FOrangina

I love it. I had my doubts about the finished product, because I've seen some other long-torso'd ladies complain about the length and the look in general. But I'm delighted to find that it doesn't make me look stumpy or misproportioned, and in fact it looks rather elegant. The yarn is Cotton Soft Speciale Baby by Mondial in Black, and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else doing the same project. It's incredibly splitty and the black color is actually very soft and faded. In other words, it looks old and worn right off the needles, which might be great for some garments, but I wanted this one to look sharp and snazzy (which it still does, if I only wear it in dimly lighted rooms and insist everyone stay at least three feet away from me). My only alterations to the pattern were to make it an inch longer than the small size should be, and to switch to size 2 circulars for the ribbing. All in all, a success. I've started the Rosalind, and I think there's a mistake in the written out chart. I haven't had time to sit down and figure out whether it's really the pattern or just me being spacey, but I'll report back after I've had a few free minutes to do some square-counting. Today is Memorial Day, which is the unofficial beginning of summer here in the States. The weather is hot (90 degrees today), people are barbecuing, the cat is lolling on the linoleum* and I've got a pitcher of iced tea to get me through the day of translating Old English poetry. For now (I retain the right to retract this statement at any time) I love summer. *Does anyone else remember the Bert and Ernie song from Sesame Street about all the pretty words that start with the letter L? Bert thinks up a really good word starting with L and proudly sings out: "La, la, laaaaa! LIN-O-LEUM!" Ernie is less than impressed. If you don't remember it, youtube has it here

Some firsts and a non-existent second.

We've been going through a lot of firsts lately, here at Casa Specs. First gazpacho soup of the summer at Benevolence. If any of you are ever in Columbus and want a meal that's healthy but so delicious it will make you cry, you should go to Benevolence. Make sure you bring a friend who won't smack you the 15th time you say "But no, really, this soup is fantastic!" First pitcher of iced tea of the summer. First gin and tonic of the summer -- enjoyed in my sunny, breezy living room while ripping out the remains of my Tubey. I have never felt so at peace while destroying something I made. First hairball from our boy, Dmitri. I still haven't cast on for the second lacy sock, but I will as soon as I finish the Orangina. I've realized that my rule is: only one project for myself on the needles at once, otherwise I feel a bit indulgent. I was going to rush out and buy a new camera cable tonight so I could show you pictures of more WIPs. But I'm so damn close to finishing the Orangina that I want to wait until I can show it off in all of its complete glory. Or complete hilarity, I'm not sure what this will end up being. Besides, I just caught the last 20 minutes of the season finale of House and my brain isn't working right now. Intelligent post and pictures to follow, I promise.

Technology wins again.

I have some pictures to post, but the cable for my camera inexplicably doesn't fit into my USB port anymore. I'll have to get a new one before I can post pictures of anything. So, I'll give you an itemized update in words now, with pictures shortly to follow: 1. Got the yarn from WEBS. It's a soft cotton in a grey-green color, and looks exactly like I expected it to (unlike that other green I just got -- see previous post). I've already started on my brother's sweater, and I can safely say that I love this yarn. Minimal splitting, soft to the touch, and flies on the needles. I can't wait to switch to the smaller size so I can see what this yarn does on my new Turbo Addis. 2. Finished one side of my Orangina and am halfway through the other. I'm hoping to get it done this week so I can wear it before the Ohio springtime takes its sudden plunge into summer. And before my courage runs out -- this top is a little flashy for me.(And by "flashy" I mean that it isn't solid, a t-shirt, or otherwise plain and boring. Hey, when you've got broad shoulders, a freakishly long torso, and a flat chest, you must know your limits.) 3. On a related note, I've been avoiding the Sexy Knitters' Club lately (well, by this I mean that I decided to read through the posts for once and am not doing it again any time soon). The last few times I've been browsing around, I've encountered women posting their husbands' responses to their finished garments. Here's the most recent one: "The ribbon is pretty. Are you planning on wearing the rest of it outside the house though? That could quiet possibly be the most hideous top on the planet. Do they have competitions for things like that?" I can't think of anything appropriate to say about this, so I'll just leave it at that. 4. The Boyfriend is visiting his family on the East Coast for a week, so the cat and I are hanging out by ourselves. He's already brought me three socks from the hamper, TB's good tie, a ball of yarn that he found somewhere, and has managed to pull the blanket from the couch into the bedroom last night (I woke up to find it beside the bed). I wonder if he does this stuff all the time, and TB usually puts the socks back, or if the cat is acting out because I've obviously hidden his best pal somewhere and am forcing him to deal with me instead. Pictures! Soon!

