Attention Bloggers!

You! Yes, you! All of you!
Start posting.
I know I've been lazy, but I'm making an effort. Time to step up, people.
I'm bored and need something to read. I'm making it your responsibility.

Evil Stores

So I moved this weekend. That's not the exciting part of the this post. I was back in South Bend finishing up some business, and I happened to pass by Erica's. Despite being mostly a quilting store, they have a very nice little yarn section in the back. I was going to resist going in there one last time, I really was. Then they had a sign out front that said everything you could fit in their bag was 20% off. Everything. 20% off everything.
It's evil, I tell you. And it's going on tomorrow still if you want to get sucked down too.
So I picked up Modular Knits, which I'd been coveting for a while, and a nice pair of size 8 rosewood needles. You wouldn't think rosewood needles could be so nice. Especially not for the price you normally pay for them. But at 20% off, who could resist just one little pair?
In essence, this is really a victory. I made it out with a book I'd been planning to buy eventually and one pair of needles. Believe me, I wanted to fill that bag full of yarn. They have Manos del Uruguay, Noro, some basic cottons and wools, some interesting novetly yarns, etc. All of these could have been mine for 20% off. But moving really puts the size of your yarn stash in perspective. Three enormous boxes is probably enough. For now.

Wedding Shawl

No, it's not one of those wedding shawls. I don't have the concentration or the year out of my life to make one of the fabled Stonington shawls thin enough to pass through a wedding band. However, I do have a long time friend getting married this June, and she's going to wear it at her wedding reception. Let's face it. It's quite an ego boost to have something you've made be a part of one of the most important days of someone's life, especially when it's someone you really love.
I sent her these WIP pics so she can match it with her outfit. I wish I had the time to make something at least a little more intricate, but at least it looks pretty. It's about a foot and half wide, and should be a little over 4 feet long when I'm finished.
It's two skeins of Kid Silk Haze (70% mohair, 30% silk) knit in feather and fan on size 10 needles. I had never done feather and fan before, and it's amazingly simple. (But don't tell the non-knitters that, I want them to be impressed.)
Here's how it goes:
Multiple of 18 stitches, a garter stitch bottom is nice (I did 4 rows)
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: * (K2tog) x3, (yo, K1) x 6, (K2tog) x3, * repeat from * to end
Row 4: Knit
Repeat until desired length. Amaze and astonish your friends.
Now the trick is just getting it done before the June 24th deadline.

FOtos

Okay, I've been a bad blogger recently. But here, to make it up to you in one big post are several pictures. I haven't been lazy. Well, yes I have. But I've also managed to knit a few things as well.
For mother's day, my mom got two shawls. One was going to be for her birthday, but I'm not very good about keeping presents once I've finished them. The crochet shawl in beige is the Sweet Pea shawl from the Happy Hooker. She's actually posing, so you can tell she likes it. Look at the close-up.
It's huge, and took a little while, but it was far easier than the other one. So of course she likes it better.
The other is the Sheer One-Piece Shawl by Iris Schreier. I really like the whole modular knit thing, but this had a lot of stitches and took a long time. Luckily, I had a lot of presentations to sit through while I was knitting it. I'm tempted to buy the book, but that requires money.
And rounding things off is the Big Bad Baby Blanket from Stitch and Bitch, made on commission for one of my mom's friends. She's very feminine, so I added some pink ribbon.

Everyone go see Amanda!

One of my friends just started knitting not too long ago, and she's already seriously addicted. So go see Amanda at amanda-knits.blogspot.com .
Mother's Day shawls were knitted and crocheted, and I'll have to bug my mom for pictures because I forgot.

