headin' out

Well, I'm tying up the last few loose ends - making keys for my quizzes and the homework I assigned, making up final exam questions. I meet with my co-teacher at 1 and hand everything off to him.

Then I mow the lawn.
Then I pack.
Then I clean up the kitchen and spray ant spray around, hopefully to keep the buggers out while I'm gone.

Then, tomorrow, I head to Longview, TX. I'm leaving well in advance of when I would "have to" for the train trip because I plan to go to Stitches N Stuff (in their new digs!) and Barron's and maybe the Michael's and the big Target. Then I'm off to St. Louis, where I meet up with my folks and go to the North American Prairie Conference.

I've still not finalized what knitting to take, it depends somewhat on room in my duffel and backpack.

Keep those in Colorado and Arizona in your prayers. They need rain, lots, and badly.
And keep a good thought for Amtrak, if you could - it may shut down next week if money isn't forthcoming. I do have a way to get back home if it shuts down while I'm in Illinois; it's being able to get up to Illinois for Thanksgiving and Christmas that worries me (I will fly but only very very reluctantly. And flying in December is about as sure as driving in December.)

Not much going on. Trying to get all my stuff in order so I can leave town on Saturday. Today, I need to
Grade 2 sets of ecology labs (one is not going to be fun; I can tell that now; people didn't follow instructions)
Grade a biology quiz
Make up the "last quiz" for each class over my material
Make up final exam questions
Read through and comment on my grad student's thesis (I read it through once last night; now I have to do a detailed read)

I've been picking away at the hat. I've decided there is no way I'll get the sleeves of the Sand sweater done, so I've put that aside until after I get back and am working on smaller projects.

Called Stitches n' Stuff (in Longview) yesterday. They HAVE moved, so I got directions to their new place. The lady on the phone said "We're looking forward to seeing you." I don't think they knew who I was....but if they did, yeah, I suppose anyone who spends $100+ in one go is someone to look forward to.

Don't know if I'll post again before I leave. Peace and good knitting to you. I'll update when I'm back in July.

Link of the day: The Alphabet Synthesis Machine. This is an odd but fascinating site that basically "evolves" an alphabet for you using a series of parameters you set and a "scribble" you use as an initial seed. You can save and download the things as a true-type font in case you want to try writing in an alien alphabet.

A fun time-waster.

Progress on various knit-things over the weekend: the sleeves are about half done. I don't think I'm going to get in all the increases they say to do! They say to increase every 6 rows and I've been doing that, but I don't think I will have all 16 done by the time it's the right length. I'm going to have to measure what I have against my arm and see if it's getting wide enough. If it is, I won't sweat it. If it isn't, I may have to speed up the increases to every 4th row.

I finished the first "Cable and Rib" sock and started the second.

I knit some on the rollbrim hat. I think this is going to be my "waiting places" project as it's simple to do.

I'm trying to narrow down what I'm taking with me on vacation to knit on. This morning, I made up a list of clothes I need to take - I'm trying to keep it to a minimum but I do have to take my field boots (which, poot, will take up a lot of room in my duffel.) I may not be able to take stuff along for a shawl. It may be a socks-only trip this go.

I've decided that I have enough Lorna's Laces in "Wisteria" to do the "New England" socks from Knitting on the Road. Which I like better than the "Unst" pattern anyway.

So I'm thinking
Cables and ribs socks
Opal Mexiko
New England socks
Huron Mountain socks
the Country socks from Folk socks
and maybe throw in the Opal Bumblebee or Tiger for insurance...though I KNOW the lace socks on size 1's could occupy me the whole trip...I like having a choice of what to do.

Read two somewhat depressing books over the weekend.

First: "The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip" by George Saunders. It's a fable that basically seems to take a dim view of humanity and community. There are these things called gappers, okay, that love goats. And there is this "town" (three houses does not a town make in the real world) called Frip, that depends on goats for their livelihood. The gappers glom onto the goats and make the goats stop giving milk. So kids spend a miserable existence stripping gappers off of goats.
Until one gapper figures out one of the three houses is a little bit closer. So all the gappers go to the one house's goats.

Then the inhabitants of the other houses (one, a WASPy couple, the other a fat Italianate opera singer) thank God for their good fortune and refuse to help the inhabitants of the third house because, hey, they must be worse than us because look at all their gappers. And when the person in the third house gets the chance to be a little spiteful, hey, she takes it.

And then they all wind up subsisting on fish instead of goat milk.
I don't know. It just seemed to present a very sour view of humanity to me.

Second: "Augusta, Gone" by Martha Tod Dudman. This is one of those "troubled-teen" stories. I don't know what to think - I really was a remarkably square teenager, I guess. I never really got into fights with my parents. I never snuck out. I never smoked pot or tobacco. I never stole stuff.

But when I was reading this book, I wanted to scream at the author: Why didn't you get more involved with your kids lives?!?! Why did you let it get so bad?!?! Why, when you saw your daughter doing the same things that you did as a teenager (and that screwed up your life), didn't you stop her?!?!

