Friday - August 22, 2008
Whew.
In the new KnitPicks catalog, they have Marcel's Sweater (Ravelry link) in a really intense blue. I've wanted to do it in that kind of color since it came out, and it's nice to see how good it looks.
In other news, the reason that I haven't been blogging much this week: Caleb has been away, and I undertook a big project. We have four full-sized bookshelves in the bedroom. (And two full and two half in one living room, and one full in the other living room. Then I have my desk books.) Since he left on Sunday, I have scanned and organized all of the books in the bedroom except for a few that are mixed in with a pile of magazines I need to sort and ten on top of the shelves. This is, according to the software, 701 books.
I'm using Booxter (but an older version), so for the newest books, with the ISBNs encoded on the barcodes, I just needed to scan them and then enter the location code. (Each room has a letter, each bookcase in each room has a letter, and each shelf has a number.) For the ones without the barcodes, I can type in the ISBN. For the ones older than that, some LCCNs show up, but not many. For the ones like the 1848 comparative grammar or the 1876 The Life of the Greeks and Romans, I type in the information. I also cleaned the shelves and books. I also have an office box overflowing with duplicates and books I don't want any more.
Twelve shelves remain. I really like having it all organized and knowing that I should be less likely that I buy copies of books I already have.
It's a good feeling.
Posted at 12:07 PM Read More
Monday - August 04, 2008
Baby hat
I started this hat at the baseball game we went to on Thursday night. It's for the child of one of Caleb's former fellow grad students. It's a soft, sagey greenish-gray (very gender-neutral), not the tattletale gray it appears to be.
Pattern: Umbilical Cord Hat (pp. 188-189 Stitch and Bitch)
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran
Needles: 7 dpns
Amount of yarn used: About 28 g.
Source of Yarn: Gift bag at Stitch and Pitch
Modifications: I shortened the tail on top a bit.
Thoughts: I thought that the instructions for using markers for the decreases were far too complicated. Still, it could be good for a very new beginner. I didn't like the yarn; it was too soft for me, and there were two broken and reknotted places very early in.
Still, it's a nice little hat. I also won't feel it's my fault now if the baby isn't born for a while, on the theory of the Harlot's sweater.
Posted at 02:56 PM Read More
Thursday - February 21, 2008
Good day
Yesterday was a really good day. I spent the morning at the library, doing research for a workshop that I"m giving in March. I'd forgotten how much I love getting my list of Library of Congress numbers together, plotting my route through the floors and floors of stacks, piling up more and more books in my arms, and finally sitting down to go through them, checking references and tracking new books down.
Then, when I got home, I saw this, which made me very happy.
Posted at 08:19 PM Read More
Wednesday - September 26, 2007
Miscellaney
1. This is a really neat blog about an embroidered jacket that Plimoth is reconstructing. I've always wanted one of these; there's a great one in the V&A embroidered with fables.
2. Caleb and I went to a really great Richard Shindell concert last Saturday. I think I slightly prefer him in Cry Cry Cry, where he performs with Dar Williams, but this was really good. The space where he performed was an old mill, and the seats were pews that they'd bought from a church that was no longer around. Apparently it's an entirely volunteer organization, and it's an arts studio during the week. (The artisans were there and opened up their studios to sell during the intermission.)
Posted at 08:07 PM Read More
Saturday - June 23, 2007
Just checking...
I just got my new computer hooked up with iBlog.
Will this go through?
Posted at 07:53 PM Read More
Friday - June 08, 2007
Distractions
A combination of
two of my favorite things. (Found at the wonderful Acta Sententiaeque.
[Another knitting Latin
teacher!])I haven't gotten much
knitting done this week; on the days I carpooled, I was working on my last AfA
sweater, and in the evenings I was working on
this:
Originally it was going to be my going
away dress. Then rationality prevailed and I decided to make it for the
cocktail party at the fifth reunion Caleb and I are going to this weekend. It's
mostly together, and is really nice; I did the skirt with French seams, put in
cups, and the body is well lined. I just realized that I wasn't happy with the
zipper or the seam putting the skirt on the bodice, and that if I ended up
rushing, I'd never be happy with it. If, however, I took the time to let it sit
and evaluate, I could be happy with it.
