Just a quick one...

Just had to say that sometimes students really suck. It seems like the whiniest ones who suck up all your time are the ones who need it the least because all the do is run away and squander your advice with their whiny attention getting ways. It's the ones who never come to you for help, but who you know almost almost get it from the work that they hand in to you that break your heart. I know I need to not think this way in order to get through, but really, the whole process of marking and evaluation is just making me cry right now. Really it is. I guess that's kind of sad. Maybe I need to find another line of work.

On a knitting related note, I am working up the trim on this manos vest that I've been making for many many months now, and I am really just loving the way it's looking. As soon as I find my camera cable, I promise a pic. I'll look when I'm not totally dead dead tired. I am quite proud of this one, and I have just the outfit to wear it with. I've also been working on a beaded cabled hat. I'm not so sure about the yarn (which is variegated) and the cables ... that's generally a no no. I'm really enjoying the way the beads are all going in.

Oh yeah ... I always thought about doing something like this, but never had the real burning urge, the attention span, or the guts. Not to mention the sense of humour. Check out You Knit What. I laughed for hours last Friday at some of the selections they had. Hopefully I never see any of my stuff there, but if I do I hope I have the good sense to take it with humour.

Cheers. I must tumble to bed now ... after I cast off this neckline!

Sam.

Kids these days...

So I went to an informal seminar talk given by a junior graduate student in my area of experimental physics. In this talk (which was mostly mumbling I might add) some graphs were presented displaying some very nice power-law scalings for a couple of runs. But as far as I could see there were no error bars on the experimentally measured data points, and no uncertainties expressed in the power-law scaling relations. I asked him about it during the questions and he gave an uncertainty of less than 10% which is pretty darned good. To get an error of less than 10% is difficult in most experiments and worth advertising. Anyways, after the talk he said "Count on you to ask about technica details". I was stunned. Measurement uncertainties are a TECHNICAL DETAIL? For an EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICIST? Shame... Shame... Kids these days... what can ya do?

Susan

Leaf Lace Shawl/Baby Blanket Done!

Whew! It's done just in time for the baby shower. It is Fiber Trends Leaf Lace Shawl, knit in KnitPicks Sock Garden in color Hollyberry, on size 6 (US) needles. I did one extra repeat over the small size. And the edges DO NOT curl! I followed the advice on yahoo's Lace for All Seasons group for the Kiri (http://alltangledup.com ) edging and used a bigger US 8 needle for the bind off. I'll be making Kiri after I'm done the Fiber Trends Flower Basket Shawl for baby blanket #2. My cousin's wife is having twins, but they'll have to wait till Christmas for the second shawl/baby blanket. Luckily this one was pretty easy, I honestly did not break a sweat knitting this one until the edging, because I was running out of time, however it's not my fault, the babies are being delivered a couple of weeks early with a caesarian section. This was a 3-4 week on and off the kneedles project, and completely gratifying to block. I know I complained earlier about the fabric seeming too tight, but after the pre-blocking wash and soak, it expanded very nicely. It had a lot of stretch, and still has some spring in it yet! I didn't block the cr*p out of it because it is a baby blanket and not an adult shawl. I shouldn't be surprised by the blocking of a shawl at my current level of experience, but it was like, wow.

Susan

Childhood

I finally finished "Childhood" from Knitty. I used Lemongrass and Maize Mission Falls cotton. Unfortunately, since I'm a bit of a n00b, the finished dimensions didn't really work out. The striped bands at the front are supposed to overlap. If I did that, I think that I would end up choking my friend's baby. So I found some metal clasps and I think that it still looks pretty nice. I think that it ended up longer than it was wide since the pattern asks you to knit for a certain length before shaping the armholes. Clearly I screwed up the gauge across. Oh, well... For a first attempt at something with pieces that I had to sew together, I'm pretty happy with the result.

Delenn

A tiny emerald whelpling ate my post

Okay ... the title here probably doesn't make much sense, but I'll just say that it has something to do with this computer game that I play. In my spare time, I like to knit, but I also like to play video games and sadly the two are often mutually exclusive since they both keep my hands occupied. Anyway, I've been promising Susan for a week now that I am going to post something, and time has been ticking ticking ticking, and still nothing is posted.

Let me say that I am not the lace knitter that Susan there is. I'm a bit more of a knit whatever strikes my fancy as long as it's challenging. I have a lace project to post as soon as it's blocked ... it's the Charlotte's web shawl. I'll also be working away at the Lotus Blossom shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting real soon now. I'm also quite the texture knitter. In fact, cables are really my first love and I'm currently working on a project called Ragna (I think) from Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Knitting book. I just love it, but because I've chosen to work it in a dark purple tweed, I am not too sure that it will come out very well in a photograph. I will have to work on that to share with the rest of you.

One thing that I do have to share is a garter stitch entrelac scarf that I've been working on. Unfortunately, the cable that lets me download pictures from my camera has gone AWOL, and I have to give up on finding it at this time of night. I promise to share that one soon. It's not a complicated project, but I really like the effect with the Noro Kureyon that I am using.

All right ... there's some knitting content. :) I'll put some pretty pictures up to back it up very soon.

Leafy Progress

Well, I kept at the leaf lace and here it is at 6 pattern row repeats, being stretched like crazy. For those of you out there is blogland who would like to know, the yarn is KnitPicks Sock Garden in color Hollyberry. It is SO soft, if I could eat yarn, I would eat it up! Just 6 more repeats to go! Yay progress!

Susan

The frustrating heap

This shawl is a frustrating heap. Argh. I feel like I've been knitting it FOREVER, and it's still not done! It's the Spanish Peacock shawl I mentioned previously, and I'm running out of Knitpicks Shimmer yarn! The pattern lied! Or the yarn manufacturer lied! Or both! This is just completely representative of my life. Writing is frustrating. Applying for jobs and not hearing a thing is frustrating. Not being able to complain about the boss cause he's being so darned NICE is frustrating. Teaching a subject near and dear to my heart and watching those damn undergraduates botch it up is frustrating. My escape shouldn't be, damnit! Grrrr...

Susan

Just started a leafy lace shawl

I started this shortly after blocking the black stole. It's the Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark (Fiber Trends) and it gets big pretty quickly, this weekend I had to go out and buy new needles because my long Denise cables are all being used for the Spanish Peacock Shawl (a Gathering of Lace) and it is a behemoth! 2000+ sitches so far! I can't wait to see yours Delenn, when you start it 'cause you're using a lace weight yarn and I'm using a fingering weight yarn. If I hadn't gottten so far by now (I'm at 4 pattern repeats, only 8 to go!) I'd have gone up a needle size or two because the fabric is a little tight for my liking. Not very lacy...

Susan

A new FO

I finally finished another shawl a couple of nights ago. This one took a few months to finish, it is made from KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud color Midnight (www.knitpicks.com) and I used 3 hanks. I like this yarn because the shawl drapes very nicely and you just can't beat the price for Alpaca laceweight. Unfortunately the yarn is not very color fast because the blocking bath water turned black! And the yarn has a tendency to split on the needles but it's not noticeable after blocking. The pattern is my own design. I'll give it for free if anyone asks, but be warned. This free shawl knitting pattern has a couple of mistakes I fixed on the fly and it's construction in an Excel spreadsheet is not very professional.

Susan