I don't know. It's one of those "people are more messed up than you can possibly imagine" type of stories. If I had said "the s-word" or "the f-word" to my mom, I know exactly where I would have been - sent to my room, without dinner, without allowance for months, with added-on onerous chores like scrubbing all the tile in the house and weeding all the gardens, and not allowed to see my friends, take calls from my friends, or go anywhere except school and church.

I don't know. Losing priveliges (or, more likely, the mere threat thereof) worked pretty well on me but then I was basically a good kid who didn't want to displease the grown-ups (mainly because the grown-ups were the only people who seemed to value me when I was between the ages of about 10 and 14). I also liked school.

That was another thing that bugged me about the book: Augusta always said school was "dumb" and the author agreed with her. I'm sorry. There are just some un-fun things you have to do and sometimes school is one of them.

I don't know. I guess I get irritated by anyone who seems to think they are too special or too precious for the everyday slogging through life that we all have to put up with. And I resent the implication, so common in these cases, that people who hate school = brilliant but unconventional, and people who like school and do well = unimaginative sheep.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

I'm going to go and read "The Chymical Wedding" now. I'm liking that a lot better than either of these.

I finished the front to the Sand sweater last night. It's a hair longer than the back (d'oh), thanks to all the decreases I had to do for the neckline.

I cast on for the sleeves. I am going to do both sleeves at once because they are identical to one another. I'm knitting the sweater on a circular needle (I use circ's for almost every big project now, regardless of whether it's knit in the round or, like this sweater, back and forth). I have 6 rows done - the first increase in place. They are going to be kind of a pain because you increase every 6th row but have to incorporate the increases in the lace pattern. So I'm going to have to think about it as I work.

I also cast on this morning for a rollbrimmed hat (pattern here) out of Katia Folk (It's called an "Ecologic" yarn or something like that - I don't know if that means its from recycled fibers or if it's just because it's all natural fiber. It's a blend of cotton, wool, and silk.).

This is going to sound strange, but I cast on for the hat because I dreamed about making it last night. I don't often have knitting dreams.

Beside, I have to take my car in for service later today and it will give me something easy to work on while I wait.

No fieldwork today - we had massive downpours yesterday and last night and the area is probably soaked.

This afternoon, after I get my grading done and my car taken care of, I start cleaning house. A week from tomorrow I leave for a couple weeks' vacation, and I want the house to be very clean before I go. Especially crumbwise, so I don't come back to a house full of ants.

Okay. This is the last quiz thingy. I promise (at least until one that is as cool as this one comes along):



Which Willy Wonka character are you?

made by "galaxybounce"

"I am the dreamer of dreams. I am nice, but I am also busy and stressed out so I can be testy at times. Mr. Willy Wonka I am! I own the factory, mind you."

Knitprogress: I am up to the neckline decreases on the Sand sweater. I had to fudge a little in a couple places, I hope it looks all right (it does so far).

I'm also winding off balls of sockyarn from Lorna's Laces. I've decided to start the "Huron Mountain" socks and have them as a travel project (Sat the 21st I leave for a couple weeks' vacation)

Muahahahahahahaha!





What Type of Villain are You?

mutedfaith.com /
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Of course, I really have no desire to be a villan. But if I did, I'd want to be an evil genius.

Finished the Regia Jacquard socks last night. After that, I spent some time looking over "Knitting on the Road."

I'm trying to decide whether I want to wind off balls of the Shepard Sock yarn I bought months and months ago (some in black and some in white) and do the Huron Mountain socks (they use the same patterns as are found on loons). I also spent some time contemplating the other patterns. I think the Friday Harbor one will work for the Socka 6-fach in "Dune" (a pretty variegated white, cream, and tan color) that I've been saving for something special. And possibly the one in the "arches and ladders lace" (I don't remember what Nancy Bush called it) would work for the "Wisteria" colored Lorna's Laces I have.

I have to stop 'saving' yarn for just the right pattern.

I also found my long-lost (so long lost I had bought another) needle gauge - it was tucked in the book, along with a little 2002 calendar card and a flier from the Wooly West.

I really should finish my other ongoing projects (the Sand sweater, the Cables and Ribs socks, and the zig-zag socks) before I start something new.

And a new thing to think about: Amtrak, my favorite way of traveling, may not exist much longer.

I may be able to get to Illinois, but not back, on Amtrak. This brings a whole additional host of worries: how will I get home? What will become of my car parked in the Amtrak lot in Texas? What will I do for Thanksgiving? Christmas?

I hate flying - and the nearest airport is DFW, and I'd rather drive the 16 hours to get to Illinois than drive in the traffic around DFW. And the last time I traveled on Greyhound was a seriously traumatic experience.

So I may have to learn to celebrate holidays alone.

We really need a passenger rail service in this country. If Amtrak goes down the tubes, I hope that private industry picks up the baton.

Well, not much going on. Waiting for my students to come at 8 so we can go do fieldwork. I do have to do the tables for one paper this afternoon, then it should be done and ready to send back.

I knitted a bunch on the front of the Sand sweater last night. I've decided that I'm determined to get all the "bits" done on it before I go visit my family the end of this month.

I'm trying to decide whether to rent a bunch of videos for this weekend or to plan a day going antiquing. Right now, I'm leaning towards hitting the antique shops.

My Bloginality is INFJ!!!

