So, while I now have absolutely no time to do much of anything, between finishing up the MA (I’m planning to graduate this December), applying to PhD programs, working and volunteering, and planning the wedding, I thought I would open the ol’ blog back up. I have no illusions that I will be writing regularly; I just sometimes need an outlet for all the craziness – and V needs a break sometimes.

Knitting pictures and venting (about school, work, wedding stuff) to follow…

The shrug has made quite a bit of progress (if only I didn’t post from work, I would actually have pictures… maybe this weekend). I got my order from Knit Picks on Saturday, so Saturday night I had the Harmonies up and running. This pattern goes so quickly anyway, and when you add gorgeous wooden needles and Hulu it just flies. Of course, that meant I was up till ridiculous hours watching old TV shows on my computer and knitting… but it was so much fun! The only problem is, now that I’m done with the part that needed the size 10 and 10.5 needles, I don’t know when I’ll use my lovely Harmonies again.

The first Baudelaire is also coming along quite nicely, if a bit slower than the shrug (that would be the difference between size 8-10.5 needles and size 0). This has been my subway knitting, and it’s definitely the type of project that gets noticed. People are generally in awe/confused when they see someone knitting socks, but long, lacy-cabley socks seem to be particularly eye-catching. The only problem with knitting them exclusively on the subway is trying them on. I’m 6-8″ into the leg, and last night was the first time I actually tested to make sure it would fit over my heel! I had been paranoid for the past few days, certain that I would have to frog the whole thing, but it (just barely) fits. (For the record, I did try the sock on in the subway once. I was in flip-flops, the train was fairly empty, and I was about to turn the heel and needed to check the fit.)

By the way, there is a great fundraiser/giveaway going on over at Spinning Athena to raise money for the Red Cross. I feel kind of bad that it takes the possibility of free yarn to convince me to donate to a good cause, but I guess it’s better than nothing. Maybe this fall I’ll try to do my own raffle for the Race for the Cure…

Because it’s a toy for a baby, I would like to avoid adding pieces that could be choking hazards. And, although my local craft store insists otherwise, button eyes are choking hazards. So the plan now is to do a little embroidery… except that the aforementioned craft store apparently doesn’t have black embroidery floss. They have every color imaginable, but not black. Of course, they could have just been out that day – maybe they’re expecting a big black-embroidery-floss shipment any day now. But the point is, they didn’t have it when I went this weekend.

So, having some time on my hands, I decided to start a new project – the Retro Redux Shrug from Lace Style. Now, I knew going into this that I didn’t have all of the needles I would need, and I knew that I wanted to order some Harmonies, rather than picking up whatever the yarn store had (most likely more expensive, definitely less pretty). I just didn’t realize, after knitting socks and lace for so long, how quickly 6″ of knitting happens on size 8-9′s. So, later the same afternoon, I was yet again without a project.

Enter Baudelaire. I’ve had some Knit Picks sock yarn laying around for a while, for emergencies, and I figured this would be a good time to use it. I wanted a toe-up sock, so they could be nice and long and I wouldn’t have to deal with leftovers, and I wanted something interesting, since the yarn is a solid color. These seemed to fit the bill perfectly (and it only took me one three a few tries to get the toe started properly).

I promise, I will return to Sheldon and the shrug as soon as I get the materials! Really!

*This post refers only to knitting projects. If I took into account all the other “projects” I have on my list… my head might just explode.

Now, I know I went on and on about this project while I was working on it, so I promise this will be the last Laminaria-heavy post….

I do have to say, though, that this is still one of my favorite projects ever. It was fun to knit, and I’ve worn it more in the last week than all my other projects put together (it gets cold in the office!)

Of course, now I’ve had to move on to new projects, and I have to admit I’ve broken my monogamy rule, just a bit…

A little taste of things to come…

]]> http://vtgirl4.wordpress.com/2008/07/06/pictures-at-last/feed/ 1 vtgirl04 http://vtgirl4.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/finishing/ http://vtgirl4.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/finishing/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:06:26 +0000 vtgirl04 http://vtgirl4.wordpress.com/?p=48 ]]> On Friday, I finished my Laminaria (that’s a Ravelry link – I’ll try to post some pictures here this weekend). I was home from work with a bit of a stomach bug (that just won’t seem to go away!), so I got to spend the day knitting and watching episodes of the X-Files. Of course when I finished the shawl it needed to be blocked, so, genius that I am, I gave my bed over to the Laminaria and spent the rest of the afternoon curled on the futon chair instead. But the important thing is that I got to show off my shawl at the play that night. Who cares if it was 80 degrees and humid?

