Yosemite is lovely! (Pics to come soon..have to sort through the eleventy billion snapshots we took. :) ) This was Tejas' and my first time there, though his mom had been once before. Love love loved it, despite the hordes of daytrippers. It's the sort of landscape that makes you want to pack a bag with necessities and hoof it into the mountains, headed for the glacier in the distance, and to heck with civilization. Luckily we managed to quash that urge, but Tejas and I decided (foolishly?) that we HAVE to go back in the fall or late summer and camp, and hike up Half Dome. Wahoo! :)
In other news, I have officially corrupted his mom. She used to do all sorts of sewing and embroidery (much much finer than anything I can do. I take off my hat to anyone who sews her own sari blouses--those things have no room for mistakes!) but gave it up when her kids were in school. When she came this year, I gave her a couple of embroidered hankies that Tejas had asked me to make, and she was reminiscing about what she used to do...so I hauled out the ol' embroidery thread box and some fabric scraps and left them strategically on the table, "just in case." Before long she was stitching little bits when we were away working, "to see if I remember the stitches"...it snowballed. By this time she's filled a whole quarter yard of cloth with pictures, decorated a hankie for me (I'm the lucky one, lalalalalal! have to gloat a little :) ) and asked me to rummage for more fabric. Then last night she happened across one of my iron-on patterns and I showed her how to use it, and five minutes later she was gleefully pressing small kitties onto scrap fabric and letting herself be persuaded to take some iron-ons when she goes home next week! Until yesterday night she always said that she wouldn't have time at home to sew and she didn't want to take any thread or anything home. Last night, Tejas convinced her (didn't take much convincing ;) ) that we should pay a visit to JoAnn's and put together a little kit for her...just in case there's anything she needs that she can't get from my stash, and if she wants more press-on patterns. Mwahahaha...looks like my work is done! (She's also said she wants her mom to teach her to knit when she goes back, so I'm going to get some of those kid's needles with one red and one blue for her, and send her back with a couple balls of lovely soft handpainted wool from my stash!)
The other crafty thing I did last night was to make her a little sachet of lavender to put with her clothes in the rainy season. She loves the little lavender plant on our balcony--every time we go out there she crushes some of the leaves to smell them--and has asked if we can find some seeds so she can try growing one back home. So I've been clipping and drying little bundles of lavender all summer, and last night I sewed a little bag out of scraps of fabric and ribbon, then stuffed the dried lavender inside and sewed it up. Our whole kitchen smelled lovely and cool while I stuffed it--I'm so proud of that fat, lumpy little sachet! It's 100% homemade.
(We've had a total of five cherry tomatoes off my sungold tomato plant now! And there are blooms on my beans and tiny little peppers on my hot and not-hot pepper plants. I'm proud of them too! It almost makes up for my research going kinda badly. I'm trying to convince myself that I don't care--I have a wonderful husband and fun domestic things to play with at home, and it's not like I want a high-flying career anyway, so there's not a lot to worry about. I'm still kinda depressed though, even though my advisor SWEARS to me it will all be all right and he'll make sure I graduate in a reasonable amount of time and get a job and all, and I pretty much believe him. Think I'll go home and plough through some knitting to cheer myself up.)
Friday, June 27, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Zoo animal
Tejas' graduation is this weekend! He's been out of school and working for a couple of months now, but it's still exciting. There are only two reasons I'm not really excited about this weekend:
1. I have to meet the members of my reading committee (profs who will judge my thesis, if I ever have one) on Friday and next Tuesday. They are scary people and have schedules such that they will not be here at the same time as my advisor for more than a year, so I have to meet them alone, without my advisor to tell them to leave me alone if they get nasty. shiver I'm telling myself that my advisor is happy with me so there's not much they can do other than make me feel bad for an hour or two, but still...
2. Either Tejas' brother and sis-in-law will not come to graduation, in which case he will be sad, or they will come, and either get into a huge argument with his parents, or his sis-in-law will spend the whole couple hours cutting us dead and making snippy remarks. (I don't know why she has decided to hate us, but she apparently has.) It's not so much that I can't take the drama as that I lose patience with them fast and really want to smack them upside the head and say, You're grown adults! Act like it for once!