A really interesting site about the INFJ type is here

I've taken these tests numerous times - the first time, as a 21 year old grad student. Every single time it comes up (sometimes quite "strongly") INFJ. I guess I am who I am.

Worked some on the sweater last night, but had to take a quick run to Sherman for more printer cartridges, which ate up a chunk of the afternoon and evening. I think tonight I'm going to turn my attention to the socks I have in progress. My Opal "Mexiko" came and I am dying to start it (I got the one that was primary colors + yellow, it's really bright and cheerful). I think I'm going to do a spiral ribbing on this. I'll post how to do the spiral rib (it's a multiple of 5 sts) sometime later when I have it written out in front of me so I'm sure I won't lead you wrong. It is a very pretty ribbing, a bit looser than any of the standard ones, but it adds a little interest to the top of a sock. (I only do it for an inch and a half or so on patterned yarns; I find that any kind of ribbing messes up the color design for me).

A finished object of a different sort: Last night I finished reading Anthony Trollope's The Eustace Diamonds. I enjoy these novels because they are long; it took me over a year to read this one (I read other things in between nights of plugging away at the Trollope). It's a big, complex story with lots of characters. I want to start the continuation (Phineas Redux) soon, but I decided to take a short break and read something else.

As much as I love Trollope - the descriptions, the characters, the situations - there was one thing in this novel that somewhat tempered my enjoyment of it. One of the characters (who does not feature greatly until the final third of the book) is referred to occassionally as a "greasy Jew preacher" and other not very complimentary things. I did a quick search on "anti-Semitism in Trollope" and didn't turn up much other than that in some situations he made some of his characters make anti-Semitic comments (apparently it was a fashionable position to hold in mid-Victorian England). Apparently Trollope's point in those situations was to parody the stupid but fashionable ideas held by people. (And the site linked to is heavily about The Way We Live Now, which is generally the most widely-read (in academic circles) Trollope today. I've not read it yet.) But the words in Eustace Diamonds are the words of the narrator.

I don't know. I'm not Jewish and I don't consider myself overly sensitive, but the description made me wince pretty hard every time I ran across it.

I started a new novel - The Chymical Wedding by Lindsey Clarke. I'm about 25 pages in and it looks good - set in the North of England, with very descriptive passages. And there is some intrigue. A poet who is apparently somewhat burned-out is sent to stay in the cottage of his publisher. He witnesses an interesting (I dare say) scene where a sixtyish man and a twentyish woman are frolicing (naked) deep in the woods...the second chapter shifts time period abruptly. It seems the book may be a melding of mystery and fantasy. I don't generally go for the fantasy genre too much, but what I've read of this looks good.

Not too much to report. Each day of class feels like a week (well, in the summer, each day is roughly equivalent to a week's class).

I do like getting home earlier in the day though. I spent a couple hours cleaning house last night and I knit some on the front of the Sand sweater. I think I once said I didn't like knitting with cotton. I have to amend that. I don't like knitting with mercerized cotton. Sand is unmercerized and is actually quite pleasant.

Seeing Squib in her hat makes me itch to start knitting a hat. Or maybe I should drag out the almost-finished crocheted winter hat I found hiding out under my bed.

I really want the "obey your wise true thoughts" hat pattern, if for nothing else than the name.

Finished the Spanish Shawl, fringe and all, last night. Yay.

I've decided to finish what I have going before I start anything new. Works in progress: the Sand sweater (I think that will be this evening's project), the Regia jacquard socks, the Ribbed Cabled socks.

My skein of Bumblebee Opal came Saturday! (You can see a picture of it here. Click on "yarn" then click on "Opal". Sadly, they are now sold out of the Bumblebee). BTW, Fifth Stitch (the site I've linked to) is about the ONLY mail order source that I've consistently had good luck with (in terms of getting my stuff in reasonable time) lately.

I'm fighting starting on this. I'm telling myself I can start it AFTER I finish my other socks (oh yeah, I have a long-stalled colorwork sock on the needles I should finish up) or use it for "train knitting" when I travel.

Also, knitter's review reviews Opal. I have one pair of finished Opal socks (but a skein of Tiger and a skein of Bumblebee and two skeins on order). I like the Opal a lot, it's a little softer than the Regia I think.

I actually liked Opal in its "early days" when each skein was a gamble and you didn't know how it would work up - maybe I'm alone in this, but I would love for there to be a "mystery yarn" where you specified what colors you wanted but you didn't know how they would come out (stripes, blocks, fair-isle, blotches, whatever) until you knit it up.

It's very hot here now, and incredibly humid. I went back up on the roof yesterday afternoon to get more of the tree crud off. I also washed my car. I had a bad nagging headache last evening, I think from being out in the sun without a hat.

A hot, and hardworking morning. I climbed up on my roof (don't tell my mom I actually went up on it; for the record I did it all from the ladder...) and brushed off as many of the fallen pecan catkins as I could, as the insurance company is coming out to take a photo of my new roof Monday.

I noticed this afternoon they're back, almost as many, again. Maybe tomorrow early evening I'll have to get the broom on a long stick out again...

