Business - Trips and Usual

Business as Usual:
I've been very productive, but not the sort that lends for blog interest.

Business Trips:
I went to Boston and met up with Batty, from Knittyboard, who met me for a nice little walk to the nearest local yarn shop. Very kind of her, that was. I bought just a little bit of yarn. Very restrained.


Usual Knitting for Trips:


More Business as Usual:
I bought one little extra bit of sock yarn.

One domestic Saturday

From a pair of cotton pants summer that were happily worn in grad school, pants that would pass for great pajamas these days, pants in which the elastic was shot and I just couldn't pitch them because I'd enjoyed the print so, faded as it is now, and it would make such lousy rags, tight and crisp a cotton as it was, why finally, some progress was made.
(Phew. Withstand that sentence, did you?)

I made a bag for bags. Even though I'm doing better with every passing day to shop less and to carry a bag, once in awhile there are some plastic bags. I save them for my trash bags. I have not purchased plastic garbage bags for years.

I also made a clothespin bag. It was a fitting set of little moments in a very productive, very domestic Saturday.

When is Stash Busting not actually Stash Busting?

Stash Busting:

I started out with a batch of sale yarn (Misti Alpaca Chunky, as it happens), determined to make a sweater out of the exact amount I happened to pick up.

Stash:

I became nervous and picked up a skein of charcoal heather, same yarn, to coordinate as backup for collar, cuffs, whatever.

Stash Busting:

The sweater moves along swimmingly, and I've made it through all but the seaming and the collar. It may be possible that the grey may never appear as contrast on the sweater. Or I may have left over, and then what?

Stash:

I need some needle replacement, and I ogle some yarn while in the shop. Same type of yarn. It comes home, as it would be just the thing with that leftover (or not exactly leftover) grey.

Stash busting:

I really like the swatch in moss stitch, so a modified-for-yardage-&-gauge Le Slouch, only less slouchy is the plan.


Note the grey. I expected I'd run out of the multi before I finished at the top of the crown. Not so.

STILL STASH:
In fact there is a multi oddball, and there's still the bulk of the grey. I'll see what remains when I'm done with the sweater. There may have to be mittens, but I swear it can ONLY be from stash, no matter how they look!

Progress!

A GIFT!

I finished up the baby hat from stash. There is still leftover. It hasn't been put away. I think I can eke out some booties - or make it part of another hat.

A KEEPER!

I've selected my choice of button for the Drops cardigan. I picked up these vintage buttons some time ago in a small town Minnesota antique shop. I filled small paper bags of them actually: most of the buttons were very large, so some have made their way onto costumes. These I kept, at least for the moment.

Had to go back and re-do the front because I forgot to make buttonhole room. Thought about loops, but it wasn't too painful to go back. Watched an installment of Pride & Prejudice and delighted in how painfully and heart-tuggingly awkward was Colin's Mr. Darcy. Zoom, unknit and reknit.

Also finished up a hat I zipped up for myself this week, but this is all the blog time I can afford today.

Having Fun

I wish I could help with that. I'm not helping the couple of people who've strolled past here have any blog reading fun.

Life is moving effectively here, even if the snows and the potholes and the black ice and the communities that run out of road salt and moneys for plowing seem to throw us into less effective moving.

There's been knitting. I finished a gift baby hat. I've started a hat for myself. I'm making progress on the sock. I've done all the pieces of the Drops sweater, except for some backtracking now because I overlooked buttonholes. I'm even rehearsing button options, and I've yet to block, stitch, and tackle the collar.

Work and its projects move apace. I'm even having a little fun. I'm enjoying some collegial team work. I'm enjoying the projects we're working on. I'm even enjoying getting a bit of regular sleep.

There's just not time for the blog fun of sharing.

Hope to catch up. Thought I'd pop by for good manners and say hello. I've been impressed with the work and the weathering and the writing others are doing with their winters (or summers, dependent upon your hemisphere).

Have some fun, however you measure it.

On Avoiding Identical Socks

Elfine Socks are done. The cuffs look a little floppy here, but that's really because I haven't bothered to block the socks for photo styling. When I finished them last night (one day before my deadline!) I tried them on and was content.

