Knitting Cybrarian

Women: Know your limits?!? Not me!

I go out of town WHEN?

I leave for a conference on Wednesday morning.  Early.  While a number of things were accomplished today, things left to do include:

• finalizing the presentation (EGAD!)
• printing enough copies of the skit for all participants
• replacing zipper in favorite pants
• washing favorite pants
• figuring out wardrobe
• assembling new pieces in my Big Band book -- and putting my book in a larger binder
• practicing the new pieces
• packing appropriate knitting for the trip
• preparing agenda for committee meeting
• ....

you get the idea.  No wonder I'm still pumped with adrenaline -- unusual after today's allergy shot!

Finished Object!

After a little more than a year, I finished Joel's Gansey (see here and here).

The finishing instructions said to throw the finished wool sweater into the washer with some towels or jeans and wash it on warm (warm wash, warm rinse) twice.

That's right.  Wool.  In the machine.  Warm water.  Items for balance and agitation.  And this isn't supposed to be a felted bag.  However, I went ahead and did it.

Something magical happened.  The yarn felted just a tad -- and the pattern had allowed for shrinkage.  And the wool bloomed.  Bloomed beautifully.  So beautifully.  Now the sweater is drying flat.  I hope the hubster wears it well!

Now I've picked up a baby sweater I abandoned last spring... more cables, moss stitch, etc.  Love working with those Aran/Gansey styles!

Fever, chills, mucus

Yeah, lovely title.  I feel bad, but not terrible.  However, I'm traveling in a week and don't need to be sick while at a conference -- in 2001 I had bronchitis  (which turned into pneumonia later -- might have even been P then), dragged myself to NYC for my big conference of the year and spent most of it in my hotel room.  Ugh.  I don't want a repeat.

The web servers at work went wonky yesterday.  Campus IT folks are doing a backup to restore all the campus web servers to their 13 February state.  That means any updates I did (and I did several) to the one site I manage were undone.  I'm home sick today, but I thought it would be a good time to back up my files to my SimpleShare storage device.   Just in case something went wonky with my laptop.

Her Highness is happy I'm home.  She's outside on the deck for the moment - -it's sunny outside and a balmy 46 degrees F.  What a far cry from the ice and snow of late -- and the temperatures in the single digits. 

I'm just hanging out for a while until I crave sleep again.  The computer is doing its task of copying files.  Fun fun.

March of the Librarians

Thanks to the Librarian In Black for this one!

Oh the weather outside

Yesterday was interesting.  I was supposed to teach a knitting class from 6-8pm and the weather forecast included winter weather watches, etc. etc.  Joel called me at work and reminded me twice to call The Studio and see if my class was still on.  I'm glad he nudged me, because when I called, I found out my one student had canceled.  We had rain much of the day.  When I left work closer to 6:30pm than 6pm, I noticed a little sleet in the rain.  And the wind was fierce, a driving wind from the north. 

So, off I go in little red -- the rain is steady and relentless and with the wind, nearly blinding.  I head north, homewards, into the wind.  At times the little car didn't handle quite right and I wondered what was going on -- but kept going since it wasn't consistent.  As I kept driving, I realized it was because of the wind and rain -- the handling "blip" happened on curves in the road.  When I crossed the Missouri River bridge, the precip was still mostly rain with some sleet mixed in.  When I got to the I 29/I 35 split, the mix was mostly sleet with some rain.  When I turned off to 169N, the precip had changed over to nearly all sleet with a little snow.  As I got closer to home, there was more sleet accumulation and a little more snow mixed in.  Still all in a driving wind. 

I was quite glad to get home.  Joel had made potato soup with sauteed onions and carrots.   We kept checking outside and around 7:50pm, the snow increased. 

This morning we woke up to about 5 inches of snow on top of 1/2" or more of sleet.  Joel spent two long stints shoveling the drive and sidewalks.  I made biscuits and eggs for him.  He left for work about 45 minutes late and just called to let me know he's been sitting in traffic for 20 minutes. 

I decided to stay home for now.  My gut is whacko and I'm concerned about the roads -- lots of traffic incidents have occurred so far and I don't want to add to that total!

Thanks!

Thanks to all of you who either used the Amazon search button on my blog or who clicked through and ordered books/DVDs/CDs I have listed on my blog.  Amazon paid me $10.27 for 1.5 years worth of clickthroughs!  Again, thank YOU!

(yes, $10.27 isn't a whole lot, but yanno, I'm happy to take it!)

Frog pond

When knitters have to rip back their work quite a ways, they refer to it as "going to the frog pond."  (you know, what do frogs say?  Rip-it, rip-it).  Well, I've visited the frog pond a couple of times lately, most recently tonight.

I started work on this gansey for Joel in Feburary 2006.

I finished the body of the sweater (which had been adjusted for his length, or lack thereof) and then started the sleeves.  The sleeves have a pattern on the upper arm that complements the chest/upper back patterning.  By the time I finished that and had done much of the stockinette part of the sleeve, I realized I'd run out of Joel before I ran out of sleeve.  I had him try it on, I measured, I calculated, and I put the gansey away.

Ponder.  Ponder.  And who wants to work with wool in a Kansas City summer?  Not me.  So earlier this week, I brought out the gansey again and had Joel try it on.  I ripped back to recalculate the sleeve decreases.  I knitted some more, but I had the nagging feeling that it just wasn't going to work.

An idea flashed into my gray matter Wednesday evening on my way home from work.  I could rip back one of the pattern repeats, do the end of the pattern and start the stockinette then.  And do the decreases every third row instead of fourth and it should work out.

That's what I've done this evening.  I think it'll work.

However, Joel commented this evening that I would NEVER finish this sweater.  Never.  Lay down the gauntlet, won't you, dear?  I thanked him for his confidence and inspiration and kept knitting.  After all, once I get the first sleeve right, the second one HAS to go more quickly.  Right?

I just hope I don't have to make a third trip to the frog pond.

This and that

Busy, busy, busy.  Snippets from the past few days, starting with this morning:

• The hubster promised to bring Spanish Rice to a work function today.  He read the recipe from Joy of Cooking and it just didn't translate for him.  I got him started and then wound up finishing it.  I do understand why it didn't translate.  It's like a lot of things in life -- we think we understand how something is supposed to work, but when we have to vary from that for a new application, we just can't get how it happens.  Sometimes it takes a person with a new perspective to help us see it with new eyes.
• Knitting.  Picked up Joel's sweater and worked on the one sleeve.  I think I'm going to start on sleeve number two and finish both sleeves together to make sure they fit.  I had to rip out quite a bit for sleeve number one (the decrease rate was too slow -- hubster's arms not long enough), and that's what sidetracked me for a long time.
• Life lessons.  I've had a hard lesson in making up my mind lately.  If there's something I want to go for, I need to jump on it and go with my gut instead of thinking, thinking, thinking...
• Life lesson number 2.  Communication is oh so important.   Particularly timely communication.  I really, really try to follow the golden rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you).  I was on the receiving end of how communication should not be done.  We'll see how that all turns out. 
• Life lesson number 3, which ties into life lesson no. 2.  Be forgiving but don't be a doormat.

Interesting week and it's only Wednesday!

If I were a mythological creature, I would be a

You Are a Centaur

In general, you are a very cautious and reserved person. However, you are also warm hearted, and you enjoy helping others in practical ways. You are a great teacher, and you are really good at helping people get their lives in order. You are very intuitive, and you go with your gut. You make good decisions easily.

What Mythological Creature Are You?