These have been days of event. I could have written on Friday, when we were being buried under mounds of snow and none of us made it to work....schools and universities were closed....I sat here on the couch and made a hat for the Big One (StaceyJoy's Katie Hat. I will take a picture.) The snow came down all day, and Hub went out shovelling on and off all day, the kids played, I knit. Knitting is good. I could have done some work, I've got work to do at home, but it was a snow day. I also could have cleaned the house because god knows the house needs a cleaning, but no...I knit. Knitting was successful, I made a useful garment and it's fuchsia and it has really cool twisty shaping and it was lovely to knit. I do love a successful project.
Unfortunately, Saturday was not successful, although I did get to spend it on the couch. For some crazy reason my blood pressure tanked in the middle of the night, and I was left lightheaded and dizzy (or dizzy and lightheaded...believe it or not, the two are hard to distinguish) and not able to do much except lie here and not move. I don't think I was dizzy because the room was not spinning. I called Telehealth Ontario, the most fantastic bunch of R.N.'s anywhere, who chat you up and then help you decide if you need to see a doctor within four hours or within the next three days. This time, I'm on the next three days regimen, and that's okay with me. Since my doc is not available until Monday anyway, I'm good with waiting. Things got better as the day progressed, and I did sit at the table to have supper with the troops, although I hit the couch again soon after. I watched a lot of sports yesterday: the Habs beat the Islanders, there was some women's downhill from Saint Moritz (hey! Brenda Irving! would it kill you to use the French pronunciation??) and then a bit of news, and then Toronto skated all over Ottawa, which was good for Montreal. Do I normally watch hockey? Not really, but like anyone in this country, many of my Saturday nights have been punctuated with the HNIC song as I was heading out the door for an evening of revelry.
Today things are a bit better, as in I only sort of fell over on the way to the bathroom this morning, and I forced myself to sit up and to shower and to get dressed to go to mass. After that I asked for a trip to Shopper's Drug Mart so I could actually check my blood pressure, which was a (normal for me) 108/64. So maybe it's not the blood pressure, although I'm sure it's not dizziness but lightheadedness that I'm feeling. I made the Sunday pancakes and ate sitting up like a human, and then hit the couch again to pound this out and prove that I am still functioning.
There is still snow outside, and you might be thinking, "20cm of snow fell on you the other day. Of course there's still snow!" except that the weather is mental, and on Tuesday the temp is supposed to go to 9C, and that's warm enough to melt it all to a slithering mess again. Oooh! maybe the fainty feeling will pass and I'll get another weather-induced headache from hell! How exciting!
Or, you know, maybe I will just stop thinking about myself and my tiny ills.
Showing posts with label knitting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knitting. Show all posts
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Maybe I Know Too Much
I doubt it, really. I don't think that I know too much about anything...but tonight, I felt like I knew too much and I was frustrated with this. I decided in the end, to just take my two hours of Yoga and Meditation for Healing and turn it into Things I Know How To Do But Forgot About.
You know how these workshops go....you're thinking as you drive to the studio that really, you could be spending your Sunday night finishing at least two sweaters. You made a lovely roast chicken with spectacular stuffing and gravy and mashed potatoes with an apple crisp chaser for dessert. You drank a not bad baco noir with dinner that wasn't great on its own but opened up to a beautiful flower in combination with the bird. You didn't have to go to the workshop, it was overbooked anyway and the fact that you had a spot is just because the instructors like you. You didn't have to be there, and you could have finished those two sweaters.
Out of the car, up the stairs, it's a chilly night and another sweater would have been a good idea. Carrying the fancy leather bag wasn't the smartest move ever, since there wasn't any spare room for the bag plus how come nobody else had a bag? Doesn't anyone carry i.d. or car keys or a wallet? Maybe not. They certainly all had their little water bottles...not the plastic ones, the Sigi ones. I covet those things by the way, and might pick up four of them and then toss all the nalgene bottles. Imagine such a thing.
The Sigi bottles retail for ridiculous amounts of money.
The yoga was simple, the talk about meditation and the practice itself very straightforward, the sitting was a breeze. It would have been helpful if the instructors had spoken above a whisper but I can't have everything. I would rather have been knitting. I didn't get the feeling that we were talking about healing and health as much as we could have, or as much as we should have. I was feeling disappointed about this, because I really wanted the workshop to be directly dedicated to health and healing, but it was still an introduction to Buddhist meditation and simple yoga practice.
After we sat for 15 minutes or so, we were instructed to come out of the meditation and we dedicated the evening to healing others. It was the only useful time of the evening.
Deep sigh. I would rather have been knitting.
You know how these workshops go....you're thinking as you drive to the studio that really, you could be spending your Sunday night finishing at least two sweaters. You made a lovely roast chicken with spectacular stuffing and gravy and mashed potatoes with an apple crisp chaser for dessert. You drank a not bad baco noir with dinner that wasn't great on its own but opened up to a beautiful flower in combination with the bird. You didn't have to go to the workshop, it was overbooked anyway and the fact that you had a spot is just because the instructors like you. You didn't have to be there, and you could have finished those two sweaters.
Out of the car, up the stairs, it's a chilly night and another sweater would have been a good idea. Carrying the fancy leather bag wasn't the smartest move ever, since there wasn't any spare room for the bag plus how come nobody else had a bag? Doesn't anyone carry i.d. or car keys or a wallet? Maybe not. They certainly all had their little water bottles...not the plastic ones, the Sigi ones. I covet those things by the way, and might pick up four of them and then toss all the nalgene bottles. Imagine such a thing.
