Oh, and please to note today's temperature.
And I got the visiting fellowship to England! *does funky chicken* Guess I better finish Charm Wrap. :D
Woolly and MDK!
3 days ago
Sunday, June 29, 2008
an FO and a holy cow!
Columbines are DONE! I took the Subway series weekend opportunity to finish that second sock.
Oh, and please to note today's temperature.
And I got the visiting fellowship to England! *does funky chicken* Guess I better finish Charm Wrap. :D
Oh, and please to note today's temperature.
And I got the visiting fellowship to England! *does funky chicken* Guess I better finish Charm Wrap. :D
Monday, June 23, 2008
heat wave
It's summer. All past mini heat waves tried to warn us. Now, there's no going back. Last week and over the weekend we averaged at 107 Fahrenheit. That's about 43 Celsius. Gorgeous clear, blue skies, beautiful sunshine, and baking heat. Somehow, I don't think this should be allowed. How can you enjoy summer weather when it's this baking? Today, we're at a cool 98 degrees. Excuse me while I adjust the fan.
All this means that progress on Eris has halted. I did finally rip out the cuff on the first sleeve last week (at night, thankyouverymuch!) and added another two inches to the sleeve, and reknit the cuff over the weekend (again, at night, and with the A/C running). All that's left is closing the cuff, knitting the entire second sleeve, a bit of pseudo-blocking (acrylic, you do what you can), and the zipper (which looks closer to being sent out to be put in that sewing it in myself). I'd really like to be done with this already so I may suck it up and work on it this week. Maybe.
Last week I went to Angels Stadium to catch my NY Mets vs the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim .... excuse me while I roll my eyes yet again at that unnecessarily long team name, we'll just call them what they really are, the Anaheim Angels, yes?
We had pretty good seats--I could ogle David Wright to my hearts' content--and I even took some knitting with me for a little Stitch and Pitch action. Of course, without the play-by-play from the announcers, I found concentrating on the game absolutely necessary. The poor second Columbine sock stayed in my little green knitting bag, still unfinished. It was a compelling game!! The Mets had the lead through the 5th until Oliver Perez decided to pull an Oliver Perez and gave it back and the go ahead run. It stayed 4-3 until the top of the 9th when D. Wright came through (and made me love him more!) by smacking a base hit that brought Jose Reyes home to tie it up. Damion Easley won it for us with a solo homerun in the 10th. Game over. Gripping baseball, I tell ya!
On the way out of the stadium, we saw this:
The Angels' 2002 World Series trophy. Ain't it purty? I'd never seen the WS trophy this close-up. It was pretty thrilling. I rooted my heart out for this team in the 2002 series, Rally Monkey and all. Please to ignore the fact that I'm a die-hard Mets fan; I'm a transplant, I have my California teams too.
So, knitting has mostly become focused on small, light projects that do not smother me in heat adding yarns. Like the Lace Ribbon Scarf which is coming along nicely.
Pretty, no? I'm happy with it so far. And considering I've still got about 3/4 of that sock yarn skein left, I'm going to be at it for some time still. And I'll be casting on the Luna Moth and Seascape shawls soon too.
For now, though, it's back to Emma and the dissertation. And staying cool.
All this means that progress on Eris has halted. I did finally rip out the cuff on the first sleeve last week (at night, thankyouverymuch!) and added another two inches to the sleeve, and reknit the cuff over the weekend (again, at night, and with the A/C running). All that's left is closing the cuff, knitting the entire second sleeve, a bit of pseudo-blocking (acrylic, you do what you can), and the zipper (which looks closer to being sent out to be put in that sewing it in myself). I'd really like to be done with this already so I may suck it up and work on it this week. Maybe.
Last week I went to Angels Stadium to catch my NY Mets vs the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim .... excuse me while I roll my eyes yet again at that unnecessarily long team name, we'll just call them what they really are, the Anaheim Angels, yes?
We had pretty good seats--I could ogle David Wright to my hearts' content--and I even took some knitting with me for a little Stitch and Pitch action. Of course, without the play-by-play from the announcers, I found concentrating on the game absolutely necessary. The poor second Columbine sock stayed in my little green knitting bag, still unfinished. It was a compelling game!! The Mets had the lead through the 5th until Oliver Perez decided to pull an Oliver Perez and gave it back and the go ahead run. It stayed 4-3 until the top of the 9th when D. Wright came through (and made me love him more!) by smacking a base hit that brought Jose Reyes home to tie it up. Damion Easley won it for us with a solo homerun in the 10th. Game over. Gripping baseball, I tell ya!
On the way out of the stadium, we saw this:
The Angels' 2002 World Series trophy. Ain't it purty? I'd never seen the WS trophy this close-up. It was pretty thrilling. I rooted my heart out for this team in the 2002 series, Rally Monkey and all. Please to ignore the fact that I'm a die-hard Mets fan; I'm a transplant, I have my California teams too.
