Noooooooooooooo!

First of all, please imagine my "Nooooo" in that slowed-down, cinematic way -- like when, in a movie, something precious is falling and someone dives to catch it, all in slow motion, shouting in that low, distorted voice. Thank you. That will be sufficiently dramatic.

I saw my doctor this morning and told him that for the last three or four days I've woken up with stiff, numb hands, and that some swelling and stiffness persists throughout the day. He said this is (pregnancy-related) carpal tunnel syndrome, and that to keep it from getting worse, I need to stop doing anything repetitive with my hands -- like typing and knitting.

"No knitting," said Dr. K. "You need to stop knitting."

Gulp.

Now, I have to admit that normally, I might not actually stop knitting. I might tell my doctor I will stop knitting, and then keep knitting. But he said I should stop knitting and typing. And there's no way I can stop typing, unless my supervisor will accept a five-hour thesis on tape. Stopping typing is simply out of the question, which means I'm going to have to sacrifice knitting in the interests of getting my work done.

It had occurred to me at that at some point in this pregnancy, something might go wrong with my health that would lead to bed rest. I figured that would be bad, but I could still have my laptop and knit. But "don't use your hands"? I hadn't anticipated this one, and I think it's worse -- for me, anyway. (It's funny -- I've never thought of myself as a person who works with her hands, but I am. Bed rest would be devastating for an athlete, or a bike courier, or the mother of a toddler, but "don't use your hands" is worse for someone who spends most of her time sitting and typing and reading and making stuff.) (And I know this carpal tunnel thing is quite common in pregnancy, and the doctor said if I was at 37 weeks it wouldn't really matter. But since I'm only at 27 weeks, there's plenty of time for it to get a lot worse. The word "splints" was mentioned.)

So I guess you'll be seeing more sewing around here...

In list form

1. Rhinebeck (NY Sheep & Wool Fest) is this weekend, but I'm skipping it this year. (I went in 2007, and I had so much fun; I went in 2008, and I froze my ass off.) There are lots of people I'd love to go and see, but I can spare neither the time nor the cash this year.

2. I defended my dissertation proposal last week, so I'm finally whatcha call ABD. (Remember I submitted the proposal back in July? Well, it took three months to actually get three academics in the same room to talk to me about it.) So that's a big step. I'd feel more excited and relieved if I wasn't in the middle of writing a paper for a conference that's only a week away.

2. b) My conference presentation is going to involve pie charts, and they're going to look awesome. If you need to make pie charts -- which, I recognize, is unlikely -- I can recommend this site.

3. I got my copy of the beautiful Knitter's Book of Wool, and I am sorely tempted to drop everything (including the pie charts) to cast on for Evelyn Clark's Prairie Rose Shawl. It's beautiful. (Why can I find no photos to share with you? Hmmm. Just keep checking Ravelry.)

4. I've become obsessed with Babybel cheese -- those little red wax-covered ones. I love them. On the packaging, it just says they are "cheese." What are they?

5. It's getting cold here. In response, I am working to finish a bulky wool/alpaca cardigan vest: the Heather Hoodie Vest. Mine is neither heathered nor hooded. It's a solid orangey-red. When I get it done, I'll post photos here. If this doesn't take place within the next couple of weeks, it probably means I've gone ahead with the Prairie Rose Shawl at the expense of all other knitting. This is a distinct possibility.

6. I am now going to resist the temptation to make a pie chart outlining the percentages of my thoughts currently occupied with the Prairie Rose Shawl, my conference paper, and Babybel cheese. Time to get back to work. Have a nice weekend, with or without Rhinebeck!

Hello? Hello!

Well, I vowed to myself that I wouldn't blog until I'd finished my thesis proposal. I didn't think it was going to take four months, but it did, and it's done. I have to do a little tweaking before formally submitting next week, but it's close enough to finished that I can relax. Hallelujah!

So it's been exactly four months since my last post. Mostly I've been working on my proposal, which included a couple of Toronto library trips and a longer road trip to Bloomington, Indiana, to do research at the Kinsey Institute. I've also done a lot of knitting -- I'll put up a few photos soon. In the spring I was on a bit of a book jag, so for now I'll leave you with a pile of inspiration:


From top to bottom:

- Whimsical Little Knits by Ysolda Teague (so charming!)

- Material Obsession by Aussie quilt-shop owners Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke (beautiful photos of fabulous quilts) (I see there is now Material Obsession Two, Lord help me...)

- Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson (patterns + general how-to)

- Ontario's Heritage Quilts by Marilyn I. Walker (wonderful historical quilts -- so glad I found this in the clearance section at a Chapters store)

- Country Weekend Knits by Madeline Weston (one of those books, like A Fine Fleece that I want to step into and live in)

- Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby (old news, I know -- I finally bought this book not so much for the patterns as for the historical info on lace knitting)

- Stitched in Time by Alicia Paulson (pretty pictures of pretty projects)

- Chatelaine's Gardening Book (published 1976 -- a nice thrift-store find)

- Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts (need I say more?)

- Retro Knits by Kari Cornell and Jean Lampe (great reproductions of vintage patterns and images)

Whew! Blogging takes a long time. That's why I'm not going to be blogging all the time anymore, but I don't think I'll disappear completely, either...

Too much for one post

... but I'm going to jam it in here anyway. It turns out that my looming-est deadline has been shifted and the pressure lifted a bit. (Whew!) I'm going to do more primary research before submitting my thesis proposal. Instead of writing madly for the next couple of weeks, then, I get to do one of my favourite things: spending time with moldy old newspapers. (I know -- sounds awesome, right?) First, I need to blog a bunch of stuff I've been wanting to tell you about for the last little while.

1. I was in Ontario last week at a conference. For me, one of the thrills of going to Ontario is going to Michaels craft stores! (Yes, really.) I wanted to pick up some Lion Brand Wool-Ease for an inexpensive sweater project -- and I went to Michaels in three different towns and couldn't find Wool-Ease! They all had the Thick & Quick version, but no worsted weight could be found. Has it been discontinued or something? Where in the world is the Wool-Ease?

1. b) At the Michaels in Belleville, Patons SWS was on sale for $2 a ball! I bought 16 balls of Soy Wool Solids (= 1600 m) in the colour "natural berry," to make some kind of cabled cardigan (even though I suspect cabling will be ... challenging, as this is a barely twisted single-ply yarn).

2. I bought a PedEgg, and it is awesome. I may love it a little too much. I want to grate the skin off my calloused heels all the time.

3. The book Knitting Noro by Jane Ellison is a good one. There are lots of good, basic patterns for cardigans, pullovers, and jackets that could be knit in all kinds of yarns. (I have my eye on the Turtleneck Tank [at right], for a bunch of grey alpaca-wool I have in my stash.) I'm thinking that (someday) I'll probably frog my ill-fitting Dolman Updated sweater to reuse the Kureyon in a pattern from this book, because I do love that yarn and that particular colourway.

4. Back to that conference in Ontario -- my M.A. supervisor was there. You may recall that I knit him a pair of socks once I'd defended my thesis. He loved those socks. He thanked me over and over; in e-mails months later he would mention them. A dream recipient of a handknit gift. Anyway, I spent time with him at the conference last week, and at the end of the first day we were standing around having a glass of wine and talking about what we'd been up to lately, and I mentioned Rhinebeck, and he started reaching around in his bag and talking about the socks I'd made him. Actually, he said, "I have some bad news." It turns out that he'd lost one of his socks six months ago, so he had brought me the surviving sock and asked if I would please knit him one new sock. He said, "I'm only asking you to do this because I really love those socks." Obviously, I'm going to knit him one new sock.

5. The new issue of Twist Collective? Be still, my heart. I simply must knit Norah Gaughan's Kingscot cardigan, and I'm also swooning over Kate's Sweet Pea Coat and the Postwar Mittens. And the design of the "Critter Comforts" feature is brilliant.

6. The forthcoming issue of Interweave Knits? It looks pretty good. I quite like the Manchester Jacket, the Ropes and Picots Cardigan, and the Dainty Pinstripes Pullover. I'm looking forward to having the hard copy in my hands to look at the patterns.

7. I recently picked up the book Crochet Me, mostly because I had to try to make the Icelandic Turtleneck pullover right now.


This project is simple enough for me and my minimal crochet skills. The FDC row was a bit tricky, but I eventually got the hang of it (I think). I don't want this top to be tight or clingy; I want to be able to layer it easily over a long-sleeved T-shirt. My actual bust measurement is 37 inches; the pattern has instructions for 38 inches and 41 inches. I chose to do the 41-inch size, but now I'm wondering if there will just be too much excess fabric with four inches of positive ease. (Any thoughts?) The yarn I'm using is inexpensive Jojoland fingering-weight wool, in a shade of dark blue that I only like (not love), so it's perfect for this highly experimental project (i.e., if my Icelandic top turns out to be very, very bad, it's OK). Crocheting is fun, but unlike knitting, I have to watch what I'm doing with every stitch. I can watch TV, but not a movie with subtitles.

