Look! A picture!



The Hemlock Ring Blanket I made for Rosie and Marilyn (my aunt and her wife!!!), out of Fishermen's Wool in Natural Brown. It was overcast yesterday, so the natural light made everything look a little green. Weird. Anyway, I made this blanket without remembering that my aunt has severe allergies. I don't know if she's allergic to wool or not (and this is not the softest wool, despite my using half a bottle of conditioner in the soak). I have to email them about it, but I may be keeping this for myself. I had originally considered getting them Hers and Hers towels, if they even sell that kind of stuff anymore...I do have a coworker with an embroidery machine, though. Hmm.

The show is tonight! There was a bit of a misstep yesterday regarding the lead's costume (i.e. it made her look nine months pregnant when her pregnancy's supposed to be a secret!), but it has been corrected and all will be well. As long as my skirt doesn't get caught in the balcony doors again...

p.s. Helen, I finally got your birthday present in the mail the other day. I apologize! I hope you like it.

On my way to final dress--but I did find the camera! Pictures again, starting tomorrow.

Did I mention that Mark is in the show? He's playing a priest (no lines or anything). I am the town matriarch, and I'm having an affair with the priest. LOL

Slacker!!! I told myself I wouldn't update again until I had pictures, but I just cannot find the camera... Mark had it last, so hopefully he knows where it is. Anyway, to make up for my absence I'm going to do a BloPoMo, as well as I can. The action never stops over here, after all... So much has been going on that I could probably post about something different every day for a month.

The first big thing is--we're under contract for a house! We went to see it the week after we got back from the trade show, then my parents were able to see it the following Monday afternoon. It doesn't need much work, other than a new fridge (the appliances and mechanical systems are not new, but their utility bills are fine so we probably won't worry about it for a while). It's in a nice neighborhood convenient to a library and lots of shopping (though it will mean a significantly longer commute for me, I won't be working there forever). The inspection is next week (I should have some pictures then, if we can find the damn camera), and we close on October 19 if all goes to plan. This week we make up our minds on a lender (we've been doing a lot of research) and pick an insurance plan--and we need a lawyer. We're supposed to be going through our things and packing as well, but it's production week for my show so we haven't had much spare time.

My parents are also selling their house; they close in two weeks. Apparently they're going to live at an extended-stay hotel for two weeks afterwards so my father can work out his notice (yes, they are insane), then go up to New York early for my brother's wedding. They're downsizing to a condo, wherever they end up living, and there has been some family drama as my parents go through all their things. Really stupid, petty stuff, mostly involving the selfishness of my brother. And no, I am not willing to hang onto my father's grandmother's ugly, rickety, poorly-made dining room set until my brother can use it. His house doesn't have a dining room, which means I'll be stuck with it forever, or until he decides to drive 1000 miles round-trip to pick it up and store it in his basement. Basically nobody wants this dining room set--not even my father, who is perfectly content with someone selling it. My mother is the only one who likes it, I think. Ugh. I hope they have rock-solid wills, because I do not want to repeat this process in forty years...

So where was I? Last Saturday. The performance went fine (though I could swear it was almost in Virginia), then we went to look at two different houses with my parents (including one we'd seen the night before). The one from the previous week got a positive rating from my father, and the other one was not as well maintained. So we decided to make an offer. We split up from the realtor at 5:30 so we could get something to eat and she could put together the paperwork. We met with her at 7:30 and got on the road to the convention just after 8:30. We arrived at the hotel just before 1 A.M. What a long day! At least we were pleasantly surprised with an awesome hotel room (with a panoramic view of statues of a general on horseback and Martin Luther).

Sunday we went to set up my booth, had lunch, and walked around a bit (it's been really hot!) before going back to the hotel. A bit later we got a call from the realtor saying that our offer had been rejected. Some background: the house has been on the market for over six months, and the price has been lowered a total of $18,000 since then. It was WAAAAAY overpriced before, and now it's just kind of high. We put in a bid about ten percent below asking price (which is kind of standard right now in this market). Apparently they are not interested in selling their house. Our realtor said that the sellers' realtor claimed that the house was worth ten thousand above the current asking price (why'd you lower it, then?), and that housing prices in that part of town had gone up 3-5% a year for the last ten years. Um, except for the last two years! The current owners bought the house three years ago, near the top of the market; all indicators we and our realtor have found show that prices are either the same or LESS than they were three years ago. The house is currently on the market for ten thousand MORE than what they paid. There were a few other things they were deceptive about (e.g. they claimed to have a "remodeled kitchen", but it still has the original cabinets, older appliances that don't match--and they're replacing Formica countertops with more Formica), so I think it's probably a good thing in the long run that they rejected the offer. I don't think I want to be in a business deal with these people! I feel bad that they can't sell their house, and that they're going to lose money on it no matter what they do. But they are clearly delusional, and are probably carrying two mortgages now. Anyway, we are back to square one, again... There are a few more things on the market that we want to see, but there aren't as many as there used to be. Plus, well, we're just more picky now, I think. We've measured living rooms and analyzed neighborhoods, and we now are quite clear on our minimum living room size (in order to fit the piano) and on which parts of town are just too far for Mark to commute from without going insane. There are some seemingly nice places that we've had to rule out because they're too deep into the southwestern suburbs, or because the living room is more of a square than a rectangle. And our requirements can't be as bad as most people's... We're still confident we'll find something, but it's pretty daunting! I find myself playing cheerleader for Mark, more often than not. Poor little boo, he gets discouraged...