Posted at 08:56 PM Read More
Saturday - May 05, 2007
Lovely Day
Today was a really good day. I finished the
first of the Resolution Socks and got the toe of the second done at the board
meeting I went to. It ended up being
an all blogged food day. For breakfast, I made a coffee
cake from Smitten Kitchen.
For dinner, we had the
amazing tortillas from Erica's recipe, carne
asada , homemade
guacamole (add a clove of garlic), and the champagne that the
Athenaeum gave us for coming and playing Pub Quiz when we'd been married less
than a week. (The Athenaeum is the library where we got married.) It was
really good. There wasn't anything in
particular that made it such a great day; it was just filled with quiet, nice
things.
Posted at 09:23 PM Read More
Friday - February 02, 2007
Silent Poetry Reading
If ever two were one, then surely
we.
If ever man were lov'd by wife, then
thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you
can.
I prize thy love more than whole Mines of
gold
Or all the riches that the East doth
hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot
quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give
recompetence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay.
The heavens reward thee manifold, I
pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so
persever
That when we live no more, we may live
ever.
(In a normal year, I would have chosen Ithaka,
but, what with the whole getting married in less than three months, I felt I
could get a little shmoopy.)
Posted at 04:51 PM Read More
Monday - January 22, 2007
Central Park Hoodless Hoodie and Amish Socks
Jimmy Beans Wool is a great company. I placed an
order with them on Friday evening, it shipped a few hours after, and it arrived
today.
I've been wanting the sock yarn since
Summer of '03, right around when I started knitting socks. Someone at the job I
had then asked if I were Amish because I was always knitting. I then ran across
the Lorna's Laces Amish, and decided I wanted to get that once I'd figured out
how to make the perfect sock. I think that Lorna's has stopped making it; it's
become harder and harder to find. The
magazine is so I can make the Central PArk Hoodie (but without a hood); Erica's
is inspiring me. I'm thinking the tweed that Elann is selling now, or Peace
Fleece. Either way, though, no new yarn until there's space in my drawer to
store it and space in my life to knit it.
Posted at 10:01 PM Read More
Saturday - November 18, 2006
Somewhat amusing quiz
| What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane. |
| Dedicated Reader | |
| Literate Good Citizen | |
| Book Snob | |
| Non-Reader | |
| Fad Reader | |
What Kind of Reader Are You?
Create Your Own Quiz |
Caleb and I are back from a visit to our old college town, where he was on a panel talking about jobs one can get with a geology degree. I really like it there.
Posted at 09:19 PM Read More
Tuesday - November 07, 2006
Voting.
When I was a little girl and my mother would take
me into the voting booth, there were huge metal monsters of voting machines.
You flicked little switches around and then pulled a lever with a satisfying
clonk that became to me the sound of voting.
I never got to vote with one of them;
I was absentee until I moved to Rhode Island, and my polling place uses the scan
sheets. I don't like them; I feel like I'm taking a standardized test.
Still, I do like voting. I wish that
we got the election day off; this sounds silly, but I'd wanted to be a poll
worker since I was very young.
(And
the ribby? After what happened in 2004, I've decided that pattern doesn't mix
with elections.)
Posted at 10:05 PM Read More
Monday - October 23, 2006
Back!
Rhinebeck was a lot of fun. It was great getting
to hang out with my mom, aunt, and cousin again; each year seems to get better
and better.
I ended up not getting any yarn or
fleece or fiber; I just got some tools so I could work on what I already have.
More details later this week.
Posted at 09:57 PM Read More
Friday - October 20, 2006
Off to Rhinebeck!
We're headed off to Rhinebeck!
