goodbye, old friend (hooray!)

It was with mixed feelings that I walked out of Pittsburgh Knit & Bead on Sunday afternoon. This is the only place I've ever bought yarn other than at craft stores (oh, and online once), and nearly all of my double pointed needles originate from this store. It's the store I ran to when I thought my socks had horrid heels, and the shop owner has always been of utmost aid when I needed thoughts on things I don't artistically understand, like colors and beads.

As I left on Sunday with a hand-made stitch marker and hand-painted locally made yarn (both to be added surprises for my sockpal...in case Sockpal doesn't like the socks I made, Sockpal can make some with this yarn!), I was glad that I had managed to purchase both items at a sale price. However, I was sad that the reason these and every other item in the store was on sale is that the store is closing.

On the one hand, it's exciting because all the yarn will continue to get marked down until the store shuts its doors forever in June-ish. On the other hand, where am I going to go for knitting stuff? There's the other yarn store that opened up on the other side of the neighborhood, but they're rarely open past 5 o' clock, and I don't usually get home from work until after 6 when I leave work "on time". Plus, that other store is big, and for whatever reason it makes me feel like I can't just run in and shriek, "This heel looks awful - HELP!" Plus, the other store has...well...different yarn. Not the same style as PK&B. Not bad, just not precisely my type.

And...besides all that, couldn't the store have decided to close after I buy that sofa...? Now I have to make the decision of what to do with the opportunity to stock up on yarn at discounted prices... Life is full of difficult choices, eh?

Anyhow, it occurred to me that I have not shown a picture of the Wave Skirt! So, here it is, with only about 10 more rounds to knit and then the edging to finish!

also starring in this photo: my shoes and a bag containing the yarn from pk&b

a learning experience

What in the world was I doing up at 1:08a.m. this morning, anyhow?

Do you know what I love about life? Learning. That moment when all of a sudden things begin to click and one can step back and say "A-HA! Now I get it." It's also the most frustrating thing, because usually when you learn something, you realize that you've spent a lot of effort, time, and/or money on other ideas, concepts, or assumptions that turned out to be not accurate or true.

What I mean to say, as I randomly throw out words that jump in my exhausted mind, is that I've been trying and trying to get some things to work here in the lab. I used every resource I could think of. I followed all the steps I knew to be necessary. Yet still no luck. And then...I was informed of one secret ingredient that changes EVERYTHING. I still have to test that secret ingredient myself, but I am quite sure that it will significantly improve not only the quality but also the ease of my current experiment set. All very good things when one has spent multiple double-digit-hour days in the lab.

Of course, the down side is now I see that the efforts I've been putting forth the past three weeks were rather wasteful. I could have made so much more progress had I just known then what I know now. Plus, it would have used far fewer reagents and, thus, money. It's frustrating, too, that I didn't have the information I needed when I first needed it. And it makes me wonder if that's my responsibility - I tend to think it is, and even that fact can be really frustrating, because it means I would need to know that I need to know more than I know when I don't know something. Now that's a profound statement. Seriously, though - how and I supposed to know that I'm knowledge-less??? Perhaps I'm just so conceited and think I know everything already, that I never consider the fact that the aid of another, experienced person would be of any use.

Hm...

At any rate, it's a happy thought that I have finally found some promising leads to improve my research. And...it's also great that, on a FRIDAY!!!, I have some wonderful results that I've been trying to get for quite some time.

If only my head would stop pounding from lack of sleep, I would be a majority of contented.

procrastination

I very much remember learning the word "procrastination." It was either in sixth or seventh grade, and it was in Life Skills class, which is sort of like home economics, except I guess the school people thought it needed a new name and that in addition to cooking and sewing students should learn things like how to keep a schedule and other stuff that would be handy to know even if you didn't spend most of your time at a home. What I learned was following a recipe doesn't always work, cooking goes a lot better when there aren't four of you trying to make the same thing in the same bowl at the same time, and the definition of two words - "commute" and "procrastination."

"Commute" came up when we had to write down what we did all day and how long it took. Wake up...eat breakfast...get ready for school...commute to school on the school bus. My mom told me that riding the school bus wasn't what constituted commuting, and I later learned she was correct.

"Procrastination" was actually in our text book in bold text, which probably means it was also on a quiz or test at some point. I recall that not long after the word was introduced in Life Skills, I added it to my dictionary for Communications class - we had to add 10 words per week with definitions and etymologies. It kept popping up in other aspects of school, too, and pretty soon it was everyone's favorite word because it so exquisitely described something we were all quite familiar with - putting off whatever we possibly could until we no longer could manage.