Since sock knitting can be both peaceable activity and learning adventure, I share with you things you can do to permit even the most matchy-matchy socks from becoming completely identical.

1. Sigh over the holes left at the end of the short-row wraps on the first sock. Do nothing about them, but consider stitching them up later if they continue to offend. Knit the second sock and solve the problem in that one altogether.


2. Realize mid wrap-session that the strategies for wrestling with double wraps have distracted you from the concept of doing them consistently. Sigh over this in the first sock but avoid frogging back, as these are going to live inside shoes most of the time. On the second sock, pay attention and earn consistently directional wraps.


3. Forget to use the matching dyed and spun reinforcement yarn in the second toe. Remember when you get to the heel, sigh, and look forward to the science experiment of comparing toe wear.

4. Move on to a hat from stash.


5. Cast on the toe of a new pair of socks.

Ravelry Double Dare

I have taken on a Ravelry double-dare. Mission Possible and Stash Down 2008.

Flashing Stash at Knitty was fun. Entering it on Ravelry was illuminating. Shocking. Revealing. Humbling. Embarrassing.

Has been, that is, not just was. I'm not quite done.

Decided that I rather liked the notion of tackling my own personal 12 missions for 12 months (or forfeit the yarn). Socks, I said. I have more yarn than fits into the sock boxes. And there used to be one sock yarn box. I liked even the progress of counting socks (witness the outdated challenge button I still keep updating), but last year I seemed to have fallen short. Upwards and onwards, I say!

Having taken some time to document sock stash more candidly, and having taken a severe look at the whole, I have outlined my list of 12 pairs of socks I MUST KNIT. Options for forfeit are to discard the unfinished item, have a bonfire, give it to a friend, etc. I decided that the penalty needed to be more generous donation than ritual discard. I hesitate to make my semi-finished project someone else's problem, so I landed here: I’ll have to give away the comparable yarn - especially since I do have some multiples. (Some. Sheesh. I should be smacked.)

Here's the list of monthly challenges.
1. January - a pair of second socks Have finished one (Yarrow Rib) and am past the heel on the second (Elfine)
2. Feb. - STR Petrified
3. Mar. - CTH Green Mtn. whatever
4. April - Trekking pastel
5. May - Red Jawoll
6. June - LL Jeans
7. July - Solid CTH
8. Aug. - Knitter’s Choice (can’t decide EVERYTHING now)
9. Sept. - Claudia Handpaint (any color)
10. Oct. - KPPM (any color)
11. Nov. - Bearfoot (any color)
12. Dec. - Mountain Feat (Really, it’s spelled that way.)

I’ll decide patterns as I sort out gauge. That’s the list. Sticking to it.

This mission coincides with the Stash Down. All the above have been in the stash long enough to be in the QUIT IGNORING ME category. Not to mention that most have been acquired because of some lovely gifting or some sale venture or out-of-town yarnsex. Stash Down goals will always include the Mission socks. Beyond that, I can add up my own monthly goals AND look to the group for some of their ongoing ideas. (I'm still not much of a chatterer at Ravelry. Knitty's got that spot in my heart, for all that I'm not exactly Chatty Kathy there, either.) Stash Down goals for (where was I?) for January were largely finishing. No penalty box here. I've packaged up the niece and nephew goodies, and I'll get that Tuscany blocked by Friday (as there are other things happening on the cutting tables at the moment). But mercy me! There's some work to be done.

I need to knit up and stitch up at a rate higher than my acquisition habits have been going. I'll have more to say on that another day. There are stories to tell, some habits to face up to. Today there are a few other things to do, not to mention this perfectly lovely sock I'm within days of finishing - and within days of a deadline FOR finishing. Three and half 16 row repeats and then some cuff.....sounds like a dare I can safely double and even double dog dare myself to finish.

It's Simple

I finished the scarf for my niece, as I mentioned.



I've also spent a chunk of time for the past few days facing up to some truths about the yarn stash. A few things are clear.

Ravelry is an amazing tool.
I am learning more about digital photography, failing and succeeding.
I have enough yarn now.
It's simple.

