take a nap.

When I woke up from my nap, I ripped the damn thing out again.

I hated the scarf.

I didn't like how it looked, I didn't like how it felt, I didn't like the fact that my hands hurt after so little knitting when they normally didn't hurt at all even when I knit for a long time. About the only thing I did like about it was that it seemed to be knitting up quickly and thus would blessedly be over soon. I thought about how much I usually like knitting and how it is a peaceful experience for me. How it is a welcome respite from the lab which I hate and resent every minute I am stuck there trying to finish this damn PhD. I thought about the kind of karma I was imposing on this scarf as I sat there and resentfully and painfully knit it. It was like the opposite of a prayer shawl--one of those shawls infused with prayer as you knit it that you give to someone who is needful of comfort. I thought about what a dreadful thing it would be to give a scarf with such gloom associated with it to some poor college student who had enough problems without wearing The Sinister Scarf of Depression and Anxiety. I thought about how much more I would enjoy this project if I had a softer yarn to work with and how much more the student would enjoy wearing a soft scarf next to the delicate skin of the neck. I decided to buy some red superwash wool yarn.

In the meantime, I needed something to knit. I dug through the box of yarn that I had with me. Much of my stash had been sent to California. But, I found two balls of Cascade Pastaza (I have lost the ball bands, but I think they may be numbers 28 and 85) which I had originally intended to use to make a bag from the Handknit Holidays book. I started the project but had abandoned it on the needles when I realized that no matter how small my needles were I was just not going to get gauge and the bag would take up much more yarn than I had. I cast on for a hat for the Dulaan project.

I wanted the hat to be plenty warm, so after about an inch and a half of two by two ribbing, I started the evergreen tree fair isle pattern that was in the original bag pattern. For the bag, I had planned on using the flower pattern, but that repeat was a little wider than I thought I could keep track of while watching tv. I got less than 10 rows done before it was time for bed.

I looked at the hat. The fuzziness of the yarn obscured the colorwork somewhat and my floats were not as even as I would like them to be. I had alternated between holding both yarns in one hand and holding one in each hand to see which felt better (the verdict: neither; but I'm going to keep trying the two-handed technique). The hat, though, was stretchy enough to go with the ribbing, that is, the fair isle part didn't become obscenely constricted as it had other times I have tried fair isle which meant I wasn't pulling my floats too tight which I think had been my problem in the past.

I'm going to keep working on this hat. It is not perfect, but have wanted a chance to practice stranded colorwork and this seems like a good opportunity to do so. Also, I remember Norma had once said that she liked the Dulaan knitting because it let her try new things and if there was some imperfection in the finished piece, that was okay because a slightly imperfect vest or hat or scarf or mittens was better than not having anything at all and that's what would happen if she didn't send the item in. I think it is quite a nice hat, really. You can tell that there is a pattern there, even if it isn't crisp as in traditional fair isle, and the stranding on the inside will act as another layer against the cold. I would probably not use the yarn for a garment for an American to be worn against the skin as it is a little itchy when you put it against your face, but I do not think this will be a problem for the Mongolian children who do not have the same luxury of having wussy, pampered skin as we do.

I'm going to order red superwash yarn from KnitPicks today to use for the Red Scarf Project. I still think the best thing for a college student is something that can be tossed in the washing machine. I have a sample card of that yarn and it seems quite soft. I have some other yarn to order from them anyway (like more wool for the Dulaan Project among other things).

So that's it. That's how I decided what to knit for the Knit Unto Others knit-along. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but it finally got done. Lord, am I worn out from the experience!

You knew it was coming

With the plethora of posts about charity knitting floating around in Knitblogland, it was inevitable that such a post would show up here, as well. I like the idea of knitting for charity as we approach the holiday season with its growing commercialism and excess of shopping, so I have joined the Knit Unto Others knitalong (see button in sidebar). The idea is to knit at least one charity item in the next two weeks starting Saturday. And while this seems completely doable, I am feeling overwhelmed with the choices of charities to chose from. Do a I knit a scarf for the orphaned college student? Do I knit a hat or mittens or scarf for a child in Mongolia? Do I knit a hat, mittens, or scarf for someone in Afghanistan? Do I knit a hat for a child in Oklahoma? Do I knit a baby cap for Save the Children? Every charity I see seems worthy and none of them speaks to my heart of hearts more than any of the others so I feel like a deer caught in the headlights--rooted to the spot, caught in indecision. Honestly, everytime I think about starting a charity project, I get so overwhelmed with the possibilities I just stare at the yarn and needles for awhile, then pick up one of the many gift knitting projects that I have going right now and work on that. There is such a thing as too many choices.

Introduction

Meet Dr. Eugene Losev, Ph.D.


Eugene was in my entering class for the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology and we joined the same lab. Last Monday, he successfully defended his thesis and has earned the title of Doctor. Hooray!

Tomorrow is Roommie's birthday. Since today it got pretty cold, I decided to give him his hat and mittens.


They fit quite well which is a relief. I tried making him a hat several years ago when I first started knitting and it was ENORMOUS. This time, I secretly measured his hat and mittens that were in the closet and went by those measurements. It worked!

And here we have the Sister-In-Law votives:

These were knit with 24 gauge wire using glass beads both from Michael's. The bead size is a little confusing and I didn't quite understand what it meant. The beads were variously referred to as 6/0 and 3mm. I followed the guidelines from Handknit Holidays. Since Kristen has asked, I will give you more details as to how I did it as soon as I can take some demonstration pictures. It's really not that hard and it goes pretty fast. I did each of these in one evening while watching tv.

This weekend promises to be pretty quiet. Roommie is going out with his boyfriend tonight and tomorrow night for his birthday. E, temporary roommate A's husband, is in town and they are staying at a hotel for the weekend. So, it's just me and my knitting. Maybe I'll watch my beloved Pride and Prejudice this evening while knitting and drinking hot chocolate. Mmmm...hot chocolate. On Saturday, I am going to afternoon tea at the Four Seasons with my good friend, B (who's Roommie's boyfriend). Afternoon tea is my favorite indulgence. I don't go for manicures or pedicures, I go to posh hotels and sip finely brewed tea in china cups and savor delicate little finger sandwiches and scones with lemon curd and devonshire cream. Holly Golightly may have thought that nothing bad could ever happen to you at Tiffany's but it's my firm belief that nothing bad can ever happen to you while at Tea.