The Sigi bottles retail for ridiculous amounts of money.
The yoga was simple, the talk about meditation and the practice itself very straightforward, the sitting was a breeze. It would have been helpful if the instructors had spoken above a whisper but I can't have everything. I would rather have been knitting. I didn't get the feeling that we were talking about healing and health as much as we could have, or as much as we should have. I was feeling disappointed about this, because I really wanted the workshop to be directly dedicated to health and healing, but it was still an introduction to Buddhist meditation and simple yoga practice.
After we sat for 15 minutes or so, we were instructed to come out of the meditation and we dedicated the evening to healing others. It was the only useful time of the evening.
Deep sigh. I would rather have been knitting.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
I'm such a trend whore
I'm in on Ravelry, username Crystallon (same as the Flickr name). I wrote a bunch of stuff about myself but haven't uploaded the stash .... because ye gods who has the time to photograph 50 tonnes of yarn?? or the projects or the needles or the whatever the heck else they've got in there. I've noticed about five thousand discussion groups by a quick tour around the site, and many many many discussion forums. Haven't decided what to do about all that yet. It's a bit overwhelming but taken slowly will be an excellent project and will form the basis of a systematic attack on the yarn in this house.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Ooooh, Scary Boys and Girls, Very Scary
Remember Monster Chiller Horror Theatre from SCTV? Remember Joe Flaherty playing Count Floyd? If you don't then you are very young or you didn't pay any attention to the greatest show on television. Count Floyd used to try really hard to convince us that a particular Bergman film (for example) was terrifying.....usually with no success.
So Happy Halloween, now that you've got an old tv show in your head.
I knit a little earwarmer, akin to a headband but it's got a button closure. The pattern and yarn are from a kit sold over at Redlipstick, but you'll notice that Staceyjoy's button is much closer to the end of the earwarmer than mine is. This is because I apparently have a freakishly small head, and so in order for the thing to fit me I had to move it in a ways. I'm going to move it back out and it and the accompanying bracelet will be a little holiday gift, possibly to one of the children's teachers.
I am attempting to find my place in the universe, and this is a difficult thing, to attempt to figure out where you belong when you no longer belong where you used to. That's a bit of a convoluted sentence, but since I'm not a practicing scientist any more, what the heck am I? Still analytical and scientific in my approach, but I don't get paid for it. Finding my way I suppose, and it's hard to put it all into words because right now there aren't any. I could change careers but I don't feel any real motivation to do that. It's possible that I'm depressed although I don't feel badly at all, I sleep well and eat well and don't do anything to extreme. I get some exercise but I'm slightly lazy in that regard and don't try very hard to get a lot of exercise.
I must sound very boring, and perhaps I'm depressing you with my normalness. I'm actually not boring at all, I'm just trying to indicate that depression is not my reason for not talking about what I'm thinking. What I'm thinking is that I have no great desire to do paid work. At all. I love volunteering. I love helping people out, and I love the freedom of saying no if I need to do that. I do not love obligation, in fact it's a burden I have no desire to carry.
Important reading material added: you'll see a link to What is Stephen Harper Reading, a blog kept by Yann Martel. Go there.
So Happy Halloween, now that you've got an old tv show in your head.
I knit a little earwarmer, akin to a headband but it's got a button closure. The pattern and yarn are from a kit sold over at Redlipstick, but you'll notice that Staceyjoy's button is much closer to the end of the earwarmer than mine is. This is because I apparently have a freakishly small head, and so in order for the thing to fit me I had to move it in a ways. I'm going to move it back out and it and the accompanying bracelet will be a little holiday gift, possibly to one of the children's teachers.
I am attempting to find my place in the universe, and this is a difficult thing, to attempt to figure out where you belong when you no longer belong where you used to. That's a bit of a convoluted sentence, but since I'm not a practicing scientist any more, what the heck am I? Still analytical and scientific in my approach, but I don't get paid for it. Finding my way I suppose, and it's hard to put it all into words because right now there aren't any. I could change careers but I don't feel any real motivation to do that. It's possible that I'm depressed although I don't feel badly at all, I sleep well and eat well and don't do anything to extreme. I get some exercise but I'm slightly lazy in that regard and don't try very hard to get a lot of exercise.
I must sound very boring, and perhaps I'm depressing you with my normalness. I'm actually not boring at all, I'm just trying to indicate that depression is not my reason for not talking about what I'm thinking. What I'm thinking is that I have no great desire to do paid work. At all. I love volunteering. I love helping people out, and I love the freedom of saying no if I need to do that. I do not love obligation, in fact it's a burden I have no desire to carry.
Important reading material added: you'll see a link to What is Stephen Harper Reading, a blog kept by Yann Martel. Go there.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Patiently Awaiting My Invite
I signed up for Ravelry, and when I did there were over 14,000 people ahead of me in line. As of this afternoon:
When I moved last summer, FFS and our other labmate helped pack not only the lab, but some of my house too. Yarn was stored all over the house, and every time they'd find another box/bag/trunk full of the stuff, they'd yell. "More Yarn??!! What are you going to do with all this yarn??"
Well darlings, I knit. Now certainly it will take me the rest of my natural life to knit up all the yarn I have, but that's the point isn't it? They were not crafty boys, they couldn't understand the obsession.
