Dogs Steal Yarn

Relax you say? Yes, I think I will, thank you

I just made it through a hellish week of work overload, and though there is still some work to be done, I am taking today off, thank you very much.

Big day planned. Gonna finish that Koigu sock. Gonna cast on for the second one. Gonna meet the divine Miss Em for coffee and more knitting. Gonna go to a halloween party with my boy, thrown by an mfa friend.

I'm going (un)dressed as a Victorian woman in her underwear. It's just a cheap excuse to wear my beloved custom corset in public. The cool thing about being a Victorian woman in her underwear is that it doesn't really leave you exposed at all. A little white cotton camisole, white cotton bloomers, a nice tight-lacing corset, and I'm all set. Now maybe I should be a Victorian woman knitting in her underwear so I have an excuse to sit at the party and knit all night.

Men Who (will) Knit

You hear that sound? The sound of a straight aluminum needle slipping from a beginner's hand, hitting the floor, and rolling away? Yup. I taught someone to knit tonight. Well, started to teach him. Yes, I said him. A guy in my mfa program, younger than the rest of us (23) and kind of goofy in a sweet way, has been fascinated by my knitting all semester long. I offered to teach him and he actually got excited about it. And so tonight we began.

I've taught a few people to knit now, and Rob (that's his name) caught on faster than anyone else yet. Maybe I'm getting better at teaching. Maybe he's a natural. In a half-hour before class he learned long tail cast on and a pretty even knit stitch. I sent him home with garter stitch homework, and depending on how that looks, I'll teach him to purl before class tomorrow.

Our teacher saw us and said, "I LOVE that you guys are knitting. No one's ever managed to teach me how to do it." So of course I offered to try. I'll be getting him started next week. I'm absolutely tickled. I love to see men knit. (No chance in hell that Billy will ever take up the needles, though. Sigh.)

Oh, sweet, sweet Koigu

Rachael was right, man. This stuff is like crack. I don't know if it truly knits up fast, or if it just seems that way because I can't bring myself to put it down. Here's the progress so far on my Koigu sock.

And here it is without my leg getting in the way.

I've been allowing myself two rounds for each completed chapter on the proofread I've been doing all day. (It's a gothic romance, and I need all the inspiration I can get to trudge through each chapter.)

Tonight was supposed to be Knitting and Pumpkin Carving Tuesday, but I realized yesterday that there was simply no way I had time to host such an event tonight. Between this proofread and all the work I have for school (including an oral presentation on Borges. I love Borges but I hate public speaking. Ack!)... well...no one is interested in the list of everything I have to do. I'M not even interested in listing it all. But I am really disappointed that I didn't have time to play with my knitting friends tonight. I was looking forward to it.

The Koigu on work breaks is SOME consolation. I'm completely in love with this colorway. So autumnal. And the feel of it? Ay yay yay...if I could only knit myself a body stocking out of it...or fill a bathtub with it...mmmmm. I promise I wouldn't wear the body stocking out in public. Well, maybe UNDER my clothes, I would. My little Koigu secret? Hmmm.

Oh, and for those of you on Friendster, I've discovered that not only can you reconnect with long lost friends and ex boyfriends...you can also come across high school (or college, depending on how much of a "bad girl" you were, and when) one-night-stands, flings, summer romance boys...you know those guys you...erm...kissed on the beach or at an amusement park or a class trip or whatever...yeah--that guy. Well, they're on there too. Another story to be told face-to-face over coffee someday. Oy vey.

Happy feet!

I finished Billy's second sock tonight. He was so happy with them, he did a happy feet dance.

He said, "Wow! These are the most comfortable socks I've ever worn!" That's a direct quote, folks. And that means the man has earned many more pairs of socks in the future. After I make a couple of Koigu pairs for myself, of course. I'll be casting on the first of the Koigu tomorrow.

The capelet is also winding down toward its finish, so I'm starting to think about what project I want to start next. I want to swatch for Season this week, so maybe I'll finally tackle that one. That for my more complicated at-home-alone project, the Koigu socks for my mindless subway knitting, and then the rest of the WIPS (the MC scarf, my Mom's sweater, the [aborted but soon to be taken up again] toddler sweater) worked in between... That should be enough for the time being. Ugh...oh, yeah, and the many hats I need to make for holiday gifts. Hats are quick, anyway. I'll sneak them in where I can.