I believe I had learned this word very well. I am an expert at procrastinating! I have managed to bring myself, at the present moment, to the point where I have a presentation to make for Monday, a paper I really should write and sort of was supposed to be turned in tomorrow (but it's for a class in which I'm not enrolled, so technically I needn't bother at all), and a symposium I'm in charge of in a month's time that still needs a load of things done for it. This is in addition to the normal demands of work, church, friends, and other aspects of life. Eeks. How did I do this to myself?

...Honestly...it was easy. Took no effort at all.

sockapaloooza countdown

I'm all done with my sock for sockapaloooza, so I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the address to which the socks are to be sent. My sockapaloooza pal doesn't have a website, so I decided long ago that I was not going to find out more about him/her via the internet. However, today I realized that I know the person's name, I know the general vicinity of where the person lives, and I know how to use Google. And thus, with a few clicks of buttons, I found my person! I didn't learn much except that this person works in the same sort of field as my dad. If only I'd have known. Then I would have asked Daddy for some suggestions. ...Well, maybe not. But I do think I've made a good choice for the recipient. Perhaps I'll find a little something more to send along in the package, now that I know what career the sockapaloooza pal has.

In other knitting news, the Wave Skirt continues to get longer. I made the huge mistake last week of not weaving in the end of one strand of yarn for very long - on the next round, one of the stitches disappeared because I had managed to pull the woven-in yarn back so much!! Yikes. I made some creative adjustments, and I think it's okay now. The whole thing hasn't fallen apart yet, so I guess that means it's alright.

needed: fashion advice

Something is quite wrong with me. If you know me at all, your first reaction to my upcoming announcement should be to check my forehead for a fever. Certainly I am going to say something highly uncharacteristic of myself. Here goes...

I have decided that I'd like to dress in more business-y clothes. (How profound - "business-y." That's super mature speaking right there.) The completely-acceptable attire for the lab is jeans and a t-shirt, and that is what I'm quite comfortable in. Always have been. But...something over the past couple weeks has prompted me to venture for a slight change. Maybe it's to prove to myself that I'm actually capable of wearing "nice" clothing. Haha. Maybe dressing differently at work than I would at home will make work more distinct from home (and maybe when I do work at home I'll have to force myself to change out of my jeans...hm...). I don't know, but I'm willing to give it a shot. At least then I'd have more nice clothes, right?

And there's part one of my problem: I don't really HAVE nice clothes. Since the "uniform" at work is jeans and whatever...that's what I have. So I need a few tips from all you wonderful readers out there (there's a ton, I know) about some key elements of nice-style that I should add to my wardrobe. I'm on a tight budget here, folks, so you can't suggest that a mink coat will solve all my troubles. The other thing is, whatever clothing I need to acquire has to adhere to laboratory safety rules, which means my legs have to be covered (obviously so does my torso, but the point is no skirts). I'm also highly lacking in any wisdom about what approrpiately nice tops are. I have a dresser and a box under my bed spilling over with t-shirts, and I know that's not quite right, but what is?

Lemme know! Thanks.

fearing for the future

With the thought that I can likely "soon" graduate (estimated August 2007, which yes, is "soon"!), according to my advisor and thesis committee, I've been thinking a lot about my future these past couple weeks. What do I want to do when I grow up? Where do I want to be? These thoughts have taken me a few very intriguing places.

I love Grand Rapids, Michigan, near the suburb where I grew up. I would adore to return there for good to live and work. I like the schools, I appreciate the surrounding natural beauty, and I long to again be close to Lake Michigan. There's a splendid new cancer research center in Grand Rapids, multiple science-inclusive universities and colleges, and a soon-to-be-launched medical school. I would be happy to be a part of any of those organizations - or something else that I haven't even thought of. And I think that with a little bit of effort, I could achieve that dream. How? The plan: get a good post-doctoral position for a year or a few. Something that would make me highly attractive to cancer researchers or teacher-seeking schools. Perhaps pursue a teaching-oriented post-doctoral fellowship following that first post-doc. Then, move on over to Grand Rapids with my sought-after career secured.

But then I started thinking about how long that would take. Let's say I do the first post-doc for only a year. That's nearly 2009. Then the teaching post-doc...the one I'm looking at down at UNC Chapel Hill is a three-year program! That puts me at not arriving back in Grand Rapids until 2012! Oh my goodness! That's scary. It would be nice to be married by then -

- Wait, married?! And where do I suppose the person I married will fit into this whole picture? Is he magically going to follow me around as I move from place to place? What a drag! Plus, once I get married, I intend to wait not terribly long to have kids, at which point I'll quit whatever career I'm in, and then...it doesn't matter! ...And I might never make it back to Grand Rapids.

