And She Knits Too!

The dullest blog in the world

I keep blogging even though I don't have much to say lately. And this is hard for a girl like me, who never stops talking. I had a busy weekend, visiting family, shopping, visiting the suburbs for birthday parties, but not knitting. I did have a good run while watching Love Actually on Saturday night. I admit I'm a sucker for Ben Elton, but I blame that on my obsession with Black Adder. Elton has figured out the romantic comedy genre, he's made light witty movies that aren't overly sappy. It works for me. It was a nice treatise on love, though the Colin Firth factor was too low for my tastes.

Now I only have eight rows left on the Charlotte poncho. I'm working out the finishing details in my head. Do I do the neck finishing before I block or after? How the hell will I block this anyway? Crochet border only or fringe? Hmmmm. I did go with the bright rainbow colour at the end and I like the look. It's a bit wild, but it will be perfect for summer.

That's better

I'm in a much better mood today. For this, I blame Charlotte. More than one blogger has compared Koigu to heroin, and it's creepy--but I'm getting it. Not that I have any experience with opiates or anything, but there was something relaxing and satisfying about sitting down with my koigu and knitting. I think this would be my dessert island yarn because I could knit everything from socks to lace with it.

I'm almost done this poncho. I'm trying to decide on the length. I keep taking my shawl and holding it up to my body trying to decide how many repeats I'll do to finish it. Because lace needs blocking, there's no way for me to try it on and see if it fits, so I think before I bind off I'll add a lifeline so that if I do need to lengthen it, it won't be horrible.

I'm also trying to decide what the final colour will be. If you remember this photo, I have two balls of the blue and green that I've already used, and I still have the ball with the pink in it (on the right).

You're all a wonderfully opinionated crowd, any suggestions on what the last colour should be? A repeat of the blue or green or should I go crazy and add the bright colour. It will predominate the shawl, so it's an important decision.

I cleared a few must-do's off my list, so I'm feeling less swamped (not that I don't have a ton of things to do). As for Grace, she's still hanging out in the basket, maybe I'll get to it this weekend, but as long as there's koigu around, that's doubtful. I'm musing about using my leftovers to copy this amazing sweater. I might not have enough leftovers yet, but that doesn't mean I can't get more...

Yep, I'm still here

But I'm not knitting much. Not because I don't want to, but because I don't have any time. Today was spent working on my resume and a cover letter (yep, I'm applying for a job). It's been a long time since I worked for money so my self-sales skills needed to be resurrected. I have a good first draft and I'll leave it to tomorrow so I can look at it with fresh eyes. I don't want to say too much because I have no idea what my prospects are. I'm amply qualified, but that doesn't really mean anything. I'm a firm believer that there's a whole silent job getting process out there, and I'm still trying to plug myself into it.

I worked on Grace a bit yesterday and I don't think I'm going to like this sweater on me. I think I should avoid boxy deep v-necks because they are not flattering on my body. Coupled with horizontal stripes, the effect is rather widening. Also, I'm having some trouble with the finishing so I've decided to leave it tonight and work on Charlotte or something new instead.

I think I've hit a bit of a slump knitting wise. I need to find that stunning project that gets me going again. Now to figure out what that is exactly. It could be my thesis-related malaise too. Aren't I a barrel of laughs?

Messy

My house is messy. Very messy. Between all of us being sick and the thesis we've let this place go. So, that's my job over the next week, getting this place back to some sense of normal (which really isn't all that clean...) I did start to tackle the laundry yesterday, but I'm still post-thesis tired.

I did manage to get a zipper to finally finish my Summer in Banff sweater. I even took the time last night to put it in. This is the best zipper I've done, and I only had to do it once! I'm happy with the end result--I now have a super-soft cozy summer sweater (though I can't account for my Sears-catalogue smile). It'll be for those nights where the temperature gets low and I want to be seen in the dark (it sure is bright).

I also started the finishing work on Grace which is going well. I should have that one done by the end of the week, if I don't get swept up in cleaning and organization. Right now I don't want to do anything, and while this is to be expected, it just can't happen. Off to fold laundry. Ah, the glamour of it all.

The Power of Sleep

Yep, that's pretty much how I spent the weekend. I still had the cold, and poor Craig had his tummy bug. We did get up to the cottage, thankfully, so the Grandparents could watch the kids while we recuperated. Besides, the weather sucked, so sleep seemed to be the thing.

