Inspiration

Last week, coming home from work after the rain had stopped, I saw the garden and got inspired to capture everything prettily tossed with droplets. I wandered around stepping in the mud with my chunky work-heels, and snapped repetitive photos. I didn't look at the photos again until this evening, and I was pleasantly surprised!

That alien-looking thing up there is a poppy bud. I'm so pleased that I caught it looking like that.



Usually when I try for an effect intentionally, I don't manage to capture it; it's heartening to find that even when I think I'm taking repetitive, predictable photos, I can surprise myself after all.

So close

I still knit, I swear! Work has been keeping me busy all day, and discouraging me from using the computer at home. I may not be cut out for a desk job.



The indistinct fuzzy charcoal-gray mass is Basic Black - nearly finished! I'm wearing it in the picture, though it doesn't have button bands yet. Soon!

Drops in the bucket: 101 in 1001 update

I stood there taking photos of this bucket for ages, and this was the best of the lot. Next time...

Keeping track of my progress for 101 in 1001 has not happened as systematically as I intended, so I'm going to try to do monthly updates like they do in the Ravelry group that I lurk on and rarely participate. I'm also going to write down precise dates of completed tasks in the future. Not sure why this seems like it would help, but maybe I'm just channeling a librarian-esque obsessive need for organization.

In May, I crossed 5 items off the list.

37. Read King Lear (finished 7 May 2009)
74. Go to 3 classical / orchestral / chamber music concerts [3/3] (Evelyn Glennie at NAC, Nov 26, 2008), (Kanata Symphony, 9 May 2009), (Parkdale Orchestra, May 2009)
35. Earn $5500 (as of 27 May 2009)
42. Read something by Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart – May 2009)
75. Get a haircut and donate my hair to a charity (May 30, 2009)

Two of them were cumulative and two of them involved reading. In some ways my reading goals were just an easy way to fill a list, but on the other hand it is encouraging me to read things I didn't get around to reading before for whatever reason. On that note, my first completion of June was another book goal:

33. Read Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon (June 2009)

I'm not really inspired to tackle any of my goals at the moment, which is unfortunate but I'll get over it. The most inspiring ones right now are knitting, but I expect they are appealing because I'm trying to let my hands recover. Oh woe, etc etc.

resting the thumbs

"The covers are rugged hand-laid paper of rice chaff, bamboo tailings, free-range hemp, and crystalline glacial meltwater made by wizened artisans operating out of a mist-shrouded temple hewn from living volcanic rock on some island known only to aerobically gifted, Spandex-sheathed Left Coast travel bores. An impressionistic map of the South China Sea has been dashed across these covers by molecularly reconstructed Ming Dynasty calligraphers using brushes of combed unicorn mane dipped into ink made of grinding down charcoal slabs fashioned by blind stylite monks from hand-charred fragments of the True Cross."

~Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon

This doesn't really apply to the photo, in fact it doesn't apply in the least to my latest crafting endeavor, but I love the passage. Neal Stephenson once more blows my mind with a thoroughly absorbing, complex, and full novel. Augh, it's fun to read. I'm just over halfway through, and I am not anxious for it to end. It makes me wish I understood math, though maybe that would make it all less magical.

Anyway. While resting my hands which have reacted badly to the frantic knitting that accompanies warm weather and the home stretch of a wintery cardigan, I made a book. (No unicorns were harmed in the making.)



The covers are cuts of an Emily Carr print from an old calendar of Canadian paintings. The inside pages are kind of uneven and edged with pencil marks - cutting out lots of identical pages quickly turned into cutting out enough vaguely similar sized pages. It's roughly based on the chain stitch bound blank book from Alisa Golden's Creating Handmade Books (1998). I've made this kind of book a few times before: the binding is flexible and lays flat, so the format is good for journals.



The covers are a little ripply despite intensive action by the bone-folder and several days compression under a stack of songbooks, but I don't really mind. It fits with the texture of the painting.



I'm a little worried about the condition of my thumbs - they seem to get sore after only a few rows of sleeve knitting, lately - so finishing Basic Black will have to wait for a little while. But I'm so close! Just sleeve-cap shaping, button-band knitting, and other finishing details left.

Just in time for July, maybe. Weather being how it is, I may get some use out of it even then: the other day it hailed, and about half an hour later I saw my first hummingbird of the year.

