Snow!

Now that the semester is waning, I am more inclined to take time to post here. Unfortunately, I just lost an hour fiddling with the new Blogger Beta features, so this will be a short post.

Knitting continues apace; nothing to show since nothing much finished. Too much reading, too many essays. However, my first lace project is almost finished, Job's sweater is 1.75 sleeves and a neck away from being finished, and I've started new little projects here and there to break up the monotony. No pics to show yet, but probably in December.

I've put aside a lot of projects to do "in December" because I have a whole month off before the next semester (no exams!). However, I think that most of these are doomed to fail; even though "December" gets bigger and bigger in my mind, it remains only 31 days long in reality.

It is snowing in Victoria today. I have lived here for four and a half years now and I have never seen snow in November. This is exciting, because I haven't had snow for my birthday since we lived in Calgary ('96... hey! Ten years!). It would be awesome, but my birthday is still a week away and Victoria snow doesn't stick for long. We'll see.

Anyway, here is the view from our balcony at 11:00am:

Sorry for the fuzziness; it was COLD! Anyway, you can see that the roof of the daycare has a light dusting of snow, but otherwise the ground is visible. There is snow falling at this point, but the camera didn't catch it.

Here is the view from my balcony at 2:00pm:


I don't know what is up with the sizing on these pictures... weird...
Anyway, SNOW! All over everything! And still snowing! The trees are pretty snowy too, even though it doesn't show up (wrong angle), and the trunks were white at this point even though by now (3pm), the snow has melted off the tree trunks. But it hasn't stopped yet. One tree branch in this little area has fallen, which is a bit scary, and our power keeps flickering. It's really pretty, but I know that Victoria doesn't know how to drive/walk/dress/function in the snow, and that's scary. Job says that a pedestrian was hit this morning downtown just before he got to work. Yikes.

I'm no photographer, but I also got this picture, which I think is pretty cool:


This is from the 11:00 am group. Those white spots are actual snowflakes! Victoria has big fluffy white feathery snowflakes, unlike the heavy, wet bastards in Alberta. It's like a big, cold pillowfight out there.

Anyway, I'm happy that it snowed for Job; I know he misses it. Love you, sweetie! Happy Snow!

Sock Wars!!!

Sock Wars has begun!! Actually, it began last week. However, I as a grad student who is also a slow reader excuse myself from not having sent my socks off on Monday. I'm getting there!! Right now I must sleep. Will definitely post later on the wonders of camo socks and the domestic ideal in 19th century fiction (although not in connection with each other).

Ahhhh Saturday...

I had a beautiful day.

I woke up this morning and saw Job off to work, picked up the paper, and came back upstairs. I sat on the balcony (it's starting to get nippy out there!) wearing socks knitted by my best friend's mom (among other clothing items, naturally), drank tea and read the paper. Then I did the crossword. Well, I started the crossword.

I'm trying to learn Cryptic Crosswords and they're not simple. My great aunt Iris taught me awhile ago but my brain has not grasped it. There are so many techniques, and once you master them you're good to go, but the only one I can ever remember is the mix-up-the-letters-in-part-of-the-clue one.

Anyway I tried that for awhile and then walked to the library (I live right next to the campus), gave a short tutorial on the reserve room to a couple of first-years (spur-of-the-moment kind of thing), and returned home to read some school stuff.

All in all a wonderful, relaxing day. Any day with newspaper crosswords and tea is a great day. I took some pictures that I could meditate on later, but I'm posting from the laptop so they'll have to wait.

Hope everyone else had a good Saturday too.

Except of course for the Pope. I'm sure he's kinda miffed.

Yikes! Neglected the blog yet again!

Well, here it is, September 12th. My, my, my, how much has happened since I last posted.

1. I didn't win the contest :( However, the winner of the contest was supremely deserving.
2. I went to Edmonton for Job's one week vacation (poor guy is doing school straight through this year) where much life changing happened (see below).
3. I started my Masters program at UVic, which involved a lot of reading, a lot of hyperventilating, and a lot of coming to grips with essays twice as long as I'm used to writing for a class. That's okay! I can do it!

So what happened in Edmonton, you ask?

Well, on the way to Edmonton we stopped at the Cafe Mt. Robson, which we love, and ...

Job proposed.

It was perfect and beautiful and wonderful and at one of my absolute favourite places. Here is Mt. Robson as seen from the highway:


And it was a perfectly clear day. Job's dad was saying that you almost never see the top this clearly. It was just a perfect day all around. Sometimes I can't believe I'm lucky enough to live here. How gorgeous is this?!?!?! It's unreal! They don't touch those pictures up for postcards and calendars, folks. It really looks like that. And I'm a terrible photographer.

