first, here’s a picture of some knitting progress to make us feel good. this is mi escuelita, a jaunty little sweater for my jaunty little sister:
okay, so. i officially deem this month “wtf december.” you don’t have to ask me why, because i’m going to tell you right now.
knitting to finish: one sweater (see above), four scarves. maybe a sweater for myself to wear home over christmas so my family doesn’t say that i look like a “ragamuffin” (but they will probably find an opportunity to say this anyway, so that sweater is not really a necessity).
mass market 5 is sunday, december 13. this actually requires no effort beyond my presence. i had enough leftovers from past craft shows that this one needed no prep work really. nice!
grad school applications are due by early/mid-january. this isn’t really all that bad either, i just need to keep on ‘em.
TONS of survey/data entry at work so we can have accurate 2009 statistics for grant purposes.
i guess that really this isn’t any more absurd or crowded than any other month. i just had a tiny panic attack early this morning when a friend of mine made a comment on the internet akin to “only 30 more days of 2009.” i seriously yelled “WHAT” at my computer and started to get really nervous. but as soon as i typed up my little list of things to do in this month, i realized it isn’t even that wild. but i still consider this to be wtf december. i can’t wait to kick back in january and knit seed stitch scarves that require no looking, counting, or thinking and maybe even find time to, dare i say, read books. see ya then.
sunday was rainy and gross from start to finish. so basically, it was perfect for digging into my christmas knitting without feeling guilty for not being outside enjoying awesome fall weather. this year i am being perhaps overly ambitious in my gift-giving. so overly ambitious that i cannot even reveal my full list to you at this point, because i am afraid of feeling ashamed if i can’t do it. so you will learn about my christmas projects only when i have substantial progress or finished objects to share.
and since it’s going to be more than a little while before i have actual finished objects to share, for now i will just revel in something i finished last march.
colder weather means that i finally get to wear this sweater again. and i realized that i’d never shared pictures of it after sewing the eyes on, and i really think the beads made it look a lot more finished. everything about this sweater makes me happy. i love the yarn (cascade ecological wool), the fit is pretty much perfect, and it’s covered in little owls. remembering that i knit this in a mere four days also serves as good gift knitting inspiration.
goodbye for now! my yarn is purchased, my netflix queue is ready, my apartment is well-stocked with coffee and soy milk. if you need me, come and see me. this will be occupying most of my evenings and weekends from this point on. maybe i’m acting like i don’t love the stress of this kind of challenge. that’s a lot of crap. i kind of thrive on this kind of pressure. i kind of love this in a sick, sick way.
today is the birthday of two of my favorite people back in pittsburgh. i hope they’re having a really excellent day. in providence, it’s drizzling and cold and exactly the kind of day i prefer knitting in bed with felane to biking half an hour in said drizzle to get to work, but that is what i did. i was, however, rewarded with a seasonal treat at my office. pumpkin scones! just a little reminder that i love this time of year, regardless of drizzly commutes.
fall is always most productive for me in terms of knitting. i’ve been bundling up in the living room with the windows open so i can enjoy the fall air, drinking hot apple cider (sometimes adult hot apple cider), marathoning tv shows on netflix instant queue (so far: 30 rock, this american life and weeds), and crafting my little heart out. my progress: i finished one of the halloween costumes i was commissioned to help out with, and i’m halfway through the pair of socks that i mentioned in my last post. i’m starting to feel tempted to take a break from everything to knit myself some new gloves now that it’s cooling off, but that might just be my knitting add kicking in.
over the weekend nicole and i went to the mermaid’s purl in wickford. i had never been to wickford before, and it was really charming. the mermaid’s purl was packed with very tempting yarn treats, but i actually was really responsible and only bought the yarn i needed for my little sister’s christmas sweater. i ended up buying this:
it’s berroco ultra alpaca, which i think will make for a super cozy and soft sweater. and i think the color is perfect for the banana tree pattern, and it’s a color my sister will actually wear. she’s just like i was at eleven, which is to say, extremely particular about things. even though she picked out the sweater pattern, and i’m using one of her favorite colors, i’m still terrified that something about the finished product will be ever so slightly off and she won’t like it. does anyone else have this problem with knitting for preteens? i’m scared!
