Dreaming

Right now I'm pausing before going on to the last question of this beast-like take home test. I hate this class.

I dream about starting new projects quite a bit in the middle of the quarter. This time it's been pretty bad because this quarter has probably the worst midterm area we've ever had in our program thus far. Fortunately, it's only a two-weeks of the underworld, then out to fieldwork in the community for a week, then a somewhat breezier (but not easy) way to the end of the quarter. And this is supposed to be the most work intensive quarter of the program, so I'm looking forwards to a good spring.

The harder school gets the more my mind goes on excursions, thinking up things I would rather be doing.

Ravelry helps me do this quite well!


On the needles and hooks

Slouchy crochet beret - Crochet. I made this once too large, frogged it, and am back at 50% currently. I've been venturing forwards a row or two, then ripping back because I'm experimenting with the sizing as I go. Today I decided to cut two rows from the pattern, so I hope the hat turns out ok.

Lace ribbon scarf - Knitting. I had been using two size 3 dpns to knit this originally, but the stitches fell off while in my bag (an absolutely horrifying moment for me, because this is a lace scarf-- meaning there double yo's in there that are so friggin difficult to pick up if the stitches slip off!). A classmate, who is also a knitter, told me it was a requirement that I had to get size three circulars to finish the project. I got some and put the stitches on the new needles rather sloppily. I am incredibly indebted to her for "knitting" backwards to pick up dropped stitches. She's got so much more experience on me-- I have trouble thinking and working backwards on projects-- I would rather just rip everything and start over. Thanks to her, I can keep going forward on this project! She's got her own lace scarf going now, so it's almost like we've got our own KAL (knit along) group in the OT program :)

Flap top mittens - Knitting. This one is on size 6 dpns. I'm doing lice stitch. It requires so much coordination between the two colors (and I'm new to colorwork) that it is definitely restricted to my desk. I have also decided to do several other mods to the pattern, including resizing the mitten and partial fingers. We'll see how it turns out! I already wish I did the cuff smaller, but it's too late now and I'm too lazy to go back.


Dreaming

Japanese turban hat - Knitting. A brioche stitch hat that is basically a scarf that is sewn into an origami-like configuration and magically becomes a really cute hobo hat. There's another one I saw called "N. cap" which I would have to figure out own my own from looking at pictures. Both are super cute... better start with the one I have more instruction for! I have tweedy O-Wool balance yarn that I'm eager to use.

V-neck sweater vest - Knitting. From Classic Knits by Erika Knight. Looks really cute and a relatively short project for an actual item of clothing. I've never attempted anything beyond a shrug, but this looks like it might be a safe advancement. The pattern reviews on Ravelry say the pattern is ill-written... surprising to hear, since this author has written so many books. I'm still willing to venture, perhaps over spring break. I could splurge on Rowan Big Wool (but its been said to pill badly) or just go with the economy of Wool Ease Thick & Quick... quite a dilemma.

Wham Bam Thank You Lamb Neckwarmer - Knitting. A quick asymmetric cowl in purl stitch. I'm not sure whether I should actually do this, because I'm not completely sure if I'd wear it. But it looks like such a quick knit, it looks cool when other people wear it, I've seen nothing like it on my friends, and I actually have Wool Ease Thick & Quick in my stash, so this is very tempting indeed...

January knitting

First post of the new year! I hope to start it off with some good knitting :)

Over the break I accomplished a couple of my December goals:
--Finished the "little silk shrug"-- I wove in the ends on the day before school began again. It looks pretty good, IMO. I'll have to take some pictures of it sometime. I feel that one danger of me wearing a shrug like this, however, is that if it isn't properly stretched across my shoulders, I could come off as having football-ready shoulders. Also, the bottom back edge is a little too wide, so I must keep pulling the shrug forward so the edge doesn't bend out strangely. All in all, though-- good for a first non-mitten, non-scarf project!
--Finished the felicity beanie. Now that was a quick knit! I really want to do this one again. I saw several really cute projects people did using hand-dyed yarns on Ravelry. Felicity is a really good candidate for displaying amazing yarn because it's all plain stockinette with an interesting shape-- great canvas for special varigated yarn.
I like how the back bunches up like that. I had serious doubts about how this was going to look on me, but it turned out okay! Note to self: on M1, be sure to knit through the back of the stitch. That way, you don't get holes.

In the January/Winter 2009 queue:
--Japanese slouchy crochet beret: I have to frog this baby and start over. I accidentally increased way too rapidly and even though I then attempted to slow the growth early on with each row, it grew out of proportion. Now when I try it on, it looks like an animal is engulfing my head. So... it must be destroyed and remade.
--Lace ribbon scarf: my first time working with fingering weight yarn. I'm a bit intimidated by size 3 needles and it'll probably take forever. I've done about 4 inches since Friday (2 days), so if I think this is going to be 60 inches long, then it'll take me at least a month to knit (and that's assuming I work on this everyday).

Love the color, don't you? Too bad it's called "prune." My first time working with an alpaca mix. It's good but it can be a little splitty on difficult stitches. Also a turn off was that I had to rewind the skein into a ball of yarn so I could actually knit it pain-free. I wish all yarn companies wound their yarn into usable skeins so that customers could start knitting with the stuff immediately.
--Flap-top mittens: I've tried this pattern (in Melanie Falick's Handknit Holidays, by Kim Hamlin) before but always got stuck at the "prepare flap" instructions. Thanks to user eleanorw for clarifying them for me! So now I've gotten past that step and am thinking about knitting fingers into this instead of just ending at an open mitt.
I'm looking forwards to knitting in class this quarter!