I also cleaned what was probably 5 or 6 years worth of what looked like compost out of the back gutter. The gutters had those wire mesh things over them, but that just made the problem worse: pecans couldn't fall in but all the little gritty stuff could and it got caught. So I pulled the screens off and used the "jet" option on my hose to squirt all the "compost" into my garden.
(Hey, if it looks like compost and smells like compost it must fertilize like compost, right?)

I also mowed the lawn and edged with the weedeater. My arms hurt now and are a little shaky.

I'm relaxing this weekend (well, except for the yard work) and I've decided I want to finish the "Spanish Shawl". By my estimation I have about 25 rows to go before casting off and applying fringe...as long as I have enough yarn left. I've decided it's better to go fringeless than to have a skimpy shawl. I have broad shoulders (for a woman) and shawls that are too short are sort of useless to me.

Two links for today: Knitnet has their new issue up. And they are looking for (responsible) people to design for them! (the reason the issue was so delayed was that apparently some people they contracted with didn't come through...and it seems that there are fewer patterns in this issue. But if you like twin sets, there are two of them, and a felted vest, and a cotton nautical-looking sweater.

And an interesting story (a medical mystery really) from the New York Times magazine. The case of the spreading rash. Apparently kids in schools around the country came down with some weird pseudo-rash. And because it was after 9/11/01, it got a lot of press, which means more kids got the rash, which means that parents got suspicious, which means more kids got the rash....it seems that it was basically a case of kids being suggestible, and living in stressful times.

quickly, before I run to class:

the back of the Sand sweater is done. I cast off for it last night. And I cast on for the front, and have all of 5 rows done.

I'm in class from 8-9:50 and then again from 10:50-2:50. That's a heck of a long time. I'm telling myself it's only for three weeks plus a day, and classes only meet four days a week....but I suspect I'm gonna be letting people out early a lot of the time...

As SpongeBob SquarePants says,
"I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready!"

I'm ready to start classes again. I think I need some structure in my life.

Picked at different things last night, after having a colleague help me re-wire a socket (now I know how to do it!). I got out the long-neglected "Provence" quilt top and started cutting the 188, 2 1/2 by 6 1/2 pieces I will need for the border. And I realized that the Roman Type quilt I want to make (the fabric I bought last Thurs.) would look very nice using some of the same fabrics (deep green, purple, gold) that I used in the Provence quilt. In fact, if I play my cards right, I already have some of the pieces I will need cut (if I use the leftover extra pieces I cut).

Knit some on the "Cables and Ribs" socks.

Quilted some on the Spools quilt.

Well, in between dodging headaches (thunderstorms have been pending here for about three days), I've gotten quite a lot of work done.

I updated one paper that should be about ready to send off (if my co-author approves)
I finished (as far as I can; I'm lacking data and not sure such data are available) the last nitpicky bits of reanalysis for another paper I need to resubmit
In the course of doing that, I realized a teeny error in the data analysis of the paper for the Missouri prairie conference. So I fixed that and updated the paper and the presentation.

I've also discovered it's best not ofr me to look at the computer screen for too long. D'Oh. My eyes are starting to hurt again so it's about time I got off the machine.

I'm also done with the armhole decreases on the sweater back and just have a couple inches to go on it.

I'm also very very close to being done with the quilting on my bed quilt! Yay! I'm ready to layer my next one (it's all marked) and pop it in the frame.

And: last night's Nero Wolfe episode was very very good. I don't know who wrote the ending (it wasn't in the original story) but it was very in character and was actually quite touching.

I didn't like Colin Fox as Fritz Brenner at first - my "mental picture" of Fritz was of someone a bit younger, with dark hair and a moustache only (Fox wears a beard in the show), and not quite as dour as Fox's Fritz is sometimes, but he's really starting to grow on me. He underplays Fritz just enough (Fritz is my favorite character in the novels...)

I wish the rest of television could be done with half the attention and care that these shows are.

Time-wasting (in a good way) site of the day: Eric conveys an emotion. People e-mail Eric an emotion they are interesting in seeing and he puts up a webcam snap of it. (The left hand side of the screen lists "filled emotions" the right hand side is emotions waiting on Eric's actions).

Freaking funny. My favorites are the "Mr. Burns' 'excellent' face", "Shy", and "Suave".

Yesterday was a good day. Even though I hate the traffic even as far north of Dallas as McKinney. Even though the parking in McKinney is awful (finally went to one of the municipal lots and walked the several blocks from it to the downtown). Even though almost NONE of the shops offers a public restroom (hello? You want people to drive in from far away and shop? Having a toilet and sink available isn't that hard).

I got a grilled cheese sandwich and a really, really good chocolate soda from a little soda fountain place.
I found another "souvenir plate" (from Idaho) to put up with the collection on my bathroom wall. I found a few old books. I went to a nice gourmet shop and bought a set of tongs, another bar of Thymes "olive leaf" soap. I bought a fabulous-smelling lavender sachet.

I also went to the Quilt Asylum and bought a few things (I would have bought more if I had known at the time that the Carriage House Quilt Shop in Van Alystyne had moved to Plano. Grr. )

One thing I bought is pictured here. I got it in both black background and white blackground. My plan is to do a very simple quilt with this as the central square in those simple blocks where you have a square surrounded by four broad-based triangles (I don't know what it's called). I plan to use bright red, blue, and yellow fabrics for the triangles, and alternate the black and white backgrounds.