Posted at 04:02 PM Read More
Wednesday - October 11, 2006
My stash drawer has now officially overflowed.
Posted at 09:04 PM Read More
Wednesday - September 27, 2006
What a mix.
1. I managed to give blood today! I had iron, I
wasn't sick, and I wasn't dehydrated! It was strange- for the last year, there
was some reason that I couldn't give at each of the blood drives at my school.
Each of them was a different reason, and a valid one, but I'm glad that that's
over now. Caleb got to do one of the fancy new ways of donating.
2.
Firefly
and knitting. (From Acta
Sententiaeque.)3. The Iron
Ore raglan for AfA is still coming along. I just feel weird having an entry
about something I'm doing for charity other than the ending entry of record or
possibly a beginning one, so that's a lot of why I haven't been blogging much.
I'm starting to worry that I won't have all four done, though.
Posted at 10:47 PM Read More
Friday - August 18, 2006
What was the make-up gun set on, again?
So, today was a very girly day. After working
out while reading a book on the crime of the century of 1779, I went to the mall
in search of bras and make-up.
The
bras were an outstanding success; I got fitted by a really wonderful woman at
the Gap.
As for the make-up, I'd done
research. I'd looked at different companies online, and had narrowed it down to
three that I knew were in the mall. (Sephora is opening in a month or so, too
late.) I then cruised by each one and checked out the make-up on the counter
attendants. I chose the one whose make-up looked the most like what I wanted,
and nervously looked at the display until she noticed me.
I then explained that I don't usually
wear make-up, but that I wanted to look nice for my brother's wedding even
though I don't usually wear make-up. I wanted a natural look that was easy to
apply, because (did I mention?) I don't wear much
make-up.
She had me hop up into the
chair and went to work.
The final
score: fourteen items.
She used five
different products on my eyes, and then said that they were simple enough that I
could wear wilder lipstick.
I'd been
more looking for, ideally, a piece of plastic cut to face size with eyes and
lips painted on that I could press against my face for a transfer, rather like
decals. Failing that, concealer, lipstick, and eyeliner. This was a bit much.
I stopped by Caleb's work on the way
home, and he did think I looked nice, although the eyes were scary. Someone
else described me as the rock star version of myself, which I tend to disagree
with; when I become a rockstar, I shall wear bright red lipstick, thick eyeliner
in the blackest black, and carry a guitar everywhere. No mascara; it feels like
my eyes will stick together when I blink.
Anyone have advice on eyeliner that's
easy to apply and looks normal?
Posted at 10:02 PM Read More
Tuesday - July 18, 2006
Excitement!
1. This was neat to see.
I had a lot of fun writing it, and getting a prize is icing on the cake.
2. Caleb and I went to a Paw Sox game
on Sunday and got to see Dominic
DiMaggio inducted into the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame. He
seemed to be in remarkable shape for a man just shy of ninety. I really liked
getting to see him; when I was a girl, I read the John Bellairs books that kept
mentioning him as a sports hero who wore glasses.
3. Unfortunately, I got my shoulders
sunburned there. It's right on the edge of my shoulder, where the seam putting
the sleeve into the shirt rests. This makes reaching above shoulder level
intriguing. Also, trying on my Birthday Top was not so good an idea.
Posted at 07:40 PM Read More
Friday - May 26, 2006
Faron.
Faron would have turned nineteen this June
thirteenth. Her birthday was on the day between my parents'.
She wasn't the first pet we had while
I was growing up, but she was the first pet I remember picking out. (She was
also the only pet we picked out since I can remember; the dogs and Manny came to
us from friends and family.) We chose her at a shelter; we were down to her or
another cat with similar coloring, and my parents decided we'd go with her
because she was younger. On the way home, my mother said that we'd have to pick
out a name for her, but I just said that her name was Faron. (After the cat
that one of the girls had in the old Peanuts strips.)