#75 - weight off my shoulders

#75 Get a haircut and donate my hair to a charity. Check.


Before


After

I have considerably less hair than before, and soon it will become part of a wig for a low-income child with hair loss. I've been planning this for a while. A few years ago I decided to grow my hair as long as I could stand it, since I'd never had obscenely long hair before. I figured, once I got tired of it I'd chop it off and give it to someone who wanted it more than I.


~14 inches, unbraided

I'm sending it to the Angel Hair for Kids project, since they are based in Canada. I hope they can use it despite my frazzled ends!

new blog same as the old blog

I've tried to come up with a convincing new blog layout a few times in the last few weeks with little success. Today I found a combination of subtle changes and photos that I like, so here it is.

Yes, I am aware of the irony that one claiming not to be a perfectionist would take so long to come up with a new colour scheme and blog title. Shh. I'm allowed a little hypocrisy on my own blog, right? The truth is, this is exactly the attitude I was aiming to represent with the new identification - I try, but generally I'll only do and redo things so many times (not many) before I get fed up and settle with what I have. I find myself saying Good Enough - sometimes exasperated, but more often satisfied.

The banner is comprised of some photos I took in a park in Modena in April.

Favourites

I left for Italy after the snow had melted, but before green was truly pervasive. I was only gone for ten days, yet I returned to see spring blooming well underway. It cheered me up. Perhaps this is stereotypically female of me, but I do love flowers. I'm fickle, though; every new batch that pokes up strikes me as my favourite until it is replaced by the next crop.



Daffodils are usually the first. Tulips compete with them for attention. Now the lawn is full of violets, dandelions, and forget-me-nots. Lilacs are beginning to bloom. The other day it had rained and everything smelled good, even in the street, and it made me feel all cliche and sentimental. Ah, spring! Even my obstinate disdain falters when confronted with pretty living things. Heh.

Violets have always been a favourite of mine - according to someone they are my "birth flower" (February), and I like deep purples. I have never taken a satisfactory photo of violets, though. I can't seem to capture their colour at the same time as their texture. My macro shots are largely unscientific and involve much squatting, kneeling, hovering, and wildly aiming - I'm sure my technique could use some improvement.

Right now the forget-me-nots are stealing my heart.

Bologna (and surprise yarn encounters)

I didn't expect to go yarn shopping in Bologna. We went for the day to climb a tall tower, drink espresso, eat gelato, ogle statuary, and generally be tourists. I'm not much of a yarn-tourist, though; I did think it would be neat to find Italian yarn in Italy, and I wrote down some yarn shop addresses in Milan, but we never got to them.

But while exploring narrow streets in and around the university, where so many of the Renaissance men I encountered in undergrad went to study law before becoming poets instead, we found a yarn shop totally by accident.



I don't know what it is called, nor can I remember exactly where it was, unfortunately. Anyone out there know Bologna and its yarn shops well? Anyway, it seemed to sell both yarn and clothing, but it had massive amounts of Filatura di Crosa - walls of Zara in many different colours. The yarn was arranged by colour, rather than weight or brand, so that was interesting. I picked up a skein of what I thought was laceweight, thinking that I'd tackle one of my 101 in 1001 goals: Make a lace shawl. My boyfriend bought it for me as a present (aw).



However, Ravelry informs me that Filatura di Crosa Centolavaggi is in fact cobweb. This terrifies me more than even laceweight. My judgment of yarn weights in hand isn't very good sometimes, and I'm such a lace novice that I haven't really handled much laceweight. The whole transaction was quick and exciting without much consideration or thought, and we were on our way...

Now I have 1400 m of cobweb weight merino. What to make?

Home again?

Modena

I got back from my adventure in Italy nearly a week ago, started a job the next day, and spent the time between now and then slogging dutifully through my copious photos, trying to get them ready for the internet's scrutiny... 4GB memory card is a licence to find every single thing utterly enchanting and photo-worthy. I'm glad I caught some of the bright colour in pictures, although there were plenty of rainy days.


(made with Big Huge Labs's mosaic maker)

Windows and balconies caught my eye this time, though like a typical North American I was very taken with narrow streets, cobblestones, churches and generally old things. Despite myself I didn't do much communing with dead Romans.

