FO: Three-take Jaywalkers

Pattern: Jaywalker, in MagKnits, by Grumperina.

Yarn: Ruby Sapphire Yarn's Ruby Superwash Yarn, Nina Colorway.

Needles: Size 0 bamboo DPN's.

Time: Received the yarn as a Christmas gift, casted-off on May 3rd.

Mods: None.

Notes: I think I just assumed that I had measured my gauge at some point, and went from there. So these socks are a little...tight. Not too tight to wear, but they could be stretchier. I got to the heel of the first sock using the smaller-size pattern -- way too small. I began again, in the larger size, and didn't like the pooling. By the time I realized, on the third try, that the socks were going to be a wee bit small still, I had no other choice but to keep going.

I've worn them a few times, trying to get as much of them in before the summer hit. I love them, but oh my, the pooling! The pooling and I just did not get along. This project really drove home to me the idea of matching the yarn to your project -- I don't think the pattern or the yarn showed the other off particularly well, although both are lovely.

I also picked up a "farewell North Carolina" skein of sock yarn on my last trip to the Carrboro Farmer's Market (where Chapel Hill Creamery was sadly out of Carolina Moon!). Say hello to this little beauty, Three Waters Farm's fingering weight Merino, in Forest Floor. I couldn't help myself. I think this may be destined for Monkey-ness.

That's right, I'm leaving NC. Next week I head to back to the homestead in New Jersey, to finally fully move out of my parents' house. I spent my time after college traveling back and forth across the country, carrying only what fit in my Honda Accord. I should be there for a few weeks, catching up with friends and my favorite northeastern sights, as well as checking out all of those incredible yarn stores I've missed out on while away. After that, it's a blank slate. Maybe some travel, maybe to the northwest. At some point I hope to have a job -- but not too soon.

Amanda's meme to come!

Most recent podcast: NPR's All Songs Considered.
Currently listening to: Regina Spektor, Begin to Hope album.
What I should be doing: Applying for jobs.

There's a great future in plastics.

I am alive, and still knitting, although that has slowed significantly with the events of the last few weeks. Although I finished the Jaywalkers on the flight west, little further knitting was accomplished on the trip (I made the toe of a toe-up sock, and even that didn't turn out so well). Starting a new project proved to require more thought than one afflicted with car-sickness can adequately give.

Pictures to follow -- Jaywalkers, the start of Kiri, and the near-completeness of the Urban Aran, at least. There's been one new yarn purchase, as well. Ooh ooh! And I've been tagged by Amanda, so I've got a good excuse to blog in the next day or so.

For now, I leave you with the FO that took me two years and a lot of sleepless nights. Woot!

Most recent podcast: This American Life.
Currently listening to: Regina Spektor, Fidelity.
What I should be doing: Returning three-weeks worth of email.

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west.

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for the northwest , and I can't wait to get me some salmon and some beer. One of the few remaining divides between the coasts is the beer selection; I sorely miss Black Butte Porter, Moose Drool, Mac and Jack... Yum.

I haven't quite decided what to bring along to knit yet, but I have been busy. I'm not finished yet (my weekly Grey's group may afford me the time tonight), but here's a sneak peak:
I return on Friday, commencement exercises on Saturday and Sunday. I'll see y'all soon.

Most recent podcast: NPR's Story of the Day.
Currently listening to: WUNC's pledge drive.
What I should be doing: Packing.

Change is the only constant

I have just turned in the last final exam of my graduate career. It's strangely... mellow. A sort of lovely, mellow joy, with just the slightest touch of melancholy. Last Friday I turned in my Master's Project, the culminating experience of my graduate experience. All that's left between me and graduation is Western Field Trip, a week-long class trip to Washington State -- not a particularly stressful class. I celebrated with a very indulgent weekend that involved little time at the computer, dinner parties, quite a bit of cheese-eating, wine-drinking, BBC-miniseries-watching (six wonderful hours of it), and of course, knitting.

At a celebratory barbecue, a rare fellow knitter and I met up to discuss the Urban Aran, and picking up stitches for the collar. My poor Urban Aran! It's been so lonely, but now I'm ready to go at that collar and seam it up. Exciting!

This turning point in my semester happily coincides with another exciting time. It's time to pick a new project! With the Jaywalkers nearly complete, I'm looking for another project to bring on WFT for the round-trip flight and a fair amount of time in vans. So -- socks, or shawl? Socks may be more mindless, and better for travel, but I'm itching to do lace...

