Monday, March 31, 2008

OMG

101 Things One Would Never Expect to Happen

(In the order they happened)

1. Winning the tooth-counting contest in Dental Anthropology. I really don't know what to say about that one.



(My grand prize doubles as an oversized-necklace holder.)

2. I'm off deskwork. Remember how I had an operation to improve my hearing this winter? It didn't work, and my hearing is worse than before. My boss agreed that it would be better for me to step away from customer service until I can actually hear what the customers are saying, so I've been switched back to my old department. The work is dirty and tiring, but requires neither hearing nor personability and is wonderfully mindless.

3. You know the Colour? The band whose only full-length CD ranks among my all-time favorites and who caused untold distress en mi casa when they announced they were disbanding? Monita y yo asistí un concierto este fin de semana. We were standing there, waiting for the inevitable agony that was two opening bands to begin. They were two groups of small fame, We Barbarians and Eagle Seagull. In my experience, hearing a good opener when the headliner is still pretty underground is like finding a needle in a haystack. Not outside of the realm of possibility, but you go through a lot of hay.

Well. This is the guitarist from We Barbarians,



and he kinda looks like the guitarist from the Color because he IS the guitarist from the Colour.

Monita and I nearly died right then and there. The Colour's drummer and bassist are the other two Barbarians, and they're good. It was a set of sheer musical joy, and totally made up for the fact that Eagle Seagull are as ridiculous as their name.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter

Easter is an interesting watershed point in the year. No matter whether it falls early or late in the year, it consistently marks the dividing line between when one can wear jeans during daytime hours and when one cannot. This year is no exception; we have officially entered phase one of the Endless Summer.

Defining characteristics: windows may be left open in the morning, sun is broiling hot by midday, temperature returns to pleasant as the sun sets. Only gluttons for punishment seen in blue jeans at noon.

What about Easter itself?

Although some might say las hermanas y yo son son tan viejas for Easter baskets, we still do them. My additions were knitty--squares for Mum and pouches out of favored stash yarns for Hermanita and Monita.



(Note: Hermanita's bag was the slippery bamboo project I mentioned. Southwest Trading Company's Bamboo and gray 5/2 perle cotton (brand unknown) on size 6 needles)

Hermanita made me the cutest little woodins.



Belle is on the right, and Sebastian is on the left. Hermanita did an excellent job, and earned extra points for using my stash yarn to make them.

I ate way too many jellybeans over the course of the day, as per usual.


And that was about it.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Programme

Spring break has been over for about a week now. Over with a vengeance.

In between my History of English project, the Wari (cool people--not enough research on them), and the Tiwanaku (interesting if I didn't have to cram an entire book on them), I have rediscovered Quant.



There is more to this little project than meets the eye. Tiny little bits of stockinette are muy fácil, and the rows work up fast. However, my eyes must be squarely focused on my needles as I work, which precludes reading of any kind and definitely puts a damper on attending to a lecture.

Additionally, there is the issue of the ends. With this color sequence, I have to cut the yarn after every row. As if lopping off small sections of irreplaceable, unmatchable stash yarn wasn't stressful enough, it leaves a veritable fringe along the sides.



In short, my fast, simple project dedicated to those short snatches of spare time has turned out to be a beast of a different stripe (check). I still enjoy it, and knitting backwards still makes me feel clever, but it is not the project for Now. The Now knitting will appear shortly, along with a new list of woes. I mean assignments.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Beware the Ides of March

And also knitting with Bamboo on dpns.

My current (secret) stash project involves some leftovers from a stole I made out of Southwest Trading Company's Bamboo, worked in the round on dpns. I thought it would be perfect out and about knitting--just round and round, no pattern to speak of--but I was sadly mistaken.

Every time I pull it out of my bag, several stitches have managed to slip off the ends of one needle or another. Or all three. I went up to four needles from three to mitigate the travel damage, even though I don't like the way that configuration fits in my hand (not stable enough). Unfortunately, the improvement is minor.

The irony here is that the bamboo yarn is on bamboo needles--supposedly less slippery than metal. I shudder to think what my project would look like if I had attempted the metal ones.

In spite of all the Bamboo yarn's efforts, I am progressing. Slowly, unused stash yarn is being transformed into Useful Objects. That's another of my...issues. I can not stand making Useless Objects. But that's a story for another entry.

Friday, March 14, 2008

The Judicious Use of Elastic

You know that clear elastic jewelry thread they sell at every big craft chain? A little goes a long way.

One thread through the waistband of my pleated skirt was enough to correct its tendency to give in to gravity. Had I known that when I made Monita these armwarmers last Christmas, I never would've knitted elastic into both the top and bottom bands of ribbing.



Big mistake. She didn't wear them for fear of cutting off the blood flow to her lower arms (a well-founded fear), and so I spent a good portion of this week picking out the rib and reknitting it without the elastic. The bands were just black, no red thank goodness, and so it was an easy fix.

No news on the stash front. I have a few projects going, but they are gifts, and so shall not meet the light of day. Once Spring Break is over, I will fall back into my old pattern of knitting to stave off insanity, and projects (with pictures) will follow.

Happy Knitting!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Final Sale

Every semester, right around midterms, when I'm feeling least charitable towards institutions of higher learning and yearning most for a break, registration for the next semster opens. I hate that. Each time, it feels like you're selling your soul--in advance.

So this Friday, registration opened once again, and I sold my soul away...for the last time. Barring alien invasion, my university being razed to the ground, and/or loss of multiple limbs, this fall will be my last semester.

(As an undergrad. But we won't talk about grad school right now.)

Woohoo!!!!!!

I'm so excited.

In knitty news, I finished the Patternless Stash Shawl. It is a behemoth.



I rawther like it, and it looks good on me.



(Maybe not with my Shins shirt.)

As the temperature climbs past 80, I don't find myself with a pressing need for a shawl, however, so I'm not sure what I'll do with it.

But it is finished. This means that all the yarn is used up, right?



Not quite.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

I Witness the Fall of Modern Civilization

I spend most of my afternoons in the university library, doing homework to kill time before my evening class. Most days I can get a coffee in before I head over there, but today my schedule was all mussed about, and I arrived at the library before I had gotten through the foam atop my latte. Rather than chug it, I went to Circulation to ask them if there was anyplace I could stick it while I grabbed the one book I needed.

"Just take it with you," the girl behind the desk told me, as if I were being ridiculous.

Millions of dollars worth of books, not to mention all the computer equipment, and they're going to let any and every undergrad traipse about with brimming Grande hot vanilla lattes?

The world is most definitely going to the dogs.