other than tackling my list, worrying about my sister’s tastes, and drinking so much hot apple cider, i’ve been playing around with my spinning wheel a bit. i spun up a quick skein of singles with the batts i bought at craftland this summer. there’s a lot of amazingly glittery angelina in this, so it was hard to get a picture where the color was totally accurate. but this is pretty close:
it ranges from very skinny to maybe worsted weight, and for the most part there’s almost no overtwist. the colors are really pretty, but i have to say i’m still not 100% psyched on the end result. i think because it’s one of those skeins that looks nice as a skein but i just can’t imagine what it will look like knit. only one way to find out though.
agh. current priorities: purple socks, brown/green hat, squid suit, gloves. expect some serious FO posts soon. enjoy your octobers, everyone!
still running around a lot. staying so busy. almost done with socks, which is exciting although it makes me feel a little weird – they’ve been my main project for so long that i’m not really sure what i’ll do when they’re gone. i mean, i’ll figure it out. but it’s going to be like some kind of weird postpartum depression for a sec.
otherwise, i have been living on a pretty steady diet of beer and homemade burritos. i’m not ever going to complain about that.
also lots of biking around with beers in my bag and enjoying them at various locations. on i think friday, gary and i went to buy a six pack of pbr at tropical liquors, and when we got there, we realized we’d forgotten our ids. we got so annoyed about being carded that when we got back to the store, we bought two six packs and each drank one ourselves. that’ll show ‘em.
it was nice. also nice: i took some clothes down to barter at waste not want not last wednesday night, and i found a pair of black jeans to replace the ones that uh…shrunk over the last year or so. i got to clean out my closet a little, and then it was like getting a pair of pants for free. i love trading. it’s so much more useful to me than buying.
started trying to draw. i’ve never really done this regularly or been very good at it, but i always kind of wanted to. even though my drawings are a little butt, it’s been fun. maybe i’ll stick with it. lately i’m trying to do more things that i don’t feel good at. there’s not point in only doing the things you already know you can do i guess.
walking down newbury street in boston, i realized i hadn’t looked up any local yarn shops, which is weird because that’s usually the first thing i do in a new city. and just as i said that, i saw the sign for newbury yarns. the shop was so cute and packed with fun things, and the women working there were so nice. i bought myself a tiny treat of course.
and even though i’m not currently working on this blanket, i wanted to share the uglyprogress. it’s only going to get more gnarly from here on out. maybe when i’m done with socks i’ll work on this for a tiny bit. i’ve started a few blankets but never ever finished one. i don’t want to drop the ball this time too.
oh, and remember when i saw willie nelson for free? there was a no camera rule, but fortunately it is not hard to find pictures of willie nelson on the internet, and that is what i did for your viewing pleasure here. i love him so much. it was total luck that i got to see this for free. i’m grateful to sweet friends who like to share what they’ve got. hannah and meghan and gary and i had a really fun night. you seriously can’t understand a word bob dylan says anymore, but still, amazing. oh and also john cougar mellencamp. but seriously. willlie nelson. it was in no way disappointing. my life is really fun and good most of the time.
i meant for this update to happen last monday. but life gets in the way and i am notoriously always a little late. updates will be more frequent over the next week or two though. i have some leftover yarn from mass market and i want to get it out of my life and into yours.
i posted four skeins of handspun yarn today, so go check ‘em out and keep checking back! i’ve also decided that this time around i may add copies of my zine to the etsy shop. it just seems like an organized and efficient way of keeping it easily available, although i still recommend that anyone interested in my zine still order it from any distro that carries it – i’d rather see people supporting diy zine distros! so eventually a few copies will go onto etsy, but i’ll also be letting you know what distros carry nothing rhymes #5, and how soon they have it in stock.
that’s all – just some general shopkeeping! my personal life remains largely uneventful, but i will say that gary and steph and i might be addicted to the tv show the wire after watching the first three episodes last night, and also i don’t think i can get behind the website last.fm. but maybe that’s just because i wouldn’t want anyone actually knowing how often i listen to the annie soundtrack. if you listen to cool music, it’s probably not a bad website i guess. oh, and also, look how great my little weasel is:
we’ve been together exactly four years now. i still hate that anyone would have abandoned this little freckleface, but i’m so glad that she found her way to me.
dear everyone: this sunday! come see me and courtney at mass market 4 in boston. courtney makes beautiful things like this and this. i’ll be peddling a few knit things, some handspun yarn, and copies of nothing rhymes #5 which i seriously JUST made copies of. tonight i’ll stitch ‘em up and be glad to at least cross this one thing off my list.