I took my MA exam and all I got was this lousy sock

Wa-hey! My first partial-FO in a while (well, since the Mom 'Tis), and also the first one I've made for myself in a long time (the first 'Tis went to my sister). I'm disappointed by the baggy heel and instep, but this has more to do with my stupidly (or just stupid) narrow feet. I should probably start experimenting with decreases and instep shaping to make socks that fit really well, but I just wanted to finish something. I cast on for these because I wanted an easy, familiar pattern to keep me company during my reading, so it was the process more than the product that motivated these. If anyone has any recommendations for patterns or yarn that are great for narrow-footed socks, please let me know. Also: my order from WEBS is on its way! I know it's not a big order, or even full of impressive, exotic yarn, but it's my first. This is the most yarn I've ever bought in one go, and I'm almost giddy about opening a box with two bags of yarn inside. Two bags. For me. All to myself. If you don't hear from me again, it's because I've knocked myself out by gleefully tossing a bunch of the yarn in the air without removing it from the box first. The yarn contained inside the box is for my brother's Christmas Jamesey. I can't wait to get started. He's a good kid (I swear to you, he'll remember to wash it on cold, gentle cycle, and lay it flat to dry. He's that good.) and he deserves a great sweater. This morning I got an email informing me that my ebay yarn for the Rosalind will arrive tomorrow. And when I got home, I found the ebay yarn for the Rosalind waiting patiently in my tiny mailbox. I plan to make it in Mid-Navy and Granite, but I ordered a third grey color just in case the original grey was too dark or light. But let me ask you a question. I ordered Loden. Just to be sure I'm not totally losing it, the Loden is grey, right? It's darker than the Granite, and it's definitely grey. Yes? Ok. This is what I got in the mail: I'm assuming that's the Granite on the left, and the Mid-Navy is on the right. But what is this green thing that has appeared where my Loden should be? I looked up the color elsewhere, and it sometimes seems to have a greenish tint, but always looks basically dark grey. What's up with this? Am I going color blind, is my monitor on the fritz, or should I email the seller and ask for an exchange?

Oh, those nutty medievalists.

Geoffrey Chaucer has a blog. And I was surprised to find that it's actually hilarious. Like, smart-funny; not like blogger-has-his-head-up-his-ass funny. http://houseoffame.blogspot.com/ Last post before the exam. I plan not to move from my little book-nest on the couch until Tuesday afternoon. I've been sleeping out here so I don't wake up The Boyfriend with the weird hours I've been keeping. (To bed at 3, up at 7. Very healthy.) Actually, I'm not sure that I could extract myself from the nest if I wanted to. I seem to be walled in by books and papers on all sides. My butt-dent on the couch is getting alarmingly large, deep, and permanent.

And back again.

The conference was interesting. I don't think I can make any kind of coherent narrative right now, so here is a picture of the things I brought back from K'zoo: Scholarship and gin. It was a great but exhausting weekend. The word "carnivalesque" was used quite a few times to describe the situation there to partners over the phone. So busy this week. I turned in my portfolio papers to my committee yesterday, and next Tuesday (2-4 pm) I defend them. It's been an frantic and not very satisfying process of preparing for the defense, and I'm a little angry about the whole thing right now. I won't bore you with it, but the requirements are unclear and my advisor has been incredibly demanding. So much so that I'm beginning to doubt that I'll pass, or at the most will have to pull off a damn fine defense in order to get that diploma. Anyway, I haven't been knitting much. This is all I've got for you: I'll probably not be posting again until post-exam. Look for news Tuesday evening!