Main Character Soundtrack

Some of you have expressed interest in the soundtrack I made for the main character of the novel I'm writing. Basically, it's the songs she would be listening to, the songs that are in her head as she moves through the world I'm writing for her. I set these songs as a playlist on my iTunes (love my Mac) and often listen to it while I'm writing. It's a long list, but I'm including it here for those who were curious about what's on it...

“Good Woman” – Cat Power
“Titan” – Les Savy Fav
“Maybe Not” – Cat Power
“Trip Through Your Wires” – U2
“Blanket Hog” – The Long Winters
“Trouble” – Coldplay
“Evolution” – Cat Power
“Reformat” – Les Savy Fav
“He War” – Cat Power
“Beyond Belief” – Elvis Costello
“New Girl” – The Long Winters
“Astral Weeks” – Van Morrison
“The Sound of Coming Down” – The Long Winters
“Company Calls” – Death Cab for Cutie
“A Movie Script Ending” – Death Cab for Cutie
“Green Eyes” – Coldplay
“Make War” – Bright Eyes
“Title Track” – Death Cab for Cutie
“Scent of Lime” – The Long Winters
“Lowell, MA” – Death Cab for Cutie
“Miles Away” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
“Waste of Paint” – Bright Eyes
“Baby Doll” – Cat Power
“Carparts” – The Long Winters
“A Poetic Retelling of an Unfortunate Seduction” – Bright Eyes
“Pictures in an Exhibition” – Death Cab for Cutie
“2:45 AM” – Elliot Smith
“It’ll Be a Breeze” – The Long Winters
“Wake Up!” – Les Savy Fav
“Speed Trials” – Elliot Smith
“I Don’t Blame You” – Cat Power
“Needle in the Hay” – Elliot Smith
“The White Lady Loves You More” – Elliot Smith
“Medicine Cabinet Pirate” – The Long Winters
“Running to Stand Still” – U2
“Atlantic City” – Bruce Springsteen
“Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby” – Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch

Don't call me Poncho!

It's a capelet! Or, that is, it will be. Here's the capelet-in-progress. I took it off the needles to get a sense of how much farther I need to go. I haven't had much knitting time lately, but maybe I'll manage to get it done next week.

Elliot Smith is dead. I've been wallowing in his music for two days straight, since I heard the news. He figures pretty heavily in my main character soundtrack. Go visit with his songs, if you're so inclined. He was brilliant.

Oh my...

Sitting here writing, listening to my main character's soundtrack. Listened to "Good Woman" by Cat Power three times in a row. If you have access to the song, do listen to it. Really. If you don't already know it, it's on her latest album, You Are Free, which is SO worth checking out. Ay yay yay... The soundtrack I put together is totally providing a key to my character. Music (listening to it) has always been a huge part of my life--I do everything to music--but the way it's becoming part of the writing process is almost spooky. It's not pushing or pulling me in directions I wasn't already headed, but it's underlining certain things--bringing those small clues up to the surface--in the most uncanny ways.

Since starting the MFA program last month, I've been struggling to balance full-time school and full-time work. (Yes, I'm a freelancer, but working from home doesn't mean working less. If anything I work more now than I did when I had one of those office job whatchamacallits.) On top of that, I want to still have time to read (other than reading for school), knit, meditate, exercise, spend time with the boy, spend time with the dogs, sleep, breathe, eat well... I know. I'm greedy.

Well, struggling ain't gonna bring balance. Inspired by a number of Rachael's recent posts, today I decided to take a good look at how I've been using my time--particularly my morning routine. This meant making lists and schedules. I love to make lists and schedules. I think I now have a workable plan. It's going to involve waking up earlier, which doesn't thrill me. If I follow the new schedule, I'll have time set aside for morning meditation, exercise, morning pages, writing, AND still manage to fit in the school work and classes and the work work. I'll let you know how it goes.

Of course, there's still gotta be time for play. My friend Christina and I are going to see The Long Winters and Death Cab for Cutie! Woohoo!

And because life is a series of choices, by going to this show I am choosing to NOT go see Rock Star Ex-boyfriend's band at the Knitting Factory that same night. Ah well. He'll live.

WHEN SWEATERS ATTACK!!!

I finally had it out with my brother's sweater today. I was determined to finish it, and it wanted no part of that. Things got ugly.

It jumped me.

We wrestled around a bit.

I gave it a good talking to.

And finally I was able to bring it around to my point of view.

Yes, it's finished. It's not blocked yet, and obviously not draping on me the way it will on my darling baby brother (who's more than a foot taller than me) but here it is. Done. At long last. Whew!