All my results in lab are weird. My advisor is really excited about this--something weird might mean something new, right?--but I'm at the point where I really just want something to work the way I think it should. Anything. Come on, flying spaghetti monster!
To retain my sanity while Tejas' folks are staying with us--well, let me say first that I really like his parents, I do. They are very nice folks and treat me like their own daughter, and his dad is amazingly openminded about having a crazy American for a daughter-in-law, considering that he's pretty conservative--to retain my sanity, I have spent a fair amount of time lately petting yarn and staring at the stash and knitting. The problem is not that his folks are visiting, but that they are visiting for a long time (mom = 2 months, dad = 12 days), and that his dad is the sort of person who can't amuse himself for even five minutes. His mom is pretty good about recognizing that occasionally a girl needs some quiet time. His dad, though... I go home with my brain all worn out and get poked at in Marathi and sometimes (if I'm too tired or stupid to understand Marathi, which happens pretty regularly) in English. Poke. Poke. Poke poke poke poke poke. His dad is an old-style patriarch and expects constant attention and deference. He is very very nice....but I am beginning to feel like a zoo animal. Or maybe a circus bear. Aaaagh!
(I have to say, though, I baked a cake for him special--he likes sweets--the day after he got here, forgetting that he doesn't eat eggs (the list of what-not-to-feed-who in this family makes me slightly woozy), and he ate it anyway. Even though he saw me putting the eggs in.)
My little garden on the balcony is coming along nicely! I'm pretty amazed that it hasn't shriveled up and died. My tomato plant has tomatoes!! In my earthbox I have: one sungold cherry tomato (she of the bountiful amounts of small unripe green tomatoes. I am fond of my sungold), one supersweet 100 cherry tomato (blooming), one Thai hot pepper plant (lots of flowers. I have high hopes), one Hungarian slow food international heirloom pepper plant (one baby pepper and one blossom, meh), several pole bean plants (mostly tendril so far. don't they need leaves??) and cilantro in various stages. Tejas says if I get useful produce this year, next year he'll buy me another box, hurray!! (I mostly just like messing about with dirt. Yup, still three years old at heart.)
Currently quite annoyed at my Kashmir sweater, though underneath I really still love it. (It's so pretty! And so complicated!) I am 1/2 of the way through the sweater, and I'm pretty sure I'll run out of both contrast colors at 3/4. I'm going to have to order more yarn. Grrrrrrr! I even ordered the recommended amounts! But it was spendy (colorwork sweater, y'know. and superwash) so I didn't get the extra ball of each like I usually do. I think I'll get TWO extra balls of each, and one of the red I'm using for the edging, and have MORE THAN ENOUGH! I'll knit a hat or something out of the extra. Or really warm socks for my Alaska relatives. Grargh. (Thank goodness for my yarn fund. Tejas, I love you. :) ) On the other hand, the sight of the enormous pile of Falk yarn transmogrifying into sweater is very gratifying.
I'm feeling a bit restless and annoyed with knitting recently. I think it's because I've been knitting-to-order: the Kashmir sweater is based on a borrowed pattern, so I have to give it back in another five or six weeks, which is a bit tight; I have requests from various family members for different objects, so those are pressing on my conscience; and I started a big Afghans for Afghans project that I need to send in in July. Meanwhile, I think what I would really like to knit is socks. Big, colorful, complicated cable and lace socks. I've been taking the edge off by winding sock yarn, inserting small quick stash projects when I get sick to death of my other knitting, and trying to knit up some UFO fancy socks and plain socks, and just in general clean up the stash. I've promised myself that when I finish a couple of big things, I can buy some Really Nice Sock Yarn and make myself a pair or two of really pretty socks. And actually keep them instead of giving them away! My plan of attack for the give-it-aways is to buy a pair of mary jane shoes. Then I will need pretty socks to show off, no? :)
(I also--sneakily--made a scarf from my sister's extra special handspun and started a pair of knee socks from swap yarn & pattern. A girl has to do something when she feels like a zoo animal. Do not speak to me of project monogamy.)
P.S. I meant to post pictures of Kashmir, my spiffy new scarf and the glorious veggie tub, but lost my nerve in front of the in-laws. There will be pictures...eventually.
