Go Leila! It's Your Birthday!

This is the best birthday card I could think of.

Hesh's Birthday Rap

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Happy birthday, baby sister! It's weird that you're 21, and like old enough to drink, but whatever. Anyway, you're the coolest person I know (which is why all of my friends like you better), so go do something awesome...but still legal. Stay above that influence, girl.

And call me later if you want to play celebratory warcraft or something. You know I'm down.

FO: Cable Twist SOCKS for my MOM 1

Guess these mean....

....that I can cross something else off my Sock Queue!

1. Charade socks for Brian
2. River Rapid socks for Jennie
3. Vinnland socks for Van
4. Millicent socks for Sam
5. Rhiannon socks for Mandy
6. Spiral boots socks for Leila
7. Socks for Mom
8. Socks for Stepdad
9. Something sockish for Dani
   
10. Indestructible socks for Jon

Whew. That was satisfying. Onto the specs:
Yarn - 2 skeins of Knitpicks Swish DK (123 yards, 100% superwash merino) in hollyberry. I actually used two full skeins and about 4 yards of the 3rd. Oh well, I'll make a hat or something. Also, let it be known that I used this yarn because my mom washes handknitted socks in the washing machine regardless of the effect it may have on them - these got unintentionally felted.

Needles - size 3 addi turbos

Pattern - Hello Yarn's Cable Twist Socks essentially from memory. I made them toe up, with a fabulous short row heel (seriously, though, short row heels kick major ass), and tweaked the pattern a little. I made them with 60 sts instead of 56, and to accommodate that, I switched to a reapeat that was 6 sts wide. So, there were 4 knit sts instead of 5.

There's another FO I need to introduce while I've sequestered myself away, but sadly, it doesn't help me scratch anything off that damned queue.
____________________________________________________________________
¹This is actually a sneaky reference to an inside joke. See, awhile back, my friend Tamar was working on this huge shawl as a gift for her mother. Since the shawl was tedious, and gigantic, she naturally took it everywhere with here and got kind of annoyed with it. But, she got way more annoyed with everybody asking about it. So, whenever anyone innocently said, "Hey that looks cool! Whatcha working on?" Tamar would respond, "a SHAWL for my MOM!"

I thought this was the funniest thing ever and would ask her that just to hear it.

The Adventures of a Christmas Hermit, pt 1

Sorry for the month-long vacuum of silence. This semester was just ridiculously brutal - between research, classes, and teaching (which totally consumed all of my time), and some messy personal issues that kind of sucked but seem to be working themselves out, there was really no time to sleep. Or eat properly. Or (shockingly enough) knit.

But all that's behind me now, because it's Christmas break! And I'm spending it here in Ann Arbor, alone but for the cats. Whenever I tell people that, they tend to gasp in horror and tell me that it's sad/not healthy/bad for me to spend the holidays alone, which I find amusing because all I really need right now is to catch up on sleep and veg out with the TV and some knitting. And Warcraft, which I just started playing and am now crazily addicted to. I don't really need to travel all the way to Texas to go see my very nice, if somewhat overwhelming, family nearly as much as I need to sleep in everyday and not change out of my pajamas all day. It's cool, they've given their blessing.

Deep down inside, I think what I really want to be when I grow up is a mad scientist. But not an evil one bent on world domination, just one out in the boonies fiddling with shit and periodically sending an assistant out for provisions and supplies. So, less evil genius in the song "Skullcrusher Mountain"¹ and more tiny dude at the Southern Oracle in The Neverending Story. Yeah, I want to be him, but marginally taller, a woman, and with all my teeth.


Taking the Mad Scientist as a model for my week as a Christmas Hermit obviously means I'll be keeping myself busy. I mean, any decent mad scientist is highly productive, right? Always a new death ray of transportation pod or something. Just look at Dr. Weird. So, expect some knitting to be accomplished (though there is a hiatus from the Sock Queue...a gift from me to myself), great leaps to be made regarding Jarthen, many a marathon of bad TV to be watched, and my 4 (and counting) Warcraft charatcers² to level up all over the place. I may also construct a fort out of sheets, which would be only fitting because every mad scientist has a secret mountain stronghold.

the beginnings of a herringbone vest and copious notes about Jarthen

____________________________________________________________________
¹ Appropriately enough, someone's already made a video to this particularly awesome song using Warcraft. The heavens have aligned.


