farwell 432- the capital city of procrastination

whee. time flies? sure. japanese quiz check. latin, mostly check. not even the caffeine was able to combat the effect cicero has on my brain at a certain point: oh well, that's what half-blocks are for. map quiz tomorrow shouldn't be a problem (thank you, 8th grade geography).

I started knitting these wristlets in a gorgeous gorgeous yarn from Michelle who is my new favorite person (newly replacing gretchen, who told me about this and oh man, am I in her debt) (whee, link-happy!). My first ever attempt at cabling. cable-ing? cableing? ah, the 0100-induced inability to spell...at least my paper is done. So far, so good. Picture tomorrow.

knit another three color bands of Dr Who the other day. siigh. so unending. nono- bad attitude. Yay! I knit another three color bands! only 36 left to go! er...yay?

still haven't touched the saami shawl or the other things, but finished the slippers (gave them to my mum, whose sanity is in dire straits what with the explody-house-of-fun, but at least she'll have happy feet.) Mom, don't fall down or up the stairs while you're wearing them. I probably should have made soles for them...oh well. my leather is buried...somewhere...at home.

anyway. time for sleep.

woops

Sat down to write about the gorgeous new yarn I just got and realized I have yet to take my japanese quiz that's due tonight.

soo...while I do that, you'll have to content yourselves with checking out http://www.funwithyarn.com and looking at "calm" and "santa fe." yeah. drooly.

it's a cow day.

If the wind is from the south, it's a pig day. Today, we are fortunate, for it is a cow day with winds from the north. whoo.

ready to invest my hands and ball as soon as I gate them. that'll have to wait for thursday. have to get creative with forging, though- Jack and I were playing with it and the blower leapt to its death. The prospect of repairing it is...dim, to say the least.

but! I finished the slipper! sort of unique and odd-looking but hey, what can you do?

I think I'm going to add some trim around it- it still looks not-quite-right.

knitting and GREs and crapfourweekstograduation, oh my...

ha-ah! I'll make up for the lack of crafty stuff in the last post by overloading in this one.

'tis a joyous day indeed for I have finished my hands! huzzah! now all that needs to be done is to gate them...and invest them...and burn them out...and cast them...and clean them up...

ok. still. rejoicing is still in order. see?














and now, for something completely different.

Saami shawl: fringe needs to be finished, ideally by June- but if I work on it for too long my fingers start to feel like they're bleeding internally.

To make me feel less ashamed for its long period of dormancy: proof of my dedication (read insanity) in the form of a Dr Who scarf.

And look! a Jayne Hat for Lisa. and a slipper that I'm kind of sort of not really following the pattern for which is really notsogreat of an idea because I've crocheted a grand total of oh three things. a shawl/scarfy thing, an mp3 carrycase, and a baglet.

I know. Doesn't look very slipper-like. Ah, well. We'll see. The first one I tried would have maybe fit an eight year old. With wonky feet.

we didn't start the fire...

Drove home this weekend to get some summer clothes and to give Kates her hat. Learned several things:

1) people give you weird looks when you stop and climb up to the "welcome to X" sign and pose in front of it in a funny-looking (but cunning!) hat. silly people. It's a Jayne hat, and it's Canton...though I am no hero of Canton.

2) a mini bag of popcorn + microwave preset popcorn button = (see below.) poor Katy. So distracted by the Jayne hat that I don't think her basement will ever be the same.

3) Barnes and Noble is the best store ever because they have blackberry green tea frappachini and books and cozy chairs and asiago pretzels and because they're open on Easter Sunday, unlike everything else. See? a little cluster of happy cars sitting in front of the happy store while parking spaces in front of Byerly's and Target and all the other stores in the little strip mall-let languish untaken.

4) mini-breaks always go far too quickly. Matt's lizard laid an egg. Ovid survived me forgetting to close the window and my room getting a bit chilly. I am sorely tempted to get a spotted puffer fish. that, however, requires another tank. sigh.

I have another inch knit on my next Jayne hat (lisa) and knit another row on my shawl...it just takes so long! I don't think I want to know how many stitches I have now. too many. Maybe I'll work out a system where I knit a row, then go crochet something to give to someone random just so I don't have to feel like I'm in a time warp and that I can actually finish projects. whoo.

it's Gretchen's birthday today. Happy Birthday Gretchen.

finished things!

Look! Jayne hat done! Kates, I'll get it to you...sometime? P'raps I'll drive up this weekend. Hooray for four day weekends. Oh, and Easter. That too.

Finally fixed up my pattern and submitted it to Knitty.com. We'll see how it goes.