1. I have to meet the members of my reading committee (profs who will judge my thesis, if I ever have one) on Friday and next Tuesday. They are scary people and have schedules such that they will not be here at the same time as my advisor for more than a year, so I have to meet them alone, without my advisor to tell them to leave me alone if they get nasty. shiver I'm telling myself that my advisor is happy with me so there's not much they can do other than make me feel bad for an hour or two, but still...
2. Either Tejas' brother and sis-in-law will not come to graduation, in which case he will be sad, or they will come, and either get into a huge argument with his parents, or his sis-in-law will spend the whole couple hours cutting us dead and making snippy remarks. (I don't know why she has decided to hate us, but she apparently has.) It's not so much that I can't take the drama as that I lose patience with them fast and really want to smack them upside the head and say, You're grown adults! Act like it for once!
All my results in lab are weird. My advisor is really excited about this--something weird might mean something new, right?--but I'm at the point where I really just want something to work the way I think it should. Anything. Come on, flying spaghetti monster!
To retain my sanity while Tejas' folks are staying with us--well, let me say first that I really like his parents, I do. They are very nice folks and treat me like their own daughter, and his dad is amazingly openminded about having a crazy American for a daughter-in-law, considering that he's pretty conservative--to retain my sanity, I have spent a fair amount of time lately petting yarn and staring at the stash and knitting. The problem is not that his folks are visiting, but that they are visiting for a long time (mom = 2 months, dad = 12 days), and that his dad is the sort of person who can't amuse himself for even five minutes. His mom is pretty good about recognizing that occasionally a girl needs some quiet time. His dad, though... I go home with my brain all worn out and get poked at in Marathi and sometimes (if I'm too tired or stupid to understand Marathi, which happens pretty regularly) in English. Poke. Poke. Poke poke poke poke poke. His dad is an old-style patriarch and expects constant attention and deference. He is very very nice....but I am beginning to feel like a zoo animal. Or maybe a circus bear. Aaaagh!
(I have to say, though, I baked a cake for him special--he likes sweets--the day after he got here, forgetting that he doesn't eat eggs (the list of what-not-to-feed-who in this family makes me slightly woozy), and he ate it anyway. Even though he saw me putting the eggs in.)
My little garden on the balcony is coming along nicely! I'm pretty amazed that it hasn't shriveled up and died. My tomato plant has tomatoes!! In my earthbox I have: one sungold cherry tomato (she of the bountiful amounts of small unripe green tomatoes. I am fond of my sungold), one supersweet 100 cherry tomato (blooming), one Thai hot pepper plant (lots of flowers. I have high hopes), one Hungarian slow food international heirloom pepper plant (one baby pepper and one blossom, meh), several pole bean plants (mostly tendril so far. don't they need leaves??) and cilantro in various stages. Tejas says if I get useful produce this year, next year he'll buy me another box, hurray!! (I mostly just like messing about with dirt. Yup, still three years old at heart.)
Currently quite annoyed at my Kashmir sweater, though underneath I really still love it. (It's so pretty! And so complicated!) I am 1/2 of the way through the sweater, and I'm pretty sure I'll run out of both contrast colors at 3/4. I'm going to have to order more yarn. Grrrrrrr! I even ordered the recommended amounts! But it was spendy (colorwork sweater, y'know. and superwash) so I didn't get the extra ball of each like I usually do. I think I'll get TWO extra balls of each, and one of the red I'm using for the edging, and have MORE THAN ENOUGH! I'll knit a hat or something out of the extra. Or really warm socks for my Alaska relatives. Grargh. (Thank goodness for my yarn fund. Tejas, I love you. :) ) On the other hand, the sight of the enormous pile of Falk yarn transmogrifying into sweater is very gratifying.
I'm feeling a bit restless and annoyed with knitting recently. I think it's because I've been knitting-to-order: the Kashmir sweater is based on a borrowed pattern, so I have to give it back in another five or six weeks, which is a bit tight; I have requests from various family members for different objects, so those are pressing on my conscience; and I started a big Afghans for Afghans project that I need to send in in July. Meanwhile, I think what I would really like to knit is socks. Big, colorful, complicated cable and lace socks. I've been taking the edge off by winding sock yarn, inserting small quick stash projects when I get sick to death of my other knitting, and trying to knit up some UFO fancy socks and plain socks, and just in general clean up the stash. I've promised myself that when I finish a couple of big things, I can buy some Really Nice Sock Yarn and make myself a pair or two of really pretty socks. And actually keep them instead of giving them away! My plan of attack for the give-it-aways is to buy a pair of mary jane shoes. Then I will need pretty socks to show off, no? :)
(I also--sneakily--made a scarf from my sister's extra special handspun and started a pair of knee socks from swap yarn & pattern. A girl has to do something when she feels like a zoo animal. Do not speak to me of project monogamy.)