I can remember when she almost drowned
in the neighbors' pool, but my mom heard her and pulled her out and then held
her, wrapped in towels and heating pads, for hours. And how she kept Manny, a
cat over twice her size, in line. And how she'd come and sleep on my bed for
part of the night when I'd be home from college or grad school.
I'll miss her.
Posted at 04:51 PM Read More
Sunday - May 21, 2006
Tina?
I'm finding myself itching to knit Tina .
The Henry's
Attic Moriah Laceweight has a good review on Wise
Needle, is cheap, comes in a put-up so big I wouldn't have to weave in
ends, and is the same wpi (22) as the Misti Alpaca that Wendy used to make her Tina, which I
like. (It's a nicely lacy look.) I
put away the Orange Aran for the summer; it's just too warm to work on. (Please
ignore the fact that it was 54 F this morning when I went out.)
When I was doing the pythagorean
theorem in my head last night while trying to get to sleep, I figured that it
was about twice the size of Birch. (I did the math just now with an actual
calculator, and was pretty much correct!) Birch took me less than a year to
make. I barely even worked on it in April, May, September, or October, and it
was finished before March started. I'm very good at doing the birch leaf
pattern. There's another summer lace knitalong, Amazing Lace.
(Considering I only recently finished last summer's, isn't it time to do
another?)I probably shouldn't get
involved in another project, but it's really tempting.
Posted at 10:17 PM Read More
Sunday - May 14, 2006
Elann order!
My Elann order arrived today. I ended up getting
yarn for two pairs of socks and natural colored cotton yarn for a summer
sweater.
Caleb, when I opened up the
box, recognized that the sock yarns were self-striping.
I'm trying to decide if the natural is
too off-white.
Posted at 09:38 PM Read More
Sunday - April 16, 2006
Finished!
Caleb's hat is finished!
I had to splice on some extra yarn to
get the bind-off done. Coming up
soon: experiments in heel-making and yarn spun from the feathers of an
albatross.
Posted at 10:23 PM Read More
Thursday - April 13, 2006
Caleb's Hat
So, I'm working on finishing up Caleb's hat.
Yes, it isn't exactly hat-wearing weather now. This is just something that's
been hanging over me for a while.
It has about an inch left to
go.Two of the big non-bloggable things
are over, and I've done my taxes. Life seems so much calmer now.
I'm hoping to get a lot of things
sorted out tomorrow.
Posted at 09:40 AM Read More
Friday - March 31, 2006
Engaged.
Caleb and I are engaged.
He asked me one evening while we were
hanging out. My response was to ask whether he was kidding. I think this was a
reasonable response; it's important to know. Besides, it was sort of out of the
blue.
After that, he said he wasn't
kidding, but that if that was my response, he'd like me to get a good night's
sleep and some coffee before I gave my real answer.
The next morning, we went out to
breakfast, and I drank my coffee as quickly as I've ever drunk it. He accepted
my acceptance.
This happened on 20 and
21 January; we waited to tell people because he wanted to get me a ring, and
then we were tracking down and telling various people.
Posted at 11:35 PM Read More
Wednesday - February 15, 2006
Ikea: worth an hour and a half on hold
The baker's rack/kitchen bookshelf that we
polyurethaned over the weekend (no more cookbooks nearly clocking me on the rare
occasions I do dishes!):
And the lamp on top of
it:
Posted at 09:26 PM Read More
Thursday - February 02, 2006
Something really nice.
Well, the formatting of the poem played merry hob
with the formatting of that entry, so I'm going to post this separately.
I was lucky enough to win the joke
contest that Erica at Fillyjonk held for her
blogiversary. I won a copy of Who's
Who in the Greek and Roman World, which sounds
really interesting. I love books on Classics, and this sounds like a really
interesting one. It was a really well
done contest; I loved the descriptions and the beauty contest theme she had
going. I haven't watched the Miss America pageant in years and years, and I
read the Fannie Flagg book about in which Our Heroine is entering beauty
pageants back in late middle school or early high school, but I just was
laughing at her clever details. (And I didn't even have to remember not to
shake hands with people who'd been using axle grease right before I did baton
twirling!)