Last night I started a baby hat from stash yarn.
I should use those last three words a LOT.
It's simple, right?

Long Story Short

While I worked on the cold, I finished these:



Yesterday I finished the niece scarf.

I'm almost finished with the cold.

Lost Weekend

I enjoyed my own peaceable private version of a lost weekend:
I had a cold, so I lived in pyjamas most of the weekend. I barely left my dwelling.
I did little of the work I carted home, but I took care of some domestic concerns and I finished some knitting.

I also took some harsh inventory of sock yarn. Heavens to Betsy. I have to get home to knit.

Only gave myself permission for an hour of recreational computer, and my time is up. More tomorrow.

Holiday Breaks

On or near the Thanksgiving break I had knit this scarf for myself.

Over the December portion of this break I whipped up one for a friend, as a host gift. I didn't get it done in time, but it will be delivered tomorrow.


I zipped the Tuscany off the needles but have yet to block it.


Over the January portion of the break I started projects made to the specifications of a niece and nephew.


I think these will cure me of 1 x 1 ribbing for awhile.


And a corner of my office has broken.


AH, WINTER. It freezes. It thaws. The sky falls.


I'm going to go home and knit. I'm leaving the debris as evidence for my conversation with the appropriate Monday authorities. I'll have time to calm down. Knitting should help.

5 Things to Do

1. I would like to bake something, as that used to be something I did of a holiday.
2. I would like to get the oil changed in the car, as driving will be so much safer.
3. I would like to do some laundry, as packing will be so much easier.
4. I would like to get some sewing done, as it makes holiday giving a little homier.
5. I would like to knit. Knit needs no reason.
=======================
I'll be off doing something good while I'm absent here for awhile.
There's bound to be some knitting.
=======================
Have pleasant days.
Be safe.
Find something in which to find a moment of delight.
Take a moment for something which brings you peace.

Small Confessions

I am sick of grading.
I must take breaks to be more fair-minded.
I have a crazy case of startitis lurking in the wings.
I started nibbling dark M&M's, and now I realize that I've nibbled past lunch.
I finished Tuscany yesterday.

============
Back to the grind.

Place holder

I'd taken these progress photos during my brief stint of daily blog posting. At the time, I actually had a statement to make. Some of it still holds.


I need to learn how to do the short row heel more effectively. I'm inconsistent with picking up the double wraps. I also wind up with a hole I end up stitching up.


Today is not the day. Yesterday I took a break from grading and finished this sock. The photos and post will just have to serve as place holders.

Back to the stack.

I might finish the Tuscany

I might finish that shawl within the week. It's getting close enough to the end of the yarn that I'm obsessing. I can see the end.

Had to put it away, though.

Must. Read. Papers. Grade.

I might finish grading. This is, sadly, harder to envision.
Truth is, it's an actual deadline, so I might as well get back to it.

I might already be a loser.

Sigh.

Next week: knitting and baking and holiday activities interspersed with what passes for reasonably-sized amounts of work!

I might actually have content for posting!

I shrug at the shrug

I zipped out a shrug for my niece. Big talk earlier: I did tentative swatching but finally and only started yesterday morning. I'm off to ship it now for the choir concert deadline. Zoiks.

I'm unimpressed with it. I had a hard time getting in and out of it myself. Unforgiving cotton.

I'll have to up the ante with its replacement. She'll have to look at patterns.
This was quick.

No picture. Camera was at home. No time now. Fedex at the airport closes in a few hours, so I'd like to get there and BE home before it closes.

Besides, I'm just not that interested in it. Insert shrug here.

Nothing BUT show - OR - Nothing TO show

Yes, that half month of daily posting was all well and good. Clearly the maxims about needing to do something for 30 days to establish a habit could be inserted here. That string of posting and good intention was clearly loose talk. Nothing but show.

Meanwhile, I've been impossibly busy. Despite that, I've knit a bit. Finished the Fetching. (Progress picture posted earlier, so I won't repeat it.)AND - true to form - I've given them away instead of keeping them for myself. Call it a gift well suited to the recipient. Call it a great impulse. Call it better stash management. Forgot to take a picture, though. Nothing much to show.