The contenders

Socks:
Monkey
Hedera
Toe-up of my own design

Shawls:
Kiri (pattern here, better pictures here)

Yarns:
I'm falling more and more in love with this yarn I bought at the Carrboro Farmer's Market from Three Waters Farm. A 50/50 merino tencel blend, the shiny tencel lends the purple and green colorway an iridescent sheen. I knit up small gauge swatch yesterday and the short color repeats look just lovely. I bought the skein for socks, but I'm thinking about picking up another and making a shawl.

Also up for socks, Emerald from RubySapphire Yarns, and Marrakesh or Brick House from Fearless Fibers.

A new skein showed up (with excellent timing) on Thursday, and spent the night reposing next to my computer at school while I pulled a nearly-all-nighter. Isn't it lovely? It's Laughing Rat Studio's silk/wool laceweight in the twilight colorway. I've already begun to knit this up into the Kiri shawl, my first real lace-with-laceweight project.

Most recent podcast: Wow, I can't even remember.
Currently listening to: Cloud Cult, The Meaning of 8
What I should be doing: Returning three weeks of email.

Eye candy...Monday?

I have little to report given the craziness of the last week of school. I know that I lose interest in a blog if it doesn't update once a week. Or if it doesn't have pictures. Since my readership is so teeny, I figured I needed to post something, or I'd fall off the map. It's not like I'm knitting anything to draw y'all , so I appreciate you stopping in for anything I might post!

Photo by Jocelyn T. Please do not use or distribute without the permission
of the photographer -- it's not hard to get. (Not that I think anyone will, but I'm just sayin'.)

This picture is keeping me sane at the moment. My Master's Project is due this Friday, and I've got a lot of work to do. Lately it's been getting so that I can't see the forest for the trees (heehee, a little ecology aphorism for an ecology student). But pulling out pictures of my travels in my study area (western Washington) reminds me why I'm doing what I'm doing. And why I've been doing it for the past decade.

Knitting related: the Jaywalkers also keep me sane. I just get a row or two a day in these days, but it helps. I'm on the gusset of the second sock, plugging on to the toe. And then I can figure out which sock project to take with me for my week-long field trip to Washington and Oregon. Want to help? I'll post my options, once I've got it narrowed down.

Meanwhile, go look at my sister's blog. No, there's no knitting, but she's posted lots of fun stuff for you to look at. Look, two blogs for the price of one!

Most recent podcast: It's a Purl, Man, back episodes.
I've decided to venture into new knitting podcast territory, and this is the first 'cast I'm checking out.
Currently listening to: The Go! Team, Everyone's a VIP to Someone
courtesy of Dave's Music, Christmas 2004 playlist
What I should be doing: Pick one: Western Field Trip Paper, due in three days; MP, due in four.

Scapegoat

My Master's Project is due in one week. Tomorrow is my last day of class ever. I'm working on half a dozen job applications. If all goes well, I'll graduate in less than a month.

It makes sense, then, to blame my lack of blogging on this:


That's TreeHugger boyfriend in the foreground for scale. (Not to worry -- only the tree was harmed in the making of this photo.) No electricity, no refrigeration, no hot water. For three days.

The Jaywalkers and my paper grow. Perhaps a post this weekend. The paper is due next Friday. I expect I'll be in no shape to blog that evening... but who knows, that might be fun.

Most recent podcast: This American Life.
Currently listening to: Cat Power, The Greatest.
What I should be doing: Editing a cover letter for a dream job.

The socks will save you

The ennui brought on by a crazy school week and frustrating projects has been erased by sock knitting. Behold, my first Jaywalker sock! (And behold, my first sock-weight yarn sock!)


This past week was so very nonstop -- I was presenting my Master's Project -- that the knitting fixes that needed doing were just turning me off to knitting. I didn't want to have to deal with the thought of frogging five of six capecho pentagons, or the planning required to pick up a collar for the first time. But my fingers itched, and I picked at everything: bottle labels, my cuticles, you name it. So I picked up the Jaywalker (I was just past the heel) and returned to knitting for peace of mind. Simple knitting. Wool-on-wood-dpn's, tactile knitting. It was rejuvenating, and I got my mojo back.