Found you!
- You signed up on October 11, 2007
- You are #42609 on the list.
- 6125 people are ahead of you in line.
- 7104 people are behind you in line.
- 70% of the list has been invited so far
When I moved last summer, FFS and our other labmate helped pack not only the lab, but some of my house too. Yarn was stored all over the house, and every time they'd find another box/bag/trunk full of the stuff, they'd yell. "More Yarn??!! What are you going to do with all this yarn??"
Well darlings, I knit. Now certainly it will take me the rest of my natural life to knit up all the yarn I have, but that's the point isn't it? They were not crafty boys, they couldn't understand the obsession.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
I don't save the best for last
I could save the pretty flower to the end, but the pretty flower, a dahlia actually, is helping me realize that I don't have to get upset about the fact that the week hasn't gone exactly as it should. What should be happening, is that we should have beautiful crisp fall days, and the dahlia should not be blooming because it should have bloomed a month ago. (We had a summer of drought and the flowers are a month behind. They are beautiful though.)
I should be enjoying my children's company, and the house should magically clean itself. I should wake up every morning with a song in my heart and a spring in my step, my neighbours should be smiling and they should have fixed the starter on their stupid van so they don't have to smash it with a wrench every morning at 6:03 bang bang bang varrrrooohm and while they're getting their vehicles fixed maybe the broken window on the driver's side could be replaced before the snow flies. Maybe I shouldn't be so preoccupied with my neighbours and their appearances...and oh, I would, but I'm really a petty person, ungrateful for life and my relatively good health.
A couple of days ago The Big One really really wanted a tiara for her Halloween costume, and so after school on a day that was raining, we went to The Mall. I don't go there very often, but I'd already exhausted other tiara possibilities. Even The Little One didn't mind going to the mall, what with its sparkly lights and pretty girls and bump and grind music everywhere. The children were groovin' and slidin' all the way along the long mallhallway to the store with the tiaras, and The Little One, true to form, was making eye contact with every female over the age of three. When asked if she liked being there, the Big One said breathlessly, "Oh yes Mumma. I love it."
I've taught you well then.
We picked the biggest tiara, suitable not only for Halloween but also for everyday wear, because you just never know when you will need to be a princess.
It turns out that the need to be a princess happened about five minutes later, because on the way home, within sight of the house in fact, we got clipped and the mirror flew off the car. It can't get fixed until next week. Single parenting and having to take care of everything bites ass.
Below are the pieces of a sweater that I made for The Big One. They are made from a really pretty purple heather wool from Briggs & Little Mills in Harvey Station, New Brunswick. I had to stand up on the edge of the bed to take this picture but the lighting is still uneven and crooked. The pieces are beautiful, and they fit together really nicely into a little sweater. Too little for Big One. Agh. Luckily, I have a church bazaar to donate to in the next couple of weeks, so I'll give it to them to sell. When I thought of this I was reminded of my grandmother and her sister, who would start knitting for the Christmas Cheer Board in Winnipeg every fall, and race to see who could make the most sweaters. "Damn," Grandma would say after hanging up the phone, "Louise is up to 17 sweaters already." Then she'd knit like a fiend, nonstop for three days and make 20 to surpass her sister. Usually Grandma won, because Louise's arthritis was bad and she wouldn't be able to hold the needles.
Really then, making a sweater that's too small wasn't a waste of effort at all.
Finally, here you see the shit machines that have taken up residence in the soccer field across the street. They strut around stupidly and drop loads of guano into the grass. I guess that's good for the grass, and maybe that's good for the mushrooms that grow in the field, but the place is a goose-poop land mine field.
In all, the week has been interesting as opposed to overwhelming. It was nothing like my weeks when Hub was in Southern ON and I was still back on the East Coast, managing a huge job and kids and daycare and feeding and eating and drinking...ye gods the drinking. I hardly drank anything alcoholic this week, but then I also had a raging flu (and I wasn't going to post a picture of phlegm, because really, this isn't a medical forum) and fever. Forgot to mention that part of the week. Hmph. Funny how these little details escape you.
I should be enjoying my children's company, and the house should magically clean itself. I should wake up every morning with a song in my heart and a spring in my step, my neighbours should be smiling and they should have fixed the starter on their stupid van so they don't have to smash it with a wrench every morning at 6:03 bang bang bang varrrrooohm and while they're getting their vehicles fixed maybe the broken window on the driver's side could be replaced before the snow flies. Maybe I shouldn't be so preoccupied with my neighbours and their appearances...and oh, I would, but I'm really a petty person, ungrateful for life and my relatively good health.
A couple of days ago The Big One really really wanted a tiara for her Halloween costume, and so after school on a day that was raining, we went to The Mall. I don't go there very often, but I'd already exhausted other tiara possibilities. Even The Little One didn't mind going to the mall, what with its sparkly lights and pretty girls and bump and grind music everywhere. The children were groovin' and slidin' all the way along the long mallhallway to the store with the tiaras, and The Little One, true to form, was making eye contact with every female over the age of three. When asked if she liked being there, the Big One said breathlessly, "Oh yes Mumma. I love it."
I've taught you well then.
We picked the biggest tiara, suitable not only for Halloween but also for everyday wear, because you just never know when you will need to be a princess.
It turns out that the need to be a princess happened about five minutes later, because on the way home, within sight of the house in fact, we got clipped and the mirror flew off the car. It can't get fixed until next week. Single parenting and having to take care of everything bites ass.