ANYWAY, I am now manning my lovely booth at the convention, waiting for people to come by who have the least idea what I'm even promoting (let alone are interested in the topic). Yesterday I read Heather's book online, and it really made the day go quickly. (I did get pretty involved at a few points, and had trouble pulling myself away to talk to actual people... Take a look!) Today Mark stopped by, and we had lunch together. I was expecting to get all this knitting done, but it really wouldn't seem appropriate (I specifically started a pair of Vinnlands for myself in order to have a fun project for the two trips, and I'm still just a few rows past the first ankle). I guess I'm supposed to look like I'm working. =7 Last night we had dinner with my aunt (modern Indian--not bad), and tonight we're meeting Cathy and "Mr. L". I have about half an hour left, and I am BORED. Nor does it help that the Coke Zero I had at lunch was a bad idea...

I have been dreading this month for a while, but now that I'm in the middle of it, the time seems to be flying by. Where should I start?

The trip incorporating Mark's family reunion in Pennsylvania, then my future sister-in-law's bridal shower in New York, was thoroughly exhausting. I haven't had time to recuperate yet. The reunion was nice, and didn't feel particularly rushed, but I fell victim to an awful hotel mattress (so old you could see the sagging in profile) and never got back on track. We got up super early to drive to New York for the shower--which was better than I expected, but still pretty materialistic (my brother's fiance grew up in a richer area than we did, and it shows in every bit of this wedding and the accompanying activities...I will spare you the drama). Then there was a very stressful, neverending trek with my mother (insanity!!) upstate to my grandparents' house, various family misunderstandings, allergic reactions to cats, etc. Mark and I were supposed to leave Monday morning and drive straight through, but we decided we were so tired and stressed out, we needed to leave that evening from a barbecue at my brother's new house (another crazy story, but that one's Mark's to tell). I did get some pretty cool news at the barbecue, though: my aunt (actually my mother's aunt, but they're only seven years apart) and her partner of 22 years got married about a month ago! They live in New York, which honors gay marriages from other states, so they just went into Connecticut and had a quiet ceremony. I am so excited for them! I immediately wanted to get them some sort of gift--so I decided to make them a Hemlock Ring Blanket. Because what do two successful sixty-year-old women need but something for their Hope chest? :) I finished the main patterned section in short order, but have a long way to go in the feather-and-fan section. I don't really have a deadline, but I do want to finish it soon.

Last week was a flurry of activity trying to get ready for a conference for work (which I'm currently staffing). I also got a last-minute request to sing for a program showcase for a charitable organization. In addition to that, we've still been looking at houses, and we saw one the night before our previous trip that seemed very promising. [Long story short: we did go for a third look at that house without a dining room, and we finally decided it really didn't have any eating space to speak of, and that we wanted to look again at the house with the high utilities (thinking that stuff would come up in inspection, and we could take it off the price if everything else was fine). When our realtor emailed that house's agent with more questions, she found out that the sellers had accepted an offer the day before--from buyers using the same agent representing the sellers. It was unethical for the realtor not to let our realtor know that they'd received an offer, since we'd seen the house TWICE, and our realtor was mad, but it was too late at that point so we moved on.] We decided to have my parents come up on Saturday for another look at the house (we were also going out with the realtor Friday, and would include something we saw then if it seemed nice)--and were prepared to make an offer if it met my father's approval. (My grandfather is a carpenter and cement mason, and my father has done his share of construction--my mother is also pretty observant, and would make a pretty good realtor herself.) So Saturday was lining up to include a performance at a middle-of-nowhere high school, a trip to look at houses, a possible offer, then a four-hour drive to the convention.

Then Friday happened! I went to Costco to pick up bagels for the trip (the hotel doesn't offer breakfast), and was pulling out of the parking lot when I was sideswiped by another car. There was an SUV making a left that was in my way, and I never saw the other car coming. The whole thing is still really unclear in my memory. Luckily nobody was hurt (the other driver was probably going under 20 mph, and I was barely moving), and I didn't get a ticket, but it was my fault, and my car suffered way more damage. The other driver was in a big old Chrysler, which only had a broken headlight and some very minor damage to the fender and hood, but I'm going to need a whole new driver's door (it opens and closes, but kind of gingerly and it doesn't seal) and probably a fender. There is some question as to whether my car is totalled--which seems absolutely insane, considering it runs fine despite the 210,000 miles, but the Blue Book value before the accident was only about $1600. Even if the insurance company doesn't total it, we have a $500 deductible, so it may be worth trying to sell the car for $1000. We were going to sell the car anyway, and buy my father's car (older, but with lower mileage) for the same price. I would've sold the car a month ago if we'd ever received the title (N.C. Motor Vehicle is notorious!), but I had to order it and only got it last week. Anyway, our insurance company is sending out an adjuster to take a look at the car while we're gone, just in case. Then we'll have to check with our agent to see how much this is going to affect our premium. Ugh.