Since this afternoon was meant to include two things and one ran over the time allotted, I'll go home now having only attended one of the two events. I'll take myself home then, do some work at my desk and work on some knitting for my niece. I have a shrug to churn out.

More Gift Knitting

From the weekend, progress only:



This triangular shaping is not suited to my "how far have I gone and how much have I left to do" sensibilities. I've decided I'll have to just keep knitting and not think about it.

Personal Knitting - Grey Fetching

Made a pair of these last year and gave them away. Made notes about what I'd do differently for myself. Thought I'd give it a go.

Knitting on the halves.

Gift knitting - Norberta bits

Finished the last of the bits. Now to sew.

Stuff

Doing Creative Stuff
Elizabeth over at SABLE discussed some of the issues she faces in placing a design on a path for publication and knitterly opinion. I appreciate that she's willing to share her thoughts on the process. It helps me as I extrapolate over to the concerns I have about what I do. I do creative work in a school setting, so I rarely post the details (or much about the process) in an effort to preserve the dignity of my students and provide myself some degree of boundary. Somewhere, sometime, I'll be found, (There Be Knitters Here!) so I'd rather not have shared things which I wouldn't care to be found out. (On a similar note, I'll be avoiding the whole f*ceb*k thing forever, if I can, in light of wanting to respect others boundaries.)

Back to why I took note of Elizabeth's thoughts, as I digress. I go through such manouevres with myself as I wrestle with creative work, recognize that there has been progress, celebrate the fact that perhaps someone is learning something, hold everyone to a higher standard, acknowledge that I can't control everything, and occasional encourage myself to let go.

No matter what, someone will be of an opinion that the project was better than sliced bread, and someone else will find a million and ten things wrong with it. And really, neither of those responses are the reasons I do what I do. And so I remind myself. And so I forget. Elizabeth's post wasn't for me, but you know how it goes: what you read can often speak directly to what you need. I can get through my next week. Thanks, Elizabeth.


Shopping Stuff
I didn't go shopping. I have enough to do, and the crush of people makes the day go too long. In the spirit of creating a smaller impact with future shopping, I did, however, finally finish my Everlasting Bagstopper. All that was left to do was to apply straps. I finally found some fabric I liked for the task. Yesterday I whipped up two tubes, pressed them out, and applied them. The pictures I took are lousy. I'll want to redo them.

I also find it difficult to go shopping when I am making such steady if gentle headway on the clearing out of STUFF (aka thrift donations to the Sally Ann). Took two bags last Wednesday when I went to the thrift store to look for some costume items. (PS. I walked out without a purchase.) Dropped off two more bags today.

Making Stuff
Since I mention the shopping issues and the purging of stuff, I give you a hint of the knitting posts to come: I continue to make progress on finishing what's on the needles. And I've decided I am going to do my knitting on the halves. This one's for me, this one's for a gift.

Part of the reason I ever started knitting and sewing (back in the dark ages of my youth) was to outfit myself. I am by golly going to be doing a better job at that. It doesn't look good on me when it's in a tub, and I've been clearing out steadily the stuff that I don't wear and shouldn't wear.

The other thing I intend to do is make some no-fail pressies - just as people gift fruitcake or bottles of wine - useful, enjoyable in some way, practical and FROM STUFF I HAVE. Because I certainly have enough variety if I shop from my stash.

And I'm doing it on the halves. I can't go nuts making gifts and not take care of myself. One for me, another for the gifting - just as the quilters did when they pieced on the halves.

Stay tuned. I have already begun.

NaBloPoHalfMo

I gave the daily writing effort a good go for me, especially since I don't have computer access at home. I was never worried about the competitive aspect. I am a great one for the self-competitive challenge. I may resume. The next week is crazy, so I'll see what I can do.

Last I was heard from, I was zapped by headache and then needed to focus pretty intensely on what I had to do for the rest of that week. One thing carries into the next, and here we are at the day after Thanksgiving. What have I done since? I've finished a few things.