²In case you're interested, my four characters are Wholahay (a draenei shaman, level 11), Svava (a night elf druid, level 11), Madge Bobbins (a troll hunter, level 10), and Elcrona (a blood elf warlock, level 6). It should be noted that the first name is a reference to Dionne from ANTM cycle 8's nickname for herself, and all other names are in some way Jarthen related. Because I'm apparently competing with the guy that made that video for the title of Biggest Dork in the Universe.

FO (finally): Charade Socks

I finished Brian's socks finally!

The colorway in this picture is dead-on. Kindly ignore the weird bright greenness of the other pictures below.

Yep, the first of the Christmas presents are finally done. Which leaves my current sock queue like so:

1. Charade socks for Brian
2. River Rapid socks for Jennie
3. Vinnland socks for Van
4. Millicent socks for Sam
5. Rhiannon socks for Mandy
6. Spiral boots socks for Leila
7. Socks for Mom
8. Socks for Stepdad
9. Single cotton sock for Jen?
10. Indestructible socks for Jon

Whew. Load off my mind. Onto the knitting details.

Yarn - I finally found the yarn tag! I had to look all over for it, though. I found it in our bookcase -- as if someone (maybe me, I don't know) was using it as an erstwhile bookmark. Actually, it probably wasn't me, as I tend to dog-ear pages. In my circle of friends, this is basically as greivous a sin as eating babies. So it was probably Jon.

Anyway, the yarn is handpainted by wooldancer in the sublime marina colorway. It's 100% superwash merino (around 380 yards), and I have to say it was pretty awesome. Brian's got excellent taste.

Needles - size 2 addi turbos. Same ones I used for these.

Pattern - Charade by Sandra. This stitch pattern is super easy, which makes for good mindless knitting. Like always, I basically ignored the actual directions and just winged the sock construction, resulting in major modifications:

• The toe-up fairy strikes again! I casted on 24 sts (12 per side) using the figure 8 CO, and increased until 72 sts for the toe.
• For the foot, I worked about 50 rounds with a stockinette sole. This isn't a mod...it's just hear for completion's sake.
• I learned how to do short-row heels! Or, as I shall now call them, "heels brian-style." For these, I wrapped 10 sts on either side.
• I worked about 2" in pattern for the leg, and then worked 2" in 2 x 2 ribbing for the cuff. For that, I continued the plain ribs up the cuff and changed the textured sts to purls, cause I thought it looked cool.
  

On the non-Christmas knitting front, I've decided that weekends are for selfish knitting. So, I started a pair of gloves! I almost finished the first one.


The design is based of the ampergrabbers I made in May, and the traveling ribs are from these socks. They don't have a name yet.

Quick little update

I think this will be the first of many such posts. Unfortunately, this semester is scary-busy, like not-enough-time-to-shower-busy. I'm not proud of it, but it is so nonetheless. So wee little posts somewhat lacking in content is just the way it has to be.

All that aside, I do have actual knitting news for you! The Eton pullover is coming right along, see?


I've joined the arms to the body and I've been working on the yoke. I'm pleased with the progress, but on inspection this weekend, I'm not entirely sure everything's going right. Like usual, I'm kind of winging it until something goes wrong and make me write everything out. It's the way I roll.

Thing is, I've never made a sweater this way, so I'm not sure if it's wrong or not. It could (maddeningly) go either way - turn out just fine or horribly. So I'm faced with a dilemma: keep on knitting and then realize I need to rip out about 4 straight inches of dense, twisty cables, or rip back now and take innumerable hours trying to work out unforseen logistics. I'm still on the fence about which way to go.

Happy Blogiversary to me!

celebratory yarn cake

Dear blog,

We've been together a whole year! What a committed long-term relationship we have. You've been there through the bad times and through the good, and you've been patient with me during the long silences.

But more than that, I think we've been good for each other! I mean, you do kinda owe your entire existence to me, but I've gained a lot from hanging out with you, too. For instance, I probably wouldn't have gotten through all this Christmas knitting without your encouragement. And I certainly wouldn't have developed such a crippling addiction to socks without your support. You've even helped me make new friends!

I love you knitting blog, I really do. You're the cat's pajamas. Here's to 365 more days of wooly goodness.