December goals

I am going to start a goal list for things I need to do when I get out of school this fall quarter.

[ ] Finish the "little silk shrug" I started last year.[ ] Finish the "felicity" hip slouch beanie I started this quarter.

That's when I first started, about a week and a half ago?

There it is now, on top of my evidence base for a final paper.

[ ] Bake cookies. I bought chocolate chips in anticipation -.-;
[ ] Make HK style borscht. I first had it at LA cafe (the red soup)... but we no longer go to LA cafe, hopefully for reasons unrelated to the soup. Then I went over to my friend's house, and she made it for dinner... it was sooo good. To my surprise, she said it was borscht... but Chinese style. I guess good stuff will migrate across miles and cultures. Tomato (instead of beet) + water base (maybe throw some chicken stock in there?), plus onions, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, garlic and parsley, perhaps? Maybe add chicken or beef? Yeah baby. Get me some bread and butter and call it good.
[ ] Finish up resizing my dad's old shirt for my personal use. My dad was going to Goodwill this shirt with a beautiful plaid pattern. "I'd wear that if it were my size," I thought. So I took it from the Goodwill pile and pinned tucks and folds into the back and front to draw it in at the torso. I'm not sure if it will work out or not, but if it doesn't-- I have only robbed an unfortunate person of a good find at Goodwill. Anyway, I pinned the approximate measurements last year, but this is what it has been looking like in my room since then:
The picture of which reminds me of another goal...
[ ] Clean up the room for real. I'm more of a "mess manager" right now... but I really need to figure out what to do with all the papers, books and crafts around my room. There's not enough space for it all! Sub categories:
...[ ] Get a new craft drawer organizer. I have this thing which has been holding everything from stationary to my beads to my yarn and needles to random crap. The wheel in the back is broken, so the craft drawer organizer slouches dangerously to the left.
...[ ] Figure out what to do with all my OT program papers. This is just a pile of the stuff I accumulated last year, not knowing what to do with it all/being too lazy to look through everything and recycle the unnecessaries:

By the way... thanks to Dorothy for that CD on the top: OC Mix 2, which actually has good music (although I never watched the show). Anyway... that pile is representative of my indecisive nature about what to do with anything in my room. It seems necessary to have it out at the time, for easy access. The second step is that the time to have it out passes, but I forget about its existence, so it stays out. The third step is accumulation of a pile.

I think that last goal is big enough to last 4 weeks, potentially. So I'll call the list good for now :)

What now?

So it's October. What happened since August?

Garden
I went to Japan in September. While I was gone, my sister and parents were good enough to keep watering my plants! Unfortunately, no one weeded or stood up the fallen stakes, so when I came back the tomatoes were falling all over themselves. Then it rained, so I didn't go out to fix anything, and basically the garden looks like it's in shambles. Somewhere between leaving Seattle and coming back, my fire for the garden died down. I think I'll compost everything and just wait for spring to come again. Oh well-- it was fun while the sun lasted :)

Work
I work for a technology group on campus, and I recently switched from a cubicle to an office. Here's part of my desk:


Ooh, pretty! I have plants, too! (The one in the center in the clay pot-- it has been named Jimi).

Ooh wait.

Ooh, no. Is that a binder clip attaching the lamp to the stand? We are ghetto after all...

Hey, I try my best with what I have in the office. The lamp is from Ikea-- it's like $5 to $10 for the shade and the light fixture inside. I got the lamp stand from my boss, which is actually from Ikea too. It used to be a desk lamp in its own right, and had a lightbulb for a head. Unfortunately, I dropped the lamp when moving from Odegaard in Red Square, so the head (the lightbulb) broke off. So now I just use it as a stand for this other lamp I have :)

Knitting
In September, when I left for Japan, I began a new project. It is the Bridgetown Belt Bag, the pattern for which was published in Interweave Knits magazine in Spring 2006.

Here's where I was at the beginning of the trip, on our flight from Seoul to Hong Kong, I believe (about 3 hours total of knitting?)



I like the contrast between stockinette (the smooth "v"s) stitch and garter stitch:


Here's where I am, now, in early October (about a month's worth of knitting):


It's unfortunate, but I have problems staying awake in my classes (even though there's only 22 people in my class!). So, to help my awareness disability, I knit during class. My instructors have been good enough to let me do this. I finished the straps (the 2 tails) this last week over two days of 3 classes).


I think the tails make my beltbag look like some kind of Japanese monster from a Studio Ghibli movie. The next steps for the project will be making the pouch part of the beltbag, sewing it on, and knitting/attaching two D-ring loops to the V side of the belt bag. The beltbag closure will be kind of like those belts with the two metal rings on one side. You put the end of the belt through both, then pull it backwards through one, then pull tigher to conform to your waist size.

I'll also have to "block" my knitting. I hate blocking because for some reason it just demands too much patience. But it's worthwhile-- it's supposedly magic for making knit pieces look like the way they were intended. Like ironing a terribly wrinkled shirt.

I think this belt might end up being too loose on me. I knit it larger, thinking it couldn't possibly fit around my waist. I neglected the stretch factor, though. Well, we'll see.