I bought a yard of each. I think that might be enough for a full-sized quilt. If not, I'm going to do it as a twin-sized and use it to wrap up in when I read.

I'm getting excited about quilting again. The quilt that I have in the frame right now (Spools in reproduction Depression-era pastels) is almost done.

Like I said before, I always get more excited about a project when it's close to completion.

Some more good news: I have a good draft (probably about a fifth draft) of my paper for the Prairie Conference done; it's going out to my co-author for comments today. And I have the presentation essentially done, too. So what remains is finishing the updates on an article for POAS, a rewrite (yet again) of an article to be submitted to another journal, and a rewrite of a long-stalled article.

I plan to work on those next week.

Today, I am taking the day off and going to McKinney, Texas, to spend the day wandering the boutiques and maybe buying a few things. (Maybe? they have a quilt shop there and shops that sell fancy soap and candles...that probably should be "will" not "maybe")

Knitting notes:
Have about 15" done on the back of the sweater. Soon it will be time to start the armhole decreases. I can't believe how fast this one is moving - the previous sweaters I've made have been on size 6 or 7 (US) needles and took forever. This one is on 10 1/2's and is flying along. (The lace pattern also helps - a complex and more interesting row alternates with a simple, all-purl row - so I don't get bored as easily and I'm more likely to say "I'll do one more row on this")

Whee! Next I'm going to do a sweater on 13's with some superbulky polarweight yarn I scored really cheaply from Elann, which is one of my favorite places to buy yarn. (This is yarn that's been in-stash for over a year now - it's Stahl Landlord in a lovely purple and fuchsia and white mix)

Oh, and Lynn at the New Homemaker is knitting socks. Or rather, trying to.

Yay for Patternworks! I e-mailed them about the skeins I want to return and they said it would still be possible - although it would be best to wait until they get back up and running at their new address.

BTW, the company they are now affiliated with is Keepsake Quilting. I really shouldn't have worried about whether or not I could return the unused skeins...have bought from Keepsake in the past and have been very happy. And will buy from them again in the future.

Okay. So this morning I find out that Patternworks has been sold and is in the process of moving. I hope they'll still take my extra left-over skeins of Sand back. Because I can tell you that I think I bought twice as much yarn as I will need - I have almost 14" done on the back of the sweater and have only used 2 of the skeins.

(changed from this morning, when I was in a more pessimistic mood).

Here's a thought for the day (and every day):
"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.Love them anyway.If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives.Do good anyway.If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.Succeed anyway.The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.Do good anyway.Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.Be honest and transparent anyway.What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.Build anyway.People who really want help may attack you if you help them.Help them anyway.Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.Give the world your best anyway. "
- Mother Teresa.

(here is a page of some of her well-known quotations.

A couple of passings of note, in order of the age at which I encountered their work

Bill Peet
Bill Peet was a children's author and illustrator. He worked for Disney for a while but got fed up and went out on his own. He wrote wonderful picture books which I remember fondly. I checked them out on a regular basis from the Hudson Public Library when I was a kid. here is a brief biography of his, and here is a fairly recent interview with him. (Warning: the interview does contain a few expletives, and it centers almost totally on Peet's work for Disney and not his books...which is what I know him best for)

Some of my favorite books by him were "Cappyboppy" (about a Capybara), "Farewell to Shady Glade" (subtle environmental themes), and "The pinkish purplish bluish egg" (Fantasy - a griffin or dragon was involved as I remember).

There were lots of them. They were good. They made me happy.

Stephen Jay Gould

Gould - well, I don't have the same kind of unmitigated admiration for him as for Bill Peet. He was an evolutionary writer, he wrote some very good essays. He was a good defender of the right of teachers to teach evolution in school. But he could be kind of arrogant - I heard him speak twice and both times came away a little sad. Some of his essays are very long and meandering and it's hard when you have to use them as a resource for a paper because you remember stuff out of them, it's just hard to find where it is...

Still, he wrote some very good essays. I started reading "Rocks of Ages" which were his thoughts on science and religion. I'll have to pick it back up and finish reading it in honor of him.

I have a copy of "Wonderful Life" somewhere that he autographed for me after I heard him speak at the University of Michigan...

Hiding out in my office even though I'm kind of between projects (one rewrite done and waiting on co-author comments and another doing its mandatory 'sit for 24 hours before you mess with it again' thing) because the roofers showed up at my house this morning. At 6:40 am. Just as I was gearing up to do "ab work" with Denise Austin.

They are very loud. My house was full of noise so I ran here. I've been picking away at things but am not very motivated.

I have about 8 or 9 inches done on the Sand sweater. It takes 1 ball to do about 7" of the body part. So I estimate, because the body is 27 1/2 inches long, that it will take about 4 balls to do the front and 4 to do the back. And I don't know how many for sleeves. Maybe 3 per sleeve.

4+4+3+3 = 14 balls (at 50 g per ball).

Maybe the pattern WAS wrong after all and I bought 2x as much as I need.