Pumpkins: The Final Tally

We made more jack-o-lanterns...even though it was after Halloween. We couldn't help ourselves. Here are the newest additions:


I made this one. Jon actually got this pumpkin for free! He was at a group meeting for some library science class he's taking, and apparently some campus group was holding a 'Celebrate Sober' type thing in the student union on Halloween, where you could eat theme-related cookies or decorate teeny pumpkins. It was also totally deserted, so Jon snagged a pumpkin for me.

We call this one Bailey Cat-Face, after a girl (named Bailey) in Jon's aforementioned class group. She signs her emails with an anime cat face that was the inspiration I used for this particular pumpkin. This is what the cat face signature looks like: =^_^=

Jon made this one. We call him Gandalf, for obvious reasons. This one we paid for, but let me tell you, we got a helluva deal. He cost about $5, but he weighs....(drumroll, please).....26 POUNDS! That's 1/6th of my weight. That's more than our two not-skinny cats put together. That works out to less than $.20 per pound. I think Gandalf may be bigger than the leviathan that outmatched us back in our Obie days.

Jon made this one too. We call him Ol' Sawtooth. Jon says he's the most evil pumpkin in the tristate area, and that he's made several attempts to eat Fatty the Cat¹. Jon really likes to anthropomorphize pumpkins.

All totaled, we carved 7 pumpkins. Here's our family portrait. We're considering using it as a Christmas card.

top row: Sailboat the Harelip, Pissed-off Albino Punkin, Bailey Cat-Face, Maslow
bottom row: Grandma Gormless, Gandalf the Punkin, Sawtooth the Intimidator

We may continue carving up unsuspecting pumpkins until they go out of season. Then we might move onto squash or other gourd-like things. Until then, I'll leave you with this:

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¹The cats just had to go to the vet for a checkup. During said checkup, we received external confirmation that Fatty is actually fat, and that his nickname is therefore an accurate description. Too fat, actually. The vet wants us to put him on a diet.

More Punkin' fun!

Based upon the success of our previous pumpkin carving expedition, we elected to pursue further efforts in this domain, yielding the following results:


This one was carved by yours truly, and I was very pleased with the way he turned out. He seems like a wry old chap, and, if he was sentient, I wouldn't mind making his acquaintence.

The fine specimen on the right, of course, is a representation of the eminent psychologist Abraham Maslow (chap on the left), and was carved by the proprietor of this fine blog. Note the fine shading around the mustaches and eyes: he certainly looks the part.

You, dear reader, can look forward to another two pumpkins that as yet are uncarved: nothing's better than post-halloween pumpkin carvin'.

Behold, Pumpkins!

Jon went shopping (he always does the grocery shopping - it's something I just refuse to do, because I have no car and because I don't cook) and surprised me with some pumpkins and jack-o-lantern supplies. Last time we tried to make a jack-o-lantern was a couple of years ago, at Oberlin, when we got a behemoth of a pumpkin which bested us. It was too monstrously thick to carve well, and ended up looking just ridiculous.

But these turned out pretty good, I think.

Yay for jack-o-lanterns! There may be more to come, depending on when Jon gets to the store next.

Charade Socks: The Journey Continues

So, this weekend was kind of a bust. There was no working really (some paper did get graded), but there wasn't any real sleeping, either, so it wasn't all that relaxing. I'm not prone to insomnia, so this is weird for me, but I'm under a ton of pressure school-wise and other-parts-of-life-wise and just let it get to me I think.

I took today off for recovery. I watched some really, really, bad horror movies (Thr3e in particular is bad. So bad that it totally has fake versions of real actors, which is something to see.) and ate some fried chicken. And....I finished the first charade sock! Hooray for knitting accomplishments!


One down, one to go. Sweet.

Guest Posting Series: Jon

Now I’ll admit that for a long time I was very skeptical about the enjoyment one can derive from the act of knitting. In my estimation, I considered it to be an idle and somewhat unseemly habit-this opinion was not based on any rational inquiry into the subject, mind you, but rather on the snap, ridiculous style of thought that is now so synonymous with the name Jon Seid.

As with so may other things that I believed myself to be constitutionally opposed to, I quickly found that knitting, upon closer examination, was a much more palatable pursuit than I previously imagined. It took several failed attempts for me to gain any appreciation for the art, and it was only on this, my fourth attempt to learn that I finally saw how a decent, God-fearing gentleman could engage in knitting.