...So...is it even worth looking for a guy here in Pittsburgh? If I want to be in Grand Rapids, should I make a big effort to seek out guys there (that's rather humorous, because I never have "made a big effort" to "seek out" guys ANYWHERE)?

And hold on a minute - isn't this all just a tad bit presumptive? Stuff is going to have to work out very well in order for this life I've got planned for myself to really work out.

Thus...where I'm at now is I have no idea what I want to do, where I want to go, whether I care about guys or not. I'm all confuzzled about what's important and what feasible options are, and I wish I had a few more answers RIGHT NOW about little things like with whom I'm going to spend the rest of my life. Because...if that were set, then a lot of the questions about the other issues would be answered. At least...I wouldn't have to be making all the decisions. I could leave that up to my husband, who's supposed to be a decision-making person, after all, right?

Oh, My Future, I do hope you work out okay. I hope I like you and don't mess you up too much by planning for you now.

the story of last weekend

I'm a little behind on the events of my life... Here's the big news items from the past 8 days:

1. My roommate Ren got engaged!!!!!! Her fiance Matt flew in from Boston and surprised her. It was so sweet. There was a fun party to celebrate. Now it's invitation-preparation time...! (I absolutely love doing things like sticking stamps on envelopes and folding inserts. Very seriously. I'm happy to have a reason to do so. Hooray!!!)

2. My hockey team won the POWHA league championships. You can see a fun Flash video thing about it on their website. I even get special mention because I somehow won the "Outstanding Goalie" award for the season due to having the highest save percentage. Wow - surprise to me! It was very fun to play with this group of gals this season, and I hope to do so again next season. We certainly worked hard to get where we got. Also nice about the tournament this season is that it was in Columbus, so I got to see my brother who goes to school there. Good times.

and...let me also just say

Being that it's Easter weekend and all, I must share a couple of my favorite websites that are associated with this season. One is highly not religious, the other is.

This one is: The Brick Testament's pictoral account of Jesus's resurrection on Easter morning

This one isn't: Peep Research
This is my favorite part of that website: The effects of alcohol and cigarette smoking

those who can't knit...

I have not done any knitting over the past week, which explains the lack of a post about knitting on Tuesday. I haven't even run the yarn through those 8 stitches on the mitten to finish it! Why? I don't know exactly, but I haven't felt like it, and I've had a lot of things to do for work, and I had a hockey tournament over the weekend, and I was busy. (I did, however, finally pick up some knitting this morning on the bus - more of the Wave Skirt. I'm liking it, but I should have chosen different colors.)

I have, however, been doing something else that I think is productive in my spare time: writing. You may not have picked up on this, but I really enjoy writing. I always have. One of my childhood friends and I wrote little books instead of playing with Barbies and the like. I believe I began writing my first novel when I was 9. It was a terrible story idea, I didn't get more than the equivalent of a chapter finished, but I had pages upon pages of plans for that book! The planning has always been my favorite part. In middle school I had in fact created an entire series of books, none of which were really ever written (and none of which had much of a plot, as I recall). And so it is today.

The piece I started working on again last week is installment 12 of 15ish in a series of "short" stories (they range from a handful of typewritten pages to 40 pages each) that I first started writing about 10 years ago. It is also one of many plans for the cast of characters I have since fallen in love with (I know where they all go to college, what their jobs are, who they marry, how many kids they have...and the characters are only 15 years old in the stories thus far). It all began back in high school...

I was doing my brother's paper route one afternoon. Delivering newspapers in a suburban neighborhood requires a good set of legs to carry you and a map telling you which few houses don't get the paper. It gives one a long time to think as she tramps across lawns. Somewhere towards the final quarter of the route, I was struck with this idea of a shy girl (...not entirely unlike myself) getting up the guts to talk with a cool guy (...not entirely unlike the guy I had a crush on, who lived at the end of the street I was walking along) and then having something unexpected happen. Not the world's most novel idea, but I went with it. Thus began the world of two best friends in high school, Anna and Tasha, and this guy Chris, whom Anna sets out to change for the better, but who ends up changing her in the end. How dramatic!

It's perhaps not surprising that after having worked on these pieces for 10 years, it's the most developed work-of-fiction concept I have had (also the fact that I was older than 12 when it all started probably helped). But what I didn't mention was that I wrote 3 novel-length collections of stories about these people before I graduated high school. My friends and my mom told me I should try to publish. I needed to put some more work into the stories; I wasn't satisfied with them. Then came college...and the dark abyss of writing creativly. I wrote about proteins and Bosnian history and viruses that infect bacteria and how Schubert spent his last years and why my unknown compound disappeared in organic chemistry lab (although...if that's not creative writing, what is?), but no stories.

