cat's in the bag

Jude really likes to get into things. One of his favorites is the wicker laundry basket when it's empty. The other day he spent 10 minutes in the recycling bin, just chillin'. Last night he sort of fell off the bed into a large paper bag. And he stayed in there, quite content.


A week from Saturday my family, Evan, and I are taking the train out to South Bend, IN for my sister's birthday and the Notre Dame football game. Mom tells me the games last a long time, and are outside, and are very cold.
Long game = I must knit.
Cold = I must have fingerless gloves to knit.
So I've been working on making knucks just as fast as I can.



The going was a bit chaotic at first, as you can see, because knucks are worked from the top down, to abolish anxiety over long cuffs (similar to toe-up socks). But I've joined the thumb now, and it's starting to look functional.

just have to laugh

Sometimes things just seem to go perfectly wrong. The preparation is great, the lead-in is promising, but something critical falls through, and all is for naught.

This morning: I made myself the most perfect large cup of coffee to offset my 8:00 am biostatistics class. I even added extra cream to make it taste super-luxurious. I was stopped at the red light where I usually crave my first sip of caffeinated beverage. There was a moment of disorientation as I found nothing in the cup holder, supplanted by utter dismay as I realized I had left my red Fiber Fest '09 mug standing conveniently on the table about 6 inches from the door knob so I could not possibly leave it behind. This was the moment of truth. I was half-way through some particularly stirring profanity when I decided this would be a funny story. I would tell someone, she would commiserate and laugh, and I would just slog though class and spoil myself with something extravagant later. (Nevermind how this sounds like rewarding stupidity with an expensive treat.)
Somehow I made it through 75 minutes of hypothesis testing, Z tests, and t tests, staggered up to my lab, dropped all my stuff, and went straight to the coffee kiosk down in the atrium where I spent $4 on a pumpkin spiced latte to alleviate my morning's failure, and rescue me from violent yawning.

midterm: check

I so way-over-prepared for my midterm in biostatistics this morning. I had time to basically take the exam twice, and still leave 40 minutes early. Somehow, though there's kind of a victory in this, I also feel frustrated. Where was my promised challenge? I enjoy that little burst of adrenaline when you read the next question and think "I have no idea how to answer this," but then comes the Eureka moment and the pride and satisfaction of defeating the nasty exam question.

I took some time this afternoon to sketch out a design for the save-the-date postcards. I'm rather a fan. It looks fairly standard, I guess, until you notice the border of neurons. Anyway, I think I'll try to carve the design into a stamp and use that to mass-produce my cards.




And I've started making Christmas goodies. Here's a picture of a mini knit hat. There will be a pompom on top, made of the purple yarn. The purple is my handspun (I had only a little left after knitting the Soft Midnight hat for my Etsy shop, and this is using it up nicely), and the pink is recycled yarn from a Goodwill sweater.







And now it's my turn to use the microscope.

packaged

Shame on me for my heinous delay in posting.

Here are some pictures to make it better.

I shipped off an Etsy order recently. I'm trying to improve my packaging, and this is my latest effort.







































I've also been working furiously on my sweater commission. It's taking sort of forever because the yarn works out at about 6.5 stitches to the inch. I finished the back section, and I've already passed the hem ribbing on the front. I hope it stays fun at least through the sleeves.

And I've had a design inspiration. It has been coming on for a while, now, but today during biostatistics class I actually drew up a schematic and some rough directions. I have some chunky yarn and a couple hours tonight, so maybe I can give this thing a whirl. What the heck am I talking about? Not telling. Hopefully I'll have pictures soon. Really hopefully I might even get gutsy enough to submit it to Knitty.com!

106 years

I just saw and read this story about a 106-year-old woman who still knits blankets for hospitalized children. I would love to be that woman someday. The story gives me good feelings all over.

I've been commissioned to make a sweater. Many knitters will shudder when they read that the sweater is to be a men's V-neck pullover in stockinette stitch, made with fingering weight yarn on size 3 needles at 6.5 stitches to the inch in charcoal grey. But I'm enjoying myself. The yarn is a delicious 50/50 alpaca/wool blend. Super soft! And the basic stitch means I can multitask. I took the project to the art gallery with me last weekend. That was rather fun, strolling around, admiring art, and keeping my hands pleasantly occupied with super soft knitting. I'm nearing the end of the first skein, and I'm 8.25 inches up the back.

I was totally sick in bed with something flu-like for the last two days. Evan was wonderful to me the whole time, offering back rubs and soup and tea, even though his first exam for Human Structure and Function is looming on Monday. He gets major fiancé points. I'm about 90% healthy today. Still a little stuffy and a little sleepy, but the sore throat, achiness, and extreme fatigue have gone (I must have slept 17 hours on Tuesday), and the swollen glands have mostly subsided. I always take for granted how I feel when I'm healthy: that I'm-alert-and-aware-and-happy-to-be-here feeling. It's so refreshing when it comes back after leaving for a while.

Jude is getting more determined about getting out. He's not allowed to be out, according to the rules of our apartment lease. He recognizes the sound of the key in the lock, and dashes over to the door, and slinks there, crouched low with his nose pressed against the door crack. So now when I enter the apartment, I make sure to shoo Jude away from the door with my foot before opening it enough for me to enter. Evan has not yet accepted this practice, and so Jude has a better escape record when Evan's opening the door. At least there's a hallway outside our door, rather than our door opening straight to the outside, and at least Jude doesn't spaz and run away when we scoop him up to return him to his rightful place.