Yeah...That's What I Did....

(As a response to KP's blog post below, see the subject line above. [Also, I will post. Someday.])

My Sneaky co-blogger

I am a very versatile knitter. I have rarely met a pattern that has vexed me once it begins to reveal itself in all its beauty. Not so with the socks I am currently knitting. They are being knit up in a lovely Painted Sock Too by the Paintedsheep (colorway autumn) and the pattern is a supposedly tricky Pomatomous by the lovely and talented Cookie A. When one first looks at my sock, it does not seem so bad, but the minute I actually allow it to slip over my foot it is revealed to be full of stringy nonsense and holes. I do not fault me, nor do I fault the pattern. It looks really nifty to the not-kp eye, but I am discovering more and more that I am not a fan of a bunch of yarnovers placed in such awkward positions. 

   How does all this ranting relate to my co-blogger? Well, upon listening to my constant griping, and sitting through many a tale of woe about my dislike of this pattern, she proclaimed, "You are never going to finish the second sock. You just can't do it if you hate the pattern that much." At first I was so rankled by this pronouncement I became even more determined to finish these socks more than I ever wished to finish a pair. But, as I began to simmer on my co-blogger's lack of faith in me, I came upon a strange notion; until she said I couldn't do it, I really had very little desire to finish these socks. Also, my dear friend has never directly said "You can't do it" to me, especially when it has to do with knitting. Yet, she has always found a way to encourage me in my endeavors, even when they are a toil. She knows me well enough to know that the only thing that drives me to do something more than encouragement, is a desire to prove someone wrong. Could it be this supposed lack of faith is merely a ploy to keep me knitting this project until completion?

   I do not know if this is what my co-blogger intended me to think. It could be she really does not believe I will finish the socks. However, she is a ridiculously intelligent individual who has known me for over five years. It is very possible she employed an excellent use of reverse psychology in order to help me finish this arduous project. Either way, she has inspired me. I am going to finish them duckling, you just watch!

(Picture is of my incomplete sock over the spine of the book Eldest by Christopher Paolini)

A Blanket for Your Trouble Part II (Randy Anderson, the "most Charlie Brown" blanket ever)

I wrote a while back that my floor was creating a blanket for our RA. If you recall, the only stipulations were that the squares be 1'x1' and hopefully in a worsted weight/Caron Simply Soft. Well.....take seven knitters (my dear friend from Courtney's other floor was kind enough to contribute a square) with different tastes and knitting style and you get an extremely strange concoction that one could hopefully call a blanket. You can see it for yourself, the thing has got character. As for the name Randy Anderson, that spawned from late night delirium as my dear floor mate Maria and I kneeled out in the hall finishing up the last of the seaming. In our late night giddiness, we came up with a ridiculous story to tell Courtney (RA) if she happened upon our work. "What about the RA? That stands for our friend Randy Anderson, who is the receiver of this blanket. You see he can use it as a blanket or a net if you look at that amorphous blob in the top right corner....." (I'm sorry Lauren I could not resist! I really do love the turquoise amorphous blob.) Anyway, I guess you had to be there.

   We even presented it to Courtney in style. Lauren and I went down to her room, and Lauren hid while I coaxed Courtney out of her room (yeah she thought I was being a creeper too don't judge me.) When she came out, Lauren jumped out and quickly secured a blindfold over the eyes of a very confused RA. Laughing and assuring her that she could trust us, we led her up the stairs and into our common room where everyone waited with the blanket. Our favorite honorary floor mate Zach (Lauren's boyfriend and only male with the seal of approval of the pack to inhabit our floor) graciously removed the blindfold so I could capture the picture of her face when she saw it. She was quite thrilled, as were we all that she liked it so much. A true Christmas joy, and a miracle that only such knitters can accomplish.

And a thank you to those knitters:

   Patty: For your beautiful pattern work and excellent color choice

   Jess: For your diligence, your square looked perfect

   Julie: For being a damn quick and lovely knitter!

   Lauren: For taking a risk and making that ridiculously wonderful "net"

   Maria: For the center of the blanket and staying up with me to seam it (Randy Andersonnnnnn!!!!)

   Evelyne: Without your square, we never would have had a fully finished work

   

And special thank yous to Jess Dugger for being our constant support and Zach for removing the blindfold!

Have Knitting Will.....ummmmm

When one sees this picture, there is no need to explain too much. This is me. There is some  aspect of knitting in every single one of the carrying-devices that I took home. If I looked any more like an art freak (the painting under my arm really added the final touch) then I would be unable to go out in public. Going home is certainly a chore when sharp needles are involved.

I Made it Snow

This Friday, I was wildly unproductive. I still had the 4 research papers to write that I listed previously...but after being let out of work early, and determined to be productive, I...failed.

