Slight upswing

More good news. One of my lab projects (another "winding up a ball of yarn" project) is starting to work out better. Unfortunately, the problem was I was a dumbass and was doing something wrong and I had what I needed all along, but was doing the wrong tests so I thought it was bad. Oh well. It's all straightened out now so now I can move it forward! Hooray! Also, somebody else in my lab was having a problem and I gave her some advice and it fixed the problem so that felt pretty good. See, I really am smart, it's just that my own projects hate me.

In knitting news, I worked a few rounds on the pink tank top last night while watching What Not To Wear and Numbers. Do any of you watch Numbers? They film it on CalTech campus sometimes, so John sees the film crews. Anyway, I was totally not ready for that ending! I can't believe it--he seemed like such a nice guy!

What Not To Wear always makes me want to throw all of my clothes in the trash, take out a personal loan, hire a fashion expert, and go shopping. It also makes me long for the perfect "structured jacket" that will solve all of my body torso issues (unfortunately, it's not going to fix the fact that my butt and thighs are apparently way too large in proportion to my waist such that pants that fit my waist don't fit my butt and vice versa). I'm afraid to let Stacey and Clinton at my wardrobe, though, because if they threw out my handknit shawls and my handknit bolero, I'd have to walk out and give them back their $5,000 gift card. Last night, this woman had all of these sweaters and they were throwing them out. They weren't handknit, but still. Also, Stacey pointed to a cabled sweater and said something about crochet which made me cringe. If you're going to insult the craft, pick the right one!

In other news, I'm going downtown today to pick up some yarn I ordered from my LYS. It's Wick in the blue green colorway and I'm going to make some socks for John from it. It's made from soy and polypropylene (which is weird because we have tubes made from polypropylene in lab) and is supposed to "wick moisture" away from you. It's a really nice yarn. Last Friday my LYS had a "yarn tasting" where we got to knit up samples of various summer yarns and this was one of them and I loved it. I haven't made socks for John yet, so I really should since I seem to make them for everyone else.

Speaking of socks, I am trying to figure out what kind of socks to make for my sock pal for Sockapalooza 4. She indicated no preference for color or kind of yarn. She lives in the Midwest, so wool would be okay for winter, but she's going to be getting them in August and that is definitely not the time to be wearing wool socks. And I still don't know what pattern to make, either. I've checked out her blog and her finished projects, but she doesn't keep most of the things she makes for herself, so I'm not sure what her personal style is. I'm kind of hoping I will wander around the LYS and something will just jump out at me. Maybe a nice lacy pattern--I haven't made lacy socks and that might be fun. Hmmm.....

Laughter tinged with hysteria

There's a lot of that going on at my lab bench these days. Every day seems to end with me sitting at my desk with my head in my hands and saying, "I don't get it." And everytime I get a result I just laugh--laugh and laugh and laugh--because they are so absurd I can't do anything but laugh. I really don't understand how it could all go so horribly horribly wrong.

The good news is that this isn't a really experiment, this is just ingredient preparation. It is the equivalent of winding a ball of yarn before you start knitting. The knitting is the experiment, the ball winding is what I'm doing now. Except, instead of a lovely, center-pull ball, I have a horrible knot. A knot that is so big and hairy and loopy and heinous that I may have to just cut the yarn and start over.

Most of what I do in lab is the equivalent of winding balls of yarn. In fact 90% of my time is winding the yarn and 10% is the knitting. I am very very sick of winding yarn. I just want to knit so I can wear my sweater.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm all about the analogies.

Anyway, keeping with the "lab is like knitting" analogy, I am basically putting this yarn aside and winding a different ball of yarn for this project. It will work almost as well, and I can't stand the sight of the previous one. The previous one is so bad, I'm considering doing the equivalent of getting new roving and spinning the yarn again. I'm going to need it for something else later, so I probably shouldn't put it off for much longer.

----

On to real knitting! I was having some difficulty knitting my new tank top (the pattern is from Artyarns--you can see a picture of it here; the yarn is bamboo from Southwest Trading Company and you can see a picture of it here). The bottom part is lace and I was consistently screwing it up--on the first row! Finally, last night, I got the first row (round, really, because it's knit in the round) set up properly and I am on my way! Yay! Something's working!

Shawl photos

So, um, I forgot to post those pictures of me wearing my April Wedding Shawl for the Cabin Cove Along.



I want to take some nice pictures of the shawl by itself to send to Dave for his gallery, but alas, I have been putting it off. I'd like to take them outside, but that means I'm going to have to wait for nature to cooperate. Maybe this weekend.

