In which the blogger isn't panicking.

Is anyone else worried yet? I'm not. I'm pretty sure that I can get all of my Christmas projects done on time. I've only got three, so how hard can it be, right? I need to: 1)knit the neck and sleeves of the Jamesey 2) start and finish the Sea and Shells Stole for my grandmother (nb: unless I track down a copy of Victorian Lace Today soon and start any one of the several million projects in there that would be perfect.) 3) start and finish the Sharfik for my aunt. I tell myself it's possible if I finish the Jamesey before I convalesce at my parents house. Once there, I can knit all damn day if I want to. So BRING IT ON, final papers and obligations. I can knit around you. Progress on the Jamesey has been slow. In the past two weeks all that I've really done was done last night, when I took a break from reading students' papers to do the shoulder seams. 3 needle bind off? Coolest thing ever. So neat! So like a real sweater seam! So unlike the cast offs I usually do! And tonight, I took a break from reading to reconnect with the blog world (Hi! I've missed you guys! Aside from that last, quick post I've largely been absent.) and to start putting up my Christmas decorations. This means finding somewhere to put the tiny Christmas tree TB and I bought last year and getting the box of decorations out of the closet. Okay. Most of this stuff? Not mine. In fact, everything except for the green garland was sent by TB's mother last November. Some of it is great, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ornament. Other things are considerably less great. Like the pink and white plastic sparkly bells. What? These will be returning to the closet where they can't hurt anyone and won't ruin Christmas.

Showing off.

Again, I've run off for a vacation without bringing any knitting or blogging about it before hand. BUT I do have something for show and tell. Isn't this beautiful? (The answer is yes.) My mom started this sweater for me years ago, but in the meantime has lost the magazine the pattern was in and developed some arthritis in her fingers. Needless to say, it's a bit hard to finish without the pattern and while in pain. But! My friends! You can help with one of these things. The pattern is from Knitters Magazine, the very first issue. Does anyone have this hanging around and could scan a copy of the pattern? If I find a copy anywhere I'm totally finishing this puppy. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving. May all of your meals be twice your weight in food and your family free from drama.

T-Mobile hates knitters.

It's true. Check it out: This is a screengrab from my browser, so you can't actually vote and take out your anger on the fruitcake. Sorry about that. Photos of a finished hat tomorrow if the sun decides to come out.

Look, a big distracting thing!

New project time! What sweater? Christmas knitting? None of that around here, sonny jim boy. I've been alternately restless and apathetic lately, and these extremes have spilled over into my knitting. I was excited about the Pomatomi/Pomatomuses and then I screwed something up. Twice. (The second go is still sitting in my knitting bin, as though ignoring it will make that extra stitch go away or make me magically remember putting it there.) I was thrilled to be working on the Jamesey and then, suddenly, not so thrilled. I got selfish. I want an FO for me. Me me me me me. I want something new to wear home for Thanksgiving, because somehow having new handknits at important moments is, well, important to me. So I started a hat. Blue heathered Plymouth Encore DK that I found in an orphaned skein bin in Columbus. It's a little itchy, but I hope that a few washings will help with that. And now a question, is there any easy way to figure out where the decreases should go? Please help, or I'm afraid this one will get thrown into the bin, too. I'm also apathetic and antsy about the blog. I don't like Blogger, but I keep thinking that if I can get the color scheme right I'd love it. I like the layout, and I like the gray, but perhaps not so much of the gray. What say you, readers? Would a white middle column be a good thing? Or do you like the solid gray blog?