New Thoughts

Yes, I know you want shiny, pretty pictures of knitted objects, but I'm going to disappoint you once again. The only thing I've (mostly) finished is a crochet shawl for Mother's Day, and even it still needs fringe. I've been working on unimportant things, like final exams.
However, something occured to me today, and I think it might need mentioning. (I'm probably wrong, but am going to mention it anyway.) In the Yarn Harlot's first book, she talks about all the tape measures she has lost over the years and estimates the number of tape measures that much be hiding in each room of her house. I totally understand, and except for being younger, have probably lost nearly as many and still have no idea where they're hiding. They're probably in the same place that socks in the laundry go. However, what disturbs me more is the number of little yarn scissors that I've lost over the years. If, for instance, you lost a knitting item in the couch, wouldn't you much rather it be a tape measure than a tiny pair of absurdly sharp scissors? Sitting on a tape measure would cause a lot less injury to the person and the tape measure.
Think about that the next time you sit down. I've probably lost something at your house too.

Because I'm feeling a little self-absorbed right now

Go to Wikipedia. In the Search box, type your birth month and day (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Post this in your journal.

Events:

1871 - Four major fires break out on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois, Peshtigo, Wisconsin, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan. The Great Chicago Fire is the most famous of these, having left nearly 100,000 people homeless, although the Peshtigo Fire killed as many as 2,500 people making it the deadliest fire in United States history.

1939 - World War II: Germany annexes Western Poland.

2004 - Martha Stewart goes to jail.

Births:

1890 - Edward Rickenbacker, American pilot (d. 1973)

1943 - Chevy Chase, American comedian and actor

Death:

1869 - Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States (b. 1804)

Note to Self

Next time you try to sneak out before a seminar, make sure you're not wearing an ankle bracelet with bells on it.

Stuff On My Cat

Wow. I've found an incredible new way to waste time. Check this out: www.stuffonmycat.com .

Kids these days...

What is the with the number of people having kids these days that don't want to know the sex of the child? Two of my friends are about to become uncles for the first time and neither, I repeat, neither family wants to know. I mean, sure, miracle of birth, blah blah blah, but there are purely practical concerns here. What color do you paint the nursery? What kind of clothes do people buy for it? And more importantly, what am I supposed to knit?
Well, luckily I'm clever.
Even varigated yarns tend to have pink or blue in them, and if parents are picky, it might look more masculine or feminine. I don't like green, at least not baby green, and it tends to look boyish anyway. Yellow is safe, and I have a thing about ducks, so I made this little fair isle duck hat. I charted the little duckies myself. This would become my standard "I don't know what I'm having" baby hat, except for a few small issues.
I can't give both friends the exact same hat because one, that would be lazy and wrong, and two, they're roommates. Luckily, Kristine was around to make a few suggestions. She said she uses a lot of white for babies. Since the hat pattern I like to use is pretty simple, I knew I needed a little more to it. She suggested making it with an eyelet row and weaving in the appropriate color when the baby is born. I need to pass these off before the kids are actually born, though. I could have sent it with a plain eyelet row and let the parents weave it in, but I'm pretty sure that's the last thing new parents would want to so. So, and here's the clever part, I wove in both pink and blue ribbons. That way, when the kid is born, they can just pull out the wrong color. It's a lot faster, and also sort of fun and destructive. I think even new parents can handle that. This would also work with just about any kind of baby item, so I now have a solution when these new-fangled parents get crazy ideas in their heads.
If I spawn, I'm so finding out what it is the minute I can. Technology is here for a reason.

A dangerous new addiction

So last week the 13th anual Fleece Fair in Greencastle, IN. I say that like I know, but it was my first time anyplace like that. It was pretty impressive. There were three big fairground buildings full of wooly goodness. I expected to buy a lot of yarn, but I actually wound up buying a lot of things to start spinning. I bought three different kinds of roving, and two drop spindles. I had the first 6 oz. of roving spun and plied withing 24 hours. If I were a good blogger, or had some self control, I would have documented this process by taking pictures along the way. Well. I also knit it right away. Here's a little picture of the yarn left over. And here's the little purse I made out of it. Not bad for a first try, if I do say so myself.
Unfortunately, I'm now hooked. I've been eyeing spinning wheels for while, but I got to try some out at the Fleece Fair. I'm still madly in love with the Kromski brand (it's just so pretty), but after playing around I think I want the castle style instead of the other kind (whatever it's called).
The stuff I made first is bulky, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I am going to try to spin a little bit thinner next time. I also got this purplish-pinkish-with-some-white roving and some electric blue. That picture may look like a Care Bear barfed on my floor, but trust me. I'll spin it eventually.
The spindles are cute too. I had tried spinning on a bottom whorl spindle, and it didn't go so well. It turns out that the top whorl is actually easier. This wooden one is painted like a night sky with stars and a crescent moon. The little one is made of fimo clay and is really psychedelic. I think the blue is going to look so cool spinning on that.
It is becoming increasingly clear that this is not so much a hobby as an addiction.