Anyway, Job and I also became godparents on the trip. Job's sister isn't very religious, but they asked us anyway and we stood up there with little Austin while he screamed his head off. Actually he was pretty good, considering there was a strange man carrying him around and dipping his head in water.

They have this tradition in Job's family where every child wears the same christening gown and Job's aunt embroiders the child's full name onto the under-dress part. It has been used since the sixties, I think, and there are a lot of names on there. It's quite a cool tradition, I think.

Anyway, I now have a wedding to plan. It's two years away still, but the more I learn about weddings, the happier I am to have all this time!!

Also in Edmonton, I finished one half of one Pomatomus. However, I have so many projects on the go right now that I probably won't finish the pair for awhile. More because of grad school than other projects, actually. What a lot of reading!! I'm actually reading as I type. That's a lie, but I feel like I should be.

Here is Pomatomus the First:


My flash kinda washes out the colour, but this is pretty close. I am on the foot part of it, which isn't obvious from the picture, but there it is.

I can totally sympathize with Kristi about having to reteach yourself to knit NOT tbl. I got through three rows of lace on another project before I looked at it and realized that all the knit stitches were twisted the wrong way. Whaaaa???

Anyway I am loving this pattern and have gotten SO MANY compliments on it!! Unreal!!! Thank you Cookie!! Although I can foresee many requests for Pomatomi, and I'm not sure if I have the patience or finger strength to do this pattern several times. Hmmmm. Maybe I'll just have to send the pattern out with the Christmas cards and offer email lessons? Hahaha.

That's all for now!

Fourth Entry!

I want that pattern!!!

My fourth entry for the knitters anonymous blog contest is an idea for a new film that will haunt you in your dreams about road trips for years to come. Forget Snakes on a Plane.

BEARS in the BACK SEAT!!

Actually, I was kindly informed by my boyfriend (see first entry) that this is not, in fact, a picture of BEARS in the BACK SEAT but actually

FOUR BEARS, ONE HIPPO, and A BEAVER in the BACK SEAT

but it's just not as catchy. Bears and Beavers in the Back Seat, maybe, but that starts to sound a little dirty... hmm...

In other news, I sunk to a new low today. I'm out of cash, dipping into my overdraft as it is, and I NEED new yarn for our upcoming trip to Edmonton. We're driving! It's an eight hour drive, people! How could I not knit?? I had to do it. I plundered my stash for some yarn that I was going to use for a baby item. It wasn't the perfect yarn for said item, which is why I felt okay about RETURNING IT and exchanging it for THIS:


Okay, so I still had to pay another twenty bucks on top of the exchange credit. Further debt avoidance mission NOT accomplished. But I've been craving a sock project since I met my best friend Karen's mom at Karen's wedding. Karen's mom is a rampant sock knitter, and she gave a pair of socks to every girl who stayed at the house (5 in total, I think). This woman usually gets $25 a pair for these socks at craft sales. I don't think I could give that money away!! Awesome woman.

Sorry about the colour not showing up as beautifully as it does in real life. Good natural lighting is hard to find in an apartment, and my camera goes a little flash happy if you let it. Anyway, this is Meilenweit Cotton Fun in colours #504 and #508. They don't have names, but if I were to name them, they would be Strawberry Wine and Stormy Ocean. The one on the right, the black/grey/blue, is not something I would choose for myself, but I thought I should have some boy-friendly colours kicking around. Job isn't quite down with bright orange and green socks just yet, even though I insist that they will make his eyes POP. I'm working on it.

Yesterday was especially productive, not only in blog contest entries (I did three yesterday, as well as a couple of aborted ideas), but also in baking!


First baking in the new oven! Chocolate chip walnut cookies. Awesome. Things I learned: when my new oven is on, the whole contraption gets almost as hot as a burner. I can't even touch the white parts of the stove without oven mitts on. I guess I won't be cooking any mult-dish meals for awhile. Scary. I'm going to leave a note at the housing office about this. It's a new oven, too. I know because when we looked at the place in April, the stove was wrapped entirely in plastic. Anyway, the baking was a success. Even the cookies that are a little burnt on the bottom are still fabulous.

________ on a ________ (part 2)

Here are entries #2 and #3...

HIPPO on a BUDGET

BEAVER on a NICKEL

________ on a ________

There is a fabulous contest (for a super-fabulous prize) on the knitters anonymous blog. You have to come up with a ______ on a _______ saying (inspired by the movie "snakes on a plane") that involves an animal in or on an inanimate object.
Being the crafty English major that I am, I decided to play with the rules a bit. If my entries are invalid, that's okay. I'm just having fun.