That would be a nice thought - sending some back and getting a refund. Because the toilet (which I had the wax seal replaced on just a month ago) has begun its little trick of leaking around the base again. It doesn't do it EVERY time but often enough to be distressing.

I hate the thought of calling the plumber AGAIN, of sitting home for hours on end waiting for him AGAIN, and shelling out another $45 for a fix that will last another month. I went looking for a compound I remembered my dad using - it was like rubber or wax "string" that you could use to seal gaps. I went 3 places and nowhere here sells it. Poo. One place the guy told me to call the plumber back. Yeah, great, thanks.

I'm just not in the mood to fool with it now. Tomorrow I am going to McKinney - was going to go Weds. but then I remembered that was when Ian was going to come by to say goodbye before he and his wife take off for Houston, and it was going to be the day Stan was back.

So I have to wait till 11 to leave tomorrow - have to go and get an allergy shot. Oh well, I'll get down there in time for lunch at least.

Oh, wow! Folkwear has a website! (For those unfamiliar, this is a company that produces "vintage" or "ethnic" patterns. I have a cook French Craftsperson's Smock that I made from one of their patterns. And someday, I intend to make the Poet's Blouse.)

Well, I lost part of the evening last night.

I get migraine headaches periodically, most often when there's been some huge change in the weather. Well, a big honkin' cold front roared through yesterday morning (causing the rain that cancelled fieldwork). I had a headache all day but sort of denied it, took Advil, still had headache (that should have been a sign), when I went home for lunch I thought "gee, this food smells vivid" (that should have been a big, big sign - when my sense of smell gets that much more sensitive, it's a migraine). But I went back and worked. At about 4 I realized my head was killing me.

So I had to go home and crawl in bed for a couple hours. By that time it's too late to take anything. The worst part was that with the pressure change, my teeth were throbbing as well. Finally it went away around 7:30.

(I'm lucky in that when I do get these things - which is seldom - they are gone in a couple hours).

I cast on and got a few rows done on the Sand sweater. I'm really, really hoping that I won't have to dip into the second dye lot for it (I have a total of 28 skeins; 25 are of one dye lot and 3 are of another). Even though the woman on the phone told me she would pick the best match, I can see a very obvious difference. The main dye lot I have is a beautiful blue-green. The secondary one is much, much greyer. More like the color on the published color card.

I still refuse to believe that it will take 1.5 kilos of yarn (that's 3.3 pounds of yarn) for this sweater. I'm hoping to be able to send at least the 3 skeins of the second dye lot back and get a credit with Patternworks for them.

Oh, and I did cast on for the smallest size. I measured and a 50" bust (the next larger size) would just look sloppy on me. It's been a while since I took a small/medium in ANYTHING.

So now I must get back to rewriting journal articles so I can go home this evening and knit on my sweater. Or finish the foot warmer socks (got past the heel turn on the second one this morning before I came in; dang I love bulky yarns)

Friday Five is back!

1. What shampoo do you use?

Currently, BIO ("beauty individualized organics" - isn't that just too cute?) from Bath and Body Works. The kind? Um, well, I think it's the moisturizing kind. The one that's purple and smells like jasmine. It's horridly expensive but it is the only shampoo I've found that doesn't brillo-ize my hair. (I have fairly thick coarse dry hair and keeping it soft is pretty much a priority)

2. Do you use conditioner? What kind?

Same brand, same kind as above, just that it's the conditioner. I can't not use conditioner.

3. When was the last time you got your hair cut?

I think it was over my Spring Break (March). I have long hair so I only need the bangs trimmed once in a while and the split ends hacked off. I think it's maybe every 10-12 weeks that I get it cut. Or longer.

4. What styling products do you use?

None. I don't like having to wash my hair every night. And when I do wash it every day, it gets even drier than it normally is.

5. What's your worst hair-related experience?

Ummm....it either has to be when I was in grad school, and I leaned back in a desk chair, and got the end of my ponytail caught in a drawer that the back of the desk chair pushed closed (and was effectively trapped until I figured out how to twist around without dislocating my shoulders) or high school, when I swam and thought short hair would work for me.

I have very very curly hair. Anything shorter than shoulder length = instant dandelion head. Or "Annie", if you remember the movie. Finally, I wound up with a "boy cut" that was so short there wasn't enough hair left to curl.

It dried fast but that's about the only good thing about it.

Can I take a minute and rant about something here?

Why, why, why do some scientific journals require you to do the stupid "number-code" format for citations? Instead of very logically stating your piece of information and then plopping (Corbett, 1999) behind it, where you can then go and FIND "Corbett, 1999" alphabetically in the lit cit., you have to give every citation a number based on order of appearence. So of course when you have to rewrite the paper, everything is all messed up. Especially if you are adding citations. And it makes it harder when you're reading an article, to find who said what.

It's a dumb dumb method. I don't know why journals use it. (I suppose it saves a few typed characters). It annoys the heck out of me.

I need to go and eat. Grrrrh.

Helpful little link: A clearinghouse site for links to knitting book and pattern errata

Rain again. So no fieldwork today. So I'm going to force myself (yeah, that's it, that's the ticket) to actually rewrite these two articles. Next Wednesday I have tentatively pencilled in a "fun day" - running down to McKinney, Texas and spending the day in the boutiques and antique stores (I can spend a whole day in antique stores).

