Friday, May 27, 2005
any minute now.
the time got away from me. here it is, friday morning, 6:45am, and i am rushing about with the packing and getting ready for work. i'm headed up to haliburton, ontario for a weekend of relaxation and knitting and reading and adam.
real updates with pictures and whatnot after i return home next week- for the time being imagine that half finished sock from last week and turn it into a pair of completed socks. i LOVE THEM and may have gone on a sock yarn buying binge (despite the fact i already had at least 6 pair worth of yarn around the house.... what can i say? i'm an addict!)
i hope everyone has a great weekend!
xo
6:45 AM /
Thursday, May 19, 2005
still fighting it.
today i wore a tiara in my hair, and the thing that made me happiest about it? no one at work found this unusual or strange. sure, i was called 'princess rachel' once or twice, but it was all out of fun and not out of malice. i love that i work with people who find it perfectly normal for me to put sparkly things in my hair for no reason other than it is thursday. i love that i work with people who worry that i don't eat breakfast and want me to wear more colours and less black (today, pink skirt! they were pleased). i am debating wearing the tiara to the dentist tomorrow, you know, to be sparkly while he yanks out more wisdom teeth.
i wanted to knit during my lunch hour today, but instead i spent the the hour plus fifteen extra minutes running about in search of 3/4" blue sticker dots. i was mostly unsuccessful. someday i will teach the coworkers that they need to request office supplies by 4:30pm the day before they need them or else nothing is guaranteed.
i wanted to knit this sock out of fairly expensive lana grossa cotton and wool sock yarn that i am knitting on the tiniest circular needles ever. seriously. they are about 8.5" long, and a size 2US. i've knit the whole sock on them so far, short row toes and heels, etc, with no problem. i emailed the person i bought them from (for the low discount price of three dollars) to ask where she got them and who made them, and her answer was that they are ridiculously old and handmedown and she has no idea. so i have just gone and fallen in love with the perfect sock needle and then learned it was completely one of a kind. isn't that how love goes? i'm enjoying the process of knitting the sock on the circular. no worrying about too long cords, or laddering on dpns. just smooth fluid circles. more about the process than anything. the next pair knit on these will be mel's birthday socks. she has bigger feet than i do and they'll take longer and i don't even care because she is the peachiest girl ever.
(here is where i managed to delete the most brilliant weblog entry i've ever written. mourn with me.)
i wanted to thank everyone for their kind comments regarding my most recent entry. i wanted everyone to know that i don't feel lost all of the time. sometimes i feel at home, sometimes i even feel completely at peace with myself and the world around me. sometimes i look to my right, as i sit here typing or knitting away, and i see things like this:
i think ms. njorah would like to give laurie's bob a run for the money in the cute paw olympic event. njorah is pretty good about flashes going off in her face, and sometimes even poses for me. her sister, jezzebelle (not pictured due to lack of feline interest), would rather hide under the bed until bedtime. jezzebelle would rather express her affections for me by waking me at 4am with the Purr. jezz's Purr can wake heavily medicated people (speaking from experience). jezz's Purr insists you take notice, and begin the petting process before she starts nudging your hand and then your arm and finally your side. jezz's Purr is very cute at bedtime, but not so cute two hours before the alarm goes off when you just. want. to. sleep. the cats are my home, adam is my home. i will be okay, you know?
adam should be home from the viewing of star wars any minute now and i need to think about getting to bed. i need my strength as i head into wisdom teeth round two. i plan on knitting the rest of this sock, and making a decent start on sock #2 this weekend. i also plan on watching the first season of joan of arcadia (i can't believe they cancelled that show!), and anchorman, and doing things that make my head feel better.
i'm off to the bed. if you are too? sweet dreams.
9:32 PM /
Monday, May 16, 2005
water flowing underground.
i did, in fact, rip the too small gauntlet immediately after that photo was taken. i ripped, i sighed, and i started again on the larger needles. a couple of days later i had a pair of gauntlets. which i love. koigu is just- wow. it is just such a LOVELY yarn. i love it. i think anyone who isn't entranced by the koigu just hasn't had enough exposure. i've been wearing them at work, a lot, especially with the weather turning a little colder again. the guys tease me, but they keep me warm at my desk and keep my wrist warm while i'm 10keying, thus preventing flareups of the wretched tendonitis.
i've also been spinning, a bit. with some more fabulous dudleyspinner wool, i spun up these singles (wound into a ball for plying, and left that way because i am just not sure i want to ply. i am stuck, but the singles? they are beautiful!! i've seriously kept this cake on my desk for almost a week. just staring staring staring, trying to decide what to do... what do you think?