I cheated

I've been really good about my yarn diet. I mean really good. I said there was a yarn ban in effect, and there was. No new yarn until I work through a good portion of the huge stash, since we're trying to cut back on spending (what with buying the house, the repairs and restoration we'll have to do, etc). I did give myself some wiggle room in terms of buying yarn for gifts. If I really wanted to make a gift, and couldn't find the right yarn in my stash, I would be allowed to buy yarn specifically for that project. Well...works well in theory.

I want to make my teacher/fiction program head a scarf for a holiday gift. I decided it would have to be out of Inca Alpaca. I already have six skeins of Inca Alpaca in my stash. So just use that, right? Thing is, I have this lovely mossy earthy brown-green in my stash, and I had already decided the scarf needs to be blue. Michael wears a lot of blue and looks great in it. So off to Threadbear I went. Rob quickly emailed me a pic of the shades of blue they have in stock for Inca Alpaca and I made my selection. No problem, right? Still in keeping with the yarn ban rules I set up for myself. Well...once I ordered that gorgeous stuff to give away, I felt so selfless and virtuous that I decided I deserved a little something for myself. I added four skeins of Koigu to the order, for socks for me. I couldn't help it. And THEN because the floodgates had been opened, I trotted over to KnitPicks and ordered the Interlacements Toasty Toes that I'd been drooling over, in Poppy Fields colorway. Sigh. Off the wagon. All I can do is try to be stronger next time. The KnitPicks order isn't here yet, but because the Threadbear boys are so awesome, I already have their order right here. Nice, hunh?

Stick 'Em Up!

My brother's sweater is in need of some discipline. Some tough love, if you will. It's managing this sneaky little trick whereby I knit and knit and knit and decrease and decrease and decrease and the neck never gets any narrower. It looks narrow here only because I bunched it onto a 24" circ so I could use the 32" for the capelet.

The capelet isn't terribly photogenic yet. I swear it's a garment, not a tree stump or a paper mache model of a volcano. Really.

It just isn't all that happy being off the needles and the edges are curling in protest. It's going back on the needles tonight. It won't be growing any, though. I'm going to keep plugging away at my brother's sweater until it relents and lets me finish it.

Birthdays!

Happy, happy birthday to my wonderful, fabulous, adorable baby brother, Joel. He's 27 today. For his birthday he will be receiving from me....(drumroll, please)...an email with a picture of an unfinished sweater. What a lucky guy. I need another week on the sweater, for reasons you're all sick of hearing about. He'll forgive me. Family is good like that. Mine is, anyway.

Today is also the birthday of the wonderful, fabulous, adorable Alison. Go wish her a good one!

Pics of the capelet and the sweater later, I promise. I'm running out the door right now...

Thanks, everyone, for the messages and the great suggestions for wedding ring disposal. I'm leaning toward either throwing it in the river or hiding it here in the apartment (behind a radiator grate or something like that) and leaving it behind when we move. Since I lived here with my ex, that also seems fitting...leave the ring as an archaeological artifact of my time here. Let someone find it years down the road and wonder how it came to be there, and who the hell was Victor. (His name is engraved on the inside.) I don't think I can sell it, because then it would still be out there. Throwing it in the river is appealing for two reasons: 1) Harold and Maude was my very favorite movie for a very long time (if you've seen it, you know, I hope, the scene I refer to) and 2) because my ex lost his wedding ring in the ocean and spent the last rocky year of our marriage without a ring on his finger. If his was lost to the ocean, well, why not throw mine in the river to join it? These are my thoughts today, anyway. I'll decide before we move (hopefully in just another month if all continues to go well).

I managed to squeeze in some knitting time this weekend. Please remind me, next time I mention wanting to make a sweater for my brother or someone of his size, how very many hours are getting sucked down the neck of this one. It seems like I've been doing the raglan decreases on this one forever and that neckline never gets any smaller. I'm at the point where I'm totally sick of it and just looking forward to getting it DONE. I treated myself with small breaks on my Manos capelet. I could spend days just sliding Manos between my fingers...such nice stuff to work with. In a couple of inches, I'll be taking the capelet off the needles for sizing. I'll take a pic then.

Has everyone sent pics of their tattoos in to Rachael?

I heard from my lawyer today. My divorce is now final. I'd imagined this day for a long time (two and a half years now...) and I'd expected to be excited, and that Billy and I would go out to dinner to celebrate. I mean, I'd done the whole mourning for the loss thing etc. I'm over it. Can honestly say that. The mourning, anyway. Over the crap that went down while we were married? Well, that's another story and not something I want to post here in public.