Bad Blogger, Bad!

So I really haven't posted in about a week. It's not that I haven't been making things. I've been making way too many things. I've just suddenly become too lazy to take pictures. And right now I'm trying to avoid doing homework, which is pretty successful, really.
I took a trip home and passed off an awful lot of things to my mom. She got a crochet little handbag, a big crochet bag that just needs handles, a scarf, and a corset style belt. I made her promise to take pictures, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen.
It's surprisingly hard to take pictures of yourself, so please enjoy these pictures of Hello Kitty wearing a shawl and a hat and scarf set and a monkey wearing a scarf. The scarf is really cool, look at the closeup. It's recycled sari silk yarn, which I adore but really can no longer afford, and it's in a modular knit pattern. The pattern was so fun to make I'll probably do it again, which is pretty rare for a scarf. Although I think I'll use much cheaper yarn. This little bag is exactly like the one my mom got, only hers is in denim blue. This one has an extra eyelet row that's going to get a little white ribbon as soon as I stop being lazy.
Another advantage of the trip home was that my mom bought me some books. I generally try to support the LYS, but when my mom is paying, I'm not going to complain about where she gets it. Besides a couple of Jane Austen books (don't ask, I'm just in the mood), I got two knitting books. First, was the Yarn Harlot's new book, Knitting Rules. I was expecting another book full of rants about knitting, but it turns out, this one has some practical knitting advise too. She has basic patterns for hats, socks, and scarves, and funny justifications for why you should knit them all. I read it cover to cover the first day I got it. The other book was Posh Pooches, a kit that has tons of patterns for dog sweaters, polo shirts, etc. and comes with needles with little dogs on the ends. It's incredibly cute and silly. I was immediately commissioned to knit sweaters and scarves for my parents' dogs, Bob (full name: Wild Bob the Nerf Herder), a Welsh corgi, and Bullwinkle, the world's stupidest Weimareiner. I made the first scarf that night for Bob, and it looks pretty cute. I've been promised a picture, but we'll see how that goes. It's a cute little scarf, actually. It's an oblique rib pattern, so the ribbing goes on the diagonal. It's so much better than regular ribbing, which generally makes me want to stab myself in the eye with my knitting needle. It's also got a little keyhole so it stays on (fairly) well. I'm making a matching scarf for Bullwinkle. They want me to make the sweater for Bullwinkle that's based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi shawl. I've been meaning to try a pi shawl for some time now. It figures that the dog will get the first one.
Anyway, back to work with me. Look at some pretty pictures.

