AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

Need to speed up

I did some seed stitch and binding off during the train ride to work this morning, leaving me some picking up and ribbing to do. I am hoping to finish the One Skein Wonder, so I can wholeheartedly work on the I Do shrug.

Hubby and I have an arrangement to pay for my new laptop, so we ordered the little machine last night. Does anyone want a first generation iBook? Has extra memory, but needs a new battery (works fine off the power cord).

I am going to be happy to get a new machine. I bought my iBook in 2000 or 2001, and it was used and from eBay. It worked great, but as time went on I wanted to be able to do more. I installed memory and interesting software, but most things just don't want to operate on such a small amount of memory anymore. Thus new (old) computer.

As soon as I have finished the One Skein Wonder, I am going to go back to the Slytherin Scarf as my work project. Got to finish it by the time the movie comes out.

Priority knitting

I was going to start the Silk Ribbed Lace Corset over the weekend, find the yarn at Circles and investigate the options. I was going to finish the One Skein Wonder, which should not take that long even I keep falling asleep to stockinette. Heck, I was going to work on a project or two that have been languishing... and languishing.

What did I do?

My friends are getting married in October, and I want to make the I Do shrug to wear at their wedding. There is possibly a portion out of doors, so I was trying to make sure there was something warm and attractive. I started the piece with light blue Cotton Comfort that I bought from Woolcott in the spring. Definitely a mistake. The cotton was just a little too nubbly and textured and the color too light for most of my wardrobe. I just wasn't loving it.

I prowled around Circles and wasn't sure what I wanted to use. I have pretty stringent cost guidelines right now, so the garment had to be under 30 dollars in yarn. That left out the Aurora 8 and the Breeze, which just didn't have quite enough yardage. Then I found the Butterfly Super10 in this dark jewel-tone teal. It's one of my colors. I bought the stuff and started casting on for the first sleeve again. It looks just about perfect!

Glorious knitting!

I ordered the Silk Ribbed Lace Corset today. It took me a while to print the PDF out (I was doing the suggested double sided method, but my computer/printer combo required the magic of 'reverse pages').

I am really excited about knitting this. It will be my first project with presumably 100% silk, though I think I am going to order the silk from Circles on Saturday and then get enough yardage of something else to make a practice run. It's been a while since I have looked at a pattern and just felt the longing rush in on me. This is the type of styling I would love to do with all of my wardrobe (and I am already trying to figure out what I would need to wear with this to make it appropriate for a law office).

One skein wonder

I had a bit of a snafu last week. I wore the new tank to work, but it leaves part of my back exposed. A little too much tattoo for law, so I started the One Skein Wonder this week to provide the garment a little needed coverup.

I am using what is left over of my Svale that I used for Soleil, and it is working up pretty darn fast. I might have to make one for all of my sleeveless garments!

Going back to school

I am almost constantly dreaming of going back to school. I didn't finish at Wellesley and I will probably never go back there though I miss it. I loved my major, but didn't want to do enough schooling to be able to go into the field. I was wishy washy and unfocused, a real detriment to making your dreams come true.

I was looking online yesterday for schools, careers, things that I would want to do all my life. I love working in this library, but I need to go back to school and I want to go back before I have children and do the sundry things that such a life entails. I looked at the Culinary Institute in Cambridge. I could be a chef. I love to cook, and I would certainly like to know how to do some things better, faster, like how to use my kitchen knives so that chopping vegetables doesn't seem to take hours. I don't eat meat, however, so the idea of preparing and cooking all the meat dishes feels a little odd and uncomfortable. The price was also a little odd and uncomfortable at over $18K in tuition and fees. If I go back to a traditional college, I will probably study English and Japanese and then go to library school. Plans, plans, things to keep me busy between complicated bits of work.

I guess this all brings me to a real point. Yesterday I made my first order to Penzeys Spices at the recommendation of a friend. For some reason I couldn't find any Cumin or Cayenne in the local grocery store. So, I have that and some lemon grass and saffron on its way. I am thinking that I will make a nice light lemon grass and ginger ice cream or frozen yoghurt. Yum.

I have finally done it

I submitted my first pattern idea to Magknits this morning. The deadline posted on the web is August 15 for a November issue, but it doesn't seem to have actually moved to bimonthly (or monthly) yet. I don't really care if it is published in that issue or some other time, this is more to get some idea of what I should be doing and some feedback. I think this would be a great thing to have up there though, so I hope it gets accepted.

Crossing my fingers (but not holding my breath) until I hear back.

Ole, Soleil

My Soleil is blocking on the bed (and I hope it is mostly dry by the time I want to go to sleep). The pictures don't do it justice, cause I really shouldn't be allowed behind a camera. It looks a little wide sitting there, but it fits and I love the color.

And who is the little guy at the bottom of the picture? He's my Wildfoote swatch for a pair of socks for ye olde husband.

Covet

This?

Sheila of Mutually Reclusive recommends buying the kit (because it only comes as a kit) from a shop in Denmark, because of the very high markups in the few places it can be founds in the US.

I am always looking for nice things I can make and wear to work. This summer has been relatively light on the useful knitting (by that I mostly mean any knitting that actually gets done). I seem to be in this strange holding pattern of starting things and then just hovering from project to project to project.

If I got it done, would it be worth it?

Boston Knitout!

I just shot my email to the volunteer mistress for this year's Boston Knitout. Last year, I showed up early and haphazardly helped set things up (chairs less so, vendor table space thingies, more so), and then I sat in jeans and a long sleeve shirt (bad idea) and taught people to knit and to unknit in the blazing hot sun.

This year I will have my own weather appropriate knits to sit out in, so I should be much more comfortable. I would like to help at the teaching tables again this year, because I was a lot more comfortable with that than I thought I would be.

Last year I didn't get to see much from where I was, but I saw a few pieces of the fashion show and things like that. Hopefully they are having another one this year, and then I hope to be ready to enter something myself next year.

What to get a Girly Girl?

I have never really shopped for a Girly Girl. My friends growing up were Girls (with either a small or a large G depending on the moment), but we were all dead broke and knew it. We would hang out and chat, but we never really spent money on each other.

Now the rules feel different. Birthdays seem to be such a big thing in this group, and I am the oldest of that bunch. As I don't do girly girl, and would rather lose the 50 pounds I ought to dump by pumping at the gym as much as I can than read 50 books on the subject, I think it is Sephora for her (and the Internet for me, because my nose fears the Sephora).

What do you get for a Girly Girl?