The yarn is Ruby Sapphire Yarns' Ruby Superwash Sock Yarn in the Nina colorway. The colorway is lovely, particularly the deep, dark brown and the absolutely vivid turquoise blue. I don't think the Jaywalker pattern did it much justice (there's quite a bit of pooling) but I love them.

And -- at least for now -- I've avoided second sock syndrome. I think this stems from the same frustrations: my mind is just not open enough for the many new projects I have lined up. So it's been comforting to cast-on 84 stitches again. Rib for 12 rows. Again. Start the increases and decreases -- again. I can't imagine this is something I'll enjoy for most pairs of socks, but for right now it's just... perfect. I can't handle much else, and that's fine by me.

Of course, that didn't stop me from picking up another skein from Ruby Sapphire (on sale, no less. Sign up for their newsletter for the inside scoop and some sweet benefits). Ruby Sapphire's Tenderfoot yarn, a thin sport weight, in Emerald. Super-soft and petable. I think the color is quite appropriate for an upcoming week-long class trip to western Washington. We'll be in vans quite a bit, and I'm currently deciding on what sock project to bring with. This yarn is up there on the list; now for a pattern...

Most recent podcast: KEXP's Live Performances Podcast: Beirut at SXSW.
Currently listening to: Same.
What I should be doing: My Forest Vegetation Sampling Lab.

Fifteen seconds of semi-fame

I'm presenting my Master's Project tomorrow, so I'll be brief here -- more to come in a day or so. But: If you don't listen to Quirky Nomads, you should. Sage Tyrtle puts out a daily podcast from Toronto that is just endlessly entertaining -- she has a limitless imagination that keeps me coming back for more. But you should definitely listen to today's episode, because I'm on it. Or rather, a sentence I wrote is on it, for an interactive podcast version of the game telephone. It was surprisingly thrilling to hear my name on a podcast, and hilarious to hear the path the game took. Like I said -- you should listen.

Ennui and new yarn

For about the next month or so, I probably won't be blogging that much (I say this now -- we'll see). I'm finishing up my final year of graduate school toward my Master's degree, which means that my time is supposed to will be taken up by finishing, presenting, and writing up my master's project. This process will, I hope, be minimally painful. What it will be, for sure though, is time consuming, leaving little time to knit and/or blog.

On top of that, I've hit a few knitting walls this past week, and my knitting-mojo is suffering for it. The Urban Aran awaits attention somewhat impatiently. I cannot, for the life of me, pick up the required number of stitches along the neckline. I'm hoping that this is simply a product of me not knowing how to pick up stitches correctly (see below), and not the sloppy decreasing job. To determine this, I will have to check in with my LYS. However, I did not buy this yarn from said LYS, which tries to reserve its help for its own yarns (understandably so), and so I will have to beg and plead and probably offer money (totally worth it). However -- this whole grad school thing makes scheduling all of that difficult.

I discovered my lack-of-picking-up-stitches prowess when I dove into The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques with five Urban Aran pieces spread across my lap. Somewhere I had picked up an approach that looked nothing like the example in the book. While the new technique made my attempts on the collar more attractive (if not accurate), it created a little wrinkle in my brain. If I had been picking up stitches incorrectly all this time...then the picking up of stitches that I have done on the capecho are... incorrect. And while picking up incorrectly on a sock doesn't really matter -- you still get a fitting sock -- picking up incorrectly on the capecho may have disasterous results. So disasterous, in fact, that after a brief look at the six pentagons I've finished, and a quick realization that to fix this I would have to frog five -- I put the pieces down. I folded them up. And I have not looked at them since. (Brenda Dayne's most recent blog post on why you should not try to alter a Norah Gaughan pattern in any way is not helping.)

The Jaywalker, in its third incarnation, is coming along. And although the yarn is wonderful, the pooling is...kind of hideous. I love them nonetheless, but -- you know how it goes. Frustrating.

All of this makes me itch for a new project. Which I don't really have time to do just at the moment. Hence, my knitting-mojo frustrations.

This, of course, did not stop me from picking up a skein of 50/50 merino/tencel fingering weight yarn from Mary Ann Pagano of Three Waters Farm, a local fiber artist. She sells her hand-painted yarns at the Carrboro Farmer's Market, where I've admired them for over a year. I finally gave in today (her friendliness and my project frustration were too much to fight) and picked this up. The colors are just -- iridescent. Purples, greens, some blue... almost too good for the socks I'm planning. I think I'll play with some swatches and see what it wants to be.


