dallying

A dusting of snow that collects in dried leaves and looks a little like fake snow spray / powder used in Christmas displays. We haven't had much snow here yet, although when I was in London (ON unfortunately) for a few days I got my fair share of it. Fluffy flakes that became wet and soggy and slushy on the ground. (by the way, I have a place to live wooo!) I had never been to London, nor had I really shopped for apartments. Well, I guess I have if you include summer in Exeter - was that shopping? Kind of. Anyway, it was an interesting few days full of puppies and slush and basements. I'm kind of excited to move there in January for another brief taste of independence, or at least a change of scene.



A while back I decided I had been neglecting the camera so I went out in search of interesting photos in the desolate landscape of suburbia in November. Right. Not sure I succeeded, but I reminded myself that there can still be interesting and maybe even pretty things in bleak November.


And of course the ubiquitous birds on wires.

I got lots of knitting done on the 6.5 hour ride to and from London: I'm nearly finished the body section of Tempting II. No pictures yet, but it's just a boring 1x1 rib tube in pretty teal. More on that to follow. I've also baked some delicious things that while tasty were not particularly photogenic. Reading Smitten Kitchen has really made me afraid of posting about baking ever again! Nah, mostly it has me copying millions of delicious-looking recipes that I'm sure won't be nearly as pretty once I substitute vegetable oil. But that won't stop me.

Twist collective winter issue, at last!

Gah! I am about 5k behind on my NaNoWriMo novel, and blogging just makes me feel like I'm misdirecting my verbiage. Bad, bad.

But...

I have been impatiently waiting for the winter issue of Twist Collective, ever since I heard a rumour that it would be arriving Nov 1. This was just a rumour; anyway, it was delayed for very good reasons, but I have still been impatiently checking the website, even though I have my next couple of projects lined up already and I don't need to do any more pattern lusting. Or do I?

What stands out for me this issue are coats and hoodies. Coats coats coats. I'm attracted to the idea of knit coats, but I'm still undecided as to how practical they would be for me. Perhaps in the fall rather than the winter. I love Sylvi, though. The flowers and vines on the back stun me. If I find myself with a large amount of big yarn, perhaps I'll make it, maybe in time for next fall.

Heroine also really appeals to me, though I don't know if I could stand felting a coat - it would have to be ridiculously massively huge before hand, I would think. In reality, I think the buttons shown make the coat, plus the model's steampunk-esque binoculars. I probably won't make this, in all honesty, but it is cute!

On the hoodie side, while I love looking at designs for knit hoodies (and I have had Corona by Canary Sanctuary queued for a while), I am not always sure I'd wear a knit hoodie. I have plenty of hoodies, but I don't usually wear the hoods, except when weather and my other layers demand. More often than not I'm inclined to think that these gorgeous knit ones would look as good or better without the hoods, even. But Twist may have converted me, because I can definitely picture myself knitting and wearing some of these, hoods and all.

Vivian blows my mind. I am an unapologetic devotee of Ysolda, and I always look forward to seeing what she has come up with, but wheeee. How incredibly cable-y. I love the look of complicated cables. At some point soon I want to step-up my cable experience by making something with lots and lots of cables, and I think Vivian is now on my list. I love how it looks very fitted and shaped to the model so that it doesn't matter if the cables are stiff or not; my worry would be about whether I could make it look quite so amazing on me. This goes in my queue for the hopefully near future.

Gythafalls into the category of drapey, tunic-y, slightly hippy, whimsical sweaters that I adore the look of and the thought of... but again, not sure if I'd be able to pull it off myself. Eeesh. I think I need to suck it up and make myself a tunic-y sweater and be done with it, because I'm clearly too uptight. Anyway. Gytha is cute and looks comfy, and perhaps if I get over some of my hang-ups and can afford yarn I'll make it some day! It's not at the top of my list, though.

With my idealistic love of cloche-type hats, it's weird that I don't have any. maybe not all that weird since I'm a miser who doesn't like to spend money on style-over-substance fashion. But I have been eyeing MK Carroll's Matilda and Tillie hats for a while. Twist's cloche offering Dietrich is very cute. It goes on the list to sit along with Matilda / Tillie for a while to simmer while I decide which to jump into and go with, likely as soon as it gets too cold...

