I've updated the knitting pictures; they now include pictures of the diagonal socks, the jumper, the slipper socks, and the recently-completed winter hat. See my knitting page. That's still not even everything, but it's progress. ;)
"Why did that plane crash? My understanding is that the investigation is ongoing, but the gist of the current theory can be described as "pilot death." --Michael Kimmitt
I finished the hat! I took pictures, and I'll post them eventually. In the meantime you can look at the pattern.
I also finished listening to The Altman Code, a spy thriller of the sort that makes excellent books-on-tape. ;)
"Like broccoli pizza, gay marriage isn't for everyone, but that's no reason to keep it off the menu." --Steve Chapman
I finally got around to updating my page of knitting projects. It's not done per se, it'll never be done, but there's a lot more up there.
I also put together a derived blog, that'll just include the entries related to various knitting projects, on the off chance that someone who doesn't know me might want to filter out the other stuff. No special name, just the knitting edition of this one. ;)
"The belief that humanity gets more depraved with each succeeding generation is a source of comfort to parents and children alike, but neither history nor literature supports it." --Miss Manners
I've been meaning to post these for a while. Those of you following my knitting career may wish to see pictures of my knitting. Not a complete gallery, but the sweater's there at least.
"Miss Manners believes that young ladies should appear modest and deferential to adults. It sets them a good example." --Miss Manners
Wa-hoo! I just bound off, wove in, and otherwise finished up the sweater I've been working on, on and off, for over two months now. It fits (snug but comfortable), and boy howdy is it ever warm. I'll wash it in the tub tomorrow and I should be able to wear it by the middle of next week. Wooooo!
"Christian symbol? I thought this was the Celtic death god of the wood!" --Terry Landry
I sit here and knit and watch TV. It's quite a routine, and quite far from where I was just four months ago, when I watched exactly one hour of TV a week (West Wing). I found myself flipping channels earlier; the Game Show Network has a nifty one called "Lingo", which is essentially Word Mastermind with a tiny admixture of Bingo for a random element. Today one of the teams was a guy who knits and a girl who plays croquet. In commenting on this, the host (is that Chuck Woolery?) commented that his son knits too. I'm telling you, it's the new thing.
Props to fellow CS prof Chris Andrews, whose pickup truck came to my ResQ on picking up my new coffeetable (and who then helped lug it up to my apartment). It came in a box---I asked at least three or four times whether it was fully assembled, with answers ranging from "yes" to "almost", but it totally wasn't. In fact, the pieces didn't even fit together all that well, and from a standpoint of assembly it was incredibly poorly designed: the instructions say to put it together upside down, but the shelf only has real supports when it's right-side-up. And you can't just assemble the top to the legs and then flip it over, because once the legs are screwed in the shelf won't fit right. It required a hammer to get the shelf to fit right.
Done now, though. Really cool. I have pictures, which I may post at some point. For now, back to wondering how my gauge changed so much between sock #1 and sock #2, and how I can compensate.
"Making sure that kids have health insurance is the right thing. Pissing away time in a quixotic quest for ideological purity is not." --Michael Kimmitt
There's an awesome yarn shop here in Champaign! Ooh, I should back up. Yesterday, I mentioned on the notesfiles that I was thinking about coming down to Champaign-Urbana for the weekend, if anything was happening; Kim pushed just the right button by offering to make a sushi run. So I drove down last night.
Before I left, I checked on the net to see if there were any yarn shops in Champaign, hoping to make use of the trip to stock up. Sure enough, there was, although it was originally an embroidery shop that added yarn and knitting stuff just a couple of years ago, so I didn't have great hopes. But it's awesome! Just the yarn portion alone is one of the larger yarn shops I've seen. And there were, like, eight people sitting around knitting and chatting while I was there, encouraging me to sit down and knit with them. They're there every Saturday, from open to close! (UPDATE: a link to their site.)
No sleeping in for me when I visit Champaign in the future---I'll get up and head over to the yarn shop for the morning. :)
"DECAF!? Are you trying to kill me??" --Cecilia, Piled Higher and Deeper
I finished the socks! Pictures forthcoming.
"I started to cry as I sat down with a gigantic piece of meat, a schnitzel, which is like a fried continent. I mean it, I pulled my hat off my head and started to cry. *This is what it is all about.* If getting drunk at eleven in the afternoon and eating a huge piece of meat is wrong, then *I don't want to be right.*" --Tycho
Well, I've gotten some coding done, and started a bunch of experiment runs, so I can't say I've been totally slacking.
But I also just wrote a page on my various knitting projects. I should really be writing my thesis....
"I knew if I was willing to sell out the rights of a whole group of Americans to get reelected, then I'd wasted my time in politics." --Howard Dean
I spent this afternoon in Tiverton, RI, at the best yarn shop ever. Theresa showed me around the place and gave me a practicum on yarn weights, needle sizes, materials, and patterns. I bought a pattern book, two sets of double-ended needles, and enough yarn for three projects, which I'm just itching to get started on.
In other news, those of you in the area may be interested to know that the Brown Renaissance Singers (of which I am a member) is putting on our end-of-semester show next week. We're scheduled to perform at 8pm on Wednesday, in the Annmary Brown Memorial---aka the Crypt---over on Brown Street next to Health Services. Show's about a half hour, free, and followed by refreshments (also free).
"I should emphasize that just because our Irish friends start their summer earlier does not mean Ireland gets warmer earlier. The cruel truth is that it never gets warm in Ireland, which has one of the most dismal climates on earth." --Cecil Adams
Theresa taught me how to knit today! Also we watched Dave, which remains a great movie.
"I've figured it out. Here in Rhode Island, people are catching all the Rs people are dropping up in Boston. They're all up there pahking their cah, and the Rs migrate down here so my landlord calls me Thereser." --Theresa Ross
Memo to self: When sewing, never ever forget to lower the foot of the sewing machine. Even if the fabric being sewn is very thick so that it pretty much meets the foot when it's raised. And, y'know, makes it easy to forget to lower the foot....
What happens is that the bobbin part of the sewing machine action gets very confused, and while the top of the sewing looks fine, the underside is a mess of big loops of thread, and the thread gets wrapped around the bobbin spindle, and the bobbin actually pops out of its holder, and your fabric manages to get connected to the sewing machine by about ten or twenty tangled threads, which you have to cut and extract. And then you have to pull out all the seams you just sewed, so you can do them right. Ugh.
"Still, the most detailed reports of the battle [of the Alamo] come from Mexican soldiers. It turns out that the stirring stories of heroic deeds so cherished by Texans were arrived at mostly by that creative process we call "making it up," the basis of much American history." --Cecil Adams