But I did knit lots on trains and in parks.



Needless to say, I had a great time. Ten days felt like much longer and still much too short. Being less long-distance with my boyfriend for a short time was refreshing and rejuvenating, but now I'm ready for him to visit me in September!

Oh, and even though I'm crossing off #53 (Visit Italy), I'm definitely going back to spend a week in Florence. Some day.

Unpacking, packing, trains, and socks

I transported all my worldly possessions by train yesterday. It was exhausting. Moving is always difficult, and I always feel like I have too much stuff. Still, three boxes, a hiking pack, and a knapsack aren't so bad, right? In the process of packing I got rid of most of my pairs of pants that were on the edge or ill-fitting. I suspect a conscious decision to embrace minimalism would do me some good.

Excuse me while I join the ranks of knitting bloggers who make socks on trains.



I started some Jaywalkers as we pulled out of London, and by the time I got to Ottawa, I had a sizable amount of ankle done. I've been looking forward to starting them since I bought the yarn on my first/last foray to the London LYS. Now they are started just in time for me to pack them in my checked luggage on my flight to Italy tomorrow. But hey! There's a yarn shop down the street from our hotel in Milan.....


I took the pictures outside of Toronto by Lake Ontario.

The yarn is Regia, Kaffe Fassett line. I like the greens and blues, but I'm not so keen on the olive-y green browns - I've already chopped a length out so I wouldn't have another huge section of it. We'll see. I didn't think about the yarn much before I bought it, since I knew Jaywalkers are kind to stripes.

Italy! Tomorrow! Unbelievably excited to spend time with my favourite person in an exotic setting, and traipse around touristically being all unstylish and awed. Hurray!

Knitting librarian

One term down in library school and I'm totally absorbed in library geekery, giggling about bookish, cutesy book, and pretentiously radical librarian shirts. (Although I'm not too keen on this, even ironically.) I'm not the only one: we pass around library youtube videos on the class listservs and spend our facebook time poking fun at ourselves and the whole library structure while simultaneously embracing it.

TT820 Classy Knitting, recently of Decimal fame has a run of awesome librarian-inspired/related sweaters and the like. Before I realized her blog name was TT820, I saw Decimal and thought, "DEWEY" because that's how my brain works right now. Of course, when I saw TT820 it looked familiar; after all, I wrote an essay a few months back on knitting in the Library of Congress Classification. Hurray, I am in on the joke for once?

All this to say, I love the library knitting aesthetic right now, and I'm looking forward to the patterns for Harriet and Myrtle.

It's okay to deny old librarian stereotypes while still living in great cardigans, right? Hell, I wear my hair in a bun frequently but that doesn't mean I'm not fun. Right? Right? Hah.

In other news, my epic adventure of today was transporting my computer chair by bus to its temporary home. And saw some people walking down the street with a canoe earlier - I kind of wish I was part of THAT adventure because it was probably more epic and provoked less dirty looks than mine.

101 in 1001 update

It occurs to me that I have been slowly making progress on my 101 in 1001 list, but I haven't really been sharing it. As of right now, I've completed about 10% of my list, but that figure is misleading since far too many of the items of my list are partially complete. Something I may modify as time goes on: fewer list items that say "Do 30 of this!" I've been poking away at those, as well.

Here's what's done so far.

1. Get a temporary job (as of Sept 17 2008)
2. Write a novel (Nov 2008)
8. Reorganize my book shelves so that all my books fit without spilling onto the floor
11. Acquire a decent fountain pen (March 09, birthday gift)
13. Read Emma, by Jane Austen, all the way to the end
21. Get prints made of my favourite digital photos (Feb 09)
63. Move away from home (at least temporarily)
77. Wear a different pair of earrings every day for a month [started Sept 9, finished Oct 9, 2008]
79. Drag out the bike and do whatever maintenance needs doing (technically I didn't do this, but it got done... and I'll do it next time.)
86. Do my hair without braiding it every day for a month (Oct 10-Nov 10, 2008)

Looks a little pitiful, but here are the ones in progress:
31. Write in my paper journal weekly
35. Earn $5500
57. Knit 10 things for other people. [4/10] (Koolhaas, fuzzy scarf, Catawampus hat, Coronet)
65. Walk at least 30 minutes, at least 5 times a week
74. Go to 3 classical / orchestral / chamber music concerts [1/3] (Evelyn Glennie at NAC, Nov 26, 2008)
76. Be social with friends once a month
92. Cook from 30 new recipes [3/30]
a. Pepper Lime chicken, New Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (13.01.09)
b. Smashed chickpea salad/sandwich: Smitten Kitchen (http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/smashed-chickpea-salad/) (30.03.09)
c. Kalamata lemon chicken, New Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (31.03.09)
97. Go to 3 jazz concerts [1/3]

So. I'm excited to say that the next thing I'll cross off the list is #53 - Visit Italy. Next week I'll land in Milan! Woo!

