re-visiting an old project

Dinner's in the oven, my husband and child are playing in the back yard, I got a couple quality hours of dissertation writing done this afternoon, quality enough that what got written is somewhere in the middle of the suckage continuum, I'm going swimming tonight, it's a beautiful day, I finally have a few minutes to myself that don't involve staring at contemporary American music and wondering what to write about it--all in all, life ain't so bad. What would make this moment perfect right now is a glass of wine...3 months and counting until I can have one...

So anyway, no new knitting content to show you, really, but it was cool enough today to bust out a sweater I made when I was pregnant with Daniel. I didn't know if I was having a boy or girl, and I was shooting for unisex colors at the time, but looking back, it was obviously meant for a little boy. And it so happens these colors are all stunning on him: brown, dark green, pumpkin orange. He wore it last winter, and it was way too long and the sleeves were rolled up. This year, the sleeves are still rolled up a little, but it fits much better. See how grown up he looks, wearing this sweater, drinking from a big-boy cup!






Okay, done with the braggy mom thing. I just can't resist that every once in a while.

knitting in the dark

Someone's watch just beeped, indicating that it's midnight. I try not to direct hostile jealousy in the direction of my husband, who is sleeping soundly. I've been lying in bed for an hour and half, feeling more wide awake with each passing minute. I listen to the ceiling fan whirling above. I feel the slight burn in my esophagus, and realize that the third trimester and all its discomforts are creeping up on me. I make a mental note to pick up some antacid tablets in the morning. I get up and pee for about the fifth time since going to bed. I think about the pile of crappity-crap-crap-crap that is the status of the written portion of my dissertation (the recording part has been going just swimmingly so far), and consider working on it, since I can't sleep anyway...I decide that even though I'm wide awake, neither my brain nor my morale are up for that. I ponder the fact that my dissertation work time is fragments of my day: Daniel's nap time, occasional hours when a babysitter is here, and the evening hours. No wonder it sucks.

I finally give up, get up, and go into the office. The house is dark and quiet, and without turning on any lights, I pick up the garter stitch tomten I started a few days ago. There is a slight glow in the room from the lights on the answering machine, the router, and the power button on the monitor, just enough light for me to see the glint of my metal needles as I knit a few rows of garter stitch by feel.

Then I drop a stitch and realize I have no way of fixing that in the dark. I put it down, turn on the light, and sit at the computer. I wonder how long it will take me to fall asleep tonight.

new project

Look at what Anny just made! I just about plotzed when I saw how cute this little "peace baby" set is. It also made me think a little bit about how many children live in places that are not peaceful, through no fault of their own, just circumstance of birth and often, income.

That prompted me to take a look at the latest Afghans for Afghans campaign, and I see that they are most in need of clothing items for youth, age 7-14. And that their deadline for the next batch of donations is October 12...that's three days before my dissertation project is due. So of course I cast on something:



It's a child's tomten from The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmerman. If it doesn't get done in time, I'll just hang onto it until the next deadline comes around (and yes, I'm talking about the knitting, not the dissertation. I'm not that far gone.)

This project is my first attempt at an EZ design. I've pored over her books for a few years, and admired her innovation, her wit, and especially the way she inspires and empowers knitters with her instructions. She explains things in such a way that you can adjust a project for size and gauge and feel confident that it will work out. Or so it seems; like I said, this is the first time I've put this theory to practice.

I'm using Patons Classic Merino in the color "sage" from the stash. I started a sweater with it last spring, got 2/3 of the back done, and lost interest. If you're going to go to the trouble to knit yourself a whole sweater, it should be something that jumps up, bites you in the arse, and cries out "KNIT ME!" and obviously that sweater wasn't doing it for me. So last night when I was thinking about what I could contribute to the AFA campaign, I remembered that green is the sacred color of Islam, that I had a pile of green yarn that was just sitting there with a project that is less and less appealing to me, and that it would be put to much better use if I made it into something for someone who needs it more than I do.

I cast on 152 stitches to make it approximately 30" around. That's a lot of garter stitch. A lot. It might not get done in 2.5 weeks, but I'm going to try.

I hate to think about the fact that Afghanistan is in such terrible shape right now, in no small part because of the war my country started there in 2001. Not that they were doing so well before that, but the American invasion hasn't done much good for the civilians there. I want to make up for the fact that some of my tax dollars are responsible for the suffering people are still facing six years after the invasion. Even if it's just a sweater, I want this to be an act of healing and, quite literally, warmth. It may not cancel out the bad things that are happening there, but it's a step, however small, in the right direction. I'm not soliciting for blanket squares this time because I know I won't have time to sew them up and get them sent by the deadline, but maybe I can next time around. So stay tuned.

Because I don't want to end this post all depressing and heavy with the weight of the world's problems, I want to share a couple amusing pictures of the interest Daniel took in my latest project:





(I'd like to think this indicates future interest in knitting, but he was actually waving the needle around and making "pssssssshhhhh!" noises as though it was a hose spraying water. At least he didn't pull any stitches out.)

lamest finished object EVER!! (arrrrr)

You do know it's talk like a pirate day, right? I have no extra brain cells to come up with clever puns, so I'll leave that to everyone else, 'k?

Anyhoo, this FO is so pathetic I'm not even going to link it in the sidebar of finished stuff. But I'm posting about it because I'm putting off dissertation work for a few minutes. Plus, it so happens that this FO is something useful:



It's a dishrag, made out of some chunky linen Euroflax I bought on sale over the summer, thinking I would make hand towels. As you may recall, that attempt looked like butt and got frogged. The yarn is not wonderful to work with, since it's stiff and crinkly and hairy and full of knots, BUT true to its word, linen gets nice and soft after a few trips through the wash as well as few batches of dirty dishes and I'm pretty happy with its functionality. I'm guessing it'll hold up better than the cheap-o dishrags I usually get at the grocery store (you know, 5 of them for 2 bucks or whatever it is), but time will tell.