The conference is over for the day--more tomorrow.

We may end up going with the house-without-a-dining-room (HWADR?). We went back to see it again on Tuesday, and it really is a great house, in a great neighborhood (it's across the street from a lake, which you can just about see from the upstairs--and certainly could in the fall and winter), and Mark's commuting time wouldn't change (mine would be three minutes longer, no big deal). Last night I came home to Mark playing with a furniture planner. A baby grand does make it more complicated to figure out where the furniture will fit (especially because I will actually be using the piano, and moving around in front of it), but it's nice to know our huge furniture would actually fit. (Mark even wondered if we should sell ours and buy smaller stuff from IKEA, so we could have more than four seats!) Anyway, I think my parents are coming up Sunday to take a look--and if all goes well, we might even make an offer. It is kind of nervewracking...

Finally, a picture of my Fountain Pen Shawl!


Mark took a bunch more (which are here). It was really, really hot that day, and we were out on the newly-refinished parking lot.

I've made decent progress on the Wavy Lace Cardigan as well:


At this point I've finished both fronts and am working on the back. Then sleeves, edging, a huge amount of blocking (this is stretchier than I thought it'd be!) and I'll be done. It's pretty fast.

I saw a Knitting Daily video a while back where Eunny Jang was talking about jogless striping. One of the techniques was to divide a project in the round equally onto circular needles, then knitting a different color for each needle; the colors "barber pole" around, and there aren't any abrupt changes. I decided to try this out in a pair of toe-up stockinette socks. I'm using three great leftover yarns in complementary colors: Malabrigo Sock, Trekking XXL and SHEEPAINTS BambooLaine.


These are really cool! I like how they look more variegated than striped. I'm on the second sock now, but I want to finish it before Wednesday so I can take a new sock on our long trip next week.

The house-hunting has been, well, going. I guess I'm getting a little frustrated. We found a cute older brick house (sing the song! do it!) in a good neighborhood that met all our needs, and then we found out the utilities are $300 a month (my parents' house is half that, and they have a hot tub). There was one other house we liked a lot which was newer, but it doesn't have a dining room so we'd need to sacrifice that. We do like to entertain, and feel like we ought to have one, but the house does have a killer brand-new kitchen, and a decent-sized eat-in area; maybe we don't really need it. As I orginally expected, most of the houses in our price range are either cute but too small or not private, or private but older (and apparently not energy efficient). We have only seen ten houses, so it's probably too soon to get too frustrated yet. We are seeing four more tonight, and hopefully there will be another good one to choose from. We really don't want to push our price any higher than we have to...

I finally finished my Fountain Pen Shawl last week, but I still need Mark to take pictures. Then I even finished my mystery project--so it was time to start something new. Because it's July, I thought a wool cardigan would be perfect (/irony). I have a dozen or more on my Ravelry queue at any given time, and I decided it was time for this Wavy Lace Cardigan. There are only four projects on Ravelry, including mine--I presume this is because there's no project photo. Maybe I can be an ambassador for this poor neglected pattern. I decided to add a LOT of shaping in the body (the pattern doesn't have any), so I changed the side ribbing a bit, and added eight stitches to the largest size so I'd have an inch or so of ease. It's kind of a stretchy sweater, so that may have been a really good idea. I am 3/4 of the way to the underarm, and am using Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool in Natural--an underrated yarn, I think. I may even have a picture of this next week.

We're keeping busy over here. I've had a bunch of rehearsals and lessons and meetings to try and stay motivated with my singing through this drought. In house news, the pre-approval is complete, and tomorrow we're meeting with a second agent (one with Zip Realty, incidentally) recommended by a knitting friend. We'll make a decision between the two agents, then actually start shopping! Exciting times. I have been checking out this awesome A-frame for a month or two, and it will be interesting to actually get inside and see whether the kitchen is too small, or the bathrooms are awful (the online pictures aren't clear in these issues)--we don't mind buying a place that's a bit outdated, as long as it doesn't have grody carpets or nasty bathrooms. We shall see...

Radio Note: stations have understandably had Michael Jackson on heavy rotation--but I've also been hearing way more Fleetwood Mac, Boston and The Black Crowes (my third-favorite band from high school) than seems normal. Monday I heard "Livin' on a Prayer" twice in two hours. What is up?!

Here's some knitting:


Remember a few months ago, when I started St. James but had to frog after a gauge disaster? Well, here's what it's supposed to look like... I found this cotton yarn at A.C. Moore--$3.50 after a 50% off coupon. it only took about ten days, and I am quite pleased with the results. I'm wearing it today, and I think I calculated enough negative ease that it's not stretching out the way I expected. Now I totally feel like a Mad Men character--without the secondhand smoke and sexual harrassment and three-martini lunches. (Though I could always use the latter...)

Also, I've finished the second half of the socks I test-knitted (TdF Socks):



The pattern is here--fast, simple without being mindless, and husband-approved. Plus I get a shout-out at the end of the pattern!