I'll leave you with this: Baby yarn! The picture is poor -- I only got one in on a recent fishing trip to a nearby farm's pond. I of course was more interested in the week-and-a-half-old lambs.

Most recent podcast: Cast-On, with Brenda Dayne.
(The podcast responsible for this madness by introducing me to online knitting culture.)
Currently listening to: Cider in Battle Ground playlist: No Lonesome Tune, Townes Van Zandt.
What I should be am doing: Waiting for pyramids to build in ArcGIS. Grr.

New spring growth

In good spring fashion, everything here is growing. I wake up every morning to the two large, bare windows next to my bed to gauge the day -- windy, wet, or warm. On Saturday, the branches were still bare. On Sunday morning, the canopy was covered in green. Lovely! Although I love the fall and winter, spring really is the best season here.

The knitting grows, too. I've made progress on the capecho -- those pentagons are addictive -- I've gotten five done (I seamed that one on the right up last night). With each additional pentagon I've been wrapping it around myself, checking the length, trying my best to keep the size in check. It seems to be working so far, as it looks like I'll need the full seven pentagons to get the right wrap-around width.

(Those stitch markers, by the way, are from Purl, the Penguin on Etsy. Love 'em.)

Not to be left out, the spring crop of lecture series has allowed for some Jaywalker time. That whole frogging thing to avoid the pooling? Yeah. That was a fair waste of half a sock, because that pooling wasn't going anywhere.

Ooooh -- and a squee update. Super fast shipping over at Fearless Fibers. Here it is! Look at that red! It's the perfect scarlet for a Rutgers fan at Duke. Now: what to make...

Most recent podcast: KEXP Song of the Day.

Currently listening to: Alexi Murdoch, Time Without Consequence.
What I should be am doing: Waiting for pyramids to build in ArcGIS. Grr.

* I don't actually like basketball, but I don't let that out very often down here.

Squee!

I never win anything! This was a lovely surprise. Deb over at Fearless Fibers Yarn held a contest to celebrate the launch of a sock pattern, using FF sock yarn, by Tess Mattos of Polar Bear Patterns.

May I just say, I love Fearless Fibers (and I swear, loved it before she gave me two free skeins of Manos Del Uruguay). I love it so much that this was a perfect excuse to get another skein of the superwash sock yarn in the tapestry colorway I've been eyeing forever (550 yards for $16.50! Insane! And beautiful!). Go buy some.

Most recent podcast: This American Life.
What I should be doing: Sleeping.

Fear of abandonment

I have consciously ignored the nearly completed Urban Aran for an entire day. Its finished, blocked pieces are arranged artfully on my dining room table, lonely and crying for attention, for the few days it will take me to seam it all together -- "you're so close!" -- but I avert my eyes on my way to and from the kitchen. (I also avoid the almost certain knowledge that the sleeves are way. too. long.)

On Monday, with my usual fearless passion, I dove in to the seaming process. I joined the shoulders satisfactorily, if not perfectly, and began the process of picking up stitches for the collar. I picked up stitches. Too few. I continued on, thinking it wouldn't matter. I realized this was a bad idea, and began again. Again, too few. I went back and forth, until, utterly frustrated and having visions of five green sweater pieces following me for the rest of my life.

So I put it down. I've realized that my usual, gung-ho, jump-right-in-and-I'll-figure-it-out-as-I-go attitude was not going to work here. So I'll read my Nancie M. Wiseman finishing book (again, it's not at Powell's), plan ahead, go slow, and figure it out. It'll just take me... a little longer.

In other news, be sure to read the best review of 300 that I've seen. The blog is excellent as well (if you haven't already seen it for yourself) -- one I check in on daily.

Most recent podcast: NPR's Sunday Puzzle with Will Shortz.
Currently listening to: Lonesome in Caroline, Chatham County Line.
What I should be doing: Forest Vegetation Sampling lab.

Spring Break updates

Have I really not posted for nine days? Spring break, a trip to Colorado, the week before the next draft of my Master's Project is due... it's just flown by. I'm only allowing myself to post now because I'm waiting for a model to run in ArcGIS 9.2.