Finally, for some unknown reason, I dug up the old stories. I remember very vividly thinking, "These have potential, but...they could be a lot better!" So I began to rewrite the summer after I graduated from college. I got pretty far that summer, and then...I stopped again. I somehow got to part 12, and when I pulled it out again last week realized that I had began part 12 in...2004!! That is really sad. My poor characters are stuck in some pretty desperate situations - one's brother is in the hospital, the other's grandma is dying, one of the boys has a bad reputation to counter-act, and one of the girls is recovering from being the victim of the bad reputation. Plus there's all the other everyday concerns of high school, and the fact that the main characters are trying to live Christian lives in a very non-Christian environment (did anyone else go to a high school like that? Didn't think so). I need to write them out of those spots!!! They're depending on me!!

...And then when I'm done, I've got to go back and revise all those rewritten stories again, because, reading them now, they have potential, but...they could be a lot better!

two pair

The long-awaited picture of my Sockapaloooza socks is here:And I also quickly knit up the second of the Hermione mittens while I was riding around in Colorado and flying back (and then watching the Chamber of Secrets DVD after I arrived back in Pittsburgh).

okay, so I need to pull that yarn through the top stitches of the mitten and weave in the ends, but they're mostly finished!!

Hooray!! Two pairs of things are completed.

i lose again

After arriving back home to Pittsburgh on Saturday, unpacking and repacking on Sunday - and finishing my Sockapaloooza socks!!! - I flew out to Colorado on Monday to attend the Keystone Symposia on HIV for work/school. More about that in another post, but this one is about knitting on the plane.

With the pair of socks done, I decided to get to work on another give-to-somebody project, the poncho that was supposed to be for Christmas. I had swatched last week and decided on a pattern adapted from the Sarah Blanche shawl from Folk Shawls. I decided to do two stupid things, which I discovered on the plane:

1. I chose to use straight needles instead of circulars. Why is this bad? Because when you have to loop the yarn around 3 times in one stitch, as the pattern calls for, that adds 2 stitches-worth of yarn onto your needle...and that doesn't fit on the straight needles I was using. I considered how to fix this problem during my trip...maybe I could steal the circular that is only a size smaller from the Wave Skirt I had also brought along...hm...

2. Before I had spent too much time trying to figure out how to solve this problem, I found another one. I don't have enough yarn. I had sort of wondered this when I first bought the yarn, but my mental calculations told me I should be fine. Since when do I trust my brain in a yarn store??? Not a good idea. I've used up about a quarter of the yarn I'm supposed to have for the front of the poncho, and the poncho is probabably...oh...one-eighth of the size it should be. Ugh.

I decided to accept defeat, not make this poncho for the friend (another example of the benefit of not telling people you're making them something - they won't hate you when you don't end up making it!), and try to make the yarn into a shirt of some sort - it's a cotton, so it would be pretty nice in the summer, although the colors aren't exactly my favorite for me.

Fortunately for me, I was overzealous and had packed not just one (the Wave Skirt) but two alternative knitting projects, just in case I finished the poncho. So, wavey-wave is finally getting some attention as I sit in lectures about HIV, and I cast on for the second Hermione mitten while traveling from one part of the conference resort to the other.

we lost...

(I am retroactively publishing this post...)

On Thursday I drove to Buffalo, New York, for the 2006 USA Hockey Women's Senior B National Championships. My team, Central Pittsburgh, had battled strenuously against zero other teams in our area to win the regional title and had secured our spot in the national tournament by sheer paying of the entry fee. Throughout the season many of my teammates moaned about us being in the B Division for the tournament, saying we weren't good enough to be a B team. However, USA Hockey rules say that, unless we can prove otherwise, any team that has any player who ever played Division III or club hockey in college must be good enough to be B.

I think we proved them wrong.

We played our first game at 7:30 Friday morning, which is a really ugly time for a hockey game. We lost 9 to 0. Our second game later that day was lost 13 to 0. Finally on Saturday we scored, and the final score was us losing 12 to 1. You can see all the stats and that stuff on the website, although they aren't exactly correct, because I know that the stats on myself and the other goalie on my team are not correct - the minutes played are incorrect, to begin with, and that messes up all the other stats. At any rate...we obviously didn't do that great, although it didn't feel like were were doing that awful, really - it just felt like tough, good games. I guess I've developed a thick skin from playing on teams in the past that never won any games.

Anyhow...that's how we did. In the end a team from good old Michigan won - hooray for them!

i won!

Mwahahaha!! I have defeated the evil hole-in-the-ankle! And no, of course I didn't ask for help. I never do that. I'm determined to do everything myself and never make any knitting friends...