My main project right now is a secret one, so no pictures! Also, I am almost finished with my Fountain Pen Shawl (I'm halfway through the border chart). I'll be glad to finally be done--it is huge. Once I finish I'll get back to the afghan. My goal is to finish it for Mark's birthday in October.

Speaking of patterns, here is an tutorial for making an adorable pincushion from a baby food jar. I don't have any baby food jars, but I do have a salsa jar. I was thinking it would be perfect for holding buttons.

Oh, since I'm posting links, check out this interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I think I want to be her when I grow up...

I found out something interesting today that makes me feel a lot better... Back in December, I sang a pretty great audition for a fantastic role with a smaller Midwestern company. A few months later I got a rejection-with-encouragement note from the company. I found out several weeks later that one of my Facebook contacts (just a singer I've worked with, not a friend--I don't respect this person very much) is singing the lead role in the same production. We weren't up for the same thing, but given the scarcity of jobs right now (and that she's a bimbo--sorry, it must be said) I was rather pissed and kind of jealous. Anyway, just now she posted a link to the production page, and I saw who's singing the role I auditioned for: she's a few years older than me (judging by the picture), and has sung several roles with the company already. For all I know, they had all but cast her before they even heard me. Anyway, now I don't feel so bad. I feel kind of badass, actually. But not as badass as if I were actually making some money singing right now...

Speaking of Facebook, I have a dilemma: my cousin has tried to friend me. I don't remember how old she is, but she cannot be any older than twelve. TWELVE YEARS OLD. Um, don't you have to be eighteen to use Facebook? Am I weird to see a problem with this? Clearly her older sister (who's 19) and her aunts know how old she is, and they've friended her. She is a baby. I don't post nude pictures to Facebook or anything, but I do occasionally link to adult-oriented things. And I think that's fine; it's a space for ADULTS. I should not have to censor myself because my tween cousin's mother (who I thought was raising them in a very strict Catholic way, which makes this even more surprising) made an error in judgment. I already censor myself to a point, since I have a number of singing contacts in my friends--this is the place I don't censor! yay blog!--but I should at least be able to be myself, which includes sometimes linking to crazy stuff that isn't appropriate for everyone. Anyway, I don't think I'm going to friend her. I feel a little bad, but I'm sorry. I think she was born in 1998, for heaven's sake!

My secret projects have now finally reached their recipients, so I can post pictures.



This is the Bird's Nest Smoke Ring, which I made for my cowl swap partner. It was a fun pattern, easy to memorize with just enough complexity to keep me interested. I used the ever-versatile and cushy Cascade Heritage sock yarn--it's actually purple, despite the off colors in the photo. (She sent me the most fantastic, generous package in return--a cashmere cowl and wristwarmers, two skeins of Noro, yummy chocolate and a bunch of lavender-scented L'Occitane, but I can't find the adapter for the camera so that will have to wait until next time.)

And speaking of purple and lousy photos, here are the socks I made for Cathy's birthday:



These are Drunken Bees, though you can't really tell from the picture. Cathy is a rather statuesque young lady, and we wear different-sized socks--hence this is a bit big on yours truly (the foot model), and you can't see the pattern much at all. This pattern took a bit more concentration, but it wasn't too bad. (Fiber artists in the know may recognize the yarn as Malabrigo Sock in Abril, which is apparently--and understandably--a pretty popular and hard-to-find colorway. Nothing but the best for Cathy. Plus it was wonderful to play with.)

Since the pattern is about to be released, I can show you one of my test knits. They were inspired by the Tour de France; the circles are meant to represent the way riders in the peloton navigate traffic circles. (And that is all I know about the Tour de France, yay me.) Here is the first sock, modeled by my lovely recipient:



The pattern called for solid sock yarn, which I didn't have on hand...I had a really tough time eschewing all the amazing handpainted stuff at Hillsborough Yarn in favor of some perfectly nice and relatively indestructible (but not particularly sexy) Fortissima Socka. Sometimes it's a good thing that store is 45 minutes and two counties away...

Okay, I know I promised sewing, but there really isn't much of it other than some mending and a tote bag I made from an old Billy Joel T-shirt. I did, however, replace a zipper on a pair of pants (clamdiggers? capris? I don't know). I used the zipper foot! Crazy! Maybe one day I'll actually graduate into making clothes.

Other than crafting and kvetching about Facebook-related items, our main concern here is buying a house. The goal for this week is pre-approval--and to our surprise, it is actually the kind of thing we can get done in an afternoon. Who knows, by next weekend we may actually be putting in an offer! (Though I seriously doubt it...) We have actually found a well-recommended real estate agent, and she seems to be pretty savvy, but we haven't discussed commission--which, while the seller pays commissions, apparently in this area people are negotiating lower commissions with lots of success. Our financial planner has recommended we not take a full-commission deal, but I don't feel so great about it...hopefully Mark can be "Bad Cop" when we have that conversation with the agent. We do have another recommendation, if this doesn't fly, but I'm dreading it a bit!

Damn, that is a lot of blanket.

