Hungry Knitter

As part of the ongoing drama of my psychotic need to read ten millions blogs and sites in a certain *way* I have yet again switched RSS readers. Netvibes was nice, and I liked how I could read a blog on its original page, but it hadn’t been super functional lately, and then they said that offensive thing that got me all angry, and well, I left. Now I’m with Pageflakes and I’m enjoying that thoroughly. I have all my ten million knitting blogs arranged on their own little tab, and I’m really trying, in the interest of time management, to just leave them be. But the thing is, I need them to be alphabetized. And in three columns of equal length. This is insane, I know, but this is what I need. And it takes a lot of time, ya know?



In the meantime, I’m trying desperately to finish up the end of the school year and the LAST CLASSES REQUIRED FOR MY PHD!!! After that only like, ten million more years! But they won’t be spent in classrooms, for the most part.

Not much knitting since the burst of cowls. I’ve been trying to finish up my raspy, but it’s just too freaking hot lately, even for cotton, and it turns out knitting while writing a paper is kind of a sham, and it just consists of knitting, no writing.



I’ll see you all on the other side, hopefully with two papers down. (And a couple incompletes to go, but we can celebrate after the two papers, right?)

I may have gotten behind on my episodes of Lost lately, and the catching-up may have involved a lot of knitting

This is a Birthday Cowl from Novamade, and the pattern is spectacularly fun and fast. I used more of that Jo-Ann Dolcetto yarn that I made Becko’s scarf with, and I think my original evaluation of the stuff still stands - really soft, pretty color, but this yarn has just absolutely no elasticity whatsoever. I like it, but I don’t think my hands could take more than a small project with it.



Maybe soon I’ll complete a knitting project that I actually get to keep for myself?

And at that time, even though it was just earlier this month, that cowl was seasonally appropriate. And even though it’s not really warm enough in Chicago right now, I wouldn’t exactly want to be walking around with alpaca around my neck. Nevertheless, I am blogging about a cowl.



It is a moebius! The pattern is Cat Bordhi’s (pdf alert!), and it’s absolute genius. The whole time I was knitting it I was thinking, “how…. did she …… figure …. this OUT!”



Mine is in some Misti Alpaca Worsted. I forgot the needle size I used, honestly. I can get the moebius around my neck twice, which is what you see in these pictures. And yes, I do venture outside of my apartment to take pictures of myself in completely out of season knit garments.



Happy spring, everyone!

Netvibes is my preferred RSS reader. I’m not really a user of their fancy, shiny widgets so much as I just read my regular old blogs on there. I like having tabs so I can organize the feeds by subject matter, etc. I like how you can drag and drop things to move them around. I like how I can view an entry *on* the web page in my netvibes window. There is now some kind of social component to the site that I have never paid one bit of attention to. But recently I saw this entry on the Netvibes blog I found extremely troubling. The subject heading is, “This way girls!” If I may just quote the beginning of that entry:

Hey girls, now let’s talk serious! You might feel left out from the widgetosphere but you’re wrong. A lot of things are changing in the crazy world of Netvibes…..Thanks to our editorial team you can now get the latest news automatically updated from your favourite feminine websites by installing their widgets.

They go on to tell us about some new widgets we can put up on our Netvibes page from Glamour, Marie Claire, Hint Fashion Magazine….

What I’m wondering is, seriously, NO ONE at Netvibes thought, “hey, is this post might not be a good idea?” before they put that up there? Why are they addressing their female users as “girls”? What’s with the patronizing writing? (”hey girls let’s get serious”? - I didn’t realize we weren’t serious.) Also, I can appreciate that plenty of women are interested in a widget feed gadget thing from Cosmo. I, however, am not, and frankly I’m insulted by the implication that all, or even most women would care about one thing, be it fashion, make-up, whatever. Also, as one person who commented on that post pointed out, it also implies that women might be dissatisfied with the widgets currently offered, when in fact there’s a pretty wide range of topics covered, including feeds from about a billion different news sources, calendar widgets, mail, social networking sites, etc. I’m sorry, but is that New York Times World News feed just for men? Would I perhaps be more interested in the New York Times feed on weight loss because I am a woman?

You know, and I just noticed, all the comments to the effect of “this post is offensive” have been deleted, including my own comment, which is why I feel I can rant about it here. That’s fine and all - it’s your blog. I would delete people’s comments off here if I didn’t like them because it’s my space and I can do that. I would say most of those comments were pretty well thought out and very articulate. I didn’t see anything along the lines of “OMG YOU GUYS SUCK.” So what’s with the lack of dialogue, Netvibes?

