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!