8. I went to see Passchendaele, and I quite liked it. The reviews have been a bit meh, but I suspect a lot of those reviews were written by dudes who don't want women or romance in their war movies. The battle scenes were truly stunning. My only issue with the film was Paul Gross's casting of himself. I hesitate to even say it, because Gross is ridiculously handsome and I was very happy to look at his face for two hours, but his character is supposed to be in his mid-thirties, and Gross himself is ... no longer in his thirties. (Dead sexy, though.)

OK, enough. I have some work to do today, plus I have to get stuff ready for a research trip to Toronto tomorrow. Have a nice weekend! It's rainy and grey here -- perfect knitting weather.

Rhinebeck recovery

I've been home for 33 hours, and I've slept for 21 of them. Rhinebeck was freaking exhausting, I tell you.

No big recap from me; basically, I was happy about the people I saw there (lots!), sad about the people I didn't see (too many!), and way too cold to go to the Ravelry party on Saturday night. I bought two skeins of yarn (one sock, one lace) and a bumper sticker that says "Make Gloves, Not War."

And now I need to disappear for a little while. The deadline for my thesis proposal is rearing its head in my airspace, and I have a paper to write for a conference that's only two weeks away. It's time to buckle down. I'll be knitting a bit and posting progress on Ravelry, but I need to stay away from blogging until I get on top of my school work. Wish me luck!

Tired Student Seeks Juicy Research Materials

My research isn't always fun, but sometimes it can be extremely entertaining.


I'm in Toronto again, poring over the local postwar scandal sheets. (The image above shows the front page of a May 1946 issue of Hush Free Press.) There's a ton of material for me to draw from -- it's figuring out what to do with it that's the tricky part. At least it's amusing. I should start a list of the best headlines for you. For now, I'll leave you with one of my favourites. It can be hilarious to see the levelling of all variety of "crimes" that happens with placement on the front page...


(Knitting continues at a blistering pace; I've finished both sleeves and the back of Grannie Smith and am nearly done the left front!)

Mid-summer round-up

(I love Michelle's caption for this photo -- Stop: Mitten time!)

It's August, and I just finished my Vinterblomster mittens. They'd been done but for the thumbs for the last couple of months, and I finally picked them up and did it. I'm not madly in love with them, but I like them and I'll wear them. I like that they are lightweight (two layers of sock yarn). They would've looked better with a lighter grey, but no biggie. I'm glad they're done. When projects linger, I start to feel stressed out.


I also took a photo of my (languishing) February Lady Sweater, which I started knitting when I was out in B.C. -- and which I haven't touched since I got home. The wool is Peer Gynt, which is much coarsar than what most people have used for this sweater. I think it can work. If I ever work on it again.


Before I headed to Toronto two weeks ago, I told you I was talking a ball of alpaca and the pattern for Matilda. I spent most of the train ride working on that project, but it has since been frogged. The yarn (the mysterious alpaca I bought at Birkeland Bros. in Vancouver) was too heavy for what I wanted; plus I wasn't enjoying knitting with it because it was a little greasy and still had guard hairs in it. Who wants to knit with alpaca that isn't soft? Not me. Here's how Matilda looked on the train; I was enjoying the pattern, but that yarn was all wrong:


In the last few days I've started a brand-new project, and believe it or not, it's not a shawl. Remember when I bought a bunch of charcoal Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and thought I could crochet the Butterscotch Cardigan? Well, I made the back piece, and I ended up with 15 fewer stitches than I was supposed to have. Now, I think I could probably figure out how to do the decreases correctly, but I no longer feel the need to make this particular sweater. I still wanted to make a cardigan with this yarn, though, because I love the yarn (and because buying nine skeins of it was quite the splurge!). So I turned to a pattern I've loved for ages, and I started swatching. I knit swatches, washed and blocked them, and it all looked good.


So I'm now knitting a Grannie Smith Cardigan! I like the idea that I'm turning (char)coal into diamonds. :) I'm starting with a sleeve, and so far it's looking good. Actually, the pattern had me at the picot hem.