Well, enough of that. Some updates:

After spending entirely too much time thinking about it, I decided to bring the capecho and the jaywalkers, both on bamboo needles, so as to avoid the scrutiny of any over-zealous security officers (excellent point, emano). I've learned not to bring anything too precious, as I once lost five Brittany dpn's (mid-hat!) to just such a circumstance. The capecho was new, exciting, and still small. It was a great project for the plane and a little podcast-listening, where I could give it my full attention. The jaywalkers had been languishing a bit, and I knew I'd need something a little more mindless for socializing.

Capecho progress! I've added a third pentagon since this picture was taken, but the light in Colorado was so much better that I've used an old shot. The seams are a bit obvious; any suggestions? I used the mattress stitch that Auntie Amanda recommended (thanks much!). It was super simple, but it's standing out a bit on the capecho. Any ideas?

Now that I'm back in the southeast, I've put all else down for the Urban Aran cardigan that still has me so excited. I've about 5 more rows to go before I finish the second front panel and then...then it's on to putting it all together. The seaming of the capecho pentagon's has given me a little confidence boost, and I'm excited about actually, possibly finishing!

Colorado was lovely -- I was just west of Denver, at my boyfriend's boyhood home in the mountains (I grew up in New Jersey. Apparently, they're called "foothills," but they're mountains to me). I got to go cross-country skiing (my first time ever on skis), and try out the new hot tub (I highly approve).

Something new has caught my eye, although I'll have to put it off until maybe the end of summer. It's both me, and not me, at the same time. I have nothing else like it, but I completely see myself wearing it over a fitted white long-sleeved tee, and jeans. It's SweaterBabe's Romantic Cable and Lace Vest.

Whew. I'll leave you with some Colorado eye candy.

Most recent podcast: KEXP's Song of the Day.

Currently listening to: Bitter Tea, The Fiery Furnaces.
What I should be doing: Writing the second draft of my MP.

A procrastinator's knitter's dilemma

It's almost 2am. My flight leaves at 9am. I am still awake because I put things off until the last minute can't decide which knitting to bring, or how much. One skein or two for the capecho? A second project? The jaywalker, or the toe-up sock whose heel I haven't been able to figure out for four months? Grr.

How do you solve a problem like capecho?

With the Urban Aran nearly knitted, and a plane ride to Colorado coming up this week, I decided it was time to gear up for the next project (I didn't think my coach row-mates would appreciate my 14-inch Brittany's). Never mind that I have two other WIPs, the Jaywalker socks and My So-Called scarf (which is really just an exercise in Malabrigo). These are just the projects I admit to being on the needles. I also have just a few UFO's lurking: a pair of toe-up socks, a branching out scarf, and the back of the beaded kaftan in Debbie Bliss #5, bought before I knew what a stockinette sweater really meant.

Ignoring all of that, I've decided to dive into Norah Gaughan's Capecho from the Vogue Knitting Winter 2006 issue. I've been drawn to this sweater since I first saw it - the construction seems ingenious, the sweater is stunning. I never had a chance.

There are, of course, a few warning signs. Let's think about the word: capecho. A joining of cape, and poncho. Both are flowy, wrapping, loose. Now, take another look at the picture. Nothing about really evokes either a cape or a poncho. Or a wrap, shawl, blanket, or tent.

If "capecho" didn't give it away, the grisly images from the Craftster knit-along and knit lit's hilarious letter to Norah should have. And yet, I'm jumping in - I was doomed from the start. There is some hope, at the end of that thread, though, and I'm going to reach for it with everything I have.

Perhaps the knitting projects I am drawn to will stand in for a personality trait that I (mercifully) am without. My knitting will be the equivalent of "bad boys" -- projects to be tamed, trained, and changed. This idea never seemed fair or sensible to me romantically, but this sweater has has changed all of that (too bad it's all white and soft, and not black leather -- the sweater you can't bring home to Mother).

And yet, still, I'm going to attempt it. More to come.

Most recent podcast: Quirky Nomads.
Currently listening to: Lisa, The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers.
What I should be doing: Learning how to use the network analyst function in ArcGIS 9.2.

Wow. I just linked to ESRI and outed myself as a GIS nerd... on my knitting blog.

Urban Aran update -- it grows!