Startitis, of a kind

I don't usually get the typical knitting startitis. Certainly, I compulsively queue projects, most of which I will never make: I need to get better at using the "favourites" feature in ravelry instead of just queuing everything I like the look of whether I'll make it or not. In any case, while I have "queue-itis" (eugh at vowels), I don't generally find myself compulsively casting on for lots of projects in quick succession. This is because I'm so anal about yarn purchasing these days that I spend ages and ages deliberating about what yarn to buy, or whether or not to even buy yarn at all... So far I'm keeping my yarn purchasing under control, which I'm happy about.

Anyway. A different sort of starting problem plagues me. It seems like every project I start, no matter how simple, starts with a stupid mistake. For example, I nearly always use long-tail cast-on, and even though I know I should be more careful with leaving a long-enough tail, I nearly always have to restart my cast-on because I've run out of yarn. Sometimes more than once. But I'm too excited to be careful and methodical! It's stupid.

When I make it past the cast-on, there's usually something else that goes wrong almost immediately. With Odessa, I mobiused the damn thing. Then I realized I hadn't cast on enough stitches. With Tempting II, I've just started, and it turns out I screwed up the 1X1 rib in the first row. Rather than rip it all out, or just ignore it and let it work itself out (both of which I sometimes do), I decided to go about manually unknitting each stitch and re-positioning it as knit or purl, then knitting or purling the stitch again to be caught up to the second row.

Once I'd realized that it was only about 20 stitches into the round that I'd purled twice, thereby throwing off the entire rest of the row, I didn't think to only undo and fix those twenty stitchs to realign the rib. No, it was only about halfway through the row of fixing that I realized that would have been smarter and faster. Blah.

As I stands, I still haven't finished the fixing row. The knitting is sitting in my living room sulking. At this rate it would have been faster to rip it all out, but if I do that I'm sure to screw up the cast-on. Repeat cycle.

Sigh. I think I sabotage myself and my knitting a little sometimes. I'll get there eventually.

What am I doing lately?

-Congratulating the USA for not electing another Republican.
-Breathing a sigh of relief that Sarah Palin is not VP
-Fretting a little about the fact that Sarah Palin is not going to go away and probably will turn up again next time around. So scary.
-Volunteering at a library! Super fun and educational
-Working at stupid job, but saving more than I'm spending, so woot.
-Not braiding my hair for a month - this experiment has shown that I am very very lazy. I thought I might figure out more interesting things to do with my hair if I couldn't braid it, but in reality I fall back on buns and ponytails mostly. Oh well.
-Not taking any photos of anything, inexplicably
-Looking for a place to live in London, ON
-Feeling happy that I'm still with my favourite person (albeit long distance) after 2 years. I'll always remember the 5th of November but for slightly less pyromaniacal reasons...
-Writing a novel for NaNoWriMo. (only 6057 words so far, but I'll get there)
-knitting another apple cozy
-waiting for the winter issues of Knotions and Twist Collective

-loving today's knitting-related Questionable Content

Halloween

Halloween happened! And ever since I've been consuming large amounts of tiny chocolate bars and other terrible candy in a seemingly compulsive fashion. The appeal of tiny chocolate is inexplicable and only seems to occur for me around Halloween. Ah well, we will finish it up soon enough and maybe I'll go for a run tomorrow.



But Halloween is one of my favourite events, commercialized candy peddling aside. I especially like carving pumpkins. Perhaps perversely. In a fit of the absurd, I carved my pumpkin as a pineapple in first year uni. I am inordinately proud of that pumpkin, even if that makes me extra weird. Eh, I don't mind being extra weird. When I was younger, we'd usually take a family trip out to pick pumpkins off huge piles out at a market where we'd also buy lots of apples. This year we only had the one pumpkin, but I had fun carving it.

I went to a party and hung out with lots of hum friends in various states of (geeky) costume. It was pretty great. Only at a hums party will you find Medea, Medusa (me), St Augustine, and various other clergy represented... Heh. I'm graduating next weekend (WOOOOO), and I've been pretty caught up in the relief of finally pulling off my bachelor's degree, but I know I will miss a lot of things about Hums. Geeky costume parties being only one.

Now that I'm not in school, I'm taking the opportunity this November to participate in NaNoWriMo, something I've meant to do for years, but could never justify - there was so much procrastinating for essays to be done instead! My cousin is also writing, so we got together last night to kick off our novels with a bit of competition. It's good fun. We'll see how far I get. I'm not aiming for brilliance, as I'm told this is ill-advised. Mediocrity will suffice for now!

FO: apple cozy

Apple Cozy from I'm Gonna Purl

I first saw this on I Like Lemons and knew it would fit with my obsessive practical-knitting (which I realize goes awry more often than not), as well as let me use (but not use up, alas) some icky acrylic I've had lying around since the beginning of time.