I still have plenty of shawls in my queue, of course, and when I was in Ancaster last week I bought a skein of alpaca/silk Fino in the prettiest shade of light blue.


Why do I never think to have yarn wound into a ball when I'm at the yarn store? Arrgh. I have a ball winder, but Bill is my swift, and 875 yards of laceweight can get a little challenging to wind.

My Flock of Triangles quilt is still on the go, too; I've hand-quilted around almost every triangle, so I'm hoping to be attaching the binding in a week or two.

Equally exciting, but in a different way, is that for the first time in many months I find myself wanting to do schoolwork! This past year was a real struggle for me -- to the point where I doubted that I belong in grad school -- but I think I've turned a corner. I've planned another research trip to Toronto for later this month, and in the meantime I'm reading and thinking and feeling (tentatively) much better about things. So if I'm not blogging as much, it's because I'm being productive with my research. Hallelujah for that.

Leftovers

Yay, there are a dozen lace knitters willing to swap leftover yarn! I'm cutting it off now. Thanks, everyone who responded.

I defended my comps this morning, so that's done. Done! I've never been so relieved. Next step: thesis proposal (which will be so much more fun).

Imaginary sweater, real quilt

I had a great day yesterday. I started doing research for my thesis proposal, searching for sources that will help me put together a proposal about tabloid newspapers (i.e., the "gutter press") published in Canada during the postwar period. After spending nearly the last year (!) chafing against my comps, spending just one day doing library searches related to crime and deviance, media, and the 1940s and '50s felt like settling into a comfortable favourite sweater -- maybe a merino/alpaca blend, a little too big, and, um, with lots of traditional cables. (I'm just trying to help you with a visual. So the sweater is ecru, too. And it looks really good on me. :) I still have to defend my comps, so there's still a small cloud over my head, but I can mostly move on now, and I'm very happy about it. Finally, my own work.

Before getting back to work yesterday, I spent a few days sewing! I set up my machine and retrieved all those little triangles I'd cut out before Christmas (from this fabric), and I sewed them together. I now have the 14 strips done, and once I sew the strips together I'll have a finished Flock of Triangles quilt top! I also went out and bought solid yellow for the binding and a medium grey solid for the back -- but I forgot to buy the batting (duh). I'm planning to quilt this one by hand, so once I put the quilt sandwich together it will probably be a while before it's actually a quilt. Once I get the top together, I'll take some pictures -- I really like how it looks.

It's a beautiful day today, and a friend is coming over later so I can show her how to turn a heel. Another sock knitter is born! How many points do I get?

FO: Narragansett Bay Socks

My first pair of socks in quite a while. This pattern is from the book A Fine Fleece by Lisa Lloyd. I really like the knit-and-purl gansey-style pattern; it's a nice change from the usual ribbing / lace / cables of most sock patterns, and it takes a little bit of paying attention but not too much (i.e., good knitting for watching hockey playoffs). I used two balls of Sisu sock yarn (colour 9544) and a 2.25mm circular needle (my usual).


Thanks so much for all your congrats and sympathy on that last post! I'm healing fine, just a few scabs and bruises, but most importantly, there is no longer a risk of contaminating my yarn. First order of business was to finish knitting a lace scarf, which I will block today and show you soon, and then I got started on my crocheted Butterscotch Cardigan! I'm using LL Shepherd Sock in charcoal, which is the weirdest colour: in natural light it looks like dark brown, and then at night with a lamp on it looks like dark grey. I'll show you that progress soon, too.

A few of you asked what's next for me at school. I still have to defend my comps, in a couple of weeks, and then it's on to a couple of conference papers and my thesis proposal. Something very exciting is that I'm going to B.C. for a few weeks in June! I'm still figuring out the exact dates, but I'll be in Vancouver sometime between June 7 and 14. So I don't have the summer "off" by any means, but I'm looking forward to the work I'm going to be doing, and there won't be the kind of pressure there's been over the last few months.

Have a great weekend!

Yay! and then Boo!

1. Handing in my comps (Yay!)
Three copies of my synthesis paper meant printing a hundred single-sided pages. I kind of sucked at Earth Day.


2. Celebrating! (Yay!)
To the grad pub up the hill for a pint with friends; I was there first, so I worked on a Narragansett Bay sock while I waited.


3. Wiping out on the pavement (Boo!)
You know I was planning to knit today. First I went out and did some grocery shopping and some thrifting (more about that another time); when I got home I made several trips from the car to the house with bags (reusable bags, of course) and somehow I managed to trip going up two (concrete) steps and fall down.