After posting yesterday I googled my short row heel with holes problem, and I noted a few good pieces of advice. Then I went home, tinked back to the site of the hole (it was 3 rounds or so...not too bad, but annoying enough), and through a strange combination of all the techniques I read, I managed to prevent the hole. Hooray!

I am still really confused as to why the first time there were no holes, then this time there were. I've got to figure it out sometime...

I forgot to mention yesterday that I managed to make a chunk of my yarn stash disappear over the weekend. Not by knitting with it, though. Saturday night I saw an acquaintance at church hobbling around on crutches. She is recovering from some sort of surgery on her ankle, and she told me she's incredibly immobile even a week after the procedure. I asked her what she did during the days, since she didn't seem to be at work, and she said she's never watched so many movies in her life. I suggested she learn to knit, and she told me she already knew how but she had used up all of her yarn. AHA!! I promised to get her some straight away.

That evening I dug around in my yarn stash and was amazed at what I found. I got inspiration for three garments and still managed to give away the equivalent of 2.5 skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky (left over from last year's Fairly Easy Fair Isle cardigan), So Soft acrylic that I'd used to make the first sweater I ever designed (I obviously over-estimated the yardage sincer there were THREE extra balls!!), a ball of some funky textured yarn that had at one time been destined to be a bear-shaped dog toy until the intended recipient died, and the prize from the Holiday Gift Knitalong - Kid Silk Haze with a scarf pattern. I will probably get blasted by a few folks who think I'm crazy to give away that last yarn, but I had to be realistic...it would be forever and ever before I actually made something out of it, and I didn't know what that was going to be yet. I had swatched with it, so at least I know what it feels like.

Last night, after having pondered the remainder of my stash for the past couple days, I made a list of what I will make with what I have. That's really my favorite part of knitting, I must say. Making lists of what I dream of... I could do it every day, I think. ...Perhaps that's why I never get any actual knitting accomplished. If wishes were horses.

me vs. the sock

This post might also be appropriately titled "beginner's luck."

As noted previously, I finished the first of my pair of socks for the sockapaloooza. It's lovely (in my humble opinion).

see?

I have to admit that if I were to do it all over again, I would not have gone with this yarn (at least not in this color) because the white nylon that's worked into the wool shows through. Some would say it gives a nice fleck of white here and there, but I say it's not supposed to be there and makes an otherwise dark-hued sock have strange white flecks. Anyhow, it's done, and I love how it turned out - I amaze myself.

So...I started the second sock, and it was going along well. There's, again, a tad gauge issue - this sock is a teeny, tiny bit wider than the first one, but not enough to be concerned. I sat down Friday and knit the heel, but...as I was looking at it on Saturday, it just wasn't right. On the first sock, I got the short row heel to turn out fine. I have decided that I did the wraps a little bit wrong, causing for a small weirdness, but even that is okay. No holes. No strange blobs. Short row heels are easy, I had decided. ...But for some reason this second one didn't turn out so well. I don't know what I did wrong, but there were holes at the corners of both sides of the heel. Hm.

So, I ripped out the heel. While wasn't exactly the best of thoughts, because - since I had encountered absolutely no problem with the heel on the first sock, I hadn't put in a lifeline, and I didn't feel like running needles through the stitches to which I wanted to rip - I just ripped and picked up the stitches when I was done. Just a lesson learned - don't rip out your knitting when you're at the intermission of a play. You never know when the intermission will conclude, the lights will go out, and you'll be only halfway done putting stray stitches onto needles. You will then spend the remainder of the play attempting to concentrate but worrying about your poor orphaned stitches, just waiting to fall to pieces. Such was the case with me on Saturday. But, I survived, and all the stitches got back to where they were supposed to be.

I tried to make the heel feel bad by not working on it Saturday night. Instead I finished the Hermione mitten, which wasn't as awful as I thought it would be.

Sunday I reknit the heel. But I had somehow put the wrong stitches onto the wrong needles, so now in addition to there being holes, the pattern from before the heel was all messed up because of the misaligned stitches. So I ripped again. You'd think I would have considered putting in a lifeline, but I didn't. Plus, that would have required finding a needle, and I didn't want to do that. I knit the heel once more. Still not right. The way it stands now, it's semi-acceptable. The one side of the heel is fine, perfect. The other has a small hole.

I am again trying the silent-and-forgotten treatment with the sock. I threw it aside, picked up the Wave Skirt, and continued work on that. Anything but that nasty, stupid sock. I then started reading the fifth Harry Potter book. Bad, mean sock... I also started swatching the new poncho from the old poncho disaster. ...Grr, grr, sock - I'm ignoring you until you become more agreeable!!