I took a shower, and eagerly took up my book. I read about 30 pages...and zonked out for the best two hour nap of my life. When I awoke, I was too bleary-eyed to read. So I watched The Daily Show, and made some paper snowflakes. 

I cut the snowflakes from scrap paper, mostly poorly printed pages of Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents. This amused me greatly. I slipped one under my friend Shawna's door, wishing her snow; she's from Chicago, and already misses the snow they had on the ground at Thanksgiving. But mostly, I wanted snow for myself. So I made lots of snowflakes. And taped them to my window.

Sure enough, late Saturday night, Nate called me to tell me there was snow in Connecticut. Early Sunday morning, it came down hard, and when I awoke, it looked like this!

Okay, it's not much, but it was pretty, and I did make it snow. That's the important thing.

Now, if I only I could make it not so freaking cold.

So much work...so little out of it...

Here at Hampshire College, we do not have final exams. No, we are too "enlightened" to waste our time sitting for three hours filling in little bubbles. This is wonderful, and what drew me to the school...unfortunately, the guided tour of the campus never mentions the alternative to final exams: final papers.

And unfortunately, I didn't listen to my advisor Christoph (what a cool name, I know) at the beginning of the semester when he warned me how reading-and-writing-intensive my semester would be as it stood, and that I should drop one of my classes in favor of something less...wordy. AND, unfortunately, the 800 or so pages that I have been reading did not give me warning enough as to what was coming.

I have four massive research papers due, each with a cumulative portfolio, within the next two weeks. This is merely for my venting purposes, so you may ignore the list:

Due Dec. 11th: 12 page paper on Infantile Amnesia for Neuropsychology. Portfolio included.

Due Dec. 12th: 12 page paper on the problems of reading Sylvia Plath autobiographically for Alienation (Christoph's class)

Due Dec. 16th: 15 page paper on the limitations of conventional diagnosis in psychoanalysis, using Plath's poetry and exploring various avenues of interpretation for Critical Psychology. Portfolio included.

Die Dec. 18th: 5 page paper on the social implications of Bigger in Richard Wright's Native Son. Portfolio included.

So, I have been reading a lot. Researching a lot. At the end of the semester I think I'll be returning maybe 20 books at once. But with all this reading, I feel as if I've accomplished little to nothing so far, as I haven't put anything useful down on paper.

What does this have to do with knitting? Everything. I've become obsessed with possible projects; looking at the colorful scrap yarn hats I could be constructing, the socks I'm almost done with, the rest of my Christmas knitting, countless sweater patterns for Janterm...even thinking about knitting relaxes me. Hopefully I can channel this amount of focus on knitting elsewhere...namely to the four topics listed above.

Happy end of semester!

Two Tams in a Pod

Take two sisters, myself being one of them, and imagine two tams that perfectly reflect each one and her respective personality. Here is the twist: the two tams are the same exact pattern, knitted on the same needles, and created by the same knitter. It is amazing to me that, with a simple change in yarn and recipient, a pattern can look completely different. This was the first pattern that I have knit more than once (and there is a small chance I could be whipping up another one), yet the experience could not have been more different. The first time was with a variegated alpaca/merino blend that looked different with every row. I thought on myself and how wonderful this would look and feel on my head on the cold days that would eventually surface no matter where my future took me. The yarn slid through my fingers like butter, and while the pattern presented challenges, I wrestled out a rather wonderful hat that I wear more often than underwear (you can decide if that is an exaggeration.) 

In the case of my sister's, the yarn was perfect for her. Pure Peruvian Highland Wool in the deepest wine merlot color. (It is a good thing I picked up more than one skein and the yardage is so excellent or else she would have been SOL, because there is no way I would have parted with it otherwise. Even the one skein was a test of charity, and I only....okay, enough of this.) Anyway, on the rare occasion I actually knit for another, I try to consider them in every stitch. This was easy enough considering the yarn mimicked my sister's persona to a tee. So clean and lovely looking, yet with habits that could drive one to vexation (mainly sliding off the needles the minute I turned my back upon it.) The pattern in her hat seems clear upon first sight, yet the moment the light shifts it looks like a completely different picture. I thought on my wonderful sibling, walking through the wind and the snow with music clutched to her chest, and the tam faithfully holding to her cranium keeping it warm and her hair in place. The Peruvia slid through my fingers like cloud fragments, and though I faced challenges again, the hat looks just as lovely as its predecessor and my sister absolutely adores it.

The main comparison I wish to make is how much these two hats are the perfect physical representation of our relationship as sisters. We have different yarn, completely different looks and attitudes, but we share the common love that comes from being of the same blood and from sharing common experience that no other can ever come close to understanding. Hats off (yes that pun was fully intended) to sisters, especially mine!