Mah handz! So no knitting today -- I scraped the palm of my left hand and the back of my right, and they're oozy, and I'm not getting scrapey ooze anywhere near my sweet, sweet laceweight. Damn it!!

Submit

1. (transitive verb) to present or propose to another for review, consideration, or decision; to deliver formally
2. (intransitive verb) to yield oneself to the authority or will of another (syn. surrender); to permit oneself to be subjected to something

On Tuesday afternoon, I will submit (def. 1) my written comps to the department office. Only then can I submit (def. 2) to the temptation from all treats that have been showing up on my doorstep this past week, the results of the previous week's stress shopping. But I am weak! And that's why Bill is hiding a book of Evelyn Clark's shawl patterns and all the yarn for the Butterscotch Cardigan in his office. It's for my own good.

I did, however, allow myself to open two packages last week, on the condition that I only look and not touch (well, not fondle excessively).


(880 yards of laceweight merino Buttercream by Yarn Chef)


(3 350-yard skeins of silk/wool laceweight by Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill)

Hubba hubba. OK, back to ideology. And so, like the '80s new wave band, 'til Tuesday!

Misery loves ... yarn

Writing comps sucks. I'll spare you the gory details. But I just found myself wanting to look at every single lace shawl on Ravelry instead of writing about the political implications of representation, so it seemed like a good time to pop in and say hello.

I've been knitting a bit. I'm about halfway through the second repeat of Chart 3 on Ene's Scarf, and I finished one Narragansett Bay Sock (from A Fine Fleece). Astute readers may wonder if I'm using the same yarn for these socks as I did for Clessidra, and the answer is yes. And no, it's not just the same colour of the same brand of yarn; it's actually the same yarn. Yep, that sock you see there used to be Clessidra. I enjoyed knitting cabled knee-highs, but I didn't wear them and just wasn't going to, and that to me is just a waste of perfectly good sock yarn. So last week I ripped out Clessidra, washed the yarn, wound it into balls, and cast on for Narragansett Bay. Shocking, I know, but it was the right thing to do and I'm happy with the decision. Happy with my new sock, too.

Other than a bit of knitting, I'm basically shopping my way through the pain of comps. On their way to me through the mail are one skein of merino laceweight yarn from Yarn Chef and three skeins of Blackberry Ridge silk/wool laceweight, as well as a copy of Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn Clark. (Any guesses as to what I plan to knit this summer?) Online shopping: it's the desperate activity of a person miserably chained to her computer all day long for four weeks. (Two and a half weeks down, a week and a half to go.)

March: finishing frenzy

Well, it would have been a more alliterative title had I done this in February, but mark my words, March is going to be a month of project completion. Most importantly, I am going to finish my comps reading in the middle of this month; of course, this particular ending will turn immediately into a beginning, as I'll be given three questions by my supervisor and will spend the following four weeks writing like a madwoman. But I'll finally be finished my reading -- yay!

You're probably here for some knitting, though. The other day I was adding a new project to my Ravelry notebook, and seeing all my projects there before me with their little thumbnails I realized I've never had so many WIPs at one time. (I also realized I'm into blue.) Too many! Look at them all:


This month, then, I'm going to finish some of them. I'm going to finish my Swallowtail Shawl, and I'm going to finish my Charade Socks, and my Gilmore Vest. I'm also going to finish my Mary Jane Slippers and my Twiggy Bobble Hat. (Yeah, surprise! I just cast on for that hat the other day, inspired by this version and the fact that I have a bunch of worsted-weight Misti Alpaca hanging around. And the fact that winter is never going to end.) And I'm certainly not going to cast on for anything new this month.

It sounds like a lot of knitting for somebody who will be very busy either reading or writing, but these projects are not far from being done -- especially the shawl, socks, and vest, which are thisclose to completion anyway.

So let's hear it for finishing in March! Finishing books! Finishing shawls and socks! Finishing bobble hats! Go and dig up something you want to finish, and finish it, whether it's something made of yarn or made of words. Come on, keep me company. :)

Just stuff

Wanting to check in but too lazy to come up with a proper post -- like, with photos 'n' stuff -- I thought I'd just ramble a bit.

How are you? I'm starting to get a little weary of winter. There's just been so much snow this year. Lots of it is just ice now, which means I have to concentrate more while walking down the street than while reading cultural theory. Don't even get me started on the potholes.