First Entry:BOYFRIEND ON A DEADLINE!!!

Well, he's often quite the animal, and what is more inanimate than a deadline? (Oxford Canadian Dictionary definition of inanimate: "1. not animate; not endowed with life. 2. lifeless; showing no sign of life. 3. spiritless, dull; lacking energy and vitality") Deadlines not only lack life, they SUCK life!

More to come!

Too Deep?

I joined Sock Wars. I have never showed my knitting to other knitters before, and I'm not the quickest draw, but I figured even if I'm out in the first round or so, it's a chance to see how well I knit under pressure. And not only under pressure, but with the knowledge that actual knitters will see the finished product, and not just friends and family who ooh and aah politely if I knit them slippers that look (and fit) more like floppy messenger caps (yes, I did).

Summer is almost over. I'm off to Quesnel on Thursday to be a bridesmaid in my best friend's wedding. I still have to buy shoes, but I have my eye on a pair. As for knitting, not much has changed. I've been picking away at a couple of projects, but slowly since I've decided to get ahead on my reading for the fall. I'm 2/3 of the way through Adam Bede by George Eliot and I will start Trainspotting by Irving Welsh next (for a different class, obviously). Unfortunately none of my current projects lend themselves well to reading. One is lace and the other two are in finishing or shaping stages, which means that I have to pay attention.

On August 26th, my boyfriend and I drive to Edmonton to visit his family (and a little bit of mine). His sister had a baby in April and we are going to be godparents, which I'm very excited about. An excuse to knit copious amounts of cute baby items! I would like to get something knitted for him by the time we leave, but I don't know if my current projects basket can handle another item. The three I have on the go are on deadline as it is. I also have an itch to try my hand at designing. I think it will be mostly trial and error knitting, with less pre-knit calculating than is probably wise. I spent four hours sketching and swatching today, and I think I have quite a clear idea of what I want to make. This is really taking up the front part of my brain right now, so I want to get to it before it fades.

No pictures to post at the moment. We just moved and haven't found the digital camera cord yet. (Okay, we moved a month ago but we've been particularly lazy about unpacking and sorting through the rat's nest of computer paraphernalia.)

Must go fight with the voices in my head over whether I should knit or read. More later (with pictures!).

Who knew it was light out at 6 am?

Happy Four and a Half Years, Job! I Love You!

Had a fabulous weekend. Finishing a project (see socks below) always makes me want to find a new project. I wish it inspired me to finish more of the projects that I've started, but not so. I've decided to design a cardigan. Not really "design" so much as start knitting and see how it goes. I tried to measure things but it seems really off-balance to me. I figure I'll just go for it and hope for the best, preparing myself beforehand to redo a lot of it. It shouldn't be too bad, though; what I have in mind is pretty simple.

On Saturday, after the BEST HOCKEY GAME EVER (GO OILERS!!!!!!!! GAME SEVEN TONIGHT!!! WOO HOO!!!!!), Job and I decided to celebrate by going to a movie. He does this amazing thing that I love him for: once in awhile, when I have no thoughts in my head of going out, he just up and says "let's go to a movie". And we do! I love this man. He still surprises me once a week. We saw Cars, which was awesome. The movie got out at midnight, so we went to 7-11 to satisfy our hot dog craving! I love spontaneous guilt-free dates.

I am up so early because I am off to a computer course at the University and I'm very very nervous. I was the youngest one there last year and likely will be again. Oh well. Hope someone else is wearing jeans! Yikes!

Finishing Touches

Ta Da!
Finished "Simply Lovely Lace Socks" from IK for Mom. The model feet are mine, so try to disregard the pasty whiteness and the hair. Yecch!

Pre-blocking:

Closeup of lace pattern (this wool has a little bit of black in it that makes it shimmery, but you can't really see it in these photos):

Post-blocking and post-Photoshopped tag:
Photoshop is another hobby of mine. The tag includes washing instructions. Yay!

Wisdom Teeth and Coffee Cups

Job had his wisdom teeth out today. I went into severe mother-hen mode, although he was far too groggy to be embarrassed by me. I think that this picture is kind of cool, although blurry. That's gauze in his mouth. I guess I should have taken one before we rinsed all the blood out, for maximum dramatic effect, but there you have it. He couldn't open very wide, what with all the swelling. We had to sit in the waiting room for an hour so that the drugs they gave him could set in. I think the people around us may have thought he was either drunk or mentally challenged, since he started to slur his speech and had trouble reading. He repeatedly picked up a Macleans magazine to read it, looked at couple of pictures, started talking to me and dropped the magazine, having forgotten he was holding it. Whenever I tried to take it to put it back on the coffee table, he exclaimed, frustrated, "I was reading that!" and the whole process began again. Poor guy. I would have laughed hysterically if I wasn't so worried. Anyway, he's asleep now, full of Tylenol 3. Whew. What a day.