Worked on my stone for too long again. Now my wrists hurt and I have no desire to work on my wax models. arg.

Jayne hat and Jazz

Studying for Jazz History listening exam. Hopefully this one will go better than the last.

but look! Jayne hat!
and now I must flee to go eat and get ready for taekwondo. Gave blood today and feeling funky now so might not accomplish much at tkd but that's ok, I suppose.

Fish!

I reversed the background to the shiny blue from the mirror that I had on Ovid's tank earlier- the contrast is much much better. I'd go so far as to say that the contrast is sexy, which might lead people to the wrong impression- but how can you resist blue vs orangy-gold and black? complementing color families whoo!

Don't worry. I've only had the fish a few days- I promise, in a few more I'll stop going "fish!" and staring at it and inflicting photographs of it on you.


My paper on the chronology of viking art is half done. If I hustle I can get it done in time to turn it in early and get a preliminary grade. I haven't had a professor who actually pays attention to papers and demands quality writing in so long. We'll see how far I get in an hour and 45 minutes.

About two inches of hat done. Nice to be knitting something that doesn't take much attention so knitting while staring at notes on Duke Ellington and bebop and Lady Day is possible. The goal is to finish the hat and then go crazy on the Dr Who scarf. (Maybe that should be go crazy with, I'm not sure). Then finish something that's not actually knitting but if I don't get this fringe done it's just sad. I've been working on this saami shawl since 2002. eep.

learning has occurred.

well, at least some learning has. I could get one of the buttons to show up, the other doesn't, for reasons that elude me but whatever, it's technology- I'm amazed it worked at all. Had to change my layout away from the pretty one but maybe next weekend I'll be able to figure it out again. also going to try to figure out why the finished product looks different from when I write it. hm....

A jazz history exam and a first draft of my viking chronology of art paper are due monday, so that takes priority. ...sort of. I did spend most of Saturday going "fishy!" and playing outside.

Speaking of fishy, I've decided to name the fish Ovid.

My viney thing is taking over my desk, but I'm just happy that it's not dying. This is the first year it hasn't lived by a window.

Another thing to add to list of things-on-needles: Swatch for Jayne Cobb Hat for Kateswiegehts! whee!


must...resist...urge...to...continue...

and another monster is born

Having been inspired by my mother finding knitting blog upon knitting blog upon spinning blog and being continually frustrated with the difficulties in putting pictures on my previous blog, I decided to begin anew. Also hoping that it will force me to finish the various projects on needles, in bags, on the floor, in the closet...eep. Also because I feel that I need yet another outlet for randomness and inanity and insanity. So...blog.

hello, blog.

Today, I bought a fish to go in my early-birthday-present fishtank (thanks to Matt). It's a Calico Ryuking, and it looks like this:

(apologies for the snapshot. flourescent lighting leaves much to be desired when you're shooting a moving object with a macro lens, and flash photography + aquarium = no.) still. fish.

hello, fish.

it doesn't have a name yet, and as of yet has pretty much just been referred to as "fishy!" generally spoken in a highpitched voice. Matt now has "land fish" living in his room, otherwise known as an emerald swift and two green anole lizards. (the swift is also a lizard of some ilk.)

Fish has left the "aaaaaahwhat'sthat what's that what's that" stage and is now in the "food? not food. food? not food. food?" stage, although that might just be goldfish standard behavior. not sure. I haven't had a fish since I killed my pickle jar guppies in...grade school? junior high? A long time ago, anyway, and my other experiences with fish behavior have mostly been over fall semester.

What? Knitting? oh yes. I have at present in my dorm room about 6 projects on needles or in the dreaded skeins-of-yarn-inna-bag stage. I have two Fiber Trends Shoalwater Shawls in various stages of development- the one that's been languishing on the needles longer is the Classic Elite Yarn Miracle alpaca/tencel (left) and the one that I started because I needed small and portable to take with me to the TCI is an Artyarns Regal Silk (right).

I've got one scarf in Dale Tiur (mohair/wool) based off of the Dale pattern Gerbera (upper) and then another Dr Who scarf (lower) in mostly Rauma 3tr. Strikkegarn (wool) that will be done by graduation, I swear. Honest.

And then there's the wristlet I'm thinking of submitting to Knitty.com, which means I have to take my "knit until done" and turn it into a legible pattern. eep.

I think this has gotten long enough. Besides, pizza-and-boy calls. Next time: my other works-in-progress, ranging from my sculpture to my saami shawl.

If you haven't read Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books (The Eyre Affaire, etc), then you should do so.