Grad school mantras

I took today to sleep in, knit, read, (go to class) and generally not worry about the next paper, since I scrambled and stressed (for it feels like weeks, but probably not) to hand in a big one yesterday evening. Lately I find myself justifying indulgences with the phrase "I deserve X because I'm stressed out and working really hard." Usually X is something food/junk/laziness related because apparently that's how I roll. Why my internal monologue doesn't steer me in the direction of the gym is anyone's guess. Anyway, it's become a mantra of sorts; a mantra of indulgence? Clearly a misuse of the term, but anyway.

Indulgence usually leads to guilt because, again, that's how I roll, but I'm totally guiltfree about today's "slacking" - Look at my progess on Vivian and THEN tell me I'm a slacker ;)



Past the waist-shaping now, and I still love every minute of it. I think constant practice is making my cables a little more even, or at least I hope so.

Yellow, orange and blue

I've been having a stressful week or two, and while I've been holed up at my computer, or walking looking at the ground, all the leaves changed and I didn't even notice. But I took a break from my intensely fascinating paper on Library of Congress subject headings to get out in the fresh air today.





I think this time last year I rambled on about how I love yellow and orange. It hits me especially in the fall when there's so much of it around. Seeing things like the Snapdragon Tam and mitts by Ysolda brings out the yellow love even more! I especially love yellow with a hint of orange - deep yellows like in the Snapdragon tams. But yellow and my face don't really get along, so socks and mittens, it is!



I have a few pairs of colourwork mittens coming up in my knitting queue, as soon as I acquire some yarn, and maybe I'll finally indulge in my desire for yellow mittens. The first I have yarn for in blue and purple: Norwegian Snail Mittens by Adrian Bizilia.

Next, Entomology mittens, another Adrian Bizilia pattern. For these I'm totally coveting SweetGeorgia Yarns, but I haven't ordered any yet because I'm undecided on exactly which colours and I don't know whether I also want to make the matching hat. If I make that hat, I'm going to want to avoid yellow, as mentioned above... but oh man, the saffron colourway is calling to me. I don't even know if this is good colourwork yarn, but I'm just so enamoured with the colours.

Word Thursday and rookie mistakes

adhocracy

A flexible and informal style of organization and management,
characterized by a lack of bureaucracy. Also (depreciative): bureaucracy
characterized by inconsistency and lack of planning.

~OED

I like this one and kind of wonder why I don't hear it more often, especially in the depreciative sense, since bureaucracies lend themselves to inconsistency. Really, any organizational system lends itself to criticism, often in snide tones.

In other news... a revelation: Vivian has a i-cord edging. I never made the connection despite considering the Sl 3 at the beginning of each row and wondering why I had to do it. I wondered, but I didn't question and I just went with it, leaving it kind of loose and weird looking expecting it would all work out in the end. Then I found a thread on the Vivian knit-a-long forum about it. I-cord! DUH!

I'm familiar with i-cord only in theory, having never knit a project that called for it. Still, I feel a bit dumb, and would have appreciated a note in the pattern telling me this is what I was supposed to be doing! I'll tighten it up from now on so it won't be so loose and ladder-y, and I'll fix up the beginning few inches in some way. They don't look too bad, really.

Always learning...

Vivian glimpses

Snatched some daylight to take a picture of my progress on Vivian. I am enjoying it so far, although I restarted three times due to various mishaps and miscalculations. I've discovered that my left-twist cables are much neater than my right-twist cables. I'm cabling without a cable needle as per Grumperina's tutorial, and I do find that the right-twist cables take more fumbling for some reason, so maybe that's why they are messier.



In a few week's I'll be participating in a knit-a-thon. 6 hours straight knitting? Count me in, though my grades may suffer!

Word: Clochard

Oy, Thursday again already?

Clochard
a beggar; vagrant; tramp.
~dictionary.com

Last weekend was Thanksgiving (Canadian edition), but I didn't have any turkey. Instead, I went to a pub and ate fish and chips. I only eat it about once a year - that's enough. Maybe a new Thanksgiving tradition? I'm a fan of turkey, though. Hm.

But today I made my first quiche. This counts as trying a new recipe, although I barely followed a recipe.



And I don't have a pie tin at the moment, so it's a square quiche. (I'm thinking of making a pie in it just to say pie are square...) Anyway, the deliciousness of this quiche does not come through in the flashy wonky photo.

Here's what I put in the filling:
onion
garlic
mushrooms
green pepper
spinach
eggs
rosemary

Next time I may add some cheese, but it's pretty good without. I'm still not used to eating cheese. As for the crust, I kind of winged that, and it's a bit obvious. It is not the most brilliant crust, but I don't mind. Next time I'll follow the recipe. It calls for yeast, and since I didn't have any (and was too hungry to deal with the rising) I just whipped up something vaguely dough-like and went from there.

Warm feet and words

FO: Jaywalkers, by Grumperina
Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett (mouthful!)
Mods: none intentional.

These socks accompanied me on the train from London to Ottawa, around northern Italy and on picnics in Modena, back and forth from home to work over the summer, and back from Ottawa to London. Whee. I'm so happy to have a pair of wearable socks for me! These took me a very long time because they weren't a priority to finish during the summer months while some other things were. I know I have a problem with timing, but in this case, it worked out really well: wool socks just as it is getting cold.



Okay, not such a flattering picture, but it's too dark to take any more so I'll live with it.

Now to the Words of Thursday.

groupuscule
A small political group, esp. a radical or extremist splinter group.
Freq. contemptuous.
~OED

septemfluous
Flowing in seven streams.
~OED

Septemfluous is the sort of word that I should know immediately because of my Latin skillz. Alas, I've lost most of my Latin lately. Note to self: get back on that.

It's October! 101 in 1001 Update.

I'm falling behind. I just realized I completely forgot to do last week's word. I'll do two tomorrow.

Plus, I haven't been updating my 101 in 1001 list, although things have been progressing.

Since I last did an update I have completed:

44. Write and send 3 letters
58. Explore Toronto (Not that Toronto can be explored in one shot, but...)
68. Learn how to cook salmon
94. Be vegan for a week

I am currently working on:
5. Knit a cabled sweater (Vivian)
Learning more words (#3)
Trying new recipes (#92)

By my count that's 27 out of 101 completed so far. I started my list last September, so I've been working on it a little over a year. Hmmm should pick up the pace!

FO:Decimal

Excuse the lighting. It's fall already, which means gray days and rain.

Decimal by Snowden Becker

Yarn: Mandarin Petit, 100% cotton
Mods: No bell sleeves. I cast on for the sleeves with the number of stitches for the underarms. Also, my yarn was slightly thinner than it should have been.

I'm calling this done even without buttons. I've decided not to hurry on the buttons for this since they wouldn't do up anyway. My first 100% cotton project had me a little worried, but turns out I really like working with this yarn - it's soft and it didn't hurt my hands or anything. It also didn't grow with blocking as much as expected, but that's okay. I like it how it is, and if it stretches a bit more in the future I'll put on buttons then.

Soon to be Vivian

No more yarn fail, I have the biggest ball of yarn in the world!



Okay so not really. That one's in Darwin, Minnesota apparently.