Posted at 09:02 PM Read More
Thursday - February 02, 2006
Poem.
|
353. The
Wish
Abraham Cowley
|
|
|
WELL then! I now do plainly see
|
|
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This busy world and I
shall ne'er agree.
|
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The very honey of all earthly joy
|
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Does of all meats the soonest cloy;
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And they, methinks,
deserve my pity
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5
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Who for it can endure the stings,
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The crowd and buzz and murmurings,
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Of this great hive, the
city.
|
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Ah, yet, ere I descend to the grave
|
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May I a small house and large garden
have;
|
10
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And a few friends, and many books, both
true,
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Both wise, and both delightful too!
|
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And since love ne'er will
from me flee,
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A Mistress moderately fair,
|
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And good as guardian angels are,
|
15
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Only beloved and loving
me.
|
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O fountains! when in you shall I
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Myself eased of unpeaceful thoughts
espy?
|
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O fields! O woods! when, when shall I be
made
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Thy happy tenant of your shade?
|
20
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Here 's the spring-head of
Pleasure's flood:
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Here 's wealthy Nature's treasury,
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Where all the riches lie that she
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Has coin'd and stamp'd for
good.
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Pride and ambition here
|
25
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Only in far-fetch'd metaphors appear;
|
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Here nought but winds can hurtful murmurs
scatter,
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And nought but Echo flatter.
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The gods, when they
descended, hither
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From heaven did always choose their
way:
|
30
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And therefore we may boldly say
|
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That 'tis the way too
thither.
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Hoe happy here should I
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And one dear She live, and embracing
die!
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She who is all the world, and can
exclude
|
35
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In deserts solitude.
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I should have then this
only fear:
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Lest men, when they my pleasures see,
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Should hither throng to live like me,
|
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And so make a city
here.
|
40
|
(From
here.)For
Grace's
Poppies.I saw this around today,
but didn't really grok what was happening until I saw the link from the Yarn Harlot to Creating
Text(iles) . (Before
that, I'd thought it was just an increasingly lovely coincidence.)
(Edited to add in author's name, which I
hadn't realized I'd forgotten.)
|
Posted at 08:15 PM Read More
Tuesday - January 31, 2006
Computer back!
My computer is
back.My sock is sitting under a pile
of 1980s bridesmaid dresses in all of the shades of pink that one can
imagine.No progress on
Samus.Birch still isn't at a
photogenic stage (and I've gotten very far
behind).And, as Rebecca pointed
out, the shirtless gentleman in the last entry doesn't seem to be knitting, so I
can't ask him for help. But my
computer's back. And a lot of the
things that have been making a hobby of kicking me in the shins the past few
weeks are on their way to being resolved.
(I'm saving the things that are good
that don't have to do with the computer being back until my next entry; I'm
really drained now and can't do them
justice.)But my computer's
back!
Posted at 10:50 PM Read More
Monday - December 26, 2005
Christmas Monkey
It was a good Christmas.
My brother and I slept in until 8:22,
then let our parents sleep until almost nine. This was good, because we'd been
up until almost three finishing decorating the tree and so on. (He and I also
spent a lot of time making monkey faces at each other after I'd misheard
something he'd said as calling himself 'the Christmas Monkey.')
There was plenty of
knitting.I gave my brother's
fiancée these:
I gave my mother these (and a ball
winder):
My parents gave me some knitting
pattern books I'd wanted. My
family in Seattle gave me the first two bookbookbooks, and I just curled up on
the couch and read them while the others were opening their presents.
But the coolest of the knit presents
was Liidia's gloves. My mom kept them a surprise from me, but they still fit
perfectly so far. They're really warm, and beautiful. (She's also going to put
a cord on them so I won't lose them...)