As for the rest of my Cabin Cove stash, I'm feeling a little apathetic about the projects I have started or planned for it. I was making a pair of socks for my Roommie as a gift, but they are wool socks and he is going to be moving to South Carolina and I'm wondering how much he's really going to need wool socks. So, I need to to think about that a little bit. That and the fact that I'm worried I may run out of yarn for his humongous feet, and I'm thinking maybe I should think about making those socks for my husband who doesn't have sasquatch feet and find a nice bamboo/wool blend or cotton/wool blend, or soy/wool blend for Roommie.*

I still want to make a shawl with the grey laceweight, but it's been pretty warm in Chicago lately and I have this burning desire to make a tank top.

So, with one thing and another, I've been neglecting the Cabin Cove. But, I'm not worried about it. I'm certain that I will soon hear the siren call of the Victorian Lace Today and want to knit up that shawl and everytime I see the started socks, I feel their pain--the pain of neglect--so it's only a matter of time before I pick them up again.

------

Lab is still lab but fortunately not as crazy as it was yesterday, so maybe the Laws of the Universe are settling down and taking a break from trying to screw me over. Hey, I can dream, can't I?


*Yes, I know, my husband lives in Southern California, shouldn't that be worse for wool socks? But you forget that he goes to the telescope on the top of the mountain in Hawaii and it's very cold there (winter coat cold) and so for one week out of every six, he'll be needing warm socks, at least for the forseeable future.

They're coming to take me away-ha-ha!

They're coming to take me away-ho-ho!

He-he Ha-Ha He-He Ho-ho--to the funny farm!

Where life is hysterical all day long!

Yesterday, I had one of those days. Those days where, in everything you planned to do something is so seriously screwed up that you realize that astrology cannot possibly work because if it did, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn would have to be aligned and Jupiter had reached critical mass and became a star a la 2001 in order for so many things to have gone wrong at once. It's nothing tragic, nothing really all that horrible, just little bits of my labwork failing in the most absurd and completely unforseen ways. Ways in which you think, Yes, there is a God and he really doesn't want me to study transitional ER sites in Pichia pastoris. To use a knitting analogy, let's say you are working on a plain stockinette sweater in a lovely cream alpaca and you've been knitting on it for awhile and everything is fine and then one day, you pull it out of your bag and there's a bizzaro cable in red acrylic about halfway down the sweater and you think, how the hell did that happen? Was I smoking crack last night when I was working on this? There's not even any red acrylic in my stash! And I don't know how to do cables. And there's no way to fix it but to rip it all out and remove the offending red cabled portion and go back to knitting your lovely cream alpaca sweater. And you become convinced that there are little gnomes who come out at night and mess with your stuff. Or wonder if you can get an exorcism done.*

I am becoming more and more convinced that there are indeed gnomes who live in the walls of our lab who come out in the wee small hours of the morning (the only time when there is nobody in the lab, you'd be surprised at how late people are here at night) and spit into my reagents and mess around with my experiments and change the labels on my tubes. I'm not sure how to counter this considering I already have an evil eye hanging over my desk (a friend brought it back from Turkey for me; my desk is attached to my bench) and an Infant Jesus of Prague mini statue on my bench (one day, it showed up in the mail [at home, not in the lab] with a request for money; I get a lot of Catholic junk mail, especially since I do make contributions to a convent in Indiana)**. Perhaps I should purchase some good old fashioned gargoyles.... Suggestions, anyone?


*We have a post-doc from Greece and apparently it is relatively common to get a priest to come and bless your home or whatever, especially if you have a run of bad luck. I suspect though, that if I went to the campus priest and asked him to do an exorcism of our lab, he would be very amused. And then say no. Maybe I could just steal some holy water, put it in a spray bottle, then spray down my bench....

**Molecular biologists are very superstitious--you wouldn't believe how many good luck charms there are in our lab. We have this little finger puppet called the PCR monster that sits on our PCR machine when we are having a problem with the PCR reaction working. You cannot actually use the PCR monster the first time you do a reaction because that is abusing the PCR monster. The PCR monster can only be used when you have already tried the experiment and it failed and you are trying it again. Someone else in the lab has a buffalo figurine/toy called Al that she uses for all sorts of things. Somedays you come in an Al is sitting on top of an incubator or in her ice bucket or on top of the PCR machine. Al is a very well-traveled buffalo. I wonder if I should get a buffalo for my bench. Do you think the gnomes would be scared away by a buffalo?

Happy Anniversary to Us!