This doesn't mean that I didn't knit. I finished the first Cherry Tree Hill Sock, and turned the heel on the second one (very slow traffic on the 401 is to be thanked for that). I used a garter stitch cuff with a crenalated bind off which is really cute. I'm having fun with Lucy Neatby's book. And, I reknit the lower front of Grace. Here she is blocking nicely. Tonight I'll watch American Idol and start the finishing.

In other VERY GOOD news, Friday I was told by my advisor to send my thesis to the rest of my committee. I'm off to do that today. I'll be receiving their comments in two to three weeks and we'll be meeting in late June to decide what more I need to do (if anything) to set a date for the defence! So, not only do I have two weeks to not worry about the thesis (I have a heap of other things to do, but that's okay), I'm so close to the end. HOORAY!

Still around

Yep, I'm still around. I still have the cold and now poor Craig has food poisoning or some tummy bug--this is not a great start to the long weekend. And the weekend forecast is all rain. Sigh.

My paper went really well yesterday and it was a good conference. I met some new people, made some connections and did a little networking. I was surprised how tired I was at the end of the day.

So, there's no big knitting news. I actually have to unknit. The bottom front of Grace (the piece with the point at the top) is too wide. My gauge must have turned wonky when I was sick, so it has to be ripped and reknit. It's not a big deal, I'll bring it with me to the cottage (if we go). Or I might even work on it this afternoon between loads of laundry.

Sheesh I'm boring. So I'll stop. See you Tuesday.

Okay, I'll stop procrastinating now

You're Skittles!!! You have a very interesting
personality, you're so unique. You're the kind
of person who always thinks outside of the box.
You're also a very accepting individual, and
believe in inner beauty.


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Get out the scissors

No, not for yarn, but for my paper. I'm giving a paper at a conference Thursday based on a teeny portion of my thesis. It's called Definitions of Health in Canadian Women's Magazines and I discuss how the magazines construct particular notions of health through the articles (biomedical, biopsychosocial, lifestyle and health as the maintenance of femininity for the curious). I figured it would be easy to take the work I did for the thesis and just make it more chatty. Well, it's taking longer than I anticipated. I also have only ten minutes--five less than I thought--so the whole thing is going to be brief. People say cutting is easier than writing, but I find there's a point where you cut so much that you have to write a lot to connect all the pieces together. That's where I'm at. It'll get done, but whether I'll be happy with it is the question.

However, I didn't let the paper detract from my knitting too much (I needed to take frequent breaks today to keep things straight and sane). I kept to easy knitting and here's my one-piece short of Grace to show for it. I like how the stripes are going to work. This is a dropped sleeved garment which is why it's sorta wide--the drop shoulder actually makes a nice cap sleeve. I think it's a bit big, but I washed and machined dried my swatch today and it shrank a bunch, so I can modify the finished piece if needed (I even had the forethought to make it 2" longer to avoid making a bra top!)

I don't anticipate a post for the next two days, unless I decide to rant a bit more about my paper. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

If it wasn't for all the knitting time...

I'd be miserable. Forgive the whining...but it is my blog.

I did get my completed second draft into my advisor on Friday. But I couldn't get it formatted the way I wanted. So the text is fine, but each chapter seems to have it's own character appearance wise. Seems I'm an impatient girl and was pushing the capacities of my computer a wee bit hard, causing Word to crash repeatedly. My very patient husband was able to teach me some tricks and now I have a lovely formatted complete thesis awaiting inevitable revisions. At least I got it in before my monitor died on my desktop.

I did all this while suffering from another wicked cold. So instead of celebrating this thesis milestone, I stayed home feeling bleh. To add to my misery, poor Emma had a bout of throwing up and fever (why can't kids throw up in the middle of the day instead of the middle of the night?) so she kept me company on the couch yesterday. Xander had the fever by yesterday afternoon and Craig was out, so I played nurse-mom for the rest of the day. Thankfully, they fell asleep early so I could rest too.

I wasn't so sick that I couldn't do a bit of knitting. I finished the back of Grace and I made really good progress on Charlotte's Poncho. I'm on the third colour and I'm mesmorized by the Koigu again.

Today we're all home recovering. For the kids that means oodles of kids tv. For me it means more knitting time. So it's not all bad.

Excited

No knitting content today because I spent yesterday writing my Conclusion. I'm at the last bit--the standard "suggestions for future research" section. Only a few pages to go and a bit of formatting before I had this baby in!!!!!!!

I will have revisions, but I likely (hopefully) won't have any big pieces to write. I'm freakin' happy! And, while I'm waiting for everyone to read it, I have almost nothing to do (I have to give a paper at a conference next Thursday--but it's on part of my thesis so it's pretty-much written). That means I'll have some: Knitting Time!