Posted at 03:11 PM Read More
Monday - December 19, 2005
Coming back
I flew back to my parents' home today. I was the
first person to check in on my Southwest flight, and I got to the airport well
in advance of my flight.
So, of course,
I got searched. They opened my backpack, which had my Birch in it, and managed
to get some of it tangled in the zipper.
Once I was back, I went up and petted
Manny, the younger cat. He was lying on his side, and twisted up to look at me
with a look that said, as clear as day, "Who the hell are you?' He seemed to
recognize me later, though, once I'd petted him for a while and had told him to
stop eating newspapers.
Faron, the
older cat (eighteen and a half!), seemed to recognize me as much as ever, and
shed all over me.
It's nice to be
back.
Posted at 11:02 PM Read More
Saturday - December 03, 2005
A blessing in disguise.
So, while I was cleaning out from under the bed,
I found carpet beetles.
My previous
plans for the evening were thrown out. Also a bunch of yarn and some files from
grad school.
What I have left
(luckily, it appears the worst was in the area under the heating ducts, not in
the stuff that was barely under the bed and kept getting pulled out [touch wood]
is sealed in plastic in a drawer in the built-in.
I feel better having gotten this all
dealt with. Now I can just pull open a drawer and see what I have, rather than
having to muck about in underbed boxes. I also have a good bit less than I did
this morning.
It also felt nice
getting rid of some of those grad school files. After all, I was getting rid of
them because there had been a carpet beetle on them, not because of any other
reasons. Really.
Carefully examining
each skein of my orange Shelridge Farms yarn really makes me want to start on
that sweater. I think I'll try to finish up Birch over break and then do the
sweater.
Not even three quarters of
the way through the present I'm knitting. It's funny how life tends to
intervene.
Posted at 10:43 PM Read More
Friday - October 28, 2005
Not quite knitting
Here's my Halloween costume. I was Lydia
Bennett; I wore an evening dress in the day, gartered below the knee like a
sloven, and didn't wear a petticoat or a
cul
postiche. Who else in Jane Austen's novels
would have dressed like that? Those
who got it seemed highly amused. Those who didn't seemed to put it down as a
charming eccentricity. The shift,
stays, and dress are entirely handsewn. The shift comes from
Costume
Close-Up. The stays are the Mantua Maker
pattern. The dress is from Janet Arnold.
Posted at 09:20 PM Read More
Thursday - October 27, 2005
All Austen.
 | You scored as Elinor Dashwood. As Marianne's older sister, Elinor lives at the other end of the emotional spectrum. She rarely reveals her intense feelings and is more concerned with being honest and loyal than having what she deserves. Even though her intentions are pure, she sets herself up for loss by constantly placing other people before her own needs. Overall, Elinor is gentle and rational but is just as capable of radical emotions (despite her withholding them) as her sister.
Elinor Dashwood | | 97% | Charlotte Lucas | | 78% | Elizabeth Bennet | | 72% | Emma Woodhouse | | 69% | Jane Bennet | | 66% | Marianne Dashwood | | 47% | Lady Catherine | | 34% |
Which Jane Austen Character are You?
created with QuizFarm.com |
I
usually end up as Elinor. No knitting
or spinning content today; I'm sewing the new binding (which I got at Maryland
Sheep and Wool-- do I get partial credit?) onto my Regency stays for tomorrow's
costume. (I'm going to go as Lydia Bennett.) Posted at 09:48 PM Read More
Wednesday - October 19, 2005
How many other people got a five gallon bucket as part of the Rhinebeck
swag?
I got into Providence from Moscow at 2:30 in the
morning on Friday. My mother and I were on the road to Rhinebeck at about three
in the afternoon. Between those two times, I'd unpacked, packed, done two loads
of laundry, eaten two breakfasts, showed off pictures from Russia (cats juggling
fire!), taught all of my classes, and made a preparty expedition to A Stitch
Above (they turned out not to have gotten in the Lamb's Pride order yet).