We have finally killed our television! We'd had bundled internet, cable and digital phone with the diabolical Time Warner Cable for several years. A few weeks ago we realized that porting our home number to a cell phone for Mark (added to my plan), in conjunction with losing the cable (which is an enormous time-suck, of course), would save us about $100 a month, so we did it! The phone thing took a week or two to be finalized, and TWC actually makes you go down to their office and return your box to cancel your account--apparently assuming that many people are too lazy to make the effort--but Mark took it back Saturday morning. We couldn't live without the interwebs, clearly, and we plan to exploit Hulu for all it's worth and keep our NetFlix account quite active, but not having the cable means we'll both get a lot more done. I cannot tell you how much time I've spent vegging in front of HGTV...okay, I was probably knitting at the time, but still. So it's a brave new world here. Already I can tell we're going to get a lot more sleep, since I won't be forcing myself to go to bed after the first segment of Colbert. That, and I think the laundry will be folded in a more timely manner. Mark even volunteered to help tonight. :)

Dude, I owe you all some knitting content. I have two secret projects currently en route to their recipients, and I just finished two test-knits last week. Hmmm... I know what I can show you! Really ugly socks.



It's not the pattern, of course (the quick and fun Sprucey Lucy, by the ever-awesome Wendy)--it's this nasty yarn (JL Vinca--avoid!), which is made up of two plies that in this particular skein generally managed to clash with each other 75% of the time. Plus I am no fan of yellow, and there's a hell of a lot of it here. So I overdyed them with a pellet of red Easter egg dye and a mess of vinegar. Voila:



They're still pretty funky, but the yellow is now a pretty orange, and the red and purple bits are very vivid.

What else? Well, several cozies have been constructed. This one is for my DivaCup, which I should be receiving in the next few days:



Get it? Teehee. There are several more on Ravelry in this exact colorway of Peaches and Creme. And then there's this one (kind of NSFW, so I won't post it here), which I made for a knitting friend who had a birthday last week. Apparently she enjoys it. (Pattern here--probably also NSFW.) How could I resist making both of those in the same week?! There's also a pattern out there for a rather scandalous crocheted maxipad holder that uses fun fur to its best advantage...but I'm not even going to link to that. I think it's kind of gross, actually... But in G-rated cozy news, I decided to replace my leaking microwavable hot-cold pack with an old-school rubber hot water bottle--and since it needed a cover, I made one, also out of yarn I dyed myself:



I had 120 yards of vintage (and scratchy) off-white wool I picked up at a thrift store. I first dyed the whole thing with leftover store-brand rooibos tea, then drizzled cherry Kool-Aid randomly over the tan hanks. It looked pretty awful before it was knitted, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks now. I ran out of yarn a few yards from the top, so I finished with a few yards of Patons Classic Wool. It's much softer now that I've washed it with some conditioner (Flex, for more of that old-school flavor).

But wait! Before I go, here's something totally normal, so you don't think I've completely lost my mind:



My Berlin socks, out of some awesome Cherry Tree Hill yarn, hooray. At first I was planning to reknit the feet, since they got a little baggy the first time I wore them, but they fit better now that they've been washed. They should be fine with my clogs in the fall.

Next blog post: actual sewing! On the sewing machine!

Things have been busy and weird. I almost feel like I'm just kind of along for the ride sometimes... I'm also feeling kind of random.

One of my coworkers is a great baker, but her signature dish is this chocolate pie with a meringue that is WAY too sweet and doesn't even taste like chocolate, plus I hate meringue. Everybody else seems to like it, though. She brought some in today. I am supposed to be on a diet, and am generally sticking with that, but have had a few pieces of chocolate this morning. I blame it on the Benadryl I took last night--I've been really itchy from allergies, which has been keeping me up at night, but I slept through the alarm this morning so I need to halve my dose...

I am running a swap on the Cowls board on Ravelry. The other organizer is also a singer, an American who has a fest contract in Switzerland. The apprentice program at Sarasota is really one of the only programs in this country that works in a similar way (and even that is sort of a junior version). It would be really cool to have a fest contract. It involves moving to Europe, though, and that's not something we're prepared to do right now. We think we should be able to buy a house in the fall. There's this $8000 tax credit that we would love to take advantage of, but we were really hoping somebody would be able to loan us $8000 for the next few months so we could use it as part of our down payment. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like anyone in our family can do that right now. My parents are selling their house, and there has been a decent amount of interest; if they were able to close in the next month they'd be able to swing the loan, but that's a pretty unrealistic time frame. I have another family member to ask, but we talk rather infrequently so I feel pretty lousy about hitting her up. Mark has a few people to ask as well, but it's not looking so good. Bummer.

I'm not dead! I've just been really, really busy. And now I seem to have caught a cold, just when things are slowing down a bit. (The timing could've been so much worse.) I am very slowly catching up--there is much laundry to fold, and my Bloglines is full! I've also been working on some unbloggable projects. Anyway, I should be getting back into the swing of things over the next week.

My Venus is finished!