Last night, I finished the first of the Circus foot-warmer socks. And did my first short-rowed heel. It's not as hard as it always sounded on other patterns, with their cryptic "SRW" instructions. So now I think I might take on some more short-rowed socks
in the future. here is a pattern for some very attractive socks made of Fixation cotton, with short-rowed heels. I plan to do those sometime now, as I have some nice cherry-red Fixation in stash that would look good as these.

awwww man.

A couple friends of mine are splitting up (this has been in the works for a couple months). One of them has decided to move far far away (this just came down this morning). This stinks.

I hate to see marriages end.

This has been a really rough spring, you know? I've had so many shocks and so much bad news to deal with. Here's hoping this summer is a looooooooot better.

Well. I don't quite know what to think.

I have a cross-country ski simulator. I use it pretty heavily,
for like 40 minutes a day.

This spring, I noticed it was getting tougher and tougher to use. I figured it was that I was using the wrong kind of wax on the sides of the skis. But no, turns out one of the little rubber wheels was wearing out -from the inside. Now it collapses, it's unequal, and it makes the skier unusable.

I looked at the thing last night. I'm an inveterate tinkerer and I thought that maybe I could stick something inside the drive wheel to shore it up. But I couldn't see any way to open the machine up and get at it. I contemplated the "last resort" option of cutting the rubber off and building the inside up with epoxy, then trying to seal up the cut area once I got it back on the machine.
But I figured I had better find out first if they would replace my skier (I thought probably that would be the best option - and the thing is not even 2 years old.)

So I called the company this morning. The woman was very reassuring. "Oh" she said, "those parts are meant to wear out and be replaced" (Huh? I don't remember reading that anywhere but I did lose the owners manual when I moved). She offered to send out a pair. I explained again what they were and she said yes, that was it. I said it seemed strange because it looked like there was no way to change them out. She assured me there was. I asked if there would be instructions. She said yes, that it wasn't that difficult.

So okay....I guess I trust them. I am printing out a copy of the owners manual off the website - maybe it will have some reassuring information in it. I still don't believe I'll be able to change the drive wheels, and that I'll have a giant piece of exercise equipment that has now become junk.

I was considering investing in some exercise videos and no longer going the "equipment" route. I guess I'll hold off until I see if this fix works (the bad news is that it'll take a week for the wheels to get here; I guess that means altering my schedule so I can catch Denise Austin in the mornings so I at least get some kind of a workout).

Gave into small-project startitis last night and began the "foot warmer" socks from the Artful Yarns "Circus". (I still don't believe that a bulky weight with 93 yards per skein can have enough in a single skein to get a pair of socks...so I want to knit these up while I'm sure the yarn is still available in case I have to buy more).

Spent a lot of time yesterday working on research papers. Have a first draft essentially written (and almost typed) for a paper for the proceedings of the 18th North American Prairie Conference (I'll be there presenting a paper on a comparision of cemetery prairies and unmanaged railroad rights-of-way in Illinois). Did see a big "hole" in my results after I got the thing written - some additional analyses I could do that would make the paper stronger. So I'm going to do that once I type up the manuscript I have now.

I can't write at the computer. I have to write things out longhand, preferably on a ruled legal pad, sitting at a cleared table, sitting in a good straight-backed wooden chair. And if there's sunlight coming in the window, all the better.

I find I'm working more effectively at home than in my office. And if I need a cup of tea, it's easier to get.

Baby's got gauge!!!

I swatched last night for the Sand sweater. As I tend to knit fairly tightly and often have to go up a needle size, I tried a size 10 1/2 circular rather than the size 10 recommended. (I also did this because I have a nice Addi Turbo size 10 1/2 and my only size 10 circular is a crummy old Boye made out of the brightly colored aluminum).

So I knit up a 6 inch by 4 inch piece, checked it out. And yup, size 10 1/2 it will be.

I didn't do any more on it than swatch. I decided as I am within striking distance of finishing the Spanish Shawl I wanted to do that last night.

I also was watching another movie - "The Hudsucker Proxy" this time - and wanted something simple that I wouldn't have to look at. (And "The Hudsucker Proxy" is a movie you want to be looking at - there are a lot of subtle things in it that you can miss (I had to rewind and replay several places).

It's a really, really good movie. I'm kind of surprised it didn't receive more hype when it was in the theaters. It is very much in the vein of the old "screwball" comedies. Tim Robbins is very appealing as Norville Barnes, the "moron" who is pulled in to drive the company into the ground. And Jennifer Jason Leigh is FANTASTIC as a fast-talking career-girl, doing a voice that was like a combination of Bette Davis, Kate Hepburn, and Rosalind Russel. I found myself wanting so very much to be able to talk like that.

Oh, and despite what it seems like at the beginning, it is a movie with a genuine old-fashioned Happy Ending. (And, hopefully I'm not giving too much away here, but a genuine old-fashioned Deus ex Machina Happy Ending, at that!)

Two thumbs up, on the Fillyjonk-o-meter.