I'd just finished this hat. Knittyboard posts asked for a modeled view, but it's not for me, so it wouldn't be a good fit. This will have to do:

The mailing envelope is now sealed. Post Office, here we come.

My cousin requested a dishcloth like the one I'd made her some years ago.
A bit of crochet cotton, and voila, the dishcloth of iron.


Took a bit of yesterday morning to make myself a hat. This is Knitty's Foliage. I should have pulled it down over the eyes of the hat block, as you can't actually see the leaf motifs in all their bulky, multi-colored glory. So it goes.


I've been a very busy camper, aside from all that. Major projects at work and an approaching end to a term mean PILES of work. It's alarming. I can't begin to list all of the other things I've been doing and yet need to do that have exactly nothing to do with knitting. Around that, I took a little time for "wellness-knitting." Finished the scarf. Finished the knitting on Norberta. Need to snap the one and stitch & stuff the other. Made progress on the soy silk Tuscany for a friend.

I'll take all of that progress as my personal prize for doing as well as I did for a half month of daily blog posting. I'll post when I can, as long as I'm getting other things done.

(that light is too bright)

(migraine)

(finished the noro striped scarf)

(can't play)

(turn off the light, it's too loud)

Today's lunch brought to you by.....

Now I did do some cooking this weekend. I made a crockpot of ratatouille. Used up some leftover kale and mushroom saute in a midsized pasta bake concoction.

Today, though, I dine courtesy of UK marketing and global groceries. The international foodie aisle at my local market had this marked down, I believe for lack of interest. The date was still good. The soup is a fine contrast to the usual, and I find myself inspired to make soup this weekend.



For really good soup recipes from some UK soup mavens, go to the home of glittrgirl and scumkitten and search SOUP.

Just too mean to post

I love a good cliche. From more southern climes than here: "just too mean to live" as a description of a particularly nasty excuse for a human? Love it. How fitting that it should really be directed at me today.

Crabby about nothing in particularly. Annoyed by impossibly unimportant things. Distracted by minutiae. Disgusted by a good many things. Just too mean to live.

And truth be told, I should just yoink up my bootstraps and move along.

All things considered, I have food, shelter, an occupation, some pleasant people with whom to work. My family is reasonably stable and kind. I'm not going in for surgery next week, as is a dear friend who now faces the surgery phase of her battle with breast cancer.

Just too mean to post.

About this NaBloPoMo adventure

Posting regularly has been a mighty fine exercise. I intend to be sticking with it as best I can. Thanksgiving holiday weekend might prove a creative challenge. But still, there's something about the orderliness of one post per day for a whole pile of days that is strangely appealing to me.

My sister sent a picture of my nephew's incredibly orderly precision-folded newspapers.


I like a little orderly repetition.



Perhaps it's genetic.

(Meanwhile, I'm busting out of this joint. I don't have to be here for an evening, so I'd best take some work home with me and get out so it will count!)

C'est Finis!

I started here earlier today.


I finished here. Le Slouch!


Stretchy yarn, mercifully, as that seems a small band!


(How bad is the French? I can take it.)

1 x 1 ribbed scarf

Sometimes you just need to knit and tune out.



These 1 x 1 ribbed scarves in yarns with long color changes have been hitting the internet zones. There's not much fuss, just two row switches of yarn and letting the color switches do their thing.

Am I a bad person if the airline attendant asked me if I was making it for a holiday gift and I just smiled and nodded? It matches my winter jacket, but I didn't feel she needed an actual conversation. She was just acknowledging another knitter. She had her knitting at the back of the plane -- a hat, I believe.

I'm Old

But mostly I'm tired.

This is how old I am:




Last year or the year before someone passed around a link on the knittyboard in which you could discover the cover of Time magazine from the week you were born.

Seems I still have a copy of this.

I'm going home. Flew back, got to catch up with followup from meetings I missed, and stayed for a show. Mercifully, it was only an hour. Have to be back on Saturday morning.

Remote

It's interesting to be in a city that relies so heavily on automobiles. Houston is not a particularly pedestrian zone, or at least I'm not finding the pockets.

