And She Knits Too!

Off to the cottage

Right now I'm frantically trying to finish my SPSS coding, pack and get everything ready before I jump in the party bus and pick up everyone for our long-weekend away at the cottage.

But since I have my priorities straight I have the knitting bag already by the back door.

See you next week!

Guess I should knit a scarlett letter

Knitting monogamy is not for me.  I've been knitting one thing at a time (sock aside-I only finished one) since April and it's killing me.  I know I had knitting obligations and deadlines but one of the fun parts of being a knitter and a blog-reader is getting swept up in a new project, trolling the net for yarns and patterns.  Seeing a something lacey and going into the stash and starting a new project.

Now I'm not a total slut--I do try to keep my WIP pile down to 3 or 4 pieces, but knitting one thing until it's done and only then starting another is not for me.

My new-knitting-monogamy has also occurred because of changes in my life.  Moving from a small, easy to maintain apartment to a large, still-needing-shelves and paint and cleaning and yard work and... has really cut into my knitting time.  I feel like I must have been quite the slacker before, leaving the house a mess while I harloted around my WIPs.  The new place is fantastic but it's really cut into my knitting time.  Maybe by winter I'll be back in a nice rut and I can have more on the go.

This does not mean I'm abandoning Jenna's pattern.  I'm nearing the end of what she needs (a final fancy cable at the hem) and then I'm leaving the sleeves and doing some lace.  I'm leaning towards the Kimono shawl from Folk Shawls, the Flower Basket Shawl (Fall 2004 IK) or a smaller Madli's shawl (Summer 2004 IK).  I've liked the Madli one for a long time but am not sure how it will look in a varigated yarn.  Once I'm done with the test knit, I'll be swatching.

Mmmmmm

Indigirl-Amy and I were discussing how we can't say the word sushi without the word Mmmmmm.  Well my tummy is full of sushi and I'm mmmmmm.

Another yummy thing is this lovely laceweight merino Knitty-Amy brought back from School Products. 

I have 800 yds of this stuff and I'm not sure what to do with it.  Like Cari, I feel like I wasted a lot of summers knitting tanks that are too hot to wear when I could have been knitting lace.  I don't actually think I will wear lace either, but it makes a good gift and can be worn any time of year.  And, I already wear this and this and this weather permitting so I'm sure I'll wear my other-lace-creations to be.

So what do I do with it?  I prefer stoles to shawls (ie rectangles to triangles) and it can't be something where the yarn is used doubled because I think it'll mess up the very lovely colours.  I guess I'll crack open the pattern stash and see what I can find. 

I'm still here

I was going to blog last night, with pictures and new stuff and everything.  Then typepad wouldn't work.  Now I'm at work and don't have the pictures and or the inspiration--data coding can do that to you.

I'll be back tonight okay?  After I eat the sushi I'm getting to satisfy the craving I've had most of the week. 

While you're waiting go to this blog.  I love it.  And this button too:

Quiet

For once I've got nothing to say.  But I have pictures. 

Here's what the sweater-to-date looks off the needles.  It's off the needles because I had to rip back a few rows where I missed a cable.  It wasn't a big deal because it gave me a chance to try it on and it's going to be lovely.

Just like Rogue, this sweater is full of those little details that make it more than a rectangle with sleeves.  It also makes it a more challenging knit which is good too.  Here's a another not so great shot (this sweater is hard to photograph) of the beginning of the waist shaping:

Now time to get back to it.

Run for the Cure

For the third year in a row, I've joined Team Knitty to Run/Walk for the Cure to raise money for Breast Cancer Research.

I have to admit this year it was a difficult decision to join.  There's nothing wrong with raising funds for worthy causes, but I've been to a few academic talks about the breast cancer fundraising movement that question where the money goes, how the money is collected, who participates and who doesn't and how the whole process is structured.  A lot of it is disconcerting and you can read about some of it here and about Samatha King who has written thoughtful critiques of the fundraising movement. 

So before I signed up I did my homework and discovered that the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation supports the important work of my colleagues at the Ontario Breast Cancer Community Research Initiative (OBC CRI) concerning breast cancer social support in marginalized communities (i.e. immigrant women and women of colour--those women you don't usually see in breast cancer fundraising materials), so I decided that I could join and raise money which will (hopefully) help continue their work. 

I believe that too much money is spent investigating questions of genetic susceptibility and basic research and not enough on prevention, environmental causes, social supports and the diverse needs of women who have cancer right now.  I'm going to tell the CBCF that and you should too.  If I'm going to participate and you're going to give money, let's be sure they use it right.