There’s a comment from Diane, who is apparently a Netvibes person, who says (typos hers not mine), “This post is just one among a serie of others that will soon be published on various subjects (such as : sports, video games….) The aim of this is to promote our content, not to share ou opinions on life or any ideology with our users.” First of all, regardless of intention, this is still a really ill-conceived entry to post on your company’s blog. Second of all, posts for “fans of sports” and “fans of video games” are aimed at people who all have those interests. Women do not all share the same interests. Shockingly, I can be a woman and be interested in make-up AND video games. Or just make-up. Or just video games. And you know, that’s okay.

I do. My blog buddy the nsCKG is having a cat caption contest right over here.

So I’ve been spending plenty of time online … as usual, way too much; it just hasn’t been on this blog. Not even other blogs that much. I’ve been kind of skimming things but that’s about it. Mostly I’ve been hanging out with my 365 Days Project on flickr. Admittedly, I’ve missed some days in the project here and there (mostly when my old camera broke and I was waiting for a new one), and I took a brief hiatus when we were dealing with Peto’s cancer (wouldn’t it have been nice to document that in some artistic way, but let’s face it, I was just dealing with keeping myself fed and walking back and forth between the hospital and home), but I still haven’t quit yet which is really saying something. Today is day 58, I think. Honestly, taking a picture of yourself every day is harder than it sounds. At least for me. Remembering to do it is hard, and on a lot of days it gets left to 2 seconds before bedtime when I think, “CRAP I forgot, but oh I’m so tired, oh here we go…” and take a picture of myself falling into bed or something not at all artistic like that. But I suppose that in and of itself is a reflection of my life sometimes. I’ve noticed that tends to happen on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I have class. (I know, I know, the schedule of a graduate student sounds so luxurious - trust me. It’s not.) Here’s a couple of my favorites from the project so far:



Why yes, I do post pictures of myself playing videogames in my pajamas on the internet. And you know, it doesn’t really bother me. Anyway, this is clearly from the moment we started playing the new MarioKart for Wii. HOLY CRAP is it fun!!! I think I’m going to go do a couple quick runs after I’m done writing…

New haircut, in sunlight.

I’ve been trying to eat healthier as of late, maybe lose a few pounds before our wedding. I know I know, bride wants to lose weight, bla bla bla, but I came back from Yemen sick in September and when I got healthy I put the weight back on, and then it just kept coming. I’m not pleased.

In knitting news, there’s not a whole lot I can blog about right now! I knit up some cargos from my dear dear friend Jenny’s little son Dylan (soooo cute) in record time, and didn’t manage to take a picture of them before I gave them to him at his first birthday party! Man, that was a fun pattern though, and I put the most finishing effort into it that I’ve ever put into a knitting project, I think. Lots of ends, there were hems involved, and even and elastic waistband!!! The yarn was frogged from the first sweater I ever made (I know, I have no soul), which was an ugly old rowan pattern (and after tooling around on ravelry I can’t find it anywhere, so I guess I was the only one stupid enough to knit this hideous sweater) and that pricey rowan yarn just made much better cargo pants for a baby than it did sweater for me. I did, however, notice this apricot jacket from Rebecca all over the rowan all seasons cotton pages, and HOW. CUTE! I want it, and I may just have enough yarn left to knit that sucker too. Yeah, all I have to do is get a hold of a 4 year old German magazine. No problem.

Besides those pants I’ve knit a present that has yet to be blocked and given to its recipient, a present for a baby that may have been outgrown by now, and a few more stitches on the raspy sweater I started last November. Pretty aimless stuff. I’ve got more gift knitting planned, hopefully I’ll finish it up quickly and put up some pictures!

I haven’t been feeling the blogginess lately. I don’t know what it is. I’m not interested in writing, not in reading, etc. It could be any number of things. Busy end of the quarter, followed by fiance having surgery (he’s fine now!), panicking about caring for the fiance after surgery and spending every waking moment with him to the point that it’s driving him insane … You know, these are big time commitments. But on a more serious note, I never really understood what it was like to care for someone who got sick until now. And trust me, we went through nothing even close to the magnitude of what many people go through. Peto’s surgery was simple, and it was to treat a very early, very treatable stage of cancer. It still seems like the surgery was enough and that he won’t have to undergo any chemo or radiation, but I’m still knocking on wood every chance I get. But I got a glimpse of what it is like to really care for someone with cancer and it was just nowhere near what a lot of people have to go through. And the impact on me from just that little glimpse of that world was more than enough.