Icky acrylic is perfect for this sort of thing: it will hold up being bashed around in my backpack, and I don't have to worry about ruining pretty yarn. Plus, this is mostly black so it won't look dingy(er) quickly.

It turned out huge. I may make another one doing fewer increases. This one fits huge apples, which we happen to have some of at the moment, but the next one I'll aim for fitting normal medium apples.

I was a little careless with the increases and decreases: I used 4 needles instead of 5 and got tired of the constant counting I was doing to follow directions written out for 5 needles: "on each needle knit to 1 stitch before end, m1." I pretty much winged it, making sure to increase and decrease where I thought was the right place... so there aren't as pretty seams as the original, but it doesn't show too badly, and I am altogether pleased.

Hello winter!

I heard we were going to get a lot of snow, and I trudged through some slush last night, but I didn't expect all of it to stick. Wow.

FO: Odessa

Odessa by Grumperina
It's not really as lumpy as it looks in the photo, I swear! I knit an extra inch or so before decreasing because I like ears that cover my ears. It turned out a little big, but it will keep my forehead/ears warm.

I love love love how the yarn knit up. I'm so excited about it! The handspun isn't the softest yarn, but it's sturdy and a bit textured. Combined with the accidental semi-solid dye job and a simple yet interesting knitting pattern = success!

Encased in knitwear: an October adventure

It is November weather today. I, like many people, don't particularly enjoy the November part of fall with its cold, clammy, blustery rain. I follow the pack and love the crisp, cool, and bright part of fall. You know, before the leaves get brown and sludgy underfoot when they are still lovely yellow, orange, and red.

But no matter. Today the blustery cold drizzle was mitigated somewhat (at least in my mind) by my wearing Gretel, Endpaper Mitts, and Tiger Eye scarf. I did so without shame, despite the hilarious un-matchiness of all these items. If I'd worn my V-neck I'd have been encased in knitwear; it wasn't cold enough for all that, fortunately.

So I was clashy, cozy, and enjoying the bluster despite its Novemberiness. I know, maybe I should learn some new real adjectives instead of making them up.

And what a day to visit a yarn store! (Maybe I should be more conscientious about starting sentences with conjunctions, too.) I went to Yarn Forward and Sew On on my way home today. I'd never been in there before (gasp) because truth be told I'm woefully inexperienced with Ottawa yarn shops, and yarn shops in general. Mmmm yarn on a blustery day. I didn't buy anything because I'm not buying any yarn until I get my interest for October, but I'll definitely go back. It was neat to see and be able to touch all these yarns that I've only ever heard about - Koigu, Hand Maiden, Fleece Artist etc. Exciting.

Life Work Blah

I keep trying to convince myself that my perverse enjoyment of behind-the-scenes work justifies the bad times at my crappy job. Honestly, I'm mostly indifferent to the job, which is a whole other thing, but it has its ups and downs. Lately downs. I think it is because I've been working long shifts in order to get enough hours in this week. I made the mistake of taking the entire Thanksgiving weekend off, and then I worked at the Election on Tuesday for 14 hours.

The election was fun times, really. I've done that work twice before, and this time I was partnered with a jovial and talkative British ex-pat who pretty much entertained me the entire time with random anecdotes. So despite the length of the day, it didn't feel draggy most of the time, and hey - doing my civic duty to help the democratic process! Woot. (Again, my perverse enjoyment of things behind-the-scenes is at play here. Also I like getting paid).

But. Following a 14 hour work day with 6.5 hours of call centre the next day, and another 6.5 hours the day after that was a stupid stupid idea. I'm losing my mind. And the worst bit is, I'm working those same hours tonight, and then 4 hours on Saturday. I need to get better at scheduling myself. Eeesh.

For the first time since my first awful day at this job, yesterday I felt I just couldn't take it. Every task seemed stupider than anything anyone would ever be asked to do. I know that's irrational, but I sometimes think people here get by through comraderie in despair. Oh hey, that's the working world for ya. I guess. Whatever. I seethed on the way home and ranted at night, and went to bed feeling pissed off and unable to contemplate working again. Wow, emo. I'm not going to quit, since I know I'll quit before December anyway, but man - I definitely felt like it yesterday.

Getting paid yesterday didn't help, oddly enough. Instead of feeling proud of the money I'd made by doing stupid things all day, I felt demoralized that the last two weeks could be measured in $341. To be sure, I'm happy to have this money now that I'm sensing a disturbing trend towards consumerism in my desires, but... I'm probably thinking too much about this.