With this, I don't think it's
surprising that I forgot to bring shirts and a hairbrush to Rhinebeck and conked
out at nine every night. Luckily, Mom is generous.
It was an exhilarating drive through
the dark and wet. Still, Mom got us to the Pleasant Valley Motel, which was
nice. The water had an odd sulfur smell; I felt sort of like Fluff, our old
Golden Retriever, must have when we had to give her baths with a sulfur shampoo.
My skin is particularly nice these days.
I woke up about three in the morning
and looked out to see a pumper fire truck parked in the parking lot, lights
going and quietly waiting. It was gone by the time I woke up again at six. I
sort of felt like my brother on Christmas mornings when he was a little boy;
even though we wouldn't have gotten to bed until something like one, he would
wake up at five or so, almost vibrating with excitement and trying to get me to
wake up too. Mom thought that
Rhinebeck started at ten, and I thought it started at nine, so, after our stops
for doughnuts and coffee, we ended up there at around nine-thirty. She was
right, but we did get a very nice parking spot, and Aunt Sally and Katie met us
there. The first place that I bought
anything was Nick's Meadow Farm; I got ten of the little sheep for myself and
for some of the other teachers. There were fewer of the intense colors than
there were last year, but I still got ten that I liked.
After that, as we worked our way
through the Horticulture building (and every time I saw the name on my side, I
kept hearing Caleb's voice quoting Dorothy Parker on the subject), I got two
ounces of merino/silk that I'm hoping to spin and knit up into Voodoo Wrist
Warmers.
As you can see, I've already spun up a spindle full of it;
I also picked up the ball of Lamb's
Pride that I need to do Samus. The
four of us spent most of the rest of the day wandering around and looking at
things. Katie and I got to watch the sheepdog trials again; the commentary is
really funny. I didn't make it over to the bloggers' meet-up; I was having a
lot of fun just getting to wander around with my family.
After Aunt Sally and Katie left, Mom
and I wandered over to the fleece tent. In the medium fleeces, there was a
two-pound brown Corriedale fleece for $10. It was a really pretty color. It
was a good size for me to practice on.
I went to Carolina Homespun and got
combs, then back to the fleece tent to pick up Little Dude. On the way back to
the motel, we stopped at Home Depot and got a five gallon bucket that I could
use to wash the fleece. (Little Dude won't be appearing on the blog until he
gets washed.)
On Sunday, we watched the start of the
Sheep to Shawl festival. We came back for the end (when the Ladies of the
Weave-ning were singing 'The Stripper' as they pulled the spacers out of their
lace weave), and then tried to go back for the results. Ruth of Woolyheaded and I
managed to get into the building, where they were taking apart all of the
exhibits, and found that the Ladies of the Weave-ning had won. Mom and Ruth's
companion (whose name I didn't catch, but who was wearing a lovely Banff),
waited outside and got to talk to one of the Ladies and the judge.
At lunch, Claudia was standing near us
in line and I got to admire her lovely Birch. I really need to get working more
on mine. I got a big bag of Sugarplum
fiber from Persimmon Tree on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, I squeezed the bag
too hard when she handed it to me, causing the twistie to pop off and fly
through the air. I'm looking forward to spinning this
up.
Right before we left, Mom got me
some Socks that Rock in Rockstar. I put the ball of yarn in with the other sock
yarns I have in queue- the Spirit Trail I got at Maryland and the peacocky
Trekking. It's very different, and I like it. After all, socks in my high
boots can be as wild as I want them to be.
On Sunday night, Caleb woke me up and
told me that I was knitting in my sleep. When I asked him about it later, he
showed me the hand motions I was making. Apparently I throw very wildly in my
dreams. It was a good trip.
Posted at 11:23 AM Read More
Sunday - October 16, 2005
Russia Rhinebeck Return
I'm back. More to come soon. I had a great time
at both.