Below are the pieces of a sweater that I made for The Big One. They are made from a really pretty purple heather wool from Briggs & Little Mills in Harvey Station, New Brunswick. I had to stand up on the edge of the bed to take this picture but the lighting is still uneven and crooked. The pieces are beautiful, and they fit together really nicely into a little sweater. Too little for Big One. Agh. Luckily, I have a church bazaar to donate to in the next couple of weeks, so I'll give it to them to sell. When I thought of this I was reminded of my grandmother and her sister, who would start knitting for the Christmas Cheer Board in Winnipeg every fall, and race to see who could make the most sweaters. "Damn," Grandma would say after hanging up the phone, "Louise is up to 17 sweaters already." Then she'd knit like a fiend, nonstop for three days and make 20 to surpass her sister. Usually Grandma won, because Louise's arthritis was bad and she wouldn't be able to hold the needles.
Really then, making a sweater that's too small wasn't a waste of effort at all.
Finally, here you see the shit machines that have taken up residence in the soccer field across the street. They strut around stupidly and drop loads of guano into the grass. I guess that's good for the grass, and maybe that's good for the mushrooms that grow in the field, but the place is a goose-poop land mine field.
In all, the week has been interesting as opposed to overwhelming. It was nothing like my weeks when Hub was in Southern ON and I was still back on the East Coast, managing a huge job and kids and daycare and feeding and eating and drinking...ye gods the drinking. I hardly drank anything alcoholic this week, but then I also had a raging flu (and I wasn't going to post a picture of phlegm, because really, this isn't a medical forum) and fever. Forgot to mention that part of the week. Hmph. Funny how these little details escape you.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Knitting Content
Really, I am a knitter. I just don't do it as much as I'd like because I have other life things that keep me from sitting still. I have a yarn stash as big as ......... well, FFS helped me pack up the yarn last year when we moved, and every time he found more he'd yell out, as if in pain. If I never buy any more yarn I will have enough to make almost anything I want.
If I never buy anymore yarn. Ha.
So of the knitting blogs I frequent, I checked out The Yarn Harlot this morning, and see that she's referring to something called MS3. What could this be? It sounds like a movie sequel, like MIB3 or MI3. I checked it out, and of course I joined. You think I don't have laceweight in the stash? I have several different kinds, but I've chosen some dark blue merino laceweight from Elann for this.
Thing is, I still have Frankenfinger with which to contend, and I don't know if I can knit. A couple of weeks ago The Knitting Curmudgeon posted her Open Mic question: If you couldn't knit, what would you do? And while I was lying in Emergency a week ago Sunday and contemplating the fact that I could lose my finger or more with this infection (one's mind runs amok when no one is placating the overactive imagination) I tried to think of what I would do with only one arm (imagination. amok.) and came up with nothing. One-handed crafting seemed very difficult, and while Def Leppard has a one-armed drummer, a one-armed knitter seemed rather obscure and quite impossible. I could be wrong. I mentioned the one-armedness to Hub while we were waiting for me to get in; it seemed like a good diversion at the time. I figured a one-armed crystallographer wouldn't be a problem, but one-armed crafting would be a challenge. He suggested I get a hook.
Nonetheless, Since Frankenfinger is the right index, and I throw with that finger when I knit, and there's a good bit of the finger MIA right where the yarn would run because I had a big blister there and the healing is slow, I think I can't knit. Yet.
This does not stop me, however, from downloading and printing and gathering up materials, including the beads that I have which will go perfectly with this shawl. I had started using the beads on another project but it sucks ass and I will be happy to rip it out and never see it again. Project abandonment is the better part of valour, all that. And the other thing that does not stop me is that I'm not quite finished the little bolero jacket (the black one near the bottom of the page, if you're looking. I'm not making it in black.) that I'm making for my sister, whose birthday was in April. I am nothing if not slow with the knitting, but sitting still is a problem for me especially sitting still with the stocking stitch on tiny needles.
I didn't want to post this with the SIL post because I think they need to be separate topics. I mean, my small injury compared to her whiling away her time in CCU? doesn't compare.
It's all-hospital, all the time though. My other sister (not the one getting the bolero jacket, although she's an ICU nurse and is therefore in the hospital all the time) had an ACL repair yesterday. I'll give her a call today; she's had this done before on her other knee, and I've had it done also. There are better ways to spend a summer. One could knit a shawl for example.
If I never buy anymore yarn. Ha.
So of the knitting blogs I frequent, I checked out The Yarn Harlot this morning, and see that she's referring to something called MS3. What could this be? It sounds like a movie sequel, like MIB3 or MI3. I checked it out, and of course I joined. You think I don't have laceweight in the stash? I have several different kinds, but I've chosen some dark blue merino laceweight from Elann for this.
Thing is, I still have Frankenfinger with which to contend, and I don't know if I can knit. A couple of weeks ago The Knitting Curmudgeon posted her Open Mic question: If you couldn't knit, what would you do? And while I was lying in Emergency a week ago Sunday and contemplating the fact that I could lose my finger or more with this infection (one's mind runs amok when no one is placating the overactive imagination) I tried to think of what I would do with only one arm (imagination. amok.) and came up with nothing. One-handed crafting seemed very difficult, and while Def Leppard has a one-armed drummer, a one-armed knitter seemed rather obscure and quite impossible. I could be wrong. I mentioned the one-armedness to Hub while we were waiting for me to get in; it seemed like a good diversion at the time. I figured a one-armed crystallographer wouldn't be a problem, but one-armed crafting would be a challenge. He suggested I get a hook.