So I surprised myself today when I heard the news. I didn't feel regret, but still felt sad. Really sad. I felt relief, too, but I didn't feel at all like celebrating. Still don't. I'm divorced. It feels...well...just different than I would have thought.

The challenge now? Come up with a really good way to dispose of the wedding ring. Any ideas? I'm open to suggestions.

I tried to take a picture of the capelet in progress but it just sat there in an angry green lump and refused to smile. And my brother's sweater? Hell--it isn't even talking to me. My knitting is grumbling. I have reason to fear a mutiny. I knew starting grad school full time on top of a full editing workload would be a serious stretch, time wise. Somehow I didn't realize, or didn't want to admit, that it was going to mean quite so much time. That is, all my time. I haven't been able to knit all week, apart from knitting circle the other night, and subway knitting when I'm lucky enough to get a seat. I think I need to learn to knit in my sleep.

Sigh

It was only a matter of time before Rachael got me to take my clothes off. Go see what she's up to.

...oh...and by the way

If you're looking to get tattooed, and are near Portland, Maine, or willing to schlep there for a great artist, check out my friend Phuc's shop.

He and his wife recently abandoned us all in New York and moved up there. New York's loss is Portland's etc etc. I miss him. Not only is he a great friend from way back in the early days of college, but he also gave me my favorite tattoo. (Maybe you shouldn't play favorites with your tattoos, but I do.) A couple of years back, when I told him I was getting a divorce, he said, "Sounds like you need a new tattoo." And then he gave me a new tattoo. What a friend!

Go visit Phuc and get inked!

Short Attention Span Knitting

A fabulous time was had by all at Knitting Tuesday last night. Diego was very taken by Em and did his best to strike a suave pose for her. He's a charmer, no?

Andrea worked on her amazing sweater from Norsk Strikkdesign. She's my knitting hero. Way too humble about the gorgeous work she does. Em (or Michelle? I flip back and forth with what to call her here... in real life I think of her as Michelle, but online I think of her as Em... Sigh.)...where was I? Ah yes, Em/Michelle worked on three projects last night: Purple Rain, which is the most lovely shades of purple; Lazy Sunday, in colors that make me very happy--orange and pink and pale celery green; and a sock. Just the beginning of a tiny toe of a sock. A dog's nose worth of sock. Very cute. I've only done socks on two circs and the whole dpn thing fascinates me. Not enough to actually pick a set up and knit that way, but fascinating to watch. Sarah returned to Knitting Tuesday after a month of absence (gasp!) and worked on her Manos scarf. Which made me want to work with some of my Manos stash...so...

...though I slogged diligently along on my brother's sweater when everyone was here, as soon as they left I threw that raglan aside and cast on for a capelet using Manos in a lovely olive shade. It's a top-down capelet, and should knit up really fast. I'll still put most of my knitting time into my brother's sweater. I promise! But oh! I want a capelet! It's capelet weather and I want to have one to wear NOW! So um...yeah...there ya go. I was wondering how long I could go knitting just my brother's sweater and Billy's sock. For the record, I made it through two weeks of pure gift knitting before I was overwhelmed by the need to cast on for something for me. Not too bad...

Gifts from abroad

(woohoo!)

Faithful readers of the wonderful Alison may remember that I was the lucky winner of a mystery prize at the end of her recent Canadian adventure. I failed to correctly guess the number of fish she caught at Crotch Lake, but I did manage to get my name plucked from a hat. Or was it that I won Miss Congeniality? I think that may have been it... anyway, true to her word, Alison sent me a prize. It arrived today. Jealous? You should be. It rocks!

Oh, and as promised a picture of my brother's raglan in progress. I managed to sneak enough knitting time in tonight to finally join the body and sleeves and do a couple of rounds.

The picture sucks, I know. It's hard to make a black sweater-in-progress look good in a photo. Plus, I didn't really try that hard to take a good one. Do you still love me?

Tomorrow night is knitting circle, so I should get a good bit closer to finishing it then. Woohoo! Knitting and pizza! I love knitting Tuesdays.