Definitely one way to cope with long hours in the hospital waiting for news from doctors was to knit. Ohhh boy did I knit. It’s the best thing for me to do when I have too much nervous energy to concentrate on reading. One thing that came out of this is these socks:


pattern: first-time tube socks by Ann Budd, in the winter 07/spring08 Knitscene
size: long
needles: US6 denises
yarn: Sublime Yarns Extra Fine Merino Wool DK, 3 skeins

The only real mod I made was to use a smaller needle than the pattern called for. The combination of this stitch pattern and that cable-spun merino is just so squishy and wonderful. And the pattern is so incredibly stretchy that it’s not at all weird that there’s not a heel. These are for Peto. I finished them up last night, and he could have worn them on his first day back at work today had I gotten up at a decent hour. See, I’m on spring break. I still have a paper to write and all, but I’m sleeping IN.

My bff from way back in jr. high made this fantastic video for a nutrition class she’s in. The video is on health at every size, and it’s the most beautiful, adorable, and affirming thing I’ve ever seen. And plus there’s like 50 pictures of me snarfing down food in it, which is great. Go check it out.

Also Neil, there is a picture of you eating a lobster. I couldn’t resist.

So I just got done with a project that has been languishing for quite some time - my tree jacket sweater! I originally started this one back in … ohhhhh …… October of last year. We took some time off, so to speak.



(not the prettiest picture ever, and I am vain, so I made it small)

I’m completely in love with it. I’ve already decided I’m wearing it for the next several weeks.



pattern: Tree Jacket by Zephyr Style (I’m not sure why all the images on their site seem to not be working, but whatever, there’s the link)
size: S
yarn: Knit Picks Andean Silk in barn red
needles: US8 Denises

I have a couple comments about the pattern. For one, I made it a little longer because those Zephyr patterns run a little short on me. Also, I followed the altered lace pattern for the body that I found here. The lace pattern, as it is written in the pattern, will bias. I saw a lot of pictures of Tree Jackets with biased lace, and although some people liked it, I did not. I don’t think a curving lace pattern would have looked even remotely flattering on my body. I’m a little confused though, because I did knit the collar in the biasing lace pattern and although it was mighty twisty, it came right out with some wet blocking. So now I’m wondering if I could have knit the whole sweater with that lace and just blocked the bias out… Oh well, I’m fine with the lace as it is so whatever. All I’m wondering is, am I just seeing tons and tons of unblocked Tree Jackets or does the bias not block out for everyone like it did for me?

So the photo shoot for this sweater was a fun one. I was blocking it on a mat on the floor of our office, and although Yoshi avoided the sweater when it was wet, the minute it became dry she just treated it like her own personal hand-knit dog bed. Case in point:


exhibit A


exhibit B


exhibit C: diggin those claws right in

Oh sigh. Why do I even bother trying to keep the dog hair off things.

And finally, any Arrested Development fans out there? Because this is one of our favorite moments in the show:


(yes, that picture is not mine. but at least I’m not stealing bandwidth.)

Oh, but is that one ever mine. Ha ha haaaa!!! Peto suggested that I stuff my sweater, but I didn’t want to stretch it out.

This is a quick drive-by blogging of a hat I recently made for Peto!



The pattern is thorpe (PDF!), and I used it as kind of a stashbuster to get rid of a bunch of different gray yarns. I think the hat lends itself nicely to that… I was generally holding two worsted/aran weight yarns together and knit on US10s, so I actually made the smallest size to make up for the difference in gauge. It took me a while to figure that one out - I knit the thing three times in the end, but he’s pleased with the final result!



On the top there we have some cascade 220 combined with some alpaca from a farm in Oregon (beautiful stuff - I lost the ball band eons ago), then two strands of cascade 220 for a bit, then cascade 220 (again) with some jo sharp silkroad aran tweed, and on the bottom there’s the silkroad aran tweed and debbie bliss alpaca silk aran. Yeah, there’s a few yarns involved in that hat.

But seriously, I loved this pattern so much I’ll probably start one for myself next. I didn’t put the braid ties on Peto’s because, as he put it, “UGH NO! I’d look like Pollyanna!” I’ll take the braids for mine, I guess…