If you wish to donate, you can do so here or use the button on the left of the page or go to the Knitty Blog and follow the links.  Thanks very much for your support.

Here's the toy:

Yup, a mini-van.  A 1992 Dodge Caravan.  It's the kind of car we've wanted for a few years now, once we realized that two good sized kids, their mom and a 6'1" man don't fit well into a Honda Civic hatchback (I loved that car) or a Pontiac Sunfire (which was dying a slow expensive death). 

This car definitely seals the deal that yes, we're parents.  If we had any pretentions toward being hip, they're gone.  I'm thinking it needs a name.  I don't generally name objects, but "the van" isn't working for me.  I'm trying to come up with an acronym to describe our transition to becoming a family with a mini-van, but nothing has come to me yet. 

I never had any designs on a fancy SUV or some other heavily marketed automobile for reluctant van buyers.  They're expensive and environmentally unsound and for an urban family who bike/transit to work, and can walk to everything we need, an SUV is completely unnecessary.  And it's so big.  No squooshed feet, no bodily contortions to do up child-seat harnesses, no feeling like we're going to be run over by the Hummer beside us (I must say, those are the dumbest "cars" in existence). This is suits us fine for trips to the cottage, hockey rink, IKEA, and of course far flung LYS's. 

Not that I'll be buying a lot of yarn in the next little while.  Besides, I'm still excavating the stash from the boxes in the basement and finding stuff I forgot about.  If I leave it long enough the stash will feel brand new again.

Office = Oven

Sorry I've been away.  The heat finally got to me.  Well, really it was the heat combined with a ton of work and a nice visit with family and Xander's missing shoe (found today) and all the other stuff of life.

But it was mostly the heat.  Remember how I complained about the frigid office?  Well, now I think it's worse.  You can dress for the cold.  You can't work naked with your feet in a bowl of ice cubes. 

Picture a third floor office with no window in a corridor that has no fans or other means to move the air around.  It is not air conditioned or insulated particularly well (unless you count the aesbestos).  Now imagine it's 30+ C outside with a humidex pushing 39 C.  You're inside said office trying to organize all your data piles and find the bottom of your desk so you can make a package of work to take home and set up shop there.  Imagine it takes 5 hours and the little desk fan has stopped helping.  You finally pack your very heavy bag and step outside and it's cooler (though not by much).  You decide to make yourself feel worse by going swimsuit shopping.  Thankfully you realize that it's not you but the very ugly swimsuits at The Bay and go home and order some suits from Lands End.  But you have an overheated hangover for the rest of the day.  Bleh.

So there has been no meaningful knitting.  Maybe today on work breaks--short ones.  And it's perfect summer weather (if you can't be at a cottage) so I'll should be around here more often.  Tomorrow I'll have pictures of my new toy.

Must be something in the water

Like Theresa and Claudia, there isn't much for me to report here.  I did take some daylight/outdoor photos of my test-knit and hope that you get a better idea of how it looks (this yarn is tough to photograph). 

I still have 2 more rows before I divide the body and arms and it really starts to look like a sweater.  But instead of doing much knitting Craig and I sat on our upper balcony drinking wine, eating veggies, fruit and cheese and reading our novels.  It was a good way to beat the heat.

This weekend doesn't have much knitting time coming either.  Alexander has been home sick this week and I'm rather behind on work.  Poor kid can't seem to catch a break.  It's just a virus, but he needs to rest up and get better so he can attend the big end of year class trip.

Hey, it's starting to look like something

I'm nearly finished the armholes for Jenna's cardigan test-knit.  This rather clever pattern begins with a pretty cabled neckline from which stitches are picked up for the body and raglan sleeves.  Then using a combination of short-rows and raglan increases the body of the sweater is built.  It's a bit tricky because there's lots to think about at the beginning, but Jenna clearly lays out each step so it's a matter of following the pattern. 

I really do need to take photos of this in natural light.  Trust me, it's gorgeous.

I'm almost at the point where the knitting gets mindless.  This is good because I have a lot of other things that need paying attention to.  I'm past the first round of data-collection for the post-doc project I'm working on, and I get to spend the summer using my brain to analyze data and write articles.  I also would like to write one more article from my thesis (still haven't heard back from the one I submitted in February) but with necessary vacation time, I'm not sure I'll fit it in.

I'm actually looking forward to writing again.  I was even excited when I got SPSS to work the way I wanted it (for all stats types, I was just doing some descriptive stats, nothing fancy, I'm a qualitative researcher by training and preference).  I'm such a geek.