P.S. I meant to post pictures of Kashmir, my spiffy new scarf and the glorious veggie tub, but lost my nerve in front of the in-laws. There will be pictures...eventually.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
FINISHED at last! :)
Here we have Tejas' (last-) Christmas vest, FINALLY finished! I knit it from DK weight on size three needles in the hope that very tight gauge would save it from destruction for a few years. It is all stockinette except the ribbed borders, and it nearly killed me. ;) Especially because it was an extremely fly-by-night pattern, made up by yours truly as I went along. With steeks. There's no going back with steeks. You have no idea how amazed I am that this vest actually looks nice! (Tejas has worn it every chilly day since, thereby ensuring I'll forget the horrors of endless red stockinette and knit him another one.) His thesis defense is tomorrow--everybody wish him good luck!!Next up we have the collection I sent to Afghans for Afghans:
I saw from their statistics that they got fewer mittens and socks than anything else, so I'll concentrate on making those next time around. And guess what--they had drawings for prizes where you got an entry for everything you sent in, and I WON A PRIZE!! It's the kit for the Chantal sweater. I'm so excited! :) :) :)I also FINALLY finished the gloves to go with my under-bike-helmet tam, just in time too--my fingers were getting numb riding to the lab in the mornings. They aren't heavy gloves, but they're just right for bike riding.
WARNING: If you don't want even a glimpse of what might be your Christmas present, don't read beyond this point. I won't identify what's for whom, but since I'm pretty much exclusively knitting Christmas stuff at this point, I am going to show it.
Marrakesh socks:
Monkey socks:
Monday, October 1, 2007
- I'm switching projects. This is both good (my advisor says my new project is a good solid bet that will get me a thesis, which should decrease my panickiness somewhat. My old project was interesting, but very new and very in need of troubleshooting, and I kind of felt like it would take me 12 years to graduate. If I ever managed it) and bad (because I'm the sort of stupid guilt-prone dork who thinks she needs to perfectly finish everything she starts. You'd think knitting would have taught me otherwise).
- I'm taking a Hindi class, which I probably really shouldn't (no time) but really wanted to (soooooo sick of going to parties and not understanding a word. Also, I figure the grammar is probably pretty similar to that of Marathi, and Marathi has me totally confused. This has to help). Tejas has been faithfully helping me with pronunciation and critiquing my handwriting of the script...and when he gets bored, teaching me to say off-color things. I'm trying NOT to remember them so my teacher won't smack me.
- I did two pull-ups in a row last week! Sadly, Tejas says I don't get a piece of cake each time I add a pull-up. That was only for the first one. So my motivation is suffering some.
- I'm also taking my advisor's class. It's going to be a hard quarter, what with the new project and all. Sigh.
- Particularly since the Hindi class is at night so I have to go to the gym in the morning. 6:45 a.m. = bad when you also run the tango club, aka "let's see how late in the night we can dance. Hey, you can't leave, you're the president!"
- I'm giving everybody socks for Christmas. This is because I have no imagination and also crave sock knitting, which I can do while reading mindless stuff like histories of Byzantium and Asterix comics and The Hobbit. The more science I have to do, the more I want to read mindless stuff and knit socks.
- And I'm going to post pictures of all of them on this blog too (though I won't tell you who they're for). Otherwise I shall have nothing to show except Afghans for Afghans stuff.
- This week I made Indian-style fried okra, stuffed eggplants, and bitter gourd, and they were all actually edible! Though not as good as Tejas' mom's. Our wedding present from his brother and sis-in-law was a food processor, and it is my new favorite toy. I played with it yesterday and was highly chuffed to find that it quietly, effortlessly shreds an entire daikon radish in about twenty seconds, thus removing a major hurdle in the path to making mooli curry, which Tejas loves. (All that daikon-grating...the mind is willing but the flesh is weak, y'know?) Not to mention chopping up garlic and fresh ginger and onions. And I made pesto sauce. Just because I could. Love you, food processor!