It's the kind of movie I'm a total sap for anyway - visually arresting, with a vintage feel to it. And interesting and quirky characters. And, at heart, a fantasy. I love movies that take the "everyday" world and subtly transform it, making it different from what it actually is. (for example, the Nero Wolfe tv series)

I don't much like movies that are either flat depictions of the real world, or flat depictions of the real world with people much prettier and more perfect looking than the ones you encounter in the real world.

I'm thinking I want to see more Coen brothers movies. I enjoyed "O Brother Where Art Thou" and I liked this one (also written by them) even better (almost well enough to consider buying a copy). There's another one of theirs out called "The Man Who Wasn't There" that was playing in the video store when I was in there that looked really good.

And I liked Fargo, at least the slightly-sanitized version I saw on cable TV.

So, with what was probably a ruinously-expensive credit card call from my office, I remedied the Sand problem. Twelve additional skeins will be on their way to me tomorrow. (I called the "help desk" and the woman there *went out into the store* to retrieve the yarn and make sure they had what I needed).

I'm going to start the sweater tonight. Or at least swatch for it.

I did have to take a mixed dyelot of yarn, but that should be ok - I can alternate rows on the sleeves if necessary (and I got a 25% discount, making the sweater a little less ruinously expensive for me).

Why, oh why, do yarn companies change the put-up of their skeins?

And speaking of "why, oh why" - that makes me think of Tom Jones - which makes me think of the the What's New Pussycat game. This is a little memory game where they show you pictures of cats and then you have to pick out the cat you've NOT seen. Tricky, especially at the higher levels.

And amusing. I don't know if an ESL speaker wrote the game, or if he was just intentionally trying to be funny, but when you do it right, you are rewarded with Tom Jones giving the thumbs-up, and the message: "Well done. You remember cat good. This time there will be more cats."

The shawl is done.



I rented "To Kill a Mockingbird" (good movie; incredibly faithful to the book; Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch is exactly how I pictured Atticus Finch in my mind) last night and did the last few rows. I cast off this morning and the shawl is now drying from being blocked.

I can send it out next week and it will definitely (well, barring any bizarre blips or awful mishaps in the postal service) reach my mom in time for her birthday.

And, my Sand came. But there's a glitch. The pattern I want to use is older - from 1999 - and apparently at that time Sand was being sold in 100 g skeins rather than 50 g skeins.
The pattern in #6 in the Spring/Summer 1999 "Family Circle Easy Knitting"
So it looks like I'm going to have to double my order (order more and hope they have the same dyelot). Still, it seems strange - I currently have 1232 yards of Sand. The pattern says it should take 2310.

That seems like way way too much, even for a loosefitting sweater made of bulky yarn. Help, has anyone made this sweater? Is the 15, 100-g skeins thing a typo? My e-mail link is at left. Remove the capital letters to reach me. I'm going to try ordering the yarn tomorrow (Monday) morning, but I can always send it back if there's too much...

I am so ready to be done with my mom's shawl. The working edge is so long now that it takes almost 15 minutes to do one of the "complex" rows.

I have about 3 to 4 inches to go. I might get that done tonight. I'm waiting for my grad student to either come in or call. It's raining. So we may not be able to do the fieldwork I scuttled other plans for.

I spent yesterday afternoon doing extensive housecleaning. The only rooms untouched are my sewing room (no one sees that so it can stay a mess) and the "guest bedroom" that is really my office (I want to get to that one sometime soon).

Never again will I have white ceramic tile. I can say that much. The white ceramic tile in the kitchen and bath came with the house but white tile is SUCH a bad idea. I scrubbed them both and already they are starting to look dirty again. One bit of lint or fragment of leaf from outdoors spoils the effect of cleanliness.

Next time it will be mottley tile. Mottled in the colors of stuff that is most likely to be dropped on it.

Still, it's nice to have a clean house.

I don't know what my "next project" will be. I have three pairs of socks on the needles (all on the first sock of the pair) that I should finish up. But I want to do that "Carnival" shawl from a back issue of Knitnet )(the pattern isn't up on the site any more; you have to buy the back issues CD to get it). I found the yarn and the pattern in a bag when I was cleaning my fiber closet. But I also have the Spanish Shawl to finish.

Arrgh. I want to start something new.

Dealing with a couple of minor disappointments.

First, got a letter from the yarn company I ordered the Sand from. Even though the person who took my order told me the yarn was in-stock, it's actually backordered. So now I have to wait. And they didn't give me any hint of when it might come.

This is not the first time this particular fiber-purveyor has done this. I'm starting to get fed up with them. But I'm also waiting on a backorder - apparently forgotten - by another fiber-purveyor. So I don't know what to do. I live miles and miles and miles from the nearest real yarn shop, and if the online or catalog sellers are constantly backordered - well.

I guess that's what a stash is for anyway.

The second disappointment: my plans for Friday fell through. A couple of the students and I got permission to go visit Clymer Meadow in North Texas. But one of them can't go, and the other is worried about finishing her field research. So I am helping her do her research here in town, instead.

Next week I'll be stuck close to home because (if the weather permits) the roofer is coming to re-do my roof.

I'm having a hard time staying motivated to work on my research papers. I am getting so burnt out.

Take the What High School
Stereotype Are You? quiz, by Angel.

The funny thing is that it does actually fit me...