Long Time, No See

Wow! I haven't posted in nearly a year.

I finished off a second lace shawl in that time, but I don't have many pictures of it available. It's a fine silver-white and didn't show up well against my white skin and white dress.

However, since my lace knitting has been lagging (as lace often does), I picked up a copy of Knitting Circles Around Socks and have cast on my first pair of socks.

I'm crossing my fingers that this will go as well as my adventures in lace knitting - expect pictures soon!

Sleep Is for the Weak

Valentine's Day has come and gone in a blur of chocolate and singleness. I make no bones, I hate that holiday. On the other hand, a friend, D the Mad Scientist, and I split some sale soap from Etsy with goat's milk and tea, so it wasn't a total failure. And I picked up two new knitting bags from Etsy as well - totally smooth fabric on the inside so the dread lace weight alpaca has nothing to catch on. (I thought I might need to shoot myself before I got the bags.)

I haven't posted much because I've been bogged down with the flu and five classes. (And a thesis. O hai thesis. What's that? I need to be chained to my desk in the library away from my needles and computer? Marco Polo, you are an abusive boyfriend.) I love all my classes, but this really is academic suicide. The only thing keeping me bouyant at the moment is the wonderfulness of my professors. (Especially the comparative literature one who helped me find thesis books the library told me didn't exist in the world, never mind our databases.)

I finished the May Day shawl. The Gooseberry Pie shawl is the works. Elena's hat should be finished but the brim is DRIVING ME NUTS. I've done this pattern before - how is the brim giving me this much trouble?

The local yarn shop had a sale (*swoon*) so C the Devious Medievalist and I both scored JaggerSpun Zephyr (for less than $10 a lace weight skein how could we not?). I might have been a very very bad person and a very very good shopper and scouted out the yarn I wanted (and maybe... hid it) the day before the sale. Maybe. I might admit to that. In any case, I ought to get out her two skeins of Juniper and make her shawl for when she studies in France. (No study abroad is complete without a handmade lace shawl from a best friend.) I need to find a simple pattern to get her addicted to lace for the other two skeins (Deep Purple) she bought. My Juniper is going to go to a Litla Dimun shawl for myself. I'm thinking about making Elizabeth I scarves for myself and my mother from the Admiral. Gods, I wish I had a digital camera so I could cover this page in the glory that is JaggerSpun Zephyr. Though, I do need to figure out how to block it since it is dry clean only. (Curse your beautiful beautiful dry clean only ways, my soft rich yarn.)

I need to frog that shawl that's been hanging out on the window sill since October and do something with it. I'm thinking, the Aran Pocket Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls. I think that'd look good in blue tweed (certainly better than the Thing in the Corner which is theoretically pretty but I am sick of). I don't know who would wear a bright blue tweed stole, but I'm sure that if I make it I can find someone.

The real question here is whether I can find the time to reteach myself the bodhran and knit my dad a ski cap for his birthday before Marco Polo kills me with his Mongol hordes. (Else, my drum is going to get dusty again and my dad is going to get a five course meal for his birthday. Personally, I think a hat is a better gift as it last longer, but...)

And I need to find the time (maybe I can just stop sleeping...) and write out the short story ideas that Piers Plowman is giving me. Surreal horror with the Virtues as the bad guys. And maybe zombies. How awesome would that be?

Shawls

Well, I have made it back to school alive, though the heat in my room is not working properly for the third day now. (This is exciting.) It is better now than it was when I arrived on Saturday, wherein my hands went numb as I attempted to unpack because it was as cold in my room as it was outside. (And even though this is Philadelphia and I would probably combust if I tried to live here in the summer, January can still numb you.)

I finished knitting and blocking the Kureyon Sock Bigfoot Shawl:



As my first lace shawl, I am quite proud.

I have also started a Water Turtles Shawl in Knitpick's Palette Mist for May Day. If it's not done by then (and hopefully it should, since I am starting it in January), I'll wear Rainbow Doom, but I'd like to wear a more May Day appropriate one. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what colour mist is.

I've also started the Gooseberry Pie Shawl for my mother. And I need to rip out my Martha Tam and do it all over because my gauge failed in astronomical ways, but I am too frustrated with it at the moment. It might have to wait until February to be ripped.

School starts up tomorrow, and I am quite excited. Spanish and Geology I am less excited about, though the Spanish feeling will probably change when I get in the classroom again. I like the language quite a bit and I do love trying to figure it out with French and Latin. Geology I am ambivalent about because it is a science. Sciences here are so designed for science majors. But I have been assured that this is a good class. Of course, I am excited about thesising (Marco Polo and Italy and China, oh my! I ought to find some corresponding crafty project...) and Piers Plowman.

I also have such plans for the club. We are going to host the Philadelphia Reads raffle fund raiser and book drive, which should be fun and make us feel like we're a part of the greater Philadelphia community, which I feel many people on this campus don't have. And then there's the tea, where we will have tea and fresh scones and sci-fi movies. I'm organising a set of theme discussions for our dinner meetings and I'll have to find a good time for our Radio Listening Hour because I have our OTRCat order. So many old radio shows! How will I choose?

It's Been A While...

Wow. I haven't posted since October. Shame on me, in this digital age, not blogging more often.

