A sense of accomplishment (this is 100g)

I haven't been able to knit as much as I could, as I'm getting married next weekend. I have, however, finally finished the first skien of yarn.

Somehow I think that five 100g skiens of sock yarn was overkill. I'm almost up to the armpittal area, including a four inch bust dart (details to follow once I'm sure it fits well... but now it's obvious why off-the-rack clothes don't fit me well). I guess that makes this either an expensive sweater or a cheap one, depending on how you count. I think charging the yarn to a few pairs of socks is fair, no? Anyone interested in trading some lovely crimson Cherry Tree Hill fingering weight superwash merino or some hemp for some wool or wool blend in a fingering/sport/DK weight?

OK, this is just getting spooky

I have a list of design projects that I've been working on. After the Eunny-top (which I blantantly ripped off and changed, I admit it), I have a list of winter-weight things to work on. Perhaps it's that I'm in California, but I think it'll still be warm while I'm knitting my next sweater, and I need a transitional-weight layering piece for the office. I've been looking through pattern sites linked to on Vintage Knitting to look for inspiration and sketching ideas. I came up with (wait for it) virtually the same thing that Eunny posted about today. I don't tend to wear the same colours as she does, I was going to use a cotton-silk or a wool-silk to dress it up a little for the office, and mine will have to include bust darts, but it's basically the same sweater. I want to put little sweet round vintage buttons all down the front, though I haven't found them yet. If I don't find them, perhaps my step-grandmother will let me take a look through her incredible button box. Little unmatched pearl buttons would be cute on this, don't you think?

Ah, well. If I have to keep desgining the same things as someone else, at least it's Eunny. I think she has excellent taste. I may not knit this cardi anway; it depends on what I find in the yarn clearance bins today.

The geek is in the details

I'm far enough in knitting my little Eunny-top that I can show you a few little details I've knitted into the twisted ribs at the waist:

• DNA in the form of chromosome pairs. Look at the crosses in the sweater (sorry they're hard to see, but they're hard to photograph stretched) then look at the picture of the chromosome pair. Squint a little; it's stylized and based on what I remember from high school AP biology.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• DNA in the form of helices. In fact, I've included both left and right twist helices. Some X-ray structure research suggests that it's a pretty low-energy transformation to move between them, so you may very well have both kinds in you at different times. Typically, you'll have the right-handed B-form.
  
  
  
  

Sweater girl

I learned recently that even after one defends one's PhD, one's advisor can still block one from graduating. This makes one very cranky.

I have made a bit of progress on my Eunny top. As you can see, it's not so much a copy of Eunny's sweater as inspired by it. As I'm using merino sock wool, the top is stretchy like I wouldn't believe. (It's a good thing, too, because I somehow gained a bunch of weight around my middle. This might somehow be associated with the knitting, but I'm not going to draw any hasty conclusions until I finish knitting this fun little sweaterlet.)

This 8-inch-across sweater magically stretches to fit!

Of course, the row gauge is abysmal. I must march on!

Pay no attention to the ...

Non-knitting content of this post. I do have about 1/3 of a sock to show for myself, but that's not very exciting. I would rather distract you with pretty pictures of the view from our new apartment. Day (today, in fact) ....Isn't it just perfectly callllm and bluuuue?

Sunset ...


(Please note that the photographer, and not the horizon, is crooked).

Norton sends his love.

Dipping my toes back into socks

Dear Krista,

I don't know what the Chicago weather is like, but out here in CA it's chilly enough in the mornings to make me long for socks. (I still can't wear them, but I can wish.) Since I need a new needle for my Eunny-top (it turns out that a stretchy top that fits snugly around my waist is just too small for a 24" needle), I started a new pair of socks. Since I like to try something new with each pair of socks, I used the magic toe-up cast-on on some lovely cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Earth. The yarn feels a lot like Koigu when it's knitted up, full of sproing and chushiness. Still, I think the colour could be more accurately labeled as "went hiking without any boots on". I brought the sock to the Computer History Museum to get a little culture. I was particularly amused by this behemoth; this was basically the first giant modem. You would plug your (giant) computer into this BBN box, which would then allow you to talk to the BBN box on the other end, which would then convey your message to the (giant) computer on the other end. This was the beginning of the internet. Having been to BBN, I saw a lot of other interesting stuff stashed in corners, like a Faraday cadge and a giant torpedo pool.


I'll just leave you with the welcome we recieved from some Davis Square pigeons. I'm not going to knit under that tree any time soon.


Bye!

... in which our heroine discovers the source of her skin condition

Dear Readers,

I humbly apologize for the lack of knitting content on this blog. Krista and I both moved out of Pittsburgh in the last week, so virtually all of our yarn is packed. (Mine will remain so for at least a month.) We beseech your patience.

Sincerely,
Chialea


Dear Krista,

Thanks for sending over that bleach pen after I dripped blood all over the carpet. In honor of Mac, I'm posting a gross foot picture.

I promise that this is far less gross than it could be, as it's healing, I've blurred the picture, and I've smoothed over some of the missing flesh with neosporin, breakfast of clumsy people. The upshot is that I seem to be incompetent at moving, and I'd like to avoid it for a while. Luckily, we've signed a lease on an incredible apartment in Cambridge, MA. I'm excited to meet the knitters out there; it seems like they are pretty serious about it. Even a bunch of the blogs I read are based in Boston: Subway Knitter, Grumperina, Blue Blog and the rest of the Knitsmiths. I'll certainly need more sweaters on my 1.5 mile walk/bike (each way) to work, so I'd better get cracking!

I may need to give or trade away all my lovely hemp yarn. According to an organic clothing blog, hemp itself is not irritating. However,

Clothing made from hemp and various wools is often intolerable for the acutely chemically sensitive; probably not because of some problem with the natural fiber but with chemicals added during the manufacturing process.

"Acutely chemically sensitive", my butt. I've never had a skin reaction to anything before in my life, including hemp oils; this one ended up taking over two fingers and kept me from knitting for over a week. AllHemp must have some really impressive chemicals to cause skin sensitivity or skin allergy. Mind you, I washed this yarn before using it. I'm going to ask them for advice, but I may just have to give up on their hemp. Euroflax isn't even available in the colours I wanted: deep ocean blue and chocolate brown.

P.S. I know this is a shot in the dark, but if anyone knows of an interesting knitters group, especially in the Davis Square area or accessible by T (preferably Red Line), please let me know. I'll be moving out to Cambridge all alone for a while and I'd love to meet some more people. Willing to pay bribe of newly washed hemp yarn, as bribery "fees" seem to be the norm for apartment-hunting. :)