These are the teeth they removed. You may be thinking to yourself, "there are five teeth here, and the average human being has only four wisdom teeth." You would be right. If you look closely, you may be able to see that there are in fact four teeth, and one has been cut in half. I guess this was the one he "felt." Job didn't want to keep them, but I asked them to anyway, since I think it would be a great way to torture our kids: "Here's what will happen if you don't brush your teeth!



I've decided to introduce my coffee cup collection to this blog. Now that I read that, it seems very little-old-lady of me and sort of boring. I hate coffee cup sets. We have one set of cups that came with our kitchen starter set from IKEA, and those hold only water or paint thinner for craft purposes. I started my love affair with coffee cups when I lived overseas. My family lived in Cyprus for 4 years, and we travelled a lot around the Middle East and Europe, since we were right there. I bought a souvenir mug in every place I visited, and I just continued buying mugs when I moved back to Canada. I've long since run out of storage space, but that hasn't stopped me yet. Our grocery store occasionally sells fun, colourful mugs of interesting shapes for a couple of dollars, so those are in here too. They don't all have a story or a great deal of meaning, but I love all the colour and the choice. My favourite part of morning coffee/tea is picking the mug I'm in the mood for. Today was a double-size robin's-egg-blue mug full of Murchie's Empress Afternoon Blend tea. The mug was a gift from Karen, my best friend who recently moved away. I'm going to be her bridesmaid in August. The tea was introduced to me by my boss/professor/mentor, who is a tea afficionado (at least compared to me) and once said, with such shock that I thought she might fire me on the spot, "You haven't been to Murchie's???" Thanks, Dr. J. When I get a new mug (or get misty-eyed about a current one), I will post a picture and share, whether anyone cares or not!

Sock is progressing (Job got to rent whatever he wanted, so I'm knitting Taken, which is actually quite interesting and has already made me muck up a couple of yarnovers!).

My Life is Almost as Blah as my Blog...

Well, that's not entirely true. I did convocate this week (can that be used as a verb? or just as a noun [convocation]?). I officially have a BA (Hons.) with distinction. Pretty nifty. And I'm settling into a routine at work, which is nice. My brother graduated from high school last weekend, and my cousin got her second degree the weekend before that (B.Ed.). So I guess it has been an eventful couple of weeks. But as far as knitting goes, not much has happened. There is, however, a reason for this:

DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION... The Mario Mix!

I've never played DDR before, and Job got it for me as a grad gift because we heard from a friend that it's a good cardio workout. I'm completely addicted. I think I'm getting pretty good, but we read on some message board that true-blue DDR-ers (?) find the Mario Mix far too easy. Oh well. It's fun. And when I finish a few levels at "Hard" and "Very Hard" I have worked up a sweat and didn't even notice! Is that the best way to work out or what??

For those in the world (could there be any?) who do not know what DDR is, it is a video dancing game. You need to step on the arrows when they flash on the screen at the right time. In the Mario Mix, you dance to remixes of all those Mario tunes... you know you know them... and you can play Easy, Medium, Hard, Very Hard, or Super Hard. There is also a story mode, which is kind of lame but pretty standard in any Mario franchise title. Somehow dancing becomes magical and you use your moves to melt ice, stop whirlpools, etc. I don't think the masterminds at Nintendo put a lot of overtime hours into the perfect way to work dancing into the story. But hey, that's not the important part of the game.

So, long story short (yeah, right!), socks are progressing ever-so-slowly, scarf even more so, sweater is at a screeching halt, but not expected until Christmas so I'm okay with that. But another grad gift (from Job's mom) was a $50 gift certificate to my LYS, so I think it's time to add another mess of yarn and needles to the "current project basket". Yay!

Anyhow, I'm experiencing severe Mario withdrawal... my feet are starting to twitch... so that's all for now!

Gloomy Day

We had two weeks or so of hot weather, and then it got all grey. Not cold, still warm, not raining, just gloomy. Yuck. Now it's depressing and grey out but you still get sweaty if you walk across the street! Gross.

I finished one of my mom's socks. It's beautiful and it fits my foot perfectly, but I have my dad's narrow feet. My mom and brother have wider feet, so I'm kind of worried that it won't fit as well. I'm sure it'll stretch, I just hope it doesn't look wacky. It is quite beautiful for a sock though, all lacy and blue. If she doesn't want to wear it, she can just look at it.

