Knitting Angel

UFO craziness

In the spirit of trying to finish the biggest UFO in my life (my dissertation.) I have decided to make Feb, UFO finishing month for me. As many of you have probably figured by now, I do not stick to one project, in fact I tend to start things, stop them, and pick other things up. The only thing that I reliably finish is hats (and I promised one to Greta Jane, but at the moment I cannot find the dpns that I need for it- sorry Greta Jane!). So I made a list of UFOs that I would like to finish, and for the last two days I have worked on one that was really far along, so it didn't take too many hours to finish it.

Here it is- unblocked.

Pattern: The Foliage shawl

Yarn: Prime Alpaca- used about 600 yds (less then one skein). The one skein cost $26- so a really economical but totally luxurious shawl (have you ever felt this stuff? So soft.)

Mods- None except the yarn- the pattern called for a heavy fingering weight yarn, the yarn I used was DK weight, but it is great- it has made for a large, heavy shawl. Exactly what I wanted. The knitted on edging took FOREVER, but it is what makes the shawl. This is the first knitted on edging I have ever done. Its really not hard at all, but requires some patience. I doubt I would ever do it in lace-weight. 

I have to find my Tpins and figure out how I am going to block it, so blocked pictures later.

Next up are a pair of mittens that I need to finish.

The crocheted sweater from the last post? Yeah the yarn is so not making gauge, so I have put it aside for now. Sad.

Finally I had a bit of an accident the other day online. So, um, no more buying sock yarn.

LittleKnits is having a sale. $80 will get you enough Regia and Opal sock yarn for 10 pairs of socks. Its a grab bag so they pick for you. Yeah. Awesome if you are like me and LOVE self-striping sock yarn and LOVE Opal and Regia (they wear like iron.)  

Its snowing out again. We are supposed to get a foot overnight. I am so glad that my commute is only a 5 minute walk to the office. Ahh the beauty of faculty campus housing.

knitting pit-stop

Over the weekend my friend Greta Jane came to town complete with her Exploding Traveling Stash (Super-sized!) and stayed with me--my first guest in my ancient red brick house. We did many things which included fun stuff like shopping at my LYS and not-so-fun stuff such as pushing the car out of a snowdrift that I backed it into (actually I pushed, along with the help of a passing gentleman while Greta Jane tried to steer it out of the mess. She did the driving for the rest of the weekend, remember I originally hail from Los Angeles. I barely can drive in the rain, let alone snow.)

In the evenings we watched episodes of the West Wing on DVD and knit and spin. It was the first time I had knit in a while, and over the weekend I managed to finish a long-overdue Christmas gift.

Its a drop-stitch scarf/stole knit in Ella Rae lace. The colors look a bit muddy in this photo, and you can't see the pattern well--it looks better in person. The scarf/stole has been packaged and is now in the mail to its intended recipient. Better late then never eh?

On Inauguration day I went to go see the Inauguration at my friend J's house. Because it had had snowed overnight and Greta Jane was not around to drive me anywhere, I made the bold decision to walk. Now J only lives three blocks away, which isn't a far walk, but I was taking Chloe who hasn't walked much further then 1 1/2- 2 blocks since the knee surgery. But we set off on that cold, sparkling morning, and Chloe handled the walk just fine, which cheered me a bit-- maybe the knee is finally stabilizing itself? Anyway I enjoyed the morning's festivities and J's chocolate-covered pretzels. J was also sweet enough to give me a great Christmas gift-

Three skeins of fantastic red-blingy yarn (it has sparkles!!! Sequins actually.)  Its SWTC Yin-Yang yarn- a blend of wool, bamboo and silk I think, and its great. I am thinking a great lacy red scarf is in order so I can show off the bling- what do ya'll think?

Behind my fabulous yarn is my Namaste Laguna bag. I bought it this fall as a gift to myself. The bag went with me to academic conferences, job interviews, on trips.... everywhere I went people admired this bag. Women constantly ask me where I got it (non-knitters mind you). I got stopped by a woman in the bathroom of O'Hare who wanted to know about my bag. This bag just rocks. And it can literally hold everything. Be forewarned- this bag can get totally out of control because it is a BOTTOMLESS PIT. It holds the world. And I love it. And you can take it on academic job interviews and no one knows you have your knitting in it. Just saying'.

Finally, I am a bit bored with knitting so I am thinking of starting a big crochet project. I got the latest Interweave Crochet and I am in love with the cover sweater.

I have enough Berocco Ultra Alpaca in that fab blue to make it with. What do you all think? Is it time for me to crochet my first ever sweater (I have crocheted many things including tiny thread doilies, but never a sweater). So I make that leap now?

Frozen screen door

So ya'll might have heard about the arctic air that has invaded the middle of the country.....

Its just a wee bit cold here. Just a wee bit. Actually so cold in fact, that this morning I discovered the screen door frozen shut. Frozen. So not opening. It took me a good 15 minutes to work the door open. It was 0 F this morning. 0-- its been a long time since I have felt 0.

I have dug out my old Land's End parka from college- its the only coat I own that can handle this sort of weather. Chloe has also taken to wearing a coat.

