another knitting blog

Socks-a-Plenty

Much of my knitting progress lately has been with socks.

[Click on the swatches for the full photo. These are the first knitting photos taken at the new place. There's an abundance of natural light. Yay!].

This is a pair of Koigu socks that I just finished. The ends aren't even woven in yet. The color is P302. [I think].

This sock is from some Fortissima Cotton Colori that I got at MS&W. The color is 0004. At first, wasn't sure that this 75% cotton yarn would have enough give. I thought it might be like knitting with string. Although it seems complete unstretchy on the ball, the 25% nylon must be doing it's job, because I'm not having any trouble maintaining good tension. I still have some concerns; this is very soft yarn. That's good, but it also makes me wonder if they won't end up in puddles at the bottom of my shoes.

And because I can't have new sock yarn without starting a new sock, this is some Fortissima Colori, Socka Color (75% wool/25%polyamide) that I just picked up at The Mannings last Saturday. The color is 2420. These are going to be very pretty.

The Lesser Blackout of 2003

I’m posting from work over lunchtime today. Mission Control at the new apartment is not quite ready for prime time yet.

I just got the phone service hooked up on Monday. [I could possibly be the last person left in North America still using a dial-up connection. Most of the time I don’t notice the delays in page loads; probably because I’m using that time to knit a few stitches]. I then had to fix the wiring on the phone jack. I don’t know how the previous occupants of this unit managed; but, with a few twists of a Philips-head screwdriver, I was able to use the phone jack in the hallway instead of the one at the back of the closet. [I’m so handy!]

On Monday night, I finally dragged the computer over from the OP. I bought my computer about a month too soon to get the easy upgrade to a flat-panel monitor, so I had to cram a huge monitor box into my compact car. I knew it would fit because I’d done it before, I just couldn’t remember how. Much tugging and grunting later, the computer was in the NP, but I was tired and there’s always tomorrow, right?

Yesterday, I left work a little early because I wasn’t feeling well [I think I’m just exhausted]. I got home and crashed onto the bed; I was deep asleep within minutes. When I awoke several hours later, I noticed that the air in the apartment was a bit close. “Hmm, no A/C,” I thought, “what’s up with that?” Only then did I notice the driving rain, high winds, and near non-stop lightening going on outside. It seems that a “powerful, fast-moving” storm had moved into the area and knocked out the power. “Ah, well, that explains it.”

Luckily, I was able to locate my flashlight and some candles and matches among all the boxes. It wasn’t dark yet, but I figured that I might need these later. After another half hour of impressive meteorological activity, the sky began to clear but the power did not come back.

At seven o’clock, I headed over to Savory (now within walking distance) to see if anyone else would show up for Knitting-N-The-City. Despite the lack of power, Savory was open and selling non-hot food and beverages by the light of Coleman lanterns.

We sat at the outdoor tables until it was too dark to see our knitting. All the tables were full and everyone looked to be having a good time. [I think one of the tables had three bottles of wine]. I headed home and read by candlelight until it was time for bed.

This morning, I woke up expecting to have to find my way in the dark, but the power had returned everything was back to normal. [For me, that is, most of my coworkers are still without power]. Tonight, it’s back to the OP for still more work; although it’s down to random-stuff packing and clean-up. I so want this to be over, now. And it will be, soon; then, I can start the arrangement and organization of the NP. I’ll take some pictures when things start looking less like the back of a moving van. [Just for you, Christy]. I’ll also be getting back to talking about knitting and show some pictures of the pitiful bit of knitting I’ve managed to do lately (mostly mice and socks). And now that power has returned, I will be able to post said pictures.

Road Trip

My big plan for yesterday was to make major progress on the move. [Yawn.] Instead, I went on a knitting related road trip.

"The" Michelle emailed me on Friday asking if I would like to go with her, Wallace, and Genia to the Mannings for the Great East Coast Knit-In. [Michelle and Wallace are the founders of the knitting group at the Savory that has now expanded to multiple sites around the city].

The weather was perfect—the sky was lightly cloudy and the humidity was low. We spent the day sitting in the shade knitting and talking to other knitters. The day's popular project appeared to be socks.

I'd like to be more chatty, but I've spent most of today trying to make up for the work I didn't do yesterday.

Michelle was working on a top-down baby cardigan in Mission Falls Cotton.

I think Wallace met every other knitter there. Genia is on the right. Check out the fantastic felted bag at her side. The colors really pop.

Genia is holding this little guy.

There were three kittens wandering among the knitters, soaking up all the attention. This black kitten adopted us as his friends for the day and spent a long time curled up next to me napping.

The Big Wheel of Cheese in the Sky

Ratty has gone to the big wheel of cheese in the sky. The mutation that led to his gigantism produced decreases on only the fifth and sixth rows of his repeating genetic pattern. The potential adaptive utility of this mutation was discovered too late to ensure a short-term survival that only would have resulted in a horrific end in the gaping maw of an insane black lab, ironically called Festive. Of course, now Ratty's unmutated clone and his siblings will be peddled as the love slaves and playthings of anonymous felines. Perhaps, we should not weep for Ratty and his ultimate inhalation; perhaps, he has found the kindest fate possible.