Yarn Frenzy

Okay, this crochet thing is really starting to take a hold of me. Turns out, doing it right is actually faster, and looks better too. I'm doing a project a day or so. The only trouble is finishing, which takes me a while to get to. So I promise, eventually, I will sew on buttons, zippers, snaps, etc and weave in ends and ribbons eventually and show you pictures of my latest obsession.
But one of my guildies alerted me to a sale of CottonTots at Hobby Lobby, and I think I'm going to be in trouble. It's pretty much my go-to yarn for baby and generic projects, and at $2 something a skein, it's nearly half price. I'm not really sure whether I should be grateful for that or not. I'm going to have to go buy a ton of it.
One scary thing I found out yesterday is that I'm frighteningly consistent in my idiosyncracies. I picked up a little notebook I'd used for yarn data before and scribbled down my yarn requirements for a few projects I'm interested in. They tend to frown on you pulling out entire books to look for that sort of thing, and it keeps it all in one place. After I was done, I looked back and found that I had written all my previous entries in exactly the same way. They had messy and cursive writing, though I rarely do either, the exact same bits of information in the exact same order, and the same defiant check mark and "done!" written in the margins.
I'm inclined to believe that different types of handwriting from the same person imply using different sides of the brain dominantly. So you all know, because you're smart like that, that the left side of the brain does the analytical thinking and the right side does the creative thinking. I find when I'm doing physics or math, or even writing about physics, I tend to print. But when I'm doing something like a language class, or writing about knitting, I write cursive. Has anyone else ever noticed something like that? I'm sure it varies quite a bit, but I'm curious about that. It seems true for me at any rate.
Right. Off to buy lots of yarn.

Have you ever noticed....

Have you ever noticed that when you leave the house without knitting (or something), you always regret it? Today, I thought, oh, I'll be busy, I won't bother carrying anything with me. Then I had to wait for half an hour. I should just know better, and keep knitting on me at all times.
Several relatively exciting things have happened in my little knitting world, although none of them actually involve finishing a project (except for a few charity hats), but I have a couple of "almosts". I'm nearly done with the baby sweater I started ages ago. The child it was originally intended for has probably totally outgrown it by now. But it's almost done.
Secondly, the happy guild meeting was yesterday. One of my friends found a pattern I wanted for the Sunburst Sling Bag on eBay for $3 (including shipping) and bought it for me, so I procured that and the delicious recycled sari silk for it. I really can't justify spending the money on that yarn, so I'm not even going to try. But it's on the same plane as chocolate in my mind. Really.
I bought more of that same fantastic yarn to finish the modular scarf I'm working on. Again, can't justify it, but it's really really cool. So that should be done before too long.
Finally, something I can justify. I used a Christmas gift card to Barnes and Noble to get The Happy Hooker, which is Stitch and Bitch for crochet. If you don't know about Stitch and Bitch, you're missing out on the best knitting book ever. (The sequel is a little weird, but fun.) Well it looks the crochet book is the equivalent. These are great learn-to books with great references for every basic stitch, and cool, wearable patterns. Seriously, check both these books out. I knit my way through most of the first Stitch and Bitch, and the crochet bug has bitten me lately.
In theory, I knew how to crochet, but after 30 seconds of reading this book, I figured out I've been doing it "wrong" my whole life. Not that the things looked bad before, it's just good to know. And I'm a lot happier doing it right. I'm working on a one skein little handbag that is incredibly cute. Unfortunately, I still have to do it the wrong way to finish they crochet baby blanket I'm in the middle of.
Also arrived, the Yarn Harlot's Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much. The things she does and says related to knitting are completely insane. I totally relate. Aparently she's got a new book coming out before too long. I'm hooked, despite my previous reservations.
The yarn finally arrived for a knitted baby blanket I'm supposed to be working on. It's just so hard to work on something I know I have to do before I can cast on all these fun things. Now with crochet in the ring too, there's just going to be trouble. I think I'm going to have to drop out of school so I have time to do this all.

St. Patty's Day

Okay, this actually has nothing to do with knitting. I'm going to complain about it anyway.
Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, and I went to Chicago. I turned 21 not too long ago, so this was my first legal St. Patrick's Day, and I was looking forward to green beer.
I couldn't find it. Anywhere.
Chicago has a very large Irish population, and Chicagoans like their beer. There was plenty of beer, but none of it was green.
How much food coloring can that really cost? Hmm? $0.03 maybe?
So after a long day wandering around Chicago, I came home, bought some Harp, and dyed it green myself. My hands may now be quite stained, but it was so worth it.
And yes, it really does taste better when it's green. That's the taste of satisfaction.