Posted at 09:40 PM Read More
Wednesday - September 07, 2005
A little bit of this, a little bit of that
Tonight I plied up a spindle-full of the white
yarn while looking at Textile
manufacture in the Northern Roman Provinces.
It's a really utterly fascinating book; there are all sorts of discussions of s
and z twist, distaff construction, and Roman sewing technology. I wish that I'd
been able to take a class on these practical aspects of ancient life at some
point in undergrad or grad school. Someone in my Hesiod class had drawn himself
a little picture of a plow in the front cover of the book, neatly labeled in
Greek terms, so he'd understand what was happening. I wish that we'd been able
to try using a plow and maybe even building one; that would have helped
understand the poetry so much more.
The AFSC I is coming along well. I
started it on Thursday, so I'd have something to work on at the Paw Sox game,
and now have three more inches of the body, the sleeves, and the bands left to
do. I told myself I could start the socks when I finished, and I almost started
winding the yarn for them tonight. I
think I know what
I'll be doing with the five or so skeins of yarn left over from the
Old Black Ribby. I figure that I can do the edging in a different dyelot and
not have it show too much. These pens are
cool. And so to bed.
Posted at 11:02 PM Read More
Monday - August 08, 2005
Twenty-Five Years. That's a quarter of a century. Makes a girl think.
Well, at 9:44 pm, I'm going to be twenty-five.
It feels sort of strange. My parents
gave me this spindle:
It's even prettier than the picture
and it spins really smoothly.Caleb got
me this yarn:
It's a little more purple than the
picture shows. He chose the color because it would bring out my
eyes.
Posted at 10:04 PM Read More
Friday - July 15, 2005
Lucky
I'm really lucky.
The day before yesterday, even though
she's in charge of purchasing children's books for a library system and has been
swamped by Harry Potter, my mom took the day off and went traipsing around to
Springwater Fiber Arts, Knit Happens, and G Street Fabrics. (Details to
follow)
Yesterday, my dad took me out
to lunch-- we got sandwiches, fruit salad, chips, and eclairs at Eddie's, then
went to Robert E. Lee Memorial park to sit and eat and just hang out together.
Also yesterday, my brother's
fiancée's parents both offered to drive me up to Lancaster so I could get a
ride with the two of them to Providence, where the J is working on filming .
My parents ended up driving me and the
various things that they're giving me from the house to Lancaster last night and
stopping for ice cream from Handel's, even though they'd both had hard days
yesterday and tonight will be the Harry Potter release, which my mother will be
working. (She even is going in costume!)
Now the J and his fiancée are
driving me up to Providence, along with all sorts of things that my parents are
letting Caleb and me have. (Unfortunately, whenever we slow down, the table
slides forward and into my seatbelt, pinning it in place even as I move forward.
It always amazes me and makes me feel
so happy when I realize how many people there are who care so much for me.
And why haven't I blogged much
this past week? Well, I tend to be forgetful of things, especially computer
parts. I was therefore very careful to make sure that I had my computer and my
power cord all packed. Someone else, though, someone who has a power cord both
at work and by the TV where he watched Red Sox games and who probably needs the
laptop he uses for the conference he's going to didn't check to make sure he had
a power cord in the laptop bag that he uses. My laptop cord is now on a scenic
tour of Maryland and Virginia.
Posted at 04:10 PM Read More
Friday - July 01, 2005
Moving right along...
I haven't been doing much knitting this week;
I've been sewing and whining about sewing instead. It's humid enough that the
pen that I'm using to mark the lines for the tucks on the front of my 1889
chemise, which washes out with water, is smearing and disappearing as I mark it.
As I've been telling everyone who doesn't stick fingers in ears and run away, I
moved to the north to get away from weather like this.
I'm hoping to get more work on Birch
done over the weekend, and maybe even a picture.
Posted at 10:36 AM Read More
Sunday - June 05, 2005
Don't let your guard down; it's still spring.
Posted at 06:07 PM Read More