SO. go to mass market. it’ll be really fun. check out their myspace page for directions and also a full list of who will be there – there are going to be a lot of good things! i’m excited! they also might still be looking for people to help out with working the doors, cleaning up, etc, in case you are interested in being involved!
still knittin’ and spinnin’ and otherwise trying to stay on top of things, but last night i took a little break to have some beers with corrinne and some of her super nice friends. you may or may not know that i’m more mild than wild, and a few beers had me feeling pretty rowdy. yeah i said it, rowdy.
now i’ll say something else: all i want today is to hang out knitting in bed and enjoying that lazy grimy post-drinking feeling and looking at pictures like this and this all day long. coffee is also invited.
i’ve gotten some things in the mail recently (and some not so recently, i’m just slow) that i can’t wait to share with the inter-world. they’re all wool-related, which is not surprising because i only have like three interests and one of them cannot be mailed (that one is cats). one of these little presents is also key to me making what i think may be the coolest and also grossest thing i have ever made. or maybe that i ever will make. don’t even try to imagine it, you probably can’t. but i’ll tell you soon.
ps. yes:
shannon and i are taking a walk down photobucket-memory lane. i’m finding things you wouldn’t believe. it’s awesome. look at the cover of teenage sexuality! those teenagers are wearing turtlenecks! i call shenanigans!
busy busy days here. i’m hangin’ in there though. in my temporary home there are five cats and five dogs right now, and it’s honestly really great. i never have to worry about there not being an animal around to sit on my lap.
i just finished typing nothing rhymes #5. now i just need to glue the pieces together and make copies and covers. it feels good to check another thing off the list.
i’m taking a break from productivity to share pictures of some of my handspun yarn. these are all spun, dyed, soaked and skeined for mass market 4 next sunday afternoon. i’m feeling pretty relaxed about this craft show. i think it’ll be really fun to share a table with courtney, and if i sell a few things, wonderful!
anyway, (a very small sample of) the goods:
there’s much much more to come. but for now i’m gonna go knit and hang out with this little guy:
i mean, isn’t that what you would want to do? vargas is seriously my favorite dog maybe in the entire world. he’s wheezing at my feet right now and looking at me with that gross smooshy face and seriously, i can’t believe i’m anywhere other than on the couch gazing lovingly into his eyes.
time to go do just that. bye!
Filed under: rambling
phase one of moving is FINALLY over. gary and i are staying with meghan and steph for a few weeks until we figure out a new apartment. we spent the weekend cleaning, lifting heavy things, etc. for me, this resulted in some gnarly forearm scratches and bruises.
carrying all of your heavy things up to a third floor apartment is a little rough. my calves hurt so much still! but it feels good to be sort of done with the moving, at least for a few weeks. i took a little break on saturday to play kickball, and am happy to report that muscle justice won.
last night by six though, it was all over. all the moving, all the cleaning. pretty much done. i sat down and started working on nothing rhymes #5, which i’m hoping to finish up before mass market on june 14. then i met up with meg to knit, which was long overdue! things have been so wild the last few weeks. traveling, moving, swooning, knitting, ugh. but it’s been good, and i cannot complain. next time you hear from me i will seriously have knitting things to talk about. or just pictures of yarn because i might have bought myself a few presents recently.
a weekend so nice i won’t even tell you about it. just imagine a really phenomenal weekend, and double it. it was kind of like that.
instead, i give you: octopus turtleneck, swine flu masque, promotional knit beer sweaters, an awesome cat, and a lost in austen book review. if you’re wondering what happened to me in my own jane austen adventure, i did not get married and was left for dead by a bitter rival. i will now give you some time to get over your total shock.
okay. back to knitting. forever and ever.
ps. nicole – this morning at my meeting i almost said “it’s the little deets that make a big diff,” but i laughed just thinking about it and couldn’t actually say the words. so it looked like i was just gazing into my coffee and chuckling at nothing. oops.