Speaking of the play, that, too, is finished. As much as I love performing, that first week after a show closes is always nice… suddenly, I have free time in the evenings. I can accept social invitations. I’ll actually see my apartment every day. Very exciting.

Despite feeling a bit crappy, I feel like I did a lot this weekend. Maybe it’s just that everything – walking, standing – took more effort than usual. But on Saturday I actually went to an audition – haven’t done that in a while! And then, having two hours to walk the block between the audition and the ATA theater (where Henry was put on), I made up my mind to finally use my Border’s gift card. I ended up getting Lace Style and Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Without Tears. Now, I had gone to Borders at least twice before with the same goal in mind, and left without being able to decide on a book, so this is a big deal. I’m especially excited about Knitting Without Tears – my first EZ book. I love the style of her writing, and her relaxed attitude toward the generally accepted “rules” of knitting.

As fun as buying books was, last night was by far the highlight of the weekend. V and I went with a few friends to Radio City Music Hall to see Eddie Izzard. That man is hillarious. At the end of the show, our faces hurt from laughing. There’s not much else I can say, really.

And so closed a full weekend.

What surprises me is that both of the presidential nominees disagree. Both Obama and McCain have spoken out in response to the ruling, saying that for a crime so heinous, the death penalty should be considered constitutional.

Now, I’m not (nor are the Supreme Court justices) saying that this is anything less than a horrible crime. In fact, it may be one of the worst crimes possible – the amount of physical and emotional injury inflicted on such a defenseless victim is unimaginable. However, the victim does survive. As inexcusable as the death penalty is in all instances (I’m not even going to go into my reasons for that here… that’s an entire post on its own), this decision at least draws a line to exclude cases where the state would be escalating the level of violence.

I also have to wonder if it might be more traumatizing for a child who has already been severely traumatized, to know that someone was put to death on his or her behalf. I could be wrong – it may be nothing but a relief to know that that person is no longer out in the world. But I imagine that a victim so young has very little say in the case, other than perhaps to testify. Who is to say what will help or hinder that child’s emotional recovery later on? And what if the child is wrong about who his/her rapist is, whether because of confusion during a traumatic experience, or because of outside pressure? Isn’t it always better to err on the side of caution, rather than taking that irreversible step?

I will still be voting for Obama in September, and I sort of hope that his stance on this and all death penalty issues is mere political pandering for election season. It’s clearly not an easy issue to speak out on (I feel a bit skeevy just writing about it). But it is a good reminder to do a bit of research, and not to take a candidate at face value.

(By the way, Slate has been discussing this ruling as well - it’s worth a read.)

Sadly, though, my lack of motivation is winning out over line-learning right now. This seems to be a constant problem in most areas of my life: I have trouble motivating myself to do pretty much anything (other than, perhaps, to knit or go running). And while this problem has bothered me for a while now, I’m starting to worry that it will be a big issue for my grad school plans. That list I made of things to do this summer to prepare for school? So far, it has been more or less neglected. And it’s not just the preparation part that’s problematic – without some power of self-motivation, school itself is going to be pretty tricky.

Which is part of why I’m writing here. I’m hoping that if I can motivate myself to write for a few days, it will become habit. My daily run started this way, and now I don’t feel quite right if I skip it (I’m now at the point where, when invited to a happy hour, I have to convince myself it’s ok not to run for a night). And, I figure, if I can start a blogging habit, I can probably start a paper-writing habit when the time comes… right?

Luckily, I had plenty of time to un-knit and re-knit all those rows, backstage at Henry VI, Part I. Because of the near-constant threat of rain lately, we were called to be at the theater early, so we could figure out whether we would be performing outside (as planned) or taking refuge in the indoor theater. Once it was determined that we would be inside, we waited with baited breath to see if we would be performing the show at all – the director had decided that we wouldn’t go on inside if there were fewer than 5 people in the audience (the quality isn’t as good, since we designed the performance in such a different space). Most of us were crossing our fingers, hoping that no one would show up… but, alas, the show went on for our audience of 5.