For some unknown reason, as I find so often occurs in my life, when I again took up my borrowed pair of knitting needles and embarked on yet another scarf, I discovered that I actually enjoyed knitting! How curious! I exclaimed to myself, that after heaping so much odium on this pursuit and its adherents, I, Jon Seid, a man of considerable steadfastness of opinion, should in fact perform a volte face on such a long-held and deeply believed premise. Such is life, however, and I suppose that I must accept these changes of mind, just as one is compelled to do so with the wind and the rain.

That said, I happy to be able to present to you this, the beginnings of what will become my first completed objet d’knitting:


Look for further updates, as they occur! Jon, Captain's Lieutenant, signing off.

A Heel for Brian

Weird. It's exactly a week since my last post. I'm trying to carve out some me-time from my hideous monster-schedule of vicious time-bandits, so hopefully it'll become more frequent than that. And if it doesn't that happen, hopefully Jon will start posting here. And then there will truly be cross-pollination of the knitting and Jarthen blogs.

But, back to the knitting! I took this weekend mostly off, and worked on Brian's socks and the Eton pullover. The Eton pullover still needs pictures taken, so it'll have to wait until another post.

So, last time you saw it, the Charade socks were barely halfway through the foot. Now, they're past the heel! Check it out:

check out my cankle!

Impressive, right? They're coming right along. One section that did give me pause, though, was the heel. I figure I have to make a billion socks in the next few months, so it behooves me to make it a learning experience. I'm going to try and learn a new(ish) sock technique with each pair. For Brian's socks, I chose the short-row heel:


I've done them before, on the here there be dragons socks, but I did't do it right (I think, in retrospect), and it didn't stick. I'm not sure if it's because I kinda-sorta understand short rows, but it stuck this time. So far, my feeling on them is that they lack the structure of a dutch heel flap and gusset, they are less fiddly and easier to make. This probably means that I'll be using the short row heel a lot in the near future.

FO: Rusted Root

Guess who finished something, like, a week ago?!

(click for bigger)

Me! That's who. And the what is the much-anticipated Rusted Root. I love this one, I really do. I think it can be thrown on over just about anything, and dressed up or down to my heart's content. Despite the super-funness of it, I should say that I was kind of shocked at how heavy it is. I know it's cotton and all, but damn this garment has heft. On to the specs:

Yarn - around 7 skeins of Karabella Zodiac. As usual, I bought the recommended amount, and ended up with a substantial amount leftover. I really ought to just start buying enough for a size or two smaller than I'm making (must be the short torso). I shared my thoughts about the yarn itself here.

Needles - Inox 29" size 6 circular for the body and Inox 29" size 4 for the ribbed edges

Pattern - Rusted Root by Zephyrstyle. I talked about this pattern a little bit already, and my feelings haven't changed that much. I still think that the pattern as written is a nice, simple top that would look great a girl with a bit less up top and longer, leaner lines....you know, not me. Which brings me to the overhaul:

• I replaced the lace motif with a cable motif. It's a habit. This particular cable is ripped off from Shedir.
  
• Once again, I held a shaping extravaganza. All the shaping was added along the side 'seams.' I did it the same way as last time, by first taking my bust, waist, and hip circumference and then measuring the length from my shoulder to bust, bust to waist, waist to hip, and then the overall length. I converted the numbers to my gauge, and then figured out how many stitches I need to add/subtract per zone and divided by the number of rows in said zone. As my mom would say, it was a lot of ciphering. But, considering that I didn't end up with a weirdly long baggy t-shirt, I think the ciphering was worth it.
• The sleeves came out wonky. This wasn't intentional, it was just me not following the pattern. I increased for the puffiness, but then totally zoned out and never decreased. Son, now, it's less puffy and more floppy. I think I'll add a kicky ribbon or elstic or something to puff-ify them when I get around to it.
• Last but not least, I changed the ribbed edging on the bottom hem, neckline, and sleeves to a 1 x 1 rib. It was written as a 2 x 1 rib, but that didn't work well with the fancy new cable panel, so I switched it.