Walks have been shortened, because the sidewalks are icy and walking is hard on her bad leg, plus it is 0 out. 

My car is snowed into the garage. The roads are a wreck. Its too cold to even think of going outside. My poor boiler is straining to keep the house somewhat warm, but seems to be failing. Both Chloe and Milo are in front of various radiators in the house and all is quiet. It is really, really, really cold. Not just cold, but super-cold. Obscene cold. But they said it should "warm up" to the mid 20s by the end of the weekend. I never thought I would be so happy to see the 20s. Heh. 

I know I have been talking a lot about the weather and not at all about knitting, but the thing is, I no longer have anytime to knit. I am on dissertation-finishing overdrive at the moment and free time rarely exists other than to eat, sleep, and watch the evening newscast.

So, sorry if we are devoid of knitting at the moment. Hopefully in about a month I can get back to life as usual, but until then things will be a bit sparse on the knitting front. 

Snowed In

Typically we get lake-effect snow here and not a whole lot of it. Usually a few inches. Well this weekend we actually got a storm... a real storm.

Chloe of course was having a blast running around like a crazy dog. I have to remember that she has never seen this much snow in her life. Snow in North Carolina was always a brief event- just enough to traumatize drivers and cripple regular life (Southerners cannot drive in even an inch of the stuff.)

Here though, you feel like you have ended up in some sort of Norman Rockwell painting of a snow-covered small town America.

That is the town green. Not so green anymore.

Of course the neighborhood remained quiet. Muffled in the snow.

And I am enjoying it for the most part (except for the part where I have to shovel out the world's longest driveway.) I probably won't see the likes of this kind of snow again once I move to the American Southwest. 

A friend is coming to town today, provided that her drive does not get horrifically delayed. So I need to clean up this pigsty to make it fit to be seen. On the dissertation front: chapter one is now edited, re-written and clean (save for the footnotes, but I will deal with that later.) I am moving on to fixing the disaster that is chapter 2 next week. (There are 5 chapters in all.) So I am on schedule, but still panicky about the whole thing. A friend in the BioChem department told me that she felt the same way during the last months of her dissertation. Panic seems to be a universal rule until the thing is turned in and defended.

But today life goes on, and Chloe enjoys the snowy glory. (the snow is now actually over-her-ears deep. She discovered this when she sprung into it this morning and panicked. I pulled her out and now she seems to be willing to stick to the plowed sidewalk.)

Winter Wonderland

There is nothing as fun as eating snow.

At least that is what Chloe thinks.

Finally made the page-edit quota today. Monday and Tuesday sucked in terms of getting stuff done although I did get six pages edited on Tuesday, but I needed to get 12 done to stay on track.  I had a hard time getting rolling today, but this afternoon I finally got the momentum going and edited my 12 pages for the day. That was no small feat given that I significantly re-wrote about 4 of those 12 pages.

So tomorrow another 12 pages. And if I stay on the 12 page schedule, chapter 1 will be edited by the end of Friday and I can move onto Chapter 2 on Saturday. You heard me right. Saturday. I have to work on weekends now if this is ever to be done on time. I am however taking Sundays off- I need one day to clean, shop, and stare at the wall if I am to survive.

At least the weather is cooperating.

Who wants to go out or brave the roads in that? 

I actually like being single but at this moment I have to say, I wish I had a househusband. It would be nice to come home to a home cooked meal, clean laundry, no dirty dishes and a cat and dog who weren't pissed because you spent your entire day sorting out the holiness movement in America rather than playing with them. That and it could be nice to have someone around to occasionally take care of me. I think about that every time I trudge through snow to bring in the groceries. ("If only I had a husband to do this stuff!!!")

I guess the one good thing about being single is that there is no one to notice that everything has gone to pot and that you have the crazy-I'm-busy-dissertating glint in your eyes. Heh.

New Year

Chloe's New Year's resolution is to eat as many rawhides as possible.

Milo's New Year's resolution is to catch that squirrel that keeps raiding his bird feeder, thus depriving him of primo bird watching.

My New Year's resolution is to finish my dissertation this spring. I am almost there, but man is it a long, hard road. 

I edited 6 pages today. Not really enough (I figured I have to edit 12.5 pages a day excluding weekends in order to be done with the main body of the thing by month's end) but its a start. Will get up early and edit more tomorrow.

Now that I have returned to the dissertation-writing I have developed a taste for simple socks again. I finally finished up my Noro socks. (Its kinda funny how the striping on the foot matches but not the striping on the leg. Dunno how that happened.)

I needed another pair of socks in rotation, so I am glad to add these to the list. I liked the Noro sock yarn (I know some people don't like it) but I do have to say, for the sake of toughness and durability, few socks yarns can touch Opal or Regia. The Germans know how to make some seriously tough sock yarn- you want socks that will last and last, get some Opal or Regia. I have washed them, dried them, abused them, and they still come back for more.

The next few months are going to be rough until the diss is defended. I'll be doing major editing each and every day and am already feeling tired from my new schedule. I think I'll probably be knitting lots of plain socks to decompress because I don't have the gumption to make anything else. Oh well, its time to finish. A new year, and hopefully soon, a new degree to add to the roster.