One is the Lonliest Number
It’s that time of year, time for Matt to go on a business trip and me to stay here, lonely. Don’t get me wrong, I get that he needs to go and isn’t like he enjoys leaving me home, but that doesn’t make it any better. He left this afternoon and will be back Friday night. Thankfully, I have class until late Monday – Wednesday and Thursday I can keep myself busy by going to knit night at Fibre Space. But, tonight, I feel horrible. If it weren’t for Leah chatting with me on AIM – which I had not been on since last semester and that was only to chat during class – and watching episode after episode of Greek, I would be going nuts.
(Sorry for such a lame post. It’s all I could muster today.)
Homebody
I barely left the house today – only long enough to pick up breakfast. Between having the smoker on in the backyard and the guys from the gas company replacing our gas meter, we couldn’t really leave the house. I probably would have gone to the knitting shop except Matt’s leaving tomorrow on business so I’m in the treasure-every-moment phase of preparing for him to leave.
Oh, and here’s how far I’ve gotten on the sweater.
Post ‘O Random Pictures
Welcome to my post of random photos. There’s nothing tying any of this together. Really.
1. My old blog writing location: Messy desk in our upstairs office. Surrounded by not only yarn but dead computers, rarely used TV, and school stuff
2. My new blog writing location: Living room, using new PC with easy access to Diet Coke, snacks, and bad TV. Much preferred.
3. Shoes my Mom bought me – aren’t they awesome?
4. Yarn Beth got me as a thank you (against my wishes). The blue/green is from Saarbrucken, the town we almost wound up in after mis-reading a train station sign in Meinz, Germany the April before last.
New Sweater Idea
I did wind up starting a new sweater, after all. I blame Beth and Rosemary and their NaKniSweMo efforts. While I’m not going to be making the same pattern as them, I am joining them in spirit. I decided on the Sage Blouse (Rav Link).
The pattern actually calls for the Rowan Cashcotton DK so, hey, I know it’ll work. I really love the sleeve detail and the sort of, kind of lace pattern at the yoke. I haven’t gotten very far, as you can see, but that’s not surprising as my main knitting days are weekend days. Matt’s gone next week for work so I expect to do even more knitting in the evening.
Sky
No time to really write today. So, instead, here’s a picture of the sky as seen on my walk from my car to campus this afternoon. Pretty, eh?
So much for that idea..
Here’s what my sweater looked like before I frogged it:
Yes. Before I frogged it. The reason is two-fold: 1) the yarn makes me itch like no tomorrow and 2) the pattern was needlessly confusing. I could probably have really focused my energy on ignoring the yarn itchiness and figuring out the pattern but, really, I just don’t feel like it.
Will I start another sweater? Maybe. I don’t really have any other projects in projects that I’m too thrilled with. I have a bunch of Rowan CashCotton I could use and there’s a million patterns out there for DK weight yarn. For now, though, I’m putting the whole idea of knitting a sweater this month aside.
Check with me in an hour when I’ve already changed my mind and am swatching CashCotton for something. If I do, you’ll hear about it tomorrow.
(Oh, this is my first post on my pretty new computer. Er, Matt and I’s pretty new computer. It’s a Mac, my first since I was little. I sort of kind of know how to use it but, really, I’m mostly going to use it to surf the web/blog.)
NaKniSweMo – Well, we’ll see
NaKniSweMo – or, National Knit a Sweater Month – is my latest crazy attempt to knit something with a deadline. While two adult sweaters I’ve made previously took less than a month each, I am worried this one will take far longer because I’ll get distracted. Yes, setting a deadline may distract me from accomplishing this. When it comes to school and work, deadlines rule – knitting, forget it. I’ll try to post some progress photos every few days (yes – instant blog fodder!) but don’t be surprised if they all wind up being iPhone photos.
So, what am I knitting? Trellis and Vine Pullover from the Fall 2009 issue of Interweave Knits. It’s a simple raglan sweater with great cable and lace details. Most of it’ll be miles of stockinette, perfect for bus rides, TV knitting, and talking to Matt while he makes dinner. I’m using the 8 balls of deep red Ella Rae Classic I got to make Matt a sweater (before he shifted my priorities for him to knitted ski accessories). It’s not a wool I can wear right next to my skin but I should be fine wearing a long sleeve shirt underneath.
I just started this afternoon after swatching this morning. It’s worsted where the pattern calls for DK. With my gauge, I’ll be knitting the 32″ pattern to wind up with my size (35″). This is a bit of an experiment but it should work out fine. (Or so I keep telling myself.)
NaBloPoMo: Start
(Close your eyes and pretend it’s yesterday. You’ve just checked your feed reader and see this wonderful post. I was not feeling well at all yesterday except for the few hours in the afternoon so, blogging just did not happen. I put that under “extenuating circumstances.” Today will have two blog posts separated by 12 or so hours. In short, it’s NaBloPoMo which means I’m going to try to blog daily. Hopefully I’ll last longer than my 14 day streak last year.)
About a month ago, we went apple picking just north of my in-laws, at Brown’s Orchards. It took me a good two weeks to get a chance to use Matt’s computer to pull them off the camera and edit them and another two to finally getting around to posting them here. I am a wee bit slow, sometimes.