Nonetheless, Since Frankenfinger is the right index, and I throw with that finger when I knit, and there's a good bit of the finger MIA right where the yarn would run because I had a big blister there and the healing is slow, I think I can't knit. Yet.
This does not stop me, however, from downloading and printing and gathering up materials, including the beads that I have which will go perfectly with this shawl. I had started using the beads on another project but it sucks ass and I will be happy to rip it out and never see it again. Project abandonment is the better part of valour, all that. And the other thing that does not stop me is that I'm not quite finished the little bolero jacket (the black one near the bottom of the page, if you're looking. I'm not making it in black.) that I'm making for my sister, whose birthday was in April. I am nothing if not slow with the knitting, but sitting still is a problem for me especially sitting still with the stocking stitch on tiny needles.
I didn't want to post this with the SIL post because I think they need to be separate topics. I mean, my small injury compared to her whiling away her time in CCU? doesn't compare.
It's all-hospital, all the time though. My other sister (not the one getting the bolero jacket, although she's an ICU nurse and is therefore in the hospital all the time) had an ACL repair yesterday. I'll give her a call today; she's had this done before on her other knee, and I've had it done also. There are better ways to spend a summer. One could knit a shawl for example.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
The Panic Sets In
On Friday I found out that I will indeed be interviewed for the academic posting for which I applied, here in the small city where we live. I know what the department wants in a candidate, and I know that I'm not the only person on the planet that can do the job. I also know that there are certain aspects to hiring me that would make things easy for them: I've been doing this academic thing for a while, I know the ropes, I know how to do the specialty stuff that they need me to do. Do I know how to find $250K to buy a new diffractometer? I've been looking into the CFI website, and it looks as though they've changed some programs so I will be eligible to apply. This is good news, because I thought for sure that there wouldn't be anything that would work out for me in that area. There is a lot for me to do in the next week...and the interview is on March 1. Not a lot of time. I'm the first of four candidates to be interviewed, so does this mean they love me already and want to compare everyone else to me? or does this mean that by the end of March they'll have forgotten about me and all the things I promised them? And if I don't find out about the job until April, what will happen to the NSERC grant that I applied for this fall? All these questions, no answers. The problem with the NSERC grant is that it would be awarded to me via my previous institution, but I had to resign from that job in January, and I did that. I didn't have to resign, but I had to tell them whether I was returning, and since I can't lie, I told them I wasn't. So if my grant sits with them for more than a microsecond, they're going to have to tell NSERC that I resigned, and if that's the case then the money will disappear before I have a chance to say, "But I have another job!!".....if indeed, I do have another job.
It's a bit of a pickle, but it might only mean that I have to reapply in the fall, which I would do of course and which would be fine, it would just mean that I'd be without grant money for eight months. I assume that I'd get some startup funds from the U, so the grant wouldn't be a huge deal, but applying for money is always a pain in the ass. Of course, being at a larger school I'd be applying for money a whole lot more often than I ever did at the previous place.
There are moments, fleeting, when I don't want the job. I don't want the work, the expectations, the feeling that the research is just a waste of time and isn't going to change the world, the comraderie, any of it. Sometimes it would be just as nice to stay home and knit.
Like, I could finish this sucker:
which is my brother's Christmas sweater....well, it's the back of it. I could finish it anyway, because it's the perfect procrastination project. The pattern is easy (it's out of the Vogue Winter 06/07 issue, and I hate the neckline by the way but I'll alter that when I get to it) so I can watch tv (and crap tv it is, except for Battlestar Galactica, which I actually cannot knit to, because I have to read the subtitles and yes I'm pretty deaf but I'll talk about that a different day) while I work on it. I do have to look down at the thing once in a while, which is why the subtitles are a problem...but mostly it's mindless knitting. I'm using the Elann Peruvian Pure Alpaca for those who care about that kind of thing, and I'm using it double and this sweater? Is going to be the hottest thing going once it's done. When it's -40C with the wind, or even without it, Bro will only need a nylon shell over this garment. And for those who have astutely noticed that it is now February 21, well past the Christmas season, you need to know that this project is currently on its third and final iteration, that it took forever for me to settle on a pattern...I considered designing but that would take an extra year...so it wasn't actually started until January. And I knit really, really slowly, sort of. I'd knit faster if I didn't have so much other crap to do.
Like make a talk for a research seminar I have to give at this interview next week. Never mind the worry over grant money, I have no control over that anyway except to put in a couple of well-timed emails and keep my fingers crossed, let's instead worry about this whole research presentation thing. Let's worry that since we've been doing nothing except teaching first year chemistry for the last six months, that we sort of don't really have a good grip on what it is we do. Sure, I have a vague idea, but you know how you only have so much room in your head for information? Well, given that and given the fact that I really am full up with the information right now, and since research isn't exactly a priority seeing as how I can't actually do any of it while I'm teaching part time (not having a lab or anything) and looking after kids and having my day totally interrupted by my own inability to concentrate on anything.....the research has gone down to the back of the filing cabinet in a drawer marked "Beware of the Badger". (for those of you who don't know that reference, shame on you and go look it up). You can see how this is a problem. I have looked through previous power point presentations of my research talks, and apparently I'm pretty good at what I do; while reading I found that I was interested in what I'd had to say, after all. Somehow, a week from today, I have to renew my motivation for this work and make my potential colleagues believe that my particular brand of snake oil is better than anyone else's.