FO: Koolhaas

I made this ages ago, but never showed it out of paranoia. Not that I honestly expected the recipient to read this blog, but I wanted to be careful.

Now that he has the hat snugly in his possession I'll show it off.

When I jokingly promised not to knit him anything for his birthday he said, "ACTUALLY..." and mentioned he could use a "non-pointy" hat. So he even gave me tacit permission. THAT'S what I like to hear.



The colour is not quite right in the above photo, but the one below is closer.



Koolhaas by Jared Flood
Mission Falls 1824 Wool

Although I made it for a man, I only did 4 repeats of the cable pattern because otherwise it would have been massive. I loved making this. I used Grumperina's tutorial for cables without a needle: super helpful. I may never use a cable needle again, for mini-cables at least. I love everything about this hat. The Mission Falls was so nice and soft to knit with, although I do fear it will pill. Given the recipient lives in balmy Devon, I don't expect the hat will get too much use except when he is visiting me in the Frozen North, so hopefully it will hold up well enough.

I want to make one for me, now!

3 cherry and 2 grape later... Addiction!

I dyed about 175~ yards of that amazing handspun, and I love the colour! It's hard to tell from the photo, but it's a bit semi-solid, which I like a lot. I was afraid it would turn out bright pink or something. There was no noticeable separation of blue and red from the grape, either. I call this a success!

Once again, I used no-name instant drink mix. Man, this stuff is PUNGENT. I left the yarn to dry overnight and when I stepped into the same room as it this morning I could still smell the intense fruitiness. I left it outside for a while, and it seems to have calmed down, so I don't think I'll pass out while knitting. Woo. Again, much more pleasant than vinegar in my opinion, but it was pretty overpowering.



I followed directives from this Knitty article.

Handspun, WHAT?

I recently made a pact with myself that I would not buy yarn until I get my interest for October. I do want to knit a sweater or two in the coming months, and I will need yarn for these projects, but I figured they can wait until November 1. Then, my mom acquired a huge sack of handspun from someone cleaning out their basement, and she gave it to me. Now I'm excited and terrified!



It's beautiful stuff. I'm not judge of handspun or anything really, but it's so neat to look at. It's a tad scratchy, but not too bad, and it is all undyed. It immediately piqued my sweater need and my kool-aid dyeing obsession. It is about DK weight, which is fairly convenient, since I've wanted to knit Basic Black for a while, but I think I need to do more dyeing experiments before I commit to a sweater's worth.



So I'm looking at small projects to dye for and knit before attempting a sweater. Red? Green? Blue? I bought some cherry and grape flavoured instant drink mix today, so first I'll aim for dark red. It turns out the grocery store I hit has a terrible selection, even of proper Kool-Aid, so I may make a foray into food-colouring sooner than I expected. (I hate vinegar, but hey, I'll deal). I've read some things about colour separation when attempting to dye purple, so we'll see how this goes. I don't mind unevenness.

I'll definitely have enough yarn for more than a sweater, but all this excitement is rendering my careful queuing topsyturvy! (As if I queue carefully. Whatever). I'm thinking I'll make Odessa since I have admired it from afar for ages. No beads, and I'm hoping the handspun will give it an interesting texture that won't overwhelm or be overwhelmed by the spirals. And hoping I can make it cover my ears.

Also, as a graduation gift my grandmother gave me The Knitter's Book of Yarn, which I had ogled while borrowing from the library. I think it will be an excellent resource to have, since I want to keep learning about yarn and fibre, and stop making stupid yarn choice mistakes. Plus, lots of fun patterns. (And plenty I'll never consider making, but you know. Either way).

My first FO: A retrospective :P and second incarnation

When I learned to knit (several times) in my childhood, it never really occurred to me that I could make things. I couldn't be bothered with patterns, and I didn't care much for useful finished objects. I think I made a garter-stitch doll blanket or two, but that's as functional as it got; the miscellaneous swatches of varigated acrylic yarn still occasionally turn up around the house. I still have several partial skeins of said yarn that I don't know what to do with.

My first real finished object with a specific use was a pair of off-white lightly-felted lopi mittens. The pattern came from a children's story and how-to-knit book my parents got me one Chanuka: Sunny's Mittens by Robin Hansen. I don't remember how old I was, maybe 10 or 11, but I do remember being old enough that the cutesy story didn't entirely charm me. Still, it looked like fun, so I acquired some yarn and some dpns and got to work.