- Tejas kept telling me not to buy bitter gourd at India Cash & Carry because I'd never made them before and he didn't want them anyway (but I bought two because they're so cute. They look like dinosaur mice!). Then when I made them--both of them--he ate all but one teaspoonfull. I ask you. Next time I'm buying more! One can never have too many dinosaur mice. :)
Monday, September 24, 2007
At least we know the rain fly works!
We've been busy little bees the past couple of weeks! Besides working, we went hiking at Big Basin National Forest and liked it so much (all those redwoods!) that we decided to take our first camping trip there. Camping is something that we've been planning on for ages and kept putting off...for one thing, the initial investment is kinda high. Also, Tejas has only been camping once (with my folks and me) so he didn't want to do anything really strenuous or isolated--Big Basin was really good in this regard. So last week we headed off to REI and bought a little two-person tent, a little one-burner propane stove, and a cheap little propane lantern, and blew our target-giftcard-wedding-present on two sleeping bags (thanks, Aunt Jane!!). Fully equipped, we played hookey from the lab on Friday and got there just when check in started--so we got the best spot in the park! It was a "walk in" site, which meant that we carried all our stuff into the forest about 1/4 mile from where we parked--definitely worth it, in terms of isolation and splendor. The weather was lovely and overcast, and we had a great time cooking this and that on the fire. (No pics yet--Tejas took his film camera instead of the digital for fear of killing it. I inherited the "camera death" gene from my mom, who managed to ruin one every year at the beach.)
When we went to bed, we could hear some sort of animal walking around in the brush outside our tent, which freaked Tejas out a little. Then it started raining, and the animal went away. Tejas liked that, but I worried for a while about the tent flooding and whether we should dig a trench around it (we were halfway down a BIG hill) before realizing that it hadn't rained in at least three months. The soil could take a whole lot more water than a piddly little rain.
Anyhoo, it was wet. The next morning Tejas managed to get a fire going and we made a soggy sort of breakfast. I packed everything up (and let me tell you, the tent was pretty darn disgusting), we went for a 3 mile hike in lieu of the 11 mile one we'd been planning (we chickened out because we were soaked. or more accurately, I told Tejas no way was I marching around in dirty wet flannel pajamas and a sweatshirt for the rest of the day), and we headed back home right as the sun came out. All in all a lovely trip!
On the other hand, between camping and working, approximately zero housework has gotten done in the last two weeks. Couple this to Tejas' abhorence of a clean flat surface, and, well...the Hobbit Hole needs some tidying up. I should have done it yesterday but we went to India Cash & Carry and I was all enthused about cooking. I made Indian-style fried okra--it turned out good! I'm so surprised!--and stuffed eggplants--turned out less good, but Tejas liked it anyway--and meatball things in some sort of really heavily spiced sauce, from a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's autobiography--gross, but Tejas liked them too. Or said he did. (Smart boy.)
On the knitting front (pics coming soon)...I finished a pair of mittens for Afghans for Afghans, and knit a hat for them using the leftover yarn from my autumn hat (there was just exactly enough for an adult-sized hat. phew.), and finished the Marrakesh socks waaaaaay before their Christmas due date. Hurray! I don't usually do a whole lot of knitting with bulky yarns, but I have to say, mittens and hats and things go really fast when you do. Fun fun fun! And blasting out a couple of FOs also restores my gumption for knitting socks with skinny yarn on little toothpick needles, which sometimes suffers otherwise!
(I have a sad confession to make...a major part of my drive to finish things is currently being provided by Ravelry's stash feature. I really, really enjoy consigning balls of yarn to the "used up" pile--it makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something in my yarn diet stash destruction. Of course, then I feel like I can't put balls of yarn in "used up" unless I really have used up every last inch. So I have to knit more!! Faster!!!)
When we went to bed, we could hear some sort of animal walking around in the brush outside our tent, which freaked Tejas out a little. Then it started raining, and the animal went away. Tejas liked that, but I worried for a while about the tent flooding and whether we should dig a trench around it (we were halfway down a BIG hill) before realizing that it hadn't rained in at least three months. The soil could take a whole lot more water than a piddly little rain.
