AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

Countdown

My final is tomorrow.  My in-law presents should be ready to mail absolutely no later than Wednesday morning.  The last knitted ornaments (4 knit socks with names embroidered on them) should be done by Friday.  My last order of ornaments (2 hats - done, a sock, and a crocheted wreath) should also be done by Friday, but can be done later.

But it all comes down to the books.  Linked Lists, Binary Trees, Hash Tables, sorting and other algorithms.  It's like a train wreck, where I don't feel like I'll be completely ready no matter how much studying I do in advance.  In 24 hours for better or for worse, this class will be over and I will just play the waiting game about my grade (so I can file for reimbursement).

I feel like the world around me is holding my breath.  I pause and realize it is only me.  This class has been a gauntlet between a poorly written textbook, an apathetic grader and a bumbling professor.

The smells of Christmas

This is my first Christmas making (and eating) cuccidatti, but something about the scent of the cookies just feels right for the holiday.  Maybe it is the cinnamon mixed with the scent of orange.  Maybe it is the lightest hint of brandy, or maybe it is that plus the chocolate mock cookies we made right afterwards combining into a wonderful scent that just means Holidays.

On top of cookies, I also made a little scarf each to go with the stuffed animals I'm giving away today.  Just a little bit of holiday cheer all around.

9 little hats all in a row

Merry (really early) Xmas!  The Christmas Treant says, "Ho, ho, ho! and a bottle of rum!"

I am nearing the end of the ornament race.  Today I delivered a hat and mitten ornament, 6 hats and a pair of bells (different orders).  I have more to deliver next week, but for the moment it feels like I have a bit of breathing room.  Though I have stockings left (4 more if I ever manage to finish the grafting correctly on the first one), which take quite a bit more time than the little hats.

(I posted a ton of geeky hat pictures.  Can I just give a cheer for my poor put upon husband and our collection of geeky monster toys?)

Yesterday was "severe" weather in the Northeast, resulting in the city of Boston declaring a state of emergency.  I got home quite a bit earlier than normal and spent a bit of time resting my back (under a heating pad).  Later that evening I conscripted the hubby in helping me measure exactly a pound of figs.  Together we made the filling for the cuccidatti.  This is the first time I've ever tried this recipe (I don't normally try such large recipes either.  I like smaller test batches.), but it smelled divine.  Cinnamon, figs (and other dried fruits), brandy and orange just scented the mixture.  If the cookies come out half as well as the mixture smells, then this will be a success.

Tonight is cuccidatti part 2, making the dough, shaping and baking cookies.  Sometime in the middle of all of this (or more likely before), I need to pick up one of my last holiday presents (I'm not doing quite as much as I have in previous years) and some wrapping.  It finally feels like the holiday spirit is in the air!

Oh, and because I can't resist:

I did it!

I agonized over a name (rather than just using my middle name like I do for almost everything), plugged in the appropriate card, and signed up to sell at Etsy.

Of course, given that I'm making ornaments at a ferocious rate (including my first short row heel this morning on the train - I'm not sure that I did it completely right, but it looks pretty good and doesn't have holes, so I didn't do it completely wrong either), I won't have anything up until probably next week.  But I just got tired of thinking about it and not doing anything.

Of course, until there is something there, I don't feel I should put the name out or anything.  Plenty to see later.

Everything is weird

Yesterday was the Holiday Party.  On top of tasty food and some light beverages and tons of people taking an hour or two to mingle with people from other floors, this year it featured the scariest lollipops on the planet.

Made of chocolate (milk) with your face (or in this case, mine) printed on it.  I am obviously alarmed at the prospect of having my face in an edible format.  Clearly the kitty wonders if I am food (don't worry, it was hermetically sealed in plastic).

Each year is a little different, though most of the office holiday parties I've been to were relatively laid back.  At one of the companies I worked at we celebrated India Indepence Day (August 15th if I recall), so that was much more like a holiday party and the holiday party in December was a gritty dark affair, because the location was surprisingly seedy and low brow.

As of this morning, I have 8 little stocking cap ornaments knit up (and number 9 is on the needles), 2 little bells done, and a minimitten.  That leaves me one crocheted ornament (quick) and 5 stocking ornaments (slow).  I've also knit 5 of the repeats for the gift knitting and started something new (also a gift).  Not bad progress at all.

Once a geek

I'm looking at Etsy again.  It's a dangerous habit.  But as I am on knit hat ornament 6 out of 9 (I hope to finish all the hats tonight, so I can start the other ones), I figured that maybe I can produce something with both quality and quantity worthy of putting up. 

Because I've been knitting ornaments lately, I looked at those first.  It is easy to forget that in any commercial (or quasi commercial) endeavor that there are items all over the spectrum of quality.  Not necessarily in terms of how well made they are (I tend to assume that these are all made well), but in terms of difficulty or how long they would take to make.  Some of them are just cooler than others.  If 50 people are selling knitted mittens ornaments, then the one person who has added something extra to their pattern just shows up as having better product.