By the numbers:

Years we have known each other: 13.5
Years we have been together: 12.5
Years we have lived together: 7
Years we have been married: 7
Years we have lived together while married: 3

We need to work on that last number a little bit....

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Some interesing tidbits about my wedding day:

*There are several pieces of advice I give to people who are planning their weddings. One is: don't do your own hair. I had practiced doing my hair and it had always turned out fine, but the day of the wedding, it was just not behaving. I had bought this beautiful hair comb and made a veil that attached to it that could be removed. I had planned on removing the veil for the reception, but my hair was such a disaster, I left it on. To let you know how frustrated I was, I actually looked at my very good friend from college and said to her, in all earnestness, "Okay, here's what we'll do. You're going to cut my hair...."

*John and I have similarly sized hands and therefore, similar ring sizes. At the ceremony, the best man (John's brother) put the rings on a glass plate for the priest to bless. The priest then picked up a ring and gave it to John to put on my finger. Which he did, but it felt slightly loose. I didn't think much of it until the priest handed me the second ring and I tried to put it on John's finger. It wouldn't go past his second knuckle. At that point I realized that the priest had given us each other's rings! However, as soon as the priest saw my confusion he made a gesture that amounted to, "just go with it," which we did. Immediately following that was the candle lighting. After lighting the candle, we stood behind the altar and waited for the song to be over while contemplating our lit candle. The timing was perfect. I nudged John, and whispered, "give me your ring." That's when we exchanged rings. Literally.

*I had my bridal shower two days before the wedding because that was the only time I could have my family and John's family at a shower. We decided that we should send the men off to dinner for John's "bachelor's party." The men included all of my male relatives and all of John's male relatives. I wasn't worried about it getting out of hand. Besides, that night several people were flying in, so they decided to have this dinner at O'Hare (the airport). They asked the people at the airport where they might have such a dinner, and they suggested a steak place in one of the hotels. They showed up at this "steak place" which has a rather innocuous name like "Fireside Grill" or something, to find that the waitresses were dressed in high heels and teddies. To this day, I am amused at the thought of my poor, straightlaced husband at such a place with his (even straighterlaced) father (the man once left the room during an episode of Rosanne because they were talking about breast reduction surgery), my stepfather, and my two brothers, among others.

*My brother was one of the people flying in two days before the wedding. He was flying back from a semester abroad in The Netherlands. In fact, this was one of the reasons we chose this weekend for our wedding, because he would be back in the country. He ran into some delay in New Jersey and so called me to let me know so I could tell the people picking him up at the airport. He had this advice to give at that moment, "Never drink so much that you can't remember how you got home the night before a transatlantic flight." Imagine, if you will, him arriving at O'Hare, seriously hungover, tired, confused, and then led to a "steak place" in the airport where there were scantily-clad women to have dinner with a bunch of people, of whom he knew less than half. Apparently, "surreal," didn't do it justice.

*The photography company was a pain in the butt to deal with, but the photographer they sent was fun and took wonderful pictures. John's brother and my aunt spent the evening trying to decide which one of them he was hitting on. I'm not sure they ever came to a conclusion about it.

*My reception was in dowtown Chicago and one block away from the Hard Rock Cafe. At some point during the evening, I was looking for my brother for a picture and was told, "he's at the Hard Rock Cafe." Apparently, John's cousin had a burning desire to go to the Hard Rock Cafe and he convinced my uncle and my brother to go with him. He also tried to buy them a drink there, but my uncle convinced him that was crazy seeing as there was an open bar at the reception. The next morning we had an informal brunch at our apt. John's cousin wore his brand new Hard Rock Cafe Chicago t-shirt.

*The petticoat I wore under my dress has since been worn by two other brides. It is so full and stiff that it can stand up on its own!

*The other piece of advice I have given to people is the following: "Remember, the purpose of the wedding is to get married. If, at the end of the day, you are married then it was a complete success." This is how I approached my wedding and I gotta tell you, it was very liberating. It allowed me to let go of all of the silly little fears about things being perfect and just enjoy the day. Once John, the priest, and I (and the marriage license) were all at the church, everything was going to be fine. All we needed were those three people and that document.

Even now, years later, there is very little I would change about that day.

Well, I would've hired a hairdresser!

I lied

I forgot to get a picture of myself wearing the shawl. But, I'm going out for my 7th wedding anniversary tomorrow, so I'll have another opportunity for a picture. In the meantime, you'll have to be satisfied with this one:


Ghiradelli helped with the blocking process. It's entirely possible that bit of the shawl wouldn't have laid flat if he hadn't laid down on it. The diamond you see there is actually the sunlight shining through the window.