I'm still not reading as fast as I should, but I'm on the verge of setting some hard deadlines, since I want to be done with comps by the beginning of June. (Nadia asked, "What is a comps?" Read this.) Even though June seems impossibly far away, I know it is actually fast approaching, so I need to buckle down for reals.

As for crafty endeavors, I have a few things on the go. My Gilmore Vest is ABR (all but ribbing) -- the body is seamed together, and it just needs a bit of 1-by-1 ribbing around the armholes and the deep V-neck. (Progress photos are here on Ravelry.) I've stalled on my Swallowtail Shawl. To finish, I only have to knit the peaked edging, but it seems so small, and I have tons of yarn left, so I started thinking about adding an extra repeat of Lily of the Valley, and then I just put it all down. (I wish I'd remembered Minty's modifications earlier, since I would've added more of the bud lace pattern, but I don't fancy ripping back that much laceweight wool/silk at this point.) So I need to either finish it or calculate the adjustments needed to add another border. Umm... what else? I have two unbloggable crochet projects at the moment, but one will be blogged soon. Both can be seen on Ravelry in the meantime, here and here. Oh yeah, also, I've finished one Wallpaper Mitten (which can be seen in its unblocked glory here on Ravelry). (Hmmm, perhaps the title of this post should have been "Nothing to see here -- go straight to Ravelry.")

I've queued several variations of Mary Jane-style slippers on -- wait for it -- Ravelry, but Ingrid's new slippers definitely have me leaning toward the Purl Bee version now.

Besides adorable slippers, maybe a new desktop pattern will perk up these late February days. Here are some lovely free ones, via a link at Frenchy's Finds. Some other links I've bookmarked lately: Mariko's recipe for red velvet cupcakes; step-by-step instructions for controlled felting in a washing machine (because I'm the only knitter left on earth who has never felted something, and frankly it's because I'm a little scared); Martha Stewart's instructions for a lovely angora scarf made from teeny granny squares; and the ReadyMade video on how to re-upholster a dining room chair. Just in case you're looking for something to do.

Happy New Year!

Today marks the beginning not only of a new calendar year but also of another blog year: my sixth! Yes, the Brainylady blog turns five today. On New Year's Day in 2003 I sat in my bedroom in my first Taipei apartment and signed up on Blogger as a very new knitter. (My first real post came a couple of days later.) I had no idea then what I was really getting myself into! I didn't know that I was entering into such an incredible community -- dare I say a tight-knit community? -- where there would always (always!) be somebody cheering me on, answering my questions, and offering advice, reassurance, compliments, and/or inspiration at every turn. Nor did I know that I would meet some of them in person, be invited to stay at their houses, and be sent yarn and homemade cookies in the mail. I freaking love the knitbloggers. Whatever people say about online friends versus "real friends," I don't see such a clear line dividing the two.

And having said all that, I must now tell you that you'll be seeing less of me in the coming months. I need to make some changes in my day-to-day life, and the most important thing is to reestablish school as my top priority. Over the last six months I've let things become unbalanced, and let myself off the hook too easily. It's pretty obvious to me that I can't, at this point, split my time effectively between reading and knitting; my mind is so occupied with knitting patterns and my Ravelry queue that it won't let Foucault and Bourdieu in. Plus I've been letting the Internet suck too much precious time out of each day. So I have to make some big changes: I have to extract myself from the computer and I have to make my brain more available to what I'm reading. This means I'm not even going to open my laptop until the evening, so not much blogging. This also means very little knitting, both because of the time knitting takes and because of the time I spend thinking about what I'm going to knit next. It's time I put the brainy back in brainylady.

To conclude (I do feel a bit like I'm making a speech here), may I present the real last knits of 2007! I'd hoped to give Bill a new pair of socks for Christmas, but I just couldn't get them finished. So he got a surprise New Year's Eve present instead:


It's very tempting to make a joke here, like "these socks look like A.S.S. -- Arch-Shaped Socks, that is!" but that would be terribly immature. Ahem. So these are indeed Arch-Shaped Socks (PDF), knit on 2.50mm DPNs in Reynolds Soft Sea Wool. It's an interesting pattern: a plain stockinette sock without being just a plain sock. I don't know if I screwed up somewhere (twice), but I had to fudge the numbers when I got to the part in the foot where the gusset decreases met the arch decreases. (I had 70 sts. at that point instead of 66; I skipped one round of sole increases and worked the whole foot on 68 sts.) The colour is more true in this picture -- it's a really good blue, like a faded tattoo:


Here's what they look like flat -- weird, right?