And quickly put the project aside. It must have taken me two years or more to finish the mitts - not that I found it boring, but I didn't have much patience or dedication, I guess. I made my mother do the "hard" parts, like casting on and picking up stitches, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to keep track of the beginning of the round. (Stitch markers were a revelation that didn't hit me until much later). When I finally finished them I was exceedingly pleased with myself; this is one early project that I still consider a success. Afterwards I forgot about knitting for a while, and then tried crochet before eventually starting to knit again. (But that's fodder for another pretentiously nostalgic blog post.)



Once the mittens were finished, it seems like I barely wore them before I outgrew them, but that might be an exaggeration since they're ding, have lost their fuzz, and look well-worn. I kept wearing them, stretching them, when I got bigger for a little while, but eventually the cuffs no longer covered my wrists and they were no longer practical. Not to mention that white mitts get dingy very easily in the city snow.




Anyway, I still had a whole skein-and-a-bit of that lopi yarn, tucked away in some corner of my closet. I dyed it orange, knit and felted, and the rest is history.



FO: Sunny's Mittens, by Robin Hansen
Yarn: Istex Alafoss Lopi, hand-dyed with koolaid
This time around it was SUPER fast. It took maybe two or three news-watchings to get through these. Upon felting, I think they lost a little colour, but not enough to make me worry, so I'll probably keep them as they are. I felted them by hand in soapy water using a bamboo sushi mat for extra aggression (as per suggestions in Not Your Mama's Felting by Amy Swenson). The mittens did not lose stitch definition, but since they didn't last time either, I wasn't expecting them to. They shrunk down enough to become very dense, though they are still roomy and they cover my wrists. I suspect they could be felted further, but since they shrunk in width more than in length, I don't want to risk making them too small around.

So there it is! Yay, Mittens!

wip: cantaloupe-ice cream orange mittens

That bulky lopi yarn I dyed orange with no-name instant drink mix? Tada! Mittens!
It's clearly fall/autumn for real because we turned out heat on today. Winter is coming, and when it arrives I'll have some sprightly orange mittens to remind me of autumn leaves. Or cantaloupe ice-cream. Whatever. I love how the uneven dye job knit up. It is slightly stripy in some places, and a nice mix of pastel and bright spots. I still need to felt/full these so they'll be thick and warm and not giant-sized.



I have been warned that felting may wash out the dye, so I'm spending some time staring at the prettiness for now, and if it washes out I'll dye them again afterwards, and maybe end up with some hazard orange instead of cantaloupe ice cream. Fun possibilities! Stay tuned for the epic conclusion of this adventure...

zipping through?

When I made my 101 in 1001 list a few weeks ago, I immediately had second thoughts about several list items. Too easy, too hard to quantify... So far I am leaving it as is, but since I'm an unorthodox list maker, I'll allow myself the freedom to change it to a certain extent as I go.

I've completed a few in the last few days, which makes me think that they are too easy, or perhaps I'm just tackling the easy ones first.

8. Reorganize my book shelves so that all my books fit without spilling onto the floor. I just needed to do it. Not hard, just easy to avoid. (Now I need to find someplace to put all the non-book items I removed in order to fit the books in.) Yawn.

13. Read Emma, by Jane Austen, all the way to the end.

Until yesterday, Emma was the only one of Jane Austen's complete novels that I had not read. I had tried on several occasions and inexplicably failed. The first time was in grade 8. It was my first Austen attempt, which proceeded to turn me off the whole experience for a few years. I was a big reader then, but I think I couldn't get into the language at that stage. I don't know exactly what made me stop. The second time was a few years later, I believe after I'd read a few other Austen books. Again, not sure why I stopped.

After finishing it last night, I can't think what my problem was those other times. It is a delightful book. (Yes, I just said "delightful.") It easily ranks up near my favourite Austens, though to be fair I love them all. Other than Mansfield Park. That one bugs me.

Anyway, this time around I adored Emma. It's a brilliant example of Jane Austen's social comedy, which I love far more than the romantic aspects. All the petty hang-ups and ridiculous behaviour that seem so important at the beginning become far less important and all-encompassing towards the end. I recognize that reading from my perspective I'm bound to find this obsession with manners a little funny; we don't care about these things in quite so much detail these days, it seems to me. But even so, the way Austen picks at the ridiculousness of human relationships is biting and hilarius. Ah. Also, Miss Bates? That kind of caricature seems perfect.