It does look like I pinned it unevenly but in fact, I measured across it as I was pinning it to make sure that the width was even.

Oops

In trying to post anonymously on my sockpal's blog, I created a new gmail account. Little did I know that it would link it to my current blog and email address. So I have been back-tracking, trying to fix it just in case. I erased the new email account but it still shows up in the google profile. So, I've blocked my profile and so on for blogger just in case. So much for trying to be sneaky! I didn't think I was logged in, but some cookie must've told Google who I was. It's hard to be anonymous these days! Hopefully, my sockpal won't investigate too closely..... I would hate to ruin the surprise.

And a good time was had by all

The wedding was wonderful. The weather was beautiful and actually a little too warm for my shawl but I wore it anyway because that's the way I roll. (I'm still needing to buy something in order to get pictures off my camera by the way. I promise to post pictures as soon as I can.) The groom was a member of my entering class in grad school and we joined the same lab. So, I know a bit of what he went through in his quest to find the right mate. He was a big fan of internet match sites for Jewish singles (it was very important to him that he find someone who was Jewish; as an aside, about half of the people in my lab are Jewish, one person is Hindu, and the rest [except for me and a new post-doc who is Greek Orthodox] are agnostic or atheist, this is very different from where I grew up where religious diversity meant being either Methodist or Lutheran) and went on a lot of dates (several years worth) before meeting his wife. It was a rough road for him, but he persevered (spelling?) and you could tell by the look on his face it was all worth it.

People generally are happy at their own weddings, of course. But sometimes it feels like they are no happier than their usual relatively happy state. And then there are some people where the happiness they are feeling is palpable. This guy fairly radiated joy and it really was wonderful to see. And even though I was missing my husband (who couldn't come with me) and I was tired and fretting about my lab work, the joy of the happy couple was coming off in such huge waves that I couldn't help surfing along on it.

The wedding itself was at a country club and was a fairly traditional Jewish ceremony. The wedding program had lots of information about the various rituals for us Gentiles and included the story of the first recorded Jewish wedding in that county of Ohio which was officiated by the man who started the Reform Judiasm movement. The huppah was a log frame made by the bride's father covered with a quilt top made by the bride which will eventually become a quilt for their bed. The ceremony included the stomping on a wine glass which was in a little pouch also made by the bride. The bridesmaids were all in dresses in the same spring green color and fabric, but of different styles. I never would have thought of that yellowy green color for bridesmaids but it was beautiful and flattering. The flowers were yellow and white. Between the green dresses and the yellow and white flowers and the log frame on the huppah, it felt like we were in a spring meadow.

After the ceremony, there was a wonderful reception full of Israeli dancing led by a member of the band. I'm not sure I've ever seen people have so much fun dancing. There was also the traditional "chair dancing" in which the bride and the groom sat precariously in chairs that were raised high above the crowd while people circled around them. As a sign that it was a fabulous party, nobody wanted to leave and the reception hall people had to kick us out. Following the reception, members of the "younger" crowd (including myself) congregated by the nearby river at an old railroad trestle bridge to have criminally strong mixed drinks made out of illegally obtained vodka and whisky (some of the bride's cousins bought it from the hotel management; the illegal part comes from it being a Sunday night when no liquor is to be sold) mixed with scanty amounts of Sierra Mist or Pepsi (why yes, I did have a tiny headache the next morning). It was very surreal--like I had suddenly been transported back in time to high school, except that I was never invited to do such a thing in high school (and may not have went even if I had been invited). All we needed was for someone to suggest we toilet paper some trees and I would've been convinced that the last 15 years had never happened.

Sadly, nobody commented on my shawl except for my roommate who knew that I had made it. Oh well. You can't have everything. Besides, it was perfect for me and this occasion and that's all that really mattered, right?

New shawl

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

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

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

Finis!

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

Whew!

Delusional

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

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

Two sides down

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peek-a-boo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay folks, it's time for bed.

Guess what?!

April Wedding Shawl, Socks, Ballband Washcloth

My camera has been found!

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

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

Have I mentioned I adore it?

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

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

Hooray!

Knitting? What knitting?

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

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

Introducing...

Dr. Roommie, PhD

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

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

Aren't they cute?

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

MIA camera

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

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

Can't wait to tell hubby. *sigh*

But wait, you also get--

--the flu!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

----

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

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


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

Babies, babies Everywhere

And not a one for me.

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

Yes, my sister.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Basically, I'm beyond caring.

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

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

So that would be Knitalong Wednesdays, then?

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

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

Me and John on our anniversary last year

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

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