Just an update on the Urban Aran progress, as I'm particularly proud of both the unfinished product (all of those cables make me beam) and my diligence. This sweater continues to be what I want to work on when I'm knitting -- so much so that recent class trips have been frustrating because the sweater is a little too big to travel conveniently. I think this diligence is due, in part, to how quickly the sweater is knitting up, given the bulky yarn. It's just fast enough to see definite progress each time I pick up the needles, which does wonders for the ego.

In preparation for the coming end (although I do still have to figure out how to knit the front in two pieces, which will probably take considerably longer), I bought Nancie M. Wiseman's The Knitter's Guide to Finishing Techniques*. As the end nears, the more I fear this "finishing" I hear so much of.

*Normally, I'd link this at Powells, but their page had significantly less information on this book. -- but you should go check them out anyway.

Most recent podcast: NPR's All Songs Considered.
Currently listening to: The Arcade Fire, live at Judson Memorial Church.
What I should be doing: Writing the first draft of my master's project, due in 48 hours.

FO: Knitty's Fetching

Knitty's fetching, by Cheryl Naimath.
Yarn: 97 yards (1 ball, less 3 feet) Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, 003.
Needles: US #6 DPNs.
Cast On: December?
Finished: February 3rd, 2007.

I actually knit three -- the first followed the pattern exactly. The second two, well...

Mods: I cast on 40 stitches, 5 stitches less than called for, to make the gloves slimmer. I shortened the distance to the thumb (from 18 to 14 rounds), used 5 stitches (instead of 7) for the thumb, and lengthened the distance to the top of the glove (8 rounds of the rib, and 8 rounds for two cable twists). I've always thought of my hands as on the shorter side, but there was just no way that nine rows were going to make it from my thumb joint past my knuckles. No picot edge (I just couldn't make them work), and I made the thumbs much longer.

They are perfect for the walk to school with iPod, field classes, and the computer lab on days when the thermostat is set at 52 degrees Fahrenheit/11 degrees Celsius. I'm trying to train myself so that I can one day speak the measurement language of the rest of the world. Particularly Canada.

Most recent podcast: Sticks and String.
Currently listening to: Cloud Cult's The Meaning of 8. Highly recommended. Learn about their eco- and social-responsibility here.
What I should be doing: Writing my Land Conservation in Practice paper/sleeping.

An illustration of my perfectionist side.

First there was this:
And then there was this:


And now there's -- well, picture 84 stitches cast on (casted on? cast-on?), and joined in the round.

This is the third incarnation of my first Jaywalker sock. The first one I knit -- and I made it past the heel -- was in the smaller size, and didn't fit. It was nice though -- with nice, deliberate stripey-ness.

So I frogged it, and started over, in the bigger size. I got several inches into it before noticing, as you can see in the picture above, the funky pooling. So I knit a few more inches, hoping I wouldn't care. It became abundantly clear to me, with each additional row, that I'd never wear the resulting socks.

So I frogged that one too. Luckily, my ball-winder arrived in the mail yesterday -- at least it was a good excuse to use it. More pretty pictures of yarn cakes than anyone can stand to look at will be posted soon.

Finally, a finished object to share: Calorimetry.

Knitty's calorimetry, by Kathryn Schoendorf.

Yarn: Malabrigo, worsted weight, in the Verde Adriana colorway.
Needles: size 9

Mods: I cast on 104 stitches instead of 120, and created a honeycomb stitch border. Being without my massive button collection at the moment, I braided some leftover yarn to tie the thing on -- pictures coming.

If I knit it again (and I might) I think I'd switch to smaller needles, size 7 maybe, to make the fabric tighter, and warmer. And I'd make the holes created by the short-rows a little neater. I'm enjoying it -- it's certainly practical given the recent cold spells here, and my ever-present grad-student ponytail.

Listening to: KEXP live.
Most recent podcast: NPR's Story of the Day.
What I should be doing: Land Conservation in Practice readings.

Penance should always be this painful.

My first Malabrigo, worsted weight, in the Verde Adriana colorway. It was a penance purchase for me, for committing a little LYS faux pas (not to worry; I have atoned, and been forgiven -- I think).

It's already been knit and frogged once, into and out of Knitty's calorimetry. Too big, too boring, and too -- green, which is nearly blasphemy for me. So I'm playing around with a smaller version with some stitch excitement. It's bitterly cold here, so I think I'll actually finish this rather quickly. Stay tuned to find out if my predictions are well-founded.

Most recent podcast: This American Life.
What I should be doing: Forest Vegetation Sampling lab.