I don't think my chest looks so particularly enormous in real life...ignore that. Here are my modifications, if I'm remembering correctly:

1. I worked six decrease and increase rows instead of two, with six rows between each. (My row gauge was a tiny bit off, since I used size 8s--size 9s made a less opaque fabric than I was looking for.)
2. I lengthened the body by three inches (I made the 44" size, so have about 5" negative ease, but it basically fits like a fitted T-shirt--it's not overwhelmingly clingy).
3. I left off the final increase row for the shell, and BO after row 33.
4. The fronts are only 11.5" from the underarm--they were originally WAAAY too long--and are 32 sts at the widest point.
5. I decreased in the back to 64 sts.
6. The back seam is 14" (there's a bit more give in the back than in the collar).
7. For the sleeves, I picked up 72 sts around the armhole, worked two rounds in st st, then worked the short rows that corresponded to my stitch count twice. I worked two decs at the underarm every other row until I had 64 sts, then half an inch of 1x1 ribbing.

In general I think this is pretty successful. I definitely like having sleeves--however tiny, they do make it feel more "office- appropriate". Plus I have big arms. =p





And there are the finished socks--Phineas for Mark in Araucania Ranco (which was supposed to become Spring Forwards for ME!) and Leyburns for me in Plymouth Happy Feet's Lisa Frank colorway. (Just in time for me to not wear socks for six months.) In works-in-progress, the Berlin socks are going well--still can't get that lace pattern memorized!--and the shawl is going great after I decided to frog the acrylic and start again with the cashmere I recycled last year. This is going to be yummy... Oh, and I'm officially 30% done with the afghan. (Did the math and everything. The eighty-one squares alone will be about 84.5" square, and I'd like it to be a minimum of 88". So once I finish the squares, I'll be 97% done as far as size goes. This does not count seaming. Right. Hmm. But I'll be able to do some of that as I go, plus doing four squares at a time is a total life-saver. Factoring that in makes things more complicated.)

The office is almost entirely cleaned out, thanks to lots of work on Mark's part--looks like we'll have an ersatz dining room very soon. It will be nice not to have to eat in front of the television. I'm still not sure where my practice space will be. In the summer it gets way too hot upstairs (think upper 80s), so I don't plan on spending too much time up there during the day. Maybe we'll keep the keyboard downstairs for now. I really haven't been practicing much lately--headaches, back issues, laziness--but I have a lesson tomorrow and ought to have something to show for it... things were really weird yesterday vocally, so I couldn't do much even though my neck is feeling mostly better. Today definitely.

I finally had my neurology appointment! The doctor was nice, and referred me for a sleep study--the headaches may be caused by plain old sleep deprivation. (And if the way my parents and grandparents snore is any indication, I wouldn't be surprised if I had inherited sleep apnea.) He also gave me a list of potentially headache-inducing foods to avoid. Which included all the food I like, no kidding. Fresh bread, cheese, chocolate, citrus, tea... I haven't had yogurt in about a week, and it may actually be making a difference. Still, I would much rather go at it trial-and-error than develop some monastic lifestyle where I only eat boiled chicken and rice. Truthfully, food lists do not jive well with my history of eating disorders--"off-limits" foods are so, so bad for my brain--so determining that eating feta cheese gives me a headache and avoiding it would be much preferable to the mindfrack and slippery slope of total deprivation.

We had a low-key anniversary last week, which involved an Outback Steakhouse gift card, spending the night at a nice hotel, then going to the new IKEA in Charlotte. (It would've been much more fun if the guy in the next room hadn't chosed FOUR A.M. to have a cellphone conversation about Snuggies. I am not joking. Are people actually getting MORE inconsiderate?! Maybe I shouldn't be surprised.) We had no real goals for the IKEA trip, other than to possibly address storage in our living room, but we did buy this as part of our grand plan to actually have a dining room in place of my office stuff, which is moving upstairs to the actual dedicated office. Brave new world, this. We're using it on its side so it can eventually double as a credenza, and it mainly has yarn and some scores in it right now.

In yarny news, actual finishing is going on! Mark's socks were done in record time--about five days, considering I couldn't work on them over the weekend--and he seems to approve the color choice. My Venus sweater is finished as well--I made a whole bunch of modifications, which I will catalog here once I have pictures--and I even finished my Leyburns (Lisa Frank) and a crochet dishcloth I put aside a while ago. I actually got some work done on the afghan this week, and started more socks for myself (pretty!) with some gorgeous Cherry Tree Hill in shades of purple and brown that I got in a swap some time ago. Yesterday I started the Fountain Pen Shawl from the latest IK--so far so good, but I fear the anonymous cone I'm using is less mohair than acrylic. Hopefully it will still block well enough. I was never a particular fan of triangular shawls, but I love the way the model wears the shawl wrapped around her neck. Very chic.

Earth Day was Wednesday! I spent the day watching Doctor Who on Netflix because I had a back thing (still hurts, ugh) so I wasn't able to do anything particularly earthy. But today is Arbor Day, so this still works: contest for free steel bottle and shopping bag. I was a devoted Nalgene user until all that nasty stuff came out about the leaching... I could definitely use something to replace it.

I get so sleepy at work... I'm beginning to wonder if there's a carbon monoxide problem in my office. Why else would I be so tired? I do actually get enough sleep. And once I leave the office I'm much less tired. Perhaps it has to do with the dark green walls.