And here's one more shot, in which cuteness trumps blurriness:


I wish you the very, very best for this new year. Watch your Bloglines -- I will be back. In the meantime, wish me luck with my reading. I've got to get it done! Good luck with everything you hope to accomplish in 2008, and I hope the year brings you plenty of happiness. Knit a few rows for me from time to time. xo

On the road again

I'm sitting in a motel room on the outskirts of Buffalo, NY. (Glamorous, I know.) I'm on a little research trip, looking at old issues of the Buffalo Evening News and the Courier Express on microfilm at the library at the local college. (Remember Evelyn and the torso murder? I'm back on that at the moment. If I can't get motivated to read for comps, I'm going to work on something else.)

While I'm here, I figured I'd do a little cross-border shopping. I went to my very first Target, and ... it's just like Zellers! Maybe I'll do some yarn shopping and get something fancy I can't get at home, like (seriously) Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride. The problem with googling "Buffalo yarn" or "Buffalo knitting" is that you end up with results about knitting with buffalo. This amuses me. Or you have to figure out whether, say, Williamsville is actually in Buffalo. (Yes, it appears to be.) Why are there so many different "towns" here?

OK, I'm just rambling now. Maybe it's time to venture out and eat beef on weck. If you don't hear from me again in a few days, send help...

End of summer

I took this picture one evening last week when Bill and I went to the Gibeau Orange Julep (celebrating 75 years this year!) for a seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time dinner of hot dogs and poutine. I think it was when I noticed how early it's getting dark now.

I love back-to-school time. As a Ph.D. student, one no longer goes back to school. One just stays in school all the time. Still, I'm on that student schedule where everything begins anew after Labour Day. I was at the library this week, and I was like a vampire sucking energy from all of those eager new undergrads. I'm so ready for fall. I was feeling a little guilty about my meager academic output over the summer, but I'm over it and I'm looking ahead. And I'm excited.

(Having said that, I'm taking today off and heading out soon to go to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Science Centre! And I'm really excited about that.)

Summer plans

It's finally feeling like summer is on its way, with a warm stickiness that provides just a taste of the hot sweatiness to come. I went for a walk on Saturday and was quite pleased to discover that in a mere 30 minutes I can be at the counter of the Gibeau Orange Julep, ordering a tasty julep to fuel the walk home. (It tasted like summer.)

I've come up with a wacky plan for this summer: work during the week, and take the weekends off. It's so crazy that it just might work. The next step in my degree is the comprehensive exam, which I hope to complete by December; it involves reading 40 books and then writing about them (basically). To stay on schedule, I have to finish the reading by the very beginning of October. This seemed reasonable until I calculated that I'm going to have to read 2.5 books a week for the next 16 weeks. I'm a slow reader, so this is definitely going to be a full-time job. If I don't take at least one day off a week, I'll burn out by July.

I tried it this weekend -- I did no school-related work on Saturday or Sunday. It was a little unsettling, actually, but once I stopped feeling guilty and anxious it was awesome. I stayed out late on Friday night and slept late on Saturday. I finished my cherry-corduroy dress (photos soon) and cut out the pieces for a sleeveless shirt (using the pattern from Sew U). (I then proceeded to press my hot iron onto the wrong side of the collar interfacing. Yep.) I went for a long walk with my iPod. (The new Feist album is good.) I started reading How Sassy Changed My Life (because it did). I wasted two perfectly good hours watching The Black Dahlia. I beat Bill in a best-two-out-of-three crib match out on our back porch. I could get used to this weekend thing.

One more summer plan involves something that seems to have become an annual-ish tradition. Some of you might be able to guess. It's a return to the Crotch! Bill and I are going on a week-long fishing trip in July, to lovelier-than-it-sounds Crotch Lake, Ontario. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll recall that we went last summer, and you may even remember that we went there in 2003. So that will be a week off -- if I do any reading in the boat, it'll be People, not Harold Innis.

Do you have any special summer plans, whether for travel or for productivity? Do tell... (Or, of course, if you've been through comps and you have any tips for processing 2.5 books a week, feel free to share!)

Touristy T-shirt shop on rue St-Paul, Old Montreal.