I feel like I'm on the brink of some huge knitting revelation. I am trying and trying and trying to figure out WHY the holes appear. I haven't figured it out yet, which is why the holes continue to be there. The plan is (I think), to tink back a couple rounds to the place where the hole is. Then...after I figure out how to rewrap the yarn from the short rows...I WILL make there be no holes.

All the other knitters out there who got offended when I wrote before that short rows were easy...I'm sorry! I don't have the faintest idea how I managed to get my first one to work, but obviously it wasn't because I'm super skilled at it. I'm ready for any suggestions...!!

stash vs. sofa

It sounds like a cheesy horror movie. To many a knitter, it would imply that their stash of yarn is taking over all sitting space on their sofa. However, for me it means I have to decide between adding to my stash of yarn or getting a sofa.

I couldn't fall asleep last night. First, I couldn't stop thinking about possible designs for the redoing of the poncho for my friend. But then it got worse - I started thinking about money. I am currently owed around $2400 in reimbursements from my workplace, and, as you may imagine, that doesn't make the bank account balances of this grad student incredibly hefty. I have enough money squirreled away to survive for many a blissful month, especially since my car is now fully paid off (WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!), but there are also several things I'd like to have money for in a couple of months. Being that I've been incredibly not-responsible in my spending since Christmas-time (that season has a tendency to encourage me to spend more for some very strange reason...this year it stuck), I've landed myself in a situation where I feel more than a little guilty about not so much how much money I've spent but on what I've spent my money!

And the big culprit...YARN.

I thought it would never happen, but it surely did. I am addicted to yarn. Yesterday I was feeling stressed about two big writing projects I'm supposed to have completed today, and on the bus ride home I kept thinking, "I'd feel so much better if I'd stop in a yarn store..." That is not healthy. That is, first of all, a sick, twisted mindset the culture of America encourages, and following the culture is never a good thing in my humble opinion. And that is not true, either - going into the yarn store...feeling the yarn...buying the yarn... That won't in any way, shape, or form make me feel better about getting my writing done! Best case scenario: I waste more money on yarn (and can't afford to buy that new printer cartridge I'll need to actually print out the writing). Worst case scenario: I buy the yarn and feel the necessity to knit it into something starting RIGHT NOW, and I spend the rest of the night knitting and getting no writing done.

I decided not to go to the yarn store yesterday, which was really good, because Microsoft Word kept crashing as I was doing my writing, and that obviously put a damper on the speed of my progress. Finally I came to the end of the day, lying in my bed, not able to sleep, and I decided...I really would like a sofa for my new apartment (this one, in fact - if you've never been to IKEA or their website, you should), and I won't be able to afford that if I continue frivolously spending my money, especially on yarn. And I have way more than enough yarn to keep me knitting for a long time (plus tons more yarn that various non-knitting friends have told me they would like to donate to me). So...

It's time for me to decide between adding to the stash or saving for a sofa. Since it would be extremely nice to have a sofa upon which to sit while I use up my stash...I am selecting the latter option. Goodbye, yarn stores, at least for a while! (And judging from the slowness of my knitting and the size of the trunk and closet that hold my yarn...it could be a long while...)

no crocus

With spring only a few days away, you would expect that there would be flowers popping up, but I've been surprised. We've had some weird weather this year - really warm, then really cold the next day - and I think it might have messed up some of my plants. For example, the crocuses, which usually peek their cheery buds out of the snow, still aren't out. The green striped crocus leaves are coming out here and there, but this is as far as they've gotten in the way of budding:

poor, sad crocus

Guess I'll just have to keep on waiting. ...Or maybe the daffodils will bloom (there are billions popping up all over the landscaping...er...not billions, but lots) and the crocuses will miss their heyday?

Or...maybe the snow is just all gone way earlier this year than it usually is!

a concert all about knitting!

Last night I amazingly didn't have any commitments to anything (e.g. meeting, practice, etc., which has occurred essentially every night for the past two weeks). So...I went to watch Harry and the Potters!!

The Potters are a punk/rock duo from Boston, and I heard about them over at Alison's blog. For those who don't know, Alison of "the blue blog" is a big Harry Potter fan and incorporates HP stuff in many a knitting project. She also hosts the Sockapaloooza and other knitalongs I've done. Thus, when I think of the Potters, I think of knitting and socks.

Well...

I was picking up some groceries the other day, and on my way out I saw a flyer for Harry and the Potters coming to play a concert in Pittsburgh! So I set out last night to visit Artists Upstairs, which in and of itself is a unique concept/place - it is self-described as "an educational arts organization devoted to the promotion and development of new works that explore the inter-relationship between movement, media, sound, visual arts and theatre." An example of this: sitting in the warehouse-like huge room (with one wall spray-painted to read "DO NOT DEMO") is a bicycle that has what looks like papier-mach'e dragon parts extending from the front and back. Visual art, right? Well...probably, but I definitely saw one of the people who I think works there (she was wearing wings and bug-looking goggle-glasses) riding it around the room, also.