The prices there are about the same as what I was selling my ornaments at for the holiday bazaar, so I don't feel like I'm too far out of the price range.  It's kind of neat seeing the ornaments and realizing that this is something doable.  It might not be a year round thing, because I don't think of ornaments as year round purchasables.  But hey! What do I know.  Maybe I'm wrong and ornaments are something people collect year round and it is just more popular around specific holidays.  I love what I do and what I can do with my yarn and sticks.  I love knitting in miniature.  There is just something terribly soothing about making something small and doll like. 

Of course, there are two things that have stopped me.  The finality of putting my credit card down on record and picking a name.

Making good

I feel like the weekend was a huge whirlwind even though I'm not sure how much I have to show for it.  I'm sure you know how it goes.  I did all of these things that weren't necessarily important and feel tired, yadda yadda.

Of course, the high points were depositing my reimbursement check.  If you are in the US (at least) and with Blue Cross (or many other health insurance providers), make sure you are being reimbursed for any Weight Watchers or similar programs as well as for any gym memberships you might have.  It's just a good idea all around.

I finally got the mystery yarn for the gift (this is not the best season to blog about the crafting), and more importantly I picked up all of the ingredients I needed to make cuccidatti.  It's my first time making these (I'm only insane enough to make a half batch), so I restarted the gift and proceeded to work my way through my orders.

I feel pretty good about getting my holiday ornaments made in time.  There are a lot of them, but I have until either this Friday or next week (Monday or Tuesday) to get them all done.  Of course, I made things and didn't write down exactly how I did it, so I'm dredging the bottom of my memory for some of the particulars.  It's fun to make ornaments, because they are quick in terms of knitted projects.  It's easier to show off an ornament or two than it is to have people understand that you made this scarf or sweater.

What's a pirate's favorite story?

a Yaarrrrn!

I was supposed to pick up the yarn for a gift I'm making on Thursday.  I left work, eagerly going to Windsor Button.  I found the perfect yarn, and thought of some ways of glitzing the gift up a little.  I went to the checkout and realized I left my wallet at work.

So, I'll be going back over the weekend sometime (hopefully today) to pick up the yarn (it was heathery, soft and very squishy).  I will resist the urge to do something stupid and buy yarn for myself.  It's bad enough that I don't have the right yarn for the project just lying around my stash (I mean, really, I thought I had everything in my stash).

But I get to be surrounded by yarn again!  There are worse things than needing to go back to a yarn shop!

Oh, and I took orders for 18 ornaments at the holiday bazaar.  I'll be doing double time (or at least trying to do two or three things at once) for the next few days or so.

a lot of politicians make me feel angry inside

(click here to view)

David Horsey Seattle Post-Intelligencer Dec 6, 2007 EditorialCartoonists.com

Mitt Romney is definitely on the low end of the stick in terms of politicians I would vote for.  This isn't because he's a Republican or his religious stance or even most of the issues. 

Romney has consistently proven in his time as Governor that he just doesn't care for the people, the workers, the grunts who labor to keep the state afloat.  He only cares about courting the affluent voters, which I, most certainly, am not.

Romney makes politicians and Republicans look bad.

Of course, he's not the only presidential candidate who occasionally makes me want to spit blood.  There are few others, mostly ones with the wherewithal to have ads on television.  I don't really enjoy the muckraking that seems to be so much a part of American politics.  I would rather see a candidate show their voting records, prove their ideals and show how they supported their constituency than tell me that the other side is full of bad people who are 'un-American.'

To me, the best candidates should inspire the people to be greater, better, more thoughtful and giving than they would otherwise be, because together, with hope, we can be a great people in a great country. 

Taking things for granted

Thursdays are a great day of the week (not that I have a reason to dislike any of the other days).  Today I can go after work to Windsor Button and attempt to find a better yarn for the one gift I'm knitting this year.

So many people I know don't seem to really care for homemade gifts.  There is the obvious disconnects between form, function, costs and time.  People look at a homemade box of chocolates or a knitted hat or a lap blanket (knit or quilted) and mostly think of things in terms of products they can buy: 40 cent Lindt truffles, a $3 hat at CVS, or a fleece throw from Kmart.  The idea that someone used materials that cost as much or more than the basic item and spent time doesn't seem to occur to a lot of people.  So, I don't make handmade gifts for a lot of people.

A couple of years ago, I made this scarf for my BIL.  I used some of the leftover yarn I had in various shades of brown and orange and bought a number of skeins of tapestry wool (DMC, so very low yardage).  I made a simple striped scarf, which he received with great enthusiasm.  The other knitted gifts though they were harder, more time consuming knits, were just not looked upon with any happiness or generosity of spirit.

(The sad thing is, I was going to write about how easy it is to take your back for granted given I'm still having some back problems, and this spilled out.  C'est la vie.)

I love knitting, but something for the past couple of days has been holding me back.  I don't think it is my discomfort, because I've knit under more uncomfortable circumstances.  I think it is a general lack of direction.  I want to finish things, and more importantly I want to finish this one gift.  Because once it is done, I'll have something glorious to give to someone and I will feel more free to knit something else.

(And of course, knitting right now is playing second fiddle to stare at the computer blankly while trying to write a program that acts as a simple garbage collector as one of my last assignments in this CS class.)