This is the first time, for the record, that I've ever been to a city where I find I really haven't had an opportunity to find a piece of it for myself. I went presented something at a conference, spent a bit of time at the conference, took a half hour walk which didn't get me very far.

Did eat a posh dinner. My colleague relished the notion of finding a steakhouse, and so we did, and I enjoyed a particularly lovely glass of wine. It's a good thing I don't recall the name of the wine, because I'd probably not be able to afford a bottle. If I'm clever, though, I'll call later today and ask them. Neither of these are things I do often - my fridge right now has a lentil and fennel salad, red cabbage with apples, and a leftover lentil and brown rice loaf (which was more a nice casserole than anything really loaf-like or burger-shape-able, despite the recipe's claims). I'll be packing the last of those for lunches and dinners into next week, just as I did earlier. Dark and luxurious steakhouses and glasses of wine that cost more than pairs of bottles I purchase are a pretty far stretch.




This knitting isn't here. This comes to you via the remote capablities of the great picturebucket. Alpaca. Too warm for Houston anyway, I'll warrant. Tomorrow I head back to the cold and the alpaca knitting. For one more morning I'll try to be where I am.

Just because I feel like a slouch ......

doesn't mean the knitting is a slouch....


That would be Le Slouch, if you please.

Ms. Wendy B. has it right: put a french article on it and there's no longer a shadow of anything pejorative about the word.

I'm getting ready to head to the airport this afternoon. I'm going to HOUSTON. Turns out it's warm down there. Delightful.

I just hate that I've had bad allergy things this week. I foresee several days of high-altitude sinus-shifting deafness. Fortunately right now that pales in the light of getting to LEAVE TOWN for a couple of days.

Guess I shouldn't take this knitting on the plane. Big metal size nines? I think I'll stick with the knitting that's on bamboo.

Trekking

I can't write much. I have to pack for a trip.
I give you a photo of a sock in progress.
The yarn is Trekking - suitable name for a travel reference.



Yarrow sock from Vintage Socks.

Is there an end?

Not to my projects, at the moment. I seem to be starting several things while giving a nod to the ongoing projects. Plowed straight into a Le Slouch for a friend who's been an absolute gem about helping me with some costume projects from season to season. I'm at least a quarter of the way done, if not a third. The weather just shifted with a big blast of wind, so it's appropriate to be tending to hats and cuddly sweaters and gift giving that may or may not be on the horizon.

So goes the transition of the seasons. I spent all the hot months avoiding knitting the ultra cozy, potentially fuzzy things. Heat and alpaca? Not so much.

I'm knitting a few minutes in the morning, a few minutes in the evening, and on the weekend I sneak in a little more.

Discardian (Metagrrrl's Project Blog from 2006) posted this useful admonition:
"Don't let the blur of movement try to replace one elegantly completed task."

It's lovely. It's posted visibly in my work area. I sometimes mind it. Often I simply lust for the possibility.

I think I shall go home and knit on the hat. I'm leaving the rest of the work here. It'll be here tomorrow. I may not be able to finish one task elegantly tonight, but I can at least indulge in a half an hour of focus and then get some sleep.

There may not be an end today, but I can find some time to pause and to pretend.

Re-use

That old quilt was definitely a history of reuse. I had come back from a summer of camp in Maine and knew for the next summer I wanted an extra quilt, the kind that wouldn't be hurt by camp cots and pine pitch on the back of the shorts. I had the bag of old shirts and dresses I knew could be used for something, if no longer for wearing. And then a housemate who had finished her craft project stint with a vacation bible school session gave me a bunch of vaguely square muslin pieces.

Log cabin was clearly the order of the day.


I don't know if I ever took a picture of the quilt when it was in better shape. You can see where the red flannel plaid strips are just frayed bits along the seam lines. That was the first flannel shirt I made for myself. Wore it through the elbows. Still, you know, there was decent fabric in the shirt tails - isn't that the usual reference made by the quiltmakers of years gone by?

The lighter toned red plaid was a plisse dress I wore in the 80's. It just got to be too thin to be decent, but there was enough poly in the blend, so the fabric still doesn't seem to have given up the ghost.