Well, shortly after my last post, I went into the hospital for about a week. Obviously, I was released, but I'm still ill (some days more than others) and we're not sure what's wrong. So, I'm still seeing doctor's about that. Luckily, there is little distraction from the history of medieval Venetian trading while waiting around the doctor's office. (medieval texts > Cosmo)

As for knitting, I haven't gotten as much done as I would like. I did, of course, finish the holiday knits. Hats, this year. So many plain hats for the men in the family. Blech. Give me something interesting. (Why do men never want to wear interesting knits?) And then, of course, I was sleep deprived while packing to come home and forgot to bring any knitting supplies with me.

Oh yes. I, who cannot live without my knitting, who carries needles and a bit of yarn to the dining hall and grocery store on the off chance there'll be some knitting time, forgot to bring any yarn or needles with me. And I didn't get any for Christmas.

However, I did get an absolutely delightful copy of Wrapped in Comfort: Knitted Lace Shawls by Alison Jeppson Hyde. I love it dearly. It's also wonderful to read a knitting book written by someone with a chronic illness which affects her hands, like mine do. And she makes such beautiful lace! Maybe this lace thing is possible after all....

And then, out of nowhere, my brother bought me three skeins of Noro Kureyon Sock and a set of circular needles at the local LYS on Boxing Day so that I could start the shawl of my choice from the book. That was absolutely amazing of him and might keep me from going mad until I return to Pennsylvania and my stash. I must plan a wonderful surprise for him as a thank you. Perhaps I shall cook him something fancy when he comes back from his silent retreat....

I have started (and frogged, and started) the Bigfoot Shawl from Wrapped in Comfort. In Kureyon Sock it looks delightfully different from the tan alpaca shown in the book. Mine looks like fun and summer... It really reminds me, at the moment, of going to the Maine coast as a kid, when my brother and I would have clothing and toys in every colour under the sun. The colours of S40 are almost the same, but the pattern looks simple and pretty, like the house and shops in Maine. Hmmmmm.... I should have a full skein left over after I finish the shawl (unless a make myself a monster shawl), so I might start looking around for scarf patterns...

Adamas and Computer Woes

Yesterday, my computer did a double crash - within thirteen hours of one another. So I am currently without a personal computer and most of my knitting patterns and creative writing. It says something about how electronically dependent I am.

I had just cast on for a modified Roman Hat with Earflaps (without earflaps) as a Christmas gift for my uncle, but I put that aside. (It's an awesome brim pattern though.) I have picked up my Adamas pattern and Shadow yarn that were set aside over the summer and left on a shelf because I was lacking in the chart reading skill. Since today was laundry day and I couldn't surf the internet while I waited on the clothes, I brought the chart with me and spent several hours staring at it and trying to work it out logically in my head. Around 11 a.m. it clicked. Suddenly the chart which may as well have been written in hieroglyphics for all that I could understand it made sense to my eyes. Time will tell whether I made the right logical leap or if I'm on a wild goose chase - but the stitches are matching up in the right numbers and each mark on the paper has a sensible meaning now.

Pom-poms and Lace

The two Jayne hats still sit on the table, sans pom-poms. I'm trying to figure out pom-pom making from Internet instructions and I'm not sure if I'm bad at it, pom-pom making is a slow process, I'm doing it wrong, or if it's something else entirely. It might end up being a project to do Sunday night while we watch Firefly. On the plus side, Colin is delighted with the Jayne hat and was upset that I'm not going to let him take it until it has its rightful pom-pom in place. My concerns that he would not remember Firefly or Serenity are apparently unfounded.

On the plus side, the lace scarf is done. I'm not entirely sure what did it, but by the sixth repeat of the pattern, I found a rhythm and realised why everyone keeps telling me that lace knitting is relaxing. (Yes, I realise that I'm the one who was complaining so vocally about it before - now watch me look up lace scarf patterns on the internet for myself.) Mom likes the gift, even though I had to block it after I gave it to her.

(Yes, eventually there will be pictures of everything, but only after I get my hands on a working camera.)

Fall break is nearly over, which means returning to the Philadelphia airport, medieval literature, and school food. Blech. For plane reading, I have World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War and hopefully my iPod won't bite the dust again. I'll just cross my fingers and pray that there won't be another two hour delay on the flight.

Knitting, Films, and Books

I am currently sitting in front of my parents' computer, knitting a Jayne hat. It is a delight of fall colours and my parents think I'm nuts to be making one (I think I'll live). The Falk is going to be toasty warm around my ears this winter, I think. I'm making two - one for myself and one for Colin. I remember him loving Firefly two years ago when he saw it and Serenity for the first time, but I'm not sure if he remembers it.

I watched Serenity again tonight and then all of the bonus features, most of which were quite new to me. I loved it. I love Joss in general, actually, so that was no surprise. And enough people have called me a Browncoat that I suppose I'm one by default by now. I just need to figure out if Kaylee was, in fact, supposed to be played by an Asian actress originally - and how to get this from some kind of official source. (Okay, I suppose wanting to include Firefly in my thesis make me a Browncoat, wouldn't it?) I think I will watch the film with Joss' commentary tomorrow while I knit the ear flaps on the hats tomorrow. (Ear flaps. This might be interesting.) And then I will probably attempt to swallow Laurie Finke's Women's Writing, Feminist Theory whole.