K'zoo

For the mordibly curious or the obsessive stalkers, this weekend I will be here, the International Congress for Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan. It's the largest medieval conference anywhere, and it attracts scholars from all over the world. I will be rubbing elbows with a bunch of famous medievalists, but also my future advisors and fellow grad students from Tennessee and Mr Terry Jones. Mr. Jones has made a second career for himself as an independent scholar, although people with their degrees in medieval things are largely divided over whether his scholarship carries any real weight. He published a book last year claiming that Chaucer was murdered that got some attention, but I don't think it was taken too seriously. At any rate, he'll be speaking there about the death of Richard II, and I'm trying to talk myself into caring enough about 'ol Richie 2 to go to the talk. There's probably another interesting Anglo-Saxon pannel happening at the same time, so odds are I won't make it. But I'll be at the same conference as he will, which is pretty darn neat. There is a "dance" scheduled for Saturday night, which I think has the potential to be the best thing in the world. Over a hundred drunk medievalists, tottering around holding drinks, the good 'ol boys slapping each other on the backs and buying rounds of scotch, and hopefully some poor soul doing the Electric Slide. A female medievalist professor of mine said that the dance gets ridiculously hot, so I should wear a skirt. As short a skirt as I think I can wear without getting my ass grabbed. Oh, this is going to be fun.

An open letter to English 110 students #2

Hi everyone, I know I've been kind of spacey lately, and I'm really sorry about that. I haven't been sleeping much, and this whole exam thing is really demanding, I've not been eating well, and the cat has started climbing into bed with us early in the morning, and well, I'm about two cat scratches away from pulling a Margery Kempe.* This is affecting my performance in class, and I can tell that you guys are getting a little antsy and impatient with me. I can only promise you that once the exam is over and I start getting more than three hours of sleep a night, things will improve. Oh, and I'm really sorry about all the bad jokes I've told in class. No one else thinks my puns are funny. On some level, I do accept this.** But until my sleeping patterns return to normal, I have a few suggestions to help us both get through the next two weeks. 1) Read your papers before you turn them in. I know that you know the difference between "women" and "woman," and the importance of using apostrophes with your possessive nouns; but if you can enact this knowledge in your papers it would really help me out. The same goes for spelling authors' names and story titles correctly. 2) Please do not email me at 11 pm the night before a draft is due, attach pages of your writing, and ask me if I can "look at it." Or, worse yet, inform me that I need to "tell you if it's ok." It is not ok. Writing is an ongoing process that is artificially truncated by the demands and deadlines of the academic calendar. Now go check your possessive nouns one more time. 3) When I ask a question in class, it would really help me out if you could answer it. I want you to try especially hard to come up with a response if I say helpful things like: "This is in your books on page 17." Or even: "This is a yes or no question, guys." I'll take anything at this point, even grunts, clicks, and whistles. But I have fallen in love with the whir of the overhead projector, so if you find it hard to respond right away, I can go into a trance-like state for a while. 4) Please, please, please understand that I want you to do well. I want you to learn something, and I would be especially happy if you ended up liking writing just a tiny bit. That said, it takes me 30-45 minutes to read and respond to one paper. Despite my desire to see each and every one of you succeed and find personal fulfillment in my class, I can't read multiple drafts. Stop emailing me second and third drafts. Please. I was raised Catholic and the guilt from not reading them may very well kill me. There. Please read these suggestions and take them to heart. There will be a quiz tomorrow. Warmest regards, Your Teacher *Running around Europe and crying hysterically. **But I stand by my assertion that Alice Uberdeutschland is a hysterically funny name.