Recently in Girl Friday Category

I've been nursing a couple of injuries for the last six-and-a-half weeks now, and the lack of complete mobility has been.... an inconvenience. There have been low moments, such as when I spilled my almonds all over the office and I got down on all fours to pick them up, screw the "10-second rule". I don't think there could be a high moment while injured, but today I was able to put weight on a foot—progress!—so it should only get better from this point. You have no idea how happy that makes me!

To stave off the last few weeks' boredom/pity party/melodramatic fits I picked up the knitting. And the reading.

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Take three for Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark's Girl Friday. I prefer smaller projects in general, but this particular cardigan drew me because of its stitch pattern. Blocked well, the peaks and valleys of stitches become texture, angles, symmetry. I'm a sucker for geometric patterns.

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It's always enjoyable to knit someone else's pattern: the numbers have been calculated, the pattern has been positioned, and all a knitter has to do is follow directions. But I decided to knit my version from the top, because I love to tinker (and if you like tinkering too, try Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top). I cast on stitches for the neck and shoulders, placed yarn markers to indicate the neck opening, and at this point I'm about to start ribbing on the back. I briefly thought about making this a raglan but ultimately went with the set-in sleeve: in this case you see more of the pattern at the shoulders, as opposed to having a raglan line disrupt it unnecessarily.

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As a nod to summer evenings, I decided to knit a longer body and shorter 3/4 sleeves, as opposed to Mercedes' classic silhouette. This will be my go-to summer cardi, to pull over tank tops and shorts or spaghetti strap dresses.

The airport near where I grew up is known as Zamperini Field, and until I read Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, I had no idea about its namesake. I've had discussions with people about what makes ordinary people extraordinary or excel (mainly regarding rock climbing), and it really *is* about the personality. Louie Zamperini was one of those people, not necessarily the smartest person around, but the one who never took "no" for an answer, never let a mere broken foot get in the way.

Some of you may remember Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years), but did you know he's written two other sequels? Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men are good, but I still think his first was the best. Paul Greenberg's Four Fish presents historical and scientific information about tuna, salmon, cod, and sea bass. It's a well-written book that doesn't overload the reader with too many facts, and presents sustainability, fish farming, environmental issues, and other fishing industry topics in an honest direct way. Finally, John Brenkus' The Perfection Point: Sport Science Predicts the Fastest Man, the Highest Jump, and the Limits of Athletic Performance explores the limits of human ability. Overall I liked this book as I could pick and choose the chapters to read (no baseball and golf, thank you). And while I'm totally opposed, he was quite honest about the role of performance-enhancing drugs in certain sports and presented a logical argument.

I hope your summer has been good so far!

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Having knit for oh, about 7 years now, I've accumulated lots of knitting material. Admittedly more magazines than books, really, because I'm looking for a certain style that is *me*. I pick my books and magazines the way I used to pick CDs, back before iTunes came into our lives: there had to be 3 great songs in a CD before I put down my money. So, in terms of knitting I've got about a dozen books and probably 4 times that many magazines. Only about a fifth of them are American; the rest are foreign language. So a few days ago when I was lazily looking through my stacks (I did a purge; some knitter at Goodwill is *really* happy right now) I decided that 2011 would be my year of international knitting.

Yes, you poor, long-ignored Phildars, Dale of Norways, Rebeccas, and Japanese magazines, you will have your turn in the sun! Even you, Rowan! No, the Queen's English is technically not a foreign language but you're British and I need an excuse to include you here! I will pick up (stash) yarn and needles and I will doggedly read through all manner of instructions and the garment I will create will be beautiful! Yes, Norwegian and Japanese are not exactly easy languages to translate, but there are online resources that can help! I will not be alone!

Speaking of biting off more than I can chew... I was hasty in my reading Twist Collective's Finish Fest. I had misread "Finish for February" as "Finish *in* February", thinking I had a complete 4 weeks to do a few projects. Easy, yeah?

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Easy, no. January 31 is fast approaching! Antalya 5's grafting will take up an hour, I can do that anytime. It was my cardi I needed to take care of. In a rush, I picked up my languishing Girl Friday, placed it back on a circular needle, and knit about 4 rows before I discovered, I don't know what needles I used. I don't know my gauge. Where are my notes? Were they inserted between some pages of a random magazine?? Did I toss them in the same bag as the Goodwill donations??? Suffice it to say that yesterday evening I frogged a considerable amount of yarn, reknit a gauge swatch and didn't get gauge, revised the pattern for my gauge and needle size, found sufficient yarn to make it with, and started knitting (Continental, mind you). And look! I have 8 inches of knitting! Ignore the uneven ribbing, be proud of me!

That's the state of my knitting to date. Beyond that, I've started to process my Amsterdam pictures. When I think of Amsterdam I think of bicycles! And so, dear reader, I have bicycles for you. Have a good Thursday!

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ETA: Wtf, FaceBook?