And the panic sets in, and it will probably stay with me until sometime late Thursday night and I am so, so sad that I can't come home after dinner on Thursday and have a great big drink, but I have to teach on Friday morning....but it's cocktails at 4:00p.m. Friday kids! Martinis all around! (Thursday night they are taking me out for dinner, and guaranteed there will be drinking, these are chemists after all, and we drink, but it won't be the kind of drinking where we all start slobbering and saying, "OH man, I loooooove you guys," and then the crying starts. That's what I'd like to do, and then not get up on Friday until about noon, when the hangover subsides and they call me and say, "We told the other candidates to go home, we're hiring you," because that kind of thing happens in academics all the time......if you believe that by the way, then you are too cynical for words. It never happens.)
It's a bit of a pickle, but it might only mean that I have to reapply in the fall, which I would do of course and which would be fine, it would just mean that I'd be without grant money for eight months. I assume that I'd get some startup funds from the U, so the grant wouldn't be a huge deal, but applying for money is always a pain in the ass. Of course, being at a larger school I'd be applying for money a whole lot more often than I ever did at the previous place.
There are moments, fleeting, when I don't want the job. I don't want the work, the expectations, the feeling that the research is just a waste of time and isn't going to change the world, the comraderie, any of it. Sometimes it would be just as nice to stay home and knit.
Like, I could finish this sucker:
which is my brother's Christmas sweater....well, it's the back of it. I could finish it anyway, because it's the perfect procrastination project. The pattern is easy (it's out of the Vogue Winter 06/07 issue, and I hate the neckline by the way but I'll alter that when I get to it) so I can watch tv (and crap tv it is, except for Battlestar Galactica, which I actually cannot knit to, because I have to read the subtitles and yes I'm pretty deaf but I'll talk about that a different day) while I work on it. I do have to look down at the thing once in a while, which is why the subtitles are a problem...but mostly it's mindless knitting. I'm using the Elann Peruvian Pure Alpaca for those who care about that kind of thing, and I'm using it double and this sweater? Is going to be the hottest thing going once it's done. When it's -40C with the wind, or even without it, Bro will only need a nylon shell over this garment. And for those who have astutely noticed that it is now February 21, well past the Christmas season, you need to know that this project is currently on its third and final iteration, that it took forever for me to settle on a pattern...I considered designing but that would take an extra year...so it wasn't actually started until January. And I knit really, really slowly, sort of. I'd knit faster if I didn't have so much other crap to do.
Like make a talk for a research seminar I have to give at this interview next week. Never mind the worry over grant money, I have no control over that anyway except to put in a couple of well-timed emails and keep my fingers crossed, let's instead worry about this whole research presentation thing. Let's worry that since we've been doing nothing except teaching first year chemistry for the last six months, that we sort of don't really have a good grip on what it is we do. Sure, I have a vague idea, but you know how you only have so much room in your head for information? Well, given that and given the fact that I really am full up with the information right now, and since research isn't exactly a priority seeing as how I can't actually do any of it while I'm teaching part time (not having a lab or anything) and looking after kids and having my day totally interrupted by my own inability to concentrate on anything.....the research has gone down to the back of the filing cabinet in a drawer marked "Beware of the Badger". (for those of you who don't know that reference, shame on you and go look it up). You can see how this is a problem. I have looked through previous power point presentations of my research talks, and apparently I'm pretty good at what I do; while reading I found that I was interested in what I'd had to say, after all. Somehow, a week from today, I have to renew my motivation for this work and make my potential colleagues believe that my particular brand of snake oil is better than anyone else's.
And the panic sets in, and it will probably stay with me until sometime late Thursday night and I am so, so sad that I can't come home after dinner on Thursday and have a great big drink, but I have to teach on Friday morning....but it's cocktails at 4:00p.m. Friday kids! Martinis all around! (Thursday night they are taking me out for dinner, and guaranteed there will be drinking, these are chemists after all, and we drink, but it won't be the kind of drinking where we all start slobbering and saying, "OH man, I loooooove you guys," and then the crying starts. That's what I'd like to do, and then not get up on Friday until about noon, when the hangover subsides and they call me and say, "We told the other candidates to go home, we're hiring you," because that kind of thing happens in academics all the time......if you believe that by the way, then you are too cynical for words. It never happens.)
Sunday, January 21, 2007
A little knitting content
My links apparently have a use, since StaceyJoy has found me and announced my presence on her blog. If she hadn't, I suppose that I would just merrily keep on writing and not telling anyone that this rag exists, except that I thought if she knows (it's not rocket science if I've linked to you) then I should probably tell the other players in this game, so now Hub, BF1 and BF2 have been informed.