right now i'm knitting a hat out of that wildly coloured 2ply that i spun. i'm knitting it on size 11 circs, addi turbos. these are my FIRST turbos. they have been so wildly out of my budget for, gosh, forEVER. on sunday, adam and i went to fine points yarn shop, in cleveland, where i'd never been before. the point was to get size 11 16" circulars. they had clover bamboos and addis. neither had prices. i trusted my boyfriend to go find out the prices. i busied myself by looking through the sock knitting books they carried (i'd really like 'knitting on the road'). five mintues later he came back with the addis all paid for in a pretty bag. what a guy, huh? he suffered through the yarn shop- which was FABULOUS- and then BOUGHT me knitty presents.
unrelated- a little while ago i was in my bathroom (where i often am) and i thought, aloud, 'i want to go home'. and then i laughed at myself because i am 'home'. but i don't feel like it anymore. have you ever just felt kind of lost in your life? the how did i get here syndrome? what am i supposed to be doing? i get up everyday, go to work, come home, spin or knit or read and go to bed. my life has become so. i don't know. i just think its weird that i want to go home, when for all intents and purposes i'm already there. i think i need to think about it somemore. and in the meantime, i'm going to knit a sock on these itty bitty circular needles (seriously, size 2us, and measuring about 9" tip to tip) and spin and go to work and read when i have some time, and listen to audiobooks when i go to bed and try to feel comfortable in my own skin.
i hope you all feel comfortable, too.
xoxo.
9:02 PM /
Saturday, May 07, 2005
no one ever said....
the other night i decided i should finish a long suffering project, my koigu guantlets. all winter long i wished i had finished these - all winter long i thought, as i sat freezing at my desk, how nice it would be to have warm arms and hands while i typed the hours away. so the other night, though winter is nearly over (which you wouldn't know by the unexplained heat in my office), i decided it was high time to finish the guantlets. i pulled out the ziploc bag, figured out where i was in the pattern, checked my notes and started to knit. i'm nearly done the second gauntlet- all i have left is the 4 rows of 1x1 ribbing and then the thumb. i tried on the guantlet, while wearing the one i completed a year and a half ago. the new one is, well, it doesn't fit. it is tight, there is no comfort. it felt like i was trying on the guantlets that my friend meg knit, hers sized to her very lovely skinny arms. and i realized, as i sat here with my gauntlets on, i knit the first gauntlet on size 3US dpns. i then must have needed those dpns for another project and swapped out for size 2s- just to hold the stitches. and then, a year and a half later, picked up the unfinished guantlet and knit to near completion. oblivious to what my foolish self had done. so now, what choice to i have, but to rip rip rip a few days worth of work, get the size 3s, and do it all over again?
9:28 AM /
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
of winters and wools
i need some advice, regarding acid dyes in the home. i know that they are toxic in powder form (and i also know you can't see the darn particles and you have wipe down EVERY surface everywhere and so on). i have a tiny apartment with a tiny kitchen (with no exhaust over the stove) and two cats. and this worries me, i don't want to poison them with the toxicity. myself- meh. i've had it on my skin, i'm sure i've inhaled some dust without realizing it- right now i'm worried about the cats. i just cannot get the icing dyes to do what i want them to do and i fear this might be the time to break down and get back to my textile roots. so advice on home dying? please? thankee much.
we seem to be stuck in permanant winter, here in cleveland. really, it is quite ridiculous! in may, i am wearing my winter coat and am still freezing cold. when it rains, the rain turns to flurries within minutes (thank goodness it doesn't collect, then i might really lose my shit). my scarf came back out spring/summer retirement. i heard a rumour that it was going to be in the 60s today, but i'm afraid to believe it. as luck would have it, though, i spun up some wool that seams destined to become a wildly coloured hat! of course, let's say i cast on for said hat tonight- that would probably guarantee that temps won't drop below 50 until september. i wonder if i really have that kind of power? oooh... guess what rachel is doing tonight? (just kidding...)
this is my future hat wool, it was slightly more than 4oz of brightly coloured top from ebay, that i plyed back onto itself to end up with about 130 yards of worsted to bulky weight-ish super soft yarn. it has a little more orange/brown than i'd like, but i just love all the colour and how it interacts.
6:44 AM /
i'm rachel m, i'm 26 and i live in cleveland, ohio. i knit, spin, and read. i have a steady sweetie, two chubby cats, a full time job
and a messy apartment.