And just off center in most of the squares, on the lighter halves, is an old plisse fabric, white with little starbursts of red, yellow, and blue. That was one of my dad's shirts. I wore it out. My mother thought that shirt reflected an appalling lack of judgement and taste. It was a designer shirt. Pierre Cardin, no less. Strictly 70's. And it was not much more than pajama weight plisse. Oh, she thought that was an appalling expenditure, and tacky.

Most of the other pieces are scraps from sewing projects. Most of them were mine, but I may have co-opted some of my sister's scraps.

More to come on the extended thrift-life of this quilt.

You know I'm talking myself up to doing some more practical quilts, of course.

Beyond Thrift

Do you think a person can be too thrifty?

This quilt, which now lives within another piece of thrift, has layers of history.
Pictured is a glimpse of the reverse side, in which I borrowed and honored the traditional approaches of the quilters of Gee's Bend. I stitched up the leftovers, whacked them down the middle, and stitched them up again. It was very freeform. (I was pretty impressed with my bravery.)

One of the pieces of thrift within the thrift was this old shirt. Either my sister or I had made the oxford shirt in the first place. I forget whose it was, but we were both pretty thorough about our shirt making back then. This shot features one section with the pocket sewn facing into the quilt.

More another day. I have other pennies to pinch.

Can't decide

There's the weather.
We've had the loveliest stretch of autumn. I remembered to slow down the other morning for a few minutes and enjoy the early morning light hitting the bright orange and red of a tree I usually see in afternoon light.

There's the health.
These allergies are annoying, and I do wish they would give over already. I have choral things this weekend, and I feel about as miserable as I sound.

There's the end of a week, and why am I still here? Ah, you see, because we have guest artists performing in my space.

There's the knitting.
I brought it with me today, but it never made it out of the car. I managed two rows this morning. Not much there.

There isn't much.
Other than this, I have nothing.
Does it count as writing if it's crap?
Not to decide is to decide?
Seems like indecision gives it a pretense at coherence.

Where's the substitute aspirin product?

Good Enough

It's cold enough to wear a good knit sweater. I pulled out the sweater I'd been dreading to wear: I'd wrecked it. At least, I certainly thought so when I gave it a late spring bath in the appropriate wool-friendly soap.

The colors in the Kochoran stripes (tucked in for interest to help me stretch the amount of Peace Fleece I had used) filled the sink. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed. Good enough, I thought. And then it dried, and all the loose color moved along the edges of the damp and settled, some along the sides of the sleeves, some along the sides of the sweater.

See the orange glow to the upper lengths of the sleeve, shown sideways here? It's not all the afternoon throw of the sun. It's a subtle plaid, stripes one way, errant dyes the other.

But damn it, it's cold enough to wear the sweater.
That's going to have to be good enough for me.


(Thanks, Elizabeth for the photo hint. It reminded me I have photos I've taken previously which may be just the thing for some writing prompts.)

Boo! Scary!

Witness a woman tempted beyond her ability to say no.

Witness a woman who needs to have her head examined.

Witness a leap into the experiment of writing daily.

Because you know, I'm just not disciplined enough or busy enough or engaged enough in things one might consider creative.

Or, clearly, bright enough to avoid the distraction of a shiny new pretty thing.


EEK.

Need more day in my day.

Or maybe I need less day in my day.

More time for important things just becomes more time for things and things and things and OH am I behind with my work.

I did knit for 15 minutes, though.

We do what we can, hey?

Knitting, I swear it!

I've cheated on my sweaters in progress and begun a quick and dirty alpaca chunky jacket. Remember that article a million years ago in the back of Interweave Knits - or no, maybe it was threads - and was it someone whose book writing is the stuff of legendary book tours? I think it was. At any rate, this she of whom I speak wrote in tawdry terms about cheating on her knitting. I'm SOOOOO guilty of it. And the back is nearly half done. Did I mention quick?

And on a recent road trip I knit three hasty little bowls that I hastily ran through the washing machine when I returned. They sit in a fuzzy nested spot on the computer, and they've caused all sorts of office chaos since they've arrived. "ooh, look" "how cool" "I have to knit." I was given the yarn as a gift last year, so it's now visibly in use and the gift-giver oohed, too. Suitable for dispensing October sweets or for pulling names out of a container.