The knitting: yesterday I bought yarn, which is of course a shock to anyone who knows me. I can point and click at Elann with the best of them, and had resisted for quite a while but there was some grey Debbie Bliss stuff that I can't even remember now but which at the time (earlier this week) that got the covet juices flowing. Yesterday, I went to the LYS which is a nice little place, and bought a few balls of things, some gagging pink because Big One wants to learn to knit and she needs a scarf, some army green alpaca/cashmere blend .... wait, sorry, I'm drooling, just let me wipe my face.... okay, some of that for another scarf/small shawl, for A Time for Wine at my former employer, and two balls of bamboo sock yarn that cost one million dollars but which I could not walk past. Also, I have a problem with knitting two of exactly the same thing, it is paralyzingly boring for me...I have thus far, ever, in the last 20+ years, knit one sock. Sleeves are a pain in the ass too, but I seem to be able to get through them. I made The Sock about two years ago, and it is still mateless. See the sidebar for the Stash Enhancement eXperience. (including a wip, the back half of an AS design from The Celtic Collection...woohoo)
One day I will try to photograph the entire stash. Oh, I hear something. Yes, it's the sound of BF1's snort. The stash is huge people, I am a yarn packrat, and I even pared the thing down recently, to about 2/3 of its former glory (I typed "gory" first, that might be more appropriate.). I'm addicted to yarn. I can admit it, and I have no urge to overcome the addiction, since it doesn't seem to hurt anyone except for our need for space in the basement. I love the colours, I love the textures, and in fact once in a while I even love to knit the stuff up.
I like to give knitted things away rather than keep them, even though the wip's are almost all things that I started out for myself....and will more than likely give away anyway, in the end. I think that for most knitters this is the case, that they make and give rather than make and keep. Other people are so enamoured with the hand-knitted garment much of the time that I find it hard to keep it and easier to give away and start something else.
I learned to knit the first time when I was eight years old, and I didn't like it, although I finished a scarf that I wore for about three winters before one of the dogs tore it to shreds. I didn't really knit again until I moved in with my Grandma when I was 20years old and starting my third year of university. I couldn't do the drive in and out of the city every day, with labs and t.a.'ing and studying....oh, wait, no, that would be partying....anyway, my time was full and there wasn't enough time to drive for 45 minutes both ways to school.
My grandma could knit, sew, weave, spin...you name it, she and her sisters knew how to do it (if it involved fiber). She told me that they weren't allowed to just sit at home unless it was Sunday, and then they weren't allowed to do anything except read the bible. Grandma was born in Canada, only her eldest brother Mike was born in Poland; Great-grandma was Polish, Great-Grandpa was German; he had a heart attack right after he and my Grandma danced at his 40th wedding anniversary, so I didn't know him. I knew my Great-Grandma since she lived until I was 16, when she really thought that I should be getting married ... her English wasn't very good but she was pretty clear that I was getting old. Eyiiiii.
Grandma on the other hand didn't particularly care whether I got married or not, just that I was happy and living a relatively good life...good as in I wasn't a "bad" girl...which I sort of was, but not so bad that I couldn't get out of any trouble that I got myself into. Mostly. Grandma herself was employed most of her life as a seamstress of one form or another. She used to work at The Bay in the dressmaking department, for people like my other Grandma, who came from old money. There were good stories about The Bay and the women she used to work for, but that wasn't something she wanted to do forever. She ended up working in a factory downtown that made fur coats, and you know I never found out which one it was, but there are several in our Hometown and they're all excellent. I don't have a fur coat, and I only think they're necessary in colder climates than we have here in Southern Ontario, but if I lived somewhere a lot colder you'd bet I'd wear fur. And I know about the animal cruelty, I know about trap lines (my brother-in-law used to run one) and all that stuff, but in the real cold, nothing beats fur. And that's what she did, and she didn't like it very much and she didn't wear fur herself very often, but she repaired and sewed fur coats for years, for my entire life before she retired.
So when I moved in with Grandma and lived with her for a bit, I asked her to teach me to knit. She was doing a simple sweater, all garter stitch but with one large needle and one small one to sort of give it some interest, and it was a fine thing to start out on. I knit all the pieces and sewed it together a bit more tightly than I should have, but I wore that sweater for quite a while...it was almost weightless, a mohair blend, and it was warm and I quite liked it. Naturally I was hooked. I knit all the time I wasn't "studying" (I really didn't study that much. I really liked to go out a lot and I worked more on the social aspect of my degree than anything else. My grades show it, too.) or at school. And I started collecting yarn, something I keep doing, compulsively. Some day I'll knit it up.........and probably not. Like many knitters, I have more yarn than I could knit up in a lifetime. That's fine. If you don't have yarn, I have no doubt that there's something that you have a lot of that other people don't understand, and if you don't, then you have some other interests that don't involve collecting.
Crafters are bad though. They have lots of ideas and no time. They make plans. They buy, they store, they wait for the time to show up. Usually it doesn't, but that doesn't stop the crafter, they keep on the treadmill of making plans, writing up their ideas, buying, storing. I'm right in there; fight on! perservere! Time will present itself, damnit!
(For those of you who don't knit, I'm sorry for all the acronyms. Also, Big One did not like her knitting experience, and so now Mumma will finish a bright pink garter stitch scarf. Keeping the garter stitch in case Big One wants to put a few stitches in here and there. She declared it "Not Fun!" and stomped off with tears in her eyes. I tried. I was patient, more so than you can imagine. She, unfortunately, was not.)
blogger is toying with me and I can't upload the pic on the sidebar, it's taking an inordinately long time, so it'll have to wait...(add: I did it another way, via Picasa, so there it is...big whoop.)