And that's all she wrote, basically. Oh! Speaking of writing, guess who totally can't at all? That's right, my students! They're godawful people. In fact, you see how cute and gleeful I am in those pictures? Well, those pictures were taken last Tuesday, right before I went in to teach (see, cause they're semi-professional and don't emphasize the 16-ishness too much...or at least that what I keep pretending). I was all perky and stuff until I had to tell them that they're papers kind of totally sucked ass and that the class average was a B-. They were NOT HAPPY about that, let me tell you, and every single one of my 42 students wanted to come in for a draft of their next paper. So, that's what I spent the last week doing. Jon can vouch for me.

I really don't get these kids. I mean, I like getting As as much as the next person, but I was never such a grademonger. Seriously, kids (I call them that as if they're actually a lot younger than me. They're seniors mostly, so, that's not all that accurate) were coming in to argue about getting points off for formatting. One of my students went behind my back to another TA to try an get her to grade her papers from now on. The other TA, of course, refused....which is actually good for the student because she's totally a harder grader than I am. Anyway, point is, I don't understand the rabid fighting for points or the assumption that everyone should get As just cause. Kids today.

Socks for Brian

Blog,

Sorry for the suspicious absence of late. I can assure you I wasn't sneaking off to Jarthen, I just got really really busy for real. The first assignment was due this week, so I've been doing a lot of grading. Grading blows.

Back to knitting! There's still shamefully little to report on, so I thought I'd give you a proper introduction to these:


I'm making a pair Charade socks for my dear friend Brian. I've started a socking queue, since everyone and their mama wants socks this year for Christmas. Being a fan of knitted socks myself, I understand they're appeal, but damn, people! No big chunky hats that take, like 20 minutes to make?! No rest for the weary, eh?

But I digress. As usual. I bought the yarn (approved by the man himself, of course) this summer and never got around to starting his socks. Then, he told us he was moving from Ann Arbor to Chicago in the fall, which was especially sad since he lived right down the street from us and made it feel like it was a real neighborhood, complete with....well, neighbors, and I declared that I would send him off with a freshly knitted pair of socks. Which obviously didn't happen.

It's happening now though! I'm about halfway through with the foot, and trying to sneak in rounds here and there between the comma splices and misused technical jargon of the student papers. The pattern's actually great for this because it's a two-round repeat that's impossible not to memorize. I think it may technically be lace, since it includes YOs and decreases, but it's quite a manly lace, don't you think?


I do. I hope Brian does too.

There's one thing other I should let you know, blog (and readers. Never fear, readers! Once the dust of my rocky relationship with blog has settled, I can spend more time directly addressing you. Be patient, please). As Jon has been zooming right along with his knitting, I have offered to let him use you to share his efforts with the interweb. You're a generous blog, and he's a nice boy, and I think you'll get along well.

PS - To the readers: if you are not on the Socking Queue referenced above, but you'd like to be, leave me a comment or email me or some such thing. And if you are a reader of the knitting variety and would like occasional blogging privileges (but, perhaps, not the pressure of your own knitting blog), drop me a line as well and it can be arranged. Jon is definitely not more special than you.

Another convert

Knitting blog,

I have some really wonderful news to report! You've been enthusiastic about the successful knitting conversions ("oh so like a wandering saint among the barbarians," says Jon) I've performed in the past, so I thought you should be the first to know. I have finally, after years of trying, and many failures, convinced Jon of the healthful benefits of knitting. See?


Oh yes, blog, that Jon. Grab the smelling salts and I'll give you a moment to recover. Better? Good. Let me show you Exhibit A, taken around Thanksgiving last year:


Not so good, right? That was after a few hours of wrangling with the needles. Granted, there was some pretty strong egg nog happening, but you get the point. Now, witness Exhibit B, taken tonight just a few moments ago:


He's accomplished so much! In so little time! It's like little flag of victory. Doesn't it just warm the cockles of your heart, blog? It does mine.

I'll end the Week of Apologetic Posting there. I think it's a high note.

I started a sock!

Here it is:
Kindly ignore my weirdly fleshy mitt-hand, Jon the Goblin, and the random fish-eye lens effect happening and you'll see the lovely blue and green yarn there! And about half a toe! Times are good.

But now, blog, I am sleepy. It's been a long day, but I wanted to get in a wee post before bed.

-she of the fleshy mitts

Still no pictures.