Such was my impression of the venue, but I was really there to see the Potters. First I had to watch the opening band, called Uncle Monsterface. This band is really not my style, but there were a couple redeeming factors. First, any band that has a keytar is worth giving a bit of respect, and they certainly do. Second, they play some really awesome (although somewhat...disturbing) digital video in the background (you might be able to see it in the below really awful picture...I am so not able to take pictures!). And third - the best! - they have a sock-puppet show going on the entire time.

fans were invited on stage to "rock out" with blow-up guitars, sock puppets, and a cowbell.a sock puppet with lead singer marty. i asked for a picture with a sock because i knit socks. he looked at me weird. hey, i'm not the one wearing a whistle around my neck!

Hooray for socks! In light of the fact that I'd discovered the Potters at Alison's place, I brought along my sock to work on before the show and between sets.

and old lady and her knitting... oh, did i mention that most of the crowd was in high school? most of the rest were their parents.

Finally it was time for the Potters!! Many of the fans were decked out in some sort of Harry-Potter-esque garb - scarves (not many authentic ones...and none from PoA...this knitter knows way too much about HP scarves now!!), ties, grey sweaters, robes, even a guy who looked a lot like Snape and who carried around a wand. The Potters, who are brothers, came out dressed like Harry - they play the part really well, explaining that they're Harry Potter Year 4 and Harry Potter Year 7, and giving a little blurb about what was going on when they (as in Harry) "wrote" each song. They also did an excellent job of getting the crowd involved, and truly were a good live show to watch and experience! I was glad that there weren't any injuries (see their March 4 entries on their tour diary), and I had to laugh when I saw that they are now selling toothbrushes along with shirts and CD's on their merchandise table!

After the show, I convinced Harry Year 7 (aka Paul) to pose with me and my sock. (Again, crappy photo...I need to figure out the modes on my camera better...)

rockin'!

It was a fun, fun night. And the knitting-ness wasn't over, for once I left the show and was walking through downtown to get to my bus-stop, I took a wrong turn and ended up in front of a yarn store that I had heard existed but had never seen. Ooooh. Now I'm going to have to go downtown and get lost again so I can visit it!

Yay for Harry Potter and knitting!!!!

gimme a break

Well, this is funny. I took pictures of my sock and the Hermione mitten and intended to post them last Friday, but I ran out of time/motivation, so I didn't. And then this morning I was running out the house and made a mental note, "I have my camera in my purse, right, to get pictures off of and post to my blog? Yes, I certainly do." I certainly didn't. I certainly hope that my camera is safe at home somewhere.

So...alas, no pictures, but I can tell you that I am happy with my knitting. Here's what's news:

• Sock 1 of the pair is DONE!!! I even pulled out the lifelines, which must mean I'm happy with it.
• Sock 2 hopped on the needles sometime over the weekend, and it's...going.
• I'm almost done with the first Hermione mitten. I have run into a bit of a snag: my hand is too long. I suspected this going into it, but I didn't bother to care much. It's all good, though, because now I've gotten to the part in the pattern where I'm supposed to decrease to finish off the top of the mitt, I know exactly how short the thing is, and I can just knit some more in the established pattern. The pattern has a cable that snakes back and forth across the mitten, and the extra that I need to knit will get me to basically the "opposite" side of the cable I was supposed to end on. With a little bit of brain power and some luck, I think I can modify the decreases simply by just reading the pattern chart backwards. That probably makes absolutely no sense... See, this is why I need my camera: pictures really help.
• I forgot to mention that I'm even making this, but I'm going to try my hand at felting by creating some decor for my new apartment. "New apartment??" say you? "Yes," say I. Not until July/August, but it's now time for me to move on from the wonderful home that is Our House. I've been thinking about it for a long time, and all the roommates know now - I was scared about hurting their feelings or something, but when I finally told them...they all said they were wanting to move too. Perfect! (It's not that we don't like each other, it's just...time. Things are changing in our lives. Heck, one of them is getting married this summer, so I hope she'd move out!) Anyhow...back to the knitting. I picked out some colors for my very own living and dining rooms of the near future, and I'm going to make some felted pot holders and coasters to coorinate, following the pattern from Knitting at Knoon, which happens to be from my hometown! I saw the pattern in the wonderous Pattern-a-Day calendar my sis gave me for Christmas. I finished my first potholder in denim blue and lime-ish green, and I'm waiting to finish some more before I felt.

