May 2005 Archives
Climbing gear: packed (gotta know where your priorities lie)
Clothing made from fossil fuels (they'll last forever, but oh how they dry so quickly): packed
Magazines, journal, sunblock, bugspray, eyedrops, feminine products, camera, extra flash cards and batteries, headlamp, sleepsack (hostels all the way, baby): packed
Yarn, pattern, and needles: oh yeah. Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in #32 Somerset. Interweave Knits Better than Booties Baby Socks (click for 130k pdf). US1 Clover bamboo and US2 Bryspun double-pointed needles. I have tight gauge (the pattern calls for US0) and I'm curious to see which needle type I'll like better.
Our itinerary revolves around climbing areas in Germany, France, and Spain, but I'll try to visit yarn stores along the way. We may pass through Becky's stomping grounds via rail, but then again we may fly straight to Barcelona. It's all up in the air! I've already lined up posts for the next 3 weeks, so don't stay away!
Auf wiedersehen, au revoir, and hasta la vista!
Kitten War If the Inishmore Challenge isn't enough for you, click to see kitties dueling with each other. Via Kottke, of course.
Let's do a complete 180 and go to Other People's Stories, especially this one. I remember my mom's maternal or paternal grandfather was captured by the Japanese and forced into the march. His death was confirmed by a survivor but his remains were never be found.
I created my own pixel backgrounds by hand, but if you want some really cool ones for your site, go to Kaliber 10000. In their top nav, click on "specials" and in the resulting page's left hand nav, under "pixel patterns", click on the left icon. There are tons of great ones to choose from. HOWEVER: give credit where credit is due, link back to their site, and e-mail the designer. I'm sure they'd love to know.
I have mixed feelings about the commercialism on Treehugger. "Organic" and "green lifestyle" are *big* marketing concepts right now.
Inhabitat.com is a great site. Period.
Photo from a peace march February 2003.
I don't know why commenting shows up even though it's turned off, so don't click.
Pattern: Eyelet Pullover, Gedifra Highlights 41
Yarn: Gedifra Modern Cotton in 3219 Pink
Needles: US8
It fits! It fits! And the sleeves drape so well.
Modifications galore on this one: longer sleeves, narrower body, shorter body, different neck, different hem. In short, a re-engineered pattern. Next time I'll reference Ann Budd's sweater book; I was feeling adventurous and ploughed ahead on my own. I added eyelets to the bottom of the front and back, and in the picture the hem's still rolling but that's because I need to block it. I reduced the number of cast-on stitches for both front and back and recalculated the decreases for a shorter body. I also redid the neck because I didn't like the roll-thing happening on the original pattern. I lengthened the sleeves at the forearm before the elbow. The eyelets are deceiving, though, because they are hard to measure correctly, being so elastic. As a result, instead of skimming my wrist bone the sleeves cover my knuckles. Well, that's okay. Click here for a full recap of this project.
I figured I should work on the rest of my projects before starting any new ones. I'm almost done with the rainforest colonial roving, and I'm halfway with the right side of the smock jacket. I'm thinking of what to take with me as a project; right now it's either socks or a mini Bobbi Bear. I have the pattern and I'm going to resize it for worsted yarn, but that could be a hassle. So I'm thinking socks at this point. As for pattern and yarn I'll have to look around...
Reading: Finished both Queen Noor's and James Patterson's books. Queen Noor's autobiography was very interesting. She speaks very candidly about Middle East politics, Jordan's role in it, and her life with King Hussein. Hers was a Cinderella story. The 3rd Degree by Patterson was less choppy than his other books, for which I was glad. There were still some loose ends, but then again I really wasn't expecting it to be brilliant. Has anyone read Sue Grafton's alphabet series, and would they recommend it?
Not reading anything this week, just packing!
Keyboard Biologist Theresa is knitting Liberty. It looks great, and I will definitely try the tubular cast-on. It looks like I'll be knitting this the moment I come back from vacation: I placed an order with my favorite eBay seller for RY Classic CashSoft and Cashcotton. Janette is a sweet lady; she responds quickly to all requests and has good yarn deals--Kidsilk Haze for $9, free shipping!
Xtreme-Knitting Jen (happy birthday!) just published her Three Dinosaurs pattern. A brontosaurus, a triceratops, and a stegosaurus, how sweet! You know *at least* one person who would be delighted to have these. Make plenty.
Knit at Nite Corine made a wooly animal out of yarn, needles, stitch markers and needle holders. Go on, go look.
Wendy Knits! Wendy and L-B go head to head in the Inishmore Challenge, with a worthy cause to boot. L-B just finished a saddle-shouldered sleeve, and Wendy is making good progress on the back. All this knitting makes want to do an Aran. Any suggestions on patterns, anyone? I don't care if it's beginner, intermediate, or difficult. Challenge is good, yah?