Oh blog, it's sad, I know. I'm sorry about that. But the reason for the lack of pictures is two-fold:

1. The projects that are on the needles are either in a state of not-so-different-looking-than-when-last-photographed (the Eton pullover), or are freshly off the needles and being processed into wearable garments (the Grandpa cardigan is getting buttons, and Rusted Root is blocking).
2. I have a lot of projects planned, but I am wracked with indecision. Early start on Christmas socks? Another sweater? Perhaps a vest? Something for me or somebody else? I just can't pick. This is not usual for me, and (being a psychologist and all) I know that traits are stable and enduring, so I'm thinking it should pass soon.

So, all told, it's kind of a nice place to be knitting-wise. I mean, a couple of projects are done, or almost done, and I've got a wide variety of things to make and yarns to choose from. Oh! And some exciting news is that I finally got my invite from Ravelry, so I'm on that now.


PS - My friend Dani is so much more awesome than ravelry, cause she fights the good fight.

I'm 23!

Today is my birthday! Yay! Given that it's my birthday, I'm going to ask for a little flexibility with the content here and steer away from knitting for a bit.

Here's what I've done today: woke up, had some breakfast, edited a few student papers, held office hours (where I discussed said student papers), and came home. Then the real festivities began! There were many lovely presents (including a very nice pair of boots I bought for myself), several milkshakes, and a scavenger hunt.

from top: awesome jacket (thanks jon!), gleeful boyfriend, signs telling me how great a day Sept 19, 2004 [sic] is, really cool stool with Jon's hookah (thanks mom!)

And now, I must leave your and return to the festivities. But, I'll leave you with these profound lyrics from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie:

Did you bring your baby?
Babies don't watch this!
Take your seed outside.

See you tomorrow, blog.

PS - I finished rusted root! She is blocking and we'll have a proper showing soon!

ETA: Google is scary. That is all.

Of knitting and cats

Knitting blog,

Once again, I have little for you on the actual new stuff front. I will tell you that I've started the sleeves of rusted root, but if I took a picture it would look exactly like the one I posted yesterday. So I won't be posting about anything current...but we're making up for lost time, so I guess it's ok. I hope you understand.

Anyway, I was thinking about what to show you today, and I decided I'd show you a couple of funny things I'd knitted but never blogged about. And then I pulled all the pictures off my digital camera was full and realized I had a bajillion pictures of the cats being ridiculous. And then I realized that one of the goofy knitted-things I was going to blog about anyway was a cat toy I made over a year ago, so it was kind of fated.

This is Frank the crab. He's a blue crab because Jon's a Marylander (which, by the way, is an awesome word), and you know how they love their crabs there. I put catnip in it because I was churning out cat toys at a fearsome rate around then. I made Frank out of some soft acrylic yarn that wasn't to squeaky. I mostly just made it up as I went along, but I remember making two pentagons for the shell. After I'd sewn them together and stuffed it, I think I picked up stitches along the outside and made the legs out of i-cords. The pinchers were done in the round (I think) and shaped with decreases. I used buttons for eyes, the same ones as here.


But, why is Frank so fuzzy there? Because Mittens is a total niphead, that's why. Seriously, that one is an unwed teenage drugged-out mother. She's actually got cat toys stashed away in various parts of the apartment that uses when she's fiending. Check this out:


See? She did that while I was taking pictures of Frank tonight. Couldn't help herself. And stoned out of her mind, too. I'm thinking about contacting those nice people from A&E's Intevention show to come and have a gander.

And then there's Fatty. He's too simple to be interested in drugs, he just doesn't understand them. Here are two things he does understand, though:

Blinking while making a nest out of my clothes...


...and guitars (as furniture, mind you, not as musical instruments).

Meager Knitting Update

Hi blog!

Look what I did today:


Rusted Root is practically off the needles! It's not totally finished yet because I still have to do the sleeves, but the body is done. Stick a fork in it. I even did the neckline trim.

Look, I know this post is going up at 2 AM, and I know that this is a pretty awful photo, but e for effort, ok? It's been a long day.

An Apology of Sorts

Dear knitting blog,

I'm sorry I've been so distant. Things have been hard lately....school's started and I have all my research to do. On top of that, I'm carrying a full load of classes and I've started teaching. It's all very strange, and something I was perhaps unprepared for. Very through the looking glass, you know, what with all of the long hours spent trying to come up with a not totally lame group exercise to teach totally unenthused students about validity and reliability.