Because I'm out of content

A survey lifted from Kitten. 1. Flip to page 18, paragraph 4 in the book closest to you right now, what does it say? "When Rochester placed his Anacreontic poem in a late-seventeenth-century context, he created a break in the Anacreontic tradition, and he did it characteristic irreverence." Poo. I was hoping that a book about John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester would give me a sexier sentence. 2. If you stretch out your left arm - as far as possible, what are you touching? Proposals for a conference in Spring 2008. 3. What'’s the last program you watched on tv? Survivor. I refuse to be ashamed of this (well, maybe I am a little ashamed, but I need some mindless entertainment every once in a while). 4. Without looking, guess what time it is. 8:30. Aaaand it's 8:15. I have no idea what this signifies. 5. Except the computer, what can you hear right now? The ridiculously loud heater in the bedroom (it wakes me up at night when it kicks in) and a MST3K episode on TV. 6. When was the last time you were outside and what did you do? About two hours ago I went out for groceries and came back with ravioli and blueberry pie. 7. What are you wearing? Jeans and a black sweater. This is actually what I wear 50% of the time (well, not this exact outfit, but some variation on it). 8. Did you dream last night? If you did, what about? I had one of those searching dreams, where I'm looking for something continuously through the whole dream. Even if the scene changes dramatically (open a door to a dressing room and find myself on a school bus), the quest stays the same. 9. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday sometime? I can't remember, but I'm sure I did because I know some hilarious people. 10. What's on the walls, in the room you'’re in right now? Very little, just a Rasterbated picture of the swingset scene from Ikiru. 11. Have you seen anything strange lately? I've been inside most of the day, but this is a little odd. It's also very cute -- who knew penguins in backpacks were so adorable? 12. What do you think about this meme? I still don't get the point of the time-guessing question. 13. What'’s the last film you saw? MirrorMask, which I really liked. The story was a little weak, but it looked wonderful. I wish it had been a little darker and longer. 14. If you became a multimillionaire, what would you do with the money? The same as everyone else, I think: something philanthropic, move to a different location, quit my job, and spend more time making beautiful things. 15. Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know. I pronounce the word "bagel" funny. 16. If you could change ONE THING in this world, without regarding politics or bad guilt - what would it be? There are too many. I really don't know where to begin with this one. 19. What do you want your children'’s names to be, girl/boy? Ask me again in ten years. 17. Do you like dancing? Love it. But I've gradually come to the conclusion that I'm not very good at it, despite 10+ years of ballet training. 18. George Bush? One of my students wrote a rap about George Bush, blaming him for the Katrina aftermath. He refered to him as "Georgia Bush" throughout the song. 20. Would you ever consider living abroad? Absolutely. I would love to live in the UK and The Boyfriend wants to live in Japan. I think it's safe to say that there are some extended trips in my future. 21. What do you want God to tell you, when you come to heaven? "Hi there. I dig your glasses. You don't have to come in if you don't want to." 22. Who should do this meme? Oh, I don't know. Anyone else who has no knitting content today but feels lonely.

6 good and 1 bad

GOOD THINGS: 1. The sister sock to my sockwars-sock-that-fits came today! I celebrated by taking photos. If you're especially attentive (or a stalker) you may notice that I took this photo on sometime large and firm. Covered by a blanket. A bed! 2. I finally got a box spring and am able to stop sleeping on the floor. Actually, I'd been sleeping on the futon (also known as the metal frame with bits of packed-down batting draped over it) after a particularly horrific spider encounter. In bed one night -- mattress on the floor -- I was blissfully reading and thinking of nodding off. Then I adjusted the blankets and out from under them crawled a spindly brown fellah about the size of a half dollar. I left the mattress immediately and in a very undignified manner. I couldn't bring myself to go back, so I've been sleeping on the futon which, while not spider proof, is at least a few inches off the floor. If I wake up with a spider in my bed, I want to know that it wasn't easy for him to get there. Anyway, I have a complete bed now and Otto and I are spending the late afternoon lying on it, enjoying the sun coming in through the back door* and listening to birds and other small things rustling in the leaves outside. 3. I found a new grocery store, and it has a section of German food, organic packaged foods (not just fresh vegetables), and random bits and pieces of stuff from the UK. There are stores around here with larger selections of all of these things (except German foods -- but their presence is apparently due to the population of elderly German immigrants who live nearby), but this one is part of a chain and only five minutes from my place. I will be going back and trying German condiments with dangerous names. 4. Some students have taken an interest in the course I'm teaching in the spring and they emailed me for more information. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. 5. Thanksgiving vacation is fast approaching. 6. The Senate, the House, and Rumsfeld. BAD THING: I finally dragged myself to the student health center and got my prescription for my blood pressure medication renewed. This is good, but my BP was shockingly high. So high that I'm not going to tell you what it was. Just imagine high numbers and add ten to each of them. Luckily I have this lovely new bed, the setting sun, and a cat to calm me down so I don't have a stroke before I go pick up the prescription. Oh, and did I mention? I've got new socks! I really loved this photo until I realized that my left foot is pointing right at the toilet. Oh, screw it. I still like the photo. *That door has some serious locks on it, don't worry.