The scarf for my boss is going slowly. It is daunting because it is my first project that is completely lace. Not solid with lace sections, but all lace. It's lovely, but slow. I'm also concerned that when I finally finish it, I will want to keep it, seeing as it is my first lace project. Maybe I should think of something else to knit my boss; something quicker and slightly less precious. Hmmm.

I'm going to start reading Wuthering Heights today. I've read many 19th century novels, but somehow I managed to never read that one. Very strange. Anyway I'm looking forward to starting it. I'm taking next week off, so lots of time to read and knit. And maybe there will be some sun too, so I can look a little less pasty white for Karen's wedding in August.

Not much else to say. Bad cramps today. Sort of a blah day all things considered. Maybe tomorrow will be more interesting.

Working Girl

So I'm finished my BA now, and I don't start my MA until September, so I'm sort of in between purposes in life. I'm working over the summer as a research assistant, a job I love because my boss is like a more grown-up version of me. It's creepy, actually.

Still working on sweater/scarf/socks from last post. Sadly, knitting has taken a back seat because of exams etc. However, as soon as I finish this post I am off to watch TV and work on those socks, which have to be ready for June 4th, so they have been bumped to the top of the list. I've been avoiding the scarf because lace is new to me and there is a k7tog in there that freaks the hell out of me.

Job and I are off to Pender Island for the long weekend (Victoria Day is on Monday), so that will be nice. Job is working and taking classes this summer, so he has very little chance to relax. He always spends the first day of any time off saying "I can't believe I don't have to work... I can't believe I don't have to do homework!" So it takes at least two days for him to experience any kind of relaxation. He's a trooper.

Right now I'm reading Anna Karenina, but I'm thinking of reading other things at the same time, since AK has long chunks about farm technology that just don't interest me. My footnotes say that these chunks exist because Tolstoy had all of these revolutionary peasant relations ideas, but I just can't get into it. I am fascinated by the discussion of divorce laws, though, and the comparison of society's perceptions about adulterous husbands (Oblonsky) versus adulterous wives (Anna Karenina), including the idea that Karenin views his son as tainted because of his mother's adultery. He sees no problem in hating his son because of Anna's actions.

I do want to start reading Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters, though. It looks awesome. Fun with words/letters like the Thursday Next books are fun with the literary world.

Anyway, off to watch the season finale of Conviction (like Grey's Anatomy with lawyers! I love it!) and knit those socks! Wish me luck.

Starting Afresh

It's been a couple of months since I posted. I'd feel guilty, but since I don't really have a regular readership, the only one I'm hurting is me.

So classes are finished. I officially never have to take an undergraduate course again ever! I may teach a couple someday, but that's it. Hopefully I'll get accepted to the Master's program and I can stress again next year.

I did well with stress this term. I decided not to identify myself with one essay or one grade or even one class, and it worked out. I didn't let one essay or presentation or whatever make me feel stupid or even really great. A 'B' on a paper doesn't make me a 'B-student' and an 'A' doesn't make me an 'A-student'. There are more important things with which I wish to define myself.

One such thing is knitting!
I have three projects on the go for this summer, and I hope to add a fourth as soon as I find a good pattern (the colours are supposed to represent the colour of the project, but who knows?):

1. A sweater for Job. He's in on it, no surprises. He picked the pattern and the colour and has seen it grow thus far. I figure the more involved he is in the process, the more likely he is to wear or at least to like the sweater. I don't know if I've mentioned it on the blog yet, but Job (pronounced with a long 'o', like the guy in the bible) is my boyfriend of 4.5ish years. He's a history major. The sweater is the Saddle Seam Pullover from IK Spring '06. I like to put the name of the designer in when I say what I'm making, but I don't have the magazine at hand right now. I'll put it in the next post.
   
2. A scarf for Dr. J. She doesn't read this, or else I wouldn't put it in, because she doesn't know. Dr. J is my former professor, current boss, and honours essay supervisor. Over the past two years she has helped me so much and she has been through a lot too, so I'm making her a funky lacy scarf. I will post the name, designer, and a pic when it's done, I'm just a little paranoid about who could come across this right now.
3. Socks for me mum. She is in on it also, because I wasn't sure she would like them. I don't want to put a summer into lace socks that I think are fabulous but she will look at once and stuff in a drawer. No offense to my Mom, she would appreciate the hard work, but I'd like her to want to wear them, too. She mentioned last Christmas (when I made my Dad some hockey socks) that she'd like socks, too. So I ran a couple of patterns by her and brought a pretty jewelly blue yarn and she says she likes!

That was supposed to be a list, not an essay. Oh well, I guess it's hard to get out of that mindset.