German Yarn

Now, every knitter with a blog has to pay homage to the Yarn Harlot. For a while, I resented her. Why should she get to be popular for writing about knitting when I don't? Other than the fact that she is clearly more talented than I am at both writing and knitting. But then I caved and read her book. And it's funny, and is possessed by the same yarn demon I am that makes me stash, take on bigger projects than I can handle and be emotionally connected to my yarn. I was seduced by the Yarn Harlot.
Today's post is something that I can totally relate to. She picked up a pattern in Finnish and decided to try to knit it. Not two months ago, I did the exact same thing with German.
Now, I speak a little German. I'm of German decent, I have German relatives (though none that are both German and knit). I was pretty sure that if I sat down with a dictionary and the German knititng pattern I would be able to knit anything in this pattern book of cute, traditional German clothes. Boy was I wrong.
It's not the words. Even if I couldn't figure out the words from the real dictionary, there are online knitting dictionaries. The trouble is that the entire pattern is constructed differently. Numbers and symbols appear in no apparent order. Clearly, this is the famed German efficiency and I'm just too slow to understand.
So if anyone thinks they can explain to me how to read a German knitting pattern, please, please do. Because did I mention I bought the yarn for several projects in it? And I want to knit them. Desperately. And it wants to be knit. The yarn is sitting in my closet, sobbing softly.
Someone save that poor, innocent yarn that just wants to be made into German clothing. Hilfe!

And Tonight's Feature Film is.......

She Gods of Shark Reef!
Oh yes. It's bad and it's beautiful. It's also part of my 50 SciFi classic movie pack that I bought a while for $20. I think it's a good deal, possibly one of my best investments. Think about that, only 40 cents per bad science movie. That's less than a penny per minute of bad scienceness. Really, what's the point of Mystery Science Theater when it's so much more fun to do it yourself?
Also, I now own knitted shoes. Sadly, I did not think of these, nor did I even copy them and knit them myself. Nor was I the first person I know to own them (my cousin had them at Thanksgiving). However, I now own them, and cheaply. Marshall Field's is going out of business, which is a terrible thing. That won't stop me from taking advantage of the sale.
More knitting things will appear someday, I promise. I made a Shaker Rib hat that's a little iffy, but kind of cute. It would have been cuter if I had a) paid better attention to gauge (this one always gets me) and b) not run out of yarn. You'd think I'd learn. But you'd be wrong.
I made one of my baby hats with little fair isle hearts. It came out incredibly cute, and entirely by accident. Once again, I started a project and nearly ran out of yarn. So I switched colors and popped in some hearts, and made something that may be too cute too look at. It leaves me itching for more fair isle.
And yet I should so be working on one of my big projects, or perhaps, real work. Spring Break has in theory already started, but I've still got some work to do before I can relax. Then there will be much knitting.

The Dangers of Knitting in Public

I like to knit baby-sized projects. They go very quickly, so you get that sense of instant gratification. I can make my favorite baby hat pattern (the Umbilical Cord Hat from Stitch n Bitch) in 2-3 hours. If you don't think that's instant, clearly you knit entirely by machine/not at all. Also, my knitting guild does a lot for charity, and one of our projects is hats and things for the YWCA women's shelter.

However, one of the dangers of knitting in public is always having to explain yourself when making baby things. I don't have children, nor do I want any in the near future, so whenever I'm caught knitting baby items in public, it's immediately followed with an explanation.
It goes like this.

Someone: What are you knitting?
Me: A baby hat, it'sforcharity/it'sforoneofmymom'sfriends/myfriendsbrother, etc.

(I endured a decent amount of teasing before I figured this out.)
However, at least 25% of the time, when I answer "It'sforcharity," someone inevitably wonders, "Who's charity?"
Don't believe me? Ask my dad.