I’m not sure why we were all so unenthusiastic about performing. After all, that’s why we’re in the play in the first place. Personally, though, doing this play means being on stage for less than 10 minutes (literally – I’ve timed it)… and sitting around for the other 2:40. Factor in the 7pm call time, and I hang out for over 3 1/2 hours. And it’s felt longer every night, as the newness wears off, the backstage conversations get more repetitive, and my hands start to cramp.

Ok, that’s probably not the best way to psych myself up for tonight’s performance, and it’s certainly not encouraging to people who want to (or have to) come see it. I’m sure what’s going on onstage is far more exciting… maybe one of these days I’ll watch it.

I have a knitting dilemma. Nothing life-or-death, or even terribly exciting, but it’s something that comes up often enough that I thought I should mention it.

I’ve been working on my Laminaria (that’s a Ravelry link – login required) for a while now, and it’s been going incredibly smoothly. The pattern is complex enough to be interesting, but repetitive enough to still be relaxing, and by following a few rules – the main one being “No Lace On The Morning Commute” – I have been error-free. Until now.

I was halfway through the first edging chart when I noticed that two repeats (two tiny little repeats out of ten? 20? I don’t know, but it’s a lot) didn’t line up the way they should with the row below. Each time, I looked back in my current row – no mistakes. So… I cheated. The first time, I knit three together instead of two; the second time I knit one instead of knitting two together. Simple, barely noticeable fixes, and the rest of the row worked out fine.

Now, however, I feel tormented. Because the shawl is so big, I can’t spread it out to see the full pattern, and the potential damage that I’ve done. Normally, this wouldn’t bother me so much – as I said above, this comes up from time to time, and if the root of the problem isn’t clear, I don’t mind these little cheats. But, whether it’s because things have gone so well so far, or because I’m afraid any error will be hugely noticeable after blocking, this time is different.

And so, the question: to tink or not to tink? Do I backtrack the last 3 rows (since I know that my cheating row was otherwise fine, and there is a stockinette row before and after it that I don’t think I messed up)? Let me emphasize that I am at the end of a crescent-shaped shawl, and these are long rows. Or do I continue ahead, ignoring this gnawing feeling, hoping that the next rows lines up and that I won’t discover my glaring errors upon blocking?

On the positive side, if this weren’t such an enjoyable pattern I wouldn’t even consider this stitch-by-stitch backtracking… part of me kind of wants to make this project last a bit longer.

I’ll let you know in my next post how everything turns out!

I learned that for the next year (or more), I will have little to no free time. Classes (so I was told) will take up less than 10 hours per week, but studying will be my life. I will also probably be working, at least part time, in order to keep paying for things like food and shelter. I will need to be self-motivated, and begin school with goals in mind for my life after I get out.

I don’t know about you, but those are some scary, or at least overwhelming, facts. It’s been four years since I was in school, and I have a feeling that my study skills haven’t improved. If anything, the intervening years have let me perfect the art of wasting time without accomplishing anything (temp work anyone?) I can’t even imagine trying to study in my apartment (a slightly larger, far more cluttered dorm room). And how do I manage a work schedule while trying to motivate myself to study? Am I even ready to go back to work “in the field?”

Whew. Sorry… minor freak-out there.

As I mentioned at the top, this was not just a fear-inducing event. I got to meet some lovely people, both from my program and others. I got a bit of group academic advising, and even found out why my program is called “Psychology in Education,” when it has little or nothing to do with education. And it looks like this will be an encouraging and supportive atmosphere to study in. Most importantly, I am genuinely looking forward to the subject matter. As corny as that sounds, when I looked at the list of required classes, I got excited about the idea of learning about psychology again. Which is what counts, I suppose.

After last weekend, I have a list of all (or at least many) of the things I need to do before starting classes in September – everything from reading my potential professors’ research to buying a desk. For the moment, though, it will all be put off. Tonight is the third performance of Henry VI, Part I (let’s hope it’s better than the second performance) and tomorrow is WWKIP Day! I don’t know yet whether I will make it to Central Park, or go to LIC (although that one’s a tad early for me), or just meet whoever comes to Astoria Park, but I will be out somewhere with my Laminaria (I’m up to the edging rows!) It should be a good weekend – lace may be challenging, but it has yet to make me freak out.