You dirty rat!

On the left is a mouse, on the right is a rat. Granted the rat is knit with a heavy-worsted weight yarn, but can you see that I was confused about the frequency of the decreases? At the time, I was entirely too focused on...no, I wasn't focused at all. My mind was somewhere else.

Both the car and I feel much better this evening.

When everything falls apart

What's that saying? "When it rains, it pours"? Well then I'm soaking wet. I have been struck with some malicious late summer flu-like ailment and spent yesterday home sick. Too sick to pack and transport. Not that it would make any difference, because yesterday they came and towed my non-functioning car away. Utterly trapped.

Feeling much better today but moving slowly and still trapped until I figure out how to get the bus to work [I'm not in the new place and within walking distance yet]. No idea when the car will be back, but when it is, I'm going to have to pick up the leisurely pace of this move. I'm falling behind.

To distract myself from my sorry state yesterday, I tried to knit a mouse for Wendy's Great Charity Mouse-a-Thon. However, with my diminished capacity, I wasn't able to follow even those simple directions and managed to produce something more closely resembling a rat.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new home. As you can see, it looks a lot like the old place. I'm not quite done moving in here either. Over time, I'm going to move over all my old posts. I'm not sure what to do about the comments though; I guess I'll have to leave them behind.

So far, I'm liking TypePad. Maybe some of you are thinking about starting a blog or moving over to TypePad. If you are, I have something to offer you that may help you make up your mind. I was a TypePad beta tester. As a thank you, all beta testers were given twenty keys for 20% lifetime discounts on TypePad accounts. Take a look at the features and pricing for the three account levels. If you're interested, let me know and I'll send a key and directions on how to use it to the first 20 people I hear from.

Thanks for reading and be sure to update your links!

The world outside my window

Still moving? Yes. Sick of it yet? Yes. Happy I'm doing it? Yes.

Here's another reason to move.

This is the view from my new living room. It may not look like much to you, but after three years of looking at the back of a hedge, this is a vast improvement. Also, this apartment has lots of natural light. Given that I work in a widowless office, the sunlight will be most welcome.

Just a little sock knitting happening; however, tomorrow is the third Saturday of the month, so I'll be heading down to Border's for K2P2.

Boy, I sure hope that when this move is over that things can be a little more interesting around here.

The Back Room Yarn Shop

Last Tuesday, KnitDad Larry left the comment that having 'a little more space should help a lot'; and it will. However, I'm going to have to resist the urge to expand to fit the maximum allowable space. Oh, that's so hard! [I've got more room, of course I need more stuff. Of course, I need more yarn]. Must resist filling this space with yarn.

This is a blurry picture of the second bedroom that I managed to take before the camera batteries died. [Nevertheless, I love my rechargeable batteries]. The pile of boxes and bags in the middle of the room is the portion of the yarn stash that has made the trip over thus far. There's more. Not an awful lot more, but more, including the embarrassingly large box of abandoned knitting projects. They go in and are never seen again...

...or are they?

Inspired by the pictures of the inventory at Threadbear on Matt and Rob's blogs, I'm on the lookout for wire storage cubes like these. I love the idea of being able to see all my yarn and projects and have them all organized. The unloved projects lurking in closed boxes and at the bottoms of shopping bags will be forced out into the open. I won't be able to deny their existence.

Of course, I can, and will, still moan that I have absolutely nothing to knit. In these cases, I can check out the inventory in my own little yarn shop...right before I get on the Internet and add to my stock.

[Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement about the move].

The move has started

Now, why did I feel this was necessary? Never mind, too late now. The Rubicon of apartment relocation has been crossed.

Yesterday, my most excellent friend Jenny and her boyfriend gave up their morning to help me rent a truck and move the big furniture out of the old place (OP). Perhaps I should have had a bit more stuff ready to move, but I didn't, so now I'm just going to have to deal with it. [To move everything in one day though, we would have needed more people]. I now have until August 31 to be out of OP. The new place (NP) is only about five minutes from work so the plan is to take at least one load over everyday until it's done. In theory, this will let me get everything in 'just so'.

I never really completely moved in to OP. I've been here three years and I still have boxes that I haven't unpacked. With this move, I am opening every box taking everything out and finding a place for it or throwing it out/giving it away. I know this will only protract my moving hell, but this must be done.

I'm knitting to cope. After several grueling hours of lifting and carrying yesterday, I came home, showered, and collapsed into a heap onto a quilt on the floor (the bed was at NP). When I awoke all I wanted to do was to relax, watch some TV, and knit. Unfortunately, the TV is at NP. Still lots of yarn around here though. I picked up a sock and knit to soothe myself.