And finally, my sweet, super-secret-sockpal just informed me that she(or he)'s tried six patterns and hasn't come up with a good one for me yet. Awwww! Sockpal, I'm going to find my tape measure when I get home and tell you all about how big my feet are. And the fact that one of them is a little shorter than the other doesn't really matter - just make 'em both the bigger size (that's what I've gotta do with shoes!). I'm so not that high maintenance! Whatever you knit for me will be WON-der-FUL!!! ...I'm just impressed that you haven't started yet, because if it were me...they wouldn't be done by May if I had to start now. I slow.

almost famous

I have a long mental (and also somewhat written down) list of things I'd like to do at some time in my life. Once upon a time "knit a sweater" was on this list - and I did that a year and a half ago. A couple weeks ago, I checked off another item from my "to do" list: I was in a movie!

I've wanted to be an extra for several years. Not so I can break into Hollywood or anything extravagant like that. I just always wondered what it was like to make a movie. I know it's not all that people dream it will be like - it's not fun all the time (and, according to some, not fun most of the time). Yet, I wondered what exactly it was like. I've considered contacting Someone (I once knew who this was...don't now) in the Pittsburgh area who had Some Connections and helped find extras for motion pictures being shot in the are. I never did.

Then, a movie needing extras landed in my lap! My roommate Ren shot me an email saying a friend of hers was looking for extras for his independent movie. I kept being out of town every weekend when they needed people, but finally one Friday night in February, I was around and they needed people for their evening shoot.

I drove to the set location, which was an apartment building in an area of town called Shadyside, my car filled with various clothes that fit the description the costume manager had requested - business casual in neutral colors. Being the very non-good-dresser I am, that meant I had no idea what to wear, so I basically threw in half of my closet. What I should have done was to put all of those clothes on, because I spent the majority of the bitterly cold evening standing outside waiting for some instruction, and I was C.O.L.D!

The movie is entitled "Grace" (at least for now) and is a murder mystery with what sounds like a lot of twists. I got to see two scenes being worked on in front of the apartment building - one of which I was in! The things that struck me most about the shooting of the scenes were 1) the lighting - how detailed it had to be - how lights in the wrong places made bad glare in the wrong places or ugly shadows in the wrong places. And there were SO many people holding lights and probably other things, too, like microphones or something; 2) the repetition...each scene took about 20 shots. This wasn't so surprising, but the fact that each time the actors acted out the scene in each of these shots, it had to be similar, if not identical. My job was to walk down the stairs inside the apartment building and go out the door, down the steps, and to the sidewalk past the acting couple standing outside. I was praised for doing it the same way every time. ??? I guess I have skill; 3) the discomfort - it's a lot of standing around...waiting...listening to the directors and camera people and other individuals discuss the best way to do something, what they didn't like about this or that, what to do next - my legs got tired, I got tired, and it was really cold. I felt especially bad for the actors who had to look like they were mildly appeased even though they had on no hat and it was 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Despite all the non-glamour, it was fun, and I'd definitely do it again, although preferably inside as opposed to out. The thing I was happiest about was that I managed to get my knitting into the shot - I wore a hat and mittens I had knit, and I actually carried my red bag o' knitting with me as I sauntered out the door and down the steps. Yay, knitting!

I'll let you know if and when the movie ever comes out. Then...look out - I'll be FAMOUS! (not really).

paralysis

Have you taken a look at the world lately? Not even the entire world, with its oppression, exploitation, poverty, civil war, and brokenness - but just your world, the world around you. There's been a push recently at my church to get out and do something for the uneducated children, homeless adults, and troubled youth in the "inner city" (it's not what I call the inner city...it's what I call "home"! The suburbanites don't see it like that, though.) of Pittsburgh. It's a noble goal, and I am looking forward to what will be done, but in the midst of it all I have found myself feeling utterly paralyzed.

Paralyzed why? ...Because when I think about one example of need, more come rushing to my head...then I get asked by someone by the bus stop if I can give them some money, and then I get upset that so many panhandlers are making more money than I or anyone in my household are by asking for handouts, and then I wonder how to discern to whom to give my money, and I wonder if my giving has an impact, and I realize how bad the problem is.

Paralyzed how? ...I can't figure out where to start if I'm going to make a difference. Which problem to tackle first? Even if I had a clear vision of what needed to be done, how would I decide which was the most important? I feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the combination of issues.

Yet...and I know this has been said eloquently by many a famous, witty, individual...doing something is a lot better than doing nothing. I can't do everything, but I can do something (I think that one actually is a quote from someone). I can't agree to be paralyzed by my confusion and woe. I need to step out and do something.