After that, maybe #75 - Get a haircut and donate my hair to a charity. My hair is long enough now that it's getting a little ridiculous, so maybe in May I'll get it chopped off.

In terms of the knitting goals, I've got a few things floating hazily on the horizon.
- Vivian this fall, for #5 - Knit an Aran(ish) cabled sweater.
- Little Birds to fulfill #9 - Steek something. I'm going to practice my stranded colourwork a little more before I attempt that, though.
- perhaps Delicious knee socks for #12 - Knit knee-high socks?

(I realize two of the above three plans are Ysolda designs. So sue me for being a fan.)

Texture (picspam)

Lots of knitting going on around here, but no pictures because it's all black stockinette stitch. I'm on the right-front piece of Basic Black, having whizzed through the left front. It'll be done by deep, hot summer. Heh. My timing rules. Anyway. I had an amusing yarn-related story, which I may post at some point. For now, suffice it to say that I have bought sock yarn and will commence knitting some jaywalkers on the train home to Ottawa next Friday. (And please ignore the obvious hypocrisy in my buying more yarn while busily packing up my current stash to ship back to Ottawa since I didn't knit nearly enough of it up this semester. I blame grad school.)

Weather is beautiful, but spring is very gray and brown still. We even got more snow this past week, but it melted again. I dragged myself out of bed and went running today, since I feel the need to spend as much time as possible on the path by the river before I move away. I spent most of the winter skirting around its mud and slush, but now that things are pretty dry, I love the fact that if I follow the river I'll eventually get to university.



My walk there a few days ago was all about texture.


This seed pod reminds me of a blowfish.



Someone left a cute little blue clay pot on a log that I passed several days in a row. When I brought my camera back to take a picture of it the other day, it was gone.





The little woods are oddly devastated - an early snow storm ravaged them, and I spent my semester looking at fallen trees through snow. Now the trunks and splinters are exposed again.

And I nearly forgot: I saw the first butterfly of spring!

Terrible photo, but you know. Butterfly!

Spring is peeking through

It's still mostly brown here, but there are tiny hopefuly signs.



And some bizarre things, as befits a good photo-walk.

Success?

After a jittery morning, after lots of interviews over the last few weeks, after some strained and stressful resume editing and cover-letter compiling... I have a co-op job for the summer! I didn't expect to get this particular one, but I'm excited about it. I think I'll learn a lot, and as terrible as it sounds, I'm anxious to leave town. Not so enamoured with London, ON.

It's all contingent on marks, though, so the pressure is on. This one paper gets my nearly undivided attention for the next while, and Strunk & White once more becomes my bedtime reading.

FO: Wesley

A hat just in time for spring.



Pattern: Wesley by Kate Gagnon
It turned out a lot smaller than I thought it would, but then again I didn't swatch, used larger needles out of laziness (5.5 mm instead of 5, since I don't own a short enough 5 mm circular), and basically screwed around with the details enough that I'm surprised it looks at all like the original! In truth I followed the instructions, mostly.

Mods: I attempted to make a hybrid of size one and size two, hoping for something not slouchy, but big enough around to fit my head. I cast on for size two, and intended to do only two repeats of the colour pattern, but when I got to that point it still looked short, so I did another two colours. (2.75 repeats?). I also screwed up the decreases, and basically ended up winging them. It turned out a little lumpy as a result, but blocking mostly helped. I am aware I made some stitch pattern mistakes as well, but I like the random element!



Sun in my basement, la lalala la.

Still not entirely sold on me and berets, but I wore it in public tonight (too warm during the day), and people were encouraging. Anyway, it doesn't matter that I don't know if berets are for me, since I'll totally keep making them. I'm itching to make Selbu Modern, like everyone else in the world. And also Opus Spicatum. (And other ones not from Kelbourne Woolens, but you know. Might as well keep going.)