Oh yeah! I finished the IK shrug, the dark red one. I need help to take a picture of it, however, so that will have to wait. I've also made a purse for a charity project for someone I bumped into at my LYS. Darnit I can't think of a picture I can post to break up the text, so I'll stop it there.

Finished Object (FO)!

Just had to share...

I know I haven't posted in awhile, but reading break is coming up so I can pay this some attention soon. Anyway, I just wanted to reveal my newest FO: mittens. Kind of anticlimactic seeing as we saw sun for the first time in 2006 this week, which means that mittens won't be useful for much longer. But they are quite cuddly, and I'm considering wearing them as tea-drinking mittens or something, sort of like slippers for my hands. They are from Just Jussi's pattern, and I used Noro Silkgarden number 130. Fabulous. I thought for awhile that they would look hopelessly mismatched, but I sort of like how the brown and darkish parts match, and then there is an orange tip and thumb on one and a green tip and thumb on the other. Nifty! I wish I could say I had created this effect on purpose, but I'm just happy to be here. They're beautiful! And they're finished! And they're usable! Or at least, they will be in about ten months. Sigh.

So, not the best lighting, but my first posted picture of a finished object (or pair of objects). Huzzah!

Still working on that IK shrug; it's bigger every day but getting

h e a v y

on the needles. And waiting for my yarn store to get more white in so I can finish my scarf. Yes, another item that won't be useful for another ten months. But it's the finished project that counts!

That's all for now.
Cheers!

Quickie

Great comic about blogging:

http://comics.com/comics/pearls/archive/pearls-20060129.html

UPDATE:
The link to this comic has been taken down. Hope you saw it while you could!

How did it get to be February?

Things I was planning to have done by February:

1. Write a draft of my graduating essay
   
2. Finish short-row rib scarf
3. Finish reading The Longings of Women by Marge Piercy

Progress? Well, the graduating essay is nowhere near ready to be brainstormed, let alone drafted. Okay, that's not fair. One major bit of research that I had to do for that project turned out to be a much bigger task than I had anticipated, and I decided that it was worth spending the time on to get it done right. So that one I will allow. But I will have a draft by the end of reading week (20-24 Feb). If I don't, I'll be hopelessly behind and setting myself up for needless stress. It's really just the getting started that's bogging me down. Once I start to write, I'm a maniac (evidence: here I am blogging instead of reading Friedan's Feminine Mystique, which I am presenting on Monday).

The scarf? Well, I discovered the cabled shrug from IK as mentioned in a previous post, and sort of ditched the scarf. I feel horrible about it, just sitting there in my "current project" basket. And I do still love the scarf, I'm just smitten with the shrug. This yarn-lust is mostly due to the fact that I've finally found a use for this beautiful yarn that has been sitting in a plastic bag for two years. What happened is this: I started to knit a "swing jacket" from a Vogue Knitting a few years ago, and realized that I had misread the pattern (it was my first non-scarf/dishtowel project) and that it would cost me about $100 more than I'd anticipated to finish it. So the "jacket"... really more of an afghan with hopelessly mismatched armholes... sat unfinished until I came across the shrug... a justified use of this fabulous yarn. The yarn in question is Van Dyck (pictured left) in this lovely autumny reddish colour. So I do still plan to finish the scarf, but I might not be able to actually wear it until next winter. But then, I live in Victoria BC, so scarves aren't really do-or-die.

The Longings of Women? Okay, so February wasn't really the read-by date. I just like to have more than 2 items in a list. The graduating essay is really the only thing I'm freaking out about at this point. The book needs to be read by the end of the semester... we don't discuss it until the penultimate class (penultimate... I love that word and take every opportunity to use it... people invariably ask me what it means after scoffing and rolling their eyes ... it means second-to-last. I envision a world in which everyone knows and uses the word 'penultimate' so that I can use it without sounding pretentious.)

This is far too long already. I'm off to bed to skim The Feminine Mystique.

P.S. Job's second nephew, Austin, was born at 3 a.m. on the 28th of January (2 days after Job's birthday)! He's adorable. He looks very calm and wise, and I'm sure he'll be the mild one in the family. Both Job and I are heartbroken that we can't be in Edmonton to meet him, but they only sleep and excrete at this point anyway, right?

Knitting, reading, gaming

Those are the three themes of this weekend. Job's birthday was yesterday, so we bought terribly unhealthy food, rented videogames and movies, and gave each other permission to generally slack off. This will last for this weekend, and then we will feel sick to our stomachs and guilty for a week at least. But it's worth it. Now that we're both in school, we need to unwind periodically. Okay, so we've only been in school for three and a half weeks.