Pattern: Meh. I just did diagonal garter stitch with yos at the ends of the right side rows.
Yarn: Euroflax chunky linen
Needles: size 6, much smaller than the recommended needle size, but the fabric is thicker and sturdier this way

I've got enough yarn to make plenty more of these. Not a bad thing, really, as our other dishrags are getting pretty tattered and worn out, and other than Daniel's socks (which are coming along....s.l.o.w.l.y...), I'm not sure what I want to knit next. I just know I want it to be fun and interesting.

(arrrrrr)

wide awake, and some rambling knitting thoughts

I already wrote this entry at about 5:15 this morning in my head. I was in bed and had been lying awake for well over an hour, startled out of a frightening dream in which I was attending a banquet with only mashed potatoes on the menu, and the entertainment was a re-enactment of the Resurrection of Christ starring George Dubya as Jesus and Hillary Clinton as Mary. Wouldn't you wake up, too? And I lay there listening to Daniel toss and turn in his crib, feeling the one in utero doing jazzercise, listening to the cars go by (where were people going at 4:30am, I wonder?) and then Stuart's nose started to whistle and I almost couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't sleep because I was thinking through all the things I need to do in the next few weeks: all the words I have to write and all the music I have to learn. Then I tried to think about pleasant, relaxing things, like hot cocoa...and then I really wanted some hot cocoa but I didn't want to risk waking Daniel up with the noise (his room is right next to the kitchen). I thought about getting up and washing the dishes, but didn't (see previous sentence about noise and proximity of toddler's room to the kitchen.) I remembered how I had truly awful insomnia at the end of my last pregnancy (and by "end" I mean two full months) and how I would purposefully save up the dirty dishes so I would have something to do at 2:00 in the morning when I woke up fidgety and cranky and totally unable to sleep.

Then I realized that for most of this pregnancy, I've been thinking of it in terms of all the inconvenience it has caused me. I've been tired (though not sick, fortunately), I can't stay up past 10:00 at night, my back is sore, moving is awkward, and the pressure for every deadline I have right now is increased about ten-fold because anything I don't get done before Christmas, I have to get done with not one, but two very needy children. I feel guilty that my attitude isn't better and that I'm not basking in the glow of motherhood, but everything is making me anxious right now.

Then I tried thinking about knitting, because it doesn't get the anxiety juices flowing like school stuff does, and planning projects is a good way to lull me to sleep. Except that since I need to be spending every spare minute I've got either writing or practicing (does blogging count? alas, no), I just haven't been knitting much, and that made me even more restless. Still, here are a few knitting/craft-related things I have on my mind. Maybe if I get them out of my head and onto "paper" (or on the computer), it will help de-clutter my mind for all the text setting analysis (dissertation stuff that is interesting to me, but probably not to you) I have to cram into the next month:

1. I'm not much of a lace knitter, and I'm finally admitting it. I adore looking at lace. I even bought myself Victorian Lace Today last fall as a reward for passing prelims, but so far it's just been eye-candy for me. Glorious, gratuitous eye-candy, but eye-candy all the same. Lace-weight yarn makes me twitchy (it's so thin), and whenever I try knitting lace I seem to fuck it up a lot and it's hard to fix mistakes and I don't ever wear shawls (with the exception of a beautiful one my mom made me for Christmas two years ago)...so mostly I admire lace and don't knit it (despite having a couple skeins of lace-weight yarn in the stash I've been meaning to knit up since last winter). Does that make me less of a Knitter? Maybe, but so what? I knit what I want. HOWEVER, I looked at the new Knitty yesterday, and fell in love with Muir. I have enough lace-weight baby alpaca in the stash for this project, so I'll keep it in mind, maybe to gift to someone.

2. It got cold last night, nearly record lows, a couple degrees above freezing, which reminded me that Daniel needs some winter things soon. He's got a hat I made for him last year that still fits, barely, but he could use another and some mittens to match. I designed that hat all by myself and then tweaked the pattern for a hat for Stuart, and I keep meaning to write up the pattern and post it. Originally, I'd intended to submit it somewhere, but good grief, there are hat patterns everywhere more clever than the design I did, so I'll just put it here.

3. I've finished two socks for Daniel out of that skein of Trekking, and I'm nearly done with a third; in fact, those little socks are all the knitting I've done the last couple weeks. There's also a sweater I started for him a year ago that I need to finish so he can wear it this winter. At least I was smart when I started it and chose a size I knew he wouldn't fit for a while, eh?

4. Here's a pretty picture:



It has nothing to do with knitting, except that due to the chill of autumn, this poor sunflower is probably not long for this world, and even if I don't have time for it, my thoughts are turning to wool.

mmmmm....cookies

I've noticed other knitters showing off baked goods on their knitting blogs, so now I am, too. This week has been busy, what with dissertation work and a friend visiting from out of town (read here to find out more), and it's been warm and muggy - not knitting weather at all.

Guests are a good excuse to make good dessert, though, so on Monday I made cookies:



White chocolate chunk macadamia nut cookies, to be more specific. Recipe from the best cookie cookbook ever: The International Cookie Cookbook by Nancy Baggett (no link because Amazon doesn't have a picture, so what's the point?). For cookies, they were pretty involved. You have to melt the butter, then cool it in the fridge, grate some of the white chocolate, chop the rest, chop the nuts...you get the idea. But they are SOOO worth it. For the record, I made a full batch on Monday and they were eaten up last night.

I'm starting to get the feeling I'm going to be The Mom who makes homemade cupcakes and stuff for the preschool class. You know what kind of mom I mean, the kind everyone rolls their eyes at. I just can't help it.