And I want to work for them this summer...

Politics alert!

In February, at the urging of the graduate student society, I did something I've never done before.

That's right, I emailed the prime minister. Ha! As if that's going to do any good, but I thought I might as well exercise my civic right in these troubled times.

I wrote an eloquent (ha!) email voicing my concerns over provisions for $87mil towards graduate scholarhips in the budget of which the extra 20% allocated for Social Science and Humanities grants would go entirely to business students. Outrageous! More business students sitting around arguing about the economy will not improve it, I say! Anyway, I sent off the email, and received a reply a week or perhaps more later from an aide saying my concerns had been forwarded to the minister in charge of the portfolio. They said it was Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources Development etc etc whatever they call it these days, and I paid it no more attention.

Today I received an email from this particular minister's office saying that my concerns about scholarship money had been forwarded once more, this time to Tony Clement, the Industry Minister, and apparently the one who is actually responsible for the portfolio.

It appears nobody is quite sure who is doing what in this government. I certainly had no clue SSHRC fell under Industry until I looked it up today after receiving that unexpected email. Turns out Diane Finley's aides have some idea of what's going on, thought it's not clear why they sat on it for a month. I can only hope they had to sort through a deluge of concerned emails about Canadian Graduate Scholarships that got mistakenly sent to them by some loser in the PM's office.

Actually, I don't hope that. Not that it would do any good, since the budget passed and is rushing through all levels without much modification.

But my little voice got stalled in the ether for over a month due to the PMO's total incompetence. Help, help I'm being oppressed! I almost think it must have been intentional - misdirect the complaint and claim it never happened. ;)

Ides of March

It's my blogaversary! That is a very awkward word. Nevertheless, I've been at this in this particular forum for a year (not counting the one post in 2002 I made before forgetting this blog even existed.) In my head I had a new shiny less-awkward blog layout by today and all that - but in reality I haven't even started, so that may have to wait until term finishes or I feel like procrastinating even more. (LSCH assignment... it's coming. Sigh.)

In the meantime, industry!


It is a goal of mine to get better at photographing food. And other things, but I'm going to make a concerted effort here.



Social baking is fun. I went to a friend's house today and we made cookies with marshmellow fondant icing. Sugariest thing ever? Very possibly. It was fun, and also colourful. Possibly too colourful.



Now I'm equiped for another crazy week of assignments at FIMS.

knitting content

I'm making Wesley. It's sunny and lovely outside, not at all winter-y... but who knows, maybe I'll get some use out of this hat before winter is really over. Not this week, though.



I'm excited to say that these sunny, washed out photos are brought to you by ACTUAL LIGHT IN MY BASEMENT ROOM. Woo! I'll work on less shiny photos at some point.

FO: Tempting II

Pattern: Tempting II by Jenna Adorno

Yarn: Berroco Comfort
Mods:
-long sleeves roughly following emcglone's instructions
-two more decrease rounds at the neck
-knit neckband picking up stitches in both directions every 5 or so rows, hedging between the pattern as written and how many people have modified it.



Please excuse the requisite dirty mirror shot. My self-timer and I are having a disagreement. I can't seem to get it to focus on me when I use it, since I have to press the shutter before I'm in place, so it focuses on something else. Any suggestions?

I am so glad to be finished this. I started it in November and planned to have it done by December. Woops. That said, if I was a proper perfectionist I'd rip out the neck again (for a fourth time) and redo it so it doesn't look so weird. The extra decreases I did left an oddly textured bit that is clearly visible in the photos. I'll wear it anyway, though. It's pretty cozy for an entirely synthetic fibre.



Speaking of which, this was a major experiment for me. I'd like to say I only use natural fibre yarn, but in reality I often find myself using blends of natural and synthetic fibre. Rarely do I use something entirely synthetic, but it was the colour more than anything else that attracted me to this yarn. The yarn shop I went to doesn't have a massive selection, but they have a whole wall of this stuff, and the range of colours seduced me. This sort of deep teal (despite the photos, it is in fact slightly green) is probably my favourite colour of the moment. I have no idea how this will wear, though I have read good things about it.