But I can hear what you're saying, blog. You're going, "Don't even! You were insanely busy last year and still found time to blog with me!" Well, I can't deny that....but the problem hasn't been the lack of blogging. No, the real problem is that I haven't even been knitting. A row here and there, sure, but not like usual. I didn't tell you before, but I started a new medication a while back. It's nothing serious! I'm ok! Well, the doctor told me to scale back on the caffeine, which you of all blogs should know is pretty hard for me. It makes my hands shaky and that makes it hard to knit.

Oh, blog, I can't lie anymore! Not to you, knitting blog! The real truth is that I haven't been knitting or blogging because...I've been seeing someone else. His name is Jarthen, and I may have mentioned him once or twice. It's getting pretty serious....we're even getting into podcasts together. I know this is painful, blog, but mostly this letter is to say I'm sorry. Sorry for letting you down and sorry for deceiving you.

But I can't help but hope that we can still make this work! Take me back, blog! I did some knitting this weekend...don't you want me to show you? Don't you want to know how excited I am that the next cycle of America's Next Top Model is starting this week (on my birthday, no less)? The Jarthen blog doesn't care about any of that, it would make fun of me!

I'm a fan of Big Love, as you know. And I know we may not be Mormons, blog, but I think we should live the principle. You and me and the Jarthen blog as one big happy online family. Let's make a go of it! And to show you I'm really serious, I'll post everyday this week, even if they're just wee little posts. I'm up to the bigamous-blog challenge, I know I am!

So, about those music videos...

...They were for Jon. More specifically, I posted them so that we would be able to rock out Friday night in celebration of it being his last day of work. See, what happened is that Jon's been temping lately (working on this book-scanning project for Google. It's apparently super-secret....and I may have already said too much), and he worked from 4pm-midnight. This was fine for now, but during the semester, he'll have afternoon classes and wouldn't be able to stay on. Classes start in a couple of weeks, so he decided to quit in order to give himself time to get prepared to start classes and find a job that's more compatible with his student schedule. He wanted me to make sure that everyone knows that he's not slacking off, and the he's at a job interview as I write this! He has several more scheduled for the week.

Anyway, I thought he'd earned a break so I threw him a surprise quitting party Friday night, and the music videos were part of it. I should clarify that said party was attended only by me, Jon, and the cats. It was selective.


So, these were the decorations. I printed out a bunch of words and phrases associated with being jobless and taped them around the apartment (Jon's favorite was "The Best Stand Down"). Originally, they were going to be suspended from the ceiling, but I'm short and that didn't work out. We had a good time.

To keep with the theme here, I have a couple more bits of Jon-centric news. In knitting news, I'm making him a sweater!


As you can see, it's not just any sweater....it's a full-out slouchy old man sweater. It's gone super-quick because i'm using bulky yarn and size 13 needles. I originally bought the yarn to make the spicy fitted V neck top from Fitted Knits. I ended up making the entire body of the sweater in, like, 3 days, and realized that something wasn't quite right. We've all been there, right? Awesome pattern, nice yarn, but the garment just isn't working. I set it aside for a couple of days and realized I'd never wear the damn thing because I look terrible in gray. I still don't know what possessed me to by it in that color. So I ripped it.

Jon liked the yarn, so I offered to make something for him out of it. Thus, the grandpa cardigan was born. About all I have to do for it now is make some big patch pockets, sew on some buttons, and weave in the ends. And it could stand a good blocking.

In non-kitting Jon-related news, he's got a blog now, too! Well, more specifcally, it's a blog where he's serializing his fantasy novel. He wrote the prologue as a project during college when he was too young to know better. Then, a couple of years later, a bunch of us were hanging out talking about what bad writers we were when we first got to college and Jon showed it to us. We had a good laugh, and then got weirdly obsessessed with it. Seriously, for the last 3 or so years, a group of about 4 or 5 of us have outlined the novel (and sequels, since all good fantasy books come in trilogies.), held dramatic readings complete with funny voices, and had heated discussions about such things as the philological inconsistency of character's names.

Jarthen, a most brave lad

If you're interested, pop on over and check it out! There's a couple of character bios up already and a magnificantly detailed map of the fictional country it's set in. I'm still tweaking the layout, so it's subject to change, but the story's already being posted.

I'll give you behind-the-scenes infor regarding Jarthen and co. And if you do check it out, leave the big guy a comment, will you? He's an absolute sucker for flattery or attention in general.