Nerd Knits

So here's the thing. Once a week, my department has a physics colloquium, where someone comes in from another department or another school and gives a physics-y lecture. Naturally, I use this time to further my physics education by exposing myself to a broad range of research, by which I mean knit. Besides being fun, it also keeps me awake. I'm one of very few women, and, I thought, the only knitter. Until a week or two ago, one of my professors came up and asked me about my knitting. She looks like your typical knitter, but also happens to be a professor of physics. I was working on my double knit scarf, which looks exactly the same only marginally longer, so I'm not going to post another picture. She was fascinated, and started talking about the topology of knitting. This goes way beyond a mobius scarf, but I'll get to that in a moment. I confessed to here that I want to knit the chart of the nuclides every time I see it. Actually, these days it's fairly often, as I'm taking my nuclear physics elective.
I let her borrow the double knitting pattern; it's really simple and I'm sure she'll have no trouble with it. In return, she sent me these links, part of the beauty of nerdy knitting.
First, she told me about this DNA scarf, which she adapted into an afghan for one of her sons. The cable pattern really looks like the DNA chain. It may be biology, but it's still nerdy enough to interest me.
She also found this DNA baby toy, which actually has the correct base pairs. (If you don't care at all about DNA, just translate "base pairs" into "pretty colors," but if you don't care that much, you probably won't knit DNA.)
But it turns out there are many, many nerds out there, which you can easily see thanks to Google. You can crochet a Lorentz manifold. And there are a bunch of other mathematical functions you can knit/crochet here. You can also quilt math things, but I'm not so good at that. In fact, the only quilt I ever tried was assembled completely backwards, and is sitting in my parents garage. Not only was I totally bad at it, I also broke up with the guy I was making it for. This was before I knew about the sweater curse. Aparently there's a quilt curse too.
The moral of the story is, I'm not the only nerdy knitter out there. People have designed these things. And I'm so going knit them.

Closing Ceremonies

For the last 17 days, I have been hopelessly addicted to the Olympics. Thursday I was at a sports bar, and started screaming when the they changed the channel during the women's figure skating final. It's really a good thing that there's only one set of Olympics every two years. But, after watching the closing ceremonies, I'd like to address a few of the important players in this year's events.

Dear Torino,
Thank you for putting on a good show at the opening and closing ceremonies and being slightly weird. I appreciate that in a city. Your medal is certainly unique, by which I mean looks like a donut. I only wish I could have partied with you in person. Maybe when you bring the shroud back out, I'll come visit you. Until then, you'll just have to hope I have to go to Italy for a conference or something. Of course, I'll be wishing that too.

Dear Joey Cheek,
Thank you. Thank you for existing. Thank you for looking cute, even in tights. Thank you for not taking yourself too seriously. Thank you for not fighting with either Chad Hendrik or Shani Davis. Thank you for giving all your money to charity. Marry me.

Dear Apolo Anton Ohno,
I take back 60% of the bad things I've said about you. However, please, please shave the soul patch. It just looks like pubic hair. Don't do that to yourself.

Dear Bode Miller,
Ha ha.

Dear Dick Button,
You are the John Madden of figure skating. Your insightful comment, "If Joe and Sally Front Porch think they can get up and do this, they've got another think coming," has given me an entirely new perspective on your sport. Thank you.

Dear Snowboarding Team,
No really. How much pot do you smoke?

Dear Sasha Cohen and Tanith Belbin,
I'm sorry you only got silver, but you're still very pretty.

Dear Shani Davis,
I'm very disappointed in you. This should have been about your (admittedly impressive) achievement instead of your bad attitude and catfights with Chad Hendrik. Behave yourself.

Dear Bob Costas,
Go home.

Dear Michelle Kwan, Lindsey Kildow, Zhang Dan, Lydia Ierodiaconou and others,
Ouch. I'm sorry I had to see you injure yourselves terribly on international television. I was screaming with pain in sympathy, but I'm sure that didn't help you one bit. Thanks for trying.

Dear Canada,
See you in four years, eh?

Dear Other Athletes,
Thank you for absorbing all of my attention for the last week and a half. I may be falling drasticly behind on my school work, but at least, for about two more days, I'm extremely well informed on current events. The Olympics really kind of do all that stuff that Visa commercials make me tear up about, but I won't actually admit. Now give me back my life.