Oh, and I'm this much closer to achieving #101. (Get a masters degree). I got into a masters program yesterday, accepted the offer, and must now start freaking out about finding a place to live in London. (Ontario. Unfortunately not UK this time).

FO: Liesl

Pattern: Liesl by Ysolda, at long last.
Yarn: Zara Plus

I intended to make this with long sleeves, but I ran out of yarn at about elbow-length.



Seriously. That's what I had left after weaving in ends and trimming. I could have sworn I bought extra, but nevermind. The sleeves gained some length with blocking, and ultimately I'm happy with it. I have this ridiculous paranoia about things growing, and even though I blocked my swatch this time around I still feared... And the sweater did get longer, but I managed to scrunch it up again, so now it is a perfect length.



I like it. The neck isn't as wide as I'd expected but I can always leave a button or two undone. On ravelry, most people seem to prefer only buttoning this sweater at the top, like Ysolda's original, so I worried a little about my decision to button it all the way down before seeing what it looked like on other people. I think this way does work better for me.

some pictures from the last few days

I finally finished reading Don Quixote. Having started it in class, I always intended to finish it, but didn't have time during the time I was supposed to... But I finished it eventually, so it counts, right? I loved it. It is pure slapstick with an underlying current of intelligent satire. The first part is better than the second in my opinion; the second relies too much on Sancho Panza spewing inappropriate proverbs than anything else, still it is all enjoyable.

I have two jobs!

Oy. I just got home from my first day at work, and I'm beat. It was an 8 hour day, and after just one I'm convinced that I'll never be able to work full time at anything. Hahaha. Darn. University's random scheduling and 16 hour weeks has got me spoiled. Back in high school I easily stayed at school for 12 hours straight some days because I was an overstimulated overachieving extra-curricular kind of gal. Okay, not so much on the overachieving, but I had before and afterschool activities on various days. And I lugged my textbooks around when I didn't need to, and I played the saxophone. I still claim to play the sax but these days I don't take it any place. Note to self: actually get the sax out and play. It's on your 101 in 1001 list!

Eh. I'm sure I'll get used to working in the next little while, and it won't always be 8 hour shifts. It's a relief to know this sort of thing is short term and I'm not tied to it for the rest of my life.

Also, right after I went to training for this job I found out I got another (very temporary) job. It never rains but it pours hyukhyuk? The two don't conflict so I can do both, and one only lasts a day and pays a lot better. But hey. Suddenly I have a busy life! Crazy times.

No photos, no knitting... I've actually been taking photos and knitting and baking and crafting quite a bit but this sudden employment threw everything out of whack so I have nothing uploaded. Liesl will be finished within a week - she has a second sleeve, but I'm still not sure if I'll run out of yarn, so I may need to rip back the first one, which isn't even full length. I got the yarn at a warehouse sale, so I don't expect to be able to find any more of it, and honestly I'll be satisfied with a 3/4 length Liesl even though I was intending to make full sleeves. But we shall see. DUNH DUNH DUNH.

#1 - get a temporary job

As of yesterday, I have a job. I wrote up my 101 in 1001 list in no particular order, so I'm a little amused that the first item I've completed is actually #1 on the list. I'm also bemused and conflicted about this whole job thing, because the moment I lowered my standards I got a job. Ouch. We shall see if this job is positive in any way, other than that it pays and is situated down the street from a yarn shop. Ha. Low expectations, woo.

Despite my reluctant participation in the capitalist system (snort), I've found myself obsessing over money and finding a job lately. I think part of this comes from finishing school and finding out for sure that my degree in itself isn't helping me towards legitimate employment. I'm a bit embarassed. Another part of this is that I've started to want expensive things. (And inexpensive things). This isn't solely a ridiculous desire to participate in conspicuous consumption, since the expensive things I want are mostly related to moving to England or at least visiting, but I am finding a disturbing trend in my thoughts towards material goods. Ha, how pretentious. I'm not as much of a hippie snob as I sound by that statement. Yes, I want Things. What have I become? Hopefully I can use my shopper's-guilt to the advantage of my bank account and save more than I spend.

In other news, Eoin Colfer is writing a 6th Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book. I am slightly terrified at this prospect because Douglas Adams' original trilogy in five parts has pretty much shaped how I see the world. (No, really.) I've heard good things about Eoin Colfer, though I haven't read any of his books yet; maybe he's brilliant and it will all turn out well, but I can't help being nervous that it will all end badly. I guess all this worry is silly - I know I'll read the book and try to forget it if it's awful. A different addition doesn't necessarily reflect on the whole thing, and the original books will always be my favourites.