So we have a system: while Job plays, I knit; while I play, he builds his P-38 Lightning model; sometimes we both play, sometimes we eat, very rarely do we get any kind of exercise unless it is in the form of searching the dishwasher for a plate or digging through the piles on the floor for a disc, or in my case, a stitch holder.

I'm knitting three projects at once right now:

1. Ceris Morgan's Short Row Rib scarf from MagKnits (in creamy white "Inca Gold"). Pattern at: http://www.magknits.com/warm05/patterns/rib.htm
2. Shirley Paden's Cabled Shrug from Interweave Knits Fall '05 (my little brother got me a subscription for Christmas! Yay!)
3. Still finishing the Big Sack Sweater from Stitch'n'Bitch. Just have side seams left to sew and then block, but it's daunting because I'm afraid it will look horrible when I finally put it on... my blocking skills are nearly nil (I'm a poet and I don't even know it!)

I'm also reading five theory articles for Tuesday (three Foucaults and two Deleuze & Guattaris... sounds like a chic coffee shop, no? Maybe somewhere Felicity would work?)

I'm also in the middle of watching Broken Flowers, which is lovely but I feel guilty sitting still for two hours when I have all that reading to do. Two Foucaults today and then I'll knit the movie. Feel bad for Job, he has to work until 9:30 tonight. But tomorrow we're going out for dinner and then meeting some friends from school/work at the bar afterwards. The birthday thing.

Will post pics of WIPs soon, although maybe not the sack sweater if it ends up more sack than sweater.

Here's a picture of Daco, Job's family's dog (in Edmonton). He likes to snuggle between people in bed. Such a cutie.

Funny bird incident

Next to our building is an assisted living home for seniors. They have a large front lawn with two huge trees. On most days, about fifty crows sit in these two trees and squawk at anyone who walks by. If a car drives up the side road, all of the crows on the tree nearest the road fly, all at once, to the other tree. When the car has passed, they fly back. Or some of them fly back; I have no way of knowing if it is the same group. Today is hazy and it looks like it will rain, although it was sunny when I woke up. We had almost thirty-five straight days of rain before this. They thought we would set a record, but it stopped. It’s strange that records are set and broken for long periods of weather, as though long periods of rain or heat require months, maybe years of training. Maybe keeping a record of it makes us feel as though we’re in control of it. We can measure it; keep tabs; try to predict it using patterns previously established.

This hazy afternoon I happened to look out the window, and more crows than I have ever seen in one place were standing, not in the trees but on that front lawn. They walked with their noses to the grass, combing the area like police looking for signs of a struggle, or a recently dead body in a shallow grave. A car drove by one side of the lawn, and the crows jumped up, squawking, and hovered in the air, but they didn’t move, just flapped until the car passed and then settled back down, as though someone had lifted the corner of a blanket to look for something underneath, and then let it fall. What were they looking for? Materials to build nests? Worms that will be flushed out when it rains? I checked back twenty minutes later and they were gone. Only green grass where just a few minutes before the lawn had been black with feathers and poking beaks.

Monday Guilt

So my plan didn't quite happen yesterday. Surprised anyone? Right.

I did finish the Williams article. Yay me. I then watched TV for three hours until it was time to go to the movie. Then I got home, bickered with Job a bit, had some tea and went to bed. Planned to wake up at 8:00am, read the Jameson article, and go to school.

So where are we now? 12:16pm. I've read four pages (out of 22) of the Jameson article. I slept until about 9:30, drank coffee, ate pizza and worked on another NYT crossword (gotta keep up with the calendar!) until 11:00, tried to read the Jameson but was really trying to work out a four-letter word for "1914 Belgian battlefront". Fredric Jameson, while I'm sure he's a Marxist genius, is not a friend of mine. At least not today.

The movie we went to see was Fun with Dick and Jane, which was much MUCH better than I thought it would be. I actually laughed out loud a couple of times. Of course the stinky, jittery druggie next to me made it a little less funny -- he almost kicked my drink onto the floor about 3 times --

I liked the association of the Alec Baldwin character with George W. Bush... the "now look at this shot" quote was great, and I didn't feel bashed over the head with the comparison. Maybe that's because I'm Canadian and we don't get bashed over the head with Bush everyday... but who am I kidding? All the TV I watch is American -- except Rick Mercer and Corner Gas -- Yay Canadian TV!