So, knitting has mostly become focused on small, light projects that do not smother me in heat adding yarns. Like the Lace Ribbon Scarf which is coming along nicely.
Pretty, no? I'm happy with it so far. And considering I've still got about 3/4 of that sock yarn skein left, I'm going to be at it for some time still. And I'll be casting on the Luna Moth and Seascape shawls soon too.
For now, though, it's back to Emma and the dissertation. And staying cool.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
a pimp and a post
Pimping!!: Susan is giving away Manos del Uruguay! You read that right. Go to her blog to enter, and hurry! She's choosing winners tomorrow. :)
I think I must be the slowest knitter in creation. Eris is *still* on the needles but at least I can say I'm at the cuff of the first sleeve. I had planned on working on it today but it's been very warm here and the thought of having that very warm cardigan on my lap is not very appealing right now. Must wait a few more hours. As for my mom's socks, I finally CO the second sock on the flight home from Salt Lake City last weekend. And the Charm Wrap is pretty much hibernating, though it is turning out nicely.
Knitting's taken a bit of a back seat the past few weeks as I've worked on the dissertation and the temps have gone up and down. Last week I did an intensive course on course design for university level classes. This week, I've been working on the portfolio for that class, which is due next Friday. I decided not to redesign one of my previous courses, since those are mostly freshman/intro level classes where I've got to meet departmental and institutional requirements with students. So, I decided to create a course for upperclass English majors (primarily) that grows out of my dissertation, in essence. It's on women writers of the Romantic period, but rather than look at English and American Romanticisms separately, which is what's usually done, I've designed it so that we'll examine British and American writers together. This way, students will be to examine how women writers built on each other's ideas and arguments, and hopefully gain a better appreciation for Romanticism, learning that the ideas didn't happen in a bubble and stop at a certain place on the nineteenth-century timeline. Anywho, that's the academic ramble of the day. :D
Next on the knitting front are some KAL and swap projects--and I'm keeping myself to my stash (it minimizes later guilt :P). I was thinking Hew by CanarySanctuary for the color KAL with the SPEW group, but I'm dithering again and reconsidering Endpaper Mitts, which I've had queued for-eh-var. But I was also thinking I'd combine the color KAL project with the Master & Commander RAL/KAL project, since that's 'Mediterranean'. Bah. I'll make up my mind eventually .... by Monday, lol.
Anywho, the food's on the barbie, so I'd better take myself off. The temp's cooling, the Mets game is about to start, and the pundits are still spinning from Hillary's speech this afternoon. Say what you will about her, her run at the White House is just as amazing as Obama's. I hope people remember this year's historic presidential campaign--so many gender and color barriers and prejudices being shattered. More still need to come down, but these steps sure do make me proud of my country.
I think I must be the slowest knitter in creation. Eris is *still* on the needles but at least I can say I'm at the cuff of the first sleeve. I had planned on working on it today but it's been very warm here and the thought of having that very warm cardigan on my lap is not very appealing right now. Must wait a few more hours. As for my mom's socks, I finally CO the second sock on the flight home from Salt Lake City last weekend. And the Charm Wrap is pretty much hibernating, though it is turning out nicely.
Knitting's taken a bit of a back seat the past few weeks as I've worked on the dissertation and the temps have gone up and down. Last week I did an intensive course on course design for university level classes. This week, I've been working on the portfolio for that class, which is due next Friday. I decided not to redesign one of my previous courses, since those are mostly freshman/intro level classes where I've got to meet departmental and institutional requirements with students. So, I decided to create a course for upperclass English majors (primarily) that grows out of my dissertation, in essence. It's on women writers of the Romantic period, but rather than look at English and American Romanticisms separately, which is what's usually done, I've designed it so that we'll examine British and American writers together. This way, students will be to examine how women writers built on each other's ideas and arguments, and hopefully gain a better appreciation for Romanticism, learning that the ideas didn't happen in a bubble and stop at a certain place on the nineteenth-century timeline. Anywho, that's the academic ramble of the day. :D
Next on the knitting front are some KAL and swap projects--and I'm keeping myself to my stash (it minimizes later guilt :P). I was thinking Hew by CanarySanctuary for the color KAL with the SPEW group, but I'm dithering again and reconsidering Endpaper Mitts, which I've had queued for-eh-var. But I was also thinking I'd combine the color KAL project with the Master & Commander RAL/KAL project, since that's 'Mediterranean'. Bah. I'll make up my mind eventually .... by Monday, lol.
Anywho, the food's on the barbie, so I'd better take myself off. The temp's cooling, the Mets game is about to start, and the pundits are still spinning from Hillary's speech this afternoon. Say what you will about her, her run at the White House is just as amazing as Obama's. I hope people remember this year's historic presidential campaign--so many gender and color barriers and prejudices being shattered. More still need to come down, but these steps sure do make me proud of my country.
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