Sunday Morning

Mornings like this are why I love fall. It's cold outside, but they've finally turned the heat on in my building so it's nice and warm in here. The dogs are asleep under the blankets. I'm drinking jasmine green tea out of my Jean Luc Picard mug (Patrick Stewart is the sexiest man in the universe, thank you very much) and eating toast with almond butter and cinnamon. I'm listening to music (Death Cab for Cutie at the moment) and reading blogs. AH! That's the sound of me happily stretching and curling my bare toes. At some point I'll need to get moving, because I have work to do today. (Proofread of a mystery novel. Actually a cozy. But when we speak of mysteries, the cozy ain't as cozy as you might think. This is an example of work I take for money that has nothing to do with what I woud actually want to read.)

I know I promised a picture of my brother's sweater today, but I didn't get as much car knitting done yesterday as I'd hoped, because I had to play a more active navigator role than I'd anticipated. Ah well. The wedding was okay. It was nice to see my family, and we all lived through the silly wedding stuff and the embarrassingly bad DJ. They tried to drag me out on the floor for the bouquet toss, and I only got out of it after I brought out the big guns. I reminded my cousin that, until the final paperwork is done, I'm still married. (Bring up divorce on someone's wedding day and they leave you alone real quick. I'm awful, I know.)

So today, work and hopefully knitting. And tomorrow, if you're really lucky, a sweater pic. And while you're waiting for me to post that lovely sweater photo, go visit (in alphabetical order cause I love 'em all) Alison, Michelle, and Rachael.

Yeah, yeah, yeah

I know. I had big plans for my brother's sweater. I was going to finish the body the other day. I only had two inches left, so I was pretty confident about meeting this modest goal. Well. Erm. I still have an inch to go on the body. I haven't had much knitting time lately. I've been splitting my time between work and writing. Oh, and this pesky thing that those of us suddenly in grad school after years in the working world like to refer to as "classes." Weird still, being back in school.

Tomorrow (today by the time most of you read this) the boy and I will pile into a rental car and head upstate to my cousin's wedding. You know what that means. Car knitting! Maybe I'll arrive at the wedding with a yoke in progress to show my brother. I'll post pictures of the sweater progress on Sunday. I know. Exciting. I hope you can wait that long to see photos of a mostly black st st sweater.

I've spent all day alternately writing and avoiding writing, and I'm feeling a bit loopy as a result. Forgive me. I could have gotten a lot of knitting done while avoiding writing, but to do that would have been to admit that I was avoiding writing. So instead I played solitaire. I made lists of themes and images popping up and repeating in my freewrites for the novel (I freewrite my first drafts of everything). These lists are pretty much useless because of the way I write, but they made me feel productive and anyway I love to make lists. (Some recurring images/themes: layers, blue, green, distorted images, water, garbage.) I made a new playlist on my iTunes. It's the soundtrack for my main character--the music she would be listening to or hearing in her head as the story unfolds. She likes Cat Power and the Long Winters. And only one song by Bruce Springsteen: "Atlantic City." She also likes "Reelin' in the Years," but I wish she didn't. I've been listening to her playlist as I write. I'd like to report it's helping, but it's too soon to tell. I've done a few more pages today, and at least three paragraphs of that are keepers.

So tomorrow the wedding. I love my family, but I hate weddings. Hate bar and bat mitzvahs. I'm not a dress-up-function person. Forgive me. Or don't. Tomorrow I will have to wear heels and my mother will pinch my cheeks and say I look pale and beg me to put on a little makeup. I will not. Mascara and lip balm are about as far as I go. Billy will be wearing a suit. Oh joy. Can't we just have a picnic instead?

Yawn

I slept WAY late today. Ah, the joys of the freelance life. I rolled out of bed at 10:30 today. Sleeping off the high that comes from Having Written. That's right. Back in the saddle and banged out five good pages of novel last night. A new scene that needs to be there and it works. Yay!

I worked on a book for one of my clients earlier in the year (or was it even last year?) by Kinky Friedman. Not generally my cup of tea, but when you work in publishing you work on what comes across the table. If you turn your nose up at copyediting pop self-help, for example, you won't be eating too regularly. Anyway, I had my ideas of who and what Kinky Friedman was, and this book kinda pleasantly surprised me. But the reason I bring this up is this: In this book (Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned) the main character is a novelist. A frustrated novelist. And he talks about the fact that there is no creature more smug than the writer who Has Just Written. And no creature more pathetic than that writer the next day, facing the blank page again.

So last night I danced around the apartment, basking in the glow of Having Written. Billy is used to me by now and danced too. What a boy.

Knitting content? Hunh? I did two more inches on the ginormous sweater yesterday. I'll probably finish the body today. Anyone want to place a bet on how long it'll take me to get from armpit to casting off the neck?