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.