One yarrow sock done, one three inches in. Elfine is awaiting my attention, but she'll keep safely. I need ribbon I like better for the bagstopper. I know I should work on the Equinox, but now that I know I have enough yarn in the right dyelot, I wonder if I didn't skimp on length before the armscye shaping. I'll have to spend a little quality time with that, and right now I'm all for the repetitive project with little thinking.

I'm knitting. I'm cheating, but I'm knitting.
And I'm here too late after going to a choir performance. What the heck? I should go home. There are papers to grade, and I can knit that repetitive alpaca while I read papers. Okay. Not. But I could grade for 30 minutes, knit for 15, rinse, repeat.

No pictures, but there's been knitting. I swear it.

Representative Thrift

I gave away a GREAT representative bag of thrift stuff:

One was a sweater I made. Hard to give away things we make, isn't it?
I GAVE IT AWAY AND LIVED.

One was a jacket a friend loaned me for a trip abroad. It was perfect and packable. It looked good on me. She made me keep it, in one of HER purges. I INHERITED SOMEONE ELSE'S STUFF AND I GAVE IT AWAY.

One was a denim jumper/dress I purchased in an inappropriately impossible size. I let myself miss the return deadline and then convinced myself I'd remake it. I GAVE UP THE DREAM AND THE WORK AND I GAVE IT AWAY.

Final items were a pair of ice skates. My mother had become the default keeper of them and had recently returned them. I'd not gotten them out of the trunk of the car. I went to a college reunion recently and drove past the park which served as the ice skating rink nearest the campus. That was it. I decided the skates had to stay in that community. Did I mention I'm not that size mumble-something years later? I GAVE AWAY MY FAVORITE OLD SKATES.

Those are the kinds of things that are hard to give away. I left them miles away, out of state. It's rather freeing. I recommend it.

Say goodbye to the sweater!

Elizabeth's good sense was just what I needed to hear.

When I read the posts on the occasional blog or board thread that raise an eyebrow at those of us have acquired a little yarn here and there, I think quietly to myself, ah, but you don't know what FRUGAL thinking is at the core of all this.... Because I really do tend toward the use and reuse. Why do you think I learned to sew and knit in the first place? Time-honored traditions of making do, making things well, etc., run deep in my family. Some time I will tell the layered stories of thrift in this quilt.

So this sweater.



See the spot in the front cable? Okay, I notice the discolorations more in person, it's true.

I had also started to think about making it into a bag, but there would still be an unnecessary amount of time spent on it. I'd thought through using rings at the neckline, zigzagging and steeking the sides of the neckline, as it was knit circularly, opening up the shoulder seams, lining...... all for a bag there's no guarantee I'd really like and use.

Two days ago I moved a bunch of binders from an office space I hadn't finished clearing. Found a publicity picture of me in that sweater. That was a LONG time ago. I don't care how quickly I shape up, I don't think I'll wear that sweater again. Sleeves are too long anyway.

Thrift sounds wise. I wore it plenty. Easily there were 4 years of wear, and I did wear it in all seasons. If I'd bought it at Target, I'd consider it fair game for the thrift donation pile. It's no heirloom. It doesn't need the drawer space.

Elizabeth's right. I have perhaps invested all the time needed in that one cone of yarn. I think I picked up the original for less than five. Good sale.

I'll say goodbye. It'll go to the thrift store when the bag of thrift is full. (When I have something to donate, I start a bag near the front door. As soon as I fill it, I drop it off. I see the bag often enough that filling it quickly is added incentive.) If someone feeling even more frugal needs to rescue it, speak up soon.

Sprucing up

I'm so proud: I figured out how to get the little button things into the sidebar. They are as I had them before.
(I certainly don't have great scads of html finesse.)

I've whitewashed the joint, too. And the font is bigger.
We'll see what I think.

To tell the truth, I'm not overly fond of the crowding of one sentence atop the other. Looks like I don't know how to add any space after a period.