Anyhoo, it was wet. The next morning Tejas managed to get a fire going and we made a soggy sort of breakfast. I packed everything up (and let me tell you, the tent was pretty darn disgusting), we went for a 3 mile hike in lieu of the 11 mile one we'd been planning (we chickened out because we were soaked. or more accurately, I told Tejas no way was I marching around in dirty wet flannel pajamas and a sweatshirt for the rest of the day), and we headed back home right as the sun came out. All in all a lovely trip!
On the other hand, between camping and working, approximately zero housework has gotten done in the last two weeks. Couple this to Tejas' abhorence of a clean flat surface, and, well...the Hobbit Hole needs some tidying up. I should have done it yesterday but we went to India Cash & Carry and I was all enthused about cooking. I made Indian-style fried okra--it turned out good! I'm so surprised!--and stuffed eggplants--turned out less good, but Tejas liked it anyway--and meatball things in some sort of really heavily spiced sauce, from a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's autobiography--gross, but Tejas liked them too. Or said he did. (Smart boy.)
On the knitting front (pics coming soon)...I finished a pair of mittens for Afghans for Afghans, and knit a hat for them using the leftover yarn from my autumn hat (there was just exactly enough for an adult-sized hat. phew.), and finished the Marrakesh socks waaaaaay before their Christmas due date. Hurray! I don't usually do a whole lot of knitting with bulky yarns, but I have to say, mittens and hats and things go really fast when you do. Fun fun fun! And blasting out a couple of FOs also restores my gumption for knitting socks with skinny yarn on little toothpick needles, which sometimes suffers otherwise!
(I have a sad confession to make...a major part of my drive to finish things is currently being provided by Ravelry's stash feature. I really, really enjoy consigning balls of yarn to the "used up" pile--it makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something in my yarn diet stash destruction. Of course, then I feel like I can't put balls of yarn in "used up" unless I really have used up every last inch. So I have to knit more!! Faster!!!)
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Finished at last!
Actually these have been done for quite some time, but I was lazy about posting pictures. Somehow my picture of the Yellowstone Vest disappeared, too, so I guess I'll wait till it has buttons and then snap another. I've done barely any knitting the past week--working long hours at the lab really takes it out of you, besides leaving no time for anything else. Blah. But I did start a pair of socks in the Monkey pattern (from Knitty) using Socks that Rock lightweight in the "Nodding Violet" colorway (blues/greens/purples). I know a lot of people love this yarn, but I'm kind of ambivalent about it. Yes, it is nice and scrunchy, but it's kind of overtwisted, and it's thicker than I like in a fingering weight or sock yarn. The colors though--I can never resist the colors. They remind me of Art Nouveau stained glass, all deep watercolor shades and sinuousity (is that a word? It should be). Especially this colorway!
But before I show any pictures of my new socks, here are some old things. The melon shawl blocking on the futon (the stitch definition shows up in these pictures but you have to make them big. sorry), with my knees for scale:
Modelling the shawl (I just realized that this picture is wrongside-up but I'm too lazy to fix it now...sorry...)
And my Undulating Rib socks in Fleece Artist "Forest". Aren't they pretty? They're a little darker green in real life.
But before I show any pictures of my new socks, here are some old things. The melon shawl blocking on the futon (the stitch definition shows up in these pictures but you have to make them big. sorry), with my knees for scale:
Modelling the shawl (I just realized that this picture is wrongside-up but I'm too lazy to fix it now...sorry...)
And my Undulating Rib socks in Fleece Artist "Forest". Aren't they pretty? They're a little darker green in real life.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Grumpy day.
Nothing in the lab is working, and I have a ton of green card- and name-related paperwork to do, and I am getting very grumpy about it.
On the other hand, I've been getting a lot of stuff done--I love that little tingly feeling when you know you're completely done with something, even if it's kind of small and unimportant! After Aai left on Saturday, Tejas and I went into full-out cleaning mode. Now the bathroom and kitchen have been scrubbed (and bleached...I might have cheated on the all-nontoxic-cleaners diet a little bit, but it was under severe provocation. On the other hand, my kitchen sink is beautiful and you could probably eat out of it) to within an inch of their lives, and we have more clean laundry than we know what to do with.