Back when I first moved to this area, I spent the first month in a temporary furnished apartment while most of my stuff was in storage. I didn't have a phone, a TV, a computer, or 99% of my possessions. It was a bleak time. I missed my friends and everything familiar. Many nights, I would go to the local mall and hang out at the Barnes & Noble or the Target just to be near people. I wrote lots of cards and letters, listened to lots of public radio, and I knit my first pair of Koigu socks. This small project was a luxury I had allowed myself to bring on the crammed cross-country drive.

It seems right to me to be knitting socks again during this transition. This time, I'm not isolated, I know people locally and I have a phone and a computer to keep me connected. However, tonight I'm going to listen to The Big Broadcast and knit a sock.

To keep things in perspective...

I am not the only knit-blogger who is moving. [And I don't even have it that bad].

To name just a few:

• Duff at girlreaction just ended her search for a new apartment.


• Lisa at blogdogblog has been packing a whole house for a move.


• Matt and Rob of Threadbear fame have moved a home and a business.


• MYKP/Michelle at devBear.org has been packing up in preparation for a year in Japan. [You can read about the adventure here].

A couple of other knit-bloggers have recently changed their virtual addresses. Check out Julie and Rachael in their new TypePad homes. I'll be making that move soon too. Although I was a beta tester and had a couple of months to, ahem, get my act together, I didn't. [BTW, have you seen Julie's excellent Free Kureyon Felted Bag Pattern].

Moving: bleh

I don't like moving. Moving is no fun. There will be no rest for me until this is over with. I work all day and then go home and pack all night. At least I'm making progress. Last night, I reached the point in the bedroom excavation where I'm finding things I haven't seen since I moved in.

Yes, I said excavation. In addition to serving its intended purpose, the bedroom also doubles as storage space for yarn and other assorted stuff. But now it's all getting resorted and evaluated. Some things I was not ready to part with three years ago during my move from Texas will now be going out the door—never to return.

Moving is full of promise and pitfalls. Somewhere in my mind I have the fantasy of 'getting it right' this time. In my fantasy world, the apartment will remain perpetually neat. Clothes will stay folded. The kitchen will remain immaculately clean. The stash, knitting books, and magazines will be organized. Oh, and all the unfinished and frustrating projects will begin to fly to completion. I will magically turn into someone I haven't been in my current apartment. [Who knew an apartment could influence so much of your life!]

I think I could be setting myself up for a bit of disappointment. Merely changing your surroundings doesn't really change who you are, although it may provide an excuse for doing things differently. The fact that I'm pulling things together bit by bit now is proof that I could already be living this 'magical' life if I would only put in some effort. Moreover, unless I really commit to making some changes (no matter where I live), in no time I'll be back to my slovenly, unorganized ways.

Oh well, at least I want to change. Now I simply have to do it.

Today's Time Sink Link: MIStupid.com. [You had to ask, didn't you?] Although on this site you can assess your smarts directly with an I.Q. test, you can also flex your mental muscles with tests of 'practical' knowlege [Do you know where all 50 US states are?] or a challenging game of logic.

Don't worry though. For those of us who don't know everything, there are also pages of useful resources like a paint calculator and a guide to sandpaper grits. How about a binary/decimal converter or a password generator?

And to function as a true time sink: perhaps a game of battleship. [There's plenty more where this came from].

Updates here may be sparse

Updates here may be sparse for the next couple of weeks. [As if they weren't already]. Starting next Saturday, I'll be moving to a new apartment.

This week I'm going to be spending most of my evenings packing. On Saturday, I gain access to my new place. I'll probably spend all day ferrying stuff between here and there—it's only about 20 minutes away. On Sunday, I have friends coming to help me move the big stuff. After that, I have until the end of the month to be completely out of my current place.

I don't know how quickly I'll be able to get everything set up over at the new place; so until I do, I'll probably be doing some of my posting from work over my lunch. That means no pictures.

I'm really looking forward to this new apartment. One of it's more attractive features is a second bedroom which is actually not much larger than a walk-in closet but will serve well as a place for stash storage.

I got started with the packing this weekend and am not yet quite overwhelmed. I think I'm still in denial. Somehow, I imagine being in the new place, but haven't completely admitted to myself that I will no longer be living here. I think Molly and I are both going to be in for a shock.

For now, Mandalay is put on hold. I finished the first sleeve today and tried basting it into the armhole. I'm not completely happy with the results, so I'm going to rip back the sleeve cap and try something different. It's going to take some planning though and I just don't have the focus for that right now. [This was supposed to be a simple project]. Looks like a perfect opportunity to make lots of progress on that afghan.

I'll leave you with an insomniac's dream, perfect for those long hours when you can't get to sleep but can't muster enough concentration even to read—Segmation. Remember those paint-by-number kits you had as a child? Now they've moved into the computer age and you can complete your own great works of art with the click of the mouse. True, they aren't high quality and you can't save them, but who really wants permanent versions of substandard reproductions? Just choose your artist and level of difficultly and click away. [Be aware though that there is also some really awful stuff and personal photos listed].