I'm sure that I could be a movie star... Posted at 26 Jun 2010 11:49:44 AM

The paperwork is now signed, so it's official: I have a new job. No, I won't post the details here but suffice to say there won't be a gap between when my current contract ends and the new one begins.

Nevermind that I might like to have a bit of a gap, considering my extracurricular work load.

Of rather more immediate note, however: CoffeeMate's Hazlenut creamer is delicious.

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My brother and I took a trip last weekend to Kansas City, for the specific purpose of taking in the Billy Joel/Elton John Face2Face concert being held at the Sprint Center. As anticipated it was amazing and not an experience that I would ever regret having. It's the second time we've seen Billy, and the first for Elton, and both were just in fantastic form.

I couldn't help but notice some professional cameramen stationed at the edge of the state, and it makes me wonder whether it would be possible to obtain a recorded copy of the concert... note to self: look into this.

Emotionally speaking, I held it together for Italian Restaurant and Norma Jean, and then lost it completely at Piano Man. It wasn't unexpected... that song has always held particular significance for us.

As I said, I'm grateful for the experience.

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My Olympic project had its debut that same night, and I'm ridiculously happy with it:




Yarn: Kid Seta mohair, 3 25g balls
Needles: US #8 (5mm)
Pattern: My own, if it can be called a pattern, but I'm happy to share it if someone would like. ETA: Pattern link is in the sidebar!



Knitwise, I'm beginning to feel buried. This evening begins the Franklin Habit whirlwind, which hopefully I can get to in time owing to an unexpected mandatory drug test for the abovementioned new job. Tomorrow will be a slightly elongated Lace class, and then the Photography class, about both of which I am unreasonably excited.

I seem to have started a pair of Leyburns with the Fiber Optic sock yarn I'd bought from TLE a bit ago. It's a screamingly bright purple mixed with black and while it looked neat in plain stockinette, I decided after the cuff & a few inches that I really wasn't happy with it. The Leyburn pattern came to mind, and it seemed to me that it would help with the blotchiness.

Thus far, I'm pleased with it:





Snowflakes is on Chart J (there is no spoon Chart I). I made a bit of a goof in chart H wherein I merrily knitted along the top of some trees without noticing that I was simultaneously supposed to be starting the bottoms of some others. Rather than frog it or rework all thirty some repeats, I decided that the next set of trees would just be a bit short and non-overlapping. It's not a bug; it's a feature.


Evenstar is on a bit of a hiatus. The pattern is lovely but I didn't really like how the reeled silk was knitting up, to be honest. It's not particularly hard to work with; it just knits up like a ribbon yarn and ends up feeling coarse and inflexible. I just don't see the point in continuing only to get something which I don't really like. It's in time out for the time being, and when I start again I'm going to knit the silk along with a strand of black Baruffa Cashwool. Either the wool will tame the silk, or the silk will corrupt the wool - only time will tell. But I AM dreading starting this shawl for the fourth time...center-out beginnings drive me straight up the wall.


I've chosen a pattern to make for my nieces as a part of the New Baby package that I'll be giving their parents (no link to preserve the surprise (and also in case I end up disliking it)), and also a pattern for my parents for Christmas (ditto). I picked up some Cascade Elite Premiere on sale at the yarn shop in KC which I plan to make into a collared shrug. The yarn for my surprise gift as well as the Christmas gift is on order, and I think that both of them will be lovely even as I'm starting to panic about the number of things to which I'm "committed" in 2010.


( Click for the rest )

Posted in: concerts, i do a lot of dumb shit just for the geek cred, job, knitting, life the universe and everything, navel-gazing, random drivel, reeled silk

1 comment

	I need a snow day. Posted at 26 Jun 2010 11:49:55 AM

Lest ye think that I've fallen off the face of the earth, I haven't.

My hard drive died a few days ago, which slowed me down a bit, and the weekends have been hectic lately. Dan's birthday was last week (we had a lovely time, thank you!), I've had a class every Saturday that I'm not doing something else, and the Superbowl was yesterday ... suffice to say, we're swamped.

Nevertheless, here are some distinctly unflattering pictures of my progress:


Snowflakes... Not done.


Selkie socks ... Distinctly not done. In fact, I ripped them back to the ribbing tonight, because reverse stockinette for an entire pair of socks was not going to happen. I'll do regular stockinette instead; the chart won't care.


Twist Cardigan. This is my third try with the Berroco Lustra, and I think that I like it in this format. Of course, I would like it more if I could do the #)%(@! cables correctly. This had a dozen rows ripped out tonight, too.


This is the only project which is behaving itself. Plain stockinette socks, BMFA StR in the Doctors Without Borders colorway. I'm going back to a heel flap; it's more annoying to knit and doesn't look as smooth as a short row heel, but I think it fits better and slouches less.


The first swatch for the Evenstar Mystery Shawl KAL; I'm using 100% reeled silk from an eBay vendor in India. It took me three days to wind the first skein (around a toilet paper tube) and it lives in its very own ziploc baggie for fear that something will touch it and mess up the concentric wraps. It's rather like knitting with supremely slippery ribbon yarn, oddly enough. After a couple of swatches, I feel like I've got a better grasp of the tension needed; what's pictured above is knitted abysmally and blocked worse. (The second, better-knitted swatch was done with an older erroneous chart, so the first swatch picture is still a better representation of just why it's called the "Evenstar Shawl".)

And that's all for now. We're supposed to get a big snowstorm overnight; I may get that snow day after all.

Posted in: knitting, reeled silk

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