Artitst Banksy strikes again! This time, a rock with a drawing of prehistoric man and shopping cart in the British museum. Via Kottke (damn, he has good links).
I'm done with the left front! This is its unblocked state, with the live shoulder stitches waiting for the 3-needle bind-off. My gauge is somehow looser than when I started, so I'm thinking about tossing the thing, dampened, in the dryer after it's all seamed up to tighten the stitches. Does that sound like heresy? ...I don't think I want to go back and rework the whole thing with a smaller size needle!
I experimented with different bobble instructions because the pattern version came out loose (again it may have been my gauge) and flat. Google searches ended up with some instructions on the Knitter's Review forum that didn't involve turning, then I made up my own from there: k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, don't slip stitch off the needle; pass 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th over 1st; move stitch on left needle to right neede; pass 1st stitch over; move stitch back to left needle and knit through back loop. Somehow I think that someone is rolling their eyes at my version of the bobble! I also made sure to tighten the stitch after that on the right side, and the stitch before and after on the wrong side. I loves me some bobbles.
Reading: Leap of Faith by Queen Noor of Jordan, and 3rd Degree by James Patterson. Queen Noor provides some insight into Middle East politics and life in the Arab world, which is different from what we read about in the papers. I like it so far. Another James Patterson book; 3rd Degree has started out more promising than the last Alex Cross book I read. Of the last 4 that I borrowed, I liked Indu Sundaresan's The Twentieth Wife, about one of the wives of Indian Emperor Jahangir. It turns out there's another book, The Feast of Roses, which continues the story after she was married to him. Another book to read later this year!
I signed onto Bloglines this morning and looked through the list of knitblogs: gah, so many to read! I have a desk job, so it's easy to read a few here and there during a break. Fast reader that I am, I have over 100 subscriptions. I try to comment on the days that I don't post, and write my replies on Mondays. Blogging can be time-consuming but it has its rewards as well.
Thanks everyone for lifting my spirits last week! The deaths hit me harder than I thought they would, and with BF being gone for work I was *not* in a good mood. I made some changes that moving forward will make life better. And make me a better person too. I'm still replying to emails, so please don't think I've ignored you!
Lolly Girl Lauren tagged me for the book meme, so here goes:
Total number of books in your house Not counting the 8 boxes in storage (because where are you going to put all those books in an apartment of less than 700 square feet), there are at least 200.
The last book you bought was Stephanie's At Knit's End.
Books you often read or that mean a lot to you I'm having a brainfart here, let me just give you what's off the top of my head: F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has been a favorite since high school. Carl Sagan's Contact is not your ordinary science fiction. Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep is one of those out-there science fiction novels, only because of the creatures and outer, outer space. John Robbins' Diet for a New America and The Food Revolution are great books if you're interested in food and health.
Who are you going to pass this on to and why?
Hm. Well, there are a lot of new, semi-new, and other bloggers out there and I'm curious to know more about them. I'm passing this nice and short meme to
Pixie Purls
Superstarra-ville Christie (turns out we have a mutual friend!)
The Interrupting Sheep Becks
Vintage Fusion Knits & Crochet Emy
It has been a little difficult the last few weeks; two of our family friends passed away. One of them had known me since I was 3 years old, the other was my niece's grandfather. Children are precious, but please hold your elders close to your heart too.
Not surprisingly, I haven't been in the mood to knit lately. I did, however, find a pattern that I instantly liked: Liberty from Rowan/RY Classic's Classic Cafe. I like the combination of soft orange, green, and blue-grey, with the cable detail. I really, really like this pattern. I may actually break my promise not to have a yarn stash and buy up some CashSoft and CashCotton!
Updated my Links section. I've discovered more knitters(!) in L.A.(!) Hello, meetup!
I took a break from knitting this weekend to do some more spinning. Of course, the artsy shot doesn't show my progress, but I did some spinning, honest. I've got about half of the roving Leila gave me all spun up into a worsted yarn, which is thin, strong, and shiny. This is for lace, I'm thinking.
Burnt Orange posted an excellent entry on photography basics such as lighting, composition, and continuity that is worth reading. I've received my share of compliments (thank you) on photography so I'm putting together a post on composition and cropping that I hope will help. If you have specific questions on photography, let me know and I'll try to answer them when I do the post.
Knit One Read Too's discussion on Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrell is on. Do drop by, even if you haven't finished the book.
Reading: Some time ago Leisel recommended Dan Simmons' Hyperion series, but such is my luck at the library that the first 2 were checked out (*sigh*), so I borrowed his A Winter Haunting instead. Also, Anne Tyler's Ladder of Years, Indu Sundaresan's The Twentieth Wife, Virginia Woolf's Orlando, and Karen Quinn's The Ivy Chronicles. I'm halfway through the last one, which is total fluff reading. I'm feeling a little down and need something mindless right now...