There’s a few things you should know about apple picking:
1. 2 baskets of apples is about 20 pounds worth
2. 20 pounds of apples makes at least 20 jars of apple sauce, two apple tarts, and two apple pies
3. Apples last forever if you store them in paper bags in the fridge
4. It’s harder than you think to tell which apples are ripe and which are not (while still on the tree)
5. Only having four teeth (and none of them in the front of your mouth) does not prevent you from being an apple seller – though you will force customers to question your penchant for “bitin’ into one to see how good it tastes”
FO: Deb’s Textured Shawl
Real creative name, huh? It’s a shawl using the Textured Shawl pattern and was made for my husband’s second cousin, Deb. One day, creativity will be mine and ya’ll aren’t going to know what hit you. Wait for it, it’s coming. (Maybe.)
When we went to Deleware in late August, our plan was to spend a day at the beach. Sure, we went to the beach (Rehobeth, to be specific) but it was closed due to a hurricane. Apparently closed beach = boardwalk still open and you can put your feet in the water.
After grabbing some pizza at the place Matt has talked about for ages (but whose name I can’t remember) and fries from another Rehobeth-famous place, everyone wanted to go put their feet in the water for a bit. Deb and I, we had other plans.
See, Deb is also a fiber type. She mainly sews and crochets but has tried knitting before, too. She’d heard – from me – that there was a yarn shop just a few blocks off the main drag and, better yet, it was open. The store (Kitschy Stitch) was a small but jam-packed shop with lots of Rowan, Araucania, Classic Elite, Cascade, and lots of other brands I don’t remember. Somehow I managed to restrain myself until I decided that Deb needed a shawl. I let her choose between several options and she picked a deep blue cotton and bamboo blend (Queensland Collection Cotton Bamboo). She insisted on paying for the yarn despite the fact this was supposed to be a gift – she even made me a great drawstring bag for WIPs as a thank you!
The shawl pattern is great though, as last time, I got really bored about a 1/3 of the way through. Thankfully, I stuck with it because the result is amazing. Cotton provides structure, bamboo just enough drape. I would love to get more of this yarn for future don’t-necessarily-have-to-block shawls.
Afraid to Write
I feel like I’m still trying to figure out why I started this blog in the first place. I find myself restricting myself all the time on the topics I can discuss. Finished knitting project? That’s okay, this is a knitting blog. Photos from a family event? That’s okay, this is a personal blog. My opinions on the politics of the day? Can’t write that, this isn’t a political blog. A post about the basics of Systems Engineering? Forget it. I’m not an expert on Sys Eng, just an intern. What I did last weekend? I don’t want to bore people who want to read knitting content.
So, I find myself sitting here, afraid to write anythign at all. I don’t want to offend those of opposite views, share too much personal information, write only about knitting, pretend I’m an expert, or – worst of all – bore people.
But can I really not write this way and about these topics?
People will always disagree with me, whether a friend, family member, or perfect stranger. As long as I take care as to not be purely offensive, it’s okay that I write about those things here. Slander and libel are always to be avoided, but I also include logical falacies as equally unappropriate. As long as I state the facts, then state my opinion in a logical manor (with a few “what the hells” and “you, idiot” thrown in when I’m particuarly annoyed), I CAN write my political opinions.
Sharing too much personal information is one of my faults. Even if I’ve only known you for a little while, you’re likely to have heard lots of stories about my two cross-country moves, inability to ride a bicycle, and the like. I must learn to ask myself: would I be embarrassed if someone came and asked me about something I wrote here? If yes, I should not write it. I’m probably making someone feel uncomfortable by sharing that item. (This is similar to choosing what to write about the private lives of others. That’s my larger fear – embarrassing someone else.)
Warning: The next two paragraphs are only sort of related. I tried to make them mesh but, well, class was about to begin and I didn’t want to delay posting.
This is not a news blog or a blog of an expert knitter, systems engineer, writer, or photographer. It’s my personal blog which contains a few, smaller subjects about which I am an expert. I don’t think I have ever written a tutorial so, really, why does it matter that I have no real idea what I’m doing? I will never find myself writing “this is how you do this” but “here’s how I did it.” No one is going to be confused about my years of experience – all the evidence of things I write about is in my blog archives, not a section of a bookstore.
I know, I know. To make your blog stand out or get read or make money or whatever the big goal of blogging is today, you have to share your expertese, no matter how tiny it may be. I’m not here to share that. I’m here to comment on life, to share my views on things that have happened to me. I’ll leave that “share your expertise” stuff for the real experts. I have been tempted, however, to write a few basic tutorials for things related to Excel or Twitter, just for an exercise in procedural writing vs a need for another tutorial of that type on the web.
I am boring. I know that, you know that. Thankfully my boring-ness can sometimes be averted with sarcasm, side comments, and – when I’m really lucky – a clever turn of phrase. If my blog is to truly reflect who I am as a person, it’s going to sometimes be boring. I will rant. I will ramble. I will make no senese whatsoever. That’s how I talk. That’s how I write when writing outside of the technical/business sphere. It’s just how it is.
So, what can’t I write about? I can’t write aboutsubjects or including details which are wrong – be they factually incorrect, not mine to share, or offensive. I think I can handle that.
(In summary – look out for some discussions of things that aren’t so easy to discuss in mixed political company and, on the much lighter side, more about the non-knitting portions of my life. I may still be boring, but I’ll be showing the real me.)