Oh, and remember the melon stitch shawl? That I was supposed to send back with Aai to give to Tejas' gramma, only she moved her departure date up by 20 days? I was so close to being done last Friday that I decided it would be stupid to finish the day after she left. I knitted like crazy Friday night and Saturday morning, and by 1 pm Saturday afternoon I was ready to block. We were going to leave for the airport at 3:30, so Tejas helped me set up a super-quick blocking system: the shawl pinned out on the futon by a string run through every point (it took up the entire length), with two fans blowing over it full-blast. Tejas' brother was there to say goodbye to his mom, and boy did he give us some funny looks! Luckily it was a hot day and laceweight dries fast--by 2 pm it was ready. We snapped a couple of photos (to be posted soon...forgot 'em today) and shoved it into Aai's bag, and that was that. I hope its new owner will like it.
I also finished the Yellowstone Vest (pictures to come of this, too), though I still need to get some buttons for it. (Trace-trace! I want my button box back! I refuse to buy ten thousand buttons for charity sweaters if I keep knitting for Afghans for Afghans. Give me back my box, you button-thief! :) ) It turned out all right--not as much curling as I was afraid of after I blocked it, though the front edges still curl a little bit (should be okay when buttoned up). I still think there's got to be a better edge-finishing method, though...or maybe I'll make the next one in garter stitch.
And finally, I'm halfway through the foot of the second Undulating Rib sock (in Fleece Artist "Forest"), which means I can expect to finish sometime soon. This is very good, because I promised myself I wouldn't start another "complicated" sock pair till I finished this one, though it's actually pretty easy (I can read and knit it no problem). Next up: monkey socks in Socks That Rock "Nodding Violet," for someone who occasionally reads this blog, mwahahahahahha! I think they're going to be a Christmas present. After a month with no socks knitted, I'm feeling the sock-knitting instinct kick in again!
On the other hand, I've been getting a lot of stuff done--I love that little tingly feeling when you know you're completely done with something, even if it's kind of small and unimportant! After Aai left on Saturday, Tejas and I went into full-out cleaning mode. Now the bathroom and kitchen have been scrubbed (and bleached...I might have cheated on the all-nontoxic-cleaners diet a little bit, but it was under severe provocation. On the other hand, my kitchen sink is beautiful and you could probably eat out of it) to within an inch of their lives, and we have more clean laundry than we know what to do with.
Oh, and remember the melon stitch shawl? That I was supposed to send back with Aai to give to Tejas' gramma, only she moved her departure date up by 20 days? I was so close to being done last Friday that I decided it would be stupid to finish the day after she left. I knitted like crazy Friday night and Saturday morning, and by 1 pm Saturday afternoon I was ready to block. We were going to leave for the airport at 3:30, so Tejas helped me set up a super-quick blocking system: the shawl pinned out on the futon by a string run through every point (it took up the entire length), with two fans blowing over it full-blast. Tejas' brother was there to say goodbye to his mom, and boy did he give us some funny looks! Luckily it was a hot day and laceweight dries fast--by 2 pm it was ready. We snapped a couple of photos (to be posted soon...forgot 'em today) and shoved it into Aai's bag, and that was that. I hope its new owner will like it.
I also finished the Yellowstone Vest (pictures to come of this, too), though I still need to get some buttons for it. (Trace-trace! I want my button box back! I refuse to buy ten thousand buttons for charity sweaters if I keep knitting for Afghans for Afghans. Give me back my box, you button-thief! :) ) It turned out all right--not as much curling as I was afraid of after I blocked it, though the front edges still curl a little bit (should be okay when buttoned up). I still think there's got to be a better edge-finishing method, though...or maybe I'll make the next one in garter stitch.
And finally, I'm halfway through the foot of the second Undulating Rib sock (in Fleece Artist "Forest"), which means I can expect to finish sometime soon. This is very good, because I promised myself I wouldn't start another "complicated" sock pair till I finished this one, though it's actually pretty easy (I can read and knit it no problem). Next up: monkey socks in Socks That Rock "Nodding Violet," for someone who occasionally reads this blog, mwahahahahahha! I think they're going to be a Christmas present. After a month with no socks knitted, I'm feeling the sock-knitting instinct kick in again!
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