Anyway, thanks for your comments about my yuckiness. I have good days and bad days with the headaches. Sunday (my birthday) was a pretty bad one. Of course Mark wanted us to go on a two-mile hike (aka forced march), and we were in the parking lot of the park before the headache got bad... Not a great day in general. I am finally getting Options, though! Woo! No more crappy inflexible cords! No more needle points wearing down! I'm really looking forward to getting started with them.

In the meantime, there was this. On size 15 needles.


There's a reason I named this COOKIES!!! on Ravelry. It's a basic belted cardigan pattern, with lots of extra shaping, a change in gauge and a crocheted belt. If I have an issue, it's that the right arm is taking a beating from my purse. (The yarn is Fleece Artist Curly Locks, which has lots of little loops that catch on things. Not particularly fun to knit with, even on size 15 needles. Then again, those present problems of their own. My wrists are still sore.)

And just in time for warm weather, here's my new house sweater:


You'd think that I'd be really vigilant about counting my stitches at the ends of rows, considering my bad track record with crochet, but no. This is kind of wonky, and the yarn is particularly awful to frog in crochet (Red Heart Symphony--stay away!). It is warm, though, and the kilt pin is just right for keeping it closed.


This was a better crochet project. Isn't it adorable? It's actually a hybrid pattern (found here). Sewing in the filling was harder than you'd think. It took me a while to get it to look okay.

Another hybrid project; this is an elephant (duh) for my friend's daughter. It would've been cooler if I'd had enough bits and pieces in coordinating colors to stripe it, but no such luck. Still, so cute.

In Cotton-Ease news, I decided to try on my St. James when I finished the waist decreases. It was five sizes too big, no kidding. I must've misread my gauge swatch: I was clearly getting 4 stitches per inch instead of 4.5. I think that means my sweater was about ten percent too big. So I'm making Venus instead, for which I get spot-on gauge if I go down a needle size. I'm about half done, but I had to put it aside the other day when I remembered that my anniversary is next week.

They're going way faster than I thought they would. (The pattern is Phineas--modified for a 64-st foot.) At this rate I may have two days to spare...

Blarg. I had been losing a pound a week on No S, until the middle of March when things stalled. I chalked that up to my cycle, but three weeks later I'm still stuck. Plus I've been feeling like crap. Maybe I do need a snack in the afternoons. I don't know. I've been having headaches nearly every day for more than six months--probably due to TMJ disorder (which I've known about for years, but I didn't think it was that bad), plus possibly migraines on top of that--and I have an appointment with a neurologist in a few weeks (TWO MONTH lead time for that appointment, which made me very upset at the time--now I'm just irritated). Just not having a lot of fun here lately...

Much knitting and crocheting going on chez moi (including a crocheted cardigan that showcases my spazztacular crochet skills), but no pictures. I should be able to enlist Mark this weekend.

Speaking of which, Sunday is my birthday! And we have no plans so far, other than my customary ice cream cake. That's how gross and unmotivated I feel. I'm sure we'll figure something out--it's supposed to be gorgeous weather.

Success!



The Noro is finally happy. (I still take bad pictures.) Askew from Knitty, almost two skeins of Noro Big Kureyon on size 10.5 needles. I added waist shaping, and knit the back in a smaller size because I was between sizes. The straps are placed a bit too wide in front, but fixing that would've been way too complicated. Generally I am quite happy, though I was hoping I'd be able to pull it off with V-neck tops (not so much). Temperatures have been below average all year so far, so I should be able to wear this a few more times before I have to put it away.

I have actually been making progress on other projects; maybe I've shaken the frog monster at last! I've finally finished the yoke on St. James (this picture is from a few days ago)...


...and I'm at the cuff of the first Leyburn (aka Lisa Frank socks). I have completed 18 squares of my mitered blanket; I decided this weekend that sewing in the ends as I go is for the best (otherwise I'd have 324 ends to sew in at the end, before any assembly or borders; I did the math!), so I spent a while this past weekend doing just that. Boring... Also, I have a new plan for my crazy Cookie Monster yarn, which seems to be going well. I hope I never have to frog that stuff again...

Also, since the package has been received, I can post a picture of the mitts I made for a swap (This is What a Feminist Swaps Like, on Ravelry):


If the pattern looks familiar, it's because it's the Monkey lace pattern; I was on a deadline, and I figured if I was going to knit lace on size 1 needles I should pick something I already had memorized! The yarn is Misti Alpaca Lace held doubled. It was great to work with; there's something about it that feels and looks like there's some silk content. I think I'm less allergic to baby alpaca than adult alpaca. Does that make any sense?

So since I've been immersed in fiber (sometimes literally), it would be safe to assume that there's not much happening on the singing front. I did have school performances last Thursday--and a lesson tomorrow, rescheduled from two weeks ago--but other than that, nada. I did get my first rejection-with-encouragement letter ever the other day, from one of my December auditions. And I found out that my spring show is being moved to the fall for budgetary reasons; I'm just glad the company is not in immediate danger, you know? And I've been pretty unmotivated to practice lately--which is partly cycle-related (Midol is currently keeping me upright and semi-alert), and partly because it's a lot easier to stay motivated when you have gigs on the horizon...