I also didn't get to knit very much, just a little during Grey's Anatomy last night, but then I miss stuff like the track marks on the 11-year-old girl/boy's wrist... luckily Job was there to remark frustratedly, "Did you see that?" knowing that I had not, in fact, seen that. What would I do without him? Anyway, I will put off posting a picture because I have not knit as much of "lace and cables" as I'd like to... the pattern will be much cooler when there is more of it. I'm actually thinking of branching out into design and making a cardigan/sweater thingy with this pattern. I don't know about sleeves and shaping and stuff, though. Scary. The picture I'm posting instead (because there has to be something to break up my rambling text) is of Job's nephew. I'm posting this because Job's sister is due on January 20th and I can't wait for pictures of the next one! Jacob is about 2 years old now.... this is an old picture, but he's still a cutie!

Okay. That's enough stalling for now. Back to Jameson for one hour and then I gotta go to class. Tonight I will post about the wonders of Canadian poet A. M. Klein, unless the class was boring, in which case I will complain about how boring A. M. Klein is.

End-of-weekend Guilt

I should be reading:

from Marxism and Literature by Raymond Williams
and
from The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act by Fredric Jameson

but they're so boring!

So that's why I have Sunday guilt. Tomorrow is Monday and I go back to class and I run out of weekend days full of perfectly good reading time. But weekends are also excellent crossword time (just finished two NYT Sunday crosswords from my new desk calendar, the Pomegranate NYT sunday crossword one... gotta catch up with the date) and reading time (still trying to read books I want to read while I'm in school... when will I learn?). So Williams and Jameson are still sitting there, thirty pages of cultural materialism just calling to me, but I prefer Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Englishman's Boy so too bad. By the way, this picture is not of me doing a crossword. I don't think I would ever have "ismske" as part of any answer. It's a screenshot from Lost.

Slightly incoherent rambling style of this post is due to two cups of coffee and onset of panic at the realization that half my day is over and my studying has not begun.

Or I could knit...
I got a 365 days of knitting perpetual calendar (no weekdays) for Christmas, and yesterday's was "lace and cables", a combo of a really cool Y-shaped lace pattern and 3x3 cable. I tinked and frogged the stupid thing 3 times yesterday before giving up. It was 11:30 at night and I couldn't get past row 5 of the pattern without losing a stitch (and thereby offsetting the whole pattern by one stitch) or repeating part of the pattern and getting lost. I was watching TV at the time, so I probably looked at the wrong YO and continued from a part of the row that I'd already done. Argh! I love knitting but I was in the mood last night for mindless knitting that I could give only 20% of my attention to and give the other 80% (that makes 100, right?) to season 1 of Battlestar Galactica (Job, my dbf, got me hooked). However, "lace and cables" is not a 20% pattern, at least not the first time I try it. So I'd like to give it an hour or so today and see if I can get something. If it works, I'll post a pic of my swatch. I'm making swatches of each day in the calendar, and then I'll make a funky blanket or something out of them. Right now I'm labelling each swatch with a piece of notecard, but I don't know if I'll keep doing that.

Okay! Enough stalling! I have a plan.
Finish Williams, then knit for an hour, then start Jameson, then go to movie with Job. (We got movie money for Christmas from his lovely aunt Holly. After all, the theory reading isn't due until Tuesday, and my Monday classes don't start until 2:30pm... delay delay delay!

A great quote

***Update***

I misquoted! And the whole point of the post was a quote!

Boys don't make passes at female smartasses.

is the correct quote.
Thankyou jamaal and sorry Letty!
-M

***

I just saw a fantastic quote and had to share/preserve it...

"Boys don't make passes and female smartasses." -- Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Not that I've actually found that to be true, I just thought it was cute.

the Balance

The title of this blog is from a poem by Emily Dickinson. Here is the full poem:

I prayed, at first, a little Girl,
Because they told me to --
But stopped, when qualified to guess
How prayer would feel -- to me --

If I believed God looked around,
Each time my Childish eye
Fixed full, and steady, on his own
In Childish honesty --

And told him what I'd like, today,
And parts of his far plan
That baffled me --
The mingled side
Of his Divinity --

And often since, in Danger,
I count the force 'twould be
To have a God so strong as that
To hold my life for me

Till I could take the Balance
That tips so frequent, now,
It takes me all the while to poise --
And then -- it doesn't stay --

She wrote this circa 1862. This is not to say that this blog is about God or religion or even poetry. This poem is just a marker of a significant time for me; it was the first poem I memorized, it was the first poem I can really, honestly say that I GOT, and it was the inspiration for my first and only 'A+' essay in English 310, a year-long honours seminar. It made me understand why Emily Dickinson is such a big deal, and convinced me that maybe I can do this literature thing. At least I can read and say interesting things about it, if not write any myself.

So this blog will be about my life, which means

1. my work towards an undergrad degree in Honours English
2. knitting
3. reading
4. occasionally trying to write (more sporadic ideas that go nowhere than fully formed work)

I hope you read and enjoy!