The knitting: yesterday I bought yarn, which is of course a shock to anyone who knows me. I can point and click at Elann with the best of them, and had resisted for quite a while but there was some grey Debbie Bliss stuff that I can't even remember now but which at the time (earlier this week) that got the covet juices flowing. Yesterday, I went to the LYS which is a nice little place, and bought a few balls of things, some gagging pink because Big One wants to learn to knit and she needs a scarf, some army green alpaca/cashmere blend .... wait, sorry, I'm drooling, just let me wipe my face.... okay, some of that for another scarf/small shawl, for A Time for Wine at my former employer, and two balls of bamboo sock yarn that cost one million dollars but which I could not walk past. Also, I have a problem with knitting two of exactly the same thing, it is paralyzingly boring for me...I have thus far, ever, in the last 20+ years, knit one sock. Sleeves are a pain in the ass too, but I seem to be able to get through them. I made The Sock about two years ago, and it is still mateless. See the sidebar for the Stash Enhancement eXperience. (including a wip, the back half of an AS design from The Celtic Collection...woohoo)
One day I will try to photograph the entire stash. Oh, I hear something. Yes, it's the sound of BF1's snort. The stash is huge people, I am a yarn packrat, and I even pared the thing down recently, to about 2/3 of its former glory (I typed "gory" first, that might be more appropriate.). I'm addicted to yarn. I can admit it, and I have no urge to overcome the addiction, since it doesn't seem to hurt anyone except for our need for space in the basement. I love the colours, I love the textures, and in fact once in a while I even love to knit the stuff up.
I like to give knitted things away rather than keep them, even though the wip's are almost all things that I started out for myself....and will more than likely give away anyway, in the end. I think that for most knitters this is the case, that they make and give rather than make and keep. Other people are so enamoured with the hand-knitted garment much of the time that I find it hard to keep it and easier to give away and start something else.
I learned to knit the first time when I was eight years old, and I didn't like it, although I finished a scarf that I wore for about three winters before one of the dogs tore it to shreds. I didn't really knit again until I moved in with my Grandma when I was 20years old and starting my third year of university. I couldn't do the drive in and out of the city every day, with labs and t.a.'ing and studying....oh, wait, no, that would be partying....anyway, my time was full and there wasn't enough time to drive for 45 minutes both ways to school.
My grandma could knit, sew, weave, spin...you name it, she and her sisters knew how to do it (if it involved fiber). She told me that they weren't allowed to just sit at home unless it was Sunday, and then they weren't allowed to do anything except read the bible. Grandma was born in Canada, only her eldest brother Mike was born in Poland; Great-grandma was Polish, Great-Grandpa was German; he had a heart attack right after he and my Grandma danced at his 40th wedding anniversary, so I didn't know him. I knew my Great-Grandma since she lived until I was 16, when she really thought that I should be getting married ... her English wasn't very good but she was pretty clear that I was getting old. Eyiiiii.
Grandma on the other hand didn't particularly care whether I got married or not, just that I was happy and living a relatively good life...good as in I wasn't a "bad" girl...which I sort of was, but not so bad that I couldn't get out of any trouble that I got myself into. Mostly. Grandma herself was employed most of her life as a seamstress of one form or another. She used to work at The Bay in the dressmaking department, for people like my other Grandma, who came from old money. There were good stories about The Bay and the women she used to work for, but that wasn't something she wanted to do forever. She ended up working in a factory downtown that made fur coats, and you know I never found out which one it was, but there are several in our Hometown and they're all excellent. I don't have a fur coat, and I only think they're necessary in colder climates than we have here in Southern Ontario, but if I lived somewhere a lot colder you'd bet I'd wear fur. And I know about the animal cruelty, I know about trap lines (my brother-in-law used to run one) and all that stuff, but in the real cold, nothing beats fur. And that's what she did, and she didn't like it very much and she didn't wear fur herself very often, but she repaired and sewed fur coats for years, for my entire life before she retired.
So when I moved in with Grandma and lived with her for a bit, I asked her to teach me to knit. She was doing a simple sweater, all garter stitch but with one large needle and one small one to sort of give it some interest, and it was a fine thing to start out on. I knit all the pieces and sewed it together a bit more tightly than I should have, but I wore that sweater for quite a while...it was almost weightless, a mohair blend, and it was warm and I quite liked it. Naturally I was hooked. I knit all the time I wasn't "studying" (I really didn't study that much. I really liked to go out a lot and I worked more on the social aspect of my degree than anything else. My grades show it, too.) or at school. And I started collecting yarn, something I keep doing, compulsively. Some day I'll knit it up.........and probably not. Like many knitters, I have more yarn than I could knit up in a lifetime. That's fine. If you don't have yarn, I have no doubt that there's something that you have a lot of that other people don't understand, and if you don't, then you have some other interests that don't involve collecting.
Crafters are bad though. They have lots of ideas and no time. They make plans. They buy, they store, they wait for the time to show up. Usually it doesn't, but that doesn't stop the crafter, they keep on the treadmill of making plans, writing up their ideas, buying, storing. I'm right in there; fight on! perservere! Time will present itself, damnit!
(For those of you who don't knit, I'm sorry for all the acronyms. Also, Big One did not like her knitting experience, and so now Mumma will finish a bright pink garter stitch scarf. Keeping the garter stitch in case Big One wants to put a few stitches in here and there. She declared it "Not Fun!" and stomped off with tears in her eyes. I tried. I was patient, more so than you can imagine. She, unfortunately, was not.)
blogger is toying with me and I can't upload the pic on the sidebar, it's taking an inordinately long time, so it'll have to wait...(add: I did it another way, via Picasa, so there it is...big whoop.)
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