What else is new? Um, well, we're trying to decide where to go for our anniversary (a short weekend trip, probably in-state). At this point it looks like Mount Airy, so we can hike on Pilot Mountain and get pork chop sandwiches at this landmark lunch place. It's Andy Griffith's hometown, and they have all this touristy Mayberry stuff to do, but I'm not a huge fan of the show or anything...

I've been living in Frogland lately... First there was the Lisa Frank sock yarn (which is Plymouth Happy Feet, by the way), for which I found an appropriate pattern on the fifth try... Then I was all gung ho for the Sweet Tee from the new Interweave Knits. I thought it would be a perfect three-season sweater in Cotton-Ease. My gauge seemed okay, so I cast on. Miles of garter stitch later, it was clearly way too big. After playing around a bit more, I realized that the yarn had a lot more elasticity than I thought. It would've taken a little math and a huge leap of faith to make the sweater fit. So what to do with 1000 yards of Cotton-Ease? I'm making St. James instead. Very cute, very Sweater Girl, plus it was in my Ravelry queue already. I'm about halfway down the interminable yoke. (Why so many stockinette patterns lately? My brain is melting out my ears. I need to make a lace shawl, ASAP.)

Then there's my lovely Big Kureyon. I frogged my Versatility--it didn't fit right as a cardigan, shrugs look nasty on me, and I don't need another big wrap--and looked far and wide for a vest pattern that would work. I started with Heartening, because it is adorable; I changed the gauge, but I realized 2/3 of the way through that I wasn't going to have enough yarn. So I switched to this asymmetrical vest, which I was planning to elongate after also changing the gauge; my attempt came out more fugly than funky, so that got frogged as well. Now I've moved on to Askew, which I added to my Ravelry queue very soon after getting my invite--with a note saying I could make it with the Big Kureyon after changing the gauge and adding shaping. Both of which are pretty simply done, considering the entire thing is three rectangles (two mitered, one not) with straps. It's a pretty ingenious design for Noro, since it helps avoid the evil horizontal stripes. I've finished the two fronts, and the back should be fast; I won't know how well it fits until it's blocked (you're supposed to block the hell out of it), but it sure does look pretty. Noro, how I love thee. It's not even that scratchy; I don't know what people complain about. That, and it holds up surprisingly well to frogging. You wouldn't think... I do hope this is the last time in a while I have to do so much gauge-changing. The disappointment is not good for my soul...

Not much else going on here. It's been cold and raining for three days straight (Binghamton weather, if you are at all familiar with my alma mater). Last Wednesday it was 80 degrees. By Friday it was 40. Ugh, when will spring stay put?!

I ended up going back to the infamous store (I had store credit, after all, plus I needed to pick up something for a swap), and they were actually nice to me, mostly. Plus the store had a much better selection in this particular item than the newer store in town, where everyone was super nice but they didn't have what I needed. Anyway, I'm gonna consider the karmic debt paid. But I'm still not going to go in there any more unless there's a YARN EMERGENCY. I'm not sure what really qualifies. I do have a decent-sized stash--nothing enormous, but I could go for a while just working from stash.

Speaking of which: I decided to start making socks from my oldest yarn first. I bought this yarn in Charlottesville, Va. last March when I was there for a competition. I tried five patterns, and I've finally found one that works.


The pattern is Leyburn, recently immortalized by the Yarn Harlot (she made them for the BSG premiere, if I remember); I've made a few MintyFresh patterns, and they're always cute and well-written, but I am just SO glad I found a pattern that (a) can be knit at a gauge under 8 stitches per inch (it's a heavier fingering weight); (b) actually fits on my foot; and (c) doesn't look like utter crap. I have dubbed this colorway Lisa Frank Unicorn Barf.

The mitered square blanket is moving along, and it's rather more preppy than psychedelic...

Though I should've known, since I let Mark pick the colors. Should I expect a call from James Spader circa 1984, checking on the status of his blanket? (Actually, that would be a good thing...) I have nearly 14 squares done--17.3% of the 81 total I will need--but then there's the border to think about. I'll probably go with a few rows of crochet. I think I have a month or two to decide.

In actual life, minor disappointments have been the theme this week. Last Saturday we had our long-awaited financial planning meeting; we are in very good shape, but we were really hoping we'll be able to buy a house this spring. Because the banks are so skittish these days (and rightfully so, I suppose), we'll need to save more money for a bigger down payment--so now we're looking at late fall. If I don't kill my A-hole neighbors first... Sunday we were supposed to visit my parents (it was my mother's birthday Saturday) and then go to a knitting friend's birthday party, but there was a snowstorm coming so we canceled everything. It didn't start snowing until after 11 P.M. No wonder I got so many of those damn mitered squares finished! Then the other day I found out there's a serious chance that the show I've been looking forward to this spring may be postponed or canceled because of the financial situation. The company wouldn't be the first to shorten their season this year; I've even heard about several companies that have gone bankrupt. It would be a shame if the show got canceled, but it's understandable...

So the economy sucks. These two links might help some people:

*A yarn bank for charity knitters--donate or claim yarn for your charity projects. I don't do a whole lot of charity knitting, but it is rather popular...

*Lunapads has a program where you can donate cloth pads to African girls who would otherwise miss school during their periods. This is such an awesome idea.