Best laid plans

I was going to show you photos of my progress on the Jamesey. I've been working on it for the past few days after a disastrous night with the second Pomatomus (I ended up with four extra stitches on one of my needles. What the hell?), and I love the sweater that this is turning into. I wasn't crazy about all the endless ribbing and I wasn't enthusiastic about the pattern on the upper front and back, but the completed project is going to be really snazzy. Anyway, I threw the sweater-in-progress on the futon to snap a few pictures and this happened: And soon thereafter, this: That's the last time I snap pictures of a cat on my knits while cooing about how handsome he is. The. Last. I'm still nervous about the size. According to measurements my brother took, it will fit. According to my gauge, it will fit. According to the pattern, it will fit. But my actually doing the math is no guarantee that the math is right. I never did well in math classes in high school, although I enjoyed bits of them. I liked the way everything progressed in a logical order so that all you had to do was solve things in the right sequence, figure out how the puzzle fit together, and you'd be left with the correct answer. (Which is one of the things I love about Old English, incidentally.) More often than not, though, my answer would be absolutely incorrect. I could never figure out why my answer was wrong -- and often so wrong my teachers/parents couldn't figure out how something could possibly attain that state of wrongness -- when I'd done everything right. I suspect that I missing a connection in my brain (ok, more than one; but the one math connection is what's important here) that enables simple calculations. I hope that double and triple checking my calculations and measurements means that I've found a way around the gap and have not simply made the same mistake over and over again. Speaking of [not] making the same mistakes again, I hope you voted today. I didn't vote in Tennessee, but I have been paying attention to the political campaigns here (it's damn near impossible not to). If you want a peek into my television-watching world for the past few weeks, have a look at this political ad and this one. Both are anti-Democratic candidate and full of ridiculous rhetoric. The fact that this rhetoric works and the way that things I believe in are being used as slander are enough to drive a girl to apathy. I can't think of an upbeat way to end this, so I'll go for the drama and quote Ashley, who hopes that we've thrown those lying, law-breaking, hypocritical, corrupt, racist, classist, homophobic, misogynist, hypocritical, overspending, warmongering bastards OUT. Right on.

No news is good news.

No knitting content today. I just wanted to share some of the beautiful color that has exploded in the past few weeks.

As a doornail.

I'm dead! Oranged to death! The socks coordinate nicely with the gorgeous trees around town. Although there is a slight problem with the socks (one which my assassin knows about and is being remedied, don't worry). Can you tell what it is? How about now? Yes, one of these is comically huge and I love it. I love that I was someone's first sock recipient and I love that this knitter was brave enough to send on their efforts! (My first socks are long since hidden away in under a rock, in a swamp, at an undisclosed location patrolled by cranky black bears.) The socks are great, guys! Thank you to my assassins! I'm going to be so productive now that I'm dead. I can rush through that second Pomatomus, get back to the Jamesey, and get started on other Christmas presents. Oh, and do the loads of work that stand between me and Christmas vacation. But the knitting, really, that's the important thing.